cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effect of tobacco use on outcomes of laparoscopic and open ventral hernia repairs: a review of the NSQIP dataset.

As the effort to reduce postoperative morbidity and mortality continues, the search for modifiable patient risk factors to reduce complications is ongoing. Tobacco use is associated with impaired wound healing, but its effect on inguinal hernia repair has not been studied in a large population. An ACS-NSQIP dataset was used to evaluate the effect of tobacco use on outcomes of inguinal hernia repairs. The ACS-NSQIP dataset was queried for patients who underwent open or laparoscopic inguinal hernia repairs, by primary procedure CPT codes, between years 2009–2012. Tobacco use was registered, as defined by the ACS-NSQIP, in two ways: current smoking (within the past 12 months), or history of smoking (having ever smoked). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to investigate outcome variables for 30-day morbidity by type of smoking status, while adjusting for preoperative risk factors. During the study period, 90,162 patients underwent inguinal hernia repair. 76 % of the cases were open compared to 24 % laparoscopic. The population was overwhelmingly male, 91 %, compared to 9 % female. The average age of patients was 42.5 years. Of the available data (69 % of patients), 38.5 % had a history of smoking. 18 % had smoked within the 12 months prior to surgery (current smokers). Their average number of pack years was 27.2 (SD 24.0) compared to 4.5 pack years (SD 14.7) for those who had not smoked 12 months prior to surgery (historical smokers). Using Fisher’s exact test, having ever smoked was found to be significantly associated with pneumonia (p = 0.0008) and return to the operating room (p = 0.010). This relationship held when preoperative variables were controlled for using logistic regression (pneumonia, p = 0.002; return to the operating room, p = 0.002). When preoperative variables were controlled for and logistic regression was performed for current smokers, there was also a significant association with pneumonia (p = 0.005) and return to the operating room (p = 0.01). Current smoking status is a modifiable risk of patients undergoing laparoscopic and open inguinal hernia repair. Failure to quit smoking prior to surgical repair is associated with complications like pneumonia and return to the operating room.
Tertiary Natality: The Nascent Character of the Life of the Mind

Hannah Arendt was initiated into political theory when she sought to analyse the factors which led to the evils of twentieth century totalitarianism. With the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt won renown as a political thinker. Subsequent book-length publications testify to Arendt’s continued interest in the political and the pre-eminence of action in human experience,1 but the problem which presented itself at the beginning of her career as a political thinker — the problem of evil — continued to haunt Arendt only to re-present itself as she commenced an analysis of the life of the mind. Still baffled by the reality of evil and the perdurance of its experience in the day-to-day routine of living, Arendt turned her attention to the realm of thought and the mental activities of thinking, willing and judging. It should not surprise us, then, that Arendt introduced The Life of the Mind with the question of the phenomenon of evil and the riddle it poses for the thinking activities. Arendt tells us from the outset that her ‘preoccupation with the mental activities’ had two origins: the Eichmann trial and the manifest banality of those who committed evil deeds during wartime in Nazi Germany and the moral question which this event raises for the life of the mind.2 Both ‘preoccupations’ came to be articulated under the comprehensive question: what is thinking? It was this absence of thinking (that is, Eichmann’s thoughtlessness) — which is so ordinary an experience in our everyday life, where we have hardly the time, let alone the inclination, to stop and think — that awakened my interest … Might the problem of good and evil, our faculty for telling right from wrong, be connected with our faculty for thought? … The question that imposed itself was: could the activity of thinking as such … be among the conditions that make men abstain from evil-doing or even actually ‘condition’ them against it?3
CAUSES OF REGIONAL VARIATION OF MAGNITUDES.

abstract Data from the short and long-period seismographs at the NORSAR in Norway are used to investigate the discrimination of earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions using surface-wave versus body-wave magnitude ( M s versus m b ). Earthquakes and explosions occurring within the western United States and recorded in Norway exhibit either anomalously large surface waves or anomalously low compressional body waves compared to events from central Asia. These data, as well as the results of other investigators, indicate an anomaly of 0.8 to 1.0 in M s or 0.6 to 0.8 in m b or some linear combination of the two. The mechanism producing anomalously large M s values from a region for explosions and the cause of lower m b values are investigated in terms of stress relaxation triggered by an explosion and regional variations in attenuation in the upper mantle beneath both the source region and the receiver region. The method of short-period amplitude spectral ratio is applied to the records of the waves from five deep events to determine the difference in attenuation beneath different receivers. The relative Q model inferred from these data for the upper mantle from 50 to 750 km depth is Q LASA = 75, Q TFSO = 175, and Q NORSAR = 390. The circum-Pacific island arc exhibits an apparent source attenuation asymmetry. The data from the mid-Atlantic ridge indicate that strong attenuation may be associated with parts of the ridge. The relative difference of the Q model between LASA and NORSAR results in a difference in m b of 0.40 for distances of 60° to 80°, which agrees well with the observed differences in m b . We conclude that regional variations of attenuation in the upper mantle play an important role in regional differences in M s versus m b relationship.
Feeding Behavior of Lemur Catta in Different Habitats

Biologists have been trying to explain observed differences in the social structure of different species by looking at the environmental constraints on those species. For example, Crook and Gartlan (1966) observed that in open habitats (e.g., the African savanna), primate species tend to be organized into groups with large home ranges, while in more closed habitats (e.g., forests), other primate species are organized into smaller groups with smaller home ranges. On the basis of these and other observations, the authors concluded that habitats place particular constraints on social structure and that animals respond in ways that biologists should be able to predict.
CELL-MATERIAL INTERACTIONS

Publisher Summary The nature of cell adhesion to substrate materials has a tremendous effect on cell function and tissue development. Signaling cascades initiated by cell adhesion have the ability to regulate a variety of events, including embryogenesis, tissue differentiation, and cell migration. Signaling via receptor–ligand interactions provides the cell with vital information about its extracellular environment. Coordinated cellular responses to these signals enable cells to adapt their function to their specific environment. Understanding how cells interact with a substrate is crucial in the development of functional biomaterials. The field of tissue engineering requires the creation of materials that are capable of directing tissue development, and one approach in achieving this control is through the manipulation of biological interactions between cell and material. An example of how cell–surface interactions influence cell function is the in vitro culture of mammary epithelial cells on tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) vs laminin-coated surfaces. In vivo, epithelial cells are found as a monolayer on a basal lamina. When cultured on untreated TCPS in vitro, these cells lose their normal cuboidal morphology and ability to secrete milk proteins. However, upon addition of laminin to the surface, normal function and morphology are retained
Ionospheric total electron content: Spatial patterns of variability

The distinctive spatial patterns of the ionosphere's total electron content (TEC) response to solar, seasonal, diurnal and geomagnetic influences are determined across the globe using a new statistical model constructed from 2-hourly TEC observations from 1998 to 2015. The model combines representations of the physical solar EUV photon and geomagnetic activity drivers with solar-modulated sinusoidal parameterizations of four seasonal cycles and solar- and seasonally-modulated parameterizations of three diurnal cycles. The average absolute residual of the data-model differences is 2.1 TECU (9%) and the root mean square error is 3.5 TECU (15%). Solar and geomagnetic variability, the semiannual oscillation and the diurnal and semidiurnal oscillations all impact TEC most at low magnetic latitudes where TEC itself maximizes, with differing degrees of longitudinal inhomogeneity. In contrast, the annual oscillation manifests primarily in the Southern Hemisphere with maximum amplitude over mid latitude South America, extending to higher southern latitudes in the vicinity of the Weddell Sea. Nighttime TEC levels in the vicinity of the Weddell Sea exceed daytime levels every year in southern hemisphere summer as a consequence of the modulation of the diurnal oscillations by the seasonal oscillations. The anomaly, which is present at all phases of the solar cycle, commences sooner and ends later under solar minimum conditions. The model minus data residuals maximize at tropical magnetic latitudes in four geographical regions similar to the ionosphere pattern generated by lower atmospheric meteorology. Enhanced residuals at northern mid latitudes during winter are consistent with an influence of atmospheric gravity waves.
Positive contrast from cells labeled with iron oxide nanoparticles: Quantitation of imaging data

Author(s): Magnitsky, Sergey; Zhang, Jinjin; Idiyatullin, Djaudat; Mohan, Geetha; Garwood, Michael; Lane, Nancy E; Majumdar, Sharmila | Abstract: PurposeConventional T2 -weighted MRI produces a hypointense signal from iron-labeled cells, which renders quantification unfeasible. We tested a SWeep Imaging with Fourier Transformation (SWIFT) MRI pulse sequence to generate a quantifiable hyperintense signal from iron-labeled cells.MethodsMesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were labeled with different concentrations of iron oxide particles and examined for cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation. The SWIFT sequence was optimized to detect and quantify the amount of iron in the muscle tissue after injection of iron oxide solution and iron-labeled MSCs.ResultsThe incubation of MSCs with iron oxide and low concentration of poly-L-lysine mixture resulted in an internalization of up to 22 pg of iron per cell with no adverse effect on MSCs. Phantom experiments showed a dependence of SWIFT signal intensity on the excitation flip angle. The hyperintense signal from iron-labeled cells or solutions was detected, and an amount of the iron oxide in the tissue was quantified with the variable flip angle method.ConclusionsThe SWIFT sequence can produce a quantifiable hyperintense MRI signal from iron-labeled cells. The graft of 18 x 106 cells was detectable for 19 days after injection and the amount of iron was quantifiable. The proposed protocol simplifies the detection and provides a means to quantify cell numbers. Magn Reson Med 78:1900-1910, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Structural evaluations of tau protein conformation: methodologies and approaches.

Protein-misfolding diseases are based on a common principle of aggregation initiated by intra- and inter-molecular contacts. The structural and conformational changes induced by biochemical transfo...
Rous Sarcoma Virus Induces a New Form of Prostaglandin G/H Synthase (Cyclooxygenase)

Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), a strongly transforming avian retrovirus, induces a cellular immediate-early gene that encodes a new form of prostaglandin G/H synthase (PGHS). Other mitogens such as serum and phorbol esters also induce this isoenzyme. The RSV-induced PGHS is very similar in size to the PGHS isolated from sheep seminal vesicle, and has all the hallmarks of a PGHS, including conserved glycosylation sites, a heme binding domain, and the acetylation site for aspirin. Mitogenic stimulation of cyclooxygenase activity in NIH 3T3 cells correlates with induction of this new form of PGHS. Furthermore, dexamethasone (DEX) inhibits the mitogenic induction of RSV-induced PGHS, suggesting a new mechanism by which this steroid may exert its antiinflammatory effect. The close link between induction of this new PGHS and cell division suggests that prostaglandin/thromboxane synthesis mediated by this enzyme plays a role in mitosis.
Chemically Functionalized Natural Cellulose Materials for Effective Triboelectric Nanogenerator Development

Cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer, is renewable, biodegradable, and cost competitive. This paper reports the development of a high-performance triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with both contacting materials made from cellulosic materials. Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are used as the raw material, and chemical reaction approaches are employed to attach nitro groups and methyl groups to cellulose molecules to change the tribopolarities of CNF, which in turn significantly enhances the triboelectric output. Specifically, the nitro-CNF possesses a negative surface charge density of 85.8 µC m−2, while the methyl-CNF possesses a positive surface charge density of 62.5 µC m−2, reaching 71% and 52% of that for fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), respectively. The figure of merit of the nitro-CNF and methyl-CNF is quantified to be 0.504 and 0.267, respectively, comparable to or exceeding a number of common synthetic polymers, such as Kapton, polyvinylidene fluoride, and polyethylene. The TENG fabricated from nitro-CNF paired with methyl-CNF demonstrates an average voltage output of 8 V and current output of 9 µA, which approaches the same level obtained from TENG made from FEP. This work demonstrates a successful strategy of using environmentally friendly, abundant cellulosic materials for replacing the synthetic polymers in TENG development.
Hospital-Level Factors Associated with Pediatric Emergency Department Return Visits.

Background Return visits (RVs) and RVs with admission (RVAs) are commonly used emergency department quality measures. Visit- and patient-level factors, including several social determinants of health, have been associated with RV rates, but hospital-specific factors have not been studied. Objective To identify what hospital-level factors correspond with high RV and RVA rates. Setting Multicenter mixed-methods study of hospital characteristics associated with RV and RVA rates. Data source Pediatric Health Information System with survey of emergency department directors. Measurements Adjusted return rates were calculated with generalized linear mixed-effects models. Hospitals were categorized by adjusted RV and RVA rates for analysis. Results Twenty-four hospitals accounted for 1,456,377 patient visits with an overall adjusted RV rate of 3.7% and RVA rate of 0.7%. Hospitals with the highest RV rates served populations that were more likely to have government insurance and lower median household incomes and less likely to carry commercial insurance. Hospitals in the highest RV rate outlier group had lower pediatric emergency medicine specialist staffing, calculated as full-time equivalents per 10,000 patient visits: median (interquartile range) of 1.9 (1.5-2.1) versus 2.9 (2.2-3.6). There were no differences in hospital population characteristics or staffing by RVA groups. Conclusion RV rates were associated with population social determinants of health and inversely related to staffing. Hospital-level variation may indicate population-level economic factors outside the control of the hospital and unrelated to quality of care.
Downregulation of E Protein Activity Augments an ILC2 Differentiation Program in the Thymus

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are important regulators in various immune responses. The current paradigm states that all newly made ILCs originate from common lymphoid progenitors in the bone marrow. Id2, an inhibitor of E protein transcription factors, is indispensable for ILC differentiation. Unexpectedly, we found that ectopically expressing Id1 or deleting two E protein genes in the thymus drastically increased ILC2 counts in the thymus and other organs where ILC2 normally reside. Further evidence suggests a thymic origin of these mutant ILC2s. The mutant mice exhibit augmented spontaneous infiltration of eosinophils and heightened responses to papain in the lung and increased ability to expulse the helminth parasite, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis These results prompt the questions of whether the thymus naturally has the capacity to produce ILC2s and whether E proteins restrain such a potential. The abundance of ILC2s in Id1 transgenic mice also offers a unique opportunity for testing the biological functions of ILC2s.
Generalized regret based decision making

Abstract We describe the basic regret decision-making model for decision problems in which the payoff for a given alternative is uncertain and depends on the value of a variable called the state of nature. An important attribute of this model is the maximum payoff for the occurrence of a given state of nature. We note that the regret is based on the difference between the payoff we receive, given our choice of alternative, under the occurrence of a state of nature and the best payoff we could have received for that state of nature. We note the effective regret associated with an alternative is an aggregation of an alternative’s regrets across all the possible states of nature. Our objective is to select the alternative with minimum effective regret. We look at this for various methods of aggregating an alternative’s individual regrets across the different states of nature and various types of information about the uncertainty associated with the states of nature. One issue limiting the use of regret decision-making is its lack of indifference to irrelevant alternatives and the related openness to strategic manipulation by introducing alternatives to solely effect the determination of the maximum payoff. We begin to look at methods to reduce this effect.
Clinical outcomes of coronary occlusion following transcatheter aortic valve replacement: A systematic review

Abstract Background Coronary occlusion (CO) is a rare but serious complication following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with limited published data. We sought to evaluate the immediate and short-term outcomes of CO complicating TAVR. Methods Studies, including case reports, case series and original articles published from 2002 to 2016 describing CO following TAVR were identified with a systematic electronic search using the PRISMA Statement. Only studies reporting data on demographic and procedural characteristics, management and follow up outcomes were analyzed. Results A total of 40 publications describing 96 patients (86 native, 10 bioprosthetic) were identified. Mean age was 83 ± 7 years and most (81%) were females. The mean logistic EuroSCORE and STS score was 23.5 ± 14.6% and 9.1 ± 3.2% respectively. TAVR access site was transfemoral in 73% and a balloon expandable valve was used in 78%. Among those with LCA occlusion, the mean LCA ostium height was 10.1 ± 1.8 mm while the mean RCA ostium height was 10.4 ± 2.0 mm among those with RCA occlusion. CO frequently involved the left main coronary artery (80%) and the most common mechanism was displacement of native valve leaflet (60%), and most cases occurred within 1-hour post-implantation (88%). Percutaneous coronary intervention was attempted in 82 patients and successful in 89%. Procedural death was 10.4%. CO following TAVR in native aortic valve stenosis was associated with a 30-day mortality rate of 35.3%. Conclusions CO following TAVR is associated with a high procedural and 30-day mortality rate despite aggressive resuscitative measures including percutaneous coronary intervention.
Impacts of energy feeds and supplemental protease on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and gut health of pigs from 18 to 45 kg body weight.

Abstract A total of 144 pigs with 18.4 ± 2.3 kg initial body weight (BW) at 6 wk of age were used in a 40-d trial to evaluate effects of protease (300,000 U/kg feed, BioResource International Inc., Durham, NC, USA) on growth performance, apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of nutrients, and gut health of pigs fed diets with sorghum. Pigs were randomly allotted to 4 treatments (12 pens per treatment, 3 pigs per pen) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (corn or sorghum basal diets, and 0 or 0.05% protease as 2 factors) with sex and initial BW as blocks. Experimental period had phase 1 (d 1 to 21) and phase 2 (d 22 to 40). About 65% (phase 1) and 72% (phase 2) of cereal grains were used in corn or sorghum based diets. Both grains were ground to 400 μm. Body weight and feed intake were recorded weekly. On d 35, serum was collected to quantify tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Titanium dioxide (0.3%) was added as an indigestible marker for an additional 4 d feeding. On d 40, 32 pigs (8 pigs per treatment) were euthanized to collect digesta from jejunum and ileum (for viscosity and AID), tissues (for morphology) and mucosa samples (for TNF-α and MDA) from duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Replacing corn with sorghum in the diet increased ( P P P P P P
Changing Epidemiology of Haemophilus influenzae in Children

Haemophilus influenzae remains a common cause of illness in children throughout the world. Before the introduction of vaccination, H influenzae type b (Hib) disease was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in young children and a frequent cause of pneumonia, epiglottitis, and septic arthritis. Clinicians should remain diligent in counseling parents on the dangers of Hib and provide vaccination starting at 2 months of age. The epidemiology of invasive H influenzae disease is shifting. It is imperative that clinicians recognize the changing epidemiology and antibiotic resistance patterns for H influenzae to optimize care in hospital and ambulatory settings.
AnSU4 model for strong interactions

A model of an approximateSU 4 symmetry for strong interactions in discussed. Unlike other investigators ofSU 4 models, we considerSU 4 under the reductionSU 2×SU 2×U 1. Although we find several predictions which are not valid, two rather interesting results are obtained.
The Diffusive Problem

The ocean contains motions on many scales. In all numerical models it is necessary to parameterize the effect of unresolved scales of motion by some smoothing, usually in the form of Laplacian friction. This leads to equations which are both hyperbolic and parabolic. In this chapter we study simple diffusion equations in order to learn how to formulate the diffusive part of the problem and how to investigate the linear numerical stability of finite difference schemes. All methods are not stable.
Design, Risk and Capabilities

The design of complex artifacts, for example civil structural and infrastructural systems, is based on the premise that their performance can be predicted and evaluated with sufficient confidence for the engineers, clients and other stakeholders jointly to make intelligent and informed decisions. This requires a shift away from current prescriptive codes, which tend to be implicitly conservative and do not properly account for the consequences of damage or failure of an artifact, and toward a design process and design codes more firmly rooted in the realistic prediction of the probabilities of damage and failure, and the associated consequences. There is also a need for a risk-based design process and code that account in a normative and comprehensive way for the consequences associated to risks. This chapter proposes a capability approach to design, herein called capability-based design. We argue that capabilities provide the requisite framework for conceptualizing consequences in risk assessment, evaluation, and management. Finally, a capability approach to design offers concrete guidance to engineers making design choices and balancing competing design constraints.
Time, clocks, and the ordering of my ideas about distributed systems

A guided tour through the labyrinth of my thoughts, from the Bakery Algorithm to arbiter-free marked graphs. This exercise in egotism is by invitation of the DISC 20th Anniversary Committee. I take no responsibility for the choice of topic.
LearnCS!: a new, browser-based C programming environment for CS1

LearnCS! is a learning environment specifically written for use by first-year computer science students. It provides students with a browser-based programming and execution environment which contains a depiction of the notional machine for the C language, and contains a built-in debugger. Many error messages are customized to assist the beginning student of computer science. These features have seemingly yielded good results in improving students' comprehension of CS1 concepts.
Abstract A011: Hypoxia-inducible PIM kinase expression promotes resistance to antiangiogenic agents in prostate cancer

Angiogenesis is known to play an important role in prostate cancer pathogenesis. Although the addition of VEGF-targeting agents (i.e., bevacizumab) to docetaxel improved response rates in mCRPC patients, it failed to improve overall survival. Patients can develop resistance to antiangiogenic drugs due to changes in the tumor microenvironment, including hypoxia. PIM kinases are prosurvival kinases whose expression is increased in hypoxia and advanced prostate cancer. The goal of this study was to determine whether targeting hypoxia-induced PIM kinase expression is effective in combination with VEGF-targeting agents. The rationale for this therapeutic approach is based on the fact that antiangiogenic drugs can make tumors hypoxic, and thus more sensitive to PIM inhibitors. We establish PIM kinase expression as a novel mechanism of resistance to antiangiogenic agents. Xenograft and orthotopic models of prostate cancer were used to assess the effect of PIM activation on the efficacy of VEGF-targeting agents. We show that PIM is upregulated following treatment with anti-VEGF therapies, and PIM expression reduces the ability of these drugs to effectively disrupt tumor vasculature. Combinatorial inhibition of PIM and VEGF produces a synergistic antitumor response that is characterized by enhanced cell death, growth arrest, decreased angiogenesis, and reduced metastasis. Mechanistically, small-molecule PIM inhibitors reduce HIF-1 activity, opposing a shift to the proangiogenic gene signature associated with hypoxia. Our data provide justification for combining PIM and VEGF inhibitors to treat advanced prostate cancer. Citation Format: Andrea Casillas, Rachel Toth, Alva Sainz, Andrew S. Kraft, Noel A. Warfel. Hypoxia-inducible PIM kinase expression promotes resistance to antiangiogenic agents in prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Prostate Cancer: Advances in Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research; 2017 Dec 2-5; Orlando, Florida. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(16 Suppl):Abstract nr A011.
Adaptation for growth as a common goal throughout the lifespan: Why and how

Abstract Thriving in a constantly changing environment requires human learners to adapt. In turn, adaptation requires learning new information and skills (i.e., adaptation for growth). Although specific personal goals change across the lifespan, the need for adaptation for growth is common across all ages. Yet, research with older adults often focuses on adaptation to loss, whereas research with infants and children often focuses on adaptation for growth. However, recent aging research demonstrates the possibility of cognitive maintenance, or even growth, in older adulthood. Focusing more on gains rather than losses may lead to a better understanding of adaptation for growth, and ultimately functional independence in a dynamic environment. After briefly reviewing theories on cognitive growth across the lifespan, we present a novel theoretical framework to explain why and how human learners adapt to grow in a dynamic environment from infancy to older adulthood. This framework highlights the role of real-world skill learning on three intermediate elements of learning to adapt relevant for any age. A driving metaphor conceptualizes these three elements: (1) learning what to learn and how to learn (GPS), (2) motivation to learn and adapt (fuel), and (3) cognitive abilities for learning (engine). We propose that these three elements lead to functional independence in a dynamic environment. We explain how the new framework builds on and extends existing learning research with older adults. Implications and future directions to raise the standard for cognitive aging from loss prevention and maintenance to adaptation for cognitive growth are discussed.
Selection games on continuous functions

Abstract In this paper we study the selection principle of closed discrete selection, first researched by Tkachuk in [12] and strengthened by Clontz, Holshouser in [3] , in set-open topologies on the space of continuous real-valued functions. Adapting the techniques involving point-picking games on X and C p ( X ) , the current authors showed similar equivalences in [1] involving the compact subsets of X and C k ( X ) . By pursuing a bitopological setting, we have touched upon a unifying framework which involves three basic techniques: general game duality via reflections (Clontz), general game equivalence via topological connections, and strengthening of strategies (Pawlikowski and Tkachuk). Moreover, we develop a framework which identifies topological notions to match with generalized versions of the point-open game.
Twelve tips for teaching ophthalmology in the undergraduate curriculum

Ophthalmology education in the undergraduate medical curriculum has declined, and graduating healthcare professionals express discomfort with basic evaluation and management of ophthalmic complaint...
Evaluating the ASTHMAXcel Mobile Application Regarding Asthma Knowledge and Clinical Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: We sought to longitudinally assess the efficacy of the patient-facing ASTHMAXcel mobile application in improving asthma knowledge and outcomes in adults with asthma. METHODS: ASTHMAXcel is a novel smartphone application consistent with the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, Global Initiative for Asthma, and British Thoracic Society/Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guidelines. The intervention was provided for 1-time use at baseline only. The Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (AKQ), the Asthma Control Test (ACT), and the mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ) were administered at baseline and at 2, 4, and 6 months thereafter. Rates of asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and prednisone use were also evaluated. RESULTS: ACT scores increased significantly at 2, 4, and 6 months (mean scores: 15.1 vs 16.9, P = .038; 15.1 vs 17.2, P = .02; 15.1 vs 17.9, P = .003) after baseline. There were significant increases in AKQ scores at 4 and 6 months (11.7 vs 12.6, P = .02; 11.7 vs 13.1, P = .005) and in mini-AQLQ scores at 6 months (55.5 vs 64.2, P = .02). There were significant decreases in asthma-related emergency department visits at 6 months (0.6 vs 0, P CONCLUSIONS: ASTHMAXcel contributes to improved asthma knowledge and outcomes and to decreased health care utilization. ASTHMAXcel is an inexpensive, scalable aid for out-patient asthma management.
Prevalence of neural collapse during the terminal phase of deep learning training.

Modern practice for training classification deepnets involves a terminal phase of training (TPT), which begins at the epoch where training error first vanishes. During TPT, the training error stays effectively zero, while training loss is pushed toward zero. Direct measurements of TPT, for three prototypical deepnet architectures and across seven canonical classification datasets, expose a pervasive inductive bias we call neural collapse (NC), involving four deeply interconnected phenomena. (NC1) Cross-example within-class variability of last-layer training activations collapses to zero, as the individual activations themselves collapse to their class means. (NC2) The class means collapse to the vertices of a simplex equiangular tight frame (ETF). (NC3) Up to rescaling, the last-layer classifiers collapse to the class means or in other words, to the simplex ETF (i.e., to a self-dual configuration). (NC4) For a given activation, the classifier’s decision collapses to simply choosing whichever class has the closest train class mean (i.e., the nearest class center [NCC] decision rule). The symmetric and very simple geometry induced by the TPT confers important benefits, including better generalization performance, better robustness, and better interpretability.
Extubation Readiness in Preterm Infants: Evaluating the Role of Monitoring Intermittent Hypoxemia

Preterm infants with respiratory distress may require mechanical ventilation which is associated with increased pulmonary morbidities. Prompt and successful extubation to noninvasive support is a pressing goal. In this communication, we show original data that increased recurring intermittent hypoxemia (IH, oxygen saturation <80%) may be associated with extubation failure at 72 h in a cohort of neonates <30 weeks gestational age. Current-generation bedside high-resolution pulse oximeters provide saturation profiles that may be of use in identifying extubation readiness and failure. A larger prospective study that utilizes intermittent hypoxemia as an adjunct predictor for extubation readiness is warranted.
Minimizing Training Time of Distributed Machine Learning by Reducing Data Communication

Due to the additive property of most machine learning objective functions, the training can be distributed to multiple machines. Distributed machine learning is an efficient way to deal with the rapid growth of data volume at the cost of extra inter-machine communication. One common implementation is the parameter server system which contains two types of nodes: worker nodes, which are used for calculating updates, and server nodes, which are used for maintaining parameters. We observe that inefficient communication between workers and servers may slow down the system. Therefore, we propose a graph partition problem to partition data among workers and parameters among servers such that the total training time is minimized. Our problem is NP-Complete. We investigate a two-step heuristic approach that first partitions data, and then partitions parameters. We consider the trade-off between partition time and the saving in training time. Besides, we adopt a multilevel graph partition approach to fit the bipartite graph partitioning. We implement both approaches based on an open-source parameter server platform—PS-lite. Experiment results on synthetic and real-world datasets show that both approaches could significantly improve the communication efficiency up to 14 times compared with the random partition.
The Role of Mutant p63 in Female Fertility.

The transcription factor p63, one of the p53 family members, plays an essential role in regulating maternal reproduction and genomic integrity as well as epidermal development. TP63 (human)/Trp63 (mouse) produces multiple isoforms: TAp63 and ΔNp63, which possess a different N-terminus depending on two different promoters, and p63a, p63b, p63g, p63δ, and p63e as products of alternative splicing at the C-terminus. TAp63 expression turns on in the nuclei of primordial germ cells in females and is maintained mainly in the oocyte nuclei of immature follicles. It has been established that TAp63 is the genomic guardian in oocytes of the female ovaries and plays a central role in determining the oocyte fate upon oocyte damage. Lately, there is increasing evidence that TP63 mutations are connected with female infertility, including isolated premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) and syndromic POI. Here, we review the biological functions of p63 in females and discuss the consequences of p63 mutations, which result in infertility in human patients.
Avionics architecture study for air mobility command aircraft

New standards for air traffic management (ATM) are being developed within official aeronautical organizations throughout the world. The Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) is planning for new avionics or avionics upgrades to ensure its aircraft have airspace access worldwide. AMC tasked the air traffic control and landing systems (ATCALS) system program office (SPO) of the Air Force Electronic Systems Center (ESC) at Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB), Massachusetts, to investigate avionics architectures for equipping AMC aircraft. This paper summarizes that study, which was performed by ESC and Mitre Corporation staff located in Bedford, Massachusetts, under the ATCALS project, and Arinc Inc., of Annapolis, Maryland.
Geometric Factors Impacting Adhesive Lap Joint Strength and Design

Too often adhesive thickness, adherend thickness and other geometric factors are not explicitly considered in adhesive joint design. This study includes experimental and computational research exploring the means of enhancing the engineering design process for adhesive lap joints to include such effects. It clearly demon-strated that both the cleavage stresses and the shear stresses, near the bond termini, play important roles in lap 'shear' joint failure. Finite Element and Fracture Mechanics analyses were used to examine the energy release rate applied to growth of cracks in adhesive lap joints. Lap joints with similar geometries to those analyzed were designed, fabricated and tested. In a separate set of experiments the bond termini were constrained in the direction normal to the uniaxial loading. If the strength of lap shear joints is dominated by the adhesive shear strength, then constraining the lateral motion of the bond termini should have little or no effect on the overall shear strength of the a...
A Molecular Whodunit

The Spanish flu pandemic killed more than 20 million people worldwide in 1918. An extremely virulent influenza virus that jumped from chickens to humans appeared in Hong Kong in 1997. Why is it that these particular flu viruses were so virulent? In an enlightening Perspective, Webster discusses new work ( Hatta et al., Gibbs et al.) that offers fresh insights into the factors determining flu virus virulence. In addition, he advises on the steps that we need to take to avert another flu pandemic on the scale of the Spanish flu.
Bacterial Luciferase CHEMISTRY OF THE REACTIVE SULFHYDRYL

Abstract Bacterial luciferase catalyzes the bioluminescent oxidation of FMNH2 and a long chain aliphatic aldehyde by O2, producing FMN and the corresponding carboxylic acid. The enzyme from bacterial strain MAV has been found to be inactivated by modification of a single cysteinyl residue per enzyme molecule by alkylating reagents such as iodoacetamide, iodoacetate, and N-ethylmaleimide. The apparent second order rate constants for inactivation at pH 7.0 (25°) are 1.67 x 103 m-1 min-1 for N-ethylmaleimide and 7.0 m-1 min-1 for iodoacetamide. Inactivation by iodoacetate at pH 7.0 is much less rapid, and the rate constant was not determined below pH 8. With all three reagents, the rate of inactivation increases with increasing pH in a manner suggesting a pKa of about 9.4 for the reactive sulfhydryl group. The rate of inactivation by N-[1-14C]ethylmaleimide correlates with the rate of modification of one sulfhydryl group on the α subunit, the β subunit being modified much less rapidly. Long chain aliphatic aldehydes protect the enzyme against inactivation by N-ethylmaleimide, the degree of protection increasing with increasing aldehyde chain length. The reactive sulfhydryl is also protected by FMN against alkylation. No binding of FMNH2 could be measured for iodoacetamide- or N-ethylmaleimide-modified enzyme. These results suggest that the reactive sulfhydryl is in or near the active center of the enzyme. The pH profiles of FMNH2 binding affinity and several catalytic parameters of the native enzyme do not implicate a group with a pKa near that of the sulfhydryl. The catalytic function (if any) for the reactive cysteine remains unknown.
Returning to the Random Walk

We have modified the flux-transport model by replacing the continuous diffusion term with a discrete random walk. The simulated fields now remain bunched on supergranular scales while spreading out into large-scale patterns, as is observed on the Sun. With this two-component model, we can now understand why cross correlations at short time lags give the differential rotation profile of the photospheric gas while those at long lags give the more rigid pattern rate.
Translation-based steganography

This paper investigates the possibilities of steganographically embedding information in the “noise” created by automatic translation of natural language documents. Because the inherent redundancy of natural language creates plenty of room for variation in translation, machine translation is ideal for steganographic applications. Also, because there are frequent errors in legitimate automatic text translations, additional errors inserted by an information hiding mechanism are plausibly undetectable and would appear to be part of the normal noise associated with translation. Significantly, it should be extremely difficult for an adversary to determine if inaccuracies in the translation are caused by the use of steganography or by deficiencies of the translation software.
A floating-gate DAC array

The precision of digital-to-analog converters (DAC) is always limited by element mismatching. These elements can be transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc. Techniques used to improve resolution often involve the sacrifice of die area. In this paper we present a design for a DAC using floating-gate MOS transistors. This approach takes the classical scaled transistor DAC techniques, where we scale our transistors by programming each transistor's floating-gate charge instead of W/L ratios. The programming eliminates device mismatch issues on DAC performance, and greatly reduces it size. A floating-gate digital-to-analog converter (FGDAC) that just occupies 37.25/spl mu/m by 18.5/spl mu/m area, was fabricated using 0.6/spl mu/m CMOS technology. Because of its small size, an array of FGDACs can be built in a single IC; a 4/spl times/4 10 bit FGDAC has been fabricated using 0.6/spl mu/m CMOS technology. Measurements show that we can obtain 7 bits of accuracy with less than 0.5LSB linearity error for a single FGDAC.
Order from Chaos in the Nucleus

Although it might appear that chromatin is randomly packed within the nucleus, recent data (Hou et al., 2012, in this issue of Molecular Cell) show that it is organized into defined and functionally important domains marked by preferred intradomain physical contacts, and with boundaries associated with insulator protein occupancy.
Speed And Convergence Of Bimodal Optical Computers

A bimodal optical computer (BOC) for solving a system of linear equations is presented. The BOC can achieve accuracies comparable to those of the digital computer, and its speed is far superior in solving a system of linear equations. The advantage in speed increases with the size of the matrix. The problem of the convergence of the solution using the BOC is investigated. It is found that by using a BOC with an error as high as 50% in the matrix's optical mask and 1% in the electro-optical devices, convergence is achieved for matrices with condition numbers of 25. The effect of the condition number on the convergence of the solution is investigated. It is found that matrices with large condition numbers converge very slowly. Convergence for matrices with condition numbers higher than 250 was achieved. A means of improving the condition number of a matrix is also introduced.
Easily Implementable Nonlocal Exchange-Correlation Energy Functional

An exchange-correlation functional for nonuniform electronic systems is developed which provides an easily implementable correction to the local density approximation. It is applied to metallic surface energies, as well as to self-consistent atomic calculations which include the ground-state energies of a number of atoms, plus the removal energies for $1s$, $2s$, $3s$, $4s$, $2p$, $3p$, and $3d$ electrons. In all cases tried a substantial improvement was found.
High throughput screening of meningioma biomarkers using a tissue microarray

Meningiomas are histologically and clinically diverse CNS neoplasms with few available immunohistochemical markers of differentiation and progression. Therefore, we investigated a panel of potentially useful meningioma-associated biomarkers using high throughput tissue microarray immunohistochemistry (TMA-IHC) with a TMA that includes 9 hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) and 41 meningiomas spanning all grades, as well as two subsets of atypical meningiomas, stratified according to clinical behavior. Antibodies utilized were progesterone receptor (PR), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), cathepsin D, E-cadherin, platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor β, PDGF BB ligand, survivin, epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In most cases, frequencies of tumor positivity were similar to those previously reported using whole section IHC. EMA, E-cadherin, and PDGFR-β staining patterns distinguished the anaplastic meningiomas from the HPCs (P < 0.001, P = 0.02, P = 0.015, respectively). As in prior studies, PR and cathepsin D expression were inversely proportional to tumor grade. However, PR and EGFR were also differentially expressed between symptomatic, surgically resected benign meningiomas and incidental meningiomas found at autopsy. We conclude that (1) TMA-IHC is an accurate and efficient way to rapidly assess biomarkers in meningeal tumors, (2) EMA, E-cadherin, and PDGFR-β are useful in distinguishing anaplastic meningiomas from HPCs, and (3) the expression patterns for incidental meningiomas differ slightly from their surgically resected symptomatic counterparts.
STM Observations of Exchange Dynamics at the Solid−Liquid Interface Using a Molecular Tracer

A molecular tracer experiment has been performed to observe exchange of molecules between phases at the solid−liquid interface. Mixtures of long-chain molecules were adsorbed on a graphite surface from solution. The thioether hexadecyl sulfide (CH3(CH2)15)2S was coadsorbed with sterically similar molecules hexadecyl ether (CH3(CH2)15)2O or tritriacontane C33H68. These molecules cocrystallize but are readily distinguishable in STM images due to strong contrast between sulfur atoms and methylene or oxygen groups. Thioether molecules are seen to continually enter and leave the monolayer even in well-ordered crystalline regions. Molecules reside on the surface for periods of several seconds. Despite continual replacement of molecules the images remain well-defined, indicating that each exchange is completed within a few milliseconds.