cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sidedness of Colorectal Cancer Impacts Risk of Second Primary Gastrointestinal Malignancy.

A history of colorectal cancer (CRC) increases the risk of subsequent gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. Cancers of the right colon, left colon, and rectum differ according to molecular profiles, responses to treatment, and outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if CRC location is associated with differential risk for secondary primary GI malignancy. A retrospective cohort of adults with CRC was compiled using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1973–2015). Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for second primary GI malignancies were compared based on location of the index CRC (right colon, left colon, or rectum). The cohort included 281,413 adults with CRC (30.3% right, 35.3% left, 34.3% rectum). With a median 4.9-year follow-up, 12,064 (4.3%) patients developed a second primary GI malignancy (64% CRC, 36% non-CRC). Those with CRC at any location had higher than expected incidences of small intestine, bile duct, and other CRCs, and lower incidences of liver and gallbladder cancer. The SIR for small intestinal cancer was higher after right colon cancer than after left colon or rectal cancer. The esophageal cancer SIR was higher after left colon cancer. Pancreas cancer was higher than expected for right colon cancer, but lower for left colon and rectal cancer. The location of CRC leads to differences in the incidence and location of second primary GI malignancies and may be related to similarities in the associated carcinogenesis and molecular pathways or response to treatment. CRC location not only impacts treatment response and outcomes, but should also be considered during subsequent surveillance.
Challenges in changing sun protection behaviors in children and adolescents

Better communication between families, schools, communities, and clinicians is critical for improved skin cancer prevention initiatives for children and adolescents. Contributions from research in this area, as exemplified by the two studies in this special issue, will help shape priorities for future sun protection research and will be useful in generating evidence-based policy to support sun safety for children and reduce their future skin cancer risk.
Assessment of Heart Failure Patients’ Interest in Mobile Health Apps for Self-Care: Survey Study

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a serious public health concern that afflicts millions of individuals in the United States. Development of behaviors that promote HF self-care may be imperative to reduce complications and avoid hospital readmissions. Mobile health solutions, such as activity trackers and smartphone apps, could potentially help to promote self-care through remote tracking and issuing reminders. Objective: The objective of this study was to ascertain HF patients’ interest in a smartphone app to assist them in managing their treatment and symptoms and to determine factors that influence their interest in such an app. Methods: In the clinic waiting room on the day of their outpatient clinic appointments, 50 HF patients participated in a self-administered survey. The survey comprised 139 questions from previously published, institutional review board–approved questionnaires. The survey measured patients’ interest in and experience using technology as well as their function, HF symptoms, and HF self-care behaviors. The Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) was among the 11 questionnaires and was used to measure the HF patients’ health-related quality of life through patient-reported outcomes. Results: Participants were aged 64.5 years on average, 32% (16/50) of the participants were women, and 91% (41/45) of the participants were determined to be New York Heart Association Class II or higher. More than 60% (30/50) of the survey participants expressed interest in several potential features of a smartphone app designed for HF patients. Participant age correlated negatively with interest in tracking, tips, and reminders in multivariate regression analysis (PP<.05). Conclusions: The majority of HF patients showed interest in activity tracking, HF symptom management tips, and reminder features of a smartphone app. Desirable features and an understanding of factors that influence patient interest in a smartphone app for HF self-care may allow researchers to address common concerns and to develop apps that demonstrate the potential benefits of mobile technology.
Association between neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio, socioeconomic status, and ethnic minority with treatment outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma

Patients with lower socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic minorities and elevated neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been suggested to have worse outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, how changes in NLR after intervention relate to survival has not been elucidated. We evaluated the association of NLR with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in a large institutional cohort of HCC. We reviewed all patients diagnosed with HCC between 2005–2016. The association between elevated NLR (> 4) and survival was examined with univariable and multivariable Cox regression. We identified 991 patients diagnosed with HCC. Lower SES and Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black ethnicity were significantly associated with lower NLR (p = 0.015 and 0.019, respectively). Elevated NLR, but not SES or ethnicity, was an independent predictor of worse OS (HR = 1.66, p < 0.001) and PFS (HR = 1.25, p = 0.032). The median OS in patients with elevated NLR was 8 months, compared to 42 months in patients with normal NLR. Patients with elevated NLR unresponsive to treatment and those with NLR that became elevated after treatment had significantly worse 3-year OS (47% and 44%, respectively), compared to patients whose NLR remained normal or normalized after treatment (72% and 80%, respectively; p < 0.01). Our study showed that elevated NLR, but not SES or ethnicity, is an independent prognostic marker for OS and PFS in patients with HCC. NLR trends following intervention were highly predictive of outcome. NLR is easy to obtain and would provide valuable information to clinicians in evaluating prognosis and monitoring response after procedures.
A new lacewing species of the Chrysoperla carnea species-group from central Asia associated with conifers (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)

Chrysoperla duellii sp. nov. is discovered, associated with coniferous vegetation, in the Kyrgyz Republic in central Asia, co-occurring with two other cryptic species of the Chrysoperla carnea-grou...
Synthesis and characterization of tridentate phosphine ligands incorporating long methylene chains and ethoxysilane groups for immobilizing molecular rhodium catalysts

Abstract The new tridentate phosphine ligands EtOSi((CH2)nPPh2)3 and O[Si((CH2)nPPh2)3]2 (n = 4, 7, 11), as well as their precursor ethoxysilanes EtOSi((CH2)mCH = CH2)3 and disiloxanes O[Si((CH2)mCH = CH2)3]2 (m = 2, 5, 9) and EtOSi((CH2)11PPh2RhClCOD)3 (COD = cyclooctadiene) have been synthesized and fully characterized. The ethoxysilane- and disiloxane-containing phosphine ligands have been immobilized on silica via covalent siloxane bonds. The immobilized linkers have been characterized by 31P and 29Si CP/MAS and HRMAS NMR spectroscopy. The covalent siloxane bonds between the linkers and the silica surface prevent translational mobility of the phosphines. Immobilized Wilkinson-type Rh hydrogenation catalysts have been obtained by ligand exchange of ClRh(PPh3)3 and ClRhpyCOD (py = pyridine) with the surface-bound ligands. The single crystal X-ray structure of ClRhpyCOD has been reported. The activities and lifetimes have been studied for the hydrogenation of 1-dodecene. The new catalysts are highly active and they can be recycled up to 15 times without major loss of activity. Within the first hours of the catalytic reaction the initially molecular complexes form Rh nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution on the surface. The nanoparticles do not leach into the supernatant solution and are not air-sensitive.
Casting and scripting: Visibility, responsibility, and legitimacy in transcultural psychiatry apprenticeships in Paris.

Transcultural psychiatry was developed in France to promote cultural and linguistic diversity and address the mental health needs of immigrants who were excluded from accessing other public mental ...
Inter- and Intramolecular Vibrational Energy Flow in a Formamide-Water Complex.

The role of hydrogen bonds in energy redistribution in the cyclic structure of a formamide-water complex has been studied with semiclassical formulation of energy transfer probabilities and solutio...
Cultivating Self-Control: Foundations and Methods in the Christian Theological Tradition:

In the New Testament the concept of self-control or voluntary restraint of one’s desires is highlighted as a “fruit of the Spirit,” a trait of the spiritually mature, and a hallmark of Christian le...
Chapter 12 – Sexual Politics

Publisher Summary This chapter explains the life history approach to analysis of gender-related social issues. People are generally well aware of their own social successes and failures. “Popular” and socially visible individuals—those with high status or mate value—can afford to be more discriminating in partner formation and more demanding of partners than unpopular individuals. The feelings of jealousy reported by both male and female participants were strongest among those participants whose briefing sheet pictured a particularly attractive rival; for male participants, high dominance of the rival also led to greater feelings of jealousy. Surveys indicate that when there is a discrepancy between marriage partners on reports of marital satisfaction, it is typically the woman who is less satisfied with the relationship. Desertion is another common “ethical pathology.” Mate desertion is a means by which one sex restricts the options of the “opposite” sex. In species like human beings, in which mating systems are facultative, the circumstances that promote monogamy are when (a) the costs of desertion are high and (b) the benefits of desertion are low. Conversely, the circumstances that promote desertion are when (a) a deserted single partner has enough energy and resources to “pick up the slack” and make up for the absent parent, (b) the deserting partner can more than make up for reproductive losses by gains elsewhere, and (c) the offspring of the mateship are not equally related to both partners. Results concluded that “available analyses suggest no consistent tendency for sex differences in social behavior and personality to have eroded or increased over time.” The life-history and game-theoretic approaches to sex and gender help one to understand this situation.
Does age contribute to distress in new geriatric oncology patients

e24023Background: As part of routine practice at the Lifespan Cancer Institute (LCI), all new patients are screened with the NCCN Distress Thermometer (DT). There is little to no data comparing ini...
Photocatalytic activity and antibacterial efficacy of UVA-treated titanium oxides:

Studies have shown ultraviolet-A (UVA) irradiation of crystalline titanium oxides leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via a photocatalytic process. The ROS exhibit antimicrobia...
Parkinson disease and the gut: new insights into pathogenesis and clinical relevance

The classic view portrays Parkinson disease (PD) as a motor disorder resulting from loss of substantia nigra pars compacta dopaminergic neurons. Multiple studies, however, describe prodromal, non-motor dysfunctions that affect the quality of life of patients who subsequently develop PD. These prodromal dysfunctions comprise a wide array of gastrointestinal motility disorders including dysphagia, delayed gastric emptying and chronic constipation. The histological hallmark of PD - misfolded α-synuclein aggregates that form Lewy bodies and neurites - is detected in the enteric nervous system prior to clinical diagnosis, suggesting that the gastrointestinal tract and its neural (vagal) connection to the central nervous system could have a major role in disease aetiology. This Review provides novel insights on the pathogenesis of PD, including gut-to-brain trafficking of α-synuclein as well as the newly discovered nigro-vagal pathway, and highlights how vagal connections from the gut could be the conduit by which ingested environmental pathogens enter the central nervous system and ultimately induce, or accelerate, PD progression. The pathogenic potential of various environmental neurotoxicants and the suitability and translational potential of experimental animal models of PD will be highlighted and appraised. Finally, the clinical manifestations of gastrointestinal involvement in PD and medications will be discussed briefly.
Finding the Rights Questions about Religious Diversity: What Buddhists could Contribute to Discussions of Religious Diversity

This article argues that all current theologies of religion share the presupposition that differences among religions are a problem, even a mistake, and that unity or agreement would be preferable to difference and religious diversity. But theologians of religion need to start at the other end of the puzzle, conceding from the get-go that religious diversity is here to stay, is inevitable, normal, natural, and, therefore, not the major problem or issue. The important questions are not about them, the others who are different from us, but about us. Why do we dislike diversity so much? Why does it make us so uncomfortable? Why does difference so frequently elicit the response of ranking the different options hierarchically? And, most important of all, how can we cure our own discomfort with diversity? The article also suggests that we need to practice the spiritual disciplines that help us overcome our egocentric preferences for a world in which everyone else would be just like us and can, instead, live comfortable in a world that accommodates vast differences.
Phenotypic Variation and Gene Regulation in the Pathogenesis of Salmonella Infection

Salmonellosis is an infectious problem of global significance. Mammals, birds, and reptiles are susceptible to Salmonella infections that manifest as localized (gastroenteritis) and systemic (enteric fever) diseases. Humans are not without defense against Salmonella, and two important clinical observations support the essential nature of immune responses in resisting systemic Salmonella infection. First, nontyphoidal Salmonella bacteremia is commonly observed in children during their second year of life, consistent with host vulnerability resulting from a developing immune system with limited capabilities for B-cell immunoglobulin responses. Second, nontyphoidal Salmonella bacteremia is associated with significant mortality among adults with defects in cellular immunity, especially HIV infection. The interaction of Salmonella with phagocytes is critical to the pathogenesis of infection, because bacteria that cannot survive in macrophages are avirulent; the bacteria transit from mucosal to systemic sites in phagocytes and predominantly replicate inside phagocytes in vivo. Complex regulation permits, but is also required for, bacterial replication in diverse niches, and flagellin expression serves as a model system for understanding bacterial adaptation to life in mammalian hosts. Future work in understanding the ability of Salmonella to thrive in distinct ecosystems or microenvironments will be greatly served by population-based assessments of physiology, gene expression, and phenotypes that are manifestations of heterogeneity at the level of single cells.
Application of the Argument Principle to Functions Expressed as Mellin Transforms

We describe a numerical algorithm for evaluating the numbers of roots minus the number of poles contained in a region based on the argument principle with the function of interest being written as a Mellin transformation of a usually simpler function. Because the function to be transformed may be simpler than its Mellin transform whose roots are to be sought we express the final integrals in terms of the former accepting higher dimensional integrals. Nonlinear terms are expressed as convolutions approximating reciprocal values by exponential sums. As an example the final expression is applied to the Riemann Zeta function. The procedure is very inefficient numerically. However, depending on the function to be investigated it may be possible to find analytical estimates of the resulting integrals.
Metal-Doped K–Ca Double Salts with Improved Capture Performance and Stability for High-Temperature CO2 Adsorption

In an effort to develop high-temperature CO2 adsorbents, we report on the improvement of CO2 capture performance of our previously developed potassium-promoted CaO double salts (K–Ca) through metal...
A method for predicting failure statistics for steady state elevated temperature structural components

Abstract This paper presents the initial development of a high temperature life prediction method that accounts for the variability in the material properties of Grade 91 steel. The method accounts for material variability by fitting a variable 3-parameter Weibull distribution to experimental rupture data and accounts for the variability of creep deformation on the steady-state stresses via a Monte Carlo approach. To ensure reasonable computational times, the model represents the material as an extremely viscous Stokes fluid with a non-Newtonian viscosity, therefore solving the stress relaxation problem with a steady, static, instead of transient, analysis. The complete statistical analysis combines this model for creep deformation with a probabilistic model for creep rupture to evaluate the probability of premature failure for a set of sample problems, comparing the predicted failure statistics to the design life predicted by the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code rules.
Matched Analysis of Surgical Versus Percutaneous Revascularization for Left Main Coronary Disease.

Abstract Background Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is being performed more frequently for left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD). This study evaluated a real-world propensity-matched analysis of surgical versus percutaneous revascularization for LMCAD. Methods Adults (≥18 years) at a single academic institution undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or PCI for left main stenosis ≥50% between 2010-2018 were examined. Greedy propensity-matching techniques were used to generate well-matched cohorts, and Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare survival. Multivariable Cox models were created for 5-year mortality and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Results 1091 with LMCAD were identified (898 CABG, 193 PCI). Patients undergoing PCI were significantly older (77 vs 68 years, p Conclusions This real-world, propensity-matched analysis demonstrates substantial advantages in survival and MACCE with CABG for LMCAD, supporting surgical revascularization in this clinical setting in appropriate operative candidates.
In vivo electrophysiological mechanisms underlying cervical epidural stimulation in adult rats

Key points To electrophysiologically determine the predominant neural structures activated with cervical epidural stimulation (ES), well-established electrophysiological protocols (single-pulse, paired-pulse and multiple frequency stimulation) were delivered at rest, during motor activity and under anaesthesia in adult rats. Cervical ES resulted in spinal evoked motor responses with three different waveforms - early response (ER), middle response (MR) and late response (LR). ERs remained unmodulated by repeated stimulation protocols. In contrast, MRs and LRs were modulated by repeated stimulation protocols and volitional motor activity. ERs are consequential to the direct activation of motor efferents; MRs are secondary to type-I sensory afferent activation and LRs result from the engagement of wider spinal interneuronal circuitry with potential influence from supraspinal pathways. Evidence from this work is fundamental in enhancing our understanding of cervical ES, and critical in refining the design of neuromodulation-based rehabilitative strategies and in the construction of neuroprosthetics. Abstract Epidural stimulation (ES) of the lumbar spinal cord has demonstrated significant improvements in various physiological functions after a traumatic spinal cord injury in humans. Electrophysiological evidence from rodent, human and computational studies collectively suggest that the functional recovery following lumbar ES is mediated via direct activation of sensory afferent fibres. However, the mechanisms underlying cervical ES have not been comprehensively studied, which greatly limits our understanding of its effectiveness in restoring upper limb function. In this work, we determined the predominant neural structures that are activated with cervical ES using in vivo cervical spinal evoked motor responses (SEMRs). Standard electrophysiological protocols (single-pulse, paired-pulse and multiple frequency stimulation) were implemented in 11 awake and anaesthetized rats in four experimental stages. Three distinct types of cervical SEMRs were identified based on latency of their appearance: early response (ER), middle response (MR) and late response (LR). ERs remained unmodulated by repeated stimulation protocols. MRs and LRs were modulated by repeated stimulation protocols and volitional motor activity. Except for LRs being completely abolished under urethane, ketamine or urethane anaesthesia did not affect the appearance of cervical SEMRs. Our data, backed by literature, suggest that ERs are secondary to the direct activation of motor efferents, MRs are elicited by activation of type-I sensory afferents and LRs result from the engagement of interneuronal circuitry with potential influence from supraspinal pathways. The gathered information paves the way to designing motor rehabilitation strategies that can utilize cervical ES to recover upper limb function following neurological deficits.
Pros and cons of the time-dependent hybrid density functional approach for calculating the optical spectra of solids: a case study of CeO2.

The prediction of optical spectra of complex solids remains a great challenge for first-principles calculations due to the huge computational cost of the state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory based GW-Bethe Salpeter equation (BSE) approach. An alternative method is the time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) based on hybrid exchange–correlation functionals, which involves the essential ingredients of electron–hole interactions in its formalism in contrast to its local/semi-local functional counterparts. In this work, we investigate the optical absorption spectra of ceria (CeO2), a prototypical lanthanide oxide with a 4f0 configuration, utilizing TDDFT based on four well-established hybrid functionals for ground state DFT calculations. All four functionals reproduce well the excitonic features of the experimental optical spectra, in spite of the significant differences in their band structures arising from different hybridization parameters (i.e. the fraction of the Hartree–Fock exchange and the screening parameter). It is demonstrated that the apparently weak dependence of the resulting optical spectra on the employed functionals is quite universal and applies to simple semiconductors such as Si and GaAs and insulator LiF as well. This study highlights the feasibility of TDDFT based on existing hybrids to describe optical spectra of solids, and also, points out the difficulty of obtaining accurate exciton binding energies using these hybrid functionals due to the strong functional dependence of quasi-particle band structures.
IMRAS-Immunization with radiation-attenuated Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites by mosquito bite: Cellular immunity to sporozoites, CSP, AMA1, TRAP and CelTOS.

Background Immunization with radiation-attenuated sporozoites (RAS) by mosquito bites provides >90% sterile protection against Plasmodium falciparum malaria in humans. We conducted a clinical trial based on data from previous RAS clinical trials that suggested that 800-1200 infected bites should induce ~50% protective vaccine efficacy (VE) against controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) administered three weeks after the final immunization. Two cohorts were immunized separately. VE was 55% in Cohort 1 but 90% in Cohort 2, the cohort that received a higher first dose and a reduced (fractional) fifth dose. Immune responses were better boosted by the fractional fifth dose in Cohort 2 and suggested the importance of the fractional fifth dose for increased protection in Cohort 2 responses. Three protected subjects were later boosted and were protected suggesting that protection could be extended to at least 67 weeks. Methods The ex vivo FluoroSpot assay was used to measure peripheral IFN-γ, IL2, and IFN-γ+IL2 responses to PfNF54 sporozoites and malaria antigens CSP, AMA1, TRAP, and CelTOS using pools of synthetic overlapping 15mer peptides spanning each antigen. Results There was no correlation between IFN-γ, IL2, and IFN-γ+IL2 responses to sporozoites and protection, but fold-increases between post-4th and post-5th responses greater than 1.0 occurred mostly in protected subjects. IFN-γ and IL2 responses to TRAP, CelTOS and CSP occurred only in protected subjects. Peripheral IFN-γ, IL2, and IFN-γ+IL2 responses were short-lived and low by 27 weeks post-CHMI but were restored by boosting. Conclusions These studies highlight the importance of vaccine dose and schedule for vaccine efficacy, and suggest that CSP, TRAP, AMA1 and CelTOS may be targets of protective immunity. The correlation between fold-increases in responses and protection should be explored in other vaccine trials. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01994525.
Phytopoetics: Upending the Passive Paradigm with Vegetal Violence and Eroticism

This article develops the notion of phytopoetics, which describes the role of plant agency in literary creations and the cultural imaginary. In order to show how plants prompt poetic productions, the article engages with narrative examples by modernist German authors Oskar Panizza, Hanns Heinz Ewers, and Alfred Doblin, which feature vegetal eroticism and violence. By close reading these texts and their contexts, the article maps the role of plant agency in the co-constitution of a cultural imaginary of the vegetal that results in literary works as well as societal consequences.
Well-Posedness of 2D or 3D Bio-Mimetic Swimmers: The Case of Navier–Stokes Equations

In this chapter we will investigate the mathematical well-posedness of a variety of empiric models introduced for swimmers in Chaps. 2– 4 in the case of a fluid governed by either 2D or 3D non-stationary Stokes equations, which are often regarded as a linearized version of Navier–Stokes equations. The content of this chapter is a principal development of works, which do not assume geometric controls.
Advances in applying C–H functionalization and naturally sourced building blocks in organic semiconductor synthesis

Organic electronics is a rising field, with novel applications including but not limited to stretchable solar cells, flexible display screens, and biosensors. The high performance of these organic electronics is enabled by the outstanding optoelectronic and thermomechanical features of organic semiconducting materials. However, the production of the promising organic semiconducting materials at industrial scales has not yet become feasible, due to huge energy and capital costs in the large-scale synthesis as well as the potential damage to the environment and human health caused by vast hazardous chemical waste released. This review summarizes recent research advances in improving the environmental friendliness of the organic semiconducting material synthesis by appying atom economical C–H functionalization-based synthetic routes, minimizing hazardous chemical waste, lowering the energy consumption, and employing safe and abundant chemicals including naturally sourced semiconducting building blocks. This review showcases the remarkable progress that has been made towards the environmentally friendly organic semiconductor synthesis and provides insight for researchers developing green synthetic strategies and organic semiconductor building blocks in the future.
Whirling of a Bladed Disc

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = center of gravity of disc mass of rigid or bladed disc mass of disc in bladed disc total mass of blade tips diametral moment of inertia of rigid disc or bladed disc (static) length of cantilever shaft radius of bladed disc length of blade radius of circle described by disc e.g. shaft flexibility angular static natural frequency of blade angular velocity of disc whirling angular velocity <o3 — <P inc l ina t ion of disc axis t o OZ blade angle V~i 2.7182818284 angles real number
The Coma Cluster of Galaxies: Spectral Classification and Star Formation with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Commissioning Data

We present the first hour of extra-galactic spectroscopy taken during the early commissioning stages of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic system in June 1999: an observation of the Coma cluster of galaxies. Our data samples the Southern part of this cluster, out to the virial radius. We outline here the main characteristics of the SDSS spectroscopic systems and provide spectral classifications for 196 Coma galaxies. We have investigated three different spectral classification algorithms: measurements of the spectral line strengths, a principal component decomposition and a wavelet analysis. We find that these classification schemes are in broad agreement and can provide physical insight into the evolutionary histories of our cluster galaxies. We find that a significant fraction (25%) of our observed Coma galaxies show signs of recent star-formation activity.
Series Resistance, Channel Length and Width, and Threshold Voltage

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction PN Junction Diodes Schottky Barrier Diodes Solar Cells Bipolar Junction Transistors MOSFETs MESFETs and MODFETs Threshold Voltage Pseudo MOSFET Strengths and Weaknesses Appendix 4.1 Schottky Diode Current-Voltage Equation References Problems Review Questions
A new approach for management of battery storage systems for mobile and stationary applications

An accurate assessment of the temperature distribution on the surface of the battery can be instrumental in prediction of the health and remaining lifetime in the battery/battery storage unit. Close monitoring of operational conditions and health can lead to significant saving in the overall cost and reliability of the targeted application. In this paper a new method for estimation of an effective temperature for online computation of the state-of-charge (SOC) in Li-ion batteries have been introduced. This method is based on the surface temperature distribution of the battery.
Effect of molecular weight profile of sorghum proanthocyanidins on resistant starch formation.

BACKGROUND There is a growing interest to increase resistant starch (RS) in foods through natural modification of starch. Sorghum tannins (proanthocyanidins, PAs) were recently reported to interact with starch, increasing RS. However, there is no information about how the molecular weight profile of PAs affects RS formation. This study investigated how different-molecular-weight PAs from sorghum affected RS formation in different starch models. RESULTS The levels of RS were higher (331–437 mg g−1) when high-amylose starch was cooked with phenolic extracts containing mostly high-molecular-weight PAs compared with extracts containing lower-molecular-weight PAs or monomeric catechin (249–285 mg g−1). In general, binding capacity of PAs with amylose increased proportionally with molecular weight. For example, the percentage of PAs bound to amylose increased from 45% (PAs with degree of polymerization (DP) = 6) to 94% (polymeric PAs, DP > 10). The results demonstrate that molecular weight of the PAs directly affects their interaction with starch: the higher the molecular weight, the stronger the binding to amylose and the higher the RS formation. CONCLUSION Polymeric PAs from sorghum can naturally modify starch by interacting strongly with amylose and are thus most suitable to produce foods with higher RS. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry
Testing Paternalism: Cash vs. In-kind Transfer in Rural Mexico

Welfare programs are often implemented in-kind to promote outcomes that might not be realized under cash transfers. I use a randomized controlled trial of the Mexican government's Food Assistance Program ('PAL') to test whether this form of paternalism is necessary, comparing precisely measured consumption and health outcomes under both in-kind food and cash transfers. Importantly, I fnd that households do not indulge in the consumption of vices when handed cash. Furthermore, there is little evidence that the in-kind food transfer induced more food to be consumed than did an equal-valued cash transfer. This result is partly explained by the fact that the in-kind transfer was infra-marginal in terms of total food. However, the PAL in-kind basket contained 10 individual items, and these transfers indeed altered the types of food consumed for some households. While this distorting effect of in-kind transfers is paternalism's motivation, I fnd that households receiving cash consumed equally nutritious foods. Finally, there were few differences in child nutritional intakes, and no diferences in child height, weight, sickness, or anemia prevalence. While other justifcations for in-kind transfers may certainly apply, there is minimal evidence supporting the paternalistic one in this context.
Industry Shock Expectations, Interindustry Linkages, and Merger Waves: Evidence from the Hospital Industry

It is well known that mergers often occur in waves, and this paper develops a new mechanism for merger waves: expectations over industry shocks. We develop a simple test of this explanation and use it to explore the role of expectations in the context of the 1990s hospital merger wave. Managed care such as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) started to become popular in the late 1980s and ultimately became an important player in the health insurance market. Our empirical analysis shows that the expected increase in the popularity of HMOs was partly responsible for the hospital merger wave of the 1990s: hospitals feared that the �innovation� of managed care in the downstream insurance market would penetrate the upstream hospital market and responded to this belief by merging. Our results show the importance of incorporating expectations and interindustry linkages into the understanding of merger waves.
Variations in Access Control Logic

In this paper we investigate the design space of access control logics. Specifically, we consider several possible axioms for the common operator says . Some of the axioms come from modal logic and programming-language theory; others are suggested by ideas from security, such as delegation of authority and the Principle of Least Privilege. We compare these axioms and study their implications.
HSP70i is a critical component of the immune response leading to vitiligo

Summary HSP70i and other stress proteins have been used in anti-tumor vaccines. This begs the question whether HSP70i plays a unique role in immune activation. We vaccinated inducible HSP70i (Hsp70-1) knockout mice and wild-type animals with optimized TRP-1, a highly immunogenic melanosomal target molecule. We were unable to induce robust and lasting depigmentation in the Hsp70-1 knockout mice, and in vivo cytolytic assays revealed a lack of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activity. Absence of T-cell infiltration to the skin and maintenance of hair follicle melanocytes were observed. By contrast, depigmentation proceeded without interruption in mice lacking a tissue-specific constitutive isoform of HSP70 (Hsp70-2) vaccinated with TRP-2. Next, we demonstrated that HSP70i was necessary and sufficient to accelerate depigmentation in vitiligo-prone Pmel-1 mice, accompanied by lasting phenotypic changes in dendritic cell subpopulations. In summary, these studies assign a unique function to HSP70i in vitiligo and identify HSP70i as a targetable entity for treatment.
Low-impact profiling of streaming, heterogeneous applications

Computer engineers are continually faced with the task of translating improvements in fabrication process technology (i.e., Moore's Law) into architectures that allow computer scientists to accelerate application performance. As feature-size continues to shrink, architects of commodity processors are designing increasingly more cores on a chip. While additional cores can operate independently with some tasks (e.g. the OS and user tasks), many applications see little to no improvement from adding more processor cores alone. For many applications, heterogeneous systems offer a path toward higher performance. Significant performance and power gains have been realized by combining specialized processors (e.g., Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, Graphics Processing Units) with general purpose multi-core processors. Heterogeneous applications need to be programmed differently than traditional software. One approach, stream processing, fits these systems particularly well because of the segmented memories and explicit expression of parallelism. Unfortunately, debugging and performance tools that support streaming, heterogeneous applications do not exist. This dissertation presents TimeTrial, a performance measurement system that enables performance optimization of streaming applications by profiling the application deployed on a heterogeneous system. TimeTrial performs low-impact measurements by dedicating computing resources to monitoring and by aggressively compressing performance traces into statistical summaries guided by user specification of the performance queries of interest.
Guided Analytic Workflows through Service Composition for Population Health Studies

The US health care system is undergoing a substantial policy reform. One key dynamic of the health system is the rapid adoption of electronic health records (EHR). The analytic studies on the EHR will deliver insights and/or knowledge to improve the overall quality and efficiency of healthcare. On the other hand, Service-oriented thinking is one of the fastest growing paradigms in information technology. Service-oriented analytic workflows can bring together various analytic computing tools and compute resources offered as services to answer complex research questions. However, analytic studies on the population health data often require both the domain knowledge and the expertise in data manipulation. Selecting the appropriate analytic module and defining data and analytic workflows can be challenging even for an expert data scientist. Therefore, assistance from experts need to be offered at various stages of the study. These issues motivated us to develop a novel service-oriented analytic platform with guided workflows for population health studies. In this paper, we illustrate the different human roles that are needed to conduct health analytics, provide a modeling to elaborate the interactions between the human roles, and elaborate the service-oriented architecture of the system. A reference implementation is detailed to demonstrate the practical use of the approach and platform.
Faith in Fostering: Catholic Adoption and Boarding-Out in Depression-Era New York

Catholic adoption and foster care practices have historically been shaped by the emphasis agencies placed upon the religiosity of substitute mothers. During the Great Depression, when fewer suitable women were available and more children were in need, the cultural and spiritual agendas of Catholic child-saving competed with the obligation to uphold professional standards of dependent child care. At the New York Foundling Hospital, the staff compromised to some extent on secular aspects of substitute-mother fitness in order to sustain the agency's religious mission of raising children within the faith. Devout Catholic women who wished to foster or adopt children enjoyed unprecedented opportunities during these years, able as they were to negotiate placement terms from a position of strength and resist some of the agency's dictates. Case records from the late 1920s through the early 1940s reveal how the pressures of faith-based child-saving under dire economic conditions allowed for improvisation between substitute mothers and the staff who assessed their worthiness, challenging narrow notions of proper motherhood and adoptability in children. Sources also show the resourcefulness of caseworkers in coping with a chronic foster home shortage.
Electron transport properties of amorphous (ZR0.64Ni0.36)1-xAlx alloys.

Measurements of the electrical resistivity \ensuremath{\rho}(T), thermopower S(T), and Hall coefficient ${R}_{H}$ for a series of rapidly quenched Zr-Ni-Al alloys are reported for concentrations from x=0 to 0.25. The resistivity is large (\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\approxeq}200 \ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\Omega} cm) and increases with Al content as does ${R}_{H}$, which is positive for all concentrations studied. The thermopower is positive but decreases in magnitude with Al concentration. A consistent qualitative explanation of the concentration dependence of \ensuremath{\rho}, ${R}_{H}$, and S is suggested.
Next Generation Space Telescope-inflatable sunshield development

The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) is a NASA Origins program whose goal is to observe the first stars and galaxies in the Universe. The NGST will detect 0.6 to 20 /spl mu/m radiation, seeing objects 400 times fainter than those currently studied with ground or space-based infrared telescopes, all with a spatial resolution comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Next Generation Space Telescope will be constructed using deployable structures since the maximum size of the rocket shrouds likely to be available will not accommodate the full mirror or sunshield. Current designs of NGST have a large deployable sunshield (on the order of 200 m/sup 2/) thermally insulating a large telescope, keeping vital detector temperatures to below 60 K. As a precursor to the flight telescope, NASA has begun a technology validation program to prove the merits of a large deployable structure. The Inflatable Sunshield In Space (ISIS) Experiment is currently under development and planned to be flown on a Space Shuttle Mission in mid-year 2001. ISIS will demonstrate a controlled deployment of a large sunshield enabling it to stay out of NGST's "zone of exclusion" which guarantees that the sunshield will not disturb the optics or systems of NGST. In addition, ISIS will demonstrate in-situ rigidization of a thermoset composite structural frame utilizing a resistive heating circuit. This paper describes the status of the ISIS sunshield development. Objectives for the flight experiment are discussed in detail and developments in in-situ rigidization methods and controlled deployment in relation to the telescope are also presented.
The Speed of Light and Puranic Cosmology

We survey early Indian ideas on the speed of light and the size of the universe. A context is provided for Sayana's statement (14th century)that the speed is 2,202 yojanas per half nimesha (186,000 miles per second!). It is shown how this statement may have emerged from early Puranic notions regarding the size of the universe. Although this value can only be considered to be an amazing coincidence, the Puranic cosmology at the basis of this assertion illuminates many ancient ideas of space and time.
Translating Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography from a Research to a Clinical Tool

Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) continues to be a hot topic as a method for studying vulnerable plaque in research laboratories across the globe. It is also growing in popularity as a tool for interventional cardiologists to guide percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The power of IVOCT for diagnosis of thin-capped fibroatheromas (TCFAs) has yet to receive mainstream clinical attention due to the fact that clinicians still do not have a protocol to follow if TCFA are identified and that TCFA identification requires extensive training in IVOCT image analysis—it is not yet an automated process. In this review, we will discuss the progress of translation of IVOCT from predominantly a research tool to clinical practice by reviewing recent advances in the field of IVOCT for guiding PCI and how the challenge of automated plaque characterization for vulnerable plaque identification is being approached.
The Role of Individual and Structural Factors in Explaining Television Channel Choice and Duration

Most previous research on predicting media choice has considered either individual or structural factors but has not integrated both approaches empirically. This study examines how individual and structural factors of media choice impact TV channel choice and duration using an integrated model. Using Nielsen Korea’s TV-Internet Convergence Panel data that electronically recorded television and Internet use behavior, this study analyzes which factors influence TV channel choice and duration. The results reveal that television channel choice is influenced by individual factors such as viewing motivations, age, and gender in addition to structural factors such as access and cost. However, duration is largely affected by structural factors such as lead-in and other media use. Overall, structural factors seem to increase the explanatory power of models for both television choice and duration to a much larger extent than individual factors.
Factors Affecting Vocational Rehabilitation Intervention Outcomes: The Case for Minorities With Disabilities

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) services are designed to help individuals with disabilities achieve gainful employment. This study examines VR’s effectiveness in assisting minorities achieve gainful...
Probabilistic Roadmaps: A Motion Planning Approach Based on Active Learning

Motion planning is the ability that an autonomous robot must possess to compute its motions, in order to perform tasks such as navigating from one location to another, assembling a product, fetching an object, building a map of an environment, inspecting a structure, tracking an un-predictable target, or climbing a cliff. A new motion-planning approach - Probabilistic RoadMap (PRM) planning - has emerged, which takes advantage of such techniques. The talk will discuss how a better understanding of these properties is already making it possible to design faster PRM planners capable of solving increasingly more complex problems
The Merkel rete papilla — a slowly adapting sensory receptor in mammalian glabrous skin

Abstract The present study has identified the anatomical receptor characterized physiologically as a slowly adapting mechanoreceptor. The receptor has been named a Merkel rete papilla (M-r papilla). An M-r papilla consists of a group of Merkel cells, associated neurites and epidermal cells projecting from the lower portion of a rete ridge into the dermis. Three to six individual nerve fibers enter a papilla and repeatedly divide. Fine terminal branches become associated with Merkel cells in a manner similar to other Merkel cell-neurite complexes described previously. The Merkel cell-neurite complexes in the M-r papillae are the anatomical substrate for the slowly adapting receptors present in raccoon glabrous palmar skin.