cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Immunoregulatory Confluence: T Cells, Fc Receptors and Cytokines for IgA Immune Responses

IgA isotype responses are regulated by at least two compartments including those of CD4+ Th2 type cells and cytokines produced by these cells. Interaction of CD4+ Th cells and APC via TCR and Ag-MHC II leads to activation of Th2 type cells. This would allow for secretion of cytokines, especially IL-5 and IL-6 which are key cytokines for the terminal differentiation of B cells into Ig secreting cells. Further, expression of Fc alpha RII on CD4+ Th2 cells could be important for the recruitment of sIgA+ B cells which would allow selective interactions of Th2 cells and sIgA + B cells via Fc alpha RII. This could lead to selectively transfer of IL-5 and IL-6 to sIgA + B cells from CD4+ Th2 cells.
Evaluation of Dynamic Cone Penetration Quality for Cohesive Soil Embankment Construction; Pilot Project for New Specification for Quality Control and Quality Assurance

A pilot project at US-34 in Iowa recently required the use of a new quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) specification involving dynamic cone penetration (DCP) testing in concert with conventional moisture and density testing. The contractor's QC test results were verified with occasional QA testing by Iowa State University and the Iowa Department of Transportation. Cone penetration testing and laboratory unconfined compressive strength testing were conducted on samples obtained on natural fill material before excavation and afterwards on the compacted fill to evaluate the performance properties of the final product. The research findings documented in this paper focus on (a) statistical comparisons between contractor QC and independent QA test data, (b) statistical analysis of the contractor QC data, and (c) evaluation of the performance of a completed embankment. The study findings show that the DCP can be used for QC and QA testing for cohesive soils to evaluate stability and vertical unifor...
Cytochrome oxidase in the human visual cortex: distribution in the developing and the adult brain.

Cytochrome-oxidase (CO) histochemistry has revealed important functional subdivisions, modules, and processing streams in the macaque visual cortex. The present study is aimed at analyzing the development and characteristics of CO patterns in the human visual cortex by means of histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. At 26 weeks of gestation, both the ventricular and subventricular zones had low levels of CO, while the cortical plate had moderate levels of CO. At birth, supragranular CO-rich zones (puffs) were not clearly organized, indicating that the development of puffs in the neonatal striate cortex lags behind that of the macaque monkey, whose puffs appear weeks before birth. Puffs were more clearly discernible in human cortex at postnatal day 24, and became well organized by the fourth postnatal month. Layer IVcα in the neonate exhibited a higher level of activity and amount of CO than the central portion of IVcβ, which contained a dense aggregate of small neurons. The base of IVcβ, however, was often as CO reactive as IVcα. In contrast, the majority of specimens available to us from the fourth postnatal month and from adults with no known neurological diseases had significantly greater CO reactivity in layer IVcβ than in IVcaβ. Layer VI was moderately reactive for CO throughout development. In V2, stripes with globular zones of high CO activity were sporadically present at birth, suggesting that their development may parallel or precede that of puffs in VI. These stripes with CO-rich globular zones became more prominent in the adult and radiated orthogonally from the V1/V2 border. They were not, however, clearly organized into alternating thick and thin stripes as they are in the squirrel monkey. Visual cortical areas beyond V2 exhibited high CO activity mainly in layers III and IV and moderate levels in VI, suggesting that sites associated with cortico-cortical pathways may be metabolically most active.
Prediction of regulatory networks: genome-wide identification of transcription factor targets from gene expression data

Motivation: Defining regulatory networks, linking transcription factors (TFs) to their targets, is a central problem in post-genomic biology. One might imagine one could readily determine these networks through inspection of gene expression data. However, the relationship between the expression timecourse of a transcription factor and its target is not obvious (e.g. simple correlation over the timecourse), and current analysis methods, such as hierarchical clustering, have not been very successful in deciphering them. Results: Here we introduce an approach based on support vector machines (SVMs) to predict the targets of a transcription factor by identifying subtle relationships between their expression profiles. In particular, we used SVMs to predict the regulatory targets for 36 transcription factors in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome based on the microarray expression data from many different physiological conditions. We trained and tested our SVM on a data set constructed to include a significant number of both positive and negative examples, directly addressing data imbalance issues. This was non-trivial given that most of the known experimental information is only for positives. Overall, we found that 63% of our TF‐target relationships were confirmed through cross-validation. We further assessed the performance of our regulatory network identifications by comparing them with the results from two recent genome-wide ChIP-chip experiments. Overall, we find the agreement between our results and these experiments is comparable to the agreement (albeit low) between the two experiments. We find that this network has a delocalized structure with respect to chromosomal positioning, with a given transcription factor having targets spread fairly uniformly across the genome. Availability: The overall network of the relationships is available on the web at http://bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu/expression/
Sex Differences in Diabetes Risk and the Effect of Intensive Lifestyle Modification in the Diabetes Prevention Program

OBJECTIVE—In participants of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) randomized to intensive lifestyle modification (ILS), meeting ILS goals strongly correlated with prevention of diabetes in the group as a whole. Men met significantly more ILS goals than women but had a similar incidence of diabetes. Therefore, we explored sex differences in risk factors for diabetes and the effect of ILS on risk factors. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Baseline risk factors for diabetes and percent change in risk factors over the first year in men versus women were compared using Wilcoxon's rank-sum tests. RESULTS—At baseline, men were older and had a larger waist circumference; higher fasting plasma glucose concentration, caloric intake, and blood pressure; and lower HDL cholesterol and corrected insulin response than women, who were less physically active and had a higher BMI (P 7% body weight resulted in greater decreases in 2-h glucose (P < 0.01), triglyceride level (P < 0.01), and A1C (P < 0.03) in men than in women. CONCLUSIONS—Weight loss >3% body weight yielded greater reduction in risk factors for diabetes in men than in women. Despite the more favorable effects of ILS in men, baseline risk factors were more numerous in men and likely obscured any sex difference in incident diabetes.
Validation of a Children's Group Embedded Figures Test

This paper describes the development and concurrent validation of a group-administered measure of field dependence for children. Subjects were 34 girls and 39 boys in the fourth-grade, and 35 girls and 40 boys in the fifth-grade. This measure was correlated with the Articulation of Body Concept measure for fourth-grade girls (r = —.42) and boys (r = —.59), and for fifth-grade girls (r = —.64) and boys (r = —.46). It was also correlated with scores on the Portable Rod-and-Frame Test for girls (r = —.51) and boys (r = —.39) at the fourth-grade.
Playin' Farmer: Leisure Experiences in a Craft-Based Community of Practice.

The study applies situated learning and communities of practice concepts to an ethnographic study of volunteer farm work. In contrast to a traditional conceptualization of education for leisure, participation in farm work activities is understood as a form of education taking place in a leisure context. Analysis reveals that participation in volunteer farm labor may also be understood as participation in a craft-based community of practice. The Farm’s community of practice exhibits the use of embodied knowledge, intimate communication, a dialectic of innovation and preservation, and a hierarchical social structure. Differences between employment and leisure-based communities of practices are explored. Situated learning and communities of practice conceptualizations promise to expand both the analysis and practice of leisure education, thereby expanding its relevance in contemporary society.
Preparation of Actual-Size Printed Wiring Layouts

Difficulties encountered in maintaining accurate registraion between layers of multilayer printed wiring cards has resulted in a method of preparing artwork actual size instead of by the usual enlarged artwork-photoreduction procedure. Fundamental to the approach is the fact that precise placement of lands, or pads, is more important than exact positioning of etched conductors: Accurate (±0.001 in) land location is assured by jig-boring land-size holes in sheet metal (Invar) and contact printing the hole pattern (lands) onto a glass photographic plate. Conductor paths are added using narrow (0.016 in min) black crepe printed-wiring layout tape. Presstype transfer letters and numbers are added as required for titles or identification. Final artwork is formed by proJection-printing the composite artwork onto another photographic plate using collimated light. Laboratory use of the technique has been successful in eliminating registration difficulties with 8 in x 15 in multilayer printed-wired cards.
Obstacles to Financial Development in Transition Economies: A Literature Survey

This survey of approximately 70 studies considers five causes of weak financial system development in transition economies. These are: problem loans and inadequate capital; the absence of a credit culture, giving rise to perverse incentives to continue to make bad loans; inadequate regulatory systems; deposit insurance; and weak legal systems. There results a perverse feedback loop across the various problem areas that constrains the development of solutions. Policy recommendations include a focus on basic contract law as a way to break the perverse feedback loop.
On the DSM Newton-type method

A wide class of the operator equations F(u)=h in a Hilbert space is studied. Convergence of a Dynamical Systems Method (DSM), based on the continuous analog of the Newton method, is proved without any smoothness assumptions on the F′(u). It is assumed that F′(u) depends on u continuously. Existence and uniqueness of the solution to evolution equation \(\dot{u}(t)=-[F'(u(t))]^{-1}(F(u(t))-h)\), u(0)=u0, is proved without assuming that F′(u) satisfies the Lipschitz condition. The method of the proof is new. This method is based on a novel version of the abstract inverse function theorem.
Aminoguanidinium hexafluorozirconate: a new ferroelectric

Analysis of the atomic arrangement in anhydrous aminoguanidinium hexafluorozirconate, CN4H8ZrF6, reported by Bukvetskii, Gerasimenko & David­ovich [Koord. Khim. (1990), 16, 1479–1484], led to the prediction that it is a new ferroelectric [Abrahams, Mirsky & Nielson (1996). Acta Cryst. B52, 806–809]. Initial attempts to verify the prediction were inconclusive because of the variety of closely related materials produced under the original preparation conditions. Clarification of these conditions led to the formation of pure CN4H8ZrF6 and the growth of single crystals with dimensions as large as 7 × 7 × 2 mm. Highly reproducible calorimetric and dielectric permittivity anomalies reveal the Curie temperature Tc = 383 (1) K. At this temperature, the heat capacity Cp exhibits an entropy change of 0.7 (1) J mol−1 K−1, while the relative permittivity ∊r exhibits an inflection and the dielectric loss a distinct peak; the dielectric anomaly at Tc is observed only at the lowest (0.1–1 kHz) frequencies used. Dielectric hysteresis is demonstrable at 295 K under the application of ∼1 MV m−1 alternating fields and remains observable at all T < Tc but not at T ≥ Tc; the prediction of ferroelectricity is hence confirmed. The value of the spontaneous polarization Ps is 0.45 (9) × 10−2 C m−2 at 298 K, with piezoelectric coefficient d33 = 1.9 (5) pC N−1 and pyroelectric coefficient p3 = 4 (1) µC m−2 K−1. Tilts of less than ∼11° by the two symmetry-independent CN4H{}_{8}^{2+} ions, combined with rotations of ∼20° or less by the N—NH3 and C—(NH2)2 groups about the central C—N bond in each cation, as all H atoms rotate into or become symmetrically distributed about the planes at z = 0 or ½, allow them to conform to mirror symmetry via polar atomic displacements of ∼0.4 A or less by N or C, and of 0.7 A or less by H. Corresponding displacements of less than 0.08 A within the two symmetry-independent ZrF{}_{6}^{2-} anions also result in mirror symmetry, satisfying the structural criteria required for the development of ferroelectricity.
Community and school drug prevention strategy prevalence: differential effects by setting and substance.

This study used key informant interviews and student survey data in 508 U.S. communities to examine relationships between the prevalence of community and non-classroom-based school substance prevention strategies and teen substance use rates. After controlling for covariates, analyses indicated that: (1) adult-supervised after-school activities were significantly related to lower past 30-day cigarette smoking and both past 30-day alcohol use and binge drinking; (2) unsupervised after-school recreational facilities were significantly associated with both lower past 30-day cigarette smoking and current daily smoking; (3) community activities to reduce substance use were significantly related to lower binge drinking; and (4) student organizations to prevent alcohol abuse were significantly related to lower binge drinking. Communities need a broad spectrum of strategies to address variation in substance use among youth.
The Underweight Adolescent Etiologic Factors and a Review

A brief review of the causes of underweight in adolescence is presented to help the practitioner determine the cause of underweight in his patient. Poor nutrition is determined by several key observations: (1) history: (2) physical examination; (3) anthropometric measurements--height, weight, triceps skinfold thickness (TSF), mid-arm circumference (MAC), and mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC). Causes of the underweight state may be divided into three categories: disease states; environmental conditions; and factors peculiar to the adolescent.
Forces acting on a stationary sphere in power-law fluid flow near the wall

The analysis and evaluation of the forces acting on the particle in a linear shear flow of power-law fluid (PLF) in the presence of the wall were performed. Using the results of a series of computations for a model problem with a spherical particle near a flat wall in the Reynolds number range of 0−200 and the distance to the wall from 0 to 20 particle diameters, the correlation formulas for calculating the coefficients of drag force and lift force were obtained. Special attention was paid to the behavior of the forces acting on the particle approaching the wall.
Limited transmission of emergent H7N9 influenza A virus in a simulated live animal market: Do chickens pose the principal transmission threat?

Emergent H7N9 influenza A virus has caused multiple public health and financial hardships. While some epidemiological studies have recognized infected chickens as an important bridge for human infections, the generality of this observation, the minimum infectious dose, and the shedding potential of chickens have received conflicting results. We experimentally tested the ability of domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) to transmit H7N9 to co-housed chickens and to several other animal species in an experimental live animal market. Results indicated that an infected chicken failed to initiate viral shedding of H7N9 to naive co-housed chickens. The infected chicken did, however, successfully transmit the virus to quail (Coturnix sp.) located directly below the infected chicken cage. Oral shedding by indirectly infected quail was, on average, greater than ten-fold that of directly inoculated chickens. Best management practices in live animal market systems should consider the position of quail in stacked-cage settings.
A Design Framework for Experiential History Games

This article presents empirical studies of a serious game focusing on various aspects of the American Civil War. We developed and deployed four distinct modules of our game for use within a fifth grade classroom in Virginia, USA. Of the first three modules deployed, only one lead to statistically significant results from pre-test to post-test. We used qualitative information from these first three trials to develop a design framework for experiential serious games of this form. We then developed and tested a fourth module by applying this framework and found significant learning improvements with this fourth module. This paper presents our game, results of empirical studies within a fifth grade classroom, and our proposed design framework identifying key aspects of the learning environment. Our results provide support for our hypothesis that application of this framework leads to increased learning gains. While we do not suggest that our framework is complete or exhaustive, we believe that designers of similar educational games can benefit by employing the principles of this framework directly.
A Buffeting for German and American Airships, 1931–35

Five sets of circumstances affected developments in the airship between 1931 and 1935. Never absent was the impact of the great worldwide Depression. In remarkable counterpoint came the astounding success of the German zeppelin, both in commercial service to Brazil and in undertaking a new generation of advanced airships for North Atlantic operation. A disappointing third series of events produced the failure of the American airships by naval neglect and adverse winds. Then, by mid-1933, both the German and the American dirigibles were subject to manipulation or victimization by strong political forces: the National Socialists in Berlin and the hard operational prejudices in the American Navy. And finally, as of early 1935, only Germany was left to continue zeppelin expansion, which now faced the rapidly maturing flying boats.
Slow Intramolecular Vibrational Relaxation Leads to Long-Lived Excited-State Wavepackets

Broadband optical pump and compressed white light continuum probe were used to measure the transient excited-state absorption, ground-state bleach, and stimulated emission signals of cresyl violet solution in methanol. Amplitude oscillations caused by wavepacket motion in the ground and excited electronic states were analyzed. It was found that vibrational coherences in the excited state persist for more than the experimental waiting time window of 6 ps, and the strongest mode had a dephasing time constant of 2.4 ps. We hypothesize the dephasing of the wavepacket in the excited state is predominantly caused by intramolecular vibrational relaxation (IVR). Slow IVR indicates weak mode–mode coupling and therefore weak anharmonicity of the potential of this vibration. Thus, the initially prepared vibrational wavepacket in the excited state is not significantly perturbed by nonadiabatic coupling to other electronic states, and hence the diabatic and adiabatic representations of the system are essentially ident...
Proprioceptive Localization Deficits in People With Cerebellar Damage

It has been hypothesized that an important function of the cerebellum is predicting the state of the body during movement. Yet, the extent of cerebellar involvement in perception of limb state (i.e., proprioception, specifically limb position sense) has yet to be determined. Here, we investigated whether patients with cerebellar damage have deficits when trying to locate their hand in space (i.e., proprioceptive localization), which is highly important for everyday movements. By comparing performance during passive robot-controlled and active self-made multi-joint movements, we were able to determine that some cerebellar patients show improved precision during active movement (i.e., active benefit), comparable to controls, whereas other patients have reduced active benefit. Importantly, the differences in patient performance are not explained by patient diagnosis or clinical ratings of impairment. Furthermore, a subsequent experiment confirmed that active deficits in proprioceptive localization occur during both single-joint and multi-joint movements. As such, it is unlikely that localization deficits can be explained by the multi-joint coordination deficits occurring after cerebellar damage. Our results suggest that cerebellar damage may cause varied impairments to different elements of proprioceptive sense. It follows that proprioceptive localization should be adequately accounted for in clinical testing and rehabilitation of people with cerebellar damage.
Nietzsche’s Die Geburt der Tragödie and Richard Wagner

(1941). Nietzsche’s Die Geburt der Tragodie and Richard Wagner. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 185-200.
Y and W Chromosome Assemblies: Approaches and Discoveries

Hundreds of vertebrate genomes have been sequenced and assembled to date. However, most sequencing projects have ignored the sex chromosomes unique to the heterogametic sex - Y and W - that are known as sex-limited chromosomes (SLCs). Indeed, haploid and repetitive Y chromosomes in species with male heterogamety (XY), and W chromosomes in species with female heterogamety (ZW), are difficult to sequence and assemble. Nevertheless, obtaining their sequences is important for understanding the intricacies of vertebrate genome function and evolution. Recent progress has been made towards the adaptation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to deciphering SLC sequences. We review here currently available methodology and results with regard to SLC sequencing and assembly. We focus on vertebrates, but bring in some examples from other taxa.
MARANHÃO – MANHATTAN: uma ponte entre nós. Uma visão dissonante da literatura e da cultura brasileiras / MARANHÃO – MANHATTAN: a bridge between us and the U.S. A dissonant view of Brazilian Literature and Culture. (trad. Daisy Glass e Tenney Naumer)

"O que vou apresentar e uma experiencia de pensamento que tem como foco pensar o Brasil fora do Brasil, literalmente e fisicamente pensar o Brasil em Stanford e aproveitar esse estar fora para pensar o Brasil no exterior de si mesmo, nao como um estrangeiro pode ve-lo, mas como um nativo pode estranha-lo, de modo a pensar aquilo que o diferencia e aquilo que no seu interior difere de si mesmo. [...]" "What I would like to present here is a thought experience that focuses on thinking about Brazil outside Brazil, literally and physically think about Brazil from Stanford and take advantage of this to think about Brazil outside itself, not as a foreigner might see it but rather as how a native might find it strange, in order to reflect about what makes it different and what we can find within Brazil that differs from itself. [...]"
Detecting Atoms in Stars

When sunlight is spread out into its different colors or wavelengths, it is cut by several dark gaps. They were first noticed by the English astronomer William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828) in 1802 (Wollaston 1802), and then investigated in greater detail by the When sunlight is spread out into its different colors or wavelengths, it is cut by several dark gaps.
Estrogen receptors in prolactinomas: a clinico-pathological study.

Background: Antiestrogens are effective in the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast carcinoma. The use of antiestrogen therapy in pituitary adenomas, however, has not been explored. This study attempted to identify a population who may benefit from antiestrogen therapy.
From Diagnosability to Opacity: A Brief History of Diagnosability or Lack Thereof

Abstract In the context of the special historical session on the emergence of discrete event systems as an area of research within the control engineering community, this paper presents historical remarks on key projects and papers that led to the development of a theory of event diagnosis for discrete event systems modeled by finite-state automata in the 1990s. About 10 years later, this work was followed by related investigations on the property of opacity, a strong version of lack of diagnosability that captures security and privacy requirements in cyber and cyber-physical systems.
Two Billion Devices and Counting

Mobile computing has grown drastically over the past decade. Despite the rapid pace of advancements, mobile device understanding, benchmarking, and evaluation are still in their infancies, both in industry and academia. This article presents an industry perspective on the challenges facing mobile computer architecture, specifically involving mobile workloads, benchmarking, and experimental methodology, with the hope of fostering new research within the community to address pending problems. These challenges pose a threat to the systematic development of future mobile systems, which, if addressed, can elevate the entire mobile ecosystem to the next level.
Non-poissonian behavior of hot carrier degradation induced variability in MOSFETs

This paper reports new experimental findings about the variability of the MOSFET threshold voltage (V T ) introduced by hot carrier (HC) degradation. Previously, it was reported that the V t shift due to HC stress (ΔV t ) follows a Poissonian behavior, i.e. the standard deviation of ΔV t distribution is proportional to the square root of its mean value. Here, we show data coming from very different devices over a wide range of stress levels that deviates from the poissonian behavior under two particular conditions. First, in the initial stage of the HC stress ΔV t may exhibit a super-poissonian behavior, i.e. its standard deviation is related to the mean value yet by a power law but with an exponent larger than 0.5, that will then tend to the square root dependence as the stress continues. Second, and most notably, for very high stress levels ΔV t standard deviation tends to saturate to a maximum value, or even decrease in some cases, although HC degradation keeps increasing. A new physical model able to explain these phenomena is proposed and validated with numerical simulations. Quantitative agreement of statistical simulation with experimental data, hence predictive capability of the model, could be attained only by considering a realistic 3D geometry and the atomistic nature of both channel doping and HC induced trapped charge.
The Cultural Context of Therapeutic Choice

The intent of the following chapter is to present data on religion, cosmology and concepts of morality among the Bariba that will serve as a foundation for explaining the bases of therapeutic choices made by Bariba women. The central hypothesis of the chapter is that decisions regarding the utilization of alternative medical services are largely derived from the diagnosis of the sickness or disorder that is presenting a problem to the sufferer and significant others. Thus, the logic of therapeutic choice must relate problem identification to therapy techniques and specialists’ roles — only then do actions taken in response to sickness begin to make sense (Janzen 1978:127). The determination of a diagnosis is necessarily related to beliefs and assumptions regarding sickness causation; as Maclean noted “treatment is always related to explanation since, in the absence of some idea of causation, the response to symptoms is arbitrary or irrational” (Maclean 1976:290). This chapter then, seeks to discuss Bariba concepts of causation of sickness in the broader context of beliefs regarding the causes of misfortune, assumptions regarding human nature, and conceptions of a “general order of existence” (cf. Geertz 1966:8–12) in Bariba culture. In general, the chapter will attempt to sketch the range of beliefs, values and expectations that comprise major assumptions upon which therapeutic choices are based.
Structure Theory in Characteristic 0

The theme of this chapter is the use of Lie algebras in the structural analysis of affine algebraic groups over fields of characteristic 0. In addition to giving far more incisive results than the general structure theory, this Lie theory has the important feature that the basic general results hold over arbitrary, not necessarily algebraically closed fields of characteristic 0.
Co-localization of DNA Repair Proteins with UV-Induced DNA Damage in Locally Irradiated Cells

This chapter describes a technique in which indirect immunofluorescence is applied to visualize the process of nucleotide excision repair (NER) at the site of locally induced damage in DNA. UV-irradiation of cells through an isopore polycarbonate membrane filter generates cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) and (6-4) photoproducts (6-4PP) on a subnuclear area, which corresponds to the size of a pore on the membrane. Specific antibodies to CPD and 6-4PP define the damaged spot. The NER components co-localize at the damaged-DNA subnuclear spot, where the proteins are stained with the appropriate fluorescent antibodies. This relatively simple and affordable method facilitates the examination of the sequential assembly of NER proteins in the chromatin-embedded DNA photoproducts. The method also enhances the identification of repair auxiliary proteins and complexes, such as ubiquitin E3 ligases, involved in the initiation of NER on non-transcribed DNA.
Aging in C. elegans

In the last decade of the 20th century one model organism has received more attention from gerontologists than any other, namely the free-living soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). We owe much of our general view of the genetic determination of lifespan to this organism. C. elegans became a popular organism for the analysis of complex biological problems following the pioneering work of Sidney Brenner and Sir John Sulston who determined the developmental cellular fate map [1]. It is also noted for the early work of Robert Horvitz and colleagues who used the cell lineage map to begin a genetic dissection of programmed cell death [2].
Noradrenergic Transmission at Alpha1-Adrenergic Receptors in the Ventral Periaqueductal Gray Modulates Arousal.

Abstract Background Dysregulation of arousal is symptomatic of numerous psychiatric disorders. Previous research has shown that the activity of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral periaqueductal gray (vPAG) tracks with arousal state, and lesions of vPAGDA cells increase sleep. However, the circuitry controlling these wake-promoting DA neurons is unknown. Methods This study combined designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs), behavioral pharmacology, electrophysiology, and immunoelectron microscopy in male and female mice to elucidate mechanisms in the vPAG that promote arousal. Results Activation of locus coeruleus projections to the vPAG or vPAGDA neurons induced by DREADDs promoted arousal. Similarly, agonist stimulation of vPAG alpha1-adrenergic receptors (α1ARs) increased latency to fall asleep, whereas α1AR blockade had the opposite effect. α1AR stimulation drove vPAGDA activity in a glutamate-dependent, action potential–independent manner. Compared with other dopaminergic brain regions, α1ARs were enriched on astrocytes in the vPAG, and mimicking α1AR transmission specifically in vPAG astrocytes via Gq-DREADDS was sufficient to increase arousal. In general, the wake-promoting effects observed were not accompanied by hyperactivity. Conclusions These experiments revealed that vPAG α1ARs increase arousal, promote glutamatergic input onto vPAGDA neurons, and are abundantly expressed on astrocytes. Activation of locus coeruleus inputs, vPAG astrocytes, or vPAGDA neurons increase sleep latency but do not produce hyperactivity. Together, these results support an arousal circuit whereby noradrenergic transmission at astrocytic α1ARs activates wake-promoting vPAGDA neurons via glutamate transmission.
Digital Humanities—Special Considerations for the Programmer

The field of Digital Humanities, in dealing with data produced by humans about humans (i.e., the Humanities), requires some special considerations for the programmer. This chapter provides a brief description of some popular analytical approaches to the digital humanities, including Digital Archiving and Editing, General Quantitative Analysis, Network Analysis, Spatial Analysis, Stylometry, Textual Analysis, Topic Modeling, and Visualization, and then introduces some special considerations regarding programming for the Humanities, including the place of money (a.k.a. funding) in the process, the difficulty researchers face when they attempt to quantify the Human, qualitative analysis as an alternative and its usefulness for DH projects, and the discussion about whether DH researchers should focus more on the proper use of the tools that already exist, over creating their own one-off tools.
Associations between county-level voter turnout, county-level felony voter disenfranchisement, and sexually transmitted infections among women in the Southern United States.

Abstract Purpose Voting may play a critical role in the allocation of social and structural resources to communities, which in turn shapes neighborhood environments, and ultimately, an individual's sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk. We assessed relationships among county-level voter turnout and felony voter disenfranchisement, and STIs. Methods This cross-sectional multilevel analysis included 666 women in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina enrolled in the Women's Interagency HIV Study between 2013 and 2015. Having a baseline bacterial STI (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, or early syphilis) was determined by laboratory testing. We used generalized estimating equations to test relationships between county-level voter turnout in the 2012 general election, county-level percentage of felony disenfranchised voters, and STI prevalence. Results Eleven percent of participants had an STI. Higher voter turnout corresponded to lower STI prevalence (prevalence ratio = 0.84, 95% confidence interval = 0.73–0.96 per 4 percentage point higher turnout). Greater felony voter disenfranchisement corresponded to higher STI prevalence (prevalence ratio = 1.89, 95% confidence interval = 1.10–3.24 per 4 percentage point higher disenfranchisement). Conclusions STI prevalence was inversely associated with voter turnout and positively associated with felony voter disenfranchisement. Research should assess causality and mechanisms through which civic engagement shapes sexual health. Expanding political participation, including eliminating discriminatory voting laws, could influence sexual health.
Combined peripheral and coronary artery percutaneous intervention in patients with significant coronary and peripheral vascular disease. Case reports and review

Combined percutaneous coronary and peripheral intervention in patients with coronary and peripheral vascular disease can be time and cost saving. Despite the potential benefit, such hybrid procedures have been rarely reported. We report two cases of hybrid peripheral and coronary intervention that were performed at our institution with excellent outcomes. This is followed by a review of the literature.
A Review of the Literature on Teacher Effectiveness and Student Outcomes

Researchers agree that teachers are one of the most important school-based resources in determining students’ future academic success and lifetime outcomes, yet have simultaneously had difficulties in defining what teacher characteristics make for an effective teacher. This chapter reviews the large body of literature on measures of teacher effectiveness, underscoring the diversity of methods by which the general construct of “teacher quality” has been explored, including experience, professional knowledge, and opportunity to learn. Each of these concepts comprises a number of different dimensions and methods of operationalizing. Single-country research (and particularly research from the United States) is distinguished from genuinely comparative work. Despite a voluminous research literature on the question of teacher quality, evidence for the impact of teacher characteristics (experience and professional knowledge) on student outcomes remains quite limited. There is a smaller, but more robust set of findings for the effect of teacher support on opportunity to learn. Five measures may be associated with higher student achievement: teacher experience (measured by years of teaching), teacher professional knowledge (measured by education and self-reported preparation to teach mathematics), and teacher provision of opportunity to learn (measured by time on mathematics and content coverage). These factors provide the basis for a comparative cross-country model.
Dual-Targeting AKT2 and ERK in cancer stem-like cells in neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma remains one of the most difficult pediatric solid tumors to treat. In particular, the refractory and relapsing neuroblastomas are highly heterogeneous with diverse molecular profiles. We previously demonstrated that AKT2 plays critical roles in the regulation of neuroblastoma tumorigenesis. Here we hypothesize that targeting AKT2 could block the signal transduction pathways enhanced in chemo- and/or radiation-resistant neuroblastoma cancer stem-like cells. We found cell proliferation and survival signaling pathways AKT2/mTOR and MAPK were enhanced in cisplatin (CDDP)- and radiation-resistant neuroblastoma cells. Blocking these two pathways with specific inhibitors, CCT128930 (AKT2 inhibitor) and PD98059 (MEK inhibitor) decreased cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and cell migration in these resistant cells. We further demonstrated that the resistant cells had a higher sphere-forming capacity with increased expression of stem cell markers CD133, SOX2, ALDH, Nestin, Oct4, and Nanog. Importantly, the tumorsphere formation, which is a surrogate assay for self-renewal, was sensitive to the inhibitors of AKT2 and MAPK. Taken together, our findings suggest that CDDP- and radiation-resistant cancer stem-like neuroblastoma cells might serve as a useful tool to improve the understanding of molecular mechanisms of therapeutic resistance. This may aid in the development of more effective novel treatment strategies and better clinical outcomes in patients with neuroblastoma.
The controllability Gramian of lattice graphs

Abstract The control of networked dynamical systems continues to receive much attention across the engineering and scientific research fields. Here, we investigate the control of lattice systems which provides analytical insight into the relationship between network structure and controllability. First we derive the exact expression for the individual elements of the controllability Gramian of infinite lattice systems. Second, we focus on nearest neighbor lattices for which the distance between nodes appears in the expression for the controllability Gramian. We show that common control energy metrics scale exponentially with respect to the maximum of all the distances between driver nodes and target nodes.
Reduction of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) in Interleaved DC-DC Converters

In this paper, a periodic dithering technique for electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction in interleaved DC-DC converters is proposed. The frequency range of the pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal, along with the periodic time and phase of the dithering signal are the parameters involved in the dithering process. The effects of these parameters in reducing EMI are studied. Analytical expressions of dithered PWM signals for interleaved DC-DC converters are derived. The proposed technique is validated through simulation and experiments. The effectiveness of the proposed dithering technique is evaluated by showing the attenuation of the common mode current spectrum.
Cyber–Physical Security of Powertrain Systems in Modern Electric Vehicles: Vulnerabilities, Challenges, and Future Visions

Power electronics systems have become increasingly vulnerable to cyber–physical threats due to their growing penetration in the Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled applications, including connected electric vehicles (EVs). In response to this emerging need, a cyber–physical-security initiative was recently launched by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). With increasing connectivity due to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and the number of electronic control units, connected EVs are facing greater cyber–physical security challenges. However, existing research extensively focuses on the network security of internal combustion engine vehicles and fails to address the cyber–physical security of EVs specifically. In this article, the challenges and future visions of cyber–physical security are discussed for connected EVs from the perspective of firmware security, vehicle charging safety, and powertrain control security. The vulnerabilities of EVs are investigated under a variety of cyberattacks, ranging from energy-efficiency-motivated attacks to safety-motivated attacks. Simulation results, including hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) results, are provided to further analyze the cyberattack impacts on both converter (device) and vehicle (system) levels. More importantly, an architecture for the next-generation power electronics systems is proposed to address the cyber–physical security challenges of EVs. Finally, potential research opportunities are discussed in detail, including detection and migration for firmware security, model-based, and data-driven detection and mitigation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on cyber–physical security of powertrain systems in modern EVs.
Interventions to improve medication adherence in inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review.

Abstract Objective To summarize existing literature examining interventions to enhance medication adherence and their effectiveness in enhancing care for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Methods This review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. PubMed and Embase were searched for studies from June 2014 to Dec 2020. Only the studies published in English were included. Results Our systematic literature search identified 488 published articles. Seventeen studies with a total of 7073 patients were included. Out of seventeen different interventions, five were classified as educational, eight as multicomponent, three as behavioral and one as cognitive behavioral. Adherence was measured using patient self-report, administrative/pharmacy claims data, and electronic monitoring devices/pill dispensing systems. Twelve out of seventeen interventions showed a statistically significant improvement in medication adherence including three educational, seven multicomponent, one behavioral and one cognitive behavioral intervention. Conclusions Multicomponent interventions demonstrated the greatest success in IBD patients in promoting medication adherence. Future research should focus on a multidisciplinary approach to design multicomponent interventions to optimize treatment adherence and enhance long-term clinical outcomes. Practice implications While stand-alone strategies have demonstrated effectiveness in improving adherence, better outcomes may be achieved by combining multiple strategies.
CNNBiF: CNN-based Bigram Features for Named Entity Recognition.

Transformer models fine-tuned with a sequence labeling objective have become the dominant choice for named entity recognition tasks. However, a self-attention mechanism with unconstrained length can fail to fully capture local dependencies, particularly when training data is limited. In this paper, we propose a novel joint training objective which better captures the semantics of words corresponding to the same entity. By augmenting the training objective with a group-consistency loss component we enhance our ability to capture local dependencies while still enjoying the advantages of the unconstrained self-attention mechanism. On the CoNLL2003 dataset, our method achieves a test F1 of 93.98 with a single transformer model. More importantly our fine-tuned CoNLL2003 model displays significant gains in generalization to out of domain datasets: on the OntoNotes subset we achieve an F1 of 72.67 which is 0.49 points absolute better than the baseline, and on the WNUT16 set an F1 of 68.22 which is a gain of 0.48 points. Furthermore, on the WNUT17 dataset we achieve an F1 of 55.85, yielding a 2.92 point absolute improvement.
Caring for Muslim Patients Who Fast During Ramadan

A 68-year-old Muslim man who was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus presented for a routine health visit. His initial A1C level was 8.2%, which decreased to 6.7% after dietary changes, exercise, and treatment with metformin (Glucophage). He stated that he wanted to fast during Ramadan and requested advice on how to manage his diabetes while fasting.
Alcohol addiction and the mu-opioid receptor

Alcohol addiction is one of the most common and devastating diseases in the world. Given the tremendous heterogeneity of alcohol addicted individuals, it is unlikely that one medication will help nearly all patients. Thus, there is a clear need to develop predictors of response to existing medications. Naltrexone is a mu-opioid receptor antagonist which has been approved in the United States for treatment of alcohol addiction since 1994. It has limited efficacy, in part due to noncompliance, but many patients do not respond despite high levels of compliance. There are reports that a mis-sense single nucleotide polymorphism (rs179919 or A118G) in the mu-opioid receptor gene predicts a favorable response to naltrexone if an individual carries a 'G' allele. This chapter will review the evidence for this hypothesis. The data are promising that the 'G' allele predisposes to a beneficial naltrexone response among alcohol addicted persons, but additional research is needed to prove this hypothesis in prospective clinical trials.
Proximity: Variants and Generalizations

The main conclusion derived from the preceding chapter is that the Voronoi diagram is both an extremely versatile tool for the solution of some fundamental proximity problems and an exceptionally attractive mathematical object in its own right. Indeed, these two facets—the instrumental and the aesthetic—have been the inspiration of a considerable amount of research on the topic. This chapter is devoted to the illustration of these extensions. Specifically, we shall at first discuss two very important applications: the already mentioned Euclidean Minimum Spanning Tree problem (and its ramifications) and the general problem of plane triangulations. We shall then show how the locus concept can be generalized in a number of directions. We shall then close the chapter with the analysis of “gaps and covers,” which will afford us a chance to appreciate the power of different computation models.