cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Incidence of Suicide in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Importance Suicide rates among patients with cancer in the US are significantly higher than those of the general population. To our knowledge, large cohort studies examining suicide rates among patients with head and neck cancer have not been performed. Objective To identify incidence rate, trends, and risk factors of suicide in patients with cancer of the head and neck. Design, Setting, and Participants This was a retrospective cohort study of geographic areas served by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. In total, 350 413 cases of patients with head and neck cancer were recorded within the SEER registry between 1973 and 2011. Data analyses were performed in 2014. Incidence data were calculated from the subset of that population that had the cause of death category coded as “suicide and self-inflicted injury.” Exposures Patients diagnosed as having a primary cancer of the head and neck region. Main Outcomes and Measures Influence of demographic factors, anatomic site of tumor, disease stage, and time since diagnosis on risk for suicide. Results Among 350 413 SEER registry patients with head and neck cancer, observed for 2 263 376 person-years, 857 suicides were identified with an age-, sex-, and race-adjusted suicide rate of 37.9/100 000 person-years. In contrast, the US general population suicide rate was 11.8 per 100 000 person-years. Suicide rates were higher in those treated with radiation alone (standardized mortality ratio [SMR], 5.12; 95% CI, 3.83-6.41) compared with those treated with surgery alone (SMR, 2.57; 95% CI, 1.66-3.49). The highest suicide risk was seen in patients with cancers of the hypopharynx (SMR, 13.91; 95% CI, 11.78-16.03) and larynx (SMR, 5.48; 95% CI, 4.14-6.81). Conclusions and Relevance Patients with head and neck cancer have more than 3 times the incidence of suicide compared with the general US population. Furthermore, suicide rates were highest among those with cancers of the larynx and hypopharynx.
An Analysis Of Energy Generating System Concerns

A primary focus of this research project was to collect and analyze data pertaining to operating and maintenance concerns being experienced by owners and operators of energy generating systems and the vendors who supply these systems. An important purpose in collecting the information from these various groups was to provide some direction to research (both funded and unfunded) relating to specific energy generating system problems currently being experienced or anticipated in the future.
Planning for Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Some Neglected Spatial and Behavioral Considerations

Federal regulations governing the operation of commercial nuclear power plants contain unrealistic assumptions about human spatial behavior in crisis situations which, in the event of a major reactor accident, are likely to result in inadequate and ineffective emergency preparedness and response. In this paper the extensive and substantive literature in geography, sociology, and psychology which deals with crisis decision-making and behavior, including pertinent studies conducted in the aftermath of the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, are drawn on in an effort to (1) provide a realistic picture of the actual range of emergency spatial behaviors a major nuclear reactor accident is likely to evoke among both the general population and designated emergency personnel; (2) demonstrate the potential negative consequences of failing to plan for these emergency spatial behaviors; and (3) propose revisions to the existing federal regulations in order that radiological emergency preparedness and response plans might more accurately reflect the spatial and behavioral factors which appear to distinguish nuclear emergencies from other types of crises.
Robust Sampling-based Motion Planning with Asymptotic Optimality Guarantees

This paper presents a novel sampling-based planner, CC-RRT*, which generates robust, asymptotically optimal trajectories in real-time for linear Gaussian systems subject to process noise, localization error, and uncertain environmental constraints. CC-RRT* provides guaranteed probabilistic feasibility, both at each time step and along the entire trajectory, by using chance constraints to efficiently approximate the risk of constraint violation. This algorithm expands on existing results by utilizing the framework of RRT* to provide guarantees on asymptotic optimality of the lowest-cost probabilistically feasible path found. A novel riskbased objective function, shown to be admissible within RRT*, allows the user to trade-off between minimizing path duration and risk-averse behavior. This enables the modeling of soft risk constraints simultaneously with hard probabilistic feasibility bounds. Simulation results demonstrate that CC-RRT* can efficiently identify smooth, robust trajectories for a variety of uncertainty scenarios and dynamics.
DNA Repair Systems

Escherichia coli has served as the principal model for investigations into DNA repair mechanisms. The DNA repair systems identified in this paradigm have also been discovered in most other organisms studied. This chapter attempts to look at these repair systems with respect to differentiation processes and developmental biology as studied in the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Originally, DNA repair systems were considered integral parts of an organism's ability to survive the effects of environmental insults and metabolic processes. However, as the molecular characterization of these repair systems proceeded it became obvious that in addition to determining mutation frequency and cell survival, DNA repair systems also play important roles in viral activation, DNA replication, genetic recombination, metabolism, and cancer. In order to investigate systematically the interrelationship(s) between DNA repair systems and these other phenomena, an appropriate model system must be identified. These systems are generally linked in their expression and activity with one or more of the developmental states that have been identified for the bacterium. It is in the elucidation of this linkage that B. subtilis becomes a critical model for the understanding of how organisms respond at the molecular level to stressful situations. Similar characterizations of these repair systems in other gram-positive bacteria, especially among the extremely resistant bacteria, will determine whether or not B. subtilis represents a paradigm for gram-positive bacteria or for bacteria that have distinct developmental cycles.
Clinical and biologic relevance of immunologic marker studies in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Immunologic marker studies of the lymphoid leukemias have greatly improved the precision of diagnosis of these disorders by providing specific information regarding the lineage and stage of maturation of the malignant cells. Such studies have also enhanced our understanding of normal lymphocyte development, permitting reproducible identification of lymphoid cells in discrete developmental stages. By elucidating the functions of lymphoid cell differentiation antigens, it has been possible to gain insight into the signal transduction mechanisms by which these cells interact among themselves and with other cell types. Similar studies have shown that ALL is an immunophenotypically heterogeneous disease with clinically important subtypes representing clonal expansions of lymphoblasts at different stages of maturation. Furthermore, successful correlation of immunophenotype with certain karyotypic and molecular abnormalities, which appear to underlie most or all leukemias, were made possible by the inclusion of immunologic marker assessment. Interestingly, many of these phenotype-related abnormalities have involved either the Ig or TCR genes, thus providing additional clues to the mechanisms of leukemogenesis. Knowledge of the immunologic features of leukemic cells has been essential for the generation of phenotype-specific response data in the context of modern therapy for ALL. With wider use of intensive treatment, the traditional prognostic distinctions among immunophenotypes have begun to disappear; however, certain classes of agents have more favorable toxicity/efficacy ratios against some immunophenotypes than others, justifying continued efforts to target therapy by immunologic species of ALL. Antibody-toxin conjugates, or immunotoxins, have induced complete responses in preliminary trials and may prove clinically useful, perhaps in combination with chemotherapy, if their toxic side effects can be controlled. Finally, immunologic markers may serve as sensitive targets for the detection of minimal residual disease; the clinical usefulness of this approach will depend on prospective comparisons with molecular methods.
Coping through California's Budget Crises in Light of Proposition 13 and California's Fiscal Constitution

This chapter reflects on the ways in which California's fiscal constitution exacerbates the state's budget crises. Without institutional reform, California will likely experience repeated waves of increasingly severe budget crises throughout the coming decades. As such, this chapter presents and analyzes a number of alternatives for reforming California's fiscal constitution so as to ameliorate the dynamics currently leading to repeated harmful budget crises.
Molecular Electronics from Principles to Practice, by Michael C. Petty

The term “molecular electronics” in the United Kingdom has typically meant the use of organic materials for electronic processes while in the United States it has meant the individual or small numb...
Neoliberalism and higher education: a collective autoethnography of Brown Women Teaching Assistants

ABSTRACTThe neoliberal conceptualisation of institutions of higher education positions them as transnational corporations of knowledge production that sell services internationally. In this context, realities are experienced differently based on attributes such as class, gender, race, region, and increasingly religion. As a result, women in academia, but particularly Brown Women Teaching Assistants (TAs), encounter restrictions in exercising their agency. This systematic othering of minority women through unfair assessment of their work and the silencing of their voices leaves them in a de-powered and vulnerable position. As women of colour in higher education, we draw upon comparable and unique life stories as a data source for a collaborative autoethnography. Furthermore, we adopt an arts-based lens through which we make sense of our narratives. Our aggregated stories reflect a constant negotiation for status as TAs in business-driven institutions of higher education.
Elastic virtual machine scheduling for continuous air traffic optimization

As we are facing ever increasing air traffic demand, it is critical to enhance air traffic capacity and alleviate human controllers' workload by viewing air traffic optimization as a continuous/online streaming problem. Air traffic optimization is commonly formulated as an integer linear programming (ILP) problem. Since ILP is NP-hard, it is computationally intractable. Moreover, a fluctuating number of flights changes computational demand dynamically. In this paper, we present an elastic middleware framework that is specifically designed to solve ILP problems generated from continuous air traffic streams. Experiments show that our VM scheduling algorithm with time-series prediction can achieve similar performance to a static schedule while using 49% fewer VM hours for a realistic air traffic pattern.
Hampton–Tuskegee Idea

Samuel C. Armstrong, who founded Hampton Institute (1868), believed that a vocational course of study would instill self-discipline, practical knowledge, and Christian character. He also saw industrial education and ordinary labor as the best vehicles for teaching former slaves to accept a subordinate place in post-emancipation economy and society. Thus he concurred with Virginia Conservatives who, besides ignoring racial terror, perpetrated laws to control blacks, including denial of suffrage and segregation. He anticipated correctly that his principles would be instilled by Hampton-trained educators such as Booker T. Washington, an honor graduate and founder of Tuskegee Institute; county training schools; and major northern philanthropies. Efforts to institute the Hampton–Tuskegee idea generated strong opposition in schools and communities from W. E. B. Du Bois and advocates of classical learning. Both sides in the Washington–Du Bois debate closed ranks and criticized the other. Washington, in short, stressed uplift by training black hands; Du Bois by educating black minds.
Rigorous 3-dimensional spectral data activity relationship approach modeling strategy for ToxCast estrogen receptor data classification, validation, and feature extraction.

The estrogenic potential (expressed as a score composite of 18 high throughput screening bioassays) of 1528 compounds from the ToxCast database was modeled by a 3-dimensional spectral data activity relationship approach (3D-SDAR). Due to a lack of 17 O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) simulation software, the most informative carbon-carbon 3D-SDAR fingerprints were augmented with indicator variables representing oxygen atoms from carbonyl and carboxamide, ester, sulfonyl, nitro, aliphatic hydroxyl, and phenolic hydroxyl groups. To evaluate the true predictive performance of the authors' model the United States Environmental Protection Agency provided them with a blind test set consisting of 2008 compounds. Of these, 543 had available literature data-their binding affinity served to estimate the external classification accuracy of the developed model: predictive accuracy of 0.62, sensitivity of 0.71, and specificity of 0.53 were obtained. Compared with alternative modeling techniques, the authors' model displayed very little reduction in performance between the modeling and the prediction set. A 3D-SDAR mapping technique allowed identification of structural features essential for estrogenicity: 1) the presence of a phenolic OH group or cyclohexenone, 2) a second aromatic or phenolic ring at a distance of 6 A to 8 A from the oxygen of the first phenol ring, 3) the presence of a methyl group approximately 6 A away from the centroid of a phenol ring, and 4) a carbonyl group in close proximity (∼4 A measured to the centroid) to 1 of the phenol rings. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:823-830. Published 2016 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.
Using The Link Mnemonic to Remember Errands

The link mnemonic has been investigated in several studies on serial learning of word lists. We were interested in some variables affecting its use in a serial learning task with more complexity and ecological validity, remembering a list of everyday errands. Two experiments found that college students using the link mnemonic showed higher recall than control students for lists of 15 and 22 errands, both for free recall and for ordered recall. Delayed recall after 48 hours showed that the mnemonic aided retention as well as acquisition of the errands. The results also indicated that many uninstructed control subjects use mnemonics spontaneously.
Using an FPGA to emulate grid cell spatial cognition in a mobile robot

The grid cells in the entorhinal cortex of a rodent provides the animal with a unique neurobiological based coordinate system. This coordinate system is from which cognitive maps and spatial awareness are derived. This paper presents a unique neurobiological inspired mobile robot navigation mapping system that emulates the functional characteristics of the grid cell in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) silicon chip. To help develop the algorithms and data flow requirements of the robot, a simulator has been developed and will be covered here also. The FPGA will be used to emulate parallel spatial awareness based neural activity, as well as aid in route planning. The goal is to build a cognitive navigational system that better matches the circuitry found in the rodent's brain, as compared too similar, previously researched and developed neurobiological based systems.
A study of geometric and statistical curvatures for the skew-normal family of distributions

ABSTRACTWith special reference to the family of skew-normal distributions, we consider geometric curvature of a probability density function as a means to define and identify rare or catastrophic events—a phenomenon common in studying the financial instruments. Further, we study the statistical curvature properties of this family of distributions and discuss the sample size issue, to assess, to what extent the linear and likelihood-based inference of exponential family of distribution can be applicable for the skew-normal family.
The March of Scientific Knowledge in Social Work

In the Fall 2017 issue of Advances in Social Work we are pleased to present 15 manuscripts--12 empirical, three conceptual--written by authors hailing from 15 states, the District of Columbia, and four countries. Seven papers address various aspects of social work education, including three on research issues, two on child welfare curriculum, one on macro social work, and one on combined public health/social work programs. The remaining papers include three conceptual offerings and five empirical studies conducted in the field.
Undergraduate Kinesiology Students' Experiences in Online Motor Development Courses

The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate kinesiology students’ experiences in an online life span motor development course. This study was based on theory of transactional distance (Moore, 1997). Seven undergraduate kinesiology majors (5 females, 2 males), who were enrolled in an online course at a Midwestern public university in the US, participated in this study. Data collection included face-to-face open ended interviews, bulletin board discussion logs, and online assessment projects. A constant comparative method was used to interpret the data, and allowed themes to emerge from the data as well as from the theoretical framework. Three interrelated themes emerged from the undergraduate students’ narratives; rigors and flexibility in online course learning, peer feedback experiences, and video assessment analysis. The results of this study demonstrate that undergraduate students can have independent learning styles and kinesthetic characteristics and concepts when enrolled in online life span motor development coursework. Online kinesiology courses should be centered on a set of student tasks (lectures, projects, and assignments) that constitute the learning experiences that engage students, either independently and collaboratively, in order for them to master the objectives of the course (Carr-Chellman & Duchastel, 2001).
Electrophoretic slip-tuned particle migration in microchannel viscoelastic fluid flows

Particles migrate towards the center or walls of a rectangular microchannel if they lead or lag a viscoelastic fluid flow due to positive and negative electrophoresis, respectively. This is opposite to a Newtonian fluid. We attribute this to the shear-induced extra lift in a viscoelastic fluid.
Helping Children With Traumatic Reactions to Parental Suicide.

We would like to thank Dr. Romanowicz et al.1 for highlighting that children whose parents commit suicide could be at increased risk for developing depressive, posttraumatic stress, or traumatic grief reactions.2 Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) shows promise for improving these outcomes for children with traumatic grief including those who experience parental suicide.3,4 TF-CBT helps children develop individualized coping and safety skills, guides children to describe the details and make new meaning about their parents' deaths, grieve the parental loss, and enhance attachment to current caregivers. Consistent with the treatment described by Romanowicz et al., TF-CBT therapists help caregivers provide children with accurate information about how their parents died in a supportive age-appropriate manner and provide psychoeducation about underlying causes such as depression or addiction (eg, "Your parent had a serious disease called depression. He was not able to think right when he made the decision to end his life."). Resources for helping children after suicide or other traumatic deaths are available from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network at https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/traumatic-grief/nctsn-resources.
Histone deacetylase enzymes and selective histone deacetylase inhibitors for antitumor effects and enhancement of antitumor immunity in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), which is the most common primary central nervous system malignancy in adults, has long presented a formidable challenge to researchers and clinicians alike. Dismal 5-year survival rates of the patients with these tumors and the ability of the recurrent tumors to evade primary treatment strategies have prompted a need for alternative therapies in the treatment of GBM. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are currently a potential epigenetic therapy modality under investigation for use in GBM with mixed results. While these agents show promise through a variety of proposed mechanisms in the pre-clinical realm, only several of these agents have shown this same promise when translated into the clinical arena, either as monotherapy or for use in combination regimens. This review will examine the current state of use of HDAC inhibitors in GBM, the mechanistic rationale for use of HDAC inhibitors in GBM, and then examine an exciting new mechanistic revelation of certain HDAC inhibitors that promote antitumor immunity in GBM. The details of this antitumor immunity will be discussed with an emphasis on application of this antitumor immunity towards developing alternative therapies for treatment of GBM. The final section of this article will provide an overview of the current state of immunotherapy targeted specifically to GBM.
Nucleic Acid Isolation and Quality Control

This chapter describes the most practical manual and automated methods of isolating genomic DNA and RNA from different sources. It also summarizes currently popular methods of quality control (QC) for genomic DNA, RNA, and next generation sequencing (NGS) libraries.
Life Without Satellites

Our daily lives are increasingly dependent on space technology currently orbiting the Earth. As the world becomes more tech savvy, it also becomes more closely tied to the communication and timing of satellite networks. The list of activities that rely wholly or in part on the proper operation of satellites includes television signals, emergency transmissions, business transactions, military surveillance data, and weather and climate predictions and evaluations.
Physical and data structure of 3D genome

Abstract With the textbook view of chromatin folding based on the 30nm fiber being challenged, it has been proposed that interphase DNA has an irregular 10nm nucleosome polymer structure whose folding philosophy is unknown. Nevertheless, experimental advances suggested that such irregular packing is associated with many nontrivial physical properties that are puzzling from a polymer physics point of view. Here, we show that the reconciliation of these exotic properties necessitates modularizing 3D genome into tree data structures on top of, and in striking contrast to the linear topology of DNA double helix. Such functional modules need to be connected and isolated by an open backbone that results in porous and heterogeneous packing in a quasi-self-similar manner as revealed by our electron and optical imaging. Our multi-scale theoretical and experimental results suggest the existence of higher-order universal folding principles for a disordered chromatin fiber to avoid entanglement and fulfill its biological functions.
Identity in heterogeneous socio-cultural contexts: Implications of the Native American master narrative:

AbstractThis interdisciplinary conceptual study discusses significant implications for psychological functioning of the heterogeneous historically based socio-cultural contexts that are intrinsic t...
Novel hemorrhage models of cerebral cavernous malformations

Abstract Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are ectatic capillary-venous malformations that develop in approximately 0.5% of the population. Patients with CCMs may develop headaches, focal neurologic deficits, seizures, and hemorrhages. While symptomatic CCMs, depending upon the anatomic location, can be surgically removed, there is currently no pharmaceutical therapy to treat CCMs. Several mouse models have been developed to better understand CCM pathogenesis and test therapeutics. The most common mouse models induce a large CCM burden that is anatomically restricted to the cerebellum and contributes to lethality in the early days of life. These inducible models thus have a relatively short period for drug administration. We developed an inducible CCM3 mouse model that develops CCMs after weaning and provides a longer period for potential therapeutic intervention. Using this new model, three recently proposed CCM therapies - fasudil, tempol, vitamin D3, and a combination of the three drugs failed to substantially reduce CCM formation when treatment was administered for five weeks, from postnatal day 21 (P21) to P56. We next restricted Ccm3 deletion to the brain vasculature and provided greater time (121 days) for CCMs to develop chronic hemorrhage, recapitulating the human lesions. We also developed the first model of acute CCM hemorrhage by injecting mice harboring CCMs with lipopolysaccharide. These efficient models will enable future drug studies to more precisely target clinically relevant features of CCM disease: CCM formation, chronic hemorrhage, and acute hemorrhage.
Medical Ethics Issues in Dementia and End of Life.

I review ethical and legal challenges for end of life (EOL) care in dementia. Is access to hospice care for dementia patients impacted by Medicare’s terminal prognosis requirement? Are dementia-specific advance directives warranted? How does state legislation affect dementia patients’ EOL options? Should dementia patients’ be able to refuse orally ingested food and fluids by advance directive? The difficulty of predicting time to death in dementia inhibits access to Medicare hospice benefits. Efforts have been made to create dementia-specific advance directives. Advance refusal of artificial nutrition and hydration are common, but the issue of oral ingestion of food and fluids by dementia patients remains controversial. Medicare’s hospice benefit should be made more accessible to dementia patients. State advance directive threshold definitions should be broadened to include dementia, and capacitated persons who refuse in advance orally ingested food and fluids should have their choices honored.
Age-related differences in hemodynamics and functional status in pulmonary arterial hypertension: Baseline results from the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry.

BACKGROUND The age of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) has increased, with registries now reporting mean ages of 50 to 65 years old. Limited data exist on age-related differences in hemodynamic and functional assessments in PAH. METHODS Adults with PAH in the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry were divided into 3 groups (18–50, 51–65, and >65 years old). Analysis of variance and chi-square testing were used to assess for baseline differences. Linear regression was used to examine the association of age with continuous hemodynamic and functional variables. RESULTS A total of 769 patients with mean age of 56 ± 16 years were included. Older patients had more connective tissue disease–associated PAH and less drug-associated PAH. In linear regression models, each year of increased age was associated with shorter 6-minute walk distance (−3.37 meters; 95% CI, −3.97 to −2.76), lower mean pulmonary arterial pressure (−0.21 mm Hg; 95% CI, −0.27 to −0.15), and lower pulmonary vascular resistance (−0.06 Wood units; 95% CI, −0.09 to −0.04). Pulmonary arterial compliance, cardiac index, right ventricular stroke work index, and percent predicted 6-minute walk distance were unrelated to age; resistance-compliance time was negatively related to age (−3 milliseconds per year; 95% CI, −4 to −2). CONCLUSIONS Relative to their pulmonary vascular resistance, older patients have lower pulmonary artery compliance and worse right ventricular performance. Based on these findings, we suspect that age influences right ventricular loading conditions and the response of the right ventricle to increased afterload.
Advances in automation and robotization of open pit mining

Significant advances in automation and robotization of open pit mining have been taking place recently. Some of these include sophisticated control and reporting systems, computerized equipment assignment and dispatch systems, digital orebody models and mine plans and, most importantly, communication interfaces between all the above. The paper reviews these developments, as well as the work that still remains to be done to facilitate full robotization of mining process.
Pilgrims, Protest Tourists, and Palestinians: Abu Dis, Bethlehem, Dheisheh Camp:

The central idea of this essay is that nonindigenous vernacular image-making by protest tourists on the Palestinian side of the Israeli separation barrier and elsewhere holds little meaning for the...
The effects of offshoring on the elasticity of labor demand

Abstract In this paper, I use detailed plant-level data to analyze the relationship between offshoring and labor demand elasticities in the U.S. manufacturing sector during the 1972–2001 period. The results suggest that conditional demand elasticities for production workers are positively associated with increased exposure to offshoring both in the short-run and in the long-run. This relationship holds both for the unbalanced panel of plants and, for plants which continue their operations throughout the sample period. Controlling for skill biased technical change does not alter the magnitude or the significance of the estimated positive relationship between offshoring and labor demand elasticities.
Thermal Analysis of Landers using Radioisotope Power Systems on Ice Worlds

The surfaces of icy worlds record evidence of interior processes, chemical potential, habitability, and potentially life within the interior. Volatile and organic chemistry at the surface is critical in determining habitability and detecting the presence of past or extant life. Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) could be an enabling technology for in situ missions to icy worlds, providing both power and heat for long durations where solar power would not be feasible. However, it is necessary to understand the potential impact of RPS upon the local environment, to ensure that the rejected heat from RPS does not compromise science measurements or planetary protection requirements. To address these concerns, an RPS Ice World Lander Study was carried out in 2019 to investigate possible requirements on RPS surface mission concepts and approaches to excess heat management. The study focused on two destinations that are representative of the range of potential environments: Europa and Enceladus. Initial analysis showed that, due to the very low pressures on the surfaces of most icy world targets, surface melting does not occur because the water ice does not meet the triple-point. A 4 kW heat source suspended above the surface of Europa or Enceladus would not cause any melting, only sublimation. The study used a surface sublimation limit of 10 cm over a two-year period (the baseline for the recent Europa Lander study). To stay within this limit, Europa, with its relatively warm surface, could tolerate only 10 W/m2 of surface heat flux. Enceladus, with its relatively cold pure ice composition, could tolerate up to 100 W/m2. Various lander and heat shield configurations were analyzed for their heat flux radiated from the RPS to the surface. For a given heat shield configuration, the study team determined the minimum height of the RPS above the surface for which the heat flux would be within the accepted parameters for Europa and for Enceladus. Based on these thermal analyses, such RPS-powered landers could remain compliant with science investigation and planetary protection requirements with only modest mass allocated to spacecraft thermal accommodations.
Partial Volume Correction of the Image Derived Input Function for Radiotracers Which Adhere to Blood Vessel Walls: Application to [11C]PK11195.

1712 Objectives: An Image derived Input Function (IDIF) can be used for the quantification of physiological processes with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) when obtaining an arterial input function is not practical due to the risk, time and cost associated with the procedure. However the IDIF may not be accurate if there is uptake of the radiotracer into the blood vessel walls as is the case for [11C]PK11195. We used a simple model to correct for uptake in vessel walls to provide a more accurate IDIF. Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers got 60 minute PET scans after the IV administration of [11C]PK11195 and arterial samples were acquired at frequent intervals during the scans. The partial volume correction was modeled by comparing the arterial input function with the IDIF using the equation. A(t) = RC·Cp(t) + SFb∙B(t) + SFv∙(k1Cp(t) - k2W(t)) where A(t) is the measured blood pool concentration, Cp(t) is the true concentration, B(t) is the surrounding tissues activity and W(t) in the vessel wall. SFb is the spill in factor from the background, SFv is the spill in factor from the vessel walls. The terms k1 and k2 are the influx and efflux rates of the radiotracer with the vessel wall. RESULTS: The findings showed that an added spill-in factor was required to get good agreement between the AIF and the IDIF. This factor was most likely due to the build-up of the radiotracer in the walls of the blood vessels and was modeled using first order kinetics driven by the concentration of the radiotracer in the blood pool. In a statistical comparison of the input functions in the 20 subjects using the diameter of the carotid artery as the only variable, the mean value a paired two-tailed T test gave a p value of 0.34 indicating that there was no statistically significant difference between the AIF and the fully corrected IDIF. CONCLUSION: The accumulation of radiotracer in the walls of the vessel can play an important part in accurately determining the IDIF. A separate factor can be introduced in the standard model to account for this spill-in. This could improve bias and variance in studies that use an IDIF instead of an AIF for quantification.
Extracellular vesicles released from stress-induced prematurely senescent myoblasts impair endothelial function and proliferation.

NEW FINDINGS What is the central question of this study? What is the impact of stress-induced premature senescence on skeletal muscle myoblast-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) and myoblast-endothelial cell crosstalk? What is the main finding and its importance? Hydrogen peroxide treatment of human myoblasts induced stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS) and increased the release of exosome-sized EVs (30-150 nm in size) five-fold compared to untreated controls. Treatment of SIPS myoblast-derived EVs on endothelial cells increased senescence markers and decreased proliferation. Gene expression analysis of SIPS myoblast-derived EVs revealed a four-fold increase in senescence factor transforming growth factor-β. These results highlight potential mechanisms by which senescence imparts deleterious effects on the cellular microenvironment. ABSTRACT Cellular senescence contributes to numerous diseases through the release of pro-inflammatory factors as part of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). In skeletal muscle, resident muscle progenitor cells (satellite cells) express markers of senescence with advancing age and in response to various pathologies, which contributes to reduced regenerative capacities in vitro. Satellite cells regulate their microenvironment in part through the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), but the effect of senescence on EV signaling is unknown. Primary human myoblasts were isolated following biopsies of the vastus lateralis from young healthy subjects. Hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) treatment was used to achieve stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS) of myoblasts. EVs secreted by myoblasts with and without H2 O2 treatment were isolated, analysed and used to treat human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to assess senescence and angiogenic impact. H2 O2 treatment of primary human myoblasts in vitro increased markers of senescence (β-galactosidase and p21Cip1 ), decreased proliferation and increased exosome-like EV (30-150 nm) release approximately five-fold. In HUVECs, EV treatment from H2 O2 -treated myoblasts increased markers of senescence (β-galactosidase and transforming growth factor β), decreased proliferation and impaired HUVEC tube formation. Analysis of H2 O2 -treated myoblast-derived EV mRNA revealed a nearly four-fold increase in transforming growth factor β expression. Our novel results highlight the impact of SIPS on myoblast communication and identify a VasoMyo Crosstalk by which SIPS myoblast-derived EVs impair endothelial cell function in vitro.
A Government of Two

Two or three years ago, something happened to my friends Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon that I'd never seen in the literary world before. Up to that time each was well known to poetry audiences?he as a senior American poet and recent recipient of the National Book Crit ics Circle Award, she as a younger poet with a growing reputation. Then, their relationship itself became famous. Through their co-read ings, their joint interviews in print and on the PBS show "Fresh Air," and most importantly, their starring roles in the Bill Moyers special, "A Life Together," millions of Americans came to know of the life in poetry the two shared as husband and wife in rural New Hampshire. Audiences also discovered the couple's sorrows: Kenyon's life-long struggle with depression, and Hall's colon cancer, which metastasized to the liver and despite a successful operation, seemed likely to return. Later on, of course, those who had followed the Hall-Kenyon story learned of its ironic and heart-rending conclusion: fearing the fatal recurrence of his disease, the couple discovered a cancer growing in her?the leukemia that, despite a bone-marrow transplant, finally killed her, and left him in a period of grieving that has lasted to this day. The moving and ultimately tragic story of their life together has created a new interest in the poetry of Hall. It has created even more interest in Kenyon, whose death in mid-career has not only cast a spell upon many readers, but caused confusion about her work. I have heard readers attribute a variety of melancholy poems to her bout with leu kemia, when in fact, only one poem, "The Sick Wife," was written in the months of her fatal illness. Compounding the error, the review of her new and selected volume Otherwise in Publishers Weekly asserted that all of the book's new poems were about "her pending death." Yet if the legendary story of Kenyon and Hall makes her verse and his harder to see and assess, that story also suggests a new way to examine their poetry. For the truth is, their life together was vital to their development as poets, influencing everything from work methods to the content of work produced. In fact, it made their best poems pos sible.
Aspartate taxis mutants of the Escherichia coli tar chemoreceptor.

The Tar protein of Escherichia coli belongs to a family of methyl-accepting inner membrane proteins that mediate chemotactic responses to a variety of compounds. These transmembrane signalers monitor the chemical environment by means of specific ligand-binding sites arrayed on the periplasmic side of the membrane, and in turn control cytoplasmic signals that modulate the flagellar rotational machinery. The periplasmic receptor domain of Tar senses two quite different chemoeffectors, aspartate and maltose. Aspartate is detected through direct binding to Tar molecules, whereas maltose is detected indirectly when complexed with the periplasmic maltose-binding protein. Saturating levels of either aspartate or maltose do not block behavioral responses to the other compound, indicating that the detection sites for these two attractants are not identical. We initiated structure-function studies of these chemoreceptor sites by isolating tar mutants which eliminate aspartate or maltose taxis, while retaining the ability to respond to the other chemoeffector. Mutants with greatly reduced aspartate taxis are described and characterized in this report. When present in single copy in the chromosome, these tar mutations generally eliminated chemotactic responses to aspartate and structurally related compounds, such as glutamate and methionine. Residual responses to these compounds were shifted to higher concentrations, indicating a reduced affinity of the aspartate-binding site in the mutant receptors. Maltose responses in the mutants ranged from 10 to 80% of normal, but had no detectable threshold shifts, indicating that these receptor alterations may have little effect on maltose detection sensitivity. The mutational changes in 17 mutants were determined by DNA sequence analysis. Each mutant exhibited a single amino acid replacement at residue 64, 69, or 73 in the Tar molecule. The wild-type Tar transducer contains arginines at all three of these positions, implying that electrostatic forces may play an important role in aspartate detection. Images
A NONLINEAR INTEGER PROGRAMMING FORMULATION FOR THE AIRLIFT LOADING PROBLEM WITH INSUFFICIENT AIRCRAFT

The Airlift Loading Problem with Insufficient Aircraft (ALPIA) is frequently faced by members of the United States Department of Defense when conducting airlift missions. The ALPIA is a combination of knapsack, assignment, and packing problems; items are selected for shipment based on a utility measure, then assigned to pallets which will be loaded into an aircraft in a specific pallet position. These pallets are then packed in a manner to optimize both the pallet and aircraft characteristics, such as item utility, aircraft and pallet utiliization, pallet center of gravity, aircraft center of balance, etc. Since not all items have the same destination, it is necessary to performe the packing in an intelligent fashion to ensure ease of unpacking at destination. This paper formulates the ALPIA as an integer programming problem which allows items to be stably packed onto pallets with any specified orientation (i.e., while considering any "this side up" constraints). Rather than addressing the knapsack, assignment, and packing problems separately in a hierarchical manner, this formulation simultaneously accounts for each of these problems.
The Co-Perpetrator Model of Joint Criminal Enterprise

The doctrine of Joint Criminal Enterprise has provoked scholarly debate among international criminal lawyers falling into two camps. The first camp argues that the doctrine should be abandoned as fundamentally incompatible with basic principles of individualized criminal law, while a second camp defends the doctrine as first elucidated in the ICTY's Tadic case with few or only minor amendments. The following commentary on the ICTY Trial Chamber's decision in Prosecutor v. Stakic takes a third route: fundamental alterations to the doctrine are required to bring it in line with the culpability principle. Specifically, by invoking the control theory of perpetration, this commentary argues that international tribunals should adopt a "co-perpetrator model of joint criminal enterprise". This new model differentiates between different levels of participation in criminal plans by creating two entirely new modes of liability: (i) co-perpetrating a joint criminal enterprise, and (ii) aiding and abetting a joint criminal enterprise. The former mode of liability would be reserved for individuals at the top of the hierarchy in a joint criminal plan whose participation is essential to the plan's fruition and intend to further the criminal purpose of the group, while the later liability would be reserved for lower-rung individuals who knowingly make a contribution to the plan but do not necessarily share the intent of furthering the criminal purpose of the overall conspiracy.
Technical Note: Measurement of bow tie profiles in CT scanners using radiochromic film

Purpose: To provide a noninvasive technique to measure the intensity profile of the fan beam in a computed tomography (CT) scanner that is cost effective and easily implemented without the need to access proprietary scanner information or service modes. Methods: The fabrication of an inexpensive aperture is described, which is used to expose radiochromic film in a rotating CT gantry. A series of exposures is made, each of which is digitized on a personal computer document scanner, and the resulting data set is analyzed to produce a self-consistent calibration of relative radiation exposure. The bow tie profiles were analyzed to determine the precision of the process and were compared to two other measurement techniques, direct measurements from CT gantry detectors and a dynamic dosimeter. Results: The radiochromic film method presented here can measure radiation exposures with a precision of ∼6% root-mean-square relative error. The intensity profiles have a maximum 25% root-mean-square relative error compared with existing techniques. Conclusions: The proposed radiochromic film method for measuring bow tie profiles is an inexpensive (∼$100 USD + film costs), noninvasive method to measure the fan beam intensity profile in CT scanners.
Encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus infection of the mouse aorta. An ultrastructural study.

Abstract Electron microscopic findings in the aortas of 10 mice infected with encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus are described. Cellular necrosis was found mostly in the adventitia and occasionally in the smooth muscle cells closest to the adventitial tunic. Viral crystals were frequently found in association with the intracellular necrosis. Viral crystals were found in the adventitia of all 10 mice and in the smooth muscle cells of the media in some of the animals. The relationship of these findings to the production of aortitis or arteritis, which could also ultimately result in arteriosclerosis, is discussed.
Social Epigenetics: Incorporating Epigenetic Effects as Social Cause and Consequence

Epigenetics is a field of study that invites an interdisciplinary interaction of the social and biological sciences. This collaboration has, in fact, led to a blossoming research community over the past two decades, which is using new data, methods, and conceptual frameworks to address a host of old and emergent research questions. A recent (2014) search of PubMed found over a thousand articles on social, behavioral, and cognitive epigenetics. If one includes epidemiological epigenetic studies that incorporate either social causes or consequences in their research, the number expands nearly threefold. Yet, social epigenetics is a still nascent field, marginalized and misunderstood in social science. In this essay, we attempt to review basic epigenetic concepts and the way in which epigenetics has, and can be, of use to social and behavioral scientists in addressing some of the most fundamental sorts of questions their disciplines raise. Keywords: epigenetics; sociobiology; behavioral genetics; inheritance; environmental health; health and social behavior; cognitive neuroscience; methylation; histone modification