cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Matched-Pair Analysis of High Dose Versus Standard Dose Definitive Chemoradiation for Locally Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract Background Recent data have called into question the use of dose-escalated radiotherapy for locally advanced non–small-cell lung cancer and the effect of cardiac radiotherapy doses. We compared the outcomes after chemoradiation using standard-dose (SD; ≤ 64 Gy) or high-dose (HD; > 64 Gy) radiotherapy. Patients and Methods A matched-pair analysis was performed of 178 patients with stage IIB-IIIB non–small-cell lung cancer for SD versus HD groups using age ± 5 years, gender, stage, tumor size ± 2 cm, yielding 86 patients. The clinical endpoints were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox regression method. Results The median follow-up was 16.8 months for the entire cohort (HD, 21.6 months; SD, 12.1 months; P = .06). No significant differences were found in disease stage, histologic type, age, performance status, gender, or tumor size between the 2 groups. The median overall survival was 23.1 months for the HD group (95% confidence interval, 20.6-25.5) versus 13.6 months for the SD group (95% confidence interval, 9.6-17.5; P = .03). The 2-year freedom from locoregional recurrence was 48.7% for the SD and 65.3% for the HD groups (P = .07). The 2-year freedom from distant metastasis was 46.7% for the SD and 70.3% for the HD groups (P = .05). A higher cardiac V30 dose (P = .03) was the strongest predictor of survival besides clinical stage (P = .02). Conclusion Dose-escalated radiotherapy resulted in improved survival and recurrence rates. A higher cardiac dose was a significant predictor of decreased survival.
Synthesis of Asymmetric Monomethine Cyanine Dyes with Red-Shifted Optical Properties

Six novel asymmetrical monomethine cyanine dyes were synthesized via the condensation reaction of 1-butyl-2-(methylthio)benzo[c,d]indol-1-ium iodide and various 1,5-substituted indolenine salts under basic conditions. The dyes were characterized using UV–vis spectroscopy, fluorescence, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and mass spectrometry; furthermore, the purity of these compounds was observed using LC/ELSD/MS.
Freedom, Foreknowledge, and the Principle of Alternate Possibilities

For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets Few arguments in contemporary philosophy have had more influence than Harry Frankfurt's ‘Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsiblity.’ In that famous paper Frankfurt noted that all parties to the traditional debate about the compatibility of free will and moral responsibility with determinism had subscribed to a common assumption. They had assumed the truth of something Frankfurt called ‘the Principle of Alternate Possibilities,’ which he expressed as follows: (PAP) A person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise. In the traditional debate incompatibilists argued that if determinism is true, then no one can ever do otherwise, while compatibilists argued that there is a morally relevant sense in which even a deterministic agent can do otherwise. Frankfurt proposed to show that PAPis false, thereby undercutting the traditional debate.
Pain after Cervical Artery Dissection (P4.381)

Objective: To evaluate the clinical course of pain related to cervical artery dissection (CAD) Background: Carotid or vertebral dissection is one of the most common causes of stroke in young adults. Presence of pain as one of the main presenting symptoms of CAD has been well-established. However, there is limited data on the clinical course of pain after presentation. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on consecutive patients with spontaneous CAD from August 2012 to June 2015 at a single academic medical center. We collected data on demographics, arterial location of dissection, presence of infarction on MRI, anti-thrombotic therapy, pain presence and pain score on admission, pain presence on follow-up, and pain medications if prescribed. Results: Of 59 patients (mean age of 46 years, 58[percnt] female; 54[percnt] VA dissection) included in this analysis, 41 (69.5[percnt]) patients reported pain on admission (PA+). Thirty-two (54.2[percnt]) patients had pain on follow-up. Persistent pain on follow-up was associated with premorbid migraine history (p<0.001) and pain on presentation (p=0.048). No association was found with location of dissection (p=0.447) or other baseline factors. Among 7 patients who were started on gabapentin or pregabalin for pain during hospitalization, 6 reported pain freedom on follow-up. Conclusions: Chronic pain or new pain development is frequent after spontaneous CAD. Recognition of clinical factors that predict chronic pain could help clinicians manage pain in CAD patients more effectively. Disclosure: Dr. Youn has nothing to disclose. Dr. Prabhakaran has received personal compensation for activities with the American Heart Association.
Survival outcome of veterans with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) treated with statins.

e17018 Background: Recent studies have shown promising risk modifying effects of statin in various hematologic and solid tumors, such as its ability to induce apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia cells in-vitro. The impact of statin on MDS treatment outcome has not been evaluated. In this retrospective study, we have examined the overall survival (OS) in veteran MDS patients (pts) with and without exposure to statin with the initial hypothesis that it may impact OS. Methods: After IRB approval, data was collected from Michael E DeBakey VAMC Cancer Registry from January 2000 to October 2011. Pts were included if they had morphological evidence of MDS at the time of diagnosis. Statin exposure was defined as concurrent statin use for at least 6 months prior to and at the time of diagnosis. The primary end-point was OS before and after adjustment with MDS Co-morbidity Index (MDS-CI). Prism 5 was used for statistical analysis. Results: 104 pts with MDS were identified with baseline characteristics depicted in t...
Interlead heterogeneity of R- and T-Wave morphology in standard 12-lead ECGs predicts sustained ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation and arrhythmic death in patients with cardiomyopathy

Introduction Nonuniformities in depolarization and repolarization morphology are critical factors in ventricular arrhythmogenesis. Methods and results We assessed interlead R-wave and T-wave heterogeneity (RWH, TWH) in standard 12-lead electrocardiograms using second central moment analysis. This technique quantifies variance about the mean morphology of beats in adjoining precordial leads, V4, V5, and V6. The study was conducted in 120 consecutive patients without an apparent reversible trigger for VT, recent myocardial infarction, or active ischemia, who presented for electrophysiologic study, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) placement, or generator change at our institution from 2008 to 2011. Primary outcome was sustained VT/VF or appropriate ICD therapies. Secondary outcome was arrhythmic death or resuscitated cardiac arrest. Cutpoints for elevated RWH (>160 μV) and TWH (>80 μV) identified 69% of primary outcome cases and 85% of secondary outcome cases. Cardiomyopathy patients who met the primary outcome (n = 42) had significantly higher TWH than those who did not (n = 28) (TWH: 95±11 vs. 44±9 μV, p<0.002). Likewise, cardiomyopathy patients who met secondary outcome (N = 13) had VT/VF during follow-up and also had significantly higher TWH than survivors (N = 57) (TWH: 105±24 vs. 67±8μV, p<0.002). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed significant differences in arrhythmia-free survival (p = 0.012) and total survival (p = 0.011) among cardiomyopathy patients with (n = 37) compared to without (n = 33) elevated RWH and/or TWH independent of age, sex, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Conclusion Interlead RWH and TWH in 12-lead ECGs predict sustained ventricular arrhythmia, appropriate ICD therapies, and arrhythmic death or cardiac arrest in cardiomyopathy patients independent of LVEF and other standard variables. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Reference values for skin microanatomy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of ex vivo studies

Background Few studies have characterized reference values of normal human skin microanatomy parameters. Objective To quantify histologic measurements of epidermal thickness, melanocyte density, hair follicle density, and eccrine gland density as a function of age and anatomic site. Method We searched the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases for articles published through May 25, 2017. Two reviewers independently screened 2016 articles; 327 relevant articles and 151 additional articles found via forward or reference citations underwent full-text review by 1 of 4 reviewers for relevance, data extraction, and critical appraisal. Weighted averages, meta-analysis, and meta-regression were used in statistical analysis. Results A total of 56 articles were included; when all anatomic locations were used, the overall estimates for epidermal thickness, melanocyte density, hair follicle density, and eccrine gland density were 99.75 μm (95% confidence interval [CI], 83.25-116.25), 955.05 cells/mm 2 (95% CI. 880.89-1029.21), 1.40 hairs/mm 2 (95% CI. 0.91-1.89), and 1.28 glands/mm 2 (95% CI. 0.91-1.64), respectively. Limitations There was significant data heterogeneity across studies, possibly because of differences in histological techniques and absence of standardized microanatomy definitions. Conclusions We established summary estimates for normal human skin microanatomy parameters.
Psychosocial Considerations in TMD

Temporomandibular disorders represent a group of complex painful conditions, whose etiology and persistence are driven by a complex mosaic of influences, including psychological factors. This chapter addresses the importance of psychological contributions to TMD. Evidence is reviewed demonstrating not only that increased psychological symptoms are observed in people with TMD, but also the premorbid psychological functioning predicts future development of TMD. In addition, psychiatric diagnoses that can influence TMD symptoms and responses to treatment are discussed. Finally, the nature and effectiveness of psychological interventions for TMD are reviewed, and issues that impact interpretation of these findings are considered.
Key sectors of Optimal Economic Restructuring Constrained by Environmental Protection: A Structured Input-Output Analysis Approach

This paper introduces a tool to discover key sectors of a national or regional economy whose shares should be adjusted to offer optimal economic development constrained by environmental protection. The suggested approach uses an appropriately structured input-output model to find the projected gradient of economic development and the projected antigradient of CO2 emissions. The former is measured as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the latter, as energy consumption. A linear combination of the two, in a proportion corresponding to the relative importance of GDP and CO2 emissions, determines the direction of optimal economic restructuring. It provides the maximum weighted difference between an increase in the GDP and a decrease in CO2 emissions. The main components of the direction vector show the key sectors. One of the advantages of the suggested approach is its reliance on gross output, final product, and energy consumption only; it does not use the intermediate inputs in the calculations. The United States case study is considered as an example.
Temporal decompostion of a distribution system Quasi-Static time-series simulation

This paper documents the first phase of an investigation into reducing runtimes of complex OpenDSS models through parallelization. As the method seems promising, future work will quantify — and further mitigate — errors arising from this process. In this initial report, we demonstrate how, through the use of temporal decomposition, the run times of a complex distribution-system-level quasi-static time series simulation can be reduced roughly proportional to the level of parallelization. Using this method, the monolithic model runtime of 51 hours was reduced to a minimum of about 90 minutes. As expected, this comes at the expense of control- and voltage-errors at the time-slice boundaries. All evaluations were performed using a real distribution circuit model with the addition of 50 PV systems — representing a mock complex PV impact study. We are able to reduce induced transition errors through the addition of controls initialization, though small errors persist. The time savings with parallelization are so significant that we feel additional investigation to reduce control errors is warranted.
Imaging in neuro-oncology:

Imaging plays several key roles in managing brain tumors, including diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response assessment. Ongoing challenges remain as new therapies emerge and there are urgent needs to find accurate and clinically feasible methods to noninvasively evaluate brain tumors before and after treatment. This review aims to provide an overview of several advanced imaging modalities including magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography (PET), including advances in new PET agents, and summarize several key areas of their applications, including improving the accuracy of diagnosis and addressing the challenging clinical problems such as evaluation of pseudoprogression and anti-angiogenic therapy, and rising challenges of imaging with immunotherapy.
Spatial optimization for decentralized non-potable water reuse

Decentralization has the potential to reduce the scale of the piped distribution network needed to enable non-potable water reuse (NPR) in urban areas by producing recycled water closer to its point of use. However, tradeoffs exist between the economies of scale of treatment facilities and the size of the conveyance infrastructure, including energy for upgradient distribution of recycled water. To adequately capture the impacts from distribution pipes and pumping requirements, site-specific conditions must be accounted for. In this study, a generalized framework (a heuristic modeling approach using geospatial algorithms) is developed that estimates the financial cost, the energy use, and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with NPR (for toilet flushing) as a function of scale of treatment and conveyance networks with the goal of determining the optimal degree of decentralization. A decision-support platform is developed to assess and visualize NPR system designs considering topography, economies of scale, and building size. The platform can be used for scenario development to explore the optimal system size based on the layout of current or new buildings. The model also promotes technology innovation by facilitating the systems-level comparison of options to lower costs, improve energy efficiency, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Outsourcing: A Limited View of Radiology's Role.

Explore the professional roles of radiologists and identify the pros and cons of teleradiology. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Computer analysis of protein sequences

Most interesting of all of the biochemical components of living organisms are proteins and nucleic acids because of their potential for diversity in structure and function and their key positions in the evolutionary feedback system of each species. Sequence studies on these molecules have been carried out for various purposes in a number of disciplines: structural chemistry, crystallography, enzymology, genetics, evolution, systematics, physiology, immunology, pharmacology, genetic diseases, toxicology, virology, bacteriology, and even anthropology. In many of these disciplines, the protein and nucleic acid sequences and associated data are essential for a correct exposition of the fundamental concepts and for a parsimonious organization of the knowledge. A new field of study termed molecular evolution has emerged consisting of chemical, genetic, biological, and mathematical intercorrelations of such data. I will first describe the data available and then touch on some of the uses we make of the computer in research using this data.
Perioperative Management of Hypertension

The perioperative management of hypertension is important not only for the elderly patient but also for the parturient. Maintenance of homeostasis and the prevention of extremes of blood pressure will prevent morbidity and mortality in both the mother and the neonate. Parturients may acquire hypertensive disorders that are unique in etiology. These different causes of hypertension, their etiology and treatment will be elucidated. The pharmacodynamics of antihypertensive agents and special physiologic considerations during pregnancy will also be emphasized.
Culture-Negative Periprosthetic Joint Infection: An Update on What to Expect.

Background Culture-negative periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a challenging condition to treat. The most appropriate management of culture-negative PJI is not known, and there is immense variability in the treatment outcome of this condition. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the characteristics, outcomes, and risk factors for failure of treatment of culture-negative PJI. Methods A retrospective review of 219 patients (138 hips and 81 knees) who had undergone surgery for the treatment of culture-negative PJI was performed utilizing a prospectively collected institutional PJI database. PJIs for which the results of culture were unavailable were excluded. An electronic query and manual review of the medical records were completed to obtain patient demographics, treatment, microbiology data, comorbidities, and other surgical characteristics. Treatment failure was assessed using the Delphi consensus criteria. Results The prevalence of suspected culture-negative PJI was 22.0% (219 of 996), and the prevalence of culture-negative PJI as defined by the Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) was 6.4% (44 of 688). Overall, the rate of treatment success was 69.2% (110 of 159) in patients with >1 year of follow-up. Of the 49 culture-negative PJIs for which treatment failed, 26 (53.1%) subsequently had positive cultures; of those 26, 10 (38.5%) were positive for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. The rate of treatment success was greater (p = 0.019) for patients who had 2-stage exchange than for those who underwent irrigation and debridement. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that culture-negative PJI is a relatively frequent finding with unacceptable rates of treatment failure. Every effort should be made to isolate the infecting organism prior to surgical intervention, including extending the incubation period for cultures, withholding antibiotics prior to obtaining culture specimens, and possibly using newly introduced molecular techniques. Level of evidence Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Single-molecule study reveals the frenetic lives of proteins in gradients

Protein concentration gradients are a common strategy to compartmentalize activities within cells and tissues. Gradients position the division plane of bacterial cells, regulate the size of yeast cells, and pattern embryos (1⇓–3). Among the most studied gradients is the Bicoid gradient of Drosophila . Bicoid protein is synthesized from a localized source of bcd mRNA at the anterior-most pole of the embryo (4, 5). In one model, newly synthesized Bicoid is proposed to diffuse away from this point source and to turn over at a constant rate throughout the cytoplasm, thus generating an anterior-rich protein concentration gradient (6) (Fig. 1 A ). Drosophila embryos, however, are unusually large (>400 μm) syncytial cells. Smaller cells are unlikely to support Bicoid-like gradients, since the rate of protein diffusion in the cytoplasm is typically too fast (10 μm2⋅s−1) to prevent proteins from sampling the entire cytoplasm within seconds (2, 7). If so, how do most cells generate protein gradients? In 2008, Lipkow and Odde (8) offered a simple solution to this dilemma. Using theoretical modeling, they demonstrated that protein gradients can be sustained in cells of any size by coupling regulation of protein diffusivity to a spatially segregated protein modification system. The reversible protein modification (e.g., phosphorylation) toggles the protein between two states with different diffusion coefficients (one fast and one slow). Imposing a spatial bias in the distribution of one of the protein modification enzymes (e.g., the kinase) locally increases the concentration of one diffusive state, thus generating a protein concentration gradient whose steepness is proportional to the amplitude of the difference in protein diffusion coefficients (8). In PNAS, Wu et al. (9) provide remarkable experimental evidence that such a mechanism drives the formation of cytoplasmic gradients in … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: gseydoux{at}jhmi.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
“ALWAYS MIXED TOGETHER”: NOTATION, LANGUAGE, AND THE PEDAGOGY OF FREGE'S BEGRIFFSSCHRIFT

Gottlob Frege is considered a founder of analytic philosophy and mathematical logic, but the traditions that claim Frege as a forebear never embraced his Begriffsschrift, or “conceptual notation”—the invention he considered his most important accomplishment. Frege believed that his notation rendered logic visually observable. Rejecting the linearity of written language, he claimed Begriffsschrift exhibited a structure endogenous to logic itself. But Frege struggled to convince others to use his notation, as his frustrated pedagogical efforts at the University of Jena illustrate. Teaching Begriffsschrift meant using words to explain it; rather than replacing spoken language, notation became its obverse in a bifurcated style of argument that separated deduction from commentary. Both registers of this discourse, however, remained within Frege's monologue, imposing a consequential passivity on his students. In keeping with Frege's visual understanding of notation, they learned by silently observing it, though never in isolation: notation and language were always mixed together.
Characterization of the Effects of Internal Pores on Tensile Properties of Additively Manufactured Austenitic Stainless Steel 316L

In this study, the effects of internal pores on the tensile behavior of austenitic stainless steel 316L manufactured with laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) were investigated. Both fully-dense samples and samples with intentional internal pores of varying diameters were fabricated. For each sample with a pore, the internal pore was deliberately fabricated in the center of the cylindrical tensile sample during AM processing. By varying the diameter of the 180 μm-tall initial penny-shaped pores, from 150 to 4800 μm within 6 mm gauge diameter cylindrical samples, the impact of lack-of-fusion, commonly present in AM, as well as the impact of well-defined pores in general, on tensile mechanical properties was studied. To link the pore size and morphology to the mechanical properties, the sizes of the initial pores were evaluated using non-destructive Archimedes measurements, 2D X-ray radiography, 3D X-ray computed tomography, and destructive 2D optical microscopy. Samples with and without the single, penny-shaped pore were subjected to uniaxial tension to evaluate the defect size dependent mechanical properties. The intentional pore began to impact ultimate tensile strength when the pore diameter was 2400 μm, or 16% of the cross-sectional sample area. Elongation to failure was significantly affected when the pore diameter was 1800 μm or 9% of the cross-sectional sample area. This shows that 316L stainless steel manufactured by additive manufacturing is defect-tolerant under uniaxial tension loading.
Reluctant celebrity: affect and privilege in contemporary stardom

In Reluctant Celebrity: Affect and Privilege in Contemporary Stardom, Lorraine York theorises reluctance as an affective stance arising out of privilege and delineates the ways in which white male ...
Developing A Comprehensive Tool to Support Requirements Analyst During Elicitation Interviews [Kennesaw State University]

This research is being conducted to provide requirements analysts with a supportive tool to use during elicitation interviews. In these interviews that were conducted as part of the overall project, stakeholders were asked a series of questions while wearing the Empatica E4 wristband and being recorded through various voice recording platforms. As a part of an ongoing research project, stakeholders have been interviewed using voice recordings and the Empatica E4 wristband to gather biofeedback data. Requirements analyst need support during elicitation interviews because of the ambiguity that arises during communication making it harder to collect proper requirements. In order to provide features such as visualizing the biofeedback collected from the Empatica E4 wristband and the voice waves, questions such as how to create a user-friendly application and how to synchronize the biofeedback and voice data must be researched. In conclusion, creating this mobile application would to assist requirements analysts in carrying out assessments during elicitation interviews.
Scalable Automated Model Search

Abstract : Model search is a crucial component of data analytics pipelines and this laborious process of choosing an appropriate learning algorithm and tuning its parameters remains a major obstacle in the widespread adoption of machine learning techniques. Recent efforts aiming to automate this process have assumed model training itself to be a black-box, thus limiting the effectiveness of such approaches on large-scale problems. In this work, we build upon these recent efforts. By inspecting the inner workings of model training and framing model search as bandit-like resource allocation problem, we present an integrated distributed system for model search that targets large-scale learning applications. We study the impact of our approach on a variety of datasets and demonstrate that our system, named GHOSTFACE, solves the model search problem with comparable accuracy as basic strategies but an order of magnitude faster. We further demonstrate that GHOSTFACE can scale to models trained on terabytes of data across hundreds of machines.
Forecasting Spacecraft Telemetry Using Modified Physical Predictions

Abstract : Among systems that provide sensor data of their performance, one approach to prognostic estimation is forecasting, i.e. prediction of measurable parameters and comparison of predicted values against established operational limits. Forecasting can be attempted statistically, or can be based on rigorous physical simulation. However, combining these approaches is difficult where system mode behavior or timing of system activities is uncertain, limiting the accuracy or applicability of a forecast. In this paper we describe a method to modify simulation outputs to better match current telemetry. We begin with a familiar autoregressive approach to model residuals between predicted spacecraft performance, provided by physics-based modeling tools, and up-to-date spacecraft telemetry. This result is then improved by transforming the simulation result to better fit recent data, and the transformation is applied to generate more accurate future predictions. The method is suitable for real-time signal prediction. We will motivate this approach and characterize its performance using example telemetry from the NASA Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft.*
Die Messung der Sorption, Verdampfung und Zersetzung an Werkstoffen der Vakuumtechnik mit einer elektromagnetischen Mikrowaage

Es wird eine Apparatur beschrieben, mit der sich eine Gewichtsanderung von Festkorpern bei verschiedenen Temperaturen in verschiedenen Atmospharen und im Vakuum mit einer Empfindlichkeit von 10–6 g messen last. Die Apparatur wurde zur Materialprufung und zur Untersuchung von Sorptionsvorgangen in der Vakuumtechnik verwendet. An Dichtungsmaterial (Neopren und Viton‡), an einem Gewebe aus Polytetrafluorathylen (Gaflon‡), an verschiedenen Vakuumfetten sowie an einem benzinbestandigen Fett wurde die Wasserdampf- und Stickstoffsorption gemessen und die Temperaturbestandigkeit gepruft. Aus dem zeitlichen Verlauf der beobachteten Gewichtsabnahme kann man ermitteln, ob es sich um die Abgabe von sorbiertem Gas oder um die Verdampfung bzw. Zersetzung des Materials handelt.
Combining ability studies on brown rice percentage of rice hybrids by two-line method

74 combinations were obtained by crossing 8 photo-thermo-sterilities with 30 restoring line varieties,and their combining ability of brown rice percentage was studied.The main results were as follows:1) Brown rice percentage of hybrids (F1) was significantly positively correlated with that of the male parentages and the mean level of two parents,and the correlation coefficient were 0.312 3 and 0.306 8;slightly positively correlated with brown rice percentage of the female parentages,and the correlation coefficient is 0.103 1.2) The difference of brown rice percentage was significant among combinations;The difference of brown rice percentage between general combining ability (GCA) and special combining ability (SCA) of combinations was significant;The brown rice percentage of hybrids was controlled by GCA and SCA,and GCA of parents,especially the restoring line parents,played a more important role.At last,the breeding methods of improving brown rice percentage in rice hybrids (F1) by two-line system were discussed.
Applications of wavefront control using nano-post based dielectric metasurfaces

Abstract Dielectric metasurfaces are sub-wavelength arrangements of dielectric particles located on a surface that can be used to control the properties of optical wavefronts propagating through them. We discuss various applications of dielectric metasurfaces including imaging, spectrometry, optical micro-electro mechanical systems, conformal optics, and dispersion control.
Virtualized In Situ Software Update Verification: Verification of Over-the-Air Automotive Software Updates

The integration of driver assistance and autonomous driving capabilities has increased the complexity of automotive software, making the verification of software updates more challenging. The utility of simulators in software verification is limited in terms of their level of fidelity to real-world hardware and driving conditions. The use of physical test vehicles on a test track is both costly and not representative of real-world conditions and vehicle configurations.
Local delivery of dinutuximab from lyophilized silk fibroin foams for treatment of an orthotopic neuroblastoma model

Immunotherapy targeting GD2 is a primary treatment for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Dinutuximab is a monoclonal antibody with great clinical promise but is limited by side effects such as severe pain. Local delivery has emerged as a potential mechanism to deliver higher doses of therapeutics into the tumor bed, while limiting systemic toxicity. We aim to deliver dinutuximab locally in a lyophilized silk fibroin foam for the treatment of an orthotopic neuroblastoma mouse model. Dinutuximab-loaded silk fibroin foams were fabricated through lyophilization. In vitro release profile and bioactivity of the release through complement-dependent cytotoxicity were characterized. MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells (KELLY) were injected into the left gland of mice to generate an orthotopic neuroblastoma model. Once the tumor volume reached 100 mm3 , dinutuximab-, human IgG-, or buffer-loaded foams were implanted into the tumor and growth was monitored using high-resolution ultrasound. Post-resection histology was performed on tumors. Dinutuximab-loaded silk fibroin foams exhibited a burst release, with slow release thereafter in vitro with maintenance of bioactivity. The dinutuximab-loaded foam significantly inhibited xenograft tumor growth compared to IgG- and buffer-loaded foams. Histological analysis revealed the presence of dinutuximab within the tumor and neutrophils and macrophages infiltrating into dinutuximab-loaded silk foam. Tumors treated with local dinutuximab had decreased MYCN expression on histology compared to control or IgG-treated tumors. Silk fibroin foams offer a mechanism for local release of dinutuximab within the neuroblastoma tumor. This local delivery achieved a significant decrease in tumor growth rate in a mouse orthotopic tumor model.
1 – Wound healing

Repair of an injured organ depends upon a complex physiologic process involving inflammatory cell migration, cytokine production, extracellular matrix deposition, and scar remodeling. Wound healing can be divided into four general phases that include hemostasis, an inflammatory response, remodeling, and maturation. There are a variety of wound types, both acute and chronic, that require their own specific method of treatment. The resulting scars that form include hypertrophic and keloid scars that require a wide variety of treatment modalities. A burn injury represents a special kind of injury and wound healing that requires a multidisciplinary approach to management. Finally, this work looks at current animal models and wound types used in research to explore and discover new treatment modalities, including novel biomaterials, and strategies.
Enzyme Technology Prospects and Their Biomedical Applications

Enzymes are natural catalysts and protein molecules executing specialized catalysis of substrate to product in chemical reactions. Enzyme technology uses enzyme as a biocatalyst to manufacture new products in bulk in the most dynamic fields such as food, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and biopolymers. The most common types of industrial enzymes are proteases, amylases, lipase, cellulases, and xylanases. Enzymes are now increasingly being used in medical application such as therapeutics, drug delivery, diagnostic, new drug development, bioanalysis, and biosensors. Examples of some biomedical enzymes are cytochrome oxidase, creatine kinase, streptokinase, urokinase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and serratiopeptidase. New advancements in “white biotechnology,” mainly in protein engineering, have offered imperative techniques for the effective development of new enzymes using directed evolution. The present paper aims to provide a review on industrial enzymes, stressing on recent advances in enzyme engineering and applications in medical field.
Behavioral and Emotional Risk Screening

The current chapter focuses on research supporting the importance of early identification of emotional and behavioral problems. Key terms are defined, such as “behavioral and emotional risk,” and methods for evaluating screening measures for asssessing this risk are provided. Of most importance in this evaluation is the measure’s positive and negative predictive power for detecting later emotional and behavioral problems. The chapter summarizes and evaluates some of the screening measures that have been developed and tested for detecting behavioral and emotional risk in children and adolescents. It also summarizes important considerations when designing a universal risk screening .
TS-UCB: Improving on Thompson Sampling With Little to No Additional Computation

Thompson sampling has become a ubiquitous approach to online decision problems with bandit feedback. The key algorithmic task for Thompson sampling is drawing a sample from the posterior of the optimal action. We propose an alternative arm selection rule we dub TS-UCB, that requires negligible additional computational effort but provides significant performance improvements relative to Thompson sampling. At each step, TS-UCB computes a score for each arm using two ingredients: posterior sample(s) and upper confidence bounds. TS-UCB can be used in any setting where these two quantities are available, and it is flexible in the number of posterior samples it takes as input. TS-UCB achieves materially lower regret on a comprehensive suite of synthetic and real-world datasets, including a personalized article recommendation dataset from Yahoo! and a suite of benchmark datasets from a deep bandit suite proposed in Riquelme et al. (2018). Finally, from a theoretical perspective, we establish optimal regret guarantees for TS-UCB for both the K-armed and linear bandit models.
Energy-aware workflow scheduling and optimization in clouds using bat algorithm

Abstract With the ever-increasing deployment of data centers and computer networks around the world, cloud computing has emerged as one of the most important paradigms for large-scale data-intensive applications. However, these cloud environments face many challenges including energy consumption, execution time, heat and C O 2 emission, as well as operational cost. Due to the extremely large scale of these applications and a huge amount of resource consumption, even a small portion of the improvements in any of the above fields can yield huge ecological and financial rewards. Efficient and effective workflow scheduling in cloud environments is one of the most significant ways to confront the above problems and achieve optimal resource utilization. We propose an Energy Aware, Time, and Throughput Optimization heuristic (EATTO) based on the bat algorithm. Our goal is to minimize energy consumption and execution time of computation-intensive workflows while maximizing throughput, without imposing any significant loss on the Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee.
ScagCNN: Estimating Visual Characterizations of 2D Scatterplots via Convolution Neural Network

Scagnostics is a set of visual features that characterizes the data distribution of a 2D scatterplot and has been used in a wide range of applications. However, calculating the scagnostics scores involves computationally expensive algorithms. Moreover, the algorithms are sensitive to the slight changes in the underlying data distribution within the scatterplot. Therefore, this work provides a machine learning model, called ScagCNN, to estimate the scagnostics scores. This model aims to improve the scagnostics computation time and to reduce the sensitivity to the small shifts in the data distribution. This work also provides a web prototype to explore the predictive performance of the model and to give a visual explanation about whether a prediction is accurate. Furthermore, we test the performance of our solution on datasets of various sizes.
Depletion of the DarG antitoxin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis triggers the DNA-damage response and leads to cell death

Of the ~80 putative toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules encoded by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), three contain antitoxins essential for bacterial viability. One of these, Rv0060 (DNA ADP-ribosyl glycohydrolase, DarGMtb ), functions along with its cognate toxin Rv0059 (DNA ADP-ribosyl transferase, DarTMtb ), to mediate reversible DNA ADP-ribosylation (Jankevicius et al., 2016). We demonstrate that DarTMtb -DarGMtb form a functional TA pair and essentiality of darGMtb is dependent on the presence of darTMtb , but simultaneous deletion of both darTMtb -darGMtb does not alter viability of Mtb in vitro or in mice. The antitoxin, DarGMtb , forms a cytosolic complex with DNA-repair proteins that assembles independently of either DarTMtb or interaction with DNA. Depletion of DarGMtb alone is bactericidal, a phenotype that is rescued by expression of an orthologous antitoxin, DarGTaq , from Thermus aquaticus. Partial depletion of DarGMtb triggers a DNA-damage response and sensitizes Mtb to drugs targeting DNA metabolism and respiration. Induction of the DNA-damage response is essential for Mtb to survive partial DarGMtb -depletion and leads to a hypermutable phenotype.
The Work of Film Studies: An Analysis of Four Journals

A collection consisting of all the works published in Cinema Journal (from its inception in 1961 until 2016), Wide Angle (through the whole of its existence), Screen (from 1969 to 1984), and Movie (from 1962 to 2000) might reasonably be seen as representative of the work of film studies generally. An exhaustive survey of all that material, aside from offering a synoptic history of film studies, makes clear that interpreting individual films is, and has always been, a relatively minor concern of the discipline, whose main interest (surely rightly) has been history. As one would expect, Screen put more emphasis on theory than did the other three; and Wide Angle, the most trend-sensitive of the four journals, was more engaged with cultural studies. But for three of the four journals historical analysis was the central focus. Movie is, of course, the outlier. Seen against the extensive overlapping in the patterns playing out in the other three journals, Movie is, in fact, unusual—the exception that proves the rule.
Tools to automate use of the database at NeuroMorpho.Org

Abstract A computational toolset was developed to automate use of the web database at NeuroMorpho.Org. It is platform independent and includes code to retrieve curated neuronal data in the JSON file format. The source of the data is from past studies which is accessible by the client–server HTTP protocol. Tools include methods to convert the database format to plain text, combine tables, and validate files.
The Kelo Opportunity

Applying a normative-constitutionalist perspective on public administration ethics, this study explores the disconnect between the United States Supreme Court's eminent domain decisions and the framers' values of private property rights and the public good. Kelo v. New London (2005) presented the Court with an opportunity to reevaluate its stance on takings. Although the Court missed the opportunity, the case has been transformed into an opportunity for administrators in the implementation of eminent domain. An institutional ethic for takings is examined here to help inform the work of practitioners. Such an ethic should be grounded in the Court's operationalization of the Takings Clause of the Constitution and tempered by the framers' values.
Provider Attitudes and Practices on Treating Tobacco Dependence in New York City After 10 years of Comprehensive Tobacco Control Efforts.

To design strategies for provider education and implementation of clinical guidelines, this study investigated how physicians (1) approach tobacco cessation, including barriers to screening and tre...
Video Capture Interface Prototype for Design Knowledge Capture and Pedagogical Implications

Design engineers and teams have found value in recording (in analog or digital form) the details of their process—including meeting notes, sketches, physical prototypes, enactments, and so on—so that they can revisit, or even reuse, these details at a later time, or multiple later times, even on another project years later to build upon the ideas of others. Design knowledge capture and reuse is an underutilized practice for professional, as well as student, design teams We studied students enrolled in a graduate level academic-year-long course in design practice at Stanford, which focuses on developing students’ skills in design process, project management, physical prototyping, and global team dynamics. Experienced designers value design knowledge capture and reuse highly but are challenged to communicate and facilitate their value to students through graded activities alone. This chapter describes our own design process to address the teaching team’s challenge by quickly prototyping a “critical experience prototype” to help students learn, use, and reuse a video-based design archiving system. We built and tested a (relatively) large, table-top, electronic pushbutton that design team members could press whenever they encountered a moment, or insight, that they considered potentially important for their team’s prospects. A press on the “recording engineering design” (or RED) button initiates the recording and storage of video of the surrounding several minutes of team activity. We found during testing that (1) the button was fraught with novelty effects during usage, and (2) it would occasionally break the flow of thought and progress during meetings. We also find that while the prototype might effectively capture salient design moments, it still does not address the needs of design knowledge reuse, as it does not assist team members with the subsequent consumption of that documented knowledge, or emphasize the value of design knowledge reuse.
Teleportal Augmented Reality System: Integrating Virtual Objects, Remote Collaborators, and Physical Reality for Distributed Networked Manufacturing

Components and potential manufacturing applications of the teleportal augmented reality (AR) system are described. This teleportal system is designed to support applications such as distributed 3D design and work-team collaboration. The optomechanical design of an emerging type of AR head-mounted display (HMD), referred to as the Teleportal Head-Mounted Projection Display (T-HMPD) is detailed. A feature of HMPDs is the invariance of the optics size and weight across a significant increase in field of view (FOV). Results are shown for 52° and 70° FOVs projection optics. Research on associated technologies and methods that provide the basis for an integrated distributed manufacturing AR system is introduced, which includes calibration and registration of virtual and physical objects, the creation of AR tool spaces around the body of a mobile user, a face-to-face collaboration tool, and finally an integration of the teleportal AR technologies within the Artificial Reality Centre (ARC) Work Room.
Serum immunoglobulins: III. Abnormalities associated with chronic urticaria in children

Abstract Serum levels of immunoglobulins G, A, and M were determined in 16 children with chronic wrticaria. The outstanding clinical feature of the group was recurrent upper respiratory infection. In 9 cases immunoglobulin levels were below the normal range for age for this laboratory. Four examples of multiple immunoglobulin deficiency and 5 examples of single immunoglobulin deficiency were noted, including a complete IgA deficiency. A statistical comparison of the entire urticaria group data with data from normal subjects revealed significantly (p =
A Primer on Bayesian Inference for Biophysical Systems

Bayesian inference is a powerful statistical paradigm that has gained popularity in many fields of science, but adoption has been somewhat slower in biophysics. Here, I provide an accessible tutorial on the use of Bayesian methods by focusing on example applications that will be familiar to biophysicists. I first discuss the goals of Bayesian inference and show simple examples of posterior inference using conjugate priors. I then describe Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and, in particular, discuss Gibbs sampling and Metropolis random walk algorithms with reference to detailed examples. These Bayesian methods (with the aid of Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling) provide a generalizable way of rigorously addressing parameter inference and identifiability for arbitrarily complicated models.
SenQ: An Embedded Query System for Streaming Data in Heterogeneous Interactive Wireless Sensor Networks

Interactive wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) manifest diverse application architectures, hardware capabilities, and user interactions that challenge existing centralized [1], or VM-based [2] query system designs. To support in-network processing of streaming sensor data in such heterogeneous environments, we created SenQ, a multi-layer embedded query system. SenQ enables user-driven and peer-to-peer in-network query issue by wearable interfaces and other resource-constrained devices. Complex virtual sensors and user-created streams can be dynamically discovered and shared, and SenQ is extensible to new sensors and processing algorithms. We evaluated SenQ's efficiency and performance in a testbed for assisted-living, and show that on-demand buffering, query caching, efficient restart and other optimizations reduce network overhead and minimize data latency.
Paranormal spaces under

We prove that paranormal spaces of character < wi are wlcollectionwise Hausdorff assuming the set-theoretic principle 0*. This gives an affirmative answer to problem 197 in Problems I wish I could solve, by W. S. Watson (Open Problems in Topology (1990), 37-76).