cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Restoration of the Hypersonic Tunnel Facility at NASA Glenn Research Center, Plum Brook Station

The NASA Glenn Research Center's Hypersonic Tunnel Facility (HTF), located at the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, is a non-vitiated, free-jet facility, capable of testing large-scale propulsion systems at Mach Numbers from 5 to 7. As a result of a component failure in September of 1996, a restoration project was initiated in mid- 1997 to repair the damage to the facility. Following the 2-1/2 year effort, the HTF has been returned to an operational condition. Significant repairs and operational improvements have been implemented in order to ensure facility reliability and personnel safety. As of January 2000, this unique, state-of-the-art facility was ready for integrated systems testing.
The Cox-maze IV procedure for lone atrial fibrillation: a single center experience in 100 consecutive patients

Purpose The Cox-maze III procedure (CMP) has achieved high success rates for the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). In 2002, our group introduced a simplified CMP, in which most incisions were replaced with linear lines of ablation using bipolar radiofrequency and cryoenergy. This operation, termed the CMP-IV, has significantly shortened operative times and allowed for a minimally invasive approach. This report evaluates our results in 100 consecutive patients undergoing a stand-alone CMP-IV.
An educational video to increase clinical trials enrollment among breast cancer patients.

Only 3% of women with breast cancer participate in cancer clinical trials nationwide. The lack of awareness about clinical trials is a significant barrier towards clinical trials participation. A study was conducted at a large urban Comprehensive Cancer Center to test (1) the effectiveness of an 18-min educational video on improving attitudes toward clinical trials and trials enrollment among new breast cancer patients seen at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, and (2) to assess racial differences in attitudes regarding clinical trials. Participants were randomized to either the educational intervention prior to their first oncology clinic appointment or to standard care. A baseline and 2-week post-intervention survey to assess attitudes toward clinical trials participation was completed by participants. Of 218 subjects recruited, 196 (55% white vs. 45% African American (AA)) eligible patients were included in the analysis. A small increase in therapeutic clinical trial enrollment was observed in the intervention arm but was not statistically significant (10.4% vs. 6.1%; P = 0.277). The intervention also did not result in a clear improvement in patients’ attitudes toward clinical trials at posttest. However, a lower enrollment rate for the AA women was noted after adjusting for stage (OR = 0.282, P = 0.049). Significantly more negative scores were noted in 3 out of the 5 baseline attitudinal scales for AA women. The educational video did not significantly increase enrollment in breast cancer clinical trials. The findings that AA women had significantly more negative attitudes toward clinical trials than white women may partially explain the racial disparity in enrollment. An educational video remains a simple and cost-effective way to educate patients. Future studies should focus on designing a new educational video to specifically target cultural and attitudinal barriers in the AA population to more effectively change attitudes and increase trial enrollment.
Identification and measurement of atmospheric ethane (C 2 H 6 ) from a 1951 infrared solar spectrum

C2H6 absorption features in the 2980/cm spectral region of the solar spectrum recorded in April, 1951 were analyzed to determine the total vertical column amount and average free tropospheric mixing ratio of C2H6 above Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps. The PQ1 subbranch is the best isolated of the three C2H6 features in the 1951 spectrum, with an equivalent width of 0.0099 + or - 0.0025/cm. Results give a total vertical column amount of 9.7 x 10 to the 15th C2H6 molecules/sq cm, with an accuracy of + or - 30 percent. March 1981 measurements from this region give a mixing ratio of about 2.0 ppbv, 2.2 times larger than the 1951 value, suggesting a long-term increase in the free tropospheric C2H6 concentration over western Europe.
Agenesis of succedaneous teeth: an expression of the homozygous state of the gene for the pegged or missing maxillary lateral incisor trait.

Agenesis of the permanent teeth that replace the primary teeth, the succedaneous teeth, was found in children from two kindreds wherein both parents had pegged maxillary lateral incisor teeth. The trait small-pegged-missing maxillary lateral incisor teeth is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, as demonstrated in the literature and in these families. Agenesis of succedaneous teeth is most likely an autosomal recessive trait due to the homozygous state of the gene for small-pegged-rnissing maxillary incisor teeth.
DNA binding to mouse cells is mediated by cell-surface molecules: the role of these DNA-binding molecules as target antigens in murine lupus.

Autoimmunity to a 28-29-kDa cell-surface DNA-binding molecule has previously been described in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and related autoimmune diseases. This report describes experiments that implicate a similar antigen-antibody system in the evolution of autoimmunity in lupus-prone mice. DNA binding to murine spleen cells was found to be a saturable phenomenon that was inhibited by excess cold DNA and trypsinization. The role of autoimmunity to murine cell-surface DNA-binding molecules in lupus-prone mice (MRL lpr/lpr, MRL +/+, BXSB) was compared to normal mice (BALB/c, C3H.SW) by means of an assay that measured the inhibition of cell-surface DNA binding. Only sera from lupus strains had inhibitory activity and this component was shown to be an IgM autoantibody. Furthermore, we isolated a spontaneously occurring IgM monoclonal antibody from the spleen of an MRL/lpr mouse, which inhibited DNA binding to mouse cells. Time-course studies indicated that young female MRL/lpr mice lacked detectable activity against cell-surface DNA-binding molecules; however, by 8-10 weeks maximal inhibitory activity was observed. This response occurred prior to the development of significant antinuclear antibody activity. With the appearance of overt disease and anti-DNA antibodies, inhibition of DNA-binding activity became undetectable. These findings mirror previous studies on autoimmunity to a cell-surface DNA-binding molecule on human leucocytes, but have the added advantage of permitting the study of the temporal evolution of this inhibitory activity in relation to disease expression.
Atmospheric stabilization and the timing of carbon mitigation

Stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations below a pre-industrial doubling (~550 ppm) is a commonly cited target in climate policy assessment. When the rate at which future emissions can fall is assumed to be fixed, the peak atmospheric concentration – or the stabilization “frontier” – is an increasing and convex function of the length of postponement. Here we find that a decline in emissions of 1% year−1 beginning today would place the frontier near 475 ppm and that when mitigation is postponed, options disappear (on average) at the rate of ~9 ppm year−1, meaning that delays of more than a decade will likely preclude stabilization below a doubling. When constraints on the future decline rate of emissions are relaxed, a particular atmospheric target can be realized in many ways, with scenarios that allow longer postponement of emissions reductions requiring greater increases in the intensity of future mitigation. However, the marginal rate of substitution between future mitigation and present delay becomes prohibitively large when the balance is shifted too far toward the future, meaning that some amount of postponement cannot be fully offset by simply increasing the intensity of future mitigation. Consequently, these results suggest that a practical transition path to a given stabilization target in the most commonly cited range can allow, at most, one or two decades of delay.
Prolonged Antigen Storage Endows Merocytic Dendritic Cells with Enhanced Capacity To Prime Anti-Tumor Responses in Tumor-Bearing Mice

Tumor cell vaccination with irradiated autologous tumor cells is a promising approach to activate tumor-specific T cell responses without the need for tumor Ag identification. However, uptake of dying cells by dendritic cells (DCs) is generally a noninflammatory or tolerizing event to prevent the development of autoreactive immune responses. In this study, we describe the mechanisms that confer the potent T cell priming capacity of a recently identified a population of DCs (merocytic DCs [mcDCs]) that potently primes both CD8 + and CD4 + T cells to cell-associated Ags upon uptake of apoptotic cells. mcDCs acquired cell-associated materials through a process of merocytosis that is defined by the uptake of small particles that are stored in nonacidic compartments for prolonged periods, sustained Ag presentation, and the induction of type I IFN. T cells primed by mcDCs to cell-associated Ags exhibit increased primary expansion, enhanced effector function, and increased memory formation. By using transgenic T cell transfer models and endogenous models, we show that treatment of tumor-bearing mice with mcDCs that have been exposed to dying tumor cells results in tumor suppression and increased host survival through the activation of naive tumor-specific CD8 + T cells as well as the reinvigoration of tumor-specific T cells that had been rendered nonresponsive by the tumor in vivo. The potent capacity of mcDCs to prime both CD4 + and CD8 + T cells to cell-associated Ags under immunosuppressive conditions makes this DC subset an attractive target for tumor therapies as well as interventional strategies for autoimmunity and transplantation.
A framework for reliable routing in mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks consist of nodes that are often vulnerable to failure. As such, it is important to provide redundancy in terms of providing multiple node-disjoint paths from a source to a destination. We first propose a modified version of the popular AODV protocol that allows us to discover multiple node-disjoint paths from a source to a destination. We find that very few of such paths can be found. Furthermore, as distances between sources and destinations increase, bottlenecks inevitably occur and thus, the possibility of finding multiple paths is considerably reduced. We conclude that it is necessary to place what we call reliable nodes (in terms of both being robust to failure and being secure) in the network for efficient operations. We propose a deployment strategy that determines the positions and the trajectories of these reliable nodes such that we can achieve a framework for reliably routing information. We define a notion of a reliable path which is made up of multiple segments, each of which either entirely consists of reliable nodes, or contains a preset number of multiple paths between the end points of the segment. We show that the probability of establishing a reliable path between a random source and destination pair increases considerably even with a low percentage of reliable nodes when we control their positions and trajectories in accordance with our algorithm.
A micropower CMOS algorithmic A/D/A converter

A low-power and compact VLSI architecture, implementing a bidirectional bit-serial A/D/A (analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog) converter, is presented. Both functions of algorithmic D/A conversion and successive approximation A/D conversion are combined into a single device, converting bits in the order from most to least significant. The MSB-first order guarantees robust implementation, relatively insensitive to component mismatches, offsets and nonlinearities. Also, since the A/D conversion makes use of the intermediate D/A conversion results, matched monotonic characteristics are obtained in both directions of conversion. The final D/A result is available at the end of A/D conversion, and can be used directly in applications calling for analog quantization. More general use of the A/D/A converter allows for bidirectional read/write digital access to local analog information in VLSI. The robust architecture supports dense integration of multiple low-power data conversion units along with digital processors or sensory circuitry in a standard CMOS process. Minimum sizing of active and passive devices in the implementation, to obtain optimal area and energy efficiency, is limited by clock feedthrough and finite gain considerations rather than matching requirements. Experimental results from a prototype VLSI implementation are given. Including control logic, the A/D/A cell measures 216 /spl mu/m/spl times/315 /spl mu/m in a 2-/spl mu/m CMOS process, and achieves 8-b untrimmed monotonicity at 200 /spl mu/W power consumption for a 20 /spl mu/s conversion cycle. This corresponds to 4 nJ of energy dissipated per 8-b converted sample.
WinReC v.1: real-time control software for Windows NT and its applications

In this paper, a method is proposed to perform control using INTEL(R) based personal computers operated by Windows NT/sup TM/ directly. The software package that was developed is called WinReC v.1 (Windows Real-time Control). This low cost method keeps all the advantages of Windows NT without attaching any other kernels and avoids switching different operating systems between experimentation and control design/analysis. A thorough description of the method to set up the multimedia timer provided by Microsoft Development Network (MSDN) Library is presented. Self-customized algorithms based on advanced control techniques can be implemented with the standard protocol that is established here. The proposed protocol is evaluated using two different tasks in control experiments. An industrial robot manipulator is controlled by applying an independent joint PID control scheme. Results are also shown from experiments where LQR and H/sub 2/ controllers are applied to suppress vibrations of a flexible payload carried by the robot manipulator.
CHANGES IN BIRD ABUNDANCE AFTER WILDFIRE: IMPORTANCE OF FIRE SEVERITY AND TIME SINCE FIRE

Fire can cause profound changes in the composition and abundance of plant and animal species, but logistics, unpredictability of weather, and inherent danger make it nearly impossible to study high-severity fire effects experimentally. We took advantage of a unique opportunity to use a before-after/control-impact (BACI) approach to analyze changes in bird assemblages after the severe fires of 2000 in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana. Observers surveyed birds using 10-minute point counts and collected vegetation data from 13 burned and 13 unburned transects for five years before fire and three years after fire. We compared changes in vegetation variables and relative bird abundance from before to after fire between the set of points that burned and the set of points that did not burn. The magnitude of change in vegetation variables from before to after fire increased with fire severity. The relative abundances of nine bird species showed significantly greater changes from before to after fire at burned points compared with unburned points. Moreover, when burned points were separated by whether they burned at low, moderate, or high severity, an additional 10 species showed significant changes in relative abundance from before to after fire at one or more severities. Overall, almost twice as many bird species increased as decreased significantly in response to fire. We also found changes in abundance between one year after and two years after fire for most species that responded to fire. Thus, species that have been termed ''mixed responders'' in the literature appear to be responding dif- ferently to different fire severities or different time periods since fire, rather than responding variably to the same fire conditions. These findings underscore the importance of fire severity and time since fire and imply that both factors must be considered to understand the complexities of fire effects on biological communities. Because different bird species re- sponded positively to different fire severities, our results suggest a need to manage public lands for the maintenance of all kinds of fires, not just the low-severity, understory burns that dominate most discussions revolving around the use of fire in forest restoration.
Release of β-Lysin from Platelets by Thrombin and by a Factor Produced in Heparinized Blood

Removal of calcium by either citrate, oxalate, or ethylenediaminetetraacetate inhibited coagulation of blood at an early stage and prevented the release of beta-lysin from platelets. In contrast, heparin caused platelet agglutination and stimulated beta-lysin release in vitro and in vivo. This release was calcium dependent and may have been due to a calcium-dependent reaction in the blood coagulation sequence. Thrombin which by-passed the early calcium-dependent stages of coagulation directly stimulated the release of beta-lysin from platelets. However, thrombin alone or in combination with other plasma factors was not as effective in releasing beta-lysin as the regular coagulation process. Thrombin's platelet degranulating activity correlated with its beta-lysin releasing activity. In contrast to thrombin, staphylococcal coagulase, which also by-passed the calcium-dependent stages of coagulation, coagulated citrated blood without releasing beta-lysin. The release of beta-lysin has been observed previously in the absence of blood coagulation, but this is the first observation of coagulation without beta-lysin release. It is clear that beta-lysin is released from platelets during coagulation by the direct action of thrombin and that it may be released in an earlier calcium-dependent reaction.
Navigating Bioethical Waters: Two Pilot Projects in Problem-Based Learning for Future Bioscience and Biotechnology Professionals

We believe that the professional responsibility of bioscience and biotechnology professionals includes a social responsibility to contribute to the resolution of ethically fraught policy problems generated by their work. It follows that educators have a professional responsibility to prepare future professionals to discharge this responsibility. This essay discusses two pilot projects in ethics pedagogy focused on particularly challenging policy problems, which we call “fractious problems”. The projects aimed to advance future professionals’ acquisition of “fractious problem navigational” skills, a set of skills designed to enable broad and deep understanding of fractious problems and the design of good policy resolutions for them. A secondary objective was to enhance future professionals’ motivation to apply these skills to help their communities resolve these problems. The projects employed “problem based learning” courses to advance these learning objectives. A new assessment instrument, “Skills for Science/Engineering Ethics Test” (SkillSET), was designed and administered to measure the success of the courses in doing so. This essay first discusses the rationale for the pilot projects, and then describes the design of the pilot courses and presents the results of our assessment using SkillSET in the first pilot project and the revised SkillSET 2.0 in the second pilot project. The essay concludes with discussion of observations and results.
Probing Confinement Effects on Multilayered Ferroelectric Polymer Films Using Second Harmonic Generation

Electrical energy storage plays a key role in mobile electronic devices, stationary power systems, and hybrid electrical vehicles. High energy density capacitors based on dielectric polymers are a focus of increasing research effort motivated by the possibility to realize compact and flexible energy storage devices, taking advantage of light weight and facile processability of organic materials. In addition, dielectric polymers enjoy inherent advantages of self-healing mechanism and high breakdown strength, leading to capacitors with great reliability and high energy density. It is the focus of this group to develop a multilayered ferroelectric PVDF system for improved energy storage efficiency. These systems are fabricated using enabling technology in co-extrusion which allows more cost effective and large area device production as opposed to more conventional layer-by-layer techniques. Many efforts have been made by the team to fabricate these micro- and nano-layered systems resulting in much improved device performance. A three-time improvement of capacitive electrical energy density has been demonstrated. The focus of this research is to understand the physics of why these multilayered systems perform better than a single layer by developing a characterization technique using both confocal second harmonic generation (SHG) and electric field induced second harmonic (EFISH) laser spectroscopy. Our results have shown that SHG is a very sensitive, non-destructive and versatile technique that can be used to study the ferroelectric and structural properties of layered systems. When combined with EFISH this technique allows the interrogation of structural and dielectric properties within the individual layers and at the interfaces between the layers. Further, the proposed techniques can be readily employed in-situ which can provide information in real time during sample processing with static and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements.
Accounting Practices and Earnings Volatility in Mortgage Banking

Mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) accounting rules create severe interest rate earnings risk for mortgage banks, even when the firm is cash flow-neutral to interest rate changes. Mortgage banks have...
In vitro tendril and flower development in cucumber (Cucumis sativus) may be regulated by gibberellins

SummaryCucumber seeds and seed parts initiated flowers in vitro three to four weeks after explaining seeds and seed parts on Murashige and Skoog salts medium supplemented with either BA or GA3; tendrils developed on medium with GA4+7. The flowering responses to GA3 and BA were significantly different from cultures supplemented with GA4+7 (P<0.05). The simultaneous and exclusive appearance of flowers and tendrils on medium with different growth regulators suggest that cells or tissues are uncommitted to specific types of organ differentiation until the necessary growth regulators to trigger differentiation are either produced or made available. The ability to control flowering could facilitate repeated cycles of inbreeding in vitro and speed up the breeding process for cucurbits.
Effect of iodine and adrenalin on thyrotropin in Graves' disease and in normal and thyroidectomized dogs

This study deals with (1) the evaluation of the amount of circulating thyrotropic factor in clinical hyperthyroidism, (2) the effect of iodine on such circulating thyrotropic factor, and (3) the influence of the parenteral injection of adrenalin on thyrotropic discharge from the anterior pituitary in the intact and the totally thyroidectomized experimental animals.Method. Biological assay was used for the determination of thyrotropic factor. This technic involves histological examination of the thyroids of young guinea pigs not exceeding 200 g in weight, following subcutaneous injection of 5 cc of serum from the patient or experimental animals. The guinea pigs were injected on 2 successive days and were killed with ether 24 hours after the last injection. The thyroid lobes were then removed, fixed in 10% formalin, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. The thyroids were then examined for hyperplastic changes. Following the injection of varying amounts of pure thyrotropic factor there occur changes in the thy...
McElroy Lecture: Religion, Politics, and Abortion

This essay - which was the basis of my Philip J.McElroy Lecture at the University of Detroit Mercy in April 2001 - is the final installment in a series of five essays on the proper role of religiously grounded morality in the politics and law of the United States. The contemporary American debate about religion in politics is partly animated and shaped by two large controversies that are at once both moral and political in character: the controversies over same-sex unions and abortion. Addressing the issue of religion in politics without addressing those two controversies would be like staging Hamlet without the prince. In two other essays in the series of which this essay is a part, I focus on the controversy over same-sex unions. In this essay, speaking in particular to religious believers who hold (as I do) that political reliance on religiously grounded morality is neither illegitimate in a liberal democracy nor unconstitutional in the United States, I turn to the moral/political controversy that, in the last generation, has been the most difficult and divisive of all: abortion. To an even greater extent than the controversy over same-sex unions, the abortion controversy looms large in the background of the debate about the proper role of religion in the politics of the United States. More than any other American political controversy in the second half of the twentieth century, the abortion controversy has been a principal, if sometimes unspoken, occasion of the debate about religion in politics. My overarching aim, in this essay, is to address the abortion controversy in a way that is true to each of two propositions. I defend the first proposition in two other essays in the series of which this essay is a part: A citizen's religious faith has a legitimate, important role to play in her politics. The second proposition is at least as well illustrated by the moral/political controversy over abortion as by any other: In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, "political issues deal with complex problems of justice, every solution for which contains morally ambiguous elements."
Use of Semen as Biopsy Material for Assessment of Health Status of the Stallion Reproductive Tract

Conventional light microscopic evaluation does not fully utilize potential indicators in seminal ejaculates for diagnosis of disorders of the reproductive tract. The technique of evaluation of all cellular components of semen, as described in this article, utilizing both light and transmission electron microscopy is a valuable diagnostic tool. Compare with other common biopsy procedures, use of semen as biopsy material is noninvasive, more representative than excisional biopsy, less expensive, and helps in the longitudinal evaluation after a therapeutic regimen.
Photoresist-Free Micropatterning of Polymer Surfaces Used in Microanalytical Devices

A direct method for photochemical modification and micro-patterning of polymer surfaces without using any photoresist is described. Micropatterns of various functional groups, and biomolecules have been covalently attached to, and metal films deposited on, poly(carbonate), PC, and poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, surfaces. These patterns can be used as integrated electronics and capture or sensing elements in micro-fluidic channels.
Subsurface Fluid Flow and Imaging: With Applications for Hydrology, Reservoir Engineering, and Geophysics

This book introduces methodologies for subsurface imaging based upon asymptotic and trajectory-based methods for modeling fluid flow, transport and deformation. It describes trajectory-based imaging from its mathematical formulation, through the construction and solution of the imaging equations, to the assessment of the accuracy and resolution associated with the image. Unique in its approach, it provides a unified framework for the complete spectrum of physical phenomena from wave-like hyperbolic problems to diffusive parabolic problems and non-linear problems of mixed character. The practical aspects of imaging, particularly efficient and robust methods for updating high resolution geologic models using fluid flow, transport and geophysical data, are emphasized throughout the book. Complete with online software applications and examples that enable readers to gain hands-on experience, this volume is an invaluable resource for graduate-level courses, as well as for academic researchers and industry practitioners in the fields of geoscience, hydrology, and petroleum and environmental engineering.
HYDROCHEMICAL BALANCE OF AN ALPINE WATERSHED IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA

Samples of precipitation and streamflow water were taken for chemical analysis from Upper Indian River on Chichagof Island for water years 1979 and 1980. The alpine watershed of 8.0 km2 is described by a ridge of 670 m elevation, with peaks to 838 m. Annual streamflow averaged 2825 mm, distributed in a bimodal pattern with annual precipitation of 3300 mm. Total nitrogen had a net loss of 5.9 kg * ha-' * yr-1, 34% of the output being organic. Total phosphorus output equaled the precipitation input, while orthophosphate accumulated at 0.4 kg * ha-t ? yr-'. Sodium accumulated at 1.4 kg * ha-' yr-', while other monitored elements ex
Robust Reconfiguration of A Distribution System

In this paper, a robust reconfiguration approach based on Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) is proposed to minimize loss in distribution systems. A Depth-First Search (DFS) algorithm to enumerate possible loops provides radiality constraint. This provides a general solution to the radiality constraint for distribution system reconfiguration/expansion problems. Still, imprecision and ambiguity in net loads, i.e. load minus renewable generation, due to lack of sufficient measurements and high utilization of demand response programs and renewable resources, creates challenges for effective reconfiguration. Deterministic optimization of reconfiguration may no lead to optimal/feasible results. Two methods to address these uncertainties are introduced in this paper: one, based on a stochastic MIP (SMIP) formulation and two, based on a fuzzy MIP (FMIP) formulation. Case studies demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed reconfiguration methods.
Factors associated with non-completion of follow-up: 33-month latent tuberculous infection treatment trial.

Setting A post-hoc exploratory analysis of a randomized, open-label clinical trial that enrolled 8053 participants from the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Spain. Objective To assess factors associated with non-completion of study follow-up (NCF) in a 33-month latent tuberculous infection treatment trial, PREVENT TB. Design Participants were randomized to receive 3 months of weekly directly observed therapy vs. 9 months of daily self-administered therapy. NCF was defined as failing to be followed for at least 993 days (33 months) from enrollment. Possible factors associated with NCF were analyzed using univariate and multivariate regression via Cox proportional hazard model. Results Of 7061 adults selected for analysis, 841 (11.9%) did not complete study follow-up. Homelessness, young age, low education, history of incarceration, smoking, missing an early clinic visit, receiving isoniazid only, and male sex were significantly associated with NCF. Similar results were found in the North American region (United States and Canada) only. In Brazil and Spain, the only significant factor was missing an early clinic visit. Conclusions Study subjects at higher risk for NCF were identified by characteristics known at enrollment or in early follow-up. Evaluation of follow-up in other trials might help determine whether the identified factors consistently correlate with retention.
Emotional computation in artificial intelligence education

After decades of work towards creating artificial intelligence, some researchers are now attempting to create machines that are emotionally intelligent. The standard definition of artificial intelligence is the ability for a machine to “think or act humanly or rationally” (Russell, 1995). The push towards emotionally intelligent machines is an exciting addition to this field, in the direction of machines that truly “act humanly.” In this article, I will provide a survey of topics and resources for teaching emotional computation in artificial intelligence courses. I will show that this topic area serves as an excellent application of modern artificial intelligence techniques, and is an important aspect of modern research in AI. The interdisciplinary nature of work in this space is not only compelling in the classroom, it may also lead to wider interest in the field of Computer Science.
INTERMEDIATE UVEITIS ASSOCIATED WITH PERIODIC FEVER, APHTHOUS STOMATITIS, PHARYNGITIS, AND CERVICAL ADENITIS SYNDROME.

Background/purpose To report two novel cases of intermediate uveitis associated with Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome. Methods Observational case reports and review of the literature. Results Both patients in this report had an established diagnosis of Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome before the onset of ocular inflammation. Infectious and noninfectious systemic conditions known to be associated with intermediate uveitis were excluded. Intermediate uveitis was confirmed clinically in both patients by the presence of vitritis, snowballs, and peripheral snowbanks in the region of the pars plana. Both cases had a course characterized by recurrent inflammation; in which systemic steroid treatment, and in one case, immunomodulatory therapy was necessary. Conclusion Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome is an auto-inflammatory fever disorder in childhood. Although other auto-inflammatory disorders such as, Blau syndrome, Muckle-Wells syndrome, and Behcets disease have been associated with various forms of uveitis, Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis has never been reported to be associated with any type of ocular inflammation. We describe for the first time, two cases of Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Cervical Adenitis syndrome presenting with intermediate uveitis.
A Sub-Threshold Noise Transient Simulator Based on Integrated Random Telegraph and Thermal Noise Modeling

Near-threshold and sub-threshold voltage designs have been identified as possible solutions to overcome the limitations introduced by energy consumption in modern very large scale integration circuits. However, as we approach sub-10 nm transistor technology, aggressive voltage, and gate length scaling will reduce the reliability of logic circuits due to the increasing impact of noise and variability effects. Therefore, designers need new tools to simulate logic circuits in the presence of noise. Time-domain analysis helps understand how transient faults affect a circuit and can guide designers in producing noise-resistant circuitry. However, standard approaches to modeling intrinsic noise sources in the time domain are computationally expensive. Moreover, small noise-driven fluctuations in electron occupation of circuit nodes introduce time-varying biasing point fluctuations, increasing the modeling complexity. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a new approach to modeling thermal noise and random telegraph signal noise directly in the time domain by developing and solving a series of stochastic differential equations. In comparisons to traditional SPICE-based simulations, our approach can provide three orders of magnitude speedup in simulation time without sacrificing accuracy. Moreover, we introduce a novel, iterative threshold-crossing algorithm, aimed at the efficient sampling of rare noise transients. We show that Monte-Carlo simulations based on this approach can detect rare high-amplitude single event transients that would be impossible to uncover with standard transient simulators.
Acting with the best of intentions… or not: A typology and model of impression management in leadership

Abstract Impression management (IM) is important for effective leadership. Followers accept influence from individuals who meet their perceptions of what it means to be a leader, and IM is an important way of impacting those perceptions. Yet, the extant literature on leader IM is fragmented. We unify the literature in this area by creating a multi-dimensional typology and multi-level model of IM in leadership. We examine the multi-dimensional nature of IM as a construct composed of information processing, communicative, and goal-directed components, thereby creating eight IM archetypes. Then, we examine how IM can be used to impact follower perceptions of the leader through the lenses of transformational/charismatic, authentic, and leader categorization theories. This research unites a currently fragmented area of research and sparks new questions about how leader behaviors can be used to influence followers toward multi-level leadership outcomes.
Loading Tests on Full-Scale House Roofs

Abstract : Earlier loading tests on single roof frames had shown that many conventional rafter-and-joist frames had failure loads well below the design snow loads specified in Canada. This suggested that either actual snow loads were lower than the design values or that the strength of individual roof frames do not indicate full strength of the complete roof. Consequently, a number of full-scale house roofs were load tested to failure in the laboratory to determine what additional strength is derived from the roof sheathing providing the roof with 'folded plate action.' The results indicate that on the whole most roofs do not derive much extra strength from the sheathing. (Author)
Urban School Connections: A University-K-8 Partnership

Urban schools in the United States are struggling. In this era of highstakes testing, teacher accountability, and standards-based curriculum, there is more and more research showing that an achievement gap exists between White students and students of color (Darling-Hammond, 2007). In large part, students of color attend urban schools where underfunding, low teacher retention, and the forces of community poverty pose signifi cant challenges to effective, sustained classroom instruction (Borrero & Bird, 2009; Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Nieto, 2002). Urban schools, and urban school teachers, are left to bear the brunt of the criticism from policy-makers, the media, and the public. More importantly, classroom teachers are left to bear the brunt of the tremendous challenge to serve the diverse needs of all of their students. Schooling in urban areas places added pressure on Catholic schools as well, as declining enrollment is forcing schools to close (Carpenter, 2008; Gragnani, 2006; McDonald & Schultz, 2009). Schools and classroom teachers cannot be alone in the quest to improve classroom instruction for students of color in urban contexts. Universities, and particularly universities in urban areas, are in prime position to provide support to K-12 schools. Fundamentally, most universities in urban centers promote mission statements that declare their commitment to the local community. Practically, universities possess tremendous resources in the form of faculty and students that can provide direct support to local schools. This paper describes a partnership between an alliance of nine urban Catholic schools and an urban university in San Francisco, California. The development of the partnership is described in part, but the details of the actual collaboration and involvement of university faculty with school leaders and teachers are the central foci. This collaboration is outlined to show how university community involvement can provide direct support to urban K-12 schools. Specifi cally, the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) is presented as a foundation upon which university-K-12 partnerships can be built. PLCs in schools are groups of teachers and staff members with a shared vision for improving student learning. PLC members
Altered Carbohydrate Antigen Expression In Colorectal Cancer And Polyps

Cancer of the colon and rectum is the most common gastrointestinal malignancy in many Western countries. In the United States, it is estimated that in 1989 there will be 150,000 new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed and that 65,000 deaths from colorectal cancer will occur. The overall 5-year survival rate for patients with colorectal cancer is only 40–45%, a figure that has changed very little over the last two decades.1 Disease prevention appears to provide the best hope for improving the outcome of individuals with colorectal cancer. There are two approaches to disease prevention: Primary prevention involves identifying and eliminating the cause of the disease and also includes careful monitoring of populations at high risk for developing the disease. In the case of colorectal cancer, various environmental and host factors have been suggested to play a role in carcinogenesis, but the actual causative agents are not yet known. Recently, some progress has been made in identifying subjects at high risk for developing colorectal cancers among family members of familial polyposis coli or colon cancer family syndromes. The approach has been to investigate the biochemical or cell proliferative activities in normal appearing colonic mucosa (i.e., “flat mucosa”) in an effort to identify the genotype carrier state and to monitor the progression to severe dysplasia in affected patients.2–5
Infant sustained attention but not joint attention to objects at 9 months predicts vocabulary at 12 and 15 months

Vocabulary differences early in development are highly predictive of later language learning as well as achievement in school. Early word learning emerges in the context of tightly coupled social interactions between the early learner and a mature partner. In the present study, we develop and apply a novel paradigm-dual head-mounted eye tracking-to record momentary gaze data from both parents and infants during free-flowing toy-play contexts. With fine-grained sequential patterns extracted from continuous gaze streams, we objectively measure both joint attention and sustained attention as parents and 9-month-old infants played with objects and as parents named objects during play. We show that both joint attention and infant sustained attention predicted vocabulary sizes at 12 and 15 months, but infant sustained attention in the context of joint attention, not joint attention itself, is the stronger unique predictor of later vocabulary size. Joint attention may predict word learning because joint attention supports infant attention to the named object.
#YourAverageMuslim: Ruptural geopolitics of British Muslim women's media and fashion

Abstract Muslima lifestyle media and fashion are reshaping global media, leisure and recreation, and creating new spaces of identification and belonging in predominantly Western-liberal societies. Typically educated and upwardly mobile, British Muslim women working as cultural producers in media and fashion are finding strategies for challenging stereotypes and resisting socio-economic exclusion. Bringing into dialogue discourses on gender and creative labour with feminist geopolitics and the notion of ruptural (geo)politics, this article reveals the ways in which Muslim women are advancing education and career pathways in emergent creative fields. Informed by interviews, site visits, and discourse analysis of social media channels, it gives emphasis to everyday negotiations at home, in the work-place and on-line. By interrogating notions of Muslimness and womanhood, British Muslim women in media and fashion are re-negotiating familial, community, institutional and societal norms in the contemporary time. At the vanguard of change, then, leading cultural producers and activists are crossing borders in the labour market, and making new images of Muslim women that challenge conservative and Western-liberal thinking on Islam, work, gender and equality.
Examining the link between emotional childhood abuse and social relationships in midlife: The moderating role of the oxytocin receptor gene

Abstract Background A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs53576, of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) has been associated with fundamental aspects of social processes and behaviors. Compared to A carriers, GG individuals have enhanced social competencies and tend to elicit more positive responses from social partners. However, the G allele of the OXTR rs53576 has also been associated with greater social sensitivity. Objective The current study examined the unique influence of emotional childhood abuse on positive and negative aspects of different types of social relationships (e.g., family, spouse/partner, and friends) in midlife and whether genetic variations of OXTR rs53576 moderated these associations. Participants and Setting: A total of 614 participants in midlife (aged 40–65), recruited for a large-scale study of Phoenix metropolitan residents (AS U Live Project), answered self-report questionnaires and provided blood samples for DNA genotyping. Methods Hierarchical multiple regression analyses tested whether emotional childhood abuse predicted social support and strain for each relationship type and whether these potential linkages differed by OXTR genotype (GG versus AA/AG). Results Overall, individuals with a history of emotional childhood abuse had less supportive and more strained relationships in midlife. For supportive family relationships, the effect of emotional childhood abuse was moderated by OXTR rs53576 (p Conclusions Overall, genetic variations of OXTR rs53576 may be an important candidate in understanding the development of social functioning within the context of emotional childhood abuse.
Entanglement cost and quantum channel simulation

This paper proposes a revised definition for the entanglement cost of a quantum channel $\mathcal{N}$. In particular, it is defined here to be the smallest rate at which entanglement is required, in addition to free classical communication, in order to simulate $n$ calls to $\mathcal{N}$, such that the most general discriminator cannot distinguish the $n$ calls to $\mathcal{N}$ from the simulation. The most general discriminator is one who tests the channels in a sequential manner, one after the other, and this discriminator is known as a quantum tester [Chiribella et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 060401 (2008)] or one who is implementing a quantum costrategy [Gutoski and Watrous, in Proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing STOC '07 (ACM Press, New York, 2007), pp. 565--574]. As such, the proposed revised definition of entanglement cost of a quantum channel leads to a rate that cannot be smaller than the previous notion of a channel's entanglement cost [Berta et al., IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 59, 6779 (2013)], in which the discriminator is limited to distinguishing parallel uses of the channel from the simulation. Under this revised notion, I prove that the entanglement cost of certain teleportation-simulable channels is equal to the entanglement cost of their underlying resource states. Then I find single-letter formulas for the entanglement cost of some fundamental channel models, including dephasing, erasure, three-dimensional Werner-Holevo channels, and epolarizing channels (complements of depolarizing channels), as well as single-mode pure-loss and pure-amplifier bosonic Gaussian channels. These examples demonstrate that the resource theory of entanglement for quantum channels is not reversible. Finally, I discuss how to generalize the basic notions to arbitrary resource theories.