cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Validation Study of an Automated Electronic Acute Lung Injury Screening Tool

Objective: The authors designed an automated electronic system that incorporates data from multiple hospital information systems to screen for acute lung injury (ALI) in mechanically ventilated patients. The authors evaluated the accuracy of this system in diagnosing ALI in a cohort of patients with major trauma, but excluding patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Design: Single-center validation study. Arterial blood gas (ABG) data and chest radiograph (CXR) reports for a cohort of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with major trauma but excluding patients with CHF were screened prospectively for ALI requiring intubation by an automated electronic system. The system was compared to a reference standard established through consensus of two blinded physician reviewers who independently screened the same population for ALI using all available ABG data and CXR images. The system's performance was evaluated (1) by measuring the sensitivity and overall accuracy, and (2) by measuring concordance with respect to the date of ALI identification (vs. reference standard). Measurements: One hundred ninety-nine trauma patients admitted to our level 1 trauma center with an initial injury severity score (ISS) 16 were evaluated for development of ALI in the first five days in an ICU after trauma. Main Results: The system demonstrated 87% sensitivity (95% confidence interval (CI) 82.3-91.7) and 89% specificity (95% CI 84.7-93.4). It identified ALI before or within the 24-hour period during which ALI was identified by the two reviewers in 87% of cases. Conclusions: An automated electronic system that screens intubated ICU trauma patients, excluding patients with CHF, for ALI based on CXR reports and results of ABGs is sufficiently accurate to identify many early cases of ALI.
Other Government Wave Programs

A purpose of the Ocean Wave Climate Symposium was to increase knowledge about important wave programs of various government agencies. These programs are sometimes not well known but the data and results of these programs are most useful for scientific studies and practical applications In addition to the contributed papers included in this volume, the symposium included discussions of several other wave related activities of government agencies.Here, these other activities are briefly noted.
dad-1, an endogenous programmed cell death suppressor in Caenorhabditis elegans and vertebrates.

Abstract Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is a normally occurring process used to eliminate unnecessary or potentially harmful cells in multicellular organisms. Recent studies demonstrate that the molecular control of this process is conserved phylogenetically in animals. The dad-1 gene, which encodes a novel 113 amino acid protein, was originally identified in a mutant hamster cell line (tsBN7) that undergoes apoptosis at restrictive temperature. We have identified a dad-1 homologue in Caenorhabditis elegans (Ce-dad-1) whose predicted product is > 60% identical to vertebrate DAD-1. A search of the sequence databases indicated that DAD-1-like proteins are also expressed in two plant species. Expression of either human dad-1 or Ce-dad-1 under control of a C.elegans heat-shock-inducible promoter resulted in a reduction in the number of programmed cell death corpses visible in C.elegans embryos. Extra surviving cells were present in these animals, indicating that both the human and C.elegans dad-1 genes can suppress developmentally programmed cell death. Ce-dad-1 was found to rescue mutant tsBN7 hamster cells from apoptotic death as efficiently as the vertebrate genes. These results suggest that dad-1, which is necessary for cell survival in a mammalian cell line, is sufficient to suppress some programmed cell death in C.elegans.
EXTENSOR TENDON INJURIES AT THE DISTAL INTERPHALANGEAL JOINT

The treatment options for the soft-tissue mallet finger, in both its acute and chronic forms, continue to generate some degree of controversy. Priority always should be given to nonoperative management of these injuries. This translates into a 6- to 8-week period of uninterrupted immobilization of the DIP joint with an external splint. Splinting has been shown to be highly effective, safe, and reproducible for both acute and chronic lesions. Even in the presence of an open injury, the value of splinting must be appreciated by the practitioner. The conversion of an acute closed soft-tissue injury to an open one is to be discouraged because of unacceptable complication rates. When surgery is contemplated, our first option would be the placement of a transarticular Kirschner wire at the DIP joint. If external splinting fails in an acute injury, an argument certainly can be made for a second trial of conservative management, and we offer this alternative to such patients. We find that some patients will not tolerate a second period of immobilization, and in most cases, we offer surgery in these failed cases. Surgical choice, again, would be a transarticular Kirschner wire. Another choice would be one of the salvage procedures, such as central slip tenotomy, with the expectation of a good result. In summary, mallet injuries are treated using closed, nonoperative techniques. The period of time after injury that this nonoperative treatment can be delayed and still be effective is being extended and the absolute outside time limit still is not known. When surgery is done, we prefer the simple placement of a transarticular Kirschner wire for 6 to 8 weeks.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Characterizing the Spatial Scales of Extreme Daily Precipitation in the United States

AbstractThe spatial extent of an extreme precipitation event can be important for a basin’s hydrologic response and subsequent flood risk, and may yield insights into underlying atmospheric process...
Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers, 2014 Release: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

Adobe Photoshop for Photographers 2014 Release by Photoshop hall-of-famer and acclaimed digital imaging professional Martin Evening has been fully updated to include detailed instruction for all of the updates to Photoshop CC 2014 on Adobe’s Creative Cloud, including significant new features, such as Focus Area selections, enhanced Content-Aware filling, and new Spin and Path blur gallery effects. This guide covers all the tools and techniques photographers and professional image editors need to know when using Photoshop, from workflow guidance to core skills to advanced techniques for professional results. Using clear, succinct instruction and real world examples, this guide is the essential reference for Photoshop users of all levels. Accompanying the book is the photoshopforphotographers.com website, with sample images, tutorial videos, and bonus chapters.
Effect of minocycline on symptom burden and inflammation markers in patients with colorectal cancer: A randomized phase II trial.

e22176Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) may experience substantial symptom burden that is often exacerbated by standard chemotherapy. It’s a high price to pay for cure and persists into survivors...
Managing the Spatial Covariance of Genetic Diversity in Niemann-Pick C1 Through Modulation of the Hsp70 Chaperone System

Genetic diversity provides a rich repository for understanding the role of proteostasis in the management of the protein fold to allow biology to evolve through variation in the population and in response to the environment. Failure in proteostasis can trigger multiple disease states affecting both human health and lifespan. Niemann-Pick C (NPC) disease is a genetic disorder mainly caused by mutations in NPC1, a multi-spanning transmembrane protein that is trafficked through the exocytic pathway to late endosomes and lysosomes (LE/Ly) to manage cholesterol homeostasis. Proteostatic defects triggered by >600 NPC1 variants found in the human population inhibit export of NPC1 protein from ER or function in downstream LE/Ly, leading to accumulation of cholesterol and rapid onset neurodegeneration in childhood for most patients. We now show that chemical allosteric inhibitors, such as JG98, targeting the cytosolic Hsp70 chaperone/co-chaperone complex improves the trafficking and stability of NPC1 variants with diverse NPC1 genotypes. By exploiting the knowledge-base of NPC1 variants found in the world-wide patient population using Variation Spatial Profiling (VSP), a Gaussian-process based machine learning (ML) approach, we show how the Hsp70 chaperone system alters the spatial covariance (SCV) tolerance of the ER and the SCV set-points for each residue of the NPC1 polypeptide chain differentially to improve trafficking efficiency and post-ER stability for variants distributed across the entire NPC1 polypeptide. The impact of JG98 is supported by the observation that silencing of Hsp70 specific nucleotide exchange factors (NEF) (BCL-anthogene (BAG) family) co-chaperones significantly improve the folding status of NPC1 variants. Together, these studies suggest that targeting the cytosolic Hsp70 system to adjust the SCV tolerance of the proteostasis network can improve recognition of the plasticity of the NPC1 fold found in the disease population for trafficking to the LE/Ly compartments.
Improved bacteria population structure analysis on thousands of genomes using unsupervised methods

Over ten thousand genomes of Escherichia coli are now available, and this number will continue to grow for this and other important microbial species. The first approach often used to better understand microbes is phylogenetic group analysis followed by pan-genome analysis of highly related genomes. Here, we combine sequence-based features with unsupervised clustering on up to 2,231 E. coli genomes and a total of 1,367 Clostridium difficile genomes. We show that Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) can identify "mixed"/cryptic genomes, and can better determine inter-related genome groups and their distinguishing features (genes) relative to prior methods. Index Terms--pan-genomics, sketching, NMF
Insights on Skyrme parameters from GW170817

Abstract The binary neutron-star merger event, GW170817, has cast a new light on nuclear physics research. Using a neutron-star model that includes a crust equation of state (EoS), we calculate the properties of a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star. The model incorporates more than 200 Skyrme energy density functionals, which describe nuclear matter properties, in the outer liquid core region of the neutron star. We find a power-law relation between the neutron-star tidal deformability, Λ, and the neutron-star radius, R. Without an explicit crust EoS, the model predicts a smaller R and the difference becomes significant for stars with large radii. To connect the neutron star properties with nuclear matter properties, we confront the predicted values for Λ against the Taylor expansion coefficients of the Skyrme interactions. There is no pronounced correlation between Skyrme parameters relevant to symmetric nuclear matter and neutron star properties. However, we find the strongest correlation between Λ and K sym , the curvature of the density dependence of the symmetry energy at saturation density. At twice the saturation density, our calculations show a strong correlation between Λ and total pressure, providing guidance to laboratory nucleus-nucleus collision experiments.
An Improved Method for the Palladium-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Triflates

Aryl iodides are coupled with amines to give the corresponding arylamines in high yield in the presence of palladium, a suitable ligand, and NaOt-Bu. Functionalized aryl iodides give good yields of the corresponding arylamines when Cs(2)CO(3) is substituted as the base.
Approximate Sphere Decoding Based Model Predictive Control of Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters

The sphere decoding algorithm (SDA) offers a computationally efficient technique for direct model predictive control in cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) inverters. However, the variable computational complexity offered by the algorithm for each time step makes its real-time implementation quite challenging due to higher values of prediction horizon. We propose to overcome these limitations by using the partial graph processing approximate computing techniques. The proposed algorithm offers constant computational complexity for each time step by retaining K number of best candidates at each layer of the tree. The value of K is then used to decide the reduction in computational complexity and degree of approximation in the identified solution. The simulation results reveal that the proposed approximate SDA provides a sub-optimal solution with a significant improvement in energy and computational efficiency.
Method for Determining the K + 0 − K − 0 Mass Difference

The equations of motion for the amplitudes of short-lived (${{K}_{+}}^{0}$) and long-lived (${{K}_{\ensuremath{-}}}^{0}$) neutral $K$ mesons in an absorber are simplified for the case of dominance of the decay term. For the case of a thick absorber, a simple relation between the intensities of scattered and unscattered regenerated ${{K}_{+}}^{0}$, at zero degrees, results; the relation is sensitive to the ${{K}_{+}}^{0}\ensuremath{-}{{K}_{\ensuremath{-}}}^{0}$ mass difference.
Budget Systems, Underlying Structures and Characteristics

Budgets are prepared using a formal structure that ties the various elements of a budget into a coherent document. The structure provides the foundation of the budget and is based on a conceptual framework that guides its development, which, for convenience, we will call budget systems. Although terms such as “budget formats,” “budget approaches,” and “budget types” are often used, “budget systems” seem more appropriate because, like any system, budgets have a basic structure with interrelated components and funds allocated to the component units (agencies and departments) of a government are tied together in a coherent fashion to achieve the goals of the government. Understanding the systems and their structure is important to understand how budget decisions are made and the results those decisions have on individual agencies and departments, their functions, programs, and activities, as well as on the public, vis-a-vis society at large. Budgeting is also a management function, where the responsibility for managing the systems falls on the chief administrative officer, along with the central budget office and the budget director, the agency and department heads, all the way down to the unit managers. This chapter provides a brief discussion of the role the budget systems play in the overall budget process, followed by a detailed discussion of some of the systems commonly used in government.
Mitochondrial Ceramide Effects on the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Diabetes.

Mitochondrial damage in the cells comprising inner (retinal endothelial cells) and outer (retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)) blood–retinal barriers (BRB) is known to precede the initial BRB breakdown and further histopathological abnormalities in diabetic retinopathy (DR). We previously demonstrated that activation of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) is an important early event in the pathogenesis of DR, and recent studies have demonstrated that there is an intricate connection between ceramide and mitochondrial function. This study aimed to determine the role of ASM-dependent mitochondrial ceramide accumulation in diabetes-induced RPE cell damage. Mitochondria isolated from streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat retinas (7 weeks duration) showed a 1.64 ± 0.29-fold increase in the ceramide-to-sphingomyelin ratio compared to controls. Conversely, the ceramide-to-sphingomyelin ratio was decreased in the mitochondria isolated from ASM-knockout mouse retinas compared to wild-type littermates, confirming the role of ASM in mitochondrial ceramide production. Cellular ceramide was elevated 2.67 ± 1.07-fold in RPE cells derived from diabetic donors compared to control donors, and these changes correlated with increased gene expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and ASM. Treatment of RPE cells derived from control donors with high glucose resulted in elevated ASM, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) mRNA. RPE from diabetic donors showed fragmented mitochondria and a 2.68 ± 0.66-fold decreased respiratory control ratio (RCR). Treatment of immortalized cell in vision research (ARPE-19) cells with high glucose resulted in a 25% ± 1.6% decrease in citrate synthase activity at 72 h. Inhibition of ASM with desipramine (15 μM, 1 h daily) abolished the decreases in metabolic functional parameters. Our results are consistent with diabetes-induced increase in mitochondrial ceramide through an ASM-dependent pathway leading to impaired mitochondrial function in the RPE cells of the retina.
Against Art and Culture: by Liam Dee, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 289 pp., €67.40 (e-Book),-ISBN 978-981-10-7092-1, €114.39 (Hardback) ISBN 978-981-10-7091-4, €83.19 (softcover) ISBN 978-981-13-4993-5

Liam Dee’s Against Art and Culture argues that art and culture are not as unquestionably valuable to society as we often believe, instead they are poorly defined concepts that blindly facilitate ca...
Current Derivative Assisted Protection Coordination System for Faster Fault Isolation in A Radial DC Microgrid

In this work, a current derivative assisted protection coordination system between the fast protection devices in a power electronic converter dominated radial DC microgrid is proposed. A circuit based model of a grid connected radial DC microgrid with energy storage unit is developed in PLECS that includes solid-state circuit breaker model as protection device. Microgrid fault dynamics have been analyzed theoretically to modify the standard time graded breaker coordination curve for faster fault isolation. We demonstrate that faster response is achieved by adding a corrective term for breaker coordination based on the derivative of the sensed current and coordinated operation between upstream and downstream protection devices without any active communication. The performance of the proposed approach is compared in simulation with regular time graded breaker operation for validation. In addition, experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for faster fault isolation in a 380V DC system.
A Strategy for Acid-Free Waste Lithium Battery Processing

The current methods for the extraction of cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese from waste lithium-ion batteries require reagents such as HCl, H2SO4, HNO3 and excess of a reductants such as of hydrogen peroxide. This work provides a new strategy for metal recovery and impurity removal without the use of mineral acids, bases or discrete reductants. This study is an alternative strategy using unique pyrometallurgical method that may be more environmentally sustainable because reagent consumption may be less, fewer toxic reagents are utilized, and fewer unit operations are employed. The effects of temperature, time, and reagent concentration were studied upon the recovery of cobalt, lithium, nickel, iron, and aluminum.
Disentangling the roles of inter and intraspecific variation on leaf trait distributions across the eastern United States

Abstract Functional traits are central to how organisms perform and influence ecosystem function. Although phylogenetic constraints and environmental conditions are both known to affect trait distributions, data limitations have resulted in large scale studies modeling traits either as species weighted averages (ignoring intraspecific variation) or as a function of the environment (ignoring phylogenetic constraints). As a result, large scale predictions for trait distributions do not include key drivers, likely resulting in biased predictions, and cannot be used to assess the relative contributions of inter- and intraspecific variation. To address these limitations, we developed a joint model integrating phylogenetic and environmental information to understand and predict the distribution of eight leaf traits across the eastern United States. This joint model explained 68% of trait variation, outperforming both species-only and environment-only models, with variance attributable to phylogeny alone (23%), the environment alone (18%), and their overlapping effects (26%). The importance of phylogenetic constraints and the environment varied by trait, with some traits associated predominantly with environmental variation and others with phylogeny. To make predictions more continuously across the eastern USA we combined this model with data from the large-scale Forest Inventory and Analysis survey to estimate traits for ~1.2 million trees. The combined model exhibited significant deviations in predictions from both species-only and environment-only models with variation in the direction and magnitude of these differences among ecoregions. These predictions demonstrate the importance of modeling both intra- and interspecific variation to understand and predict large scale gradients in species and ecosystem traits. Significance Statement Large scale trait studies typically rely on species level average trait values, but recent research suggests that intra-species variation plays a key role in the ecology of species across their range of distribution. We developed a new continental scale approach that integrates inter- and intra-specific variation on leaf traits by leveraging the interaction between the environment and the phylogenetic relationships across species. Using this approach to make predictions for over a million trees covering the Eastern United States shows that combining intra- and inter-species variation is crucial for capturing patterns at the continental scale. This approach represents a novel state of the art method with the potential to become the new standard for understanding traits at large scales.
Structural Racism and Micronesians in Hawaii: The COVID-19 Syndemic.

By August 2020, non-Hawaiian Pacific Islanders-4% of Hawaii's population-accounted for 30% of the cumulative COVID-19 cases in the state. Micronesians, mostly Chuukese and Marshallese, were the most severely affected. Disproportionate COVID-19 infection in racial or ethnic groups in the US occur because of socioeconomic factors. The COVID-19 pandemic can be thought of as a syndemic-where cases cluster "on a background of social and economic disparity". In this brief report, we describe factors that put Chuukese and Marshallese at increased risk for COVID-19 in Hawaii. We show that Micronesians had increased risk for COVID-19 due to limited employment opportunities, housing insecurity, and underlying comorbid conditions in the context of rescinded federal health insurance and broken government promises. We also highlight the resiliency that many community members demonstrated in preventing new infections and supporting those infected. We conclude that COVID-19 in Hawaii should be understood as a syndemic, where Micronesians were disproportionately affected due to disparities in housing, employment, and health access. Our work supports efforts to continue addressing underlying socioeconomic disparities in creating a more equitable future for our Micronesian community in Hawaii.
The Taxation of Cause-Related Marketing

With the economy in turmoil, charitable organizations are looking to nontraditional sources of financing to supplement contributions and fee-based revenues. One potentially lucrative source of revenue stems from cause-related marketing. Cause-related marketing is the public association of a for-profit company with a charitable organization to promote the company’s product or service in order to raise money for the charitable organization. Introduced almost twenty-five years ago, cause-related marketing has now become a $1 billion a year industry. Cause-related marketing has evolved beyond mere use of a charitable organization’s name to an apparent union for the purpose of promoting products that carry the charitable organization’s brand or message. While the academic literature discusses whether cause-related marketing alliances are ethically and socially desirable, it does not address whether the application of the federal income tax rules to cause-related marketing alliances adequately captures what we accept as valid charitable activities. Despite the widespread success of cause-related marketing, the IRS has issued little guidance on acceptable practices by charitable organizations engaged in cause-related marketing. An analysis of the application of the unrelated business income tax regime and the prohibition on private benefit to cause-related marketing alliances reveals that modifications to existing Internal Revenue Service guidance should be made based on social, economic and tax theory. This analysis concludes with a proposal for a framework within which such guidance should be considered.
Baryon-Antibaryon Systems

I would like to discuss a few simple situations involving the B-B and B-nucleus systems with the baryon label B = N for nucleon, Bc for a charmed nucleon, NN, BcBc, N-nucleus and Bc-nucleus systems. The unifying thread in this discussion will be the non-relativistic treatment of the dynamics, hopefully justified by the particular nature of the elementary two-body states considered. The successes of the quark model as the underlying theory for strong interactions are well known. Of particular relevance here is the spectroscopy of nucleons, isobars and mesons as 3-quark or 2-quark composites. Lipkin has discussed these structures elsewhere in these proceedings.
Social Contributors and Consequences of Habitual and Compulsive Game Play

This study examines the relationship between social motivations, pro-social relationship outcomes, and two types of game play-habitual and compulsive-in the context of simulation games on Facebook. Social motivations were significantly associated with compulsive game play, but not habitual game play. Compulsive play was a positive predictor of pro-social outcomes whereas habitual use was not. By differentiating two different types of media use that are both associated with problematic use, the authors see that social factors contribute to people's inability to control their gaming behavior, but that the so-called "addictive" behavior can also yield positive relationship outcomes.
Ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel alter cognition and anxiety in rats concurrent with a decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase expression in the locus coeruleus and brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in the hippocampus

In the United States, more than ten million women use contraceptive hormones. Ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel have been mainstay contraceptive hormones for the last four decades. Surprisingly, there is scant information regarding their action on the central nervous system and behavior. Intact female rats received three weeks of subcutaneous ethinyl estradiol (10 or 30μg/rat/day), levonorgestrel (20 or 60μg/rat/day), a combination of both (10/20μg/rat/day and 30/60μg/rat/day), or vehicle. Subsequently, the rats were tested in three versions of the novel object recognition test to assess learning and memory, and a battery of tests for anxiety-like behavior. Serum estradiol and ovarian weights were measured. All treatment groups exhibited low endogenous 17β-estradiol levels at the time of testing. Dose-dependent effects of drug treatment manifested in both cognitive and anxiety tests. All low dose drugs decreased anxiety-like behavior and impaired performance on novel object recognition. In contrast, the high dose ethinyl estradiol increased anxiety-like behavior and improved performance in cognitive testing. In the cell molecular analyses, low doses of all drugs induced a decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA and protein in the locus coeruleus. At the same time, low doses of ethinyl estradiol and ethinyl estradiol/levonorgestrel increased galanin protein in this structure. Consistent with the findings above, the low dose treatments of ethinyl estradiol and combination ethinyl estradiol/levonorgestrel reduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor mRNA in the hippocampus. These effects of ethinyl estradiol 10μg alone and in combination with levonorgestrel 20μg suggest a diminution of norepinephrine input into the hippocampus resulting in a decline in learning and memory.
Parallel Probabilistic Computations on a Cluster of Workstations

Probabilistic algorithms are computationally intensive approximate methods for solving intractable problems. Probabilistic algorithms are excellent candidates for cluster computations because they require little communication and synchronization. It is possible to specify a common parallel control structure as a generic algorithm for probabilistic cluster computations. Such a generic parallel algorithm can be glued together with domain-specific sequential algorithms in order to derive approximate parallel solutions for different intractable problems. In this paper we propose a generic algorithm for probabilistic computations on a cluster of workstations. We use this generic algorithm to derive specific parallel algorithms for two discrete optimization problems: the knapsack problem and the traveling salesperson problem. We implement the algorithms on clusters of Sun Ultra SPARC-1 workstations using PVM, the parallel virtual machine software package. Finally, we measure the parallel efficiency of the cluster implementation.
Almost automorphic solutions of semilinear evolution equations

We are concerned with the semilinear differential equation in a Banach space X, x'(t)=Ax(t)+F(t,x(t)), t∈R, where A generates an exponentially stable C 0 -semigroup and F(t,x): R x X → X is a function of the form F(t,x) = P(t)Q(x). Under appropriate conditions on P and Q, and using the Schauder fixed point theorem, we prove the existence of an almost automorphic mild solution to the above equation.
The Supercomputer Supernet: A Scalable Distributed Terabit Network

Conventional supercomputer interconnection networks consist of crossbar modules, which are connected by point-to-point copper or fiber links to create distributed mesh topologies (e.g., CP*, Nectar). This type of “physical networking” topology creates cable layout problems, dealing with bundles of cables/fibers between various pairs of modules. It also introduces several routing hops, increasing the probability of interference between connections and making it difficult to guarantee quality of service to real time applications. We describe a new network called the Supercomputer Supernet (SSN) that attempts to overcome these problems by replacing the point-to-point links with a fiber optic interconnect system. The novel scheme employs asynchronous pipeline crossbar switches (APCS) used in parallel supercomputers to interconnect multi-channel wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) fiber optic links to an optical star (or tree) “physical” topology. WDM will be used to subdivide the very large fiber bandwidth into several channels each of Gb/s bandwidth. WDM channels (supporting also time division multiplexing) will be established between modules, thus defining a dense “virtual” interconnection topology, which is dynamically reconfigurable, responding to changing traffic patterns. A pool of channels will be set aside for direct, end-to-end connections between crossbars, providing circuit-switched service for real-time traffic applications.
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Unless otherwise noted, we will assume throughout this chapter that all vector spaces are finite dimensional.
Impact of 1-methylcyclopropene treatment on the sensory quality of ‘Bartlett’ pear fruit

The ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), has been commercially used to extend the storage life of European pear fruit and to allow shipment to distant markets. However, the influence of 1-MCP on the ability of fruit to ripen to an acceptable sensory quality has not been investigated in 'Bartlett' pear, one of the most aromatic of pear fruit. In the current study, early-, mid- and late-season 'Bartlett' pear fruit were treated with 0.6μLL-1 1-MCP at 0°C for 24h, 100μLL-1 ethylene at 20°C for 24h, or untreated before immediate transfer to 20°C for ripening until eating soft (13N firmness). Fruit from each treatment were subjected to objective and sensory quality evaluation once ripe. Sensory quality showed differences related to harvest maturity; the importance of harvest maturity depended on the treatment. Treatment with 1-MCP effectively slowed fruit ripening and therefore extended postharvest life, but also resulted in fully ripened pears with more desirable sensory traits, as compared with ethylene-treated and untreated pears. The enhanced sensory quality was related to higher sweetness, juiciness and pear aroma and reduced fermented aroma, gritty texture and tart taste. In addition, the sensory profiles of 1-MCP-treated pears were more stable among fruit from the three harvest dates than the ethylene-treated pears, which exhibited very different sensory profiles between early- and late-season fruits. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.
Traumatic arthritis of the hip after dislocation and acetabular fractures: treatment by mold arthroplasty. An end-result study using a new method of result evaluation

An end-result analysis is presented of thirty-nine mold arthroplasties performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1945 and 1965 in thirty-eight consecutive private patients for arthritis of the hip following fractures of the acetabulum or dislocations of the hip. Of the nineteen unilateral cases in the second half of the series, sixteen were rated good or excellent. Results in the second half of the series were significantly better statistically than those in the first half of the series. Possible reasons for this improvement are discussed. No significant deterioration occurred with the passage of time. Among the thirty-nine hips, three revisions were required. One patient had postoperative sepsis after arthroplasty. Four patients who had had intra-articular sepsis prior to arthroplasty showed no evidence of sepsis postoperatively. Factors influencing the choice between hip fusion and hip arthroplasty in these cases are presented. A new system for rating hip function is proposed and is compared with the systems of Larson and Shepherd.
Model of a coral reef ecosystem

The ECOPATH model for French Frigate Shoals estimates the benthic plant production (net primary production in kg wet weight) required to support the atoll food chain. In this section we estimate the benthic net primary production and net community production of the atoll based on metabolism studies of reef flat, knolls, and lagoon communities at French Frigate Shoals Hawaii. Community metabolism was measured during winter and summer. The reef communities at French Frigate Shoals exhibited patterns and rates of organic carbon production and calcification similar to other reefs in the world. The estimate of net primary production is 6.1·106 kg wet weight km-2 year-1±50%, a value remarkably close to the estimate by the ECOPATH model of 4.3·106 kg wet weight km-2 year-1. Our estimate of net community production or the amount of carbon not consumed by the benthos was high; approximately 15% of the net primary production. Model results indicate that about 5% of net primary production is passed up the food chain to mobile predators. This suggests about 10% of net primary production (∼6% of gross primary production) may be permanently lost to the system via sediment burial or export offshore.
An exploratory study of ice-cube spikes

It is well known that ice-cube spikes form by the extrusion of water at the surface of a freezing ice cube, driven by the expansion accompanying freezing. The growing spikes are water-filled ice tubes, growing at their tips as the water is expelled. This paper represents an exploration of their formation and the principles behind whether a freezing ice cube grows a spike or not. For this purpose, ice cubes are frozen in one set of conditions to observe what happens when spikes do or do not form. Spike formation requires a nearly steady-state freezing-and-extrusion process at the growing tip, in order to maintain a nearly constant diameter. Most spikes are polycrystals with special orientation relationships that evidently allow the steady state to become established. Thus the orientations of the initial crystals, formed by chance, help to determine whether a spike forms or not. The main alternative to spike formation is flooding over the upper surface of the ice. Spike formation depends upon an effectively non-zero contact angle of water on ice that impedes flooding. The onset of flooding is probably sensitive to the ice growth rate at the water surface, which depends strongly upon the crystal orientation with respect to the water surface where it contacts the crystal.
Clinical implementation of digital breast tomosynthesis.

Early data, based mostly on small reader studies, suggest that DBT is likely to have a significant impact on breast imaging. The ability to scroll through the tomosynthesis stack to work through areas of tissue superimposition that on two-dimensional imaging appear concerning has led to a decrease in false-positive callbacks. An improvement in lesion conspicuity and the quasi three-dimensional information gained with the tomosynthesis acquisition may also allow more expeditious evaluations of suspicious areas and an increase in cancer detection. Results emerging from larger, prospective DBT screening trials have supported the findings from the earlier, smaller reader studies by demonstrating significant improvements in specificity and sensitivity. Most significant is the early prospective data that has shown that the increased cancer detection is caused by the increase in detection of invasive cancers, which are more likely clinically significant, rather than an increase in the detection of in situ lesions, which some consider to be adding to overdiagnosis. There are, however, issues that must be considered when implementing this new technology into daily clinical practice. With the current technology, there are extremely large data files that require PACS storage, there is an approximately double x-ray dose for the combo-mode of DBT/DM, there is an estimated double in the interpretation time needed, and there is no approved reimbursement to cover the additional overhead needed to support this new digital mammography platform. Despite these issues, it is important to realize that this new technology is only in its clinical infancy and multiple researchers and industries are working to address these issues. There is no doubt that DBT imaging is here to stay and that it will address many of the limitations of conventional 2D mammography. However, additional data from large, multi-site prospective trials is needed so that the true impact of DBT imaging on breast cancer screening outcomes may be realized.
Discovery of a new fermium isotope

Abstract A new spontaneous-fission activity has been observed in a fermium fraction separated from 120 mg of mixed curium isotopes which had been subjected to an integrated flux of 2·4 × 10 22 neutrons per cm 2 at the Materials Testing Reactor, Idaho Falls Idaho (MTR). A least-squares analysis of the spontaneous-fission decay data yielded a half-life of 10·8 days with a standard deviation of about ( +2.2 −1.8 days. An estimated half-life of (11 +10 −6 days is reported here. The mass assignment is uncertain, but limited to A = 258 or 257.
Closing of the fingers domain generates motor forces in the HIV reverse transcriptase.

Using the force sensor of an atomic force microscope, motor forces of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase were measured during active replication of a short DNA transcript. At low load forces the polymerase is mechanically slowed, whereas at high force (∼15 piconewton) it stalls. From recordings of estimated polymerase turnover velocity versus load force, an approximate force-velocity curve has been constructed. The shape of the curve suggests that load force strongly inhibits the rate-limiting step of the polymerase turnover cycle and that the combined effect of load on all steps involves an effective motion of about 1.6 nm. Earlier results from pre-steady-state kinetics experiments have identified the rate-limiting step as the closing of the fingers domain to form a tight catalytic complex. Together these findings indicate that the closing of the fingers domain is a major force-generating step for human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase and, by extension, for all DNA polymerase machines.
Shoulder muscle activity in Parkinson’s disease during multijoint arm movements across a range of speeds

Bradykinesia is one of the primary symptoms of Parkinson disease and leads to significant functional limitations for patients. Single joint movement studies, that have investigated the mechanism of bradykinesia, suggest that several features of muscle activity are disrupted, including modulation of burst amplitude and duration, and the number of bursts. It has been proposed that it is the blending of these different burst deficits that collectively defines bradykinesia. This study adds two new approaches to the study of bradykinesia. First, we examined the features of shoulder muscle activities during multijoint arm movement in bradykinetic and control subjects, such that previously reported single joint hypotheses could be tested for generalized arm movement. Second, we directly manipulated speed while keeping distance constant for a large range of speeds. In this manner, we could compare individual trials of muscle activity between controls and subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD) for movements matched for both speed and movement duration. Our results showed that while a multiple burst pattern of shoulder muscles was a common strategy for all subjects (young, elderly controls and PD), subjects with PD showed several burst abnormalities, including deficits in initial agonist burst amplitude and duration at both fast and slow speeds. Subjects with PD also (1) failed to produce a one-burst pattern at fast speeds and, instead, produced a predominance of multiple burst patterns and (2) showed a relationship between the number of burst deficits and the severity of disease. These results extend the findings of single joint studies to multi-joint and similarly indicate that a combination of burst modulation abnormalities correlate with bradykinesia and disease severity.
The Effect of Storage Upon the Chemical, Physical and Functional Properties of Chicken Eggs

Abstract Various differences between hard cooked, difficult-to-peel eggs and easy-to-peel eggs were studied. Experiments included artificial thinning of the albumen, measurement of albumen viscosity, accelerated increase or decrease of albumen pH, exchange of fresh and old egg contents and microscopic observation of the shell membrane. Old eggs exposed to a carbon dioxide atmosphere exhibited a decrease in albumen pH, an increase in the viscosity of adhering albumen and were difficult to peel. Fresh eggs exposed to ammonia exhibited an increase in albumen pH, no increase in the viscosity of adhering albumen and were easy to peel. Albumen was thinned by soaking in various chemicals without changing the albumen pH significantly. Low pH values, i.e. below 8.9 to 8.7, corresponded to low peeling quality regardless of the amount of albumen thinning. Further evidence for the importance of albumen pH on peeling quality was obtained when the contents of fresh and old eggs were exchanged and then hard cooked. Microscopic observations revealed that old egg shell membrane was compact and that a wide ovomucin border was present between the inner membrane and adhering albumen. Shell membranes of fresh eggs were less compact and a narrow, less concentrated ovomucin border was observed. Results obtained suggested that albumen pH affected the shell membranes and adhering albumen directly to influence peeling quality.
Rat liver aldehyde reductase.

Abstract Rat liver aldehyde reductase is a soluble constitutive enzyme having the ability to catalyze the reduction of several natural aldehydes such as lactaldehyde, glyceraldehyde, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, glucuronate, glucuronolactone, and succinic semialdehyde. However, on the basis of apparent K m , V max and relative pseudo-second order rate constants ( K cat / K m ), 4-carboxybenzaldehyde is the best substrate and a number of other xenobiotic aldehydes are excellent substrates for the enzyme. Low or neglible activity is seen for short chain aliphatic aldehydes, 4-hydroxyphenylglycolaldehyde, and myristic aldehyde. The ketones, p -nitroacetophenone, D -2,3-boranedione, adriamycin, and N -acetyl-daunorubicin are poor substrates. The only significant ketone substrate is the antibiotic, daunorubicin, which is reduced with the unique alkaline optimum of pH 8.5. All other substrates (except adriamycin) were reduced at an acid optimum of pH 6.O. The N -acetylation of the free amino group of daunorubicin eliminates the alkaline activity suggesting the involvement of this group in the unique alkaline optimum. Reductase activity is noncompetitively inhibited by barbital and phenobarbital, as well as other pharmacologic compounds. Inhibitors of the classical alcohol dehydrogenase do not inhibit the aldehyde reductase. These and other properties suggest that this enzyme belongs to the class of reductases ubiquitously distributed among animal tissues and classified as alcohol:NADP + oxidoreductases (E.C. 1.1.1.2).
Technical considerations in medical radar

Medical radar is an emerging area of research and development in recent years, spurred by rapid advances in electromagnetic modeling, simulation, component development, and signal and image processing algorithms. In this paper, we review various important considerations in the design and development of medical radar systems for diagnostic applications.
Implications of the public school curriculum for the education of teachers

Such a question immediately implies another-to which curriculum of the public school is reference intended, to the one in current practice, or to the new type which is based on the best or most adequate educational theory? If the first type is meant, that is the implications of the present curriculum in teacher education, the problem of description becomes a simple one being contained in the following statement: A deadly parallel exists between the common curriculum practice in schools and the present program of education for teachers, the outstanding similarities appearing as follows: Education is a matter of adding together small bits of learning. Education is a matter of one's ability to learn something in isolation. Education is a matter of activity in the teacher in compelling the learner to listen to him (the teacher) and then re-tell what the teacher has told. Education is anything the learner learns. Education can be attained by anyone who subjects himself to the activities of a teacher. Evidences of education are credits. Aside from credits and some evidences that one can read, write, and perform simple computations, education has little bearing on living. Education is something that goes on within schools. The main business of the prospective teacher is to learn techniques, or better devices for carrying out the ends mentioned above. The reader could, from his own experiences, continue this recitation of similarities without intention either of irony or viciousness, for when present practices are probed for their logical meanings, it is impossible to arrive at any other than these interpretations. Surprisingly, and despite these present tendencies, considerable education is taking place both among pupils and prospective teachers. A description of the outstanding characteristics of the newer curriculum organizations may be found in an analysis made jointly by Doctors Caswell and Campbell of Peabody College. Besides being an excellent statement of the curriculum content of American education, it has been instrumental in assisting teachers in seeing the implications of social needs and the requirements of learners so clearly and forcefully that these teachers have succeeded in planning and carrying into effect these curriculum plans. Much of what follows here is