cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Determination of variety of halogenated hydrocarbons in drinking water by Purge and Trap Gas Chromatography

Objective:To establish an efficient,practical,fast and accurate method for the common analysis of a variety of halogenated hydrocarbons in drinking water.Methods: Using a purge and trap capillary gas chromatography,15 kinds of alkyl halides in drinking water were separated,qualitative and quantitative analyzed simultaneously.The analysts included 1.1-dichloroethylene,dichloromethane,anti-1.2-dichloroethylene,1.1-dichloroethane,cis-1.2-dichloroethene,chloroform,1.1.1-trichloroethane,carbon tetrachloride,1.2-dichloroethane,trichloroethylene,methyl bromide dichloro-1,four vinyl chloride,a chlorine Dibromomethane,1.1.2.2-tetrachloroethane and 3 methyl bromide.Results: All 15 kinds of volatile halogenated hydrocarbons in drinking water were determined with good linearity.The detection limits were 0.001 to 3.06 μg /L,the average recoveries were 93.0% to 103.5%,and the relative standard deviations were 1.9% to 6.9%.Conclusion: The technique of purge and Trap Capillary Chromatography could accomplish determination without using organic solvent for extraction and concentration which means reduced losses.The method achieved high sensitivity,low interference,qualitative and quantitative accuracy,easy operation and so on.
Clinical Analysis of 4 Cases of Pituitary Stalk Interruption Syndrome in Children

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of the patients with pituitary stalk interruption syndrome(PSIS),and to improve the comprehension of this disease. Methods The retrospective analysis was performed on clinical characteristics,laboratory tests and imaging data of 4 cases of PSIS patients in the Affiliated Children′s Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics from Jul.2010 to Mar.2011. Results All 4 patients(3 male,1 female) were presented with the chief complaint of growth retardation,and one of them was accompanied with unstable gait and repeated convulsions.All of their heights were measured between 78.0-130.0 cm,and were all below the 3rd centile of the normal children of the same age and the same sex groups.The patients had both clinical presentations and laboratory results of adenohypophyseal dysfunction:Stimulated growth hormone peak levels were all below 5 000 ng·L-1.Among them,2 patients were also presented with central hypothyroidism and central adrenocortcal hypofunction.All the patients had normal posterior pituitary function.MRI with gadolinium contrast revealed no pituitary stalk,anterior pituitary hypoplasia with ectopic posterior pituitary.One was also accompanied with typeⅠChiari malformation. Conclusions PSIS is rarely seen and it usually presents with clinical characteristics of growth retardation,partial or complete anterior hypopituitarism,but with normal posterior pituitary function.Some cases are combined with other congenital malformations.The features of MRI include the absence of both a visible pituitary stalk and anterior pituitary hypoplasia with ectopic posterior pituitary.The appreciation of the clinical characteristics of this syndrome should be emphasized and early treatment is crucial.
Influence on assessment of transient voltage stability by induction motor model and mechanical torque parameters

Based on three-order induction motor load model and considering different mechanical torque, a method for calculating critical clearing time under rapid assessment is presented. The effect on critical clearing time by rotor winding electromagnetic transient characteristics and mechanical torque parameters is analyzed. The proposed method improves the accuracy of induction motor load model, and the time index can be calculated more simply so that this method can be used in dynamic security assessment system as a computational engine. The simulation result of IEEE30 bus system shows that the power of mechanical torque benefits the transient voltage stability of load nodes, and the electromagnetic transients in rotor winding harm the transiet voltage stability; the effect of model accuracy on critical clearing time is smaller than that of mechanical torque parameters.
Surgical Management of Early Supraglottic Cancer

Surgical management of early supraglottic cancer has evolved over the last half of the century from total laryngectomy to inclusion of conservation approaches. The development and fundamental principles underlying open supraglottic laryngectomy and endoscopic supraglottic resections are reviewed. In doing so, a rational approach for the application of these surgical techniques is provided for management of both the primary site and the neck.
Dissoziierung von pankreatischer Enzymsekretion und Gallenblasenentleerung nach intraduodenaler Calciumperfusion

Malagelada et al. [I] haben kurzlich gezeigt, das Gallenblase und Pankreas eine unterschiedliche Sensitivitat gegenuber exogenem Cholecystokinin-Pankreozymin (CCK-PZ) aufweisen. So tritt eine maximale Pankreassekretion erst bei einer 4fach erhohten Dosis von CCK-PZ im Vergleich zu der Dosis auf, die eine Gallenblasenentleerung hervorruft. Fur intraluminale Stimuli wird ebenso das ubliche proportionale Verhaltnis zwischen Starke des Stimulus und Reaktion des stimulierten Organes angenommen.
Using μ-PIV to Interrogate the Endothelial Surface Layer in Arterioles in vivo

The existence of a hydrodynamically relevant endothelial surface layer (ESL) is well established in capillaries and venules. Since the ESL on vascular endothelial cells likely has broad implications for endothelial-cell function, it is necessary to determine the extent of its presence in arterioles. We applied microviscometric analysis to data obtained using micro-particle image velocimetry (μ-PIV) in arterioles of wild-type mice. Data acquisition was triggered with the ECG at peak systole. Results reveal an ESL that is ˜0.38 μm in thickness in arterioles (n=18), compared with ˜0.53 μm (n=23) in venules. This difference is significant (p=0.055).
Precision Compton polarimetry for Hall C at Jefferson Lab

A new Compton polarimeter was recently built in experimental Hall C at Jefferson Lab in order to meet the strict requirements on knowledge of electron beam polarization needed for the Qweak experiment. This polarimeter, modeled after the Hall A design[1], utilizes a circularly polarized green laser locked to a Fabry-Perot optical cavity intersecting the electron beam at a small angle (~1.3). Both the scattered electrons and the back-scattered photons are detected separately downstream of the interaction point, providing, in principle, two semi-independent measurements of the electron beam polarization.
Conceptualizing High School Students' Mental Health through a Dual-Factor Model

Abstract Mental health is increasingly viewed as a complete state of being, consisting of the absence of psychopathology and the presence of positive factors such as subjective well-being (SWB). This cross-sectional study analyzed multimethod and multisource data for 500 high school students (ages 14–18 years, M = 15.27 years, SD = 1.0 years) to examine how mental health, defined in a dual-factor model, relates to adjustment. Relevant outcomes within self-determination theory include academic adjustment, social adjustment, identity development, and physical health. A dual-factor model was supported through identification of four groups: complete mental health (62.2% of sample), vulnerable (11.4%), symptomatic but content (11.4%), and troubled (15%). Results extend the importance of high SWB to optimal functioning during middle adolescence, as students with complete mental health (high SWB, low psychopathology) reported better outcomes than vulnerable students (low SWB despite low psychopathology) in terms...
Characterizing power and energy efficiency of legion runtime and applications: An early experience

Legion is a data-centric programming model and a runtime system for writing and executing high-performance computing applications on parallel, heterogeneous architectures. In this paper, we characterize the Legion programming and runtime system in terms of its power and energy efficiency. We profile resource utilization, power and energy consumption, and performance of Legion-based applications on heterogeneous machines. We compare the power and energy consumption of traditional MPI programs with that of Legion-based versions. Our experimental results show that Legion applications can save up to 89.1% of execution time and 90.8% of energy, compared with the MPI counterparts. By dispatching application tasks to GPGPU with Legion, we can significantly reduce the execution time and the benefit is more obvious when the problem size becomes larger. The results also show that the power and energy consumption for identifying dependencies, mapping, and dispatching tasks on a Legion system is significant, requiring special attention in application and system design. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the power and energy characteristics of Legion runtime and applications. Results and findings from this work will lead to efficient resource scheduling to maximize system performance while operating within a power envelope.
Fabrication of a matrigel–collagen semi-interpenetrating scaffold for use in dynamic valve interstitial cell culture

The study of heart valve homeostatic and disease mechanisms are often limited by the challenges in simulating the in vivo milieu, where valve cells are surrounded by the extracellular matrix in a three-dimensional (3D) environment and experience multiple dynamic mechanical forces. Type I collagen is typically the most common 3D matrix used to culture valve cells in vitro. Unfortunately, this material has poor mechanical behavior due to an inherent propensity to compact significantly, unlike native valve leaflets. We hypothesized that incorporation of matrigel, which contains other heart valve-relevant matrix components such as type IV collagen and sulfated proteoglycans, to type I collagen would provide an appropriate physiological milieu for in vitro valve interstitial cell culture. Different semi-interpenetrating mixtures of collagen type I and matrigel were prepared and a thorough characterization of their physical, mechanical and biocompatibility properties was performed. We observed that the matrigel-collagen hydrogel was porous and degradable with tunable swelling behavior. Incorporation of matrigel not only enhanced the mechanical behavior of the composite hydrogel but also presented the cultured valve interstitial cells with a more enriched extracellular matrix network for in vitro culture. We showed that cells cultured in the composite hydrogel had comparable viability, proliferation and cell phenotype as compared with those in a collagen only gel. Importantly, the composite hydrogel was also amenable to in vitro cyclic stretching culture for 48 h. Overall, we report here the potential use of the matrigel-collagen hydrogel as a three dimensional scaffold for the dynamic mechanical culture of valve interstitial cells in vitro.
Water-anion hydrogen bonding dynamics: Ultrafast IR experiments and simulations.

The following article appeared in Yamada, S. A., Thompson, W. H., & Fayer, M. D. (2017). Water-anion hydrogen bonding dynamics: Ultrafast IR experiments and simulations. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 146(23), 234501.) and may be found at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4984766.
Partitioned inverse image reconstruction for millimeter-wave SAR imaging

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are representations of the microwave or millimeter-wave reflectivity of the observed scenes. SAR image reconstruction is an inverse problem, which can be solved via an approximation, e.g. matched filter (MF), or the explicit inverse using a large amount of measurement data. However, the approximation limits the resolution while the explicit inverse is computationally complex and mostly ill-conditioned. This paper proposes a partitioned inverse (PI) approach based on the Moore-Penrose pseudo inverse using truncated singular value decomposition for regularization, which is robust to noise. It is shown that PI has an improved resolution of 24% over MF even at 0 dB SNR and is three orders of magnitude faster than the explicit inverse. A measurement based proof of concept experiment using a laboratory K-Band (15–26.5 GHz) ultra-wideband SAR system is shown to validate the proposed approach.
An Interactive, Instant Polling Exercise to Allay Student Anxiety in Science Courses

Abstract Many high school and undergraduate students enter science courses feeling intimidated by course content and unsure of their abilities. Teachers are frequently challenged in mixed-level and interdisciplinary courses to ascertain and honor students' levels and areas of experience. In these cases, the application of critical pedagogy techniques can create a culture of caring and thereby allay student anxiety and increase student motivation and success. Here I describe a simple instant polling exercise that employs critical pedagogy to stimulate dialogue about students' experiences with course content. This exercise is especially useful for mixed-level and interdisciplinary science courses, and can be easily adapted for small or large classes.
A Kinetic View of Statistical Physics

Aimed at graduate students, this book explores some of the core phenomena in non-equilibrium statistical physics. It focuses on the development and application of theoretical methods to help students develop their problem-solving skills. The book begins with microscopic transport processes: diffusion, collision-driven phenomena, and exclusion. It then presents the kinetics of aggregation, fragmentation and adsorption, where the basic phenomenology and solution techniques are emphasized. The following chapters cover kinetic spin systems, both from a discrete and a continuum perspective, the role of disorder in non-equilibrium processes, hysteresis from the non-equilibrium perspective, the kinetics of chemical reactions, and the properties of complex networks. The book contains 200 exercises to test students' understanding of the subject. A link to a website hosted by the authors, containing supplementary material including solutions to some of the exercises, can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521851039.
Transport properties of carbonated silicate melt at high pressure

Carbon dioxide, generally considered as the second most abundant volatile component in silicate magmas, is expected to significantly influence various melt properties. In particular, our knowledge about its dynamical effects is lacking over most of Earth’s mantle pressure regime. Here, we report the first-principles molecular dynamics results on the transport properties of carbonated MgSiO 3 liquid under conditions of mantle relevance. They show that dissolved CO 2 systematically enhances the diffusion rates of all elements and lowers the melt viscosity on average by factors of 1.5 to 3 over the pressure range considered. It is remarkable that CO 2 has very little or no influence on the electrical conductivity of the silicate melt under most conditions. Simulations also predict anomalous dynamical behavior, increasing diffusivity and conductivity and decreasing viscosity with compression in the low-pressure regime. This anomaly and the concomitant increase of pressure and temperature with depth together make these transport coefficients vary modestly over extended portions of the mantle regime. It is possible that the melt electrical conductivity under conditions corresponding to the 410- and 660-km seismic discontinuities is at a detectable level by electromagnetic sounding observation. In addition, the low melt viscosity values of 0.2 to 0.5 Pa⋅s at these depths and near the core-mantle boundary may imply high mobility of possible melts in these regions.
GLBTQ People Who Decided to Marry After the 2016 U.S. Election: Reasons for and Meanings of Marriage

The goal of this study is to better understand the experiences of GLBTQ people who decided to marry, at least in part, because of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Participants (N = 158) respond...
Intersecting disciplinary frameworks: the architecture and ecology of the city

Introduction: While many studies have explored the link between ecology and urban design, this paper examines two major conceptions that can promote deeper connections between architecture and ecological science. Outcomes: Rather than providing a comprehensive review, the paper explores in detail two frameworks that have not yet been exploited as foundations for a bridge between these fields. One is the seminal work of Aldo Rossi on the architecture of the city, as opposed to a more traditional architectural focus on specific buildings, lots, or specific clients. The complementary framework for ecological science is the ecology of the city, developed to support and explain a new era of more integrated social-ecological study of urban systems than had existed previously. Discussion: This paper draws heretofore unexamined parallels between architecture as represented by the work of Rossi and the ecology of the city as represented by the Baltimore School of Urban Ecology. The ecology of the city has become a widely used framing in the science of urban ecology, while the architecture of the city continues to influence a deeper understanding of the built environment as a whole. The parallels provided by the architecture of the city and the ecology of the city help to understand the historical interrelations between nature and culture. Conclusion: Intersecting the two conceptual frameworks of the architecture and ecology of the city can help satisfy the call for an actionable ecology for the city. This call demands both disciplines integrate their conceptual frameworks with communities in the collective enterprise of creating urban ecosystem health, justice, and sustainability.
Presumed multifocal cryptococcol choroidopathy prior to specific systemic manifestation

Purpose: Disseminated cryptococcosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals, especially those with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Early diagnosis and treatment greatly improves the outcome, so clinical clues that lead to prompt diagnosis are important. Methods: Three patients with AIDS in whom multifocal choroiditis and choroidal lesions were the initial signs of disseminated cryptococcosis were treated with systemic amphotericin B and flucytosine. All of the patients had a systemic work-up that included evaluation of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). Results: All three patients who were seen with the choroidal lesions as the presenting sign were noted to have either positive titers for cryptococcus or cultures that grew cryptococcus in the CSF. The choroidal lesions are presumed to be due to cryptococcus as no histopathologic or microscopic studies were available for ocular tissues. The choroidal lesions started to resolve one to three months after systemic treatment with amphotericin B and flucytosine. Conclusion: Primary choroidal lesions in patients with AIDS may herald severe systemic disseminated disease. Funduscopic examination, however, may detect disseminated cryptococcal disease before other overt clinical manifestations, thereby allowing prompt institution of effective therapy.
Rational design of zeolite catalysts

The identification of organic structure-directing agents capable of tailoring the physicochemical properties of microporous materials has remained a challenge. Now, a unique methodology to design organic mimics of reaction intermediates provides a route to optimize the selectivity of zeolite catalysts.
Unified detection and tracking in retinal microsurgery

Traditionally, tool tracking involves two subtasks: (i) detecting the tool in the initial image in which it appears, and (ii) predicting and refining the configuration of the detected tool in subsequent images. With retinal microsurgery in mind, we propose a unified tool detection and tracking framework, removing the need for two separate systems. The basis of our approach is to treat both detection and tracking as a sequential entropy minimization problem, where the goal is to determine the parameters describing a surgical tool in each frame. The resulting framework is capable of both detecting and tracking in situations where the tool enters and leaves the field of view regularly. We demonstrate the benefits of this method in the context of retinal tool tracking. Through extensive experimentation on a phantom eye, we show that this method provides efficient and robust tool tracking and detection.
Developmental and Teratogenic Effects of Ultrasound

In obstetrics, the applications of ultrasound cover a broad spectrum. During pregnancy ultrasound is used alone to visualize and monitor fetal development, and it is also used as an adjunct with other procedures, such as amniocentesis, to determine the well-being of the developing fetus. Ultrasound is currently used to assist in chorionic villi sampling, a relatively recent technique designed to obtain genetic information on the fetus during earlier stages of gestation than is possible with amniocentesis. In general, the clinical applications of diagnostic ultrasonography are diverse and its potential use can be justified during virtually all stages of pregnancy.
Evaluating Nasalance Values Among Bilingual Mandarin-English Speakers.

Objective:The goals of this research are (1) to establish normative nasalance values for bilingual Mandarin–English speakers and compare values to those of previously reported monolingual Mandarin ...
Metabolites Involved in Immune Evasion by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Include the Polyamine Spermidine.

ABSTRACT Amphibians have been declining around the world for more than four decades. One recognized driver of these declines is the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which causes the disease chytridiomycosis. Amphibians have complex and varied immune defenses against B. dendrobatidis, but the fungus also has a number of counterdefenses. Previously, we identified two small molecules produced by the fungus that inhibit frog lymphocyte proliferation, methylthioadenosine (MTA) and kynurenine (KYN). Here, we report on the isolation and identification of the polyamine spermidine (SPD) as another significant immunomodulatory molecule produced by B. dendrobatidis. SPD and its precursor, putrescine (PUT), are the major polyamines detected, and SPD is required for growth. The major pathway of biosynthesis is from ornithine through putrescine to spermidine. An alternative pathway from arginine to agmatine to putrescine appears to be absent. SPD is inhibitory at concentrations of ≥10 μM and is found at concentrations between 1 and 10 μM in active fungal supernatants. Although PUT is detected in the fungal supernatants, it is not inhibitory to lymphocytes even at concentrations as high as 100 μM. Two other related polyamines, norspermidine (NSP) and spermine (SPM), also inhibit amphibian lymphocyte proliferation, but a third polyamine, cadaverine (CAD), does not. A suboptimal (noninhibitory) concentration of MTA (10 μM), a by-product of spermidine synthesis, enhances the inhibition of SPD at 1 and 10 μM. We interpret these results to suggest that B. dendrobatidis produces an “armamentarium” of small molecules that, alone or in concert, may help it to evade clearance by the amphibian immune system.
Terrestrial laser scanner intensity correction for the incidence angle effect on surfaces with different colours and sheens

Laser scanning intensity captures information about the reflectance of target-surfaces and is used for a variety of applications such as data registration, classification, object detection and reco...
The Principles of Protein Targeting and Transport Across Cell Membranes

The past several decades have witnessed tremendous growth in the protein targeting, transport and translocation field. Major advances were made during this time period. Now the molecular details of the targeting factors, receptors and the membrane channels that were envisioned in Blobel's Signal Hypothesis in the 1970s have been revealed by powerful structural methods. It is evident that there is a myriad of cytosolic and membrane associated systems that accurately sort and target newly synthesized proteins to their correct membrane translocases for membrane insertion or protein translocation. Here we will describe the common principles for protein transport in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Conditional π-Phase Shift of Single-Photon-Level Pulses at Room Temperature.

The development of useful photon-photon interactions can trigger numerous breakthroughs in quantum information science, however, this has remained a considerable challenge spanning several decades. Here, we demonstrate the first room-temperature implementation of large phase shifts ($\ensuremath{\approx}\ensuremath{\pi}$) on a single-photon level probe pulse ($1.5\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$) triggered by a simultaneously propagating few-photon-level signal field. This process is mediated by ${\text{Rb}}^{87}$ vapor in a double-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ atomic configuration. We use homodyne tomography to obtain the quadrature statistics of the phase-shifted quantum fields and perform maximum-likelihood estimation to reconstruct their quantum state in the Fock state basis. For the probe field, we have observed input-output fidelities higher than 90% for phase-shifted output states, and high overlap (over 90%) with a theoretically perfect coherent state. Our noise-free, four-wave-mixing-mediated photon-photon interface is a key milestone toward developing quantum logic and nondemolition photon detection using schemes such as coherent photon conversion.
How Creative Mindset Is Involved in Positive Emotions and Attitude that Affects Creative Design Process

Creativity is an important problem-solving tool on the design context. People who are in design education treat creativity as an important component of their self-identity. Thus, it is imperative to develop and be mindful of creativity in design education. Most traditional design fields focus on creative outcomes that impact revenue, trends, and popularity. However, this current research shows that it is even more important to focus on people’s state of mind (mindsets) and attitude in building their creative ability. Depending on people’s attitudes toward their projects, some design solutions are more creative than others. The primary research objective of this study is to identify the presence of design students’ creative mindset and how it is manifested in their work. This research also seeks to determine how the creative mindset operates and develops with respect to students’ creative performance by incorporating the concept of the fixed/growth mindset toward creativity. The qualitative data established the fact that: (1) The creative mindset involves students’ attitude toward design projects and is manifested as a positive attitude, such as having an open mind and demonstrating readiness at the beginning of their design process; (2) A positive attitude from students’ creative mindset is closely related to learning goals, which is one of the main concepts of the growth mindset; (3) The creative mindset greatly affects the outcome of the design, and more specifically improves one’s design ability, which contributes to student success from a long-term perspective.
The participation of retarded children in junior high academic and nonacademic regular classes.

A sociometric instrument was administered in 30 regular junior high classes to measure various aspects of the acceptance of 23 educable mentally retarded special class students participating in these classes with 1,010 nonretarded students. The retarded were found to be (a) significantly less accepted than the nonretarded, (b) equally low in the social structure of both the academic and nonacademic classes in which they participated, and (c) seemingly unaware of their low social position in regular classes. Their level of acceptance in the special class was positively related to their degree of acceptance in regular classes. A discussion of implications for educational placement and areas in need of further study concludes the article.
Calm in the campus

What happens when power quality disturbances take place? As of today, the responsibilities of the energy provider, or high-technology equipment manufacturer in preventing losses are not defined by a standard. Clearly in the new and dynamic deregulated electricity environment, this scenario signals myriad business opportunities for energy providers. One such opportunity exists at the University of Cordoba, Spain.
Two distinct GUCY2C circuits with PMV (hypothalamic) and SN/VTA (midbrain) origin

Guanylyl cyclase C (GUCY2C) is the afferent central receptor in the gut-brain endocrine axis regulated by the anorexigenic intestinal hormone uroguanylin. GUCY2C mRNA and protein are produced in the hypothalamus, a major center regulating appetite and metabolic homeostasis. Further, GUCY2C mRNA and protein are expressed in the ventral midbrain, a principal structure regulating hedonic reward from behaviors including eating. While GUCY2C is expressed in hypothalamus and midbrain, its precise neuroanatomical organization and relationship with circuits regulating satiety remain unknown. Here, we reveal that hypothalamic GUCY2C mRNA is confined to the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMV), while in midbrain it is produced by neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra (SN). GUCY2C in the PMV is produced by 46% of neurons expressing anorexigenic leptin receptors, while in the VTA/SN it is produced in most tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive neurons. In contrast to mRNA, GUCY2C protein is widely distributed throughout the brain in canonical sites of PMV and VTA/SN axonal projections. Selective stereotaxic ablation of PMV or VTA/SN neurons eliminated GUCY2C only in their respective canonical projection sites. Conversely, specific anterograde tracer analyses of PMV or VTA/SN neurons confirmed distinct GUCY2C-immunoreactive axons projecting to those canonical locations. Together, these findings reveal two discrete neuronal circuits expressing GUCY2C originating in the PMV in the hypothalamus and in the VTA/SN in midbrain, which separately project to other sites throughout the brain. They suggest a structural basis for a role for the GUCY2C-uroguanylin gut-brain endocrine axis in regulating homeostatic and behavioral components contributing to satiety.
Abstract 259: Resistin Accelerates Fibroblast-Myofibroblast Differentiation and Induces Myocardial Fibrosis

Background: Cardiac fibrosis (CF) is a major cause of heart failure in patients with ischemic insult, obesity, and diabetes. CF, characterized by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix protei...
Comparison of Wearable Sensors for Estimation of Chewing Strength

This paper presents wearable sensors for detecting differences in chewing strength while eating foods with different hardness (carrot as a hard, apple as moderate and banana as soft food). Four wearable sensor systems were evaluated. They were: (1) a gas pressure sensor measuring changes in ear pressure proportional to ear canal deformation during chewing, (2) a flexible, curved bend sensor attached to right temple of eyeglass measuring the contraction of the temporalis muscle, (3) a piezoelectric strain sensor placed on the temporalis muscle, and (4) an electromyography sensor with electrodes placed on the temporalis muscle. Data from 15 participants, wearing all four sensors at once were collected. Each participant took and consumed 10 bites of carrot, apple, and banana. The hardness of foods were measured by a food penetrometer. Single-factor ANOVA found a significant effect of food hardness on the standard deviation of signals for all four sensors (P-value <.001). Tukey’s multiple comparison test with 5% significance level confirmed that the mean of the standard deviations were significantly different for the provided test foods for all four sensors. Results of this study indicate that the wearable sensors may potentially be used for measuring chewing strength and assessing the food hardness.
Positive Selection and Gene Expression Analyses from Salivary Glands Reveal Discrete Adaptations within the Ecologically Diverse Bat Family Phyllostomidae

The leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are outliers among chiropterans with respect to the unusually high diversity of dietary strategies within the family. Salivary glands, owing to their functions and high ultrastructural variability among lineages, are proposed to have played an important role during the phyllostomid radiation. To identify genes underlying salivary gland functional diversification, we sequenced submandibular gland transcriptomes from phyllostomid species representative of divergent dietary strategies. From the assembled transcriptomes, we performed an array of selection tests and gene expression analyses to identify signatures of adaptation. Overall, we identified an enrichment of immunity-related gene ontology terms among 53 genes evolving under positive selection. Lineage-specific selection tests revealed several endomembrane system genes under selection in the vampire bat. Many genes that respond to insulin were under selection and differentially expressed genes pointed to modifications of amino acid synthesis pathways in plant-visitors. Results indicate salivary glands have diversified in various ways across a functional diverse clade of mammals in response to niche specializations.
Reachable Dynamics of Networked Microgrids With Large Disturbances

An ordinary-differential-equation (ODE) enabled reachable dynamics analysis approach is devised to provably enclose all possible dynamic trajectories of networked microgrids (NMs) under both uncertain renewable power injections and intermittent large disturbance events. As a formal verification tool for the NM dynamics, its new contributions are threefold: 1) An ODE-enabled NMs model is established with a thorough formulation of the hierarchical control of DERs as well as the network transients; 2) A hybrid automaton method is established to empower the reachability analysis of dynamic transitions in NMs caused by arbitrary large disturbances; 3) A zonotope bundle technique is introduced in the reachable set calculation to capture the fast transients and strong nonlinearity upon the occurrence of disturbances, which allows for the reliable formal verification with superior precision and convergence performance. Extensive case studies are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new approach in formally verifying the dynamical performance of disturbed NMs equipped with hierarchical inverter control.
Using Socioeconomics to Teach Federal Income Taxation

Taxpayers do not always act in ways that can be predicted solely by their economic interests. This article explores the use of socioeconomic theory in teaching federal income taxation.
Phytosampling-a supplementary tool for particulate matter (PM) speciation characterization.

Ambient air particulate matter (PM) and PM-associated environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) have been documented to contribute to pollution-related health effects. Studies of ambient air PM potentially bear artifacts stemming from the collection methods. We have investigated the applicability of PM phytosampling (PHS) as a supplementary tool to a classic PM sampler in respect of achieving better PM chemical composition assessment (primarily organic fraction). Phytosampling is a static PM collection method relying on the particle entrapment by the plant’s leaf through electrostatic forces and surface trichomes. We have investigated the differences in the EPFR and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) speciation and concentration on ambient air PM for PHS and high-volume PM sampler (HVS). The advantages of PHS are easy particle recovery from the matrix, collection under natural environmental conditions, and the ability to apply a dense collection network to accurately represent spatial pollutant distribution. The experimental results show that the PHS can provide valuable speciation information, sometimes different from that observed for HVS. For PM collected by PHS, we detected the larger contribution of oxygen-centered EPFRs, different decay behavior, and more consistent PAH distribution between different PM sizes compared to the PM from HVS. These results indicate that the isolation of samples from the ambient during HVS sampling and exposure to high-volume airflow may alter the chemical composition of the samples, while the PHS method could provide details on the original speciation and concentration and be more representative of the PM surface. However, PHS cannot evaluate an absolute air concentration of PM, so it serves as an excellent supplementary tool to work in conjunction with the standard PM collection method.
Beyond Reasoning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics: Gaming Theories and the Nash Theory of Equilibrium (Presentation Slides)

The increasing influence of data and audit analytics does not only raise concerns about access and authorization to private information, but also revives matters relating to the imposition of rights and duties of auditors to report to shareholders. In view of the need to apportion regulatory duties and responsibilities in a manner which not only averts overburdening regulators with distracting functions – whilst holding other parties equally accountable – or at least accountable to a reasonable and proportionate extent, should corresponding level of obligatory duties to report be imposed on data analytic firms – as well as social media firms in matters relating to intention to access private and sensitive data? In cases where gaming theories apply – that is, the engagement of willing voluntary actors and parties - with outcomes which pertain and are identifiable as “win-win” situations – typically embodied and personified in situations which are linked to trade practices, organizational and business dealings – and even State involvements, isn’t there a “win-win” situation for parties involved? Particularly where “reasonable” or adequate consideration has been exchanged in the knowledge that some benefits will be derived by certain parties? In certain situations, unintended or intended outcomes may eventually end up serving in the interests of the majority – even in those situations with highly unpredictable and uncertain outcomes.
Dynamic frictional thermoviscoelastic Gao beams

In this work, we provide mathematical and numerical analyses for a thermoviscoelastic nonlinear beam model with Coulomb friction dry law. Since the dynamic frictional conditions are nonsmooth, a regularization technique with smoothing parameters is applied to approximate a nonlinear variational formulation. We prove the existence of weak solutions satisfying the regularized variational formulation based on a priori estimates and results for a pseudomonotone operator. Then, we pass to limits, as the smoothing parameters tend to be zero, in order to show convergence results for the regularized formulation. We propose the fully discrete numerical schemes in which a guarded Newton method is used to compute fully discrete numerical approximations of a nonlinear system at each time step. Numerical experiments are performed with selected data to present numerical simulations as well.
Measuring Multiple Plasma Reactive Species in Complex Settings Using an Innovative Approach of Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy

Low temperature plasma (LTP) has broad applications, stemming from interactions of the LTP agents (reactive species (RS), electrons, and UV light) with a targeted medium. Knowing the absolute concentration of LTP RS in time and in space remains one of the most challenging yet most important LTP diagnostic tasks. This challenge is further compounded when an LTP source is set for interactions with a wet medium, e.g., a biological surface, where the interface between the plasma gas and the liquid (or solution) forms a time- and space-dependent multiphase reaction zone (or interfacial reaction zone). To date, the behavior of the RS, such as transport and diffusion, formation and loss, etc., in this interfacial reaction zone is virtually unexplored, largely due to technical challenges. This challenge hinders our understanding the complicated physics, gas dynamics, and heterogeneous chemistry of LTP in the complex settings.
Histogram of 3D Facets

A new 3D local shape descriptor for hand gesture and human action recognition from depth sensors.Extensive results demonstrate the outstanding discriminative power of the proposed descriptor.The proposed descriptor is compact in dimension, which is thus economic to compute.A Dynamic Programming based Temporal Segmentation framework to represent dynamic depth videos. The recent successful commercialization of depth sensors has made it possible to effectively capture depth images in real time, and thus creates a new modality for many computer vision tasks including hand gesture recognition and activity analysis. Most existing depth descriptors simply encode depth information as intensities while ignoring the richer 3D shape information. In this paper, we propose a novel and effective descriptor, the Histogram of 3D Facets (H3DF), to explicitly encode the 3D shape information from depth maps. A 3D Facet associated with a 3D cloud point characterizes the 3D local support surface. By robust coding and circular pooling 3D Facets from a depth map, the proposed H3DF descriptor can effectively represent both 3D shapes and structures of various depth maps. To address the recognition problems of dynamic actions and gestures, we further extend the proposed H3DF by combining it with an N-gram model and dynamic programming. The proposed descriptor is extensively evaluated on two public 3D static hand gesture datasets, one dynamic hand gesture dataset, and one popular 3D action recognition dataset. The recognition results outperform or are comparable with state-of-the-art performances.
Effect of Tobacco Characteristics on Cigarette Smoke Composition

Two groups of experimental cigarettes were used to examine the effect of leaf tobacco characteristics on cigarette smoke composition. Group I consists of 32 straight flue-cured cigarettes, and Group II consists of 23 blend cigarettes involving many variables. Within each group, simple correlations among leaf and smoke variables, and multiple regression of total TPM, tar, smoke nicotine with selected leaf variables are measured. Results appear to suggest that total N, K, and cellulose content in flue-cured type cigarettes are major factors affecting total TPM delivery, while waxes, total polyphenols, and free histidine are major factors affecting total TPM delivery of blend type cigarettes.
A custom low-noise preamplifier for Magnetic Particle Imaging

The sensitivity of Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI), at fewer than 1000 detectable iron-labeled cells, is already comparable to imaging techniques like nuclear medicine [1-2]. However, the true physical sensitivity limits in MPI have not yet been achieved. Importantly, the preamplifier stage of an MPI receiver chain must be optimized to achieve low noise figures (NF) for the reactive inductor sensors used in MPI [3]. For FET-based amplifiers, this can be achieved through the parallelization of multiple amplifiers [3], or through increasing the number of turns in the receiver coil, or through the use of a matching transformer [4]. The work presented here is the development of a MPI preamplifier that is noise-matched to standard MPI preclinical receiver systems. In particular, we aim to achieve 3 dB noise figure for a high inductance receiver coil (>300 μH) at a bandwidth approximately 400 kHz and gain >1000.
Quality Assurance in the Manufacture of BeO-UO 2 Nuclear Fuel Elements

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has developed and fabricated Be0-U02 fuel elements (92 000 individual parts) for the upgrade of Sandia’s Annular Core Pulse Reactor (ACPR) located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The upgrade will increase the flux and fluence 2.5 times, significantly enhancing the usefulness of this reactor in studies of transient effects in breeder-reactor fuel elements and in nuclear research experiments. When the installation of the fuel elements is finished, the ACPR will be the only known reactor with a Be0-U02 core.
Potent anticancer activity of the second generation artemisinin-derived trioxane dimers on pancreatic cancer cells.

AACR Centennial Conference: Translational Cancer Medicine-- Nov 4-8, 2007; Singapore C23 Background: Trioxane dimers (TDs) are semi synthetic derivatives of the Chinese antimalarial compound 1,2,4-trioxane artemisinin ( Artemesia annua L., qinghaosu). Second-generation C-10 nonacetal TDs are orally active with high stability, efficacy, and anticancer activity. The cytotoxic effect of artmisinin is likely mediated by free radicals produced by its reaction with intracellular iron, which is dependent on the expression of transferrin receptor (TfR). Pancreatic adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine carcinoma are characterized by high expression of TfR in contrast to normal pancreatic tissue and benign neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas. The purpose of this study is to utilize TDs without or with the combination of iron to target TfR overexpressed pancreatic cancer. Methods: in vitro MTT assay to determine cell growth; DNA fragmentation assay to determine apoptosis; flow cytometry and Western blot for expression of transferring receptor. Also pancreatic cancer animal model will be used to determine antitumor activity in vivo . Results: TDs have significant growth inhibitory effects on tested pancreatic cancer cell line Panc-1. This has been shown in time and dose dependent manner with the IC50 range at 25 nM. This dosage has equivalent growth inhibitory effect of Gemcitabine at the concentration between 0.25 uM to 5 uM. Also 25 nM DT can potentiate gemcitabine’s growth inhibitory effect in vitro. In vivo study is in the process now. Conclusions: TDs as potent artemisinin derivatives have significant growth inhibitory effects on pancreatic cancer cells as single agent or in combination with gemcitabine.
Structural studies by nuclear magnetic resonance—XI: Conformations and configurations of oxime o-methyl ethers

Conformations and configurations were assigned to several aldehyde and ketone oxime O methyl ethers from analysis of their 60-Mc. NMR spectra. Interpretation of the data from the cis-isomers (methoxy cis to hydrogen) of the aldehyde derivatives in terms of rotamers I and II, whereby a single bond eclipses the double bond, led to the following conclusions: For α-mono-substituted derivatives, when R was varied from methyl to t-butyl, ΔH° for I → II varied from +390 to +4,5000 cal/mole. A similar range was obtained for α,α,-disubstituted derivatives. Interpretation of the data from the trans-isomers led to the conclusion that, whereas I is the only significant rotamer for α,α-disubstituted derivatives, for α-mono-substituted I and III are equally important.