cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
DNA Barcoding to Identify All Life Stages of Holocyclic Cereal Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on Wheat and Other Poaceae

ABSTRACT The cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of the mitochondrial DNA was sequenced in eight holocyclic monoecious aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) that occur on wheat, Triticum aestivum L.; barley, Hordeum vulgare L.; oat, Avena sativa L.; and sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench in the United States. The first 640 bp of the 5′ end were considered as a DNA barcoding technique for species identification. DNA barcoding successfully differentiated Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), Diruaphis noxia (Kurdjumov), Diruaphis tritici (Gillette), Diruaphis frequens (Walker), Diruaphis mexicana (McVicar Baker), Sipha flava (Forbes), Sipha elegans del Guercio, and Sitobion avenae (F.). In addition to the above-mentioned monoecious species, the common cereal aphids Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) and Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) were included and successfully differentiated. DNA barcoding is a reliable alternative to traditional morphology in the identification of cereal aphids and their various life stages and morphs, in...
Clostridium difficile: clinical disease and diagnosis.

Clostridium difficile is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a spectrum of disease ranging from antibiotic-associated diarrhea to pseudomembranous colitis. Although the disease was first described in 1893, the etiologic agent was not isolated and identified until 1978. Since clinical and pathological features of C. difficile-associated disease are not easily distinguished from those of other gastrointestinal diseases, including ulcerative colitis, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, and Crohn9s disease, diagnostic methods have relied on either isolation and identification of the microorganism or direct detection of bacterial antigens or toxins in stool specimens. The current review focuses on the sensitivity, specificity, and practical use of several diagnostic tests, including methods for culture of the etiologic agent, cellular cytotoxicity assays, latex agglutination tests, enzyme immunoassay systems, counterimmunoelectrophoresis, fluorescent-antibody assays, and polymerase chain reactions.
Trace and Delay Eyeblink Conditioning: Contrasting Phenomena of Declarative and Nondeclarative Memory

We tested the proposal that trace and delay eyeblink conditioning aref fundamentally different kinds of learning. Strings of one, two, three, or four trials with the conditioned stimulus (CS) alone and strings of one, two, three, or four trials with paired presentations of both the CS and the unconditioned stimulus (US) occurred in such a way that the probability of a US was independent of string length. Before each trial, participants predicted the likelihood of the US on the next trial. During both delay (n = 20) and trace (n = 18) conditioning, participants exhibited high expectation of the US following strings of CS-alone trials and low expectation of the US following strings of CS-US trials--a phenomenon known as the gambler's fallacy. During delay conditioning, conditioned responses (CRs) were not influenced by expectancy but by the associative strength of the CS and US. Thus, CR probability was high following a string of CS-US trials and low following a string of CS-alone trials. The results for trace conditioning were opposite. CR probability was high when expectancy of the US was high and low when expectancy of the US was low: The results show that trace and delay eyeblink conditioning are fundamentally different phenomena. We consider how the findings can be understood in terms of the declarative and nondeclarative memory systems that support eyeblink classical conditioning.
Regulation of microRNA-375 by cAMP in Pancreatic β-Cells

MicroRNA-375 (miR-375) is necessary for proper formation of pancreatic islets in vertebrates and is necessary for the development of β-cells in mice, but regulation of miR-375 in these cells is poorly understood. Here, we show that miR-375 is transcriptionally repressed by the cAMP-protein kinase A (PKA) pathway and that this repression is mediated through a block in RNA polymerase II binding to the miR-375 promoter. cAMP analogs that are PKA selective repress miR-375, as do cAMP agonists and the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, exendin-4. Repression of the miR-375 precursor occurs rapidly in rat insulinoma INS-1 832/13 cells, within 15 min after cAMP stimulation, although the mature microRNA declines more slowly due to the kinetics of RNA processing. Repression of miR-375 in isolated rat islets by exendin-4 also occurs slowly, after several hours of stimulation. Glucose is another reported antagonist of miR-375 expression, although we demonstrate here that glucose does not target the microRNA through the PKA pathway. As reported previously, miR-375 negatively regulates insulin secretion, and attenuation of miR-375 through the cAMP-PKA pathway may boost the insulin response in pancreatic β-cells.
Graphene oxide-integrated high-temperature durable fluoroelastomer for petroleum oil sealing

Abstract Two-dimensional one-atom thick graphene inspires intensive studies due to its great potentials in enhancing polymer’s mechanical, gas/liquid barrier, and thermal properties. However, its poor dispersion within highly viscous rubber elastomers by conventional mill mixing posed significant technical challenges and hindered its vast applications. In this paper, graphene oxide (GO) enhanced fluoroelastomer (FKM) was solution-processed to enhance the mechanical and liquid barrier properties of FKM for the first time. Due to the chemical bonding, the GO/FKM performed 1.5-fold increment tensile strength compared with pure FKM and 1.2-fold increment tensile strength compared with Reduced Graphene Oxide/FKM at 150 °C. The reduced permeability of GO/FKM to organic solvent (such as methyl ethyl ketone) indicated the improved liquid barrier properties. This research provides a cost-effective solution process to efficiently enhance the thermal mechanical and liquid barrier properties of FKM with the addition of GO sheets through excellent dispersion techniques and strong GO-matrix bonding.
Narcissism, Confidence, and Risk Attitude

The present research addresses whether narcissists are more overconfident than others and whether this overconfidence leads to deficits in decision making. In Study 1, narcissism predicted overconfidence. This was attributable to narcissists’ greater confidence despite no greater accuracy. In Study 2, participants were offered fair bets on their answers. Narcissists lost significantly more points in this betting task than nonnarcissists, due both to their greater overconfidence and greater willingness to bet. Finally, in Study 3, narcissists’ predictions of future performance were based on performance expectations rather than actual performance. This research extends the literature on betting on knowledge to the important personality dimension of narcissism. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An FCCP-sensitive Ca2+ store in bullfrog sympathetic neurons and its participation in stimulus-evoked changes in [Ca2+]i

This study describes a Ca2+ store in fura-2-loaded bullfrog sympathetic neurons that modulates [Ca2+]i responses elicited by either depolarization or Ca2+ release from a caffeine- and ryanodine-sensitive store. This store is insensitive to caffeine and ryanodine, but is sensitive to the protonophore carbonyl cyanide p- trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP). The FCCP-sensitive store slows both the rise in [Ca2+]i during stimulation (apparently by accumulating Ca2+ from the cytosol) and the recovery following stimulation (by releasing the accumulated Ca2+ into the cytosol). For a fixed level of depolarization, recovery is slowed to an extent that depends on stimulus duration. [Ca2+]i imaging shows that these effects are prominent in the soma but not in growth cones. Ca2+ uptake by the FCCP- sensitive store appears to be strongly [Ca2+]i dependent, since it becomes influential only when [Ca2+]i approaches approximately 500 nM. Therefore, this store may specifically influence [Ca2+]i during moderate and strong stimulation. The effect of the store on responses to depolarization can be accounted for by a simple three-compartment scheme consisting of the extracellular medium, the cytosol, and a single internal store with a [Ca2+]i-dependent uptake mechanism resembling the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter. The store9s effect on responses to caffeine-induced Ca2+ release can be accounted for by including a second internal compartment to represent the caffeine- sensitive store. While the identity of the FCCP-sensitive store is unknown, its sensitivity to FCCP is consistent with a mitochondrial pool. It is suggested that by modulating the temporal properties of [Ca2+]i following stimulation, the FCCP-sensitive store may influence the degree of activation of intracellular [Ca2+]i-dependent processes.
Presumptions: 350 years of confusion and it has come to this

The title of this article — Presumptions: 350 Years of Confusion and It Has come to This — is pretty much self-explanatory. The article begins with “ the bottom line on presumptions. They are inextricably confused devices used to move burdens from one party to another and to allow judges to comment on the value of evidence.” Seventy years ago Judge Learned Hand said this about the law of presumptions: “Judges have mixed it up until nobody can tell what on earth it means and the important thing is to get something which is workable and which can be understood and I don’t much care what it is.” Scholars, judges, and legislatures “have written much and clarified little. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that lawyers and judges toss the word around carelessly to apply to many different things unrelated to true presumptions. There are presumptions in the Black’s Law Dictionary sense and presumptions in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary sense. There are simple legally-permissible inferences, often incorrectly labeled presumptions, and rules of law, often incorrectly labeled “irrebutable presumptions.” And there is the sense, pointed out by Professor Ron Allen, in which there really “is no such thing as a presumption.” This article is about the confusion and it attempts to bring clarity to the issue of the presumption as a rule of evidence and a procedural convenience.
Hydrated alkali metal ions: spectroscopic evidence for clathrates.

The origin of enhanced abundances for some hydrated alkali metal ions, M+(H2O)n, where M = Cs, Rb, K, Na, and Li with between 17 and 21 water molecules attached was investigated with infrared photo...
Women Writing for Other Women in Colombia’s Current Armed Conflict

In her article "Women Writing for Other Women in Colombia's Armed Conflict" Maria Mercedes Andrade compares Patricia Lara's Las mujeres en la guerra (2000) and Patricia Tovar's Las viudas del conflicto armado en Colombia: Memorias y relatos (2006). Andrade's objective is to compare how these texts of testimonios deal with the question of representing women's experience and of turning oral testimonies into writing. Lara, writing for a popular audience, edits her material in order to make it more literary and mixes fictional accounts with the testimonios she collects. In contrast, Tovar writes for an academic public and reflects about the implications of the editorial process in ways that signal the oral character of the original material. In spite of their differences, Andrade argues that both texts are valuable attempts to represent the experiences of Colombian
Examining older adult's perceptions of health care providers: Identifying important aspects of older adults' relationships with physicians and nurses

This article describes older adults' conversations about their relationships with health care providers. Focus group participants (N = 23) were from three ethnic groups (Black, White, and Hispanic) and ages 53 to 92. All but three of the participants were women. Content analysis revealed an overarching theme of genuine caring and three sub-themes: interest in patients' well-being, respectful dialogue, and sharing of information. Older adults' perceptions of genuine caring by physicians and nurses did not differ by ethnicity. Older adults want to engage in a caring, respectful, and educational relationship with their health care providers, which is consistent with fundamental professional values.
Relevant Alternatives in Epistemology and Logic

The goal of the current paper is to provide an introduction to and survey of the diverse landscape of relevant alternatives theories of knowledge. Emphasis is placed throughout both on the abstractness of the relevant alternatives approach and its amenability to formalization through logical techniques. We present some of the important motivations for adopting the relevant alternatives approach; briefly explore the connections and contrasts between the relevant alternatives approach and related developments in logic, epistemology and philosophy of science; provide a schema for classifying and studying relevant alternatives theories at different levels of abstraction; and present a sample of relevant alternatives theories (contrasting what we call question-first and topic-first theories) that tie our discussion to ongoing debates in the philosophical literature, as well as showcasing techniques for formalizing some of the important positions in these debates.
Roles of COMT , NPY and GCH1 in acute and chronic pain/stress response

Pain is a pervasive stressor often experienced chronically, and strongly modulated by the brain’s emotional circuitry. In recent years functional polymorphisms at several genes have been linked to pain response, encouraging the idea that both pain response and other aspects of emotionality can be better understood by genetic studies of acute and chronic pain, as illustrated by studies performed with several genes, two of which also alter anxiety and emotional responses. The functional COMT Val158Met locus, which had been tied to frontal cognitive function, trait anxiety and brain metabolic responses to emotional stimuli, was linked to the ability of acute pain to release endomorphin and displace 11C carfentanil binding following a pain challenge [1]. The anxiety-associated Met158 allele predicts both lower pain threshold and stronger affective response to pain. This finding was replicated in a large sample of women prospectively followed or temporomandibular joint pain and measured for experimental pain (Diatchenko et al). These investigators later showed that the COMT haplotype linkage is better understood via the epistatic interaction of alleles to alter translatability of COMT mRNA. GTP cyclohydrolase (GCH1) represents a second gene influencing pain (Tegeder et al, Nat Neuroscience). The gene was identified as a candidate via array expression in the rat neurotomy model. In humans, a functional haplotype predicting GCH1 mRNA expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines. Consistent with the rat data, the high expression diplotype was linked to both clinical post lumbar surgery leg pain and to experimental pain in a large population of controls. Continuing the theme that genes that alter emotion can also alter pain responses, a functional polymorphism in the NPY (neuropeptide Y) propmoter alters both amygdala and hippocampal emotional responses as well as predicting 11C carfentanil displacement after a pain challenge [2].
Intraperitoneal immunotherapy: historical perspectives and modern therapy

Intraperitoneal immunotherapy represents a novel strategy for the management of peritoneal metastases (PM). Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has remained the gold standard of treatment for patients with PM, yet despite optimal treatment, recurrence rates remain high and long-term survival poor. From Coley's toxins to immune checkpoint inhibitors, the wide variety of anticancer immunotherapeutic strategies are now garnering attention for control of regional disease of the peritoneal cavity. Early studies with vaccine-based therapies, adoptive cell transfer, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and chimeric T cells with tumor-specific antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) are being performed, showing promise for control of peritoneal spread and induction of lasting anticancer immunity. In addition, catumaxomab, a trifunctional antibody, has been approved for intraperitoneal immunotherapy in Europe for the control of malignant ascites in patients with epithelial cell adhesion molecule positive cancers. We review a brief history of immunotherapy and current modalities under investigation for intraperitoneal use in the treatment of PM.
Molecular Pathways: Understanding and Targeting Mutant Spliceosomal Proteins

Splicing of precursor messenger RNA is a critical step in regulating gene expression, and major advances are being made in understanding the composition and structure of the enzymatic complex that performs splicing, which is termed the "spliceosome." In parallel, there has been increased appreciation for diverse mechanisms by which alterations in splicing contribute to cancer pathogenesis. Key among these include change-of-function mutations in genes encoding spliceosomal proteins. Such mutations are among the most common genetic alterations in myeloid and lymphoid leukemias, making efforts to therapeutically target cells bearing these mutations critical. To this end, recent studies have clarified that pharmacologic modulation of splicing may be preferentially lethal for cells bearing spliceosomal mutations and may also have a role in the therapy of MYC-driven cancers. This has culminated in the initiation of a clinical trial of a novel oral spliceosome modulatory compound targeting the SF3B complex, and several novel alternative approaches to target splicing are in development as reviewed here. There is now, therefore, a great need to understand the mechanistic basis of altered spliceosomal function in cancers and to study the effects of spliceosomal modulatory compounds in preclinical settings and in well-designed clinical trials. Clin Cancer Res; 23(2); 336-41. ©2016 AACR.
High Percentage of Isomeric Human MicroRNA and Their Analytical Challenges

MicroRNA (miR) are short non-coding RNAs known to post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, and have been reported as biomarkers for various diseases. miR have also been served as potential drug targets. The identity, functions and detection of a specific miR are determined by its RNA sequence, whose composition is made up of only 4 canonical ribonucleotides. Hence, among over two thousand human miR, their nucleotide compositions are expected to be similar but the extent of similarity has not been reported. In this study, the sequences of mature human miR were downloaded from miRBase, and collated using different tools to determine and compare their nucleotide compositions and sequences. 55% of all human miR were found to be structural isomers. The structural isomers of miR (SimiR) are defined as having the same size and identical nucleotide composition. A number of SimiR were also found to have high sequence similarities. To investigate the extent of SimiR in biological samples, three disease models were chosen, and disease-associated miR were identified from miR2Disease. Among the disease models, as high as 73% of miR were found to be SimiR. This report provides the missing information about human miR and highlights the challenges on the detection of SimiR.
Non-tuberculous mycobacterial bloodstream infections in patients with indwelling vascular catheters - the role of sickle cell anaemia.

AbstractIntroduction: Few studies have examined risk factors for nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) bloodstream infections (BSI) involving indwelling vascular catheters (IDVC). Sickle cell anaemia (HbSS/SC) is known to affect several aspects of the immune system leading to relative immune deficiency. The purpose of this retrospective nested case-control study was to determine if HbSS/SC is a risk factor for NTM BSI among individuals with IDVCs.Methods: All NTM IDVC infections (cases) at two tertiary hospitals from 2008 to 2014 were reviewed. Cases were matched 2:1 with controls who had IDVC infections due to organisms other than NTM. Matching criteria included age within 10 years and IDVC infection within three months of index case. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for IDVC infection due to NTM.Results: Nineteen NTM BSIs were identified. Three cases were excluded because they did not have IDVCs at the time their BSI was identified. Sixteen cases of NTM IDVC infection were matched to 32...
Determining Rate Constants and Mechanisms for Sequential Reactions of Fe+ with Ozone at 500 K.

We present rate constants and product branching ratios for the reactions of FeOx+ (x = 0–4) with ozone at 500 K. Fe+ is observed to react with ozone at the collision rate to produce FeO+ + O2. The FeO+ in turn reacts with ozone at the collision rate to yield both Fe+ and FeO2+ product channels. Ions up to FeO4+ display similar reactivity patterns. Three-body clustering reactions with O2 prevent us from measuring accurate rate constants at 300 K although the data do suggest that the efficiency is also high. Therefore, it is probable that little to no temperature dependence exists over this range. Implications of our measurements to the regulation of atmospheric iron and ozone are discussed. Density functional calculations on the reaction of Fe+ with ozone show no substantial kinetic barriers to make the FeO+ + O2 product channel, which is consistent with the reaction’s efficiency. While a pathway to make FeO2+ + O is also found to be barrierless, our experiments indicate no primary FeO2+ formation for this...
Automatic generation of programs containing conditional statements

An experimental system for automatically generating certain simple kinds of programs is described. The programs constructed are expressed in a subset of ALGOL containing assignments, function calls, conditional statements, while loops, and non-recursive procedure calls. The system has been used to generate programs for symbolic manipulation, robot control, every day planning, and computing arithmetical functions. This system has previously been described in [Buchanan and Luckham 1974]. The present report focuses on the generation of conditional statements and describes applications to mechanical assembly and symbolic manipulation problems.
Graduate School as a Site of Remembrance: Educación for Resistance for Bilingual Teachers

This article is framed by the notion of educacion and how it influenced the narratives of resistance of 12 seasoned bilingual teachers (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002). Using an oral narrative approach, we share participants’ descriptions of the connections between their educacion within their families and communities and how this educacion has helped them navigate, resist, and even “play the game” (Urrieta, 2009) during their educational K-16 trajectories, and in their interactions with colleagues, parents, and children as seasoned bilingual teachers.
Seasonal variability of evapotranspiration and carbon exchanges over a biomass sorghum field in the Southern U.S. Great Plains

Abstract The eddy covariance method was used to investigate carbon fluxes and evapotranspiration (ET) from a high biomass forage sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L.) field in the Southern U.S. Great Plains for three growing seasons (2013–2015). Above normal precipitation and narrow row spacing (50 cm) led to higher biomass production (25 Mg ha −1 ) and leaf area index (LAI = 7.2) development in 2014. This also resulted in higher carbon uptake or net ecosystem production (NEP) and ET during that year. Early and late season precipitation enhanced ecosystem respiration (R eco ) resulting in lower NEP in 2015. Shorter growing season (119 days) also contributed to lower cumulative NEP in 2015. Estimated gross primary production (GPP) in 2014 (1780 g m −2 ) was 10% higher than the GPP in 2013 (1591 g m −2 ) and 24% higher than the GPP in 2015 (1353 g m −2 ). During all growing seasons, the site was a source of carbon (negative NEP) at the beginning and transitioned to a sink (positive NEP) later in the season. Biomass-GPP relationship indicated that approximately 65% of total GPP was allocated to above ground biomass (AGB). Average monthly ecosystem WUE (expressed as gross carbon gain per unit of ET) ranged from 1.7 g mm −1 to 4.2 g mm −1 . Results from our study indicate that weather conditions, growing season length and crop management are important factors in determining the magnitude of carbon uptake and release, and ET of this cellulosic biofuel feedstock crop in the Southern U.S. Great Plains.
Duplex-Guided Angioplasty of Failing or Nonmaturing Arteriovenous Access:

ObjectivePatients not yet on dialysis with nonmaturing arterio-venous (AV) accesses present a therapeutic problem. Because the standard treatment with balloon angioplasty requires nephrotoxic contr...
Deep Spiking Convolutional Neural Network Trained With Unsupervised Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) have emerged as a promising brain inspired neuromorphic-computing paradigm for cognitive system design due to their inherent event-driven processing capability. The fully connected (FC) shallow SNNs typically used for pattern recognition require large number of trainable parameters to achieve competitive classification accuracy. In this paper, we propose a deep spiking convolutional neural network (SpiCNN) composed of a hierarchy of stacked convolutional layers followed by a spatial-pooling layer and a final FC layer. The network is populated with biologically plausible leaky-integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons interconnected by shared synaptic weight kernels. We train convolutional kernels layer-by-layer in an unsupervised manner using spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) that enables them to self-learn characteristic features making up the input patterns. In order to further improve the feature learning efficiency, we propose using smaller $3\boldsymbol \times 3$ kernels trained using STDP-based synaptic weight updates performed over a mini-batch of input patterns. Our deep SpiCNN, consisting of two convolutional layers trained using the unsupervised convolutional STDP learning methodology, achieved classification accuracies of 91.1% and 97.6%, respectively, for inferring handwritten digits from the MNIST data set and a subset of natural images from the Caltech data set.
SPOT-007 Identifying novel combinatorial synthetic lethal vulnerabilities in KRAS-driven lung cancer

Introduction KRAS is one of the most frequently mutated genes in human cancer, but the efforts to target KRAS directly have thus far been unsuccessful, highlighting the need for alternative approaches. One promising strategy is to target KRAS through synthetic lethality. However, KRAS activates multiple effector pathways, suggesting that targeting one gene may not be sufficient to fully inhibit KRAS-driven oncogenesis. Therefore, targeting combinations of genes that together are synthetic lethal with KRAS may constitute a better therapeutic approach. Material and methods To discover novel combinatorial KRAS synthetic lethal genes, we used affinity purification/mass spectrometry (AP/MS), to systematically identify KRAS interacting proteins and construct a detailed map of protein-protein interactions centred on KRAS. Based on this network we designed a CRISPR library targeting pairwise combinations of KRAS-interacting genes. Using this library we simultaneously knocked-out pairs of 119 genes in two KRAS-driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines expressing Cas9. Knock-out of several gene pairs synergistically impaired growth of these cells, while the knock-out of each of the genes alone had no or little effect. We chose 20 most promising targets for further screening in vitro and in vivo in a panel of 5 KRAS mutant and 4 wild type NSCLC cell lines. We also selected six gene pairs that had the most synergistic effect on growth for individual validation in Cas9-expressing NSCLC cells and normal human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs). The cells were cultured in 3D, which was shown to more faithfully recapitulate important aspects of cancer biology than cells grown as monolayers. Results and discussions Out of the six gene combinations, the simultaneous knock-out of one pair of genes, Rap1GDS1 and RhoA, selectively impaired sphere growth of KRAS-dependent lung cancer cells but had little effect on the growth of KRAS-independent cells or HBECs. Moreover the individual knock-out of these genes had no effect on 3D growth in any of the cell lines, suggesting that only the combination of these two genes is synthetically lethal with KRAS. We are now performing further validation in vivo . Finally, human relevance will be determined using patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Conclusion Combinatorial inhibition of Rap1GDS1 and RhoA appears to be synthetically lethal with mutated KRAS and therefore these genes may constitute attractive drug targets for the treatment of KRAS-dependent NSCLC and other KRAS-driven cancers.
SPARK: an artificial intelligence constraint network system for concurrent engineering

Abstract This paper presents a new approach to Concurrent Engineering, namely the use of Artificial Intelligence Constraint Networks to advise the designer on improvements that can be made to the design from the perspective of the product's life cycle. The difficulties associated with performing Concurrent Engineering are reviewed, and the various approaches to Concurrent Engineering are discussed. The requirements for a system to support Concurrent Engineering are indicated. An overview of constraint networks is given and this leads into a description of SPARK, an Artificial Intelligence Constraint Networks system for Concurrent Engineering. The operation of SPARK is illustrated by considering an example application of printed wiring board manufacture. The advantages of SPARK include being flexible enough to allow the designer to approach a problem from a variety of viewpoints, allowing the designer to design despite having incomplete information, and being able to handle the wide variety of life cycle information requirements.
Evaluating Gender Bias in Ratings of University Instructors’ Teaching Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender bias in student ratings of effective teaching. Students in five colleges were invited to rate instructors on three factors: inte rpersonal characteristics, pedagogical characteristics, and course content characteristics. We analyzed group differences based on student gender, instructor gender, and student level. Ratings of pedagogical characteristics and course content characteristics yielded significant interactions between student gender and instructor gender, but no differences were found among groups on interpersonal characteristics. We concluded that gender bias plays a role in students’ views of effective teaching in terms of how students evaluate pedagog ical and content characteristics and that this bias generalizes across student levels.
Quantum Chemistry. Theory of Geometries and Energies of Small Molecules

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in quantitative attempts to predict molecular structures and stabilities by purely theoretical quantum mechanical techniques. For the most part, such attempts have been based on molecular orbital techniques at various levels of approximation. In this paper, the current status of such theories for geometries and energies of small organic molecules will be reviewed.
Hyperspectral wide-field time domain single-pixel diffuse optical tomography platform

We present the design and comprehensive instrumental characterization of a time domain diffuse optical tomography (TD-DOT) platform based on wide-field illumination and wide-field hyperspectral time-resolved single-pixel detection for functional and molecular imaging in turbid media. The proposed platform combines two digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs) to generate structured light and a spectrally resolved multi-anode photomultiplier tube (PMT) detector in time domain for hyperspectral data acquisition over 16 wavelength channels based on the time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) technique. The design of the proposed platform is described in detail and its characteristics in spatial, temporal and spectral dimensions are calibrated and presented. The performance of the system is further validated through a phantom study where two absorbers in glass tubes with spectral contrast are mapped in a turbid medium of ~20 mm thickness. The method presented here offers the potential of accelerating the imaging process and improving reconstruction results in TD-DOT and thus facilitates its wide spread use in preclinical and clinical in vivo imaging scenarios.
Regular division closed lattice-ordered rings

AbstractWe provide an example of a regular division closed commutative lattice-ordered ring with identity element that is not an almost f-ring. It is also pointed out that regular division closed c...
Long-term Immunotoxic Effects of Oral Prenatal and Neonatal Atrazine Exposure.

Atrazine and its metabolites are present at high concentrations in many water supplies in agro-intensive areas. Because residents in these areas drink water from sources fed from these contaminated supplies, we investigated the long-term immunotoxicity of combined prenatal and neonatal (perinatal) exposure to atrazine via drinking water, on the immune system in mice. At 6 months of age, upon immunization with heat-killed Streptococcus pneumoniae, the serum IgG antibody response against the T independent antigen phosphorylcholine was significantly higher in male, but not female, atrazine-exposed mice as compared with that in untreated controls. No alterations were present in all offspring in the serum antibody response against the T-dependent antigen pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA). ELISpot analysis showed only a small, insignificant reduction in PspA-specific IgG producing splenocytes in atrazine-treated male offspring. Interestingly, upon ex vivo stimulation with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies, significant decreases in interleukin (IL)-2, tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, and IL-17A and a decreasing trend in IL-10 were observed in splenocytes from atrazine-exposed male, but not female mice. Analysis of thymic and splenic cell populations showed no effects of atrazine exposure in either sex. This is the first time that long-term changes in the immune response were observed after a perinatal exposure to atrazine and it demonstrates that these early life exposures can result in permanent changes to the immune system as well as a male bias in these effects.
Complexation of High-Valency Mid-Actinides by a Lipophilic Schiff Base Ligand: Synthesis, Structural Characterization, and Progress toward Selective Extraction

Separation of U, Np, and Pu from used nuclear fuel (UNF) would result in lower long-term radiotoxicity, alleviating constraints on the storage and handling of the material. The complexity of UNF requires several industrial-scale processes with multiple waste streams. A one-step solution to the group removal of the elements, U-Pu, is desirable. Here we present a possible solution to group actinide separation utilizing the unique dioxy conformation of An(V/VI) cations and demonstrate the ability of a tetradentate lipophilic Schiff base ligand (L) to yield isostructural complexes of the general formula [(AnVIO2)(L)(CH3CN)] (where An = U, Np, or Pu). Extraction of An(VI) with the ligand follows the order U > Pu > Np, likely reflecting the decreased stability of the hexavalent actinide across the series. While the results indicate a promising path toward a one-step process, further improvement in the ligand stability and control of the redox chemistry is required.
Dramatic polarization in genitourinary expert opinions regarding the clinical utility of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in prostate cancer.

ABSTRACT Objectives: To ascertain the opinions of North American genitourinary (GU) experts regarding inclusion of technologies such as prostate - specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and C – 11 choline positron emission tomography (PET) into routine practice. Materials and Methods: A survey was distributed to North American GU experts. Questions pertained to the role of PSMA and C – 11 PET in PCa management. Participants were categorized as “supporters” or “opponents” of incorporation of novel imaging techniques. Opinions were correlated with practice patterns. Results: Response rate was 54% and we analyzed 42 radiation oncologist respondents. 17 participants (40%) have been in practice for > 20 years and 38 (90%) practice at an academic center. 24 (57%) were supporters of PSMA and 29 (69%) were supporters of C – 11. Supporters were more likely to treat pelvic nodes (88% vs. 56%, p < 01) and trended to be more likely to treat patients with moderate or extreme hypofractionation (58% vs. 28%, p = 065). Supporters trended to be more likely to offer brachytherapy boost (55% vs. 23%, p = 09), favor initial observation and early salvage over adjuvant radiation (77% vs. 55%, p = 09), and to consider themselves expert brachytherapists (69% vs. 39%, p = 09). Conclusions: There is a polarization among GU radiation oncology experts regarding novel imaging techniques. A correlation emerged between support of novel imaging and adoption of treatment approaches that are clinically superior or less expensive. Pre - existing biases among GU experts on national treatment - decision panels and leaders of cooperative group studies may affect the design of future studies and influence the adoption of these technologies in clinical practice.
On the Physical Layer Security of Underlay Multihop Device-to-Device Relaying

This paper studies the physical layer security (PLS) of underlay multihop device-to-device (D2D) relaying. New closed-form expressions on the lower bound of the outage probability, the secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the probability of non-zero secrecy capacity are derived. Hence, new insights into the secrecy performance of the underlay multihop D2D relaying are revealed. The obtained analysis is validated through Mont-Carlo simulations.
Nodal structures of few electron atoms

In this paper, the nodal structure for simple atomic systems is revisited and a procedure for identifying the symmetry properties and nodal structure of the time and spin independent Schrodinger equation will be presented. Application is made to the few electron atom, and explicit new nodal surface equations are given for states of various symmetries. In the construction of trial functions for variational calculations in quantum mechanics and in the choice of nodal surfaces needed in Monte Carlo calculations to obtain fermion solutions to Schrodinger’s equation for spin independent Hamiltonians, the accuracy of the calculations can be strongly influenced by the initial choice of the trial functions. We incorporated these newly found nodal conditions in the trial functions, and energy eigenvalues were calculated with better accuracy for different symmetries.
Characterizing glucose, illumination, and nitrogen-deprivation phenotypes of Synechocystis PCC6803 with Raman spectroscopy.

Background Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 is a model cyanobacterium that has been studied widely and is considered for metabolic engineering applications. Here, Raman spectroscopy and Raman chemometrics (Rametrix™) were used to (i) study broad phenotypic changes in response to growth conditions, (ii) identify phenotypic changes associated with its circadian rhythm, and (iii) correlate individual Raman bands with biomolecules and verify these with more accepted analytical methods. Methods Synechocystis cultures were grown under various conditions, exploring dependencies on light and/or external carbon and nitrogen sources. The Rametrix™ LITE Toolbox for MATLAB® was used to process Raman spectra and perform principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC). The Rametrix™ PRO Toolbox was used to validate these models through leave-one-out routines that classified a Raman spectrum when growth conditions were withheld from the model. Performance was measured by classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Raman spectra were also subjected to statistical tests (ANOVA and pairwise comparisons) to identify statistically relevant changes in Synechocystis phenotypes. Finally, experimental methods, including widely used analytical and spectroscopic assays were used to quantify the levels of glycogen, fatty acids, amino acids, and chlorophyll a for correlations with Raman data. Results PCA and DAPC models produced distinct clustering of Raman spectra, representing multiple Synechocystis phenotypes, based on (i) growth in the presence of 5 mM glucose, (ii) illumination (dark, light/dark [12 h/12 h], and continuous light at 20 µE), (iii) nitrogen deprivation (0-100% NaNO3 of native BG-11 medium in continuous light), and (iv) throughout a 24 h light/dark (12 h/12 h) circadian rhythm growth cycle. Rametrix™ PRO was successful in identifying glucose-induced phenotypes with 95.3% accuracy, 93.4% sensitivity, and 96.9% specificity. Prediction accuracy was above random chance values for all other studies. Circadian rhythm analysis showed a return to the initial phenotype after 24 hours for cultures grown in light/dark (12 h/12 h) cycles; this did not occur for cultures grown in the dark. Finally, correlation coefficients (R > 0.7) were found for glycogen, all amino acids, and chlorophyll a when comparing specific Raman bands to other experimental results.
ARE PRESSURES IN IMPLANTED CAPSULES A VALID MEASURE OF INTERSTITIAL FLUID PRESSURES

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses some of the procedures employed to show that recorded capsule pressures change directionally and approximately quantitatively as it would be predicted from the knowledge of the physical nature of the interstitium itself and the knowledge of movement of fluids through capillary membranes in response to changes in Starling capillary forces. The other methods for measuring interstitial pressure either have not been substantiated in similar ways or have been substantiated only partially. However, simultaneous recordings of tissue pressure were made by the capsule method and the wick method. The wick method gave changes in the proper direction, though changes that were less than those that would have been predicted from the knowledge of Starling's law of the capillaries. Therefore, the recorded pressure measurements made using the capsule method change in appropriate directions and approximately quantitatively in accord with known principles of fluid exchange through the capillary membranes in tissue spaces.
Design and fabrication of metamaterial anti-reflection coatings for the Simons Observatory

The Simons Observatory (SO) will be a cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment with three small-aperture telescopes and one large-aperture telescope, which will observe from the Atacama Desert in Chile. In total, SO will field over 60,000 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers in six spectral bands centered between 27 and 280 GHz in order to achieve the sensitivity necessary to measure or constrain numerous cosmological quantities, as outlined in The Simons Observatory Collaboration et al. (2019). These telescopes require 33 highly transparent, large aperture, refracting optics. To this end, we developed mechanically robust, highly efficient, metamaterial anti-reflection (AR) coatings with octave bandwidth coverage for silicon optics up to 46 cm in diameter for the 22-55, 75-165, and 190-310 GHz bands. We detail the design, the manufacturing approach to fabricate the SO lenses, their performance, and possible extensions of metamaterial AR coatings to optical elements made of harder materials such as alumina.
Nanomaterials: A Primer

Nanotechnology refers to the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nm. Nanomaterials, the result of the manufacturing application of nanotechnology, are materials possessing, at minimum, one external dimension measuring 1-100 nm. They are the building blocks of nanotechnology as they possess unique structures and properties that distinguish them from other materials. More and more nanomaterials are expected to be used in electronic and consumer products. This paper provides a primer on nanomaterials and their diverse applications.
Solving hybrid machine learning tasks by traversing weight space geodesics.

Machine learning problems have an intrinsic geometric structure as central objects including a neural network's weight space and the loss function associated with a particular task can be viewed as encoding the intrinsic geometry of a given machine learning problem. Therefore, geometric concepts can be applied to analyze and understand theoretical properties of machine learning strategies as well as to develop new algorithms. In this paper, we address three seemingly unrelated open questions in machine learning by viewing them through a unified framework grounded in differential geometry. Specifically, we view the weight space of a neural network as a manifold endowed with a Riemannian metric that encodes performance on specific tasks. By defining a metric, we can construct geodesic, minimum length, paths in weight space that represent sets of networks of equivalent or near equivalent functional performance on a specific task. We, then, traverse geodesic paths while identifying networks that satisfy a second objective. Inspired by the geometric insight, we apply our geodesic framework to 3 major applications: (i) Network sparsification (ii) Mitigating catastrophic forgetting by constructing networks with high performance on a series of objectives and (iii) Finding high-accuracy paths connecting distinct local optima of deep networks in the non-convex loss landscape. Our results are obtained on a wide range of network architectures (MLP, VGG11/16) trained on MNIST, CIFAR-10/100. Broadly, we introduce a geometric framework that unifies a range of machine learning objectives and that can be applied to multiple classes of neural network architectures.
Associations of Health Conditions and Health-Related Determinants with Disability among New York City Adult Residents.

Introduction Population-based disability prevalence estimates are limited for New York City (NYC). We examined the association of several health and health-related measures with disability among NYC residents aged 20-64 years. Methods We used information from 1,314 adults who participated in the 2013-2014 NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES). We categorized survey participants as having a disability if they reported a physical, mental, and/or emotional problem preventing work or if they reported difficulty walking without special equipment because of a health problem. We used log-binomial regression to quantify the association of each exposure with disability before and after adjustment for select covariates. Results Overall, 12.4% of the study's NYC residents aged 20-64 years had a disability. After adjustment, disability prevalence was significantly greater among those who reported having unmet health care needs (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.18-2.57) and those who reported fair/poor general health (PR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.68-3.24). The probability of disability was greater among NYC residents with arthritis (PR = 2.66, 95% CI: 1.85-3.98) and hypertension (PR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.04-2.11) when compared with those without these conditions. Disability was also associated with depression (PR = 2.96, 95% CI: 2.06-4.25), anxiety (PR = 2.89, 95% CI: 2.15-3.88), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.66-3.91). Disability, however, was not associated with diabetes. Conclusion Disability is more prevalent among those with unmet health care needs, fair/poor general health, arthritis, hypertension, depression, anxiety, and PTSD in these NYC residents, aged 20-64 years. These findings have implications for NYC's strategic planning initiatives, which can be better targeted to groups disproportionately affected by disability.