bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
ACDC Agency: Food and Politics with Community College Students at Vassar
Authors: Cowan Robert 
Published: February 2017

The food at the All-College Dining Commons (ACDC) at Vassar College stinks. Not that is literally smells foul; it just isn’t very good. The high-achieving community college students in the Exploring Transfer Program (ET) eat breakfast and dinner there for the five weeks that they are studying at Vassar. Ironically, the course I co-taught in ET for two summers, with the Chair of Environmental Studies, is entitled Feast or Famine: Food, Society, Environment. This course is a survey of issues concerning food systems, such as industrial farming, the role of agricultural lobbyists in Washington, overfishing, food sovereignty in developing countries, food stamps, food deserts, the USDA, FDA, WTO, IMF, etc. And yet, with all of the knowledge the students are gleaning from authors like Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry and myriad others, they have to eat the crappy food at ACDC. We have had students in this course from Argentina, Bosnia, Bourkina Faso, China, El Salvador, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, the Philippines, Sweden, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. They come from community colleges mostly in the New York area, but also from as far away as Boston, Maine, Los Angeles, and Diné Community College, which is on a Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona. This program—over 30 years old and with over 1,000 alumni—is a sort of academic boot camp for community college students who hope to transfer to an elite liberal arts college, a Research 1 university, or an Ivy League school. It’s a full scholarship program during which they take two courses in five weeks, each team-taught by a community college professor and a Vassar professor. “AC/DC” seems an apt metaphor for the ET program; not for its pop-metal connotations but because of the fact that it demands that students that are accustomed to operating in one current suddenly adjust to quite another. The question that arises out of the experience of eating ACDC, though—of being low-income, immigrant, first-generation college students, studying at one of the whitest and most expensive schools in the country and yet being forced to eat poor food—is “how do they develop a sense of personal agency,” since that is what the transition through community college and onto a school like Vassar requires.
Ionospheric‐thermospheric UV tomography: 1. Image space reconstruction algorithms
Authors: Dymond K. F. , Budzien S. A. , Hei M. A. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractWe present and discuss two algorithms of the class known as Image Space Reconstruction Algorithms (ISRAs) that we are applying to the solution of large‐scale ionospheric tomography problems. ISRAs have several desirable features that make them useful for ionospheric tomography. In addition to producing nonnegative solutions, ISRAs are amenable to sparse‐matrix formulations and are fast, stable, and robust. We present the results of our studies of two types of ISRA: the Least Squares Positive Definite and the Richardson‐Lucy algorithms. We compare their performance to the Multiplicative Algebraic Reconstruction and Conjugate Gradient Least Squares algorithms. We then discuss the use of regularization in these algorithms and present our new approach based on regularization to a partial differential equation.
Impact melt of the lunar Crisium multiring basin
Authors: Spudis P. D. , Sliz M. U. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractNew geological mapping of the Crisium basin on the Moon has revealed exposures of the basin impact melt sheet. The melt sheet has a feldspathic highland composition, somewhat more mafic than the melt sheet of the Orientale basin, but less mafic than comparable deposits around the Imbrium basin. These newly recognized deposits would be ideal locations to directly sample Crisium basin impact melt, material whose study would yield insight into the composition of the lunar crust, the time of formation of the basin, and the large impact process.
Negative first stroke leader characteristics in cloud‐to‐ground lightning over land and ocean
Authors: Nag Amitabh , Cummins Kenneth L. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractWe examine downward leader characteristics for negative first return strokes, along with estimated first stroke peak currents, for lightning occurring over land and ocean reported by the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN). For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we report independent evidence that supports the observations by lightning locating systems of higher first stroke peak currents for lightning occurring over ocean than land. We analyzed lightning occurring in five circular regions, each with 50 km diameter. In western Florida, the median stepped‐leader duration was 17% shorter over ocean than over land and in eastern Florida the median durations were 21% and 39% shorter over two oceanic regions than over land. We infer that the shorter durations over ocean simply reflect the higher (25% in western Florida and 11%–16% in eastern Florida) oceanic return stroke peak currents reported by the NLDN. These findings indicate that the cloud charge structure for (at least some) oceanic storms are different than those for storms over land. The percentage of flashes that had at least one NLDN‐reported negative cloud pulse prior to the first negative cloud‐to‐ground stroke was found to be about the same over land and ocean. Using regression analysis, we found no evidence that the relationship between leader duration and first return stroke peak current is different over land and ocean.
The temperature‐ballast hypothesis explains carbon export efficiency observations in the Southern Ocean
Authors: Britten Gregory L. , Wakamatsu Lael , Primeau François W. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractCarbon export from the Southern Ocean exerts a strong control on the ocean carbon sink, yet recent observations from the region demonstrate poorly understood relationships in which carbon export efficiency is weakly related to temperature. These observations conflict with traditional theory where export efficiency increases in colder waters. A recently proposed “temperature‐ballast hypothesis” suggests an explanatory mechanism where the effect of temperature‐dependent respiration is masked by variation in particle‐ballast as upwelling waters move northward from Antarctica. We use observations and statistical models to test this mechanism and find positive support for the hypothesized temperature‐ballast interactions. Best fitting models indicate a significant relation between export efficiency and silica‐ballast while simultaneously revealing the expected inverse effect of temperature once ballast is accounted for. These findings reconcile model predictions, metabolic theory, and carbon export observations in the Southern Ocean and have consequences for how the ocean carbon sink responds to climate change.
Thermal behavior of thermoplastic polymer nanocomposites containing graphene nanoplatelets
Authors: Caradonna Andrea , Colucci Giovanna , Giorcelli Mauro , Frache Alberto , Badini Claudio 
Published: February 2017

ABSTRACTPolypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposites filled with 5 wt % of two different kinds of commercially available graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were prepared. Composites materials were characterized in terms of thermal properties (thermal conductivity and thermal stability) in order to study the effect of different fillers within different thermoplastic matrices. The exfoliation process and the mechanical properties were also investigated. We chose three different thermoplastic polymers (polyolefin, copolymer and elastomer) to cover a wide range of thermoplastic materials and identify a guideline in the use of GNPs for nanocomposite materials. No drastic differences were observed in terms of mechanical properties when the same matrices were filled with different GNPs. Concerning thermal conductivity, it was observed that the GNPs plane dimensions play a crucial role in the increase of conductive properties. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44814.
Perceptual evaluation of synthetic gaze jitter
Authors: Krejtz Krzysztof , Duchowski Andrew , Zhou Heng , Jörg Sophie , Niedzielska Anna 
Published: February 2017

AbstractEye movements are an essential part of non‐verbal behavior. Non‐player characters, as they occur in many games, communicate with the player through dialogue and non‐verbal behavior and can have a strong influence on player experience or even on gameplay. In this paper, we evaluate a procedural model designed to synthesize the subtleties of eye motion. More specifically, our model adds microsaccadic jitter and pupil unrest both modeled by 1/fα or pink noise to the saccadic main sequence. In a series of perceptual two‐alternative forced‐choice experiments, we explore the perceived naturalness of different parameters of pink noise by comparing synthesized motions to rendered motion of recorded eye movements at extreme close shot and close shot distances. Our results show that, on average, animations based on a procedural model with pink noise were perceived and evaluated as highly natural, whereas data‐driven motion without any jitter or with unfiltered jitter were consistently selected as the least natural in appearance.
Determine exogenous human DDAH2 gene function in rabbit bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells in vitro
Authors: Shoeibi Sara , Mohammadi Shabnam , Sadeghnia Hamid Reza , Mahdipour Elahe , Ghayour‐Mobarhan Majid 
Published: February 2017

The in vitro amplification of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is an important method because of its role in gene transferring and regenerative medicine. In this study, we isolated rabbit bone marrow–derived EPCs to further manipulation and overexpression of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) in EPCs. Isolated EPCs were cultured, expanded in endothelial basal medium. Morphology of EPCs and expression levels of surface markers detected using immunocytochemistry staining and through the use of flow cytometery. Endothelial progenitor cells were transfected with plasmid vectors expressing human DDAH2 (DDAH2‐EPCs). Three days after gene transfer, positive transfected‐EPCs proliferation and DDAH activity were assayed. We observed colonies conformation and endothelium‐like morphology gradually in the third week of culture. Characterization results revealed positive expression of EPC surface markers CD106, Flk‐1, vWF, and CD34 using few identification techniques. Overexpression of DDAH2 increased citrulline production after 96 hours of transfection, 235.34 ± 0.69 vs 95.26 ± 5.76 ng/mL; P = .023. These results suggest that cell population with EPC characteristics can be simply isolated from rabbit bone marrow and successfully engineered to overexpress exogenous gene. In this study, we offer a feasible method to isolate and identify EPCs from bone marrow. In addition, an efficient transfection with a plasmid vector (without risk of interference) can be constructed a hybrid structure with EPC and DDAH2 gene to examine their function in vitro.
EGF domain of coagulation factor IX is conducive to exposure of phosphatidylserine
Authors: Hidai Chiaki , Fujiwara Yusuke , Kokubun Shinichiro , Kitano Hisataka 
Published: February 2017

AbstractLipid rafts are an initiation site for many different signals. Recently, we reported that an EGF domain in activated coagulation factor IX (EGF‐F9) increases lipid raft formation and accelerates cell migration. However, the detailed mechanism is not well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of EGF‐F9 on the cell membrane. A431 cells (derived from human squamous cell carcinoma) were treated with recombinant EGF‐F9. Cells were immunocytochemically stained with probes for lipid rafts or phosphatidylserine (PS). After 3 min of treatment with EGF‐F9, cholera toxin subunit B (CTxB) binding domains emerged at the adhesive tips of filopodia. Subsequently, CTxB staining was observed on the filopodial shaft. Finally, large clusters of CTxB domains were observed at the edge of cell bodies. Markers for lipid rafts, such as caveolin‐1 and a GPI anchored protein, co‐localized with CTxB. Staining with annexin V and XII revealed that PS was exposed at the tips of filopodia, translocated on filopodial shafts, and co‐localized with CTxB at the rafts. Immunocytochemistry showed that scramblase‐1 protein was present at the filopodial tips. Our data indicates that EGF‐F9 accelerates PS exposure around the filopodial adhesion complex and induces clustering of lipid rafts in the cell body. PS exposure is thought to occur on cells undergoing apoptosis. Further study of the function of the EGF‐F9 motif in mediating signal transduction is necessary because it is shared by a number of proteins.
Association between lymph node yield and survival among patients undergoing radical nephroureterectomy for urothelial carcinoma of the upper tract
Authors: Zareba Piotr , Rosenzweig Barak , Winer Andrew G. , Coleman Jonathan A. 
Published: February 2017

BACKGROUNDPrior studies examining the value of lymph node (LN) dissection (LND) in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract (UTUC) have produced conflicting results. The objective of the current study was to assess the relationship between LN yield and survival among patients undergoing radical nephroureterectomy (RNU).METHODSThe National Cancer Data Base was used to identify patients with non‐metastatic UTUC who were treated with RNU between 2004 and 2012. The association between LN yield and overall survival (OS) was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression, with adjustment for patient, tumor, and facility characteristics.RESULTSOf the 14,472 patients, 2926 (20%) underwent LND. The median yield was 2 LNs (interquartile range 1‐6 LNs). Among the entire cohort and the LN‐negative (pN0) subgroup, a higher LN yield was associated with lower all‐cause mortality (multivariable hazard ratio [HR] 0.94 per 5 LNs removed, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.89‐1.00 [P = .034] for the entire cohort and HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.79‐0.94 [P = .001] for the pN0 subgroup). Among patients with positive LNs (pN+), there was no association noted between LN yield and OS; however, positive and negative LN counts were found to be independent predictors of OS (HR 1.27 per 5 positive LNs, 95% CI 1.16‐1.39 [P<.001] and HR 0.90 per 5 negative LNs, 95% CI 0.82‐1.00 [P = .049]).CONCLUSIONSIn this large, contemporary cohort of patients with UTUC, LND was found to be used infrequently despite evidence that a higher LN yield is associated with lower all‐cause mortality. Cancer 2017;123:1741–1750. © 2017 American Cancer Society.
Challenge of FNA diagnosis of angiomyolipoma: A study of 33 cases
Authors: Zhou Haijun , Guo Ming , Gong Yun 
Published: February 2017

BACKGROUNDAngiomyolipoma (AML), typically composed of smooth muscle, vessels, and fat, is generally a benign tumor in the kidneys. However, it occasionally occurs in extrarenal sites and behaves like a malignant tumor. AML is uncommonly encountered in fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) samples and can cause diagnostic difficulty.METHODSWe searched our pathology database for FNA cases diagnosed between 2003 and 2015 that were subsequently confirmed to be AML in the same lesion by surgical pathologic evaluation. The diagnostic performance, challenges, and cytologic features were retrospectively reviewed.RESULTSIn total, 33 FNA cases from 31 patients were identified. The final surgical pathologic diagnoses included 30 primary AMLs (28 in kidneys and 2 in liver) and 3 were metastases (in liver, lung, and abdominal wall, respectively). Aspiration sites included kidney/retroperitoneum (n = 28), abdominal wall (n = 1), lung (n = 1), and liver (n = 3). The FNA diagnoses were consistent with/favor AML (n = 16), descriptive (n = 12), nondiagnostic (n = 2), and erroneous (n = 3). Of the 3 erroneous cases, 2 were diagnosed as renal cell carcinoma, and 1 was diagnosed as a pleomorphic malignant neoplasm. Cytologically, cases with predominantly spindle cells were the most commonly encountered (n = 19). Cases with predominantly epithelioid cells (n = 6) can pose a diagnostic difficulty and were observed in all 3 metastatic AMLs and in 2 of the 3 erroneous cases. Immunostains were performed on 11 FNAs and helped the diagnosis in 9 cases.CONCLUSIONSFNA diagnosis of AML may be challenging, especially in cases with a predominantly epithelioid component and/or an extrarenal location. Immunostaining is important to improve diagnostic accuracy of this rare entity. Cancer Cytopathol 2017;125:257–266. © 2016 American Cancer Society.
Introducing distributed dynamic data‐intensive (D3) science: Understanding applications and infrastructure
Authors: Jha Shantenu , Katz Daniel S. , Luckow Andre , Chue Hong  Neil , Rana Omer , Simmhan Yogesh 
Published: February 2017

SummaryA common feature across many science and engineering applications is the amount and diversity of data and computation that must be integrated to yield insights. Datasets are growing larger and becoming distributed; their location, availability, and properties are often time‐dependent. Collectively, these characteristics give rise to dynamic distributed data‐intensive applications. While “static” data applications have received significant attention, the characteristics, requirements, and software systems for the analysis of large volumes of dynamic, distributed data, and data‐intensive applications have received relatively less attention. This paper surveys several representative dynamic distributed data‐intensive application scenarios, provides a common conceptual framework to understand them, and examines the infrastructure used in support of applications.
TOAST: Automatic tiling for iterative stencil computations on GPUs
Authors: Rocha Rodrigo C. O. , Pereira Alyson D. , Ramos Luiz , Góes Luís F. W. 
Published: February 2017

SummaryThe stencil pattern is important in many scientific and engineering domains, spurring great interest from researchers and industry. In recent years, various optimizations have been proposed for parallel stencil applications running on graphics processing units (GPUs). In particular, tiling is a technique that can significantly enhance application performance by improving data locality and by reducing the volume of communication between host memory and GPU. In addition, tiling enables stencil applications to process inputs that are larger than the physical GPU memory. However, implementing tiling efficiently is complex, time‐consuming, and error‐prone. In this paper, we propose transparently optimized automatic stencil tiling (TOAST), an automatic tiling mechanism for iterative stencil computations running on GPUs; TOAST has 3 main benefits: (1) It incorporates an optimization model that seeks to maximize data reuse within tiles while respecting the amount of dynamically available GPU memory; (2) it offers a virtualized GPU memory for stencil computations, allowing for large input data; and (3) it performs optimal tiling transparently to the developer of the parallel stencil application. The current implementation of TOAST augments the PSkel framework with an internal solver based on genetic algorithms. Our experimental results show that TOAST improves the performance of iterative stencil applications by up to 13 × compared with their multithreaded (central processing unit–based) optimized versions and up to 48 × compared with a naive tiling approach on GPU. The TOAST mechanism is able to automatically achieve a low percentual overhead of data management compared with actual stencil computation.
Energy optimization methodology for e‐infrastructure providers
Authors: Astsatryan Hrachya , Narsisian Wahi , Kocharyan Aram , Da Costa Georges , Hankel Albert , Oleksiak Ariel 
Published: February 2017

SummaryThe environmental protection is a dominant concern for all types of industries, organizations, and governments. In this regard, the reduction of the energy consumption is substantial in bringing down the CO2 gas emission, which is considered as an important factor causing global warming. The e‐infrastructure service providers, such as National Research and Education Networks or National Grid Initiatives have crucial role in the context of energy awareness because the energy consumption of the networking, data, and computational infrastructures keeps increasing exponentially over the time. In addition to this, scientific gateways and cloud services are becoming more significant to tackle scientific and societal challenges. Therefore, there is a need to provide robust and reliable services taking into account energy consumption aspect of e‐infrastructures. The aim of the article is to introduce an energy optimization methodology for the beneficiaries of the e‐infrastructures to explore, optimize, and report the energy consumption and CO2 emission of data, computing, and networking facilities. The suggested methodology has been implemented within the Armenian e‐infrastructure aiming at the reduction of the energy consumption and thereby the CO2 emission.
Detection and Measurement of Methionine Oxidation in Proteins
Authors: Sen K. Ilker , Hepler Robert , Nanda Hirsh 
Published: February 2017

AbstractMethionine oxidation is a prevalent modification found in proteins both in biological settings and in the manufacturing of biotherapeutic molecules. In cells, the oxidation of specific methionine sites can modulate protein function or promote interactions that trigger signaling pathways. In biotherapeutic development, the formation of oxidative species could be detrimental to the efficacy or safety of the drug product. Thus, methionine oxidation is a critical quality attribute that needs to be monitored throughout development. Here we describe a method using LC/MS/MS to identify site‐specific methionine modifications in proteins. Antibodies are stressed with hydrogen peroxide, and the level of Met oxidation is compared to that of reference molecules. The protocols presented here are not specific to methionine and can be used more generally to identify other PTM risk sites in molecules after various types of treatments. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.