cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mission-DBS: A Distributed Multimedia Database System for High-Performance Telemedicine

The technology required to realize the total computerization of medical image acquisition, processing, storage, transmission, and manipulation has been actively pursued for the past two decades in a well-established research field known as Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). As PACS progresses from a novel research concept to commercially viable systems, research focus in both academia and industry has shifted from providing “totally digital radiology” to providing image information management solutions for hospitals. New requirements continue to arise for PACS database system design as new medical services and functions are added in response to technological advances in multi-dimensional imaging as well as multimedia communications and computing [10].
A call to all L&D, OD and HR professionals: how can you increase your professional reputation?

Purpose – To improve the readers' ability to sell ideas, concepts and recommendations by learning to enhance their professional reputation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is designed to help the reader through the process of enhancing their effectiveness in a work environment.Findings – The article highlights the benefits of developing a strong professional reputation and how to promote your particular expertise.Practical implications – Professional managers cannot expect people to value their expertise simply on merit. You have to learn to promote that knowledge and influence.Social implications – Clearly organizations function best when all voices have had a chance to influence outcomes. Applying these techniques help ensure the reader's perspective is seen.Originality/value – This paper describes clear steps you can take to better influence decisions and impact the organization by enhancing your professional reputation.
Mechanisms of Enhancement of SP82 Transfection

SP82 transfection in Bacillus subtilis could be markedly increased by exposing the competent cells to ultraviolet (UV)-irradiated homologous or heterologous cellular deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This enhancement was similar in time and level of peak effect to enhancements effected by preinfection with helper phages or by UV irradiation of competent cells. The effectiveness of various DNA preparations in increasing transfection paralleled the adenine plus thymidine content of the preparations and was maximal at UV doses approaching those which were maximal for pyrimidine dimerization. The most probable interpretation is that irradiated DNA binds cellular nucleases which would otherwise inactivate the incoming transfecting DNA.
Fetal skin permeability to isotopic water (THO) in early pregnancy

Abstract Permeability of fetal skin to isotopic water (THO) was measured between 12 and 24 week's gestational age. Unkeratinized skin obtained from human fetuses between 12 and 18 cm. crown-rump length gave large permeability values similar to amnion and chorion laeve. Partially and well keratinized skin from 18 to 22.5 cm. crown-rump length fetuses showed little and no permeability, respectively, to THO diffusion. These data suggest that fetal skin may function as a site of significant water and solute exchange between fetus and amniotic fluid during early pregnancy.
Some Generalized Families of Weibull Distribution: Properties and Applications

The Weibull distribution has been applied in various fields, especially to fit life time data. Some of these applications are limited partly due to the fact that the distribution has monotonically increasing, monotonically decreasing or constant hazard rate. This limitation undoubtedly inspired researchers to develop generalized Weibull distribution that can exhibit unimodal or bathtub hazard rate. In this article, we introduce six new families of T-Weibull{Y} distributions arising from the quantile function of a random variable Y. These six families are: The T-Weibull{uniform}, T-Weibull{exponential}, T-Weibull{log-logistic}, T-Weibull{Frechet}, T-Weibull{logistic} and T-Weibull{extreme value}. Some properties of these families are discussed and general expressions for the quantile function, the Shannon’s entropy, the non-central moments and the mean deviations are provided. Different new members of the T-Weibull{Y} families are derived and some of their properties are discussed. Two real data sets are used to illustrate the potential usefulness of the T-Weibull{Y} distributions and the results are compared with the results from some existing distributions.
Aiming at Virtue in Plato: Early education and non-philosophers in the Republic

OVERVIEW When Glaucon and Adeimantus demand that Socrates demonstrate that the just person is happier than the unjust, they are demanding that he show that justice is a good for the soul. Relying on ordinary, common, beliefs, they argue that the consequences of acting unjustly without a reputation for injustice are clearly advantageous. The just person without a just reputation ends up entirely bereft of material possessions, tortured, and finally killed – that is, deprived of absolutely all “external goods.” By contrast, the unjust person who maintains a reputation for justice receives all of the good consequences of that reputation, namely, safety and security for himself and his material possessions, as well as the abundance of material possessions acquired through his unjust behavior, which can then be used to guarantee that one does not suffer any bad consequences in the afterlife by bribing the gods. On “the many's” account justice's and injustice's only value for the soul consists in desire satisfaction or frustration. On this score justice in itself is “painful” (ἐπίπονον) and “harsh” (χαλeπόν), since it thwarts a person's allegedly natural desire for pleonexia . Such a sacrifice of immediate desire may be worth it in circumstances where a person is too weak to ensure that he will not suffer injustice in turn. But since the good consequences of justice can be obtained equally well by successfully seeming to be just, such desire frustration, given propitious circumstances, might not be necessary.
Sodium Tris(trifluoroacetoxy)borohydride

[76791-24-7] C6HBF9NaO6 (MW 373.87) InChI = 1S/C6HBF9O6.Na/c8-4(9,10)1(17)20-7(21-2(18)5(11,12)13)22-3(19)6(14,15)16;/h7H;/q-1;+1 InChIKey = WMQRFILRTHMTRL-UHFFFAOYSA-N (a reducing agent for many different functional groups and heterocycles;1 can serve as a source of trifluoroacetaldehyde or its equivalent;2 is similar to other ionic hydrogenation methods in the facile reduction of benzylic systems3) Physical Data: mp 64–66 °C.4 Solubility: is rapidly destroyed by H2O and protic solvents; H2 is liberated. Common cosolvents for the reactions of this reagent are CH2Cl2, THF, toluene, and Et2O. Form Supplied in: not commercially available. Preparative Methods: normally prepared in situ by the reaction of excess Trifluoroacetic Acid with Sodium Borohydride.1, 4 Analysis of Reagent Purity: has been characterized by elemental analysis and IR.4 Handling, Storage, and Precautions: the preparation of and all reactions involving this reagent should be conducted under an inert atmosphere because H2 may be liberated; this is particularly true when NaBH4 powder is used; NaBH4 pellets are particularly convenient and safe to use for the preparation of NaBH(OCOCF3)3.
The use of an electromagnetic isotope separator in preparing special research samples

Abstract Electromagnetic isotope separator facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been used for the “direct” preparation of special research samples. Description of the separator facilities and some of the techniques in preparing samples for a variety of research activities in an electromagnetic isotope separator are included. Isotope implants in thin and thick substrates have resulted in accelerator targets and doped solid state samples that cannot be produced effectively by other techniques.
An introduction to the neurobiology of oro-facial growth.

Neurotrophism describes a non-membrane conductive activity by which interactions occur between neurons and other cells which initiate or control molecular modifications in other cells. Neuro-epithelial, neuro-muscular, and neuro-visceral trophism is defined and discussed in some detail. Some emphasis is given to data indicating possible neurotrophic control of genetic activity of muscle. It is considered that oro-facial growth may be conceived of as a homeostatically controlled series of processes in which the neural center regulates the peripheral tissues and the periphery, in turn, regulates the center. While this neurobiological hypothesis may stimulate future research, we must clearly understand that we must also inquire as to the means by which neurotrophism is integrated with those other processes involved in growth regulation.
Performance analysis of dynamic finite versioning for concurrent transaction and query processing

In this paper, we analyze the performance of dynamic finite versioning (DFV) schemes for concurrent transaction and query processing, where a finite number of consistent snapshots can be derived for query access. We develop analytical models based on a renewal process approximation to evaluate the performance of DFV using M ≥ 2 snapshots. The storage overhead and obsolescence faced by queries are measured. Simulation is used to validate the analytical models and to evaluate the trade-offs between various starategies for advancing snapshots when M > 2.The results show that (1) the analytical models match closely with simulation; 2) both the storage overhead and obsolescence are sensitive to the snapshot-advancing strategies, especially for M > 2 snapshots; and (3) generally speaking, increasing the number of snapshots demonstrates a trade-off between storage overhead and query obsolescence. For cases with skewed access or low update rates, a moderate increase in the number of snapshots beyond 2 can substantially reduce the obsolescence, while the storage overhead may increase only slightly, or even decrease in some cases. Moreover, for very low update rates, a large number of snapshots demonstrates a trade-off between storage overhead and query obsolescence. For cases with skewed access or low update rates, a moderate increase in the number of snapshots beyond 2 can substantially reduce the obsolescence, while the storage overhead may increase only slightly, or even decrease in some cases. Moreover, for very low update rates, a large number of snapshots can be used to reduce the obsolescence to almost zero without increasing the storage overhead.
Age-dependent fatigue in single intact fast- and slow fibers from mouse EDL and soleus skeletal muscles.

In the present work, we investigate age-dependent changes in isometric endurance in response to repetitive stimulation in single intact fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers from young and old mice. To examine this issue we performed in vitro experiments in manually dissected EDL and soleus muscle fibers. We examined the force generation capacity of fibers in response to two stimulation protocols characterized by different inter-tetanic intervals, named short (1-s) and long interval (3.65-s). Fatigability was measured according to the fatigue index (FI, ratio between the maximum tension recorded in the last over the first tetanus in a train of pulses), the time course of the FI and sag (gradual decrease in force during a partially fused tetanic contraction). Fibers were classified according to the FI using two different criteria previously used in the literature (first criterion: FI > or = 1, 075-099, 0.5-074 and or = 1, 0.75-0.99, 0.25-0.74 and < 0.25). The fatigue index distribution recorded in the population of fibers corresponding to EDL and soleus muscles from young and old mice studied with the short and long interval protocols was not statistically different. In summary, these results support the concept that the decline in mechanical performance with aging is not related with changes in fatigability of individual fast- or slow twitch muscles fibers.
Efficient secure data publishing algorithms for supporting information sharing

Many data sharing applications require that publishing data should protect sensitive information pertaining to individuals, such as diseases of patients, the credit rating of a customer, and the salary of an employee. Meanwhile, certain information is required to be published. In this paper, we consider data-publishing applications where the publisher specifies both sensitive information and shared information. An adversary can infer the real value of a sensitive entry with a high confidence by using publishing data. The goal is to protect sensitive information in the presence of data inference using derived association rules on publishing data. We formulate the inference attack framework, and develop complexity results. We show that computing a safe partial table is an NP-hard problem. We classify the general problem into subcases based on the requirements of publishing information, and propose algorithms for finding a safe partial table to publish. We have conducted an empirical study to evaluate these algorithms on real data. The test results show that the proposed algorithms can produce approximate maximal published data and improve the performance of existing algorithms.
A Helly-type theorem for intersections of orthogonally starshaped sets in \(\mathbb R^d\)

Let \(\mathcal K\) be a finite family of orthogonal polytopes in \(\mathbb R^d\) such that, for every nonempty subfamily \(\mathcal K^\prime \) of \(\mathcal K, \cap \{K : K\) in \(\mathcal K^\prime \}\), if nonempty, is a finite union of boxes whose intersection graph is a tree. Assume that every \(d + 1\) (not necessarily distinct) members of \(\mathcal K\) meet in a (nonempty) staircase starshaped set. Then \(S \equiv \cap \{ K : K\) in \(\mathcal K\}\) is nonempty and staircase starshaped.
A New Species of Myxosporean (Sphaeromyxidae), a Parasite of Lined Seahorses, Hippocampus erectus, from the Gulf of Mexico

abstract: Sphaeromyxa cannolii sp. n. is described from the bile ducts of aquaria-maintained lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) from the Gulf of Mexico. Spores of the new species are linear, 17–18 µm long and 5–6 µm wide, with flattened tips; polar capsules measure 4 × 3 µm. Routine necropsies of H. erectus following planned death revealed liver inflammation, bile duct obstruction, bile accumulation, and myxozoan parasites in the bile ducts of 11 of 40 animals sampled (27.5%). The presence of S. cannolii in an aquaculture setting should prompt keepers to carefully quarantine new animals and exclude annelid fauna, a potential intermediate host of myxozoans.
Glomus tumors and neurofibromatosis: a newly recognized association.

BACKGROUND Glomus tumors are painful benign tumors arising from the neuromyoarterial elements of the glomus body, typically in a subungual location. Historically, glomus tumors have been considered isolated or sporadic, not typically associated with other disease processes. Over the last few years, however, multiple case reports, a molecular genetics study, and an epidemiologic study have confirmed an association between type I neurofibromatosis and glomus tumors. The purpose of this review is to summarize the existing information about the association between neurofibromatosis and glomus tumors and to determine whether glomus tumors that are associated with neurofibromatosis differ from isolated glomus tumors in terms of tumor number, location, and sex distribution. METHODS A PubMed, Ovid Medline, and Cochrane Database search was performed using the terms "glomus tumor," "glomus tumour," and "glomangioma" each combined with the search term "neurofibromatosis." Fifteen English language articles were included. Information about the molecular genetics, patient sex, number of tumors per patient, and tumor location were recorded. RESULTS A total of 36 patients with glomus tumors and neurofibromatosis have been reported in the literature. Seventy-nine percent were female. Tumors were multifocal in 32% of patients, with an average of 1.4 glomus tumors per patient. Glomus tumors arose in a nonsubungual location in 38% of patients. CONCLUSIONS A strong association between type I neurofibromatosis and glomus tumors has been identified. In neurofibromatosis patients with glomus tumors, the sex distribution, tumor location, and tumor burden appear similar to those in patients with isolated glomus tumors. Treating providers should be aware of this association to facilitate prompt diagnosis and treatment.
Molecular energy transfer in condensed matter studied by ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy

Intense tunable vibrational infrared pulses from a free-electron laser and from a laser-pumped optical parametric amplifier can be used to study molecular energy transfer in condensed phase systems. Specific examples discussed here are energy transfer at the active site of a protein, myoglobin, studied by infrared-infrared pump-probe techniques, and energy transfer in a high explosive, nitromethane, probed by infrared-pump, anti-Stokes Raman probe techniques.
2D frequency-domain elastic full-waveform inversion using time-domain modeling and a multistep-length gradient approach

ABSTRACTTo decouple the parameters in elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI), we evaluated a new multistep-length gradient approach to assign individual weights separately for each parameter gradient and search for an optimal step length along the composite gradient direction. To perform wavefield extrapolations for the inversion, we used parallelized high-precision finite-element (FE) modeling in the time domain. The inversion was implemented in the frequency domain; the data were obtained at every subsurface grid point using the discrete Fourier transform at each time-domain extrapolation step. We also used frequency selection to reduce cycle skipping, time windowing to remove the artifacts associated with different source spatial patterns between the test and predicted data, and source wavelet estimation at the receivers over the full frequency spectrum by using a fast Fourier transform. In the inversion, the velocity and density reconstructions behaved differently; as a low-wavenumber tomography (for v...
Social theory and the post-Soviet crisis

Abstract The collapse of the Soviet Union has made a thoroughgoing reassessment of the theoretical orientations of Sovietology and post-Sovietology indispensable. Without an analysis of what went wrong in standard approaches within the former field of Soviet studies, we are unlikely to build any scholarly consensus about how to analyse the turbulent post-Soviet milieu. This essay argues that one crucial theoretical issue remained unresolved in all major branches of Sovietology: the question of how to define regime identity in conceptual and comparative terms. Specifically, neither the totalitarian model nor modernization theory clearly set out any theoretical criteria that could be used to demarcate the beginning and ending of the “Soviet regime” as a distinct entity. As a result, long before the Soviet Union actually collapsed in 1991, most scholars had already concluded that the “Soviet regime” established in 1917 had ceased to exist, conceptually. Indeed, the same theoretical problem in defining regime identity bedevils current analyses of the “Yeltsin regime,” making the resolution of this issue all the more important.
Growth environment, harvest management and germplasm impacts on potential ethanol and crude protein yield in alfalfa

Abstract An alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L) biomass energy production system would produce two products. Leaves would be separated from stems to produce a protein feed for livestock while stems would be processed to produce ethanol. Therefore, maximum yields of both leaves and stems are essential for profitability of this biomass production system. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of growth environment (locations, years and plant density) and harvest maturity stage (early bud (4 annual cuts) and late flower (3 annual cuts)) on leaf crude protein and potential ethanol yields for four alfalfa germplasms, two with high forage quality, and two non-lodging biomass types. Potential ethanol yield was greater at late flower compared to early bud, while leaf crude protein concentration was similar at the two harvest maturity stages at both locations. Leaf crude protein yield was greater at the Minnesota (MN) site compared to Wisconsin (WI) site. The two non-lodging biomass germplasms had greater potential ethanol yield compared to the high forage quality cultivars in WI, but no differences among the alfalfa germplasms were found for ethanol yield at MN. In WI, no differences were found among the germplasms for leaf crude protein yield, but the high quality cultivars had greater leaf crude protein yield than the non-lodging germplasms in MN. While germplasm differences were found for leaf crude protein and potential ethanol yields, the environmental influences of harvest date and locations had the greatest impact on these two alfalfa biomass energy products.
The visual system of male scale insects

Animal eyes generally fall into two categories: (1) their photoreceptive array is convex, as is typical for camera eyes, including the human eye, or (2) their photoreceptive array is concave, as is typical for the compound eye of insects. There are a few rare examples of the latter eye type having secondarily evolved into the former one. When viewed in a phylogenetic framework, the head morphology of a variety of male scale insects suggests that this group could be one such example. In the Margarodidae (Hemiptera, Coccoidea), males have been described as having compound eyes, while males of some more derived groups only have two single-chamber eyes on each side of the head. Those eyes are situated in the place occupied by the compound eye of other insects. Since male scale insects tend to be rare, little is known about how their visual systems are organized, and what anatomical traits are associated with this evolutionary transition. In adult male Margarodidae, one single-chamber eye (stemmateran ocellus) is present in addition to a compound eye-like region. Our histological investigation reveals that the stemmateran ocellus has an extended retina which is formed by concrete clusters of receptor cells that connect to its own first-order neuropil. In addition, we find that the ommatidia of the compound eyes also share several anatomical characteristics with simple camera eyes. These include shallow units with extended retinas, each of which is connected by its own small nerve to the lamina. These anatomical changes suggest that the margarodid compound eye represents a transitional form to the giant unicornal eyes that have been described in more derived species.
A microfluidic device and automatic counting system for the study of C. elegans reproductive aging

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is an excellent model to study reproductive aging because of its short life span, its cessation of reproduction in mid-adulthood, and the strong conservation of pathways that regulate longevity. During its lifetime, a wild-type C. elegans hermaphrodite usually lays about 200–300 self-fertilized hatchable eggs, which mainly occurs in the first three to five days of adulthood. Here, we report the development of a microfluidic assay and a real-time, automatic progeny counting system that records progeny counting information from many individual C. elegans hermaphrodites. This system offers many advantages compared to conventional plate assays. The flow of non-proliferating bacteria not only feeds the worms but also flushes the just-hatched young progeny through a filter that separates mothers from their offspring. The progeny that are flushed out of the chamber are detected and recorded using a novel algorithm. In our current design, one device contains as many as 16 individual chambers. Here we show examples of real-time progeny production information from wild-type (N2) and daf-2 (insulin receptor) mutants. We believe that this system has the potential to become a powerful, high time-resolution tool to study the detailed reproduction of C. elegans.
Silencing The Shriver Report: Postfeminist Citizenship and News Discourse

In 2009, the Center for American Progress and Maria Shriver published a 442-page report calling for institutional-level changes to deal with the types of systemic sexism plaguing U.S. women and families. NBC devoted a week of coverage but replaced the study's content with postfeminist content that privileges a White, middle-class, heterosexual citizen that is especially appealing to advertisers. The discourse surrounding the report symbolizes a new form of postfeminist citizenship that links women's individualized activism with commodification and consumer discourses.
Flexion-extension views in the evaluation of cervical-spine injuries.

Study objective: To determine the efficacy of flexion-extension (F/E) cervical-spine radiographs in detecting acute cervical-spine instability in emergency patients. Design: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 141 consecutive trauma patients who had F/E views performed after a routine cervicalspine series (three views) was obtained in the emergency department. Interpretations of the routine series were compared with those of the F/E views to determine if additional useful information was provided by the latter. The charts also were reviewed to determine if any variables were associated with an increased use of F/E views, an increased likelihood of these views demonstrating instability, or any neurologic sequelae resulted from these studies. Setting: An urban Level I adult trauma center. Measurements: The interpretations of the routine series were noted to be either normal, abnormal but without demonstrable fracture/dislocation, or demonstrating a fracture/dislocation. The F/E views were categorized as stable, unstable, or uninterpretable. Results: Cervical-spine instability was demonstrated by F/E views in 11 of the 141 patients (8%), four of whom had normal routine cervical-spine films. Three of these four patients required surgical stabilization. Prolonged neck pain (more than 24 hours), an initially abnormal spine series, and a neurosurgical consult were all associated with an increased use of F/E views. Ten of 11 patients with radiographic instability had significant neck pain by history; the remaining patient was intoxicated. No neurologic sequelae resulted from performing F/E studies. There was one false-negative F/E study, which raises concern about the reliability of this procedure in the ED. Conclusion: We believe that a large prospective study is required to determine which patients warrant F/E views.
Resistance Extraction from Mask Layout Data

This paper presents a new algorithm to extract resistance values from an integrated circuit artwork description. Instead of trying to solve for the exact resistance values, heuristics are used to find an approximate solution. The algorithm first breaks the input polygons into simple pieces, and then finds the resistance through each piece. This procedure enables the extraction to be both fast and memory efficient. The heuristics used for splitting the polygons and calculating the pieces' resistance are derived from rules of electrostatics, and yield answers that are within 10 percent of the exact resistance values. The operations needed to break complex polygons into simpler pieces are very similar to other geometric operations used in artwork analysis systems.
Ab initio MO study of the symmetrical and asymmetrical isomers of bridging alkynylaluminum and alkynylberyllium dimers

The structures of models for known alkynylaluminum- and alkynylberyllium-bridged dimers were predicted using ab initio molecular orbital methods at the HF/6-31G* level. In both cases, the preferred structure has the bridging alkynyl fragments tilted toward one metal center. Structural comparisons and fragment molecular orbital arguments were used to elucidate the electronic factors leading to the distortion. The essential bonding interaction that stabilizes these structures is π complexation of the alkynyl fragment to one of the metal centers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2003
An abstract topological approach to dynamic programming

Abstract Biconvergence is an intuitive topological condition on the utility function and the intertemporal production correspondence together. Given biconvergence, I show that the true value function exists, that it is characterized as the unique admissible solution to Bellman's equation, and that it may be calculated as the limit of successive approximations. I also derive an overly strong sufficient condition for biconvergence which is easily tested and substantially more general than the Lipschitz condition used by contraction-mapping techniques.
Correlation of electrophysiology, neurochemistry and axonal projections of guinea‐pig sphincter of Oddi neurones

Sphincter of Oddi (SO) ganglia are comprised of two main types of neurones based either on their electrical or neurochemical properties. This study investigated whether any correlation exists between the electrical and neurochemical properties of these cells. SO neurones were characterized electrically as either Tonic or Phasic cells, labelled with neurobiotin, fixed, and processed for β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase (NADPH-DA) staining and choline acetyltransferase immunoreactivity to identify whether electrically characterized neurones were nitrergic or cholinergic. A total of 119 cells were analysed in this manner; 45% of cells were Tonic and 37% were Phasic. An equivalent number of Tonic (58.1%, 18/31) and Phasic cells (60%, 21/35) were choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) positive. Three of 34 Phasic cells were NADPH-DA positive, whereas 11/33 Tonic cells were NADPH-DA positive. In none of the preparations was ChAT immunoreactivity and NADPH-DA reactivity ever observed in the same neurone. Calretinin immunoreactivity was present in a subpopulation of both Tonic and Phasic neurones. No correlation was observed between the direction of axon projections and the electrophysiological or neurochemical properties of the cell. These results suggest that there is a lack of correlation between the electrical properties and the neurochemical content of SO neurones. Various explanations for these findings are discussed.
Treatment with aspirin or clopidogrel does not affect equine platelet expression of P selectin or platelet-neutrophil aggregates.

Abstract Inflammation-induced P-selectin (CD62P) expression on platelets and endothelial cells facilitates interactions among platelets and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), and can also promote coagulation. The effects of clopidogrel and aspirin (ASA) on equine platelet CD62P expression were investigated. Six horses were treated in a cross-over design with clopidogrel (2 mg/kg PO q 24) or ASA (5 mg/kg PO q 24 h) for 5 days. Platelets collected at 24, 72, 96, 120, and 168 h after the initiation of therapy were stimulated using 0.1 μg/mL thrombin, followed by flow cytometric analysis using anti-CD41/61 and anti-equine CD62P antibodies. Platelet–PMN aggregates were also enumerated. Baseline CD62P positive platelet numbers were not different between groups (mean ± SD): 4254 ± 1785 (clopidogrel) and 3600 ± 1780 (ASA, P = 0. 435). Although expression tended to decrease, there were no significant changes in CD62P + platelets after treatment with either drug (clopidogrel P = 0.139, ASA P = 0.161). There was also no difference in platelet–PMN aggregates during or after treatment with ASA (P = 0.513) or clopidogrel (P = 0.543). Due to small numbers of horses, this study may have been underpowered to detect a true decrease in expression, and differences between therapies may have been more pronounced if this study had evaluated horses with systemic inflammation.
Investigation of the Toxic Principles of Hippomane mancinella, L. I. Historical Review

Hippomane mancinella L., family Eupborbiaceae, which grows in southern Florida and other parts of tropical America, is frequently mentioned in the chronicles of the early explorers of the Americas. The Caribs used the sap of the tree as an arrow poison. The fruits, which resemble crab apples, were frequently consumed, often with fatal results. Contact with the sap of the tree or the leaves is reported as causing severe inflammation of the skin or sometimes temporary blindness. Several native plants are used as antidotes.
Meningococcal infection in children.

TWO hundred and seventy five cases of meningococcal meningitis and/or septicaemia treated at the Children’s Hospital Temple Street, Dublin between January 1970 and December 1986 were retrospectively reviewed. Peak incidence was in 1981 (50 cases) and these cases were reviewed in greater detail. The mortality declined from 20 per cent for the 5 year period from 1972–1976 to 2.2 per cent from 1982–1986. The overall mortality 1970–1986 was 7.3 per cent. Over 90 per cent of meningococcal infections were caused by Group B neisseria meningitidis. The disease was seen most frequently during the winter months.
Positive predictive value of computerized records for major congenital malformations.

Purpose To assess the positive predictive value of computerized records in a linked database of vital records and infant claims, with medical record confirmation to detect congenital malformations in a Medicaid population. Methods Study subjects were selected from cases identified for three studies of congenital malformations in the Tennessee Medicaid (TennCare) population including 173 827 (studies 1 and 2) and 519 465 (study 3) mother/infant pairs. Possible malformations were identified from computerized databases of birth certificates linked with maternal and infant claims. Medical records were reviewed for all possible congenital malformations and positive predictive values were calculated for each data source and for each malformation. Results Among 1430 potential congenital malformations identified from either birth certificates or inpatient claims, 67.7% were confirmed by medical record review. The positive predictive value varied considerably depending on the data source and the organ system. For example, cardiac defects had a very low positive predictive value when identified from birth certificates, and somewhat higher positive predictive value when identified from inpatient claims. Orofacial defects had 90.9% positive predictive value from birth certificates and inpatient claims. Requiring evidence of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure increased the positive predictive value to >90% for specific defects, but substantially reduced the number of included cases. Conclusions Depending on the defect, computerized claims data linked to vital records offer opportunities for identifying birth defects in populations of vulnerable persons. However, for many defects, medical record confirmation is likely to be required to provide valid identification of malformation occurrence. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ABSORPTION OF OXYGEN BY ROOTS WHEN THE SHOOT IS IN DARKNESS OR IN LIGHT.

The writer has observed a variation in the oxygen content of the substratum of roots which appears to be related to certain of the environmental conditions of the shoot, especially to light and darkness, to temperature and to the relative humidity, or to the rate of evaporation. It had been observed previously, also, that there might be a direct relation, at least in time, between root growth and the lighting conditions of the shoot,1 although in the preliminary experiments here referred to no relation was found between the rate of root growth and the moisture condition of the air. The present paper gives an account of experiments on the possible relation of the shoot to light and darkness and the variation of the oxygen content of the root environment.
Dealing with Global Economic Imbalances: The Political Economy of Policy Coordination

Abstract Global economic imbalances are not a new phenomenon. However, in the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis in 2008/2009, they have become a matter of increased concern to the international community as reflected by the IMF and G20. They are seen as having contributed to causing the crisis. What can be done to reduce the imbalances? Attention has focused on the idea of internationally coordinating macroeconomic policy. This article assesses policy coordination from both a technical, but more particularly, a political economy angle. It concludes that the scope for formal and detailed policy coordination is strictly limited because of the underlying political constraints. The article examines alternative ways of dealing with global imbalances and offers a prognosis based on political economy considerations.
Sensitivity analysis in Markov decision processes with uncertain reward parameters

Sequential decision problems can often be modeled as Markov decision processes. Classical solution approaches assume that the parameters of the model are known. However, model parameters are usually estimated and uncertain in practice. As a result, managers are often interested in how estimation errors affect the optimal solution. In this paper we illustrate how sensitivity analysis can be performed directly for a Markov decision process with uncertain reward parameters using the Bellman equations. In particular, we consider problems involving (i) a single stationary parameter, (ii) multiple stationary parameters, and (iii) multiple nonstationary parameters. We illustrate the applicability of this work through a capacitated stochastic lot-sizing problem.
The Viral Etiology of Skin Cancer

The concept that viruses may be etiological agents of cancers is as old as the discovery of viruses themselves. In 1908, 3 years before Peyton Rous was passaging what later became to be known as Rous Sarcoma Virus in chickens, two Danish scientists, Ellerman and Bang, were characterizing a transmissible filtrate that reproducibly caused leukemia in chickens. These findings were received with harsh skepticism, and the scientific community did not universally accept the concept that tumors could be caused by transmissible agents. Richard Shope, a colleague of Peyton Rous at the Rockefeller Institute, identified an infectious agent that infected cottontail rabbits. It caused cutaneous papillomas that could grow to be quite large and which may be the basis of sightings of the mystical and ravenous ‘‘Jackelope’’ of southwestern American lore. Shope later collaborated with Rous to demonstrate that exposure of these papillomas to coal tar or infection of a host that does not support viral replication caused malignant progression to skin cancers. This infectious agent, the cottontail rabbit papillomavirus or Sylvilagus floridanus Papillomavirus 1, was the first virus linked to a cancer in a mammalian host (Javier and Butel, 2008; Moore and Chang, 2010) (Figure 1).
Dynamic Fine-Grain Scheduling of Pipeline Parallelism

Scheduling pipeline-parallel programs, defined as a graph of stages that communicate explicitly through queues, is challenging. When the application is regular and the underlying architecture can guarantee predictable execution times, several techniques exist to compute highly optimized static schedules. However, these schedules do not admit run-time load balancing, so variability introduced by the application or the underlying hardware causes load imbalance, hindering performance. On the other hand, existing schemes for dynamic fine-grain load balancing (such as task-stealing) do not work well on pipeline-parallel programs: they cannot guarantee memory footprint bounds, and do not adequately schedule complex graphs or graphs with ordered queues. We present a scheduler implementation for pipeline-parallel programs that performs fine-grain dynamic load balancing efficiently. Specifically, we implement the first real runtime for GRAMPS, a recently proposed programming model that focuses on supporting irregular pipeline and data-parallel applications (in contrast to classical stream programming models and schedulers, which require programs to be regular). Task-stealing with per-stage queues and queuing policies, coupled with a backpressure mechanism, allow us to maintain strict footprint bounds, and a buffer management scheme based on packet-stealing allows low-overhead and locality-aware dynamic allocation of queue data. We evaluate our runtime on a multi-core SMP and find that it provides low-overhead scheduling of irregular workloads while maintaining locality. We also show that the GRAMPS scheduler outperforms several other commonly used scheduling approaches. Specifically, while a typical task-stealing scheduler performs on par with GRAMPS on simple graphs, it does significantly worse on complex ones, a canonical GPGPU scheduler cannot exploit pipeline parallelism and suffers from large memory footprints, and a typical static, streaming scheduler achieves somewhat better locality, but suffers significant load imbalance on a general-purpose multi-core due to fine-grain architecture variability (e.g., cache misses and SMT).
Neuropeptide Y Y2 receptor‐mediated attenuation of neurogenic plasma extravasation acting through pertussis toxin‐sensitive mechanisms

1. The effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) receptor agonists (administered intravenously) were examined on plasma protein ([125I]-bovine serum albumin) leakage within dura mater evoked by unilateral trigeminal ganglion stimulation (0.6 mA, 5 ms, 5 Hz, 5 min), capsaicin (1 mumol kg-1, i.v.) or substance P (1 nmol kg-1, i.v.) in anaesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. 2. NPY (EC50: 5.6 nmol kg-1) and NPY fragment 13-36 [NPY (13-36)] (ED50: 4.3 nmol kg-1), an NPY Y2 receptor agonist, dose-dependently attenuated [125I]-bovine serum albumin extravasation from meningeal vessels when administered 10 min prior to electrical stimulation. [Leu31, Pro34]-NPY, an NPY Y1 and Y3 receptor agonist, inhibited the response at a higher dose only (23 nmol kg-1) (P < 0.05). 3. NPY also significantly decreased plasma protein extravasation induced by capsaicin (1 mumol kg-1) but not by substance P (1 nmol kg-1). 4. Pertussis toxin (20 micrograms kg-1, administered intracisternally 48 h prior to stimulation) blocked completely the inhibitory effect of NPY and NPY (13-36) but did not inhibit extravasation alone. 5. We conclude that NPY inhibits neurogenically-mediated plasma protein extravasation acting through presynaptic pertussis toxin-sensitive NPY Y2 receptors, possibly by inhibition of neuropeptide release from perivascular trigeminovascular afferents.
Optimization of nonlinear energy operator based spike detection circuit for high density neural recordings

Future brain machine interface systems will require recording thousands of neural channels, making it important to minimize the power and area of neural interface integrated circuits. Spike detection is an essential step for neural signal processing. This paper describes the design of a spike detection circuit based on the nonlinear energy operator (NEO) algorithm that is optimized for power and area. Through statistical analysis of NEO coefficients, the number of computations is minimized and the number of registers is shown to be as low as one per channel without degenerating spike detection performance. Based on an analysis of the power-area tradeoff, an optimal 16-channel interleaved architecture is presented and shown to achieve a factor of 4 improvement in power-area product compared to reported NEO implementations.
Commentary on “Microparticle-associated tissue factor activity in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and its effect on fibrin clot formation”

He died6 months later of gastric cancer.In the approximately 150 years since Trousseau’sobservation,muchhasbeenlearnedabouttheassociationof cancer, activation of the coagulation system, and clin-icalthrombosis.Yet,manyquestionsremain.Ifprocoagu-lant activity is expressed locally by the cancer cellsthemselves, why do thromboses typically develop atdistantsites?Deepveinthrombosesandresultantpulmo-naryembolismaremuchmorecommonthanlocalthrom-bosis at the cancer site. By what mechanism ormechanismsdocancercellsinduceasystemicprothrom-botic state? The new study by Thaler and colleagues, ontissue factor-bearing microparticles (TF-MP) helps toaddress this question. To understand the contribution ofthe Thaler article, it is helpful to ﬁrst review the context.In addition to the observation that thrombosis ratesaremorecommonincancerpatients,anotherkeyobser-vation,mademynumerousauthors,isthatpatientswithlocally advanced or metastatic cancer who demonstratea thrombotic tendency exhibit a reduced survivalcompared with similar patients without a thrombotictendency. Sorensen et al
Feminist leadership through total quality management

Feminist leadership in nursing can be achieved through Total Quality Management. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a philosophy and technology that represents the foundation of a continuously improving organization. The feminist leadership ideas practiced by nurses, such as empowering staff and decision by consensus, are also central to TQM. Feminist leadership utilizing TQM enables employees to creatively contribute to the system without fear or intimidation. Employees at all levels in the organization are then empowered. The role of the feminist leader using TQM is one of facilitator rather than authority figure. Feminist leadership in nursing can spearhead the opportunity for improvement to provide high-quality, cost-effective health care in a troubled and complex economic environment.
An Inverse Approach on Load Identification From Optimally Placed Accelerometers

This paper presents an inverse approach for estimating dynamic loads acting on a structure from acceleration time response measured experimentally at finite number of optimally placed accelerometers on the structure. The structure acts as its own load transducer. The approach is based on the standard equilibrium equation of motion in modal coordinates. Modal model of a system is defined by its modal parameters — natural frequencies, corresponding mode shapes and modal damping factors. These parameters can be estimated experimentally from measured data, analytically for simple problems, or from finite element method. For measurement of the acceleration response, there can be a large number of combinations of locations on the structure where the accelerometers can be mounted and the results may be quite sensitive to the locations selected for accelerometer placements. In fact, the precision with which the applied loads are estimated from measured acceleration response depends on the number of accelerometers utilized and their location on the component. Implementation of a methodology to determine the optimum set of accelerometer locations, based on the construction of D-optimal design, is presented to guide the selection of number and locations of accelerometers that will provide the most precise load estimates. A technique based on model reduction is proposed to reconstruct the input forces accurately. A numerical validation that helps to understand the main characteristics of the proposed approach is also presented. The numerical results reveal the effectiveness and utility of the technique.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
A Generative Model For Time Series Discretization Based On Multiple Normal Distributions

Discretization is a crucial first step in several time series mining applications. Our research proposes a novel method to discretize time series data and develops a similarity score based on the discretized representation. The similarity score allows us to compare two time series sequences and enables us to perform pattern learning tasks such as clustering, classification, and anomaly detection. We propose a generative model for discretization based on multiple normal distributions and create an optimization technique to learn parameters of these normal distributions. To show the effectiveness of our approach, we perform comprehensive experiments in classifying datasets from the UCR time series repository.