cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multi-band OFDM and p-persistent CSMA/CD-based indoor powerline communication (PLC) systems

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-band OFDM indoor powerline communication (PLC) system. The physical layer of the proposed system consists of multi-band OFDM, convolutional encoding, Viterbi decoding, and interleaver. p-persistent CSMA/CD is adopted as the MAC layer protocol. A PLC channel model proposed by OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance) is considered. Taking account of the characteristics of the powerline noises, an efficient noise detection scheme is applied to dynamically choose among multiple OFDM bands. System performance is evaluated by extensive simulations and the results show that the proposed system can reach a low BER and high system throughput.
Gender in African Population Research: The Fertility/Reproductive Health Example

We survey the literature on sub-Saharan Africa to identify how gender has factored into explaining fertility levels and behavior. Tracing the development of male role theory, we argue that despite increasing awareness of men's authority, fertility research continues to focus almost exclusively on women and treats gender as a property of individuals instead of as a system of inequality. The mainstream fertility literature generally overlooks the decision-making nexus wherein men's authority seemingly overrides women's preferences. Positing that male authority in the reproductive and sexual arenas is predicated on cultural rights negotiated at marriage—and undergirded by bridewealth payments—we contend that attempts to understand (and change) reproductive behavior will hardly be sustainable without attention to this contextual realm. In that vein, we speculate that efforts to empower women (via increased education, occupational opportunities, microcredit schemes, etc.) may hardly yield sustainable outcomes ...
Surface Wind Measurements and Low-Level Cloud Motion Vectors near the Intertropical Convergence Zone In the Central Pacific Ocean from November 1977 to March 1978

Abstract Moored buoy wind measurements were made at 15 min intervals at 3.5 m height at 6, 7 and 8°N along 150°W in the central equatorial Pacific from November 1977 to March 1978. During November, December and January the Intertropical Convergence Zone occurred near 8, 7 and 6°N, respectively, indicating a southward movement of ∼3 km day−1. The east and north spectra of each record did not contain any significant (at the 95% confidence level) peaks and the spectral estimates decreased with increasing frequency with a slope of about −1.5. Wind fluctuations at frequencies <0.01 and 0.005 cycles per hour (cph) were coherent (at the 95% confidence level) with zero phase difference for horizontal distances of 110 and 22O km, respectively. The noise level of the coherent wind fluctuations was less than 50%. The mean value of a first-order approximation of the divergence between 6 and 7°N was (−1.0 ± 6.5) × 10−5 s−1. On short time-scales, such as 28 h, the divergence between 6 and 7°N changed from zero to −1.3 ...
Biosensors: Microcantilevers to lift biomolecules.

Nanomechanical sensors can now detect femtomolar concentrations of analytes within minutes without the need to passivate the underlying cantilever surface.
Indicators of hotel profitability: Model selection using Akaike information criteria

Research in the important area of evaluating the relationship of hotel room sales with hotel amenities, for instance, food and beverage sales is limited. While this study focuses on differences in overall profitability when considering the transient rate at hotels, the authors have utilized data from hotels with food and beverage operations in order to provide additional insights for this sector. The results show that when modeling the profitability of a hotel, several items are important and should be included when analyzing profitability. The segment of the market, type of hotel, location of the hotel, number of rooms, and average daily rate are all found to be important factors in determining profitability and should be included in models of profit. The transient rate is controlled for in all models but is found to be a significant factor in determining the profitability of a hotel in only some specifications.
Temperature Dependence of Two-Dimensional Spin Anisotropies

Large anisotropy energy is an essential property of high quality permanent magnets. In previous work we have calculated the spin polarized electronic structure and anisotropy of monolayers and slabs of Fe, Ni, and V. In this work we calculate the dependence on temperature of the spin anisotropy of a ferromagnetic monolayer of Fe. We find the easy direction of magnetization is not sensitive to the temperature; the variations calculated here are likely too small to be observed. It is perpendicular to the plane of the surface for both low and high temperatures. The calculations become progressively more ill-behaved as the temperatures are lowered and require more computer time for satisfactory convergence. For Fe/Cu (100), we find the spins always prefer to point out of plane. Experimental results in general are consistent with this view, although the systems seem to be difficult to prepare.
Association between CYP2C19 polymorphisms and clopidogrel pharmacodynamics in patients with coronary heart disease undergoing PCI

Objective:To investigate whether CYP2C19 polymorphisms account for the differences of the pharmacodynamics indexes of clopidogrel including platelet function and cardiac enzyme in patients with coronary heart disease undergoing PCI. Methods:Patients with coronary heart disease undergoing PCI were recruited prospectively and divided into two groups according to TaqMan assay result whether the patients carried any CYP2C19 * 2/* 3 loss-of-function(LOF) allele or not. Platelet aggregation induced by ADP before PCI and cTNI before and 24 hours after PCI were measured and compared in patients who received coronary stent implementation between groups. Results:Three hundred and sixty-five patients underwent coronary stent placement,among whom 150 were assigned into non-carrier group and 215 into carrier group. One hundred and ninety-nine patients carried at least one LOF allele of * 2,including 161 heterozygotes and 38 homozygotes,and 24 patients were heterozygotes with only one LOF allele of * 3. The platelet aggregation was significantly lower in the non-carrier group(52. 2 ± 13. 2%) than carrier group(58. 9 ± 11. 1) %,P 0. 001). cTNI increased significantly after PCI procedure as compared with baseline in both non-carrier group and carrier group [(0. 409 ± 1. 483) vs(0. 027 ± 0. 148) ng·mL- 1, P = 0. 002;(0. 318 ± 0. 986) vs(0. 038 ± 0. 232) ng·mL- 1,P 0. 001],but did not differ between groups in the same period(P 0. 05). Conclusion:CYP2C19 LOF allele carriage may reduce the anti-platelet function of clopidogrel,but has no effect on the cTNI level within 24 hours after elective PCI procedure.
The Diffusion Process of Strategic Motivating Language: An Examination of the Internal Organizational Environment and Emergent Properties:

Motivating language (ML) is a leader oral-communication strategy which has been significantly linked to such positive employee outcomes as higher job performance, increased job satisfaction, lower intention to turnover, and decreased absenteeism. However, most ML research has not targeted an organizational system at multiple levels. In brief, we have not looked at how this beneficial form of communication is actually implemented throughout an organization, including at the CEO level. In response to this gap, our main goals were to identify robust hypotheses on ML diffusion for future empirical testing, better understand the emergent processes of ML adoption within an organization, and advance development of related theory. These goals were achieved through an agent-based simulation model, drawn from management, communication, and social network scholarship. More specifically, overview, design concepts, and details protocol and NetLogo software were applied to simulate ML diffusion among all leader levels ...
Applications of Pattern Discovery Using Sequential Data Mining

Sequential pattern mining methods have been found to be applicable in a large number of domains. Sequential data is omnipresent. Sequential pattern mining methods have been used to analyze this data and identify patterns. Such patterns have been used to implement efficient systems that can recommend based on previously observed patterns, help in making predictions, improve usability of systems, detect events, and in general help in making strategic product decisions. In this chapter, we discuss the applications of sequential data mining in a variety of domains like healthcare, education, Web usage mining, text mining, bioinformatics, telecommunications, intrusion detection, et cetera. We conclude with a summary of the work.
Engineering Imagination with Ideation

This paper explores the components and efficacy of an engineering-based Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program with a focus on ideation. Leveraging the imaginative and iterative elements of the ideation process, participants engaged in inquiry exploring energy harvesting and novel sensor technology. In modeling the ideation methodology, participants were more engaged in authentic research, which subsequently fostered the creation of novel lesson plans extending beyond the classroom. The importance of research-based, STEM- based RET experiences are a critical feature of bolstering teacher content and pedagogical skills while embedding features of student-centered elements such as creativity and imagination. During the following school year, participating teachers created an inter-district competition designing Ebolavirus sensors using the One Health framework introduced in the summer research experience program. An example of a student product is provided. A discussion of alignment to science curriculum standards as well as the need of these programs are also discussed.
Efficient modeling of a small circular loop coupling to multi-conductor transmission lines above a PEC ground

A low-frequency coupling model from a small circular loop antenna to a multi-conductor transmission line (TL) system composed of N perfect electric conductor (PEC) wires above a PEC ground is presented. The telegrapher's equations for the model are presented, and a computationally efficient analytical solution for the induced current distributions is formulated for each wire. An example is constructed in FEKO and the induced currents are compared with the proposed method, showing excellent agreement.
Open charm as a probe of pre-equilibrium dynamics in nuclear collisions?

Abstract The present study is motivated by two recent studies of open charm which predicted widely different rates. In ref.[1] the pre-equilibrium contribution was found to be almost equal to initial gluon fusion rate. In ref.[2], a more provocative claim was made that open charm may even be enhanced by over an order of magnitude above the initial pQCD rate. The main result of our present study is that correlations between the rapidity y and the space-time rapidity η lead to a large suppression (about a factor of 40) relative to the uncorrelated case. Thus, the pre-equilibrium open charm production is found to be unfortunately a very small fraction of the initial fusion rate. The large enhancement of charm production in ref. [2] is found to be due to an overestimation of the contribution from the flavor excitation processes and the use of a low energy A α scaling from pp reactions measured at E lab = 300 – 400 GeV.
Multi-device coverage testing of mobile applications

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of coverage approaches for selecting mobile devices (i.e., smartphones and tablets) to test mobile software applications. Due to the large number of such devices on the market and the variations in their characteristics, it is hard to guarantee that an application will work as intended on all devices. For this reason, multi-device testing is necessary. The goal of this research was to determine how many devices must be tested and which methods for device selection are best for revealing device-specific faults. We experimentally investigated a simple coverage of all values of each device's features separately and the each-choice coverage (i.e., the coverage of all device characteristics at the same time). To collect the experimental data, 15 Android applications were tested on 30 mobile devices and 24 device-specific faults were detected. Our research shows that a random selection of 13 devices achieved 100% effectiveness. However, coverage of device characteristics in the selection process yielded an acceptable 90% level of effectiveness with a set of only five devices. The most successful approaches were the coverage of different types of Android operating systems and the each-choice coverage. Our results include recommendations for increasing the effectiveness while decreasing the costs of mobile testing.
Performance and safety of femoral central venous catheters in pediatric autologous peripheral blood stem cell collection.

Introduction Autologous peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cell collection (A-HPCC) in children typically requires placement of a central venous catheter (CVC) for venous access. There is scant published data regarding the performance and safety of femoral CVCs in pediatric A-HPCC. Methods Seven-year, retrospective study of A-HPCC in pediatric patients collected between 2009 and January 2017. Inclusion criteria were an age ≥ 21 years and A-HPCC using a femoral CVC for venous access. Femoral CVC performance was examined by CD34 collection rate, inlet rate, collection efficiency (MNC-FE, CD34-FE), bleeding, flow-related adverse events (AE), CVC removal, and product sterility testing. Statistical analysis and graphing were performed with commercial software. Results A total of 75/119 (63%) pediatric patients (median age 3 years) met study criteria. Only 16% of children required a CVC for ≥ 3 days. The CD34 collect rate and CD34-FE was stable over time whereas MNC-FE decreased after day 4 in 80% of patients. CD34-FE and MNC-FE showed inter- and intra-patient variability over time and appeared sensitive to plerixafor administration. Femoral CVC showed fewer flow-related AE compared to thoracic CVC, especially in pediatric patients (6.7% vs. 37%, P = 0.0005; OR = 0.12 (95%CI: 0.03-0.45). CVC removal was uneventful in 73/75 (97%) patients with hemostasis achieved after 20–30 min of pressure. In a 10-year period, there were no instances of product contamination associated with femoral CVC colonization. Conclusion Femoral CVC are safe and effective for A-HPCC in young pediatric patients. Femoral CVC performance was maintained over several days with few flow-related alarms when compared to thoracic CVCs.
Blind localization and segregation of two sources including a binaural head movement model

This study investigates how virtual head rotations can improve a binaural model's ability to segregate speech signals. The model takes two mixed speech sources spatialized to unique azimuth positions and localizes them. The model virtually rotates its head to orient itself for the maximum signal-to-noise ratio for extracting the target. An equalization-cancellation approach is used to generate a binary mask for the target based on localization cues. The mask is then overlaid onto the mixed signal's spectrogram to extract the target from the mixture. Improvement in signal-to-noise ratios from head rotation approaches over 30 dB.
Rotating Bacteria on Solid Surfaces without Tethering.

Abstract Bacterial motion is strongly affected by the presence of a surface. One of the hallmarks of swimming near a surface is a defined curvature of bacterial trajectories, underlining the importance of counter rotations of the cell body and flagellum for locomotion of the microorganism. We find that there is another mode of bacterial motion on solid surfaces, i.e., self trapping due to fluid flows created by a rotating flagellum perpendicular to the surface. For a rod-like bacterium, such as Escherichia coli, this creates a peculiar situation in that the bacterium appears to swim along a minor axis of the cell body and is pressed against the surface. Although a full hydrodynamic theory is still lacking to explain the self-trapping phenomenon, the effect is intriguing and can be exploited to study a variety of biophysical phenomena of swimming bacteria. In particular, we showed that self-trapped E. coli cells display a chemotaxis response that is identical to the classical rotation assay in which antibodies are used to physically “glue” a flagellum to the surface.
Assessment of zinc phosphide bait shyness and tools for reducing flavor aversions.

Abstract Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster Wagner) cause extensive damage in agricultural, suburban, and urban environments. Control of these animals has historically relied on the use of anticoagulant rodenticides and zinc phosphide. However, shyness to zinc phosphide baits has reduced its efficacy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors involved in zinc phosphide bait shyness through preference testing. Baits were made using a rolled oat base and contained various combinations of the components of zinc phosphide baits such as lecithin, magnesium carbonate and known flavor modulators sodium cyclamate and zinc sulfate. Encapsulation of zinc phosphide was also tested as a potential means to mask undesirable flavor qualities of the compound. Consumption of test baits was measured in four day laboratory feeding trials. Results demonstrated that numerous components of current bait formulations serve as salient cues during conditioned aversions and therefore may contribute to bait shyness. Vole avoidance of zinc sulfate and sodium cyclamate revealed that these potential additives would not decrease bait shyness. Encapsulation of zinc phosphide may have masked some of the negative flavor cues and therefore should be considered in future bait development. This study suggests that, since voles are able to distinguish components of current bait formulations, varying composition of zinc phosphide baits between applications may serve to reduce bait shyness.
Inhibition of peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)α by MK886

Although MK886 was originally identified as an inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase activating protein (FLAP), recent data demonstrate that this activity does not underlie its ability to induce apoptosis [Datta, Biswal and Kehrer (1999) Biochem. J. 340, 371--375]. Since FLAP is a fatty-acid binding protein, it is conceivable that MK886 may affect other such proteins. A family of nuclear receptors that are activated by fatty acids and their metabolites, the peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), have been implicated in apoptosis and may represent a target for MK886. The ability of MK886 to inhibit PPAR-alpha, -beta and -gamma activity was assessed using reporter assay systems (peroxisome-proliferator response element--luciferase). Using a transient transfection system in monkey kidney fibroblast CV-1 cells, mouse keratinocyte 308 cells and human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, 10--20 microM MK886 inhibited Wy14,643 activation of PPAR alpha by approximately 80%. Similar inhibition of PPAR alpha by MK886 was observed with a stable transfection reporter system in CV-1 cells. Only minimal inhibitory effects were seen on PPAR beta and PPAR gamma. MK886 inhibited PPAR alpha by a non-competitive mechanism as shown by its effects on the binding of arachidonic acid to PPAR alpha protein, and a dose-response study using a transient transfection reporter assay in COS-1 cells. An assay assessing PPAR ligand-receptor interactions showed that MK886 prevents the conformational change necessary for active-complex formation. The expression of keratin-1, a protein encoded by a PPAR alpha-responsive gene, was reduced by MK886 in a culture of mouse primary keratinocytes, suggesting that PPAR inhibition has functional consequences in normal cells. Although Jurkat cells express all PPAR isoforms, various PPAR alpha and PPAR gamma agonists were unable to prevent MK886-induced apoptosis. This is consistent with MK886 functioning as a non-competitive inhibitor of PPAR alpha, but may also indicate that PPAR alpha is not directly involved in MK886-induced apoptosis. Although numerous PPAR activators have been identified, the results show that MK886 can inhibit PPAR alpha, making it the first compound identified to have such an effect.
Sleep and Aging: Prevalence of Disturbed Sleep and Treatment Considerations in Older Adults

Although sleep patterns change with age, it is the change in the ability to sleep that precipitates sleep complaints in older adults. Waking not rested, waking too early, trouble falling asleep, daytime napping, nocturnal waking, and difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep are among the chief sleep complaints of older adults. The consequences of poor sleep include difficulty sustaining attention, slowed response time, difficulty with memory, and decreased performance. Both medical and psychiatric conditions as well as the medications used to treat them lead to sleep complaints in older adults. Circadian rhythm disturbances and primary sleep disorders may also result in sleep complaints. Appropriate treatment may be dictated by severity of symptoms and concurrent medications. Efficacious pharmacologic interventions are the nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics zolpidem, zaleplon, and eszop-iclone. Two new agents, ramelteon, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in adults with insomnia, and immediate release and modified release indiplon, which is currently under investigation, have been effective in clinical trials. Cognitive-behavioral therapy alone and in combination with medication have been effective in improving sleep in older adults. Sleep disturbance is not a natural consequence of aging, but rather a treatable condition.
3.16 – Hair Cell Transduction and Adaptation: Physiology and Molecular Mechanisms

Hair cells, the primary sensory receptor cells within the inner ear, convert, or transduce, mechanical stimuli evoked by sound and head movements into electrical signals which are transmitted to the brain. The mechanosensitive organelle, the hair bundle, protrudes from the apical surface of the cell and is composed of a staircase array of actin-rich microvilli, termed stereocilia. Excitatory deflections of the hair bundle towards the tallest stereocilia tension biophysically defined gating springs, which directly open mechanosensitive, cation-selective ion channels located near the stereociliary tips. The open channels pass inward current, carried primarily by potassium and calcium ions, which depolarizes the hair cell and initiates the sensory signal. Hair cells adapt to sustained bundle deflections by adjusting channel open probability back toward the resting value. A slow adaptation process involving a molecular motor serves to maximize stimulus sensitivity over a broad operating range, while a fast adaptation process may play an integral role in frequency tuning and amplification. A well-established biophysical model of hair cell transduction and adaptation will be presented along with the evidence that supports the model. In addition, possible molecular identities of the elements of the biophysical model, including the gating spring, transduction channel and the adaptation machinery, will be discussed.
What Do I See? Modeling Human Visual Perception for Multi-person Tracking

This paper presents a novel approach for multi-person tracking utilizing a model motivated by the human vision system. The model predicts human motion based on modeling of perceived information. An attention map is designed to mimic human reasoning that integrates both spatial and temporal information. The spatial component addresses human attention allocation to different areas in a scene and is represented using a retinal mapping based on the log-polar transformation while the temporal component denotes the human attention allocation to subjects with different motion velocity and is modeled as a static-dynamic attention map. With the static-dynamic attention map and retinal mapping, attention driven motion of the tracked target is estimated with a center-surround search mechanism. This perception based motion model is integrated into a data association tracking framework with appearance and motion features. The proposed algorithm tracks a large number of subjects in complex scenes and the evaluation on public datasets show promising improvements over state-of-the-art methods.
Plant Mitochondrial Genome Diversity: The Genomics Revolution

Mitochondrial genomes are remarkably diverse among green plants, and the explosion of genome sequencing over the last 30 years has greatly expanded our understanding of this diversity. Genome sizes range from 20 kilobases in some green algae to several megabases in certain angiosperms. The repertoire of genes, introns, repeats, and RNA editing is also variable, as is the amount of DNA integrated from foreign sources, including the plastid, nucleus, and other species. Genome structure is labile due to recombination involving large and small repeats, which produces multiple genomic arrangements within species and loss of synteny among species. In this review, we describe the range of diversity among plant mitochondrial genomes, discuss how the genomics revolution has advanced our understanding of this diversity, and stress the importance of future studies to resolve remaining uncertainties
Modelle und Simulationen

Ein Modell ist ein Substitut fur ein Objekt oder ein System. Ein Modell kann viele Formen haben und kann vielen Zwecken dienen. Wir kennen physikalische Modelle, die irgendwelche Objekte darstellen. Die Modellautos und die Modellsoldaten der Kinder erfullen einen visuellen Zweck, indem sie die Einbildungskraft und den Spieltrieb anregen. Ein Architekturmodell vermittelt einen Eindruck von Raumen und Anordnungen. Starker verbreitet sind aber die mehr abstrakten Modelle. Im weitesten Sinne sind alle Regeln und Beziehungen, die irgendetwas beschreiben, Modelle eben dieser Objekte. In diesem Sinne basiert unser ganzes Denken auf Modellen.
A Title Removed: First Lady Michelle Obama Since Leaving the White House

This chapter examines First Lady Michelle Obama’s impact and legacy for young women and girls. She argues that although a title was removed after election 2016, her impact and influence will continue to influence generations of women. The First Lady is no longer in the White House, but she will always remain a strong empowering figure for women and girls all over the world.
Child heritage speakers’ production and comprehension of direct object clitic gender in Spanish

Abstract This study investigates 37 child heritage speakers’ direct object (DO) clitics in Spanish. Results from a production task show that DO expression versus omission was related to Spanish vocabulary: the lower the vocabulary score, the more omitted DOs. In contrast, DO clitic gender was related to English: children who used more English in the home and who had higher English vocabulary scores produced more gender mismatches, most notably lo referring to feminine referents. Results from a comprehension task suggest that children do not attend to clitic gender for referent identification. We argue that the disambiguation function of DO clitic gender, which is infrequent in discourse, may take a long time to develop. Overall, the study suggests that the extent to which restricted input and crosslinguistic influence affect child heritage speakers’ minority language grammar may be mediated by the nature of the linguistic phenomenon in question.
Assessment of AUV Hydrodynamic Coefficients from Analytic and Semi-Empirical Methods

Approximation techniques for the coefficients that parameterize the hydrodynamic forces acting on a maneuvering underwater vehicle are presented and discussed. While captive tests yield the highest fidelity coefficients, they also incur significant costs that are prohibitive in early vehicle design phases. We present a method, requiring only a vehicle's geometric profile, to predict a vehicle's hydrodynamic coefficients. The method is applied to the SATLP vehicle. Using computational fluid dynamics simulations, we assess the uncertainty of the approximate method, and show that the method yields hydrodynamic coefficients that satisfactorily approximate a vehicle's dynamic behavior, suitable for preliminary vehicle design analysis.
Family contact in juvenile confinement facilities: Analysis of the likelihood of and barriers to contact

AbstractAlthough family relationships are important for incarcerated adolescents, little is known about barriers and facilitators of family contact. The present study used the Survey of Youth in Re...
Esophageal motility classification can be established at the time of endoscopy: a study evaluating real-time functional luminal imaging probe panometry.

Background and Aims A novel device that provides real-time depiction of functional luminal image probe (FLIP) panometry (ie, esophagogastric junction [EGJ] distensibility and distension-induced contractility) was evaluated. We aimed to compare real-time FLIP panometry interpretation at the time of sedated endoscopy with high-resolution manometry (HRM) in evaluating esophageal motility. Methods Forty consecutive patients (aged 24-81 years; 60% women) referred for endoscopy with a plan for future HRM from 2 centers were prospectively evaluated with real-time FLIP panometry during sedated upper endoscopy. The EGJ distensibility index and contractility profile were applied to derive a FLIP panometry classification at the time of endoscopy and again (post-hoc) using a customized program. HRM was classified according to the Chicago classification. Results Real-time FLIP panometry motility classification was abnormal in 29 patients (73%), 19 (66%) of whom had a subsequent major motility disorder on HRM. All 9 patients with an HRM diagnosis of achalasia had abnormal real-time FLIP panometry classifications. Eleven patients (33%) had normal motility on real-time FLIP panometry and 8 (73%) had a subsequent HRM without a major motility disorder. There was excellent agreement (κ = .939) between real-time and post-hoc FLIP panometry interpretation of abnormal motility. Conclusions This prospective, multicentered study demonstrated that real-time FLIP panometry could detect abnormal esophageal motility, including achalasia, at the endoscopic encounter. Additionally, normal motility on FLIP panometry was predictive of a benign HRM. Thus, real-time FLIP panometry incorporated with endoscopy appears to provide a suitable and well-tolerated point-of-care esophageal motility assessment.
Agricultural field shape descriptors as predictors of field efficiency for perennial grass harvesting: An empirical proof

Abstract Perennial grasses can serve as a material for bioenergy, biomaterials, animal feed or bedding, or other purposes. Researchers suggest that planting perennial grasses on marginal parts of agricultural fields can provide sustainability benefits; however, planting the marginal areas may result in complex shapes and changes to field areas and thus be difficult to harvest. Harvesting costs can be a limiting factor in widely adopting perennial grasses, so the more efficient the machinery operations are, the more viable perennial crops become for farmers and bioenergy stakeholders. This study explores the relationship between field shape and size and empirically derived harvesting efficiency to support assumptions relative to predicting harvesting cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, labor demands, and other factors impacting willingness to cultivate energy crops, which can be impacted by field efficiency. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) mowing data were used in the study. The regression analysis showed that the natural log transformation of the perimeter-to-area (P/A) ratio was the most accurate predictor for field efficiency (FE) (R2 = 71%) among shape descriptors as it takes both field size and shape into account. Optimizing field designs that combine annual crops and perennial grasses for lower P/A ratios will decrease operation costs and, thus, improve the rate of practice adoption of perennial grasses in agriculture.
Performance Evaluation of MPI Libraries on GPU-Enabled OpenPOWER Architectures: Early Experiences

The advent of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-enabled OpenPOWER architectures are empowering the advancement of various High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications from dynamic modular simulation to deep learning training. GPU-aware Message Passing Interface (MPI) is one of the most efficient libraries used to exploit the computing power on GPU-enabled HPC systems at scale. However, there is a lack of thorough performance evaluations for GPU-aware MPI libraries to provide insights into the varying costs and benefits of using each one on GPU-enabled OpenPOWER systems. In this paper, we provide a detailed performance evaluation and analysis of point-to-point communication using various GPU-aware MPI libraries including SpectrumMPI, OpenMPI+UCX, and MVAPICH2-GDR on OpenPOWER GPU-enabled systems. We demonstrate that all three MPI libraries deliver approximately 95% of achievable bandwidth for NVLink communication between two GPUs on the same socket. For inter-node communication where the InfiniBand network dominates the peak bandwidth, MVAPICH2-GDR and SpectrumMPI attain approximately 99% achievable bandwidth, while OpenMPI delivers close to 95%. This evaluation is useful to determine which MPI library can provide the highest performance enhancement.
Male Participation in Reproductive Health Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review.

Context Despite improvements in reproductive health indicators among women living in Sub-Saharan Africa, the persistence of poor outcomes underscores the need to examine recent interventions to inform future research, programming and policy. Because men in this context have an outsize role in reproductive decision making, assessing their involvement in reproductive health programs is an important step in meeting men's needs, supporting women's health and improving family health. Methods A scoping review was conducted to identify relevant literature and assess evidence of the impact of male involvement in reproductive health interventions. Seven databases were searched using terms related to male involvement and reproductive health; searches were limited to research conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa and published in English between 2007 and 2018. Remaining studies were assessed by participant characteristics, settings, research design, theoretical frameworks, outcome measures and findings. Results Searches identified 18 studies conducted in eight countries. Interventions engaged participants by using such strategies as community health workers, written invitation, peers, community or religious leaders and media campaigns. Results show that men are willing to participate in reproductive health programs and that their involvement is associated with increased uptake of family planning services, and HIV counseling and testing; reduction in risk behaviors; and improved maternal health and spousal communication. Conclusions Given the findings that male involvement is positively associated with improved reproductive health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa, health providers and program planners should consider including men in reproductive health interventions, when feasible.
Characteristics of and Sources of Support for Women Who Breastfed Multiples for More than 12 Months.

Background and Objective: Although rates of breastfeeding initiation for multiples may be similar to those of singletons, breastfeeding duration falls short. Evidence-based interventions tailored t...
An Experimental Animal Model that Parallels Neurosensory Assessments of Concussion.

INTRODUCTION Tactile-based quantitative sensory assessments have proven successful in differentiating concussed vs. non-concussed individuals. One potential advantage of this methodology is that an experimental animal model can be used to obtain neurophysiological recordings of the neural activity in the somatosensory cortex evoked in response to the same tactile stimuli that are used in human sensory assessments and establish parallels between various metrics of stimulus-evoked cortical activity and perception of the stimulus attributes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Stimulus-evoked neural activity was recorded via extracellular microelectrodes in rat primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in response to vibrotactile stimuli that are used in two particular human sensory assessments (reaction time (RT) and amplitude discrimination). Experiments were conducted on healthy control and brain-injured (BI) rats. RESULTS Similar to the effects of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) on human neurosensory assessments, comparable experimentally induced brain injuries in rats resulted in the following: (1) elevation of S1 responsivity to vibrotactile stimulation that depended nonlinearly on stimulus amplitude, significantly reducing its capacity to discriminate between stimuli of different amplitudes; (2) 50% reduction in S1 signal-to-noise ratios, which can be expected to contribute to elevation of RT in BI rats; and (3) 60% increase in intertrial variability of S1 responses to vibrotactile stimulation, which can be expected to contribute to elevation of RT variability in BI rats. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate suggestive similarities between neurophysiological observations made in the experimental rat mTBI model and observations made in post-concussion individuals with regard to three sensory assessment metrics (amplitude discrimination, RT, and RT variability). This is the first successful model that demonstrates that perceptual metrics obtained from human individuals are impacted by mTBI in a manner consistent with neurophysiological observations obtained from rat S1.
Somatosensory actuator based on stretchable conductive photothermally responsive hydrogel.

Mimicking biological neuromuscular systems’ sensory motion requires the unification of sensing and actuation in a singular artificial muscle material, which must not only actuate but also sense their own motions. These functionalities would be of great value for soft robotics that seek to achieve multifunctionality and local sensing capabilities approaching natural organisms. Here, we report a soft somatosensitive actuating material using an electrically conductive and photothermally responsive hydrogel, which combines the functions of piezoresistive strain/pressure sensing and photo/thermal actuation into a single material. Synthesized through an unconventional ice-templated ultraviolet–cryo-polymerization technique, the homogenous tough conductive hydrogel exhibited a densified conducting network and highly porous microstructure, achieving a unique combination of ultrahigh conductivity (36.8 milisiemens per centimeter, 103-fold enhancement) and mechanical robustness, featuring high stretchability (170%), large volume shrinkage (49%), and 30-fold faster response than conventional hydrogels. With the unique compositional homogeneity of the monolithic material, our hydrogels overcame a limitation of conventional physically integrated sensory actuator systems with interface constraints and predefined functions. The two-in-one functional hydrogel demonstrated both exteroception to perceive the environment and proprioception to kinesthetically sense its deformations in real time, while actuating with near-infinite degrees of freedom. We have demonstrated a variety of light-driven locomotion including contraction, bending, shape recognition, object grasping, and transporting with simultaneous self-monitoring. When connected to a control circuit, the muscle-like material achieved closed-loop feedback controlled, reversible step motion. This material design can also be applied to liquid crystal elastomers.
Resistively detected NMR as a probe of the topological nature of conducting edge/surface states

Electron spins in edge or surface modes of topological insulators (TIs) with strong spin-orbit coupling cannot be directly manipulated with microwaves due to the locking of electron spin to its momentum. We show by contrast that a resistively detected nuclear magnetic resonance (RDNMR) based technique can be used to probe the helical nature of surface conducting states. In such experiments, one applies a radio frequency (RF) field to reorient nuclear spins that then couple to electronic spins by the hyperfine interaction. The spin of the boundary electrons can thereby be modulated, resulting in changes in conductance at nuclear resonance frequencies. Here, we demonstrate that the conductivity is sensitive to the direction of the applied magnetic field with respect to the helicity of the electrons. This dependence of the RDNMR signal on angle probes the nature of the conductive edge or surface states. In the case of 3D TI in the quantum Hall regime, we establish that the dominant mechanism responsible for the conductance change in a RDNMR experiment is based on the Overhauser field effect. Our findings indicate that the same physics underlying the use of RDNMR to probe TI states also enables us to use RF control of nuclear spins to coherently manipulate topologically protected states, which could be useful for a new generation of devices.
Nonionic Block Copolymer Surfactants as Immunological Adjuvants: Mechanisms of Action and Novel Formulations

Modern molecular biology has provided us with the ability to produce custom tailored antigens with an ease undreamed of a few years ago. However, experience has also shown that most nonreplicating purified subunit antigens are weak immunogens that will require immunopotentiation to become the hoped for effective vaccines of the future. The dominant paradigm of modern immunology is that immunogenicity and immune responses are controlled by specific interactions between various ligands and their receptors. From our perspective, producing effective adjuvants for subunit vaccines will require looking beyond this paradigm to a consideration of nonspecific physicochemical factors which subtly but powerfully influence immune responses.
Video segmentation for surveillance

Summary form only given. Video segmentation is usually termed as foreground (moving objects) segmentation in a fixed camera scenario, and as independent motion segmentation in a moving platform scenario. It is a fundamental step in many vision systems including video surveillance, human-machine interface, and very low-bandwidth telecommunications. Accurate foreground segmentation is a difficult task due to such factors as illumination variation, occlusion, background movements, and noise. We present a transform domain approach that employs a set of DCT-based features to exploit the spatial and temporal correlation in the video sequences. The approach is shown to be insensitive to illumination change and to noise. It also overcomes many common difficulties of segmentation such as foreground aperture, and moved background objects. The algorithm can perform in real-time. If time allows, I briefly show some results of the moving camera case. With a moving camera, estimation of camera ego-motion is the key issue. Our approach is based on solving an optimization problem for the FOE (focus of expansion). The flow field defined by FOE can be used to detect independent motions on the road.
Recoil order chiral corrections to baryon octet axial vector currents

We calculate chiral corrections to the octet axial currents through ${\cal O}(p^3)$ using baryon chiral perturbation theory (BCPT). The relativistic BCPT framework allows one to sum an infinite series of recoil corrections at a given order in the chiral expansion. We also include SU(3)-breaking operators occuring at ${\cal O}(p^2)$ not previously considered. We determine the corresponding low-energy constants (LEC's) from hyperon semileptonic decay data using a variety of infrared regularization schemes. We find that the chiral expansion of the axial currents does not display the proper convergence behavior, regardless of which scheme is chosen. We explore the implications of our analysis for determinations of the strange quark contribution to the nucleon spin, $\Delta s$.
Amyloid beta vaccination: reduced plaques and improved cognition.

Studies in three different transgenic mouse models suggest that the amyloid β-protein contributes to memory loss in Alzheimer disease. Immunization with an amyloid β-peptide fragment reduces learning and memory impairments in mice, and this approach may eventually be used to prevent and/or treat this disease in people.
PICES members endure aftershocks at Third Annual Meeting

On October 15–24, 1994, little more than a week after a major earthquake (8.2) struck just 90 km to the east, the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) held its Third Annual Meeting in Nemuro, northern Hokkaido, Japan. The conference center where the meeting was to be held suffered significant damage, but thanks to the prodigious efforts of the people of Nemuro, we convened in the city library and neighboring buildings. More than 200 participants from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, and the United States experienced daily aftershocks, as they discussed major scientific questions of the subarctic Pacific ocean. Many of the papers presented concerned the impact of climate-scale variations in atmospheric and oceanic conditions on ecosystems of the region. A series of review papers on oceanography of the subarctic Pacific introduced a workshop, cosponsored by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan, that led to recommendations for monitoring changes in both physical forcing and ecosystem response.
Application specific hardware compression of ray-casting data

Summary form only given, as follows. Ray-casting, that is, calculating the intersections of a large array of lines with a solid object is a well-known technique that is central to many algorithms useful in solid modeling. Ray-casting is a compact and elegant way for displaying and calculating the geometrical properties of 3-D objects. The Ray-Casting Engine RCE-1.5 is an application specific massively parallel computer dedicated to ray-casting 3D objects. We present an application specific hardware-oriented data compression algorithm. We developed a simple yet powerful data compression hardware specifically tailored to compressing ray-files, the data structure internal to the RCE-1.5. We have used the compression hardware to meet performance goals while reducing the cost of building the RCE-1.5. We had to balance compression performance on the one hand with real time constraints, development time constraints and hardware costs on the other. With a modest amount of compression hardware we were able to more than double the internal and external data transfer rates. In addition we more than doubled the effective internal memory buffer size. The increase throughput rate enabled us to use (slow but inexpensive) DRAM rather than (faster but expensive) SRAM, dramatically reducing the over-all system cost. This is but one example where judicious use of data compression techniques can dramatically enhance system performance while at the same time reducing the system cost.
Cyclosporin A suppresses cisplatin-induced oncogene expression in human cancer cells.

Abstract Most cancer chemotherapeutic agents are designed to damage DNA directly or indirectly. One mechanism of cellular resistance to these agents is enhanced DNA repair. Human ovarian carcinoma cells resistant to cisplatin (A2780DDP) respond to cisplatin treatment with a 3–6-fold increase in gene expression for oncogenes, DNA repair enzymes and enzymes necessary for the synthesis of thymidine. Cyclosporin A has been shown to reverse drug resistance, but its mechanism of action is unclear. In this study, weekly exposures of A278ODDP cells to cyclosporin A resulted in the evolution of a revertant cell line A2780DDP/CSA that was sensitive to cisplatin again and suppressed the induction of genes necessary for the repair of drug-induced DNA damage.