cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analytic models and characteristics of video traffic in high speed networks

Empirical studies suggest that video traffic streams in high speed BISDN/ATM telecommunication networks can be modeled as ARMA processes, but some results appear to be inconsistent due to differences in scene content and in the granularity of the time series. We propose a generic model for single source ARMA/ARIMA video streams that explains the effects of aggregation and sampling frequency at different timescales. We extend this to multiplexed independent video streams and describe how specific empirical results fit within the framework. We show that realizations of some models are non-stationary, and that restrictive assumptions of stationarity can be relaxed in the general case. Empirical results are consistent if the timescale is considered. The superposition of multiple independent video streams has certain predictable and consistent ARMA/ARIMA characteristics. >
Patterns of Interorganizational Communications and the Diffusion of a Major Technological Innovation in a Competitive Industrial Community

The effects of interorganizational communications and position in informal communication networks on the decision to adopt a major technological innovation are studied. Based on the sociological di...
Heli/SITAN: a terrain referenced navigation algorithm for helicopters

Heli/SITAN is a terrain referenced navigation algorithm that utilizes radar altimeter ground clearance measurements in combination with a conventional navigation system and a stored digital terrain elevation map to estimate a helicopter's position accurately. Multiple model adaptive estimation techniques are used, and a bank of single-state Kalman filters is used to ensure that reliable position estimates are obtained even in the face of large initial position errors. A real-time implementation of the algorithm was tested aboard a US Army UH-1 helicopter equipped with a Singer-Kearfott Doppler velocity sensor and a Litton LR-80 strapdown attitude and heading reference system (AHRS). The median radial error of the position fixes provided in real time by this implementation was less than 50 m for a variety of mission profiles. Although Heli/SITAN was demonstrated on a helicopter equipped with a Doppler aided AHRS, the extension to other types of aircraft and navigation systems is straightforward. >
Sonography in primary hyperparathyroidism: review with emphasis on scanning technique.

Objective. To review the sonographic features and focused sonographic scanning techniques that may assist in the preoperative localization of parathyroid adenomas in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. Methods. The sonographic findings were reviewed in 54 of 58 consecutive patients with pathologically proven parathyroid adenomas. A systematic scanning approach including real-time gray scale, color and power Doppler, and graded compression gray scale imaging was used in all patients. Results. Fifty-four (93%) of 58 proven adenomas were correctly identified by sonography. Gray scale imaging alone was sufficient for identifying 26 (100%) of 26 large (≥1-cm) and 3 (11%) of 25 small (<1-cm) parathyroid adenomas. However, for 25 (89%) of 28 small adenomas, a combination of color and power Doppler and graded compression real-time gray scale imaging was required for sonographic localization and identification. Conclusions. Knowledge of typical locations and char
Keeping the LINC: the importance of nucleocytoskeletal coupling in intracellular force transmission and cellular function

Providing a stable physical connection between the nucleus and the cytoskeleton is essential for a wide range of cellular functions and it could also participate in mechanosensing by transmitting intra- and extra-cellular mechanical stimuli via the cytoskeleton to the nucleus. Nesprins and SUN proteins, located at the nuclear envelope, form the LINC (linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton) complex that connects the nucleus to the cytoskeleton; underlying nuclear lamins contribute to anchoring LINC complex components at the nuclear envelope. Disruption of the LINC complex or loss of lamins can result in disturbed perinuclear actin and intermediate filament networks and causes severe functional defects, including impaired nuclear positioning, cell polarization and cell motility. Recent studies have identified the LINC complex as the major force-transmitting element at the nuclear envelope and suggest that many of the aforementioned defects can be attributed to disturbed force transmission between the nucleus and the cytoskeleton. Thus mutations in nesprins, SUN proteins or lamins, which have been linked to muscular dystrophies and cardiomyopathies, may weaken or completely eliminate LINC complex function at the nuclear envelope and result in impaired intracellular force transmission, thereby disrupting critical cellular functions.
Roles of Vascular Cells in Inflammation and Immunopathology

Blood vessels play important roles in most inflammatory and immune responses. Alterations in vascular function prove highly adaptive in host defense mechanisms, but can contribute to disease when triggered inappropriately. The last decade has witnessed enormous increases in the understanding of diverse aspects of the functions of vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, including growth control, maintenance of blood compatibility, involvement in mediating leukocyte adhesion and traffic, and interactions with the immune system. This review will illustrate how certain specific facets of vascular cell function may contribute to fundamental immunopathologic mechanisms important in human diseases. I will emphasize the interplay of mediators and leukocytes with vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells in some selected examples of immunopathological processes. The goal of this volume is to help bridge the gap between basic science of vascular cell biology and the disease states that confront the clinician. Therefore, this brief overview does not aim to be comprehensive, but rather attempts to integrate some of the diverse points treated in detail in other chapters into the context of general immunopathologic mechanisms and to illustrate a few applications to examples of human disease states.
Development and Study of an Instrument to Measure Role Strain

The purpose of the Lengacher Role Strain Inventory (LRSI) is to assess the characteristic of role strain in female nursing students who have multiple roles (being in school, having a family, and being employed). The LRSI consists of a 100-item Likert-type scale instrument. It was administered to 327 students (a pilot and five groups) in three different colleges. Reliability and internal consistency were determined with alpha coefficients. Coefficients of .93, .94, and .95 were obtained for female nursing students and .95 and .87 were obtained for the nonnursing community college student groups. Evidence of construct validity of the LRSI may be seen in comparing the mean scores of female nursing students and male and female nonnursing students using a contrasted-groups approach. Tests of significance between the nursing student groups and the nonnursing students resulted in significant differences of p < .05, p < .01, p < .0001, and p < .0000.
Can You Hear Me Now? Using Voice Comments to Provide Feedback on Students' Memoranda

This article addresses the advantages, and possibly some disadvantages, of using voice comments instead of traditional written comments to provide students feedback on their written memoranda. The article also discusses how to create voice comments and provide them to students.
Mechanisms of Hydrothermal Barium Titanate Thin Film Formation

Low temperature synthesis of BaTiO 3 thin films was performed under hydrothermal conditions below 80°C. Titanium metal, polycrystalline titanium oxide, and polystyrene (coated with a metallo-organic titanium precursor by a sol-gel process) were used as substrate materials. The reactions between the substrates and aqueous Ba(OH) 2 solution took place at different time intervals from 10 minutes to 48 hours. The formation mechanisms of BaTiO 3 was investigated by electron microscopy techniques during the reaction sequence. It is proposed that the nucleation and growth of crystalline BaTiO 3 occur within an amorphous intermediate phase on Ti-metal and polystyrene substrates. However, thin film of BaTiO 3 does not form on the surface of the sintered polycrystalline TiO 2 under similar reaction conditions.
Fragments of lives arrested; a memoir of Lebanon's Jewish community

ABSTRACTThis article mines an early history of modern Lebanon by placing a special focus on the country's Jewish community and examining inter-Lebanese relations where Lebanese Jews take centre stage. Like Lebanon's Christians – Maronites in the main – Lebanon's Jews reveal themselves to have played an important role in the establishment of the Lebanese republic as a ‘confederation of minorities’. But the role of Lebanese Jews was a discreet, low-pitched one, and their ‘voices’ and ‘stories’ seem to have been left out of traditional history books. This article is an attempt at correcting a lacuna of exclusion vis-a-vis Lebanese Jews, mending their memory and restoring them to their rightful place as a foundational element of modern Lebanese history and socio-cultural production.
The Plight of the Buyer’s Broker

This article examines the commission claims of buyers’ brokers encounter with commissions and the tort for interference with prospective economic advantage.
Epidemiological analysis of varicella in Xi'an City from 2007-2012

[Objective]To understand the incidence level and epidemic features of varicella in Xi'an City,provide the basis for developing the prevention and control strategies of varicella.[Methods]The surveillance data of varicella from 2007-2012 were analyzed by the descriptive epidemiological method.[Results]The incidence rate of varicella showed a rising trend in Xi'an City from 2007-2012,and a total of 11 261 cases were reported,with the average annual incidence rate of 23.52 / lakh.There was significant difference in incidence rate among different districts( P 0.01).There were two peak seasons of varicella in Xi'an City,which occurred April to July and November to January of next year.Most of varicella cases were male( P 0.01).A majority of patients were students and preschool children,the patients aged 0-9 years old accounted for 61.14% of the total cases,and the patients below 24 years old accounted for 94.86%.The cases of students,kindergarten children and scattered children accounted for 82.24% of the total cases.[Conclusion]The epidemic situation of varicella in Xi'an city is dominated by the sporadic cases,while the students and preschool children are the high-risk population.The children should receive the varicella vaccination as soon as possible before entering the school and kindergarten.
Specific tritium labelling of a potent gastrin analogue. Synthesis and pharmacological activities of C-terminal gastrin tetrapeptide analogues.

The synthesis of a specifically labeled C-terminal gastrin tetrapeptide analogue, tert-butoxycarbonyl-L-tryptophyl-L-norleucyl-4,5-3H-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine amide(compound IV), is described. This labeled peptide was obtained by catalytic tritiation of tert-butoxycarbonyl-L-tryptophyl-L-4-dehydronorleucyl-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine amide (II). Upon catalytic hydrogenation, the latter compound gave tert-butoxycarbonyl-L-tryptophyl-L-norleucyl-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine amide (III), which possessed physical properties identical with those of the authentic material. The biological properties of compounds II and III are compared with those of L-tryptophyl-L-methionyl-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine amide (I), the natural C-terminal tetrapeptide of gastrin, with respect to gastric secretion in the frog, rat, and dog, and pancreatic secretion in the dog.
Motion of the surface of the earth in the compressional phase of a deep-focus earthquake, and the effects of a layered crust

Summary and Conclusions In this paper the difficulties which attend any attempt to obtain the ground displacement which occurs during the passage of an earthquake wave have been illustrated. Reliable curves of ground displacement are difficult to obtain because the majority of seismographs, as operated, are poorly adapted for any purpose but the indication of the time of arrival of earthquake phases. This study has demonstrated, however, the practicability of an attempt to obtain ground displacement from seismograms, and has illustrated some of the uses which may be made of curves of ground displacement, when obtained. The use of the dynamic magnification to obtain the amplitude of ground displacement corresponding to an impulse on a seismogram was shown to give highly erroneous results. For long-period seismographs, calculation of displacement by methods in which the effect of transients was retained appeared to give fairly accurate results. The results of the study of the effects of a layered crust on the surface motion are to be considered only as preliminary, and indicative of the usefulness of a technique which hitherto has seldom been applied to seismic problems. Displacements were indicated in the horizontal components of ground displacement that were absent in the vertical, suggesting effects of crustal discontinuities. If the use of composite curves of surface displacement is valid, and the agreement between the observed and predicted curves of horizontal component of displacement is significant, the following are possible conclusions: oscillation in seismograms is a result of reflections and transformations of primary waves within the crust; the average thickness of the crust beneath the stations whose records were studied is 32 km.; the velocity change at the base of the crust takes place in a distance which is small compared to the wave length. An appropriate research for individual stations possessing good seismographs in three components would be a study of the thickness of the crust underlying each station. For this purpose the wave velocities as determined from local earthquakes or explosions, and the arrival time of P [ S * S ¯ ] for a few deep-focus earthquakes of simple initial form, would suffice. A knowledge of the curves of ground displacement would facilitate the solution of the following problems, among others: the effects of crustal discontinuities on the ground motion in the S phase; and the azimuthal variation of the form of the P wave, in relation to the process at the focus. The writer wishes to thank Professor L. B. Slichter, who suggested the problem, and the directors of the many seismological stations whose cooperation in providing seismograms made the investigation possible.
North Atlantic Ocean OSSE system: Evaluation of operational ocean observing system components and supplemental seasonal observations for potentially improving tropical cyclone prediction in coupled systems

ABSTRACTObserving System Simulated Experiments (OSSEs) performed during the 2014 North Atlantic hurricane season quantify ocean observing system impacts with respect to improving ocean model initialisation in coupled tropical cyclone (TC) prediction systems. The suitability of the OSSE system forecast model (FM) with respect to the previously validated Nature Run is demonstrated first. Analyses are then performed to determine the calibration required to obtain credible OSSE impact assessments. Impacts on errors and biases in fields important to TC prediction are first quantified for three major components of the existing operational ocean observing system. Satellite altimetry provides the greatest positive impact, followed by Argo floats and sea surface temperature measurements from both satellite and in-situ systems. The OSSE system is then used to investigate observing system enhancements, specifically regional underwater glider deployments during the 2014 hurricane season. These deployments resulted in...
Truth Telling and Palliative Care

The primary mission of palliative care is to assist and guide patients through all phases of treatment and crucial to this work is maintaining the patient’s integrity and dignity. To accomplish this, patients need to understand their prognosis and be guided to take an active role in crafting a treatment plan that conforms to individual values and goals of care. Information needs change over time and may differ among members of a single family. We propose that truth is not just an item traded between doctors and patients but, instead, a concept that is larger than a set of facts and scientific constructs. Clinicians struggle with protective instincts and their own discomfort when faced with the duty to inform and this can lead to avoidance. We review the data that supports honest and compassionate disclosure and frame this exchange as an important step in a model based on individual resilience and healthy coping.
Norrin-induced Frizzled4 endocytosis and endo-lysosomal trafficking control retinal angiogenesis and barrier function

Angiogenesis and blood-brain barrier formation are required for normal central nervous system (CNS) function. Both processes are controlled by Wnt or Norrin (NDP) ligands, Frizzled (FZD) receptors, and β-catenin-dependent signalling in vascular endothelial cells. In the retina, FZD4 and the ligand NDP are critical mediators of signalling and are mutated in familial exudative vitreoretinopathy. Here, we report that NDP is a potent trigger of FZD4 ubiquitination and induces internalization of the NDP receptor complex into the endo-lysosomal compartment. Inhibition of ubiquitinated cargo transport through the multivesicular body (MVB) pathway using a dominant negative ESCRT (endosomal sorting complexes required for transport) component VPS4 EQ strongly impairs NDP/FZD4 signalling in vitro and recapitulates CNS angiogenesis and blood-CNS-barrier defects caused by impaired vascular β-catenin signalling in mice. These findings provide evidence for an important role of FZD4 endocytosis in NDP/FZD4 signalling and in CNS vascular biology and disease.
Current profile and energy control in DIII-D plasmas using discrete-time variable-structure control

One of the most promising candidates to produce clean nuclear fusion energy is the tokamak, a device magnetically confining an extremely hot plasma (i.e. an ionized gas) where the fusion reactions take place. To produce nuclear fusion energy using tokamak devices, it is crucial that the poloidal magnetic flux (characterized by the so-called q profile) and the plasma internal energy are tightly controlled to avoid magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and to reach the high pressures and temperatures that are needed for high fusion-power density. Simultaneous control of the q profile and the internal energy is challenging for a number of reasons: the system is nonlinear, there are significant parameter uncertainties and large disturbances, the available number of actuators is small, and the actuation authority is limited from a control perspective. Therefore, a variable-structure controller is proposed in this work to tackle this plasma control problem since this type of controllers can typically diminish the impact of serious disturbances and nonlinearities while still leading to good performance. Simulations and recent experiments on the DIII-D tokamak in a challenging high-confinement (H-mode) plasma regime show that this control approach does indeed lead to good and repeatable control of the q profile and the internal energy.
Targeting βCys93 in hemoglobin S with an antisickling agent possessing dual allosteric and antioxidant effects

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder caused by a β globin gene mutation of hemoglobin (HbS). The polymerization of deoxyHbS and its subsequent aggregation (into long fibers) is the primary molecular event which leads to red blood cell (RBC) sickling and ultimately hemolytic anemia. We have recently suggested that HbS oxidative toxicity may also contribute to SCD pathophysiology due to its defective pseudoperoxidase activity. As a consequence, a persistently higher oxidized ferryl heme is formed which irreversibly oxidizes “hotspot” residues (particularly βCys93) causing protein unfolding and subsequent heme loss. In this report we confirmed first, the allosteric effect of a newly developed reagent (di(5-(2,3-dihydro-1,4-benzodioxin-2-yl)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)disulfide) (TD-1) on oxygen affinity within SS RBCs. There was a considerable left shift in oxygen equilibrium curves (OECs) representing treated SS cells. Under hypoxic conditions, TD-1 treatment of HbS resulted in an approximately 200 s increase in the delay time of HbS polymerization over the untreated HbS control. The effect of TD-1 binding to HbS was also tested on oxidative reactions by incrementally treating HbS with increasing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentrations. Under these experimental conditions, ferryl levels were consistently reduced by approximately 35% in the presence of TD-1. Mass spectrometric analysis confirmed that upon binding to βCys93, TD-1 effectively blocked irreversible oxidation of this residue. In conclusion, TD-1 appears to shield βCys93 (the end point of radical formation in HbS) and when coupled with its allosteric effect on oxygen affinity may provide new therapeutic modalities for the treatment of SCD.
Collection and preparation of thin sections of oriented samples

Many techniques of microstructural analysis have become available for determining the shear sense in ductilely deformed tectonites; however, these techniques require that one collect oriented samples from the field and retain the sample orientation throughout the thin-section process in order to correctly determine shear sense with respect to map structures. The trick to collecting oriented samples is having a system, or conventions, which become familiar; a system with built-in redundancies is best because it helps one minimize and correct mistakes. In this paper, I outline a method for collecting and cutting oriented samples for microstructural analysis.
Why the EEOC (Still) Matters

Co-authored by two attorneys in the Office of General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this article first traces the history of the EEOC, which shares the same birthday as Title VII, with a focus on the Commission's charge processing, investigation, conciliation and litigation practices against private employers. Next, the article describes the Commission's current charge-processing system and litigation practice. Finally, the authors explore the question of whether the EEOC still matters forty years after Title VII's enactment.
Under Pressure: The Hazards of Maintaining Innocence after Conviction

Innocent people convicted of child abuse or sexual offenses face a classic “Catch-22” situation that has ramifications on their prospects for parole and for exoneration in court. If prisoners continue to maintain their innocence while imprisoned, then corrections officials may interpret this behaviour as demonstrating a key trait of sex offenders — “denial” — and make them ineligible for treatment programs that are a prerequisite for parole in many jurisdictions. Even if they are technically eligible to apply for parole, inmates who claim innocence before parole boards harm their chances for release based on the belief that those unable to admit guilt are likely to re-offend; they are perceived as lacking in remorse and failing to address their offending behaviour. Prisoners who pursue their innocence through post-conviction litigation also face an uphill climb. This is attributable in part to cognitive biases that affect how prosecutors treat innocence claims in the aftermath of conviction and all too often lead them to discount their potential legitimacy. Considering the hazards that inmates encounter in maintaining their innocence in parole and post-conviction litigation settings, there is reason to think that many of them are not in denial, but rather the victims of profound miscarriages of justice. This Book Chapter will explore this conundrum in these two settings before concluding with some thoughts on reform.
Apes, skulls and drums: using images to make ethnographic knowledge in imperial Germany.

In this paper, I discuss the development and use of images employed by the Dresden Royal Museum for Zoology, Anthropology and Ethnography to resolve debates about how to use visual representation as a means of making ethnographic knowledge. Through experimentation with techniques of visual representation, the founding director, A.B. Meyer (1840–1911), proposed a historical, non-essentialist approach to understanding racial and cultural difference. Director Meyer's approach was inspired by the new knowledge he had gained through field research in Asia-Pacific as well as new forms of imaging that made highly detailed representations of objects possible. Through a combination of various techniques, he developed new visual methods that emphasized intimate familiarity with variations within any one ethnic group, from skull shape to material ornamentation, as integral to the new disciplines of physical and cultural anthropology. It is well known that photographs were a favoured form of visual documentation among the anthropological and ethnographic sciences at the fin de siecle. However, in the scholarly journals of the Dresden museum, photographs, drawings, tables and etchings were frequently displayed alongside one another. Meyer sought to train the reader's eye through organized arrangements that represented objects from multiple angles and at various levels of magnification. Focusing on chimpanzees, skulls and kettledrums from Asia-Pacific, I track the development of new modes of making and reading images, from zoology and physical anthropology to ethnography, to demonstrate how the museum visually historicized humankind.
Towards Understanding Community Interests With Topic Modeling

Community plays an important role in shaping a network. Quantitatively interpreting a community is necessary for graph generalization which is used for privacy preserving, summarization, and dimensionality reduction in social network mining. However, there are few works in community detection focusing on making sense of the identified communities. In this paper, we study communities in the social media context and investigate structure-based communities from the perspective of community topical homophily. We train Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic model to capture the topics in the aggregated tweets of each user in a community and propose new distance metrics to quantify the topic similarity of individual users, cliques, and communities. By building a Twitter topic modeling system to interpret the communities identified by two community detection algorithms in a large scale Twitter topology, we discover evidence that Twitter users in a community show common interests in general. The major contributions of this paper lie in that it verifies the topical homophily in structure-based social media communities and proposes new metrics to quantitatively label the degree of the homophily and describe the theme of the communities.
Maximum conversion efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells

Abstract Cengel and Boles discuss in their Thermodynamics textbook that the Carnot efficiency bound is not applicable to fuel cells, whereas some researchers have raised objection that maximum conversion efficiency of fuel cells is limited to the Carnot efficiency. We apply the conservation of energy and entropy balance equations to derive expressions for the maximum work of hydrogen-oxygen, hydrogen-air and methane-air fuel cells. We show that the theoretical efficiency of a fuel cell may exceed that of a Carnot engine operating between the same low and high temperatures. Contrary to past studies in that the efficiency of an ideal hydrogen fuel cell is shown to decline with temperature, the maximum efficiency is observed to first decrease with reactants temperature, then remains unaltered and finally rises. The lowest value of the maximum efficiency is found to be 79.3%, 75.7%, and 82.1% for hydrogen-oxygen, hydrogen-air and methane-air fuel cells, respectively. By increasing the stoichiometric coefficient of air, the efficiencies of both hydrogen-air and methane-air fuel cells monotonically increase and they approach the 100% limit at a stoichiometric coefficient of 7.2 and 9.8, respectively. It is shown that a Carnot engine whose heat is supplied by an isothermal combustor proposed in some past studies is not a correct means for comparison of the ideal performance of fuel cells and heat engines.
Style, stance, and social meaning in mock white girl

Mock white girl (MWG) performances parody a linguistic and embodied style associated with contemporary middle class white girls in the United States. The article identifies bundles of semiotic resources in the stylization of the white girl persona—for example, creaky voice, uptalk, blondeness, and Starbucks—in three genres of MWG: Savior, Shit white girls say, and Teenage girl problems. While semiotic variables used to index the white girl persona are consistent across performances, there is significant variation in performers’ ideological stances relative to the mocked figure of personhood: white girls in the US are not ‘heard’ in any one way by all social actors. Contextualizing MWG performances through analysis of stance reveals critical variation in how the white girl is interpreted, evaluated, and produced as a meaningful social entity by diverse segments of the population. (Gender, mock, race, parody, persona, stance, style)*
The effect of the T1087N S gene mutation on MHV-A59 pathogenesis.

Infection with mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) strain A59 produces acute hepatitis, encephalitis and chronic demyelination in mice (Lavi et al 1984). A closely related strain, MHV-2, produces acute meningitis and hepatitis without encephalitis and chronic demyelination (Das Sarma et al, submitted). ML-10 is a recombinant virus between MHV-2 and LA-7, a temperature-sensitive mutant of MHV-A59 (Keck et al 1985). It produces acute encephalitis, without hepatitis and demyelination. Sequencing of the entire genome of ML-10 revealed that ML-10 is a product of recombination between the leader of MHV-2 and the genome of MHV-A59 except for several mutations. Of all the differences between ML-10 and MHV-A59 only 11 nucleotide differences in the leader sequence and 4 amino acids substitutions occured in all other demyelination negative viruses. Of these, the only amino acid substitution in the S gene that was common to all demyelination negative viruses was a T1087N mutation. The objective of this study was to produce the T1087N mutation by targeted recombination and study the effect of this mutation on pathogenesis.
Equibiaxial elongational rheology of entangled polystyrene melts

Equibiaxial elongational deformations are ubiquitous in the processing of polymeric materials. In spite of this, studies on the rheology of entangled polymer liquids in these flows are limited due to the challenges of generating well-controlled equibiaxial elongational deformations in the laboratory. In the present study, we examine the rheological behavior of several well-characterized polystyrene liquids in constant strain rate equibiaxial elongation flows using a novel technique known as continuous lubricated squeezing flow. The linear polymer systems considered here display strain softening behavior. A portion of this new data set is used to demonstrate, in contrast to uniaxial elongational flows, that the nonlinear behavior of entangled polymers in equibiaxial elongation is universal. We also make comparisons of predictions from two molecularly based models with experimental data for one of the polymer melts in shear flow, uniaxial elongational flow, and equibiaxial elongation flow. While both models are able to predict shear flow behavior, neither model is able to quantitatively predict both uniaxial and equibiaxial elongation flows.
The Lilly written description requirement: a doctrinal ‘wild card’ of uncertain effect

Section 112 of the US Patent Statute provides the statutory basis for two discrete doctrines of patentability: the enablement and written description requirements. In 1997, a panel of the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) charted new doctrinal waters in Regents of the University of California v. Eli Lilly & Co. recognizing for the first time an entirely new branch of the written description requirement, referred to in this chapter as the “Lilly written description” requirement (or LWD) so as to distinguish it from the “traditional written description requirement.” LWD is an odd doctrinal hybrid, purporting to apply the standard for compliance with the traditional written description requirement, but functioning in a manner more analogous to the enablement requirement. Many would argue that the Federal Circuit has yet to articulate a principled distinction between LWD and enablement: former Chief Judge Randall Rader of the Federal Circuit described LWD as nothing more than a subjective doctrinal “wildcard on which the court may rely when it faces a patent that it feels is unworthy of protection.” Empirical studies by this author and others concluded that LWD rarely if ever served as the basis for invalidating claims that could not have been reasonably, and more convincingly, invalidated for lack of enablement. This chapter provides a brief history of LWD, beginning with some background on pre-Lilly enablement and traditional written description doctrine, then describing the development of LWD, focusing on what this author believes to be the three most pertinent Federal Circuit decisions: Lilly, Enzo, and Ariad. The chapter concludes with a brief assessment of the state of LWD as of the time this article was written in 2016.
Optic neuritis, encephalitis and leptomeningeal enhancement in a patient with anti-MOG antibodies: A case study

A subset of patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders are positive for myelin-oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibodies. These patients present with distinct clinical demyelinating syndrome often confused for multiple sclerosis. We describe the case of a patient who initially presented with 10-day history of right-sided retro-orbital headache worse with lateral gaze, photophobia, and subjective decreased visual acuity. After successful treatment on a steroid regimen, this patient represented two weeks following discharge with seizure and was found to have unilateral meningeal T2-FLAIR MRI hyperintensity with associated cortical swelling, a rare finding. CSF studies showed negative anti-AQP4 antibodies and positive anti-MOG antibodies. This case demonstrates that patients presenting with symptoms concerning for NMOSD who are AQP4-Ab-negative should be tested for anti-MOG antibodies for optimized disease management and important prognostic implications.
Estimating the distribution of a novel clinical biomarker (FGF-23) in the US population using findings from a regional research registry

Evidence of involvement of novel biomarkers in disease pathogenesis from research cohorts often precedes an understanding of their distributions in broader populations. This study aimed to estimate the distribution of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), an endocrine hormone that helps to regulate serum phosphate levels, in the overall US population and in important subgroups. We used a predictive model generated using data from the Framingham Health Study to estimate FGF-23 values for adults in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the size of patient subgroups with levels of FGF-23 above selected thresholds. To assess the face validity of our FGF-23 estimates, we examined the relationship between estimated FGF-23 and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality within NHANES using Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox proportional-hazards regression models and compared it to that observed in Framingham. Estimated FGF-23 values from NHANES were lower (median [interquartile range] 47.4 [35.8, 64.0] vs. 67.0 [54.0, 85.0] RU/mL) than the observed FGF-23 values from the Framingham cohort. Age- and sex-adjusted 10-year all-cause mortality was significantly higher (hazard ratio 2.43 [95% confidence interval: 1.42, 4.16]) for subjects with estimated FGF-23 levels in the highest versus lowest quartile. Estimating the distribution of biomarker values in the general population by applying predictive equations from smaller research cohorts is feasible and can inform drug research decision making.
Phosphorylation stabilizes alternatively spliced CD44 mRNA transcripts in breast cancer cells: inhibition by antisense complementary to casein kinase II mRNA.

CD44, the predominant vertebrate cell surface receptor for hyaluronan, exists in a variety of isoforms resulting from alternative splicing of a single gene. Particular spliced variants of CD44 correlate with increased cell motility, and with poor clinical prognosis in several kinds of carcinomas. Combinations of 9 variant exons that confer this enhanced motility on tumor cells are inserted into a single site in the middle of the extracellular domain of CD44. Evidence suggests that phosphorylation of 2 serine residues in the intracellular domain of CD44 are involved in controlling these events. However, evidence is lacking as to the nature of such kineses. Acidic amino acids in close proximity to these 2 serine residues suggests casein kinase II (CKII) is involved. We now show an antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide designed to hybridize to the AUG translation initiation codon of subunit CKII α mRNA blocks in vivo phosphorylation of CD44 in MDA231 breast tumor cells, and at the protein level decreases ectopic expression of total CD44 as well as the metastatic v-7 CD44 isoform. Furthermore subplateau RT-PCR analysis demonstrated antisense transfected MDA231 tumor cells had significant down-regulated or eliminated mRNA transcripts of metastatic CD44 isoforms. CKII as a CD44-associated serine kinase therefore may serve as an important molecule in a signaling cascade that produces a variety of cellular reponses in MDA231 breast cancer cells. Since the 3′-untranslated region of CD44 mRNA contain 4 dispersed AUUUA sequences which serve as signals targeting mRNA for rapid turnover, a mechanism is proposed by which CD44 phosphorylation mediates labile message stabilization, hence providing insights into the processes involved in cancer cell growth, invasion and metastasis.
New Applications of Electron Microscopy in Pharmaceuticals: Crystallinity Assessment and Polymorph Determination

Recently, transmission electron microscopy has been used in crystallinity assessments and unit cell parameter/polymorph determinations in solid drug substances [1,2]. Lumaxis™ (roxifiban) is a glycoprotein nb/ffla (GPHb/HIa) antagonist discovered recently at The DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company [3] currently undergoing clinical evaluation for the treatment of thrombotic disorders. Lumaxis™ is converted in vivo to a zwitterionic active metabolite, XV459. As reported here, we have assessed by electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction the crystallinity of XP280, the benzenesulfonate salt of XV459, and determined the unit cell parameters of SC877, the methanesulfonate salt of the methyl ester of XV459.Crystallinity assessment. Partial or complete transformation of crystalline phases into amorphous phases can occur during production processes that may ultimately affect the activity associated with various batches of a drug [4, 5]. Whether desired or not, the amorphous content of any drug substance is thus an important issue for the pharmaceutical industry.
Reduction in US Health Care Spending Required to Meet the Institute of Medicine’s 2030 Target

Objectives. To quantify changes in US health care spending required to reach parity with high-resource nations by 2030 or 2040 and identify historical precedents for these changes.Methods. We analyzed multiple sources of historical and projected spending from 1970 through 2040. Parity was defined as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) median or 90th percentile for per capita health care spending.Results. Sustained annual declines of 7.0% and 3.3% would be required to reach the median of other high-resource nations by 2030 and 2040, respectively (3.2% and 1.3% to reach the 90th percentile). Such declines do not have historical precedent among US states or OECD nations.Conclusions. Traditional approaches to reducing health care spending will not enable the United States to achieve parity with high-resource nations; strategies to eliminate waste and reduce the demand for health care are essential.Public Health Implications. Excess spending reduces the ability of the United States to meet critical public health needs and affects the country's economic competitiveness. Rising health care spending has been identified as a threat to the nation's health. Public health can add voices, leadership, and expertise for reversing this course.
La estética cuántica: Juan Larrea, Niels Bohr y el tercero incluido

espanolEl presente ensayo explora notables coincidencias en la poetica de Juan Larrea con algunos puntos centrales de la fisica cuantica, a saber, la correlacion entre su busqueda en la interioridad y las investigaciones sobre el atomo en las primeras decadas del siglo XX, entre el abandono de la subjetividad monolitica en favor de un Espiritu universal y colectivo y el observador en la fisica moderna «enredado» en la trama cosmica, objeto de su observacion y, en particular, el papel del idioma frances en tratar el conflicto con los binarismos occidentales y su posible resolucion en la complementariedad de Bohr, paralelo de la teoria del tercero secretamente incluido de Basarab Nicolescu. EnglishThis essay explores notable coincidences in Juan Larrea’s poetics with some central points in quantum physics, such as, the correlation between the search in his inner self and the investigations on the atom taking place during the first decades of the twentiethcentury, between leaving aside the monolithic subjectivity in favor of a universal and collective Spirit and the «entangled» observer in the cosmic web, object of his/her observation, in modern physics, and, particularly, the role of the French language in dealing with the conflict with Western dualisms and their possible resolution in Bohr’s principle of complementarity, a parallel of Basarab Nicolescu’s theory of the hidden third. francaisCet essai explore les coincidences remarquables dans la poetique de Juan Larrea avec certains points centraux de la physique quantique, tels que la correlation entre la recherche dans son etre interieur et les recherches sur l'atome menees au cours des premieres decennies du XXe siecle, entre la subjectivite monolithique en faveur de l'Esprit universel et collectif et de l'observateur « enchevetre » dans la toile cosmique, objet de son observation, en physique moderne et, en particulier, le role de la langue francaise dans le traitement du conflit avec les dualismes occidentaux et leur resolution possible dans le principe de complementarite de Bohr, parallele a la theorie du tiers cache de Basarab Nicolescu.
Disciplinary Literacy in STEM: A Functional Approach:

This study explores disciplinary literacy instruction integrated within an elementary engineering unit in an urban classroom. A multidisciplinary team of university literacy and engineering educato...
Evolution of Treatment Paradigms in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma

The plasma cell neoplasm multiple myeloma (MM) is currently considered incurable. However, significant advances in treatment options over the past 20 years have led to unprecedented response rates to initial therapy as well as prolonged survival rates. Induction regimens have evolved from alkylator-based therapies to those consisting of immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors. The combination of bortezomib/lenalidomide/dexamethasone (VRd) has emerged as a standard regimen for both transplant-eligible (TE) and transplant-ineligible (TI) patient populations. More recent efforts have focused on the incorporation of monoclonal antibody therapy into the newly diagnosed setting, particularly anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies. In the TI patient population, the combination of daratumumab/lenalidomide/dexamethasone is now considered another standard therapy. In the TE setting, it remains to be determined whether the addition of daratumumab to the VRd backbone results in improved long-term outcomes. Recent studies have confirmed the progression-free survival benefit of upfront autologous stem cell transplant and have established lenalidomide maintenance as a standard of care. Multiple studies are evaluating whether inclusion of monoclonal antibody therapy in the maintenance setting will improve outcomes. The optimal management of newly diagnosed patients with high-risk cytogenetics remains to be determined. We discuss the emerging therapies that will likely shape management of newly diagnosed MM in the future.
Computational Fingerprints: Modeling Interactions Between Brain Regions as Points in a Function Space

In this paper we propose a novel technique to investigate the nonlinear interactions between brain regions that captures both the strength and the type of the functional relationship. Inspired by the field of functional analysis, we propose that the relationship between activity in two different brain areas can be viewed as a point in function space, identified by coordinates along an infinite set of basis functions. Using Hermite Polynomials as basis functions, we estimate from fMRI data a truncated set of coordinates that serve as a "computational fingerprint," characterizing the interaction between two brain areas. We provide a proof of the convergence of the estimates in the limit, and we validate the method with simulations in which the ground truth is known, additionally showing that computational fingerprints detect statistical dependence also when correlations ("functional connectivity") is near zero. We then use computational fingerprints to examine the neural interactions with a seed region of choice: the Fusiform Face Area (FFA). Using k-means clustering across each voxel9s computational fingerprint, we illustrate that the addition of the nonlinear basis functions allows for the discrimination of inter-regional interactions that are otherwise grouped together when only linear dependence is used. Finally, we show that regions in V5 and medial occipital and temporal lobes exhibit significant nonlinear interactions with the FFA.
Power Factor and Reactive Power in US Residences – Survey and EnergyPlus Modeling

Electric power systems are experiencing a growing number of electronic loads in the residential sector as modern appliance technology progresses, and it has become increasingly more important to consider the total power factor (PF) of residential communities. This paper provides a survey based on literature and publicly available information of typical appliance PF values and effects at the residential level as well as a discussion on appliance energy use and corresponding operation schedules. A procedure for the calculation of equivalent PF is proposed and exemplified with minutely experimental data at 15-minute and hourly time intervals, which correspond to smart metering and traditional practices, respectively. The application of the proposed equivalent PF procedure in coordination with building energy modeling, may, in principle, be employed to determine PF for entire communities at an aggregated level. The paper includes a proposal to simulate reactive power through an approach that utilizes EnergyPlus, a building energy modeling software. Such simulation capability could facilitate improved planning for compensation implementation both in electric power distribution networks and in individual residences, which offers significant opportunity for energy savings.