cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Normalization of middle latency auditory P1 potential following posterior ansa-pallidotomy in idiopathic Parkinson's disease

AbstractThe Pi potential (50 msec) of middle latency auditory evoked potential was evaluated in seven patients with advanced idiopathic Parksinson's disease before and after contemporaneous bilateral posterior ansa- pallidotomy PI potential was lacking in two patients preoperatively and was prolonged in the remainder of the patients when examined in a best medicated 'on' state. All patients showed varying degrees of dementia preoperatively on clinical examination. Remarkable improvement in their Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores during 'on'states from a mean of45.85 to 14.28 post-operatively was achieved. Subsidence of akinetic symptoms; abolishment of dyskinesia, improvement in gait freezing, rigidity' and tremors represented main areas of improvement. Pi latencies and amplitudes reverted back to normal values in six patients including the two patients who lacked P1 wave preoperatively. One patient showed mild worsening of both Pa and P1 values post-operatively attributed to sleepin...
Isolation and Characterization of Membrane Glycosphingolipids

Glycosphingolipids are the glycosides of N-fatty acylsphingosine, whose trivial name is ceramide. The variety of fatty acids, sphingosines, and carbohydrates results in a great number of glycosphingolipids. Sphingosines are a group of related long-chain aliphatic 2-amino-1,3-diols of which d-erythro- 1,3-dihydroxy-2-amino-4,5-trans-octadecene (sphingosine or sphing-4-enine) occurs most frequently in animal glycosphingohpids. The 4-hydroxylated, saturated compound (phytosphingosine or 4-hydroxysphinganine) and numerous other homologs are found, differing in saturation, branching, and length of the aliphatic chain. Classification of glycosphingolipids has been based on their carbohydrate rather than ceramide moieties, since the structure of the saccharide is dominant in determining their chemical and physical properties. The carbohydrate residue of glycosphingolipids is also a definitive determinant in immunological specificity and may be involved in intercellular recognition. However, the simplest glycolipid, cerebroside, has been subclassified as cerebron, kerasin, nervon, or oxynervon according to the kind of fatty acid present in the ceramide, because the solubility of cerebroside is determined by the kind of fatty acid present. With increasing complexity of carbohydrate structure, however, solubility and other properties are more dependent on the number of carbohydrate residues and their linkages.
The large-scale distribution of galaxies

Since the early 1980s, multi-object spectrographs, CCD detectors, and some dedicated telescopes have allowed the mass production of galaxy red shifts. These large surveys have revealed a very surprising picture of the luminous matter in the Universe. Many astronomers had imagined roughly spherical galaxy clusters floating amongst randomly scattered field galaxies, like meatballs in sauce. Instead, they saw galaxies concentrated into enormous walls and long filaments, surrounding huge voids that appear largely empty. The galaxy distribution has been compared to walls of soapy water, surrounding bubbles of air in a basinful of suds; linear filaments appear where the walls of different soap bubbles join, and rich clusters where three or more walls run into each other. A more accurate metaphor is that of a sponge; the voids are interlinked by low-density ‘holes’ in the walls. Sometimes we think of the filaments as forming a cosmic web. For a star like the Sun in the disk of our Milky Way, the task of finding where it formed is essentially hopeless, because it has already made many orbits about the galaxy, and the memory of its birthplace is largely lost. But the large structures that we discuss in this chapter are still under construction, and the regions where mass is presently concentrated reveal where denser material was laid down in the early Universe.
Distal clavicular osteolysis in adults: association with bench pressing intensity

To investigate the association between distal clavicular osteolysis (DCO) and bench pressing intensity. From a retrospective review of MRI shoulder reports of individuals between 20 and 40 years of age, 262 male patients with DCO and 227 age-matched male patients without DCO were selected. All patients had completed a bench pressing questionnaire. The patients’ bench pressing frequency (times per week), duration (years of bench pressing), bench pressing weight (maximum bench pressing weight with one repetition = 1RM) and the ratio of bench pressing weight to body weight were compared between both groups using Chi-square and Mann–Whitney tests. The results showed that 56 % (146/262) of patients with DCO were high-intensity bench pressers (1RM more than 1.5 times the body weight) compared to 6 % (14/227) in patients without DCO. High-intensity bench pressing was a risk factor for DCO (OR = 19; 95 %CI = 11–35; p 1×/week) and duration (>5 years) of bench pressing were risk factors. In bench pressers who suffered from DCO, the mean 1RM was 283 lbs (±SD 57) compared to 209 lbs (±SD 60) in bench pressers not affected by DCO (p < 0.001, Mann–Whitney). High-intensity, but not low-intensity bench pressing is a risk factor for DCO.
Laser Excited Fluorescence Methods in Analytical Chemistry

Fluorescence spectroscopy is inherently one of the most sensitive analytical methods. Raman spectroscopy for example has been developed to the point where it is capable of measuring 10−3 M concentrations. Raman scattering is characterized by cross-sections of ca. 10−29 cm2. Typical values for molecular absorption are 10−17 cm2 so that fluorescence methods should be capable of detecting 10−15 M concentrations. Such values have in fact been obtained (1) although one is usually limited by background fluorescence before such concentrations are reached (2). Typical values for atomic absorption are 10−13 cm2 so that atomic fluorescence methods should be capable of detecting 10−19 M or 60 atoms/cm3 concentrations. A classic experiment by Fairbanks, Hansch, and Schawlow demonstrated detection of 100 Na atoms/cm3 in a heated cell (3).
Learning and predicting respiratory motion from 4D CT lung images

Abstract Computed tomography (CT) has been widely used in diagnosis, image-guided intervention, and radiotherapy of cancer patients. However, in lung cancer intervention and radiotherapy, due to poor reproducibility of breath holding or respiratory motion, discrepancies between the static CT images captured in priori and patient’s current lung shape and tumor location could potentially reduce the accuracy for targeting the tumor with image-based guidance. This chapter introduces recent developments in lung motion estimation and their applications in image-guided intervention. We demonstrate that lung motion estimation from chest surface signals can facilitate treatment procedures to accurately target tumor in image-guided procedures, and motion compensation can also be used in on-site image fusion during intervention. These dynamic lung image estimation methods belong to a general signal prediction problem: how to estimate the entire shape variability from partially measurable shapes. Thus faster and more robust prediction models can be employed in the future.
Role of Integrins in Adhesion of Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells.

The hematopoietic stem cell niche is the set of soluble growth factors, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that contribute to stem cell self renewal in the bone marrow. While cytokines and cell-cell interactions have been well documented, cell-matrix interactions in the niche are less understood. Integrins are a class of highly conserved cell adhesion molecules that are important in hematopoietic development and homing. However the specific role of integrins in mediating adhesion to extracellular matrix in the hematopoietic stem cell niche is unknown. The terminal stages of erythropoiesis in the fetal liver provide a good model system with which to develop several of the assays to be used with HSCs. Using flow cytometry, murine fetal liver erythroid progenitors can be separated at four distinct stages of development based on expression of CD71 and Ter119. Further FACS and quantitative PCR analysis revealed that α4β1 integrin is significantly downregulated over the course of erythroid differentiation. Using a centrifugation assay, we determined that this change is accompanied by a loss of adhesion to fibronectin, and that adhesion to fibronectin is blocked by addition of anti-integrin antibodies. Finally, fetal liver progenitor cells adhered to comb co-polymer surfaces engineered to present peptides specifically recognized by α4β1 integrins. By determining the integrin profile expressed by hematopoietic stem cells and measuring stem cell adhesion to ECM in a similar manner, we can begin to understand how these specific interactions present developmental cues important to maintaining the stem cell phenotype in vivo , in addition to leading to design parameters for ex vivo culture systems.
Expanding understanding of optical variability in Lake Superior with a 4-year dataset

Abstract. Lake Superior is one of the largest freshwater lakes on our planet, but few optical observations have been made to allow for the development and validation of visible spectral satellite remote sensing products. The dataset described here focuses on coincidently observing inherent and apparent optical properties along with biogeochemical parameters. Specifically, we observe remote sensing reflectance, absorption, scattering, backscattering, attenuation, chlorophyll concentration, and suspended particulate matter over the ice-free months of 2013–2016. The dataset substantially increases the optical knowledge of the lake. In addition to visible spectral satellite algorithm development, the dataset is valuable for characterizing the variable light field, particle, phytoplankton, and colored dissolved organic matter distributions, and helpful in food web and carbon cycle investigations. The compiled data can be freely accessed at https://seabass.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/URI/Mouw/LakeSuperior/ .
Variation in neuronal activity state, axonal projection target, and position principally define the transcriptional identity of individual neocortical projection neurons

Single-cell RNA sequencing technologies have generated the first catalogs of transcriptionally defined neuronal subtypes of the brain. However, the biologically informative cellular processes that contribute to neuronal subtype specification and transcriptional heterogeneity remain unclear. By comparing the gene expression profiles of single layer 6 corticothalamic neurons in somatosensory cortex, we show that transcriptional subtypes primarily reflect axonal projection pattern, laminar position within the cortex, and neuronal activity state. Pseudotemporal ordering of 1023 cellular responses to manipulation of sensory input demonstrates that changes in expression of activity-induced genes both reinforced cell-type identity and contributed to increased transcriptional heterogeneity within each cell type. This is due to cell-type specific biases in the choice of transcriptional states following manipulation of neuronal activity. These results reveal that axonal projection pattern, laminar position, and activity state define significant axes of variation that contribute both to the transcriptional identity of individual neurons and to the transcriptional heterogeneity within each neuronal subtype.
Efficient cross-talk reduction of nanophotonic circuits enabled by periodic silicon strip arrays

We develop a simple and efficient crosstalk reduction approach for Si-based nanophotonic circuits by introducing a periodic array of Si strips between adjacent waveguides. Studies indicate that the coupling length can be extended by more than two orders of magnitude for a waveguide pair with an edge-to-edge distance of ∼λ/3. Our approach offers a feasible route toward photonic integrated circuits with an ultra-high packing density.
Locally Advanced Breast Cancer: The National Cancer Institute Experience

Patients with locally advanced breast cancer comprise a diverse group with varying prognoses. This category includes all patients with stage III breast carcinoma according to the combined International Union Against Cancer-American Joint Committee (UICC-AJC) in 1983 (Table 1) [7]. The revised UICC staging published in 1987 (Table 2) [24], soon to be published by the AJC, is similar, with one exception. Patients with clinical T3N0 disease will now be considered stage IIB.
Comparison of the Effects of Dipotassium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid and Lithium Heparin on Hematologic Values in Yellow-blotched Map Turtles, Graptemys flavimaculata

ABSTRACT The effects of dipotassium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and lithium heparin on hematologic values of yellow-blotched map turtles, Graptemys flavimaculata, were compared. Ten animals confiscated by the Department of Natural Resources, Georgia had blood drawn from the occipital sinus as part of a health evaluation. Length and width of red blood cells were compared between different treatment groups (EDTA, lithium heparin and fresh blood). A complete blood count and hemoparasite examination were performed on each anticoagulated sample. There were no significant differences in lengths between groups, but widths were significantly smaller (P<0.05) in anticoagulated blood smears than in fresh blood smears. Using a paired t test, EDTA and lithium heparin samples were significantly different (P<0.05) for packed cell volume percentage, plasma protein, white blood cell count, heterophils, eosinophils, monocytes, azurophils, and combined monocytes and azurophils counts. The data showed that EDTA i...
A grain boundary interaction model for microstructurally short fatigue cracks

Abstract In this paper, we present a phenomenological model for simulating the effect of a grain boundary on crack growth along crystallographic planes. This model combines various geometrical features of the interaction between the crack plane and the grain boundary plane. The tilt and twist misorientations, calculated at a grain boundary, between a crack plane and a favorable plane in the next grain are incorporated into this model, as are the Schmid factor of the next grain and a critical crack transmission stress. A model calibration procedure is demonstrated based on experimental short fatigue crack growth data measured in a high performance wrought magnesium alloy. The proposed combined GB interaction model is shown to accurately predict the short fatigue crack growth retardation and arrest at grain boundaries in this alloy.
Collaborative Usability Testing to Facilitate Stakeholder Involvement

Stakeholder involvement is an essential part of Value-Based Software Engineering. A critical part of the software engineering life cycle concerns usability testing. System usability refers to the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can use the system for their relevant tasks. Unfortunately stakeholder involvement in usability testing is costly and challenging to organize. This chapter presents a repeatable collaborative usability testing process supported by a Group Support System that was developed and evaluated in a series of workshops involving a real system. The results show that the collaborative usability testing process facilitates stakeholder involvement through stakeholder expectation management, visualization and tradeoff analysis, prioritization of usability action items, the use of advanced groupware tools, and a simple business case analysis. Furthermore, the process can be considered productive and stakeholders reported substantial levels of satisfaction with it.
Analysis of the roles of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate and individual subunits in assembly, localization, and function of Saccharomyces cerevisiae target of rapamycin complex 2

Eukaryotic cell survival requires maintenance of plasma membrane (PM) homeostasis in response to environmental insults and changes in lipid metabolism. In yeast, a key regulator of PM homeostasis is target of rapamycin (TOR) complex 2 (TORC2), a multiprotein complex containing the evolutionarily conserved TOR protein kinase isoform Tor2. PM localization is essential for TORC2 function. One core TORC2 subunit (Avo1) and two TORC2--associated regulators (Slm1 and Slm2) contain pleckstrin homology (PH) domains that exhibit specificity for binding phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns4,5P2). To investigate the roles of PtdIns4,5P2 and constituent subunits of TORC2, we used auxin-inducible degradation to systematically eliminate these factors and then examined localization, association, and function of the remaining TORC2 components. We found that PtdIns4,5P2 depletion significantly reduced TORC2 activity, yet did not prevent PM localization or disassembly of TORC2. Moreover, truncated Avo1 (lacking its C-terminal PH domain) was still recruited to the PM and supported growth. Even when all three PH-containing proteins were absent, the remaining TORC2 subunits were PM-bound. Revealingly, Avo3 localized to the PM independent of both Avo1 and Tor2, whereas both Tor2 and Avo1 required Avo3 for their PM anchoring. Our findings provide new mechanistic information about TORC2 and pinpoint Avo3 as pivotal for TORC2 PM localization and assembly in vivo.
Convolutional Neural Networks for Heat Flux Model Validation on NSTX-U

To demonstrate the use of embedded thermocouples in new National Spherical Tokamak eXperiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) graphite plasma-facing components (PFCs), a convolutional neural network (CNN) has been trained using the ANSYS simulations to predict the scrape-off layer (SOL) heat flux width, $\lambda _{q}$ , given various machine operational parameters and diagnostic data as inputs. The proof-of-concept CNN was trained on the thermocouple data generated by the approximated NSTX-U heat loads applied to real PFC designs in ANSYS. Once trained, the CNN is capable of high precision reconstruction of parameterized heat flux profiles expected in NSTX-U. In addition, to test the system’s ability to cope with noise and systematic error, pseudonoise was injected into the simulated data. CNN can accurately predict the incident heat flux despite this noise and error.
Magnetic resonance imaging of glycogen using its magnetic coupling with water

Glycogen plays a central role in glucose homeostasis and is abundant in several types of tissue. We report an MRI method for imaging glycogen noninvasively with enhanced detection sensitivity and high specificity, using the magnetic coupling between glycogen and water protons through the nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE). We show in vitro that the glycogen NOE (glycoNOE) signal is correlated linearly with glycogen concentration, while pH and temperature have little effect on its intensity. For validation, we imaged glycoNOE signal changes in mouse liver, both before and after fasting and during glucagon infusion. The glycoNOE signal was reduced by 88 ± 16% (n = 5) after 24 h of fasting and by 76 ± 22% (n = 5) at 1 h after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of glucagon, which is known to rapidly deplete hepatic glycogen. The ability to noninvasively image glycogen should allow assessment of diseases in which glucose metabolism or storage is altered, for instance, diabetes, cardiac disease, muscular disorders, cancer, and glycogen storage diseases.
Inpatient Transition to Virtual Care During COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, novel approaches to diabetes care have been employed. Care in both the inpatient and outpatient setting has transformed considerably. Driven by the need to reduce the use of personal protective equipment and exposure for patients and providers alike, we transitioned inpatient diabetes management services to largely "virtual" or remotely provided care at our hospital. Methods: Implementation of a diabetes co-management service under the direction of the University of North Carolina division of endocrinology was initiated in July 2019. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the diabetes service was largely transitioned to a virtual care model in March 2020. Automatic consults for COVID-19 patients were implemented. Glycemic outcomes from before and after transition to virtual care were evaluated. Results: Data over a 15-week period suggest that using virtual care for diabetes management in the hospital is feasible and can provide similar outcomes to traditional face-to-face care. Conclusion: Automatic consults for COVID-19 patients ensure that patients with serious illness receive specialized diabetes care. Transitioning to virtual care models does not limit the glycemic outcomes of inpatient diabetes care and should be employed to reduce patient and provider exposure in the setting of COVID-19. These findings may have implications for reducing nosocomial infection in less challenging times and might address shortage of health care providers, especially in the remote areas.
Capturing Waste Heat with CMOS Microelectronics

Capturing waste heat as electricity using solid-state microelectronics has potential benefits for a wide variety of applications. Davids et al. recently reported a 3-terminal CMOS dual tunnel diode device demonstrating power generation up to 61 μW/cm2 at 350°C. Compared to prior rectenna designs, this design experimentally demonstrates 6,800 times higher power densities, for efficiencies around 7×10−3%. The enhancement may be attributed to improved rectification or to a shift to a thermophotovoltaic design; making this distinction clearly warrants further study. This work suggests that significant further improvements in solid state conversion efficiencies are still possible. Ultimately, this research direction may enable more economic recovery of waste heat in data centers, communications, radars, ground transportation, combined heat and power plants, and more.
Commentary on Recent Consensus Studies From the Board on Children, Youth, and Families

In this thought leader commentary, the author makes observations about the findings and recommendations noted in this special issue. The broad scope of these reports from bullying; mental, emotional, and behavioral health; English language and dual language learners; optimal development; the promise of adolescence; optimal health; and shaping summertime experiences enhances our perspective on the important developmental time of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Two broad perspectives—positive youth development and distinctive risky behaviors—are highlighted among other important themes. The author observes that the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine could add value in synthesizing the implications of these studies for federal, state, and local agencies; communities; and the youth population itself, identifying both commonalities and research gaps across these reports. Such a synthesis could provide a roadmap including common and unique predictors, evidence-based interventions to address these predictors, and perspectives on integrative and complementary aspects of community, state, and federal systems. Advocacy is needed to take evidence summarized in these reports to scale. In this context, evidence-based practices from promotion to treatment backed by new implementation research in scale-up are likely to return immense benefits to society.
Determination of the stoichiometry of a thermochromic color complex via the method of continuous variation

Triarylmethane dyes have traditionally been used in carbonless copying applications as well as direct thermal imaging. In the carbonless copy application, the triarymethane dye is first microencapsulated then coated onto the rear of the original copy page. When pressure is applied these capsules rupture and spill their contents onto the top of the copy page, which is coated with an acidic substance [1]. In direct thermal imaging, the pulverized dye and acidic developer are evenly dispersed in a polymeric binder. Upon the application of heat, such as that of a thermal head, the dye and developer fuse and exhibit color [2]. The reaction with the acid allows the dye to adopt a greater degree of resonance. This augmented resonance increases the degree of conjugation in the chromophore and reduces the distance between pi to pi* energy levels. The protonated resonance hybrid is able to absorb radiation in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and exhibits color [3]. In the solid state, 4,4′-isopropylidenediphenol, i.e., BPA, is a white, weak acid and 2′-di(phenylmethyl)amino-6′-(diethylamino) spiro(isobenzofuran-1(3H), 9′-(9H)xanthen)-3-one, i.e., DDSIX, is a yellow, weakly basic triarylmethane dye. In solid solution, the two species form a green-colored complex. The DDSIX is responsible for the color and its structure is shown in Fig. 1 [4] (only one contributing structure of the resonance hybrid is shown). Reversible thermochromic compositions exhibit a change in visible absorption within a certain temperature range. This color change becomes cyclic as the temperature is raised and lowered in an alternating fashion within a particular range. An irreversible thermochromic composition may be rendered reversible upon the incorporation of a particular solvent. There is some debate as to the exact function of the so-called solvent [5–7]. Two possibilities recently proposed state that the reversible thermochromic effect is either sterically driven or controlled by a phase separation pro-
Production, assessment, and regulation of vaccines

Abstract: Developed countries have regulatory processes in place to guarantee the safety and efficacy of animal vaccines. Thus it is usual to inspect and regulate the premises used for vaccine production in addition to the manufacturing process, and the labeling and use of vaccines. Label claims must be fully supported by experimental data, including the results of field trials. Rigorous quality assurance controls are imposed on the organisms and antigens, the adjuvants, and excipients used in these products. For example, it is absolutely necessary that extraneous infectious agents be excluded and that genetically modified organisms do not pose an environmental threat.
Hotel London: how Victorian commercial hospitality shaped a nation and its stories: by Barbara Black, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2019, 245 pp., $64.95 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-8142-1417-6

With Hotel London, Barbara Black completes her insightful trilogy on three significant Victorian social institutions. In earlier work on museum culture in On Exhibit: Victorians and their Museums (...
Pipelines for Procedural Information Extraction from Scientific Literature: Towards Recipes using Machine Learning and Data Science

This paper describes a machine learning and data science pipeline for structured information extraction from documents, implemented as a suite of open-source tools and extensions to existing tools. It centers around a methodology for extracting procedural information in the form of recipes, stepwise procedures for creating an artifact (in this case synthesizing a nanomaterial), from published scientific literature. From our overall goal of producing recipes from free text, we derive the technical objectives of a system consisting of pipeline stages: document acquisition and filtering, payload extraction, recipe step extraction as a relationship extraction task, recipe assembly, and presentation through an information retrieval interface with question answering (QA) functionality. This system meets computational information and knowledge management (CIKM) requirements of metadata-driven payload extraction, named entity extraction, and relationship extraction from text. Functional contributions described in this paper include semi-supervised machine learning methods for PDF filtering and payload extraction tasks, followed by structured extraction and data transformation tasks beginning with section extraction, recipe steps as information tuples, and finally assembled recipes. Measurable objective criteria for extraction quality include precision and recall of recipe steps, ordering constraints, and QA accuracy, precision, and recall. Results, key novel contributions, and significant open problems derived from this work center around the attribution of these holistic quality measures to specific machine learning and inference stages of the pipeline, each with their performance measures. The desired recipes contain identified preconditions, material inputs, and operations, and constitute the overall output generated by our computational information and knowledge management (CIKM) system. Within the overall pipeline, we have applied machine learning approaches to step classification and, in continuing work, are applying these approaches to the subtasks of feature extraction, document filtering and classification, text payload extraction, recipe step identification, and multi-step assembly.
Remote Learning for Children with Auditory Access Needs: What We Have Learned during COVID-19

COVID-19 has challenged most everyone in every facet of life. In the beginning of the pandemic shutdown, schools had to make decisions quickly often with limited planning. For students who were deaf or hard of hearing, communication access during instruction was the urgent focus of teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing and educational audiologists. The move from the classroom to home resulted in both predictable and unpredictable challenges as well as some unexpected benefits. Based on numerous conversations with these professionals as well as parents, the challenges encountered with online learning and solutions that were implemented to support students are reported.
Write, Speak, Listen: Spoken Word Poetry as Discussion

This article situates spoken word poetry as a discussion-based practice for the social studies classroom. Similar to traditional forms of discussion like debate and deliberation, spoken word poetry...
Development of an activated microglia cell line model for screening lipid nanoparticle formulations of BDNF siRNA for neuropathic pain therapy

Purpose Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) released from activated spinal microglia via the ATP-P2 × 4R-BDNF signaling pathway plays a central role in initiating pain hypersensitivity in neuropathic pain. Therefore, knockdown of BDNF expression in microglia using molecules like siRNA can be a promising strategy for neuropathic pain therapy. Our lab is developing lipidoid nanoparticles (LNP) for the delivery of BDNF siRNA (siBDNF) for treating neuropathic pain. We characterized the Spontaneously Immortalized Microglia-A9 (SIM-A9) cell line and confirmed the expression of Iba1, P2 × 4R, and BDNF under resting (non-activated) and ATP-stimulated conditions. SIM-A9 cell line was cultured with and without external stimuli, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by varying parameters such as the concentration of stimuli, incubation time, and cell regeneration time post-activation. The cytocompatibility of SIM-A9 cells with ATP and LPS was determined using an ATP assay. Intracellular Iba1, P2 × 4R, and BDNF protein expression in the resting and stimulated cells were characterized using western blotting, in-cell western, and immunocytochemistry. In a pilot study, SIM-A9 cells were transfected with RNAiMAX (a commercial transfection agent)/siBDNF complexes and changes in BDNF expression were evaluated using western blotting. We present two novel findings: first, SIM-A9 cells expressed P2 × 4R and BDNF proteins. Second, ATP at a safe dose showed a time-dependent increase in Iba1 and BDNF expression without intracellular toxicity. At 40 nM siRNA concentration, RNAiMAX/siBDNF complexes showed about a 15% reduction in SIM-A9 BDNF expression. In preliminary studies, LNP/siBDNF at 40 nM were well-tolerated by SIM-A9 cells, however, they only showed negligible BDNF knockdown in activated SIM-A9 cells. Currently, we are optimizing LNP formulations and transfection conditions to increase the extent of BDNF gene silencing. We have developed an ATP-activated SIM-A9 cell line model system that can be utilized for screening of neuropathic pain therapeutics.
Set-Theoretic Failure Mode Reconfiguration for Stuck Actuators

This letter proposes a set-theoretic Failure Mode and Effect Management (FMEM) strategy that handles stuck/jammed actuators and enforces pointwise-in-time state and control constraints. The approach exploits nesting between constraint admissible and recoverable sets to ensure the existence of a recovery sequence. A reference governor is applied to track reference commands while imposing constraint satisfaction using the remaining working actuators. Numerical results of an aircraft longitudinal flight application are reported.
Perron’s Theorem in an Hour

We give a short and elementary proof of the Perron–Frobenius theorem. It uses Gelfand’s formula for the spectral radius of a matrix, which is also given an elementary proof.
A techno-economic assessment of carbon-sequestration tax incentives in the U.S. power sector

Abstract Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a prominent mitigation technology in many of the pathways to achieve global net-zero carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Despite this proposed importance, only one operational power facility in the U.S. is currently equipped with CCS. Further CCS capacity may be promoted with recently-enhanced tax credits for carbon sequestration in Section 45Q of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. In this paper, we expand the unit-specific techno-economic model ESTEAM to include coal-fired and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) retrofitted CCS capacity and new NGCC CCS capacity to evaluate CCS for sequestration in the projected 2030 U.S. fossil-fuel fleet. Using this model in a parametric study, we conclude that unique credit levels for each CCS option are required for each option to separately achieve the same percent generation level of the projected 2030 net generation. We further find that increasing the credit duration can lower the CO2 avoided cost for the fleets and increase CCS-capacity bridging from 2030 to 2050. Overall, we determine that a lower avoided cost for immediate sequestration is achieved through promoting new and existing NGCC CCS.
“All My Means are Sane, My Motive and My Object Mad”

Neoliberal economic globalization is motivated by the quest for ever-increasing profits and endless economic growth. Both the motive and means of economic globalization prove to be irrational in the context of the ecological limits of the planet. Rising rates of social and economic inequality coupled with growing ecological breakdown and climate change demonstrate that this economic model is neither socially just nor environmentally sustainable. Ethical analysis of different models of globalization provides alternatives rooted in moral norms of justice, equity, democratic participation and environmental sustainability. Studies of human happiness demonstrate that once basic needs are met, there is little to no correlation between increasing levels of per capita consumption and human wellbeing and happiness (Diener et al., 2009; Helliwell, Layard & Sachs, 2012). Hence affluent nations can and must decrease rates of per capita consumption, which can be accomplished while enhancing happiness and wellbeing. While economic growth for poor nations remains a priority to meet basic needs, affluent nations such as the United States need to shift away from neoliberal economics based on endless growth to more localized and sustainable ways of living.
Dietary influence on innate and acquired resistance to tuberculosis.

Hedgecock, Loyd W. (Veterans Administration Hospital, St. Louis, Mo.). Dietary influence on innate and acquired resistance to tuberculosis. J. Bacteriol. 92:439-445. 1966.-The pattern of deaths of CF1 mice maintained both on a defined ration and on commercial chow, and infected with the H37Rv strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was compared with that of animals infected with four wild strains of tubercle bacilli as well as with the Vallee and Ravenel strains of M. bovis. All infected animals fed the defined ration died at a slower rate than those fed chow. The dietary effects were most evident in the groups of mice infected with the human strains of M. tuberculosis at reduced dose levels. Under these conditions, a decrease in rate of death occurred in the infected mice fed the defined ration at approximately 3 weeks after infection. Deaths in the animals infected with the bovine strains and fed the defined ration were distributed normally. Interval counts of the number of tubercle bacilli in the lungs of mice infected with a reduced dose of the H37Rv strain of M. tuberculosis showed that in vivo growth of the organisms was inhibited at 2 weeks in the animals fed the defined ration and at 3 weeks in those fed chow. Nonviable vaccines prepared from the H37Rv human strain and from the Ravenel and Vallee strains of M. bovis were ineffective against infection with the bovine strains. All vaccines were effective against infection with the H37Rv strain of M. tuberculosis.
Musical Onset Detection Using Constrained Linear Reconstruction

This letter presents a multi-frame extension of the well-known spectral flux method for unsupervised musical onset detection. Instead of comparing only the spectral content of two frames, the proposed method takes into account a wider temporal context to evaluate the dissimilarity between a given frame and its previous frames. More specifically, the dissimilarity is measured by using the previous frames to obtain a linear reconstruction of the given frame, and then calculating the rectified, ${l_2}$ -norm reconstruction error. Evaluation on a dataset comprising 2,169 onset events of 12 instruments shows that this simple idea works fairly well. When a non-negativity constraint is imposed in the linear reconstruction, the proposed method can outperform the state-of-the-art unsupervised method SuperFlux by 2.9% in F-score. Moreover, the proposed method is particularly effective for instruments with soft onsets, such as violin, cello, and ney. The proposed method is efficient, easy to implement, and is applicable to scenarios of online onset detection.
The Southern states: NPs made an impact in rural and healthcare shortage areas.

AbstractPurpose:To investigate the distribution of nurse practitioners (NPs) in the U.S. Southern region with a focus on rural and underserved areas. Described in this study are the NP characteristics and their workforce distribution relative to rural and health professional shortage areas (HPSAs).D
Intersite reliability of repeated isokinetic measurements: cybex back systems including trunk rotation, trunk extension-flexion, and liftask

0.93 for the TEF, and 0.94 to 0.98 for the TR. The reliability of the angle of peak force, total work, endurance ratio, and recovery ratio were more variable, ranging from 0.43 to 0.99. Given the consistency of the isokinetic measurements of peak torque, average power, and best work taken with the Cybex back systems, physical therapists could collaborate to generate normative data and conduct clinical research across mUltiple sites as long as the same test protocols were followed and the same model equipment was used.
Sociobiology: A Philosophical Analysis

Sociobiology is the study of animal behaviour from an evolutionary perspective. It played a major role in Darwin's Origin of Species, but then lay undeveloped until the 1960s. It proved very controversial especially when applied to humankind, with social scientists and left-wing biologists arguing that it was racist, sexist, unfalsifiable and untrue. Some of these criticisms were well taken but in recent years sociobiology, including the human application, is much more solid and defensible. Key Concepts: Charles Darwin with his theory of evolution through natural selection is the originator of sociobiology. Key mechanisms for sociobiology include kin selection and reciprocal altruism, leading to evolutionary stable strategies. Edward O. Wilson gave the definitive treatment of the topic in his Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Richard Dawkins popularised sociobiology with his talk of selfish genes, ideas opposed to group selection. Sociobiology has been applied to humankind to explain such topics as step-parenting. Keywords: Charles Darwin; sociobiology; natural selection; fasifiability; sexism
Creating choreography with interactive evolutionary algorithms

Directing a group behavior towards interesting and complex motion can and should be intuitive, iterative, and often participatory. Toward this end, we present a choreographic system that enables designers to explore a motion space based on a parametric model of behaviors. Designers may work with the system by moving back and forth through two complementary stages: first, using an evolutionary algorithm to traverse the space of behavior possibilities, allowing designers to emphasize desired kinds of motion while leaving room for an element of the unexpected, and second, using selected behaviors to direct the group motion of simple performing creatures. In the second stage, evolved group motion behaviors from the first stage are used alongside existing high-level parametric rules for local articulated motion.
Poster abstract: PRK-based scheduling for predictable link reliability in wireless networked sensing and control

Summary form only given. Despite decades of research on interference-oriented channel access scheduling, most existing literature are either based on the physical interference model or the protocol interference model, neither of which is a good foundation for distributed interference control in the presence of uncertainties [2]. To address the issue, Che et al. [2] have identified the physical-ratio-K (PRK) interference model that integrates the protocol model's locality with the physical model's high-fidelity. To enable distributed scheduling with predictable performance, we design the PRK-based scheduling protocol PRKS. In PRKS, we model the problem of identifying the PRK model parameter KS,R,T(S,R) as a minimum-variance regulation control problem, and we design distributed controllers that allow each link to adapt its PRK model parameter for ensuring the desired link reliability through purely local coordination. For ensuring that nodes interfering with one another do not transmit concurrently, we propose the concept of local signal map that allows nodes close-by to maintain the wireless path loss among themselves; together with the PRK model and transmission power control in protocol signaling, local signal maps enable nodes to precisely identify the interference relations among themselves despite anisotropic, asymmetric wireless communication and large interference range. To address the inherent delay in protocol signaling and to avoid interference between protocol signaling and data transmissions, PRKS uses a control channel for protocol signaling and a separate data channel for data transmissions in a TDMA fashion. With the above mechanisms, PRKS precisely identifies and then avoids interfering concurrent transmissions in scheduling; accordingly, PRKS eliminates the hidden terminal issue which has been a basic challenge in interference-oriented channel access control since 1975.
Induction of Sustained Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism in the Turkey: Physiological and Biochemical Observations

Abstract In order to study the role of thyroid hormone in avian physiology, reliable methods for inducing sustained states of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in the turkey were developed. Hyperthyroidism was established by administration of L-thyroxine ( 3 μg/ml) to the drinking water. Hypothyroidism was established either by the provision of a low-iodine diet and supplementation of the drinking water with .5% sodium perchlorate, or by the intravenous administration of an ablative dose (10 mCi) of 131I−. Clinical manifestations of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism were accompanied by high (10.1 ± 1.4 μg/dl) or low (.34 ± 0.04 μg/dl) plasma concentrations of thyroxine, respectively, both significantly different from normal controls (.57 ± .08 μg/dl; P
Some studies of bifurcation of the ionospheric F-layer into F1 and F2

Abstract Observations made at frequent intervals with a panoramic ionosphere recorder at Cambridge during the sunspot minimum years 1954 and 1955 shows that the splitting of the F-layer into F1 and F2 occurs at the time of ground sunrise. The F1-layer is usually present throughout the year except in the winter. The height at which the F1-layer maximum occurs remains constant for at least 2 hr after it first appears with the sunrise. Also it seems to vary with the season, being the highest in summer and the lowest in winter. The F-layer under storm condition on 25 February 1956, following the great cosmic ray burst that was observed on 23 February, developed a subsidiary maximum which under normal conditions would be identified as theF-layer. No such substratification was noticed on the subsequent days. Under quasi-equilibrium conditions, which occur during tho midday, it can be shown from the simple Chapman theory of layer formation, with an attachment-like law for the loss-process, that there should be no maximum of ionization under certain conditions of the atmospheric scale-heights. However a numerical solution of the continuity equation for electrons shows that a maximum of ionizaion does occur at sunrise when the equilibrium condition is not yet reached.
GABA and glutamate signaling: homeostatic control of adult forebrain neurogenesis

The neurotransmitter GABA exerts a strong negative influence on the production of adult-born olfactory bulb interneurons via tightly regulated, non-synaptic GABAergic signaling. After discussing some findings on GABAergic signaling in the neurogenic subventricular zone (SVZ), we provide data suggesting ambient GABA clearance via two GABA transporter subtypes and further support for a non-vesicular mechanism of GABA release from neuroblasts. While GABA works in cooperation with the neurotransmitter glutamate during embryonic cortical development, the role of glutamate in adult forebrain neurogenesis remains obscure. Only one of the eight metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), mGluR5, has been reported to tonically increase the number of proliferative SVZ cells in vivo, suggesting a local source of glutamate in the SVZ. We show here that glutamate antibodies strongly label subventricular zone (SVZ) astrocytes, some of which are stem cells. We also show that some SVZ neuroblasts express one of the ionotropic glutamate receptors, AMPA/kainate receptors, earlier than previously thought. Collectively, these findings suggest that neuroblast-to-astrocyte GABAergic signaling may cooperate with astrocyte-to-neuroblast glutamatergic signaling to provide strong homeostatic control on the production of adult-born olfactory bulb interneurons.
The ‘Born‐Modern’ Self: Revisiting the real matilda: An exploration of women and identity in Australia

Identity in Australia, a born‐modern country, is inevitably about identity and modernity. As a study of Woman and Identity in Australia, so too is The Real Matilda. Like the book itself, the following ‘reconsideration’ pays due regard to the role of the unconscious in structuring identity. The book's theory of modernity reflects a 1970s Frankfurt School negativity, which, in all, provides a valuable but one‐sided view. This reconsideration, set within the terms of Castoriadis's western ‘project of autonomy’, would similarly appraise The Real Matilda.