cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Does early enucleation affect the decussation pattern of alpha cells in the ferret

Naturally occurring cell death has been hypothesized to sculpt various features of the organization of the mature visual pathways, including the recent proposal that the selective elimination of ganglion cells in the temporal retina shapes the formation of decussation patterns. Through a class-specific interocular competition, ganglion cells in the two temporal hemiretinae are selectively lost to produce the decussation patterns characteristic of each individual cell class (Leventhal et al., 1988). The present study has tested this hypothesis by asking whether the removal of one retina in newborn ferrets, which should disrupt binocular interactions at the level of the terminals, alters the decussation pattern of the alpha cells, a cell class that is entirely decussating in the normal adult ferret. Enucleation on the day of birth was found to increase the uncrossed projection by approximately 50%, but not a single uncrossed alpha cell was found in the temporal retina. Either alpha cells never project ipsilaterally during development, or if they do, they cannot be rescued by early enucleation. While naturally occurring cell death plays many roles during development, creating the decussation pattern of the ferret's alpha cell class via a binocular competition at the level of the targets is unlikely to be one of them.
Major Contributors and Major Contributions to the Vocational Behavior Literature.

Abstract In a recent survey of the counseling psychology literature, M. Heesacker, P. P. Heppner, and M. E. Rogers (1982, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 29, 400–405) identified some important vocational contributors and their contributions. However, because these researchers focused broadly upon counseling psychology as a specialty, they identified only a limited number of significant vocational authors and vocational publications. We attempted to specify and extend a portion of the work of Heesacker et al. by further identifying (a) major contributors and classic contributions to the vocational literature appearing before 1958 and (b) emerging major contributors and classic contributions to the vocational literature appearing after 1957. In an effort to provide information relevant to the variety of professionals in the area of vocational behavior (e.g., psychologists, sociologists, economists), we drew exclusively on two journals that purport to broadly address the vocational area: the Journal of Vocational Behavior and Vocational Guidance Quarterly. Approximately 9000 references from these journals were alphabetized and tabulated for citation frequency analysis. Lists of major contributors and major contributions to the vocational literature, which provide potentially useful historical, research, and training information in the vocational area, were identified.
Regional activation of chromosomal arm 7q with and without gene amplification in taxane-selected human ovarian cancer cell lines.

Taxanes are important drugs in the treatment of ovarian and other cancers, but their efficacy is limited by intrinsic and acquired drug resistance. Expression of the multidrug transporter P-glycoprotein, encoded by the MDR1 (ABCB1) gene, is one of the causes of clinical drug resistance to taxanes. To study the mechanisms of MDR1 activation related to taxanes, we established 11 multidrug-resistant variants from six ovarian cancer cell lines by continuous exposure to either paclitaxel or docetaxel. We profiled gene expression and gene copy number alterations in these cell lines using cDNA microarrays and identified a cluster of genes coactivated with MDR1 in 7q21.11–13. Regional activation was evident in nine resistant variants displaying a coexpression pattern of up to 22 genes over an 8-Mb area, including SRI, MGC4175, CLDN12, CROT, and CDK6. In six of these variants, regional activation was driven by gene copy number alterations, with low-level gains or high-level amplifications spanning the involved region. However, three variants displayed regional increases in gene expression even without concomitant gene copy number changes. These results suggest that regional gene activation may be a fundamental mechanism for acquired drug resistance, with or without changes in gene dosage. In addition to numerical and structural chromosomal changes driven by genome instability in cancer cells, other mechanisms might be involved in MDR1 regional activation, such as chromatin remodeling and DNA or histone modifications of the 7q21 region. This article contains Supplementary Material available at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1045-2257/suppmat. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Plasma membrane-cell wall contacts.

In the simplest sense, cell walls are a carbohydrate and protein structures that surround and separate cells. Perhaps the most familiar cell wall structures are cork and wood, where the cell wall remains after the cells within have degraded. Cotton, the fiber that keeps some of us clothed in our
Backstepping Boundary Controllers and Observers for the Slender Timoshenko Beam: Part I - Design

In this paper we present the first extension of the backstepping methods that we have developed so far for control of parabolic PDEs (thermal, fluid, and chemical reaction dynamics) to second-order PDE systems (often referred loosely as hyperbolic) which model flexible structures and acoustics. We introduce controller and observer designs capable of adding damping to a model of beam dynamics using actuation only at the beam base and using sensing only at the beam tip. We present our designs for the Timoshenko beam model (the most advanced in the catalog of beam models, which also includes the simplest Euler-Bernoulli, as well as the Rayleigh and "shear" beam models) under the assumption that the beam is "slender." We allow the presence of a small amount of Kelvin-Voigt (KV) damping, which models internal material friction (rather than viscous interaction with the environment) and is present in every realistic material, though our method also applies in the completely undamped case. The closed-loop system with our backstepping boundary feedback is equivalent to a model of a string immersed in viscous fluid, with increased stiffness, supported on one end by a spring of high stiffness and on the other end by a damper. Such a closed loop system is very well damped and achieves the same excellent damping performance as the previous damping feedbacks which apply actuation at the free end of the beam. To ease the reader into the ideas, we first present the same method for a wave equation (string) with one free end and with a small amount of KV damping and then pursue the development for the Timoshenko beam model
Meeting the need: youth and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Background The need for a concerted effort to address the gaps in family planning services for youth in sub-Saharan Africa has been underreported and underexplored. Study Design Trends in fertility, childbearing, unmet need for family planning options and contraceptive prevalence (CP) among youth are described with data from six African countries with four consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys. Estimates of exposure to risk of pregnancy and number of new contraceptives users needed to maintain and double CP in 2015 are calculated using current CP and projected youth population size in six African countries. Results The youth population is expected to range from approximately 3 to 35 million in six African countries by 2015. Accounting for population growth and current estimates of sexual activity among youth, family planning services will need to absorb more than 800,000 and 11.3 million new contraceptive users total to maintain and double CP, respectively, in 2015 in those six African countries alone. Conclusion Our findings support existing literature that calls for a reorientation of family planning policies and programs, especially improved access to modern contraceptive methods among African youth.
An equation of state for methane in the gas and liquid phases

An equation of state was developed which represented experimental methane P-V-T data over the temperature range of 130 to 625° K. for pressures to 10,000 lb./sq. in. obs. with densities to 0.36 g./cc. For 598 experimental points the mean square percent deviation in the predicted pressures was 0.07% with only 10 points having deviations above 0.2%. The low density limit of the equation predicted second virial coefficients within 1 cc./mole of the accepted values for temperatures above 200° K. The equation was developed by first analyzing isochoric data from the saturation point to the high temperature or pressure limit. An expression was then obtained, reflecting qualitative behavior of the isochores, that reproduced experimental data along each isochore with an average pressure error of 0.02% and a maximum error of 0.08%. This expression had the form P = A + BT + C exp [E (T — T0)] + D exp (k—F/T) where k and T0 were normalizing constants and A through F were functions of density. From the density dependence of these parameters a single expression was obtained which fit the entire range of experimental data.
Axillary node interventions in breast cancer: a systematic review

FINDINGS Partial mastectomy followed by whole breast radiation is breast-conserving therapy. For women with no suspicious, palpable axillary nodes who undergo breast-conserving therapy, there is little evidence of benefit from surgical complete axillary node dissection compared with sentinel node biopsy alone. Complete axillary node dissection in patients with no palpable lymph nodes, compared with sentinel node biopsy, provides no survival benefit and is associated with a 1% to 3% reduction in recurrence of axillary lymph node metastases, but is associated with a 14% risk of lymphedema. Surgical axillary staging via sentinel node biopsy in patients with benign axillary nodes on radiological and clinical examination helps to inform decisions regarding adjuvant systemic and radiation therapy. Patients and physicians should tailor axillary lymph node interventions to maximize regional disease control and minimize morbidity. Complete axillary lymph node dissection is indicated in patients who present with palpable or needle biopsy–proven axillary metastases, patients with positive sentinel nodes undergoing mastectomy (who do not, as a standard, receive adjuvant radiation), patients with more than 3 positive sentinel nodes undergoing breast-conserving therapy, and patients not meeting eligibility criteria for recent trials establishing the safety of sentinel node biopsy alone in patients with breast cancer and metastases in their sentinel nodes.
A study of short-term impact of wind generation on LOLP

This paper presents a study on the short-term impact of wind generation on Loss of Load Probability, an important generation adequacy measure. Although the capacity provided by wind generation improves the generation adequacy in general, the intermittent and variable wind generation causes short-term variation of LOLP which may impose immediate risks on the system reliability.
Upping the Stakes and the Preface Paradox

The preface paradox, first introduced by David Makinson (Analysis 25:205–207, 1961), presents a plausible scenario where an agent is evidentially certain of each of a set of propositions without being evidentially certain of the conjunction of the set of propositions. Given reasonable assumptions about the nature of evidential certainty, this appears to be a straightforward contradiction. We solve the paradox by appeal to stake size sensitivity, which is the claim that evidential probability is sensitive to stake size. The argument is that because the informational content in the conjunction is greater than the sum of the informational content of the conjuncts, the stake size in the conjunction is higher than the sum of the stake sizes in the conjuncts. We present a theory of evidential probability that identifies knowledge with value and allows for coherent stake-sensitive beliefs. An agent’s beliefs are represented two-dimensionally as a bid-ask spread, which gives a bid price and an ask price for bets at each stake size. The bid-ask spread gets wider when there is less valuable evidence relative to the stake size and narrower when there is more valuable evidence according to a simple formula. The bid-ask spread can represent the uncertainty in the first-order probabilistic judgement. According to the theory, it can be coherent to be evidentially certain at low stakes, but less than certain at high stakes, and therefore there is no contradiction in the preface. The theory not only solves the paradox but also gives a good model of decisions under risk that overcomes many of the problems associated with classic expected utility theory.
Incremental management of oversubscribed vehicle schedules in dynamic dial-A-ride problems

In this paper, we consider the problem of feasibly integrating new pick-up and delivery requests into existing vehicle itineraries in a dynamic, dial-a-ride problem (DARP) setting. Generalizing from previous work in oversubscribed task scheduling, we define a controlled iterative repair search procedure for finding an alternative set of vehicle itineraries in which the overall solution has been feasibly extended to include newly received requests. We first evaluate the performance of this technique on a set of DARP feasibility benchmark problems from the literature. We then consider its use on a real-world DARP problem, where it is necessary to accommodate all requests and constraints must be relaxed when a request cannot be feasibly integrated. For this latter analysis, we introduce a constraint relaxation post processing step and consider the performance impact of using our controlled iterative search over the current greedy search approach.
Biochemical characterization of the Pto protein kinase conferring speck disease resistance in tomato

In tomato plants, the Pto kinase confers resistance to the bacterial speck pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, that expresses the avirulence gene avrPto. The resistant phenotype is the final result of a phosphorylation cascade triggered by the specific recognition between the AvrPto signal molecule and the Pto kinase, which is thought to function as an intracellular receptor. As a first step in the investigation of the molecular mechanisms leading to Pto activation, we characterized in vitro the biochemical properties of Pto autophosphorylation and phosphorylation of its putative effector Pti1. Pto autophosphorylated at multiple sites, as determined by phosphopeptide mapping. In addition, Pto autophosphorylation occurred via an intramolecular mechanism, as the specific activity of the kinase was not affected by its molar concentration in the assay. Kinetic analysis of Pti1 phosphorylation by Pto revealed that this reaction proceeds with a K m of 4.1 µM and V max of 0.55 nmole/min/mg. Finally, Pto phosphorylated Pti1 at one major and at several minor sites.
Veblen on the Decline of the Protestant Ethic

T HE sociological significance of Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) is analytical rather than factual or descriptive. It focuses attention on the latent functions1 of wealth and consumption in a social system. It is not a comprehensive description of the consumption habits of American society, or even of the leisure classes. Economics has studied wealth in terms of the production and distribution of scarce resources. The orthodox school has assumed that men desire wealth as a proximate end, and that insofar as they behave economically they will rationally seek to maximize their economic resources. Classical economic theory has not needed, for its own purposes, to specify why wealth is desired. This question is a sociological concern, and the answer is defined by the value system of the society. For economics, ultimate ends are simply given data. Veblen, however, made them his primary interest, thus shifting the emphasis from economic to sociological or institutional phenomena. To the sociologist, then, the Theory of the Leisure Class offers some insights as to the non-economic functions of wealth in a social system. The most general contribution is showing the role of consumption as a symbol of social status and as a means of enhancing one's status in our open-class mobile society by competitive and conspicuous display. The main shortcoming of the work is the failure to perceive the function of consumption as an expression of the basic cultural values. Veblen concentrates exclusively on the invidious aspects of wealth. He is right, for instance, in pointing to the prestige value of "higher learning." But it has this attribute precisely because of the great value our society places upon education per se. It must be said that Veblen was mainly unaware of the theoretical significance of this, his first and best known work. Its appearance established its author's popular reputation as a satirist. Veblen's failure to consider the canons of consumption as expressions of the basic cultural values and sanctioned by them threw the emphasis of his study onto the invidious side of consumption. He intensely disliked certain institutional features of his society, especially that of "conspicuous display." This-is shown by his epitomizing it as "waste," by his selection of extreme and unusual examples as "typical" of contemporary standards of expenditure, and by the generally acid tone of his writing. One result of all this is that atmosphere of debunking which has delighted beyond words four decades of left-wing critics of the social order. Ethical attitudes both aid and hinder social scientists in their perception of unnoticed aspects of social phenomena.2 Veblen's antipathy toward conspicuous display enabled him to dissect the latent competitive functions of expenditure.3 Hence the "expose" effect of this book. But the same antipathy prevented his perception of other less "unfavorable" aspects of consumption patterns, such as their role in expressing the group's common values.
Immunotherapy for Allergic Respiratory Disease

Immunotherapy (allergy injection therapy) has been shown in placebo-controlled clinical trials to reduce symptoms in allergic airway disease. Immunologic changes can be demonstrated that improvement seen in allergic rhinitis and asthma. The clinical trials also have provided sound clinical guidelines to enable appropriate cases to be selected and to allow therapy to be given rationally and safely.
Modelling wireless sensor networks with energy harvesting: A stochastic calculus approach

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have been increasingly applied to industrial monitoring and control, where soft Quality of Service guarantees under worst-case scenarios are often required. Many performance analysis frameworks including Network Calculus are proposed to derive those guarantees. Those frameworks were originally designed for wired network and typically do not consider energy constraints, which play a crucial role in the operation of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, a novel model is proposed to integrate energy harvesting into the network calculus framework to stochastically bound the worst-case performance. In our framework, energy is converted into tokens to stochastically bound the service provided to the traffic. Meanwhile, behaviors of nodes during the situations of energy overflow and underflow are accurately characterized by two virtual queues. Various performance metrics are analyzed and bounded for a single node and for a tree-based data collection wireless sensor network. Additionally, procedures are presented to show the model instantiation for a specific wireless sensor network based on hardware parameters and empirically obtained energy harvesting traces.
Bounds for Markov Decision Processes

We consider the problem of producing lower bounds on the optimal cost-to-go function of a Markov decision problem. We present two approaches to this problem: one based on the methodology of approximate linear programming (ALP) and another based on the so-called martingale duality approach. We show that these two approaches are intimately connected. Exploring this connection leads us to the problem of finding ‘optimal’ martingale penalties within the martingale duality approach which we dub the pathwise optimization (PO) problem. We show interesting cases where the PO problem admits a tractable solution and establish that these solutions produce tighter approximations than the ALP approach.
A Cosmopolitan Human Rights Regime

The idea of a cosmopolitan human rights regime enables human beings to build a community of states that understands the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide as a common and shared responsibility. Such a community is based on the conviction that all human beings are members of a community of fate and they share common human values that transcend the limits of nation-states. These values cannot be limited by any political power. In this sense, a cosmopolitan human rights regime provides standards and sets of values that no state can deliberately ignore. Thus, from the perspective of a cosmopolitan human rights regime, we, as human beings, are part of a global community of nations, rather than part of a mere system of states. In such a community, human rights protect individuals as persons and not as citizens of particular states. Given the interdependence that characterizes the global community of nations, addressing some global issues such as terrorism and extremism, so as to promote international order and respect for human rights, requires a combined effort and shared responsibility.
Morphoproteomic-Guided Host-Directed Therapy for Tuberculosis.

In an effort to develop more effective therapy for tuberculosis (TB), research efforts are looking towards host directed therapy, reprogramming the body’s natural defenses to better control the infection. While significant progress is being made, the efforts are limited by lack of understanding of the pathology and pathogenesis of adult type TB disease. We have recently published evidence that the developing lesions in human lungs are focal endogenous lipid pneumonia that constitutes a region of local susceptibility in a person with strong systemic immunity. Since most such lesions regress spontaneously, the ability to study them directly with immunohistochemistry provides means to investigate why some progress to clinical disease while others asymptomatically regress. Furthermore, this should enable us to develop more effective host directed therapies. Morphoproteomics has proven to be an effective means of characterizing protein expression that can be used to identify metabolic pathways, which can lead to more effective therapies. The purpose of this perspective will argue that using morphoproteomics on human TB lung tissue is a particularly promising method to direct selection of host directed therapeutics.
Muslims, Mormons and U.S. Deportation and Exclusion Policies: The 1910 Polygamy Controversy and the Shaping of Contemporary Attitudes

Since 9/11, Muslims and Arab-Americans living in the United States have faced intense scrutiny and sometimes been the targets of physical violence. They have been arrested, detained, and sometimes deported without the protections typically afforded to those suspected of criminal behavior. A controversy over polygamy in 1910 illustrates the historical and current limits of religious toleration of immigrants and others outside the mainstream Judeo-Christian tradition, including Muslims and Mormons, and that prejudice led to efforts to exclude, expel, or deport them from the United States. Both religions were therefore deemed un-American, tied to Orientalist rhetoric and imagery, and its immigrant adherents subject to exclusion or deportation by U.S. officials. Such fears about Muslims and Mormons have continued well into the twentieth century, have extended beyond immigration and related policy debates, and have been salient in both the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Presidential elections.
The impact of finasteride and dutasteride treatments on proliferation, apoptosis, androgen receptor, 5α-reductase 1 and 5α-reductase 2 in TRAMP mouse prostates.

Abstract Background Previously, we studied the effect of finasteride- or dutasteride-containing diets in male C57BL/6 TRAMP x FVB mice. Pre (6 weeks of age) and post (12 weeks of age) groups received finasteride or dutasteride to determine the efficacy of these pharmaceuticals on prostate cancer (PCa) development in male C57BL/6 TRAMP x FVB mice. Post-Dutasteride treatment was more effective than Pre-Dutasteride treatment, and dutasteride treatments were more effective than finasteride treatments in decreasing prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) progression and PCa development. Finasteride and Pre-Dutasteride treatments significantly decreased high-grade PIN incidence, but increased poorly differentiated PCa incidence. In this study, molecular changes in prostates of these mice were characterized in an effort to elucidate the discordant response in Pre-Dutasteride and finasteride groups, and determine why Post-Dutasteride treatment was more effective. Method/Principal findings Ki-67 (proliferation marker) and androgen receptor (AR) protein, apoptotic DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay), 5α-reductase 1 (5αR1) and 5α-reductase 2 (5αR2) mRNA were quantified in male TRAMP mice prostate tissues with genitourinary weight 1 gram. Overall, proliferation and AR were decreased and apoptosis was increased in most tumors versus prostate epithelium and hyperplasia. Proliferation and AR were increased notably in hyperplasia versus prostate epithelium and tumor. There were no clear trends or differences in 5α-reductase 1 and 5α-reductase 2 levels between large and small tumors. The discordant response in Pre-Finasteride and Pre-Dutasteride groups may be due to upregulated 5αR1 levels in large versus small tumors. It is not clear what the mechanism is for the different response in the Post-Finasteride group. Post-Dutasteride treatment was more effective than Pre-Dutasteride treatment in decreasing 5αR1 in large tumors. Therefore, this may be why this treatment was more effective in decreasing PIN progression and PCa development. Conclusion The effect of finasteride and dutasteride on these biomarkers did not clearly elucidate their mechanism of action, but tumor 5αR1 levels were significantly positively correlated with adjusted prostate severe lesion score.
CAPTURE: Consistently Acquired Projections for Tuned and Robust Estimation: A Self-Navigated Respiratory Motion Correction Approach.

OBJECTIVES In this study, we present a fully automated and robust self-navigated approach to obtain 4-dimensional (4-D) motion-resolved images during free breathing. MATERIALS AND METHODS The proposed method, Consistently Acquired Projections for Tuned and Robust Estimation (CAPTURE), is a variant of the stack-of-stars gradient-echo sequence. A 1-D navigator was consistently acquired at a fixed azimuthal angle for all stacks of spokes to reduce nonphysiological signal contamination due to system imperfections. The resulting projections were then "tuned" using complex phase rotation to adapt to scan-to-scan variations, followed by the detection of the respiratory curve. Four-dimensional motion-corrected and uncorrected images were then reconstructed via respiratory and temporal binning, respectively.This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study was performed with Institutional Review Board approval. A phantom experiment was performed using a custom-made deformable motion phantom with an adjustable frequency and amplitude. For in vivo experiments, 10 healthy participants and 12 liver tumor patients provided informed consent and were imaged with the CAPTURE sequence.Two radiologists, blinded to which images were motion-corrected and which were not, independently reviewed the images and scored the image quality using a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS In the respiratory motion phantom experiment, CAPTURE reversed the effects of motion blurring and restored edge sharpness from 36% to 78% of that observed in the images from the static scan.Despite large intra- and intersubject variability in respiration patterns, CAPTURE successfully detected the respiratory motion signal in all participants and significantly improved the image quality according to the subjective radiological assessments of 2 raters (P < 0.05 for both raters) with a 1 to 2-point improvement in the median Likert scores across the whole set of participants. Small lesions (<1 cm in size) which might otherwise be missed on uncorrected images because of motion blurring were more clearly depicted on the CAPTURE images. CONCLUSIONS CAPTURE provides a robust and fully automated solution for obtaining 4-D motion-resolved images in a free-breathing setting. With its unique tuning feature, CAPTURE can adapt to large intersubject and interscan variations. CAPTURE also enables better lesion delineation because of improved image sharpness, thereby increasing the visibility of small lesions.
Blunt trocar laparoscopy

A technique, termed blunt trocar laparoscopy, has been developed to avoid the use of both Veress needles and sharp primary trocars and to avoid carbon dioxide leakage without the use of fascial sutures. To evaluate this technique's effectiveness, the time required and the length of the skin incision was evaluated prospectively in 33 consecutive unselected patients and the results were compared with the patient's BMI. The blunt trocar technique took 3.5 +/- 1.3 minutes (mean +/- SD) to perform and the average incision length was 14 +/- 2 mm. Although the time of the procedure increased slightly with the BMI, even in the obese patients (BMI > 30 kg/m2; n = 10), the average time for the procedure was only 4.0 +/- 1.6 minutes. No carbon dioxide leakage or complications occurred in any patient. The results of this study indicate that a blunt trocar technique may be a useful and relatively quick alternative approach for laparoscopy.
Massively Parallel Systolic Algorithms for Real-Time Dictionary-Based Text Compression

Textual substitution is a powerful and practical method of lossless data compression, where repeated substrings are replaced by pointers into a dynamically changing dictionary of strings. They are often called dictionary methods or “LZ” methods after the important work of Lempel and Ziv. With many applications, high speed hardware that can perform compression or decompression in real time is essential. We present massively parallel approaches for real-time textual substitution.
Linear Cellular Automata and de Bruijn Automata

Linear cellular automata have a canonical representation in terms of labeled de Bruijn graphs. We will show that these graphs, construed as semiautomata, provide a natural setting for the study of cellular automata. For example, we give a simple algorithm to determine reversibility and surjectivity of the global maps. We also comment on Wolfram’s question about the growth rates of the minimal finite state machines associated with iterates of a cellular automaton.
Phytoplankton odor modifies the response of Euphausia superba to flow

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, are critical components of the Antarctic food web as well as important targets for conservation and management. Krill behavior has important effects on demographic properties and aggregation characteristics, but remains incompletely known. Krill clearly respond to different environmental stimuli such as light, flow and chemicals, but few studies have quantified these behaviors. We examined the behavior of krill in well-quantified current speeds in a laboratory flume and examined interactions of phytoplankton odor and flow. Krill are sensitive to flow speeds as low as 1 mm s−1, and flow polarizes krill swimming and orientation in the up-current direction. Phytoplankton odor increases the sensitivity of krill to flow, and induces area-restricted search behaviors that presumably allow krill to exploit food patches efficiently. The ability to quantify krill behavior could have important consequences for understanding demographic processes and the properties of krill aggregations.
A practical metric for melanopic metrology

Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in lighting research on the effects of the recently discovered melanopsin receptor (also referred to as the intrinsically photosensitive reti...
Regio- and Enantioselective Synthesis of 1,2-Diamine Derivatives by Copper-Catalyzed Hydroamination

A highly regio- and enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-diamine derivatives from γ-substituted allylic pivalamides using copper-catalyzed hydroamination is reported. The N-pivaloyl group is essential, in both facilitating the hydrocupration step and suppressing an unproductive β-elimination from the alkylcopper intermediate. This approach enables an efficient construction of chiral differentially protected vicinal diamines under mild conditions with broad functional group tolerance.
A More Than Moore Enabling Wafer Dicing Technology

As the materials that the wafer dicing process need to singulate become more complex a diverging current Process of Record (PoR) dicing technologies are not able to meet the quality and or cost requirements. Laser provides the solution to dice all these different materials but has the challenge to achieve the die strength level specified. In this paper we will elaborate on the advances made to apply a laser full cut process while achieving the required die strength.
Successive blood meals enhance virus dissemination within mosquitoes and increase transmission potential.

The recent Zika virus (ZIKV) and chikungunya virus epidemics highlight the explosive nature of arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) transmitted by Aedes spp. mosquitoes1,2. Vector competence and the extrinsic incubation period (EIP) are two key entomological parameters used to assess the public health risk posed by arboviruses3. These are typically measured empirically by offering mosquitoes an infectious blood meal and temporally sampling mosquitoes to determine the infection and transmission status. This approach has been used for the better part of a century; however, it does not accurately capture the biology and behaviour of many mosquito vectors that refeed frequently (every 2–3 d)4. Here, we demonstrate that acquisition of a second non-infectious blood meal significantly shortens the EIP of ZIKV-infected Aedes aegypti by enhancing virus dissemination from the mosquito midgut. Similarly, a second blood meal increases the competence of this species for dengue virus and chikungunya virus as well as Aedes albopictus for ZIKV, suggesting that this phenomenon may be common among other virus–vector pairings and that A. albopictus might be a more important vector than once thought. Blood-meal-induced microperforations in the virus-impenetrable basal lamina that surrounds the midgut provide a mechanism for enhanced virus escape. Modelling of these findings reveals that a shortened EIP would result in a significant increase in the basic reproductive number, R0, estimated from experimental data. This helps to explain how A. aegypti can sustain explosive epidemics such as ZIKV despite relatively poor vector competence in single-feed laboratory trials. Together, these data demonstrate a direct and unrecognized link between mosquito feeding behaviour, EIP and vector competence. This study reports that flavivirus transmission by mosquitoes to mice is increased if mosquitoes feed subsequently on non-infectious blood, possibly because feeding causes microperforations in the gut. Modelling shows this could explain how A. aegypti can sustain an explosive epidemic such as Zika virus despite its perceived poor vector competence.
Container-Based Service Function Chain Mapping

Network function virtualization (NFV) allows service provides to implement network processing functionality in software using standard computing servers. As such, this approach precludes the need for deploying costly and proprietary hardware-based networking devices, i.e., black boxes, greatly reducing infrastructure and operational costs. Instead, operators can program and deploy desired network functions as software instances on commodity servers and further chain these functions to build end-user services, i.e., service function chaining (SFC). Although SFC mapping has received much focus in recent years, existing schemes assume that network functions are run in hypervisor-based virtual machines (VM). However VM-based strategies impose higher resource consumption at the server level and entail higher request processing/setup times. As a result, this paper analyzes container-based mapping approach which leverages VNF dependency relationships and incorporates resource constraints in the physical network. Performance results confirm that the proposed scheme gives notable gains versus VM hypervisor-based mapping, i.e., in terms of resource utilization, processing times and satisfied requests.
Realistic Dune Field Surface Stress Prediction (Technical Report)

The dune morphodynamics study is under highly focused recently, due to aeolian process induced nonlinear correlation to sediment modification over bedform. Surface stress, inflicted by aloft upcoming wind, impacts, crucially, the sediment erosion pattern. The aloft atmospheric dune surface layer (ASL) is composed of inertial layer and roughness sublayer. The logarithmic velocity profile is valid within inertial layer based on previous findings, where attached-eddy occupied the higher elevations scaled with local wall-normal height. While, mixing layer velocity profile is displayed in this work to predict the surface shear over White Sands National Monument (WSNM), the length scale of which is revealed as proportional to mixing layer length scale. Given the realistic dune field morphology and aeolian process, a series of mathematic stress models have been proposed and verified. Among these models, mixing layer model shows the best performance, which elucidates and confirms the mixing layer analogy over realistic dune field. Finally, a schematic structural model shows that "sediment scour" and "flow channeling" indeed is the reason for the large residual values distributed in narrow interdune surfaces, which has a great consistency with previous finding.
Application of Visioplasticity Techniques to Axisymmetric Extrusions

The visioplasticity techniques employed to evaluate the strain and strain rate fields throughout the deforming portion of an axisymmetric extrusion are reviewed. Examples are given of the application of these techniques to extrusions exhibiting the usual single maximum flow pattern and to others exhibiting various degrees of an uncommon wavy double maxima pattern. It is shown that there is good agreement for all flow patterns between the positions of the transverse grid lines, final normal strains and final angle of intersection of the horizontal and transverse grid lines calculated from the flow function analysis and those measured directly from the deformed grids. Of significance is that the geometry of the deformation zone varies with the type and degree of flow pattern.
The Branding of Singapore as City of International Peace Dialogue

In June 2018, Singapore hosted the US-North Korea summit that sought to denuclearize the Communist regime of North Korea after a period of heightened hostilities. This chapter, based on a dual-focused conceptual framework of place branding and public diplomacy, presents a comparative analysis to understand how the Southeast Asian city-state shaped and negotiated its place branding goals, roles, and outcomes using informational and relational strategies to promote complementary national interests and international image cultivation. Track Two citizen-based diplomacy involves a dialogic or collaborative role carried out by groups of participants and stakeholders. Within the framework of Track Two diplomacy, Singapore assumed the role of public diplomat to facilitate dialogue and collaboration as diplomatic mediator or peace negotiator by bringing together those who are rivals or enemies in a conflict.
The life stories and experiences of the children admitted to the Institute for Imbecile Children from 1895 to 1913

Background: South African scholarship on intellectual disability has produced a sizeable body of research, yet there are numerous areas where there is a paucity of research. One area in which there is a conspicuous paucity of research is historical studies of people with intellectual disability (PWID). The existing works devoted to the history of PWID in South Africa are primarily focused on the legal provisions and institutions for the protection and care of PWID. Missing from these works are the life stories and experiences of PWID. Objectives: The article offers a study devoted to the life stories and experiences of the children with intellectual disability (CWID) who were admitted to the Institute for Imbecile Children from 1895 to 1913. The institute opened in April 1895 in Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown), South Africa. The institute was the first of its kind in the Cape Colony for CWID. Method: The study presents a qualitative investigation of the life stories and experiences of the children that were recorded in the institute’s casebook. The entire set of 101 cases contained in the casebook was analysed by adopting a Gadamerian approach to hermeneutics. Results: The examination of the institute’s casebook identified several broad themes relating to the children’s admittance, daily life at the institute and their routes out of the institute. The study also extols the individuality of each child’s life story to provide an awareness and richer appreciation of the humanness and personhood of the children. Conclusion: The article contributes a positive narrative to the identity and the history of South African children with intellectual disability living in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Trends in flap reconstruction of pelvic oncologic defects: Analysis of the national inpatient sample.

Summary Background Flap reconstruction of radiated pelvic oncologic defects decreases perineal wound-healing complications. How widely and how often reconstructions are performed, and how technical mastery and improved perioperative care has affected outcomes, is unknown. Our objective is to 1) provide a comprehensive evaluation of national trends in flap reconstruction of pelvic oncologic defects and 2) compare complications and length of stay (LOS) in patients with/without reconstruction. Methods The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was queried (1998–2014) for patients diagnosed with cancer, primarily of the rectum and anus, who underwent abdominoperineal resection (APR) or pelvic exenteration (PE). Differences in complications and LOS were compared between patients with flap reconstruction versus primary closure. Regional and hospital outcomes were also analyzed. Results The cohort included 117,923 adult patients; 3,673 (3.1%) underwent flap reconstruction. Flap reconstruction rates increased from 0.8% in 1998 to 9.8% in 2014. Extirpative procedures decreased 37.4% from 1998 to 2014. Flap reconstruction decreased risk of wound breakdown (OR 0.87; p = 0.0029) and need for secondary closure of dehiscence (OR 0.82; p = 0.0023) between periods 1998–2009 and 2010–2014. Median LOS was higher for flap patients (median [IQR] of 9.8 [7.2,14.8] vs. 7.9 [6.1–11.0; p Conclusions The use of flap reconstruction for pelvic oncologic defects increased from 1998 to 2014, with a reduction in LOS. Following flap reconstruction, overall complications are higher, but wound breakdown and dehiscence requiring reclosure are decreasing, suggesting technique maturation. We anticipate flap reconstruction rates will increase with further improvement in patient outcomes.
German-Language Websites Containing Information About Rare Diseases Lack Quality Indicators

A Review of: Pauer, F., Litzkendorf, S., Gobel, J., Storf, H., Zeidler, J., & Graf von der Schulenburg, J.-M. (2017). Rare diseases on the Internet: An assessment of the quality of online information. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(1), e23. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.7056 Abstract Objective – To evaluate the quality of the information contained in websites about rare diseases and to determine if quality varies based on the supplier category of the website. Design – Questionnaire and content analysis. Setting – Germany Subjects – 693 German-language websites Methods – Websites were identified through a Google search: All 8,000 rare diseases (as listed on Orphanet) and their synonyms were entered into Google; the first 20 results for each disease were scanned for sites written in German. A questionnaire designed to measure the quality of information found on the websites was mailed to each identified website provider. For those who did not respond, the survey was completed by the authors using information from the site. A t test was used to examine differences in the quality of information among the types of information providers. Main Results – A total of 693 information suppliers were identified. The suppliers completed 17.7% of the surveys; the other 82.3% were completed by the authors. The majority of information providers were patient organizations/support groups (38.8%) followed by medical institutions (26.8%). Information provided by individuals had the lowest quality rating. There were no statistically significant differences between the quality of information supplied by patient support groups and medical institutions. The highest quality rating was provided by associations/sponsoring bodies. Conclusion – There is not much information available on the Internet regarding rare diseases. Patient support groups and organizations are the largest provider of information. The overall quality rating of information on rare disease websites was found to be low, particularly in areas of accessibility. Website providers should be made aware of how to produce websites of higher quality with greater accessibility.
Traits of a bloom: a nationwide survey of U.S. urban tree planting initiatives (TPIs)

Abstract Municipal leaders worldwide are showing substantial interest in urban greening. This encompasses incentives, policies, and programs to vegetate urban landscapes, and it often includes urban tree planting initiatives (TPIs). Over the past decade there has been a seven-fold increase in scholarly use of terms denoting TPIs, and roughly two-thirds of associated studies address TPIs in the United States (U.S.). This reflects a bloom of scholarly interest in TPIs. Yet, there has been limited research on contemporary TPIs as historically situated cultural phenomena, and there has to the best of our knowledge been no nationwide survey of TPIs across municipal scales. Addressing these gaps, this article presents findings from a survey of 41 TPIs in the United States. We report on typical traits of U.S. TPIs across six themes: background, dates and goals, public awareness, funding and governance, planting, and stewardship. Respondents identified over 115 traits that distinguish TPIs from typical urban tree planting activity, suggesting that TPIs are a discrete form of urban forestry. Over two-thirds of TPIs are funded separate from traditional urban forestry, and lack of institutionalization raises questions about long-term viability. TPIs mobilize political and financial resources for program launch, tree purchasing, and planting, but there may be a need for greater investment in stewardship activities and the social infrastructure that undergirds green infrastructure. Large shade trees for ecosystem services and native trees are the principal factors informing TPI species lists. Beautification and regulating ecosystem functions are, in turn, the principal potential benefits animating tree planting goals, yet few TPIs have conducted research to assess the fulfillment of associated outcomes. This study provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary scholarship on TPIs across the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.