cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Infarct morphology identifies patients with substrate for sustained ventricular tachycardia

Objectives We sought to evaluate whether infarct size characterization by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a better predictor of inducible ventricular tachycardia (VT) than left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Background Inducibility of VT at electrophysiologic study (EPS) and low LVEF can identify patients with a substrate for VT. Magnetic resonance imaging has been shown to identify, with high precision, areas of myocardial infarction and may therefore be a better tool to evaluate for a substrate for VT. Methods We studied 48 patients with known coronary artery disease who were referred for EPS using cine and gadolinium-enhanced MRI. Wall motion and infarct characteristics were determined blindly and compared among patients with no inducible ventricular arrhythmias (n = 21), those with inducible monomorphic VT (MVT, n = 18), and those with either inducible polymorphic VT or ventricular fibrillation (n = 9). Results Patients with MVT had larger infarcts than patients who did not have inducible arrhythmias (mass: 49 ± 5 g [SE] vs. 28 ± 5 g, p Conclusions Infarct surface area and mass, as measured by cardiac MRI, are better identifiers of patients who have a substrate for MVT than LVEF. Further evaluation of infarct size characterization by cardiac MRI as a predictor of sudden cardiac death is warranted.
Low latency self-timed flow-through FIFOs

Self-timed flow-through FIFOs are constructed easily using only a single C-element as control for each stage of the FIFO. Throughput can be very high in this type of FIFO as the communication required to send new data to the FIFO is local to only the first element of the FIFO. Circuit density can also be high because the control overhead is very small. However because data must travel through every cell in the FIFO when moving from input to output, latencies can be long. This paper describes some alternative approaches to building self-timed flow-through FIFOs that reduce the latency while retaining the high throughput and relative simplicity of a flow-through design. Five designs are presented: a standard linear flow-through FIFO in which the data pass through every latch in the FIFO, a parallel FIFO in which data are delivered in turn to a set of parallel flow-through FIFOs, a tree FIFO in which data are fanned out into a tree of simple FIFOs, a square FIFO in which the tree is organized as a square array to achieve better layout packing, and a folded FIFO in which data will try to skip as many of the empty FIFO cells as possible to find the shortest path to the output.
Bacteriology of chronic sinusitis and acute exacerbation of chronic sinusitis.

Objective To establish the microbiological characteristics of acute exacerbation of chronic sinusitis (AECS). Setting Academic medical center. Patients Thirty-two patients with chronic sinusitis and 30 patients with AECS. Main Outcome Measure The aerobic and anaerobic microbiology of maxillary AECS and chronic maxillary sinusitis. Results A total of 81 isolates (33 aerobic and 48 anaerobic) were recovered from the 32 cases (2.5 per specimen) with chronic sinusitis. Aerobes alone were recovered in 8 specimens (25%), anaerobes only were isolated in 11 (34%), and mixed aerobes and anaerobes were recovered in 13 (41%). The predominant aerobic and facultative bacteria were Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus aureus . The predominant anaerobic bacteria were Peptostreptococcus subspecies, Fusobacterium subspecies, anaerobic gram-negative bacilli, and Propionibacterium acnes . Twenty-one β-lactamase–producing bacteria were recovered from 17 specimens (53%). A total of 89 isolates (40 aerobic and facultatives, and 49 anaerobic) were recovered from the 30 patients (3.0 per specimen) with AECS. Aerobes were recovered in 8 instances (27%), anaerobes only in 11 (37%), and mixed aerobes and anaerobes were recovered in 11 (37%). The predominant aerobes were Streptococcus pneumoniae , Enterobacteriaceae, and S aureus . The predominant anaerobes were Peptostreptococcus subspecies, Fusobacterium subspecies, anaerobic gram-negative bacilli, and P acnes . Thirty-six β-lactamase–producing bacteria were recovered from 28 specimens (53%). Conclusions This study demonstrates that the organisms isolated from patients with AECS were predominantly anaerobic and were similar to those generally recovered in patients with chronic sinusitis. However, aerobic bacteria that are usually found in acute infections (eg, S pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis ) can also emerge in some of the episodes of AECS.
On the accuracy of scanning colour images

In order to reproduce perceived color accurately the three bands of a color image must be obtained using sensors whose relative spectral sensitivity satisfies certain constraints. These constraints, the design of filters which satisfy these constraints, and the effect of inaccuracies in the sensors' response are discussed. The mathematical techniques used for the error analysis have not been used previously in color scanning filter design. The results of this study are applicable to most color systems, including television, lithography, copiers and printers. >
Accounting for experimentally observed transients in simulation of partially-depleted SOI MOSFET's

This paper has shown that a unique set of carrier lifetime and impact ionization rate can be used to account for both the transient behavior and DC I-V characteristics of a partially-depleted SOI MOSFET. Operation of these devices at low to moderate drain voltages ( 1.0 to 2.0 V) was shown to be strongly related to both impact ionization rate and carrier lifetime.
The need for closure in large distributed systems

As the size of a distributed system grows it becomes increasingly difficult for users to find their way around. One solution for this problem is user centered naming. A problem with user centered naming is that it has the potential to cause confusion and to make sharing difficult. This problem can be avoided if the system supports closure. Although the same name may refer to different objects at different times, the context in which the name is to be evaluated is always known.
Effect of Carbapenem Administration on Establishment of Intestinal Colonization by Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Mice

In a mouse model, ertapenem inhibited the anaerobic intestinal microflora and promoted overgrowth of enterococci, whereas imipenem-cilastatin had no effect on the indigenous microflora. Ertapenem, but not imipenem-cilastatin, promoted modest overgrowth of vancomycin-resistant enterococci when exposure occurred during treatment. Neither agent promoted colonization with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Multiresolution binary optical correlator using the wavelet transform

We used morphological filters to approximate wavelet scaling functions for multiresolution processing of an image. Because some spatial light modulators (SLMs) can only display binary data, wavelet processing of binary images is inhibited. Therefore, we considered an alternative way - morphological processing - to generate a wavelet representation that consists entirely of binary elements. The effects of these filters are dependent on the input signal and cannot be generalized. Therefore, we used a statistical approach to approximate the scaling functions or various wavelets using morphological filters.
Ultrastructural effects of riboflavin deficiency on rat hepatic mitochondria

The hepatic mitochondria of rats fed a riboflavin-deficient diet were examined by electron microscopy. Discoidal mitochondria with elongated cristae increased in frequency from day 4 to day 12 of the test diet. At day 22, sheaves of closely packed cristae were present in many otherwise typical mitochondria. At day 53, numerous cupshaped mitochondria appeared; these often nested one inside the other. From this day onward, the mitochondria showed a tendency towards increasing size. By day 82, some had a diameter greater than 8 micrometer. These and other, smaller mitochondria often contained extremely prominent matrix granules. The production by riboflavin-deficiency of giant mitochondria in the rat liver appears to be unrelated to their capacity to carry out oxidative metabolism.
The mildly depressed experience more post-decisional regret than the non-depressed.

Abstract In two studies participants were asked to make a decision about whether they would hire a job applicant described in a fictitious vita. Later, participants were shown the vita of a second applicant and rated the extent to which they regretted their original decision. Participants who were mildly depressed reported higher levels of regret than non–depressed participants. This heightened regret level was observed: (1) regardless of whether participants had decided to hire the initial candidate; (2) independently of whether the decision had high or low personal relevance to participants; and (3) regardless of the extent to which the second candidate was a better candidate for the job than the first applicant. The results of causal modeling analyses suggest that the construct of depression predicts these regret results independently of related constructs, such as locus of control or causal uncertainty.
The Camelot library: A C language extension for programming a general purpose distributed transaction system

The Camelot library extends the programming language to provide a high-level programming interface to Camelot, a general-purpose distributed transaction system. The Camelot library is implemented as a collection of C functions and macros. The interface presented by the library also provides a concise high-level model of the services offered by a general-purpose transaction system. A broad overview of the interface is given, and implementation experience is briefly summarized. >
The local dimensions of the Bernoulli convolution associated with the golden number

Let X1, X2,... be a sequence of i.i.d. random variables each taking values of 1 and -1 with equal probability. For 1/2 = p'Xi. For any x in the range of S, let d(4, x) = lim log,4([x r, x + r])/ logr be the local dimension of ,u at x whenever the limit exists. We prove that * _ log 2 and a* log 6 log 2 log p s log p log p' where 6 = (V51)/2, are respectively the maximum and minimum values of the local dimensions. If s = 2, then p is the golden number, and the approximate numerical values are ce* 1.4404 and ce* 0.9404.
Soil response to canopy position and feral pig disturbance beneath Quercus agrifolia on Santa Cruz Island, California

We assessed the effects of canopy position and feral pig disturbance on soil moisture, pH, and inorganic nitrogen concentrations beneath canopies of Quercus agrifolia and surrounding grasslands on Santa Cruz Island, California. Percent soil moisture, pH, nitrate-N, and total inorganic nitrogen varied significantly with canopy position. Soil moisture decreased, and pH increased along transects from the subcanopy trunk position to the open grassland outside the canopy. Nitrate and total nitrogen increased from the trunk position to midcanopy and then decreased from midcanopy to the open grassland position. The ratio of nitrate to ammonium varied with canopy position, even after controlling for the effects of soil moisture and pH, both of which strongly influence rates of nitrogen mineralization. Temporally, soil pH, soil moisture, nitrate-N, and total carbon all varied significantly between drought and non-drought years. Soils from fenced exclosures that removed feral pig disturbance did not exhibit significant differences in any soil property compared to control plots where pig access was permitted. The results of our analysis suggest that the primary factors influencing spatial and temporal variability in oak woodland soils on Santa Cruz Island were subcanopy position and climate variability, respectively. Biotic disturbance by feral pigs did not cause a significant cause in soil properties over the spatial and temporal domains examined in this study.
Software architecture for large-scale, distributed, data-intensive systems

The sheer amount of data produced by modern science research has created a need for the construction and understanding of "data-intensive systems", large-scale, distributed systems which integrate information. The formal nature of constructing such software systems; however, is relatively unstudied, and has been a large focus of the super-computing and distributed computing communicates, rather than the software engineering communities. These data-intensive systems exhibit characteristics which appear fruitful for research from a software engineering, and software architectural focus. From our experience, the methodologies and notations for design and implementation of data-intensive systems look to be a good starting point for this important research area. This paper presents our experience with OODT (object-oriented data technology), a software architectural style, and middleware-based implementation for data-intensive systems developed and maintained at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To date, OODT has been successfully evaluated in several different science domains including Planetary Science with NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) and Cancer Research with the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis disease in children: systematic review and global estimates

Summary Background Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis threatens to reverse recent reductions in global tuberculosis incidence. Although children younger than 15 years constitute more than 25% of the worldwide population, the global incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis disease in children has never been quantified. We aimed to estimate the regional and global annual incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in children. Methods We developed two models: one to estimate the setting-specific risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among child cases of tuberculosis, and a second to estimate the setting-specific incidence of tuberculosis disease in children. The model for risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among children with tuberculosis needed a systematic literature review. We multiplied the setting-specific estimates of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis risk and tuberculosis incidence to estimate regional and global incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis disease in children in 2010. Findings We identified 3403 papers, of which 97 studies met inclusion criteria for the systematic review of risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. 31 studies reported the risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in both children and treatment-naive adults with tuberculosis and were used for evaluation of the linear association between multidrug-resistant disease risk in these two patient groups. We identified that the setting-specific risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was nearly identical in children and treatment-naive adults with tuberculosis, consistent with the assertion that multidrug-resistant disease in both groups reflects the local risk of transmitted multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. After application of these calculated risks, we estimated that around 999 792 (95% CI 937 877–1 055 414) children developed tuberculosis disease in 2010, of whom 31 948 (25 594–38 663) had multidrug-resistant disease. Interpretation Our estimates underscore that many cases of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis disease are not being detected in children. Future estimates can be refined as more and better tuberculosis data and new diagnostic instruments become available. Funding US National Institutes of Health, the Helmut Wolfgang Schumann Fellowship in Preventive Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Norman E Zinberg Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and the Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity and Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
A Dataset of Human Liver Proteins Identified by Protein Profiling Via Isotope-coded Affinity Tag (ICAT) and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Proteins from human liver carcinoma Huh7 cells, representing transformed liver cells, and cultured primary human fetal hepatocytes (HFH) and human HH4 hepatocytes, representing nontransformed liver cells, were extracted and processed for proteome analysis. Proteins from stimulated cells (interferon- treatment for the Huh7 and HFH cells and induction of hepatitis C virus [HCV] proteins for the HH4 cells) and corresponding control cells were labeled with light and heavy cleavable ICAT reagents, respectively. The labeled samples were combined, trypsinized, and subject to cation-exchange and avidin-affinity chromatographies. The resulting cysteinecontaining peptides were analyzed by microcapillary LCMS/MS. The MS/MS spectra were initially analyzed by searching the human International Protein Index database using the SEQUEST TM software (1). Subsequently, new statistical algorithms were applied to the collective SEQUEST search results of each experiment. First, the PeptideProphet TM software (2) was applied to discriminate true assignments of MS/MS spectra to peptide sequences from false assignments, to assign a probability value for each identified peptide, and to compute the sensitivity and error rate for the assignment of spectra to sequences in each experiment. Second, the ProteinProphet TM software (3) was used to infer the protein identifications and to compute probabilities that a protein had been correctly identified, based on the available peptide sequence evidence. The resulting protein lists were filtered by a ProteinProphet probability score p > 0.5, which corresponded to an error rate of less than 5%. A total of 1,296, 1,430, and 1,476 proteins or related protein groups were identified in three subdatasets from the Huh7, HFH, and HH4 cells, respectively. In total, these subdatasets contained 2,486 unique protein identifications from human liver cells. An increase of the threshold to p > 0.9 (corresponding to an error rate of less than 1%) resulted in 2,159 unique protein identifications (1,146, 1,235, and 1,318 for the Huh7, HFH, and HH4 cells, respectively). Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 3:1039 –1041, 2004.
Establishment of nondelusional responses in a socially withdrawn chronic schizophrenic.

Multiple treatment interventions including instructions, modelling, timeout, avoidance of repetition, and reinforcement were successful in establishing factual answers to personal background questions in a withdrawn and socially unresponsive chronic schizophrenic. The subject had previously persisted in giving only delusional responses to these questions. A multiple-baseline design across verbal replies to personal background questions demonstrated that the changes in behavior were brought about by the treatment interventions. During baseline, the subject was reinforced for any response to four questions. The experimental interventions were then introduced for the first question and moved sequentially to an additional question when the subject's responses reached the criterion of at least 80% correct for two consecutive sessions. Introduction of the experimental interventions produced an increase from a baseline level of zero to at least 80% correct for each question. The use of the token reinforcement procedure was faded out after the subject was able to answer all four questions correctly at least 80% of the time for two consecutive sessions. Fading of the token reinforcement procedure was accomplished by using increasingly intermittent schedules of token reinforcement during the last seven sessions. In the final session, no tokens were used to reinforce the subject's responding. Nine-, ten-, and 12-month followup interviews were conducted to evaluate the maintenance of treatment gains. Maintenance was found to be complete at the nine- and 10-month followups, but at the 12-month followup interview, the subject answered one question incorrectly. This study replicates an investigation previously reported in this journal.
Mediators reveal their essential techniques for successful settlements

What makes for mediation success? In the first of two parts, Stephen B. Goldberg, of Chicago, who surveyed dozens of mediators, recounts the neutrals' tales of how they were able to get parties to come to terms and avoid prolonging disputes. The techniques discussed in the interviews will act as a guide for neutrals to use in establishing rapport among mediation participants
A new strategy for octree representation of three-dimensional objects

Concepts developed previously are extended to identify the three-dimensional topologies which can be hierarchically aggregated (tessellated) to yield an octree data structure. The hypercellular structures, composed of arbitrary triangle wedges and parallelopipeds as basic cells, have been shown to represent such data structures. The average computational complexities for all these different (tessellation scheme) are comparable. Based on the experimental data it is concluded that a wide repertoire of three-dimensional physical objects can be represented as octrees. >
EVALUATION OF THE CONVERSION OF RADIOACTIVE INORGANIC IODINE TO PROTEINBOUND IODINE AS A DIAGNOSTIC AID IN THYROID DYSFUNCTION

THE diagnosis of hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism in borderline JL cases is always difficult with the clinical and laboratory facilities available to most physicians. When hyperthyroidism is manifest in signs and symptoms, the disease is apparent and further laboratory work is not necessary to establish a diagnosis. There are many hypermetabolic diseases which mimic hyperthyroidism, but their etiologies are quite independent of thyroid dysfunction. The presence of hypometabolic situations is common in connection with many diseases, only one of which is hypothyroidism. Much of Kansas is in a goiter belt, thus local physicians are frequently called upon to establish a diagnosis in a patient with gross thyroid abnormality and hyper- or hypometabolic symptoms and signs, yet with normal thyroid function. The laboratory study of the various metabolic abnormalities has been extensive, but an accurate simple procedure, perhaps a routine procedure, to evaluate thyroid dysfunction is not currently available to the...
Intentional Fragmentation as a Management Strategy in Aquatic Systems

Maintaining or restoring connectivity in aquatic systems can enhance migratory fish populations; maintain genetic diversity in small, isolated populations; allow Organisms to access complementary habitats to meet life-history needs; and facilitate recolonization after local extirpations. However, intentional fragmentation may be beneficial when it prevents the spread of nonnative species or exotic diseases, eliminates hybridization between hatchery and wild stocks, or stops individuals from becoming entrapped in sink environments. Strategies for fragmenting aquatic systems include maintaining existing natural barriers, taking advantage of existing anthropogenic features that impede movement, severing artificial connectivity created by human actions, and intentionally creating new barriers. Future challenges for managing fragmentation include maintaining hydrologic connectivity while blocking biological connectivity in water development projects; identifying approaches for maintaining incompatible taxa, su...
The Design of Everyday Hate: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

Throughout history artists, poets, and writers have been interested in the nature of hate. Scientists from a variety of disciplines have also attempted to unravel its mysteries. Yet in spite of abundant theorizing and research, most modern scholars still complain that little is known about this complex emotion. In this study, a new approach has been taken. Following Heider’s (1958) observation that scientists can often learn a great deal by exploring people’s “common-sense” or “naive psychologies,” students at the University of Texas and participants from a number of Internet sites were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the nature of emotion. Using grounded theory and employing mixedmethod analyses (qualitative and quantitative), four questions were explored: (1) What do people mean by hate? (2) Whom do they hate? (3) Why do people hate the people they do? (4) How do people attempt to deal with such feelings? From participants’ answers, a theory concerning everyday hate was generated.
Role of PVA Flakes in Promoting Self-Degradation of Sodium Metasilicate-Activated Cement under a Hydrothermal Environment at â‰¥150Â°C

We investigated the effect of flakes of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on the self-degradation of sodium metasilicate (SMS)-activated slag/Class C fly ash cement, which is used as temporary sealer for fractures in Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) wells under a hydrothermal environment at Â³150Â°C and at pressure of 1000 psi. The reactions between PVA and SMS dissolved in an aqueous medium at 85Â°C led to the formation of a colloidal hydroxylated silicate-cross-linked PVA gel in the cement body. This gel-incorporated cement had a compressive strength >2000 psi, so ensuring that it adequately plugs the fractures. Increasing the hydrothermal temperature to Â³150Â°C triggered the transformation of the gel into a sol. This in-situ gelÂ®sol phase transition played a pivotal role in promoting the cementâ€™s self-degradation because of the extensive spreading of sol in the cement body, and its leaching from the cement. In contrast, when gel was dry heated at Â³150Â°C, the gelÂ®xerogel phase transformation engendered the molecular fragmentation of PVA. This fragmentation yielded polysilicate cross-linked PVA derived from the combination of extended-chain scission, carboxylation and condensation, so that it no longer served as a self-degrading promoter of cement..
Single-Molecule Tracking of Inositol Trisphosphate Receptors Reveals Different Motilities and Distributions

Puffs are local Ca(2+) signals that arise by Ca(2+) liberation from the endoplasmic reticulum through the concerted opening of tightly clustered inositol trisphosphate receptors/channels (IP3Rs). The locations of puff sites observed by Ca(2+) imaging remain static over several minutes, whereas fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experiments employing overexpression of fluorescently tagged IP3Rs have shown that the majority of IP3Rs are freely motile. To address this discrepancy, we applied single-molecule imaging to locate and track type 1 IP3Rs tagged with a photoswitchable fluorescent protein and expressed in COS-7 cells. We found that ∼ 70% of the IP3R1 molecules were freely motile, undergoing random walk motility with an apparent diffusion coefficient of ∼ 0.095 μm s(-1), whereas the remaining molecules were essentially immotile. A fraction of the immotile IP3Rs were organized in clusters, with dimensions (a few hundred nanometers across) comparable to those previously estimated for the IP3R clusters underlying functional puff sites. No short-term (seconds) changes in overall motility or in clustering of immotile IP3Rs were apparent following activation of IP3/Ca(2+) signaling. We conclude that stable clusters of small numbers of immotile IP3Rs may underlie local Ca(2+) release sites, whereas the more numerous motile IP3Rs appear to be functionally silent.
What intensity of physical activity do previously sedentary middle-aged women select? Evidence of a coherent pattern from physiological, perceptual, and affective markers

Abstract Background The intensity of physical activity has been found to be inversely related to adherence, thus contributing to the problem of physical inactivity. Although most physical activity is unsupervised and participants, therefore, self-select the intensity, very little is known about the level of intensity that they select. We hypothesized that participants would select, on average, an intensity proximal to the level of transition from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. Methods Twenty-three middle-aged, formerly sedentary women participated in (a) an incremental treadmill test to determine their maximal aerobic capacity and gas exchange ventilatory threshold, an index of the aerobic–anaerobic transition, and (b) a 20-min bout of treadmill exercise during which they were allowed to select the speed. Results On average, but with considerable interindividual variability, the women selected an intensity that, in terms of treadmill speed, heart rate, oxygen uptake, and perceived exertion was no different from the intensity corresponding to their gas exchange ventilatory threshold. Moreover, affective valence remained positive and stable. Conclusions On average, middle-aged, formerly sedentary women selected an intensity that is considered physiologically effective and reported that it did not feel hard or unpleasant. Future research should examine the sources of interindividual variability and the consequences of exercising at an intensity that exceeds one's preferred level.
Design of a mid-IR active imaging system for gas detection using a pulsed laser source

Summary form only given. Backscatter absorption gas imaging (BAGI) is a remote sensing technique that uses active imaging to generate real-time video images of chemical vapor plumes. As such, BAGI represents a fusion between absorptive chemical detection LIDAR and imaging laser radar. Plume imaging occurs when a gas that can absorb light at the laser wavelength enters the system field-of-view, thereby attenuating the scene backscatter and causing a cloud image.
FEMALE AND MALE MANAGERS' AND PROFESSIONALS' CRITICISM GIVING Differences in Language Use and Effects

Study 1 investigated differences in the language used by 86 female and male middle managers and career professionals during role plays of criticism that they had recently voiced to a colleague. Discriminant analysis revealed significant differences in language use, permitting 72% accurate gender reclassification. The language features more indicative of men were number of words, negations, questions, judgmental adjectives, references to emotion, and oppositions. Those more predictive of women were intensive adverbs, longer mean length sentences, hedges, directives, dependent clauses, and sentence initial adverbials. However, nearly one half of these gender indicators had been found in previous research to be predictive of the opposite gender. In Study 2, effects of these language differences on third-party observers’ judgments were assessed. Contrary to earlier research in nonorganizational settings, no differences were found on Socio-Intellectual Status, Aesthetic Quality, or Dynamism. Results indicated ...
Morphological Systems Theory: Slope Transforms, Max—Min Differential Equations, Envelope Filters, and Sampling

In this paper we view the basic morphological signal operators as a class of nonlinear systems obeying a supremum/infimum-of-sums superposition and endow them with analytic tools that parallel the functionality of and have many conceptual similarities with ideas and tools used in linear systems. In the time/space domain, these systems are found equivalent to a max-plus or min-plus convolution with their impulse response, and a class of nonlinear difference/differential equations is introduced to describe their dynamics The hyperplanes +b are eigenfunctions of such morphological systems, which leads to developing a slope response for them, as a function of the slope α, and related slope transforms for arbitrary signals. These ideas provide a transform (slope) domain for morphological systems, where dilation and erosion in time/space corresponds to addition of slope transforms, time/space hyperplanes transform into slope impulses, time/space cones become bandpass slope-selective filters, and distance transforms correspond to ideal slope filters. The paper summarizes results for 1D signals/systems and extends them to the 2D case and to sampling.
Hydrological disturbance diminishes predator control in wetlands

Effects of predators on prey populations can be especially strong in aquatic ecosystems, but disturbances may mediate the strength of predator limitation and even allow outbreaks of some prey populations. In a two-year study we investigated the numerical responses of crayfish (Procambarus fallax) and small fishes (Poeciliidae and Fundulidae) to a brief hydrological disturbance in replicated freshwater wetlands with an experimental drying and large predatory fish reduction. The experiment and an in situ predation assay tested the component of the consumer stress model positing that disturbances release prey from predator limitation. In the disturbed wetlands, abundances of large predatory fish were seasonally reduced, similar to dynamics in the Everglades (southern Florida). Densities of small fish were unaffected by the disturbance, but crayfish densities, which were similar across all wetlands before drying, increased almost threefold in the year after the disturbance. Upon re-flooding, juvenile crayfish survival was inversely related to the abundance of large fish across wetlands, but we found no evidence for enhanced algal food quality. At a larger landscape scale (500 km2 of the Everglades), crayfish densities over eight years were positively correlated with the severity of local dry disturbances (up to 99 days dry) during the preceding dry season. In contrast, densities of small-bodied fishes in the same wetlands were seasonally depressed by dry disturbances. The results from our experimental wetland drought and the observations of crayfish densities in the Everglades represent a large-scale example of prey population release following a hydrological disturbance in a freshwater ecosystem. The conditions producing crayfish pulses in the Everglades appear consistent with the mechanics of the consumer stress model, and we suggest crayfish pulses may influence the number of nesting wading birds in the Everglades.
Dissecting Multistep Tumorigenesis in Transgenic Mice

Article de synthese sur les tumeurs associees aux oncogenes transgeniques et utilisation des souris transgeniques en vue d'etudier les etapes de la tumorigenese
Disruption of disulfide bonds exhibits differential effects on trafficking of regulated secretory proteins

For several secretory proteins, it has been hypothesized that disulfide-bonded loop structures are required for sorting to secretory granules. To explore this hypothesis, we employed dithiothreitol...
Enhanced cytotoxicity in mice of combinations of concanavalin A and selected antitumor drugs.

Concanavalin A (Con A) injected intraperitoneally at a dose of 50 mg per kg was not lethal for male BALB/c mice. Six hours after administration of 5 mg Con A/kg, the proportion of circulating granulocytes had increased from 23% to 74% of the white cell population; by 24 hr, the proportion of granulocytes had decreased to 56%. Administration of 5 mg Con A/kg 24 hr before 200 mg of 5-[3,3-bis(2chloroethyl)-triazeno]-imidazole-4-carboxamide per kg, or 100 mg of 5-fluorouracil per kg resulted in a significant enhancement of lethality. Simultaneous administration of 5 mg Con A/kg and 10 mg of daunomycin per kg also resulted in enhanced lethality. Administration of 5 mg Con A/kg 24 hr before 40 mg of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea per kg, 200 mg of 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea per kg, 1000 mg of cytosine arabinoside per kg, 0.1 mg of mithramycin per kg, 2 mg of pactamycin per kg or 1 mg of vincristine per kg did not result in enhanced lethality. Lipid A prepared from Escherichia coli 0127:B8 Boivin lipopolysaccharide has been complexed to Con A. The lipid A-Con A complex (5mg/kg) was no more, or less effective in enhancing the lethality of 5-fluorouracil than 2.5 mg Con A/kg. The lipid A-Con A complex (40 mg/kg), given simultaneously with drug, enhanced lethality for mice given 0.1 mg mithramycin per kg or 1 mg vincristine per kg. In this regard, the lipid A-Con A complex had activity comparable to the complex formed between lipid A and bovine serum albumin. Conceivably, Con A can be used to enhance the susceptibility of neoplastic cells to phase-specific antitumor drugs, especially those acting on deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis.
Stochastic Discrete Damage Simulations of Laminate Composites

In this paper, probabilistic failure response and damage patterns in polymer matrix composite laminates was investigated by considering spatially varying strength properties. For this purpose, an efficient random field modeling framework for multiple cross-correlated random fields is proposed whereby different a set of uncorrelated random variables in the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) expansion are generated by Latin hypercube sampling technique and transformed to sets of correlated random variables. Discrete Damage Modeling (DDM) is performed by means of Regularized eXtended-Finite Element Method (Rx-FEM). The strength properties represented by spatially varying cross-correlated random fields define the matrix crack insertion patterns, whereas their propagation as well as the delamination growth is governed by cohesive law models with constant fracture toughness properties. One composite laminate a quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy (Hexply IM7/8552) [45/90/−45/90]s was modeled by using probabilistic DDM. The effect of statistical parameters such as the correlation length, variance and correlation coefficient between random fields of normal and shear strength within DDM framework was examined for the first time. Significant effects of the statistical parameters on the failure behavior and ultimate component strength was observed, manifesting importance of accurate definitions of the statistical properties for predicting probabilistic failure behavior and damage tolerance of laminate composites.
The Performance of Precipitated Calcium Carbonate Fillers in Fine Quality Printing and Writing Papers

The trend toward alkaline papermaking has accelerated over the past four years due to the availability of inexpensive, high quality precipitated calcium carbonate. This movement has been largely brought about through on-site production of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC). Over ten facilities exist in North America providing the host mills with custom-made PCC products to provide specific properties for the paper grades being manufactured. Laboratory studies were recently conducted to investigate the performance of paper-grade PCC fillers in fine quality printing papers. This investigation focused on the effect of changes in PCC particle size, size distribution, surface area, and morphology on paper properties. The PCC fillers were also compared to other filler materials such as ground limestone and kaolin. In general, the results show that sheet properties are greatly influenced by the size and shape of the PCC product used. The data reveal strong correlations between average particle size and/or surface area, and sheet properties such as opacity, porosity, tensile strength, bulk, and sizing within certain filler morphologies.
Seasonality and interspecific and intraspecific asynchrony in emergence from the nest by hatchling freshwater turtles

Timing of emergence from the natal nest is a variable trait in the life history of turtles. In theory, hatchling turtles that emerge synchronously, within and among nests, should gain a survival ad...
The Magic of Oaxaca: An Emotional Geography of Age, Gender and Nation

This study analyzes interviews with expat women in Oaxaca, Mexico. The women use the “magic” of Oaxaca to elude traditional expectations of aging and gender. Oaxaca is crucial for the process of defining themselves as vital and independent in what Massey (1994) calls a progressive sense of place. A translocal emotional geography is constructed. However, the issues of place and nation are more problematic. Efforts to sufficiently enter their various communities in Oaxaca determine the success the women have at overcoming neo-colonial interactions and assumptions.
Flexible growing rods: a biomechanical pilot study of polymer rod constructs in the stability of skeletally immature spines.

Surgical treatments for early onset scoliosis (EOS) correct curvatures and improve respiratory function but involve many complications. A distractible, or ‘growing rod,’ implant construct that is more flexible than current metal rod systems may sufficiently correct curves in small children and reduce complications due to biomechanical factors. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine ranges of motion (ROM) after implantation of simulated growing rod constructs with a range of clinically relevant structural properties. The hypothesis was that ROM of spines instrumented with polymer rods would be greater than conventional metal rods and lower than non-instrumented controls. Biomechanical tests were conducted on six thoracic spines from skeletally immature domestic swines (35–40 kg). Paired pedicle screws were used as anchors at proximal and distal levels. Specimens were tested under the following conditions: control, then dual rods of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) (diameter 6.25 mm), titanium (4 mm), and cobalt-chrome alloy (CoCr) (5 mm). Lateral bending (LB) and flexion-extension (FE) moments were applied, and vertebral rotations were measured. Differences were determined by two-tailed t-tests and Bonferroni for four primary comparisons: PEEK vs control and PEEK vs CoCr, in LB and FE (α = 0.05/4). In LB, ROM of spine segments after instrumenting with PEEK rods was lower than the non-instrumented control condition at each instrumented level. ROM was greater with PEEK rods than with Ti and CoCr rods at every instrumented level. Combining treated levels, in LB, ROM for PEEK rods was 35 % of control (p < 0.0001) and 270 % of CoCr rods (p < 0.01). In FE, ROM with PEEK was 27 % of control (p < 0.001) and 180 % of CoCr (p < 0.01). At proximal and distal adjacent non-instrumented levels in FE, mean ROM was lower for PEEK than for either metal. PEEK rods increased flexibility versus metal rods, and decreased flexibility versus non-instrumented controls, both over the entire instrumented segment and at each individual level. Smaller mean increases in ROM at proximal and distal adjacent motion segments occurred with PEEK compared to metal rods, which may help decrease complications, such as junctional kyphosis. Flexible growing rods may eventually help improve treatment options for young patients with severe deformity.
Understanding What It Means to Be Business-Like in the Nonprofit Sector: Toward a Communicative Explanation

Nonprofit organizations experience a significant dilemma: whether they are and/or should be business-like. Yet scholars know too little about how nonprofit practitioners themselves respond to and enact this tension. Through in-depth interviews, findings indicate that although nonprofit leaders claimed that their organizations were like businesses, they carefully constructed the meaning of “business-like” as compatible with and in service of their nonprofit mission. These findings support and extend previous ethnographic research and strengthen a communicative explanation of what it means to be business-like in nonprofit work.
Wealth, Health Expenditure, and Cancer: A National Perspective

Background The US health care system is characterized by high health expenditures with penultimate outcomes. This ecological study evaluates the associations between wealth, health expenditure, and cancer outcomes at the state level. Methods We extracted gross domestic product (GDP) and health expenditure per capita from the 2009 Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, respectively. Using data from the NCI, we retrieved colorectal cancer (CRC), breast cancer, and all-cancer age-adjusted rates and computed mortality/incidence (M/I) ratios. We used the Spearman's rank correlation to determine the association between the financial indicators and cancer outcomes, and we constructed geographic distribution maps to describe these associations. Results GDP per capita significantly correlated with lower M/I ratios for all cancers, breast cancer, and CRC. As for health expenditure per capita, preliminary analysis highlighted a rift between the Northeastern and Southern states, which translated into worse breast and all-cancer outcomes in Southern states. Further analysis showed that higher health expenditure significantly correlated with decreased breast cancer M/I ratio. However, CRC outcomes were not significantly affected by health expenditure, nor were all-cancer outcomes. Conclusions All cancers, breast cancer, and CRC outcomes significantly correlated with wealth, whereas only breast cancer correlated with higher health expenditure. Future research is needed to evaluate the potential role of policies in optimizing resource allocation in the states' efforts against CRC and minimizing disparities in interstate cancer outcomes.
Real-time monitoring and controlling of an Allen-Bradley SLC 500 through the Internet

Remote access to control and monitor various devices in industrial and other environments is very important and big challenge for engineers and automation institutes. The Internet technology is providing this accessibility with great benefits to the industry. One such demand is to access an Alien-Bradley SLC 500 family programmable logic controller (PLC) through the Internet using any available standard Web browser. This remote access capability provides real-time data acquisition to monitor and control devices that are connected to the inputs/outputs modules of the PLC. This paper presents a novel scheme to provide real-time accessibility to Alien Bradley PLC to control equipment without using any dedicated licensed software that runs as a tool for the Web server. Microsoft .NET programming technology has been used to implement the novel scheme. It involves two steps. The first step is to read and write data from the PLC SLC 5/03 using Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) programming language. In the second step, the SLC 5/03 data is displayed on the Web page "monitoring and controlling" as a HTML page, using Active Server Pages .NET (ASP.NET) through the Web Services. The Web server that has been utilized in this project is the Internet information services (US 5.0) under the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server.
Breast Lesion Elastography Region of Interest Selection and Quantitative Heterogeneity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we report measured elasticities of benign and malignant breast pathologies from shear wave elastography (SWE), quantitatively confirm the effect of the selected region of interest (ROI) on these measures and test the hypothesis that a metric of heterogeneity based on the mean and maximum elasticity can improve specificity of diagnosis. The elasticities of benign, malignant and specific pathologic states are reported from 22 publications encompassing 2989 patients, identified from a structured search of the literature from May to September 2015. Twelve articles were included in a meta-analysis that grouped results by the method of ROI selection to discriminate between different pathologies. We observe a significant correlation between the method of selection of ROI for malignant mean (p < 0.001) and maximum (p = 0.027) elasticities, but no correlation with benign measures. We define a quantitative heterogeneity parameter, the “stiffness gradient,” computed from the mean and maximum measured elasticities. The stiffness gradient out-performed the current standard maximum elasticity metric in stratifying malignancy risk by a margin of 15% for the partial ROI, and 42% for the maximized ROI. An anecdotal example of improved differentiation using the stiffness gradient on pathology-specific lesions is also provided. These results quantitatively indicate that the method of ROI selection in SWE not only has a significant impact on the resulting mean reported elasticity of a lesion, but may provide some insight into lesion heterogeneity. Our results suggest that further exploration of quantitative heterogeneity is warranted to improve the specificity of diagnosis.