cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A novel thermal accelerant for augmentation of microwave energy during image-guided tumor ablation

The greatest challenge in image-guided thermal ablation (IGTA) of liver tumors is a relatively high recurrence rate (ca. 30%) due to incomplete ablation. To meet this challenge, we have developed a novel Thermal Accelerator (TA) to demonstrate its capability to, 1) augment microwave (MW) energy from a distance unattainable by antenna alone; 2) turn into a gel at body temperature; 3) act as a CT or US contrast. We have examined the TA efficiency using in vitro and ex vivo models: microwave power, TA dose, frequencies and TA-to-tip distance were varied, and temperature readings compared with and without TA. Using the in vitro model, it was established that both the rate and magnitude of increase in ablation zone temperature were significantly greater with TA under all tested conditions (p<0.0001). On ultrasound imaging, the TA was echogenic as gel. On CT, TA density was proportional to dose, with average values ranging from 329 HU to 3071 HU at 10 mg/mL and 1,000mg/mL, respectively. TA can be accurately deposited to a target area using CT or US as image-guidance and augment MW energy effectively so that ablation time is significantly reduced, which will contribute to complete ablation. The preliminary results obtained from in vivo experiments using swine as an animal model are consistent with the observations made in in vitro and en vivo studies.
Of Loaded Weapons and the AUMF: The Case for a Provisional Approach to the Guantanamo Habeas Suits

This Article argues the Guantanamo habeas rulings that have followed the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush should be afforded only the most provisional status as legal precedent. The recent case law hinges on an interpretation of the AUMF that the word “force” includes the power to detain, but I argue that this interpretation has been a product of judicial crisis management born of necessity. Judges have been filling a policy void from both political branches on preventive detention. They have improvised a system for separating out those who truly ought to be released from those who might pose a threat, but, absent any interventions by Congress, the rulings so far should serve as no more than provisional means for dealing with this particular group of detainees. A provisional approach to the rulings’ interpretation of the AUMF is appropriate because Congress did not discuss any issues related to detention at the time of the AUMF’s passage and never has voted upon the matter since; higher courts have left trial courts with almost no guidance on the matter; and the executive branch under the Obama administration has shown no broader desire to make preventive detention the law of the land.My argument proceeds in five Parts. Part I briefly describes the substance of the habeas rulings, their broad areas of consensus, and the disconnect that this emerging consensus has produced when compared to public discourse over detention in Guantanamo. Part II discusses the “democracy gap” in our current detention policy, arguing that the AUMF was never understood as an authorization for long-term detention at the time of its passage and was never discussed as such. It also argues that subsequent legislation, including the 2006 and 2009 Military Commissions Acts and the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act, should not be seen as congressional ratifications of detention policy. Part III explores the gaps that the dynamic between the Supreme Court and Congress has produced, the Court having insisted on some level of legal process but refusing to set any concrete guidelines, and Congress failing to pass any serious policy resolutions. Part IV turns to examine the executive branch, arguing that the Obama administration has delegated detention law to the courts as its least bad option for “unwinding” the situation it inherited. It examines the administration’s legal position with regard to detention and argues that this position, while similar on the surface to that of the Bush administration, should also be viewed as provisional and backward looking. Part V stakes out the case for a provisional approach and describes the contours that such an approach would take, including how and to whom this line of cases should be limited.
Effects of delayed NSAID administration after experimental eccentric contraction injury – A cellular and proteomics study

Background Acute muscle injuries are exceedingly common and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely consumed to reduce the associated inflammation, swelling and pain that peak 1–2 days post-injury. While prophylactic use or early administration of NSAIDs has been shown to delay muscle regeneration and contribute to loss of muscle strength after healing, little is known about the effects of delayed NSAID use. Further, NSAID use following non-penetrating injury has been associated with increased risk and severity of infection, including that due to group A streptococcus, though the mechanisms remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the effects of delayed NSAID administration on muscle repair and sought mechanisms supporting an injury/NSAID/infection axis. Methods A murine model of eccentric contraction (EC)-induced injury of the tibialis anterior muscle was used to profile the cellular and molecular changes induced by ketorolac tromethamine administered 47 hr post injury. Results NSAID administration inhibited several important muscle regeneration processes and down-regulated multiple cytoprotective proteins known to inhibit the intrinsic pathway of programmed cell death. These activities were associated with increased caspase activity in injured muscles but were independent of any NSAID effect on macrophage influx or phenotype switching. Conclusions These findings provide new molecular evidence supporting the notion that NSAIDs have a direct negative influence on muscle repair after acute strain injury in mice and thus add to renewed concern about the safety and benefits of NSAIDS in both children and adults, in those with progressive loss of muscle mass such as the elderly or patients with cancer or AIDS, and those at risk of secondary infection after trauma or surgery.
Power analysis for RNA-Seq differential expression studies

Sample size calculation and power estimation are essential components of experimental designs in biomedical research. It is very challenging to estimate power for RNA-Seq differential expression under complex experimental designs. Moreover, the dependency among genes should be taken into account in order to obtain accurate results. In this paper, we propose a simulation based procedure for power estimation using the negative binomial distribution and assuming a generalized linear model (at the gene level) that considers the dependence between gene expression level and its variance (dispersion) and also allows equal or unequal dispersion across conditions. We compared the performance of both Wald test and likelihood ratio test under different scenarios. The null distribution of the test statistics was simulated for the desired false positive control to avoid excess false positives with the usage of an asymptotic chi-square distribution. We applied this method to the TCGA breast cancer data set. We provide a framework for power estimation of RNA-Seq data. The proposed procedure is able to properly control the false positive error rate at the nominal level.
A Systems Approach to Computing in Beyond CMOS Fabrics: Invited

Emerging applications require computing platforms to extract task-relevant information from increasingly large amounts of data. These requirements place stringent constraints on energy efficiency, throughput, latency, and for certain data types, security and privacy of computing platforms. Traditionally, silicon CMOS scaling has been relied upon to meet these energy and delay constraints. However, the energy and delay benefits achievable via scaling are diminishing. Increased vulnerability to various sources of variations (e.g., process, voltage) further exacerbates these energy and speed challenges.
Robust Controller Synthesis for Systems with Input-Output Nonlinearities: A Trade-Off Between Gain Variation and Parametric Uncertainty

Abstract A feedback control-system design problem involving input-output nonlinearities and structured plant parameter uncertainties is considered. Multivariable absolute stability theory is merged with the guaranteed cost control approach to robust stability and performance to obtain a theory of full- and reduced-order robust control design that accounts for input-output time-varying sector bounded nonlinearities. The principal result. is a sufficient condition for characterizing dynamic controllers of a fixed dimension which are guaranteed to provide robust stability for plant parametric variations and absolute stabilization for input nonlinearities.
The Effects of Medical Well Baby Visits in Promoting Earlier First Dental Visits for Children

The objective of the study was to assess the effects of medical well baby visits in promoting earlier first dental visits. We analyzed Iowa Medicaid claims data (2000-2013). The sample included 4 cohorts of children born in 2000, 2003, 2007, or 2010 and enrolled in Medicaid from birth (N = 38,211). Children were followed for 3 y. The independent variables were cohort year and medical well baby visit frequency during 3 time periods (birth to age 10 mo, ages 11-19 mo, ages 20-36 mo). We used survival analyses to estimate first dental visit rates. First dental visit rates improved significantly from 2000 to 2013, with children in latter cohorts having significantly earlier first dental visits. Children with more medical well baby visits before age 11 mo had significantly delayed first dental visit rates than children with fewer medical well baby visits. The opposite was observed for children with more medical well baby visits between ages 11 to 19 mo and ages 20 to 36 mo. First dental visit rates for Medicaid-enrolled children have improved, but there continues to be a need for early interventions to improve age 1 dental visits and other preventive oral health behaviors. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The results of this study can be used by policy makers when developing strategies to improve access to dental care for young children in Medicaid. With consideration to promoting earlier preventive dental visits for publicly insured children, this study could lead to early interventions and improved health outcomes.
Impacts of Biodiesel Applied to the Transportation Fleets in the Greater Houston Area

Houston, the fourth largest metropolis in the US, currently experiences severe air pollution. Major pollutants, such as VOCs, CO, , PM, , CH4, and CO2, are released from the transportation fleets. To decrease fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions from fleet vehicles, more and more biodiesel is used in vehicles in the Houston metropolis. The GREET model was used for simulating the fuel cycle emissions of diesel vehicles using different biodiesel blends in Houston. The fuels examined were diesel-biodiesel blends of B0, B5, B20, B50, B80, and B100. The energy and water use and emissions from vehicles fueled with the blends were investigated. The study shows that the reductions in GHG emissions are significant at the Well-to-Pump stage, and all the emissions, except GHGs and , reduce at the Pump-to-Wheel stage. The overall Well-to-Wheel analysis shows that biodiesel is beneficial for both passenger cars and heavy duty trucks. However, the benefits are more pronounced for passenger cars compared to heavy duty vehicles. When 50% of diesel passenger cars and HDDTs are switched to B20 in the Greater Houston area in 2025, the daily GHG emissions will be reduced by 2.0 and 712.1 CO2-equivalent tonnes, respectively.
Annals for Hospitalists Inpatient Notes - Managing Acute Pain in the Hospital in the Face of the Opioid Crisis

The combination of pain and opioid use is ubiquitous among hospitalized patients, with more than half of medical patients and almost all surgical patients receiving these drugs during hospitalizati...
Comparing Preventable Hospitalizations Among Veterans With and Without Mental Illnesses Before and After Implementation of PACT

Objectives:The authors examined whether the rate of preventable hospitalizations among veterans with mental illness changed after implementation of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) primary c...
A Hard Day’s Night: Provision of Public Evening Schools in the United States, 1870–1910

In the United States, enrollment in public evening schools increased throughout the nineteenth century. The expansion of evening schools was far from uniform across space, however, with some cities embracing this form of education much more readily than others. This paper brings together information from the Census, Annual Reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, states’ school superintendent’s reports and factory inspection reports, and various secondary sources to examine the diffusion of public evening schools in the U.S. Although proponents of evening schools often cited the welfare of working children as the primary rationale for providing this type of education alternative, the econometric evidence suggests that the political economy of evening school provision hinged more on school boards’ responsiveness to differences in immigration levels and school overcrowding than exogenous differences in the proportion of children working.
Evaluating U.S. East Coast Winter Storms in a Multimodel Ensemble Using EOF and Clustering Approaches

AbstractEmpirical orthogonal function (EOF) and fuzzy clustering tools were applied to generate and validate scenarios in operational ensemble prediction systems (EPSs) for U.S. East Coast winter s...
Single-step treatment of primary effluent by Galdieria sulphuraria: Removal of biochemical oxygen demand, nutrients, and pathogens

Abstract Our previous reports have documented a single-step algal process for removing biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) and nutrients from primary effluent in batch mode. In the current study, we report results from continuous fed-batch operation of this algal system demonstrating consistent removal of BOD 5 and nutrients as well as significant reduction of pathogenic bacteria from primary effluent. The active volume of the algal bioreactor under fed-batch operation was 700 L, of which, 400 L was discharged at the end of every cycle and replenished with fresh primary effluent to start a new cycle. Results from thirty such cycles run over 120 days, under varying influent loadings and ambient conditions, confirmed that the discharge standards for BOD 5 and nutrients could be attained in a fed-batch cycle time of 5 , ammoniacal nitrogen and phosphates over the 120 days were 16.5 mg/L-d, 6.1 mg/L-d, and 1.4 mg/L-d, respectively. Fecal and total coliform were also reduced to non-detectable levels within these three days.
The value of innovation and the spillover effect on alliance partners

This paper investigates the value of innovation for pharmaceutical firms and their strategic alliance partners. Rather than relying on the standard patent data to measure innovation success, we use a comprehensive data set on drug approvals by the United States Food and Drug Administration to examine the value of innovation for the drug companies and their alliance partners. In examining FDA approvals with different levels of innovation significance, our evidence shows that shareholders of the innovating firm and its alliance partners both benefit significantly from announcements of radical innovation. Furthermore, young, newly-public alliance partners with strong growth opportunities experience stronger spillover effects from radical innovation. More recently formed alliances are also associated with more significant spillover effects on alliance partners. Exploring the potential downside of alliance partnerships, we find that adverse events such as FDA warning letters or drug withdrawals cause significant wealth loss to the drug manufacturers, with some negative spillover effects on the firms’ alliance partners.
Improving triplet excited-state absorption and lifetime of cationic iridium(III) complexes by extending π-conjugation of the 2-(2-quinolinyl)quinoxaline ligand

Abstract The synthesis and photophysical properties (UV−vis absorption, emission, and transient absorption) of four cationic Ir(III) complexes (C^N)2Ir(R-quqo)+ (HC^N = 1-phenylisoquinoline (piq) and 1,2-diphenylpyreno[4,5-d]imidazole (dppi), quqo = 2-(2-quinolinyl)quinoxaline, R = H or fluorenyl) are reported. The UV–vis absorption and emission were simulated by time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). Influences of extending π-conjugation of the C^N ligand and the diimine ligand on the singlet and triplet excited-state absorption and lifetimes of these complexes were explored. All complexes exhibited intense ligand-localized 1π,π transitions, broad and structureless metal-to-ligand charge transfer (1MLCT) / ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (1LLCT) transitions, and very weak spin-forbidden 3MLCT/3LLCT/3π,π transitions in their UV–vis absorption spectra. The two complexes that bear fluorenyl-substituted quqo ligands (Ir-3 and Ir-4) also possessed a broad intraligand charge transfer (1ILCT) / 1π,π band at 430–550 nm. The predominant 3ILCT/3π,π characters of the triplet excited states of Ir-3 and Ir-4 improved their phosphorescent emission quantum yields and prolonged their triplet lifetimes compared to the weaker and short-lived emission of Ir-1 and Ir-2. In contrast to the very weak nanosecond transient absorption (TA) of Ir-1 and Ir-2, Ir-3 and Ir-4 possessed much stronger TA signals at 520−800 nm upon nanosecond laser excitation. These complexes exhibited moderate to strong reverse saturable absorption (RSA) at 532 nm for ns laser pulses, with the RSA trend following Ir-1 > Ir-2 ≈ Ir-3 > Ir-4. Considering the long triplet excited-state lifetimes and broadband TA, complexes Ir-3 and Ir-4 could be potential broadband RSA materials.
A Performance Prediction Model for Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement Using Artificial Neural Network

The pavement performance prediction models are key components of pavement management systems. Predictions models are used for determining the future condition of pavement as well as types of maintenance and rehabilitation actions needed to keep the operation of transportation systems continuous. Accordingly, maintenance and rehabilitation actions must be prioritized due to limited budget allocations. Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) utilizes Hidden Markov probability models. However, varying traffic conditions and unusual events in the operation are not reflected in these models due to the nature of probabilistic modeling. A new model using a more inclusive and powerful approach to predict the future condition of the pavement is needed. In this study, the distress data from Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP) sections in Mississippi was used to develop a performance prediction model using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) approach. Additionally, rehabilitation actions were included as part of the model inputs to study the impact of rehabilitation actions on the model. The performance of all the developed models showed a good agreement between observed and predicted condition measures. However, only one model with the best statistical accuracy was selected to be utilized as the best performing model, which can be used for the prediction of CRCP performance within the allowable time range.
Electrophysiological Evidence for Functional (Psychogenic) Essential Palatal Tremor.

Background: There is little published work describing the electrophysiological characteristics of essential palatal tremor, a condition now believed by many to be a functional (psychogenic) movement disorder. Case Report: Here we combine electroencephalography and electromyography with time-locked video recordings to document two cases of essential palatal tremor in which a definitive diagnosis is achieved using these electrophysiological tools. Discussion: We believe that sharing how these objective tools can be used to diagnose a functional movement disorder, as well as providing more published evidence to support the functional origin of essential palatal myoclonus, will help to diagnose this condition in the future.
Capitalism and the (il)Logics of Higher Education’s COVID-19 Response: A Black Feminist Critique

In keeping with a recent wave of leisure studies focusing on race, racism, power, and oppression broadly and using a Black feminist lens, I will examine higher education’s response to COVID-19 and ...
Nanoporous Thin Films Formed from Photocleavable Diblock Copolymers on Gold Substrates Modified with Thiolate Self-Assembled Monolayers.

Nanoporous thin films formed on electrodes are considered functional elements of electrochemical sensing systems, thus motivating methods for their development. We report a preparative strategy detailing the effects of surface modification of gold substrates with thiolate self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on the properties of nanoporous thin films derived from polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) having a photocleavable o-nitrobenzyl ester junction (PS-hν-PEO). Two PS-hν-PEO having similar PEO volume fractions (≈0.2) but different molecular weights (10 and 23 kg/mol) were used to prepare films (30–100 nm thick) spin-cast on gold substrates unmodified and modified with cysteamine, thioctic acid, and 6-hydroxy-1-hexanethiol SAMs. Solvent vapor annealing followed by PEO removal led to the formation of nanopores with average diameters of 12 and 19 nm from the smaller and larger PS-hν-PEO, respectively. Cyclic voltammograms of 1,1′-ferrocenedimethanol showed that nanoporous films on cysteamine SAMs afforded nanopores reaching the underlying substrates at higher density than those on the other substrates. This result was attributed to balanced affinity of the cysteamine SAM surface with PS and PEO, which enhanced the vertical orientation of PEO microdomains. The generation of carboxyl groups associated with the photocleavage reaction was revealed by pH-dependent changes in the voltammogram of Fe(CN)₆³– that reflected electrostatic effects regulated by the protonation state of the carboxyl groups. The SAMs underneath the nanoporous films could be replaced by treatment with a thiol solution, as verified by voltammograms of l-ascorbic acid. These results suggest that thiolate SAM modification provides a simple means to control the interfacial orientation of PEO microdomains in thin PS-hν-PEO films.
“It Is Truly a Struggle to Survive”: The Hardships of Living on Low Wages:

Many low-wage workers struggle to make ends meet despite working full-time. Surveys find that they confront material, financial, and medical hardships. This article presents hospital workers’ descr...
The Disparity of Indigenous and Nonindigenous Groups in the Healthcare System of Mexico

All around the world, indigenous groups experience a great amount of inequalities compared to their nonindigenous counterparts. This is apparent in Mexico, where indigenous groups face greater poverty, less access to social benefits, and less access to health services. The healthcare system of Mexico used to cater to the wealthier, nonindigenous population, ignoring the marginalized, disadvantaged indigenous population. There has been a lack of federal attention and aid to the healthcare of indigenous groups. They experience low funded healthcare facilities which lead to the shortage of human resources, medications, supplies, and infrastructure. This led to the lack of health services in indigenous communities. Less indigenous individuals had access to health coverage and benefits compared to nonindigenous individuals. Lastly, indigenous groups also faced lower quality health services as well. However, Mexico has been working on decreasing the disparity gap. There was the institution of a national program called Seguro Popular, which focused on providing universal health care. Mexico has also strengthened the National Register of Translators and Interpreters in indigenous languages and individual, separate projects were created to aid in alleviating the disparity between indigenous and nonindigenous populations in relation to healthcare.
Mexico and the Rome Statute

In this chapter, the discussion of the Rome Statute within the legislative power will be reviewed. The discussions and arguments made were not entirely new compared to the concerns raised vis a vis the International Court of Justice or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In this regard, a preference to argue in favor of national sovereignty could be identified. The deficiencies in how Mexico addressed the different concerns and implications of the Rome Statute can be also translated as a failure to see complementarity as a bridge between international obligations and domestic law. This approach, added to the defense of national sovereignty, led to Article 21(8) CPEUM. Additionally, if we take into account that Mexico was going through a “democratic transition”, the amendment of the Constitution was rather unfortunate. The political momentum was lost and, as a consequence, there are numerous tasks pending in order to comply fully with the RS. Some of these tasks relate to the obligation to cooperate and to prevent and punish core crimes. Finally, this chapter takes a close look at the definition of genocide under Mexican law in order to assess the way in which it deviates from the crime as defined in international law. As crimes against humanity do not constitute offences as such under Mexican criminal law, a review of offenses that could qualify as crimes against humanity will be made. Criminalization of all individual acts under Article 7 RS would not only follow the “fair labeling principle” but would also give the national legal system coherency, which could ultimately contribute to fighting impunity.
Weak learning convex sets under normal distributions

This paper addresses the following natural question: can efficient algorithms weakly learn convex sets under normal distributions? Strong learnability of convex sets under normal distributions is well understood, with near-matching upper and lower bounds given by Klivans et al (2008), but prior to the current work nothing seems to have been known about weak learning. We essentially answer this question, giving near-matching algorithms and lower bounds. For our positive result, we give a poly(n)-time algorithm that can weakly learn the class of convex sets to advantage $\Omega(1/\sqrt{n})$ using only random examples drawn from the background Gaussian distribution. Our algorithm and analysis are based on a new “density increment” result for convex sets, which we prove using tools from isoperimetry. We also give an information-theoretic lower bound showing that $O(\log(n)/\sqrt{n})$ advantage is best possible even for algorithms that are allowed to make poly(n) many membership queries.
Progress and Challenges in Laboratory-Based Diagnostic and Screening Approaches for Aneuploidy Detection during Pregnancy.

Aneuploidy is caused by problems during cellular division and segregation errors during meiosis that lead to an abnormal number of chromosomes and initiate significant genetic abnormalities during ...
A Genotype-to-Phenotype Modeling Framework to Predict Human Pathogenicity of Novel Coronaviruses

Abstract Leveraging prior viral genome sequencing data to make predictions on whether an unknown, emergent virus harbors a ‘phenotype-of-concern’ has been a long-sought goal of genomic epidemiology. A predictive phenotype model built from nucleotide-level information alone has previously been considered un-tenable with respect to RNA viruses due to the ultra-high intra-sequence variance of their genomes, even within closely related clades. Building from our prior work developing a degenerate k-mer method to accommodate this high intra-sequence variation of RNA virus genomes for modeling frameworks, and leveraging a taxonomic ‘group-shuffle-split’ paradigm on complete coronavirus assemblies from prior to October 2018, we trained multiple regularized logistic regression classifiers at the nucleotide k-mer level capable of accurately predicting withheld SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences as human pathogens and accurately predicting withheld Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) genome sequences as non-human pathogens. LASSO feature selection identified several degenerate nucleotide predictor motifs with high model coefficients for the human pathogen class that were present across widely disparate classes of coronaviruses. However, these motifs differed in which genes they were present in, what specific codons were used to encode them, and what the translated amino acid motif was. This emphasizes the importance of a phenetic view of emerging pathogenic RNA viruses, as opposed to the canonical phylogenetic interpretations most-commonly used to track and manage viral zoonoses. Applying our model to more recent Orthocoronavirinae genomes deposited since October 2018 yields a novel contextual view of pathogen-potential across bat-related, canine-related, porcine-related, and rodent-related coronaviruses and critical adaptations which may have contributed to the emergence of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Finally, we discuss the utility of these predictive models (and their associated predictor motifs) to novel biosurveillance protocols that substantially increase the ‘pound-for-pound’ information content of field-collected sequencing data and make a strong argument for the necessity of routine collection and sequencing of zoonotic viruses.
Continuum Thermodynamics of Constrained Reactive Mixtures.

Mixture theory models continua consisting of multiple constituents with independent motions. In constrained mixtures all constituents share the same velocity but they may have different reference configurations. The theory of constrained reactive mixtures was formulated to analyze growth and remodeling in living biological tissues. It can also reproduce and extend classical frameworks of damage mechanics and viscoelasticity under isothermal conditions, when modeling bonds that can break and reform. This study focuses on establishing the thermodynamic foundations of constrained reactive mixtures under more general conditions, for arbitrary reactive processes where temperature varies in time and space. By incorporating general expressions for reaction kinetics, it is shown that the residual dissipation statement of the Clausius-Duhem inequality must include a reactive power density, while the axiom of energy balance must include a reactive heat supply density. Both of these functions are proportional to the molar production rate of a reaction, and they depend on the chemical potentials of the mixture constituents. We present novel formulas for the classical thermodynamic concepts of energy of formation and heat of reaction, making it possible to evaluate the heat supply generated by reactive processes from the knowledge of the specific free energy of mixture constituents as well as the reaction rate. We illustrate these novel concepts with mixtures of ideal gases, and isothermal reactive damage mechanics and viscoelasticity, as well as reactive thermoelasticity. This framework facilitates the analysis of reactive tissue biomechanics and physiological and biomedical engineering processes where temperature variations cannot be neglected.
Applications of weighted finite automata and transducers to image processing

Weighted finite transducers (WFT) have been introduced by Culik and Fris as a generalization of weighted finite automata (WFA) to 2 tapes and provide a useful tool in image manipulation. WFT can perform almost any operation on images including zooming, shrinking, rotation, flipping, stretching, creating various regular patterns as well as low-pass and high-pass filtering used in image processing. We present an implementation of an efficient image manipulation system which includes efficient algorithms for an application of a WFT transformation to an image in either pixel or WFA representation and for operations defined on WFA and WFT, such as composition of WFT, concatenation of two WFA or two WFT, and Cartesian product of WFA. The system also includes a WFA minimalization algorithm which minimizes the number of states and a WFT inference algorithm which "learns" the WFT from a transformation performed on a test image. The program has been implemented in C using X-windows OSF/Motif graphical user interface and handles both gray-scale and color images. We show that probabilistic mutually recursive function systems (PMRFS) can be simulated by iterative weighted finite transductions. We conjecture that iterative WFT are more powerful than PMRFS and give an example of WFT that supports this conjecture. Furthermore, we show that the family of images defined by iterative WFT is closed under continuous invertible WFT relations including affine transformations as a special case. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for invertibility of $\epsilon$-free WFT relations. We show that it is decidable whether two $\epsilon$-free WFT define the same weighted relation for all finite words over a fixed alphabet. Finally, we give a sufficient condition for continuity of functions computed by WFA. Such a condition has been previously known only for a special class of WFA called level automata.
Nutritional Support at Home

With the escalation of costs of hospitalization, home infusion companies have blossomed, allowing us to discharge patients early to continue interventional feeding safely and more comfortably in the home environment. First, it started with home parenteral feeding (HPN) for patients with permanent intestinal failure, where the objective was to return patients to as near normal a lifestyle as possible. Next, it expanded to include home enteral feeding and patients with PEGs. Most recently home enteral feeding (HEN) has broadened to include nasoenteric tube feeding for a variety of conditions, for example patients with upper GI obstruction waiting for spontaneous resolution or surgery. The procedure for HPN or HEN is similar: first establish the nutritional intervention in the acute hospital setting, then train the patient and his/her spouse or home care-giver how to manage the infusions, and finally team up with a commercial home-care provider to supervise the infusions and provide the products. A variation of this will include the aged and infirm who need assisted living or nursing home support where patients and spouses are less able to manage the feeds.
Re-conceptualizing Security Research with Individual Level Data

A half-century ago Kenneth Organski proposed that in the hierarchy of nations, a balance of power among dissatisfied challengers is the precondition for global war (Organski 1958). To support this ‘Power Transition’ proposal he used a single point of evidence: the relative gross output of Prussia and France prior to the 1870 conflict. The discovery that a balance in overall capabilities led to war was path breaking and challenged the prevailing theory that a balance among major contenders leads to peace. What made Organski’s claim unusual is that, instead of asserting this relation and relying on previous authority for support, he provided evidence to sustain his contention that nations wage serious war when there is a power transition.
Technological Change, Dynamic Efficiency, and Market Structure

To this point, most of our discussion about economic performance has focused on static efficiency and assumed that technology is fixed. Yet economic growth requires that we make investments today to develop better products or new processes that lower the cost of production. Persistent long-run economic growth has led to a continued rise in our standard of living. For example, Elwell (2006) documents that from 1980 to 2004 that output per capita grew by about 2.3% per year in Great Britain and by about 2.0% in the USA, Japan, and other major European countries (Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands). Although these growth rates may seem inconsequential, a small increase in the growth rate can have a sizable cumulative effect. To illustrate, a 2% growth rate will double the standard of living in approximately 35 years, while a 3% growth rate doubles it in only about 23.5 years.
"DOMESTIC TERRORISTS” VS. “BLACKMAILERS”: UNRESOLVED CONFLICT BETWEEN MUNICIPALITIES AND RURAL WATER DISTRICTS

While Congressional intent for rural aid was intended to create harmonious relations between both rural and urban communities, this case study reveals a situation in which ongoing zero-sum game resulting in court battles and millions of dollars in legal fees where one side benefits from federalism and the other from protracted court battles through breaking down “Made service available.” More specifically, this study examines creative federalism and role in the Rural Water Sewer and Solid Waste Management v. City of Guthrie case study. Also, 79 rural water cases over the last 40 years are examined to determine relative outcomes. This case study is significant as it is not only a practical showcase of the expense both sides pay for this conflict over a natural resource, but also in a theoretical sense as it helps fill the gap in the literature regarding our understanding of conflict in intergovernmental relations, especially between two local entities focused on self-interested growth.1
Studies on the Chemical Modification of Arginine I. THE REACTION OF 1,2-CYCLOHEXANEDIONE WITH ARGININE AND ARGINYL RESIDUES OF PROTEINS

Abstract The guanido group of arginine condenses with 1,2-cyclohexanedione in alkaline aqueous medium to form a new α-amino acid. The product(1,2-cyclohexanedione-arginine) was shown by independent synthesis to be N5-(4-oxo-1,3-diazaspiro[4.4]non - 2 - ylidene) - l - ornithine. At hydroxide concentrations of 0.2 n or higher, this was the principal product, and the reaction with free arginine and with the arginyl residues of model proteins was completed in 3 hours. At lower base concentration or with salmine at high base concentrations, a heterogeneous mixture of ninhydrin-positive products was observed. The reaction appears to be specific for the guanido group. Peptide maps of tryptic digests of 1,2-cyclohexanedione-treated chains of hemoglobin showed blocking of hydrolysis at arginyl bonds with no change in positions of tryptic peptides not adjacent to arginyl residues.
Medium‐Rate and High‐Rate Vocoders

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Voice Excitation and Spectral Flattening Voice‐Excited Channel Vocoder Voice‐Excited and Error‐Signal‐Excited LPC Vocoders Waveform Coding with Predictive Methods Adaptive Predictive Coding of Speech Subband Coding Multipulse LPC Vocoders Code‐Excited Linear Predictive Coding Reducing Codebook Search Time in CELP Conclusions Exercises
The &#x1d4a5;-Radical and the Pierce Radicals of a Lattice-Ordered Ring

Abstract The &#x1d4a5;-radical of a lattice-ordered ring Ris the l-ring analogue of the Jacobson radical of a ring. It is shown that if the matrix ring R n has the usual lattice order, then &#x1d4a5;(R n ) = &#x1d4a5;(R) n . The connection between an element abeing right l-quasi-regular and the inequality a ○ x ≤ 0 is also investigated. For squares in an f-ring the connection is an equivalence. In general it is still an equivalence provided xis the sum of elements from a larger f-ring whose absolute values lie in R. It is also shown that the vanishing of annihilators in an f-ring is inherited by enough totally ordered homomorphic images to give a subdirect product decomposition.
Applications of a gas—liquid chromatographic method for amino acid analysis : A system for analysis of nanogram amounts

Abstract The quantitative gas—liquid chromatographic determination of the protein amino acid content of biological substances has been clearly demonstrated with analyses of corn grain, soybean oil meal, blood plasma, and human urine. The precision and accuracy of the gas—liquid chromatographic technique was found to be equal to that of classical ion-exchange chromatography, and superior in some instances. Further, an instrumental-chromatographic system has been invented which allows the injection of 100 μl or more on a standard analytical column. This device eliminates the TFA peak during analysis of amino acids on the EGA column; results in a more stable baseline due to the decreased amount of solvent and reagents traversing the column; greatly simplifies analysis for nanogram amounts of amino acids; and should find a wide range of applications in many gas—liquid chromatographic and gas chromatography—mass spectrometry investigations. A superior mixed phase chromatographic column is reported for the separation of His, Lys, Arg, Trp and Cys.
Age-related differences in the plasma proteome in healthy adults: modulatory effect of regular aerobic exercise (LB178)

Aging causes physiological dysfunction, some of which can be prevented or reduced by habitual aerobic exercise (AE). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown, particularly in humans. We used a novel high-throughput molecular assay (SOMAscan v3.0, SomaLogic Inc., Boulder, CO) to characterize the effects of age and regular AE on the plasma proteome of healthy adult humans. From 1129 analytes, the expression of 48 proteins was greater and 37 lower in older (O; 64±6 yr; n=16) vs. young (Y; 24±4 yr; n=16) healthy men (false discovery rate [FDR] < 15%, p<0.01). Expression of the non-collagenous extracellular matrix (ECM) protein dermatopontin was greater in O vs. Y (P=0.007), but was lower in older AE-trained men (63±7 yr; n=8; VO2max = 49.6±3.7 mL/kg⋅min) compared with their sedentary counterparts (VO2max = 27.4±2.4 mL/kg⋅min) (FDR < 1.28%, p<0.001). Within O, no other group differences in plasma protein expression associated with exercise status met our FDR threshold (...
Israel–Syria: The Elusive Peace*

For 20 years, as of 1991, multiple rounds of negotiations took place between Syria and Israel. These negotiations revolved around the entire gamut of problems separating the two countries: borders, recognition, finality of the conflict, normalization, security arrangements, the Israeli civilian population in the disputed territory, water, Lebanon, the Palestinian issue, Iran, and terrorism. Israeli Prime Ministers, Syrian presidents, foreign ministers, and senior generals from both sides participated in the talks, and third parties such as the United States and Turkey were also involved. Yet peace was not achieved, although not for a lack of effort. This article tries to shed light on some of the reasons for this continuing failure.
The fetal transverse cerebellar diameter/abdominal circumference ratio : a gestational age-independent method of assessing fetal size

The relationship between the fetal TCD and the AC throughout pregnancy was investigated in a prospective, cross-sectional study of 700 well dated, normal pregnancies between 14 and 42 weeks of gestation and tested in 30 known SGA infants. Fetal measurements included the TCD, AC, BPD, HC, and FL. The TCD/AC ratio was calculated for each patient. Statistical analysis using linear regression and Student's t-test was performed. Strong correlation existed between gestational age and transcerebellar diameter (R2 = 0.9464), between gestational age and AC (R2 = 0.9685), and between TCD and AC (R2 = 0.9561). The TCD/AC ratio was normally distributed with a mean +/- SD of 13.69 +/- 0.94% (median, 13.71%). The 10th and 90th percentiles were 12.50% and 14.86%, respectively. The ratio remained constant throughout pregnancy with respect to gestational age (R2 = 0.0084). A TCD/AC ratio greater than the 90th percentile was present in 87% (26/30) known SGA infants. The TCD/AC ratio is a stable, gestational age-independent parameter that may be useful in the early detection of fetal growth abnormalities.
Control of insulin secretion in the developing pancreatic rudiment.

Abstract The embryonic rat pancreas, removed on the 14th day of gestation and cultivated in vitro , accumulates differentiated levels of exocrine enzymes and insulin. In the period corresponding to days 16–22 in vivo , 99% of the final insulin content accumulates. During this period we have studied the development of competence for insulin secretion, the regulation of this secretion by glucose and other secretatogues, and the rate of synthesis following a secretory challenge. Our results demonstrate that the capacity for insulin secretion develops in parallel with the accumulation of insulin in secretory granules since β granules appear at day 16. On day 16, after 48 hr of culture, both glucose and caffeine are required for detectable insulin secretion. At later stages, insulin release can be effectuated by glucose alone. In the fetal pancreas at day 20 of development, glucose is ten times more efficient than caffeine and fourfold more efficient than caffeine combined with either glucagon, cholera toxin or dibutyryl cyclic AMP. Glucagon, cholera toxin or cyclic AMP in the presence of caffeine increases equally (about tenfold) both the “basal” and the glucose-induced level of secretion. This suggests that glucose and caffeine act independently but synergistically. The integrity of the cells is maintained under the stimulation conditions, and there is a selective increase in insulin synthesis measured during 18 hr following stimulation of insulin release.
On the irreversible thermophysics of radiative processes

The local aspect of the thermalization of thermal radiation due to the interaction of thermal radiation with matter is explored. It is shown that for absorption and emission interactions some well-known phenomenological statements of irreversible thermophysics are indeed relevant. For scattering interactions the entirely different picture that emerges is also briefly discussed. The local analysis is based on the concepts of temperature and entropy of nonequilibrium thermal radiation fields, as originally introduced by Planck, and shows that these concepts are susceptible of a very natural thermodynamic interpretation.
Gas phase SN2 nucleophilic displacement reactions at atmospheric pressure by the photodetachment-modulated electron capture detector

Abstract Rate constants for the reactions of Cl − ion with 20 different alkyl bromides (RBr) have been measured at 125°C in an atmospheric pressure buffer gas by the photodetachment-modulated electron capture detector (PDM-ECD). By this method, the relative concentrations of the reactant ion, Cl − , and the product ion, Br − , are spectroscopically measured in a steady-state reaction volume with various concentration of purified RBr introduced to the ion source by gas chromatography. Most of the reactions reported here have not been previously studied and, therefore, the present data set provides additional insight into substituent effects in gas phase S N 2 reactions.