cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Solute-induced shift of phase transition temperature in Di-saturated PC liposomes: adoption of ripple phase creates osmotic stress.

Abstract We have examined the calorimetric behavior of large liposomes consisting of symmetric saturated chain phosphatidylcholines. Most notably, for systems made in solutions containing solute (e.g., NaCl, glucose, etc.) there was an additional major endotherm just below the main phase transition temperature. The new endotherm was found to represent a population of lipid whose main phase transition was shifted to lower temperature due to an induced osmotic stress across the membrane. Absent for isoosmotic systems, the osmotic stress was created when the liposome internal volume decreased, a consequence of the Lβ′ (gel) to Pβ′ (rippled) phase transition. That is, rippling of the membrane caused vesicle volume to decrease (≥28%) and because the free flow of water outward was restricted by solute, an osmotic gradient was created where none had existed before. The distribution of enthalpy between the new shifted Tm and the expected Tm correlated with the percent of lipid in the outer bilayer and it was concluded that only the outer bilayer sensed the induced stress. Internalized liposome structures were shielded, thus explaining the persistence of the expected Tm in preparations made in solute. The shift in Tm (ΔTm) was discrete and linearly dependent upon lipid chain length for the PC series di-17:0 (ΔTm≈1.4°C) through di-20:0 (ΔTm≈0.6°C), suggesting a structural change (i.e., lipid packing/orientation) was involved. Although freeze-fracture electron microscopy of stressed and unstressed bilayers revealed no differences in ripple periodicity there were differences in surface features and in vesicle shape. The fact that this phenomenon has gone unnoticed for MLVs is probably due to the fact that these systems are known to exclude solute and thus exist under osmotic compression.
Methods to address poultry robustness and welfare issues through breeding and associated ethical considerations

As consumers and society in general become more aware of ethical and moral dilemmas associated with intensive rearing systems, pressure is put on the animal and poultry industries to adopt alternative forms of housing. This presents challenges especially regarding managing competitive social interactions between animals. However, selective breeding programs are rapidly advancing, enhanced by both genomics and new quantitative genetic theory that offer potential solutions by improving adaptation of the bird to existing and proposed production environments. The outcomes of adaptation could lead to improvement of animal welfare by increasing fitness of the animal for the given environments, which might lead to increased contentment and decreased distress of birds in those systems. Genomic selection, based on dense genetic markers, will allow for more rapid improvement of traits that are expensive or difficult to measure, or have a low heritability, such as pecking, cannibalism, robustness, mortality, leg score, bone strength, disease resistance, and thus has the potential to address many poultry welfare concerns. Recently selection programs to include social effects, known as associative or indirect genetic effects (IGEs), have received much attention. Group, kin, multi-level, and multi-trait selection including IGEs have all been shown to be highly effective in reducing mortality while increasing productivity of poultry layers and reduce or eliminate the need for beak trimming. Multi-level selection was shown to increases robustness as indicated by the greater ability of birds to cope with stressors. Kin selection has been shown to be easy to implement and improve both productivity and animal well-being. Management practices and rearing conditions employed for domestic animal production will continue to change based on ethical and scientific results. However, the animal breeding tools necessary to provide an animal that is best adapted to these changing conditions are readily available and should be used, which will ultimately lead to the best possible outcomes for all impacted.
Compatibility of wireless broadband networks with satellite feeder links in the 5091–5150 MHz band

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering the use of the 5091–5150 MHz subband for the future Airport Network and Location Equipment (ANLE) system. The same frequency band has also been allocated, on a co-primary basis, to mobile-satellite-service (MSS) feeder uplinks.
Fast Mean Shift by compact density representation

The Mean Shift procedure is a well established clustering technique that is widely used in imaging applications such as image and video segmentation, denoising, object tracking, texture classification, and others. However, the Mean Shift procedure has relatively high time complexity which is superlinear in the number of data points. In this paper we present a novel fast Mean Shift procedure which is based on the random sampling of the Kernel Density Estimate (KDE). We show theoretically that the resulting reduced KDE is close to the complete data KDE, to within a given accuracy. Moreover, we prove that the time complexity of the proposed fast Mean Shift procedure based on the reduced KDE is considerably lower than that of the original Mean Shift; the typical gain is of several orders for big data sets. Experiments show that image and video segmentation results of the proposed fast Mean Shift method are similar to those based on the standard Mean shift procedure. We also present a new application of the Fast Mean Shift method to the efficient construction of graph hierarchies for images; the resulting structure is potentially useful for solving computer vision problems which can be posed as graph problems, including stereo, semi-automatic segmentation, and optical flow.
Enhancing Bluetooth TCP throughput via link layer packet adaptation

TCP throughput limitations over wireless links have received considerable attention in the last few years. One of the problems is that TCP congestion control interprets packet losses as an indication of congestion, whereas in wireless links, losses could be due to transient link quality degradations. In this paper, we propose and study a link layer solution and evaluate its effects on TCP in the context of Bluetooth. We enhance the Bluetooth link layer to make use of channel state information and accordingly adapt the Bluetooth packet type to enhance TCP throughput We propose a simple analytical method to determine the optimal packet type for a given channel state by adding FEC support or changing packet size. Since wireless interfaces, such as 802.11 or Bluetooth, can provide information regarding the channel state using relevant APIs, this simple enhancement can easily be added to the link layer. We implemented this functionality in the Bluetooth link layer. Our simulation experiments show that the proposed adaptive packet type solution significantly improves TCP throughput. The throughput enhancement increases with the error rate. For high error rates close to 0.1%, the link layer enhanced with the adaptive scheme is able to maintain good TCP throughput, whereas throughput is almost zero when the adaptive scheme is not used.
Direct and reverse overwrite processes in perpendicular recording

Excellent overwrite (OVW) performance has to be guaranteed for two cases, namely, the case where a low frequency (LF) background data pattern is overwritten by a high frequency (HF) data pattern and the reverse case, e.g., the reverse overwrite (ROVW) situation where a high linear density background pattern is overwritten by a low linear density data pattern. In this work, the spectra of both OVW and ROVW processes have been investigated experimentally to identify the intrinsic characteristics of residual noise in the OVW and ROVW processes in perpendicular recording. Specifically the spectra of both OVW and ROVW processes have been quantitatively analyzed to quantify the characteristics of relevant amplitude modulation or amplitude cancellation process.
High-Order Digital Parametric Equalizer Design †

A family of digital parametric audio equalizers based on high-order Butterworth, Chebyshev, and elliptic analog prototype filters is derived that generalizes the conventional biquadratic designs and provides flatter passbands and sharper bandedges. The equalizer filter coefficients are computable in terms of the center frequency, peak gain, bandwidth, and bandwidth gain. We consider the issues of filter order and bandwidth selection, and discuss frequency-shifted transposed, normalized-lattice, and minimum roundoff-noise state-space realization structures. The design equations apply equally well to lowpass and highpass shelving filters, and to ordinary bandpass and bandstop filters.
Tempest: Towards early identification of failure-prone binaries

Early estimates of failure-proneness can be used to help inform decisions on testing, refactoring, design rework etc. Often such early estimates are based on code metrics like churn and complexity. But such estimates of software quality rarely make their way into a mainstream tool and find industrial deployment. In this paper we discuss about the Tempest tool that uses statistical failure-proneness models based on code complexity and churn metrics across the Microsoft Windows code base to identify failure-prone binaries early in the development process. We also present the tool architecture and its usage as of date at Microsoft.
Contributions of Multiple Risk Factors to Child Injury

OBJECTIVE: Most previous research on etiological factors that predict children's unintentional injuries has focused on single independent risk factors that predict injury, but psychological methods and theory lend themselves to simultaneous consideration of multiple risk factors that might together create an increased or decreased risk for injury. METHOD: One approach to considering multiple risk factors of child injury, inspired by Lizette Peterson's notion of process analysis, is to consider how risk factors serve in moderated, mediated, and mediated moderation roles to each other. We present two lines of research that exemplify such models. In each, multiple risk factors for child injury are considered within a single theoretical model. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for understanding the etiology of children's unintentional injuries and developing empirically derived injury prevention techniques are discussed.
Vertex neighborhoods, low conductance cuts, and good seeds for local community methods

The communities of a social network are sets of vertices with more connections inside the set than outside. We theoretically demonstrate that two commonly observed properties of social networks, heavy-tailed degree distributions and large clustering coefficients, imply the existence of vertex neighborhoods (also known as egonets) that are themselves good communities. We evaluate these neighborhood communities on a range of graphs. What we find is that the neighborhood communities can exhibit conductance scores that are as good as the Fiedler cut. Also, the conductance of neighborhood communities shows similar behavior as the network community profile computed with a personalized PageRank community detection method. Neighborhood communities give us a simple and powerful heuristic for speeding up local partitioning methods. Since finding good seeds for the PageRank clustering method is difficult, most approaches involve an expensive sweep over a great many starting vertices. We show how to use neighborhood communities to quickly generate a small set of seeds.
Asymptomatic Severe Aortic Stenosis: What Are We Waiting For?∗

“Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.”—Hesiod, Works and Days (c. 700 BC) [(1)][1] Calcific degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) is a common cause of acquired valvular heart disease affecting predominantly older adults. Over time, accumulation of
Arizona's Domestic Violence Victims Need a More Safety-Centered Approach in Their Pursuit of Family Court Orders

The current procedural process for family court litigants in Arizona aggravates the ability of domestic violence victims to safely and quickly obtain custody, parenting time and support orders. Thus, the process should be modified to allow for an expedited route when domestic violence issues are present. There is a legislative presumption in Arizona that equal parenting time is in the best interest of minor children. While family court litigants with domestic violence issues can rebut this presumption, it requires a fact-finding process that normally occurs during an evidentiary hearing, which is generally scheduled thirty days after the initiation of an action. This extensive waiting period not only inhibits the court’s ability to enter timely orders with respect to custody and parenting time, but also frustrates the ability of domestic violence victims to protect themselves and their children while they await their day in court. This article proposes the creation of a new procedural process for cases that give rise to a presumption that domestic violence issues are present. Specifically, it is recommended that courts implement an initial screening process to identify cases involving domestic violence. Once identified, these cases would proceed through an expedited evidentiary process so that safety-centered orders concerning custody, parenting time, and support are accomplished quickly. Additionally, it is recommended that all cases involving domestic violence be assigned an advocate to assist the victim in navigating the judicial system, creating a safety plan, and ascertaining services and other resources needed to survive.
The role of social media in college recruiting

The growth of online social media creates new opportunities and challenges for recruiting prospective college students. Many college-age individuals are daily users of one or more forms of social media. This creates important new communications channels for student recruiting and retention. Colleges need to understand how students utilise social media and how they can best use it to connect with future and current students. This paper overviews the opportunities and risks that social networks bring to higher education and describes the results of an online survey on social media usage that was sent to 2,844 admitted freshmen admitted to a mid-size US public university. The majority 56% of survey respondents reported that social media was helpful in making their college decision. Facebook was the most popular social media site, with 89.9% checking it at least weekly. Over three-quarters 76.5% of the respondents connected to at least one of the university's Facebook groups.
Zika Virus: Diagnostics for an Emerging Pandemic Threat

ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV) is an Aedes mosquito-borne flavivirus that emerged in Brazil in 2015 and then rapidly spread throughout the tropical and subtropical Americas. Based on clinical criteria alone, ZIKV cannot be reliably distinguished from infections with other pathogens that cause an undifferentiated systemic febrile illness, including infections with two common arboviruses, dengue virus and chikungunya virus. This minireview details the methods that are available to diagnose ZIKV infection.
SediFoam: A general-purpose, open-source CFD–DEM solver for particle-laden flow with emphasis on sediment transport

Abstract With the growth of available computational resource, CFD–DEM (computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method) becomes an increasingly promising and feasible approach for the study of sediment transport. Several existing CFD–DEM solvers are applied in chemical engineering and mining industry. However, a robust CFD–DEM solver for the simulation of sediment transport is still desirable. In this work, the development of a three-dimensional, massively parallel, and open-source CFD–DEM solver SediFoam is detailed. This solver is built based on open-source solvers OpenFOAM and LAMMPS. OpenFOAM is a CFD toolbox that can perform three-dimensional fluid flow simulations on unstructured meshes; LAMMPS is a massively parallel DEM solver for molecular dynamics. Several validation tests of SediFoam are performed using cases of a wide range of complexities. The results obtained in the present simulations are consistent with those in the literature, which demonstrates the capability of SediFoam for sediment transport applications. In addition to the validation test, the parallel efficiency of SediFoam is studied to test the performance of the code for large-scale and complex simulations. The parallel efficiency tests show that the scalability of SediFoam is satisfactory in the simulations using up to O ( 10 7 ) particles.
Proton Charge Radius (PRad) Experiment at Jefferson Lab

The puzzle of proton charge radius was recently raised by the measurement of muonic hydrogen Lamb shift at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), whose results were seven standard deviations smaller than the CODATA recommended value. To investigate this discrepancy, the PRad experiment was proposed and approved at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). The experiment will extract the proton charge radius with a sub-percent accuracy by measuring the cross-sections of unpolarized electronproton elastic scattering in an unprecedented low Q 2 region (2×10−4 GeV2 /c2 ).
Hydrogen Distributions and Model Lineshapes of ESR Signals of Dangling Bonds in a-Si:H

For many years it has been assumed widely that hydrogen is involved in some way in the formation of light induced defects. However recently some doubt has been cast on this because of experimental evidence that there is little H near light induced dangling bonds. In this paper we present a number of model calculations comparing ESR spectra of dangling bonds with and without correlations with H positions. The above models include different distributions of H and correlations or anti correlations of nearby H. In all cases the spectra are compared to those with no correlations or clustering. Our results coupled with published experimental data strongly suggest that dangling bonds are not correlated positively with the presence of nearby H and, in fact, it appears that light induced dangling bonds are negatively correlated with nearby H.
Pseudo Jahn-Teller Origin of Perovskite Multiferroics, Magnetic-Ferroelectric Crossover, and Magnetoelectric Effects: The d 0 − d 10 Problem

The conditions of multiferroicity in ${d}^{n}$ perovskites are derived from the pseudo Jahn-Teller effect, due to which ferroelectric displacements are triggered by vibronic coupling between ground and excited electronic states of opposite parity but same spin multiplicity; it takes place for some specific ${d}^{n}$ configurations and spin states only. In combination with the high-spin--low-spin crossover effect this leads to a novel phenomenon, the magnetic-ferroelectric (multiferroics) crossover which predicts magnetoelectric effects with exciting functionalities including electric magnetization and demagnetization.
Metabolism of diazinon, formetanate, bifenthrin, DDT, chlordimeform, and bromopropylate in the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus echinopus (Fumouze and Robin) (Acari: Acaridae)

Bulb mites, Rhizoglyphus echinopus (Fumouze and Robin), were exposed for 1 h to radiocarbon-labeled samples of diazinon, formetanate, bifenthrin, DDT, chlordime-form, or bromopropylate, and the extent of metabolism was assessed at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h after exposure. Pesticide degradation by bulb mites decreased in the order diazinon > bromopropylate > chlordimeform > bifenthrin > formetanate > DDT. Based on the nature of the metabolites formed in vivo and in vitro, we concluded that bulb mites possessed active oxidases, esterases, and transferases. Bifenthrin, chlordimeform, and bromopropylate were not toxic to bulb mites (LC 50 > 1,000 ppm), but they were very active against twos potted spider mites, Tetranychus urticae Koch. The relatively fast metabolism of these three compounds in bulb mites was in contrast with their slow degradation in twos potted spider mites in other studies; probably, differential metabolism played a major role in their selective toxicity. Although formetanate was toxic to both mite species, it was much more active against twos potted spider mites. Diazinon and DDT were not toxic to bulb mites. Differential metabolism also may play a role in the selective toxicity of these three compounds, but other factors (e.g., target site insensitivity) likely are involved.
Calibrating COCOMO(R) II for Projects with High Personnel Turnover

Software cost and effort estimation is a necessary step in the software development lifecycle to track progress, manage resources, and negotiate. Though many accepted cost models exist, local calibration results in more accurate estimates. Locally calibrating Unified Code Count (UCC)’s dataset based on COCOMO (Constructive Cost Model)® II helped UCC’s development team learn which factors affected the effort, the amount of fixed costs associated with training new personnel and required deliverables, and resulted in a well-fitting effort estimation model. These insights give the development team a better understanding of the environment and where improvements are most necessary and possible.
Microtubule Defects Influence Kinesin-Based Transport In Vitro.

Abstract Microtubules are protein polymers that form "molecular highways" for long-range transport within living cells. Molecular motors actively step along microtubules to shuttle cellular materials between the nucleus and the cell periphery; this transport is critical for the survival and health of all eukaryotic cells. Structural defects in microtubules exist, but whether these defects impact molecular motor-based transport remains unknown. Here, we report a new, to our knowledge, approach that allowed us to directly investigate the impact of such defects. Using a modified optical-trapping method, we examined the group function of a major molecular motor, conventional kinesin, when transporting cargos along individual microtubules. We found that microtubule defects influence kinesin-based transport in vitro. The effects depend on motor number: cargos driven by a few motors tended to unbind prematurely from the microtubule, whereas cargos driven by more motors tended to pause. To our knowledge, our study provides the first direct link between microtubule defects and kinesin function. The effects uncovered in our study may have physiological relevance in vivo.
Prostatic Cancer and Sch-13521: II. Histological Alterations and the Pituitary Gonadal Axis

AbstractWe herein report on the results of treatment of 13 men with stage D prostatic carcinoma with a non-steroidal compound, SCH-13521 (flutamide). The dosage of the drug was 750mg. in 3 divided doses daily and treatment extended for 2 to 20 months. Two patients failed to respond in any fashion, 7 had objective evidence of response and the others had varying degrees of subjective response.Plasma testosterone was never suppressed and sexual potency was not altered by the drug. Gynecomastia occurred in several patients, 1 patient had intractable vomiting and 2 had thromboembolic disease.In tissue biopsies after therapy, cytotoxic changes in some acinar cells were noted but healthy-appearing neoplastic cells were always abundant. These observations suggest the pre-treatment existence of autonomous cells that no conventional hormonal manipulation will succeed in destroying. However, the palliation that flutamide seems to afford makes it important to conduct an appropriately designed study that will compare ...
From No Child Left behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act: Federalism and the Education Legacy of the Obama Administration

This article offers an analysis of the legacy of the Obama Administration’s education agenda, focusing on implications for American federalism. Faced with partisan gridlock in Congress—which was not able to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) until the last year in office—the Obama Administration opted to make education policy through creative, expansive, and controversial uses of executive power that changed the national political discourse around education and pushed states to enact important policy changes regarding charter schools, common core standards and assessments, and teacher evaluation. The administration’s aggressive efforts on school reform, however, eventually led to a political backlash against those same reforms and federal involvement in education more generally and resulted in an ESEA reauthorization (the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act) that rolls back the federal role in K-12 schooling in important ways. One of the enduring legacies of the Obama presidency may well be the invigoration and expansion of the state role in education.
The nature and consequences of policies intended to contain costs in outpatient drug insurance programs

Outpatient drug insurance programs play an important role in making drugs affordable. Public and private program policy-makers often respond to fiscal pressures by reducing benefit coverage or pharmacy reimbursement levels. These reductions defeat both coverage and cost-containment goals. A more prudent approach is to adopt a comprehensive policy for outpatient drug coverage that protects patients and ensures fair and prompt reimbursements to pharmacy providers. These issues are well illustrated by the economic situation in Illinois, resultant state budget problems, and the consequences for the Illinois Medicaid outpatient drug program and the Illinois state-only pharmaceutical assistance program for low-income elderly patients. The questions examined in this paper have important implications for patients, pharmacists, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry, public and private policymakers, and society as a whole.
Metagenomic Profiling, Interaction of Genomics with Meta-genomics

Metagenomics is about the sequencing and characterization of genomic DNA of uncultured microbes sampled directly from their habitats. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and the ability of sequencing uncultured microbes have dramatically expanded and transformed our knowledge of the microbial world. In this chapter, we provide an introduction and flavor to metagenomic studies from sampling to data analysis. Also, workflow and several common methodologies are summarized for the sequence-driven metagenomic analysis to identify the composition of microbes, compare different microbial communities, characterize the functional potential of microbial communities and infer the microbes, which are involved in the metabolic pathways. Additionally, we describe some well-established platforms and software, and briefly review their utilities. Finally, an explication of interactions between genomics and meta-genomics gives a new view for host phenotype-genotype analysis.
FRI0275 Change in CXCL4 Levels May Predict Treatment Response in Systemic Sclerosis-Related Interstitial Lung Disease (SSC-ILD)

Background Baseline circulatory levels of the chemokine CXCL4 have been associated with both extent and progression of SSc-ILD 1 . No studies have examined whether changes in CXCL4 levels may predict progression of SSc-ILD. Objectives To determine whether CXCL4 levels change in response to treatment for SSc-ILD and to explore whether these changes predict future progression of SSc-ILD. Methods All SSc-ILD patients enrolled in the Scleroderma Lung Study (SLS) II (Comparing 2 years of mycophenolate [MMF] versus 1 year of cyclophosphamide [CYC] followed by 1 year of placebo) were included. CXCL4 levels were measured at baseline, 12 and 24 months using validated, commercially available ELISA kits (Human CXCL4/PF4 Quantikine Kit - R&D Systems). CXCL4 levels were log-transformed. Spearman9s correlations were performed to examine the relationship between the change in CXCL4 levels from baseline to 12 months and the change in the FVC from baseline to 18, 21, and 24 months. A mixed effects model was created to determine whether the change in CXCL4 from baseline to 12 months predicted the course of the FVC from 12 to 24 months, while controlling for treatment arm and baseline ILD severity. A T-test was used to compare the change in CXCL4 from baseline to 12 months between patients who experienced a clinically meaningful improvement in FVC at 24 months (defined as a ≥5% increase in FVC from baseline) and those who did not. Results Of the 142 patients in SLS II, 136 had CXCL4 levels measurements performed. The mean FVC% predicted for this cohort was 66.5 and the mean disease duration was 2.5 years. CXCL4 levels decreased significantly in both treatment arms at 12 months (Mean difference: CYC -0.71 [1.4], P P =0.006) and at 24 months (Mean difference: CYC -0.53 [1.3], P P =0.01). There was no significant difference in the change in CXCL4 levels between treatment groups at 12 ( P =0.12) or 24 months ( P =0.38) (Figure 1). There was a trend for a significant relationship between the change in CXCL4 level at 12 months and the change in the FVC from baseline to 18 months (r= -0.2; p =0.06), 21 months (r= -0.21; p =0.06), and 24 months (r=-0.18; p =0.08). In the mixed effects model, the change in CXCL4 level at 12 months significantly predicted the course of the FVC from 12 to 24 months (Estimate -1.2; Std Err 0.6; p =0.04). Patients with a ≥5% increase in FVC at 24 months had a greater decrease in CXCL4 levels compared with patients with a P =0.03). Conclusions Treatment with immunosuppression led to significant decreases in CXCL4 levels in patients with SSc-ILD. Patients who experienced the greatest decrease in CXCL4 from baseline to 12 months had improved course of FVC from 12 to 24 months, suggesting that short-term change in CXCL4 may be a potential biomarker for predicting long-term treatment response in SSc-ILD. References van Bon, et al. NEJM 2014;370:433–43. Disclosure of Interest None declared
Familial link of otitis media requiring tympanostomy tubes.

Objectives/Hypothesis Placement of tympanostomy tubes for recurrent or chronic otitis media is the most commonly performed ambulatory procedure in the United States. Etiologies have been speculated to be environmentally based, and studies have suggested a genetic component to the disease. However, no large-scale studies have attempted to define a familial component. The objective of this study was to determine the familial risk of otitis media requiring tympanostomy tubes (OMwTT) in a statewide population. Study Design Retrospective observational cohort study with population-based matched controls. Methods Using an extensive genealogical database linked to medical records, the familial risk of OMwTT was calculated for relatives of probands (46,249 patients diagnosed with OMwTT from 1996–2013) compared to random population controls matched 5:1 on sex and birth year from logistic regression models. Results The median age at time of tympanostomy tube placement was 1 year (interquartile range, 0–2 years). First-degree relatives of patients with OMwTT, primarily siblings, had a 5-fold increased risk of OMwTT (P < 10−16). Second-degree relatives were at a 1.5-fold increased risk (P < 10–15). More extended relatives (third, fourth and fifth degree) showed a 1.4-fold increased risk (P < 10−15). Conclusions In the largest population-based study to date, a significant familial risk is confirmed in OMwTT, suggesting otitis media may have a significant genetic component given the increased risk found in close as well as distant relatives. This could be influenced by shared environments given a five-times risk observed in siblings. Further understanding the genetic basis of OMwTT and its interplay with environmental factors may clarify the etiology and lead to better detection of disease and treatments. Level of Evidence 3b. Laryngoscope, 127:962–966, 2017
Perioperative and Early Postoperative Comparison of a Modern Cemented and Cementless Total Knee Arthroplasty of the Same Design.

Abstract Background Cementless total knee arthroplasty (TKA) designs that incorporate a highly porous, titanium surface have the potential to achieve biologic fixation and improve component survivorship. This study's purpose was to compare perioperative and early postoperative outcomes of a cemented vs cementless TKA of the same design. Methods This was a retrospective review of a consecutive series of TKAs performed at a single institution using a cemented or cementless TKA of the same design (Triathlon, Stryker Inc, Mahwah, NJ). All patients with a minimum of 1-year clinical and radiographic follow-up were reviewed, with 1:1 matching performed for age, gender, body mass index, and preoperative Oxford Knee Score. Chi-square or independent student t tests were used for statistical analyses. Results Overall, 62 cemented and 66 cementless TKAs were reviewed, with secondary analyses performed after 1:1 matching of 38 patients in each cohort. In both overall and secondary 1:1 matching analyses, there was no difference in baseline demographics ( P = .6-.9). Total operative times were decreased in the cementless cohort ( P = .03), but there was no difference in the estimated blood loss or change in hemoglobin levels ( P = .2-.7). At a mean of 1.4 ± .5 years postoperatively, patients in both cohorts demonstrated similar improvements in Oxford Knee Scores and satisfaction scores ( P = .2-.8), with no patients requiring a revision surgical procedure. Conclusion A recently introduced cementless TKA design demonstrates excellent perioperative and early postoperative results without failures. Continued surveillance is necessary to elucidate the survivorship and potential long-term benefits of this cementless design.
Characteristics of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Its Relationship With Data Analytics

Abstract Transportation continues to play a strategic role in our worldwide economy, delivering goods and people through increasingly complex, interconnected, and multimodel transportation systems. Unfortunately, the complexities of modern transportation cannot be managed using yesterday’s tools. For example, the data collected by the technologies of the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are increasingly complex and are characterized by heterogeneous formats, large volume, nuances in spatial and temporal processes, and frequent real-time processing requirements. Simple data processing, integration, and analytics tools do not meet the needs of complex ITS data processing tasks. The application of emerging data analytic systems and methods, with effective data collection and information distribution systems, provides opportunities which are required for building the ITSs of today and tomorrow. Imagine a world in which all products always arrive in a predetermined order, on time, at low cost, with consistent results and are produced by a happy and productive transportation workforce. People travel in safe, comfortable, efficient systems that are affordable, convenient, and friendly to our environment. An educated transportation system workforce, including engineers, scientists, and operational professionals, has the tools to design, build, test, provision, operate and optimize the systems. It also has the knowledge to use these tools. This educated workforce is inherently multidisciplinary combining expertise from transportation engineering, software engineering, computer science, business, statistics, and mathematics. ITS turn data into actionable knowledge enabling transportation users to make informed decisions ensuring the safe and efficient use of the facilities. For example, in such a system, every traveler has access to the most reliable and up-to-date status of almost all transportation modes from any point on the transportation network. Travelers use devices that include instrumented vehicles, smartphones, tablet computer, and roadside information displays. They can then choose the mode and route that will give them the minimum travel time and distance making dynamic adjustments from real-time information. In this chapter, we will demonstrate that ITS is data-intensive application. First, we provide a summary of the sources and characteristics of ITS data, discussing the relationship of ITS to data analytics. Later, a review of the US National ITS architecture is given as an example framework for ITS planning, design, and deployment, with an overview of ITS applications and their relationships to data analytics. Finally, a brief history of ITS deployment around the world is given, and a future characterized by the technological advances in ITS is presented.
Possible Origin of the Increased Torsion Elastic Constant of Small Circular DNAs: Bending-Induced Axial Tension

Deforming an intrinsically straight elastic rod into a circle is shown to introduce an axial tension that acts to extend the rod, much like an externally applied force. The response of a circular DNA to such axial tension was reckoned using a previously suggested model of a force-dependent cooperative transition between a shorter torsionally softer a conformation and a longer torsionally stiffer b conformation. Each of three earlier reported optimal sets of parameters, that well-fitted both relative extension vs force and torsion elastic constant vs force data on single DNAs under tension, was applied here to predict torsion elastic constants of the effective springs between base pairs for both linear and circular 181 bp and ∼210.8 bp DNAs under their respective conditions. Predicted values for both linear and circular species agreed well with their corresponding experimental values, which strongly suggests that the observed 1.4- to 1.5-fold enhancement of the torsion elastic constants upon circularizatio...
Do tetracyclines have the potential to reduce the risk of Clostridium difficile infection

Despite advances in antibiotic stewardship, hand hygiene, isolation practices, and dedicated cleaning protocols in hospitals; Clostridium difficile remains the leading health-care-associated pathog...
The Conservation Ideological State Apparatus

This article considers Louis Althusser's theory of the ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) for advancing political ecology scholarship on the functioning of the state in violent environments. I reflect on a series of events in which a state forest department in South India attempted to recast violent conflicts between themselves and local communities over access to natural resources and a protected area as a debate over human-wildlife conflicts. Through the example of conservation as ideology in Wayanad, Kerala, I show how the ISAs articulate the functioning of ideology within the state apparatuses in order for us to understand the larger mechanics of the state apparatus and the reproduction of the relations of production necessary for the reproduction of capitalism. Revisiting the ISAs as a theoretical framework for studies in political ecology and conservation is timely given the resurgence of militarised conservation tactics, the emancipatory aims of Althusser's theory, and political ecology's turn towards praxis.
Community-Based Adaptation: Alaska Native Communities Design a Relocation Process to Protect Their Human Rights

Abstract Extreme weather events coupled with sea level rise and erosion will cause coastal and riverine areas where people live and maintain livelihoods to permanently disappear. Adaptation to these environmental changes, including the permanent relocation of millions of people, requires new governance tools. In the United States, local and tribal governments, often with state-level and national-level support, will be primarily responsible for protecting residents from climate change impacts and implementing policies needed to protect their welfare. Government agencies have a variety of tools to facilitate protection in place and managed coastal retreat, but have very limited tools to facilitate a community-wide relocation. In addition, no institutional mechanism currently exists to determine whether and when preventive relocation needs to occur in order to protect people from climate change impacts. Based on research involving 15 Alaska Native communities threatened by climate-induced environmental impacts, this paper proposes the design and implementation of an adaptive governance framework to respond to the need to relocate populations. In this context, adaptive governance means the ability of institutions to dynamically respond to climate change impacts. A component of this adaptive governance framework is a social-ecological monitoring and assessment tool, which can facilitate collaborative knowledge production by community residents and governance institutions to guide sustainable adaptation strategies and determine whether and when relocation needs to occur. This chapter discusses the work being done by 15 Alaska Native communities to design and implement this monitoring and assessment tool in collaboration with state and federal government agencies. The innovative adaptation strategies developed by Alaska Native communities can provide a model for other communities faced with the difficult decision of whether to stay in place or relocate.
A Note on the Microstructural Dependence of the Anisotropic Elastic Constants of Textured Materials

Abstract This paper concerns the representation of the dependence of the elastic coefficients that appear in the anisotropic form of Hooke's law for a material upon the micro structure of the material. The concern is with textured material symmetries, that is to say materials such as natural and man-made composites whose material symmetry is determined by microstructural organization. The approach is to relate the anisotropic elastic coefficients to local geometric or stereological measures of the microstructure. The predictions of a micromechanical model and a continuum model are compared and are found to be consistent with each other.
Shake-and-Bake : Applications and Advances

Shake-and-Bake is a direct-methods procedure which has provided ab initio solutions for protein structures containing as many as 600 independent non-H atoms, provided that good-quality diffraction data are available to 1.1A resolution. This algorithm extends the range of conventional direct methods by repetitively, unconditionally, and automatically alternating reciprocal-space phase refinement with filtering in real space to impose constraints. Choosing good values for parameters, such as the number of peaks used for density modification, selecting the optimum phase-refinement method, and performing an adequate number of refinement cycles, are critical for successful large-molecule applications. Large structures lacking atoms of any element heavier than oxygen require different parameter settings. In this paper, it is shown that with high probability a solution can be obtained for any one of six small protein structures within one day on a single SGI R10000 processor.
Stereoselectivity in Micellar Esterolysis

After brief reviews of functional surfactants and enantioselectivity in esterolysis reactions catalyzed by chiral surfactant micelles, we consider kinetic diaster-eoselectivity in micelle-catalyzed hydrolyses of diastereomeric peptide esters. Substrates include the p-nitrophenyl esters of (D,L and L,L) Z-alanylproline, Z-phenylalanylproline, Z-tryptophanylproline, Z-leucylproline, and Z-valylproline. Surfactants include cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and chiral and achiral imidazole - and thiol - functionalized surfactants. Exceptional micellar stereoselectivity is observed, and is rationalized with reference to specific molecular interactions.
Muscle Function and Ageing

Normal muscle physiology in relation to the pelvic floor is discussed to enable an understanding of dysfunction of the pelvic floor, particularly of the anal and urethral sphincters, as a consequence of denervation, vaginal delivery, and ageing. Clinical, electrophysiological, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessments are reviewed, and the mechanisms of repair and rehabilitation are outlined.
Interdisciplinary Foundations for Open Cyber-Physical Systems - (Invited Talk).

A significant amount of literature addressed challenges in building dependable embedded systems. Next-generation cyber-physical systems offer more challenges that arise by virtue of openness, distribution, and scale. Emerging applications interact with both a physical and a social environment in both space and time. They are subjected to unpredictable workloads and are composed of a large number of subsystems of different degrees of criticality, not all of which are well-understood. Analyzing their overall behavior, diagnosing their interaction problems, and ensuring cooperation among their constituents requires new, often interdisciplinary tools and theoretical foundations not typically explored in classical embedded computing. This talk overviews some such tools and foundations, and outlines emerging broad challenges in building next-general open cyber-physical systems. K. Chatterjee and T.A. Henzinger (Eds.): FORMATS 2010, LNCS 6246, p. 1, 2010. c © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
Variance Reduction Techniques

This chapter develops methods for increasing the efficiency of Monte Carlo simulation by reducing the variance of simulation estimates. These methods draw on two broad strategies for reducing variance: taking advantage of tractable features of a model to adjust or correct simulation outputs, and reducing the variability in simulation inputs. We discuss control variates, antithetic variates, stratified sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, moment matching methods, and importance sampling, and we illustrate these methods through examples. Two themes run through this chapter: The greatest gains in efficiency from variance reduction techniques result from exploiting specific features of a problem, rather than from generic applications of generic methods. Reducing simulation error is often at odds with convenient estimation of the simulation error itself; in order to supplement a reduced-variance estimator with a valid confidence interval, we sometimes need to sacrifice some of the potential variance reduction.
Mechanical failure of CrN/Cu/CrN interfacial regions under tensile loading

Abstract Quantitative assessment of the adhesion strength of ceramic hard coatings on substrates is a subject of great technological and scientific relevance, the achievement of which has proven difficult over the past two decades. Here we show that a micro-pillar tension testing protocol may serve as an effective method for this purpose, and demonstrate its effectiveness through a combination of micro tension testing and crystal plasticity finite element analysis (CPFEA). Tensile loading perpendicular to the interfaces, as well as accompanying CPFEA simulations, was conducted on CrN/Cu/CrN/Si micro-pillar tensile specimens fabricated from vapor phase deposited thin film sandwich structures. All tensile loading induced fracture were observed to occur within the Cu interlayer and near one Cu/CrN interface of the CrN/Cu/CrN sandwich structure. Observations, measurements, and discussions were made regarding the fracture surfaces, fracture stresses, and primary fracture mechanisms. Fracture surface examinations indicated ductile tensile fracture, induced by the formation of voids. It is shown that, due to the geometric constraint imposed by the ceramic layers in the current testing configuration, interlayer plasticity and the critical fracture stress display a strong dependence on the Cu interlayer thickness. It is postulated as a failure criterion that cooperation of deviatoric and hydrostatic stress components is needed to induce the nucleation and growth of voids. The relevance of the present work to the interfacial mechanical integrity of other metal/ceramic interfaces is discussed.