cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Black Queen Hypothesis: Evolution of Dependencies through Adaptive Gene Loss

Reductive genomic evolution, driven by genetic drift, is common in endosymbiotic bacteria. Genome reduction is less common in free-living organisms, but it has occurred in the numerically dominant open-ocean bacterioplankton Prochlorococ- cus and "Candidatus Pelagibacter," and in these cases the reduction appears to be driven by natural selection rather than drift. Gene loss in free-living organisms may leave them dependent on cooccurring microbes for lost metabolic functions. We present the Black Queen Hypothesis (BQH), a novel theory of reductive evolution that explains how selection leads to such dependen- cies; its name refers to the queen of spades in the game Hearts, where the usual strategy is to avoid taking this card. Gene loss can provide a selective advantage by conserving an organism's limiting resources, provided the gene's function is dispensable. Many vital genetic functions are leaky, thereby unavoidably producing public goods that are available to the entire community. Such leaky functions are thus dispensable for individuals, provided they are not lost entirely from the community. The BQH predicts that the loss of a costly, leaky function is selectively favored at the individual level and will proceed until the production of public goods is just sufficient to support the equilibrium community; at that point, the benefit of any further loss would be offset by the cost. Evolution in accordance with the BQH thus generates "beneficiaries" of reduced genomic content that are dependent on leaky "helpers," and it may explain the observed nonuniversality of prototrophy, stress resistance, and other cellular functions in the microbial world.
Recombinant bacteria for mosquito control

Bacterial insecticides have been used for the control of nuisance and vector mosquitoes for more than two decades. Nevertheless, due primarily to their high cost and often only moderate efficacy, these insecticides remain of limited use in tropical countries where mosquito-borne diseases are prevalent. Recently, however, recombinant DNA techniques have been used to improve bacterial insecticide efficacy by markedly increasing the synthesis of mosquitocidal proteins and by enabling new endotoxin combinations from different bacteria to be produced within single strains. These new strains combine mosquitocidal Cry and Cyt proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis with the binary toxin of Bacillus sphaericus, improving efficacy against Culex species by 10-fold and greatly reducing the potential for resistance through the presence of Cyt1A. Moreover, although intensive use of B. sphaericus against Culex populations in the field can result in high levels of resistance, most of this can be suppressed by combining this bacterial species with Cyt1A; the latter enables the binary toxin of this species to enter midgut epithelial cells via the microvillar membrane in the absence of a midgut receptor. The availability of these novel strains and newly discovered mosquitocidal proteins, such as the Mtx toxins of B. sphaericus, offers the potential for constructing a range of recombinant bacterial insecticides for more effective control of the mosquito vectors of filariasis, Dengue fever and malaria.
Bicycling for Transportation and Health: The Role of Infrastructure

This paper aims to provide insight on whether bicycling for everyday travel can help US adults meet the recommended levels of physical activity and what role public infrastructure may play in encouraging this activity. The study collected data on bicycling behavior from 166 regular cyclists in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area using global positioning system (GPS) devices. Sixty percent of the cyclists rode for more than 150 minutes per week during the study and nearly all of the bicycling was for utilitarian purposes, not exercise. A disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards. The data support the need for well-connected neighborhood streets and a network of bicycle-specific infrastructure to encourage more bicycling among adults. This can be accomplished through comprehensive planning, regulation, and funding.
Recent Advances to Obtain Real-time Displacements for Engineering Applications

This paper presents recent developments and approaches (using GPS technology and real-time double-integration) to obtain displacements and, in turn, drift ratios, in real -time or near real-time to meet the needs of the engineering and user community in seismic monitoring and assessing the functionality and damage condition of structures. Drift ratios computed in near real -time allow technical assessment of the damage condition of a building . Relevant parameters, such as the type of connections and story structural characteri stics (including geometry) are used in computing drifts corresponding to several pre-selected threshold stages of damage. Thus, drift ratios determined from real-time monitoring can be compared to pre-computed threshold drift ratios. The approaches described herein can be used for performance evaluation of structures and can be considered as building health-monitoring applications.
Gradient-index-mirror solid-state lasers

The properties of diode-pumped lasers with gradient–index (GRIN)-mirror resonators are described. The total loss of typical GRIN elements is measured and is found to be comparable with conventional mirrors. The efficiency, threshold, and modal quality of GRIN-mirror Nd:YAG lasers are shown to compare favorably with conventional designs. In addition, a polarized single-frequency laser that uses GRIN elements in conjunction with metal-film etalons is constructed and is shown to deliver output powers comparable with those of more complicated single-frequency designs.
Broad-band Lg attenuation modelling in the Middle East

SUMMARY We present a broad-band tomographic model ofLg attenuation in the Middle East derived from source- and site-corrected amplitudes. Absolute amplitude measurements are made on handselected and carefully windowed seismograms for tens of stations and thousands of crustal earthquakes resulting in excellent coverage of the region. A conjugate gradient method is used to tomographically invert the amplitude data set of over 8000 paths over a 45 ◦ × 40 ◦ region of the Middle East. We solve for Q variation, as well as site and source terms, for a wide range of frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 10 Hz. We have modified the standard attenuation tomography technique to more explicitly define the earthquake source expression in terms of the seismic moment. This facilitates the use of the model to predict the expected amplitudes of new events, an important consideration for earthquake hazard or explosion monitoring applications. The attenuation results have a strong correlation to tectonics. Shields have low attenuation, whereas tectonic regions have high attenuation, with the highest attenuation at 1 Hz found in eastern Turkey. The results also compare favourably to other studies in the region made using Lg propagation efficiency, Lg/Pg amplitude ratios and two-station methods. We tomographically invert the amplitude measurements for each frequency independently. In doing so, it appears the frequency dependence of attenuation in all regions is not compatible with the power-law representation of Q(f ), an assumption that is often made.
No Loans Today By Lisanne Skyler

No Loans Today 1995, 55 Minutes. Film by Llsanne Skyler Institutional, Purchase $390; Rental $75 (video only) Distributed by First Run/Icarus films, 153 Waverly place, New York, NY, 10014
Improving the generalized Hough transform through imperfect grouping

This paper analyses the improvements that can be gained in the generalized Hough transform method for recognizing objects through the use of imperfect perceptual grouping techniques. In particular, we consider simple grouping techniques that determine pairs of points that are likely to belong to the same object using a criterion based on connectedness in the image edge map. It is shown that such imperfect grouping techniques can considerably improve both the efficiency and accuracy of object recognition. Experiments are described that demonstrate the improvements in performance.
Adaptive Air Charge Estimation for Turbocharged Diesel Engines Without Exhaust Gas Recirculation

The paper presents an adaptive observer for in-cylinder air charge estimation for turbocharged diesel engines without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). We assess the observability of the mean value engine model when the intake manifold pressure and the compressor flow are measured, and the performance of the observer is compared to existing schemes analytically and with limited simulations. Specifically, it is shown that the designed observer performs better than the conventional schemes during fast step changes in engine fueling level, eventhough it uses a simple but time varying parameterization of the volumetric efficiency. Furthermore, the estimate is less sensitive to changes in engine parameters than the existing schemes.
Speaking, Relating, and Learning: A Study of Hawaiian Children at Home and at School

Quoting actual dialogue, the volume describes modes of speaking in three contemporary Hawaiian communities as children relate to parents, siblings, and peers. It demonstrates in detail the link to educational practice and to point to positive consequences in the handling of cultural differences in language use.
The Effects of Elevated Temperature on Pulsed-Laser-Induced Single Event Transients in Analog Devices

We present results of laser-induced analog SETs at elevated temperatures. We found increasing pulse widths with increasing temperature for the LM124. We also observed increasing pulse amplitudes with increasing temperature for several sensitive transistors in the LM139. However the response from the input transistor was a rapidly shrinking SET, suggesting that the SET threshold increases at elevated temperatures for the input stage transistors. In addition we observed increases in the SET leading edge fall times with increasing temperature for the LM139 that are consistent with independently measured slew rates. Simulations revealed that the dominant mechanism is bipolar current gain enhancement at elevated temperatures. These temperature-induced changes to the SETs may have critical implications for radiation hardness assurance.
Transfer of “infectious” cardiac allograft tolerance induced by donor-specific transfusion

Abstract Background. “Infectious tolerance” has been defined as the tolerance induced in a new recipient by the adoptive transfer of cells from a recipient accepting an allograft after anti-CD4 and anti-CD8 monoclonal antibody treatment. A clear understanding of the mechanisms responsible for graft acceptance after donor-specific blood transfusion (DST) has remained elusive. We examined the development and “infectious” nature of immunologic changes resulting in indefinite survival of LEW to DA rat cardiac allografts after DST alone without the need for antibody. Methods. One hundred × 106 LEW splenocytes (SC) as DST were injected intravenously into DA recipients 7 days before LEW cardiac transplantation. Subsequently, 100 × 106 SC harvested from a DA recipient 30, 60, or 100 days after graft acceptance were adoptively transferred into lightly γ-irradiated (450 rad) naive DA recipients 24 hours before a second LEW cardiac allograft. Subsequent graft function was determined. Results. Adoptive transfer of SC from the DST-treated DA rats 30 days after LEW heart transplant acceptance into naive γ-irradiated DA rats failed to transfer tolerance to LEW cardiac allografts. However, SC from DA rats bearing LEW hearts for more than 60 days induced indefinite tolerance to all LEW hearts. This infectious tolerance could be adoptively transferred again to a second DA recipient. Conclusions. DST-generated regulatory cells can downregulate naive lymphocytes to promote allograft acceptance. This tolerance can be expanded and serially transferred to a subsequent naive cardiac recipient. (Surgery 2002;132:167-72.)
TSO_ATOMICITY: efficient hardware primitive for TSO-preserving region optimizations

Program optimizations based on data dependences may not preserve the memory consistency in the programs. Previous works leverage a hardware ATOMICITY primitive to restrict the thread interleaving for preserving sequential consistency in region optimizations. However, ATOMICITY primitive is over restrictive on the thread interleaving for optimizing real-world applications developed with the popular Total-Store-Ordering (TSO) memory consistency, which is weaker than sequential consistency. In this paper, we present a novel hardware TSO_ATOMICITY primitive, which has less restriction on the thread interleaving than ATOMICITY primitive to permit more efficient program execution than ATOMICITY primitive, but can still preserve TSO memory consistency in all region optimizations. Furthermore, TSO_ATOMICITY primitive requires similar architecture support as ATOMICITY primitive and can be implemented with only slight change to the existing ATOMICITY primitive implementation. Our experimental results show that in a start-of-art dynamic binary optimization system on a large set of workloads, ATOMICITY primitive can only improve the performance by 4% on average. TSO_ATOMICITY primitive can reduce the overhead associated with ATOMICITY primitive and improve the performance by 12% on average.
Cloning and Characterization of a Gibberellin-Induced RNase Expressed in Barley Aleurone Cells

We cloned a cDNA for a gibberellin-induced ribonuclease (RNase) expressed in barley (Hordeum vulgare) aleurone and the gene for a second barley RNase expressed in leaf tissue. The protein encoded by the cDNA is unique among RNases described to date in that it contains a novel 23-amino acid insert between the C2 and C3 conserved sequences. Expression of the recombinant protein in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) suspension-cultured protoplasts gave an active RNase of the expected size, confirming the enzymatic activity of the protein. Analyses of hormone regulation of expression of mRNA for the aleurone RNase revealed that, like the pattern for α-amylase, mRNA levels increased in the presence of gibberellic acid, and its antagonist abscisic acid prevented this effect. Quantitative studies at early times demonstrated that cycloheximide treatment of aleurone layers increased mRNA levels 4-fold, whereas a combination of gibberellin plus cycloheximide treatment was required to increase α-amylase mRNA levels to the same extent. These results are consistent with loss of repression as an initial effect of gibberellic acid on transcription of those genes, although the regulatory pathways for the two genes may differ.
Commitment, Procedural Fairness, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Multifoci Analysis

Research on commitment, procedural fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) suggests that employees maintain distinct beliefs about, and direct behaviors towards, multiple targets in the workplace (e.g., the organization as a whole, their supervisor, and fellow workgroup members). The present studies were designed to test for “target similarity effects,” in which the relationships between commitment, procedural fairness, and OCB were expected to be stronger when they referred to the same target than when they referred to different targets. As predicted, we found that: (1) the positive relationship between commitment and OCB, and (2) the mediating effect of commitment on the positive relationship between procedural fairness and OCB, was particularly likely to emerge when the constructs were in reference to the same target. Support for these target similarity effects was found among layoff survivors (Study 1) and student project teams (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as are limitations of the studies and suggestions for future research. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recruitment of Leukocytes: Adhesion Molecules and Chemoattractants

A key event in inflammation is migration of white blood cells (also called leukocytes) from the circulation to injured or infected tissues. To exit the bloodstream, leukocytes must traverse the layer of endothelial cells that lines blood vessels. Endothelial cells play an active role as ‘gatekeepers’ in this process by upregulating surface adhesion molecules that bind to leukocytes in response to proinflammatory cytokines and microbial components. Most adhesion molecules that mediate interactions between endothelial cells and leukocytes belong to three structurally related families: selectins, integrins, and the immunoglobulin superfamily. Once bound to the endothelium, leukocytes then are guided across the vessel wall to their ultimate destination by chemoattractants. Chemoattractants are molecules that induce directed movement of their targets in a concentration-dependent manner. In the context of inflammation, structurally diverse chemoattractants are produced by invading pathogens, the circulating complement system, and a variety of host cells, including endothelial cells. Adhesion molecules and chemoattractants thus work in concert to deliver leukocytes to where they are needed to carry out their roles in host defense and repair of injury.
An Uncertain Future for the Hunting of Ghosts: The Conflict between Idea Submission Claims and Preemption in the Ninth Circuit

On December 16, 2010 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will sit en banc for a rehearing of oral argument in the matter of Larry Montz v. Pilgrim Films & Television, Inc. There, one of two things will occur: Stare decisis will be honored and the Court’s earlier ruling for the defendant will be reversed; or the 2004 case of Grosso v. Miramax will be reversed, altering the law on preemption for state-law breach-of-implied-contract claims in California.
Distribution and Correlates of Waist-to-Hip Ratio in Black Adults: The Pitt County Study

A 1988 community-based survey of 1,784 black adults aged 25-50 years in Pitt County, North Carolina, found mean waist-to-hip ratios of 0.890 for men and 0.852 for women. Based on guidelines from the US Department of Agriculture, 20% of the men and 76% of the women had an elevated waist-to-hip ratio. Sedentary behavior was associated with elevated waist-to-hip ratio in men, while a similar excess was associated with alcohol consumption in women. Weak, nonsignificant associations with waist-to-hip ratio were observed for smoking. Socioeconomic status was unrelated to waist-to-hip ratio in men, but it had a strong inverse relation for women.
Risk of Preeclampsia in Pregnancies After Assisted Reproductive Technology and Ovarian Stimulation.

Objective To compare the risk of preeclampsia among spontaneously conceived pregnancies to those after hyperestrogenic ovarian stimulation (hyperestrogenic OS) with and without assisted reproductive technology (ART), and stimulation with non-hyperestrogenic aromatase inhibitor stimulation (non-hyperestrogenic OS). Methods Live-born singleton deliveries among women 20–49 years were identified in the 2004–2012 Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Databases using ICD-9 and CPT codes. Maternal characteristics were compared using Chi squared and Fisher exact tests. We performed multilevel multivariable logistic regression, controlling for maternal age, parity, comorbid conditions, and region of delivery, and calculated adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95 % confidence intervals for mild and severe preeclampsia. Results 1,014,526 spontaneously conceived, 6881 hyperestrogenic OS with ART, 27,516 hyperestrogenic OS without ART, and 2117 non-hyperestrogenic OS pregnancies were identified. The adjusted odds of developing preeclampsia were increased for deliveries after hyperestrogenic OS with ART (mild preeclampsia aOR 1.42, 1.24–1.62; severe preeclampsia aOR 1.83, 1.59–2.11) and without ART (mild preeclampsia aOR 1.32, 1.24–1.42; severe preeclampsia aOR 1.53, 1.41–1.66). Adjusted odds of preeclampsia were similar between spontaneously conceived and non-hyperestrogenic OS pregnancies. Conclusions for Practice Risk of preeclampsia after ART may in part be related to supraphysiologic estrogen associated with hyperestrogenic OS.
Geodesic tractography segmentation for directional medical image analysis

Medical image analysis algorithms aim at increasing the speed, accuracy, and reliability by which medical images are processed and ultimately understood. Active contour and energy minimization techniques are commonly used in medical image analysis applications. The results of these techniques are optimal under certain assumptions and provide meaningful clinical insights. In this thesis, we develop energy minimization techniques for medical image analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is the construction of a theoretical and applied framework for: (1) Geodesic Tractography: In this work, we develop a mathematical framework for finding optimal paths in oriented domains. In oriented domains, image data depends both upon position and upon direction. In other words, for each position and direction in the domain there exists a unique voxel intensity. The use of a Finsler metric is shown to be particularly suited for this type of problem. In fact, we show that the Finsler condition is necessary to ensure that the flow is well-posed. The development of this theory is couched in an application to diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imagery (DW-MRI). It is shown that representative or anchor tracts are found which optimally connect two regions of interest in the brain. (2) Tractography Segmentation: In this work, we show how these optimal paths may be used to initialize a volumetric segmentation which captures neural fiber bundles. We present a key problem for volumetric segmentation along with two approaches for overcoming this problem: via either a local constraining of statistics or a tensor warping preprocessing step. Also, in this work, we present medical image analysis algorithms using Bayesian segmentation frameworks. In the first, we present our work on the segmentation of brain MRI tissue into tissue classes. In the second, we present the construction of a model of colon haustra for use in computer-aided detection (CAD) within a Bayesian framework. The core software components of this thesis are being made available in the NAMIC toolkit (see http://www.na-mic.org).
Models to Study Liver Regeneration

Abstract Several different models have been used to study the remarkable ability of the liver to regenerate. The most common are the surgical resection model of partial hepatectomy and chemical-induced injury models, which use a variety of toxic chemicals. In recent years, ischemia/reperfusion injury has also been used as model to study regeneration, as well as models, which explore gestational hepatomegaly and neonatal liver growth. Apart from classic hepatocellular regeneration, various models such the “Solt-Farber model” and DDC diet model have been used to study hepatic progenitor cell-mediated liver regeneration. This chapter will give an overview of these models and mechanisms contributing to liver regeneration.
Lipid peroxidation and hepatitis C virus replication

Unlike many other positive-strand RNA viruses, replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is difficult to achieve in cell culture due to barriers that are not fully understood. An exception to this rule is the JFH1 strain of HCV that atypically replicates robustly without the need for adaptation to cell culture and is therefore widely used in laboratories. Recent studies have revealed that the RNA replicase of most HCV isolates is equipped with a highly sensitive “lipid peroxidation sensor” that shuts off RNA synthesis upon exposure to cellular lipid peroxidation. HCV variants that lack the capacity to be suppressed by lipid peroxidation, such as JFH1 and several highly-adapted viral mutants, are capable of replicating to high levels in cell culture. Thus, adaptive mutations that render the replicase of HCV resistant to lipid peroxidation appear to be a pre-requisite for efficient replication in cell culture. This sensitivity to lipid peroxidation is unique to HCV among other positive-strand RNA viruses that similarly form active RNA replicase complexes derived from host endoplasmic reticulum membranes. This unique regulatory mechanism likely promotes the long-term persistence of HCV by limiting viral exposure to the immune system. This review focuses on the mechanism of lipid peroxidation-mediated regulation of replication in HCV-infected cells, including what is currently known about viral determinants of replication fitness in cell culture and how adaptive mutations in the replicase proteins of HCV alter their interactions with host membranes to determine sensitivity or resistance to lipid peroxidation.
In Praise of Love : Hiding Mortality in Plain Sight

In Praise of Love shows Rattigan creating a greater balance between his pessimistic belief that all ends in defeat and death and the consolation that human beings can achieve some kind of connection. Sebastian Cruttwell, in order to spare his wife Lydia the knowledge that she is going to die soon, hides her true medical reports in plain sight (the play explicitly alludes to Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”). Her discovery of the reports hidden in plain sight proves to her that her husband does love her, something she has doubted all their life together. Rattigan conjoins the discovery of love and that of mortality in the same action, thereby providing not only an allegory of playwriting that hides its meanings in plain sight through the relationship between text and subtext but also conveying the sense that death is normal because it is in plain sight of all and may be countered by human connection. Throughout the play Rattigan conducts something of an internal argument about whether Shakespeare is a truly great writer, telling human beings the truths they do not want to hear or just “cosy, middle-class, comforting and commercial.” The latter description, Rattigan felt, was just as unjustly applied to himself; hence, he uses his plays to allegorize his own way of writing plays, in this instance hiding mortality in plain sight, with “normal written all over it.”
Rent-Seeking Induced Inequality Traps

Does inequality affect rent-seeking and vice-versa? Social scientists have argued that in- equality fosters rent-seeking and that rent-seeking is likely to reinforce existing inequalities. In this paper, I model rent-seeking in an unequal endowment economy to analyze the condi- tions under which an inequality trap would exist. I find that, in the short-run, a more unequal economy fosters a greater proportion of rentiers which in turn perpetuates existing inequities. In the long-run, as rentiers are able to change the rules of the game, the proportion of rentiers shrinks. However, both the amount of rents and ex-post inequality increase.
Progress toward active or passive HIV-1 vaccination

AIDS is a preventable disease. Nevertheless, according to UNAIDS, 2.1 million individuals were infected with HIV-1 in 2015 worldwide. An effective vaccine is highly desirable. Most vaccines in clinical use today prevent infection because they elicit antibodies that block pathogen entry. Consistent with this general rule, studies in experimental animals have shown that broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV-1 can prevent infection, suggesting that a vaccine that elicits such antibodies would be protective. However, despite significant efforts over the last 30 years, attempts to elicit broadly HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies by vaccination failed until recent experiments in genetically engineered mice were finally successful. Here, we review the key breakthroughs and remaining obstacles to the development of active and passive HIV-1 vaccines.
Ions of Endometallofullerenes in the Gas Phase

This chapter describes the studies of the endometallofullerene (EMF) ions in the gas phase by various mass spectrometric methods. Historically, mass spectrometry was the first method to indicate the possible existence of EMFs, which happened several years before the discovery of their bulk arc-discharge synthesis. The studies of the ions of EMFs in the gas phase often preceded studies by other techniques that require substantial quantities of EMFs and provided a lot of information on their electronic properties and reactivity. In this chapter, particular attention is devoted to the gas-phase reactions of EMF ions with small molecules, and to the studies of the electron affinity of EMFs.
Legitimating genre: The discursive turn to quality in early 1990s science fiction television

This essay analyses how this discourse of science fiction quality was created in the early 1990s through newspaper critics’ writings about Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The X-Fil...
Differential Associations of UPPS-P Impulsivity Traits With Alcohol Problems

Objective:The UPPS-P model posits that impulsivity comprises five factors: positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of planning, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. Negative and positive urgency are the traits most consistently associated with alcohol problems. However, previous work has examined alcohol problems either individually or in the aggregate, rather than examining multiple problem domains simultaneously. Recent work has also questioned the utility of distinguishing between positive and negative urgency, as this distinction did not meaningfully differ in predicting domains of psychopathology. The aims of this study were to address these issues by (a) testing unique associations of UPPS-P with specific domains of alcohol problems and (b) determining the utility of distinguishing between positive and negative urgency as risk factors for specific alcohol problems.Method:Associations between UPPS-P traits and alcohol problem domains were examined in two cross-sectional data sets using negat...
On loop formulas with variables

Recently Ferraris, Lee and Lifschitz proposed a new definition of stable models that does not refer to grounding, which applies to the syntax of arbitrary first-order sentences. We show its relation to the idea of loop formulas with variables by Chen, Lin, Wang and Zhang, and generalize their loop formulas to disjunctive programs and to arbitrary first-order sentences. We also extend the syntax of logic programs to allow explicit quantifiers, and define its semantics as a subclass of the new language of stable models by Ferraris et al. Such programs inherit from the general language the ability to handle nonmonotonic reasoning under the stable model semantics even in the absence of the unique name and the domain closure assumptions, while yielding more succinct loop formulas than the general language due to the restricted syntax. We also show certain syntactic conditions under which query answering for an extended program can be reduced to entailment checking in first-order logic, providing a way to apply first-order theorem provers to reasoning about non-Herbrand stable models.
Risk of Clinically Relevant Pharmacokinetic-Based Drug-Drug Interactions with Drugs Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Between 2013 and 2016

A total of 103 drugs (including 14 combination drugs) were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2013 to 2016. Pharmacokinetic-based drug interaction profiles were analyzed using the University of Washington Drug Interaction Database, and the clinical relevance of these observations was characterized based on information from new drug application reviews. CYP3A was involved in approximately two-thirds of all drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Transporters (alone or with enzymes) participated in about half of all interactions, but most of these were weak-to-moderate interactions. When considered as victims, eight new molecular entities (NMEs; cobimetinib, ibrutinib, isavuconazole, ivabradine, naloxegol, paritaprevir, simeprevir, and venetoclax) were identified as sensitive substrates of CYP3A, two NMEs (pirfenidone and tasimelteon) were sensitive substrates of CYP1A2, one NME (dasabuvir) was a sensitive substrate of CYP2C8, one NME (eliglustat) was a sensitive substrate of CYP2D6, and one NME (grazoprevir) was a sensitive substrate of OATP1B1/3 (with changes in exposure greater than 5-fold when coadministered with a strong inhibitor). Approximately 75% of identified CYP3A substrates were also substrates of P-glycoprotein. As perpetrators, most clinical DDIs involved weak-to-moderate inhibition or induction. Only idelalisib showed strong inhibition of CYP3A, and lumacaftor behaved as a strong CYP3A inducer. Among drugs with large changes in exposure (≥5-fold), whether as victim or perpetrator, the most-represented therapeutic classes were antivirals and oncology drugs, suggesting a significant risk of clinical DDIs in these patient populations.
Cyber-analytics: Modeling factors associated with healthcare data breaches

Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop a model of factors associated with healthcare data breaches. Variables were operationalized as the healthcare facilities' level of exposure, level of security, and organizational factors. The outcome variable was the binary value for data breach/no data breach. Because healthcare data breaches carry the risk of personal health information exposure, corruption or destruction, this study is important to the healthcare field. Data were obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services database of healthcare facilities reporting data breaches and from a large national database of technical and organizational infrastructure information. Binary logistic regression was utilized to examine a representative data breach model. Results indicate several exposure, security and organizational factors significantly associated with healthcare data breaches.
Harnessing the power of crowds: crowdsourcing as a novel research method for evaluation of acne treatments.

Background: Crowdsourcing is a novel process of data collection that can provide insight into the effectiveness of acne treatments in real-world settings. Little is known regarding the feasibility of crowdsourcing as a means of collecting dermatology research data, the quality of collected data, and how the data compare to the published literature. Objective: The objective of this analysis is to compare acne data collected from a medical crowdsourcing site with high-quality controlled studies from peer-reviewed medical literature. Methods: Crowdsourced data was collected from 662 online acne patients. Online patients reported data in a Likert-type format to characterize their symptom severity (740 total responses) and their treatment outcomes (958 total responses). The crowdsourced data were compared with meta-analyses and reviews on acne treatment from August 20, 2010 to August 20, 2011. Results: We compared topical, oral systemic, alternative, phototherapy, and physical acne treatments of crowdsourced data to published literature. We focused on topical tretinoin due to the large number of online patient responses. While approximately 80% of tretinoin users observed clinical improvement after a 12-week treatment period in clinical trials, 46% of online users reported improvement in an unspecified time period. For most topical treatments, medication with high efficacy in clinical trials did not produce high effectiveness ratings based on the crowdsourced online data. Conclusion: While limitations exist with the current methods of crowdsourced data collection, with standardization of data collection and use of validated instruments, crowdsourcing will provide an important and valuable platform for collecting high-volume patient data in real-world settings.
MR spectroscopic studies of the brain in psychiatric disorders.

The measurement of brain metabolites with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides a unique perspective on the brain bases of neuropsychiatric disorders. As a context for interpreting MRS studies of neuropsychiatric disorders, we review the characteristic MRS signals, the metabolic dynamics, and the neurobiological significance of the major brain metabolites that can be measured using clinical MRS systems. These metabolites include N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine, choline-containing compounds, myo-inositol, glutamate and glutamine, lactate, and gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA). For the major adult neuropsychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and the anxiety disorders), we highlight the most consistent MRS findings, with an emphasis on those with potential clinical or translational significance. Reduced NAA in specific brain regions in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive–compulsive disorder corroborate findings of reduced brain volumes in the same regions. Future MRS studies may help determine the extent to which the neuronal dysfunction suggested by these findings is reversible in these disorders. Elevated glutamate and glutamine (Glx) in patients with bipolar disorder and reduced Glx in patients with unipolar major depression support models of increased and decreased glutamatergic function, respectively, in those conditions. Reduced phosphomonoesters and intracellular pH in bipolar disorder and elevated dynamic lactate responses in panic disorder are consistent with metabolic models of pathogenesis in those disorders. Preliminary findings of an increased glutamine/glutamate ratio and decreased GABA in patients with schizophrenia are consistent with a model of NMDA hypofunction in that disorder. As MRS methods continue to improve, future studies may further advance our understanding of the natural history of psychiatric illnesses, improve our ability to test translational models of pathogenesis, clarify therapeutic mechanisms of action, and allow clinical monitoring of the effects of interventions on brain metabolic markers.
Multivariate Analysis of Factors Affecting BrainStem Integral Dose in Stereotactic-Treated Patients

The dose contributed to the brainstem (B.S.) in stereotactic radiosurgery/radiotherapy (SRS/SRT) is an essential part of treatment plan evaluation. Yet, there is a lack of a stratifying schema for the lesions near the brain stem, based on doses and volume irradiated. We investigated the possible determining factors affecting brain stem integral dose (BSID). Materials and Methods: Treatment plans of 141 patients treated by SRS or SRT were reviewed Selection for this analysis was based upon lesions within 4 cm radius from the center of brain stem in all directions. Thirty-two patients were eligible. Out of 32 patients, 2 were treated with SRS and 6 with SRT. Lesions were stratified into five groups according to P-P distance (periphery of lesion to periphery of brain stem): group I (−1.5–0 cm) constituted lesions overlapping or interfacing brain stem; group II (0.1–0.9 cm); group III (1–1.9 cm); group IV (2–2.9 cm); group V (3–4cm). Conformity index (PITV) volume of brain stem receiving the mean dose and BSID were calculated. Univariate and multi-variate analyses were performed to correlate BSID with its determinants, namely PITV, P-P distance, C-P distance (center of lesion to periphery of brain stem), and mean collimator size. Results: The highest mean BSID was observed in group I and the least in group V; 1 patient in group I with BSID of 16.8 Gy/cc developed brain stem injury. In univariate analysis, all the determinant factors for BSID (P-P distance, C-P distance, collimator size, and PITV) were shown to impact its value, but on multivariate analysis only P-P distance was the significant factor (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Utilization of the P-P distance as a stratification method for lesions within 4 cm radius from the center of the brain stem is valuable in determining the brain stem integral dose. This schema may suggest that lesions in group I with P-P distance (−1.5–0.0 cm) are better treated with fractionated SRT rather than single-fraction SRS. In addition, plans requiring collimator size 730 mm with PITV > 1.5 should also be considered for fractionated regimens.
The Structural Polymers of the Primary Cell Walls of Dicots

The cell walls of plants are analogous to the skeletons of animals. The walls control the rate of growth of plant cells and thus of the plants. The walls are a structural barrier to some molecules and to invading pathogens. Cell walls are also a source of food, fiber and energy. Thus, knowledge of the mode of synthesis of cell walls, of the structure of cell walls, and of the function of cell walls is of great importance.
Bepotastine besilate for the treatment of perennial allergic rhinitis

Introduction: Bepotastine besilate (BB) is a second-generation H1-antihistamine that, as an ophthalmic solution, is approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the t...
UWB dual-polarised dipole array with dielectric and FSS superstrate and 65° scanning

The authors report the design of an ultra-wideband (UWB), dual-polarised, tightly coupled dipole array (TCDA) with an integrated balun for wide-angle scanning. A dual-pol dipole design enables massive bandwidth, large scanning volume, and high polarisation purity, concurrently. To achieve wide-angle impedance matching without exciting surface waves, two types of superstrates are evaluated on a finite array: (i) dielectric superstrate and (ii) novel planar frequency-selective surface (FSS). The latter architecture is capable of scanning 70° in E- plane and 65° in H- plane and shows, on average, 5° scanning improvement to the former. The impedance bandwidth is 5.25:1 (0.8-4.2 GHz) at the broadside (voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)<;2). The bandwidth reduces to 4.3:1 (0.9-3.9 GHz) when the maximum scanning angle or θ max increases to 65° for the H -plane and 70° for the E -plane (VSWR <; 3.2). The proposed array is a great candidate for wide-angle wideband scanning applications covering the entire L and S bands.
"I Impressed Myself With How Confident I Felt": Reflections on a Computer Science Assessment for K-8 Teachers

The computer science education community has made great strides in promoting diversity and inclusion in computing fields and bringing K-12 CS learning opportunities to broader groups of learners. However, one area that has not been investigated fully is how assessments can influence a learner's confidence and attitudes towards CS. Stereotype threat and test modality have been shown to affect the performance of CS test takers. This experience report examines how novice CS learners respond to a CS assessment by investigating an increasingly important group of novice CS learners: K-8 classroom teachers. We conducted focus groups with elementary and middle school teachers as part of a week-long CS professional development workshop. The focus groups were held after teachers completed pre- and post-assessments. The assessment instrument featured multiple-choice and short-answer questions with block-based programming snippets. Many teachers reported a positive disposition towards learning CS after completing the pre-assessment, which they attributed to having a growth mindset. Themes related to their confidence involved the difficulty and format of the assessment, with comments about difficulty reducing after the post-assessment. When asked about their thoughts on the assessment from the perspective of their students, they provided suggestions with particular attention to its format. These findings provide insight for CS assessment design and implementation, as well as support further research on the impact of assessments on CS learners.
Aminoborohydrides. 8. A facile reduction of aliphatic and benzylic azides to the corresponding amines in high yield and purity using lithium N,N-dimethylaminoborohydride

Abstract Lithium N,N-dimethylaminoborohydride (LiMe2NBH3) reduced both 3α-azidocholest-5-ene and 3β-azidocholest-5-ene in air to give the corresponding 3α-aminocholest-5-ene and 3β-aminocholest-5-ene in 98% isolated yields. Aliphatic and benzylic azides were also reduced with LiMe2NBH3 to give the corresponding amines in isolated yields ranging from 85 to 98%. The reductions were complete in 1–3 hours and required only a simple acid-base extraction to isolate the desired amines.
Challenges in Understanding the Dynamic Behavior of Heterogeneous Materials

The response of heterogeneous materials subjected to extreme dynamic loads is complicated by meso-scale phenomena which manifests a bulk response to the percolating dynamic event. The microstructural arrangement of phases, the extrinsic properties of microconstituents, and the property contrasts and various length scales affect the ability of stress waves to propagate through a material and affect the material’s inherent dissipative behavior. Measuring the effects of these meso-level phenomena is very challenging when considering extremely fast events occurring at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The advent of high performance computing and massively parallel computations allows for highly resolved phenomena to be modeled via hydrocode simulation with relative ease. Combining microstructural and mechanistic understanding of the relevant physics of the dynamic processes can lead to a tractable solution to the problem of shock compression response in heterogeneous materials. This chapter discusses the challenges in understanding the dynamic behavior of heterogeneous materials in particular, which are of interest due to their fascinating and useful properties and in part because of the richness and diversity of phenomena activated under extreme dynamic conditions. A brief literature survey on the shock compression of heterogeneous materials is provided, with attention given to granular media, reactive powder mixtures, energetic and composite materials, and multiphase materials. Case studies from the authors’ work on reactive materials are presented which employ Integrated Computational Materials Science and Engineering (ICMSE) tools to understand the connection between observed experimental behavior and meso-level phenomena. A discussion is presented on possible ways of exploring topology, property contrasts, and microstructural morphology to link dynamic response to micro- and meso-scale behavior.
Impact of varying air cavity on planning dosimetry for rectum patients treated on a 1.5 T hybrid MR-linac system.

Purpose To investigate the dosimetric impact of magnetic (B) field on varying air cavities in rectum patients treated on the hybrid 1.5 T MR-linac. Methods Artificial air cavities of varying diameters (0.0, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 5.0 cm) were created for four rectum patients (two prone and two supine). A total of 56 plans using a 7 MV flattening filter-free beam were generated with and without B-field. Reference intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment plans without air cavity in the presence and absence of B-field were generated to a total dose of 45/50 Gy. The reference plans were copied and recalculated for the varying air cavities. D95 (PTV45 -PTV50 ), D95 (PTV50 -aircavity), V50 (PTV50 -aircavity), Dmax (PTV50 -aircavity), and V110% (PTV50 -aircavity) were extracted for each patient. Annulus rings of 1-mm-diameter step size were generated for one of the air cavity plans (3.0 cm) for all four patients to determine Dmax (%) and V110% (cc) within each annulus. Results In the presence of B-field, hot spots at the cavity interface start to become visible at ~1 cm air cavity in both supine and prone positioning due to electron return effect (ERE). In the presence of B-field Dmax and V110% varied from 5523 ± 49 cGy and 0.09 ± 0.16 cc for 0 cm air cavity size to 6050 ± 109 cGy and 11.6 ± 6.7 cc for 5 cm air cavity size. The hot spots were located within 3 mm inside the rectal-air interface, where Dmax increased from 110.4 ± 0.5% without B-field to 119.2 ± 0.8 % with B-field. Conclusions Air cavities inside rectum affects rectum plan dosimetry due ERE. Location and magnitude of hot spots are dependent on the size of the air cavity.