cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Platform based design of technical aids for independent living

Assistive technology (AT) market is soaring. Substantial outlay of small and medium enterprises to develop new products is often unbearable because of low recurrent costs return due to lack of scale economies. Most of assistive devices answer to a rather general architectural scheme and use standard consumer electronics. This suggested the design and implementation of a development platform for assistive devices, which makes possible to automate and speed up some steps of the project flow and obtain a cost effective final product complete emulator.
A Survey of Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program Directors and the Increasing Demands of Program Leadership

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify trends and opinions with respect to leadership turnover, leadership responsibilities, and residency requirements. Methods Program directors (PDs) of diagnostic radiology (DR) residency programs were identified via the ACGME and the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database, along with a programmatic website search. A web-based survey was e-mailed, with questions concerning lengths of time the current and prior PDs held their positions, residency size, amounts of time spent on and lengths of current and past Program Information Forms, and opinions on how the position has changed and how metrics, outcomes, and documentation may be affecting teaching, resident education, and patient care. Results Thirty-two percent (60 of 186) of US DR residency PDs answered at least 1 of the survey questions. The average length of time the current PDs held their positions was shorter compared with the previous PDs, and it has taken longer and required more pages to complete the current Program Information Forms compared with prior cycles. The majority of respondents felt that the job of PD was harder than 5 years ago and that turnover among PDs is a "current/impending" problem. The majority of respondents felt that time spent on metrics, outcomes, and documentation is taking away from teaching, learning, and taking care of patients. Conclusions Many DR residency PDs have recognized increased administrative burdens in recent years. Some feel that these increased demands may in part have negative effects on resident education and patient care.
Getting Out of Harm's Way One-Year Outcomes for Abused Women in a Vietnamese Immigrant Enclave

The study identifies predictors of women's remaining entangled in abusive relationships. The sample includes 57 women in one Vietnamese American enclave. Women's beliefs in maintaining an intact family, patriarchal decision making, and fear of their partners characterized women remaining. To a lesser extent, seeking help from a variety of places characterized women who escaped, and concern with achieving important goals, number of children, financial dependence, lack of support, and legal marriage characterized women who remained. Discussion centers on how social and legal services can meet the unique needs of women with circumstances similar to those who participated in the study.
Design and implementation of an H ∞ controller for a quadrotor helicopter

In this paper, we present a six degree of freedom model of a quadrotor helicopter, onboard electronics, and a networked control system. We follow this with a procedure for designing robust control for quasi hover conditions using Glover-McFarlane loop shaping. The model is presented symbolically as well as numerically for the specific system used in our experiments. In our control design procedure we take steps to minimize potential difficulties of MIMO loop shaping, while still producing effective linear control which is robust to a class of generic uncertainty. Finally, we present both simulation and experimental implementation results and find them in agreement.
Two adaptive location policies for global scheduling algorithms

Two location policies that, by adapting to the system load, capture the advantages of receiver-initiated, sender-initiated, and symmetrically initiated algorithms are presented. A key feature of these location policies is that they are general and can be used in conjunction with a broad range of existing transfer policies. By means of simulation, two representative algorithms making use of these adaptive location policies are shown to be stable and to improve performance significantly relative to nonadaptive policies. >
Bestimmung von Zuckern und verwandten Stoffen an Glasfaserpapier

Reduzierende Zucker, Uronsauren und ahnliche Verbindungen konnen einfach und schnell auf dem zur Chromatographie verwendeten Glasfaserpapier mit Dichromat (Nasverbrennung) quantitativ titrimetrisch bestimmt werden.
Enhancing software engineering education using teaching aids in 3-D online virtual worlds

Three-dimensional online virtual worlds such as second life support avatar-based communications, a wide spectrum of online activities, and development of various in-world teaching and learning tools. We have experimented with second life in two computer science classes, one at Ohio University, the other at the University of Mary Washington, to enhance software engineering education. We used Second Life as an innovative collaboration and communication tool both in and outside classroom to help facilitate teamwork and interactions among student project team members. Second Life was also used as the virtual office for instructors and teaching assistants to answer students' questions during office hours. In addition, we developed two multi-player online software engineering educational games in second life, one based on the Groupthink software specification exercise developed at M.I.T., and the other based on the SimSE game (a 2-D single player game) developed at UC Irvine. By playing these two games, students learned fundamentals of software specification activities and principles of software development processes. In the paper, we will share our experience of using second life in two software engineering classes, and discuss its pros and cons based on the data collected from student surveys.
Dynamic power optimization of interactive systems

Power has become a major concern for mobile computing systems such as laptops and handholds, on which a significant fraction of software usage is interactive instead of computation-intensive. An analysis shows that over 90% of system energy and time is spent waiting for user input. Such idle periods provide vast opportunities for dynamic power management (DPM) and voltage scaling (DVS) techniques to reduce system energy. The user interface is in charge of system-user interaction. It often has a priori knowledge about how the user and system interact at a given moment. In this work, we propose to utilize such a priori knowledge and theories from the field of Psychology to predict user delays. We show that such delay predictions can be combined with DPM/DVS for aggressive power optimization. We verify the effectiveness of our methodologies using usage traces collected on a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a system power model based on accurate measurements. Experiments show that using predicted user delays for DPM/DVS achieves an average of 21.9% system energy reduction with little sacrifice in user productivity or satisfaction.
Crowd simulation for emergency response using BDI agent based on virtual reality

This paper presents a novel VR (Virtual Reality) trained BDI (belief, desire, intention) software agent used to construct crowd simulations for emergency response. The BDI framework allows modeling of human behavior with a high degree of fidelity. The proposed simulation has been developed using AnyLogic software to mimic crowd evacuation from an area under a terrorist bomb attack. The attributes that govern the BDI characteristics of the agent are studied by conducting human in the loop experiments in VR using the CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). To enhance generality and interoperability of the proposed crowd simulation modeling scheme, input data models have been developed to define environment attributes. Experiments are also conducted to demonstrate the effect of various parameters on key performance indicators such as crowd evacuation rate and densities.
Rheumatic manifestations of Campylobacter jejuni and C. fetus infections in adults.

Reports of the rheumatic manifestations of Campylobacter jejuni and C. fetus infections in adults are reviewed in order to determine the most common presentations and which individuals are at risk for rheumatic disease. Relevant English-language articles were identified through a Medline search and from bibliographies of identified articles. 105 articles were reviewed in detail. 29 cases of reactive arthritis or Reiter's syndrome following Campylobacter jejuni enteritis were identified. The knee is the most commonly involved joint and an average of 3.2 joints were involved in affected persons. HL-A B27 positive patients are more frequently affected and have higher erythrocyte sedimentation rates than HLA B27 negative patients. Eight cases of septic arthritis and 4 cases of osteomyelitis caused by C. fetus or C. jejuni were identified, and these cases generally occurred in compromised hosts or in diseased joints.
Alumina agglomerate effects on toughness-curve behavior of alumina-mullite composites

Toughness-curve (T-curve) behavior of composites of spherical, polycrystalline, coarse-grained, alumina agglomerates dispersed throughout a constant-toughness, fine-grained, 50–50 vol% alumina–mullite matrix has been evaluated as a function of agglomerate content for the range 15 to 45 vol%. T-curve behavior was evaluated using the indentation-strength method. Increasing alumina agglomerate content resulted in a progressive increase of large indentation load strengths with negligible change of plateau strength levels at small indentation loads. This behavior is consistent with underlying T-curves that rise to greater values and are shifted toward longer crack lengths with increasing agglomerate content, suggesting that both bridge spacing and bridge potency increase with increasing agglomerate content over the range tested. The proposed relationships between bridge spacing and agglomerate content, and bridge potency and agglomerate content, are rationalized in terms of residual stress considerations. The indentation-strength data also demonstrated that the composite containing the greatest alumina agglomerate content, 45 vol%, exhibited the greatest flaw tolerance.
Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design

a b s t r a c t In this article we explore the issues that surround within-subject and between-subject designs. We describe experiments in economics and in psychology that make comparisons using either of these designs (or both) that sometimes yield the same results and some- times do not. The overall goal is to establish a framework for understanding which critical questions need to be asked about such experimental studies, what authors of such studies can do to ameliorate fears of confoundedness, and which scenarios are particularly suscep- tible to divergent results from the two approaches. Overall, we find that both designs have their merits, and the choice of designs should be carefully considered in the context of the question being studied and in terms of the practical implementation of the research study. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Absorption and attenuation of visible and near-infrared light in water: dependence on temperature and salinity

We have measured the absorption coefficient of pure and salt water at 15 wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum using WETLabs nine-wavelength absorption and attenuation meters and a three-wavelength absorption meter. The water temperature was varied between 15 and 30 degrees C, and the salinity was varied between 0 and 38 PSU to study the effects of these parameters on the absorption coefficient of liquid water. In the near-infrared portion of the spectrum the absorption coefficient of water was confirmed to be highly dependent on temperature. In the visible region the temperature dependence was found to be less than 0.001 m-1 degrees C except for a small region around 610 nm. The same results were found for the temperature dependence of a saltwater solution. After accounting for index-of-refraction effects, the salinity dependence at visible wavelengths is negligible. Salinity does appear to be important in determining the absorption coefficient of water in the near-infrared region. At 715 nm, for example, the salinity dependence was -0.00027 m-1 /PSU. Field measurements support the temperature and salinity dependencies found in the laboratory both in the near infrared and at shorter wavelengths. To make estimates of the temperature dependence in wavelength regions for which we did not make measurements we used a series of Gaussian curves that were fit to the absorption spectrum in the visible region of the spectrum. The spectral dependence on temperature was then estimated based on multiplying the Gaussians by a fitting factor.
Fault-tolerant synthesis using non-uniform redundancy

As process technologies continue to scale into the nanometer regime, devices are becoming significantly more unreliable. Many forms of unreliability manifest as transient faults and can cause intermittent random logic upsets. These logic upsets are often caused by natural radiation (neutrons and alpha particles) or on-chip noise (cross-coupling, supply drop, or flicker noise). This research improves reliability by using non-uniform redundancy. Specifically, we present a dynamic programming algorithm that considers many possible topological redundancies, yet maintains a linear run-time due to efficient pruning of suboptimal solutions. Our algorithm provides designers with a Pareto-optimal set of solutions that trade reliability for area. Compared to existing Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR), we see similar reliability with only 35% area overhead instead of 326%.
Preclinical testing of lenalidomide as anti-amyloid treatment for Alzheimer's disease

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by deposition of Ab plaques and neuroinflammation leading to neuronal loss. Ab is generated by enzymatic cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by b and g secretase enzymes. APP is also processed by non-amyloidogenic6 -secretase, which precludes Ab production. We have previously demonstrated that some cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) alter APP processing (Lahiri et al., JPET, 2007). In this context, we report that rivastigmine, a ChEI used for mild-moderate AD also modulates APP processing in neuron culture, animal model and human subjects.Methods:We have treated primary human neurons with 100nM, 1 mM and 10 mM rivastigmine6 TAPI 2 for 4 days. APP transgenic mice were treated with rivastigmine for three weeks and postmortem brain bank tissues of AD patients who received only rivastigmine, non-medicated AD patients, and non AD controls were also analyzed Results: Analyses of conditioned media (CM) samples from neuron culture showed a significant dose-dependent increase in levels of sAPP 6 with rivastigmine treatments versus vehicle-treated samples. Furthermore, both Ab (1-40) and (1-42) species and sAPPb were significantly decreased by rivastigmine treatments. Analyses of intracellular proteins revealed a significant increase in levels of intracellular ADAM10, which is an6 -secreatse by all the doses of rivastigmine versus controls. We also observed increased sAPP6 and decreased soluble Ab in the brains of Tg mice treated with rivastigmine versus controls. Analyses of postmortem brain samples revealed an increasing trend in the levels of brain sAPP6 in subjects who had received rivastigmine versus non-medicated subjects. Ab (1-42) was also significantly decreased in the brain of rivastigmine-treated patientsConclusions: Increase sAPP6 , decreased sAPPb and Ab peptides by rivastigmine treatments indicate a shift in APP processing towards the6 -secreatse pathway, which was blocked by co-treatment of a non-selective ADAM inhibitor, TAPI2. This effect of rivastigmine was translated to animal model as well as in human subjects. Taken together, these results suggest that rivastigmine promotes the 6 -secretase pathway by up-regulating or preserving ADAM10. Rivastigmine’s dual functions, anticholinesterase and Ab lowering properties, warrant further investigation in larger clinical settings.
Multiattribute evaluation reference effects: A reply to Barron and John

In a recent paper, Yates and Jagacinski (1979) presented evidence for what was referred to as a "reference effect" in the process by which people evaluate multiattribute alternatives. Barton and John (1980) argue that it is inappropriate to characterize the observed phenomenon as a reference effect. We wish to take this opportunity to clarify what the issues are and what the data and analyses of Yates and Jagacinski and Barron and John really have to say about those issues.
A wafer-scale membrane transfer Process for the fabrication of optical quality, large continuous membranes

This paper describes a new fabrication technique developed for the construction of large area mirror membranes via the transfer of wafer-scale continuous membranes from one substrate to another. Using this technique, wafer-scale silicon mirror membranes have been successfully transferred without the use of sacrificial layers such as adhesives or polymers. This transfer technique has also been applied to the fabrication and transfer of 1 /spl mu/m thick corrugated membrane actuators. These membrane actuators consist of several concentric-ring-type corrugations constructed within a polysilicon membrane. A typical polysilicon actuator membrane with an electrode gap of 1.5 /spl mu/m, fabricated using the wafer-scale transfer technique, shows a vertical deflection of 0.4 /spl mu/m at 55 V. The mirror membranes are constructed from single-crystal silicon, 10 cm in diameter, and have been successfully transferred in their entirety. Using a white-light interferometer, the measured average peak-to-valley surface figure error for the transferred single-crystal silicon mirror membranes is approximately 9 nm as measured over a 1 mm/sup 2/ membrane area. The wafer-scale membrane transfer technique demonstrated in this paper has the following benefits over previously reported transfer techniques: 1) No postassembly release process to remove sacrificial polymers is required. 2) The bonded interface is completely isolated from any acid, etchant, or solvent during the transfer process, ensuring a clean and uniform membrane surface. 3) Our technique is capable of transferring large, continuous membranes onto substrates.
Coding with power: Toward a rhetoric of computer coding and composition

Abstract This article explores the connection between computer programming (coding) and traditional composition. It first looks at how a discussion about adopting the open source community's copyleft publishing model suggests a deeper parallel between coding and composition than has been previously acknowledged. By repositioning the rhetorical triangle as a coding triangle, the article argues that the act of writing programs for a machine informs the process of constructing an audience, in traditional composition. To better inform the act of how a traditional writer invokes an audience, the article summarizes how Walter J. Ong has characterized this process. The article then examines how Claudia Herbst's portrayal of the cultural power of computer code raises questions as to how computer users similarly invoke an author. It also briefly considers how computer programming texts have characterized coding as an act of writing. Next the parallels between coding and composition and their treatment thus far in composition literature and new media theory are considered. The article considers Alfred Kern's work in employing BASIC programming to teach grammar and composition and then offers suggestions for thinking of new ways that a knowledge of coding can inform the teaching of writing. This article concludes with guidelines for writing teachers who wish to incorporate computer coding into their curriculum.
Character size and reading to remember from small displays

An under-addressed question regarding the usage of small devices is how information gathering from such devices is limited or changed relative to a full-size display? This study explores how factual recall from a text interacts with display size and other text characteristics. In this experiment, participants read several expository texts on either small or normal size displays, and font size was also manipulated within participants. Results indicate that while users are able to accurately diagnose different character sizes, character size does significantly interact with display size to affect remembering. Those character sizes that increased the amount of scrolling on the small device screen produced lower levels of factual recall than typesets that better condensed textual information. These results provide several interesting suggestions for the future design of small devices and mobile interfaces to protect learning.
A novel dynamic field-matching technique for treatment of patients with para-aortic node-positive cervical cancer: Clinical experience.

Abstract Aim To report outcomes for patients with para-aortic lymph node positive cervical cancer treated with a dynamic field-matching technique. Background PET staging of cervical cancer has increased identification of patients with para-aortic lymph node metastasis. IMRT enables dose escalation in this area, but matching IMRT fields with traditional whole pelvis fields presents a challenge. Materials and methods From 2003 to 2012, 20 patients with cervical cancer and para-aortic lymph node metastasis were treated utilizing the dynamic field-matching technique. As opposed to single-isocenter half-beam junction techniques, this technique employs wedge-shaped dose junctions for the abutment of fields. We reviewed the records of all patients who completed treatment with the technique and abstracted treatment, toxicity, and disease-related outcome data for analysis. Results Median prescribed dose to the whole pelvis field was 45 Gy and para-aortic IMRT field 50.4 Gy. All but 3 patients underwent HDR (13 pts) or LDR (4 pts) brachytherapy. All patients developed lower GI toxicity; 10 grade 1, 9 grade 2, and 1 grade 4 (enterovaginal fistula). Median DFS was 12.4 months with 1 and 2-year DFS 60.0% and 38.1%. One-year OS was 83.7% and 2-year OS, 64.4%. A total of 10 patients developed recurrence; none occurred at the matched junction. Conclusions The dynamic field-matching technique provides a means for joining conventional whole pelvis fields and para-aortic IMRT fields that substantially reduces dose deviations at the junction due to field mismatch. Treatment with the dynamic matching technique is simple, effective, and tolerated with no apparent increase in toxicity.
Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Large deposits of natural zeolites, mainly clinoptilolite, of possible commercial value have been reported on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota (Raymond et al., 1982). The zeolites occur in tuffaceous lacustrine rocks within a shallow asymmetrical east-west-trending graben. Approximately 1800 samples were evaluated by X-ray diffraction from which qualitative and quantitative estimates of the mineralogy were made. Clinoptilolite is the major rock-forming mineral, with varying amounts of quartz, feldspars, clays, opaline silica, calcite, and traces of erionite, micas, hornblende, and barite. The deposits range in thickness from less than one meter to as much as 60 meters, and in zeolite content from 40-90% clinoptilolite. Relatively low ammonium cation-exchange capacity, regardless of zeolite content, is interpreted to be a function of generally high potassium content, assuming that potassium occupies positions normally available for cation exchange. Such potassium-rich zeolites may be advantageous in agricultural applications, but may be less useful where high ion-exchange capacity is required. The large, relatively low-grade clinoptilolite deposits of the Pine Ridge Reservation may be most useful as a soil amendment or for other agricultural applications because of their location at the edge of the mid-continent farm belt.
Quantitative Analysis by Digital Holography of the Effect of Optical Pressure on a Biological Cell

Digital Holographic Microscopy produces quantitative phase analysis of a specimen with nanometric (sub-wavelength) precision. The deformation caused by optical pressure can be observed and used to calculate physical properties of a biological cell.
Biased ligand quantification in drug discovery: from theory to high throughput screening to identify new biased μ opioid receptor agonists

Background and purpose Biased GPCR ligands are able to engage with their target receptor in a manner that preferentially activates distinct downstream signalling and offers potential for next generation therapeutics. However, accurate quantification of ligand bias in vitro is complex, and current best practice is not amenable for testing large numbers of compound. We have therefore sought to apply ligand bias theory to an industrial scale screening campaign for the identification of new biased μ receptor agonists. Experimental approach μ receptor assays with appropriate dynamic range were developed for both Gαi -dependent signalling and β-arrestin2 recruitment. Δlog(Emax /EC50 ) analysis was validated as an alternative for the operational model of agonism in calculating pathway bias towards Gαi -dependent signalling. The analysis was applied to a high throughput screen to characterize the prevalence and nature of pathway bias among a diverse set of compounds with μ receptor agonist activity. Key results A high throughput screening campaign yielded 440 hits with greater than 10-fold bias relative to DAMGO. To validate these results, we quantified pathway bias of a subset of hits using the operational model of agonism. The high degree of correlation across these biased hits confirmed that Δlog(Emax /EC50 ) was a suitable method for identifying genuine biased ligands within a large collection of diverse compounds. Conclusions and implications This work demonstrates that using Δlog(Emax /EC50 ), drug discovery can apply the concept of biased ligand quantification on a large scale and accelerate the deliberate discovery of novel therapeutics acting via this complex pharmacology.
Analyses on the effect of hot spot density on material consumption rate

There is an observed effect of an explosive's constituent grain size and density on its performance. At the mesoscale, it is the outward burning of hot spots that controls observed performance. While statistical hot spot models can integrate the mesoscale behaviour to macroscale simulations, it is unknown what the density of created hot spots is as a function of grain size and porosity. Simulating mesoscale hot spot distributions and varying hot spot density, we discuss the resultant performance as influenced by inter-pore distance and pore distribution.
Photoabsorbance and Photovoltage of Crystalline and Amorphous Silicon Slabs with Silver Adsorbates

The optical properties of silicon surfaces are affected by their atomic structure and in particular by whether their lattice is crystalline or amorphous. Silver atoms adsorbed on the Si surface enhance the absorption of light and electronic charge transfer at the surface, and the size and shape of the adsorbed Ag clusters play a big role in the photovoltaic properties of Si. We have modeled the photoabsorbance and photovoltage of a nanostructured Si(111) surface with a slab terminated with hydrogen (H) atoms on both surfaces to compensate for dangling bonds, without and with a periodic lattice of adsorbed Ag cluster. Similar structures were also constructed with amorphous lattices to compare the properties of the structures. The optical properties of these structures are investigated using density functional theory to generate a basis set of orbitals and to construct equations of motion for a reduced density matrix from which properties have been obtained in a unified way. Density of electronic states, ba...
Structures and Unimolecular Reactivity of Gas-Phase [Zn(Proline-H)]+ and [Zn(Proline-H)(H2O)]+

A combination of IRMPD spectroscopy, collision-induced dissociation, deuterium isotopic substitution, and computational chemistry was used to determine the structure and unimolecular chemistry of [...
Hybrid Erbium Silicate Conventional-Band Fiber Amplifier with Ultra-Low Gain Ripple

An erbium doped fiber amplifier is presented which exhibits the lowest intrinsic gain ripple yet at a 32nm bandwidth. By hybridizing a novel multicomponent silicate fiber with standard alumino-silicate fiber we reduce the gain ripple from 21% to 10% at 32nm.
Post-stroke improvement of depression and anxiety and neural function recovery by early drug intervention

[Objective]To observe the effect of early drug intervention on depression and anxiety in patients with cerebrovascular accidents and on restoration of their neural function. [Methods]Sixty-two patients with depression and anxiety after cerebrovascular accidents were randomly divided into 2 groups. The control group received routine treatment for cerebrovascular diseases, while the intervention group had additional anti-depression drugs. The patients in both groups were treated for 8 weeks and then measured by hamilton depression scale (HAMD), hamilton anxiety scale (HAMA), neural function deficient scale and activity of daily living. And the therapeutic effects were compared before and after the intervention[.Results]The symptoms of depression and anxiety, neural function deficient degree and activity of daily living were greatly improved in post-stroke patients after intervention treatment. [Conclusion]Early anti-depression treatment for patients with cerebrovascular accidents can markedly ameliorate depression and anxiety symptoms, neural function deficient degree and activity of daily living, and help patients to restore their neural function.
Status of renal transplantation today.

The clinician, while failing to find a cure for all patients with end-stage kidney disease, has nonetheless acquired a great deal of useful information on renal transplantation which is presented herein.
Shasta: Interactive Reporting At Scale

We describe Shasta, a middleware system built at Google to support interactive reporting in complex user-facing applications related to Google's Internet advertising business. Shasta targets applications with challenging requirements: First, user query latencies must be low. Second, underlying transactional data stores have complex "read-unfriendly" schemas, placing significant transformation logic between stored data and the read-only views that Shasta exposes to its clients. This transformation logic must be expressed in a way that scales to large and agile engineering teams. Finally, Shasta targets applications with strong data freshness requirements, making it challenging to precompute query results using common techniques such as ETL pipelines or materialized views. Instead, online queries must go all the way from primary storage to user-facing views, resulting in complex queries joining 50 or more tables. Designed as a layer on top of Google's F1 RDBMS and Mesa data warehouse, Shasta combines language and system techniques to meet these requirements. To help with expressing complex view specifications, we developed a query language called RVL, with support for modularized view templates that can be dynamically compiled into SQL. To execute these SQL queries with low latency at scale, we leveraged and extended F1's distributed query engine with facilities such as safe execution of C++ and Java UDFs. To reduce latency and increase read parallelism, we extended F1 storage with a distributed read-only in-memory cache. The system we describe is in production at Google, powering critical applications used by advertisers and internal sales teams. Shasta has significantly improved system scalability and software engineering efficiency compared to the middleware solutions it replaced.
Neurodegeneration in humans caused by prions.

Prion diseases include kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, and fatal familial insomnia of humans as well as scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy of animals. For many years, the prion diseases were thought to be caused by viruses despite evidence to the contrary. The unique characteristic common to all of these disorders, whether sporadic, dominantly inherited, or acquired by infection, is that they involve aberrant metabolism of the prion protein. In many cases, the cellular prion protein is converted into the scrapie variant by a process after translation that involves a conformational change. Often the human prion diseases are transmissible experimentally to animals, and all of the inherited prion diseases segregate with prion protein gene mutations.
Hotel patriots or permanent strangers? Joseph Roth and the Jews of inter-war Central Europe

AbstractThis article examines the connection between cosmopolitanism and the Jews by taking a close look at the intricacies that made up the life world and thought of one of the most celebrated Jewish ‘cosmopolitans’ of the twentieth century, Galician-born journalist and author Joseph Roth (1894–1939). By approaching the question of non-belonging versus being at home everywhere – the two extremes of a cosmopolitan life – from a micro-historical, biographical perspective, this article investigates the darker side of Jewish existence in the decidedly ambiguous and increasingly threatening political climate of inter-war Europe. It traces the unravelling cosmopolitan dream of a single individual as he finds himself engulfed by the political and social narrowing of the European Jewish life worlds. In this process, the significance of a Jewish past or heritage is examined as one of the factors that fuels and complements, as well as contradicts, the cosmopolitan worldview.
Evaluation of physical marker interfaces for protecting visual privacy from mobile robots

We present a study that examines the efficiency and usability of three different interfaces for specifying which objects should be kept private (i.e., not visible) in an office environment. Our study context is a robot “janitor” system that has the ability to blur out specified objects from its video feed. One interface is a traditional point-and-click GUI on a computer monitor, while the other two operate in the real, physical space: users either place markers on the objects to indicate privacy or use a wand tool to point at them. We compare the interfaces using both self-report (e.g., surveys) and behavioral measures. Our results showed that (1) the graphical interface performed better both in terms of time and usability, and (2) using persistent markers increased the participants' ability to recall what they tagged. Choosing the right interface appears to depend on the application scenario. We also summarize feedback from the participants for improving interfaces that specify visual privacy preferences.
Beyond chemotherapeutics: cisplatin as a temporary buckle to fabricate drug-loaded nanogels

A cisplatin templated nanogel with targeting capability was synthesized, inspired by cisplatin as a chemotherapeutic drug. After crosslinking the natural polysaccharide hyaluronan, a ligand for CD44, cisplatin could be removed by simple dialysis in a salt solution while the withheld drug remains entrapped.
Clinical Aspects of Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Despite rapid advances in modern medicine, stroke remains the second largest cause of death in the world. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the deadliest form of stroke, with the highest rates of morbidity and mortality. Treatment strategies vary greatly from ischemic stroke, making the ability to recognize, diagnose, and initiate treatment of this medical emergency a requirement of all clinicians. In this chapter we review the pathology, presentation, radiographic findings, and decision making behind the most common forms of ICH. We also discuss the reasoning behind some of the advanced studies that specialist teams may request. Although surgical intervention has the ability to be acutely lifesaving in a handful of specific pathologies (e.g., hydrocephalus and large posterior fossa hemorrhage), the criteria for operating on patients with ICH are still being defined. Morbidity and mortality remain high for this disease, and a basic understanding of ICH is required to act quickly and decisively to improve outcomes.
Transgender Patients, Hospitalists, and Ethical Care

Meeting the needs of current and future transgender individuals is a pressing medical concern. The transgender community faces unique health issues, including an elevated risk of HIV infection in male-to-female transgender people and high rates of violence, suicide, and substance abuse. Unfortunately, many trans people avoid seeking treatment because they have experienced discrimination, hostility, and refusal of medical care because of their status. Health-care workers who are not transphobic simply may not understand enough about the medical process of transitioning to adequately care for these patients. Hospitalists—specialists in inpatient medicine—are uniquely positioned to change this trajectory. We believe that as this burgeoning cohort of doctors takes on an expanded role in medicine, they should take the lead in the care of hospitalized transgender patients and in providing education to trainees about medical issues pertinent to this group of underserved and marginalized patients.
A Comparison of China’s “Ivy League” to Other Peer Groupings Through Global University Rankings:

This article analyzes the People’s Republic of China’s elite-making higher education policies that began in the early 1990s, notably with the 211 Project and then 985 Project, which led to the form...
Music industry and copyright protection in the United States and China

From the standard economic rationale, music copyright supports the rights of authors and creators to exclude competitors and the public from accessing and copying their works to the extent necessar...
The Role of Behavioral Medicine in the Treatment of Obesity in Primary Care

Behavioral medicine provides a framework for supporting patients to achieve changes in target health behaviors, such as dietary and physical activity changes. Behavioral medicine fits alongside traditional medical treatments, can minimize the need for more intensive medical treatments, improves outcomes of these treatments, and improves adherence to medication prescriptions or postsurgical recommendations. This article provides an overview of behavioral medicine counseling for obesity in primary care, rooted in the "5 As" approach to health behavior change, and the basic outline of behavioral skills interventions in which health care providers use self-regulatory and behavioral strategies to improve health-related behaviors among patients with obesity.
Gust response of rigid and elastically mounted airfoils at a transitional Reynolds number

Abstract This article explores the evolution of the unsteady flow structure for rigid and elastically mounted NACA0012 airfoils subject to a parallel vortical gust disturbance at a Reynolds number of Re = 150 , 000 using implicit large-eddy simulation coupled with a structural dynamics model. A Taylor vortex is supplied upstream of the airfoil and shown to be successful at eliciting laminar separation flutter in the elastically mounted system under conditions which normally require an artificial disturbance. Much of the gust-induced moment responsible for flutter excitation is supplied by a two-stage flow transition process on the undersurface of the wing after the gust passes the airfoil. The gust response triggers transition of the separated lower-surface boundary layer into spanwise coherent vortices followed by a laminar separation bubble accompanied by a secondary emergence of flow transition. These events appear to be analogous in some ways to the processes that appear during fully developed flutter but occur over a shorter timescale.
Geometric Aspects of Quantized Gauge Theories

These notes represent the second two lectures delivered at the school. If they differ somewhat from the preliminary notes handed out before the lectures and from the material presented in the lectures themselves, this is the result of constructive feedback I have received during the lectures from several participants, to whom I express my indebtedness here. The lectures covered essentially two major topics: the geometric aspects of canonical quantization with indefinite metric, in particular, the meaning of gauge-fixing and the relation of “ghosts” to geometry, and quantization in terms of holonomy operators, an outgrowth of Mandelstam’s formulation of gauge theory without potentials, but involving path-ordered integrals.
Geophysical Parameters and Algorithms for High Latitude Applications

The parameters of interest for polar studies that can be derived from satellite data are surface temperature, sea ice concentration, albedo, cloud cover, winds, sea ice drift, and sea ice thickness. The basic radiative and physical characteristics that enable the detection and characterization of various surfaces and parameters are discussed. The different types of sensors are evaluated with a view of assessing which one is best suited for the retrieval of each parameter. The algorithms that convert digital data to geophysical parameters are presented and assessments of errors in the retrieval are provided. There are limitations in the use of these data, but some of these can be overcome through the concurrent use of ancillary data that include in situ measurements and modeling results.
Oxidative Stress and Aging in the Budding Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The production of reactive oxygen species is an unavoidable consequence of life in an aerobic environment. The accumulation of macromolecular damage caused by these highly reactive substances is thought to be one of the major contributors to the aging phenotype. Protection against this damage provided by antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutases is critically important for the maintenance of an aging yeast population. The role of superoxide signaling in age-dependent apoptosis suggests that reactive oxygen species are involved in the regulation of multiple maintenance and repair systems during yeast aging. Enhanced protection against oxidative stress seems to be necessary but not sufficient for life span extension in model organisms ranging from yeast to mice.
Survivorship needs after head and neck cancer treatment.

10062Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors experience significant sequelae of treatment, including long-term physical side effects and ongoing surveillance for recurrence and secondary m...
Experimental investigation of supercritical carbon dioxide in horizontal microchannels with non-uniform heat flux boundary conditions

Abstract Supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) experiences a drastic change in its thermophysical properties near the thermodynamic critical point. A non-linear thermophysical property variation can influence the heat transfer behavior of sCO2 which is not predicted well by conventional single phase heat transfer theory. This can become a major hindrance in the effective design of heat exchangers using sCO2 as a heat transfer fluid and operating in the vicinity of the critical point. Previous investigations of sCO2 heating have been primarily focused on macroscale, circular and uniformly heated channels at relatively low heat fluxes. It is unclear if models and correlations developed from large circular tube data can be scaled down to the microscale, non-circular channels subject to non-uniform heating. The present study experimentally investigates the turbulent heat transfer performance of sCO2 in a microchannel heat exchanger operating in a horizontal configuration with a single wall non-uniform heat flux boundary condition. The test section has five parallel channels with a 0.75 mm hydraulic diameter and an aspect ratio of 1. The channels are fabricated using computer numerical control machining and the test section sealed using a diffusion bonding approach. Data analysis techniques which employ 2-D and 3-D heat transfer models of the experimental test section are developed to calculate the average heat transfer coefficients for a given set of experimental conditions. Data are obtained over a wide range of experimental parameters including test section applied heat flux ( 20 ⩽ q ″ ⩽ 40 W cm−2), mass flux ( 500 ⩽ G ⩽ 1000 kg m−2 s−1), reduced pressure ( 1.03 ⩽ P R ⩽ 1.1 ), and inlet temperatures ( 16 ⩽ T in ⩽ 50 °C). The heat transfer data were screened for the presence of buoyancy and flow acceleration effects and then compared against correlations developed for turbulent subcritical and supercritical fluid flows.
Choice of species affects phylogenetic stability of deep nodes: an empirical example in Terrabacteria.

Motivation The promise of higher phylogenetic stability through increased dataset sizes within tree of life (TOL) reconstructions has not been fulfilled. Among the many possible causes are changes in species composition (taxon sampling) that could influence phylogenetic accuracy of the methods by altering the relative weight of the evolutionary histories of each individual species. This effect would be stronger in clades that are represented by few lineages, which is common in many prokaryote phyla. Indeed, phyla with fewer taxa showed the most discordance among recent TOL studies. We implemented an approach to systematically test how the identity of taxa among a larger dataset and the number of taxa included affected the accuracy of phylogenetic reconstruction. Results Utilizing an empirical dataset within Terrabacteria we found that even within scenarios consisting of the same number of taxa, the species used strongly affected phylogenetic stability. Furthermore, we found that trees with fewer species were more dissimilar to the tree produced from the full dataset. These results hold even when the tree is composed by many phyla and only one of them is being altered. Thus, the effect of taxon sampling in one group does not seem to be buffered by the presence of many other clades, making this issue relevant even to very large datasets. Our results suggest that a systematic evaluation of phylogenetic stability through taxon resampling is advisable even for very large datasets. Availability and implementation https://github.com/BlabOaklandU/PATS.git. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Gene therapy research for kidney diseases.

A resurgence in the development of newer gene therapy systems has led to recent successes in the treatment of B cell cancers, retinal degeneration and neuromuscular atrophy. Gene therapy offers the...