cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Current Status and Strategy for International Development of Hybrid Rice

Hybrid rice,invented by Chinese scientists,is a great agricultural achievement in science and technology.The latest progress of hybrid rice development outside China was reviewed and the international development prospect of it was analyzed.Based on an intensive discussion on the existing principal issues and constraints in the international development of hybrid rice,the strategy was proposed to enhance the development of hybrid rice in the world.
Using fractional-order differential equations for health monitoring of a system of cooperating robots

The dynamics of many large-scale robotic formation systems, including structured systems as well as some random scale-free networks of agents, can be accurately described using fractional-order differential equations. A fractional-order differential equation can contain derivative terms with non-integer order, e.g., the one-half derivative. This paper demonstrates that the fractional order of the dynamics of a system may be a potentially powerful new way to monitor the operational status of such systems. When the order of the system changes, it can indicate an important change in the status of the system. Integer-order models will never exhibit a change in order because the order is dictated by a natural first principle and the structure of the system. For this reason, traditional health monitoring tools essentially focus on identifying parameter variations in a mathematical description of the system, but not changes in order. When fractional-order models are considered, the infinite number of possible real-valued orders between any two integer orders may capture essential changes in the system's dynamics. This paper provides an example of such changes, provides a theoretical justification for the approach, and explores possible limitations to the approach.
Enhanced sensitivity of an atom interferometer-based gravity gradiometer

Measurement of the gradient of gravitational fields has important scientific and technical applications. These applications range from measurement of the gravitational constant and tests of General Relativity to covert navigation, underground structure detection, oil- well logging and geodesy. We describe the development of a gravity gradiometer based on recently developed atom interference1 and laser manipulation techniques.
The persistence of illicit drug smoke residues and their recovery from common household surfaces

Third-hand smoke is the residue remaining on surfaces during smoking events. It is composed of particles and vapours that form upon heating. The phrase 'third-hand smoke' is primarily used to describe nicotine and other chemicals from cigarettes, but any residues formed from the smoking of various substances could be classified similarly. There has been an increasing body of research on third-hand smoke from cigarettes in the last decade, but little has been done in regards to understanding the persistence of particles and vapours from illicit drugs. In this work, small samples of cocaine and methamphetamine were volatilized to produce an illicit drug smoke that was collected onto various surface materials and left exposed to ambient conditions over 672 h (four weeks). Chemical analyses by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry of residues on silicon, plastic, laminate, and artificial leather surfaces indicated a rapid decrease in recovery of the parent molecule, with varied formation of decomposition products over the first 168 h of exposure. Measurable amounts of the parent molecule were still present after 672 h, exhibiting a strong persistence of these drugs on various household materials. This is important in a forensic science context, as third-hand smoke residues could provide a viable source of trace evidence previously not utilized. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Tositumomab and (131)I therapy in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

UNLABELLED Tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab constitute a relatively new radioimmunotherapeutic regimen for patients with CD20+ follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Currently, it is approved for use in patients whose disease has relapsed after chemotherapy and is refactory to rituximab, including patients whose tumors have transformed to a higher histologic grade. This review outlines the current and evolving status of this therapeutic regimen at nonmyeloablative doses. METHODS Clinical data from multiple published studies and preliminary communications encompassing more than 1,000 patients were reviewed to describe the current status of tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab therapy. The therapy is delivered in 2 parts, a dosimetric dose and a therapeutic dose. The therapeutic radioactivity millicurie dose is calculated on a patient-individualized ("tailored") basis. A series of 3 total-body gamma-camera scans are used to determine the patient-specific pharmacokinetics (total-body residence time) of the radiolabeled antibody conjugate required to deliver the desired total-body radiation dose, typically 75 cGy. RESULTS In clinical trials, objective response rates in patients who had been extensively pretreated with chemotherapy ranged from 47% to 68%. Tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab therapy also was effective in patients who had failed to respond to or who had relapsed after rituximab therapy, with a 68% overall response rate. Thirty percent of such patients achieved complete responses that were generally of several years duration. Single-center trials using tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab therapy alone or after chemotherapy in previously untreated patients have shown response rates in excess of 90%, with most responses complete. Retreatment with tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab and use of lower total-body radiation doses of tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab to treat patients who have relapsed after stem cell transplantation have been shown feasible in limited clinical studies. Toxicity is predominately hematologic; however, human antimouse antibodies, hypothyroidism, and myelodysplastic syndrome have been reported in a small fraction of patients. CONCLUSION Tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab therapy at patient-specific, nonmyeloablative doses is safe and effective in treatment of relapsed and refractory follicular NHL. Toxicity is mainly hematologic and reversible. Tositumomab and (131)I-tositumomab therapy is assuming a growing role in this common malignancy.
Abstract 4341: Employing the epigenetic field effect to detect prostate cancer in biopsy-negative patients

Purpose: Prostate cancer (PCa) is typically multifocal supporting the principle that molecular alterations can occur in histologically normal tissues in patients that have cancer. We have recently demonstrated using DNA methylation microarrays that epigenetic differences define a widespread field defect in the normal prostate tissue from men with cancer. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a novel panel of DNA methylation markers can predict the presence of PCa using fresh and paraffin-embedded histologically normal biopsy cores from multiple medical sites. Materials and Methods: Encode HG18 DNA methylation arrays, containing 385,000 probes tiling the biologically significant pilot regions of the human genome, were used to identify methylation alterations between NTA and TA tissues. Bisulfite Pyrosequencing confirmed alterations at numerous loci. Methylation was assessed using quantitative pyrosequencing in a training set consisting of 65 non-tumor associated (NTA) and tumor associated (TA) prostate tissues. A multiplex model was generated using multivariate logistic regression and externally validated in a blinded fashion using a set of 47 NTA and TA biopsy specimens from an external institution. Results: The methylation field defect was not significantly different between adjacent and distant tissues from tumor foci indicating this was not a peritumor effect. DNA methylation was analyzed in a subset of significant loci in NTA and TA tissues. Robust methylation differences were observed for all genes at all CpGs assayed (p Conclusions: A widespread epigenetic field defect can be utilized to detect the existence of PCa in patients with histologically negative biopsies. This assay is unique in that it detects alterations in non-tumor cells at distance from tumor foci. With further validation, this marker panel (EVX1 and FGF1) has the potential to decrease the need for repeated prostate biopsies, a costly procedure associated with pain and complications. Citation Format: Bing Yang, Johnathon McCormick, Nathan Damaschke, Anastasia Montgomery, Glen Leverson, Wei Huang, Daniel W. Lin, David F. Jarrard. Employing the epigenetic field effect to detect prostate cancer in biopsy-negative patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4341.
Traffic engineering in the peer-to-peer SDN

Software Defined Network (SDN) is an emerging networking paradigm which separates the control plane from the data forwarding plane. The centralized controller provides the global view of the distributed network states for user applications. However, the scalability of SDN is subject to the delay, the capacity of the controller, the bandwidth of the control channel, and other issues. To solve this problem, peer-to-peer (p2p) SDN, where multiple independent controllers control their own networks and these controllers exchange the only required state changing events, is an emerging control plane architecture. In this paper, we focus on the traffic engineering in the p2p SDN administrated by one operator. We first identify some fundamental challenges (i.e., path aggregation for advertisement, routing loop, overhead) for the traffic engineering in the p2p SDN. Then we proposed a novel protocol exchanging the required network information to enable the traffic engineering between neighboring SDN domains. The experiments show that our protocol can achieve nearly same performance (about 98%) as the one with God's knowledge (the full information of the whole network). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article to investigate the traffic engineering problem in the p2p SDN.
Augmented Nurse Care Management in CKD Stages 4 to 5: A Randomized Trial.

Background Outcomes for patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the United States are suboptimal. There is poor education and preparation for end-stage kidney disease, as well as a high rate of hospitalization in this group of patients. Study Design A randomized, parallel-group, 2-arm, controlled trial. Setting & Participants The study was conducted at 3 sites: a clinic of an academic medical center, a public hospital academic clinic, and a community-based private practice. All participants had late-stage CKD (stages 4-5 CKD). Patients were excluded only if they had significant cognitive impairment. Intervention The care management intervention involved nurse care manager coordination aided by the use of a disease-based informatics system for monitoring patients' clinical status, enhancing CKD education, and facilitating preparation for end-stage kidney disease. The comparison control group received usual late-stage CKD care alone. Outcomes The primary outcome was rate of hospitalization. Measurements Rates of preemptive transplantation, home dialysis, hemodialysis (HD) starts without a hospitalization, and HD therapy initiation rates with catheters or with functioning accesses. Results 130 patients were randomly assigned. The hospitalization rate was significantly lower in the intervention group versus controls: 0.61 versus 0.92 per year, respectively (incidence rate ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.43-0.99; P =0.04). Peritoneal dialysis or preemptive transplantation was the initial end-stage kidney disease treatment in 11 of 30 (37%) participants receiving the intervention versus 3 of 29 (10%) receiving usual care. Among HD starts, treatment was initiated without hospitalization in 11 of 19 (58%) participants in the intervention group versus 6 of 26 (23%) in the control group. At the time of HD therapy initiation, a catheter was present in 7 of 19 (37%) participants in the intervention group versus 18 of 26 (69%) in the control group. A functioning arteriovenous access was in place in 10 of 19 (53%) participants in the intervention group and 7 of 26 (27%) in the control group Limitations Moderate sample size, limited geographic scope. Conclusions The augmented nurse care management intervention resulted in reduced hospitalizations in late-stage CKD and there were suggestions of improved end-stage kidney disease preparation. Given suboptimal outcomes in late-stage CKD, care management interventions could potentially improve patient outcomes.
Personal Variation in Preference for Sweetness: Effects of Age and Obesity.

Abstract Background: Use of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs), which provide sweet taste with few to no calories, has increased, but data on whether children's hedonic responses to NNSs differ from nutritive sugars or from adults' hedonic responses are limited. Methods: Most preferred levels of sucrose and the NNS sucralose were determined via a forced-choice tracking procedure in 48 children, 7–14 years (mean = 10 years), and 34 adults. Each participant also rated the liking of these taste stimuli, as well as varying concentrations of aspartame on 3- and 5-point facial hedonic scales. Anthropometric measures were obtained, and motives for palatable food intake were assessed with the Palatable Eating Motives Scale (PEMS, adults) and Kids PEMS. Results: While use of the 3-point scale showed no age-related differences in liking of sweeteners, the 5-point scale showed that more children than adults liked higher concentrations of sucrose, sucralose, and aspartame, and the tracking procedure showed that children ...
Modification of Spastic GAIT through Mechanical Damping

Abstract A feasibility study investigating the use of dissipative mechanical damping loads to modify spastic gait is currently underway. The concept of a mechanically damped orthosis is based on a hypothesis citing velocity-dependent stretch reflexes as a causal factor in certain spastic gait abnormalities, such as equinus and backkneeing. Accordingly, the experimental subject was selected on the basis of a velocity-dependent reflex, as established through a series of seated "ankle stretch" experiments. To facilitate study of a variety of damping schemes and iteration towards optimal damping parameters, a wearable, electromechanical, computer-controlled ankle orthosis simulator was designed and constructed. The simulator is instrumented to measure important gait variables so that effects of the applied mechanical loads on the subject's gait patterns can be assessed. Initial orthosis simulation experiments have begun. The most effective damping schemes will be cooinared with rigid bracing through filmed gait analysis.
A modified ketogenic gluten-free diet with MCT improves behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract Purpose The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, moderate protein, high-fat diet that has emerged as a potential treatment for autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder of social communication, and restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests in need of novel therapies. An open-label clinical trial was done in Honolulu, Hawaii to test a modified ketogenic diet for improvement of core clinical impairments in children with ASD. Intervention A modified ketogenic gluten-free diet regimen with supplemental MCT was completed in 15 children ages 2 to 17 years for 3 months. Clinical (ADOS-2, CARS-2) and biochemical measures were performed at baseline and 3-months on the ketogenic diet. Main outcome Children administered a modified ketogenic gluten-free diet with supplemental MCT significantly improved core autism features assessed from the ADOS-2 after 3 months on diet (P = 0.006). No significant difference was observed in restricted and repetitive behavior score (P = 0.125) after 3 months on the diet protocol. Substantial improvement (>30% decrease ADOS-2 total score) was observed in six participants, moderate improvement (>3 units) in two participants, and minor/no improvement in seven participants. Ten participants assessed at a six-month time point sustained improvement in total ADOS-2 and social affect sub-domain scores comparing baseline and 6 months (P = 0.019; P = 0.023), but no significant improvement in restricted and repetitive behavior scores were noted (P = 0.197). Significant improvements in CARS-2 items after 3 months of the modified ketogenic protocol were observed in imitation, body use, and fear or nervousness (P = 0.031, P = 0.008, P = 0.039). The percent change on ADOS-2 score from baseline to 3 months was associated with baseline high-density lipoprotein levels (ρ = −0.67, P = 0.007) and albumin levels (ρ = −0.60, P = 0.019). Moreover, the percent change from baseline to 3 months in ADOS-2 scores was significantly associated with percent change in high-density lipoprotein levels (ρ = 0.54, P = 0.049) and albumin levels (ρ = 0.67, P = 0.010). Conclusions A modified gluten-free ketogenic diet with supplemental MCT is a potentially beneficial treatment option to improve the core features of autism spectrum disorder and warrants further investigation. Trial registration Trial Registry: Clinicaltrials.gov Registration Number: NCT02477904 URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02477904?term=ketogenic+diet&cond=Autism&rank=1
Pharmacology of Sucrose-Reinforced Place-Preference Conditioning: Effects of Naltrexone

Two experiments investigated the role of the opioid system in sucrose-reinforced conditioned place preferences (CPPs) in rats. Experiment 1 examined the effects of a general opioid antagonist, naltrexone, on the expression of a CPP acquired in the absence of the drug. Subjects were trained to associate one compartment of a two-compartment chamber with sucrose and the other compartment with water. Rats displayed a preference for the sucrose-associated compartment in a choice test without sugar or water available following vehicle saline treatment. Naltrexone doses of 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg reduced this preference for the sucrose-associated compartment. Experiment 2 examined the effects of naltrexone on the acquisition as well as the expression of CPPS. Different groups of rats received daily injections of either saline, 0.1, 1.0, or 5.0 mg/kg of naltrexone prior to each training session, and then these groups were given a choice test for the CPP after saline or naltrexone injections. Although naltrexone treatment attenuated the expression of CPPs in each group relative to saline treatment, there were no group differences during these tests in the magnitude of the preferences. Moreover, all groups displayed equal acquisition of CPPs despite the fact that naltrexone dose dependently decreased sucrose intake during the training phase. Together, the results indicate that the opioid system modulates the expression but not the acquisition of sucrose-reinforced CPPs.
Skin Necrosis After Open Component Separation: Prevention and Management

Component separation as popularized by Ramirez et al. has been the mainstay of autologous abdominal wall reconstruction for complex defects especially with loss of domain. This method allows closure of significant midline defects up to 12, 20, and 10 cm in the upper, middle, and lower abdomen, respectively. Using this technique, hernia recurrence rates have been significantly reduced compared to primary repair. One obvious drawback of the procedure is the extensive dissection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue to access the external oblique muscle for subsequent release. Significantly higher wound complication rates have been reported with skin necrosis occurring in up to 40 % of the patients. In the presence of preexisting infection, this rate is even higher.
Transfer RNA-Dependent Cognate Amino Acid Recognition by an Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase

An investigation of the role of tRNA in the catalysis of aminoacylation of Escherichia coli glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase (GlnRS) has revealed that the accuracy of specific interactions between GlnRS and tRNAGln determines amino acid affinity. Mutations in GlnRS at D235, which makes contacts with nucleotides in the acceptor stem of tRNAGln, and at R260 in the enzyme's active site were found to be independent during tRNA binding but interactive for aminoacylation. Characterization of mutants of GlnRS at position 235, showed amino acid recognition to be tRNA mediated. Aminoacylation of tRNA(CUA)Tyr [tyrT (UAG)] by GlnRS-D235H resulted in a 4-fold increase in the Km for the Gln, which was reduced to a 2-fold increase when A73 was replaced with G73. These and previous results suggest that specific interactions between GlnRS and tRNAGln ensure the accurate positioning of the 3' terminus. Disruption of these interactions can change the Km for Gln over a 30-fold range, indicating that the accuracy of aminoacylation is regulated by tRNA at the level of both substrate recognition and catalysis. The observed role of RNA as a cofactor in optimizing amino acid activation suggests that the tRNAGln-GlnRS complex may be partly analogous to ribonucleoprotein enzymes where protein-RNA interactions facilitate catalysis.
The Influence of Species and Stocktype Selection on Stand Establishment: an Ecophysiological Perspective

The species and stocktypes planted can have a profound impact on stand establishment. Selection of a particular type of seedling able to meet minimum performance expectations under specific types of environmental stress is only possible after careful evaluation of site conditions likely to exist at planting. These decisions have become less intuitive with improved understanding of how seedlings respond physiologically to different operational environments. Our understanding, however, of the physiological bases for observed response differences between stocktypes to the same site conditions remains poor for many situations.
Convergence Rates, Part II

In Chapter 3 we establish the \({O}(\sqrt{\varepsilon})\) error estimates for some two-scale expansions in H1 and the \({O}({\varepsilon})\) convergence rate for solutions \({u}_{\varepsilon}\) in L2. The results are obtained without any smoothness assumption on the coefficient matrix A. In this chapter we return to the problem of convergence rates and prove various results under some additional smoothness assumptions, using uniform regularity estimates obtained in Chapters 4–6. We shall be mainly interested in the sharp \({O}({\varepsilon})\) or near sharp rates of convergence.
Military environmental health on Operation RUMAN.

Operation RUMAN was the British government’s combined military and humanitarian operations to provide relief to the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean. This paper provides a short summary of the role played by environmental health during the operation and the importance of environmental health considerations at all stages of disaster management.
Conversion of InP Clusters to Quantum Dots

Understanding and deconvoluting the different mechanisms involved in the synthesis of nanomaterials is necessary to make uniform materials with desirable function. In this study, in situ spectroscopic methods were used to study exchange reactions at the surface of indium phosphide clusters, revealing that the cluster surface lacks significant dynamics on the NMR time-scale at room temperature. The exchange of surface carboxylate ligands can be induced at elevated temperatures and with the addition of carboxylic acid and indium carboxylate. These studies suggest that carboxylate may be a key ingredient in promoting cluster dissolution to larger nanostructures. Toward this end, the evolution of InP clusters was examined by in situ UV–vis spectroscopy, revealing cluster dissolution and renucleation that is dramatically dependent on the concentration of carboxylate. In addition to the concentration of exogenous ligands, the rate of particle growth and final product distribution were dependent on temperature a...
Design, implementation, and evaluation of write-back policy with cache augmented data stores

The Cache Augmented Data Store (CADS) architecture extends a persistent data store with an in-memory cache manager. It is widely deployed to support read-intensive workloads. However, its write-around and write-through policies prevent the caching tier from absorbing write load. This means the data store layer must scale to process writes even when the extra capacity is not needed for read load. We address this limitation by devising a write-back technique to enable the caching layer to process both reads and writes. This technique preserves ACID transactions. We present a client side implementation of write-back and evaluate it using the YCSB, BG, and TPC-C benchmarks. In addition, we compare our write-back with (a) write-back policy of a data store such as MongoDB and (b) write-back policy of a host-side cache such as Flashcache.
Caregiving in the shadows: National analysis of health outcomes and intensity and duration of care among those who care for people with mental illness and for people with developmental disabilities.

Abstract Background The health impacts of caring for people with mental illness (MI) and developmental disabilities (DD) are not well understood. Objective The present study explored whether health outcomes differed between MI and DD caregivers, and if intensity and duration of care moderated health outcomes. Methods Nationally representative 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data were used to explore how caring for people with MI (n = 1071) and DD (n = 888) impacted general health status and physical and mental health days, and whether intensity and duration of care moderated health outcomes. Logistic regression models and cumulative logistic regression models were used to model health outcomes. Results Caregivers had worse health (p = 0.0001) and more poor physical (p Conclusions Although the care provided to adults with DD was more intense and for a longer duration, MI caregivers had poorer health outcomes and were more impacted by intensity and duration of care. Implications for supporting MI and DD caregivers are discussed.
Robustness-Driven Exploration with Probabilistic Metric Temporal Logic

The ability to perform autonomous exploration is essential for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) operating in unstructured or unknown environments where it is hard or even impossible to describe the environment beforehand. However, algorithms for autonomous exploration often focus on optimizing time and coverage in a greedy fashion. That type of exploration can collect irrelevant data and wastes time navigating areas with no important information. In this paper, we propose a method for exploiting the discovered knowledge about the environment while exploring it by relying on a theory of robustness based on Probabilistic Metric Temporal Logic (P-MTL) as applied to offline verification and online control of hybrid systems. By maximizing the satisfaction of the predefined P-MTL specifications of the exploration problem, the robustness values guide the UAV towards areas with more interesting information to gain. We use Markov Chain Monte Carlo to solve the P-MTL constraints. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by simulating autonomous exploration over Amazonian rainforest where our approach is used to detect areas occupied by illegal Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) activities. The results show that our approach outperform a greedy exploration approach (Autonomous Exploration Planner) by 38% in terms of ASGM coverage.
Racial/ethnic differences in patient experiences with health care in association with earlier stage at breast cancer diagnosis: findings from the SEER-CAHPS data.

Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage breast cancer compared to white women due to biological or access to care factors. Therefore, our objective was to identify whether racial/ethnic differences in patient experiences with healthcare are associated with stage at diagnosis. We used the SEER registry data linked with patient surveys from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) completed prior to the diagnosis date. We examined responses about various aspects of their care such as the ability to get needed care, and to get care quickly. We used multivariable linear regression to examine racial/ethnic differences in patient experiences, and a multivariable ordinal logistic regression to determine the association between patient experiences and earlier stage at diagnosis. Of the 10,144 patients, 80.7% were non-Hispanic white, 7.6% black, 7.1% Hispanic, and 4.6% Asian. After controlling for potential confounders, black patients had significantly lower mean scores for getting care quickly (β = − 2.78), getting needed care (β = − 2.26), getting needed prescription drugs (β = − 3.83), and lower ratings of their health care (β = − 2.33) compared to white patients. More importantly, we found that black patients who reported a 1-unit increase in rating of their experiences with customer service (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.06) and the ability to get care quickly (OR 1.03, 1.01–1.05) had higher odds of earlier stage breast cancer. Racial/ethnic minorities reported poorer patient experiences with care preceding a diagnosis of breast cancer. Better ratings among black patients were associated with earlier stage at diagnosis.
Zirconium Nitride for Plasmonic Cloaking of Visible Nanowire Photodetectors

Light scattered by a photodetector disturbs the probing field, resulting in noise. Cloaking is an effective method to reduce this noise. Here we investigate theoretically an emerging plasmonic material, zirconium nitride (ZrN), as a plasmonic cloak for silicon (Si) nanowire-based photodetectors and compare it with a traditional plasmonic material, gold (Au). Using Mie formalism, we have obtained the scattering cancelation across the visible spectrum. We found that ZrN cloaks produce a significant decrease in the scattering from bare Si nanowires, which is 40% greater than that obtained with Au cloaks in the wavelength region of 400–500 nm. The scattering cancelations become comparable at 550 nm, with Au providing a better scattering cancelation compared to ZrN over the wavelength region of 600–700 nm. To include the absorption and provide a measure of overall performance on noise reduction, a figure of merit (FOM), defined as the ratio of the absorption efficiency and the scattering efficiency of the cloaked nanowire to that of the bare Si nanowire, was calculated. We show that the optimized ZrN cloak provides up to 3 times enhancement of the FOM over a bare Si NW and a 60% improvement over an optimized Au-cloaked NW, in the wavelength region of 400–500 nm. An optimized Au-cloaked NW shows up to 17.69 times improvement in the wavelength region of 600–700 nm over a bare Si NW and up to a 2.7 times improvement over an optimized ZrN-cloaked NW. We also predicted the optimal dimensions for the cloaked NWs with respect to the largest FOM at various wavelengths between 400 and 650 nm.
Imidazole‐Based Synthetic Lipidoids for In Vivo mRNA Delivery into Primary T Lymphocytes

Engineering T lymphocytes is an emerging approach in a variety of biomedical applications. However, delivering large biologics to primary T lymphocytes directly in vivo is technically challenging due to the low transfection efficacy. Herein, we investigated a library of synthetic lipid-like molecules (lipidoids) for their capability of delivering mRNA into primary T lymphocytes both ex vivo and in vivo. We initially screened a library with a large structural variety of lipidoids ex vivo and identified imidazole-containing lipidoids that are particularly potent in T lymphocytes transfection. We further optimized lipidoid structures by constructing and screening a detailed lipidoid library containing imidazole or imidazole analogues to perform a structure-activity correlation analysis. Using the lead lipidoid as a delivery vehicle for Cre mRNA in vivo through intravenous injection, we achieved 8.2 % gene recombination in mouse T lymphocytes.
Backgrounds in gravitational effective field theory

Effective field theories describing gravity coupled to matter are investigated, allowing for operators of arbitrary mass dimension. Terms violating local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance while preserving internal gauge symmetries are included. The theoretical framework for violations of local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance and associated conceptual issues are discussed, including transformations in curved and approximately flat spacetimes, the treatment of various types of backgrounds, the implications of symmetry breaking, and the no-go constraints for explicit violation in Riemann geometry. Techniques are presented for the construction of effective operators, and the possible terms in the gravity, gauge, fermion, and scalar sectors are classified and enumerated. Explicit expressions are obtained for terms containing operators of mass dimension six or less in the effective action for general relativity coupled to the Standard Model of particle physics. Special cases considered include Einstein-Maxwell effective field theories and the limit with only scalar coupling constants.
Catalytic asymmetric Catellani-type reaction: A powerful tool for axial chirality construction

Abstract This highlight summarizes a recent development of a catalytic enantioselective Catellani-type reaction for the synthesis of axially chiral biaryls. The chirality induction is solely governed by chiral norbornene ligand in the Pd mediated ortho C–H functionalization and ipso cross-coupling transformation. The preparative power of the methodology is demonstrated as a powerful manifold for the divergent synthesis of structurally diverse axially chiral biaryls and chiral fluorenols.
Developing a Comprehensive Youth Obesity Initiative for the State of Virginia

iv Introduction 1 Objectives 4 Methods 4 Results 6 Discussion 8 Conclusion 11 Appendix A 13 Appendix B 26 Appendix C 26 References 27
Fuel-cladding chemical interaction of a prototype annular U-10Zr fuel with Fe-12Cr ferritic/martensitic HT-9 cladding

Abstract As an alternative fuel form, the annular metallic fuel design eliminates the liquid sodium bond between the fuel and the cladding, providing back-end fuel cycle and other benefits. The fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) of annular fuel also presents new features. Here, state-of-the-art electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques were used to study the FCCI of a prototype annular U-10wt%Zr (U-10Zr) fuel with ferritic/martensitic HT-9 cladding irradiated to 3.3% fission per initial heavy atom. Compared with sodium-bonded solid fuels, negligible amounts of lanthanides were found in the FCCI layer in the investigated helium-bonded annular fuel. Instead, most lanthanides were retained in the newly formed UZr2 phase in the fuel center region. The interdiffusion of iron and uranium resulted in tetragonal (U,Zr)6Fe phase (space group I4/mcm) and cubic (U,Zr)(Fe,Cr)2 phase (space group Fd 3 ¯ m). The (U,Zr)(Fe,Cr)2phase contains a high density of voids and intergranular uranium monocarbides of NaCl-type crystal structure (space group Fm 3 ¯ m). At the interdiffusion zone and inner cladding interface, a porous lamellar structure composed of alternating Cr-rich layers and U-rich layers was observed. Next to the lamellar region, the unexpected phase transformation from body-centered cubic ferrite (α-Fe) to tetragonal binary Fe-Cr σ phase (space group P42/mnm) occurred, and tetragonal Fe-Cr-U-Si phase (space group I4/mmm) was identified. Due to the diffusion of carbon into the interdiffusion zone, carbon depletion inside the HT-9 led to the disappearance of the martensite lath structure, and intergranular U-rich carbides formed as a result of the diffusion of uranium into the cladding. These detailed new findings reveal the unique features of the FCCI behavior of annular U-Zr fuels, which could be a promising alternative fuel form for high burnup fast reactor applications.
Lead–Acid Batteries

Lead–acid battery (LAB) is the oldest type of battery in consumer use. Despite comparatively low performance in terms of energy density, this is still the dominant battery in terms of cumulative energy delivered in all applications. From a well-known car starter battery, to applications for lighting and interruptible power supplies, and to photovoltaic solar systems, lead–acid batteries have been the most commonly used battery type. Despite the emergence of several, more advanced battery systems, lead–acid batteries have persistently remained a universal choice for many applications. Their principle of operation, types, charge and discharge processes, components, and failure modes are explained in this chapter.
In Vivo Demonstration of Single Transducer Harmonic Motion Imaging (ST-HMI) in a Breast Cancer Mouse Model and Breast Cancer Patients

Harmonic motion imaging (HMI) interrogates the mechanical properties of tissues by simultaneously generating and tracking amplitude-modulated (AM) force-induced motion using focused ultrasound and imaging transducers, respectively. The main advantages of HMI are that motion at oscillation frequency can be easily filtered from different motion artifacts. However, the current configuration of two separate transducers renders the HMI system highly complex. The objective of this study is to develop a single transducer HMI (ST-HMI) and test its feasibility of generating and mapping of harmonic motion using a linear array transducer to facilitate data acquisition. The feasibility of ST-HMI was performed by imaging commercially available two elastic phantoms with two inclusions (N=4), in vivo monitoring of changes in the tumor stiffness of 4T1, orthotropic breast cancer mouse model, and patient with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) breast cancer. ST-HMI-derived peak-to-peak displacements (P2PD) successfully contrasted all 4 inclusions with nominal Young's modulus of 8, 10, 40, and 60 kPa and the P2PD ratio of background to inclusion was highly correlated with Young's modulus ratio of inclusion to background with R2 of 0.93. In the mouse study, the median P2PD ratio of the tumor to non-cancerous tissue was 2.0, 3.6, 7.0, and 6.6 at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks, respectively, post-injection of the tumor cell. In the clinical study, ST-HMI detected IDC cancer with the P2PD ratio of 1.78. These results indicate that ST-HMI can assess the mechanical properties of tissues via generation and tracking of harmonic motion using a single transducer.
Trace element concentrations in ambient air as a function of distance from road.

Traffic-related air pollution is associated with various adverse health effects. In the absence of more complicated exposure assessment techniques, many environmental health studies have used the natural logarithm of distance to road as a proxy for traffic-related exposures. However, research validating this proxy and further explaining the spatial patterns and elemental composition of traffic-related particulate matter air pollution remains limited. In this study, we collected air samples using a mobile particle concentrator that allowed for high sample loading from major roadways in the Greater Boston Area. We found that concentrations of Cl, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Sr, Zr, Sn, Ba, and Pb were significantly associated with the natural logarithm of distance to road in coarse particulate matter, and total fine particulate mass concentrations of Al, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn were significantly associated with natural logarithm of distance to road in fine particulate matter. Road type (A1 or A2 [primary roads or highways] versus A3 [secondary and connecting roads]) was not a significant predictor of any traffic-related elements in particulate matter air pollution. Our results help identify traffic-related elements in particulate matter air pollution and support the use of logarithm of distance to road as a proxy for traffic-related particulate matter air pollution exposure assessment in epidemiological studies.
Diffusion-prepared fast spin echo for artifact-free spinal cord imaging.

Purpose Diffusion MRI provides unique contrast important for the detection and examination of pathophysiology after acute neurologic insults, including spinal cord injury. Diffusion weighted imaging of the rodent spinal cord has typically been evaluated with axial EPI readout. However, Diffusion weighted imaging is prone to motion artifacts, whereas EPI is prone to susceptibility artifacts. In the context of acute spinal cord injury, diffusion filtering has previously been shown to improve detection of injury by minimizing the confounding effects of edema. We propose a diffusion-preparation module combined with a rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement readout to minimize artifacts for sagittal imaging. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats with cervical contusion spinal cord injury were scanned at 9.4 Tesla. The sequence optimization included the evaluation of motion-compensated encoding diffusion gradients, gating strategy, and different spinal cord-specific diffusion-weighting schemes. Results A diffusion-prepared rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement achieved high-quality images free from susceptibility artifacts with both second-order motion-compensated encoding and gating necessary for reduction of motion artifacts. Axial diffusivity obtained from the filtered diffusion-encoding scheme had greater lesion-to-healthy tissue contrast (52%) compared to the similar metric from DTI (25%). Conclusion This work demonstrated the feasibility of high-quality diffusion sagittal imaging in the rodent cervical cord with diffusion-prepared relaxation enhancement. The sequence and results are expected to improve injury detection and evaluation in acute spinal cord injury.
The effects of mindfulness training on mindfulness, anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and performance satisfaction among female student-athletes: The moderating role of age

Abstract Research has suggested that mindfulness can help combat stress, increase self-compassion, and improve well-being. Although mindfulness is also beneficial for student-athletes, little is known about how developmental differences due to age may influence intervention efficacy. The present study investigated whether 6-week Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) training had a differential effect on younger (first and second year) compared to older (third and fourth year) college student-athletes’ mindfulness, sport anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and satisfaction with both attention/emotion regulation and physical sport performance. Participants were 39 younger and 21 older female athletes from three teams (lacrosse, field hockey, track & field) at a private university in the United States, ranging in age from 18-22. Multiple 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVAs revealed significant reductions in sport anxiety as well as significant improvements on self-ratings of satisfaction with both attention/emotion regulation and physical sport performance. Older student-athletes improved more than their younger teammates on sport mindfulness, and independent samples t-tests indicated that older student-athletes reported more frequent mindfulness practice during workouts, team practice, and competitions. Linear regressions found that age predicted reductions in sport anxiety and improvements in dispositional mindful acceptance. Finally, student-athletes perceived MSPE to be moderately to highly successful in promoting change in a variety of performance-related areas such as anxiety reduction, focus, and the ability to let things go. The implications of these results are presented, as well as suggestions for future research on mindfulness mental training with college athletes.
COVID-19 vaccine responses in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias after complete vaccination

Abstract Introduction: Due to functional hypogammaglobulinemia, multiple myeloma patients are at increased risk for infection and generally have poorer responses to vaccines. In this study, we examined antibody responses after complete COVID-19 vaccination in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias, most of whom were receiving treatment. Patients and Methods: Real world study of consecutive patients with multiple myeloma and other plasma cell dyscrasias (PCD) were evaluated after complete vaccination with either the 2-shot mRNA vaccines from BioNTech and Moderna or the 1-shot adenoviral vector vaccine from Johnson & Johnson (J&J). Patients received vaccines 1-4 months before antibody testing without controlling for the type of vaccine or the timing of drug therapy. Patients with a clinical history or antibody evidence of prior infection were excluded. Anti-nucleocapsid and quantitative anti-spike antibody levels were measured with the Roche Elecys assay. Results: 95% of patients had detectable antibody responses. Multivariate analysis showed that higher age, ongoing anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody therapy and the J&J vaccine negatively affected quantitative response. A small number of ineffectively vaccinated patients receiving IVIG subsequently had detectable nucleocapsid and spike antibodies confirming the presence of the latter in currently administered IVIG. Conclusions: Nearly all PCD had detectable anti-spike antibodies after vaccination but age, anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody therapy, and the single-shot J&J vaccine negatively affected responses. In patients who received the J&J vaccine, second doses or heterologous mRNA vaccines should be tested. Quantitative antibody testing might make future management more rational, particularly in patients with poor responses.
Filter classes of upsets of distributive lattices

Let us say that a class of upward closed sets (upsets) of distributive lattices is a finitary filter class if it is closed under homomorphic preimages, intersections, and directed unions. We show that the only finitary filter classes of upsets of distributive lattices are formed by what we call $n$-filters. These are related to the finite Boolean lattice with $n$ atoms in the same way that filters are related to the two-element Boolean lattice: $n$-filters are precisely the intersections of prime $n$-filters and prime $n$-filters are precisely the homomorphic preimages of the prime $n$-filter of non-zero elements of the finite Boolean lattice with $n$ atoms. Moreover, $n$-filters on Boolean algebras are the only finitary filter classes of upsets of Boolean algebras generated by prime upsets.
Ipilimumab and Cancer Immunotherapy: A New Hope for Advanced Stage Melanoma

Metastatic melanoma remains one of the most lethal and poorly treated forms of human cancer. Its incidence is on the rise, but no therapies offering improved survival rates have been developed over the last 40 years. This has changed with the recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the CTLA-4 function blocking antibody Ipilimumab (Yervoy), proven to extend life in patients with previously treated or untreated metastatic melanoma [39,40]. CTLA-4 is a receptor that normally functions to inhibit inappropriate or prolonged activation of T-cells. This review presents the history of initial research into the function of the CTLA-4 receptor, the pre-clinical evidence for CTLA-4 blockade's utility in cancer treatment, and the recent human clinical trials that have proven its efficacy in advanced stage melanoma. Ipilimumab represents one of a growing class of cancer immunotherapies currently under development and highlights both the promise and relative infancy of these agents in the clinical setting.