cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Distributed generation control of small-footprint power systems

This paper presents a strategy for controlling generators in a small-footprint power system without the need for a centralized decision maker. In particular, we discuss an iterative algorithm which is utilized to coordinate a set of generators such that they collectively operate according to some predetermined criterion while accounting for individual capacity constraints. We implement the algorithm using a hardware testbed comprised of low-complexity devices capable of performing simple computations and communicating wirelessly with other nearby devices. The hardware testbed is then used to control the generation output of the synchronous generators in a six-bus, small-footprint power system. Experimental results are presented for several load changes as well as for a case in which a spinning reserve is added to the system.
Simultaneous Selection of Extreme Population Means: Indifference-Zone Formulation

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACTIn his pioneering 1954 paper, R.E. Bechhofer discussed alternative selection goals for one-way classification, and the two-way classification, without interaction, when the variances are known and equal. For the one-way classification, he proposed the general problem where we want to decide which ks populations have the ks largest means, which ks-1 populations have the ks-1 largest means, and so on, with k1,k2, …, ks given positive integers with k1 + k2 + k3 + …+ ks = 1. The present paper considers selection of the “best” and “worst” populations simultaneously in the indifference-zone setting, with variances unknown (possibly unequal) as well as when they are known and equal, which is Bech-hofer's s = 3, k1 = l, k2 = k-2, k3 = 1 goal. Relevant tables are included.
Ursodeoxycholic acid treatment for patients with postcholecystectomy pain and bile microlithiasis

Background Microlithiasis has been identified as a cause of idiopathic acute pancreatitis in patients with an intact gallbladder. Microlithiasis has also been identified in the bile of some patients who have undergone cholecystectomy. However, it is unknown whether bile microlithiasis causes postcholecystectomy pain. Objective To identify bile microlithiasis in patients with postcholecystectomy pain and to investigate the therapeutic effect of ursodeoxycholic acid (urso) on such patients with microlithiasis in the bile. Design Prospective randomized trial. Setting Tertiary medical center. Patients Patients with postcholecystectomy pain and bile crystals. Interventions Urso treatment. Main Outcome Measurements The severity and frequency of right upper-quadrant abdominal pain were compared with and without urso treatment, and before and after urso treatment. Results A total of 118 patients with postcholecystectomy pain were screened for the study. Twelve patients (10%) were identified with bile crystals. In the first phase, 6 of these patients received urso treatment, whereas the other 6 patients did not receive urso treatment. In the second phase, the latter 6 patients were given the urso treatment. After using urso for a few months, their biliary-type abdominal pain significantly improved or resolved. In the control group, there was no improvement in symptoms. There was a significant difference between the 2 groups ( P = .01). Limitations Single-center, small number of patients. Conclusions This study provided evidence that supports the hypothesis that bile microlithiasis is indeed a cause for postcholecystectomy pain. Patients with such postcholecystectomy pain may benefit from a microscopic examination of bile for crystals or microlithiasis, and urso treatment if bile crystals are identified.
Determination of Optimal Detector Location for Transit Signal Priority with Queue Jumper Lanes

Transit signal priority (TSP) is an operational strategy that facilitates movement of transit vehicles through signalized intersections. As an important component of a TSP system, the transit vehicle detection system plays a key role in determining when to trigger TSP and which TSP strategy to use. This paper presents an analytical method to determine optimal detector locations for intersections implemented with TSP and queue jumper lanes. A queue jumper lane is a preferential treatment for buses that designates a short stretch of a special lane, such as a right-turn bay, to allow buses to bypass a traffic queue and then to proceed ahead of the queue by means of an early green signal for that lane. In this study, a comprehensive TSP strategy was used that considers early green, green extension, special phase insertion, coordination recovery, green reimbursement, and maximum number of continuous TSP requests. An analytical method for determining optimal detector locations under this TSP strategy for differ...
Cognitive Architectures: Choreographing the Dance of Mental Operations With the Task Environment

Objective: In this article, I present the ideas and trends that have given rise to the use of cognitive architectures in human factors and provide a cognitive engineering—oriented taxonomy of these architectures and a snapshot of their use for cognitive engineering. Background: Architectures of cognition have had a long history in human factors but a brief past. The long history entails a 50-year preamble, whereas the explosion of work in the current decade reflects the brief past. Understanding this history is key to understanding the current and future prospects for applying cognitive science theory to human factors practice. Method: The review defines three formative eras in cognitive engineering research: the 1950s, 1980s, and now. Results: In the first era, the fledging fields of cognitive science and human factors emphasized characteristics of the dancer, the limited capacity or bounded rationality view of the mind, and the ballroom, the task environment. The second era emphasized the dance (i.e., t...
Atmospheric correction of MODIS data in the visible to middle infrared: first results

The MODIS instrument provides major advances in moderate resolution earth observation. Improved spatial resolution for land observation at 250 and 500 m and improved spectral band placement provide new remote sensing opportunities. NASA has invested in the development of improved algorithms for MODIS, which will provide new data sets for global change research. Surface reflectance is one of the key products from MODIS and is used in developing several higher-order land products. The surface reflectance algorithm builds on the heritage of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and SeaWiFS algorithms, taking advantage of the new sensing capabilities of MODIS. Atmospheric correction by the removal of water vapor and aerosol effects provides improvements over previous coarse resolution products and the basis for a new time-series, which will extend through to the NPOESS generation imagers. This paper summarizes the first evaluation of the MODIS surface reflectance product accuracy, in comparison with other data products and in the context of the MODIS instrument performance since launch. The MODIS surface reflectance product will provide an important time-series data set for quantifying global environmental change.
Molecular Determinants of Bat Wing Development

The specialization of the forelimb into a wing allowed bats to become the only mammals to achieve powered flight. Recent studies in developmental biology have begun to elucidate the molecular mechanis
Quickest detection in coupled systems

This work considers the problem of quickest detection of signals in a coupled system of N sensors, which receive continuous sequential observations from the environment. It is assumed that the signals, which are modeled a general Ito processes, are coupled across sensors, but that their onset times may differ from sensor to sensor. The objective is the optimal detection of the first time at which any sensor in the system receives a signal. The problem is formulated as a stochastic optimization problem in which an extended average Kullback-Leibler divergence criterion is used as a measure of detection delay, with a constraint on the mean time between false alarms. The case in which the sensors employ cumulative sum (CUSUM) strategies is considered, and it is proved that the minimum of N CUSUMs is asymptotically optimal as the mean time between false alarms increases without bound.
Enhancing Sparsity by Reweighted ℓ 1 Minimization

It is now well understood that (1) it is possible to reconstruct sparse signals exactly from what appear to be highly incomplete sets of linear measurements and (2) that this can be done by constrained l1 minimization. In this paper, we study a novel method for sparse signal recovery that in many situations outperforms l1 minimization in the sense that substantially fewer measurements are needed for exact recovery. The algorithm consists of solving a sequence of weighted l1-minimization problems where the weights used for the next iteration are computed from the value of the current solution. We present a series of experiments demonstrating the remarkable performance and broad applicability of this algorithm in the areas of sparse signal recovery, statistical estimation, error correction and image processing. Interestingly, superior gains are also achieved when our method is applied to recover signals with assumed near-sparsity in overcomplete representations—not by reweighting the l1 norm of the coefficient sequence as is common, but by reweighting the l1 norm of the transformed object. An immediate consequence is the possibility of highly efficient data acquisition protocols by improving on a technique known as Compressive Sensing.
The Corps Battle Simulation for military training

The Corps Battle Simulation (CBS) is a discrete event simulation system that was developed for use in military training exercises. Development has continued for more than ten years. Early development emphasized increasing functionality, but recent versions equally emphasize increased performance and capacity along with interfaces to outside simulations. Early emphasis on software engineering aspects; would have provided a more portable system today, but CBS still exemplifies how simulation technology can be used to enable more cost-effective training.
On the coverage problem in video-based wireless sensor networks

Video-based wireless sensor networks continue to gain increasing interest due to their ability to collect visual information for a wide range of applications. However, knowledge about these types of networks is mostly related to visual algorithms, leaving the networking perspective aside. In this work, we analyze how an algorithm designed for traditional wireless sensor networks, which integrates the coverage and routing problem, behaves in video-based networks. Our results show that because of the unique way that cameras capture data, the sensor network algorithm does not give the expected results in terms of coverage preservation of monitored areas. We discuss the main differences between traditional wireless sensor networks and video-based networks that lead to such a result, and we provide ideas for how protocols should be designed for the unique features of video-based networks
One Hundred Years of Organized Labor in Illinois, 1881–1981

The Illinois Labor History Society sponsored a conference, "One Hundred Years of Organized Labor in Illinois, 1881-1981," in Chicago on October 9-10. The conference attracted approximately one hundred academic historians and graduate students, trade unionists, and labor history "buffs" to the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, where the sessions were held. Also featured was a dinner honoring retired Chicago labor leaders Mollie Levitas and Joseph Keenan. The Friday sessions were devoted to the presentation of ten papers which dealt with diverse topics and time periods. Richard Schneirov and Thomas Suhrbur, graduate students at Northern Illinois University, who are engaged jointly in writing a history of carpenters ' unionism in Chicago under a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, discussed a portion of their research, "Origins of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, 1866-1891." In tracing the organizational devel opment of the union, the authors concluded that both the experience in the Knights of Labor and the militancy and class unity of German carpenters were major causes of the successes in building the Brotherhood. Stephen Freedman, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, argued that the sources of union successes in Joliet?in the 1880s and again during the 1919 steel strike?stemmed from inter-skills and inter-union solidarity. The community and organizational ac tivities of nineteenth century Illinois coal miners were discussed by Richard P. Joyce in a paper titled "Early Struggles in the Mines of Northern Illinois, 1868-1900." Joyce's work expands upon Herbert Gutman's early work on Braidwood and addresses the relationships between miners, ethnicity and local politics. Gregory Le Roy, who has been engaged in research on a history of the Pullman porters under an NEH Youth-grant, discussed the effect of company un ionism and paternalism, government investigations and rival union efforts between 1914 and 1924 as the backdrop for the organization of the Brotherhood of Sleep ing Car Porters. The afternoon session heard a discussion by Stephanie Booth of Gerry
Molecular Mechanisms of HipA-Mediated Multidrug Tolerance and Its Neutralization by HipB

Bacterial multidrug tolerance is largely responsible for the inability of antibiotics to eradicate infections and is caused by a small population of dormant bacteria called persisters. HipA is a critical Escherichia coli persistence factor that is normally neutralized by HipB, a transcription repressor, which also regulates hipBA expression. Here, we report multiple structures of HipA and a HipA-HipB-DNA complex. HipA has a eukaryotic serine/threonine kinase–like fold and can phosphorylate the translation factor EF-Tu, suggesting a persistence mechanism via cell stasis. The HipA-HipB-DNA structure reveals the HipB-operator binding mechanism, ∼70° DNA bending, and unexpected HipA-DNA contacts. Dimeric HipB interacts with two HipA molecules to inhibit its kinase activity through sequestration and conformational inactivation. Combined, these studies suggest mechanisms for HipA-mediated persistence and its neutralization by HipB.
Amphotericin B vs High-Dose Ketoconazole for Empirical Antifungal Therapy Among Febrile, Granulocytopenic Cancer Patients: A Prospective, Randomized Study

We compared high-dose ketoconazole (800 mg/kg per day, orally) with amphotericin B (0.5 mg/kg per day, intravenously) for empirical antifungal therapy in a prospective, randomized study of persistenly or recurrently febrile granulocytopenic cancer patients. Among 97 patients eligible for empirical antifungal therapy, 20 (21%) of these patients were ineligible for randomization to ketoconazole treatment because of their inability to tolerate oral medications. Among 72 patients eligible for randomization, 64 were assessable (32 in each arm of the study). Five of six patients with proved fungal infections who were randomized to receive ketoconazole treatment required crossover to amphotericin B treatment because of progressive infection. The conditions of three of these five patients improved after receiving amphotericin B. The frequency of transaminase elevation was higher in those receiving ketoconazole, while the frequency of azotemia was higher in those receiving amphotericin B. Bioavailability of ketoconazole was unpredictable. Amphotericin B remains the drug of choice for empirical antifungal therapy in granulocytopenic patients; whereas, lack of a parenteral formulation, ineffectiveness against proved mycoses, and unreliable bioavailability preclude high-dose ketoconazole from being an appropriate compound for this purpose. ( Arch Intern Med . 1991;151:765-770)
Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses to Proactive and Reactive CSR.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an effective way for firms to create favorable attitudes among consumers. Although prior research has addressed the direct influence of proactive and reactive CSR on consumer responses, this research hypothesized that consumers’ perceived organizational motives (i.e., attributions) will mediate this relationship. It was also hypothesized that the source of information and location of CSR initiative will affect the motives consumers assign to a firms’ engagement in the initiative. Two experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. The results of Study 1 indicate that the nature of a CSR initiative influences consumer attribution effects and that these attributions act as mediators in helping to explain consumers’ responses to CSR. Study 2 suggests that the source of the CSR message moderates the effect of CSR on consumer attributions. The mediating influence of the attributions as well as the importance of information source suggests that proper communication of CSR can be a viable way to inculcate positive corporate associations and purchase intentions.
AIRS/AMSU/HSB precipitation estimates

Precipitation rates (mm per hour) with 15- and 50-km horizontal resolution are among the initial products of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit/Humidity Sounder for Brazil (AIRS/AMSU/HSB). They will help identify the meteorological state of the atmosphere and any AIRS soundings potentially contaminated by precipitation. These retrieval methods can also be applied to the AMSU 23-191-GHz data from operational weather satellites such as NOAA-15, -16, and -17. The global extension and calibration of these methods are subjects for future research. The precipitation-rate estimation method presented is based on the opaque-channel approach described by Staelin and Chen (2000), but it utilizes more channels (17) and training data and infers 54-GHz band radiance perturbations at 15-km resolution. The dynamic range now reaches 100 mm/h. The method utilizes neural networks trained using the National Weather Service's Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) precipitation estimates for 38 coincident rainy orbits of NOAA-15 AMSU data obtained over the eastern United States and coastal waters during a full year. The rms discrepancies between AMSU and NEXRAD were evaluated for the following NEXRAD rain-rate categories: 32 mm/h. The rms discrepancies for the 3790 15-km pixels not used to train the estimator were 1.0, 2.0, 2.3, 2.7, 3.5, 6.9, 19.0, and 42.9 mm/h, respectively. The 50-km retrievals were computed by spatially filtering the 15-km retrievals. The rms discrepancies over the same categories for all 4709 50-km pixels flagged as potentially precipitating were 0.5, 0.9, 1.1, 1.8, 3.2, 6.6, 12.9, and 22.1 mm/h, respectively. Representative images of precipitation for tropical, mid-latitude, and snow conditions suggest the method's potential global applicability.
Discernment counseling for "mixed-agenda" couples

This article describes discernment counseling, an approach to working with couples where one partner is leaning toward divorce and the other wants to preserve the relationship and work on it in couples therapy. These "mixed-agenda" couples are common in clinical practice but have been neglected in the literature. The goal of discernment counseling is clarity and confidence regarding the next steps for the relationship, based on a deeper understanding of each partner's contributions. Sessions emphasize individual conversations with each partner. An analysis of 100 consecutive cases found that about half of the couples chose to start couples therapy in order to reconcile, with most of the rest choosing the divorce path. Longer term follow-up information is also presented.
Understanding emotions as situated, embodied, and fissured: thinking with theory to create an analytical tool

An emerging theoretical perspective is that emotions are a verb or something we do in relation to others. Studies that demonstrate ways to analyze emotions from a performative stance are scarce. In this article, a new analytical tool is introduced; a critical performative analysis of emotion (CPAE) that draws upon three theoretical perspectives: emotions as situated, as embodied, and as fissured. These three theoretical perspectives (i.e. critical sociocultural, narrative, and rhizomatic) allow researchers to think with theory. Data from teaching children with a critical inquiry curriculum demonstrates a CPAE. Educators are encouraged to continue to embrace the malleability of theories, to push educational research forward by finding new ways to research inquiries, and to adapt CPAE for further research interests.
Cyclic AMP Receptor Protein-Dependent Repression of Heat-Labile Enterotoxin

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is a major cause of acute diarrheal illness worldwide and is responsible for high infant and child mortality rates in developing nations. Two types of enterotoxins, one heat labile and the other heat stable, are known to cause diarrhea. The expression of soluble heat-labile toxin is subject to catabolite (glucose) activation, and three binding sites for cAMP receptor protein (CRP or CAP) were identified upstream and within the toxin promoter by DNase I footprinting. One CRP operator is centered at -31.5, thus encompassing the promoter's -35 hexamer. Potassium permanganate footprinting revealed that the occupancy of this operator prevents RNA polymerase from forming an open complex in vitro. However, the operator centered at -31.5 is not sufficient for full repression in vivo because the deletion of the other two CRP binding sites partially relieved the CRP-dependent repression of the heat-labile toxin promoter. In contrast to heat-labile toxin, CRP positively regulates the expression of heat-stable toxin. Thus, the conditions for the optimal expression of one enterotoxin limit the expression of the other. Since glucose inhibits the activity of CRP by suppressing the pathogen's synthesis of cyclic AMP (cAMP), the concentration of glucose in the lumen of the small intestine may determine which enterotoxin is maximally expressed. In addition, our results suggest that the host may also modulate enterotoxin expression because cells intoxicated with heat-labile toxin overproduce and release cAMP.
Injectable bioadhesive hydrogels with innate antibacterial properties

Bioadhesives are materials frequently used as surgical sealants, though to date, these typically possess limited antibacterial properties. Here, the authors present a novel injectable and antibacterial bioadhesive hydrogel and demonstrate its performance in vivo.
Louis A. Zurcher, Jr.: An Intellectual Portrait of an Applied Behavioral Scientist

Acting Co-Editor of The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science Gideon Sjoberg assesses the accomplishments of Louis A. Zurcher, Jr., who was editor of JABS from 1979 until his death in December 1988.A colleague and friend of Zurcher's, Sjoberg critically evaluates Zurcher's scholarly writings, work asJABS editor, and role in academia. Despite any flaws in the development of Zurcher's ideas, Sjoberg considers them valuable for scholars seeking to grasp issues at the core of understanding human existence, particularly those related to social role theory and moral dimensions of the self. He also believes that Zurcher's activities as a journal editor and academic-and the way he lived his life-provide valuable lessons for nearly all of us.
An Alternative Metaphor in the Study of Judgment and Choice: People as Politicians:

Researchers who study judgment and choice have assumed it is useful to think of people as either intuitive psychologists or economists who strive either to understand the people around them or to m...
Bounds on the Coupling of the Majoron to Light Neutrinos from Supernova Cooling

We explore the role of Majoron (J) emission in the supernova cooling process, as a source of upper bound on the neutrino-Majoron coupling. We show that the strongest upper bound on the coupling to {nu}{sub 3} comes from the {nu}{sub e}{nu}{sub e} {yields} J process in the core of a supernova. We also find bounds on diagonal couplings of the Majoron to {nu}{sub {mu}({tau})}{nu}{sub {mu}({tau})} and on off-diagonal {nu}{sub e}{nu}{sub {mu}({tau})} couplings in various regions of the parameter space. We discuss the evaluation of cross-section for four-particle interactions ({nu}{nu} {yields} JJ and {nu}J {yields} {nu}J). We show that these are typically dominated by three-particle sub-processes and do not give new independent constraints.
Managing vulnerabilities of information systems to security incidents

Information security-conscious managers of organizations have the responsibility to advise their senior management of the level of risks faced by the information systems. This requires managers to conduct vulnerability assessment as the first step of a risk analysis approach. However, a lack of real world data classification of security threats and develops a three-axis view of the threat space. It develops a scheme for probabilistic evaluation of impact of the security threats and proposes a risk management system consisting of a five-step approach. The goal is to assess the expected damages due to attacks, and managing the risk of attacks.
Avoidance conditioning in mice as a function of their mothers' exposure to shock.

Inbred female mice received treatment either prior to mating or following birth of offspring. When treatment was administered, females were either not handled or received 0, 5, 15, or 30 shocks per day. When the adult avoidance conditioning performance of the offspring was analyzed an interaction was found between the sex of the offspring, the frequency of maternal shock, and the developmental period during which shock was administered. Maternal treatment had a more coherent and pronounced effect on female offspring than on their male littermates. The functional relationship between frequency of maternal shock and offspring avoidance was consistently nonmonotonic; its direction was highly dependent upon the period of life during which the mother encountered the shock.
Influence of Black Coatings on Pyroelectric Detectors

The extent to which the thermal capacitance and resistance of a black coating on a pyroelectric detector offset the gain in optical absorptance is investigated. A black paint is shown to be of little value, but a coating of gold-black may increase the detector responsivity for modulation frequencies up to at least several kilohertz. When a coated pyroelectric detector is calibrated electrically, a correction is necessary for the thermal impedance of the black. For gold-blacks of superficial density 2 g m(-2), this correction is shown to be less than 2% for frequencies within the 0-100-Hz range.
Financial Crisis and Volatility Behaviour of Stock Markets of Asia

The study examines the impact of Global Financial Crisis of 2007 onwards on volatility behavior of Asian stock markets using GARCH and TARCH models. The study uses daily closing price data of stock arkets of India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Korea. The results reveal that the Asian stock markets exhibit the persistence of volatility, mean reverting behavior and volatility clustering. The results of GARCH (1,1) and TARCH with dummy variable in variance equation suggest that the recent financial crisis has increased volatility and leverage effect in the Asian stock markets except Korea which seems to be insulated from the crisis.
Workload Pressures of Principals: A Focus on Renewal, Support, and Mindfulness.

This study is designed to understand how principals perceive the common stressors associated with leading an educational enterprise and propose strategies for relief from job-related stressors. As ...
Web-based outreach for orchard management decision-makers

Abstract The traditional role of extension has been to provide the bridge between research-generated knowledge and technology to stakeholders through instruction, practical demonstrations, and developing applications of existing, improved or novel practices and technology. However, the number of educators and extension specialists has been decreasing and their roles changing, while stakeholder groups have become more dependent on timely information to cope with rapid changes in management programs. These circumstances necessitate a change in the way information delivery occurs. A key component of the outreach objective in this project was to develop web-based tools to speed the dissemination of research information to decision-makers. Web-based outreach is intended to supplement, but not replace, extension personnel. Hands-on training and direct interaction with the stakeholders is still necessary to insure that relevant information is not just delivered but understood. Here we discuss how our web-based outreach integrates with traditional training as well as other digital information sources available into the future.
Productive hours by direct-care providers is the best measure of nurse staffing in relation to patient outcomes

Commentary on: Park SH, Blegen MA, Spetz J, et al. Comparison of nurse staffing measurements in staffing-outcomes research. Med Care 2015;53:e1–8.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3] A growing body of evidence indicates that nurse staffing is positively related to patient outcomes. However, the evidence is not consistent across quality indicators.2 , … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DMed%2BCare%26rft.volume%253D53%26rft.spage%253De1%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1097%252FMLR.0b013e318277eb50%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F23222530%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1097/MLR.0b013e318277eb50&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=23222530&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febnurs%2F19%2F1%2F22.atom
Norepinephrine Depletion as a Possible Mechanism of Action of Guanethidine a New Hypotensive Agent

SummaryGuanethidine (Su-5864), a new hypotensive agent, depletes the norepinephrine level in the heart of rabbits and cats. It is suggested that guanethidine lowers blood pressure by producing chemical sympathectomy through depletion of norepinephrine from peripheral nerve endings.
Dual Modality Activity Based Probes as Molecular Imaging Agents for Vascular Inflammation

Macrophages are cellular mediators of vascular inflammation and are involved in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. These immune cells secrete proteases such as matrix metalloproteinases and cathepsins that contribute to disease formation and progression. Here, we demonstrate that activity-based probes (ABPs) targeting cysteine cathepsins can be used in murine models of atherosclerosis to noninvasively image activated macrophage populations using both optical and PET/CT methods. The probes can also be used to topically label human carotid plaques demonstrating similar specific labeling of activated macrophage populations. Methods: Macrophage-rich carotid lesions were induced in FVB mice fed on a high-fat diet by streptozotocin injection followed by ligation of the left common carotid artery. Mice with carotid atherosclerotic plaques were injected with the optical or dual-modality probes BMV109 and BMV101, respectively, via the tail vein and noninvasively imaged by optical and small-animal PET/CT at different time points. After noninvasive imaging, the murine carotid arteries were imaged in situ and ex vivo, followed by immunofluorescence staining to confirm target labeling. Additionally, human carotid plaques were topically labeled with the probe and analyzed by both sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunofluorescence staining to confirm the primary targets of the probe. Results: Quantitative analysis of the signal intensity from both optical and PET/CT imaging showed significantly higher levels of accumulation of BMV109 and BMV101 (P
Toupin’s Variational Principle for the Classical Theory

The classical equations of equilibrium of elastic dielectrics may be derived in an illuminating form by means of a variational principle due to Toupin [5]. A linear version of the variational principle is described in this section.
Development of Conductivity Method as an Alternative to Titration for Hydrolytic Resistance Testing used for Evaluation of Glass Vials Used in Pharmaceutical Industry

The European Pharmacopeia (Ph. Eur.) surface test to analyze the hydrolytic resistance is a common industrial method to understand and ensure the quality of produced glass vials. Hydrolytic resistance is evaluated by calculating the alkalinity of water extract from autoclaved vials by titration. As an alternative to this titration technique, a conductivity technique was assessed, which directly measures the ions in the water extract. A conductivity meter with 12 mm diameter electrode was calibrated with 100 μS/cm conductivity standard and carryover minimized by rinsing the probe in a water beaker per analysis. Limit of quantification at 1 μS/cm was determined as having a signal to noise ratio of 3 compared with the water blank. The conductivity method was selective for glass composing elements (boron, sodium, aluminum, silicon, potassium, and calcium) within the vial extract. Accuracies of spiked conductivity standard within the range of 1 to 100 μS/cm were ± 7% and had linearity with coefficient of determination (R2) of ≥ 0.9999. Intraday precision had RSD (n=5) of ≤ 6% for spiked conductivity standard within the range of 1 to 100 μS/cm. Interday precision had RSD (n=4) of ≤ 6% for ten vials from three glass vial lots. Conductivity of water extracts from nine sets of seven lots of glass vials had a precise linear relationship [R2 = 0.9876, RSD = 1% (n=9)] with titration volumes of the same lots. Conductivity results in μS/cm could be converted to titration values in mL by conversion factor of 0.0275. The simplicity, sample stability, and individual vial analysis of the conductivity technique were advantageous than the current titration technique.
Influence of a School-Based Cooking Course on Students’ Food Preferences, Cooking Skills, and Confidence

A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the influence of Project CHEF, a hands-on cooking and tasting program offered in Vancouver public schools, on students’ food preferences, cooking skills, and confidence. Grade 4 and 5 students in an intervention group (n = 68) and a comparison group (n = 32) completed a survey at baseline and 2 to 3 weeks later. Students who participated in Project CHEF reported an increased familiarity and preference for the foods introduced through the program. This was statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) for broccoli, swiss chard, carrots, and quinoa. A higher percentage of students exposed to Project CHEF reported a statistically significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in: cutting vegetables and fruit (97% vs 81%), measuring ingredients (67% vs 44%), using a knife (94% vs 82%), and making a balanced meal on their own (69% vs 34%). They also reported a statistically significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in confidence making the recipes introduced in the program: fruit salad (85% ...
Vulnerability-Aware Energy Optimization Using Reconfigurable Caches in Multicore Systems

Dynamic cache reconfiguration has been widely explored for energy optimization and performance improvement for single-core systems. Cache partitioning techniques are introduced for the shared cache in multicore systems to alleviate inter-core interference. While these techniques focus only on performance and energy, they ignore vulnerability due to soft errors. In this paper, we present a static profiling based algorithm to enable vulnerability-aware energy-optimization for real-time multicore systems. Our approach can efficiently search the space of cache configurations and partitioning schemes for energy optimization while task deadlines and vulnerability constraints are satisfied. Our experimental results demonstrate that our approach can achieve 19.2% average energy savings compared with the base configuration, while drastically reduce the vulnerability (49.3% on average) compared to state-of-the-art techniques.
POI360: Panoramic Mobile Video Telephony over LTE Cellular Networks

Panoramic or 360° video streaming has been supported by a wide range of content providers and mobile devices. Yet existing work primarily focused on streaming on-demand 360° videos stored on servers. In this paper, we examine a more challenging problem: Can we stream real-time interactive 360° videos across existing LTE cellular networks, so as to trigger new applications such as ubiquitous 360° video chat and panoramic outdoor experience sharing? To explore the feasibility and challenges underlying this vision, we design POI360, a portable interactive 360° video telephony system that jointly investigates both panoramic video compression and responsive video stream rate control. For the challenge that the legacy spatial compression algorithms for 360° video suffer from severe quality fluctuations as the user changes her region-of-interest (ROI), we design an adaptive compression scheme, which dynamically adjusts the compression strategy to stabilize the video quality within ROI under various user input and network condition. In addition, to meet the responsiveness requirement of panoramic video telephony, we leverage the diagnostic statistics on commodity phones to promptly detect cellular link congestion, hence significantly boosting the rate control responsiveness. Extensive field tests for our real-time POI360 prototype validate its effectiveness in enabling panoramic video telephony over the highly dynamic cellular networks.
Estimating the effects of friends on health behaviors of adolescents

This paper estimates the effects of friends' smoking and drinking on own behavior while controlling for correlated unobservables between friends. The effect of friends' behaviors is identified by comparing similar individuals who have similar friendship opportunities and make similar friendship choices, exploiting the idea that friendship choice reveals information about unobservables. We combine this identification strategy with an across-cohort within school design so that identification arises in our reduced form estimates from across-grade differences in the clustering of health behaviors. Finally, we use estimated information on correlated unobservables to examine longitudinal data on the onset of health behaviors, where the likelihood of reverse causality should be minimal. We find evidence that this strategy produces somewhat smaller (no more than 16% smaller) friendship effect estimates than the more standard school fixed effect models consistent with at most modest bias from correlated unobservables.
Modeling Blast and High-Velocity Impact of Composite Sandwich Panels

Analytical models for predicting the deformation and failure of composite sandwich panels subjected to blast and projectile impact loading are presented in this paper. The analytical predictions of the transient deformations and damage initiation in the composite sandwich panels were compared with finite element solutions using ABAQUS Explicit. For the blast model, the predicted transient deformation of the sandwich panel was within 7%of FEA results, while the predicted damage initiation using Hashin's composite failure criteria was about 15%higher than FEA results in most cases. For the high velocity impact model, the predicted transient deformations were within 20%of FEA results.
Lung ultrasound for diagnosis of neonatal atelectasis

Objective The diagnosis of neonatal atelectasis (NA) is usually based on clinical manifestations and chest X-rays, lung ultrasounds are not included in the diagnostic work-up of NA.Recently, ultrasounds have been used extensively and successfully in the diagnosis of many kinds of lung diseases, but few studies have addressed NA.The aim of this study was to evaluate the ultrasound imaging features of NA-and to evaluate the value of lung ultrasound in diagnosing NA. Method From May, 2012 to June, 2013, 40 newborn infants with NA and another 40 neonates without lung disease were enrolled into this study.Lung ultrasound was performed at the bedside by a single expert physician.In a quiet state, the infants were positioned in supine, side or prone postures.The lung field was divided into three areas by the anterior axilary and posterior axilary line.The regions of the bilateral lungs were scaned by the probe which was vertical or parallel with the ribs, then compared the results with conventional chest X-ray findings. Result (1)The main ultrasound imaging features of neonatal NA include lung consolidation with air bronchograms, pleural line abnormalities and A-line disappearance.Besides, lung pulse and lung sliding disappearance could be seen by real-time ultrasound.(2) The sensitivity of lung ultrasound for diagnosis of NA was 100%, while it was only 70% for conventional chest X-rays. Conclusion Use of ultrasound to diagnose NA is accurate and reliable, the sensitivity was superior to that of conventional chest X-ray examination, which also has many other advantages including easy-operating, non-ionizing, can be performed at the bedside, therefore, ultrasonic can provide important value for clinicians. Key words: Lung ultrasound; Atelectasis; Infants, newborn
Melquitas y musulmanes: el Corán, cristología y ortodoxia árabe

The earliest Chalcedonian writers to take notice of the religious ideas of the invading Arabs at the time of the Islamic conquest of the Middle East already highlighted what they viewed as wrong or confused notions about Christ on the part of the invaders. Then in the mid-eighth century, Arabic-speaking Chalcedonians in Syria/Palestine, whose adversaries would soon be calling them ‘Melkites’, were quoting the Qur’ān with a view to exploiting the probative potential of its language for apologetic purposes, especially in Christology. This article traces the continued focus on Christology and the Qur’ān in the development of Chalcedonian theology in Arabic in the works of the major writers in the early ‘Melkite’ tradition, suggesting that the ‘Melkite’ community’s engagement with the religious challenge of Islam over time issued in the emergence of a recognizeable Arab Christian Orthodoxy, which the term ‘Melkite’ came to designate.
Active Control for Vibration Damping

Active control laws are developed for an LSS-type structure to damp vibrations. High frequency modelling uncertainties lead to the necessity for a robust control design. The Linear Quadratic Gaussian with Loop Transfer Recovery (LQG/LTR) control design technique is a particular robust design technique selected for use in designing a damping control system. A summary of LQG/LTR is given and numerical example using a two bay truss is presented.
The End of Corporate Law

This article examines how corporate law, specifically the rules applicable to the allocation of power among directors, executives, and shareholders, has become ineffective as a means of regulating corporate power. I argue that in the course of the twentieth century corporate law has been used first to legitimate corporate power and then to exempt those exercising it from liability. The article focuses on jurists’ responses to the growth of the publicly held corporation in the early twentieth century, their midcentury attempts to create corporate democracy, and their ultimate turn to markets as the means of regulating corporate power.
Two decades of polar ozone research via airborne science investigations: Addressing a NASA mandate in atmospheric composition

Abstract The comprehensive investigation of polar ozone photochemistry and dynamics has required data obtained from as full a complement of available platforms as possible (ground-based, balloon, aircraft, and satellites). Perhaps the most detailed process studies have been conducted using measurements from aircraft, taking advantage of their targeting capabilities coupled with the potential for enabling measurements at high spatial and temporal resolution. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first airborne science investigation of polar ozone in an effort to establish the causes of the recurring seasonal depletion of the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer over Antarctica that was identified in the mid-1980s. Subsequent airborne studies in the polar regions of both hemispheres benefitted from extensive successful collaborations among international scientists and the integration of the aircraft measurements with those obtained using ground-based, balloon-borne, and satellite instruments. This article provides an historical perspective of NASA's utilization of its airborne assets to advance our understanding of the chemical and physical processes that control the abundance of stratospheric ozone in both the Antarctic and Arctic.
Structure-function of the cytochrome b6f lipoprotein complex: a scientific odyssey and personal perspective.

Structure–function studies of the cytochrome b6f complex, the central hetero-oligomeric membrane protein complex in the electron transport chain of oxygenic photosynthesis, which formed the basis for a high-resolution (2.5 A) crystallographic solution of the complex, are described. Structure–function differences between the structure of subunits of the bc complexes, b6f, and bc1 from mitochondria and photosynthetic bacteria, which are often assumed to function identically, are discussed. Major differences which suggest that quinone-dependent electron transport pathways can vary in b6f and bc1 complexes are as follows: (a) an additional c-type heme, cn, and bound single copies of chlorophyll a and β-carotene in the b6f complex; and (b) a cyclic electron transport pathway that encompasses the b6f and PSI reaction center complexes. The importance of including lipid in crystallization of the cytochrome complex, or with any hetero-oligomeric membrane protein complex, is emphasized, and consequences to structure–function of b6f being a lipoprotein complex discussed, including intra-protein dielectric heterogeneity and resultant pathways of trans-membrane electron transport. The role of the b6f complex in trans-membrane signal transduction from reductant generated on the p-side of the electron transport chain to the regulation of light energy to the two photosystems by trans-side phosphorylation of the light-harvesting chlorophyll protein is presented. Regarding structure aspects relevant to plastoquinol-quinone entrance-egress: (i) modification of the p-side channel for plastoquinone access to the iron-sulfur protein would change the rate-limiting step in electron transport; (ii) the narrow niche for entry of plastoquinol into b6f from the PSII reaction center complex would seem to require close proximity between the complexes.
VERB: VFCDM-Based Electrocardiogram Reconstruction and Beat Detection Algorithm

We have developed a novel method to accurately detect QRS complex peaks using the variable frequency complex demodulation (VFCDM) method. The approach's novelty stems from reconstructing an ECG signal using only the frequency components associated with the QRS waveforms by VFCDM decomposition. After signal reconstruction, both top and bottom sides of the signal are used for peak detection, after which we compare locations of the peaks detected from both sides to ensure false peaks are minimized. Finally, we impose position-dependent adaptive thresholds to remove any remaining false peaks from the prior step. We applied the proposed method to the widely benchmarked MIT-BIH arrhythmia dataset, and obtained among the best results compared to many of the recently published methods. Our approach resulted in 99.94% sensitivity, 99.95% positive predictive value and a 0.11% detection error rate. Three other datasets-the MIMIC III database, University of Massachusetts atrial fibrillation data, and SCUBA diving in salt water ECG data-were used to further test the robustness of our proposed algorithm. For all these three datasets, our method retained consistently higher accuracy when compared to the BioSig Matlab toolbox, which is publicly available and known to be reliable for ECG peak detection.