cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional iterative reconstruction algorithms with attenuation and geometric point response correction

A three-dimensional iterative reconstruction algorithm which incorporates models of the geometric point response in the projector-backprojector is presented for parallel, fan, and cone beam geometries. The algorithms have been tested on an IBM 3090-600S supercomputer. The iterative EM reconstruction algorithm is 50 times longer with geometric response and photon attenuation models than without modeling these physical effects. An improvement in image quality in the reconstruction of projection data collected from a single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging system has been observed. Significant improvements in image quality are obtained when the geometric point response and attenuation are appropriately compensated. It is observed that resolution is significantly improved with attenuation correction alone. Using phantom experiments, it is observed that the modeling of the spatial system response imposes a smoothing without loss of resolution. >
Backscattering enhancement of random discrete scatters of moderate sizes

The scattering of waves by particles of moderate size is nonisotropic. In this paper, the backscattering enhancement of scattering of waves by nonisotropic scatterers is studied. Multiple-scattering effects are included by examining the summation of all the ladder terms and all the cyclical terms. It is shown that if the observation angle is in the neighborhood of the backscattering direction, then both summations can be related to the unidirectional point-source Green’s function of the transport equation. For the case of small albedo or small optical thickness, the second-order theory is applied to calculate the Green’s function. The angular width of backscattering enhancement in this case is of the order of the coherent wave attenuation rate divided by the wave number. For the case of a large albedo and a large optical thickness, the diffusion approximation is used to calculate the Green’s function. For this case, the angular width is of the order of the transport rate divided by the wave number. The transport rate is equal to the product of the coherent wave-attenuation rate and 1 minus the mean cosine of the scattering angle. Hence the predicted angular width is substantially smaller for particles with dominant forward scattering and is shown to be in good agreement with experimental observations.
Grazing and Burning Japanese Brome (Bromus Japonicus) on Mixed Grass Rangelands

Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus Thunb. ex Murr.) is an introduced, annual cool-season grass adapted to the central and northern Great Plains. Japanese brome has negatively impacted perennial grasses and decreased seasonal animal gains. Prescribed spring burning and defoliation have been effective in reducing brome density or cover, but little information directly compares the two common strategies. The objectives of this study were to 1) compare annual spring burning and grazing to reduce Japanese brome populations; and 2) evaluate trends of vegetative composition and biomass in burned, grazed, and unburned rangelands infested with Japanese brome. Paddocks with Japanese brome were assigned to one of four treatments: 1) annual prescribed spring burning, 2) spring grazing, 3) a combination of annual spring burning and grazing, and 4) an idle control. Treatments were applied annually from 2000 to 2004. Japanese brome density was greatest in the idle control in all years, even when low winter and spring precipitation limited Japanese brome recruitment. Late spring Japanese brome density was similar in all treatments with grazing or burning in four of the five seasons. Spring burning resulted in less than 65% litter cover the last 3 years, whereas the idle control and spring grazing had over 80% litter cover the last 4 years. Western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii [Rydb.] A. Love) decreased with spring grazing in burned and unburned paddocks. Buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides [Nutt] J. T. Columbus) composition decreased in the idle control treatment. Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis [Willd. ex Kunth] Lag. ex Griffiths) and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula [Michx.] Torr.) composition varied by year. Even though annual burning and spring grazing were equally effective in limiting Japanese brome density and biomass compared to the idle control, Japanese brome was still present after 5 years, which indicates the difficulty of eradicating Japanese brome from ecosystems where it has become naturalized.
Facile Synthesis of Lithium Sulfide Nanocrystals for Use in Advanced Rechargeable Batteries

This work reports a new method of synthesizing anhydrous lithium sulfide (Li2S) nanocrystals and demonstrates their potential as cathode materials for advanced rechargeable batteries. Li2S is synthesized by reacting hydrogen sulfide (H2S) with lithium naphthalenide (Li-NAP), a thermodynamically spontaneous reaction that proceeds to completion rapidly at ambient temperature and pressure. The process completely removes H2S, a major industrial waste, while cogenerating 1,4-dihydronaphthalene, itself a value-added chemical that can be used as liquid fuel. The phase purity, morphology, and homogeneity of the resulting nanopowders were confirmed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The synthesized Li2S nanoparticles (100 nm) were assembled into cathodes, and their performance was compared to that of cathodes fabricated using commercial Li2S micropowders (1–5 μm). Electrochemical analyses demonstrated that the synthesized Li2S were superior in terms of (dis)charge capacity, cycling stability, o...
Draft Genome Sequence of Levilinea saccharolytica KIBI-1, a Member of the Chloroflexi Class Anaerolineae.

We report the draft genome sequence of Levilinea saccharolytica KIBI-1, a facultative anaerobic member of the Chloroflexi class Anaerolineae. While L. saccharolytica was characterized as an obligate anaerobe, genome analysis provides evidence for the presence of both aerobic respiration and partial denitrification pathways.
Enhancing graphene capacitance by nitrogen: effects of doping configuration and concentration

Recent experiments have shown that nitrogen doping enhances capacitance in carbon electrode supercapacitors. However, a detailed study of the effect of N-doping on capacitance is still lacking. In this paper, we study the doping concentration and the configuration effect on the electric double-layer (EDL) capacitance, quantum capacitance, and total capacitance. It is found that pyridinic and graphitic nitrogens can increase the total capacitance by increasing quantum capacitance, but pyrrolic configuration limits the total capacitance due to its much lower quantum capacitance than the other two configurations. We also find that, unlike the graphitic and pyridinic nitrogens, the pyrrolic configuration's quantum capacitance does not depend on the nitrogen concentration, which may explain why some capacitance versus voltage measurements of N-doped graphene exhibit a V-shaped curve similar to that of undoped graphene. Our investigation provides a deeper understanding of the capacitance enhancement of the N-doping effect in carbon electrodes and suggests a potentially effective way to optimize the capacitance by controlling the type of N-doping.
Human aldo-keto reductases and the metabolic activation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Aldo-keto reductases (AKRs) are promiscuous NAD(P)(H) dependent oxidoreductases implicated in the metabolic activation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These enzymes catalyze the oxidation of non-K-region trans-dihydrodiols to the corresponding o-quinones with the concomitant production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The PAH o-quinones are Michael acceptors and can form adducts but are also redox-active and enter into futile redox cycles to amplify ROS formation. Evidence exists to support this metabolic pathway in humans. The human recombinant AKR1A1 and AKR1C1–AKR1C4 enzymes all catalyze the oxidation of PAH trans-dihydrodiols to PAH o-quinones. Many human AKRs also catalyze the NADPH-dependent reduction of the o-quinone products to air-sensitive catechols, exacerbating ROS formation. Moreover, this pathway of PAH activation occurs in a panel of human lung cell lines, resulting in the production of ROS and oxidative DNA damage in the form of 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine. Using stable-isotope dil...
Cross-layer floorplan optimization for silicon photonic NoCs in many-core systems

Many-core chip architectures are now feasible, but the power consumption of electrical networks-on-chip does not scale well. Silicon photonic NoCs (PNoCs) are more scalable and power efficient, but floorplan optimization is challenging. Prior work optimizes PNoC floorplans through simultaneous place and route, but does not address cross-layer effects that span optical and electrical boundaries, chip thermal profiles, or effects of job scheduling policies. This paper proposes a more comprehensive, cross-layer optimization of the silicon PNoC and core cluster floorplan. Our simultaneous placement (locations of router groups and core clusters) and routing (waveguide layout) considers scheduling policy, thermal tuning, and heterogeneity in chip power profiles. The core of our optimizer is a mixed-integer linear programming formulation that minimizes NoC power, including (1) laser source power due to propagation, bend and crossing losses; (2) electrical and electrical-optical-electrical conversion power; and (3) thermal tuning power. Our experiments vary numbers of cores, optical data rate per wavelength, number of waveguides and other parameters to investigate scalability and tradeoffs through a large design space. We demonstrate how the optimal floorplan changes with cross-layer awareness: metrics of interest such as optimal waveguide length or thermal tuning power change significantly (up to 4X) based on power and utilization levels of cores, chip and cluster aspect ratio, and laser source sharing mechanism. Exploration of a large solution space is achieved with reasonable runtimes, and is perfectly parallelizable. Our optimizer thus affords designers with more accurate, cross-layer chip planning decision support to accelerate adoption of PNoC-based solutions.
Small Planetary Satellites: Deimos

We finish with perhaps one of the most challenging dynamical environments that can be encountered. That of a planetary satellite which has a strongly non-spherical shape. The prototypical examples of such satellites are the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. These bodies are also of significant scientific interest, if for no other reason than their formation and subsequent evolution persists as a significant scientific mystery. These bodies exist in a dynamical environment where both the strong tidal perturbations from the planet and their own non-spheroidal gravity fields combine to place stringent limits on feasible orbital operations at these bodies.
Penile Anomalies and Circumcision

A detailed examination of the phallus should include evaluation of preputial anatomy and retractability, meatal position, the presence of penile curvature, and other abnormal tissue or scarring. Pathologic phimosis is diagnosed if there is evidence of scarring and thickening or is symptomatic causing irritation and infection. If a phimotic prepuce is forcefully retracted and not returned to its anatomic position, paraphimosis can develop: a surgical emergency. For pathologic phimosis, treatment with steroid ointment or surgery is required. For routine circumcisions in the newborn period, a clamping device may be used, but a traditional sleeve circumcision under anesthesia is performed in the older patient or patient with a penile anomaly. Complications of circumcision include bleeding, glanular injury, epidermal inclusion cysts, penile skin bridges, and meatal stenosis, all of which could require surgical correction. Hypospadias has a wide spectrum of disease, and treatment should be offered if there is a likely functional or cosmetic benefit. For most distal hypospadias procedures, chordee is first evaluated and corrected. The urethroplasty is then performed using a variation of a urethral plate tubularization technique followed by skin reconstruction.
Advances in the care of children with lupus nephritis

The care of children with lupus nephritis (LN) has changed dramatically over the past 50 y. The majority of patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) develop LN. In the 1960's, prognosis in children was worse than in adults; therapies were limited and toxic. Nearly half of cases resulted in death within 2 y. Since this time, several diagnostic recommendations and disease-specific indices have been developed to assist physicians caring for patients with LN. Pediatric researchers are validating and adapting these indices and guidelines for the treatment of LN in cSLE. Classification systems, activity, and chronicity indices for kidney biopsy have been validated in pediatric cohorts in several countries. Implementation of contemporary immunosuppressive agents has reduced treatment toxicity and improved outcomes. Biomarkers sensitive to LN in children have been identified in the kidney, urine, and blood. Multi-institutional collaborative networks have formed to address the challenges of pediatric LN research. Considerable variation in evaluation and treatment has been addressed for proliferative forms of LN by development of consensus treatment practices. Patient survival at 5 y is now 95-97% and renal survival exceeds 90%. Moreover, international consensus exists for quality indicators for cSLE that consider the unique aspects of chronic disease in childhood.
Completions and Formal Power Series Extensions

This concluding chapter is concerned mainly with the behavior of the divisor class group under base change to the formal power series ring. It has been seen that Cl(A) → Cl(A[[T]]) is not always a bijection, even when A is factorial. Using the good functorial properties of the Picard group and its relation to the divisor class group, Danilov has studied the class of rings for which the homomorphism is a bijection. A fundamental concept is the Picard group of an open subscheme of Spec A. For example, the set of points in Spec A at which an (divisorial) ideal is invertible is open, and on this subscheme, the class of the ideal belongs to the Picard group. Using this simple property, it is possible to show that there is a natural splitting of the injection Cl(A) → Cl(A[[T]]).
Imaging Findings Within the First 12 Months of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

Purpose To correlate the imaging findings of treated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with explant pathology and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) response. Methods and Materials From 2007 to 2015, of 146 patients treated with liver SBRT for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A hepatocellular carcinoma, 10 were identified with inclusion criteria and had regular interval follow-up magnetic resonance imaging/triple phase computed tomography and explant pathology or declining AFP values for radiology-pathology response correlation. Reference standards for successful response were >90% necrosis on explant pathology or pretreatment AFP >75 ng/mL normalizing to Results There were 10 subjects with 10 treated HCCs, classified as 3 Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) 5a, 4 OPTN 5b, and 3 OPTN 5x. All had successfully treated HCCs, according to explant pathology or declining AFP. Four of 10 HCCs had persistent central arterial hyperenhancement 3 to 12 months after SBRT; persistent wash-out was common up to 12 months (9 of 10). Of 10 treated HCCs, 9 exhibited decreased size at 12 months. Liver parenchyma adjacent to the lesion showed early (3-6 months) hyperemia followed by late (6-12 months) capsular retraction and delayed enhancement. No patient had a significant decline in liver function. Conclusions In the absence of increasing size, persistent central arterial hyperenhancement and wash-out can occur within the first 12 months after SBRT in successfully treated HCCs and may not represent residual viable tumor. Liver parenchyma adjacent to the treated lesion showed inflammation followed by fibrosis, without significant change in hepatic function. Until a radiologic signature of tumor control is determined, freedom from local progression seems to be the best measure of HCC control after SBRT.
Targeted Searches for Novel Peptides in Big Mass Spectrometry Data Sets

We present Post-Acquisition Targeted Searches (PATS), an easy-to-use tool that allows the identification of novel peptide/protein sequences from existing big mass spectrometry data sets. PATS filters out the unrelated peptidome before the time-consuming database search to significantly speed up the identification. Using interactome data sets, PATS visualizes protein interaction network and helps to assign putative functions to the target protein based on the guilt-by-association concept.
Postfledging Survival and Habitat Use of Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) in an Urban Park

i Acknowledgements iii List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Postfledging survival of Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) near urban park edges: evidence for an ecological trap 7 Chapter 3: Habitat use of postfledging Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) in an urban park .........45 Chapter 4: Conclusions 69 References 73
BJT Modeling with VBIC

The SPICE Gummel-Poon model has served the IC industry well, however it is not sufficiently accurate for design in modern bipolar and BiCMOS technologies. This tutorial reviews the VBIC model, and highlights its main features: improved Earlyeffect modeling, parasitic substrate transistor modeling, quasi-saturation modeling, improved temperature modeling, impact ionization modeling, and electrothermal modeling.
Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction with Treatment of Low-risk Pulmonary Embolism.

Author(s): Simon, Laura E.; Iskin, Hilary R.; Vemula, Ridhima; Huang, Jie; Rauchwerger, Adina S.; Reed, Mary E.; Ballard, Dustin W.; Vinson, David R. | Abstract: Introduction: Many emergency department (ED) patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) who meet low-risk criteria may be eligible for a short length of stay (LOS) (l24 hours), with expedited discharge home either directly from the ED or after a brief observation or hospitalization. We describe the association between expedited discharge and site of discharge on care satisfaction and quality of life (QOL) among patients with low-risk PE (PE Severity Index [PESI] Classes I-III).Methods: This phone survey was conducted from September 2014 through April 2015 as part of a retrospective cohort study across 21 community EDs in Northern California. We surveyed low-risk patients with acute PE, treated predominantly with enoxaparin bridging and warfarin. All eligible patients were called 2-8 weeks after their index E D visit. PE-specific, patient-satisfaction questions addressed overall care, discharge instruction clarity, and LOS. We scored physical and mental QOL using a modified version of the validated Short Form Health Survey. Satisfaction and QOL were compared by LOS. For those with expedited discharge, we compared responses by site of discharge: ED vs. hospital, which included ED-based observation units. We used chi-square and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests as indicated.Results: Survey response rate was 82.3% (424 of 515 eligible patients). Median age of respondents was 64 years; 47.4% were male. Of the 145 patients (34.2%) with a LOSl24 hours, 65 (44.8%) were discharged home from the ED. Of all patients, 8 9.6% were satisfied with their overall care and 94.1% found instructions clear. Sixty-six percent were satisfied with their LOS, whereas 17.5% would have preferred a shorter LOS and 16.5% a longer LOS. There were no significant differences in satisfaction between patients with LOSl24 hours vs. ≥24 hours (pg0.13 for all). Physical QOL scores were significantly higher for expedited-discharge patients (p=0.01). Patients with expedited discharge home from the ED vs. the hospital had no significant difference in satisfaction (pg0.20 for all) or QOL (pg0.19 for all).Conclusion: ED patients with low-risk PE reported high satisfaction with their care in follow-up surveys. Expedited discharge (l24 hours) and site of discharge were not associated with differences in patient satisfaction.
The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go it Alone: Joseph S. Nye, Jr.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 222 pages

International history unfolds in distinct eras. The task of policymakers, analysts, and scholars is to make sense of the main and defining characteristics of an era such that successful foreign pol...
Meeting Transcription Using Virtual Microphone Arrays.

We describe a system that generates speaker-annotated transcripts of meetings by using a virtual microphone array, a set of spatially distributed asynchronous recording devices such as laptops and mobile phones. The system is composed of continuous audio stream alignment, blind beamforming, speech recognition, speaker diarization using prior speaker information, and system combination. When utilizing seven input audio streams, our system achieves a word error rate (WER) of 22.3% and comes within 3% of the close-talking microphone WER on the non-overlapping speech segments. The speaker-attributed WER (SAWER) is 26.7%. The relative gains in SAWER over the single-device system are 14.8%, 20.3%, and 22.4% for three, five, and seven microphones, respectively. The presented system achieves a 13.6% diarization error rate when 10% of the speech duration contains more than one speaker. The contribution of each component to the overall performance is also investigated, and we validate the system with experiments on the NIST RT-07 conference meeting test set.
Nivo-lution in mesothelioma

The MERIT study was a single-arm, phase II clinical trial of nivolumab for the second- or third-line treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma in Japan. MERIT confirmed that PD-1 inhibition has activity in mesothelioma and led to the regulatory approval of nivolumab for the treatment of mesothelioma in Japan.See related article by Okada et al., p. 5485.
A multi-fidelity information-fusion approach to machine learn and predict polymer bandgap

Abstract The fidelity of data is of paramount importance in the construction of reliable and accurate machine learning (ML) models. Low-fidelity data, although noisy, can usually be obtained for a large number of material samples. High-fidelity data, on the other hand, is time-consuming and oftentimes, only available for a limited number of target samples. While the former can provide useful information to help generalize the ML models over large materials space, the latter is useful to build more accurate surrogate models. Information fusion schemes that utilize the data available at multiple levels of fidelity can outperform traditional single fidelity based ML methods, such as Gaussian process regression. In this work, a variant of the multi-fidelity information fusion scheme, namely multi-fidelity co-kriging, is used to build powerful prediction models of polymer bandgaps. To benchmark this strategy, we utilize a bandgap dataset of 382 polymers, obtained at two levels of fidelity: using the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlational functional (“low-fidelity”) and the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE06) functional(“high-fidelity”) of density functional theory. The multi-fidelity model, trained on both PBE and HSE06 data, outperforms a single-fidelity Gaussian process regression model trained on just HSE06 band-gaps in a number of scenarios and is also able to generalize better to a more diverse chemical space.
T-cell lymphoma secondary to checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Background Murine model suggests programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), an immune checkpoint not only plays role in tumor escape but is also a tumor suppressor for T-cells. But until, no reports of secondary T-cell lymphoma postuse of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has been reported. Herein, we present a hitherto unreported phenomenon of secondary T-cell lymphoma when PD-1 inhibitor was used in a patient diagnosed with a tumor of epithelial origin. Case report A man in mid-70s presented with biopsy-proven metastatic tumor of epithelial origin. Patient received carboplatin in combination with paclitaxel for four cycles leading to partial remission. The patient was subsequently switched to pembrolizumab due to persistent disease in the mediastinum. After four cycles of PD-1 inhibitor, patient presented with progression of disease and was diagnosed with biopsy-proven peripheral T-cell lymphoma-not otherwise specified. Based on the reported tumor suppressor function of PD-1 in murine models, we hypothesized that the use of PD-1 inhibitor caused clonal proliferation of abnormal T-cell clone leading to T-cell lymphoma. T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing was performed by TCRβ sequencing and T-cell clones from pre-ICI treatment specimen were compared with post-ICI treatment specimens. We show that one of the T-cell clones present in pre-ICI treatment specimen at a low frequency of had massive expansion to become most dominant clone in post-ICI treatment specimens leading to lymphoma. Moreover, targeted exome sequencing revealed a new TET2 mutation in the clone representing the lymphoma. Next, we retrospectively reviewed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS), the pharmacovigilance database from 2012 to 2018 to find the reported incidence of this phenomenon and calculated the reporting OR (ROR) for disproportionality analysis for risk of T-cell lymphoma due to checkpoint inhibitors compared with other drugs. In FAERS, the incidence of T-cell lymphoma post-ICIs (pembrolizumab, nivolumab and ipilimumab) was found to be 0.02% with 17% mortality. The ROR probability of risk of T-cell lymphoma compared with other drugs in pharmacovigilance database was increased at 1.91. Conclusions T-cell lymphoma is a rare sequela of ICIs with high mortality. Larger studies with long-term follow-up of patients receiving ICIs is needed.
Feral horses are associated with a decline in a rare semi-arid grassland plant

Abstract Physaria lesicii (Rollins) O'Kane & Al-Shehbaz is a globally rare plant known from only three populations in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana, USA, an area subjected to grazing by feral horses for at least 100 years. The purpose of this study was to determine effects of trampling by feral horses on this rare plant. I measured density of P. lesicii plants in 33 paired on- and off-trail sample plots at the one of three known populations in a semi-arid habitat where horse trailing was prevalent. I also determined the strength of the association between the presence of presumed nurse plants and P. lesicii at two different populations. Density of P. lesicii plants was approximately four times as great in grassland than on adjacent trails. There was a significant association between the presence of potential nurse plants (canopy cover) and P. lesicii density only at the lower, presumably more stressful site. These results indicate that feral horse trampling has resulted in a significant decline in the number of P. lesicii plants where horses are most abundant and suggest that loss of nurse plants may partly explain this decline.
Independent and joint associations of race/ethnicity and educational attainment with sleep-related symptoms in a population-based US sample.

Objective Prior studies have documented disparities in short and long sleep duration, excessive daytime sleepiness, and insomnia by educational attainment and race/ethnicity separately. We examined both independent and interactive effects of these factors with a broader range of sleep indicators in a racially/ethnically diverse sample.
Identifying Leafhopper Targets for Controlling Aster Yellows in Carrots and Celery

Aster yellows phytoplasma (Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris) is a multi-host plant pathogen and is transmitted by at least 24 leafhopper species. Pathogen management is complex and requires a thorough understanding of vector dynamics. In the American Midwest, aster yellows is of great concern for vegetable farmers who focus on controlling one vector, Macrosteles quadrilineatus-the aster leafhopper. However, vegetable-associated leafhopper communities can be diverse. To investigate whether additional species are important aster yellows vectors, we surveyed leafhopper communities at commercial celery and carrot farms in Michigan from 2018 to 2019 and conducted real-time PCR to determine infection status. Leafhoppers were collected within crop fields and field edges and identified with DNA barcoding. Overall, we collected 5049 leafhoppers, with the most abundant species being M. quadrilineatus (57%) and Empoasca fabae-the potato leafhopper (23%). Our results revealed the most abundant aster yellows vector in Michigan in both crops is M. quadrilineatus, but we also found that E. fabae may be a potential vector for this pathogen. While several taxa reside in and near these crops, we did not find strong evidence that they contribute to phytoplasma infection. These findings indicate that M. quadrilineatus should be the primary target for controlling this pathogen.
Essential and sex-specific effects of mGluR5 in ventromedial hypothalamus regulating estrogen signaling and glucose balance

The ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) plays chief roles regulating energy and glucose homeostasis and is sexually dimorphic. We discovered that expression of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) in the VMH is regulated by caloric status in normal mice and reduced in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mutants, which are severely obese and have diminished glucose balance control. These findings led us to investigate whether mGluR5 might act downstream of BDNF to critically regulate VMH neuronal activity and metabolic function. We found that mGluR5 depletion in VMH SF1 neurons did not affect energy balance regulation. However, it significantly impaired insulin sensitivity, glycemic control, lipid metabolism, and sympathetic output in females but not in males. These sex-specific deficits are linked to reductions in intrinsic excitability and firing rate of SF1 neurons. Abnormal excitatory and inhibitory synapse assembly and elevated expression of the GABAergic synthetic enzyme GAD67 also cooperate to decrease and potentiate the synaptic excitatory and inhibitory tone onto mutant SF1 neurons, respectively. Notably, these alterations arise from disrupted functional interactions of mGluR5 with estrogen receptors that switch the normally positive effects of estrogen on SF1 neuronal activity and glucose balance control to paradoxical and detrimental. The collective data inform an essential central mechanism regulating metabolic function in females and underlying the protective effects of estrogen against metabolic disease.
Numerical simulation and optimization study of the complex fracture network in naturally fractured reservoirs

Abstract Multi-fractured horizontal wells are widely used for unconventional reservoir development since the hydraulic fracture (HF) could stimulate natural fractures (NF) to form a complex fracture network (CFN), which will significantly increase the productivity. So accurately characterizing and optimally designing the fracture network configuration are essential to unconventional reservoir development. Facing this urgent request, a numerical study for the complex fracture network is proposed. The displacement discontinuity method (DDM), together with the fluid flow function, is adopted to simulate the HF dynamic propagation which couples the rock and fluid mechanics. A power-law function is adopted to describe the distribution of natural fractures. Then a fracture crossing criterion is used to determine the interaction of HF and NF to simulate the CFN configuration. Based on the CFN numerical model, the effects of different operational and geological parameters, such as the HF spacing and various NF distribution fields, are investigated. Furthermore, a CFN optimization framework is established to achieve the optimal design of CFN under complex geological conditions, in which a clustering-loop method together with a whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is employed to maintain the accuracy while reducing the calculation time. Multiple CFN placement methods are simulated and optimized and the optimal CFN under a complex naturally fractured reservoir is finally obtained. This numerical simulation and optimization approach makes an effort to the study of CFN configuration and unconventional reservoir development.
Abstract LB-341: Circulating exosomal microRNAs as promising early biomarkers of neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in breast cancer

Objective: Early prediction of patient response to chemotherapy can facilitate opportunities to avoid inefficient treatment and related toxicity. Cancer cells secrete a large amount of exosomes that contain various molecular constituents reflecting the originating tumor. This study aimed to examine whether circulating exosomal microRNA profile can predict the pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Method: Plasma exosomal microRNAs of 20 breast cancer patients treated with adriamycin/cyclophosphamide (60/600 mg/m2 of body surface area) neoadjuvant chemotherapy were extracted prior to and after the first chemotherapy cycle. The pathological response was classified into pCR and non-pCR by histopathological analysis after breast surgery. Exosomal miRNAs were extracted from plasma and analyzed by next generation sequencing (NGS) using Illumina high-throughput RNA sequencing technology. Sequence data were converted to FASTQ files and analyzed using CLC Genomics Workbench version 12.02 (Qiagen). Unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) were extracted and grouped into unique search sequences according to exact sequence of the small RNA sequence and the UMI. Reads were then mapped to MiRNA database miRbase v22 and quantified using the QIAseq miRNA Quantification workflow, which utilizes the RNA-seq Analysis tools in CLC Genomics Workbench (version 12.0.2). The unmapped reads from the quantifying step were then extracted and mapped to human genome GRCh38 using annotation hg38. Samples were analyzed for differential expression using the exact test in the CLC Genomics Workbench suite of Transcriptomics tools. Analysis included Principal Component Analysis, Unsupervised Clustering and Heat Maps, Empirical analysis of gene expression, and volcano plots of the expression difference between groups. miRNAs with post-treatment versus pre-treatment fold change (FC) > 1.5 and false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted p-value 2, FDR=0.0003) in the group of patients with pCR, while 3 miRNAs (hsa-miR-34a-5p, hsa-miR-183-5p, and hsa-miR-182-5p) were significantly upregulated in the group of patients with non-pCR (FC>1.5, FDR Citation Format: Valentina K. Todorova, Stephanie Byrum, Allen Gies, Issam Makhoul. Circulating exosomal microRNAs as promising early biomarkers of neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-341.
USE OF AN UPPER EXTREMITY FUNCTIONAL TESTING ALGORITHM TO DETERMINE RETURN TO PLAY READINESS IN COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL PLAYERS: A CASE SERIES.

Background/purpose Return to play decision making for upper extremity injuries is challenging due to a lack of evidence-based protocols and testing. Current guidelines utilize tests and measures with minimal evidence on re-injury risks and prediction. The purpose of this case series is to highlight a functional testing algorithm for upper extremities injuries and the outcomes for the patients that followed it. Study design Case series. Case descriptions Six subjects (18 - 21 years old) who underwent shoulder capsulolabral repair secondary to recurrent instability and/or unyielding pain are included. All subjects underwent a criterion-based rehabilitation program before being assessed with the authors' upper extremity functional testing algorithm. The upper extremity functional testing algorithm consists of measures of active range of motion (AROM), passive range of motion (PROM), peak isometric force, a fatigue testing battery, and the closed kinetic chain upper extremity stability test (CKCUEST) to assess readiness for return to sport. Outcomes All athletes achieved > 90% symmetry on at least two out of three tests during a fatigue testing protocol and at least 25 touches on the CKCUEST. All of the athletes returned to unrestricted football the season following surgical intervention. None of the athletes sustained an additional glenohumeral subluxation, dislocation, or upper extremity injury requiring surgical intervention for the remainder of their athletic careers (six years). Discussion The presented cases help to illustrate the effectiveness of the upper extremity functional testing algorithm to assess return to sport readiness for male collegiate football athletes. The algorithm included testing of AROM/PROM and strength that is typically used, but also included the CKCUEST and fatigue testing to further challenge and assess the upper extremity prior to returning to sports. Level of evidence 4.
Do you trust your recommendations? an exploration of security and privacy issues in recommender systems

Recommender systems are widely used to help deal with the problem of information overload. However, recommenders raise serious privacy and security issues. The personal information collected by recommenders raises the risk of unwanted exposure of that information. Also, malicious users can bias or sabotage the recommendations that are provided to other users. This paper raises important research questions in three topics relating to exposure and bias in recommender systems: the value and risks of the preference information shared with a recommender, the effectiveness of shilling attacks designed to bias a recommender, and the issues involved in distributed or peer-to-peer recommenders. The goal of the paper is to bring these questions to the attention of the information and communication security community, to invite their expertise in addressing them.
Nonphotoreactivating Repair of Ultraviolet Light-Damaged Micrococcus lysodeikticus Cells

Elder, Robert L. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.), and Roland F. Beers, Jr. Nonphotoreactivating repair of ultraviolet light-damaged Micrococcus lysodeikticus cells. J. Bacteriol. 89:1225–1230. 1965.—Micrococcus lysodeikticus cells are highly resistant to ultraviolet radiation. The shape of the dose-survival curve is consistent with the presence of a repair mechanism. The presence of nontoxic doses of dinitrophenol (0.1 mm) or iodoacetate (1 mm) before or after radiation decreases the survival number and the initial lag in the dose-kill curve. The extent of decrease in survival after postradiation treatment with these compounds is dependent upon both time and temperature. Organisms that survive radiation show a prolonged lag phase before multiplying. No photoreactivation of the radiated cells can be demonstrated. Ultraviolet-radiated phage show a higher inactivation when plated on host cells of M. lysodeikticus treated with dinitrophenol at concentrations which do not affect the infectivity of nonradiated phage. The resistance of these cells to ultraviolet radiation is the result of a very efficient dark-cell repair mechanism that can be blocked by iodoacetate or dinitrophenol.
Decrypting the Fourth Amendment: Warrantless NSA Surveillance and the Enhanced Expectation of Privacy Provided by Encrypted Voice Over Protocol

Information to, from, and about U.S. persons routinely conies into the possession of the National Security Agency (the "NSA") through the lawful warrantless surveillance of foreign persons abroad. The NSA's internal administrative guidelines allow such information to be disseminated to law enforcement if it evinces any criminal conduct on the part of the U.S. person. This information may therefore be used to initiate domestic criminal investigations against U.S. citizens and other protected persons despite the fact that no warrant authorized the initial surveillance. The NSA's guidelines contain no qualification as to the type of criminal offense that may be revealed, and no consideration of the individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. Using encrypted Internet telephony as an example, this Article proposes a change to the NSA's internal guidelines that would prevent dissemination of information gained through the frustration of the reasonable privacy expectations of protected persons unless exigent circumstances or serious threats to national security were presented. * LL.M., New York University School of Law (2006); cum laude, Washington and Lee University School of Law (2003). Member of the District of Columbia Bar, This Article was written in conjunction with the 2005 Law and Security Colloquium at New York University School of Law. I would like to thank Noah Feldman, Stephen Holmes, Karen Greenberg, and the Center on Law and Security for putting together a truly remarkable colloquium. I am also grateful to Eyal Benvenisti, David S. Caudill, Simon Chesterman, Mark Drumbl, Michael Guttman, Eva Heinstein, Sheila Jordan, Frederic Kirgis, and Harold Wagner for their advice both during and after the drafting of this Article. I am solely responsible for any mistakes that remain.:
Humble Beginnings: Current Trends, State Perspectives, and Hallmarks of Humility

After decades of neglect, research in humility is finally turning a corner. Within the past few years, investigators have articulated two promising strategies to overcome methodological concerns – namely, using personality judgments and designing humility “stress tests” to elicit humility-relevant behavior. We also highlight an alternative perspective of humility that has not yet gained much attention: the investigation of humility as a state, which helps to understand what humility actually is, how it functions, and its variability within individuals over time. To improve the observation of humility-relevant behavior, we propose five intrapersonal and interpersonal hallmarks of humility that have strong theoretical support, can distinguish between humility’s conceptual foils of narcissism and low self-esteem, and provide broad theoretical ties between ongoing research endeavors: A secure, accepting identity, freedom from distortion, openness to new information, other-focus, and egalitarian beliefs. Finally, to increase methodological rigor, we recommend using a combination of self-reports and other-reports and employing multiple raters with demonstrated inter-rater reliability in validation studies.
Membership Has its Privileges?: Life, Personhood, and Potential in Discussions about Reproductive Choice:

In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States established that women have a constitutionally protected right to choose whether to terminate their pregnancies. The right, however, is not absolute. It must be weighed against competing State interests. As the title of Dov Fox’s excellent essay points out, one of the primary competing interests asserted in Roe was The State’s Interest in Potential Life. But the Roe Court determined that this interest in potential life alone was insufficient to justify regulation of the procedure pre-viability. Then, 17 years later, the Court stated in Casey that Roe’s framework “undervalue[d] the State’s interest in potential life,” and instead of just discussing potential life, the Court also referenced the State’s “legitimate interest from the outset of pregnancy in protecting…the life of the fetus that may become a child.”
Spatiotemporal control of phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate by Sac2 regulates endocytic recycling

It is well established that the spatial- and temporal-restricted generation and turnover of phosphoinositides (PIs) by a cascade of PI-metabolizing enzymes is a key regulatory mechanism in the endocytic pathway. Here, we demonstrate that the Sac1 domain–containing protein Sac2 is a PI 4-phosphatase that specifically hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate in vitro. We further show that Sac2 colocalizes with early endosomal markers and is recruited to transferrin (Tfn)-containing vesicles during endocytic recycling. Exogenous expression of the catalytically inactive mutant Sac2C458S resulted in altered cellular distribution of Tfn receptors and delayed Tfn recycling. Furthermore, genomic ablation of Sac2 caused a similar perturbation on Tfn and integrin recycling as well as defects in cell migration. Structural characterization of Sac2 revealed a unique pleckstrin-like homology Sac2 domain conserved in all Sac2 orthologues. Collectively, our findings provide evidence for the tight regulation of PIs by Sac2 in the endocytic recycling pathway.
Sensory features and the reduction of imaginal interference

Interference generated among the sensory features of PA stimulus words is not eliminated by processing at the imaginal level. This experiment was planned to test the reverse possibility. Will interference generated by similar imaginal referents be eliminated by sensory overlap between the stimuli and their responses? Thus, stimulus words did or did not evoke similar images, pairs did or did not share initial letters, and lists were acquired either under an instructional set t o form interacting images or to repeat the items aloud. The results indicated that the imagery strategy was superior to the repetition strategy in all conditions, and that stimulus interference was statistically eliminated when pairs shared the same initial letters. The findings were interpreted as consistent with a levels of processing conceptualization.
Release and Establishment of Aceria malherbae (Acari: Eriophyidae) for Control of Field Bindweed in Texas

Aceria malherbae Nuzzaci (Acari: Eriophyidae), was imported from Greece to the United States and released in 1989 near Bushland, TX, as a potential biological control agent for field bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis L. (Convolvulaceae). The number of gall mite-infested crowns increased from 2.0/m2 in September 1989 to 9.5/m2 in June 1991 but decreased to 4.0/m2 in June 1992. In September 1991, 76.0% of the crowns were infested, and the gall mites had moved 9.6 m from the plot. Gall mites overwintered on rhizomes 0.1–6.0 cm beneath the soil surface, but 63.1% of those recovered were found in the top 1.0 cm of soil. This represents the first successful establishment of an introduced arthropod for biological control of a crop weed in the United States. The mite is now being released on field bindweed in South Dakota, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.