cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Automatic generation of program specifications

Producing specifications by dynamic (runtime) analysis of program executions is potentially unsound, because the analyzed executions may not fully characterize all possible executions of the program. In practice, how accurate are the results of a dynamic analysis? This paper describes the results of an investigation into this question, determining how much specifications generalized from program runs must be changed in order to be verified by a static checker. Surprisingly, small test suites captured nearly all program behavior required by a specific type of static checking; the static checker guaranteed that the implementations satisfy the generated specifications, and ensured the absence of runtime exceptions. Measured against this verification task, the generated specifications scored over 90% on precision, a measure of soundness, and on recall, a measure of completeness.This is a positive result for testing, because it suggests that dynamic analyses can capture all semantic information of interest for certain applications. The experimental results demonstrate that a specific technique, dynamic invariant detection, is effective at generating consistent, sufficient specifications for use by a static checker. Finally, the research shows that combining static and dynamic analyses over program specifications has benefits for users of each technique, guaranteeing soundness of the dynamic analysis and lessening the annotation burden for users of the static analysis.
A Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Model with Multiple Levels of Clustering for Human EEG Seizure Modeling

Driven by the multi-level structure of human intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) recordings of epileptic seizures, we introduce a new variant of a hierarchical Dirichlet Process--the multi-level clustering hierarchical Dirichlet Process (MLC-HDP)--that simultaneously clusters datasets on multiple levels. Our seizure dataset contains brain activity recorded in typically more than a hundred individual channels for each seizure of each patient. The MLC-HDP model clusters over channels-types, seizure-types, and patient-types simultaneously. We describe this model and its implementation in detail. We also present the results of a simulation study comparing the MLC-HDP to a similar model, the Nested Dirichlet Process and finally demonstrate the MLC-HDP's use in modeling seizures across multiple patients. We find the MLC-HDP's clustering to be comparable to independent human physician clusterings. To our knowledge, the MLC-HDP model is the first in the epilepsy literature capable of clustering seizures within and between patients.
Maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) processes

A maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays is presented. The estimation relies on the replication efficiencies of the PCR assay and the observed end-point concentration of the PCR product at an arbitrary cycle. This derivation is carried out in view of the stochastic progression of the amplicons, and the assumption that the end-point concentrations for any particular initial value have a jointly Gaussian distribution. In addition, we provide an extension for the estimator which can be applied to various quantitative PCR assays.
The impact of skills training on responses to the disclosure of mistreatment

Objective: Although disclosure of mistreatment can be beneficial, the effects of disclosure are largely contingent on the quality of responses received. An experimental design was used to evaluate a set of skills-training materials (STMs; Foynes & Freyd, 2010) designed to improve supportive responding to the disclosure of mistreatment experiences. Method: Dyads of university students and community members (N 110) were randomly assigned to condition (experimental or control) and role (discloser or listener). After completing a series of questionnaires, the “discloser” was asked to describe an experience of mistreatment not previously disclosed to the “listener.” Dyads completed postdisclosure questionnaires, reviewed a set of STMs regarding either healthy lifestyle improvements (control) or supportive listening techniques (experimental), and completed a quiz. A second experience of mistreatment was disclosed and a final set of questionnaires was completed. Results: Results indicated that listeners in the experimental condition demonstrated significantly fewer unsupportive behaviors than listeners in the control condition. Listeners who started with high levels of unsupportive behaviors benefitted the most from the STMs. Conclusions: The STMs developed for this study are relatively short in length, easy to administer, and informed by disclosers’ perceptions of supportive behaviors. Thus, these materials could serve as a preliminary step toward developing more effective ways of providing lay people with education on enhancing supportive listening behaviors.
Optimal Bundling of Technological Products with Network Externality

For many high-tech and Internet-related products, utility to consumers depends in part on the size of the user base, a phenomenon called network externality. A firm with a portfolio of these and other products---that are often asymmetric in their degree of network externality or marginal cost---may have to look beyond the traditional strategies of pure components, pure bundling, and mixed bundling. One such strategic alternative in a two-product case would be a so-called mixed bundling-1 under which the bundle and product 1 are offered, but the other product can only be purchased in a bundled form. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the impact of such asymmetry or symmetry in (direct) network externality and cost on the choice of bundling strategies. We model a monopolist firm that has a product in each of two categories and faces heterogeneous consumers. Results suggest that pure bundling is more profitable when both products have low marginal costs or high network externality whereas pure components or mixed bundling-1 is more profitable when the products diverge in their costs and network externality (e.g., only one product has network externality). Traditional mixed bundling is optimal in other instances.
Enhancing Automatic Biological Pathway Generation with GO-Based Gene Similarity

Most current approaches to automatic pathway generation are based on a reverse engineering approach in which pathway plausibility is solely derived from microarray gene expression data. These approaches tend to lack in generality and offer no independent validation as they are too reliant on the pathway observables that guide pathway generation. By contrast, alternative approaches that use prior biological knowledge to validate pathways inferred from gene expression data may err in the opposite direction as the prior knowledge is usually not sufficiently tuned to the pathology of focus. In this paper, we present a novel pathway generation approach that combines insights from the reverse engineering and knowledge-based approaches to increase the biological plausibility of automatically generated regulatory networks.
Spatially explicit surface energy budget and partitioning with remote sensing and flux measurements in a boreal region of Interior Alaska

Extrapolating energy fluxes between the ground surface and the atmospheric boundary layer from point-based measurements to spatially explicit landscape estimation is critical to understand and quantify the energy balance components and exchanges in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. This information is difficult to quantify and are often lacking. Using a Landsat image (acquired on 5 August 2004), the flux measurements from three eddy covariance flux towers (a 1987 burn, a 1999 burn, and an unburned control site) and a customized satellite-based surface energy balance model of Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC), we estimated net radiation, sensible heat flux (H), latent heat flux (LE), and soil heat flux (G) for the boreal Yukon River Basin of Interior Alaska. The model requires user selection of two extreme conditions present within the image area to calibrate and anchor the sensible flux output. One is the “hot” condition which refers to a bare soil condition with specified residual evaporation rates. Another one is the “cold” condition which refers to a fully transpiring vegetation such as full-cover agricultural crops. We selected one bare field as the “hot” condition while we explored three different scenarios for the “cold” pixel because of the absence of larger expanses of agricultural fields within the image area. For this application over boreal forest, selecting agricultural fields whose evapotranspiration was assumed to be 1.05 times the alfalfa-based reference evapotranspiration as the “cold” pixel could result in large errors. Selecting an unburned flux tower site as the “cold” pixel could achieve acceptable results, but uncertainties remain about the energy balance closure of the flux towers. We found that METRIC performs reasonably well in partitioning energy fluxes in a boreal landscape.
INTRODUCTION: COMPARATIVE CIVIC CULTURE

This symposium presents a subset of findings from a larger multicity research project using a single operational and methodological scheme to explore the nature of civic culture. The overall purpose is to explore civic cultures in an array of larger cities, test an initial typology of civic culture, and begin to examine the connections between civic culture and local policy. The articles in the symposium make clear that it is possible to empirically identify a parsimonious taxonomy of local civic cultures focusing on systems of community power, values, and decision-making. While many questions about the internal dynamics of each type remain to be answered, the civic cultures identified here appear empirically distinct and theoretically logical. Future research and dialogue need to focus on defining what culture is and what it is not, and then move to explore the linkages between the elements of civic culture and ultimately to local policy.
Pancreatic hormones, insulin/glucagon molar ratios, and somatostatin as determinants of avian carbohydrate metabolism

The endocrine pancreas of birds contains cell populations similar, if not identical, to those found in mammalian pancreata, although the topographical distributions of these cell types differ to some extent. Insulin-secreting (B) cells, glucagon-secreting (A) cells, somatostatin-secreting (D) cells, and pancreatic polypeptide-secreting (PP or F) cells are distributed unequally among the four pancreatic lobes, with most of the A cells located in the third and splenic lobes and PP cells residing in both islet tissue and in acinar tissue. Glucagon appears to be a (the?) major pancreatic hormone involved in metabolic glucoregulation in birds. Yet the essentiality of insulin for this regulatory purpose also has been established. As a result, current thought is directed toward the molar ratio of insulin to glucagon (I/G) as a dominant force in homeostasis rather than toward either of the two hormones separately. Molar I/G ratios have been useful in mammals in studying the needs of the organism to produce glucose to meet a metabolic crisis/need and, when compared with that found in normal Aves, a value of 1.8-2.2 has been established. Such a molar ratio is indicative of a catabolic recovery of nutrients in mammals, suggesting that birds normally are in a catabolic mode (like diabetic, starving, or exercising mammals). Somatostatin (SRIF) is known to inhibit the release of all pancreatic hormones but has a greater inhibitory action on glucagon secretion than it does on any of the other peptides. (It has least effect on APP).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Red Terror in Ethiopia: A Historical Aberration

This article was inspired by Arno Mayer's magisterial work on the French and Russian revolutions. It is Mayer's thesis that two social forces with irreconcilable political views and objectives foug...
Quantification of parasitism of the soil-borne nematode Criconemella xenoplax by the nematophagous fungus Hirsutella rhossiliensis

(Accepted 9 March 1988) Summary-A “dilution plate assay” was developed to quantify parasitism of C. xenoplux by H. rhossiliensis. Aliquots of C. xenoplax in suspension (treated with 0.5% NaOCl after extraction from soil by wet sieving and centrifugation) were spread onto 1.5% water agar plates supplemented with 200 parts 10e6 streptomycin sulfate. After 5 days at 22 k Z’C, the numbers of C. xenoplax with or without sporulating H. rhossiliensis were determined using a dissecting microscope. The assay was used to measure the rate of decay (disappearance) of parasitized C. xenoplax in field samples incubated in the laboratory. Time required for 50% reduction in number of parasitized nematodes (averaged across all life stages) incubated at -33 kPa soil water potential and at IO, I5 or 2o’C was 61 , 26 or I6 days, respectively. Rate of decay was much faster for parasitized second- and third-stage juveniles than for parasitized fourth-stage juveniles and adults. Rate of infection can be estimated if the number of parasitized nematodes and rate of decay of such nematodes are known INTRODUCl’ION Criconemellu xenoplux Raski (Luc and Raski) is a soil-borne pathogen of stone fruit trees and is attacked by the endoparasitic fungus Hirsutella rhossiliensis Minter and Brady (Jaffee and Zehr, 1982). There are four juvenile stages (designated J I, J2, J3 and J4), the adult female and eggs. Except for the egg and Ji (which is in the egg), all stages are motile and live in the soil. H. rhossiliensis grows from nematodes that it has parasitized and produces non-motile spores on bottle-shaped phialides. Spores adhere to passing nematodes. After the nematode is infected and killed, the fungus converts the material within the body cavity into hyphae. Four to five days after infection of adult C. xenopla.r at 25’C, the hyphae grow out of the nematode and produce distinctive phialides and spores. Sporulation continues, and the hyphae within the cuticle contract until the reserves within the cuticle are depleted (Jaffee and Zehr, 1982, 1983). Hirsurella rhossiliensis is a’poor competitive saprophyte and appears to be specialized for
Sample size considerations when groups are the appropriate unit of analysis.

Abstract This article discusses issues to be considered by nurse researchers when groups should be used as the unit of randomization. Advantages and disadvantages are presented, with statistical calculations needed to determine the effective sample size. Examples of these concepts are presented using data from the Black Cosmetologists Promoting Health Program. Different hypothetical scenarios and their impact on sample size are also presented. Given the complexity of calculating the sample size when using groups as the unit of randomization, it is advantageous for researchers to work closely with statisticians when designing and implementing studies that anticipate the use of groups as the unit ofrandomization.
trans Activation of the simian virus 40 enhancer.

Abstract We describe experiments which demonstrated that the simian virus 40 (SV40) enhancer affects certain transcriptional units differently. We also found that a specific enhancer-transcriptional unit interaction can be regulated by trans-acting factors. Using transient assays, we examined the effects of the SV40 enhancer on herpesvirus thymidine kinase (tk) RNA levels when transcription was initiated either by the herpesvirus tk promoter or by an SV40 early promoter-tk fusion. We were unable to detect any effect of the enhancer on transcription from the tk promoter in CV-1 or HeLa cells. However, we found that the addition of T-antigen in trans allowed the enhancer to stimulate expression from the tk promoter. This induction by T-antigen did not require T-antigen-binding sites in cis and appeared to be an indirect effect. In contrast, tk expression from the SV40 early promoter fusion was greatly stimulated by the enhancer in CV-1 cells. Furthermore, in 293 cells the SV40 enhancer had only a marginal effect on the SV40 promoter-tk fusion, whereas it strongly stimulated tk expression from the tk promoter. Our results raise the possibility that the enhancer function may not show cell specificity per se; rather, the interaction between the enhancer and a specific gene may be responsible for cell specificity. We discuss these observations in terms of the SV40 early gene-to-late gene switch that occurs during SV40 lytic growth.
An Evaluation Of The Reliability Of Alternative Survey Media

This study reports the results of an experiment that evaluated the reliability of alternative survey media. The components of reliability are compared for instruments characterized as paper-based and computer based. The evaluation was further partitioned by subjects preference for visual versus verbal stimuli. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in scale responses between the alternative media, but reliability was found to be low when subjects with verbal cognitive style were asked to respond in the visually oriented computer environment.
Vasopressin response to hyperosmolality and hypotension during ovine pregnancy.

The arginine vasopressin (AVP) responses to hyperosmolality and to hypotension were compared in pregnant and nonpregnant ewes. When the responses to infusion of normal or hypertonic saline were compared, plasma AVP and Na+ concentrations were lower in pregnant ewes than nonpregnant ewes, but the relation between plasma AVP and Na+ concentrations was not altered in the pregnant state. In a second study the AVP response to hypotension, induced by the infusion of 2.5, 5.0, or 10.0 micrograms nitroprusside.kg-1.min-1, was compared in pregnant and nonpregnant ewes. Despite significantly lower mean arterial blood pressures in the pregnant ewes, the mean plasma AVP concentration after infusion of nitroprusside was not increased during pregnancy. Therefore, the relation between mean arterial pressure and AVP was significantly shifted to the left in the pregnant ewes, indicating lower AVP concentrations for a given level of arterial pressure during pregnancy. The results suggest that pregnancy alters the regulation of AVP by arterial pressure but does not affect the regulation of AVP by plasma sodium concentration in the ewe.
Predicted stresses in a ball-grid-array (BGA)/column-grid-array (CGA) assembly with an epoxy adhesive at its ends

A simple, easy-to-use and physically meaningful predictive model is suggested for the assessment of the thermal stresses in a ball-grid-array (BGA) or a column-grid-array (CGA) system with an epoxy adhesive at the peripheral portions of the assembly. It is shown that the application of such a design can lead to a considerable relief in the interfacial stress. The paper is a continuation and an extension of the recently published paper, in which a low modulus solder was considered for the peripheral portions of the assembly. The important difference is that while the soldering temperature has been assumed to be the same for the solder material throughout the assembly, the peripheral epoxy adhesive is applied at an appreciably lower (curing) temperature than the solder at the assembly’s mid-portion. The numerical example has indicated that the application of the CGA technology enables one to achieve a 19.25 % stress relief in the case of an epoxy adhesive, while a 34.11 % stress relief could be expected in the case of a low modulus solder at the assembly ends. When a BGA technology is considered, the application of an epoxy or a low modulus solder at the peripheral portions of the assembly leads to the stress relief of about 14.42 % in the case of an epoxy and of about 12.80 % in the case of a low modulus solder. When CGA technology is used, the application of an epoxy at the peripheral portions of the assembly leads to about 8.70 % stress relief, while the application of a low modulus solder results in about 24.10 % relief. It is concluded that, with the yield stress in shear of 1.85 kgf/mm2 for the solder in the assembly’s mid-portion and 1.35 kgf/mm2—for the peripheral solder material, the application of the CGA technology in combination with an epoxy adhesive or a low modulus solder at the assembly ends might enable one to avoid inelastic strains in the solder, thereby increasing dramatically its fatigue lifetime, just because the low-cycle fatigue situation will be replaced in such a case with the elastic fatigue condition.
Rapid communication: physical and linkage mapping of the porcine calcitonin (CALC) gene.

Genus and Species. Sus scrofa. Locus. Porcine calcitonin (CALC) gene. Source and Description of Primers. Primers, CCA1F and CCA1R, were designed from canine calcitonin sequence (GenBank Accession no. AJ271090) to amplify genomic porcine DNA. Using sequence obtained from the amplified PCR product, additional pig-specific primers (CIPBF, CIPBR, CIPCF, CIPCR) were designed. Primer Sequences. CCA1F: 5′-CAC TTT GGA TTG GCC GCG C-3′; CCA1R: 5′-ACC AGG GCA GCC AGC AGG A-3′; CIPBF: 5′-AAC TTC CCA CTC TGC ACA CT-3′; CIPBR: 5′-AGA CCA AAC TTC AGC AGG AT3′; CIPCF: 5′-TTC TCC TTC CTC TGC TTC TG-3′; CIPCR: 5′-GCA AAC CCA ATA CAG GCT CT-3′. Method of Detection. A PCR was performed using the CCA1F and CCA1R primers in 10L reactions of the following: 1× PCR buffer, 1.5 mM MgCl, 200 M of each dNTP, 2.5 pmol of each PCR primer, 0.35 units Taq DNA polymerase (Promega, Madison, WI), and 12.5 ng of genomic DNA. Genomic DNA from four individuals for two swine breeds (Hampshire and Yorkshire) was used. The PCR was performed in a Robocycler (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) under the following thermocycling conditions: initial denaturation at 94°C for 4 min, 40 cycles of 94°C for 45 s, 64°C for 1 min, 72°C for 2:10 min, and a final extension time of 12 min at 72°C. For each breed, the PCR products from the four individuals were pooled. These pools were then directly sequenced using dye terminators and an ABI 377 sequencer (Perkin-Elmer, Foster City, CA) at the Iowa State University DNA Sequencing and Synthesis Facility. The CCA1F and CCA1R primers produced a 1,600-bp fragment covering exons 1, 2, and 3. This fragment’s se-
Deformation Properties of a Lead-Tin (95–5) Solder

Consecutive load relaxation tests are performed on a 95 Pb-5 Sn specimen near room temperature, then at 69 ° C and 1°C. The initial relaxation runs at room temperature show evidence of static recovery, which diminishes after a number of load relaxations have been performed. Evidence of grain boundary sliding is also found. The specimen hardens slowly at 69°C, as manifested by successive load relaxation data falling at lower strain rates. At 1°C, the material slowly softens. These temperature effects are believed to result from a dislocation-solute interaction involving tin atoms in the lead matrix.
Disturbance, starvation, and overfeeding stresses detected by microbial lipid biomarkers in high-solids high-yield methanogenic reactors

Microbial biomass and community structure of methanogenic anaerobic biomass reactors can be quantitatively monitored by signature, lipid analysis. The eubacterial and eukaryotic polar lipid fatty acids and the methanogen polar lipid ethers are reliable measures of their respective biomasses. The pattern of polar lipid fatty acids yields information on the community structure and metabolic state of the eubacteria and eukaryotes. These biomarker methods were applied over a 2-day feeding cycle of a highly productive batch-fed high-solids anaerobic biomass reactor. It was sampled before feeding, 6 h after feeding (disturbed)., at maximum gas production (healthy, 24 h), and after feedstock utilization (starved, 48h). Relative to the healthy condition, the disturbance of feeding significantly decreased eubacterial biomass and the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, and increased branched fatty acids and the eubacterial stress biomarker,trans/cis 16: 1ω7. The starved condition was not significantly different from the healthy in biomass or proportions of fatty acids, but did show a significant increase in the proportion of the eubacterial stress biomarkertrans/cis 18: 1ω7. This reactor was compared to a second of the same design which had been overfed and showed significantly less productivity. The overfed reactor had a significantly lower methanogenic biomass,iso-branched fatty acids, and higher eubacterial stress markers Cy17:0 andtrans/cis 18: 1ω7 than the highly productive reactor.
Initial Study of the Reference Value on Blood Urea Nitrogen in 0-6 Years Old

Objective:To study the reference value of blood urea nitrogen in 0-6 years old.Method:Blood urea nitrogen of 1 330 minor under 6 years old were checked by group.The reference value of 0-6 years old blood urea nitrogen was set up by statistic methods.Results:The reference value of minor in 0-6 years old blood urea nitrogen was set up.The reference values was 1.27-4.17 below 1 years old,1.65-4.91 in 1-3 years old,2.13-4.79 in 4-6 years old.Conclusions:Blood urea nitrogen of minor are lower than those of adult.It is essential that the reference value of minor blood urea nitrogen is set up.
Carry Forward Culture of Tea and Buddhism, Promote the International Communication in Tea and Buddhism Fields

There is heavy tea culture in Buddhism. Buddhism provides the idea of the same sense in tea and Buddhism for drinking tea, deepens the thoughts of drinking tea. Buddhism puts drinking tea from technique to spirit and makes tea culture have more romantic charm. China Buddhism both carries forward culture of tea and Buddhism and promotes international communication in tea and Buddhism fields.
Reconstructing Archeological Vessels from Fragments using Anchor Points Residing on Shard Fragment Borders

This paper presents a method to assist in the tedious process of reconstructing ceramic vessels from excavated fragments. The method models the fragment borders as 3D curves and uses intrinsic differential anchor points on the curves. Corresponding anchors on different fragments are identified using absolute invariants and a longest string search technique. A rigid transformation is computed from the corresponding anchors, allowing the fragments to be virtually mended. A global constraint induced by the surface of revolution (basis shape) to decide on how all pairs of mended fragments are coming together as one global mended vessel is used. The accuracy of mending is measured using a distance error map metric. The method is tested on a set of 3D scanned fragments (313 pieces) coming from 19 broken vessels. 80% of the pieces were properly mended and resulted into alignment error at the scanner-resolution-level. The method took 59 seconds for mending pieces plus 60 minutes for 3D scans as compared to 12 hours for stitching manually.
Life Gallery: event detection in a personal media collection

Usage of camera-equipped mobile devices raises the need for automatically organizing large personal media collections. Event detection algorithms have been proposed in the literature to tackle this problem but a shortcoming of these studies resides in the lack of comparison of the different solutions. The goal of this work is then to provide a set of tools for the assessment of an event detection method. Our first contribution is our prototype Life Gallery, which aims to retrieve metadata of a personal media collection in order to facilitate the building of a benchmark. Our second contribution is an event detection algorithm based on successive refinements of an initial temporal partition. Our solution uses a simple algorithm that regroups consecutive similar media or split groups with dissimilar media. The choice to provide a basic solution is to compare in a future work our results with more complex solutions, in order to really assess the benefit of these latter. Finally, our third contribution is a benchmark of 6 different users' collections obtained thanks to our Life Gallery application.
Halfback: running short flows quickly and safely

Interactive applications like web browsing are sensitive to latency. Unfortunately, TCP consumes significant time in its start-up phase and loss recovery. Existing sender-side optimizations use more aggressive start-up strategies to reduce latency, but at the same time they harm safety in the sense that they can damage co-existing flows' performance and potentially the network's overall ability to deliver data. In this paper, we experimentally compare existing solutions' latency performance and more importantly, the trade-off between latency and safety at both the flow level and the application level. We argue that existing solutions are still operating away from the sweet spot on this trade-off plane. Based on the diagnosis of existing solutions, we introduce Halfback, a new short-flow transmission mechanism that operates on a better latency-safety trade-off point: Halfback achieves lower latency than the lowest latency previous solution and at the same time significantly better safety. As Halfback is TCP-friendly and requires only sender-side changes, it is feasible to deploy.
Web intelligence: conceptual search engine and navigation

Design of any new intelligent search engine should be at least based on two main motivations. 1) The Web environment is, for the most part, unstructured and imprecise. To deal with information in the Web environment what is needed is a logic that supports modes of reasoning which are approximate rather than exact. While searches may retrieve thousands of hits, finding decision-relevant and query-relevant information in an imprecise environment is a challenging problem, which has to be addressed and 2) another, and less obvious, is deduction in an unstructured and imprecise environment given the huge stream of complex information.
Beyond experimentation: Five trajectories of cigarette smoking in a longitudinal sample of youth

The first goal of this study was to identify the most appropriate measure of cigarette smoking for identifying unique smoking trajectories among adolescents; the second goal was to describe the resulting trajectories and their characteristics. Using 15 annual waves of smoking data in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), we conducted an exploratory latent class growth analysis to determine the best of four outcome variables for yearly smoking (cigarettes per day on days smoked, days smoked per month, mean cigarettes per day, and total cigarettes per month) among individuals aged 12 to 30 (n = 8,791). Days smoked per month was the best outcome variable for identifying unique longitudinal trajectories of smoking and characteristics of these trajectories that could be used to target different types of smokers for prevention and cessation. Objective statistics were used to identify four trajectories in addition to never smokers (34.1%): experimenters (13.6%), quitters (8.1%), early established smokers (39.0%), and late escalators (5.2%). We identified a quitter and late escalator class not identified in the only other comparable latent class growth analysis. Logistic regressions were used to identify the characteristics of individuals in each trajectory. Compared with never smokers, all trajectories except late escalators were less likely to be black; experimenters were more likely to be out of school and unemployed and drink alcohol in adolescence; quitters were more likely to have a mother with a high school degree/GED or higher (versus none) and to use substances in adolescence and less likely to have ever married as a young adult; early established smokers were more likely to have a mother with a high school diploma or GED, be out of school and unemployed, not live with both parents, have used substances, be depressed, and have peers who smoked in adolescence and to have children as young adults and less likely to be Hispanic and to have ever married as young adults; and late escalators were more likely to be Hispanic, drink alcohol, and break rules in adolescence and less likely to have ever married as young adults. Because of the number of waves of data analyzed, this analysis provided a clearer temporal depiction of smoking behavior and more easily distinguishable smoking trajectories than previous analyses. Tobacco control interventions need to move beyond youth-focused approaches to reach all smokers.
Role of Aβ Degrading Enzymes in Synaptic Plasticity and Neurogenesis in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a leading cause of dementia in the aging population. This progressive neurodegenerative disorder is characterized neuropathologically by the presence of plaques composed of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and neurofibrillary tangles containing phosphorylated τ however, neurodegeneration in AD probably initiates with damage to the synaptic terminal. In addition to the neurodegenerative features of AD, the pathological process in this disorder is accompanied by significant alterations in adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Although the precise mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration and neurogenic alterations in AD are not completely understood, several lines of investigation indicate that enzymatic cleavage of Aβ may play an important role in preventing or reversing the neurodegenerative process in AD. Neprilysin (NEP) is one such Aβ-degrading enzyme, and in addition to its Aβ-dependent effects, NEP is capable of promoting neurogenesis and synaptic remodeling. Since this endopeptidase is capable of cleaving a wide range of neuropeptides with neurotrophic activity, its trophic action in the CNS is probably related to enzymatic processing of substrates such as neuropeptide Y (NPY) that results in the generation of neuroactive products. Thus, NEP represents a unique example of a proteolytic enzyme with dual action: degradation (Aβ) and processing (NPY); both actions are neuroprotective. Therefore, understanding the effects of NEP on NPY and other neuropeptides might provide new information about the neuroprotective mechanisms of NEP in the mature CNS and in animal models of AD.
Kernel embedding-based state estimation for colored noise systems

A required assumption of a Kalman filter, the most-widely-used state estimator in avionic systems, is the Gaussian and whiteness of process and measurement noise. If the assumption fails, the performance of the Kalman filter degrades, and its estimation results are no longer optimal. In fact, many avionic applications produce colored noise, and the parameters of colored noise models are typically unknown beforehand without additional information about the noise statistics. In addition, the functions of each underlying model — nonlinear dynamic and measurement models — are sometimes improper or partially unknown. To estimate the states of systems with unknown correlations of each instance of noise and uncertain modeling errors of parametric models, we propose a novel approach that incorporates the kernel embedding of distributions into the extended Kalman filter. In our approach, kernel embedding maps process and measurement residuals, defined by differences between outputs of approximate system models and collected training data, into a reproducing kernel Hilbert space to generate nonparametric models in the functional space. Results from Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the proposed method, compared to existing methods (e.g., extended Kalman filter and Gaussian process-based filter), improves the accuracy of state estimation under colored noise conditions.
Collegiate Masculinity and the Rise of American Youth: Culture During the Roaring Twenties

During the 1920s, youth symbolized modernity, progress, and development as a young generation of Americans espoused new values and served as a lightning rod for social change. College men became emblematic of these transformations as they confronted the values of their educational institutions and asserted unique aspects of their identities, which they believed made them separate and distinct from the previous generation.4 Through on-campus protests, open defiance of Prohibition, and a cavalier attitude towards academics, collegiates defined a new type of masculinity that challenged authority and prioritized peer approval. In addition to these changes, historians cite the increased prominence of college sports (particularly football) and fraternities as evidence of a dramatic transition from an internal, character-based model of masculinity to an external, personality-based model.5 However, a close examination of college records and student publications reveals that many young men attending Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania in this decade sought to retain key aspects of character-based masculinity (such as honor, integrity, and self-sacrifice) while incorporating features of the more modernized version (such as social popularity, physical appearance, and self-indulgence). Their lived experiences call into question the existing historiography by suggesting that notions of masculinity did not shift in an abrupt or absolute manner in the 1920s.6 Campus activities that promoted male bonding and school spirit became more significant in this era but were present in previous decades, showing a continuity in forms of masculine affiliation and rituals across generations. Further, many young men at elite universities struggled to incorporate disparate and opposing notions of masculinity into their identities, adopting a complex, multifaceted construct that simultaneously anchored them to the past and allowed them to embrace the new values of a modernized society. Gin, Gentlemen, and Generational Conflict by Chloe Nurik is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Genetic alterations and PIK3CA gene mutations and amplifications analysis in cervical cancer by racial groups in the United States.

Introduction A number of studies indicated racial differences in cervical cancer outcomes and several factors are associated with it such as stage, comorbidities, treatment pattern, and socioeconomic status. However, the associations of tumor genomic patterns such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) gene mutations and amplifications with cervical cancer racial disparities are largely unexplored. Objectives Therefore, the present investigation aimed to identify genetic alterations (mutations and copy number variations) in cervical cancer and determine whether the PIK3CA gene mutations and amplifications in cervical cancer differ across racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Methods This study made use of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. TCGA database is a publicly available database that was created by a joint effort between the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute. The two-tailed Fisher's exact test was used to test for associations between the categorical variables, race, and PIK3CA gene mutation as well as PIK3CA gene amplification using the "Fisher test" function in R. Results There were 309 cervical cancer samples, and of these, 194 samples had gene mutations and 295 samples had copy number alteration data. The top five mutated genes in TCGA dataset were PIK3CA, MUC4, KMT2C, SYNE1, and KMT2D. The top five amplified genes in TCGA dataset were MECOM, TP63, PRKCI, PIK3CA, and TRFC. The PIK3CA gene had the highest number of mutations with 53 mutation counts. The mutation rates were 62.5%, 31.3%, 25.4%, and 21.1% for American Indian, African American, White, and Asian, respectively. The amplification rates were 28.6%, 21.1%, 18.9%, and 12.5% for African American, Asian, White, and American Indian. Conclusions There are many significantly mutated or amplified genes implicated in cervical cancer. Some of them are not grouped with the already known genes in relation to cervical cancer. For example, the KMT2C, SYNE1, KMT2D, EP300, RYR2, FLG, DMD, FBXW, MECOM, TRFC, RPL35A, LPP, TBL, FGF12, and SOX2 genes. They can be explored as therapeutic targets to improve cervical cancer treatment.
Type 1 Does the Two-Step: Type 1 Secretion Substrates with a Functional Periplasmic Intermediate.

ABSTRACT Bacteria have evolved several secretion strategies for polling and responding to environmental flux and insult. Of these, the type 1 secretion system (T1SS) is known to secrete an array of biologically diverse proteins—from small, 1 MDa. For the last several decades, T1SSs have been characterized as a one-step translocation strategy whereby the secreted substrate is transported directly into the extracellular environment from the cytoplasm with no periplasmic intermediate. Recent phylogenetic, biochemical, and genetic evidences point to a distinct subgroup of T1SS machinery linked with a bacterial transglutaminase-like cysteine proteinase (BTLCP), which uses a two-step secretion mechanism. BTLCP-linked T1SSs transport a class of repeats-in-toxin (RTX) adhesins that are critical for biofilm formation. The prototype of this RTX adhesin group, LapA of Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1, uses a novel N-terminal retention module to anchor the adhesin at the cell surface as a secretion intermediate threaded through the outer membrane-localized TolC-like protein LapE. This secretion intermediate is posttranslationally cleaved by the BTLCP family LapG protein to release LapA from its cognate T1SS pore. Thus, the secretion of LapA and related RTX adhesins into the extracellular environment appears to be a T1SS-mediated two-step process that involves a periplasmic intermediate. In this review, we contrast the T1SS machinery and substrates of the BLTCP-linked two-step secretion process with those of the classical one-step T1SS to better understand the newly recognized and expanded role of this secretion machinery.
Iterative Methods for Dynamic Condensation

Various dynamic condensation approaches have been described in the preceding chapter. Generally, they can significantly improve the accuracy of static condensation. Unfortunately, these methods have one or more disadvantages: 1. The reduced model is frequency-dependent, and a special eigensolver is required to solve the reduced eigenproblem. Furthermore, it is difficult to use this reduced model in further dynamic analyses. 2. The eigenpairs of the reduced model have to be computed one by one. 3. A given number of eigenvectors of the full model or slave model should be available in modal-type and hybrid-type dynamic condensation methods before the condensation is performed.
Poster 91: Tumor infiltration of the piriformis muscle resulting in piriformis syndrome: a case report1

Abstract Setting: Tertiary care hospital. Patient: A 53-year-old female with high-grade, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Case Description: The patient was admitted to the rehabilitation unit after a complicated hospital course. She complained of persistent right buttock pain associated with pain and numbness radiating down her right posterolateral leg to her lateral foot. She did not complain of low back pain, left lower-extremity symptoms, or bowel or bladder dysfunction. Her pain was accentuated with adduction, internal rotation, and flexion of her right lower limb. She demonstrated tenderness, increased pain, and worsening of symptoms with palpation over the right piriformis muscle. Neurologic exam revealed intact strength with normal tone, however, light touch was abnormal in the right L5-S1 dermatomes. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an extensive pelvic tumor involving the cervix and adnexal regions extending to the margins of the right piriformis muscle. Assessment/Results: Tumor infiltration throughout the pelvis involving the right piriformis muscle likely resulted in right buttock and lower-extremity pain and parathesias. Discussion: A literature search revealed no other cases of tumor infiltration causing piriformis syndrome. The most common etiology of piriformis syndrome is local trauma resulting in muscle spasm, inflammation, and hypertrophy. As a result, the sciatic nerve is compressed either between the piriformis muscle belly and the bony pelvis or between 2 inflamed fascicles. In this case report, it is probable that compression of the sciatic nerve resulted from direct compression by the tumor or as a result of secondary inflammation within the muscle belly. Furthermore, the tumor infiltration may have caused irritation of the piriformis resulting in muscle spasms and thus compression of the sciatic nerve as it pierced the muscle. Conclusion: Tumor infiltration of the piriformis muscle is a rare cause of piriformis syndrome.
Infectious Esophagitis and Organisms

The esophagus is not susceptible to a significant number of infections. There is no esophageal equivalent to Helicobacter pylori or Clostridium difficile and no epidemic infection to compare with cholera. Instead, a few esophageal infections (eg, Candida and herpesvirus) that are more likely to occur in immunocompromised individuals infect the surface epithelium and are illustrated in this chapter. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) also involves the esophagus in its usual location (endothelial cells beneath the epithelium), but we omitted this because it looks exactly like CMV-infected endothelium everywhere else in the body. Bacteria are sometimes encountered in esophageal biopsies, and there are a few illustrations of them and their significance. We also included something that looks like a condyloma because human papillomavirus is everywhere these days, and the esophagus is not immune. Finally, we have inserted a surprise organism.
Indicators of Readiness and Capacity for Implementation of Healthy Eating Strategies in Child Care Settings Serving Low-Income Children.

Abstract Objective Identify factors perceived to influence implementation of healthy eating policy, systems, and environmental strategies (PSEs) in child care settings serving low-income children. Design This mixed-methods study, conducted in 2015–2016, used semi-structured interviews (n = 18), focus groups (n = 23), and an expert panel. Participants Public health (n = 11) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–Education practitioners (n = 9) and community residents (n = 174) from 9 counties in Ohio. Expert panelists (n = 10) had experience implementing PSEs in child care settings. Phenomenon of Interest Implementation factors influencing healthy eating PSEs in child care settings. Analysis Qualitative thematic analysis of 41 transcripts using a grounded theory approach. Indicators for each theme were operationalized. Consensus feedback from an expert panel weighted themes and indicators based on perceived importance for implementation. Results Identified themes relevant to implementation of PSEs included (1) organizational and practitioner capacity, (2) child care capacity, (3) networks and relationships, and (4) community resources and motivations. Nineteen indicators related to the 4 themes were identified and weighted. Conclusions and Implications Findings highlighted key factors within domains of influence and informed the operationalization of the indicators and the development of an assessment tool. The assessment tool is designed to tailor PSE implementation to the realities of different child care settings.