cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anion exchange chromatography and double-diffusion cells for the study of middle molecules

We report herein a study of uremic middle molecules with techniques which allow their analysis without separation from protein. We have avoided the use of size exclusion techniques and filtration for size discrimination. In their place, we have used direct anion exchange chromatography for partial isolation of the compounds. Most of the "middle-sized" molecules which have been defined have been anionic, and most investigators have used DEAE-Sephadex in their isolation. For size discrimination, we have used diffusive properties through cellulosic membranes and the well-known inverse relationship of molecular weight to diffusibility [1]. Diffusive passage across membranes is dependent on molecular weight and radius. Problems such as variable protein layering, seen in convective transfer (filtration) [2], are avoided in diffusion studies.
Habitat associations of Rafinesque’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) and their lepidopteran prey in bottomland hardwood forests

Effective conservation of forest bats requires knowledge of daytime and nocturnal habitat use. Although many bat species use different habitats during the daytime and nighttime hours, these data are rarely collected simultaneously. We radio-tagged 48 adult Rafinesque’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii (Lesson, 1827)) in a bottomland hardwood forest in Kentucky from 2009 to 2011. We tracked bats to 64 day roosts over 549 bat-days and found bats roosted almost exclusively in trees located in forested wetlands (n = 59; 92%), and that reproductive females established their home ranges closest to these habitats (P < 0.0001). Although few (n = 4; 6%) roosts were located in deciduous forests on drier soils, these forests were important foraging habitats for pregnant females, which foraged closest to these habitats within their home ranges (P = 0.04). Abundance of Lepidoptera differed among habitats (P = 0.03), with higher abundance in deciduous forests and along forest–field edges. Deciduous forests were the only habitat preferentially selected by any lepidopteran family (Notodontidae), and the only habitat not avoided by any family. These data confirm the importance of forested wetlands to the ecology of Rafinesque’s big-eared bat and demonstrate the benefit of proximally located deciduous forests that provide habitat for their moth prey.
The Effect of Pleural Thickening on the Impairment of Pulmonary Function in Asbestos Exposed Workers

Background: Pleural abnormality is the the most common respiratory change caused by asbestos dust inhalation and also develop other asbestos related disease after cessation of asbestos exposure. So we conducted epidemiologic study to investigate if the pleural abnormality is associated with pulmonary function change and what factors are influenced on pulmonary function impairment. Methods: Two hundred and twenty two asbestos workers from 9 industries using asbestos in Korea were selected to measure the concentration of sectional asbestos fiber. Ouestionnaire, chest X-ray, PFT were also performed. All the data were analyzed by student t-test and chi-square test using SAS. Regressional analysis was performed to evaluate important factors, for example smoking, exposure concentration, period and the existence of pleural thickening, affecting to the change of pulmonary function. Results: 1) All nine industries except two, airborn asbestos fiber concentration was less than an average permissible concentration. PFT was performed on 222 workers and the percentage of male was 88.3%, their mean age was years old, and the duration of asbestos exposure was yrs. 2) The chest X-ray showed normal(89.19%), pulmonary Tb(inactive)(2.7%), pleral thickening (7.66%), suspected reticulonodular shadow(0.9%). 3) The mean values of height, smoking status, concentration of asbestos fiberwere not different between the subjects with pleural thickening and others, but age, cumulative pack-years, the duration of asbestos exposure were higher in subjects with pleural thickening. 4) All the PFT indices were lower in the subjects with pleural thickening than in the subjects without pleural thickening. 5) Simple regression analysis showed there was a significant correlation between which is sensitive in small airway obstruction and cumulative smoking pack-years, the duration of asbestos exposure and the concentration of asbestos fiber. 6) Multiple regression analysis showed all the pulmonary function indices were decreased as the increase of cumulative smoking pack-years and especially in the indices those are sensitive in small airway obstruction. Pleural thickening was associated with reduction in FVC, , PEFR and . Conclusion: The more concentration of asbestos fiber and the more duration of asbestos exposure, the greater reduction in , . Therefore PFT was important in the evaluation of early detection for small airway obstruction. Furthermore pleural thickening without asbesto-related parenchymal lung disease is associated with reduction in pulmonary function.
The Management of the Contralateral Breast

Should the acknowledged higher risk of a second primary breast cancer in women who survive their primary unilateral lesion mandate prophylactic removal of the contralateral breast? Or should this approach be reserved for those in extremely high-risk groups, with reliance on rigorous and meticulous follow-up for the others? Dr. Lewison details the evidence on both sides of these difficult questions.
Improving CS Student Retention with Intelligent Agents.

In recent years, many Computer Science undergraduate programs have had to address declining enrollment. While the reasons behind the decline are complex: the dot-com bubble burst, the way we train students, the lack of intellectual excitement, and so on, educators are creatively trying to broaden students’ interests in computing. In this paper, we present our plan to use some AI concepts, especially the concept of intelligent agents to initiate students’ interests in AI, and more general, in Computer Science.
Descriptive ethology and activity patterns of black-footed ferrets

Aspects of the aboveground ethology and activity patterns of the black-footed ferrets ( Mustela nigipes ) are described for a population in northwestern Wyoming as a first step in building a descriptive ethogram and quantification of activity patterns. We observed at least 237 individual ferrets for 208 hr on 441 occasions from 2 December 1981 through 25 September 1984. Mainenance behaviors (locomotion, alert, grooming, and sunning, defecation and urination, digging, and predation) and social behavior (reproduction, ontogeny, maternal, play, agonistic) are described as well as some ferret-human interactions. Ferret vocalizations are subjectively described. We located ferrets during most months including winter, but found that they were easiest to locate in summer. Ferrets were active at -38 C, in snow, in rain, and in winds to 50 kph.
Exploring the power of links in data mining

Algorithms like PageRank and HITS have been developed in late 1990s to explore links among Web pages to discover authoritative pages and hubs. Links have also been popularly used in citation analysis and social network analysis. We show that the power of links can be explored thoroughly in data mining, such as classification, clustering, information integration, and object distinction. Some recent results of our research that explore the crucial information hidden inside links will be introduced, including (1) multi-relational classification, (2) user-guided clustering, (3) link-based clustering, and (4) object distinction analysis. The power of links in other analysis tasks will also be discussed in the talk.
Stunning statistics for persuasive speaking

Courses: Advanced Public Speaking, Argumentation TheoryObjectives: This activity aims to enhance students’ ability to make statistics compelling and persuasive.
Coupled Decision Processes Update and Maintain Saccadic Priors in a Dynamic Environment.

Much of what we know about how the brain forms decisions comes from studies of saccadic eye movements. However, saccadic decisions are often studied in isolation, which limits the insights that they can provide about real-world decisions with complex interdependencies. Here, we used a serial reaction time (RT) task to show that prior expectations affect RTs via interdependent, normative decision processes that operate within and across saccades. We found that human subjects performing the task generated saccades that were governed by a rise-to-threshold decision process with a starting point that reflected expected state-dependent transition probabilities. These probabilities depended on decisions about the current state (the correct target) that, under some conditions, required the accumulation of information across saccades. Without additional feedback, this information was provided by each saccadic decision threshold, which represented the total evidence in favor of the chosen target. Therefore, the output of the within-saccade process was used, not only to generate the saccade, but also to provide input to the across-saccade process. This across-saccade process, in turn, helped to set the starting point of the next within-saccade process. These results imply a novel role for functional information-processing loops in optimizing saccade generation in dynamic environments. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Saccades are the rapid, ballistic eye movements that we make approximately three times every second to scan the visual scene for interesting things to look at. The apparent ease with which we produce saccades belies their computational sophistication, which can be studied quantitatively in the laboratory to provide insights into how our brain manages the interplay between sensory input and motor output. The present work is important because we show for the first time how this interplay operates both within and across saccades to ensure that these eye movements are guided effectively by learned expectations in dynamic environments. More generally, this study shows how sensory-motor decision processes, typically studied in isolation, interact via functional information-processing loops in the brain to produce complex, adaptive behaviors.
Work-in-Progress: Utilization Based Schedulability Analysis for Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks

WirelessHART networks provide the feasibility of achieving real-time performance over wireless through multichannel and graph routing for process monitoring and control applications. However, real-time scheduling theory for Wireless Sensor-Actuator Network (WSAN) is still not well-developed. Besides, the performance of a WSAN induces a complicated problem involving many interrelated objectives and variables, requiring a scheduling-control codesign. This work aims at addressing these challenges. Specifically, we will develop a realtime schedulability analysis for WSAN, and leverage this result to address multiple key challenging problems in wireless Cyber-Physical Systems in the future. Schedulability analysis remains the cornerstone in any real-time system. In WSAN, it is used to determine whether a set of real-time control loops/flows can meet deadlines. It is also used in various scheduling-control codesign, routing, and priority assignment. In this work, we will develop an analysis based on utilization bound. Because of its extremely low runtime overhead, utilization based analysis has been extensively studied in CPU scheduling. However, no work has been done yet on utilization based analysis for multi-hop wireless network. The key challenge arises from transmission conflict and dynamics in wireless. We will address this by characterizing transmission conflict as task blocking in nonpreemptive CPU scheduling, and then by adopting a hierarchical network structure where we will apply the analysis in each subnetwork.
Superconductivity in engineered two-dimensional electron gases

We consider Kohn-Luttinger mechanism for superconductivity in a two-dimensional electron gas confined to a narrow well between two grounded metallic planes with two occupied subbands with Fermi momenta ${k}_{FL}g{k}_{FS}$. On the basis of a perturbative analysis, we conclude that non-$s$-wave superconductivity emerges even when the bands are parabolic. We analyze the conditions that maximize ${T}_{c}$ as a function of the distance to the metallic planes, the ratio ${k}_{FL}/{k}_{FS}$, and ${r}_{s}$, which measures the strength of Coulomb correlations. The largest attraction is in $p$-wave and $d$-wave channels, of which $p$ wave is typically the strongest. For ${r}_{s}=O(1)$ we estimate that the dimensionless coupling $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, but it likely continues increasing for larger ${r}_{s}$ (where we lose theoretical control).
Engineering Contactless Particle-Particle Interactions in Active Microswimmers.

Artificial self-propelled colloidal particles have recently served as effective building blocks for investigating many dynamic behaviors exhibited by nonequilibrium systems. However, most studies have relied upon excluded volume interactions between the active particles. Experimental systems in which the mobile entities interact over long distances in a well-defined and controllable manner are valuable so that new modes of multiparticle dynamics can be studied systematically in the laboratory. Here, a system of self-propelled microscale Janus particles is engineered to have contactless particle–particle interactions that lead to long-range attraction, short-range repulsion, and mutual alignment between adjacent swimmers. The unique modes of motion that arise can be tuned by modulating the system's parameters.
Charismatic leadership: Eliciting and channeling follower emotions

Abstract Research on charismatic leadership has been criticized for the ambiguity of its central construct. Attempts to define and measure charisma have frequently treated it as a complex construct consisting of multiple components. However, little work has been done to develop a theoretical model that offers a parsimonious rationale explaining why certain leadership attributes are considered “charismatic” while others are not, or how these attributes combine to produce charismatic effects. Addressing these issues, we present a model that situates emotion as the primary variable in the charismatic process. We use recent research on the moral emotions to frame a theory of followership-relevant emotions (FREs) that describes how leaders use emotions such as compassion, admiration, and anger to compel their followers to act. We then discuss the Elicit-Channel (EC) model of charismatic leadership, positing that the charismatic relationship is a five-step, cyclical process. In the EC model, leaders elicit highly motivating emotions from their followers and then channel those emotions to produce action that, if successful, results in outcomes such as positive affect and trust. These outcomes then enable the leader to continue the cycle, eliciting emotion once more. We conclude by offering a research agenda, addressing potential methodological concerns, and discussing future directions.
Same Story, Different Disease: It Is Time to Change the Storyline for Racial Minorities and Patients of Lower Socioeconomic Status.

See Article by Wayda et al Heart failure disproportionately affects African-Americans and individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES).1,2 African-Americans have 2× to 3× higher prevalence of heart failure than Caucasians before the age of 75.1 African-Americans have more hospitalizations for heart failure1 and receive fewer advanced therapies for heart failure than expected.3 Similarly, individuals of lower SES have a 30% to 50% higher risk of developing heart failure2 and lower likelihood of receiving heart transplant compared with individuals of higher SES.4 Furthermore, as illustrated in this issue of Circulation: Heart Failure in the article by Wayda et al,5 African-Americans and individuals of lower SES have worse outcomes post heart transplant. Using the United Network for Organ Sharing database, Wayda et al5 studied the impact of race and SES on risk of composite death or retransplant after initial heart transplant. SES was measured by patient insurance, education, and neighborhood-level SES index. Results were adjusted for donor and graft characteristics. They found that African-Americans and individuals of lower SES have higher risk of composite death or retransplant after initial …
Osteoarthritis-Like Changes in Bardet-Biedl Syndrome Mutant Ciliopathy Mice (Bbs1M390R/M390R): Evidence for a Role of Primary Cilia in Cartilage Homeostasis and Regulation of Inflammation.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating inflammation related disease characterized by joint pain and effusion, loss of mobility, and deformity that may result in functional joint failure and significant impact on quality of life. Once thought of as a simple "wear and tear" disease, it is now widely recognized that OA has a considerable metabolic component and is related to chronic inflammation. Defects associated with primary cilia have been shown to be cause OA-like changes in Bardet-Biedl mice. We examined the role of dysfunctional primary cilia in OA in mice through the regulation of the previously identified degradative and pro-inflammatory molecular pathways common to OA. We observed an increase in the presence of pro-inflammatory markers TGFβ-1 and HTRA1 as well as cartilage destructive protease MMP-13 but a decrease in DDR-2. We observed a morphological difference in cartilage thickness in Bbs1 M390R/M390R mice compared to wild type (WT). We did not observe any difference in OARSI or Mankin scores between WT and Bbs1M390R/M390R mice. Primary cilia appear to be involved in the upregulation of biomarkers, including pro-inflammatory markers common to OA.
Putting IDDQ Testing To Work

Having seen the benefits of I DDQ testing we start answering the following questions which arise in the context of setting up the I DDQ test environment. ▪ How are I DDQ measurements made? ▪ How is the I DDQ threshold value, separating the good from the faulty circuit, determined? ▪ How many I DDQ measurements should be made? At what speed should I DDQ tests be applied? ▪ How do we create I DDQ test sets? ▪ What considerations for I DDQ testing are required during design?
Psychiatric Comorbidities in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Implications for Management

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently comorbid with a variety of psychiatric disorders. These include oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder (CD), as well as affective, anxiety, and tic disorders. ADHD and ADHD with comorbid CD appear to be distinct subtypes; children with ADHD/CD are at higher risk of antisocial personality and substance abuse as adults. Stimulants are often effective treatments for aggressive or antisocial behavior in patients with ADHD, but mood stabilizers or atypical antipsychotics may be used to treat explosive aggressive outbursts. Response to stimulants is not affected by comorbid anxiety, but children with ADHD/anxiety disorder may show greater benefit from psychosocial interventions than those with ADHD alone. The degree of prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder among children with ADHD is controversial, but a subgroup of severely emotionally labile ADHD children who present serious management issues for the clinician clearly exists. Antidepressants may be used in conjunction with stimulants to treat MDD, while mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics are often required to treat manic symptoms or aggression. After resolution of the manic episode, stimulant treatment of the comorbid ADHD may be safely undertaken. Recent research suggests that stimulants can be safely used in children with comorbid ADHD and tic disorders, but the addition of anti-tic agents to stimulants is often necessary. Clinicians who work with patients with ADHD should be prepared to deal with a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems beyond the core symptoms of inattention and impulsivity/hyperactivity.
TigerAware: An Innovative Mobile Survey and Sensor Data Collection and Analytics System

From health to community assessment, mobile phones have become a cornerstone of data collection across many areas of research. However, mobile phone-based studies are difficult to develop and deploy, often requiring in house development teams and large portions of research budgets. In this paper, an innovative system called TigerAware is presented to address this issue. TigerAware is developed to offer a generic and customizable tool, which allows researchers to create surveys to collect a wide range of data, including but not limited to question responses, on device sensor data, such as GPS data, and external sensor data, such as blood alcohol level from a Bluetooth breathalyzer. TigerAware is highly modular and uses advanced Web and mobile technologies to incorporate diverse data sources with a rich set of survey question types, requiring little development work by researchers for their individualized studies. TigerAware has been applied to a focus group and several pilot studies and shown excellent capabilities to be easily adapted and deployed for new types of data collection and analytics tasks and a wide range of research fields.
Role of mGlu2 in the 5-HT 2A receptor-dependent antipsychotic activity of clozapine in mice

Serotonin 5-HT2A and metabotropic glutamate 2 (mGlu2) are neurotransmitter G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) involved in the signaling mechanisms underlying psychosis and schizophrenia treatment. Previous findings in mGlu2 knockout (KO) mice suggested that mGlu2 is necessary for head-twitch behavior, a rodent phenotype characteristic of hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonists. However, the role of mGlu2 in the behavioral effects induced by antipsychotic drugs remains poorly understood. Here, we tested antipsychotic-like behavioral phenotypes induced by the atypical antipsychotic clozapine in mGlu2-KO mice and wild-type control littermates. Locomotor activity was tested in mGlu2-KO mice and control littermates injected (i.p.) with clozapine (1.5 mg/kg) or vehicle followed by MK801 (0.5 mg/kg), PCP (7.5 mg/kg), amphetamine (6 mg/kg), scopolamine (2 mg/kg), or vehicle. Using a virally (HSV) mediated transgene expression approach, the role of frontal cortex mGlu2 in the modulation of MK801-induced locomotor activity by clozapine treatment was also evaluated. The effect of clozapine on hyperlocomotor activity induced by the dissociative drugs MK801 and phencyclidine (PCP) was decreased in mGlu2-KO mice as compared to controls. Clozapine treatment, however, reduced hyperlocomotor activity induced by the stimulant drug amphetamine and the deliriant drug scopolamine in both wild-type and mGlu2-KO mice. Virally mediated over-expression of mGlu2 in the frontal cortex of mGlu2-KO mice rescued the ability of clozapine to reduce MK801-induced hyperlocomotion. These findings further support the existence of a functionally relevant crosstalk between 5-HT2A and mGlu2 receptors in different preclinical models of antipsychotic activity.
Increased complications in geriatric patients with a fracture of the hip whose postoperative weight-bearing is restricted: an analysis of 4918 patients.

Aims The aims of this study were to evaluate the incidence of postoperatively restricted weight-bearing and its association with outcome in patients who undergo surgery for a fracture of the hip. P...
CHAPTER 8 – Collimator Design for Nuclear Medicine

This chapter focuses on the design and function of collimators, which are an important component of gamma cameras. This survey of the current problems and techniques in collimator design is intended as an introduction for graduate students working in nuclear medicine. The most important ideas in collimator design concern the relationship between the collimator geometry and the resulting imaging properties. Once this relationship is understood, one can devise strategies for the optimal design of collimators. It is noted that in nuclear medicine, collimator performance is characterized by two quantities— sensitivity and resolution. These two quantities are adequate if the collimator has parallel holes, does not permit significant penetration, and has hole separation (HOLSEP) less than the intrinsic resolution of the camera. In general, however, the description of collimator performance requires the detailed measurement of a complicated function called the point source response function (PSRF). Furthermore, new developments in material science and fabrication are revolutionizing the possible geometries available to the collimator designer.
Kerr Solitons with Tantala Ring Resonators

We report Kerr soliton frequency combs, using tantala (Ta2O5) microring resonators. The low loss, high Q, low tensile stress, and high nonlinear refractive index (n2) of tantala enable a new platform for integrated nonlinear nanophotonics.
Reframing Nonprofit Organizations: Democracy, Inclusion, and Social Change

Today’s nonprofit organizations and the people within them face a complex, challenging, and sometimes even hostile environment—in the United States and throughout the world. The retraction of gover...
Preliminary evaluation of dental hygiene curriculum: Assessment and management of peri-implant conditions and diseases.

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate dental hygiene (DH) educational programs' didactic and clinical curriculum in the management of peri-implant diseases and conditions. The specific aims were (1) assess if evidence-based content for peri-implant diseases and conditions are currently included in didactic and clinical DH curriculum and (2) determine if DH education programs are currently preparing students at a level of clinical competency for the assessment and management of peri-implant diseases and conditions. Design A cross-sectional study of DH faculty member(s) from 331 United States entry-level programs responsible for didactic and clinical curriculum for peri-implant diseases and conditions were surveyed. The survey was disseminated electronically via Qualtricsxm August 2019 for a response rate of 26%. Results The results showed didactic courses taught DH students the etiology of peri-mucositis and peri-implantitis (98%), clinical characteristics (98%), and risk factors contributing to these implant diseases (96%). Evaluation methods to determine student level of competency in a didactic setting included quizzes/examinations (98%), case-based examinations (63%), and written essays (6%). Eighty-five percent reported DH students are not required in a clinical setting to provide care for patients with peri-implant diseases and conditions. Conclusions Study results suggest DH education programs may need to revise didactic and clinical curriculum to ensure students graduate at a level of clinical competency for assessing and managing peri-implant conditions and diseases. DH educational programs should consider requiring clinical patient experiences for the assessment and management of peri-mucositis and peri-implantitis to prepare students for their professional role.
Cytotoxicity Assessment of Gallium- and Indium-Based Nanoparticles Toward Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells Using an Impedance-Based Real-Time Cell Analyzer:

The semiconductor manufacturing sector plans to introduce III/V film structures (eg, gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium arsenide (InAs) onto silicon wafers due to their high electron mobility and low power consumption. Aqueous solutions generated during chemical and mechanical planarization of silicon wafers can contain a mixture of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) and soluble indium, gallium, and arsenic. In this work, the cytotoxicity induced by Ga- and In-based NPs (GaAs, InAs, Ga2O3, In2O3) and soluble III-V salts on human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o-) was evaluated using a cell impedance real-time cell analysis (RTCA) system. The RTCA system provided inhibition data at different concentrations for multiple time points, for example, GaAs (25 mg/L) caused 60% inhibition after 8 hours of exposure and 100% growth inhibition after 24 hours. Direct testing of As(III) and As(V) demonstrated significant cytotoxicity with 50% growth inhibition concentrations after 16-hour exposure (IC50) of 2.4 and 4.5 mg/L, respectively. Cell signaling with rapid rise and decrease in signal was unique to arsenic cytotoxicity, a precursor of strong cytotoxicity over the longer term. In contrast with arsenic, soluble gallium(III) and indium(III) were less toxic. Whereas the oxide NPs caused low cytotoxicity, the arsenide compounds were highly inhibitory (IC50 of GaAs and InAs = 6.2 and 68 mg/L, respectively). Dissolution experiments over 7 days revealed that arsenic was fully leached from GaAs NPs, whereas only 10% of the arsenic was leached out of InAs NPs. These results indicate that the cytotoxicity of GaAs and InAs NPs is largely due to the dissolution of toxic arsenic species.
Power Estimation for Sequential Circuits

The power estimation methods described in the previous chapters apply to combinational logic blocks. In this chapter we describe techniques that target issues particular to sequential circuits.
The Argument for Global Tobacco Control

The prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCD) have been largely neglected, although these conditions have become the primary cause of global mortality. In fact, NCDs accounted for approximately 63% of worldwide deaths in 2008.2 Currently, NCD mortality exceeds the cumulative mortality attributed to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional disorders in every region but Africa.3 A leading risk factor for NCDs is tobacco usage. Tobacco consumption causes five to six million deaths annually.3 Approximately 71% of lung cancer deaths, 42% of chronic respiratory disease cases and 10% of cardiovascular disease cases are attributed to smoking.3 Projections of current trends predict that by 2030, this number will reach nearly 10 million and up to 70% of smoking-related deaths will occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).4 By 2050, smoking will have caused an estimated total of 450 million deaths.4 Although these statistics are certainly alarming, they have not garnered adequate attention from international donors. In fact, in 2007, only 3% of all development assistance for health targeted NCDs.5
A graph-based machine learning approach to predicting digital lifecycle campaign engagement

Digital campaigns can be launched using a variety of channels, prominently display banner, social media, search, email and SMS. Quite a bit of research has been taken up to optimize such individual channel's performance. Due to integrated marketing needs to serve and nurture the customer over a lifetime, such campaigns are increasingly stringed together into a digital life cycle campaign (DLC) using graph structured representation, also called as marketing campaign orchestrations (MCO). Such DLC campaigns are quite complex and long in duration, including a variety of channels intermixed on multiple platforms. We suggest a novel way to measure engagement rates of such DLCs when prior historical campaign data is available for a well-defined marketing campaign orchestration. We additionally develop a way to predict performance of a new or modified DLC leveraging machine learning and graph techniques given historical DLC performances. We show that such predictions are more accurate in common scenarios when enterprises develop diverse DLCs.
Spatiotemporal regulation of JAZ4 expression and splicing contribute to ethylene- and auxin-mediated responses in Arabidopsis roots.

Jasmonic acid (JA) signaling controls several processes related to plant growth, development, and defense, which are modulated by the transcription regulator and receptor JASMONATE-ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins. We recently discovered that a member of the JAZ family, JAZ4 has a prominent function in canonical JA signaling as well as other mechanisms. Here, we discovered the existence of two naturally occurring splice variants (SVs) of JAZ4 in planta, JAZ4.1 and JAZ4.2, and employed biochemical and pharmacological approaches to determine protein stability and repression capability of these SVs within JA signaling. We then utilized quantitative and qualitative transcriptional studies to determine spatiotemporal expression and splicing patterns in vivo, which revealed developmental-, tissue-, and organ-specific regulation. Detailed phenotypic and expression analyses suggest a role of JAZ4 in ethylene (ET) and auxin signaling pathways differentially within the zones of root development in seedlings. These results support a model in which JAZ4 functions as a negative regulator of ET signaling and auxin signaling in root tissues above the apex. However, in the root apex JAZ4 functions as a positive regulator of auxin signaling possibly independently of ET. Collectively, our data provides insight into the complexity of spatiotemporal regulation of JAZ4 and how this impacts hormone signaling specificity and diversity in Arabidopsis roots.
A Bibliography of Articles on Technology in Science Education

When leaders from a variety of content-specific education organizations met at the National Technology Leadership Retreat 2001 to discuss technology’s role in education, they were asked why more teacher educators were not integrating educational technology in their instruction (see Bell, 2001, for the full list of participants, as well as other issues discussed). One of the common issues cited by representatives—including those from the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science—was the perceived inadequacy of the literature supporting technology in education. A limited body of knowledge exists that examines technology’s benefits to student learning, and many teacher educators are unfamiliar with the literature that has been published. Much of the literature discussing technology use in teacher preparation is based on anecdotal evidence. (Bell, 2001 ) We left the conference curious about whether that perception was accurate specifically in the field of science education. Over the past year we have conducted an extensive search of the education literature to identify articles dealing with the topic of technology in science education. The result of this effort is a bibliography of published articles and book chapters related to applications of technology in K-12 science teaching or in science teacher preparation.
Electronic transitions in chromium (III) complexes—II. Emission spectra and π-delocalization parameters

Abstract The energies of the 2 E → 4 A 2 transition in a number of chromium (III) complexes have been determined from the luminescence spectra. When ligands with extensive π-electron systems are employed a marked diminution of the transition energy is observed.
Energy-absorption capability of composite tubes and beams

In this study the objective was to develop a method of predicting the energy-absorption capability of composite subfloor beam structures. Before it is possible to develop such an analysis capability, an in-depth understanding of the crushing process of composite materials must be achieved. Many variables affect the crushing process of composite structures, such as the constituent materials' mechanical properties, specimen geometry, and crushing speed. A comprehensive experimental evaluation of tube specimens was conducted to develop insight into how composite structural elements crush and what are the controlling mechanisms. In this study the four characteristic crushing modes, transverse shearing, brittle fracturing, lamina bending, and local buckling were identified and the mechanisms that control the crushing process defined. An in-depth understanding was developed of how material properties affect energy-absorption capability. For example, an increase in fiber and matrix stiffness and failure strain can, depending upon the configuration of the tube, increase energy-absorption capability. An analysis to predict the energy-absorption capability of composite tube specimens was developed and verified. Good agreement between experiment and prediction was obtained.
Analysis of Lidar Remote Sensing Concepts

An orbiting coherent Doppler lidar for measuring winds is required to provide two basic pieces of data to the user community. The first is the line of sight wind velocity and the second is knowledge of the position at which the measurement was made. In order to obtain this data for targets of interest to the atmospheric community the instrument must also have a level of backscatter sensitivity sufficient to achieve the goal. Sensitivity analyses for the line of sight velocity and position requirements for two lidar instruments, one with a nadir angle of 30 deg. in a 300 km altitude, 58 deg. inclination orbit and the second for a 45 deg. nadir angle instrument in a 833 km altitude , 89 deg. inclination orbit are performed. The issues relating to the backscatter sensitivity of a coherent lidar have been well documented previously and are not discussed here other than to identify a space-specific issue that does not typically need to be considered for ground and aircraft based coherent lidars. Section 2 and appendices A1 and A2 document these sensitivity analyses. This contract was intended to develop requirements for a space shuttle (STS) based coherent lidar however, shortly after the award of this contract NASA MSFC won the SPARCLE program to put a coherent Doppler lidar on STS. Consequently much of the work conducted under this contract has been documented within the development of the SPARCLE project documentation. The relevant portions of the SPARCLE documentation are identified in section 3.0 and included in appendices A3 and A4. Section 4.0 briefly outlines miscellaneous other activities that occurred under this contract.
Limiting Behavior of Some Spatial Particle Systems

Particles (representing customers, or species) arrive to a general space according to a Poisson process and are removed randomly upon future arrivals based on randomly assigned attributes. These systems are similar to the Matern II generalizations in Teichmann et al. [12], but evolve temporally as Markov processes on spaces of marked point processes. We analyze their limiting behavior by viewing them as transformations of marked point processes and obtain expressions for their mean measure and Laplace functional. Such models are popular with applications to include spatial service systems, species competitions, and wireless networks.
Cereal protein and carbohydrate digestibility as affected by extrusion

Abstract Six whole-grain cereals were examined to determine extrusion processing effects on in-vitro protein and carbohydrate digestibility. Eight extrusion conditions were applied and effects of cereal variety, extrusion temperature, rpm and feed moisture on in-vitro protein digestibility were studied. Protein digestive acceptibility of unprocessed and extruded cereals was determined using an in-vitro method of enzymatic hydrolysis. The most protein-digestible products were produced at extrusion combination: 15% feed moisture, 100°C/150°C product temperature and 100 rpm. This effect was significant when considered across all cereals. Results of this study suggest that a particular combination of extrusion process conditions may be applied when extruding a wide variety of cereals, with the benefit of improving protein digestibility. To determine carbohydrate digestibility, samples were incubated with human saliva, and products of digestion were quantified spectrophotometrically. Extrusion product temperatures of 100/150°C had the greatest influence on improving in-vitro carbohydrate digestibility for all cereals studied, as did 25% feed moisture and 100 rpm screw speed. Improving carbohydrate digestibility during extrusion processing appears to depend very strongly upon cereal type. Further studies are needed to assess optimal processing conditions for improved carbohydrate digestibility of particular cereal grains.
Risk Aggregation: Issues and Perspectives

Estimating a single risk capital metric that summarizes all risks and explains the risk profile of a financial conglomerate is a critical process of risk management. Particularly in this context, banks find drawing a conclusive roadmap an arduous exercise as there is no standard regulatory guidance, the way it exists for calculation of regulatory capital and it is a difficult exercise to benchmark with peers due to disparities in existing or planned risk profile. For instance while an overwhelming majority of banks cite integrated stochastic scenarios as primary method for risk aggregation within each risk type, this approach has limited appeal when integrating risk across an enterprise. Another source of complexity arises due to mapping of risk with different products/business units originating risk. There are products and business units in which the risks are primarily concentrated in a single risk category. And sometimes there are situations where multiple risk categories are present at product and business unit levels. The challenge is to combine risk across all of the products and business units in an organization. Therefore, decision making in the area of risk aggregation presents the CRO (Chief Risk Officer) with other host of issues and challenges. This paper is aimed at identifying most of such issues, explain their cause and suggest options that banks can make use for implementing an effective risk aggregation strategy. For purpose of this discourse, at a high level, we classify the issues into two main categories viz. Qualitative and Quantitative. Issues on the Qualitative (non-modeling) side are linked to understanding of risk characteristics and the resultant risk policy related decision making. Issues that are addressed in this paper are - risk measures and coherence, different notions of capital, the level and direction of risk aggregation - across risk types or business units or all-in-one matrix, calculation of diversification benefits at each level right up to the group level, allocation of diversification benefits to business units, choice of measure for risk aggregation and capital allocation, and harmonization of time and confidence interval in aggregating risk at a group level.Quantitative issues (modeling related) are about exercising the choice of an appropriate risk aggregation technique available from a standard toolkit that resolves issues like dependence modeling and provides solution using any of the standard approach viz. variance-covariance approach, multifactor approach, copula simulation, etc.
Saving lives: toothbrushes trump seat belts.

Yes, you read the title correctly. As important as seat belts are as a preventive measure, toothbrushes have a far greater impact on the health and longevity of the American public. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts save about 13,000 lives a year, nationwide. That is no small number: more than 1,000 Americans each month owe their lives to the 5 seconds it took them to “buckle up.” NHTSA points out that seatbelts reduce a person’s chances of dying in a crash by 45% and being injured by 50%. However, seat belts probably will not play a role in saving your life, because chances are you will not be in a serious car crash; most Americans never are. On the other hand, most Americans have gum disease. Estimates are that up to 80% of American adults suffer either from gingivitis or periodontal disease.1 You have probably told your patients that the most common cause of tooth loss among adults is periodontal disease. What you probably haven’t told them is that tooth loss is one of the least important consequences of periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is a significant risk factor for heart attack, stroke, low-birthweight infants, and some forms of cancer. While very few of your patients will die from a car crash, many of them will die from a heart attack or cancer. And, believe it or not, using a toothbrush and eliminating periodontal disease reduces the chances of dying from either of these causes. Language: en
CCR7/CCL19 Controls Expression of EDG-1 in T Cells

T lymphocytes circulate between the blood, tissues, and lymph. These T cells carry out immune functions, using the C-C chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) and its cognate ligands, CCL19 and CCL21, to enter and travel through the lymph nodes. Distinct roles for each ligand in regulating T lymphocyte trafficking have remained elusive. We report that in the human T cell line HuT78 and in primary murine T lymphocytes, signaling from CCR7/CCL19 leads to increased expression and phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) within eight hours of stimulation. Within 48–72 h we observed peak levels of endothelial differentiation gene 1 (EDG-1), which mediates the egress of T lymphocytes from lymph nodes. The increased expression of EDG-1 was preceded by up-regulation of its transcription factor, Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF-2). To determine the cellular effect of disrupting ERK5 signaling from CCR7, we examined the migration of ERK5flox/flox/Lck-Cre murine T cells to EDG-1 ligands. While CCL19-stimulated ERK5flox/flox naive T cells showed increased migration to EDG-1 ligands at 48 h, the migration of ERK5flox/flox/Lck-Cre T cells remained at a basal level. Accordingly, we define a novel signaling pathway that controls EDG-1 up-regulation following stimulation of T cells by CCR7/CCL19. This is the first report to link the two signaling events that control migration through the lymph nodes: CCR7 mediates entry into the lymph nodes and EDG-1 signaling controls their subsequent exit.
Determination of human NAT2 acetylator genotype by restriction fragment-length polymorphism and allele-specific amplification.

Abstract The human N-acetylation polymorphism, encoded by the NAT2 gene locus, has been associated with higher incidence and/or severity to the adverse effects of therapeutic drugs, and to the carcinogenic actions of environmental and occupational chemicals. In this paper, we describe an efficient method of restriction fragment-length polymorphism and allele-specific amplification analysis which distinguishes between each of the 15 ( NAT2*4, *5A, *5B, *5C, *6A, *6B, *7A, *7B, *12A, *12B, *13, *14A, *14B, *17, *18 ) NAT2 alleles that have been identified in human populations. The method should have broad applicability to improvement of drug therapy and to molecular epidemiology investigations of genetic predisposition to cancer and other diseases.
High-Energy Scattering Amplitude in Perturbation Theory

The consequences of keeping terms in addition to the leading terms in each order of perturbation theory are investigated. The model is the $g{\ensuremath{\phi}}^{3}$ theory and the method is that of Bjorken and Wu. When the second-most dominant terms in each order of ladder graphs are summed, a second-order pole in the angular momentum plane is obtained and the contribution to the amplitude dominates the sum of leading terms at high energy. When the class of terms to be summed is further enlarged in a well-defined way, the simple Regge behavior is restored. The divergence at threshold in the trajectory function obtained by summing the leading terms is not present in the final result. The question of the high-energy behavior of the complete sum of the ladder graphs is still unsettled.