cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Design and implementation of a national clinical trials registry.

The authors have developed a Web-based system that provides summary information about clinical trials being conducted throughout the United States. The first version of the system, publicly available in February 2000, contains more than 4,000 records representing primarily trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The impetus for this system has come from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Modernization Act of 1997, which mandated a registry of both federally and privately funded clinical trials ''of experimental treatments for serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions.'' The system design and implementation have been guided by several principles. First, all stages of system development were guided by the needs of the primary intended audience, patients and other members of the public. Second, broad agreement on a common set of data elements was obtained. Third, the system was designed in a modular and extensible way, and search methods that take extensive advantage of the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) were developed. Finally, since this will be a long-term effort involving many individuals and organizations, the project is being implemented in several phases.
Model reduction for compressible flows using POD and Galerkin projection

Abstract We present a framework for applying the method of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and Galerkin projection to compressible fluids. For incompressible flows, only the kinematic variables are important, and the techniques are well known. In a compressible flow, both the kinematic and thermodynamic variables are dynamically important, and must be included in the configuration space. We introduce an energy-based inner product which may be used to obtain POD modes for this configuration space. We then obtain an approximate version of the Navier–Stokes equations, valid for cold flows at moderate Mach number, and project these equations onto a POD basis. The resulting equations of motion are quadratic, and are much simpler than projections of the full compressible Navier–Stokes equations.
Metabolic Syndrome: Is Nlrp3 Inflammasome a Trigger or a Target of Insulin Resistance?

The Nlrp3 inflammasome has recently been implicated in the development of the metabolic syndrome through the impairment of adipose tissue insulin sensitivity. Recent literature associates Nlrp3 activation with much pathology caused by prolonged insulin resistance state, therefore establishing Nlrp3 as a promising therapeutic target for type-2-diabetes treatment.
Liver disease and gallstones in regional enteritis.

A prospective study of liver function was carried out in 50 consecutive patients with regional enteritis. Although 30% of these patients had abnormal liver function tests, primarily an elevation of alkaline phosphatase and bromsulfophthalein, none had clinically significant liver disease. Liver biopsies were done on 19 patients. Chronic pericholangitis was the most common lesion and was present in 15 patients. Fatty infiltration and portal fibrosis were found in 7 and 5 patients respectively and noncaseating granulomata in 2. The most significant finding was a high prevalence of gallstones—34% in 41 patients specifically examined for the presence of gallbladder disease. No cause for this high prevalence was established, although it may be related to bile salt deficiency.
A fast on-chip profiler memory using a pipelined binary tree

We introduce a novel memory architecture that can count the occurrences of patterns on a system's bus, a task known as profiling. Such profiling can serve a variety of purposes, like detecting a microprocessor's software hot spots or frequently used data values, which can be used to optimize various aspects of the system. The memory, which we call ProMem, is based on a pipelined binary search tree structure, yielding several beneficial features, including nonintrusiveness, accurate counts, excellent size and power efficiency, very fast access times, and the use of standard memories with only simple additional logic. The main limitation is that the set of potential patterns must be preloaded into the memory. We describe the ProMem architecture, and show excellent size and performance advantages compared with content-addressable memory (CAM) based designs.
Nepal—an algorithm for solving the volume integral equation

A new algorithm is proposed to solve the volume integral equation whereby the scatterer is first divided into N subscatterers. Smaller problems are nested within larger problems using the Huygens equivalence principle. The resultant algorithm has reduced computational complexity whose CPU time is proportional to N1.5. © 1993 John Wiley & sons, Inc.
Regulation of adjacent yeast genes

We thank L. Kruglyak and E. Hubbell for valuable comments and feedback. We were supported in part by NSF grant DBI 9504393 and NIH grant R01 GM36230. We thank S. Tavare and M. Waterman for useful discussions and for providing us with the resources for this project. We also thank the referees for their valuable comments.
Fibrinolytic activity of endothelial cells from different venous beds.

Abstract Background Little is known about the molecular biology of endothelial cells from different venous vascular beds. As a result, our treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary artery embolism remain identical. As an initial step in understanding venous thromboembolic disease in the trauma and surgical patients, this study sought to investigate the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis in the pulmonary and deep venous vascular beds and how trauma might influence this balance. Materials and methods Confluent human iliac vein endothelial cells (HIVECs) and human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs), were cultured in the absence or presence of tumor necrosis factor (TNFα; 10 ng/mL) for 24 h. The expression of mediators of coagulation and fibrinolysis were determined by Western blot analysis, and plasminogen activator activity was determined by a fibrin clot degradation assay. Results After TNFα stimulation, there was decreased expression of endothelial protein C receptor and thrombomodulin in both HIVECs and HPAECs. TNFα stimulation increased urokinase plasminogen activator expression in both HIVECs and HPAECs. There was an increase in the expression of tissue plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in response to TNFα in HPAECs, but not in HIVECs. There was significantly greater clot degradation in the presence of both the conditioned media and cell extracts from HIVECs, when compared with HPAECs. Conclusions HPAECs and HIVECs react differently in terms of fibrinolytic potential when challenged with a cytokine associated with inflammation. These findings suggest that endothelial cells from distinct venous vascular beds may differentially regulate the fibrinolytic pathway.
V(D)J recombination becomes accessible.

The diverse antigen receptor repertoires of B and T lymphocytes are generated by somatic rearrangement of Ig and TCR V, D, and J gene segments during lymphocyte development. A basic mechanistic understanding of V(D)J recombination reaction is now at hand. The process is initiated by recombinase proteins recombination activating gene (RAG)-1 and RAG-2, which bind to recombination signal sequences (RSSs) that flank Ig and TCR gene segments, recruit a pair of RSSs into a synaptic complex, and generate double strand breaks (DSBs) between the RSSs and coding segments. The reaction is then completed with the additional participation of DSB repair proteins, which help to process and rejoin the coding and signal end molecules to generate coding joints and signal joints, respectively. V(D)J recombination at the various Ig and TCR loci is highly regulated during lymphocyte development, with lineage- and developmental stage‐specific rearrangement events distinguishing individual loci, and even individual gene segments within loci. It has long been appreciated that this developmental regulation cannot be accounted for by the expression of either RAG or DNA repair proteins. It has been noted that transcription of unrearranged gene segments (germline transcription) parallels their developmental activation for V(D)J recombination. Yancopoulos and Alt interpreted this transcriptional activity to reflect a permis
Differences In Selection Criteria Among Traditional Students, Adult Continuing Education Students And Graduate Students

This paper examines college selection cues and criteria differences among three important segments of students. These segments were traditional undergraduate students, adult continuing education students and graduate students. There were significant differences among the a-priori defined segments.
Synthesis of Novel Hexahydroindoles from the Dearomatization of Indoline

The transiently stable indoline complex TpW(NO)(PMe3)(η2-N-ethyl-6,7-indoline) is shown to be a synthon for a broad range of novel hexahydroindoles. The tungsten dearomatizes the indoline, allowing for its sequential protonation, electrophilic addition (e.g., protonation, fluorination, hydroxylation, acylation), nucleophilic addition (e.g., amination, arylation, etheration, alkylation), and reduction, all with well-defined and predictable stereochemistry. The tungsten stereocenter directly governs the stereoselective formation of four adjacent asymmetric carbons originating from the aromatic ring of the indoline.
Effect of amino acid deficiency or excess on creatinine excretion of rats. Creatinine excretion and dietary amino acids.

The effect of single amino acid deficiencies or excesses on urinary creatinine excretion was studied in rats fed an otherwise balanced amino-acid-containing diet. Omission of single amino acids generally decreased creatinine excretion significantly. Gelatin addition produced a relatively large increase in creatinine excretion, but additions of other amino acids in excess did not point to a consistent change in the excretion pattern; some led to an increased and some to a decreased excretion, and some had no effect. With the exception of the gelatin effect, none of the amino acid excesses led to changes in creatinine excretion of the magnitude or significance observed with the amino-acid-deficient diets.
STATINS AND EXERCISE TRAINING RESPONSE IN HEART FAILURE PATIENTS: INSIGHTS FROM THE HF-ACTION TRIAL

Recent data suggest that statins may attenuate exercise training (ET) response, but limited data exist in patients with heart failure (HF), many of whom use statins. HF-ACTION was a randomized, controlled (usual care vs ET) trial of 2,331 chronic ambulatory HF patients with ejection fraction ≤ 35
Oviposition Preference of the Seedcorn Maggot for Various Developmental Stages of Soybeans

The relative attractiveness of the soybean plant to ovipositing Hylemya platura (Meigen) was studied in the laboratory. Seedcorn maggots deposited significantly more eggs near the base of newly emerged seedlings when given a choice of 5 stages of developing soybeans and only moist soil. When contained with a single stage of developing soybean, the females oviposited similar numbers of eggs adjacent to each stage. However, in this latter no-choice situation, females rarely oviposited during the 1st 3 days near any except newly emerged seedlings. Lima beans were significantly preferred over soybean seedlings as oviposition sites.
Mesocestoides (cestoda) in a child in New Jersey treated with niclosamide (Yomesan).

The third case of human infection with Mesocestoides in the United States is reported in a 14-month-old child living in New Jersey. Clinical findings were essentially normal and epidemiologic investigation failed to reveal the source of the infection. Treatment with pyrvinium pamoate, piperazine, and quinacrine failed to rid the child of worms. At age 27 months, the child was given 1 g of niclosamide (Yomesan®). Stool examined 1 week, 3 months, and 5 months later revealed no evidence of parasitism. This is the 13th case of Mesocestoides in man reported in the literature.
Analysis of variabilities of Serum Protein Markers in Patients with Nephroblastoma before and after Operation

Objective:To study the variability of serum proteomic spectra in Nephroblastomas before and after operation in order to detect protein markers before and after operation to guide the prognosis.Methods:Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry(SELDI-TOF-MS) combined with surport vector machine(SVM) to detect all serums data and analyze the different spectrum before and after operation.Results:(1)30 cases preoperative patients were compared with normal control group: rude screening 352 m/z peaks,to screen two m/z peak at 6 984.0 and 6 455.0;nephroblastoma was lower expression comparing with the normal group.(2)24 cases compared pre-operation with post-operation serum protein: the pre-operation group was low or no expression;21 cases after two weeks(including 19 cases) was high expression:two cases was low expression,three palliative resection specimens cases was no significant change.two peaks was had no significant change in 3 and 6 months.(3)Postoperative patients were compared with the normal control group:19 cases after2 weeks was high expression and slightly lower compared with the normal control group.Conclusion:Specific serum protein markers in Nephroblastoma can be used for the quick diagnosis and judged prognosis in order to provide a new method on prognosis.
Absolute Fused Lasso and Its Application to Genome-Wide Association Studies

In many real-world applications, the samples/features acquired are in spatial or temporal order. In such cases, the magnitudes of adjacent samples/features are typically close to each other. Meanwhile, in the high-dimensional scenario, identifying the most relevant samples/features is also desired. In this paper, we consider a regularized model which can simultaneously identify important features and group similar features together. The model is based on a penalty called Absolute Fused Lasso (AFL). The AFL penalty encourages sparsity in the coefficients as well as their successive differences of absolute values' i.e., local constancy of the coefficient components in absolute values. Due to the non-convexity of AFL, it is challenging to develop efficient algorithms to solve the optimization problem. To this end, we employ the Difference of Convex functions (DC) programming to optimize the proposed non-convex problem. At each DC iteration, we adopt the proximal algorithm to solve a convex regularized sub-problem. One of the major contributions of this paper is to develop a highly efficient algorithm to compute the proximal operator. Empirical studies on both synthetic and real-world data sets from Genome-Wide Association Studies demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach in simultaneous identifying important features and grouping similar features.
Expedited Review of Capital Post-Conviction Claims: Idaho’s Flawed Process

The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”) is a federal attempt to expedite litigation in capital cases. Many states adopted unitary appeal systems in response to the AEDPA. Unitary systems consolidate the direct appeal and state post-conviction process. In Idaho, Idaho Code § 19-4908 establishes special proceedings for capital cases including a forty-two day limitation to present any claims. This article makes a critical analysis of Idaho’s capital post-conviction procedure.
Asynchronous Continuing Education for Iowa’s Green Industry Professionals

A collaborative two-part project between Iowa State University Horticulture Extension and the Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association (INLA) resulted in an online, asynchronous training program to prepare green industry professionals for the Iowa Certified Nursery Professional (ICNP) exam, and to provide advanced training through webinars. Since 2008, members have accessed a set of 20 training modules that cover plant identification and content on the written portion of the certification exam. In the 6 years since the modules have been used, the pass rate for the written portion of the exam has increased from 57% (2005–07, 18 participants) to 85% (2008–13, 49 participants). A survey administered to participants between 2008 and 2013 gathered information on participant demographics, interest in learning in an online format, usefulness and applicability of information in preparing for the exam, module usability, and how the modules impacted their learning. Participants felt that the modules were an effective way to deliver content (4.45 out of 5) and reported they were comfortable using a webbased format to learn (4.89 out of 5). Advanced training was delivered to members through three webinar series: five webinars in 2011 and four webinars each in 2012 and 2013. Although attendance to the live webinar sessions was limited, the archived versions have been accessed a number of times.
Study on the abrasion mechanism of ultraviolet cured resin bond diamond wheel

Based on an extensive review of traditional machining technologies, a novel method to manufacture abrasive tools using ultraviolet (UV) light curing technique was proposed to achieve the economy and accuracy for machining ceramic materials. The UV cured resin bond tools have been proven to have substantial advantages in machining performance. However, there has been limited research on the abrasion mechanism of such tools. In this paper, the mechanism of such resin bond tools is proposed as a hybrid of conventional grinding and lapping, and called as a grinding/lapping (G/L) process. In order to verify the proposed mechanism, three resin bond diamond wheels cured by UV light were used to conduct lapping, grinding, and G/L process, respectively, under the same experimental set-up. The experimental results like surface roughness (RA) and surface profiles of the workpieces undertaking the three operations were compared and showed good agreement with the proposed mechanism.
Incorporating technology to advance asthma controller adherence.

Purpose of review: Technological innovations, including text messaging, smart phone applications, and electronic monitoring devices, aimed at improving asthma controller adherence are being rapidly introduced both into clinical care and directly marketed to patients. This review analyzes recent clinical trials implementing these interventions, with a focus on their benefits and shortcomings. Recent findings: Poor medication adherence continues to exert significant morbidity on patients with asthma. Objective, real-time measures to monitor adherence can overcome the limitations of prior methods, including self-report and prescription refills. Technological advances, especially those incorporating reminder systems, have demonstrated improved controller adherence. The increased adherence in these trials has not translated into consistent clinical improvement, including reducing hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and asthma exacerbations, possibly secondary to study design and poor inhalation technique. Summary: Novel monitoring and reminder technology can augment patient medication adherence and provide clues to management before escalating therapy. Further studies are needed to investigate the overarching clinical impact of this technology, especially as it grows into routine clinical practice.
Establishment and function of tissue-resident innate lymphoid cells in the skin

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a newly classified family of immune cells of the lymphoid lineage. While they could be found in both lymphoid organs and non-lymphoid tissues, ILCs are preferentially enriched in barrier tissues such as the skin, intestine, and lung where they could play important roles in maintenance of tissue integrity and function and protection against assaults of foreign agents. On the other hand, dysregulated activation of ILCs could contribute to tissue inflammatory diseases. In spite of recent progress towards understanding roles of ILCs in the health and disease, mechanisms regulating specific establishment, activation, and function of ILCs in barrier tissues are still poorly understood. We herein review the up-to-date understanding of tissue-specific relevance of ILCs. Particularly we will focus on resident ILCs of the skin, the outmost barrier tissue critical in protection against various foreign hazardous agents and maintenance of thermal and water balance. In addition, we will discuss remaining outstanding questions yet to be addressed.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Maladaptive Perfectionism in Medical Students: A Preliminary Investigation

Maladaptive perfectionism is associated with psychological distress and psychopathology. Medical students have been found to be particularly prone to maladaptive perfectionism. Recent research has indicated that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that targets unhealthy perfectionism leads to reductions in perfectionism and related distress. This preliminary investigation aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a CBT program directed at medical students who had significant levels of maladaptive perfectionism. The impact on associated psychological distress was also assessed. The study used a case series methodology with an A–B design plus follow-up. First-year medical students who screened positive for maladaptive perfectionism and consented for the study (N = 4) were assessed at baseline to evaluate the levels of maladaptive perfectionism, anxiety, and depression. They participated in an eight-session CBT program for reducing maladaptive perfectionism after a waiting period. Assessments were repeated post CBT and at 3- and 6-month follow up periods. Results indicated positive and durable effects on maladaptive perfectionism among program participants. The current research provides promising results for the use of CBT in at risk medical students with maladaptive perfectionism.
Characterizing rare earth elements in Alaskan coal and ash

In recent years, the demand for rare earth elements (REEs) has grown due to increasing demand and global supply shortage. The supply deficit of these critical elements has encouraged the search for new sources, with coal and coal byproducts as possibilities. Coals from certain parts of the world can be rich in REEs and can approach a total concentration of 1,000 ppm. Two Alaskan coal samples, from Healy and Wishbone Hill, were investigated for the effects of density and particle size on REE concentrations for three selected size fractions, and flotation tests were conducted on finer fractions. Additionally, bottom ash and fly ash samples from a power plant were examined for their REE concentrations. The results show that the upgrade potential for REEs on an ash basis from a whole-coal basis ranges from 2:1 for the Wishbone Hill samples to 4:1 for the Healy coal samples. Flotations of the finer fractions of the two coal samples, conducted under similar conditions, revealed higher concentrations of REEs in the tailings. Both coal samples had comparatively higher contents of light-group rare earth elements (LREEs) than heavy-group rare earth elements (HREEs). REE content trends for the power-plant products on an ash basis indicate that fly ash has slightly higher concentrations of both LREEs and HREEs than bottom ash.
Nanoparticle-releasing nanofiber composites for enhanced in vivo vaginal retention.

Abstract Current approaches for topical vaginal administration of nanoparticles result in poor retention and extensive leakage. To overcome these challenges, we developed a nanoparticle-releasing nanofiber delivery platform and evaluated its ability to improve nanoparticle retention in a murine model. We individually tailored two components of this drug delivery system for optimal interaction with mucus, designing (1) mucoadhesive fibers for better retention in the vaginal tract, and (2) PEGylated nanoparticles that diffuse quickly through mucus. We hypothesized that this novel dual-functioning (mucoadhesive/mucus–penetrating) composite material would provide enhanced retention of nanoparticles in the vaginal mucosa. Equivalent doses of fluorescent nanoparticles were vaginally administered to mice in either water (aqueous suspension) or fiber composites, and fluorescent content was quantified in cervicovaginal mucus and vaginal tissue at time points from 24 h to 7d. We also fabricated composite fibers containing etravirine-loaded nanoparticles and evaluated the pharmacokinetics over 7d. We found that our composite materials provided approximately 30-fold greater retention of nanoparticles in the reproductive tract at 24 h compared to aqueous suspensions. Compared to nanoparticles in aqueous suspension, the nanoparticles in fiber composites exhibited sustained and higher etravirine concentrations after 24 h and up to 7d, demonstrating the capabilities of this new delivery platform to sustain nanoparticle release out to 3d and drug retention out to one week after a single administration. This is the first report of nanoparticle-releasing fibers for vaginal drug delivery, as well as the first study of a single delivery system that combines two components uniquely engineered for complementary interactions with mucus.
Curvature and Rho activation differentially control the alignment of cells and stress fibers

In vivo, cells respond to a host of physical cues ranging from substrate stiffness to the organization of micro- and nanoscale fibrous networks. We show that macroscale substrates with radii of curvature from tens to hundreds of micrometers influence cell alignment. In a model system of fibroblasts, isolated cells aligned strongly in the axial direction on cylinders with radii similar to the cell length and more weakly on cylinders of much larger radius. Isolated vascular smooth muscle cells did not align as effectively as fibroblasts. However, both cell types aligned robustly in weak curvature fields when in confluent monolayers. We identified two distinct populations of stress fibers in both cell types: long, apical stress fibers that aligned axially and short, basal stress fibers that aligned circumferentially. Circumferential alignment of the basal stress fibers is in apparent disagreement with a long-standing hypothesis that energetic penalties for bending enforce axial alignment on cylinders. To explore this phenomenon, we manipulated stress fibers by activating Rho, a small guanosine triphosphatase that regulates stress fiber assembly. In response, apical stress fibers disassembled, whereas basal stress fibers thickened and aligned more strongly in the circumferential direction. By activating Rho in confluent monolayers of vascular smooth muscle cells, we recapitulated the circumferential alignment pattern of F-actin within these cells that is observed in cylindrical vessels in vivo. In agreement with recent theory, these results suggest that stress fiber bending penalties are overcome when stress fiber contractility is enhanced and motivate deeper study of the mechanics of these distinct stress fiber populations.
Integrating Social Media into Health-Care Marketing: An Abstract

Social media are becoming an important tool for building and sustaining relationships among people and groups (Kanter & Fine, 2010). Compared to traditional websites used for one-way sharing of web content, social media allow users to create, update, and exchange web content in an interactive way (Chun, Shulman, Sandoval, & Hovy, 2010). Research on social media marketing has grown rapidly in the business literature.
PROFILES OF FRACTIONAL FLOW RESERVE DERIVED FROM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY (FFRCT) IN PATIENTS WITH CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

Invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) and FFR derived from computed tomography angiography (FFRCT) are usually identified at a single location in the distal artery, but the optimal location to measure FFR has not been determined. As part of a single-center registry, 729 patients underwent coronary
Uses of tissue culture and cryopreservation in pancreatic islet transplantation.

Diabetes mellitus remains a major health problem, with several million effected patients in this country. It is the fifth leading cause of death, the most common cause of blindness, and a major etiologic factor in renal failure (1–4).
Quantum Physics and Process Metaphysics

Classical quantum mechanics is a hybrid of classical concepts (space, time) and quantum concepts (states, tests). A more consistently quantum dynamics is proposed, with space, time and matter replaced by one primitive concept of process. Examples are given of relativistic propagators, mass spectrum and scattering amplitudes computed in such a quantum dynamics. Mass spectra exhibit Brillouin-like zones, as of propagation in the crystal of time. In particular, the electromagnetic and weak interactions may be mediated by the zeroth and first zone of one four-spinor process. Then the range of the weak interaction approximates the fundamental time.
Traveling the Silk Road: A measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace (CMU-CyLab-12-018)

We perform a comprehensive measurement analysis of Silk Road, an anonymous, international online marketplace that operates as a Tor hidden service and uses Bitcoin as its exchange currency. We gather and analyze data over eight months between the end of 2011 and 2012, including daily crawls of the marketplace for nearly six months in 2012. We obtain a detailed picture of the type of goods being sold on Silk Road, and of the revenues made both by sellers and Silk Road operators. Through examining over 24,400 separate items sold on the site, we show that Silk Road is overwhelmingly used as a market for controlled substances and narcotics. A relatively small “core” of about 60 sellers has been present throughout our measurement interval, while the majority of sellers leaves (or goes “underground”) within a couple of weeks of their first appearance. We evaluate the total revenue made by all sellers to approximately USD 1.9 million per month; this corresponds to about USD 143,000 per month in commissions perceived by the Silk Road operators. We further show that the marketplace has been operating steadily, with daily sales and number of sellers overall increasing over the past few months. We discuss economic and policy implications of our analysis and results, including ethical considerations for future research in this area.
Intracranial ependymomas of childhood. Lack of correlation of histopathology and clinical outcome.

Summary The histopathology of 66 children with the diagnosis of ependymoma who were operated on at our institution between 1954 and 1994 were reviewed. We performed an initial analysis using the entire study cohort to determine which histopathological features associated with each other in a statistically significant fashion in an attempt to identify combinations of features that together might be useful in predicting outcome. A detailed outcome analysis was then performed on the 37 most recent cases who survived the postoperative period, in whom pre- and post-imaging studies as well as long term follow-up were obtained, in order to identify the histopathological features and combinations of features that were predictive of overall and progression free survival. Five- and ten-year progression-free survivals were 45.1% and 36.1 %, respectively. Overall survivals were 57.1% and 45.1%, respectively. Of the eight individual histopathological features, only the presence of necrosis was found to correlate with a less favorable overall and progression-free survival (PFS) (p = 0.06 and 0.03, respectively). In addition, the combination of necrosis with vascular proliferation or nuclear pleomorphism was associated with a worse PFS (p = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively). However, when other clinical predictive factors were included in a multivariate regression analysis, none of the histological features or combinations of features were independently associated with outcome. In addition, no relationship was found between the pattern of rosettes (true rosette, pseudorosette, or perivascular pseudorosette) and clinical outcome. In conclusion, although this study found an association between certain histo-pathological features and clinical outcome in children with ependymomas, these relationships did not reach statistical significance on multivariate analysis and, thus, do not provide sufficient evidence for modifying therapy based on histopathology alone.
Peak Oil, EROI, Investments and the Economy in an Uncertain Future

The issues surrounding energy are far more important, complex and pervasive than normally considered from the perspective of conventional economics, and they will be extremely resistant to market-based, or possibly any other, resolution. We live in an era completely dominated by readily available and cheap petroleum. This cheap petroleum is finite and currently there are no substitutes with the quality and quantity required. Of particular importance to society’s past and future is that depletion is overtaking technology in many ways, so that the enormous wealth made possible by cheap petroleum is very unlikely to continue very far into the future. What this means principally is that investments will increasingly have to be made into simply getting the energy that today we take for granted, the net economic effect being the gradual squeezing out of discretionary investments and consumption. While there are certainly partial “supply-side” solutions to these issues, principally through a focus on certain types of solar power, the magnitude of the problem will be enormous because of the scale required, the declining net energy supplies available for investment and the relatively low net energy yields of the alternatives. Given that this issue is likely to be far more immediate, and perhaps more important, than even the serious issue of global warming it is remarkable how little attention we have paid to understanding it or its consequences.
Death among U.S. Air Force basic trainees, 1956 to 1996.

BACKGROUND: Basic military training in the U.S. Air Force exposes recruits to multiple environmental and psychological stressors. Deaths often prompt examination of the training process. METHODS: This retrospective case study evaluates recruit deaths at Lackland Air Force Base between 1956 and 1996 in terms of demographic, clinical, and environmental variables. RESULTS: Eighty-five deaths occurred, with 81% being natural, 13% suicide, 4% accidental, and 2% not classified. Ninety-four percent of recruits who died were male, and 60% were 17 to 19 years of age. The average death rate was 2.8/100,000 recruits. Seven recruits were sickle cell trait (SCT)-positive. The relative risk for nontraumatic deaths between expected SCT-positive and non-SCT-positive populations was 23.53 (confidence interval, 19.55-30.01). Thirty-five percent (30 recruits) died from cardiac causes, resulting in a death rate of 1.0/100,000 trainees. Thirty-three percent (28 recruits) died primarily from infections. Six deaths were due to heat stroke, 11 to suicide, and 3 to accidents. CONCLUSION: As a result of improvements in immunizations, changes in hydration and exercise policies, limited access to vehicles, close supervision, the "buddy system," and the institution of the Navy-Air Force Medical Evaluation Test, only a few deaths occurred in any given year. Language: en
The Idle Argument in Cicero’s De Fato

Throughout the course of this paper I examine Cicero’s analysis of the Idle Argument for fatalism and the two possible refutations of the argument that he mentions in his work entitled De Fato. Between the two refutations, one of which was originally given by the Stoic Chrysippus and the other by the Academic skeptic Carneades, Cicero clearly expresses preference for the one given by Carneades. Cicero claims to prefer Carneades refutation for two reasons: because it is simpler than Chrysippus’ refutation and because it allows for praise and blame to be justly applied while Chrysippus’ refutation does not. I argue that this was a mistake, due to the fact that both refutations are equally complicated and they both allow for praise and blame to be justly applied. Upon showing that both of Cicero’s reasons for preferring Carneades’ refutation were false, I conclude that Cicero had no good reason for preferring one refutation over the other and that he therefor made a mistake when he claimed that Carneades’ refutation was better than the one given by Chrysippus.
Reduction of hysteresis in MoS2 transistors using pulsed voltage measurements

Transistors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials often exhibit hysteresis in their electrical measurements, i.e. a dependence of measured current on voltage sweep direction due to charge trapping. Here we demonstrate a simple pulsed measurement technique which reduces this hysteretic behavior, enabling more accurate characterization of 2D transistors. We compare hysteresis and charge trapping in four types of devices fabricated from both exfoliated and synthetic MoS2, with SiO2 and HfO2 insulators, using DC and pulsed voltage measurements at different temperatures. Applying modest voltage pulses (~1 ms) on the gate significantly reduces charge trapping and results in the elimination of over 80% of hysteresis for all devices. At shorter pulse widths (~1 µs), up to 99% of hysteresis is reduced for some devices. Our measurements enable the extraction of a unique value of field-effect mobility, regardless of voltage sweep direction, unlike measurements that rely on forward or backward DC measurements. This simple and reproducible technique is useful for studying the intrinsic properties of 2D transistors, and can be similarly applied to other nanoscale and emerging devices where charge trapping is of concern.
Overcoming the underdetermination of specimens

Philosophers of science are well aware that theories are underdetermined by data. But what about the data? Scientific data are selected and processed representations or pieces of nature. What is useless context and what is valuable specimen, as well as how specimens are processed for study, are not obvious or predetermined givens. Instead, they are decisions made by scientists and other research workers, such as technicians, that produce different outcomes for the data. Vertebrate fossils provide a revealing case of this data-processing, because they are embedded in rock that often matches the fossils’ color and texture, requiring an expert eye to judge where the fossil/context interface is. Fossil preparators then permanently define this interface by chiseling away the material they identify as rock. As a result, fossil specimens can emerge in multiple possible forms depending on the preparator’s judgment, skill, and chosen tools. A prepared fossil then is not yet data but potential data, following Leonelli’s (2015) relational framework in which data are defined as evidence that scientists have used to support a proposed theory. This paper draws on ethnographic evidence to assess how scientists overcome this underdetermination of specimens, as potential data, in addition to the underdetermination of theories and of data, to successfully construct specimen-based knowledge. Among other strategies, paleontology maintains a division of labor between data-makers and theory-makers. This distinction serves to justify the omission of preparators’ nonstandard, individualized techniques from scientific publications. This separation has benefits for both scientists and technicians; however, it restricts knowledge production by preventing scientists from understanding how the pieces of nature they study were processed into researchable specimens.
Targeting the ubiquitin ligase SKP2 in the myeloma stem-cell like side population.

e13510 Background: While anti-myeloma therapies are effective in eradicating the bulk of tumor cells, intrinsically drug resistant, clonogenic tumor-initiating subpopulations contribute to disease ...
Earth Science Applications of Sensor Data

Advances in earth observation technologies have led to the acquisition of vast volumes of accurate, timely and reliable environmental data which encompass a multitude of information about the land, ocean and atmosphere of the planet. Earth science sensor datasets capture multiple facets of information about natural processes and human activities that shape the physical landscape and environmental quality of our planet, and thus, offer an opportunity to monitor and understand the diverse phenomena affecting earth’s complex system. The monitoring, analysis and understanding of these rich sensor datasets is thus of prime importance for the efficient planning and management of critical resources, since the societal costs of mitigation or adaptation decisions for natural or human-induced adverse events are significant. Hence, a thorough understanding of earth science sensor datasets has a direct impact on a range of societally relevant issues. Moreover, earth science sensor datasets possess unique domain-specific properties that distinguish them from sensor datasets used in other domains, and thus demand the need for novel tools and techniques to be developed for their analysis, adhering to their characteristic issues and challenges.
REDOX GRADIENTS IN OXYGEN DELIVERY TO TISSUE

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses redox gradients in oxygen delivery to tissue. The considerable developments of nondestructive techniques for measuring the amount of oxygen needed for tissue respiration include a technological progression from Warburgs manometer studies of the P50 of yeast cells to current spectroscopic and fluorometric recordings of surface and three-dimensional redox studies of cells, tissues, and organs. These developments are capped by the measurement of bioenergetic output of mitochondria by NMR determinations of the creatine phosphate/phosphate ratio for organs in vivo in a completely noninvasive way. The oxygen tensions that activate energy coupling are determined from the titrations of suspensions of isolated mitochondria under conditions appropriate to the measurement of very low oxygen concentrations. The dilution technique is preferred, whereby a small volume of standard oxygen solution is diluted several thousand times into a larger volume of suspended mitochondria. The bioenergetic function of the mitochondria, calcium uptake, and ATP formation and the generation of membrane potential are assayed independently under such conditions.
The politics of education in Tanzania: From colonialism to liberalization

This chapter examines the effects of liberalization on the cultural and ideological reproduction of Tanzania through formal education. It shows how the crisis of ideological hegemony relates to education, in particular the quality of education and the medium of instruction. The chapter discusses universal primary education and the Adult Literacy Program as manifestations of quantitative and qualitative changes in the education system. It highlights some of the effects of the liberalization process of the 1980s on Education for Self-Reliance. The chapter analyzes Tanzania's colonial inheritance in the educational sphere also examines some of the challenges posed by the Tanzanian state with the introduction of Education for Self-Reliance. Tanzania is one of the few African countries, and indeed one of the few former colonial territories, that actively sought to chart for itself an alternative path of development to that bequeathed it by the colonial state at independence. Education for Self-Reliance was premised on principles of egalitarianism.
Campaign contributions and policy convergence: asymmetric agents and donations constraints

We extend previous work on the role of politically motivated donors who contribute to candidates in an election with single dimension policy preferences. In a two-stage game wherein donors observe candidate policy positions and then allocate funding accordingly, we find that reducing the cost of donations incentivizes candidates to position closer to one another, reducing policy divergence. Furthermore, we find that as donations become more effective at influencing voter decisions, candidates respond less to voter preferences and more to those of donors. In addition, we analyze the presence of asymmetries in the model using numerical analysis techniques. We also extend our model by allowing for public funding from governments. By implementing stringent campaign contribution limits, candidate positions align with voter preferences at the cost of wider policy divergence. In contrast, unlimited campaign contributions lead to candidate positions moving away from voters to donors’ preferences, but increase policy convergence.
Isolation of Mutagenic Compounds from Sludges and Wastewaters

Extracts of sludges and effluent wastewaters from municipal sewage treatment plants have been shown to be complex mixtures of organic chemicals (e.g., Baird et al., 1980; Bedding et al., 1982; Ellis et al., 1982; Johnston et al., 1982; Naylor and Loehr, 1982a, b; Clevenger et al., 1983; Hrubec et al., 1983; Strachan et al., 1983). During the past few years, these residue organics have been characterized as toxic and/or mutagenic in a variety of bacterial, animal, and plant test systems (e.g., Rappaport et al., 1979; Baird et al., 1980; Neal et al., 1980; Babish et al., 1982; Hopke et al., 1982; Johnston et al., 1982; Babish et al., 1983; Clevenger et al., 1983; Hopke and Plewa, 1983; Hrubec et al., 1983; Maciorowski et al., 1983; Hopke et al., in press; Meier and Bishop, 1984). The major mutagens appeared to be in the nonvolatile residue organic materials from sewages that included industrial sources. Although many volatile compounds, including priority pollutants, have been identified and quantified (e.g.. Bedding et al., 1982; Harrold et al., 1982; Johnston et al., 1982; Naylor and Loehr, 1982a, b; Petrasek et al., 1983; Strachan et al., 1983), the chemical identity and source of the vast majority of the mutagens is unknown (Nellor et al., 1982).
Parathyroid hormone–dependent bone formation requires butyrate production by intestinal microbiota

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is a critical regulator of skeletal development that promotes both bone formation and bone resorption. Using microbiota depletion by wide-spectrum antibiotics and germ-free (GF) female mice, we showed that the microbiota was required for PTH to stimulate bone formation and increase bone mass. Microbiota depletion lowered butyrate levels, a metabolite responsible for gut-bone communication, while reestablishment of physiologic levels of butyrate restored PTH-induced anabolism. The permissive activity of butyrate was mediated by GPR43 signaling in dendritic cells and by GPR43-independent signaling in T cells. Butyrate was required for PTH to increase the number of bone marrow (BM) regulatory T cells (Tregs). Tregs stimulated production of the osteogenic Wnt ligand Wnt10b by BM CD8+ T cells, which activated Wnt-dependent bone formation. Together, these data highlight the role that butyrate produced by gut luminal microbiota plays in triggering regulatory pathways, which are critical for the anabolic action of PTH in bone.
Discursive Mindfulness Among Practitioners Analyzing Social Work Communication

Applied linguistics has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with education and health. Developing a similar relationship with social work, however, has been difficult, making social work interaction research dissemination challenging. This chapter describes feedback from a small class of social work master’s students I guest taught on the topic of using discourse analysis in social work. This lecture included examples from a previously published article, which the students also read in preparation for the class. This research conducted was an interactional ethnography examining social worker-homeless client discourse over time in an urban, U.S. setting. Findings were drawn from trends observed across the data set of 18 clients with their 6 caseworkers. Based on those observations, the article described how responsibility was constructed in these interactions over time. The findings from student feedback revealed that students needed the most support in learning discourse analysis, and made dissemination of more explicit results difficult. While discourse may be integrated into social work process recordings, which would prepare workers for using discourse in their jobs, I argue that discursive mindfulness is perhaps the approach that helps workers with awareness without additional work strains.