cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A fuzzy set model of approximate linguistic terms in descriptions of binary topological relations between simple regions

While handling geospatial data, one often faces at least two types of fuzziness. The first type of fuzziness is found in the use of approximate linguistic terms to describe spatial objects and spatial relations. For instance, in "The flash flood in October of 1988 nearly completely flooded downtown San Marcos." the term "nearly completely" is approximate in nature. The second type of fuzziness is due to the indeterminate nature of the boundaries of some spatial objects. Good examples of such objects are climatic regions (e.g., hot versus warm regions) and polygons showing different soil types. This chapter is only concerned with the first type of fuzziness. It develops a fuzzy set model of approximate linguistic terms used in descriptions of binary topological relations between simple regions. After discussing related work, the author reviews cognitive evidences that demonstrate the fuzziness of approximate linguistic terms. Then a fuzzy set model of three approximate linguistic terms, 'a little bit,' 'somewhat,' and 'nearly completely,' is presented. A discussion of possible further research is followed by a summary at the end of the chapter.
Trace Elements in Infancy: A Supply/Demand Perspective

The rapidly growing newborn is particularly vulnerable to imbalances in nutrient supply. In early life, milk or infant formula will be the sole diet for long periods of time, putting strong demands on the particular diet to provide adequate but not excessive quantities of each nutrient. Later in life, the variety of the diet, as well as better homeostatic regulation, diminish this risk. While we know the protein and energy requirements of infants reasonably well, our knowledge regarding the micronutrients is more limited. This is particularly evident for the trace elements, which are present in milk in comparatively low concentrations (1). For this reason, infant formulas intended to replace human milk are supplemented with trace elements, with the possibility of excesses to occur (2). Thus, both deficiency and toxicity of trace elements may occur during infancy (3). This situation is further complicated by the interactions that occur among trace elements, i.e., while a need for supplementation with one trace element is recognized, the possibility of this element reducing the absorption of another element is less commonly taken into account. This is illustrated by the fact that the Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics have established minima for the level of several trace elements in formulas, while a maximum has only been recommended for iron (4). On the other hand, it is difficult to issue strong recommendations before an incidence of trace element deficiency or toxicity is documented. This is a difficult task since there are established clinical tools to detect only iron deficiency. Zinc, copper, manganese and selenium status are much more difficult to assess and blood or serum levels are not tested as a clinical routine. Further compounding the lack of tests is the vague nature of symptoms of trace element deficiency/toxicity in their less pronounced forms. General failure to thrive and possibly slower than normal growth are known consequences of trace element deficiency in human infants, but are too nonspecific to trigger a suspicion of trace element deficiency. While the mentioned signs may not be of serious concern, the recent findings of marginal trace element deficiency causing impairment in immune competence (5), in turn leading to a higher risk for infection, should be of concern.
Reactor Fuel Reprocessing in the US

A survey of processes used in reprocessing reactor fuels is given. These are divided into three classes: aqueous reprocessing, pyrometallurgical reprocessing, and volatility processing. The three main processes: Redox, Purex, and Thorex, under aqueous reprocessing, are to be used in the United States for reprocessing civilian reactor fuels. These processes are intended for complete decontamination of the fissionable material so that fuel can be refabricated by direct handling methods. (B.O.G.)
The Physiology of Potassium in Crop Production

Abstract Potassium (K) plays a major role in the basic functions of plant growth and development. In addition, K is also involved in numerous physiological functions related to plant health and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. However, deficiencies occur widely resulting in poor growth, lost yield, and reduced fiber quality. This review describes the physiological functions of K and the role in stress relief and also provides some agronomic aspects of K requirements, diagnosis of soil and plant potassium status, and amelioration. The physiological processes described include enzymes and organic compound synthesis regulation, water relations and stomates, photosynthesis, transport, cell signaling, and plant response to drought stress, cold stress, salt stress, as well as biotic stresses.
Supply Chain Partners: Virginia Mason and Owens & Minor (A) (Abridged)

Owens & Minor (O&M) performed lean inventory services for Virginia Mason (VM) as its Alpha Vendor, but the outdated industry pricing model created perverse incentives and could not capture O&M's costs. Together, O&M and VM created an activity-based pricing model: Total Supply Chain Costs (TSCC), which incented both companies to be more efficient and to streamline their distribution activities. After beta testing the TSCC for one year, VM's Daniel Borunda and O&M's Michael Stefanic believed that TSCC was a better and more cost-effective pricing model, but could they convince their companies to continue to invest in TSCC?
How Do Adolescents Get Their E-Cigarettes and Other Electronic Vaping Devices?

Purpose:More adolescents “vape” (use e-cigarettes and similar devices) than smoke, but little is known about how underage users obtain vaping devices. This knowledge could inform efforts to prevent...
Characterization of a two-dimensional static wind field using Radial Basis Functions:

Radial Basis Functions are a modern way of creating a regression model of a multivariate function when sampled data points are not uniformly distributed in a perfect grid. Radial Basis Functions ar...
Quantifying the Resilience-Informed Scenario Cost Sum: A Value-Driven Design Approach for Functional Hazard Assessment

Complex engineered systems can carry risk of high failure consequences, and as a result, resilience—the ability to avoid or quickly recover from faults—is desirable. Ideally, resilience should be d ...
Qualities and Methods of Highly Effective Surgical Educators: A Grounded Theory Model

Objective To identify personal qualities and teaching methods of highly effective surgical educators using a novel research design. Design In this qualitative study, surgical residents were sent an electronic survey soliciting nominations for faculty perceived as highly effective surgical educators. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with surgeons receiving the most nominations. Grounded theory methodology identified themes for analysis. Setting General, vascular, and plastic surgery residents and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Participants A total of 77 surgical residents were surveyed. Data saturation occurred after 12 semistructured interviews with attending surgeons, corresponding to the top 15% of faculty. Results Interviewees described both personal characteristics and specific teaching approaches that facilitated successful learning. These included providing exceptional surgical education as a mission, a strong influence from past mentors and role models, a love for the profession, and a low rate of self-professed burnout. Desirable teaching methods included promoting a culture of psychological safety (the perceived ability to take interpersonal risks within one's environment), progressive autonomy, accountability of trainees, and individualized teaching for the learner. Interviewees saw education as inseparable from clinical duties, and all surgeons believed providing exceptional patient care was the foundation of effective surgical teaching. The derived themes suggested that educators prefer “cognitive-based” approaches, focusing on learning processes rather than specific outcomes. Conclusions This study identified characteristics and educational styles of highly effective educators in a cohort of academic surgeons. This framework may inform the development of educational programs for residents and faculty in effective teaching methods.
Detecting Change in Human Social Behavior Simulation

Abstract : The performance of social network change detection (SNCD) is evaluated using a multi-agent simulation of company level U.S Army Infantry organizations. Agent interaction is probabilistic, with increased likelihood of communication based on similarity in skills, role, sub-unit of assignment, military rank, and general personality homophily. Various social network measures are monitored for change over time with a Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) control chart, an Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA), a scan statistic, and a Hamming Distance. Findings show that the average betweenness, the average closeness, and the standard deviation of eigenvector centrality are social network measures that are well-suited for SNCD. This research further supports the efficacy of SNCD using statistical process control charts.
Economic insanity: How growth-driven capitalism is devouring the American dream: by Roger Terry San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1995. 192 pages

(1998). Economic insanity: How growth-driven capitalism is devouring the American dream. The Social Science Journal: Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 467-469.
Aspirational paternity and the female gaze on Korean reality–variety TV:

Korean public broadcasters are reconstructing local fatherhood through two popular reality–variety shows Dad! Where Are We Going? (MBC, 2013–2015) and The Return of Superman (KBS, 2013–) wherein ce...
Let’s Talk: An Examination of Parental Involvement as a Predictor of STEM Achievement in Math for High School Girls:

This research was conducted to examine the influence of parental involvement, in the form of parent conversations, on mathematics achievement for high school girls. Data from the High School Longit...
Hypoxic Expansion of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Enhances Three-Dimensional Maturation of Tissue-Engineered Intervertebral Discs

Culture of three-dimensional (3D) constructs in hypoxic conditions (1-5% O2) has been shown to increase production of extracellular matrix components in primary intervertebral disc (IVD) cells and drive chondrogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Growing evidence suggests that two-dimensional (2D) expansion under hypoxic conditions may have an even greater influence on chondrogenesis in MSCs. This study aims to determine the effects of hypoxia during 2D expansion and subsequent 3D culture on the in vitro maturation of tissue-engineered IVDs (TE-IVDs) made with hMSCs, using a previously developed TE-IVD system. hMSCs were expanded in either hypoxic (5% O2) or normoxic (21% O2) conditions before construction of TE-IVDs. Discs were cultured in 3D in either hypoxic or normoxic conditions to create four experimental groups. Discs made from MSCs expanded in hypoxia were up to 141% stiffer than those made with normoxia-expanded MSCs. Similar patterns were seen in all mechanical properties. Increases in glycosaminoglycan content and collagen content in the nucleus pulposus (NP) were associated with 3D hypoxic culture. A boundary region between the manufactured fibrosus and NP regions developed by 2 weeks and mimicked the organization of the native disc. Hypoxic conditions in both 2D expansion and subsequent 3D culture improved the maturation of TE-IVDs made with hMSCs.
Bile salt-fatty acid mixed micelles as nasal absorption promoters of peptides. II. In vivo nasal absorption of insulin in rats and effects of mixed micelles on the morphological integrity of the nasal mucosa.

The effectiveness of mixed micelles in promoting nasal absorption of peptides has been demonstrated in vivo by employing insulin as a model compound. Insulin in the absence of adjuvants was not absorbed following intranasal administration. The results confirmed previous findings by others that absorption of insulin via alternative routes required absorption enhancers. Mixed micelles between NaGC and linoleic acid were found to rapidly deliver insulin into systemic circulation, with a concomitant decrease in plasma glucose. The extent of the hypoglycemic response was significantly greater than that produced by NaGC alone (55 vs 47%, P < 0.05). Emulsion of linoleic acid, on the other hand, did not produce any significant insulin absorption. The findings thus supported previous in situ data that mixed micelles were more effective than NaGC or linoleic acid in promoting nasal absorption of peptides. Histopathologic examination of the rat nasal mucosa revealed that the extent of morphological alterations caused by mixed micelles was of mild to moderate severity even after 5 hr of exposure. However, studies involving more frequent and prolonged exposures are necessary to assess the practicality of these adjuvants before any clinical application can be attempted.
Series Connection of SiC MOSFETs with Hybrid Active and Passive Clamping for Solid State Transformer Applications

This paper presents a novel hybrid active and passive clamping technique for series-connected SiC MOSFETs with simple circuit structure and minimized power loss. Firstly, a dedicated switching pattern with predefined dead-time is proposed to keep the direction of current through flying capacitor unchanged under all conditions. Secondly, only single passive clamping device is in parallel connection with a small capacitor to clamp the voltages across all four SiC MOSFETs in a bridge leg within a few nanoseconds during high-speed dynamic switching transition of turn-on and turn-off. Then, the technology is extended to series-connection of n $n > 1)$ pieces of SiC MOSFETs in series per position in bridge structure using (n-1) clamping devices and capacitors. The hybrid clamping technique could be applied in any topologies including AC-DC and DC-DC. A 10 kW prototype has been built and verified the proposed topology and modulation scheme. The power loss on clamping device is negligible (0.02% of the output power). At the same time, the tested voltage stresses across all 1.7 kV SiC MOSFETs are less than 1.1 kV at 2 kV dc-link voltage.
Development and Internal Validation of a Web-based Tool to Predict Sexual, Urinary, and Bowel Function Longitudinally After Radiation Therapy, Surgery, or Observation

Abstract Background Shared decision making to guide treatment of localized prostate cancer requires delivery of the anticipated quality of life (QOL) outcomes of contemporary treatment options (including radical prostatectomy [RP], intensity-modulated radiation therapy [RT], and active surveillance [AS]). Predicting these QOL outcomes based on personalized features is necessary. Objective To create an easy-to-use tool to predict personalized sexual, urinary, bowel, and hormonal function outcomes after RP, RT, and AS. Design, setting, and participants A prospective, population-based cohort study was conducted utilizing US cancer registries of 2563 men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer in 2011–2012. Intervention Patient-reported urinary, sexual, and bowel function up to 5 yr after treatment. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Patient-reported urinary, sexual, bowel, and hormonal function through 5 yr after treatment were collected using the 26-item Expanded Prostate Index Composite (EPIC-26) questionnaire. Comprehensive models to predict domain scores were fit, which included age, race, D'Amico classification, body mass index, EPIC-26 baseline function, treatment, and standardized scores measuring comorbidity, general QOL, and psychosocial health. We reduced these models by removing the instrument scores and replacing D'Amico classification with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and Gleason score. For the final model, we performed bootstrap internal validation to assess model calibration from which an easy-to-use web-based tool was developed. Results and limitations The prediction models achieved bias-corrected R-squared values of 0.386, 0.232, 0.183, 0.214, and 0.309 for sexual function, urinary incontinence, urinary irritative, bowel, and hormonal domains, respectively. Differences in R-squared values between the comprehensive and parsimonious models were small in magnitude. Calibration was excellent. The web-based tool is available at https://statez.shinyapps.io/PCDSPred/. Conclusions Functional outcomes after treatment for localized prostate cancer can be predicted at the time of diagnosis based on age, race, PSA, biopsy grade, baseline function, and a general question regarding overall health. Providers and patients can use this prediction tool to inform shared decision making. Patient summary In this report, we studied patient-reported sexual, urinary, hormonal, and bowel function through 5 yr after treatment with radical prostatectomy, radiation therapy, or active surveillance for localized prostate cancer. We developed a web-based predictive tool that can be used to predict one's outcomes after treatment based on age, race, prostate-specific antigen, biopsy grade, pretreatment baseline function, and a general question regarding overall health. We hope both patients and providers can use this tool to better understand expected outcomes after treatment, further enhancing shared decision making between providers and patients.
Crystal Structure of Au30–xAgx(S-tBu)18 and Effect of the Ligand on Ag Alloying in Gold Nanomolecules

We report the X-ray crystal structure of the Au30-xAgx(S-tBu)18 alloy and the effect of the ligand on alloying site preferences. Gold-silver nanoalloys prepared by co-reduction of metal salts are known to have only partial Ag occupancies. Interestingly, Au30-xAgx(S-tBu)18 has 100% Ag occupancy at two sites on the core surface as well as partial Ag occupancies on the surface, capping, and staples sites. The Au30-xAgx(S-tBu)18 (x = 1-5) composition was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry studies. Thiolate ligands can be categorized into three classes on the basis of the groups at the α-position as aliphatic, aromatic, and bulky thiols. The effect of the ligand on Ag doping can be clearly seen in the crystal structures of Au36-xAgx(SPh-tBu)24 and Au38-xAgx(SCH2CH2Ph)24 when compared with that of Au30-xAgx(S-tBu)18. Ag is preferentially doped onto the core surface when the ligand is aliphatic, and Ag is doped in both core surface and staple metal sites when the ligand is aromatic or bulky.
Adaptive Plasma and Machine Learning

Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) jets provide a unique combination of reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, photons, and electric fields that exhibit desirable properties of triggering cell death pathway, selectively for cancer cells. However, the effects of CAP on cancer cells vary substantially depending on the particular type of cancer cell under treatments as well as various properties of plasma jet, such as gas composition, discharge voltage, and treatment duration. On the other hand, artificial intelligence has demonstrated remarkable capabilities in decision-making under uncertainties. Adaptive plasma in conjunction with artificial intelligence could lead to breakthroughs in autonomous, personalized cancer treatments. This chapter presents mathematical modeling of plasma cancer treatment, and summarizes the recent results in adaptive learning plasma.
Plug-and-Play

This chapter argues that humans are not intelligent in and of themselves. They are actually plug-and-play devices who are at their best when they are connected to smart technologies and tools and networked with others in forms of collective intelligence. Even then, however, human intelligence requires something I call insight intelligence if it is not to be used for destructive ends or bring about a myriad of unintended consequences.
Single rare-earth ion spins in nanophotonic resonators

Rare-earth ions embedded in crystals are promising optically addressable spin qubits. We demonstrate this potential by measuring the optical and spin transition properties of single 171 Yb $^{3+}$ ions coupled to nanophotonic resonators fabricated in YVO 4 .
Acute Care Surgery Service Is Essential During a Nonsurgical Catastrophic Event, the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BackgroundThe role of an acute care surgery (ACS) service during the COVID-19 pandemic is not well established.MethodsA retrospective review of the ACS service performance in an urban tertiary acad...
Catalytic Performance of Ru/TiO2 Catalyst for Phenol Hydrooxygenation

In this work, a systematic study was carried out to determine the effect of TiO2 and precious metal (Ru) support on HDO phenols and to determine the activity and selectivity of catalysts against the DDO (Aromatics) pathway. The reaction was carried out in a batch reactor at 300 °C. Evaluation of the catalyst showed that ruthenium nanoparticles (~ 2 nm) supported by titanium dioxide (TiO2) produced significant activity and selectivity for phenol HDO. The main product of this reaction is benzene. Furthermore, the activity and selectivity observed during phenol deoxygenation via ruthenium catalyst were unstable. Therefore, a high pressure burette together with a 25 mL Parr reactor was used to test the activity and stability of the Ru/TiO2 catalyst by calculating the hydrogen consumption rate as a function of pressure. As the reaction progresses, the rate of hydrogen consumption decreases which indicates that the catalyst has deactivated over time.
Aging predisposes B cells to malignancy by activating c-Myc and perturbing the genome and epigenome

Abstract Age is the single major risk factor for human cancer; however, naturally occurring cancers are rarely studied in aged animal models. Laboratory mouse strains spontaneously develop cancer with age and some predominantly die from B-cell lymphoma. Here, we uncover how B-cell lymphoma develops as a consequence of the aging immune system. We found that aged B cells undergo clonal expansions driven by genetic and epigenetic changes and established cell and spleen size as early markers of malignant transformation. High-throughput and omics assays of aged B cells and the use of mouse models revealed that c-Myc is a master regulator of B cell size and clonal expansion. A single-cell RNA-seq analysis suggested that clonal B cells originate from age-associated B cells, memory B cells that accumulate during aging. Further studies showed that c-Myc becomes activated in B cells in response to the aging microenvironment. Thus, c-Myc, aging environment, somatic mutations and the epigenome cooperate to give rise to clonal age-accelerated B cells, which we named Myc+ cells. We further show the relevance of this model to aged human B cells in blood and spleen. This study characterized a first mouse model that captures a natural transition of B cells to a prevalent type of cancer during aging.
Conditional Waiting Time Analysis in Tandem Polling Queues.

We analyze a tandem network of polling queues with two product types and two stations. We assume that external arrivals to the network follow a Poisson process, and service times at each station are exponentially distributed. For this system, we determine the mean conditional waiting time for an arriving customer using a sample path analysis approach. The approach classifies system state upon arrival into scenarios and exploits an inherent structure in the sequence of events that occur till the customer departs to obtain conditional waiting time estimates. We conduct numerical studies to show both the accuracy of our conditional waiting time estimates and their practical importance.
Post-Soviet social: neoliberalism, social modernity, biopolitics

Stephen J. Collier offers a provocative study on the “post-Soviet social”, not on society as such, but on what he calls “a particular configuration of collective life in whose assembly city-buildin...
The UCLA Archaeology Field Schools Program: Global Reach, Local Focus

Traditional field schools are run as independent activities by university faculty members. Beginning in 2007, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (CIoA) at UCLA launched a program to aggregate all of its field schools and manage them as one unit. This chapter examines the reasons for this initiative and reflects upon the implementation of this program. It also presents some of the data collected during the past 4 years and offers interpretations for the patterns and trends seen in student preferences and choices. Although this program has now ceased, the lessons learned from this initiative are of value to those planning field schools in many contexts.
A flavoprotein oxidase defines a new endoplasmic reticulum pathway for biosynthetic disulphide bond formation

Ero1 and Pdi1 are essential elements of the pathway for the formation of disulphide bonds within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). By screening for alternative oxidation pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we identified ERV2 as a gene that when overexpressed can restore viability and disulphide bond formation to an ero1-1 mutant strain. ERV2 encodes a luminal ER protein of relative molecular mass 22,000. Purified recombinant Erv2p is a flavoenzyme that can catalyse O2-dependent formation of disulphide bonds. Erv2p transfers oxidizing equivalents to Pdi1p by a dithiol-disulphide exchange reaction, indicating that the Erv2p-dependent pathway for disulphide bond formation closely parallels that of the previously identified Ero1p-dependent pathway.
Analysis of networks using generalized mutual entropies

Abstract Generalized mutual entropy is defined for networks and applied in the analysis of complex network structures. The method is tested for the case of computer simulated scale-free networks, random networks, and their mixtures. The possible applications for real network analysis are discussed.
Forced Derivation Tree based Model Training to Statistical Machine Translation

A forced derivation tree (FDT) of a sentence pair {f, e} denotes a derivation tree that can translate f into its accurate target translation e. In this paper, we present an approach that leverages structured knowledge contained in FDTs to train component models for statistical machine translation (SMT) systems. We first describe how to generate different FDTs for each sentence pair in training corpus, and then present how to infer the optimal FDTs based on their derivation and alignment qualities. As the first step in this line of research, we verify the effectiveness of our approach in a BTG-based phrasal system, and propose four FDT-based component models. Experiments are carried out on large scale English-to-Japanese and Chinese-to-English translation tasks, and significant improvements are reported on both translation quality and alignment quality.
NAD biosynthesis as an early part of androgen action.

One 150-µg dose of testosterone stimulates a rise in prostatic NADH of castrate rats within 1 hr. This is followed by a decrease in NADH and an increase in NAD between 1 and 3 hr. Between 1 and 5 hr the sum of NAD + NADH is constant and is more than twice that seen in either the intact control or the castrate control. Between 5 and 10 hr after the injection the NAD + NADH decreases toward the intact control level. The NADPH concentration is about 4 times the castrate or intact control value 2-4 hr after injection. The ATP concentration decreases to a minimum value 1-2 hr after testosterone injection, then increases quickly between 2 and 3 hr, and more slowly between 3 and 9 hr. Neither actinomycin D nor puromycin inhibits the NAD response assayed 8 hr after testosterone injection. The possibility is discussed that androgen activates processes independent of its activation of RNA and protein synthesis, and that part of such activation is a redirection of energy metabolism toward the more efficient production of ATP.
Prothoracicotropic hormone activity in the embryonic brain of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta.

Head segments and brains were extirpated from embryos of the tobacco hornworm,Manduca sexta, extracted and the resulting extracts assayed for prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) activity on prothoracic glands from day 3 fifth instar larvae and day 0 pupae. Dose-response curves were generated and indicated the presence of PTTH activity in embryonic brains and head segments, suggesting a role(s) for this neurohormone during embryogenesis. Maximal PTTH activity was found in brains from embryos 117 h post-oviposition, just prior to hatching, but activity was also noted in head segments as early as 24 h postoviposition. These data on PTTH and those on ecdysteroids and juvenile hormones in embryos suggest that these 3 classes of hormones which control insect post-embryonic development, may also be involved in the regulation of developmental processes in the embryo.
Scale Effects on Rarefied Supersonic Flows in Nanochannels

The supersonic flow of nitrogen into a nanochannel is investigated using a three dimensional unstructured Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (U3DSMC) method. The U3DSMC code is validated by comparisons with previous 2D DSMC simulations of flows in micron-scale channels. Rectangular nanochannels with heights between 100 nm to 1000 nm, and aspect ratios L/H of 1, 10, 100 are used in the U3DSMC investigation. The Mach 5.9 freestream has a pressure of 0. 1atm and Knudsen numbers of 0.481, 0.962 and 4.81. The nanochannel walls are assumed to be diffusively reflecting at the freestream temperature. The simulations show the development of a disturbance region upstream from the inlet that depends on the Knudsen number. For the L/H = 10 and L/H = 100 nanochannels considered the velocity decreases from its freestream value velocity decreases from its freestream value and becomes subsonic inside the nanochannel. The temperature shows an enhancement region near the inlet while the density shows an enhancement region inside the nanochannel.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Rapid loss of δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase activity in primary cultures of adult rat hepatocytes: A new model of zinc deficiency

Abstract Nonproliferating cultures of adult rat hepatocytes were found to lose 60–70% of cell-associated zinc during their first 24 h of incubation in standard, serum-free medium. The loss of zinc was accompanied by a profound loss (95%) in the activity of the zinc metalloenzyme, δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase, as well as a loss (>85%) in the cellular content of immunoreactive δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase protein. Restoration of cellular zinc content by the addition of zinc to the culture medium partially prevented the losses of both δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase activity and immunoreactive protein. Since the spontaneous, selective loss of cellular zinc appears to have specific effects on a relevant hepatic function, this culture system constitutes a novel in vitro model of zinc deficiency in mature liver.
A Comparative Trial of Psychotherapies for Ambulatory Cocaine Abusers: Relapse Prevention and Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Despite the widespread use of psychotherapy as treatment for cocaine abuse, the effectiveness of psychotherapy has not been explored through clinical trials. Forty-two outpatients who met DSM-III criteria for cocaine abuse were randomly assigned to one of two forms of purely psychotherapeutic treatments of cocaine abuse, either relapse prevention (RPT) or interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). Subjects assigned to relapse prevention were more likely than subjects in IPT to attain three or more continuous weeks of abstinence (57 versus 33%), be classified as recovered at the point of treatment termination (43 versus 19%), and complete treatment (67 versus 38%). Whereas these differences did not reach statistical significance, significant differences by treatment group did emerge when subjects were stratified by severity of substance use: Among the subgroup of more severe users, subjects who received RPT were significantly more likely to achieve abstinence (54 versus 9%) and be classified as recovered (54 versus 0%). Among the subgroups of subjects with lower severity of substance abuse, outcome was comparable for both treatment types. Comparison of results from this investigation with historical controls from a structurally similar pharmacotherapy trial suggests that purely psychotherapeutic treatments may be both viable and effective approaches for many ambulatory cocaine abusers.
Helping users think in three dimensions: steps toward incorporating spatial cognition in user modelling

bols) [7], or as a set of "issues" with which the student is familiar [6]. Perhaps not coincidentally, the domains to which these models are applied—the domains for which the ICAI systems are thus written—tend to anticipate the knowledge representation schemes to be employed. These systems consequently focus on domains in which expertise seems to be most easily expressed through natural language—domains such as game-playing [6], subtraction [5], algebraic manipulation [1], geographical knowledge [7], programming [1, 17], and so forth. ABSTRACT
Active index model: a unique approach for regional quantitative morphometry in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies

ABSTRACT Recent advancements in digital medical imaging have opened avenues for quantitative analys es of different volumetric and morphometric indices in response to a disease or a treatment. However, a major challenge in performing such an analysis is the lack of a technology of building a mean anatomic space (MAS ) that allows mapping data of a given subject onto MAS. This approach leads to a tool for point-by-point regional analysis and comparison of quantitative indices for data coming from a longitudinal or transverse study. Toward this goal, we develop a new computation technique, called Active Index Model (AIM ), which is a unique tool to solve the stated problem. AIM consists of three building blocks  (1) development of MAS for a particular anatomic site, (2) mapping a specific data onto MAS, (3) regional statistical analysis of data from different populations assessing regional response to a disease or treatment progression. The AIM presented here is built at the training phase from two known populations (e.g., normal and diseased) which will be immediately ready for diagnostic pur pose in a subject whose clinical status is unknown. AIM will be useful for both cross sectional and longitudinal studies and for early diagnostic. This technique will be a vital tool for understanding regional response of a disease or treatment at various stages of its progression. This method has been applied for analyzing regional trab ecular bone structural distribution in ra bbit femur via micro-CT imaging and to localize the affected myocardial regions from cardiac MR data. Keywords: Regional analysis, active shape model, thin plate spline, digital topology, fuzzy distance transform, trabecular bone, osteoarthritis, cardiac MR segmentation, LV+RV functional analysis
A radiographic study of the detection limits of bone-cement remnants in total joint arthroplasty.

Management of an infected hip prosthesis typically requires that all associated cement be removed. In the absence of gross mantle loosening, the surgeon frequently resorts to intraoperative radiographs to assess the completeness of removal. For this reason, we undertook a study to determine limits of detection of retained cement by routine radiography. Polymethyl methacrylate bone-cement beads (Simplex-P; Stryker-Howmedica-Osteonics, Allendale, NJ) were fashioned into graduated sizes and placed within cadaver medullary canals using 2 different methods. Standard radiographic images were obtained. Individually and independently, we viewed these images and proposed the limit of resolution to be 2.4 to 3.2 mm. It is difficult to remove all cement based on radiographs alone. These results suggest a need to use techniques that permit visualization of the canal to ensure adequate cement removal.
Enhancement of phlorin stability by the incorporation of meso-mesityl substituents

Abstract The effect of sterically bulky mesityl substituents on the stability of meso -substituted phlorins was examined. Three different phlorins bearing zero, two or three mesityl substituents were prepared via alkylation of the appropriate porphyrins. The stability of each phlorin was examined by UV–vis spectral monitoring of dilute solutions exposed to ambient light and air. UV–vis and mass spectral analyses performed after decomposition revealed qualitative differences in the degradation products. This study shows that the selection and positioning of peripheral substituents can enhance phlorin stability.
CRRES in review: space weather and its effects on technology

Abstract The Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) was a unique mission which has provided valuable lessons about the space radiation environment and its effects on technological systems in space. The tremendous value of CRRES resides in the fact that it flew not only the technologies to be space-tested, but also an extensive suite of instruments to accurately specify the damage-causing radiation environment. CRRES was launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit on July 25, 1990, 1 yr following the maximum of solar cycle 22, and returned data for approximately 14 months. It was first exposed to 8 months of a relatively quiet magnetosphere, followed by a very active 6 month interval initiated by the much documented March 1991 storm. This large magnetic storm, accompanied by a solar proton event, was responsible for creating a temporary proton and electron belt within the typically benign slot region. The dynamic radiation environment was responsible for a number of observable total dose effects, charging/discharging phenomena, single event effects, and assorted anomalies within the spacecraft instrumentation and technology tested. This exceptional combination of technologies, instrumentation, and dynamic radiation environment will be reviewed, with attention given to lessons learned and how CRRES has changed our perspective on magnetospheric radiation hazards.
Observations on hydrocodone and its metabolites in oral fluid specimens of the pain population: comparison with urine.

Objective: Hydrocodone undergoes metabolism via cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 (N-demethylation) to norhydrocodone and via CYP2D6 (O-demethylation) to hydromorphone. Hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and norhydrocodone are excreted in urine and secreted in saliva. The goal was to characterize hydrocodone and its metabolites in oral fluid specimens of a pain population and compare to urine specimens. Design: This retrospective analysis included more than 8,500 oral fluid specimens and more than 250,000 urine specimens collected between March and June 2012 that were sent to Millennium Laboratories (San Diego, CA) and analyzed for hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and norhydrocodone using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Statistical analyses and linear regressions were conducted using Microsoft Excel ® 2010 and OriginPro v8.6. Results: The median oral fluid concentrations of hydrocodone and norhydrocodone were 122 and 7.7 ng/mL, respectively. However, the oral fluid concentrations of hydromorphone were below detection in many specimens (<1 ng/mL). The positive detection rate of parent drug and metabolites in oral fluid (17-31 percent detection rates) was much lower than in urine (63-75 percent detection rates). The geometric median metabolic ratio (MR) of norhydrocodone to hydrocodone was 0.07 in oral fluid and 1.2 in urine. The observed hydrocodone oral fluid concentrations were approximately 10-fold greater than previously reported plasma concentrations. Conclusion: Oral fluid had a much lower norhydrocodone to hydrocodone MR compared to urine. Reference ranges for oral fluid drug concentrations should not be extrapolated from plasma ranges. The observed ranges of secreted hydrocodone and metabolite concentrations in oral fluid should help determine reference ranges for medication monitoring.
Siloxane/silane-crosslinked systems from supercritical carbon dioxide: II. Pendant phenyl poly(carbosilane/siloxane)s

New silicone-containing polymers with crosslinkable units have been synthesized by hydrosilation polymerization in both toluene and supercritical carbon dioxide (70°C, 3000 psi) catalyzed by platinum-divinyltetramethyldisiloxane (Pt-DVTMS). It was found that high molecular polymers were obtained in both toluene and supercritical carbon dioxide. The polymers were characterized by FTIR, NMR, GPC, TGA, and DSC. The molecular weights of these polymers ranged from 9000 to 39,000. With further hydrolysis and thermal curing, the molecular weight can be increased significantly. Comparison of the properties between reactions in toluene versus supercritical carbon dioxide indicated that the green solvent is a usable alternative for hydrosilation polymerization. The new polymers synthesized in either toluene or supercritical carbon dioxide are thermally stable, ranged from 350 to 488°C. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Tunable infrared plasmonic devices using graphene/insulator stacks

The collective oscillation of carriers--the plasmon--in graphene has many desirable properties, including tunability and low loss. However, in single-layer graphene, the dependence on carrier concentration of both the plasmonic resonance frequency and magnitude is relatively weak, limiting its applications in photonics. Here, we demonstrate transparent photonic devices based on graphene/insulator stacks, which are formed by depositing alternating wafer-scale graphene sheets and thin insulating layers, then patterning them together into photonic-crystal-like structures. We show experimentally that the plasmon in such stacks is unambiguously non-classical. Compared with doping in single-layer graphene, distributing carriers into multiple graphene layers effectively enhances the plasmonic resonance frequency and magnitude, which is different from the effect in a conventional semiconductor superlattice and is a direct consequence of the unique carrier density scaling law of the plasmonic resonance of Dirac fermions. Using patterned graphene/insulator stacks, we demonstrate widely tunable far-infrared notch filters with 8.2 dB rejection ratios and terahertz linear polarizers with 9.5 dB extinction ratios. An unpatterned stack consisting of five graphene layers shields 97.5% of electromagnetic radiation at frequencies below 1.2 THz. This work could lead to the development of transparent mid- and far-infrared photonic devices such as detectors, modulators and three-dimensional metamaterial systems.
Research on the Trajectory Planning of the 4-DOF Manipulator

Based on kinematics analysis, trajectory planning of a 4-DOF manipulator is researched on in this paper. Quintic polynomials is adopted to plan trajectory. The trajectory simulation of the manipulator is realized through using SimMechanics toolbox in MATLAB . The simulation experiments show the correctness and feasibility of the kinematics equations and algorithm of the manipulator trajectory planning.
Pentobarbital sodium - Variation in toxicity.

The survival rate of groups of female mice given a standard dose of pentobarbital sodium varied during a 12-hour period. When survival rate was plotted against time, a curve with several inflections was described.
Circulation within Monolayer Films on Aqueous Substrates at Low Surface Pressures

ALTHOUGH at high surface pressures, up to about 20 dynes/cm2, films of long chain fatty acids on water form uniform monolayers, at zero surface pressure the film is no longer uniform but has been described by some authors as consisting of “islands” held together by the van der Waals forces of cohesion between the hydrocarbon chains1. An examination with an electron microscope of surface films of stearic acid prepared at a surface pressure of 3 dynes/cm2 has provided some evidence that these irregularly shaped islands exist2.
Dipole oscillator strengths for Δ n = 0 transitions in highly ionized sulfur

Abstract The foil-excitation method has been used to measure f-values for intra L-shell transitions in highly ionized sulfur.
Creating very large scale neighborhoods out of smaller ones by compounding moves

This paper discusses neighborhood search algorithms where the size of the neighborhood is "very large" with respect to the size of the input data. We concentrate on such a very large scale neighborhood (VLSN) search technique based on compounding independent moves (CIM) such as 2-opts, swaps, and insertions. We present a systematic way of creating and searching CIM neighborhoods for routing problems with side constraints. For such problems, the exact search of the CIM neighborhood becomes NP-hard. We introduce a multi-label shortest path algorithm for searching these neighborhoods heuristically. Results of a computational study on the vehicle routing problem with capacity and distance restrictions shows that CIM algorithms are very competitive approaches for solving vehicle routing problems. Overall, the solutions generated by the CIM algorithm have the best performance among the current solution methodologies in terms of percentage deviation from the best-known solutions for large-scale capacitated VRP instances.
Oil Debris Detection Using Static and Dynamic Capacitance Measurements

This paper describes a capacitance sensing method to detect oil debris contents. Experimental investigations are conducted for both static and dynamic measurements. Static measurements are performed by inserting small metal wires into the oil sample between the two plate electrodes of a capacitor. With a gap of 7mm between the electrodes, it was found that the capacitance measurement can detect metal wires as small as 4 mils (101 μm) in diameter. While measurements of ferrous and the non-ferrous wires show certain measurable differences, a systematic difference between the two sets of measurements cannot be established. The dynamic measurements were conducted by measuring the changes in capacitance between two plate electrodes when a small particle was dropped into the oil between the two electrodes. The passage of a metal particle can be dynamically detected. It is expected that smaller metal debris particles can be detected by reducing the spacing between the two electrode plates in microchannels.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Absorption line width in the infrared spectrum of the ammonia molecule

The half-width of the 17.103-micron absorption line of the ammonia molecule (NH3) has been determined by direct observation of line contour with slits of spectral width 0.10 cm−1 and with numerical correction for the influence of finite slit width. An upper limit for the NH3 absorption coefficient half-width at half-height (at a pressure of 30 cm Hg) is 0.10 cm−1.
Fast methods for fluid structural interactions

A fast, but approximate, solver for flexible membranes is developed. The solver has been combined with the engineering level aerothermodynamics code CBAERO to provide a fast, coupled, prediction of fluid structural interactions for flex reentry systems. The development of the flexible solver, it’s coupling with CBAERO, and preliminary results are presented.