cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Controlling Cell Position in Complex Heterotypic 3D Microtissues by Tissue Fusion

Tissue fusion and cell sorting are processes fundamental to developmental biology with applications in tissue engineering. We have designed a fusion assay to investigate the factors governing the fusion of microtissues and the cell sorting that occurs after fusion. Normal human fibroblast (NHF) spheroids were self-assembled and cultured for 1, 4, or 7 days, then combined in trough shaped recesses. Over a 24-h period the spheroids fused to become a rod shaped microtissue and the kinetics and extent of fusion could be quantified by assessing rod contraction. By varying the amount of spheroid culture time prior to fusion (1–7 days), the rate of fusion, the coherence of the building units (as measured by fusion angle) and the steady state length of the structure could be easily controlled. Longer pre-culture times for the spheroids resulted in slower fusion, less coherence and increased length of rod microtissues. The fusion kinetics and steady length of rods formed by smaller versus larger spheroids (∼100 vs. 300 µm diameter) were indistinguishable, even though smaller spheroids had twice the surface area and greater numbers of contacts between units. Both small and large spheroids were strongly influenced by spheroid pre-culture time. Pre-culture time could also be used to control cell sorting and cell position when combinations of NHFs and H35s, a rat hepatocyte cell line, were fused to form heterotypic microtissues. Control of fusion and cell position are important parameters for creating functional heterotypic microtissues as well as the use of microtissues as building units to create larger tissue structures. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 1231–1241. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The ATPases of cohesin interface with regulators to modulate cohesin-mediated DNA tethering

Cohesin tethers together regions of DNA, thereby mediating higher order chromatin organization that is critical for sister chromatid cohesion, DNA repair and transcriptional regulation. Cohesin contains a heterodimeric ATP-binding Cassette (ABC) ATPase comprised of Smc1 and Smc3 ATPase active sites. These ATPases are required for cohesin to bind DNA. Cohesin's DNA binding activity is also promoted by the Eco1 acetyltransferase and inhibited by Wpl1. Recently we showed that after cohesin stably binds DNA, a second step is required for DNA tethering. This second step is also controlled by Eco1 acetylation. Here, we use genetic and biochemical analyses to show that this second DNA tethering step is regulated by cohesin ATPase. Furthermore, our results also suggest that Eco1 promotes cohesion by modulating the ATPase cycle of DNA-bound cohesin in a state that is permissive for DNA tethering and refractory to Wpl1 inhibition.
XML Query Optimization in Map-Reduce

We present a novel query language for large-scale analysis of XML data on a map-reduce environment, called MRQL, that is expressive enough to capture most common data analysis tasks and at the same time is amenable to optimization. Our evaluation plans are constructed using a small number of higher-order physical operators that are directly implementable on existing map-reduce systems, such as Hadoop. We report on a prototype system implementation and we show some preliminary results on evaluating MRQL queries on a small cluster of PCs running Hadoop.
A Climatology of Southern Appalachian Cold-Air Damming*

AbstractA 30-yr climatology (1981–2010) of cold-air damming (CAD) events in the southern Appalachians was conducted using hourly surface observations and North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data. Analysis of the spatial distribution and frequency of these events reveals that some part of the Southeast is affected by CAD on 50 days out of each year, and even the northern Florida panhandle and much of Alabama experience CAD conditions on about 30 days annually. Spatially, different CAD types tend to exhibit one of two patterns in the southernmost extent of the cold-air dome: a more southerly dome with a ridge axis oriented from north-northeast to south-southwest or a more westerly dome with a ridge axis in a northeast to west-southwest orientation. These patterns may be the result of both splitting around the region of higher terrain in east-central Alabama and Coriolis forcing in stronger CAD types with higher wind speeds. Analysis of the frequency of CAD by type on a month-by-month and year-by-year ...
AACR precision medicine series: Highlights of the integrating clinical genomics and cancer therapy meeting

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Precision Medicine Series "Integrating Clinical Genomics and Cancer Therapy" took place June 13-16, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference was co-chaired by Charles L. Sawyers form Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Elaine R. Mardis form Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Arul M. Chinnaiyan from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. About 500 clinicians, basic science investigators, bioinformaticians, and postdoctoral fellows joined together to discuss the current state of Clinical Genomics and the advances and challenges of integrating Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies into clinical practice. The plenary sessions and panel discussions covered current platforms and sequencing approaches adopted for NGS assays of cancer genome at several national and international institutions, different approaches used to map and classify targetable sequence variants, and how information acquired with the sequencing of the cancer genome is used to guide treatment options. While challenges still exist from a technological perspective, it emerged that there exists considerable need for the development of tools to aid the identification of the therapy most suitable based on the mutational profile of the somatic cancer genome. The process to match patients to ongoing clinical trials is still complex. In addition, the need for centralized data repositories, preferably linked to well annotated clinical records, that aid sharing of sequencing information is central to begin understanding the contribution of variants of unknown significance to tumor etiology and response to therapy. Here we summarize the highlights of this stimulating four-day conference with a major emphasis on the open problems that the clinical genomics community is currently facing and the tools most needed for advancing this field.
Telecommuting and flexible work hours: Alternative work arrangements that can improve the quality of work life.

In this chapter, we examine work → nonwork conflict, its causes, and its consequences. We also address in detail two alternative work arrangements (i.e., telecommuting and flextime) that can reduce the incidence of work → nonwork conflict. Our coverage of telecommuting and flextime makes apparent that these arrangements are not quick fixes. Rather, there are several contingency factors (e.g., supervisor support) that need to be considered by an employer given they influence the likely success of these nontraditional work arrangements. If implemented effectively (e.g., participation is voluntary, employees have a voice in program design), telecommuting and flextime can help an employee balance the sometimes competing demands of their work and nonwork lives. Facilitating such a balance not only has tangible benefits for employers (e.g., lower turnover), it is the ethical thing for employers to do.
Basin boundaries and bifurcations near convective instabilities: a case study

Abstract Using a scalar advection–reaction–diffusion equation with a cubic nonlinearity as a simple model problem, we investigate the effect of domain size on stability and bifurcations of steady states. We focus on two parameter regimes, namely, the regions where the steady state is convectively or absolutely unstable. In the convective–instability regime, the trivial stationary solution is asymptotically stable on any bounded domain but unstable on the real line. To measure the degree to which the trivial solution is stable, we estimate the distance of the trivial solution to the boundary of its basin of attraction: We show that this distance is exponentially small in the diameter of the domain for subcritical nonlinearities, while it is bounded away from zero uniformly in the domain size for supercritical nonlinearities. Lastly, at the onset of the absolute instability where the trivial steady state destabilizes on large bounded domains, we discuss bifurcations and amplitude scalings.
Epidermal Kinetics and Skin Condition: I. Stripping Technique for Quantitating Stratum Corneum Turnover in Hairless Mouse Skin

AbstractThe turnover kinetics of hairless mouse epidermis were explored. 3H-labeled lysine was incorporated into epidermal proteins by injecting it systemically through the tail vein. Radioactivity in the outermost layer of stratum corneum was initially documented by stripping the skin daily with cellophane tape and assaying the tissue adhering to the tape. A broad band of radioactivity was detected between 4 and 7 days, indicating that lysine labels proteins throughout the forming epidermis. To ensure that stripping did not accentuate turnover, stripping was also performed every third day per mouse on rotation through three groups of radiotagged mice. Although there was more variability in the data gathered this way, the curves for daily stripping and every third day stripping actually superimposed. [3H]Glycine was introduced as the marker. This amino acid evidenced a single radioactive peak coinciding in time with the first lysine peak. The mass of stripped cells on each tape was quantified using a sens...
Separation of Powers and the Inherent Powers of the Judiciary Under the Tennessee Constitution

This article discusses the concept of inherent judicial power in Tennessee, in light of the principles governing the separation of powers under the Tennessee Constitution. It examines inherent tensions between Article 2, Sections 1 and 2 and Article 6, all of which contemplate that each branch of government must be free to function effectively, and it explores the question of judicial incursion into the legislative domain.
Walking with Strangers

How can a teenage girl in Brooklyn get to and from school and what does her community owe to her on her route? My larger project is a study and normative critique of gendered citizenly interaction in public spaces throughout society with special attention to the unique character and concerns of same-race sexual harassment in racially segregated areas of concentrated poverty in both the United States and South Africa. How must women interact with men whom others fear without reason? My goal is to develop normative rules regarding intraracial interaction that are sensitive to both issues of sexual harassment for women, and patterns of dehumanization for black men. What is the effect of these interactions on group unity and intragroup trust? In this paper I consider free speech and hate speech law, Catherine Mackinnon’s work on difference and dominance, Hawley Fogg-Davis’s work on harassment as sexual terrorism and Cathy Cohen’s work on the boundaries of blackness.
A Device for Cleaning Sound-Track during Projection * -->

Film will collect dirt, dust, and lint in a number of ways. Excess oiling of mechanisms makes the film oily and causes dirt, dust, and lint to adhere more easily. Dirt, dust, and lint flying in the air in the projection room from fans, sweepings, etc., get on the film during rewinding and projection. Static electricity generated by friction during the process of rewinding and projection causes dust and lint to adhere to the sound-track. Dirt, dust, and lint collect in the valves of both upper and lower magazines and in turn is deposited upon the film. The shaking of film reels during transportation in shipping cases lined with cardboard or other soft material causes the lining material to chip off and grind up and lodge upon the film.
Mycelial growth and oxalate production by five strains of Cryphonectria parasitica in selected liquid culture media.

In vitro mycelial growth and oxalate production by five isogenic strains of Cryphonectria parasitica were examined. One dsRNA-free strain and four containing either Michigan or Italian cytoplasmic, dsRNA hypovirulence (reduced virulence) agents, were incubated, without agitation, for 10 days at 25 C in 25 ml of defined liquid media containing either glucose, fructose, calcium polypectate or glucose + glyoxylic acid as carbon sources and either asparagine, arginine or methionine as nitrogen sources. Strains containing Italian hypovirulence agents often produced the most mycelium in these media. Media containing arginine or asparagine generally supported comparable amounts of myelium but growth was reduced in media containing methionine. Greatest oxalate production by all strains occurred in the asparagine medium containing calcium polypectate, and decreased progressively when glucose + glyoxylic acid, glucose and fructose were used respectively as carbon sources. The least oxalate accumulated in media containing methionine as the nitrogen source with intermediate levels in media containing arginine. The greatest oxalate accumulated in these media when the pH of the culture filtrates was 5.0 or above. Oxalate production in all media was independent of cytoplasmic agents for hypo? virulence and was not associated with the amount of mycelium produced.
Radiation and radical chemistry of NO3(-), HNO3, and dialkylphosphoric acids in room-temperature ionic liquids.

Hydrophobic room-temperature ionic liquids (ILs) are considered as possible replacements for molecular diluents for nuclear separations, as well as the basis of new separations processes. Such applications may put the solvents both in high radiation fields and in contact with aqueous raffinate containing 1–6 M HNO3. In this study, we address the effect of the extracted nitrate and nitric acid on the radiation chemistry of hydrophobic ILs composed of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations (and closely related systems). We demonstrate that the nitrate anion competes with the solvent cation as an electron scavenger, with most of the primary radical species converted to NO3•2– and NO2• that initiate a complex sequence of radical reactions. In hydrophobic ILs equilibrated with 3 M HNO3, nearly all electrons released by the ionizing radiation are converted to NO2•. While the reductive pathway is strongly affected by the nitrate and there is also some N–O bond scission via direct excitation, the extent of interfere...
Mg-Doped CuFeO2 Photocathodes for Photoelectrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

Mg-doped CuFeO2 delafossite is reported to be photoelectrochemically active for CO2 reduction. The material was prepared via conventional solid-state methods, and subsequently assembled into an electrode as a pressed pellet. Addition of a Mg2+ dopant is found to substantially improve the conductivity of the material, with 0.05% Mg-doped CuFeO2 electrodes displaying photocathodic currents under visible irradiation. Photocurrent is found to onset at irradiation wavelengths of ∼800 nm with the incident photon-to-current efficiency reaching a value of 14% at 340 nm using an applied electrode potential of −0.4 V vs SCE. Photoelectrodes were determined to have a −1.1 V vs SCE conduction band edge and were found capable of the reduction of CO2 to formate at 400 mV of underpotential. The conversion efficiency is maximized at −0.9 V vs SCE, with H2 production contributing as a considerable side reaction. These results highlight the potential to produce Mg-doped p-type metal oxide photocathodes with a band structur...
Effect of atomized inhalation of ventolin combined with pulmicort in treatment of acute paroxysmal asthma

Objective To explore the efficacy and safety of high-frequency flow atomized inhalation of ventolin combined with pulmicort in the treatment of acute paroxysmal asthma.Methods One hundread fifty patients with bronchial asthma were randomly divided into three groups. Treatment group: 50 cases were dealt with high-frequency flow atomized inhalation of ventolin combined with pulmicort, ventolin group: 50 cases with high-frequency flow atomized inhalation of ventolin, comparison group: 50 cases with inhalation of ventolin aerosol and becotine aerosol. Integrative treatment measures were performed and symptom, disappear days of sign, clinical efficacy and side effect were observed in all three groups.Results The total response rate was 96% and 70% for the treatment group and the comparison group respectively (P0.01). There were no significant difference between the ventolin group (86%) and the comparison group in the overall cure rate. The incidence of side effect in the treatment group was lower than that in the ventolin group.Conclusion Efficacy of high-frequency flow atomized inhalation of ventolin combined with pulmicort is better than inhalation of ventolin aerosol and becotine aerosol in the treatment of caute paroxysmal asthma. Conmpared with atomized inhalation of ventolin alone, efficacy of inhalation of ventolin combined with pulmicort is better and its side effect is much less.
THE PUBLICNESS OF PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION

The author highlights the public control of private institutions and the private utilization of public resources in this paper. Private higher education institutions get rapid growth by getting revenue through student financial aid of government. Replication of business model and governmental financial aid system are two key factors to the striking growth of for-profit universities recently. However, problem as quality is out of control when for-profit sector develops. New policy seems to be beneficial to for-profit sector to gain more public resources.
Distraction Osteogenesis: Applications for Mandibular Regrowth

One experimental surgical technique of bone replacement demonstrates the greatest potential for clinical applicability in the near future: the regrowth of bone by distraction (stretching). Distraction osteogenesis defines the technique of growing new bone by stretching existing bones. Although this technique does not represent the ultimate method of mandibular reconstruction, it shows sufficient promise that its eventual use for specific types of mandibular defects probably will occur in the near future.
The Contributions of the Ribosome Biogenesis Protein Utp5/WDR43 to Craniofacial Development

Fairly recently, it was recognized that human ribosomopathies-developmental defects caused by mutations in ribosome biogenesis proteins-can exhibit tissue-specific defects rather than the expected global defects. This apparent anomaly-that seemingly ubiquitously expressed and required ribosomal proteins can have distinct functions in cell and tissue differentiation-has spurred new areas of research focused on better understanding translational mechanisms, biogenesis, and function in diverse cell types. This renewed appreciation for, and need to better understand, roles for ribosomal proteins in human development and disease has identified surprising similarities and differences in a variety of human ribosomopathies. Here, we discuss ribosomal protein functions in health and disease, focusing on the ribosome biogenesis protein Utp5/WDR43. New and exciting research in this field is anticipated to provide insight into a variety of previously understudied craniofacial dysostoses and result in significantly improved knowledge and understanding of roles for translational machinery in human craniofacial development and disease.
Epispadias and Incontinence: The Challenge of the Small Bladder

AbstractThe 12-year experience at our hospital with epispadias and incontinence is reviewed and attention is focused on the approach to patients with a small bladder capacity. Of 29 children 20 had incontinence associated with the epispadias (13 boys and 7 girls). A total of 15 patients underwent definitive management of the incontinence with a Young-Dees bladder neck reconstruction with or without ureteral reimplantation and they are evaluable. Nine patients (6 boys and 3 girls) had a bladder capacity that was believed to be inadequate for satisfactory bladder neck reconstruction (less than 60ml.).To date, 7 of these children have undergone staged reconstruction with urethroplasty for epispadias as the initial operation. Bladder capacity increased 95ml. on the average (range 60 to 140ml.) after the urethroplasty. No child had hydronephrosis before or after bladder neck reconstruction. Review of the results of bladder neck reconstruction in all patients with a mean followup of 2.9 years (range 7 months to...
Informing Red Power and Transforming the Second Wave: Native American women and the struggle against coerced sterilization in the 1970s

ABSTRACTIt is argued that despite formidable foes—including powerful feminist organizations and Native American rights groups—Indigenous women's activism had an important influence on the larger movement for the termination of sterilization abuse in 1970s USA. Their work highlighted coerced sterilization as a most agonizing example of compromised tribal sovereignty—and demanded that political leaders address it. The article describes the tangible achievements of these women in effecting federal regulations as well as their influence on mainstream American feminist ideology and Indian Country's interpretation of women's rights as sovereign ones.
Plasma Transport Processes

Plasma transport can act as an apparent local source or sink in a planetary ionosphere. Transport processes occur as the result of pressure gradients and gravity (plasma diffusion), the action of an electric field (plasma drift) or as the result of frictional forces (plasma wind).
Graph-Based Security-Aware Design

In this chapter, two general security-aware design problems are introduced. The first one considers multiple communication paths in a system, and the second one considers network partitioning in a system. Both problems can be realized by graphs.
Heavy Menstrual Bleeding in Adolescents

Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is a very common gynecological condition in female adolescents and a frequent presenting complaint of those with bleeding disorders. Recommendations have been established to screen for bleeding disorders in this age group where appropriate. The purpose of this document is to impart clinical recommendations regarding HMB in adolescents. Specifically, in this article we provide a description of the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic approach, and treatment of HMB in adolescents.
Frequency channel-dependent selectivity for temporal call characteristics in gray treefrogs, Hyla versicolor.

ABSTRACT Sensory receptors transmit information on multiple stimulus dimensions. Much remains to be understood about how the processing of different signal characteristics is partitioned and integrated in different areas of the nervous system. Amphibian hearing involves two morphologically distinct inner-ear organs that process different components of the frequency spectrum. Many anuran signals contain two frequency peaks, each one matching the sensitivity of one of these two organs. We hypothesized that the processing of temporal characteristics of acoustic signals would differ in these two frequency channels, perhaps because of differences in the response properties of the two inner-ear organs. We tested this hypothesis in the gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor ; male advertisement calls of this species contain a bimodal frequency spectrum. We generated synthetic male advertisement calls in which we independently manipulated the pattern of amplitude modulation in the low-frequency peak or the high-frequency peak and measured the attractiveness of these stimuli to females in single-speaker and two-speaker phonotaxis tests. We obtained multiple lines of evidence that females were more selective for fine-temporal characteristics in the high-frequency peak. We discuss the potential implications of frequency channel-dependent temporal processing for signal evolution and suggest that additional neurophysiological investigations of the anuran auditory periphery will give important insights into how the nervous system partitions the encoding of multiple characteristics of complex signals.
A working paradigm for the treatment of obesity in gastrointestinal practice

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, multi-factorial disease characterized by abnormal or excessive adipose tissue accumulation that may impair health and increase disease risks. Despite the ever-increasing prevalence and economic and societal burden, the current approaches to treat obesity are not standardized or generally effective. In this manuscript, we describe a current working paradigm developed by a consensus approach for the multidisciplinary treatment of obesity in the GI practice. Obesity should be managed as a continuum of care focusing on weight loss, weight loss maintenance and prevention of weight regain. This approach needs to be disseminated throughout the health care system, coordinated by a multidisciplinary team and include gastroenterologists who are in a unique position to address obesity. Gastroenterologists are in the front line of managing the morbidity resulting from obesity, and have expertise in use of the essential tools to manage obesity: nutrition, pharmacology, endoscopy and surgery.
Responses to Positive Affect in Daily Life: Positive Rumination and Dampening Moderate the Association Between Daily Events and Depressive Symptoms

Depressive rumination has been strongly linked to the development and maintenance of depression; however, less attention has been paid to ruminative processes in response to positive affect, and fewer have examined these processes in daily life. The current study sought to address these gaps by exploring depressive rumination and two forms of responses to positive affect, dampening and positive rumination, under ecologically valid conditions using daily diary methodology. One hundred fifty-seven young adults completed 14-day end-of-day diaries assessing positive affect and depressive symptoms in relation to depressive rumination, responses to positive affect, and daily positive and negative events. Daily depressive rumination predicted stronger associations between negative events and daily depressive symptoms. Higher daily dampening was associated with higher daily depressive symptoms and decreased positive affect and predicted lower associations between daily positive events and improvements in mood (including reduced daily positive affect and increased daily depressive symptoms). Higher daily positive rumination was negatively associated with daily depressive symptoms and interacted with daily positive events such that positive rumination had a greater impact on depressed mood on days when positive experiences were low. Results indicate that both depressive rumination and responses to positive affect play a role in influencing daily mood and depressive symptoms.
From I Love Lucy in Connecticut to Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane: Suburban TV Shows, 1950-2007

ABSTRACTThe majority of Americans now live in suburbs, and a number of scholars have highlighted how various pop culture objects, from novels to television shows, have either reflected or encouraged suburban life. An analysis of the top 30 Nielsen-rated television shows from 1950 to 2007, a period of both rapid suburbanization and television growth, reveals that suburban TV shows did not dominate popular television. There is slightly more evidence for reflection theory with more sets of seasons with higher numbers of suburban-set shows following decades of rapid suburban growth. Additionally, the number of suburban-set shows was also influenced by the popularity of the genres of sitcoms and dramas. These findings suggest a need for further research into why relatively few popular shows were set in suburbs compared to big cities and how viewing settings on television directly influences suburban aspirations and behavior.
Influence of kaonic resonances on the CP violation in B → K∗γ like processes☆

Abstract We consider CP violating effects in decays of the type B → k i γ → Kπγ, K ∗ πγ and Kϱγ , where ki represents a strange meson resonance. We include in our calculations five of the low-lying resonances with quantum numbers (JP) 1−, 1+ and 2+. At the quark level these decays are driven by the penguin graph as well as tree graphs. CP violation arises in the Standard Model due to the difference in the CKM phase between these graphs. We model the final state interaction of the hadronic system using the low lying ki resonances. Bound state effects are incorporated by using ideas based on the model of Grinstein et al and also in another bound state model (somewhat similar to the model of Wirbel et al) which we construct designed to take into account relativistic effects better. In these models we find that radiative decays of B mesons give rise to four of the five kaonic resonances at about 1 to 7% of the inclusive b → sγ rate. Furthermore, in both bound state models we find that the probability of formation of the other three higher resonances is roughly the same as that of K ∗ (892), which was recently seen at CLEO. In addition to the partial rate asymmetry which arises due to interference between resonances of the same quantum numbers, we show how interference between resonances of the same parity, and also between resonances of the opposite parity, result in two different types of energy asymmetries. CP differential asymmetries at the level of a few percent seem possible. We thus obtain CP violating distributions which may be observed in a sample of about 109B± mesons. For concreteness in this paper we deal with only charged B's, neutral B's will be dealt with separately.
Recent Advances in Endoscopy

In this narrative review, invited by the Editors of Gastroenterology, we summarize recent advances in the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy. We have chosen articles published primarily in the past 2-3 years. Although a thorough literature review was performed for each topic, the nature of the article is subjective and systematic and is based on the authors' experience and expertise regarding articles we believed were most likely to be of high clinical and scientific importance.
Written feedback provided by first-year engineering students, undergraduate teaching assistants, and educators on design project work

Feedback is an important part of design education. To better understand how feedback is provided to students on their engineering design work, we characterised and compared first-year engineering s...
Medicare Spending for Breast, Prostate, Lung, and Colorectal Cancer Patients in the Year of Diagnosis and Year of Death

Objective To characterize spending patterns for Medicare patients with incident breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer. Data Sources/Study Setting/Study Design 2007–2012 data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program linked with Medicare fee-for-service claims. Data Collection/Extraction Methods We calculate per-patient monthly and yearly mean and median expenditures, by cancer type, stage at diagnosis, and spending category, over the years of diagnosis and death. Principal Findings Over the year of diagnosis, mean spending was $35,849, $26,295, $55,597, and $63,063 for breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer, respectively. Over the year of death, spending was similar across different cancer types and stage at diagnosis. Conclusions Characterization of Medicare spending according to clinically meaningful categories may assist development of oncology alternative payment models and cost-effectiveness models.
Aging Out of Foster Care: Homelessness, Post-Secondary Education, and Employment

Research has shown that youth aging out of the foster care system experience an increased risk for several adverse adult outcomes (e.g., homelessness, unemployment, low educational attainment). Yet...
"Normal" Creatinine Levels Predict Persistent Kidney Injury and Waitlist Mortality in Outpatients With Cirrhosis.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a critical determinant of outcomes in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis, but little is known of the impact of AKI in the outpatient setting. We analyzed 385 adult outpatients with cirrhosis listed for liver transplant at a single center; excluded were those with severe hepatic encephalopathy, with hepatocellular carcinoma, or on hemodialysis. Baseline serum creatinine (bCr) was defined as the lowest value recorded, peak Cr as the highest value, ΔCr as peak Cr minus bCr, AKI as a rise in serum Cr (sCr) by ≥0.3 mg/dL from bCr, persistent kidney injury as elevation of sCR by ≥0.3 mg/dL from bCr on each subsequent clinical assessment. Among 385 outpatients with cirrhosis, bCr was ≤0.70, 0.70-0.97, and ≥0.97 mg/dL in 28%, 38%, and 34%, respectively. At a median follow-up of 16 (range 8-28) months, 143 (37%) had one or more AKI episode, which increased significantly by bCr group (24% versus 37% versus 48%, P = 0.001). Of these 143 with AKI, 13% developed persistent kidney injury. A multivariable Cox regression analysis highlighted that bCr (hazard ratio [HR], 2.96) and ΔCr (HR, 2.05) were the only factors independently associated with the development of persistent kidney injury (P < 0.001). The likelihood of death/delisting increased by bCr group (14% versus 19% versus 28%, P = 0.03). A competing risk analysis demonstrated that each 1 mg/dL increase in bCr was independently associated with a 62% higher risk of death/delisting when accounting for transplantation and adjusting for confounders. Conclusion: AKI is not only common in outpatients with cirrhosis but even "clinically normal" bCr levels significantly impact the risk of persistent kidney injury and waitlist mortality, supporting the need for a lower clinical threshold to initiate monitoring of renal function and implementation of kidney-protective strategies.
Reduction, Varieties of

Fundamental issues in the sciences can turn on whether the elements of one domain (e.g., the social) reduce to a congeries of elements of some other more basic domain (e.g., the individual). Given the more basic domain, the dependent domain can plausibly be regarded as an ontological ‘free lunch.’ Such dependency claims have been thought to have far-reaching ramifications not just for ontology but also for methodology. For example, the social sciences investigate social phenomena, involving distinctively social entities, properties, facts, and laws. The individualism-holism debate concerns, in the first instance, the status of these items—whether they are anything over and above the totality of individual entities, properties, laws, and facts—but also the methodological autonomy of the associated sciences. Definability was once the goal of the reductionist. But since definability failed to capture various interesting dependency claims, reductionists looked elsewhere, discovering a plethora of dependency relations. Some of these (certain varieties of supervenience) hold out the promise of prizing apart the methodological and ontological issues, rendering compatible, for example, the metaphysical strictures of the individualist and the methodological dispositions of the holist.
Constraining the adaptationism debate

This contribution to the adaptationism debate elaborates the nature of constraints and their importance in evolutionary explanation and argues that the adaptationism debate should be limited to the issue of how to privilege causes in evolutionary explanation. I argue that adaptationist explanations are deeply conceptually dependent on developmental constraints, and explanations that appeal to constraints are dependant on the results of natural selection. I suggest these explanations should be integrated into the framework of historical causal explanation. Each strategy explicitly appeals to some aspect of the evolutionary process, while implicitly appealing to others. Thus, adaptationists and anti-adaptationists can offer complementary causal explanations of the same explanandum. This eliminates much of the adaptationism debate and explains why its adversaries regularly agree with each other more than they would like. The adaptationism issue that remains is a species of the general issue of how to privilege causes in explanation. I show how a proposed solution to this general problem might be brought to bear on evolutionary explanations, and investigate some difficulties that might arise due to the nature of the evolutionary process.
Maternal allergen exposure increases offspring sensory airway innervation and airway hyperreactivity in mice

Background: Maternal asthma causes airway hyperreactivity in infants at birth and increases asthma risk in childhood. Humans with severe asthma have increased sensory nerve density in airways. Aim: We investigated whether maternal allergen exposure affects airway reactivity and innervation in their adult offspring. Methods: Female C57BI/6 mice were exposed to house dust mite (HDM) or vehicle (VEH) daily for 4 weeks prior to pregnancy and throughout gestation. At 8 weeks of age, offspring were sensitized and challenged with HDM. 24 hours after final challenge, mice were anesthetized and ventilated, and changes in serotonin-induced bronchoconstriction were measured. Inflammatory cells, Th2 cytokines, and neurotrophins were measured in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Sensory nerve length and branching was quantified in airway epithelium. Results: Following HDM sensitization and challenge, offspring from HDM exposed mothers had significantly increased airway hyperreactivity, eosinophils and macrophages compared with offspring from VEH exposed mothers. IL-5 and IL-13 were not different in BAL of offspring from HDM vs VEH exposed mothers. Offspring from HDM exposed mothers had increased sensory nerve length and branching in airway epithelium and increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor compared with offspring from VEH exposed mothers. Conclusions: Exposure to maternal antigen in utero increases sensory innervation and neurotrophin expression in airways of their offspring. Subsequent exposure of these offspring to antigen results in significantly greater airway hyperreactivity, and macrophage and eosinophilic inflammation. NIH grant support: HL132414, HL124165, HL065228, HL083808
Space–time wave packets that travel in optical materials at the speed of light in vacuum

Can an optical pulse traverse a non-dispersive material at the speed of light in vacuum? Because traditional approaches for controlling the group velocity of light manipulate either the material or structural resonances, an absence of dispersion altogether appears to exclude such a prospect. Here we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that “space–time” wave packets—pulsed beams in which the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom are tightly intertwined—can indeed traverse a non-dispersive transparent optical material at the speed of light in vacuum. We synthesize wave packets whose spatio-temporal spectra lie along the intersection of the material’s light-cone with a spectral hyperplane tilted to coincide with the vacuum light-line. By measuring the group delay interferometrically with respect to a generic reference pulse, we confirm that the wave packet group velocity in a variety of materials (including water, glass, and sapphire) is the speed of light in vacuum.
Interaction of the Sympathetic Nervous System with Vasopressin and Renin in the Maintenance of Blood Pressure in Rats

1. Anephric and intact rats were submitted sequentially to catecholamine depletion (‘chemical sympathectomy’) vasopressin inhibition and angiotensin blockade whilst blood pressure and plasma levels of each hormone were monitored. 2. Depletion of catecholamines to 15–25% of baseline levels was associated with significant fall of blood pressure. A close correlation existed between these variables. 3. Chemical sympathectomy caused stimulation of plasma vasopressin, which reached excessively high levels in anephric animals. These were inversely correlated with the levels of depleted catecholamines. 4. Vasopressin inhibition after chemical sympathectomy caused profound and lasting hypotension in anephric rats but only a transient small fall in blood pressure in intact rats. Angiotensin blockade after chemical sympathectomy in intact rats caused a transient small fall in blood pressure; subsequent vasopressin inhibition in these rats caused profound lasting hypotension. 5. It is concluded that resting blood pressure is mainly sustained by the sympathetic nervous system, whereas renin and vasopressin are important back-up mechanisms to maintain compromised blood pressure.
Automatic Segmentation of the Prostate on CT Images Using Deep Neural Networks (DNN).

Purpose Recent advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) have unlocked opportunities for their application for automatic image segmentation. We have evaluated a DNN-based algorithm for automatic segmentation of the prostate gland on a large cohort of patient images. Methods and Materials Planning-CT data sets for 1114 patients with prostate cancer were retrospectively selected and divided into 2 groups. Group A contained 1104 data sets, with 1 physician-generated prostate gland contour for each data set. Among these image sets, 771 were used for training, 193 for validation, and 140 for testing. Group B contained 10 data sets, each including prostate contours delineated by 5 independent physicians and a consensus contour generated using the STAPLE method in the CERR software package. All images were resampled to a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 × 1.5 mm. A region (128 × 128 × 64 voxels) containing the prostate was selected to train a DNN. The best-performing model on the validation data sets was used to segment the prostate on all testing images. Results were compared between DNN and physician-generated contours using the Dice similarity coefficient, Hausdorff distances, regional contour distances, and center-of-mass distances. Results The mean Dice similarity coefficients between DNN-based prostate segmentation and physician-generated contours for test data in Group A, Group B, and Group B-consensus were 0.85 ± 0.06 (range, 0.65-0.93), 0.85 ± 0.04 (range, 0.80-0.91), and 0.88 ± 0.03 (range, 0.82-0.92), respectively. The Hausdorff distance was 7.0 ± 3.5 mm, 7.3 ± 2.0 mm, and 6.3 ± 2.0 mm for Group A, Group B, and Group B-consensus, respectively. The mean center-of-mass distances for all 3 data set groups were within 5 mm. Conclusions A DNN-based algorithm was used to automatically segment the prostate for a large cohort of patients with prostate cancer. DNN-based prostate segmentations were compared to the consensus contour for a smaller group of patients; the agreement between DNN segmentations and consensus contour was similar to the agreement reported in a previous study. Clinical use of DNNs is promising, but further investigation is warranted.
Abstract 4788: Novel hybrid benzothiazole screening in U87-MG glioblastoma cell line

Benzothiazole is a heteroaromatic compound known for its wide range of bioactivities including anticancer, antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, antidiabetic, antihelminthic, and antitubercular activities. Research has shown that derivatives of benzothiazole exhibit inhibition of proliferation via apoptosis in various human cancer cell lines, such as liver cancer (Wang, et. al., 2010). In this study, a series of novel hybrid benzothiazole α-cyanostilbene derivatives and styrylbenzothiazole derivatives containing boronic acid and non-boronic acid pharmacophores were synthesized and their anti-cancer properties on U87-MG glioblastoma cells were investigated in vitro. U87-MG cells were incubated with synthesized novel hybrid compounds at varying concentration to determine the inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) of the compounds. Most hybrid compounds displayed inhibitory effects on cell growth and the IC50 of the compounds varied depending on the nature of the pharmacophores. Moreover, boronic acid-containing compounds exhibit lower IC50 than nonboronic acid-containing compounds. Cell mobility has been investigated and we have found that treated cells were less mobile than untreated cells. In the future, we will be further screening for mobility, invasiveness, and mode of death of these novel hybrid benzothiazole treated glioblastoma cells. Citation Format: Priscilla Kyi, Desmond H. Murray, Denise L. Smith. Novel hybrid benzothiazole screening in U87-MG glioblastoma cell line [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4788.
Factors Associated With Hepatitis B Exposure Among People Who Report Using Methamphetamine: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2016.

Background With the nation's focus on the opioid crisis, methamphetamine has made a comeback, potentially increasing risk for hepatitis B. We examined factors associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) exposure among people who reported ever using methamphetamine in a nationally representative survey. Methods We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine factors associated with HBV exposure among participants who reported ever using methamphetamine using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. Results Overall, 847 participants met the study inclusion criteria. In multivariable logistic regression, female sex (adjusted odds ratio, 3.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.65-8.90), living below the poverty threshold (3.17; 1.39-7.21), injection drug use (4.89; 1.95-12.26), active hepatitis C virus infection (3.39; 1.10-12.26), and identifying as men who have sex with men (28.21; 5.19-153.38) were significantly associated with HBV exposure. Conclusions The odds of HBV exposure for female participants who reported using methamphetamine were 4 times than that for male participants. Poverty, injection drug use, and hepatitis C virus infection were also associated. As methamphetamine use increases, it is critical to identify those at risk of acquiring HBV infections in order to target testing and vaccination.
Eastern Badia Archaeological Project

From May 25 to June 22, 2018, the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project team worked at the remote site of Wisad Pools in the panhandle of eastern Jordan. With a generous PEF grant and sponsored by t...
Unraveling the tree of life: A grand challenge for Biology

Building the Tree of Life is an ongoing activity of scientists around the world, one that combines information from both the genotype and phenotype of organisms. I review recent trends in this effort and describe a number of models, including the multispecies coalescent model, as a means to achieve this end.
1.02 – Exposure Science

The chapter provides a brief introduction to the evolving field of exposure science. It starts with the discussion of the basic principles including the importance of understanding the dynamics and mechanisms of contact with toxicants and the resultant exposure within the continuum from the source of a toxicant through to human health effects. The routes of exposure are identified as well as the measurement and modeling tools available and required to characterize exposure among individuals and populations, including the identification of activities and behaviors that lead to contact with toxicants.