cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Essentiality of clpX, but Not clpP, clpL, clpC, or clpE, in Streptococcus pneumoniae R6

We show by using a regulated promoter that clpX of Streptococcus pneumoniae R6 is essential, whereas clpP, clpL, clpC, and clpE can be disrupted. The essentiality of clpX was initially missed because of duplication and rearrangement in the region of the chromosome containing clpX. Depletion of ClpX resulted in a rapid loss of viability without overt changes in cell morphology. Essentiality of clpX, but not clpP, has not been reported previously.
Fractionation of gas mixtures in a moving-bed adsorber. II. Equilibrium consideration

A method for estimating adsorption equilibria based on a modification of the Polanyi adsorption-potential theory was developed for use in the investigation described in Part I of this article. In addition, the recently published correlation method of Lewis, Gilliland, Chertow, and Cadogan, suitably modified for the present application, was successfully employed in the correlation and extrapolation of the ternary equilibrium data.
Glucagon signaling modulates sweet taste responsiveness

The gustatory system provides critical information about the quality and nutritional value of food before it is ingested. Thus, physiological mechanisms that modulate taste function in the context of nutritional needs or metabolic status could optimize ingestive decisions. We report that glucagon, which plays important roles in the maintenance of glucose homeostasis, enhances sweet taste responsiveness through local actions in the mouse gustatory epithelium. Using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, we found that glucagon and its receptor (GlucR) are coexpressed in a subset of mouse taste receptor cells. Most of these cells also express the T1R3 taste receptor implicated in sweet and/or umami taste. Genetic or pharmacological disruption of glucagon signaling in behaving mice indicated a critical role for glucagon in the modulation of taste responsiveness. Scg5−/− mice, which lack mature glucagon, had significantly reduced responsiveness to sucrose as compared to wild-type littermates in brief-ac...
EXPLORING SEX DIFFERENCES IN WORRY WITH A COGNITIVE VULNERABILITY MODEL

A multivariate model was developed to examine the relative contributions of mastery, stress, interpretive bias, and coping to sex differences in worry. Rumination was incorporated as a second outcome variable to test the specificity of these associations. Participants included two samples of undergraduates totaling 302 men and 379 women. A path analysis of the full sample demonstrated good overall fit and revealed that low mastery, high stress, and high interpretive bias predicted increases in both worry and rumination. There proved to be no interactive effect of sex with the model. Comparisons of mean differences indicated that women reported significantly lower mastery and significantly higher stress, worry, and rumination than men. Results suggest similar processes confer risk for worry and rumination in men and women; however, lower levels of mastery and higher levels of stress in women may contribute to the female preponderance of anxiety and depression.
The Hypertension Paradox — More Uncontrolled Disease despite Improved Therapy

In the 2009 Shattuck Lecture, Aram Chobanian describes the tremendous progress that has been made in the recognition and treatment of hypertension in the past 60 years. He lays out the basis of an apparent paradox: despite better recognition and treatment, the prevalence of untreated hypertension continues to increase.
Effects of Antidepressant Medication on Morbidity and Mortality in Depressed Patients After Myocardial Infarction

Background Depression after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Although antidepressants are effective in reducing depression, their use in patients with cardiovascular disease remains controversial. Objective To undertake a secondary analysis to determine the effects of using antidepressants on morbidity and mortality in post-MI patients who participated in the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease study. Design Observational secondary analysis. Setting Eight academic sites. Patients The Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease clinical trial randomized 2481 depressed and/or socially isolated patients from October 1, 1996, to October 31, 1999. Depression was diagnosed using a structured clinical interview. This analysis was conducted on the 1834 patients enrolled with depression (849 women and 985 men). Intervention Use of antidepressant medication. Main Outcome Measures Event-free survival was defined as the absence of death or recurrent MI. All-cause mortality was also examined. To relate exposure to antidepressants to subsequent morbidity and mortality, the data were analyzed using a time-dependent covariate model. Results During a mean follow-up of 29 months, 457 fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events occurred. The risk of death or recurrent MI was significantly lower in patients taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.38-0.84), as were the risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.37-0.96) and recurrent MI (adjusted HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.32-0.90), compared with patients who did not use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. For patients taking non–selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants, the comparable HRs (95% CIs) were 0.72 (0.44-1.18), 0.64 (0.34-1.22), and 0.73 (0.38-1.38) for risk of death or recurrent MI, all-cause mortality, or recurrent MI, respectively, compared with nonusers. Conclusions Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depressed patients who experience an acute MI might reduce subsequent cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. A controlled trial is needed to examine this important issue.
Decompensated strabismus after bilateral perioperative ischaemic optic neuropathy with subsequent recovery

Diplopia occurred in a patient who suffered peri-operative bilateral anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy. It is hypothesized that this occurred because of non-overlapping residual visual fields, as has been described in cases of bitemporal hemianopia. The symptom of diplopia resolved following some recovery of vision which resulted in a binocularly overlapping visual field region.
Matrix attachment regions and regulated transcription increase and stabilize transgene expression.

Summary Transgene silencing has been shown to be associated with strong promoters, but it is not known whether the propensity for silencing is caused by the level of transcription, or some other property of the promoter. If transcriptional activity fosters silencing, then transgenes with inducible promoters may be less susceptible to silencing. To test this idea, a doxycycline-inducible luciferase transgene was transformed into an NT1 tobacco suspension culture cell line that constitutively expressed the tetracycline repressor. The inducible luciferase gene was flanked by tobacco Rb7 matrix attachment regions (MAR) or spacer control sequences in order to test the effects of MARs in conjunction with regulated transcription. Transformed lines were grown under continuous doxycycline (CI), or delayed doxycycline induction (DI) conditions. Delayed induction resulted in higher luciferase expression initially, but continued growth in the presence of doxycycline resulted in a reduction of expression to levels similar to those found in continuously induced lines. In both DI and CI treatments, the Rb7 MAR significantly reduced the percentage of silenced lines and increased transgene expression levels. These data demonstrate that active transcription increases silencing, especially in the absence of the Rb7 MAR. Importantly, the Rb7 MAR lines showed higher expression levels under both CI and DI conditions and avoided silencing that may occur in the absence of active transcription such as what would be expected as a result of condensed chromatin spreading.
Pre-Clinical Experience with Full-Wave Inverse-Scattering for Breast Imaging

A new transmission ultrasound CT breast scanner (Techniscan Medical Systems, Inc.) was installed for pre-clinical testing at UCSD Medical Center. The scanner utilizes a 3D inverse scattering method to produce whole-breast tomographic images with resolution approximately 1.5 mm in plane, 3.5 mm slice profile and slice spacing of 1 mm. Sound speed accuracy and sensitivity were found to be highly linear (R2=0.99) over the wide range of 1370–1620 m/sec. Attenuation provided a wide image contrast and is able to localize and identify breast lesions. We present representative cases of human subjects enrolled in the pre-clinical study and describe future plans for the system.
Appearances, Rationality, and Justified Belief

One might think that its seeming to you that p makes you justified in believing that p. After all, when you have no defeating beliefs, it would be irrational to have it seem to you that p but not believe it. That view is plausible for perceptual justification, problematic in the case of memory, and clearly wrong for inferential justification. I propose a view of rationality and justified belief that deals happily with inference and memory. Appearances are to be evaluated as ‘sound’ or ‘unsound.’ Only a sound appearance can give rise to a justified belief, yet even an unsound appearance can ‘rationally require’ the subject to form the belief. Some of our intuitions mistake that rational requirement for the belief’s being justified. The resulting picture makes it plausible that there are also unsound perceptual appearances. I suggest that to have a sound perceptually basic appearance that p, one must see that p.
Countering Coloniality in Educational Research: From Ownership to Answerability

In this theoretical article, I argue for a relational stance on learning as a way of reckoning with educational research as part of the settler colonial structure of the United States. Because of my geopolitical location to the United States as a settler colony, I begin by contrasting the stances of anticolonial and decolonial. I then analyze the ways in which educational research is animated by settler colonialism in its constant pursuit of property and ownership. Through examples of research, I make visible how the physical practices of settler colonialism are echoed through material and figurative practices of education and perpetuate colonial relationships. I close with a call for educational research to become answerable to knowledge about learning through learning as being-in-relation that recognizes education and educators investments in settler colonialism.
Local delivery of osteoprotegerin inhibits mechanically mediated bone modeling in orthodontic tooth movement

Introduction: The RANKL–OPG axis is a key regulator of osteoclastogenesis and bone turnover activity. Its contribution to bone resorption under altered mechanical states, however, has not been fully elucidated. Here we examined the role of OPG in regulating mechanically induced bone modeling in a rat model of orthodontic tooth movement. Methods: The maxillary first molars of male Sprague-Dawley rats were moved mesially using a calibrated nickel–titanium spring attached to the maxillary incisor teeth. Two different doses (0.5 mg/kg, 5.0 mg/kg) of a recombinant fusion protein (OPG-Fc), were injected twice weekly mesial to the first molars. Tooth movement was measured using stone casts that were scanned and magnified. Changes in bone quantity were measured using micro-computed tomography and histomorphometric analysis was used to quantify osteoclasts and volumetric parameters. Finally, circulating levels of TRAP-5b (a bone resorption marker) was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The 5.0 mg/kg OPG-Fc dose showed a potent reduction in mesial molar movement and osteoclast numbers compared to controls (pb0.01). The molar movement was inhibited by 45.7%, 70.6%, and 78.7% compared to controls at days 7, 14, and 21 respectively, with the high dose of OPG. The 0.5 mg dose also significantly (pb0.05) inhibited molar movement at days 7 (43.8%) and 14 (31.8%). While incisor retraction was also decreased by OPG-Fc, the ratio of incisor to molar tooth movement was markedly better in the high-dose OPG group (5.2:1, pb0.001) compared to the control group (2.3:1) and the low-dose OPG group (2.0:1). Conclusions: Local delivery of OPG-Fc inhibits osteoclastogenesis and tooth movement at targeted dental sites.
A phase II trial of sequential ribonucleotide reductase inhibition in aggressive myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Myeloproliferative neoplasms are a varied group of disorders that can have prolonged chronic phases, but eventually accelerate and can transform into a secondary acute myeloid leukemia that is ultimately fatal. Triapine is a novel inhibitor of the M2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase. Sequential inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase with triapine and an M1 ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor (fludarabine) was noted to be safe, and led to a 29% complete plus partial response rate in myeloproliferative neoplasms. This article reports the findings of a phase II trial of triapine (105 mg/m2/day) followed by fludarabine (30 mg/m2/day) daily for 5 consecutive days in 37 patients with accelerated myeloproliferative neoplasms and secondary acute myeloid leukemia. The overall response rate was 49% (18/37), with a complete remission rate of 24% (9/37). Overall response rates and complete remissions were seen in all disease subsets, including secondary acute myeloid leukemia, in which the overall response rate and complete remission rate were 48% and 33%, respectively. All patients with known JAK2 V617F mutations (6/6) responded. The median overall survival of the entire cohort was 6.9 months, with a median overall survival of both overall responders and complete responders of 10.6 months. These data further demonstrate the promise of sequential inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase in patients with accelerated myeloproliferative neoplasms and secondary acute myeloid leukemia. This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00381550).
A Tool Support for Design and Validation of Communication Protocol using State Transition Diagrams

In this paper, we introduce a software tool to assist design and validation of a communication protocol specified in state transition diagrams. When protocol developers start development of a new system, they tend to describe the developing system with several high-level description elements such as communicating blocks, communication paths, messages, and finite state machines. Then, they want to validate the correctness of their design as early as possible to find out any faults in the design. In this paper, we propose a software tool with which protocol developers can specify structural and behavioral key functionalities of a protocol system through the graphical user interface. Then, the tool generates PROMELA code from the design specification to make it possible for developers to validate the specification using the SPIN model checker. As results of this tool, developers can describe a communication protocol more efficiently and have the confidence for the specification at the early stage of software development
Prescribed fire, snag population dynamics, and avian nest site selection

Snags are an important resource for a wide variety of organisms, including cavity-nesting birds. We documented snag attributes in a mixedconifer forest dominated by ponderosa pine in the Sierra Nevada, California where fire is being applied during spring. A total of 328 snags were monitored before and after fire on plots burned once, burned twice, or left unburned to assess the effects of prescribed fire on snag populations. The greatest loss of snags (7.1 snags ha � 1 or 43%) followed the first introduction of fire after a longfire-free period. On plots burned a second time 21% of snags (3.6 snags ha � 1 ) were lost, whereas 8% (1.4 snags ha � 1 ) were lost on unburned control plots in the same time period. New snags replaced many of those lost reducing the net snag losses to 12% (2.0 ha � 1 ) for plots burned once, and 3% (0.5 ha � 1 ) for plots burned twice and unburned plots. We also examined snags used by cavity-nesting birds. Snags preferred for nesting were generally ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), larger diameter, and moderately decayed as compared to available snags. For monitored snags that met the preferred criteria, there was a net loss (1.7 snag ha � 1 or 34%) after the first burn, while the loss of useable snags was less than 1 snag ha � 1 following the second burn (15%) or on unburned controls (8%). We recommend protection of preferred snags, in particular large ponderosa pines, especially during primary fire applications on fire-suppressed landscapes. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Contribution of a portable air plasma torch to rapid blood coagulation as a method of preventing bleeding

The effectiveness and mechanism of a low temperature air plasma torch in clotting blood are explored. Both blood droplets and smeared blood samples were used in the tests. The treated droplet samples reveal how blood clotting depends on the distance at which the torch operated, and for how long the droplets have been exposed to the torch. Microscopy and cell count of smeared blood samples shed light on dependencies of erythrocyte and platelet counts on torch distance and exposure time. With an increase of torch distance, the platelet count of treated blood samples increases but is less than that of the control. The flux of reactive atomic oxygen (RAO) and the degree of blood clotting decreased. With an increase of exposure time, platelet count of treated samples decreased, while the degree of clot increased. The correlation among these dependencies and published data support a blood clotting mechanism that RAO as well as other likely reactive oxygen species generated by the plasma torch activate erythrocyte-platelets interactions and induces blood coagulation.
Immune checkpoint blockade: Releasing the brake towards hematological malignancies

Tumor cells utilize co-inhibitory molecules to avoid host immune destruction. Checkpoint blockade has emerged as a promising approach to treat cancer by restoring T cell effector function and breaking a tumor permissive microenvironment. Patients with hematological malignancies often have immune dysregulation, thus the role of checkpoint blockade in treatment of these neoplasms is particularly intriguing. In early trials, antibodies targeting cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) or the programmed death 1 (PD-1) signaling pathway have displayed significant efficacy with minimal toxicity in patients with relapsed and refractory hematological neoplasms. In this review, we provide evidence of dysregulation of CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-Ls in the context of several major types of hematological neoplasms and summarize relevant clinical practice points for checkpoint blockade. The preclinical rationale and preliminary clinical data of potential combination approaches designed to optimize checkpoint antagonists are well presented.
Experimental demonstration of error recovery in an integrated cyberphysical digital-microfluidic platform

Digital (droplet-based) microfluidics enables the integration of fluid-handling operations and reaction-outcome detection. Despite these benefits, defects and erroneous fluidic operations continue to be major barriers to the adoption and deployment of these devices. We describe the first practical and fully integrated cyberphysical error-recovery system that can be implemented in real time on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The hardware-assisted solution is based on an error dictionary containing the error-recovery plans for various anticipated errors. The dictionary is computed and stored in FPGA memory before the start of the biochemical experiment. Errors in droplet operations on the digital microfluidic platform are detected using capacitive sensors, the test outcome is interpreted by control hardware, and corresponding error-recovery plans are triggered in real-time. Experimental results are reported for a fabricated silicon device, and links to videos are provided for the first-ever experimental demonstration of real-time error recovery in cyberphysical digital-microfluidic biochips using a hardware-implemented dictionary.
Risk and Private Real Estate Investments

Executive Summary. The reason investors purchase individual properties is not well understood. The purchase of a parcel of real property comes with burdens peculiar to real estate. A close look at ...
Electrical Conductivity Experiments with High-Abrasion Furnace Black-Loaded Natural Rubbers

Abstract Considerable differences may exist between volume resistivities of vulcanizates prepared from a single mixing. Large differences between mixing effects can also occur. Contact resistance effects caused by bonded brass electrodes are shown to be negligible over a considerable range of bond strengths. The profound effects of compressive flexing on the resistance of vulcanizates is demonstrated. A formula containing sufficient HAF black to place the vulcanizates nominally in the electrically antistatic range was employed throughout the work.
The Effect of Light on the Survival of Pigmented and Nonpigmented Cells of Dacryopinax Spathularia

(1965). The Effect of Light on the Survival of Pigmented and Nonpigmented Cells of Dacryopinax Spathularia. Mycologia: Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 612-623.
Entangled Rigid Macromolecules under Continuous Startup Shear Deformation: Consequences of a Microscopically Anharmonic Confining Tube

We build upon our recently developed microscopic theory for the tube confinement potential of rigid macromolecules to treat the relaxation of stress and orientation of fluids of topologically entangled needles during a continuous startup shear deformation. Two coupled and highly nonlinear evolution equations for stress and rod orientation are proposed. The novel feature is our ability to self-consistently relate the current stress- and orientation-dependent state of the fluid with an effective instantaneous relaxation time that combines (perturbed) reptation and transverse activated barrier hopping. The effective relaxation time follows from a microscopic, time-dependent prediction of the tube confinement potential during the deformation. Results for the strain and Weissenberg number dependence of the confinement potential are presented for two degrees of entanglement. As a natural consequence of the predicted stress dependence of the confinement potential, our self-consistent single-rod theory emergently...
Seasonal variations in the food consumption of woodchucks (Marmota monax).

Food consumption of 155 woodchucks ( Marmota monax ) was measured immediately after capture to determine whether a seasonal rhythm obtained in feeding of a natural population. Food intake of adults was lowest in March. It reached a maximum in May, then declined through the summer; some individuals increased food intake temporarily in late autumn. Comparative ata from a laboratory colony showed that a similar rhythm occurred under conditions of constant temperature and photoperiod. Variability in food consumption axima associated with different age groups, considered in the context of vailable life history information, suggested that the rhythm had a period omewhat less than 1 year.
Omnidirectional reflectance and optical gap properties of Si/SiO2 Thue-Morse quasicrystals

Aperiodic one dimensional Si/SiO 2 Thue-Morse (T-M) multilayer structures have been fabricated, for the first time, in order to investigate both the band-gap behavior, with respect to the system size (band-gap scaling), and the omnidirectional reflectance of the fundamental optical band-gap. Variable angle reflectance data have experimentally demonstrated a large reflectance band-gap in the optical spectrum of a T-M quasicrystal, in agreement with transfer matrix simulations. We have explained the physical origin of the T-M omnidirectional band-gap as a result of periodic spatial correlations in the self-similar T-M structure, as revealed by Fourier Transform and Wavelet analysis. The unprecedented degree of structural flexibility showed by T-M systems can provide an attractive alternative to photonic crystals for the fabrication of photonic devices.
Study on DC line remote back-up protection in HVAC/DC system

The DC line auto-restart function is added in rectifier control of CIGRE HVDC benchmark model in PSCAD/EMTDC.The variation rules of voltage and current of converter transformer at the network side is probed with PSCAD/EMTDC when the control process of DC line auto-restart fails.According to the features of the changes of voltage and current,low current protection is used as DC line back-up protection to optimize the DC line protection.The simulation results prove that low current protection is valid.
Text Analytics for Supporting Stakeholder Opinion Mining for Large-scale Highway Projects

Abstract For large-scale highway projects, late identification of stakeholder concerns often leads to design changes and duplication of effort, which may cause major project delays. This paper proposes a stakeholder opinion mining approach for helping transportation practitioners better identify the types of concerns in the early project stage. The proposed approach includes two major components: (1) stakeholder concern extraction, and (2) stakeholder concern classification. This paper focuses on presenting the proposed methodology and experimental results for stakeholder concern extraction, which extracts the words and phrases that describe stakeholder concerns from stakeholder comments on large-scale highway projects. In developing the proposed stakeholder concern extraction methodology, several supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms were tested and evaluated, and the effect of using a predefined name list as feature was also investigated. All the algorithms were tested on a testing data set of 200 comment sentences, which were selected from a comment collection including 1,849 stakeholder comments on five large-scale highway projects.
Efficient expulsion of magnetic flux in superconducting radiofrequency cavities for high Q0 applications

Even when cooled through its transition temperature in the presence of an external magnetic field, a superconductor can expel nearly all external magnetic flux. This paper presents an experimental study to identify the parameters that most strongly influence flux trapping in high purity niobium during cooldown. This is critical to the operation of superconducting radiofrequency cavities, in which trapped flux degrades the quality factor and therefore cryogenic efficiency. Flux expulsion was measured on a large survey of 1.3 GHz cavities prepared in various ways. It is shown that both spatial thermal gradient and high temperature treatment are critical to expelling external magnetic fields, while surface treatment has minimal effect. For the first time, it is shown that a cavity can be converted from poor expulsion behavior to strong expulsion behavior after furnace treatment, resulting in a substantial improvement in quality factor. Microscopic investigations are performed to study the relevant changes in the material from this treatment. Future plans are described to build on this result in order to optimize treatment for future cavities.
Predicting the secondary dynamic mode interference phenomenon in thermoacoustic instability control

This paper brings a novel mathematical perspective in assessing the rise of the secondary dynamic modes to prominence during the suppression of thermoacoustic instability. This phenomenon is observed by many earlier investigators; however, without a complete analytical reasoning. We consider a Rijke tube with both a passive Helmholtz resonator and an active feedback control to suppress instabilities. The core dynamics is represented as a linear time-invariant multiple time-delay system of neutral type. Parametric stability of the resulting infinite-dimensional dynamics is investigated using a recent analytical tool: cluster treatment of characteristic roots paradigm. This tool reveals the stability outlook of such systems exhaustively and non-conservatively in the parameter space of the system. First, we examine the stability with and without the Helmholtz resonator. We then select an unstable operation for the resonator-mounted Rijke tube, impose a time-delayed integral feedback control over it and reveal the stabilizing controller parameters using the cluster treatment of characteristic roots methodology. When high control gains are inappropriately selected, the new analytical procedure declares how the secondary dynamic modes of the system exhibit instability although the initially unstable mode is now stabilized. All of these stability assessments are cross-validated using experimental results from a laboratory-scale Rijke tube set-up.
Introduction: A Technological Camelot

On December 7, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, “a Day of Infamy,” an official Lockheed Martin announcement declared that Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications would be dissolved—seen by many as another act of infamy. Lockheed had worked for several years to get legislation passed that would allow it to buy the Communications Satellites Corporation (COMSAT). A little more than a year after the purchase, Lockheed decided to shut down COMSAT and take a $3 billion write-off. This ended four decades in which the best and brightest of the technologists of the 1960s and 1970s, the height of the Cold War, created the modern era of ubiquitous satellite communications.
On Spaces of Piecewise Polynomials in Two Variables

The purpose of this paper is to survey the progress which has been made in the last several years in developing a theory for spaces of piecewise polynomials in two variables. The ultimate goal for this area would be to have a complete analog of the univariate theory, but as we shall see, much remains to be done.
Abstractions, Semantic Models and Analysis Tools for Concurrent Systems: Progress and Open Problems

The growth of mobile and cloud computing, cyberphysical systems and the internet of things has arguably made scalable concurrency the central to computing. Actor languages and frameworks have been widely adopted to address scalability. Moreover, new tools that combine static and dyamic analysis are making software safer. This presentation describes the actor programming model and reasoning tools for scalable concurrency. As we scale up cyberphysical applications and build the internet of things, a key limitation of current languages and tools becomes apparent: the difficulty of representing quantitative and probabilistic properties and reasoning about them. The paper concludes by discussing some techniques to address reasoning about the behavior of complex scalable concurrent applications.
Potential equivalence of sinogram and image-domain penalized likelihood methods

In recent years, we and others have been exploring the use of penalized-likelihood sinogram-domain smoothing and restoration approaches for emission and transmission tomography. The strategy entails estimating the "ideal" line integrals needed for reconstruction of an activity or attenuation distribution from the set of noisy, potentially degraded tomographic measurements by maximizing a penalized-likelihood objective function. The objective function models the data statistics as well as any degradations that can be represented in the sinogram domain. The estimated line integrals can then be reconstructed by use of analytic reconstruction algorithms such as filtered backprojection (FBP). The motivation for this strategy was initially pragmatic: to provide a more computationally feasible alternative to fully iterative penalized-likelihood image reconstruction involving expensive backprojections and reprojections, while still obtaining some of the benefits of the statistical modeling employed in penalized-likelihood approaches. However, in this work we establish a potentially significant equivalence between the two approaches when the penalty functions are chosen appropriately in the two domains. We show that the two approaches can be made to produce very similar resolution properties and resolution-variance tradeoffs, but with a large advantage in computation time for the sinogram-domain approach.
Supporting emergent bilinguals’ argumentation: Evaluating evidence in informational science texts

Abstract Much of the research on teaching argumentation has focused on the genre, its features, and ways to support students in orally constructing or writing an argument, but far less is known about what students need to do as readers in preparation for writing an argument. The case study presented here explores how close attention to language features commonly found in informational science texts can support fourth-grade emergent bilinguals in identifying and evaluating evidence. It illustrates how, with functional grammar metalanguage of usuality and likelihood, a teacher can facilitate discussions about words in science texts that indicate authors’ degrees of uncertainty and in turn support students’ evaluations of evidence. Analysis of the instructional discourse also reveals potential pitfalls in this approach, as degrees of uncertainty expressed by an author do not make evidence inherently strong or weak. The strength of evidence must be determined through considering its relationship to the claim.
Towards an Execution Model for HPC Clouds

The application of emergent Clouds to the domain of high performance computing is considered by examining the various operational modalities comprising the field of supercomputing and by analyzing their suitability to Clouds based on underlying factors of performance degradation. It is found that while throughput computing may be readily supported for such HPC workflows as parameter sweeps, capability computing and even weak scaled “cooperative” computing may not be well served using conventional practices. But the possible advance of revolutionary methods to manage asynchrony, exploit message-driven computing techniques and declarative synchronization semantic constructs such as found in the experimental ParalleX execution model may provide an alternative paradigm for bringing Clouds more closely aligned to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) applications. Experimental results capturing an Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) application in numerical relativity u sing the ParalleX-based HPX-3 runtime system demonstrates many of the required properties for HPC Clouds.
Abstract P110: EBP50 Regulates Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Growth by Skp2-Mediated Degradation of p21/cip1

The PDZ domain-containing scaffolding protein, Ezrin-Radixin-Moesin-binding phosphoprotein 50 (EBP50) regulates vascular stenosis following endoluminal vessel injury. Its expression in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) increases after wire injury, and neointima formation is significantly reduced in EBP50 knockout (KO) mice. The molecular mechanisms underlying EBP50 actions in VSMC are unknown. Genetic ablation of EBP50 reduced VSMC proliferation and was associated with increased (5-fold) expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p21cip1 both in vessels and in primary cells. No differences in mRNA levels of p21cip1 were observed in WT and KO cells. However, the half-life of p21cip1 in KO VSMC was significantly longer than in WT VSMC (80 min vs. 45 min) and p21cip1 levels were similar in WT and KO VSMC treated with the proteasome inhibitor MG132. These observations suggest that EBP50 regulates post-translational degradation of p21cip1. The S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (skp2) is a component of the E3 ligase complex that degrades p21cip1. The C-terminal four amino acids of skp2 (ProSerCysLeu) are a canonical PDZ-binding sequence. Indeed, co-immunoprecipitation and in-gel overlay assays demonstrated the direct interaction between EBP50 and skp2. Mutation of the C-terminal Leu to Ala (L424A-skp2) abrogated the interaction with EBP50. Skp2 expression was significantly lower in KO than in WT cells and inhibition of EBP50 expression by an shRNA lentivirus decreased skp2 expression in WT cells. Moreover, expression of skp2, but not of the mutant L424A-skp2, in WT cells reduced p21cip1 levels. Therefore, EBP50 regulates both expression and activity of skp2 with attendant effects on p21cip1 and VSMC proliferation. Collectively, these experiments show that EBP50, by regulating skp2 and p21cip1 expression, controls VSMC proliferation and the progression of neointima formation. These studies identify a novel function for EBP50 in the direct regulation of the cell cycle and provide a mechanistic basis for the remarkable effect of this scaffolding protein on vascular remodeling.
Eating Nature in Modern Germany: Food, Agriculture and Environment, c.1870 to 2000

Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian and the Dachau concentration camp had an organic herb garden. Vegetarianism, organic farming, and other such practices have enticed a wide variety of Germans, from socialists, liberals, and radical anti-Semites in the nineteenth century to fascists, communists, and Greens in the twentieth century. Corinna Treitel offers a fascinating new account of how Germans became world leaders in developing more 'natural' ways to eat and farm. Used to conserve nutritional resources with extreme efficiency at times of hunger and to optimize the nation's health at times of nutritional abundance, natural foods and farming belong to the biopolitics of German modernity. Eating Nature in Modern Germany brings together histories of science, medicine, agriculture, the environment, and popular culture to offer the most thorough and historically comprehensive treatment yet of this remarkable story.
Inkjet-printed, intrinsically stretchable conductors and interconnects

In the future, a large variety of electronic devices will be wearable and operate in close contact with the skin. To accommodate deformations such as twisting and elongation, these devices should ideally be stretchable. One viable approach toward stretchable electronics is the development of intrinsically stretchable electronic materials, devices and circuits. Recently, the first intrinsically stretchable transistors have been demonstrated [1-7]. However, for the realization of stretchable circuits, stretchable interconnects are equally important. For the deployment of highly stretchable materials as interconnects and electrodes, patterning is crucial. Therefore, we developed a process for inkjet printing of intrinsically stretchable PEDOT:PSS-based interconnects and conductors. Ionic additives act as dopants and plasticisers in this approach [8]. A customized ink was printed on stretchable polymeric substrates (SEBS, styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene) and optimized to achieve a smooth morphology of the printed features by adjusting the surface tension and suppressing the coffee stain effect. The printed interconnects have a conductivity of 700 S/cm, sustain strains above 100% and show good stability in 1000-cycle stretching experiments. In addition to morphology, electrical properties and stretchability, we also investigated bias-stress stability, long-term stability in ambient air and cycling stability.
Axiomatic Foundations of Centrality in Networks

The social and economic networks literature commonly uses different measures to capture various notions of centrality. Given the structural features of a network, there is limited consensus on how to select the appropriate centrality measure. This paper provides an axiomatic characterization of Degree, Closeness and Decay centrality measures and argues that such axiomatizations are the correct way to distinguish between centrality measures. Further, I show that these centrality measures belong to the same family of measures. This result shows why they have been found to be correlated in empirical work.
Principled, Pragmatic, and Purposive Leadership: Reimagining Educational Leadership through Prophetic Spirituality:

This article reimagines educational leadership using Cornel West's notions of prophetic spirituality. Three categories of leadership—principled, pragmatic, and purposive—are proposed. All three are...
Antimicrobials for Bacterial Overgrowth

Abstract Although the true prevalence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in the general population remains unclear, there is an increased understanding that it is not uncommon among patients with gastrointestinal-related illnesses. If remained untreated, intestinal bacterial overgrowth can negatively affect a person’s health. The most common symptoms include bloating, abdominal pain, flatulence, halitosis, constipation, and diarrhea. Other serious clinical presentations may include chronic weight loss and malnutrition. A few treatment strategies have been investigated for intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Use of oral antimicrobial agents is found to be more effective than placebo. Most regimens are also well-tolerated by patients. Antimicrobial regimens can be categorized as nonabsorbable, such as rifaximin, versus absorbable agents, such as metronidazole. Although nonabsorbable drugs may have fewer systemic side effects, they also appear less effective than some absorbable agents in treating bacterial overgrowth in a blind-loop. The general treatment duration is between 7 and 10 days.
Challenging Case in Clinical Practice: Use of an Elimination Diet for Resolution of Chronic Musculoskeletal Joint Pain

Abstract Chronic joint or musculoskeletal pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States and worldwide. Current treatment options are limited in their ability to alter disease outcome...
Classifying Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder using Linear SVM with Anatomical Features from Diffusion Weighted Imaging

Adolescence is a period of rapid brain maturation and a critical period for the onset of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that usually leads to serious outcomes such as suicide. Although changes in anatomical connectivity in MDD have been reported, changes in network topology for MDD remain unclear. Additionally, whether the changes are the same for adolescent MDD and adult MDD remains unclear as well. This paper explores anatomical features including: a) anatomical connectivity defined by diffusion tensor imaging measurements between a pair of brain regions, and b) topological measurements from anatomical networks, and apply machine learning approaches to identify responsive biomarkers distinguishing MDD patients from healthy subjects. In addition to statistical tests, univariate classifiers are designed to evaluate the discriminating power of features. Furthermore, multivariate classifiers are trained for distinguishing healthy subjects from MDD patients. The best classifier achieves an accuracy of 76.56%, 81.08% sensitivity, 70.37% specificity and 78.95% precision for 64 subjects (37 MDD and 27 matched healthy control). The selected features include: 1) betweenness centrality of the right lingual gyrus of the ADC network at 12% sparsity, 2) participation coefficient of the right pars opercularis of the AD network at 16% sparsity, 3) participation coefficient of the left insular cortex of the MD network at 21% sparsity, and 4) participation coefficient of the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex in the ADC network at 10% sparsity. These features reflect changes in the topological structure of the brain anatomical network in MDD.
Dose calibration of Gafchromic EBT3 film for Ir-192 brachytherapy source using 3D-printed PLA and ABS plastics

3D printing technology has allowed the creation of custom applicators for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, especially for complex anatomy. With conformal therapy comes the need for advanced dosimetric verification. It is important to demonstrate how dose to 3D printed materials can be related to dose to water. This study aimed to determine dose differences and uncertainties using 3D printed PLA and ABS plastics for Radiochromic film calibration in HDR brachytherapy. Gafchromic EBT3 film pieces were irradiated in water with an Ir-192 source at calculated dose levels ranging from 0 to 800 cGy, to create the control calibration curve. Similarly, film was placed below 3D printed PLA and ABS blocks and irradiated at the same dose levels calculated for water, ranging from 0 to 800 cGy. After a 72-h development time, film pieces were scanned on a flatbed scanner and the median pixel value was recorded in the region of highest dose. This value was converted to net optical density (NOD). A rational function was used to fit a calibration curve in water that relates NOD to dose for red, green, and blue color channels. Based on this fitted curve, ABS and PLA NOD values were used to estimate dose in 3D printed plastics. From the fitted calibration curve, mean residual error between measured and planned dose to water was less than 1% for each color channel at high dose levels. At high dose levels, ABS and PLA mean residual errors were about 6.9 and 7.8% in the red channel, while 5.2 and 5.7% in the green channel. Combined uncertainties measured to be about 6.9% at high dose levels. This study demonstrated dose differences and uncertainties using 3D printed applicators for HDR Ir-192 brachytherapy.
Impact of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in the Emergency Department on Care Processes and Outcomes in Critically Ill Nontraumatic Patients.

Outcomes data on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in critically ill patients are lacking. This study examines the association between POCUS in the emergency department and outcomes in critically ill patients. Design Retrospective cohort study of critically ill emergency department patients in two academic emergency departments. All emergency department patients admitted to the intensive care unit or that die in the emergency department were entered prospectively into a registry. Setting Two academic emergency departments. Patients All adult (> 18 years old) non-trauma patients with hemodynamic instability [shock index (heart rate/systolic blood pressure) > 0.6] between November 1, 2013-October 31, 2016, were included. Interventions Cohorts were assigned as follows: no POCUS (cohort 1), POCUS prior to a key intervention (cohort 2), and POCUS after a key intervention (cohort 3). A key intervention was either a fluid bolus or vasoactive drug initiation. Measurements and Main Results Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between POCUS use and the primary outcome of in-hospital mortality. We conducted several sensitivity analyses including propensity score matching and inverse-probability-weighted regression-adjustment along with multiple imputation to account for non-random assignment of POCUS as well as bias due to missing data. Of the 7,734 eligible patients, 2,293 patients were excluded. The remaining 5,441 patients were included in the analysis: 4165 in Cohort 1, 614 in Cohort 2, and 662 in Cohort 3. Mortality was 22%, 29%, and 26%, respectively (p < 0.001). POCUS prior to an intervention was associated with an adjusted odds ratio for death of 1.41 (95% CI, 1.12-1.76) compared to no POCUS. The sensitivity analyses showed an absolute increased mortality of +0.05 (95% CI, 0.02-0.09) for cohort 2 compared to 1. Conclusions POCUS use prior to interventions appears to be associated with care delays and increased in-hospital mortality compared to critically ill patients with no POCUS. Further explorations of the impact of POCUS in the emergency department appear warranted.