cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parallel simulated annealing for the n-queen problem

A parallel simulated annealing method, IIP, is applied to the n-queen problem. By this method, identical multiple copies of the single process algorithm are independently run in parallel. This technique gives superlinear speedup, in some cases on the order of 50 using only 8 processors. Convergence to the solution exceeds 99.96% for as few as 4 processors. In addition, simulated annealing was compared with a constant temperature version of itself since the resulting homogeneous Markov chain is amendable to Perron-Frobenius analysis. The two algorithms perform similarly. >
Contemplative practice in the classroom

This chapter offers a brief overview of the contemplative practices discussed in the volume.
Capital at Home and at School: Effects on Student Achievement

We investigate the effects of both family and school capital on student math and reading achievement. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) merged Child-Mother Data for 1992 and 1994, to which indicators of capital in the children's schools for 1993-94 and 1994-95 have recently been added. We study children who attended first through eighth grades in both 1992 and 1994, with samples of 2034 for math achievement and 2203 for reading recognition. Findings suggest that school capital effects are modest in size while family capital effects are stronger ; combinations of school and family capital boost or modify additive findings. We sketch directions for future research and discuss the usefulness of analyzing school and family capital as parallel concepts
β3-adrenoceptor deficiency blocks nitric oxide–dependent inhibition of myocardial contractility

The cardiac β-adrenergic pathway potently stimulates myocardial performance, thereby providing a mechanism for myocardial contractile reserve. β-Adrenergic activation also increases cardiac nitric oxide (NO) production, which attenuates positive inotropy, suggesting a possible negative feedback mechanism. Recently, in vitro studies suggest that stimulation of the β3-adrenoceptor results in a negative inotropic effect through NO signaling. In this study, using mice with homozygous β3-adrenoceptor deletion mutations, we tested the hypothesis that the β3-adrenoceptor is responsible for β-adrenergic activation of NO. Although resting indices of myocardial contraction were similar, β-adrenergic–stimulated inotropy was increased in β3–/– mice, and similar hyper-responsiveness was seen in mice lacking endothelial NO synthase (NOS3). NOS inhibition augmented isoproterenol-stimulated inotropy in wild-type (WT), but not in β3–/– mice. Moreover, isoproterenol increased myocardial cGMP in WT, but not β3–/–, mice. NOS3 protein abundance was not changed in β3–/– mice, and cardiac β3-adrenoceptor mRNA was detected in both NOS3–/– and WT mice. These findings indicate that the β3-adrenergic subtype participates in NO-mediated negative feedback over β-adrenergic stimulation.
Everyday ideation: all of my ideas are on pinterest

We develop new understanding of how people engage in digital curation. We interview twenty users of Pinterest, a social curation platform. We find that through collecting, organizing, and sharing image bookmarks, users engage in processes of everyday ideation. That is, they use digital found objects as creative resources to develop ideas for shaping their lives. Curators assemble information into new contexts, forming and sharing ideas with practical and emotional value. We investigate cognitive and social aspects of creativity that affect the digital curation practices of everyday ideation. We derive implications for the design of curation environments that support information-based ideation.
NGOs and the afghan war: The politicisation of humanitarian aid

(1990). NGOs and the afghan war: The politicisation of humanitarian aid. Third World Quarterly: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 62-85.
Locoregional Recurrence in Patients with Triple-negative Breast Cancer: The Impact of Radiotherapy

Results:Inthe analyzedcohortof 52patients,37 (71%)receivedradiation therapyas part of their treatmentregimen, and 15(29%) receivednoradiotherapy.Regardingdemographics,themedianagewas50years(range:31-79y);52%ofpatientswerewhite,44% were black; 58% were smokers; and 27% had a family history of breast cancer. The median follow-up in months from the completion of treatment is 19.7 (range: 2.0-48.0). For the entire group, overall 1-, 2- 3- and 4- year survivals (OS) from the completion of the treatment are 92%, 87%, 87%, and 58%, respectively. Of the patients who received radiation therapy, 25 (68%) did so in the setting of breast conservation. Patients who received radiation therapy were significantly more likely to be of a higher T-stage (p\0.001) and N-stage (p\0.001) than patients who did not receive radiotherapy. The 4-year actuarial locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS) probability for patients who received radiation is much higher than those who did not receive radiation (66.1% vs. 29.5%, p = 0.016). Conclusions: Despite their significantly lower T- and N-stage, patients with triple-negative breast cancer who do not undergo radiation therapy have a significantly higher locoregional recurrence. Triple-negative status should be considered a factor in offering postmastectomy radiotherapy. This study is limited due to its small sample size and these findings should be confirmed by a larger, multi-institutional study.
Cells see the light to bring signaling under control

The combination of optogenetics with feedback control counteracts variability in cellular signaling responses to promote a deeper understanding of the biochemical mechanisms involved.
Evolving Effective Color Features for Improving FRGC Baseline Performance

This paper presents a novel color feature extraction method for face recognition. Firstly, a new color space, LC1C2, consisting of one luminance (L) channel and two chrominance channels (C1,C2) is introduced as a linear transformation of the input RGB color space. The specific transformation from the RGB color space to the LC1C2 color space is then optimized by Genetic Algorithms (GAs) where a fitness function guides the evolution toward higher recognition accuracy. The feasibility of our feature extraction method has been successfully demonstrated using Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC) databases and the Biometric Experimentation Environment (BEE) baseline algorithm. Specifically, when experimenting with the FRGC version 1 experiment #4, the extracted color features achieve 75% and 73% rank-one face recognition rates using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Fisher Linear Discriminant (FLD) methods, respectively. When using the FRGC version 2 experiment #4, the extracted color features improve the face verification rate (at 0.1% false acceptance rate) of the BEE baseline algorithm from 12% to 32% and 55% using PCA and FLD, respectively.
LiBOB as Salt for Lithium-Ion Batteries:A Possible Solution for High Temperature Operation

A new lithium salt based on a chelated borate anion, BOB [bis(oxalato)borate] is evaluated as the electrolyte solute for lithium-ion cells by both electrochemical means and cell testing. Controlled potential coulometry study reveals that the anion can stabilize aluminum substrate to more positive potentials than the popular hexafluorophosphate anion does, while slow scan cyclic voltammograms show good compatibility of the salt with graphitizable carbonaceous anode as well as satisfactory stability against charged cathode surface. The lithium-ion cells containing this salt as electrolyte solute exhibit excellent capacity utilization, capacity retention as well as rate capability at room temperature. Probably due to the fact that the new anion contains no labile fluorine and is thermally stable, electrolyte solutions based on it demonstrate stable performance in cells even at 60°C, where -based electrolytes would usually fail. The preliminary results reported herein provide a possible solution to the instability of the Li-ion cell performance at the elevated temperatures anticipated for heavy duty applications such as electric or hybrid electric vehicle missions. © 2001 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.
Modulating the efficiency of Ru(II) luminescence via ion binding-induced conformational restriction of bipyridyl ligands.

Conformational restriction imposed upon Ru(bpy)32+ crown ether complexes by metal ion binding leads to enhanced luminescence.
Application of color doppler flow mapping to calculate effective regurgitant orifice area: An in vitro study and initial clinical observations

BACKGROUNDAnalogous to stenotic valve area in the assessment of valvular stenosis, regurgitant orifice area (ROA) represents a fundamental parameter to assess valvular insufficiency. However, this parameter has not been routinely available up to now. In this study, we introduce the concept and provide the methodology to calculate regurgitant orifice area noninvasively, based on the analysis of the proximal flow convergence zone.METHODS AND RESULTSIn an in vitro study, we showed the feasibility and the accuracy of calculating effective ROA by the proximal flow convergence method throughout a range of driving pressures. The calculated and true ROA showed an excellent correlation with r = .992, delta ROA = -1.4 +/- 2.9 mm2. We then applied this concept clinically in 77 patients with mitral regurgitation and showed a very good correlation between effective ROA calculated by the proximal flow convergence method and calculated by the Doppler echocardiographic method: r = .95, delta ROA = -0.2 +/- 3.9 mm2. The R...
Relationship of descending inferior colliculus projections to olivocochlear neurons.

With the objective of defining the relationship of descending inferior colliculus projections to the olivocochlear system in the guinea pig, inferior colliculus neurons were anterogradely labeled with Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin and olivocochlear neurons were retrogradely labeled with horseradish peroxidase in the same brain sections. Inferior colliculus neurons were found to project to many nuclei and regions of the hindbrain where olivocochlear neurons reside. The most substantial of these descending projections was to the ipsilateral medioventral periolivary region. Fewer descending projections terminated in the ipsilateral ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus, superior paraolivary nucleus, and rostral periolivary region; and even fewer ipsilateral projections terminated in the area surrounding the lateral superior olive, caudal periolivary region, and the lateroventral periolivary region. Descending neurons of the inferior colliculus also project to the contralateral hindbrain first via the lateral lemniscus and then the trapezoid body, to terminate in the contralateral medioventral periolivary region, superior paraolivary nucleus, rostral periolivary region, and the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus. In addition to the projections into these regions that contain olivocochlear neurons, there are varicosities of inferior colliculus neurons that appear to contact the olivocochlear neurons themselves, both ipsilaterally and contralaterally, especially, but not only, in the ipsilateral medioventral periolivary region. We therefore conclude that descending inferior colliculus neurons do provide input to olivocochlear neurons and that the input is not limited to olivocochlear neurons of the ipsilateral medioventral periolivary region. However, given the robust nature of the projection to the ipsilateral medioventral periolivary region and the paucity of contacts observed in that region, we also conclude that the olivocochlear neuron is not the major target of descending inferior colliculus projections. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Adamts1 Mediates Ethanol-Induced Alterations in Collagen and Elastin via a FoxO1-Sestrin3-AMPK Signaling Cascade in Myocytes

A variety of stressors including alcohol (EtOH) are known to induce collagen production and fibrotic diseases. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) play an important role in regulating fibrosis, but little is known regarding the relationship between EtOH and MMPs. In addition, the signaling cascades involved in this process have not been elucidated. We have identified the MMP Adamts1 as a target of EtOH regulation. To characterize the function of Adamts1, we examined EtOH-induced alterations in collagen I and elastin protein levels in C2C12 myocytes. Incubation of myocytes with 100 mM EtOH decreased elastin and increased collagen content, respectively, and these changes were associated with increased O-GLcNAc modification of Adamts1. Conversely, silencing of Adamts1 by siRNA blocked the adverse effects of EtOH on collagen and elastin levels. Similar results were obtained after treatment with a pharmacological inhibitor of MMP. Changes in collagen were due, at least in part, to a decreased interaction of Adamts1 with its endogenous inhibitor TIMP3. The AMPK inhibitor compound C blocked the EtOH-induced stimulation of collagen and O-GLcNAc Adamts1 protein. Changes in AMPK appear linked to FoxO1, since inhibition of FoxO1 blocked the effects of EtOH on AMPK phosphorylation and O-GLcNAc levels. These FoxO-dependent modifications were associated with an upregulation of the FoxO1 transcription target sestrin 3, as well as increased binding of sestrin 3 with AMPK. Collectively, these data indicate that EtOH regulates the collagen I and elastin content in an Adamts1-dependent manner in myocytes. Furthermore, Adamts1 appears to be controlled by the FoxO1-sestrin 3-AMPK signaling cascade.
Response of the rabbit lung as a criterion of safety for fluorocarbon breathing and blood substitutes.

From the first liquid breathing experiments until now, the lung, not surprisingly, has played a central role in the evolution of fluorocarbon blood substitutes. The first breathable fluorocarbon, a mixture of F-alkylfurans (FC75), bp 102°C, while a poor solvent for the lung's lining and a good solvent for oxygen and carbon dioxide, proved to cause a characteristic gas/vapor microbubble embolism following intravenous administration as an emulsion. Higher boiling fluorocarbons, e.g. F-tributylamine (FC47), bp 174°C, do not produce such gas-vapor emboli. However, intermediate boiling compounds such as F-decalin (PP5), bp 141°C, produce lungs which, although they certainly appear not to contain microbubble emboli, do not collapse when the thorax is opened. Such hyperinflated non-collapsible lungs (HNCL) occur in the rabbit after the intravenous infusion of F-decalin emulsions as well as after the intratracheal infusion of F-decalin neat liquid. F-decalin induced HNCL retain their appearance and low specific g...
An Overview: The Challenge of Complex Systems

Complexity is a paradigmatic word for twenty first century science. It pervades contemporary scientific literature from regulating genetic networks to weather prediction and from hydrology to the dynamics of social networks. The sources of complex behavior as it manifests itself in the world we encounter may come from the instability of small systems expressed as irregular, nonperiodic, or chaotic space/time activity, and it may arise when one has a large numbers of degrees of freedom in the description of the fundamental physics of a system—or both, of course.
The effect of laparoscopic roux-en-y gastric bypass versus laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on resolution of type 2 diabetes mellitus in predominantly underserved minority population of morbidly obese patients.

database, clinical data was obtained for our initial set of 100 Patients who underwent the SIPS procedure and compared with the data of those who underwent a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic rouxen-y gastric bypass, and a laparoscopic duodenal switch. Main outcomes were weight loss and 30 day risk adjusted serious morbidity and mortality. Results: We analyzed our first 100 patients who underwent a SIPS procedure and compared them to similar patients who underwent a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (SG), gastric bypass, and a duodenal switch. So far the EWL is comparable in the patients already seen, and we expect that trend to continue or even more closely mirror the results of RNY or DS with a risk profile that is less than that of DS or RNY. Conclusion: The use of Laparoscopic SIPS procedures have been increasing on a national level. Compared with laparoscopic gastric bypass and duodenal switch, a SIPS procedure is associated with a lower 30-day risk-adjusted serious morbidity and equivalent 30day mortality with increased weight loss
Flower-shape, Landmark, and Locale Memory in Honeybees

There are two main published models for flower-shape memory, for landmark memory, and for locale memory in honey bees. Recent experiments have shed light on the actual mechanisms in each of these cases. Both shape and landmark memory are pictorial, as opposed to parameter-based; they have different resolutions, and so are probably stored separately; neither is eidetic. Locale memory involves a cognitive map rather than just route-specific memory. One of the most interesting questions about learning is how information is processed and stored. This paper will review recent progress in the understanding of how honeybees store and use visual information gathered on foraging flights.
The Culture of “Internal Colonialism”: A Marxist Perspective

After reading the papers and panelists' remarks from the December 1980 MLA program on "Ethnic Literature and Cultural Nationalism," I feel that I should devote my comments to explaining why it is important to sustain continuity in theoretical work between the highly creative era of the 1960s and our own more conservative time. While I am unhappy about criticizing co-workers who are toiling in this beleaguered area of scholarship-a stillfragile discipline that deserves support especially because it remains suspect and unorthodox in the eyes of academia-I also believe that it would be a disservice to mute my conclusion that some of the contributions to the MLA panel represent a de facto throwback to modes of discourse that are too simple in light of our collective experience over the past twenty years, Frankly, some of the material in the MLA program fails to provide fresh, incisive analysis, and falls short of treating the cultural issues with the subtlety of thought that they deserve. Other contributions are designed to educate us about principles that are correct but already familiar. However, on the positive side, I am impressed by the degree to which the more provocative and penetrating interpretations-found in parts of the contributions by Alurista, Martin, Ortiz, and Saldivar, but especially in Vivian Davis's "Black American Literature: A Cultural Interpretation"derive logically from the kinds of radical cultural analysis first worked out in the 1960s and, in some cases, more fully realized in the 1970s. Reading these particular materials reconfirms my sense that the most appropriate framework for analyzing the literary practice of blacks, Chicanos, Native American Indians, Asian Americans, and Puerto Ricans remains a politicocultural notion of "internal colonialism." In what follows I will review this
A new moral sentimentalism

This paper argues for a novel sentimentalist realist metaethical theory, according to which moral wrongness is analyzed in terms of the sentiments one has most reason to have. As opposed to standard sentimentalist views, the theory does not employ sentiments that are had in response to morally wrong action, but rather sentiments that antecedently dispose people to refrain from immoral behavior, specifically the sentiments of compassion and respect.
Abstract B43: Dose-response on the chemopreventive effects of sarcophine-diol on UVB-induced skin tumor development in SKH-1 hairless mice.

Sarcophine-diol (SD) is a lactone ring-opened analogue of sarcophine. It has shown chemopreventive effects on chemically-induced skin tumor development in female CD-1 mice, as well as in a UVB-induced skin tumor development model in hairless SKH-1 mice at a dose of 30 μg SD applied topically and 180 mJ/cm 2 UVB. The objective of this study was to determine the dose-response on the chemopreventive effects of SD on SKH-1 hairless mice when exposed to a UVB radiation dose of 30 mJ/cm 2 . This UVB dose better represents chronic human skin exposure to sunlight leading to skin cancer than previous studies applying much higher UVB doses. Carcinogenesis was initiated and promoted by UVB radiation. Female hairless SKH-1 mice were divided into 5 groups. The control group was topically treated with 200 μL of acetone (vehicle), and the SD treatment groups were topically treated with SD (30 μg, 45 μg, and 60 μg dissolved in 200 μL of acetone) 1 hour before UVB radiation (30 mJ/cm 2 ). The last group of animals received 60 μg SD/200 μl acetone without UVB exposure. These treatments were continued for 27 weeks. Tumor multiplicity and tumor volumes were recorded on a weekly basis for 27 weeks. Weight gain and any signs of toxicity were closely monitored as well. Histological characteristics and the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were evaluated in the mice skin collected at the end of the experiment. The dose-response study proved a modest increase in chemopreventive effects with the increase in SD dose, reflected in reduced tumor multiplicities and tumor volumes. SD also reduced the number of cells positively stained with PCNA proliferation marker in mice skin. The study also showed that SD applications without UVB exposure had no effect on the structure of mice skin. The results from this study suggest that broader range doses of SD are necessary to improve the chemopreventive effects. Citation Format: Ruth F. Guillermo, Xiaoying Zhang, Radhey S. Kaushik, David Zeman, Safwat A. Ahmed, Sherief Khalifa, Hesham Fahmy, Chandradhar Dwivedi. Dose-response on the chemo-preventive effects of sarcophine-diol on UVB-induced skin tumor development in SKH-1 hairless mice. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B43.
Spiders or Butterflies? Despite Student Preference, Gender-Biased Lesson Models Do Not Impact Interest, Attitude, and Learning in Biology

Spiders or Butterflies? Despite Student Preference, Gender-Biased Lesson Models Do Not Impact Interest, Attitude, and Learning in Biology Amy N. Buxton Department of Biology, BYU Master of Science Educational research often emphasizes the prevalent gender gap between males and females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. While many studies have found a gender bias when it comes to specific areas of science, little has been done to analyze the effects of how we teach within each of these subjects. In our study, we took a new angle on gender research by specifically considering whether there is a gender gap in how the models (the specific lesson examples/content used to teach a broader biology topic) used to teach biology affect student interest, attitude, and learning. We first created and distributed a survey to kindergarten through sixth grade students to see whether a gender bias concerning lesson models exists, when that gap is most prevalent, and which models exhibit the bias. Based on the findings of that survey, we then created four sets of parallel lesson plans teaching broad topics using juxtaposing lesson models, one of male interest and one of female interest. We designed instruments to measure whether lesson model or presenter gender impacted student interest, attitude, and learning. Our findings show that students do indeed indicate a preference to learn using certain lesson models, but that the lesson model and presenter gender do not impact student interest, attitude, or learning during an active learning biology presentation.
An Embedded Agency Approach to Entrepreneurship Public Policy: Managerial Position and Politics in New Venture Location Decisions

Public policy studies often seek to determine the effects of policy changes by treating the effects of individual differences as random error. Viewing managers as embedded agents whose social structures are subject to manipulation by policy makers, we illustrate how individual differences can be infused into policy research to glean insight into how and why policy changes affect decisions, such as where to locate new ventures. We consider how the effects of sociopolitical situational attributes (e.g., level of regulation, support services for business, cost of living, and natural and cultural amenities) are influenced by individual differences such as the manager’s position (entrepreneur or corporate executive), political party identification, and political values. Our illustrative investigation suggests that individual differences can systematically influence the efficacy of public policy and therefore deserve greater scholarly attention. We conclude by articulating the benefits of an embedded agency app...
Some results about operators on L1

AbstractLet (Ω, Σ, µ) be a probability space. We give a few results about operators on L1(µ). Among these, we show that if T is a bounded linear operator on L1(µ) which acts as a Hilbert-Schmidt operator on L2(µ), then T : L1(µ) → L1(µ) is representable.
Bleeding and Thrombosis in the Elderly

The population in United States is undergoing a significant change in age composition. Between 2010 and 2050, the US census bureau projects the number of individuals over the age of 65 years to double and those over the age of 85 years to triple. Although geriatric health is receiving increasing attention from the healthcare community, disorders of bleeding and clotting remain among the less well-studied health problems in this population.
The Science of Safety – An Emerging Concept in Medication Use and Research

Most published reports of patient safety in clinical practice focus largely on the culture of safety in complex health systems, separate from pre-approval and postmarketing research-related safety considerations for drugs, biologics, and other medical products. The science of safety requires a linked integrated perspective, i.e., an iterative process examining and relating safety concerns from drug or biologic discovery and development in preclinical stages, clinical trials and post-market use, research, surveillance, and potential regulatory changes. This commentary addresses the science of safety across the lifecycle of drug and biological products, regulatory considerations, barriers, and research needs. This paper provides a brief overview on how the functioning of healthcare systems affects the safety environment and describes how stakeholder involvement, research participation, and targeted education and training can help facilitate better safety measures and practices, provide improved quality of care to patients, and contribute to the science of safety. Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties". Type: Commentary
Identifying Adherence Behaviors through the Study of Patient Talk in English and Spanish

The purpose of this chapter is to use exploratory corpus-based research methods to analyze English and Spanish discourse of patients with Type II diabetes in a US health-care context. The corpora were collected as part of a large project that tried to identify relationships between literacy levels and diabetes self-management (Connor et al., Commun Med 9:1–12, 2012), with patients being identified as adherent and nonadherent to their diabetes treatment when self-reporting the times they missed their medication in a given month. English-speaking and Spanish-speaking patients answered equivalent versions of an oral questionnaire and their answers were recorded and transcribed. Grammatical taggers were used for both the English (Biber, Variations across speech and writing, 1988) and Spanish texts (Biber et al., Corpora 1:1–37, 2006). Tests of significant differences were performed on the normalized tag counts to compare the language production of the patients in the adherent and nonadherent groups in each language. The results of these statistical procedures showed marked differences in the frequency of use of certain linguistic features between the two language groups and adherence level groups. For this exploratory study, we focus on the three most salient features used differently by the two groups in the English corpus, first person pronouns and possessive determiners, second person pronouns and possessive determiners, and the verb do. We also report on the only three features that were found to be significantly different across the two groups in the Spanish corpus: demonstrative pronouns, simple conjunctions and complex conjunctions or subordinators, and augmentative adjectives. These features are analyzed in the language in which they originated and compared to the production of the patients in the counterpart language to try to discover whether their use can bring about more information regarding the way these groups of patients refer to diabetes and their courses of treatment.
Utility of endoscopic ultrasound-guided biopsy for genomic analysis of pancreatic exocrine malignancies.

423Background: Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS FNB) and aspiration (FNA) are the gold standard for diagnosis of pancreatic malignancies. Oncologists increasingly use tumor genomic analysis to assist with management decisions for these malignancies. While the diagnostic use of FNB/A is known, adequacy of FNB/A tissue for next-generation sequencing (NGS) has not been evaluated. This study examined adequacy of FNB/A and other biopsy types for features that might predict inadequacy for NGS using an Illumina HiSeq platform. Methods: 76 consecutive biopsies (54 EUS FNBs, 8 radiology-guided biopsies, 7 EUS FNAs, 5 endoscopic forceps biopsies, and 2 biopsies of unknown type) of pancreatic exocrine malignancies (74 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, 1 acinar cell carcinoma and 1 ampullary adenocarcinoma) submitted for NGS were assessed for adequacy. Adequacy was compared to other tumor/biopsy features. Subgroup analysis was performed on FNB/As. Analysis was performed via Spearman correlation. ...
Toxicity of chemotherapy dosing using actual body weight in obese versus normal-weight patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

6013 Background: Because weight-based chemotherapy calculations can be very large in obese patients, oncologists often empirically reduce doses due to fear of excess toxicity. The resulting underdo...
Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Dictionary

(1989). Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) Dictionary. Journal of Quality Technology: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 144-145.
Thermodynamic efficiency assessment of gasoline spark ignition and compression ignition operating strategies using a new multi-mode combustion model for engine system simulations

Advanced combustion strategies for gasoline engines employing highly dilute and low-temperature combustion modes, such as homogeneous charge compression ignition and spark-assisted compression igni...
CHAPTER 201 – Inhibitors of Cyclic Nucleotide-Dependent Protein Kinases

This chapter presents the apparent experimental advantages and pitfalls of each inhibitor class and will provide a guide for identifying the inhibitor best suited for a given experiment, whether a reconstituted enzyme assay or intact cell or tissue preparation is involved. Rp-phosphorotioate derivatives of cAMP and cGMP competitively inhibit cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases by freezing the enzymes in their inactive holoenzyme states. A large pool of derivatives, moderate selectivity and cell membrane permeability are regarded as their advantages as tools in intact cell studies. However, partial antagonism and limited potencies restrict their versatility. ATP-analogs are a highly resourceful group of protein kinase inhibitors. Cell membrane permeability and limited selectivity highlight their advantages and disadvantages, respectively. Peptide derived inhibitors present the most potent and selective group of PKA and PKG blockers. Low cell membrane permeability remains their main obstacle in cellular research. Recently, a subset of PKG-selective peptide inhibitors employing MTS sequences as a means of membrane translocation has overcome this problem.
Population Structure of Forests Over a Large Area

Forest structure was examined along a wide transect extending from Oklahoma to North Carolina and covering a wide variety of forest types and species. A composite curve produced by all the species included in the sample showed an overall concave form of the semilogarithmic density-diameter curve, with a rotated sigmoid shape at the mid-diameter size-class range. The degree to which individual species exhibited the concave or convex shape was directly related to shade-tolerance capacities of species. Stratification of regional forest stands by diameter class (age) showed the rotated sigmoid shape to exist at the all-species level and for some individual species within the oldest stands. In eastern deciduous forests, rotated sigmoid density-diameter distributions will occur on a regional basis in response to canopy-understory interactions as stand average diameter increases and as the relative importance of shade-tolerant tree species increases. Sigmoid density-diameter distributions in contrast to linear or slightly concave/convex distributions do not necessarily indicate a deviation from the structural development patterns of undisturbed forest stands. However, effects from forest harvesting on regional forest structure cannot be totally discounted as a source of structural variation from a negative exponential pattern.
Unifying unified voice messaging

Roughly 18 months after installing a unified voice messaging system, we picked it up and merged it into our pre-existing production email domain. This paper deals with both technical aspects deploying a unified messaging system, as well as the cultural shock of merging the very different operational domains of Email support with Telecommunications support into a shared support model. As an added bonus we will discuss the merging two Exchange/Active Directory worlds into one with minimal impact on the existing users of both systems. Lastly, we will discuss some issues of operating a partially unified voice messaging system.
Gene Gangs of the Chloroviruses: Conserved Clusters of Collinear Monocistronic Genes

Chloroviruses (family Phycodnaviridae) are dsDNA viruses found throughout the world's inland waters. The open reading frames in the genomes of 41 sequenced chloroviruses (330 ± 40 kbp each) representing three virus types were analyzed for evidence of evolutionarily conserved local genomic "contexts", the organization of biological information into units of a scale larger than a gene. Despite a general loss of synteny between virus types, we informatically detected a highly conserved genomic context defined by groups of three or more genes that we have termed "gene gangs". Unlike previously described local genomic contexts, the definition of gene gangs requires only that member genes be consistently co-localized and are not constrained by strand, regulatory sites, or intervening sequences (and therefore represent a new type of conserved structural genomic element). An analysis of functional annotations and transcriptomic data suggests that some of the gene gangs may organize genes involved in specific biochemical processes, but that this organization does not involve their coordinated expression.
Collaborative Validation of Public-Key Certificates for IoT by Distributed Caching

Public-key certificate validation is an important building block for various security protocols for IoT devices, such as secure channel establishment, handshaking, verifying sensing data authenticity from cloud storage, and Blockchains. However, certification validation incurs non-trivial overhead on resource-constrained IoT devices, because it either requires long latency or large cache space. This work proposes to utilize the power of distributed caching and explores the feasibility of using the cache spaces on all IoT devices as a large pool to store validated certificates. We design a Collaborative Certificate Validation (CCV) protocol including a memory-efficient and fast locator for certificate holders, a trust model to evaluate the trustworthiness of devices, and a protocol suite for dynamic update and certificate revocation. Evaluation results show that CCV only uses less than 25% validation time and reduces >90% decryption operations on each device, compared to a recent method. Malicious devices that conduct dishonest validations can be detected by the network using the proposed trust model.
Haptoglobin Genotype and a Promising Pharmacogenomic Approach to Prevent Diabetic Atherothrombosis with Vitamin E Supplementation

Despite identification of modifiable risk factors, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the most important chronic disease in the world, especially for those with diabetes mellitus. Macro- and microvascular complications are major contributors to the morbidity and mortality of diabetes. Diabetic complications of CVD cost over $174 billion annually in the United States alone and account for 80% of all deaths in individuals with diabetes, and diabetes is the major cause of blindness and renal failure. Importantly, neither conventional cardiac risk factors nor the degree of glycemic control adequately predicts which individuals with diabetes will develop vascular complications, suggesting the existence of genetic or nongenetic susceptibility factors. A polymorphism in the haptoglobin (Hp) gene strongly defines individuals with diabetes who are at greater risk of vascular disease. The public health and economic burden of diabetic CVD is staggering, and the prevalence of diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate, particularly among individuals of lower socioeconomic status in the developing world. Tragically, the standard-of-care medications (e.g., statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors) to prevent diabetes-related CVD complications are neither affordable nor accessible to these populations. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective and inexpensive interventions to reduce the public health and economic burden of diabetic complications of CVD. A viable approach lies in the intersection of complementary and precision medicine. One highly tenable pharmacogenomic approach is the use of vitamin E supplementation to target high-risk diabetes patients defined by their Hp genotype. The clinical evidence and mechanistic basis as to why individuals with diabetes who carry a specific Hp genotype are at higher risk for vascular disease and appear to derive cardiovascular benefit with vitamin E supplementation will be presented and the need for a clinical trial discussed.
Deep convolutional neural networks for mammography: advances, challenges and applications

The limitations of traditional computer-aided detection (CAD) systems for mammography, the extreme importance of early detection of breast cancer and the high impact of the false diagnosis of patients drive researchers to investigate deep learning (DL) methods for mammograms (MGs). Recent breakthroughs in DL, in particular, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved remarkable advances in the medical fields. Specifically, CNNs are used in mammography for lesion localization and detection, risk assessment, image retrieval, and classification tasks. CNNs also help radiologists providing more accurate diagnosis by delivering precise quantitative analysis of suspicious lesions. In this survey, we conducted a detailed review of the strengths, limitations, and performance of the most recent CNNs applications in analyzing MG images. It summarizes 83 research studies for applying CNNs on various tasks in mammography. It focuses on finding the best practices used in these research studies to improve the diagnosis accuracy. This survey also provides a deep insight into the architecture of CNNs used for various tasks. Furthermore, it describes the most common publicly available MG repositories and highlights their main features and strengths. The mammography research community can utilize this survey as a basis for their current and future studies. The given comparison among common publicly available MG repositories guides the community to select the most appropriate database for their application(s). Moreover, this survey lists the best practices that improve the performance of CNNs including the pre-processing of images and the use of multi-view images. In addition, other listed techniques like transfer learning (TL), data augmentation, batch normalization, and dropout are appealing solutions to reduce overfitting and increase the generalization of the CNN models. Finally, this survey identifies the research challenges and directions that require further investigations by the community.
Relationship between “Dry Weight” and Actual Weight Loss in Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure

Introduction In the treatment of patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) estimation of the degree of volume overload is critical in guiding the goals of diuretic therapy. A “dry weight,” or the weight of a patient when they are euvolemic, is commonly used by clinicians to determine when to discontinue diuretic therapy during hospitalization. However, it is unclear how this dry weight relates to the actual weight loss achieved during hospitalization. Hypothesis Dry weight will have limited correlation with the ultimate weight loss achieved during hospitalization. Methods Patients hospitalized for ADHF with volume overload and receiving IV diuretics were enrolled. Each participant completed a clinical assessment survey that asked, “How many pounds of water weight are you above your dry weight?” We additionally extracted any dry weight that was documented in the electronic medical record (EMR) and the lowest documented weight in the EMR within the previous year. The primary comparison was to evaluate the correlation between the patients’ estimate above their dry weight and the degree of weight loss during ADHF hospitalization. Results 343 patients were enrolled and 246 (73%) were able to describe the amount of fluid above their dry weight, which was on average 15±18 lbs above ideal weight. The patient's estimate of their fluid excess correlated modestly with their actual weight loss during the admission (r= -0.38, P Conclusion Both the estimated and the EMR documented dry weight were only modestly correlated with the actual weight loss achieved during diuresis. Additional research is required to understand if the discrepancy between diuretic induced weight loss and “dry weight” is driven by inaccuracy in the “dry weight” or variability in the diuresis of these patients.
An ergodic measure for Diffusion Monte Carlo ground state wavefunctions: Application to a hydrogen cluster with an isotopic impurity

Abstract We propose methods to overcome the lack of reproducibility of wavefunctions in Diffusion Monte Carlo random walks, by (a) establishing a quantitative measure of the ergodicity of wavefunctions across independent samples, (b) developing a statistically convergent estimator of distributions of structural properties and (c) testing sampling enhancement strategies aimed at mitigating the entropy barriers that exist in large systems. We validate our methods with a hydrogen cluster containing a deuterium molecule (H2)19D2.
PorcE: a deparallelizing compiler

Concurrent and parallel programming environments must balance three competing goals: performance, productivity, and generality. Most current environments take a sequential specification and parallelize it through a series of program analyses and transformations. Programmer productivity is determined by how much the programmer is involved in specifying the transform. A programming environment’s generality is determined by how much it restricts its programming model to enable the transform to be more automatic or provide better performance. Productivity and generality impact the performance of the resulting code, giving rise to a performance–productivity–generality trade-off space. PorcE takes a different approach: PorcE starts from a maximally concurrent program, which it deparallelizes. We hypothesize that this dramatically changes the accessible regions of the performance–productivity–generality space, because the complexity of deparallelization is quite different than for parallelization. PorcE uses a novel combination of optimizations that enable multicore scaling with performance similar to popular high-level languages, such as Python. Benchmarks show that optimized PorcE is 56 times faster than unoptimized excessively parallel PorcE. It is 4 times slower than hand-parallelized Scala, on average, when using existing Scala code for core sequential computations, which is similar to Python. This shows the potential for practical performance of pervasively concurrent programs.
Signal Rate Activity as a Formal Method for Fault Discovery and Monitoring in Trusted and Secure Electronics Development

Switching Rate Activity (SRA) is developed as a candidate formal security measure during hardware design phase of product development. SRA of fault models can help in detection of faults by comparing to designs without faults. SRA is often calculated using test vectors, which limits its applicability for verification of Trusted Electronics. We present an overview on SRA calculation methods using probability and Binary Decision Diagram methods, and an implementation of one method via a formal approach, without test vectors. The implementation is evaluated for use in Trusted Electronic metrics.
Characterization of novel Actinobacteriophage Giantsbane reveals potential genomic recombination hotspot and unexpected intra-cluster similarities

ABSTRACT Bacteriophages that infect Arthrobacter, a genus of bacteria which play key ecological roles in soil, warrant further study. A novel Actinobacteriophage, Giantsbane, was isolated on Arthrobacter globiformis and purified. Particle stability was tested at various temperatures and salinity concentrations by observing titer differences; unpaired Student’s t-tests revealed these differences to be insignificant. Transmission electron microscopy and Illumina whole-genome sequencing revealed that Giantsbane’s morphology and genome length, respectively, were characteristic of Siphoviridae phages. 94 putative open reading frames were determined using Glimmer, GeneMark, and manual review; none were associated with lysogeny. Giantsbane was placed into phage cluster AU, and SplitsTree and batch ANI analyses revealed similarities with other AU phages. The annotated genome was further analyzed using Phamerator and MEME-Suite, which identified repeated motifs present in several other phages. These findings help further our understanding of the physiological and genomic aspects of phage biology.
Grammatical uniformity of tense and aspect: Encoding narrator’s perspective and vantage point through Tense Shift

Abstract This paper explores the pragmatic effects of Tense Shift in an Urdu narrative. A linguistic analysis of the semantic and pragmatic effects of Tense Shift is proposed. A key claim of this analysis is that the mechanisms of Tense Shift exist in sentence-level grammar in Urdu. The analysis seeks to provide an explanation for some of the properties of Tense Shift that have been pointed out in previous studies of Tense Shift in other languages. The paper discusses as well the extent to which this analysis is expected to apply to narratives in languages other than Urdu.