cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Solutions of the equation of transfer for a medium bounded by a perfect specular reflector in terms of those for a perfect absorber

Abstract In a recent paper, Casti et al.(su1) showed that the solution to the equation of radiative transfer for a homogeneous, plane-parallel atmosphere bounded below by a perfect specular reflector could be expressed in terms of the solutions for the same atmosphere bounded from below by a perfect absorber. They only considered the case of isotropic atmospheric scattering and hence there was no azimuthal dependence. A simple proof of this relation is given here. Furthermore, it is shown to be valid in the more general case of anisotropic scattering in an inhomogeneous atmosphere.
An Assessment of Patient Behavioral Requirements Pre- and Post-Surgery at Accredited Weight Loss Surgical Centers

Without changes to diet and exercise behaviors, weight losses achieved through surgical procedures may be short lived. There is no data currently available on how accredited bariatric facilities are implementing best-practice guidelines related to behavioral and psychological care to help patients make long-lasting change. One hundred twenty-three ACS-accredited facility websites were analyzed using document and content analyses to determine behavioral and psychological services. Categories of common facility practices were identified according to best-practice recommendations and website data was coded by category. Descriptive statistics were then generated to summarize the implementation of services. Behavioral and psychological services were more likely to be required prior to surgery than after surgery. In addition, there is great variance in the staff employed by facilities to assist patients, with more facilities employing dietary staff than exercise staff. Data patterns are reported across the categories of psychological assessment, pre- and post-surgical behavioral requirements, type of support groups, follow-up protocol, and staffing. Most facilities implement some type of dietary counseling or consultation; however, few include services related to helping patients improve physical activity patterns. Greater incorporation of behavioral and psychological services following surgery is recommended to prevent weight regain and to help patients adopt and maintain regular physical activity.
Cluster of infections following epidural in an outpatient setting

ISSUE: In 2003, our medical center had six suspected cases of spinal abscess following epidural injection in an outpatient chronic pain management clinic. Abscess following epidural injection to manage chronic back pain is a rare and potentially devastating occurrence. When a cluster of patients developed this rare infection in one of our medical clinics, infection control services (ICS) took action to contain the cluster. PROJECT: After developing a case definition, ICS implemented a strategy to determine the scope of the situation. The infectious disease MD (ID) reviewed the cases of all inpatients with central nervous system, including spinal abscess, over a 12-month period. Six patients were suspected by the ID to have developed spinal abscess following epidural injection. Three of the patients did not meet our case definition. The three remaining cases occurred in a 2-month period. Only one of the patients had the spinal abscess cultured, and Haemophilus segnis and Streptococcus viridans were identified. ICS and ID met with the two clinic physicians, the department chief, and clinic manager. ICS conducted procedure observations for each of the physicians. RESULTS: Deficiencies identified during observation of the procedures included lapses in appropriate hand hygiene, draping, prepping, mask use, and use of multidose vials. ICS and ID made specific recommendations for changes in practice, which included using standard infection control measures for invasive procedures. The department agreed to institute the recommendations. Six months after the initial investigation, ICS again observed procedures of the two physicians. All of the previous recommendations had been placed into practice. There have not been any cases of abscess following epidural injection in the 18 months following the cluster. LESSONS LEARNED: The role of ICS in cluster investigation and resolution is vital. Basic components should include: case identification based on standard definition; thorough review of relevant case details for similarities; observation of procedures when indicated; appropriate suggestions for resolution; involvement of key stakeholders in the investigation and resolution of the event; and follow-up. Periodic review of areas where invasive procedures take place, including outpatient departments, is an important role of infection control programs.
LOCALIZATION OF SOLUBLE GUANYLATE CYCLASE (sGC) IN PULMONARY VASCULATURE OF FETAL SHEEP. |[bull]| 1960

Activation of sGC by Nitric Oxide (NO) appears to be essential for the pulmonary vasodilation that allows the establishment of gas exchange by the lungs at birth. The relative role of each segment of the pulmonary vasculature of the newborn in this activation of sGC is not known. Immunohistochemistry using the B4 antibody to the 82 kDA subunit of rat sGC (cross reacts with the sheep) was used to study differences along the pulmonary vasculature in fetal sheep. Specific staining was confined to vascular smooth muscle layers. At 1:6400 dilution, all veins stained positively, whereas the largest positively stained artery was 200mm. All vessels at the level of small terminal and respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts stained intensely positive. This pattern of differential staining between small and large pulmonary arteries supports previous physiologic studies in fetal sheep lung showing decreased sensitivity to NO in pulmonary arteries greater than 500 mm in diameter but sustained activity in pulmonary veins. Our data supports a role for sGC activation in regulating tone in the intraacinar arteries and veins of the newborn pulmonary circulation.
A Feature-based Approach for Dense Segmentation and Estimation of Large Disparity Motion

We present a novel framework for motion segmentation that combines the concepts of layer-based methods and feature-based motion estimation. We estimate the initial correspondences by comparing vectors of filter outputs at interest points, from which we compute candidate scene relations via random sampling of minimal subsets of correspondences. We achieve a dense, piecewise smooth assignment of pixels to motion layers using a fast approximate graphcut algorithm based on a Markov random field formulation. We demonstrate our approach on image pairs containing large inter-frame motion and partial occlusion. The approach is efficient and it successfully segments scenes with inter-frame disparities previously beyond the scope of layer-based motion segmentation methods. We also present an extension that accounts for the case of non-planar motion, in which we use our planar motion segmentation results as an initialization for a regularized Thin Plate Spline fit. In addition, we present applications of our method to automatic object removal and to structure from motion.
Providing Pediatric Subspecialty Care: A Workforce Analysis

Objective. To provide a snapshot of pediatric subspecialty practice, examine issues pertaining to the subspecialty workforce, and analyze subspecialists9 perspective on the health care market. Background. Before the effort of the Future of Pediatric Education II (FOPE II) Project, very little information existed regarding the characteristics of the pediatric subspecialty workforce. This need was addressed through a comprehensive initiative involving cooperation between subspecialty sections of the American Academy of Pediatrics and other specialty societies. Methods. Questionnaires were sent to all individuals, identified through exhaustive searches, who practiced in 17 pediatric medical and surgical subspecialty areas in 1997 and 1998. The survey elicited information about education and practice issues, including main practice setting, major professional activity, referrals, perceived competition, and local workforce requirements. The number of respondents used in the analyses ranged from 120 (plastic surgery) to 2034 (neonatology). In total, responses from 10 010 pediatric subspecialists were analyzed. Results. For 13 of the subspecialties, a medical school setting was specified by the largest number of respondents within each subspecialty as their main employment site. Direct patient care was the major professional activity of the majority of respondents in all the subspecialties, with the exception of infectious diseases. Large numbers of subspecialists reported increases in the complexity of referral cases, ranging between 20% (cardiology) and 44% (critical care), with an average of 33% across the entire sample. In all subspecialties, a majority of respondents indicated that they faced competition for services in their area (range: 55%–90%; 71% across the entire sample); yet in none of the subspecialties did a majority report that they had modified their practice as a result of competition. In 15 of the 17 subspecialties, a majority stated that there would be no need in their community over the next 3 to 5 years for additional pediatric subspecialists in their discipline. Across the entire sample, 42% of respondents indicated that they or their employer would not be hiring additional, nonreplacement pediatric subspecialists in their field in the next 3 to 5 years (range: 20%–63%). Conclusion. This survey provides the first comprehensive analysis to date on how market forces are perceived to be affecting physicians in the pediatric subspecialty workforce. The data indicate that pediatric subspecialists in most areas are facing strong competitive pressures in the market, and that the market9s ability to support additional subspecialists in many areas may be diminishing.
Shifting Geographies: Examining the Role of Suburbanization in Blacks' Declining Segregation

This article explores the relationship between Black shifts to the suburbs and metropolitan segregation using the decompositional properties of the entropy index. This method reveals that much of t...
The effect of cognitive impairment on the accuracy of the presenting complaint and discharge instruction comprehension in older emergency department patients.

Study objective We seek to determine how delirium and dementia affect the accuracy of the presenting illness and discharge instruction comprehension in older emergency department (ED) patients. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at an academic ED from May 2008 to July 2008 and included non-nursing home patients aged 65 years and older. Two open-ended interviews were performed to assess patients' ability to accurately provide their presenting illness and comprehension of their ED discharge instructions. The surrogates' version of the presenting illness and printed discharge instructions were the reference standards. Concordance between the patient and the reference standards was determined by 2 reviewers using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (no concordance) to 5 (complete concordance). Proportional odds logistic regression was performed to determine whether cognitive impairment was associated with presenting complaint accuracy and discharge instruction comprehension. All models were adjusted for age, health literacy, education, nonwhite race, and hearing impairment. Results For the presenting illness analysis, 202 patients participated. Compared with patients without cognitive impairment, those with delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) had lower odds of agreeing with their surrogates with regard to why they were in the ED (adjusted proportional odds ratio=0.20; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.09 to 0.43). For the discharge instruction comprehension analysis, 115 patients participated. Patients with DSD had significantly lower odds of comprehending their discharge diagnosis (adjusted proportional odds ratio=0.13; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.47), return to the ED instructions (adjusted proportional odds ratio=0.18; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.82), and follow-up instructions (adjusted proportional odds ratio=0.09; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.35) compared with patients without cognitive impairment. Conclusion DSD is associated with decreased accuracy of the older patient's presenting illness and decreased comprehension of ED discharge instructions.
Detailed kinetic modeling of ethane oxidation

Abstract A detailed chemical kinetic model has been developed for ethane oxidation that is applicable over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. This model incorporates the results of recent ab initio studies of the important low-temperature pathways of the C 2 H 5 + O 2 reaction as well as several C 2 H 6 + RO 2 abstraction reactions. These results change significantly the nature of the chain-branching reactions in ethane oxidation. The temperature and pressure dependencies of the rate coefficients in the model are represented by Chebyshev polynomials. The model predictions were compared to a variety of data, which include different reactor types and cover a wide range of temperatures, pressures, and equivalence ratios. These experiments include high-pressure flow reactor studies of lean ethane oxidation, PSR studies of both lean and rich ethane oxidation at different pressures, shock-tube studies of ethane oxidation and pyrolysis, and low-pressure flame experiments. The current model, with no adjustments, describes the experimental data reasonably well. A first-order sensitivity analysis identified the most important reactions in each of the kinetic regimes. The implications of inclusion of the concerted elimination of HO 2 from ethylperoxy on hydrocarbon ignition are discussed.
Analysis of the Bacillus subtilis tyrS gene: Conservation of a regulatory sequence in multiple tRNA synthetase genes

The Bacillus subtilis tyrS gene, which encodes tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrTS), was isolated, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The cloned gene was shown to complement an Escherichia coli tyrS (Ts) mutant. The predicted amino acid sequence exhibited 70% identity to that of Bacillus stearothermophilus TyrTS and 55% identity to that of E. coli TyrTS, while identity to a second cryptic B. subtilis TyrTS gene, designated tyrZ, was only 27%. Primer extension analysis indicated that tyrS transcription initiated at a vegetative promoter sequence located 300 nucleotides upstream of the AUG start codon. The mRNA leader region was found to contain an inverted repeat sequence resembling a transcriptional terminator. Expression of a transcriptional tyrS-lacZ fusion was found to be induced by starvation for tyrosine in a tyrosine auxotroph (tyrA1). Transcription initiation was unaffected by tyrosine starvation. Deletion of the terminator region in a tyrS-lacZ fusion resulted in high-level constitutive expression. Immediately preceding the putative terminator was sequence element found to be conserved in the upstream region of a number of Bacillus tRNA synthetase genes as well as in the ilv-leu biosynthetic operon; mutation of this element in tyrS resulted in low-level uninducible expression. The conservation of this sequence element suggests that aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes and the ilv-leu operon may be regulated by a common mechanism in Bacillus spp.
Acute portal vein thrombosis complicating in vitro fertilization.

Objective To describe a case of acute portal vein thrombosis after IVF treatment. Design Case report. Setting University teaching hospital. Patient(s) A 39-year-old woman experienced worsening, right upper quadrant pain several days after oocyte retrieval; ET was withheld. Imaging studies revealed acute portal vein thrombosis with extension into the splenic and superior mesenteric veins. Intervention(s) Therapeutic anticoagulation; no ET was performed. Main Outcome Measure(s) Improvement in symptoms, accurate diagnosis of condition. Result(s) Decreased size of portal vein thrombosis and partial vessel recanalization. Conclusion(s) Thromboembolic events are a rare complication of assisted reproductive technology (ART). In women who present with upper abdominal pain during ART, portal vein thrombosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis.
Exploring psychological responses to genetic testing for Lynch Syndrome within the family context.

Objective Genetic testing for hereditary cancer susceptibility syndromes is a family centered process. Nonetheless, little research has explored how the family context affects psychological responses to genetic testing. We examine how personal test results and the test results of immediate and extended family members shape responses to genetic testing.
A parametric implicit solid modeller based morphing technology for free-form surface machining

Today most of the Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software are predominantly surface modellers. The toolpaths are generated mainly based on the areas that are to be manufactured. However, in many occasions, it is more desirable to make use of the information of the entire cut volume rather than just specifying the surfaces. This paper presents a Parametric Implicit Solid Modeller (PISM). Its Laplace-based solution enables the interior parameterisation of the entire cut volume. These developments lead to the realisation of a boundary-conformed morphing technology that can be applied to the unification of multi-stage manufacturing processes.
Mesenchymal stromal cells. Biology of adult mesenchymal stem cells: regulation of niche, self-renewal and differentiation

Recent advances in understanding the cellular and molecular signaling pathways and global transcriptional regulators of adult mesenchymal stem cells have provided new insights into their biology and potential clinical applications, particularly for tissue repair and regeneration. This review focuses on these advances, specifically in the context of self-renewal and regulation of lineage-specific differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. In addition we review recent research on the concept of stem cell niche, and its relevance to adult mesenchymal stem cells.
Immediate and long-term effects of testosterone on song plasticity and learning in juvenile song sparrows.

a b s t r a c t Steroid sex hormones play critical roles in the development of brain regions used for vocal learning. It has been suggested that puberty-induced increases in circulating testosterone (T) levels crystallize a bird's repertoire and inhibit future song learning. Previous studies show that early administration of T crystallizes song repertoires but have not addressed whether new songs can be learned after this premature crystallization. We brought 8 juvenile song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) into the laboratory in the late summer and implanted half of them with subcutaneous T pellets for a two week period in October. Birds treated with T tripled their singing rates and crystallized normal songs in 2 weeks. After T removal, subjects were tutored by 4 new adults. Birds previously treated with T tended toward learning fewer new songs post T, consistent with the hypothesis that T helps to close the song learning phase. However, one T-treated bird proceeded to learn several new songs in the spring, despite singing perfectly crystallized songs in the fall. His small crystallized fall repertoire and initial lag behind other subjects in song development suggest that this individual may have had limited early song learning experience. We conclude that an exposure to testosterone sufficient for crystallization of a normal song repertoire does not necessarily prevent future song learning and suggest that early social experiences might override the effects of hormones in closing song learning.
Critical STEP advances for sustainable iron production

A transformative, sustainable technology to replace the age-old CO2-intensive production of iron is presented. Molten calcium inclusive carbonates are introduced for STEP Iron. Understanding the speciation constraints permits iron synthesis at nearly 100% coulombic efficiency, without exotic electrocatalysts, and at low electrolysis energy.
Epitaxial Growth of Nb Films and Nb/Cu Bilayers on A12O3 Substrates by DC Magnetron Sputtering

Epitaxial single crystal Nb films have been grown by sputter deposition on (1 1 2 0) sapphire substrates. Subsequently, high quality epitaxial Cu films, with two orientation variants, have been grown onto the epitaxial Nb films. The sputtered films have been characterized using atomic force microscopy, electron backscattered patterns, and conventional transmission electron microscopy.
Site Selectivity of Competitive Antagonists for the Mouse Adult Muscle Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor

The muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptor has two nonidentical binding sites for ligands. The selectivity of acetylcholine and the competitive antagonists (+)-tubocurarine and metocurine for adult mouse receptors is known. Here, we examine the site selectivity for four other competitive antagonists: cisatracurium, pancuronium, vecuronium, and rocuronium. We rapidly applied acetylcholine to outside-out patches from transfected BOSC23 cells and measured macroscopic currents. We have reported the IC(50) of the antagonists individually in prior publications. Here, we determined inhibition by pairs of competitive antagonists. At least one antagonist was present at a concentration producing > or =67% receptor inhibition. Metocurine shifted the apparent IC(50) of (+)-tubocurarine in quantitative agreement with complete competitive antagonism. The same was observed for pancuronium competing with vecuronium. However, pancuronium and vecuronium each shifted the apparent IC(50) of (+)-tubocurarine less than expected for complete competition but more than expected for independent binding. The situation was similar for cisatracurium and (+)-tubocurarine or metocurine. Cisatracurium did not shift the apparent IC(50) of pancuronium or vecuronium, indicating independent binding of these two pairs. The data were fit to a two-site, two-antagonist model to determine the antagonist binding constants for each site, L(alphaepsilon) and L(alphadelta). We found L(alphaepsilon)/L(alphadelta) = 0.22 (range, 0.14-0.34), 20 (9-29), 21 (4-36), and 1.5 (0.3-2.9) for cisatracurium, pancuronium, vecuronium, and rocuronium, respectively. The wide range of L(alphaepsilon)/L(alphadelta) for some antagonists may reflect experimental uncertainties in the low affinity site, relatively poor selectivity (rocuronium), or possibly that the binding of an antagonist at one site affects the affinity of the second site.
A framework to access networked appliances in wide area networks

The rapid evolution and expansion of networked appliances raises an interesting problem of communicating with these devices through the Internet from remote locations. The wide acceptance and popularity of session initiation protocol (SlP) for device-to-device communication makes SIP a candidate protocol to remotely establish communication with network attached devices and control them through the Internet. This paper addresses the problem of accessing networked appliances' operating status and profile information from a remote location in the Internet and addresses the issue of interoperability among different device vendors and service providers. Device operational status and profile information are particularly important to networked appliances where a user agent would like to monitor the state of networked appliances from a remote location and be notified about changes of device status. In this paper we propose a SIP-based framework that exploits SIP's event notification mechanisms to exchange device operational status and profile information. We also define an XML-based format for device profiles, which forms a basis for exchanging device status information.
Type-raising operations on cardinal and ordinal numbers in Quine's “New foundations”

In this paper we develop certain methods of proof in Quine's set theory NF which have no counterparts elsewhere. These ideas were first used by Specker [5] in his disproof of the Axiom of Choice in NF. They depend on the properties of two related operations, T(n) on cardinal numbers and U(α) on ordinal numbers, which are defined by the equationsfor each set x and well ordering R. (Here and below we use Rosser's notation [3].) The definitions insure that the formulas T(x) = y and U(x) = y are stratified when y is assigned a type one higher than x. The importance of T and U stems from the following facts: (i) each of T and U is a 1-1, order preserving operation from its domain onto a proper initial section of its domain; (ii) Tand U commute with most of the standard operations on cardinal and ordinal numbers.These basic facts are discussed in §1. In §2 we prove in NF that the exponential function 2n is not 1-1. Indeed, there exist cardinal numbers m and n which satisfyIn §3 we prove the following technical result, which has many important applications. Suppose f is an increasing function from an initial segment S of the set NO of ordinal numbers into NO and that f commutes with U.
A novel method for multiple alignment of sequences with repeated and shuffled elements

We describe ABA (A-Bruijn alignment), a new method for multiple alignment of biological sequences. The major difference between ABA and existing multiple alignment methods is that ABA represents an alignment as a directed graph, possibly containing cycles. This representation provides more flexibility than does a traditional alignment matrix or the recently introduced partial order alignment (POA) graph by allowing a larger class of evolutionary relationships between the aligned sequences. Our graph representation is particularly well-suited to the alignment of protein sequences with shuffled and/or repeated domain structure, and allows one to construct multiple alignments of proteins containing (1) domains that are not present in all proteins, (2) domains that are present in different orders in different proteins, and (3) domains that are present in multiple copies in some proteins. In addition, ABA is useful in the alignment of genomic sequences that contain duplications and inversions. We provide several examples illustrating the applications of ABA.
Cascaded observers to improve lateral vehicle state and tyre parameter estimates

This paper proposes a method to produce high update, accurate, observable estimates of vehicle sideslip, utilising a two antenna GPS system. Measurements are blended with a kinematic Kalman filter to get high update sideslip estimates, which are used to predict the Dugoff tyre parameters. The parameters are then used in a model-based Kalman filter, which can provide more accurate vehicle state estimates even in the event of a GPS outage. Tyre force estimation is tested with experimental data on high and low friction surfaces, and validated by the performance of the model-based Kalman filter using the identified tyre parameters.
Detection of primary breast cancer presenting as metastatic carcinoma of unknown primary origin by 111In-pentetreotide scan

Women with isolated metastatic carcinoma or adenocarcinoma involving axillary lymph nodes are a well-recognized group of unknown primary carcinoma (UPC) patients with a favorable prognosis. This group of patients are generally treated based on the assumption that they have occult breast cancer. However, to facilitate patient access to the whole spectrum of therapies available for patients with breast cancer, including strategies involving the use of high-dose chemotherapy, a precise diagnosis is increasingly important. In this clinical case we report the detection of a primary breast cancer by 111In-pentetreotide scanning in a woman who presented with metastatic carcinoma in axillary nodes, no palpable breast lesion, a nondiagnostic mammogram, and negative breast ultrasonography. Previous outcomes analysis of patients with UPC have emphasized the value of identifying women with breast cancer. This report suggests that the 111In-pentetreotide scan can contribute specific, clinically useful information in the evaluation of women presenting with metastatic carcinoma in axillary nodes and an occult primary and deserves prospective study in women with UPC presenting with isolated axillary metastases.
Synesthesia, Creativity and Puns

The relationship between self-reported synesthesia, or sensory mixing, and verbal creativity as measured by the Remote Associates Test and pun generation was assessed. 210 participants responded online. Analysis yielded a significant correlation between scores on Synesthesia and Verbal Creativity as measured. The possibility that Synesthesia and Verbal Creativity stem from dedifferentiated thinking processes or neural cross-activation is discussed.
User-aware privacy control via extended static-information-flow analysis

Applications in mobile-marketplaces may leak private user information without notification. Existing mobile platforms provide little information on how applications use private user data, making it difficult for experts to validate applications and for users to grant applications access to their private data. We propose a user-aware privacy control approach, which reveals how private information is used inside applications. We compute static information flows and classify them as safe/unsafe based on a tamper analysis that tracks whether private data is obscured before escaping through output channels. This flow information enables platforms to provide default settings that expose private data only for safe flows, thereby preserving privacy and minimizing decisions required from users. We built our approach into TouchDevelop, an application-creation environment that allows users to write scripts on mobile devices and install scripts published by other users. We evaluate our approach by studying 546 scripts published by 194 users.
Stabilization on Null Controllable Region — Continuous-Time Systems

In this chapter, we will study the problem of stablizing a linear system with saturating actuators. The key issue involved here is the size of the result­ing domain of attraction of the equilibrium. Indeed, local stabilization, for which the size of the domain of attraction is not a design specification, is trivial. It is straightforward to see that any linear feedback that stabilizes the system in the absence of actuator saturation would also locally sta­bilize the system in the presence of actuator saturation. In fact, with the given stabilizing linear feedback law, actuator saturation can be completely avoided by restricting the initial states to a small neighborhood of the equi­librium. Our focus in this chapter is on the construction of feedback laws that would lead to a domain of attraction that contains any a priori given bounded subset of the asymptotically null controllable region in its interior. We refer to such a problem as semi-global stabilization on the asymptoti­cally null controllable region, or simply, semi-global stabilization. We recall from Chapter 2 that the null controllable region of a linear system subject to actuator saturation is the set of all the states that can be steered to the origin in a finite time by an admissible control, and the asymptotically null controllable region is the set of all the states that can be driven to the origin asymptotically by an admissible control
A Critical Theory of Private Equity

In the private equity world, partnership agreements have received praise from many corners for reducing the agency costs arising between the interests of fund managers and investors. This article sets out to assess contract design in private equity partnerships. The argument here is that the importance of many of these heralded contract design features has been overstated. Part II describes the legal rights of investors in private equity funds. By default, investors in private limited partnerships have limited rights to participate in day-to-day operations or challenge decisions of fund managers. As a result of this set of default legal rules, investors in these funds face a familiar agency problem. That is, fund managers may be emboldened to pursue their own self-interest at the expense of investor interests. Some have boasted that contract design resolves many of these major agency problems. Parts III and IV describe a few of the best private contractual arrangements that investors have used to overcome these legal and economic constraints. As will be shown, however, many of these contract design features have severe shortcomings. Contract design appears to be an uncertain solution to the problem of agency costs in private equity limited partnerships.
THE ROLE OF ELASTOMERS IN THE STUDY OF POLYMER CRYSTALLIZATION

Abstract Crystallization in polymers involves the development of three-dimensional order in the system. In this respect crystalline polymers resemble very closely the crystalline state of monomeric systems. In contrast to low molecular weight systems, however1 polymers never crystallize completely. The crystallinity level can vary from a few to 90% depending on the molecular constitution of the polymer chains and the external crystallization conditions. Consequently, a polycrystalline system having a complex morphology develops. When a polymer system crystallizes, either quiescently, or when held in a deformed state, there are major changes in properties from the typical rubber-like elasticity of noncrystalline (amorphous) polymers. These changes are particularly evident in many physical and mechanical properties. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of the crystallization process and the structure and morphology that evolves. In addition to their intrinsic scientific interest these factors...
Organometallic Dimers: Application to Work-Function Reduction of Conducting Oxides

The dimers of pentamethyliridocene and ruthenium pentamethylcyclopentadienyl mesitylene, (IrCp*Cp)2 and (RuCp*mes)2, respectively, are shown here to be effective solution-processable reagents for lowering the work functions of electrode materials; this approach is compared to the use of solution-deposited films of ethoxylated poly(ethylenimine) (PEIE). The work functions of indium tin oxide (ITO), zinc oxide, and gold electrodes can be reduced to 3.3–3.4 eV by immersion in a toluene solution of (IrCp*Cp)2; these values are similar to those that can be obtained by spin-coating a thin layer of PEIE onto the electrodes. The work-function reductions achieved using (IrCp*Cp)2 are primarily attributable to the interface dipoles associated with the formation of submonolayers of IrCp*Cp+ cations on negatively charged substrates, which in turn result from redox reactions between the dimer and the electrode. The electrical properties of C60 diodes with dimer-modified ITO cathodes are similar to those of analogous d...
The role of imaging based prostate biopsy morphology in a data fusion paradigm for transducing prognostic predictions

A major focus area for precision medicine is in managing the treatment of newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients. For patients with a positive biopsy, clinicians aim to develop an individualized treatment plan based on a mechanistic understanding of the disease factors unique to each patient. Recently, there has been a movement towards a multi-modal view of the cancer through the fusion of quantitative information from multiple sources, imaging and otherwise. Simultaneously, there have been significant advances in machine learning methods for medical prognostics which integrate a multitude of predictive factors to develop an individualized risk assessment and prognosis for patients. An emerging area of research is in semi-supervised approaches which transduce the appropriate survival time for censored patients. In this work, we apply a novel semi-supervised approach for support vector regression to predict the prognosis for newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients. We integrate clinical characteristics of a patient’s disease with imaging derived metrics for biomarker expression as well as glandular and nuclear morphology. In particular, our goal was to explore the performance of nuclear and glandular architecture within the transduction algorithm and assess their predictive power when compared with the Gleason score manually assigned by a pathologist. Our analysis in a multi-institutional cohort of 1027 patients indicates that not only do glandular and morphometric characteristics improve the predictive power of the semi-supervised transduction algorithm; they perform better when the pathological Gleason is absent. This work represents one of the first assessments of quantitative prostate biopsy architecture versus the Gleason grade in the context of a data fusion paradigm which leverages a semi-supervised approach for risk prognosis.
A New Framework for Public Health Management: Collaborative Public Management

Objective To analyze the importance of collaborative public management in health management from theoretical level,to provide useful reference for the deepening medical reform. Method Literature study,investigation,individual interview,and data analysis were used. Result Collaborative public management has become a new strategy of local government in the management of public affairs in the new period. In contrast,China's management of public health cooperation is not smooth,efficiency is not high,the overall advantages of cooperative health resources is to be excavated,and the relevant aspects of cooperation needs to be strengthened. Conclusion Under the condition of the relative shortage of health resources in our country and the health service demand of urban and rural residents increasing rapidly,a new mechanism for networked collaborative public management should be established in the relevant departments within the governments,departments and health systems,to maximize the existing health resources,and to better protect the health of urban and rural residents.
Designing, Implementing and Sustaining a Technology-Rich STEM Classroom Using Participatory Design Practices

This paper describes a participatory design approach used to create, implement and sustain a technology-rich STEM classroom in a secondary school associated with a U.S. university. Students, teachers, and administrators from the secondary school worked in collaboration with university faculty and staff and with Herman Miller®, an international design company that conducts learning-space research. The goal in utilizing participatory design practices was to maximize the use and sustainability of the classroom. In addition to discussion of the design process and constructed space, a research study conducted in conjunction with this project is described. Implementation challenges and sustainability strategies uncovered through the research and as part of the development of a broader case study focusing on teachers’ experiences during this process are outlined along with users’ responses to the classroom.
A Fiducial Apparatus for 6DOF Pose Estimation of an External Echo Probe from a Single X-ray Projection: Initial Simulation Studies on Design Requirements

X-ray fluoroscopy (XRF) is considered the primary imaging modality for guidance during cardiac interventions. However, visualization of soft tissue is limited. Image registration between transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and XRF could potentially be used to fuse soft-tissue imaging with device imaging in minimally sedated patients. We propose a method of XRF/TTE image registration in which a fiducial apparatus is rigidly attached to the TTE probe, and the 3D pose of the fiducial is determined based on its appearance in the XRF image. The fiducial consists of a constellation of radio-opaque markers with known geometry. 3D pose estimation accuracy depends on 1) accurate marker localization in the XRF image, 2) geometric properties of the apparatus such as marker diameter, overall apparatus dimensions, marker count, manufacturing tolerances, and 3) pose estimation method. In this work, we performed simulation studies to examine the effect that each variable had on the 3D target registration error (TRE). In the first experiment, we generated simulated XRF images of a spherical marker with varying levels of peak signal-difference-to-noise ratio (pSDNR) and varying marker diameters, and measured the effect on marker localization error (MLE). In the second experiment, using a circular con- stellation of markers, we tested the effect that MLE, manufacturing tolerance, apparatus dimensions, marker count, and shape constraints during optimization had on TRE. Our results showed that MLE was roughly 0.14, 0.05, 0.02 mm for pSDNRs of 10, 20 and 30 using a 2 mm diameter spherical marker. TRE decreased as the marker count and apparatus diameter increased. Manufacturing error increased TRE, but had minor effects for clinically relevant levels of MLE. Results indicate that, for a “medium” level of pSDNR ( 15), the optimal fiducial configuration can achieve a 3DTRE of 0.32 ± 0.22 mm, and can achieve a 3DTRE of less than 1.5 mm for noisier images.
Program Executive Officer Aviation, Major Milestone Reviews: Lessons Learned Report

Abstract : This report documents ideas and recommendations for improving the overall acquisition process and presents the actions taken by project managers in several programs to develop, staff, and obtain approval for their systems. This report contains information on the decision briefings and lessons learned, and describes issues encountered and the recommendations regarding the actual processes that were followed. Finally, this report includes checklists of required actions that will assist new and existing Program Management Offices (PMOs) as they prepare for milestone reviews.
Special Issue: Methods for Estimating Treatment Effects for Persons with Multiple Chronic Conditions.

The objective of this Special Issue is to highlight advances in statistical sciences and its application to solve problems of human health and diseases, with the ultimate goal of advancing quality of the public health. Strategies to determine medication effects in patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) are needed to evaluate the effect of medications on cross-disease. Universal health outcomes such as survival, function, quality of life and cognition provide us the reasons to lay the foundation for an evidence-based approach for medication decision-making in case of patients with MCC. Approximately 75% of adults over the age of 65 years are affected by two or more chronic medical conditions in the United States. As the prevalence of older adults with chronic conditions increases, so do health care utilization, treatment burden, and the frequency of adverse drug events. Few clinical guidelines even acknowledge the role that co-occurring conditions play in forming treatment recommendations possibly because methods have not been developed to assist in this critical area. In their investigation of the guidelines of national specialty organizations, Boyd and coworkers found few instances in which authors discussed how treatment of the index disease might be modified by the presence of co-existing diseases [1]. Given the ever expanding availability of treatments designed to treat persons with MCC, it is imperative that we have methods that allow us to understand how treating the disease of interest might be related to the presence of co-existing diseases. The US Department of Health and Human Services publication Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Strategic Framework [2] identified goals of supporting research about individuals with MCC and effective interventions and equipping care providers with tools, information, and other interventions. The articles presented in this issue address: 1) trial designs to estimate treatment effects for heterogeneous sample populations with MCC, including adaptive designs (Travison et al.) [3], 2) causal estimators for treatments using observational data (Murphy et al., and Han et al.) [4], 3) the convergent and discriminant validity of quality of life impact attributions to specific diseases among adults with MCC (Ware et al.) [5], 4) time-dependent confounding (Murphy et al.) [6] and 5) an absolute risk calculator to select from multiple treatments for universal outcomes using causal methods for observational data (Allore et al.) [7]. This set of articles by internationally recognized researchers address these national priorities. Additionally, each of these articles provides a fertile ground for future work to meet their current limitations, extend the methods, and apply them to different MCC patient samples.
Temperature response of mesophyll conductance in three C4 species calculated with two methods: 18O discrimination and in vitro Vpmax

Mesophyll conductance (gm ) is an important factor limiting rates of C3 photosynthesis. However, its role in C4 photosynthesis is poorly understood because it has been historically difficult to estimate. We use two methods to derive the temperature responses of gm in C4 species. The first (Δ18 O) combines measurements of gas exchange with models and measurements of 18 O discrimination. The second method (in vitro Vpmax ) derives gm by retrofitting models of C4 photosynthesis and 13 C discrimination with gas exchange, kinetic constants and in vitro Vpmax measurements. The two methods produced similar gm for Setaria viridis and Zea mays. Additionally, we present the first temperature response (10-40°C) of C4 gm in S. viridis, Z. mays and Miscanthus × giganteus. Values for gm at 25°C ranged from 2.90 to 7.85 μmol m-2 s-1 Pa-1 . Our study demonstrated that: the two described methods are suitable to calculate gm in C4 species; gm values in C4 are similar to high-end values reported for C3 species; and gm increases with temperature analogous to reports for C3 species and the response is species specific. These results improve our mechanistic understanding of C4 photosynthesis.
Channel opening and gating mechanism in AMPA-subtype glutamate receptors

AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid)-subtype ionotropic glutamate receptors mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission throughout the central nervous system. Gated by the neurotransmitter glutamate, AMPA receptors are critical for synaptic strength, and dysregulation of AMPA receptor-mediated signalling is linked to numerous neurological diseases. Here we use cryo-electron microscopy to solve the structures of AMPA receptor-auxiliary subunit complexes in the apo, antagonist- and agonist-bound states and determine the iris-like mechanism of ion channel opening. The ion channel selectivity filter is formed by the extended portions of the re-entrant M2 loops, while the helical portions of M2 contribute to extensive hydrophobic interfaces between AMPA receptor subunits in the ion channel. We show how the permeation pathway changes upon channel opening and identify conformational changes throughout the entire AMPA receptor that accompany activation and desensitization. Our findings provide a framework for understanding gating across the family of ionotropic glutamate receptors and the role of AMPA receptors in excitatory neurotransmission.
Functional and molecular plasticity of γ and α1 GABAA receptor subunits in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus after experimentally induced diabetes.

Glutamate and GABA signaling in the dorsal vagal complex is elevated after several days of chronic hyperglycemia in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes. We report persistently enhanced GABAA receptor-...