cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of fatal bird injuries from collisions with towers and windows

Birds killed by colliding with towers and windows were studied to describe the type and extent of injuries and, more precisely, to suggest the actual cause of death. A total of 502 specimens (247 tower kills, 255 window kills) were dissected, radiographed, and examined. Tower and window collision categories were further subdivided to consider age (subadult versus adult) and weight ( ,39 g, sparrow-size or smaller, versus . 39 g, cardinal size or larger) differences in injury and differential vulnerability. Injuries were classified as superficial, subdermal, or skeletal fractures. Comparisons of injuries between tower- and window-killed specimens indicate that the consequences of these two types of collisions are similar. Subdermal injuries were more severe in tower kills than in window kills. Subadults experienced more severe subdermal injuries than adult tower and window casualties. Among window kills, larger birds had more severe subdermal injuries than smaller birds. Collision victims may show blood or fluid in the mouth or nose cavities (30-60%), almost all have subdermal intracranial hemorrhaging (98-99%), and most lack any evidence of skeletal fractures (82-91%). Histological examination of the brain of two specimens revealed blood pools in the cerebrum and cerebellum. The extravascular bleeding in and around the brain is probably the actual cause of death in collision fatalities. Treatment to reduce brain edema if administered within 6-8 h shortly after impact can save some strike casualties. SINOPSIS. Comparacion de heridas fatales producidas por el choque contra torres o ventanas
The effects of nanotube fillers on craze formation in simulated glassy polymers under tensile load

We consider the work required to deform uniformly dense polymer systems of glassy bead-spring chains filled with rod-like inclusions with aspect ratio akin to carbon nanotubes (CNTs). We consider 0, 0.40, and 2.0 wt% of filler particles. For each composition, we vary the attractive strength of the polymer–inclusion interaction between one and eight times the nominal polymer–polymer interaction strength. Significant enhancements in plateau stress and work of deformation are observed only for the highest weight fraction of the most attractive inclusions. We show that the primitive path algorithm can be used in polymer glasses to simplify the identification of entanglements. We show that the number of entanglements and chains bridging multiple inclusions cannot be directly used to predict the toughness of the polymer composite. Our results indicate that entanglements do not appear to be the primary molecular-scale structural features responsible for determining material properties of polymer glasses.
Arabidopsis protein repair l‐isoaspartyl methyltransferases: predominant activities at lethal temperatures

Protein L-isoaspartyl (D-aspartyl) O-methyltransferases (EC 2.1.1.77; PIMT or PCMT) are enzymes that initiate the full or partial repair of damaged L-aspartyl and L-asparaginyl residues, respectively. These enzymes are found in most organisms and maintain a high degree of sequence conservation. Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis L. Heynh.) is unique among eukaryotes in that it contains two genes, rather than one, that encode PIMT isozymes. We describe a novel Arabidopsis PIMT isozyme, designated AtPIMT2αω, encoded by the PIMT2 gene (At5g50240). We characterized the enzymatic activity of the recombinant AtPIMT2αω in comparison to the other AtPIMT2 isozymes, AtPIMT1, and to the human PCMT ortholog, to better understand its role in Arabidopsis. All Arabidopsis PIMT isozymes are active over a relatively wide pH range. For AtPIMT2αω maximal activity is observed at 50 °C (a lethal temperature for Arabidopsis); this activity is almost ten times greater than the activity at the growth temperature of 25 °C. Interestingly, enzyme activity decreases after pre-incubation at temperatures above 30°C. A similar situation is found for the recombinant AtPIMT2ψ and the AtPIMT2ω isozymes, as well as for the AtPIMT1 and human PCMT1 enzymes. These results suggest that the short-term ability of these methyltransferases to initiate repair under extreme temperature conditions may be a common feature of both the plant and animal species.
Mapping Residual Stresses after Foreign Object Damage Using the Contour Method

A 51-mm thick plate of High-Strength Low-Alloy (HSLA-100) steel was impacted by a 6.4 mm diameter tungsten carbide sphere traveling at 2.2 km/sec. The projectile penetration left a 10 mm diameter and 12 mm deep crater. A residual stress map over a cross-section through the crater was measured by the contour method. The predominant feature of the stress map was a peak compressive stress of 900 MPa, or 1.3 times the yield strength, centered about 1.5 crater radii below the crater floor. The results were compared with an explicit finite element simulation of the impact event. The model has good agreement with the measured residual stresses. As part of the study, residual stresses in the as-received HSLA-100 plate were also measured and found to be a typical quenching stress distribution with peak compressive stress of about 165 MPa a few mm below the surface and tensile stress of 200 MPa in the center of the plate thickness.
The recognition of the base of the Westphalian D Stage in Britain

The I.U.G.S. Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy recommends the base of the Westphalian D be recognized using plant macrofossils. In Britain, however, South Wales is the only coalfield where the distribution of the plants is sufficiently well known for them to be used to locate this boundary. Elsewhere in Britain other criteria have been used, particularly non-marine bivalves and plant microfossils, but these must be used with considerable caution.--Modified journal abstract.
Rewarming for accidental hypothermia in an urban medical center using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

BACKGROUND Accidental hypothermia complicated by cardiac arrest carries a high mortality rate in urban areas. For moderate hypothermia cases conventional rewarming methods are usually adequate, however in severe cases extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is known to provide the most efficient rewarming with complete cardiopulmonary support. We report a case of severe hypothermia complicated by prolonged cardiac arrest successfully resuscitated using ECMO. CASE REPORT A 45 year old female was brought to our emergency department with a core body temperature <25°C. Shortly after arrival she had witnessed cardiac arrest in the department. Resuscitative efforts were started immediately including conventional rewarming techniques, followed by ECMO support. ECMO was used successfully in this case to resuscitate this patient from prolonged arrest (3.5 hours) when conventional techniques likely would have failed. After a prolonged hospital course this patient was discharged with her baseline mental and physical capacities intact. CONCLUSIONS This case demonstrates the advantages of advanced internal rewarming techniques, such as ECMO, for quick and efficient rewarming of severely hypothermic patients. This case supports the use of ECMO in severely hypothermic patients as the standard of care.
Inhibition of LDL oxidation by melatonin requires supraphysiologic concentrations

Melatonin has been suggested as a potent antioxidant that may protect against development of atherosclerosis and cancer; however, these effects are unproven and controversial. The antioxidant capacity of melatonin was tested in comparison with α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and the melatonin precursors tryptophan and serotonin, by measuring inhibition of metal ion-mediated and human macrophage-mediated oxidation of LDL. Melatonin had weak antioxidant activity that was detectable only at concentrations 10 000- to 100 000-fold higher than physiologic concentrations. These results were comparable with published data showing that the radical scavenging activity of melatonin requires markedly supraphysiologic concentrations. In contrast, α-tocopherol was 50- to 100-fold more potent and was efficacious at physiologic concentrations. Ascorbic acid and tryptophan also were active at physiologic concentrations and were significantly more potent than melatonin. In summary, extremely supraphysiologic concentrations of melatonin had only weak antioxidant activity, which was surpassed by α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and tryptophan.
Estimation of Ultraviolet-A Irradiance from Measurements of 368-nm Spectral Irradiance

Abstract The estimation of ultraviolet-A (UV-A) radiation across the earth’s surface is needed to model plant productivity and future impacts of ultraviolet-B radiation on plant productivity. We have developed two models to estimate the UV-A irradiance from measurements of the diffuse and global spectral irradiance at 368 nm. The models were developed from 30-min-interval measurements made throughout 2000 at three locations across the United States and evaluated from 30-min measurements made throughout 2000 at three additional locations and throughout 2001 and 2002 at seven locations. UV-A irradiance was best estimated from measured global 368-nm irradiance and empirical functions defining the UV-A and 368-nm irradiance values estimated from a theoretical pseudospherical two-stream discrete-ordinates radiative transfer model. The radiative transfer model provided baseline irradiance relationships between UV-A irradiance and 368-nm spectral irradiance. The semiempirical model estimated the UV-A irradiance ...
Tailoring the elastic postbuckling response of cylindrical shells: A route for exploiting instabilities in materials and mechanical systems

Postbuckling response, long considered mainly as a failure limit state is gaining increased interest for smart applications, such as energy harvesting, frequency tuning, sensing, actuation, etc. This letter explores the potential of cylindrical shells under axial compression, for which localized buckling events along with high-rate local deformations can be attained in their elastic postbuckling regime under smaller axial system deformation input, as a prototype for harnessing elastic instabilities. Three avenues are presented to tailor and control the elastic postbuckling response of axially-compressed shells: (1) by introducing seeded geometric imperfections (SGI); (2) by introducing non-uniform stiffness distributions (NSD); and (3) by providing lateral constraints and interactions (LCI). Prototyped cylindrical shells were fabricated through 3D printing and tested under loading–unloading cycles. Experimental results show that, with appropriate selection of geometry, material, and stiffness distribution, these three concepts offer significant advantages over uniform cylindrical shells for use of their notoriously unreliable elastic postbuckling response. This work provides new knowledge on the possibilities and means to design the cylindrical shells with controlled elastic postbuckling behavior and opens new avenues for using this structural form for applications in smart materials and structures.
Potential of the (5)Σ1g+ state of Na 2 by two-step excitation spectroscopy

The (5)Σ1g+ state has been studied by two-step excitation spectroscopy. 270 levels in the state were measured with high resolution. A set of Dunham coefficients was deduced to fit all levels with v < 19. The spectroscopic data were used to construct a Rydberg–Klein–Rees potential for the state. The potential shows that the state is perturbed by other Rydberg states and ionic states and seems likely to have a second well that is due to avoided crossings with these states.
Distinct neurohumoral biomarker profiles in children with hemodynamically defined orthostatic intolerance may predict treatment options

Studies of adults with orthostatic intolerance (OI) have revealed altered neurohumoral responses to orthostasis, which provide mechanistic insights into the dysregulation of blood pressure control. Similar studies in children with OI providing a thorough neurohumoral profile are lacking. The objective of the present study was to determine the cardiovascular and neurohumoral profile in adolescent subjects presenting with OI. Subjects at 10-18 yr of age were prospectively recruited if they exhibited two or more traditional OI symptoms and were referred for head-up tilt (HUT) testing. Circulating catecholamines, vasopressin, aldosterone, renin, and angiotensins were measured in the supine position and after 15 min of 70° tilt. Heart rate and blood pressure were continuously measured. Of the 48 patients, 30 patients had an abnormal tilt. Subjects with an abnormal tilt had lower systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressures during tilt, significantly higher levels of vasopressin during HUT, and relatively higher catecholamines and ANG II during HUT than subjects with a normal tilt. Distinct neurohumoral profiles were observed when OI subjects were placed into the following groups defined by the hemodynamic response: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), orthostatic hypotension (OH), syncope, and POTS/syncope. Key characteristics included higher HUT-induced norepinephrine in POTS subjects, higher vasopressin in OH and syncope subjects, and higher supine and HUT aldosterone in OH subjects. In conclusion, children with OI and an abnormal response to tilt exhibit distinct neurohumoral profiles associated with the type of the hemodynamic response during orthostatic challenge. Elevated arginine vasopressin levels in syncope and OH groups are likely an exaggerated response to decreased blood flow not compensated by higher norepinephrine levels, as observed in POTS subjects. These different compensatory mechanisms support the role of measuring neurohumoral profiles toward the goal of selecting more focused and mechanistic-based treatment options for pediatric patients with OI.
Sex-Specific Differences in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for both men and women in the United States. Lung cancer exceeded breast cancer as the primary cause of female cancer deaths in 1987 and now kills more women than the next two most common cancers in females (breast and colorectal) combined. The rate of lung cancer diagnoses for men has declined in the last 30 years; however, lung cancer incidence has risen for women. Whether or not women have an increased risk of lung cancer remains controversial. There is, however, no debate to the fact that the biology of lung cancer differs between the sexes. Here we review the explanations for the observed sex differences in lung cancer presentation, including disparities in clinical characteristics, genetic factors and hormonal influences, as well as variations in incidence rates, outcomes, and therapeutic response. Finally, the current status and future implications for pharmacological blockade of the estrogen pathway for lung cancer treatment are discussed.
Balance Between Crop-planting and Livestock-raising:Perspective of Agricultural Pollution Reduction

Lack of integrated planning of both crop planting and livestock raising systems causes excessive outputs of livestock feces, leading to serious hazards to the ecological environment. Here we explored the linkage of agricultural pollution to material cycling between cropplanting and livestock-raising. We also discussed the approaches to achieve simultaneous development of crops and livestock in two aspects of"Crop-planting determines livestock-raising"and"Livestock-raising promotes crop-planting"."Crop-planting determines livestockraising"means that the scale of livestock system should be reasonably determined by crop system according to the law of material cycling between two systems, with an aim at relieving the environmental pressure caused by livestock wastes. "Livestock-raising promotes cropplanting"is that applying livestock wastes after their harmless treatments would improve soil fertility and crop production. It is concluded that balancing production between"crop planting and livestock raising"would fully utilize wastes, reduce the risk of environmental pollution and ultimately achieve the goal of agricultural pollution reduction.
Serum microRNAs as diagnostic markers of endometriosis: a comprehensive array-based analysis

Objective To investigate serum microRNAs (miRNAs) in women with endometriosis. Design Case-control study. Setting University hospital. Patient(s) Women with (n = 24) and without (n = 24) endometriosis. Intervention(s) Serum samples were obtained from surgically diagnosed subjects. Main Outcome Measure(s) miRNA from women with without endometriosis were used for microarray profiling and confirmed by means of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed on differentially expressed miRNAs. Result(s) miR-3613-5p, miR-6755-3p were down-regulated and miR-125b-5p, miR-150–5p, miR-342-3p, miR-143-3p, miR-145-5p, miR-500a-3p, miR-451a, miR-18a-5p were up-regulated more than 10-fold in the microarray. These results were confirmed with the use of qRT-PCR. Among the differentially expressed miRNAs, miR-125b-5p expression levels had the highest area under the ROC curve (AUC). The maximum AUC score of 1.000 was achieved when combining miR-125b-5p, miR-451a, and miR-3613-5p with the use of a logistic regression model. Conclusion(s) We identified several miRNAs in serum that distinguished subjects with endometriosis from those without. miR-125b-5p had the greatest potential as a single diagnostic biomarker. A combination of that miRNA with miR-451a and miR-3613-5p further improved diagnostic performance.
Demo: Building Comprehensible Access Control for the Internet of Things using Beetle

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) powers a wide range of devices and peripherals including personal fitness trackers, smart clothing, locks, ovens, light bulbs, toys, etc. Today, these peripherals interact with a limited set of applications running on smartphones and gateways, in a one-to-one manner.Beetle, however, demonstrates the viability of BLE and Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) to support more sophisticated communication between networks of applications and peripherals. Using Beetle, we present a new data-plane for the home and personal Internet of Things (IoT); a policy language and enforcement layer in Beetle to showcase fine-grained and user understandable access control; and several distributed IoT configurations built from existing and prototype BLE peripherals and applications.
The Future of Comparative Politics is its Past

Schmitter advocates that the future of comparative politics should be about addressing context, complexity, aggregate dynamics, limits to simplified cross-national generalizations, non-reductive assumptions about individual rationality, and an analytical method that is pragmatic and realistic in its assumptions. In this short essay, I argue that most of what Schmitter calls for as the future of comparative politics is already present. Schmitter has reengaged in a debate and discussion that goes back to the origins of comparative politics, and that is how to balance its theoretical inclination for broad cross-national generalization with its area (case) study empirical basis. In this respect, the future of comparative politics is its past!
Histone deacetylase inhibition is cytotoxic to oligodendrocyte precursor cells in vitro and in vivo

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition mediated by small molecule HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) has demonstrated divergent effects including toxicity towards transformed cell lines, neuroprotection in neurological disease models, and inhibition of oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) differentiation to mature oligodendrocytes (OL). However, it remains unknown if transient HDAC inhibition may promote OPC survival. Using mouse cortical OPC primary cultures, we investigated the effects of the FDA approved pan-HDACi suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) on OPC survival. Initial studies showed differences in the HDAC expression pattern of multiple HDAC isoforms in OPCs relative to their terminally differentiated progeny cells, OLs and astrocytes. Treatment of OPCs with SAHA for up to 72h using a maximum concentration either at or lower than those necessary for cytotoxicity in most transformed cell lines resulted in over 67% reduction in viability relative to vehicle-treated OPCs. This was at least partly due to increased apoptosis as SAHA-treated cells displayed activated caspase 3 and were protected by the general caspase inhibitor Q-VD-OPH. Additionally, SAHA treatment of whole mice at postnatal day 5 induced apoptosis of cortical OPCs. These results suggest that SAHA negatively impacts OPC survival and may be detrimental to the myelinating brain and spinal cord. Such toxicity may be relevant in a clinical context as SAHA is currently involved in numerous clinical trials and is in consideration for use in the treatment of psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions.
Three-dimensional chromosome structures from energy landscape

The human genome contains about 2-m length of DNA and is packed into a small cell nucleus of approximately cubic-micrometer size. A central question in genome biology is to understand how chromatins are organized in such a compact volume, while biological functions such as gene expression, DNA replication, and DNA repair are robustly orchestrated. Over the past two decades, experimental studies based on chromatin fragmentation and proximity cross-linking have given us quantitative information on the frequencies of long-range interactions among genomic elements (1). With recent development of the Hi-C methodology (2), frequencies of such interactions are now known at 1-kB resolution (3). These studies lead to discoveries of finer organizational structures of compartments, subcompartments, and topologically associated domains (TADs) (3, 4). Although these structures have been inferred from analysis of heat maps of frequencies of genomic interactions (3, 5, 6), a grand challenge in studying the 3D genome is to gain mechanistic understanding of the general principles governing chromatin folding and their spatial organization. In PNAS, Di Pierro et al. (7) introduce an energy landscape theory and a predictive model of chromosome architecture. Di Pierro et al. start by considering the roles of specific biochemical interactions. Although generic polymer models of chromatin have generated important insight into the overall behavior of chromatin, growing evidence suggests that biochemical interactions are critical for 3D genome organization (8). Di Pierro et al. assume that chromosomes fold under the influence of a cloud of proteins, which bind to different sections of chromatin with different affinities and specificities. To recapture the energy landscape governed by these interactions, Di Pierro et al. develop the minimal chromatin model. The first ingredient of Di Pierro et al.’s model is the partitioning of the genome into intervals of a handful of types. Each interval type is … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jliang{at}uic.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Therapeutic Potential of Small Molecule Inhibitors

Within the last two decades, the advancement in cellular and cancer biology research can be defined by a few foundational pillars-one of the most important ones being the advent of small-molecule inhibitors (SMIs). Due to their several advantages over contemporary cytotoxic drugs, these engineered molecules have not only shed light on a much deeper understanding of the cellular microenvironment and signal transduction pathways, they have also provided hope of achieving clinical benefits of better patient tolerability while surpassing the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents. It is, therefore, no surprise that research and development of SMIs has witness a steady surge amongst pharmaceutical industries and research institutions. It is, however, safe to assume that the current applications of SMIs are the mere tip of a yet-inconceivable iceberg. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 959-961, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Political Descent: Malthus, Mutualism, and the Politics of Evolution in Victorian England. By Piers J. Hale. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pp. 442. $45.00.)

Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution have long been recognized as a landmark in the intellectual and highly politicized debate over whether the ultimate success of the human species rests on the pur...
Musculoskeletal Effects of Pregnancy on the Lower Extremity A Literature Review .

Pregnant women are often burdened with musculoskeletal symptoms of the lower extremity due to the physical, hormonal, and anatomical changes that occur throughout pregnancy. These symptoms are associated with musculoskeletal dysfunctions, modified gait, joint laxity, muscle imbalance, and increased body mass. This article reviews the literature involving the lower-extremity changes experienced by women during pregnancy and their respective pathophysiologic causes.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression: Naturalistic treatment outcomes for younger versus older patients.

Abstract Background Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been shown to be safe and effective for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in the general adult population. Efficacy among older (≥60 years) patients, who have a greater burden of cognitive, physical, and functional impairment compared to their younger counterparts, remains unclear. The current study aimed to characterize antidepressant response to an acute course of TMS therapy among patients aged ≥60 years compared to those Methods Data were retrospectively collected and pooled for adults with TRD (N =231; n =75 aged ≥60 years and n = 156 Results Both age groups showed significant improvements in depression symptoms. Response and remission rates did not differ between groups. Age group was not a significant predictor of change in depression severity, nor of clinical response or remission, in a model controlling for other predictors (all p>.05). Limitations Limitations include reliance on self-report clinical measures and variability in comorbidity and concurrent pharmacotherapy due to the naturalistic nature of the study. Conclusions Results suggest that effectiveness of TMS for TRD is not differentially modified by age. Based on these naturalistic data, age alone should not be considered a contraindication or poor prognostic indicator of the antidepressant efficacy of TMS.
A method for learning a sparse classifier in the presence of missing data for high-dimensional biological datasets.

Motivation This work addresses two common issues in building classification models for biological or medical studies: learning a sparse model, where only a subset of a large number of possible predictors is used, and training in the presence of missing data. This work focuses on supervised generative binary classification models, specifically linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The parameters are determined using an expectation maximization algorithm to both address missing data and introduce priors to promote sparsity. The proposed algorithm, expectation-maximization sparse discriminant analysis (EM-SDA), produces a sparse LDA model for datasets with and without missing data. Results EM-SDA is tested via simulations and case studies. In the simulations, EM-SDA is compared with nearest shrunken centroids (NSCs) and sparse discriminant analysis (SDA) with k-nearest neighbors for imputation for varying mechanism and amount of missing data. In three case studies using published biomedical data, the results are compared with NSC and SDA models with four different types of imputation, all of which are common approaches in the field. EM-SDA is more accurate and sparse than competing methods both with and without missing data in most of the experiments. Furthermore, the EM-SDA results are mostly consistent between the missing and full cases. Biological relevance of the resulting models, as quantified via a literature search, is also presented. Availability and implementation A Matlab implementation published under GNU GPL v.3 license is available at http://web.mit.edu/braatzgroup/links.html . Contact braatz@mit.edu. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Orbit: Dermis Fat Graft (DFG) for Orbital Volume Augmentation

A dermis fat graft (DFG) is a versatile procedure applicable to a number of conditions in oculofacial plastic surgery, including orbital volume augmentation. For this purpose it is most commonly used in the setting of congenital microphthalmos or in cases of the anophthalmic socket when patients are intolerant of alloplastic implants or have insufficient conjunctiva. Many factors are taken into consideration when performing this surgery including the age of the patient, underlying pathology, factors affecting DFG survival, and the amount of volume desired. DFG is employed in cases of congenital microphthalmos where conformer therapy or scleral shell placement is not adequate. The goal is to place the DFG in the inferior cul-de-sac inferior to the small globe for both support and additional volume to promote symmetric eyelid and periocular soft tissue development. In the anophthalmic orbit, the DFG can be used as a primary implant or used to augment an existing implant. Patients should have been evaluated and deemed appropriate for such surgical intervention. Patients should have been educated about the risks and benefits of the procedure, including alternatives.
The reciprocal lagged effects of substance use and recidivism in a prisoner reentry context

Much work has investigated the association between substance use, crime, and recidivism, yet little scholarship has examined these associations longitudinally among samples of recently released prisoners. We examine the lagged reciprocal effects of hard substance use and crime, among other covariates, in the context of the prisoner reentry process. We rely on data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) evaluation and employ cross-lagged panel models to examine short-term changes in substance use and crime over time among a large sample of high-risk, former prisoners (N = 1697). Substance use marginally predicted increased odds of rearrest at one wave, and rearrest significantly (p < .05) predicted increased odds of substance use at another. As such, the results provide limited evidence for a degree of lagged mutual causation; associations vary over the reentry process and are complicated by other realities of life after prison. A key finding is that both behaviors are more consistently influenced by other factors, such as service needs and instrumental and emotional supports. Although there are relationships between drug use and criminal behavior, these behaviors alone are insufficient explanations for one another in an adult reentry population. Alternatively, the compounding social and personal needs of the reentry population, and the extent to which they received support or services to address these needs, appear to have the strongest influence on both behaviors in the reentry context.
Hidden Disadvantages for Women: Explaining Gender Inequality in Entrepreneurial Teams

Scholars have examined gender inequalities in status distinctions and leadership assignment. Yet, questions remain regarding how gendered task relations shape the performance of autonomous groups p...
Deep Brain Stimulation for Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

Abstract Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by persistent obsessions with intrusive thoughts leading to severe generalized anxiety and/or compulsions in the form of repetitive tasks to relieve this distress. The success of deep brain stimulation surgery for a variety of movement disorders over the past 2 decades has led to the exploration of this treatment modality for medically refractory OCD.
Efficent Generation of Fractional Brownian Motion for Simulation of Infrared Focal-plane Array Calibration Drift

Infrared focal-plane arrays suffer from a type of 1/f noise which leads to slow drifts in detected radiation levels following calibration. This noise can be modeled by fractional Brownian motion (FBM), with an empirical Hurst parameter (H) in the range 0 < H < 1 / 2. For such noise we examine the statistics of both the maximum deviation from the calibration point during a fixed time, and the time to reach a fixed deviation from the calibration point. We employ analytical and numerical means; for the latter, we provide a new algorithm for generating a discrete-time version of FBM with 0 < H ≤ 1 / 2 which is fast (order N log N), and exact. Statistics of the maximum deviation show the same qualitative behavior for different values of H, and rapidly approach a limit as the length N increases. Results for first passage times, in contrast, vary markedly with H, but not with N.
ENGINEERING FOR STERILITY AND CONTAINMENT: DESIGN OF A 225L “POLYMODAL” FERMENTER FOR THE CONTAINMENT OF P3 PATHOGENS

ABSTRACT The design approaches to the maintenance of sterility and containment in large scale fermentation plants desccribed together with the solutions arrived at in the design and fabrication of a multi-purpose 225 dm3 fermentation pilot plant capable of being used for the growth of animal cells or bacteria under P3 containment conditions as defined by the UK government Advisory Commiittee on Dangerous Pathogens.
Sell or Partner? Travel Time, Asymmetric Information, and the Seller's Dilemma in M&As

When a company is bought by another company, the seller needs to decide whether to sell the business for cash or retain partial ownership of the combined entity by accepting a stock payment. Both the ex-ante ability to assess the bidder's value and the ex-post cost of performing governance activities are likely to be critical determinants of the seller's decision. Drawing from a sample of U.S. domestic acquisitions over the period 1993-2014, I examine whether the use of stock vs. cash is related to these information and governance limitations. Using the time required to travel between the merging companies' headquarters as a proxy for the seller's information asymmetry, I find that travel time negatively affects the probability of a stock payment. This effect becomes stronger when the seller has more bargaining power, as proxied by the number of competing bidders. The results also indicate that proximity to the acquirer reduces the chances that the seller accepts an overvalued stock offer and increases th...
PERTURBATIVE CALCULATION OF SPIN OBSERVABLES IN ELASTIC NUCLEON-DEUTERON SCATTERING*

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the perturbative techniques to calculate spin observables in elastic nucleon–deuteron (n–d) scattering and describes the comparison of the perturbation results with an exact solution of the Faddeev–Lovelace–Amado (FLA) equations. In this calculation, the only perturbation was the 7% D-state tensor force. The agreement of the exact and perturbation results is agreeable. The chapter illustrates the elastic differential cross-sections computed at 14.1 MeV and 22.7 MeV. The perturbation raises the cross-section at all energies and improves the agreement with the data in both the forward and backward peaks. The chapter also discusses the nucleon polarizations computed using P-wave and D-wave potentials. The agreement with the data at low energies is excellent but at 22.7 and 40 MeV, the calculation does not have a deep enough minimum and overestimates the backward peak.
Prophylaxis and Treatment of Rhinovirus Infections

Considerable progress has been made in the development of some active antirhinovirus agents. Thus, various interferons (IFNs) including recombinant human IFN alpha and beta were found active and protected volunteers from experimental rhinovirus infections. However, clinical studies indicated that IFNs need to be given in large doses and over frequent intervals and therefore were only useful in short-term prophylaxis (4–7 days). Prolonged administration (21–28 days) resulted in local toxicity manifested by nasal irritation, inflammation, ulceration and bleeding.
Die Edge Crack Propagation Modeling for Risk Assessment of Advanced Technology Nodes

Cracks at the die edge induced by dicing can grow due to chip-package interaction (CPI) and thermal cycling experienced in service. The semiconductor industry has been making major efforts to prevent die edge cracks from propagating into the active area of a chip. Patterned metal structures are commonly introduced around the perimeter to play a role as crackstop by increasing the fracture resistance near the die edge. In advance technology nodes, while the introduction of ultra low-k (ULK) materials reduces the RC delay, it also adds to the CPI challenge due to its weaker mechanical strength and fracture resistance. Die edge cracking risk is thus still a major reliability concern. In this report, a structured methodology that can address the die cracking reliability challenges is presented. Experimentally, we found that the effectiveness of crackstop structures for arresting dicing crack propagation depends on the following aspects: (1) BEOL stack, (2) crack stop design, (3) dicing location, (4) substrate. In this paper, multilevel finite element method (FEM) simulations are conducted to provide fundamental understanding of the failure mechanism. Cohesive zone modeling (CZM) is implemented in the last level of submodel to simulate the dicing crack propagation. A fracture mechanics-based methodology is implemented to calculate the crack driving force (energy release rate) and identify the weakest layer in the BEOL stack. The effect of BEOL stacks, packaging stress, and crackstop location are investigated thoroughly to study key drivers of the various die edge cracking behaviors observed experimentally. We demonstrate that the methodology presented herein can be used to investigate die edge cracking risks for future advanced technology nodes.
Chemoproteomic discovery of a ritanserin-targeted kinase network mediating apoptotic cell death of lung tumor cells

Ritanserin was tested in the clinic as a serotonin receptor inverse agonist but recently emerged as a novel kinase inhibitor with potential applications in cancer. Here, we discovered that ritanserin induced apoptotic cell death of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells via a serotonin-independent mechanism. We used quantitative chemical proteomics to reveal a ritanserin-dependent kinase network that includes key mediators of lipid [diacylglycerol kinase α, phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase β] and protein [feline encephalitis virus-related kinase, rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (RAF)] signaling, metabolism [eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2-α kinase 4], and DNA damage response [tousled-like kinase 2] to broadly kill lung tumor cell types. Whereas ritanserin exhibited polypharmacology in NSCLC proteomes, this compound showed unexpected specificity for c-RAF in the SCLC subtype, with negligible activity against other kinases mediating mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling. Here we show that ritanserin blocks c-RAF but not B-RAF activation of established oncogenic signaling pathways in live cells, providing evidence in support of c-RAF as a key target mediating its anticancer activity. Given the role of c-RAF activation in RAS-mutated cancers resistant to clinical B-RAF inhibitors, our findings may have implications in overcoming resistance mechanisms associated with c-RAF biology. The unique target landscape combined with acceptable safety profiles in humans provides new opportunities for repositioning ritanserin in cancer.
New radical methods for the potential synthesis of carbon-13 and carbon-14 labeled complex products

The isotopic labeling of molecules for agrichemical and pharmaceutical uses is becoming more challenging as molecules become larger, involve more stereochemistry, and as intellectual property rights become more complex. As such, isotope chemists need to continually add new isotopic methods to their armamentarium to successfully label complex molecules with carbon-13 and carbon-14. Recently, there has been a surge in the use of radicals to form new carbon-carbon bonds and for the incorporation of functional groups which can be used to incorporate isotopically labeled carbons. This review will describe some potential new radical methods for incorporating isotopically labeled carbon into complex molecules or into substrates that can be attached to late stage intermediates to generate labeled products.
PAC-Bayes Tree: weighted subtrees with guarantees

We present a weighted-majority classification approach over subtrees of a fixed tree, which provably achieves excess-risk of the same order as the best tree-pruning. Furthermore, the computational efficiency of pruning is maintained at both training and testing time despite having to aggregate over an exponential number of subtrees. We believe this is the first subtree aggregation approach with such guarantees.
Association between AXL promoter methylation and lung function growth during adolescence.

AXL is one of the TAM (TYRO3, AXL and MERTK) receptor tyrosine kinases and may be involved in airway inflammation. Little is known about how epigenetic changes in AXL may affect lung development du...
An Algebra for Robust Workflow Transformations

Scientific workflows are often designed with a particular compute site in mind. As a user changes sites the workflow needs to adjust. These changes include moving from a cluster to a cloud, updating an operating system, or investigating failures on a new cluster. As a workflow is moved, its tasks do not fundamentally change, but the steps to configure, execute, and evaluate tasks differ. When handling these changes it may be necessary to use a script to analyze execution failure or run a container to use the correct operating system. To improve workflow portability and robustness, it is necessary to have a rigorous method that allows transformations on a workflow. These transformations do not change the tasks, only the way tasks are invoked. Using technologies such as containers, resource managers, and scripts to transform workflows allow for portability, but combining these technologies can lead to complications with execution and error handling. We define an algebra to reason about task transformations at the workflow level and express it in a declarative form using JSON. We implemented this algebra in the Makeflow workflow system and demonstrate how transformations can be used for resource monitoring, failure analysis, and software deployment across three sites.
In situ formed polymer gel electrolytes for lithium batteries with inherent thermal shutdown safety features

Rechargeable lithium metal batteries based on organic electrolytes face challenges of both lithium metal cycling stability and the associated safety issues. Herein, we demonstrate an in situ formed polymer gel electrolyte which enables dendrite-free lithium metal cycling. Moreover, the gel electrolyte goes through further polymerization at elevated temperatures and loses its ionic conductivity, effectively shutting down the battery. When lithium iodide (LiI) is dissolved in vinylene carbonate (VC), LiI induces the polymerization of VC to form poly(vinylene carbonate) (polyVC). The electrolyte then transforms into a polymer gel electrolyte containing VC as the solvent and LiI as the salt. At room temperature, the gel electrolyte enables dendrite-free lithium metal cycling at current densities as high as 5 mA cm−2 for 500 cycles. Furthermore, a Li/Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) cell retains 50% of the initial capacity at the 700th cycle. When the cell is heated to 80 °C, the ionic resistance of the electrolyte increases by a factor of 103, resulting in the shutdown of the cell due to the complete polymerization of VC. The approach of using in situ polymerization to enable stable lithium cycling and to serve as a thermally triggered shutdown mechanism provides a new pathway for fabricating safer lithium metal batteries.
Laboratory Exercise To Measure Restriction Enzyme Kinetics.

Enzymes are ubiquitous in the fields of biology and microbiology, catalyzing critical reactions and enabling a broad range of biotechnological applications. Despite the important role that enzyme catalysis plays in biological processes, undergraduate students often struggle to understand enzyme kinetics in the classroom. In an attempt to improve students’ understanding of the topic, we present a relatively short and inexpensive laboratory activity designed to give students hands-on experience with generating and manipulating enzyme kinetic data. Students perform restriction digests of DNA at various time points, visualize the reaction products on an agarose gel, and quantify their data in order to construct Lineweaver-Burk plots which compare the effects of a restriction enzyme and its engineered version. The activity may be completed in a single two-hour lab session and, unlike other enzyme assays designed for laboratory courses, does not require a microplate reader to complete. The activity allows students to see connections between a visual data set and quantitative kinetic data, in order to solidify their understanding of enzyme kinetics. Students also learn the skills of gel electrophoresis and image quantification using ImageJ software. This lab activity is ideal for undergraduate laboratory courses which address enzyme kinetics and DNA technology.
An energy model of droplet impingement on an inclined wall under isothermal and non-isothermal environments

Abstract The study of spray-wall interaction is of great importance to understand the dynamics that occur during fuel impingement onto the chamber wall or piston surfaces in internal combustion engines. It is found that the maximum spreading length of an impinged droplet can provide a quantitative estimation of heat transfer and energy transformation for spray-wall interaction. Furthermore, it influences the air-fuel mixing and hydrocarbon and particle emissions at combusting conditions. In this paper, an analytical model of different droplet-wall impingement conditions is developed in terms of βm (dimensionless maximum spreading length, the ratio of maximum spreading length to initial droplet diameter) to understand the detailed impinging dynamic process. These conditions are grouped as: a single diesel droplet impinging on the wall with different inclined angles (α); cold wall - heated droplet and heated wall - cold droplet impingement when inclined angle of the wall is 0°, respectively. The analytical model is built up based on the energy conservation that considers kinetic energy, gravitation energy, and surface energy before impingement, as well as viscous dissipation, gravitation energy, adhesion energy, deformation energy, and heat energy after impingement. The experimental work of diesel droplet impinging on an inclined wall is performed at a certain range of the Weber number (We of 33 to 420) with various inclined angles (α of 0° to 45°), while for inclined angle is 0°, droplet and wall temperature are varied from 25°C to 150°C to study the effects of the inclined angle and temperature on the temporal evolution of the post-impingement characteristics (i.e. droplet spreading length, dynamic contact angle). The analytical model is validated and evaluated at the aforementioned experimental operating points. The validated model can be employed to predict maximum spreading length of the droplet impinged on the wall. It is further utilized to determine the transition from capillary regime to kinetic regime, then to viscous regime at different inclined angle of the wall.
Two-by-Two Factorial Design

•In simulation research, we are often interested in comparing the effects of more than one independent variable.•Factorial designs allow investigators to efficiently compare multiple independent variables (also known as factors).•An example and resources are described for using a two by two factorial design in simulation research.