cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The worm has turned – microbial virulence modeled in Caenorhabditis elegans

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is emerging as a facile and economical model host for the study of evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis and innate immunity. A rapidly growing number of human and animal microbial pathogens have been shown to injure and kill nematodes. In many cases, microbial genes known to be important for full virulence in mammalian models have been shown to be similarly required for maximum pathogenicity in nematodes. C. elegans has been used in mutation-based screening systems to identify novel virulence-related microbial genes and immune-related host genes, many of which have been validated in mammalian models of disease. C. elegans-based pathogenesis systems hold the potential to simultaneously explore the molecular genetic determinants of both pathogen virulence and host defense.
Self-aware distributed consensus building for sensor networks

Distributed consensus building promises to improve the robustness and reliability of sensor networks and thus is an active topic of research. Whereas extensive study has been done on the theoretical analysis of the asymptotic behavior of consensus building, one important issue that is crucial to the practical implementation of sensor networks was rarely explored, namely, the criteria to determine whether consensus has been attained. In this paper, we propose an approach that allows each node in a network to make the decision by itself, based on the second derivatives of its own state. The approach does not rely on the states of other nodes, leads to substantial saving of communication resources, and is resilient to connection failure. We perform a systematic analysis of the approach and, as a consequence, derive the optimal parameters that minimize the upper bound of the number of required iterations to reach consensus.
An Information-State Approach to Collaborative Reference

We describe a dialogue system that works with its interlocutor to identify objects. Our contributions include a concise, modular architecture with reversible processes of understanding and generation, an information-state model of reference, and flexible links between semantics and collaborative problem solving.
A human calcium-activated potassium channel gene expressed in vascular smooth muscle

Large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K+ (BK) channels are widespread and functionally heterogeneous. In other classes of K+ channels, functional heterogeneity derives from large gene families, alternative splicing, heterologous subunit composition, and functional modulation. The molecular basis of mammalian BK channel heterogeneity is unknown, since only a single gene (mSlo) has been identified. BK channels in native vascular smooth muscle have an apparent Ca2+ sensitivity approximately 10-fold greater than native brain or skeletal muscle channels, or cloned mSlo channels. Using mSlo as a low-stringency probe, we screened human arterial smooth muscle and genomic libraries extensively in search of genes or splice variants with novel properties. We isolated the human homologue of mSlo, including two novel splice variant forms, but found no other related genes. Electrophysiological characterization of the hSlo clones in Xenopus oocytes and Chinese hamster ovary cells gave BK currents that were not measurably different from mSlo currents. However, coexpression of hSlo with a recently cloned beta-subunit derived from smooth muscle dramatically increased apparent Ca2+ sensitivity. Thus alpha-subunits alone may not determine Ca2+ sensitivity of vascular smooth muscle BK channels. hSlo was mapped to human chromosome 10q23.1, and the genomic structure was analyzed. Immediately after the amino terminal, two unusual regions of trinucleotide repeating sequences are present. The first of these regions encodes polyglycine, and the second encodes polyserine. Both regions of repeated sequence are conserved between the mouse and human genome.
Knowledge-based 3D segmentation and reconstruction of coronary arteries using CT images

An approach for the 3D segmentation and reconstruction of human left coronary arteries using angio-CT images is presented in This work. Each voxel in the 3D dataset is assumed to belong to one of the three homogeneous regions: blood, myocardium, and lung. A priori knowledge of the regions is introduced via Bayes' rule. Posterior probabilities obtained using Bayes' rule are anisotropically smoothed, and the 3D segmentation is obtained via MAP classifications of the smoothed posteriors. An active contour model is then applied to extract the coronary arteries from the rest of the volumetric data with subvoxel accuracy. The geometric model of the left coronary arteries obtained in this work may be used to provide accurate boundary conditions for hemodynamic simulations, or to provide objective measurements of clinically relevant parameters such as lumen sizes in a 3D sense.
Mechanistic details of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for metal nitride film growth

Abstract The reaction mechanism of atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for the deposition of metal nitrides has been characterized by a combination of surface-sensitive techniques, X-ray photoelectron (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopies in particular. The growth of titanium nitride films using alternate doses of TiCl 4 and NH 3 is discussed first. It was found that exposure of the surface to the first reactant (TiCl 4 ) is accompanied by the partial loss of chlorine atoms and the reduction of the Ti atoms, and that a subsequent ammonia treatment removes most of the remaining chlorine and leads to the formation of a nitride. Both half-reactions were proven self-limited, and repeated ALD cycles were shown to lead to the buildup of thick films, as desired. However, it was found that the grown films consist of a Ti 3 N 4 layer on top of the expected TiN, suggesting that the reduction of the Ti 4+ species may occur during the TiCl 4 , not NH 3 , dosing step. This conclusion seems to be general, since similar behavior was observed for the deposition of tantalum and zirconium nitrides using TaCl 5 and Zr[N(C 2 H 5 )(CH 3 )] 4 , respectively.
Phase Transitions of Gels

Polymer gels are known to exist in two distinct phases, swollen and collapsed. Volume transition occurs between the phases either continuously or discontinuously in response to chemical and physical stimuli such as temperature, solvent composition, pH, ionic composition, electric field, light, and particular molecules. For a gel to undergo the phase transition, it is necessary that polymers interact with each other through both repulsive and attractive interactions and the balance of competing interactions has to be modified by various stimuli. The phase behavior of a gel, therefore, crucially depends on the nature of interactions between polymers. Recently new phases and volume transitions between them have been discovered in some gels. Detailed examination of the gel phase behavior provides a deep insight into the polymer-polymer interactions and configurations of polymers. The knowledge on physical and chemical fundamentals of gel phase transition will play a role as guiding principles for a wide variety of technological applications of gels as functional elements.
Factors Affecting Transformer Plant Species Distribution in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

The distribution of transformer plant species, defined as harmful species that substantially modify ecosystems, was generally localized in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas (TPNP). Surveys for transformer species were conducted along line transects (n=301) in September 2006. Nine of 16 transformer plant species (81.8%) revealed significant positive associations with riparian forests or with cultivated land. These preferences are likely confounded in that the soils most suitable for cultivation lie in the vicinity of riparian forests. In contrast, a single transformer species revealed a significant positive association with roads. Agricultural areas and riparian forests appear to be more highly invaded than annually burned and grazed prairie in TPNP. Consequently, targeting early detection efforts in or near agricultural areas and riparian forests rather than the more extensive prairie will likely yield higher detection rates of transformer species.
On Computerizing Collections

A system for computerizing a paleontologic collection is described. By limiting the initial capabilities of the system, it was possible to quickly produce a system that includes flexibility and ease of operation. The system is immediately useful because it can be implemented on a portion of a collection and assumes the clerical duties of a card file, label maker, and list maker. Programs can be written in Fortran, the most commonly used language in science.
Density‐dependent predation of early instar Chaoborus feeding on multispecies prey assemblages1

Prey selectivity and predation rates by second-instar Chaoborus punctipennis feeding on a threcspecies rotifer assemblage were dctermincd in a laboratory experiment. Chaoborus became less selective at the two highest of five total prey densities which ranged from 180-2,880 prey liter-‘. This change in selectivity seemingly contradicts optimal foraging theory, but may have occurred because Chaoborus used different search tactics at different prey densities. When feeding on rotifers, Chaoborus exhibited a type 2 functional response and achieved predation rates among the highest reported for an aquatic invertebrate predator. Chaoborus predation rates were high primarily because of rapid handling times (ingestion and digestion) which were quantified with Holling’s disk equation and direct observations. Digestion was particularly rapid with crop evacuation times as brief as 15-30 min for a food bolus of soft-bodied Synchaeta pectinata. The use of functional response experiments for determining Chaoborus predation rates is recommended over the application of digestion time to crop contents of field-collected Chaoborus, because crop passage time of Chaoborus is variable.
Multicultural Stories Preservice Teachers' Conceptions of and Responses to Issues of Diversity

This article presents the multicultural stories of 75 preservice teachers, all of whom were student teaching in New York City. These stories reveal the kinds of concerns and questions preservice te...
ENERGY METABOLISM OF DRAGONFLIES (ODONATA: ANISOPTERA) AT REST AND DURING ENDOTHERMIC WARM-UP

1. 1. Energy metabolism at rest and during pre-flight warm-up was measured in a variety of anisopterous dragonflies. 2. 2. Resting oxygen consumption was similar in its relation to body temperature ( T b) and body mass to that of other insects. At 30 °C, log M = 0.91 log m + 0.44, where M is metabolism (W) and m is body mass (kg). 3. 3. Metabolism during warm-up was calculated both from measurements of T b and from oxygen consumption. By the former method, log M = 1.01 log m + 2.22 at the maximum T b attained during warm-up, and log M = 0.90 log m + 1.87 at T b = 30 °C. Oxygen consumption measurements mostly gave values of M about 15% higher. 4. 4. Total energy cost of warm-up is directly related to mass, thermal conductance and T b at takeoff, and inversely related to warm-up rate.
HyScaleII: A high performance hybrid optical network architecture for data centers

Tremendous growth in data-intensive cloud applications have resulted in an increased demand for highly scalable data center network (DCN) architectures with high throughput and low network complexity. In this paper, we propose HyScaleII to improve the performance of HyScale [17]. HyScaleII is a switch-centric high performance hybrid optical network based DCN architecture that has most of the desirable properties of a data center, e.g. high scalability, low diameter, high bisection width, fault-tolerance, and low network complexity. We also present an efficient and simple routing scheme called HySII routing, which exploits the structural properties of HyScaleII. In our experiments, HyScaleII has lower packet loss ratio and higher average aggregate throughput by an average of 50% and 13.8% respectively as compared to HyScale [17].
Ate and aircraft mechanical diagnostics

The Army is committed to fielding a family of automatic test support systems (ATSS) to support all Army materiel. The current plan is to field the AN/USM-410 "third generation" ATE. The Army has also sponsored a significant amount of work aimed at achieving an "on condition" maintenance philosophy for major aircraft sub systems by monitoring turbine engine performance, engine mechanical condition, health of various rotating dynamic components, hydraulic systems, and structural integrity of the aircraft. The objective is to investigate the viability of accomplishing the aircraft condition monitoring and diagnostic task using ATE. Significant points are the following: non-intrusive monitoring of aircraft mechanical systems is possible; impressive benefits can be attributed to this approach, but several attempts at fielding such a system have been terminated because of excessive initial in vestment costs; and mechanical diagnostics is not a simple extension of a measurement capability.
Impact of duty-hour restriction on resident inpatient teaching†‡

time spent teaching, emotional exhaustion, and satisfaction with quality of patient care. RESULTS: A total of 125 residents (76%) responded; 24% reported spending less time teaching. Less time teaching was associated with being a postgraduate year (PGY)-2 (odds ratio [OR], 7.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.56-32.79) or PGY-3 (OR, 8.23; 95% CI, 1.44-47.09), reporting working <80 hours/week (OR, 5.99; 95% CI, 1.11-32.48) and spending a greater percentage of time on administrative tasks (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.06). Those residents who spent less time teaching also reported less frequent emotional exhaustion (P ¼ 0.003) and more satisfaction with quality of care (P ¼ 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: DHR has decreased teaching time for some residents, and those residents are more likely to be less emotionally exhausted and deliver self-perceived higher quality of care. Academic hospitalists should consider these impacts of DHR and make adjustments such as educational and work-life innovations to account for these shifts. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2009;4:476–480. V C 2009 Society of Hospital Medicine.
The Efficacy of the natural plant extracts, thymol and carvacrol against campylobacter colonization in broiler chickens

Campylobacter is a leading worldwide cause of foodborne illness associated with consumption of poultry products. Unfortunately, most preharvest treatments fail to reduce this enteric foodborne pathogen in poultry. The efficacy of natural plant extracts, such as thymol and carvacrol, has efficacy against other enteric pathogens but has not been evaluated against Campylobacter. To accomplish this, day old broiler chicks (n = 10 chicks/dose) were fed 0% (controls) or thymol or carvacrol or combinations of these compounds in feed in four different trials. Birds were orally challenged with Campylobacter jejuni at day 3 and at day 10, cecal samples were collected for Campylobacter enumeration. Campylobacter counts were reduced for 0.25% thymol (trial 1), 1% carvacrol or 2% thymol (trial 2) treatments, or a combination of both thymol and carvacrol at 0.5% (trial 3) in this study (P < 0.05). These results support supplementation of these compounds in feed to reduce Campylobacter colonization in chickens. Practical Applications Campylobacter is one of the major causes of foodborne enteritis worldwide, and the majority of human campylobacteriosis cases were reported to be associated with improper handling and/or consumption of undercooked poultry . Because poultry are the major contributors for human infections, eliminating or reducing Campylobacter in poultry would greatly reduce the risk of campylobacteriosis in humans. Many strategies have been tried to eliminate Campylobacter with limited success. Considering the increasing consumer demand for natural, safer food products, free from synthetic residues, use of natural compounds with proven antimicrobial efficacy appears to be a promising strategy to control Campylobacter in poultry. In the present study we evaluated the in vivo efficacy of different concentrations and combinations of two natural compounds, thymol and carvacrol, against Campylobacter colonization in broiler chickens.
Emission of dislocations from grain boundaries by grain boundary dissociation

In this article, we examine the conditions that favour the emission of Shockley partial dislocations (SPDs) that standoff from a grain boundary (GB) plane by a few lattice parameters as part of the atomic structure of some GBs. To do so, we consider GBs to be formed by the operation of arrays of intrinsic grain boundary dislocations (GBDs) that create the tilt and twist misorientation, and the lattice mismatch between the two crystal grains adjoining the GB. The conditions to be considered that favour SPDs are the following: (1) Frank’s rule, (2) the proper sequential arrangement of partial dislocations to bound an intrinsic stacking fault and (3) the equilibrium stand-off distance (ESD). We apply an isotropic elasticity analysis to compute the ESD, in the absence of an applied stress, for SPDs emerging from asymmetric tilt GBs in two FCC metals, Cu and Al. The ESD is shown to be dependent on the glide plane orientation relative to the GB plane and on the position of the glide planes, relative to the posi...
Population dynamics of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) during maintenance liming of an acidic lake

Maintenance liming of an acidic lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state (Woods Lake) was conducted three times over a 5 yr period in an attempt to establish a self maintaining brook trout population. Various strains and age classes of marked brook trout were stocked annually and the population was inventoried semi annually to evaluate survival, growth, and reproductive success. The Woods Lake brook trout population was dominated by young, stocked fish throughout the maintenance liming period of 1985-89. Based on spring emergent fry trap catches and fall trap net catches of unmarked fish, only one naturally produced year class (1986) was successfully recruited to the Woods Lake brook trout population. Low annual survival rates (G 20%) of juvenile trout were observed throughout the study period. Although initial growth rates and condition of young trout were satisfactory, increased intraspecific competition for food resulted in declining growth rates and condition of older age classes. Fall standing crops of brook trout remained at relatively low levels of 6 to 10 kg ha−1 and both production per unit biomass and growth efficiency decreased over the 5-yr. Repeated whole lake liming and limited spawning habitat improvement were not sufficient to sustain brook trout natural reproduction in Woods Lake. Low productivity, marginal spawning habitat quality, and low survival rates of stocked trout in Woods Lake resulted in the failure to establish a self maintaining, productive brook trout population in Woods Lake.
A Fast Level Set Method with Particle Correction on Adaptive Cartesian Grid

The level set method, devised by Osher and Sethian in 1988, is a powerful approach for tracking moving interfaces and widely used in physics, fluid mechanics, chemistry, combustion, material science, image processing etc. During the past two decades, the level set method has been under significant development. Techniques of solving the level set equation, including high-order essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) schemes, the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method, weight ENO (WENO) schemes and hybrid particle level set method, have been developed on both structure uniform mesh and unstructured mesh. In this paper, following the work by Strain, a second-order semi-Lagrangian level set method is developed and coupled with a new efficient particle correction algorithm on 2D adaptive Cartesian mesh. This solver is general and capable of solving 2D interface moving problems under different velocity fields, including passive transport fields, first-order and second-order geometric velocity. Through the particle correction algorithm, the semi-Lagrangian level set method can achieve much better mass conservation. Numerical results are presented and compared with other simulations to demonstrate the ability of the level set solver developed in this paper.
Seeking success: Program improvement plans as a strategy to increase pass rates on the national licensure exam

Nursing is a practice profession that has long been regarded with esteem and trust by the public. The education of nurses is a process that has evolved over the last 150 years from apprenticeship-based training to an academic program grounded in the arts and sciences. Nurses must successfully learn a rigorous academic curriculum, demonstrate application of knowledge and skills in the clinical setting, and pass a national licensure exam to practice their profession. Boards of nursing are legislated the responsibility of protecting the public by assuring that nurses who practice in their state are safe, competent, and ethical practitioners. This responsibility is implemented through legislated nurse practice acts and administrative rules that define and regulate nursing practice and nursing education. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to identify and articulate best practices that support an increase in National Council Licensure Exam-Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN®) passing percentages of graduates from nursing programs in Iowa. Program improvement documents submitted by nursing education programs demonstrating pass rates below the acceptable benchmark set by the Iowa Board of Nursing were analyzed for organization, structure, and content. Review of the nursing literature, including evidence-based practices and scholarly works, helped to inform the research. Exploration of regulatory practices and related outcomes provided another lens and source of data from which to view practices within Iowa. Complexity theory guided and informed this evaluation research study and was applied by incorporating Daniel L. Stufflebeam’s (2003) Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) model as a framework for content analysis of documents.
Immune response after vaginal application of antigens in the rhesus monkey.

The immune response after vaginal application of antigens was investigated in six sexually mature female rhesus monkeys. Two model antigens, i.e., lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Salmonella typhosa and abortive type T-4 coliphages were applied with or without adjuvant. A plastic sponge used as the antigen carrier was introduced into the upper vagina and placed against the ectocervix. For primary immunization, each monkey received 18 vaginal antigen applications and 10 applications for each booster course. For comparison, three other female rhesus monkeys were immunized systemically. Alum or LPS was used as adjuvant. Blood was obtained two times and cervical mucus three times weekly from each monkey. Antibodies were only barely detectable in cervical mucus after the primary vaginal immunization. However, booster treatments resulted in definite antibody responses. Specific antibodies were also detected in the circulating blood after vaginal booster immunization. The antibody level in cervical secretion in three of four cases was higher than that in circulating blood. Systemic immunization resulted in high levels of circulating antibodies, but less than 10% appeared in cervical secretions. A characteristic decrease in antibody levels in cervical mucus was usually observed at midcycle after local immunization as well as after systemic immunization. More than 90% of T-4 coliphages applied vaginally were absorbed within 48 hours. Although alum appeared to retard the absorption of antigens, it seemed to enhance the local response. More than 90% of the antibodies to the T-4 coliphages could be removed from the serum and cervial mucus by treatment with anti-immunoglobuin G antiserum. The lymphocyte response to antigens was studied by measuring the 3H-thymidine uptake by peripheral blood lymphocytes in culture. A positive response was observed in three of three systemically immunized and in only two of six locally immunized animals. In general, the immune response was significantly weaker after local vaginal immunization than after systemic immunization.
Reading Between the Lines: The Lessons Adolescent Girls Learn Through Popular Young Adult Literature

On 20 September 2014, Emma Watson, the newly elected United Nations (UN) Women Goodwill Ambassador, gave a speech at the UN headquarters to launch the ‘HeForShe’ Campaign, which sought to recruit one billion men as allies in the battle against inequality being fought by women around the globe. Watson, the actress most famous for her role as Hermione Granger in J. K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series, spoke out against the ways in which feminism is framed as an anti-men movement, urging her listeners — men and women alike — to abandon the ‘us vs. them’ mentality that thwarts gender equality. The video of her speech went viral. Vanity Fair author Joanna Robinson called the speech ‘game-changing’ and noted that Watson’s role as the ‘universally adored heroine’ gave her ‘an automatic in with male and female millennials’, making it one of the rare cases ‘where an actor being conflated with their role might be a good thing.’1 But in the wake of the speech, other critics spoke out against the notion of Watson being the new face of feminism2 — another white, heterosexual face, many noted — and dismissed the campaign as simply another iteration of clicktivism likely to prompt little change. In an article for The Huffington Post, Neha Chandrachud wrote: Liberal white feminism tends to cling to these seemingly iconic moments in which feminism briefly becomes more palatable, more easily sold to the masses. We should be weary of the long-term effectiveness of the #HeForShe campaign. Join the conversation with a hashtag! End global misogyny with an empty promise and a tweet.3
The importance of angels in starting a US biotech venture.

An inventor looking for seed funding should take some time to understand the common attitudes and behaviors of angel investors.
Plasma-induced CPM of femtosecond laser pulses

High-intensity femtosecond laser pulses can be used to study laser-material interactions in a regime in which classical perturbative theories fail. Examples of nonlinear- optical phenomena not described by perturbative nonlinear optics include high- harmonic generation, supercontinuum generation, and ionization-induced spectral blue shifting. The last effect occurs when an intense femtosecond laser pulse propagates through a gas and field ionization causes a rapid increase in the electron density along the propagation path.
Yukawa conformal field theories and emergent supersymmetry

We study conformal field theories (CFTs) with Yukawa interactions in dimensions between 2 and 4; they provide UV completions of the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio and Gross–Neveu models which have four-fermion interactions. We compute the sphere free energy and certain operator scaling dimensions using dimensional continuation. In the Gross–Neveu CFT with N fermion degrees of freedom we obtain the first few terms in the 4−ϵ expansion using the Gross–Neveu–Yukawa model, and the first few terms in the 2+ϵ expansion using the four-fermion interaction. We then apply Pade approximants to produce estimates in d=3. For N=1, which corresponds to one two-component Majorana fermion, it has been suggested that the Yukawa theory flows to an N=1 supersymmetric CFT. We provide new evidence that the 4−ϵ expansion of the N=1 Gross–Neveu–Yukawa model respects the supersymmetry. Our extrapolations to d=3 appear to be in good agreement with the available results obtained using the numerical conformal bootstrap. Continuation of this CFT to d=2 provides evidence that the Yukawa theory flows to the tri-critical Ising model. We apply a similar approach to calculate the sphere free energy and operator scaling dimensions in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio–Yukawa model, which has an additional U(1) global symmetry. For N=2, which corresponds to one two-component Dirac fermion, this theory has an emergent supersymmetry with four supercharges, and we provide new evidence for this.
Eight-channel decoupled array for cervical spinal cord imaging at 3T: six-channel posterior and two-channel anterior array coil

The purpose of this study was to develop a dedicated high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) radio frequency coil for cervical spinal cord (CSC) imaging without using the preamp decoupling technique. A novel eight-channel CSC array was constructed using butterfly, loop (circular), and rectangular elements. The adjacent elements were decoupled by the critical geometrical overlapping, and most non-adjacent elements were decoupled using the loop and butterfly elements. The performance of the proposed CSC coil was compared with the performance of the standard manufacturer's coil (Siemens' head, neck, and spine array) at 3T MRI system in T2-weighted images, diffusion tensor images, and ultrahigh-b diffusion-weighted images. In T2-weighted images, the SNR improvement of the eight-channel CSC coil was 1.4–2.0 times over the manufacturer's coil at the different levels of the CSC vertebrae. Higher contrast between white matter and gray matter was observed in the diffusion-weighted (b = 500 s/mm2) images and the fractional anisotropy maps obtained using the eight-channel CSC coil compared with the manufacturer's coil. The eight-channel CSC coil yielded 2.0 times higher SNR compared with the manufacturer's coil from the white matter region of the ultrahigh-b (b = 7348 s/mm2) radial diffusion-weighted images.
Signaling margin oriented LPDDR PDN design with SIPI synthesis methodology

Signal margin oriented SIPI analytical synthesis methodology is developed for PI design with concurrence of SI design based upon PDA for LPDDR interfaces. The SIPI analytical synthesis results are well correlated with empirical Spice simulation results with circuit netlist for current and voltage waveforms, and also with lab measurements for singling margins on a particular platform with LPDDR3. Consequently, global cost competitive PDNs and optimal SI channel are achievable simultaneously with SIPI synthesis methodology for all LPDDR technologies with increasing data rate.
Identification and validation of school readiness profiles among high-risk kindergartners

Abstract Person-oriented methods recently have been used to examine school readiness patterns of strengths and weaknesses across multiple domains, but more research in high-risk samples is needed. The current study used latent profile analysis to examine whether teacher ratings could be used to identify distinct and valid readiness profiles among 301 high-risk, low-income kindergartners. Four profiles were identified: (1) Well-Adjusted, with strengths in every domain (42%), (2) Competent-Aggressive, with above-average academic abilities and elevated disruptive behavior (19%), (3) Academically Disengaged, with weaknesses in most domains but no disruptive behavior (22%), and (4) Multi-Risk, with severe weaknesses in every domain (17%). These four profiles differed on concurrent direct assessments of language and executive functioning, as well as on peer ratings of behavior. Results highlight heterogeneity among children at risk for poor school adjustment and indicate that valid profiles of school readiness can be derived from teacher ratings. Further, this study suggests that a person-oriented approach can provide a useful framework for researchers, interventionists, and teachers as they consider which different classroom practices or programs may be required to best meet the unique learning and developmental needs of different subgroups of children as they transition to school.
Porcine feed intake of corn–soybean based diets supplemented with oil-extracted microalgae and subsequent performance

ABSTRACT Oil-extracted microalgae are a coproduct of biofuel production and have potential to be used as an animal feed ingredient. Three studies were conducted to determine the performance of grower-finisher pigs fed corn–soybean meal based diets supplemented with microalgae. In study 1, 26 (8-wk-old) Duroc × Yorkshire-Landrace pigs were fed diets containing 0, 1, 2, or 4% microalgae for a 14-d grow-out period. Average daily gain, ADFI, and G:F were similar among all treatments (P > 0.05). Additionally, pellet durability indices were numerically improved for diets containing 4% microalgae compared with the control diet. Based on study 1 results, diets containing either 0 or 4% microalgae were selected to be replicated in study 2 and 3. In both studies, pigs fed diets with 4% microalgae had similar ADG, ADFI, and G:F compared with pigs fed the control (0% microalgae) diet (P > 0.10). Feeding diets containing the oil-extracted microalgae used in the current study had no detriment on palatability or performance of growing pigs up to 4%.
Glutamate-Glutamine Cycle and Anaplerosis

Most excitatory neuronal activity in the brain is sustained by cycling the most prominent neurotransmitter, glutamate, and its metabolic product glutamine between neurons and astrocytes. Losses of these compounds during cycling are replenished by anaplerosis that primarily takes place in astrocytes. This chapter summarizes the methodological considerations in carbon tracer studies used to measure glutamate-glutamine cycling and anaplerosis, together with the estimated rates for these metabolic fluxes in the living brain. Questions regarding neuronal anaplerosis and the stoichiometry of the glutamate-glutamine cycle are examined. The possibility of a functional link between anaplerosis and the glutamate-glutamine cycle is discussed.
Optical Solutions: Reception of an NSF-Funded Science Comic Book on the Biology of the Eye

ABSTRACTThis article traces the reception of a “science comic book” by various audiences including readers and reviewers after publication as well as grant application review committees vetting the proposed project in its conceptual stage. Specifically, the work is a biology textbook containing comics-style visual explanations couched in the form of an imaginative story interwoven with and supplementing traditional text-based explanations of the same ideas. The analysis uses Genette’s concept of “paratexts” (i.e., a class of speech genres comprising those supplementary texts that contextualize and inform readers’ interpretations of the primary text that they accompany) to examine the rhetoric of the visual in the discourse of science education. This analysis observes that the stigmatization of comics as a medium played some role in how readers, critics, and reviewers responded to the text. The implications of this stigma for cultural conceptions of science and their relationships to other knowledge domain...
Context-sensitive languages and G-automata

For a given finitely generated group G, the type of languages that are accepted by G-automata is determined by the word problem of G for most of the classical types of languages. We observe that the only exceptions are the families of context-sensitive and recursive languages. Thus, in general, to ensure that the language accepted by a G-automaton is in the same classical family of languages as the word problem of G, some restriction must be imposed on the G-automaton. We show that restricting to G-automata without ϵ-transitions is sufficient for this purpose. We then define the pullback of two G-automata and use this construction to study the closure properties of the family of languages accepted by G-automata without ϵ-transitions. As a further consequence, when G = G1 × G2 is the product of two groups, we give a characterization of the family of languages accepted by G-automata in terms of the families of languages accepted by G1- and G2-automata. We also give a construction of a grammar for the langua...
Simple Assessment of Global Bone Density and Osteoporosis Screening Using Standard Radiographs of the Hand.

Purpose Osteoporosis and fragility fractures have consequences both at the individual level and to the overall health care system. Although dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the reference standard for assessing bone mineral density (BMD), other, simpler tools may be able to screen bone quality provisionally and signal the need for intervention. We hypothesized that the second metacarpal cortical percentage (2MCP) calculated from standard radiographs of the hand or wrist would correlate with hip BMD derived from DXA and could provide a simple screening tool for osteoporosis. Methods Two hundred patients who had hand or wrist radiographs and hip DXA scans within 1 year of each other were included in this series. Mid-diaphyseal 2MCP was calculated as the ratio of the cortical diameter to the total diameter. We assessed the correlation between 2MCP and total hip BMD. Subjects were stratified into normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic cohorts based on hip t scores, and thresholds were identified to optimize screening sensitivity and specificity. Results Second metacarpal cortical percentage correlated significantly with BMD and t scores from the hip. A 2MCP threshold of less than 60% optimized sensitivity (88%) and specificity (60%) for discerning osteopenic subjects from normal subjects, whereas a threshold of less than 50% optimized sensitivity (100%) and specificity (91%) for differentiating osteoporotic from normal subjects. Conclusions By demonstrating that global BMD may be assessed from 2MCP, these data suggest that radiographs of the hand and wrist may have a role in accurately screening for osteopenia and osteoporosis. This simple investigation, which is already used ubiquitously for patients with hand or wrist problems, may identify patients at risk for fragility fractures and allow for appropriate referral or treatment. Type of study/level of evidence Diagnostic II.
Pediatric Thoracic Trauma: Recognition and Management

Thoracic injuries account for less than one-tenth of all pediatric trauma-related injuries but comprise 14% of pediatric trauma-related deaths. Thoracic trauma includes injuries to the lungs, heart, aorta and great vessels, esophagus, tracheobronchial tree, and structures of the chest wall. Children have unique anatomic features that change the patterns of observed injury compared with adults. This review article outlines the clinical presentation, diagnostic testing, and management principles required to successfully manage injured children with thoracic trauma.
Magnetic field diffusion into hollow conductors with walls on the order of the skin depth

Transient magnetic diffusion through conductors of thickness comparable to the skin depth is investigated. Since an analytical solution is unavailable in this case, such magnetic diffusion results must be determined via simulation or experimentation. In the experimental approach, a sinusoidal current with peak values in the range of 20–30 kA (approx. 7 kHz ringing frequency) is passed through a two turn coil generating a sinusoidally varying magnetic field. A hollow structure with metallic walls of controlled thickness is placed roughly 10 cm away from the exciting coil. The focus of this investigation is on the transient skin depth, which occurs during the first half-wave of the signal, as that is most relevant for pulsed power applications. A calibrated B-dot probe placed inside the structure facilitates measurement of the diffused field. As expected, experimental data shows that magnetic field diffusion through the wall is not instantaneous, causing a delay before the diffused field is measured inside the test structure. The impact of cracks and holes in the conductor on the speed and magnitude of the magnetic field diffusion is elucidated. Results for materials of different conductivities are compared and analyzed for the transition between thin and medium walled cases. FEM simulations are validated alongside these experimental results and used to access a larger parameter space.
Developing a Measure of Students’ Potential Involvement in Scholarly Activities:

Background:Pharmacy schools must encourage a culture of inquiry so future pharmacists approach practice in a scholarly fashion.Objectives:To develop an instrument measuring intentions to engage in ...
Evaluation of confidence measures for language identification.

In this paper we examine various ways to derive confidence measures for a language identification system [3], using phone recognition followed by language models, and describe the application of an evaluation metric [1] for measuring the “goodness” of the different confidence measures. Experiments are conducted on the 1996 NIST Language Identification Evaluation corpus (derived from the Callfriend corpus of conversational telephone speech). The system is trained on the NIST 96 development data and evaluated on the NIST 96 evaluation data. Results indicate that we are able to predict the performance of a system and quantitatively evaluate how well the prediction holds on new data.
Structures of Novel HIV-Inactivating Lectins

To elucidate the structural basis for recognition of high-mannose glycans on HIV-1 gp120, we investigated sugar binding of two novel lectins, OAA and PFA, using NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. We solved crystal structures of these proteins, free and complexed with α3,α6-mannopentaose, the minimal mannosyl oligosaccharide substructure of the gp120-attached mannoses that is recognized by these lectins. Our data provide the first atomic details of how the core epitope of Man-9 is recognized by the OAA-class of lectins.
10.06 – C–C Bond Formation (Part 1) by Addition Reactions: through Carbometallation Mediated by Group 4–7 Metals

Organometals containing group 4–7 metals can undergo various types of carbometallation reactions with alkenes, alkynes, allenes, and higher dienes, enynes, diynes, and so on. In cases where organometallic reagents either are or can be readily made coordinatively unsaturated, they can undergo facile, concerted carbometallation reactions. Such reactions may be acyclic or cyclic processes. The latter may also include those involving metal–carbene and metal–carbine carbometallation reactions that are not discussed here. The cyclic carbometallation reactions involving metallacyclopropanes and metallacyclopropenes have indeed been dominant with the group 4–7 transition metals. Among these metals, only group 4 metals used in conjunction with alkylaluminum compounds have been shown to readily and extensively undergo controlled single-stage acyclic carbometallation reactions. Among them, the Zr-catalyzed carboalumination, especially methylalumination, of alkynes and the Zr-catalyzed asymmetric carboalumination of alkenes have been extensively developed into reactions of considerable synthetic utility. Among cyclic carbometallation reactions, the Ti- and Zr-promoted cyclic carbometallation reactions have been extensively developed into synthetically useful processes, despite the fact that the majority of them are still stoichiometric in these metals. Although Ti and Zr share many common features, many significant differences have also been noted. In this sense, these two metals are complementary to each other. Some other noteworthy and promising reactions include the Cr-catalyzed carboalumination of chiral propargyl electrophiles to give allenes, the acylmanganation, and the Mn-catalyzed carbomagnesation. The acyclic–cyclic dichotomy observed widely with organotransition metals will continue to play a fundamentally significant role in the development of additional carbometallation reactions of synthetic usefulness with the group 4–7 transition metals.
Radiosurgery Treatment Planning

An ideal radiation treatment plan would deliver 100% of the desired dose to the treatment target and none to the normal brain. This is not possible in reality, but the primary goal of radiosurgery treatment planning is to achieve a plan that conforms to the target as closely as possible, as defined by radiation isodose shells (explained in detail shortly) within the plan. A number of treatment planning tools are available for adjusting the shape of treatment isodose shells so that they fit even highly irregular target shapes. Regardless of its shape, the entire target must be treated within the prescription isodose shell, with as little normal brain included as possible.
Dynamic Computation Offloading and Resource Allocation over Mobile Edge Computing Networks with Energy Harvesting Capability

As an emerging and promising technique, the mobile edge computing (MEC) can significantly enhance the computational capability and save computing energy of mobiles, by offloading the computation-intensive tasks from the resource-constrained mobiles to the resource-rich MEC servers. However, since mobiles are generally energy constrained, mobile applications may still be interrupted when the energy of mobiles runs out. To overcome this challenge, we propose to integrate energy harvesting (EH) technique, which can enable mobiles to collect recyclable energy from ambient environments, into MEC, and develop the joint computation offloading and resource allocation scheme for the MEC system supporting multiple EH mobiles. In our considered scenario, each mobile first harvests energy from radio frequency (RF) signals emitted by a base station (BS) which is equipped with an MEC server, and then utilizes the harvested energy to execute its own task either locally at the mobile or by offloading to MEC. Moreover, our developed MEC system employs non- orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) so that multiple mobiles can utilize the same system subcarriers for task offloading to improve system performance. We first formulate the computation offloading and resource allocation problem of interest into an optimization problem, aiming to minimize the total task execution time of all mobiles under their strict timely-execution requirements. Then, we develop the joint computation offloading and resource allocation schemes, through which we can dynamically determine: 1) the energy harvesting time for mobiles; 2) the CPU clock frequencies of mobiles which intend local computing on their own; and 3) the set of mobiles which choose data offloading as well as the subcarriers and power allocations for these mobiles. Finally, we validate and evaluate the proposed offloading and resource allocation scheme through numerical analyses.
Performance Reference Adaptive Control: A Joint Quadratic Programming and Adaptive Control Framework

This paper presents a two-layer robust optimal adaptive control for a class of affine nonlinear systems. The outer later specifies a quadratic program (QP) to optimize the control signal subject to a robust control Lyapunov function (RCLF) constraint. The inner layer employs concurrent learning adaptive laws to estimate the model uncertainty while aiming for RCLF stabilization performance. The resulting concurrent learning-performance reference adaptive control (CL-PRAC) technique compensates for the unknown system dynamics with structured uncertainties. The model estimate informs the outer loop for reduced modeling error in the RCLF structure and enhanced optimality in the face of model uncertainty. The proposed united QP-RCLF+CL-PRAC approach provides uniformly ultimate boundedness of the tracking error and parameter estimation, with exponential convergence rate while minimizing the control effort. A two-sided stability analysis guarantees stability of the proposed system in the presence of control coefficient uncertainty. The case of control saturation constraints is covered in the derivation. Performance of the proposed controller is demonstrated through simulation studies, which show improvements versus a baseline QP-CLF approach.