cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Thrombopoietin as an Independent Prognostic Marker in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Several cytokines and growth factors are involved in the regulation of megakaryocytopoieses and platelet formation. Interleukin-11 (IL-11), IL-6, IL-3, IL-1b, and thrombopoietin (TPO) act synergistically to promote proliferation and maturation of megakaryocytes. Recombinant IL-11 and TPO are under clinical investigation as supplements to stimulate thrombopoiesis in patients with cancer. We investigated the plasma levels of TPO in 127 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and correlated these levels with platelet counts and various laboratory and clinical characteristics. TPO levels were significantly higher in patients with CLL (median, 232 pg/mL; range, 26.4–2714.5 pg/mL) than in healthy control subjects (P H gene (P H mutation status, b2-M levels, and Rai stage. Recursive partitioning showed that a cut-point of 639.4 pg/mL separated CLL patients into two major groups with a significant difference in survival (P 639.4 pg/mL. However, among patients with TPO levels =639.4 pg/mL, those with b2-M levels >4.95 mg/L had significantly shorter survival than those with lower b2-M levels. These data not only emphasize the importance of TPO in reflecting the aggressiveness of CLL, but also suggest that TPO and b2-M can be used to predict clinical behavior in this disease and may replace the need for determining IgV H mutation status. Further studies are needed to determine if the prognostic role of TPO is due to its direct effects on the growth of the leukemic clone or simply reflects a general failure in the homeostatic regulation of various cytokines.
Using Cosmogenic 10Be Exposure Dating and Lichenometry to Constrain Holocene Glaciation in the Central Brooks Range, Alaska

ABSTRACT We compile new and previously published lichenometric and cosmogenic 10Be moraine ages to summarize the timing of Holocene glacier expansions in the Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska. Foundational lichenometric studies suggested that glaciers likely grew to their Holocene maxima as early as the middle Holocene, followed by several episodes of moraine building prior to, and throughout, the last millennium. Previously published 10Be ages on Holocene moraine boulders from the north-central Brooks Range constrain the culmination of maximum Holocene glacier advances between 4.6 ka and 2.6 ka. New 10Be ages of moraine boulders from two different valleys in the central Brooks Range published here show that maximum Holocene glacial extents in these valleys were reached by 3.5 ka and ca. 2.6 ka, supporting previous studies showing that Holocene maximum, or near-maximum, glacial extents in the Brooks Range occurred prior to the Little Ice Age. However, in-depth reconciliations between glacier extent and local an...
Disfluency Handling for Robot Teammates

Findings from the Psycholinguistic literature have shown that disfluencies may serve a coordination function for both the speaker and the listener. Given that disfluencies are common in spontaneous speech, particularly in high workload tasks, it is important that robots are able to utilize the information contained in disfluencies to improve interaction. My work focuses on this goal of improving coordination in human-robot teams through the detection and utilization of disfluent speech. I use a multi-disciplinary approach that involves conducting empirical studies to investigate how disfluencies influence grounding and coordination in teams, and using the results of these studies to inform the design of computational mechanisms that enable robots to detect and utilize disfluencies in situated interaction. In this paper, I present the results of an empirical investigation and show how the findings are being used to develop computational mechanisms for disfluency handling. Future work involving the integration of these mechanisms in a cognitive robotic architecture is also discussed.
Draining the Will to Make the Sale: The Impermissibility of Marketing by Ego-Depletion

We argue that many modern marketing techniques are morally problematic because they take advantage of a phenomenon known as ‘ego-depletion’ according to which willpower is, similar to physical strength, a limited resource that can be depleted by predictable factors. We argue that this is impermissible for the same reason that spiking someone’s drink to impair their judgment is impermissible.
An LTCC-based 8-channel 4 to 12 GHz hybrid channel-dropping multiplexer for a CubeSat radiometer mission

We present an ultra-compact channelized radiometer back-end implemented in an LTCC process, featuring an 8-channel, wide bandwidth multiplexer. The multiplexer has 8-channels covering 4.3 GHz to 11.1 GHz (104% overall fractional bandwidth) with 2.1% to 8.4% fractional bandwidth channels, designed using a hybrid channel-dropping approach. The multilayer module integrates the stripline multiplexer with microstrip diode detectors, SMT amplifiers and other components in a 30.5 mm by 61.0 mm footprint. Design, simulation, and fabrication of the multiplexer and its application to small and low-power radiometers is discussed, along with results of the flight module scheduled for launch in a 2017 CubeSat mission.
Critical communication pedagogy as a response to the petroleum industry’s neoliberal communicative practices

ABSTRACTCourses: Professional Speaking, Business and Professional Communication, Environmental Communication, or any course covering topics related to neoliberalism and the environment.Objectives: In this single-class activity, students will first examine the possible environmental effects of fracking near the Bakken Oil Formation in North Dakota. Second, students will evaluate how the petroleum industry obscures the effects of fracking through the use of corporate ventriloquism. Third, students will respond to the petroleum industry’s power by utilizing critical communication pedagogy.
RecQ and Fe–S helicases have unique roles in DNA metabolism dictated by their unwinding directionality, substrate specificity, and protein interactions

Helicases are molecular motors that play central roles in nucleic acid metabolism. Mutations in genes encoding DNA helicases of the RecQ and iron–sulfur (Fe–S) helicase families are linked to hereditary disorders characterized by chromosomal instabilities, highlighting the importance of these enzymes. Moreover, mono-allelic RecQ and Fe–S helicase mutations are associated with a broad spectrum of cancers. This review will discuss and contrast the specialized molecular functions and biological roles of RecQ and Fe–S helicases in DNA repair, the replication stress response, and the regulation of gene expression, laying a foundation for continued research in these important areas of study.
Constitutional economics of Ghana’s decentralization

Abstract This paper concerns the rules that are often chosen to frame decentralization in Ghana. It perceives the challenges of multi-level governance in postcolonial sub-Saharan African countries, such as weak local government capacity for urban planning, as effects of ill-conceived constitutional rules. The paper draws ideas from constitutional political economy (CPE) to problematize the constitutional rules underlying Ghana’s current state of decentralization. I argue that these constitutional rules, embodied in Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and Local Government Act (462), evince both continued dominance of state control over local governance and a systemic transfer of the logics and instruments of the authoritarian Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime to the choice of constitutional rules for Ghana’s decentralization. In other words, Ghana’s decentralization patterns and processes must be examined in the context of the constitutional regime from which they were born. One such pattern is the creation of new local governments (a gerrymandering strategy) by successive governments without commensurate improvement in local democratic and pro-poor developmental outcomes. The paper’s discussions, largely conceptual but interlaced with empirical moments, serve to stimulate debate about the relationships between the constitutional rules for decentralization and their socioeconomic and political effects. I conclude by reflecting on the conceptual and methodological challenges of using CPE to analyze constitutional rules for decentralization and offer ideas to address these challenges in future research.
Complications of pregnancy in women after reimplantation for vesicoureteral reflux.

AbstractThe physiological changes of the urinary tract during pregnancy place women at increased risk of urological problems during that time. To evaluate how patients after ureteral reimplantation fared during this high risk period we contacted 67 women who had undergone ureteroneocystostomy with a minimum of 15 years of followup. Only those who underwent an operation for primary vesicoureteral reflux were included.Of the women 30 had been pregnant with 64 total pregnancies. During pregnancy 17 of the 30 women (57 per cent) had 1 or more urinary tract infections and 5 (17 per cent) had 1 or more episodes of pyelonephritis. There were 8 spontaneous abortions and 1 severe ureteral obstruction requiring cutaneous drainage until after delivery. There appears to be an increased risk of urinary infection and fetal loss in pregnant women who have undergone ureteral reimplantation as children.More frequent urinary screening and aggressive therapy during pregnancy are recommended in this high risk group. (J. Urol...
Observing the Infection Process

Clover (Trifolium spp.) rhizobia enter their host’s roots through the root hairs. Infection is preceded by a deformation of root hairs and the forming of an infection thread that can be observed directly under the microscope. Root hair deformations may also be caused by nonnodulating strains of Rhizobium. Nonnodulating strains used in this chapter cause no infection threads to form. The purpose of this chapter is to observe the infection of legume roots by rhizobia. Clover seedlings are inoculated with rhizobia and stages of the infection process are then observed under the microscope.
Transitions in Teaching and eLearning

Human knowledge acquisition and how it is being reshaped given the advent of eLearning is the focus of this chapter. Have the theories on how we process information and create knowledge been affected by multimedia tools? The premise of this chapter is that teaching and learning is driven by the learner’s emotion and motivation to want to learn and is influenced by the teacher’s practices and tools used that are greatly impacted by the change era of eLearning. Using social learning arrangements involving peers and teachers is a notable addition promoted by situated cognition theory and practice. Understanding how technology impacts learning theories and the practices teachers need to know now and in the future is what has been examined in this chapter.
possibilities of major climatic modification and their implications: Northwest India, a case for study

On the basis of field observations and theoretical studies it is believed that the dense pall of local dust over northwestern India and West Pakistan is a significant factor in the development of s...
Letter: Galilean invariance of Rortex

A new vector named Rortex [C. Liu et al., “Rortex—A new vortex vector definition and vorticity tensor and vector decompositions,” Phys. Fluids 30, 035103 (2018)] was proposed to represent the local fluid rotation in our previous work. However, the Galilean invariance of Rortex is yet to be elaborated. In the present study, we prove that Rortex is invariant under the Galilean transformation and several examples are provided to confirm the conclusion.
Assessing factors affecting sunscreen use and barriers to compliance: a cross-sectional survey-based study

While sunscreen is effective prevention for skin cancer, public sunscreen use and compliance are low. Identifying factors affecting sunscreen use and barriers to compliance are important to underst...
A time-dependent vapor flow model of asphalt concrete

It is straightforward to determine vapour flow for a non-absorbing medium using Darcy’s law. However, asphalt concrete (AC) sample absorbs moisture over time if it is exposed to a humid environment...
The Influence of Victims’ Unmet Basic Needs as a Mediator in Trafficking Relationships: A Research Note:

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor American citizen or permanent resident within the United States. It is a human rights abuse and carries signif...
Combined Tumors in Hematolymphoid Neoplasms: Case Series of Histiocytic and Langerhans Cell Sarcomas Arising From Low-Grade B-Cell Lymphoma.

We report an index case of histiocytic sarcoma arising in a 70-year-old patient with long-standing chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL). The patient presented in 2017 w...
Preemptive scheduling for approximate computing on heterogeneous machines: Tradeoff between weighted accuracy and makespan

Abstract Approximate computing is a research area which investigates a wide spectrum of techniques to trade off computation time for better accuracy. This paper models the accuracy of the computation as a concave, possibly non-differentiable function of job size to decide the accuracy of each job as well as the scheduling decision of the jobs on heterogeneous servers. The two metrics of interest are the makespan of the completion time of the jobs and the weighted accuracy of the different jobs. For a given makespan, an algorithm is provided that achieves the optimal weighted accuracy of computations, thus providing an optimal tradeoff between the two objectives for preemptive scheduling of approximate computing jobs on multiple servers. The proposed algorithm decides the task sizes of each of the jobs, which gives the accuracy of the jobs in addition to the schedule of these partial jobs on the servers.
L. pneumophila CMP-5,7-di-N-acetyllegionaminic acid synthetase (LpCLS)-involved chemoenzymatic synthesis of sialosides and analogues

5,7-Di-N-acetyllegionaminic acid (Leg5,7Ac2) is a bacterial nonulosonic acid (NulO) analogue of sialic acids, an important class of monosaccharides in mammals and in some bacteria. To develop efficient one-pot multienzyme (OPME) glycosylation systems for synthesizing Leg5,7Ac2-glycosides, Legionella pneumophila cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP)-Leg5,7Ac2 synthetase (LpCLS) was cloned and characterized. It was successfully used in producing Leg5,7Ac2-glycosides from chemoenzymatically synthesized Leg5,7Ac2 using a one-pot two-enzyme system or from its chemically synthesized six-carbon monosaccharide precursor 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxymannose (6deoxyMan2,4diNAc) in a one-pot three-enzyme system. In addition, LpCLS was shown to tolerate Neu5Ac7NAc, a C9-hydroxyl analogue of Leg5,7Ac2 and also a stable analogue of 7-O-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5,7Ac2), to allow OPME synthesis of the corresponding α2-3-linked sialosides, from chemically synthesized six-carbon monosaccharide precursor 4-N-acetyl-4-deoxy-N-acetylmannosamine (ManNAc7NAc).
Cannabis use among U.S. adolescents in the era of marijuana legalization: a review of changing use patterns, comorbidity, and health correlates

Decriminalization, medicalization, and legalization of cannabis use by a majority of U.S. states over the past 25 years have dramatically shifted societal perceptions and use patterns among America...
Hypertension and Acute Kidney Injury following an Allograft Biopsy

### Case Answer A 49-year-old woman was admitted with 2 weeks of progressive dyspnea, edema, and hypertension. Medical history is significant for ESKD attributed to hypertensive nephrosclerosis. She underwent a deceased-donor kidney transplant 2 months before admission. The post-transplant serum creatinine concentration reached a nadir of 2.0 mg/dl. An allograft biopsy performed 2.5 weeks before admission revealed acute cellular rejection (Banff borderline). She was treated with steroids. Physical examination on admission was notable for tachypnea at 24 breaths/min, BP of 180/95 mm Hg, pulse of 91/min, with oxygen saturation of 98% on 5 L of oxygen. Pertinent findings included bilateral 3+ pitting edema, crackles, and wheezing. Laboratory evaluation revealed serum sodium of 134 mmol/L, potassium of 4.6 mmol/L, bicarbonate of 16 mmol/L, BUN of 94 mg/dl, and serum …
Serology of Cancer

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the serology of cancer. Serological studies have made the demonstration of tumor antigens possible and have also contributed to the subject of viral oncogenesis. Two important principles have emerged from the investigation of viral oncogenesis. First, the viral genome persists in tumors induced by both DNA and RNA viruses. This is obvious in tumors in which complete infectious virus continues to be produced, as in leukemias and sarcomas produced by oncornaviruses. Second, there is a close association between viral and cellular genomes. The initial serological studies of virus-induced tumors concentrated on leukemia rather than on tumors of other types for a simple technical reason, namely, serological analysis of surface antigens requires suspensions of dispersed viable cells. The contributions that serology can make to the subject of viral oncogenesis are illustrated particularly well by studies carried out with wild-type (Gross) leukemia viruses in the mouse. It has been established that some of the antigens can be expressed independently of virus production, which suggests that the genes responsible must be subject to independent control.
Non-intrusive cooling tower model validation: Results from a case study

A cooling tower (CT) model was built based on physical thermodynamics and heat and mass transfer principles using the effectiveness-NTU method for heat exchanger performance. The focus of the model...
Single-cell dissection of schizophrenia reveals neurodevelopmental-synaptic axis and transcriptional resilience

Abstract Schizophrenia is a devastating mental disorder with a high societal burden, complex pathophysiology, and diverse genetic and environmental risk factors. Its complexity, polygenicity, and small-effect-size and cell-type-specific contributors have hindered mechanistic elucidation and the search for new therapeutics. Here, we present the first single-cell dissection of schizophrenia, across 500,000+ cells from 48 postmortem human prefrontal cortex samples, including 24 schizophrenia cases and 24 controls. We annotate 20 cell types/states, providing a high-resolution atlas of schizophrenia-altered genes and pathways in each. We find neurons are the most affected cell type, with deep-layer cortico-cortical projection neurons and parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons showing significant transcriptional changes converging on genetically-implicated regions. We discover a novel excitatory-neuron cell-state indicative of transcriptional resilience and enriched in schizophrenia subjects with less-perturbed transcriptional signatures. We identify key trans-acting factors as candidate drivers of observed transcriptional perturbations, including MEF2C, TCF4, SOX5, and SATB2, and map their binding patterns in postmortem human neurons. These factors regulate distinct gene sets underlying fetal neurodevelopment and adult synaptic function, bridging two leading models of schizophrenia pathogenesis. Our results provide the most detailed map to date for mechanistic understanding and therapeutic development in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Exchange rate flexibility, the real exchange rate, and adjustment to terms-of-trade shocks

We study the impact of exogenous terms‐of‐trade shocks in a large sample of small open economies. Using a panel vector autoregression, we estimate the response of domestic variables including the exchange rate, output, exports, imports, and domestic demand, allowing impulse responses to vary according to the de facto exchange rate regime. We find strong evidence that flexible exchange rate regimes play a shock‐absorbing role by reducing the response of output to terms‐of‐trade shocks. Results show that flexible regimes see a stronger response of the real exchange rate and faster external adjustment, suggestive of a mechanism that switches expenditure from imported to domestically‐produced goods.
CHAPTER 2 – INTEGRAL EQUATIONS WITH SEPARABLE KERNELS

Publisher Summary When an integral equation cannot be solved in closed form, then recourse has to be taken to approximate methods. However, these approximate methods can be applied with confidence only if the existence of the solution is assured in advance. The Fredholm theorems explained in provide such an assurance. The basic theorems of the general theory of integral equations, which were first presented by Fredholm, correspond to the basic theorems of linear algebraic systems. The chapter presents methods that are useful in finding approximate solutions of certain integral equations. The integral equation (s) = f(s) – λ ∫ K(t,s) (t) dt is called the transpose (or adjoint) of the equation.
Personalized dosimetry of 177Lu-DOTATATE: a comparison of organ- and voxel-level approaches using open-access images

177Lu-DOTATATE (Lutathera®) enables targeted radionuclide therapy of neuroendocrine tumors expressing somatostatin receptor type 2. Though patient-specific dosimetry estimates may be clinically important for predicting absorbed dose-effect relationships, there are multiple relevant dosimetry paradigms which are distinct in terms of clinical effort, numerical output and added-value. This work compares three different approaches for177Lu-DOTATATE dosimetry, including 1) an organ-level approach based on reference phantom MIRD S-values scaled to patient-specific organ masses (MIRDcalc), 2) an organ-level approach based on Monte Carlo simulation in a patient-specific mesh phantoms (PARaDIM), and 3) a 3D approach based on Monte Carlo simulation in patient-specific voxel phantoms.Method. Serial quantitative SPECT/CT images for two patients receiving177Lu-DOTATATE therapy were obtained from archive in theDeep Bluedatabase. For each patient, the serial CT images were co-registered to the first time point CT using a deformable registration technique aided by virtual landmarks placed in the kidney pelves and the lesion foci. The co-registered SPECT images were integrated voxel-wise to generate time-integrated activity maps. Lesions, kidneys, liver, spleen, lungs, compact bone, spongiosa, and rest of body were segmented at the first imaging time point and overlaid on co-registered integrated activity maps. The resultant segmentation was used for three purposes: 1) to generate patient-specific phantoms, 2) to determine organ-level time-integrated activities, and 3) to generate dose volume histograms from 3D voxel-based calculations.Results. Mean absorbed doses were computed for lesions and 48 tissues with MIRDcalc software. Mean organ absorbed doses and dose volume histograms were obtained for lesions and 6 tissues with the voxel Monte Carlo approach. Lesion- and organ-level absorbed dose estimates agreed within ±26% for the lesions and ±13% for the critical organs, among the different methods tested. Overall good agreement was observed with the dosimetry estimates from the NETTER-1 trial.Conclusions. For personalized177Lu-DOTATATE dosimetry, a combined approach was determined to be valuable, which utilized two dose calculation methods supported by a single image processing workflow. In the absence of quantitative imaging limitations, the voxel Monte Carlo method likely provides valuable information to guide treatment by considering absorbed dose non-uniformity in lesions and organs at risk. The patient-scaled reference phantom method also provides valuable information, including absorbed dose estimates for non-segmented organs, and more accurate dose estimates for complex radiosensitive organs including the active marrow.
Corporate Investment and Financing over the Industry Business Cycle

How do firms vary their capital investment and financing policies in response to business cycle fluctuations within their industry? To address this question, we use the regime-switching approach to compute the quarterly time-series of the probability of a future industry downturn for industry groups within the U.S. manufacturing sector. After controlling for the aggregate business cycle, we find that firm-level capital investment and debt issuance are procyclical, whereas net equity issuance and cash accumulation are countercyclical over the industry business cycle. However, there is substantial heterogeneity across firms based on size and credit rating. The effects of the industry business cycle are often larger than that of the aggregate business cycle, and including the former in the analysis changes the relationships between firm-level financing policies and aggregate business cycle documented in previous studies. We show that extending the standard dynamic trade-off model to incorporate heterogeneous effects of industry and aggregate business cycles can help explain the empirical findings.
A FastSLAM Approach Integrating Beamforming Maps for Ultrasound-Based Robotic Inspection of Metal Structures

We present a novel FastSLAM approach for a robotic system inspecting structures made of large metal plates. By taking advantage of the reflections of ultrasonic guided waves on the plate boundaries, it is possible to recover, with enough precision, both the plate shape and the robot trajectory. Contrary to our previous work, this approach takes into account the dispersive nature of guided waves in metal plates. This is leveraged to construct beamforming maps from which we solve the mapping problem through plate edges estimation for every particle, in a FastSLAM fashion. It will be demonstrated, with real acoustic measurements obtained on different metal plates, that such a framework achieves more accurate results, while the complexity of the algorithm is sensibly reduced.
Weakly Supervised Keypoint Discovery.

In this paper, we propose a method for keypoint discovery from a 2D image using image-level supervision. Recent works on unsupervised keypoint discovery reliably discover keypoints of aligned instances. However, when the target instances have high viewpoint or appearance variation, the discovered keypoints do not match the semantic correspondences over different images. Our work aims to discover keypoints even when the target instances have high viewpoint and appearance variation by using image-level supervision. Motivated by the weakly-supervised learning approach, our method exploits image-level supervision to identify discriminative parts and infer the viewpoint of the target instance. To discover diverse parts, we adopt a conditional image generation approach using a pair of images with structural deformation. Finally, we enforce a viewpoint-based equivariance constraint using the keypoints from the image-level supervision to resolve the spatial correlation problem that consistently appears in the images taken from various viewpoints. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance for the task of keypoint estimation on the limited supervision scenarios. Furthermore, the discovered keypoints are directly applicable to downstream tasks without requiring any keypoint labels.
The Drag Brake Manned Satellite System

The manned satellite designs which have been most frequently proposed are extrapolations either of airplanes or of missile nose cones. This paper presents a new approach to the design of a manned satellite system. The central feature of this design is a variable area drag brake. For a given capsule and payload, the elements associated with attitude stabilization, recovery from orbit, re-entry, landing accuracy control and final landing of the system described comprise less than half the weight required for the same functions in presently envisioned retro-rocket systems.
Heat Capacities from 11 to 305° K, Entropies, and Free Energy of Formation of Glycylglycine

Abstract 1. Heat capacities were measured from 11–305°K for glycylglycine. The thermodynamic functions Cp°, S°, H°, - H0°/T, and -(G° - H0°)/T are tabulated as a function of temperature from 10–310.15°K. 2. At 298.15°K S° = 43.09 cal deg-1 mole-1 and ΔSf° = -206.47 cal deg-1 mole-1 for glycylglycine. 3. With the above data and the previously reported heat of combustion of glycylglycine we calculate ΔHf°298.15 = -178.1 kcal mole-1 and ΔGf°298.15 = -116.6 kcal mole-1.
Anticipatory Eye Movements in Interleaving Templates of Human Behavior

Performance modeling has been made easier by architectures which package psychological theory for reuse at useful levels of abstraction. CPM-GOMS uses templates of behavior to package at a task level (e.g., mouse move-click, typing) predictions of lower-level cognitive, perceptual, and motor resource use. CPM-GOMS also has a theory for interleaving resource use between templates. One example of interleaving is anticipatory eye movements. This paper describes the use of ACT-Stitch, a framework for translating CPM-GOMS templates and interleaving theory into ACT-R, to model anticipatory eye movements in skilled behavior. The anticipatory eye movements explain performance in a well-practiced perceptual/motor task, and the interleaving theory is supported with results from an eye-tracking experiment.
Sinkhole intrusion indicators in DSR MANETs

Due to fundamental characteristics, routing protocols in wireless mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are particularly vulnerable to attack. One such attack, the "sinkhole" problem, is analyzed in the context of the dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol, and a sinkhole intrusion detection system (SIDS) is proposed for detecting it. The design and evaluation of this system is rigorously detailed, its performance is evaluated, and directions for future work are outlined. The simulation results show that SIDS is a promising methodology for this important problem.
Four dimensional spectral-spatial fat saturation pulse design.

Purpose The conventional spectrally selective fat saturation pulse may perform poorly with inhomogeneous amplitude of static (polarizing) field (B0) and/or amplitude of (excitation) radiofrequency field (B1) fields. We propose a four dimensional spectral-spatial fat saturation pulse that is more robust to inhomogeneity and also shorter than the conventional fat saturation pulse. Theory The proposed pulse is tailored for local B0 inhomogeneity, which avoids the need of a sharp transition band in the spectral domain, so it improves both performance and pulse length. Furthermore, it can also compensate for B1 inhomogeneity. The pulse is designed sequentially by small-tip-angle approximation design and an automatic rescaling procedure. Methods The proposed method is compared to the conventional fat saturation in phantom experiments and in vivo knee imaging at 3 T for both single-channel and parallel excitation versions. Results Compared to the conventional method, the proposed method produces superior fat suppression in the presence of B0 and B1 inhomogeneity and reduces pulse length by up to half of the standard length. Conclusion The proposed four dimensional spectral-spatial fat saturation suppresses fat more robustly with shorter pulse length than the conventional fat saturation in the presence of B0 and B1 inhomogeneity. Magn Reson Med 72:1637–1647, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Inversion of Source, Material, and Defect Characteristics Using Guided Waves

In this paper we have presented a review of the current literature on the use of guided elastic waves to characterize source excitation, material properties, and embedded horizontal cracks in a laminated composite plate. Results are presented for dispersion of guided waves and dynamic response in the presence of a delamination in a laminated plate.
Supervised and unsupervised discretization of continuous features

Many supervised machine learning algorithms require a discrete feature space. In this paper, we review previous work on continuous feature discretization, identify defining characteristics of the methods, and conduct an empirical evaluation of several methods. We compare binning, an unsupervised discretization method, to entropy-based and purity-based methods, which are supervised algorithms. We found that the performance of the Naive-Bayes algorithm significantly improved when features were discretized using an entropy-based method. In fact, over the 16 tested datasets, the discretized version of Naive-Bayes slightly outperformed C4.5 on average. We also show that in some cases, the performance of the C4.5 induction algorithm significantly improved if features were discretized in advance; in our experiments, the performance never significantly degraded, an interesting phenomenon considering the fact that C4.5 is capable of locally discretizing features.
Moral Disengagement in “War Fever”: How Can We Resist?

This chapter reviews selected research on social psychological factors underlying the phenomenon of “war fever,” which is defined as dangerous ways of thinking that justify the unnecessary use of military force, evade responsibility, minimize perceived consequences, and dehumanize enemies, leading to popular support for national actions that are later regretted. Data from several studies show that the construct of moral disengagement, from social cognitive theory, explains both differences between populations and changes over time in their support for attacks on other nations, e.g., the increased support for military actions against Iraq by US forces following the September 11, 2001, terror attack there. Data from two studies show that persuasive communication about moral disengagement can provide psychological “inoculation” to induce resistance to war fever. Illustrations of how moral disengagement was lessened in the crisis surrounding proposed attacks by Western nations against Syria in 2013 are presented, followed by recommendations for future research and for systematic training of leaders in the fields of negotiation and reconciliation to help national populations resist war fever in the future.
A control system model for autonomous sailboat navigation

The author reports on research in the areas of decision support, for real-time information-rich environments and integrated automated control. Under current maritime law, a person is required to stand watch at all times; however, single-handed sailors cannot stand watch continuously during long offshore passages. It is hoped that systems like the one discussed will reduce the demands on the single-handed sailor and increase safety at sea. A sailing simulator, supplying the environmental inputs and displaying the results of control decisions, was designed and coded in Pascal. The simulator supplies the navigator with information on boat speed and position relative to a background displaying wind speed and direction and water depth. In addition, submodels were developed to represent the ballast control subsystem, the sail trim subsystem, and the helm control subsystem. The development goal is to produce a tool for comparing/modifying, actual boat-handling performance relative to goals established by an integrated model of the vessel's performance characteristics and the crew's capabilities. >
Operation of Thermoacoustic Stirling Heat Engine Driven Large Multiple Pulse Tube Refrigerators

With support from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Praxair has been developing thermoacoustic Stirling heat engines and refrigerators for liquefaction of natural gas. The combination of thermoacoustic engines with pulse tube refrigerators is the only technology capable of producing significant cryogenic refrigeration with no moving parts. A prototype, powered by a natural-gas burner and with a projected natural-gas-liquefaction capacity of 500 gal/day, has been built and tested. The unit has liquefied 350 gal/day, with a projected production efficiency of 70% liquefaction and 30% combustion of an incoming gas stream. A larger system, intended to have a liquefaction capacity of 20,000 gal/day and an efficiency of 80 to 85% liquefaction, has undergone preliminary design.
A first step towards a framework for presenting the location of confidential point data on maps—results of an empirical perceptual study

A common concern when working with health‐related data is that national standard guidelines are designed to preserve individual statistical information, usually recorded as text or in a spreadsheet format (‘statistical confidentiality’), but lack appropriate rules for visualizing this information on maps (‘spatial confidentiality’). Privacy rules to protect spatial confidentiality become more and more important, as governmental agencies increasingly incorporate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a tool for collecting, storing, analysing, and disseminating spatial information. The purpose of this paper is to propose the first step of a general framework for presenting the location of confidential point data on maps using empirical perceptual research. The overall objective is to identify geographic masking methods that preserve both the confidentiality of individual locations, and at the same time the essential visual characteristics of the original point pattern.
The Effect of Variable Gravity on the Cooling Performance of a 16-Nozzle Spray Array

Abstract : The objective of this thesis was to investigate the cooling performance of a 16-nozzle spray array, using FC-72 as the working fluid, in variable gravity conditions with additional emphasis on fluid management and flow stability. A flight test experiment was modified to accommodate a 16-nozzle spray array, which was then tested in the parabolic flight trajectory environment of NASA's C-9 reduced gravity aircraft. The 16-nozzle array was designed to cool a 25.4 by 25.4 [mm] area on a thick film resistive heater used to simulate electronic components. Data was taken and reduced as a result of flight tests conducted over the course of two flight weeks (each week consisting of four flights, each flight consisting of 40 to 60 parabolas). The flight tests were conducted in order to examine gravity effects on spray cooling performance and to evaluate a novel liquid-vapor separator design. The mass flow rate through the 16-nozzle spray array ranged from 13.1< m< 21.3 [g/s] for the spray cooling analysis and 14<m< 35 [g/s] for the separator evaluation. The heat flux at the thick film resistor ranged from 2.9< q"<25 [W/cm2], the subcooling of the working fluid.
Design and Control of an Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converter for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) offer many advantages, such as high fuel economy, low emissions, and silent operation. In HEVs, there are two or more different voltage buses for different purposes of the vehicle operation. There are needs of galvanically isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter to link different DC voltage bus and transfer energy back and forth. For example, one of the DC-DC converters convert the high voltage (200-300V) in the main battery to low voltage (-12V) for use in electrical equipment, while the other converts 300V battery voltage and supply the drive motor with 500V. High efficiency, compact size, lightweight, and reliability are all essential requirements for DC-DC converters for electric and hybrid vehicles. This paper introduces a bidirectional, isolated DC-DC converter for medium power applications. A dual full-bridge topology is developed to achieve the power rating. A 1kW prototype of the converter has been built and tested. The experimental results of the converter's steady state operation confirm the simulation analysis. This converter is a first step to understanding the design and build of a medium power DC-DC converter.
Reaffirming “The Truth of Being”

This essay, drawn from the book Heidegger's Way of Being, brings back into view the core matter of Heidegger's lifetime of thought: Being as the temporal emerging, showing, shining-forth, manifestation of all beings and things. Highlighted is the overarching importance of Being as radiant manifestation—"the truth of Being"—and how Heidegger also named and elucidated this Ur-phenomenon as aletheia, Ereignis, Lichtung, and Es gibt. The essay is part of a larger project that aims to recall and restate the originality and distinctiveness of Heidegger's thought and to offer a rejoinder to certain more recent readings, and especially those that propose a reduction of Being to "sense" or "meaning" and maintain that the core matter is human "meaning-making."
Phase change between separatrix crossings

Abstract The change of the crossing parameter (essentially the phase) between separatrix crossings is calculated for Hamiltonian systems with one degree of freedom and slow time dependence. This completes the calculation of the map for an arbitrary sequence of separatrix crossings. The change of the crossing parameter is used to calculate the retrapping probability. It is found that, even in the limit of infinitely slow time dependence, correlations persist between the separatrix crossings, and corrections to the usual zero-order adiabatic approximation must be included. Comparison with numerical experiments show that the result derived here is accurate for quite large values of the slowness parameter.
The effects of calling "right" and "wrong" on neighboring response

Each of 393 undergraduates was given four readings of a list of letters and required to call out a digit for each letter. Response to the fifth of the nine letters of the list was fixed by instruction of S in order to eliminate differential effects of guessing habit under conditions in which E called “right,” “wrong,” or remained silent when S called the response fixed by instruction. The frequency of repetition was decreased for “wrong” relative to both “right” and silence for responses preceeding but not for responses following the fifth letter, giving a significant interaction (p <.02).
Opioid withdrawal, craving, and use during and after outpatient buprenorphine stabilization and taper: a discrete survival and growth mixture model.

Abstract Introduction Most patients relapse to opioids within one month of opioid agonist detoxification, making the antecedents and parallel processes of first use critical for investigation. Craving and withdrawal are often studied in relationship to opioid outcomes, and a novel analytic strategy applied to these two phenomena may indicate targeted intervention strategies. Methods Specifically, this secondary data analysis of the Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study used a discrete-time mixture analysis with time-to-first opioid use (survival) simultaneously predicted by craving and withdrawal growth trajectories. This analysis characterized heterogeneity among prescription opioid-dependent individuals (N = 653) into latent classes (i.e., latent class analysis [LCA]) during and after buprenorphine/naloxone stabilization and taper. Results A 4-latent class solution was selected for overall model fit and clinical parsimony. In order of shortest to longest time-to-first use, the 4 classes were characterized as 1) high craving and withdrawal, 2) intermediate craving and withdrawal, 3) high initial craving with low craving and withdrawal trajectories and 4) a low initial craving with low craving and withdrawal trajectories. Odds ratio calculations showed statistically significant differences in time-to-first use across classes. Conclusions Generally, participants with lower baseline levels and greater decreases in craving and withdrawal during stabilization combined with slower craving and withdrawal rebound during buprenorphine taper remained opioid-free longer. This exploratory work expanded on the importance of monitoring craving and withdrawal during buprenorphine induction, stabilization, and taper. Future research may allow individually tailored and timely interventions to be developed to extend time-to-first opioid use.
Design sensitivity analysis of dynamic systems using Hamilton's law of varying action

Abstract Hamilton's law of varying action (HLVA) is used to compute design sensitivity of dynamic systems. The state variables and their variations are approximated using truncated linear sums of orthogonal polynomials and the integral equations are converted to algebraic equations. The orthogonal properties of these polynomials are utilized to make these algebraic equations sparse and thus computationally efficient. This formulation leads to a reduction on the continuity requirement on the states. Four examples are solved to demonstrate the efficacy of this method. Methods to include the state sensitivity to static initial conditions are presented. For comparison, the problems are also solved using the Runge-Kutta integration scheme. Good agreement is found between the two techniques.
A Continuum Model of Solidification and Inclusion Collision-growth in the Slab Continuous Casting Caster

A coupled mathematical model on fluid flow, heat and solute transport, and inclusion transport is developed to investigate turbulent flow, solidification, and inclusion collision-growth in the slab continuous caster. The behaviors of inclusion and solute in the steel belong to mass transfer phenomena, but inclusion transport is different from solute transfer in the liquid phase zone, mush zone and solid phase zone. In the continuous caster, turbulent collision and Stokes collision, which are the major factor causing inclusions to coalescence, have been taken into account in the mathematical model. All these differential equations have the same basic structure and can be solved by the same numerical method. Influenced by the fluid flow, the temperature, carbon element and inclusion in the molten steel have similar spatial distribution as the fluid flow in the continuous caster. Their spatial distribution can be divided into the upper and lower recirculation zones, but their distributions have their own characteristics. Near the center of the recirculation zones, the temperature of molten steel and the characteristic inclusion concentration and the characteristic inclusion number density are lower, but the carbon concentration and the inclusion size are greater. Due to the interaction between the movement of solidified shell and the downward flow, a small corner-vortex appears near the meniscus. The initial solidified shell forms near the meniscus, so there is a few of indigenous inclusions with small size in the initial solidified shell.
Fracture Mechanics and Beam Theory Analyses of Semi-Elliptical Cracks Originating in the Base of Rail

In May 2011, a derailment of a passenger train occurred in a tunnel in the northeast region of the United States. Fortunately, no serious injuries or fatalities resulted from this derailment. The probable cause of the derailment was determined to be a broken rail from a defect originating in the base of the rail. This internal rail base defect is characterized as having a crescent, thumbnail, or semi-elliptical shape. In addition, the formation and growth of this defect may have been exacerbated by corrosion.This paper describes engineering calculations to estimate the growth rate of this type of rail base defect. These engineering calculations are based on applying the principles of fracture mechanics and beam theory. Fracture mechanics principles are applied to determine stress intensity factors for the semi-elliptical shaped defect with different aspect ratios. Stress intensity factors are then used to estimate the growth of the defect under the accumulation of tonnage from repeated wheel passages. For this purpose, the rail is assumed to behave as a beam in bending.
Feedstocks for Lignocellulosic Biofuels

In 2008, the world produced approximately 87 gigaliters of liquid biofuels, which is roughly equal to the volume of liquid fuel consumed by Germany that year. Essentially, all of this biofuel was produced from crops developed for food production, raising concerns about the net energy and greenhouse gas effects and potential competition between use of land for production of fuels, food, animal feed, fiber, and ecosystem services. The pending implementation of improved technologies to more effectively convert the nonedible parts of plants (lignocellulose) to liquid fuels opens diverse options to use biofuel feedstocks that reach beyond current crops and the land currently used for food and feed. However, there has been relatively little discussion of what types of plants may be useful as bioenergy crops.