cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Is Obama the Anti-Christ? Racial priming, extreme criticisms of Barack Obama, and attitudes toward the 2008 US presidential candidates

Abstract This study investigated the impact of subtle racial priming on the persuasive impact of criticisms of Barack Obama in the month prior to the 2008 presidential election. To prime Black or White race, participants wrote a paragraph about a student with a typical Black or White name. They then read editorials that accused Obama of being unpatriotic or being the Anti-Christ, or that listed his positions on major issues. Participants responded to both criticisms with diminished preferences for and more negative beliefs about Obama, but only when African–American race was primed. Interestingly, the Anti-Christ criticism increased preferences and positive beliefs about Obama in the absence of racial priming, suggesting this criticism may have lacked credibility under neutral conditions.
State-Owned Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Assessing Performance and Oversight

Based on a new database of State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) financial statements, we find that SOEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are mostly in poor financial shape. We estimate the overall size and composition of the SOE sector, and identify individual companies that affect fiscal and macroeconomic performance. Financial analysis suggests that SOEs are not contributing enough to the economy. We also review the SOE governance framework and find that governments do not exercise their ownership function in line with WB/OECD guidelines.Reforms to the governance frameworks are necessary to foster transparency and improve accountability. More fundamental reform of the SOE sector might increase overall GDP by 3percent per year.
The Role of Immune Checkpoint Therapy in Propagating Neurologic Immune-Related Adverse Events: Inducing or “Unmasking” Autoimmunity?

In 2010, a novel agent, ipilimumab, demonstrated improved survival rates in patients with previously untreatable metastatic melanoma.1 Ipilimumab was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 and launched a class of pharmaceuticals that would come to be known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Normally, the immune system monitors developing malignancies as they acquire progressive mutations and eliminates them through a process of immunoediting or immune surveillance.2 Select tumors learn to coopt self-tolerance mechanisms (immune checkpoints) to evade this immune detection. ICIs inhibit these negative regulators of T-cell activation, unleashing an unchecked immune response. Because this response is not specific to tumor antigens, a host of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can ensue. Neurologic irAEs are rare3 but provide diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. They also offer important insights into the mechanisms of autoimmunity.
Positional Therapies for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Positional therapies for obstructive sleep apnea produce moderate improvements (16% to 40%) in clinical apnea measures compared with no treatment.
Experiential QI Activity for Residents to Improve Women's Preventive Services.

Introduction The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires family medicine residents to complete a quality improvement (QI) project. There is a need for more QI training activities to be shared to meet this requirement. Our objective was to describe an activity for residents to improve women's preventive health services in an underserved clinic. Specific aims were to determine: (1) how women's receipt of preventive services compared to benchmarks, (2) physician and staff knowledge of the process and barriers to receiving services, and (3) whether an intervention to increase awareness among physicians and staff improved preventive services. Methods Residents (N=30) evaluated charts (N=505) to determine receipt of mammograms, pap tests, colon cancer screenings, and pneumonia vaccines. We compared estimates to existing clinic benchmarks. We presented initial (preintervention) results to physicians and staff at clinic team meetings. We collected perceptions of processes and barriers to preventive services. Preintervention methods were replicated (N=100) and results were compared (postintervention). Results Preintervention, mammograms (72%) and Pap tests (65%) were lower than clinic benchmarks. Most (81%) women ages 65 and older received a pneumonia vaccine; however, this was lower than the national Healthy People 2020 goal. Fear, knowledge, and scheduling were identified as top barriers. Post-intervention, there was a statistically significant increase in Pap tests (P=.0013). Conclusion This activity trained residents how to impact their practice through QI methods and can be used in other programs as a foundation for developing basic QI initiatives. Future efforts should focus on evaluating barriers to preventive services from the patient perspective.
Ontology of Object-Oriented Database Evolution

The need for expanded data representation and semantic capture resulted in the emergence of object-oriented databases. Representation of relationships beyond inheritance relationships, provision of separate development and working environments, and control of evolution for developing database systems are areas not yet adequately addressed. This work defines a specification hierarchy which provides expanded relationship representation and a development environment for database systems; and an ontological system constraining migration of classes and relationships from the development environment to the working environment.
Quantifying a Threshold of Missing Values for Gap Filling Processes in Daily Precipitation Series

Multiple missing levels are explored to quantify a threshold of missing values during gap filling processes in daily precipitation series. An autoregressive model was used to generate rainfall estimates and subsets of data are selected with four sampling windows (whole data, front, middle, and rear section) at different missing levels, including 5, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18 %. The proposed threshold was found and evaluated based on statistical criteria, including coefficient of determination (R2) and its associated index termed “the R2 difference index (RDI).” The result indicates that about 15 % missing level of data is plausible to construct daily precipitation series for further hydrological analysis when the Gamma distribution function (GDF) is used as an estimation method. The threshold determined from this study will contribute to gap filling guidelines, especially for water managers and hydrologists to take advantage of skillful estimates for missing daily precipitation data.
Detecting errors in multithreaded programs by generalized predictive analysis of executions

A predictive runtime analysis technique is proposed for detecting violations of safety properties from apparently successful executions of concurrent systems. In this paper we focus on concurrent systems developed using common object-oriented multithreaded programming languages, in particular, Java. Specifically, we provide an algorithm to observe execution traces of multithreaded programs and, based on appropriate code instrumentation that allows one to atomically extract a partial-order causality from a linear sequence of events, we predict other schedules that are compatible with the run. The technique uses a weak happens-before relation which orders a write of a shared variable with all its subsequent reads that occur before the next write to the variable. A permutation of the observed events is a possible execution of a program if and only if it does not contradict the weak happens-before relation. Even though an observed execution trace may not violate the given specification, our algorithm infers other possible executions (consistent with the observed execution) that violate the given specification, if such an execution exists. Therefore, it can predict concurrency errors from non-violating runs.
Job Shop Scheduling

This article contains a basic survey of job shop scheduling. It provides a description of two common formulations and a discussion of solution methods. Also included are extensions, applications, and future research directions. Keywords: disjunctive graph; dispatching rules; shifting bottleneck; heuristic
Caminhos atlânticos memória, patrimônio e representações da escravidão na Rota dos Escravos

O artigo examina as diferentes representacoes da escravidao e do trafico atlântico presentes na Rota dos Escravos da cidade de Ajuda, na atual Republica do Benim. Busca-se entender como estas representacoes exprimem e reconstroem diferentes memorias do passado escravista atlântico. Tenta-se mostrar que a Rota dos Escravos e um lugar construido, onde se percebem duas imagens do escravo, a da vitima absoluta e a do resistente. O percurso proposto sugere dois niveis de leitura: de um lado, os monumentos constituem uma encenacao, cujo objetivo e emocionar os descendentes da diaspora (principalmente os norteamericanos), que tem recursos financeiros para fazer turismo em paises estrangeiros; de outro lado, as estatuas concebidas pelo artista Cyprien Tokoudagaba e os templos existentes na Rota dos Escravos posicionam o visitante no cruzamento de diferentes memorias e diferentes historias da escravidao, onde a vitimizacao da lugar a afirmacao cultural que valoriza a arte, as religioes e as culturas africanas.
Armenian Terrorism: A Reappraisal

This article reappraises the strategic impact of Armenian terrorism in the twentieth century. From 1973 to 1985, Armenian terrorists earned a deadly and infamous international reputation by murdering Turkish diplomats or members of their families, along with many other non-involved third parties killed in the crossfire, during 188 terrorist operations worldwide. By the mid-1980s, however, Armenian terrorists had fallen into mindless but deadly internal fighting that resulted in the deaths of several of their leading members. Yet even with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight, it remains difficult to assess definitively the strategic influence exerted by Armenian terrorism. It was an excellent example of how one person's terrorist can be viewed by some as another's freedom fighter. In seeking revenge for past perceived wrongs and in pursuit of the goal of an independent state, Armenian terrorism also shared common characteristics with such other ethnic-based terrorist movements as the Irish and Palestinians. Although by practically all conventional standards of measurement its ultimate strategic impact was virtually nil, some might still argue that Armenian terrorism did help preserve the memory of what many call the twentieth-century's first or forgotten genocide.
A century of psychology as science.

Psychology as Science? The Disciplinary Status of Psychology Dominant 20th-Century Systems of Psychology The Special Fields of Psychology Sensory Processses and Perception, Learning, Motivation, Cognition, Development, Personality and Social Psychology Psychology and Philosophy Psychology and Mathematics Psychology and the Neurosciences Psychology and Evolutionary Biology Psychology and Linguistics Psychology and Aesthetics Psychology the Public Good - Psychology as Viewed and Practiced by the Humanist.
The incidence, prevalence, and severity of behavior disorders among preschool-aged children in day care.

This study examined the incidence, prevalence, and severity of 14 empirically derived externalizing (unsocialized aggressive) and internalizing (socially withdrawn) behaviors among 2- through 5-year-olds attending day care. Teacher ratings were obtained for 558 children in the incidence sample and 709 children in the expanded prevalence sample. Within each age, data were cross-tabulated by sex of child and severity of behavior, and chi-square analyses were computed. Results indicated that a substantial proportion of children in the normal preschool population exhibit relatively high severities of selected externalizing and internalizing behaviors; this proportion varied with the age of the child and the behavior rated. Preschool-aged boys were consistently rated as demonstrating greater frequencies of externalizing behaviors than preschool-aged girls. The diagnostic and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
The medical therapy of prostatic symptoms trial

Long-term combination therapy with doxazosin and finasteride was safe and reduced the risk of overall clinical progression of BPH significantly more than treatment with either drug alone. Combination therapy and finasteride alone reduced the long-term risk of acute urinary retention and the need for invasive therapy.
Intra-pericardial balloon retraction of the left atrium: a novel method to prevent esophageal injury during catheter ablation.

Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) is a useful treatment option for this common arrhythmia, reducing morbidity compared to drug therapy1. Methods and technology have improved in recent years, and it is has even been offered as first-line therapy in a few experienced centers2. Despite the promise of catheter ablation, a variety of serious complications have been reported, including pulmonary vein stenosis, cardiac perforation, thromboembolism, vascular complications, and phrenic nerve injury. Atrioesophageal fistula, thought to result from thermal injury of the esophagus due to its close apposition to the posterior left atrial (LA) wall3, is a rare but often fatal complication of catheter ablation for AF4. Several methods have been proposed for detecting and avoiding esophageal injury during left atrial catheter ablation, including fluoroscopic contrast visualization of the esophagus during the procedure5, which provides a rough guide but may underestimate the size of the esophagus6. Temperature monitoring also offers a means of detecting intraprocedural esophageal heating so radiofrequency application at that site can be discontinued7, 8. However, only a few active techniques for esophageal protection have been proposed, including mechanical deflection of the esophagus9 and active esophageal cooling10. These have not been widely used during ablation procedures; most experts advise simply limiting energy delivery near the esophagus and monitoring for heating. Our group has previously used an intra-pericardial balloon to protect the phrenic nerve during a catheter ablation procedure11. In the current communication, we demonstrate a novel technique, inflating an intra-pericardial balloon between the left atrium and esophagus to prevent esophageal injury during ablation of the posterior LA wall.
Sugar Transport: Effect of Temperature on Concentrative Uptake of α-Methylglucoside by Kidney Cortex Slices

The ability of renal cortical slices to accumulate a monosaccharide is enhanced at temperatures below 37°C. Increase in concentration gradients occurs despite a decrease in total sugar flux. The apparent explanation for this paradox is a proportionally greater inhibition of efflux.
Acetaminophen hepatotoxicity: Correspondence of selective protein arylation in human and mouse liver in vitro, in culture, and in vivo

Abstract Human and mouse liver were exposed to an APAP-activating system, in vitro. Subsequent immunochemical analysis of electrophoretically separated proteins with an affinity-purified anti-APAP antibody indicated that when a cytosolic fraction from human liver was incubated with APAP, an NADPH-regenerating system, and mouse microsomes selective APAP binding occurred predominantly to proteins of approximately 38, 58, and 130 kDa. To evaluate whether similar proteins are targeted in situ, primary cultures of human hepatocytes were treated with 10 m m APAP for 4 hr prior to immunochemical analysis. APAP binding was again detected in protein bands of approximately 38, 58, and 130 kDa. In addition, selective binding was also noted to other cytosolic protein bands, e.g., approximately 52 and 62 kDa. For mouse liver, the majority of the binding, in vitro or in culture, was to proteins of approximately 44 and 58 kDa with lesser binding to proteins of approximately 33 and 130 kDa among others. By contrast, at the times monitored, little covalent binding was detected in the 44-kDa region in the human liver experiments. Most noteworthy was the finding that when the protein arylation patterns on liver samples from a human APAP fatality were compared to those from a mouse given a hepatotoxic dose of APAP, the binding patterns were similar to those detected after the in vitro and the culture experiments with mouse and human livers. Furthermore, an immunohistochemical analysis revealed that as with the mouse. APAP covalent binding in the human liver exhibited a distinct zonal pattern consistent with centrilobular binding. That APAP arylation of the 58- and 130-kDa proteins was observed in livers from both mice and humans suggests that the mouse provides a valid model for studying the mechanistic importance of covalent binding Elucidation of the identities and functions of the common targeted proteins may clarify their toxicological significance.
Piezoelectric Active-Sensor Diagnostics and Validation Using Instantaneous Baseline Data

This paper presents a signal processing tool that efficiently performs piezoelectric (PZT) sensor diagnostic and validation. Validation of the sensor/actuator functionality during structural health monitoring (SHM) operation is a critical component to successfully implement a complete and robust SHM system, especially with an array of PZT active-sensors involved. The basis of this method is to track the capacitive value of PZT transducers, which manifests in the imaginary part of the measured electrical admittance. Both degradation of the mechanical/electrical properties of a PZT transducer and the bonding defects between a PZT patch and a host structure can be identified by the proposed process. However, it is found that the temperature variations in sensor boundary conditions manifest themselves in similar ways in the measured electrical admittances. Therefore, we examine the effects of temperature variation on the sensor diagnostic process and develop an efficient signal processing tool that enables the identification of a sensor validation feature that can be obtained instantaneously without relying on prestored baselines. This paper concludes with experimental results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Wee Warriors: Youth Involvement in the Norther Irish Troubles

The Northern Irish “Troubles” refers to the bloody 30-year conflict, from 1968 to 1998, largely centered in Belfast between the Loyalist who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of Great Britain and the Republicans who wanted independence. The extremely violent conflict took more than 3,600 lives, resulted in more than 40,000 serious injuries, and deeply affected almost every person in Northern Ireland. The violence occurred almost daily, right in the city streets. Of particular note is the extent to which Northern Irish youth were involved in the struggle and the degree of the sacrifice many made for the respective causes. This study seeks to gain insight into the reasons for this element of this unique conflict.
Uric acid translocation from the fat body of Manduca sexta during the pupal-adult transformation: Effects of 20-hydroxyecdysone

Abstract The uric acid concentration in the fat body and haemolymph of the lepidopteran, Manduca sexta (L.) (tobacco hornworm) was determined for each day between pupation and adult eclosion. Uric acid levels in the fat body remained at about 0.5 μmol/mg dry wt until 16 days after pupation (day 16), then decreased rapidly to
The coming revolution in RF electronics

This paper is about the biography of Dr. Mark J. Rosker. He joined the Rockwell Scientific Co. (RSC) in 1989. This group is well known for its pioneering development of millimeter wave quasi-optics, GaAs PHEMT and InP HEMT MMICs, photonic bandgap-based millimeter wave waveguides, and electronically scanned antenna technologies.
Metabolic De-Isotoping for Improved LC-MS Characterization of Modified RNAs

Mapping, sequencing, and quantifying individual noncoding ribonucleic acids (ncRNAs), including post-transcriptionally modified nucleosides, by mass spectrometry is a challenge that often requires rigorous sample preparation prior to analysis. Previously, we have described a simplified method for the comparative analysis of RNA digests (CARD) that is applicable to relatively complex mixtures of ncRNAs. In the CARD approach for transfer RNA (tRNA) analysis, two complete sets of digestion products from total tRNA are compared using the enzymatic incorporation of 16O/18O isotopic labels. This approach allows one to rapidly screen total tRNAs from gene deletion mutants or comparatively sequence total tRNA from two related bacterial organisms. However, data analysis can be challenging because of convoluted mass spectra arising from the natural 13C and 15 N isotopes present in the ribonuclease-digested tRNA samples. Here, we demonstrate that culturing in 12C-enriched/13C-depleted media significantly reduces the isotope patterns that must be interpreted during the CARD experiment. Improvements in data quality yield a 35 % improvement in detection of tRNA digestion products that can be uniquely assigned to particular tRNAs. These mass spectral improvements lead to a significant reduction in data processing attributable to the ease of spectral identification of labeled digestion products and will enable improvements in the relative quantification of modified RNAs by the 16O/18O differential labeling approach.
Cross-correlation Estimates of Telluric and Magnetotelluric Parameters

Procedures using cross-correlation functions to analyze telluric and magnetotelluric field data can be designed which, in certain applications, are more efficient than conventional techniques using fast Fourier transforms. One such application, involving the processing ofband-limited data, is presented here. The linear coupling relations between fields in a limited frequency band are estimated from transient time series by minimizing, in a least squares sense, the residuals between observed and predicted values of the frequency coefficients. The resulting normal equations contain integral averages over the continuous auto- and cross-energy spectra which are efficiently evaluated as Fourier transforms of windowed auto- and cross-correlation functions in the time domain.
Degenerate elliptic operators diagonal systems and variational integrals

Using a simple quasiconformal transformation of the independent variables it is shown how some regularity results for weak solutions of quasilinear elliptic systems generalize to several cases where the ellipticity of the principal part degenerates. Similarly it is possible to study the regularity of minima of degenerate variational integrals, as well as elliptic equations and systems in unbounded domains.
Binding of arsenicals to proteins in an in vitro methylation system.

The dynamics of interactions between rat liver cytosolic proteins and arsenicals were examined in anin vitromethylation system that contained cytosol, glutathione,S-adenosylmethionine, and 1 μm[73As]arsenite. After incubation at 37°C for up to 90 min, low-molecular-weight components of the assay system (<10 kDa) were removed by ultrafiltration and cytosolic proteins were separated by size-exclusion chromatography on Sephacryl S-300 gel. Five73As-labeled protein peaks were found in chromatographic profiles. The estimated molecular masses of73As-labeled proteins eluting in the three earliest peaks were as follows:Vo, ≥1000 kDa; A, 135 kDa; and B, 38 kDa. Peak C eluted immediately before the total volume (VT) of the chromatographic column; peak D eluted after theVT.73As bound to proteins was released by CuCl treatment and speciated by thin-layer chromatography. Amounts and ratios of inorganic As, methyl As, and dimethyl As associated with cytosolic proteins depended upon the incubation interval. Inorganic As was present in all protein peaks. Methyl As was primarily associated with peaks A and C; dimethyl As was associated with peaks B and C. To examine the effect of valence on the binding of methylarsenicals to cytosolic proteins, trivalent or pentavalent14C-labeled methyl As or dimethyl As was incubated in anin vitrosystem designed to minimize the enzymatically catalyzed production of methylated arsenicals. Proteins in peaks A, B, and C bound preferentially trivalent methyl and dimethyl As. Peak D bound either trivalent or pentavalent methyl and dimethyl As. Protein-bound inorganic and methyl As were substrates for the production of dimethyl As in anin vitromethylation system, suggesting a role for protein-bound arsenicals in the biomethylation of this metalloid.
RNA-binding proteins of 37/38 kDa bind specifically to the barley chloroplast psbA 3′-end untranslated RNA

The stability of the psbA mRNA increases during barley chloroplast development eventually reaching a half-life of over 40 h. Translation of psbA mRNA is also regulated in a complex way. Sequence-specific RNA binding proteins may modulate the translation or stability of the psbA mRNA during chloroplast development. UV cross-linking assays revealed that chloroplast proteins of 37 and 38 kDa bind specifically to the 3′ end of psbA transcripts and not to the 5′ end of psbA or rbcL transcripts. The two RNA-binding proteins were partially purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by heparin agarose chromatography. Deletion and site-directed mutation analysis demonstrated that the 37/38RNPs bind in a 30 nucleotide region immediately downstream from the translation termination codon and upstream of sequences capable of forming a stem-loop structure in the 3′ end of psbA transcripts. Single-base changes that diminish the binding of the 37RNP also reduce binding of the 38RNP suggesting that these proteins may bind as a heterodimer. The 37/38RNPs that bind within the 3′ end of psbA transcripts could modulate transcription termination, translation or mRNA stability.
Peroxynitrite/Nitric Oxide Balance in Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury-Nanomedical Approach

Electrochemical nanosensors were used to simultaneously monitor in vitro (a single endothelial cell) and in vivo (vasculature of rat) the concentrations of NO (vasorelaxant), cytotoxic O (oxidative stress) and ONOO− (nitroxidative stress). A balance of [NO]/[ONOO−]=(K) was applied as the diagnostic marker of dysfunctional endothelium and cardiovascular disease. In the isolated endothelium of normotensive rats, K= 2.8±0.1 while in hypertensive rats, K=0.4±0.1. During ischemia, K dropped from 7±1 to 1.4±0.2 and further decreased to 0.05±0.01 during reperfusion. The edema and vasoconstriction, indicators of vascular injury, correlated directly with the decrease in K.
Effect of Virtual Reality Graded Exposure on Heart Rate and Self-Reported Anxiety Levels of Performing Saxophonists:

This study is an examination of the effect of computer-generated virtual reality graded exposure on the physiological and psychological responses of performing musicians. Eight university saxophone...
DICOM server for computed tomography and magnetic resonance acquisition to an archive

As part of the Picture Archiving and Communication System effort at the University of Florida, two General Electric high speed advantage CT scanners, a General Electric CT independent review console, a Siemens Magnatom MR imager and a General Electric Signa Advantage MR imager have been connected to a common image archive. Clinical images have been archived from these scanners for about 2 years resulting in about .75 Terabytes of image data. The original archive connections for these scanners were proprietary vendor connections which have recently been replaced by a DICOM implementation utilizing the TCP/IP protocol. A description of the old and new systems will be presented as well as a basic description of the DICOM server which was developed. Timing measurements of the performance of both the old and new interfaces were performed and are presented as well.
Overview of nuclear-pumped lasers

Progress in the development of Nuclear Pumped Lasers (NPLs) that employ high-energy ions created by neutron-induced nuclear reactions is briefly reviewed. Most early studies concentrated on noble gas NPLs. While a 1-kW 3He-Ar laser has been reported, noble gas systems cannot fully exploit high energy capability of NPLs. Thus recent studies have generally focused on other gases and a dual media approach. As an example, current studies of the production of O2(1Δ) for use with a mixing-type iodine laser are described. Two approaches are considered: direct nuclear pumping and photolytic decomposition of O3. The O2 (1Δ)-I2 NPL would have the advantages of tons of millisecond energy storage times. The potential use of such a NPL as a driver for an inertial confinement fusion reactor has some attractive features and is examined in some detail.
Lack of correlation between physiological and morphological features of regenerating frog neuromuscular junctions.

Abstract Morphological, ultrastructural and electrophysiological properties of endplates in the frog cutaneous pectoris muscle were monitored at various times after nerve crush. The lengths of regenerating terminals were measured in nitroblue tetrazolium-stained material. Quantal content and the frequency of spontaneous potentials were obtained from intracellular records, and they were correlated to individual terminal lengths in order to normalize their values to a standard unit of terminal length. By day 16 after nerve crush, terminal length reached a plateau near 90% of normal. In contrast, quantal content per unit terminal length quickly recovered to 67% of normal by 7–12 days but did not increase thereafter. The frequency of spontaneous potentials per unit terminal length returned much more slowly, as it remained low (near 18% of normal) throughout the entire first month before recovering to normal levels later on. Ultrastructural observations on terminal size, densities of mitochondria and synaptic vesicles, and multiple innervation could not explain these different recovery rates. It is concluded that terminal length, spontaneous transmitter release and evoked transmitter release, are not restored in parallel after reinnervation.
EasyABC: performing efficient approximate Bayesian computation sampling schemes using R

Summary Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), a type of likelihood-free inference, is a family of statistical techniques to perform parameter estimation and model selection. It is increasingly used in ecology and evolution, where the models used can be too complex to be handled with standard likelihood techniques. The essence of ABC techniques is to compare simulation outputs to observed data, in order to select the parameter values of the simulations which best fit the data. ABC techniques are thus computationally demanding. This constitutes a key limitation to their implementation. We introduce the R package ‘EasyABC’ that enables one to launch a series of simulations from the R platform and to retrieve the simulation outputs in an appropriate format for post-processing. The ‘EasyABC’ package further implements several efficient parameter sampling schemes to speed up the ABC procedure: on top of the standard prior sampling, it implements various algorithms to perform sequential (ABC-sequential) and Markov chain Monte Carlo (ABC-MCMC) sampling schemes. The package functions can furthermore make use of parallel computing. The R package ‘EasyABC’ complements the package ‘abc’ which enables various post-processing of simulation outputs. ‘EasyABC’ makes several state-of-the-art ABC implementations available to the large community of R users in the fields of ecology and evolution. It is a freely available R package under the GPL license, and it can be downloaded at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/EasyABC/index.html.
On the Construction of Minimum-Time Tours for a Dubins Vehicle in the Presence of Uncertainties

We propose an approach to the problem of computing a minimum-time tour through a series of waypoints for a Dubins vehicle in the presence of stochasticity. In this paper, we explicitly account for kinematic nonlinearities, the stochastic drift of the vehicle, the stochastic motion of the targets, and the possibility for the vehicle to service each of the targets or waypoints, leading to a new version of the Dubins vehicle traveling salesperson problem (TSP). Based on the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation, we first compute the minimum expected time feedback control to reach one waypoint. Next, minimum expected times associated with the feedback control are used to construct and solve a TSP. We provide numerical results illustrating our solution, analyze how the stochasticity affects the solution, and consider the possibility for on-line recomputation of the waypoint ordering in a receding-horizon manner.
Recent developments in the study of molybdoenzyme models

Over the past two decades, a plethora of crystal structures of molybdenum enzymes has appeared in the literature providing a clearer picture of the enzymatic active sites and increasing the challenge to chemists to develop accurate models for those sites. In this minireview we discuss the most recent model studies aimed to reproduce detailed features of the pterin–dithiolene ligand, both as the uncoordinated form and as a chelate coordinated to molybdenum.
Managing mobile platform power

Power consumption has been one of the major design considerations for more than a decade [6]. Hence, energy efficient techniques have been widely studied to harness the processing power within available power and thermal budgets [3][4][10]. With the proliferation of smart mobile devices, the criticality of energy efficiency is multiplied. On one hand, increasing computational power as well as sensing, storage, and communication capabilities open up wide range of power-hungry application domains. On the other hand, the battery life rises as one of the major concerns of the end user [9]. Furthermore, these fanless devices are subject to tight surface, or skin, temperature constraints which limit the peak power consumption, since the skin temperature directly affects the user experience (UX). As a result, power management techniques crafted specifically for smart mobile devices become necessary. In this paper, we review three differentiating aspects for managing the power of smart mobile devices. More specifically, we emphasize the importance of platform view, user experience and platform level optimization.
The Contribution of Interleukin-1 and Tumor Necrosis Factor to Periodontal Tissue Destruction

Interleukin (IL)-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) represent proinflammatory cytokines that stimulate a number of events which occur during periodontal disease. These include the induction of adhesion molecules and other mediators that facilitate and amplify the inflammatory response, the stimulation of matrix metalloproteinase, and bone resorption. The activity of these cytokines coincides with the critical events that occur during periodontal disease, namely, loss of attachment and bone resorption. The use of antagonists to IL-1 and TNF in experimental periodontitis have demonstrated a cause-and-effect relationship between the activity of these cytokines and the spread of an inflammatory front to deeper areas in the connective tissue, loss of connective tissue attachment, osteoclast formation, and loss of alveolar bone. In addition, the loss of fibroblasts that occurs during infection with periodontal pathogens is, in part, mediated by TNF. Thus, much of the damage that occurs during periodontal tissue ...
Effects of temperature and storage time on the phagocytic activity of leucocytes of milk.

Abstract Previous findings that leucocytes are quite effective in reducing raw milk bacterial counts were verified. Phagocytosis occurred at a faster rate as incubation temperatures were increased to 21C. Therefore, slow cooling of milk containing high numbers of leucocytes will likely result in large reductions of bacterial counts. Leucocytes of milk retain their phagocytic activity for about 24 hr at temperatures up to 10C. However, as either time or temperature of storage is increased, activity decreases rapidly. Freezing inactivates leucocytes. Pasteurization causes disruption of a large percentage of leucocytes. Heat quickly impairs their phagocytic ability.
Brain-reactive antibodies in serum of germ-free mice

Abstract An attempt has been made to determine whether the antigen responsible for the induction of brain-reactive antibodies is endogenous or exogenous in origin. Twenty-four germ-free and 24 control mice have been used in this study. It has been noted that in the 11–12 months age group 50% of control and 33% of germ-free mice showed the presence of brain-reactive antibodies in their sera by the immunofluorescence method. There was not a significant difference in the percentage of cells with specific fluorescence between the two groups. The present study indicates that brain-reactive antibodies found in the sera of old mice are probably produced by the autostimulation of the immune system by the animals' own brain tissues rather than by exogenous microbial agents.
Biomarkers for risk stratification of febrile neutropenia among children with malignancy: a pilot study.

Background Patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy remain at increased risk for developing febrile neutropenia (FN). For this heterogeneous population, a biomarker based risk stratification of FN patients may be a useful clinical tool. We hypothesized that serum biomarkers during initial presentation of an FN event could be predictive of subsequent clinical outcome. Procedure Eighty-nine FN events from 36 non-consecutive subjects were analyzed. “High-risk” FN criteria included prolonged hospitalization (≥7 days), admission to pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) or a microbiology confirmed bacteremia. Patients with “low risk” FN had none of the above. Biomarkers measured during the first 2 days of FN hospitalization were analyzed and correlated with respective clinical outcome. Results Of the 89 FN events, 44 (49%) fulfilled pre-defined high-risk criteria and 45 (51%) were low-risk. Procalcitonin level (>0.11 ng/ml) was found to be associated with the high-risk FN outcome with sensitivity of 97%. With an increase in log scale by 1, the odds of being high-risk FN increased twofold. Hs-CRP >100 mg/L had sensitivity of 88% in predicting high-risk FN. The odds of a high-risk FN event increased by approximately 1.8-fold with an increase in the log scale of hs-CRP by 1 (10-fold). In univariate analysis, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 were statistically significant and associated with high-risk FN. However, no statistically significant difference was found for IL-1α, sIL-2Ra, IL-3, or TNF-α. Conclusions Biomarkers with appropriate critical threshold values may be a useful clinical tool for appropriate risk stratification of children with FN. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012;59:238–245. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The use of friction in the shaping of a flat sheet into a hemisphere

An analysis is given for the use of friction to control the thickness distribution in a hemispherical preform shell. As the friction is changed between a hemispherical punch and an initially flat sheet that is to be formed into a hemispherical shell, the thickness distribution of the resulting shell changes. When the friction is low, the shell tends to be thinner near the pole of the hemisphere than near the equator. As the friction between the sheet and the punch surface increases, the thinning of the shell moves away from the pole toward the equator. The results of the analysis were validated by experiments with a natural rubber sheet that had the deformability necessary to test the predictions of the analysis. The friction distribution necessary to yield a shell of uniform thickness was also derived, and two-zone and three-zone combinations of constant friction that yield approximately uniform thickness in the resulting hemispherical shell were also obtained.
On capacity allocation for operating rooms

This paper studies capacity planning decisions that allocate surgical specialties to operating-room (OR) days with the objective of minimizing total expected costs due to penalties for any patients who are not accommodated and for under- (i.e., idleness) and over- (i.e., overtime) usage of OR capacity. It presents a prototypical non-linear, stochastic programming model to structure relevant and practical features of the problem and four adaptations, along with associated solution approaches, with the goal of facilitating solution by overcoming the computational disadvantages of the prototype. Each of these adaptations offers advantages but is also attended by disadvantages. Computational tests compare the four adaptations and solution approaches with respect to solution quality and run time.
Mathematical Explanation in Science

Does mathematics ever play an explanatory role in science? If so then this opens the way for scientific realists to argue for the existence of mathematical entities using inference to the best explanation. Elsewhere I have argued, using a case study involving the primenumbered life cycles of periodical cicadas, that there are examples of indispensable mathematical explanations of purely physical phenomena. In this paper I respond to objections to this claim that have been made by various philosophers, and I discuss potential future directions of research for each side in the debate over the existence of
Prevalence of Bacterial Vaginosis and Candida among Postmenopausal Women in the United States

OBJECTIVES To describe the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) and Candida among community-dwelling postmenopausal women in the United States and determine their change with age, using estimates based on Waves 1 and 2 of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP). METHOD Self-administered vaginal swabs were collected in-home from women aged 57-85 (n = 1,016) in Wave 1 and again 5 years later in Wave 2 (n = 883). Gram-stained specimens were evaluated for BV using the Nugent score as well as presence of Candida. RESULTS BV was prevalent in 23% and 38% of postmenopausal women in Waves 1 and 2 and increased with age. Women initially categorized with BV in Wave 1 were more than 10 times as likely to be categorized with BV in Wave 2, relative risk ratio (RRR) = 10.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) (4.45-24.7); p < .001, whereas women initially categorized as intermediate in Wave 1 were five times more likely to have a BV categorization, RRR = 5.0; 95% CI (2.56-9.75); p < .001. Although the presence of Candida was similar in both waves (6% and 5%), its relationship with age only became evident in Wave 2, with odds of detecting Candida decreasing by 7% with each year of age, OR = 0.93, 95% CI (0.88, 0.98); p = .010. DISCUSSION In Wave 2, the prevalence of BV was higher and increased with age while the prevalence of Candida was low and declined with age. A 5-year age increase contributed to the prevalence change across waves. Methods refinements in Wave 2 improved the detection of BV and Candida and clarified their relationship with age.
Symmetry breaking of solitons in two-dimensional complex potentials.

Symmetry breaking is reported for continuous families of solitons in the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a two-dimensional complex potential. This symmetry breaking is forbidden in generic complex potentials. However, for a special class of partially parity-time-symmetric potentials, it is allowed. At the bifurcation point, two branches of asymmetric solitons bifurcate out from the base branch of symmetry-unbroken solitons. Stability of these solitons near the bifurcation point are also studied, and two novel properties for the bifurcated asymmetric solitons are revealed. One is that at the bifurcation point, zero and simple imaginary linear-stability eigenvalues of asymmetric solitons can move directly into the complex plane and create oscillatory instability. The other is that the two bifurcated asymmetric solitons, even though having identical powers and being related to each other by spatial mirror reflection, can possess different types of unstable eigenvalues and thus exhibit nonreciprocal nonlinear evolutions under random-noise perturbations.
Current results from a rover science data analysis system

The Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System (OASIS) evaluates geologic data gathered by a planetary rover. This analysis is used to prioritize the data for transmission, so that the data with the highest science value is transmitted to Earth. In addition, the onboard analysis results are used to identify science opportunities. A planning and scheduling component of the system enables the rover to take advantage of the identified science opportunity. OASIS is a NASA-funded research project that is currently being tested on the FIDO rover at JPL for use on future missions. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the OASIS system, and then describe our recent successes in integrating with and using rover hardware. OASIS currently works in a closed loop fashion with onboard control software (e.g., navigation and vision) and has the ability to autonomously perform the following sequence of steps: analyze gray scale images to find rocks, extract the properties of the rocks, identify rocks of interest, retask the rover to take additional imagery of the identified target and then allow the rover to continue on its original mission. We also describe the early 2004 ground test validation of specific OASIS components on selected Mars exploration rover (MER) images. These components include the rock-finding algorithm, RockIT, and the rock size feature extraction code. Our team also developed the RockIT GUI, an interface that allows users to easily visualize and modify the rock-finder results. This interface has allowed us to conduct preliminary testing and validation of the rock-finder's performance.
Thermal head wrap for infants.

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The recovery of acetic acid with sulfur dioxide

Abstract This paper studies the reaction between SO2 and calcium acetate, which potentially can be used to recover acetic acid from the anaerobic fermentation broth with a SO2 waste stream. The conversion of given amounts of calcium acetate to acetic acid was evaluated under different reaction temperatures and flow rates of SO2. Analyses of concentrations of the produced acetic acid indicated that the reactions between SO2 and calcium acetate were complete under all experimental conditions.