cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On orthonormal wavelets and paraunitary filter banks

The known result that a binary-tree-structured filter bank with the same paraunitary polyphase matrix on all levels generates an orthonormal basis is generalized to binary trees having different paraunitary matrices on each level. A converse result that every orthonormal wavelet basis can be generated by a tree-structured filter bank having paraunitary polyphase matrices is then proved. The concept of orthonormal bases is extended to generalized (nonbinary) tree structures, and it is seen that a close relationship exists between orthonormality and paraunitariness. It is proved that a generalized tree structure with paraunitary polyphase matrices produces an orthonormal basis. Since not all phases can be generated by tree-structured filter banks, it is proved that if an orthonormal basis can be generated using a tree structure, it can be generated specifically by a paraunitary tree. >
Scaling Laws of Key Predistribution Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Many key predistribution (KP) protocols have been proposed and are well accepted in randomly deployed wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Being distributed and localized, they are perceived to be scalable as node density and network dimension increase. While it is true in terms of communication/computation overhead, their scalability in terms of security performance is unclear. In this paper, we conduct a detailed study on this issue. In particular, we define a new metric called Resilient Connectivity (RC) to quantify security performance in WSNs. We then conduct a detailed analytical investigation on how KP protocols scale with respect to node density and network dimension in terms of RC in randomly deployed WSNs. Based on our theoretical analysis, we state two scaling laws of KP protocols. Our first scaling law states that KP protocols are not scalable in terms of RC with respect to node density. Our second scaling law states that KP protocols are not scalable in terms of RC with respect to network dimension. In order to deal with the unscalability of the above two scaling laws, we further propose logical and physical group deployment, respectively. We validate our findings further using extensive theoretical analysis and simulations.
Enhancing the effects of extinction on attention-maintained behavior through noncontingent delivery of attention or stimuli identified via a competing stimulus assessment

Recent research has shown that the noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli can effectively reduce rates of destructive behavior maintained by social-positive reinforcement, even when the contingency for destructive behavior remains intact. It may be useful, therefore, to have a systematic means for predicting which reinforcers do and do not compete successfully with the reinforcer that is maintaining destructive behavior. In the present study, we conducted a brief competing stimulus assessment in which noncontingent access to a variety of tangible stimuli (one toy per trial) was superimposed on a fixed-ratio 1 schedule of attention for destructive behavior for individuals whose behavior was found to be reinforced by attention during a functional analysis. Tangible stimuli that resulted in the lowest rates of destructive behavior and highest percentages of engagement during the competing stimulus assessment were subsequently used in a noncontingent tangible items plus extinction treatment package and were compared to noncontingent attention plus extinction and extinction alone. Results indicated that both treatments resulted in greater reductions in the target behavior than did extinction alone and suggested that the competing stimulus assessment may be helpful in predicting stimuli that can enhance the effects of extinction when noncontingent attention is unavailable. DESCRIPTORS: Attention-maintained problem behavior, competing stimuli, extinction, functional analysis, noncontingent reinforcement
Measurement Error in Dynamic Models

Many time series contain measurement (often sampling) error and the problem of assessing the impacts of such errors and accounting for them has been receiving increasing attention of late. This paper provides a survey of this problem with an emphasis on estimating the coefficients of the underlying dynamic model, primarily in the context of fitting linear and nonlinear autoregressive models. An overview is provided of the biases induced by ignoring the measurement error and of methods that have been proposed to correct for it, and remaining inferential challenges are outlined.
Arginine and Ornithine Are the Main Precursors for Citrulline Synthesis in Mice

Recent isotopic tracer studies in mice, piglets, and humans have produced conflicting results as to the main carbon skeleton precursor for citrulline and arginine synthesis. This may be due in part to the different tracers infused and models used to interpret the stable isotope data. Furthermore, previous studies usually investigated a single precursor, which prevented the direct comparison among multiple precursors. To further elucidate the contribution of different precursors to citrulline synthesis, all possible enteral and plasma precursors of citrulline were studied in a mouse model during the postabsorptive and postprandial period using multitracer protocols. In addition, three different models were used to interpret the stable isotope data. The utilization of the classic precursor-product equation, developed for i.v. infused tracers but also used to include i.g. tracers, grossly overestimated the contribution of enteral precursors. Regardless of the model employed, dietary and plasma arginine were the main precursors for citrulline synthesis during feeding and plasma arginine during feed deprivation. The contribution of arginine was directly at the site of citrulline synthesis and through plasma ornithine. The predominant role of arginine and ornithine seen in this study supports the observations in mice, piglets, and humans suggesting that ornithine amino transferase is a pivotal enzyme in this pathway.
A review of the North American species of the fungus-gardening ant genus Trachymyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

We revise and key Trachymyrmex ants occurring in North America north of Mexico. We recognize nine species, including one new species from southern Arizona: T. arizonensis (Wheeler), T. carinatus Mackay & Mackay, T. desertorum (Wheeler), T. jamaicensis (Andre), T. nogalensis Byars, T. pomonae Rabeling & Cover sp. nov., T. septentrionalis (McCook), T. smithi Buren, and T. turrifex (Wheeler). Two infraspecific taxa are synonymized: T. smithi neomexicanus Cole syn. nov. (= T. smithi) and T. turrifex caroli Wheeler syn. nov. (= T. turrifex). We briefly characterize the previously undescribed queens of T. desertorum and T. nogalensis, and the males of T. desertorum and T. turrifex. We include keys for the identification of workers, queens and males, along with distribution maps for all species. A phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence information for parts of the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase I and the first intron of the F1copy of the nuclear protein-coding gene Elongation Factor 1-α is used to characterize the intraversus inter-specific genetic variation of several populations per species. The molecular phylogenetic analysis supports our taxonomic conclusions concerning the North American Trachymyrmex species.
Randomized Clinical Trials of Surgical Procedures

The example above highlights some of the problems with performing randomized trials in the surgical disciplines. Surgeon bias for or against specific procedures, morbidity associated with surgery, and the acceptance of lesser forms of clinical evidence by the surgical community are all barriers to performing randomized trials. However, in fields such as oncology and cardiology, great strides have been made in patient care by using evidence from well-designed and well-executed randomized trials. In many cases, these trials have successfully randomized patients to potentially morbid and invasive therapies. Moreover, the trend toward evidence-based medicine is being embraced by not only the medical community, but by patients and third-party payers. If the surgical disciplines are going to keep pace with the rest of medicine, a “cultural” shift away from the empiric and anecdotal evidence supplied by case series and case reports toward the more rigorous methodology of randomized interventions needs to occur.
Molecular Pathways: Mechanism of Action for Talimogene Laherparepvec, a New Oncolytic Virus Immunotherapy

Oncolytic viruses are native or engineered viruses that preferentially replicate in and lyse cancer cells. Selective tumor cell replication is thought to depend on infection of neoplastic cells, which harbor low levels of protein kinase R (PKR) and dysfunctional type I IFN signaling elements. These changes allow more efficient viral replication, and with selected deletion of specific viral genes, replication in normal cells with activated PKR may not be possible. Direct tumor cell lysis, release of soluble tumor antigens, and danger-associated molecular factors are all thought to help prime and promote tumor-specific immunity. Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is a genetically modified herpes simplex virus, type I and is the first oncolytic virus to demonstrate a clinical benefit in patients with melanoma. T-VEC has also been evaluated for the treatment of head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, and likely other types of cancer will be targeted in the near future. T-VEC has been modified for improved safety, tumor-selective replication, and induction of host immunity by deletion of several viral genes and expression of human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor. Although the mechanism of action for T-VEC is incompletely understood, the safety profile of T-VEC and ability to promote immune responses suggest future combination studies with other immunotherapy approaches including checkpoint blockade through PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 to be a high priority for clinical development. Oncolytic viruses also represent unique regulatory and biosafety challenges but offer a potential new class of agents for the treatment of cancer.
Charge-Transfer States and Two-Photon Photochemistry of {\text{C}\text{u} (\text{N}\text{N})_2}^+ Systems

Because Cu(I) has a d10 electronic configuration, the metal-centered absorption bands tend to occur in the UV spectral region. But because the Cu(II) oxidation state is quite accessible, metal- to-ligand charge-transfer (CT) absorption bands appear in the visible spectrum when the ligands present low-lying acceptor orbitals. For example, Cu(I) complexes involving chelating heteroaromatic ligands (NN ligands) such as bipyridine (bpy) or 1, 10-phenanthroline (phen) or one of their derivatives are brightly colored. In fact, several different CT excited states are accessible in these systems. One reason is that the ligands present 2 low-lying acceptor levels which Orgel (1961) designated as χ and ψ orbitals. (They transform as symmetric and antisymmetric orbitals, respectively, under rotation about the two-fold axis (Fig. 1).) Further complexity arises in \({\text{C}\text{u} (\text{N}\text{N})_2}^+\) systems because the d shell of the metal is split into at least four sublevels. Finally, there is some evidence that a charge-transfer-to-solvent state can be populated when a high intensity pulsed laser source is used.
Cocaine and its metabolites constrict cerebral arterioles in newborn pigs

We examined the effect of cocaine and several of its metabolites on cerebral arterioles in newborn pigs and evaluated the sympathomimetic properties of each of the compounds as a vasoactive mechanism. After piglets were equipped with closed cranial windows, compounds were suffused over the brain surface and pial arteriolar diameter (base line, approximately 100 microns) was recorded. Cocaine, cocaethylene, norcocaine, ecogonine, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methylester each caused a dose-dependent (10(-8) M to 10(-4) M) decrease in pial arteriolar diameter: maximum percent reductions in diameter induced by each compound (10(-4) M) were, respectively, 12 +/- 1, 12 +/- 2, 11 +/- 1, 7 +/- 1, 7 +/- 2 and 5 +/- 1. In analyzing the dose-response curves, cocaethylene was the most potent vasoconstrictor, followed by cocaine, norcocaine and then ecogonine, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methylester. Cerebral vasoconstriction induced by topically applied norepinephrine was enhanced by cocaine, norcocaine and cocaethylene, but not by the other three metabolites. Topical application of phentolamine failed to block vasoconstriction elicited by cocaine or its metabolites, although it did block vasoconstriction elicited by norepinephrine. These observations indicate that cocaine and its metabolites constrict the immature cerebrovasculature by a non-sympathomimetic mechanism.
Adiabatic quantum optimization in the presence of discrete noise: Reducing the problem dimensionality

Adiabatic quantum optimization is a procedure to solve a vast class of optimization problems by slowly changing the Hamiltonian of a quantum system. The evolution time necessary for the algorithm to be successful scales inversely with the minimum energy gap encountered during the dynamics. Unfortunately, the direct calculation of the gap is strongly limited by the exponential growth in the dimensionality of the Hilbert space associated to the quantum system. Although many special-purpose methods have been devised to reduce the effective dimensionality, they are strongly limited to particular classes of problems with evident symmetries. Moreover, little is known about the computational power of adiabatic quantum optimizers in real-world conditions. Here we propose and implement a general purposes reduction method that does not rely on any explicit symmetry and which requires, under certain general conditions, only a polynomial amount of classical resources. Thanks to this method, we are able to analyze the performance of ``nonideal'' quantum adiabatic optimizers to solve the well-known Grover problem, namely the search of target entries in an unsorted database, in the presence of discrete local defects. In this case, we show that adiabatic quantum optimization, even if affected by random noise, is still potentially faster than any classical algorithm.
Study of the Combustion of Beeswax and Beeswax With Aluminum Powder in Hybrid Propellant Rocket Engine

This paper represents the study of the combustion of pure beeswax and beeswax with aluminum powder in a small-scale Hybrid Propellant Rocket Engine (HPRE) as a part of the long-term research of the combustion of non-conventional bio-derived hybrid rocket fuels. Paraffin, beeswax, and even lard are treated as advanced fuels which could replace conventional toxic and explosive fuels, and are planned to be used on the NASA sounding rockets. The goal of the long-term research is to study the combustion of bio-derived fuels including fuels with additives, obtaining regression rates, comparison of operational parameters of HPRE and investigation of losses of melted unburned bio-derived fuels. A small-scale HPRE, test fixture and instrumentation system have been designed, manufactured, assembled and used for the combustion research and analysis. The results of the research were presented at the 50 and 51 AIAA Meeting and Exhibits, and SciTech, 52 and 53 Aerospace Sciences Meetings. This paper is focused on the research of the combustion of pure beeswax and beeswax with 10% of aluminum powder and represents new findings, such as the regression rate formulas obtained for two different grain port diameters 0.5in and 1.0in, and analysis of the losses of unburned beeswax and influence of the losses on the combustion parameters. A comparison of the combustion of beeswax with paraffin wax is presented as well.
A Compact One-Pin Mode Transition Circuit for Clock Synchronization in Current-Mode- Controlled Switching Regulators

This paper describes a one-pin mode transition circuit that addresses the issues related to clock synchronization in switching regulators during the mode transitions between external timing resistor and external clock. The proposed circuit reduces the circuit complexity needed to achieve mode transition during synchronization by utilizing switched-capacitor and sampling design techniques. It linearly converts the input clock frequency to a current to maintain constant amount of slope compensation for current-mode switching regulators across their switching frequency range of operation. This circuit is designed to operate from 100 KHz to 2.5 MHz and fabricated in a 0.35- $\mu \text{m}$ BiCMOS–DMOS process. The total solution occupies 0.082 mm2 die area. Experimental results are presented from peak-current-mode buck regulators with one-pin synchronization circuit to show the performance improvement of using the proposed design approach over a phase-locked-loop-based design.
Abstract P208: Effect of Rosiglitazone on Renal Neprilysin Activity and Protein Expression in Db/db Diabetic Mice

Alteration in renin-angiotensin system has been implicated in the pathophysiology of diabetic kidney disease. The deleterious actions of angiotensin II (Ang II) could be antagonized by the formation of Ang (1-7) partly generated by the actions of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and neprilysin (NEP). NEP is a member of the zinc-containing metallopeptidase family, and has a main role in the degradation of several peptides, including natriuretic peptides, bradykinin, amyloid beta, and Ang I. Our previous studies demonstrated increased shedding of renal ACE2 in db/db mouse model of type 2 diabetes. We also showed that treatment with the PPAR_ agonist, rosiglitazone normalized hyperglycemia, decreased urinary ACE2 and attenuated albuminuria in db/db mice. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that hyperglycemia down-regulates renal NEP in db/db diabetic mice and that treatment with rosiglitazone will normalize renal NEP expression and activity. Seven-week-old db/db male mice were subjected to rosiglitazone treatment (20 mg/kg/day) for 10 weeks. Treatment with rosiglitazone significantly lowered blood glucose levels in db/db mice (p
Investigating the effects of movement speed on the lumbopelvic coordination during trunk flexion

Abstract Movement speed during trunk flexion has long been reported to affect task performance and biomechanical responses. The current study investigated how movement speed changed lumbopelvic coordination, especially lumbopelvic continuous relative phase and phase variability during trunk flexion. Eighteen subjects executed a paced trunk flexion routine over time periods of 3, 7, 11 and 15 seconds. The results demonstrated that compared with the 3-s condition, lumbopelvic continuous relative phase was 98.8% greater in the 15-s condition, indicating a more anti-phase coordination pattern. This pattern is suggested to mitigate the increased spinal loading associated with the longer duration of muscle exertion. Additionally, phase variability was 18.8% greater in the 15-s trials than the 3-s trials, such an unstable coordination pattern is likely caused by the more active neuromuscular control. Findings of this study provide important information about the effects of movement speed on lumbopelvic coordination during trunk flexion.
A trust region filter method for glass box/black box optimization

Modern nonlinear programming solvers can be utilized to solve very large scale problems in chemical engineering. However, these methods require fully open models with accurate derivatives. In this article, we address the hybrid glass box/black box optimization problem, in which part of a system is modeled with open, equation based models and part is black box. When equation based reduced models are used in place of the black box, NLP solvers may be applied directly but an accurate solution is not guaranteed. In this work, a trust region filter algorithm for glass box/black box optimization is presented. By combining concepts from trust region filter methods and derivative free optimization, the method guarantees convergence to first-order critical points of the original glass box/black box problem. The algorithm is demonstrated on three comprehensive examples in chemical process optimization. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3124–3136, 2016
The Role of microRNA Markers in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Outcome Prediction of Spinal Cord Injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that affects many people worldwide. Treatment focuses on controlling secondary injury cascade and improving regeneration. It has recently been suggested that both the secondary injury cascade and the regenerative process are heavily regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). The measurement of specific biomarkers could improve our understanding of the disease processes, and thereby provide clinicians with the opportunity to guide treatment and predict clinical outcomes after SCI. A variety of miRNAs exhibit important roles in processes of inflammation, cell death, and regeneration. These miRNAs can be used as diagnostic tools for predicting outcome after SCI. In addition, miRNAs can be used to treat of SCI and its symptoms. Significant laboratory and clinical evidence exist to show that miRNAs could be used as robust diagnostic and therapeutic tools for the treatment of patients with SCI. Further clinical studies are warranted to clarify the importance of each subtype of miRNA in SCI management.
Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Trachelectomy: A Standard Technique

Abstract Study Objective To describe a standard reproducible technique for simple robotic- assisted laparoscopic trachelectomy. Design Step-by-step demonstration of the technique using videos and pictures (Canadian Task Force classification level 3). Setting The incidence of trachelectomy after supracervical hysterectomy has been increasing, given the popularity of supracervical hysterectomy. The most common indication for trachelectomy is symptomatic cyclic bleeding. Trachelectomy can be performed vaginally as well as laparoscopically with or without robotic assistance. This video demonstrates a standard reproducible technique for robotic-assisted trachelectomy in 2 women who underwent previous supracervical hysterectomy with a retained cervix. Interventions Robotic-assisted laparoscopic trachelectomy using a standard technique is demonstrated in 2 different examples. The steps include opening the vesicocervical peritoneum, creating a bladder flap and pushing the bladder down beyond the vaginal cuff, opening the remnant of the broad ligament and delineating the course of cervical branch of the uterine artery and ureter bilaterally, inserting a uterine manipulator with a colpotomizer under vision, performing desiccation of the cervical branches of the uterine artery, and performing colpotomy and closure of the vaginal cuff. Conclusion Robotic-assisted laparoscopic trachelectomy is a safe and simple procedure that should be part of all general gynecologists' armamentarium. The described technique is reproducible and efficient and can be adopted for all cases requiring simple trachelectomy.
Environment: Law for a healthy planet

Hari Osofsky draws lessons from the story of a pioneering environmental lawyer and his firm.
Homeostasis and function of Tregs at the site of chronic inflammation (LYM2P.728)

This study is aimed at characterizing Treg dynamics at the site of chronic inflammation in the islets of NOD mice. Tregs expressing CD103 were present primarily in the inflamed islets and low in the pancreatic LN and spleen. Both CD103 + and CD103 - Tregs from inflamed NOD islets could prevent diabetes when transferred to Treg-deficient CD28KO mice. CD103 was selectively induced and maintained in inflamed islets after transfer. However, fewer CD103 + Tregs were recovered after transfer compared with CD103 - Tregs, suggesting that CD103 + Tregs have a survival defect. Indeed, CD103 + Tregs had lower Bcl2 expression despite higher CD25 expression and higher responsiveness to IL-2. CD103 + islet Tregs have reduced TCRb repertoire diversity and higher BrdU incorporation, indicating they clonally expand in the islets. Lastly, in NOD mice expressing a TCR signaling reporter, the Nur77-GFP transgene, CD103 + islet Tregs were found to be uniformly Nur77 hi suggesting they were more recently activated by antigens. TCRb sequences used by high frequency clones of CD103 + Tregs could be found in Nur77 hi CD103 - but not Nur77 lo CD103 - Tregs, consistent with sequential TCR activation and CD103 expression. Together, our results demonstrate that chronically inflamed islets in NOD mice contain functional Tregs, but fail to maintain the highly antigen-specific activated subset. Maintenance of this subset may have important implications for the treatment of chronic inflammatory disease.
The replicability of the negative testing effect: Differences across participant populations

Although memory retrieval often enhances subsequent memory, Peterson and Mulligan (2013) reported conditions under which retrieval produces poorer subsequent recall-the negative testing effect. The item-specific-relational account proposes that the effect occurs when retrieval disrupts interitem organizational processing relative to the restudy condition. Rawson et al. (2015), in contrast, failed to replicate the negative testing effect despite repeated high-powered attempts. This article examines the discrepant results, ruling out differences in procedures, and concludes that differences in participant population produced the varying outcome. Specifically, participants from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Kent State University (KSU) completed the same version of the negative-testing paradigm and were assessed on several measures of cognitive ability (working memory capacity, Raven's progressive matrices, and SAT or ACT score). For the UNC sample, free recall scores and the amount of category clustering (a measure of organizational processing) was greater in the restudy than retrieval condition (i.e., the negative testing effect was found); for the KSU sample, there was no difference on either measure. Furthermore, in the restudy condition, recall and clustering was greater for UNC than KSU students whereas in the retrieval condition, there was no effect of site on either measure. As expected, measures of cognitive ability were greater for the UNC than KSU sample. The results indicate that the negative testing effect is replicable but is subject to limitation related to the participant population. An analysis in terms of the relationship between cognitive ability and memory predicted this pattern of results. (PsycINFO Database Record
Nitrous Oxide and Ammonia Emissions from Cattle Excreta on Shortgrass Steppe

Grazing cattle redistribute nitrogen (N) consumed in forage through urine and feces patches. The high concentration of N in these patches often exceeds the uptake demands of the local plant community, thereby providing ideal conditions for losses of reactive N. However, knowledge on nitrous oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH) emissions from excretal patches on shortgrass steppe grassland is limited. We studied the effect of cattle urine (1002 kg N ha) and feces (1021 kg N ha) patches on NO and NH emissions in two sites with contrasting vegetation: (i) cool-season (C3) 'Bozoisky-Select' Russian wildrye [ (Fisch.) Nevski], pasture (C3Past) and (ii) C4-dominated native shortgrass steppe rangeland (C4SS). Nitrous oxide and NH were measured using semi-static and semi-open chambers, respectively. Cumulative NO emissions were 217 and 173% greater and cumulative volatile NH emissions were 339 and 157% greater on C3Past compared with C4SS from the urine and feces treatments, respectively. Nitrous oxide emission factors were 0.20 and 0.05% for urine and 0.07 and 0.03% for feces on C3Past and C4SS, respectively. Our findings suggest that using the IPCC Tier 1 default emission factor (2%, 95% CI = 0.7-6%) to estimate NO emissions from cattle excretal patches on shortgrass steppe grassland would result in a significant overestimation for these dryland systems. Ammonia emission factors were 35 and 10% for urine and 7 and 5% for feces on C3Past and C4SS, respectively. With the exception of the urine treatment on C3Past, observed NH emissions were consistent with the IPCC Tier 1 default assumption that 20% (95% CI = 5-50%) of excretal N is volatilized as NH+NO.
Evaluation of optimizations of Murty's M-best assignment

Murty’s ranking algorithm provides a clever way of partitioning the solution space to find the M best assignments, whose costs are in a nondecreasing order, to a linear assignment problem with an N N cost matrix, where total assignment cost is minimized. This paper reviews the optimization techniques for Murty’s M -best method combined with successive shortest path assignment algorithms (such as the Jonker and Volgenant assignment algorithm) from two papers. The first paper discussed three optimizations: 1) inheriting dual variables and partial solutions during partitioning, 2) sorting subproblems by lower cost bounds before solving, and 3) partitioning in an optimized order. The second paper proposed updating the dual variables of the previous solution before the shortest path procedure is applied to solve a subproblem without mentioning the use of lower cost bounds. One contribution of this paper is that we propose a much tighter lower bound than that given by the first paper. Comparative tests have been conducted among algorithms employing different combinations of the optimization techniques to evaluate their respective performances.
Heart-Specific Overexpression of HMG-CoA Synthase 2 Induces Mitochondrial Stress—Adaptation via the ATF4 Pathway

The liver is the central organ for ketone body production, and HMG-CoA synthase2 (HMGCS2) is a rate-limiting enzyme involved in this process. We reported that fasting markedly increased mRNA expression of HMGCS2 in mouse heart, whereas its protein expression was faint and increased only marginally with fasting. To clarify the pathophysiological role of HMGCS2 in the heart, we generated transgenic (Tg) mice with heart-specific HMGCS2 overexpression and analyzed the effects on metabolic status in the myocardium. Plasma concentrations of β-hydroxybutyrate (βOHB), glucose and free fatty acids were comparable between Tg and wild type (Wt) mice, whereas the cardiac βOHB content in Tg mice was increased 10-fold (fed state) or 2-fold (24h-fasted state) over that of Wt mice. Confocal microscopy demonstrated that the HMGCS2 protein co-localized with a mitochondrial protein, ATP5A, in cardiomyocytes of Tg mice. Transmission electron microscopy showed many swollen mitochondria, some of which contained vacuole-like vesicles and decreased cristae in Tg hearts, and ultrasonography showed impaired systolic function. Microarray gene expression analysis revealed that approximately 800 genes were altered >2-fold in Tg hearts compared with Wt hearts. Among the altered genes, ATF4 and its target genes, including PHGDH, MTHFD2 and ASNS which promote glutathione production, were upregulated in Tg hearts. Consistent with this result, a metabolome analysis performed by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry demonstrated that glutathione was increased in Tg hearts, suggesting an adaptation to mitochondrial stress. In addition, 3 branch-chain amino acids were increased in Tg hearts compared with Wt hearts. These results indicate that myocardial HMGCS2 can produce ketone bodies in mitochondria, leading to mitochondrial stress and cardiac dysfunction. The limited induction of HMGCS2 protein upon fasting might constitute a protective mechanism for cardiomyocytes. Disclosure Y. Zenimaru: None. J. Suzuki: None. T. Nakaya: None. M. Yamada: None. M. Ichikawa: None. S. Sato: None. M. Imagawa: None. F.B. Kraemer: None. T. Konoshita: None. T. Ishizuka: None.
Leptospirosis: the microscopic danger in paradise.

To prepare for research studies that would evaluate the impact of hula as part of a clinical intervention, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and management programs, kumu hula defined as “culturally recognized hula educators and experts,” were interviewed. Investigators sought to elicit their views regarding hula's traditional and contemporary connections to health and well-being, assess the cultural appropriateness of such projects, and suggest ways to maintain hula's cultural integrity throughout clinical intervention programs. Six prominent kumu hula from five different Hawaiian Islands participated in semi-structured key informant interviews lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Each was asked open-ended questions regarding their attitudes, beliefs, and experiences regarding the connections of hula to health as well as their recommendations on maintaining the integrity of the dance's cultural traditions when developing and implementing a hula-based CVD program. All kumu hula endorsed the use of hula in a CVD intervention program and articulated the strong, significant, and enduring connections of hula to health and well-being. Each kumu hula also recognized that health is the full integration of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. When care is taken to preserve its cultural integrity, hula may be an effective integrated modality for interventions designed to improve health and wellness.
Partial Order Structures and Topological Spaces

In the work ahead we will be interested in Boolean algebras that are associated with certain partial order structures (Definition 5.4) and Boolean algebras of regular open sets of certain topological spaces. Quite often we find that the Boolean algebra associated with a particular partial order structure is the same algebra as that of the regular open sets of a certain topological space even though there appears to be no connection between the partial order structure and the topological space. In this section we will establish such a connection. For a given partial order structure we will define a topological space of ultrafilters for the partial order structure (Definitions 5.2, 5.3, and 5.6). We will show that in general this topological space is a T1-space (Theorem 5.7). If, however, the partial order structure is one associated with a Boolean algebra, then the topological space is in fact Hausdorff (Theorem 5.8).
Amygdala Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors and Kindling

Kindling is the progressive development of intense temporal lobe and generalized seizures induced by repeated subconvulsive electrical stimuli applied to certain brain structures.1 Kindling is considered an animal model of human complex partial (temporal lobe) seizures2, 3 and substantial evidence suggests that the amygdala is involved in temporal lobe epilepsy.4,5 The amygdala is one of the areas most readily kindled6, 7, 8 and the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala is a brain area commonly selected to induce kindling.8, 9, 10
Brachytherapy for in-stent restenosis in general interventional practice: a single institution's experience using four radiation devices.

Abstract Background The effectiveness of brachytherapy for the treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) has been established in a number of large randomized controlled trials. Efficacy of this therapy in general population is less well established. Methods and materials We report our experience of 207 patients, 236 coronary lesions, treated with brachytherapy between November 2000 and November 2002. All commercially available brachytherapy devices, as well as one investigational device, were utilized. This cohort was followed over 9 months and clinical outcomes were obtained with subsequent analysis of patient and lesion-specific characteristics. Results Average treatment age was 62.5 years; 73% were male and the most frequent presentation was unstable angina (74%). All patients had successful delivery of radiation, with no in-hospital deaths. Novoste BetaCath device was used for 163 (65%) lesions, Cordis Checkmate for 56 (24%) lesions, Interventional Therapies device in 13 (8%) lesions, and Guidant Galileo in 4 lesions (3%). At a mean follow-up of 9.1 months, 78.7% were free of major adverse cardiac event (MACE). Twenty-one patients required repeat PTCA (10.1%), 19 had CABG (9.2%), 3 had MI (1.4%), and there was 1 death (0.5%). Unadjusted MACE rates for each device were 21% for Novoste, 28% for Checkmate, 8% for Interventional Therapies, and 50% for Galileo. Lesion length, minimal lumen diameter, renal failure, diabetes, and smoking did not predict treatment failure; only age was inversely correlated with MACE (P=.002). Conclusion When applied across a spectrum of patients, lesions, and devices, brachytherapy retains its effectiveness with outcomes similar to those reported in randomized clinical trials.
Factors influencing ‘Sea to School’ purchases of local seafood products

Abstract Local seafood marketing is intended to improve livelihoods in coastal communities and the sustainability of fisheries practices. While local seafood procurement aligns with the objectives of “farm to school” (F2S) programming in the United States (U.S.), local seafood purchases by schools are infrequent. Understanding the impediments to local seafood procurement can inform strategies to support such practices. This research employs Farm to School Census data to identify attributes that influence school purchases of local seafood at both the school-level and regional-level in the U.S. At the school-level, outreach strategies and promotional efforts employed by schools are important in influencing local seafood sourcing decisions, while the percentage of students on free/reduced-price lunch and school size are not. These findings suggest that technical assistance to practitioners is impactful in supporting the development of local seafood markets. Schools that are close to commercial fishing ports are also more likely to procure seafood locally. At the regional-level, North Pacific and New England schools had a greater propensity to procure local seafood than elsewhere. In the North Pacific this could be occurring because the commercial fishery is economically prominent. In New England this phenomenon may be occurring to develop new markets for alternative seafood species, since historically-important groundfish stocks are depleted. Local agricultural marketing is also relatively important in New England. Thus, there could be spillover benefits to local fishers from technical assistance resources developed to support the local marketing of agricultural products.
Understanding the Formation of Vertical Orientation in Two-dimensional Metal Halide Perovskite Thin Films

Metal halide perovskites have demonstrated strong potential for optoelectronic applications. Particularly, two-dimensional (2D) perovskites have emerged to be promising materials due to their tunable properties and superior stability compared to their three-dimensional counterparts. For high device performance, 2D perovskites need a vertical crystallographic orientation with respect to the electrodes to achieve efficient charge transport. However, the vertical orientation is difficult to achieve with various compositions due to a lack of understanding of the thin film nucleation and growth processes. Here we report a general crystallization mechanism for 2D perovskites, where solvent evaporation and crystal growth compete to influence the level of supersaturation and a low supersaturation is necessary to crystallize vertically oriented thin films starting from nucleation at the liquid–air interface. Factors influencing the supersaturation and crystallization dynamics, such as choices of organic spacers, s...
Peri-Transplant Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Introduction Risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is increased in patients (pts) with multiple myeloma (MM) as a result of the biology of the disease and the use of immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs). These patients frequently undergo autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) transplantation in order to improve disease-free and potentially overall survival. We conducted this study to better understand the incidence and risk factors associated with peri-transplant VTE in this population. Methods 160 MM pts who received IMiD therapy and underwent AHCT between 6/2004 and 11/2016 at our institution were the subjects of this analysis. The peri-transplant period was defined as time from central venous catheter (CVC) insertion up to 60 days post-transplant. None of the pts received VTE prophylaxis during this period. Results All patients received at least one IMiD-based regimen before transplant including thalidomide (31%), lenalidomide (74%), pomalidomide (6%). Imids were stopped at a median of 38 days prior to collection (range 0 days-4 years). CVCs (double lumen n=103, triple lumen n=50, unknown n=7) were inserted a median of 2.5 days prior to mobilized blood collection (range 0-48 days) and were removed a median of 52.5 days after insertion (range 2-303 days). Twenty of 160 patients (12.5%) developed VTE in the peri-transplant period; there was 11 (55%) CVC-related VTE, 6 (30%) lower extremity VTE and 3 (15%) pulmonary embolism. There was no VTE-related death. Median platelet count at the time of VTE was 90 (range, 30-130) x109/L. Eleven VTEs occurred between time of initiation of progenitor cell mobilization and infusion (T-0), and 9 occurred between T-0 and 60 days post-transplant. The rate of catheter-related VTE that occurred before or after T-0 was similar (55%). Thirty-nine percent of pts had a catheter size of less than 14 french; 49% had a catheter size of 14 french or more; the size could not be collected in 12% of the pts. Rate of catheter-related VTE in pts with ≥ 14 and Conclusion In this retrospective single institution analysis, we found a 12.5% incidence of peri-transplant VTEs, which is higher than what was reported in patients receiving transplant for other malignancies [1]. The size of the catheter did not affect the risk of VTE. About half of the VTEs were catheter-related, half of which occurred before T-0. If confirmed on a larger scale, it may be beneficial to give VTE prophylaxis during mobilization to minimize this risk.
Creating an embodied queer Judaism: liturgy, ritual and sexuality at San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 1977–1987

Gay and lesbian synagogues, unique to the American religious landscape, first appeared in the early 1970s. At the height of the gay synagogue movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, over two do...
Permeability sensitivity functions and rapid simulation of multi-point pressure measurements using perturbation theory

Abstract We introduce a perturbation method for the forward modeling of transient diffusion phenomena in aquifers with pressure measurements acquired at arbitrary observation points. Our numerical approach requires only two simulations to compute the Permeability Sensitivity Function (PSF) at an observation point under multi-source and multi-rate conditions; one simulation captures the pressure solution due to the flow history of the sources, while the second simulation is required to extract the Green's function of the groundwater system. The PSF is calculated on the spatial-temporal domain by convolving the gradients of the pressure solution and of the Green's function. The first-order term in the perturbation expansion is obtained by weighting the spatial variations of permeability with a flow-history-dependent PSF. Our work confirms the flexibility and reliability of the method after successful validation with forward numerical simulations in cylindrical and Cartesian coordinates. Multidimensional synthetic studies including multi-well and formation testing conditions, were examined for diverse anisotropy-dominated fluid-flow regimes. Against perturbations of more than one order of magnitude in background permeability, results show that first-order approximations can be computed in tens of CPU seconds with relative errors in pressure of
A Hybrid (Active-Passive) Clustering Technique for VANETs

Clustering serves a vital role in the operation of Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) by continually grouping highly mobile vehicles into logical hierarchical structures. These moving clusters help stabilize a global topology for message routing, and enable multi-channel operations: utilizing a long- range control channel for control data, and a short-range service channel for intra-cluster communications. Clustering techniques are partitioned in research into two categories: active and passive. Active techniques rely on periodic beacon messages from all vehicles containing location, velocity, and direction information. However, in areas of high vehicle density, congestion may occur on the long-range channel used for beacon messages limiting the scale of the VANET. Passive techniques use embedded information in the packet headers of existing traffic to handle clustering. In passive clustering, vehicles not transmitting traffic may cause cluster heads to contain stale and malformed clusters. This paper proposes a hybrid (active-passive) clustering technique, where the passive technique is used as a congestion control strategy when congestion is detected in the network. In this case, cluster members halt their periodic beacon messages on the control channel and embed position information in the packet header of traffic over the service channel to update the cluster head of their position. This multi-channel technique dynamically reduces the channel load of the control channel in urban VANET scenarios, increasing the scalability of the VANET. Simulation results show that the hybrid technique is effective at controlling congestion and reducing message delay in an urban VANET environment when compared to active clustering techniques.
Can pharmacological and non-pharmacological sleep aids reduce post-operative pain and opioid usage? A review of the literature

Sleep is important for our health and well-being and is especially pertinent to orthopedic surgery because it has been shown to play a role in pain tolerance. Knowing the benefits of sleep, one way to positively impact patients' pain and recovery post-surgery is to encourage sleep. Zolpidem, a pharmacologic sleep aid, has been shown to decrease opioid consumption, reduce pain, and increase quality of life when briefly used after orthopedic procedures. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), a nonpharmacologic sleep aid, has been shown to increase the quality of sleep and sleep time, decrease sleep onset latency, decrease pain, and help patients maintain those gains. Because of the dangers of opioids, it is important for physicians to search for alternative methods to manage their patients' pain, like zolpidem and CBT-I. More research is needed to determine which method may be the most efficacious and how these can be integrated into patient care.