cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Neural Predictor of Consumer Psychology: An fMRI Study of the Effect of Celebrity, Non-Celebrity, and Rational Advertising Appeals on Dress Attractiveness

It is important to investigate how to capture their attention, and presumably increasing product attractiveness and buying intention. Along with the traditional research approaches, an increasingly popular method for assessing these factors is the study of the underlying brain activation that accompanies different types of advertising appeals designed to promote a given product. This present study attempts to fill this gap by investigating consumer brain-based activations in response to three different types of advertising appeals (i.e., celebrity, non-celebrity, rational). Twenty-seven female subjects participated and three different advertising appeals were shown to participants while in and fMRI brain scanner. Interestingly, non-celebrity appeals had the most positive effect on perceived dress attractiveness and activated regions particularly important for self-reflection. Future research employing different types of celebrities and products will provide a more complete picture of the brain mechanisms.
Potential Implications of Disasters on Micro Financial Institutions and its Effective Management

One of the main reason for the existence of micro financial institutions is to enhance the capacity of the community and to contribute in risk reduction activities. Disasters not only affect community, it also disrupts the efficiency of micro financial institutions. Disasters intensifies the risk of inefficiency, liquidity, productivity of the micro financial institutions and increase shortfall of capital reserves. To cope with these problems micro financial institutions, need to invest in the development of its human resource, information management system and credit worthy client base.
Restoring Tip60 HAT/HDAC2 balance in the neurodegenerative brain relieves epigenetic transcriptional repression and reinstates cognition

Cognitive decline is a debilitating hallmark during preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the causes remain unclear. Because histone acetylation homeostasis is critical for mediating epigenetic gene control throughout neuronal development, we postulated that its misregulation contributes to cognitive impairment preceding AD pathology. Here, we show that disruption of Tip60 histone acetlytransferase (HAT)/histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) homeostasis occurs early in the brain of an AD-associated amyloid precursor protein (APP) Drosophila model and triggers epigenetic repression of neuroplasticity genes well before Aβ plaques form in male and female larvae. Repressed genes display enhanced HDAC2 binding and reduced Tip60 and histone acetylation enrichment. Increasing Tip60 in the AD-associated APP brain restores Tip60 HAT/HDAC2 balance by decreasing HDAC2 levels, reverses neuroepigenetic alterations to activate synaptic plasticity genes, and reinstates brain morphology and cognition. Such Drosophila neuroplasticity gene epigenetic signatures are conserved in male and female mouse hippocampus and their expression and Tip60 function is compromised in hippocampus from AD patients. We suggest that Tip60 HAT/HDAC2-mediated epigenetic gene disruption is a critical initial step in AD that is reversed by restoring Tip60 in the brain.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Mild cognitive impairment is a debilitating hallmark during preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet its causes remain unclear. Although recent findings support elevated histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) as a cause for epigenetic repression of synaptic genes that contribute to cognitive deficits, whether alterations in histone acetlytransferase (HAT) levels that counterbalance HDAC2 repressor action occur and the identity of these HATs remain unknown. We demonstrate that disruption of Tip60 HAT/HDAC2 homeostasis occurs early in the AD Drosophila brain and triggers epigenetic repression of neuroplasticity genes before Aβ plaques form. Increasing Tip60 in the AD brain restores Tip60 HAT/HDAC2 balance, reverses neuroepigenetic alterations to activate synaptic genes, and reinstates brain morphology and cognition. Our data suggest that disruption of the Tip60 HAT/HDAC2 balance is a critical initial step in AD.
Plotinus on Consciousness

Plotinus is the first Greek philosopher to hold a systematic theory of consciousness. The key feature of his theory is that it involves multiple layers of experience: different layers of consciousness occur in different levels of self. This layering of higher modes of consciousness on lower ones provides human beings with a rich experiential world, and enables human beings to draw on their own experience to investigate their true self and the nature of reality. This involves a robust notion of subjectivity. However, it is a notion of subjectivity that is unique to Plotinus, and remarkably different from the Post-Cartesian tradition. Behind the plurality of terms Plotinus uses to express consciousness, and behind the plurality of entities to which Plotinus attributes consciousness (such as the divine souls and the hypostases), lies a theory of human consciousness. It is a Platonist theory shaped by engagement with rival schools of ancient thought.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Including MR Cholangiopancreatography)

Imaging features of biliary tree and primary liver tumors are extremely diverse. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver and MR cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) provide a solid understanding of imaging manifestations useful for accurate detection, characterization, and tumor assessment. Knowledge of tumor characteristics and mimickers is essential for tumor diagnosis and appropriate management. In this chapter, we will discuss the imaging features of biliary tree, gallbladder, and primary liver tumors.
When to incorporate point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into the initial assessment of acutely ill patients: a pilot crossover study to compare 2 POCUS-assisted simulation protocols.

The purpose of this study was to determine the ideal timing for providers to perform point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) with the least increase in workload. We conducted a pilot crossover study to compare 2 POCUS-assisted evaluation protocols for acutely ill patients: sequential (physical examination followed by POCUS) vs parallel (POCUS at the time of physical examination). Participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups according to which POCUS-assisted protocol (sequential vs parallel) was used during simulated scenarios. Subsequently, the groups were crossed over to complete assessment by using the other POCUS-assisted protocol in the same patient scenarios. Providers’ workloads, measured with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and time to complete patient evaluation, were compared between the 2 protocols. Seven providers completed 14 assessments (7 sequential and 7 parallel). The median (IQR) total NASA-TLX score was 30 (30–50) in the sequential and 55 (50–65) in the parallel protocol (P = .03), which suggests a significantly lower workload in the sequential protocol. When individual components of the NASA-TLX score were evaluated, mental demand and frustration level were significantly lower in the sequential than in the parallel protocol (40 [IQR, 30–60] vs 50 [IQR, 40–70]; P = .03 and 25 [IQR, 20–35] vs 60 [IQR, 45–85]; P = .02, respectively). The time needed to complete the assessment was similar between the sequential and parallel protocols (8.7 [IQR, 6–9] minutes vs 10.1 [IQR, 7–11] minutes, respectively; P = .30). A sequential POCUS-assisted protocol posed less workload to POCUS operators than the parallel protocol.
Awareness and access to naloxone necessary but not sufficient: Examining gaps in the naloxone cascade.

Abstract Background Despite promising findings of opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) programs, overdose continues to be a major cause of mortality. The “cascade of care” is a tool for identifying steps involved in achieving optimal health outcomes. We applied the cascade concept to identify gaps in naloxone use. Methods Data came from a cross-sectional survey of 353 individuals aged 18 and older who self-reported lifetime history of heroin use. Results The sample was majority male (65%) and reported use of heroin (74%) and injection (57%) in the past 6 months. Ninety percent had ever witnessed an overdose and of these 59% were in the prior year. Awareness of naloxone (90%) was high. Of those aware, over two-thirds reported having ever received (e.g. access) (69%) or been trained to use naloxone (60%). Of those who had ever received naloxone (n = 218) over one-third reported possession never (36%) or rarely/sometimes carrying naloxone (38%), while 26% reported always carrying. Nearly half of those who had ever received naloxone reported ever use to reverse an opiate overdose (45%). Among individuals who had ever received naloxone, possession often/always compared to never was associated with being female (RRR = 2.88, 95%CI = 1.31–6.27) and ever used naloxone during an overdose (RRR = 4.68, 95%CI = 2.00–11.0). Conclusions This study identifies that consistent possession is a gap in the naloxone cascade. Future research is needed to understand reasons for not always carrying naloxone.
A decentralized biomass torrefaction reactor concept. Part I: Multi-scale analysis and initial experimental validation

Abstract A new, simplified biomass torrefaction reactor concept that operates under oxygen-lean conditions is proposed as a potential way to downscale torrefaction reactors for small- and medium-scale applications. To verify the feasibility of the concept, a multi-scale analysis was conducted to understand the design requirements, underlying chemistry, intra-particle effects, and overall reactor-scale heat transfer. We demonstrate that the heat transfer within the reactor and the appropriate reactor height is largely determined by gas-phase advection. Finally, by implementing a laboratory-scale reactor and operating it under diverse conditions, we show that such a design can indeed satisfy the requirements for torrefaction. This lays the basis for the second part of this two-part paper, where we develop a detailed mathematical model for this concept. In future studies, we will also systematically define and map the performance metrics and reaction conditions in order to understand the scaling laws for potential commercialization of this concept.
A Review and Tutorial of Machine Learning Methods for Microbiome Host Trait Prediction

With the growing importance of microbiome research, there is increasing evidence that host variation in microbial communities is associated with overall host health. Advancement in genetic sequencing methods for microbiomes has coincided with improvements in machine learning, with important implications for disease risk prediction in humans. One aspect specific to microbiome prediction is the use of taxonomy-informed feature selection. In this review for non-experts, we explore the most commonly used machine learning methods, and evaluate their prediction accuracy as applied to microbiome host trait prediction. Methods are described at an introductory level, and R/Python code for the analyses is provided.
Maternal obesity and associated offspring diabetes mellitus.

A large registry-based study found that maternal overweight and obesity are associated with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus in offspring. The results align with those of prospective cohort studies and emphasize a need for interventions that target maternal weight during very early gestation, to optimize maternal and offspring health.
Inferring Quality from a Queue

In this paper, we study how rational agents infer the quality of a good (a product or a service) by observing the queue that is formed by other rational agents to obtain the good. Agents also observe privately the realization of a signal that is imperfectly correlated with the true quality of the good. Based on the queue length information and the signal realization, agents decide whether to join the queue and obtain the good or to balk. The time to produce the good is exponentially distributed. Agents arrive according to a Poisson process at a market and are served according to a FIFO discipline. We nd that when waiting costs are zero, agents receiving a bad signal join the queue only if it is long enough. When waiting costs are strictly positive, agents do not join the queue if it is too long. Furthermore, there may exist a set of isolated queue lengths (\holes") at which agents with a bad signal do not join. In equilibrium, queues are shorter for low quality goods and an agent is more likely to erroneously join a queue for a low quality good than erroneously balk from a queue for a high quality good. When decreasing the service rate, more agents may join queues for high quality goods, even when waiting is costly.
Damage to the shortest structural paths between brain regions is associated with disruptions of resting-state functional connectivity after stroke

Abstract Focal brain lesions disrupt resting-state functional connectivity, but the underlying structural mechanisms are unclear. Here, we examined the direct and indirect effects of structural disconnections on resting-state functional connectivity in a large sample of sub-acute stroke patients with heterogeneous brain lesions. We estimated the impact of each patient’s lesion on the structural connectome by embedding the lesion in a diffusion MRI streamline tractography atlas constructed using data from healthy individuals. We defined direct disconnections as the loss of direct structural connections between two regions, and indirect disconnections as increases in the shortest structural path length between two regions that lack direct structural connections. We then tested the hypothesis that functional connectivity disruptions would be more severe for disconnected regions than for regions with spared connections. On average, nearly 20% of all region pairs were estimated to be either directly or indirectly disconnected by the lesions in our sample, and extensive disconnections were associated primarily with damage to deep white matter locations. Importantly, both directly and indirectly disconnected region pairs showed more severe functional connectivity disruptions than region pairs with spared direct and indirect connections, respectively, although functional connectivity disruptions tended to be most severe between region pairs that sustained direct structural disconnections. Together, these results emphasize the widespread impacts of focal brain lesions on the structural connectome and show that these impacts are reflected by disruptions of the functional connectome. Further, they indicate that in addition to direct structural disconnections, lesion-induced increases in the structural shortest path lengths between indirectly structurally connected region pairs provide information about the remote functional disruptions caused by focal brain lesions.
Boosting approximate dictionary-based entity extraction with synonyms

Abstract Dictionary-based entity extraction is an important task in many data analysis applications, such as academic search, document classification, and code auto-debugging. To improve the effectiveness of extraction, many previous studies focused on the problem of approximate dictionary-based entity extraction, which aims at finding all substrings in documents that are similar to pre-defined entities in the reference entity dictionary. However, these studies only consider syntactical similarity metrics, such as Jaccard and edit distance. In real-world scenarios, there are many cases where syntactically different strings can express the same meaning. Existing approximate entity extraction work fails to identify such kind of semantic similarity and will definitely suffer from low recall. In this paper, we come up with the new problem of an approximate dictionary-based entity extraction with synonyms and propose an end-to-end framework Aeetes to solve it. We propose a new similarity measure Asymmetric Rule-based Jaccard ( JaccAR ) to combine the synonym rules with syntactic similarity metrics and capture the semantic similarity expressed in the synonyms. We devise and implement a filter-and-verification based strategy to improve the overall efficiency. To this end, we propose several pruning techniques to reduce the filter cost and develop novel strategies to improve verification performance. Experimental results on three real-world datasets demonstrate the superior effectiveness and efficiency of Aeetes .
RE-THEORIZING SILENCE(S)

ABSTRACT This paper describes a telling case account that occurred during an ethnographic study in the United States in a secondary school senior British Literature class with only two African American young women, Pam and Natonya. The telling case complicated silence and also made visible other reflexive processes that provided opportunities to unpack and theorize silence, which led to the articulation of the silence trilogy. Further, it also made visible how the African American woman scholar’s own lived experiences informed her attempt to make sense of how Pam and Natonya navigated the silence(s). This paper will primarily foreground the works of Scholars of Color and use Black feminist and sociolinguistic theory to explore the following question: How did two African-American females in a predominately white educational space negotiate the silence(s) (e.g., silence, silencing, and silenced)? How did the African American woman researchers of color make sense of their negotiation?
Influence of visual biofeedback and inherent stability on trunk postural control

Abstract Background For individuals who never achieve independent standing, rehabilitation is focused on trunk posture and balance control. Visual biofeedback has the potential to augment sitting balance training, however previous work in this area has been limited to standing. Research question To what extent do different types of visual biofeedback influence trunk sway in sitting? Methods Twelve healthy young adults sat on an articulating bench. During ‘sway referencing’ trials, the bench tilted up and down in proportion to trunk sway in the frontal plane. This paradigm increased difficulty of the balance task and required participants to rely on visual and vestibular cues. Participants were provided different visual biofeedback through a rotating needle-gage display. Trials lasted 165 s, were ordered randomly, and included either direct feedback (needle rotated in proportion to body sway), inverted feedback (needle rotated in the opposite direction of sway), time delayed feedback (0.5 s), random feedback, eyes closed, or control (eyes open with screen off). To explore the impact of inherent stability, trials were repeated with and without external trunk support. Results Body sway depended on feedback type. Specifically, direct and inverted feedback reduced root-mean-squared (RMS) sway the most, time delayed feedback had a smaller effect, and random visual feedback increased participants’ RMS sway compared to control. Frequency domain analyses demonstrated direct and inverted visual feedback reduced sway amplitude at the lower frequencies while having minimal effect on (or increasing) sway amplitude at higher frequencies. Significance This study extends previous work by showing that visual biofeedback can have powerful effects on sitting balance, even with external support. Results from the different types of feedback conditions further our understanding of how the brain interprets visual biofeedback. Frequency-based results were similar to previous studies using different modalities and suggest participants interpret biofeedback through sensory addition as opposed to sensory substitution.
Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy in University Counseling Centers: A Survey of Clinicians

Time-limited dynamic psychotherapy (TLDP) is a time-sensitive, interpersonal approach, emphasizing attachment, and affective-experiential components, which influence the process of change. TLDP out...
A Prion-based Thermosensor in Plants

Some prion-like domains and low-complexity regions provide the multivalency required to facilitate protein phase separation to regulate protein function. Jung et al. (2020) demonstrate how natural selection of the ELF3 prion-like domain gives rise to an intuitive biological switch that directly responds to temperature.
The Rise and Fall of Debris Disks: MIPS Observations of h and chi Persei and the Evolution of Mid-IR Emission from Planet Formation

We describe Spitzer/MIPS observations of the double cluster, h and $\chi$ Persei, covering a $\sim$ 0.6 square-degree area surrounding the cores of both clusters. The data are combined with IRAC and 2MASS data to investigate $\sim$ 616 sources from 1.25-24 $\mu m$. We use the long-baseline $K_{s}$-[24] color to identify two populations with IR excess indicative of circumstellar material: Be stars with 24 $\mu m$ excess from optically-thin free free emission and 17 fainter sources (J$\sim$ 14-15) with [24] excess consistent with a circumstellar disk. The frequency of IR excess for the fainter sources increases from 4.5 $\mu m$ through 24 $\mu m$. The IR excess is likely due to debris from the planet formation process. The wavelength-dependent behavior is consistent with an inside-out clearing of circumstellar disks. A comparison of the 24 $\mu m$ excess population in h and $\chi$ Per sources with results for other clusters shows that 24 $\mu m$ emission from debris disks 'rises' from 5 to 10 Myr, peaks at $\sim$ 10-15 Myr, and then 'falls' from $\sim$ 15/20 Myr to 1 Gyr.
The development of a reactive brain endothelium after psychosocial stress

Psychosocial stress is associated with increased inflammation and higher prevalence of mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. Through the activation of several neuroendocrine pathways, psychological stress leads to significant physiological, immunological, and behavioral changes. Repeated social defeat (RSD), a murine model of psychosocial stress, recapitulates many of the behavioral and immunological effects observed in humans, including increased circulating cytokines, immune cell recruitment, and prolonged anxiety-like behavior. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying stress-induced immune cell trafficking to the brain that leads to the development of a reactive endothelium and behavioral changes. We show that RSD caused an exposure-dependent increase in the gene expression of ICAM1, VCAM1, E-selectin, CXCL1, and CXCL2 in the brain that increased with additional days of stress. RSD-induced ICAM1 and VCAM1 protein expression were localized to the vasculature of brain regions implicated in fear and anxiety responses, which spatially corresponded to previously reported patterns of myeloid cell trafficking. Comparison between enriched CD11b+ cells (microglia/macrophages) and enriched GLAST-1+/CD11b- cells (astrocytes) revealed that RSD increased the gene expression of IL-1 beta, CCL2, and CXCL2 in microglia/macrophages, but not astrocytes. Collectively, these data indicate that critical adhesion mediators are increased in the brain vasculature following RSD. This study begins to establish a mechanism by which the brain facilitates stress-induced immune cell recruitment that may underlie anxiety and mood disorders.
Growth charts for children 0 to 18 years of age

The purpose of this communication is to present growth grids which incorporate many of the recommendations set forth by the Committee on Growth and Development of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Maternal, Child Health Service of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.1 The percentile curves depicted on these grids are based on longitudinal data collected by the Child Research Council of Denver2 which represent optimal values for whites living in this area. The charts have been in use at the University of Colorado Medical Center for over one year and have proven to be quite satisfactory. CLINICAL MATERIAL AND METHODS FOR THE GROWTH CURVES
A real-time selective harmonic compensation (SHC) based on asymmetric switching angle modulation and current feedback control for cascaded modular multilevel inverters

With asymmetric switching angle modulation technique, a cascaded modular multilevel inverter (CMI) is able to not only control real power flow, but also compensate reactive power and selective harmonic currents with staircase waveforms and the minimum switching loss. To achieve these functions simultaneously, the references of a fundamental active current, a reactive current and all concerned harmonic currents must be generated. The existing techniques employed in selective harmonic elimination calculate solutions offline and store them in a DSP. It would take extremely large memory space because of multi-dimensional data in asymmetric switching angle modulation. This paper proposes a technique to transform a transcendental equation set into a decoupled multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear controlled system. Hence calculating solutions is transformed from solving the trigonometric equation set to achieving the desired response of the controlled system. Both DC model and small signal model are developed for the system. The integral controller, decoupling controller and a feedforward loop with a much smaller look-up table (LUT) than conventional approaches are designed to ensure the system to converge to a zero-error steady state. A current spectrum feedback loop with FFT block is applied to improve the system's robustness.
An Error Analysis for Functions of Qualitative Attributes with Application to Information Retrieval

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an error analysis for functions of qualitative attributes with application to information retrieval. In information retrieval, classes are formed of terms in such a way that they can be used to achieve an increase in retrieval performance. The value of a classification is determined empirically by evaluating the effect on retrieval performance when the classification is incorporated into the system. Thus, in constructing classifications for information retrieval, the Platonic concept of error in the assignment of terms to classes is entirely absent. Automatic classification is concerned with assigning objects to classes according to the information about each of the objects. The objects to be classified are described or defined in terms of measurements or observations made upon them, and the information is characteristically conveyed by specifying the qualitative or quantitative attributes, which the objects possess. In any practical application of classification techniques, errors are liable to occur during the collection or compilation of the information about the objects to be classified.
Retinoic acid promotes the development of Arg1-expressing dendritic cells for the regulation of T-cell differentiation.

Arginase I (Arg1), an enzyme expressed by many cell types including myeloid cells, can regulate immune responses. Expression of Arg1 in myeloid cells is regulated by a number of cytokines and tissue factors that influence cell development and activation. Retinoic acid, produced from vitamin A, regulates the homing and differentiation of lymphocytes and plays important roles in the regulation of immunity and immune tolerance. We report here that optimal expression of Arg1 in DCs requires retinoic acid. Induction of Arg1 by retinoic acid is directly mediated by retinoic acid-responsive elements in the 5′ noncoding region of the Arg1 gene. Arg1, produced by DCs in response to retinoic acid, promotes the generation of FoxP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells. Importantly, blocking the retinoic acid receptor makes DCs hypo-responsive to known inducers of Arg1 such as IL-4 and GM-CSF in Arg1 expression. We found that intestinal CD103+ DCs that are known to produce retinoic acid highly express Arg1. Our results establish retinoic acid as a key signal in expression of Arg1 in DCs.
Molecular Design of Supported Metal Oxide Catalysts

Abstract This study demonstrates that molecular design of supported metal oxide catalysts is possible from molecular level information obtained from combined Raman spectroscopy and the methanol oxidation reaction. The important factors that influence the molecular design of the supported metal oxide catalysts are the specific oxide support (factor of ∼10 3 ) and the specific surface metal oxide (factor of ∼10 1 ). The synthesis method is not critical since it does not influence the surface metal oxide structure or reactivity. Calcination temperature is not important as long as moderate temperatures (350–500°C) are used.
OPEC stability: An empirical assessment

Abstract We develop some elementary measures of cartel stability, using OPEC as a case study, to evaluate whether behaviour in a market can be characterized as cooperative or competitive. Common views among economists are that OPEC is either not a viable cooperative organization or that Saudi Arabia is the swing producer holding OPEC together. We apply the concept of ‘reserve sacrifice’ and ‘capacity sacrifice’ ratios and also use the variability of production to analyse OPEC behaviour. The analysis is based on annual data for the 10 most important OPEC countries from 1973–85. Our empirical tests indicate that cooperation among the principal OPEC nations has been fairly great over the entire period.
Effect of Chemical Treatment of Fly Ash on the Leaching of Metals

An investigation was conducted to determine the ability of chemical treatment to reduce the leaching of metals from fly ash. A further objective was to determine the effect of cofiring refuse-derived fuels with coal on leachate composition. Samples of fly ash were treated with portland cement, chemically pure lime, and phosphoric acid and subjected to a column leaching process. The leachates were composited weekly and analyzed using X-ray fluorescence and atomic absorption spectrometry. Portland cement or lime reduced the quantity of leached arsenic 40 to 80% from the control samples, whereas those samples fixed with phosphoric acid yielded 50 times more arsenic. Generally, the samples treated with portland cement showed the most uniform reduction in leachate concentrations. Leachates from fly ash produced upon cofiring refuse-derived fuel with coal showed consistently higher concentrations of all elements except for calcium, selenium, and alkalinity. Compaction and curing of the chemically treated ash samples showed little improvement in the ability to control the amount and types of metals appearing in leachates.
Browse and Search Patterns in a Digital Image Database

A prototype image retrieval system with browse and search capabilities was developed to investigate patterns of searching a collection of digital visual images, as well as factors, such as image size, resolution, and download speed, which affect browsing. The subject populations were art history specialists and non-specialists. Through focus group interviews, a controlled test, post-test interviews and an online survey, data was gathered to compare preferences and actual patterns of use in browsing and searching. While specialists preferred direct search to browsing, and generalists used browsing as their preferred mode, both user groups found each mode to play a role depending on information need, and found value in a system combining both browse and direct search. There were no significant differences in performance among the search modes of browse, search, and combined browse/search models when the quasi-controlled study tested the different modes.
Hepatic stellate cells orchestrate clearance of necrotic cells from the liver by modulating macrophage phenotype (1115.6)

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is activated in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) by hypoxia, and regulates genes important for tissue repair. Whether HIF-1α is activated in HSCs after acute injur...
Basis invariant description of chemical equilibrium with implications for a recent axionic leptogenesis model

We provide a systematic treatment of chemical equilibrium in the presence of a specific type of time dependent background. The type of time dependent background we consider appears, for example, in recently proposed axion/Majoron leptogenesis models [A. Kusenko, K. Schmitz, and T. T. Yanagida, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 011302 (2015) and M. Ibe and K. Kaneta, Phys. Rev. D 92, 035019 (2015)]. In describing the chemical equilibrium we use quantities which are invariant under redefinition of fermion phases (we refer to this redefinition as a change of basis for short), and therefore it is a basis invariant treatment. The change of the anomaly terms due to the change of the path integral measure [K. Fujikawa, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 1195 (1979) and K. Fujikawa, Phys. Rev. D 29, 285 (1984)] under a basis change is taken into account. We find it is useful to go back and forth between different bases, and there are insights which can be more easily obtained in one basis rather than another. A toy model is provided to illustrate the ideas. For the axion leptogenesis model [A. Kusenko, K. Schmitz, and T. T. Yanagida, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 011302 (2015)], our result suggests that at $Tg{10}^{13}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$, when sphaleron processes decouple and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{B+L}\ensuremath{\ll}Hl{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{L}$ (where $H$ is the Hubble parameter at temperature $T$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{L}$ is the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}L=2$ lepton number violating interaction rate), the amount of $B\ensuremath{-}L$ created is controlled by the smallness of the sphaleron interaction rate, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{B+L}$. Therefore it is not as efficient as described. In addition, we notice an interesting modification of gauge boson dispersion relations at subleading order.In this paper, change of basis does not mean change of Lorentz frame. All calculations in this paper are performed in the center-of-momentum frame of the thermal plasma, i.e. the Lorentz frame in which the average momentum of particles is zero.
A systematic study of pool boiling heat transfer on structured porous surfaces: From nanoscale through microscale to macroscale

An experimental study has been conducted to examine the effects of macroscale, microscale, and nanoscale surface modifications in water pool boiling heat transfer and to determine the different heat transfer enhancing mechanisms at different scales. Nanostructured surfaces are created by acid etching, while microscale and macroscale structured surfaces are synthesized through a sintering process. Six structures are studied as individual and collectively integrated surfaces from nanoscale through microscale to macroscale: polished plain, flat nanostructured, flat porous, modulated porous, nanostructured flat porous, and nanostructured modulated porous. Boiling performance is measured in terms of critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC). Both HTC and CHF have been greatly improved on all modified surfaces compared to the polished baseline. Hierarchical multiscale surfaces of integrated nanoscale, microscale, and macroscale structures have been proven to have the most significant improvements on HTC and CHF. The CHF and HTC of the hierarchical multiscale modulated porous surface have achieved the most significant improvements of 350% and 200% over the polished plain surface, respectively. Experimental results are compared to the predictions of a variety of theoretical models with an attempt to reveal the different heat transfer enhancing mechanisms at different scales. It is concluded that models for the structured surfaces at all scales need to be further developed to be able to have good quantitative predictions of CHFs on structured surfaces.
Use of an ecotone to test the effects of soil and desert rodents on the distribution of Indian ricegrass

Effects of soil factors and seed-dispersing heteromyid rodents on the distribution of Indian ricegrass Achnatherum hymenoides were studied at a sharp ecotone between a sandy area with abundant Indian ricegrass and a rocky area where Indian ricegrass was scarce. Two hypotheses were tested: 1) Soil factors limited the recruitment rate of Indian ricegrass in the rocky habitat; and 2) Heteromyid rodents limited the distribution of Indian ricegrass because they did not scatterhoard seeds in the rocky habitat. Seed-planting experiments and soil analyses showed that soil characteristics, especially texture and salinity, limited the distribution of Indian ricegrass, but also that microsites existed in the rocky habitat that were suitable for germination and growth of Indian ricegrass. In particular, as many plants survived over their first winter in the rocky habitat as in the sandy habitat, although.surviving plants were taller in the sandy habitat. Analysis of the soil seed bank indicated that fewer seeds were dispersed to the rocky habitat than to the sandy habitat. To determine whether scatterhoards were being made in the rocky habitat, seeds dyed with fluorescent powder were placed along the ecotone and the fates of these seeds were assessed. Twice as many of these seeds were scatterhoarded in the sandy habitat as in the rocky habitat and seeds were cached further from the ecotone in the sandy habitat. The results suggest that both soil characteristics and heteromyid rodents influence the distribution of Indian ricegrass in western Nevada.
Prenatal cocaine exposure affects the development of aortic adrenergic innervation and contractile responses

This study examines the effects of prenatal cocaine administration on the development of vascular sympathetic innervation and contractile responsiveness. Rabbits received cocaine (4 mg/kg, iv, bid) or saline during gestational days 8 to 29. Aortas were obtained on postnatal days 10, 20, 30 and 50. Vascular smooth muscle responsiveness was assessed by measuring aortic contractile responses to norepinephrine (NE) and to other vasoconstrictors. Vascular adrenergic innervation was evaluated by measuring desipramine sensitive [3H]-NE uptake into aortic ring segments and aortic NE content. [3H]-NE uptake and NE content were reduced at postnatal days 10 and 20 in the rabbits exposed prenatally to cocaine. Differences were not observed at postnatal days 30 or 50. The contractile response to NE was reduced in rabbits exposed to cocaine prenatally. Maximal response and potency were decreased at postnatal day 10 and potency was still decreased at day 20, but not at the older ages. Contractile responses to serotonin (5-HT) and angiotensin II (AII) were not affected by prenatal cocaine exposure. These results suggest that prenatal cocaine exposure delays the development of aortic adrenergic innervation and alpha adrenoceptor responsiveness.
Minimum variance rectangular designs for U-statistics

We consider a certain class of rectangular designs for incomplete U-statistics based on Latin squares and show it to be optimal with respect to the minimal variance criterion. We also show it to be asymptotically efficient when compared with the corresponding complete statistics, as well as uniformly more efficient than the random subset selection. We provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of our design and give some examples of applications.
Adaptive optics by incoherent digital holography

Adaptive optics in astronomical and other imaging systems allows compensation of aberrations introduced by random variations of the refractive index in the imaging path. I propose what I believe is a new type of adaptive optics system that dispenses with the hardware lenslet arrays and deformable mirrors of conventional systems. Theoretical and experimental studies show that wavefront sensing and compensation can be achieved by numerical processing of digital holograms of the incoherent object and a guide star. The incoherent digital holographic adaptive optics is seen to be particularly robust and efficient, with envisioned applications in astronomical imaging, as well as fluorescence microscopy and remote sensing.
Bias in longitudinal data analysis with missing data using typical linear mixed-effects modelling and pattern-mixture approach: An analytical illustration

We analytically derive the fixed-effects estimates in unconditional linear growth curve models by typical linear mixed-effects modelling (TLME) and by a pattern-mixture (PM) approach with random-slope-dependent two-missing-pattern missing not at random (MNAR) longitudinal data. Results showed that when the missingness mechanism is random-slope-dependent MNAR, TLME estimates of both the mean intercept and mean slope are biased because of incorrect weights used in the estimation. More specifically, the estimate of the mean slope is biased towards the mean slope for completers, whereas the estimate of the mean intercept is biased towards the opposite direction as compared to the estimate of the mean slope. We also discuss why the PM approach can provide unbiased fixed-effects estimates for random-coefficients-dependent MNAR data but does not work well for missing at random or outcome-dependent MNAR data. A small simulation study was conducted to illustrate the results and to compare results from TLME and PM. Results from an empirical data analysis showed that the conceptual finding can be generalized to other real conditions even when some assumptions for the analytical derivation cannot be met. Implications from the analytical and empirical results were discussed and sensitivity analysis was suggested for longitudinal data analysis with missing data.
Effect of Agricultural Sprayer Flow Control Hardware on Nozzle Response

Modern rate controllers along with technologies such as automatic section control (ASC) can improve in-field input use efficiency while preventing detrimental effect of unwanted spray application in areas such as grassed waterways or other environmental structures. However, the understanding of product (liquid) dynamics within the boom plumbing on off-rate and application uniformity during rate control and ASC actuation is limited. Therefore, a study was conducted to compare nozzle flow stability and uniformity across the boom when using two boom (2-way and metered 3-way) and two flow regulating (butterfly and ball) valves combinations. Tests were conducted using a 18.3 m sprayer with boom-section control. Pressure transducers were mounted at 1) the boom manifold, 2) randomly at 12 nozzle bodies across the spray boom and, 3) upstream and downstream of the flow regulating valve. Effective system flow rate was measured using two flow meter(s), one located upstream of the boom control valves (2-way or metered 3-way) and another mounted to measure the tank return flow for the metered 3-way boom valve. Measured nozzle pressure was converted to nozzle flow using the manufacturer’s pressure-flow data. Results indicated that the 2-way boom valve response was significantly different as compared to metered 3-way valve. Differences were also indicated by the damping ratios when exiting (under-damped) and reentering (over-damped) spray zones. For the metered 3-way boom valve configuration, the nozzle flow settled faster (0.1 to 4.2 s) generating negligible off-rate errors whereas the 2-way boom valve configuration took up to 34.3 s to settle with off-rate errors between 3.3% and 11.5%. The delayed nozzle flow settling times were associated with pressure settling (0.7 to 31.4 s) downstream of the regulating valve for the 2-way configuration. Ground speed and point row angle impacted nozzle flow settling times and off-rate errors. The increase in ground speed and point row angle increased nozzle flow settling time for the 2-way valve setup, except that acceleration decreased settling times when exiting spray zones. The delayed response contributed to off-rate time which decreased as the sprayer accelerated and point row angle decreased for both the 2-way (1.7 s to 19.3 s) and metered 3-way (2.1 to 4.4 s) boom valves setups. Further, the varied nozzle flow settling times using the butterfly (1.0 to 23.7 s) and fast (0.4 to 15.6 s) regulating valves indicated that one valve calibration number (VCN) may not apply to all sprayer configurations and field operations.
OPC Lattices and Congruence Heredity

We prove that if \({\mathbf{A}}\) is a finite algebra which satisfies a nontrivial idempotent Mal’cev condition, and if Con\({\mathbf{A}}\) contains a copy of an order polynomially complete lattice other than \({\mathbf{2}}\), \({\mathbf{M}}_{3}\), or Con\((\mathbb{Z}^{3}_{2})\), then Con\({\mathbf{A}}\) is not hereditary.
Use of the total quality process in an infection control program: A suprising customer-needs assessment

The University of Michigan Hospitals began a quality management and improvement process in 1987 as the framework for all of its quality-related efforts and activities. The Infection Control Services department used total quality techniques to develop its mission statement, identify customers, identify customer requirements, and develop quality improvement objectives to meet the requirements. A service evaluation of customers resulted in specific improvement activities. An unexpected result of this evaluation was the difference noted between the Infection Control Services staff members' perception of customer requirements and these customers' actual needs. ICPs should use the continuous quality improvement tools and techniques to enhance their activities within their institutions, to better meet their customer needs, and to make sure that they are complementing their institution's mission.
An architecture-aware technique for optimizing sparse matrix-vector multiplication on GPUs

Abstract The sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) is a fundamental kernel used in computational science. As a result, the performance of a large number of applications depends on the efficiency of the SpMV. This kernel is, in fact, a bandwidth- limited operation and poses a challenge for optimization when the matrix has an irregular structure. Over the last few years, a large body of research has been devoted to implementing SpMV on throughput-oriented manycore processors. Several sparse matrix formats have been proposed, with different strengths and weaknesses, as well as other alternative optimization strategies such as row reordering. This paper proposes the design of an architecture-aware technique for improving the performance of the SpMV on Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). This optimization is based on a novel heuristic capable of reducing cache memory accesses within hardware-level thread blocks (warps). The technique is designed and implemented using a variation of the sliced ELL sparse format. However, the underlying idea is structure-independent and can be easily adapted to other sparse representations. We tested the proposed architecture-aware optimization on a large set of benchmarks from heterogeneous application domains. The results show consistent improvements for double-precision calculations, an average 9% increase in performance with speedups up to 2.24 over the baseline.