cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hospitalization Rate among LVAD Patients during the Last Decade in the United States

Purpose Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have emerged as an important therapy for advanced heart failure, with an increasing number of patients receiving these devices worldwide. However, recurrent hospitalizations among LVAD recipients lead to a significant resource burden on health care systems. In this study we evaluated the rate of hospitalizations of LVAD patients in the United States (US) and the change in this rate over the last decade. Methods We utilized a large, retrospective administrative claims dataset (OPTUM),that contains health care claims of 60 million people in the US. Using ICD and CPT codes, we identified patients on durable LVAD support between the years 2008 and 2016, and evaluated hospitalization rates of these patients. Results A total of 3082 LVAD patients were included in this analysis (76% males, mean age 57.6 ± 14 years). Overall, 16% patients had at least one hospital admission at 1 month post implant, 91% patients were hospitalized at least once during the first year after implant and 98% of the patients were hospitalized at least once during the first 2 years post implant (figure A). The mean rate of hospitalization per patient year was 1.13. During the years 2008 to 2016 the rate of hospitalizations remained stable (Figure B). Conclusion The hospitalization rate among LVAD recipients remains high, with no significant change in this rate over the last decade despite advances in technology.
Explicit approximation of the surface potential equation of a dynamically depleted silicon-on-insulator MOSFET for performance and reliability simulations

Abstract In this work we are first to report an explicit solution to the SPE for a dynamically-depleted DD-SOI MOSFET that captures the effects of both oxide-trapped charge and interface traps on the device characteristics. Derivations for both the implicit (iterative) and explicit (non-iterative) solutions to the surface potential equation are presented for the DD-SOI MOSFET device. The explicit or closed form approximation was solved using non-iterative techniques that have been developed for the PSP MOSFET compact modeling framework (Wu, 2007; Chen and Gildenblat, 2001, 2005). The non-iterative model can be implemented as a Verilog-A sub-circuit module using a VCVS in series with the gate of the SOI MOSFET that is compatible with standard circuit level simulation tools. We demonstrate the accuracy of the implicit and explicit surface potential-based derivations using two dimensional TCAD simulations as a comparison. Finally, we present the symmetric linearization method for computing the drain current of the DD-SOI MOSFET.
Equivalence Testing for Factor Invariance Assessment with Categorical Indicators

Factorial invariance assessment is central in the development of educational and psychological instruments. Establishing factor structure invariance is key for building a strong validity argument, and establishing the fairness of score use. Fit indices and guidelines for judging a lack of invariance is an ever-developing line of research. An equivalence testing approach to invariance assessment, based on the RMSEA has been introduced. Simulation work demonstrated that this technique is effective for identifying loading and intercept noninvariance under a variety of conditions, when indicator variables are continuous and normally distributed. However, in many applications indicators are categorical (e.g., ordinal items). Equivalence testing based on the RMSEA must be adjusted to account for the presence of ordinal data to ensure accuracy of the procedures. The purpose of this simulation study is to investigate the performance of three alternatives for making such adjustments, based on work by Yuan and Bentler (Sociological Methodology, 30(1):165–200, 2000) and Maydeu-Olivares and Joe (Psychometrika 71(4):713–732, 2006). Equivalence testing procedures based on RMSEA using this adjustment is investigated, and compared with the Chi-square difference test. Manipulated factors include sample size, magnitude of noninvariance, proportion of noninvariant indicators, model parameter (loading or intercept), and number of indicators, and the outcomes of interest were Type I error and power rates. Results demonstrated that the \( T_{3} \) statistic (Asparouhov & Muthen, 2010) in conjunction with diagonally weighted least squares estimation yielded the most accurate invariance testing outcome.
Image-guided focused ultrasound modulates electrically evoked motor neuronal activity in the mouse peripheral nervous system in vivo.

Objective. Focused ultrasound (FUS) has recently been demonstrated capable of exciting motor neuronal activity. However, comprehensive understanding of elucidated excitatory and inhibitory effects is required to better assess FUS-mediated modulation. In this study, we demonstrate that image-guided FUS can selectively modulate motor neuron activity in the mouse sciatic nerve in vivo and attribute motor responses to thermal effects. Approach. FUS was applied on the sciatic nerve of anesthetized mice in vivo through the intact skin and muscle using ultrasound imaging for targeting. Both excitatory and inhibitory effects were recorded using electromyography (EMG) along with muscle response of the hind limb. The effects of FUS modulation vs heating by invasive alternative heating source (AHS) on electrically evoked EMG responses in the sciatic nerve in vivo were also investigated. The safety and reversibility of the technique were validated using histology and EMG recovery. Main results. The FUS was capable of eliciting motor neuronal activity comparable to electrical stimulation, and facilitating motor neuronal response on electrically evoked potentials with temperature elevation up to 11.5 ± 0.3 oC (PRF ≤ 40 Hz). On the other hand, FUS-induced temperature elevations above 15.1 ± 1.6 oC (PRF ≥ 100 Hz) resulted in the suppression of electrically-evoked motor neuronal activity along with a decrease in EMG latency and area under the curve (AUC), which was validated against the invasive AHS with temperature elevation of 18.1 ± 8.5 oC instead of FUS modulation. Histological findings along with EMG responses after FUS modulation demonstrated a reversible or irreversible modulation. Significance. The findings reported herein indicate that image-guided FUS (PRF ≤ 100 Hz) induces safe and controllable modulation of involuntarily evoked motor neuron activity in vivo.
Differential Item Functioning of the Everyday Cognition (ECog) Scales in Relation to Racial/Ethnic Groups

Objective The Everyday Cognition (ECog) scales measure cognitively based across domains of everyday abilities that are affected early in the course of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. However, the degree to which the ECog may be differentially influenced by ethnic/racial background is unknown. This study evaluates measurement invariance of the ECog across non-Hispanic White (NHW), Black, and Hispanic individuals. Methods Participants included 1177 NHW, 243 Black, and 216 Hispanic older adults from the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Cohort who had an ECog. Differential item functioning (DIF) for each ECog domain was evaluated separately for Black and Hispanic participants compared to NHW participants. An iterative multiple group confirmatory factor analysis approach for ordinal scores was used to identify items whose measurement properties differed across groups and to adjust scores for DIF. Adjusted scores were then evaluated to test whether they were more strongly associated with cognitive function (concurrent and longitudinal change in cognition) and brain volumes (measured by brain imaging). Results Varying levels, patterns, and impacts of DIF were found across domains and groups. However, the impact of DIF was relatively small, and DIF effects on scores generally were less than one-half standard error of measurement. There were no meaningful differences in associations with cognition and brain injury between DIF adjusted and unadjusted scores. Conclusions Varying patterns of DIF were observed across the Black and Hispanic participants across select ECog domains. Overall, DIF effects were relatively small and did not change the relationship between the ECog and other indicators of disease.
The relationships between chronic pain and changes in health with cannabis consumption patterns

Background Pain is the most common reason endorsed by patients seeking medical cannabis. Given the nature of chronic pain, it is particularly important to understand consumption patterns for patients who use cannabis for chronic health conditions to evaluate how frequency of use might impact overall health and functioning. This analysis examines whether levels of chronic pain were associated with cannabis consumption patterns, after controlling for patient-level differences in demographics. Methods Our sample included 295 medical cannabis patients. Logistic regression models were fit to evaluate the association between pain (low, moderate and high) and dichotomous measures of cannabis consumption (daily vs. nondaily; ≥3 times per day vs. Results A significantly higher proportion of respondents in the high pain category used cannabis 3 or more times per day, compared to lower pain categories. Pain level was not significantly associated with daily cannabis use. However, pain level was significantly associated with log odds of using cannabis ≥3 times per day, such that respondents with both high pain and moderate pain had significantly higher log odds of consuming cannabis ≥3 times per day compared to low pain group. Conclusion While the efficacy of cannabis for various medical conditions continues to be evaluated, the best available evidence suggests a possible benefit for the treatment of chronic pain. The results of this study indicate that individuals with high pain are more likely to consume cannabis multiple times a day, but this use may not be related to better health. Our results point to a need for more research on the health impacts of frequency of cannabis use among medical cannabis dispensary patients.
Introduction to and Screening Visit Results of the Multicenter Pediatric Crohn's Disease Growth Study.

Author(s): Gupta, Neera; Lustig, Robert H; Andrews, Howard; Sylvester, Francisco; Keljo, David; Goyal, Alka; Gokhale, Ranjana; Patel, Ashish S; Guthery, Stephen; Leu, Cheng-Shiun | Abstract: BackgroundStatural growth impairment is more common in males with Crohn's disease (CD). We assessed sex differences in height Z score differences and bone age (BA) Z scores and characterized age of menarche in a novel contemporary cohort of pediatric CD patients undergoing screening for enrollment in the multicenter longitudinal Growth Study.MethodsCrohn's disease patients (females with chronological age [CA] 5 years and older and younger than 14 years; males with CA 6 years and older and younger than 16 years) participated in a screening visit for the Growth Study. Height BA-Z scores are height Z scores calculated based on BA. Height CA-Z scores are height Z scores calculated based on CA. The height Z score difference equals height CA-Z score minus height BA-Z score.ResultsOne hundred seventy-one patients (60% male) qualified for this analysis. Mean CA was 12.2 years. Mean height CA-Z score was -0.4, and mean height BA-Z score was 0.4 in females. Mean height CA-Z score was -0.1, and mean height BA-Z score was 0.2 in males. The absolute value of the mean height Z score difference was significantly greater in females (0.8) than males (0.3; P = 0.005). The mean BA-Z score in females (-1.0) was significantly lower than in males (-0.2; P = 0.002). The median CA at menarche was 13.6 (95% CI, 12.6-14.6) years.ConclusionsOur screening visit data suggest that standardized height gain is lower in males with skeletal maturation and delayed puberty is common in females in CD. We are investigating these findings in the ongoing Growth Study.
Patterns of care and predictors of adjuvant radiation therapy in phyllodes tumor of the breast

Patterns of care, utilization, and predictors of adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) for phyllodes tumors of the breast were retrospectively analyzed using the National Cancer Database. We identified 3080 patients; 53.4% received lumpectomy and 35.9% mastectomy. 25.9% of patients had lymph node sampling or dissection. 23.2% received adjuvant RT, which doubled in utilization over a decade. Predictors of RT were younger age, fewer comorbidities, less favorable pathologic features, and treatment at academic centers. There was no association between RT and overall survival (AHR 1.21, 95% CI 0.97-1.53, P = .097). Despite national guidelines recommending against nodal sampling or RT, it remains prevalent. Further research on indications for adjuvant radiation for phyllodes is needed.
Vision system with deep learning classifiers for automatic quality inspection

The role of data analytics in industrial quality inspection has grown rapidly in the last few years. This has also instigated increasing interests in the development of analytical, data driven models based on machine learning techniques with vision systems in industrial quality inspection. The deep learning employs computational models which are composed of a series of transforming and processing layers to learn representations of data with multiple levels of abstraction. In this paper, we present a novel approach combining deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) and National Instruments (NI) vision system for image classification to detect cracks on product surfaces. To mimic cracks on product surfaces, 15 various samples with and without cracks were designed in a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) solid modeling software and constructed using a 3D printer. In data acquisition, these samples with dimensions of 10 x 10 x 1 cm were systematically imaged using CCD camera and NI vision system, and approximately 1000 images obtained. Acquired images were input to two CNN classifiers, AlexNet and GoogLeNet architectures. The CNN automatically learns a hierarchy of increasingly complex features and a related classifier directly from training data sets. For AlexNet architecture, the CNN employs 5 convolutional and 3 max pooling layers with 3 fully connected layers to perform the image classification. For GoogLeNet architecture, the CNN utilizes 22 layers with multiple inception modules and SoftMax classification layers. The preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of using deep learning algorithms with NI vision system to perform the automated industrial quality inspection.
Buriat dorsal epenthesis is not reproduced with novel morphemes

In Buriat, the consonant realized contextually as dorsal or uvular alternates with zero at stem- suffix boundaries. This alternation has been analyzed as phonological epenthesis and has been known as a challenge to the existing theories of phonological markedness. The analysis of this alternation has also been debated. This paper presents new fieldwork and experimental evidence addressing the ways in which the reported epenthesis pattern is generalized to new environments. The results do not fully support the phonological insertion account of the alternation. An alternative analysis of Buriat dorsal-zero alternation in terms of floating features is proposed.
Informing, transforming, inquiring: Approaches to elementary social studies in methods course syllabi

Abstract This study investigated approaches to the elementary social studies methods syllabus from instructors of courses across the United States. Using qualitative content analysis, we explored 48 methods syllabi using a deductive framework of Information Based Systems of education, Transformation Based Systems of Education, and Inquiry Based Systems of education. Ultimately, we determined that over half (n = 27) of the collected syllabi reflected an Information Based System of education meant to prepare students for certification, lesson and unit planning, and best practice social studies instruction. Fewer (n = 14) prepared pre-service teachers to challenge official knowledge and position social studies instruction within socio-political realities of students and fewer still prepared pre-service teachers to center inquiry-based instruction guided by the C3 Framework (n = 11). We position these findings within dominant trends in elementary social studies scholarship and conclude that too few methods courses reflect the scholarly trend toward transformative, justice-oriented, or inquiry-based elementary social studies.
Dynamics of the electric polarization and depolarization of graphite

Abstract The dynamics of direct-current-induced electric polarization/depolarization of a conductive material (graphite) are studied. Forward-current polarization and reverse-current depolarization cause the apparent resistivity to increase by ≤ 2.2% and ≤1.0%, respectively. Polarization-related carrier-atom interaction engagement occurs more readily than depolarization-related disengagement. The number n of carriers that participate increases with the number NI of injected electrons; the rate of the n increase decreases with increasing NI. The efficiency of carrier-atom interaction (indicated by n/NI, ≤1.2 × 10−17) decreases with increasing NI (≤1.2 × 1020). For the same NI, the fraction of carriers that participate (n/(NI + Nc), where Nc = number of inherent carriers) increases with increasing current (rate of electron injection). At a particular current, this fraction increases and then decreases with increasing NI. The polarization/depolarization rate decreases as polarization/depolarization proceeds. At a given polarization/depolarization time, the rate and degree of polarization are higher than those of depolarization. The above fraction is higher for polarization (≤8.5 × 10−18) than depolarization (≤4.7 × 10−18). The difference between polarization and depolarization agrees with the apparent-resistivity asymmetry and true electret character indicated by the open-circuited DC electric field of 1.0 × 10−5 V/m. The above fraction is lower than the fraction of carriers that participate in the electret discharge (4.9 × 10−4) by 14 orders of magnitude.
Dynamical Stability and Habitability of Gamma Cephei Binary-Planetary System

It has been suggested that the long-lived residual radial velocity variations observed in the precision radial velocity measurements of the primary of Gamma Cephei (HR8974, HD222404, HIP116727) are likely due to a Jupiter-like planet around this star (Hatzes et al, 2003). In this paper, the orbital dynamics of this plant is studied and also the possibility of the existence of a hypothetical Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of its central star is discussed. Simulations, which have been carried out for different values of the eccentricity and semimajor axis of the binary, as well as the orbital inclination of its Jupiter-like planet, expand on previous studies of this system and indicate that, for the values of the binary eccentricity smaller than 0.5, and for all values of the orbital inclination of the Jupiter-like planet ranging from 0 to 40 degrees, the orbit of this planet is stable. For larger values of the binary eccentricity, the system becomes gradually unstable. Integrations also indicate that, within this range of orbital parameters, a hypothetical Earth-like planet can have a long-term stable orbit only at distances of 0.3 to 0.8 AU from the primary star. The habitable zone of the primary, at a range of approximately 3.1 to 3.8 AU, is, however, unstable.
Integrative Strategies for American Indians

This chapter focuses on integrative strategies when working with American Indian communities. American Indians (AIs) have always had their own systems of health and wellness practices embedded within their lifestyles and rich cultural heritage. The history of the AI, before colonialism, is a story of strong, healthy, thriving AI tribal nations that collectively occupied the entirety of the geographical regions of North America. European and Spanish colonization of AI tribal nations resulted in the forced removal of tribal sovereignty, culture, language, health systems, health and wellness practices and innate life ways. Historical acts of genocide as well as the ongoing intentional erasure of AI tribal life ways and culture perpetrated by Spanish and European settlers contributed to an intergenerational cascade of AI social, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual hardship. Many of the once thriving tribal nations, villages, pueblos, and bands were significantly reduced in number while some were all together eliminated. These pivotal historical events contributed to AI distrust of the United States Federal government, the agency responsible for the treaty obligation to provide healthcare services to AIs. AIs continue to experience health inequity, disparity, and socioeconomic hardship. Despite these intergenerational and tired messages of genocide, discrimination, health disparity, and socioeconomic struggle, AI tribal communities rely on cultural philosophies, teachings and stories as sources of resilience, steadfastness, persistence and health that have enriched and sustained their livelihood. There is a growing awareness and eagerness among AIs, especially younger generations, to reclaim traditional knowledge on ways to sustain and promote health. AIs have engaged in revitalization efforts to better understand health sustaining cultural knowledge. AI communities are exploring ways to operationalize and integrate innate cultural health systems and traditional medicine practices alongside existing mainstream health systems to sustain and promote the health of their communities. A discussion on ancient and present-day AI health systems, significant historical events and accessible, preferred, and culturally aligned integrative approaches and strategies for AI health will be presented.
Is the Sun Shining? A Qualitative Study on the Presence of Sunshine Laws in the College and University Journalism Curriculum:

This case study focusing on journalism curriculum in Tennessee sheds light on the obstacles that journalism schools face in efforts to include more instruction of sunshine laws into courses. Journa...
Prospects for High-Efficiency Silicon and lll-V Power Amplifiers and Transmitters in 100-300 GHz Bands

Frequency bands between 100-300GHz, known as upper millimeterwave (UmmW), offer an opportunity to converge communication and sensing systems to support future high-throughput backhaul and radar applications [1]. In particular, frequency bands located at 140 and 220 GHz feature O 2 and H 2 O absorption windows for low propagation loss in outdoor channel environments. A challenge to operating in UmmW bands is the lack of mature electronic and packaging technologies that has resulted to date in poor power efficiency and higher costs when compared to lower millimeter-wave (LmmW) bands (28/39/60 GHz). While the 60 GHz bands offer substantial bandwidth, the high absorption at this band prohibits energy efficient operation over more than a kilometer.
Host-symbiont population genomics provide insights into partner fidelity, transmission mode and habitat adaptation in deep-sea hydrothermal vent snails

Symbiont specificity, both at the phylotype and strain level, can have profound consequences for host ecology and evolution. However, except for insights from a few model symbiosis systems, the degree of partner fidelity and the influence of host versus environmental factors on symbiont composition are still poorly understood. Nutritional symbioses between invertebrate animals and chemosynthetic bacteria at deep-sea hydrothermal vents are examples of relatively selective associations, where hosts affiliate only with particular, environmentally acquired phylotypes of gammaproteobacterial or campylobacterial symbionts. In hydrothermal vent snails of the sister genera Alviniconcha and Ifremeria this phylotype specificity has been shown to play a role in habitat distribution and partitioning among different holobiont species. However, it is currently unknown if fidelity goes beyond species level associations that might influence genetic structuring, connectivity and habitat adaptation of holobiont populations. We used metagenomic analyses to assess sequence variation in hosts and symbionts and identify correlations with geographic and environmental factors. Our analyses indicate that host populations are not differentiated across a ~800 km gradient, while symbiont populations are clearly structured between vent locations due to a combination of neutral and selective processes. Overall, these results suggest that host individuals flexibly associate with locally adapted strains of their specific symbiont phylotypes, which supports a long-standing but untested paradigm of the benefits of horizontal transmission. Strain flexibility in these snails likely enables host populations to exploit a range of habitat conditions, which might favor wide-spread genetic connectivity and ecological resilience unless physical dispersal barriers are present.
Signatures of GVHD and Relapse after Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide Revealed by Immune Profiling and Machine Learning.

The key immunologic signatures associated with clinical outcomes after post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy)-based HLA-haploidentical (haplo) and HLA-matched bone marrow transplantation (BMT) are largely unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we used machine learning to decipher clinically relevant signatures from immunophenotypic, proteomic, and clinical data and then examined transcriptome changes in the lymphocyte subsets that predicted major post-transplant outcomes. Kinetics of immune subset reconstitution after day 28 were similar for 70 patients undergoing haplo and 75 patients undergoing HLA-matched BMT. Machine learning based on 35 candidate factors (10 clinical, 18 cellular, and 7 proteomic) revealed that combined elevations in effector CD4+ conventional T cells (Tconv) and CXCL9 at day 28 predicted acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). Furthermore, higher NK cell counts predicted improved overall survival due to a reduction in both nonrelapse mortality and relapse. Transcriptional and flow-cytometric analyses of recovering lymphocytes in patients with aGVHD identified preserved hallmarks of functional CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) while highlighting a Tconv-driven inflammatory and metabolic axis distinct from that seen with conventional GVHD prophylaxis. Patients developing early relapse displayed a loss of inflammatory gene signatures in NK cells and a transcriptional exhaustion phenotype in CD8+ T cells. Using a multimodality approach, we highlight the utility of systems biology in BMT biomarker discovery and offer a novel understanding of how PTCy influences alloimmune responses. Our work charts future directions for novel therapeutic interventions after these increasingly utilized GVHD prophylaxis platforms.
August Halm: A Critical and Creative Life in Music

In the early 1900s, August Halm was widely acknowledged to be one of the most insightful and influential authors of his day on a wide range of musical topics. Yet, in the eighty years since his untimely death at age 59 (in 1929), Halm-the author of six widely read books and over 100 essays-has received much less attention than such contemporaries as Hugo Riemann, Heinrich Schenker, Ernst Kurth, and Arnold Schoenberg. Lee Rothfarb's engaging and deeply researched study provides the missing images that comprise the multifaceted life of this astute musical sage. August Halm: A Critical and Creative Life in Music begins by setting the cultural stage and examining Halm's life with rich details from unpublished personal letters, diaries, notebooks, and lecture notes. Further chapters explore Halm's notion of musical logic and his proposal that the evolution of compositional technique had, by his day, culminated in three successive musical "cultures" epitomized in Bach (fugue), Beethoven (sonata), and Bruckner (symphony). Another chapter examines, for the first time anywhere, Halm's own compositions, their motivating aesthetic premises, and their connection with late twentieth-century postmodernism. The volume closes with an assessment of Halm's significance for present-day music theory, including its branches that deal with narrativity, plot theory, embodiment, and semiotics. Halm's subject matter and creative activities ranged widely, and he aimed at maintaining a style that would be accessible and intriguing to music amateurs and music educators at all levels. Lee Rothfarb's book-written in the same spirit-will interest not only music theorists and musicologists but also composers and classroom and private music teachers. Lee Rothfarb is professor of music at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His previous publications include Ernst Kurth as Theorist and Analyst and Ernst Kurth: Selected Writings.
A Reevaluation of the Question: Is the Pubertal Resurgence in Pulsatile GnRH Release in the Male Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Associated With a Gonad-Independent Augmentation of GH Secretion?

A somatic signal has been posited to trigger the pubertal resurgence in pulsatile GnRH secretion that initiates puberty in highly evolved primates. That GH might provide such a signal emerged in 2000 as a result of a study reporting that circulating nocturnal GH concentrations in castrated juvenile male monkeys increased in a 3-week period immediately preceding the pubertal resurgence of LH secretion. The present study was conducted to reexamine this intriguing relationship, again in an agonadal model. Four castrated juvenile male monkeys were implanted with indwelling jugular catheters, housed in remote sampling cages, and subjected to 24 hours of sequential blood sampling (every 30 min) every 2 weeks from 19.5 to 22 months of age. Twenty-four-hour profiles of circulating GH concentrations were analyzed using the pulse detection algorithm, PULSAR, and developmental changes in pulsatile GH release with respect to the initiation of the pubertal rise of LH secretion (week 0; observed between 22.5 and 32 mo ...
Constructing a Solution Attractor for the Probabilistic Traveling Salesman Problem through Simulation

The probabilistic traveling salesman problem (PTSP) is a variation of the classic traveling salesman problem and one of the most significant stochastic network and routing problems. This paper proposes a simulation-based multi-start search algorithm to construct the solution attractor for the PTSP and find the best a priori tour through the solution attractor. A solution attractor drives the local search trajectories to converge into a small region in the solution space, which contains the most promising solutions to the problem. Our algorithm uses a simple multi-start local search process to find a set of locally optimal a priori tours, stores these tours in a so-called hit-frequency matrix E, and then finds a globally optimal a priori tour in the matrix E. In this paper, the search algorithm is implemented in a master-worker parallel architecture.
Robust Stability and Performance Analysis for Multi-actuator Real-Time Hybrid Substructuring

Real-time hybrid substructuring (RTHS) is a relatively new method of vibration testing for characterizing the system-level performance of physical components or substructures. With RTHS, the coupled system is partitioned into physical and numerical substructures and interfaced together in real-time as cyber-physical system similar to hardware-in-the-loop testing. Control actuation and sensing is used to enforce the compatibility and equilibrium conditions between the physical and numerical substructures. Since RTHS involves a feedback loop, the frequency-dependent magnitude and inherent time delay of the actuator dynamics can introduce inaccuracy and instability. This paper presents a robust stability and performance analysis method for multi-actuator RTHS based on robust stability theory for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) feedback control. This analysis method involves casting the actuator dynamics as a multiplicative uncertainty and applying the small gain theorem to derive the sufficient conditions for robust stability and performance. The attractive feature of this robust stability and performance analysis method is that it accommodates linearized modeled or measured frequency response functions for both the physical substructure and actuator dynamics.
Do vaccination strategies implemented by nursing homes narrow the racial gap in receipt of influenza vaccination in the United States

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the racial inequity between African Americans and Caucasians in receipt of influenza vaccine is narrower in residents of nursing homes with facility-wide vaccination strategies than in residents of facilities without vaccination strategies. DESIGN: Secondary data analysis using the National Nursing Home Survey 2004, a nationally representative survey. SETTING: One thousand one hundred seventy-four participating nursing homes sampled systematically with probability proportional to bed size. PARTICIPANTS: Thirteen thousand five hundred seven randomly sampled residents of nursing homes between August and December 2004. MEASUREMENTS: Receipt of influenza vaccine within the last year. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between facility-level influenza immunization strategy and racial inequity in receipt of vaccination, adjusted for characteristics at the resident, facility, state, and regional levels. RESULTS: Overall in the Untied States, vaccination coverage was higher for Caucasian and African-American residents; the racial vaccination gaps were smaller (<6 percentage points) and nonsignificant in residents of homes with standing orders for influenza vaccinations (P=.14), verbal consent allowed for vaccinations(P=.39), and routine review of facility-wide vaccination rates (P=.61) than for residents of homes without these strategies. The racial vaccination gap in residents of homes without these strategies were two to three times as high (P=.009, P=.002, and P=.002, respectively). CONCLUSION: The presence of several immunization strategies in nursing homes is associated with higher vaccination coverage for Caucasian and African-American residents, narrowing the national vaccination racial gap.
Cytogenetic studies on women using oral contraceptives and their progeny.

Abstract The cytogenetic study of peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures has been done on: (1) 50 babies born to mothers after oral contraceptive use, (2) 23 women using oral contraceptives, and (3) 20 women who had never used oral gestagens. In addition, dermatoglyphics were done on the 20 babies for correlation with the cytogenetic studies. The chromosome analysis on the progeny revealed one baby to have D/G translocation Mongolism. Cytogenetic changes of increased chromosome breakage and satellite association were observed in the 23 patients using oral contraceptives over the 20 patients on no gestagen therapy. Further cytogenetic studies are indicated for clarifying the significance of chromosome aberrations as an indicator of the sensitivity of cellular change to the agent used in therapy.
Ultrastructural studies on developing oocytes of the salamander Triturus viridescens: III. Early cytoplasmic changes and the formation of pigment

The early cytoplasmic changes in the developing oocyte of Triturus viridescens are described. The pigment granules are shown to develop within membrane-limited vesicles, and it is suggested that these vesicles may originate in the dictyosomes. The endoplasmic reticulum is shown to take a vesicular form in Triturus viridescens.
Bile acids. XLVIII. Separation of conjugated bile acids by high-pressure liquid chromatography.

Abstract Major conjugated bile acids of human bile have been resolved by high-pressure liquid chromatography. The elutions are carried out in two stages on Corasil II or μPorasil columns; first, an alkaline solvent system (2-propanol/ethyl acetate/water/7 n ammonium hydroxide, 260:600:50:3) was used for separation into groups: tauro-dihydroxy derivatives, taurocholate, glyco-dihydroxy derivatives, and glycocholate. The fraction containing glyco-dihydroxy conjugates was separated by rechromatography in acetonitrile/acetic acid, 400:10, and the fraction containing tauro-dihydroxy conjugates could be partially resolved by rechromatography in acetonitrile/acetic acid/formic acid (97%)/water, 500:10:5:10. Three samples of prepared human bile have been similarly treated.
Hamas, Islam, and Israel

The electoral triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian elections of January 2006 has made it imperative for policy makers around the world to understand this group and its ideology. Is Hamas likely to soften its hostility to Israel? Is Hamas likely to receive significant support from the Muslim world? What are the odds that Hamas can be either placated or isolated? If Hamas can make a strong claim to be authentically Islamic in its ideological underpinnings, then it is more likely to receive support from portions of the Muslim world and less likely to be conciliatory vis-a-vis Israel. Unfortunately, a careful study of the ideology of Hamas and its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, shows that that ideology is firmly rooted in traditional Islamic principles. Far from distorting or perverting classical Islamic law, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood can claim very plausibly that shari'a requires implacable and violent resistance to Israel, including terrorism, and denial of Israel's right to exist as a non-Muslim state located on Islamic territory. Efforts to placate or isolate Hamas are therefore unlikely to succeed.
Application of Neural Networks in Bioprocess State Estimation

The application of artificial neural networks to the estimation of bioprocess variables will be discussed. In fermentation processes, direct on-line measurements of primary process variables usually are unavailable. The state of the cultivation, therefore, has to be inferred from measurements of secondary variables and any previous knowledge of process dynamics. This research investigates the learning, recall and generalization characteristics of neural networks trained to model the nonlinear behavior of a fermentation process. Two different neural network methodologies are discussed, namely, feed-forward and recurrent neural networks, which differ in their treatment of time dependence. The neural networks are trained by backpropagation using a conjugate gradient technique, which provides a dramatic improvement in the convergence speed. The objective is to use environmental and physiological information available from on-line sensors to estimate concentrations of species in a bioreactor. Results of the neural network estimators are presented, based on experimental data available from the ethanol production by Zymomonas mobilis fermentation. The feed-forward and recurrent neural network methodologies are demonstrated to perform suitably as unmeasurable state estimators. Both networks offer comparable abilities of recall, but recurrent networks perform better than feed-forward networks in generalization.
Stress Intensity Factors and Displacements for ARC Bend Samples Using Collocation

Abstract : Stress intensity, crack mouth opening displacements, and load-line displacements were determined for the arc bend-chord support specimen using boundary collocation. Several inner radius (r1) to outer radius (r2) ratios were studied at each of two span (S) to width (W) ratios. The actual solution matrix is for S/W = 3, r1/r2 = 0.8, 0.6 0.4, and for S/W = 4, R1/R2 = 0.8, 0.7, 0.6. Also, the three-point bend single-edge specimen (SE(B) at both S/W = 3 and S/W = 4 was studied to examine the limiting behavior of the generated solutions. For all of the S/W = 3 cases, solutions were obtained for crack length to width ratios (a/W) from 0.2 to 0.6, and in the S/W = 4 cases, a/W was varied from 0.2 to 0.5. The solutions were obtained by the linear superposition of a pure bending stress, a pure shear stress, and a uniform normal stress on an annual segment. The magnitudes of the individual components depended upon the size of the annular segment and the S/W ratio. Wide range expressions were fit to the numerical solutions to make them applicable over a wider range of testing conditions and for inclusion in future revisions of E-399 on Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness Testing.
Confidence Intervals for a Discrimination Ratio in a Gauge R&R Study with Three Random Factors

In this paper, we extend results of the typical two-factor gauge repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) study to a situation with three random factors. The objective of this study is to form a confidence interval on a discrimination ratio used to determine the adequacy of the measurement system. Two confidence intervals are proposed and evaluated for effectiveness with regard to confidence coefficient and interval length using computer simulation. The basic conclusions are that: i) a closed-form interval that is easily computable performs well in a variety of conditions, ii) a more intensive computational method performs slightly better than the closed-form interval, and iii) increased replications do not have much affect on interval length.
Selective enhancement of contrast blocks for MPEG/JPEG image compression

In our work, we introduce the block significance measure reflecting the property of the blocks to be shared by pixels from different image regions. The blocks B with higher significance value C(B) belong to the fields of region contrast and thus tend to attract more attention in terms of the Human Visual System (HVS). The computation of C(B) is based on the execution of a region merging procedure and determination of the first partitioning containing a region completely covering a block B. The introduced measure is related to the flat/texture/edge block classification but reflects global image properties and differs from the latter. We study how one may incorporate the measure in the DCT-based based image/video compression. Experimental results are presented.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The Influence of Dysphoria on Reactivity to Naturalistic Fluctuations in Anger

We used an experience sampling methodology to explore the relationship between current symptoms of dysphoria and momentary mood fluctuations following everyday experiences of anger. Using PDA devices, participants rated their mood, ruminative cognitions, feelings of dependency, and stressful events 4 times per day for 1 week. We hypothesized and found that those higher in dysphoria would demonstrate a stronger link between anger and depressed mood than those who were lower in dysphoria. Those participants who reported higher initial dysphoria indicated more anger over the course of the week, a stronger within-person association between anger and depressed mood, and a slower recovery from anger experiences. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses indicated that the link between anger and depressed mood for those high in dysphoria is largely explained by a stronger carryover of anger from one assessment to the next and partially explained by greater increases in ruminative cognitions and feelings of dependency. The change in depressed mood appears to occur with increases in anger, specifically, and not other negative mood states. Our results extend previous research on the anger-depression relationship by investigating the short-term relationships between anger and depressed mood among those with varying levels of dysphoria.
ESR of matrix isolated alkali superoxides

Abstract ESR spectra of NaO2, KO2, RbO2, and CsO2 in rare gas matrices are consistent with an ionic M+O2− model of isosceles symmetry, in accord with recent vibrational spectra. However, the ESR for CsO2 also shows evidence for an inversion of the uppermost occupied molecular orbitals which can be attributed to a slight covalent mixing of the oxygen valence orbitals with the inner-shell p-orbitals of the metal.
Relevant Adult Programs, Resilient Students, and Retention-Driven Administration

In ten years, Alaska Pacific University has moved from a totally decentralized administration of its adult online program to a very centralized structure. Drastic changes in funding sources and student needs have compelled the university to take new approaches. As the learning landscape continues to shift for adults, online learners, and Alaska Native communities, the university continues to adapt its organizational structures to best address the shifting environment.
Ballistic range tests of ablating and nonablating slender cones

Ballistic range tests to study ablation effects on aerodynamic characteristics of ablating and nonablating slender cones
Sum Frequency Generation and Catalytic Reaction Studies of the Removal of Organic Capping Agents from Pt Nanoparticles by UV−Ozone Treatment

We report the structure of the organic capping layers of platinum colloid nanoparticles and their removal by UV-ozone exposure. Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFGVS) studies identify the carbon-hydrogen stretching modes on poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and tetradecyl tributylammonium bromide (TTAB)-capped platinum nanoparticles. We found that the UV-ozone treatment technique effectively removes the capping layer on the basis of several analytical measurements including SFGVS, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The overall shape of the nanoparticles was preserved after the removal of capping layers, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SFGVS of ethylene hydrogenation on the clean platinum nanoparticles demonstrates the existence of ethylidyne and di-σ-bonded species, indicating the similarity between single-crystal and nanoparticle systems.
Cybernetics, systems science, and the great university

It is time that the related fields of cybernetics and systems science began to make a significant contribution to the design of organizations. A good place to begin is with the design of the Great University. The Great University does not presently exist, either in any institution or in a conceptual form. If it can be designed conceptually, the possibility exists that it may be realized in practice, and that it could serve as an example to existing institutions. The Great University represents a sufficiently sophisticated concept that its design and operation both can serve as tests of the quality and utility of concepts from systems science and cybernetics. The Great University is founded on the Leibniz Principle of Reason. In order to reflect this Principle, it is animated by and organized around three objectives of education set forth by Ralph Barton Perry, which are founded in the aim to prepare people for the exercise of citizenship in a free society. Evaluation of the Great University will lie in the performance of university graduates in society. The Great University will strive to create and implement exemplary practices that reinforce high quality performance of university graduates and correct the factors that promote low-quality performance in university graduates. In creating an organization and programs that are responsive to the Leibniz Principle and the Perry Objectives, the Great University will set behavioral standards of the highest ethical quality, and its internal incentive system for faculty and student performance will be designed to promote balanced attention to the three objectives. In order to achieve this, a double infrastructure will be required to meet the vastly different requirements of subsumptive and supersumptive activity, both types being essential in the Great University. “… the paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.” Alfred North Whitehead
Gravitational radiation, source behavior, and the method of matched asymptotic expansions

It is conjectured that a suitably modified Bondi-type expansion of the gravitational field in the radiation zone is a rapidly convergent series. It is also conjectured that the source behavior in the inner zone is insensitive to the initial conditions imposed on the gravitational field in solving the initial-value problem in this zone. Consequences of these conjectures for the problem of relating source motion to the Bondi news function are discussed.