cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Home Language, Oral Language Skills, and Cross-Linguistic Phonological Abilities on Whole-Word Proximity in Spanish-English-Speaking Children.

Purpose This study examined language use and language ability factors that predict phonological whole-word proximity in young Spanish-English-speaking children. Method Participants were 199 Latino children aged 3;0-6;6 (years;months) and their mothers. Children's speech sound production in English and Spanish was assessed using the Bilingual Phonological Assessment ( Miccio & Hammer, 2006 ). Vocabulary and story retell abilities were assessed using the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey-Revised ( Woodcock, Munoz-Sandoval, Ruef, & Alvarado, 2005 ), and information regarding the children's exposure to and use of English and Spanish was collected by means of a parent survey. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the degree to which exposure to and use of each language in the home, oral language abilities, and phonological proficiency as measured by the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP; Ingram, 2002 ) in the other language were able to predict the PWP scores in English and Spanish. Results A large portion of the variance in English and Spanish PWP scores ( R 2 = .66 and .51, respectively) was predicted by the language children use when communicating with their mothers, children's vocabulary scores, and children's PWP scores in the other language. Conclusion Language use, vocabulary, and phonological whole-word proximity in the other language are significant factors in predicting bilingual children's whole-word proximity in English and Spanish. Children's phonological abilities in one language are highly predictive of those same abilities in the other, suggesting underlying shared phonological skills across languages.
A comparative study of three-dimensional high-definition and two-dimensional high-definition video systems in totally endoscopic mitral valve replacement.

Background: Three-dimensional vision with improved depth perception and spatial orientation has already proved its superiority to the two-dimensional vision in endoscopic surgery. However, those benefits remain unidentified in cardiac surgery. For the first time, we compare performance of a three-dimensional high-definition video system with a two-dimensional high-definition video system in patients undergoing totally endoscopic mitral valve replacement. Methods: We enrolled 90 patients with mitral valve disease in a single institution, from June 2013 to June 2016. Totally endoscopic mitral valve replacement was performed by the same surgeon using either a three-dimensional high-definition (n=43) or a two-dimensional high-definition (n=47) video system with the same surgical technique. Short-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. All medical records were retrieved from a prospectively maintained database of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Results: All surgeries were successfully completed under totally endoscopic guidance. There were no intraoperative complications in either group. The use of three-dimensional video system reduced aortic cross-clamp time by approximately 10% (3D vs . 2D: 65.74±14.32 vs . 72.67±14.67 min, P=0.027). No significant differences were observed in cardiopulmonary bypass time, postoperative ventilation duration, length of surgical intensive care unit stay, length of hospital stay, and major complications between the two groups. There were no perioperative deaths in either group. Conclusions: Compared with the two-dimensional video system, the three-dimensional high-definition video system provided a better surgical experience with the same operative safety for totally endoscopic mitral valve replacement.
Less direct patient care delivered by medical trainees by the end of a hematology-oncology ward rotation: Association with empathy and related factors.

OBJECTIVE The education of trainee physicians in hematology-oncology is challenged by inherent stressors of hematology-oncology. Clinical work load, death and dying, and the known phenomenon of empathy decline during clinical education affect trainees. Time spent with patients or direct patient care time (DPCT) is influenced by many factors, which ultimately affect medical education. Therefore, DPCT may decrease by the end training on a busy hematology-oncology ward rotation. METHODS Internal medicine interns and residents (n = 64) rotating on a hematology-oncology ward rotation were consecutively selected to participate. Questionnaires containing Likert scale questions assessing time spent with patients before and after the rotation, empathy/resilience/distress measurements (Interpersonal Reactivity Index [IRI], Connors-Davidson Resilience Scale [CD-RISC], and Impact of Events Scale-Revised [IES-R], respectively), and demographic and situational information were collected at the beginning and end of the rotation RESULTS: DPCT decreased from over 10 to 15 minutes per patient to slightly over 1 to 5 minutes with over half of the trainees spending less than 1 minute per patient per day (P < .001, Cohen's d = 1.05). Empathy scores decreased 2.01 points from 58.9 to 56.8 (P = .018, Cohen's d = 0.33) during the rotation. DPCT decrease was associated mistreatment (P < .001) and lack of support (P = .001) while endorsing external issues (P = .002) and longer rotation time predicted for greater DPCT accounting for 67% of DPCT variance on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION Medical trainees in oncology who feel a lack of social/familial support and feel mistreated by mentors/superiors spend significantly less time with patients. Educational initiatives should replicate and utilize these associations to enhance patient-centric care in oncology.
The association of emotional lability and emotional and behavioral difficulties among children with and without ADHD.

Children with ADHD often demonstrate a pattern of emotional lability characterized by sudden and intense shifts in affect. Emotional lability has been linked to emotional and behavioral problems in children with and without ADHD, but few studies have examined emotional lability over time. This study examined the effects of emotional lability over time on the behavioral and emotional difficulties of children with and without ADHD using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology. One hundred and two children aged 8–12 years (56 with ADHD and 46 without ADHD) and their parents completed baseline measures of the children’s behavioral and emotional difficulties. Parents then completed a 28-day 3-times daily EMA assessment protocol to rate their child’s emotional lability. Results suggested that emotional lability was associated with internalizing and/or externalizing diagnoses independent of ADHD diagnostic status, but was not directly associated with ADHD. Hierarchical regression analyses supported ADHD diagnostic status as a moderator of the association of greater EMA-derived emotional lability with children’s behavioral difficulties, such that greater emotional lability was associated with greater behavioral difficulties among children with ADHD but not among children without ADHD. Results indicated that greater emotional lability was directly linked with greater emotional difficulties and that this relation was not moderated by ADHD diagnostic status. Overall, this study suggested that emotional lability is related to emotional difficulties independent of ADHD, but is differentially related to behavioral difficulties among children with and without ADHD.
Measuring interprocess communications in distributed systems

Due to the increasing demands for computational scalability and performance, more distributed software systems are being developed than single-process programs. As an important step in software quality assurance, software measurement provides essential means and evidences in quality assessment hence incentives and guidance for quality improvement. However, despite the rich literature on software measurement in general, existing measures are mostly defined for single-process programs only or limited to conventional metrics. In this paper, we propose a novel set of metrics for common distributed systems, with a focus on their interprocess communications (IPC), a vital aspect of their run-time behaviors. We demonstrated the practicality of characterizing IPC dynamics and complexity via the proposed IPC metrics, by computing the measures against nine real-world distributed systems and their varied executions. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of IPC measurements, we extensively investigated how the proposed metrics may help understand and analyze various quality factors of distributed systems, ranging from maintainability and stability to security and performance, on the same nine distributed systems and their executions. We found that higher IPC coupling tended to be generally detrimental to most of the quality aspects while interprocess sharing of common functionalities should be promoted due to its understandability and security benefits.
Composite Buttock Augmentation: The Next Frontier in Gluteal Aesthetic Surgery

Background:Despite rapid growth, gluteal fat transplantation has a dismal safety record and often results in inadequate domal projection. Implants alone for gluteal augmentation have also been reported to be less than ideal, with significant complication rates. The idea of combining both implants an
Creating Digital Collages Inspired by English Texts

Often, textual data is accompanied by images in an attempt to help the user better understand the content. Drawing inspiration from this, it would be interesting to transform any given text into a digital image collage, an artistic graphic object. To automate the process, we developed a software system that uses Natural Language Processing to summarize large paragraphs of text, retrieves images from databases, and arranges them with a Genetic Algorithm on a digital canvas. Given that certain images may be more important to the user, the software computes emphasis factors for scaling the images in the collage. We performed computational experiments to validate each module of our system and initiated user studies to examine their perception of the collages.
Medical Therapies to Reduce Delayed Graft Function and Improve Long-Term Graft Survival: Are We Making Progress?

Delayed graft function (DGF) is defined by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) as the need for at least one dialysis treatment in the first week after kidney transplantation. Because dialysis may be performed for indications unrelated to graft dysfunction ( e.g. , hyperkalemia or fluid
Passy muir valve tolerance in medically complex infants and children: Are there predictors for success?

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate if there are predictors for success with Passy Muir Valve (PMV) placement for medically complex pediatric patients. Methods Retrospective chart review of 52 pediatric patients with a tracheostomy with or without ventilator dependence who received PMV assessments from October 2017 through October 2018 in intensive care units and acute care units within Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA). Univariate analysis and logistic regression modeling were used to identify factors associated with a successful PMV trial. Results Factors found to be associated with a successful PMV trial were as follows: transtracheal pressure measurement, presence of voicing, age of patient >2 years, weight of patient, and ventilator rate. Conclusion Medically complex infants and children in the intensive care units and acute care units on or off the ventilator can be considered candidates for PMV use; several factors can be predictive of a successful trial. Level of evidence 2C Laryngoscope, 130:E632-E639, 2020.
The Colonial Texts Corpus for the Digital Library of Old Spanish Texts

This article offers a detailed description of the Colonial Texts Corpus, one of eleven subcorpora of the Digital Library of Old Spanish Texts published by the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies. Launched in 2018, the corpus allows interactive access to semi-paleographic transcriptions of texts produced in the Americas during the colonial period, a textual type that is under-represented in existing electronic corpora. The rationale of the project is provided, as well as the criteria for the selection of texts to be included and their method of preparation. Finally, the interface of the corpus is illustrated, and its functionality is exemplified.
In silico prediction of host-pathogen protein interactions in melioidosis pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei and human reveals novel virulence factors and their targets.

The aerobic, Gram-negative motile bacillus, Burkholderia pseudomallei is a facultative intracellular bacterium causing melioidosis, a critical disease of public health importance, which is widely endemic in the tropics and subtropical regions of the world. Melioidosis is associated with high case fatality rates in animals and humans; even with treatment, its mortality is 20-50%. It also infects plants and is designated as a biothreat agent. B. pseudomallei is pathogenic due to its ability to invade, resist factors in serum and survive intracellularly. Despite its importance, to date only a few effector proteins have been functionally characterized, and there is not much information regarding the host-pathogen protein-protein interactions (PPI) of this system, which are important to studying infection mechanisms and thereby develop prevention measures. We explored two computational approaches, the homology-based interolog and the domain-based method, to predict genome-scale host-pathogen interactions (HPIs) between two different strains of B. pseudomallei (prototypical, and highly virulent) and human. In total, 76 335 common HPIs (between the two strains) were predicted involving 8264 human and 1753 B. pseudomallei proteins. Among the unique PPIs, 14 131 non-redundant HPIs were found to be unique between the prototypical strain and human, compared to 3043 non-redundant HPIs between the highly virulent strain and human. The protein hubs analysis showed that most B. pseudomallei proteins formed a hub with human dnaK complex proteins associated with tuberculosis, a disease similar in symptoms to melioidosis. In addition, drug-binding and carbohydrate-binding mechanisms were found overrepresented within the host-pathogen network, and metabolic pathways were frequently activated according to the pathway enrichment. Subcellular localization analysis showed that most of the pathogen proteins are targeting human proteins inside cytoplasm and nucleus. We also discovered the host targets of the drug-related pathogen proteins and proteins that form T3SS and T6SS in B. pseudomallei. Additionally, a comparison between the unique PPI patterns present in the prototypical and highly virulent strains was performed. The current study is the first report on developing a genome-scale host-pathogen protein interaction networks between the human and B. pseudomallei, a critical biothreat agent. We have identified novel virulence factors and their interacting partners in the human proteome. These PPIs can be further validated by high-throughput experiments and may give new insights on how B. pseudomallei interacts with its host, which will help medical researchers in developing better prevention measures.
Implementing Variable Power Transmission Patterns for Authentication Purposes

The last decade has witnessed an increase in adopting wireless systems. A wireless system enables two devices to utilize radio frequencies to communicate wirelessly. Moreover, in wireless systems, authentication can be performed wirelessly through transferring authentication information over-the-air. Alternatively, antennas in most devices enabled to communicate wirelessly today can control the power level of transmission to improve the wireless system’s performance. In the present study, we examine the feasibility of varying the power level of transmission of a device’s antenna for authentication purposes. This can be used in applications, such as obstructing relay attacks on wireless authentication systems. Furthermore, a prototype is built and tested utilizing Wi-Fi enabled systems.
Comparing Boston naming test short forms in a rehabilitation sample.

The Boston Naming Test (BNT) has multiple short forms that do not include the noose item that have been primarily examined in dementia populations. This study compared BNT short forms with standard...
Role of Electrochemistry in Molecular Electronics and Biocomputing

It is widely recognized that a conventional digital computer is strong on number crunching yet weak on higher cognitive functions, as compared to the human brain. It is also well recognized that digital information processing implemented in conventional computers ensure that errors are introduced only at two stages of information processing: input (analog-to-digital conversion) and output (digital-to-analog conversion). The remaining intermediate steps of digital computation are carried out faithfully according to the program instructions. Inadvertent inclusion of programming errors (“bugs”) often brings the computer to a screeching halt; a digital computer “degrades catastrophically.” The insistence of internal data handling in only two states, “1” and “0”, precludes intrusion of errors during the intermediate steps but also precludes modifications of certain program steps that might either contingently or inadvertently avert the “catastrophes.” In the past two decades, considerable efforts have been made to circumvent this limitation. These efforts led to the birth of molecular electronics and biocomputing (e.g., Hong, 1994).
Evaluating public acceptance of autonomous delivery robots during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Autonomous delivery robot (ADR) technology for last-mile freight deliveries is a valuable step towards low-carbon logistics. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has put a global spotlight on ADRs for contactless package deliveries, and tremendous market interest has been pushing ADR developers to provide large-scale operation in several US cities. The deployment and penetration of ADR technology in this emerging marketplace calls for collection and analysis of consumer preference data on ADRs. This study addresses the need for research on public acceptance of ADRs and offers a detailed analysis of consumer preferences, trust, attitudes, and willingness to pay (WTP) using a representative sample of 483 consumers in Portland. The results reveal six underlying consumer segments: Direct Shoppers, E-Shopping Lovers, COVID Converts, Omnichannel Consumers, E-Shopping Skeptics, and Indifferent Consumers. By identifying the WTP determinants of these latent classes, this study provides actionable guidance for fostering mass adoption of low-carbon deliveries in the last-mile.
The BNLBox Cloud Storage Service

Large scientific data centers have recently begun providing a number of different types of data storage in order to satisfy the various needs of their users. Users with interactive accounts, for example, might want a POSIX interface for easy access to the data from their interactive machines. Grid computing sites, on the other hand, likely need to provide an X509-based storage protocol, like SRM and GridFTP, since the data management system is built upon them. Meanwhile, an experiment producing large amounts of data typically demands a service that provides archival storage for the safe keeping of their unique data. To access these various types of data, users must use specific sets of commands tailored to their respective storage, making access to their data complex and difficult. BNLBox is an attempt to provide a unified and easy to use storage service for all BNL users, to store their important documents, code and data. It is a cloud storage system with an intuitive web interface for novice users. It provides an automated synchronization feature that enables users to upload data to their cloud storage without manual intervention, freeing them to focus on analysis rather than data management software. It provides a POSIX interface for local interactive users, which simplifies data access from batch jobs as well. At the same time, it also provides users with a straightforward mechanism for archiving large data sets for later processing. The storage space can be used for both code and data within the compute job environment. This paper will describe various aspects of the BNLBox storage service.
New insights in the canonical model of health capital

Abstract The comparative dynamics of the feedback form of the consumption and health-investment demand functions in the health capital model of Grossman (1972) are thoroughly scrutinized for their refutable results. The usual comparative dynamics expressions, to wit, the individual partial derivatives of the demand functions with respect to the parameters and state variables, are not refutable under the basic assumptions of the theory. As a result, sufficient conditions for their falsifiability are identified. In contrast, the heretofore unknown intrinsic comparative dynamics of the demand functions are shown to be characterized by a positive semidefinite matrix of generalized Slutsky-like terms.
Relationship between sleep duration and quality and glycated hemoglobin, body mass index, and self-reported health in Marshallese adults.

Abstract Objective To document sleep duration and sleep quality among a sample of Marshallese adults and to examine if sleep duration and quality are associated with type 2 diabetes, body mass index (BMI), and self-reported health in the Marshallese population. Design Cross-sectional analysis of a staff-administered survey. Setting Thirty Marshallese churches in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Participants The study includes 378 Marshallese participants, 56.6% female, with a mean age of 42.4 years (±11.6). Recruitment was limited to participants who were considered overweight, with a BMI >25 kg/m2. Measures Staff-administered surveys were used to collect data on sleep duration, sleep quality, and self-reported health. Clinical measures were collected by trained research personnel using standard tools and protocols. Kruskal-Wallis tests, Spearman's correlations, and nonparametric tests of trends were used to evaluate differences in HbA1c, BMIc, and self-reported health by sleep duration and quality. Multivariable analyses were used to test the associations, controlling for sociodemographic factors. Results Fifty-four percent of the participants reported something other than normal sleep duration and 52.4% reported at least 1 night of difficult or interrupted sleep in the previous 2-week period. Longer sleep duration was associated with lower HbA1c and poorer sleep quality was associated with higher HbA1c. Poor sleep quality was associated with lower self-reported health. However, neither sleep duration nor quality was associated with BMI. The associations were found independent of sociodemographic factors. Conclusion This is the first study to document sleep duration and sleep quality, as well as the first study to examine the relationship between sleep and HbA1c, BMI, and self-reported health in Marshallese adults with a BMI >25 kg/m2. This research will be used to help develop sleep interventions to address type 2 diabetes health disparities in the Marshallese community.
Polarization out of the vortex

The virtual photons that are exchanged when a free-electron vortex beam interacts with a nanoscopic target unlock an explicit connection between polarized optical spectroscopy and the inelastic scattering of scalar electron waves.
Introduction: Stories, Data and Statistics

This chapter describes the American Community Survey (ACS) and how to use microdata from it to calculate descriptive statistics and make inferences about cause and effect social relationships. It introduces the core statistical technique of regression. This chapter emphasizes an intuitive understanding of techniques and concepts, and defines and clarifies dozens of key terms used in econometric research. Questions for Review at the end of the chapter, on topics including sample weighting and inflation adjustments, illustrate the use of empirical best practices to those readers either beginning in econometrics or with experience but looking to add a valuable new data source to their repertoire.
Creative Self-Efficacy: An Essential Transition Skill for Students With Learning Disabilities:

The ability to think creatively is a vital transition skill for students with learning disabilities in the 21st century. Participation in careers with a high level of creative thinking ability not ...
Soybean seed weight responds to increases in assimilate supply during late seed-fill phase

The understanding of source-sink dynamics during reproductive stages is essential to increase crop productivity and to describe yield component determination in eco-physiological models. Previous s...
Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide induces a depressive-like phenotype in rats.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic, life-threatening psychiatric condition characterized by depressed mood, psychomotor alterations, and a markedly diminished interest or pleasure in most activities known as anhedonia. Available pharmacotherapies have limited success and the need for new strategies is clear. Recent studies attribute a major role to the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) system in mediating the response to stress. PACAP knockout mice display profound alterations in depressive-like behaviors, and genetic association studies have demonstrated that genetic variants of the PACAP gene are associated with MDD. However, the effects of PACAP administration on depressive-like behaviors in rodents have not yet been systematically examined. The present study investigated the effects of central administration of PACAP in rats on depressive-like behaviors, using well-established animal models that represent some of the endophenotypes of depression. We used intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) to assess the brain reward function, saccharin preference test to assess anhedonia, social interaction to assess social withdrawal, and forced swim test (FST) to assess behavioral despair. PACAP raised the current threshold for ICSS, elevation blocked by the PACAP antagonist PACAP(6–38). PACAP reduced the preference for a sweet saccharin solution and reduced the time the rats spent interacting with a novel animal. Interestingly, PACAP administration did not affect immobility in the FST. Our results demonstrate a role for the central PACAP/PAC1R system in the regulation of depressive-like behaviors and suggest that hyperactivity of the PACAP/PAC1R system may contribute to the pathophysiology of depression, particularly the associated anhedonic symptomatology and social dysfunction.
A Distributed Scheduling Algorithm for Heterogeneous Real-Time Systems

Much of the previous work on load balancing and scheduling in distributed environments was concerned with homogeneous systems and homogeneous loads. Several of the results indicate that random policies are as effective as other more complex load allocation policies. In this paper, we investigate the effects of heterogeneity on scheduling algorithms for hard-real time systems. We propose a distributed scheduler specifically to handle heterogeneities in both nodes and node traffic. The performance of this algorithm is measured in terms of the percentage of jobs discarded. While a random task allocation is very sensitive to heterogeneities, our algorithm is shown to be robust to such non-uniformities in system components and load.
A study of the copper T intrauterine contraceptive device (TCu 200) in nulliparous women

Abstract The copper T intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD), Model TCu 200, has been found to be a very suitable method of contraception for the nulliparous woman. This IUD was easily inserted into 471 nulliparous women without anesthesia and with minimal postinsertion analgesia. A total of 6,044 woman-months' experience was obtained during the 26 month study period. Life-table analysis of first segment event rates at one year showed the pregnancy rate to be 1.7, expulsion rate 5.4, and removal rate for bleeding or pain to be 10.7 per 100 women. These event rates are lower than those reported for other IUD's in nulliparous women and are comparable to event rates with this and other types of IUD's in multiparous women. At one year, there was a continuation rate of 74.2 per 100 women, indicating that the copper T IUD is well accepted by the nulliparous woman and provides her with an effective, alternative method of contraception to the oral steroids.
Microscopic endonasal transsphenoidal pituitary adenomectomy in the pediatric population

Object Pituitary adenomas are uncommon in childhood. Although medical treatment can be effective in treating prolactinomas and some growth hormone (GH)–secreting tumors, resection is indicated when visual function is affected or the side effects of medical therapy are intolerable. The authors of this report describe their 10-year experience in managing pituitary adenomas via the microscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach in a pediatric population. Methods They performed a retrospective review of a surgical case series based at a single institution and consisting of 34 consecutive pediatric patients with endocrine-active (32 patients) and endocrine-inactive (2 patients) adenomas. These patients were surgically treated via an endonasal transsphenoidal approach between 1999 and 2008. Patient charts were reviewed, and clinical data were compiled and analyzed using the chi-square and Kaplan-Meier tests. Results The patient cohort consisted of 20 girls and 14 boys, with ages ranging from 9 to 18 years and a...
Morphogenesis of Early 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine-induced Lesions and Latent Period Reduction of Colon Carcinogenesis in Mice by a Variant of Citrobacter freundii

Summary The morphogenesis of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced lesions in the colon of outbred NIH Swiss mice was determined for up to 5 months of treatment. The effect of hyperplasia on DMH carcinogenesis was also evaluated by introducing a transient hyperplastic stimulus to the colon during the chronic weekly treatment regimen of DMH. The hyperplastic stimulus was a naturally occurring disease of mice, transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia, which is caused by a variant of Citrobacter freundii. In control mice, those not receiving the bacterium, weekly injections of the carcinogen induced neoplastic changes first detectable at two months of treatment in all segments of the colon and in both sexes. The changes increased in frequency and severity with time. Diffuse mucosal hyperplasia and chronic inflammatory and degenerative changes were also associated with DMH after prolonged treatment. The hyperplastic stimulus of C. freundii reduced the latent period for appearance of early DMH tumors, but it had no influence on already established DMH tumors.
Motor Learning at Intermediate Reynolds Number: Experiments with Policy Gradient on the Flapping Flight of a Rigid Wing

This work describes the development of a model-free reinforcement learning-based control methodology for the heaving plate, a laboratory experimental fluid system that serves as a model of flapping flight. Through an optimized policy gradient algorithm, we were able to demonstrate rapid convergence (requiring less than 10 minutes of experiments) to a stroke form which maximized the propulsive efficiency of this very complicated fluid-dynamical system. This success was due in part to an improved sampling distribution and carefully selected policy parameterization, both motivated by a formal analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio of policy gradient algorithms. The resulting optimal policy provides insight into the behavior of the fluid system, and the effectiveness of the learning strategy suggests a number of exciting opportunities for machine learning control of fluid dynamics.
High incidence of epithelial cancers in mice deficient for DNA polymerase δ proofreading

Mutations are a hallmark of cancer. Normal cells minimize spontaneous mutations through the combined actions of polymerase base selectivity, 3′ → 5′ exonucleolytic proofreading, mismatch correction, and DNA damage repair. To determine the consequences of defective proofreading in mammals, we created mice with a point mutation (D400A) in the proofreading domain of DNA polymerase δ (polδ, encoded by the Pold1 gene). We show that this mutation inactivates the 3′ → 5′ exonuclease of polδ and causes a mutator and cancer phenotype in a recessive manner. By 18 months of age, 94% of homozygous Pold1D400A/D400A mice developed cancer and died (median survival = 10 months). In contrast, only 3–4% of Pold1+/D400A and Pold1+/+ mice developed cancer in this time frame. Of the 66 tumors arising in 49 Pold1D400A/D400A mice, 40 were epithelial in origin (carcinomas), 24 were mesenchymal (lymphomas and sarcomas), and two were composite (teratomas); one-third of these animals developed tumors in more than one tissue. Skin squamous cell carcinoma was the most common tumor type, occurring in 60% of all Pold1D400A/D400A mice and in 90% of those surviving beyond 8 months of age. These data show that polδ proofreading suppresses spontaneous tumor development and strongly suggest that unrepaired DNA polymerase errors contribute to carcinogenesis. Mice deficient in polδ proofreading provide a tractable model to study mechanisms of epithelial tumorigenesis initiated by a mutator phenotype.
Understanding placebo responses in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials from the literature meta-data and CAMD database.

Background The placebo response and the underlying disease progression is difficult to differentiate in longitudinal Alzheimer's disease (AD) studies, yet it is crucial to understand for designing clinical trials and interpreting results. Objectives The placebo response in ADAS-cog11 from various studies was evaluated against model predictions derived from historical placebo data to demonstrate potential interpretation of study results using a prior understanding of expected disease progression. Methods The placebo response component from a previously published disease progression model was used to estimate the longitudinal placebo response, and the disease progression in the placebo group in various case studies were evaluated. In addition, placebo data from the Coalition Against Major Diseases (CAMD) database in mild to moderate AD patients is described. Results The case studies demonstrated potential different results in disease progression in a placebo group, and the impact on understanding the magnitude of drug effect. Baseline cognitive function is an important covariate of disease progression, therefore, it is important to evaluate the baseline severity and predict disease progression accordingly when comparing trial results. Furthermore, study duration, sample size, and study design may affect the placebo response, all of which have the potential to confound understanding of study results. Conclusion The recent failures in Phase III AD studies are not likely due to insufficient cognitive decline in the control groups. A meta-analytic approach using all available data provides a robust understanding of placebo effect, disease progression, and potential interpretation of treatment effects, and offers a useful tool to aid in both trial design and interpretation.
Alcohol research: past, present, and future

Created forty years ago, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has played a major role in the great strides made in the understanding, treatment, prevention, and public acceptance of alcohol-use disorders. Throughout most of U.S. history "habitual drunkenness" was viewed as a problem of moral degeneracy or character flaw inherent in the individual. However, the wealth of scientific evidence amassed throughout NIAAA's history has established alcoholism as a medical condition, that is, as a disease for which affected individuals should feel no shame or be treated with disdain. We look at the developments in alcohol epidemiology, typology, etiology, prevention, and treatment research over the past 40 years. We also discuss how NIAAA addresses alcohol disorders from a life-course framework, affecting all stages of the lifespan, from fetus through child, adolescent, and young adult, to midlife/senior adult, with each stage involving different risks, consequences, prevention efforts, and treatment strategies.
Cultural influence, economic security, and the fertility behavior of the Chinese in Canada

This study explores interactions of cultural influence and economic insecurity and their effects on the fertility behavior of the Chinese in Canada. The importance of group context on the actions of individuals is measured through data from the PUST of the 1971 and 1991 Canadian Censuses. Contextual analysis and random coefficient models are the major statistical tools employed to achieve the above objectives. The Chinese-Canadians are compared to the British-Canadians, who are used as the reference group. The findings suggest that Chinese reproductive norms with pronatalist endowments exert strong influence on the fertility behavior of the Chinese in Canada. This influence effectively counteracts the negative effects of economic insecurity and encourages Chinese immigrants to quickly recover their fertility deficit after the initial immigration stage. The effects of the origin culture on fertility diminish with increasing exposure to the host society. However, even among the nativeborn or Canadian-born Chinese, the influence of Chinese reproductive norms is still present though not as strong as among the foreign-born Chinese.
Preserving and reserving the best for last: longevity begets wisdom

The recent passing of Howard Jones closes a chapter in the history of reproductive medicine in the USA and abroad. He will always be remembered for the wisdom he imparted on our profession immediately and for sharing with so many the courage and determination that was required to bring ARTs into the mainstream of infertility treatment in the USA. Besides being a mentor to the present day leaders in our field, his longevity carved a legacy that touched the lives of so many over his years at Johns Hopkins and through his tenure at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. Among those touched most profoundly by Howard and Georgeanna, none compares with their influence on the hopes and aspirations of Elizabeth Comeau. It is well worth it for our readers to have a look at the touching eulogy she proffers to Dr. Howard in which she recounts his lifelong influence on the first baby born by IVF in the USA (www.bostonglobe.com/news/science/2015/08/01/the-first-ivf-baby-remembers-howard-jones/9MkRw23tcevVkZWVuVAZqI/story.html).
A nonmetrizable manifold from

Abstract Assuming ♢ + , a perfectly normal 3-dimensional manifold M is constructed with the property that M =∪ α ω 1 M α where each M α is an open connected metric subspace of M with ∪ β M β ⫋M α .
Red cell charge is not a function of cell age

REPORTS1,2 that the oldest circulating human erythrocytes have an electrophoretic mobility up to 30% lower than the youngest cells have been widely accepted, particularly since such findings suggest a plausible mechanism for the removal of the oldest cells from circulation. For those studies1,2 the red cells were separated on the basis of age by using the accepted relationship that older cells are denser on the average than younger cells. We report here that electrophoretic mobility studies conducted independently by conventional electrophoresis, streak width measurements and electrophoretic light scattering have shown the mobilities to be the same for red cell fractions of differing density and hence age in vivo. These data suggest that hypotheses which invoke a role for decreasing surface charge density in the mechanism of senescent red cell recognition in vivo are unsound.
HIV testing and counseling in the nation's outpatient substance abuse treatment system, 1995-2005.

This article examines the extent to which U.S. outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) facilities provide HIV counseling and testing (CT by 2005, this proportion had increased, but only to 28.8%. Further, results from random-effects interval regression analysis show that C&T is especially widespread in public and nonprofit facilities, in methadone facilities, and in units that serve injection drug users and commercial sex workers. HIV C&T was also more widespread in units that employed formal intake protocols. Despite widespread efforts to increase HIV C&T services in OSAT care, only a small and stable minority of clients receive these services. Adoption of formal intake procedures may provide one vehicle to increase provision of C&T services.
SCA1-Phosphorylation, a regulator of Ataxin-1 function and pathogenesis

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is one an intriguing set of nine neurodegenerative diseases caused by the expansion of a unstable trinucleotide CAG repeat where the repeat is located within the coding of the affected gene, i.e. the polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases. A gain-of-function mechanism for toxicity in SCA1, like the other polyQ diseases, is thought to have a major role in pathogenesis. Yet, the specific nature of this gain-of-function is a matter of considerable discussion. An issue concerns whether toxicity stems from the native or normal function of the affected protein versus a novel function induced by polyQ expansion. For SCA1 considerable evidence is accumulating that pathology is mediated by a polyQ-induced exaggeration of a native function of the host protein Ataxin-1 (ATXN1) and that phosphorylation of S776 regulates its interaction with other cellular protein and thereby function. In addition, this posttranslational modification modulates toxicity of ATXN1 with an expanded polyglutamine.
SU-FF-I-18: Optimization of FDK Reconstruction Parameters to Minimize Aliasing and Reduce Metal Artifacts

Purpose: To maximize SNR, suppress metal artifacts and minimize backprojection times for FDK‐based cone‐beam CT(CBCT)reconstructions by optimizing binning, filtering and backprojection parameters, and to investigate the performance of new multi‐core CPU's. Methods and Materials:CBCTreconstruction times can be reduced by filtering and downsampling high resolution flat panel projection data to match the reconstruction matrix pitch, and by using nearest neighbor interpolation (NN) for backprojection. However, metal artifacts and noise aliasing may result. To investigate the tradeoffs involved, a frequency‐domain noise power spectrum (NPS) model was developed. Phantom and clinical CBCT data were acquired using the On‐Board Imager and reconstructed with a range of pre‐processing and backprojection parameters while keeping imageMTF constant. Imagenoise, including the amount of noise aliasing, and metal artifacts were evaluated. Reconstruction times were measured on Xeon workstations comprising either two single‐core, dual‐core, or quad‐core CPU's. Results: Two types of metal artifacts emerged. A moire pattern is produced if insufficient projection data densities in the transaxial direction are maintained, while radial streaks are produced by insufficiently dense axial data. For best image quality aliased noise should be less than 5% of the total imagenoise, and projection data should be 1.5–2.0× denser than the reconstructed image matrix pitch for backprojection with bilinear interpolation. NN interpolation is not preferred. Although backprojection times increased by ∼50% with these higher projection data densities, overall reconstruction times for relatively large image matrices (512×512×188, 675 projections), were <50 seconds using the quad‐core workstation which is sufficiently fast for IGRT applications. Conclusions: Optimal use of high data densities coupled with bilinear interpolation for backprojection can suppress some metal artifacts and minimize noise aliasing. New multi‐core CPU architectures provide sufficient speed to make such reconstructions clinically practical. Conflict of Interest: Employees of Varian Medical Systems.
Effect of temperature regime on growth and subsequent responses ofSophora japonica seedlings to SO2

Ten-week-oldSophora japonica seedlings were grown for 10 weeks at 17, 22, or 27°C and then exposed to 0 or 1.0 μl/SO2 for 48 hours. The seedlings were subsequently grown at 22°C and harvested 12 weeks later. Effects of preconditioning temperature and SO2 on leaf formation, seedling height and stem diameter, as well as dry weight increment and relative growth rates of leaves, stems, and roots were studied. The preconditioning temperature regime influenced growth and subsequently affected SO2 uptake and growth. However, the responses of seedlings to temperature and SO2 varied with the growth parameter measured. The need for greater standardization of methods and criteria for assessing pollution tolerance of plants is emphasized.
Ad Hoc Wireless Networking and Shared Computation for Autonomous Multirobot Systems

A wireless ad hoc network is introduced that enables inter-robot communication and shared computation among multiple robots with PC/104-based single board computers running the real-time application interface patched Linux operating system. Through the use of IEEE 802.11 ad hoc technology and User Datagram Protocol, each robot is able to exchange data without the need of a centralized router or wireless access point. The paper presents three key aspects of this novel architecture to include: 1) procedures to install the real-time application interface patched operating system and wireless ad hoc communication protocol on a multiple robot system; 2) development of a Simulink ® library to enable intercommunication among robots and provide the requisite software-hardware interfaces for the onboard sensor suite and actuator packages; 3) methods to rapidly generate and deploy real-time executables using Mathwork’s Real-Time Workshop™ to enable an autonomous robotic system. Experimental test results from the Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory at the Naval Postgraduate School are presented which demonstrate negligible network latencies and real-time distributed computing capability on the Autonomous Spacecraft Assembly Test Bed. A complete manual is also included to replicate the network and software infrastructures described in this work. Also, the developed Simulink ® library can be requested from the authors.
Analysis of the Dimerized Sb/Si(001)-(2×l) Surface by X Ray Standing Waves

X ray standing wave measurements were undertaken to study the bonding position of Sb adatoms on the Sb-saturated Si(001)−(2×1) surface. Using the (004) and (022) Bragg reflections, we find that the Sb atoms form dimers, and that the center of the Sb ad-dimers lies 1.64 A above the bulk-like Si(004) surface atomic plane. This work describes the extraction of structural parameters for a dimerized surface from in-plane measurements. Our results are compared to two structural models consisting of dimers whose bonds are parallel to the surface plane and whose centers are either shifted or unshifted (parallel to the dimer bond direction) relative to the underlying substrate planes. We thus find two special cases consistent with our data: one with symmetric (unshifted) dimers having a dimer bond length of 2.81 A, and the other with midpointshifted dimers, having a bond length of 2.88 A and a lateral shift of 0.21 A.