cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The crystallisation trends of spinels in tertiary basalts from Rhum and Muck and their petrogenetic significance

Spinels are commonly observed in alkali olivine basalts and olivine basalts that form the “Plateau Magma Series” of the British Tertiary Province. The spinels are either partly or wholly enclosed within olivine or may have adhered to olivine surfaces, and have undergone cation exchange and reaction with the cooling basaltic melt. Detailed microprobe traverses indicate complex exchanges involving Fe-Mg, Cr-Al, Fe3+-R3+ and Fe2+ Ti-R3+ substitutions. Some of these changes are due to a reaction with liquid that produced plagioclase and resulted in Al depletion in the spinel. A complex series of solid solutions between hercynite-magnesioferrite-chromite and Al-Cr-titomomagnetite, is indicated in a combination that precludes the disappearance of spinel by a simple peritetic reaction with the melt. The initial spinels are compositionally distinct from the chromites found in the Rhum layered series and underline the great compositional variability of liquidus spinels that can crystallise from basaltic liquid. Some of this variability may relate to the changing solubility of Cr, which behaves as a trace element, in basaltic liquids in response to slight changes in the structure of the melt.
Parental Smoking and the “Epidemic” Spread of Cigarette Smoking1

“Epidemic” models of transitions between stages of cigarette smoking describe the spread of smoking behavior through face-to-face encounters. An epidemic model was successfully fitted that allowed epidemic parameters to be conditioned on the smoking status of adolescents' parents. Model comparisons supported the conclusion that the transition from nonsmoker to trier involved social contacts, whereas the transition from trier to regular smoker was best modeled as a constant rate (i.e., did not depend on the population prevalence of smokers). The transition rate from nonsmoker to trier was more rapid in children of smoking parents than in children of nonsmoking parents. Adolescents with and without smoking parents did not differ in the rate of transition from trier to regular smoking.
Complexity in an obligate mutualism: do fungus-gardening ants know what makes their garden grow?

Fungus gardening ants make clear choices among fungal substrates (food for their fungus). It has been proposed, but never demonstrated, that these ants are collecting the best for their symbiotic fungus and the production of ant biomass (fitness). The goal of this study was to determine whether preferred substrates lead to higher fitness in the attine, Trachymyrmex septentrionalis. Preferences exhibited by foragers were established. Colonies were fed a single substrate or a mixture of substrates during the entire course of the experiment, which ended when sexual offspring appeared in the nest. The response variables were numbers and weights of ant offspring and the chitin content of fungus gardens. Preference was not strongly related to fitness. The preferred oak catkins produced the highest amounts of ant and fungal biomass, but the ants collected much more material than needed, which indicates that forager activity is decoupled from fitness. The preferred caterpillar feces were rejected shortly after the feedings began. The unpreferred oak leaves were just as effective at producing ant and fungal biomass as catkins. Leaves are possibly unpreferred because they are expensive to cut. The unpreferred huckleberry flowers were inferior but did not cause rejection behavior. The mixed diet was just as productive as catkins or leaves. This study indicates that foragers possess a default mechanism to prefer catkins and frass, which can be quickly changed if substrates are bad. In contrast, there does not appear to be a similar mechanism causing substrates to become preferred quickly.
Supercharging planetlab: a high performance, multi-application, overlay network platform

In recent years, overlay networks have become an important vehicle for delivering Internet applications. Overlay network nodes are typically implemented using general purpose servers or clusters. We investigate the performance benefits of more integrated architectures, combining general-purpose servers with high performance Network Processor (NP) subsystems. We focus on PlanetLab as our experimental context and report on the design and evaluation of an experimental PlanetLab platform capable of much higher levels of performance than typical system configurations. To make it easier for users to port applications, the system supports a fast path/slow path application structure that facilitates the mapping of the most performance-critical parts of an application onto an NP subsystem, while allowing the more complex control and exception-handling to be implemented within the programmer-friendly environment provided by conventional servers. We report on implementations of two sample applications, an IPv4 router, and a forwarding application for the Internet Indirection Infrastructure. We demonstrate an 80x improvement in packet processing rates and comparable reductions in latency.
Feasibility of using myoelectric signals from wrist muscles for control of a hand grasp neuroprosthesis

Myoelectric signals from wrist flexor and extensor muscles were characterized in five able-bodied subjects for the purpose of evaluating the feasibility of their use as control signals for a hand grasp neuroprosthesis for individuals with C7 spinal cord injury. In each of the five subjects, the myoelectric signals intended for control could be distinguished from baseline myoelectric activity and the myoelectric signals produced during wrist flexion could be distinguished from those during wrist extension. Furthermore, each subject could maintain several distinct levels of contraction during wrist flexion and extension. These results demonstrate that myoelectric signals from wrist muscles meet minimum requirements for them to be considered as control signals for the hand grasp neuroprosthesis.
Infinitesimal scaling--A new procedure for modeling exterior field problems

The ability to treat extended uniform linear regions (particularly unbounded external regions) as single elements is a desirable addition to electromagnetic finite element techniques. The use of extended elements requires basis functions that are better approximations to the solutions of the underlying partial differential equations than the conventional polynomial basis functions. This problem can be circumvented by means of the infinitesimal scaling technique, which enables the coefficient matrix required for assembling the contribution of an extended element into the global functional to be determined without explicit knowledge of internal basis functions.
Mitral Ratio of Peak Early to Late Diastolic Filling Velocity as a Predictor of Mortality in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults The Strong Heart Study

Background— With aging, left ventricular filling tends to decrease in early diastole, reducing the mitral ratio of peak early to late diastolic filling velocity (E/A). However, the prognostic significance of low or high E/A in older adults remains to be elucidated in population-based samples. Methods and Results— Doppler echocardiograms were analyzed in 3008 American Indian participants in the second Strong Heart Study examination who had no more than mild mitral or aortic regurgitation. Participants were followed for a mean of 3 years after Doppler echocardiography to assess risks of all-cause and cardiac death associated with E/A 1.5; 2429 (81%) participants had normal E/A ratio, 490 (16%) had E/A 1.5. All-cause mortality was higher with E/A 1.5 (12% and 13% versus 6%), as was cardiac mortality (4.5% and 6.5% versus 1.6%; both P<0.001). Adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol, smoking, hypertension, diabet...
HPV: a factor in organ preservation for locally advanced larynx and hypopharynx cancer?

Abstract Purpose/objective To assess the interaction of HPV/p16 status and therapy rendered in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx and hypopharynx. Materials and methods Forty-seven consecutive patients receiving definitive treatment between 2009 and 2011 for locally advanced larynx or hypopharynx cancer with high-risk HPV and/or p16 testing performed were identified and retrospectively investigated. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) were assessed. Results Of 47 evaluable patients, there were 38 (81%) with laryngeal and 9 (19%) with hypopharyngeal tumors, 13 (28%) of which were found to be either HPV or p16 positive. At a median follow-up of 24 months, comparing HPV/p16 + versus HPV/p16 − patients, there was no difference in OS, DFS, or LRFS. There was an improvement in 2-year DFS (60% vs 100%, P = .03) and LRFS (80% vs 100%, P = .08), in HPV/p16 + patients treated with chemo/RT versus surgery. There was an improvement in 2-year DFS (100% vs 68%, P = .04) and LRFS (100% vs 72%, P = .05) in HPV/p16 + versus HPV/p16 − patients who received chemo/RT. Conclusions Patients with HPV/p16 + tumors fared more favorably with chemo/RT than up-front surgery, with improvements in DFS and LRFS. In patients treated with the intent of organ preservation therapy, HPV/p16 + patients had no observed treatment failures. HPV/p16 status should be taken into account when considering organ preservation for locally advanced larynx and hypopharynx cancers.
Electronic States in the Gap of a-Si from Bond Angle Variations

We investigate the formation of defect states in the gap of a-Si arising from deviations from the ideal tetrahedral bond angles. The local density of states for Si atoms in disordered environments is calculated using tight-binding parameters for the cluster-Bethe lattice method. The Hamiltonian for a-Si with bond angle distortions is taken as an average over many configurations associated with a random choice of bond angles, weighted by Gaussian distributions with standard deviations between 2°.and 10°. Bond angle deviations in this range generate a density of defect states at the valence band edge that: 1) increases as the average bond angle deviation increases; and 2) is significantly larger than the density of band tail states generated at the conduction band edge. We obtain a shift of the absorption edge from the joint density of states (DOS) as a function of bond angle deviations. In addition, a calculation of the DOS for a distorted tetrahedral cluster embedded in an idealized Bethe lattice yields a threshold bond angle distortion of ±20° for the appearance of a discrete state in the gap near the valence band edge.
Two Cases of Malignant Melanoma with Nodal Metastasis from Unknown Primary Site

About 1% of malignant melanoma is found in the head and neck region and among them, about 2-16% is presented with palpable regional metastatic melanoma with unknown primary lesion (MUP). We have experienced two cases of MUP which were diagnosed after excisional biopsy. MUP has better prognosis than that with known primary lesion. To get good prognosis, the initial treatment of MUP should be regional lymphadenectomy, indicating the importance of an accurate diagnosis. Although the radiologic finding for malignant melanoma may offer no specific findings, physicians should be aware of the possibility of melanoma in neck mass patients. We present two cases of MUP with a literature review. (Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2009;52:75-8)
Retrieval of forest parameters using a fractal-based coherent scattering model and a genetic algorithm

A procedure for retrieval of forest parameters is developed using the recently developed fractal-based coherent scattering model (FCSM) and a stochastic optimization algorithm. Since the fractal scattering model is computationally extensive, first a simplified empirical model with high fidelity for a desired forest stand is constructed using FCSM. Inputs to the empirical model are the influential structural and electrical parameters of the forest stand, such as the tree density, tree height, trunk diameter, branching angle, wood moisture, and soil moisture. Other finer structural features are embedded in the fractal model. The model outputs are the polarimetric and interferometric response of the forest as a function of the incidence angle. In this study, a genetic algorithm (GA) is employed as a global search routine to characterize the input parameters of a forest stand from a set of measured polarimetric/interferometric backscatter responses of the stand. The success of the inversion algorithm is demonstrated using a set of measured single-polarized interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and several FCSM simulation results.
Effects of Copper and Zinc Status of Rats on Erythrocyte Stability and Superoxide Dismutase Activity

SummaryErythrocytes from copper deficient rats, which had normal plasma zinc but low plasma copper (high Zn:Cu), were more stable to osmotic stress than those from controls. Erythrocytes from zinc deficient rats, which had low plasma zinc and high plasma copper (low Zn:Cu), were more fragile than those from controls. Addition of Cu2+ and Zn2+ to normal red cells in vitro to provide a low Zn:Cu ratio increased hemolysis and peroxidation. In general erythrocyte membranes are sensitive to the concentrations of extracellular Cu and Zn. The effects are inversely related, zinc exerting a stabilizing and copper a labilizing effect. Ceruloplasmin levels increased in zinc deficiency but RBC superoxide dismutase activity was unaffected. SOD activity is suggested as a clinical index of tissue copper status.
The Time for Academic Departments in Astronautical Engineering

Alarming warnings of the forthcoming shortfalls in aerospace engineering workforce have become common. At the same time, the space segment of the industry continues to grow. The space industry is critically important for national security and for economic competitiveness. Non-space faculty traditionally dominate aerospace engineering departments in universities, with changes in their focus coming at a glacial pace. The time has come for separate academic departments in astronautical engineering. To meet the industrial demand, the University of Southern California established such a new academic unit – Astronautics and Space Technology Division – three years ago in the Viterbi School of Engineering. The current status of the Division, its accomplishments and challenges are reviewed.
Stretchable and self-healing polymers and devices for electronic skin

Abstract This review covers some of the most recent advances in stretchable and self-healing polymers and devices for Electronic skin (E-skin) applications. Applications for both stretchable and self-healing materials include, but are not limited to, electronics, displays, energy, the environment, and medicine. While the majority of organic materials can generally be rendered flexible, such materials are not stretchable, which is a key mechanical property necessary to realize applications of E-skin for prosthetics, artificial intelligence, systems for robotics, personal health monitoring, biocompatibility, and communication devices. In our effort to survey materials utilized in various components of an electronic device, we report herein recent advances in stretchable and self-healing conductors, semiconductors, and substrates. We highlight some key technologies recently developed in stretchable organic-based sensors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and self-healing electronic devices.
Analysis of Daily Peaking and Run-of-River Operations with Flow Variability Metrics, Considering Subdaily to Seasonal Time Scales†

Environmental flows are an important consideration in licensing hydropower projects as operational flow releases can result in adverse conditions for downstream ecological communities. Flow variability assessments have typically focused on pre- and post-dam conditions using metrics based on daily averaged flow values. This study used subdaily and daily flow data to assess environmental flow response to changes in hydropower operations from daily peaking to run-of-river. An analysis tool was developed to quantify flow variability metrics and was applied to four hydropower projects. Significant differences were observed between operations at the 99% confidence level in the median flow values using hourly averaged flow datasets. Median daily rise and fall rates decreased on average 34.5 and 27.9%, respectively, whereas median hourly rise and fall rates decreased on average 50.1 and 50.6%, respectively. Differences in operational flow regimes were more pronounced in the hourly averaged flow datasets and less pronounced or nonexistent in the daily averaged flow datasets. These outcomes have implications for the development of ecology-flow relationships that quantify effects of flow on processes such as fish stranding and displacement, along with habitat stability. Results indicate that flow variability statistics should be quantified using subdaily datasets to accurately represent the nature of hydropower operations, especially for daily peaking facilities.
48.2: Slant Perception as a Function of Size-Disparity and Image- Motion

Slant perception was studied under viewing conditions that combined horizontal-size, verticalsize, and overall-size binocular disparities with motion and static image conditions. For both motion and static conditions, results indicated similar effects of size disparity on perceived slants of disparity and zero-disparity stimuli. Implications for binocular head mounted display (HMD) systems are considered.
A fast joint tracking-registration algorithm for multi-sensor systems

Sensor fusion of multiple sources plays an important role in robotic systems to achieve refined target position and velocity estimates. In this paper, we address the general registration problem, which is a key module for a fusion system to accurately correct systematic errors of sensors. A fast maximum a posterior (FMAP) algorithm for joint registration and tracking is presented. The algorithm uses a recursive two-step optimization that involves orthogonal factorization to ensure numerically stability. Statistical efficiency analysis based on Cramer-Rao lower bound theory is presented to show asymptotical optimality of FMAP. Also Givens rotation is used to derive a fast implementation with complexity O(n) (n denoting number of targets). Experiments are presented to demonstrate the promise and effectiveness of FMAP.
Dielectric Properties of Mashed Potatoes Relevant to Microwave and Radio‐frequency Pasteurization and Sterilization Processes

Dielectric properties of mashed potatoes relevant to microwave and radio-frequency (RF) pasteuriza- tion and sterilization processes were measured over 1 to 1800 MHz and 20 °C to 120 °C. Effects of moisture content (81.6% to 87.8%, wb) and salt content (0.8% to 2.8%, wb) were investigated. Dielectric loss factors and constants decreased with frequency. Dielectric loss factors increased with temperature and salt content, but dielectric con- stants were not significantly affected. Ionic conductivity played a dominant role at low frequencies. Power penetra- tion depth increased with moisture content and decreased with temperature, frequency, and salt content. Regression
High-speed spinning-disk interferometry on the BioCD for human diagnostic applications

The BioCD is an optical biosensor that uses highspeed spinning-disk interferometry for direct detection of antigen binding in multiplexed immunoassay protein arrays. The high-frequency sampling suppresses the noise floor and enables a metrology-limited height resolution of 1 picometer for measuring surface-bound protein. In assay protocols there is a direct trade-off between multiplex degree and limit of detection. In this paper, we demonstrate quantitative assays and the scaling properties of direct detection on the BioCD in assays of clinical relevance for human diagnostics, including haptoglobin assays and prostate-specific antigen assays in human patient sera.
Systemic hypotension and white‐matter damage in preterm infants

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that systemic hypotension during the first postnatal week increases the risk of ultrasonographic echolucency in the white matter of preterm infants (< or = 28 weeks' gestation) while adjusting for confounders. From a study base of 1607 very-low-birthweight neonates (500 to 1500 g), a subsample of 243 preterm infants (122 females; < or = 28 weeks' gestation) was selected for echolucency and data collection prospectively for the entire first postnatal week. Data analyses were performed separately for the first 24 hours of life, for the interval from the end of the first 24 hours to the end of the fourth postnatal day, and for days 5, 6, and 7. Systemic hypotension was defined as the mean arterial blood pressure in the lowest quartile for the infant's week of gestational age. Protocol cranial ultrasounds were those obtained closest to days 1, 7, and 21. A committee of sonologists classified the infants as having either echolucency (echolucency group) or not (control group). Systemic hypotension during the first week of life appeared to be associated with echolucency in univariable analyses but the association did not persist after adjustment for potential confounders. Detailed summaries of 13 previous studies, the majority of which did not show an association between systemic hypotension and white-matter damage, are presented. In sum, these results do not support the hypothesis that systemic hypotension contributes to echolucency among preterm infants.
Varieties of emotional experience during voluntary emotional facial expressions.

Emotion theorists have argued that emotions are patterns of responses that imply coherence between behavioral, physiological, and phenomenological systems, 1 including coherence between physiology and emotional expression 2 and the modulation of emotional expression and subjective experience by trait physiological dispositions. 3 A physiological measure sensitive to emotion—frontal EEG asymmetry—has been hypothesized to reflect approach and withdrawal propensities, 4 with relatively greater left frontal activity indexing a propensity for approach-related behavior, and relatively less left frontal activity indexing a propensity for withdrawal-related behavior. By this scheme, disgust, fear, and sadness—all thought to be withdrawal-related emotions—should show relatively less left frontal activity; while the putative approach-related emotions of anger and joy should show relatively greater left frontal activity. 5 Using voluntary posed emotional facial expressions depicting anger, disgust, fear, joy and sadness, this study examined: (1) the coherence between physiological change and subjective reports of emotional experience, and (2) the modulation of subjective reports of emotional experience by resting physiology. The modulation hypothesis states that individuals with relatively greater left frontal activity at rest will be more likely to report approach emotions during this task and less likely to report withdrawal emotions during this task. This hypothesis states that trait levels of CNS activity will be related to
A simple introduction to the transmission-line modeling

Transmission-line modeling, a numerical method for field problems, is presented in simple terms that undergraduate students and nonexperts can understand. The method is shown to be applicable in solving various problems involving the diffusion equation, Poisson's equation, or the wave equation. A special application of the method is made to wave propagation problems. Numerical examples are provided for waveguide problems in one and two dimensions. >
Energy-Efficient Skycube Query Processing in Wireless Sensor Networks

With the wide application of wireless sensor network in many domains of the national economy, more and more researchers pay attentions to data management of wireless sensor network. As the main means of multi-decision and data mining, skyline query in wireless sensor network gradually becomes a focus of the researches. Resent years, skycube, an important variation of skyline query, has been deeply discussed, but due to the special properties of wireless sensor network, existing approaches could not be directly applied into the sensor environment. In this paper, skycube query in wireless sensor network is further researched and a new skycube query algorithm based on extended skyline (SCAES) is proposed in certain environment, and a new threshold skycube query algorithm based on threshold extended skyline (p-SCAES) is proposed in uncertain environment. SCAES algorithm shifts the necessary data from the network based on extended skyline and filters the data that do not belong to skycube. p-SCAES brings in the probability threshold mechanism to decrease the data transmission. Therefore, the number of data transmission in both SCAES and p-SCAES is reduced as a consequence. The experimental results show that both SCAES and p-SCAES could greatly reduce the data transmission no matter in certain or uncertain environments, while calculating the correct skycube of the network, and prolong the life span of the wireless sensor network. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i10.3705
Decitabine treatment of patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes

Since receiving US regulatory approval in 2006 for the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, decitabine has also gained marketing approval in several other countries. Rates of complete remission (CR) reported for decitabine range from 9% in the US registration trial to 34% in a study of novel treatment schedules, while reported overall improvement rates range from 30% to 73%. Further studies are needed to determine the relative merits of decitabine compared with azacitidine, the optimal decitabine dose and schedule, how best to proceed following CR, molecular predictors of treatment response, and the possible role of this agent in combination regimens.
Neurotoxicity of CSF from HIV-infected humans

Approximately 15-20% of individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus will develop severe neurological disease. This may be due in part to virus-induced release of a number of putative neurotoxins. However, there is little information to predict which individuals will progress to dementia or the precise mechanisms that drive pathogenesis. In an effort to identify early markers of neurological disease progression we used an in vitro bioassay with rat cortical neurons to test for the presence of toxins in CSF from 40 HIV-infected humans with mild, minimal or no neurological disease. A subset of HIV-infected individuals was found to have significant toxic activity in CSF indicating that toxic factors may be circulating prior to the development of dementia. The toxicity was concentration dependent and due to a factor with a molecular mass of less than 30 kDa. Only a small proportion of the cell death appeared to be due to apoptosis. Neuronal toxicity was associated with a gradual accumulation of intracellular calcium in a subset of cortical neurons over a period of 1-2 h and in the absence of a significant acute response. Individuals with both high viral burden and high CSF toxicity were significantly more likely to have neurological symptoms. These initial analyses indicate that toxic factors are present in the CSF of HIV-infected patients that could serve as useful markers of neurological disease progression and provide insights into pathogenic mechanisms in vivo.
SD-MAC: Design and Synthesis of a Hardware-Efficient Collision-Free QoS-Aware MAC Protocol for Wireless Network-on-Chip

To bridge the widening gap between computation requirements and communication efficiency faced by gigascale heterogeneous SoCs in the upcoming ubiquitous era, a new on-chip communication system, dubbed Wireless Network-on-Chip (WNoC), is introduced by using the recently developed CMOS UWB wireless interconnection technology. In this paper, a synchronous and distributed medium access control (SD-MAC) protocol is designed and implemented. Tailored for WNoC, SD-MAC employs a binary countdown approach to resolve channel contention between RF nodes. The receiver_select_sender mechanism and hidden terminal elimination scheme are proposed to increase the throughput and channel utilization of the system. Our simulation study shows the promising performance of SD-MAC in terms of throughput, latency, and network utilization. We further propose a QoS-aware SD-MAC to ensure the serviceability of the entire system and to improve the bandwidth utilization. As a major component of simple and compact RF node design, a MAC unit implements the proposed SD-MAC that guarantees correct operation of synchronized frames while keeping overhead low. The synthesis results demonstrate several attractive features such as high speed, low power consumption, nice scalability and low area cost.
High-speed upper-airway imaging using full-range optical coherence tomography

Obstruction in the upper airway can often cause reductions in breathing or gas exchange efficiency and lead to rest disorders such as sleep apnea. Imaging diagnosis of the obstruction region has been accomplished using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However CT requires the use of ionizing radiation, and MRI typically requires sedation of the patient to prevent motion artifacts. Long-range optical coherence tomography (OCT) has the potential to provide high-speed three-dimensional tomographic images with high resolution and without the use of ionizing radiation. In this paper, we present work on the development of a long-range OCT endoscopic probe with 1.2 mm OD and 20 mm working distance used in conjunction with a modified Fourier domain swept source OCT system to acquire structural and anatomical datasets of the human airway. Imaging from the bottom of the larynx to the end of the nasal cavity is completed within 40 s.
Evaluation of a real-time blood glucose monitor in children with diabetic ketoacidosis

Use of a real-time bedside glucose monitor was analyzed during the course of management of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children. Simultaneous determinations of blood glucose were obtained, using three methods: bedside glucose meter (One Touch® II), laboratory glucose analyzer (YSI 2300 STAT), and a real-time bedside glucose monitor (VIA 1-01G Blood Chemistry monitor). Study patients included seventeen patients <18 years of age admitted to a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, with blood samples obtained during treatment of DKA by continuous insulin infusion. Four patients did not complete the study. Three experienced temporary technical problems with the monitor, and four required repeat IV placement. Duration of monitor use ranged between 6 and 47 h (mean 24±4 h). Blood glucose values ranged between 2.6 and 22.5 mmol/l. Overall correlation of blood glucose values were as follows: 0.965, 0.965, 0.973, VIA 1-01G vs. One Touch® II, VIA 1-01G vs. YSI 2300 STAT, and One Touch® II vs. YSI 2300 STAT, respectively (all P-values <0.0001). This real-time bedside glucose monitor is accurate at glucose values <13.8 mmol/l, and reliable for rapid, repetitive analyses. Results indicate that blood glucose values obtained using this real-time monitor are comparable to those using standard methods of measurement, and that this device is clinically applicable for use in management of children with DKA.
A Review of Pathophysiology and Therapy of Patients with Vasovagal Syncope

Vasovagal syncope is a common disorder that can compromise quality of life and lead to significant morbidity. It is characterized by an initial exaggerated sympathetic output followed by parasympathetic activation and sympathetic withdrawal, as shown by diagnostic head-up tilt (HUT) table testing. Numerous drugs have been evaluated for treating this disorder. beta-Blockers are well studied and commonly administered but are specifically more efficacious in patients with isoproterenol HUT than in those with regular HUT. The role of the serotonergic system has captured new interest. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors show promising results in preventing vasovagal syncope in treatment-refractory patients. Also, new investigations suggest that serotonin receptor antagonism may be beneficial. Despite these findings, definitive treatment does not exist.
An analysis of the computational complexity of sequential decoding of specific tree codes over Gaussian channels

Seminal work by Chevillat and Costello showed that for specific convolutional codes transmitted over a binary symmetric channel and decoded by sequential decoding, a measure of decoding effort decreases exponentially with the column distance function of the code. This has led to a large body of research in the design of codes with good distance profiles which are also used for transmission over Gaussian channels. In this paper we analyze the computational complexity of a stack decoder working on a specific tree code with real (as opposed to binary) symbols, transmitted over a memoryless Gaussian channel. In contrast to prior work that used random coding arguments, we use the intuition provided by the original proof to prove that decoding effort exhibits similar behavior even for a memoryless Gaussian channel. Our result is applicable to convolutional codes with antipodal signaling, sequence detection over Gaussian ISI channels and some sensor networks.
Effects of Changes in Coronary Blood pH on the Heart

The effects of localized acidosis and alkalosis on coronary blood flow, myocardial contractile force, and heart rate were studied in anesthetized, open-chest dogs. Acidosis of the coronary vascular bed was induced by infusion of 5,5-dimethyl-2, 4-oxazolidinedion (DMO) into the total coronary artery inflow, and alkalosis by infusion of tris hydroxymethyl aminomethane (THAM), Na2CO3 or NaHCO3. DMO infusion caused an initial slight increase of coronary blood flow, followed by a decrease. The decrease was accompanied by and attributed to a moderate to marked decrease of myocardial contractile force and bradycardia. THAM and Na2CO3 infusion caused a marked increase of coronary blood flow, associated with a decrease of coronary oxygen A-V difference, indicating coronary vasodilation. A slight to moderate increase of myocardial contractile force but little or no change in heart rate was noted. NaHCO3 infusion caused changes similar to those induced by DMO but of smaller magnitude. It was suggested that the direc...
Against Parental Rights

This article advances an interpretive account of parental rights and builds a normative case against them. This normative account considers how parental rights function in existing constitutional and family law, and assesses theoretical arguments that seek to justify them. This article begins by describing the most common, child-centered justification for parental rights: that parents are empowered in order to protect children’s best interests. I argue that these child-centered accounts do not justify the current legal regime governing parental rights. Instead, current parental rights are better understood as quasi-property interests, residual from historical traditions where children were more explicitly regarded as their parents’ property.The middle part of this article advances the thesis that the quasi-property functioning of parental rights is not a contingent feature of American law of parents and children. It is instead characteristic of granting parents separate autonomy interests in determining the path of their children’s lives. Parental autonomy rights displace and diminish consideration for children’s interests and objectify children. This article introduces the concept of “desire-contingent goods” and argues that parental autonomy rights are paradigmatically the right to choose desire contingent goods for children regardless of whether they are desired or not. This denies the equal importance of children’s desires, subjective experiences and perspectives on their own lives. As a consequence, basic doctrines in constitutional and family law cannot be reconciled with liberal and egalitarian commitments. The second half of this article evaluates alternative theoretical justifications for parental rights. These include constitutional and philosophical arguments based on personal liberty and family privacy, as well as philosophical arguments based on relational rights, ethics of care, and the Lockean labor theory of value. These arguments all fall short and, in crucial ways, rely on denying children equal moral consideration. The article concludes with recommendations for legal reform.
An atmospheric general circulation model for Pluto with predictions for New Horizons temperature profiles

Results are presented from a 3-D Pluto general circulation model (GCM) that includes conductive heating and cooling, non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) heating by methane at 2.3 and 3.3 microns, non-LTE cooling by cooling by methane at 7.6 microns, and LTE CO rotational line cooling. The GCM also includes a treatment of the subsurface temperature and surface-atmosphere mass exchange. An initially 1 m thick layer of surface nitrogen frost was assumed such that it was large enough to act as a large heat sink (compared with the solar heating term) but small enough that the water ice subsurface properties were also significant. Structure was found in all three directions of the 3-D wind field (with a maximum magnitude of order 10 m/s in the horizontal directions and 10$^-5$ microbar/s in the vertical direction). Prograde jets were found at several altitudes. The direction of flow over the poles was found to very with altitude. Broad regions of up-welling and down-welling were also found. Predictions of vertical temperature profiles are provided for the Alice and REX instruments on New Horizons, while predictions of light curves are provided for ground-based stellar occultation observations. With this model methane concentrations of 0.2% and 1.0% and 8 and 24 microbar surface pressures are distinguishable. For ground-based stellar occultations, a detectable difference exists between light curves with the different methane concentrations, but not for different initial global mean surface pressures.
A bucket elimination approach for determining strong controllability of temporal plans with uncontrollable choices

This work presents a new algorithm based on the Bucket Elimination framework that efficiently determines strong controllability of temporal plans formulated as Labeled Simple Temporal Networks with Uncertainty (LSTNU) with controllable and uncontrollable plan branches (choices).
Influence of irregular sleep patterns on waking behavior.

Two consistent findings in the literature on adolescent sleep patterns are that time spent sleeping on school nights decreases from childhood through adolescence, and that differences between weekend and school-night sleep schedules are large for many teenagers (Billiard, Alperovitch, Perot, & James, 1987; Strauch & Meier, 1988; Carskadon, 1990; Szymczak, Jasinska, Pawlak, & Swierzykowska, 1993). In general, school-night sleep is restricted because of early school start times, whereas on weekends, bedtimes and rise times are later and total sleep time is longer. In a recent large survey of over 3,000 high school students, Wolfson and Carskadon (1998) found such irregular bedtimes related to self-reported academic difficulty in school, daytime sleepiness, depressed mood, and sleep-wake behavior problems. Lower amounts of self-reported total sleep time were also related to more difficulties with daytime functioning. We suspect that these difficulties in daytime function may result in part from disturbances in both the homeostatic and circadian timing systems regulating sleep-wake behavior. Evidence from other studies in children and adolescents supports the importance of total sleep time and sleep schedule regularity as predictors of daytime functioning. Several other survey studies have linked total sleep time with grades, daytime fatigue and struggles to stay awake, and difficulties concentrating in class (Allen, 1992; Epstein, Chillag, & Lavie, 1995).
Optimized vs. Sort-Based Portfolios

Factors and test portfolios can be formed by optimizing objective functions instead of by sorting. Optimizing is more parsimonious and flexible, and the portfolio returns can be easier to find. Our approach effectively marries some advantages of the Fama and MacBeth (1973) cross-sectional approach with those of the time-series approach in Black, Jensen, and Scholes (1971). Our paper shows that optimized portfolios can make a difference: they reverse the inference in Daniel and Titman (1997) and Davis, Fama, and French (2000).
Using multiple high-count electrode arrays in human median and ulnar nerves to restore sensorimotor function after previous transradial amputation of the hand

Peripheral nerve interfaces that can record from and stimulate large numbers of different nerve fibers selectively and independently may help restore intuitive and effective motor and sensory function after hand amputation. To this end, and extending previous work in two subjects, two 100-electrode Utah Slanted Electrode Arrays (USEAs) were implanted for four weeks in the residual ulnar and median nerves of a 50-year-old male whose left, dominant hand had been amputated 21 years previously. Subsequent experiments involved 1) recording from USEAs for real-time control of a virtual prosthetic hand; 2) stimulation to evoke somatosensory percepts; and 3) closed-loop sensorimotor control. Overall, partial motor control and sensation were achieved using USEAs. 1) Isolated action potentials recorded from nerve motor fibers, although sparse at these distal implant sites, were activated during fictive movements of the phantom hand. Unlike in our previous two subjects, electromyographic (EMG) activity contributed to most online recordings and decodes, but was reduced in offline analyses using common average referencing. Online and offline Kalman-filter decodes of thresholded neural or EMG spikes independently controlled different digits of the virtual hand with one or two degrees of freedom. 2) Microstimulation through individual electrodes of the two USEAs evoked up to 106 different percepts, covering much of the phantom hand. The subject discriminated among five perceived stimulus locations, and between two somatosensory submodalities at a single location. 3) USEA-evoked percepts, mimicking contact with either a near or distal virtual target, were used to terminate movements of the virtual hand controlled with USEA recordings comprised wholly or mostly of EMG. These results further indicate that USEAs can help restore sensory and motor function after hand loss.
The Concerns and Attitudes of Early Adolescent Middle School Students in Transition to High School

AbstractThis study investigated the concerns and attitudes of early adolescent students in middle schools. A total of 192 eighth grade and 190 ninth grade students were surveyed to obtain information on attitudes toward the middle school experience and concerns of transition to high school. Results were factor analyzed and indicated such factors as need for self-direction, confidence about academic performance, friendship, belongingness in school, poor progress with schoolwork, general dislike of school, and positive attribution. Those students who experienced a difficult transition indicated being unaccepted by both classmates and teachers as the primary cause for the inability to adjust. ANOVAs were used to test for effects of grade level, past perceived achievement (GPA), gender, and whether or not an older sibling attended the same school for each of the factors identified.
The U.S. health care expenditure: evidence from 2001 to 2009

ABSTRACTThis study utilizes state-level data from 2001 to 2009 to estimate the impact of the 2007 financial crisis upon health care expenditures. Higher death rates are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on health expenditures. While mental health and COPD are not generally found to impact expenditures, increases in the percentage of the population diagnosed with cholesterol and obesity tend to increase health expenditures. Increases in health expenditures slowed considerably after the financial crisis. Even though recessions (high unemployment rates) are generally found to have a positive impact on health expenditures, the post-financial crisis time period is estimated to have much lower health expenditures than in other time periods. Our results can be used to give insight into the conditions under which the slower rate of increase in health expenditures can be expected to increase. More research will be needed to be able to more completely explore not only the re...
Planetary Satellites: Exact Analysis

This chapter considers orbital dynamics about planetary satellites, a topic distinct from orbital dynamics relative to asteroids or comets. We cover this topic in the remaining chapters as it represents another example of a strongly perturbed orbital system for spacecraft. Europa is chosen as the nominal central body for large planetary satellites due to the great interest of sending an orbiter mission to this body to probe its interior ocean, and due to the fact that its orbital dynamics environment is quite interesting and has been considered in a number of papers [167, 188, 186, 127, 126, 128, 146, 148, 147, 88, 89, 87] and theses [187, 125, 123]. At heart, the theory of large planetary orbiters is the study of dynamics in the Hill problem, previously derived in Chapters 2 and 4. This chapter introduces a number of different analyses that can be applied to this system, and provides the tools for scaling these results to planetary satellites in general.
Stochastic call center staffing with uncertain arrival, service and abandonment rates: A Bayesian perspective

In this article, we introduce staffing strategies for the Erlang-A queuing system in call center operations with uncertain arrival, service, and abandonment rates. In doing so, we model the system rates using gamma distributions that create randomness in operating characteristics used in the optimization formulation. We divide the day into discrete time intervals where a simulation based stochastic programming method is used to determine staffing levels. More specifically, we develop a model to select the optimal number of agents required for a given time interval by minimizing an expected cost function, which consists of agent and abandonment (opportunity) costs, while considering the service quality requirements such as the delay probability. The objective function as well as the constraints in our formulation are random variables. The novelty of our approach is to introduce a solution method for the staffing of an operation where all three system rates (arrival, service, and abandonment) are random variables. We illustrate the use of the proposed model using both real and simulated call center data. In addition, we provide solution comparisons across different formulations, consider a dynamic extension, and discuss sensitivity implications of changing constraint upper bounds as well as prior hyper-parameters. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 460–478, 2016