cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sequential State-Space Filters for Speech Enhancement

Particle filters have recently been proposed as a new form of state-space filtering for speech enhancement applications. Despite theoretical foundations that suggest superior performance, robust performance in practical applications has been elusive. This paper presents a comparative analysis of three popular recursive filtering algorithms that share a state-space formulation: Kalman filters, unscented Kalman filters, and particle filters. We present a general formulation of these state-space models and then introduce applications of these to time series prediction based on autoregressive models. Results indicate that for signals produced from linear systems, as expected, particle filters and unscented Kalman filters do not perform significantly better than a Kalman filter. For typical speech signals, the traditional Kalman filter provides more robust performance at the same level of computational and representational complexity. At extremely low signal-to-noise ratios, unscented Kalman filter gave the best results
Drought-induced shift of a forest–woodland ecotone:Rapid landscape response to climate variation

In coming decades, global climate changes are expected to produce large shifts in vegetation distributions at unprecedented rates. These shifts are expected to be most rapid and extreme at ecotones, the boundaries between ecosystems, particularly those in semiarid landscapes. However, current models do not adequately provide for such rapid effects—particularly those caused by mortality—largely because of the lack of data from field studies. Here we report the most rapid landscape-scale shift of a woody ecotone ever documented: in northern New Mexico in the 1950s, the ecotone between semiarid ponderosa pine forest and pinon–juniper woodland shifted extensively (2 km or more) and rapidly (<5 years) through mortality of ponderosa pines in response to a severe drought. This shift has persisted for 40 years. Forest patches within the shift zone became much more fragmented, and soil erosion greatly accelerated. The rapidity and the complex dynamics of the persistent shift point to the need to represent more accurately these dynamics, especially the mortality factor, in assessments of the effects of climate change.
Tracking the 3-Base Periodicity of Protein-Coding Regions by the Nonlinear Tracking-Differentiator

In this paper, a new algorithm to predict protein-coading regions by tracking the 3-base periodicity of DNA sequences is presented. A nonlinear Tracking-Differentiator (TD) is explored to generate smooth approximation of the trajectories of the 3-periodicity of DNA sequences and compute the derivatives, based on which protein-coding and non-coding regions can be identified. Case studies demonstrate that the nonlinear TD is an effective method to improve the accuracy of the gene finding algorithm.
Home Literacy Environments of Young Children With Down Syndrome Findings From a Web-Based Survey

Early home literacy experiences, including parent—child book reading, account for a significant amount of children's later reading achievement. Yet there is a very limited research base about the home literacy environments and experiences of children with cognitive disabilities. The purpose of this study is to describe findings from a Web-based survey of home literacy environments of young children with Down syndrome. Respondents (n = 107) were mostly mothers; a majority were well educated. Findings suggest that respondents gave literacy a higher priority than reported in prior research on children with disabilities. More than 70% of respondents had 50 or more children's books and also had literacy materials including flash cards, magnetic letters, and educational videos or computer games. Most parents read to their children and used these literacy materials 10 to 30 min per day. Respondents reported that their children had reached many important early literacy milestones, and they also described having r...
Passive acoustic detection and localization of Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville's beaked whale) vocalizations using distributed bottom-mounted hydrophones in conjunction with a Digital Tag (DTAG) recording

Click data from a tagged Mesoplodon densirostris was compared with broadband acoustic recordings from an 82 hydrophone wide-baseline array located in the Tongue of the Ocean, Bahamas. Two detectors, a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based detector and matched filter, were evaluated in white noise and with the acoustic recordings from the array for performance detecting M. densirostris clicks. The matched filter performed the best, allowing 92% of the tagged animal's clicks to be detected on at least one hydrophone. Time Difference of Arrivals (TDOAs) between the DTag and the surrounding hydrophones were computed. These TDOAs were used to compute a three-dimensional hyperbolic localization track of the tagged animal. A maximum detection range of 6500 m from the tagged animal to the recording hydrophone was observed. Offset aspect angles were determined from the DTag heading information and the bearing to the receiving hydrophone. Clicks within ±30 degrees were detected at the farthest ranges, while clicks were detected at all off-set angles at closer ranges.
Robert N. Butler, MD (January 21, 1927–July 4, 2010): Visionary Leader

The career and accomplishments of Dr. Robert N. Butler highlight the history of postwar gerontology and geriatrics here and abroad. Butler was an idea broker: He introduced "life review" as a therapeutic intervention and coined "ageism." Butler was the only researcher on aging to win a Pulitzer Prize or long after normal retirement lay the foundations for a new gerontology. Butler was an institution builder: he served as first director of the National Institute on Aging, created the first department of geriatric medicine in the United States, and mobilized support here and abroad for global aging. His legacy provides much for successive generations to emulate and enhance.
Client and counselor attitudes toward the use of medications for treatment of opioid dependence

Attitudes, perceived social norms, and intentions were assessed for 376 counselors and 1,083 clients from outpatient, methadone, and residential drug treatment programs regarding four medications used to treat opiate dependence: methadone, buprenorphine, clonidine, and ibogaine. Attitudes, social norms, and intentions to use varied by treatment modality. Methadone clients and counselors had more positive attitudes toward the use of methadone, whereas their counterparts in residential and outpatient settings had neutral or negative assessments. Across modalities, attitudes, perceived social norms, and intentions toward the use of buprenorphine were relatively neutral. Assessments of clonidine and ibogaine were negative for clients and counselors in all settings. Social normative influences were dominant across settings and medications in determining counselor and client intentions to use medications, suggesting that perceptions about beliefs of peers may play a critical role in use of medications to treat opiate dependence.
Maternal anxiety and neural responses to infant faces.

Abstract Background Women may be especially vulnerable to anxiety during the postpartum period and early infancy. However, little is known regarding the potential impact of maternal anxiety on the neural processing of infant-relevant information. Methods In this ERP study, 47 recent mothers viewed neutral and distressed infant faces, concurrent with EEG collection. We examined the N170 as a perceptual marker of face processing and the late positive potential (LPP) as an index of engagement with stimulus processing. Mothers also completed the Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results While the N170 was unaffected by infant affect and anxiety levels, the LPP was greater in amplitude for distressed vs. neutral faces. Moreover, the degree of LPP amplitude elicited by neutral infant faces was positively correlated with state anxiety. There were no associations between anxiety and the LPP elicited by distressed infant faces. Limitations We employed self-report measures of state and trait anxiety symptomatology and including diagnostic classification of anxiety disorders will be important in future research. Conclusions These results indicate that recent mothers with higher levels of state anxiety may be more engaged with processing neutral infant cues.
Effects of vagotomy or splanchnicotomy on blood insulin and sugar concentrations in the conscious monkey.

Conscious, undisturbed monkeys were used to examine the effects of vagotomy or splanchnicotomy on venous serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI) and whole blood sugar concentrations. During fasts of 21 and 89 hr, ablation of either set of nerves had no effect, but in the 2-day period after the 89-hr fast vagotomy was associated with a decrease in IRI levels without a change in sugar concentrations, and splanchnicotomy was followed by lower sugar levels without a change in those of the IRI. Glucose was infused intragastrically after fasts of 17 and 89 hr. Vagotomy but not splanchnicotomy was associated with high, early peaks in the sugar and IRI curves. This may have been due to rapid emptying of the stomach since in another experiment, when intraduodenal infusions were compared with intragastric ones, the same high, early peaks in the sugar and IRI curves were seen after intraduodenal glucose. The importance of these largely negative findings is discussed. (Endocrinology 86: 642, 1970)
Ganglioside-binding specificities of E. coli enterotoxin LT-IIc: Importance of long-chain fatty acyl ceramide

Bacterial heat-labile (LT) enterotoxins signal through tightly regulated interactions with host cell gangliosides. LT-IIa and LT-IIb of Escherichia coli bind preferentially to gangliosides with a NeuAcα2-3Galβ1-3GalNAc terminus, with key distinctions in specificity. LT-IIc, a newly discovered E. coli LT, is comprised of an A polypeptide with high homology, and a B polypeptide with moderate homology, to LT-IIa and LT-IIb. LT-IIc is less cytotoxic than LT-IIa and LT-IIb. We theorized that LT-IIc-host cell interaction is regulated by specific structural attributes of immune cell ganglioside receptors and designed experiments to test this hypothesis. Overlay immunoblotting to a diverse array of neural and macrophage gangliosides indicated that LT-IIc bound to a restrictive range of gangliosides, each possessing a NeuAcα2-3Galβ1-3GalNAc with a requisite terminal sialic acid. LT-IIc did not bind to GM1a with short-chain fatty acyl ceramides. Affinity overlay immunoblots, constructed to a diverse array of known ganglioside structures of murine peritoneal macrophages, established that LT-IIc bound to GM1a comprised of long-chain fatty acyl ceramides. Findings were confirmed with LT-IIc also binding to GM1a of RAW264.7 cells, comprised of a long-chain fatty acyl ceramide. Thus, LT-IIc-ganglioside binding differs distinctly from that of LT-IIa and LT-IIb. LT-IIc binding is not just dependent on carbohydrate composition, but also upon the orientation of the oligosaccharide portion of GM1a by the ceramide moiety. These studies are the first demonstration of LT-ganglioside dependence upon ceramide composition and underscore the contribution of long-chain fatty acyl ceramides to host cell interactions.
Airborne L-band RFI observations in the smapvex08 campaign with the L-band interference suppressing radiometer

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is a major concern for microwave radiometry. In September-October 2008, an airborne campaign for observing L-band RFI was conducted and included approximately fifty hours of flight time. The campaign included test flights in Grand Junction, Colorado, observations over soil moisture ground truth sites in Iowa and Maryland, transit and return flights from Colorado to Maryland, and dedicated RFI observing missions over urban areas. In this paper, the L-band digital backend and its RFI detection and mitigation algorithms are described. RFI statistics and examples from the airborne campaign are also presented.
Exploiting Document-Level Context for Data-Driven Machine Translation

This paper presents a method for exploiting document-level similarity between the documents in the training corpus for a corpusdriven (statistical or example-based) machine translation system and the input documents it must translate. The method is simple to implement, efficient (increases the translation time of an example-based system by only a few percent), and robust (still works even when the actual document boundaries in the input text are not known). Experiments on FrenchEnglish and Arabic-English showed relative gains over the same system without using document-level similarity of up to 7.4% and 5.4%, respectively, on the BLEU metric.
Fabrication of back-illuminated, fully depleted charge-coupled devices

We describe a fabrication strategy to produce fully depleted, back-illuminated charge-coupled devices (CCDs). Wafers are partially processed at a commercial foundry using standard processing techniques. The wafers are then thinned to the final desired thickness, and the processing steps necessary to produce back-illuminated devices are performed in our laboratory. The CCDs are then probed at wafer level, and we describe our techniques to screen for gate insulator flaws as well as defects on the back side of the wafer that are important for fully depleted devices.
SPECIES AND FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY OF NATIVE AND HUMAN-DOMINATED PLANT COMMUNITIES

Despite growing attention to how human activities alter plant communities, little is known about the ecosystem consequences of these changes. We explore the rela- tionship between species and functional diversity of herbaceous and shrubby plant com- munities in forested and deforested habitats in three Neotropical landscapes. We focus on six traits: pollination mechanism, dispersal mechanism, growth form, fruit type, fruit size, and seed size. We ask: (1) What is the relationship between species richness and functional diversity (trait state richness)? (2) Do species/functional diversity relationships differ be- tween forested and deforested habitats? and (3) Are observed species/functional diversity patterns more consistent with ecological filtering or differentiation-based assembly pro- cesses? We show that species richness is often a weak surrogate for functional diversity, depending on the trait. Species/functional diversity relationships differ significantly between forested and deforested habitats, but the nature of differences is trait dependent. Dispersal mechanism and fruit type number increased more rapidly in deforested than forested hab- itats, but the opposite was true for most other traits. Using a null model, we found evidence of ecological filtering for most traits in both habitats. Results demonstrate that deforested habitats do not necessarily contain lower functional diversity than forest but that the eco- logical assembly processes influencing community function in deforested communities dif- fer dramatically from forest.
Dynamo theory then and now

A brief history of dynamo theory is presented, from its earliest beginnings, through the development of successful kinematic models (those in which only the electrodynamic equations are solved), up to the present time when fully magnetohydrodynamic simulations have successfully reproduced the main features of the Earth’s magnetic field. A particular focus of this paper is the role of the solid inner core of the Earth on the dynamics of its fluid core. Some new results are presented concerning the age and topography of the inner core. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. The kinematic geodynamo Although it has been known for many centuries that the Earth is magnetic [1‐3], the reason for this, and for many puzzling features of the Earth’s magnetic field, have been convincingly explained only during the present century. The key was the discovery in 1906 that the Earth possesses a fluid core [4]. To be sure, the curious time scales of the field, long compared with those of the atmosphere and oceans, but short compared with geological processes, had suggested to people like Halley [5] and Hansteen [6] that fluid motions within the Earth must somehow be involved, but nothing was certain until 1906. The density of the fluid core, deduced from seismological observations, ranges from 9904 kg m ˇ3 at the top to 12166 kg m ˇ3 at the bottom [7]. This suggests that it is largely composed of molten iron, compressed by the 136‐329 GPa hydrostatic pressures created by the weight of the overlying mantle. Iron is a good electrical conductor, and it was not long (1919) before Sir Joseph Larmor [8] proposed that fluid motions in the core create the Earth’s magnetism through self‐excited dynamo action.
Characterization of T wave alternans with ambulatory electrocardiography.

T wave alternans (TWA) is a marker of ventricular electrical instability considered to be predictive for ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Techniques have been developed to detect TWA at the µv level as a method for arrhythmia risk stratification of persons at high risk for sudden cardiac death. Currently, TWA is typically calculated using spectral analysis, whereby TWA is presumed to assume characteristics of stationarity. In contrast, a nonspectral method known as modified moving average analysis is purported to detect transient TWA that would not be observed using a spectral approach. The purpose of this pilot study work was to establish the basic TWA signal properties obtained with a device developed by GE Medical Systems using a descriptive, correlational study design. Ambulatory electrocardiography (AECG) recordings (N = 24) were digitized and processed, and TWA was calculated via the modified moving average technique. Findings showed that noise was positively correlated with TWA in AECG channel 1 (r = ...
Implementation of a care bundle for antimicrobial stewardship.

Purpose The impact of an antibiotic-use care bundle on compliance with quality indicators was evaluated. Methods Patients admitted to the internal medicine or surgery floor of a tertiary care center who were receiving an anti-pseudomonal β-lactam, vancomycin, a fluoroquinolone, linezolid, an amino-glycoside, or any combination of these agents were included in the study. The study consisted of two phases: intervention (when a stewardship pharmacist was involved in patient care) and control (when no stewardship pharmacist was involved). The stewardship pharmacist completed interventions via prospective audit and suggested changes to empirical and definitive antimicrobials, monitored patients’ cultures and antimicrobial therapy daily, and provided education on the institution’s antibiogram. The primary outcome measured was compliance with the care bundle’s quality indicators, which included documentation of treatment rationale, collection of appropriate culture specimens according to institutional and national guidelines, appropriate empirical selection of antibiotics according to institutional and national guidelines at initiation of antibiotic therapy and deescalation, and selection of appropriate agents for definitive therapy during antimicrobial therapy. Results A total of 160 patients and 442 antibiotic orders were evaluated. During the intervention phase, 168 interventions were made, with an acceptance rate of 91%. The rate of appropriate deescalation rose from 72% to 90% ( p = 0.01). Compliance with all quality indicators rose from 16% to 43% ( p < 0.001). Conclusion Implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program care bundle on two patient care units was associated with improved rates of compliance with quality indicators.
Disruptive technologies: A credible threat to leading programs in continuing medical education?

Recent research into the history of some of the most prominent and successful firms in the for-profit sector has shown that industry leadership is extraordinarily fragile. Over and over; in industries as diverse as microelectronics, steel, motorcycles, and software, leading firms whose management practices at one point were widely admired and imitated have stum-bled badly and even failed. The factor that consistently has triggered these failures has not been complacent, arrogant, or bureaucratic management. It has been the emergence in their markets of disruptivem technology—simple, convenient-to-use innovations that initially are used only by unsophisticated customers at the low end of markets. Ironically, two of the funda-mental paradigms of good management—the importance of listening closely to customers and the necessity of bringing to market a regular flow of improved products that can be sold at higher profit margins—are the reasons why well-managed companies have consistently failed when confronted by disruptive technologies in their markets. This paper asserts that in a very analogous way, disruptive innovations in continuing education for managers and for health care professionals pose a significant threat to the impact and profitability of the continuing education programs of the leading schools of medicine and business. Through their focus on the leading edges of technology, therapy, and practice, many of these programs have lost sight of a very different set of educational needs among the fastest growing health care institutions in our environment. The paper suggests that unless leading providers of continuing medical education at medical schools aggressively begin offering courses that are customized to the needs of specific health care providers, in formats and venues that are conveniently accessi-ble, they will increasingly be displaced by new providers of these services.
DNA breakage caused by 334-nm ultraviolet light is enhanced by naturally occurring nucleic acid components and nucleotide coenzymes.

Abstract— The induction of breaks in DNA in vitro caused by 334-nm UV radiation is enhanced by the following compounds (fluence enhancement factors and concentrations used in parentheses): 4-thiouridine (6.9, 1 mM), 5-methylamino-2-thiouridine (7.5, 1 mM), 2-thiouracil (41.0, 1 mM), riboflavin (14.4.0.1 mM), and the oxidized (6.8, 1 mM) and reduced (3.4, 1 mM) forms of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. Anoxia and diazobicyclo(2.2.2)octane reduce the number of DNA breaks caused by 334-nm radiation plus 4-thiouridine by 70 and 76%, respectively.
Cost-Sensitive top-down/bottom-up inference for multiscale activity recognition

This paper addresses a new problem, that of multiscale activity recognition. Our goal is to detect and localize a wide range of activities, including individual actions and group activities, which may simultaneously co-occur in high-resolution video. The video resolution allows for digital zoom-in (or zoom-out) for examining fine details (or coarser scales), as needed for recognition. The key challenge is how to avoid running a multitude of detectors at all spatiotemporal scales, and yet arrive at a holistically consistent video interpretation. To this end, we use a three-layered AND-OR graph to jointly model group activities, individual actions, and participating objects. The AND-OR graph allows a principled formulation of efficient, cost-sensitive inference via an explore-exploit strategy. Our inference optimally schedules the following computational processes: 1) direct application of activity detectors --- called α process; 2) bottom-up inference based on detecting activity parts --- called β process; and 3) top-down inference based on detecting activity context --- called γ process. The scheduling iteratively maximizes the log-posteriors of the resulting parse graphs. For evaluation, we have compiled and benchmarked a new dataset of high-resolution videos of group and individual activities co-occurring in a courtyard of the UCLA campus.
eBay as an archive: Bidding for Bilad al-Sham bargains

Discussion of the merits of bidding for items of historical significance at the internet auction webstie eBay for teaching and research purposes.
Comunidad discursiva y análisis del género en la certificación del español con fines específicos

This article discusses the issue of Los retos de la certificacion del espanol con fines especificos de Susana Llorian and reflects on the evaluation tools on assesment for Spanish for specific purposes with special focus on the concept of discourse community and genre analysis.
Surplus Extraction by Primary Market Monopolists: Evidence from Secondary Market Transactions for SEC Football Tickets

Tickets to sporting events are highly differentiated - seat location, when the game is played, and home team and opponent qualities make each ticket unique. Preferences also differ nontrivially across fans, all of which make the supplier’s pricing problem complex. We examine strategies employed by Southeastern Conference universities in pricing their football tickets, and evaluate their effectiveness in extracting surplus from fans. We use hedonic analysis of data collected from online secondary market transactions to construct a synthetic season ticket, which we compare to prices actually charged by university athletic departments. We also compare quality premiums charged by universities for better seats with market evaluations of those quality differences.
Correcting Color Images for Stray-Light Effects by Computationally Solving an Inverse Problem via Selected-Ordinate Image (SORI) Processing

Even small amounts of stray light adversely affect digital-camera color fidelity. We correct camera images by using a particular generalized point-spread function normalization and shift-variant convolution that is much faster than Fourier-based methods.
The Africa theme in Trinidad Calypso

(1985). The Africa Theme in Trinidad Calypso. Caribbean Quarterly: Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 67-86.
A scalable discrete event stochastic agent-based model of infectious disease propagation

We propose a new stochastic model of infectious disease propagation. This model tracks individual outcomes, but does so without needing to create connectivity graphs for all members of the population. This makes the model scalable to much larger populations than traditional agent-based models have been able to cope with, while preserving the impact of variability during the critical early stages of an outbreak. This contrasts favorably with aggregate deterministic models, which ignore variability, and negates the requirement to assume "convenient" but potentially unrealistic distribution choices which aggregate stochastic models need in order to be analytically tractable. Initial explorations with our new model show behaviors similar to the observed course of Ebola outbreaks over the past 30+ years---while many outbreaks will fizzle out relatively quickly, some appear to reach a critical mass threshold and can turn into widespread epidemics.
Self-Reports of Peak and Nadir Experience Effects:

Comparatively stronger attention was given by Maslow (3) to his notion of the peak experience than to his concept of the nadir experience (defined as the most important negative happening in one's life). This tendency still is dominant in humanistic literature (5). One method of determining the apppropriateness of this almost exclusive emphasis on peaks to the exclusion of nadirs could be to ask people how comparatively influential they felt their nadir versus their peak experiences to have been in their lives. When Ebersole did this in 1970, he found that 70% of his college srudent sample rated their strongest nadir as having an equal ( 31% ) or greacer ( 39% ) effect than their strongest peak experience. The present experiment, psrt of a larger study, investigated how similar the results would be for a comparable group almost 20 years later. The 102 introductory psychology student participants (47 men and 55 women of an average age of 19 yr.) indicated by means of a checklist whether their most important nadir or peak had the stronger effect. The importance of the nadir was again borne out, with 53% citing the nadir as either of equal (13%) or greater (40%) effect than the peak. If such self-reports are seen as having validity, methodology like Finkel and Jacobsen's (2) whereby both peaks and nadirs are jointly studied, would seem more appropriate than the more typical emphasis upon positive experiences only. May (4), writing from an existential position, criticizes Rogers and humanistic psychologists in general for a similar neglect of the darker side of human experiencing related to our notion of evil; we see our data as supporting May's position.
Formation of the Phrygian state : the Early Iron Age at Gordion

A brief history of archaeological research at Gordion Piecing together documentary sources from areas to the east and west of Anatolia, historians agree that in the eighth century BC, central Anatolia was dominated by people who spoke an Indo-European language, Phrygian (Mellink 1991: 621; Muscarella 1995: 92 with refs). From historical sources we also know the location of the Phrygians' capital, Gordion: Quintus Curtius (Hist Alex III.1–2) states that the city lay on the Sangarios River ‘equally distant from the Pontic and Cilician Seas’. Using this description, Gustav and Augustus Korte travelled across Turkey more than a century ago looking for the physical remains of Gordion and Phrygia. They eventually focused on a mound lying adjacent to the Sangarios or modern Sakarya. The mound, now called Yassihoyuk, is large relative to others in the region, and lies in the proper geographical setting for ancient Gordion; a series of artificial mounds or tumuli scattered across nearby slopes provides additional evidence of the settlement's importance.
Radiographic Imaging and Urologic Decision Making in the Management of Renal and Ureteral Calculi

Without question, significant changes, and for the most part significant advances, have been made in the management of patients with urolithiasis during the past decade. The newer therapeutic measures have generally made it easier for patients to be treated, but the decision-making process for the urologist has become more complex. In the past, the issue whether to follow a patient with a stone or to intervene with surgery or transurethral cystoscopic basketing was decided based on well-established guidelines that had developed over many years. Today, the indications for intervention appear to be less stringent, and in the minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic patient who would not have been operated on previously, there appears to be an expanding desire for prophylactic management. For whatever reasons, once it has been established that a stone is present and the decision has been made to intervene, subsequent decisions regarding the technical approach may also not be as simple as in the past. Ten years ago, for example, a stone in the abdominal ureter was removed by a ureterolithotomy, and the principal decision involved placement of the incision. Today, the same calculus may be approached by ESWL with or without a stent, by antegrade percutaneous techniques, or by retrograde ureteroscopic techniques using rigid or flexible endoscopes with baskets, ultrasonic lithotrites, or lasers. Although the specific indication for specific techniques continue to evolve, it has become evident that information obtained by the radiographic evaluation of the urinary tract is critical in the decision-making process. The intravenous urogram, including the initial plain film, remains the primary diagnostic modality and, in the absence of extenuating clinical features, is often the sole test required to make a decision regarding the best therapeutic modality. A variety of clinical features from the history or physical examination, or concerns raised by the intravenous urogram, may necessitate alternative or additional techniques to better define the anatomy, the renal function, or other pathology. The urologist therefore needs to be familiar with the information that can be obtained from the uroradiologist's vast armamentarium in order to make the most appropriate recommendations to the patient for diagnosis and management.
Kidney Cancer in Rural Illinois: Lower Incidence Yet Higher Mortality Rates

Objective To determine if rural status was associated with kidney and renal pelvis cancer (KCa) incidence and mortality in Illinois while controlling for known KCa risk factors and access to care variables. Materials and Methods Age-adjusted KCa incidence rates from 1991 to 2010 were calculated from Illinois State Cancer Registry data. Age-adjusted KCa mortality rates were obtained from health statistics embedded within SEER*Stat. Rural Urban Continuum Codes designated Illinois' 102 counties as urban, rural adjacent to, and rural non-adjacent to a metropolitan area. County-level demographics and physician density were obtained from the Area Health Resource File. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data were used for smoking, obesity, and hypertension prevalence. Analysis of variance, correlation, and regression analyses were used. Results The incidence of KCa was found to be higher among urban compared to rural counties after controlling for known risk factors ( P P = .02). The final regression model found rural status, higher incidence rate, fewer with localized stage at diagnosis, and lower urologist density to be variables significantly associated with higher KCa mortality. Conclusion KCa incidence was higher in urban counties whereas mortality was higher in rural counties. The higher number of KCa cases diagnosed at a localized stage in urban counties and lower urologist density in rural counties suggest that poorer access to care may contribute to higher KCa mortality in rural Illinois. Telemedicine may be an opportunity to improve this disparity.
The measurement of body composition in children with spina bifida: Feasibility and preliminary findings

Purpose To assess the feasibility of obtaining and comparing various methods of height and body composition (BC) measurements in children with spina bifida (SB). Methods Fifteen children (7M/8F) with SB (4-18 years old) underwent weight, four height measurements (arm span, wall-mounted stadiometer, segmental and recumbent length) and five BC measurements: (BMI; BodPod®; DEXA; Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis; and skinfold). Data collectors, parents, and study participants evaluated procedures. The four heights as paired with the BC measurements were compared to the gold standard DEXA measurements. Results Procedures were successfully completed in 14 of 15 children. Skinfolds and segmental length had a midlevel ranking of comfort. While no measures substituted for the DEXA scan, preliminary findings suggest that an algorithm may estimate BC in this high-risk population. Currently, arm span used within BodPod® measurements provided the closest agreement with the DEXA scan. Conclusion Study protocol was feasible and provided necessary information, including recommended modifications, for successful implementation of the planned subsequent study.
Studies of the virulence of Salmonella dublin in experimental infections of cattle and rats.

SUMMARY Pregnant rats and pregnant heifers were inoculated with S. dublin either grown in laboratory media or obtained from foetal tissues of infected animals. The virulence of the S. dublin from the two sources was compared by measuring the concentration of S. dublin in foetal tissues of infected animals and by comparing the severity of illness produced. Difference in virulence of S. dublin from the two sources were not detected.
Niche Tactics: Generative Relationships Between Architecture and Its Site

Ecology is elastic. As a word and a concept, it can be stretched quite far without breaking, yet is always able to return to its original state. This is the point of origin for the elegant definiti...
Face and construct validation of a next generation virtual reality (Gen2-VR © ) surgical simulator

Surgical performance is affected by distractors and interruptions to surgical workflow that exist in the operating room. However, traditional surgical simulators are used to train surgeons in a skills laboratory that does not recreate these conditions. To overcome this limitation, we have developed a novel, immersive virtual reality (Gen2-VR©) system to train surgeons in these environments. This study was to establish face and construct validity of our system. The study was a within-subjects design, with subjects repeating a virtual peg transfer task under three different conditions: Case I: traditional VR; Case II: Gen2-VR© with no distractions and Case III: Gen2-VR© with distractions and interruptions. In Case III, to simulate the effects of distractions and interruptions, music was played intermittently, the camera lens was fogged for 10 s and tools malfunctioned for 15 s at random points in time during the simulation. At the completion of the study subjects filled in a 5-point Likert scale feedback questionnaire. A total of sixteen subjects participated in this study. Friedman test showed significant difference in scores between the three conditions (p < 0.0001). Post hoc analysis using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction further showed that all the three conditions were significantly different from each other (Case I, Case II, p < 0.0001), (Case I, Case III, p < 0.0001) and (Case II, Case III, p = 0.009). Subjects rated that fog (mean 4.18) and tool malfunction (median 4.56) significantly hindered their performance. The results showed that Gen2-VR© simulator has both face and construct validity and that it can accurately and realistically present distractions and interruptions in a simulated OR, in spite of limitations of the current HMD hardware technology.
Non-human DNA

Non-human DNA analysis has benefited from use of STR markers found in cats, dogs, plants, and other organisms. DNA testing can benefit wildlife law enforcement efforts including poaching or sale of products from endangered species. Demonstration that a botanical specimen came from a particular plant can aid the linkage of a crime to a suspect or help demonstrate that the body of a deceased victim may have been moved from the murder site. DNA testing can be used to link sources of marijuana. Microbial forensics involves identification of bio-terrorism materials such as anthrax to link these pathogenic materials with perpetrators of crimes.
Chapter 51 – Fingerprinting Solid Coals Using Pulse and Multiple Pulse Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Publisher Summary While nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been an enormously useful tool for analyses of liquid species, use for characterization of fossil fuels in the solid state has been severely limited. This chapter presents techniques that have been used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of solid coals via relaxation measurements, conventional magnetic resonance, and recently developed transient techniques in NMR. Almost every atomic specie conceived would be important in the determination determining if coal structure and chemistry have an NMR active nuclear isotope. In addition, the nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon is sensitive to a broad range of interactions. The use of NMR to fingerprint solid coals (and liquid coal products) would, therefore, appear to be limited only by the imagination. It is clear that the use of NMR to probe the solid state and to probe unusual situations in liquids such as quadrupolar broadened lines is in a period of exciting development.
SCN8A-Related Epilepsy with Encephalopathy

Clinical characteristics SCN8A-related epilepsy with encephalopathy is characterized by developmental delay, seizure onset in the first 18 months of life (mean 4 months), and intractable epilepsy characterized by multiple seizure types (generalized tonic-clonic seizures, infantile spasms, and absence and focal seizures). Epilepsy syndromes can include Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, West syndrome, and epileptic encephalopathies (e.g., Dravet syndrome). Hypotonia and movement disorders including dystonia, ataxia, and choreoathetosis are common. Psychomotor development varies from normal prior to seizure onset (with subsequent slowing or regression after seizure onset) to abnormal from birth. Intellectual disability, present in all, ranges from mild to severe (in ~50% of affected individuals). Autistic features are noted in some. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) of unknown cause has been reported in approximately 10% of published cases. To date SCN8A-related epilepsy with encephalopathy has been reported in the literature in about 50 individuals. Diagnosis/testing The diagnosis is established in a proband with encephalopathy and epilepsy and identification of a de novo pathogenic variant in SCN8A on molecular genetic testing. Management Treatment of manifestations: Seizure control should be managed by a pediatric neurologist with expertise in epilepsy management who is familiar with the pharmacotherapy for SCN8A-related epilepsy with encephalopathy and aware of how it differs from treatment of similar disorders. Vigorous attempts to control seizures are warranted. Several studies suggest a favorable response to sodium channel blockers. Surveillance: Periodic evaluation for neurologic, cognitive, and/or behavioral deterioration; monitoring with EEG and other modalities such as video EEG telemetry or ambulatory EEG when new or different seizure types are suspected. Because of the increased risk of SUDEP, some families use oxygen monitoring during sleep. Agents/circumstances to avoid: Several families of affected individuals report worsening of seizures with levetiracetam. Genetic counseling SCN8A-related epilepsy with encephalopathy is expressed in an autosomal dominant manner. Most affected individuals have a de novo pathogenic variant and typically do not reproduce. While the risk to future pregnancies is presumed to be low, some parents of an affected child may wish to consider prenatal testing or preimplantation genetic testing in future pregnancies as the risk may be slightly greater than in the general population because of the possibility of parental germline mosaicism.
Audience Questions and Closing Comments

This chapter presents questions raised by the audience and the responses and interchanges with the presenters. Topics include success rates, funding sources, addressing goals that are educationally vs. medically necessary, as part of the discussion of bringing services to scale. Questions also related to providing effective services for children and adolescents with less severe needs but who still struggle, the centrality of social development developing meaningful friendships and relationships.
Banking is for Others: Contradictions of Microfinance in the Ghanaian Market

Recent literature on microfinance has observed that commercial microfinance programs that achieve financial sustainability largely fail to reach the poor (Hulme 2000; Mayoux 2000; Cull, Demirguc-Kunt, and Morduch 2007). Most studies rely on institutional explanations for this failure (Battilana and Dorado 2010; Pache and Santos 2010; Canales 2011). Using a Braudelian conceptualization of a fragmented, three-tiered capitalist world-economy, this study examines how Ghanaian market women finance their businesses within the bottom layer of the capitalist world-economy, and why, despite the availability of commercial microfinance, they continue to rely on informal finance. I argue that commercial microfinance is structurally constrained by contradictions between the profit-driven logic of the upper layers of the capitalist world-economy and the socially-embedded and subsistence-driven logic that organizes the market in which market women operate. I also show that, to the extent that commercial microfinance partially penetrates the market, it disrupts the circulation of financial resources and weakens existing social and economic networks within the community.
Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs.

While proponents of direct-to-consumer drug advertising tout them as vehicles for patient empowerment, critics point to their influence on unsound prescribing and the medicalization of human experience.
Cigarette Fires Involving Upholstered Furniture in Residences: The Role that Smokers, Smoker Behavior, and Fire Standard Compliant Cigarettes Play

Residential structure fires pose a significant risk to life and property. A major source of these fires is the ignition of upholstered furniture by cigarettes. It has long been established that cigarettes and other lighted tobacco products could ignite upholstered furniture and were a leading cause of fire deaths in residences. In recent years, states have adopted fire standard compliant cigarettes (‘FSC cigarettes’) that are made with a wrapping paper that contains regularly spaced bands, which increases the likelihood of self-extinguishment. This paper measures the effectiveness of FSC cigarettes on the number of residential fires involving upholstered furniture, and the resulting fatalities, injuries, and extent of flame spread, while accounting for the under-reporting of fire incidents. In total, four models were estimated using fire department data from 2002 to 2011. The results provide evidence that FSC cigarettes, on average, reduced the number of residential fires by 45%, reduced fatalities by 23%, and extent of flame spread by 27% in 2011. No effect on injuries was found. Within each state, effectiveness is moderated by the number of smokers and their consumption patterns. In general, FSC cigarettes are more effective in places with a large smoking population who engage in heavier smoking. There is a very limited effect on the lightest of smokers, suggesting behavioral differences between heavy and light smokers that influence fire risk.
Mechanically tunable dual-component polyolefin fiber mats via two-dimensional multilayer coextrusion

Abstract Recently developed two-dimensional multilayer coextrusion and post-process drawing were combined to fabricate polyolefin composites with independently tunable size (9 μm width × 3 μm thickness to 5 μm width × 0.9 μm thickness) and mechanics (e.g. modulus from 1340 to 2010 MPa). Post-process drawing of the composite studied via in situ synchrotron WAXS and SAXS imparted higher crystallinity and more uniform and aligned crystallites (fH,PP = 0.93 and fH,HDPE = 0.90) resulting in an improved modulus, while also increasing and narrowing the melting temperature. After drawing, the composites were simultaneously delaminated and consolidated using a high pressure water jet to produce dual-component fiber mats with high specific surface area, which was related to the fiber size and rectangular cross-section unique to this process. The tunability of the HDPE and PP fibers produced via this process hold distinct advantages over solvent-based techniques, such as electrospinning, for many high performance applications.
Linking Oceanic Tsunamis and Geodetic Gravity Changes of Large Earthquakes

Large earthquakes at subduction zones usually generate tsunamis and coseismic gravity changes. These two independent oceanic and geodetic signatures of earthquakes can be observed individually by modern geophysical observational networks. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment twin satellites can detect gravity changes induced by large earthquakes, while altimetry satellites and Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis buoys can observe resultant tsunamis. In this study, we introduce a method to connect the oceanic tsunami measurements with the geodetic gravity observations, and apply it to the 2004 Sumatra Mw 9.2 earthquake, the 2010 Maule Mw 8.8 earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku Mw 9.0 earthquake. Our results indicate consistent agreement between these two independent measurements. Since seafloor displacement is still the largest puzzle in assessing tsunami hazards and its formation mechanism, our study demonstrates a new approach to utilizing these two kinds of measurements for better understanding of large earthquakes and tsunamis.
Measuring coupled signals on active ship-based communication systems

Ships present a unique challenge for measuring the amount of coupled energy to a communication system. This paper proposes a coupled energy measurement system that takes into account multiple networked communication systems, limited space, and non-invasive requirements to make a ship-based communication system easier to study. The proposed measurement system would be mobile, non-invasive, and allow for multiple systems to be measured in unison.