cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
BSD: the Biodegradative Strain Database

The Biodegradative Strain Database (BSD) is a freely-accessible, web-based database providing detailed information on degradative bacteria and the hazardous substances that they degrade, including corresponding literature citations, relevant patents and links to additional web-based biological and chemical data. The BSD (http://bsd.cme.msu.edu) is being developed within the phylogenetic framework of the Ribosomal Database Project II (RDPII: http://rdp.cme.msu.edu/html) to provide a biological complement to the chemical and degradative pathway data of the University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database (UM-BBD: http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu). Data is accessible through a series of strain, chemical and reference lists or by keyword search. The web site also includes on-line data submission and user survey forms to solicit user contributions and suggestions. The current release contains information on over 250 degradative bacterial strains and 150 hazardous substances. The transformation of xenobiotics and other environmentally toxic compounds by microorganisms is central to strategies for biocatalysis and the bioremediation of contaminated environments. However, practical, comprehensive, strain-level information on biocatalytic/biodegradative microbes is not readily available and is often difficult to compile. Similarly, for any given environmental contaminant, there is no single resource that can provide comparative information on the array of identified microbes capable of degrading the chemical. A web site that consolidates and cross-references strain, chemical and reference data related to biocatalysis, biotransformation, biodegradation and bioremediation would be an invaluable tool for academic and industrial researchers and environmental engineers.
Theoretical investigation of the effects of timing calibration errors on time-of-flight PET image quality

Miscalibration of Time-of-Flight (TOF) PET systems can result in significant degradation in reconstructed image quality. We present two expressions for pixel-wise image covariance estimation in the presence of mismatch between the acquisition and reconstruction system models.We applied these two approaches to investigate the effect of calibration errors in the timing delay across detectors. We simulated a 200ps coincidence timing resolution TOF-PET system with nominally no timing delays across detectors. We simulated four uncalibrated systems where the timing delay across detectors were Gaussian distributed with zero mean and standard deviations of 50, 100, 200, and 300 ps. We generated sinograms for a 45cm x 30cm elliptical phantom with two lesions using forward projectors that modeled the 4 uncalibrated systems. The two methods resulted in similar estimates of image noise when the calibration errors were small but produced very different estimates for large calibration errors. To verify the accuracy of the two approaches we estimated the image variance using Monte Carlo simulations for the systems with 50 and 300 ps timing delay calibration error. The second approximation, which is based on expanding the Taylor series around the actual data mean, showed good agreement with Monte-Carlo simulations and was found to be more accurate for large calibration errors.
Cecal Colonization of Chicks by Bovine-Derived Strains of Campylobacter

Abstract SUMMARY. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains were isolated from feces of dairy cattle at farms with no known problem due to campylobacteria. Farms were located in the northeast, desert southwest, and Pacific west. Twenty isolates were identified by ribotyping with a RiboPrinter.® The ability of these bovine isolates to colonize the ceca of chicks was determined by challenge inoculation and reisolation of the challenge strain from the ceca at 1 and 2 wk after challenge. Isolates recovered from chick ceca were examined by ribotyping to assure they matched the challenge strain. One hundred percent of the bovine-derived challenge strains were capable of colonizing chicks. These results indicate that dairy cattle may be asymptomatic Campylobacter carriers and potential sources of campylobacteria contamination of poultry facilities.
The solution of viscous incompressible jet and free-surface flows using finite-element methods

Abstract : The authors discuss the creation of a finite element program suitable for solving incompressible, viscous free surface problems in steady axisymmetric or plane flows. For convenience in extending program capability to non-Newtonian flow, non-zero Reynolds numbers, and transient flow, a Galerkin formulation of the governing equations is chosen, rather than an extremum principle. The resulting program is used to solve the Newtonian die-swell problem for creeping jets free of surface tension constraints. The authors conclude that a Newtonian jet expands about 13%, in substantial agreement with experiments made with both small finite Reynolds numbers and small ratios of surface tension to viscous forces. The solutions to the related stick-slip problem and the tube inlet problem, both of which also contain stress singularities, are also given. (Modified author abstract)
Innate Immunity to Amebic Liver Abscess Is Dependent on Gamma Interferon and Nitric Oxide in a Murine Model of Disease

Evidence from in vitro studies suggests that gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and nitric oxide (NO) are important in host defense against the protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. We used SCID mice with targeted disruption of the IFN-γ receptor gene and mice with targeted disruption of the gene encoding inducible NO synthase to show that IFN-γ plays a role in the innate immunity to amebic liver abscess seen in SCID mice while NO is required for control of amebic liver abscess in immunocompetent mice.
Diffusely reflective aerogel Cherenkov detector simulation techniques

Abstract Due to the similarity of construction materials used in large diffusely reflective aerogel Cherenkov detectors, a reasonable prediction of a detector’s photoelectron signal can be made using a phenomenological equation and parameters easily determined prior to construction. By using the same parameters and Monte Carlo techniques, it is possible not only to predict the photoelectron signal; but also, the uniformity of the signal, the average number of photomultiplier tubes which trigger per event, and the timing resolution of the detector. In this paper both techniques are described and it is shown that even though they use only a minimal number of parameters, both reproduce experimental results and can be used to quickly model detector designs.
Large-eddy simulation of neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow over heterogeneous surfaces: Blending height and effective surface roughness

[1] A new generation large-eddy simulation (LES), based on a Lagrangian scaledependent dynamic subgrid model, is applied to neutral atmospheric flow over heterogeneous land surfaces. This LES is faithful to the physics of the interaction of the lower atmosphere and the land surface based on classical validation tests of the simulated mean wind profile and the atmospheric turbulence. Simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over heterogeneous land surfaces with a range of characteristic lengths and surface roughness values are performed, each simulated surface consisting of equal-size stripes of different roughness. The simulated mean wind profiles are analyzed to identify the height of the blending layer and used to develop a relationship between blending layer height and characteristic surface length scales. For hydrologic and atmospheric applications where the regional-scale surface roughness needs to be known, the analysis is extended to derive an effective surface roughness knowing local surface patch roughness values. INDEX TERMS: 3322 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Land/ atmosphere interactions; 1818 Hydrology: Evapotranspiration; 3337 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Numerical modeling and data assimilation; 3307 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Boundary layer processes; KEYWORDS: atmospheric boundary layer, blending height, effective surface roughness, large-eddy simulation, mesoscale model, subgrid scale
Tree multicast strategies in mobile, multishop wireless networks

Tree multicast is a well established concept in wired networks. Two versions, per-source tree multicast (e.g., DVMRP) and shared tree multicast (e.g., Core Based Tree), account for the majority of the wireline implementations. In this paper, we extend the tree multicast concept to wireless, mobile, multihop networks for applications ranging from ad hoc networking to disaster recovery and battlefield. The main challenge in wireless, mobile networks is the rapidly changing environment. We address this issue in our design by: (a) using “soft state”; (b) assigning different roles to nodes depending on their mobility (2-level mobility model); (c) proposing an adaptive scheme which combines shared tree and per-source tree benefits, and (d) dynamically relocating the shared tree Rendezvous Point (RP). A detailed wireless simulation model is used to evaluate various multicast schemes. The results show that per-source trees perform better in heavy loads because of the more efficient traffic distribution; while shared trees are more robust to mobility and are more scalable to large network sizes. The adaptive tree multicast scheme, a hybrid between shared tree and per-source tree, combines the advantages of both and performs consistently well across all load and mobility scenarios. The main contributions of this study are: the use of a 2-level mobility model to improve the stability of the shared tree, the development of a hybrid, adaptive per-source and shared tree scheme, and the dynamic relocation of the RP in the shared tree.
Morphological variability in tree root architecture indirectly affects coexistence among competitors in the understory

Interactions between plants can have strong effects on community structure and function. Variability in the morphological, developmental, physiological, and biochemical traits of plants can influence the outcome of plant interactions and thus have important ecological consequences. However, the ecological ramifications of trait variability in plants are poorly understood and have rarely been tested in the field. We experimentally tested the effects of morphological variation in root architecture of Quercus douglasii trees in the field on interactions between understory plants and community composition. Our results indicate that variability among Q. douglasii tree root systems initiates a striking reversal in the competitive effects of dominant understory grass species on a less common species. Trees with a deep-rooted morphology facilitated exotic annual grasses and these annual grasses, in turn, competitively excluded the native perennial bunchgrass, Stipa pulchra. In contrast, Q. douglasii trees with sh...
Comparing Evolutionary Rates for Different Phenotypic Traits on a Phylogeny Using Likelihood

In recent years, likelihood-based approaches have been used with increasing frequency to evaluate macroevolutionary hypotheses of phenotypic evolution under distinct evolutionary processes in a phylogenetic context (e.g., Brownian motion, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck, etc.), and to compare one or more evolutionary rates for the same phenotypic trait along a phylogeny. It is also of interest to determine whether one trait evolves at a faster rate than another trait. However, to date no study has compared phylogenetic evolutionary rates between traits using likelihood, because a formal approach has not yet been proposed. In this article, I describe a new likelihood procedure for comparing evolutionary rates for two or more phenotypic traits on a phylogeny. This approach compares the likelihood of a model where each trait evolves at a distinct evolutionary rate to the likelihood of a model where all traits are constrained to evolve at a common evolutionary rate. The method can also account for within-species measurement error and within-species trait covariation if available. Simulations revealed that the method has appropriate Type I error rates and statistical power. Importantly, when compared with existing approaches based on phylogenetically independent contrasts and methods that compare confidence intervals for model parameters, the likelihood method displays preferable statistical properties for a wide range of simulated conditions. Thus, this likelihood-based method extends the phylogenetic comparative biology toolkit and provides evolutionary biologists with a more powerful means of determining when evolutionary rates differ between phenotypic traits. Finally, I provide an empirical example illustrating the approach by comparing rates of evolution for several phenotypic traits in Plethodon salamanders.
Bones in the Basement: Postmortem Racism in Nineteenth-Century Medical Training

Bones in the Basement: Postmortem Racism in Nineteenth-Century Medical Training. Robert L. Blakely and Judith M. Harrington. eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.380 pp.
Integrating fiber Bragg grating sensors with sensor networks

Optical fiber Bragg grating sensors exhibit specialized sensing characteristics for harsh environments. The most common interrogation methods for FBGs require high resolution spectrometers that are not well suited to some embedded test situations. We have developed a compact, high speed, Ethernet-enabled interrogator that consumes less than 10 Watts. We describe the conventions used to convert from the optical domain to a sensor network, then present integrated system test data acquired from sensors in dynamic temperature and strain environments. Fiber optic system and sensor performance signal a maturity level capable of mainstream usability.
Shorter telomeres in luminal B, HER-2 and triple-negative breast cancer subtypes

Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures that protect chromosome ends from degradation and recombination. Cancers often have critically shortened telomeres, contributing to genomic instability. Many of these tumors activate telomerase to stabilize telomeric ends and achieve a capacity for unlimited replication. Telomere shortening has been reported in in situ and invasive carcinomas, including breast, and has been associated with disease recurrence after surgical resection. However, previous studies have not evaluated breast cancer subtypes. The objective of this study was to evaluate telomere lengths in different subtypes of breast cancer. Breast carcinomas (n=103) identified between 2001 and 2010 from patients seen at the Johns Hopkins Hospital were categorized into luminal A (n=18), luminal B (n=28), HER-2-positive (n=20) and triple-negative carcinomas (n=37) based on tumor characteristics. Telomere lengths were assessed directly at the single cell level by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and patient groups were compared using Fisher's exact tests. ER-negative status (P=0.022), PR-negative status (P=0.008), HER-2-positive status (P=0.023) and p53-positive status (P=0.022) were associated with shorter telomere length. A larger proportion of luminal A cancers had normal or long telomere lengths as compared with luminal B cases (P=0.002), HER-2-positive cases (P=0.011) or triple-negative cases (P=0.0003). Luminal B, HER-2-positive and triple-negative cases did not differ significantly. Telomere length was shorter in more aggressive subtypes, such as luminal B, HER-2-positive and triple-negative tumors, suggesting that tumor telomere length may have utility as a prognostic and/or risk marker for breast cancer.
Bacterial Imaging Comes of Age

Enterobacteriaceae, a type of highly virulent Gram-negative bacteria, can be imaged in vivo in animals via positron emission tomography with 18F-sorbitol (Weinstein et al., this issue).
Spectral-domain analysis of a finite frequency-selective surface with cross-shaped conducting patches

The authors consider the problem of a finite frequency-selective surface comprised of cross-shaped elements that are capable of responding to both polarizations of the incident field. A plot of the magnitude of the surface current density along a cut through the center of a five-patch by seven-patch frequency-selective surface is presented. The overlay is the corresponding current of a five-cell-wide frequency-selective surface, which assumes that the structure is infinite along y. The cross-polarized component of the current is greatly enhanced due to the truncation of the surface. The effect of increasing the number of cells in the y direction from 7 to 21 is illustrated. As expected, the agreement between the 21-cell case and the periodic result is much closer than it is for smaller structure. >
3D Model Creation Using Self-Identifying Markers and SIFT Keypoints

3D object modeling can be accomplished using fiducial markers and/or feature detectors. Fiducial markers provide high reliability of detection, however, it is undesirable to cover an object to be modeled with markers. Feature detectors can find correspondences between images but they cannot always be relied on to be usable for camera localization. A method is shown that uses the strengths of both to automatically create 3D models of object as well as simultaneously calibrating the camera. Self-identifying fiducial markers are used in arrays to localize the camera pose for each image and SIFT features are used to find and match object features between images. Tetrahedrons formed by Delaunay triangulation of the 3D SIFT points are carved to the model. A system is shown where 3D models are generated automatically of an object placed on a marker array simply by capturing a set of images from uncontrolled locations from a camera with unknown intrinsic parameters
Pattern of substrate utilization in vascular smooth muscle using 13C isotopomer analysis of glutamate

Although vascular smooth muscle (VSM) derives the majority of its energy from oxidative phosphorylation, controversy exists concerning which substrates are utilized by the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. We used 13C isotopomer analysis of glutamate to directly measure the entry of exogenous [13C]glucose and acetate and unlabeled endogenous sources into the TCA cycle via acetyl-CoA. Hog carotid artery segments denuded of endothelium were superfused with 5 mM [1-13C]glucose and 0–5 mM [1,2-13C]acetate at 37°C for 3–12 h. We found that both resting and contracting VSM preferentially utilize [1,2-13C]acetate compared with [1-13C]glucose and unlabeled substrates. The entry of glucose into the TCA cycle (30–60% of total entry via acetyl-CoA) exhibited little change despite alterations in contractile state or acetate concentrations ranging from 0 to 5 mM. We conclude that glucose and nonglucose substrates are important oxidative substrates for resting and contracting VSM. These are the first direct measurements of relative substrate entry into the TCA cycle of VSM during activation and may provide a useful method to measure alterations in VSM metabolism under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.
Functional Connectome Analysis of Dopamine Neuron Glutamatergic Connections in Forebrain Regions.

In the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a subpopulation of dopamine neurons express vesicular glutamate transporter 2 and make glutamatergic connections to nucleus accumbens (NAc) and olfactory tubercle (OT) neurons. However, their glutamatergic connections across the forebrain have not been explored systematically. To visualize dopamine neuron forebrain projections and to enable photostimulation of their axons independent of transmitter status, we virally transfected VTA neurons with channelrhodopsin-2 fused to enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (ChR2-EYFP) and used DATIREScre mice to restrict expression to dopamine neurons. ChR2-EYFP-expressing neurons almost invariably stained for tyrosine hydroxylase, identifying them as dopaminergic. Dopamine neuron axons visualized by ChR2-EYFP fluorescence projected most densely to the striatum, moderately to the amygdala and entorhinal cortex (ERC), sparsely to prefrontal and cingulate cortices, and rarely to the hippocampus. Guided by ChR2-EYFP fluorescence, we recorded systematically from putative principal neurons in target areas and determined the incidence and strength of glutamatergic connections by activating all dopamine neuron terminals impinging on recorded neurons with wide-field photostimulation. This revealed strong glutamatergic connections in the NAc, OT, and ERC; moderate strength connections in the central amygdala; and weak connections in the cingulate cortex. No glutamatergic connections were found in the dorsal striatum, hippocampus, basolateral amygdala, or prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that VTA dopamine neurons elicit widespread, but regionally distinct, glutamatergic signals in the forebrain and begin to define the dopamine neuron excitatory functional connectome. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dopamine neurons are important for the control of motivated behavior and are involved in the pathophysiology of several major neuropsychiatric disorders. Recent studies have shown that some ventral midbrain dopamine neurons are capable of glutamate cotransmission. With conditional expression of channelrhodopsin in dopamine neurons, we systematically explored dopamine neuron connections in the forebrain and identified regionally specific dopamine neuron excitatory connections. Establishing that only a subset of forebrain regions receive excitatory connections from dopamine neurons will help to determine the function of dopamine neuron glutamate cotransmission, which likely involves transmission of precise temporal signals and enhancement of the dynamic range of dopamine neuron signals.
Assistive Dressing System: A Capabilities Study for Personalized Support of Dressing Activities for People Living with Dementia

People living with advanced stages of dementia (PWD) or other cognitive disorders do not have the luxury of remembering how to perform basic day-to-day activities, making them increasingly dependent on the assistance of caregivers. Dressing is one of the most common activities provided by caregivers. It is also one of the most stressful for both parties due to its complexity and privacy challenges posed during the process. In this paper, we present the first of its kind system (DRESS) that aims to provide much needed independence and privacy to individuals with PWDs, and afford additional freedom to their caregivers. The DRESS system is designed to deliver continuous, automated, personally tailored feedback to support PWD’s during the process of dressing. The core of DRESS consists of a computer vision based detection system that continuously monitors the dressing state of the user, identifies and prompts correct and incorrect dressing states, and provides corresponding cues to help complete the dressing process adequately with minimal, or ideally no, caregiver intervention. The DRESS system detects clothing location and orientation and status with respect to the dressing process by identifying and tracking fiducial markers (visual icons) attached to clothes. In preparation for in-home trials with PWDs, we evaluated the system’s ability to detect dressing events by asking 11 healthy participants to simulate common correct and incorrect dressing scenarios, such as donning shirt and pants inside out, back in front, and partial dressing, in a laboratory setting. We found that although the fiducial tracking system missed a few expected detections, it was generally capable of detecting dressing phases for both pants and shirt. Our study suggests that the use of a fiducial tracking system in the context of detecting dressing processes has the potential to automatically recognize, and generate prompts and feedback to assist PWDs or related cognitive disorders to correctly dress themselves with little or, ideally no assistance from their caregivers. [iproc 2015;1(1):e13]
Validation of brain connectivity analysis using fMRI simulation

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used in cognitive neuroscience. Brain connectivity analysis such as dynamic causal modelling (DCM) using fMRI has drawn increasing attention of neuroimaging researchers. However, performance of DCM under low SNR has not been explored and validated thoroughly. A reasonable question is what levels of noise can be handled by the DCM. Therefore, simulation is an appropriate methodology to address this question. We propose the Euler method to simulate fMRI signal. The results were compared to those of the SPM-generate. Some parameters estimated by DCM were significantly different. Unlike SPM-generate, DCM always converged when using signals generated by Euler method. Although DCM performed similarly in linear scenario for both methods, DCM handled higher noise levels for Euler compared to SPM-generate. The higher performance of DCM when using Euler method might be due to direct discretisation of the dynamic system of the neuronal state variables.
Variegation in Coleus blumei and the Life History of Citrus Mealybug (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae)

Three leaf-color variants of Coleus blumei ‘Bellevue’ (Bentham) were studied to determine the effects of variegation-induced changes in host-plant quality on life history and population growth of citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri (Risso). Compared with green counterparts, both red- and yellow-variegated plants of C. blumei grew more slowly, had lower rates of photosynthesis, and produced more leaf area per unit of biomass. All life history parameters of citrus mealybug were affected differentially by presence and type of variegation, with the exception of egg hatch rate and female reproductive time. Nymphs developed most rapidly and adult females produced the most eggs on red-variegated plants. Mortality of nymphs was significantly higher on green plants than on red- or yellow-variegated plants. Overall, the higher intrinsic rate of increase for citrus mealybug populations on red or yellow plants indicated that variegated plants were more suitable hosts tllan green plants. Increased population growth of citrus mealybug, in turn, killed red- and yellow-variegated plants sooner than green plants when they were infested with a similar number of crawlers. This study suggested that a horticulturally important feature, such as variegation, can increase the abundance of insect pests on host plants and make them more vulnerable to pest injury.
Effect of Larval Treatment with Azadirachtin, a Molting Inhibitory Component of the Neem Tree, on Reproductive Capacity of the Face Fly, Musca autumnalis De Geer (Diptera: Muscidae)

When third-instar larvae of the face fly, Musca autumnalis De Geer, were exposed to 0.00001 µg/ml and 0.000039 µg/ml solutions of azadirachtin in aqueous acetone for 20 min, 2.75 and 11.5%, respectively, of the larvae died, and in 21.4 and 52.6%, respectively, inhibition of adult formation was recorded. These treatments also affected the reproductive potential of surviving adults. Reductions of 67.2 and 85.95% respectively, in egg production were observed when treated males were mated with treated females. Lower reductions in number of eggs hatching were observed when untreated males or females were mated with treated individuals. Egg hatchability decreased more than 30 and 60% by the lower and higher treatments, respectively.
Effects of Ethanol on the Absorption and Retention of Lead

SummaryTo determine the effects of acute and chronic ethanol ingestion on the absorption of lead, experiments were performed using an in vivo isolated gut loop technique. Acute administration of 50% ethanol significantly reduced the absorption of lead at concentrations of 1 and 10 μg of Pb/ml. This effect appears to be independent of lead solubility in alcohol and is associated with structural changes in intestinal mucosa, suggesting toxicity. Absorption of a single dose of lead was also diminished in animals chronically exposed to ethanol. Elimination of a single intravenous dose of lead was not affected by chronic alcohol ingestion. These findings suggest that the clinically reported synergism of lead toxicity and ethanol is related not to increased lead absorption or diminished lead excretion but to nutritional deficiencies and increased lead exposure among some alcoholics.
An apparatus for lifted weights and other successively presented stimuli.

The apparatus described was designed for the presentation of lifted weights but is adaptable to serial presentation of various tactual and visual stimuli. The apparatus accommodates as many as seven Ss and handles all procedural matters except instruction of Ss. It provides: (1) precise positioning of stimuli before each lift, (2) electronic control of all time intervals, (3) automatic recording of the response to each stimulus, (4) continuous summation of number of correct responses for each S by electric counters, (5) machine-pacing or self-pacing, (6) automatic recording of time used in judging each stimulus, (7) information or misinformation feedback concerning correctness of judgment of any or all stimuli.
Stop! In the Name of Ethics, Before You Break My Bank Account: The "Conflicting" Rights Guaranteed to Parties in International Arbitration by Hrvatska v. Slovenia and Rompetrol v. Romania , and Their Potential as Tactical Weapons

International arbitration offers many rights, such as the right to counsel of choice and the right to an independent and impartial arbitration panel and proceeding. However, these guarantees, while they ensure the rights of parties and allow international arbitration to be a viable dispute resolution forum, can also be used as weapons. The viability of these rights as weapons is what reconciles the seemingly conflicting cases of Hrvatska v. Slovenia and Rompetrol v. Romania. Hrvatska sets forth an arbitration tribunal's inherent right to ensure and regulate the proceedings so as to guarantee the rights offered by international arbitration, while Rompetrol limits the arbitration tribunal's inherent powers to ensure and guarantee these rights. This article seeks to argue that, while the limitation of the rights in Hrvatska by the Rompetrol Tribunal is an implicit recognition of the viability of those rights as weapons and, in turn, a need for an international code of ethics, such a pursuit may prove fruitless. U. MIAMI INT'L & COMP. L. REV.
The role of extracellular bactericidal factors in pulmonary host defense

Extracellular killing provides an attractive hypothesis to explain the rapid alveolar killing of inhaled bacterial pathogens in the absence of conventional opsonins for phagocytosis. Some evidence of extracellular killing of inhaled pneumococci has been obtained using histologic studies and bronchoalveolar lavage. Although studies of the antimicrobial activity of lung lavage fluid in vitro have given variable results, a variety of antimicrobial factors have been detected in lung lavage fluids. Studies of lysozyme, peptides, iron binding proteins, free fatty acids and other factors that are found free in lung lavage fluid indicate that some of these factors could be a part of extracellular pulmonary host defenses. However, their precise role is not known. A survey of mechanisms of extracellular killing shows that granulocytes, monocytes, macrophages, and T lymphocytes all have the capacity to kill extracellularly in vitro in some circumstances. It remains to be determined which of these diverse mechanisms operate within the lung and how they function in relationship to other host defenses.
Morality and the Personal Domain

I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. I'm President of the United States, and I am not going to eat any more broccoli. (George Bush, April, 1990) Autonomy … appears only with reciprocity, when mutual respect is strong enough to make the individual feel from within the desire to treat others as he himself would wish to be treated (Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child ). Up to this point we have been focusing on the ways in which people conceptualize morality and nonmoral (conventional and religious) norms. In order to have a complete picture of the nature of morality and moral development, we also need to consider whether and in what ways people bracket off some areas of their behavior as matters of privacy and personal choice. The relationship between morality and personal freedom is a complex one that has been the subject of sometimes heated debate within philosophy and the social sciences, as well as at the level of public policy. Morality and personal freedom are often thought of as being in opposition. Some philosophers (e.g., Augustine 401/1963; Kant 1785/1959) and psychologists (e.g., Freud 1923/1960, 1930/1961) have viewed morality as the struggle between the egoistic and selfish desires of the self and the rational and legitimate concerns for the treatment of others. From these views, morality is the achievement of the suppression of the passions and destructive impulses of the self-interested individual.
Mechanism and distribution of glmS ribozymes

Among the nine classes of ribozymes that have been experimentally validated to date is the metabolite-responsive self-cleaving ribozyme called glmS. This RNA is almost exclusively located in the 5'-untranslated region of bacterial mRNAs that code for the production of GlmS proteins, which catalyze the synthesis of the aminosugar glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P). Each glmS ribozyme forms a conserved catalytic core that selectively binds GlcN6P and uses this metabolite as a cofactor to promote ribozyme self-cleavage. Metabolite-induced self-cleavage results in down-regulation of glmS gene expression, and thus the ribozyme functions as a key riboswitch component to permit feedback regulation of GlcN6P levels. Representatives of glmS ribozymes also serve as excellent experimental models to elucidate how RNAs fold to recognize small molecule ligands and promote chemical transformations.
The Forensic Stage: Entrapment and framing

Identifying legal or quasi-legal scenarios in New Comedy is a useful tool for interpretation: it provides a context for understanding the not always straightforward conduct of characters on the forensic stage. In this last chapter, I attempt to show how we can apply the paradigms of two scenarios, entrapment and framing, to other situations which are not strictly related to legal or even quasi-legal procedures for settling disputes. Entrapment, in modern American criminal jargon, takes place when an officer of the law or an undercover agent actively entices an individual to commit an offense in order to obtain evidence to use against him in a criminal prosecution; it is illegal when the methods used to obtain the evidence are such as “to create a substantial risk that the offense would be committed by a person not otherwise disposed to commit it.” In ancient Athens, the contours of entrapment are different: there is of course no public prosecutor who might initiate such a plan and hence no law proscribing such conduct on the part of “public servants.” But adversaries in Athens did engage in similar unwholesome tactics against one another and their aim in doing so, as we shall see, resembles that of the modern undercover agent: to bring a “past offender” to justice by enticing him to commit a crime for which solid evidence can be presented in a court of law. The “past offender” trapped in this way in Athens need not be a person who has committed an illegal offense before the entrapment; he may have only personally offended his adversary in some earlier dispute.
How high will the seas rise

Recent estimates suggest that global mean sea level rise could exceed 2 m by 2100. These projections are higher than previous ones and are based on the latest understanding of how the Antarctic Ice Sheet has behaved in the past and how sensitive it is to future climate change. They pose a challenge for scientists and policy-makers alike, requiring far-reaching decisions about coastal policies to be made based on rapidly evolving projections with large, persistent uncertainties. An effective approach to managing coastal risk should couple research priorities to policy needs, enabling judicious decision-making while focusing research on key questions.
Case of Strongyloides hyperinfection syndrome

A woman aged 36 years with untreated AIDS presented with symptoms of abdominal pain, increasing dyspnoea with haemoptysis and weight loss. Prior to arrival in the USA, she lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was afebrile, and had bilateral expiratory wheezing on examination. T-helper CD4 cell count was 106 (9%) and HIV PCR quantification was 1 146 362 copies/mL. A CT scan revealed bilateral ground glass opacities, diffuse small bowel wall thickening and mild hepatosplenomegaly. A bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) showed 11 …
Money for Nothing: Five Small Steps to Begin the Long Journey of Restoring Integrity to the Social Security Administration's Disability Programs

The population of the United States grew by 9.7% from the years 2000 to 2010. 2 During the same period, the number of disability applications filed with the Social Security Administration (the “Agency”) grew by 230%—over 25 times the growth of the country’s population. 3 Why? During those ten years there was Hurricane Katrina and other storms, tornados, and floods. Other decades, however, have also had severe weather that caused deaths, injuries, and losses. There were the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in which our service members continue to courageously fight. There has not been, however, any pandemic or other
Abstract WMP42: Astrocyte Specific rAAV-mediated Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Expression in Aging Female Rats Increases Post-Stroke Survival and Sensory Motor Performance

Background and Purpose: Our previous work shows that middle aged female rats sustain larger strokes as compared to younger female rats. With age, circulating and brain parenchymal levels of IGF-1 are reduced. Exogenous IGF-1 treatment improves infarct volume in aging females. Our recent studies show that astrocytes from aging females synthesize less IGF-1. Here we tested the hypothesis that elevation of astrocyte derived IGF-1 would improve stroke impairment in older female rats. Methods: Middle-aged (10-12 month old; acyclic) female rats were injected with adeno-associated virus serotype 5 (rAAV5) into the cortex and striatum. rAAV5 was packaged with the coding sequence of the IGF-1 gene downstream of an astrocyte-specific gene (GFAP). The construct contained the mCherry reporter gene. Control rAAV consisted of an identical shuttle vector construct without the IGF-1 gene. In separate experiments, two titers of virus were injected: high dose (5 X 10 12 VP/mL) or low dose (5 X 10 11 VP/mL). Three to four weeks after injection, middle-cerebral artery occlusion via an intraluminal suture for ninety minutes was performed followed by reperfusion. Post-surgery survival was monitored as well as sensory motor function using the vibrissae evoked forelimb placement task. Results: Specificity of IGF-1 expression was confirmed by visualization of the mCherry reporter under fluorescent illumination and immunohistochemistry. Post stroke survival was improved in animals that received the high dose rAAV-IGF-1 animals a 5-day period (p Conclusion: These data support the hypothesis that increasing astrocytic IGF-1 in aging females improves post stroke survival and behavior outcomes.
Using Privilege Chain for Access Control and Trustiness of Resources in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is emerging as a virtual model in support of “everything-as-a-service” (XaaS). There are numerous providers such as feeders, owners and creators who are less likely the same actor, and multiple platforms possibly with different security control mechanisms. Consequently, cloud resources cannot be securely managed by traditional access control models. In this paper, we propose a new security technique to enable a multifactor access control, and to cope with various deployment models where user’s network and system sessions may vary. Using the metadata of resources and access policies, the technique builds the privilege chains. The contribution of this paper includes a mechanism of the privilege chains that can be used to verify the trustiness of cloud resources and to protect the resources from unauthorized access.
Contemporary surgical and non-surgical management of Peyronie's disease.

Numerous treatments have been proposed for Peyronie’s disease (PD). As the evidence base has expanded, the field of operative and non-operative options for patients has narrowed. Collagenase clostridium hystolyticum (CCH) injection now comprises the medical option, and surgical possibilities entail penile plication, plaque incision/excision and grafting, and prosthesis implantation. Still, questions abound regarding the optimal approach and indication for each of these treatments. We conducted a review of literature exploring the contemporary management of PD with a particular focus on work since the last American Urologic Association’s (AUA) guidelines update for PD. Recent results and discussion indicate trends toward minimal invasiveness, toward a more holistic approach to the PD patient, and away from algorithmic management, galvanized, in part, by data challenging long-held beliefs.
Context is Key: Organizational Design with Women Leaders in Mind

The literature has long emphasized the importance of leader characteristics such as perceptions of leaders and their effectiveness according to gender. However, despite calls in the literature, les...
Prototheoretic Attempts Toward a Logic of Preference

Contemporary attempts in arriving at logics of preference, within a strictly philosophical context, begin formally with Frank P. Ramsey’s effort, published posthumously in 1931. Ramsey’s concern was to find a means by which to express mathematically “uncertain partial belief”. This is belief operative in conditions under which a choice of options is available to the subject, none of which is he fully certain will satisfy securing a particular objective. Ramsey’s work was revolutionary, not because of its success in realizing what it set out to do, but because of Ramsey’s conviction that he could discover a means by which to objectify the “mental state” of uncertain belief, i.e., to extensionalize it in terms which will allow for the mathematical axiomatization of choice. Recent literature on the logic of preference does not record any earlier philosophical effort, in which such a specific interest is illustrated in the area of Prohairetic Logic, that is the logic of rational action and choice.
Habitus, resistance, and change: some thoughts on technology implementation practice

Drawing on Bourdieu's (1977) theory of practice and Pickering's (1995) mangle of practice, we investigate how an implementation of an enterprise-wide technology was being practiced. Based on an ethnographic examination in a software manufacturing organization, we present four episodes of practice that are related to two primary challenges: the lack of skilled staff and the lack of a shared image of the to-be developed system. The episodes are analyzed and discussed through a practice-lens but in doing this we focus on two somewhat distinctive practice views: one view which considers habitual practice that lead to reproducing and the other which considers how practice involves accommodations in response to resistance. Combining these two views, our interest is to understand how and when practices reinforce or change routines in technology implementation. The findings indicate the complex relationships among reproducing and accommodation practices in relation to objects, occupational status, and goal ambiguity. © (2013) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved.
Visual Interrogation of Attention-Based Models for Natural Language Inference and Machine Comprehension

Neural networks models have gained unprecedented popularity in natural language processing due to their state-of-the-art performance and the flexible end-to-end training scheme. Despite their advantages, the lack of interpretability hinders the deployment and refinement of the models. In this work, we present a flexible visualization library for creating customized visual analytic environments, in which the user can investigate and interrogate the relationships among the input, the model internals (i.e., attention), and the output predictions, which in turn shed light on the model decision-making process.
Overview of Omics Biomarker Discovery and Design Considerations for Biomarker-Informed Clinical Trials

Biomarkers have proven useful for understanding disease progression and treatment response in precision medicine development. Rapid development of high-throughput omics technologies has enabled scientists to discover new biomarkers with low cost. Leveraging available technology and biomarker information, novel biomarker-based clinical trial designs have been proposed and have proven beneficial to many clinical programs. In this chapter, we discuss the omics technologies and statistical issues that are related to biomarker discovery. We also provide an overview of current development of biomarker-enabled clinical trial designs.
A Bandit Approach to Sequential Experimental Design with False Discovery Control

We propose a new adaptive sampling approach to multiple testing which aims to maximize statistical power while ensuring anytime false discovery control. We consider $n$ distributions whose means are partitioned by whether they are below or equal to a baseline (nulls), versus above the baseline (true positives). In addition, each distribution can be sequentially and repeatedly sampled. Using techniques from multi-armed bandits, we provide an algorithm that takes as few samples as possible to exceed a target true positive proportion (i.e. proportion of true positives discovered) while giving anytime control of the false discovery proportion (nulls predicted as true positives). Our sample complexity results match known information theoretic lower bounds and through simulations we show a substantial performance improvement over uniform sampling and an adaptive elimination style algorithm. Given the simplicity of the approach, and its sample efficiency, the method has promise for wide adoption in the biological sciences, clinical testing for drug discovery, and maximization of click through in A/B/n testing problems.
A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT: METASTATIC CANCER CAUSING VENTRICULAR ARRHYTHMIC STORM

Incessant monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) or electrical storm (ES) is often associated with myocardial scar from ischemic or nonischemic cardiomyopathy, but can also be caused by other triggers. A 71 year-old man with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma and history of malignant pericardial