cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
In-person versus virtual suturing and knot-tying curricula: Skills training during the COVID-19 era.

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 restrictions on in-person simulation activities necessitated modifying the traditional boot camp skills curriculum for matriculating PGY1 general surgery residents to a virtual format. This study investigated the relative effectiveness of in-person versus virtual instruction on the development of suturing and knot-tying skills. Methods In all, 55 residents participated in a validated, proficiency-based, preinternship skills curriculum, 26 in 2019 and 29 in 2020. Both groups received an introduction to the curriculum, were given time for practice and offered one-on-one tutoring by faculty by request, and completed a filmed posttest. The 2019 class received in-person instruction during a boot camp at the end of June, while the 2020 class was provided with suture kits and received instruction via Zoom throughout June. The 2 groups were compared by post-test performance, date of task proficiency, and additional coaching required. Results In 2019, 5.7% of the posttest tasks were graded as proficient versus 87% in 2020. The 2020 class outperformed the 2019 class on every metric in every task (P Conclusion Learners who received virtual instruction with access to materials at home gained proficiency in suturing and knot-tying skills earlier and with less coaching. These data demonstrate that the virtual curriculum is effective and an improvement on the previous in-person curriculum.
Snafu: an ultra-low-power, energy-minimal CGRA-generation framework and architecture

Ultra-low-power (ULP) devices are becoming pervasive, enabling many emerging sensing applications. Energy-efficiency is paramount in these applications, as efficiency determines device lifetime in battery-powered deployments and performance in energy-harvesting deployments. Unfortunately, existing designs fall short because ASICs’ upfront costs are too high and prior ULP architectures are too inefficient or inflexible.We present Snafu, the first framework to flexibly generate ULP coarse-grain reconfigurable arrays (CGRAs). Snafu provides a standard interface for processing elements (PE), making it easy to integrate new types of PEs for new applications. Unlike prior high-performance, high-power CGRAs, Snafu is designed from the ground up to minimize energy consumption while maximizing flexibility. Snafu saves energy by configuring PEs and routers for a single operation to minimize switching activity; by minimizing buffering within the fabric; by implementing a statically routed, bufferless, multi-hop network; and by executing operations in-order to avoid expensive tag-token matching.We further present Snafu-Arch, a complete ULP system that integrates an instantiation of the Snafu fabric alongside a scalar RISC-V core and memory. We implement Snafu in RTL and evaluate it on an industrial sub-28 nm FinFET process across a suite of common sensing benchmarks. Snafu-Arch operates at <1 mW, orders-of-magnitude less power than most prior CGRAs. Snafu-Arch uses 41% less energy and runs 4.4× faster than the prior state-of-the-art general-purpose ULP architecture. Moreover, we conduct three comprehensive case-studies to quantify the cost of programmability in Snafu. We find that Snafu-Arch is close to ASIC designs built in the same technology, using just 2.6× more energy on average.
Oxidized Phospholipids Promote NETosis and Arterial Thrombosis in LNK(SH2B3) Deficiency

Background: LNK/SH2B3 inhibits JAK/STAT signaling by hematopoietic cytokine receptors. GWAS have shown association of a common SNP in LNK (R262W, T allele) with neutrophilia, thrombocytosis and cor...
Coating Technologies for Automotive Engine Applications

Coatings are materials deposited on surfaces to enhance a specific set of performance attributes, i.e., wear resistance, erosion resistance, corrosion resistance, friction reduction, etc. Since wear, corrosion, and friction phenomenon are restricted on the surface, deposition of a coating provides a great flexibility in imparting properties which could be significantly different from the parent material. There are wide varieties of materials available for deposition and the choice of a material depends on the application, compatibility with the base material, and the deposition process. This chapter first reviewed lubrication regimes in critical tribological contacts (cam and tappet in valvetrain, piston and piston rings and cylinder bore, piston pins, and bearings) in an engine to justify where coatings could improve friction reduction and durability. Then, described coatings being used/explored in each of these applications followed by an outlook of coating technologies in future automotive engines.
How does the mouse get its trunk

The body plan of the mouse embryo is established by signaling molecules produced by extra-embryonic tissues that do not contribute to the fetus itself. The local availability of these potent secreted factors is tightly regulated by agonists and antagonists, but precisely how and where the different components interact is hotly debated. The identification of the gene mutated in the amnionless mouse, which develops with a head and a tail, but no trunk, provides more grist for the mill. The gene (Amn) encodes a putative transmembrane Bmp antagonist that is unexpectedly localized on the surface of extra-embryonic cells facing away from the embryonic cells being patterned. This finding raises important questions about how information is relayed between closely apposed cell layers, a problem also faced by embryologists working with other model systems.
Using Prices More Realistically as Decision Variables in Perishable-Asset Revenue Management Problems

This paper addresses a new slant to a problem which is general to many of the transportation industries—perishable asset revenue management. Traditional approaches have assumed that prices are fixed and solved for the optimal allocation quantities. Our approach recognizes that prices of the different classes affect demand and should therefore be included as decision variables to be optimized. We solve three different types of problems: (a) up to n price classes, distinct asset control mechanism, and no diversion, (b) up to 3 price classes, serial nested asset control mechanism, and no diversion, (c) up to 3 price classes, serial nested asset control mechanism, and diversion. Analytical results are provided in most cases and examples illustrate the results as well as the time required to solve these complex problems. Finally we look at the tradeoff involved between computational time and expected contribution when using heuristic decisions obtained from less realistic assumptions relative to the true optimal decisions. On average, the suboptimality ranged from 3.19% to 4.88% with a corresponding decrease in computing time required on the order of several minutes. Some trends are presented to help determine a priori which type of problems would tend to benefit most from the more accurate formulation. This should help managers decide when it is worth the extra computing time to come up with the true optimal solution.
The composition of the Martian dark regions : observations and analysis

Near infrared telescopic spectrophotometry for dark regions is present and interpreted using laboratory studies of iron bearing mineral mixtures and terrestrial oxidized and unoxidized basalts. Upon closer inspection (by spacecraft) the telescopic dark regions were found to consist of large scale intermixtures of bright soil (aeolian dust) and dark materials. The dark materials themselves consist of an intimate physical association of very fine grained ferric oxide bearing material with relatively high near infrared reflectance and darker, relatively unoxidized rocks or rock fragments. While these two components could exist finely intermixed in a soil, a number of lines of evidence indicate that the usual occurrence is probably a thin coating of physically bound oxidized material. The coated rocks are dark and generally clinopyroxene bearing. The shallow band depths and low overall reflectances indicate that opaque minerals such as magnetite are probably abundant.
The RS Canum Venaticorum Binaries

This review presents a brief up-to-date summary of observational properties of RS CVn binaries, with emphasis on the photometric. A table of the 69 systems known at this time gives the orbital period, mean apparent V magnitude, spectral classification, range of amplitude determinations for the photometric wave, and an indication of known period variations and eclipses. Points considered are (1) the underlying cause of the extreme surface activity, (2) the evolutionary status, (3) the geometric configuration, (4) the temperature, size, shape, location, and lifetimes of the dark spot regions, (5) synchronization of rotational and orbital motion, (6) spectroscopic features in the optical and far ultraviolet, (7) the wave migration, (8) the search for spot cycles, and (9) the orbital period variations produced by the enhanced stellar wind.
The Responses of Interest Rate Spreads to Information Releases

This study examines the responses of three popular futures interest-rate spreads--the MOB (Municipals over Treasury bonds), the NOB (Notes over Treasury bonds), and the TED (Treasury Bills over Eurodollars) to macroeconomic news. We find responses to differ across the three spreads. The most pronounced responses are displayed by the MOB, followed by the NOB and the TED. We also find that the spreads take time to adjust to news in the announcements.
Momentum advection on unstructured staggered quadrilateral meshes

The finite element method, as applied to problems in solid mechanics, typically uses a mesh with the velocities at the nodes and the remaining solution variables, including the density, located at the integration points. The arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulations used in solid mechanics are therefore faced with the challenge of transporting momentum, which is defined in terms of variables located at separate points in space, in a conservative manner. Two types of momentum transport methods have been developed over the years. The first constructs a dual mesh with the nodes as the integration points, a difficult task on an unstructured finite element mesh. The second uses the original mesh and constructs auxiliary variables for transport from which the final velocity may be recovered. An analysis demonstrates how the two methods are related. Simplified implementations of each type—dual mesh and element centered—are developed in detail and their performance is compared to verify the analysis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Predicting Critical Friction in a Two-Roll Cross Wedge Rolling Process

Excessive interfacial slip is one of the primary failure mechanisms in the cross wedge rolling (CWR) process. In order to predict operating conditions that lead to excess interfacial slip, an analytical method is presented for determining the critical rolling condition in a two-roll CWR operation. Based on a transverse section of the tool-workpiece contact interface, the method uses Bowden and Oxley's friction models to obtain the critical rolling condition in CWR as a direct function of tool geometry and workpiece area reduction. The relative accuracy of the results obtained from each friction model is then ascertained and discussed by comparing the analytical results to experiments.
A pore diffusion transport model for forecasting the performance of membrane processes

Membrane processes in water treatment often experience permeate flux decline due to fouling caused by natural organic matter (NOM). A membrane transport model incorporating surface and internal pore fouling was developed for prediction and simulation of permeate flux and concentrations of permeate and concentrate. This model considered resistances due to membrane material, concentration polarization, gel formation, and internal pore fouling. Contact angle measurements employed for evaluating hydrophobicity and membrane fouling potential showed that the polyethersulfone HFK-131 ultrafiltration membranes were more hydrophobic, and therefore, more susceptible to organic fouling than the cross-linked aromatic polyamide NF-70 nanofiltration membranes. Membrane filtration tests were conducted with groundwater containing NOM under various operation conditions to evaluate permeate flux decline patterns due to organic fouling, as well as solute concentration profiles in the permeate and concentrate streams. The predictive capability of the proposed model was excellent as evidenced from comparison of experimental results and model simulations. Model simulation and sensitivity studies provided a well-founded theory based on the dependence of transport resistance components and membrane performance on various input parameters. These parameters included the mass-transfer coefficient, solution dynamic viscosity, membrane resistance, and resistance per unit gel-layer thickness.
Experimental study of a metal-matrix composite

A metal-matrix specimen was investigated using moire interferometry with 2400 lines/m (60,960 l/in.). The specimen was a 6-ply (0/ + or - 45)s boron-aluminum tensile coupon with a central slot. The unequal deformations in fibers and matrix were evident. Special attention was given to a plastic slip zone in the matrix. Normal and shear strains were calculated in the slip zone; the shear-strain concentration factor rose dramatically with the onset of plastic slip and continued to rise gradually with load to 95 percent of the failure load. The precipitous change from maximum tensile strain in one fiber to zero tensile strain in the neighboring fiber was accommodated by the very high shear strains of the matrix in the slip zone. Experimental considerations are discussed: shear strains are independent of rigid-body rotations; simplified strain calculations are justified; averaging across the narrow slip region and the influence of finite thickness of the specimen grating contribute to underestimation of peak strains.
Photon absorption and scattering in Fano anti-resonances

The Green's function method is utilized to obtain a modified treatment of Fano's line-shape problem which takes into account the coupling between different states in the continuous (or quasi-continuous) non-radiative manifold due to their interaction with the same radiation field states. A new expression for the absorption line-shape is obtained in the form σa(∈)∞[(∈+qYL )2 + (YLq 2 + 1)(1 - YL )]/(∈2 + 1), where ∈ is the reduced energy parameter, q is Fano's line-shape index and YL is the non-radiative quantum yield obtained when the non-radiative manifold is optically forbidden. As YL is always smaller than unity, the absorption never strictly vanishes in contrast to the result obtained in Fano's approximation. In addition, expressions are obtained for the emission line-shape and for the (energy dependent) emission quantum yield within a Fano resonance. The quantum yield so obtained is free from the singular behaviour which characterizes the same quantity obtained in Fano's approximation.
Cultured Skin Substitutes Reduce Donor Skin Harvesting for Closure of Excised, Full-Thickness Burns

Objective Comparison of cultured skin substitutes (CSS) and split-thickness skin autograft (AG) was performed to assess whether donor-site harvesting can be reduced quantitatively and whether functional and cosmetic outcome is similar qualitatively in the treatment of patients with massive cutaneous burns.
PRODOCK: Software Package for Protein Modeling and Docking

A new software package, PRODOCK, for protein modeling and flexible docking is presented. The protein system is described in internal coordinates with an arbitrary level of flexiblity for the proteins or ligands. The protein is represented by an all-atom model with the ECEPPr 3o r A MBER IV force field, depending on whether the ligand is a peptidic molecule or not. PRODOCK is based on a new residue data dictionary that makes the programming easier and the definition of molecular flexibility more straigthforward. Two versions of the dictionary have been constructed for the ECEPPr3 and AMBER IV geometry, respectively. The global optimization of the energy function is carried out with the scaled collective variable Monte Carlo method plus energy minimization. The incorporation of a local minimization during the conformational sampling has been shown to be very important for distinguishing low-energy nonnative conformations from native structures. To make the Monte Carlo minimization method efficient for docking, a new grid-based energy evaluation technique using Bezier splines has been incorporated. This article includes some techniques and simulation tools that significantly improve the efficiency of flexible docking simulations, in particular forwardrbackward polypeptide chain generation. A comparative study to illustrate the advantage of using quaternions over Euler angles for the rigid-body rotational variables is presented in this paper. Several applications of the program PRODOCK are also discussed. Q 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 412)427, 1999
GPU-based computation of discrete periodic centroidal Voronoi tessellation in hyperbolic space

Periodic centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) in hyperbolic space provides a nice theoretical framework for computing the constrained CVT on high-genus (genus>1) surfaces. This paper addresses two computational issues related to such a hyperbolic CVT framework: (1) efficient reduction of unnecessary site copies in neighbor domains on the universal covering space, based on two special rules; (2) GPU-based parallel algorithms to compute a discrete version of the hyperbolic CVT. Our experiments show that with the dramatically reduced number of unnecessary site copies in neighbor domains and the GPU-based parallel algorithms, we significantly speed up the computation of CVT for high-genus surfaces. The proposed discrete hyperbolic CVT guarantees to converge and produces high-quality results.
Unravelling an extended quark sector through multiple Higgs production

In many new physics scenarios, the particle content of the Standard Model is extended and the Higgs couplings are modified, sometimes without affecting single Higgs production. We analyse two models with additional quarks. In these models, we compute double Higgs production from gluon fusion exactly at leading-order, and present analytical results in the heavy-quark mass approximation. The experimental bounds from precision electroweak measurements and from the measured rate of single Higgs production combine to give significant restrictions for the allowed deviation of the double Higgs production rate from the Standard Model prediction as well as on the branching ratio for the Higgs decay into photons. The two models analysed eventually present a similar Higgs phenomenology as the Standard Model. We connect this result to the magnitude of the dimension six operators contributing to the gluon-fusion Higgs production.
Kant on the Inapplicability of the Categories to Things in Themselves

This paper addresses the question of what we can legitimately say about things in themselves in Kant's critical doctrine. Many Kant scholars believe that Kant allows that things in themselves can be characterized through the unschematized or ‘pure’ concepts of our understanding such as ‘substance’ or ‘causality’. However, I show that on Kant's view things in themselves do not conform to the unschematized categories (given their standard discursive meaning): the pure categories, like space and time, are merely subjective forms of finite, discursive cognition. I then examine what this interpretation might entail for central aspects of Kant's system such as his doctrine of noumenal freedom.
Intrusions as a sign of Alzheimer dementia chemical and pathological verification

Word intrusions, a behavioral abnormality previously observed in experimental subjects receiving anticholinergic medication as well as in patients with Alzheimer dementia (Alz), were studied as a diagnostic indicator of Alz in 29 elderly nursing home residents who later came to autopsy. Those who intruded words from one portion of a mental status test to another tended to have low levels of choline acetyltransferase in the cerebral cortex (median, 104.33,p less than 0.05) and large numbers of cortical senile plaques (median, 16.0,p less than 0.01). Immediate perseverations and "guesses" on a memory test were not counted. In another group of 38 patients referred for clinical neurological examination for dementia, intrusions were associated with Alz in 84% of those who exhibited them and identified 90% of patients with this presumptive diagnosis. Word intrusion appears sufficiently characteristic of Alz to be helpful diagnostically. The association of this behavioral phenomenon with low choline acetyltransferase levels and large numbers of senile plaques suggests that these changes may be important in producing the characteristic behavioral deterioration of Alz.
Review of The Bioethics of Pain Management: Beyond Opioids by Daniel S. Goldberg

Pain demands attention. It demands attention from the individual sufferers whose daily lives it may come to dominate, from the clinicians called upon to interpret and treat it, and from the scholar...
Insulin effects on apolipoprotein B lipoprotein synthesis and secretion by primary cultures of rat hepatocytes

Abstract Lipoprotein synthesis and secretion were examined in primary cultures of rat hepatocytes cultured on collagen-coated plates and incubated with pharmacologic and physiologic concentrations of insulin. Media insulin concentration declined rapidly over the course of incubation indicating that hepatocytes rapidly degrade insulin. When insulin was present in the media, cellular triglyceride accumulated while lipid secretion declined. Insulin inhibited the incorporation of labeled amino acids into total secretory lipoprotein apoproteins and apolipoprotein B (apo B) as well as apo B mass as measured by monoclonal radioimmunassay. The effect of insulin on apo B secretion occurred as early as three hours after the addition of insulin to the culture media and both apo B of higher molecular weight (apo B H ) and apo B of lower molecular weight (apo B L ) were affected. Cellular apo B did not accumulate within cells. The majority of secretory lipid radioactivity synthesized from acetate was in VLDL density lipoproteins. The composition of newly synthesized lipids as assessed by thin layer chromatography was not significantly altered with insulin. These studies support the finding that insulin inhibits VLDL secretion by hepatocytes while at the same time stimulating overall triglyceride synthesis. A suggested mechanism is that insulin uncouples triglyceride and apo B synthesis, which influences subsequent lipoprotein assembly and secretory pathways. These results are consistent with the concept that postprandial insulin release inhibits hepatic lipoprotein secretion while intestinal lipoprotein metabolic pathways are most active.
Mathematical Modeling of Interleukin-35 Promoting Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis

Interleukin-35 (IL-35), a cytokine from the Interleukin-12 cytokine family, has been considered as an anti-inflammatory cytokine which promotes tumor progression and tumor immune evasion. It has also been demonstrated that IL-35 is secreted by regulatory T cells. Recent mouse experiments have shown that IL-35 produced by cancer cells promotes tumor growth via enhancing myeloid cell accumulation and angiogenesis, and reducing the infiltration of activated CD8 T cells into tumor microenvironment. In the present paper we develop a mathematical model based on these experimental results. We include in the model an anti-IL-35 drug as treatment. The extended model (with drug) is used to design protocols of anti-IL-35 injections for treatment of cancer. We find that with a fixed total amount of drug, continuous injection has better efficacy than intermittent injections in reducing the tumor load while the treatment is ongoing. We also find that the percentage of tumor reduction under anti-IL-35 treatment improves when the production of IL-35 by cancer is increased.
US National Survey: more men than women victims of intimate partner violence

Purpose – This paper seeks to re‐examine data from the US National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) to explore the extent of intimate partner violence against male victims. It aims to examine the domestic violence system's response to male victims.Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach is to re‐examine NISVS data, research on the impact of IPV on male victims and the system's response to it.Findings – In the last year, males are more often the victim of intimate partner physical violence, psychological aggression and control over sexual/reproductive health.Social implications – Increased domestic violence education directed at women and services to men should lead to a reduction of DV against women as well as men, since woman aggressors frequently are themselves victimized subsequently.Originality/value – This paper offers new perspectives on intimate partner violence against men and the system's response to it.
Effects of 2-deoxy-d-glucose administration on immune parameters in mice

Physical exercise and diet alterations have been shown to affect immune parameters. Similar effects are also induced by the administration of the non-metabolizable glucose analog, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). The current study was designed to characterize the effects of glucoprivation induced by 2-DG administration on leukocyte subset distribution and function. BDF1 mice (n = 8 per group) were injected intraperitoneally one or three times with 0, 500, 750, 1000 or 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG. Two hours after the last injection of 2-DG, immunological parameters were analyzed. A dose-dependent increase in plasma glucose concentrations of mice injected once with up to 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG was observed (p < 0.001). After either one or three injections of up to 1500 mg/kg of 2-DG, corticosterone levels, leukocyte counts in the spleen, and CD3+ cells in the thymus increased. In vitro proliferation of partially purified lymphocytes from the spleen in the presence of both concanavalin-A and lipopolysaccharide decreased in a dose dependent manner (p < 0.05). In addition, after three injections, the proportion of both thymocytes and splenocytes bearing alphabeta-TCR increased as the concentration of 2-DG increased (p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that 2-DG administration induced dose-dependent changes in both thymus and spleen cell distribution and function.
Failure of adjunctive bicarbonate to improve outcome in severe pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis

Abstract Study objective: Although adjunctive intravenous bicarbonate therapy is commonly recommended for children with severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), no studies assessing clinical outcome with this therapy have ever been performed. Our objective was to determine whether bicarbonate therapy influenced outcome for pediatric DKA. Methods: The study was a retrospective consecutive case series of 147 admissions for severe DKA (initial pH ≤7.15 and glucose concentration ≥300 mg/dL [16.7 mmol/L]) in 106 children during a 16-year period at a tertiary university medical center. Descriptive statistics were applied to the 147 admissions. The first patient admitted with DKA was then selected for each of the 106 children, and clinical and laboratory data were compared between subjects who did and did not receive bicarbonate. Multivariate and matched pair analyses were performed to control potentially confounding variables. Results: Fifty-seven of the 147 patients admitted with DKA (39%) were successfully treated without bicarbonate, including 9 with a pH of 7.00 or less and one with a pH of 6.73. The frequency of complications was comparable between bicarbonate and nonbicarbonate groups (4% versus 2%, P =1.00). The mean duration of hospitalization for children receiving bicarbonate was 23% (16 hours) longer than children who did not receive bicarbonate in the multivariate analysis ( P =.07) and 37% (22 hours) longer in the matched pair analysis ( P =.01). The mean rate of metabolic recovery by three distinct measures was similar between groups, and the sample had 80% power to detect differences of 14% to 29% in these measures. Conclusion: We found no evidence that adjunctive bicarbonate improved clinical outcome in children with severe DKA. The rate of metabolic recovery and complications were similar in patients treated with and without bicarbonate, and prolonged hospitalizations were noted in the bicarbonate group. We conclude that adjunctive bicarbonate is unnecessary and potentially disadvantageous in severe pediatric DKA. [Green SM, Rothrock SG, Ho JD, Gallant RD, Borger R, Thomas TL, Zimmerman GJ: Failure of adjunctive bicarbonate to improve outcome in severe pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis. Ann Emerg Med January 1998;31:41-48.]
Spatial similarity measures for multimedia applications

Similarity based retrieval of images is an important task in multimedia applications. A major class of users queries require retrieving those images in the database that are spatially similar to the query image. To process these queries, a spatial similarity function is desired. A spatial similarity function assesses the degree to which the spatial relationships in a database image conform to those specified in the query image. In this paper, we formalize the notion of spatial similarity for 2D symbolic images and provide a framework for characterizing the robustness of spatial similarity algorithms with respect to their ability to deal with translation, scale, rotation (both perfect and multiple) variants as well as the variants obtained by an arbitrary composition of translation, scale, and rotation. This characterization in turn is useful for comparing various algorithms for spatial similarity systematically. As an example, a few spatial similarity algorithms are characterized and then experimentally contrasted using a testbed of images.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Cost-effectiveness of leaf energy and resource investment of invasive Berberis thunbergii and co-occurring native shrubs

Photosynthetic energy gain and biomass energy and resource investment represent trade-offs between potential enhancements and limitations to plant productivity, respectively. We compared these char...
Experimental Studies of Using Water Mist Cooling for the Tempering of Glass

Very high velocity air jet impingement has been applied during the cooling process of glass tempering. In order to reduce the usage of high-pressure air in the process, it is intended to demonstrate the feasibility of using water mist to enhance the air-cooling. The multiple jet experiments were performed using air jet velocities between 40 and 90 m/sec containing low mass flux of water mist that was varied from 0 up to 0.145 kg/m2 sec for each jet. The experiments include different glass thickness. The optimal tempering conditions were explored. The mechanisms of mist cooling are revealed from the experiments of a single water mist jet impinging on hot stainless steel plates. Since the droplets are small, on the order of 20 micron, heat transfer distribution of the water mist has a similar form as the air jet cooling. The total heat transfer coefficient can be viewed as two separable effects: the summation of the heat transfer coefficient of the convective air and of the impinging water flux, respectively. The heat transfer of multiple water mist jets on larger glass is studied. When the liquid flux is too high or when the surface temperature falls below the Leidenfrost temperature, excessive local thermal stress will occur, which leads to cracking of glass. It is possible to reach the optimal tempering with a moderate amount of water applied on the glass surface for a short duration of time. The mist cooling demonstrates a definitive saving on the use of high-pressure air. When using mist cooling, the energy requirements of the system are significantly lowered. The mist cooling creates more refined fracturing in the punching tests of tempered glass. For glass thicker than 3 mm, the particle counts due to water mist improve about 121%. For 2 mm glass, the improvement is about 38%. The mist cooling of the thinnest glass is still not able to give the desired particle counts. But definitive improvement toward this objective is shown. Further studies of other alternatives may give a chance to achieve this goal.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
Responses of Bradford-reactive soil protein to experimental nitrogen addition in three forest communities in northern lower Michigan

Increased use of anthropogenically fixed N and the release of N in combustion products have led to concerns about possible long-term impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Previous studies demonstrating the potential of atmospheric N deposition to influence forest soil carbon have focused on decomposition processes with much less known about potential impacts on mycorrhiza-derived carbon. Glomalin is a unique glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi that has been implicated in the formation of soil aggregates and potentially a significant store of soil carbon. To determine the possible impact of experimental N deposition of such stores we examined the operationally defined glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) levels over two growing seasons in three forest types receiving background N deposition (control) or treated with 80 kg N ha−1 year−1 as NaNO3. Three sites of each of three forest types, sugar maple-basswood (SMBW), sugar maple-red oak (SMRO), and black oak-white oak (BOWO), in northern Lower Michigan were studied during the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons. GRSP were extracted from air-dried soils with citric acid and measured by the Bradford method. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences related to forest type and sample date in easily extractable Bradford reactive (EE-BRSP) and Bradford-reactive soil protein (BRSP), but failed to detect significant effects of experimental N amendment. EE-BRSP and BRSP varied in a pattern that was consistent with an AM fungal origin; a pattern that reflected the mycorrhizal types of the dominant over and understory plants of each forest ecosystem. SMBW forests dominated by AM plants had the highest levels of protein. BOWO forests with low AM plant cover had the lowest protein levels and SMRO forests were intermediate. Both Bradford-reactive fractions and their ratio varied seasonally, generally being highest in fall samples. Significant correlations observed between BRSP fractions, phosphorous, and soil organic matter were likely related to covariation of soil properties across forest types. While not statistically significant, response patterns of BRSP to N deposition were ecosystem-specific and reflected mycorrhizal types of dominant species. Abundance of these proteins reflected previously observed changes in SOC in the two forest types examined with abundant AM hosts. Specifically, nitrate addition led to BRSP decreases in SMBW and increases in SMRO forests. Changes in BRSP accounted for a small fraction of the changes in SOC; appearing to increase as a fraction of residual SOC consistent with the idea that GRSP are recalcitrant. BRSP remained unchanged at BOWO sites despite a significant increase in SOC at these sites. Our results point to the potential of proteins as contributors to differential, mycorrhizal type-specific responses to changes in soil carbon following N amendment.
Modeling the impact of lifestyle on health at scale

Research in computational epidemiology to date has concentrated on estimating summary statistics of populations and simulated scenarios of disease outbreaks. Detailed studies have been limited to small domains, as scaling the methods involved poses considerable challenges. By contrast, we model the associations of a large collection of social and environmental factors with the health of particular individuals. Instead of relying on surveys, we apply scalable machine learning techniques to noisy data mined from online social media and infer the health state of any given person in an automated way. We show that the learned patterns can be subsequently leveraged in descriptive as well as predictive fine-grained models of human health. Using a unified statistical model, we quantify the impact of social status, exposure to pollution, interpersonal interactions, and other important lifestyle factors on one's health. Our model explains more than 54% of the variance in people's health (as estimated from their online communication), and predicts the future health status of individuals with 91% accuracy. Our methods complement traditional studies in life sciences, as they enable us to perform large-scale and timely measurement, inference, and prediction of previously elusive factors that affect our everyday lives.
Density-dependent predation of weed seeds in maize fields

Summary 1. Seed pr?dation can cause substantial losses of newly produced weed seeds and can therefore be important in regulating weed densities. The impact on weed population dynamics is greatest if pr?dation acts in a directly density-dependent manner. 2. We investigated the effect of between-patch variability in seed density on seed removal. For this purpose, artificial weed seed patches were created by broadcasting giant foxtail Setaria faberi, at low (1000 seeds m~2), medium (4500 seeds m"2) and high densities (9500 seeds m~2) over 25 x 25 m areas within three maize fields in August. Changes in giant foxtail seed densities were evaluated 3 weeks and 7 weeks post-application, using soil surface sampling. 3. Observations of seed pr?dation rate (seeds seed1 week"1), using seed cards and exclosure cages, activity-densities of invertebrates using pitfall traps, and population estimates of rodents using Sherman live traps, were conducted to understand and explain the dynamics of seeds on the soil surface. 4. Three weeks after seed addition, seed pr?dation was strongly and inversely density dependent. After 7 weeks, the net response since the start of the experiment exhibited only a weak inverse density dependence. This means that between 3 weeks and 7 weeks after seed addition, the response had reversed from inverse to almost direct density dependence. 5. During the August-October period, seeds in maize fields were mainly consumed by invertebrates. The most abundant granivorous invertebrates were crickets Gryllus pennsyhanicus and Allonemobius allardi, and carabid beetles, especially Harpalus pensylvanicus. The insects appeared unable to detect and respond numerically to weed patches, resulting in inversely density-dependent pr?dation, which favours the persistence of weed patches. The granivorous prairie deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi, was present but contributed little to overall seed losses in autumn. 6. Synthesis and applications. The results of this study indicate that weed densities in maize fields currently are not regulated through directly density-dependent seed pr?dation, because the time between seed shed and seed movement into soil is too short for invertebrates to respond to and level out spatial differences at the scale of weed patches. However, our results suggest that delaying crop harvest and tillage may provide invertebrate predators with more time to attack weed seeds, and may allow for subsequent pr?dation by vertebrates, which would be directly density-dependent.
Experimental studies on bi-ionic potentials across permselective membranes

Abstract 1. 1. The theoretical and experimental limitations are discussed of the measurement of the dynamic bi-ionic membrane potential, B.I.P., which arises across a membrane separating the solutions of two electrolytes at the same concentration having different “critical” ions which are able to exchange across the membrane and the same “noncritical” ion species for which the membrane is impermeable. Particular attention is given to the influence of the “diffusion layers” adjacent to each surface of the membrane. 2. 2. The B.I.P.'s with a variety of pairs of critical ions across several types of cation-selective and anion-selective permselective collodion-matrix membranes show that the electromotive efficacy of the various cations and anions corresponds to their position in the Hofmeister series. The absolute magnitude of the bi-ionic potentials depends on minor differences in the mode of preparation of the permselective membranes. 3. 3. The B.I.P. with a given pair of critical ions across a given membrane is independent of the nature of the noncritical ions. 4. 4. The B.I.P. with a given pair of critical ions is nearly constant within the range of concentration in which the diffusion layers do not play a disturbing role. 5. 5. Some problems of membrane specificity and their biological implications are briefly discussed.
Impact of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2B Disease-Associated Rab7 Mutations on Signaling and Axonal Trafficking of NGF/TrkA

Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2B (CMT-2B) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by terminal axonal death. Genetic analysis from human CMT-2B patients revealed four missense point mutations (L129F, K157N, N161T, V162M) in their genes encoding a small GTPase Rab7, a marker for late endosomes in the degradation pathway. The exact mechanism of how Rab7 mutants cause CMT-2B remains poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the effect of Rab7 mutants on the signaling and axonal transport of a nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor - TrkA. Fluorescent protein-engineered Rab7 and TrkA were transfected in rat embryonic dorsal root ganglia neuronal cells. Axonal transport of Rab7- and TrkA-containing endosomes was followed by time-stamped live cell fluorescence microscopy. We found that TrkA moves roughly twice as fast as Rab7s, among which CMT-2B associated Rab7 mutants outpace wt-Rab7. Curiously, endosomes co-transfected with both Rab7 and TrkA move even slower than those with singly transfected Rab7. Western blot analysis from Rab7/TrkA-cotransfected PC12 cells showed that the level of phosphorylated TrkA is lower in Rab7 mutants that that in wt-Rab7. Our results suggested that Rab7 mutants can potentially contribute to CMT-2B by dis-regulating NGF-TrkA signaling via perturbing the balance between retrograde and anterograde axonal transport processes. These results imply that axonal transport can be a potential treatment target for CMT-2B neurodegeneration.
Ion Depletion of Glass at a Blocking Anode: II, Properties of Ion‐Depleted Glasses

The application of an electric field to an ion-conducting glass at high temperatures will cause depletion of mobile ions beneath a blocking anode. The present study extends the investigation of ion depletion to several types of ion-conducting glass and presents new data for the physical and chemical properties of depleted surfaces. Ion-scattering spectrometry and electron microprobe analysis show that all positive monovalent and divalent ions are removed from the vicinity of the anode. The less mobile ion species are observed to pile up beneath the depleted region. Experimental data indicate that the removal of ions from the vicinity of the anode creates a microporous region that densifies at a rate determined by glass composition, temperature, and voltage. Ion-depleted surfaces display a lower refractive index and an increased electrical resistivity compared to untreated glass. Ion depletion also imparts an enhanced chemical durability to glass surfaces and increases the breaking strength of some glasses.
Nuclear and nucleolar protein phosphokinases in Novikoff hepatoma.

Abstract 1. 1. Two chromosomal protein phosphokinases and their substrates were partially characterized in nuclei and nucleoli of Novikoff hepatoma. 2. 2. Two nucleolar protein knase peaks eluted from a phosphocellulose columns with 0.5 and 0.7 M NaCl. These two peaks of enzymatic activity differed in their divalent cation optima and substrate specificities from the corresponding nuclear enzymes. 3. 3. It was concluded that Novikoff hepatoma nucleoli contain at least two specific protein phosphokinase-substrate systems.
Torture, evil and moral development

I’ve been ruminating about torture and evil after stumbling upon and reading a couple of books on evil during a recent academic break, but especially since the release in December 2014 of the execu...
Visible Light-Emitting Diodes Grown by Plasma Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy on Hydride Vapor-Phase Epitaxy GaN Templates and the Development of Dichromatic (Phosphorless) White LEDs

Much of the work on III-Nitride-based LEDs that has been published and applied commercially has been done using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) as a method of film growth. We report on the growth and fabrication of visible light emitting diodes, by combining hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) and rf plasma-assisted MBE (PAMBE) methods. Thick (~7 µm to 10 µm) HVPE n + -GaN smooth and textured templates, were used as substrates for the growth of LED structures by rf-PAMBE. The active regions of the LED structures, which consist of InGaN/GaN MQWs, were grown using the pulsed nitrogen plasma technique leading to abrupt well and barrier interfaces as confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. Using this method, we obtained InGaN/GaN MQWs whose room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra have a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 12 nm (105 meV). Visible LEDs on smooth GaN templates emitting in the blue to green were produced with EL spectrum FWHM as narrow as 27 nm. On the other hand, white LEDs without the use of phosphor have been produced utilizing textured MQWs as the active region, a phenomenon we initially attribute to different incorporation of In on the different QW-planes. The growth and fabrication of these devices was preceded by detailed growth and doping studies of the various layers of the LED structure. These include detailed nucleation studies on (0001) sapphire substrates as well as identification of kinetic factors which lead to good crystalline-quality InGaN alloys and InGaN/GaN MQWs.
Scale properties of microscale convection in the marine surface layer

We analyze the scale distribution of coherent water vapor structures in the marine atmospheric boundary layer as measured by a shipboard Raman lidar during the Combined Sensor Program (March 1996) using a two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform. Coherent structures in the lidar measured water vapor concentration field correspond to locations where covariance with the wavelet is a local extremum. Scales of the significant structures are identified using a filtered wavelet variance (detection density) derived from 24 “images” in a horizontal plane. A dominant radius of 14 m is identified using complimentary approaches to the analysis.
Photographic Penetration of Haze

Photographs taken with panchromatic and with infrared plates yield visibility ratios which range from 1.1 for days with thick haze or light rain, to 1.7 for clear days (visibility 20 miles). These values indicate an upper limit of 0.3μ for the radius of drops in the thin haze.
LEFSCHETZ PRINCIPLE APPLIED TO SYMBOLIC POWERS

In this paper, an alternative proof is presented of the following result on symbolic powers due to Ein, Lazarsfeld and Smith [3] (for the affine case over ) and to Hochster and Huneke [4] (for the general case). Let A be a regular ring containing a field K. Let be a radical ideal of A and let h be the maximum of the heights of its minimal primes. Then for all n, we have an inclusion , where the first ideal denotes the hnth symbolic power of . In prime characteristic, this result admits an easy tight closure proof due to Hochster and Huneke. In this paper, the characteristic zero version is obtained from this by an application of the Lefschetz Principle.