cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The “Tongue Twister” Paradigm as a Technique for Studying Phonological Encoding:

The “tongue twister” paradigm is underutilizedas a research tool because so little is known abouthow it induces errors. The two experiments reported here explore this paradigm in detail using a task variationwhich minimizes articulatory and mnemonic load. This task was found to elicit good rates of apparently “pure” prearticulatory errors. Two of its features had a significant error-inducing effect: a) repeated reiteration; and b) the use of similar phonemes in targets (e.g., moss knife noose muff). The presenceof phoneme repeats (e.g., palm neck name pack) had no reliable overall effect, but did influence error distribution. Performance on the task differed in several ways from that observed on a control task with similar output demands, but no reiterative component. A model of the task is proposed, in which phoneme similarity and reiteration are seen as independent contributors to the task's error-inducing potential. Wider theoretical implications of certain results are also discussed.
A graph traversal based algorithm for obstacle detection using lidar or stereo

We present a novel computationally efficient approach to obstacle detection that is applicable to both structured (e.g. indoor, road) and unstructured (e.g. off-road, grassy terrain) environments. In contrast to previous works that attempt to explicitly identify obstacles, we explicitly detect scene regions that are traversable - safe for the robot to go to - from its current position. Traversability is defined on a 2D grid of cells. Given 3D points, we map them to individual cells and compute histograms of elevations of the points in each cell. This elevation information is then used in a graph based algorithm to label all traversable cells. In this manner, positive and negative obstacles, as well as unknown regions are implicitly detected and avoided. Our notion of traversability does not make any flat-world assumptions and does not need sensor pitch-roll compensation. It also accounts for overhanging structures like tree branches. We demonstrate that our approach can be used with both lidar and stereo sensors even though the two sensors differ in their resolution and accuracy. We present several results from our real-time implementation on realistic environments using both lidar and stereo.
COPD and Coronary Heart Disease: Challenges in Understanding the Natural History of Common Complex Chronic Diseases

Clinical and epidemiologic observations have demonstrated an association between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). There is also strong evidence of incr...
Current concepts in biofilm formation of Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a highly significant nosocomial pathogen mediating infections primarily associated with indwelling biomaterials (e.g., catheters and prostheses). In contrast to Staphylococcus aureus, virulence properties associated with S. epidermidis are few and biofilm formation is the defining virulence factor associated with disease, as demonstrated by animal models of biomaterial-related infections. However, other virulence factors, such as phenol-soluble modulins and poly-γ-DL-glutamic acid, have been recently recognized that thwart innate immune system mechanisms. Formation of S. epidermidis biofilm is typically considered a four-step process consisting of adherence, accumulation, maturation and dispersal. This article will discuss recent advances in the study of these four steps, including accumulation, which can be either polysaccharide or protein mediated. It is hypothesized that studies focused on understanding the biological function of each step in staphylococcal biofilm formation will yield new treatment modalities to treat these recalcitrant infections.
Self-Assembly for Integration of Microscale Thermoelectric Coolers

Optimum thermoelectric cooling (TEC) solutions often require the integration of component sizes inaccessible by common manufacturing techniques such as thin-film processing and robotic assembly. This work considers an application case in which small elements (100 μm to 300 μm thick) are optimal. A capillary self-assembly process is presented as a potential route to manufacturing TECs in these size ranges. A millimeter-scale demonstration of the assembly concept is presented and Monte Carlo simulation is used to study the scaling of the self-assembly approach to assemblies with more components. While assembly rate and system yield can be a challenge, several approaches are presented for increasing both rate and yield.
Cardiac Involvement in Patients with Sarcoidosis: Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Outpatient Testing

Background Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) causes substantial morbidity and sudden death. Early diagnosis and risk stratification are warranted. Methods Ambulatory patients with sarcoidosis were interviewed to determine whether they experienced palpitations, syncope, or presyncope, and were evaluated with ECG, Holter monitoring, and echocardiography (transthoracic echocardiogram [TTE]). Those with symptoms or abnormal results were studied with cardiac MRI (CMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. The diagnosis of CS was based on abnormalities detected by these imaging studies. Patients with CS were referred for risk stratification by electrophysiology study (EPS). Results Among the 62 patients evaluated, the prevalence of CS was 39%. Patients with CS had more cardiac symptoms than those without CS (46% vs 5%, respectively; p Conclusion CS is common among patients with sarcoidosis. A structured clinical assessment incorporating advanced cardiac imaging with PET scanning or CMRI is more sensitive than the established criteria for the identification of CS. Sarcoidal lesions seen on CMRI or PET scanning do not predict arrhythmias in ambulatory patients with preserved cardiac function, who appear to be at low risk for short-term mortality.
Long-distance transport of magmas in the Jurassic Ferrar Large Igneous Province, Antarctica

Abstract The youngest preserved lava flows of the Jurassic Kirkpatrick Basalt of the Ferrar Large Igneous Province are unusually distinctive. These flows, recognized in three geographic areas spread over 1600 km, have identical stratigraphic positions and geochemical characteristics. The lavas have an evolved, Fe-rich tholeiitic composition with lithospheric trace element ratios and enriched 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratios. Except for the highly mobile elements, the major, trace and isotopic compositions of lavas from all these localities lie within, or near, analytical precision of each other, and are distinct from other Ferrar rocks. Moreover, the ages of the flows at all localities are indistinguishable. The unique characteristics of these capping lavas suggest that they were derived from a single batch of magma. Magma dispersal from a single reservoir through dike swarms at middle to upper crustal levels is considered the most probable mechanism for large-scale transport that extended for more than 3000 km.
Imitation, memory, and the representation of persons

Imitation was tested both immediately and after a 24-hr retention interval in 6-week-old infants. The results showed immediate imitation, which replicates past research, and also imitation from memory, which is new. The latter finding implicates recall memory and establishes that 6-week-olds can generate actions on the basis of stored representations. The motor organization involved in imitation was investigated through a microanalysis of the matching response. Results revealed that infants gradually modified their behavior towards more accurate matches over successive trials. It is proposed that early imitation serves a social identity function. Infants are motivated to imitate after a 24-hr delay as a means of clarifying whether the person they see before them is the same one they previously encountered. They use the reenactment of a person’s behavior to probe whether this is the same person. In the domain of inanimate objects, infants use physical manipulations (e.g., shaking) to perform this function. Imitation is to understanding people as physical manipulation is to understanding things. Motor imitation, the behavioral reenactment of things people do, is a primitive means of understanding and communicating with people.
Back from Prospect Theory to Utility Theory

People, both smart and dumb, often do not behave the way normative theorists say they should behave. But what is even more frustrating, some (otherwise) smart people, who know how they should behave according to some impeccably beautiful normative theory, like the maximization of subjective expected utility (SEU) — you can clearly see my biases — nevertheless, do not always follow those guidelines.
The Seamount as a Diffracting Body

Diffraction over a seamount has been studied by experiments with a three-dimensional physical model of DICKENS seamount. When laboratory diffraction and scattering data are scaled to the ocean and added to absorption and refraction losses at sea, there is excellent agreement with ocean experiments reported by Ebbeson et al. (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 64, S76 (1978). Both the magnitude and the frequency dependence of the shadowing at sea are predicted over a decade of frequencies.
Researching Literary Manuscripts: A Scholar's Perspective

Scholars who do their research in literary manuscripts appreciate the professionally managed archival research collection and the archivist's role as a mediator between collectors and researchers. The author, a literary editor, discusses how the issues of copyright, restrictions on access, arrangement, description, reference policies, and copying are viewed by literary researchers and calls for collaboration between scholars and archivists to make information about collections more accessible.
Effect of prey size on attack components of the functional response by Notonecta undulata

The number of encounters per prey, the proportion of encounters resulting in attacks, and the proportion of attacks that were successful were observed while fourth-instar Notonecta undulata nymphs preyed on smaller N. undulata nymphs. While encounters per prey and proportion of encounters resulting in attacks increased with prey size, the proportion of attacks that were successful decreased. The increase in encounter rate per prey was due in part to an increase in the predator's reactive distance to prey as prey size increased. While none of the attack parameters varied significantly with prey density, logarithmic regression of the number of encounters per unit search time on prey density suggested that prey density tends to have a positive effect on encounters per first-instar prey but a negative effect on encounters per second-instar prey. A functional response model is presented that incorporates components of the predator's attack rate as exponential functions of prey density and allows for effects of the time the predator may spend evaluating prey encountered but not attacked and time spent attacking prey not captured. Estimates of the attack parameters derived from the experimental data are used in the model to generate functional response curves for fourth-instar N. undulata preying on first- or second-instar conspecifics. The predicted curve for second-instar prey is typical type II but the curve for firstinstar prey is slightly positively density dependent at low prey densities, i.e., type III.
Fetal and Neonatal Diastolic Myocardial Strain Rate: Normal Reference Ranges and Reproducibility in a Prospective, Longitudinal Cohort of Pregnancies.

Background Normative fetal diastolic strain rate values have not been comprehensively reported. The aims of this study were to report normative data for diastolic strain rate parameters across gestation and upon delivery, determine the effect of advancing gestational age on these measures, and compare interobserver variability at multiple gestational age time points. Methods Sixty gravid women were enrolled before 20 weeks' gestation. The following measures were obtained by two blinded observers at five time points across gestation and at 4 to 8 weeks' postnatal age: global left ventricular circumferential strain rate peak E and A waves, global left and right ventricular longitudinal strain rate peak E and A waves, and mitral and tricuspid valve E/A ratios. Reproducibility was assessed using intraclass correlation and Bland-Altman analysis. Least square means analysis was used to evaluate for changes across gestational age. Results Left ventricular longitudinal and circumferential diastolic strain rate values decreased across gestation, while right ventricular longitudinal values remained stable. With delivery, left ventricular values remained fairly stable, while right ventricular values increased. Intraclass correlations for diastolic strain rate values were 0.68 to 0.94 at ≥24 weeks' gestation and 0.25 to 0.82 for values at 20 to 21 weeks' gestation. Intraclass correlations ranged from 0.49 to 0.90 for mitral valve and tricuspid valve E/A ratios across gestation. Conclusions Fetal measures of diastolic strain rate have acceptable reproducibility after 24 weeks' gestation. The described changes across gestation likely reflect intrinsic myocardial adaptation to loading conditions. These reference ranges can be used to assess effects of various disease states on fetal myocardial deformation.
Generation and screening of monoclonal antibodies for immunoPET imaging of IGF1R in prostate cancer.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) plays an important role in proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and tumor invasion. The expression level of IGF1R is related to resistance to several targeted therapies. The goal of this study was to develop an immunoPET tracer for imaging of IGF1R in prostate cancer. Murine antibodies against human IGF1R were generated in BALB/c mice, which were screened in IGF1R-positive MCF-7 cells using flow cytometry as well as biodistribution studies with multiple 64Cu-labeled antibody clones. The antibody production method we adopted could readily produce milligram quantities of anti-IGF1R antibodies for in vivo studies. One antibody clone (1A2G11) with the highest affinity for IGF1R was selected and conjugated to NOTA for 64Cu-labeling. NOTA-1A2G11 maintained IGF1R specificity/avidity based on flow cytometry. 64Cu-labeling was achieved with good yield (>50%) and high specific activity (>1 Ci/μmol). Serial PET imaging revealed that uptake of 64Cu-NOTA-1A2G11 was 2.8 ...
ANALYSIS OF DRAG AND TORQUE OF DRILLING STRING WITH CONNECTORS

The diameter of connector usually is bigger than that of drilling string.Under normal conditions,the body of drilling string was not contact with the hole/casing.The mechanical model of drilling string with connectors was set up in the paper,and was analyzed by iteration method for drag and torque during drilling,pulling out,going down and back reaming.The model can predict the magnitude and direction of contact force at every connector.Compared the calculated data with the field data,the errors of the hook load was less than 5% and that of torque was less than 7%.This model offered a simple and effective method for predicting the drag and torque of drilling string.
Calculation for the Thermal Allowance Excavating Length of Hot Oil Pipeline Repairing under Shutdown

According to thermodynamics,the constraint conditions of the maximal allowance excavation length under shut down was confirmed and the mathematical model for the first time was established. The analysis results showed that the allowance excavation length of shutdown pipeline depended on several factors including repairing season,shutdown repairing time,the oil temperature at the outlet of heating station. Some simulation and calculation were did taking China east pipeline from Tai Yang Sheng station to Lin Yuan station,whose distance was 47.8 km,as research object,allowance excavation length was largest in may and october,and when maintenance time was less than 6 hours,the whole line can be excavated in theory. November was not fit for excavation to maintenance under shut down. It needs to enhance the oil temperature at Tai Yang Sheng station in april. At the same time,the maximal allowance excavation length is restricted by the starting point of excavation.
Transborder contact: Shifting patterns of linguistic differentiation in a Zapotec transborder community

This article contributes to the study of linguistic differentiation in a Zapotec transborder community formed by migration between the village of San Juan Guelavia, Oaxaca, Mexico, and West Los Angeles, California. In the Tlacolula Valley of Oaxaca, an area characterized by remarkable linguistic diversity combined with extreme localism, the way a person speaks, whom they can understand and who can understand them marks their place on a complex sociolinguistic map. However, the contours of this map are shifting due to domestic and international migration patterns. Among Guelavians in Oaxaca judgments of sociolinguistic differences between speakers are often made on the basis of the particular linguistic variety spoken by an individual, and its perceived similarity or divergence from San Juan Guelavia Zapotec. In contrast, among Guelavian migrants in Los Angeles there is a widespread tendency to evaluate migrants from other Zapotec-speaking communities on the basis of where, when and to whom they speak Zapotec, regardless of the variety. By analyzing differences in the metalinguistic practices of Guelavians living in Oaxaca and Los Angeles this work contributes to understandings of the shifting relationship between language, locality and identity brought about by indigenous transborder migration.
Using a Social Science–Fictional Play to Teach about Global Capitalism and Macro-structural Systems in Introduction to Sociology

This article explores the use of a social science–fictional play to teach macro-structural concepts related to global capitalism and surplus labor in a small and large Introduction to Sociology cou...
Is visual assessment of thyroid attenuation on unenhanced CT of the chest useful for detecting hypothyroidism

Aim To determine if visual assessment of the attenuation of morphologically normal appearing thyroid glands on unenhanced computed tomography (CT) of the chest is useful for identifying patients with decreased thyroid function. Materials and methods This was a retrospective study of 765 patients who underwent both unenhanced CT of the chest and thyroid function tests performed within 1 year of the CT examination. Attenuation of the thyroid gland was visually assessed in each patient relative to the attenuation of the surrounding muscles to categorise the gland as "low attenuation" (attenuation similar to surrounding muscles) or "high attenuation" (attenuation greater than surrounding muscles). Thyroid attenuation was quantitatively measured in each case to determine the validity of the visual assessment. Results of thyroid function tests were used to classify thyroid function as hypothyroid, euthyroid, or hyperthyroid. Data were analysed to determine the relationship between visual assessment of thyroid attenuation and status of thyroid function. Results Thyroid glands of low attenuation were present in 4.2% (32/765) of the patients. Nearly half (47%) of the patients with low-attenuation thyroids had hypofunctioning thyroid glands. Compared to patients with high-attenuation thyroids, patients with low-attenuation thyroids were significantly more likely to have decreased thyroid function (clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism) and significantly less likely to be euthyroid ( p Conclusion Low attenuation of an otherwise normal-appearing thyroid gland on unenhanced CT of the chest is strongly associated with decreased thyroid function.
Cultivating a Community of Effective Special Education Teachers: Local Special Education Administrators’ Roles

Evidence of the powerful impact teachers have on student achievement has led to an intensive focus on cultivating effective teachers, including special education teachers (SETs). Local special education administrators (LSEAs) share responsibility for cultivating effective SETs throughout their districts. However, the roles LSEAs play in this process have not been clearly defined through research. This qualitative investigation used grounded theory methods to examine how LSEAs in the Victoria School District, a high-performing, inclusive district, described their roles cultivating a district-wide community of effective SETs. The findings have implications for districts’ efforts to cultivate effective SETs systemically and for future research on effective district-level leadership for special education.
Neural Markers in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Familial Risk for Bipolar Disorder

Objective Bipolar disorder (BD) is highly heritable. Neuroimaging studies comparing unaffected youth at high familial risk for BD (i.e., those with a first-degree relative with the disorder; termed "high-risk" [HR]) to "low-risk" (LR) youth (i.e., those without a first-degree relative with BD) and to patients with BD may help identify potential brain-based markers associated with risk (i.e., regions where HR+BD≠LR), resilience (HR≠BD+LR), or illness (BD≠HR+LR). Method During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 99 youths (i.e., adolescents and young adults) aged 9.8 to 24.8 years (36 BD, 22 HR, 41 LR) performed a task probing face emotion labeling, previously shown to be impaired behaviorally in youth with BD and HR youth. Results We found three patterns of results. Candidate risk endophenotypes (i.e., where BD and HR shared deficits) included dysfunction in higher-order face processing regions (e.g., middle temporal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Candidate resilience markers and disorder sequelae (where HR and BD, respectively, show unique alterations relative to the other two groups) included different patterns of neural responses across other regions mediating face processing (e.g., fusiform), executive function (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus), and social cognition (e.g., default network, superior temporal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction). Conclusion If replicated in longitudinal studies and with additional populations, neural patterns suggesting risk endophenotypes could be used to identify individuals at risk for BD who may benefit from prevention measures. Moreover, information about risk and resilience markers could be used to develop novel treatments that recruit neural markers of resilience and attenuate neural patterns associated with risk. Clinical trial registration information— Studies of Brain Function and Course of Illness in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Child and Adolescent Bipolar Disorder Brain Imaging and Treatment Study; http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00025935 and NCT00006177.
The microarchitecture of a real-time robot motion planning accelerator

We have developed a hardware accelerator for motion planning, a critical operation in robotics. In this paper, we present the microarchitecture of our accelerator and describe a prototype implementation on an FPGA. We experimentally show that the accelerator improves performance by three orders of magnitude and improves power consumption by more than one order of magnitude. These gains are achieved through careful hardware/software co-design. We modify conventional motion planning algorithms to aggressively precompute collision data, as well as implement a microarchitecture that leverages the parallelism present in the problem.
New Perspectives on Hohenberg–Kohn–Sham Density Functional Theory

For completeness and comparison with Q-DFT, we briefly describe in this chapter the principal tenets of Hohenberg–Kohn [1] and Kohn–Sham density functional theory [2]. A corollary [3] (see also Chap. 4 of QDFT [4]) on the first or fundamental theorem of Hohenberg and Kohn [1] stating the conditions under which the theorem is not valid is described and further explained diagrammatically. We then generalize [5] this fundamental theorem of Hohenberg and Kohn [1] to external potential energy operators, that in addition to the standard scalar potential energy operator also include the momentum and curl-free vector potential energy operators. The theorem as originally formulated by Hohenberg and Kohn then constitutes a special case of this generalization.We provide here the detailed proof of this generalization, and discuss its consequences. For details of the various proofs of Hohenberg–Kohn–Sham theory as derived originally, we refer the reader to the literature [1, 2] or to Chap. 4 of QDFT [4]. There are, in addition, numerous excellent texts on the subject [6–9] with different emphases in which the precursory material is also described. There are also many books with reviews and articles on the broader aspects of the theory and its applications [10–19]. The extension of the theory to phenomenon with time-dependent scalar external potential energy operators is due to Runge and Gross [20]. Once again, we refer the reader to the original paper, and to the review articles on time-dependent DFT given in [10–19] for details and for further developments. A brief description of time-dependent theory as well as a corollary [3] to the fundamental Runge–Gross theorem is also given in Chap. 4 of QDFT. The generalization [5] of this fundamental time-dependent theorem to additionally include the momentum and curl-free vector potential energy operators is given in Appendix B. The fundamental Runge–Gross and Hohenberg–Kohn theorems, each constitute a special case of the generalized time-dependent theorem.
Opportunities and Challenges for Direct Potable Water Reuse in Arid Inland Communities

AbstractWith increasing population and development, communities worldwide face shortages of water for potable supply. A report has identified hot spots of likely conflict over water in the western ...
Autocrine and paracrine cytokine feedback augment the production of Th2-associated cytokines.

The Type 2 cytokines (including cytokines from Th2 and Th9 cells) play a critical role in priming of the humoral response, immunity to parasites, and the induction of allergic disease. It has been proposed that unlike Type 1 cytokines (i.e. IFN-γ), the induction of Type 2 cytokines is cell autonomous and requires no additional signals for optimal cytokine production. Contrary to this notion, we found that the addition of golgi transport inhibitors that block cytokine secretion (i.e. monensin (Mon) and brefeldin A (BFA)) during stimulation significantly impaired the induction of Type 2, but not Type 1 cytokine mRNA and protein production. These data suggest that the release of cytokines by activated Th cells is uniquely required for further production of Type 2 cytokines. Mon and BFA strongly inhibited the release of IL-2 after stimulation and blockade of IL-2 during activation in the absence of golgi inhibitors significantly diminished Type 2 cytokine production. Further, transduction of cells with a constitutively active STAT5 negated the need for additional IL-2 signaling in driving Type 2 cytokine transcription, suggesting that STAT5 is the primary mediator of IL-2-driven gene expression. Interestingly, both autocrine and paracrine IL-2 production were capable of driving maximal Type 2 cytokine production. Taken together, these data indicate a novel role for IL-2 feedback in promoting Type 2 cytokine production and likely in promoting allergic inflammation.
Gendered Ambition: Career Advancement in Public Schools

We explore the relationships between gender, career ambition, and the emergence of executive leadership. In Bureaucratic Ambition, Teodoro (2011) shows that public administration career systems shape bureaucrats’ ambitions, political behavior, and management strategies. But career systems are not neutral conduits of talent: administrators are more likely to pursue advancement when career systems favor them. This research proposes that women and men respond to gendered public career systems. Using national and state-level data on public school managers, we find marked gender disparities in the career paths that lead educators from the classroom to the superintendent post. Specifically, we find that female and elementary school teachers take longer to advance than male and secondary school teachers. We also find gender disparities in certification and experiences among school principals. Accordingly, female and elementary principals report lower levels of ambition. Such gendered career systems may lead to biases in policy agendas and management styles.
Tobacco exposure-related alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression in human monocytes: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression in blood leukocytes are potential biomarkers of harm and mediators of the deleterious effects of tobacco exposure. However, methodological issues, including the use of self-reported smoking status and mixed cell types have made previously identified alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression difficult to interpret. In this study, we examined associations of tobacco exposure with DNA methylation and gene expression, utilizing a biomarker of tobacco exposure (urine cotinine) and CD14+ purified monocyte samples from 934 participants of the community-based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Urine cotinine levels were measured using an immunoassay. DNA methylation and gene expression were measured with microarrays. Multivariate linear regression was used to test for associations adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and study site. Urine cotinine levels were associated with methylation of 176 CpGs [false discovery rate (FDR)<0.01]. Four CpGs not previously identified by studies of non-purified blood samples nominally replicated (P value<0.05) with plasma cotinine-associated methylation in 128 independent monocyte samples. Urine cotinine levels associated with expression of 12 genes (FDR<0.01), including increased expression of P2RY6 (Beta ± standard error = 0.078 ± 0.008, P = 1.99 × 10-22), a gene previously identified to be involved in the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. No cotinine-associated (FDR<0.01) methylation profiles significantly (FDR<0.01) correlated with cotinine-associated (FDR<0.01) gene expression profiles. In conclusion, our findings i) identify potential monocyte-specific smoking-associated methylation patterns and ii) suggest that alterations in methylation may not be a main mechanism regulating gene expression in monocytes in response to cigarette smoking.
Oxygen tension in zones of the epiphyseal plate, the metaphysis and diaphysis. An in vitro and in vivo study in rats and rabbits.

1. A technique for measuring oxygen tension in different zones of the epiphyseal plate, the metaphysis and the diaphysis in vitro and in vivo is described. 2. In the in vitro preparations (costochondral junctions of twenty-one-day-old rats), there is a distinct oxygen gradient corresponding to the morphological zones, beginning with a low tension of 19.5 millimeters of mercury in the zone of small size cartilage cells and increasing progressively to a high tension of 95.2 millimeters of mercury in metaphyseal bone. 3. In sharp contrast, the in vivo preparations (proximal tibial epiphyses of six-week-old rabbits) exhibited a very low-oxygen tension in the zone of hypertrophic cells and in the metaphysis. 4. A steep gradient in oxygen tension was present between metaphyseal bone (19.8 millimeters of mercury) and diaphyseal bone (108.7 millimeters of mercury) in the in vivo preparations. 5. The significance of these findings is discussed, and the physiological role of oxygen in epiphyseal plate growth is examined.
Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica in animal waste-based composts as influenced by compost type, storage condition and inoculum level.

Aim Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica in animal waste-based composts was studied with different compost types, storage conditions and inoculum levels. Methods and results A cocktail of three E. coli O157:H7 or S. enterica strains was inoculated into dairy manure-based composts (A and B) or poultry litter-based composts (C and D), respectively, at final concentrations of c. 5 or 2 log CFU per gram. Composts were then stored at 5 and 22°C, and under greenhouse condition. Both pathogens survived better at 5 than 22°C and under greenhouse conditions. Escherichia coli O157:H7 at both inoculation levels survived for >168 days in composts A and B under at 5°C, whereas the longest survival of S. enterica at both inoculation levels was observed to be >168 days in compost C at 5°C. Overall, composts A and C provided better survival conditions for E. coli O157:H7 and S. enterica, respectively, and both pathogens at the high inoculum level survived better as compared to the low inoculum level. Conclusions Escherichia coli O157:H7 and S. enterica could potentially survive for long periods of time in dairy and poultry composts. Some factors influencing the pathogen survival included compost type, storage condition and inoculum level. Significance and impact of the study Our results have provided scientific data on the pathogen survival in dairy and poultry composts, which could be used for the risk assessment of using animal waste-based composts as biological soil amendments.
Rapid calculation of static voltage stability under branch outage based on Z-index in wind farms

Based on local voltage stability index L, this paper proposes a quick method to calculate the voltage stability index under branch outage. Using the power flow equations and status information of pre-contingency case, the middle state is established between original network and N-1 network through substitution theorem and the sensitivity of voltage stability index, to deduce the algorithm of post-contingency static stability index about pre-contingency injected power under different branch outage. The results in IEEE14-bus system including wind power generation show its feasible and effective.
Embedded Magnetic RAM

In Chapter 7, magnetic RAM (MRAM) technology is introduced as a key technology candidate for creating new applications such as nonvolatile RAM. After an introduction of the history and basic principles of MRAM, we look into MRAM technology and basic design as well as on various memory cell architectures in Section 7.1. Then overviews on representative MRAM design examples, possible applications, and future challenges of MRAM are provided in Section 7.2. Finally nonvolatile memory frontiers and challenges are discussed in Section 7.3 as a conclusion of Chapters 6 and 7. The focus of this chapter is to highlight and summarize important concepts of the new technology.
Carbon Monoxide and Human Performance: A Methodological Exploration

Studies of the effects on performance of low concentrations of toxicological agents are vulnerable since, if there is an effect, it is likely to be very small and therefore likely to be overwhelmed by task and procedural variables. Experiments using human subjects are especially vulnerable since the restrictions of such use may demand even smaller exposure levels than used with animals, and reversible effects when they do occur. It is important, therefore, that such experiments be conducted with maximal efficiency, that is, so as to obtain the most information with the least exposure. Accomplishing that requires a careful consideration in advance of the interpretations that can be associated with task conditions and of the dependent measures that can be used.
Access to Regular HIV Care and Disease Progression among Black African Immigrants

Objective To describe the characteristics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected black African immigrants living in King County, Washington, we evaluated delay in HIV diagnosis, access to HIV care, and risk of progression to AIDS or death. Methods We compared differences in the risk of progression to AIDS or death between HIV-positive African-born black individuals and 2 groups of HIV-positive US-born individuals. Results There were significant differences across the groups in residence at time of HIV diagnosis, gender, HIV transmission category, and initial CD4 count. Black Africans were more likely to present with an AIDS diagnosis (45%), compared to both US-born nonblacks (25%) and US-born blacks (35%). No significant independent associations were observed in rates of HIV disease progression when black African immigrants were compared to their US-born counterparts. Conclusions Once having initiated HIV care, African-born blacks accessed HIV care and progressed to AIDS at similar rates compared to US-born individuals. However, Africanborn blacks initiated care with more advanced HIV disease. Results underscore the need for health interventions promoting HIV testing among black African immigrants and reducing barriers to HIV testing.
New Applications of Mortar Methodology to Extended and Embedded Finite Element Formulations

The past decade or so has shown the mortar method to be a helpful foundation for formulation of new methods for contact/impact analysis. As originally formulated, the advantage of the mortar method is that it preserves inf-sup conditions associated with interfacial constraints, such that stability and convergence are more or less guaranteed, at least when some regularity of the solution is expected. In more recent work, interest has been shown by a number of researchers in extending many of these ideas to treatment of interfaces in extended finite element frameworks, and also to embedded surface techniques. In these cases, use of the mortar method with naive multiplier space choices can readily lead to instability. This paper highlights some of these issues, and contemplates stabilization methods which seem to be effective in such settings.
CuDDI: A CUDA-Based Application for Extracting Drug-Drug Interaction Related Substance Terms from PubMed Literature

Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is becoming a serious issue in clinical pharmacy as the use of multiple medications is more common. The PubMed database is one of the biggest literature resources for DDI studies. It contains over 150,000 journal articles related to DDI and is still expanding at a rapid pace. The extraction of DDI-related information, including compounds and proteins from PubMed, is an essential step for DDI research. In this paper, we introduce a tool, CuDDI (compute unified device architecture-based DDI searching), for identification of DDI-related terms (including compounds and proteins) from PubMed. There are three modules in this application, including the automatic retrieval of substances from PubMed, the identification of DDI-related terms, and the display of relationship of DDI-related terms. For DDI term identification, a speedup of 30⁻105 times was observed for the compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-based version compared with the implementation with a CPU-based Python version. CuDDI can be used to discover DDI-related terms and relationships of these terms, which has the potential to help clinicians and pharmacists better understand the mechanism of DDIs. CuDDI is available at: https://github.com/chengusf/CuDDI.
Effects of calcium ion addition on dispersant adsorption in temperature induced forming (TIF) alumina slurry

In order to decrease the machining cost and to increase the reliability of brittle materials, novel colloidal near net shape techniques have been suggested over the past twenty years. In general ceramic wet forming methods that are based on particles can be divided into two categories: drained techniques and constant volume techniques [1]. Constant volume methods have the potential to avoid the problems of the drained techniques, such as stress gradient and mass segregation. Constant volume methods are also referred to as direct casting techniques. Here, consolidation is achieved by a change in interparticle potential or polymerization of the dispersing medium rather than reducing the amount of dispersing medium as in the drained techniques. Temperature induced forming (TIF) is a novel direct casting method that was introduced recently [2, 3]. In TIF, the interparticle potential is changed by alternating the temperature, and typically a so-called physical gel is formed, where particles start to connect to each other to form flocs. If the floc size reaches the dimensions of the mold the slurry is considered gelled and can be demolded. This is followed by drying. TIF works typically with less than 0.5 wt% of organic additives, such as a combination of ammonium citrate (TAC) and poly (acrylic acid) (PAA). Therefore, a separate burnout step can be omitted. The gelation mechanism was proposed as follows. An alumina suspension is initially stabilized with TAC by electric double layer (EDL) repulsion at room temperature. PAA is added at room temperature and adsorption is kinetically inhibited due to the identical charge between the polyelectrolyte PAA and the TAC modified alumina surface. Heating the slurry causes an increase in dissolution of Al(OH)4 . TAC and PAA now adsorb competitively with the PAA generating a flocculated network. Additionally, rather strong dry green bodies can be achieved due to the reprecipitation of the dissolved ceramic material. Fig. 1 gives variation of the relative viscosity of TIF alumina slurry with temperature, where the relative viscosity is the ratio of the measured viscosity of the slurry with that of water at respective temperatures. A polynomial expression for the variation in the viscosity of the water was fitted to data from the CRC Handbook.
Effect of prolactin, growth hormone and ACTH on the urea excretion of bullfrog tadpoles during normal and induced metamorphosis.

The urea excretion of premetamorphictadpoles was decreased by prolactin(0.1-1.0 μg/g in 3 injections) and growth hormone (0.3 or 1.0 μg/g—3 injections, or 100 μg/g—single injection). A single injection of a larger dose of prolactin (100 μg/g) did not cause any change inurea excretion in these tadpoles. ACTH (0.020 USP U/g) increased urea excretion on the fourth and fifth days. The body weight and tail length of normal tadpoles were increased by prolactin and growth hormone, but not by ACTH. Both the urea excretion and tail resorption of spontaneously metamorphosing tadpoles were not affected by a single injection of prolactin, growth hormone or ACTH. Prolactin (10 or 100 μg/g) inhibited the T3-induced (at doses of 0.03 or 0.10 nmole/g) urea excretion and tail resorption. Inhibition was also noted at lower doses of prolactin. Similarly, growth hormone at doses aslow as 0.1 μg/g reduced the action of T3 on urea excretion and tail resorption.ACTH seemed to augment the action of T3 on urea excretion but not o...
The Effect of Crime on Residential Rents and Property Values: A Comment

Excerpt] In the Spring 1979 issue of this Journal, Mario J. Rizzo (8) presented an interesting quantitative analysis of the value placed by households on avoiding crime. He used a technique currently popular among researchers for estimating the value of a whole array of impacts which impinge upon property values. This note does not quarrel with the legitimacy of using such a technique for capturing household marginal willingness to pay for crime avoidance. Instead, it focuses on two questions about how Rizzo used the technique. First, should income be used, even as a proxy for other variables, in estimating an essentially reduced form equation which relates housing characteristics (quantity measurements) to their implicit prices? Second, if a liberal estimate of the value of crime avoidance is generated, why not a conservative one also?
Discussion of PENCOMP

We would like to congratulate Zhou, Elliott, and Little (henceforth referred to as ZEL) on an interesting article in an important area of research. ZEL propose a new approach for causal inference u...
Reviewing the Variability-Overuse Injury Hypothesis: Does Movement Variability Relate to Landing Injuries?

ABSTRACTPurpose: Overuse injuries are common in sport, but complete understanding of injury risk factors remains incomplete. Although biomechanical studies frequently examine musculoskeletal injury mechanisms, human movement variability studies aim to better understand neuromotor functioning, with proposed connections between overuse injury mechanisms and changes in motor variability. Method: In a narrative review, we discuss the variability-overuse injury hypothesis, which suggests repeated load application leads to mechanical tissue breakdown and subsequent injury when exceeding the rate of physiological adaptation. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this hypothesis, we incorporate concepts from motor control, neurophysiology, biomechanics, as well as research design and data analysis. We therefore summarize multiple perspectives while proposing theoretical relationships between movement variability and lower extremity overuse injuries. Results: Experimental data are presented and summarized from pu...
The public’s trust and information brokers in health care, public health and research

Nations such as the USA are investing in technologies such as electronic health records in order to collect, store and transfer information across boundaries of health care, public health and research. Health information brokers such as health care providers, public health departments and university researchers function as “access points” to manage relationships between the public and the health system. The relationship between the public and health information brokers is influenced by trust; and this relationship may predict the trust that the public has in the health system as a whole, which has implications for public trust in the system, and consequently, legitimacy of involved institutions, under circumstances of health information data sharing in the future. This paper aims to discuss these issues.,In this study, the authors aimed to examine characteristics of trustors (i.e. the public) that predict trust in health information brokers; and further, to identify the factors that influence trust in brokers that also predict system trust. The authors developed a survey that was administered to US respondents in 2014 using GfK’s nationally representative sample, with a final sample of 1,011 participants and conducted ordinary least squares regression for data analyses.,Results suggest that health care providers are the most trusted information brokers of those examined. Beliefs about medical deceptive behavior were negatively associated with trust in each of the information brokers examined; however, psychosocial factors were significantly associated with trust in brokers, suggesting that individual attitudes and beliefs are influential on trust in brokers. Positive views of information sharing and the expectation of benefits of information sharing for health outcomes and health care quality are associated with system trust.,This study suggests that demonstrating the benefits and value of information sharing could be beneficial for building public trust in the health system; however, trust in brokers of information are variable across the public; that is, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs are associated with the level of trust different individuals have in various health information brokers – suggesting that the need for a personalized approach to building trust.
Epidemiology of Stroke

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the USA, and it is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Although there has been a decline in stroke incidence and mortality in the USA, this trend is not expected to last. With the aging of the population, the incidence and deaths from stroke are likely to skyrocket, and epidemiologists have warned of a stroke epidemic in the next 25 years. Stroke incidence and mortality will increase more quickly in low-income and middle-income countries because of the increases in the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including urbanization and Western-style dietary changes.