THE EFFECT OF A CHANGING MARKET MIX IN SEED CORN ON INVENTORY COSTS

Changing product characteristics are causing U.S. seed corn companies to reevaluate their inventory strategies. A simulation model based upon the Economic Order Quantity model is built in @Risk to reflect a shortened product life cycle and product proliferation. Inventory costs levels increase because of increased uncertainty of demand. Empirical results find that shortening the product life cycle and expanding the product line increases total inventory costs by 120.8%, increases the average inventory level (primarily due to added safety stock) by 56.2%, and increases the cost of carryover, stockout cost, and safety stock cost by 143, 165, and 119 %, respectively. To maintain higher levels of customer service with products displaying shorter life cycles, more safety stock must be held to guard against stockouts.Crop Production/Industries,

Cognitive Remediation and Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness

Published versio

New ADS Functionality for the Curator

In this paper we provide an update concerning the operations of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), its services and user interface, and the content currently indexed in its database. As the primary information system used by researchers in Astronomy, the ADS aims to provide a comprehensive index of all scholarly resources appearing in the literature. With the current effort in our community to support data and software citations, we discuss what steps the ADS is taking to provide the needed infrastructure in collaboration with publishers and data providers. A new API provides access to the ADS search interface, metrics, and libraries allowing users to programmatically automate discovery and curation tasks. The new ADS interface supports a greater integration of content and services with a variety of partners, including ORCID claiming, indexing of SIMBAD objects, and article graphics from a variety of publishers. Finally, we highlight how librarians can facilitate the ingest of gray literature that they curate into our system.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of Library and Information Services in Astronomy VIII, Strasbourg, Franc

Cognitive Remediation and Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness

Published versio

Abstract: Analysis of acute skin rejection in non-human primate models of face and hand allotransplantation

Introduction: The incidence of acute rejection (AR) of the skin within the first year after hand or face transplantation is approximately 85% and up to 56% of patients experience multiple episodes1. Significant immunosuppression is required to prevent allograft loss, and recent studies suggest that repeated AR episodes can lead to VCA dysfunction and loss2. The mechanisms underlying variability in AR presentation remain poorly defined however. Materials and Methods: 8 cynomolgus monkeys received either an orthotopic hand (n=2) or heterotopic face VCA (n=6) from MHC-mismatched donors following induction with anti-thymocyte globulin. Post-operatively, triple immunosuppression – tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, methylprednisolone – was maintained for up to 120 days before bone marrow transplantation (BMT) was performed. Protocol biopsies of VCA skin were performed at 30-day intervals for histopathology and flow cytometric analysis of resident skin leukocyte populations; VCA-resident cells were differentiated by H38 status (mouse antihuman HLA class I monoclonal antibody that cross reacts with cynomolgus monkeys) for donor or recipient derivation. Clinical AR was treated with steroids and further biopsies were taken for histologic confirmation; corresponding anti-donor responses were evaluated by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and allo-antibody formation. Results: Up to three episodes of AR (from POD 14, Banff I to II) developed while recipient animals were maintained on triple immunosuppression. Corresponding flow cytometric analyses demonstrate > 80% of skin-resident T lymphocytes (CD4+, CD8+) within VCA dermis were of recipient origin, suggesting rapid immigration of various lineages into the VCA. These observations coincided with the first episode of AR in fully mismatched recipients but haplomatched animals remained rejection-free. All but one episode of AR were successfully treated. No allo-antibodies were detected and anti-donor responses by MLR were comparable to that against third-party. Following BMT, mixed chimerism was detected and enabled immunosuppression withdrawal. However, this was transient and once lost, clinical AR developed and nearly 100% of both dermal and epidermal lymphocytes were recipient-derived. Conclusion: We report a clinically-relevant model for studying AR in VCA. Our results suggest that further understanding of the relative importance of MHC differences in transplant pairs may lead to differences in outcomes for VCA recipients maintained under standard immunosuppression. Immunosuppression-free tolerance of non-hematopoietic antigens in composite tissues can be achieved, but require additional strategies to achieve stable, rather than transient mixed chimerism following BMT

Neuroplastic Changes Following Social Cognition Training in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review

Social cognitive impairment is a key feature of schizophrenia and social cognition training (SCT) is a promising tool to address these deficits. Neurobiological dysfunction in schizophrenia has been widely researched, but neuronal changes induced by SCT have been scarcely explored. This review aims to assess the neuroplastic effects of SCT in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials testing the effects of SCT in functional and structural brain measurements of adult patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. A total of 11 studies were included: five used fMRI, two used EEG and ERP, one used ERP only, two used MEG and one study used MRI. Data extracting and processing regarding sociodemographic and clinical variables, intervention characteristics, neuroimaging procedures, neuroplastic findings, effect sizes and study quality criteria was completed by two raters. Results indicate a wide range of structural and functional changes in numerous regions and circuits of the social brain, including early perceptual areas, the limbic system and prefrontal regions. Despite the small number of trials currently available, evidence suggests that SCT is associated with neuroplastic changes in the social brain and concomitant improvements in social cognitive performance. There is a lack of extensive knowledge about the neural mechanisms that underlie social cognitive enhancement after treatment, but the reported findings may shed light on the neural substrates of social cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and how improved treatment procedures can be developed and applied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Do ceramic femoral heads reduce taper fretting corrosion in hip arthroplasty? A retrieval study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies regarding modular head-neck taper corrosion were largely based on cobalt chrome (CoCr) alloy femoral heads. Less is known about head-neck taper corrosion with ceramic femoral heads. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We asked (1) whether ceramic heads resulted in less taper corrosion than CoCr heads; (2) what device and patient factors influence taper fretting corrosion; and (3) whether the mechanism of taper fretting corrosion in ceramic heads differs from that in CoCr heads. METHODS: One hundred femoral head-stem pairs were analyzed for evidence of fretting and corrosion using a visual scoring technique based on the severity and extent of fretting and corrosion damage observed at the taper. A matched cohort design was used in which 50 ceramic head-stem pairs were matched with 50 CoCr head-stem pairs based on implantation time, lateral offset, stem design, and flexural rigidity. RESULTS: Fretting and corrosion scores were lower for the stems in the ceramic head cohort (p=0.03). Stem alloy (p=0.004) and lower stem flexural rigidity (Spearman\u27s rho=-0.32, p=0.02) predicted stem fretting and corrosion damage in the ceramic head cohort but not in the metal head cohort. The mechanism of mechanically assisted crevice corrosion was similar in both cohorts although in the case of ceramic femoral heads, only one of the two surfaces (the male metal taper) engaged in the oxide abrasion and repassivation process. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that by using a ceramic femoral head, CoCr fretting and corrosion from the modular head-neck taper may be mitigated but not eliminated. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The findings of this study support further study of the role of ceramic heads in potentially reducing femoral taper corrosion

Re-Assembly of the Genome of Francisella tularensis Subsp. holarctica OSU18

Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious human intracellular pathogen that is the causative agent of tularemia. It occurs in several major subtypes, including the live vaccine strain holarctica (type B). F. tularensis is classified as category A biodefense agent in part because a relatively small number of organisms can cause severe illness. Three complete genomes of subspecies holarctica have been sequenced and deposited in public archives, of which OSU18 was the first and the only strain for which a scientific publication has appeared [1]. We re-assembled the OSU18 strain using both de novo and comparative assembly techniques, and found that the published sequence has two large inversion mis-assemblies. We generated a corrected assembly of the entire genome along with detailed information on the placement of individual reads within the assembly. This assembly will provide a more accurate basis for future comparative studies of this pathogen