cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Robust image transmission over CDMA channels

The transmission of real-time images and video over wireless communication channels is a challenging problem. Digital compressed images are sensitive to bit errors which are typical in wireless communications. Moreover, the bandwidth at the air interface is currently a limiting factor because the first and second generation of mobile phone standards mainly support voice communications. We present a study of real-time image traffic over a radio link-the aim of this research is for videophone applications. We use the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to compress images and a code division multiple access (CDMA) link to transfer images over wireless communications network. The experiment results indicate that it is possible to transfer 9-12 QCIF gray scale images per second over a CDMA link with graceful degradation in image quality.
Antinuclear factors in murine alloantisera

We have demonstrated that anti-Thy 1.1 and certain H-2 alloantisera contain an antinuclear factor (ANF) detected by fluorescent antimouse IgG. The incidence of ANF positive antisera that we report may actually be an underestimate. ANF is present in sera not only from our laboratory but also from other sources; thus ANF is not an artifact of our laboratory. ANF is not identical to alloantibody, and the ANF appears to be of an autoimmune nature. A variety of environmental and genetic factors may influence the appearance of ANF in anti-H-2 sera, but we believe that the consistent detection of ANF in sera directed against H-2.3 1,34 or against H-2.4 suggests that some specific aspect of immune stimulation by these H-2 antigens, and likely by other H-2 antigenic specifications, induces the appearance of ANF. It is not known whether it is these K and D antigens or other determinants associated with the H-2 complex that may actually provide the immune stimulation for ANF induction. The particular mechanisms that may be operating to induce ANF cannot be determined at present. We are continuing with experiments to define what parameters influence the appearance of ANF in alloantisera.
Radiation recall reaction causing cardiotoxicity

Radiation recall phenomenon is a tissue reaction that develops within a previously irradiated area, precipitated by the subsequent administration of certain chemotherapeutic agents. It commonly affects the skin, but can also involve internal organs with functional consequences. To our best knowledge, this phenomenon has never been reported as a complication on the heart and should be consider as a potential cause of cardiotoxicity.
Lymphocyte motility and lymphocyte chemoattractant factors.

(1988). Lymphocyte Motility and Lymphocyte Chemoattractant Factors. Immunological Investigations: Vol. 17, No. 8-9, pp. 625-677.
Expository Paragraph Properties that Influence Literal Recall.

Carroll and Freedle (1972) have speculated that the structure of prose paragraphs may constitute a form of plan that influences the manner in which information is processed and/or recalled by the reader. This study investigated the influence of prose structure on sixth grade readers' literal recall scores. Internal and external structural properties of meaningful and less meaningful paragraphs were manipulated. Internal as well as external structural properties had a significant joint influence with paragraph meaningfulness on literal recall. Students reading paragraphs with compact subtopic structure obtained significantly higher recall scores than those reading paragraphs employing a discontinous subtopic structure. At each level of paragraph meaningfulness, the presentation of a main idea statement appeared to have a significant influence on recall.
A pretargeted nanoparticle system for tumor cell labeling

Nanoparticle-based cancer diagnostics and therapeutics can be significantly enhanced by selective tissue localization, but the strategy can be complicated by the requirement of a targeting ligand conjugated on nanoparticles, that is specific to only one or a limited few types of neoplastic cells, necessitating the development of multiple nanoparticle systems for different diseases. Here, we present a new nanoparticle system that capitalizes on a targeting pretreatment strategy, where a circulating fusion protein (FP) selectively prelabels the targeted cellular epitope, and a biotinylated iron oxide nanoparticle serves as a secondary label that binds to the FP on the target cell. This approach enables a single nanoparticle formulation to be used with any one of existing fusion proteins to bind a variety of target cells. We demonstrated this approach with two fusion proteins against two model cancer cell lines: lymphoma (Ramos) and leukemia (Jurkat), which showed 72.2% and 91.1% positive labeling, respectively. Notably, TEM analysis showed that a large nanoparticle population was endocytosed via attachment to the non-internalizing CD20 epitope.
A semiempirical line shape model of GaAs MQW structures

We have developed a semiempirical model to describe the line shape in the vicinity of the exciton absorption lines in GaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) structures. This model is based on a conventional line-broadening analysis similar in spirit to that used in atomic and plasma physics. The absorption spectrum is determined through the line positions, oscillator strengths, homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening, and continuum shifts. Values for these parameters are derived from a combination of theoretical models, some existing in the literature and other developed by the authors, and experimental data where theory is lacking. Our results are in good agreement with the absorption measurements and the nonlinear coefficients available in the literature. This model shows improvements in the nonlinearity at low temperature and small inhomogeneous linewidth, which is as expected. >
Implementation of a quality control for radio occultation observations in the presence of large gradients of atmospheric refractivity

Abstract. In preparation for the launch of the first six satellites of the COSMIC-2 mission in equatorial orbit, and the larger number of observations that such a mission will provide in the lower tropical troposphere, work is underway at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve the assimilation of radio occultation (RO) observations, particularly in the lower tropical troposphere. As part of the improvement of the bending angle forward operator at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), additional quality controls aimed to detect and reject observations that might have been affected by super-refraction conditions have been implemented and tested. The updated quality control procedures also address the situation where the model detects atmospheric super-refraction conditions. This paper describes the limitations of the current standard quality controls and discusses the implementation of additional quality control procedures to address the limitations of assimilating observations likely affected by the super-refraction conditions, either in the model simulation or in the retrieval process.
Leontief-Based Model of Risk in Complex Interconnected Infrastructures

Wassily Leontief received the 1973 Nobel Price in Economics for developing what came to be known as the Leontief input-output model of the economy. Leontief's model enables understanding the interconnectedness among the various sectors of an economy and forecasting the effect on one segment of a change in another. A Leontief-based infrastructure input-output model is developed here to enable an accounting of the intraconnectedness within each critical infrastructure as well as the interconnectedness among them. The linear input/output model is then generalized into a generic risk model with the former as the first-order approximation. A preliminary study of the dynamics of risk of inoperability is discussed, using a Leontief-based dynamic model. Several examples are presented to illustrate the theory and its applications.
Fluid pressures at the shoe-floor-contaminant interface during slips: Effects of tread & implications on slip severity

Abstract Previous research on slip and fall accidents has suggested that pressurized fluid between the shoe and floor is responsible for initiating slips yet this effect has not been verified experimentally. This study aimed to (1) measure hydrodynamic pressures during slipping for treaded and untreaded conditions; (2) determine the effects of fluid pressure on slip severity; and (3) quantify how fluid pressures vary with instantaneous resultant slipping speed, position on the shoe surface, and throughout the progression of the slip. Eighteen subjects walked on known dry and unexpected slippery floors, while wearing treaded and untreaded shoes. Fluid pressure sensors, embedded in the floor, recorded hydrodynamic pressures during slipping. The maximum fluid pressures (mean+/−standard deviation) were significantly higher for the untreaded conditions (124+/−75 kPa) than the treaded conditions (1.1+/−0.29 kPa). Maximum fluid pressures were positively correlated with peak slipping speed (r=0.87), suggesting that higher fluid pressures, which are associated with untreaded conditions, resulted in more severe slips. Instantaneous resultant slipping speed and position of sensor relative to the shoe sole and walking direction explained 41% of the fluid pressure variability. Fluid pressures were primarily observed for untreaded conditions. This study confirms that fluid pressures are relevant to slipping events, consistent with fluid dynamics theory (i.e. the Reynolds equation), and can be modified with shoe tread design. The results suggest that the occurrence and severity of unexpected slips can be reduced by designing shoes/floors that reduce underfoot fluid pressures.
The effects of gravity modulation on fluid mixing. Part 2. Stochastic modulation

We study numerically the effects of zero-mean stochastic gravity modulation on the mixing characteristics of two interdiffusing miscible Boussinesq fluids initially separated by a thin diffusion layer. The gravity modulation has a Gaussian probability distribution and is characterized by an exponentially damped cosine autocorrelation function, i.e. /(g 2 (t)> = e -λτ cos(ωτ). The associated power spectrum is a Lorentzian with peak at w and width λ The flow is found to depend on the following parameters: the Grashof number, Gr, based on the viscous length scale, l ν = √ν/ω; the Schmidt number, Sc; the correlation exponent, 2; and other geometric parameters. Even for extremely small Gr, we observe the propagation of gravity currents, Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities. This is in contrast to the case of harmonic modulation considered in Part 1 (Siddavaram & Homsy J. Fluid Mech. vol. 562, 2006, p. 445) wherein these phenomena occur sequentially as Gr increases. The mixed volume is found to vary non-monotonically with the correlation exponent, λ, with narrow-band modulation having the largest mixed volume followed by harmonic modulation and then broadband modulation. This non-monotonicity of the mixed volume with λ is explained on the basis of the competition between the effects of excitation of lower frequencies, which lead to higher mixing, and the effects of the reduction in the energy content at the dominant frequency, which leads to reduced mixing. The value of the correlation coefficient, λ, at which the mixed volume is the largest is found to be independent of Gr. To understand the finer details of the mechanisms, we consider two- and three-frequency modulations. We find that increasing the amplitude of the secondary component when its frequency is smaller than that of the primary component leads to the occurrence of KH and RT instabilities at smaller Gr than that for the case of single-frequency modulation. We have understood the non-monotonic variation in the mixed volume by considering a three-frequency modulation, where one of the frequencies is smaller than the characteristic frequency and the other larger.
p34, a protein kinase involved in cell cycle regulation in eukaryotic cells.

Investigation of the biochemical basis of cellular transformation is a major area of current research directed towards understanding the problem of tumorigenesis and human cancer. Much progress has been made in identifying primary oncogenic agents, both chemical and viral, in addition to the discovery of cellular oncogenes (Bishop, 1985). Biochemical activities have been associated with the products of some viral and cellular oncogenes, most notably those which belong to the protein kinase family (Erikson and Erikson, 1980).
Relocating Development Communication: Social Entrepreneurship, International Networking, and South-South Cooperation in the Viva Rio NGO

This piece addresses how the oft-invoked but rarely interrogated discourse on social entrepreneurship presents new opportunities and issues for community activists. While its champions argue that this practice has the potential to radically reconfigure the geopolitics of international development by privileging local innovations over outside intervention, specific case examinations of this practice are as of yet rare. Drawing on the projects developed by Viva Rio, the first non-governmental organization working in the favelas (or unincorporated urban slums) of Rio de Janeiro, this piece investigates integral elements and larger implications of this practice including how local actors working in marginalized communities design and implement interventions, how they market projects to international support networks, and larger possibilities for developing south-south collaborative relationships.
Primary malignant rhabdoid tumor of the brain: clinical, imaging, and pathologic findings.

PURPOSE To describe the imaging and pathologic findings of malignant rhabdoid tumor (MRT), a rare primary brain neoplasm affecting children. METHODS The CT and/or MR features, pathologic findings, and clinical records of three children with primary MRT of the brain were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS The tumors, large, left-sided cerebral masses, were intraventricular in two cases. MR images in one patient showed T1- and T2-weighted signal intensity isointense with gray matter. Multiple necrotic/cystic foci were present in all cases, with two showing a patchy pattern of enhancement on CT and MR. The diagnosis of MRT was documented by ultrastructural and immunohistochemical studies. All patients had normal abdominal CT scans, excluding the possibility of primary renal rhabdoid tumor metastatic to the brain. The disease progressed rapidly in each case, despite surgery, chemotherapy, and craniospinal irradiation, with serial imaging evidence of tumor regrowth at the primary site and the development of metastatic satellite lesions. CONCLUSIONS The diagnosis of primary MRT of the brain can be made only pathologically; however, the nonspecific imaging findings in these cases suggest that MRT should be considered in the differential diagnosis of large childhood intracranial neoplasms.
Abstract 3312: Oncolytic HSV (34.5ENVE) sensitizes bortezomib-induced cancer cell killing through induction of RIP1 dependent necroptosis.

Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC The aim of this study is to evaluate the combination of oncolytic herpes simplex virus (34.5ENVE) and bortezomib in the treatment of solid tumors. Although phase 1 clinical trials of oncolytic viruses have established the relative safety of this approach, evidence for efficacy has remained elusive. Therefore, strategies to enhance the efficacy of this treatment are being explored. We investigated the impact of 34.5ENVE in combination with bortezomib, a potent and selective proteosome inhibitor, in the treatment of multiple solid tumor models. In vitro, various human cancer cells were treated with bortezomib alone, 34.5ENVE alone, or the combination of the two. We analyzed the treatments for synergism in cancer cell killing using Chou-Talalay analysis (CI index 0.8). These findings suggest that the combination of bortezomib and 34.5ENVE leads to synergistic cell killing mediated by RIP1 dependent necroptosis induction. Citation Format: Brian S. Hurwitz, Ji Young Yoo, Chelsea Bolyard, Jun-Ge Yu, Jeffery Wojton, Matthew Old, Balveen Kaur. Oncolytic HSV (34.5ENVE) sensitizes bortezomib-induced cancer cell killing through induction of RIP1 dependent necroptosis. [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 3312. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3312
Finite Element Simulations of Left Atrial Filling Following Radiofrequency Ablation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cardiac rhythm disorder characterized by rapid, erratic muscle contraction without concordant chamber motion. Given the rising prevalence of AF and failures of pharmaceutical therapies, clinicians have increasingly used radiofrequency (RF) ablation to electrically isolate the abnormal tissue [1]. A typical ablation procedure (PVI) electrically isolates the pulmonary veins (PV) by encircling them with lesions and has a 60% success rate [2]. More aggressive procedures have been proposed to increase the success rate, including wide-area circumferential ablation (WACA), which add more lesions without considering the functional impact of additional scarring [3]. The objective of this study was to develop a finite element model of a healthy left atrium, capable of simulating passive filling during ventricular systole, and explore the functional impact of ablation by simulating various scar patterns.© 2013 ASME
Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation of gas flow in organic nanochannels

Abstract The objective for this work is to investigate the contribution of the adsorbed phase to the mass flux and comparing transport of gases with different adsorption affinities in organic nano-scale channels. In this work, force-driven Non-Equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations are used to compare the transport of gases with high adsorption affinity (Methane and Argon) with the ones with low adsorption affinity (Helium), for channel heights of 2, 4, 6, and 8 nm at two Knudsen numbers of 0.1 and 0.2. Velocity and mass flux profiles across the channel for Argon, Methane, and Helium are compared. Transport diffusion coefficients and molecular flux of these gas are also calculated. Furthermore, adsorption properties are analysed using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations. For all the gases studied, plug-shaped velocity profiles are observed irrespective of the channel size and Knudsen number. Mass flux profiles of Argon and Methane across the channels demonstrate a significant contribution of adsorbed molecules to the total mass flux. Furthermore, as Knudsen number increases, the contribution of the adsorbed phase to the total mass flux becomes higher. Molecular flux of Helium is smaller than that of Argon and Methane for all channel sizes. The calculated diffusion coefficients of Methane are higher than those for Argon for all the channel sizes and they decrease as the channel size increases. For Argon and Methane, the diffusion coefficients become smaller as Knudsen number increases. For Helium, the diffusion coefficients are weak functions of the channel size and Knudsen number. Based on the results, contribution of the adsorbed molecules can be more than 50% of the total mass flux of the channel. For the pressure ranges studies, transport diffusivity of Helium is less sensitive to pressure and Knudsen number compared to Argon and Methane. This study shows that the transport through organic nano-scale conduits is essentially diffusive. Therefore, to have a realistic model for predicting the recovery of fluids from unconventional resources, the transport equations in organic nanopores should be replaced by the diffusive transport equations.
Caste as self-regulatory club: evidence from a private banking system in nineteenth century India

The Chettiar banking system evolved and functioned in the absence of a government sponsored central bank in 19th-century India. I find that the underlying common social institution of caste was crucial for the workings of the banking system and effectively acted as a club. Exclusion was achieved by restricting membership by birth and the practice of endogamy. These mechanisms created the necessary incentives to provide meaningful rules as well as their enforcement. I describe and analyze the privately provided self-regulatory mechanisms of clearinghouses, inter-bank lending and information sharing. The Chettiar banking system thus adds to existing instances of self-regulated banking as well as points to the economic underpinnings of caste as an institution.
Rules of Origin

The primary objective of the G.S.P. is to stimulate production and employment in export sectors of the developing countries. However, preferential tariff rates as a stimulus might lead to a different result, namely a deflection of international trade among industrial countries. Instead of one industrial nation exporting goods directly to another and facing M.F.N. tariffs, the exporter might send the goods first to a beneficiary developing country for importation and immediate re-exportation to the initially intended industrial nation, thereby gaining customs clearance under G.S.P. tariff rates. In this way the G.S.P. could initiate a system of trade diversion through beneficiary countries, stimulating the creation of ‘trading houses’ rather than industrial production and employment. It is true that a certain degree of ‘paper-processing’ employment and income would be generated in the developing countries, but the benefits of such economic activity would fall far short of the G.S.P. objectives of industrialisation and acceleration of economic growth. To prevent such a deflection of trade, ‘rules of origin’ were established. These rules constitute a set of requirements designed to prevent the beneficiaries from simply re-exporting goods produced elsewhere unless such goods were substantially processed in the exporting beneficiary developing country.
The influence of food abundance, food dispersion and habitat structure on territory selection and size of an Afrotropical terrestrial insectivore

Most tropical insectivorous birds, unlike their temperate counterparts, hold and defend a feeding and breeding territory year-around. However, our understanding of ecological factors influencing territory selection and size in tropical insectivores is limited. Here we examine three prominent hypotheses relating food abundance, food dispersion (spatial arrangement of food items), and habitat structure to territoriality in the Usambara Thrush Turdus roehli . We first compared leaf-litter macro-invertebrate abundance and dispersion, and habitat structure between territories and random sites. We then examined the relation between these same ecological factors and territory size. Invertebrate abundance and dispersion were sparsely and evenly distributed across our study system and did not vary between territories and random sites. In contrast, habitat structure did vary between territories and random sites indicating the Usambara Thrush selects territories with open understorey and closed overstorey habitat. Invertebrate abundance and dispersion within territories of the Usambara Thrush were not associated with habitat structure. We believe the most likely explanation for the Usambara Thrush’s preference for open understorey and closed overstorey habitat relates to foraging behavior. Using information-theoretic model selection we found that invertebrate abundance was the highest-ranked predictor of territory size and was inversely related, consistent with food value theory of territoriality. Keywords: endangered species, food value hypothesis, habitat structure hypothesis, leaf-litter macro-invertebrates, resource dispersion hypothesis, structural cues hypothesis
Missing the boat: Critical threats to coral reefs are neglected at global scale

Abstract Coral reefs have experienced a global decline due to overfishing, pollution, and warming oceans that are becoming increasingly acidic. To help halt and reverse this decline, interventions should be aimed at those threats reef experts and managers identify as most severe. The survey included responses from 170 managers, representing organizations from 50 countries and territories, and found that respondents generally agreed on the two major threats: overfishing and coastal development. However, resource allocation did not match this consensus on major threats. In particular, while overfishing receives much attention, coastal development and its attendant pollution are largely neglected and underfunded. These results call for a re-examination of how resources are allocated in coral reef conservation, with more attention given to aligning how money is spent with what are perceived to be the primary threats.
Vitamin D Promotes Protein Homeostasis and Longevity via the Stress Response Pathway Genes skn-1, ire-1, and xbp-1.

Summary Vitamin D has multiple roles, including the regulation of bone and calcium homeostasis. Deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the major circulating form of vitamin D, is associated with an increased risk of age-related chronic diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cognitive impairment, and cancer. In this study, we utilized Caenorhabditis elegans to examine the mechanism by which vitamin D influences aging. We found that vitamin-D3-induced lifespan extension requires the stress response pathway genes skn-1 , ire-1 , and xbp-1 . Vitamin D3 (D3) induced expression of SKN-1 target genes but not canonical targets of XBP-1. D3 suppressed an important molecular pathology of aging, that of widespread protein insolubility, and prevented toxicity caused by human β-amyloid. Our observation that D3 improves protein homeostasis and slows aging highlights the importance of maintaining appropriate vitamin D serum levels and may explain why such a wide variety of human age-related diseases are associated with vitamin D deficiency.
Intrathecal Bupivacaine Monotherapy with a Retrograde Catheter for the Management of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome of the Lower Extremity.

UNLABELLED Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) presents a therapeutic challenge due to its many presentations and multifaceted pathophysiology. There is no approved treatment algorithm and clinical interventions are often applied empirically. In cases of CRPS where symptoms are localized to an extremity, a targeted treatment is indicated. We describe the use of intrathecal bupivacaine monotherapy, delivered through a retrograde catheter, in the treatment of CRPS affecting the lower extremity. The patient, a 57-year-old woman with a history of failed foot surgery, was seen in our office after 2 years of ineffective treatments with local blocks and neurolytic procedures. We advanced therapy to moderately invasive procedures with an emphasis on neuromodulation. A combined central and peripheral stimulation technique that initially provided 75% pain relief, failed to provide lasting analgesia. We proceeded with an intrathecal pump implant. Based on the results of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) mapping, L5-S1 was identified as the optimal target for therapy and a retrograde catheter was placed at this level. Various intrathecal medications were tested individually. An intrathecal morphine trial was ineffective (visual analog scale [VAS] 7), while intrathecal clonidine provided excellent pain relief (VAS 0) that was limited by severe side effects. Bupivacaine provided 100% analgesia with tolerable side effects (lower extremity weakness and minor bladder incontinence) and was selected for intrathecal infusion. After 14 months, bupivacaine treatment continued to control pain exacerbations. We conclude that CRPS patients benefit from early identification of the predominant underlying symptoms and a targeted treatment with moderately invasive techniques when less invasive techniques fail. KEY WORDS Intrathecal bupivacaine, bupivacaine monotherapy, retrograde catheter, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), dual stimulation, dosal root ganglion (DRG) testing.
RT-OPEX: Flexible Scheduling for Cloud-RAN Processing

It is cost-effective to process wireless frames on general purpose processors (GPPs) in place of dedicated hardware. Wireless operators are decoupling signal processing from basestations and implementing it in a cloud of compute resources, also known as a cloud-RAN (C-RAN). A C-RAN must meet the deadlines of processing wireless frames; for example, 3ms to transport, decode and respond to an LTE uplink frame. The design of baseband processing on these platforms is thus a major challenge for which various processing and real-time scheduling techniques have been proposed. In this paper, we implement a medium-scale C-RAN-type platform and conduct an in-depth analysis of its real-time performance. We find that the commonly used (e.g., partitioned) scheduling techniques for wireless frame processing are inefficient as they either over-provision resources or suffer from deadline misses. This inefficiency stems from the large variations in processing times due to fluctuations in wireless traffic. We present a new framework called RTOPEX, that leverages these variations and proposes a flexible approach for scheduling. RT-OPEX dynamically migrates parallelizable tasks to idle compute resources at runtime, reducing processing times and hence deadline misses at no additional cost. We implement and evaluate RT-OPEX on a commodity GPP platform using realistic cellular workload traces. Our results show that RT-OPEX achieves an order-of-magnitude improvement over existing C-RAN schedulers in meeting frame processing deadlines.
Responsive Web-Based Molecule Viewer for 3D Communication, Collaboration, and Virtual Reality

Communication for molecular visualization is a fundamental component of any research, collaboration, and education pipeline between scientists across disciplines and knowledge base. However, existing industry standard tools provide limitations whereby complex 3D spatial data is reduced to 2D images. Novel approaches which utilize recent innovative technological advances are needed to adequately facilitate communication workflows. Autodesk Molecule Viewer leverages web-based, cloud-enabled 3D viewing technology to overcome limitations in accessibility and 3D sharing of curated molecular structural content to enable effective communication. Optimized for large-scale data, the Viewer demonstrates usage scenarios of author-curated 3D structural content through multiple saved camera and model states (such as measurements, annotations, captions, representations, color, etc.) to be shared through a URL. The shared URL contains presentation views of the authored content in its native 3D environment, which can be viewed through any internet-accessible device such as phones, tablets, and laptop devices. As such, novel methods of presentation, education, and exploration can be leveraged, such as immersive smartphone-enabled virtual reality using any affordable Cardboard VR device. Molecule Viewer applies innovative technological trends and breakthroughs to molecular visualization to accelerate efforts in communication, collaboration, and education.
Observation of a strong-coupling effect on electron-ion collisions in ultracold plasmas.

Ultracold plasmas (UCPs) provide a well-controlled system for studying multiple aspects in plasma physics that include collisions and strong-coupling effects. By applying a short electric field pulse to an UCP, a plasma electron center-of-mass oscillation can be initiated. For accessible parameter ranges, the damping rate of this oscillation is determined by the electron-ion collision rate. We performed measurements of the oscillation damping rate with such parameters and compared the measured rates to both a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation that includes strong-coupling effects and a Monte Carlo binary collision simulation designed to predict the damping rate including only weak-coupling considerations. We found agreement between the experimentally measured damping rate and the MD result. This agreement did require including the influence of a previously unreported UCP heating mechanism whereby the presence of a dc electric field during ionization increased the electron temperature, but estimations and simulations indicate that such a heating mechanism should be present for our parameters. The measured damping rate at our coldest electron temperature conditions was much faster than the weak-coupling prediction obtained from the Monte Carlo binary collision simulation, which indicates the presence of a significant strong-coupling influence. The density averaged electron strong-coupling parameter $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$ measured at our coldest electron temperature conditions was 0.35(8).
ICU Management of the Patient with Alcoholic Liver Disease

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) can present with a spectrum of clinical findings ranging from asymptomatic hepatic steatosis to life-threatening alcoholic hepatitis (AH). Patients with AH have jaundice, coagulopathy, and a 30–60 % 6-month mortality despite abstinence and supportive care. Recent data from a large multicenter study demonstrated that corticosteroids and pentoxyfilline have minimal survival benefit in AH. Therefore, many experts recommend a short course of corticosteroids only in selected AH patients whose total bilirubin levels improve within 1 week of starting treatment. ICU care for patients with ALD requires initial management of alcohol withdrawal syndromes (AWS) as well as addressing infections, bleeding, and renal failure. Management of AWS includes protocolized administration of benzodiazepines in a monitored setting along with correction of metabolic disturbances and supplementation of micronutrient deficiencies. Anti-psychotics or even propofol with intubation may be required for patients with severe withdrawal symptoms and cardiopulmonary instability. Treatment of upper GI bleeding in patients with ALD includes establishment of large bore intravenous access and early administration of antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors, and octreotide to reduce visceral bloodflow. Targets for blood product replacement include a hemoglobin of 8 g/dl, an INR 50 K to minimize the risk of ongoing bleeding. Following adequate gastric lavage, urgent therapeutic endoscopy is recommended to identify and treat the source of bleeding. Patients with refractory variceal bleeding may require balloon tamponade to achieve hemostasis and emergent TIPS for portal decompression. ICU patients with complications of ALD may also develop acute kidney injury. Initiation of hemodialysis in patients with ALD is fraught with complications, and patients with HRS have particularly poor survival. Management of the ICU patient with ALD requires coordinated care delivered by the intensivist in conjunction with the GI specialist and mental health provider to achieve optimal short- and long-term outcomes.
275 Identification of microrna predictive of treatment response in lupus nephritis

Background and aims High dose corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide are commonly used to treat LN. Although effective in preventing end stage renal disease (ESRD) in most cases, significant long-term side effects such as infections, increased risk of malignancy, and infertility are common and are related to the duration of therapy or the cumulative dose of medications. There are currently no markers that can reliably determine response or refractoriness to treatment at an individual level. MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs responsible for post-transcriptional regulation, have been shown to have altered expression levels in a variety of diseases suggesting their potential use as biomarkers. We propose miRNAs can be predictive markers for response to cyclophosphamide. Methods RNA was isolated and analysed via TaqMan Array MicroRNA 384 well Cards, from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) renal biopsies of two cohorts of patients with LN who were subsequently treated with cyclophosphamide with at least 2 years of follow up history. Patients who responded to cyclophosphamide based on urinalysis criteria of no active urinary sediments, no RBCs or WBCs in urine, and proteinuria less than 1 gram were classified as responders while those that did not fit the criteria were classified as non-responders. Significantly deferentially expressed miRNAs, determined via 2 ΔΔCt method, from the first cohort were validated by the second cohort. Results Six significantly up-regulated miRNAs, hsa-miR-30c-2-3p, hsa-miR-29b-1-5p, hsa-miR-195-3p, hsa-miR-424-3p, hsa-miR-1260a, and hsa-miR-1248 were found in responders. Conclusions These miRNAs may act as prognostic markers of renal outcomes and treatment response, which can establish a more personalised treatment of lupus nephritis in the future.
Consideration of Existing Anthropometric Data in Industrial Workplace Layout Design

Industrial workplace layout design dimensions were determined, through the use of the existing anthropometric data, for performing industrial tasks in sitting, standing and combination of both sitt...
Isolation of myogenic progenitor cell population from human placenta: A pilot study

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to demonstrate a method of isolating myogenic progenitor cells from human placenta chorionic villi and to confirm the myogenic characteristics of the isolated cells. Methods Cells were isolated from chorionic villi of a second trimester male placenta via a combined enzymatic digestion and explant culture. A morphologically distinct subpopulation of elongated and multinucleated cells was identified. This subpopulation was manually passaged from the explant culture, expanded, and analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay, immunocytochemistry, and flow cytometry. Myogenic characteristics including alignment and fusion were tested by growing these cells on aligned polylactic acid microfibrous scaffold in a fusion media composed of 2% horse serum in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium/high glucose. Results The expanded subpopulation was uniformly positive for integrin α-7. Presence of Y-chromosome by FISH analysis confirmed chorionic villus origin rather than maternal cell contamination. Isolated cells grew, aligned, and fused on the microfibrous scaffold, and they expressed myogenin, desmin, and MHC confirming their myogenic identity. Conclusion Myogenic progenitor cells can be isolated from human chorionic villi. This opens the possibility for translational and clinical applications using autologous myogenic cells for possible engraftment in treatment of chest and abdominal wall defects.
Landowner and practitioner perspectives on private land conservation programs

ABSTRACTEfforts to reverse declines in native grasslands benefit from agricultural policies that encourage private land conservation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) improved conservation across landscapes but enrollment has declined. We used sequential exploratory mixed methods to compare landowner and conservation practitioners’ perceptions, evaluate perceived benefits, and identify potential improvements to CRP. Focus groups of practitioners informed a quantitative survey of landowners who had properties >160 total acres in Nebraska. Results suggest potential misalignment in perceptions between practitioners and landowners. Practitioners were concerned that conservation, especially of wildlife, was secondary to profit. But the majority of landowners valued CRP-related ecosystem services, including native pollinators. Practitioners posited that younger landowners were primarily profit motivated, but CRP enrollment did not differ by demographics. Practitioners and ...
Self-Adapting Quorum-Based Neighbor Discovery in Wireless Sensor Networks

Neighbor discovery is a critical first step in establishing communication in a wireless ad-hoc network. Existing quorum-based neighbor discovery algorithms only consider a pair of nodes and ensure that this pair can communicate at least once in a bounded interval. However, when the node density of a wireless network increases, collisions are more likely to happen, which makes these quorum-based algorithms inefficient in practice. We propose a novel self-adapting quorum-based neighbor discovery algorithm that can dynamically adjust its cycle pattern to decrease the impact of such collisions. We first assess the collision problem in wireless networks when using quorum-based neighbor discovery algorithms and then establish a theoretical framework to analyze the discovery delay when considering collision effects. Guided by these theoretical results, we design a self-adapting mechanism for cycle patterns in quorum-based algorithms. Simulation results show that our algorithm can achieve complete neighbor discovery in less time than existing quorum-based neighbor discovery algorithms.
Improved finite-sample estimate of a nonparametric f-divergence

Information divergence functions allow us to measure distances between probability density functions. We focus on the case where we only have data from the two distributions and have no knowledge of the underlying models from which the data is sampled. In this scenario, we consider an f-divergence for which there exists an asymptotically consistent, nonparametric estimator based on minimum spanning trees, the D p divergence. Nonparametric estimators are known to have slow convergence rates in higher dimensions (d > 4), resulting in a large bias for small datasets. Based on experimental validation, we conjecture that the original estimator follows a power law convergence model and introduce a new estimator based on a bootstrap sampling scheme that results in a reduced bias. Experiments on real and artificial data show that the new estimator results in improved estimates of the D p divergence when compared against the original estimator.
Meloy’s Bimodal Theory of Affective (Reactive) and Predatory (Instrumental) Violence

This section explains different types of violence and explains the affective and predatory violence. The affective violence is characterized by high levels of autonomic arousal and emotions due to a perceived imminent threat. Predatory violence is characterized as an absence of autonomic arousal, emotion, but with greater planning and a lack of perceived threat. In addition, the affective and predatory violence types are a continuum of “bimodal distribution.”
The Role of Lasers in Shock Tube Studies of Chemical Kinetics

The role of lasers in shock tube studies of chemical kinetics has grown remarkably since the first application about 20 years ago, leading to dramatic improvements in experimental capability for measuring reaction rate coefficients at high temperatures. In this paper we discuss two of the most prominent laser methods, namely laser absorption diagnostics for sensitive and accurate species detection, and laser photolysis of shock-heated gases for direct preparation of molecular and atomic radical reactants.
Supply-Demand Analysis of Inflationary Economic Growth

The aggregate supply and demand framework is an ineffective method of analysis for examining the relation between inflation and real economic growth, since this conventional model focuses instead directly upon real output and the aggregate price level. Inflationary economic growth, however, may be directly analyzed by constructing a framework based on the aggregate supply and demand elasticities in combination with the dynamics of the aggregate production function. This modified model is derived and econometrically estimated for the time period 1961-2005. The framework is then used to simulate the effects of stabilization policy and the self-correcting mechanism upon inflationary economic growth during an expansionary gap and a contractionary gap.
Stress redistribution in notched specimens during fatigue cycling

Most materials exhibit a change in stress-strain relationship when subjected to fatigue stresses. In this work, the effect of this change on the stress distribution across the throat of notched-plate specimens of mild steel is examined. Using a set of strain gages, the strain distribution across the specimens was determined under dynamic conditions for various numbers of cycles. Tests of unnotched specimens were used to obtain the cyclic stress-strain properties for corresponding numbers of cycles, and from these data the stress distribution in the notched specimens was determined. Tests in which the strain amplitude at the notch root was held constant revealed a decreasing maximum stress with fatigue cycles. In another series of tests, in which the load amplitude was constant, the maximum stress amplitude was observed to decrease with number of fatigue cycles, despite an increasing strain amplitude. In both types of tests, the stress-concentration factor was observed to decrease with increasing number of fatigue cycles.
Dido's Problem with a Fixed Center of Mass

Abstract Given an area and coordinates of the center of mass we compute the minimal length curve passing through the origin which envelopes a region having the given area and the prescribed center of mass.
Panniculitis/Erythema Nodosum

Panniculitis is inflammation of the fat and is divided into two main forms based on the location of the inflammation, septal or lobular. This distinction is problematic since panniculitis typically does not exclusively involve one component of the subcutis; however, predominant involvement of the septa can be a helpful diagnostic clue.
RF magnetron-sputtered Al–ZnO/Ag/Al–ZnO (AAA) multilayer electrode for transparent and flexible thin-film heater

We report the electrothermal properties of AAA trilayer on polyethylene terephthalate substrate which allowed the development of low-cost high-performance transparent thin-film flexible heater (TTFFH) using RF magnetron sputtering. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the AAA trilayer were investigated at different thickness of the Ag interlayer. The AAA trilayer-based TTFFH yielded saturation temperatures beyond 100 °C at 10 V at optimized Ag interlayer thickness of 5 nm. The time-dependent temperature profile along with its highly stable and reversible thermal behavior was studied. Most importantly, the AAA trilayer-based TTFFH provides a high-performance alternative to the conventional and expensive ITO electrodes at a much lower cost.