cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CloudProphet: towards application performance prediction in cloud

Choosing the best-performing cloud for one's application is a critical problem for potential cloud customers. We propose CloudProphet, a trace-and-replay tool to predict a legacy application's performance if migrated to a cloud infrastructure. CloudProphet traces the workload of the application when running locally, and replays the same workload in the cloud for prediction. We discuss two key technical challenges in designing CloudProphet, and some preliminary results using a prototype implementation.
The Role of Managerial Experience in the Management Education Process: Status, Problems, and Prospects:

A number of authorities on management education believe that those who teach management should have managerial experience or have been in contact with real-world management practices. However, a significant number of management professors have had only minimal management experience. The authors make the case that this may be problematic. This shortcoming has an effect on the quality of the product we are providing to the business world. There is a need for a rethinking of the relationship between academia and practicing managers. A number of strategies that will help to remedy the shortcomings associated with the minimal managerial experience of management professors are offered.
POLLEN TRANSLUCENCY AS A THERMAL MATURATION INDICATOR

Using an inversion technique, we show that pollen translucency with depth can be used as a quantitative tool to estimate the thermal history of sedimentary sequences. The overall trend of translucency is a decrease with increasing depth.
Worlds of Affect: Virtual Geographies of Video Games:

Video games are virtual worlds, each with its own, distinctive spatiality. This paper suggests that there are two interrelated conceptual dimensions to the study of video games. First, there are the representational issues concerning the worlds depicted in video games, such as those portraying hypersexualized women or Orientalist depictions of Arab enemies. We suggest, however, that these cultural, sexual, and political representations are not the only forces doing work on the player within the virtual world of a video game. This paper complements a purely representational approach by considering ‘affect’ as a precognitive force which disrupts and delights the player with reactions ranging from fear to joy. We argue that, as the spatiality of video games has evolved from simple two-dimensional to complex three-dimensional worlds; the importance of an affective experience to the player has become paramount. Exploiting and manipulating the player's sensory experience is now the central strategy for many gam...
Natural Observer Design for Singularly Perturbed Vector Second-Order Systems

Our aim in the present research study is to develop a systematic natural observer design framework for vector second-order systems in the presence of time-scale multiplicity. Specifically, vector second-order mechanical systems are considered along with fast sensor dynamics, and the primary objective is to obtain accurate estimates of the unmeasurable slow system state variables that are generated by an appropriately designed model-based observer. Within a singular perturbation framework, the proposed observer is designed on the basis of the system dynamics that evolves on the slow manifold, and the dynamic behavior of the estimation error that induces is analyzed and mathematically characterized in the presence of the unmodeled fast sensor dynamics. It is shown, that the observation error generated by neglecting the (unmodeled) fast sensor dynamics is of order O(e), where e is the singular perturbation parameter and a measure of the relative speed/time constant of the fast (sensor) and the slow component (vector second-order .system) of the overall instrumented system dynamics. Finally, the performance of the proposed method and the convergence properties of the natural observer designed are evaluated in an illustrative example of a two-degree of freedom mechanical system.
Normative calcaneal quantitative ultrasound data for the indigenous Shuar and non-Shuar Colonos of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Summary Minimal data on bone mineral density changes are available from populations in developing countries. Using calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) techniques, the current study contributes to remedying this gap in the literature by establishing a normative data set on the indigenous Shuar and non-Shuar Colonos of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Ridged waveguide phased array elements

The mutual coupling solution of dual and quad ridged waveguide is described for an infinite array environment. The method of analysis is the numerical solution of integral equations for both the eigen solution and the boundary matching problem. In addition to numerical results, comparison of theory with waveguide simulator measurements is also given.
Family Support in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Systems

Family support has evolved from a buzzword of the 1990s to a concept founded in theory, mandated by federal law, valued across disciplines, and espoused by both parents and professionals. This emph...
The Balancing Act Care Work for the Self and Coping with Breast Cancer

Care work is both gendered and relational, defined typically as the care women do for others. When faced with a chronic life-threatening illness such as breast cancer, women must learn to perform care work for the self. Drawing from participant observation and 60 in-depth interviews, the author explores the gendered strategies and justifications women use to cope with breast cancer and engage in care work for the self. Women in the study used a multiprocess, gendered “balancing act” to learn to balance their needs with the needs of others, which involves setting boundaries and establishing criteria for accepting and asking for help. These strategies reflect a negotiation of normative expectations that stress women's selflessness, empathy, and caring for others.
Overview of digital libraries

This tutorial will start with an overview of definitions, foundations, scenarios, and perspectives. It will cover a variety of issues, including search, retrieval, and resource discovery; multimedia/hypermedia; metadata (e.g., Dublin Core); electronic publishing; document models and representations; SGML and XML; database approaches; agents and distributed processing; 2D and 3D interfaces and visualizations; metrics; architectures and interoperability; educational and social concerns; commerce and intellectual property rights, among others.
Semantics and Metaphysics in Informatics: Toward an Ontology of Tasks

This article clarifies three principles that should guide the development of any cognitive ontology. First, that an adequate cognitive ontology depends essentially on an adequate task ontology; second, that the goal of developing a cognitive ontology is independent of the goal of finding neural implementations of the processes referred to in the ontology; and third, that cognitive ontologies are neutral regarding the metaphysical relationship between cognitive and neural processes.
Enzyme catalysed biofuel cells

Biofuel cells are energy conversion devices that use biocatalysts to convert chemical energy to electrical energy. Over the last decade, research in this area has intensified, especially in the area of direct electron transfer between enzymes and electrodes. This review details the fundamentals of enzymatic biofuel cells and reviews characterization techniques that can be used to evaluate and optimize biofuel cells. The review details the advantages and disadvantages of mediated and direct bioelectrocatalysis at electrodes for biofuel cells. It also compares and contrasts different enzyme immobilization techniques and different electrode structures.
Subsurface Distribution of Nitrates Below Commercial Cattle Feedlots, Texas High Plains

. Samples for water-quality analyses were collected from beneath eighty commercial cattle feedlots in the Texas High Plains. Twenty-two feedlots were drilled and/or cored to establish vertical gradients of dissolved solids. Sample and gamma logs, size analyses and vertical permeability of cores were determined from samples beneath these lots. Relationships of groundwater saturated thickness, depth to watertable, and age of lots to specificion distribution were evaluated. The study includes lots ranging in age from 35 years to new installations. Runoff collection-systems on lots include playas, man-made ponds, and dammed and undammed stream channels. Infiltration of feedlot liquid waste to the watertable below feedyards is insignificant in most localities in the Texas High Plains. Infiltration of “collected” feedlot runoff and subsequent concentration of dissolved ions in groundwater in the High Plains are dependent upon, among other things, (1) surface and subsurface geology, (2) depth to water, (3) thickness of the groundwater zone, and to (4) differences in lateral and vertical permeabilities of the Ogallala Formation, the major aquifer. Certainly, no regional subsurface pollution problem exists today nor is one foreseen from cattle feedlot runoff in the Texas High Plains.
Police Chiefs, Anomia, and Leadership

This research assesses a potentially harmful condition among police chiefs: anomia. The article analyzes a large (N = 1,120) stratified sample survey of American police chiefs. Nine hypotheses are tested using multiple regressions. Results show relatively little anomia (as defined by Srole's 5-point Likert-type scale) among the respondents. Data analysis reveals little relationship between anomia and the following four variables: age, being a chief in a previous jurisdiction, race/ethnicity, and internal hire. However, the analysis also reveals significant negative relationships between anomia and education, merit selection, and years in law enforcement and between anomia and size of department and tenure as chief. Regression analysis reveals that the posited model explains only a small amount of variance in anomia. Suggestions for future research in the area of upper level policing executives are discussed.
Classical Influences on the American Founding Fathers

The American Revolution was a Whig revolution, which made it also a neo-Roman revolution from the start. Americans petitioned, remonstrated, and eventually fought to preserve neo-Roman conceptions of mixed government, liberty, and the rule of law that had dominated British political discourse since the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Roman example gave Americans heroes, vocabulary, and a constitution for their revolutionary experiment in government without a king. The most important of the many classical influences on the American founding fathers was the political history of the Roman republic, because the American Revolution was political, and could neither have taken place nor succeeded as it did without classical learning to guide it. With the Revolution’s triumph in the federal constitution, the new American republic supplanted its ancient models. Subsequent revolutions would look to the United States and to its sister republic in France for political inspiration, just as Americans and their predecessors once imitated Rome.
Critical currents of Nb 3 Sn and V 3 Ga in transverse magnetic fields up to 150000 oersteds

The quenching curves of some high-field superconductors have been measured for the first time in steady transverse magnetic fields up to 150 kOe. The quenching curves of Nb3Sn diffusion-layers on single niobium wires show the same slope in the high-field region as they do in lower fields. On the other hand, the quenching curves of “Nb-Sn multiwires” with a synthetic filamentary structure of many interior Nb3Sn diffusion-layers in the core of this material are nearly horizontal in the high-field region with very high critical current values. The quenching curves of V3Ga diffusion-layers and of V3Ga core-wires show an unexpected inversion at about 90 and 100 kOe respectively with increasing critical currents in higher fields.
Creating the unforgettable: the short story of mapping long-term memory. Bicentennial Symposium.

Memory is a binary process relying on a short-term form lasting minutes to forge and communicate with a long-term form lasting years. Yale’s Bicentennial Symposium opened with a lecture elucidating the obscure process of long-term memory formation. From his decades of research, Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel offered insight into the molecular framework that is long term-memory.
Surface plasmon dispersion engineering via double-metallic Au / Ag layers for nitride light-emitting diodes

The use of double-metallic Au / Ag layers coupled to InGaN quantum well (QW) results in wide-spectrum tuning of the Purcell peak enhancement of the spontaneous recombination rate for nitride light-emitting diodes.
Laboratory culture of four species of yellowjackets, Vespula spp. foundress nest initiation.

Queens of four species of yellowjackets, Vespula maculifrons (Buysson), V. germanica (F.), V. vulgaris (L.), and V. vidua (Saussure), initiated and maintained nests through to worker emergence under controlled conditions. Queens of V. flavopilosa Jacobson did not initiate nests in captivity; however, they readily adopted and usurped embryo nests of V. maculifrons. Initiation dates in the laboratory did not correspond well to those in nature, indicating a degree of independence from the natural timetable. Intraspecific embryo nest adoptions were readily undertaken. V. maculifrons queens exhibited the highest initiation rate and established nests in all rearing systems used. No species produced multiple-comb nests or reproductives in the artificial environment.
In-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections with nonspherical Pauli blocking

We present a formalism to solve the Bethe-Goldstone scattering equation without the use of partial wave expansion which is alternative to the one we developed in a previous work. The present approach is more suitable for the calculation of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections, which are the focal point of this paper. The impact of removing the spherical approximation on the angle and energy dependence of, particularly, in-medium proton-proton and proton-neutron differential cross sections is discussed along with its potential implication.
Crisis stability in the nuclear age

In the logic of crisis stability, first-strike advantages may still be destabilizing, although even a successful first strike cannot protect a state from a terribly costly retaliatory second strike. If there is an advantage to striking first and if war seems sufficiently likely, launching a preemptive first strike may seem to be the least of evils. I reconsider the logic of crisis stability by studying games that are completely stable, although there are first-strike advantages. Four general conditions ensure stability. Identifying these conditions refines our understanding of crisis stability by also identifying the potential sources of instability, and this more refined understanding shows that the logic of crisis stability focuses attention too narrowly on first-strike advantages. Stability results from a more subtle interaction of several factors of which a first-strike advantage is only one.
“I'm Just a Patient”: Fear and Uncertainty as Drivers of Emergency Department Use in Patients With Chronic Disease

Study objective Despite focus during the past decade about the need to design a more patient-centered US health care system, patients have been minimally engaged to define what they want from it. Our objective is to engage patients to identify individual-defined priority outcomes on discharge from the emergency department (ED) and individually tailored interventions to help achieve their outcomes. Methods We used qualitative semistructured interviews with patients with diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular disease who were being discharged from 2 EDs. Questions focused on reasons for seeking ED care, expectations about ED visits, and goals and needs for the days after ED discharge. Themes were identified with a modified grounded theory approach. Results Forty patients participated. Patients identified uncertainty about the significance of their symptoms and fear as a result of this uncertainty as primary drivers for their ED visit. Their primary expectation about the visit was receiving a diagnosis and reassurance. The most prominent postdischarge need was answers about the cause of their symptoms and what to expect. Patients were concerned about ability to access follow-up services because of lack of time to navigate the system, transportation, and priority scheduling needs. Suggestions for improvement focused on contacting patients (physically or virtually) once they were home and offering them expedited outpatient evaluations. Primary limitations included enrollment of patients within a single health system and only those with certain chronic conditions, both potentially limiting generalizability. Conclusion Many patients have ongoing needs that are often not addressed during ED discharge. These needs are based on ongoing uncertainty about the cause of their symptoms and what to expect, and result in feelings of fear. Work is needed to develop approaches to alleviate patient fear and uncertainty and to equip providers with the capabilities and resources needed to adequately address these needs.
Short Communication: HIV Type 1 Subtypes in Malaysia, Determined with Serologic Assays: 1992–1996

ABSTRACT We investigated the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 subtypes in Malaysia among injecting drug users (IDUs) and sexual transmission risk groups, using serologic and genetic techniques. Frozen sera collected at a general hospital, a blood bank, several drug treatment centers, and an STD clinic in Kuala Lumpur, between 1992 and 1996, were investigated retrospectively. V3 peptide serotyping and monomeric gp120 capture serotyping were used to study 89 known HIV-1-infected subjects. The methods differentiate subtypes B, E, and C. V3 peptide and gp120 capture results were comparable. No subtype C-specific reactive sera were found; one specimen was dually reactive for subtypes C and B, using the V3 peptide ELISA; and four were durally reactive for subtypes E and C using this assay. Genotypic analysis of HIV-1 gag RNA in serum was done on a subset of subjects and confirmed serologic findings. HIV-1 subtypes differed significantly by risk category: of 53 IDUs, 29 (55%) were infected with subtype B and 19 (...
Rapid development of drug resistance in human ovarian tumor xenografts after a single treatment with melphalan in vivo

Human ovarian tumors from A2780 cells were grown as xenografts in immunodeficient mice, treated with a single i.p. dose of melphalan and tumor cells were removed and placed into tissue culture. The cells from the treated tumors exhibited an approximately 2-fold resistance to melphalan in vitro compared to cells taken from untreated tumors. This degree of resistance was similar to that of cells from tumors formed from melphalan-resistant A2780-ME cells. The cells from the treated tumors were also resistant to cisplatin but not to doxorubicin. They contained approximately 2-fold higher levels of glutathione than cells from the untreated tumors. Exposure of the cells to buthionine sulfoximine (a specific inhibitor of glutathione biosynthesis) eliminated the difference in glutathione levels as well as the difference in sensitivity to melphalan. When tumor-bearing animals were treated with buthionine sulfoximine in addition to melphalan the resulting tumor cells were not resistant to the drug. Resistance could also be demonstrated in the tumors themselves in vivo: the growth of previously untreated tumors was severely inhibited by a high dose of melphalan (11.7 mg/kg) administered i.p. to the animals, whereas the growth of tumors which had received prior treatment with melphalan was unaffected by the subsequent high dose. The rapid development of drug-resistant tumor cells after a single drug treatment in vivo makes this an excellent system for the investigation of the mechanisms by which resistance develops as well as for use in the screening for agents which can prevent it.
CHEWING AND SWALLOWING

Dogs digest better when they wolf their food down in big lumps. This is because the lumps remain in the stomach while they are slowly dissolved away, and the resultant peptic digest is fed slowly into the intestine. When ground meat is given, much of it runs on immediately into the bowel before it has been prepared by peptic digestion for further splitting in the bowel. Several studies on man indicate that the amount of chewing has little effect on the efficiency of digestion. Saliva serves to split some of the starch in the food and to prepare it for final digestion by the amylase of the pancreatic juice. This digestion goes on in the body of the stomach during the considerable period of time in which the upper part of the viscus remains undisturbed by waves. The muscle in the upper part of the esophagus of man and animals is striated.
Progress on the Regulation and Function of Enod8, an Early Nodulin Gene from Medicago that May Encode a Lipolytic Enzyme

Enod8 is an early nodule-specific gene isolated from Medicago truncatula and alfalfa (M. sativa). Its expression patterns indicate that it has a likely role in nodule organogenesis. The characterization of Enod8 expression, by Northern blot, indicates that Enod8 is expressed as early as the nodule is visible on the root, at 5 days post-inoculation. Its sequence predicts a glycosylated 41.7 kD protein (Dickstein et al. 1993; Peng, Dickstein 1994). Enod8 is a member of an emerging plant lipolytic gene family (Brick et al. 1995). Two strategies are being used to determine if Enod8 encodes a lipase. First, the pSBET expression system (Schenk et al. 1995) was used to obtain Enod8 expression in Escherichia coli. So far, Enod8 expressing strains do not show an increase in lipase activity. The second strategy is to purify Enod8 from nodules. Anti-Enod8 peptide antibodies recognize two nodule-specific polypeptides of approximately 54 and 56 kD. Partial purification of these two proteins has resulted in an increase in lipase specific activity (D. Pringle, R. Dickstein, unpublished). A sensitive RT-PCR Enod8 expression assay shows that low levels of Enod8 expression are found in young roots, expecially root tips. Thus, Enod8 is not strictly nodule-specific. Spot inoculation of R. meliloti on roots in the root hair emergent area resulted in increased Enod8 expression levels 24 hours post inoculation. Increased Enod8 expression was not observed in mock-inoculated controls, nor in roots spot inoculated with SL44 (Fisher et al. 1988), a Nod− R. meliloti strain (M. Konduri, R. Dickstein, unpublished), suggesting that Nod factor participates directly or indirectly in the induction of Enod8 expression. The results point to Enod8 having a role in an aspect of lipid metabolism early in the nitrogen-fixing root nodule development and a similar role in root growth and development.
Abstract 16477: Genomics of Response to Statins: An Electronic Medical Record-Based Genome-Wide Association Study

Introduction: The response to HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins)-widely used for reducing the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke by lowering serum cholesterol levels-may be influenced by genetic factors. Hypothesis: We assessed the hypothesis that genetic variants are associated with response to statin therapy by conducting an electronic medical record (EMR)-based genome-wide association study (GWAS). Methods: Total cholesterol levels were obtained from the EMR of 3335 patients participating in a GWAS for peripheral arterial disease. Statin use was ascertained using natural language processing (NLP). We identified 1203 patients with two sets of fasting lipid profiles before initiation and between weeks 4-8 of statin therapy. Patients were excluded if they were on any other lipid-lowering drugs during this time period or had Results and Conclusion: The top two SNPs associated with statin response are shown in Table 1. The variant rs2869961 is in the 5’ flanking region of CEBPB , a transcription factor that regulates expression of apolipoprotein A which plays a significant role in adipogenesis, glucose and lipid metabolism. Our study demonstrates the potential utility of EMR for pharmacogenetic studies. We plan to replicate our finding in additional samples from various sites in the electronic MEdical Record and GEnomics (eMERGE) network (n=~17,000).
Abstract 1712: CAMKV as an immunotherapy target in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma

Background: Neuroblastoma is an embryonal tumor of the developing sympathetic nervous system that accounts for 10-15% of pediatric cancer-related deaths. Although an intensive treatment regimen consisting of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, immunotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant is used for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, about half of these patients ultimately die. Reliable tumor-specific genomic biomarkers, such as MYCN amplification, have been identified for high-risk neuroblastoma and are used to stratify therapy. Recent clinical studies using immunotherapies to target cell surface molecules such as GD2 in neuroblastoma and CD19 in leukemia have shown impressive results, and have highlighted immunotherapy as a critical strategy in combating childhood cancer. Methods: As part of the Stand Up 2 Cancer/St. Baldrick9s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team9s effort to streamline new immunotherapuetics into the clinic, we developed a computation approach to prioritize new targets for immunotherapy for high-risk neuroblastoma. Here we used MYCN as a biomarker for the most aggressive subset of neuroblastoma to define candidate cell-surface targets that are differentially expressed in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. We used RNAi to manipulate gene expression levels of MYCN to determine if these cell-surface targets are under the control of MYCN in neuroblastoma cells. Results: The most significant differentially expressed cell surface molecule in high-risk neuroblastoma based on MYCN-amplification status was the calmodulin kinase-like vesicle-associated gene (CAMKV, p = 1×10-6), which encodes a protein that binds calmodulin in the presence of calcium, but lacks the kinase activity of other calmodulin kinase family members. We have confirmed that CAMKV protein is selectively expressed in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines. From membrane fractionation and immunohistochemistry, we have verified that CAMKV is membranous in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines and xeongraft tumors. Immunohistochemistry also revealed that CAMKV is not highly expressed in human pediatric normal tissues with the exception of neural tissues. Depletion of MYCN using RNAi resulted in a significant reduction in CAMKV RNA and protein expression (p = 2.3×10-6). Conclusions: These results provide a template for the discovery and validation of immunotherapeutic targets in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma and have the potential to lead to the development of a new immunotherapy targeting CAMKV. Citation Format: Robyn T. Sussman, Kevin Huang, Pichai Raman, John M. Maris. CAMKV as an immunotherapy target in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1712. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1712
Abstract 2117: Epigenetic mechanisms control switching between metastatic and proliferative subtypes in the SW13 adrenal adenocarcinoma cell line

The human adrenal carcinoma SW13 cell line can switch between a subtype which expresses the tumor-suppressor gene Brahma (BRM), SW13+, and one that does not, SW13-. Unlike many tumor supressor genes, which are often mutated, loss of BRM expression occurs post-transcriptionally and BRM expression can be restored via histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition. However, many of the previously characterized BRM inducing HDAC inhibitors are toxic, broad-spectrum inhibitors which have limited downstream use, and provide little insight into the specificity of BRM epigenetic suppression. In this work we sought to further characterize the oncogenic potential of the two SW13 subtypes, and to investigate the potential epigenetic regulators that contribute to the subtype switching. SW13 subtype morphology and growth rates were assessed by immunofluorescence and standard growth assays. Metastatic potential was characterized by measuring anchorage-independent growth with soft agar assays, collagenase activity with fluorescein-conjugated gelatin, and invasiveness into a 3D extracellular matrix. Differences in gene expression were measured by standard qRT-PCR and pathway-specific qRT-PCR profiling arrays. The capacity of specific HDAC inhibitors for their ability to induce switching between the SW13 subtypes was assessed by immunofluorescence and gene expression analyses. BRM deficient SW13- cells have both a faster doubling time and an increased rate of anchorage-independent growth, while SW13+ cells exhibit higher collagenase activity and invasive capacity. Significant differences in the expression of multiple genes involved in epigenetic chromatin remodeling as well as epigenetic chromatin modification were observed, indicating that these two subtypes also have unique gene expression profiles that could contribute to BRM regulation. Of those tested, inhibition of HDAC1 most efficiently increased the rate of conversion between SW13- and SW13+ cells, and did so in a dose dependent manner. After conversion to SW13+ subtype there is also increased acetylation on histone H3 but not histone H4 when compared to levels in SW13-, suggesting that the role of acetylation on the H3 tail may play an essential role in the subtype switch. These studies provide new insight into the functional consequences of BRM loss in the SW13 cell type and reveal potential targets for the reversal of BRM epigenetic silencing. Citation Format: McKale R. Davis, Elizabeth E. Hull. Epigenetic mechanisms control switching between metastatic and proliferative subtypes in the SW13 adrenal adenocarcinoma cell line. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2117. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2117
Recycling of aged asphalt binders with wax warm additives

Warm mix asphalt (WMA) has been used in pavement industry since 2000. While there were several studies related to WMA performances, recycling characteristics of WMA binders are not investigated in detail. Rudimentary performances of recycled binder with wax warm additives were evaluated through a series of Superpave binder tests. WMA binders were produced using two wax additives of LEADCAP and Sasobit, and then artificially short-term and long-term aged using the rolling thin film oven and pressure ageing vessel procedures. The control binder was mixed with aged binders at two recycling contents of 15% and 30%. Superpave binder tests were carried out on the binders through the rotational viscometer, the dynamic shear rheometer, and the bending beam rheometer. In general, the results of this study indicated that (1) the addition of warm asphalt additives considerably improves the high-temperature properties of control and recycled binders, (2) the recycling contents played a significant role in determinati...
Immunosuppression Strategies in Heart Transplantation

Initial immunosuppressive efforts in human cardiac transplantation were hindered by poor outcomes that resulted from suboptimal regimens, with the result frequently being overwhelming infection or allograft rejection. Initially, at the advent of modern cardiac transplantation, 1-year survival in the 1970s hovered around 50%. At this stage, the only viable immunosuppressive techniques were the use of azathioprine, a purine analogue, and total body irradiation, both with many adverse effects.
Designing intentional impossible spaces in virtual reality narratives: A case study

Natural movement and locomotion in Virtual Environments (VE) is constrained by the user's immediate physical space. To overcome this obstacle, researchers have established the use of impossible spaces. This work illustrates how impossible spaces can be utilized to enhance the aesthetics of, and presence within, an interactive narrative. This is done by creating impossible spaces with a narrative intent. First, locomotion and impossible spaces in VR are surveyed; second, the benefits of using intentional impossible spaces from a narrative design perspective is presented; third, a VR narrative called Ares is put forth as a prototype; and fourth, a user study is explored. Impossible spaces with a narrative intent intertwines narratology with the world's aesthetics to enhance dramatic agency.
Is Prosecution "Medically Appropriate"?

In its June 2003 decision in Sell v. United States, the Supreme Court issued guidelines for forcible administration of medication to restore competence to stand trial. Among those guidelines is a requirement that the proposed treatment be medically appropriate. This requirement forces both testifying and treating physicians to consider some under-appreciated ethical issues: How can it be proper, or medically appropriate, for a physician to treat a patient when success makes the patient eligible for prosecution, a guilty verdict, and punishment? Can any meaningful consideration of what is medically appropriate treatment for a patient ignore the consequences of treatment which, in the case of many incompetent criminal defendants, includes the likelihood that they will regain competence, be prosecuted, and be punished? Where defendants are charged with capital crimes, can it ever be medically appropriate for doctors to administer antipsychotic therapy, knowing that if convicted, their patient would face life in prison at the very least, and could possibly be sentenced to death?This Article explains why medicating incompetent defendants is ethical, despite the practical consequences of such treatment. After reviewing background information, the Article lays out what the author believes is the strongest argument - grounded in medical ethics, as opposed to legal concerns - that one might advance for opposing the treatment of many incompetent defendants. Using a Kantian conceptualization of punishment's justification, the Article shows that the same principles that permit fair, justly administered punishment also provide physicians with an ethical imperative to give defendants competence-restoring medical therapy.
Development of the Personal Genomics Industry

Today, numerous commercial services offer genetic testing, genotyping and genome sequencing services both to medical providers and directly to the public. Twenty-five years ago, such offerings would have been unthinkable, both in terms of cost and medical practice. This chapter describes the development of the personal genomics industry and its evolving business models and goals.
Mixing problems in using indicators for measuring regional blood flow

A basic requirement for using indicators for measuring blood flow is adequate mixing of the indicator with blood prior to sampling the site. This requirement has been met by depositing the indicator in the heart and sampling from an artery. Recently, authors have injected microspheres into veins and sampled from venous sites. The present studies were designed to investigate the mixing problems in sheep and rabbits by means of Cardio-Green and labeled microspheres. The indicators were injected at different points in the circulatory system, and blood was sampled at different levels of the venous and arterial systems. Results show the following. (a) When an indicator of small molecular size (Cardio-Green) is allowed to pass through the heart chambers, adequate mixing is achieved, yielding accurate and reproducible results. (b) When any indicator (Cardio-Green or microspheres) is injected into veins, and sampling is done at any point in the venous system, mixing is inadequate, yielding flow results which are inconsistent and erratic. (c) For an indicator of large molecular size (microspheres), injecting into the left side of the heart and sampling from arterial sites yield accurate and reproducible results regardless of whether blood is sampled continuously or intermittently.
Towards an Intellectual Property Clearinghouse for Agricultural Biotechnology

Much of the critique of patent systems for hindering research has focused on the scope or definition of what is patentable. We suggest, rather, that by focusing on the exchange of existing patent rights, significant improvements in freedom-to-operate can be achieved regardless of the state of patent reform. Historically, in other industries, when IP congestion has threatened productivity, both government and industry groups have intervened, forming collective rights organizations such as patent pools and royalty clearinghouses that have provided freedom to operate with substantial savings for whole industries. Furthermore, today’s advances in information technology have created new tools, “IP informatics” and “online IP exchanges,” which provide interesting new organizational possibilities for collective intellectual property rights organizations. The goal of an “intellectual property clearinghouse” for agricultural biotechnologies would be to reduce transaction costs and other market failures that hinder the exchange of IP, creating pathways through the patent thicket and giving freedom to operate with proprietary biotechnologies.
Ontological Evaluation and Validation

In the last few years, the Semantic Web gained scientific acceptance as the means of sharing knowledge in different domains, and the cornerstone of the Semantic Web is ontologies. Currently, users trying to incorporate ontologies in their applications have to rely on their experience to try to find a suitable ontology for their applications. Methods for evaluating ontology quality and validity, ontology characterization and ranking have been developed for that purpose. In this chapter, we introduce several approaches that have been developed to aid in evaluating ontologies. In addition, we present highlights of OntoQA, an ontology evaluation and analysis tool that uses a set of metrics measuring different aspects of the ontology schema and knowledgebase to give an insight to the overall characteristics of the ontology. It is important to keep in mind while reading this chapter that the definition “goodness” or the “validity” of an ontology might vary between different users or different domains.
Population-Based Health Engagement Opportunities Through Breast Imaging: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Survey.

Abstract Purpose As health care payment systems transition from fee-for-service to bundled payments, there is an increasing opportunity for radiologists to collaborate to improve population-based health care outcomes. Our purpose was to estimate the extent to which patients engaged in mammography underwent other additional imaging- and non-imaging-based preventative health services using Centers for Disease Control National Population Health Surveys. Methods Women aged 40 to 74 in the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System cross-sectional survey without histories of breast cancer who reported having a mammogram within the past 2 years were included. Adherence to recommended preventative services was based on US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations, relative to the time at which the survey participant responded to the survey. Among women reporting being engaged in mammography, proportions of eligible women obtaining recommended preventative health services were calculated and stratified by demographics. Results Of 172,245 women, 122,434 (71.1%) reported mammography within 2 years. The following percentages obtained recommended flu vaccines (49.2%), pneumococcal vaccines (69.5%), colorectal cancer screening (74.8%), and Papanicolaou test (93.2%). Women reporting mammography within the last 2 years with lower levels of education and income and who lacked health insurance or personal doctors were less likely to report receiving recommended preventative services (P Conclusions National population-based survey results suggest that large proportions of women engaged in mammography report are not up to date with a wide variety of recommended preventative health services, suggesting ample opportunities for radiology practices to partner with providers to improve population-based health outcomes and add value to health care systems.
A quantitative study on the relationship between grasp and handwriting legibility: does grasp really matter?

Literature has indicated conflicting results regarding the relationship between grasp patterns and legible handwriting. Historically, the dynamic tripod grasp was viewed as the gold standard, but m...
Biosynthesis-Inspired Approach to Kujounin A2 Using a Stereoselective Tsuji–Trost Alkylation

A new biosynthesis was proposed for the kujounins A1 and A2 beginning from ascorbic acid, which in turn inspired a synthetic approach to kujounin A2. The ring system was assembled in two steps using a stereoselective Tsuji–Trost reaction followed by ozonolysis. The chemically labile disulfide was introduced in several more steps. These results will make kujounin and its analogues available for further evaluation.
Students Teaching Students: Bringing Lifestyle Medicine Education to Middle and High Schools Through Student-Led Community Outreach Programs:

Lifestyle medicine has the power to reverse the growing burden of chronic disease that now plagues our health care system. The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine have all independently recognized the need for community-centered lifestyle medicine education as a means of empowering individuals to take charge of their own health. Students in undergraduate, medical, and allied health schools may serve as mediators for these conversations. With guidance from faculty lifestyle medicine mentors, these students can operate as peer educators in primary and secondary schools to supplement current health teaching with the core tenants of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental and social well-being, and substance avoidance as strategies to prevent and treat chronic disease. We present models of two such student-led programs working with middle and high school students in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Both programs have found success by engaging middle and high school students in interactive workshops and by responding to their individual interests and community needs. We share our currently available resources and, moving forward, hope to publish a tested curriculum that students around the country can implement in their communities to promote lifestyle medicine.
Calcium‐dependent site‐switching regulates expression of the atypical iam pilus locus in Vibrio vulnificus

The opportunistic human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus inhabits warm coastal waters and asymptomatically colonizes seafood, most commonly oysters. We previously characterized an isolate that exhibited greater biofilm formation, aggregation and oyster colonization than its parent. This was due, in part, to the production of a Type IV Tad pilus (Iam). However, the locus lacked key processing and regulatory genes required for pilus production. Here, we identify a pilin peptidase iamP, and LysR-type regulator (LRTR) iamR, that fulfil these roles and show that environmental calcium, which oysters enrich for shell repair and growth, regulates iam expression. The architecture of the iam locus differs from the classical LRTR paradigm and requires an additional promoter to be integrated into the regulatory network. IamR specifically recognized the iamR promoter (PiamR ) and the intergenic iamP-iamA region (PiamP-A ). PiamR exhibited classical negative auto-regulation but, strikingly, IamR inversely regulated the divergent iamP and iamA promoters in a calcium-dependent manner. Moreover, expression of the c-di-GMP and calcium-regulated, biofilm-promoting brp exopolysaccharide was IamA-dependent. These results support a scenario in which the calcium-enriched oyster environment triggers IamP-mediated processing of prepilin amassed in the periplasm for rapid pilin elaboration and subsequent BRP production to promote colonization.
Robust high resolution strain imaging by alternating pulsed field gradient stimulated echo imaging (APGSTEi) at 7 Tesla.

Abstract A novel displacement-encoding spin-echo-stimulated-echo MRI sequence (APGSTEi) was used to obtain full-volume 3D strain fields in samples of two soft materials, a silicone elastomer and an ovine ligament. The samples were stretched cyclically and imaged synchronously. The multi-slice imaging sequence employed a combination of hard and soft spin-echos with bipolar gradient pulses for spatial encoding and decoding, combined with rapid multi-slice spin echo readouts. The sequence minimized undesirable signal loss due to T2∗ and T2 decays, which occur in polymeric materials or in the presence of appreciable air-solid susceptibility contrast, a particular concern for irregularly shaped samples in high magnetic fields. The images’ magnitudes were T1-weighted; their phase encoded displacements which occurred during a Δ = 400 ms storage interval separating encoding and decoding pulses. Unwanted residual signals were filtered using a Gaussian filter tailored to attain the desired noise floor. The experiments measured 3D deformation with a nominal resolution of 290 μ m × 250 μ m × 250 μ m in a sample volume of 5.6 cm × 1.6 cm × 1.6 cm, in less than an hour.
Comparing Autism Symptom Severity Between Children With a Medical Autism Diagnosis and an Autism Special Education Eligibility

Rates of children identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continue to increase in both medical and school settings. While procedures for providing a medical diagnosis are relatively con...
Potential classification of chemical immunologic response based on gene expression profiles

Occupational immune diseases are a serious public health burden and are often a result of exposure to low molecular weight (LMW) chemicals. The complete immunological mechanisms driving these respo...
How can donors help build global public goods in health

Aid to developing countries has largely neglected the population-wide health services that are core to communicable disease control in the developed world. These mostly non-clinical services generate "pure public goods" by reducing everyones exposure to disease through measures such as implementing health and sanitary regulations. They complement the clinical preventive and treatment services which are the donors main focus. Their neglect is manifested for example in a lack of coherent public health regulations in countries where donors have long been active facilitating the spread of diseases such as avian flu. These services can be inexpensive and dramatically reduce health inequalities. Sri Lanka spends less than 0.2% of GDP on its well-designed population-wide services which contribute to the countrys high levels of health equity and life expectancy despite low GDP per head and civil war. Evidence abounds on the negative externalities of weak population-wide health services. Global public health security cannot be assured without building strong national population-wide health systems to reduce the potential for communicable diseases to spread within and beyond their borders. Donors need greater clarity about what constitutes a strong public health system and how to build them. The paper discusses gaps in donors approaches and first steps toward closing them.