cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Adipogenic differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells grown as spheroids

Understanding the process of adipogenesis is critical if suitable therapeutics for obesity and related metabolic diseases are to be found. The current study presents proof of feasibility of creating a 3-D spheroid model using human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) and their subsequent adipogenic differentiation. hASC spheroids were formed atop an elastin-like polypeptide-polyethyleneimine (ELP-PEI) surface and differentiated using an adipogenic cocktail. Spheroids were matured in the presence of dietary fatty acids (linoleic or oleic acid) and evaluated based on functional markers including intracellular protein, CD36 expression, triglyceride accumulation, and PPAR-γ gene expression. Spheroid size was found to increase as the hASCs matured in the adipocyte maintenance medium, though the fatty acid treatment generally resulted in smaller spheroids compared to control. A stable protein content over the 10-day maturation period indicated contact-inhibited proliferation as well as minimal loss of spheroids during culture. Spheroids treated with fatty acids showed greater amounts of intracellular triglyceride content and greater expression of the key adipogenic gene, PPAR-γ. We also demonstrated that 3-D spheroids outperformed 2-D monolayer cultures in adipogenesis. We then compared the adipogenesis of hASC spheroids to that in 3T3-L1 spheroids and found that the triglyceride accumulation was less profound in hASC spheroids than that in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, correlated with smaller average spheroids, suggesting a relatively slower differentiation process. Taken together, we have shown the feasibility of adipogenic differentiation of patient-derived hASC spheroids, which with further development, may help elucidate key features in the adipogenesis process.
Human Activity Classification With Transmission and Reflection Coefficients of On-Body Antennas Through Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

We propose to classify human activities based on transmission coefficient ( $S_{21}$ ) and reflection coefficient ( $S_{11}$ ) of on-body antennas with deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs). It is shown that spectrograms of $S_{21}$ and $S_{11}$ exhibit unique time-varying signatures for different body motion activities that can be used for classification purposes. DCNN, a deep learning approach, is applied to spectrograms to learn the necessary features and classification boundaries. It is found that DCNN can achieve classification accuracies of 98.8% using $S_{21}$ and 97.1% using $S_{11}$ . The effects of operating frequency and antenna location on the accuracy have been investigated.
Shifting Paradigm in Addressing Literacy Needs Of Adolescent English Language Learners

Currently, there is a polar shifting of an educational framework that attempts to address the learning needs of students across the nation. For so many years, due to accountability issues, there has been an overrepresentation in special education by English language learners (ELLs). This was in part because of the way policymakers and educators viewed students. Students have been viewed as having deficiencies if they do not learn the material that their teachers are teaching. This stance does not take into account the environment of the child. In many cases, students did not receive effective instruction and sufficient interventions before referral to special education. Response to Intervention (RTI) is one way that policy makers are asking educators to correct this trend. In addition, research has demonstrated that pedagogy for ELLs must take into account their cultural and social needs. Therefore, teacher practices should validate diversity
Masters Program Bariatric Pathway: Robotic RYGB and Revisional Bariatrics

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the gold standard for bariatric surgery with excellent long-term data. However, it is a technically challenging operation with high learning curves. Robotic roux-en-y gastric bypass has been shown to decrease the learning curve by up to 90%. Furthermore, the improved dexterity allows creation of precise anastomoses which has been shown to decrease leak rates, and provides cost-savings to patients.
Small data global existence and decay for two dimensional wave maps

We prove the global existence and almost-sharp decay for the wave-map equation on $\mathbb{R}^{1,2}$, when the initial data has compact spatial support, using a variant of the vector field method. The main innovation lies in controlling the dispersive decay of the solution $\phi$ itself (as opposed to its derivatives), which has not been previously established using purely physical space methods. Our energy-based method carries a log-loss in the time-decay for the linear evolution on $\mathbb{R}^{1,2}$, when compared with the stationary-phase results; this loss is specific to two spatial dimensions. As the linear theory is largely similar between dimensions, we include a discussion of the method for $\mathbb{R}^{1,d}$ in general, also showing how to obtain sharp rates of decay when $d \geq 3$.
Predictors for Long-Term Hip Survivorship Following Acetabular Fracture Surgery: Importance of Gap Compared with Step Displacement.

Background: Historically, the greatest residual (gap or step) displacement is used to predict clinical outcome following acetabular fracture surgery. Gap and step displacement may, however, impact the outcome to different degrees. We assessed the individual relationship between gap or step displacement and hip survivorship and determined their independent association with conversion to total hip arthroplasty. Methods: Patients who had acetabular fracture fixation (from 1992 through 2014), follow-up of ‡2 years (or early conversion to total hip arthroplasty), and postoperative computed tomography (CT) scans were included. Of 227 patients, 55 (24.2%) had conversion to total hip arthroplasty at a mean follow-up (and standard deviation) of 8.7 ± 5.6 years. Residual gap and step displacement were measured using a standardized CT-based method, and assessors were blinded to the outcome. Kaplan-Meier survivorship curves for the hips were plotted and compared (log-rank test) using critical cutoff values for gap and step displacement. These values were identified using receiver operating characteristic curves. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify independent variables associated with conversion to total hip arthroplasty. Subgroup analysis was performed in younger patients (<50 years old). Results: The critical CT cutoff value for total hip arthroplasty conversion was 5 mm for gap and 1 mm for step displacement. Hip survivorship at 10 years was 82.0% for patients with a gap of <5 mm compared with 56.5% for a gap of ‡5 mm (p < 0.001) and 80.0% for a step of <1.0 mm versus 65.5% for a step of ‡1.0 mm (p = 0.012). A gap of ‡5 mm (hazard ratio [HR], 2.3; p = 0.012) and an age of ‡50 years (HR, 4.2; p < 0.001) were independently associated with conversion to total hip arthroplasty in all patients. In the subgroup of younger patients, only a step of ‡1 mm (HR, 6.4; p = 0.017) was an independent factor for conversion to total hip arthroplasty. Conclusions: Residual gap and step displacement as measured on CT scans are both related to long-term hip survivorship, but step displacement (1 mm) is tolerated less than gap displacement (5 mm). Of the 2 types of displacement, only a large gap displacement (‡5 mm) was independently associated with conversion to total hip arthroplasty. In younger patients who had less articular impaction with smaller residual gaps, only step displacement (‡1 mm) appeared to be associated with this outcome. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Colloidal Nanocrystals as a Platform for Rapid Screening of Charge Trap Passivating Molecules for Metal Halide Perovskite Thin Films

Charge recombination at surface trap sites is a significant impediment to metal halide perovskite (MHP) thin film-based optoelectronic devices. To passivate the surface charge traps, chemical treatments with molecules that bind to the MHP thin film surfaces can be employed. However, the current approaches to test the trap passivation efficacy of molecules on thin film surface suffer from limited through-put and low statistical significance. Here, we demonstrate the use of colloidal MHP nanocrystals (NCs) as an experimental platform for high-throughput screening of charge trap passivating molecules for MHP thin films. Using CsPbX3 (X = Br, I) NCs, over 20 molecules were rapidly screened for their surface trap passivation efficacy. Our approach identified trin-butylphosphine (TBPh) as a superb charge trap passivating molecule on MHP surfaces. TBPh treatment brings the photoluminescence quantum yield of CsPbBr3 NCs to near unity and also results in superior surface trap passivation of MHP thin films, even wh...
Ethnische Grenzziehungen Eine prozessorientierte Mehrebenentheorie

Fredrik Barths (vgl. Barth 1969b) beruhmte Einleitung zu einer Sammlung ethnographischer Fallstudien stellt bis heute die Grundlage der vergleichenden Ethnizitatsforschung dar. Barth brach mit dem Herderschen Kanon der Anthropologie, demzufolge jede ethnische Gruppe eine historisch gewachsene, einzigartige Blume im Garten der menschlichen Kultur darstellt. Anstatt jede dieser ethnischen Gruppen einzeln zu untersuchen, beobachteten Barth und seine Kollegen, wie die Grenzen zwischen den Gruppen aufrecht erhalten wurden – und zwar, obwohl manche Gruppen die gleichen kulturellen Merkmale aufwiesen und Individuen manchmal von einer Seite der Grenze auf die andere wechselten. Barths Ansatz ahnelte also nicht langer den Kategorisierungsubungen der Linneschen Taxonomie, sondern lasst sich eher im Bereich der Sozialokologie ansiedeln.
The Role of Nitrous Oxide on Climate Change

Nitrous oxide is the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, contributing about 6% to the radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases. In addition to its role as greenhouse gas, N2O also play significant role in ozone (O3) depletion. Its atmospheric abundance prior to industrialization was 270 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). Its current abundance is ~324 ppbv. Over past 10 years, the mean annual growth rate is ~0.8 ppbv year−1. It is emitted into the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic sources. The anthropogenic activities have increased the concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases dramatically since industrialization, and altered the composition of global atmosphere, with great implications for current and future climate. Once emitted, the N2O is very stable in the stratosphere; the only known sink is the photo-oxidation tractions in the stratosphere. These reactions release oxides of N that contributes to ozone depletion. The magnitude of its current and projected future emissions leads to concerns about the timing of the recovery of ozone.
Encoding Specificity in Memory

The concept of encoding specificity was explicitly formulated by Endel Tulving and his associates around 1970. Tulving conceptualizes memory for an episode as embodied in a physical entity, or memory trace, that serves to bridge the temporal gap between the episode and its recollection. According to the encoding specificity principle, the likelihood of a given cue eliciting recollection of the episode depends on how the episode was encoded into the trace. The principle is supported by extensive evidence of interactions between study and test conditions as determinants of recall. Although some have taken issue with its formulation in storage terms, the general notion of encoding specificity is, in one guise or another, widely accepted among theorists of episodic memory.
Critical Role for the Medial Preoptic Area in the Sexual Differentiation of the Brain

Publisher Summary Medial pre-optic area (MPOA) has become generally accepted as at least one site of hormone action during development. This chapter describes and demonstrates the large structural sex differences in the avian brain that led to compare the female and male rat brains side by side. The MPOA, or more precisely, a smaller component of this area, does represent a major site of hormone action and offers a model system for mechanistic studies. It is a relatively large and complex area of the hypothalamus and is implicated in the control of many functional processes. Within the MPOA of the rat, a region of the brain that has been implicated in the control of numerous neuro-endocrine functions and that has been considered one site of hormone-induced sexual differentiation, there exists a marked structural sex difference in the volume of the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the pre-optic area (SDN-POA). Because of the magnitude of the sex difference in SDN-POA volume, this nucleus can serve as a model system to investigate possible mechanisms by which gonadal hormones act to differentiate the brain sexually.
The impact of motivational interviewing on self-perceived burden in patients receiving therapeutic plasma exchange.

BACKGROUND Autoimmune disorders and neurodegenerative disorders take a physical and emotional toll on patients that undergo therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) treatments. Previous literature has shown that these patients may feel a greater sense of self-burden. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a technique used in various settings that has the potential to decrease feelings of self-burden. MI for patients who receive TPE has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of MI in patients with a neurodegenerative diagnosis (eg, transverse myelitis, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy) that are undergoing TPE treatments. METHODS This was a prospective, non-randomized, longitudinal study of the impact of MI with patients at high risk of sense of self-burden who underwent apheresis treatments. Consented patients underwent three to six MI sessions with a trained clinician. Patients completed a self-report baseline and post-test of self-perceived burden. RESULTS Thirty participants consented to the study; 27 were included in the analysis. The Self-Perceived Burden Scale scores were significantly higher at baseline (m = 26.2) when compared to scores post MI sessions (m = 21.48, P < .05). The number of MI sessions (3, 4, 5, 6 sessions) did not significantly impact the outcome score (r2 = 0.001; P = .901). CONCLUSION MI is a straightforward technique that is feasible and shown to be effective to be used by bedside clinicians while working with patients who receive TPE to decrease levels of self-perceived burden.
Elements of Functional Analysis

Let X be a vector space over \({\mathbb R} \). A norm ∥⋅∥ on X is a function X → [0, ∞) such that
Preliminary investigation of a Monte Carlo-based system matrix approach for quantitative clinical brain 123 I SPECT imaging

A next-generation, adaptive, dynamic multi-pinhole system, AdaptiSPECT-C, dedicated to clinical brain SPECT imaging, is currently under development as part of a collaboration between the universities of Arizona and Massachusetts. It has been shown that accurate modeling of the system matrix is a key aspect of SPECT image reconstruction as it has the potential to improve the imaging performance of any system. A straight-forward approach to modeling is based on the use of Monte Carlo simulation to pre-compute and store the system matrix. Generally, in clinical imaging, given the large sizes of detectors and volume of interests this approach faces critical memory storage issues despite the use of sparse structures to store the system matrix. The aim of this work was to investigate the feasibility of a Monte Carlo simulation pre-computed system matrix approach for 123I clinical brain SPECT imaging with the AdaptiSPECT-C system. Our efficient method was evaluated using an XCAT brain perfusion phantom. The present approach’s feasibility was fully demonstrated in case of clinical 123I brain imaging.
Contemporary management of penetrating renal trauma - A national analysis.

Abstract Introduction Indications for nonoperative management (NOM) after penetrating renal injury remain ill-defined. Using a national database, we sought to describe the experience of operative and nonoperative management in the United States and retrospectively examine risk factors for failure of NOM. Materials and Methods The TQIP database 2010–2016 was used to identify patients with penetrating renal trauma. Outcomes of patients treated with an immediate operation (IO) and NOM are described. Failure of NOM was defined as the need for a renal operation after 4 h from arrival. Univariate then multivariable regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of NOM failure. Results Out of 8139 patients with kidney trauma, 1,842 had a penetrating mechanism of injury and were included. Of those, 89% were male, median age was 28 years, and 330 (18%) were offered NOM. Compared to IO, NOM patients were less likely to have gunshot wound (59% vs 89% p Conclusions NOM is highly successful in selected patients. Concomitant abdominal injuries and higher grade AAST injuries predict NOM failure and should be considered when selecting patients for IO or NOM.
Primary Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Repair Versus Reconstruction: Rates and Risk Factors for Instability Recurrence in a Young, Active Patient Population.

Purpose To comparatively evaluate the clinical outcomes and rates of recurrent instability in young patients with primary medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) repair or reconstruction, as well as to assess for radiologic risk factors for worse outcomes. Methods A retrospective review identified all patients with lateral patellar instability who underwent either MPFL repair and/or imbrication or MPFL reconstruction without any additional osseous procedures between 2008 and 2015 at a single center. Demographic variables and preoperative magnetic resonance imaging were analyzed, and Kujala scores were obtained at a minimum 2-year follow-up. Risk factors for worse outcomes were assessed, including the Caton-Deschamps Index (CDI) Insall-Salvati Index, tibial tubercle–trochlear groove distance, and tibial tubercle–posterior cruciate ligament distance. Results We identified 51 knees with isolated MPFL surgery (reconstruction in 32 and imbrication and/or repair in 19) at a mean of 59.7 months' follow-up (range, 24-121 months). The overall rate of recurrent dislocations was significantly greater in the repair group (36.9%) versus the reconstruction group (6.3%, P = .01), despite the average CDI being significantly higher in the reconstruction group (1.34 vs 1.23 in repair group, P = .04). No significant difference in the rate of return to baseline activity was found between the groups (77.8% in reconstruction group vs 70% in repair group, P = .62). The average Kujala score showed no significant difference between the repair and reconstruction groups (84.15 ± 14.2 vs 84.83 ± 14.38, P = .72). No imaging measurements were found to be predictive of a worse postoperative Kujala score; however, the average CDI among the MPFL repair failures (1.30 ± 0.05) was significantly higher than among the MPFL repair nonfailures (1.18 ± 0.12, P = .03). Conclusions MPFL reconstruction may provide improved midterm clinical outcomes and a decreased recurrence rate compared with MPFL repair. Increased patellar height as measured by the CDI may be a risk factor for recurrent patellar instability in patients who undergo isolated MPFL repair. Level of Evidence Level III, retrospective comparative study.
"I Am Not an Engineer": Understanding How Clinicians Design & Alter Assistive Technology

In the emerging maker movement, clinicians have long played an advisory role in the development of customized assistive technology (AT). Recently, there has been a growing interest in including clinicians as builders of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) AT. To identify the needs of clinicians-as-makers, we investigated the challenges that clinicians faced as they volunteered in an AT building project where they were the primary designers and builders of assistive mobility devices for children. Through observation and co-building of modified ride-on toy cars with clinicians, we found that the rapid pace of development and transient relationship between user and builder did not allow for a complete assessment of the child's mobility. Furthermore, clinicians struggled to actualize concepts borne out of their clinical intent due to a lack of engineering skill. This study highlights the need for tools that support clinicians-as-makers in the AT maker process and a new conceptualization of the role of DIY-AT maker programs within the AT provider ecosystem.
Accuracy assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA-Interim sea-surface temperature, air temperature and humidity profiles over the Atlantic Ocean using AEROSE measurements

AbstractSatellite and in situ measurements of the sea surface and the atmosphere often have inadequate sampling frequencies and often lack consistent global coverage. Because of such limitations, r...
Adult Pineal Region Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor: A Case for Aggressive Surgical and Chemoradiation Management with Comprehensive Literature Review.

ABSTRACT: Background Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) is a rare, highly malignant central nervous system neoplasm classified as an embryonal grade IV neoplasm by the World Health Organization. ATRT generally occurs in children younger than 3 years of age with 85 pathologically confirmed cases reported in adults. It is most commonly supratentorial with only 9 confirmed adult cases localized to the pineal region. Case Presentation The authors describe the case of a 29-year-old man with a history of chronic migraines and a previously negative computed tomography (CT) scan of the head presenting with worsening headaches and new onset diplopia with upward gaze palsy. CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a hemorrhagic pineal mass with extension into the right thalamus. Post resection, the immunohistochemical staining and cytogenetic profile proved consistent with ATRT, making it the ninth reported case of pineal ATRT in an adult which was treated aggressively with good outcome. Conclusion Adult ATRT is rare, especially in the pineal region with only 9 cases reported. Because of the aggressiveness, ATRT must be considered in the differential diagnosis of pineal-region lesions since early diagnosis and aggressive treatment is key to prolonged survival.
Search for Wino-Bino Production Decaying via WZ at \(\sqrt{s}=13\) TeV

The previous chapter described the motivation for EWK SUSY and the search for wino-bino models. The analysis presented in this chapter is a search for the production of bino \(\tilde{\chi }_1^{\pm }\tilde{\chi }_2^{0}\) decaying via W and Z bosons to two or three leptons and missing energy at \(\sqrt{s} = 13\) TeV with 36.1 fb\(^{\text {-1}}\)of data collected with the ATLAS detector.
Burnt bridge ratchet motor force scales linearly with polyvalency: a computational study.

Nano- and micro-scale burnt bridge ratchet motors, which translocate via “guide” molecules that bind to and degrade a field of “fuel” molecules, have recently emerged in several biological and engineering contexts. The capacity of these motors to generate mechanical forces remains an open question. Here, chemomechanical modeling suggests that BBR force scales linearly with the steady-state number of guide-fuel bonds.
Parent and Primary Care Provider Priorities for Wellness in Early Childhood: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Guidelines recommend that primary care clinicians address a broad range of wellness topics, but time constraints limit clinicians’ ability to address them in the context of well child visits. A greater understanding of the salience of different wellness topics to families and clinicians may aid in prioritizing topics for practice-based interventions to promote wellness. We aimed to identify and compare parent and primary care clinicians’ priorities for early childhood wellness. We conducted a cross-sectional discrete choice experiment with 100 parents/guardians of 2–4-year old children and 27 clinicians from three pediatric primary care practices (two urban, one suburban). Participants rated the relative importance of 24 wellness attributes from six domains: child physical, mental, social, and educational health, family wellness, and community wellness. We compared the rankings of attributes across the parent and clinician samples to understand the differential priorities of the groups and examined the domains of attributes that were highly ranked. In both parent and clinician samples, the highest ranked attributes related to the child or family while community-level attributes were ranked lower. Parents and clinicians both highly prioritized the parent/child relationship and avoiding family substance use. Parents more strongly prioritized child learning while clinicians more strongly prioritized food security and parent mood. Neighborhood social cohesion and parent health problems were of low priority to both groups. Priorities were similar across subgroups of parent race, education, income, and neighborhood poverty. Findings may aid primary care practices and clinicians in prioritizing topics for interventions to promote wellness in pediatric primary care.
Implementation of Sexual Assault Services in a Clinic Setting.

ABSTRACT Sexual assault services cost Americans more than $420,000,000 annually for medical and mental health services. Personal costs include lost wages, lost quality of life, and victim assistance. Public costs include police work, legal adjudication, and sanctioning (penalties). In 2014, an estimated 284,350 adult women were sexually assaulted in the United States. Sexual assault is significantly underreported by those who are assaulted. Upon determination that sexual assault services in a clinic setting were nonexistent, services for sexual assault were developed and implemented in a clinic setting in a Midwestern state. The purpose of clinic services was to provide support, assessment, and forensic examinations for adult women and to evaluate the number of women receiving services. A quality improvement approach was used to determine how and when sexually assault victims received sexual assault services. Persons who have been sexually assaulted vary in gender and age; however, for the purpose of the pilot project, implementation initially included services to women over 18 years of age. Although the number of female patients receiving care was low in the inaugural clinic during the implementation and evaluation period, the services provision remains a viable option for women who experienced sexual assault in a community that previously had no access to clinic services.
Performance of digital screening mammography in a population-based cohort of black and white women.

Purpose There is scarce information on whether digital screening mammography performance differs between black and white women.
Geometric Polynomial Constraints in Higher-Order Graph Matching.

Correspondence is a ubiquitous problem in computer vision and graph matching has been a natural way to formalize correspondence as an optimization problem. Recently, graph matching solvers have included higher-order terms representing affinities beyond the unary and pairwise level. Such higher-order terms have a particular appeal for geometric constraints that include three or more correspondences like the PnP 2D-3D pose problems. In this paper, we address the problem of finding correspondences in the absence of unary or pairwise constraints as it emerges in problems where unary appearance similarity like SIFT matches is not available. Current higher order matching approaches have targeted problems where higher order affinity can simply be formulated as a difference of invariances such as lengths, angles, or cross-ratios. In this paper, we present a method of how to apply geometric constraints modeled as polynomial equation systems. As opposed to RANSAC where such systems have to be solved and then tested for inlier hypotheses, our constraints are derived as a single affinity weight based on $n>2$ hypothesized correspondences without solving the polynomial system. Since the result is directly a correspondence without a transformation model, our approach supports correspondence matching in the presence of multiple geometric transforms like articulated motions.
The combination of histochemistry and cytochemistry with electron microscopy for the demonstration of the sites of succinic dehydrogenase activity

This brief survey report is concerned with some of the experience gained during a series of experiments in which histochemistry and cytochemistry were combined with electron microscopy. In part, this paper will deal briefly with some of the experimental designs used to arrive at a compromise situation between the distinct and different requirements of the separate disciplines, histochemistry and electron microscopy, so that both can be used together. A second part is concerned with some of the results obtained during investigation on the sites of activity of the succinic dehydrogenase system of enzymes.
Reinforcement learning for trading systems and portfolios

We propose to train trading systems by optimizing financial objective functions via reinforcement learning. The performance functions that we consider as value functions are profit or wealth, the Sharpe ratio and our recently proposed differential Sharpe ratio for online learning. In Moody & Wu (1997), we presented empirical results in controlled experiments that demonstrated the advantages of reinforcement learning relative to supervised learning. Here we extend our previous work to compare Q-Learning to a reinforcement learning technique based on real-time recurrent learning (RTRL) that maximizes immediate reward. Our simulation results include a spectacular demonstration of the presence of predictability in the monthly Standard and Poors 500 stock index for the 25 year period 1970 through 1994. Our reinforcement trader achieves a simulated out-of-sample profit of over 4000% for this period, compared to the return for a buy and hold strategy of about 1300% (with dividends reinvested). This superior result is achieved with substantially lower risk.
Multivariate Analysis: Discrete Variables (Overview)

This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 15, pp. 10233–10240, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.
The Interior of Mars

Recent missions have provided important insights into the martian interior, even though all of them aimed to elucidate the planet9s surface. In their Perspective, Fei and Bertka argue that the available evidence points to a liquid Martian core and a solid iron-rich silicate mantle. However, the size of the core is poorly constrained. Because better knowledge of the properties of the martian interior will shed light on the evolution not only of Mars but also of other terrestrial planets, the authors call for a mission that focuses on the martian interior.
DNA sequence and regulation of the gene (cbpA) encoding the 42-kilodalton cytoplasmic membrane carotenoprotein of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942.

Abstract The gene (cbpA) coding for a carotenoid-binding protein of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942 (Anacystis nidulans R2) has been cloned and sequenced. A polyclonal antibody against the protein was used to identify immunoreactive clones from a lambda gt11 expression library of Synechococcus strain PCC 7942. The initial positive clone (lambda gtAN42) contained a 0.9-kilobase (kb) chromosomal fragment, which was used to detect a larger chromosomal fragment from a lambda EMBL3 library. The lambda EMBL3 recombinant, lambda EM109, contained an 18-kb portion of the Synechococcus strain PCC 7942 chromosome. The open reading frame of cbpA encoded 450 amino acids which give rise to a protein of 49,113 daltons. The hydrophobicity plot indicates that the protein may have a 49-residue signal sequence which is cleaved to yield a mature protein of 43,709 daltons. The protein has been localized in the cytoplasmic membrane by biochemical procedures as well as by electron microscopic immunocytochemistry. Northern (RNA) blot analysis indicates that transcription of cbpA is tightly regulated by DNA topology, light intensity, and iron concentration. Transcription is greatly induced by growth under high light intensities and repressed during growth under iron-deficient conditions. The DNA gyrase inhibitor novobiocin specifically inhibited the light-induced transcription. In Northern blots, the gene-specific probe hybridized to two size classes of RNA, with lengths of 2.0 and 6.2 kb. Since cbpA appears to be a component of the 6.2-kb transcript, it is likely part of a larger operon.
DTorial: An Interactive Tutorial Framework for Blind Users in a Web 2.0 World

Effective tutorial systems can help promote products by reducing barriers of learning new applications. With dynamic web applications becoming as complex as desktop programs, there is a growing need for online tutorial/help systems. For visually impaired users the key limitations of traditional help systems are 1) poor access to help content with assistive technology, and 2) frequent reliance on videos/images to identify parts of web applications and demonstrate functionality. In this paper, we present a new interaction model, targeted towards screen-reader users, that describes how to embed an interactive tutorial within a web application. The interaction model is demonstrated within a system called DTorial, a fully functional dynamic audio-based tutorial with embedded content. While remaining within the web application, users can rapidly access any tutorial content, injected inline near relevant application controls, allowing them to quickly apply what they just heard to the application itself, without ever losing their position or having to shift windows. The model and implementation are grounded in sighted user help-systems literature and an analysis of screen-reader and Web-Application interactions. Lessons learned from the incremental design and evaluations indicate that providing visually impaired users with dynamic, embedded, interactive audio-based tutorial systems can reduce the barriers to new Web-Applications.
Rosaramicin Versus Penicillin G in Experimental Pneumococcal Meningitis

Rosaramicin, a new macrolide antibiotic, was compared with penicillin G in the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis in rabbits. Animals were infected intracisternally with 10 4 colony-forming units of Streptococcus pneumoniae type III (rosaramicin minimal inhibitory/bactericidal concentrations, 0.25/0.5 μg/ml; penicillin G minimal inhibitory/bactericidal concentrations, 0.03/0.06 μg/ml). Treatment was instituted 96 h later. Infusion of rosaramicin at 25 mg/kg per h intravenously for 8 h produced a peak cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drug concentration of 1.54 μg/ml (range, 0.87-3.6 μg/ml). During this infusion the numbers of pneumococci in CSF decreased from 6.2 ± 0.5 to 3.36 ± 1.12 log 10 colony-forming units per ml. Penicillin G, infused at 30 mg/kg per h for 8 h, reached a similar concentration in CSF but caused a greater reduction ( P 10 colony-forming units per ml. Penicillin G, at 100 mg/kg per day intramuscularly for 5 days, cured 7 of 10 rabbits with pneumococcal meningitis. A higher dose, 300 mg/kg per day for 5 days, was no more efficacious: 11 of 14 rabbits were cured. Rosaramicin at 100 mg/kg per day intramuscularly for 5 days cured only 5 of 15 rabbits with meningitis, but a higher dosage regimen of that drug (250 mg/kg per day intramuscularly) produced acute, fulminant enterocecitis and death within 48 h in seven of eight rabbits. No cytotoxin was detected in the feces of one rabbit with acute enterocecitis. Thus the efficacy of rosaramicin in experimental pneumococcal meningitis, measured by bacterial clearance from CSF and by treatment outcome, was less than that of penicillin G. In addition, high-dose parenteral rosaramicin caused acute, fulminant enterocecitis in a high proportion of treated rabbits.
Improving Ceramic Processing Through the Application of Microstructure Mining

Microstructure mining aims to study material microstructures while embracing their complexity. The general steps in the microstructure mining method will be introduced in the context of ceramics processing and microstructure evolution in sintering. In particular, the methodology will be illustrated by the design of a new microstructural measurement called the effective diffusion distance. This parameter allows the experimental study of sintering microstructures using traditional kinetic models of sintering even when the microstructures are strongly aggregated. The limits of this approach will be discussed with respect to the scale of the aggregation relative to the size of the pores.
Design of a Shape Memory Alloy deployment hinge for reflector facets

A design concept for a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuated hinge mechanism for deploying segmented facet-type reflector surfaces on antenna truss structures is presented. The mechanism uses nitinol, a nickel-titanium shape memory alloy, as a displacement-force micro-actuator. An electrical current is used to resistively heat a 'plastically' elongated SMA actuator wire, causing it to contract in response to a thermally-induced phase transformation. The resulting tension creates a moment, imparting rotary motion between two adjacent panels. Mechanical stops are designed into the device to limit its range of motion and to establish positioning accuracy at the termination of deployment. The concept and its operation are discussed in detail, and an analytical dynamic simulation model is presented. The model has been used to perform nondimensionalized parametric design studies.
Topology of DCE MR Perfusion Pattern Within Cervical Cancers During Radiation Therapy

Purpose/Objective(s): To develop a non-invasive and quantitative information platform to accurately identify the prostate cancer foci and tumor aggressiveness grade. Materials/Methods: Eleven patients (PSA score ranged from 0.5 to 29.0 with an average 9.4) who had biopsy-proven PCa and elected to have radical prostatectomy received magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI) prior to the surgery. Multi-parametric imaging included extracting a) T2-map, b) Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) using diffusion weighted MRI, c) K using Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI, and d) 3D-MR Spectroscopy using 3D PRESS covering the entire prostate. Each imagewas composed of approximately 10 slices, which were divided into octants and individually assessed for the presence/absence of tumor by a radiologist (resulting in w223 octants that were usable). Following the radical prostatectomy, digital images of both the slice specimens and the histopathology slides were obtained. A pathologist reviewed all 223 slides and marked cancerous regions on each slide and graded them with Gleason score. The pathologist’s grade for the samples served as the ground truth to validate our prediction. Imaging parameters were combined with supervised learning techniques to provide the informatics for diagnosis (binary prediction: cancer/no cancer or indolent/ aggressive cancer, separated by Gleason Z 6) and for treatment decisions (categorical prediction: actual aggressiveness grade). Prediction platform was constructed based on a hybrid of three supervised learning approaches, namely logistic regression, neural network and Naive Bayes. Results: Binary diagnosis prediction combinedwith the radiologist read as an input to the platform, the hybrid method achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) of 0.8. This was higher than any single supervised learning approach 0.67, 0.77 and 0.66. For categorical classification of tumor aggressive grade the hybrid method achieved an AUC of 0.7 as opposed to the individual approachAUCsof 0.65, 0.66 and0.63. Ifweuse only the imaging parameters as input, we were able to double the sensitivity of the radiologist’s diagnosis while maintaining the same specificity. Conclusions: A single imaging modality or conventional MRI alone lacked the sensitivity and specificity to identify prostate cancer foci. We provided a sophisticated while user-friendly platform using multi-parametric MRI combined with hybrid supervised learning to be able to accurately detect cancer foci and its aggressiveness. In addition, our method was non-invasive and allowed for non-subjective disease characterization, which provided physician information to make personalized treatment decision. Author Disclosure: H.H. Zhang: E. Research Grant; Varian Medical Systems. N. Mistry: None. D. Anderson: None. B. Golden: None. M. Naslund: None. J. Wong: None. R. Gullapalli: None. W. D’Souza: E. Research Grant; Varian Medical Systems.
Subjectivity in Descartes and Kant

Kant’s response to Cartesian scepticism is often characterized in the following way. Whereas Descartes drives a wedge between subjective experience and objective reality, Kant argues that there could be no such thing as experience at all if reality were not itself structured in just the way our thought about it is structured. This picture of Kant’s response to Descartes portrays him as succeeding, where Descartes fails, in arguing directly from the nature of experience to the nature of reality; as subscribing, therefore, to Descartes’ view that one is immediately aware only of one’s own mental states, but as seeing a way out of the subjective predicament. I maintain that this picture is deeply flawed. Kant’s transcendental argument is in fact a thoroughgoing critique of Descartes’ subjectivism, and destroys the Cartesian barrier to recognizing that our awareness of reality is unmediated and direct.
Diagnostic Instrument Manipulator (DIM) upgrades for reliability and operational efficiency in a radiological contamination environment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF)

The Diagnostic Instrument Manipulators (DIMs) are two-staged, telescoping systems that allow the precise alignment and positioning of various x-ray, optical, nuclear, and other diagnostics in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Target Chamber. Designed to be reconfigurable and exchangeable between NIF experiments, the second stage of the DIM is referred to as the Diagnostic Load Package (DLP), which is most often comprised of a cart, diagnostic, and detachable snout. As experiments continue to increase radiation levels, various upgrades have been made to the DIMs to improve reliability and operational efficiency. These upgrades reduce worker exposure and increase experimental shot rates. Specific to this paper, the design and operation of dedicated DLP handling and storage units (DHUs and DSUs) are discussed in addition to their transport equipment. Hardware and process improvements for reduced worker exposure during general DIM access are also featured. Finally, the DLP limit switches have been upgraded to magneticallyactuated proximity sensors for reliability, improved shot rate, and increased user flexibility.
Wavelength‐dependent Photoacoustic Calorimetry Study of Melanin

Photoacoustic calorimetry is used to examine the energy dissipation in melanin under physiological conditions (pH 7.2) following irradiation by UV and visible (VIS) light. Four different excitation wavelengths were examined: 264 nm, representative of UVC radiation, 351 nm and 400 nm (UVA-I radiation) and 527 nm, representative of VIS radiation. Following absorption at 527 nm, essentially all of the photon energy is released nonradiatively on a sub-nanosecond of excitation. Similar results are observed at 400 nm. At 351 nm, most of the energy was released as heat; a small amount of energy was retained (5 +/- 5%). When melanin is excited at 264 nm, 29 +/- 7% of the photon energy is retained by the molecule for a time period longer than a few hundred nanoseconds. These results show that a long-lived excited state or reactive intermediate is generated upon UV irradiation, whereas all of the excitation energy is dissipated nonradiatively in the visible portion of the spectrum. These results establish that the photochemistry of melanin is wavelength dependent.
The Problem of Restructuring Modern Capitalism: The Road to a Unified Science of Positive and Social Economics

The process of perestroika, or restructuring, is necessary, not just for the socialist‐communist countries of the world, but for Western capitalist countries also. The social benefits and socially harmful aspects of modern capitalism are outlined and a new research programme to unify and integrate the science of economics is detailed. A Truth Table, a methodological instrument for orientation and clarification, is used to analyse the relationships between economics, sociology, psychology, ethics and political science. The changes necessary to restructure capitalism are diagnosed and some possible solutions are given.
Embryonic expression of HeFoxA1 and HeFoxA2 in an indirectly developing polychaete.

Two forkhead family transcription factors, HeFoxA1 and HeFoxA2, were isolated from the serpulid annelid Hydroides elegans and their transcript distribution were characterized during embryogenesis. HeFoxA1 is first detected in second quartet blastomeres soon after their formation, and later in all vegetal half blastomeres, which comprise ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm precursors. HeFoxA1 expression declines first in subtrochal ectoderm and presumptive midgut precursors, as well as apparently in D quadrant blastomeres in advance of any known signaling events. Later, during gastrulation, HeFoxA1 declines in hindgut precursors, and by the end of gastrulation the expression remains active only in foregut precursors. HeFoxA1 is apparently expressed in ectomesoderm cells involved in forming the larva-specific protonephridium (the so-called head kidney). The other ortholog, HeFoxA2, is expressed in a subset of the cells in which HeFoxA1 is expressed during early stages, but later it is largely restricted to the endoderm–ectoderm boundary of the proctodaeum. In addition, HeFoxA2 has a unique expression in two hindgut cells and abutting ectoderm cells located by the imminent anal opening. The combined expression of HeFoxA1 and HeFoxA2 correlates with mesoderm and endoderm expression of their orthologs in other bilaterians.