cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Li2S encapsulated by nitrogen-doped carbon for lithium sulfur batteries

Using high-energy ball milling of the Li2S plus carbon black mixture followed by carbonization of pyrrole, we have established a facile approach to synthesize Li2S-plus-C composite particles of average size ∼400 nm, encapsulated by a nitrogen-doped carbon shell. Such an engineered core–shell structure exhibits an ultrahigh initial discharge specific capacity (1029 mA h g−1), reaching 88% of the theoretical capacity (1166 mA h g−1 of Li2S) and thus offering the highest utilization of Li2S in the cathode among all of the reported works for the encapsulated Li2S cathodes. This Li2S/C composite core with a nitrogen-doped carbon shell can still retain 652 mA h g−1 after prolonged 100 cycles. These superior properties are attributed to the nitrogen-doped carbon shell that can improve the conductivity to enhance the utilization of Li2S in the cathode. Fine particle sizes and the presence of carbon black within the Li2S core may also play a role in high utilization of Li2S in the cathode.
GROWTH, MORTALITY, AND HEMATOLOGY OF CUTTHROAT TROUT EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED WITH THE BLOOD FLUKE Sanguinicola klamathensis*

Studies were made of the growth, mortality, and blood changes of cutthroat trout (Salmo clarki) experimentally infected with the blood fluke, Sanguinicola klamathensis Wales 1958. Five hundred non-infected cutthroat trout fingerlings and 500 exposed to a population of 6000 Fluminicola fusca snails with a 6% prevalence of infection with the blood fluke S. klamathensis were maintained for several months. Following 3 months exposure to the blood fluke infection, the experimental group had 80% mortality. Packed cell volumes and oxyhemoglobin levels were reduced significantly in the experimental fish as compared to the controls. Control fish continued to grow logarithmically in total weight, while the experimental fish declined in total weight due to parasitism and mortality. There were significant differences between the two groups for the average weight per fish and the average length per fish during the period of mortality.
Trends in Americans' food-related time use: 1975-2006.

Objective To describe how the time spent in food-related activities by Americans has changed over the past 30 years. Design Data from four national time diary surveys, spanning 1975-2006, are used to construct estimates of trends in American adults' time spent in food-related activities. Multivariate Tobits assess how food-related activities have changed over time controlling for sociodemographic and economic covariates. Results Both bivariate and multivariate estimates reveal that between 1975 and 2006, American women's time spent in food preparation declined substantially, whereas the time spent in these activities by American men changed very little. On the contrary, grocery shopping time increased modestly for both men and women. The primary eating time (i.e. time when eating/drinking was the respondent's main focus) declined for both men and women over this historical period, and the composition of this time changed with less primary eating time being done alone. Concurrently, secondary eating time (i.e. time when something else had the respondent's primary attention, but eating/drinking simultaneously occurred) rose precipitously for both women and men between 1975 and 1998. Conclusions The total time spent in eating (i.e. primary plus secondary eating time) has increased over the past 30 years, and the composition of this time has shifted from situations in which energy intake can be easily monitored to those in which energy intake may be more difficult to gauge. Less time is also being spent in food preparation and clean-up activities. Future research should explore possible links between these trends and Americans' growing obesity risk.
Enhancing a geographic regression discontinuity design through matching to estimate the effect of ballot initiatives on voter turnout

Ballot initiatives allow the public to vote directly on public policy. A literature in political science has attempted to document whether the presence of an initiative can increase voter turnout. We study this question for an initiative that appeared on the ballot in 2008 in Milwaukee, WI, using a natural experiment based on geography. This form of natural experiment exploits variation in geography where units in one geographic area receive a treatment while units in another area do not. When assignment to treatment via geographic location creates as-if random variation in treatment assignment, adjustment for baseline covariates is unnecessary. In many applications, however, some adjustment for baseline covariates may be necessary. As such, analysts may wish to combine identication strategies|using both spatial proximity and covariates. We propose a matching framework to exibly incorporate information about both geographic proximity and observed covariates which allows us to minimize spatial distance while preserving balance on observed covariates. This framework is also applicable to regression discontinuity designs not based on geography. We nd that the initiative on the ballot in Milwaukee does not appear to have increased turnout.
Disease, Illness, and Ethics

Disease and illness are terms that are often used interchangeably by physicians and the lay public. But not all usage permits this. For instance, diseases are referred to in terms of entities with etiologies; illnesses are not. We also speak of illness as being the effect or symptom of a disease, but not the converse. In what follows, disease and illness will be treated as distinct concepts. I thank Dr. Rosamond Rhodes, Director of Bioethics Education, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, for her extremely helpful questions and comments concerning this article.
Probing the Catalytic Activity of a Cell Division-Specific Transpeptidase In Vivo with β-Lactams

ABSTRACT Penicillin-binding protein 3 (PBP3; also called FtsI) is a transpeptidase that catalyzes cross-linking of the peptidoglycan cell wall in the division septum of Escherichia coli. To determine whether the catalytic activity of PBP3 is activated during division, we assayed acylation of PBP3 with three β-lactams (cephalexin, aztreonam, and piperacillin) in growing cells. Acylation of PBP3 with cephalexin, but not aztreonam or piperacillin, appeared to be stimulated by cell division. Specifically, cephalexin acylated PBP3 about 50% faster in a population of dividing cells than in a population of filamentous cells in which division was inhibited by inactivation or depletion of FtsZ, FtsA, FtsQ, FtsW, or FtsN. However, in a simpler in vitro system using isolated membranes, acylation with cephalexin was not impaired by depletion of FtsW or FtsN. A conflicting previous report that the ftsA3(Ts) allele interferes with acylation of PBP3 was found to be due to the presence of a thermolabile PBP3 in the strain used in that study. The new findings presented here are discussed in light of the hypothesis that the catalytic activity of PBP3 is stimulated by interaction(s) with other division proteins. We suggest that there might be allosteric activation of substrate binding.
Potential negative outcomes from sponsorship for a sport property

Sponsorship funding has become a staple source of revenues for many sport events, but there are two types of potentially negative outcomes for properties that may be associated with it: operational risk and reputational risk. Operational risk occurs when sponsors insist on changing the rules or format of the event, or when they exercise undue influence on its content, timing, location or participants. The primary source of reputational risk is increased public sensitivity to the negative health impacts of some product categories, most prominently those of tobacco, alcohol, gambling and products that are high in fat, salt or sugar that may make it contentious for a sport property to partner with companies in these product classes. Similar controversy from public sensitivity may emerge around issues of corporate social responsibility, as expectations grow regarding the impact of a company's actions on society. Reputational risk also may emanate from over-commercialization of an event, since this may erode “...
Fine-grained dynamic voltage and frequency scaling for precise energy and performance trade-off based on the ratio of off-chip access to on-chip computation times

This paper presents an intra-process dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) technique targeted toward non real-time applications running on an embedded system platform. The key idea is to make use of runtime information about the external memory access statistics in order to perform CPU voltage and frequency scaling with the goal of minimizing the energy consumption while translucently controlling the performance penalty. The proposed DVFS technique relies on dynamically-constructed regression models that allow the CPU to calculate the expected workload and slack time for the next time slot, and thus, adjust its voltage and frequency in order to save energy while meeting soft timing constraints. This is in turn achieved by estimating and exploiting the ratio of the total off-chip access time to the total on-chip computation time. The proposed technique has been implemented on an XScale-based embedded system platform and actual energy savings have been calculated by current measurements in hardware. For memory-bound programs, a CPU energy saving of more than 70% with a performance degradation of 12% was achieved. For CPU-bound programs, 15/spl sim/60% CPU energy saving was achieved at the cost of 5-20% performance penalty.
RANK Ligand Modulation of Autophagy in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Tumor Cells

Autophagy is a cellular process to recycle nutrients and has been implicated in cancer treatment. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common oral cancer which ranks 3% of cancers in men and 2% in women. In this study, immunohistochemical staining of OSCC tumor specimens from human subjects and an athymic mouse model demonstrated high levels of autophagy markers LC3-II and ATG5 expression. Further, we identified high levels LC3-II expression in OSCC tumor cell lines (SCC-1, SCC-12, and SCC-14a) compared to normal human epithelial (RWPE-1) cells. OSCC cells express high levels of RANK ligand (RANKL); however, a functional role in autophagy is unknown. Interestingly, RANKL stimulation significantly increased autophagosome-related gene expressions such as LC3, ATG5, BECN1, and PI3KC3 mRNA expression in OSCC cells. Further, Western blot analysis of total cell lysates demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in LC3-II and ATG5 expression in RANKL-stimulated cells. In addition, RANKL increased expression of LC3-I and LC3-II, essential for autophagosome formation. Confocal microscopy analysis of LC3-II and localization with lysosome further confirms autophagosome formation in response to RANKL treatment in OSCC cells. Collectively, our results indicate a novel function of RANKL to induce autophagosome formation, and could be a potential therapeutic target to control OSCC tumor progression.
Peasants, Patrons, and Parties: The Tension between Clientelism and Democracy in Nepal

In democratic elections, candidates and parties promise to deliver public goods to segments of the electorate to win their support at the polls. In new democracies, especially in rural agrarian societies, existing networks of clientelist politics can alter this logic, so that candidates instead promise private goods to patrons in return for those rural patrons delivering the votes of their clients. This suggests that in such regimes, the distribution of public goods spending by the government should vary inversely with the strength of clientelist networks. Specifically, we propose that the strength of patron–client ties varies according to whether peasants farm as smallholders, sharecroppers, fixed rent tenants, or landless laborers. Accordingly, the strength of rural patrons should vary across districts with the distribution of households among various land tenure categories. Our theory then suggests that where land tenure patterns render rural patrons weaker, elected governments should invest more resources in public goods to win the votes of peasants. Where land tenure patterns give patrons more control over peasant farmers, government spending on public goods should be lower because candidates and parties have to devote more resources to private benefits to the patrons. We test this proposition with district-level data from Nepal on the patterns of land tenure and on the provision of public goods.
Loss of MEF2D expression inhibits differentiation and contributes to oncogenesis in rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly malignant pediatric cancer that is the most common form of soft tissue tumors in children. RMS cells have many features of skeletal muscle cells, yet do not differentiate. Thus, our studies have focused on the defects present in these cells that block myogenesis. Protein and RNA analysis identified the loss of MEF2D in RMS cells. MEF2D was expressed in RD and RH30 cells by transient transfection and selection of stable cell lines, respectively, to demonstrate the rescue of muscle differentiation observed. A combination of techniques such as proliferation assays, scratch assays and soft agar assays were used with RH30 cells expressing MEF2D to demonstrate the loss of oncogenic growth in vitro and xenograft assays were used to confirm the loss of tumor growth in vivo. Here, we show that one member of the MEF2 family of proteins required for normal myogenesis, MEF2D, is largely absent in RMS cell lines representing both major subtypes of RMS as well as primary cells derived from an embryonal RMS model. We show that the down regulation of MEF2D is a major cause for the failure of RMS cells to differentiate. We find that MyoD and myogenin are bound with their dimerization partner, the E proteins, to the promoters of muscle specific genes in RMS cells. However, we cannot detect MEF2D binding at any promoter tested. We find that exogenous MEF2D expression can activate muscle specific luciferase constructs, up regulate p21 expression and increase muscle specific gene expression including the expression of myosin heavy chain, a marker for skeletal muscle differentiation. Restoring expression of MEF2D also inhibits proliferation, cell motility and anchorage independent growth in vitro. We have confirmed the inhibition of tumorigenicity by MEF2D in a tumor xenograft model, with a complete regression of tumor growth. Our data indicate that the oncogenic properties of RMS cells can be partially attributed to the loss of MEF2D expression and that restoration of MEF2D may represent a useful therapeutic strategy to decrease tumorigenicity.
Geostatistical tools for characterizing the spatial variability of microbiological and physico-chemical soil properties

This paper reviews the main applications of geostatistics to the description and modeling of the spatial variability of microbiological and physico-chemical soil properties. First, basic geostatistical tools such as the correlogram and semivariogram are introduced to characterize the spatial variability of each attribute separately as well as their spatial interactions. Then, the key issue of fitting permissible models to experimental semivariograms is addressed for the univariate and multivariate situations. Capitalizing on this model of spatial dependence, the value of a soil property can be predicted at unsampled locations using only observations of this particular property (kriging) or incorporating additional information provided by other correlated properties (cokriging). Factorial kriging allows one to discriminate the different sources of spatial variation in soil on the basis of the scale at which they operate, and it often enhances relations between soil attributes which were blurred in a traditional correlation analysis where the different sources of variations are mixed. Geostatistics can also be used to assess the risk of exceeding critical values (regulatory thresholds, soil quality criterion) at unsampled locations, and to simulate the spatial distribution of attribute values. All the different tools are illustrated using two transects of 100 pH and electrical conductivity values measured in pasture and forest.
Effect of heat treatment on adhesion in the Cr/Al2O3 system

Continuous microscratch experiments have been carried out to investigate the effect of various heat treatments on adhesion in the Cr/Al2O3 system. After samples were prepared by vapor depositing 0.32 μm thick Cr films on % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feaagKart1ev2aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqr1ngB % PrgifHhDYfgasaacH8srps0lbbf9q8WrFfeuY-Hhbbf9v8qqaqFr0x % c9pk0xbba9q8WqFfea0-yr0RYxir-Jbba9q8aq0-yq-He9q8qqQ8fr % Fve9Fve9Ff0dmeaabaqaciGacaGaaeqabaWaaeaaeaaakeaadaqada % qaaiaaigdaceaIXaGbaebacaaIWaGaaGOmaaGaayjkaiaawMcaaaaa % !3C38! $$\left( {1\bar 102} \right)$$ surfaces of single crystal sapphire substrates, they were annealed at different temperatures at controlled oxygen partial pressures. In the subsequent continuous microscratch tests, a conical diamond indenter with a 1 μm tip radius was driven simultaneously into and across the sample until a load drop occurred. Optical and scanning electron microscopy observations demonstrate that a portion of the Cr film delaminated from the A12O3 substrate at that point. The interfacial strain energy release rate was calculated from the load at failure combined with the size and geometry of the delaminated region. The work of adhesion was found to decrease dramatically on annealing in an H2-Ar mixture at 250°C.
Intravascular-catheter-related infections

Results: Catheter-related bloodstream infections may be diagnosed by different methods, including simultaneous quantitative blood cultures, with the central blood culture yielding at least 5-fold colony-forming units greater than the peripheral blood culture, and simultaneous blood cultures, whereby the catheter-drawn blood culture becomes positive at least 2 hours before the peripheral blood culture. Novel preventive techniques include the use of ionic silver, an anticoagulant/antimicrobial flush solution, a new aseptic hub, and antimicrobial impregnation of catheters and dressings. Management of CRBSIs should be based on whether the infection is complicated or uncomplicated.
Flash X-ray diffraction system for fast, single-pulse temperature and phase transition measurements

A new, fast, single-pulse diagnostic for determining phase transitions and measuring the bulk temperature of polycrystalline metal objects has been developed. The diagnostic consists of a 37-stage Marx bank with a cable-coupled X-ray diode that produces a 35-ns pulse of mostly 0.71-A monochromatic X rays and a P-43 fluor coupled to a cooled, charge-coupled device camera by a coherent fiber-optic bundle for detection of scattered X rays. The X-ray beam is collimated to a 1° divergence in the scattering plane with the combination of a 1.5-mm tungsten pinhole and a 1.5-mm-diameter molybdenum anode. X rays are produced by a high-energy electron beam transiting inward from the cathode to the anode in a needle-and-washer configuration. The anode’s characteristic K-α X-ray emission lines are utilized for this diffraction system. The X-ray anode is heavily shielded in all directions other than the collimated beam. The X-ray diode has a sealed reentrant system, allowing X rays to be produced inside a vacuum containment vessel, close to the sample under study.
β-Catenin Is a Useful Adjunct Immunohistochemical Marker for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare multisystem disease leading to cystic destruction of the lung parenchyma and is associated with abnormal smooth muscle proliferation affecting airways, lymphatics, and blood vessels. LAM occurs sporadically or in association with the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Recent evidence demonstrates the role of aberrant β-catenin signaling in TSC. To further understand the pathogenesis of LAM and to examine the diagnostic usefulness of β-catenin, we examined protein expression in 28 pulmonary LAM cases and 10 cases of renal angiomyolipoma resected from patients with sporadic LAM. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed for established markers of LAM cells (HMB45, estrogen receptor [ER]-α, and progesterone receptor [PR]) and β-catenin. All LAM cases were positive for β-catenin and demonstrated high specificity with overall immunoreactivity superior to HMB45, ER-α, and PR. Similar expression was demonstrated in renal angiomyolipoma. Our results indicate that β-catenin is a useful marker of LAM and may be clinically useful in the diagnostic setting.
Probing the flow-induced shish-kebab structure in entangled polyethylene melts by synchrotron X-ray scattering

In-situ rheo small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and rheo wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) techniques were used to investigate the flow-induced crystalline structure in entangled melts of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)/low-molecular-weight polyethylene (LMWPE) blends (0, 2 and 5 wt% of UHMWPE). Immediately after a step shear at 415 K, SAXS and WAXD results confirmed that only the shish structure was formed in the melts without kebabs. The topological deformation of entangled UHMWPE chains in the blend was responsible for the formation of shish. The missing kebab growth in the presence of shish indicated that secondary nucleation of coiled chains on the shish surface was frustrated at high temperatures close to the equilibrium melting temperature (418.5 K). When the temperature was quenched to 407 K, both blends (but not pure LMWPE) clearly exhibited oriented kebab growth. An Avrami analysis was applied to investigate the nucleation and growth of kebabs. Results indicated that kebabs were probably grown under athermal nucleation and diffusion-controlled conditions. In addition, the crystallization rate under predetermined nucleation was strongly governed by the concentration of shish.
Enhancing the reliability of cognitive radio networks via channel assignment: risk analysis and redundancy allocation

A key challenge in cognitive radio networks is the unreliability of cognitive radio links due to the interruptions from primary users. To enable reliable data transmission over cognitive radio networks, the large available bandwidth obtained from cognitive radio can be used to improve the system redundancy in order to guarantee the system reliability. Using the terminology in the theory of optimal reliability design in industrial engineering, a single path data flow can be considered as a parallel-series system, in which each cut set represents a secondary user and contains several assigned channels. A heuristic algorithm is proposed to assign the channels in the licensed spectrum band to different cut sets in the parallel-series system to minimize the overall risk. By adopting the concept of cut set hazard, the algorithm is applied in both single path and multiple path situations. It is also extended to the decentralized scenario. Channel reuse, which incurs the correlation of failures in the system, is also considered for the channel assignment. Simulation shows that the proposed algorithms can significantly improve the reliability of cognitive radio networks.
Planetary seismology—Expectations for lander and wind noise with application to Venus

Abstract The amplitudes of seismic signals on a planetary surface are discussed in the context of observable physical quantities – displacement, velocity and acceleration – in order to assess the number of events that a sensor with a given detection threshold may capture in a given period. Spacecraft engineers are generally unfamiliar with expected quantities or the language used to describe them, and seismologists are rarely presented with the challenges of accommodation of instrumentation on spacecraft. This paper attempts to bridge this gap, so that the feasibility of attaining seismology objectives on future missions – and in particular, a long-lived Venus lander – can be rationally assessed. For seismometers on planetary landers, the background noise due to wind or lander systems is likely to be a stronger limitation on the effective detection threshold than is the instrument sensitivity itself, and terrestrial data on vehicle noise is assessed in this context. We apply these considerations to investigate scenarios for a long-lived Venus lander mission, which may require a mechanical cooler powered by a Stirling generator. We also consider wind noise: the case for decoupling of a seismometer from a lander is strong on bodies with atmospheres, as is the case for shielding the instrument from wind loads. However, since the atmosphere acts on the elastic ground as well as directly on instruments, the case for deep burial is not strong, but it is important that windspeed and pressure be documented by adequate meteorology measurements.
Design Principles for the Distributed Control of Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robots

Modular self-reconfigurable (MSR) robots consist of many identical modules that can move, attach, and detach relative to each other, thereby changing the robot's overall shape. This chapter presents general design techniques for the distributed multiagent control algorithms of MSR robots, based on local rules. These techniques are illustrated with simulation experiments on two types of MSR robots: Proteo and TeleCube.
Enteropathies Associated with Chronic Diarrhea and Malabsorption in Childhood

The aims of this chapter are to review the diseases that cause chronic diarrhea and malabsorption in childhood and illustrate their appearance on small intestinal biopsies and specimens.
Relationship between tongue positions and formant frequencies in female speakers

This study examined the relationship (1) between acoustic vowel space and the corresponding tongue kinematic vowel space and (2) between formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and tongue x-y coordinates for the same time sampling point. Thirteen healthy female adults participated in this study. Electromagnetic articulography and synchronized acoustic recordings were utilized to obtain vowel acoustic and tongue kinematic data across ten speech tasks. Intra-speaker analyses showed that for 10 of the 13 speakers the acoustic vowel space was moderately to highly correlated with tongue kinematic vowel space; much weaker correlations were obtained for inter-speaker analyses. Correlations of individual formants with tongue positions showed that F1 varied strongly with tongue position variations in the y dimension, whereas F2 was correlated in equal magnitude with variations in the x and y positions. For within-speaker analyses, the size of the acoustic vowel space is likely to provide a reasonable inference of size of the tongue working space for most speakers; unfortunately there is no a priori, obvious way to identify the speakers for whom the covariation is not significant. A second conclusion is that F1 variations reflect tongue height, but F2 is a much more complex reflection of tongue variation in both dimensions.
Econometric Models of Alcohol Demand in Danish Households

Limited dependent variables are common in cross-section analysis of alcohol demand. The standard tool, the censored regression or tobit model, implies an undesirable restriction on household behaviour, which can be relaxed by using the double-hurdle model. The double-hurdle model is extended by incorporating the Box-Cox transformation, nesting a range of alternative models. Household expenditures on alcohol are analyzed with the use of Statistics Denmark’s 2005 Household Budget Survey. Estimation of budget elasticities indicates that the tobit specification leads to unreliable results. Results from the preferred Box-Cox double-hurdle are in line with the literature.
Histology and ultrastructure of pancreas in Silurus meridionalis

The adult Silurus meridionalis were employed with body weight 1 000-4 000 g and body length 42-73 cm. Under light microscope, the pancreas is covered by a layer of obvious membrane, thickness 5-22 μm. Abundant connective tissue fibers extend to the pancreas , making the pancreatic alveoli much notable; the cells of Langerhans' island are divided into three types, which are types I, II and IV with the nucleus diameters of 4.2, 5.0 and 5.3 μm, respectively, and colors of red, orange and light blue. Under electron microscope, the cell of Langerhans' island shows awl shaped and the cell has a big and significant nucleous with extraordinarily developed rough endo plasmic reticulum (RER), mitochondria and ribosome and has plentiful zymogen granules. The cells of the Langerhans' island connect each other densely, but the dividing lines between the cells are obvious, and the junctional complex, centroacinar cells and fibroblast are much clear.
Traditional Indian Herbal Medicine: Boerhaavia diffusa (L.) - A Review

Boerhavia diffusa is a trailing herb which is found throughout India. The whole plant or its specific parts (leaves, stem, and roots) are known to have medicinal properties and have a long history of use by indigenous and tribal people in India. The whole Plant or its peculiar parts have a numerous medicinal properties in treatment of stress, dyspepsia, abdominal pain, inflammation, jaundice. Chemical analysis of Boerhavia diffusa gives a wide variety of chemical constituents, namely, rotenoids, flavonoids, xanthones, purine nucleoside, lignans, and steroids. More research needs to be carried out in formulating new medicines which can contribute to animal life and mankind.
Present and not reporting for duty: dsRNAi in mammalian cells.

Double‐stranded RNA interference (dsRNAi) represents a primary means of anti‐viral defense in plants, worms, and insects, yet appears mostly supplanted by the protein‐based interferon (IFN) response in vertebrates such as mammals. The degree to which dsRNAi is anti‐viral in mammals has been contentious. Maillard et al (2016) find that dsRNAi retains sequence‐specific silencing in mammalian cells incapable of triggering an IFN response, suggesting that dsRNAi is inhibited by the action of interferon‐stimulated genes. Importantly, they observe that while dsRNA can “vaccinate” against the incoming cognate virus though dsRNAi silencing, no dsRNAi is observed with viral infection alone, suggesting that this evolutionarily conserved anti‐viral pathway is present but functionally elusive in the cell types studied thus far.
Multi-receptor detection of individual bacterial products by the innate immune system

The receptors of the innate immune system detect specific microbial ligands to promote effective inflammatory and adaptive immune responses. Although this idea is well appreciated, studies in recent years have highlighted the complexity of innate immune detection, with multiple host receptors recognizing the same microbial ligand. Understanding the collective actions of diverse receptors that recognize common microbial signatures represents a new frontier in the study of innate immunity, and is the focus of this Review. Here, we discuss examples of individual bacterial cell wall components that are recognized by at least two and as many as four different receptors of the innate immune system. These receptors survey the extracellular or cytosolic spaces for their cognate ligands and operate in a complementary manner to induce distinct cellular responses. We further highlight that, despite this genetic diversity in receptors and pathways, common features exist to explain the operation of these receptors. These common features may help to provide unifying organizing principles associated with host defence.
The impact of culture conditions on growth and metabolomic profiles of freshwater cyanobacteria.

Cultured cyanobacteria produce secondary metabolites with a wide range of biological activities and are an important source of natural products. In the context of secondary metabolite discovery, microbial culture conditions are expected to support optimum growth, induce maximum chemical diversity, and be suitable for the majority of cyanobacterial strains. We investigated the effect of nitrate and phosphate on biomass production and metabolomic profiles of three filamentous freshwater cyanobacterial strains: cf. Oscillatoria sp. UIC 10045, Scytonema sp. UIC 10036, and Nostoc sp. UIC 10110. A standardized inoculation procedure allowed for the assessment of cell mass production. Dried cyanobacterial cell mass was extracted and analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry, followed by comparative metabolomics analysis using XCMS Online. Results showed that low nitrate media significantly reduced cell mass production for all three strains. Low nitrate also induced production of primary metabolites (heterocyst glycolipids) in strains UIC 10036 and UIC 10110. Changes in phosphate levels affected each strain differently. Strain UIC 10110 showed a significant increase in production of merocyclophane C when cultivated in low phosphate, while strain UIC 10036 displayed higher production of tolytoxin under high phosphate. Additionally, these experiments led to the identification of a potentially new peptide produced by strain UIC 10036.
Occurrence of quiescence in free-ranging migratory songbirds

Quiescence is a period of inactivity that occurs before the onset of migratory activity in nocturnally migrating birds. This behavior has been observed in captive birds in migratory disposition, but its occurrence in free-ranging migratory birds has been documented only anecdotally, and causal factors and function(s), if any, are unknown. In this study, we documented and characterized quiescence in three migratory songbird species (red-eyed vireo [Vireo olivaceus], Swainson’s thrush [Catharus ustulatus], and wood thrush [Hylocichla mustelina]) by measuring movement and proportion of time spent inactive prior to departure from a stopover site during fall migration. Individuals of each species displayed a period of inactivity prior to departure which varied from less than 30 min to over 90 min with red-eyed vireos engaged in the longest, most pronounced quiescence. We also examined how quiescence was related to intrinsic and extrinsic factors known to influence the departure of migrating birds, and found some evidence for an effect of age and departure time but no effect of a migrant’s energetic condition, departure direction, atmospheric conditions around departure, or day of year on quiescence. Our novel application of an automated radiotelemetry system yielded a large amount of data to characterize quiescence in free-ranging migratory birds, and we provide guidance for future studies to tease apart the various causal factors and function(s) of this migratory behavior. Quiescence is a poorly understood period of inactivity observed among captive and free-ranging migratory songbirds prior to the onset of nocturnal activity. Our novel use of automated radiotelemetry revealed quiescence among three intercontinental migratory songbirds. It also enabled us to ask how quiescence might be related to intrinsic and extrinsic factors known to influence the departure of migrating birds, and provided an opportunity to explore possible function(s), if any, of this intriguing behavior.
Friction in the Path to Use of Biosimilar Drugs

Friction in the Path to Use of Biosimilar Drugs Despite passage of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, there are currently only seven biosimilar products on the U.S. market competing with originator brands. Several factors account for the slow development of competition in this market.
Integration of Semantics Information and Clustering in Binary-Class Classification for Handling Imbalanced Multimedia Data

It is well-acknowledged that the data imbalance issue is one of the major challenges in classification, i.e., when the ratio of the positive data instances to the negative data instances is very small, especially for multimedia data. One solution is to utilize the clustering technique in binary-class classification to partition the majority class (also called negative class) into several subsets, each of which merges with the minority class (also called positive class) to form a much more balanced subset of the original data set. However, one major drawback of clustering is its time-consuming process to construct each cluster. Due to the fact that there are rich semantics in multimedia data (such as video and image data), the utilization of video semantics (i.e., semantic concepts as class labels) to form negative subsets can (i) effectively construct several groups whose data instances are semantically related, and (ii) significantly reduce the number of data instances participating in the clustering step. Therefore, in this chapter, a novel binary-class classification framework that integrates the video semantics information and the clustering technique is proposed to address the data imbalance issue. Experiments are conducted to compare our proposed framework with other techniques that are commonly used to learn from imbalanced data sets. The experimental results on some highly imbalanced video data sets demonstrate that our proposed classification framework outperforms these comparative classification approaches about 3–16 %.
A robust information hiding methodology in wavelet domain

With the proliferation of digital multimedia, information hiding techniques have become more attractive to the researchers. High bitrate information hiding is different from digital watermarking: the former one tries to hide relatively large amount of auxiliary information instead of just one or a few verification bits. This paper presents a novel Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) domain high bitrate information hiding algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, the coefficients within the approximation subband of the one-level wavelet decomposition are grouped into vectors to embed information bits. Low-frequency coefficients have been chosen for information hiding due to their relatively large amplitudes and the corresponding smaller step size in JPEG2000 quantization. A mathematical model is proposed to predict the Bit-Error-Rate (BER) of the algorithm under JPEG2000 compression. The proposed algorithm has reached an initial channel capacity of 1/64 bits per pixel (bpp). With performance improvements, the channel capacity has been increased to 1/32bpp and 1/16bpp, at the price of slightly higher BER. Preliminary experiments indicate that the algorithm is robust and most of the hidden information survives JPEG2000 compression.
Asymmetric Vinylogous Aza-Darzens Approach to Vinyl Aziridines

A new asymmetric approach to assemble cis-vinyl aziridines is reported. A reaction of strategically substituted dienolates, decorated with a γ-leaving group, with chiral sulfinimines afforded chiral vinyl aziridine products in good to excellent yields. This is the first systematic study toward the realization of a useful asymmetric vinylogous aza-Darzens reaction. The reaction is initiated by a syn-selective addition, affording cis-vinyl aziridine products after displacement of bromide. The low syn-diastereoselectivity is attributed to competing retro-Mannich pathways.
Effects of Masker Envelope Fluctuations on the Temporal Effect

Under certain conditions, detection thresholds in simultaneous masking improve when the onset of a short sinusoidal probe is delayed from the onset of a long masker. This improvement, known as the temporal effect, is largest for broadband maskers and is smaller or absent for narrowband maskers centered on the probe frequency. This study tests the hypothesis that small or absent temporal effects for narrowband maskers are due to the inherent temporal envelope fluctuations of Gaussian noise. Temporal effects were measured for narrowband noise maskers with fluctuating (“fluctuating maskers”) and flattened (“flattened maskers”) temporal envelopes as a function of masker level (Exp. I) and in the presence of fluctuating and flattened precursors (Exp. II). The temporal effect was absent for fluctuating narrowband maskers and as large as ~ 7 dB for flattened narrowband maskers. The AC-coupled power of the temporal envelopes of precursors and maskers accounted for 94 % of the variance in probe detection thresholds measured with fluctuating and flattened precursors and maskers. These results suggest that masker temporal envelope fluctuations contribute to the temporal effect and should be considered in future modeling efforts.
NOAA-20 VIIRS reflective solar bands on-orbit calibration using solar diffuser and solar diffuser stability monitor

The NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) was launched on November 18, 2017 and started to collect Earth view visible/reflective imagery on December 13, 2017. VIIRS has 22 bands, among which 14 are reflective solar bands (RSBs) covering a spectral range from 0.410 to 2.250 μm. The RSBs are calibrated on orbit using an onboard solar diffuser (SD), whose on-orbit degradation is tracked by an onboard SD stability monitor (SDSM). The SD and the SDSM are illuminated by the sunlight through the screens in front of the SD port and the SDSM sun view port only in a very short time period when the instrument passes the southern pole from the night side to day side of the Earth in each orbit. Thus the accuracies of the SD and SDSM calibration strongly depend on the selection of the data collection period, so called “sweet spots”, the accuracies of transmittances of the screens, so called vignetting functions (VFs), and the bidirectional reflectance factors (BRFs) for both SDSM view and the RSB view. In this paper, the “sweet spots” are carefully selected and the BRFs and VFs are accurately derived from the on-orbit yaw and prelaunch measurements. The SD on-orbit degradation, so called Hfactors, and the RSB on-orbit calibration coefficients, so called F-factors, are derived from the SDSM and SD calibrations. The results are presented and compared with those of the SNPP VIIRS. The challenge issues of the RSB calibration using the SD and SDSM are also addressed and discussed.
FAK overexpression and p53 mutations positively correlate in a population-based series of breast cancer tumors.

LB-155 FAK overexpression and p53 mutations positively correlate in a population-based series of breast cancer tumors. Vita M. Golubovskaya, Kathleen Conway-Dorsey, Dominic Moore, Robert Millikan, William G. Cance Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) is overexpressed in a number of tumors, including breast cancers. Another marker of breast cancer tumorigenesis is tumor suppressor p53 that is frequently mutated in breast cancers. Recently, we have shown that p53 mutations and increased FAK mRNA levels positively correlate in 18 breast and colon tumors. In the present study, our aim was to find a correlation between FAK overexpression, p53 expression and mutation status in a population-based series of breast cancer tumors. Immunohistochemical analyses of FAK and p53 expression in 622 breast cancer patients revealed that FAK positive cases are two times more likely to be p53 positive [odds ratio 2; 95% confidence interval (CI). P53 positive tumors showed higher intensity of FAK staining (P
The Lockean Influence on Newman’s Epistemology: An Historical Analysis Describing Newman’s Engagement with Locke’s Ideas:

This article discusses John Locke’s positive contribution to Newman’s epistemology throughout the latter’s career. Beginning with one of Newman’s earliest published works, his Essay on Miracles, he...
Cooking and Gardening Behaviors and Improvements in Dietary Intake in Hispanic/Latino Youth

Abstract Background: School gardening interventions typically include cooking and gardening (CG) components; however, few studies have examined associations between CG psychosocial behaviors (attit...
Gradient supramolecular interactions and tunable mechanics in polychaete jaw inspired semi-interpenetrating networks

Abstract Polychaete worms display a remarkable jaw structure, where a gradient in metal-ligand coordination down the length of the jaw results in a shift from hard to soft mechanics. To mimic these gradient structures, a Zn-coordinated supramolecular polymer is crosslinked into a covalent matrix to afford supramolecular semi-interpenetrating networks (SIPNs). These SIPN materials exhibit improved mechanics with a lower supramolecular content (30 wt%), allowing for energy dissipation through cavitation to increase material toughness. The shift in mechanical behavior is further attributed to the morphology, where the size of the phase-separated droplets and nature of the continuous phase in these SIPNs contributes to the material mechanics. Furthermore, chemical gradients are applied to these systems through exposure to a competitive ligand, offering control over the localization of supramolecular interactions. These materials offer a framework to mediate mechanics while maintaining the ability to program gradient supramolecular interactions.
Heterogeneity of intermittent smokers in a Hispanic college student sample.

Abstract Hispanics are more likely to be daily light smokers (DLS) and intermittent smokers (ITS) than non-Hispanic whites. Although daily light (≤10 cigarettes per day [CPD]) and intermittent (nondaily) smoking have increased in recent years, few studies have compared DLS and ITS, especially within a Hispanic sample. The primary aims of this study were to investigate differences between DLS and ITS, and within ITS, differences between converted ITS (CITS; previously smoked daily for ≥6 months) and native ITS (NITS; never smoked daily) in a Hispanic college student sample (Mage = 23.74, SD = 5.17; 58.1% male). Analyses were conducted using baseline data from a larger study that evaluated attitudes toward tobacco free campus policies in a U.S. university on the border with Mexico. This study included data from 45 DLS and 216 ITS (CITS: n = 77, NITS: n = 139; N = 261). Compared to DLS, ITS were younger (on average), less likely to identify as smokers, smoked on fewer days in the past month, smoked fewer cigarettes on smoking days, and reported less nicotine dependence. Compared to CITS, NITS were younger, less likely to self-identify as smokers, smoked on fewer days in the past month, smoked fewer CPD on smoking days, and were less dependent on nicotine. Given the similarities between current and past findings (suggesting that CITS are in between DLS and NITS—regarding smoking behavior), these data suggest a similar pattern likely exists also among Hispanic smokers. Additionally, the absence of some previously observed differences is relevant in characterizing this particular Hispanic college sample. These findings provide further insight for the tailoring of interventions that target Hispanic DLS, CITS and NITS).
Errudite: Scalable, Reproducible, and Testable Error Analysis

Though error analysis is crucial to understanding and improving NLP models, the common practice of manual, subjective categorization of a small sample of errors can yield biased and incomplete conclusions. This paper codifies model and task agnostic principles for informative error analysis, and presents Errudite, an interactive tool for better supporting this process. First, error groups should be precisely defined for reproducibility; Errudite supports this with an expressive domain-specific language. Second, to avoid spurious conclusions, a large set of instances should be analyzed, including both positive and negative examples; Errudite enables systematic grouping of relevant instances with filtering queries. Third, hypotheses about the cause of errors should be explicitly tested; Errudite supports this via automated counterfactual rewriting. We validate our approach with a user study, finding that Errudite (1) enables users to perform high quality and reproducible error analyses with less effort, (2) reveals substantial ambiguities in prior published error analyses practices, and (3) enhances the error analysis experience by allowing users to test and revise prior beliefs.