cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biologically inspired feature based categorization of objects

We have developed a method for clustering features into objects by taking those features which include intensity, orientations and colors from the most salient points in an image as determined by our biologically motivated saliency program. We can train a program to cluster these features by only supplying as training input the number of objects that should appear in an image. We do this by clustering from a technique that involves linking nodes in a minimum spanning tree by not only distance, but by a density metric as well. We can then form classes over objects or object segmentation in a novel validation set by training over a set of seven soft and hard parameters. We discus as well the uses of such a flexible method in landmark based navigation since a robot using such a method may have a better ability to generalize over the features and objects.
Issues of Identity in Collaborations Among Creative Professionals: A Study of Toy Designers

Drawing on a four-year, qualitative study of toy designers in a large U.S. corporation, we examined the relationship between professional identity and informal collaboration among creative workers. Our findings revealed that toy designers' professional identities were defined primarily by person-based (vs. role-based) categorizations and that only a minority of designers' identities resembled stereotypes of creative artists. Further, our findings showed how informal idea giving and idea taking behaviors affirmed or threatened distinct identity categorizations of toy designers. In general, idea taking behaviors were more threatening than idea giving to these designers' professional identities, and designers often refused to collaborate as a response to identity threats. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of collaboration and professional identity and offer an extended framework of professional identity management.
Noise sensitivity in frequency-resolved optical-gating measurements of ultrashort pulses

Frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG), a technique for measuring ultrashort laser pulses, involves producing a spectrogram of the pulse and then retrieving the pulse intensity and phase with an iterative algorithm. We study how several types of noise—multiplicative, additive, and quantization—affect pulse retrieval. We define a convergence criterion and find that the algorithm converges to a reasonable pulse field, even in the presence of 10% noise. Specifically, with appropriate filtering, 1% rms retrieval error is achieved for 10% multiplicative noise, 10% additive noise, and as few as 8 bits of resolution. For additive and multiplicative noise the retrieval errors decrease roughly as the square root of the amount of noise. In addition, the background induced in the wings of the pulse by additive noise is equal to the amount of additive noise on the trace. Thus the dynamic range of the measured intensity and phase is limited by a noise floor equal to the amount of additive noise on the trace. We also find that, for best results, a region of zero intensity should surround the nonzero region of the trace. Consequently, in the presence of additive noise, baseline subtraction is important. We also find that Fourier low-pass filtering improves pulse retrieval without introducing significant distortion, especially in high-noise cases. We show that the field errors in the temporal and the spectral domains are equal. Overall, the algorithm performs well because the measured trace contains N2 data points for a pulse that has only 2N degrees of freedom; FROG has built in redundancy.
Comparing Reliability of Association Rules and OLAP Statistical Tests

Association rules is a technique that can detect patterns within the items of a dataset. The constrained version applies several restrictions that reduces the number of rules and also helps improve performance. On the other hand, OLAP statistical tests is an integration of exploratory On-Line Analytical Processing techniques and statistical tests. It uses a different approach that make it more appropriate for continuous domains and is able to discover more informative patterns. In this article, we thoroughly compare the reliability of the results returned by both techniques by analyzing the metrics, such as confidence and p-value, by which these techniques are implemented in relation to the results that are generated. While these two techniques are different, we were able to bring both to level ground by extending association rules with pairing to discover more specific patterns and extending OLAP statistical tests with constraints to reduce the number of discovered patterns. We conducted our experiments on a real medical dataset and found that the extended OLAP statistical tests discovered more patterns, had comparable performance, and possessed higher reliability due to its strong statistical background.
Volume scattering from a layer of sand at Ka-Band: Measurements and simulations

Volume scattering from the sand layer was studied both theoretically and experimentally. Excellent agreement was achieved between the model predictions and actual measurements. This agreement validates the theoretical model and permits its use for other types of sand and over frequencies outside the domain of the measured data. In addition, volume scattering from sand is insensitive to layer thickness once the thickness exceeds 0.15 m. According to both numerical simulations and measurements, it is recommended that the frequency, of the InSAR responsible for determining the height of the top air-sand interface, be located between 30 GHz and 40 GHz to ensure significant volume scattering from dry sand, irrespective of how the particle size distribution looks like for the different sand dune fields.
Jack Benny and America's Mission after World War II: Openness, Pluralism, Internationalism, and Supreme Confidence

This article argues that the Jack Benny radio program reflected and illuminated America's sense of mission coming out of World War II by providing listeners with a conceptualization of a world in which the promotion of universal values was to usher in an era of lasting peace. A study of the Jack Benny Program from 1945 to 1950 illustrates how World War II changed the purpose of the show; how Jack Benny, his writers, and his cast understood notions of openness, pluralism, and internationalism; how the correlation they drew between social equality at home and international priorities abroad sometimes preempted official US policies; and how they provided, in the form of the show's central character, a model of supremely confident leadership in an era fraught with anxieties.
Testing a brief self-directed behavioral weight control program.

Clinical obesity treatments are of limited reach. Self-directed weight control attempts are common, but little attention has been given to providing guidance for such efforts in the population. The present research tests a brief intervention approach to weight control. Pilot data were collected from 66 University of Minnesota employees (72.7% women, 81.8% white) randomized to an assessment-only control condition or a single intervention session to teach empirically valid self-directed weight-control methods. Mean baseline weight was 87.1 kilograms (range 64.0–120.3 kilograms). Though statistically nonsignificant, intervention participants averaged greater weight loss by 6 months than controls (–.80 kilograms vs. –.19 kilograms), F(1, 44) = .47, p = .50, Cohen's d = .21. There was a significant group × time interaction for self-weighing frequency, F(2, 41) = 10.84, p < .001. With some enhancement and more attention to dissemination, a brief self-directed program has potential as a useful approach to popula...
Relationship of alcohol consumption to diet: a population-based study in Hawaii

The relationship of alcohol use to diet was examined in 2272 male and 2337 female adults aged 45 y and older who provided a quantitative diet history during 1977-1979. Mean values for each dietary variable, adjusted for smoking, ethnicity, income, and education, were compared in each sex between abstainers and drinkers and by tertile of ethanol intake. Linear relationships with extent of drinking were also sought. Drinkers were found to be less obese than abstainers. Consumption of carbohydrate, vitamins, calcium, fruits, fruit juices, and raw vegetables was greater among abstainers whereas consumption of fat (particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids), cholesterol, zinc, meat, pickled vegetables, and dried fish was greater among drinkers. Because validations of dietary questionnaires have shown that alcohol consumption is more accurately recalled than food intake, the possibility of a residual confounding effect for these dietary variables should be considered in epidemiologic studies of alcohol and health.
Two-dimensional rigid polycrystals whose grains have one ductile direction

We consider polycrystals with perfectly plastic grains. We study the twodimensional problem that results if the textures and applied stresses are compatible with antiplane deformation. We show that the order of magnitude of recently introduced outer bounds on the strength domain of polycrystals is sharp even under the assumption of square symmetry on the texture. We also conclude that the fact that the texture has square symmetry is not enough information to predict the behaviour of polycrystals if the grains are highly anisotropic.
Context‐Dependent Item Sets

What are item sets and how are they being used in testing? What methods are being used to score them? What are the prospects for future use of item sets?
Observations on the Ultrastructure and Differentiation of Leydig Cells in the Testis of the Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Testicular growth and development in Japanese quail was controlled by artificial regulation of photoperiod. It was found that in the undeveloped testes of birds subjected to a short photoperiod (6 hr of light per day) the interstitial region contained only fibroblast-like cells. When birdswere subjected to 20 hr oflightper day, fibroblast-like elements in the more centralregionsof theinterstitial zone differentiated intoLeydig cellssimilarto thoseof mammals inultrastructure. Initial changes,particularly an increaseinsizeand complexity oftheGolgiapparatus,a roundingofthenucleus,and an increasein cytoplasmic volume, couldbe firstdetected3 days after initiation of the long-photoperiod regime. Later, increasedquantitiesof membrane were observed in the cytoplasm, portions of which were associated with ribosomes while others were agranular. The mitochondria increase considerably in size during the differentiative stages, becoming somewhat more spherical in shape, while the cristae increase in number and appear to change from a lamellar to a cylindrical configuration. Apparently mature Leydig cells were present after 10 days of subjection to long photoperiods. These contain a spherical nucleus, numerous mitochondria, large quantities of tubular smooth membrane, little granular endoplasmic reticulum, and variable numbers of lysosomes and lipid droplets. The Golgi complex does not appear to be extensive. It is suggested that the Leydig cells may secrete androgens.
Acetylcholinesterase Histochemistry and the Diagnosis of Hirschsprung's Disease: A 31/2—Year Experience

Using a modification of the histochemical acetylcholinesterase (ACE) reaction of Karnovsky and Roots, 154 suction rectal biopsies performed during the clinical investigation for Hirschsprung's disease were examined and compared to simultaneously obtained paraffin-embedded, hematoxylin-eosin (H&'E)-stained tissue. Serial paraffin sections were adequate to identify normal ganglia or to raise suspicion of Hirschsprung disease at initial biopsy in 129 of 154 (83%) cases. Interpretation of the ACE-stained tissue correlated exactly with this interpretation in 123 instances; 6 cases had uninterpretable ACE frozen sections. From this group of adequate paraffin sections, 18 patients with aganglionic megacolon were identified with the ACE preparation, relying primarily on a pattern of unusually thick and numerous nerve fibers within the muscularis mucosa.Twenty-five paraffin-embedded specimens were deemed uninterpretable because of absent or insufficient submucosa or because of location. The ACE-stained section, ho...
Nonhuman primate models of transplant tolerance: closer to the holy grail.

Purpose of reviewTransplantation tolerance, successful acceptance of an organ without the perils of immunosuppression, has been a central goal of transplant research. Many strategies to achieve this tolerance have been examined over the past three decades, culminating in several human trials of tran
Efficient GPU synchronization without scopes: saying no to complex consistency models

As GPUs have become increasingly general purpose, applications with more general sharing patterns and fine- grained synchronization have started to emerge. Unfortunately, conventional GPU coherence protocols are fairly simplistic, with heavyweight requirements for synchronization accesses. Prior work has tried to resolve these inefficiencies by adding scoped synchronization to conventional GPU coherence protocols, but the resulting memory consistency model, heterogeneous-race-free (HRF), is more complex than the common data-race-free (DRF) model. This work applies the DeNovo coherence protocol to GPUs and compares it with conventional GPU coherence under the DRF and HRF consistency models. The results show that the complexity of the HRF model is neither necessary nor sufficient to obtain high performance. DeNovo with DRF provides a sweet spot in performance, energy, overhead, and memory consistency model complexity.Specifically, for benchmarks with globally scoped fine-grained synchronization, compared to conventional GPU with HRF (GPU+HRF), DeNovo+DRF provides 28% lower execution time and 51% lower energy on average. For benchmarks with mostly locally scoped fine-grained synchronization, GPU+HRF is slightly better -- however, this advantage requires a more complex consistency model and is eliminated with a modest enhancement to DeNovo+DRF. Further, if HRF's complexity is deemed acceptable, then DeNovo+HRF is the best protocol.
Double Gel Diffusion/Ouchterlony Method

In the gel diffusion techniques, gels, usually clarified agar, are used as matrices for combining diffusion with precipitation. The reactants simply diffuse through the gel towards each other and precipitation results where the optimal antibody/antigen ratios have been reached. A single antigen will give rise to a single line of precipitation in the presence of its homologous antibody. When two antigens are present in a system, each behaves independently of the other. Thus, if several bands of precipitation are evident, there are at least that many antigen-antibody combinations present.
A Technical Analysis of Proposed Section 710

In general, a partner's distributive share takes its characterization from the activities of the venture. Proposed section 710 will rechararterize as compensation the distributive share of any partner who contributes services to the partnership. It also recharacterizes as a sale certain distributions of property to a service partner. This paper examines proposed section 710 in detail and concludes that it is poorly conceived and inappropriately implemented.
The Effects of Profile Pictures and Friends' Comments on Social Network Site Users' Body Image and Adherence to the Norm

Abstract This study sought to explore the effects of exposure to Facebook body ideal profile pictures and norm conforming comments on users' body image. In addition, the social identity and self-categorization theoretical frameworks were used to explore users' endorsement of a body ideal norm. A mock Facebook page was used to conduct a pretest posttest 2 × 2 between-group web-based experiment that featured body ideal profile pictures (body ideal vs. no body) and body ideal comments (conforming vs. nonconforming). Five hundred and one participants completed the experiment and passed all manipulation checks. Participants viewed pictures and comments on the status page and were able to leave their own comment before exiting. Results demonstrated no significant main effects. However, predispositional body satisfaction significantly moderated the relationship between body ideal pictures and body satisfaction. Most comments supported the body ideal norm. However, in support of self-categorization theory, partic...
Instabilities and Vorticity Shedding in Wall-Bounded Flows

Numerical solutions of the unsteady, twodimensional Navier-Stokes equations are considered for the flow induced by a thick-core vortex. The adverse pressure gradient imposed on the surface by the vortex leads to unsteady separation. In this investigation the presence and nature of two possible instabilities are considered that may arise during the unsteady separation process. The calculations by Brinckman & Walker (2001) 1 identify a possible instability in the region where unsteady separation occurs. Although the instability is likely physical, it appears to be removable with increased grid resolution. A second type of instability, which occurs earlier in time but at higher Reynolds numbers, is also observed. This instability appears to be of the Rayleigh type and requires viscous-inviscid interaction. The present results also suggest a mechanism of initiating vortex shedding in wall-bounded flows that is distinctly dierent from the inviscid mechanism observed in free-shear layers. This viscous mechanism involves periodic ejection of secondary vorticity from within the boundary layer, with each ejection shedding a vortex.
Direct Subsidy or Tax Break? The Impact of Loss Aversion in Choosing Incentives for Entrepreneurs.

Across three studies, we found that direct subsidies were more effective than tax breaks in encouraging prospective entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, people who were asked to choose the policy that woul...
Insights into longitudinal stent elongation phenomenon after high pressure additional post stent dilatation from bench testing

Objective: To evaluate how post stent dilatation with large balloons has impact on stent elongation. Methods: Four kind of stents (Fig1-b) were deployed into a silicon tube model; 10mm of one side of the stent was attached to the model wall and 10mm on the opposite side of the stent was free from the vessel wall (Fig1-a). Then, in each model, post stent dilatation (PD) (Fig1-b) was performed with four different kind of 3.5mm balloons at nominal (NP) and rated balloon pressure (RP). A total of 16 stents were tested, and difference of degree of stent elongation in the stent portion which was free from the wall (delta stent length) was measured and compared among different kind of stents and different kind of balloons. Furthermore, four kind of deployed stents were also dilated three times at RP to evaluate the impact of repeated dilataton on stent elongation. Result: Stent elongation was observed in all models. Delta stent length before and after PD at NP and RP were 0.41±0.15mm and 1.15±0.37mm, respectively. Compared with different four kind of stents, there was no significant difference in delta stent length before and after PD at both NP and RP (p=0.58, 0.96, respectively), however compared with different four kind of post dilatation balloons, significant difference in delta stent length before and after PD was observed at both NP and RP (p=0.016, <0.001, respectively). Moreover, repeated post dilatation led to delta stent length was getting longer in all stents, and the degree may also depends on difference kind of stents. ![Figure][1] Conclusion: Stent elongation after post stent dilatation was observed in this ex vivo model which may be mainly influenced by the type of post dilatation balloons and dilatation pressure. Repeated post dilatation may have an effect on aggravation of stent elongation. [1]: pending:yes
Mechanism for the magnetoresistance of Pure Bulk Ferromagnets and Composite Thin Film Structures

A unified explanation is given of the long-standing question of the origin of the low-field magnetoresistance, MR, behavior in pure ferromagnetics and the large magnetoresistance effects seen in magnetic layered and granular structures. It is shown that the main contributions to these effects are due to the scattering that occurs at the magnetic boundaries between non-aligned magnetic regions. This scattering occurs because the predominant conduction electrons in 3d ferromagnetics are the highly polarized itinerant d electrons. As a result of this polarization the majority-band d electrons are strongly reflected at an antiparallel magnetic boundary due to a lack of available states for occupancy. The traversing electrons are further scattered as they cross the boundary due to a discontinuity in the potential caused by the interchange of their kinetic and exchange energies at the boundary. Expressions for the magnetoresistance due to these scattering mechanisms are derived and shown to describe very well the wide variety of magnetoresistance values and other features found in the literature for both pure Fe and nano-structures of Fe or Co with non-magnetic materials. The MR magnitude is seen to vary inversely with the domain size. Thus the domain size and sample purity are seen to be the main factors that determine the magnitude of the MR effect in pure ferromagnets. The large MR values seen in layered and granular magnetic structures arise from the small effective domain size attainable in these structures. This is achieved by introducing a non-magnetic material into these structures which allows the effective domain size to be decreased from the micron range of the pure ferromagnetic elements into the nanometer range.
Oxygen vacancy enhanced room-temperature ferromagnetism in Sr3SnO/c-YSZ/Si (001) heterostructures

The magnetic properties of Sr3SnO (SSO) epitaxial thin films prepared under various post-growth annealing treatments are reported. The SSO films are grown on cubic yttria-stabilized zirconia Si (001) platform by pulsed laser deposition. Post-growth vacuum annealing is found to enhance the room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM), whereas oxygen annealing reduces it. The results are explained through the oxygen vacancy constituted bound magnetic polarons (BMP) model. An empirical relationship between the extracted BMP concentration and the oxygen vacancy concentration is shown using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data. The results indicate a promising way to tune RTFM by manipulating oxygen vacancies and related defects.
Oxidation of specifically labeled glucose by rat adipose tissue.

SummaryThe in vitro oxidation of glucose-1-C14 and glucose-6-C14 by liver and adipose tissues of the rat has been studied. 1) In adipose tissues from normal animals, the yield of C14O2 from glucose-6-C14 averaged about 18% of that obtained from glucose-1-C14, indicating the extensive occurrence of extraglycolytic catabolism of glucose. Liver slices from these animals showed a corresponding C14O2 ratio of 68%. 2) Starvation (from 18 to 192 hours) depressed the C14O2 yield from glucose-1-C14 without affecting the yield from glucose-6-C14 in adipose tissues. Similar changes were seen in adipose tissues from alloxan diabetic and cortisone-treated animals. In all these cases, the C-6/C-1 ratio was significantly elevated above normal. In the liver, prolonged starvation (96 to 192 hours) lowered the C14O2 yields from both substrates without affecting their ratio. Marked depressions of C14O2 yields were seen in diabetic livers, but no changes in C-6/C-1 ratio were evident in these, as well as in livers
Transfer of the methicillin resistance genomic island among staphylococci by conjugation.

Methicillin resistance creates a major obstacle for treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infections. The resistance gene, mecA, is carried on a large (20 kb to > 60 kb) genomic island, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), that excises from and inserts site-specifically into the staphylococcal chromosome. However, although SCCmec has been designated a mobile genetic element, a mechanism for its transfer has not been defined. Here we demonstrate the capture and conjugative transfer of excised SCCmec. SCCmec was captured on pGO400, a mupirocin-resistant derivative of the pGO1/pSK41 staphylococcal conjugative plasmid lineage, and pGO400::SCCmec (pRM27) was transferred by filter-mating into both homologous and heterologous S. aureus recipients representing a range of clonal complexes as well as S. epidermidis. The DNA sequence of pRM27 showed that SCCmec had been transferred in its entirety and that its capture had occurred by recombination between IS257/431 elements present on all SCCmec types and pGO1/pSK41 conjugative plasmids. The captured SCCmec excised from the plasmid and inserted site-specifically into the chromosomal att site of both an isogenic S. aureus and a S. epidermidis recipient. These studies describe a means by which methicillin resistance can be environmentally disseminated and a novel mechanism, IS-mediated recombination, for the capture and conjugative transfer of genomic islands.
EFFECT OF ICE ON SHORE DEVELOPMENT

During the course of investigations of ice forms on the Great Lakes bordering the state of Michigan, the writers had occasion to observe several shore areas under winter conditions. The following paper is a general consideration of these casual observations and includes suggestions of the probable relationship between ice conditions at the shore line and in the surf zone to the normal shore processes effective during the ice-free year.
The Study on Shanlan Wine Brewing Process Technology

The brewing process of Shanlan wine is studied by orthogonal experimental method,To explore the effects on the yield and quality of rice wine including the temperature of fermentation,the amount of Jiuqu,and the time of steaming rice,the best technology of Shanlan wine brewing is that steaming time is 30 min and Jiuqu addition is 1%,fermentation temperature is 28 ℃.
On Invariant Within Equivalence Coordinate System (IWECS) Transformations

In exploratory data analysis and data mining in the very common setting of a data set \(\mathbb{X}\) of vectors from \(\mathbb{R}^{d}\), the search for important features and artifacts of a geometrical nature is a leading focus. Here one must insist that such discoveries be invariant under selected changes of coordinates, at least within some specified equivalence relation on geometric structures. Otherwise, interesting findings could be merely artifacts of the coordinate system. To avoid such pitfalls, it is desirable to transform the data \(\mathbb{X}\) to an associated data cloud \(\mathbb{X}^{{\ast}}\) whose geometric structure may be viewed as intrinsic to the given data \(\mathbb{X}\) but also invariant in the desired sense. General treatments of such “invariant coordinate system” transformations have been developed from various perspectives. As a timely step, here we formulate a more structured and unifying framework for the relevant concepts. With this in hand, we develop results that clarify the roles of the so-called transformation-retransformation transformations. We illustrate by treating invariance properties of some outlyingness functions. Finally, we examine productive connections with maximal invariants.
Abstract LB-378: Ankyrin repeat domain 30A as a novel molecular marker of columnar alterations in benign breast disease and subsequent breast cancer in African American women

An estimated 1.6 million breast biopsies are performed annually in the United States, and the vast majority are benign. Benign breast disease is an established breast cancer risk factor for both Caucasian and African American women. Yet little is still known about benign breast tissue from African American women, who suffer from disproportionately high-grade tumors and poorer breast cancer survival. To better characterize the risk of breast cancer among African American women with benign breast disease, we assessed benign breast disease pathology of African American women in our metropolitan Detroit cohort (n = 3,737). We classified benign breast lesions for pathological characteristics and used logistic regression to estimate subsequent breast cancer risk with histological characteristics. We observed that women whose biopsies showed columnar alterations, columnar cell lesions of the breast, were 1.78-fold more likely to develop an invasive breast cancer [odds ratio (OR) 1.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19-2.65] after adjusting for age at biopsy, biopsy year, and overall impression. Columnar alterations were not found to be significantly associated with risk of developing ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) among African American women [OR 1.53, 95% CI 0.83-2.82]. Next, to identify molecular markers associated with columnar alterations in benign breast lesions, we performed gene expression analyses on biopsy tissues from 27 African American women that subsequently developed an invasive breast cancer. Transcriptional profiling of these lesions identified differentially expressed genes significantly associated with columnar alterations, including ankyrin repeat domain 30A (ANKRD30A). ANKRD30A, also known as NY-BR-1, is a mammary tissue-specific differentiation antigen that is overexpressed in breast cancers. Increased expression of ANKRD30A in benign breast lesions with columnar alterations may be indicative of subsequent breast cancer development. Taken together, novel molecular markers, including ANKRD30A, and ethnicity can lead to better risk assessment and earlier diagnosis of breast cancer. Citation Format: Andreana N. Holowatyj, Rouba Ali-Fehmi, Julie J. Ruterbusch, Eman Abdulfatah, Vishakha Pardeshi, Woodlyne Roquiz, Baraa Alosh, Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay, Derek Radisky, Michele L. Cote. Ankyrin repeat domain 30A as a novel molecular marker of columnar alterations in benign breast disease and subsequent breast cancer in African American women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-378.
Protein Structure-Function Relationship at Work: Learning from Myopathy Mutations of the Slow Skeletal Muscle Isoform of Troponin T.

Troponin T (TnT) is the sarcomeric thin filament anchoring subunit of the troponin complex in striated muscles. A nonsense mutation in exon 11 of the slow skeletal muscle isoform of TnT (ssTnT) gene (TNNT1) was found in the Amish populations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. This single nucleotide substitution causes a truncation of the ssTnT protein at Glu180 and the loss of the C-terminal tropomyosin (Tm)-binding site 2. As a consequence, it abolishes the myofilament integration of ssTnT and the loss of function causes an autosomal recessive nemaline myopathy (NM). More TNNT1 mutations have recently been reported in non-Amish ethnic groups with similar recessive NM phenotypes. A nonsense mutation in exon 9 truncates ssTnT at Ser108, deleting Tm-binding site 2 and a part of the middle region Tm-binding site 1. Two splicing site mutations result in truncation of ssTnT at Leu203 or deletion of the exon 14-encoded C-terminal end segment. Another splicing mutation causes an internal deletion of the 39 amino acids encoded by exon 8, partially damaging Tm-binding site 1. The three splicing mutations of TNNT1 all preserve the high affinity Tm-binding site 2 but still present recessive NM phenotypes. The molecular mechanisms for these mutations to cause myopathy provide interesting models to study and understand the structure-function relationship of TnT. This focused review summarizes the current knowledge of TnT isoform regulation, structure-function relationship of TnT and how various ssTnT mutations cause recessive NM, in order to promote in depth studies for further understanding the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of TNNT1 myopathies toward the development of effective treatments.□
Alcohol and dietary factors associate with gut integrity and inflammation in HIV-infected adults.

Objectives HIV-infected adults have heightened monocyte activation and inflammation, at least partially as a consequence of altered gut integrity. The role of dietary factors in microbial translocation and inflammation and their downstream effect on markers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) have not been explored. Our purpose was to describe the longitudinal dietary patterns of HIV-infected adults, and to examine the relationship between dietary intake, gut integrity, inflammation and subclinical markers of CVD in HIV-infected adults. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of 147 HIV-infected participants in a 96-week randomized clinical trial of rosuvastatin as primary CVD prevention. Dietary intake was assessed using dietary recall; plasma gut integrity, monocyte activation and inflammation markers were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); and CVD risk was assessed using carotid ultrasound and the coronary artery calcium score. Linear mixed models were used to analyse longitudinally measured biomarkers. Results The median age was 45 years and 78% of patients were male. At baseline, participants consumed a mean (standard deviation) of 108 (70) g of fat daily, 19 (15.6) g of fibre, 266 (186) g of carbohydrates and 15.6 (5.9) g of protein; 45% of the sample consumed alcohol. Over time, alcohol consumption was associated with several markers of gut integrity and inflammation (all P < 0.05). Conclusions HIV-infected adults in a contemporary, high-resource setting have poor dietary patterns. Alcohol use was associated with worse gut integrity and increased inflammation, while other aspects of diet (fibre, carbohydrates and fat) were not. These data add to growing evidence illustrating the need for a better understanding of the effect of lifestyle factors on comorbidities in HIV-infected adults.
Research in the Emergency Care Environment

The United States spends two trillion dollars annually on health care with as much as 15–20% being spent in acute care and emergency situations. Research is needed to inform evidence-based, efficient, and cost-effective patient care. Clear evidence is lacking for many treatments, especially in emergency care environment where research is logistically difficult. This chapter reviews the specific issues involved in implementing clinical trials and other research in emergency care environments. The chapter will also provide strategies for successful implementation, including strategies to improve recruitment and retention. Specifically, the chapter will deal with trial design, identification of subjects, development of multidisciplinary research teams, inclusion of prehospital agencies, informed consent process (including rationale and methods to implement exception from informed consent, protocols), and strategies to optimize subject and provider compliance as well as methods to improve subject follow-up.
Group decision making and social learning

Social learning or learning from actions of others is a key focus of microeconomics; it studies how individuals aggregate information in social networks. Following the seminal work of Aumann, a large literature studies the strategic interaction of agents in a social network, where they receive private information and act based upon that information while also observing the actions of each other. These observations are in turn informative about other agents' private signals; information that can be then used in making future decisions. By the same token, agents engage in group discussions to benefit from private information of others and come up with better decisions that aggregate every body's information as efficiently as possible.
Adding value to daily chest X-rays in the ICU through education, restricted daily orders and indication-based prompting.

Background Chest X-rays (CXRs) are traditionally obtained daily in all patients on invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in the intensive care unit (ICU). We sought to reduce overutilisation of CXRs obtained in the ICU, using a multifaceted intervention to eliminate automated daily studies. Methods We first educated ICU staff about the low diagnostic yield of automated daily CXRs, then removed the ‘daily’ option from the electronic health records-based ordering system, and added a query (CXR indicated or not indicated) to the ICU daily rounding checklist to prompt a CXR order when clinically warranted. We built a report from billing codes, focusing on all CXRs obtained on IMV census days in the medical (MICU) and surgical (SICU) ICUs, excluding the day of admission and days that a procedure warranting CXR was performed. This generated the number of CXRs obtained every 1000 ‘included’ ventilator days (IVDs), the latter defined as not having an ‘absolute’ clinical indication for CXR. Results The average monthly number of CXRs on an IVD decreased from 919±90 (95% CI 877 to 963) to 330±87 (95% CI 295 to 354) per 1000 IVDs in the MICU, and from 995±69 (95% CI 947 to 1055) to 649±133 (95% CI 593 to 697) in the SICU. This yielded an estimated 1830 to 2066 CXRs avoided over 2 years and an estimated annual savings of $191 600 to $224 200. There was no increase in reported adverse events. Conclusion ICUs can safely transition to a higher value strategy of indication-based chest imaging by educating staff, eliminating the ‘daily’ order option and adding a simplified prompt to avoid missing clinically indicated CXRs.
A Model for Decision Making Under the Influence of an Artificial Social Network

Decision making and the social processes that influence it are of great importance to many problems. The ways people make decisions can determine whether a new technology is successful, whether resources are allocated optimality, or how society responds to a crisis. In this paper, we propose a model for how these decisions can be influenced using modern information technology and social networks. Specifically, we study the use of artificial social networks to make influential users that are desirable to society as a whole. In real life, this would be achieved by the publication of “best users” by the authority behind the artificial network. Graphically, this creates a set of temporary edges from those users to other users. We first develop a general model for an abstract, general case. We then apply it to a specific case study in a smart grid. Our results suggest that the proposed methodology has the potential to move the equilibrium of a system to a more desirable state and that the degree of the improvement, as well as other, graph-theoretic characteristics, depends on the mathematics of the decision being made.
Promenading pairs of walking droplets: Dynamics and stability

An integrated experimental and theoretical investigation of the promenade mode, a bound state formed by a pair of droplets walking side by side on the surface of a vibrating fluid bath, highlights the role of bouncing phase adaptation in stabilizing the promenade mode.
The Bcl-2 Homology-3 Domain (BH3)-Only Proteins, Bid, DP5/Hrk, and BNip3L, Are Upregulated in Reactive Astrocytes of End-Stage Mutant SOD1 Mouse Spinal Cord

The molecular mechanisms leading to motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are unknown; however, several studies have provided evidence of a central role for intrinsic apoptosis. Bcl-2 homology-3 domain (BH3)-only proteins are pro-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family whose enhanced expression acts as a trigger for the intrinsic apoptotic cascade. Here, we compared the relative expression of BH3-only proteins in the spinal cord of end-stage G93A mutant SOD1 mice to age-matched wild-type (WT) mice. Large alpha motor neurons in lumbar spinal cord sections of both WT and end-stage mutant SOD1 mice stained positively for a number of BH3-only proteins; however, no discernible differences were observed in either the relative intensity of staining or number of BH3-immunoreactive motor neurons between WT and mutant SOD1 mice. On the other hand, we observed significantly enhanced staining for Bid, DP5/Hrk, and BNip3L in GFAP-positive astrocytes only in end-stage G93A mutant SOD1 spinal cord. Staining of additional end-stage G93A mutant SOD1 tissues showed specific upregulation of DP5/Hrk in lumbar spinal cord sections, but not in cerebellum or cortex. Finally, examination of protein expression using western blotting also revealed marked increases in DP5/Hrk and BNip3L in G93A mutant SOD1 lumbar spinal cord lysates compared to WT controls. The upregulation of a specific subset of BH3-only proteins, including Bid, DP5/Hrk, and BNip3L, in reactive astrocytes suggests that these proteins may execute a novel non-apoptotic function within astrocytes to promote ALS disease progression, thus providing a new potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Diverticular Perforation: A Fatal Complication to Forestall in Cushing Syndrome.

Context Patients taking exogenous glucocorticoids are at risk for gastrointestinal (GI) complications, including peptic ulcer disease with perforation and gastric bleeding. However, little is known about the GI comorbidity in patients with endogenous hypercortisolemia. Case descriptions We describe six patients with endogenous Cushing syndrome (CS) who developed sudden perforation of colonic diverticula necessitating urgent exploratory laparotomy. Most of these patients shared the following features of CS: skin thinning, severe hypercortisolemia (24-hour urinary free cortisol ≥10 times the upper limit of normal), ectopic secretion of ACTH, and severe hypokalemia. At the time of diagnosis of diverticular perforation (DP), these patients had minimal signs of peritonitis and lacked fever or marked leukocytosis. The diagnosis of DP was established by having a low threshold for obtaining an imaging study for evaluation of nonspecific abdominal pain. Conclusions Patients with CS can develop spontaneous surgical abdomen with rapid decompensation within hours. Prompt recognition is critical in the successful treatment of these patients.
Future of Rotary Blood Pumps

Since 1979, the physiological compatibilities of nonpulsatile blood pumps have been recognized as being the same as those of traditional pulsatile blood pumps when 20% higher blood flows are provided. If the physiological effects of nonpulsatile blood pumps are not inferior to those of pulsatile blood pumps, nonpulsatile rotary blood pumps offer many advantages over pulsatile blood pumps. They are simpler in their construction, with typically a single moving part, and they are simpler in their actuation and control due to their continuous operational mode. Since there is no limit to operational speeds, the pump can be made very small. The construction of rotary pumps only requires parts made of durable metal or ceramics and eliminates flexing elastomeric parts or valvular mechanisms. They not only are basically durable but also maintain stable effects against blood for long periods of time. For pulsatile blood pumps, the pumping chamber requires a flexing diaphragm. Due to flexing motions, the surface structure of the diaphragm is subjected to continuous changes. Thus, whether a blood clot will form on the surface cannot be predicted. However, with a rotary blood pump, once a two-week implantation does not produce any blood clots, it is generally thrombus-free for long periods of time. Thus, the rotary blood pump not only is potentially simple, safe, small, energy-efficient, and durable, but also is consistently physiologically compatible for long periods of time.
The influence of sterilization technique and ageing on the structure and morphology of medical-grade ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene.

The effects of four sterilization treatments (gamma radiation in nitrogen, electron-beam radiation, ethylene oxide gas, and no sterilization) on the structure and morphology of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were monitored as a function of ageing time in air for a period of 1.5 y. Characterization techniques employed include differential scanning calorimetry, density gradient column, transmission electron microscopy, and small-angle X-ray scattering. Ethylene oxide gas does not affect the structure of the polymer. Both forms of radiation lead to measurable alterations of the material's structure, including an increase in crystallinity, an increase in density, and the enhancement of lamellae crystalline stacking. Most changes in structure occur in the first few months with little differences observed upon subsequent ageing in air. The sharpness of the crystalline–amorphous boundaries decreases with time for irradiated UHMWPE and is believed to be linked to the oxidation of the polymer. © 1998 Chapman & Hall
Approximate-analytical solution of the diffusion, convection and reaction problem in homogeneous media.

In convex homogeneous domains, the diffusion, convection and reaction (DCR) problem may be solved by applying Green’s function solution technique. When this technique is applied, the solution to the DCR problem consists of the sum of a set of integrals whose integrands involve the Green’s function. The Green’s function is singular at the upper limit of the time integral and is nonuniformly convergent at the boundaries of the domain. Due to this behaviour, numerical evaluation of the integrals is prohibitively expensive and in some cases, the integrals are incorrectly evaluated. The method presented in this work circumvents all the difficulties inherent with the numerical quadrature of the intergrals and in preliminary case studies (in rectangular coordinates) has reduced the required computation time by up to five orders of magnitude while increasing the accuracy of the results by as much as eight orders of magnitude. The method involves transforming the function in the integrand, which multiplies the Green’s function, into a series of Legendre polynomials. The integral of the product of the Green’s function and Legendre polynomials can be evaluated analytically. This produces both a rapid and accurate evaluation of the integral and subsequently the solution to the DCR problem.
Algorithms and framework for computing 2-body statistics on GPUs

Various types of two-body statistics (2-BS) are regarded as essential components of low-level data analysis in scientific database systems. In relational algebraic terms, a 2-BS is essentially a Cartesian product between two datasets (or two instances of the same dataset) followed by a user-defined aggregate. The quadratic complexity of these computations hinders timely processing of data. Use of modern parallel hardware has thus become an obvious solution to meet such challenges. This paper presents our recent work on designing and optimizing parallel algorithms for 2-BS computation on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Although a typical 2-BS problem can be summarized into a straightforward parallel computing pattern, traditional knowledge from (general) parallel computing often falls short in delivering the best possible performance. Therefore, we present a suite of techniques to decompose 2-BS problems and methods for effective use of computing resources on GPUs. We also develop analytical models that guide us towards finding the best parameters of our GPU programs. As a result, we achieve the design of highly-optimized 2-BS algorithms that significantly outperform the best known GPU and CPU implementations. Although 2-BS problems share the same core computations, each 2-BS problem however carries its own characteristics that calls for different strategies in code optimization. For that, we develop a software framework that automatically generates high-performance GPU code based on a few parameters and short primer code input. We further present two case studies to demonstrate that code generated by this framework reaches a very high level of efficiency.