cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rotational reflectance of dispersed vitrinite from the Arkoma basin

Abstract Rotational reflectance of dispersed vitrinite provides superior documentation of thermal maturity and a capability for interpreting relative timing between thermal and kinematic events in Arkoma Basin strata characterized by vitrinite reflectances up to 5%. Rotational reflectance (Rrot) is a more precise and less ambiguous index of thermal maturity than maximum (R′max), minimum (R′min), and random (Rran) reflectance. Vitrinite reflectance anisotropy becomes sufficiently large to be measurable (using a microscope equipped with an automated rotating polarizer) at ≈2% Rrot and increases following a power function with increasing thermal maturity. Rotational reflectance data can be used to infer the shape of the vitrinite reflectance indicating surface (i.e. indicatrix) and, in turn, to enhance interpretations of the timing between thermal maxima and compressional tectonic events. Data from three wells in the Arkoma Basin-Ouachita frontal thrust belt are used as examples. The absence of offsets in measured Rrot across thrust faults combined with a predominance of uniaxial vitrinite in the thrust faulted part of the section suggest thermal maximum postdated thrust faulting in the western Ouachita frontal thrust belt of Oklahoma. In contrast, the general absence of offsets in measured Rrot across thrust faults combined with a predominance of biaxial vitrinite in the thrust faulted part of the section suggest that the thermal maximum was coeval with thrust faulting in the eastern Ouachita frontal thrust belt of Arkansas. The presence of biaxial vitrinite in an allochthonous section and uniaxial vitrinite in an underlying, autochthonous section suggests that the thermal maximum was coeval with listric thrust faulting in the central Arkoma Basin of Oklahoma, and that rotational reflectance data can be used as a strain indicator to detect subtle decollement zones.
Modeling of the incorporation of ceramic participates in metallic droplets during spray atomization and coinjection

In the present investigation, a theoretical model was developed to study the penetration behavior of ceramic particulates into metallic droplets during spray atomization and coinjection. In formulating the penetration problem, a force balance approach was adopted that considers the variations of both surface-tension resistance and fluid drag during the penetration processes. Using this model, the factors that affect the penetration behavior of ceramic particulates into Al droplets were systematically discussed. These include size, morphology, and density of ceramic paniculate; wetting angle between ceramic and liquid Al; and fraction of solid contained in the semiliquid droplets. It was found that the critical velocity required for penetration increased with increasing wetting angle and fraction of solid but decreased with increasing particulate density. The penetration ability of various ceramic particulates was compared. It was found that the penetration ability of ceramic particulates that are normally encountered in Albased metal matrix composites (MMCs) decreases in the following sequence: TiB2, Al2O3, SiC, and graphite.
Statin cost effectiveness in primary prevention: A systematic review of the recent cost-effectiveness literature in the United States

The literature on the cost-effectiveness of statin drugs in primary prevention of coronary heart disease is complex. The objective of this study is to compare the disparate results of recent cost-effectiveness analyses of statins. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on statin cost-effectiveness. The four studies that met inclusion criteria reported varying conclusions about the cost-effectiveness of statin treatment, without a clear consensus as to whether statins are cost-effective for primary prevention. However, after accounting for each study’s assumptions about statin costs, we found substantial agreement among the studies. Studies that assumed statins to be more expensive found them to be less cost-effective, and vice-versa. Furthermore, treatment of low-risk groups became cost-effective as statins became less expensive. Drug price is the primary determinant of statin cost-effectiveness within a given risk group. As more statin drugs become generic, patients at low risk for coronary disease may be treated cost-effectively. Though many factors must be weighed in any medical decision, from a cost-effectiveness perspective, statins may now be considered an appropriate therapy for many patients at low risk for heart disease.
Alkyl-bis(imidazolium) salts: a new amphiphile platform that forms thermotropic and non-aqueous lyotropic bicontinuous cubic phases.

New ionic amphiphiles with a hexyl-bridged bis(imidazolium) headgroup; Br−, BF4−, or Tf2N− anions; and a long n-alkyl tail can form thermotropic bicontinuous cubic liquid crystal phases in neat form and/or lyotropic bicontinuous cubic phases with several non-aqueous solvents or water.
Broadly Tunable Single-Mode Quantum Cascade Laser Source

We construct a compact broadly tunable single mode quantum cascade laser source that can be used for mid-infrared spectroscopy. The source consists of an array of closely-spaced distributed feedback lasers and a CMOS controller.
Identities of cofinal sublattices

If V is a variety of lattices and L a free lattice in V on uncountably many generators, then any cofinal sublattice of L generates all of V. On the other hand, any modular lattice without chains of order-type ω+1 has a cofinal distributive sublattice. More generally, if a modular lattice L has a distributive sublattice which is ‘cofinal modulo intervals with ACC’, this may be enlarged to a cofinal distributive sublattice. Examples are given showing that these existence results are sharp in several ways. Some similar results and questions on existence of cofinal sublattices with DCC are noted.
Evaluating the effect of nonlinearity in a 2-phase servomotor

Equations are derived describing the variation of the gain constant and the time constant of a 2-phase servomotor as affected by the magnitude of the control field voltage. These parameters are evaluated from several simple measurements in the laboratory and are then verified by measuring the time constant experimentally. The use of these nonlinear characteristics in the analysis and design of feedback control systems is discussed.
Tools for Combinatorial Chemistry: Real-Time Single-Bead Infrared Analysis of a Resin-Bound Photocleavage Reaction

The feasibility of using infrared spectroscopy for the real-time, in situ analysis of resin-bound photocleavable linkers from a single bead is illustrated using infrared microscopy. Results indicate this technique to be an extremely powerful tool for the analysis of photocleavage reactions directly on the solid-phase support. This report further details methodology providing a very high degree of automation to eliminate many of the sampling problems associated with batch analysis.
Detection and analysis of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells

Based on recent advances in techniques that can detect and enumerate antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, it is evident that these cells can differentially regulated CD8+ T cell effector mechanisms at the single-cell level. Interplay between effector mechanisms that are employed by antigen-specific CD8+T cells during the immune response in vivo can be addressed with different techniques that “count” cells either directly (T cell receptor (TCR) expression) or indirectly (antigen-specific cytokine production).
Mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocase is modified oxidatively during aging

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that elevation in protein oxidative damage during the aging process is a targeted rather than a stochastic phenomenon. Oxidative damage to proteins in mitochondrial membranes in the flight muscles of the housefly, manifested as carbonyl modifications, was detected immunochemically with anti-dinitrophenyl antibodies. Adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) was found to be the only protein in the mitochondrial membranes exhibiting a detectable age-associated increase in carbonyls. The age-related elevation in ANT carbonyl content was correlated with a corresponding loss in its functional activity. Senescent flies that had lost the ability to fly exhibited a relatively higher degree of ANT oxidation and a greater loss of functional activity than their cohorts of the same age that were still able to fly. Exposure of flies to 100% oxygen resulted in an increase in the level of ANT carbonyl content and a loss in its activity. In vitro treatment of mitochondria with a system that generated hydroxyl free radicals caused an increase in ANT carbonyl level and a decrease in ANT exchange activity. ANT was also the only mitochondrial membrane protein exhibiting adducts of the lipid peroxidation product 4-hydroxynonenal. Results of this study indicate that proteins in mitochondrial membranes are modified selectively during aging.
Frequency distribution of potential temperatures and salinities in the Indian Ocean

Abstract A correlation table of potential temperatures and salinities for the entire volume of the Indian Ocean is presented. Frequencies, in terms of 104 km3, are given for class intervals of 0·5° C × 0·1 per mille. Three classes, in the temperature range 0·5 to 2·0°C and salinity range 34·7 to 34·8 per mille, include 32 per cent of the total volume. This group represents the core of the deep water of the Indian Ocean. In the central portion of the ocean, and in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, only very limited station data are available. Consequently, the correlation table represents a substantial amount of subjective interpolation.
A phylogenetic analysis of the 18S ribosomal RNA sequence of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae

Approximately 98% of the sequence of the 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae was determined by a combination of direct RNA sequencing and sequencing of rRNA genes amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. This sequence was compared with 18S rRNA sequences of similar length from seven other vertebrate species, representing the taxa Petromyzontiformes, Holocephali, Elasmobranchii, Actinopterygii, Dipnoi, Amphibia, and Amniota, in order to determine the most likely sister group of the coelacanth. Maximum parsimony analysis of these sequences resulted in a single most parsimonious tree containing a number of anomalous relationships among these groups. A bootstrap analysis showed that none of the relationships in this tree was significantly supported at the 95% level, however. Addition of data from 15 other vertebrates (providing multiple representatives of most of the higher taxa) resulted in similar ambiguous groupings, as did a number of methods of editing the sites compared (designed to eliminate rapidly evolving positions). These results may be due to a relatively rapid radiation of the major lineages of osteichthyans, the resolution of which will require molecular information from a larger portion of the coelacanth genome.
Use of plasmid analysis to determine the source of bacterial invasion of the urinary tract.

Gram negative colonisation and infection of the urinary tract is a well recognised complication of the neuropathic bladder caused by spinal cord injury (SCI). K. pneumoniae accounts for one third of all urinary tract infections in hospitalised SCI patients. Plasmid analysis has been shown to reliably fingerprint bacterial strains, particularly K. pneumoniae, so that growth from two separate locations in or on the body can be accurately analysed as to migration from a reservoir to a target location. Eighty seven hospitalised SCI patients on intermittent catheterisation for a total of 586 patient-weeks were studied. Twice weekly catheterised urine specimens and once weekly rectal swab cultures were taken from each patient. Thirty seven patients experienced at least one clinically significant (colony count > 10 000/mL) urinary tract colonisation caused by K. pneumoniae, representing 66 total colonisations. Further analysis of 31 of these 37 patients revealed: K. pneumoniae in all of their stool cultures (p < 0.05) and the identical strain of K. pneumoniae in the urine as well as the stool in 72% of the 66 colonisations (p < 0.05). Analysis of 14 patients without K. pneumoniae urinary colonisations showed absence of faecal K. pneumoniae in 3, and predominant growth in only 4. In 22 of the 37 patients, multiple K. pneumoniae urinary colonisations were noted, representing 27 pairs of colonisation. Fifteen of the pairs were found to be relapsing (caused by two identical bacterial strains), and 12 were recurrent (caused by two different bacterial strains). Thirteen of the 15 relapsing pairs also had identical urine and stool K. pneumoniae strains (p < 0.05). All colonisations were treated with appropriate antibiotics based on culture and sensitivity reports. Fourteen of the 15 relapsing colonisation pairs have identical antibiograms (p < 0.05), while all 12 of the recurrent colonisation pairs had different antibiograms (p < 0.05). The differences noted on sensitivity patterns (antibiograms) correlated with differences among strains of K. pneumoniae based upon plasmid analysis. Treatment of bacteriuria did not affect the nature of repeated colonisations regardless of the antibiotic chosen, the route of administration or the duration of treatment. We conclude that K. pneumoniae found in the urinary tract of spinal cord patients usually derive from that individuar's own bowel flora, particularly in the case of relapsing bacteriuria. Further, relapsing bacteriuria in patients on intermittent catheterisation is typically not due to urinary tract lithiasis or other urinary tract pathology. These results also suggest that abundant bowel colonisation with K. pneumoniae is a predisposing but not a prerequisite factor for subsequent urinary colonisation. The clinical and epidemiological importance of this data warrants further study.
Effects of digitalis on the functional refractory period of the AV node: studies in awake dogs with and without cardiac denervation.

Experiments on dogs revealed that cardiac vagotomy attenuates, and total cardiac denervation abolishes the effects of digitalis on the functional refractory period of the AV node (FRPAVN). These studies indicate that an anti-adrenergic influence of digitalis contributes importantly to its action on the FRPAVN.
A necessary and sufficient eigenvector condition for a connected graph to be bipartite

A † Abstract. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to be bipartite in terms of an eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph.
Home and work neighbourhood environments in relation to body mass index: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Background Little is known about the neighbourhood characteristics of workplaces, the extent to which they are independently and synergistically correlated with residential environments, and their impact on health. Methods This study investigated cross-sectional relationships between home and workplace neighbourhood environments with body mass index (BMI) in 1503 working participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis with mean age 59.6 (SD=7.4). Neighbourhood features were socioeconomic status (SES), social environment (aesthetic quality, safety and social cohesion) and physical environment (walking environment, recreational facilities and food stores) derived from census data, locational data on businesses and survey data. Paired t tests and correlations compared environments overall and by distance between locations. Cross-classified multilevel models estimated associations with BMI. Results Home neighbourhoods had more favourable social environments while workplaces had more favourable SES and physical environments. Workplace and home measures were correlated (0.39–0.70), and differences between home and workplaces were larger as distance increased. Associations between BMI and neighbourhood SES and recreational facilities were stronger for home environment (p≤0.05) but did not significantly differ for healthy food, safety or social cohesion. Healthy food availability at home and work appeared to act synergistically (interaction p=0.01). Conclusions Consideration of workplace environment may enhance our understanding of how place affects BMI.
A Semi-Distributed Fast Channel Change Framework for IPTV Networks

In IPTV networks, channel change latency is a major concern for achieving the desired quality of experience at the subscribers. Since IPTV connections are established over limited capacity links, the number of channels available to each subscriber's use, at any given point in time, is strictly limited. As a direct consequence of this limitation, channel change requests need to go through the IP infrastructure, causing significant, and oftentimes unacceptable, channel switching delays. To minimize this latency, various approaches have been proposed. Among these approaches, server-based approaches are shown to achieve the best latency performance. However, since server-based approaches typically utilize unicast-based delivery techniques, they are susceptible to introducing significant overhead at the designated servers, leading to scalability related problems. In this paper, we address these problems by proposing a semi-distributed, i.e., user-assisted server-based, channel change framework. The proposed approach integrates the capabilities of a dedicated channel change server with that of IPTV subscribers to create a resource-efficient and scalable channel change framework. Through extensive simulations, we showed that the proposed framework can achieve sufficiently low channel change latency values, while significantly improving the servicing capacity of the network when compared to server-based-only channel change policies.
A Model-Driven Approach for Dependable Software Systems

High dependability is a key requirement for many types of systems, such as safety-critical systems, telecommunication systems, and mission-critical software systems. Although software components and web services are proven technologies to tackle design complexity, their reliability affects the reliability and availability of the systems they are part of. The composition of components and web services further complicates the issue. For highly dependable systems, the faults of components and web services have to be minimized to achieve overall system dependability. This paper describes a model-driven engineering approach to improve the dependability of domain- specific software systems built with component and web service composition. In this framework, web services and components are specified as model elements and their dependability is enhanced by generating both functional code and protective mechanisms to reduce the impact of component and service failures. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated in our implementation and deployment of mobile services.
Pitfalls of counterfactual thinking in medical practice: preventing errors by using more functional reference points.

Background . Counterfactual thinking involves mentally simulating alternatives to reality. The current article reviews literature pertaining to the relevance counterfactual thinking has for the quality of medical decision making. Although earlier counterfactual thought research concluded that counterfactuals have important benefits for the individual, there are reasons to believe that counterfactual thinking is also associated with dysfunctional consequences. Of particular focus is whether or not medical experience, and its influence on counterfactual thinking, actually informs or improves medical practice. It is hypothesized that relatively more probable decision alternatives, followed by undesirable outcomes and counterfactual thought responses, can be abandoned for relatively less probable decision alternatives. Design and Methods. Building on earlier research demonstrating that counterfactual thinking can impede memory and learning in a decision paradigm with undergraduate students, the current study examines the extent to which earlier findings can be generalized to practicing physicians (N=10). Participants were asked to complete 60 trials of a computerized Monty Hall Problem simulation. Learning by experience was operationalized as the frequency of switch-decisions. Results . Although some learning was evidenced by a general increase in switch-decision frequency across block trials, the extent of learning demonstrated was not ideal, nor practical. Conclusions . A simple, multiple-trial, decision paradigm demonstrated that doctors fail to learn basic decision-outcome associations through experience. An agenda for future research, which tests the functionality of reference points (other than counterfactual alternatives) for the purposes of medical decision making, is proposed.
Selection, application and interchangeability of medium voltage power fuses in motor control centers

Medium voltage fuses (1 kV-34.5 kV) of equal ratings are not all created equal. The assumed interchangeability of various vendors' medium voltage (MV) fuses may expose you and your medium voltage control equipment to undue stress and danger. This paper outlines the design characteristics, operating characteristics, selection criteria and failure modes of medium voltage power fuses when used in motor control applications (typically 2.4-13 kV). Also covered are application, installation and special application considerations including MV drives and soft starters. When properly selected and applied, medium voltage power fuses should provide years of safe and reliable protection
High Performance Single Step Co-Fired Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was successfully fabricated by a single step co-firing process. The cell comprised of a Ni + yittria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode, a YSZ electrolyte, a Ca-doped LaMnO3 (LCM) + YSZ cathode active layer, and an LCM cathode current collector layer. The fabrication process involved tape casting of the anode, screen printing of the electrolyte and the cathode, and single step co-firing of the green-state cells at 1300°C for 2 hours. The maximum power densities were 1.50W/cm2 at 800°C, and 0.87W/cm2 at 700°C with humidified hydrogen (97H2-3H2O) as fuel and air as oxidant. The experimentally measured I-V curves were fitted into a polarization model to obtain cell parameters including the area specific ohmic resistance, exchange current density, effective binary diffusivity of hydrogen and water vapor in the anode, and that of oxygen and nitrogen in the cathode. The cell was also tested at 800°C with various compositions of humidified hydrogen to evaluate the cell performance at high fuel utilization, and the maximum power densities were 1.30W/cm2 with 75.7H2-24.3H2O, 0.94W/cm2 with 49.4H2-50.6H2O, and 0.49W/cm2 with 27.3H2-70.7H2O.
A mixture of mivacurium and rocuronium is comparable in clinical onset to succinylcholine

Abstract Study Objectives: To compare the clinical onset and duration of a combination of mivacurium and rocuronium with succinylcholine, and to determine the efficacy of this mixture for rapid tracheal intubation. Design: Observer-blind prospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital. Patients: 70 ASA status I and II patients having general anesthesia for elective surgery. Measurements and Main Results: After induction of general anesthesia, patients randomly received succinylcholine 1.0 mg/kg, rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg, or a combination of rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg and mivacurium 0.15 mg/kg. Evoked muscular response at the adductor pollicis was measured by mechanomyography. The time from injection of muscle relaxant(s) to ablation of T 1 (clinical onset) and recovery of T 1 to 25% of control height (clinical duration) was recorded. Intubating conditions 45 seconds after administration of muscle relaxants were assessed. There was no significant difference in clinical onset time between succinylcholine (mean ± SD, 47.4 ± 6.5 seconds) and the combination of mivacurium-rocuronium (51.2 ± 13.4 seconds). Intubating conditions with mivacurium-rocuronium were comparable to those of succinylcholine. The clinical duration of rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg (38.9 ± 12.3 minutes) was prolonged by the addition of mivacurium (49.0 ± 9.6 minutes). Conclusions: This combination of mivacurium and rocuronium is comparable to succinylcholine in both clinical onset time and quality of intubating conditions. When rapid onset of dense neuromuscular blockade and intermediate clinical duration is desirable, this mixture may be an acceptable alternative to succinylcholine.
Cardiovascular Manpower The Looming Crisis

and a number of cardiovasculartraining programs went through a period of downsizing. Thedemand for subspecialty care has not diminished and, withthe continued needs for cardiovascular practitioners in thecommunity and in academic medical centers, most trainingprograms that downsized in the early 1990s have reversed thetrend and increased the number of trainees. We agree withothers
Effect of screening for syphilis on the management of patients with cerebrovascular disease.

Although meningovascular syphilis may result in cerebral ischemia, the effect of syphilis screening on the management of patients with ischemic stroke is unclear. This is due to the variability in syphilis incidence and prevalence, as well as the diverse manifestations that vary with stage of infection. We prospectively screened patients with cerebrovascular disease (CVD) for syphilis and analyzed seropositivity rates as well as assessed the impact of screening on patient management. There were relatively high rates of seropositivity in both CVD (12.5%, n = 104) and control (9.9%, n = 211) populations without a significant difference between groups. Overall, syphilis screening had little impact on the management of the patients with CVD. No cerebral event was attributed to meningovascular syphilis, and there was no identifiable group in which syphilis screening was more likely to result in treatment for meningovascular syphilis, although there were significantly (p < 0.001) higher rates of seropositivity in black patients than whites. The relatively high incidence of seropositivity in both groups is representative of local syphilis prevalence and suggests that screening is warranted in patients with neurological disease, but not necessarily as part of the evaluation for cerebral ischemia.
Radioactive Decay of Nb 95

The decay of ${\mathrm{Nb}}^{95}$ was investigated in order to check on the unusually short comparative half-life which had been reported for the twice-forbidden ground state to ground state beta transition. It was found that the 0.924-MeV beta group has an abundance of only 0.075% rather than the 1 or 2% reported previously. As a consequence, $log\mathrm{ft}\ensuremath{\ge}10.8$ rather than 9.7. The main decay is by a 159.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5-keV beta transition followed by a 764.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5-keV gamma ray. The gamma transition appears to be $E2$ with a $\frac{K}{(L+M)}$ internal conversion ratio of 7.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1 and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{K}=(1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. No evidence was found for an additional 752-keV gamma transition.
Bioinformatic and Genomic Analyses of Cellular Reprogramming and Direct Lineage Conversion

Cellular reprogramming, whereby cell fate can be changed by the expression of a few defined factors, is a remarkable process that harnesses the innate ability of a cell’s own genome to rework its expressional networks and function. Since cell lineages are defined by global regulation of gene expression, transcriptional regulators, and coupled to the epigenetic markings of the chromatin, changing the cell fate necessitates broad changes to these central cellular features. To properly characterize these changes, and the mechanisms that drive them, computational and genomic approaches are perfectly suited to provide a holistic picture of the reprogramming mechanisms. In particular, the use of bioinformatic analysis has been a major driver in the study of cellular reprogramming, as it relates to both induced pluripotency or direct lineage conversion. This review will summarize many of the bioinformatic studies that have advanced our knowledge of reprogramming and address future directions for these investigations.
Clinical Study on Tiaoluo Jiangya Fluid Combined with Western Medicine in Treatment of Primary Hypertension

Objective: The observation of the clinical effect of traditional Chinese combined with western medicinein the treatment of primary hypertension.Method: The selected patients were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group,each 50 patients;the control group was given the general antihypertensive,the treatment group was given the Tiaoluo Jiangya fluid.The blood pressure,the clinical general therapeutic effect,the change of hemorrheology and the adverse reaction were observed.Result: The effective rate in the treatment group and the control group was 96% and 84%,respectively(P0.05 vs control group).The systolic pressure,the diastolic pressure,the blood viscosity,the plasma viscosity and the fibronectins were declined in the treatment group after treatment(P0.01 or P0.05).Conclusion: Tiaoluo Jiangya fluid combined with western medicine has a good effect on the hypertension symptoms and the hemorrheology.
A Transaction Model for Executions of Compositions of Internet of Things Services

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) is about making “things” smart in some functionality, and connecting and enabling them to perform complex tasks by themselves. The functionality can be encapsulated as services and the task executed by composing the services. Two noteworthy functionalities of IoT services are monitoring and actuation. Monitoring implies continuous executions, and actuation is by triggering. Continuous executions typically involve stream processing. Stream input data are accumulated into batches and each batch is subjected to a sequence of computations, structured as a dataflow graph. The composition may be processing several batches simultaneously. Additionally, some non-stream OLTP transactions may also be executing concurrently. Thus, several composite transactions may be executing concurrently. This is in contrast to a typical Web services composition, where just one composite transaction is executed on each invocation. Therefore, defining transactional properties for executions of IoT service compositions is much more complex than for those of conventional Web service compositions. In this paper, we propose a transaction model and a correctness criterion for executions of IoT service compositions. Our proposal defines relaxed atomicity and isolation properties for transactions in a flexible manner and can be adapted for a variety of IoT applications.
Exploring Little Hans.

(2007). Exploring Little Hans. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child: Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 143-149.
Between equality and efficiency in medical care

This work considers the allocation methods of scarce medical resources budgeted for "health economics". Costbenefit models and the criteria QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life-Years) are analyzed as allocation methods that propose to resolve ethical dilemmas related to an economic distribution that seems to prioritize efficient results over more equitable, but inefficient, results.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness as an Indicator of Depression in Hispanic Americans.

Introduction:Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) has been shown to be associated with depression; however, this relationship has not been confirmed among Hispanic Americans.Method:This study examine...
Lorazepam V Diazepam in Status Epilepticus

A prospective, open, odd and even dates trial of lorazepam compared to diazepam for the treatment of acute convulsions and status epilepticus in 102 children is reported from the Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust, UK.
Chemical Leukoderma Associated with Methylphenidate Transdermal System: Data From the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System.

Objective To identify and characterize cases of chemical leukoderma, an underrecognized adverse event, associated with the methylphenidate transdermal system (MTS) reported to the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Study design We searched the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System for reports of chemical leukoderma associated with MTS, received by the Food and Drug Administration from April 6, 2006 to December 23, 2014. Results We identified 51 cases of chemical leukoderma reported with the use of MTS. The median age was 11 years; 43 cases reported leukoderma at or near the application site only, and 7 reported leukoderma at other parts of the body in addition to the application site; 1 case did not provide enough information to confirm the affected site. The time to onset ranged from 2 months to 4 years after the initiation of MTS. MTS was discontinued in 31 cases. Thirteen patients were prescribed treatment for repigmentation. Three cases reported continued spread of leukoderma after MTS was discontinued. Nineteen cases were diagnosed as vitiligo, including 5 cases reporting histologic features consistent with vitiligo. Leukoderma was persistent in all cases. The median follow-up interval after the discontinuation of MTS in 23 cases was 14 months. Conclusions As outlined in recent changes to the prescribing information for MTS, health care professionals need to be aware of the potential risk of chemical leukoderma caused by MTS, especially given that chemical leukoderma is often misdiagnosed as idiopathic vitiligo. MTS should be discontinued at the earliest sign of pigment loss and other treatment options considered.
Novel endoscopic bariatric therapies: A glimpse into the future

Abstract The management of obesity generally consists of lifestyle interventions, which are often inadequate, or invasive surgery, that carries a high cost and strict eligibility requirements. The recent rise of endoscopic bariatric interventions has the potential to provide a minimally invasive, cost-effective, and reversible option for patients. Although a few of these therapies have already gained Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, many more are in various stages of development and clinical trials. These methods use a wide array of techniques, including reducing gastric capacity, limiting absorption, duodenal mucosal resurfacing, and creating intestinal diversion. This review focuses on these newer, nonFood and Drug Administration approved approaches, which have the potential to drastically change the landscape of bariatric interventional options in the near-term future.
CHAPTER 12 – EXUDATE GUMS

Publisher Summary The earliest gums used were exudate gums, because they were nearest to hand. They could be picked from trees or shrubs and easily dried and transported. The gums that arose to prominence in ancient times and are still of industrial importance are arabic, ghatti, karaya, and tragacanth. Exudate gums require much labor for incising or tapping the plant, for picking the dried or semidried gum, for sorting, bagging, and shipping, for grinding, sifting, or air classifying to remove particulate impurities after reaching the gum importers, and for further purification and spray-drying in some cases. Production of an exudate gum is a natural defense mechanism of plants that seals bark wounds. Tragacanth gum is so quickly exuded and undergoes hardening so rapidly that its protection is not as effective as the gums of other plants. Commercial exudate gums require sorting and mechanical removal of impurities. Excessive impurities and color in gums cause them to receive a low-grade classification. This chapter discusses the source, structure, properties, and uses of gum arabic, gum karaya, gum ghatti, and gum tragacanth.
Physiology in Perspective: Homeostasis and Evolution.

The origin of equilibrium thermodynamics derives from the work of Nicolas Carnot and the introduction of the Carnot cycle. Beginning in the mid-1800s, Claude Bernard applied equilibrium thermodynamics to medicine and physiology with his concept of feedback regulation of the internal milieu in living
Step-Up vs. Top-Down Approach in Crohn’s Disease

Treatment for patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) has changed substantially with the introduction of agents targeting tumor necrosis factor alpha. Therapeutic aims have evolved to include not just clinical improvement but also mucosal healing. Today, upon diagnosing CD, clinicians are able to use predictors of a complicated disease course and act accordingly when designing an individual medical strategy.
Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom

Familiar philosophical accounts of the relationship between human rights and human dignity treat dignity as the foundation of human rights. These accounts get the historical and conceptual relation...
How Multimarket Competition Fosters Collaboration: Mutual Forbearance and Market Power Effects

We investigate how multimarket contact between two firms influences the likelihood of alliance formation between them. Application of conventional I/O-based alliance theory would suggest that two f...
Voltage Source Converters for Large-Scale Power System Control

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the advanced voltage source converters (VSCs) for high-power applications. To this end, this chapter first presents a brief overview of the conventional, well-established multilevel converters along with their salient features and technical challenges. Then, recent advances in converter topology, modulation, and control of recently developed multilevel converters are presented. A significant portion of this chapter is devoted to show how modular multilevel converter-based topologies are becoming an enabling technology for medium/high-power AC-DC, DC-AC, DC-DC, and AC-AC conversion systems. A comprehensive description and review on the most recent advances and contributions on the operational issues, modeling, control, and modulation techniques of those converters are also provided.
TREATMENTS (NON-ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUGS) | Viral Vector Approaches for Antiepileptic Gene Therapy

Viral vector gene therapy provides a promising alternative therapy for intractable focal epilepsies. Our studies have established a novel gene therapy platform that not only has proven quite effective against seizure activity, but also circumvents several therapeutic liabilities. AAV-mediated expression and constitutive secretion of galanin, NPY, or NPY(13–36) markedly suppresses limbic seizure activity. However, further advances are necessary to optimize this therapy. To this end, we are using the techniques of DNA shuffling and directed evolution to identify optimal AAV vectors for anti-seizure gene therapy.
Holomorphy rings of function fields

In his 1974 text, Commutative Ring Theory, Kaplansky states tha t among the examples of non-Dedekind Priifer domains, the main ones are valuation domains, the ring of entire functions and the integral closure of a Priifer domain in an algebraic extension of its quotient field [Kap74, p.72]. A similar list today would likely include Kronecker function rings, the ring of integervalued polynomials and real holomorphy rings. All of these examples of Priifer domains have been fundamental to the development of multiplicative ideal theory, as is evidenced in the work of Robert Gilmer over the past 40 years. These rings have been intensely studied from various points of views and with different motivations and tools. In this article we make some observations regarding the ideal theory of holomorphy rings of function fields. A holomorphy ring is an intersection of valuation rings having a common quotient field F. The terminology arises from viewing elements of F as functions on collections of valuation rings having quotient field F. To formulate this more precisely, let -F be a field and D be a subring of F. The Zariski-Riemann space of F is the collection E{F\D) of all valuation rings V containing D and having quotient field F. If D is the prime subring of F, then we write S{F) for S{F\D). One can introduce a topology on S{F\D) in a natural way [ZS75, p. 110]. In Section 2 we will consider the Zariski patch topology on E{F\D). If S* C S[F\D), then x a F \s holomorphic on S Mx has no pole on S. More precisely, for each V ^ S, let 4>v'-F -^ Fy U {oo} be the place corresponding to V, where Fy is the residue field of V. Then x assigns to V the value (pv{x)Thus X is holomorphic on S if and only if x is finite on each V e S; ii and
A Novel Implementation of the State Flow Approach for Maximum Power Point Tracking of Photovoltaic Systems

This paper proposes the integration of the state flow approach and the perturb and observe algorithm to track the maximum power point of photovoltaic modules. The proposed state flow approach utilizes perturb and observe to control the duty cycle of a boost-type power electronics interface integrated with the PV system to provide maximum power point tracking at varying temperature and irradiance levels. The simulation results are provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed strategy.
The Impact of Everyday Crime and Security on Protest Behavior in South Africa

This chapter assesses the relationship between security factors and protest. While there is no evidence to support a relationship between non-state security reliance and protest, victims of crime and those who often feel a great sense of personal insecurity are more likely than their counterparts to protest.
Orthography and speech production in children with good or poor reading skills

Speech production is influenced by the orthographic representation of the spoken word. Although previous work has shown that inconsistencies between the word’s sound and spelling may facilitate or disrupt processing (e.g., Alario, Perre, Castel, & Ziegler, 2007; Saletta, Goffman, & Brentari, 2015; Saletta, Goffman, & Hogan, 2016; Ventura, Morais, Pattamadilok, & Kolinsky, 2004), the developmental course of this effect on new readers remains unclear. The current study examines how children’s production of nonwords changes as a function of exposure to the nonwords’ orthography. We tested nonword repetition in 17 children with typical reading skills and 17 children with poor reading skills. Participants heard and repeated nonword stimuli, or read them aloud when the stimuli were written in either a relatively transparent or an opaque spelling. We quantified participants’ segmental accuracy and speech movement stability both before and after their exposure to the nonwords’ orthography. The children improved only in segmental accuracy (and not speech movement stability) and only as a consequence of practice (and not because of exposure to the nonwords’ spellings). Children with poorer reading skills demonstrated a greater change in accuracy from pretest to posttest than children with stronger reading skills. Thus, one’s automaticity in reading and the reorganization of his/her literacy skills throughout development influence speech production.
Seafloor Burial of Surrogate Unexploded Ordnance by Wave-Induced Sediment Instability

Burial of munitions and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the seafloor complicates the detection and remediation of associated threats in coastal areas. We observed up to 0.6-m burial of surrogate UXO placed near the 8-m isobath during a series of winter storm events from late January to early March 2015 in Duck, NC, USA. We used time series from a pressure sensor located roughly 1 m above the bed during the experiment to apply an existing analytical solution for dynamic poroelastic wave–sediment interaction. The analytical solution yielded the spatial and temporal distributions of wave-induced pore pressures and effective stresses, which were used to evaluate five different criteria for wave-induced sediment instability. Four of the criteria have been applied previously considering different deterministic or stochastic wave types, whereas the fifth is novel and may be regarded as a generalization of the Sleath condition for plug flow. Using the estimated maximum depths of sediment instability (or bed failure) as predictors for observed surrogate UXO burial depths, we concluded that criteria based on vertical effective stress and the vertical distribution of pore pressures were most accurate. We believe that our data and the accompanying analysis are unique in the literature, where field observations of wave pressures were combined with a dynamic wave–seafloor interaction model to make predictions of sediment failure depths that were validated against actual observations of surrogate UXO burial depths.
LRS-DAG: Low Resource Supervised Domain Adaptation with Generalization Across Domains.

Current state of the art methods in Domain Adaptation follow adversarial approaches, making training a challenge. Existing non-adversarial methods learn mappings between the source and target domains, to achieve reasonable performance. However, even these methods do not focus on a key aspect: maintaining performance on the source domain, even after optimizing over the target domain. Additionally, there exist very few methods in low resource supervised domain adaptation. This work proposes a method, LRS-DAG, that aims to solve these current issues in the field. By adding a set of "encoder layers" which map the target domain to the source, and can be removed when dealing directly with the source data, the model learns to perform optimally on both domains. LRS-DAG showcases its uniqueness by being a new algorithm for low resource domain adaptation which maintains performance over the source domain, with a new metric for learning mappings between domains being introduced. We show that, in the case of FCNs, when transferring from MNIST to SVHN, LRS-DAG performs comparably to fine tuning, with the advantage of maintaining performance over the source domain. LRS-DAG outperforms fine tuning when transferring to a synthetic dataset similar to MNIST, which is a setting more representative of low resource supervised domain adaptation.
Cobimetinib‐induced “dropped head syndrome” and subsequent disease management in an Erdheim‐Chester patient

Our rechallenge of cobimetinib in an Erdheim-Chester Disease (ECD) patient for the rare adverse effect, "dropped head syndrome," with a previously unexplored cobimetinib regimen was successful. Similar to other experiences with targeted agents in ECD, dosing of cobimetinib may vary to mitigate toxicity without impairing efficacy.
Upregulation of Lysyl Oxidase Expression in Vitreous of Diabetic Subjects: Implications for Diabetic Retinopathy

Animal studies have shown diabetes-induced lysyl oxidase (LOX) upregulation promotes blood-retinal-barrier breakdown and retinal vascular cell loss associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR). However, it is unclear whether changes in LOX expression contribute to the development and progression of DR. To determine if vitreous LOX levels are altered in patients with DR, 31 vitreous specimens from subjects with advanced proliferative DR (PDR), and 27 from non-diabetics were examined. The two groups were age- and gender-matched (57 ± 12 yrs vs. 53 ± 18 yrs; 19 males and 12 females vs. 17 males and 10 females). Vitreous samples obtained during vitrectomy were assessed for LOX levels using ELISA. LOX was detected in a larger number of PDR subjects (58%) than in non-diabetic subjects (15%). Additionally, ELISA measurements showed a significant increase in LOX levels in the diabetic subjects with PDR, compared to those of non-diabetic subjects (68.3 ± 112 ng/mL vs. 2.1 ± 8.2 ng/mL; p < 0.01). No gender difference in vitreous LOX levels was observed in either the diabetic or non-diabetic groups. Findings support previous reports of increased LOX levels in retinas of diabetic animals and in retinal vascular cells in high glucose condition, raising the prospect of targeting LOX overexpression as a potential target for PDR treatment.