cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Synchronous Detection vs Pulse Counting for Sensitive Photomultiplier Detection Systems.

Synchronous detection is compared experimentally with pulse counting, as techniques for use with photomultipliers in very sensitive optical detection systems. The criterion for comparison is the signal-to-noise ratio, defined as the ratio of the value of a measurement to its standard deviation. Care is taken to obtain optimum S/N with each method. An EMI 9558B tube is used. Some observations are as follows. (1) For light levels below the dark current equivalent level, pulse counting gives somewhat better S/N than synchronous detection. The improvement in S/N is by a factor of three at 6 × 10−17 W, the lowest illumination tested. The advantage of pulse counting increases as illumination decreases. On the other hand, for light levels of the order of the dark current equivalent level or larger, synchronous detection, pulse counting, and simple dc current measurement give substantially equal results. (2) With this tube, signal-to-noise ratios are only slightly improved by cooling. The improvement in S/N is of the order of a factor of 1.5 for pulse counting and of the order of 3 for synchronous detection.
Regulatory networks integrating cell cycle control with DNA damage checkpoints and double-strand break repair.

Double-strand breaks (DSBs), arising from exposure to exogenous clastogens or as a by-product of endogenous cellular metabolism, pose grave threats to genome integrity. DSBs can sever whole chromosomes, leading to chromosomal instability, a hallmark of cancer. Healing broken DNA takes time, and it is therefore essential to temporarily halt cell division while DSB repair is underway. The seminal discovery of cyclin-dependent kinases as master regulators of the cell cycle unleashed a series of studies aimed at defining how the DNA damage response network delays cell division. These efforts culminated with the identification of Cdc25, the protein phosphatase that activates Cdc2/Cdk1, as a critical target of the checkpoint kinase Chk1. However, regulation works both ways, as recent studies have revealed that Cdc2 activity and cell cycle position determine whether DSBs are repaired by non-homologous end-joining or homologous recombination (HR). Central to this regulation are the proteins that initiate the processing of DNA ends for HR repair, Mre11–Rad50–Nbs1 protein complex and Ctp1/Sae2/CtIP, and the checkpoint kinases Tel1/ATM and Rad3/ATR. Here, we review recent findings and provide insight on how proteins that regulate cell cycle progression affect DSB repair, and, conversely how proteins that repair DSBs affect cell cycle progression.
The time course of brain activity in reading English and Chinese: an ERP study of Chinese bilinguals.

Chinese bilinguals performed a delayed naming task, reading both Chinese characters and English words, while EEGs were recorded by a 128-channel system. Principle component analysis (PCA) of Event Related Potentials (ERP) from the onset of the stimulus suggested a temporal unfolding of graphic, phonological, and semantic processing that depended on both language and word frequency. At 150 msec, Chinese produced an earlier and higher amplitude shift (N150) than English. At 250 msec, frequency effects were significant for both Chinese and English, but at 450 msec, only the English frequency effect was reliable. Source localization analysis by Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomogra- phy (LORETA) showed bilateral occipital (left BA 17, right BA 18) visual processing of Chinese characters with left occipital only (left BA 17) for English high-frequency words. Low-frequency English words showed activation bilaterally, but with a more diffused and extended temporal pattern. Right prefrontal area (BA 10) was found to be strongly activated in the mid latency (300 - 400 msec) period of Chinese character naming, whereas English word naming showed more medial frontal (BA 8, and 10) activation. A post 450-msec visual verification was found to be general for both writing systems. Hum. Brain Mapping 18:167-175, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Comparative outcomes in sleep apnea among resistant and non-resistant hypertension

Endothelial dysfunction is an early step in atherosclerosis. The usual method to evaluate endothelial function is ultrasound measurement of the increase in brachial artery mean flow velocity (MFV) and dilatation (BAD) by release of upper arm cuff occlusion. Arm occlusion induces microvascular dilatation, which elicits hyperemia and macrovascular dilation. Differentiating micro from macrovascular dysfunction is therefore problematic in patients such as with diabetes (DM). Passive leg raising (PLR) is an alternative provocation that centralizes blood volume and increases cardiac output resulting in BAD without affecting the downstream microvasculature. We studied 102 subjects with and without diabetes (DM) (42 normal, 60 DM, age 48 19 yrs.). BAD and MFV were assessed with ultrasound both during hyperemia and PLR to evaluate macrovascular function. Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) during both hyperemia and PLR were measured to assess microvascular function. The microvascular and macrovascular responses elicited by the two provocative maneuvers were compared using SPSS statistical software. Among the 42 normal subjects, hyperemia increased BAD (15.4 9.3%, p<.001), MFV (407 301%, p<.001) and LDF (280 286%, p<.001). PLR increased BAD (5.4 3.9%, p<.001) and MFV (24 48%, p1⁄4.007), but did not change LDF (12 53%, p1⁄4.49). Among the 60 DM subjects hyperemia increased BAD (5.96 5.3%, p<.001), MFV (304 287, p<.001) and LDF (222 345%, p<.001). PLR increased BAD (2.1 3.2%, p<.001) and MFV (21 70.7%, p1⁄4.012), but did not change (LDF 4.6 49.6, p1⁄4.12). There was significant correlation between hyperemia LDF and the difference between hyperemia and PLR BAD (r1⁄4.384, p<0.001). The differential effects of the 2 techniques (hyperemia-PLR) was greater for normals versus DM (10.3 9.5 vs 3.9 4.9, p<.001). This suggests a microvascular component to hyperemia but not PLR. In summary, our results suggest that hyperemia induced BAD assess both microvascular and macrovascular function, whereas PLR specifically assesses macrovascular function. Since an impaired BAD response to hyperemia may be due to microvascular or macrovascular dysfunction, PLR carries the potential to assess endothelial dysfunction independent of microvascular disease. The differential effect of the two techniques may be useful to distinguish and quantify microvascular dysfunction. This may have clinical utility in risk stratification and evaluation of therapies in patients with micro and macrovascular disease.
Cross-Country Equity Investment and Exchange Rate Dynamics

This paper develops a model of exchange rate dynamics that takes into account speculative positions in foreign and domestic equities in addition to the "standard" positions in short-term riskless deposits. The modeling of cross-country stock holdings is motivated by evidence that a large and ever-increasing proportion of currency flows has been directed towards national stock markets. To the extent that there is not perfect risk sharing, investors tend to hold currency risk and international equity risk as a bundle. This paper examines the impact of such cross-country covariance risk on the behavior of exchange rates. As in standard models, it is found that exchange rate dynamics depend on the short-term interest differential between the home and foreign currencies. However, this relationship is nonlinear in nature, with the sign and magnitude of the coefficient on the interest differential depending on a type of time-varying beta risk, which in turn depends on the conditional second moments of exchange rate returns and the return differential between foreign and domestic equities. Using multivariate GARCH (MGARCH) and rolling-window estimation techniques, we find evidence in support of the model. Our results have specific implications for the empirical breakdown of uncovered interest parity (UIP), suggesting that the traditional UIP regression is misspecified and that accounting for cross-country equity trading may help to explain the forward premium puzzle. A main feature of the model that differs from previous studies is that it generates a time-varying coefficient on the interest differential, which is consistent with empirical evidence that the UIP relationship has not been stable over time.
The Space Environment

The space environment in which a manned spacecraft must carry out part of its mission as it leaves the atmosphere is briefly described. The major influences on human space travel are shown to be the solar wind and the earth’s gravitational and magnetic fields. The nature of solar radiation and the interaction of the solar wind of energetic protons and electrons with the earth’s magnetic field are discussed. Gravitational constraints on achieving orbital motion and rarefied atmospheric drag effects on maintaining an orbit are illustrated. The energetic particles in the Van Allen radiation belts, the electron density in the ionosphere, and the increasing population of space debris are shown to pose dangers to astronaut health, space to ground communications, and spacecraft integrity, respectively.
An adaptive undersampling scheme of wavelet-encoded parallel MR imaging for more efficient MR data acquisition

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers noninvasive high resolution, high contrast cross-sectional anatomic images through the body. The data of the conventional MRI is collected in spatial frequency (Fourier) domain, also known as k space. Because there is still a great need to improve temporal resolution of MRI, Compressed Sensing (CS) in MR imaging is proposed to exploit the sparsity of MR images showing great potential to reduce the scan time significantly, however, it poses its own unique problems. This paper revisits wavelet-encoded MR imaging which replaces phase encoding in conventional MRI data acquisition with wavelet encoding by applying wavelet-shaped spatially selective radiofrequency (RF) excitation, and keeps the readout direction as frequency encoding. The practicality of wavelet encoded MRI by itself is limited due to the SNR penalties and poor time resolution compared to conventional Fourier-based MRI. To compensate for those disadvantages, this paper first introduces an undersampling scheme named significance map for sparse wavelet-encoded k -space to speed up data acquisition as well as allowing for various adaptive imaging strategies. The proposed adaptive wavelet-encoded undersampling scheme does not require prior knowledge of the subject to be scanned. Multiband (MB) parallel imaging is also incorporated with wavelet-encoded MRI by exciting multiple regions simultaneously for further reduction in scan time desirable for medical applications. The simulation and experimental results are presented showing the feasibility of the proposed approach in further reduction of the redundancy of the wavelet k -space data while maintaining relatively high quality.
Determining Quantitative Kinetics and the Structural Mechanism for Particle Growth in Porous Templates

Understanding the formation of nanoparticles and how they are influenced by a support is critically important for optimizing their activity. In situ pair distribution function (PDF) methods were used to probe the kinetics, mechanism, and energetics for Ag nanoparticle formation in a porous zeolite. The nanoscale structure detail and fast time resolution possible using the PDF method allows the separate processes of cation reduction, cluster formation, and nanoparticle growth to be distinguished, a multistep mechanism delineated, and rate constants and activation energies estimated for reduction and surface diffusion steps. Importantly, these insights are derived for the gas–solid phase reactions directly relevant to industrial processes.
The Effect of Reduced Dietary Fat and Soy Supplementation on Circulating Adipocytokines in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled 2-Month Trial.

ABSTRACTThe reduced risk of breast cancer observed in Asia has been linked with diets rich in soy foods, and observational studies suggest that regular soy food intake is related to lower circulating levels of some inflammatory markers which have been implicated in breast cancer risk. However, short-term intervention studies with soy-based diets in small numbers of women have shown few significant changes in adipocytokine levels. This 8-wk dietary intervention study in 57 healthy postmenopausal women investigated whether soy food supplementation (50 mg isoflavones or 15 g soy protein in the form of tofu) or a very low-fat diet (11.3% of total energy), similar to the traditional Asian diet, is associated with beneficial effects on serum levels of the following adipocytokines: TNF-α, IL-6, adiponectin, and resistin. We found no statistically significant changes in the levels of these adipocytokines in association with the very low-fat diet or soy supplementation. Only the change in TNF-α levels between the ...
Long-term performance assessment of the Telegraph Road Bridge using a permanent wireless monitoring system and automated statistical process control analytics

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to advance wireless sensing technology for permanent installation in operational highway bridges for long-term automated health assessment. The work advances the design of a solar-powered wireless sensor network architecture that can be permanently deployed in harsh winter climates where limited solar energy and cold temperatures are normal operational conditions. To demonstrate the performance of the solar-powered wireless sensor network, it is installed on the multi-steel girder bridge carrying northbound I-275 traffic over Telegraph Road (Monroe, Michigan) in 2011; a unique design feature of the bridge is the use of pin and hanger connections to support the bridge main span. A dense network of strain gauges, accelerometers and thermometers are installed to acquire bridge responses of interest to the bridge manager including responses that would be affected by long-term bridge deterioration. The wireless monitoring system collects sensor data on a daily schedule and ...
Regulation of angiotensin II binding sites in neuronal cultures by protein kinase C

The radioligand binding of 125I-angiotensin II (ANG II) and calcium phospholipid-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) activity were measured to study the specificity and mechanisms of PKC involvement in the regulation of ANG II-specific binding site expression in neuronal cultures prepared from the brains of 1-day-old rats. Previously, PKC-activating phorbol esters were shown to increase the specific binding of 125I-ANG II in neuronal cultures. However, phorbol esters have many biological effects, which may nonspecifically act to increase 125I-ANG II-specific binding. In the present study, mezerein and teleocidin A, two activators of PKC that are chemically unrelated to phorbol esters, increased the specific binding of 125I-ANG II in a dose- and time-dependent manner with 50% effective dose (ED50) values of 32 and 79 nM, respectively. The PKC antagonist H-7 dose dependently inhibited phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (TPA)-stimulated increases in 125I-ANG II binding, whereas downregulation of PKC activity by chronic phorbol ester incubations of 24 and 48 h prevented TPA-stimulated increases in 125I-ANG II-specific binding. TPA (0.8 microM), mezerein (0.76 microM), and teleocidin A (0.5 microM) all caused a rapid translocation of PKC activity from the cytosol to the particulate fraction by 15 min. Temporally, the maximal stimulation of PKC translocation by mezerein, teleocidin A, and TPA preceded their ability to stimulate maximal 125I-ANG II-specific binding. Taken together, these results suggest that PKC is directly involved in the stimulation of ANG II-specific binding site expression and that translocation of PKC is a prerequisite for the increased expression of ANG II binding sites.
A new method for the separation of androgens from estrogens and for the partition of estriol from the estrone-estradiol fraction with special reference to the identification and quantitative microdetermination of estrogens by ultraviolet absorption spectrophotometry.

It is recognized generally that a qualitative and quantitative knowledge of the excretion pattern of the urinary estrogens is one index to an understanding of the functional activity of the ovary and adrenal cortex. Obviously, such determinations may be useful also in evaluating the normal and abnormal functions of other physiologically related endocrine glands as well as of organs like the liver and kidneys. The clinical applications of these data are self-evident. Various attempts have been made to circumvent the notoriously inaccurate values which have been obtained for the urinary estrogens by a variety of bioassay methods and calorimetric techniques (1, 2). The acknowledged shortcomings of these methods have led us to investigate the application of ultraviolet absorption spectrophotometry to the quantitative determination of the urinary estrogens in an attempt to develop an objective physical method for their accurate determination. It is known that the infra-red portion of the spectrum yields more differentially characteristic curves, but those of the ultraviolet range are more readily obtainable, and consequently better adapted to clinical use. This communication is concerned with studies of the following aspects of the problem: (1) spectrophotometric identification and quantitative micro determination of crystalline estrogens; (2) detection by spectrophotometric assay of gross errors in current methods for extraction and partition of estrogens; (3) studies on the ultraviolet absorption of substances comprising the background material; (4) separation of the phenolic estrogens from the so called neutral steroid fraction; (5) separation of urinary estrogens from other urinary phenolic substances by steam distillation; (6) micro-Girard separation of estrone from estradiol; (7) an essentially new method for the extraction and partition of crystalline estrone, estradiol, and estriol, and their quantitative assay by ultraviolet spectrophotometry.
The Arab Lands As Turkish Provinces

For about two-thirds of a century after its establishment about 1300 in Anatolia at the expense of the Byzantine empire and on the ruins of the Saljūq kingdom, the Ottoman state was but a frontier amīrate.1 The state was on a war footing and at times precarious. Its capital, beginning with 1326, was Brusa (Bursa). By 1366 the amīrate had become more stable, gained a firm foothold on the European mainland and developed into a kingdom with Adrianople (Edirne) as capital.2 The conquest in 1453 of Constantinople by Muḥammad II the Conqueror (1451–81) formally ushered in a new era, that of the empire. The new giant installed himself astride the Bosporus with one foot in Asia and the other in Europe. His expanding domain made him heir not only to Byzantium but also, through the destruction of the Mamlūk power,1 to the successor states of the Arab caliphate. The inheritance of lands from both East and West had its counterpart in the inheritance of ideas, and the combined heritage is perhaps the most pregnant fact in the history of Ottoman Turkey.
Relations Between Gender Expression, Minority Stress, and Mental Health in Cisgender Sexual Minority Women and Men

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) individuals experience various minority stressors that account for increased mental health issues in comparison to heterosexuals, including experiences of prejudice (victimization and discrimination), expectations of encountering prejudice, internalized heter
Abstract IA16: Identifying KRAS synthetic lethal interactions using systems biology and functional genomics

Our laboratory uses cross-species genomic approaches to understand the oncogenic effects of point mutations in KRAS. Using cross-species analysis of mouse models of lung cancer and human lung cancer, we have identified “KRAS signatures” of gene expression and used them to identify key drivers of gene regulation downstream of Kras. A key goal of our laboratory is to reverse engineer these oncogenic signatures to identify key transcriptional regulators which could be inhibited for anti-oncogenic therapy. Previously we used this approach to show that Wt1 is required to bypass a senescence response in cells expressing oncogenic KRAS (Vicent et al JCI 2010). We have now carried out a “second generation” synthetic lethal screen using a more comprehensive computational approach to identify “master regulators” of KRAS-driven gene expression. A focused shRNA screen in a large panel of human NSCLC lines confirmed the synthetic lethality of Wt1 in Kras-mutant tumor lines. In addition, we have identified several other likely “hits.” One of these, TCEB1, is a gene involved in regulating both elongation and the hypoxia response. We are currently carrying out further experiments to elucidate the function of TCEB1 and determine why it is required in cells expressing oncogenic Kras. Citation Format: Ron Chen, Dana Gwinn, Alejandro Sweet-Cordero. Identifying KRAS synthetic lethal interactions using systems biology and functional genomics. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on RAS Oncogenes: From Biology to Therapy; Feb 24-27, 2014; Lake Buena Vista, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2014;12(12 Suppl):Abstract nr IA16. doi: 10.1158/1557-3125.RASONC14-IA16
Parallel machine scheduling in fuzzy environment with hybrid ant colony optimization including a comparison of fuzzy number ranking methods in consideration of spread of fuzziness

Display Omitted Evaluate 9 fuzzy ranking methods in consideration of spread of fuzziness.Develop the first hybrid ACO for fuzzy parallel machine scheduling incorporated with the best fuzzy ranking method found.Show that the proposed hybrid ACO can handle fuzzy as nonfuzzy cases.Show that the proposed hybrid ACO outperform DPSO, SA, and a hybrid of SA and TS. This paper studies parallel machine scheduling problems in consideration of real world uncertainty quantified based on fuzzy numbers. Although this study is not the first to study the subject problem, it advances this area of research in two areas: (1) Rather than arbitrarily picking a method, it chooses the most appropriate fuzzy number ranking method based on an in-depth investigation of the effect of spread of fuzziness on the performance of fuzzy ranking methods; (2) It develops the first hybrid ant colony optimization for fuzzy parallel machine scheduling. Randomly generated datasets are used to test the performance of fuzzy ranking methods as well as the proposed algorithm, i.e. hybrid ant colony optimization. The proposed hybrid ant colony optimization outperforms a hybrid particle swarm optimization published recently and two simulated annealing based algorithms modified from our previous work.
Endoscopic Treatment of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma.

This study aims to make the reader be aware of recent trends regarding the endoscopic management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) via review of the urologic literature over the past 5 years. Given the rare incidence of this disease, and the lack of level 1 evidence, systematic reviews and meta-analyses were also evaluated. Studies of importance are also considered and outlined in the annotated reference section. The PubMed database was queried using the following medical subject headings (MeSH terms): “carcinoma, transitional cell,” “ureter,” “ureteral neoplasms,” “kidney pelvis,” “endoscopy,” “laser therapy,” “ureteroscopy,” “urologic surgical procedures,” and “ureteroscopes.” MeSH terms were linked together in varying combinations and limited to human studies in English. Given the relatively rare nature of upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), level 1 evidence regarding the efficacy of endoscopic treatment does not exist, even after 30+ years of experience. Rather, the literature available mostly is in the form of single institutional retrospective series consisting of relatively small numbers of patients with short to intermediate follow-up. Only within the last 3 years have published series with larger numbers of patients and mean follow-up over 5 years been made available. Even with these more robust experiences, comparisons among series are difficult given variable treatment and follow-up approaches. Most endoscopically managed UTUC will locally recur, especially with longer follow-up. Renal preservation rate is high, however, approaching 80% with follow-up well over 3 years. Patients with high-grade disease often fare poorly regardless of treatment modality. As such, endoscopic management for high-grade urothelial carcinoma should only be used in exceptional circumstances (i.e., in those patients medically unfit for NU or those with solitary kidneys wishing to avoid the morbidity of dialysis). No level 1 evidence exists for the routine use of intraluminal adjuvant therapy for UTUC (i.e., BCG and Mitomycin C) and multiple retrospective observational series claim there is no overt benefit. The recent formation of multiple international groups with interest in UTUC may eventually lead to the production of level 1 studies regarding optimal treatment; however, uniformity in treatment approach will likely still offer challenges.
Associations of maternal prenatal smoking with umbilical cord blood hormones: the Project Viva cohort.

Background Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with low fetal growth and adverse cardiometabolic health in offspring. However, hormonal pathways underlying these associations are unclear. Therefore, we examined maternal smoking habits and umbilical cord blood hormone profiles in a large, prospective cohort.
Stretching the Scope — Becoming Frontline Addiction-Medicine Providers

Seeing growing numbers of life-threatening infections arising from injection drug use, a group of ID physicians began offering patients with opioid use disorder counseling, naloxone, buprenorphine induction therapy, and essential referrals for long-term treatment.
Implementation of Global Strategies to Prevent Hospital-Onset Clostridium difficile Infection: Targeting Proton Pump Inhibitors and Probiotics:

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been identified as a significant risk factor for the development of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Probiotics given concurrently with antibiot...
Design of a dual-stage, three-axis hybrid parallel-serial-kinematic nanopositioner with mechanically mitigated cross-coupling

This article describes the design and characterization of a new dual-stage, three-axis hybrid parallel-serial-kinematic nanopositioner; this platform incorporates a novel non-orthogonal mechanical amplifying mechanism for the long-range low-speed stage to mitigate parasitic motion in the lateral scanning directions. A five-bar linkage model is proposed to model the cross-coupling effects of the long-range parallel-kinematic flexure mechanisms. This model is used to design the long-range scanner with reduced parasitic motion compared to a traditional perpendicular geometry design. A short-range, three-axis shear piezoactuator is mounted on the long-range parallel-kinematic lateral scanner to create a dual-stage, high-speed, three-axis scanner. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to optimize the dynamic performance for high mechanical resonance. Experimental results demonstrate a full range of approximately 15 µm in the x- and y-directions and short-range displacements of 1 µm in three directions from the shear piezo stack. The first mechanical resonance of the long-range lateral scanner is measured at 1,450 Hz and 11 kHz for the short-range actuator in the x- and y-directions, and over 40 kHz in the z-direction. Measured parasitic motion for the long-range scanner is only −34 dB for the x-axis and −46 dB for the y-axis, a 62.5% reduction compared to the perpendicular mechanism design.
Family Business Responses to Household and Business Cash-Flow Problems

Family businesses can experience cash-flow problems in the business and also in the household. This article used bivariate analysis to examine the effect of cash-flow problems on normative resource transfers between the business and the household and found that the family business responded to business cash-flow problems by reducing the business’s contribution to household income, but household cash-flow problems did not affect the business’s contribution to household income.
Automatic Code Converter Enhanced PCH Framework for SoC Trust Verification

The wide usage of hardware intellectual property cores from untrusted vendors has raised security concerns for system designers. Existing solutions for functionality testing and verification do not usually consider the presence of malicious logic in hardware. Formal methods provide powerful solutions for detecting malicious behaviors in hardware. However, they suffer from scalability issues and cannot be easily used for large-scale computing systems. To alleviate the scalability challenge, we propose a new integrated formal verification framework to evaluate the trust of system-on-chip (SoC) constructed from untrusted third-party hardware resources. This framework combines an automated model checker with an interactive theorem prover to reduce the time for proving the system-level security properties of SoCs. Another factor contributing to the scalability issue is the effort required for manual conversion of the hardware design from register transfer level (RTL) code to a domain-specific language prior to verification. Consequently, we develop an automatic code converter for translating VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) to Formal-HDL , which is a domain specific language for representing hardware designs in the language of Coq. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our integrated verification framework and automated code conversion tool, we evaluate a vulnerable program executed on a bare metal LEON3 SPARC V8 processor and prove system security with considerable reduction in verification effort.
Characteristics and variations of low-level jets in the contrasting warm season precipitation extremes of 2006 and 2007 over the Southern Great Plains

This study investigates structural variations in the low-level jets (LLJs) over the Southern Great Plains (SGP) in the USA during the warm season (WS) and their association with precipitation extremes, with a subset of the strongly contrasting hydrologic years (HY) of 2006 (HY06; drought) and 2007 (HY07; flood). The U. S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Northern American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and stage IV precipitation data products are used. The large-scale synoptic pattern varied substantially between the two WSs, with differences in the position, strength, and orientation of the Bermuda high to the east and thermal low to the west. The composite structure and variations of LLJs, their environmental conditions, and associated precipitation are diagnosed. Significant differences were noted in the strength, orientation, and dimensions of the LLJs between the two WSs. Environmental features related to the LLJ are characterized by notable differences in timing and distribution of the vertical velocity, temperature, moisture, and instability. The implications of these differences for the timing, distribution, and intensity of precipitation between the two WSs are discussed. Results from this study conclude that the LLJ may not have been a major factor in driving the hydrologic extremes, but it did modify the extremes. In WS 2007, the LLJ enhanced the hydrologic cycle to produce more precipitation over a broader area. In WS 2006, the LLJ was likely a source of dry air advection into the region. Meanwhile, the LLJ was also a source of convergence and rising motion, which lead to a precipitation maximum in its exit region.
Functional Impairment, Physical Disease, and Depression in Older Adults

Elderly adults with physical health problems are frequently reported to be vulnerable to depression. This pattern has been reported for older patients with a wide variety of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (Creed & Ash, 1992; Frank et al., 1988), stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Cushing’s syndrome, hypothyroidism, vitamin deficiencies (Finch, Ramsay, & Katona, 1992), hypertension, myocardial infarction, and diabetes (Wells, Rogers, Burnam, & Camp, 1993). Other researchers have adopted an epidemiological strategy looking at a variety of physical disease problems in community populations, rather than focusing on single disease categories. Hughes, DeMallie, and Blazer (1993) reported that scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) in the elderly are related to both higher mean illness index scores and impaired social support scores. Katona (1992) reported a higher prevalence of depression, compared to that found in other community studies, in elders attending primary care clinics, acute geriatric admissions, continuing care geriatric patients, and elders with acute hip fractures. One of the most frequently cited references for the idea that physical illness is the strongest correlate of depression in the elderly is a book by Gurland and his colleagues (Gurland et al., 1983). Interestingly, while authors who cite that book almost always emphasize the disease-depression relationship, it is seldom mentioned that the authors (Gurland et al., 1983) included disability and dependence (i.e., indices of functional impairment), along with disease, as determinants of depression in the elderly.
A generalization of the k-Nearest neighbor rule

A family of supervised, nonparametric decision rules, based on tolerance regions, is described which includes the k-Nearest Neighbor decision rules when there are two classes. There are two practical reasons for doing so: first, a family of decision rules similar to the k-Nearest Neighbor rules can be specified which applies to a broader collection of pattern recognition problems. This is because, in the general class of rules, constraints are weakened between the number of training samples required in each training sample set and the respective a priori class probabilities; and a discrete loss function weighting the importance of the finite number of ways to make a decision error can be introduced. Second, within the family of decision rules based on tolerance regions, there are decision rules which have a property allowing for preprocessing of the training set data resulting in significant data reduction. Theoretical performance for a special case is presented.
Predictors of fruit and vegetable intake in low-income and racially diverse preschoolers: does parental feeding style matter?

Diets rich in fruit and vegetables (FV) are associated with favorable public health outcomes, including lower prevalence of cancer and obesity. However, children’s FV consumption in many Western countries fails to meet the minimum recommendations. Because parental behaviors influence children’s diet from birth, it is important to examine potential interactions between taste preferences and parental behaviors on FV consumption in early childhood. This study tested the moderating effect of an authoritative feeding style on the link between child’s FV taste preferences and FV intake. Racially/ethnically diverse, low-income parents of 3–5-year-old children were recruited for the study. Parents completed an interviewer-assisted FV food frequency questionnaire and a survey on sociodemographic and other characteristics of the child/parent/family. Hierarchal linear regression models tested the main and interactive effects of taste preferences and authoritative feeding style on children’s FV frequency intake, controlling for known covariates, including race/ethnicity and household availability. A total of 281 parents participated in the study, with 16% being authoritative feeders. Authoritative feeding style did not interact with child taste preference to predict fruit intake (β = 0.084; p = 0.98) or vegetable intake (β = −2.908; p = 0.24). Child’s taste preference, after controlling for home availability, was the strongest predictor of FV intake in the sample (p < 0.05). Nutrition education efforts targeting FV promotion in low-income families should focus on strategies that help parents increase children’s FV taste preferences as early in life as possible.
Locally anchoring enzymes to tissues via extracellular glycan recognition

Success of enzymes as drugs requires that they persist within target tissues over therapeutically effective time frames. Here we report a general strategy to anchor enzymes at injection sites via fusion to galectin-3 (G3), a carbohydrate-binding protein. Fusing G3 to luciferase extended bioluminescence in subcutaneous tissue to ~7 days, whereas unmodified luciferase was undetectable within hours. Engineering G3-luciferase fusions to self-assemble into a trimeric architecture extended bioluminescence in subcutaneous tissue to 14 days, and intramuscularly to 3 days. The longer local half-life of the trimeric assembly was likely due to its higher carbohydrate-binding affinity compared to the monomeric fusion. G3 fusions and trimeric assemblies lacked extracellular signaling activity of wild-type G3 and did not accumulate in blood after subcutaneous injection, suggesting low potential for deleterious off-site effects. G3-mediated anchoring to common tissue glycans is expected to be broadly applicable for improving local pharmacokinetics of various existing and emerging enzyme drugs. The use of enzymes as drugs requires that they persist within target tissues over therapeutically relevant time frames. Here the authors use a galectin-3 fusion to anchor enzymes at injection sites for up to 14 days.
Comparison of Skull Radiograph and Computed Tomography Measurements of Cochlear Implant Insertion Angles.

BACKGROUND Measurement of the angular depth of insertion (aDOI) of cochlear implant electrode arrays has numerous clinical and research applications. Plain-film radiographs are easily obtained intraoperatively and have been described as a means to calculate aDOI. CT imaging with 3D reformatting can also be used for this measurement, but is less conveniently obtained and requires higher radiation doses, a particular concern in pediatrics. The extent to which plain-film and 3D CT image-based measurements are representative of the true position of the electrode within the cochlea is unknown. METHODS Cochlear implantation was performed on 10 cadaveric temporal bones. Five bones were implanted with perimodiolar electrodes (Contour Advance TM, Cochlear, Sydney, Australia) and five were implanted with lateral wall electrodes (Slim Straight, Cochlear). The insertion depths of the electrodes were varied. Each bone was imaged with a radiograph and CT. aDOI was measured for each bone in each imaging modality by a neurotologist and a neuroradiologist. To obtain a 'gold standard' estimate of aDOI, the implanted temporal bones were embedded in an epoxy resin and methodically sectioned at 100 μm intervals; histologic images were captured at each interval. A 3D stack of the images was compounded, and a MATLAB script used to calculate aDOI of the most apical electrode. Measurements in the three modalities (radiograph, CT, and histology) were then compared. RESULTS The average aDOI across all bones was similar for all modalities: 423° for radiographs, 425° for CT scans, and 427° for histology, indicating that neither imaging modality resulted in large systematic errors. Using the histology-measured angles as a reference, the average error for CT-based measures (regardless of whether the error was in the positive or negative direction) was 12°, and that for radiograph-based measures was 15°. This small difference (12 vs 15° error) was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION Based on this cadaveric temporal bone model, both radiographs and CTs can provide reasonably accurate aDOI measurements. In this small sample, and as expected, the CT-based estimates were more accurate than the radiograph-based measurements. However, the difference was small and not statistically significant. Thus, the use of plain radiographs to calculate aDOI seems judicious whenever it is desired to prevent unnecessary radiation exposure and expense.
The Role of Statins in Heart Failure

Statins have become a mainstay in cardiovascular and atherosclerotic disease therapy. However their use in congestive heart failure continues to remain a controversial topic. Many earlier non-randomized, retrospective and post-hoc analyses have suggested a benefit, however to date no large scale, randomized, placebo-controlled trial has shown a significant mortality benefit. As such, the current heart failure guidelines have not recommended their use unless there is an existing comorbidity. This chapter seeks to review the literature and data regarding the possible harmful and beneficial effects of statins in heart failure, the outcomes data, and future directions for research and clinical practice.
Distribution and efficiency effects of alternative recreation funding methods.

This paper examines the distribution effects of alternative recreation funding methods. Review of background concepts and case studies of local and distant recreation users of the Boundary Waters C...
Automated IoT Device Identification using Network Traffic

IoT devices have been gaining popularity and become integral to our daily life. These devices are prone to be compromised as well as any computing system, but lack computing capabilities for cybersecurity software. An important measure for protecting attacks on IoT devices is through isolation of such devices by restriction of communications to the device from firewall&#x002F;gateway. To this end identification of the IoT device is valuable for network administration and security. In this paper, we introduce a system for automated classification of device characteristics, called System IDentifier (SysID), based on their network traffic. SysID uses any single packet that is originated from the device to detect its kind. We use genetic algorithm (GA) to determine relevant features in different protocol headers and then deploy various machine learning (ML) algorithms (i.e., DecisionTable, J48 Decision Trees, OneR, and PART) to classify host device types by analyzing features selected by GA. GA helps reduce classification complexity and increases its accuracy by eliminating noisy features from the data. SysID allows the ability to have a completely automated way of classifying IoT devices using their TCP&#x002F;IP packets without expert input for classification. In an experimental study with 23 IoT devices, SysID identified the device type from a single packet with over 95&#x0025; accuracy.
Characterization of the interaction between β-catenin and sorting nexin 27: contribution of the type I PDZ-binding motif to Wnt signaling.

Background: Sorting Nexin 27 (SNX27) is a 62-kDa protein localized to early endosomes and known to regulate the intracellular trafficking of ion channels and receptors. In addition to a PX domain common among all of the sorting nexin family, SNX27 is the only sorting family member that contains a PDZ domain. To identify novel SNX27–PDZ binding partners, we performed a proteomic screen in mouse principal kidney cortical collecting duct cells (mpkCCD) using a GST-SNX27 fusion construct as bait. We found that the C-terminal type I PDZ binding motif (DTDL) of β-catenin, an adherens junction scaffolding protein and transcriptional co-activator, interacts directly with SNX27. Using biochemical and immunofluorescent techniques, β-catenin was identified in endosomal compartments where co-localization with SNX27 was observed. Furthermore, E-cadherin, but not Axin, GSK3 or Lef-1 was located in SNX27 protein complexes. While overexpression of wild-type β-catenin protein increased TCF-LEF dependent transcriptional activity, an enhanced transcriptional activity was not observed in cells expressing β-Catenin ΔFDTDL or diminished SNX27 expression. These results imply importance of the C-terminal PDZ binding motif for the transcriptional activity of β-catenin and propose that SNX27 might be involved in the assembly of β-catenin complexes in the endosome.
Investigating Memory Updating in Mice Using the Objects in Updated Locations Task.

In the laboratory, memory is typically studied as a de novo experience, in which a naive animal is exposed to a discrete learning event that is markedly different from its past experiences. Most real-world memories, however, are updates-modifications or additions-to existing memories. This is particularly true in the aging, experienced brain. To better understand memory updating, we have developed a new behavioral paradigm called the objects in updated locations (OUL) task. OUL relies on hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and has the advantage of being able to test both the original memory and the updated information in a single test session. Further, OUL relies on incidental learning that avoids unnecessary stress that might hinder the performance of aging animals. In OUL, animals first learn the location of two identical objects in a familiar context. This memory is then updated by moving one object to a new location. Finally, to assess the animals' memory for the original and the updated information, all animals are given a test session in which they are exposed to four copies of the object: two in the original training locations, one in the updated location, and one in a novel location. By comparing exploration of the novel location to the familiar locations, we can infer whether the animal remembers the original and updated object locations. OUL is a simple but powerful task that could provide new insights into the cellular, circuit-level, and molecular mechanisms that support memory updating. © 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bound on the drag coefficient for a flat plate in a uniform flow

The background method has been a successful tool in obtaining strict bounds on global quantities such as the rate of energy dissipation and heat transfer in turbulent flows. However, all applications of this method until now have focused on flows confined between solid boundaries. An important class of problems that, by contrast, has received no attention is the class of external flows, i.e. flow past a body. In this context, obtaining the dependence of the drag coefficient on the Reynolds number is of crucial relevance for many engineering applications. In this paper, we consider the classical problem of flow past a flat plate of finite length at zero angle of incidence and use the background method to obtain a bound on the drag coefficient. Assuming a statistically steady state and appropriate far-field decay rates for the flow variables, we show that at large Reynolds numbers, the drag coefficient ( ) is bounded by a constant, a bound that is within a logarithmic factor of experimental data.
Strategies for introducing palliative care in the management of relapsed or refractory aggressive lymphomas

Recent advances in treatment of patients with aggressive lymphomas ranging from chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy to combination of antibody-drug conjugates with chemotherapy have improved survival outcomes. Despite these significant advances, patients with relapsed or refractory disease experience high physical and psychological symptom burden, and a substantial proportion still die of their lymphoma. In addition, end-of-life care outcomes are suboptimal with high rates of intensive end-of-life health care use and low rates of timely hospice enrollment. Integrating palliative care concurrently with disease-directed care for this patient population has strong potential to improve their symptom burden, quality of life, and end-of-life care. Multiple factors, including heightened prognostic uncertainty in the setting of relapsed/refractory disease, pose challenges to timely provision of palliative care. This article reviews benefits of primary and specialty palliative care for patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive lymphomas and barriers to such care. It also highlights strategies for effectively integrating palliative care for patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive lymphomas.