cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
K$sup -$-p ELASTIC SCATTERING IN THE ONE Bev/c RANGE

Differential K/sup -/ p elastic-scattering cross sections were measured at four momenta in the range corresponding to the T = 0, 1815-Mev K/sup -/ p resonance, using a cylindrical spark chamber sourrounding a liquid-hydrogen target. The integrated elastic-scattering cross sections follow the known resonant behavior of the total cross section, and are (18.7 plus or minus 0.7), (23.3 plus or minus 1.0), (17.3 plus or minus 1.1), and (15.2 plus or minus 0.7) mb at 820, 1040, 1150, and 1260 M(ev/c bombarding momentum, respectively. It is necessary to include cos/sup 5/ theta /sup */ terms in order to fit the angular distributions at 1040 and 1150 Mev/c, and within the accuracy of the experiment higher terms in cos theta /sup */ are not needed throughout the resonance region. This implies that the resonance is due to D/sub 5/2/ F/sub 5/2/ interference, and that the simplest assignment for the spin of the resonance is J = 5/2. No conclusion can be inferred about the parity. (auth)
Extracted venom and cuticular compounds of imported fire ants, Solenopsis spp., and chemotaxonomic applications across a persistent hybrid zone.

Characterization of cuticular hydrocarbons permits basic distinctions among colonies of Solenopsis invicta Buren, Solenopsis richteri Forel and their hybrids (Hymenoptera: Formicidae); thus, providing opportunities to investigate details of landscape ecology for this species complex and to assess levels of invasiveness. We introduce an alternative method for the cluster analysis of cuticular molecules of imported fire ants that is complementary to a widely-used method based on calculating cuticular hydrocarbon and venom alkaloid indices. Results from this GC-MS method were analyzed using various hierarchical and normal mixtures clustering methods to test the stability of group membership. Principal component and discriminant analyses were used to produce three-dimensional views of group separation. The relative proportions of 12 intensity peaks served to differentiate imported fire ant hybrids into four assemblages – hybrids closely allied with S. invicta, hybrids close to S. richteri, a ‘core’ hybrid gro...
Earthquake recurrence intervals and plate tectonics

The frequency of occurrence of earthquakes with different seismic moments is expressed in terms of the rate of slip on a fault and to the largest seismic moment likely to occur in the region. Beginning from the Gutenberg-Richter empirical expression relating the relative recurrence of events with different magnitudes and using another empirical relation between magnitude and seismic moment, the relative number of events with seismic moment greater than or equal to M o is given by N ( M o) = α M o− β . β can be determined from parameters in these empirical expressions. From average rates of slip on faults, this expression can be used to give the recurrence rates for events of different seismic moment: α = (1− β ) M oΣ/ M omax1− β where M omax is the maximum possible seismic moment in a region, and M oΣ is the average rate of occurrence of the seismic moment. On a fault of area A , with shear modulus μ, and long-term average rate of slip v , M oΣ = μAv . A similar expression can be given for α for regions where deformation is distributed over a broad area without a major throughgoing fault. Using rates of convergence at island arcs determined from plate motions for the last 5 m.y., the calculated frequency of occurrence of earthquakes with large seismic moments agrees well with the historic record. At present, uncertainties in the requisite parameters and in assumptions on which the recurrence relation is based, however, make such an approach only marginally better than reliance on the historic record alone. With more data constraining β , the largest possible seismic moments, the role of fault creep, and long-term rates of slip or deformation, however, this approach to seismic risk should be a more reliable predictor of recurrence rates than the existing historic record. As an example, the formulas are applied to the southeastern Caribbean.
Laminar Flow Control Flight Experiment Design and Execution

The expense and hazard of flight research necessitates careful planning to ensure effective and efficient data collection. This work examines the problem of measuring the effectiveness of spanwise-periodic, discrete roughness elements (DRE) on laminar flow control (LFC) on a swept wing glove. A test plan is described which progresses through distinct phases of data collection each of which informs subsequent phases while producing valuable flight data. First, the science envelope definition phase characterizes the flow environment of the laminar flow control testbed. Second, the natural laminar flow characteristics are defined. Finally, various DRE LFC configurations are installed on the testbed, and the effects are demonstrated. Several planning tools are exercised for test planning, and the experimental implementation is described. From this effort, valuable flight data are produced, and DRE LFC technology is demonstrated in an operationally relevant environment. The progression of the test plan can be applied to any experiment which gathers data on a prior-uncharacterized test apparatus.
Phenytoin teratogenicity in the primary and secondary mouse embryonic palate is influenced by the H-2 histocompatibility locus.

AbstractInbred and congenic strains of mice have been studied for susceptibility to phenytoin-induced cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) and isolated cleft palate (CP). The role of genes linked to the H-2 complex on chromosome 17 has been confirmed. Congenic strains with the A background have identical levels of spontaneous CLP, whereas those strains having the A background with the H-2a haplotype have significantly higher rates of induced CLP than their congenic partners with the H-2b or H-2s haplotype. No such significant difference in the degree of CLP produced by phenytoin is demonstrable in strains with the B background. Rates of isolated CP produced by phenytoin are significantly higher in strains with H-2a than in their congenic partner strains with either H-2borH-2s, whether the background is A or B.
Coated-Strand Litz Wire for Multi-Megahertz Frequency Applications

Substantial induced eddy-current losses and the need for skin-depth-size strands leave litz wire out as an option for inductive applications at multi-megahertz frequencies. To address this, we analyze and minimize the litz-wire eddy-current losses by adding a coating layer to each strand while keeping the wire dimensions and packing factor constant. The skin and proximity effects of isolated and in-bundle coated strands are studied for various coating properties and dimensions. A new method is proposed for calculation of proximity losses inside coated-strand litz wire, which enables simple systematic approach for proximity loss and ac resistance ( ${R} _{\mathrm{ac}}$ ) determination. Three types of pure copper (Cu), silver-coated copper (Ag/Cu), and nickel-coated copper (Ni/Cu) strands are studied in isolation and inside a litz wire. The litz wires associated with these strands are fabricated and their power dissipations are measured. Analytical results followed by finite-element modeling and experimental results show 26% reduction in Ni/Cu litz wire ${R} _{\mathrm{ac}}$ , and 3% reduction in Ag/Cu litz wire ${R} _{\mathrm{ac}}$ at 13.56 MHz compared with same-size Cu litz wire.
Wettlauf zum Nordpol

Im Ruckblick etwas uberraschend erfolgte der entlang der Nordwestkuste von Gronland und vom Nordende des kanadischen Polararchipels in der zweiten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts in zahllosen Anlaufen unternommene Vorstos zum Nordpol, nur in geringer Verbindung mit den Ereignissen um die Nordwestpassage oder der ubrigen Erforschung Gronlands.
Roles for Aberrant CXCR3 Signaling in Basal Cell Carcinoma : A Case for Dual Activity

This Commentary summarizes the findings of Lo et al. with respect to aberrant CXCR3 signaling in proliferation and survival of basal cell carcinoma.
Metabolic Capability of a Predominant Halanaerobium sp. in Hydraulically Fractured Gas Wells and Its Implication in Pipeline Corrosion.

Microbial activity associated with produced water from hydraulic fracturing operations can lead to gas souring and corrosion of carbon-steel equipment. We examined the microbial ecology of produced water and the prospective role of the prevalent microorganisms in corrosion in a gas production facility in the Barnett Shale. The microbial community was mainly composed of halophilic, sulfidogenic bacteria within the Order Halanaerobiales, which reflected the geochemical conditions of highly saline water containing sulfur species (S2O32-, SO42- and HS-). A predominant, halophilic bacterium (strain DL-01) was subsequently isolated and identified as belonging to the genus Halanaerobium. The isolate could degrade guar gum, a polysaccharide polymer used in fracture fluids, to produce acetate and sulfide in a 10% NaCl medium at 37 oC when thiosulfate was available. To mitigate potential deleterious effects of sulfide and acetate, a quaternary ammonium compound was found to be an efficient biocide in inhibiting the growth and metabolic activity of strain DL-01 relative to glutaraldehyde and tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium sulfate. Collectively, our findings suggest that predominant halophiles associated with unconventional shale gas extraction could proliferate and produce sulfide and acetate from the metabolism of polysaccharides used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. These metabolic products might be returned to the surface and transported in pipelines to cause pitting corrosion in downstream infrastructure.
Consequences of Reduced Troponin-C Calcium Binding Affinity on Slow Skeletal Muscle

We recently reported significant alterations of mouse cardiac function caused by a mutation (D73N) in cardiac troponin C (TnC) that results in reduced calcium affinity (McConnell et al., Front. Striated Mus. Physiol., doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2015.00242). Many of the cardiac alterations resemble the pathophysiology associated with dilated cardiomyopathy. The heart and slow fibers in skeletal muscle normally express the same isoform of TnC. We, therefore, tested whether the contractile properties of the soleus muscle in mice with the same TnC mutation are altered. Intact soleus muscles were isolated from wild type (WT) and heterozygous knock-in (D73N) mice and contractile properties were measured. Peak forces during isometric twitches and tetani, normalized with muscle cross-sectional area, did not differ between WT and D73N muscles. The times to peak twitch force and to one-half relaxation during twitches and tetani were significantly shorter in D73N muscles. There was a significantly greater reduction in force, over a two-minute fatigue test, in D73N muscles. The force/pCa relationship was measured in skinned slow fibers from the soleus of WT and D73N mice. The pCa50 of the force/pCa curve was significantly different between WT and D73N slow fibers (mean ± SEM: 6.47 ± 0.04 and 6.02 ± 0.02, respectively).The results demonstrate that a mutation in TnC that leads to dilated cardiomyopathy can also induce profound alterations in skeletal muscle function, potentially exacerbating the morbidity associated with cardiomyopathy.
Bone Biology: Bone Structure and Remodeling

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of bone structure and remodeling and a framework for the discussion of many different pathogenetic mechanisms by which bone loss might occur after transplantation. The skeleton provides the body with a frame that is strong enough for protection, light enough for mobility, and adaptable for changing structural needs. It also serves metabolic functions as a storehouse for calcium and phosphorus, a buffering site for hydrogen ion excess, and a binding site for toxic ions, such as lead and aluminum. When skeletal tissues are required to fulfill these latter functions, this may occur at the cost of structural integrity and lead to fractures. The bone remodeling process is vital for maintaining both the structural and metabolic functions of skeletal tissue. Remodeling is needed to repair skeleton damage that occurs with repeated stresses, and it also helps maintain the viability of the skeleton by replacing dying cells. The remodeling cycle has been divided into four phases: activation, resorption, reversal, and formation. The resorption phase of remodeling, particularly in trabecular bone, can maintain the supply of calcium and phosphate when the diet is deficient in these minerals. On the other hand, when dietary supplies are ample, the formation phase can take up these minerals and make them available for future use. The recent discovery of new regulators represents the beginning of an explosion of new genetic information concerning bone metabolism.
White Matter Disorders

The rich history of neuroscience research has yielded an extensive literature on white matter clinical syndromes, ranging from vascular and demyelinating diseases to autosomally inherited white matter disorders. Although interest in white matter structure and abnormalities has spanned several hundred years, significant attention to white matter–mediated neuropsychiatric syndromes did not gain a firm foothold until the mid-20th century. Gross dissection methods were augmented by more fine-grained pathological evaluations of white matter tracts, and behavioral phenotyping moved beyond focal cortical syndromes to reveal striking phenotypes associated with white matter disease. Further characterization of both white matter anatomy and clinical phenomenology has flourished with the advent of sophisticated neuroimaging methodologies, offering an in vivo window into patients' cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Thus, although shorter in record than gray matter research, investigations of white matter disorders have expanded our understanding of structural and functional anatomy while also highlighting the central role of white matter in cognitive and emotional functioning.
Cost-effective frame rate control for mobile GPUs

Nowadays, there has been a trend towards complex rendering for PC-like realistic visual quality in mobile graphics industry. When scenes are nearly static, a fixed high frame rate wastes power consumption for negligible user-perceivable benefits. To alleviate this, some recent techniques are studied for dynamic frame rate scaling [Yan 2015] which skips frames based on the states of contents. However, they can make visible artifacts such as judder and strobing, unless computing complex methods are required for accurate measurement of inter-frame variation. They may mitigate the artifacts but demand high computational power.
Microbiological Quality of Breaded Shrimp During Processing.

Duplicate samples of shrimp or breading materials were collected four times a day for two consecutive days at 12 locations along the processing lines of 33 shrimp-breading firms in the United States during 63 inspections. All firms were using good manufacturing practices. For stock shrimp, the geometric mean aerobic plate count at 35°C incubation (APC 35) was reduced from 2.1 × 106 to 3.3 × 105 colony-forming units (CFU)/g for the frozen finished product. At 35°C, an APC 35 of ≤106 CFU/g was found for 78% of the finished samples. At 30°C incubation, the mean APC was reduced from 7.8 × 106 CFU/g for the stock shrimp to 7.6 × 105 CPU/g for the finished product. Coliform mean counts were virtually static (64 to 83/g) up to the batter-breading steps; however, these counts reached 148 to 160/g at the first batter-breading step and remained constant until the breaded shrimp were frozen. Mean Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus counts were ≤3 and ≤10/g, respectively, for all 12 in-line sampling locations. Salmonella organisms were found in one of 118 finished product samples tested for this pathogen.
Viral and Prion Infections of the Central Nervous System: Radiologic-Pathologic Correlation: From the Radiologic Pathology Archives.

This article explores the broad spectrum of viral and prion central nervous system infections, highlights clinical and neuroimaging features of special interest, and serves as a complementary installment to an earlier article published in this journal on bacterial, fungal, and parasitic central nervous system infections.
Use of Appreciative Inquiry To Engage Parents as Codesigners of a Weight Management Intervention for Adolescents

Abstract Background: Focus groups are often used to involve families as codesigners of weight management interventions. Focus groups, however, are seldom designed to elicit families' strengths and positive experiences. The purpose of this study was to describe the use of the Appreciative Inquiry process in the conduct of focus groups to engage families in the design of a weight management intervention for adolescents. Methods: A convenience sample of 44 parents (84% female; 82% minority) of adolescent children with a BMI ≥ 85th percentile, who were in the 6th–8th grade in a large urban school, participated in focus groups designed to elicit family-positive experiences and strengths regarding healthy living. A structured set of questions based on the Appreciative Inquiry process was used in the focus groups. Analyses consisted of the constant comparative method to generate themes. Results: Parent-positive perceptions regarding their family's healthy living habits were reflected in five themes: (1) Having h...
Health and health behaviors during the great recession: a note on drinking, smoking, obesity, and physical activity

Previous studies have shown that recessions are typically associated with better health and health behaviors. With the exception of a few recent studies however, these studies focus on sample periods that end prior to the Great Recession. The few exceptions that extend the analysis period beyond the Great Recession suggest that the pro-cyclical relationship between macroeconomic conditions and mortality obtained in earlier studies might have weakened over time. In this paper, we revisited the relationship between state unemployment rate and a large set of outcomes of health and health behaviors using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) between 1990 and 2014. Overall, our results suggest that state unemployment rate is weakly related to both health and health behaviors as our estimates are too small to have any meaningful implications, although they are largely imprecisely estimated. Finally, we tested whether the Great Recession played a significant role in influencing the pattern in the relationship between unemployment rate and health and health behaviors. Our results from this analysis do not reveal any measurable recession effect, although the estimates are again largely imprecise.
Information Behavior of Competitive Intelligence Professionals: A Convergence Approach

Competitive intelligence activities are intensive information behavior. This paper reports a portion of results from a study of how 28 Canadian CI professionals work in the real world, such as the mechanism of their information needs, the types of information that they seek, and the information sources that they use.Les activites de la veille concurrentielle constituent des comportements informationnels intensifs. Cet article presente une partie des resultats d’une etude portant sur la maniere dont 28 professionnels canadiens de la veille concurrentielle travaillent dans le monde reel, et plus particulierement le mecanisme de leurs besoins informationnels, les categories d’information recherchees, et les sources d’information utilisees.
Listening for Stories: Childhood Studies and Art Education

Reflecting on two events documented in early childhood art classes as representative narratives of the possible, I present a case for the adoption of a childhood studies perspective in contemporary art education research and teaching. Moving beyond outmoded and unreliable developmental understandings, and becoming aware of the influence of prevailing social constructions of childhood on adult interpretations of children’s engagements, teachers and researchers may begin to recognize children as competent social beings entangled in a shifting series of relationships within the performative spaces of the art classroom.
Smartphone Radio Interface Management for Longer Battery Lifetime

A major concern for today’s smartphones is their much faster battery drain than traditional feature phones, despite their greater battery capacities. The difference is mainly contributed by those more powerful but also much more powerconsuming smartphone components, such as the multi-core application processor. While the application processor must be active when any smart apps are being used, it is also unnecessarily waken up, even during idle periods, to perform operations related to basic phone functions (i.e., incoming calls and text messages).In this paper, we investigate how to increase the battery life of smartphones by minimizing the use of the application processor during idle periods.We find that the application processor is often waken up by a process running on it, called the Radio Interface Layer Daemon (RILD), which interfaces the user and apps to the GSM/LTE cellular network. In particular, we demonstrate that a great amount of energy could be saved if RILD is stopped, such that the application processor can sleep more often. Based on this key finding, we design a Smart On Demand (SOD) configuration that reduces smartphone idle energy consumption by running RILD operations on a secondary low-power microcontroller. As a result, RILD operations can be handled at much lower energy costs and the application processor is waken up only when one needs to use any smart apps, in an on-demand manner. We have built a hardware prototype of SOD and evaluated it with real user traces. Our results show that SOD can increase its battery life by up to 2.5 more days.
Comparing pharmacophore models derived from crystallography and NMR ensembles

NMR and X-ray crystallography are the two most widely used methods for determining protein structures. Our previous study examining NMR versus X-Ray sources of protein conformations showed improved performance with NMR structures when used in our Multiple Protein Structures (MPS) method for receptor-based pharmacophores (Damm, Carlson, J Am Chem Soc 129:8225–8235, 2007). However, that work was based on a single test case, HIV-1 protease, because of the rich data available for that system. New data for more systems are available now, which calls for further examination of the effect of different sources of protein conformations. The MPS technique was applied to Growth factor receptor bound protein 2 (Grb2), Src SH2 homology domain (Src-SH2), FK506-binding protein 1A (FKBP12), and Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ). Pharmacophore models from both crystal and NMR ensembles were able to discriminate between high-affinity, low-affinity, and decoy molecules. As we found in our original study, NMR models showed optimal performance when all elements were used. The crystal models had more pharmacophore elements compared to their NMR counterparts. The crystal-based models exhibited optimum performance only when pharmacophore elements were dropped. This supports our assertion that the higher flexibility in NMR ensembles helps focus the models on the most essential interactions with the protein. Our studies suggest that the “extra” pharmacophore elements seen at the periphery in X-ray models arise as a result of decreased protein flexibility and make very little contribution to model performance.
A BAPTIST VIEW OF ORDAINED MINISTRY: A function or a way of being? Part 2

The first part of this paper (published in the issue of July 2009) looked at Baptist understanding of the nature of ordained ministry and the source of authority for it down the centuries. This second part considers Baptist practice today.
Introduction: Why Maritime Eurasia?

The introduction frames the volume, giving an overview of Eurasia’s growing embrace of its maritime geography from the Indian Ocean to Pacific Asia and the Arctic. In an age of climate change, the melting of the Arctic will transform Eurasia’s importance and likely speed up political, economic, and military competition across Eurasia’s main maritime regions. Eurasia is introduced here from a saltwater perspective, including the framework of the volume that analyzes Eurasia’s main maritime spaces in a threefold manner—as avenue, as arena, as source—to show the significance of this geostrategic shift and why it matters for the future of the world’s oceans.
The Postcolonial Ecopolitics of Consumption: Reimagining the Kola Nut in Chris Abani’s GraceLand

ABSTRACTFor the Igbo people, the kola nut has traditionally held a central place in many religious ceremonies, as well as in everyday greetings and gatherings. With colonialism, however, these trad...
Performance of a Clad Tungsten Rod Spallation Neutron Source Target

Tungsten rods, slip-clad with Type 304L stainless steel, performed successfully as a spallation neutron source target operating to a peak fluence of {approx}4 x 10{sup 21} p/cm{sup 2}. The target was used as a neutron source during the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) materials irradiation program at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Tungsten rods of 2.642-mm diameter were slip-fit in Type 304L stainless steel tubes that had an inner diameter of 2.667 mm. The radial gap was filled with helium at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Los Alamos High Energy Transport (LAHET) calculations suggest a time-averaged peak power deposition in the W of 2.25 kW/cm{sup 3}. Thermal-hydraulic calculations indicate that the peak centerline W temperature reached 271 deg. C. The LAHET calculations were also used to predict neutron and proton fluxes and spectra for the complex geometry used in the irradiation program. Activation foil sets distributed throughout the experiment were used to determine target neutronics performance as a comparison to the LAHET calculations. Examination of the irradiated target assemblies revealed no significant surface degradation or corrosion on either the Type 304L or the W surfaces. However, it was clear that the irradiation changed material properties because post-proton-irradiation measurements onmore » Type 304L test samples from the APT program demonstrated increases in the yield strength and decreases in the ductility and fracture toughness with increasing dose, and the wrought W rod samples became brittle. Fortunately, the slip-clad target design subjects the materials to very low stress.« less
Spatial Vision in the Cat

During the last several decades the cat has been one of visual science’s most generous benefactors, in terms of contributing to our understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in vision. As a result of this generosity, we know a great deal about the receptive field properties of neurons at different stages of the cat’s visual nervous system, and we are beginning to see how these properties may be correlated with structural features such as morphology and sites of projection. These anatomical and physiological data, while certainly important in their own right, can take on added significance if their relationship to visual perception can be established. For this reason, as we continue to learn more about the visual system of the cat, it becomes increasingly important to know in some detail the visual capacities of the cat.
Asymptotically Mean Stationary Sources and Channels

Several properties of information sources and channels that are asymptotically mean stationary (a.m.s.) are described and discussed.
Simplified Technique for Superior Capsular Reconstruction Using an Acellular Dermal Allograft

Superior capsular reconstruction is a powerful tool for the treatment of massive irreparable rotator cuff tears. Several authors have described this evolving technique. Issues of graft sizing, graft passage, graft tensioning, and suture management make this a challenging procedure even in the hands of experienced shoulder surgeons. We describe our arthroscopic technique for superior capsular reconstruction using nonirradiated human acellular dermis. We introduce several techniques for graft passage and tensioning that may help to simplify this challenging procedure and make it more reproducible.
Implementation of A Joint Power Harvesting and Communication Technology on A Smartphone's 3.5 mm Audio Interface

With the popularization of smartphones, various smartphone-centric applications have emerged, which use a smartphone in conjunction with microcontrollers and sensors for data acquisition, processing, display, communication, and storage. Because smartphones do not have a universal data interface, many applications use the 3.5 mm audio interface for data communications so that they can work with various types of smartphones, but the problem on the power supply is unsolved. In this paper, we have combined the Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulation scheme with AudioTrack Streaming mode into an app to establish joint data and power transmission on both left and right audio channels so that the smartphone can provide up to 36.3mW power and 1.6kbps data rate to the microcontroller. Furthermore, we have implemented digital data filter, power detector, timing-error detector/corrector and differential Manchester coder and decoder in the same app and achieved up to 7.35kbps data rate from the microcontroller to the smartphone thru audio port.
Development of Value-Added Products from Fly Ash Carbons

The implementation of increasingly stringent Clean Air Act Regulations by the coal utility industry has resulted in an increase in the concentration of unburned carbon in coal combustion fly ash. Unburned carbon, also referred to as fly ash carbon, is nowadays regarded as a waste product and its fate is mainly disposal, due to the present lack of efficient routes for its utilization. However, the increasingly severe regulations on disposal may demand the utility industry to begin offsetting coal combustion with natural gas, or require additional coal cleaning to remove the ash prior to combustion, or simply start utilizing the unburned carbon. Accordingly, this work focuses on the development of two routes for the generation of premium carbon products from the unburned carbon present in fly ash: (1) feedstock for the production of activated carbons and (2) replacement for calcined petroleum coke in the production of carbon artefacts. Steam activation of the unburned carbon generated activated carbons with surface areas up to 688m2/g, and increasing the activation time from 60 to 120 minutes resulted in higher surface areas at the expense of some solid yield. However, increasing the steam activation time resulted in widening of both micro- and mesopores due to pore enlargement and removal of some pore walls. For the carbon artefacts, the baking yields are very similar for all the carbon bodies investigated, around 90%, as expected from the similar thermal history of petroleum coke and fly ash carbons. The densities of the green and baked carbon bodies produced with only petroleum coke are slightly higher than those of the carbon bodies prepared using fly ash carbon, probably due to the small particle size distribution of the formulations when using fly ash carbons.
A review of fault detection and diagnosis methods for residential air conditioning systems

Abstract The fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) for air conditioning systems has been an active area of research for over two decades. However, the majority of methods have been developed for commercial buildings. While much of this work applies to the residential market, this market has unique challenges and opportunities that should be considered separate from the commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and industrial refrigeration systems. This paper reviews and evaluates state-of-the-art methods for performing FDD for air conditioning systems. In the field of applying these methods to the residential market, the opportunities for development include: (a) Considering the level of fault diagnosis that is most cost-effective in the residential market. (b) Simplifying the set of required sensors for FDD. This paper also reviews the emerging field of fault detection of residential air conditioning systems by using cloud-based thermostat data. Publishers have only recently started releasing large-scale analyses of thermostat data, but experts predict considerable growth in this field.
Gene Expression Profiling (GEP) As a Prognostic Indicator of Multiple Myeloma, Irrespective of Disease Stage, Prior Treatment and Prior Transplant - a Single Center Experience

Abstract Background Multiple myeloma (MM) risk is classified using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) routine cytogenetics, and gene expression profiling (GEP). GEP is a clinically validated tool for prognostication of MM in newly diagnosed and relapsed patients (pts), its role in very heavily treated stages is less clear. A study (Nishihori et al, ASH, 2016) concluded that GEP is useful regardless of disease stage. We aim to determine the prognostic significance of GEP heavily pre-treated MM cohort. Methods 299 pts with MyPRSTM GEP results at Hackensack University Medical Center (NJ) between 2012 and 2016 were included. High risk GEP was defined with the validated cutoff score of >45.2, high risk FISH was determined according to the mSMART classification as del17p, t(14,16), t(14,20). Chi-square tests were performed on categorical data and Wilcoxon rank sum tests on continuous data. Overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were performed using Kaplan-Meier. Results Median age was 63 years (range, 25-91), 170 pts (56%) were men, 81 pts (28%) had International Staging System (ISS) 3 and 191 pts (62%) had Durie-Salmon Staging (DSS) III. 245 pts (81%) had at least one bone marrow transplant (BMT). Median time from myeloma diagnosis to GEP was 30.1 (range 0.1-178.4) months. Most pts had GEP on diagnosis but 24% were heavily pretreated (range, 1-6 lines of treatment), and 13% had a BMT prior to GEP testing. 77 pts (25%) had high-risk disease based on GEP with a median score of 36.5 (range, 9.03-84.05). Molecular subtypes were hyperdiploidy (HY) 31%, cyclin family (CD)-2 20%, low bone disease (LB) 13%, proliferation (PR) 11%, MAF associated (MF) 10%, CD-1 8%, and MMSET associated (MS) 6%. Median OS and PFS were significantly inferior in patients with high-risk by GEP, 25 vs 33 months (p Conclusions GEP can accurately predict risk status in heavily pre-treated and post-transplant MM pts. In conclusion, our data confirm that GEP is a good prognostic indicator in MM pts irrespective of disease stage and prior treatments. Further prospective studies with larger samples and correlating with baseline and intra-treatment GEP are needed. Disclosures Richter: Janssen: Speakers Bureau; BMS: Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Vesole: Takeda: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau. Siegel: Celgene, Takeda, Amgen Inc, Novartis and BMS: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Merck: Consultancy. Biran: Takeda: Speakers Bureau; Celgene, Amgen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau.
Research note: Measurement of blue light hazard risk level using a hyperspectral camera:

Using a calibrated hyperspectral camera, we evaluated the hazard risk level of blue light illumination using the IEC TR 62778:2014 method. The risk levels obtained using the hyperspectral camera we...
Budget-Constrained Demand-Weighted Network Design for Resilient Infrastructure

Our work is motivated by an important network design problem in climate adaptation. As floods become more frequent and severe due to climate change, it is increasingly crucial that road infrastructure be strategically upgraded to support post-disaster recovery efforts and normal functionality. We focus on the problem of allocating a fixed budget towards restoring edges to maximize the satisfied travel demand between locations in a network, which we formalize as the budget-constrained prize-collecting Steiner forest problem. We prove that the satisfiable travel demand objective exhibits restricted supermodularity over forests, and utilize this property to design an iterative algorithm based on maximizing successive modular lower bounds for the objective that finds better solutions than a baseline greedy approach. We also propose an extremely fast heuristic for maximizing modular functions subject to knapsack and graph matroid constraints that can be used as a subroutine in the iterative algorithm, or as a standalone method that matches the greedy baseline in terms of quality but is orders of magnitude faster. We evaluate the algorithms on synthetic data, and apply them to a real-world instance of retrofitting the Senegal national road network against flooding.
Feedback: Where It's at Is Where It's at.

I left the secondary classroom over fifteen years ago after teaching English and history for ten years. My exodus followed those of other colleagues who left to become librarians or coaches, or who left the profession altogether. We all left for the same reason: grading papers, or more precisely, writing comments on individual students' papers. Anything was worth getting away from the guilt of not grading papers on a sunny Sunday afternoon or from the resentment of toting papers to the parking lot each evening when other content-area teachers were just carrying their car keys. As it turns out, I wound up in graduate school teaching writing courses that required weekly individual conferences, so no written commentary was necessary. That method was certainly effective, but it is not one that I could have employed in secondary school, with the heavier class loads and tighter time constraints. At a different university now as the coordinator of English education, I feel a particular obligation to the future English teachers sitting in my undergraduate classes to confront what I believe is the number one cause of English teacher burnout: writing comments on students' papers. The advent of Web-based e-mail has made all the difference
Unique homeobox codes delineate all the neuron classes of C. elegans

It is not known at present whether neuronal cell-type diversity—defined by cell-type-specific anatomical, biophysical, functional and molecular signatures—can be reduced to relatively simple molecular descriptors of neuronal identity1. Here we show, through examination of the expression of all of the conserved homeodomain proteins encoded by the Caenorhabditis elegans genome2, that the complete set of 118 neuron classes of C. elegans can be described individually by unique combinations of the expression of homeodomain proteins, thereby providing—to our knowledge—the simplest currently known descriptor of neuronal diversity. Computational and genetic loss-of-function analyses corroborate the notion that homeodomain proteins not only provide unique descriptors of neuron type, but also have a critical role in specifying neuronal identity. We speculate that the pervasive use of homeobox genes in defining unique neuronal identities reflects the evolutionary history of neuronal cell-type specification. Each one of the complete set of 118 neuron classes in Caenorhabditis elegans can be specified individually by the expression of unique combinations of homeodomain proteins.
Concrete roadway crack segmentation using encoder-decoder networks with range images

Abstract Recently, researchers have utilized DCNN for pixel-wise crack classification through semantic segmentation. Nevertheless, some issues in current DCNN-based roadway crack segmentation are yet to be fully addressed. For example, image pre-processing techniques are often required to eliminate the surface variations in range images, which may bring uncertainties due to subjective parameter selection; besides, disturbances from many non-crack patterns such as pavement grooves can deteriorate the crack segmentation performance, which remains a challenge for current DCNN-based methodologies. This paper proposes a methodology based on encoder-decoder networks to achieve pixel-wise crack classification performance on laser-scanned range images, under the disturbance of surface variations and grooved patterns in concrete pavements. The raw range data is directly applied in this methodology without any pre-processing. A comparative study is performed to determine the optimal architecture layout among twelve proposed candidates. Meanwhile, the influence of residual connections on DCNN performance is investigated and demonstrated.
Transition From Manual to Automated Planning and Delivery of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Stereotactic Radiosurgery: Clinical, Dosimetric, and Quality Assurance Results.

Abstract Purpose Properly planned single isocenter volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) radiosurgery plans exhibit high quality and efficiency. We report here the largest clinical experience to date, to our knowledge, comparing manual planning with a new automated platform designed to standardize and simplify radiosurgery planning and delivery processes. Methods We treated 693 patients with single isocenter VMAT radiosurgical plans generated by either our conventional manual (mVMAT) or a recently implemented automated (HyperArcTM) technique. All plans targeted the gross tumor volume without margin. Radiochromic film was used for patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA). We evaluated local control and toxicity data for a subgroup of 107 patients having 377 metastatic tumors that were treated with HyperArc. Results The median Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) conformity index was 1.14 and was not different between the 2 techniques. The median Paddick gradient index was 5.42 for HyperArc versus 7.09 for mVMAT (P Conclusions HyperArc produces high-quality radiosurgical plans that are at least as good as mVMAT plans created by an expert manual planner with easier planning and more efficient delivery workflow. A less experienced planner can produce very high-quality radiosurgical plans even for patients with more than 10 targets. The use of a single-isocenter technique for multiple targets with no PTV margin did not compromise clinical outcomes, and 1-year local control for treated targets remained congruent with historical series.
A comparative study on biogas production, energy balance, and nutrients conversion with inter-stage hydrothermal treatment of sewage sludge

Abstract As an alternative to pre-stage hydrothermal treatment (HT) before anaerobic digestion (AD), inter-stage HT (i.e., AD-HT-AD) has been proposed to increase biogas production and to further reduce the residual organic matter. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of inter-stage HT at 155 °C on the ultimate biodegradability and AD extent of sewage sludge mixture (i.e., primary and waste activated sludge). The sludge ultimate biodegradability was evaluated through biochemical methane potential tests. AD-AD and AD-HT-AD configurations were investigated in semi-continuously fed bench-scale digesters in terms of methane production, solids reduction, nutrients transformation, and energy balance. Results were compared with those of AD and HT-AD configurations from our previous study. Inter-stage HT increased the ultimate biodegradability of the sludge mixture; however, pre- and inter-stage HT resulted in comparable overall specific methane production. Compared to AD and HT-AD, AD-AD and AD-HT-AD had comparable methane production, higher VS destruction (by 3.4–9.3%), but lower overall crude protein removal (by 4.0–7.5%) and soluble orthophosphate concentration decrease (by 32.5–60.8%). There was minimal difference in net energy production by AD and AD-AD (single digester vs. two digesters; 1.4 GJ/d), as well as by HT-AD and AD-HT-AD (pre-HT vs. inter-HT; 0.4 GJ/d). High HT heat recovery is needed for HT-AD and AD-HT-AD to obtain energy balance comparable to AD and AD-AD. Compared to single-step AD, the two-step AD process is more complex and thus less attractive for the digestion of sewage sludge with a relatively high ultimate biodegradability as was the case in this study. However, AD-HT-AD may be more beneficial considering post-AD sludge handling processes.
Stabilizing Hybrid Electrochromic Devices through Pairing Electrochromic Polymers with Minimally Color-Changing Ion-Storage Materials Having Closely Matched Electroactive Voltage Windows.

Conjugated electrochromic polymers hold great promises for next-generation color-changing windows and displays. One of the major roadblocks in their solid-state electrochromic devices is the relatively poor cycling stability. Finding ion-storage materials as a charge-balancing component is critical in improving their electrochemical cycling stability. A key criterion for the selection of ion-storage materials is to match their electroactive voltage windows with the paired electrochromic polymers. Thus, we developed a nanostructured, amorphous vanadium oxide (VOx) ion-storage material that exhibits high transmissivity, minimal color interference, and excellent charge-balancing capability in a closely matched electroactive window with the paired electrochromic polymers. High-performance magenta-to-transmissive hybrid electrochromic devices constructed from pairing the polymer with the VOx can be reversibly switched for 50 000 cycles with an optical loss less than 5%.
Behind the Meter Solar+Storage: Market data and trends

Author(s): Barbose, Galen L; Elmallah, Salma; Gorman, Will | Abstract: As the distributed solar market evolves toward more dynamic forms of deployment, interest in paired solar-plus-storage applications continues to gain steam, but details on the current state of the market are relatively sparse. To fill that void, Berkeley Lab has released an in-depth analysis of this budding market segment. This report draws on the Lab’s Tracking the Sun dataset to characterize trends in deployment, system sizing and equipment selection, installer-market development, and system pricing. The report also provides indicative analyses of the financial and resilience value that host customers in several key markets presently receive by pairing storage with solar.