cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The pathologies associated with functional titration of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein α activity in mice

Phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITPs) bind phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) and phosphatidylcholine and play diverse roles in coordinating lipid metabolism/signaling with intracellular functions. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Genetic ablation of PITPα in mice results in neonatal lethality characterized by intestinal and hepatic steatosis, spinocerebellar neurodegeneration, and glucose homeostatic defects. We report that mice expressing a PITPα selectively ablated for PtdIns binding activity (PitpαT59D), as the sole source of PITPα, exhibit phenotypes that recapitulate those of authentic PITPα nullizygotes. Analyses of mice with graded reductions in PITPα activity reveal proportionately graded reductions in lifespan, demonstrate that intestinal steatosis and hypoglycemia are apparent only when PITPα protein levels are strongly reduced (⩾90%), and correlate steatotic and glucose homeostatic defects with cerebellar inflammatory disease. Finally, reconstitution of PITPα expression in the small intestine substantially corrects the chylomicron retention disease and cerebellar inflammation of Pitpα0/0 neonates, but does not rescue neonatal lethality in these animals. These data demonstrate that PtdIns binding is an essential functional property of PITPα in vivo, and suggest a causal linkage between defects in lipid transport and glucose homeostasis and cerebellar inflammatory disease. Finally, the data also demonstrate intrinsic neuronal deficits in PITPα-deficient mice that are independent of intestinal lipid transport defects and hypoglycemia.
Do agricultural pollutants affect competition between filter-feeding caddis fly larvae? Results of laboratory microcosm experiments.

Summary 1. Predictable changes in the composition of macroinvertebrate communities in response to non-point source pollution are the basis of macroinvertebrate community indices. However, other factors, such as biotic interactions, also affect the composition of macroinvertebrate communities and may complicate the interpretation of such indices by interacting with abiotic stressors. 2. The effect of agricultural pollutants on competition between two filter-feeding caddisflies, Brachycentrus appalachia and Hydropsyche spp. was studied in the laboratory using recirculating flow tanks. 3. Experiments were conducted at two densities of Hydropsyche: high (300 per tank) and low (80 per tank). Brachycentrus density was kept constant at 40 per tank in all experiments. Experiments assessed the effect of an agricultural pollutant mix (sand, cow-manure compost mix) and the presence of the competitor on both taxa. 4. The only negative response to pollutants was a larger number of Hydropsyche drifting in high-density tanks. In fact, at high densities, mortality of Hydropsyche was higher in controls than in tanks receiving pollutants. 5. Hydropsyche and B. appalachia competed for resources and the presence of pollution did not affect the outcome of this competition. The presence of high densities of Hydropsyche resulted in higher drift and lower condition of B. appalachia. At low densities of Hydropsyche, B. appalachia larvae suffered greater mortality and tended to be in poorer condition. Brachycentrus appalachia may be less successful at even moderate densities of Hydropsyche due to competition between these taxa, most likely for prime feeding positions. 6. Streams receiving non-point source pollution from agriculture may be able to support higher densities of Hydropsyche, which may further reduce the suitability of these habitats for B. appalachia. 7. This experimental study suggests that competition may complicate interpretation of biotic indices, as changes in benthic invertebrate community structure normally ascribed to pollution may arise from intra-specific competition.
The Boston Bowel Preparation Scale: A valid and reliable instrument for colonoscopy-oriented research

Background Few bowel-preparation rating scales have been validated. Most scales were intended for comparing oral purgatives and fail to account for washing and/or suctioning by the endoscopist. This limits their utility in studies of colonoscopy outcomes, such as polyp-detection rates. Objective To develop a valid and reliable scale for use in colonoscopy outcomes research. Setting Academic medical center. Methods We developed the Boston bowel preparation scale (BBPS), a 10-point scale that assesses bowel preparation after all cleansing maneuvers are completed by the endoscopist. We assessed interobserver and intraobserver reliability by using video footage of colonoscopies viewed on 2 separate occasions by 22 clinicians. We then applied the BBPS prospectively during screening colonoscopies and compared BBPS scores with clinically meaningful outcomes, including polyp-detection rates and procedure times. Results The intraclass correlation coefficient (a measure of interobserver reliability) for BBPS scores was 0.74. The weighted kappa (a measure of intraobserver reliability) for scores was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.66-0.87). During 633 screening colonoscopies, the mean (SD) BBPS score was 6.0 ± 1.6. Higher BBPS scores (≥5 vs P P P Limitations Single-center study. Conclusions The BBPS is a valid and reliable measure of bowel preparation. It may be well suited to colonoscopy outcomes research because it reflects the colon's cleanliness during the inspection phase of the procedure.
Comparison of centrifugation- and noncentrifugation-based techniques for recovery of motile human sperm in assisted reproduction.

To compare standard density gradient/centrifugation sperm preparation with a novel non-centrifugation-based dual-chamber capillary dish in efficiency for motile human sperm separation, ~3 mL fresh ejaculate specimens was obtained from 21 men (median age = 32 years, range = 26-42 years) undergoing infertility evaluation. For each specimen, half of the sample was processed with a standard 45%/90% density gradient preparation (PureSperm, Nidacon International, Gothenburg, Sweden) followed by semen analysis. The other half was incubated in the Zech glass capillary dish (Astromedtec, Salzburg, Austria) consisting of 2 concentric wells overlaid by a U-ring and coverglass. After ~3 h, a 1-mL sample was taken from the central chamber and analyzed. Percentage motile sperm recovery, absolute (motile) cell number, and path velocities were compared for spermatozoa obtained from both methods. Both techniques reduced overall sperm concentration while enriching specimens with more motile spermatozoa. A trend towards hig...
Wavetrain response of an excitable medium to local stochastic forcing

We consider the effect of stochastic forcing on a one-dimensional excitable reaction–diffusion system, where the noise only acts on a small subdomain of the medium. We show that there are distinguished scaling limits in which the stochastic forcing gives rise to a mean response of a periodic wavetrain of pulses which are deterministic in the limit. Thus, the system responds coherently and periodically to stochastic forcing. This is an instance of self-induced stochastic resonance, which has previously only been analysed for finite-dimensional systems.
Intraseasonal Air–Sea Interactions at the Onset of El Niño

Abstract The role of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) for the onset of El Nino is examined. A preliminary analysis compares tropical Pacific variability during three boreal winters that initially had similar distributions of sea surface temperature (SST). During the winter of 1996–97, strong MJO activity led to west Pacific cooling and central Pacific warming. Subsequently, convective activity migrated from the west Pacific into the central Pacific and the accompanying westerly surface wind anomalies promoted further central Pacific warming. Strong MJO activity was also evident during winter 1989–90 and the early stages of El Nino development were evident that winter with similar evolution to that during 1996–97. However, the development of El Nino was aborted in May 1990. It is speculated that a full El Nino did not develop during 1990 because the subsurface ocean structure would not support that development. The MJO was relatively quiescent during the winter of 1981–82. A strong El Nino developed dur...
Titanium Silicide/Titanium Nitride Full Metal Gates for Dual-Channel Gate-First CMOS

We demonstrate a thermally stable titanium silicide/titanium nitride (TiSi x /TiN) full metal gate (FMG) for dual-channel gate-first high- $k$ /metal gate complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology. Unlike prior tungsten-based FMG, the simple TiSi x /TiN gate electrode does not require any additional barrier layer preventing oxygen down-diffusion during high-temperature processing, as the TiSi x itself blocks oxygen. With HfO2-based gate dielectrics and without any oxygen scavenging scheme, we thus demonstrate a capacitance-equivalent thickness in inversion ( $T_{\mathrm {inv}})$ of 1.11 nm, corresponding to an equivalent oxide thickness of $\sim 0.7$ nm. Silicon channel nFET and silicon germanium channel pFET parametrics are similar to those of control devices utilizing a conventional a-Si/TiN metal-inserted poly-Si stack (MIPS) gate, while providing superior gate sheet resistance. By supplanting MIPS with such an FMG, we anticipate that contacted gate pitch can be scaled aggressively via reduced gate height and borderless source/drain contacts.
New guests for the cucurbit[8]uril host. Formation of G2H ternary complexes†

On the basis of the highly stable G2H (2 : 1) ternary complex formed by two methyl viologen cation radicals inside the cavity of cucurbit[8]uril, we prepared three monocationic 4-phenylpyridinium derivatives: 1-(hydroxyethyl)-4-phenyl-pyridinium (1+) bromide, 1-(octaethyleneglycol)-4-phenyl-pyridinium (2+) chloride, and 4-[4-(methoxymethoxy)phenyl]pyridinium (3+) iodide, as possible guests for 2 : 1 complexation inside cucurbit[8]uril. We also investigated a fourth monocationic guest (4+), in which a central vinylidene group is inserted to elongate the 4-phenyl-pyridinium residue. Using 1H NMR and UV–Vis spectroscopic data and mass spectrometric data, we obtained unequivocal evidence for the formation of G2H (2 : 1) ternary complexes in all cases. The stoichiometry of the complexes was further verified by continuous variation (Job) plots, and in some cases, high resolution ESI-MS spectrometric data. Diffusion coefficient measurements, using 1H NMR pulse gradient spin echo techniques, yielded values consistent with the formation and expected structures of the ternary complexes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ULTRASTRUCTURE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN OLPIDIOPSIS VARIANS

Light and electron microscopy of sexual reproduction in the endoparasite Olpidiopsis varians is discussed and compared with existing accounts of other oomycetous fungi. Thalli that develop sexually are smaller than thalli that develop apogamously. Oogonial thalli are attended by adjacent unicellular antheridial thalli and surrounded by a reticulate network of electron-opaque wall ornamentation. En? zymatic digestion revealed that the wall ornamentation is partially proteinaceous. Nuclear divisions, interpreted as meiotic, occur in the antheridium and oogonium prior to sexual fusion. Meiotic nuclei possess axial filaments during prophase I and a subsequent metaphase plate. The products of meiosis are four closely associated nuclei surrounding a dictyosome-ER complex. Some ofthe nuclei in sexually reproducing thalli degenerate during meiosis. Peripheral vacuoles within the antheridium expand and compress the cytoplasm while a pore develops between the antheridium and oogonium. The multi? nucleate antheridial cytoplasm enters the oogonium through the pore and retains its integrity for an undetermined period of time. A plug of wall material fills the antheridial/oogonial pore after sexual fusion. It is proposed that O. varians possesses a diploid life cycle with gametic meiosis.
Creating an Oasis in the Desert

Humans have modified the landscape of Planet Earth in many ways. This modification is nothing new—it began as the earliest humans started burning local grasslands to encourage new growth, tilling t...
Histiocytosis-X: an overview.

This article acts as an overview of this issue of Hematology/ Oncology Clinics of North America. We discuss the several themes that recur in the research and therefore in this issue concerning histiocytosis-X.
Study Progress of Interior Nitrobenzene Wastewater Treatment

Nitrobenzene is refractory and high toxicity,seriously harmful to human beings and the environment.In this report,advances on nitrobenzene wastewater treatment in recent years are reviewed,the principal treatment processes for nitrobenzene wastewater are introduced,such as physical,chemical and biological processes,as well as the future development orientation.
Infarct Size: Its Estimation and Modification

Clinical assessment of patients with acute myocardial infarction and evaluation of factors which may affect the prognosis have been hampered in the past by lack of adequate objective methods for estimating infarct size in vivo. Accordingly, stimulated by interest in protection of ischemic myocardium, several investigators have explored approaches to quantify the extent of myocardial injury. We have attempted to estimate infarct size (IS) in conscious dogs and in patients based on analysis of serial changes in plasma creatine Phosphokinase (CPK) activity. In initial studies, we assumed that the rate of change of plasma CPK activity after myocardial infarction reflected; 1) release of CPK from the heart, and 2) disappearance from the circulation according to first order kinetics with a constant fractional disappearance rate (kd). (1)
Utility of the intensive care unit in patients undergoing microvascular decompression: a multiinstitution comparative analysis

OBJECTIVE Use of the ICU during admission to a hospital is associated with a significant portion of the total health care costs for that stay. Patients undergoing microvascular decompression (MVD) for cranial neuralgias are routinely admitted postoperatively to the ICU for monitoring. The primary purpose of this study was to compare complication rates of patients with and without a postoperative ICU stay following MVD. The secondary intents were to identify predictors of complications, to analyze variables of health care resource utilization, and to estimate the cost of postoperative management. METHODS The authors performed a retrospective comparative analysis of consecutive patients undergoing MVD at 2 institutions. A total of 199 patients without a postoperative ICU stay from Institution A and 119 patients with an ICU stay from Institution B were reviewed. Inclusion criteria included any adult (i.e., 18 years of age or older) undergoing MVD for trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, or geniculate neuralgia. Patients with incomplete medical records were excluded. Medical comorbidities, intraoperative variables, complications, postoperative interventions, and variables indicating health care resource utilization were reviewed. RESULTS The study compared 190 patients without a postoperative ICU stay from Institution A with 90 patients with an ICU stay from Institution B. Seven patients without an ICU stay and 5 patients with an ICU stay experienced complications after surgery (p = 0.53). Multivariate analysis identified coronary artery disease to be a predictor of complications (p = 0.037, OR 6.23, 95% CI 1.12-34.63). Patients from Institution A without a postoperative ICU stay had a significantly shorter length of stay, by approximately 16 hours (p < 0.001), and received less postoperative imaging (p < 0.001, OR 14.39, 95% CI 7.75-26.74) and postoperative diagnostic testing (p < 0.001) than patients from Institution B with an ICU stay. Estimated cost savings in patients without an ICU stay and 1 less day of inpatient recovery was calculated as $1400 per patient. CONCLUSIONS Selective versus routine use of ICU care as well as postoperative imaging and diagnostic testing may be safe after MVD and can lead to a reduction in overall health care costs.
A method for confirming a third-party assay of I-125 seeds used for prostate implants.

The purpose of this work is to describe a method and apparatus that can be used to confirm the source strength of a large number of I-125 seeds while maintaining sterility, accuracy, reproducibility, and time efficiency. Source strengths ranging from 0.395 to 0.504 U/seed were available for this study. Three different seed configurations were measured: loose, linked, and loaded needles. A third-party 10% assay (NIST traceable) was provided. A custom stand was built out of aluminum to hold an exposure meter [Inovision (Fluke) 451P pressurized ion chamber] at 25 cm above the I-125 sources to measure the exposure rate. The measurements were made in an operating room, and a sterile sheet was placed under the nonsterile aluminum stand on a sterile loading table. Seeds and needles were placed in a sterile tray for these measurements. Two hundred and six loose seeds in six batches (0.395, 0.395, 0.409, 0.444, 0.444, and 0.444 U/seed) and 1434 seeds in 10 batches containing various strands (0.444, 0.444, 0.444, 0.444, .0444, 0.466, 0.466, 0.504, and 0.504 U/seed) were measured. For the loose and stranded seeds, the average exposure rate per unit activity was measured to be 0.589 mR/h·U with a standard deviation of 0.017. Loaded needles were measured with an average exposure rate per unit activity to be 0.269 mR/h·U with a standard deviation of 0.014. We conclude that the method described here is capable of confirming a third-party assay when performed on a large number of loose or stranded seeds in bulk. It is less reliable for preloaded needles.
Military veterans working in the Federal government: Why do they want to leave?

The federal government’s preference for hiring military veterans extends back to the U.S. Civil War and is still prevalent today as the military reduces personnel following the wars in Afghanistan ...
First-Principles Prediction of a Stable Hexagonal Phase of CH3NH3PbI3

Methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3 or MAPbI3) perovskite is a promising new photovoltaic material with high power conversion efficiency. However, its perovskite phase with corner-connected PbI6 octahedra shows poor environmental stability. More recently, MAPbI3 has been shown to be thermodynamically unstable with a positive formation enthalpy. Here, using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we predict a layered hexagonal phase of MAPbI3 consisting of infinite chains of face-shared PbI6 octahedra with P63mc space-group symmetry to be thermodynamically the most stable phase for a wide range of volume and temperature compared to any of the experimentally observed perovskite phases with a different tilt pattern of the corner-connected octahedra. The predicted hexagonal phase is also dynamically stable without any soft phonon modes. The change from corner to face-shared connectivity in the hexagonal phase leads to a predicted band gap of 2.6 eV and a band structure that favors highly a...
GTP: a central regulator of cellular anabolism.

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the hypothesis that GTP, possibly acting through high guanine nucleotide energy charge, acts to stimulate a wide variety of anabolic processes involved in growth and cell proliferation. It is, according to this view, a mediator of the pleiotropic response. There are five main types of evidence that support the proposed hypothesis: there is segregation of function between adenine nucleotides and nonadenine nucleotides of phylogenetically diverse organisms in which the nonadenine nucleotides are specifically involved in anabolic processes; a wide variety of anabolic processes show specific in vitro stimulation by GTP; GTP is involved in vivo in controlling sporulation of microorganisms; the stringent response in bacteria is fundamentally an anti-GTP response with the guanosine polyphosphates mediating the stringent response having influence opposite those produced by GTP; and finally, the documented role of GTP as an allosteric effector of glutamate dehydrogenase and other proteins suggest that GTP should be viewed as a regulatory compound.
Clara Louisa Penney, List of books printed before 1601 in the Library of the Hispanle Society of America. Offset reissue, with additions. The Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1955; xiv + 305 pp., 1 facs. (Hispanic notes & monographs, Catalogue series).

Se reseno el libro: List of books printed before 1601 in the Library of the Hispanle Society of America. Offset reissue, with additions.
Coming to Terms with Death: The Cruzan Case

The Supreme Court's decision in Cruzan incorrectly allowed the state of Missouri to intervene in Nancy Cruzan's family's surrogate decision to end life supports. The Court should have held that family members, when they remain close and caring, should be presumed to be the designated decision makers.
The Wide World of Molecular Profiling for Tumor Classification

Featured Article: Gene-expression profiles predict survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Beer DG, Kardia SL, Huang CC, Giordano TJ, Levin AM, Misek DE, et al. Nat Med 2002;8:816–24.2 As the past millennium was coming to an end and we were about to enter a new one, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) director issued a request for applications in which the scientific community was challenged to submit proposals “to harness the power of comprehensive molecular analysis technologies to make the classification of tumors vastly more informative.” The director invited investigators to form multidisciplinary research groups with proposals to exploit 1 or a related set of comprehensive molecular analysis technologies for the examination of tumor specimens. Together with a group of investigators at the University of Michigan, we submitted a proposal to exploit comprehensive gene expression and proteomic technologies to …
Recent advances in acute pain management: understanding the mechanisms of acute pain, the prescription of opioids, and the role of multimodal pain therapy.

In this review, we discuss advances in acute pain management, including the recent report of the joint American Pain Society and American Academy of Pain Medicine task force on the classification of acute pain, the role of psychosocial factors, multimodal pain management, new non-opioid therapy, and the effect of the “opioid epidemic”. In this regard, we propose that a fundamental principle in acute pain management is identifying patients who are most at risk and providing an “opioid free anesthesia and postoperative analgesia”. This can be achieved by using a multimodal approach that includes regional anesthesia and minimizing the dose and the duration of opioid prescription. This allows prescribing medications that work through different mechanisms. We shall also look at the recent pharmacologic and treatment advances made in acute pain and regional anesthesia.
Scattering of lossy dielectric surfaces in full wave simulation of Maxwell's equations with dense grid and neighborhood impedance boundary conditions

We are proposing a new numerical method for solving the scattering problem for a 1D random rough surface with a high dielectric constant using Method of Moments (MoM). For sea water at L band, the dielectric constant can be as large as 75 + 61i which will require the usage of a dense grid. Traditional MoM solution on dense grid will end up with solving an impedance matrix equation with very large condition number which will lead to a slow convergence rate. The proposed Neighborhood Impedance Boundary Condition (NIBC) has taken advantage of the band nature of the impedance matrix and related the surface electric field and magnetic field within a pre-selected threshold. Simulation results show that NIBC is both accurate and fast compared to benchmark solution or Impedance Boundary Condition (IBC).
Filifactor alocis manipulates human neutrophils affecting their ability to release neutrophil extracellular traps induced by PMA

Neutrophils operate at the site of injury or inflammation in the periodontal pocket to ensure periodontal health and clearance of bacterial pathogens. Filifactor alocis is recently identified as a potential periodontal pathogen, and in this study, we assessed the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), in response to the presence of the organism . NET formation by human neutrophils was not induced when challenged with F. alocis, independent of opsonization, viability, time, or bacterial dose. F. alocis also failed to induce NETs from TNF-α-primed neutrophils and did not induce the release of extracellular neutrophil elastase. However, significant NET induction was observed when neutrophils were challenged with Streptococcus gordonii or Peptoanaerobacter stomatis, In addition, co-infection studies revealed that the presence of F. alocis with S. gordonii or P. stomatis does not enhance or reduce NETs. Additionally, F. alocis failed to impact pre-formed NETs induced by either S. gordonii or P. stomatis. Pretreatment with F. alocis prior to stimulation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), S. gordonii, or P. stomatis revealed that the bacterium is capable of reducing only PMA but not S. gordonii or P. stomatis NET formation. These results indicate that F. alocis manipulates neutrophils, inhibiting the triggering of NET induction.
C. B. Macpherson: Philosopher or Radical Educator?

ABSTRACTPhillip Hansen’s Reconsidering C. B. Macpherson: From Possessive Individualism to Democratic Theory and Beyond has many virtues, principal among them the fact that it casts Macpherson’s thought in what to many will be the unfamiliar light of Continental critical theory. Doing so could broaden Macpherson’s audience to include those working within this tradition. What is less clear is whether casting Macpherson’s thought in this light will yield any new insights into his historical interpretations or his democratic theory. I argue that there may be reasons to doubt that it will.
The importance of the refractile body in expression of the killer trait in paramecium.

The refractile body found in and characteristic of Caedibacter spp. has for many years been implicated as an agent in expression of the killer trait in Paramecium biaurelia and Paramecium tetraurelia. Its role as an agent was recently confirmed by Dilts and Quackenbush (4).
Reciprocity in the development of Anglo-American medical ethics, 1765–1865

From the beginnings of recorded human history, ideals and ideas about values have been associated with the personal and professional activities of medical practitioners. The professional values can be classified best under the following four headings: (1) the education of medical practitioners, (2) consultations with other practitioners, (3) transactions between physicians and patients, and (4) relationships between medical practitioners and communities. During the one hundred years encompassed by this study, Anglo-American physicians experienced value changes within all four of these categories of interpersonal relationships (see [3], [8]). These changes are well illustrated by the ideals of three British physicians: John Gregory (1724–1773), Thomas Percival (1740–1804), and Michael Ryan (1800–1841).
Some Partial Differential Operators of Quantum Mechanics

In suitable units, the Hamiltonian H for a free particle is the kinetic energy -½∇2 in ℝ3. For a system of N identical particles, it is -½∇2 in ℝ n , with n = 3N. The Schrodinger Hamiltonian is obtained by adding a potential energy term. Self-adjoint versions of these operators are discussed in this chapter. In the case of just one particle (electron) in a Coulomb field (hydrogen-like atom), the relativistic (Dirac) Hamiltonian is also discussed.
Clinical Trials of Antihypertensive Agents

Clinical trials of the efficacy of new antihypertensive agents have two principal aims: to define the effective dose range for each drug and to establish its duration of action. There is no ideal trial design for dose ranging. The conventionally used parallel groups design is probably the most practical and allows estimates of response rates at each dose level. Crossover or ascending dose studies may generate dose-response curves that are more relevant clinically, but they are of far longer duration. Recent studies with automated whole-day blood pressure monitoring have shown that standard assumptions about drug duration of action may be misleading. This paper examines these issues and makes suggestions for refining some of the present approaches. We have also briefly looked at practical questions, including problems associated with the diagnosis of hypertension, patients previously on antihypertensive therapy, entry criteria for protocols, and unexpected placebo effects.
Village Fund Management in Manunggang Julu Village 2017, Southeast Padangsidimpuan Sub-District, Padangsidimpuan, Indonesia

The allocation of village fund is expected to be more optimal in increasing equitable development of village welfare through improving public services in the village, advancing the village economy, overcoming the development gap between villages and strengthening village communities as subjects of development. This paper intends to review and analyze the village fund management in 2017 in Manunggang Julu Village, Padangsidimpuan Sub-district, Southeast Padangsidimpuan. The method used in this writing is a literature review of secondary data collection techniques derived from books, research and journals. This paper concludes that village fund management is carried out on the priority of using funds with the principle of justice, community priority needs and village typology.
SP0199 CASE 2 DISCUSSANT: HOW TO TREAT DIFFICULT ILD

Background: ILD frequently results in progressive and irreversible destruction of the lung through scarring. Prompt therapy can help rescue lung function and prevent subsequent respiratory decline. This case will demonstrate the challenges inherent in diagnosing and managing interstitial lung disease in the context of connective tissue disease Objectives: To discuss typical presentation of CTD-ILD Review challenge of making diagnosis and choosing best treatment. Assess treatment options, duration of therapy and measurement of treatment response. Conclusion: A range of therapeutic options exist for CTD-ILD albeit with a paucity of trial data to support best practice. Accurate diagnosis of systemic disease, paired with careful assessment and monitoring of the respiratory system are vital in ensuring optimal management. Intravenous therapy is often necessary in advanced disease or for disease which proves refractory to oral immunosuppression. References: [1] Saunders P, Tsipouri V, Keir GJ, Ashby D, Flather MD, Parfrey H, Babalis D, Renzoni EA, Denton CP, Wells AU, Maher TM. Rituximab versus cyclophosphamide for the treatment of connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (RECITAL): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials2017; 18: 275. [2] Maher TM. Immunosuppression for connective tissue disease-related pulmonary disease. Seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine2014; 35: 265-273. Disclosure of Interests: Toby Maher Grant/research support from: Received funds from BI advisory board participation and conference travel. Received research funding and/or consulting fees or other remuneration from GSK, UCB, AstraZeneca, Roche, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Cipla, Prometic, and Sanumed. Toby Maher has, via his institution, received industry-academic funding from GlaxoSmithKline RD and has received consultancy fees from Galecto.
DeQA: On-Device Question Answering

Today there is no effective support for device-wide question answering on mobile devices. State-of-the-art QA models are deep learning behemoths designed for the cloud which run extremely slow and require more memory than available on phones. We present DeQA, a suite of latency- and memory- optimizations that adapts existing QA systems to run completely locally on mobile phones. Specifically, we design two latency optimizations that (1) stops processing documents if further processing cannot improve answer quality, and (2) identifies computation that does not depend on the question and moves it offline. These optimizations do not depend on the QA model internals and can be applied to several existing QA models. DeQA also implements a set of memory optimizations by (i) loading partial indexes in memory, (ii) working with smaller units of data, and (iii) replacing in-memory lookups with a key-value database. We use DeQA to port three state-of-the-art QA systems to the mobile device and evaluate over three datasets. The first is a large scale SQuAD dataset defined over Wikipedia collection. We also create two on-device QA datasets, one over a publicly available email data collection and the other using a cross-app data collection we obtain from two users. Our evaluations show that DeQA can run QA models with only a few hundred MBs of memory and provides at least 13x speedup on average on the mobile phone across all three datasets.% with less than a 1% drop in accuracy.
Cisgender Professional Counselors’ Experiences with Trans* Clients

AbstractDespite incessant discrimination that often leads to increased health disparities, trans* individuals are often hesitant to seek out mental health services due to fear of discrimination by ...
Development of a Microscopic Method to Identify Hemoglobin C Conditions for Use in Developing Countries

Hemoglobin C (HbC) is one of the most prevalent hemoglobinopathies worldwide along with HbS (sickle cell) and HbE. HbC disease (HbCC) produces mild symptoms but is a life-threatening disorder if inherited with HbS (HbSC). HbS and HbC are most prevalent in sub-Saharan countries underequipped to diagnose its presence through gold standard methods like electrophoresis, HPLC or isoelectric focusing. This study aims to create a simple and inexpensive method to identify the presence of HbC in human blood using limited resources with the potential to determine zygosity. HbC crystals that form when blood is incubated in a hypertonic salt solution become visible microscopically when stained with New Methylene Blue. The method was optimized by modifying the salt type, salt concentration, incubation time, and incubation temperature. The optimized method incubates RBCs in a 5x Dulbecco9s phosphate buffered saline (DPBS) at 37°C for 4 hours. Blood samples with the HbSC genotype yielded between 600-750 HbC crystals for every 1000 RBCs counted while negative control samples (AA) do not produce HbC crystals. Preliminary results indicate that AS samples produce between 80-150 HbC crystals/1,000 RBCs. Future studies will include testing of blood samples of AC, CC, SC, and AA genotypes to determine if the number of crystals that form using this method will differentiate genotype. If so, this inexpensive, simple, and relatively rapid method can be used to identify patients with HbC and determine genotype in underdeveloped countries where HbC is prevalent.
Growth and Thermal Characterization of TbAs Nanoparticles Grown by Inert Gas Condensation

Incorporation of lanthanide arsenide (Ln-As) nanoparticles in III–V semiconductor films can alter the optoelectronic properties of the nanocomposite thin film. We report the growth and characterization of TbAs nanoparticles grown by inert gas condensation. TbAs nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Thermogravimetric analysis of TbAs nanoparticles indicates arsenic volatilization occurred at approximately 240°C and formed Tb2O3 by 500°C. Using mass balance, the composition of the TbAs nanoparticle powder was calculated to be TbAs:As2O3 of 0.53:0.47. We speculate that, unlike bulk Ln-As, Ln-As nanoparticles may be thermally unstable at low temperatures.
Genome-Wide Profiling of Acquired Uniparental Disomy Reveals Prognostic Factors in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Abstract Acquired uniparental disomy (aUPD) leads to homozygosity facilitating identification of monoallelically expressed genes. We analyzed single-nucleotide polymorphism array-based genotyping data of 448 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas to determine the frequency and distribution of aUPD regions and their association with survival, as well as to gain a better understanding of their influence on the tumor genome. We used expression data from the same dataset to identify differentially expressed genes between groups with and without aUPD. Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were performed for survival analysis. We found that 82.14% of HNSCC samples carried aUPD; the most common regions were in chromosome 17p (31.25%), 9p (30.13%), and 9q (27.46%). In univariate analysis, five independent aUPD regions at chromosome 9p, two regions at chromosome 9q, and the CDKN2A region were associated with poor overall survival in all groups, including training and test sets and human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative samples. Forty-three genes in areas of aUPD including PD-L1 and CDKN2A were differentially expressed in samples with aUPD compared to samples without aUPD. In multivariable analysis, aUPD at the CDKN2A region was a significant predictor of overall survival in the whole cohort and in patients with HPV-negative HNSCC. aUPD at specific regions in the genome influences clinical outcomes of HNSCC and may be beneficial for selection of personalized therapy to prolong survival in patients with this disease.
MIMO Input Derivations, Optimizing Input Force Against Output Accuracy

Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) vibration testing is considered more representative of the true loading environment (flight or wind induced vibration) where the inputs are not through a single point. The derivation of N inputs for testing typically involves matching the response at M locations (outputs). This involves inversion of a N × M Transfer Functions (TRF) matrix corresponding to the N input and M output locations. The matrix inversion is affected by both mathematical and physical parameters (ill-conditioned matrix, structural modes, signal noise).
Targeting TRAF3IP2, Compared to Rab27, is More Effective in Suppressing the Development and Metastasis of Breast Cancer

Here we investigated the roles of Rab27a, a player in exosome release, and TRAF3IP2, an inflammatory mediator, in development and metastasis of breast cancer (BC) in vivo. Knockdown (KD) of Rab27a (MDAKDRab27a) or TRAF3IP2 (MDAKDTRAF3IP2) in triple negative MDA-MB231 cells reduced tumor growth by 70–97% compared to wild-type tumors (MDAw). While metastasis was detected in MDAw-injected animals, none was detected in MDAKDRab27a- or MDAKDTRAF3IP2-injected animals. Interestingly, micrometastasis was detected only in the MDAKDRab27a-injected group. In addition to inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis, silencing TRAF3IP2 disrupted inter-cellular inflammatory mediator-mediated communication with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) injected into contralateral mammary gland, evidenced by the lack of tumor growth at MSC-injected site. Of translational significance, treatment of pre-formed MDAw-tumors with a lentiviral-TRAF3IP2-shRNA not only regressed their size, but also prevented metastasis. These results demonstrate that while silencing Rab27a and TRAF3IP2 each inhibited tumor growth and metastasis, silencing TRAF3IP2 is more effective; targeting TRAF3IP2 inhibited tumor formation, regressed preformed tumors, and prevented both macro- and micrometastasis. Silencing TRAF3IP2 also blocked interaction between tumor cells and MSCs injected into the contralateral gland, as evidenced by the lack of tumor formation on MSCs injected site. These results identify TRAF3IP2 as a novel therapeutic target in BC.
A Flexible Framework for Secret Handshakes

In the society increasingly concerned with the erosion of privacy, privacy-preserving techniques are becoming very important. This motivates research in cryptographic techniques offering built-in privacy. A secret handshake is a protocol whereby participants establish a secure, anonymous and unobservable communication channel only if they are members of the same group. This type of “private” authentication is a valuable tool in the arsenal of privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques. Prior research focused on 2-party secret handshakes with one-time credentials. This paper breaks new ground on two accounts: (1) it shows how to obtain secure and efficient secret handshakes with reusable credentials, and (2) it represents the first treatment of group (or multi-party) secret handshakes, thus providing a natural extension to the secret handshake technology. An interesting new issue encountered in multi-party secret handshakes is the need to ensure that all parties are indeed distinct. (This is a real challenge since the parties cannot expose their identities.) We tackle this and other challenging issues in constructing GCD – a flexible framework for secret handshakes. The proposed GCD framework lends itself to many practical instantiations and offers several novel and appealing features such as self-distinction and strong anonymity with reusable credentials. In addition to describing the motivation and step-by-step construction of the framework, this paper provides a thorough security analysis and illustrates two concrete framework instantiations.
Comparing the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Depression Measures in an Outpatient Bariatric Clinic

Background Screening for depressive symptoms is important when evaluating bariatric surgery candidates, as worse outcomes can be seen with higher pre-surgical and post-surgical psychiatric comorbidities. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) are two widely used depression screening instruments. This study evaluated whether both instruments have similar performance in an outpatient bariatric surgery clinic setting.
Intermediate Dynamics for Engineers: A Unified Treatment of Newton-Euler and Lagrangian Mechanics

Part I. Dynamics of a Single Particle: 1. Kinematics of a particle 2. Kinetics of a particle 3. Lagrange's equations of motion for a single particle Part II. Dynamics of a System of Particles: 4. The equations of motion for a system of particles 5. Dynamics of systems of particles Part III. Dynamics of a Single Rigid Body: 6. Rotation tensors 7. Kinematics of rigid bodies 8. Constraints on and potentials for rigid bodies 9. Kinetics of a rigid body 10. Lagrange's equations of motion for a single rigid body Part IV. Systems of Rigid Bodies: 11. Introduction to multibody systems Appendix 1. Background on tensors Bibliography Index.
Time's Arrows and Quantum Measurement

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Irreversibility 3. Arrows of time 4. Correlating arrows of time 5. Two-time boundary conditions 6. Quantum measurements: cats, clouds and everything else 7. Existence of special states 8. Selection of special states 9. Abundance of special states 10. Experimental tests 11. Conclusions and outlook.
Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective

Comparison in the study of public administration a focus for comparison concepts of system transformation historical antecedents of national administrative systems administration in more developed nations - general characteristics and classicadministrative systems administration in more developed nations - some variations in administrative systems administration in less developed nations bureaucratic-prominent political regimes party-prominent political regimes an overview ofbureaucracies and political systems.
Discovering Semantic Proximity for Web Pages

Dynamic Nearness is a data mining algorithm that detects semantic relationships between objects in a database, based on access patterns. This approach can be applied to web pages to allow automatic dynamic reconfiguration of a web site. Worst-case storage requirements for the algorithm are quadratic (in the number of web pages), but practical reductions, such as ignoring a few long transactions that provide little information, drop storage requirements to linear. Thus, dynamic nearness scales to large systems. The methodology is validated via experiments run on a moderately-sized existing web site.
Advances in Radiation Therapy

Recent developments in radiation therapy have largely centered on the improvement in delivering radiation to a highly conformal target with high precision. The increased use of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has also introduced another dimension of treatment, potentially replacing surgery in select situations to aggressive treatment of oligometastatic disease to invoking a systemic response using immunomodulators. Simultaneously, advances in systemic therapy ranging from traditional chemotherapy regimens to targeted biologics, and more recently immune modulators, are rapidly affecting the field of radiation oncology. These advances rely on a synergy between significant improvements in radiation delivery, driven by image guidances and more conformal delivery or radiation, and a greater understanding of tumor biology. This chapter will focus on an understanding of advances in these areas and future directions for pediatric brain tumors levering these innovations.
Teaching Reading in the Math Classroom

(1991). Teaching Reading in the Math Classroom. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas: Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 162-164.
Violet: A Storage Stack for IOPS/Capacity Bifurcated Storage Environments

In this paper we describe a storage system called Violet that efficiently marries fine-grained host side data management with capacity optimized backend disk systems. Currently, for efficiency reasons, real-time analytics applications are forced to map their in-memory graph like data structures on to columnar databases or other intermediate disk friendly data structures when they are persisting these data structures to protect them from node failures. Violet provides efficient fine-grained end-to-end data management functionality that obviates the need to perform this intermediate mapping. Violet presents the following two key innovations that allow us to efficiently do this mapping between the finegrained host side data structures and capacity optimized backend disk system: 1) efficient identification of updates on the host that leverages hardware in-memory transaction mechanisms and 2) efficient streaming of fine-grained updates on to a disk using a new data structure called Fibonacci Array.
Segmentation and Image Analysis of Abnormal Lungs at CT: Current Approaches, Challenges, and Future Trends

The computer-based process of identifying the boundaries of lung from surrounding thoracic tissue on computed tomographic (CT) images, which is called segmentation, is a vital first step in radiologic pulmonary image analysis. Many algorithms and software platforms provide image segmentation routines for quantification of lung abnormalities; however, nearly all of the current image segmentation approaches apply well only if the lungs exhibit minimal or no pathologic conditions. When moderate to high amounts of disease or abnormalities with a challenging shape or appearance exist in the lungs, computer-aided detection systems may be highly likely to fail to depict those abnormal regions because of inaccurate segmentation methods. In particular, abnormalities such as pleural effusions, consolidations, and masses often cause inaccurate lung segmentation, which greatly limits the use of image processing methods in clinical and research contexts. In this review, a critical summary of the current methods for lung segmentation on CT images is provided, with special emphasis on the accuracy and performance of the methods in cases with abnormalities and cases with exemplary pathologic findings. The currently available segmentation methods can be divided into five major classes: (a) thresholding-based, (b) region-based, (c) shape-based, (d) neighboring anatomy-guided, and (e) machine learning-based methods. The feasibility of each class and its shortcomings are explained and illustrated with the most common lung abnormalities observed on CT images. In an overview, practical applications and evolving technologies combining the presented approaches for the practicing radiologist are detailed.