cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Clinical Outcome of Newly Diagnosed Patients >60 Years of Age with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) Treated with Standard or Liposomal Chemotherapies

Background: Effective and safe treatment approaches are needed for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the elderly. One approach is to substitute a chemotherapeutic agent with liposomal formulation, expecting greater anti-tumor activity and less toxicity. We have previously conducted two phase II studies using this approach: DRCOP (Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 2015), utilizing pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in place of conventional doxorubicin in RCHOP, and RCHMP (Brit J Haematol 2013), utilizing liposomal vincristine in place of conventional vincristine in RCHOP. We sought to compare the outcome of patients who are > 60 years of age with newly diagnosed DLBCL, and received DRCOP, RCHMP and RCHOP. This retrospective analysis was in part supported by Spectrum. Methods: The outcome of patients with DLBCL who were > 60 years old were analyzed from the study of DRCOP (DLBCL, n=79) and RCHMP (DLBCL elderly, n=32). In addition, we collected the outcome of patients > 60 years old who received standard RCHOP therapy in 2012 (n=39) from our Lymphoma Outcome Database. The baseline clinical characteristics including age adjusted IPI score (aaIPI), determined by stage, LDH and performance status were collected, along with progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The retrospective study of patients with this population has been approved by the institutional review board. Results: The baseline characteristics were slightly different in all three groups, though statistically not significant; patients with aaIPI 2/3 were 40/79 (51%), 13/32 (40%) and 12/39 (31%) in DRCOP, RCHMP and RCHOP group, respectively (p=0.13). The 3-year PFS rates in aaIPI 0/1 group were 74%, 83% and 81%, respectively. The 3-year PFS rates in aaIPI 2/3 group were 52%, 67% and 48%, respectively. The 3-year OS rates in aaIPI 0/1 were 84%, 94% and 80%, respectively. The 3-year OS rates in aaIPI 2/3 were 63%, 77% and 65%, respectively. None of the survival differences were statistically significant. Kaplan-Meyer curves are shown in Figure. Conclusion: In summary, our data showed that liposomal formulation of chemotherapeutic agents produced similar survival outcome to standard therapy. The number of patients analyzed here is small, but these data support the idea of a randomized evaluation of RCHMP against standard RCHOP therapy in a prospective study in patients with DLBCL. Disclosures Off Label Use: Doxil and Marquibo are both not approved for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma but are discussed.. Nastoupil: Celgene: Honoraria; Genentech: Honoraria; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; AbbVie: Research Funding. Rodriguez: Orthobiotech: Research Funding. Westin: Spectrum: Research Funding.
Autophagy: It’s in Your Blood

Autophagy, a central pathway for cellular homeostasis, plays diverse roles in development, cancer, aging, and neurodegeneration. In a new report in Nature, Ho et al. (2017) show that autophagy is essential for maintaining the replicative quiescence of hematopoietic stem cells throughout life by limiting the number of active mitochondria.
Zero-Inflated Models for RNA-Seq Count Data

One of the main objectives of many biological studies is to explore differential gene expression profiles between samples. Genes are referred to as differentially expressed (DE) if the read counts change across treatments or conditions systematically. Poisson and negative binomial (NB) regressions are widely used methods for non-over-dispersed (NOD) and over-dispersed (OD) count data respectively. However, in the presence of excessive number of zeros, these methods need adjustments. In this paper, we consider a zero-inflated Poisson mixed effects model (ZIPMM) and zero-inflated negative binomial mixed effects model (ZINBMM) to address excessive zero counts in the NOD and OD RNA-seq data respectively in the presence of random effects. We apply these methods to both simulated and real RNA-seq datasets. The ZIPMM and ZINBMM perform better on both simulated and real datasets.
Abstract 12920: Transforming Growth Factor-beta-dependent Pathway Induces the Cardiac Fibrosis and Remodeling in Guanylyl Cyclase/natriuretic Peptide Receptor-a Gene-disrupted Mice

Introduction: Targeted-ablation of guanylyl cyclase/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (GC-A/NPRA) gene ( Npr1 ) in mice exhibits hypertension and provokes congestive heart failure; however, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Hypothesis: To determine whether transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF)-β1 receptor antagonist, GW788388 inhibits the development of cardiac fibrosis and remodeling in GC-A/NPRA gene-disrupted mice. Methods: The adult male (16-20 weeks) Npr1 null mutant ( Npr1 -/- , 0-copy), heterozygous ( Npr1 +/- , 1-copy), and wild-type ( Npr1 +/+ , 2-copy) mice were orally administered with TGF-β1 receptor antagonist, GW788388 (2 mg/kg/day) for 28 days. The expression of cardiac fibrotic markers was analyzed using real-time PCR and Western blot. Heart weight-to-body weight (HW/BW) ratios were determined and heart functions were measured by echocardiographic analysis. Results: The Npr1 -/- mice showed markedly increased cardiac fibrosis and HW/BW ratio with increased expression of collagen-1α (3.5-fold), monocyte chemoattractant protein (4-fold), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF, 5-fold), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA, 4-fold), TGF-βRI (4-fold), TGF-βRII (3.5-fold) and SMAD proteins (SMAD-2, 5-fold; SMAD-3, 3-fold) compared with Npr1 +/+ mice. The expression of phosphorylated extracellular-regulated kinase (pERK1/2) was also up-regulated in Npr1 -/- mice. The treatment of Npr1 -/- mice with GW788388 significantly prevented the development of cardiac fibrosis and down-regulated the expression of fibrotic markers and SMAD proteins compared to vehicle-treated mice. In contrast, the expression of pERK1/2 proteins was unaffected in GW7885388-treated mice excluding the involvement of non-genomic pathway. The left ventricular dimensions (systole and diastole) and fractional shortening were significantly improved in the drug-treated Npr1 -/- mice. Conclusions: The results suggest that the cardiac fibrosis, remodeling, and dysfunction in Npr1 -/- mice are regulated through TGF-β-mediated SMAD-dependent canonical pathway. The findings will be important for the development of new molecular therapeutic targets for the treatment of cardiac fibrosis, remodeling, and dysfunction in human patients.
Proximity of the posterior cruciate ligament insertion to the popliteal artery as a function of the knee flexion angle: implications for posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if an optimal knee flexion angle existed that would minimize the risk of neurovascular injury from the passage of transtibial hardware during posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) reconstruction. Type of Study: Cadaveric. Materials and Methods: Fourteen fresh-frozen cadaveric knees were mounted in a Plexiglas apparatus that could be set at 5 different knee flexion angles (0°, 45°, 60°, 90°, and 100°) while joint distention was maintained. Each knee underwent magnetic resonance imaging in the axial and sagittal planes at each of the 5 flexion angles to determine the distance between the PCL tibial insertion and popliteal artery. Results: The mean distance, over all 5 flexion angles, between the PCL insertion and the popliteal artery in the axial plane was 7.6 mm, whereas the mean distance in the sagittal plane was 7.2 mm. There was a significant increase in distance with progressive flexion in both planes. Maximum mean distances were noted at 100° of flexion in both the axial (9.9 mm) and sagittal (9.3 mm) planes. An artificial line mimicking the path of a transtibial drill passed through the popliteal artery in 10 of 10 cases at the 0°, 45°, 60°, and 90° angles, and in 6 of 10 cases at the 100° angle. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that increasing knee flexion reduces, but does not completely eliminate, the risk of arterial injury during arthroscopic PCL reconstruction. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related surgery, Vol 16, No 8 (November-December), 2000: pp 796–804
Trading Volume, Information, and Trading Costs: Empirical Evidence

This paper examines the empirical relation among trading volume, informational variables (i.e., precision and differential beliefs), the bid-ask spread components, and price volatility using a structural model that treats the spread components, trading volume, and price volatility as endogenous. Specifically, we investigate the direct and indirect effects of informational precision and differential beliefs on trading volume via a structural model representation in general and examine the theoretical ambiguity issue of George, Kaul, and Nimalendran (1994) in particular. Our empirical results indicate that although liquidity trading dampens the effect of informational precision on trading volume, the net effect of informational precision is positive. Also, while higher differential beliefs lead to greater trading by informed traders, it exerts a commensurate negative impact on liquidity trading. As a result, the net effect of differential beliefs on trading volume is insignificant. This new finding refutes the generally accepted belief in the volume literature that greater differences of opinion induce more trading.
Reducing Readmissions: Nurse-Driven Interventions in the Transition of Care From the Hospital.

Background Transitions of care (TOC) from hospitals is a continuing focus for quality improvement to reduce readmissions. Sufficient resources to offer interventions remain an issue for hospitals, leading to efforts to target high-risk patients and identify effective interventions. Objectives Describe and measure effects, hospital-wide and among high-risk patients, of a multifaceted TOC program on 30-day readmissions in a 441-bed acute care community hospital. Methods Pre-post TOC intervention examining 30-day readmission rates during planning, implementation, and intervention years compared to baseline. Patient characteristics and services received by patients targeted for TOC individualized interventions during hospitalization and after discharge were retrieved from medical records and compared over 4 years during which the intervention was planned and implemented. Results Summary hospital-wide readmission rates reduced from 11.8% during planning (2011), 12.0% during implementation (2012), to 11.4% during intervention (2013) compared to 13.7% at prestudy baseline (2010; p < .001). TOC program patients were mostly identified by clinician referral (66.7%) rather than computer-generated risk at admission (32.3%), and nearly one-third (30.6%) were readmitted within 30 days of release. Linking Evidence to Action Reductions in readmissions were achieved using a multifaceted approach with efforts at admission, predischarge, and postdischarge in a community hospital. Having clinical staff involved in TOC program is important in both patient identification and interventions to reduce readmissions.
Instillation Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: An Effective Tool for Complex Spine Wounds

Objective: Infection prevention in spinal surgeries involving implantation of hardware is of utmost priority. Furthermore, successful eradication of infection in hardware salvage is likewise critical in maintaining the long-term retention of the spinal hardware construct. Approach: We report a retrospective case series of three cases where the utilization of a VAC with instillation (VACi) in conjunction with surgical debridement aided in infection control and eradication for both preimplantation and hardware salvage spine patients. Results: Three patients were included. In case 1, VACi was utilized in conjunction with surgical debridement and IV antibiotics in the setting of acute preoperative infection to eradicate infection and enable necessary spinal hardware implementation. Cases 2 and 3 are representative of VACi for salvage of exposed spinal hardware in both the early and delayed infection presentation settings. In both cases, patients developed postoperative infections following spinal instrumentation VACi was utilized in conjunction with surgical debridement and IV antibiotics. Hardware removal was avoided in both cases. All three patients healed completely without residual evidence of infection. Innovation: VACi showed its effectiveness in timely infection eradication before spinal hardware instrumentation and with postoperative spine hardware salvage. Conclusion: This case series demonstrates that VACi can provide infection eradication both preoperatively in high-risk surgical sites, facilitating necessary hardware implementation and postoperatively in situations of hardware salvage.
Abstract 4105: Does the Metabolic Syndrome Predict Mortality in Older Adults? The Cardiovascular Health Study

Background Utility of metabolic syndrome (MetS) for predicting mortality among older adults, the highest risk population, is not established. Some MetS criteria, their dichotomization, or the chosen cutpoints may not be optimal in this population. We evaluated whether MetS predicted total mortality among older persons and compared the predictive ability of different individual criteria and cutpoints. Methods We prospectively evaluated the association of MetS by ATP III criteria with mortality among 4,244 men and women ≥ age 65 and free of known CVD at baseline. Risk was estimated using Cox PH, age- and gender-adjusted (testing prediction) and also adjusted for other risk factors. Results At baseline (mean age 73), 30% of men and 37% of women had MetS (≥3 of 5 criteria). During 12 yrs of follow-up, 1,680 deaths occurred. Compared to persons not having MetS, those with MetS had 30% higher mortality (RR=1.30; 95% CI 1.18–1.44). However, higher risk with MetS was confined to persons having elevated fasting glucose/diabetes (EFG) as one of the criteria (RR=1.49; 1.33–1.67); persons with MetS but no EFG did not have higher risk (1.04; 0.89–1.21). Among individual MetS criteria, only HTN and EFG predicted higher mortality; persons having both HTN and EFG had highest mortality (Table[⇓][1]). Results were similar when different criterion cutpoints (e.g., quantiles) were evaluated or when analyses excluded smokers, persons with cancer or chronic lung disease, and deaths during the first year. Further adjustment for race, education, smoking, physical activity, and alcohol use had little effect. Risk associated with MetS was slightly higher in men vs. women (p interaction=0.03), but results were otherwise qualitatively similar in men vs. women. Interaction by age or CRP levels was not evident. Conclusions These findings suggest limited utility of the MetS concept for predicting mortality in older men or women, compared with assessment of fasting glucose and blood pressure alone. ![Table][2] Table. [1]: #T1 [2]: pending:yes
Severe Incontinence After Multiple Prior Procedures

A 72-yr-old active woman presents for evaluation of incontinence. She leaks with any sort of activity and wears 11 pads per day. She rarely goes to the bathroom as the bladder rarely fills—it all leaks out. The only time the bladder fills and she has the urge to void is at night in bed, and as soon as she gets the urge, the bladder completely empties before she even stands up. She has had an autologous fascial sling at the bladder neck and four treatments with a bulking agent, all with minimal improvement. On exam, she has no prolapse or urethral hypermobility. Urodynamics show no detrusor overactivity, a capacity of 245 cc, and a Valsalva leak-point pressure of 41 cm H2O.
Li+ Conduction in the Beta Alumina Structure

Li+ is one of several monovalent cations known to completely replace Na+ in Na+ beta alumina. The conditions under which ion exchange is brought about determine whether the product is pure Li+ beta alumina or beta alumina containing both Na+ and Li+. Many investigators have believed that this process of ion exchange leads to cracking of polycrystalline Na+ beta alumina and, therefore, is not a satisfactory route for Li+ beta alumina preparation. It also has been reported that Li+ beta alumina has a single crystal ionic conductivity of only 1.6 x 10−4 (ohm cm)−1 at 25°C, 90 times less than that of Na+ beta alumina.1,2 The work discussed in this paper indicates that neither of these points is true.
The Effect of Large-Scale PV Power on Stability of Power System

T349 access of photovoltaic (PV) power generation into power grid brings about both static and transient stability problems to the power system. This paper studies the effect of large-scale PV power on load flow, power-angle stability and reactive power voltage support. Based on an actual project of 200MWp PV power generation, an 8-nodes power system model is built. The simulation result shows that PV power disrupts load flow balance, and even causes power limitation exceeding. Besides, components' sudden malfunction near by the access point may lead to instability of power-angle and breakdown of voltage. The effect is also related to the definite grid environment including the specific distribution of the power and load. Considering with measures in response to safety and stability problems, it is prioritized to cut off the PV power as soon as the malfunction happens.
Measurement of local diffusion and composition in degraded articular cartilage reveals the unique role of surface structure in controlling macromolecular transport.

Abstract Developing effective therapeutics for osteoarthritis (OA) necessitates that such molecules can reach and target chondrocytes within articular cartilage. However, predicting how well very large therapeutic molecules diffuse through cartilage is often difficult, and the relationship between local transport mechanics for these molecules and tissue heterogeneities in the tissue is still unclear. In this study, a 150 kDa antibody diffused through the articular surface of healthy and enzymatically degraded cartilage, which enabled the calculation of local diffusion mechanics in tissue with large compositional variations. Local cartilage composition and structure was quantified with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging techniques. Overall, both local concentrations of aggrecan and collagen were correlated to local diffusivities for both healthy and surface-degraded samples (0.3 > R2 0.75) compared to healthy samples (R2
Modulation of the sigma-1 receptor–IRE1 pathway is beneficial in preclinical models of inflammation and sepsis

Sepsis is an often deadly complication of infection in which systemic inflammation damages the vasculature, leading to tissue hypoperfusion and multiple organ failure. Currently, the standard of care for sepsis is predominantly supportive, with few therapeutic options available. Because of increased sepsis incidence worldwide, there is an urgent need for discovery of novel therapeutic targets and development of new treatments. The recently discovered function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in regulation of inflammation offers a potential avenue for sepsis control. Here, we identify the ER-resident protein sigma-1 receptor (S1R) as an essential inhibitor of cytokine production in a preclinical model of septic shock. Mice lacking S1R succumb quickly to hypercytokinemia induced by a sublethal challenge in two models of acute inflammation. Mechanistically, we find that S1R restricts the endonuclease activity of the ER stress sensor IRE1 and cytokine expression but does not inhibit the classical inflammatory signaling pathways. These findings could have substantial clinical implications, as we further find that fluvoxamine, an antidepressant therapeutic with high affinity for S1R, protects mice from lethal septic shock and dampens the inflammatory response in human blood leukocytes. Our data reveal the contribution of S1R to the restraint of the inflammatory response and place S1R as a possible therapeutic target to treat bacterial-derived inflammatory pathology.
Evaluating the impact of a targeted brief HIV intervention on multiple inter-related HIV risk factors of knowledge and attitudes among incarcerated drug users

Increases in HIV prevalence indicate ongoing need for HIV interventions. A brief manualized intervention called the Texas Christian University (TCU) WaySafe, which addresses multiple HIV risks, was...
Emotional Development Within the Family Context

In this chapter, we summarize theory and research describing the processes by which children’s emotional development is influenced by features of the family context with an emphasis on the first 3 years of life. We begin with a focus on the role of parents including the parent-infant attachment relationship, parental sensitivity, parental emotion socialization, harsh and abusive parenting, and emotion-related parental characteristics. Then, we consider the broader family system including interparental conflict, coparenting quality, and sibling relationships. The outcomes considered include children’s emotional reactivity and regulation at the behavioral and physiological level, emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavior problems. Throughout the review, we note child characteristics that moderate the association between family context and children’s emotional adjustment with a particular emphasis on children’s negative emotional reactivity and gender. We conclude with suggestions for future research in this area.
An Improved Method for Estimating Particle Scattering Probabilities to Finite Detectors for Monte Carlo Simulation

An improved method for calculating the total probability of particle scattering within the solid angle subtended by finite detectors is developed, presented, and tested. The limiting polar and azimuthal angles subtended by the detector are measured from the direction that most simplifies their calculation rather than from the incident particle direction. A transformation of the particle scattering probability distribution function (pdf) is made to match the transformation of the direction from which the limiting angles are measured. The particle scattering probability to the detector is estimated by evaluating the integral of the transformed pdf over the range of the limiting angles measured from the preferred direction. A general formula for transforming the particle scattering pdf is derived from basic principles and applied to four important scattering pdf's; namely, isotropic scattering in the Lab system, isotropic neutron scattering in the center-of-mass system, thermal neutron scattering by the free gas model, and gamma-ray Klein-Nishina scattering. Some approximations have been made to these pdf's to enable analytical evaluations of the final integrals. These approximations are shown to be valid over a wide range of energies and for most elements. The particle scattering probability to spherical, planar circular, and right circular cylindrical detectors hasmore » been calculated using the new and previously reported direct approach. Results indicate that the new approach is valid and is computationally faster by orders of magnitude.« less
Epilogue: Narrative-as-Lived—The Meaning of the “New Sudan” to SPLM Soldiers

The epilogue chapter moves beyond the traditional bounds of studies of international relations and diplomacy to explore how rebel discourses shaped the lives of ordinary Southern Sudanese rebels in exile. It shows that rebel discourses were not simply narratives-as-told, to evoke John Peel’s term, but they in fact, in important ways, defined the realities of rank-and-file Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) soldiers. The chapter argues that they experienced camp life in Ethiopia as a laboratory in which the “New Sudan” discourse was engaged and put into practice. It reveals that this new rebel narrative powerfully shaped the political subjectivities of the SPLM soldiers during the 1980s.
Survey Based Assessment of Burnout Rates Among US Plastic Surgery Residents.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to analyze the rates of burnout and contributory factors among US plastic surgery residents. Methods The Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey was emailed to program coordinators of American College of Graduate Medical Education-accredited plastic surgery residencies. Scores are provided for 3 subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment. Normative scoring tables (low, average, high) were used for comparison. Residents were asked questions relating to their personal life (age, postgraduate year, marital status, and program characteristics). Results One hundred thirteen residents responded. The average age was 31.6 years (range, 25-43 years) and postgraduate year of 4.6 (range, 1-10). There were equal male and female respondents. Most were from integrated-only residencies (n = 59, 52.2%). On average, the majority reported working 50 to 80 hours per week (n = 93, 82.3%), spending the majority of time in tertiary referral centers (n = 107, 94.7%). Most received and took 3 weeks of vacation per year (n = 68, 60.7%). Furthermore, 65.5% met the definition of burnout by their scores from at least 1 subscale.The number of hours worked per week significantly correlated with increased scores in the EE and DP subscales. Residents who worked more than 80 hours per week had significantly higher scores in the EE and DP categories. Residents who had less than 2 weeks of vacation per year trended toward experiencing more EE (EE; 46.0, P = 0.077). The type of program (independent vs integrated), sex, having a significant other outside of the home, kids, and local family support did not significantly affect burnout scores for any subscales. Conclusions Burnout exists among plastic surgery residents especially in the DP subscale. Working longer hours and less vacation correlates with increased rates of burnout among residents.
Other Regulatory Requirements, National Standards, and Accreditation

Chapter 6 has comprehensive lists of other relevant Federal Agencies and Accreditation Bodies that provide requirements and recommendations for exposure to infectious disease beyond OSHA. These include the Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, the Joint Commission, and more. It describes, in detail, the essential components for compliance with standards and guidance and delivers tools, checklists, and program ideas for readers to use immediately. Since many different types of healthcare facilities (acute care, long-term care, behavioral health, outpatient, etc.) adhere to different licensing and accreditation bodies, it provides references and resources to set professionals on the right path.
More than the sum of its parts: Exploring the development of ratio magnitude versus simple magnitude perception.

Humans perceptually extract quantity information from our environments, be it from simple stimuli in isolation, or from relational magnitudes formed by taking ratios of pairs of simple stimuli. Some have proposed that these two types of magnitude are processed by a common system, whereas others have proposed separate systems. To test these competing possibilities, the present study examined the developmental trajectories of simple and relational magnitude discrimination and relations among these abilities for preschoolers (n = 42), 2nd-graders (n = 31), 5th-graders (n = 29), and adults (n = 32). Participants completed simple magnitude and ratio discrimination tasks in four different nonsymbolic formats, using dots, lines, circles, and irregular blobs. All age cohorts accurately discriminated both simple and ratio magnitudes. Discriminability differed by format such that performance was highest with line and lowest with dot stimuli. Moreover, developmental trajectories calculated for each format were similar across simple and ratio discriminations. Although some characteristics were similar for both types of discrimination, ratio acuity in a given format was more closely related with ratio acuities in alternate formats than to within-format simple magnitude acuity. Results demonstrate that ratio magnitude processing shares several similarities to simple magnitude processing, but is also substantially different.
Internalized Homophobia and Transphobia

Cultural narratives of our society surrounding gender identity and sexuality can provide a rigid narrative of these constructs leading to homophobia and transphobia toward individuals who identify outside of these constructs. This book chapter will explore how cultural narratives create homophobia and transphobia as well as how these phobias affect individuals within the LGBTQ+ community. Mental health practitioners need to be aware of the pervasive discrimination, prejudice, and violence toward LGBTQ+ persons as these acts can create clinical issues that present common problems for child, adolescent, and adult clients, their families, and their partners. Mental health practitioners may hold internalized biases and benefit from recognizing these biases and bracketing values so that they can more effectively work with, and be an ally for, LGBTQ+ clients. Furthermore, educators in the field of mental health can work to create affirming classroom settings and effectively prepare students to work with the LGBTQ+ community. This chapter will address these issues within the mental health community as well as strategies for clinicians to help clients heal from homophobia and transphobia.
Providing Public Access to Grey Literature at the National Transportation Library

The National Transportation Library (NTL) at the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) provides national and international access to the crucial transportation information that falls w...
The Lepidoptera of Cuatrociénegas Protected Area 1. A new species in the genus Callistege Hübner, [1823] (Erebidae, Erebinae, Euclidiini) from the Chihuahuan Desert, Coahuila, Mexico.

A new species of Callistege Hubner, [1823] (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Erebinae, Euclidiini) is described from Cuatrocienegas Protected Area and Biosphere Preserve in Coahuila, Mexico. Adult male and female moths are illustrated, including genitalia. Callistege clara Homziak & Metzler, sp. nov. is one of 27 new species of insects discovered during an inventory survey of arthropods of White Sands National Monument, USA, and Cuatrocienegas Protected Area (Mexico), funded by the U.S. National Park Service. The Cuatrocienegas Basin is known for high endemism of aquatic and wetland biota within the Chihuahuan Desert. Callistege clara Homziak & Metzler, sp. nov. was found in a wetland environment.
Corporate Speech and the Rights of Others

The Supreme Court is often erroneously criticized for giving business corporations the constitutional rights of human persons. In fact, constitutional decisions protecting corporations tend to be based not on the rights of corporate “persons,” but on the rights of other persons: human individuals such as shareholders or persons who listen to the content of corporate speech. Shareholders’ property and privacy interests have been invoked to protect corporations from regulatory takings and from unreasonable searches, for example. In the First Amendment context, Citizens United and other opinions have invoked the rights of others in a different way, invalidating corporate speech regulations on the ground that they infringe upon the public’s right to hear corporate messages. These “rights of others,” however, can conflict with the rights of other others: corporate shareholders who might not want corporate assets used to express such messages. The Court has dismissed this concern with the inaccurate assertion that shareholders control a corporation’s messages through “corporate democracy.” This contention, and not corporate constitutional “personhood,” is the true fallacy of corporate speech jurisprudence. Corporate governance is not democratic. In the interests of money-making efficiency, the law concentrates power in professional managers. As intended, this arrangement is likely to benefit shareholders financially. But it does not give them meaningful input into corporate decision-making, leaving them open to the misuse of corporate property. Thus the “rights of others” may justify the regulation of corporate speech.
Hypothesis Testing in Two-Stage Cluster Sampling

Correlated observations often arise in complex sampling schemes such as two-stage cluster sampling. The resulting observations from this sampling scheme usually exhibit certain positive intracluster correlation, as a result of which the standard statistical procedures for testing hypotheses concerning linear combinations of the parameters may lack some of the optimal properties that these possess when the data are uncorrelated. The aim of this paper is to present exact methods for testing these hypotheses by combining within and between cluster information much as in Zhou & Mathew (1993).
Control of mitogen-induced lymphocyte activation. 11. Analysis of cell populations and metabolic events involved in cyclic AMP-mediated recovery of DNA synthesis suppressed by mitogens.

Abstract Exposure of human peripheral blood lymphocytes to increased doses of PHA (0–2000 μg/ml PHA) leads to a decrease in thymidine incorporation. The addition of exogenous cyclic AMP (10 −3 –10 −4 M ) to lymphocyte cultures exposed to such high levels of PHA results in a recovery of the ability to incorporate both thymidine and uridine. Using this system as a model for the study of cyclic nucleotide metabolism, experiments have demonstrated a differential sensitivity to changes in cyclic nucleotide levels among lymphocyte subpopulations exposed to PHA, concanavalin A, or pokeweed mitogen. Further evidence for differential sensitivity is also obtained using lymphocyte populations separated on the basis of rosette formation. Measurement of intracellular cAMP and cGMP levels in lymphocyte cultures exposed to PHA, concanavalin A, or pokeweed mitogen suggests that while cGMP is the mitogenic signal, cAMP may control deactivation, thereby exerting an overide effect on cGMP mediated events. In addition, metabolic studies suggest that exogenous cAMP may influence PHA-induced transformation up to 67 hr after culture initiation and that the effects of Ca 2+ ions and cyclic nucleotides are interrelated in the activation of lymphocytes by PHA.
Roughness metrics of prismatic facets of ice

[1] We define a surface normal roughness metric for mesoscopically rough ice facets and present methods for inferring its value from variable pressure scanning electron micrographs. The methods rely on the anisotropic morphology of roughening in the prismatic plane, in which nearly all the variation in surface height occurs in the direction of the main symmetry axis of hexagonal-habit ice prisms. Because of this symmetry, roughening appears at boundaries between prismatic facets in a way that readily permits quantitative analysis. Prismatic surfaces of four ice crystals grown between −45 and −30°C are found to have mean surface normal roughness values of 0.04–0.1, a range that corresponds to Cox–Munk roughness scale parameters 0.3–0.5. The distribution of tilt angles also suggests a Weibull shape parameter smaller than unity, a result that compares favorably with field observations. Shortwave scattering calculations of hexagonal polyhedra with surface morphologies derived from these observations indicate substantial retention of the well-known 22° halo, despite a large (4–6%) reduction in the asymmetry parameter compared to smooth-surface counterparts. We argue that this signature is a generic outcome of the symmetry of the roughening, which in turn originates in the anisotropic surface self-diffusivity of these facets.
Transgenic proteoid roots of white lupin: a vehicle for characterizing and silencing root genes involved in adaptation to P stress.

*Summary Whitelupin(LupinusalbusL.)hasbecomeanilluminatingmodelforthestudyofplantadaptationtophosphorus (P) deficiency. It adapts to )P stress with a highly coordinated modification of root development and biochemistry resulting in short, densely clustered secondary roots called proteoid (or cluster) roots. In order to characterize genes involved in proteoid root formation and function in a homologous system, we have developed an Agrobacterium rhizogenes-based transformation system for white lupin roots that allows rapid analysis of reporter genes as well as RNA interference (RNA i)-based gene silencing. We used this system to characterizealupinmultidrugandtoxinefflux(LupinusalbusMULTIDRUGAND TOXINEFFLUX,LaMATE) gene previously shown to have enhanced expression under )P stress. Here, we show that LaMATE had high expressioninproteoidrootsnotonlyunder )P,butalsounder )Fe, )N, )Mnand þAlstress.Aportioncontaining the putative LaMATE promoter was fused to GUS and enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) reporter genes, and a translational LaMATE::EGFP fusion was constructed under control of the LaMATE promoter. The LaMATE promoter directed P-dependent GUS and EGFP expression to proteoid roots. Confocal microscopy in white lupin and Arabidopsis point to the plasma membrane as the likely location of the LaMATE protein. LaMATE displayed homology to FRD3 in Arabidopsis, but did not complement an Arabidopsis ferric reductase defective 3 (FRD3) mutant. RNA i-based gene silencing was shown to effectively reduce LaMATE expression in transformed white lupin roots. LaMATE RNAi-silenced plants displayed an about 20% reduction in dry weight.
TU-G-204-02: Automatic Sclerotic Bone Metastases Detection in the Pelvic Region From Dual Energy CT

Purpose: To automatically detect sclerotic bone metastases in the pelvic region using dual energy computed tomography (DECT). Methods: We developed a two stage algorithm to automatically detect sclerotic bone metastases in the pelvis from DECT for patients with multiple bone metastatic lesions and with hip implants. The first stage consists of extracting the bone and marrow regions by using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. We employed a novel representation of the DECT images using multi-material decomposition, which represents each voxel as a mixture of different physical materials (e.g. bone+water+fat). Following the extraction of bone and marrow, in the second stage, a bi -histogram equalization method was employed to enhance the contrast to reveal the bone metastases. Next, meanshift segmentation was performed to separate the voxels by their intensity levels. Finally, shape-based filtering was performed to extract the possible locations of the metastatic lesions using multiple shape criteria. We used the following shape parameters: area, eccentricity, major and minor axis, perimeter and skeleton. Results: A radiologist with several years of experience with DECT manually labeled 64 regions consisting of metastatic lesions from 10 different patients. However, the patients had many more metastasic lesions throughout the pelvis. Our method correctly identified 46 of the marked 64 regions (72%). In addition, our method also identified several other lesions, which can then be validated by the radiologist. The missed lesions were typically very large elongated regions consisting of several islands of very small (<4mm) lesions. Conclusion: We developed an algorithm to automatically detect sclerotic lesions in the pelvic region from DECT. Preliminary assessment shows that our algorithm generated lesions agreeing with the radiologist generated candidate regions. Furthermore, our method reveals additional lesions that can be inspected by the radiologist, thereby, reducing radiologist effort in identifying all the lesions with poor contrast from the DECT images.
Host‐selective toxins, Ptr ToxA and Ptr ToxB, as necrotrophic effectors in the Pyrenophora tritici‐repentis–wheat interaction

Host-selective toxins (HSTs) are effectors produced by some necrotrophic pathogenic fungi that typically confer the ability to cause disease. Often, diseases caused by pathogens that produce HSTs follow an inverse gene-for-gene model where toxin production is required for the ability to cause disease and a single locus in the host is responsible for toxin sensitivity and disease susceptibility. Pyrenophora tritici-repentis represents an ideal pathogen for studying the biological significance of such inverse gene-for-gene interactions, because it displays a complex race structure based on its production of multiple HSTs. Ptr ToxA and Ptr ToxB are two proteinaceous HSTs produced by P. tritici-repentis that are structurally unrelated and appear to evoke different host responses, yet each toxin confers the ability to cause disease. This review will summarize the current knowledge of how these two dissimilar HSTs display distinct modes of action, yet each confers pathogenicity to P. tritici-repentis.
Abraham in Islamic and Jewish Exegesis

Jewish and Muslim exegetical narratives on the shared forefathers (known as midrash aggadah and al-anbiyā ’/isrā’iliyyāt) have long been recognized as a meeting point of Judaism and Islam. Early studies of the forefathers, Abraham in particular, strove to ‘prove’ that much of what appeared in the Islamic exegetical materials derived from the traditions that predated Islam, mainly Judaism. More recent scholarship has abandoned such a reductionist approach for a more moderated view. Studies of the Jewish and Muslim exegetical material on Abraham show that while scholars continue to trace the historical development of the Muslim exegetical narratives, they also look to uncover the inner meaning of the narratives themselves. This article traces the shift from the purely reductionist treatment of the Muslim and Jewish exegetical narratives to the more nuanced approach, especially as it applies to Abraham. Four categories of Abrahamic motifs are singled out here: Abraham and his sacrifice of his son, Abraham and his relationship with Sarah, Abraham and his later visit to Ishmael, and narratives relating to Abraham’s birth and early life.
Collections-based systematics: Opportunities and outlook for 2050

Systematic biology is a discipline rooted in collections. These collections play important roles in research and conservation and are integral to our efforts to educate society about biodiversity and conservation. Collections provide an invaluable record of the distribution of organisms throughout the world and through recent and geological time, and they are the only direct documentation of the biological, physical, and cultural diversity of the planet: past, present, and future. Recent developments in bioinformatics and cyberinfrastructure are transforming systematics by opening up new opportunities and as a result major digitization efforts have increasingly made available large amounts of biodiversity data. The collections-based systematics community needs to train the next-generation of systematists with integrative skills, address grand questions about biodiversity at different scales, develop a community-wide cyberinfrastructure, effectively disseminate systematic data to biologists and the public, and proactively educate the public and policy makers on the importance of systematics and collections in the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene. Specifically, we call for a new global Biodiversity CyberBank, comparable to GenBank for genetic data, to be the repository of all biodiversity data, as well as a World Organization of Systematic Biology to lead major initiatives of the field. We also outline a new workflow for taxonomic monographs, which utilizes both the traditional strengths of synthesizing diverse collections-based taxonomic data and the capacity of online resources and bioinformatics tools.
Automated synchronization of driving data using vibration and steering events

A passive synchronization method for driving data is proposedSynchronization of vehicle sensors uses vibration and steering events.Dense optical flow of video is used to capture significant car vibrations events.Cross correlation of vehicle sensor pairs achieves 13.5ms synchronization accuracy. We propose a method for automated synchronization of vehicle sensors useful for the study of multi-modal driver behavior and for the design of advanced driver assistance systems. Multi-sensor decision fusion relies on synchronized data streams in (1) the offline supervised learning context and (2) the online prediction context. In practice, such data streams are often out of sync due to the absence of a real-time clock, use of multiple recording devices, or improper thread scheduling and data buffer management. Cross-correlation of accelerometer, telemetry, audio, and dense optical flow from three video sensors is used to achieve an average synchronization error of 13 milliseconds. The insight underlying the effectiveness of the proposed approach is that the described sensors capture overlapping aspects of vehicle vibrations and vehicle steering allowing the cross-correlation function to serve as a way to compute the delay shift in each sensor. Furthermore, we show the decrease in synchronization error as a function of the duration of the data stream.
Regulation of cardiac cushion development by hyaluronan

Hyaluronan is an extracellular matrix component implicated in expansion of the extracellular space, organization of supramolecular architecture, cell motility, proliferation, tumour metastases and wound healing. Hyaluronan is highly expressed in the developing heart but it is only a minor component of the mature heart. The loss of hyaluronan synthase-2 (Has2) results in embryonic lethality with a phenotype remarkably similar to that of the versican-deficient heart defect mouse. Has2-deficient embryos lack hyaluronan-containing cardiac jelly, and at embryonic day 9.5 show arrested development, with an apparent absence of the right ventricle and underdevelopment of the conustruncus segment, and pericardial effusion consistent with heart failure. Cardiac cushions are totally absent, and endocardial cell migration over collagen gels is not detectable in Has2-deficient atrioventricular (AV) canal explants. Endothelial to mesenchymal transformation is also defective in AV explants from Has2-null embryos. The normal phenotype is restored in AV canal explants from Has2-deficient embryos by co-culture with wild type AV canal explants, with conditioned media from wild type AV explants or with exogenous hyaluronan. These results provide evidence for a direct role for hyaluronan during endocardial cushion and AV canal morphogenesis.
G-protein and tyrosine kinase receptor cross-talk in rat aortic smooth muscle cells: thrombin- and angiotensin II-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor.

Abstract Insulin-like growth factor I is an autocrine/paracrine factor for vascular smooth muscle cells and is required for angiotensin II- and thrombin-induced mitogenesis. The insulin-like growth factor I-triggered signaling pathway involves autophosphorylation of the β-subunit of its tyrosine kinase receptor and phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1, the latter providing binding sites for proteins with src homology-2 domains. In rat aortic smooth muscle cells we observed that both angiotensin II and thrombin induced rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1. Our results also demonstrated that these mitogens rapidly stimulated phosphorylation of the insulin-like growth factor I receptor β-chain. These data demonstrate a novel interaction between the G-protein coupled angiotensin II and thrombin receptors and the tyrosine-kinase insulin-like growth factor I receptor.
Digitally calculated optical processing elements (Proceedings Only)

We report on two new computer generated hologram (CGH) elements for optical processing. They are a one-to-many optical interconnection element (that allows analog weights, high efficiency, and is not restricted to a regularly spaced grid) and an element to provide separate 1-D collimation of the laser diodes in an array (with high efficiency). Error diffusion encoding and multilevel phase CGHs are used to achieve high accuracy and high efficiency. Simulations are used to show the advantage of error diffusion (ED) encoding. Optical laboratory data are included to show the feasibility of the elements and the validity of our simulator.