cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The development of phase morphology and polymer chain orientation in the processing of incompatible polymer blends

A critical review is presented of experimental research on development of phase morphology and polymer chain orientation in disperse two phase flow of polymer melts. It is shown that, in stratified flow, phase morphology variations are primarily caused by viscosity differences between the two phases. For disperse two-phase flow, the phase morphology is strongly influenced by the interfacial tension as well as the viscosity ratio. This appears to be through the capillarity or Taylor number. Large interfacial tensions and small shear stresses or matrix viscosities lead to coarse phase morphologies and phase growth under quiescent conditions. Interface modification additives (compatibilizers) may be interpreted in terms of reduction of interfacial tensions. Applications to polymer processing operations and interpretation of rheological properties are described. The development of orientation of individual polymers in blends is reviewed. It is shown that chain orientation develops differently for the individual components in both compatible and incompatible blend systems. In incompatible systems, an addition of a second polymer to a crystallizing melt would appear to reduce the levels of eventual crystalline orientation in the latter, if the former shows sharp viscosity rises prior to the crystallization.
Abstract B102: Zibotentan (ZD4054), a specific antagonist of the endothelin A receptor, suppresses the metastatic phenotype of bladder cancer cells in vivo

There is mounting evidence that endothelin‐1(ET‐1) / endothelin receptor axis contributes to the pathogenesis of urothelial bladder cancer. In a previous study, reduced expression of the metastasis suppressor protein RhoGDI2 in bladder cancer cell lines and tumors was associated with increased expression of ET‐1 (Titus B et al, Ca Res 65:7320, 2005). This suggests that ET‐1 acts down‐stream of repressed RhoGDI2 expression to promote the metastatic phenotype. If so, then blocking activation of endothelin receptor A (ETAR) by ET‐1 would suppress this phenotype. To test this hypothesis, Zibotentan, a specific inhibitor of ETAR (IC50 = 21 nM), was evaluated for anti‐tumor activity in a xenograft metastasis model. To screen for toxicity, 40 athymic nu/nu female received 12.5 to 50 mg/kg/d of zibotentan by gastric lavage for 97 days. The drug was well tolerated at all dose levels and produced no significant changes in body weight, behavior, or general physical condition. In a separate experiment, T24T bladder cancer cells (106 cells suspended in 0.1 mL of medium) were inoculated into the tail veins of a second group of 40 mice. One week later, 20 of animals were treated with zibotentan 50 mg/Kg/d and 20 controls received vehicle only. After 90 days, the animals were euthanized and the lungs were removed, fixed with Bouin9s solution, stained, and examined by microscopy to determine the number and size of metastasis (large ≥3mm, small Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B102.
Discrete Excitation Spectrum of a Classical Harmonic Oscillator in Zero-Point Radiation

We report that upon excitation by a single pulse, a classical harmonic oscillator immersed in the classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation exhibits a discrete harmonic spectrum in agreement with that of its quantum counterpart. This result is interesting in view of the fact that the vacuum field is needed in the classical calculation to obtain the agreement.
Hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy: The electrophysiology fits the name

Background: Studies of patients with hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP) have shown accentuated distal slowing along with nonuniform conduction abnormalities at segments liable to compression, suggesting a distal myelinopathy as an underlying pathophysiological mechanism. Methods: We evaluated 12 patients with HNPP by standard nerve conduction studies and by conduction to more proximal muscles in the arm and leg. Three CMT1A patients and six healthy subjects also were evaluated as controls. Results: Median and peroneal motor nerves in all HNPP patients showed prolonged distal motor latencies (DML) (mean ± SE, 5.9 ± 0.41 and 8.63 ± 0.58 milliseconds), but the ulnar and tibial DML were minimally prolonged or normal (mean ± SE, 3.87 ± 0.16 and 5.66 ± 0.24 milliseconds). DML to forearm flexor (median and ulnar nerves) or anterior tibial muscles (peroneal nerve) were also normal. Conclusion: Accentuated distal slowing is found primarily in median and peroneal nerve segments liable to pressure palsies or repetitive trauma. However, the ulnar and tibial nerves, which are less liable to compression, have minimal changes. In addition, distal latencies to more proximal muscles in the arm and leg do not have distal slowing. These findings do not support a distal myelinopathy as a determinant of the conduction abnormalities in HNPP.
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Mixed Valence Dinuclear Organometallic Cations and Counterions on Au(111)

Single-molecule electronic components are potential building blocks for next-generation electronic devices. One architecture for such devices is quantum dot cellular automata (QCA), in which binary...
Ploidy of Hybrids between Grass Carp and Bighead Carp Determined by Morphological Analysis

Abstract Twenty-six morphological and meristic characters of diploid and triploid hybrids between female grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella and bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis were analyzed by discriminant-function analysis. Twelve characters were useful in distinguishing between diploids and triploids. When these 12 characters were subjected to discriminant-function analysis, 97% of the hybrids were correctly classified as either diploid or triploid. No single character allowed diploids to be distinguished from triploids. Triploid hybrids had fewer morphological abnormalities than did diploid hybrids, possibly because triploid hybrids had two sets of chromosomes from the same species. Received March 5, 1983 Accepted August 8, 1983
Turing instability in pioneer/climax species interactions.

Abstract Systems of pioneer and climax species are used to model interactions of species whose reproductive capacity is sensitive to population density in their shared ecosystem. Intraspecies interaction coefficients can be adjusted so that spatially homogeneous solutions are stable to small perturbations. In a reaction-diffusion pioneer/climax model we will determine the critical value of the diffusion rate of the climax species, below which the equilibrium solution is unstable to non-homogeneous perturbations. For diffusion rates smaller than this critical value, an equilibrium solution remains stable to spatially homogeneous perturbations but is unstable to non-homogeneous perturbations. A Turing (diffusional) bifurcation leads to the formation of spatial patterns in species’ densities. Forcing, interpreted as stocking or harvesting of the species, can reverse the bifurcation and establish equilibrium solutions which are stable to small perturbations. The implicit function theorem is used to determine whether stocking or harvesting of one of the species in the model is the appropriate remedy for diffusional instability. The use of stocking or harvesting by a natural resource manager thus influences the long-term dynamics and spatial distribution of species in a pioneer/climax ecosystem.
φX174 lysis requires slyD, a host gene which is related to the FKBP family of peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases

Recessive mutations in the slyD (sensitivity to lysis) gene were isolated by selecting for survival after induction of the cloned lysis gene E of bacteriophage phi X174 [1]. The slyD- mutation, transduced into the normal phi X174 host, Escherichia coli C, confers an absolute block on the plaque-forming ability of the wild-type phage, indicating that slyD is required for E function. slyD encodes a protein with 196 residues. A segment corresponding to the first 142 residues of the predicted SlyD protein has significant similarity throughout its length to the FKBP family of peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases, or rotamases. The C-terminal 46 codons of slyD encode a remarkable histidine-rich peptide which is a metal-binding domain [2]. This sequence is dispensable for slyD function in E-mediated lysis. Although there is no obvious phenotype associated with the slyD- genotype other than the resistance to E-mediated lysis, overexpression of slyD causes cells to filament and to increase significantly in diameter. Mutations in phi X174 can restore the plaque-forming ability of the phage on a slyD- host. These pos (plates on slyD) mutants plate on E. coli C wild-type and slyD-. A model for SlyD involvement in E function and the role of SlyD in the cell is discussed.
Market segmentation based on age and attitude toward the past: Concepts, methods, and findings concerning nostalgic influences on customer tastes

Abstract The marketing literature has neglected some effects of age and attitude toward the past that are potentially useful to marketers in the formulation of segmentation strategy for cultural products that appeal differentially to various customer tastes. Specifically, with respect to cognitive responses, previous research has supported a peak in memory for events that occurred during one's late adolescence or early adulthood. Similarly, research on the affective responses of consumers has shown comparable effects connected with nostalgia—first, an age-related preference peak for offerings associated with one's youth; second, a shift in this preference peak to an earlier age for those more favorable in attitude toward the past. The purpose of the present study is to illustrate such effects and to indicate their potential marketing implications in the case of one particular cultural product category—namely, motion pictures. Toward these ends, a complete reanalysis of data reported in another context: (1) replicates both the age-related preference peak and the nostalgic shift due to attitude toward the past, (2) extends these findings to the case of tastes for motion pictures, and (3) suggests the possibly dramatic implications that such findings might carry for the formulation of marketing strategy in the areas of entertainment, the arts, and other media-related offerings.
Sex differences in complaints and diagnoses.

This paper examines male-female differences in complaints and diagnoses for ambulatory care visits. Data are from the 1975 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, a national probability survey of visits to office-based physicians. The results suggest that: (1) Men are often unaware of serious health problems, they delay seeking diagnosis and care for symptoms, and they hesitate to admit symptoms and known health problems when they do visit a physician. (2) Women appear to have a more diffuse view of illness. They often report both mental and physical symptoms, and their physical symptoms “radiate” throughout the body rather than remain localized. (3) Both sexes confuse reproductive, digestive, and urinary symptoms because the body systems overlap. (4) Some sex differences in diagnoses for a particular symptom reflect real morbidity differences. (5) There is little evidence that women and men differ in their perception, interpretation, and description of physical symptoms. (6) The evidence for sex bias in physicians' diagnoses is scant.
The significance of self-control

Self-control is among the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences. For instance, more than 3% of peer-reviewed psychology articles in the past year were referenced by the key word “self-control” or closely related terms. The report by Moffitt et al. (1) in PNAS substantially advances this growing literature by demonstrating robust predictive associations between childhood self-control and a wide range of consequential life outcomes in a large, nationally representative sample of New Zealanders.
Ethics is not rocket science: how to have ethical discussions in your science class.

The Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University seeks to encourage discussion on campus, in businesses, and in the community about how ethical decision-making can be the basis of both personal and professional success. In the last 15 years, our fellows have, among other things, served as Co-PI’s on a wide range of grants, produced Responsible Conduct of Research training for science and engineering graduate students and faculty, managed the ethics curriculum at a medical school, and produced video lectures on ethical thinking for undergraduate Biology majors. The crown jewel of our efforts to-date is our Ethics Across the Curriculum program, affectionately known as “ethics boot camp.” Each year, we bring faculty from all corners of the disciplinary spectrum together to show them how to have rich ethical discussions in their own classes with the students from their majors. The program has been extremely successful and over the past 15 years has touched the lives of hundreds of faculty and thousands of students. The purpose of this paper is to provide a very abbreviated version of the Rutland Ethics Across the Curriculum material to a wider audience of science educators. It is our hope that this will motivate more faculty to introduce ethics into their classes as well as provide them the basic tools they will need to make this experience fruitful for all concerned.
The social context of song mimicry: Song-matching dialects in indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea)

Abstract First-year male indigo buntings ( Passerina cyanea ) that match the song of an adult neighbour gain an advantage in acquiring a female, in nesting and in fledging young, when compared with first-year males that do not match a neighbour's song (Payne 1982). Four hypotheses of the mechanisms responsible for the mimics' success were tested in the field. Song matching among neighbours was not involved with recognition of local demes or with assortative mating; the population structure of song neighbourhoods is open and songs are not signals of kinship or community. Song matching was not directed towards females in sexual mimicry, and females rarely switched from an old mate to a younger one with the same song. Song mimicry was not directed towards the neighbouring male whose song was copied, as he was no less aggressive towards a song mimic than towards non-mimics. Song mimicry was associated with the timing of territorial establishment and of associated dispersal and residence in the first-year males. Four out of six predictions of a hypothesis of intraspecific competitive mimicry among male buntings were realized. The results best fit the hypothesis that a male that mimics the song of an older neighbour may deceive his territorial competitors, the other first-year males, in mistaken individual recognition.
Ultralow-Voltage Power Gating Structure Using Low Threshold Voltage

A novel power gating (PG) structure using only low-threshold-voltage metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is proposed to extend the PG to an ultralow-voltage region ( ~ 0.3 V). The proposed structure deploys series-connected low-V th footers with two virtual ground ports and selectively chooses the logic cells for connecting them to each virtual ground port according to the delay criticality. Furthermore, additional circuitry is designed to reduce not only the subthreshold leakage current but also the gate-tunneling leakage and to reduce the wake-up time and rush current compared to the conventional PG. The total PG switch size of the proposed PG structure including the additional circuits is less than the conventional one. The simulation results are compared to those of other well-known circuit schemes and show that, in the ultralow-voltage region, the other high-V th-based PG schemes cannot be used due to the impractical delay increase and long wake-up time, whereas the proposed PG structure keeps the balance among the critical PG issues. The proposed PG is evaluated using inverter chains and ISCAS85 benchmark circuits at 0.6-V supply voltage, which are designed using 45-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor predictive technology model.
Helping Preschool Leukemia Patients and Their Parents Cope During Injections

Taught 4 preschool leukemia patients (ages 3-5) to engage in specific coping behaviors before and during painful intramuscular and intravenous injections. Parents were taught to coach their children in the use of the coping behaviors. Intervention was delivered in a multiple baseline across-subjects design. Parent and child behavior was coded using the Child-Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale-Revised (CAMPIS-R, Blount, Powers, & Sturges) and Observation Scale of Behavioral Distress (OSBD, Elliott, Jay, Woody). Parents and nurses rated child behavior as well. Results indicated that parents learned coping-promoting behaviors, children learned specific coping behaviors, and children displayed less behavioral distress. Maintenance of behavior change was addressed. Contributions of this study to the current literature on children's coping with invasive medical procedures and implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Technology impact: some thoughts on deskilling and design responsibility

The marketing pitch promotes the positive results when new technology is developed and in the hands of the user. Rarely does it discuss potential human interaction problems that might result from its application-matters that are outside the scope of the technical design specification. Since new technology typically evolves due to entrepreneurial efforts or reaction to customer demand, we seldom look beyond specification boundaries to carefully evaluate subtle product use consequences. Indeed, many believe that market evaluation, with its cost-benefit analysis, is all that is necessary, but the effects of new technology on culture and the individual are almost never part of these analyses because they are difficult to define in dollar values. Certainly, environmental impact and safety are high on the list of public concerns. Further down the list are the effects of product characteristics on human response and behavior.
Cultivating Student Global Competence: A Pilot Experimental Study

Although student global competence has been recognized as an important learning outcome by more and more colleges and universities, campus internationalization efforts remain fragmented and largely ineffective. We proposed a pedagogical intervention that provided students from China and the U.S. with opportunities to establish virtual contact and to work collaboratively on international business related research papers. Then, we operationalized global competence as a three-dimensional concept and designed an instrument to measure student global competence. The results provided some initial evidence on American students’ significantly lower performance in global knowledge and attitude, and confirmed the proposed pedagogical intervention as an easy-to-use and effective supplement to develop student global competence.
Religion and subjective well-being among the elderly in China

Abstract Evidence from developed and developing countries alike demonstrates a strongly positive relationship between religiosity and happiness, particularly for women and particularly among the elderly. Using survey data from the oldest old in China, we find a strong negative relationship between religious participation and subjective well-being in a rich multivariate logistic framework that controls for demographics, health and disabilities, living arrangements, wealth and income, lifestyle and social networks, and location. In contrast to other studies, we also find that religion has a larger effect on subjective well-being on men than women.
Unsteady Numerical Simulation of the 1 MW Radiatively-Driven Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Experiments

Summary of the e-Beam Coupled 1 MW Radiatively-Driven Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Experiments, AIAA Paper 2004-1136 2. R. B. Miles, D. K. Mansfield, P. J. Howard, J. Luff, I. G. Girgis, G. L. Brown, R. J. Lipinski, G. Pena, L. Schneider, R. Howard, A 1 MW Radiatively-Driven Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Experiment, AIAA-2003-0090 3. D. Mansfield, R. B. Miles, G. L. Brown, P. Howard, R. J. Lipinski, I. G. Girgis, A 1MW Electron Beam Heated Radiatively Driven Wind Tunnel Experiment (Invited), AIAA Paper 2002-3130 4. I.G. Girgis, G. L. Brown, and R.B. Miles, R. J. Lipinski, "Fluid Mechanics of a Mach 7-12 Electron Beam Driven Missile Scale Hypersonic Wind Tunnel: Modeling and Predictions", Physics of Fluids, September 2002. 5. G. L. Brown, I. G. Girgis, R. B. Miles, R. J. Lipinski, Inviscid and Viscous Predictions for an E- beam Heated Hypersonic Wind- Tunnel (Invited), AIAA Paper 2002-3129 6. I. G. Girgis, G. L. Brown, R. B. Miles, Predictions for the Heat Transfer and Boundary Layer Growth in the Radiatively Driven Hypersonic Wind Tunnel and Comparisons with Experiment at Ultra High Reynolds Number
Chapter Four β-Carboline and isoquinoline alkaloids from marine organisms

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the β-carboline and isoquinoline alkaloids from marine organisms. Nitrogenous marine natural products have steadily increased as a proportion of compounds reported from marine organisms over the last decade. Exact figures for marine plant and invertebrate derived substances are hard to come by; this is due in part to structural and taxonomic revisions, which makes tracking individual structures difficult, and in part to the sheer number of metabolites being reported each year. Alkaloids bearing the β-carboline ring system have been reported from sponges, tunicates, Cnidaria, Bryozoa and microalgae. The manzamines are a group of complex sponge alkaloids bearing not only a β-carboline ring system but also isoquinoline and macro-heterocyclic ring systems. The manzamines are extracted from the wet sponge into acetone. Chromatography of the ethyl acetate soluble portion of the crude acetone extract on silica gel followed by recrystallization from methanol yielded a sample of manzamine A suitable for X-ray analysis.
Some historical aspects of the drug-free therapeutic community.

I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.—Lord Clark [1, p. 347]
Incidence of bone metastases in breast cancer patients in the United Kingdom: Results of a multi-database linkage study using the general practice research database

Abstract Background Bone is a frequent site for metastases among women with breast cancer. We conducted a study using the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), with linkage to the National Cancer Registry (NCR) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), to estimate the incidence of bone metastases in women with breast cancer in the United Kingdom. Methods We identified all women in the GPRD aged 20–99 with a first-time diagnosis of breast cancer between 2000 and 2006. To address potential underreporting, we developed and validated an algorithm to serve as a proxy for bone metastases. Bone metastases were defined as (1) a bone cancer diagnosis code on the same day or following breast cancer diagnosis date, or (2) another metastasis code plus codes consistent with bone metastases diagnosis or treatment using the algorithm. We sent questionnaires to a sample of general practitioners to validate these definitions. Results We included 13,207 breast cancer patients (median age at diagnosis of 61 years) who contributed 70,885 person-years of follow-up. The majority of patients had stage 1 or 2 breast cancer (90.4%), and 2.6% had metastatic breast cancer at diagnosis. We identified 788 women (6.0%) with bone metastases after a median follow-up of 5.4 years. Questionnaire results validated the diagnosis of bone metastases in 88% of patients with a bone cancer code and for 70% identified with the algorithm. Conclusion This is the first time the GPRD has been linked to HES and NCR to study the epidemiology of bone metastases, adding important information on the burden of bone metastasis.
Top Management Team Structure: Differential Effects by Environmental Context

Despite the extensive literature on top management team structure (demographics), disagreement persists as to whether specific aspects of team structure have, on the whole, positive or negative results for the firm. The author addresses conflicts in the literature by using several typical structural measures in different contexts. Shorter-tenured, heterogenous teams are found to provide the skills needed to address environmental complexities and will be more productive in turbulent environments because they deliver problem solving skills and new perspectives on strategic formulation and implementation processes. Longer-tenured, homogeneous teams are found to be more productive in stable environments because they will promote basic team maintenance functions (socialization, cohesion, etc.). Firms that are the most successful financially are ones that match their team structures to the environmental context over time. The results reported are unique because time, different contexts, and financial performanc...
Concentration Relationships of Cefaclor in Serum, Interstitial Fluid, Bile, and Urine of Dogs

The concentrations of cefaclor in the serum, urine, bile, and tissue fluids of the abdominal wall, kidney, and liver of dogs were compared over a 4-h period after oral administration of a single dose of this drug. The concentration of cefaclor in the soft-tissue interstitial fluid peaked 2 h after administration, thereby demonstrating a diffusion rate similar to those of other cephalosporins. Both urine and bile concentrations greatly exceeded the serum levels, whereas none of the tissue fluid concentrations were greater than the serum concentrations at the times of measurement.
Design method for low-power, low phase noise voltage-controlled oscillators

This paper presents a design method for voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) with simultaneous small size, low phase noise, DC power consumption and thermal drift. We show design steps to give good prediction of VCO phase noise and power consumption behavior: (1) measured resonator frequency-dependent parameters; (2) transistor additive phase noise/ noise figure characterization; (3) accurate tuning element model; and (4) bias-dependent model in case of an active load. As an illustration, the design of a 3.4-GHz bipolar transistor VCO with varactor tuning is presented Oscillator measurements demonstrate low phase noise (-40dBc@ 100Hz and better than -lOOdBcfflOkHz) with power consumption on the order of a few milliwatts with a circuit footprint smaller than 0.6cm2. The temperature stability is found to be better than +/-10ppm/degC from -40degC to +30degC. The oscillators are implemented using low-cost off-the-shelf surface-mountable components, including a micro-coaxial resonator. The VCO directly modulates the current of a laser diode and demonstrates a short-term stability 2-10/radictau Bias of clock. when locked to a miniature Rubidium atomic clock.
Gene expression in Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck following infection with the bacterial pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus causing Huanglongbing in Florida

Huanglongbing (HLB) (= citrus greening) is a destructive disease of citrus which is caused by a fastidious, phloem-inhabiting bacterium of the genus Candidatus Liberibacter. Large-scale analysis of gene expression changes in 'Valencia' orange leaves were studied during the course of 19 weeks after inoculation with Ca. L. asiaticus using the Affymetrix GeneChip 1 citrus genome array to provide new insights into the molecular basis of citrus response to this pathogen. Of the more than 33,000 probe sets on the microarray 21,067 were expressed in the leaves, of which 279 and 515 were differentially expressed (false-discovery rate (FDR) 0.05) 5-9 and 13-17 weeks after inoculation, respectively. Results from semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis performed on 14 selected genes were highly correlated with those observed with the microarray. Gene expression changes involved a variety of different processes including cell defense, transport, cellular organization, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate metabolism. Notable was the pathogen-induced accumulation of transcripts for a phloem-specific lectin PP2-like protein. Transcriptional changes and their relation to disease symptom development are discussed. This is the first study of transcriptional profiling in citrus in response to liberibacter infection using microarray technology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Delivering QoS requirements to traffic with diverse delay tolerances in a TDMA environment

The focus of this paper is on determining the call admission region and scheduling policies for a time-division multiple-access (wireless) system supporting heterogeneous real-time variable bit rate applications with distinct quality of service (QoS) requirements and traffic characteristics. The QoS is defined in terms of a maximum tolerable packet delay and dropping probability. A packet is dropped if it experiences excess delay. The call admission region is established for policies that are work-conserving (WC) and that satisfy the earliest due date (EDD) service criterion (WC-EDD policies). Such policies are known to optimize the overall system performance. In addition to the determination of the call admission region, this study leads also to the construction of scheduling policies that deliver any performance in the region established for WC-EDD policies. Finally, an upper bound on the call admission region that can be achieved under any policy (not limited to the WC-EDD policies) is determined.
Total Humeral Endoprosthetic Replacement following Excision of Malignant Bone Tumors

Humerus is a common site for malignant tumors. Advances in adjuvant therapies and reconstructive methods provide salvage of the upper limb with improved outcomes. Reports of limb salvage with total humeral replacement in extensive humeral tumors are sparse. We undertook a retrospective study of 20 patients who underwent total humeral endoprosthetic replacement as limb salvage following excision of extensile malignant tumor from 1990 to 2011. With an average followup of 42.9, functional and oncological outcomes were analyzed. Ten patients were still alive at the time of review. Mean estimated blood loss was 1131 mL and duration of surgery was 314 minutes. Deep infection was encountered in one patient requiring debridement while mechanical loosening of ulnar component was identified in one patient. Subluxation of prosthetic humeral head was noted in 3 patients. Mean active shoulder abduction was 12.5° and active flexion was 15°. Incompetence of abduction mechanism was the major determinant of poor active functional outcome. Mean elbow flexion was 103.5° with 30.5° flexion contracture in 10 patients with good and useful hand function. Average MSTS score was 71.5%. Total humeral replacement is a reliable treatment option in restoring mechanical stability and reasonable functional results without compromising patient survival, with low complication rate.
Solution-Processed Oxide Films, Devices, and Integrated Circuits

A distinct class of precursor chemistries has been developed for solution-phase deposition of oxide thin films. Rapid liquid-to-solid conversions are facilitated by using high nuclearity species and labile inorganic ligands to promote fast condensation reactions. Consequently, applied deposition strategies differ from conventional sol-gel and surface mediated growth reactions. Select oxide materials have been incorporated in transistor devices and circuits as evidence of thin-film quality and proof of function.
Integrating multidimensional omics data for cancer outcome

In multidimensional cancer omics studies, one subject is profiled on multiple layers of omics activities. In this article, the goal is to integrate multiple types of omics measurements, identify markers, and build a model for cancer outcome. The proposed analysis is achieved in two steps. In the first step, we analyze the regulation among different types of omics measurements, through the construction of linear regulatory modules (LRMs). The LRMs have sound biological basis, and their construction differs from the existing analyses by modeling the regulation of sets of gene expressions (GEs) by sets of regulators. The construction is realized with the assistance of regularized singular value decomposition. In the second step, the proposed cancer outcome model includes the regulated GEs, "residuals" of GEs, and "residuals" of regulators, and we use regularized estimation to select relevant markers. Simulation shows that the proposed method outperforms the alternatives with more accurate marker identification. We analyze the The Cancer Genome Atlas data on cutaneous melanoma and lung adenocarcinoma and obtain meaningful results.
Investigation on Incidence of Pneumoconiosis in A District of Beijing City

[Objective]To analyze the incidence of pneumoconiosis in a district of Beijing City,and provide evidence for developing control measures. [Methods]"Beijing Occupational Diseases Information Management System" and Excel were adopted to statistically analyzed 84 cases of pneumoconiosis diagnosed during May 1,2006-December 31,2010. [Results]The total 84 cases were late-onset pneumoconiosis.Most cases(71.43%) were in transportation system,followed by water environment system(13.10%).The cases of asbestosis ranked first(71.43%),with silicosis(17.86%) followed.The average length of service and age of pneumoconiosis onset were 23.84 years and 69.99 years.With the extending length of service and prolonging age,the number of pneumoconiosis cases increased.With the postponement of diagnosed time,the number of pneumoconiosis cases and the promoting pneumoconiosis cases increased annually.Most pneumoconiosis patients divorced from the dust 11 to 30 years. [Conclusion]The study indicates that cases of late-onset pneumoconiosis will appear in this district,but with the march of time,the number of old workers divorced from the dust 20 to 30 years are reducing,the number of pneumoconiosis cases decreases annually.It suggests to pay close attention to health supervision of old workers divorced from the dust.
Mechanism of action of glucocorticoid-induced immunoglobulin production: II. Requirement for fetal calf serum

Corticosteroids have been reported to stimulate immunoglobulin (Ig) production by otherwise unstimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In this paper we confirm that observation but report the necessity for an additional minor antigenic stimulus. Lymphocytes cultured with HB101, a complete medium not requiring serum supplement, did not increase Ig production after addition of hydrocortisone, but did if small concentrations (1-10%) of fetal calf serum were added. Various antigens such as candida, tetanus, and albumin of different sources could substitute for fetal calf sera in allowing corticosteroids to stimulate Ig production in resting lymphocytes. We conclude that corticosteroids do not stimulate Ig production by lymphocytes de novo; rather, corticosteroids greatly enhance the Ig production stimulated by the foreign antigens present in fetal calf sera.
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MIDDLE CAPILLARY PLEXUS USING OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY IN HEALTHY AND DIABETIC EYES.

Purpose To assess the ability of optical coherence tomography angiography to image the retinal middle capillary plexus (MCP), and to characterize the MCP as a unique vascular network separate from the superficial and deep capillary plexus (DCP). Methods Healthy and diabetic eyes were imaged using the Avanti XR optical coherence tomography angiography instrument (Optovue Inc, Fremont, CA). Using manual segmentation of the retinal layers, the authors generated en face angiograms to distinguish the three capillary plexuses (superficial capillary plexus, MCP, DCP). Results In healthy eyes, arterioles gave rise to distinct branches in the MCP, and venules gave rise to prominent vortex like branches in the DCP. The foveal avascular zone was most well-defined at the level of the MCP, and had a larger area in the DCP. In diabetic eyes, the three capillary plexuses showed varying degrees of nonperfusion, including variable shapes and extent of the foveal avascular zone, with loss of border integrity at the MCP. Microaneurysms appeared in all the three capillary plexuses. Conclusion Using customized segmentation analysis in optical coherence tomography angiography, the authors demonstrate that the MCP is qualitatively and functionally distinct from the superficial capillary plexus and DCP, which may help clarify the pathogenesis of different middle retinal ischemic entities and provide new insights into retinal ischemia in diabetic retinopathy.
Shepherd: sharing energy for privacy preserving in hybrid AC-DC microgrids

Renewable energy becomes increasingly popular due to its zero carbon dioxide emissions and increasing energy demand. To better utilize renewable energy, hybrid Alternative Current (AC)-Direct Current (DC) microgrids have been proposed because the most common renewable energy that can be harvested in residential homes is solar energy, which provides DC power. However, a major issue in a hybrid AC-DC microgrid is privacy leakage because power consumption information of each home can be exposed through the power lines or compromised neighbors in the microgrid. Power consumption data then can be used to reveal precise information about appliances' activities with non-intrusive load monitoring algorithms. To mitigate leakage of human behaviors in homes, battery-based load hiding (BLH) is widely studied. In this approach, a battery is used to store and supply energy to appliances to hide the actual power consumption. However, BLH requires to deploy large and expensive batteries at each home. In this paper, instead of using batteries, we propose to leverage the unique features of hybrid AC-DC microgrids to hide power consumption information. Specifically, we design Shepherd, a privacy protection framework to hide power consumption information from different types of power consumption detection techniques. To minimize energy transmission among neighboring homes, we provide an optimal offline solution and an efficient heuristic online solution. We conducted extensive system evaluations with 40 homes. Results indicate that our proposed approach can i) significantly reduce the detection ratio from 33% to 13% compared to BLH, and ii) effectively hide consumption information even with 25% compromised neighbors.
A platform for finding attacks in unmodified implementations of intrusion tolerant systems

We present Turret, a platform for automatically find- ing performance attacks in unmodified implementations of intrusion tolerant systems. In performance attacks, malicious nodes deviate from the protocol when sending or creating messages, with the goal of degrading system performance. Turret assumes that the user provides the intrusion tolerant system binary, the format of messages sent by the system, and the metrics that measure its per- formance. Our platform leverages virtualization to run the user-specified operating system and intrusion tolerant system binary and uses a well-known network emulator to tunnel the network traffic. We ran Turret on 5 systems and found 29 performance attacks, 23 of which were not previously reported to the best of our knowledge. Turret was able to find these attacks in a matter of hours.
Injection Locking Broadly Tunable, Q-Switched Alexandrite Lasers Using Semiconductor Laser Diodes

We have shown that the frequency of a broadly tunable, high-power, alexandrite laser can be critically controlled by injection from a 1 μW single frequency cw laser diode. The physics, tuning, and performance of this laser system are described.
On alternating quantum walks

Abstract We study an inhomogeneous quantum walk on a line that evolves according to alternating coins, each a rotation matrix. For the quantum walk with the coin alternating between clockwise and counterclockwise rotations by the same angle, we derive a closed form solution for the propagation of probabilities, and provide its asymptotic approximation via the method of stationary phase. Finally, we observe that for a π 4 angle, this alternating rotation walk will replicate the renown Hadamard walk.
Abstract 457: Depletion of glioma infiltrating myeloid derived suppressor cells promotes anti-tumor T cell responses

MDSCs represent a population of immature myeloid cells at various stages of differentiation that have the potential to inhibit anti-tumor T cell immunity. We demonstrate the accumulation of MDSCs in GL26 and M7-induced glioma (GBM) bearing mice. Absolute numbers of Ly-6G+ (Gr-1high) MDSCs showed a 200 fold increase within the tumor microenvironment (TME) 28 days post-tumor implantation. The numbers of Ly-6C+ (Gr-1low) MDSCs also showed a similar trend within the TME. While this massive influx of MDSCs was noted within intracranial tumors, MDSC levels did not increase in the dLNs, spleen or bone marrow (BM) of intracranial tumor bearing mice. MDSC numbers were significantly elevated in the blood of GL26 and M7 intracranial tumor bearing mice at 28 days. While both Gr-1high and Gr-1low MDSCs isolated from the TME of GL26 intracranial tumor bearing mice inhibited antigen-specific T cell proliferation, Gr-1low MDSC were found to be more efficient. Gr-1high or Gr-1low MDSCs from the bone marrow of intracranial tumor bearing mice failed to suppress antigen-specific T cell proliferation suggesting that TME derived factors may activate MDSCs to exert their immune-suppressive properties. In vivo, depletion of Gr-1+ cells enhanced the median survival of GBM bearing mice. Furthermore, when combined with Ad-TK + Ad-FLT3L immune-gene therapy, Gr-1+ depletion significantly enhanced the frequency of tumor-specific T cells within the TME and spleen and increased IFN-γ production by splenic T cells. Our data therefore indicates that inhibiting the accumulation of MDSCs with in the GBM TME promotes the generation of robust anti-tumor immunity. Preliminary experiments to determine the mechanism of MDSC trafficking to the TME point towards the receptor CXCR2 and its ligand CXCL1. Microarray analysis of glioma cell lines showed elevated levels of CXCL1 mRNA. Additionally a culture of primary mixed glial cells also produced CXCL1 when stimulated with GBM cell lysates. SB225002, a CXCR2 inhibitor suppressed the migration of MDSCs towards GBM cells in an in vitro migration assay. Overall, our data suggests that strategies that inhibit MDSC recruitment to the GBM TME and/or block their activity could enhance the T cell mediated tumor clearance and provide survival benefit. Work supported by grants from NIH-NINDS Citation Format: Neha Kamran, Youping Li, Mariela Moreno-Ayala, Hikmat Assi, Marianela Candolfi, Marta Dzaman, Pedro Lowenstein, Maria Castro. Depletion of glioma infiltrating myeloid derived suppressor cells promotes anti-tumor T cell responses. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 457. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-457
Microbial players and processes involved in phytoplankton bloom utilization in the water column of a fast-flowing, river-dominated estuary.

Fueled by seasonal phytoplankton blooms, the Columbia River estuary is a natural bioreactor for organic matter transformations. Prior metagenome analyses indicated high abundances of diverse Bacteroidetes taxa in estuarine samples containing phytoplankton. To examine the hypothesis that Bacteroidetes taxa have important roles in phytoplankton turnover, we further analyzed metagenomes from water collected along a salinity gradient at 0, 5, 15, 25, and 33 PSU during bloom events. Size fractions were obtained by using a 3-μm prefilter and 0.2-μm collection filter. Although this approach targeted bacteria by removing comparatively large eukaryotic cells, the metagenome from the ES-5 sample (5 PSU) nevertheless contained an abundance of diatom DNA. Biogeochemical measurements and prior studies indicated that this finding resulted from the leakage of cellular material due to freshwater diatom lysis at low salinity. Relative to the other metagenomes, the bacterial fraction of ES-5 was dramatically depleted of genes annotated as Bacteroidetes and lysogenic bacteriophages, but was overrepresented in DNA of protists and Myxococcales bacterivores. We suggest the following equally plausible scenarios for the microbial response to phytoplankton lysis: (1) Bacteroidetes depletion in the free-living fraction may at least in part be caused by their attachment to fluvial diatoms as the latter are lysed upon contact with low-salinity estuarine waters; (2) diatom particle colonization is likely followed by rapid bacterial growth and lytic phage infection, resulting in depletion of lysogenic bacteriophages and host bacteria; and (3) the subsequent availability of labile organic matter attracted both grazers and predators to feed in this estuarine biogeochemical "hotspot," which may have additionally depleted Bacteroidetes populations. These results represent the first detailed molecular analysis of the microbial response to phytoplankton lysis at the freshwater-brackish water interface in the fast-flowing Columbia River estuary.
Design and development of a prototype platform for gait analysis

The field of event classification and localization in building environments using accelerometers has grown significantly due to its implications for energy, security, and emergency protocols. Virginia Tech’s Goodwin Hall (VT-GH) provides a robust testbed for such work, but a reduced scale testbed could provide significant benefits by allowing algorithm development to occur in a simplified environment. Environments such as VT-GH have high human traffic that contributes external noise disrupting test signals. This paper presents a design solution through the development of an isolated platform for data collection, portable demonstrations, and the development of localization and classification algorithms. The platform’s success was quantified by the resulting transmissibility of external excitation sources, demonstrating the capabilities of the platform to isolate external disturbances while preserving gait information. This platform demonstrates the collection of high-quality gait information in otherwise noisy environments for data collection or demonstration purposes.
Low n-rank tensor log-linear models for classification

Despite the wide array of powerful classification techniques available, simple linear and quadratic models remain important tools in a researcher's toolkit, particularly for problems with relatively little training data. This paper introduces a classification model that allows careful control of model complexity, allowing intermediate levels of expressiveness between linear and quadratic models. Our model is parameterized by a third order tensor that multilinearly maps from input to output. By controlling the n-rank of this weight tensor, we are able to control the complexity of our model and therefore strike a suitable balance between bias and variance. Two variants of our model are proposed. The first induces the low n-rank structure in the weight tensor via tensor nuclear norm regularization, yielding a convex training procedure. The second explicitly constrains the n-rank by parameterizing the tensor in terms of its Tucker decomposition. Experiments are conducted on four standard classification tasks, chosen to offer a variety of training set sizes, feature dimensionality and number of classes. We find that that the second model variant matches or outperforms each of three baselines (majority class, linear classifier, quadratic classifier) on all four tasks: it decreases relative classification error by as much as 15.0% over a linear classifier, 31.6% over a quadratic classifier and 28.9% over the majority class baseline. We also show that despite the non-convexity in training the second variant, it consistently outperforms the first.