cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Seafloor Morphology and Coral Habitat Variability in a Volcanic Environment: Kaloko–Honokohau National Historical Park, Hawaii, USA

Publisher Summary Kaloko–Honokohau National Historical Park (KAHO) is one of three National Park lands along the leeward, west, or Kona, coast of the island of Hawaii, USA. The park includes 596 acres (2.4 km2) of submerged lands and marine resources within its official boundaries. The offshore region of KAHO, part of the insular shelf of the island of Hawaii, comprises a volcanic embayment that extends nearly 3.5 km alongshore and varies in width between 120 and 875 m from the shoreline to the 40 m isobath, the limit of the high-resolution bathymetry. Multiple Holocene volcanic flows coalesce within Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (KAHO) on the island of Hawaii to create a complex offshore morphology. The volcanic-dominated morphology includes flat to gently sloping volcanic benches, boulder fields, cliffs and ledges, pinnacles, ridges, arches, and steep shelf escarpments. Each of these environments provide distinct habitat zones for coral species, ranging from isolated heads of Porites lobata and Pocillopora meandrina to dense thickets of Porites compressa. In contrast to coral habitat elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands, where coral typically populates relict carbonate platforms, coral cover in KAHO is typically only a thin veneer of live coral and rubble on exposed volcanic pavement. In only a few locations does coral or accreted carbonate reef obscure the underlying volcanic surface.
Intermolecular Interactions of Isolated Bio-Oil Compounds and Their Effect on Bitumen Interfaces

Bio-oils derived from low-value or waste biomass have been shown to be useful as low-cost, sustainable additives to improve the adhesion or moisture resistance of bituminous asphalt binder. The chemical profile of bio-oil is complex, and identifying the most active compounds in the mixture and understanding how they work to modify bitumen properties is essential for synthesizing bio-based additives with desired characteristics and performance. Hexadecanamide and hexadecanoic acid, two surfactants prevalent in both animal- and plant-derived bio-oils, are notable candidates as active compounds responsible for altering the colloidal or interfacial properties of bitumen. In this study, pure forms of these surfactants were mixed into bitumen to examine their effects on binder composition and morphology. AFM and FTIR data show that the amide strongly separated from the mixture, much of it crystallizing at the exposed surface. The DFT-based studies indicate that self-assembly of amide molecules is energetically ...
Approximate invariant measures for the asymptotic distributions of differential equations with wide band noise inputs

Diffusion models are useful and of widespread use in many areas of control and communication theory. The models are frequently used as approximations to continuous or discrete parameter systems which are not quite diffusions but are, hopefully, close to a diffusion in some sense. For example, the input noise might be ‘wide-band’—but not ‘white-Gaussian’. Many approximation techniques have been developed and the typical results are of a weak convergence nature. The physical process xe (·) is parameterized by e, and one tries to show that {xe(·)} converges weakly to some diffusion x(·) as e → 0. The limit process x(·) is then used to study various properties of xe(·) for small e. Frequently, in applications, we are concerned with asymptotic properties, as t → ∞ (for small e), as well as with weak convergence. Such information is not normally provided by the weak convergence theory. We discuss the problem of approximating functionals on the ‘tail’ of xe (·) for small e, by such functionals on the ‘tail’ of x(·); e.g., approximating the measures of {xe(t), large t}, for small e, by an invariant measure of x(·). This is particularly useful in problems in communication theory, where the (say) detection system is often supposed to be in operation for a very long time.
Image-based model of the spectrin cytoskeleton for red blood cell simulation

We simulate deformable red blood cells in the microcirculation using the immersed boundary method with a cytoskeletal model that incorporates structural details revealed by tomographic images. The elasticity of red blood cells is known to be supplied by both their lipid bilayer membranes, which resist bending and local changes in area, and their cytoskeletons, which resist in-plane shear. The cytoskeleton consists of spectrin tetramers that are tethered to the lipid bilayer by ankyrin and by actin-based junctional complexes. We model the cytoskeleton as a random geometric graph, with nodes corresponding to junctional complexes and with edges corresponding to spectrin tetramers such that the edge lengths are given by the end-to-end distances between nodes. The statistical properties of this graph are based on distributions gathered from three-dimensional tomographic images of the cytoskeleton by a segmentation algorithm. We show that the elastic response of our model cytoskeleton, in which the spectrin polymers are treated as entropic springs, is in good agreement with the experimentally measured shear modulus. By simulating red blood cells in flow with the immersed boundary method, we compare this discrete cytoskeletal model to an existing continuum model and predict the extent to which dynamic spectrin network connectivity can protect against failure in the case of a red cell subjected to an applied strain. The methods presented here could form the basis of disease- and patient-specific computational studies of hereditary diseases affecting the red cell cytoskeleton.
Ten Principles for Creating Usable Software for Science

The volume and variety of scientific data being generated at experimental facilities requires the seamless interaction of the scientist&#x2019;s knowledge with the large-scale machines and software that is required to process the data. In the last few years, scientific software tools are being developed to address these increasingly complex workflow and data management needs. However, current approaches for designing systems and tools focus on the hardware and software of the machine and do not consider the user. Our experience shows us that user experience research needs to be tightly integrated with the software development life cycle for building sustainable software for science. It has become not just necessary, but critical, to consider the user interaction in the design of the entire system for data-intensive sciences that have complex human interaction with the data, software and systems. The dynamic nature of science projects and the complex roles of personnel in the projects makes it difficult to apply classical user research methodologies from industry. In this paper, we make three specific contributions towards improving the usability and sustainability of scientific software. First, we examine the software life cycle in science environments and identify the differences with commercial software development. Next, we outline ten principles we have developed to guide user engagement and software development and illustrate it with examples from our projects over the last several years. Finally, we provide guidelines to other eScience projects on applying the ten principles in the software development life cycle.
Determining the Quantitative Principles of T Cell Response to Antigenic Disparity: The Case of Stem Cell Transplant Donor-Recipient Exome Wide Mismatching and HLA Bound Alloreactive Peptides

Alloreactivity compromising clinical outcomes in stem cell transplantation is observed despite HLA matching of donors and recipients. This has its origin in the variation between the exomes of the two, which provides the basis for minor histocompatibility antigens (mHA). The mHA presented on the HLA class I and II molecules and the ensuing T cell response to these antigens results in graft versus host disease. In this paper, results of a whole exome sequencing study are presented, with resulting alloreactive polymorphic peptides and their HLA class I and HLA class II (DRB1) binding affinity quantified. Large libraries of potentially alloreactive recipient peptides binding both sets of molecules were identified, with HLA-DRB1 presenting an order of magnitude greater number of peptides. These results are used to develop a quantitative framework to understand the immunobiology of transplantation. A tensor-based approach is used to derive the equations needed to determine the alloreactive donor T cell response from the mHA-HLA binding affinity and protein expression data. This approach may be used in future studies to simulate the magnitude of expected donor T cell response and risk for alloreactive complications in HLA matched or mismatched hematopoietic cell and solid organ transplantation.
Integration of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with an Organic Rankine Cycle and Absorption Chiller for Dynamic Generation of Power and Cooling for a Residential Application

Author(s): Asghari, Maryam | Advisor(s): Brouwer, Jack | Abstract: The residential sector is responsible for 20% percent of total U.S. emissions. Emissions from the residential sectors can largely be traced to energy use in buildings. The demand for energy has been on a steady rise despite limited accessibility of non-renewable resources. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) comprise an alternative technology which has high fuel to electricity efficiency, and can be powered by renewably sourced fuels. In this study, the waste heat from the fuel cell is captured and processed either through an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) to provide extra power or absorption chiller (AC) to provide cooling for meeting the power and cooling demand of a residence or community. A spatially resolved dynamic model was developed in Matlab/Simulink to study dynamic characteristics of an SOFC system based on a previous model developed at the National Fuel Cell Research Center. A dynamic model was developed for the ORC and AC in Matlab/Simulink to study the dynamic characteristics of the combined system. This model was then used to evaluate the performance of the system in terms of efficiency, capacity, and dispatchability, based upon measured load profiles of residential buildings. Dynamic data from a residential complex were used as an input to evaluate the dynamic system model. The SOFC was capable of following the highly dynamic load with an average electrical efficiency of 46%. Seven present more power was produced through the ORC cycle with 10 % efficiency. The AC generated an average 125 kW of cooling with an average COP of 1.08.
Remaining longevity and evidence of failure of cardiac implantable electrophysiology devices recovered from funeral homes.

Background Given the prohibitive cost of pacemakers and defibrillators for medically underserved patients in low-income countries, these devices are sometimes recovered from funeral homes for charitable reimplantation. Many devices are implanted near the end of the patients' lives, meaning that recovered devices from funeral homes have the potential for significant remaining longevity. Methods After sending letters asking funeral directors in the Philadelphia area to donate explanted pacemakers and defibrillators, 78 devices were recovered. Sixty-seven of these devices were successfully interrogated, and 64 devices reported estimates of remaining battery life in years. Twenty-one defibrillators were also interrogated for evidence of failure. Results Twenty-two percent of the 64 devices had greater than 4 years of longevity. Fourteen percent of the devices had between 1 and 4 years of longevity, and the remaining 64% had less than 1 year of remaining battery life. We found no evidence from 21 recovered defibrillators that the patient's cause of death was because of defibrillator failure. In almost half (10/21) of the defibrillators, however, the arrhythmia logs were nondecipherable given the entire log was replaced by episodes of signal noise likely occurring after death. Conclusions A significant percentage of devices explanted in funeral homes have suitable remaining battery life for reuse. While no evidence of defibrillator device failure could be found, the analysis was limited by postmortem signal artifact, which may preclude accurate assessment of rates of failure in devices explanted postmortem.
Mechanism of Antibacterial Activity of Choline-Based Ionic Liquids (CAGE)

The continued emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms has severely depleted our arsenal of effective antimicrobials. Ionic liquids (ILs) show great promise as antibacterial agents but understanding the mechanism of attack on bacterial cells is key to ensuring that design of IL-based biocides impart maximum efficacy with minimal toxicity, while also avoiding the potential for the target organisms to become resistant. Here we report the antibacterial attributes of a set of choline and geranate (CAGE)-based ILs and identify the mechanism by which they interact with the Gram-negative cell wall of Escherichia coli. CAGE is envisaged as an antimicrobial agent to treat topical infections in skin. Our earlier work has shown that CAGE is highly effective across a breadth of bacterial, fungal, and viral species and is benign to human cells. This combination makes CAGE an ideal antimicrobial for human use. Four CAGE variants with varying ratios of choline and geranic acid were synthesized and tested for their an...
Consumer preferences for cage-free eggs and impacts of retailer pledges

Most large US food retailers and restaurants have made pledges to sell only cage‐free eggs. If the pledges are upheld, about 75% of the egg laying flock will have to be converted to cage‐free by the year 2025. However, it is an open question as to whether the market will support such a change. To address this issue, a national survey of over 2,000 US egg consumers was conducted to estimate cage‐free egg demand among consumers exposed to different types of information. We find a high degree of heterogeneity in willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for cage‐free eggs. Half of the consumers are WTP no more than a $0.30/dozen premium for cage‐free eggs; however, the mean premium is $1.16/dozen, suggesting a small fraction of consumers are willing to pay sizeable amounts for the cage‐free label. Ultimately, the results suggest there is potential for the market‐share for cage‐free eggs to rise above the current state even at premiums as high as $1.00/dozen. However, even at much more modest price premiums, the potential for cage‐free eggs to attain majority market share is unlikely, particularly if conventional eggs advertise other desirable attributes. We also find that retailers who completely remove more affordable, conventional eggs are likely to experience a significant increase in the share of consumers who choose not to buy eggs.
Development of a machine learning algorithm predicting discharge placement after surgery for spondylolisthesis

We aimed to develop a machine learning algorithm that can accurately predict discharge placement in patients undergoing elective surgery for degenerative spondylolisthesis. The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was used to select patients that underwent surgical treatment for degenerative spondylolisthesis between 2009 and 2016. Our primary outcome measure was non-home discharge which was defined as any discharge not to home for which we grouped together all non-home discharge destinations including rehabilitation facility, skilled nursing facility, and unskilled nursing facility. We used Akaike information criterion to select the most appropriate model based on the outcomes of the stepwise backward logistic regression. Four machine learning algorithms were developed to predict discharge placement and were assessed by discrimination, calibration, and overall performance. Nine thousand three hundred and thirty-eight patients were included. Median age was 63 (interquartile range [IQR] 54–71), and 63% (n = 5,887) were female. The non-home discharge rate was 18.6%. Our models included age, sex, diabetes, elective surgery, BMI, procedure, number of levels, ASA class, preoperative white blood cell count, and preoperative creatinine. The Bayes point machine was considered the best model based on discrimination (AUC = 0.753), calibration (slope = 1.111; intercept = − 0.002), and overall model performance (Brier score = 0.132). This study has shown that it is possible to create a predictive machine learning algorithm with both good accuracy and calibration to predict discharge placement. Using our methodology, this type of model can be developed for many other conditions and (elective) treatments. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.
The Wound that Bleeds: Violence and Feminization in the Lais of Marie de France

At climactic moments in Marie de France’s Yonec and Guigemar, the two knight-protagonists are both violently impaled or wounded. These wounds, and the Old French terms “plaie”, “navrer”, and “ferir” used to describe them, force the reader to reimagine the knight’s body and revise the chivalric requirements of medieval masculinity. Given their common vocabulary, Yonec and Guigemar can be read in tandem as a thematic and linguistic pair, and this vocabulary allows the tales to reimagine the knight’s body with female genitalia. Marie’s knights represented with vaginas challenge the wound’s symbolic association with the performative violence of the chivalric tradition and suggest the transformative power of love to queer men’s bodies in the lais.
Liquid Biopsy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Solid tumors release a variety of cellular components into the bloodstream that can be sampled by liquid biopsy. These blood-borne biomarkers include circulating tumor cells, exosomes, cell-free DNA, and cell-free noncoding RNA. As hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) grows in worldwide prevalence and mortality, the application of emerging liquid biopsy technologies to HCC has been a rapidly advancing area of research. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of these biomarkers holds promise for improving the clinical care of individuals with HCC. In particular, research has focused on the role of liquid biopsy in the detection of HCC at an early and curable stage, given the major clinical need for biomarkers for this purpose. Panels of liquid biopsy biomarkers or combinations of conventional and novel assays will likely optimize sensitivity and specificity in HCC surveillance for at-risk populations. Additional applications of liquid biopsy in HCC include assessment of prognosis, monitoring treatment response and disease recurrence, and assaying underlying tumor biology. The future of liquid biopsy research will move the field from exploratory studies with heterogenous techniques to validated high-throughput molecular analyses and eventually from bench to bedside.
EMI Architectural Model and Core Hopping

Processors radiate electromagnetic interference (EMI), which affects wireless communication technologies. However, despite the fact that the EMI generated by a processor is deterministic, architecturally modeling the EMI has proven to be a complex challenge. Moreover, EMI depends on the physical layout of the processor and on the binary being executed (both the application and its compilation options). This paper proposes Model for EMI on a SoC (MESC), the first architectural framework for modeling electromagnetic emissions from a core. MESC takes into account the layout and the switching activity of a process to model the expected EMI. We validate MESC on a real system to verify its accuracy. We then use MESC to demonstrate that two different core layouts can be leveraged to reduce EMI and propose EMI Core Hopper (EMI CHopper). EMI CHopper uses a multi-core system -- where each core has the same RTL but minimally different layouts -- and proposes hopping the application between cores to reduce in-band EMI when it interferes with wireless communication. Our evaluation shows that MESC is able to predict EMI within 95% accuracy across time and across the frequency spectrum, even when using statistical sampling to obtain activity rates. Leveraging MESC, our proposed EMI CHopper reduces in-band EMI by up to 50%, with low impact on performance. MESC will enable a new stream of micro-architectural research the same way architectural level power models have enabled exploration of performance and power simulation.
Neuro-otologic Emergencies: A Practical Approach

Neuro-otologic symptoms have an extensive differential diagnosis, including both benign and serious conditions across multiple organ systems. Distinguishing between common self-limiting conditions from serious conditions that require emergency treatment is paramount. This chapter focuses on differentiating benign peripheral vestibulopathies from dangerous cerebrovascular problems and sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Currently, misdiagnoses are frequent and diagnostic testing costs are high. We recommend an approach to the dizzy patient that emphasizes the value of history and a focused physical examination. It divides patients into three “timing and triggers” categories, each with its unique differential diagnosis and targeted diagnostic protocol: (1) acute vestibular syndrome, where “HINTS” eye movement tests, examination of cerebellar and brainstem functions, and gait assessments are used to differentiate vestibular neuritis from stroke; (2) spontaneous episodic vestibular syndrome, where associated symptoms may help differentiate vestibular migraine from transient ischemic attack; and (3) triggered episodic vestibular syndrome, where the Dix-Hallpike and supine roll positional tests help differentiate benign paroxysmal positional vertigo from posterior fossa structural lesions. In addition, a practical approach to patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss will be presented.
Alzheimer's disease pathology in APOE transgenic mouse models: The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Abstract The focus on amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles has yielded no Alzheimer’s disease (AD) modifying treatments in the past several decades, despite successful studies in preclinical mouse models. This inconsistency has caused a renewed focus on improving the fidelity and reliability of AD mouse models, with disparate views on how this improvement can be accomplished. However, the interactive effects of the universal biological variables of AD, which include age, APOE genotype, and sex, are often overlooked. Age is the greatest risk factor for AD, while the e4 allele of the human APOE gene, encoding apolipoprotein E, is the greatest genetic risk factor. Sex is the final universal biological variable of AD, as females develop AD at almost twice the rate of males and, importantly, female sex exacerbates the effects of APOE4 on AD risk and rate of cognitive decline. Therefore, this review evaluates the importance of context for understanding the role of APOE in preclinical mouse models. Specifically, we detail how human AD pathology is mirrored in current transgenic mouse models (“What”) and describe the critical need for introducing human APOE into these mouse models (“Who”). We next outline different methods for introducing human APOE into mice (“How”) and highlight efforts to develop temporally defined and location-specific human apoE expression models (“When” and “Where”). We conclude with the importance of choosing the human APOE mouse model relevant to the question being addressed, using the selection of transgenic models for testing apoE-targeted therapeutics as an example (“Why”).
The Evidence and Tradeoffs for a 'Stay-at-Home' Pandemic Response: A Multidisciplinary Review Examining the Medical, Psychological, Economic and Political Impact of 'Stay-at-Home' Implementation in America

As of mid-April, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected over 2 million people and resulted in nearly 150,000 deaths worldwide. This pandemic is principally a global health emergency, but the disease burden unavoidably impacts social dynamics and economic stability. While many countries have acted with swift and unified responses aimed at curbing exponential spread of the virus, pandemic interventions in the United States have been decentralized, particularly in the implementation of stay-at-home orders. To date, 8 states have not enacted statewide shelter-in-place measures and the country lacks a cohesive plan for lifting established stay-at-home orders. A thorough accounting of the evidence surrounding the impacts of stay-at-home measures can help guide both policy decisions and individuals’ actions. In this essay, we provide a multidisciplinary review of the effects and implementation of stay-at-home orders. We examine the epidemiological, health, economic, political, and legal issues relevant to assessing the costs and benefits of stay-at-home orders. We conclude that the evidence is in favor of implementing stay-at-home orders and maintaining them for the near future. The burden of these measures is less onerous than the health, economic, and political consequences associated with an acute spike in infections that would result from prematurely lifting aggressive public health interventions. To our knowledge, we present the most in-depth review of the evidence necessary to rigorously evaluate the full breadth of societal consequences associated with stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Case Report: Point-of-care Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Post-Myocardial Infarction Ventricular Septal Rupture.

Author(s): Portuguese, Andrew J.; Abdulla, Khaled H.; Vornovitsky, Michael; DeAngelis, John | Abstract: Introduction: Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) is a rare complication of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), typically discovered post-revascularization.Case report: We present the first case of VSR detected on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the emergency department immediately prior to emergent angiography, with management positively affected by this discovery. The VSR was quickly confirmed via right heart catheterization. Subsequently, hemodynamic stability was achieved using an intra-aortic balloon pump. A delayed surgical VSR repair, with concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting, was implemented for definitive management.Conclusion: This case highlights the utility of POCUS in a STEMI patient with a suspected mechanical complication.
52 Advanced T lymphocyte analysis system (ATLAS) for in-depth immunological interrogation in real-world conditions, a methodological strategy

Background Humans are genetically diverse and possess a rich immunological history. It is logical to consider that these factors may lead to differences in individual immunological responses to therapy when diagnosed with cancer. The successful implementation of immune-based therapies against cancer has brought the need to develop strategies to create meaningful profiles that faithfully depict the patient‘s immunological status. We report an in-depth immunological interrogation methodology, termed ATLAS. This system was designed to generate an accurate representation of the patient‘s immunological landscape that can be used during various time points during immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Methods We selected data from our prospective registry trial at Loyola University Medical Center to design individual immunological profiles of patients diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors planning to receive ICI. Only metastatic melanoma patients samples pre-ICI therapy are included in this first analysis. Twenty mL of peripheral blood were collected. Giving consideration to scientific rigor and limited sample availability, the assays were designed in miniaturized forms. ATLAS includes classical peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) composition and T cell phenotypic and transcriptional analysis. To depict T cell functionality, we examined multiple parameters such as T cell receptor (TCR) signaling threshold, cell proliferation and NF-kB activation, at steady-state and in response to cell activation. To obtain both a broad and T cell-specific view, we quantified circulating chemokines and cytokines in plasma and from activated T cells. Results For this first methodologic demonstration, patient characteristics are depicted in table 1. Data from different ATLAS assays were used to create individual immunological profiles presented as a dashboard for each patient. Distributional plots and measures of center (mean, median) and spread (range, variance) were used to eliminate low-information parameters from the figures. Data visualizations compared individual patients to the sample median for continuous parameters and compared patients‘ percentages to sample average relative abundance. Two patients, P011 shown in figure 1 and P021 shown in figure 2, are depicted using this approach. Conclusions ATLAS can be used in real-world conditions to generate comprehensive immunological profiles of cancer patients. Individual profiles indicate that immunological constitution is heterogeneous among patients, even with the same tumor type. We propose that the addition of ATLAS to our clinical and immunological toolbox may help stratify patients to articulate truly personalized oncologic therapies. Ethics Approval The study was approved by Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago Ethics Board and Institutional Review Board, approval number 209364.
High hydrogen coverage on graphene via low temperature plasma with applied magnetic field

Abstract The chemical functionalization of two-dimensional materials is an effective method for tailoring their chemical and electronic properties with encouraging applications in energy, catalysis, and electronics. One exemplary 2D material with remarkable properties, graphene, can be exploited for hydrogen storage and large on/off ratio devices by hydrogen termination. In this work, we describe a promising plasma-based method to provide high hydrogen coverage on graphene. A low pressure (∼10 mtorr) discharge generates a fine-tunable low-temperature hydrogen-rich plasma in the applied radial electric and axial magnetic fields. Post-run characterization of these samples using Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates a higher hydrogen coverage, 35.8%, than the previously reported results using plasmas. Plasma measurements indicate that with the applied magnetic field, the density of hydrogen atoms can be more than 10 times larger than the density without the magnetic field. With the applied electric field directed away from the graphene substrate, the flux of plasma ions towards this substrate and the ion energy are insufficient to cause measurable damage to the treated 2D material. The low damage allows a relatively long treatment time of the graphene samples that contributes to the high coverage obtained in these experiments.
Cost and Ecological Feasibility of Using UHPC in Bridge Piers

There is a growing interest in expanding the use of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) from highway bridge deck joints for accelerated bridge construction to architectural facades cast in unique and slender profiles. The high costs associated with the proprietary UHPC mixes, besides the environmental concerns resulting from its high cement content and massive energy consumption during its production, might limit the widespread use of UHPC in the built environment. On the other hand, the higher strength and durability of UHPC should result in more compact cross-sections, safer structures, and a longer service life compared to conventional concrete. This study investigates several UHPC mix designs to design a multi-column bridge pier and analyze its cost and ecological feasibility. The objective is to identify what would be the optimal UHPC mix from an economic and eco-friendly perspective. Ultimately, the study lays the foundation for future work to find the break-even costs of UHPC at which it would become economically and environmentally feasible to design substantial bridge substructures entirely with UHPC in lieu of regular concrete.
57 Year Old Male with Multiple Widespread Excoriations

An 57-year-old male presented with a rash on his left proximal upper arm and upper chest. Around seven discrete lesions are found on the upper left back and about four are found on the right upper back which worsen at night. Also lesions were found on the proximal thigh. The patient also exhibited pruritus His medical history consisted of a fracture of the radial bone, diverticulitis, depression, hypertension, viral hepatitis, dementia, dysphagia, anemia, encephalopathy, subdural hemorrhage, muscle weakness, chronic respiratory failure, and seborrheic dermatitis on the scalp. There was a previous treatment for scabies with elimite and stromectol.
Identification of Electric Blasting Caps by Manufacturer

With the ever increasing number of bombings occurring in the United States each year, it is imperative for bomb scene technicians to be acquainted with the classification by manufacturer of electric blasting caps and blasting cap components discovered at the scene of a bombing.
Numerical Simulation of the Motion of Small Bodies of the Solar System by the Symbolic Computation System “Mathematica”

The problem of the investigation of close encounters of a small body with a large planet using long computer words (Wolfram, 1991) have been considered on the example of asteroid 1991 VG which has a lot of close encounters with the Earth, one of them was 0.0031 a.u. in December, 21, 1991. Together with the classical equations of motion (x t ) we have used the regularized equations (x s ) (Bordovitsyna et al., 1998).
Nonbiological detoxication of the s-triazine herbicides.

Until recently, microbial decomposition was considered the main pathway for detoxication of the s-triazine herbicides in soils. Organisms have been isolated which can detoxify these herbicides (Kaufman et al. 1965). Factors such as temperature and soil organic matter which influence soil microbial activity have been shown to correlate with the rate of s-triazine loss from the soil (Burnside et al. 1961, Talbert and Fletchall 1964). More recent studies, however, indicate that microbial decomposition may play a less significant role in the detoxication process and various nonbiological pathways may be more important than previously thought.
Studies on the structure of rabbit muscle aldolase. 3. Primary structure of the BrCN peptide containing the active site.

Abstract The four peptide segments obtained from rabbit muscle aldolase by cleavage with BrCN and separation with gel-filtration chromatography (1) have been redesignated according to their positions in the molecule, N-A-B-C. The primary structure of segment A, containing 66 amino acid residues, including the Schiff base-forming lysine at the active site, has been elucidated by isolation and sequence analyses of the proteolytic subfragments. Preliminary separation of tryptic peptides containing 7–25 residues was achieved by chromatography on Sephadex G-25 which facilitated subsequent purification. For the study of the tryptic peptide of 25 residues further fragmentation with pepsin then subtilisin (Nagarse) was employed. Edman degradation directly after subtilisin cleavage of a peptide was found useful in avoiding deamidation of a glutamine NH 2 -terminus newly formed in the proteolysis. The sequence of 90 amino acids in the center region of the polypeptide chain of rabbit muscle aldolase has now been established.
Convolutional, Long Short-Term Memory, fully connected Deep Neural Networks

Both Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) have shown improvements over Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) across a wide variety of speech recognition tasks. CNNs, LSTMs and DNNs are complementary in their modeling capabilities, as CNNs are good at reducing frequency variations, LSTMs are good at temporal modeling, and DNNs are appropriate for mapping features to a more separable space. In this paper, we take advantage of the complementarity of CNNs, LSTMs and DNNs by combining them into one unified architecture. We explore the proposed architecture, which we call CLDNN, on a variety of large vocabulary tasks, varying from 200 to 2,000 hours. We find that the CLDNN provides a 4–6% relative improvement in WER over an LSTM, the strongest of the three individual models.
The Tioga-2 Database Visualization Environment

This paper reports on user experience with Tioga, a DBMS-centric visualization tool developed at Berkeley. Based on this experience, we have designed Tioga-2 as a direct manipulation system that is more powerful and much easier to program. We present a detailed design of the revised system together with an extensive example of its application. We also give a progress report on a Tioga-2 implementation.
The time course of changes in mRNA levels in tree shrew sclera during induced myopia and recovery.

Current evidence indicates that a visually guided emmetropization mechanism fine tunes the growth of the juvenile eye to match the eye’s axial length to its optical power.1,2 The eyes of avians3–6 and mammals7–11 can be induced to increase their axial elongation rate (producing myopia) by placement of a diffuser (monocular form deprivation [MD]) or a minus power lens in front of the eye. Removing the treatment causes slowed axial elongation rate (producing refractive recovery). These manipulations of the visual environment induce tissue remodeling in the sclera.12–18 In tree shrews, which, similar to other eutherian mammals, have an all-fibrous sclera,19 the tissue remodeling does not appear to modulate growth per se, but rather, alters the extensibility of the sclera (measured as change in creep rate).20,21 In a previous study,20 it was found that changes in scleral creep rate developed rapidly after the onset of MD and were closely associated with changes in axial elongation rate, suggesting that modulation of scleral extensibility may control axial elongation. Precisely controlled scleral tissue remodeling may be responsible for the changes in scleral extensibility and, hence, the changes in the axial elongation rate. Tissue remodeling is a complex process that involves both synthesis and degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM). A number of proteins are involved, including structural components such as collagen and proteoglycans22; enzymes, such as the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), that are known to degrade ECM proteins23; and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) that bind to and inhibit the activity of the MMPs. In tree shrews, scleral remodeling in eyes with induced myopia is characterized by decreased levels of type I collagen,18 decreased levels of sulfated and unsulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs),14,17,24,25 and increased levels of gelatinase-A (MMP-2).26 In a previous study in tree shrews,27 we found that mRNA levels for MMP-2, collagen α1(I), and TIMP-1 were altered by 11 days of form deprivation and 4 days of recovery. This finding suggests that modulation of scleral gene expression may control scleral tissue remodeling and scleral extensibility. If a change in gene expression triggers the scleral tissue remodeling that changes scleral creep rate, then mRNA changes should be temporally associated with changes in creep rate. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis by examining the time course for changes in mRNA levels during MD and recovery and comparing it with the time course of changes in creep rate from a previous study.20
Identification of genes escaping X inactivation by allelic expression analysis in a novel hybrid mouse model

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is a female-specific mechanism that serves to balance gene dosage between the sexes whereby one X chromosome in females is inactivated during early development. Despite this silencing, a small portion of genes escape inactivation and remain expressed from the inactive X (Xi). Little is known about the distribution of escape from XCI in different tissues in vivo and about the mechanisms that control tissue-specific differences. Using a new binomial model in conjunction with a mouse model with identifiable alleles and skewed X inactivation we are able to survey genes that escape XCI in vivo. We show that escape from X inactivation can be a common feature of some genes, whereas others escape in a tissue specific manner. Furthermore, we characterize the chromatin environment of escape genes and show that expression from the Xi correlates with factors associated with open chromatin and that CTCF co-localizes with escape genes. Here, we provide a detailed description of the experimental design and data analysis pipeline we used to assay allele-specific expression and epigenetic characteristics of genes escaping X inactivation. The data is publicly available through the GEO database under ascension numbers GSM1014171, GSE44255, and GSE59779. Interpretation and discussion of these data are included in a previously published study (Berletch et al., 2015) [1].
Workshop on Real-Projects for Real-Clients Courses (RPRCCs)

The purpose of this workshop is to begin the development of an evolving archive of materials to help faculty desiring to run Real-Projects for Real-Clients courses (RPRCCs) to design such courses and to tailor them to their specific objectives and available resources. A major part of this archive will consist of materials already used in such courses, together with an explanation of which RPRCC-related issues each of the materials addresses as well as the various alternative approaches to addressing each issue.
Preparing for an accreditation visit using ABET Engineering Criteria 2000

Engineering Criteria 2000 contains two kinds of items: (1) requirements which must be satisfied, as well as (2) other evidence mentioned that may be used but is not required. Since the new criteria include a number of items of both kinds not considered directly in the present Topics Criteria a longer lead time is needed for the initial preparation. These items are grouped in this paper and a common-sense time schedule suggested for implementation in preparing for an accreditation visit under Engineering Criteria 2000 for programs in electrical engineering and computer engineering at the University of Kansas in the Fall of 2000. A particular emphasis is placed on the program outcomes and assessment criterion. Comparisons with the Topics Criteria are presented and recommendations made on avoiding some common problems. Selected information from a working symposium in April 1997 at Rose-Hulman on best assessment practices in engineering education is also included.
Analogy events: How examples are used during problem solving

In attempting to fit a model of analogical problem solving to protocol data of students solving physics problems, several unexpected observations were made. Analogies between examples and exercises (a form of case-based reasoning) consisted of two distinct types of events. During an initialization event, the solver retrieved an example, set up a mapping between it and the problem, and decided whether the example was useful. During a transfer event, the solver inferred something about the problem's solution. Many different types of initialization and transfer events were observed. Poor solvers tended to follow the example verbatim, copying each solution line over to the problem. Good solvers tried to solve the problem themselves, but referred to the example when they got stuck, or wanted to check a step, or wanted to avoid a detailed calculation. Rather than learn from analogies, both Good and Poor solvers tended to repeat analogies at subsequent similar situations. A revised version of the model is proposed (but not yet implemented) that appears to be consistent with all the findings observed in this and other studies of the same subjects.
Reunification and reentry of foster children

Abstract This article reports the results of a case study of foster children in one county in Ohio. It examines questions pertaining to the child, family, and placement use characteristics associated with the timing of children's reunification and, for those who are reunified, reentry into foster care. The sample includes 2,616 children first entering care in 1992 and in 1993. The study design is longitudinal. Study data are drawn from the county's public child welfare agency's management information system. Event history analyses of these data revealed characteristics associated with a slower rate of reunification and a faster rate of reentry. Strengths and limitations of study findings are discussed. Implications for future research are drawn.
Laparoscopic surgery in children with ventriculoperitoneal shunts.

Abstract Background/Purpose: Children with ventriculoperitoneal shunts may require laparoscopic surgery. The authors aimed to determine if this group of children are at greater risk for complications or technical problems. Methods: Children with ventriculoperitoneal shunts who underwent laparoscopic surgery between 1995 and 1998 were reviewed. In addition, the subset of children undergoing laparoscopic fundoplication were compared with the group of children without shunts who had the same operation during the same period. Results: Ten children with ventriculoperitoneal shunts underwent laparoscopic surgery. Three had complications, none of which were caused by the shunt. None had any evidence of shunt dysfunction related to the laparoscopic procedure. The 6 children with shunts who underwent laparoscopic fundoplication were compared with 17 similar children without shunts who underwent the same operation during the same period. There were no differences between the groups with respect to operating time, conversion to an open approach, or complications. Conclusion: Laparoscopic surgery can be performed safely and effectively in children with ventriculoperitoneal shunts. J Pediatr Surg 35:1104-1105. Copyright © 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.
Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of a single subneurotoxic oral dose of tri-o-cresyl phosphate in hens.

Hens were given a single oral dose of 50 mg (4.6 μCi)/kg [14C] tri-o-cresyl phosphate (TOCP). Four groups of three hens each were killed after 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 days. The half-life of14C in plasma was 2 days. TOCP and its metabolites in the plasma, liver, kidneys, and lungs were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid scintillation counting. TOCP reached its highest concentration in plasma between 0.5 and 1 day after administration. Under these experimental conditions, the disappearance of TOCP from the plasma followed monoexponential kinetics with a half-life of 2.2 days. Appreciable concentrations of saligenin cyclic-o-tolyl phosphate, the active neurotoxic metabolite, were detected in the plasma as well as in the liver, kidneys, and lungs at all time points and had half-lives of 2.06, 1.36, 1.11 and 4.44 days, respectively. The presence of this active metabolite of TOCP might contribute to the sensitivity of the hen to TOCP-induced delayed neurotoxicity. Other hydrolytic and oxidative products of TOCP were also identified in tissues.