cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Single-Layer MoS2 on the Geometry, Electronic Structure, and Reactivity of Transition Metal Nanoparticles

We present results of ab initio density functional theory (DFT) based calculations of the geometry, electronic structure, and reactivity of subnanometer-sized (29-atom) transition metal nanoparticles (NPs) (Cu29, Ag29, and Au29) supported on single-layer MoS2. As compared to its pristine form, defect-laden MoS2 (with a S vacancy row) has relatively larger effect on the above properties of the NPs. The NPs bind more strongly on defect-laden than on pristine MoS2 (in the order Cu29 > Ag29 > Au29), confirming the important role of vacancies in stabilizing the NPs on the support. The presence of vacancies also leads to an increase in charge transfer from the NPs to MoS2 (with the same elemental trend as for their binding energy) and to a shift of the d-band center of the NPs further toward the Fermi level, in turn influencing their propensity toward chemical activity. We examine the adsorption and dissociation of O2 as the prototype reactions and find that there is no barrier for O2 to adsorb on top of an ato...
Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity Due to an Oscillatory Thin Fin: Transient Behavior

A finite-volume-based computational study of transient laminar flow and heat transfer (neglecting natural convection) within a lid-driven square cavity due to an oscillating thin fin is presented. The lid moves from left to right and a thin fin positioned perpendicular to the right stationary wall oscillates in the horizontal direction. The length of the fin varies sinusoidally with its mean length and amplitude equal to 10 and 5 percent of the side of the cavity, respectively. Two Reynolds numbers of 100 and 1000 with a Pr = 1 fluid were considered. For a given convection time scale (tconv ), fin’s oscillation periods (τ) were selected in order to cover both slow (τ/tconv >1) and fast (τ/tconv <1) oscillation regimes. This corresponded to a Strouhal number range of 0.005 to 0.5. The number of the cycles needed to reach the periodic state for the flow and thermal fields increases as τ/tconv decreases for both Re numbers with the thermal field attaining the periodic state later than the velocity field. The key feature of the transient evolution of the fluid flow for the case with Re = 1000 with slow oscillation is the creation, lateral motion and subsequent wall impingement of a CCW rotating vortex within the lower half of the cavity. This CCW rotating vortex that has a lifetime of about 1.5τ brings about marked changes to the temperature field within a cycle. The dimensionless time for the mean Nusselt numbers to reach their maximum or minimum is independent of the frequency of the fin’s oscillation and dependent on the distance between the oscillating fin and the respective wall, and the direction of the primary CW rotating vortex. The phase lag angle between the oscillation of the fin and the mean Nusselt number on the four walls increases as the distance between the fin and the respective wall increases.© 2004 ASME
Tumor RAS Gene Expression Levels Are Influenced by the Mutational Status of RAS Genes and Both Upstream and Downstream RAS Pathway Genes.

The 3 human RAS genes play pivotal roles regulating proliferation, differentiation, and survival in normal cells and become mutated in 15% to 20% of all human tumors and amplified in many others. In this report, we examined data from The Cancer Genome Atlas to investigate the relationship between RAS gene mutational status and messenger RNA expression. We show that all 3 RAS genes exhibit increased expression when they are mutated in a context-dependent manner. In the case of KRAS , this increase is manifested by a larger proportional increase in KRAS4A than KRAS4B , although both increase significantly. In addition, the mutational status of RAS genes can be associated with expression changes in other RAS genes, with most of these cases showing decreased expression. The mutational status associations with expression are recapitulated in cancer cell lines. Increases in expression are mediated by both copy number variation and contextual differences, including mutational status of epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ) and BRAF . These findings potentially reveal an adaptive response during tumor evolution that is dependent on the mutational status of proximal genes in the RAS pathway and cellular context. Cell contextual differences in these adaptations may influence therapeutic responsiveness and alternative resistance mechanisms.
Development and validation of KASP markers for the greenbug resistance gene Gb7 and the Hessian fly resistance gene H32 in wheat

Greenbug and Hessian fly are important pests that decrease wheat production worldwide. We developed and validated breeder-friendly KASP markers for marker-assisted breeding to increase selection efficiency. Greenbug (Schizaphis graminum Rondani) and Hessian fly [Mayetiola destructor (Say)] are two major destructive insect pests of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) throughout wheat production regions in the USA and worldwide. Greenbug and Hessian fly infestation can significantly reduce grain yield and quality. Breeding for resistance to these two pests using marker-assisted selection (MAS) is the most economical strategy to minimize losses. In this study, doubled haploid lines from the Synthetic W7984 × Opata M85 wheat reference population were used to construct linkage maps for the greenbug resistance gene Gb7 and the Hessian fly resistance gene H32 with genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and 90K array-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker data. Flanking markers were closely linked to Gb7 and H32 and were located on chromosome 7DL and 3DL, respectively. Gb7-linked markers (synopGBS773 and synopGBS1141) and H32-linked markers (synopGBS901 and IWB65911) were converted into Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) assays for MAS in wheat breeding. In addition, comparative mapping identified syntenic regions in Brachypodium distachyon, rice (Oryza sativa), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) for Gb7 and H32 that can be used for fine mapping and map-based cloning of the genes. The KASP markers developed in this study are the first set of SNPs tightly linked to Gb7 and H32 and will be very useful for MAS in wheat breeding programs and future genetic studies of greenbug and Hessian fly resistance.
The Creation and Control of Pest Situations Through Engineering: Past, Present, and Future

It’s a fair observation that most Americans have a rather poor sense of history and a visit to the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea makes one pause to reflect on the past. Aquaducts, viaducts, pyramids and other massive structures bear witness to the fact that ancient civilizations had good engineers. Barren hills, deserts on the march, and landlocked seaports buried under many meters of alluvium suggest that the ecologists of those early days didn’t have much say about how the landscape should be managed. Certainly the ancient engineers had failures as well as successes and what role their short-term successes and long-term failures played in the rise and fall of civilizations is a matter for historians to determine. Engineers, however, are only parts of socities and engineering is but one of many processes that influence long-term stability of civilizations. We cannot understand the whole by looking at a fraction of the parts but we may start by determining how some of the more important parts are interrelated in their structure and function. The purpose of this symposium is to examine some of the relationships between engineering and pest situations.
Direct HPV E6/Myc interactions induce histone modifications, Pol II phosphorylation, and hTERT promoter activation.

// Yiyu Zhang 1, * , Aleksandra Dakic 1, * , Renxiang Chen 1 , Yuhai Dai 1 , Richard Schlegel 1 and Xuefeng Liu 1 1 Department of Pathology, Center for Cell Reprogramming, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057, USA * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xuefeng Liu, email: xuefeng.liu@georgetown.edu Keywords: telomerase; papillomaviruses; oncoproteins; histones; RNA polymerase II Received: August 06, 2017 Accepted: September 15, 2017 Published: October 25, 2017 ABSTRACT Human Papillomavirus Viruses (HPVs) are associated with the majority of human cervical and anal cancers and 10-30% of head and neck squamous carcinomas. E6 oncoprotein from high risk HPVs interacts with the p53 tumor suppressor protein to facilitate its degradation and increases telomerase activity for extending the life span of host cells. We published previously that the Myc cellular transcription factor associates with the high-risk HPV E6 protein in vivo and participates in the transactivation of the hTERT promoter. In the present study, we further analyzed the role of E6 and the Myc-Max-Mad network in regulating the hTERT promoter. We confirmed that E6 and Myc interact independently and that Max can also form a complex with E6. However, the E6/Max complex is observed only in the presence of Myc, suggesting that E6 associates with Myc/Max dimers. Consistent with the hypothesis that Myc is required for E6 induction of the hTERT promoter, Myc antagonists (Mad or Mnt) significantly blocked E6-mediated transactivation of the hTERT promoter. Analysis of Myc mutants demonstrated that both the transactivation domain and HLH domain of Myc protein were required for binding E6 and for the consequent transactivation of the hTERT promoter, by either Myc or E6. We also showed that E6 increased phosphorylation of Pol II on the hTERT promoter and induced epigenetic histone modifications of the hTERT promoter. More important, knockdown of Myc expression dramatically decreased engagement of acetyl-histones and Pol II at the hTERT promoter in E6-expressing cells. Thus, E6/Myc interaction triggers the transactivation of the hTERT promoter by modulating both histone modifications, Pol II phosphorylation and promoter engagement, suggesting a novel mechanism for telomerase activation and a new target for HPV- associated human cancer.
Role Reversals: A Case Study of Dialogic Interactions and Feedback on L2 Writing

Abstract Much scholarship on second language writing feedback has focused on teacher-L2 writer dialogic interactions. Many of these studies, however, adopt the concept of scaffolding (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) which in its application could be considered a deficit model as the teacher addresses linguistic limitations of the learner. This study explored reversing these roles, drawing on the Bakhtin (1981) concept of dialogism to explore feedback interactions where the L2 writer and I (the researcher) were both developing understanding. An 11-week participant-researcher case study sought to examine the role of dialogic interactions in which I had more advanced English language skills, but had less extensive knowledge about the content, while the participant was developing (an already advanced) English proficiency, but held critical knowledge in the content area. Results showed that dialogic interactions facilitated the linguistic revisions of the participant’s writing by contributing to the participant’s increased awareness of audience, and also providing her a channel, through speech, to clarify text excerpts that I struggled to understand in writing.
Abstract 15039: ROCK2-Mediated Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Expression in Cardiac Fibroblasts is Critical for Inducing Cardiac Hypertrophy and Fibrosis

Introduction: Cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis can often lead to heart failure. Presently, the pathophysiological mechanism underlying the development of cardiac fibrosis is not known. We hypothesized that Rho-associated coiled-coil containing kinase (ROCK)-2 in cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) may be involved in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. Methods and Results: We developed CF-specific ROCK2-deficient (ROCK2 Postn-/- ) and CF-specific constitutively active ROCK knockin (caROCK Postn-/- ) mice by using fibroblast-specific promoter (Postn) with the Cre/loxP system. Despite comparable increases in systemic blood pressure, angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion (1000ng/kg/min, 28d)-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis were substantially reduced in ROCK2 Postn-/- mice and were enhanced in caROCK Postn-/- mice compared to littermate controls (n=5-10, P Postn-/- mice and were developed in caROCK Postn-/- mice compared to littermate controls (n=8-10, P Postn-/- mice was substantially decreased compared to littermate controls (n=5 each, P Conclusions: These findings indicate that ROCK2 in CF is an important mediator of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis through the upregulation of CTGF and FGF2. Inhibition of ROCK2 may prevent the deleterious cardiac remodeling associated with elevated Ang II and TGF-β1 levels.
Everyday Practice and Low-Level Crime

The average German prosecutor who practices before the Amtsgericht [lower level criminal court] must process 1000 cases per year. That averages out to 4–5 cases per day. Because of the burden of this case load, a prosecutor’s first question when he approaches a case is: “Shall I dismiss the case?”
The columnar-lined esophagus: History, terminology, and clinical issues

Recently, there has been intense controversy regarding diagnostic criteria for Barrett's esophagus. Some authorities have defined the condition according to an arbitrary extent of esophageal columnar lining, whereas others have felt that the presence of specialized intestinal metaplasia anywhere in the esophagus establishes the diagnosis. This article discusses the problems that arise when either of these diagnostic approaches are used and proposes an alternative classification system for the columnar-lined esophagus.
Development of a Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Program for Nurses Working With African Americans

BACKGROUND Many health care institutions expect nurses to assume leadership roles in the provision of cancer education and screening. However, all too often, nurses lack the knowledge and skills needed to effectively inform, screen, and counsel their clients. The challenges may be compounded when they are expected to provide cancer care to clients from cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds different from their own. METHOD The Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Program for Nurses Working with African Americans was developed to help fill this void. The program provides nurses with theoretical, clinical, and practical information regarding cancer prevention and early detection for use within clinical and community settings. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Program for Nurses Working with African Americans enhanced participants' abilities to provide cancer education, screening, and follow up, and it heightened their sensitivity and understanding of issues and trends influencing cancer prevention and early detection among African Americans.
Assessment of Orthopedic Educational Research in 2015 Publications.

Background Due to orthopedic surgery's unique educational model, recent changes within graduate medical education have the potential to impact the methods and outcomes of specialty training significantly. Using Mind the Gap: Representation of Medical Education in Cardiology-Related Articles and Journals (Allred et al., 2016) as a framework, this study investigates educational research within the field of orthopedics. Objective Two main objectives were evaluated: (1) quantitative analysis of the amount and type of orthopedic education-related research in orthopedic, general surgery, and medical education journals and (2) estimate the priority of orthopedic journals to publish education-focused articles. Methods Using a composite citation-based 5-metric scoring system, a complete list of journals pertaining to orthopedics, nonorthopedic specific surgery journals, and general medical education journals was ranked. All publications during 2015 for the selected cohort of journals were then analyzed for orthopedic education-related publications. Aim and scope of the top 15 selected orthopedic journals (along with the mission statements of their associated societies) were evaluated with a word cloud generator to determine priority on education. Results Review of 7112 articles from the top 15 selected orthopedic journals yielded 37 publications with an educational focus. Evaluation of 15 general surgery or medical education journals, containing 4661 publications, generated an additional 28 positive articles. In total, 51 unique orthopedic education-related publications (0.43% of total evaluated articles) were identified from the 11,773 articles published in the selected 30 journals for 2015. Conclusion The lack of emphasis on orthopedic educational research output is multifactorial, needing further evaluation to determine specific causes and methods of improvement. This article adequately sheds light on the need to increase support of educational research programs within the field of orthopedics.
Impact of postoperative radiation therapy for deeply invasive oral cavity cancer upstaged to stage III.

Background This article is about the eighth edition staging guidelines for upstaged patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) with >10 mm depth to pT3. This upstages some patients from stage I-II to stage III, a point at which patients are traditionally considered for postoperative radiation therapy (PORT). The role of PORT in patients upstaged for >10 mm depth is unknown. Methods We identified patients with surgically resected stage I-II OCSCC with >10 mm depth who were upstaged to stage III. We used Cox proportional hazard modeling to compare patients who received PORT to those who did not (median follow-up 38.6 months). Results We observed that 3.6% of patients with OCSCC were upstaged to stage III for depth >10 mm including 823 eligible patients. On adjusted analyses, PORT was associated with improved overall survival in patients upstaged to stage III (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.30-0.73). Conclusion PORT is associated with improved survival for patients with OCSCC upstaged to stage III for >10 mm depth.
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for Chronic Pain: Rationale, Principles and Techniques, Evidence, and Critical Review

Patients with chronic pain, especially primary or centralized pain, have elevated rates of psychosocial trauma and intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict. To address these risk factors and potentially reduce pain, the authors developed emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET). This article presents the rationale for EAET, describes its principles and techniques, reviews its development and early testing as well as recent clinical trials, and critically analyzes the evidence base. Four initial trials (between 2006 and 2011) demonstrated the efficacy of earlier versions of EAET. Four recent randomized, controlled trials of different EAET durations (1 to 8 sessions) and formats (individual or group) in patients with fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, pelvic pain, or medically unexplained symptoms support the earlier findings. EAET reliably reduces pain and interference, although improvements in anxiety and depression are less reliably achieved and may be delayed. The largest and best conducted trial found superiority of EAET over cognitive-behavioral therapy for fibromyalgia. Patient retention in EAET is high, and adverse events are rare. EAET merits inclusion as a treatment option for primary pain conditions, and it may be the preferred treatment for some patients. Research is needed on EAET with other pain conditions and samples, using better controls and comparison conditions, and on additional ways to motivate and help patients engage in successful emotional processing.
If They Come Here, Will They Fit? A Case Study of an Urban No-Excuses Charter Management Organization’s Teacher Hiring Process:

This case study of one “no-excuses” charter management organization (CMO) uses teacher surveys and interviews with principals, central office staff, and teachers to examine how a realistic job prev...
Throughput Optimization of Fast Processing Tools Using a Dispatching Algorithm

Throughput of certain fast processing tool sets in a semiconductor Fab is sometimes constrained by limitations of FOUP delivery system. The delivery system not being able to keep up with the tools result in a certain throughput loss. This throughput loss can be mitigated by staging the WIP close to tools. However, WIP staging has its limitations. This study presents a methodology to overcome these limitations by staging the WIP just in time for dispatching.
Microwave Processed, Onionlike Carbon and Fluoropolymer Passivated Lithium Metal Electrode for Enhanced Li Stripping/Plating Performance

One key limitation of lithium metal electrodes is their propensity for dendrite formation that limits their use in commercial batteries. Here, a simple surface modification method was demonstrated ...
Hyperkalemia in patients with chronic renal failure

Although hyperkalemia is much more common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), the reported frequency of hyperkalemia varies markedly across studies, primarily due to differences in the ascertainment of hyperkalemia and the severity of CKD. Major risk factors for hyperkalemia among CKD patients include lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), use of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RAASis), diabetes, older age and male gender. The use of two drugs to inhibit RAAS in diabetic CKD markedly increases the risk of hyperkalemia, as demonstrated in large multicenter clinical trials. Hyperkalemia has consistently been associated with an increased risk of adverse events compared with normokalemia, including all-cause mortality and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This risk is not explained by differences in comorbidity or estimated GFR, nor concomitant metabolic abnormalities such as acidosis among those with hyperkalemia. Sodium polystyrene sulfonate has been used commonly for decades to treat hyperkalemia in CKD patients, but without any high-quality clinical data to support its efficacy and with an increased risk of rare but serious colonic complications. The newer oral potassium-binding agents, patiromer and sodium zirconium cyclosilicate, have been shown to be effective and safe for the non-emergent treatment of hyperkalemia in CKD patients, including patients treated with RAASis. Although the long-term use of these medications may permit continuation of RAASis in CKD patients with hyperkalemia, the overall impact of this approach (as compared with down-titration of RAASis and/or up-titration of diuretics) on long-term morbidity, mortality and quality of life remains uncertain.
Reciprocal Effects of Reading and Mathematics? Beyond the Cross-Lagged Panel Model.

Prior nonexperimental studies have been used to conclude that children's reading and mathematics achievement bidirectionally influence each other over time, with strong paths from (a) early reading to later mathematics and (b) early mathematics to later reading. In the most influential study on the topic, the early math-to-later-reading path was reported to be stronger than the early reading-to-later-math path (Duncan et al., 2007). Yet prior estimates may be confounded by stable environmental and personal factors influencing both reading and mathematics achievement. We reexamined the bidirectional relations between reading and mathematics achievement using both traditional models and extensions intended to account for unmeasured confounding. Results based on a large nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten to 3rd grade (N = 9,612) indicated that the estimated effects between reading and mathematics achievement differ substantially after accounting for the confounding effects of stable unmeasured factors. In these models, autoregressive and cross-lagged paths were substantially reduced. The finding that early mathematics predicts later reading more strongly than early reading predicts later math disappears and sometimes reverses, suggesting that larger paths from math to reading than from reading to math in previous related analyses are not causally informative. Stability in early mathematics and reading achievement resulted from substantially overlapping time invariant factors that correlate above .90. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
ERON: an energy-efficient and elastic RF-optical architecture for mmWave 5G radio access networks

This paper proposes an elastic RF-optical networking (ERON) architecture solution for millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G radio access networks. The ERON architecture achieves energy efficiency and throughput elasticity using photonic-enhanced multibeam mmWave spatial multiplexing capability at the radio units. The centralization of the hardware resources and the converged management of the RF and optical resources in the data units offer high resource pooling gain. A numerical study on the energy efficiency of ERON’s photonic-enabled mmWave 5G system reveals that ERON is 5× more energy efficient than both conventional digital and hybrid RF beam-forming implementations. We also conducted a user mobility-aware network resources study, and the results show a 10 dB network resource pooling gain when compared to classic radio access network implementations.
Ribonucleotides of allopurinol and oxipurinol in rat tissues and their significance in purine metabolism.

In the early studies on the metabolism of allopurinol in animals and in man [1,2], it was not possible to find any allopurinol or oxipurinol ribonucleotides in acid-soluble extracts of tissues with methods sensitive enough to detect 10 −6M concentrations. Similarly, no such ribonucleotides were detectable in the acid-soluble metabolites of allopurinol in Ehrlich Ascites cells [3] or in human fibroblasts [4]. Although allopurinol was a substrate for hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) in vitro, the kinetic parameters of allopurinol with human red cell HGPRT [5] indicated that the conditions were not favorable for the formation of this nucleotide in vivo (Table 1). Thus, the Km for allopurinol was 1 mM, whereas a level of 0.01 mM is the highest level attained after therapeutic doses. The binding of oxipurinol to this enzyme was even poorer, Ki = > 10 mM, and the velocity so low that it was not measurable at the 0.125 mM concentration used in the assay [5], nor at 0.5 mM, used subsequently. Moreover, the relatively low Km values of hypoxanthine, and xanthine, and the increased level of these bases resulting from xanthine oxidase inhibition, increased the probability that hypoxanthine and xanthine would successfully compete with their respective analogues for HGPRT under in vivo conditions. Nevertheless, the work of Fox [6] and of Kelley [7,8] indicated that the nucleotides of allopurinol and oxipurinol might indeed be formed and be responsible for the orotic aciduria and orotidinuria seen in allopurinol-treated patients. In order to attempt the quantification of such nucleotides, the present studies in rats were undertaken with large doses of 14C-allopurinol of high specific activity. By the extraction of large amounts of tissue, it was possible to isolate, identify, and quantify the radioactive metabolites. A more detailed account of these investigations will be published elsewhere [9].
Passive quadrature demodulation of birefringent low-finesse fiber-optic Fabry–Perot interferometric sensors

We demonstrate a passive quadrature demodulation method using polarized light and a fiber-optic sensor with a birefringent low-finesse Fabry–Perot (FP) cavity. With precisely controlled birefringence in the FP cavity, the fringes probed by light polarized along the two principal axes can have a quadrature phase shift and can be separately detected. We demonstrated the concept for ultrasound detection using a sensor with an FP cavity formed by two low-reflectivity chirped fiber Bragg gratings on a coiled polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber. By controlling the bending radius, bending length, and twist of the coil structure, we obtained an optimized total phase delay of 109° between the fringes of the two polarizations along the principal axes of the PM fiber. Using a linearly polarized laser source and a polarization beam splitter, the signals at the two polarizations were separated and measured by two photodetectors. The experimental results show that the sensor can detect ultrasonic signal when the sensor spectra experience environmental drifts using a laser at a fixed wavelength.
Aging imparts cell-autonomous dysfunction to regulatory T cells during recovery from influenza pneumonia

Regulatory T (Treg) cells orchestrate resolution and repair of acute lung inflammation and injury following viral pneumonia. Compared with younger patients, older individuals experience impaired recovery and worse clinical outcomes after severe viral infections, including influenza and the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Whether age is a key determinant of Treg cell pro-repair function following lung injury remains unknown. Here, we show that aging results in a cell-autonomous impairment of reparative Treg cell function following experimental influenza pneumonia. Transcriptional and DNA methylation profiling of sorted Treg cells provide insight into the mechanisms underlying their age-related dysfunction, with Treg cells from aged mice demonstrating both loss of reparative programs and gain of maladaptive programs. Novel strategies that restore youthful Treg cell functional programs could be leveraged as therapies to improve outcomes among older individuals with severe viral pneumonia.
Prescription Stimulant Misuse and Risk Correlates among Racially-Diverse Urban Adolescents.

Most research on prescription stimulant misuse has focused on college students, and research on high school-aged adolescents is limited. This study aimed to characterize risk correlates of prescrip...
Varying Atmospheric CO2 Mediates the Cold-Induced CBF-Dependent Signaling Pathway and Freezing Tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Changes in the stomatal aperture in response to CO2 levels allow plants to manage water usage, optimize CO2 uptake and adjust to environmental stimuli. The current study reports that sub-ambient CO2 up-regulated the low temperature induction of the C-repeat Binding Factor (CBF)-dependent cold signaling pathway in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and the opposite occurred in response to supra-ambient CO2. Accordingly, cold induction of various downstream cold-responsive genes was modified by CO2 treatments and expression changes were either partially or fully CBF-dependent. Changes in electrolyte leakage during freezing tests were correlated with CO2′s effects on CBF expression. Cold treatments were also performed on Arabidopsis mutants with altered stomatal responses to CO2, i.e., high leaf temperature 1-2 (ht1-2, CO2 hypersensitive) and β-carbonic anhydrase 1 and 4 (ca1ca4, CO2 insensitive). The cold-induced expression of CBF and downstream CBF target genes plus freezing tolerance of ht1-2 was consistently less than that for Col-0, suggesting that HT1 is a positive modulator of cold signaling. The ca1ca4 mutant had diminished CBF expression during cold treatment but the downstream expression of cold-responsive genes was either similar to or greater than that of Col-0. This finding suggested that βCA1/4 modulates the expression of certain cold-responsive genes in a CBF-independent manner. Stomatal conductance measurements demonstrated that low temperatures overrode low CO2-induced stomatal opening and this process was delayed in the cold tolerant mutant, ca1ca4, compared to the cold sensitive mutant, ht1-2. The similar stomatal responses were evident from freezing tolerant line, Ox-CBF, overexpression of CBF3, compared to wild-type ecotype Ws-2. Together, these results indicate that CO2 signaling in stomata and CBF-mediated cold signaling work coordinately in Arabidopsis to manage abiotic stress.
HST-STIS Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy and Coronagraphic Imaging of the TW Hydrae Circumstellar Disk

We present the first spatially resolved spectrum of scattered light from the TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk. This nearly face-on disk is optically thick, surrounding a classical T Tauri star in the nearby 10 Myr old TW Hya association. The spectrum was taken with the HST-STIS CCD, providing resolution R ~ 360 over the wavelength range 5250 - 10300 A. Spatially resolved spectroscopy of circumstellar disks is difficult due to the high contrast ratio between the bright star and faint disk. Our novel observations provide optical spectra of scattered light from the disk between 40 AU and 155 AU from the star. The scattered light has the same color as the star (gray scattering) at all radii, except the innermost region. This likely indicates that the scattering dust grains are larger than about 1 micron all the way out to large radii. From the spectroscopic data, we also obtained radial profiles of the integrated disk brightness at two position angles, over almost the same region as previously observed in HST-WFPC2 and NICMOS coronagraphic images (35 AU to 173 AU from the star). The profiles have the same shape as the earlier ones, but show a small azimuthal asymmetry in the disk not previously noted. Our STIS broad-band coronagraphic images of TW Hya confirm the reality of this asymmetry, and show that the disk surface brightness interior to 140 AU has a sinusoidal dependence on azimuthal angle. The maximum brightness occurs at a position angle of 233.6 +/- 5.7 degrees East of North. This might be caused by the combination of forward-scattering and an increase in inclination in the inner region of the disk, suggesting that the TW Hya disk has a warp like that seen in the Beta Pictoris debris disk.
X-ray excited luminescence spectroscopy and imaging with NaGdF4:Eu and Tb

X-ray excited optical luminescence from nanophosphors can be used to selectively generate light in tissue for imaging and stimulating light-responsive materials and cells. Herein, we synthesized X-ray scintillating NaGdF4:Eu and Tb nanophosphors via co-precipitate and hydrothermal methods, encapsulated with silica, functionalized with biotin, and characterized by X-ray excited optical luminescence spectroscopy and imaging. The nanophosphors synthesized by co-precipitate method were ∼90 and ∼106 nm in diameter, respectively, with hydrothermally synthesized particles showing the highest luminescence intensity. More importantly, we investigated the effect of thermal annealing/calcination on the X-ray excited luminescence spectra and intensity. At above 1000 °C, the luminescence intensity increased, but particles fused together. Coating with a 15 nm thick silica shell prevented particle fusion and enabled silane-based chemical functionalization, although luminescence decreased largely due to the increased mass of non-luminescent material. We observed an increase in luminesce intensity with temperature until at 400 °C. At above 600 °C, NaGdF4:Eu@SiO2 converts to NaGd9Si6O26:Eu, an X-ray scintillator brighter than annealed NPs at 400 °C and dimmer than NPs synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The particles generate light through tissue and can be selectively excited using a focused X-ray source for imaging and light generation applications. The particles also act as MRI contrast agents for multi-modal localization.
The Myth of Fourth Amendment Circularity

The Supreme Court’s decision in Katz v. United States made peoples’ reasonable expectations of privacy the touchstone for determining whether state surveillance amounts to a search under the Fourth Amendment. Ever since Katz, Supreme Court justices and numerous scholars have referenced the inherent circularity of the expectations of privacy framework: People’s expectations of privacy depend on Fourth Amendment law, so it is circular to have the scope of the Fourth Amendment depend on those same expectations. Nearly every scholar who has written about the issue has assumed that the circularity of expectations is a major impediment to having the scope of the Fourth Amendment depend in any way on what ordinarily people actually expect. But no scholar has tested the circularity narrative’s essential premise, which is that when salient, well-publicized changes in Fourth Amendment law occur, popular sentiment falls into line.Our paper conducts precisely such a test. We conducted surveys on censusweighted samples of US citizens immediately before, immediately after, and long after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Riley v. California. The decision in Riley was unanimous and surprising. It substantially altered Fourth Amendment law concerning the privacy of peoples’ cell phone content, and it was a major news story that generated relatively high levels of public awareness in the days after it was decided. We find that immediately after the Riley decision the public began to expect greater privacy in the contents of their cell phones, though the effect was small and appears to have been confined to the 40% of our sample that reported having heard of the Riley decision. One year after Riley, these heightened expectations had disappeared completely. There was no difference from baseline two years after Riley either, with privacy expectations remaining where they were prior to the decision. Our findings suggest that privacy expectations are far more stable than judges and commentators have been assuming. Even in the ideal circumstance of a clear, unanimous, and widely reported decision, circularity in Fourth Amendment attitudes is both weak and short-lived. In the longer term, Fourth Amendment circularity appears to be a myth. The paper concludes by comparing the public’s response to Riley with its reaction to the Supreme Court’s contemporaneous Hobby Lobby decision and situates our results within the political science literature on attitudinal responses to significant Supreme Court decisions.
Pulmonary embolism from a central venous catheter associated thrombus in an adolescent with sickle cell disease – a rare, but potentially fatal complication

Introduction: Central venous catheters (CVC) are the most common cause of thrombotic events. We present a case of an adolescent with sickle cell disease (SCD) who developed an acute pulmonary embolism (PE) from a CVC associated thrombus (CVC-AT) requiring veno-arterial (VA) extracorporeal life support (ECLS). Case Presentation: A 17 year old African American male with SCD was admitted to the PICU with acute chest syndrome. He was intubated and received an exchange transfusion. A right femoral vein CVC was placed. A CT angiogram obtained on PICU day 4 for rising d-dimer …
Demonstration of Three True Random Number Generator Circuits Using Memristor Created Entropy and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components

In this work, we build and test three memristor-based true random number generator (TRNG) circuits: two previously presented in the literature and one which is our own design. The functionality of each circuit is assessed using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Statistical Test Suite (STS). The TRNG circuits were built using commercially available off-the-shelf parts, including the memristor. The results of this work confirm the usefulness of memristors for successful implementation of TRNG circuits, as well as the ease with which a TRNG can be built using simple circuit designs and off-the-shelf breadboard circuit components.
Rigid Motions as Matrices

In this chapter, we’ll learn that rigid motions are a very special kind of functions—the kind that are so simple, they can be described by matrices. For many purposes, the very best way to describe a rigid motion is with a matrix. In fact, matrices are the starting point of most advanced books about symmetry, and this chapter is intended as a bridge towards such books.
Interaction envelope: Local spatial representations of objects at all scales in scene-selective regions

article i nfo While several cortical regions have been highlighted for their category selectivity (e.g., scene-selective regions like the parahippocampal place area, object selective regions like the lateral occipital complex), a growing trend in cog- nitive neuroscience has been to investigate what particular perceptual properties these regions calculate. Classical scene-selective regions have been particularly targeted in recent work as being sensitive to object size or other re- lated properties. Here we test to which extent these regions are sensitive to spatial information of stimuli at any size. We introduce the spatial object property of "interaction envelope,"defined as the space through which a user trans- verses to interact with an object. In two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, we examined activity in a comprehensive set of perceptual regions of interest for when human participants viewed object images varying along the dimensions of interaction envelope and physical size. Importantly, we controlled for confounding percep- tual and semantic object properties. We find that scene-selective regions are in fact sensitive to object interaction envelope for small, manipulable objects regardless of real-world size and task. Meanwhile, small-scale entity regions maintain selectivity to stimulus physical size. These results indicate that regions traditionally associated with scene processing may not be solely sensitive to larger object and scene information, but instead are calculating local spatial information of objects and scenes of all sizes.
Synthetic biology approaches to engineer T cells

There is rapidly growing interest in learning how to engineer immune cells, such as T lymphocytes, because of the potential of these engineered cells to be used for therapeutic applications such as the recognition and killing of cancer cells. At the same time, our knowhow and capability to logically engineer cellular behavior is growing rapidly with the development of synthetic biology. Here we describe how synthetic biology approaches are being used to rationally alter the behavior of T cells to optimize them for therapeutic functions. We also describe future developments that will be important in order to construct safe and precise T cell therapeutics.
Sunshine and Suicides in Japan: revisiting the relevance of economic determinants of suicide

This paper investigates how exposure to sunshine affects the suicide rate in Japan, especially in relation to economic variables. Using prefecturebased data on socioeconomic variables for the years...
Physical control on the seasonal cycle of surface pCO2 in the equatorial Pacific

[1] The controlling mechanism of the seasonal cycle of surface partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in the central/eastern equatorial Pacific is studied using a coupled physical-biogeochemical model. The model results indicate that the individual components of physical transport of total CO2 (TCO2) in the Nino3 area are out of phase with each other such that the net TCO2 transport is an order smaller. This net transport is further nearly balanced by the biological drawdown and air-sea CO2 flux combined, resulting in a weak seasonality of surface TCO2. As a consequence, the seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST) controls the surface pCO2 cycle with a maximum in boreal spring-summer and a minimum in boreal fall-winter. In turn, the seasonality of air-sea CO2 flux is largely controlled by SST and surface winds via the piston velocity of gas exchange. Perturbations to the subtle balance of TCO2 transport by dynamical processes on other timescales such as El Nino, La Nina and tropical instability waves, could induce significant change to the surface pCO2, in addition to the change due to SST variability.
Colloidal crystal grain boundary formation and motion

The ability to assemble nano- and micro- sized colloidal components into highly ordered configurations is often cited as the basis for developing advanced materials. However, the dynamics of stochastic grain boundary formation and motion have not been quantified, which limits the ability to control and anneal polycrystallinity in colloidal based materials. Here we use optical microscopy, Brownian Dynamic simulations, and a new dynamic analysis to study grain boundary motion in quasi-2D colloidal bicrystals formed within inhomogeneous AC electric fields. We introduce “low-dimensional” models using reaction coordinates for condensation and global order that capture first passage times between critical configurations at each applied voltage. The resulting models reveal that equal sized domains at a maximum misorientation angle show relaxation dominated by friction limited grain boundary diffusion; and in contrast, asymmetrically sized domains with less misorientation display much faster grain boundary migration due to significant thermodynamic driving forces. By quantifying such dynamics vs. compression (voltage), kinetic bottlenecks associated with slow grain boundary relaxation are understood, which can be used to guide the temporal assembly of defect-free single domain colloidal crystals.
Spin-orbital-angular-momentum coupling in Bose-Einstein condensates

This work is supported by ARO (W911NF-12-1-0334) and AFOSR (FA9550-11-1-0313, FA9550-13-1-0045).
Adoption of Range Management Innovations by Utah Ranchers

Improving the sustainability of grazed rangelands requires that landowners adopt management innovations. We interviewed Utah ranchers to better understand innovation adoption among range livestock operators, and ultimately to suggest improvements in content and delivery of outreach activities. A 2-phase, qualitative social science research method was used to encourage discovery of information unlikely to be revealed via surveys and to expand the application of adoption theory to range livestock production. In line with previous research, innovation was related to full-time ranch operation, dependence on ranch income, anticipated future of the ranch, and extent of social networks. Barriers to innovation included inadequate time and resources, peer influences, and perceived drawbacks of potential innovations (e.g., difficulty of pilot-testing new grazing systems, or poor cost-benefit ratios of vegetation treatments). In contrast to previous studies, innovators were motivated by a desire to demonstrate stewardship to land managers and the public. Previously unidentified barriers included spatial characteristics of the ranch enterprise and perceptions about political/legal constraints.
A Monte Carlo simulation of the stress-rupture of seven-fiber microcomposites

Abstract A direct-simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC) has been applied to a chain-of-bundles model in order to simulate ifetime experiments with seven-fiber microcomposites. Strength and lifetime of the fibers in the composite are assumed to follow two-parameter Weibull distributions. Matrix creep effects are included in the model. Loads carried by broken fibers before breaking are distributed among the adjacent surviving ones, according to a local load-sharing rule. The lifetime values given by the simulation program are in good agreement with experimental data obtained by various investigators for graphite microcomposites. A parametric study is performed for graphite SFT microcomposites, where single fiber and matrix properties are varied. The relationships obtained from this study agree very well with the predictions of earlier, theoretical probability models.