cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Methotrexate administration directly into the fourth ventricle in children with malignant fourth ventricular brain tumors: a pilot clinical trial

We hypothesize that chemotherapy can be safely administered directly into the fourth ventricle to treat recurrent malignant brain tumors in children. For the first time in humans, methotrexate was infused into the fourth ventricle in children with recurrent, malignant brain tumors. A catheter was surgically placed into the fourth ventricle and attached to a ventricular access device. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow was confirmed by CINE MRI postoperatively. Each cycle consisted of 4 consecutive daily methotrexate infusions (2 milligrams). Disease response was monitored with serial MRI scans and CSF cytologic analysis. Trough CSF methotrexate levels were sampled. Five patients (3 with medulloblastoma and 2 with ependymoma) received 18, 18, 12, 9, and 3 cycles, respectively. There were no serious adverse events or new neurological deficits attributed to methotrexate. Two additional enrolled patients were withdrawn prior to planned infusions due to rapid disease progression. Median serum methotrexate level 4 h after infusion was 0.04 µmol/L. Range was 0.02–0.13 µmol/L. Median trough CSF methotrexate level 24 h after infusion was 3.18 µmol/L (range 0.53–212.36 µmol/L). All three patients with medulloblastoma had partial response or stable disease until one patient had progressive disease after cycle 18. Both patients with ependymoma had progressive disease after 9 and 3 cycles, respectively. Low-dose methotrexate can be infused into the fourth ventricle without causing neurological toxicity. Some patients with recurrent medulloblastoma experience a beneficial anti-tumor effect both within the fourth ventricle and at distant sites.
Acceptance of the Mineralogical Society of America Award for 2010

Mr. President, members of the society, and guests. It is an enormous honor to be the recipient of the 2010 MSA award. The impact of the award is truly felt when one glances at the list of prior MSA awardees. Receiving the award was a great surprise because I am not a traditional mineralogist, although, of course, who is? Thus I would like to express deep gratitude to the mineralogy community for welcoming an enthusiastic newcomer, and for all of the individuals who have generously shared with me their knowledge and expertise. I have had the good fortune of participating in the development of a …
Effects of forest fire on headwater stream macroinvertebrate communities in eastern Washington, U.S.A.

Summary 1. Recent increases in fire frequency in North America have focused interest on potential effects on adjacent ecosystems, including streams. Headwaters could be particularly affected because of their high connectivity to riparian and downstream aquatic ecosystems through aquatic invertebrate drift and emergence. 2. Headwater streams from replicated burned and control catchments were sampled in 2 years following an intense forest fire in northeastern Washington (U.S.A.). We compared differences in benthic, drift and emergent macroinvertebrate density, biomass and community composition between five burned and five unburned catchments (14–135 ha). 3. There were significantly higher macroinvertebrate densities in burned than control sites for all sample types. Macroinvertebrate biomass was greater at burned sites only from emergence samples; in benthic and drift samples there was no significant difference between burn and control sites. 4. For all sample types, diversity was lower in the burned catchments, and the macroinvertebrate community was dominated by chironomid midges. 5. Compared to the effects of fire in less disturbed ecosystems, this study illustrated that forest fire in a managed forest may have greater effects on headwater macroinvertebrate communities, influencing prey flow to adjacent terrestrial and downstream aquatic habitats for at least the first 2 years post-fire.
Inducing Oncoprotein Degradation to Improve Targeted Cancer Therapy

Over the past decade, inhibition of the kinase activities of oncogenic proteins using small molecules and antibodies has been a mainstay of our anticancer drug development effort, resulting in several Food and Drug Administration–approved cancer therapies. The clinical effectiveness of kinase-targeted agents has been inconsistent, mostly because of the development of resistance. The expression and function of oncoproteins and tumor suppressors are regulated by numerous posttranslational protein modifications including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and acetylation; hence, targeting specific posttranslational protein modifications provides for an attractive strategy for anticancer drug development. The present review discusses the hypothesis that targeted degradation of an oncoprotein may overcome many of the shortcomings seen with kinase inhibitors and that the approach would enable targeted inhibition of oncogenic proteins previously thought to be undruggable.
Miniature Seed-a Study in the Development of a Defective Caryopsis in Maize.

HE normal product of fertilization in maize is a mature dormant seed T with a well developed embryo and starchy endosperm. All the many variations from this norm have been in a minus direction with regard to embryo or endosperm development and must be regarded as defective types. These defective types may be divided superficially into two groups on the basis of comparison of their growth to that of plants of similar genetic constitution but carrying the normal allele of the gene in question. The first group would comprise those defectives in which the homozygous defective plants are approximately equal in vigor, size, and maturity to the normal, although they may be somewhat smaller in early growth stages. The second group would include all the lethals, semi-lethals, and stocks in which the factor in question finds expression throughout the sporophytic generation and makes the plants shorter, lighter in color, more slender, and generally less vigorous. Defectives of the first class are waxy, sugary, shrunken, and miniature germ. All these genes approach normal very closely in seed development as judged by weight. Waxy and sugary are products of upsets in carbohydrate metabolism-waxy corn forming exclusively amylopectin instead of a mixture of both amylose and amylopectin as in ordinary maize (SPRAGUE, BRIMHALL and HIXON 1g43), while sugary cannot synthesize glucose into maize starch (EAST and HAYES 1911). WENTZ (1924) reported that miniature germ with a very small embryo has low germination and is weak in early growth stages but recovers to make a normal, mature plant. The second group of defectives includes many genes, most of which form seeds with only two to 3 0 percent of normal development. Many workers ascribed such deficiency to faulty pollination or arrested development due to competition and dominance. However, JONES (1920) showed a heritable basis for some of these defects-stocks where development of the embryo and endosperm stopped completely shortly after fertilization. Since that time many deficiencies have been shown to be heritable. MANGELSDORP (1926) made a comprehensive study of 14 defective seed characters. These stocks ranged from those in which development was about 57 percent of that in normal seeds, and homozygous plants although stunted could be grown (dei'), to one where development is about three percent of normal and viability is nil (de14). MANGELSDORF found a good deal of correlation between endosperm and embryo development in all his stocks. There was no satisfactory development of one without the other. Other investigators have not always confirmed this in other defectives.
The miocene Great Basin of Western North America as an extending back-arc region☆

Abstract A narrow continental volcanic arc has lain near the western margin of the North American continent since mid-Miocene time. Its south end began retreating northward 18 m.y. ago. The active remnant of this andesitic arc today is the Cascade Range of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. A large part of the Great Basin and region to its north was situated throughout this period first wholly, then partially, in a back-arc position relative to the arc. This region had, and still has, most of the characteristics of back-arc regions elsewhere in the world—a thinned, faulted and extended crust and lithosphere, limited development of a geophysical bilateral symmetry (a mid-to-late-Miocene symmetry axis is marked by narrow swarms of basaltic dikes with associated positive linear magnetic anomalies that are parallel to the contemporary trench), high heat flow, low Bouguer gravity and seismic wave velocity values, notable seismic attenuation in the mantle, and a fault plane solution record dominated by normal-fault mechanisms. This back-arc region differs somewhat from most others (those composed of oceanic crust) because of its continental setting and recent geologic history. Despite its name, the Great Basin stands high, nearly 2 km above sea level. This high elevation owes, in part, to the fact that extension and heating of the continental lithosphere are still underway, though not as a back-arc phenomenon. The present lithospheric stretching results from oblique extension near the transform boundary of the North American plate, the San Andreas fault system. The latest stretching has probably maintained the physical state of the lithosphere first developed during back-arc spreading.
Counseling the Adolescent About Contraception

1. Mary E. Rimsza, MD* 1. *Director of Health, Arizona State University; Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Arizona College of Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Tempe, AZ After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Delineate the approximate time between an adolescent female becoming sexually active and seeking medical services for contraception. 2. List the noncontraceptive benefits of oral contraceptive pills. 3. List the methods of contraception recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. 4. Describe the value of emergency contraceptive pills. 5. Explain why a pelvic examination is not necessary before starting oral contraceptive pills. The adolescent pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest of any industrialized nation, with more than 1 million adolescents becoming pregnant each year. Pediatricians can help to decrease the teen pregnancy rate by increasing their knowledge of contraception and discussing sexual behavior and contraceptive use during health supervision visits. Most adolescents begin having sexual intercourse by mid- to late adolescence. Discussions of sexual behavior should begin in early adolescence before the onset of sexual activity so the pediatrician can help prevent unwanted pregnancy and its consequences. The patient interview should include questions about attitudes and knowledge about sexual behavior and appropriate counseling regarding prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), sexual responsibility, and contraceptive methods. The goals of contraceptive counseling are to promote healthy and responsible sexual decision-making. Abstinence should be encouraged as the safest and healthiest means of preventing pregnancy and STIs. The adolescent should be interviewed privately and office policies developed that assure appropriate confidentiality. It is important for the pediatrician to initiate a discussion of contraception prior to the onset of intercourse because approximately 35% of teens are not using contraception at the time of first intercourse. Indeed, the approximate time between an adolescent female becoming sexually active and seeking medical services for contraception is 12 months. Unfortunately, approximately 20% of all adolescent pregnancies occur within the first month of initiating coitus, and 50% occur within the …
Early and late germinal matrix hemorrhage may have different antecedents

Abstract The time of occurrence of germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH) in preterm babies might convey information about risk. We compared the risk profile of babies whose GMH was evident on a cranial ultrasonogram before the 12th postnatal hour (i.e., early GMH) to that of babies whose GMH did not become evident until after that time (i.e., late GMH). Overall, the two groups were similar. Babies with early GMH, however, were more likely to have been born after a course of labor (p = 0.03), for the first measurement of arterial blood pH to have been less than 7.2 (p = 0.02), and to have received bicarbonate (p =
Physiological Responses of Tamarix ramosissima to Extreme NaCl Concentrations

Hydrologic alterations of river systems in western North America over the past century have increased soil salinity, contributing to the establishment and spread of an introduced halophytic species, Tamarix ramosissima (Ledeb.). The physiological responses of Tamarix ramosissima to salinity stress are incompletely known. To assess the salinity tolerance of this species, we measured several whole plant and leaf-level physiological responses of Tamarix ramosissima cuttings grown in a controlled environment over three NaCl concentrations (0, 15 and 40 g·l –1 ). Tamarix ramosissima photosynthesis (A2000), stomatal conductance to water (gs), water potential (Ψw), and the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) decreased at 15 and 40 g·l –1 NaCl compared to control treatments. However, after approximately 35 days, Tamarix ramosissima had increased photosynthetic rates, maximum quantum yield of photosystem II, and stomatal conductance to water. These data suggests that physiological functioning of Tamarix ramosissima acclimated to extremely high NaCl concentrations over a relatively short period of time. Additionally, we present preliminary evidence that suggests proline synthesis may be the mechanism by which this species adjusts osmotically to increasing salinity.
A Complex Generalized Gaussian Distribution— Characterization, Generation, and Estimation

The generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) provides a flexible and suitable tool for data modeling and simulation, however the characterization of the complex-valued GGD, in particular generation of samples from a complex GGD have not been well defined in the literature. In this correspondence, we provide a thorough presentation of the complex-valued GGD by: (i) constructing the probability density function (pdf); (ii) defining a procedure for generating random numbers from the complex-valued GGD; and (iii) implementing a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) procedure for the shape and covariance parameters in the complex domain. We quantify the performance of the MLE with simulations and actual radar data.
A New Substance Resembling Luteinizing Hormone in the Blood of Rhesus Monkeys

Sera from a number of rhesus monkeys showed low or undetectable levels of LH according to radioimmunoassays which employ radioiodinated rhesus LH and antisera against rhesus LH or hCG. These same sera, when assayed by a system utilizing radioiodinated ovine LH and a unique anti-ovine LH serum which cross-reacts with LH from a variety of species, appeared to contain large and variable quantities of LH. The chromatographic behavior on Sephadex G-100 of the LH-like material in these sera was indistinguishable from that of authentic rhesus LH. Chromatographic fractions containing this LH-like material, as well as the sera from which they were derived, generated dose-response curves in the ovine:anti-ovine radioimmunoassay with steeper slopes than those produced by rhesus LH. These same chromatographic fractions had negligible activity in an alpha subunit radioimmunoassay which detects not only free rhesus alpha subunit but also the alpha component of undissociated rhesus glycoprotein hormones including LH. Tr...
Comments on "The convergence of mean field procedures for MRF's

The author comments that Zhang (see ibid., vol.5, no.12, p.1662-65, 1996) attempts to establish the convergence of a mean field iteration for an Ising Markov random field (MRF) for large values of the hyperparameter value /spl beta/ is not correct for the function T/sub /spl delta//(u) defined. The convergence of the mean field iteration remains an open question for large /spl beta/.
Mice varying in resistance to African trypanosomiasis respond differently to treatments with variant surface glycoprotein.

A comparative analysis of responses between resistant and susceptible hosts revealed that DBN/2 mice, after treatment with variant surface coat glycoprotein (VSG) from virulent or avirulent African trypanosomes, developed splenomegaly as the result of a near-doubling of the splenic cell population, had less polyclonal activation of B cells and were protected upon challenge with homologous trypanosomes. The susceptible C3H/Anf and C3W/HeJ mice on the other hand increased their splenic cell population by only 12%, had about twice the production of unelicited antibodies and were not immunized by the VSG treatments. This indicated that (a) proliferation of spleen cells during African trypanosomiasis may reflect an attempt to generate a specific and protective immune response and is not merely the result of polyclonal activation of lymphocytes; (b) production of unelicited antibodies is not merely a “bystander reaction” to the generation of antigen-specific responses; and (c) polyclonal antibody production in response to VSG is not linked to the LPS gene. Nonspecific immunosuppression as measured in mitogen assays was not elicited by VSG in either resistant or susceptible mice, indicating that polyclonal lymphocyte activation and nonspecific immunosuppression are unlinked phenomena. Mice injected with VSG from either virulent or avirulent isolates at levels normally encountered by hosts during severe, acute infection developed the same degree of splenomegaly and production of unelicited (polyclonal) antibodies. Therefore, any differences in polyclonal activation of lymphocytes measured between mice with acute vs. chronic African trypanosomiasis can be attributed to quantitative and not qualitative differences in VSG.
Assessing the quality of object-oriented designed systems

A new form of code analysis is presented aimed at helping a programmer assess the quality of a program's code. A description of object-oriented designed systems is given. Different classifications of modules used to assess the quality of the code of an object-oriented system are given, and techniques to analyze a system's source code are described. These classifications are discussed in the context of telecommunication software. Analysis techniques are presented to detect these modules. In addition, some techniques for assessing the quality of a module or of the connection between two modules are presented. >
The Microstructure and Rheology of Mixed Cationic/ Anionic Wormlike Micelles

The rheology, flow birefringence, and small-angle neutron scattering of mixed cationic/anionic wormlike micellar solutions composed of cetyl trimethylammonium tosylate (CTAT) and sodium dodecyl benzyl sulfonate (SDBS) are studied over a broad range of solution compositions. This combination of experimental techniques enables independent determination of the microstructural length scales (persistence, entanglement, interaction, and contour) that govern the rheological properties. Comparison and contrast of the effect of a hydrotropic salt (NaTosylate) with that of a screening electrolyte (NaCl) demonstrates the influence of micellar charge on the persistence length and, hence, the microstructure and rheology. Surfactant concentration and composition and electrolyte concentration and composition systematically affect the self-assembled microstructure such that a transition in rheological behavior from nonionic wormlike micelles to polyelectrolytes can be spanned.
Hallmarks of CD4 T cell immunity against influenza.

The mechanisms responsible for heterosubtypic immunity to influenza virus are not well understood but might hold the key for new vaccine strategies capable of providing lasting protection against both seasonal and pandemic strains. Memory CD4 T cells are capable of providing substantial protection against influenza both through direct effector mechanisms as well as indirectly through regulatory and helper functions. Here, we discuss the broad impact of memory CD4 T cells on heterosubtypic immunity against influenza and the prospects of translating findings from animal models into improved human influenza vaccines.
What Is the African American's Experience Following Imago Education?

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the African American’s experience following Imago education. Six women and six men were interviewed for this study. Qualitative data analysis resulted in the following themes: (a) improved communication between partners, (b) increased understanding of self, (c) increased understanding of partner, (d) increased understanding of one’s own and one’s partner’s childhood, (e) revealed more of one’s authentic self, and (f) expressed need for more education about Imago therapy within the African American community. Information gained from this study will be of value to the field of psychology, providing culturally pertinent insight about African Americans and how they experience relationships and psychotherapy. The findings are presented and summarized through themes, individual quotes, a composite depiction, and a creative synthesis. Future research in this area would examine the long-term effects of Imago education in this population.
Contradictory Role of CD97 in Basal and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Induced Osteoclastogenesis In Vivo.

Objective CD97, a member of the 7-transmembrane epidermal growth factor family of adhesion G protein–coupled receptors, is expressed on various cell types. This study was undertaken to elucidate the functions of CD97 in bone and inflammation in an experimental mouse model, by examining the effect of CD97 on osteoclastogenesis in vitro, characterizing the skeletal phenotype of CD97-deficient (CD97-knockout [KO]) mice, and assessing the responses to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment. Methods Femoral tissue and bone marrow (BM)–derived cells from CD97-KO and wild-type (WT) mice were assessed using histomorphometric analyses, in vitro cultures, and reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. Serum cytokine and chemokine levels in the presence or absence of TNF challenge were analyzed by multiplex assay. Results In cultures of mouse BM-derived macrophages in vitro, RANKL induced the expression of CD97. In vivo, the trabecular bone volume of the femurs of female CD97-KO mice was increased, and this was associated with a decrease in the number of osteoclasts. Compared to WT mice, CD97-KO mice had a reduced potential to form osteoclast-like cells in vitro. Furthermore, TNF treatment augmented the formation of osteoclasts in the calvaria of CD97-KO mice in vivo, by increasing the production of RANKL and other cytokines and chemokines and by reducing the production of osteoprotegerin by calvarial cells. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that CD97 is a positive regulator of osteoclast-like cell differentiation, a mechanism that influences bone homeostasis. However, the presence of CD97 may be essential to suppress the initial osteoclastogenesis that occurs in response to acute and local inflammatory stimuli.
Decision-making in Social Work Field Education: A “Good Enough” Framework

AbstractThis qualitative study was designed to explore decision-making processes used by directors of field education in social work programs in the USA. It is a follow-up to previous research showing the dilemmas that field directors face [specifics deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]. We asked 22 field directors to explain how they would handle different dilemmas designed to simulate the kinds of issues that typically arise in field education. Analyses revealed that field directors use a four-dimensional decision-making process to address competing demands, employing a ‘good enough’ framework. The four dimensions include student learning, professional ethics, agency relationships, and administrative expectations.
Assessment of an Elective in Antibacterial Pharmacotherapy

The objective of this assessment was to compare antibacterial pharmacotherapy test performance for students who have and have not taken an antibacterial pharmacotherapy elective. Students took a pre-exam covering topics that would be subsequently taught in the anti-infectives module of Pharmacotherapeutics. Scores for the pre-exam and the two actual Pharmacotherapeutics exams covering this material were compared between students who had (intervention, n=56) and had not (control, n=65) taken a previously offered elective class on antibacterial pharmacotherapy. Mean scores on the pre-exam (50.7% versus 30.6%, p< 0.05) and the first Pharmacotherapeutics exam (80.2% versus 76.3%, p < 0.05) were significantly higher for the intervention students. Mean scores on the second Pharmacotherapeutics exam were not statistically different (84.4% versus 81.9%, p = 0.05). Students who take an antibacterial pharmacotherapy elective have greater antibacterial knowledge upon entering Pharmacotherapeutics and perform better on infectious diseases Pharmacotherapeutics exams containing information related to antibacterial pharmacotherapy.
Induction and the Analysis of Recursive Definitions

This chapter explains the way to invent an induction scheme appropriate for a formula. The answer lies in the similarity of recursion and induction. There is a similarity between statements of the induction principle and the definition principle. The induction principle helps prove (p X 1 … X n ), where the X 1 are distinct variables, assuming (p y 1 …y n ), provided that for some measure m and well-founded relation r , it is the case that (my 1 …y n ) is r- smaller than (mx 1 …x n ), under the assumptions of the case analysis. The chapter discusses to the way to analyze each recursive function when it is first introduced to check the requirements of the definition principle and to note the inductions the function suggests. The chapter discusses induction schemes suggested by recursive functions. It also discusses the observation about a function's definition when it is introduced.
A national survey of disease-specific knowledge in patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm

Objective Patient education is a fundamental responsibility of medical providers caring for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). We sought to evaluate and quantify AAA-specific knowledge in patients under AAA surveillance and in patients who have undergone AAA repair. Methods In 2013, 1373 patients from 6 U.S. institutions were mailed an AAA-specific quality of life and knowledge survey. Of these patients, 1008 (73%) returned completed surveys for analysis. The knowledge domain of the survey consisted of nine questions. An AAA knowledge score was calculated for each patient based on the proportion of questions answered correctly. The score was then compared according to sex, race, and education level. Surveillance and repaired patients were also compared. Results Among 1008 survey respondents, 351 were under AAA surveillance and 657 had AAA repair (endovascular repair, 414; open, 179; unknown, 64). The majority of patients (85%) reported that their "doctor's office" was their most important source of AAA information. The "Internet" and "other written materials" were each reported as the most important source of information 5% of the time with "other patients" reported 2% of the time. The mean AAA knowledge score was 47% (range 0%-100%; standard deviation, 23%) with a broad variation in percentage correct between questions. Thirty-two percent of respondents did not know that larger AAA size increases rupture risk, and 64% did not know that AAA runs in families. Only 15% of patients answered six or more of the nine questions correctly, and 23% of patients answered two or fewer questions correctly. AAA knowledge was significantly greater in men compared with women, whites compared with nonwhites, high school graduates compared with nongraduates, and surveillance compared with repaired patients. Conclusions In a national survey of AAA-specific knowledge, patients demonstrated poor understanding of their condition. This may contribute to anxiety and uninformed decision making. The need for increased focus on education by vascular providers is a substantial unmet need.
Methyl Bromide Quarantine Fumigations for Hawaii-grown Cucumbers Infested with Melon Fly and Oriental Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Two new methyl bromide (MB) quarantine fumigation schedules of 32g/m3 MB for 4 h 48 g/m5 MB for 2 h at 19°C or above and normal atmospheric pressure are reported for cucumbers grown in Hawaii and shipped to the United States mainland. These MB-fumigation schedules for cucumbers are intended to replace the ethylene dibromide (EDB) quarantine fumigation schedule for melon fly, Dacus cucurbitae Coquillett, and oriental fruit fly, D. dorsalis Hendel, because the registration of EDB as a fumigant was cancelled by the Environmental Protection Agency on 1 September 1984.
EFFECTS OF PARATHYROID EXTRACT, CALCIFEROL, HYTAKEROL AND CRYSTALLINE DIHYDROTACHYSTEROL ON FEED CONSUMPTION IN NORMAL LACTATING RATS.

SummaryDaily administration of 30 USP units of parathyroid extract/100 g BW, 0.2 mg calciferol/100 g BW or 125 ug Hytakerol/100 g BW from day 7 to 14 of lactation in rats increased the feed intake by 9.5%, 19% and 16% respectively. On the other hand, crystalline dihydrotachysterol at a dosage level of 100 μg/100 g BW given for the same period did not show a significant increase in feed intake. It is suggested that the increases of feed intake caused by administration of the materials was mediated by increases in the estimated thyroxine secretion rate and/or by the increases in the energy requirements stimulated by increases in the milk yields observed.
Behavior of Normal Strength Concrete Columns Reinforced with Prefabricated Cage System

Behavior of column specimens reinforced with a new reinforcement, termed Prefabricated Cage System (PCS) is investigated. A total of 16 small-scale PCS and rebar reinforced column specimens with normal strength concrete were constructed and tested. The experimental data indicate that the PCS reinforced specimens have better overall performance and are more ductile than the equivalent rebar specimens. The effect of different parameters, such as the tube thickness, number of longitudinal reinforcements, transverse steel spacing, and crossties on the specimens’ strength and deformation capacity are also investigated.
Dynamic Frequency Response Characteristics of Large Thermal Power Generation Units

When grid splitting occurs,dynamic frequency response characteristics of large thermal power generation units are of great concern to the maintenance of security and stability of system frequency.Taking the maximum frequency deviation and the time of its occurrence as research objectives,a dynamic model of frequency regulation for large thermal power generation unit in post-splitting power grid is established,and a method to determine the maximum frequency deviation and the time of its occurrence by solving the forth-order linear time-invariant non-homogeneous state equations is proposed.On this basis and utilizing measured parameters of a 600MW thermal power generation unit,the impacts of three important parameters,namely the primary frequency regulation limits,the speed droop and the forward coefficient,on dynamic process of frequency in post-splitting power grid are analyzed in depth.
Blood culture contamination: a College of American Pathologists Q-Probes study involving 640 institutions and 497134 specimens from adult patients.

. Objective.-To examine clinical and laboratory practices associated with contamination of blood culture specimens from adults. Design and Setting.-A College of American Pathologists Q-Probes quality improvement study involving prospective evaluation of adult blood culture contamination rates in 640 institutions. Main Outcome Measure.-Proportion of contaminated blood cultures. Results.-A total of 497 134 blood cultures were studied. The median adult inpatient blood culture contamination rate was 2.5% (central 80 th percentile = 0.9%-5.4%) by laboratory assessment. There was no significant difference in contamination rates between inpatient and outpatient cultures (P = .273). The median contamination rate by clinical assessment (2.1%) was significantly lower (P = .005), primarily because of a lower proportion of cultures with coagulase-negative Staphylococcus that were interpreted as contaminants when only one of multiple specimens was positive. Specimen collection variables associated with significantly lower contamination rates included use of a dedicated phlebotomy service (P = .039), use of tincture of iodine for skin disinfection (P = .036), and application of an antiseptic to the top of the collection device before inoculation (P = .018). Teaching institutions and high numbers of occupied beds were demographic factors associated with higher contamination rates for inpatients but not for outpatients. Culture parameters associated with higher contamination rates included microbial growth from a single specimen, isolation of certain microbial species (eg, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus), and longer time to detect growth in culture. Contamination rates were not significantly affected by the type of blood culture method used, specimen volume, or use of a double-needle collection procedure. Conclusions.-There is wide variation in blood culture contamination rates among institutions. Three specimen collection factors and three culture variables were identified as having a significant effect on blood culture contamination.
Surgical management of refractory ventricular arrhythmias in patients with prior inferior myocardial infarction: A preliminary report

Most reports of operations for ventricular arrhythmia have dealt with patients with anterior myocardial infarction. Patients with previous remote inferior myocardial infarction and recurrent ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation are a difficult subset of patients to treat with surgical ablative procedures. Over a 2 year period, 11 patients with prior inferior myocardial infarction and drug-refractory ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation underwent elective operation to control the arrhythmia. Five patients had monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. Three of these five patients had localized endocardial resection and/or cryoablative procedures when the ventricular tachycardia was well localized intraoperatively. In the remaining two patients, ventricular tachycardia was noninducible intraoperatively, and the patients underwent extensive endocardial resection and mitral valve replacement because of sites suspected near the posterior papillary muscle from preoperative catheter mapping. None of these five patients had inducible ventricular tachycardia postoperatively, and all are clinically free of the arrhythmia over a 24 month follow-up period. One patient with two morphologies of ventricular tachycardia previously had an unsuccessful blind endocardial resection. She underwent map-directed cryoablation of both sites of ventricular tachycardia. Postoperatively, the patient was free of inducible arrhythmia and has been asymptomatic over 8 months. Five patients had pleomorphic ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation that could not be electrically localized. One patient with ventricular fibrillation underwent extensive endocardial resection, but the posterior papillary muscle was spared. Postoperative electrophysiological study was positive. The patient has had no clinical ventricular arrhythmias on a regimen of amiodarone, however. Two patients had extensive endocardial resection and mitral valve replacement. One died early in the postoperative course and the other is clinically well. The remaining two patients had an encircling endocardial ventriculotomy. Both are clinically stable although one had inducible ventricular fibrillation postoperatively. We conclude that well-defined monomorphic ventricular tachycardia in patients with a previous inferior myocardial infarction can be successfully treated with localized endocardial resection and/or cryoablation. However, patients with poorly localized monomorphic ventricular tachycardia or pleomorphic ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation may require more extensive procedures. The role of posterior papillary muscle sacrifice with mitral valve replacement remains undefined. The exact procedure cannot be anticipated and depends on both the type of clinical arrhythmia and the surgical anatomy.
Thermoelectric-based sustainable self-cooling for fine-grained processor hot spots

This article proposes to tackle the high chip temperature problem caused by a few thermal hot spots in a processor using a different approach. In addition to using cooling mechanisms, such as metal heat sinks or fans, and dynamic thermal/power management solutions, this work investigates a new, fine-grained spot cooling technique for processors using thermoelectric generators (TEGs) and coolers (TECs) at the processor microarchitecture level. The proposed approach reduces the temperature of hot spots with TECs that are powered by TEG-based processor waste heat harvesting. The approach is sustainable in that it does not require additional power input for spot cooling while being able to lower the total chip temperature. The design takes advantage of two critical observations of processor temperature distribution and reliability. First, the temperature difference between the hot spots and cooler areas is typically tens of degrees on modern processors. Second, the reliability of the entire chip is limited by the highest of the hot spot temperatures. This presents an opportunity such that if we can maintain the same chip reliability by keeping the hot spot temperature constant or lower while allowing the temperature of the cooler chip area to increase to, but not exceed, the hot spot temperature, we would be able to harvest the processor waste heat without degrading reliability. We also show that the harvested electrical energy can be used to lower the temperature of processor hot spots, therefore reducing the overall chip temperature and improving reliability. The temperature evaluation results based on an open source processor temperature simulation tool — HotSpot 5.02 — show that the proposed technique can effectively lower the chip temperature by an average of 7.7°C across the benchmarks studied in this paper. This temperature reduction corresponds to 29% meantime-to-failure MTTFEM and 5.7% MTTFTDDB reliability improvements. The proposed approach is a novel, self-sustaining spot cooling technique that does not require any power input and can effectively reduce the overall chip temperature for improved chip reliability.
Changing Voices—Voices of Change: Young Men in Middle School Choirs

This chapter explores the factors that boys consider both consciously and unconsciously when deciding whether or not to affiliate themselves with a choral ensemble in middle school. It considers social identity theory as well as the concept of performatives as a theoretical framework to provide a lens that helps teachers understand issues relative to preteen young men and their experiences singing in middle school. Teachers who ignore the inner struggles of young men in middle school to develop their self-identity and dismiss how those struggles impact decisions students make regarding their participation in choir give legitimacy to the peer pressures outside the choir that influence young men in negative ways. This chapter also shows how the principles of critical pedagogy for music education (CPME) may be helpful to middle school choral teachers working with these students. The chapter concludes with strategies choir directors can include in their rehearsals that promote a feeling among young men that they are valued and that their voices are heard.
Effective and scalable botnet detection in network traffic

Botnets represent one of the most serious threats against Internet security since they serve as platforms that are responsible for the vast majority of large-scale and coordinated cyber attacks, such as distributed denial of service, spamming, and information stolen. Detecting botnets is therefore of great importance and a number of network-based botnet detection systems have been proposed. However, as botnets perform attacks in an increasingly stealthy way and the volume of network traffic is rapidly growing, existing botnet detection systems are faced with significant challenges in terms of effectiveness and scalability. The objective of this dissertation is to build novel network-based solutions that can boost both the effectiveness of existing botnet detection systems by detecting botnets whose attacks are very hard to be observed in network traffic, and their scalability by adaptively sampling network packets that are likely to be generated by botnets. To be specific, this dissertation describes three unique contributions. First, we built a new system to detect drive-by download attacks, which represent one of the most significant and popular methods for botnet infection. The goal of our system is to boost the effectiveness of existing drive-by download detection systems by detecting a large number of drive-by download attacks that are missed by these existing detection efforts. Second, we built a new system to detect botnets with peer-to-peer (P2P) commandc (ii) bot-infected hosts are also running legitimate P2P applications (e.g., Bittorrent and Skype). Finally, we built a novel traffic analysis framework to boost the scalability of existing botnet detection systems. Our framework can effectively and efficiently identify a small percentage of hosts that are likely to be bots, and then forward network traffic associated with these hosts to existing detection systems for fine-grained analysis, thereby boosting the scalability of existing detection systems. Our traffic analysis framework includes a novel botnet-aware and adaptive packet sampling algorithm, and a scalable flow-correlation technique.
Large-Scale Discovery of Disease-Disease and Disease-Gene Associations

Data-driven phenotype analyses on Electronic Health Record (EHR) data have recently drawn benefits across many areas of clinical practice, uncovering new links in the medical sciences that can potentially affect the well-being of millions of patients. In this paper, EHR data is used to discover novel relationships between diseases by studying their comorbidities (co-occurrences in patients). A novel embedding model is designed to extract knowledge from disease comorbidities by learning from a large-scale EHR database comprising more than 35 million inpatient cases spanning nearly a decade, revealing significant improvements on disease phenotyping over current computational approaches. In addition, the use of the proposed methodology is extended to discover novel disease-gene associations by including valuable domain knowledge from genome-wide association studies. To evaluate our approach, its effectiveness is compared against a held-out set where, again, it revealed very compelling results. For selected diseases, we further identify candidate gene lists for which disease-gene associations were not studied previously. Thus, our approach provides biomedical researchers with new tools to filter genes of interest, thus, reducing costly lab studies.
Digital neuromorphic design of a Liquid State Machine for real-time processing

The Liquid State Machine (LSM) is a form of reservoir computing which emulates the brains capability of processing spatio-temporal data. This type of network generates highly descriptive responses to continuous input streams. The response is then used to extract information about the input stream. A single LSM network can be used as a generic intelligent processor that processes different streams of data (or) on same stream of data to extract different features. The LSM has been shown to perform well in tasks dependent on a systems behavior through time. The LSM's intrinsic memory and its reduced training complexity make it a suitable choice for hardware implementations for spatio-temporal applications. Existing behavioral models of LSM cannot process real time data due to their hardware complexity or inability to deal with real-time data or both. The proposed model focuses on a simple liquid design that exploits spatial locality and is capable of processing real time data. The model is evaluated for EEG seizure detection with an accuracy of 84.2% and for user identification based on walking pattern with an accuracy of 98.4%.
Tailored absorption/emission from epsilon-near-zero materials (Conference Presentation)

Controlled absorption/emission is important for many optical devices such as photovoltaic and thermal photovoltaic. In this paper we show experimental and theoretical results of deeply subwavelength epsilon-near-zero materials using degenerately doped semiconductors, such as indium tin oxide, can be used to spectrally tailor perfect absorption/emission in the near-ir region. At mid-infrared frequencies, a superlattice of doped and undoped quantum wells can be used to create epsilon-near-zero medium for directional and spectrally tailored emission.
Adenosine-induced atrial fibrillation: insights into mechanism.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a potential adverse effect of intravenous administration of adenosine.1,2 Although the mechanism is not known, this phenomenon is thought to be mediated by adenosine’s effects on shortening atrial action potential duration and refractoriness. Because adenosine has little effect on atrial conduction velocity, the net effect of adenosine, therefore, is to shorten the wavelength of activation, thereby potentiating AF. On a cellular level, these effects are caused by activation of the inward rectifying K+ current I KAdo. However, adenosine has other effects that may promote arrhythmogenesis. For example, adenosine has sympathoexcitatory effects mediated through baroreflex activation and chemoreceptor stimulation. Adenosine can also hyperpolarize dormant pulmonary vein myocytes and increase excitability,3 as well as trigger pulmonary vein ectopy.4 We report on a possible alternative mechanism of adenosine-induced AF, on the basis of findings during a pulmonary vein isolation procedure. These findings may have broader implications for understanding vagally mediated AF. A 67-year-old woman with a history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, transient ischemic attack, and symptomatic persistent AF, which was medically refractory, underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation to electrically isolate the pulmonary veins. She developed multiple episodes of paroxysmal AF after the initial procedure and 3 months later presented for a second catheter ablation procedure. An electroanatomic map of the left atrium and all 4 pulmonary veins were constructed. Interrogation of the left superior pulmonary vein with a circular mapping catheter (CMC) showed persistent entrance block with far-field signals from the left atrial appendage (confirmed by pacing the left atrial appendage with the ablation catheter). Exit block was confirmed with circumferential pacing with the CMC. Intravenous adenosine (12 mg) was administered, which resulted in AF coincident with adenosine-induced transient atrioventricular nodal block (Figure 1A). The left superior pulmonary vein remained electrically quiescent during AF. …