cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Association of genetic copy number variations at 11 q14.2 with brain regional volume differences in an alcohol use disorder population

This study investigates the relationship between genetic copy number variations and brain volume differences in an alcohol use disorder (AUD) population. We hypothesized that copy number variations may influence subject's risk for alcohol use disorders through variations in regional gray and white matter brain volumes. Since genetic influences upon behavior are the result of many complicated interactions we focus on differences in brain volume as a putative intermediate phenotype between genetic variation and behavior. Copy number variation, alcohol use assessments and brain structural magnetic resonance images from 283 subjects, 199 male and 84 females who were enrolled in two AUD studies were obtained and analyzed using a combination of the Freesurfer image analysis suite and independent component analysis. Because brain volume varies by age we compared participant's volume variation with that derived from a control cohort of 75 subjects. In addition we also regressed out the possible brain volume changes induced by long term alcohol consumption. Small cerebral cortex, cerebellar and caudate along with large cerebral white matter and 5th ventricle volumes are shown to be significantly associated with increased AUD severity. When these volume variations are compared with control subject volumes; the variations seen in subjects with AUD are markedly different from normal aging effects. CNVs at 11 q14.2 are marginally (p < 0.05 uncorrected) correlated with such brain volume variations and the correlation holds true after controlling for long-term alcohol consumption; deletion carriers have smaller cerebral cortex, cerebellar, caudate and larger cerebral white matter and 5th ventricle volumes than insertion carriers or subjects with no variation in this region. Similarly, deletion carriers also demonstrate higher AUD severity scores than insertion carriers or subjects with no variation. The results presented here suggest that copy number variation and in particular the variation at chromosome 11 q14.2 may have an impact in brain volume variation, potentially influencing AUD behavior.
Measuring Volterra kernels

Volterra series have been in the engineering literature for some time now, and yet there have been few attempts to measure Volterra kernels. This paper discusses techniques for measuring the Volterra kernels of weakly nonlinear systems. We introduce a new quick method for measuring the second Volterra kernel which is analogous to pseudonoise testing of a linear device. To illustrate the discussion we present an experimental example, an electro-acoustic transducer. Throughout the paper we emphasize the practical aspects of kernel measurement.
New mixed-valent Mn clusters from the use of N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine (edteH4): Mn3, Mn4, Mn6, and Mn10.

The syntheses, crystal structures, and magnetochemical characterization are reported for the new mixed-valent Mn clusters [Mn2IIMnIII(O2CMe)2(edteH2)2](ClO4) (1), [MnII2MnIII2(edteH2)2(hmp)2Cl2](MnIICl4) (2), [MnIII6O2(O2CBut)6(edteH)2(N3)2] (3), [Na2MnIII8MnII2O4(OMe)2(O2CEt)6(edte)2(N3)6] (4), and (NEt4)2[Mn8IIIMn2IIO4(OH)2-(O2CEt)6(edte)2(N3)6](5), where edteH4 is N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine and hmpH is 2-(hydroxymethyl)pyridine. 1–5 resulted from a systematic exploration of the effect of different Mn sources, carboxylates, the presence of azide, and other conditions, on the Mn/edteH4 reaction system. The core of 1 consists of a linear MnIIMnIIIMnII unit, whereas that of 2 is a planar Mn4 rhombus within a [MnII2MnIII2(μ3-OR)2] incomplete-dicubane unit. The core of 3 comprises a central [MnIII4(OR)2] incomplete-dicubane on either side of which is edge-fused a triangular [MnIII3(μ3-O)] unit. The cores of 4 and 5 are similar and consist of a central [MnII2MnIII2(μ3-OR)2] incomplete-...
The Role of Monoamine Metabolism in Oxidative Glutamate Toxicity

Glutamate kills neuronal cells by either a receptor-mediated pathway or the inhibition of cystine uptake, the “oxidative pathway.” Antioxidants can block cell death initiated by either pathway, suggesting that toxicity is dependent on the production of free radicals. We provide evidence that in a neuronal cell line, glutamate toxicity via the oxidative pathway requires monoamine metabolism as a source of free radicals. Glutamate toxicity is inhibited by monoamine oxidase (MAO) type-A-specific inhibitors, but only at concentrations much higher than those required to inhibit classical type-A MAO. Toxicity is not inhibited by MAO type-B-specific inhibitors at any concentration. Furthermore, treatment of cells with agents that block monoamine uptake inhibits glutamate toxicity. These results suggest that an enzyme distinct from MAO is involved in monoamine metabolism and demonstrate a relationship between glutamate toxicity and monoamine metabolism. These data also have implications for the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders in which glutamate toxicity is thought to be involved.
Performance and geometric interpretation for decision fusion with memory

A binary distributed detection system comprises a bank of local decision makers (LDMs) and a central information processor or data fusion center (DFC). All LDMs survey a common volume for a binary {H/sub 0/, H/sub 1/} phenomenon. Each LDM forms a binary decision: it either accepts H/sub 1/ (target-present) or H/sub 0/ (target-absent). The LDM is fully characterized by its performance probabilities. The decisions are transmitted to the DFC through noiseless communication channels. The DFC then optimally combines the local decisions to obtain a global decision which minimizes a Bayesian objective function. The DFC remembers and uses its most recent decision in synthesizing each new decision. When operating in a stationary environment, our architecture converges to a steady-state decision LDM in finite time with probability one, and its detection performance during convergence and in steady state is strictly determined. Once convergence is proven, we apply the results to the detection of signals with random phase and amplitude. We further provide a geometric interpretation for the behaviour of the system.
Morphology and electron emission properties of nanocrystalline CVD diamond thin films

Nanocrystalline diamond thin films have been produced by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) using C{sub 60}/Ar/H{sub 2} or CH{sub 4}/Ar/H{sub 2} plasmas. Films grown with H{sub 2} concentration {le} 20% are nanocrystalline, with atomically abrupt grain boundaries and without observable graphitic or amorphous carbon phases. The growth and morphology of these films are controlled via a high nucleation rate resulting from low hydrogen concentration in the plasma. Initial growth is in the form of diamond, which is the thermodynamic equilibrium phase for grains {le}5 nm in diameter. Once formed, the diamond phase persists for grains up to at least 15-20 nm in diameter. The renucleation rate in the near-absence of atomic hydrogen is very high ({approximately} 10{sup 10} cm{sup {minus}2} sec{sup {minus}1}), limiting the average grain size to a nearly constant value as the film thickness increases, although the average grain size increases as hydrogen is added to the plasma. For hydrogen concentrations less than {approximately}20%, the growth species is believed to be the carbon dimer, C{sub 2}, rather than the CH{sub 3}* growth species associated with diamond film growth at higher hydrogen concentrations. For very thin films grown from the C{sub 60} precursor, the threshold field (2 to {approximately}60 volts/micron) for cold cathode electron emission depends on the electrical conductivity and on the surface topography, which in turn depends on the hydrogen concentration in the plasma. A model of electron emission, based on quantum well effects at the grain boundaries is presented. This model predicts promotion of the electrons at the grain boundary to the conduction band of diamond for a grain boundary width {approximately} 3--4 {angstrom}, a value within the range observed by TEM.
Golgi studies on Purkinje cell development in the frog during spontaneous metamorphosis I. General pattern of development

The development of Purkinje cells was studied in the bullfrog from prometamorphic tadpoles to 10-week-old postmetamorphic froglets by the Golgi-Kopsch method. In this species, the rate of Purkinje cell development is unusually slow and proceeds in two waves. The first wave of development begins prior to the establishment of the external granular layer (EGL), and proceeds slowly for two to three months during the formation of the EGL; then accelerating as metamorphosis is being completed, the cells reach near-adult dimensions a month later. Even prior to the formation of the EGL these cells are already present in the stage of dendritic orientation and flattening which, however, varies from the norm. The second wave of Purkinje cell development begins during metamorphosis and proceeds at a more rapid pace until two months after metamorphosis, at which time they appear to have reached adult dimensions. In these cells the development of the apical dendrite does not always coincide with the stellate stage but may proceed directly to the stage of dendritic orientation and flattening which, in accordance with the norm, is towards the pia and in the sagittal plane. Many variations are present in the dendritic trees and orientation of the dendritic branches of Purkinje cells throughout their development. These variations are similar to those seen in mammals, however, since the frog cerebellum consists of a simple plate, they cannot be attributed to a Cartesian transformation of dendrites to accomodate the curvatures of a folial pattern. Similarly, since these morphological variations occur in the course of normal development they cannot be attributed to a reaction to, or recovery from, injury during development.
Evaluating research in cooperative distributed problem solving

COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTED PROBLEM SOLVING (CDPS) IS A NEW FIELD THAT HAS NOT YET ESTABLISHED CRITICAL RESEARCH MASS, SO RELATING AND ASSESSING INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS IS DIFFICULT. IN THIS PAPER, WE PROVIDE A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF DISPARATE RESEARCH EFFORTS IN ORDER TO ASSESS PROGRESS IN THE FIELD. WE EVALUATE PROGRESS IN THESE BASIC ISSUES BY ASSESSING THE SOPHISTICATION OF CDPS SYSTEMS ON MANY DIFFERENT (AND INTERDEPENDENT) AXES, WHICH WHEN TAKEN AS A WHOLE GIVE A VIEW OF A SYSTEM''S OVERALL SOPHISTICATION. OUR SOPHISTICATION ASSESSMENTS ARE SPECIFIED AS A SET OF QUESTIONS THAT RELATE TO SUCH THINGS AS THE CLASS OF PROBLEM DOMAINS AND ENVIORNMENTS THAT AN APPROACH CAN HANDLE, THE THEOR- ETICAL SOUNDNESS OF THE APPROACH, THE SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE SUPPORT PROVID- ED, AND HOW THE APPROACH ADDRESSES THE IMPORTANT ISSUES OF CDPS THEMSELVES. WE EXPLAIN THE GENERAL GOALS OF CDPS RESEARCH, PRESENT QUESTIONS PERTIN- ENT TO THEM, AND DESCRIBE A FEW EXAMPLE OF CDPS RESEARCH: THE CONTRACT NET, PARTIAL GLOBAL PLANNING, AND PROPOSED EXTENSIONS TO PARTIAL GLOBAL PLAN- NING. WE EVALUATE THESE SYSTEMS AND DISCUSS HOW THE QUESTIONS RELATE TO THE MULTIPLE GOALS OF CDPS RESEARCH, AND HOW THIS METHODOLOGY CAN BE USED TO ANALYZE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ABOVE SYSTEMS.
Polynomial algebra of discrete models in systems biology

Motivation: An increasing number of discrete mathematical models are being published in Systems Biology, ranging from Boolean network models to logical models and Petri nets. They are used to model a variety of biochemical networks, such as metabolic networks, gene regulatory networks and signal transduction networks. There is increasing evidence that such models can capture key dynamic features of biological networks and can be used successfully for hypothesis generation. Results: This article provides a unified framework that can aid the mathematical analysis of Boolean network models, logical models and Petri nets. They can be represented as polynomial dynamical systems, which allows the use of a variety of mathematical tools from computer algebra for their analysis. Algorithms are presented for the translation into polynomial dynamical systems. Examples are given of how polynomial algebra can be used for the model analysis. Contact: alanavc@vt.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Kidney in Early Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis represents one of the major causes of premature death in the United States today, and it is frequently associated with, exacerbates, and is aggravated by chronic kidney disease (CKD). Atherosclerosis integrates the response to a number of insults, and consequently, the accelerated atherosclerosis found in CKD patients is associated with activation of a variety of humoral and tissue mechanisms. Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and additional nontraditional risk factors can damage the kidney directly and by promoting intrarenal atherogenesis, even in the absence of obstructive lesions in the renal artery. Evidence indicates that increased oxidative stress and inflammation may mediate a large part of the effects of risk factors on the kidney. In turn, progressive deterioration of renal function in CKD may lead to dyslipidemia or accumulation of uremic toxins, which can induce production of free radicals and activate proinflammatory and fibrogenic factors, leading to vascular endothelial cell dysfunction and injury, and favoring development of atherosclerosis. Therefore, the kidney can be a villain or a victim during atherogenesis. The purpose of this review is to provide new insights into the mechanisms by which atherogenic factors may instigate early renal injury.
Alcoholism A Metaphorical Understanding

Alcoholism, although lacking a unified biomedical foundation, can be understood in metaphor; an alcoholic is an individual seeking an altered state of consciousness (A.S.C.). The theoretical discussion is buttressed by clinical examples in an effort to clarify the present hypothesis.
Dynamically stable bipedal robotic walking with NAO via human-inspired hybrid zero dynamics

This paper demonstrates the process of utilizing human locomotion data to formally design controllers that yield provably stable robotic walking and experimentally realizing these formal methods to achieve dynamically stable bipedal robotic walking on the NAO robot. Beginning with walking data, outputs---or functions of the kinematics---are determined that result in a low-dimensional representation of human locomotion. These same outputs can be considered on a robot, and human-inspired control is used to drive the outputs of the robot to the outputs of the human. An optimization problem is presented that determines the parameters of this controller that provide the best fit of the human data while simultaneously ensuring partial hybrid zero dynamics. The main formal result of this paper is a proof that these same parameters result in a stable hybrid periodic orbit with a fixed point that can be computed in closed form. Thus, starting with only human data we obtain a stable walking gait for the bipedal robot model. These formal results are validated through experimentation: implementing the stable walking found in simulation on NAO results in dynamically stable robotic walking that shows excellent agreement with the simulated behavior from which it was derived.
Elementary visual hallucinations and their relationships to neural pattern-forming mechanisms.

An extraordinary variety of experimental (e.g., flicker, magnetic fields) and clinical (epilepsy, migraine) conditions give rise to a surprisingly common set of elementary hallucinations, including spots, geometric patterns, and jagged lines, some of which also have color, depth, motion, and texture. Many of these simple hallucinations fall into a small number of perceptual geometries-the Kluver forms-that (via a nonlinear mapping from retina to cortex) correspond to even simpler sets of oriented stripes of cortical activity (and their superpositions). Other simple hallucinations (phosphenes and fortification auras) are linked to the Kluver forms and to pattern-forming cortical mechanisms by their spatial and temporal scales. The Kluver cortical activity patterns are examples of self-organized pattern formation that arise from nonlinear dynamic interactions between excitatory and inhibitory cortical neurons; with reasonable modifications, this model accounts for a wide range of hallucinated patterns. The Kluver cortical activity patterns are a subset of autonomous spatiotemporal cortical patterns, some of which have been studied with functional imaging techniques. Understanding the interaction of these intrinsic patterns with stimulus-driven cortical activity is an important problem in neuroscience. In line with this, hallucinatory pattern formation interacts with physical stimuli, and many conditions that induce hallucinations show interesting interactions with one another. Both types of interactions are predictable from neural and psychophysical principles such as localized processing, excitatory-inhibitory neural circuits, lateral inhibition, simultaneous and sequential contrast, saccadic suppression, and perceptual opponency. Elementary hallucinations arise from familiar mechanisms stimulated in unusual ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). Language: en
RELATIVE ROLES OF CYCLOOXYGENASE AND NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE PATHWAYS IN ISCHEMIA-INDUCED INCREASED CONTRACTION OF CAVERNOSAL SMOOTH MUSCLE

AbstractPurpose: To study the mechanism of chronic ischemia-induced increased cavernosal smooth muscle contraction in an animal model of vasculogenic erectile dysfunction.Materials and Methods: New Zealand White rabbits were divided into control (n = 6, fed with a regular diet), hypercholesterolemic (n = 9, fed with a diet containing 0.5% cholesterol) and chronic cavernosal ischemia (CCI, n = 10, underwent balloon de-endothelialization of iliac arteries and received a diet containing 0.5% cholesterol) groups. After 16 weeks, the relationship between iliac artery blood flow and cavernosal smooth muscle contraction was studied. The roles of cyclooxygenase and nitric oxide (NO) pathways in chronic ischemia-induced increased smooth muscle contraction were also examined.Results: Iliac artery blood flow in the CCI group was significantly reduced compared with the control and hypercholesterolemic groups. Hypercholesterolemia alone did not affect cavernosal smooth muscle contraction. Atherosclerosis-induced chron...
Tool use by aquatic animals

Tool-use research has focused primarily on land-based animals, with less consideration given to aquatic animals and the environmental challenges and conditions they face. Here, we review aquatic tool use and examine the contributing ecological, physiological, cognitive and social factors. Tool use among aquatic animals is rare but taxonomically diverse, occurring in fish, cephalopods, mammals, crabs, urchins and possibly gastropods. While additional research is required, the scarcity of tool use can likely be attributable to the characteristics of aquatic habitats, which are generally not conducive to tool use. Nonetheless, studying tool use by aquatic animals provides insights into the conditions that promote and inhibit tool-use behaviour across biomes. Like land-based tool users, aquatic animals tend to find tools on the substrate and use tools during foraging. However, unlike on land, tool users in water often use other animals (and their products) and water itself as a tool. Among sea otters and dolphins, the two aquatic tool users studied in greatest detail, some individuals specialize in tool use, which is vertically socially transmitted possibly because of their long dependency periods. In all, the contrasts between aquatic- and land-based tool users enlighten our understanding of the adaptive value of tool-use behaviour.
Effect of magnetic field applied during secondary annealing on texture and grain size of silicon steel

Abstract Temper cold rolled silicon steel samples were annealed with and without an applied magnetic field. The final grain size was the same for both annealing conditions. Application of a magnetic field affected texture development by increasing the strength of the Goss component and decreasing the intensity of the gamma fiber.
Thermoplastic Minerva Body Jacket—A Practical Alternative to Current Methods of Cervical Spine Stabilization

The halo body jacket and plaster Minerva body jacket have been the preferred orthoses when maximal stabilization of the cervical spine is required. This report identifies some disadvantages of these orthoses, introduces the thermoplastic Minerva body jacket (TMBJ), and discusses its advantages in the rehabilitation of patients with cervical spine instability. A preliminary roentgenographic study was conducted to evaluate the cervical spine motion of five male subjects wearing the TMBJ. The TMBJ, in addition to providing comparable cervical spine stability, offers several advantages over current methods of stabilization.
Towards a truthful online spectrum auction with dynamic demand and supply

In spectrum trading, secondary users bid for the spectrum units being made available by primary users. Auction theory has been widely applied to improve spectrum allocation in such spectrum trading scenarios. However, in contrast to reality, most of the research work assume either static user populations or static spectrum supply or both. In this work, we investigate a realistic dynamic auction environment where secondary users with diverse delay bounds arrive dynamically, and spectrum becomes available at random. We propose a priority ranking based online auction mechanism that prevents bidders from gaining advantage by misreporting information. We prove that the proposed auction mechanism is truthful and individual rational. We illustrate the properties of the mechanism in terms of spectrum utilization rate, bidder satisfaction rate, and average bidder utility through extensive simulations.
Tasting Cultural Ecology: Foodscapes of Sustainability in the Mediterranean

This essay samples situated perspectives on food, history, and landscape in the Mediterranean. Reflecting on moments of ethnographic research made resonant by particular tastes, it considers how sustainable foodscapes on the island of Sardinia, Italy, are rooted in both family relations and property systems. It focuses on household and community production in the Ogliastra, a rural area on the eastern coast of Sardinia. This enables a critical examination of models of ethical consumption, from the perspective of rural producers. Tastes like the delectable roast meat, goat ricotta, and bitter honey that come from the Ogliastra challenge us to think about such places, not as abstract ecological systems, but as living, adapting communities. Such unique flavors are protected today, not by faddish consumers or ethical gastronomes, but by the residents who value the legacy of the Commons and their own deeply social connections to its generative potential.
Abstract 79: A Population-based Study Of Arterial Diameters In Dolichoectasia: The Northern Manhattan Study.

Background: Dolichoectasia (DE) of cerebral vessels has been associated with adverse neurological outcomes, including stroke. The subjectivity of the DE diagnosis is a limiting factor in the study ...
Management of Airway Clearance in Neuromuscular Disease

The clearance of airway secretions from the lungs is normally supported by the mucociliary escalator and by cough. These protective mechanisms provide an effective means of pulmonary-hygiene maintenance in healthy individuals. Patients with neuromuscular disease that affects the respiratory pump (the muscles of breathing) can experience mild to profound limitation in both ventilation and cough. Neuromuscular respiratory insufficiency, when left untreated, can substantially impact quality of life and life expectancy. In most cases of neuromuscular disease, respiratory failure and pneumonia are the primary causes of death. Invasive mechanical ventilation and tracheal suctioning have been successfully used when needed to support respiratory insufficiency in this population. These modalities, though supportive, have been associated with substantial morbidity when used in patients with neuromuscular disease. The advent of noninvasive ventilation as a means of supporting chronic neuromuscular respiratory insufficiency has spurred the development of noninvasive cough-augmentation therapy to support airway clearance. Unfortunately, the need to support cough clearance is not always addressed, and few guidelines for the management of cough insufficiency have existed until relatively recently. An understanding of neuromuscular respiratory pathophysiology and the modes of effective noninvasive cough support are key in the evaluation and management of neuromuscular diseases. This review is meant to provide a basic understanding of cough mechanics, and the pathophysiology and management of neuromuscular cough insufficiency.
Editors’ Pick: Disproportionality of Corporations’ Environmental Pollution in the Electrical Energy Industry

This paper develops an organizational political economy perspective to examine the effects of organizational and political-legal arrangements on environmental pollution. We focus on the largest parent companies in the electrical energy industry because parent companies have ultimate decision-making authority over their polluting facilities, and this economic sector is responsible for a high proportion of environmental pollution. The paper includes an historical analysis of how neoliberal regulatory changes transformed the political embeddedness of firms and a quantitative analysis of the relationship between organizational and political-legal arrangements and environmental pollution. The analysis moves beyond the current focus on disproportionality among economic sectors by demonstrating that variation in organizational structure and other corporate characteristics within an economic sector are associated with disproportionally higher levels of environmental pollution. In addition, the findings provide po...
Dermatitis, papulosquamous disorders and psoriasis

Dermatitis and the papulosquamous dermatoses (psoriasis, parapsoriasis, pityriasis rubra pilaris, mycosis fungoides, the various dermatophyte infections and other acquired and congenital disorders which produce this clinopathological spectrum) constitute one of the largest and commonest groups of skin disorders to confront and confound the pathologist. Accordingly, it may be useful to review the clinical and microscopical findings in this group of disorders with emphasis on differential diagnostic features. In addition, some of the newer information about the pathogenetic mechanisms of their development will be reviewed. Studies on epidermal and dermal chemotactic factors and the role of polymorphonuclear leucocytes and mononuclear cells are leading toward better understanding of these disorders. At the same time they are highly visible ‘experiments of nature’ which are convenient models for the study of the inflammatory reaction. One of the most striking and informative of these experiments is the graft versus host reaction. Our experience with it and its effects on the skin will be discussed in detail.
Reading gender: a feminist, queer approach to children's literature and children's discursive agency

ABSTRACTChildren's literature helps young people make sense of gender. However, while books offer children the imaginative ability to create their own worlds, normative gender can manifest in characters and stories. The study described in this article draws upon ‘disruptive’ storytimes with 114 preschool children, interviews with 20 parents and staff, and observations at 20 preschools. Employing a feminist, queer approach, I develop two derivative books that switch a boy-hero for a girl and vice versa. These books are read to children in educational settings. This method interrogates gendered characters and stories’ attachments to such concepts as love, acceptance, bodily agency, and adventure. Results show how children interact with these characters and stories and how they use categorisation and narrative construction to make sense of gender. I focus on the gender discourses at play and moments of childhood discursive agency. Themes include literature, doing and being, positioning, bodies, and feminist ...
Oil for Living: Petroleum and American Conspicuous Consumption

Americans proudly streamed to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City as World War II flared on the other side of the Atlantic. Not yet part of the conflict, Americans used the opportunity to escape the present and wax utopian. Although the dreams on display took many forms, they were woven together by an invisible hand—more specifically, by a basic assumption—concealed within each of the fair’s scenes: bountiful supplies of cheap energy. The novelist E. L. Doctorow provides one of the most revealing descriptions of one of the fair’s best-known attractions:
Smart logistics: distributed control of green crowdsourced parcel services

This paper presents the development of an integrated decision-making framework for on-demand parcel delivery services that considers Just-In-Time delivery, fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Optimal policies based on the Markov decision process are established to allow for inclusion of parcel delivery requests. The framework’s integrated dynamic algorithm, based on a continuous variable feedback control, allows for unified processing of delivery requests and route scheduling. Computational experiments show that the integrated approach could increase revenue by 6.4% by reducing fuel and emission costs by 2.5%; however, the approach may incur more cost in terms of timeliness compared to a myopic approach.
Automated Data Selection Method for Diffuse Optical Tomography to Improve the Robustness of Breast Cancer Detection

In this paper, a method of outlier removal and data selection for ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography is introduced. The algorithm uses multiple datasets to compose a single robust dataset based on statistical analysis.
STUDY ON ORE FORMATION MECHANISM AND DEEP PREDICTION OF HUANREN Cu-Zn SKARN DEPOSIT

Huanren Cu-Zn deposit is located in skarn within the contact zone between Cambrian limestone and Yanshanian dioritic complex.This paper sumarizes regional geological background,metallogenic setting,ore body occurrences and physical and chemical condition for the ore formation and the ore-forming mechanism and the metallognic model is set up.Then the ore prediction is made to depth.
Hierarchical honeycomb lattice metamaterials with improved thermal resistance and mechanical properties

Abstract Recent advances in the defense, aerospace, and energy industries have triggered tremendous demand for multifunctional materials featuring lightweight, load-carrying capacity, and thermal resistance. Metamaterials with artificially engineered architectures can be exploited to provide a compelling combination of these properties. Here we report a group of hierarchically architected metamaterials constructed by replacing cell walls of regular honeycombs with hexagonal, kagome, and triangular lattices, respectively. Our numerical and analytical studies indicate that the introduction of structural hierarchy in regular honeycombs results in improved heat resistance and thermal anisotropy. These thermal properties can be controlled by tailoring two geometric parameters of the hierarchical honeycombs. We also predict that the hierarchical honeycombs with kagome and triangular lattices exhibit enhanced mechanical properties. Our analysis reveals that the integrated thermal mitigation and load-carrying capacity of the hierarchical honeycombs are attributed to the introduction of structural hierarchy. The hierarchical metamaterials reported here provides new opportunities to design multifunctional materials that are promising for various engineering applications.
Language Contact and Translingual Literacies.

ABSTRACTIn this essay we examine the notions of language contact phenomena such as borrowing, codeswitching, codemixing, codemeshing, and translanguaging. We also explore the concepts of translingualism and translingual literacies. We discuss how the notions of bilingualism and multilingualism are differentiated from translingualism and translingual literacies, and how these concepts came into existence according to different theoretical positions. We also introduce the contents of the other articles included in this special issue, and highlight their key points, framing them in the context of research on translingual literacies. The following six areas from around the world are covered: (1) negotiating voice in translingual literacies, (2) Amerindian and translingual literacies, (3) translingual and transcultural practice in a rural classroom, (4) translingual and transcultural navigation among immigrant children and youth, (5) creolisation and the new cosmopolitanism, and (6) translingual practice among...
The Patient as Care Giver

Observes that the developmental usefulness which children find in patienthood continues in later life, and illustrates this tendency with special references to cancer patients. Describes ways in wh...
Stroke risk assessment in atrial fibrillation: risk factors and markers of atrial myopathy

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a complex phenomenon associated with electrical, mechanical, and structural abnormalities of the atria. Ischaemic stroke in AF is only partially understood, but the mechanisms are known to be related to the atrial substrate as well as the atrial rhythm. The temporal dissociation between timing of AF and occurrence of stroke has led to the hypothesis that fibrotic, prothrombotic atrial tissue is an important cause of thrombus formation in patients with AF, independent of the atrial rhythm. Current stroke risk scores are practical, but limited in their capacity to predict stroke risk accurately in individual patients. Stroke prediction might be improved by the addition of emerging risk factors, many of which are expressions of atrial fibrosis. The use of novel parameters, including clinical criteria, biomarkers, and imaging data, might improve stroke risk prediction and inform on optimal treatment for patients with AF and perhaps individuals only at risk of AF.
Conclusion: Being Woman (Within) Patriarchy

A brief look at each chapter reinforces what has been argued throughout Mythological Constructs of Mexican Feminism: that Nellie Campobello, Juana Belen Gutierrez de Mendoza, Sara Estela Ramirez, and Andrea Villarreal Gonzalez, grounded on motherhood, (re)imagined women as historians, political voices, agents of social change, and, most definitely, women. They (re)claimed womanhood from myth, recasting la Malinche, la Llorona and la Virgen de Guadalupe outside the passive construct of la Chingada. They shed other imposed identities as well: those of the madresposa (motherwife), nun, prisoner, whore, and madwoman. They rejected the seemingly privileged roles of queen and virgin in favor of womanhood. And they refused the temporality of being, “el estar,” for the opportunity to seek their Being, “el seri’ denied to their gender.
The large-conductance potassium ion channel of rabbit corneal epithelium is blocked by quinidine.

Basal layers of the rabbit corneal epithelium contain a large-conductance potassium ion (K + ) selective channel (160-170 pS in 150 mM KC1). This channel previously was shown to be blocked by cesium and barium ions applied to its outer surface. By direct patch clamp experiments, it is shown that the channel also is blocked by quinidine in the 0.1-1 mM range when applied either to the outside or inside of membrane patches containing these channels. This additional pharmacologic tool should aid in identifying the individual currents that compose the macroscopic currents from corneal epithelial cells and eventually should help to provide a detailed assessment of their function. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 33:286-290,1992 The basolateral membrane of either rabbit or frog corneas has been shown to contain primarily potassium ion (K + ) conductance. 1 " 3 This conductance has been reported to be increased by chloride ion secretagogues, 2 but this, in part, has. been disputed. 3 Recently, evidence was found for two kinds of K + conductances in these membranes, one blocked by barium ions (Ba ++ ) but not quinidine and the other blocked by both Ba ++ and quinidine. 4 The quinidineblocked conductance apparently is involved in volume regulation. We recently described a. large-conductance K + channel in rabbit corneal epithelium that might be the basis for at least one of these previously described conductances. 5 In a survey of a large number of K + channel blockers, we found that cesium ion (Cs + ) and Ba ++ block the single channels, but we found no quinidine effect. Recently, while measuring whole-cell currents from single dissociated rabbit corneal epithelial cells, we found that most of the K + current was blocked by external quinidine. Therefore, we restudied the effect of quinidine on the single channel currents. We now report that, under the circumstances described in this report, quinidine is an effective blocker of the single channels when applied either from the inside or outside.
Income disparities in cardiovascular health across the lifespan

Using data from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n ~ 46,000), this study documents income disparities in the age patterning of cardiovascular conditions across the lifespan in the U.S. The conditions were assessed from laboratory test results, self-reports of medications used to treat specific conditions, and anthropometric measurements, allowing us to capture whether individuals at given ages had developed the various conditions, regardless of previous diagnosis and treatment. We found evidence of large income disparities in the presence of cardiovascular conditions and risk factors for females, smaller disparities in the same conditions for males, and few disparities that increased with age for either gender. Results were very similar when considering disparities by education instead of income. The findings suggest that the widening socioeconomic gradients in health over the lifespan found in many previous studies-which have generally focused on self-rated health, activity limitations, or diagnosed conditions-reflect, at least to some extent, differences in diagnosis, treatment, and management of health conditions rather than age-related differences in developing them. The findings also suggest that preventive healthcare is not an important source of socioeconomic disparities in cardiovascular health in the U.S., at least for men. The observed patterns of income disparities in cardiovascular conditions over the lifespan are more consistent with theories of early life conditions and the imprinting of health endowments and susceptibilities early in life than with cumulative life exposure or stress hypotheses.
Urethral Strictures and Artificial Urinary Sphincter Placement

Patients undergoing artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) placement often have complex medical and surgical histories, such as radical prostatectomy, endoscopic treatment of urethral strictures, previous AUS placement, and prior open urethral surgery. Urethral strictures at the bladder neck, membranous urethra, or site of a previous AUS erosion are problems that profoundly affect the timing and treatment success of AUS placement. Understanding the complexities and outcomes in this subset of patients is the only way to inform shared decision making about treatment of urinary incontinence.
Deformation at various scales in the South Mountain anticlinorium of the central Appalachians: Summary

INTRODUCTION The relative importance of deformation at various scales and the necessity of measuring finite strain at different scales in the analysis of geological deformations are discussed here. Most analyses of finite strain involve the use of deformed objects at the microscopic scale, since at this scale the deformation is almost homogeneous The existence of strain measurable at larger scales (for example, the minor scale) has been previously demonstrated, and the importance of measuring such strain has been pointed out (Schwerdtner, 1973). However, few attempts at quantitative analyses have been made so far, mainly, because the theory of large-scale inhomogeneous deformations is complex and the application of mathematical principles is difficult. In the first part of this paper, the general relationship between deformations measured at different scales is discussed, and some special cases are described for which the strains at various scales can be separated out and measured. In the second part, these principles are applied to the study of some folded quartzites in the South Mountain anticlinorium of the central Appalachian Blue Ridge. The object of choosing this particular area was to study the variation of strain at different scales around the major folds and thereby attempt an analysis of the mechanics of deformation in the area.
Confidence Estimates in Simulation of Phase Noise or Spectral Density

In this paper, we apply the method of discrete simulation of power-law noise, developed by Timmer and Konig, Ashby, and Ashby and Patla, to the problem of simulating phase noise for a combination of power-law noises. We derive analytic expressions for the probability of observing a value of phase noise $ {\mathcal{ L}}(f)$ or of any of the one-sided spectral densities $S_{\phi }(f), S_{y}(f)$ , or $S_{x}(f)$ , for arbitrary superpositions of power-law noise.
Counterterrorism: A Public Goods Approach

This chapter employs the concepts of public goods and externalities to investigate myriad aspects of proactive and defensive counterterrorism policies. Such policies include degrading terrorist groups’ assets, hardening potential targets, securing border transit points, gathering intelligence, eliminating safe havens, and infiltrating terrorist groups. Counterterrorism actions possess opposing or re-enforcing externalities that create an amazing variety of strategic substitutes and complements. As such, the implications for leadership and/or unilateral action may be quite varied for alternative counterterrorism measures. By drawing on the private provision of public good model, joint products, and aggregator technology, this article serves to underscore the wide-ranging applicability of many theoretic constructs developed by Cornes and his co-authors.
Endoscopic Equipment and Instrumentation

Since Doctors Wolf and Shinya began performing the first colonoscopies and polypectomies in the 1960s, the medical community has been expanding what can be done in this arena. With improved endoscopic techniques comes more accurate diagnosis of disease, and the capacity to treat colonic pathology in a less invasive fashion. Both diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy are constantly evolving. In order to better sample, mark, recognize, and remove pathology, we must use the most effective equipment. This chapter will discuss the instruments necessary for many colonoscopic techniques, including biopsy, tattoo, endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection, narrow band imaging, and chromoendoscopy.
Revolutionary leadership as necessary element in people’s war: Shining Path of Peru

Though it is well understood that all internal upheaval within a polity is a consequence of agency interacting with structure, the importance of the former has perhaps become too pushed to the rear...
Emerging Therapies in the Management of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma: a Focus on PARP Inhibitors

The aims of this review are to describe key clinical trials that led to Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors for ovarian cancer treatment, contextualize current indications, and to present future perspectives on the use of PARP inhibitors in this setting. Since 2014, the FDA has approved three PARP inhibitors for the treatment of relapsed ovarian cancer, initially for patients with BRCA mutations and more recently, for a broader patient population. High-grade serous ovarian carcinomas (HGSOC) account for more than 70% of epithelial ovarian cancers. DNA repair is frequently defective in these cancers, and homologous recombination pathway defects are present in approximately 50% of cases. The inhibition of PARP enzymes is a potential synthetic lethal therapeutic strategy for cancers harboring DNA repair defects, including ovarian cancers arising in the presence of BRCA mutations or other forms of homologous recombination deficiency. PARP inhibitors are now an exciting option for the treatment of patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Herein, this topic will be further explored.
Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: Using Cognitive Dissonance to Explore Attitudinal Hypocrisy

The extent to which a person has attitudes that contradict other attitudes is simply cognitive dissonance by another name. I review cognitive dissonance literature and design a survey experiment in which Midwestern university students’ personal perceptions of and distastes for being accused of being hypocritical are tested in an induced compliance research procedure. The results suggest that, in contrast to previous research and the well-established expectations, the participants were only minimally troubled by the idea that they may be hypocritical. For those who were troubled, political ideology and identity had only marginal predictive effects; instead, the traits of dogmatism and openness to experience appeared to supplant the expected roles of ideological orientations.
Pasts and Futures of Digital Humanities in Musicology: Moving Towards a “Bigger Tent”

Musicologists and music theorists have traditionally been early adopters of technological tools to assist with research. The earliest digital humanities projects in musicology and music theory came...
Concurrent log-structured memory for many-core key-value stores

Key-value stores are an important tool in managing and accessing large in-memory data sets. As many applications benefit from having as much of their working state fit into main memory, an important design of the memory management of modern key-value stores is the use of log-structured approaches, enabling efficient use of the memory capacity, by compacting objects to avoid fragmented states.However, with the emergence of thousand-core and peta-byte memory platforms (DRAM or future storage-class memories) log-structured designs struggle to scale, preventing parallel applications from exploiting the full capabilities of the hardware: careful coordination is required for background activities (compacting and organizing memory) to remain asynchronous with respect to the use of the interface, and for insertion operations to avoid contending for centralized resources such as the log head and memory pools.In this work, we present the design of a log-structured key-value store called Nibble that incorporates a multi-head log for supporting concurrent writes, a novel distributed epoch mechanism for scalable memory reclamation, and an optimistic concurrency index. We implement Nibble in the Rust language in ca. 4000 lines of code, and evaluate it across a variety of data-serving workloads on a 240-core cache-coherent server. Our measurements show Nibble scales linearly in uniform YCSB workloads, matching competitive non-log-structured key-value stores for write- dominated traces at 50 million operations per second on 1 TiB-sized working sets. Our memory analysis shows Nibble is efficient, requiring less than 10% additional capacity, whereas memory use by non-log-structured key-value store designs may be as high as 2x.