cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Low CTE Materials on Thermal Deformation of Organic Substrates in Flip Chip Package Application

Coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) characteristic of organic materials for substrates in flip chip package application demanded by semiconductor package requirements is becoming lower than ever. In general, height restrictions are imposed on package-on-package (PoP) devices in mobile applications. One should hence establish a tight budget on the height variation in manufacturing of the devices. Given such background, a lowering of the CTE characteristic of package substrates is an attractive solution for reducing package deformation upon manufacturing, since it contributes to minimize CTE mismatch of the substrates with silicon chips. In large-die flip chip applications such as high-end processors, a lower CTE substrate can mitigate mechanical stress not only on low-k layers in back end of the line (BEOL) underneath the chip bumps, but also on underfill layers during thermal cycling. Therefore an introduction of lower CTE materials in organic substrates is becoming essential for future applications of electronic devices. In this paper, thermal deformation behaviors of organic substrates associated with lowering of the CTEs of their constituent materials are analyzed by finite element analysis (FEA). The analyses are done on a 3-2-3 build-up layer structure substrate in order to focus onto typical application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) products. A finite element model for a test substrate is constructed by a method in which the substrate is divided into sections according to its circuitry patterns so that the lateral inhomogeneity of mechanical property is taken into account. The finite element analyses using the model showed that the package warpage decreases with lowering of the effective CTE of the substrate, but the warpage of the substrate itself increases and its surface profile changes from a concave shape to a convex shape. The analysis result of substrate warpage variation with the build-up material’s CTE showed that the selection of build-up materials with appropriate material properties can contribute to reduce the substrate warpage. The analysis also showed that the adverse impact to the substrate’s CTE reduction by such material selection is limited.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Quiet time for mechanically ventilated patients in the medical intensive care unit

Summary Objective Sleep disruption occurs frequently in critically ill patients. The primary aim of this study was to examine the effect of quiet time (QT) on patient sedation frequency, sedation and delirium scores; and to determine if consecutive QTs influenced physiologic measures (heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure and respiratory rate). Method A prospective study of a quiet time protocol was conducted with 72 adult patients on mechanical ventilation. Setting A Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) in the Midwest region of the United States. Results Sedation was given less frequently after QT ( p =0.045). Those who were agitated prior to QT were more likely to be at goal sedation after QT ( p p =0.035). Conclusion QT may influence sedation administration and promote patient rest. Future studies are required to further understand the influence of QT on mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit.
The critical role of the central nervous system (pro)renin receptor in regulating systemic blood pressure.

The systemic renin–angiotensin system (RAS) has long been recognized as a critically important system in blood pressure (BP) regulation. However, extensive evidence has shown that a majority of RAS components are also present in many tissues and play indispensable roles in BP regulation. Here, we review evidence that RAS components, notably including the newly identified (pro)renin receptor (PRR), are present in the brain and are essential for the central regulation of BP. Binding of the PRR to its ligand, prorenin or renin, increases BP and promotes progression of cardiovascular diseases in an angiotensin II-dependent and -independent manner, establishing the PRR a promising antihypertensive drug target. We also review the existing PRR blockers, including handle region peptide and PRO20, and propose a rationale for blocking prorenin/PRR activation as a therapeutic approach that does not affect the actions of the PRR in vacuolar H+-ATPase and development. Finally, we summarize categories of currently available antihypertensive drugs and consider future perspectives.
A Study on Vibration of Disc Using Semi-Analytic Finite Elements

This paper offers a method to solve the dynamics problem of disc parts.This method uses semianalytic annular elements and divides deflection functions of disc into two parts,one is a continuous analytical function in circular direction,and the other is a discrete function in radial direction.Thus,the problem is reduced from two dimensions to one dimension,so it can save more time and makes the response of the wavevibration easy to be calculated.
Three key questions to hi-tech Olympics impel our country science and technology industrial production

The article discusses the domestic and foreign scholars to the hi-tech Olympics basic understanding foundation in,pointed out generalized hi-tech Olympics are impel our country science and technology industrial production the basic premise,has proven the hi-tech Olympics idea realization possibility,science and technology industrial production,the internationalization which based on the Olympic games market rule,the appraisal and the control to hi-tech Olympics implements and so on three key questions.
Robust design of multi-HVDC system damping control based on synthetic residues of multiple operating conditions and H_2/H_∞

HVDC supplementary damping control is an effective measure to improve the damping of interarea low-frequency oscillation,but the installation location of damping controller and the selection of input signal are key influencing factors on the performance of damping controllers. A synthetic residues index of multiple operating conditions is proposed to determine the optimal combination of installation location and input signal,which comprehensively considers the controllability and observability of dominated mode,the coupling effect on other modes and the robustness under various operating conditions. Its effectiveness is verified by the comprehensive H2/ H∞performance of the designed damping controller. Simulations are carried out for a large-scale AC / DC hybrid power system with multiple faults under multiple operating conditions and results verify that,the robust design of multi-HVDC system damping control based on the synthetic residues of multiple operating conditions and the H2/ H∞improves effectively the damping in interarea low-frequency oscillation mode.
A study of cholinesterase activity of the blood of patients with pernicious anemia.

Abstract Observations on seven patients with pernicious anemia in relapse are reported. The cholinesterase activity of whole blood, red cells, and plasma has been followed during their return to remission. The cholinesterase activity of whole blood, red cells, and plasma in pernicious anemia patients in relapse is below normal levels. With therapy, the cholinesterase activity of the red cell is the first to rise. This rise in activity is not related to the reticulocytosis, the mean cell volume, or the increase in the number of red cells. The plasma activity remains constant until the values for red cell esterase have become abnormally high and then have returned to normal levels.
Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy and Cytoreductive Surgery in the Management of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis.

BackgroundMalignant peritoneal disease can lead to significant debility due to bowel obstructions, ascites, and cancer cachexia. Moreover, inadequate imaging techniques can lead to the suboptimal d...
Crisis, Revolution, Reform, and edTPA in the Context of Teacher Education

This chapter provides a general introduction to the volume, beginning with a brief rationale for examining performance assessments in light of recent policy and reforms in education in the United States, and establishes its key purposes: to propose a conceptual framework for the examination of current and future reforms in teacher education; and to document and examine the impact of a mandated performance assessment (SCALE’s edTPA) on our programs during the first year of consequential implementation. The introduction also lays the groundwork for the focus, in later chapters, on the affordances and constraints of edTPA for teacher preparation in the content areas of mathematics, English, and social studies, and concludes with an overview of subsequent chapters.
Release of Patients Containing Therapeutic Dosages of Iodine-131 from Hospitals

This continuing education article presents an analysis of NCRP recommendations and the evolving NRC regulations, with emphasis on 131I therapies. The literature on this topic is reviewed and incorporated into the analysis.
Repeated cardioversion during pregnancy: Treatment of refractory paroxysmal atrial tachycardia during 3 successive pregnancies

Abstract Multiple cardioversions for the treatment of refractory paroxysmal atrial tachycardia were performed during various stages of 3 pregnancies in a patient with no evidence of organic disease. All 3 babies were delivered with no abnormalities. It appears that this method of therapy is safe and effective for treating refractory arrhythmias during pregnancy.
Genotyping-by-sequencing provides the discriminating power to investigate the subspecies of Daucus carota (Apiaceae)

The majority of the subspecies of Daucus carota have not yet been discriminated clearly by various molecular or morphological methods and hence their phylogeny and classification remains unresolved. Recent studies using 94 nuclear orthologs and morphological characters, and studies employing other molecular approaches were unable to distinguish clearly many of the subspecies. Fertile intercrosses among traditionally recognized subspecies are well documented. We here explore the utility of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated by genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) to serve as an effective molecular method to discriminate the subspecies of the D. carota complex. We used GBS to obtain SNPs covering all nine Daucus carota chromosomes from 162 accessions of Daucus and two related genera. To study Daucus phylogeny, we scored a total of 10,814 or 38,920 SNPs with a maximum of 10 or 30% missing data, respectively. To investigate the subspecies of D. carota, we employed two data sets including 150 accessions: (i) rate of missing data 10% with a total of 18,565 SNPs, and (ii) rate of missing data 30%, totaling 43,713 SNPs. Consistent with prior results, the topology of both data sets separated species with 2n = 18 chromosome from all other species. Our results place all cultivated carrots (D. carota subsp. sativus) in a single clade. The wild members of D. carota from central Asia were on a clade with eastern members of subsp. sativus. The other subspecies of D. carota were in four clades associated with geographic groups: (1) the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East, (2) North America and Europe, (3) North Africa exclusive of Morocco, and (4) the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. Daucus carota subsp. maximus was discriminated, but neither it, nor subsp. gummifer (defined in a broad sense) are monophyletic. Our study suggests that (1) the morphotypes identified as D. carota subspecies gummifer (as currently broadly circumscribed), all confined to areas near the Atlantic Ocean and the western Mediterranean Sea, have separate origins from sympatric members of other subspecies of D. carota, (2) D. carota subsp. maximus, on two clades with some accessions of subsp. carota, can be distinguished from each other but only with poor morphological support, (3) D. carota subsp. capillifolius, well distinguished morphologically, is an apospecies relative to North African populations of D. carota subsp. carota, (4) the eastern cultivated carrots have origins closer to wild carrots from central Asia than to western cultivated carrots, and (5) large SNP data sets are suitable for species-level phylogenetic studies in Daucus.
Recent Progress in Mathematics

In the last chapter we discussed seven of the most famous classical theorems of mathematics. We now turn to three more recent results to complete our top ten list. We will not provide any proofs—in fact, there are very (very!) few people who have seen complete proofs for these results.
Salt, sweat, and unclear? Diaphoresis and hypernatremia in end-stage kidney disease: Questions

This quiz will discuss two patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) on dialysis presenting with diaphoresis and hypernatremia.
Vertical gaze palsy due to medication error

We present a teenage boy with recent onset of seizures, who was erroneously treated with a large dose of an antiseizure medication as a result of drug mix-up. The ensuing drug toxicity caused vertical gaze palsy, an unusual manifestation related to overdose of the agent. Timely recognition of the error and discontinuation of the drug resulted in complete recovery to baseline.
Abstract 409: Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Mediates Fluid Balance and Metabolic Effects of the Brain Renin-Angiotensin System

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the subsequent unfolded protein response (UPR) have been identified as important contributors to various neural diseases. We examined the role of ER stress and the UPR in the metabolic and fluid balance effects of brain angiotensin in two mouse models. The ER stress-reducing chemical chaperone tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA, 5.28 ug/day) or aCSF vehicle was infused into the lateral cerebral ventricle (ICV) of either C57Bl/6J mice treated for three weeks with high dietary sodium and chronic subcutaneous deoxycorticosterone acetate (the “DOCA-salt” model), or transgenic “sRA” mice that express human renin in neurons via the synapsin promoter and human angiotensinogen via its own promoter. Both the DOCA-salt and sRA models exhibit hyperactivity of the brain RAS, suppression of circulating RAS, hypertension, polydipsia, and an elevated resting metabolic rate. Forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain regions of sRA mice exhibited a significant elevation of CHOP mRNA, a marker of long-term UPR. There were no changes in CHOP expression in the cortex and cerebellum. ICV TUDCA significantly attenuated the polydipsia (DOCA-aCSF 20.7±0.9 vs DOCA-TUDCA 10.8±1.0 mL/day, P 2 /100g/min, P
The Morality of Violence in La Virgen de los Sicarios

In this article, I analyse the moral systems of the protagonists of Vallejo’s La Virgen de los Sicarios. The protagonists have different in-group and out-group moralities, especially when considering violence in Colombian society. Fernando, the narrator and main character, shifts his out-group morality from a civilized to a ‘sicariato’ one due to the influence of his sicario-lovers. This means that he gradually approves of violence against other people. I hypothesize that this changing morality is a feature of the sicaresque genre. I also present prototypical standard features as tools for inclusion of novels within the sicaresque. Future analyses will show if changing moralities is one of the characterizing features of this genre.
Temporal lobe asymmetry in FDG-PET uptake predicts neuropsychological and seizure outcomes after temporal lobectomy

Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether preoperative [18F]fludeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) asymmetry in temporal lobe metabolism predicts neuropsychological and seizure outcomes after temporal lobectomy (TL). Methods An archival sample of 47 adults with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy who underwent TL of their language-dominant (29 left, 1 right) or nondominant (17 right) hemisphere were administered neuropsychological measures pre- and postoperatively. Post-TL seizure outcomes were measured at 1 year. Regional FDG uptake values were defined by an automated technique, and a quantitative asymmetry index (AI) was calculated to represent the relative difference in the FDG uptake in the epileptic relative to the nonepileptic temporal lobe for four regions of interest: medial anterior temporal (MAT), lateral anterior temporal (LAT), medial posterior temporal (MPT), and lateral posterior temporal (LPT) cortices. Results In language-dominant TL, naming outcomes were predicted by FDG uptake asymmetry in the MAT (r = − 0.38) and LPT (r = − 0.45) regions. For all patients, visual search and motor speed outcomes were predicted by FDG uptake asymmetry in all temporal regions (MPT, r = 0.42; MAT, r = 0.34; LPT, r = 0.47; LAT, r = 0.51). Seizure outcomes were predicted by FDG uptake asymmetry in the MAT (r = 0.36) and MPT (r = 0.30) regions. In all of these significant associations, greater hypo metabolism in regions of the epileptic temporal lobe was associated with better postoperative outcomes. Conclusions Our results support the conclusion that FDG uptake asymmetry is a useful clinical tool in assessing risk for cognitive changes in patients being considered for TL.
Surface-Stress-Driven Pseudoelasticity and Shape Memory Effect at the Nanoscale

The pseudoelastic deformation of some shape memory alloys (SMAs) such as Au-Cd, Au-Cu-Zn, Cu-Zn-Al, and Cu-Al-Ni proceeds through the reversible movement of twin boundaries (Ren and Otsuka [1]). The behavior of these materials is commonly referred to as rubber-like due to its resemblance to the behavior of soft and pseudoelastic rubber (Otsuka and Wayman [2]). A similar behavior and a shape memory effect (SME) are discovered in single-crystalline Cu nanowires with lateral dimensions between 1.76 and 3.39 nm through molecular dynamics simulations. This behavior at the nanoscale is due to reversible crystallographic lattice reorientations through the movement of twin boundaries within the FCC crystalline structure (Fig. 2), allowing Cu nanowires to exhibit recoverable strains of up to more than 50% which are well beyond the recoverable strains of 5–8% of most SMAs. The reorientation is driven by high internal stresses resulting from the surface stress and high surface-to-volume ratios of the nanowires. This phenomenon only occurs in nanowires within the size range of 1.76–3.39 nm and is not observed in bulk Cu. Furthermore, it is temperature-dependent and hence gives rise to an SME. Specifically, the critical temperature for spontaneous reorientation upon unloading increases from 100 to 900 K as the wire size increases from 1.76 to 3.39 nm, making it possible to design nanoscale components of varying sizes for operation over a wide range of temperature. Such an objective is more difficult to achieve with conventional bulk SMAs since their transition temperatures (martensite start and finish temperatures, austenite start and finish temperatures) only vary with material structures and composition, not size. Moreover, the nanowires have very short response times which are on the order of nanoseconds due to their extremely small dimensions compared with bulk SMAs.
Laser induced fluorescence of Ar-I metastables in the presence of a magnetic field

We compare three laser induced fluorescence schemes for measuring velocity distributions of Ar-I 1s 5 metastables in the presence of a magnetic field. In these three-level schemes, the 1s 5 state is optically pumped to 2p 2, 2p 3, or 2p 4 by sweeping the frequency of a tuneable CW laser over transitions in the visible range at 696.7352 nm, 706.9167 nm, and 714.9012 nm, respectively. Broadening in the fluorescence spectra is attributed to Zeeman splitting and saturation effects. We present measurements of spectral broadening dependence on injected laser intensity and describe spectral reconstructions that account for Zeeman splitting. For laser injection parallel to a background magnetic field, the separation of the Zeeman-split σ ± clusters is an effective, non-perturbative localized magnetic field diagnostic. We discuss the advantages of the three transition schemes and present the optimal transition for several applications.
Instrumentation and Analytical Methods

This chapter discusses various techniques used in clinical laboratories, including ion-selective electrodes for measuring electrolytes, colorimetric methods, immunoassays, and more sophisticated techniques such as gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry or tandem mass spectrometry.
Linear Morphological Stability

In Chapter 8 the foundational subject of interface capillarity was developed to explain why curved crystal-melt boundaries exhibit modified thermodynamic properties compared to their planar counterparts, especially regarding their equilibrium temperature and solubility. Having discussed the thermodynamic aspects of crystal-melt interfaces, we return again to a study of their kinetic behavior, and concentrate more on the dynamical aspects of morphological stability during freezing.
The evolution of morphogens

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the evaluation of morphogens. Some morphogens can only spread through the gap junctions between cells, which are found in higher animals but not in slime molds. They only allow molecules of molecular weights slightly over a thousand to pass through, and there have been no estimates to what degree this affects the rates of diffusion from cell to cell. By blocking the junctions, different sorts of developmental anomalies can be produced, and these adverse effects are presumably a result of prevention of key morphogens from passing from cell to cell. By analyzing such abnormalities, it might be possible to get some indirect view of the role that gap-junction morphogens play in normal development. A number of morphogens are polypeptides, or proteins. This will be too large to penetrate gap junctions, and therefore they must diffuse in the extracellular matrix and bind surface receptors on the target cells. There will be a severe limit on their rate of transport as macromolecules diffuse slowly.
Police Body-Worn Cameras: Effects on Officers’ Burnout and Perceived Organizational Support:

Police departments in the United States are rapidly adopting body-worn cameras (BWCs). To date, no study has investigated the effects of BWCs on police officers themselves, despite evidence suggest...
Geriatric Pharmacology and Drug Prescribing for Older Adults

Upon completion of the chapter, the student will be able to: 1. Describe age-associated changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. 2. Describe common adverse drug effects and drug-disease interactions in older adults. 3. Identify methods for enhancing older patients’ ability to manage their medications.
Pre-surgical Treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma

With the development of a number of novel targeted systemic therapies for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), there has been renewed interest in the pre-surgical treatment of this disease. The rationale for administering systemic therapy prior to surgery in patients with locally advanced or metastatic RCC is threefold. First, systemic therapy may decrease tumor size and complexity, allowing for less invasive approaches to surgery. Second, by treating distant micrometastatic disease, systemic therapy can theoretically improve oncologic outcomes. Finally, pre-surgical systemic therapy in patients with metastatic RCC may help to identify those patients who are most likely to benefit from cytoreductive surgery. This chapter evaluates pre-surgical therapies including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, angioembolization, and targeted molecular therapies. The evidence of benefit for pre-surgical therapy in different clinical contexts is discussed, and the ideal duration of therapy, toxicities, and associated adverse events are reviewed.
An efficient correlation for heat and mass transfer effectiveness in tumble-type clothes dryer drums

Abstract A heat and mass transfer effectiveness definition relevant to clothes dryers is developed in this work. A correlation is presented for determining the effectiveness of heat and mass transfer in a horizontal-axis, tumble-type clothes dryer drum with axial airflow. The correlation is a function of four measurable quantities: air mass flow rate, cloth mass, air mass in the drum, and the fall time experienced by a cloth falling the full height (i.e. diameter) of the drum. The Buckingham Pi Theorem is applied to the problem in order to derive dimensionless terms upon which the effectiveness depends. Empirical data from several dryers are used to derive an empirical correlation as a function of the dimensionless variables. Three cloth types were investigated, and a separate empirical correlation is proposed for each. Together, the drum effectiveness concept and the correlation presented provide a new, more accurate, computationally efficient, and readily implemented framework for modeling and simulating clothes dryers. It is relevant to conventional gas and electric clothes drying appliances, vapor compression heat pump dryers, and thermoelectric heat pump clothes dryers. With appropriate empirical inputs, the framework is extensible to any thermal-evaporative cloth drying systems, including radial-flow horizontal axis tumble drying drums.
Investigation into the Depth of Pulsed Eddy-Current Penetration

Pulsed eddy-currents have been used successfully for a number of years to measure the wall thickness of thin-wall tubing. In studies of 88.9-mm (3.50-in.)-diameter stainless-steel tubing, wall thicknesses in the 0.254 to 0.762 mm (0.010 to 0.030 in.) range have been measured with an accuracy of ′10%. This paper describes an investigation of the relationship between the pulse length and depth of electromagnetic plane-wave penetration. Long pulses contain lower-frequency components than pulses of shorter duration. Therefore, longer pulses will penetrate much more deeply into a conductive material, assuring a 90 percent confidence level in the measurement of thicker materials. The pulsed eddy-current equipment used at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) employs sampling of the detector waveform at discrete time intervals. Optimization of field-coil design for larger thicknesses of conductive material necessitates an increase in the pulse length. With a preliminary coil design, a penetration of 9 mm into stainless steel was achieved.
The Direct Investment Income Puzzle

The official statistics – whether the published aggregates or the confidential microdata – do not support the longstanding view that US direct investment abroad (USDIA) outperforms foreign direct investment in the US (FDIUS). Rather, the apparent yields differential results primarily from two subtleties of the data. First, USDIA business activity is "double counted" at holding companies. Second, unlike FDIUS, USDIA profits are not recorded on a fully after-tax basis. Leading explanations for the relative profitability of USDIA, such as income shifting and industry composition, have limited or countervailing effects. The US does not enjoy an exorbitant privilege in direct investment returns.
Medical Student Mistreatment-an Obstetrics and Gynecology Perspective: a Pilot Study.

To determine if perception of mistreatment and severity in each of the professional videotaped vignettes was similar between participants of differing professional status (Ob/Gyn attending physicians, resident physicians, and medical students), previous mistreatment status, ethnic minority status, and gender. Three video vignettes were filmed portraying possible medical student mistreatment during an obstetrics and gynecology clerkship. Prior to watching the videos, all participants were asked to complete a questionnaire related to their prior experience with mistreatment as a medical student along with other demographic details. After viewing each video, participants were asked to rate the video as representing mistreatment (yes/no) and, if yes, the severity of medical student mistreatment. Eight attending physicians, ten resident physicians, and ten medical students participated in this study. Professional status, previous mistreatment status, ethnic minority status, and gender did not affect how participants perceived mistreatment or the severity of the video vignettes. Fifty percent (14/28) of participants reported previous mistreatment as a medical student, all of which occurred during their third year of medical school. Medical students, resident physicians, and attending physicians generally agreed which video vignettes represented medical student mistreatment and the level of severity of the event.
The Neural Correlates of Conflict Detection and Resolution During Multiword Lexical Selection: Evidence from Bilinguals and Monolinguals.

Previous studies have identified the Event Related Potential (ERP) components of conflict detection and resolution mechanisms in tasks requiring lexical selection at the individual word level. We investigated the brain potentials associated with these mechanisms in a lexical selection task based on multiword units made up of verb–noun combinations (e.g., eat breakfast, skip school). Native and non-native English speakers were asked to select a familiarized target verb–noun sequence (eat breakfast) between two choices. Trials were low-conflict, with only one plausible candidate (e.g., eat – shoot – breakfast) or high-conflict, with two plausible verbs (e.g., eat – skip – breakfast). Following the presentation of the noun, native English speakers showed a biphasic process of selection, with a conflict-detection centro-parietal negativity between 500 and 600 ms (Ninc), followed by a right frontal effect (RFE) between 600 and 800 ms preceding responses. Late Spanish–English bilinguals showed a similar but more sustained and more widespread effect. Additionally, brain activity was only significantly correlated with performance in native speakers. Results suggest largely similar basic mechanisms, but also that different resources and strategies are engaged by non-native speakers when resolving conflict in the weaker language, with a greater focus on individual words than on multiword units.
A semi-target analytical method for quantification of OH-PCBs in environmental samples.

Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) are oxidative metabolites of PCBs and residuals found in original Aroclors. OH-PCBs are known to play a role as genotoxicants, carcinogens, and hormone disruptors, and therefore it is important to quantify their presence in human tissues, organisms, and environmental matrices. Of 837 possible mono-OH-PCBs congeners, there are only ~ 70 methoxylated PCB (MeO-PCB) standards commercially available. Hence, a semi-target analytical method is needed for unknown OH-PCBs. The mass concentrations of these unknowns are sometimes determined by assuming the peak responses of other available compounds. This can bias the results due to the choices and availabilities of standards. To overcome this issue, we investigated the peak responses of all commercially available MeO-PCB standards with gas chromatography (GC) coupling with triple quadrupole (QqQ) mass spectrometry (MS) system, with positive electron impact (EI) ionization at 20–70 eV in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. We found correlations between the relative peak responses (RRFs) and the number of chlorine (#Cl) in the molecules of MeO-PCBs. Among the studied models, the quadratic regression of #Cl is the most suitable model in the RRF prediction (RRF = β1 × #Cl^2 + β0) when the peak responses are captured at 30 eV. We evaluated the performance of the model by analyzing 12 synthesized MeO-PCB standards and a PCB-contaminated sediment collected from a wastewater lagoon. We further demonstrate the utility of the model using a different chromatography column and GC-EI-MS system. We found the method and associated model to be sufficiently simple, accurate, and versatile for use in quantifying OH-PCBs in complex environmental samples.
Comparison of the Anionic Ring-Opening Polymerizations of N -(Alkylsulfonyl)azetidines

N-sulfonylazetidines undergo anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP) to form poly(N-sulfonylazetidine)s, which are potential precursors to valuable polyimines. In this work, the impacts of alkyl sulfonyl substitution on the AROP of (N-(ethanesulfonyl)azetidine (EsAzet), N-(2-propanesulfonyl)azetidine (iPsAzet), and N-(tert-butylsulfonyl)azetidine (tBsAzet) are studied and compared to those of the previously reported polymerization of N-(methanesulfonyl)azetidine (MsAzet). The polymerization kinetics of EsAzet and iPsAzet is of the first order with respect to their monomers and produces p(EsAzet) and p(iPsAzet), which are both soluble in DMF and DMSO. In contrast, the polymerization of tBsAzet proceeds only to low conversion due to precipitation of p(tBsAzet) under identical conditions. At lower temperatures (120 °C), iPsAzet polymerizes with the fastest rate, while at higher temperatures (180 °C), the rate of MsAzet is the fastest. The reordering of the relative polymerization rates of MsAzet, EsAzet, ...
Assessment of a hybrid system that uses small modular reactors (SMRs) to back up intermittent renewables and desalinate water

Abstract Because water is easier to store in substantial quantity than electricity, this paper examines the possibility that a U.S. domestic market for factory-manufactured small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) might be developed to use the constant output of an SMR to perform water desalination when wind or solar power are producing high output and generate electricity for the grid when wind or solar power output is low. In the first part of the paper, we compare powering desalination systems with electricity from SMRs and from natural gas plants that are equipped with a system that performs carbon capture and geological sequestration (NG CCS). We show that mass-produced SMRs could have costs that are comparable to, but probably somewhat higher than those of systems based on NG CCS. We find that the cost of CO2 emissions would have to rise to roughly 200 $/ton for the SMR solution to be clearly dominant. In the second part of the paper, we examine the uneven water supply situation across the U.S, focusing on the southwestern and western regions, and conclude that over the next several decades serious shortages are likely to develop only in a few local markets, such as West Texas and the Monterey Peninsula. Even if factory mass production of SMR's were more successful in reducing costs than experts have estimated, and costs could be reduced to that of NG CCS systems, the commercial risks and siting difficulties likely to accompany SMRs would probably preclude their wide adoption in the U.S. over the next few decades. Globally there are regions where a significant market for desalination supported by nuclear power might develop. However, aggressive changes in U.S. regulatory and export policy will be needed if U.S. SMR manufacturers are to play a role in those or similar markets in the face of aggressive Chinese, South Korean, and Russian programs of reactor exports.
The Novel Hemodynamic Variable Aortic Pulsatility Index Predicts Freedom from Advanced Heart Failure Therapies and Death

Purpose We hypothesized that a novel invasive hemodynamic measure reflecting cardiac contractility and filling pressure would predict long-term prognosis. Methods We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients undergoing right heart catheterization (RHC) with milrinone drug study at our institution between 2/2013-2/2017. In addition to usual RHC measurements aortic pulsatility index (API) was calculated as (systolic blood pressure - diastolic blood pressure)/pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine association with continued medical management (MM) compared to advanced therapies (AT), defined as the combined endpoint of progression to left ventricular assist device, orthotopic heart transplant or need for inotropes, or death at 30 days and 1 year. Results A total of 120 patients (33% female, average age 57 ± 13 years, 45% ischemic cardiomyopathy) were included in the analysis. Baseline API was higher in patients on MM at 30-days and 1-year post-RHC, OR 2.6 (95% CI 1.6-4.5,p Conclusion API is a novel invasive hemodynamic measurement that better predicts freedom from AT or death at 30-day and 1-year follow-up when compared to traditional RHC measurements.
On Designing a Forensic Toolkit for Rapid Detection of Factors that Impact Face Recognition Performance When Processing Large Scale Face Datasets

Due to the overlap between the fields of forensic investigation and biometric recognition, including face recognition, there have been several interesting applications that bridge the gap between the two sciences and better connect the associated communities. These applications have been developed with the intent to assist law enforcement officers with computer assisted and biometrics related capabilities. Thus, utilizing biometric algorithms within the forensics field can support law enforcement investigations in a wide array of applications, including fingerprint comparisons, sketch-to-photo face comparisons, and even find persons of interest via soft biometrics such as scars, marks, and tattoos. In this book chapter, we focus on facial recognition, which can help provide clues when other forensic evidence is not present or available and, most importantly, help investigators eliminate the time consuming processes of interviewing potential witnesses or manually searching through thousands of mugshots to determine a suspect’s identity. To aid in this mission, we propose a software toolkit to automatically and hierarchically categorize face images with a set of binary classifiers using three different attributes, which depending on their true label/condition can affect facial recognition performance. These attributes are: based on facial photo, (1) determining whether a subject’s eyes are open or closed, (2) whether the subject is wearing glasses or not, and (3) whether the facial pose of the subject is either frontal or non-frontal. Our toolkit offers batch processing and therefore can aid forensic operators with a capability to rapidly categorize large scale face datasets in terms of the aforementioned attributes, and thus, determine, which individuals have a higher chance to be identified based on their face information. The proposed forensic toolkit will allow the operators to analyze, enhance, group, or exclude face data before being used for face matching.
Artificial illumination identification from an unmanned aerial vehicle

Artificial illumination identification within images is a useful tool for many applications. Performing such identification allows for an estimation of the illumination source spectrum, which in turn can be used for additional applications ranging from spectral detection and exploitation to statistics about nighttime light usage. Illumination identification has been performed in laboratory settings but not from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. Here, we test the feasibility of using a UAV and commercial off-the-shelf multispectral imaging sensor to perform such artificial illumination identification through linear discriminant analysis using nighttime UAV images. The results are very promising, showing source classification accuracies of 83.3%, 92.3%, 100%, and 100% for the incandescent, light-emitting diode, high pressure sodium, and metal halide illumination sources, respectively. We show that the information gained from the source identification can be further used to inform additional analysis, such as spectral identification. The high resolution of UAV imaging techniques combined with the knowledge of the illumination source can lead to better exploitation of such nighttime data for many applications.
Extended Lagrangian Born–Oppenheimer molecular dynamics for orbital-free density-functional theory and polarizable charge equilibration models

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (XL-BOMD) [A. M. N. Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] is formulated for orbital-free Hohenberg-Kohn density-functional theory and for charge equilibration and polarizable force-field models that can be derived from the same orbital-free framework. The purpose is to introduce the most recent features of orbital-based XL-BOMD to molecular dynamics simulations based on charge equilibration and polarizable force-field models. These features include a metric tensor generalization of the extended harmonic potential, preconditioners, and the ability to use only a single Coulomb summation to determine the fully equilibrated charges and the interatomic forces in each time step for the shadow Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface. The orbital-free formulation has a charge-dependent, short-range energy term that is separate from long-range Coulomb interactions. This enables local parameterizations of the short-range energy term, while the long-range electrostatic interactions can be treated separately. The theory is illustrated for molecular dynamics simulations of an atomistic system described by a charge equilibration model with periodic boundary conditions. The system of linear equations that determines the equilibrated charges and the forces is diagonal, and only a single Ewald summation is needed in each time step. The simulations exhibit the same features in accuracy, convergence, and stability as are expected from orbital-based XL-BOMD.
Learning of food preferences: mechanisms and implications for obesity & metabolic diseases

Omnivores, including rodents and humans, compose their diets from a wide variety of potential foods. Beyond the guidance of a few basic orosensory biases such as attraction to sweet and avoidance of bitter, they have limited innate dietary knowledge and must learn to prefer foods based on their flavors and postoral effects. This review focuses on postoral nutrient sensing and signaling as an essential part of the reward system that shapes preferences for the associated flavors of foods. We discuss the extensive array of sensors in the gastrointestinal system and the vagal pathways conveying information about ingested nutrients to the brain. Earlier studies of vagal contributions were limited by nonselective methods that could not easily distinguish the contributions of subsets of vagal afferents. Recent advances in technique have generated substantial new details on sugar- and fat-responsive signaling pathways. We explain methods for conditioning flavor preferences and their use in evaluating gut–brain communication. The SGLT1 intestinal sugar sensor is important in sugar conditioning; the critical sensors for fat are less certain, though GPR40 and 120 fatty acid sensors have been implicated. Ongoing work points to particular vagal pathways to brain reward areas. An implication for obesity treatment is that bariatric surgery may alter vagal function.
Intraoperative Ventilation in the High-Risk Surgical Patient

Postoperative pulmonary complications contribute to perioperative morbidity and mortality in addition to being associated with increased health care costs. In this review article, we outline risk factors for the development postoperative pulmonary complications, describe their impact on perioperative outcomes, and focus on the role of intraoperative ventilation strategies in decreasing postoperative pulmonary complications.
Cetacean conservation and the ethics of captivity

Abstract Recent decades have seen increasing opposition to cetacean captivity among the general public. However, these discussions often do not address captivity in the context of conservation. At the same time, approaches within conservation biology—compassionate conservation and multispecies justice—call for greater attention to the impact of conservation interventions on individual nonhuman animals. Many questions remain about the implications of these approaches for conservation practice. In this paper, we focus on two recent case studies in cetacean conservation. These case studies highlight how some forms of captivity can contribute to conservation and can help clarify what is at stake between advocates of these approaches and their critics. We argue that some forms of captivity can be ethically justified as part of an ex situ conservation effort, even in cases where they involve risk to individual cetaceans.
Phenomenological classification of the Zwicky Transient Facility astronomical event alerts

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a state-of-the-art optical robotic sky survey, registers on the order of a million transient events - such as supernova explosions, changes in brightness of variable sources, or moving object detections - every clear night, and generates associated real-time alerts. We present Alert-Classifying Artificial Intelligence (ACAI), an open-source deep-learning framework for the phenomenological classification of ZTF alerts. ACAI uses a set of five binary classifiers to characterize objects which, in combination with the auxiliary/contextual event information available from alert brokers, provides a powerful tool for alert stream filtering tailored to different science cases, including early identification of supernova-like and anomalous transient events. We report on the performance of ACAI during the first months of deployment in a production setting.
Emergy Analysis of Human Carrying Capacity and Regional Sustainability: An Example Using the State of Maine

The human carrying capacity for a region at a specified standard of living depends on the economic and environmental resources of the region and the exchange of resources across regional boundaries. The length of time that a human population living at a given standard can be sustained depends on the rates of use and renewal of the resource base. All environmental, economic, and social resources are produced as a result of energy transformations; therefore, the energy required for their production can be specified and evaluated in common terms by converting their energy values into emergy. Emergy is defined as the available energy of one kind, previously used up directly and indirectly to make a product or service. Its unit is the emjoule. Emergy values and indices are used to evaluate the resource base for Maine, a politically defined region, and to estimate its human carrying capacity at the 1980 standard of living and for possible future resource bases. Emergy indices for Maine are compared with similar indices for Florida, Texas, and the United States to demonstrate variations in human carrying capacity and sustainability among different regions. The 1980 standard of living for Maine, Florida, Texas, and the Nation as measured by emergy use per person fell within a relatively narrow range of 3.4E16 to 4.3E16 solar emjoules y-1. The human carrying capacity for a region is considered within a pulsing paradigm for sustainabilty and within the constraints provided by a renewable resource base. For example, in the short-term the developed human carrying capacity for Maine is largely determined by the fuel emergy inflow relative to renewable emergy resources. If purchased emergy inflows relative to Maine’s renewable emergy increase to the average ratio for a developed country around 1980, the population living in Maine at 1980 standards could increase to 2.9 million or 2.6 times Maine’s 1980 population. In contrast, the human carrying capacity based on Maine’s renewable resources alone was 0.37 million people at the 1980 standard of living or 33% of the 1980 population.