cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Persistent Mobility Disability After Neurotoxic Chemotherapy

Background and Purpose The impact of cancer and its treatments on balance and functional mobility in older adults remains unknown but is increasingly important, given the evolution of cancer treatments. Subacute and more persistent side effects such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy are on the rise, and the effects on mobility and balance, as well as the prognosis for resolution of any functional deficits, must be established before interventions can be trialed. The purpose of this case report is to describe the severity and long-term persistence of mobility decline in an older adult who received neurotoxic chemotherapy. To our knowledge, this is the first case report to describe an older adult with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy using results of standardized balance and mobility tests and to focus on prognosis by repeating these measures more than 2 years after chemotherapy. Case Description An 81-year-old woman received a neurotoxic agent (paclitaxel) after curative mastectomy for breast cancer. Baseline testing prior to taxane therapy revealed a socially active woman with no reported functional deficits or neuropathic symptoms, 1.2-m/s gait speed, and performance at the ceiling on balance and gait portions of a standardized mobility measure. Outcomes After 3 cycles, paclitaxel therapy was stopped by the oncologist because of neurotoxicity. Declines as large as 50% were seen in performance-based measures at 12 weeks and persisted at 2.5 years, and the patient reported recurrent falls, cane use, and mobility-related disability. Discussion This case highlights the extent to which function can decline in an older individual receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy, the potential for these deficits to persist years after treatment is stopped, and the need for physical therapy intervention and further research in this population.
CLASSIFICATION OF EMOTIONAL RESPONSES AND THEIR RELATION TO DOMINANCE-SUBMISSION IN ADULT BEAGLE DYADS

Ss were 298 10-yr.-old female beagles. The relationship of each dog's emotional response display toward a human stimulus was related to its dominance-submission status within a long term dyad. Emotional display was classified into four main categories, friendly, stay-behavior, wary, and aggressive. Forms of dyadic interaction were categorized into three main categories, dominant-submissive, combat, and parallel-possession. The parallel-possession category was related to a significantly greater frequency of displayed friendly responses while the combat category was related to a significantly greater frequency of displayed stay-behavior. Dominant and submissive dogs obtained an intermediate position on both emotions and did not differ from each other. A similar emotional response occurred in each of both dogs of a pair with greater than chance frequency; this held for both friendly and stay-behavior emotional displays. Explanatory hypotheses of “reinforced parallel approach” and “interpersonal avoidance” we...
Explicit Solution of Worst-Case Secrecy Rate for MISO Wiretap Channels With Spherical Uncertainty

A multiple-input single-output (MISO) wiretap channel model is considered, in which a multi-antenna source communicates with a single-antenna destination in the presence of one single-antenna eavesdropper. It is assumed that both the channel to the destination and the channel to the eavesdropper contain spherical uncertainty. The problem of finding the optimal input covariance that maximizes the worst-case secrecy rate subject to a sum power constraint is studied, and an explicit expression for the maximum worst-case secrecy rate is provided.
An Internet Based Flood Warning System

Urbanization often is accompanied with increased overland flow and shorter time of concentration. The threat of flooding from such changes can be serious to residents and governments that are responsible for flood warning and flood damage reduction. This paper presents the development of a flood warning system by integrating Internet, Geographic Information System, and a flood model. It first delineates flooding areas in response to different rainfall amounts and land use scenarios, then overlays the flooding areas with other data layers to identify properties and streets potentially to be affected by the user-specified flooding event. Fi- nally, results from the simulation and overlay analysis are published via Internet as tables and maps. A user may also compare differ- ence between the flooding areas from two scenarios, such as different rainfall amount or different land use plans. This study demon- strates that based on the simulation of changes in land use patterns, the change of runoff and flooding areas can be visualized in a temporal and spatial context. The system can estimate the affect of land development on flooding impact to support better planning and development decisions. In addition, it can help identify critical areas for more effective emergency response. Finally, it can reach out to a broad user base to increase public awareness of flooding impact.
Smart, flexible and responsive future electric power markets

The ISO market design has evolved over time using traditions development, economic theory, power system operations heuristics and operational experience. Early market design made simplifying assumptions and approximations often due to the inability to solve the more detailed design. Complicating features in market design such as reactive power, unit commitment, switching of transmission assets, renewable generation, storage and demand participation make the market non-convex and add new uncertainties. We examine the need and ability to solve more complex market models and the role of price signals, incentives, market power and settlements.
Perspectives on Observational Learning in Animals

Observational learning is presumed to have occurred when an organism copies an improbable action or action outcome that it has observed and the matching behavior cannot be explained by an alternative mechanism. Psychologists have been particularly interested in the form of observational learning known as imitation and in how to distinguish imitation from other processes. To successfully make this distinction, one must disentangle the degree to which behavioral similarity results from (a) predisposed behavior, (b) increased motivation resulting from the presence of another animal, (c) attention drawn to a place or object, (d) learning about the way the environment works, as distinguished from what we think of as (e) imitation (the copying of the demonstrated behavior). Several of the processes that may be involved in observational learning are reviewed, including social facilitation, stimulus enhancement, several kinds of emulation, and various forms of imitation.
The blind pattern matching attack on watermark systems

Billions of dollars allegedly lost to piracy of multimedia content have recently triggered the industry to rethink the way how music and movies are distributed on the Internet. As encryption is vulnerable to digital or analog re-recording, currently almost all copyright protection mechanisms rely to certain extent on watermarking, i.e. hiding of imperceptive secrets into a host signal. In this paper, we propose a new breed of attacks on generic watermarking systems, which recognizes that multimedia content is often highly repetitive, identifies subsets of signal blocks that are similar, and finally permutes these blocks. Assuming the permuted blocks have been marked with distinct secrets, it can be shown that any watermark detector is facing a task of exponential complexity to reverse the permutations as a preprocessing step for watermark detection. In this paper, we describe the logistics of the attack and a recipe for its implementation against an audio watermarking technology.
Multiscale Simulation of Intra-Protein Communication

We develop a new computational framework to model intra-protein communication. The configurations sampled in atomic molecular dynamics trajectories are used to compute bond lengths and force constants in an elastic network approximation of the distribution of protein structures. To go beyond the harmonic approximation, a key novelty is to compute model parameters in consecutive time windows with a user-specified size to follow the time evolution of the mechanical coupling network of protein conformation. In analogy to spectrogram of sound waves, sequential elastic network models calculated from atomic trajectories are termed the fluctuogram of protein dynamics. By analyzing and comparing the fluctuograms of Ca2+-bound and apo subtilisin, we illustrate that intermittent conformational changes and mechanical coupling variation are important mechanisms of intra-protein communication. We also show that the fluctuogram can be used to predict residues with high tendency to co-evolve by comparing with the results of statistical coupling analysis of a multiple sequence alignment. In addition to the strength of mechanical coupling, we found that the fluctuation of inter-residue force constants is also an important descriptor for co-evolution. Together, the results of this work (a) reveal the intermittent nature of conformational changes and the mechanical coupling variation, (b) show that intra-protein communication can proceed without a drastic change of protein structure and the pathways of which can be identified by the fluctuogram, and (c) support the theory that mechanically coupled residues tend to co-evolve.
Survival of Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes on raw peanut and pecan kernels stored at -24, 4, and 22°C.

Cocktails of lawn-collected cells were used to determine the survival of Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes on the surface of raw peanut and pecan kernels. Kernels were inoculated with mixtures of four to five strains at 3 or 6 log CFU/g, dried at room temperature, and then stored at −24 ± 1, 4 ± 2, and 22 ± 1°C for 28 or 365 days. In most cases, rates of decline of the pathogens did not differ significantly between the two inoculum concentrations in the 28-day study. At 6 log CFU/g, populations of all pathogens were reduced by 0.5 to 1.6 log CFU/g during an initial 3-day drying period on both peanuts and pecans. The moisture content of peanuts and pecans remained stable at −24 ± 1 and 22 ± 1°C; at 4 ± 2°C, the moisture content increased from 3.8 to 5.6% on peanuts and from 2.6 to 3% on pecans over 365 days. Pathogen populations were stable on pecans stored under frozen and refrigerated conditions, except for L. monocytogenes, which declined at a rate of 0.03 log CFU/g/30 day...
Proper Orthogonal Decomposition-Based Modeling Framework for Improving Spatial Resolution of Measured Temperature Data

This paper presents a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-based reduced-order modeling framework to improve spatial resolution of measured temperature data in an air-cooled data center. This data-driven approach is applied on transient air temperature data, acquired at the exhaust of a server simulator rack. Temperature data is collected by a distributed thermocouple network at 1 Hz sampling frequency following a step impulse in the rack heat load. The input data are organized in a 2-D array, comprising transient temperature signals measured at various spatial locations. Because its computational time scales logarithmically with the input size, the proposed POD-based approach is potentially useful as an efficient tool for handling large transient data sets. With spatial location being the parameter for the input data matrix, the proposed approach is suitable for rapid synthesis of transient temperature data at new spatial locations. The comparison between POD-based local air temperature predictions and corresponding data indicates a maximum prediction uncertainty of 3.2%, and root mean square prediction uncertainty of 1.9%.
A Unified Approach to Multilayer Over-the-Cell Routing

Several Over-the-Cell (OTC) routing algorithms have been proposed for two and three layer processes. All the existing OTC routers can be used only on the cell models for which they were developed for. In this paper, we develop a unified approach to multi-layer routing, motivated by over-the-cell routing, which can be used for full-custom layouts. Our approach can also be directly applied to standard cell layouts, irrespective of the cell model used in the design. Our router has been implemented in C and tested on industrial benchmarks, such as PRIMARY I and PRIMARY II, for which it obtained channel-less layouts.
Metabolism of the Lanthanons in the Rat.

Summary1. The metabolism of the lanthanons has been studied in the rat on a systematic basis using tracer technics. High-specific activity preparations were administered orally or intramuscularly as citrate complexes. 2. Data are presented for the fifteen lanthanons 1 and 4 days after administration and at intervals up to 8 months for those isotopes with sufficiently long half lives. In general, absorption from the parenteral injection site was relatively complete at four days. Gastrointestinal absorption of the 4 lanthanons administered orally was insignificant. 3. The light lanthanons (lanthanum through samarium). Deposition was primarily in the liver and skeleton, 50 and 25% of the administered dose respectively. Elimination from the liver (presumably by way of the bile duct to the gastrointestinal tract) was quite rapid with a half-time of about 15 days. Two months after injection the skeleton retained about two-thirds of its initial deposition; there was no further elimination from the skeleton durin...
Tools for immunization guideline knowledge maintenance: II: automated Web-based generation of user-customized test cases

IMM/Test is a prototype software tool built to generate test cases that can be used to help test and verify the internal logic of an immunization forecasting program. A forecasting program takes as input a child's immunization history and produces recommendations as to which vaccinations are due and which should be scheduled next. IMM/Test was developed to test a specific immunization forecasting program, IMM/Serve. In addition, IMM/Test has been incorporated into a broader Web-based tool, IMM/Web, which allows the user (e.g., a member of an immunization registry staff) to customize the parameters used for immunization forecasting (e.g., the minimum ages for each dose and the minimum wait intervals between doses) to reflect local practice. IMM/Web then generates a customized set of test cases that may be used to test the user's immunization forecasting program. The user may also request that the test cases be automatically passed to IMM/Serve to analyze using the newly defined parameters. The paper describes the internal design of IMM/Test and IMM/Web and discusses certain lessons learned in the implementation of the two programs.
Women in the Classroom: Mass Migration, Literacy and the Nationalization of Sicilian Women at the Turn of the Century

In January of 1908, Rosa welcomed her husband Angelo home from the United States, where he had spent the last four years working in the coal mines on the outskirts of Birmingham Alabama. In his store-bought suit, starched white collar and leather shoes, Angelo cut quite a figure as he made his way through the narrow streets of Sutera, a small hill-town in central western Sicily. His new clothes served as testimony to his success as an emigrant and to his new status as a respectable merchant. His experiences overseas had changed his place in the world. Transoceanic migration eroded the borders of the world he had grown up in, defined by village and kin. In Birmingham, Angelo came to see himself as an Italian as well as a Sicilian and a Suterese. Now back home, he was an "Americano," a migrant, with ties to faraway worlds. Although Rosa never left Sutera, transoceanic migration had also redefined her position in the village and in the nation-state. Until her husband emigrated, Rosa's life had been circumscribed by the physical and social boundaries of Sutera. From her childhood, blood and baptism defined her position in the village and the world. While Angelo was abroad earning the money needed to claim membership in the local elite, Rosa looked after the family's interests and worked toward fulfilling the couple's dream of upward mobility by ensuring the family could claim the cultural, as well as the material trappings of success. In her husband's absence Rosa learned how to read and write and she kept her children in school. Literacy, along with property ownership, was critical to claiming membership in the local gentry. Book learning and formal schooling not only repositioned Rosa in the community, it transformed her relationship to the state, and into an expanding national and transnational consumer economy. This article uses the history of Sutera to explore why mass male migration succeeded in drawing rural women into the classroom when state reforms failed, and how literacy changed their sense of self-identification as women and as Italians. Although state legislation had made elementary education compulsory since 1861, a combination of political and personal apathy kept attendance at a minimum. Not only were southern Italian schools underfunded and mismanaged, but in the absence of any viable social or political reform movements, residents had little hope that education could improve their lives. Transoceanic migration made schooling relevant to daily life. The practical considerations surrounding long-distance communication provided powerful incentives for mi? grants and their families to learn to read and write, and education itself was an integral part of the dream of social advancement underlying the familial de? cision to send someone overseas to work. In consequence, potential migrants flocked to the schoolhouse, as did the women and children who remained at home. For rural women, the consequences of learning to read and write went
Health Benefits in a Flat Tax World: Results from an Ebri/Gallup Survey

The decision of public policymakers in the middle of this century to provide favorable tax treatment to health insurance plans provided through the work place, and many subsequent actions, have been part of a public policy objective to provide workers access to health care as well as protection from financial losses incurred from unexpected medical problems. Employers who currently provide health insurance to workers can deduct the cost of this benefit as a business expense for tax purposes. In addition, employer and employee contributions to health insurance are not counted toward taxable income for the employee. Respondents to a recent survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and The Gallup Organization, Inc. were asked a series of questions on their preferences for obtaining health insurance benefits through their employer or on their own in a tax reformed world.
Bulbocavernosus reflex to somatic and visceral nerve stimulation in normal subjects and in diabetics with erectile impotence.

AbstractBulbocavernosus reflex to stimulation of the vesicourethral junction and glans penis was recorded in 14 normal controls and 24 diabetic men complaining of erectile impotence. In all normal subjects the bulbocavernosus reflex to stimulation of these sites could be obtained, and mean latencies were 59.2 ± 8.0 msec, and 33.3 ± 3.7 msec., respectively (p less than 0.00001). A total of 66 per cent of the diabetics (16 patients) exhibited abnormal (delayed or absent) bulbocavernosus reflex to stimulation of the vesicourethral junction, while only 12.5 per cent (3 patients) had delayed response to glans penis stimulation. The latter tended to remain within normal limits, although the mean latency was significantly different from that of normal subjects (p less than 0.05).Abnormalities of the bulbocavernosus reflex to stimulation of the vesicourethral junction correlated strongly with the presence of peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, diabetes and organogenic impotence. Our results indicate that this is...
Pancreatitis in childhood.

1. Michelle M. Pietzak, MD* 2. Dan W. Thomas, MD† 1. 2. *Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics. 3. 4. †Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Describe the challenge involved in diagnosing both acute and chronic pancreatitis. 2. Identify the radiologic study of choice in acute pancreatitis. 3. Identify the most common inherited disease involving the exocrine pancreas. 4. Delineate the pancreatic condition that is an absolute surgical indication, requiring necrosectomy (surgical debridement). 5. List the most common etiologies of pancreatitis in the child. Pancreatitis in children is a disease characterized by inflammation of the pancreas in the clinical setting of epigastric abdominal pain and usually is accompanied by elevated levels of pancreatic enzymes, amylase, and lipase. Pancreatitis can be categorized as acute, chronic, necrotic, hemorrhagic, and hereditary. The types are distinguished most frequently according to clinical and radiologic criteria; material obtained from the organ rarely is analyzed histologically. Acute pancreatitis is a self-limited disorder causing nausea, vomiting, anorexia, abdominal pain, and marked elevations in enzymes. Bouts of acute pancreatitis may recur, but normal pancreatic function and morphology usually are restored between attacks. If the inflammatory process is progressive, morphologic changes may occur in the gland, leading to chronic pancreatitis, often with debilitating pain and possible irreversible loss of both exocrine and endocrine function. Protein ductal plugs may calcify in the gland, leading to chronic calcific pancreatitis, which indicates advanced disease. Relatively high mortality occurs in necrotizing hemorrhagic pancreatitis, where the inflamed gland can become infected secondarily with bacteria and sepsis can occur, often in association with subsequent multiorgan failure. Hereditary pancreatitis is an autosomal dominant condition that is characterized by recurrent attacks of pancreatitis, usually presenting during childhood within affected families. It is difficult to estimate the true incidence and prevalence of pancreatitis in children because most of the literature reports individual cases or small clusters of patients. Although pancreatitis is not seen as commonly in children as in adults, …
Examining the reinforcing value of stimuli within social and non-social contexts in children with and without high-functioning autism:

One of the key diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder includes impairments in social interactions. This study compared the extent to which boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys "value" engaging in activities with a parent or alone. Two different assessments that can empirically determine the relative reinforcing value of social and non-social stimuli were employed: paired-choice preference assessments and progressive-ratio schedules. There were no significant differences between boys with high-functioning autism and typically developing boys on either measure. Moreover, there was a strong correspondence in performance across these two measures for participants in each group. These results suggest that the relative reinforcing value of engaging in activities with a primary caregiver is not diminished for children with autism spectrum disorder.
Bicyclic Peptide Inhibitors of an Epithelial Cell-Derived Transmembrane Protease, Matriptase

Matriptase is a recently identified type II transmembrane protease that is found on the surface of epithelial cells [1,2]. It is overexpressed in most cancer cells, including human breast cancer cells. It is a multidomain protein with a C-terminal extracellular region containing the protease domain. It activates urokinase-type of plasminogen activator (uPA), and the protease activated receptor (Par-2). It has been demonstrated that matriptase can proteolytically activate hepatocyte growth factor (HGF/Scatter Factor) to its active form, and thus it may function in epithelial cell migration, cancer invasion and metastasis [2]. Developing inhibitors of matriptase provides for a therapeutic approach to metastatic diseases, and in particular, cancer.
The Lesser Antillean Fauna

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the fauna of Lesser Antilles. The Lesser Antilles extend from South America northward in a long arc of more than a dozen major islands and hundreds of small islets. The number of amphibians and reptiles in the Lesser Antilles is related to the island size, diversity of habitat, and distance from the mainland or another large island. There are 95 species of amphibians and reptiles in the Lesser Antilles: six introduced, five known only from the original series of specimens, two known only from fossil record and two vagrants. All the large islands from Guadeloupe south have relatively high diversity, whereas the islands north of Guadeloupe, which are smaller in size, have lower diversity. Endemism in the Lesser Antilles is high and can be examined at two levels, bank endemism and Lesser Antillean endemism. Bank endemics are those species that occur on only one bank of islands while Lesser Antillean endemics are those species that occur on more than one bank, but are restricted to the Lesser Antilles.
Water Resources and Environmental Assessment

IWRM at the basin level requires managers to apply water resources assessment to study the condition of water and management measures needed. The process includes environmental assessment to determine if impacts on natural systems are impairing their ecological services. It measures water quantity and quality as well as ecosystem capacity. Assessing water quality establishes water’s suitability to meet intended uses and classifications have been developed through water laws and guidance systems. The systems developed in the USA and the European Union are examples of different approaches. Assessing environmental resources requires an inventory of local and regional ecological systems. On the international level, leadership in water resources assessment is by the World Meteorological Organization, among other agencies.
The Effects of Ethnic Chinese Minority on Vietnam’s Regional Economic Development in the Post-Vietnam War Period

This paper examines the impact of the Hoa, an ethnically Chinese, economically dominant minority, on regional economic development in Vietnam. To address the endogeneity of the geographical distrib...
The economics of distributed power: A Marcellus Shale case study

Abstract We study the economics of a small natural gas powered electricity generation unit that is part of a distributed power system and is also located near a gas well, while supplying electricity to local dedicated customers. Beyond the environmental and social benefits from localizing production and usage, economic benefits accrue to (1) the gas producer, from selling close to the source and saving costs associated with gas transportation, (2) the electricity producer, from cheaper fuel and higher margins in the electricity they sell behind the meter, and (3) to the final consumer, in the form of electricity prices that are lower than the retail grid price, with little or no distribution costs. We study this arrangement using an actual distributed power generation unit along with demand and cost data from an actual potential customer, in order to estimate overall supply chain savings that could be shared between the various entities.
Examining the Effects of Variations in Ligand Framework and Pnictogen Substitution on the Geometry and Electronic Structure of Metal Complexes of N -Heterocyclic Phosphido Ligands Incorporated into a Diphosphine Pincer Ligand Framework

Abstract A series of compounds comprised of N-heterocyclic phosphido-containing ligands bound to a Co(CO)2 fragment are explored computationally using density functional theory (DFT). Computational methods are used to identify changes in the electronic structure and bonding in these molecules as a function of substituent and backbone modifications, with the ultimate goal of identifying the most intriguing targets for further experimental studies. A series of N, As, and Sb derivatives are also explored through computational studies to better understand the geometric and electronic effects of varying the central pnictogen atom.
Post-millennial Black American Experience: The Poetry of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

One of the most exciting developments on the Black American literary scene in the post-millennial period is the emergence of a body of #BlackLivesMatter poetry, itself a cultural extension of the civil rights movement of the same name. Granted that the #BlackLivesMovement in its current form is less than a decade old, what follows are but preliminary thoughts on the poetics of this movement. Often experimental, the poetry of the #BlackLivesMatter movement is, for the most part, conceived as one of the polyphonic voices of the black civil rights struggle in its contemporary form. The poetryâ€”often not published in traditional book formâ€”is, I argue, one that is still searching for its own distinctive voice or, more accurately, voices while simultaneously celebrating its very experimental selves. And yet this is unapologetically in-your-face art with a powerful digital presence on increasingly important social mass media portals such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook and especially YouTube. Where traditional published poetry requires the committed reader to seek out the book, #BlackLivesMatter poetry finds the reader and audience on social media.
Sensitivity of Three Methods Used in the Isolation of Arcobacter spp. in Raw Ground Pork

Arcobacter, an aerotolerant Campylobacter -like organism, has been designated an emerging pathogen because of its newly recognized ability to cause diarrheal illness in both humans and animals and its presence in the human food supply. Because there is no standard isolation method for its detection, the true occurrence of this pathogen is largely unknown. In addition, the lack of a standardized isolation protocol limits the ability of investigators to compare field data. Arcobacter has been detected in whole muscle and ground pork at various levels by two different isolation methods (those of deBoer and Collins). In this study, these methods were tested along with the Johnson-Murano (JM) method, developed in our laboratory. The sensitivity of each method was tested for ground pork inoculated with Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus 1A at levels of 10 4 , 10 3 , 10 2 , and 10 1 CFU/g. Controls included tubes with uninoculated pork and broth tubes without pork. All samples that were morphologically similar to Arcobacter were analyzed by Gram staining and by catalase and oxidase reactions. Presumptive positive samples were confirmed by the polymerase chain reaction. The JM method was determined to be the most sensitive, detecting A. butzleri down to a level of 10 1 CFU/g in 100% of the samples and detecting A. cryaerophilus 1A at a level of 10 1 CFU/g in 75% of samples. In a pure buffer system, the Collins method was as effective as the JM method in isolating both organisms to levels of 10 1 cells per g.
Pseudo status cataplecticus in narcolepsy type 1

The rare constellation of multiple episodes of cataplexy that are refractory to therapy is called status cataplecticus. We describe a young adult with known narcolepsy type 1 who reported a marked ...
The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, 1516–1918: A Social and Cultural History

1. The establishment and survival of Ottoman rule in the Arab lands, 1516-1798 2. Institutions of Ottoman rule 3. Economy and society in the early modern era 4. A world of scholars and saints: intellectual life in the Ottoman Arab lands 5. The empire at war: Napoleon, the Wahhabis, and Mehmed Ali 6. The Tanzimat and the time of re-Ottomanization 7. The end of the relationship.
Effects of starch solubility on the quality of unfired hematite concentrate pellets

The replacement of bentonite as the standard iron ore binder is an important factor in the future of iron processing. Bentonite adds unwanted silica to the final iron product. Bentonite replacement requires an in-depth understanding of how alternative binders affect the agglomeration process. One such alternative binder is starch, which can be modified in a multitude of ways. It has been observed in this study that the use of a highly soluble starch can greatly increase the dry compressive strength of a hematite concentrate pellet. By heating a starch solution or extruding a starch, its solubility can be altered. When using starch along with bentonite, a suitable pellet can be produced that can withstand all aspects of pellet handling. It was observed that, at the highest solubility of starch, there was a strength increase of approximately 6.8 kg-force (15 lbf).
The Trouble(s) with Unity: Performative Latinidades Between Culture and Politics

Using work published over the first decade of the twenty-first century by scholars John Beverley and Cristina Beltran, “The Trouble(s) with Unity” opens the larger discussion by accounting for US latinidad as a demographic, historical, political, and cultural formation, one better characterized by fluidity, heterogeneity, unevenness, and nonidentity than by any more conventional, categorical, essentialist or in any other way fixed identitarian logics.
Predicting CO2 residual trapping ability based on experimental petrophysical properties for different sandstone types

Abstract To increase confidence in the long-term security of CO2 geologic storage, reliable predictions of the level of post-injection CO2 residual trapping are needed. In this study, we conduct CO2/water coreflooding experiments at reservoir conditions on nine core samples with different degrees and types of heterogeneity to find the best petrophysical properties for predicting sandstone CO2 residual trapping ability. We are able to extract petrophysical properties such as porosity, permeability, degree of mesoscale heterogeneity, and spatial correlation lengths of petrophysical property fields in different directions using a CT scanner. Experimental results show that CO2 residual trapping ability decreases with porosity and increases with the degree of heterogeneity. A number of metrics for heterogeneity are evaluated, including the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient and the variance in voxel-level CO2 drainage saturation fields as well as the porosity and permeability fields. The variance of the saturation distribution during drainage provides the best predictor of residual gas trapping. By extrapolating the relationship between the degree of heterogeneity and the linear trapping coefficient, we show that pore-scale trapping mechanisms account for 46–97% of the residually trapped CO2 and the mesoscale capillary heterogeneity trapping mechanism accounts for 3–54% of the residually trapped CO2 for the nine sandstone samples tested.
Evolution, culture, and Care for Betta splendens

The commercial betta, or Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens), is one of a group of fishes that live in fresh water in Africa and southern Asia. Today’s commercial bettas are selected for bright colors as well as elaborate fins because the ornamental hobby is the main market for this species. This 5-page fact sheet written by Craig Watson, Matthew DiMaggio, Jeffrey Hill, Quenton Tuckett, and Roy Yanong and published by School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Program in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences explains how to grow and care for these beautiful and fascinating fishes. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa212
Changes in mammalian copper homeostasis during microbial infection

Animals carefully control homeostasis of Cu, a metal that is both potentially toxic and an essential nutrient. During infection, various shifts in Cu homeostasis can ensue. In mice infected with Candida albicans, serum Cu progressively rises and at late stages of infection, liver Cu rises, while kidney Cu declines. The basis for these changes in Cu homeostasis was poorly understood. We report here that the progressive rise in serum Cu is attributable to liver production of the multicopper oxidase ceruloplasmin (Cp). Through studies using Cp−/− mice, we find this elevated Cp helps recover serum Fe levels at late stages of infection, consistent with a role for Cp in loading transferrin with Fe. Cp also accounts for the elevation in liver Cu seen during infection, but not for the fluctuations in kidney Cu. The Cu exporting ATPase ATP7B is one candidate for kidney Cu control, but we find no change in the pattern of kidney Cu loss during infection of Atp7b−/− mice, implying alternative mechanisms. To test whether fungal infiltration of kidney tissue was required for kidney Cu loss, we explored other paradigms of infection. Infection with the intravascular malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei caused a rise in serum Cu and decrease in kidney Cu similar to that seen with C. albicans. Thus, dynamics in kidney Cu homeostasis appear to be a common feature among vastly different infection paradigms. The implications for such Cu homeostasis control in immunity are discussed.
Compound Coherent Plane-Wave Ultrasound Imaging of Vascular Malformations of the Orbit.

PURPOSE Prior color-flow Doppler ultrasound studies of the eye have been performed with systems that exceed US Food and Drug Administration permissible ophthalmic ultrasonic energy limits. The authors report a study of orbital vascular malformations using a novel, Food and Drug Administration compliant, ultrafast compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound device to produce power Doppler images. METHODS Using a Verasonics Vantage 128 ultrasound engine and a user-developed MATLAB program with a 5-MHz linear-array probe, compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound data were collected on patients with orbital vascular malformations. Real-time color-flow Doppler visualized orbital blood flow. Power Doppler images were produced by post-processing compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound data acquired continuously for 2 seconds. RESULTS Compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound was performed on 3 orbital vascular malformations (1 venolymphatic malformation, 1 infantile hemangioma, and 1 arteriovenous malformation). Compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound produced a high-resolution depiction of orbital blood flow for orbital vascular malformations with high sensitivity to slow flow. CONCLUSIONS Analysis of blood flow within orbital lesions informs treatment planning. Compound coherent plane-wave ultrasound is an emerging ultrasound modality that falls within the Food and Drug Administration guidelines for use in the orbit and provides information to characterize orbital vascular malformations.
Nonparametric analysis of nonhomogeneous multistate processes with clustered observations.

Frequently, clinical trials and observational studies involve complex event history data with multiple events. When the observations are independent, the analysis of such studies can be based on standard methods for multistate models. However, the independence assumption is often violated, such as in multicenter studies, which makes standard methods improper. This work addresses the issue of nonparametric estimation and two-sample testing for the population-averaged transition and state occupation probabilities under general multistate models with cluster-correlated, right-censored, and/or left-truncated observations. The proposed methods do not impose assumptions regarding the within-cluster dependence, allow for informative cluster size, and are applicable to both Markov and non-Markov processes. Using empirical process theory, the estimators are shown to be uniformly consistent and to converge weakly to tight Gaussian processes. Closed-form variance estimators are derived, rigorous methodology for the calculation of simultaneous confidence bands is proposed, and the asymptotic properties of the nonparametric tests are established. Furthermore, I provide theoretical arguments for the validity of the nonparametric cluster bootstrap, which can be readily implemented in practice regardless of how complex the underlying multistate model is. Simulation studies show that the performance of the proposed methods is good, and that methods that ignore the within-cluster dependence can lead to invalid inferences. Finally, the methods are illustrated using data from a multicenter randomized controlled trial.
Ovarian Hormones and Arterial Function

Estrogen and progestogen effects on arterial function in postmenopausal women are a focus of current investigative research and a natural out-growth of numerous animal studies carried out during the last thirty to forty years. Arterial systems which have been studied include the aorta and coronary vessels, carotid and cerebral arteries, the uterine vasculature, and the peripheral circulation. Hemodynamic parameters which are affected by ovarian hormones include blood flow velocity, vasomotor tone, and vasodilator reserve. The discussion to follow will focus on human studies and the clinical implications of these findings.
Varying Experiences of Cyber Victimization among Middle and High School Students.

Although cyber victimization (CV) occurs in both middle school (MS) and high school (HS)—and these experiences appear to differ between boys and girls—to our knowledge, no studies have directly examined these differences across specific acts of CV. Further, limited research has examined school environment factors, such as school safety and attachment, as they relate to CV. The current study compared CV experiences reported by boys and girls in both MS and HS as well as examined CV’s association with perceived school safety and school attachment. Participants were 286 MS and 304 HS students (52% boys) from a small, rural Midwestern community in the United States. Self-reported measures were collected. HS girls reported experiencing more CV than MS girls on 5 of the 6 CV acts examined. Additionally, HS girls reported experiencing more CV on 3 of the acts compared to MS boys. In general, HS boys and HS girls report similar rates of CV, with the exception of HS girls experiencing higher levels of “people saying mean and nasty things about them.” Regression analyses indicated that youth who report higher CV feel less connected to school, but their CV experiences do not appear to be related their perceived school safety when also considering traditional forms of victimization. CV experiences are higher for HS girls for the majority of different types of CV acts compared to MS youth but similar to HS boys, and experiencing these acts is associated with less school connectedness.
Ongoing Challenges for White Educators Teaching White Students About Whiteness

This paper critically examines some of the challenges that white educators who interrogate whiteness with white students encounter. Two specific dilemmas are addressed: Is one supporting white students’ learning when one tries to teach from the place “where the student is” and/or is one colluding with whiteness by appeasing white discomfort and protecting white fragility, one’s students as well as one’s own? Does one interpret what white students say as a query to be responded to or as a white distancing strategy that requires disruption? Each pedagogical challenge is described and debates around these issues are explored. Emphasis is given to the effects on students of color when white educators fail to respond appropriately. Implications for white progressive educators are drawn out. Two recommendations are discussed: Being willing to rock the boat and cultivating white double consciousness.
Learning in Multi-Player Stochastic Games

We consider the problem of simultaneous learning in stochastic games with many players in the finite-horizon setting. While the typical target solution for a stochastic game is a Nash equilibrium, this is intractable with many players. We instead focus on variants of {\it correlated equilibria}, such as those studied for extensive-form games. We begin with a hardness result for the adversarial MDP problem: even for a horizon of 3, obtaining sublinear regret against the best non-stationary policy is \textsf{NP}-hard when both rewards and transitions are adversarial. This implies that convergence to even the weakest natural solution concept---normal-form coarse correlated equilbrium---is not possible via black-box reduction to a no-regret algorithm even in stochastic games with constant horizon (unless $\textsf{NP}\subseteq\textsf{BPP}$). Instead, we turn to a different target: algorithms which {\it generate} an equilibrium when they are used by all players. Our main result is algorithm which generates an {\it extensive-form} correlated equilibrium, whose runtime is exponential in the horizon but polynomial in all other parameters. We give a similar algorithm which is polynomial in all parameters for ``fast-mixing'' stochastic games. We also show a method for efficiently reaching normal-form coarse correlated equilibria in ``single-controller'' stochastic games which follows the traditional no-regret approach. When shared randomness is available, the two generative algorithms can be extended to give simultaneous regret bounds and converge in the traditional sense.
Discrete Iterated Function Systems

Written for researchers and developers applying Integrated Function Systems in the creation of fractal images, this book presents a modification of a widely used probabilistic algorithm for generating IFS-encoded images. The book also includes a discussion of how IFS techniques can be applied to produce animated motion pictures.
TH‐AB‐201‐04: Evaluation of a Radiation Dose Control Program Using Exposure Index

Purpose: Our institution has several Carestream DRX detectors which allow for remote download of exam statistics, including image reject status, body part and projection, and exposure index (EI). The ability to collect exposure information from multiple DR rooms is conducive to a QA program monitoring institutional radiographic exposure levels. Although individual patient entrance skin exposure (ESE) will vary, the radiation dose levels to the detectors are calibrated to be consistent. Our QC program identifies, on an ongoing basis, outliers in practice and opportunities for improvement in institutional radiation dose levels. Methods: Our institution’s Carestream digital detectors were configured for remote downloading of exposure statistics. The data is in a spreadsheet format for easy analysis in Microsoft Excel. The EI median and standard deviation were calculated for each protocol (by body part) and histograms were created of EI for high-frequency torso exams, where EI is less sensitive to positioning and dose-reduction methods are most beneficial. Results: We compared histograms of EI values for different rooms and observed differences of 400+ in average EI (representing 60% difference in radiation levels to the detector) between rooms nominally calibrated to the same EI. We identified distinct contributions to the EI distribution in practice; in some cases different body part projections had central EI values 300 apart, while for other instances peaks were observed at the current calibrated EI, the old calibrated EI, and an EI representing CR techniques. Conclusion: Our ongoing findings have allowed us to make useful interventions: from emphasizing the use of phototimers instead of institutional memory of manual techniques to identifying unreported problems with phototimer calibration. We believe that this QA program should be simple to implement using Carestream DRX and can reveal problems with radiation levels in the aggregate that are difficult to identify on a case-by-case basis.
Holographic fractional topological insulators

We give a holographic realization of the recently proposed low-energy effective action describing a fractional topological insulator. In particular we verify that the surface of this hypothetical material supports a fractional quantum Hall current corresponding to half that of a Laughlin state.
Kiviuq: An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Deusen Van and Kira Year: 2009 Pages: 408 Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN: 9780773534995 (hard cover). Prices: $95.00 USD(hard cover).