cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A pilot, prospective evaluation of a novel alternative for maintenance therapy of breast cancer-associated lymphedema [ISRCTN76522412].

Prospective investigations of complete decongestive lymphatic physiotherapy (CDPT), including manual lymphatic drainage (MLD), have validated the efficacy of these interventions for the initial reduction of edema and long-term maintenance of limb volume in lymphedema. However, CDPT demands substantial time and effort from patients to maintain these benefits; the treatments are not always well-accepted, and patients may suffer from a deterioration in quality-of-life or a time-dependent loss of initial treatment benefits. A new device designed for home use by the patient, the Flexitouch™, has been developed to mechanically simulate MLD. We have undertaken a prospective, randomized, crossover study of the efficacy of the Flexitouch™, when compared to massage, in the self-administered maintenance therapy of lymphedema. A prospective, randomized, crossover study of maintenance therapy was performed in 10 patients with unilateral breast cancer-associated lymphedema of the arm. Each observation phase included self-administered treatment with the Flexitouch™ or massage, 1 hour daily for 14 days, respectively, followed by crossover to the alternate treatment phase. Each treatment phase was preceded by a 1 week treatment washout, with use of garment only. The sequence of treatment was randomly assigned. The potential impact of treatment modality on quality of life was assessed with serial administration of the SF-36. Statistical analysis disclosed that the order of treatment had no outcome influence, permitting 10 comparisons within each treatment group. Post-treatment arm volume reduced significantly after the Flexitouch™, but not after self-administered massage. The patients' mean weight decreased significantly with Flexitouch™ use, but not with massage. The Flexitouch™ device was apparently well-tolerated and accepted by patients. Serial SF-36 administration showed no deterioration in physical or psychosocial scores compared to baseline measurements; there were no statistical differences in scores when the two treatment modalities were compared. This short-term prospective evaluation of the Flexitouch™ suggests that the device may provide better maintenance edema control than self-adiminstered massage in breast cancer-associated lymphedema. The apparent ease of use and reliability of response to the device suggest that further broad-scale testing is warranted.
Reference Centiles for Serum Ferritin and Percentage of Transferrin Saturation, with Application to Mutations of the HFE Gene

Background: The gene that causes most cases of hereditary hemochromatosis is designated HFE . Individuals with mutations in the HFE gene may have increased serum iron, transferrin saturation, and ferritin concentrations relative to individuals with the wild-type genotype. Methods: We generated reference centiles for percentage of transferrin saturation and serum ferritin concentrations in normal (wild-type), healthy Caucasian adults. We then examined transferrin and ferritin concentrations relative to these centiles in 81 individuals homozygous for the major hemochromatosis mutation C282Y and 438 individuals with the compound heterozygous HFE genotype C282Y/H63D. Results: Serum ferritin concentrations, but not percentage of transferrin saturation, in normal, healthy women tended to increase sharply as they progressed through menopause. Transferrin and serum ferritin centiles for normal, healthy females were lower than the corresponding centiles in normal, healthy males. C282Y homozygotes had abnormally high transferrin saturation and serum ferritin values relative to the wild types. Compound heterozygotes appeared to be a mixture of individuals with unexceptional transferrin and ferritin values and those with abnormally large values similar to the homozygotes, with equal proportions of each. Conclusions: There are age- and sex-related differences in reference centiles for the percentage of transferrin saturation and serum ferritin concentrations in normal, healthy adults. Individuals homozygous for the C282Y mutation in the HFE gene have abnormal transferrin saturation and serum ferritin values relative to the reference population; penetrance with the compound heterozygotes, as reflected by abnormal transferrin and ferritin values, is less than with the homozygotes.
The effect of magnesium and manganese ions on the structure and template activity for reverse transcriptase of polyribocytidylate and its 2'-o-methyl derivative

The secondary structure of the hydrogen bonded hybrids polycytidylate-oligodeoxguanylate (poly(rC)-(dG)12-18 and poly (2'-oMe) cytidylate-oligodeoxyguanylate (poly (rCm)-(dG)12-18 was studied at several magnesium and manganese ion concentrations. These hybrids are effective template-primer complexes for the synthesis of poly(dG) by avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) DNA polymerase under disparate ionic conditions. Circular dichroism spectra and thermal melting data were obtained as a function of ion concentration, including conditions that allow optimum rates of poly (dG) synthesis by each complex. These studies demonstrate that both hybrids can change conformation and stability depending on their ionic environment. Comparison of enzyme activity and physical data suggest that the polymerase recognizes particular secondary structure features. Changes in the activity of the AMV polymerase can be induced by varying the Mg++ and Mn++ concentrations alone and in combination. These variations in enzyme activity are correlated with observed changes in the base-stacking alignment of the synthetic template primers. The ions, therefore, seem to affect enzyme activity by altering the conformation of the polnucleotide complexes.
Protection against LPS-induced acute lung injury by a mechanism-based inhibitor of NADPH oxidase (type 2)

The phospholipase A2 activity of peroxiredoxin 6 is inhibited by the transition state analog, 1-hexadecyl-3-(trifluoroethyl)-sn-glycero-2-phosphomethanol (MJ33). This activity is required for the activation of NADPH oxidase, type 2. The present study evaluated the effect of MJ33 on manifestations of acute lung injury. Mice were injected intratracheally (IT) with LPS from Escherichia coli 0111:B4 (LPS, 1 or 5 mg/kg), either concurrently with LPS or 2 h later, and evaluated for lung injury 24 h later. MJ33 inhibited reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by lungs when measured at 24 h after LPS. LPS at either a low or high dose significantly increased lung infiltration with inflammatory cells, secretion of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, and the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2), expression of lung vascular cell adhesion molecule, lung permeability (protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, leakage of FITC-dextran, lung wet-to-dry weight ratio), tissue lipid peroxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, 8-isoprostanes), tissue protein oxidation (protein carbonyls), and activation of NF-κB. MJ33, given either concurrently or 2 h subsequent to LPS, significantly reduced all of these measured parameters. Previous studies of toxicity showed a high margin of safety for MJ33 in the intact mouse. Thus we have identified MJ33 as a potent, nontoxic, and specific mechanism-based inhibitor of NADPH oxidase type 2-mediated ROS generation that protects mice against lung injury associated with inflammation.
Toward understanding on-road interactions of male and female drivers

Objective: This study examined gender effects in six geometric scenarios of 2-vehicle crashes in which an involved driver could potentially ascertain the gender of the other driver prior to the crash. Method: The actual frequencies of different combinations of the involved male and female drivers in these crash scenarios were compared with the expected frequencies if there were no gender interactions. The expected frequencies were based on annual distance driven for personal travel by male and female drivers. Results: The results indicate that in certain crash scenarios, male-to-male crashes tend to be underrepresented and female-to-female crashes tend to be overrepresented. Conclusions: The obtained pattern of results could be due to either differential gender exposure to the different scenarios, differential gender capabilities to handle specific scenarios, or differential gender expectations of actions by other drivers based on their gender. The current lack of information on gender exposure in differe...
Activation of Protein Kinase Cζ Increases OAT1 (SLC22A6)- and OAT3 (SLC22A8)-mediated Transport

Organic anion transporters (OATs) play a pivotal role in the clearance of small organic anions by the kidney, yet little is known about how their activity is regulated. A yeast two-hybrid assay was used to identify putative OAT3-associated proteins in the kidney. Atypical protein kinase Cζ (PKCζ) was shown to bind to OAT3. Binding was confirmed in immunoprecipitation assays. The OAT3/PKCζ interaction was investigated in rodent renal cortical slices from fasted animals. Insulin, an upstream activator of PKCζ, increased both OAT3-mediated uptake of estrone sulfate (ES) and PKCζ activity. Both effects were abolished by a PKCζ-specific pseudosubstrate inhibitor. Increased ES transport was not observed in renal slices from OAT3-null mice. Transport of the shared OAT1/OAT3 substrate, ρ-aminohippurate, behaved similarly, except that stimulation was reduced, not abolished, in the OAT3-null mice. This suggested that OAT1 activity was also modified by PKCζ, subsequently confirmed using an OAT1-specific substrate, adefovir. Inhibition of PKCζ also blocked the increase in ES uptake seen in response to epidermal growth factor and to activation of protein kinase A. Thus, PKCζ acted downstream of the epidermal growth factor to protein kinase A signaling pathway. Activation of transport was accompanied by an increase in Vmax and was blocked by microtubule disruption, indicating that activation may result from trafficking of OAT3 into the plasma membrane. These data demonstrate that PKCζ activation up-regulates OAT1 and OAT3 function, and that protein-protein interactions play a central role controlling these two important renal drug transporters.
Endogenous and Natural Complement Inhibitor Attenuates Myocardial Injury and Arterial Thrombogenesis

Background—Coagulation disorders and reperfusion of ischemic myocardium are major causes of morbidity and mortality. Lectin pathway initiation complexes are composed of multimolecular carbohydrate recognition subcomponents and 3 lectin pathway–specific serine proteases. We have recently shown that the lectin pathway–specific carbohydrate recognition subcomponent mannose-binding lectin plays an essential role in the pathophysiology of thrombosis and ischemia/reperfusion injury. Thus, we hypothesized that the endogenous mannose-binding lectin (MBL)/ficolin-associated protein-1 (MAP-1) that inhibits complement activation in vitro also could be an in vivo regulator by attenuating myocardial schema/reperfusion injury and thrombogenesis when used at pharmacological doses in wild-type mice. Methods and Results—In 2 mouse models, MAP-1 preserves cardiac function, decreases infarct size, decreases C3 deposition, inhibits MBL deposition, and prevents thrombogenesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MAP-1 displaces MBL/ficolin-associated serine protease (MASP)-1, MASP-2, and MASP-3 from the MBL complex. Conclusions—Our results suggest that the natural, endogenous inhibitor MAP-1 effectively inhibits lectin pathway activation in vivo. MAP-1 at pharmacological doses represents a novel therapeutic approach for human diseases involving the lectin pathway and its associated MASPs. (Circulation. 2012;126:2227-2235.)
Ensemble Subsurface Modeling Using Grid Computing Technology

Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) uses a randomized ensemble of subsurface models for error and uncertainty estimation. However, the complexity of geological models and the requirement of a large number of simulation runs make routine applications extremely difficult due to expensive computation cost. Grid computing technologies provide a cost-efficient way to combine geographically distributed computing resources to solve large-scale data and computation intensive problems. Hence, we design and implement a grid-enabled EnKF solution to ill-posed model inversion problems for subsurface modeling. It has been integrated into the ResGrid, a problem solving environment aimed at managing distributed computing resources and conducting subsurface-related modeling studies. Two synthetic cases in reservoir studies indicate that the enhanced ResGrid efficiently performs EnKF inversions to obtain accurate, uncertainty-ware predictions on reservoir production. This grid-enabled EnKF solution is also being applied for data assimilation of large-scale groundwater hydrology nonlinear models. The ResGrid with EnKF solution is open-source and available for downloading.
Novel resonant tunneling transistor with high transconductance at room temperature

A resonant tunneling transistor (RTT) utilizing a novel heterodimensional Schottky gate technology is described. The gate is formed by electroplating Pt/Au onto the side of an AlGaAs/GaAs double barrier structure. The gate voltage modulates the drain current by modulating the area of the quasi-two dimensional electron accumulation layer which forms above the source barrier under drain-source bias. Room temperature transistor characteristics included a peak current of 225 mA/mm and peak transconductance of 218 mS/mm. The ultrafine fabrication process is also discussed. >
Transcription factors and the genetic organization of brain stem respiratory neurons

Breathing is a genetically determined behavior generated by neurons in the brain stem. Transcription factors, in part, determine the basic developmental identity of neurons, but the relationships b...
Firm-Wide Incentives and Mutual Monitoring at Continental Airlines

In February 1995 Continental Airlines introduced an incentive scheme that promised monthly bonuses to all 35,000 hourly employees if the company achieved a firm-wide performance goal. Conventional wisdom suggests that free riding will render such schemes ineffective. We study the impact of the Continental scheme by comparing the change in performance at airports where workers were eligible for the scheme and airports where they were not. A combination of cross-sectional and time-series data enables us to control for both airport differences and intervening industry or firm changes. The results offer support for claims that the incentive scheme raised employee performance despite the apparent threat of free riding. To explain why the scheme may have been effective we argue that, despite its size, Continental is able to exploit some of the benefits enjoyed by small firms. In particular, the organization of employees into autonomous work groups enables it to induce mutual monitoring among employees within each work group. Moreover, interdependencies between airports magnify the impact of each work group's performance on overall firm performance, so that firm level measures are sufficient to motivate each group to choose high effort.
Flexible Polymer Optical Bus for Inter-Board Optical Interconnects

An inter-board optical interconnect prototype operating at 2 Gb/s using flexible polymer optical bus is demonstrated. The innovative architecture would pave the way to parallel optical data bus for inter-board/module communications.
A Hierarchical Representation for Future Action Prediction

We consider inferring the future actions of people from a still image or a short video clip. Predicting future actions before they are actually executed is a critical ingredient for enabling us to effectively interact with other humans on a daily basis. However, challenges are two fold: First, we need to capture the subtle details inherent in human movements that may imply a future action; second, predictions usually should be carried out as quickly as possible in the social world, when limited prior observations are available.
Case 37: An Abnormal Capnogram

A 7-year-old boy (41 lb) (American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I [ASA 1]) is scheduled for an emergency appendectomy. The patient has had no previous anesthesia/surgery, and his family history is negative for anesthesia-related complications. General anesthesia is induced, and after the child is asleep, the trachea is intubated. Positive pressure ventilation is then instituted using the ventilator on the anesthesia machine. Both the initial end-tidal CO2 value (40 mmHg) and the capnograph tracing are within normal limits, with an inspiratory CO2 of zero. Anesthesia is maintained using meperidine and vecuronium with isoflurane and nitrous oxide in oxygen. Approximately 20 min into the case, the inspired end-tidal CO2 increases and the capnogram is noted to be abnormal (Fig. 37.1). The CO2 absorbent canister is visually inspected. The upper compartment has a slightly bluish cast, and no color change is seen in the bottom compartment to indicate exhaustion of the CO2-absorbent granules. Other causes of the abnormal tracing are sought. The expiratory and inspiratory valves are examined and changed without improvement in the capnogram. Rebreathing continues to be apparent. The patient’s vital signs remain stable with a normal blood pressure (BP) and heart rate and 100 % oxygen saturation.
The effect of body cells and fluids on certain dyes

It is a well-known fact that certain dyes are highly toxic to microorganisms. This action is more or less specific in character so that although dianil blue is active against trypanosomes, it is almost without effect on B. typhosus. Gentian violet is germicidal to gram-positive bacteria. Also it must be borne in mind that a dye which is efficient in vitro is not of necessity of equal value in vivo. Chamberland,1 working with oils, observed this difference in bactericidal action within and without the animal body and has been corroborated by numerous investigators. Test tube activity, however, is the best preliminary criterion thus far discovered for possible effectiveness in the body. The usefulness of dyes for chemotherapeutic purposes is dependent on a number of processes that are of interest. These may be subdivided into (a) their germicidal value in vivo, (b) their effects on living tissues, (c) the processes by which they are removed from the circulation after introduction to it, and (d) the channels by which excretion takes place. These subjects should be considered before final judgment of the worth of a substance for purposes of treatment is rendered.
Detection of Japanese encephalitis virus RNA from blood clots by real-time RT-PCR

Japanese encephalitis virus(JEV) commonly causes severe viral encephalitis with high mortality and morbidity among children in Asia.More sensitive,rapid and simple viral RNA assays are required for reliable laboratory diagnosis of clinically suspected Japanese encephalitis cases.In this study,an optimized primer pair were selected among a variety of amplifiers after evaluation with SYBR Green I-based one step real-time RT-PCR.Detection of nucleic acid specimens extracted from both sera and blood clots of 15 confirmed and 15 suspected JE cases revealed no positive samples from sera,in contrast to seven positive from blood clots.These results indicated,for the first time,that blood clots were more sensitive than sera in this SYBR Green I-based real-time PCR system for JEV RNA,suggesting blood clots would be valuable specimen sources for laboratory diagnosis of viral encephalitis.
Effects of Employing No-tillage, Cast-transplanted and Rice-straw Incorporation Technique in Gleyed Double-rice Paddy Soil

The rice yield, input costs and economic benefits of no-tillage, cast-transplanted and rice-straw incorporation cropping pattern and local conventional tillage cropping pattern were analyzed in gleyed double-rice paddy soil. Planting techniques and utilization effects were compared in two cropping patterns. Compared with the local conventional tillage cropping pattern, no-tillage, cast-transplanted and rice-straw incorporation cropping pattern could increase the yield and output value of rice grain, reduce fertilizer input costs and tillage costs, and improve economic benefits of double-rice cropping.
Bicarbonate-activated adenylyl cyclase in fluid-transporting tissues.

A bicarbonate-stimulated adenylyl cyclase (AC) activity was found in ocular ciliary processes, which secrete the aqueous humor of the eye. Other fluid-transporting tissues also showed HCO3(-)-stimulated AC activity. Relative to basal, the response to 10 mM NaHCO3 was greatest in the particulate fraction of bovine ciliary processes, followed by bovine corneal endothelium, bovine choroid plexus, and rat kidney (medulla and cortex). However, no activity was detectable in bovine retina, cerebral cortex, or cerebellum. The activity in ciliary processes was present only in the particulate fraction, was supported by Mg2+ or Mn2+, was independent of GTP, and was additive to the stimulatory G protein-dependent AC response (via beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation). The activation of AC was dose dependent up to 100 mM bicarbonate with a 50% effective concentration of 2-3 mM. The HCO3- response was unaffected by 1 mM methazolamide, a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, but HSO3- was a partially selective inhibitor compare...
Prazosin and the PTSD Paratrooper

This case discusses α1-adrenergic blockade by prazosin and PDE 5-mediated hypotension by tadalafil in the presence of local anesthetic-induced sympathectomy
No Benefit with Addition of TMP/SMX to Cephalexin for Nonpurulent Cellulitis.

Compared with cephalexin alone, covering for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and streptococci with cephalexin plus TMP/SMX does not improve rates of clinical cure when treating nonpurulent cellulitis. However, a trend favoring the combination regimen was found in a modified intention-to-treat population in this study, so further research may be required.
Performance Limits of Thermostatically Controlled Loads under Probabilistic Switching

Abstract This paper establishes performance limits for probabilistic control schemes that coordinate populations of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) for the purpose of providing power system services, such as regulation and load following. In the literature, a common strategy for dispatching TCLs is to send probabilistic on/off commands, i.e. “switch on with 20% probability”; this is what we refer to as probabilistic switching. There is ongoing research to improve the tracking performance of TCL control schemes that utilize probabilistic switching - the purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically based performance limit for these control schemes. We first show how to analytically obtain this performance limit when TCLs are sent a uniform switching probability. We then extend it to the non-uniform case where different probabilities are sent for TCLs at different temperature ranges. We demonstrate the effects of both population size and the magnitude of the switching probabilities on a system’s performance. Based on this knowledge, we develop non-uniform probabilistic control schemes that minimize the variance of the error due to probabilistic switching, and can avoid short cycling of TCLs.
Estrogen therapy for osteoporosis in the modern era.

Menopause predisposes women to osteoporosis due to declining estrogen levels. This results in a decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) and an increase in fractures. Osteoporotic fractures lead to substantial morbidity and mortality, and are considered one of the largest public health priorities by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is therefore essential for menopausal women to receive appropriate guidance for the prevention and management of osteoporosis. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) randomized controlled trial first proved hormonal therapy (HT) reduces the incidence of all osteoporosis-related fractures in postmenopausal women. However, the study concluded that the adverse effects outweighed the potential benefits on bone, leading to a significant decrease in HT use for menopausal symptoms. Additionally, HT was not used as first-line therapy for osteoporosis and fractures. Subsequent studies have challenged these initial conclusions and have shown significant efficacy of HT in various doses, durations, regimens, and routes of administration. These studies support that HT improves BMD and reduces fracture risk in women with and without osteoporosis. Furthermore, the studies suggest that low-dose and transdermal HT are less likely associated with the adverse effects of breast cancer, endometrial hyperplasia, coronary artery disease (CAD), and venous thromboembolism (VTE) previously observed in standard-dose oral HT regimens. Given the need for estrogen in menopausal women and evidence supporting the cost effectiveness, safety, and efficacy of HT, we propose that HT should be considered for the primary prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in appropriate candidates. HT should be individualized and the once “lowest dose for shortest period of time” concept should no longer be used. This review will focus on the prior and current studies for various HT formulations used for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, exploring the safety profile of low-dose and transdermal HT that have been shown to be safer than oral standard-dose HT.
Gastrinoma and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome in canids: a literature review and a case in a Mexican gray wolf.

Gastrinoma, an infrequent diagnosis in middle-aged dogs, occurs with nonspecific gastrointestinal morbidity. Laboratory tests can yield a presumptive diagnosis, but definitive diagnosis depends on ...
A genotypic and spatial epidemiologic analysis of Massachusetts' Mycobacterium tuberculosis cases from 2012 to 2015

Abstract Background Massachusetts had a rate of 2.8 cases of tuberculosis (TB) per 100,000 individuals in 2015. Although TB in Massachusetts is on the decline, the case rate remains far above the 2020 National TB Target of 1.4 per 100,000. To reduce the TB case rate in Massachusetts, it is necessary to understand the local epidemiology and transmission risks. Methods We used an existing TB case database of Massachusetts TB cases in the time frame from 2012 to 2015, which links de-identified patient demographic information with TB genotypes obtained from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) TB Genotyping Information Management System database. Two or more cases with identical genotypes, which were close in space (within 50 km), as determined in a geographic information system (GIS), and time (3 years), were considered TB clusters. Results We analyzed 543 genotyped cases. We identified a total of 85 cases that met the TB cluster criteria, and a total of 33 clusters. US-born individuals (p = 0.003), homeless individuals (p = 0.001) and those reporting illicit substance use (p = 0.001) and alcohol use (p = 0.001) were more likely to appear in a TB cluster. Conclusion Through a combined genotypic and spatial epidemiological approach, we identified populations and individuals more likely to be in a TB cluster. Testing populations identified as at risk for being in a TB cluster, and providing appropriate treatment, may decrease the overall TB case rate and support efforts to achieve national 2020 TB targets.
Conceptual Foundations of Super-Flexibility: A Multi-Disciplinary Synthesis

Flexibility is often invoked as a panacea for operating in dynamic contexts. We define it as the “propensity to adapt, at times spontaneously, to fluid conditions”. In practice, it is a means of enacting swift changes and making sudden turns in order to harness new opportunities and address challenging situations. Examples include rapid acceleration (such as in entering new markets, deploying new technologies, and making acquisitions), immediate disengagement (from an unattractive market), applying brakes in an emergency (such as in a financial crisis), and deploying shock absorbers (for example in dealing with hostile takeovers).
Hypergraph based visual categorization and segmentation

This dissertation explores original techniques for the construction of hypergraph models for computer vision applications. A hypergraph is a generalization of a pairwise simple graph, where an edge can connect any number of vertices. The expressive power of the hypergraph models places a special emphasis on the relationship among three or more objects, which has made hypergraphs better models of choice in a lot of problems. This is in sharp contrast with the more conventional graph representation of visual patterns where only pairwise connectivity between objects is described. The contribution of this thesis is fourfold: (i) For the first time the advantage of the hypergraph neighborhood structure is analyzed. We argue that the summarized local grouping information contained in hypergraphs causes an ‘averaging’ effect which is beneficial to the clustering problems, just as local image smoothing may be beneficial to the image segmentation task. (ii) We discuss how to build hypergraph incidence structures and how to solve the related unsupervised and semi-supervised problems for three different computer vision scenarios: video object segmentation, unsupervised image categorization and image retrieval. We compare our algorithms with state-of-the-art methods and the effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated by extensive experimentation on various datasets. (iii) For the application of image retrieval, we propose a novel hypergraph model — probabilistic hypergraph to exploit the structure of the data manifold by considering not only the local grouping information, but also the similarities between vertices in hyperedges. (iv) In all three applications mentioned above, we conduct an in depth comparison between simple graph and hypergraph based algorithms, which is also beneficial to other computer vision applications.
Domes from the Romanesque to the Present

Italian Romanesque builders’ interest in the architecture of domes led to their creating specific forms of domes with original structural values.
The generation of static charges by processes involving ionization of gases

Gases are usually very slightly electrical conductors. Normal gases such as the atmosphere are subjectet to a continuous bombardment of ionizing radiations such as cosmic rays from outside the earth, γ radiations from the earth’s crust, α, β and γ rays from radioactive emanations and dusts exuded or carried aloft from the earth, nowadays man made radioactive materials from nuclear devices, and in confined spaces, with metal walls from the minute radio active content of the walls. The various sources share about equally in creating the 20 new ion-electron pairs per cm3 per second usually measured. These figures are subject to considerable variation depending on local factors. Loss of ions in the atmosphere is largely by recombination. This process is slowed down somewhat by the attach­ment of carriers to larger aerosols present in the atmosphere. Thus generally speaking there are about 1000 to 10000 ions positive and negative per cm3 of air under normal conditions. These ions lead to very weak currents for applied fields and serve only to yield initiating carriers when fields reach proportions leading to gaseous breakdown. On the larger particles in suspension in the at­mosphere—such as the Langevin ions of some 106 molecules—there may from statistical accumulation of charge by encounters with ions be from one to several charges 76,77. For particles of 1 micron, 10−4 cm diameter with 1010 molecules charges up to 10 electrons can be observed, the median being around 3 as Kunkel 77 has shown, with the greatest number in a fixed charge interval at zero charge.
Interfacing Quantitative NDE with Computer Algorithms for Automated Statistical Process Control

In the Factory of the Future (FOF), production will be unified under a system of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). Automatic computer-integrated control of processes, detection of errors, and determination of corrective action will be necessary because of the proposed level of manpower in the FOFL[1,2]. Under these circumstances, a process which might go out of control and remain that way would be highly detrimental. Very rapid Statistical Process Control (SPC) will provide definitive warnings of out-of-control conditions.
Public Authority and Social Structure

To characterize the parliamentarians and higher civil servants we interviewed as an “elite” is to invoke an ambiguous image. From a structural point of view, the term suggests a small group of individuals located at the top of a socially-defined pyramid, and characterized by possession of more of the attributes that define membership in the social pyramid: if the attribute is wealth, the elite are the most wealthy; if it is notoriety, the elite are the most famous; if it is power, the elite are the most powerful, and so on.1 Process-oriented studies, however, frequently confound such simple images by challenging the meaning of the quality attributed to an elite. Studies of “leadership” or “influence,” for example, often enough show that a “power” elite seldom exercises its reputed power or that other actors, not included in an elite group, in fact determine the course of events in some specific area.2
An efficient parallel solution to the Wigner-Poisson equations

A new model for studying the behavior of nanoscale tunneling devices has been developed in C++ using the Wigner-Poisson formulation. This model incorporates the parallel solvers of Sandia National Lab's Trilinos software with the efficient use of parallel data structures to create a code that scales well to a high number of processors. It also incorporates non-uniform meshes to discretize the solution space and higher order numerical methods to reduce simulation run times and increase numerical accuracy. The improvements inherent in the new C++ model will improve the quality of numerical simulations, and allow longer and more complex nanoscale devices to be modeled.
Fuzzy Programming and the Multicriteria Decision Problem

This paper studies the use of fuzzy programming in determining undominated, and only un-dominated, solutions to multicriteria decision problems. The multicriteria problem is not fuzzy, and fuzzy programming is employed to generate the set of undominated solutions. Membership functions are defined in the usual way when the objective is to maximize all the objective functions in the multi-criteria decision problem. We first consider the product operator as a method of combining the membership functions. We show that the set of solutions to the fuzzy program is the Pareto optimal set for all multicriteria decision problems. We also discuss an interactive application and a solution algorithm for solving the fuzzy program. We next discuss the minimum operator as a procedure for combining the membership functions. We show that the set of solutions to the fuzzy program always contains the set of undominated solutions, but some solutions to the fuzzy program may be dominated. We then study arbitrary methods G of combining the membership functions. We show that the set of solutions to the fuzzy program is the Pareto optimal set for all multicriteria decision problems if and only if G has the dominance and the zero properties , We then apply these results to some new methods of combining membership functions that have recently appeared.
Transient Kinetic Study of Ethane and Ethylene Aromatization over Zinc-Exchanged HZSM-5 Catalyst

The conversion of ethane and ethylene to aromatics over a zinc-exchanged HZSM-5 catalyst has been studied by chemical transient kinetic analysis in a flow reactor under atmospheric pressure. Time-dependent early stage/build-up catalytic behavior and the kinetic parameters of products decay during the back-transient have been discussed extensively at different reaction temperatures. For both ethane and ethylene aromatization, the delay times (relevant to the initial appearance of the reactant in the gas phase) of the formation of aromatics are 10–15 s during the build-up, which decreases with increasing temperature. On the basis of quantitative back-transient analysis, the rate constants for the formation of benzene, toluene, and/or xylene range from 5 to 30 × 10–3 s–1 dependent upon the reaction temperatures. According to the Arrhenius equation, the activation energies for the formation of benzene and toluene during ethane aromatization are 57 and 73 kJ/mol, respectively, which are relatively higher than ...
Sun Stimulator for Daylight System

Without sunlight there's no life, and without light there's no well-being. Using daylight means saving energy, because daylight is free and is often available in sufficient quantities. It's important to create and find the best techniques to maximize the use of this energy. Since the sun's position in the sky varies according to seasons and time of day, sun simulators are thus important in showcasing the sun's different positions. This paper introduces a sun stimulator system that can be physically built, in which users would enter a specific location on earth and a simulation of the sun's position would be generated according to date and time of year.
What Unregulated Algorithm Industry Wants from New Digital Audience Measurement: Institutional Perspective on Personal Data Surveillance

This study attempted to serve a number of purposes. First, it has conceptualized data surveillance as purely rational institutional behavior. In making this case, we illustrated the two institutional perspectives – economic pressures toward fragmentation and personalization and how these create the incentive for better surveillance measurement technique. Developing these arguments, this study also illustrated evidential trend in which the locus of privacy protection in marketplace seems not only tenuous, but also incongruent with the public demand. Fundamentally, we present a useful conceptual framework for future studies in understanding personalization and surveillance, taking privacy into the market equation, and argue that the market economics may seem too crude to handle a delicate balance between privacy and surveillance.
U-NetPlus: A Modified Encoder-Decoder U-Net Architecture for Semantic and Instance Segmentation of Surgical Instruments from Laparoscopic Images

With the advent of robot-assisted surgery, there has been a paradigm shift in medical technology for minimally invasive surgery. However, it is very challenging to track the position of the surgical instruments in a surgical scene, and accurate detection & identification of surgical tools is paramount. Deep learning-based semantic segmentation in frames of surgery videos has the potential to facilitate this task. In this work, we modify the U-Net architecture by introducing a pre-trained encoder and re-design the decoder part, by replacing the transposed convolution operation with an upsampling operation based on nearest-neighbor (NN) interpolation. To further improve performance, we also employ a very fast and flexible data augmentation technique. We trained the framework on 8 × 225 frame sequences of robotic surgical videos available through the MICCAI 2017 EndoVis Challenge dataset and tested it on 8 × 75 frame and 2 × 300 frame videos. Using our U-NetPlus architecture, we report a 90.20% DICE for binary segmentation, 76.26% DICE for instrument part segmentation, and 46.07% for instrument type (i.e., all instruments) segmentation, outperforming the results of previous techniques implemented and tested on these data.
Dementia in Essential Tremor: A Visual Record.

Background Research studies have shown an association between essential tremor (ET) and dementia, although dementia in ET is not often regarded as a clinically important issue. Phenomenology Shown We present three tangible visual records of patients with ET who have developed concurrent, comorbid dementia. Educational Value ET is a risk factor for dementia. This non-motor feature of the disease has substantial effects on the lives of patients and their families.
Francois Bernier si Brahmanii: Un obstacol în calea conversatiei inter-culturale/ Francois Bernier and the Brahmans: Exposing an Obstacle to Cross-cultural Conversation

Taking its cue from Francois Bernier’s Voyages and focusing on the assumptions that stand in the background of Immanuel Kant’s view of the encounter between Christianity and Hinduism, this text endeavors to bring to light the theoretical framework that shaped the dialogue between the West and the East since the 18th century. The author’s contention is that the way that Western philosophy has tended to conceive of universal values has been one of the fundamental obstacles that has hindered a genuine cross-cultural conversation in this sense.
A Gaussian copula approach for dynamic prediction of survival with a longitudinal biomarker

Dynamic prediction uses patient information collected during follow-up to produce individualized survival predictions at given time points beyond treatment or diagnosis. This allows clinicians to obtain updated predictions of a patient's prognosis that can be used in making personalized treatment decisions. Two commonly used approaches for dynamic prediction are landmarking and joint modeling. Landmarking does not constitute a comprehensive probability model, and joint modeling often requires strong distributional assumptions and computationally intensive methods for estimation. We introduce an alternative approximate approach for dynamic prediction that aims to overcome the limitations of both methods while achieving good predictive performance. We separately specify the marker and failure time distributions conditional on surviving up to a prediction time of interest and use standard variable selection and goodness-of-fit techniques to identify the best-fitting models. Taking advantage of its analytic tractability and easy two-stage estimation, we use a Gaussian copula to link the marginal distributions smoothly at each prediction time with an association function. With simulation studies, we examine the proposed method's performance. We illustrate its use for dynamic prediction in an application to predicting death for heart valve transplant patients using longitudinal left ventricular mass index information.
SPI-Hub™: a gateway to scholarly publishing information.

Background: Advances in the health sciences rely on sharing research and data through publication. As information professionals are often asked to contribute their knowledge to assist clinicians and researchers in selecting journals for publication, the authors recognized an opportunity to build a decision support tool, SPI-Hub: Scholarly Publishing Information Hub™, to capture the team’s collective publishing industry knowledge, while carefully retaining the quality of service. Case Presentation: SPI-Hub’s decision support functionality relies on a data framework that describes journal publication policies and practices through a newly designed metadata structure, the Knowledge Management Journal Record™. Metadata fields are populated through a semi-automated process that uses custom programming to access content from multiple sources. Each record includes 25 metadata fields representing best publishing practices. Currently, the database includes more than 24,000 health sciences journal records. To correctly capture the resources needed for both completion and future maintenance of the project, the team conducted an internal study to assess time requirements for completing records through different stages of automation. Conclusions: The journal decision support tool, SPI-Hub, provides an opportunity to assess publication practices by compiling data from a variety of sources in a single location. Automated and semi-automated approaches have effectively reduced the time needed for data collection. Through a comprehensive knowledge management framework and the incorporation of multiple quality points specific to each journal, SPI-Hub provides prospective users with both recommendations for publication and holistic assessment of the trustworthiness of journals in which to publish research and acquire trusted knowledge.
Violencia, migración y escritura en la diáspora: conversación con Ingrid Rojas Contreras

This interview is placed within the context of migrations of Colombians to the United States and the literary production in English of the last decades by US-Colombian women writers. In this conversation with Ingrid Rojas Contreras we discuss the experiences that inspired her first novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree (2018). These include emigration from Colombia for the kidnapping of a relative, traveling to Venezuela and then to the United States as refugees. The author also comments on the current immigration situation in the United States and denounces the abuses committed by the current administration in that country.
Long-term Impacts and Benefit–Cost Analysis of the Communities That Care Prevention System at Age 23, 12 Years After Baseline

This study estimated sustained impacts and long-term benefits and costs of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, implemented and evaluated in a longitudinal cluster-randomized trial involving 24 communities in seven states. Analyses utilized reports from a longitudinal panel of 4407 participants, followed since the study’s baseline in grade 5, with most recent follow-up 12 years later at age 23. Impacts on lifetime abstinence from primary outcomes of substance use and antisocial behavior were estimated using generalized linear mixed Poisson regression analysis, adjusted for individual and community-level covariates. Possible cascading effects on 4-year college completion, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder through age 23 were evaluated as secondary outcomes. CTC had a statistically significant global effect on primary outcomes and also on combined primary and secondary outcomes. Among primary outcomes, point estimates suggested absolute improvements in lifetime abstinence of 3.5 to 6.1% in the intervention arm and relative improvements of 13 to 55%; 95% confidence intervals revealed some uncertainty in estimates. Among secondary outcomes, 4-year college completion was 1.9% greater among young adults from intervention communities, a 20% relative improvement. Mental health outcomes were approximately the same across trial arms. Although CTC had small sustained effects through age 23, benefit–cost analyses indicated CTC was reliably cost beneficial, with a net present value of $7152 (95% credible interval: $1253 to $15,268) per participant from primary impacts and $17,919 ($306 to $39,186) when secondary impacts were also included. It remained cost beneficial even when impacts were adjusted downward due to the involvement of CTC’s developer in the trial. Findings suggest that broader dissemination of CTC could improve public health and individual lives in the long term and generate positive net benefits to society.