cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimizing data center energy efficiency via ambient-aware IT workload scheduling

Energy consumption in data centers has increased over the years. A significant percentage of the total energy required by data centers may be consumed by cooling equipment. To decrease cooling cost, incorporation of air-side economization, or “free” cooling, which utilizes locally available outside air to augment or replace the cooling capacity provided by traditional data center cooling infrastructure, has been explored in recent years. However, little work has been done on exploiting the diurnal nature of outside air conditions by integrating the active management of cooling and IT workload scheduling. In this paper, we estimate the savings obtained by using this concept of integrated management in a containerized data center that implements a micro-grid of cooling resources consisting of outside air, conditioned air using DX (Direct Expansion) units, and a combination of both. For such a data center, a previously developed energy model is utilized to estimate the annual savings obtained by scheduling workload according to the variable cost of cooling resource generation and delivery. The impact of data center location and allowable IT inlet air temperature range on savings is also studied. The results show that the integrated management can decrease the cooling cost by up to 50% depending on location of the data center, the types of IT workload and total IT resources available in the data center.
Criteria for onset critically influence the estimation of familial risk in Alzheimer's disease

The rare early-onset variant of Alzheimer's disease (AD) appears to be transmitted as an autosomal dominant genetic trait. More typical late-onset AD also shows familial aggregation, but possible genetic mechanisms are difficult to examine because the phenotypic expression of the putative AD genotype is often censored by prior death from competing causes. Lifetable methods have been used to examine the age-specific risk of dementia among relatives, and thus to test the hypothesis of genetic transmission of late-onset AD. These methods require the ascertainment of affected relatives and the determination of their age at onset. The latter determination is somewhat arbitrary, since symptoms of AD evolve and develop in a continuous and progressive fashion, and different workers may thus use differing criteria for "onset." This paper demonstrates that the use of divergent thresholds for "caseness" (typically, progressive dementia of several years' duration) and onset (e.g., the first appearance of mild cognitive symptoms, or the first clear evidence of dementia) can introduce substantial bias toward underestimation of risk among relatives. Depending on the definition of onset, familial risk may be underestimated, with apparent cumulative incidence decreased to only 60% of values otherwise expected. We suggest that this problem can be avoided by the use of identical threshold criteria for caseness and for onset.
Reference Temperature Method for Predicting Turbulent Compressible Skin-Friction Coefficient

G0'(0) - 1.128379, Gi(G) = 0.354998, G2'(0) - -0.262704(7) Thus, G'(0) - 1.128379 + 0.354998e - 0.262704e 2 (8) Another result of importance is the drag-coefficient Cf which is given by (Ref. 1) CAN) = (9) [2N(N+\)Y/(N+1) In Table 1 we compare the results given by present analysis with those of Ref. 1 and Wells.3 It may be observed that the perturbation results are almost exact in the region 0.5 ^ N ^ 1.5.
Patient Factors Associated with Undergoing Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding vs Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass for Weight Loss

Background Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding are 2 commonly performed bariatric procedures in the US with different profiles for risk and effectiveness. Little is known about factors that might lead patients to proceed with one procedure over the other. Study Design We recruited and interviewed patients seeking bariatric surgery from 2 academic centers in Boston (response rate 70%). We conducted multivariable analyses to identify patient perceptions and clinical and behavioral characteristics that correlated with undergoing gastric banding (n = 239) vs gastric bypass (n = 297). Results After adjustment for socio-demographic and clinical factors, we found that older patients (odds ratio [OR] 1.03; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.05) and those with higher quality of life scores and higher levels of uncontrolled eating were more likely to undergo gastric banding as opposed to gastric bypass. In contrast, patients with type 2 diabetes (OR 0.46; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.77), those who desired greater weight loss, and those who were willing to assume higher mortality risk to achieve their ideal weight were less likely to proceed with gastric banding. After initial adjustment, male sex and lower body mass index were associated with a likelihood of undergoing gastric banding; however, these factors were no longer significant after adjustment for other significant correlates such as patients' perceived ideal weight, predilection to assume risk to lose weight, and eating behavior. Conclusions Patients' diabetes status, quality of life, eating behavior, ideal weight loss, and willingness to assume mortality risk to lose weight were associated with whether patients proceeded with gastric banding as opposed to gastric bypass. Other clinical factors were less important.
Software bit-slicing: a technique for improving simulation performance

For some types of simulation, it is difficult or impossible to improve performance by packing several vectors to be packed into a single word. One example of such an algorithm is inversion algorithm, which does not represent net values in the conventional way. This paper presents a novel technique, called software bit-slicing for performing simultaneous simulation of several input vectors on a conventional uniprocessor. As with conventional vector-packing techniques, this technique is able to assign a different input vector to each bit of a word, permitting the simultaneous simulation of n vectors, where n is the number of bits in a word. The inversion algorithm is used to give an example of this technique. For this example, a 6x speedup can be realized by using software bit-slicing. The same technique should be widely applicable to many different types of simulation.
Threshold and limits of magnetic field action at the presynaptic membrane

The relationship of field intensity and exposure duration to the inhibitory effect of static magnetic fields on presynaptic membrane function was examined in order to further define the mechanism of action of these fields. Miniature endplate potentials (MEPPs) were recorded from the isolated murine neuromuscular junction, maintained at a temperature of 35.5 degrees C, during exposure to static magnetic fields of varying duration and intensity. Inhibition of MEPP generation correlated well with the product of the square of the flux density and exposure time. At lower product values the relationship was linear with an absolute flux density threshold of 37.9 mT. Higher product values were associated with deviation from linearity indicative of a limit on the extent of inhibition. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that static magnetic fields induce a reorientation of diamagnetic molecular domains within the membrane but with a restriction on the degree of reorientation imposed by the membrane's cytoskeleton.
Reformulating R(*; m )C with Tree Decomposition

Local consistency properties and algorithms for enforcing them are central to the success of Constraint Processing. Recently, we have demonstrated the importance of higher levels of consistency and the effectiveness of their algorithms for solving difficult problems (Karakashian et al. 2010; Woodward et al. 2011). In this paper, we introduce two reformulation techniques for improving the effectiveness of our algorithm for the relational consistency property R (*, m ) C (Karakashian et al. 2010). Both techniques exploit a tree decomposition of the constraint network of a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP), which is a tree embedding of the network. Our first reformulation technique exploits the structure of the decomposition tree and the state of the backtrack search to omit unnecessary steps from our algorithm and improve its performance. Our second contribution is new relational consistency property called T-R (*, m, z ) C that is strictly stronger than R (*, m ) C. This property is achieved by modifying the structure of the constraint network and adding new redundant constraints to the CSP at the intersection of two vertices of the tree decomposition (Rollon and Dechter 2010). We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed two reformulations for finding all the solutions of a CSP using the technique known as Backtracking with Tree Decomposition (BTD) (Jegou and Terrioux 2003).
Shear stress induces spatial reorganization of the endothelial cell cytoskeleton.

The morphology of endothelial cells in vivo depends on the local hemodynamic forces. Cells are polygonal and randomly oriented in areas of low shear stress, but they are elongated and aligned in the direction of fluid flow in regions of high shear stress. Endothelial cells in vitro also have a polygonal shape, but the application of shear stress orients and elongates the cells in the direction of fluid flow. The corresponding spatial reorganization of the cytoskeleton in response to the applied hemodynamic forces is unknown. In this study, we determined the spatial reorganization of the cytoskeleton throughout the volume of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells after the cells had been exposed to a physiological level of shear stress for 0, 1.5, 3, 6, 12, or 24 h. The response of the monolayer to shear stress was not monotonic; it had three distinct phases. The first phase occurred within 3 h. The cells elongated and had more stress fibers, thicker intercellular junctions, and more apical microfilaments. After 6 h of exposure, the monolayer entered the second phase, where the cells exhibited characteristics of motility. The cells lost their dense peripheral bands and had more of their microtubule organizing centers and nuclei located in the upstream region of the cell. The third phase began after 12 h of exposure and was characterized by elongated cells oriented in the direction of fluid flow. The stress fibers in these cells were thicker and longer, and the heights of the intercellular junctions and microfilaments were increased. These results suggest that endothelial cells initially respond to shear stress by enhancing their attachments to the substrate and neighboring cells. The cells then demonstrate characteristics of motility as they realign. The cells eventually thicken their intercellular junctions and increase the amount of apical microfilaments. The time course of rearrangement can be described as a constrained motility that produces a new cytoskeletal organization that alters how the forces produced by fluid flow act on the cell and how the forces are transmitted to the cell interior and substrate. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 40:317–330, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Shakedown of Torispherical Heads Using Plastic Analysis

The condition of shakedown is examined for torispherical heads. The reason for using plastic analysis is to account for the strengthening that heads experience when subjected to internal pressure, Cyclic pressures are considered up to an allowable burst pressure that is based on the membrane stresses of the spherical part of the head. To simulate a proof test before service cycling, cases when the applied pressure is higher for the first cycle are also included. A definition of shakedown is used that places the limit of twice the yield strength on a fatigue stress parameter range that is defined in the paper. The equivalent stress and plastic strain ranges are calculated for ten head thickness-to-spherical radius ratios. From these data, shakedown pressures are obtained as fractions of the allowable burst pressure. By giving bounds for isotropic and kinematic strain-hardening models, the results are made independent from specific cyclic material behavior. It is also shown that if an elastic, geometrically linear algorithm is used, which is unable to account for the strengthening, the fatigue stress parameter range is overestimated for the thinner heads.
Root causes and organic budgeting: funding health from conception to the grave

Place: ‘Developed’ country. Time: Present day. Event: A sperm penetrates an egg. Months later, a child born at term, without identifiable genetic defects, normal birth weight, APGAR 10, and all organ systems exquisitely formed. Fantastic! Supposition 1: For a child like this, social determinants of health [101] are the major forces that affect your public-health goal of ‘wellness in every stage of life’ [102]. Supposition 2: You have sole power over the economic resources of your nation. Challenge: As holder of this economic power, your challenge is to choose the major predictor of this newborn child’s future social and cognitive development, health and wellbeing, adolescent and adult behavior, physical and mental health, adult functioning, risk for a variety of diseases, and cause of death. To determine where to place the money that will shape public-health policy and services that meets all of these needs, you must place a bet on the ‘root’ origins of health and wellbeing for children. Your choices: We live in a world of categorical thinking and categorical funding, so you only get one choice for your bet. Would you choose access to healthcare [1]? School achievement [103]? Racial disparities in health [2]? Socioeconomic status [3]? Poverty [104]? Now, consider the life stages in reverse order, since a ranking of health expenditures – from highest to lowest – would be ranked similarly. Start with the last stage of life: dying. In 1993, McGinnis and Foege quantified the contribution of adverse health behaviors (e.g., smoking, alcohol use and physical inactivity) to the leading causes of death, which they termed the ‘actual’ causes of death, in the
Linear optical properties of a high-finesse cavity dispersively coupled to a micromechanical membrane

We present measurements of an optomechanical system in which the mechanical element is inside the cavity, and couples dispersively to the intracavity field. This geometry makes it easier to simultaneously achieve high optical finesse and high mechanical quality factor in an optomechanical device. We measured the linear optical properties of a such a device in which the mechanical element is a 50 nm thick silicon nitride membrane. We find that the device's finesse, resonant transmission and resonant reflection can be explained with a simple model which allows us to extract the membrane's optical loss. Our results indicate that it should be possible to increase the finesse of these devices to 5 × 105 or higher.
Autocrine/paracrine TGF-β1 inhibits Langerhans cell migration

Langerhans cells (LCs) are skin-resident dendritic cells (DC) located in the epidermis that migrate to skin-draining lymph nodes during the steady state and in response to inflammatory stimuli. TGF-β1 is a critical immune regulator that is highly expressed by LCs. The ability to test the functional importance of LC-derived TGF-β1 is complicated by the requirement of TGF-β1 for LC development and by the absence of LCs in mice with an LC-specific ablation of TGF-β1 or its receptor. To overcome these problems, we have engineered transgenic huLangerin-CreER(T2) mice that allow for inducible LC-specific excision. Highly efficient and LC-specific expression was confirmed in mice bred onto a YFP Cre reporter strain. We next generated huLangerin-CreER(T2) × TGF-βRII(fl) and huLangerin-CreER(T2) × TGF-β1(fl) mice. Excision of the TGFβRII or TGFβ1 genes induced mass migration of LCs to the regional lymph node. Expression of costimulatory markers and inflammatory cytokines was unaffected, consistent with homeostatic migration. In addition, levels of p-SMAD2/3 were decreased in LCs from wild-type mice before inflammation-induced migration. We conclude that TGF-β1 acts directly on LCs in an autocrine/paracrine manner to inhibit steady-state and inflammation-induced migration. This is a readily targetable pathway with potential therapeutic implications for skin disease.
Live demonstration: Towards an ultra low power on-board processor for Tongue Drive System

Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a new unobtrusive, wireless, and wearable assistive device that allows for real time tracking of the voluntary tongue motion in the oral space for communication, control, and navigation applications. The latest TDS prototype appears as a wireless headphone and has been tested in several human subject trials. Producing a smaller and more stable version of the TDS requires placing a considerable restraint on the battery size, and consequently requiring a considerable reduction in its power consumption to operate over an extended period of two days on a single charge. To reduce this power consumption, we have implemented an ultra low power local processor for the TDS that performs all signal processing on the transmitter side, following the sensors. Assuming the TDS user is on average issuing one command/second, implementing the computational engine reduces the data volume that needs to be wirelessly transmitted to a PC or smartphone by a factor of 1500x, from 12 kbit/s to 8 bit/s [1-2]. The design is implemented on an ultra low power IGLOO nano FPGA and is tested on an AGLN250 prototype board using four external LSM303D 3-axis magnetometers and a Texas Instruments CC2540 Bluetooth transceiver, as seen in Fig. 1-a. According to our post place-and-route results, implementing the processor on the FPGA drops the power consumption by 27%. This work presents the demonstration of first implementation of the proposed onboard FPGA-based processor for TDS. This demonstration is based on our earlier published work in the special edition of Biomedical Circuits in the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II [1].
Strategy for Public and Third-Sector Organizations

This article presents a framework in which types of strategies for public and third-sector organizations are matched to environments that are determined by the need for action and responsiveness. Strategic leaders are asked to balance need with responsiveness as they fashion a strategy. The amount of change that is desirable increases as need and responsiveness increase, first calling for bureaucratic and then for compromisor types of strategy. In turbulent environments a different strategy is required. Using the framework, we suggest that a mutualist strategy will be needed to deal with the environmental turbulencebrought on by attempts to respond to rapidly changing needspredicted for public and third-sector organizations in the next decade. Drawing on these ideas, we suggest a research program.
Assessing the Bleeding Patient: Factors Affecting Hemostasis and Common Coagulation Studies

This column discusses the factors affecting hemostasis and the common coagulation studies used to assess patients with bleeding disorders.
Myocardial Dysfunction Postresuscitation

Real strides have been made in the last decade in the treatment of sudden cardiac death. Survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (CA) have been reported as low as 1 and 2% in large cities (1,2). Communities with rapid emergency response teams have reported better results with survival rates from 15 to 30% (3). Within the last few years providing early defibrillation by equipping nonmedical first responders with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) has been a crucial step in improving survival from out-of-hospital CA. Recent reports from Rochester, Minnesota, where police are now providing early defibrillation, have shown a community-wide survival rate of 40% for patients whose initial rhythm is ventricular fibrillation (VF [4]). Casinos in which security personnel were trained to use AEDs have reported overall survival rates from VF of 59% for victims of sudden CA on property (5). Similarly, the Chicago Airport Authority experience has been impressive (6,7). After placing AEDs in the terminals of both O’Hare and Midway airports, they found a 56% neurologically normal survival rate for VF CA within the first 24 months of starting this public access defibrillation program.
Changing Default Fluoroscopy Equipment Settings Decreases Entrance Skin Dose in Patients

Purpose: Proper fluoroscopic education and protocols may reduce the patient radiation dose but few prospective studies in urology have been performed. Using optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters we tested whether fluoroscopy time and/or entrance skin dose would decrease after educational and radiation reduction protocols.Materials and Methods: At default manufacturer settings fluoroscopy time and entrance skin dose were prospectively measured using optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters in patients undergoing ureteroscopy, retrograde pyelogram/stent or percutaneous nephrolithotomy with access for stone disease. A validated radiation safety competency test was administered to urology faculty and residents before and after web based, hands-on fluoroscopy training. Default fluoroscopy settings were changed from continuous to intermittent pulse rate and from standard to half-dose output. Fluoroscopy time and entrance skin dose were then measured again.Results: The cohorts of 44 pre-protocol and 50 ...
Mechanisms involved in adrenergic receptor desensitization.

The various subtypes of receptors for catecholamines, termed adrenergic receptors, represent excellent models for the study of receptor-mediated transmembrane signalling because of their ubiquity, their coupling to well-defined effector mechanisms, and the clinical importance of drugs which interact with them. In general, the adrenergic receptor systems consist of three components which are coupled to each other: ( i ) the receptor, to which the hormone binds; ( i i ) a guanine nucleotide regulatory protein (or G-protein) and (iii) an effector enzyme. Each of the major adrenergic receptor subtypes, B, , Bz, a , and a2, are classically defined pharmacologically, and are coupled to well-defined plasma membrane effector systems which generate second messengers. Activation of the Badrenergic receptors leads to the stimulation of adenylate cyclase and the generation of cyclic AMP, which in turn can activate the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Subsequent phosphorylation of key substrates in a cell can then give rise to specific cellular responses. Likewise, the a*adrenergic receptor inhibits adenylate cyclase through coupling to G,, thus also regulating levels of the second messenger cyclic AMP. Activation of the a ,-adrenergic receptor stimulates hydrolysis of phosphoinositol bisphosphate (PIP,), to the two second-messengers, inositol trisphosphate (IPJ. and diacylglycerol, and the activation of protein kinase C. This review will focus on recent progress in elucidating the structure, function and regulation of adrenergic receptors, particularly the B,-adrenergic receptor (B,AR), and emphasize the regulation of signal transduction by the second messenger cyclic AMP.
Abstract 3408: The anticancer mechanisms of ciclopirox olamine.

Ciclopirox olamine (CPX), a synthetic fungicide clinically used to treat mycoses of the skin and nails, has been demonstrated as a novel anticancer agent. However, the underlying anticancer mechanisms are not well understood. Here we show that CPX suppressed cell proliferation, induced cell death (apoptosis and autophagy), and inhibited cell motility in breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) and rhabdomyosarcoma (Rh30) cells. We observed that CPX induced inhibitory phosphorylation of CDK2 and inhibited cyclin D1 expression, resulting in dephosphorylation of Rb in the tumor cells, which was correlated to cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Furthermore, we found that CPX caused DNA damage and activated ATR-Chk1 axis, increasing phosphorylation and degradation of Cdc25A, a critical protein involved in the regulation of cell cycle progression and apoptosis. CPX also activated JNK cascade, associated with apoptosis. Moreover, CPX downregulated cellular protein expression of small GTPases (RhoA, Cdc42 and Rac1) and induced inhibitory phosphorylation of FAK, related to cell migration. In addition, we found that CPX inhibited the signaling of mTOR, a central controller of cell proliferation, survival (apoptosis and autophagy) and motility. The results suggest that CPX exerts its anticancer activity by targeting multiple signaling molecules. Citation Format: Tao Shen, Hongyu Zhou, Shile Huang. The anticancer mechanisms of ciclopirox olamine. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3408. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3408
Kant's refutation of dogmatic idealism

It is commonly held that because of his obvious misinterpretations of Berkeley's philosophy, which he called dogmatic or visionary and mystical idealism, Kant thereby betrayed a gross misunderstanding of that philosopher. The theory advanced to explain this is that Kant was not acquainted with any of Berkeley's writings, but obtained his knowledge from inadequate second-hand sources.1 This theory is supported by the fact that Kant's knowledge of the English language was most imperfect. He never read a single English book. Coupled with this is the apparently acceptable fact that there were no German translations of Berkeley's works in existence before 1781, the year of publication of the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason.2 In that year, there appeared a German translation of Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.3 This work was therefore available to Kant before he published his Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics (1783)4 and the second edition of the Critique (1787). But such is the nature of Kant's account of Berkeley's doctrine in these works that, on the common view, Kant neglected to avail himself of the opportunity to read it. Thus, previous assessments of the evidence, internal and external, have produced the view that Kant knew nothing of Berkeley's writings at first hand and, accordingly, misunderstood and misinterpreted his teaching. From this, it follows, although the commentators have omitted to stress this conclusion, that Kant's many attempted refutations of dogmatic idealism fail before they begin. The above is not only the accepted view, backed by seemingly strong evidence; it is the most plausible. Nevertheless, it is almost wholly mistaken, as I shall show.
Technical Development of Turbine Governor in China

The classification of turbine governors is summarized. The technical development of China’s hydraulic turbine governor is reviewed. The technical status and existing problems of hydraulic turbine governors is analyzed. Based on the construction requiement of smart grid,the technical development trend of hydraulic turbine governors in the near future is also pointed out.
Dunning Adenocarcinoma in Tissue Culture: Isolation of a Cloned Cell Line, R3327H-G8-A1

A cloned cell line, R3327H-G8-A1, was isolated from an explant of the well differentiated androgen dependent Dunning R3327H adenocarcinoma. Preliminary characterization of this cell line indicates that it is epithelial-like, and that it synthesizes and secretes large quantities of acid phosphatase. The cells bind testosterone in a saturable manner with an equilibrium dissociation constant of 0.5 nM and with a capacity of 5000 sites/cell. When these cells were injected subcutaneously into the hind flank of Copenhagen-Fischer rats, or into the dorsal or ventral lobes of the prostate, large tumors were produced 3 months following administration, thus demonstrating the tumorigenicity of the cells.
Tenckhoff catheter administration of intraperitoneal fluid and electrolytes for long-term management of intractable ileostomy diarrhea: A case report

Often, maintenance of fluid and electrolyte homeostasis is the most challenging dilemma posed by short bowel syndrome. This report describes the management of a patient with intractable, dehydrating, salt-wasting diarrhea after small and large bowel resection for Crohn's disease complicated by rectal cancer. Intraperitoneal fluid and electrolyte therapy delivered through a Tenckhoff catheter was used to achieve long-term outpatient stability without chronic intravenous therapy. The concept of intraperitoneal fluid and electrolyte therapy is discussed and its potential role in the treatment of short bowel syndrome is described.
Age-related changes in plasma immunoreactive growth hormone secretory patterns in broiler pullets.

Apparent circulating plasma immunoreactive growth hormone (I-GH) concentrations were determined in Hubbard X Hubbard broiler pullets at weekly intervals from 1 through 12 weeks of age, in conjunction with measurement of relative weight gain (growth rate). Blood was obtained by cardiac puncture (wk 1) or venipuncture (weeks 2-12) from 12 birds (one sample per bird) at each age. Subsequently, in a second study, the growth hormone secretory pattern was quantitated for broiler pullets at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of age. At each of these ages, five birds were surgically prepared with indwelling venous catheters and blood samples withdrawn remotely at 15 or 30 min intervals for 6 h beginning at 0900 h. Plasma was assayed for I-GH and data subjected to a computer-based statistical algorithm for quantitation of secretory pattern characteristics. Plasma I-GH increased with age to peak at 4 weeks and declined thereafter, whereas relative weight gain declined overall. When adjusted for increasing body weight, however, plasma I-GH concentration per unit metabolic body size (an expression of relative tissue exposure to the hormone) was highly correlated with growth rate (P less than .007). At 4 weeks of age, chicks displayed relatively high amplitude peaks in plasma I-GH (35.0 +/- 3.20 ng/ml) (means +/- SEM) which occurred asynchronously between birds. These peaks were substantially reduced in amplitude (P less than .05) by 8 weeks (5.9 +/- 2.82 ng/ml) and remained low through 12 weeks of age (2.6 +/- 1.18 ng/ml). The baseline plasma concentration of I-GH also declined (P less than .05) from 4 to 8 weeks of age, and remained low thereafter. In contrast, the frequency and duration of peaks did not differ significantly with age, such that peaks occurred approximately every 1.75 h and were 1 h in duration, over all ages. These age-related changes in secretory pattern characteristics, and the strong association between plasma I-GH per unit of metabolic body size and growth rate, suggest that both pattern and level of tissue exposure may be important in the regulation of growth in these birds.
The role of oral antimicrobials for the management of intra-abdominal infections.

Background Oral therapy for patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections has been very limited because those patients are frequently ill and need surgery. In addition, at the time of diagnosis and initial treatment, the infection is often accompanied by ileus, gastrointestinal tract function is frequently unknown, and many patients cannot tolerate oral intake. The use of oral antimicrobials in this setting is a recent advance resulting from the availability of agents with good tissue pharmacokinetics and potent aerobic gram-negative activity. This is the first prospective blinded study of oral therapy to provide data on the characteristics of patients eligible for oral treatment and the consequences of such treatment. Study design In blinded fashion, patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections were randomized to either i.v. ciprofloxacin plus metronidazole or i.v. imipenem throughout their treatment course, or i.v. ciprofloxacin plus metronidazole and treatment with oral ciprofloxacin plus metronidazole when oral feeding was resumed (CIP/MTZ i.v./oral). Physicians could switch the patient to oral therapy between 3 and 8 days after the start of i.v. treatment. Results One hundred fifty-five of 330 (47%) patients were switched to active or placebo oral therapy. Patients who received i.v./oral therapy were treated, overall, for an average of 8.6 +/- 3.6 days, with an average of 4.0 +/- 3.0 days of oral treatment. Of 46 CIP/MTZ i.v./oral patients (active oral arm), treatment failure occurred in 2 patients (4%) compared with 41 patients (23%) who were not switched to oral agents. No patient or disease features, such as Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, severity of illness at study entry, organ source of infection, or duration of treatment were identified as predictors of conversion to oral treatment. Conclusions In this first prospective examination of sequential i.v./oral therapy for complicated intra-abdominal infections, conversion to oral therapy with ciprofloxacin plus metronidazole appears as effective as continued i.v. therapy for patients able to tolerate oral feedings. Patients who can tolerate oral intake may be treated with appropriate oral antimicrobials and are not at any significant increased risk for failure.
Development of organic semiconducting technology to realize low driving voltages

Corning has developed three generations of polymeric organic semiconducting (OSC) materials, each with progressively improved electronic performance and processability. These materials possess excellent solubility, mobility and stability. Stanford University has developed a new polymer dielectric material based on a fluoroelastomer. Combined with Coming's OSC polymers, this enables easy to fabricate transistors with high transconductance, low driving voltage and excellent device stability, even in water.
Free space propagation of concentric vortices through underwater turbid environments

Concentric optical vortex beams of 3-petal, 5-petal, and 6-petal spatial profiles are generated at 450 nm using a single diffractive optical element. The spatial and temporal propagation characteristics of these beams are then studied in a scattering underwater environment. Experimental results demonstrate a less than 5% reduction in the spatial pattern for turbidities in excess of 10 attenuation lengths. The temporal properties of concentric vortex beams are studied by temporally encoding an on-off keyed, non-return-to-zero (OOK-NRZ) data stream at 1.5 GHz.
Early Changes in Knee Center of Rotation During Walking After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Correlate With Later Changes in Patient-Reported Outcomes.

Background:Altered knee kinematics after anterior cruciate ligament injury and reconstruction (ACLR) have been implicated in the development of posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), leading to poor ...
How much do social protections matter to poverty and inequality? An insight from Asian experiences:

This article examines Asia’s experiences with social protection policies and their efficacy in addressing poverty and inequality. While the relatively high efficacy of the comprehensive welfare sta...
The Analysis of Bounded Count Data in Criminology

Criminological research utilizes several types of delinquency scales, including frequency counts and, increasingly, variety scores. The latter counts the number of distinct types of crimes an individual has committed. Often, variety scores are modeled via count regression techniques (e.g., Poisson, negative binomial), which are best suited to the analysis of unbounded count data. Variety scores, however, are inherently bounded. We review common regression approaches for count data and then advocate for a different, more suitable approach for variety scores—binomial regression, and zero-inflated binomial regression, which allow one to consider variety scores as a series of binomial trials, thus accounting for bounding. We provide a demonstration with two simulations and data from the Fayetteville Youth Study. Binomial regression generally performs better than traditional regression models when modeling variety scores. Importantly, the interpretation of binomial regression models is straightforward and related to the more familiar logistic regression. We recommend researchers use binomial regression models when faced with variety delinquency scores.
The use of neutrophils, macrophages and organ cultures to assess the penetration of human cells by antimicrobials.

The knowledgeable physician, choosing an antimicrobial to aid in the management of an infectious disease, does not simply pick a broad-spectrum antimicrobial, which may not be the best antimicrobial for the infecting microorganism, but rather goes through a three-step thought process wherein 1) he or she diagnoses the disease in the patient; and 2) on the basis of historical, physical and laboratory information, predicts the most likely organism to be causing the disease in this particular patient and then; 3) chooses the best antimicrobial for the most likely organism or organisms. Once the list of most likely organisms has been generated from appropriate clinical and laboratory data, the choice of the best antimicrobial is systematically made on the basis of the factors listed in Table 1.
ANALYSIS OF EMBANKMENT STRESSES AND DEFORMATIONS

THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD IS APPLIED TO THE EVALUATION OF EMBANKMENT STRESSES AND DEFORMATIONS. CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART IN THE DEFORMATIONS DEVELOPED IN EARTH EMBANKMENTS, AND IN INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION VERSION OF THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD IS DESCRIBED WHICH ACCURATELY ACCOUNTS FOR THIS EFFECT. CALCULATIONS DEMONSTRATE THE INFLUENCE OF BASIC PARAMETERS SUCH AS MATERIAL PROPERTIES, SIZE, GEOMETRY ON THE STRESSES AND DEFORMATIONS DEVELOPED IN EMBANKMENTS, AND THE EFFECT OF FOUNDATION FLEXIBILITY ON THE EMBANKMENT. BECAUSE THE EARTH USED IN EMBANKMENTS IS NOT AN IDEAL ELASTIC MATERIAL, THE FINITE ELEMENT PROGRAM WAS MODIFIED TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT MORE REALISTIC STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIPS. THE SOIL CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS WERE EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF THE BULK MODULUS AND THE DEFORMATION MODULUS, AND IT WAS ASSUMED THAT ONLY THE DEFORMATION MODULUS WOULD VARY WITH STRAIN. RESULTS OF AN ANALYSIS OF OTTER BROOK DAM, USING NONLINEAR PROPERTIES DEFINED BY TESTS OF THE DAM MATERIALS, WERE FOUND TO BE IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF DEFORMATIONS IN THIS STRUCTURE. /ASCE/
Chloride Oxidation by Ruthenium Excited-States in Solution

Photodriven HCl splitting to produce solar fuels is an important goal that requires strong photo-oxidants capable of chloride oxidation. In a molecular approach toward this goal, three ruthenium compounds with 2,2′-bipyrazine backbones were found to oxidize chloride ions in acetone solution. Nanosecond transient absorption measurements provide compelling evidence for excited-state electron transfer from chloride to the Ru metal center with rate constants in excess of 1010 M–1 s–1. The Cl atom product was trapped with an olefin. This reactivity was promoted through pre-organization of ground-state precursors in ion pairs. Chloride oxidation with a tetra-cationic ruthenium complex was most favorable, as the dicationic complexes were susceptible to photochemical ligand loss. Marcus analysis afforded an estimate of the chlorine formal reduction potential E°(Cl•/–) = 1.87 V vs NHE that is at least 300 meV more favorable than the accepted values in water.
Based continuous authentication while listening to music on your smart-phone

Keystroke dynamics has long been proposed as a behavioral biometric for devices that collect input from keyboards, keypads, and virtual touch screen keypads. However, little work has been done on how user contexts impact this biometric. This work helps to fill this gap by examining how keystroke data collected in the presence of music would impact authentication with this biometric. To accomplish this, this work considers keystroke latencies (i.e. key hold, key press, and key interval) and uses two verifiers (i.e. relative measure and absolute measure) in determining the impact the presence of music has on smartphone keystroke data. The results show that, for the verifiers used, the presence of music has an impact on EERs and that some keystroke latencies (i.e. key hold and key interval) are more affected by the presence of music.
Variation in the Practice of Central Venous Catheter and Chest Tube Insertions among Surgery Residents

Objectives: Central venous catheter (CVC) and chest tube (CT) insertions are common bedside procedures frequently performed by surgery residents. Despite published guidelines, variability in the practice exists. We sought to characterize the surgery residents' practice patterns surrounding these two bedside procedures. Materials and Methods: Over the last 1½ months of the academic year in 2012 and 2013, surgery residents across the US were surveyed online. Participants reported levels of agreement for 15 questions in a 5-point Likert scale format. Results: A total of 219 residents completed the survey. Majority of residents agreed that they received appropriate education and training. Over half of the respondents reported that they did not have attending staff physician's supervision during the procedures. Junior residents felt less confident in performing CVC or CT insertions. Those younger than 29 years old and of female sex were also less confident in performing CT insertion. Although almost all residents reported using maximal sterile barrier precautions, 7% reported not securing their gowns and another 7% reported inadequate draping of patients. About ⅓ reported no hand cleansing before the procedures. Those from community programs compared to university programs less frequently used antibiotics. Sixty-five percent of residents reported routine use of ultrasound for CVC insertion. Conclusion: Surgery residents do not strictly adhere to the guidelines for CVC and CT insertions, and there is substantial variation in the practice of the procedures, which may contribute to complications associated with these procedures. This survey opens new areas for in-service education, feedback, and practices for these procedures to reduce the risk of complications, especially the infectious one.
Clearance Concepts: Fundamentals and Application to Pharmacokinetic Behavior of Drugs.

Clearance concepts were introduced into the pharmacokinetics discipline in the 1970s and since then have played a major role in characterization of the pharmacokinetic behavior of drugs. These concepts are based on the relationship between organ extraction ratio or clearance and physiologic parameters such as the organ blood flow and the intrinsic capability of the eliminating organ to remove the free (unbound) drug from the body. Several theoretical models have been developed, which define these relationships and may be used to predict the effects of changes in the physiological parameters on various pharmacokinetic parameters of drugs, such as drug clearance. In this communication, the fundamentals of the two most widely used models of hepatic metabolism, namely the well-stirred (venous equilibrium) and parallel-tube (sinusoidal perfusion) models, are reviewed. Additionally, the assumptions inherent to these models and the differences between them in terms of their predictive behavior are discussed. The effects of changes in the physiologic determinants of clearance on the blood concentration-time profiles of drugs with low and high extraction ratio are also presented using numerical examples. Lastly, interesting and unusual examples from the literature are provided where these concepts have been applied beyond their widely known applications. These examples include estimation of the oral bioavailability of drugs in the absence of otherwise needed intravenous data, differentiation between the role of liver and gut in the first-pass loss of drugs, and distinction between the incomplete absorption and first-pass metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract after the oral administration of drugs. It is concluded that the clearance concepts are a powerful tool in explaining the pharmacokinetics of drugs and predicting the changes in their blood concentration-time courses when the underlying physiologic parameters are altered due to age, disease states, or drug interactions. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW . Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.
Strategic Path Planning on the Basis of Risk vs. Time

The selection of path in an urban combat setting determines the survival to a greater extent. In this paper we propose an algorithm that finds strategic paths inside a map with a set of enemies without using predetermined waypoints. The strategic path calculation is based upon the hit probability calculated for each enemy's weapons and the risk vs. time preference and it is done at multiple levels of abstractions to address trade-off of efficiency and accuracy and the strategic path calculation minimizes both time and risk as per mission objectives.
ERROR PROPAGATION AND CATASTROPHES IN PROTEIN SYNTHESIZING MACHINERY

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses error propagation and catastrophes in protein synthesizing machinery (PSM). The PSM gets the basic information about the order of arrangement of amino acids by DNA molecule. This machinery also has a self-replicating aspect to it; some of the proteins formed by the machinery are necessary for its proper functioning in the sense of rate of formation of proteins and proper arrangement of the amino acids. If these proteins have errors in their primary sequences, they may not function properly and make PSM unreliable, possibly leading to the formation of the same next generation proteins with more errors. This process of increase of errors may continue and finally lead to an error catastrophe in protein synthesis and, thus, death of the cell. On the other hand, some of the errors may not be catastrophic; evolution is a well known example of it. The chapter discusses various models for the propagation of errors in the protein synthesizing machinery and discusses the conditions under which errors may increase, leading to an error catastrophe, and may decrease.
Wake-Promoting Medications

Wake-promoting (for hypersomnia) and sleep-inducing (for insomnia) compounds are perhaps two of the most important classes of compounds in sleep medicine. Wake-promoting compounds currently used in sleep medicine include amphetamine-like compounds ( l - and d -amphetamine and methamphetamine, l - and d -methylphenidate, and pemoline), mazindol, modafinil, some antidepressants with stimulant properties (e.g., bupropion), and caffeine. The wake-promoting effects of most of these drugs are primarily mediated via an inhibition of dopamine (DA) reuptake/transport, and in some cases, via increased DA release, and some of these properties may also share the abuse potencies of other wake-promoting compounds. Inhibition of adrenergic uptake also likely has some stimulant effects. Caffeine is a nonselective adenosine receptor antagonist and widely consumed through various food and drinks. Wakefulness (and various physiologies associated with wakefulness) is essential for the survival of creatures and thus is likely to be regulated by multiple systems, each having a distinct role. Each system may be involved differently in the various types of hypersomnia. It is thus possible to develop new pharmacological classes of wake-promoting compounds that more specifically act on the pathophysiology of the disease. The development of modafinil exemplifies the possibility of developing novel wake-promoting compounds with low abuse potential. It is also likely that the need for treating daytime sleepiness extends well beyond the relatively rare indication of narcolepsy–cataplexy.
Bibliografia comentada sobre imagem e ensino

Apresentamos nessa Bibliografia Comentada resumos acerca de importantes pesquisas (artigos, livros, teses) referentes a Imagem e Ensino, desenvolvidas e problematizadas por meio de diferentes metodologias e areas do conhecimento.
Physicians’ Perspectives on FDA Approval Standards and Off-label Drug Marketing

This nationwide survey of US primary care internists and medical specialists evaluates physicians’ attitudes about the US Food and Drug Administration’s drug approval standards and off-label drug marketing.