cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The non-contact tonometer. Its value and limitations

A review of the literature and a comparative study against Goldmann applanation tonometers suggest that the non-contact tonometer is reliable for measuring intraocular pressures within the normal range. In addition, the non-contact tonometer eliminates the need for corneal contact and topical anesthesia, thereby avoiding the potential problems of corneal abrasion, spread of infection, and drug reactions. The instrument can be used reliably by paramedical personnel and has particular value in mass screening and possibly in studies of topical antiglaucoma drugs. The non-contact tonometer is less reliable in patients with elevated intraocular pressure, since comparative studies against the Goldmann applanation tonometers have shown poorer correlations in the higher pressure ranges. The instrument is also limited by an abnormal cornea or poor fixation, which may interfere with accurate pressure measurements. Furthermore, the non-contact tonometer is less portable than many tonometers and more expensive than most.
Large-Scale Separation of K-frac and REEP-frac in the Source Regions of Apollo Impact-Melt Breccias, and a Revised Estimate of the KREEP Composition

Mafic impact-melt breccias (IMB) from the Apollo landing sites—particularly Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17—are abundant and form compositionally distinct groups. These groups exhibit a range of major-element compositions and incompatible-element enrichments. Although concentrations of incompatible elements span a significant range, inter-element ratios vary little and have been used in the past to infer a common KREEP component (KREEP = rich in potassium, rare-earth elements, phosphorus, and other alkali and high-field-strength elements). On the basis of an extensive, high-precision data set for melt-breccia groups from different Apollo landing sites, variations in trace-element signatures of the mafic impact-melt breccias reflect significant differences in KREEP components of source regions. These differences are consistent with variable enrichment or depletion of source regions in those trace elements that fractionated during the latest stages of residual-melt evolution and are more or l...
COMPASS| HealthCare dot Flub: An Examination of the Politics and Administrative Processes Contributing to the Strained Launch of the Federal Health Insurance Exchange

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama’s signature health reform legislation, was designed with the purpose of providing coverage to millions of uninsured people living in the United States. In order to sign up for health insurance, individuals would enroll via the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, or through federally approved, state-implemented online exchanges. This marked an opportunity to demonstrate the advances in and potential for e-government initiatives that are designed to provide citizens with faster and more efficient information and services.
How To Implement Online Surveying And A Comparison With Traditional Surveys

This paper is divided into two parts. The first part will discuss the techniques needed to implement a web-based survey. Part two will present the results that the authors have obtained using web-based surveying verses the traditional return by mail/fax surveys. A number of issues need to be addressed before a web-based survey can be implemented. Those issues are: selection of an Internet Service Provider, selection of server software, selection of Web creation software, building the web site, creating the form, and linking the website to a database. The authors have conducted five major surveys over the last three years. The last three surveys have given the respondents the option of filling out the survey and mailing/faxing it back or responding online. The results reveal a bias against the web. We will discuss some of the reasons we believe this to be the case.
Step-based tutoring system for introductory linear circuit analysis

The development, expansion, and assessment of a step-based computer-aided tutoring system to teach linear circuit analysis is described. Circuit problems and fully worked, error-free solutions to same are created automatically and randomly with any desired characteristics, varying both the layout and numerical values. Students therefore have access to an unlimited source of both examples and practice problems of variable difficulty. A unique feature is that students input each stage of their work in a variety of forms including redrawn circuit diagrams, equations, matrix equations, numerical answers, multiple choice answers, and sketches of time-dependent waveforms. Students receive immediate feedback on the correctness of each step of their work. The solutions use analytical methods, rather than the numerical methods used in a tool like PSPICE. A total of 15 tutorials are now available, including DC and AC circuits and two on Laplace transforms. The system has been used by over 1950 students to date. A randomized, controlled laboratory-based study finds a statistically significant learning gain of 1.21 standard deviations compared to working conventional textbook problems. Another randomized, controlled classroom study found a strong preference of students for this system over a widely-used commercial publisher-based homework system, as well as higher scores.
Receptor Mediated Delivery Systems for Cancer Therapeutics

Directing anticancer agents specifically to tumors and/or cancer cells by targeting specific extracellular receptors fulfills the following three most important tasks: (1) preventing or at least substantially limiting adverse side effects on healthy tissues; (2) enhancing drug internalization by cancer cells; and (3) overcoming (at least in part) resistance mechanisms that are based on the active efflux of exogenous drugs from cancer cells. This review is focused on the last decade of accomplishments in the field of cancer-targeted drug delivery and describes different approaches to receptor-targeted delivery of anticancer agents. Mechanisms of receptor mediated endocytosis, targeting folate, carbohydrate (lactose, galactosamine, ascorbic acid, hyaluronic acid), peptide, and protein (somatostatin, growth factor, tissue factor, integrin, transferrin, vitamin, and luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone) receptors are discussed.
Enhancing Instructor-Student and Student-Student Interactions with Mobile Interfaces and Summarization

Educational research has demonstrated that asking students to respond to reflection prompts can increase interaction between instructors and students, which in turn can improve both teaching and learning especially in large classrooms. However, administering an instructor’s prompts, collecting the students’ responses, and summarizing these responses for both instructors and students is challenging and expensive. To address these challenges, we have developed an application called CourseMIRROR (Mobile Insitu Reflections and Review with Optimized Rubrics). CourseMIRROR uses a mobile interface to administer prompts and collect reflective responses for a set of instructorassigned course lectures. After collection, CourseMIRROR automatically summarizes the reflections with an extractive phrase summarization method, using a clustering algorithm to rank extracted phrases by student coverage. Finally, CourseMIRROR presents the phrase summary to both instructors and students to help them understand the difficulties and misunderstandings encountered.
Exploring an approximation for the homogeneous freezing temperature of water droplets

Abstract. In this work, based on the well-known formulae of classical nucleation theory (CNT), the temperature TNc = 1 at which the mean number of critical embryos inside a droplet is unity is derived from the Boltzmann distribution function and explored as an approximation for homogeneous freezing temperature of water droplets. Without including the information of the applied cooling rate γcooling and the number of observed droplets Ntotal_droplets in the calculation, the approximation TNc = 1 is able to reproduce the dependence of homogeneous freezing temperature on drop size V and water activity aw of aqueous drops observed in a wide range of experimental studies for droplet diameter > 10 µm and aw > 0.85, suggesting the effect of γcooling and Ntotal_droplets may be secondary compared to the effect of V and aw on homogeneous freezing temperatures in these size and water activity ranges under realistic atmospheric conditions. We use the TNc = 1 approximation to argue that the distribution of homogeneous freezing temperatures observed in the experiments may be partly explained by the spread in the size distribution of droplets used in the particular experiment. It thus appears that the simplicity of this approximation makes it potentially useful for predicting homogeneous freezing temperatures of water droplets in the atmosphere.
An MPI+$$X$$X implementation of contact global search using Kokkos

This paper describes an approach that seeks to parallelize the spatial search associated with computational contact mechanics. In contact mechanics, the purpose of the spatial search is to find "nearest neighbors," which is the prelude to an imprinting search that resolves the interactions between the external surfaces of contacting bodies. In particular, we are interested in the contact global search portion of the spatial search associated with this operation on domain-decomposition-based meshes. Specifically, we describe an implementation that combines standard domain-decomposition-based MPI-parallel spatial search with thread-level parallelism (MPI-X) available on advanced computer architectures (those with GPU coprocessors). Our goal is to demonstrate the efficacy of the MPI-X paradigm in the overall contact search. Standard MPI-parallel implementations typically use a domain decomposition of the external surfaces of bodies within the domain in an attempt to efficiently distribute computational work. This decomposition may or may not be the same as the volume decomposition associated with the host physics. The parallel contact global search phase is then employed to find and distribute surface entities (nodes and faces) that are needed to compute contact constraints between entities owned by different MPI ranks without further inter-rank communication. Key steps of the contact global search include computing bounding boxes, building surface entity (node and face) search trees and finding and distributing entities required to complete on-rank (local) spatial searches. To enable source-code portability and performance across a variety of different computer architectures, we implemented the algorithm using the Kokkos hardware abstraction library. While we targeted development towards machines with a GPU accelerator per MPI rank, we also report performance results for OpenMP with a conventional multi-core compute node per rank. Results here demonstrate a 47 % decrease in the time spent within the global search algorithm, comparing the reference ACME algorithm with the GPU implementation, on an 18M face problem using four MPI ranks. While further work remains to maximize performance on the GPU, this result illustrates the potential of the proposed implementation.
Public Management and Reform in the United States

Reform at the national level of United States government is, in many respects, a never-ending preoccupation. An old joke is that America was perfect in its creation and that Americans have been in a frenzy most of the time since to improve upon it. The last half of that statement is not a joke with respect to the administrative state since its rise to prominence during the last part of the nineteenth century. Yet, despite what appears generally as perpetual reform, some distinct movements are discernible. Some are simultaneous and either contradictory or complimentary. Disconnection among some reforms is common over time and at almost any given time.
SEANet G2: toward a high-data-rate software-defined underwater acoustic networking platform

Existing underwater acoustic networking platforms are for the most part based on inflexible hardware and software architectures that can support mostly point-to-point, low-data-rate, delay-tolerant applications. Most commercial devices do not provide neither the sufficient data rates nor the necessary flexibility to support future underwater networking applications and systems. This article discusses a new high-data rate software-defined underwater acoustic networking platform, SEANet G2, able to support higher data rates (megabit/s data rates are foreseen over short range links), spectrum agility, and hardware/software flexibility in support of distributed networked monitoring operations. The article reports on the main architectural choices of the new platform, as well as some preliminary performance evaluation results. Data rates in the order of megabit/s were demonstrated in a controlled lab environment, and, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, data rates of 522kbit/s where obtained in sea trials over short horizontal links (e.g., 10 m) for a BER lower than 10−3.
How Evolution Tunes Stress-Triggered Protein Phase Separation to Promote Cell Fitness During Stress

In eukaryotic cells, a variety of stresses trigger the coalescence of RNA-binding proteins into stress granules. In vitro, stress-granule-associated proteins can demix to form liquids, hydrogels, and other assemblies lacking fixed stoichiometry. Observing these in vitro phenomena has generally required conditions far removed from physiological stresses. We show that poly(A)-binding protein (Pab1 in budding yeast), a defining marker of stress granules, phase-separates and forms hydrogels in vitro during physiological heat stress. Low-complexity regions (LCRs) are thought to cause demixing, yet Pab1's proline-rich LCR tunes rather than causes phase separation. Exploiting evolutionary patterns, we create LCR mutations which systematically alter its biophysical properties and phase separation in vitro and in vivo. Mutations which impede Pab1's heat-triggered phase separation reduce the organism's ability to survive prolonged heat stress. Poly(A)-binding protein thus acts as a physiological stress sensor, exploiting phase separation to precisely demarcate stress onset, a broadly generalizable mechanism.
Metabolic Profiling of Hoodia, Chamomile, Terminalia Species and Evaluation of Commercial Preparations Using Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.

Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QToF-MS) profiling was used for the identification of marker compounds and generation of metabolic patterns that could be interrogated using chemometric modeling software. UHPLC-QToF-MS was used to generate comprehensive fingerprints of three botanicals (Hoodia, Terminalia, and chamomile), each having different classes of compounds. Detection of a broad range of ions was carried out in full scan mode in both positive and negative modes over the range m/z 100–1700 using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to extract relevant chemical information from the data to easily differentiate between Terminalia species, chamomile varieties, and quality control of Hoodia products. Using nontargeted analysis, identification of 37 compounds contributed to the differences between Terminalia species, 26 flavonoids were identified to show the differences between German and Roman chamomile, and 43 pregnane glycosides were identified from Hoodia gordonii samples. The UHPLC-QToF-MS-based chemical fingerprinting with principal component analysis was able to correctly distinguish botanicals and their commercial products. This work can be used as a basis to assure the quality of botanicals and commercial products.
Safety and Perioperative Adverse Events in Pediatric Endoscopic Sinus Surgery: An ACS-NSQIP-P Analysis

Introduction This study describes safety outcomes of pediatric endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) to identify risk factors for 30-day postoperative adverse events using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program–Pediatric (NSQIP-P) database. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study involving patients in the 2012–2015 NSQIP-P database who underwent ESS. Predictors included demographics, comorbidities and surgical acuity. Outcomes included 30-day complications, reoperations, and readmissions. Results Among 2,061 ESS cases identified, 1,829 (88.7%) were elective and 232 (11.3%) were urgent/emergent. There were 92 (4.5%) readmissions, 54 (2.6%) unplanned reoperations, and 61 (3.0%) complications. On multivariate analysis, readmission was associated with urgent/emergent procedures (OR 2.31, CI 1.36-3.93, p<0.01) and history of bleeding disorder (OR 2.24, CI 1.12-4.44, p = 0.02), reoperation was associated with urgent/emergent procedures (OR 5.78, CI 3.24-10.34, p<0.01), and complications were associated with urgent/emergent procedures (OR 3.81, CI 2.13-6.82, p<0.01) and history of bleeding disorder (OR 5.30, CI 2.74-10.20, p<0.01). Bleeding requiring transfusion was associated with urgent/emergent procedures (OR 9.61, CI 2.90-31.80, p<0.01), history of bleeding disorder (OR 14.16, CI 4.41-45.45, p<0.01), and age <3 years (OR 3.92, CI 0.99-15.61, p = 0.05). Black children were significantly more likely to undergo urgent/emergent surgery than white children (19.7% vs. 9.6%, p<0.01). Conclusions This multi-institutional study confirms that while pediatric ESS is largely safe, urgent/emergent procedures carry the greatest risk of postoperative adverse events, and black children are significantly more likely to undergo higher acuity surgery than white children. Regardless of procedure acuity, young age and bleeding disorder are associated with higher risk of 30-day adverse events.
Trends in Fetal Medicine: A 10-Year Bibliometric Analysis of Prenatal Diagnosis.

The objective is to automatically identify trends in Fetal Medicine over the past 10 years through a bibliometric analysis of articles published in Prenatal Diagnosis, using text mining techniques. We processed 2,423 full-text articles published in Prenatal Diagnosis between 2006 and 2015. We extracted salient terms, calculated their frequencies over time, and established evolution profiles for terms, from which we derived falling, stable, and rising trends. We identified 618 terms with a falling trend, 2,142 stable terms, and 839 terms with a rising trend. Terms with increasing frequencies include those related to statistics and medical study design. The most recent of these terms reflect the new opportunities of next- generation sequencing. Many terms related to cytogenetics exhibit a falling trend. A bibliometric analysis based on text mining effectively supports identification of trends over time. This scalable approach is complementary to analyses based on metadata or expert opinion.
Multicenter Assessment of Antibiotic Prophylaxis Spectrum on Surgical Infections in Head and Neck Cancer Microvascular Reconstruction

ObjectiveTo characterize and identify risk factors for 30-day surgical site infections (SSIs) in patients with head and neck cancer who underwent microvascular reconstruction.Study DesignCross-sectional study with nested case-control design.SettingNine American tertiary care centers.Subjects and MethodsHospitalized patients were included if they underwent head and neck cancer microvascular reconstruction from January 2003 to March 2016. Cases were defined as patients who developed 30-day SSI; controls were patients without SSI at 30 days. Postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis (POABP) regimens were categorized by Gram-negative (GN) spectrum: no GN coverage, enteric GN coverage, and enteric with antipseudomonal GN coverage. All POABP regimens retained activity against anaerobes and Gram-positive bacteria. Thirty-day prevalence of and risk factors for SSI were evaluated.ResultsA total of 1307 patients were included. Thirty-day SSI occurred in 189 (15%) patients; median time to SSI was 11.5 days (interquartile...
Successful transcatheter aortic valve replacement in an oversized 800 mm2 annulus and bicuspid aortic valve.

Abstract The current iterations of balloon-expandable transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) valves consist of a maximum size of 29 mm, corresponding to maximum annulus area of 680 mm 2. However, a number of patients who qualify for TAVR based on surgical risk may have anatomical features outside the FDA-approved descriptions. The technique of overexpansion of TAVR valves during deployment allows for more patients to be treated successfully. This particular case demonstrates that overexpansion is safe and efficacious in a very large annulus of >800 mm2 . Careful planning and consideration of aortic root calcification is helpful for technique of overexpansion and, ultimately, the technique may increase the number of patients eligible for TAVR.
An Opportunity for Academic Research on Eurasia

With the Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research (JEECAR) accepted to the Elsevier-SCOPUS, this publication presents a fresh prospect for the advanced research activities related to the Eurasian continent. A current vibrant political situation in this part of the world, partially explain the “turbulences” taking place and affecting the economic development of countries representing the region. As of today, relatively little economic research has been performed on the dramatically changed situation in the region, and especially in the Central Asian area.
Development of procedures for local void fraction measurements

Abstract AREVA operates a world-wide unique thermal hydraulic platform to ensure high safety standards in the nuclear industry. This platform is operated as an accredited test and inspection body according to ISO 17025 and 17020 to grant high and independently confirmed quality standards. The aim of the tests is to demonstrate the reliability of components and systems, mainly under operational or accidental conditions. In addition to that it is also the aim of the tests to increase the understanding of the fluid dynamic processes. Especially under operational conditions it is very difficult to gain local measurement data. As an example for AREVA’s strategy in the field of advanced two-phase flow measurement techniques, this paper gives an overview on the current activities regarding the development of these measurement procedures focused on the local void fraction measurements under two-phase flow conditions in an annulus. With increasing requirements with respect to the local resolution, the efforts for measurement techniques increase as well. For that purpose AREVA has built up a specific test loop to develop adequate measurement techniques and corresponding validation processes. This loop allows the adjustment of water/steam properties representative of operational and accident conditions of LWRs and has been used to develop a procedure to measure the void fraction distribution in an annulus representing the hydraulic diameter of a typical LWR core sub-channel by means of a gamma tomography system. This paper describes the process, which has been established to reach a reliable high special resolution measurement. Further steps planned to increase the validity of the measurement procedure will also be discussed.
Implementation of patient-centered prescription labeling in a safety-net ambulatory care network.

Purpose An initiative to implement patient-centered medication labeling at 4 pharmacies within a publicly funded safety-net healthcare system is described. Summary Medication nonadherence negatively affects patient outcomes and safety. Nonadherence has been attributed to poor understanding of instructions on medication labels. Research has demonstrated that patient-centered labeling (PCL) can improve adherence and produce safer medication-taking practices. As part of a mixed-methods study by a safety-net health system, audits of nearly 9,000 prescription labels generated at 4 pharmacy sites, as well as interviews with 6 stakeholder informants, were conducted to determine PCL adoption rates and factors contributing to success. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze audit data; constructs of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research were used to analyze interview data. Among the 4 sites, 3 pharmacies successfully converted more than 85% of audited prescriptions to a PCL format; 1 pharmacy converted less than 25% of prescriptions. Barriers to implementation included pharmacists’ reluctance to modify prescriber instructions and inadequate real-time data on conversion rates. Interviewees perceived that leadership and policy directives promoted PCL conversion efforts. Successful pharmacies used adaptable software, had closer communication networks with prescribers, and/or used automation to facilitate PCL conversion. Conclusion Three pharmacies successfully converted more than 85% of labels for audited prescriptions to a PCL format; 1 pharmacy converted less than 25% of prescriptions. Barriers to implementation included pharmacists’ reluctance to modify prescriber instructions, inadequate real-time data on conversation rates, and lack of customizable software to automate changes.
Wave Trace and Poisson Formula

On a compact manifold, the wave trace is defined to be the distributional trace of the wave operator, \(U(t):= e^{it\sqrt{\Delta }}\). This is easily seen to be a spectral invariant, because it can be written explicitly as
18-F-Fluorocholine PETMR: Optimizing Injection Delay for Parathyroid Adenoma Localization

236 Objectives: 18-F-Fluorochline (FCH) positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed improved localization of parathyroid adenomas in patients suffering from hyperparathyroidism who have negative or inconclusive results with conventional imaging. However, optimal scan time after injection of FCH is currently undetermined. The aim of this study is to use dynamically acquired FCH PET/MRI to determine the optimal injection delay for positively identifying parathyroid adenomas. Methods: Seven patients, all with inconclusive results using conventional imaging, were imaged using 3.0T time-of-flight PET/MRI (Signa, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI). Patients were injected intravenously with 4-7 mCi of FCH at the start of PET imaging, and list mode data was acquired for 60 minutes starting with the injection. PET acquisition was performed while centered on the neck and thyroid bed, and extended from the skull base to the pulmonary artery. Five data sets were reconstructed from the following time points: 0-20, 10-30, 20-40, 30-50, and 40-60 minutes. Manually placed regions of interest (ROIs) were positioned over the visualized parathyroid adenoma, adjacent thyroid tissue and the mediastinum as a measure of blood pool. For analysis, activity (SUVmax for the adenoma and SUVmean for thyroid and blood pool) was measured at each point for each ROI. Results: Six of the patients had localization of 18-F-Fluorocholine suggestive of parathyroid adenoma. FCH accumulation was highest in abnormal parathyroid tissue immediately after injection (SUVmax: 6.3), decreased at 10-30 minutes (SUVmax: 5.8) and increased at subsequent time points (Figure 1D). Uptake in the parathyroid adenoma approached the initial SUVmax at the 40-60 minute time point with a value of 6.3. FCH accumulation in the thyroid progressively decreased after injection, with the lowest SUVmean of 2.0 at 30-50 and 40-60 (Figure 1H). Contrast between parathyroid adenomas and surrounding thyroid tissue was highest between 30 to 60 minutes of imaging (Figure 1G). CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic FCH PET/MRI demonstrated that the optimal injection delay was approximately 30-60 minutes after administration of FCH, although at all time points the adenomas have higher uptake than that of background thyroid tissue. Figure 1. (A, B, C, E, F):Scan of 60-year-old female with focal uptake to right thyroid gland suggestive of parathyroid adenoma. (D, G, H): Graphs of time points (0-20, 10-30, 20-40, 30-50, 40-60) vs. SUVmax for parathyroid adenoma, SUVmean for thyroid adenoma, and thyroid, respectively.
Strategies for Improving Self-Efficacy: A Qualitative Analysis of Detroit’s Downtown Boxing Gym

Structural inequalities present throughout U.S. public schools are known to contribute to the significant achievement gaps that persist between lower-income students of color and their more financially secure, White peers. Because of this, community programs have been identified as places where typically underserved students can receive the support required for positive development and academic achievement. The current study used qualitative methods to explore how one community program, Detroit’s Downtown Boxing Gym, fosters self-efficacy in school-aged youth from Detroit Public Schools. Focus group participants reported they are indeed experiencing increases in self-efficacy as a result of the mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, and verbal persuasion they receive at the gym. Specific recommendations for how other programs might foster self-efficacy, including establishing a program climate where students feel cared for, ensuring program staff truly believe students can be successful, identifying opportunities for students to have mastery experiences, and utilizing peer modeling, are discussed.
Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of PD-L1 and its impact on benefit from immune checkpoint blockade in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

9017Background: Temporal and spatial heterogeneity of PD-L1 has been reported. However, its impact on clinical benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) has not been clearly defined. Methods: ...
The synthesis of novel polycyclic heterocyclic ring systems via photocyclization. 13. Dibenzo-[f,h]phenanthro[9′,10′:4,5]thieno[2,3-c]quinoline†‡§

The synthesis of a previously unknown polycyclic heterocyclic ring system, dibenzo[f,h]phenanthro[9',10':4,5]thieno[2,3-c]quinoline (4), was accomplished via photocyclization of the appropriate amide followed by chlorination. Substitution of the chlorine atom with hydrazine followed by removal of the hydrazine moiety with 10% copper sulfate solution afforded the parent ring system 4. The unequivocal assignment of its highly congested 1 H and 13 C spectra was accomplished by utilizing two-dimensional nmr methods
The Salishan Problems

Publisher Summary The comparisons of parallel programming languages are more often based on theoretical criteria than practical ones. Traditional studies have compared parallel languages with respect to argument passing, evaluation order, and support for concurrency, synchronization, and communication methodologies and support for operations on specific data structures such as arrays, lists, or trees. The development of parallel programming languages is confined primarily to academic circles with little input from the user community. Application programmers have been slow to consider new ideas and new programming styles. They have been reluctant to try new languages, thereby losing an opportunity to influence their design. They continue to write in sequential languages and dream of automatic parallelizing compilers transforming their dusty deck codes for each new class of parallel machines. Recognizing the abyss that has existed between the language and application communities, the 1988 Salishan High-Speed Computing Conference included four sessions on parallel programming languages.
Slip-induced fall-risk assessment based on regular gait pattern in older adults

Aging-associated fall-risk assessment is crucial for fall prevention. Thus, this study aimed to develop a prognostic model to predict fall-risk following an unexpected over-ground slip perturbation based on normal gait pattern in healthy older adults. 112 healthy older adults who experienced a novel slip in a safe laboratory environment were included. Their slip trial and natural walking trial immediately prior to it were analyzed. To identify the best fall-risk predictive model, gait related variables including step length, segment angles, center of mass state, and ground reaction force (GRF) were determined and inputted into a stepwise logistic regression. The optimal slip-induced fall prediction model was based on the right thigh angle at slipping foot touchdown (TD), the maximum GRF of the slipping limb after TD, and the momentum change from TD to recovery foot liftoff (LO), with an overall prediction accuracy of 75.9%, predicting 74.5% of falls (sensitivity) and 77.2% of recoveries (specificity). Conversely, a model based on clinical and demographic measures predicted 78.2% of falls and 47.4% of recoveries, resulting in a much lower overall accuracy of 62.5%. The fall-risk model based on normal gait pattern which was developed for slip-induced perturbations in healthy older adults was able to provide a high predictive accuracy. This information could provide insight about the ideal normal gait measures which could be used to contribute towards development of therapeutic strategies related to dynamic balance and fall prevention to enhance preventive interventions in populations with high-risk for slip-induced falls.
$p$-adic $L$-functions and unitary completions of representations of $p$-adic reductive groups

In the first half of the article, we introduce the notion of the universal unitary completion of a continuous representation of a p -adic reductive group on a locally convex p -adic vector space, and we prove that such a completion exists under appropriate hypotheses. The problem of studying unitary completions has been raised by Breuil [4] in connection with his work on a possible p -adic local Langlands correspondence for GL 2 , and we relate our construction to certain conjectures of Breuil in [4, Sec. 1.3] for the group GL 2 ( ℚ p ) . In particular, we show that the universal unitary completion of the locally analytic parabolic induction of a locally algebraic character coincides with the universal unitary completion of the corresponding locally algebraic induction, provided that the character being induced satisfies a noncritical slope condition (see Prop. 2.5). In the second half of the article, we consider a certain unitary Banach space representation of GL 2 ( ℚ p ) obtained by p -adically completing the cohomology of classical modular curves. The mere existence of this representation implies that those locally algebraic, parabolically induced representations of GL 2 ( ℚ p ) which arise from classical finite-slope newforms have a nontrivial universal unitary completion (verifying a conjecture of Breuil in [4, Sec. 1.3] for these representations), while applying Proposition 2.5 in this context enables us to give a new construction of p -adic L -functions attached to p -stabilized newforms of noncritical slope. Combining our construction with the representation-theoretic definition of L -invariants implicit in [5, Cor. 1.1.7], we are able to give a simple proof of the Mazur-Tate-Teitelbaum exceptional zero conjecture in [18, p. 46] (in terms of Breuil's definition of the L -invariant)
Cowboy Cops and Black Lives Matter: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and the Great White West[ern]

The racial framework of Martin McDonagh’s 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri rests at the intersection of three persistent cultural myths—the Frontier Myth, the hero cowboy myth and the myth of white supremacy. There has been much criticism of the portrayal of black characters in the film, and particularly the lack of significant black characters in a film that sports a solid undercurrent of racial politics. While the black characters in the film occupy a small amount of screen time, this paper argues that the film’s treatment of black characters, including their absence, puts on display the cultural dysfunction of racial politics in the US, especially in rural America, and particularly in Missouri. The film’s subversion of the cowboy hero instead reveals the disturbing reality of the Frontier Myth and its dependence on racism and white supremacy for validation. In its unmasking of myth, Three Billboards challenges the illusion of a glorious Western past that never existed and at the same time supports racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Spezielle Dynamik der Atmosphäre

Die Grundgleichungen der atmospharischen Statik ergeben sich aus den Bewegungsgleichungen (87) bzw. (88) durch Nullsetzen aller Geschwindigkeitskomponenten zu
Stability of Finite-Difference Approximations for Hyperbolic Initial-Boundary-Value Problems

We consider the stability of finite-difference approximations to hyperbolic initial-boundary-value problems (IBVPs) in one spatial dimension. A complication is the fact that generally more boundary conditions are required for the discrete problem than are specified for the partial differential equation. Consequently, additional “numerical” boundary conditions are required and improper treatment of these additional conditions can lead to instability and/or inaccuracy. For a linear homogeneous IBVP, a finite-difference approximation with requisite numerical boundary conditions can be written in vector-matrix form as u n+ 1 = Cu n where C is a matrix operator. Lax-Richtmyer stability requires a uniform bound on C n (i.e., C to the nth power) in some matrix norm for 0 ≤ t = nΔt ≤ T. One would like to have an algebraic test for Lax-Richtmyer stability. For a matrix C of dimension J (denoted by C J ), a theorem in linear algebra relates ‖C J n ‖ to the spectral radius of C J as n → ∞, with J fixed. We state a conjecture which extends this theorem to difference approximations for IBVPs where the matrix size J increases linearly with n as n → ∞ which corresponds to mesh refinement in both space and time. The asymptotic behavior of ‖C J n ‖ is related directly to the eigenvalues from the von Neumann analysis of the Cauchy problem and the eigenvalues from the normal mode analysis of Gustafsson, Kreiss, and Sundstrom for the left- and right-quarter plane problems. The conjecture is corroborated by examples where the matrix norm of C J n is computed numerically at a fixed time as the mesh is refined. An additional conjecture relates the spectral radius of the matrix C J as J → ∞ to the spectral radius of an auxiliary Dirichlet problem and the eigenvalues from the normal mode analysis of the left- and right-quarter plane problems.
The influence of transplant nephrectomy on panel reactive antibodies (PRA) directed against HLA antigens: A pilot report☆

Abstract Rationale Antibodies reactive with allogenic HLA antigens may be produced as a result of sensitization to previous transplant and can influence the outcome of a subsequent transplant. The literature pertaining to the influence of transplant nephrectomy on panel reactive antibodies is scant. Therefore a pilot study was initiated. Methods The study included 6 patients who underwent renal transplant nephrectomy at the Transplant Institute of New Orleans. Panel reactive antibodies were measured in the peripheral blood sample using complement dependent cytotoxicity (CDC-AHG) and ELISA. Results In 3 of the 6 patients, the PRA pre-transplant and post-nephrectomy were 0%. In one of these 3, the nephrectomy was performed 2 weeks post-transplant and the graft loss was non-immunologic suggesting lack of sensitization. In another patient, the transplant lasted 13 years before it failed suggesting tolerized graft, hence a PRA of 0%. In the remaining 3 patients, the PRA increased from 0% pre-transplant to 95%, 97%, 82% following transplant nephrectomy. The donor directed antibody specificity included A1; A2,28 and B13 respectively. Conclusions The results suggest that in some patients panel reactive antibodies directed against donor HLA antigens may increase following transplant nephrectomy. These observations may have clinical implications. A larger prospective investigation is desirable to confirm these observations.
The spectra of small oscillations of thin disk galactic models.

This paper gives a survey of the spectral properties of the frequencies of small oscillations, both in and perpendicular to their plane, of cold thin disk galactic models. The spectra can have discrete and continuous parts, with two quite distinct types of continua arising. One type occurs with both kinds of oscillation when the density at the outer edge of the disk becomes sufficiently rarified. It is associated with rapid fluctuations in the outer region. The other type of continuum occurs for non-axisymmetric oscillations in the plane of non-uniformly rotating disks. Some significant discrete oscillations of fundamental type are found that exist in addition to the various continua.
What Constitution? Nepal's Experience in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Constitution building, and especially creating electoral structures within constitutions, is the most important institutional and legal process within post-conflict reconstruction. The determinations made during this process shape how the society functions and how politics itself occurs in the future of the society. This paper will investigate the role of constitution building in post-conflict Nepal. Specifically, the paper will focus on electoral design within post-conflict constitutions. First, constitutions generally are discussed and next post-conflict constitution building. After that, the nature of electoral design will be discussed. Best practices of constitution building will be offered. Second, a short background of Nepal will be give. The 2007 interim constitution and the 2008 election results will be discussed.
Design and Implementation of a Fault Tolerant Job Flow Manager Using Job Flow Patterns and Recovery Policies

Currently, many grid applications are developed as job flows that are composed of multiple jobs. The execution of job flows requires the support of a job flow manager and a job scheduler. Due to the long running nature of job flows, the support for fault tolerance and recovery policies is especially important. This support is inherently complicated due to the sequencing and dependency of jobs within a flow, and the required coordination between workflow engines and job schedulers. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a job flow manager that supports fault tolerance. First, we identify and label job flow patterns within a job flow during deployment time. Next, at runtime, we introduce a proxy that intercepts and resolves faults using job flow patterns and their corresponding fault-recovery policies. Our design has the advantages of separation of the job flow and fault handling logic, requiring no manipulation at the modeling time, and providing flexibility with respect to fault resolution at runtime. We validate our design with a prototypical implementation based on the ActiveBPEL workflow engine and GridWay Meta-scheduler, and Montage application as the case study.
Sinus culture poorly predicts resident microbiota

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is an inflammatory disorder of the paranasal sinuses in which bacteria are implicated. Culture-based assays are commonly used in clinical and research practice; however, culture conditions may not accurately detect the full range of microorganisms present in a sample. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of clinical culture of CRS specimens compared with DNA-based molecular techniques. Methods Ethmoid samples from 54 CRS patients collected during endoscopic sinus surgery were analyzed by both clinical culture and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. The association between 16S relative abundance and detection by culture was determined using logistic regression. Results Each subject had an average of 3 isolates identified by bacterial culture and 21.5 ± 12.5 species identified by 16S sequencing. On average, 1.6 dominant taxa (>10% abundance) per subject were identified using molecular techniques, but only 47.7% of these taxa were identified by culture. Low abundance taxa (abundance <1%) were detected in only 4.5% of cultures. The odds that any organism would be detected by culture were 2.3 times higher with each 10% increase in relative abundance (p < 0.01). Conversely, only 29.5% of isolates identified by culture represented the dominant species, whereas 40% accounted for species with 1% to 10% abundance. Interestingly, 12% of isolates detected by culture were not identified by 16S pyrosequencing. Conclusion Standard clinical culture is a poor representation of resident microbiota. The incorporation of modern culture-independent techniques into clinical and research practices provides additional information that may be relevant for CRS.
Thyroid Hormone Regulates the Mouse Thyrotropin β-Subunit Gene Promoter in Transfected Primary Thyrotropes

In TtT 97 cells, a thyrotropin-producing mouse pituitary tumor, thyroid hormone rapidly inhibits the transcription rate of both the thyrotropin α- and β-subunit (TSHβ) genes, and this closely parallels the increase in nuclear thyroid hormone receptor occupancy. In this study, we have identified regions of the mouse TSHβ gene which are involved in mediating tissue-specific and thyroid hormone-regulated expression. Transient expression studies were performed using a series of chimeric plasmids in which 5′-flanking DNA was ligated to the firefly luciferase gene. Following transfection by electroporation, efficient expression of TSHβ 5′-flanking luciferase constructs occurred only in cells derived from TtT 97 tumors which express the endogenous TSHβ gene. Deletion analysis demonstrated that the region of the 5′-flanking DNA between positions −271 and −80 relative to the major transcriptional start site is important for TSHβ promoter activity in thyrotropes. No expression was measurable in mouse L cells, a fibroblast line, whereas a low level of expression was seen in MGH 101A cells derived from a thyrotropic tumor which no longer expresses the TSHβ gene. Reduced expression of TSHβ constructs was also found in GH3 and GH4 pituitary tumor lines. Addition of thyroid hormone effectively inhibited the level of transient TSHβ promoter activity in TtT 97 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory effect was more pronounced and more accurately reflected the transcription rate data when transfected cells were derived from tumors treated with thyroid hormone for 5 days prior to transfection. Deletion of all but 46 base pairs of TSHβ gene 5′-flanking DNA and 3 base pairs of the first exon had no effect on thyroid hormone inhibition. This indicates that signals sufficient for transcriptional regulation of the TSHβ gene by thyroid hormone reside in the vicinity of the proximal promoter and may act by interfering with basal transcriptional factors.
Network and Graph Markup Language (NaGML) - Data File Formats

The Network and Graph Markup Language (NaGML) is a family of Extensible Markup Language (xml) languages for network and graph data files. The topology, node properties, and arc properties are validated against the user’s specification for the data values. NaGML is part of a component architecture that reads, validates, processes, displays, and writes network and graph data. Because it implements a family rather than a single xml language, NaGML offers (1) flexibility in choosing property names, data types, and restrictions, (2) strong validation, and (3) a variety of data file formats. This paper demonstrates these points with a sampling of the possible data file formats.
Occurrence and possible significance of rare Ti oxides (Magneli phases) in carbonaceous chondrite matrices

Rare, ultrafine-grained Ti oxides (Ti3O5 and the Magneli phases, Ti5O9 and Ti8O15) have been identified by TEM in the CM2 carbonaceous chondrite, Bells, and a carbonaceous chondrite matrix clast from the Nilpena polymict ureilite. In both meteorites the Ti oxides occur in the matrix as isolated grains and clusters of two or more grains. They are euhedral in shape and have grain sizes of 0.05-0.3 micron. Magneli phases have been recently shown to be a common component in some interplanetary dust particles, but this is the first reported occurrence in a meteorite. The morphological properties and grain size of the Ti oxides are consistent with formation by vapor phase condensation either within the solar nebula or possibly in a presolar environment.