cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Myocardial Recovery in Patients Receiving Contemporary Left Ventricular Assist Devices Results From the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS)

Background— Time course and predictors of myocardial recovery on contemporary left ventricular assist device support are poorly defined because of limited number of recovery patients at any implanting center. This study sought to investigate myocardial recovery using multicenter data from the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS). Methods and Results— Thirteen thousand four hundred fifty-four adult patients were studied. Device explant rates for myocardial recovery were 0.9% at 1-year, 1.9% at 2-year, and 3.1% at 3-year follow-up. Independent predictors of device explantation for recovery were age <50 years (odds ratio [OR] 2.5), nonischemic etiology (OR 5.4), time since initial diagnosis <2 years (OR 3.4), suboptimal heart failure therapy before implant (OR 2.2), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter <6.5 cm (OR 1.7), pulmonary systolic artery pressure <50 mm Hg (OR 2.0), blood urea nitrogen <30 mg/dL (OR 3.3), and axial-flow device (OR 7.6). Patients with myocarditis (7.7%), postpartum cardiomyopathy (4.4%), and adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy (4.1%) had highest rates of device explantation for recovery. Use of neurohormonal blockers on left ventricular assist device support was significantly higher in patients who were explanted for recovery. Importantly, 9% of all left ventricular assist device patients who were not explanted for recovery have demonstrated substantial improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction (partial recovery) and had remarkable overlap in clinical characteristic profile compared with patients who were explanted for recovery (complete recovery). Complete and partial recovery rates have declined in parallel with recent changes observed in device indications and technology. Conclusions— Myocardial recovery is a spectrum of improvement rather than a binary clinical end point. One in every 10 left ventricular assist device patients demonstrates partial or complete myocardial recovery and should be targeted for functional assessment and optimization.
Unraveling the CHIP:Hsp70 complex as an information processor for protein quality control

The CHIP:Hsp70 complex stands at the crossroads of the cellular protein quality control system. Hsp70 facilitates active refolding of misfolded client proteins, while CHIP directs ubiquitination of misfolded client proteins bound to Hsp70. The direct competition between CHIP and Hsp70 for the fate of misfolded proteins leads to the question: how does the CHIP:Hsp70 complex execute triage decisions that direct misfolded proteins for either refolding or degradation? The current body of literature points toward action of the CHIP:Hsp70 complex as an information processor that takes inputs in the form of client folding state, dynamics, and posttranslational modifications, then outputs either refolded or ubiquitinated client proteins. Herein we examine the CHIP:Hsp70 complex beginning with the structure and function of CHIP and Hsp70, followed by an examination of recent studies of the interactions and dynamics of the CHIP:Hsp70 complex.
The Practice of Politics Today and the Greater Tomorrow

This chapter examines the practice of politics in America. The “hyperpartisan” nature of politics today has resulted in an erosion of people’s trust and respect for government and each other. We find political polarization and social fragmentation between classes, races, ideologies, generations, and even regions of the nation. We call for the restoration of the social contract. By breaking the social contract, the prerequisites of democracy are violated, and government intervenes in daily life, thus imposing upon the liberty and equality of others. We need a national recommitment to the core principles that created and defined America. We need dynamic citizen engagement to cultivate an active, democratic citizenry. Civic responsibility, accountability, and initiative should once again become a keystone of social life.
A Manual of Paper Chromatography and Paper Electrophoresis

A manual of paper chromatography and paper electrophoresis , A manual of paper chromatography and paper electrophoresis , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
Field-Testing Pheromone Traps for Predicting Masked Chafer (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Grub Density in Golf Course Turf and Home Lawns

Sticky traps baited with crude female extract of the southern masked chafer, Cyclocephala lurida Bland, were tested at 28 sites on a golf course and on 27 individual home lawns to determine if the numbers of males captured in short-term trapping could be used to predict subsequent grub densities. Hexane rinses of female beetles were effective in luring males to traps. There was no correlation between male captures and local densities of grubs on the golf course, where movement of beetles between adjacent areas may have confounded our ability to discriminate among high- and low-density sites. In contrast, there was significant, albeit weak correlation (r2 = 0.25) between male captures and subsequent larval populations in home lawns, even though trapping was restricted to only two nights due to limited availability of crude female extract. Identification and synthesis of the C. lurida sex attractant would allow season-long trapping, which could provide a more accurate assessment of beetle populations and pr...
How Software Engineering Tools Organize Programmer Behavior During the Task of Data Encapsulation

Tool-assisted meaning-preserving program restructuring has been proposed to aid the evolution of large software systems. These systems are difficult to modify because relevant information is often widely distributed. We performed an exploratory study to determine how programmers used a restructuring tool interface called the ’’star diagram‘‘ to organize their behavior for the task of encapsulating a data structure. We videotaped six pairs of programmers while they encapsulated and enhanced a data structure in an existing program. Each team used one of three environments: standard UNIX tools, a restructuring tool with textual view of the source code, or a restructuring tool using the star diagram view. We systematically analyzed the videotape transcripts to derive a model of how the programmers performed encapsulation. Each team opportunistically exploited the features of the tools (e.g., cursors) and the program representation (e.g., ordering of lines in a file) to help them track the current state of the activity. Each method of exploiting structure tracks state in a way that decreases the likelihood of some types of oversights (e.g., missing a required change), but may not address others (e.g., making a change incorrectly), hence requiring a separate check. We also observed that programmers often preferred to design and restructure in an exploratory fashion. The major challenge of restructuring, then, appears to arise from the fact that it is costly or haphazard to maintain some completeness and consistency properties with the state-maintaining tactics that programmers employ with current tools. The inherent invisibility of some information makes completeness even more costly. These insights have led us to redesign our restructuring tools to better support exploratory design and counter invisibility.
Treatment of Nutritional Disturbances

The term nutrition has much broader implications than is generally appreciated. It implies not only the eating of foods, minerals, vitamins and the like, but also the food’s conversion into materials which the body can use. Finally, nutrition implies the way in which the body uses the material it digests to maintain growth, replacement, activity and good health. This includes, therefore, not only digestive processes in the intestine, but also metabolic processes all over the body, chemical and physical processes which are involved in maintaining the various physiologic activities of the organs and tissues of the body, and its constancy, or to use the presently more fashionable term, homeostasis. Nutritional diseases may be divided into dietary, electrolyte and metabolic disturbances.
Completion and Recidivism Rates of High-Risk Youth on Probation: Do Home Visits Make a Difference?:

Probation supervision with and without home visits is an underresearched area for adjudicated higher risk youth. This study compared 287 juvenile probationers receiving police/probation home visits...
Hybrid Monte Carlo with LAMMPS

We describe a strategy for performing canonical and isothermal-isobaric ensemble hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) simulations with the widely-used Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator ...
Can Stress Build Relationships? Predictors of Increased Marital Commitment Resulting from the 2007–2009 Recession

Although some studies have examined factors that can help married couples maintain their relationship quality during financial stress, few have examined factors that might actually help marriages flourish during financial stress. This study examined participants’ reports of their commitment increasing because of the 2007–2009 Recession using dyadic data from a national sample of married couples. We found that religious marital sanctification, relationship maintenance behaviors, and social and financial support from family and friends were all related to both wives’ and husbands’ reports that their commitment had increased during the Recession. Wives who faced employment- or housing-related problems reported increased commitment. Finally, the more economic pressure participants felt during the Recession, the more their relationship commitment increased.
Liquid Sulfur Mustard Exposure

A 35-year-old active duty service member sustained a 6.5% body surface area burn as a result of exposure to the chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard, which is the most severe mustard exposure of a U.S. military member since World War II that is known to us. New techniques were used to demonstrate the detectable persistence of mustard metabolites in the patient's blood for at least 41 days after exposure, validating these techniques for the first time for a human mustard patient; they were also used for the first time with human mustard blister fluid. The techniques extend eightfold the period of time that mustard exposure can be definitively diagnosed, compared with previous techniques. Although this patient's lesions were never life-threatening, he required 2 weeks of intensive burn care. He has been left with ongoing posttraumatic stress disorder and has had an incomplete dermatological recovery. In a major terrorist attack involving many patients exposed to sulfur mustard, care resources would be depleted quickly.
Health-Related Quality of Life and Patient-Reported Outcomes

The World Health Organization (WHO) in its constitution defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” [1]. Increasingly, health is no longer being measured exclusively by the clinical features of disease. Family, caregiver, and patient-reported health outcomes are gaining importance from the earliest phases of clinical research to the implementation of public health policies. Health outcomes are no longer limited to survival or mortality, but now include many aspects of well-being, such as morbidity, comfort, satisfaction, psychosocial function, social support, health status, clinical factors, and economic factors [2].
Gas Chromatographic Determination of Mono- and Diglycerides in Fats and Oils: Summary of Collaborative Study

A collaborative study was conducted on a capillary gas chromatographic method for the determination of mono- and diglycerides in fats and oils. Other components of fats and oils such as glycerol, fatty acids, and sterols may be analyzed by this method. Six materials used in the study consisted of 2 commercial mono- and diglyceride emulsifiers, 2 synthetic compositions with known amounts of mono- and diglycerides in the presence of an excess of triglycerides, and 2 refined sunflower oils spiked with mono- and diglycerides. Eight laboratories participated in the study. On the basis of the collaborative study results, the method has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL as an IU-PAC/AOCS/AOAC method.
Pelvic Lymph Nodes

A good basic understanding of the anatomy and nomenclature of the inguino-pelvic nodal groups is essential for accurate staging of male and female urogenital pelvic neoplasms. Lymph nodes are not only crucial for staging and management but are also important factors in prognosticating the disease.
Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Major Light-harvesting Pigment-protein (LHCIIb) of Higher Plants

A review of the present state of knowledge regarding the distribution, composition, structure, function and biogenesis of the chlorophyll a/chlorophyll b containing light-harvesting complex of photosystem two (LHC-II) is given.
Perpendicular Magnetoresistance in Ag/Co and Cu/Co Multilayers

In this paper we present measurements and analyse data on the magnetoresistance measured with the current perpendicular to the layer planes (CPP-MR) of magnetic multilayers of Ag and Co, and of Cu and Co. Because of the small resistances involved (~ 10-7Ω) the measurements are considerably more difficult than those for the more usual orientation with current in the layer planes, (CIP-MR). However as we have recently shown1-3, the interpretation is much simpler, and permits quantitative determination of relative magnitudes of interface and bulk spin dependent scatterings that are fundamental to current theories of MR4.
Post-cholecystectomy biliary pain and dyspepsia (response to 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors).

BACKGROUND The so called post-cholecystectomy syndrome is common, intractable, often progressive, causes prolonged suffering, and has no approved treatment. It usually presents with episodic biliary pains (colics), and postprandial dyspepsia (bloating and indigestion). Because treating a very recalcitrant case with lovastatin provided prolonged remission, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors were given to 12 subsequent patients with similar symptoms. OBJECTIVE To determine whether HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors are useful in the therapy of post-cholecystectomy biliary pain and dyspepsia. METHODS Open clinical trial in an internal medicine, private practice setting; data were collected from the patients' charts and from telephone interviews, five years after the index case had been treated. RESULTS Eight of 12 patients experienced total resolution of their symptoms after many years of suffering; response occurred slowly within the first three months of treatment. Two other patients responded, stopped their medications, relapsed, and continue to be symptomatic. One patient did not take her medication and remains symptomatic; one other patient did not respond, was diagnosed with carcinoma of the pancreas, and died from it. CONCLUSIONS These preliminary results suggest that HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors may be useful in relieving the symptoms of this common and intractable disorder. Controlled studies are needed.
An overview of statistical methods for the classification and retrieval of patient events.

An overview of statistical methods for the classification and retrieval of patient events. -
Maternal Diet and Morbidity Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight in Haiti: A Case-Control Study.

Abstract Objective: A matched, case–control study was conducted to examine the association between development of low birth weight (LBW) and maternal factors, including dietary intake, comorbiditie...
Antigens Associated with Non-HLA Cardiac Transplant Rejection

Despite advances in management of acute rejection episodes, rejection incidence remain largely unchanged in heart transplant patients. While Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is a common initiator of graft-specific immune responses, cases of non-HLA antibody mediated rejection (AMR) also commonly occur. Identification of non-HLA antigens is therefore critical to increasing understanding of heart transplant rejection. We hypothesize that cardiac non-HLA antigens contribute to AMR and novel proteomic techniques can be utilized to identify multiple antigens simultaneously. Serum from heart transplant patients was collected longitudinally at pre-operation (T1), acute rejection (T2), and post-rejection (T3) time points. Protein was extracted from biopsies of each patient’s donor heart. Human IgG antibodies were isolated with Protein G HP SpinTraps. Resultant human anti-human heart affinity columns were utilized to capture antigenic proteins from individual patient’s heart protein extracts. Proteins eluted from columns were subjected to LC-MS/MS analysis. Proteins were considered antigenic if they significantly increased relative to T1 samples using Gaussian linearized modeling. Non-HLA graft specific antibodies were found to increase at T2 and T3 in all patients. At T2, 82 antigens were identified with a population frequency of 33 to 83%. Over 50% of antigenic proteins were associated with action potential, contractile function, endothelial dysfunction, and other causes of cardiac allograph vasculopathy. The cardiac non-HLA antigens identified in this study further understanding of the immunological mechanisms of transplant rejection and have potential to be utilized as biomarkers for cardiac allograft dysfunction.
Evaluation and Management: Recurrent Peptic Ulcer Disease

Recurrent or refractory peptic ulcer disease has become increasingly rare as antacid therapy continues to increase and improve with time. Once regarded as a surgical disease, it has now become primarily managed medically and has etiologies ranging from viral, bacterial, comorbid conditions, medication side effects, and lifestyle choices. When traditional therapy fails and symptoms persist, repeat endoscopic evaluation in addition to identification of less common causes of recurrent or refractory peptic ulcer disease should be pursued. We have identified some of these less common and sometimes rarely studied etiologies to give the reader a full understanding of what the possibilities are worldwide. This chapter provides the reader with a framework to not only identify the often elusive etiologies but also treatment options to better assist with the management of this increasingly rare disease.
Exclusionary Discipline Consequences and Reading Performance of Grades 3 Through 8 Students in Special Education: A Statewide, Multiyear Analysis

In this investigation, the academic performance of students in special education who received between 1 to 30 days, between 31-60, and more than 60 days in a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placement and had STAAR Reading Level I: Unsatisfactory, STAAR Reading Level II: Satisfactory, STAAR Reading Level II: Phase-In Satisfactory, and STAAR Reading Level III: Advanced standard during the 2012-2013 through 2015-2016 school years were determined. In each of these four school years, the percentage of students in special education who received Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placement and had Unsatisfactory Standard performance on the STAAR Reading exam consistently increased for all grades except for Grade 4. The percentage of students who had Phase-In Satisfactory Standard performance on the STAAR Reading exam consistently decreased for all grades except for Grade 4. The percentages of students who had Satisfactory and Advanced Standard performance remained consistent across the four school years, never varying more than 7%. Recommendations for research and implications are discussed along with suggestions for policy and practice.
Supplemental vitamin D3 does not affect musculoskeletal or psychomotor performance in college aged males.

Abstract. The experiment examined the effects 4 weeks of vitamin D (Vit D) supplementation versus placebo on musculoskeletal and psychomotor performance. Thirty-two college age males (Age: 22 ± 4 y...
3-Dimensional optical scanning for body composition assessment: A 4-component model comparison of four commercially available scanners.

Summary Background & aims Body composition assessment via 3-dimensional optical (3DO) scanning has emerged as a rapid and simple evaluation method. The aim of this study was to establish the precision of body composition estimates from four commercially available 3DO scanners and evaluate their validity as compared to a reference 4-component (4C) model. Methods The body composition of 171 participants was assessed using four commercially-available 3DO scanners (FIT3D®, Naked Labs®, Size Stream®, and Styku®) and a 4C model utilizing data from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, air displacement plethysmography, and bioimpedance spectroscopy. Body composition estimates were compared via equivalence testing, Deming regression, Bland–Altman analysis, concordance correlation coefficients (CCC), root mean square error (RMSE), and related metrics. Precision metrics, including the root mean square coefficient of variation (RMS-%CV), precision error, and intraclass correlation coefficient, were generated for duplicate scans in 139 participants. Results All scanners produced reasonably reliable estimates, with RMS-%CV of 2.3–4.3% for body fat percentage (BF%), 2.5–4.3% for fat mass (FM), and 0.7–1.4% for fat-free mass (FFM). ICC values ranged from 0.975 to 0.996 for BF% and 0.990 to 0.999 for FM and FFM. All scanners except Styku® demonstrated equivalence with 4C, using 5% equivalence regions, and constant errors of Conclusions Commercially available 3DO scanners produce relatively reliable body composition estimates. Three out of four scanners demonstrated equivalence with a 4C model for assessments of BF%, FM, and FFM, although other metrics of validity varied among scanners, and proportional bias was present for all scanners.
In partnership with God

According to Rabbi Sherwin the divine sanction for healing is “a franchise defined by the perimeters of a covenant.” Echoing Ramsey’s theme of covenant fidelity, but informed more by Hebrew voices such as Abraham Heschel’s, Sherwin launches into an engaging discussion of the nature and characteristics of three covenants: between God and the physician, God and the patient, and the patient and the physician.
The CRK2-CYC13 complex functions as an S-phase cyclin-dependent kinase to promote DNA replication in Trypanosoma brucei

Faithful DNA replication is essential to maintain genomic stability in all living organisms, and the regulatory pathway for DNA replication initiation is conserved from yeast to humans. The evolutionarily ancient human parasite Trypanosoma brucei, however, lacks many of the conserved DNA replication factors and may employ unusual mechanisms for DNA replication. Neither the S-phase cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) nor the regulatory pathway governing DNA replication has been previously identified in T. brucei. Here we report that CRK2 (Cdc2-related kinase 2) complexes with CYC13 (Cyclin13) and functions as an S-phase CDK to promote DNA replication in T. brucei. We further show that CRK2 phosphorylates Mcm3, a subunit of the Mcm2–7 sub-complex of the Cdc45-Mcm2–7-GINS complex, and demonstrate that Mcm3 phosphorylation by CRK2 facilitates interaction with Sld5, a subunit of the GINS sub-complex of the Cdc45-Mcm2–7-GINS complex. These results identify the CRK2-CYC13 complex as an S-phase regulator in T. brucei and reveal its role in regulating DNA replication through promoting the assembly of the Cdc45-Mcm2–7-GINS complex.
Twelve tips for mindful teaching and learning in medical education

Mindfulness practice has been shown to have many positive benefits for patients, clinicians, and trainees. Mindfulness fosters compassion, connection, and enhanced clinical reasoning and can reduce...
Differentiating Primary Pancreatic Lymphoma Versus Primary Splenic Lymphoma: A Case Report.

Background: Both primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) and primary splenic lymphoma (PSL) represent rare entities. PPL typically arises in the head of the pancreas but may arise in other locations also...
Eccentric hypertrophy predicts adverse events in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome

Introduction The effect of the type of left ventricular hypertrophy in patients presenting with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) on long-term outcomes is ill-defined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic effect of concentric (CH) or eccentric hypertrophy (EH) on adverse outcomes in patients presenting with ACS undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Material and methods We analyzed 1-year follow-up data from a single-institution, retrospective, observational study that enrolled 1,153 patients who presented with ACS and were treated with PCI, for whom echocardiographic data were available. Results Normal geometry was observed in 718 (62.3%) patients, while 27.2% had CH and 10.5% had EH. The primary endpoint of all-cause death (n = 90, 7.8%) occurred in 6.4%, 8.0%, and 14.9% of patients with no, concentric, or eccentric hypertrophy, respectively (p = 0.005). Major adverse cardiac events (MACE - all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke or hospitalization for bleeding) occurred in 13.9%, 17.8%, 30.6%, respectively (p < 0.001). Age (HR per year = 1.04 (1.02, 1.05), p < 0.001), female gender (HR = 1.56 (1.12, 2.16), p = 0.008), diabetes (HR = 1.49 (1.07, 2.06), p = 0.02), eccentric hypertrophy (HR = 1.58 (1.006, 2.47), p = 0.047), peak troponin I (HR per 1 ng/ml = 1.004 (1.001, 1.006), p = 0.004) and left ventricular ejection fraction < 50% (HR = 1.57 (1.12, 2.20), p < 0.008) were significant predictors of MACE. Conclusions The presence of eccentric hypertrophy in ACS patients undergoing PCI is an independent predictor of adverse outcomes at 1 year.
Factors contributing to treatment delays among Medicaid-insured patients with gynecologic malignancies during COVID-19 in New York City

Objectives: When New York City (NYC) emerged as a COVID-19 epicenter, hospitals and clinicians were forced to quickly change practice models of health care delivery. We sought to determine the impact of COVID-19 on treatment delays that occurred during the peak of the pandemic among low-income gynecologic oncology patients in NYC. Methods: Medicaid-insured patients receiving gynecologic oncology care at two affiliated centers between March 15 and April 15, 2020 were identified for telephone interview. Eligible patients included those with precancerous or cancerous gynecologic diseases or hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndromes. Demographics, clinical characteristics, and reasons for treatment delays were identified through self-report and confirmed with chart review at the time of interview and at 6-month follow up. Outcomes were classified as delays in the following: surgery, adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy/radiation), and surveillance visits. Results: Of the 158 eligible patients identified, 100 completed the interview. A total of 47 patients experienced an average treatment delay of 85.3 days (range: 7-210): surveillance visit (n=33), surgery (n=10), chemotherapy (n=3), radiation (n=1). Within this group, the median age was 58 years (range: 19-86). Self-identified race included: African-American (23.5%), Hispanic (31.9%), non-Hispanic White (17%), Asian (9.1%), Other (8.5%). The majority of patients (80.9%) had an annual income Download : Download high-res image (223KB) Download : Download full-size image Conclusions: COVID-19 resulted in significant treatment delays among Medicaid-insured gynecologic oncology patients. As we continue to minimize clinical encounters, interventions aimed at providing timely oncology care during the COVID-19 pandemic is essential to prevent widening disparities in low-income populations.
Hyper extended rifted margins: A computational procedure for a stretching-thinning factor estimation

Abstract Crustal extension mechanisms control rifted margin formation. During these extensional processes, the crust stretches and thins following both non-uniform and non-symmetric patterns. The modeling of main features of these processes is a relevant issue, as well as its quantification by the calculation of the stretching-thinning factors along the margins. This work presents a computational procedure for reproducing the crustal extension process due to Andersonian faulting and estimating the evolution of its extension-thinning factors. This procedure uses an algorithm based on geological hypotheses, geodynamic analysis results and kinematic relationships. The algorithm applies pure-shear extension, where stretching and thinning are based on Andersonian faulting formation. It is supposed to be applied in two-layer (upper/lower) crust configurations in two ways: a) including a new active fault; b) reactivating a previously activated fault. Kinematic relationships consider area conservation for the upper crust. The first step is the application of a crustal extension increment. This increment activates the faulting by simple shear in the upper crust and induces plastic distributed pure-shear deformation in the lower crust. This double effect generates a local thinning of both upper and lower crusts. Slip-in-fault also occurs as part of the thinning deformation. Additionally, a geodynamic analysis was carried out with an in-house developed system, based on the Finite Element Method. Coupled with advanced constitutive models, this approach is useful to reproduce stress-strain-temperature evolution during the crustal extension. Geodynamic analysis guided the definition of some improved kinematic relationships for the proposed procedure: a variable thinning zone, nonlinear thinning configurations, a variable slip/extension ratio, a shoulder uplift and out-of-section fault pivot. The procedure was applied to reproduce part of a crustal stretch of a hyper extended margin due to Andersonian faulting, estimating its thinning and extension factors. The results show that this procedure is able to qualitatively reproduce crustal extensional configurations.
PalmTree: Learning an Assembly Language Model for Instruction Embedding

Deep learning has demonstrated its strengths in numerous binary analysis tasks, including function boundary detection, binary code search, function prototype inference, value set analysis, etc. When applying deep learning to binary analysis tasks, we need to decide what input should be fed into the neural network model. More specifically, we need to answer how to represent an instruction in a fixed-length vector. The idea of automatically learning instruction representations is intriguing, but the existing schemes fail to capture the unique characteristics of disassembly. These schemes ignore the complex intra-instruction structures and mainly rely on control flow in which the contextual information is noisy and can be influenced by compiler optimizations. In this paper, we propose to pre-train an assembly language model called PalmTree for generating general-purpose instruction embeddings by conducting self-supervised training on large-scale unlabeled binary corpora. PalmTree utilizes three pre-training tasks to capture various characteristics of assembly language. These training tasks overcome the problems in existing schemes, thus can help to generate high-quality representations. We conduct both intrinsic and extrinsic evaluations, and compare PalmTree with other instruction embedding schemes. PalmTree has the best performance for intrinsic metrics, and outperforms the other instruction embedding schemes for all downstream tasks.
Modal survey tests for high-frequency vibration analysis of the Space Shuttle Main Engine

Variations in the modal characteristics of different Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) are presented herein to study their structural dynamics vibrations, especially under fluid/structure interaction. The results of extensive modal survey tests and analysis relative to significant features in the modal characteristics of different powerheads and components are discussed.
Cyclopentenyl cytosine promotes endothelial protection by inducing smooth muscle re-differentiation in vascular remodeling

Vascular remodeling due to endothelium denudation followed by pathological smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation is a major medical challenge in cardiovascular intervention. Our previous studies h...
IT Governance and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed into law requiring all U.S. based, publicly traded companies to report on the status of their internal controls governing the reporting of financial information. Because of the close relationship between financial reporting and IT, the internal controls requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act has also greatly impacted IT governance. This paper is the result of a grounded theory research study that evaluated written submissions from the public, to the SEC, and the experiences and opinions about how the Act’s internal controls requirement has impacted publicly held companies. The grounded theory study resulted in seven propositions that theorize how the implementation of mandatory and auditable internal controls within the IT organization has affected IT governance. The propositions were derived from both considering the primary impact of implementing internal controls and the secondary response from the IT organization and management on how to reduce the perceived negative impact the new regulatory requirements have.
The proteins of the parainfluenza virus SV5: II. The carbohydrate content and glycoproteins of the virion

Abstract The carbohydrate composition and glycoproteins of the parainfluenza virus SV5 grown in primary rhesus monkey kidney cells and in the MDBK line of bovine kidney cells have been examined. Galactose, mannose, glucosamine, and fucose are linked to viral proteins. Glucose, galactosamine, and galactose are present in the virion as constituents of glycolipids. Neuraminic acid has not been found in SV5 virions, although it is present in other enveloped viruses which do not possess the enzyme neuraminidase as a viral component. Two glycoproteins have been identified in the SV5 virion; both are associated with the viral envelope. The other viral envelope proteins and the nucleocapsid protein have no detectable carbohydrate.
Detection and Analysis of Iterative Behavior in Parallel Applications

Many applications exhibit iterative and phase based behavior. We present an approach to detect and analyze iteration phases in applications by recording the control flow graph of the application and analyzing it for loops that represent iterations. Phases are then manually marked and performance profiles are captured in alignment with the iterations. By analyzing how profiles change between capture points, differences in execution behavior between iterations can be uncovered.
Trends and Contexts

This paper undertakes to determine whether social change in the six largest North Atlantic nations has followed common or separate lines of development since 1960. The finding that they exhibit far more shared than unshared trends is qualified by the principle of singularity which states that the sharing of trends by two or more national societies does not imply shared outcomes, because of differences in institutional context and other considerations. Both the convergence of trends and the divergence of outcomes are illustrated by numerous examples.
The QCD Vacuum

QCD is inherently a strong-field system in the infrared. Hence the physical vacuum itself without external charges is already non-perturbatively polarized; it has an energy density lower than that of the QED-type so-called perturbative vacuum by the amount of the “bag energy density.” It will be shown that the physical vacuum can be described by an analogue of the BCS-state of superconductivity. This vacuum exhibits color confinement.
Educational intervention by computer in childhood asthma: a randomized clinical trial testing the use of a new teaching intervention in childhood asthma.

To affect asthma-related knowledge, behavior, and morbidity, researchers tested a new educational intervention for children with asthma: an asthma-specific computer game called Asthma Command, which was specifically designed for this study. Sixty-five children with moderately severe asthma were randomly assigned to one of two groups, and 54 completed the study. Both groups were seen approximately six times during the 1 year of the study. Control subjects (n = 29) played routine computer games. Experimental subjects (n = 25) played Asthma Command. Compared with children in the control group, experimental subjects showed improvement in knowledge about asthma (P less than .001), behavior related to the management of asthma (P less than .008), and a trend toward the reduction of acute visits due to asthma (P less than .13). Children in the experimental group also scored higher on the assessment of behaviors related to the management of asthma that were specifically addressed by the intervention provided by Asthma Command (P less than .01). Differences between the control and experimental groups showed a greater improvement in the experimental group in 21 (84%) of the 25 outcome variables in the study (P = .004, Sign test). The study indicates that an asthma-specific computer game can significantly affect knowledge and behavior and may potentially affect morbidity in childhood asthma.
High-frequency piezoceramic equivalent circuit

Ferroelectric ceramics are strong candidates to provide thin-film resonant microstructures for future telecommunications applications. The frequency ranges of greatest commercial interest are the VHF and UHF bands. In these bands it is especially difficult to obtain adequate and reproducible characterizations of resonance behavior. We have developed a highly accurate equivalent network for these frequencies. Descriptions in circuit terms permit representation of the ceramic properties in a form directly accessible to the designer of the equipment in which the resonator will be embedded. In this communication we introduce the new network, and give typical parameters for a practical application.
Scalar implicatures in second language acquisition

This study investigates the second language acquisition This study investigates the second language acquisition (L2A) of scalar implicatures (Grice, 1989 and Horn, 1972), implicatures based on a range of quantifiers ordered in terms of informational strength: some … most … all. We compared acceptance rates on scalar implicatures with some compared to universally true and false sentences with all by Korean natives in Korean, English natives in English, and two groups of advanced and intermediate Korean learners of English. Experiment 1 presented scalar sentences without context. Pragmatically infelicitous but logically correct sentences with some were the crucial test items. Results indicate that L2 learners derive scalar implicatures significantly more often than the native English and Korean speakers. Experiment 2 used statements in the rich context of stories presented with pictures and text. The pragmatically felicitous responses of the learners increased to over 90%. It is concluded that scalar implicatures present no problem to L2 learners, and that linguistic pragmatic principles are universal. These results are interpreted in light of two influential accounts of scalar implicature calculation and situate them among recent L2A theories.
The C2 domains of synaptotagmin – partners in exocytosis

Rapid signaling between neurons relies on the Ca(2+)-triggered exocytosis of neurotransmitters. Release is mediated by 'kiss-and-run' or complete fusion of secretory organelles with the plasma membrane. Current models indicate that exocytosis is regulated by synaptotagmin I (syt) and mediated by SNARE (soluble NSF-attachment protein receptor) proteins. Syt senses Ca(2+) via two conserved motifs, C2A and C2B. C2B engages a wider array of effector molecules than C2A and appears to play a more crucial role in synaptic transmission. However, it has recently become clear that the tandem C2 domains of syt influence each another in unexpected ways. Here, we focus on recent structure-function studies that are beginning to provide insights into the mechanism through which the C2 domains of syt trigger exocytosis.
White‐Voter Response to Black Political Power: The Case of New Orleans, 1980–1994

This paper examines three current theories employed to explain white voting behavior—racial threat, symbolic racism, and racial tolerance. In so doing, it examines white crossover voting across a series of biracial municipal elections in New Orleans from 1980 through 1994. During this period the City of New Orleans underwent a pronounced change in its racial composition and in the shift from white to black political power. Within the context of this transition, the findings are most compatible with the racial tolerance explanation of white voting behavior. However, these findings suggest that white-voter support for black candidates is in fact a more complex process than suggested by any of these three theories.
Vulnerable Subjects and Civic Professionalism: Would Six-Sigma Research and Research Ethics Consultation Solve the Vulnerability Problem?

If we accept Levine et al.'s (2004) thoughtful analysis of vulnerability as a somewhat outworn distinction in human research protections—unserviceable because it is simultaneously too broad and too...
Hyperthermiainduced alterations in circulating ovine maternal progesterone(P4) and estradiol (E2) concentrations during early pregnancy. † 287

Hyperthermiainduced alterations in circulating ovine maternal progesterone(P4) and estradiol (E2) concentrations during early pregnancy. † 287
Marketable surplus and dual development

Abstract This paper investigates partial planning in a dual economy with a planned “advanced” industrial sector and a “backward” peasant-owned agricultural sector. The major problems in such an economy are shown to arise owing to political and institutional difficulties of manipulating peasant behavior. Peasants dictate the supply curves of labor and food to the industrial sector. The planner must accept these constraints and devise indirect policy tools for development. Those considered here are pricing policy for food and investment in agriculture. The government is assumed to have a total monopoly position in buying food from peasants and selling it to industrial workers. The interdependence between the two sectors via the labor and food supplies has a crucial bearing on the optimal price policy, and the paper derives a formula which defines the policy in terms of supply and demand elasticities for food. These latter may make it optimal to tax or to subsidize the trade in food using the monopoly position, so that good estimates of the empirical relations are necessary before this important policy tool can be put to practical use. Investment in agriculture emerges as another vital tool, in contrast to the models which neglect the institutional aspects of the dual economy. Even a target of rapid industrial growth is shown to lead to balanced growth in the long run; and, if capital is very scarce at the beginning in agriculture, an initial phase of specialization of investment to agriculture is shown to be necessary.
ab initio nuclear structure calculations of p-shell nuclei with JISP16

We review energies and magnetic moments of p-shell nuclei obtained with the ab initio No-Core Full Configuration (NCFC) approach using the JISP16 realistic nucleon–nucleon interaction. We present calculated ground state energies for all stable p-shell nuclei and selected unstable isotopes, as well as their magnetic moments. We also review excitation energies for narrow resonances of A = 6 to 9 nuclei. We compare our results with experimental data and with other ab initio calculations, where available. We illustrate how the decomposition of total angular momentum into intrinsic spin and orbital components provides insights into the structure of states and relationships among states. We illustrate the challenges of obtaining converged results for radii, quadrupole moments and B(E2) values.
Derivative free optimization using a population-based stochastic gradient estimator

In this paper we introduce a derivative-free optimization method that is derived from a population based stochastic gradient estimator. We first demonstrate some properties of this estimator and show how it is expected to always yield a descent direction. We analytically show that the difference between the expected function value and the optimum decreases exponentially for strongly convex functions and the expected distance between the current point and the optimum has an upper bound. Then we experimentally tune the parameters of our algorithm to get the best performance. Finally, we use the Black-Box-Optimization-Benchmarking test function suite to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. The experiments indicate that the method offer notable performance advantages especially, when applied to objective functions that are ill-conditioned and potentially multi-modal. This result, coupled with the low computational cost when compared to Quasi-Newton methods, makes it quite attractive.
Conversion of glucose to neurotransmitter amino acids in the brains of young and aging rats.

Abstract Aspartate, glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are thought to be neurotransmitters in certain areas of brain. These amino acids are rapidly synthesized from glucose in brain. The conversion of glucose carbon to these amino acids in cerebrum and in hindbrain of young (3-month-old) and old (22-month-old, “aged”) rats was studied. Radiolabeled glucose was injected into the rats, and the animals were killed 5 min later and their brains rapidly removed. The amounts of radioactivity present as glutamate and as aspartate, but not as GABA, were less in extracts of cerebrum in the aged rats than in the controls. In addition, the concentrations of glutamate were lower in cerebrum. Only minor changes either in the concentration or in the synthesis of these amino acids were apparent in hindbrains of the 22-month-old rats. Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate is a coenzyme in a number of the reactions whereby glutamate and aspartate are formed from intermediates of glucose metabolism, and the concentrations of pyridoxal 5′-phosphate were clearly reduced throughout the brains in the older rats. However, because the reduction in pyridoxal 5′-phosphate was greater in hindbrain than in cerebrum in the aged rats it seemed unlikely that this was the factor responsible for the reduction in the conversion of carbon from glucose to aspartate and glutamate, because this was much more pronounced in the cerebrum. Aspartate and glutamate are excitatory neurotransmitters, and if a similar slowing of their synthesis occurs in man to that observed in the present study in rats this might account for some of the distressing changes (loss of mental acuity, diminished reactivity, confusion) occasionally seen in elderly individuals.
Performance of low resistance microchannel plate stacks

Results are presented from an evaluation of three sets of low resistance microchannel plate (MCP) stacks; the tests encompassed gain, pulse-height distribution, background rate, event rate capacity as a function of illuminated area, and performance changes due to high temperature bakeout and high flux UV scrub. The MCPs are found to heat up, requiring from minutes to hours to reach stabilization. The event rate is strongly dependent on the size of the area being illuminated, with larger areas experiencing a gain drop onset at lower rates than smaller areas.
A study of the forward production of charm particle pairs in p-Fe and π−-Fe interactions

Abstract The hadronic production of charm particle pairs produced in the forward direction has been investigated in study of μ + μ − pairs with large missing energy (indicative of final-state neutrinos). These events result primarily from two semileptonic decays of charm-anticharm states. A comparison of the data with the prediction of the intrinsic charm diffractive model indicates that diffractive production cross sections are small (of the order of a few μ b) in both 350 GeV proton and 278 GeV pion interactions.