cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A simulation architecture with distributed controllers for cell-based manufacturing systems

A number of manufacturing systems are categorized into cell-based manufacturing systems (CBMSs), which have similar physical configurations typically composed of manufacturing cells, transporters and their controllers. However, since the control modules are not separable from the model in conventional simulation frameworks, it is difficult to develop a generic high-fidelity simulator for CBMSs with flexibility in control structure. We propose a generic simulation architecture for CBMSs, "CellSim", using the concept of Controller-In-Loop (CiL), in which all supervisory controllers are separated from simulation models, and developed as individual controller modules. CellSim has three sub-architectures, i.e., the design/modeling architecture, the simulation execution architecture, and output analysis architecture. CellSim has distinctive features and advantages for flexible, high-fidelity, and integrated manufacturing system design and modeling, compared to the conventional simulation frameworks. We present distinctive features and architecture of CellSim for CBMSs as well as the concept and implementation of CiL.
Generation of Phaseolus vulgaris ESTs and investigation of their regulation upon Uromyces appendiculatus infection.

Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) is the second most important legume crop in the world after soybean. Consequently, yield losses due to fungal infection, like Uromyces appendiculatus (bean rust), have strong consequences. Several resistant genes were identified that confer resistance to bean rust infection. However, the downstream genes and mechanisms involved in bean resistance to infection are poorly characterized. A subtractive bean cDNA library composed of 10,581 unisequences was constructed and enriched in sequences regulated by either bean rust race 41, a virulent strain, or race 49, an avirulent strain on cultivar Early Gallatin carrying the resistance gene Ur-4. The construction of this library allowed the identification of 6,202 new bean ESTs, significantly adding to the available sequences for this plant. Regulation of selected bean genes in response to bean rust infection was confirmed by qRT-PCR. Plant gene expression was similar for both race 41 and 49 during the first 48 hours of the infection process but varied significantly at the later time points (72–96 hours after inoculation) mainly due to the presence of the Avr4 gene in the race 49 leading to a hypersensitive response in the bean plants. A biphasic pattern of gene expression was observed for several genes regulated in response to fungal infection. The enrichment of the public database with over 6,000 bean ESTs significantly adds to the genomic resources available for this important crop plant. The analysis of these genes in response to bean rust infection provides a foundation for further studies of the mechanism of fungal disease resistance. The expression pattern of 90 bean genes upon rust infection shares several features with other legumes infected by biotrophic fungi. This finding suggests that the P. vulgaris-U. appendiculatus pathosystem could serve as a model to explore legume-rust interaction.
Increasing web server throughput with network interface data caching

This paper introduces network interface data caching, a new technique to reduce local interconnect traffic on networking servers by caching frequently-requested content on a programmable network interface. The operating system on the host CPU determines which data to store in the cache and for which packets it should use data from the cache. To facilitate data reuse across multiple packets and connections, the cache only stores application-level response content (such as HTTP data), with application-level and networking headers generated by the host CPU. Network interface data caching can reduce PCI traffic by up to 57% on a prototype implementation of a uniprocessor web server. This traffic reduction results in up to 31% performance improvement, leading to a peak server throughput of 1571 Mb/s.
On the kinetics of precipitate flotation of Cr III using sodium dodecylsulfate and ethanol

Abstract Water is considered an important and scarce commodity in many countries around the world. Several industrial wastewater streams may contain heavy metals, including the waste liquids generated by metal finishing or in the mineral processing industries. The toxic metals must be effectively treated or removed from the wastewaters; otherwise, they would be discharged directly into the natural water streams and may constitute a great risk for the aquatic ecosystems. Chromium is a well known highly toxic metal, considered as a priority environmental pollutant introduced into natural waters from a variety of industrial wastewaters. In this paper, the removal of chromium III by precipitate flotation from dilute aqueous solutions, using sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) as anionic collector and ethanol as frother was investigated at laboratory scale. The results of the zeta potential and the floatability studies of chromium hydroxide precipitates showed that the isoelectric point (IEP) of Cr(OH) 3 was around pH = 8.5 and a 96.2% maximum removal was achieved at pH around 8.0. The flotation kinetics of chromium precipitates was studied based on the integral and the differential methods and found to follow a first order rate equation.
Activation of periodic complexes of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis by sleep

Three patients with clinically proved subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) had electroencephalograms in which periodic stereotyped complexes characteristic of SSPE were apparent during sleep but were not observed during the initial awake recordings. The first patient had periodic complexes only during sleep. The second and third patients had complexes that were inconstant and sporadic during the awake recordings but regular and periodic during sleep. Although sleep can have a variable effect on the electroencephalographic pattern in SSPE, it may facilitate elicitation of typical periodic complexes in questionable cases of SSPE.
Transmittance and Reflectance of Cesium Iodide in the Far Infrared Region

Prisms of cesium iodide can he used to 56 mu , and the measurements were made on a small grating spectrometer. The stray radiation of the instrument was less than 2% and the transmittance in the regions of absorption could be measured accurately. The reflection of cesium iodide increases rapidly at wavelength greater than 120 mu . A single reflection from a plate of the material is useful as a filter system from 120 to 170 mu . The radiant energy was reflected from 3 plates in order to obtain a sharp maximum. The maximum wavelength was observed at 145 mu . (J.E.D.)
Discovery of Novel Methylation Biomarkers in Cervical Carcinoma by Global Demethylation and Microarray Analysis

A genome-wide screening study for identification of hypermethylated genes in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) was carried out to augment our previously discovered panel of three genes found to be useful for detection of ICC and its precursor neoplasia. Putatively hypermethylated and silenced genes were reactivated in four ICC cell lines by treatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and trichostatin A and identified on expression microarrays. Thirty-nine of the 235 genes up-regulated in multiple ICC cell lines were further examined to determine the methylation status of associated CpG islands. The diagnostic use of 23 genes that were aberrantly methylated in multiple ICC cell lines were then analyzed in DNA from exfoliated cells obtained from patients with or without ICC. We show, for the first time, that aberrant methylation of six genes (SPARC, TFPI2, RRAD, SFRP1, MT1G, and NMES1) is present in a high proportion of ICC clinical samples but not in normal samples. Of these genes, SPARC and TFPI2 showed the highest frequency of aberrant methylation in ICC specimens (86.4% for either) and together were hypermethylated in all but one ICC cases examined. We conclude that expression profiling of epigenetically reactivated genes followed by methylation analysis in clinical samples is a powerful tool for comprehensive identification of methylation markers. Several novel genes identified in our study may be clinically useful for detection or stratification of ICC and/or of its precursor lesions and provide a basis for better understanding of mechanisms involved in development of ICC.
Aminoborohydrides. 12. Novel tandem S(N)Ar amination-reduction reactions of 2-halobenzonitriles with lithium N,N-dialkylaminoborohydrides.

A novel tandem amination−reduction reaction has been developed in which 2-(N,N-dialkylamino)benzylamines are generated from 2-halobenzonitriles and lithium N,N-dialkylaminoborohydride (LAB) reagents. These reactions are believed to occur through a tandem SNAr amination−reduction mechanism wherein the LAB reagent promotes halide displacement by the N,N-dialkylamino group, and the nitrile is subsequently reduced. This one-pot procedure is complimentary to existing synthetic methods and is an attractive synthetic tool for the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of halobenzenes with less nucleophilic amines. The (N,N-dialkylamino)benzylamine products of this reaction are easily isolated after a simple aqueous workup procedure in very good to excellent yields.
The impact of globalisation on income inequality

This paper utilises a globalisation index measure to examine the relationship between globalisation and income inequality within developed and developing countries. Controlling for structural and social indicators, our results show that for developing countries, an increase in globalisation is associated with an increase in inequality. Our results also indicate that the impact of the globalisation index on income inequality is insignificant for developed countries. For all countries in our sample, the results indicate that a worsening of the globalisation index is associated with an increase in income inequality.
A component analysis of "stereotypy as reinforcement" for alternative behavior.

Results from several studies have suggested that the opportunity to engage in stereotypic behavior may function as reinforcement for alternative, more socially desirable behaviors. However, the procedural components of this intervention include several distinct operations whose effects have not been analyzed separately. While measuring the occurrence of stereotypy and an alternative behavior (manipulation of leisure materials), we exposed 3 participants to three or four components of a "stereotypy as reinforcement" contingency: (a) continuous access to materials, (b) prompts to manipulate materials, (c) restricted access to stereotypy (i.e., response blocking), and (d) access to stereotypy contingent on manipulating the materials. Continuous access to materials and prompting (a and b) produced negligible results. Restriction of stereotypy (c) produced a large increase in the alternative behavior of 2 participants, suggesting that response restriction per se may occasion alternative behavior. However, contingent access to stereotypy (d) was necessary to increase the 3rd participant's object manipulation; this finding provided some support for the use of stereotypy as reinforcement for alternative behavior. Finally, when transfer of the effects of intervention was assessed during periods in which active intervention components were withdrawn, the alternative behavior was maintained for 1 participant.
Cadmium, lead, and thallium in smoke particulate from counterfeit cigarettes compared to authentic US brands.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States. Exposure to tobacco smoke leads to cancer, heart and lung disease, and addiction. The origin of the tobacco and cigarette manufacturing practices of counterfeit cigarettes are unknown. Because toxic metals are incorporated into the tobacco lamina during cultivation, the ambient metal content of the soil could produce significant differences in metal levels in both the tobacco and smoke of counterfeit cigarettes. We compared mainstream smoke cadmium, thallium, and lead deliveries from counterfeit and authentic brands. Mainstream smoke levels of all three metals were far greater for counterfeit than the authentic brands, in some cases by an order of magnitude. Significant differences still existed even after normalizing mainstream smoke metal levels with nicotine delivery; the counterfeits typically delivered much higher levels of all three analytes. Our findings, based on 21 different counterfeit samples, suggest that counterfeit cigarettes potentially result in a markedly greater exposure to toxic heavy metals than authentic brands, even after correcting for differences in nicotine intake. In view of the unknown health risks associated with inhaling higher levels of toxic metals, it is prudent to minimize exposure to toxic substances whenever possible. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Relativistic Pair Beams from TeV Blazars: A Source of Reprocessed GeV Emission rather than IGM Heating

The interaction of TeV photons from blazars with the extragalactic background light produces a relativistic beam of electron-positron pairs streaming through the intergalactic medium (IGM). The fate of the beam energy is uncertain. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we study the non-linear evolution of dilute ultra-relativistic pair beams propagating through the IGM. We explore a wide range of beam Lorentz factors gamma_b>>1 and beam-to-plasma density ratios alpha 0.2 (as typically expected for blazar-induced beams), the fraction of beam energy deposited into the IGM is much smaller than ~10%. It follows that at least ~90% of the beam energy is still available to power the GeV emission produced by inverse Compton up-scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background by the beam pairs.
A Flow Classifier with Tamper-Resistant Features and an Evaluation of Its Portability to New Domains

Flow classification by application type is motivated by on-line anomaly detection, off-line network planning, and on-line enforcement of terms-of-use policies by public ISPs or by administrators of private-enterprise networks. Both signature matching and a variety of feature-based pattern recognition methods have been applied to address this problem. In this paper, we propose a TCP flow classifier that employs neither packet header information that is protocol-specific (including port numbers) nor packet-payload information. Techniques based on the former are readily evadable, while detailed yet scalable inspection of packet payloads is difficult to achieve, may violate privacy laws, and is defeated by data encryption. Our classifier is tested on two contemporary publicly available datasets recorded in similar networking contexts. We consider the often encountered scenario where ground-truth labels, necessary for supervised classifier training, are unavailable for a domain where flow classification needs to be applied. In this case, one must "port over" a classifier trained on one domain to make decisions on another. We address issues in reconciling differences in class definitions between the two domains. We also demonstrate by our results that domain differences in the class-conditional feature distributions, which will exist in practice, can lead to substantial losses in classification accuracy on the new domain. Finally, we also propose and evaluate a hypothesis testing approach to detect port spoofing by exploiting confusion matrix statistics.
Environmentally relevant concentrations of ammonium perchlorate inhibit development and metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis.

We determined whether environmentally relevant concentrations of ammonium perchlorate alter development and metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis. Eggs and larvae were exposed to varying concentrations of ammonium perchlorate or control medium for 70 d. Most treatment-related mortality was observed within 5 d after exposure and was due in large part to reduced hatching success. The 5- and 70-d median lethal concentrations (LC50s) were 510 +/- 36 mg ammonium perchlorate/L and 223 +/- 13 mg ammonium perchlorate/L, respectively. Ammonium perchlorate did not cause any concentration-related developmental abnormalities at concentrations below the 70-d LC50. Ammonium perchlorate inhibited metamorphosis in a concentration-dependent manner as evident from effects on forelimb emergence, tail resorption, and hindlimb growth. These effects were observed after exposure to ammonium perchlorate concentrations in the parts-per-billion range, at or below concentrations reported in surface waters contaminated with ammonium perchlorate. Ammonium perchlorate significantly inhibited tail resorption after a 14-d exposure in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Committee (EDSTAC) Tier I frog metamorphosis assay for thyroid disruption in amphibians. We believe that ammonium perchlorate may pose a threat to normal development and growth in natural amphibian populations.
Grand unification and parity restoration at low energies. II. Unification constraints

In this second paper in the series, we show how the embedding of $\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{L}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{SU}{(2)}_{R}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{U}{(1)}_{B\ensuremath{-}L}$ in SO(10) grand unified theory suggests the possibility of parity being restored at low energies, thus providing an alternative to conventional theories with a desert above ${M}_{W}$. Some important predictions of the model are stressed: appreciable Majorana neutrino masses, lepton-number violation in neutrinoless double-$\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay with $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\simeq}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}\ensuremath{-}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$, and the absence of observable proton decay (${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{p}\ensuremath{\simeq}{10}^{38}\ensuremath{-}{10}^{46}$ years). From the phenomenological analysis in our earlier work and the unification constraints presented here we find that, if the above picture is correct, $150\ensuremath{\le}{{M}_{W}}_{R}\ensuremath{\le}240$ GeV. We argue that both the charged and neutral gauge bosons of the second generation should be produced at ISA-BELLE energies with significant rates.
THE EFFECT OF GLOBALIZATION ON EFFICIENCY CHANGE, TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND THE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH OF U.S. SMALL AND LARGE BANKS

A non-parametric approach is used to examine the effects of globalization and deregulation on the efficiency and productivity growth of small and large banks in the U.S. between 1990 and 2003. Using a representative sample of commercial banks, the study finds empirical evidence that both small and large banks made significant technological progress and productivity growth between 1990 and 2003. In addition, the statistical evidence shows that large banks are generally more efficient than small banks for most efficiency indices in both years. However, despite globalization, deregulation, and the gains in technology and productivity, there was a decrease in overall efficiency for both large and small banks in 2003 compared to 1990, caused exclusively by allocative inefficiency.
A Framework for Hybrid Fuzzy Logic Intrusion Detection Systems

This paper describes a framework for implementing intrusion detection systems using fuzzy logic. A fuzzy data-mining algorithm is used to extract fuzzy rules for the inference engine. The modular architecture is implemented using the Java expert system shell (Jess) and the FuzzyJess toolkit developed by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Research Council of Canada respectively. Experimental results for a hybrid prototype system using anomaly-based and fuzzy signatures are provided using data sets from MIT Lincoln Laboratory
A Western-Type Diet Accelerates Tumor Progression in an Autochthonous Mouse Model of Prostate Cancer

Epidemiological studies have provided evidence suggesting an important role for diet and obesity in the development of cancer. Specifically, lipid nutrients of the diet have been identified as important regulators of tumor development and progression. In the present study, we have examined the role of dietary fat and cholesterol in the initiation and progression of prostate cancer using the well-characterized TRAMP mouse model. Consumption of a Western-type diet—that is, enriched in both fat and cholesterol—accelerated prostate tumor incidence and tumor burden compared to mice fed a control chow diet. Furthermore, we also show that this diet increased the extent and the histological grade of prostate tumors. These findings were confirmed by the presence of increased levels of protein markers of advanced tumors in prostates obtained from animals fed a Western-type diet compared to those obtained from control animals. Increased lung metastases in animals fed a Western-type diet were also observed. In addition, we found that with a Western diet, animals bearing tumors presented with reduced plasma cholesterol levels compared with animals fed a control diet. Finally, we show that tumors obtained from animals fed a Western-type diet displayed increased expression of the high-density lipoprotein receptor SR-BI and increased angiogenesis. Taken together, our data suggest that dietary fat and cholesterol play an important role in the development of prostate cancer.
7.2.3 Decisions in the Face of Risk

The author of a popular book on risk and decision analysis made the statement that “The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk: the notion that the future is more than a whim of the gods and that men and women are not passive before nature.” (Bernstein 1998, 1) While this book was written primarily from the perspective of economics and finances, the premise that the tools for making a reasoned prediction of the future, based on past experience and present decisions, goes to the heart of what it means to “do” systems engineering. This paper examines the nature of uncertainty, risk and decision analysis, particularly as understood within the historical context and the continuing development of the “art and science of decision.”
The federal role in early intervention: Prospects for the future

Since 1968, the federal government has played an essential role in establishing and implementing early intervention and preschool services for young children with disabilities and their families. This has been accomplished through a series of laws, regulations, supports, and incentives that collectively have shaped the nature and extent of current practice. I predict that as we enter the new millennium, we will not see new major legislation comparable in impact to IDEA and ADA. There will be a continued shift from federal to state control over decision making about practice. However, pressing national issues will require ongoing federal leadership. This leadership will continue in the form of increased levels of directed research and cooperative agreements based on federal perceptions of national need. Large-scale studies using nationally representative samples of children will provide important information about services and outcomes but will limit field-initiated efforts. A successful federal role will ...
The relationship between anxiety and risk taking is moderated by ambiguity

Abstract By definition, risk taking involves uncertainty surrounding potential outcomes. However, risky decisions can vary in the amount of ambiguity about the likelihood of each outcome occurring. The current study tested the hypothesis that the amount of ambiguity in risky-decisions would moderate the relationship between risk taking and anxiety. In this study, participants completed individual difference measures and then a version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with either high or low ambiguity about the likelihood of a negative outcome. As hypothesized, higher levels of anxiety predicted less risk taking in the high ambiguity version of the BART, but anxiety and risk taking were unrelated to one another in the low ambiguity version. This study demonstrates that in order to understand the relationship between anxiety and risk taking, ambiguity level must be taken into account. Furthermore, this finding provides support for cognitive models of anxiety suggesting that anxious individuals interpret negative outcomes as more likely to occur than less anxious individuals.
Perception of Behavioral Issues: Exploring the Differences in Perception between Parents and Adolescents

With the increasing prevalence of mental health disorders in children and adolescents, it is important to examine variables that may contribute to children not receiving mental health treatment. Differences in perception of behavioral issues between parents and adolescents may be a key determinant. The Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT) and Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Parents (POSIP) were administered to 73 parent and adolescent pairs at a community mental health center. Paired T-tests were conducted for the 5 subscales measured on both the POSIT and POSIP surveys. Differences in scores between adolescents and parents were statistically significant on the Family Relations and Peer Relations subscales. Results indicate that there are significant gaps in perception of behavioral issues between parents and adolescents, particularly regarding peer and family conflict, and reducing those gaps may lead to improved treatment for children and adolescents.
Territories, Multiple Nest Building, and Polygyny in the Long-Billed Marsh Wren

THE problem of natural selection for polygyny in a bird species with a 1: 1 sex ratio has received considerable attention in earlier papers (Verner, 1963, 1964; Verner and Willson, 1966). Briefly it is argued that for polgyny to evolve when unmated males are available, females pairing with males that are already mated must realize a higher reproductive output than they could attain paired with an unmated male, despite receiving less assistance in the care of their offspring. This implies more suitable conditions for breeding in the territory of the chosen male. An examination of various features of the territories of male Long-billed Marsh Wrens (Telmatodytes palustris) in a population at Seattle, Washington, revealed two features, total territory size and area of territory with standing water, that correlated highly with the pairing success of the males. The amount of territory with standing water very likely affects the abundance of wren food in the territory. Similar attempts to clarify relationships between pairing success and territorial features of male Longbilled Marsh Wrens at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge were unsuccessful, possibly because the Turnbull sample was too small. In the course of investigating the response of male wrens to playback of recorded songs within their territories at Turnbull Refuge during the summer of 1967, we made detailed measurements of the territories, their component vegetation, distribution of nests, and the number of females and the conditions of their nests. These data provide the basis for a further analysis of the possible factors influencing the pairing success of male Long-billed Marsh Wrens at Turnbull Refuge. The refuge lies 15 miles south of Spokane, Washington, in the geologic formation of the channeled scablands. Most of the uplands are covered with open pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. More than 15,000 acres and 80 separate lakes of various sizes lie within the refuge boundaries. Most of the lakes are fringed with cattail (Typha latijolia) and bulrush (Scirpus validus) marshes that provide breeding habitat for a large population of Long-billed Marsh Wrens. A complete census of all lakes on the refuge in 1968 revealed 625 territorial males. Our studies in 1967 were conducted on the following lakes: Kepple, Beaver, Blackhorse, Windmill, Ice, Middle Pine, Lower Pine, WVest Tritt, Little Isaacson, Big Isaacson, Little McDowell, and Big McDowell.
A multi-gene assay to predict long-term mortality in early stage lung adenocarcinoma

7569 Background: The likelihood of long-term mortality for patients with early stage lung adenocarcinoma is poorly defined by clinical stage and histopathological findings. Our hypothesis was that ...
Simulation of energy‐dependent electron diffusion processes in the Earth's outer radiation belt

The radial and local diffusion processes induced by various plasma waves govern the highly energetic electron dynamics in the Earth's radiation belts, causing distinct characteristics in electron distributions at various energies. In this study, we present our simulation results of the energetic electron evolution during a geomagnetic storm using the University of California, Los Angeles 3-D diffusion code. Following the plasma sheet electron injections, the electrons at different energy bands detected by the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) and Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) instruments on board the Van Allen Probes exhibit a rapid enhancement followed by a slow diffusive movement in differential energy fluxes, and the radial extent to which electrons can penetrate into depends on energy with closer penetration toward the Earth at lower energies than higher energies. We incorporate radial diffusion, local acceleration, and loss processes due to whistler mode wave observations to perform a 3-D diffusion simulation. Our simulation results demonstrate that chorus waves cause electron flux increase by more than 1 order of magnitude during the first 18 h, and the subsequent radial extents of the energetic electrons during the storm recovery phase are determined by the coupled radial diffusion and the pitch angle scattering by EMIC waves and plasmaspheric hiss. The radial diffusion caused by ULF waves and local plasma wave scattering are energy dependent, which lead to the observed electron flux variations with energy dependences. This study suggests that plasma wave distributions in the inner magnetosphere are crucial for the energy-dependent intrusions of several hundred keV to several MeV electrons.
Analysis on Eye Examination Results of Workers Exposed to Low Power Density Microwave

[Objective]To understand the effect of microwave on lens of operators,provide the basis for performing health surveillance and making protective measures.[Methods]According to the Technical specifications for occupational health surveillance,the eye examination was conducted in 112 microwave workers,and the results were compared with that of the control group.[Results]There were significant differences in the total incidence rate and degrees of lens opacity between the investigation group and the control group(P0.01).The incidence rates of lens opacity of microwave workers whose working age were over 10 years and microwave workers under 45 years old were significantly higher than that of the control group(P0.05 or 0.01).[Conclusion]The long-term low power density microwave may damage the lens of operators,and can be accumulated.It is necessary to strengthen the health protection among microwave workers,especially eye protection.
Abstract B36: In vivo laser-based imaging of the human fallopian tube for future cancer detection.

Inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 cause a 20-50% lifetime risk of ovarian, fallopian tubel, or peritoneal carcinoma. Clinical recommendations for these high-risk women include the prophylactic removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes by age 40 after child-bearing. Recent findings suggest that many presumed ovarian or peritoneal carcinomas arise in fallopian tube epithelium. Although survival rate is >90% when ovarian cancer is detected early (Stage_I), 70% of women have advanced disease (Stage_III/IV) at presentation when survival is less than 30%. Over the years, effective early detection of ovarian cancer has remained elusive, possibly because screening techniques have mistakenly focused on the ovary as the origin of ovarian carcinoma. Unlike ovaries, the fallopian tubes are amenable to direct visual imaging without invasive surgery, using access through the uterine cervix. To develop future screening protocols, we investigated using our 1.2-mm diameter, forward-viewing, scanning fiber endoscope (SFE) to image luminal surfaces of the fallopian tube before laparoscopic surgical removal. Three anesthetized human subjects participated in our protocol development which eventually led to 70-80% of the length of fallopian tubes being imaged in scanning reflectance, using red (632nm), green (532nm), and blue (442nm) laser light. A hysteroscope with saline uterine distention was used to locate the tubal ostia. To facilitate passage of the SFE through the interstitial portion of the fallopian tube, an introducer catheter was inserted 1-cm through each ostia. During insertion, saline was flushed to reduce friction and provide clearer viewing. This is likely the first high-resolution intraluminal visualization of fallopian tubes Citation Format: Elizabeth M. Swisher, C. David Melville, Richard S. Johnston, Kathy Agnew, Seine Chiang, Eric J. Seibel. In vivo laser-based imaging of the human fallopian tube for future cancer detection. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research: Exploiting Vulnerabilities; Oct 17-20, 2015; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2016;22(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B36.
Strategies for evaluating the child with suspected neurodegenerative disease.

Ces maladies ont une evolution progressive. Les signes cliniques permettent de differencier les maladies de la substance grise des maladies de la substance blanche. Quelques signes cliniques associes typiques permettent la classification en tableaux cliniques definis. Le diagnostic definitif est fait sur les parametres biochimiques et l'histologie
Environmental Health Risks of Persistent Organic Compounds

The environment, defined as all the biotic and abiotic factors surrounding a given population, has a significant influence on the health and well-being of the population. In fact, the principal factor driving the concerns about environmental quality is its connection to human health. Directly through exposure to xenobiotics and indirectly through systemic environmental events, many health problems are inextricably connected to environmental factors (Smith, 2001). Different aspects of the environment—including the bio-logical (biotic), physical (abiotic), social, cultural, and technological factors—affect the health status of the human population as well as other species within the ecosystems. Evidence in the literature suggests that environmental pollution and ecological degradation have a tremendous negative impact on people’s well-being (Yassi et al., 2001). Polluted environments increase the probability or risk of exposure to contaminants, disease vectors, and other agents that may induce illnesses both for human and nonhuman species. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) represent a significant threat to the environment and the health of all organisms including humans. Given the pervasiveness of risks in every sphere of social life, it is now widely recognized that we are living in a society of self-endangerment, self-injury, and potential self-annihilation (Strydom, 2002).
Utilization of coal in IGCC systems

Abstract The chapter deals primarily with the utilization of coal in IGCC systems. Coal gasification for power generation is gaining popularity due to the availability of the raw material (coal) worldwide, reduced environmental-related issues compared to the utilization of coal in combustion technologies, and the ability to capture CO 2 . To improve the overall efficiency of the IGCC process, an in-depth understanding of various coal properties that influence the design and operation of an IGCC plant is required. These coal properties determine the type of gasifier suitable for the process, the feeding system, the kind of coal preparation required, the amount of oxidants required for the gasification process, the flux to be added to keep the slag flowing, and so on. Besides coal, utilization of other solid feedstocks that are commonly used in IGCC plants, such as biomass and petcoke, are also presented in this chapter.
Firm Preferences for Environmental Policy: Industry Uniform or Firm Specific?

This paper examines the effect of uniform and firm-specific environmental regulation on the production decisions, and profits, of polluting and green firms. While both types of regulation increase firms' costs and thus entail a negative effect on profits, firm-specific regulation can also yield a positive effect for relatively inefficient firms by alleviating their cost disadvantage. When such cost disadvantage is sufficiently large, we show that the positive effect of firm-specific regulation dominates its negative effect, leading inefficient (efficient) firms to support (oppose) socially optimal regulation. Furthermore, our findings indicate that such support for environmental policy can originate not only from the most common ally (the green firm) but also from polluting firms.
Ensuring Building Block Supply

In chapter 5, we defined what we meant by building blocks and acknowledged their importance. In the last chapter, we looked at search problems through the lens of building blocks and tried to envision various dimensions of problem difficulty from that standpoint. Here it is important to take BBs quite seriously, almost physically, and make sure that the GA is well supplied with a good stock of the building blocks necessary to solve the problem at hand. In this chapter, we consider this supply question in isolation and estimate the size of population necessary to ensure that the raw BBs are present and available for subsequent selection and genetic operation. As it turns out, the supply population requirement is often superseded by the so-called decision-making population size to be taken up in a subsequent chapter. Moreover, more sophisticated equations combine the requirements of supply and decision in a single model. Nonetheless, we examine the supply question in isolation, because the calculations are straightforward, revealing, and easily verified. We start by briefly reviewing prior work in this area and then turn to deriving a facetwise model with some straightforward probabilistic calculation.
The distribution and variation of non-coordinated pronoun case forms in English

This paper investigates case preferences for English pronouns in non-coordinated environments subject to variation: in isolation and after not , with following numeral, PP, and NP modifiers, in than and as comparatives, and as the foci of it -clefts. It uses an acceptability judgment experiment (Mechanical Turk) and corpus study (COCA) to investigate these preferences and presents an Optimality Theory-style analysis based on their results that models structural case assignment (case from an external head), default case, and prescriptivism as competing constraints. This model captures case preferences and their relative strengths and provides one possible explanation for the variation attested in these environments.
Design and manufacturing of a hybrid flax/carbon fiber composite bicycle frame:

Carbon fiber composite frames were first used in Tour de France in 1986. With recent growth in research and development of composite frames, carbon fiber composites have become more popular in bicy...
Global agriculture as an energy transfer system and the energy yield of world agriculture 1961–2013

The global agricultural system is an energy transfer system converting solar radiation to stored chemical energy in the biosphere through photosynthesis and animal metabolism. Stored energy in the agricultural system is principally in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and oils that humanity appropriates for food, fiber, and fuel. The total annual production of global agriculture was tabulated using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1961 to 2013. Annual agricultural production for each agricultural item (T y−1) was converted to energy yield (kJ y−1) utilizing published proximate analyses (% moisture, % protein, % carbohydrate, % fat/lipid, and % ash). Global agricultural energy yield grew linearly over the 1961–2002 interval. From 2002 onward, global agricultural energy yield also grew linearly, but at a rate 2 times the 1961–2002 rate. Overall, agricultural energy yield more than tripled from 1961 to 2013. Unsurprisingly, energy output of global crops dominated, averaging 85.5 ± 0.4% of total energy output. Livestock and poultry production averaged 13.6 ± 0.4% of annual agricultural energy output, while world fisheries and aquaculture averaged 0.8 ± 0.1% of global energy output. From 1961 to 2013, the feeding potential of global agricultural energy yield exceeded the human metabolic energy requirement by an average multiple of 2.1 ± 0.18. Thus, agricultural production is more than sufficient to feed “The Global Mouth” into the future, and feeding world population is not a production problem per se. Instead, the inability of global agriculture to meet worldwide food requirements results from systemic energy losses associated with significant global food waste, diversion of food energy as feed to livestock and poultry, and appropriation of primary agricultural output for biofuels synthesis. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2017
Chronic Kidney Disease: Balancing Nutritional Needs with Nutrition Prevention of Kidney Stones

Many patients with kidney stones also have comorbidities that require nutritional management. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a fairly common comorbidity and is associated with multiple dietary recommendations, depending on the severity of kidney dysfunction. The nutritional management of patients with CKD is complex and depends on the stage of CKD and other patient-specific factors. The nutritional management of patients at risk for kidney stone recurrence is also driven by patient-specific factors as well as factors related to the type(s) of stones they form and underlying medical contributors. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the general nutritional management concepts related to CKD, describe their rationale, identify specific nutrients of interest and concern, and, finally, offer a perspective on how to integrate stone prevention dietary recommendations with dietary recommendations for CKD.
New 3-D CMOS Fabric With Stacked Horizontal Nanowires

As 2-D CMOS reaches its fundamental scaling limits due to device, manufacturing, and interconnect bottleneck related constraints at the nanoscale, migration to 3-D provides a possible alternative to continue technology scaling in future. Toward that goal, several 3-D integration approaches with multi-die, multichip, and sequential layers stacking are pursued. However, these approaches only show incremental density benefits and exhibit new challenges, such as lack of thermal management, increasing cost, and reliability issues. In contrast to these, we proposed a radically different fabric concept, called stacked horizontal nanowire-based 3-D CMOS (SN3D), on a single die that can offer a paradigm shift in technology scaling as well as design. Using prefabricated and doped stacked horizontal nanowires as fundamental building blocks, the fabric is assembled using architected connectivity and insulation features. Innovations in circuit style for mapping to SN3D’s physical framework, and bottom-up material filling-based manufacturing techniques are also central to our approach. In this paper, we detail, fabric’s core constructs, logic circuits implementation in SN3D fabric, benchmarking methodology and results, and finally the manufacturing aspects. Our circuit analysis reveals tremendous benefits; for a 4-bit full adder design, SN3D shows $11\times $ , 19%, 18%, and 6.7 $\times $ , 8.69%, 9% benefits over state-of-art 2-D CMOS and transistor-level monolithic 3-D in terms of density, power, and performance, respectively. In addition, our step-by-step TCAD emulation of manufacturing flow establishes feasibility. If realized, the SN3D fabric can be transformative for the semiconductor industry.
Contextuality and Convenant: The Pertinence of Social Theory and Theology to Bioethics

In the exercise of any discipline, methodological questions may be ignored. But they do not disappear. The practitioners of the discipline merely assume the questions have been answered, permitting them to get on with the immediate tasks at hand. Yet it is wise, now and then, to pose methodological questions deliberately with the prospect that new light will be shed on the discipline and its shape and direction modified or transformed in some creative and fruitful manner.
Riding the Third Wave of SoTL

Taking stock of an enterprise can be a stimulating exercise. It is also an essential one that allows for assessment of what one has while facilitating the planning of what one wants. In this piece, we take stock of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), mapping out what we see as the first two waves of the movement, and then identifying a ‘third wave.’ We believe it is time to think bigger. Specifically, those practicing SoTL need to: infiltrate the mainstream, run interference and catalyze the use of SoTL, and work towards a grand picture of learning.
The Anthropology of Ethics and Morality

Anthropologists have sustained a varied and active engagement with ethics throughout the field's history. In light of this long-standing engagement, what marks the distinctiveness of the current et...
Differences in primary care providers’ and oncologists’ views on communication and coordination of care during active treatment of patients with cancer and comorbidities:

IntroductionManagement of comorbid diseases in patients with cancer is often unclear. The purpose of our study was to identify differences and similarities between primary care providers and oncolo...
Plenary lecture 3: on the problem of packing trees in graphs

We are concerned with undirected graphs G= (V,E) with distinguished set of vertices K ⊆ V, |K| ≥ 2, called terminal vertices. A K-Steiner tree T of G is a minimal tree to the number of edges, containing all the vertices of K. The K-edge connectivity of a connected graph G with terminal vertices K, and denoted as λK (G), is the minimum number of edges whose removal disconnect at least two vertices of K in G. In this talk, we will investigate the relationship between the maximum number of edge-disjoint K-Steiner trees and the K-edge-connectivity of a graph G. This problem, known as a Steiner Tree Packing Problem (STPP), it has attracted considerable attention from researchers in different areas because of its wide applicability as for example in the design of VLSI circuits. In 2003, the EGRES combinatorial group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences conjected that any graph G= (V,E) with arbitary set of terminal vertices K ⊆ V, |K| ≥ 2, contains at least ⌊ λk (G)/2⌋ edge-disjoint K-Steiner trees. With regard to this conjecture, we will give a summary of results obtained up until now and we also present new results and conjectures.
MicroPro: using metagenomic unmapped reads to provide insights into human microbiota and disease associations

We develop a metagenomic data analysis pipeline, MicroPro, that takes into account all reads from known and unknown microbial organisms and associates viruses with complex diseases. We utilize MicroPro to analyze four metagenomic datasets relating to colorectal cancer, type 2 diabetes, and liver cirrhosis and show that including reads from unknown organisms significantly increases the prediction accuracy of the disease status for three of the four datasets. We identify new microbial organisms associated with these diseases and show viruses play important prediction roles in colorectal cancer and liver cirrhosis, but not in type 2 diabetes. MicroPro is freely available at https://github.com/zifanzhu/MicroPro .