cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The capacious hologenome.

Abstract Blending disciplines can be transformative in science, yet interdisciplinary mergers should not escape healthy skepticism. Indeed, the history of biology shows us that debates about the relative importance of nuclear genetics vs. microbial symbiosis in eukaryotic biology are among the most engaging. Today's technology may help resolve this century old debate as it illuminates the interwoven genomics and functions of symbionts with their host genome. Thus, we can now assert that all subdisciplines of zoology require microbiology. Although controversial to some, the evidence from studies of host-associated microbial communities indicates that metazoans are hologenomes – interconnected compositions of animal and microbes.
Realizing the Promise of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Data Archives

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are playing increasingly important roles in addressing traffic congestion, safety, and environmental concerns. Archiving and “reusing” the vast amounts of data initially collected by ITS for real-time operations holds the potential to significantly improve a wide range of transportation analyses. Effectively archiving and deriving information from ITS data requires the application of technology and algorithms recently developed and proven in research. This paper describes and summarizes this research, particularly in areas such as data warehousing, complex systems development, traffic data aggregation, traffic data imputation, and traffic data characterization. The paper concludes with a list of key future research needs required to allow expanded use of ITS data archives.
Worldview and route planning using live public cameras

Planning a trip needs to consider many unpredictable factors along the route such as traffic, weather, accidents, etc. People are interested viewing the places they plan to visit and the routes they plan to take. This paper presents a system with an Android mobile application that allows users to: (i) Watch the live feeds (videos or snapshots) from more than 65,000 geotagged public cameras around the world. The user can select the cameras using an interactive world map. (ii) Search for and watch the live feeds from the cameras along the route between a starting point and a destination. The system consists of a server which maintains a database with the cameras' information, and a mobile application that shows the camera map and communicates with the cameras. In order to evaluate the system, we compare it with existing systems in terms of the total number of cameras, the cameras' coverage, and the number of cameras on various routes. We also discuss the response time of loading the camera map, finding the cameras on a route, and communicating with the cameras.
An evaluation of a multicomponent treatment program involving scheduled smoking and relapse prevention procedures: Initial findings☆

In the current study, 34 smokers were treated in a smoking cessation program that involved either a scheduled smoking procedure, or a minimal contact self-help treatment control. The interval smoking program consisted of baseline, cessation, and relapse prevention phases. During baseline, subjects self-monitored smoking and the total hours spent awake. During a 3-week cessation period, the scheduled smoking group progressively increased their intercigarette interval, thereby gradually reducing their total daily intake of nicotine. Smokers were expected to quit on a target date set at the end of this period. Cognitive behavioral interventions and relapse prevention training consisted of behavioral rehearsal of nonsmoking skills in a relapse prone environment. Control subjects were given the American Cancer Society "I Quit Kit", and provided subsequent discussion of its use. The results showed that 53% and 41% of the scheduled smoking group was abstinent at the 6- and 12-month follow-up points, respectively. Controls averaged only 6% for the same periods. Scheduled smoking may be a useful addition to a multicomponent treatment program and further study appears warranted to determine the saliency of the treatment features.
Zero-Quantum Superconducting Magnetic Shield

The design of a new superconducting magnetic shield suitable for use with magnetic monopole detectors is described, together with a method for achieving a final state in which no magnetic flux quanta are trapped in the shield’s central region. The magnetic shield consists basically of a specially designed superconducting cylindrical tube, equipped with electrical and magnetic devices to remove flux quanta trapped during cooldown. An electrical current is applied along the length of the tube to cause mutual annihilation of trapped vortices and antivortices in the tube’s central region and thus to remove flux quanta transverse to the cylinder axis. A parallel applied magnetic field then moves an appropriate number of vortices and antivortices from tube-end reservoirs to opposite ends until no longitudinal flux quanta thread the tube. Also, a procedure is described by which the shield itself could be used as a monopole detector.
Heat Treatment Temporarily Inhibits Aroma Volatile Compound Emission from Golden Delicious Apples

Volatile compounds were collected by porous polymer trapping from Golden Delicious apples (Malus domestica Borkh.) that had been heat-treated for 4 days at 38 °C, a treatment developed to reduce physiological and pathological disorders during storage, and then stored at 1 °C. Heat treatment of apple fruits markedly inhibited emission of total volatile esters (compounds commonly associated with apple aroma) and total volatiles (comprised principally of the volatile esters and α-farnesene) of apple within 1 day of treatment. However, after an extended refrigerated storage at 1 °C, the heat-treated fruit recovered and produced more total volatiles, increasing from 4% compared to non-heat-treated fruit directly after heat treatment to 145% of non-heat-treated fruit after 6 weeks of storage. Total volatile production of non-heat-treated fruit declined over 5-fold during the 6 weeks of cold storage, while that of heat-treated fruit increased over 6-fold. Total volatile esters from heat-treated fruit declined af...
Global gyrokinetic particle simulation of turbulence and transport in realistic tokamak geometry

A general geometry model has been developed for the gyrokinetic toroidal code GTC with a number of highly desirable features including a systematic treatment of plasma rotation and equilibrium E × B flow, realistic plasma profiles and corresponding magnetohydrodanamic (MHD) equilibria. A symmetry coordinate system is used to construct a relatively regular mesh in real space for strongly shaped toroidal plasmas, which also facilitates straightforward visualization. By rescaling the radial coordinate, grid size is correlated with the local gyroradius which may vary substantially from the core to the edge. Gyrokinetic transformation of potential and charge density between particle and guiding center positions in general geometry is carefully treated, taking into account the finite ratio of the poloidal to the total field (Bθ/B). The applied equilibrium E × B flow, which is believed to play an important role in determining the turbulence level, is calculated from our global neoclassical particle code GTC-Neo. In the large aspect ratio circular geometry limit, cross benchmarks with the original GTC code show good agreement in real frequency, growth rate, steady-state heat flux and zonal flow amplitude for the ion temperature gradient driven microinstabilities (ITG modes).
A compiler framework for speculative optimizations

Speculative execution, such as control speculation or data speculation, is an effective way to improve program performance. Using edge/path profile information or simple heuristic rules, existing compiler frameworks can adequately incorporate and exploit control speculation. However, very little has been done so far to allow existing compiler frameworks to incorporate and exploit data speculation effectively in various program transformations beyond instruction scheduling. This paper proposes a speculative static single assignment form to incorporate information from alias profiling and/or heuristic rules for data speculation, thus allowing existing frameworks to be extended to support both control and data speculation. Such a general framework is very useful for EPIC architectures that provide run-time checking (such as advanced load address table) on data speculation to guarantee the correctness of program execution. We use SSAPRE as one example to illustrate how to incorporate data speculation in partial redundancy elimination, register promotion, and strength reduction. Our extended framework allows both control and data speculations to be performed on top of SSAPRE and, thus, enables more aggressive speculative optimizations. The proposed framework has been implemented on Intel's Open Research Compiler. We present experimental data on some SPEC2000 benchmark programs to demonstrate the usefulness of this framework.
Mapping applications for high performance on multithreaded, NUMA systems

The communication latency and available resources for a group of logical processors are determined by their relative position in the hierarchy of chips, cores, and threads on modern shared-memory systems. Multithreaded applications exhibit different performance behavior depending on the mapping of software threads to logical processors. We observe the execution time under one mapping can be 5.4 times as much as that under another. Applications with irregular access patterns show the worst performance under the default OS mapping.Mapping alone does not reduce remote accesses on NUMA machines when the logical processors span multiple chips. We present new data replication and distribution optimizations for two irregular applications. We further show that locality optimization reduces remote accesses and improves cache performance simultaneously and achieves better performance than prior NUMA-specific techniques.
Teaching Dialogue to Interdisciplinary Teams through Toolkits

We present some lessons we have learned from using software infrastructure to support coursework in natural language dialogue and embodied conversational agents. We have a new appreciation for the differences between coursework and research infrastructure---supporting teaching may be harder, because students require a broader spectrum of implementation, a faster learning curve and the ability to explore mistaken ideas as well as promising ones. We outline the collaborative discussion and effort we think is required to create better teaching infrastructure in the future.
Differences between the negatively activating potassium conductances of Mammalian cochlear and vestibular hair cells.

Cochlear and type I vestibular hair cells of mammals express negatively activating potassium (K + ) conductances, called gK,n and gK,L respectively, which are important in setting the hair cells’ resting potentials and input conductances. It has been suggested that the channels underlying both conductances include KCNQ4 subunits from the KCNQ family of K + channels. In whole-cell recordings from rat hair cells, we found substantial differences between gK,n and gK,L in voltage dependence, kinetics, ionic permeability, and stability during whole-cell recording. Relative to gK,L, gK,n had a significantly broader and more negative voltage range of activation and activated with less delay and faster principal time constants over the negative part of the activation range. Deactivation of gK,n had an unusual sigmoidal time course, while gK,L deactivated with a double-exponential decay. gK,L, but not gK,n, had appreciable permeability to Cs + . Unlike gK,L, gK,n’s properties did not change (‘‘wash out’’) during the replacement of cytoplasmic solution with pipette solution during ruptured-patch recordings. These differences in the functional expression of gK,n and gK,L channels suggest that there are substantial differences in their molecular structure as well.
Application of Electroless Deposited Thin-Film Palladium Composite Membrane in Hydrogen Separation

Abstract In recent years, there has been increased interest in developing inorganic and composite membranes for in-situ separation of hydrogen to achieve an equilibrium shift in catalytic membrane reactors. The productivity of these membrane reactors, however, is severely limited by the poor permeability and selectivity of available membranes. To develop a new class of permselective inorganic membranes, electroless plating has been used to deposit palladium thin-films on a microporous ceramic substrate. A palladium thin-film coating was deposited on a microporous ceramic disk (α-alumina, φ 39 mm × 2 mm thickness, nominal pore size 150 nm and open porosity ≈ 42%) by electroless deposition. The film was evaluated by SEM and EDX analysis. A steady-state counter-diffusion method, using gas chromatographic analysis, was used to evaluate the permeability and selectivity of the composite palladium membrane for hydrogen separation at temperatures from 373 to 573 K. The pressure on the high pressure side of the me...
Reaching Residents of Green Communities: Evaluation of a Unique Environmental Education Program

Often in green communities, homeowner understanding is left out of the project. We evaluated the impact of a new environmental education program installed in a green community, Town of Harmony, Florida. Consisting of educational kiosks, website, and brochure, we evaluated whether Harmony residents' environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors improved when compared to residents of a conventional community. After two years of exposure to the program, Harmony homeowners did show some improvement in environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and the control community did not. Such on-site educational programs can help homeowners understand ways to manage their homes, yards, and neighborhoods in a more sustainable manner.
Optimizing Recovery of Billing for Nutrition Services in the Hospital Based Outpatient Setting

Abstract It was our objective to review recovery of fees for nutrition consults provided by RD's in two different areas of our facility where patients were seen for malnutrition, but where billing practices differed. In one setting adolescents with eating disorders are seen as part of a team effort based in a physician practice plan. Fees for RD nutrition consults were billed under a physician provider number (CPT code), using a psychiatric diagnosis code (ICD-9 code), and identified on the patient bill as "nutrition consult". In contrast, dietitians saw patients in other clinics as part: of the Nutrition Services Dept., Hospital based cost center. These patients were billed under the UB 92 code for the institution, using the medical diagnosis codes (ICD-9 codes for malnutrition) and identified on the patient bill as "nutrition consult". In the physician practice plan 38 patients were seen for 154 nutrition sessions over 12 months in 1994; recovery of fees for nutrition consults by 3/95 as 49%. In contrast, fees to 143 patients seen in 185 sessions in the Hospital based clinics under the medical diagnosis codes for malnutrition resulted in 75% recovery over the same time period. In both settings, insurance coverage included commercial insurance, managed care plans, and public insurance. Further study is need to know if the more favorable reimbursement in one setting was due to the medical ICD-9 coding instead of psychiatric, or if the Hospital based setting vs the physician based practice setting was more responsible for the improved recovery of fees. Recovery of fees for nutrition services was substantial in both areas; billing as RD providing nutrition consultation in a Hospital based clinic using a medical ICD-9 code for malnutrition resulted in 50% better recovery of fees than from patients billed for a psychiatric diagnosis involving malnutrition in a physician office.
Characterization of Si homoepitaxial films grown with and without surface photoactivation by ArF excimer laser-induced photodissociation of Si 2 H 6

Silicon homoepitaxial films have been grown by photodissociation of Si2H6 by the 193 nm line of an ArF excimer laser in an ultra-high vacuum system. Silicon epitaxy has been achieved in two ways: one, in which the laser shines into the chamber parallel to the substrate and another, in which the laser is directly incident on the substrate at grazing angles (87° with respect to the substrate normal). Controllable growth rates of 0.5–4A/min have been achieved for crystalline films by the first method using substrate temperatures as low as 250° C, Si2H6 partial pressures of 20 mTorr and photon flux densities of 1016 photons/pulse.cm2. In the second method, where the laser beam is directly incident on the wafer at grazing angles, very high growth rates of up to 80A/min have been achieved at 300° C, 20 mTorr Si2H6 partial pressure and a photon flux density of 2 × 1015 photons/pulse.cm2. A comparison of the microstructure of the films grown by the two methods is presented on the basis ofin situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) analysis and selected area transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. In both cases, the growth rates are found to be linearly dependent on the photon flux density for the process parameter ranges studied.
An Introduction to Switch-Level Modeling

Switch-level modeling is a recently developed design and analysis methodology for MOS VLSI circuits. At the switch level, important features of MOS circuits can be directly modeled using a moderate number of discrete parameters, including switch states, resistance, capacitance, and bidirectional signals. Switch-level models, provide more accurate behavioral and structural information than gate-level logical models, while avoiding the high computational cost associated with analog electrical models.
Review of "Computer Data-Base Organization by James Martin", Prentice-Hall, Incorporated, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975, 558 pp., $26.50

James Martin's book strives to satisfy the need for an advanced textbook on data-base technology. He has organized his book into two major sections. Part I covers what he labels 'logical organization' and Part II covers 'physical organization'. While the book addresses all the major areas in data-base technology, it lacks the technical detail necessary for advanced courses in computer science.
Predicting Disparity Windows for Real-Time Stereo

New applications in fields such as augmented or virtualized reality have created a demand for dense, accurate real-time stereo reconstruction. Our goal is to reconstruct a user and her office environment for networked tele-immersion, which requires accurate depth values in a relatively large workspace. In order to cope with the combinatorics of stereo correspondence we can exploit the temporal coherence of image sequences by using coarse optical flow estimates to bound disparity search ranges at the next iteration. We use a simple flood fill segmentation method to cluster similar disparity values into overlapping windows and predict their motion over time using a single optical flow calculation per window. We assume that a contiguous region of disparity represents a single smooth surface which allows us to restrict our search to a narrow disparity range. The values in the range may vary over time as objects move nearer or farther away in Z, but we can limit the number of disparities to a feasible search size per window. Further, the disparity search and optical flow calculation are independent for each window, and allow natural distribution over a multi-processor architecture. We have examined the relative complexity of stereo correspondence on full images versus our proposed window system and found that, depending on the number of frames in time used to estimate optical flow, the window-based system requires about half the time of standard correlation stereo. Experimental comparison to full image correspondence search shows our window-based reconstructions compare favourably to those generated by the full algorithm, even after several frames of propagation via estimated optical flow. The result is a system twice as fast as conventional dense correspondence without significant degradation of extracted depth values.
Quebec's Comprehensive Auto No-Fault Scheme and the Failure of Any of the United States to Follow

Meme si le regime quebecois d'assurance automobile constitue un modele a suivre depuis 20 ans, aucun Etat americain n'a encore adopte un systeme d'indemnisation qui s'en approche. Le present texte expose les raisons qui expliquent cet echec, tant en Californie qu'ailleurs aux Etats-Unis. Il fait ressortir les facteurs propres a ce dernier pays, qui permettent de distinguer la situation americaine de celle des provinces canadiennes, en particulier le Quebec ; 1) Facteurs politiques — le pouvoir des avocats qui representent les victimes, la situation dans laquelle se retrouvent les assureurs et le mode d'organisation des gouvernements ; 2) Les perceptions du public — mefiance a l'egard du gouvernement, des compagnies d'assurance et de la promesse d'une reduction des primes d'assurance automobile ; 3) Les traditions — l'individualisme americain et le faible degre de penetration d'une idee de responsabilite collective ; 4) Compromis—abandonner le systeme americain de responsabilite civile implique la renonciation a plus de choses qu'ailleurs dans le monde ; 5) Considerations d'ordre general — craintes au niveau de la securite routiere, des couts et de l’« effet d'entrainement ». Enfin, l'auteur examine la possibilite qu'un ou plusieurs Etats americains puissent, a l'avenir, elaborer un systeme inspire du modele quebecois.
Mitochondrial diversity in new world house flies (Diptera: Muscidae).

Abstract Mitochondrial diversity in house flies was examined by using the single-strand conformation polymorphism method in house flies, Musca domestica L. sampled in six zoogeographical subregions in the New World. The number of haplotypes and haplotype diversities were homogeneous among subregions, but a strong spatial component was found in the distribution of particular haplotypes. Nei’s differentiation index among subregions, GRT, was 0.53 and that among populations within subregions, GPR, was 0.31. Greater genetic differentiation was found among populations in the Nearctic than in the Neotropics. Haplotype frequency distributions in two of three Nearctic subregions deviated from that expected under the neutral infinite allele model, suggesting the existence of differential selection patterns.
Temporal lobectomy in patients with bitemporal epilepsy defined by depth electroencephalography

Patient selection for temporal lobectomy was reviewed for 23 patients with seizures that arose independently from each temporal lobe as detected by depth electroencephalography (EEG). Although neuropsychological testing, interictal EEG findings, imaging studies, and subclinical seizures were also considered, all patients offered temporal lobectomy had (1) at least 50% of the clinical seizures originating from the lobe to be resected, (2) adequate contralateral memory on testing with amobarbital, and (3) no clear evidence of an extratemporal focus. Eleven patients underwent temporal lobectomy. Pathological findings were considered positive in all nine specimens reviewed. Nine patients had no seizures, one had greater than 75% reduction in seizure frequency, and 1 had 50 to 75% reduction. Pathological features and clinical outcome were similar in the 6 patients with fewer than 80% and the 5 patients with at least 80% of seizures originating from the resected lobe. Thus, having fewer than 80% of seizures originate from one temporal lobe should not be an absolute contraindication for temporal lobectomy.
Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies.

A discussion of matching, randomization, random sampling, and other methods of controlling extraneous variation is presented. The objective is to specify the benefits of randomization in estimating causal effects of treatments. The basic conclusion is that randomization should be employed whenever possible but that the use of carefully controlled nonrandomized data to estimate causal effects is a reasonable and necessary procedure in many cases. Recent psychological and educational literature has included extensive criticism of the use of nonrandomized studies to estimate causal effects of treatments (e.g., Campbell & Erlebacher, 1970). The implication in much of this literature is that only properly randomized experiments can lead to useful estimates of causal effects. If taken as applying to all fields of study, this position is untenable. Since the extensive use of randomized experiments is limited to the last half century,8 and in fact is not used in much scientific investigation today,4 one is led to the conclusion that most scientific "truths" have been established without using randomized experiments. In addition, most of us successfully determine the causal effects of many of our everyday actions, even interpersonal behaviors, without the benefit of randomization. Even if the position that causal effects of treatments can only be well established from randomized experiments is taken as applying only to the social sciences in which
Multibit correcting data interface for fault-tolerant systems

A fault-detecting, bidirectional data interface between uncoded data from one component, such as a processor, and coded data in the rest of the system is described. This interface is capable of correcting a single multibit symbol error or detecting the occurrence of two such errors. The device uses a shortened Reed-Solomon code, and two practical symbol sizes are considered; nibble (4-bit) errors are protected by a (40, 32) binary equivalent shortened code, and byte errors are covered by a (80, 64) binary-sized code. The Reed-Solomon codes have maximum protection levels, even when shortened, and allow simplifying the design options. A dual orthogonal basis used for the symbols' representations provides significant hardware savings. The interface unit achieves internal fault detection by comparing regenerated parity values in a totally self-checking equality checker. A fault-tolerant ultrareliable memory module is proposed and evaluated. An illustrative design is realized using a single desktop programmable gate array. >
Experimental verification of a Monte Carlo-based MLC simulation model for IMRT dose calculation.

Inter- and intra-leaf transmission and head scatter can play significant roles in intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)-based treatment deliveries. In order to accurately calculate the dose in the IMRT planning process, it is therefore important that the detailed geometry of the multi-leaf collimator (MLC), in addition to other components in the accelerator treatment head, be accurately modeled. In this paper, we have used the Monte Carlo method (MC) to develop a comprehensive model of the Varian 120 leaf MLC and have compared it against measurements in homogeneous phantom geometries under different IMRT delivery circumstances. We have developed a geometry module within the DPM MC code to simulate the detailed MLC design and the collimating jaws. Tests consisting of leakage, leaf positioning and static MLC shapes were performed to verify the accuracy of transport within the MLC model. The calculations show agreement within 2% in the high dose region for both film and ion-chamber measurements for these static shapes. Clinical IMRT treatment plans for the breast [both segmental MLC (SMLC) and dynamic MLC (DMLC)], prostate (SMLC) and head and neck split fields (SMLC) were also calculated and compared with film measurements. Such a range of cases were chosen to investigate themore » accuracy of the model as a function of modulation in the beamlet pattern, beamlet width, and field size. The overall agreement is within 2%/2 mm of the film data for all IMRT beams except the head and neck split field, which showed differences up to 5% in the high dose regions. Various sources of uncertainties in these comparisons are discussed.« less
Incremental synthesis for engineering changes

The problem of rectifying design incorrectness due to specification changes as well as design errors of VLSI circuits is formulated and a basic approach using logic synthesis techniques is presented. An efficient approach is presented for rectifying the functional incorrectness by attaching circuitry exterior to the original design. A necessary and sufficient condition for full rectification of the design is provided. It is shown that the proposed approach always succeeds in the rectification of arbitrary combinational circuits. The situation where rectification arises in a practical design process is briefly reviewed. >
Robust control design for ellipsoidal plant set

Presents a control design method for continuous-time plants whose uncertain parameters in the output matrix are only known to lie in an ellipsoidal set. The desired control is chosen to minimize the maximum linear quadratic regulator (LQR) cost from all the plants with parameters in the given set. Although no particular form is assumed for the minimax control, it turns out that it is the LQR control for one of the plants in the set, the worst-case plant. By defining an appropriate mapping, which maps an element from the given ellipsoidal set to an element of the same set, the existence of this worst-case plant is proved. A simple heuristic algorithm to compute the worst-case plant is also given. >
Urine Collection From Disposable Diapers in Premature Infants: Biochemical Analysis

Urine collection for analysis is commonly done in premature infants in sterile adhesive bags. Leakage due to poor adherence of the bag and irritation of the skin are frequent drawbacks with this technique. Urine retrieved from the fiber padding of disposable diapers has been shown to be reliable for biochemical analysis.1-3 However, the previous studies were done under laboratory conditions and the volume of urine used was much larger than a premature infant may void at one time. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of urine collected from disposable diapers for biochemical analysis in premature infants in the intensive care nursery.
Variation of Quality of Life Data Collection Across INTERMACS Sites

Abstract Background Given the importance of patients' health-related quality of life (HRQL) after mechanical circulatory support (MCS) device implantation, the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) collects the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) before and after MCS. The success of data collection and potential implications of missing data on HRQL analyses are unknown. Methods We examined the frequency and reasons for not collecting baseline and 3-month KCCQ data across INTERMACS sites from May 2012 to December 2013. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to examine site variability (median odds ratios [MOR]) for not collecting KCCQ data to demonstrate the degree to which some sites can collect more complete data than others. Results Among 3960 and 3523 patients participating in INTERMACS before and 3 months after left ventricular assist device implantation, the KCCQ was not collected in 43.1% at baseline (range across sites, 0–100%) and 40.9% (range, 0–100%) at follow-up. The most common reasons for incomplete KCCQ data at baseline were that the patient was too sick (13.9%) and consent to participate in research was not obtained (12.4%). Significant variation across sites was observed for missingness because of patient (MOR, 2.8; P P P P P P P P P P Conclusions Sites vary substantially in collecting KCCQ data, and many of these variations seem addressable. Improving the consistency of HRQL data collection can improve the value of INTERMACS in defining the patient-centered benefits of MCS treatment.
Extraction of low-order non-linear inductor models from a high-order physics-based representation

A method to extract low-order dynamic models of nonlinear magnetic devices from a high-order physics-based model is presented. The model includes saturation, skin effect, and eddy current. The physics-based model is derived from finite-element analysis, using only geometry and materials data. A nonlinear model order reduction method based on the Krylov subspace projection is used to extract the low-order model. A linear system is set up at each interpolation point along a training trajectory. Each linear system is reduced by the corresponding projection matrix. The resulting reduced linear systems are used to approximate the original system within each region, yielding accurate local simulation results. Good global properties are achieved by the use of piecewise simulation and weighting. Simulation results demonstrate that the original, nonlinear high-order system can be represented by a set of connected low-order, piecewise-linear systems with satisfactory agreement. This method can be automated and should provide a foundation for more complicated magnetic devices, such as multiphase coupled inductors, actuators, and rotary machines
Further Analysis of the Composite Wind and Thermodynamic Structure of the 12 September GATE Squall Line

Abstract An objective analysis technique is applied to the time-composite wind and thermodynamic fields of the 12 September GATE tropical squall line. Previous subjective analyses described by Gamache and Houze are confirmed and several new results are obtained. In the previous analyses, mesoscale upward motion was found in the upper troposphere of the stratiform precipitation region immediately trailing the squall line. Mesoscale downward motion was found in the lower troposphere of the stratiform region. The convective clouds were found to be the source of condensate for more than half of the stratiform precipitation, but mesoscale-updraft condensation was also found to be substantial. In these previous studies, thermodynamic structure was not analyzed, the wind analyses were limited by the number of levels included and vorticity was not analyzed. By employing an objective analysis method in the present study, we have refined and extended the previous work by including more levels, computing vorticity a...
The Dark Side of Compliments: An Explorative Analysis of What’s Eating You

The purpose of this article was to examine whether personal compliments stand as a form of positive reinforcement to eating disorder behaviors. The transcription of the show, What’s Eating You?, resulted in 72 single-spaced pages of text. The data analysis revealed that compliments were viewed as positive reinforcement for continuing the use of an eating disorder. Two sub-themes were salient. First, some individuals received positive reinforcement from friends or parents in high school, leading the individuals to desire more weight loss through use of bulimia or anorexia. Second, other indicated that at first they had either gained weight due to overeating or puberty, which led to negative reinforcement from loved ones or peers. As result, these individuals started binging and purging or starving self, which led to receiving positive reinforcement. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed in relation to eating disorder awareness, compliments, and reinforcement theory.
Damping of waves propagating over a muddy bottom in deep water: Experiment and theory

Abstract Surprisingly, deep water waves in the ocean propagating over mud bottoms can attenuate if wave groups are formed. This is shown in wave tank experiments, where two superimposed short waves with slightly different frequencies were generated to create the wave groups. Associated with the wave groups are long bound second order waves, which can exert wave pressure on the mud bottom, dissipating energy. Attenuation coefficients were measured by using Prony's method for each wave component as a function of distance down the tank. We develop an analytic expression for the nonlinear interaction between the two waves in deep water propagating at arbitrary angles by using Stokes' theory to second order. Finally, we show that the attenuation can be explained by the rate of work at bottom done by the long bound wave using the visco-elastic model MacPherson ( 1980 ). The results show that the dissipation depends on the incident wave periods, the bottom pressure and the vertical velocity of the long bound wave at the bottom.
IMMANENT METAPHOR, BRANCHING FORM(S), AND THE UNMAKING OF THE HUMAN IN ALICE AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

Forms are plastic, names cannot determine the essence of living things, and ceaselessly changing organisms cannot be conceived as elements within a signifying system. Each of these precepts of evolutionary theory finds itself reflected in Lewis Carroll's Alice books: Alice grows bigger and smaller without relation to any notion of a normal or standard size, fantastic organisms such as the “bread-and-butterfly” are generated out of metaphors and puns on taxonomic names, and the Queen's croquet game cannot function properly because the animals do not fulfill their prescribed roles. Lewis Carroll familiarized himself thoroughly with Darwinian theory in the years leading up to his composition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He “read widely on the subject of evolution” (Woolf 191), possessing “nineteen books on Darwin, his theories and his critics” (Smith 8), as well as five works of social evolutionist Herbert Spencer, including First Principles (1862), which put Darwinian theory in dialogue with religious understandings of the world (Cohen 350; Stern 17). As a lecturer in mathematics at Christchurch Oxford from 1855 to 1881, he was present during the famous 1860 debate at Oxford University Museum between Thomas Henry Huxley, one of the main proponents of evolutionary theory in the late nineteenth century, and Bishop of Oxford William Wilberforce, one of its major critics.
Laplacian Eigenmaps From Sparse, Noisy Similarity Measurements

Manifold learning and dimensionality reduction techniques are ubiquitous in science and engineering, but can be computationally expensive procedures when applied to large datasets or when similarities are expensive to compute. To date, little work has been done to investigate the tradeoff between computational resources and the quality of learned representations. We present both theoretical and experimental explorations of this question. In particular, we consider Laplacian eigenmaps embeddings based on a kernel matrix, and explore how the embeddings behave when this kernel matrix is corrupted by occlusion and noise. Our main theoretical result shows that under modest noise and occlusion assumptions, we can (with high probability) recover a good approximation to the Laplacian eigenmaps embedding based on the uncorrupted kernel matrix. Our results also show how regularization can aid this approximation. Experimentally, we explore the effects of noise and occlusion on Laplacian eigenmaps embeddings of two real-world datasets, one from speech processing and one from neuroscience, as well as a synthetic dataset.
The Practice of Critical Care Medicine: A National Survey Report

Aggressive reimbursement reform has been an imposing directive for care providers of ICU medicine. Timely knowledge of actual care routines obtained from a large sample of actively practicing physicians should be mandatory when developing any guidelines or practice standards. A questionnaire was therefore designed by the steering committee of the ACCP Council on Critical Care and sent to its members. The 1,294 responses were analyzed for demographics of the individual practitioner, local aspects of ICU staffing and policies, reimbursement, and a specific practice issue, nutrition. The typical respondent was aged 41 to 50 (41 percent), was a pulmonary subspecialist (68 percent), was not critical care certified (55 percent), worked 25 to 50 percent of his or her total time in the ICU (40 percent), and would continue ICU practice despite poor reimbursement (82 percent). Physicians practiced within a group (53 percent), in a 100- to 500-bed hospital (69 percent), with house staff available (60 percent), and predominantly cared for Medicare patients (55 percent). The following data may allow better judgments to be made pertaining to the implementation of care policies in the current ICU environment.
Voices of Aspiring Teachers of Color Unraveling the Double Bind in Teacher Education

This article centers and investigates the voices of teacher candidates of color to examine how double binds influence their teaching and learning experiences in teacher education programs. Intervie...
Gestation nutrition, tissue exchange and maintenance requirements of heifers.

Forty-six pregnant, crossbred, 2-yr-old heifers of large or small mature size were individually fed a 70% cottonseed hull diet during gestation. Heifers were fed at either 1.0% (nutritionally restricted) or 1.5% (nonrestricted) of body weight from 90 d gestation through parturition. Live weight, from 90 d gestation to parturition, was reduced by 20.5% and 1.0% for restricted and nonrestricted heifers, respectively. Whereas nonrestricted heifers gained maternal protein (3.2 kg) from d 90 through parturition, restricted heifers lost (P less than .05) protein (-5.4 kg) and mobilized twice (P less than .05) as much fat (49 vs 25 kg). Percentage of empty body protein increased 13.1 and 9.3% in restricted and nonrestricted heifers, respectively, whereas fat decreased (P less than .05) 31.7% (restricted) and 23.5% (nonrestricted) from 90 d to parturition. Daily metabolizable energy for maintenance (MEm) was greater for large than for small mature size heifers (169 vs 158 kcal/kg.75). Efficiency of ME use for gain was greater for small than for large mature size heifers (36.5 vs 31.2%). Efficiency in early gestation (45.4%) was greater than in late gestation (29.4%) and averaged 33.8% for 90 d gestation to parturition. Maintenance ME requirements increased 25% and efficiency of ME use decreased 35% with advancing stage of gestation. Nutritional restriction of heifers reduced (P less than .05) calf birth weight (27.3 vs 30.2 kg) and decreased gestation lengths (275 vs 282 d) compared with nonrestricted heifers. This research indicates that nutritional restriction of beef heifers alters birth weight, repartitions maternal tissues and changes rate of tissue mobilization.
Requirements for secure wireless time transfer

Time transfer is the backbone of all technologies that require synchronization between stations. Wireless time transfer protocols generally employ simple and convenient one-way communication for synchronization of different nodes. However, it is argued that all one-way wireless time transfer protocols are fundamentally vulnerable to replay attacks that compromise timing information. Necessary conditions for security of a two-way time transfer protocol are proposed and proved by contradiction. Furthermore, an example compliant system is presented in detail. The uncertainty in estimation of tropospheric delay using common climatological models is studied and its effect on the accuracy of one-way time transfer and security of two-way time transfer is presented. Analysis of these models suggest they are adequate for nanosecond-level accurate time transfer over links that are shorter than 10 km, but more sophisticated weather estimation techniques are needed if this accuracy is to be achieved over long distances.
Neurogenic Bladder/Underactive Bladder

Objectives 1. Discuss the definition and incidence of underactive bladder (UAB). 2. Describe assessment techniques in UAB. 3. Discuss appropriate interventions for the treatment of UAB.
Wake meandering statistics of a model wind turbine: Insights gained by large eddy simulations

A numerical investigation of the wake of an axial flow miniature wind turbine is presented to elucidate the three-dimensional structure of the wake and the mechanisms controlling near and far wake instabilities.
Automatic control: the vertebral column of dogfish sharks behaves as a continuously variable transmission with smoothly shifting functions

During swimming in dogfish sharks, Squalus acanthias , both the intervertebral joints and the vertebral centra undergo significant strain. To investigate this system, unique among vertebrates, we cyclically bent isolated segments of 10 vertebrae and nine joints. For the first time in the biomechanics of fish vertebral columns, we simultaneously characterized non-linear elasticity and viscosity throughout the bending oscillation, extending recently proposed techniques for large-amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) characterization to large-amplitude oscillatory bending (LAOB). The vertebral column segments behave as non-linear viscoelastic springs. Elastic properties dominate for all frequencies and curvatures tested, increasing as either variable increases. Non-linearities within a bending cycle are most in evidence at the highest frequency, 2.0 Hz, and curvature, 5 m−1. Viscous bending properties are greatest at low frequencies and high curvatures, with non-linear effects occurring at all frequencies and curvatures. The range of mechanical behaviors includes that of springs and brakes, with smooth transitions between them that allow for continuously variable power transmission by the vertebral column to assist in the mechanics of undulatory propulsion.
An Exploratory Examination of Factors Affecting Online Sales

Though there is an astounding increase in the amount of business being conducted online, online merchants face a number of problems in improving online sales. There is little understanding of the factors affecting online sales. Addressing this gap, our study examines the impact of web-site related factors on online sales. Based on literature review, we identified eleven variables representing the content, design, security and privacy dimensions of a web site. We examined the impact of these variables representing the content, design, security and privacy dimensions of a web site. We examined the impact of these variables on online sales through a sample of 487 web sites. Based on this analysis, we identified the following factors to be significantly impacting online sales: frequent update of web content, presence of decision aids, provision of information on the firm, presence of FAQ section, use of multimedia, provision of individual user accounts, secure modes of data transmission, provision to conduct ...