cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Defining Metrics to Distill Large-Scale HPC Platform and Application Performance Data into Actionable Quantities

Application performance data accounting for resource contention and other external influences is highly coveted and extremely difficult to obtain. "Why did my application's performance change from the last time it ran?" is a question shared by application developers, program analysts, and system administrators. The answer to this question impacts nearly all programmatic and R&D efforts related to high-performance computing (HPC). Lightweight, right-fidelity monitoring infrastructures that can gather relevant application and resource performance data across the entire HPC platform can help address this research topic. This short technical paper will formally define an ongoing research effort to define the needed metrics and methods that distill the vast quantities of available data to a minimum set of actionable and interpretable quantities that can be used by application developers, system administrators, production analysts, and HPC platform designers for their respective production and R&D focus areas.
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Current Review of the Literature that Informed the 2015 American Heart Association Guidelines Update.

Purpose of Review Out-of-Hospital cardiac arrest affects over 300,000 individuals in the US per year and is the third leading cause of death for Americans. Given the extent of this public health problem, investigations are ongoing to improve upon outcomes for patients who suffer cardiac arrest. This review will address the literature that informed the 2015 American Heart Association update to the Cardiopulmonary and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Guidelines (Callaway et al. in Circulation 132:S465–82, 2015).
Molecular Changes in Heart Failure

Heart failure is an increasingly prevalent cause of significant worldwide morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. Molecular investigations are unraveling the gene expression changes, protein signaling networks, and intercellular interactions that are causes and consequences of cardiac hypertrophy and failure. In particular, reactivation of the “fetal gene program” that is silenced in the normal adult heart has come to define the pathologic hypertrophic cardiac response that leads to heart failure. Our evolving knowledge of the molecular and cellular changes in the failed myocardium—for example, alterations in calcium signaling—is leading to new therapeutic options. This chapter summarizes some of the current understanding of changes responsible for cardiac hypertrophy, cardiomyocyte death, and altered cardiac metabolism. It also discusses emerging biomarkers for profiling of heart failure severity.
Cigarette Smoke Exposure Worsens Endotoxin-Induced Lung Injury and Pulmonary Edema in Mice.

Author(s): Gotts, Jeffrey E; Abbott, Jason; Fang, Xiaohui; Yanagisawa, Haru; Takasaka, Naoki; Nishimura, Stephen L; Calfee, Carolyn S; Matthay, Michael A | Abstract: IntroductionCigarette smoking (CS) remains a major public health concern and has recently been associated with an increased risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) experiments in human volunteers have demonstrated that active smokers develop increased alveolar-epithelial barrier permeability to protein after inhaling lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Here we tested the hypothesis that short-term whole-body CS exposure would increase LPS-induced lung edema in mice.MethodsAdult mice were exposed in a Teague TE-10 machine to CS from 3R4F cigarettes at 100 mg/m3 total suspended particulates for 12 days, then given LPS or saline intratracheally. Control mice were housed in the same room without CS exposure. Post-mortem measurements included gravimetric lung water and BAL protein, cell counts, and lung histology. Cytokines were measured in lung homogenate by ELISA and in plasma by Luminex and ELISA.ResultsIn CS-exposed mice, intratracheal LPS caused greater increases in pulmonary edema by gravimetric measurement and histologic scoring. CS-exposed mice also had an increase in BAL neutrophilia, lung IL-6, and plasma CXCL9, a T-cell chemoattractant. Intratracheal LPS concentrated blood hemoglobin to a greater degree in CS-exposed mice, consistent with an increase in systemic vascular permeability.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that CS exposure in endotoxin injured mice increases the severity of acute lung injury. The increased lung IL-6 in CS-exposed LPS-injured mice indicates that this potent cytokine, previously shown to predict mortality in patients with ARDS, may play a role in exacerbating lung injury in smokers and may have utility as a biomarker of tobacco-related lung injury.ImplicationsOur results suggest that short-term CS exposure at levels that cause no overt lung injury may still prime the lung for acute inflammatory damage from a "second hit", a finding that mirrors the increased risk of developing ARDS in patients who smoke. This model may be useful for evaluating the acute pulmonary toxicity of existing and/or novel tobacco products and identifying biomarkers of tobacco-related lung injury.
Sexual Health Before Treatment in Women with Suspected Gynecologic Malignancy.

Abstract Objectives: Sexual health in survivors of gynecologic cancer has been studied; however, sexual health in these women before treatment has not been thoroughly evaluated. The objective of ou...
‘Maister of al artificiall force and sleight’: Tempo and Dissimulation in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier

This essay explores a lost historical connection between literature and the fighting arts over the shared ground of tempo. I illuminate a historically particular model of tempo as antagonistic rhyt...
Oxygen Steelmaking Cost Comparison: Kaldo VS. LD

Using approximate cost calculations, the Kaldo and LD oxygen steelmaking processes are shown to be economically competitive in the US today, and a basis is established jor evaluating other relative advantages of the two processes.
Gyrokinetic magnetohydrodynamics and the associated equilibria

The gyrokinetic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, related to the recent paper by W. W. Lee [“Magnetohydrodynamics for collisionless plasmas from the gyrokinetic perspective,” Phys. Plasmas 23, 070705 (2016)], and their associated equilibria properties are discussed. This set of equations consists of the time-dependent gyrokinetic vorticity equation, the gyrokinetic parallel Ohm's law, and the gyrokinetic Ampere's law as well as the equations of state, which are expressed in terms of the electrostatic potential, ϕ, and the vector potential, A, and support both spatially varying perpendicular and parallel pressure gradients and the associated currents. The corresponding gyrokinetic MHD equilibria can be reached when ϕ→0 and A becomes constant in time, which, in turn, gives ∇·(J∥+J⊥)=0 and the associated magnetic islands, if they exist. Examples of simple cylindrical geometry are given. These gyrokinetic MHD equations look quite different from the conventional MHD equations, and their comparisons will be ...
Cryo-electron microscopy structure of a human PRMT5:MEP50 complex.

Protein arginine methyl transferase 5 (PRMT5) is a signaling protein and histone modifying enzyme that is important in many cellular processes, including regulation of eukaryotic gene transcription. Reported here is a 3.7 A structure of PRMT5, solved in complex with regulatory binding subunit MEP50 (methylosome associated protein 50, WDR77, p44), by single particle (SP) cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) using micrographs of particles that are visibly crowded and aggregated. Despite suboptimal micrograph appearance, this cryo-EM structure is in good agreement with previously reported crystal structures of the complex, which revealed a 450 kDa hetero-octameric assembly having internal D2 symmetry. The catalytic PRMT5 subunits form a core tetramer and the MEP50 subunits are arranged peripherally in complex with the PRMT5 N-terminal domain. The cryo-EM reconstruction shows good side chain definition and shows a well-resolved peak for a bound dehydrosinefungin inhibitor molecule. These results demonstrate the applicability of cryo-EM in determining structures of human protein complexes of biomedical significance and suggests cryo-EM could be further utilized to understand PRMT5 interactions with other biologically important binding proteins and ligands.
A full-duplex transceiver front-end RFIC with code-domain spread spectrum modulation for Tx self-interference cancellation and in-band jammer rejection

This paper presents a code-domain spread spectrum modulation scheme for full-duplex transceiver (TRx) front-end (FE) with the dual purposes of in-band jammer rejection and transmitter (Tx) self-interference (SI) suppression. The radio frequency (RF) code modulation scheme is applied to the inputs of the PA and the LNA. As a result, the only signal that can be decoded and restored at the receiver (Rx) is the one that was coded with the same code sequence at the Tx, while the in-band jammers, as well as the Tx SI, will be suppressed. A fully integrated on-chip duplexer with a load impedance tuner further isolates the Tx and Rx, cancels the Tx SI leakage and improved error vector magnitude (EVM) in full-duplex mode. The transceiver front-end was fabricated in a 45nm CMOS SOI process with total chip area of 2×2mm2 and an active area of 1.4mm2. The front-end RFIC achieves 18.8dB in-band jammer suppression and up to 51dB Tx SI suppression cross 1MHz bandwidth. Measured EVM of the receiving signal is improved from 20% to 2.5% with the code modulation on and it is further reduced to less than 1% when the on-chip duplexer is fine-tuned to achieve maximum Tx SI cancellation. The Tx maximum output power is 15dBm. The Rx consumes 50mW with LNA NF of 3.5dB to 4.2dB in the frequency range of 1.1GHz to 2.5GHz.
A SUPERCONVERGENCE RESULT FOR THE APPROXIMATE SOLUTION OF THE HEAT EQUATION BY A COLLOCATION METHOD

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews a superconvergence result for the approximate solution of the heat equation by a collocation method. The chapter discusses the numerical solution of partial differential equations by collocation methods using piecewise-polynomial spaces. Recently, it has been observed that there can be identifiable points at which the solution of a finite element approximation can converge at rates that exceed the rate that can exist globally. Error estimates are also discussed in the chapter.
Aging research using the common marmoset: Focus on aging interventions

Traditional animal models have been used to make seminal discoveries in biomedical research including a better understanding of the biology of the aging process. However, translation of these findings from laboratory to clinical populations has likely been hindered due to fundamental biological and physiological differences between common laboratory animals and humans. Non-human primates (NHP) may serve as an effective bridge towards translation, and short-lived NHP like the common marmoset offer many advantages as models for aging research. Here, we address these advantages and discuss what is currently understood about the changes in physiology and pathology that occur with age in the marmoset. In addition, we discuss how aging research might best utilize this model resource, and outline an ongoing study to address whether pharmaceutical intervention can slow aging in the marmoset. With this manuscript, we clarify how common marmosets might assist researchers in geroscience as a potential model for pre-clinical translation.
Longitudinal Assessment of Outcome From Prenatal Diagnosis Through Fontan Operation for Over 500 Fetuses With Single Ventricle-Type Congenital Heart Disease: The Philadelphia Fetus-to-Fontan Cohort Study.

Background Prenatal diagnosis of single ventricle‐type congenital heart disease is associated with improved clinical courses. Prenatal counseling allows for optimal delivery preparations and opport...
Hypothyroidism in Pregnancy

Hypothyroidism is relatively common in pregnancy. Untreated overt hypothyroidism during gestation is associated with adverse obstetric and child developmental outcomes. Maternal subclinical hypothyroidism has been associated with several adverse obstetric outcomes, including pregnancy loss, placental abruption, premature rupture of membranes, and neonatal death, and may also be linked to adverse effects on child development. Whether or not treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy improves outcomes is not currently known. Isolated maternal hypothyroxinemia is associated with adverse child developmental outcomes and possibly also with adverse obstetric outcomes. However, no interventional studies to date have demonstrated a benefit of levothyroxine in isolated maternal hypothyroxinemia, and treatment is not currently recommended. Additional studies are needed to determine whether treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism or isolated hypothyroxinemia, started early in gestation, improves child or obstetric outcomes. For women who are treated with levothyroxine during pregnancy, close TSH monitoring is essential. Most women with preexisting treated hypothyroidism prior to conception will require a levothyroxine dose increase in order to maintain euthyroidism throughout gestation.
The Limits of Bonhoefferian Responsibility: On Jean Bethke Elshtain's (Mis)Use of Bonhoeffer

Jean Elshtain claims that her defense of torture draws from the Christian tradition. To defend this claim, she makes direct appeal to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Her defense of torture has taken on greate...
Implementing Trauma-Informed Care in Primary Medical Settings: Evidence-Based Rationale and Approaches

Chronic stress stemming from trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) leads to many health problems that are typically seen by primary care providers. Unfortunately, providers rarel...
Chapter 12 – Affinity chromatography

Affinity chromatography is a type of liquid chromatography that uses a biologically related agent as a stationary phase to purify or analyze specific sample components. This chapter examines the basic components and principles of affinity chromatography and various applications of this method. The general types of ligands, immobilization schemes, support materials, and elution conditions that can be employed in affinity chromatography are first examined. Various methods in this field are then considered, including bioaffinity chromatography, immunoaffinity chromatography, dye-ligand and biomimetic affinity chromatography, immobilized metal-ion affinity chromatography, and analytical affinity chromatography. The types of ligands used in each of these methods are described, along with common applications of these techniques. Several related developments are also discussed, such as the use of affinity chromatography with mass spectrometry, miniaturized systems, molecularly imprinted polymers, and aptamers.
The Role of BRCA Testing in Hereditary Pancreatic and Prostate Cancer Families.

Beyond breast and ovarian cancers, mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes increase risks for pancreatic and prostate cancers and contribute to the prevalence of these cancers. Mutations in a number...
Teachers’ uptake of problematic assumptions of climate change in the NGSS

This case study presents the efforts of three high school teachers to design and implement climate change lessons in alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Using three concept...
CrebA increases secretory capacity through direct transcriptional regulation of the secretory machinery, a subset of secretory cargo, and other key regulators

Specialization of many cells, including the acinar cells of the salivary glands and pancreas, milk-producing cells of mammary glands, mucus-secreting goblet cells, antibody-producing plasma cells, and cells that generate the dense extracellular matrices of bone and cartilage, requires scaling up both secretory machinery and cell-type specific secretory cargo. Using tissue-specific genome-scale analyses, we determine how increases in secretory capacity are coordinated with increases in secretory load in the Drosophila salivary gland (SG), an ideal model for gaining mechanistic insight into the functional specialization of secretory organs. Our findings show that CrebA, a bZIP transcription factor, directly binds genes encoding the core secretory machinery, including protein components of the signal recognition particle and receptor, ER cargo translocators, Cop I and Cop II vesicles, as well as the structural proteins and enzymes of these organelles. CrebA directly binds a subset of SG cargo genes and CrebA binds and boosts expression of Sage, a SG-specific transcription factor essential for cargo expression. To further enhance secretory output, CrebA binds and activates Xbp1 and Tudor-SN. Thus, CrebA directly upregulates the machinery of secretion and additional factors to increase overall secretory capacity in professional secretory cells; concomitant increases in cargo are achieved both directly and indirectly.
A Novel Non-Intrusive Continuous Sensor (NICS) to estimate thermal conductivity of food products in manufacturing systems

Abstract Fouling is a critical issue in commercial food manufacturing. Fouling can cause biofilm formation and pose a threat to safety of the food products. Early detection of fouling can lead to informed decision making about the product’s safety and quality, and effective system cleaning to avoid biofilm formation. In this study, a Non-Intrusive Continuous Sensor (NICS) was designed to estimate the thermal conductivity of the product as they flow through the system at high temperatures as an indicator of fouling. Thermal properties of food products are important for product and process design and to ensure food safety. Online monitoring of thermal properties during production and development stages at higher processing temperatures, ∼140 °C like current aseptic processes, is not possible due to limitations in sensing technology and safety concerns due to high temperature and pressure conditions. Such an in-line and noninvasive sensor can provide information about fouling layer formation, food safety issues, and quality degradation of the products. A computational fluid dynamics model was developed to simulate the flow within the sensor and provide predicted data output. Glycerol, water, reconstituted non-fat dry milk (NFDM), and 4% potato starch solution were selected as products. The product thermal conductivities were estimated at high temperatures (∼140 °C). Scaled sensitivity coefficients and optimal experimental design were taken into consideration to improve the accuracy of parameter estimates. Glycerol, water, NFDM, and 4% potato starch were estimated to have thermal conductivities of 0.292 ± 0.006, 0.638 ± 0.013, 0.598 ± 0.010, 0.487 ± 0.009 W/(m K, respectively. The sensor’s novelty lies in the short duration of the experiments, the non-intrusive aspect of its measurements, and its implementation of sequential estimation.
Interface-induced ferromagnetism in μ-Fe2O3/β-Ga2O3 superlattices

Superlattices of antiferromagnetic μ-Fe2O3 and diamagnetic β-Ga2O3 are grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on (010) oriented β-Ga2O3 substrates in which ferromagnetism emerges above room temperature. To investigate the suspected interface origin of the ferromagnetic phase, identical superlattice structures are grown at various substrate temperatures and beam fluxes. Atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy images confirm the registry of μ-Fe2O3 to the β-Ga2O3 layers in these superlattices. Atomic force microscopy and high-resolution x-ray diffraction are used to examine the growth morphology and characterize the superlattice interface roughness. The saturation magnetization of the ferromagnetic phase is observed to increase strongly with the interface roughness. Conversely, smoother superlattices exhibit a weaker ferromagnetic response and a higher density of paramagnetic moments along with evidence of superparamagnetic clusters. These findings are consistent with the interface origin for the ferromagnetic response in these superlattices. The demonstration of an interface magnetic phase in nearly lattice-matched monoclinic Fe2O3/Ga2O3 opens the door to ultrawide bandgap heterostructure-engineered magnetoelectronic devices, where ferromagnetic switching of the interface phase can be incorporated into high-field devices.
Usability and Reliability of an Accessible Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) Software: The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Patient-Reported Outcome (PEDI-PRO).

Importance Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used in rehabilitation to evaluate outcomes. We integrated a new PROM for transition-age youth with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD), the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Patient-Reported Outcome (PEDI-PRO), with a computer-delivered survey platform (Accessible Testing Learning and Assessment System) to enhance cognitive accessibility. Objective To evaluate the usability of the PEDI-PRO software and to investigate its reliability and acceptability to transition-age youth with IDD. Design Clinical field testing and a survey; repeated-observation test-retest design. Setting Clinicians evaluated the PEDI-PRO's usability in school and health care contexts; research staff conducted reliability and acceptability testing in natural settings. Participants Occupational therapists (n = 12) and physical therapists (n = 2) administered the PEDI-PRO to 39 youths with IDD. Fifty-five transition-age youth with IDD (M age = 19.7) completed the PEDI-PRO twice. Outcomes and measures Clinicians completed the System Usability Survey (SUS) and open-ended feedback. Youth provided feedback via a brief survey. Results The mean SUS rating was 84.00 (SD = 11.68), exceeding the industry standard. Intraclass correlations ranged from .80 to .83 across the three PEDI-PRO domains. Internal reliability (α) was .86-.90 across domains. Youth reported that they liked the accessibility features: interface images, button sounds, read-aloud audio, and rating category choices (M = 88.8%, SD = 5.1%). Conclusions and relevance The PEDI-PRO supported transition-age youth with IDD to reliably report perceived functional performance. The accessible software was favorably perceived by both clinicians and youth. What this article adds Design features of the PEDI-PRO make it easy to use in practice with transition-age youth with IDD. The PEDI-PRO's cognitively accessible administrative design, including step-by-step instructions for teaching PROM use and a self-reflective questioning technique, could serve as a training model for this and other PROMs.
Ampicillin-Ceftriaxone vs Ampicillin-Gentamicin for Definitive Therapy of Enterococcus faecalis Infective Endocarditis: A Propensity Score-Matched, Retrospective Cohort Analysis.

Background Ampicillin-ceftriaxone (AC) has emerged as an alternative antibiotic regimen for enterococcal infective endocarditis (EIE) with reduced toxicity compared with ampicillin-gentamicin (AG), but evidence regarding its success in reducing EIE-associated death in the United States is limited. Methods We conducted a retrospective, propensity score-matched cohort analysis of EIE patients treated with AC or AG between 2010 and 2017 at 3 hospitals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We assessed all-cause 90-day mortality as the primary outcome and in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, hospital readmissions, adverse events, and relapse of bacteremia as the secondary outcomes. Results A total of 190 patients with EIE (100 treated with AC and 90 with AG) were included. Ninety-day mortality was significantly higher with AC than AG (21% vs 8%; P = .02). After propensity score matching, 56 patients in each group remained for the outcomes analysis. Documented aminoglycoside resistance, presence of annular or aortic abscess, and complete pacemaker removal were the significantly different variables between the 2 matched cohorts. We observed no statistically significant difference in 90-day mortality between the 2 treatment groups (11% vs 7%; P = .55). Adverse events were more common in patients treated with AG (25 vs 39; P = .0091), and more patients in the propensity score-matched AG cohort switched antibiotic regimens than in the AC group (10% vs 49%; P < .0001). Conclusions Patients treated with AC demonstrate no significant differences in mortality, treatment failure, or bacteremia relapse compared with AG in a propensity score-matched EIE cohort.
A Qualitative Examination of Family and Educator Perspectives on Early Childhood Behavior Supports

Challenging behavior is an obstacle to social-emotional competence for young children. Function-based behavior support can promote positive outcomes for children and their families, and family coll...
Astrocytes in cocaine addiction and beyond.

Drug addiction remains a key biomedical challenge facing current neuroscience research. In addition to neural mechanisms, the focus of the vast majority of studies to date, astrocytes have been increasingly recognized as an “accomplice.” According to the tripartite synapse model, astrocytes critically regulate nearby pre- and postsynaptic neuronal substrates to craft experience-dependent synaptic plasticity, including synapse formation and elimination. Astrocytes within brain regions that are implicated in drug addiction exhibit dynamic changes in activity upon exposure to cocaine and subsequently undergo adaptive changes themselves during chronic drug exposure. Recent results have identified several key astrocytic signaling pathways that are involved in cocaine-induced synaptic and circuit adaptations. In this review, we provide a brief overview of the role of astrocytes in regulating synaptic transmission and neuronal function, and discuss how cocaine influences these astrocyte-mediated mechanisms to induce persistent synaptic and circuit alterations that promote cocaine seeking and relapse. We also consider the therapeutic potential of targeting astrocytic substrates to ameliorate drug-induced neuroplasticity for behavioral benefits. While primarily focusing on cocaine-induced astrocytic responses, we also include brief discussion of other drugs of abuse where data are available.
Molecular-field-theory fits to magnetic susceptibilities of antiferromagnetic GdCu2Si2, CuO, LiCrO2, and α-CaCr2O4 single crystals below their Néel temperatures

Abstract A recently-developed molecular field theory (MFT) has been used to fit single-crystal magnetic susceptibility χ versus temperature T data below the respective antiferromagnetic ordering temperature T N for a variety of collinear and coplanar noncollinear Heisenberg antiferromagnets. The spins in the system are assumed to interact by Heisenberg exchange and to be identical and crystallographically equivalent. The fitting parameters for χ ( T ) of collinear antiferromagnets are measurable quantities: the Weiss temperature θ p in the Curie–Weiss law, T N , χ ( T N ) , and the spin S. For coplanar noncollinear helix and cycloid structures, an additional fitting parameter is the turn angle between layers of ferromagnetically-aligned spins. Here MFT fits to anisotropic χ ( T ) data from the literature for single crystals of the collinear antiferromagnets GdCu 2 Si 2 and CuO and the noncollinear antiferromagnets LiCrO 2 with a 120° cycloidal structure and α - CaCr 2 O 4 with a 120° helical structure below their respective Neel temperatures are presented. The MFT fit to the anisotropic χ ( T ⩽ T N ) data for CuO is poor, whereas the fits to the data for GdCu 2 Si 2 , LiCrO 2 , and α - CaCr 2 O 4 are quite good. The poor fit for CuO is attributed to the influence of strong quantum fluctuations associated with the small Cu spin and the quasi-one-dimensional magnetism that are not taken into account by the MFT. The magnetic contribution to the zero-field heat capacity of the collinear antiferromagnet GdNiGe 3 at T ⩽ T N is also fitted by the MFT.
In situ spectroscopic insights into the redox and acid-base properties of ceria catalysts

Abstract Cerium oxide (ceria) plays an important and fascinating role in heterogeneous catalysis as illustrated by its versatile use as a catalyst, a catalyst support, or a promotor in various oxidation and reduction reactions. Central to these reactions is the rich defect chemistry, facile redox capability, and unusual acid-base properties of ceria. Understanding the unique redox and acid-base properties of ceria is essential to build the structure-catalysis relationship so that improved catalytic functions can be achieved for ceria-based materials. Among the characterization toolbox, spectroscopic approach indisputably stands out for its unparalleled power in offering chemical insights into the surface properties of ceria at atomic and molecular level. In this review, we summarize advances in revealing the redox and acid-base properties of ceria via a variety of spectroscopic methods including optical, X-ray, neutron, electronic and nuclear spectroscopy. Both direct spectroscopy characterization and its coupling with probe molecules are analyzed to illustrate how the nature, strength and density of different surface sites are influenced by the pretreatment, the morphology and size of ceria nanoparticles. Further directions in taking advantage of in situ/operando spectroscopy for better understanding the catalysis of ceria-based materials are proposed in the summary and outlook section.
Student Discovery of the Relationship between Molecular Structure, Solubility, and Intermolecular Forces

General chemistry students need to understand the concept of intermolecular forces and use them to predict the properties of materials. To do this, they must create symbolic representations of mole...
History and Evolution of Active Learning Spaces.

This chapter examines active learning spaces as they have developed over the years. Consistently well-designed classrooms can facilitate active learning even though the details of implementing pedagogies may differ.
A Family's Secret History

Deborah Tall begins A Family of Strangers, her "lyric essay-cum memoir," by measuring life's certainty against its mystery. On the first page, she lists "What I know"; on the second, "What I don't yet know." Then she attempts to bridge the gulf between the two. Hers is a strenuous effort, often painful, and since it leads to much less than full knowledge, the story of her search becomes the story of this book, as we watch Tall struggle, with what meager knowl edge she can gain, to unlock a family history that has been kept from her deliberately. The past she wants so desperately to open belongs to her father? the same man responsible for closing it off. Even by the memoir's conclusion, Tall won't fully understand the choices that led him?a radar expert who worked on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System and who could disappear for months at a time?to hide so much of himself and his roots. He seemed strangely perfect for his highly-classified occupation because, first at home and then at work, he was a steadfast and dedicated secret-keeper. Tail's drive to know her family's past began early. She describes herself as a precocious girl asking her father and mother about their childhoods, relatives, and histories; but she was always met with kind, if not impatient, rebuffs: "It would have mystified my parents that I recall my seemingly happy childhood as webbed by secrecy, silence, and lies." Eventually she realizes her curiosity is no match for her parents' resolve and understands that the hidden emotional stakes must indeed be high: "A spoken truth could fracture his defenses, harm him, disarray the entire family. His past should be allowed to shrivel away in a white shimmy of mirage." Her desire to work into this secrecy requires great patience. The form of Tail's memoir may be its most remarkable feature. The judicious use of white space and spare, isolated sentences creates a startlingly quick pace for a book chronicling a painstak
The fate of the earth in the red giant envelope of the sun

The effect on the earth of entering the red giant envelope of the future sun is studied. Employing a 30-zone red giant model, the earth orbital decay timescale, neglecting ablation/vaporization, is determined to be of the order of 200 years, rendering earth survival impossible. The effects of ablation/vaporization processes are found to increase the ballistic coefficient of earth, thereby setting the 200-year decay timescale as an upper limit.
Long term outcomes reporting the safety of breast conserving therapy compared to mastectomy: 20-year results of EORTC 10801

Large multicenter clinical trials have demonstrated the safety of breast conserving surgery and radiation (BCT) compared to modified radical mastectomy (MRM). At 20 years follow-up, the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 10801 trial reports the outcomes of distant metastasis (DM) and overall survival (OS) for stage 1 and 2 breast cancers treated from 1980-1986. Even though BCT had a higher 10 years local-regional recurrence (LRR) at 20% compared to MRM (12%), no significant difference was identified in long term OS (44% in the BCT group and 39% in the MRM group) or time to DM. Factors associated with increased LRR were dependent on biologic characteristics including larger tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and receptor subtype. BCT should be offered in appropriate patients when complete resection can be achieved. Continued research evaluating the heterogeneity of breast cancer subtypes will help further guide local-regional therapy for continued improvement in LRR, DM, and OS.
Educational Leadership Is Not About Money

This paper presents a systems approach based on the work of W. Edwards Deming, an alternative to the all purpose “We need more money” solution.
Hurdles and Leaps for Protein Therapeutics

Cytokines encompass a wide variety of proteins that can trigger many cellular activities. An important set of cytokines modulate inflammatory responses (inflammatory cytokines). These molecules have potent biological activities and have been a major focus for protein drug development. There have been both successes and failures in this area. Initial hurdles, such as limited manufacturing capacity, have now been largely overcome. However clinical development remains a challenge. On the basis of the history of cytokine therapeutics, a number of strategies for future drug development are considered.
Automated registration and classification techniques for interval change analysis in mammography

Our goal is to develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for analysis of interval change of lesions (masses and microcalcification clusters) on serial mammographic exams. The CAD system includes two major parts: automated registration of corresponding lesions on temporal pairs of mammograms, and classification of the lesion as malignant or benign using interval change information. This study also evaluated the effect of the CAD system on the radiologists' performance for characterization of mammographic masses on serial mammograms. Using our region registration method (RRM) the average distance between the estimated and the true lesion centroids on the prior mammogram was 6.4 /spl plusmn/ 8.9 mm. The classification accuracy was measured using the area A/sub z/ under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The temporal information classifier achieved a test A/sub z/ of 0.87. The radiologists reading with CAD statistically significantly improved (p = 0.005) their performance (A/sub z/ = 0.84) compared to the reading without CAD (A/sub z/ = 0.79).
Effects of selected drugs on serum digoxin concentration in dogs

The effects of quinidine, quinine, aspirin, ibuprofen, indomethacin and acetaminophen on steady state serum digoxin concentrations and total body digoxin clearance were studied in an animal model designed to simulate closely the clinical use of these drugs. When administered concurrently with digoxin, all of these drugs, with the exception of acetaminophen, caused a significant increase in serum digoxin concentration. Serum digoxin concentration was elevated (p <0.05) from 1.0 ± 0.14 to 2.06 ± 0.32 ng/ml with quinidine, from 0.70 ± 0.10 to 1.28 ± 0.20 ng/ml with quinine, from 1.12 ± 0.15 to 2.58 ± 0.24 ng/ml with aspirin, from 0.76 ± 0.08 to 1.1 ± 0.16 ng/ml with indomethacin and from 0.90 ± 0.16 to 3.5 ± 0.65 ng/ml with the largest dose of ibuprofen studied. Serum creatinine concentration was not elevated by administration of any of these drugs. The effects of aspirin and ibuprofen on serum digoxin concentration were directly related to the serum concentration of these drugs. The elevation in serum digoxin concentration produced by these drugs was due, at least in part, to a reduction in digoxin clearance. Digoxin clearance in the absence of any other treatment was 531 ± 34 ml/h per kg and was reduced (p <0.05) to 352 ± 31,348 ± 39,462 ± 52 and 317 ± 56 ml/h per kg by quinidine, quinine, aspirin and ibuprofen, respectively. Acetaminophen did not significantly alter the clearance of digoxin. These results clearly demonstrate that several commonly used drugs when administered concurrently with digoxin are capable of significantly elevating serum digoxin concentrations and thus may have the potential to increase the toxicity of this widely used cardiac glycoside. A drug-induced reduction in digoxin clearance appears likely to play an important role in increasing the serum digoxin concentration. Although these findings require confirmation in human beings, they suggest that caution should be used in administering large doses of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in conjunction with cardiac glycosides.
COMPARISON OF RESPONSES AND DEPOSITION FOLLOWING HUMAN EXPOSURES VIA ORAL OR NASAL INHALATION OF SULPHURIC ACID AEROSOLS

Controlled human exposure studies with inhaled air pollutants frequently utilize mouth breathing. To determine the extent that the route of inhalation influences airway resonses to particulate pollutants, we examined pulmonary responses of asthmatics breathing sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄)aerosols by oral or nasal inhalation. Asthmatics were exposed to H₂SO₄aerosols in a 45m³chamber for one hour including 10minutes of exercise or via a mouthpiece for 16 minutes during resting ventilation. We produced aerosols in concentrations of 100 μg/m³and 450 μg/m³. We measured before and immediately after all exposures FYC, FEV, and specific airway conductance (SGaw). At the 450 μg/m³ concentration, there were remarkable similarities in airway resonses desite the different exosure routes . Although the exposures were not strictly comarable in duration. we calculated tracheobronchial (TB) deposition for the two modes of aerosol administration and utilized con temorary models for deposition in explaining the lack of qualitative and quantitative distinctions in the pattern of response.
Cardiac arrhythmias induced by transient hypertension during sleep-waking states

Abstract Effects of transient hypertension on cardiac rhythm during sleep and waking states in unrestrained cats were investigated. Blood pressure elevation, produced either by phenylephrine injection or by aortic occlusion, was followed by progressive bradycardia in all cats during each sleep-waking state. With phenylephrine, the heart rate response to induced hypertension consisted solely of reflex sinus bradycardia in 67% of the trials, whereas non-sinus cardiac arrhythmias developed during the period of reflex bradycardia in 33% of the trials. In all trials where hypertension was produced by aortic obstruction, non-sinus cardiac arrhythmias occurred. The observed non-sinus rhythms included both atrioventricular junctional and ventricular escape beats. The occurrence of non-sinus arrhythmias after phenylephrine injection was more frequent during sleep states than during waking. Overall, the incidence of escape rhythms varied from a brief burst of non-sinus beats at the onset of bradycardia to repeated trains of non-sinus beats occurring over the span of blood pressure elevation. Respiratory gating of cardiomotor activity was manifested both as respiratory sinus arrhythmia and as inspiratory ‘gating’ of escape rhythms. Both forms of respiratory gating continued during periods of induced hypertension.
In vitro morphogenesis of Sorghum bicolor (L.) moench: Efficient plant regeneration from shoot apices

Summary An efficient and reproducible plant regeneration system has been developed from shoot apices of aseptically germinated seedlings of sorghum. After four passages of culture at two-week intervals on MS basal medium containing 2 or 4 mg/L BA, the shoot apices produced multiple shoot clumps, each capable of regenerating more than 100 shoots, via an intensive differentiation of both axillary and adventitious buds. When the shoot apices were cultured on MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D and 2 or 4 mg/ L BA, a highly efficient differentiation of adventitious buds was initiated from enlarged apical domes and thickened leaf bases of the shoot apices six weeks after inoculation. Over 200 shoots were induced from a shoot apex eight weeks after culture. Somatic embryos were produced direcdy from the enlarged and organized apical domes of primary and secondary shoots without apparent callus formation after subsequent subcultures of the multiple shoot clumps on MS medium with 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D and 2 or 4 mg/L BA. All 18 sorghum genotypes tested followed a similar differentiation and regeneration pattern at a high frequency. Most of the multiple shoots and somatic embryos developed into fertile plants after rooting on IBA-containing MS medium and transfer to greenhouse.
Association of autistic spectrum disorder and the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine – A systematic review of current epidemiological evidence

The authors conducted a systematic review of the evidence for and against the existence of an association between autistic spectrum disorder and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Specifically, they tested four hypotheses: (1) that the rates of autistic spectrum disorder is higher in individuals who have received MMR than those who did not, (2) that an increase in autistic spectrum disorder may be occurring as a result of MMR, (3) that the development of autistic spectrum disorder is temporally associated with receiving the MMR, and (4) that a new variant form of autistic spectrum disorder may be associated with the MMR vaccine. The authors sought to identify all controlled epidemiological articles examining for an association between autistic spectrum disorder and the MMR vaccine. They extracted data from the articles on the characteristics and objectives of the study as well as evidence of an association. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria. One study found no difference in the rates of autistic spectrum disorder and the MMR vaccine in children who were vaccinated and those who were not. Six studies examined for evidence of an increase in autistic spectrum disorder associated with an increase in the MMR vaccine coverage; none of the six showed evidence of an association. Four studies examined if a variant form of autistic spectrum disorder was associated with the MMR vaccine; none of the four showed evidence of an association. Eight studies attempted to determine if there was a temporal association between developing autistic spectrum disorder and receiving the MMR vaccine. Of these, one study identified an increase in parental concern in the 6-month period following vaccination with MMR in one of its analyses. The results of all other studies showed no association between autistic spectrum disorder and the MMR vaccine. The authors concluded that the current literature does not suggest an association between autistic spectrum disorder and the MMR vaccine. The authors did note that the studies were not large enough even in aggregate to rule out a link between a rare variant form of autistic spectrum disorder and the MMR vaccine; they held, however, that given the real risks of not vaccinating and that the risks and existence of variant autistic spectrum disorder remain theoretical, current policies should continue to advocate the use of the MMR vaccine.
Convergence Seamlessly - A Look Inside Motorola's Seamless Mobility Initiative

Broadband convergence networks (BCN) is focused on the convergence of not just voice, video and data, but also the convergence of heterogeneous wired and wireless networks and applications into a seamless user experience. This enables a new era of broadcasting, where IP-based telecommunication moves to support high quality, IP- based multimedia broadcasting. While a good amount of effort has been focused on the networking aspect of BCN, much less attention has been paid to its management. Specifically, no real advances on how wired and wireless networks will be operated and managed have been addressed. Instead, only small parts of the problem are being addressed (the IETF has working groups on some technologies; the ITU's FGNGNM (Focus Group on Next Generation Network Management) has not made near the progress that the FGNGN has made). Other standards bodies and fora have also made no significant progress on this issue. Motorola's Seamless Mobility Initiative is very much focused on BCN. This initiative focuses on the easy, uninterrupted access to information, entertainment, communication, monitoring and control, giving the user a sense of being connected anywhere, anytime, to anything, with any service. Indeed, the fundamental goal of seamless mobility is to provide new types of user experience that overcome the limitations of existing technologies, systems and services. Key to this initiative is the ability to make management invisible. That is, Seamless Mobility is about providing the end-user with a compelling, easy-to-use experience; management functions (or, for that matter, any function that detracts the user from that experience) should either be minimized or, preferably, hidden. With respect to BCN, many people define convergence as the ability to provide voice, video and data simultaneously over the same network. BCN is much more complex. In addition to providing new networked services and applications, this really means three different types of convergence: 1) Service convergence: end user accessing the same service using one or more devices through one or more access mechanisms, 2) Device convergence: end user accessing multiple services across multiple access mechanisms through a single device, 3) Network convergence: a unified network realizing multiple services using one or more devices through one or more access mechanisms. Clearly, there can be other types of convergence, including billing and security convergence. This presentation will focus on management convergence - a unified system in which management of the system can be done in a consistent way, independent of devices and protocols. Once management convergence is defined, this presentation will focus on delivering a continuity of experience across multiple spatial domains, devices, network protocols and access modes. It will explore the challenges of moving from a device-centric to a task-centric model, as illustrated by Motorola.
Local Heating of Discrete Droplets Using Magnetic Porous Silicon-Based Photonic Crystals

A simple microfluidics application is demonstrated: combining complementary DNA strands contained in separate droplets and then thermally inducing dehybridization of the conjugate. The complementary oligonucleotides were conjugated with the cyanine dye fluorophores Cy3 and Cy5 to quantify the melting/re-binding reaction by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). The magnetic porous Si microparticles were prepared as photonic crystals, containing spectral codes that allowed the identification of the droplets by reflectivity spectroscopy. The technique demonstrates the feasibility of tagging, manipulating, and heating small volumes of liquids without the use of conventional microfluidic channel and heating systems.