cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Breeding alters cuticular hydrocarbons and mediates partner recognition by burying beetles

In many insects, recognition cues for social status or family membership are based on differences in cuticular hydrocarbons. In some cases these cues reflect reproductive status. Burying beetles, Nicrophorus orbicollis, form temporary pairs to rear a brood and, as a pair, they must defend their young and the breeding resource (a small vertebrate carcass) from conspecific intruders. Thus, a mechanism for the identification of a nonpartner is necessary for the appropriate aggressive response. Burying beetles appear to use reproductive status to identify partners. In behavioural tests of recognition, unknown individuals at the same reproductive stage were accepted as mates. In addition, males showed significantly less aggression towards unknown nonbreeding females treated with an extract of their mates' cuticular hydrocarbons. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of males and females on the sixth day of breeding, the most intense phase of parental care, were significantly different from those of their nonbreeding counterparts, but quite similar to each other. We conclude that these hydrocarbon profiles change during a breeding bout and mediate recognition of breeding partners. Furthermore, although juvenile hormone haemolymph titres changed dramatically during breeding, they did not directly affect hydrocarbon profiles.
Fatal hypoglycemia in malignant pheochromocytoma: direct glucose consumption as suggested by 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging

We present a patient with metastatic pheochromocytoma, who developed progressive and fatal hypoglycemia most likely secondary to direct tumor glucose consumption that did not respond to high-dose glucose infusion, corticosteroids, or glucagon therapy. The pattern of glucose uptake on (18)F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography, with preferential tumor glucose uptake in association with a marked reduction in normal uptake in the heart, muscles, and brain, is highly suggestive of direct consumption of glucose by the tumor rather than insulin-like growth factor-2 mediated hypoglycemia. In patients with large-volume metastatic malignancies, direct tumor glucose consumption should be considered in the differential diagnosis of hypoglycemia. Nuclear medicine imaging techniques can illustrate the pathophysiology of hypoglycemia in such cases.
Microstructural and Process Characterization of Conductive Traces Printed from Ag Particulate Inks

Conductive inks are key enablers for the use of printing techniques in the fabrication of electronic systems. Focus on the understanding of aspects controlling the electrical performance of conductive ink is paramount. A comparison was made between microparticle Ag inks and an Ag nanoparticle ink. The microstructures resulting from thermal cure processes were characterized morphologically and also in terms of their effect on the resistivity of printed traces. For microparticle inks, the variability of resistivity measurements between samples as defined by coefficient of variation (CV) was greater than 0.1 when the resistivity was 10 to 50 times that of bulk Ag. When the resistivity was lower (~1.4 times that of bulk Ag) the CV of sample sets was less than 0.1. In the case of the nanoparticle ink, resistivity was found to decrease by a factor ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 after doubling the amount of layers printed prior to curing though it was expected to remain the same. Increasing the amount of layers printed also enhanced the sintering process.
Geometric methods for structured covariance estimation

The problem considered in this paper is that of approximating a sample covariance matrix by one with a Toeplitz structure. The importance stems from the apparent sensitivity of spectral analysis on the linear structure of covariance statistics in conjunction with the fact that estimation error destroys the Toepliz pattern. The approximation is based on appropriate distance measures. To this end, we overview some of the common metrics and divergence measures which have been used for this purpose as well as introduce certain alternatives. In particular, the metric induced by Monge-Kantorovich transportation of the respective probability measures leads to an efficient linear matrix inequality (LMI) formulation of the approximation problem and relates to approximation in the Hellinger metric. We compare these with the maximum likelihood and the Burg method on a representative case study from the literature.
Oncogenic transformation of 3T3 cells is associated with conversion from an 'adult' to an 'embryonic' esterase isoenzyme pattern.

Abstract Soluble esterases from virus-transformed sublines of 3T3 Swiss mouse fibroblasts exhibit an isoenzyme pattern in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis similar to the pattern exhibited by primary mouse embryo cells but distinct from that exhibited by 3T3 cells. The soluble esterase isoenzyme pattern exhibited by 3T3 cells is similar to that exhibited by primary and secondary fibroblastoid cells derived from adult Swiss mouse kidney, suggesting that, despite its embryonic origin, 3T3 is an ‘adult’ cell line selected and maintained in that state by the requirement that it exhibits a low saturation density and a characteristic morphology in culture. The pattern of soluble esterase isoenzymes is similar in growing and non-growing 3T3 cells, although the specific activity is higher in preparations from non-growing cells. Sparse 3T3 cells contain at least three detergent-soluble esterase isoenzymes present at much lower levels in denser cultures.The esterase and amidase enzyme activities measured in solution with the fluorogenic substrates fluorescein diacetate and rhodamine diacetate, respectively, are substantially higher in three subcellular fractions from virus-transformed 3T3 mouse fibroblasts than in the corresponding fractions from 3T3 mouse fibroblasts or from primary mouse embryo cells. The largest increases in activity associated with viral transformation were observed in membrane-associated esterases.
The Changing Retail Environment: Its Influence On Professionalism In Chain And Independently Owned Pharmacies

The purpose of this study was to determine if pharmacists could be differentiated with respect to practice site based on their responses to several questions related to professionalism and its consequential influence on pharmacy image. Results revealed that several qualities associated with professionalism (e.g., skills, knowledge, ethics, service, and environment) could be used to distinguish pharmacists by practice site. In general, pharmacists whose primary practice sites were a chain store pharmacy evaluated the items relating to professionalism, work environment, and image more negatively than pharmacists whose primary practice sites were an independently owned pharmacy. Implications for the retail marketing environment, pharmacy management, and pharmacy image are also discussed.
Metaphors of Ethnic Identity: Projective Life History Narratives of Trinidadians of Indian Descent

Abstract Indentured laborers from India were brought to the West Indies beginning in the 1840s. They form upwards of 40% of the population of several West Indian territories, including Trinidad (part of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago). Despite considerable assimilation to West Indian norms, these peo-ple of Indian descent feel strongly about retaining a separate and distinctive cultural identity. There is no overall consensus, however, as to what these people and their distinctive culture should be called. I argue that the quest for an appropriate label of ethnic identity is not a matter of arcane academic interest, but is at the heart of these people's construction of a secure place in a pluralistic society. The technique of projective life-history narrative is explored as a means to uncover the dynamic of the discourse of ethnic self-identification in modern Trinidad. Four widely used labels of ethnic identity are seen as master meta-phors to which individual life accounts are assimilated. Analysis of the formal properties of those accounts facilitates an understanding of how people of Indian descent think of themselves and present themselves in social interaction with members of other groups. (Anthropology)
Identifying the presence and footprints of multiple incumbent transmitters

Cognitive networks share spectrum with incumbent, or pre-existing, networks by identifying their presence and not causing interference to them. Current methods to identify the presence of multiple incumbent transmitters require more information than is available to a cognitive network. In this paper, the energy received by cooperating CRs is used to identify the presence of multiple incumbent transmitters without knowledge of their locations, channel model, and communication protocols. Incumbents are distinguished as components of a Gaussian mixture model of the energy received by CRs. Furthermore, the algorithm finds each incumbent's footprint, i.e., the CRs that can cause the incumbent interference.
Second-trimester maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein levels and the risk of subsequent fetal death.

Abstract Background. The finding of an elevated level of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein during the second trimester of pregnancy may indicate that the fetus has died or is about to die. It is uncertain, however, whether the finding is associated with an increased risk of fetal death later in gestation independent of known causes of elevation, such as the presence of neural-tube defects or multiple gestation. Methods. To address this question, we performed a case–control study of 612 women whose pregnancies ended in fetal death and 2501 women who gave birth to live infants, using reports from California vital statistics for 1987. All the women had singleton pregnancies and alpha-fetoprotein screening in the second trimester. Results. Women with elevated levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein in the second trimester of pregnancy had an increased risk of fetal death, and the risk was increased until term. Women with the highest levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein — ≥3.0 times the median value — had a very high ri...
Use of puffers for disruption of sex pheromone communication among navel orangeworm moths (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in almonds, pistachios, and walnuts

Machines for dispensing puffs of pheromone at preselected time intervals, containing (Z,Z)-11,13-hexadecadienal, a sex pheromone component of the female navel orange-worm, Amyelois transitella (Walker), moth were positioned at 40-m separations around the perimeters of square 16-ha blocks of pistachios, almonds, and walnuts. With a 30-min puff interval, which continued throughout the day and night for up to 5 d; these puffers delivered an effective release rate of 23 mg of (Z,Z)-11,13-hexadecadienal per ha/d within each 16-ha block. The resulting pheromone permeation of the air completely prevented males of the navel orangeworm from locating females used as bait in traps in the centers of the blocks that were >200 m from the closest puffer. In a smaller, square walnut block of 4.4 ha, with puffers located 30 m apart along the perimeter, less-than-complete communication disruption occured, even though the female-baited traps were now only approximately 100 m from the closest puffer.
Influence of pH, pCO2 and pO2 on erythrocytic adsorption of fibrinogen.

SummaryThe amount of fibrinogen adsorbed from plasma by erythrocytes varies with the pH and inversely with the pCO2. The influence of pCO2 is probably mediated through its alteration of blood pH. The influence of pO2 on erythrocytic adsorption of fibrinogen is negligible. Physiological alterations in pH may affect the amount of fibrinogen stored on erythrocytic surfaces or released to the plasma compartment.
SC-02CONVERSION OF DIFFERENTIATED CANCER CELLS INTO CANCER STEM-LIKE CELLS IN A GLIOBLASTOMA MODEL AFTER PRIMARY CHEMOTHERAPY

Glioblastoma multiforme patients have a poor prognosis due to therapeutic resistance and tumor relapse. It has been suggested that gliomas are driven by a rare subset of tumor cells known as glioma stem cells (GSCs). This hypothesis states that only a few GSCs are able to divide, differentiate and initiate a new tumor. It has also been shown that this subpopulation is more resistant to conventional therapies than its differentiated counterpart. In order to understand glioma recurrence post therapy, we investigated the behavior of GSCs after primary chemotherapy. We first show that exposure of patient-derived as well as established glioma cell lines to therapeutic doses of temozolomide (TMZ), the most commonly used anti-glioma chemotherapy, consistently increases the GSC pool over time both in vitro and in vivo. Secondly, lineage-tracing analysis of the expanded GSC pool suggests that such amplification is a result of a phenotypic shift in the non-GSC population to GSC-like state in the presence of TMZ. The newly converted GSC population expresses markers associated with pluripotency and stemness, such as CD133, SOX2, Oct4 and Nestin. Furthermore, we show that intracranial implantation of the newly converted GSCs in nude mice results in a more efficient grafting and invasive phenotype. Taken together, these findings provide the first evidence that glioma cells exposed to chemotherapeutic agents are able to interconvert between non-GSCs and GSCs, thereby replenishing the original tumor population, leading to a more infiltrative phenotype and enhanced chemoresistance. This may represent a potential mechanism for therapeutic relapse.
The Benefits of Integrating Service Teaching and Learning Techniques into an Undergraduate Horticulture Curriculum

Service learning is a technique in which instructors integrate community service into their semester curriculum to enhance the learning experience. Servicelearning teaching strategies naturally fit into horticulture and landscape design curricula, since hands-on laboratories are often incorporated into lesson plans. The purpose of this study was to integrate service-learning techniques into a universitylevel horticulture course and measure the impact of the course on students’ perceptions of community involvement, perceptions of social impact, and perception of how well the students felt they learned the course material. Students in an undergraduate landscape design class were taught the process of landscape design using service-learning activities within the city and campus communities. Projects included developing designs for campus gardens, the city post office, neighborhood parks, the campus childcare center, city road median areas and the city women’s shelter, and other projects. A survey tool was developed from other existing surveys to measure how students felt about service learning as a means to learn skills in class and to measure their perceptions of community involvement and social impact. Currently enrolled students were surveyed and alumni from five classes taught in a similar manner in previous years were surveyed. Results from the study showed major differences in that students felt more positive about community involvement after the course compared with before the course. Students rated their feelings of social impact and learning course material above the neutral levels in both categories. No differences were found in gender and grade point average (GPA) comparisons in any of the categories, with the exception of the social impact statements with males and students with higher GPAs rating their feelings more positively within that category. Additionally, differences were found in comparisons of alumni vs. current students, with alumni feeling more positive about how well they learned course material compared to current students.
Automated tissue classification of intracardiac optical coherence tomography images(Conference Presentation)

Remodeling of the myocardium is associated with increased risk of arrhythmia and heart failure. Our objective is to automatically identify regions of fibrotic myocardium, dense collagen, and adipose tissue, which can serve as a way to guide radiofrequency ablation therapy or endomyocardial biopsies. Using computer vision and machine learning, we present an automated algorithm to classify tissue compositions from cardiac optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. Three dimensional OCT volumes were obtained from 15 human hearts ex vivo within 48 hours of donor death (source, NDRI). We first segmented B-scans using a graph searching method. We estimated the boundary of each region by minimizing a cost function, which consisted of intensity, gradient, and contour smoothness. Then, features, including texture analysis, optical properties, and statistics of high moments, were extracted. We used a statistical model, relevance vector machine, and trained this model with abovementioned features to classify tissue compositions. To validate our method, we applied our algorithm to 77 volumes. The datasets for validation were manually segmented and classified by two investigators who were blind to our algorithm results and identified the tissues based on trichrome histology and pathology. The difference between automated and manual segmentation was 51.78 ± 50.96 μm. Experiments showed that the attenuation coefficients of dense collagen were significantly different from other tissue types (P < 0.05, ANOVA). Importantly, myocardial fibrosis tissues were different from normal myocardium in entropy and kurtosis. The tissue types were classified with an accuracy of 84%. The results show good agreements with histology.
Face-specific and domain-general visual processing deficits in children with developmental prosopagnosia

Evidence suggests that face and object recognition depend on distinct neural circuitry within the visual system. Work with adults with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) demonstrates that some individuals have preserved object recognition despite severe face recognition deficits. This face selectivity in adults with DP indicates that face- and object-processing systems can develop independently, but it is unclear at what point in development these mechanisms are separable. Determining when individuals with DP first show dissociations between faces and objects is one means to address this question. In the current study, we investigated face and object processing in six children with DP (5-12-years-old). Each child was assessed with one face perception test, two different face memory tests, and two object memory tests that were matched to the face memory tests in format and difficulty. Scores from the DP children on the matched face and object tasks were compared to within-subject data from age-matched controls. Four of the six DP children, including the 5-year-old, showed evidence of face-specific deficits, while one child appeared to have more general visual-processing deficits. The remaining child had inconsistent results. The presence of face-specific deficits in children with DP suggests that face and object perception depend on dissociable processes in childhood.
Advances in basic and clinical immunology in 2011.

Investigations of basic immunologic mechanisms and clinical studies of primary immunodeficiencies were most prevalent in 2011. Significant progress was achieved in the characterization of T H 17 cell differentiation and associated cytokines in the setting of inflammatory disorders, HIV infection, and immunodysregulation disorders. The role of transmembrane activator and calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand interactor (TACI) mutations in the pathogenesis of CVID was further described and reported to be likely mediated by impaired TACI expression affecting B-cell function. The frequency of autoimmunity in patients with partial DiGeorge syndrome was estimated at 8.5%, predominantly resulting in blood cytopenias and hypothyroidism. Several reports emphasized the presentation of neoplasias, most often lymphomas, as the first manifestation of several primary immunodeficiencies. Novel strategies for newborn screening of B-cell lymphopenia by measuring immunoglobulin κ chain–deletion recombinant excision circles and for adenosine deaminase deficiency using tandem mass spectrometry were demonstrated to be feasible at a large scale. Progress in the treatment of primary immunodeficiencies included increased success with unrelated HLA-compatible donors for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and the development of new gene therapy approaches with improved safety features. Induced pluripotent stem cells were developed from patients with primary immunodeficiencies, providing a virtually unlimited resource for pathophysiology and gene correction studies. New findings in several of the uncommon immunodeficiencies, such as the increased susceptibility to severe viral infections caused by defects in the activation of the Toll-like receptor 3 pathway, overall contributed to the understanding of their immunologic basis and provided for the design of effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Characterization of a muscarinic current that regulates excitability of an identified insect motoneuron

1. Application of the muscarinic agonist oxotremorine-M (oxo-M) to isolated abdominal ganglia of larval Manduca sexta excited an identified proleg retractor motoneuron called PPR. This excitation consisted of a persistent depolarization and an increased tendency to generate action potentials. Previous work has established that the action of oxo-M is probably mediated by muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) on PPR and that oxo-M mimics an afferent-induced long-lasting depolarization called the slow excitatory postsynaptic potential (sEPSP). 2. Action potentials in the ganglion could be blocked by applying tetrodotoxin (TTX) in the bath saline. Under these conditions all excitatory postsynaptic potentials in PPR were also blocked, but the depolarizing action of oxo-M was unaffected. In the absence of background activity PPR could be voltage clamped using a single-electrode switching clamp to study the currents underlying the response to oxo-M. 3. At a membrane potential of -50 mV, application of oxo-M to the ganglion in the bath saline (3-6 x 10(-7) M) or by brief (20-40 ms) pulses from a micropipette into the neuropil (1 x 10(-5) M) evoked an apparently inward current called Iox. The mean peak current change in response to pulses was -0.80 +/- 0.04 nA (n = 48 preparations). 4. The voltage dependence of Iox was determined by subtracting the current-voltage relationship for PPR in control saline from that during a response to oxo-M. Iox was maximal near the resting potential of PPR (-45 to -40 mV), decreasing slightly with hyperpolarization and strongly with depolarization. 5. Peak Iox was directly dependent on the bath Na+ concentration. Complete replacement of Na+ with N-methyl-D-glucamine in the saline blocked Iox. Changes in the bath K+ concentration (extracellular K+ concentration, [K+]o) had only a small effect on Iox. Reducing [Cl-]o from 140 to 74.5 mM had no significant effect on Iox during a 15-min exposure. Intracellular injections of Cl- from a KCl-containing electrode also had no measurable effect on Iox. 6. Changes in the bath Ca2+ concentration above or below 2 mM inhibited Iox. Furthermore, the divalent cations Ni2+, Co2+, Mg2+, and Ba2+ at millimolar concentrations and the Ca2+ channel blocking agents nifedipine and Cd2+ at micromolar concentrations inhibited Iox. 7. These results suggest that mAChRs on PPR activate an inward current that is persistent, TTX insensitive, voltage dependent and carried predominantly by Na+. However, the results cannot eliminate the possibility that changes in K+ or Cl- conductances might also be involved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Buckling of Partially Embedded Piles in Sand

Results of loading tests on one-quarter to one-half inch diameter piles partially embedded in dry sand are presented. All piles failed by buckling. The experimental critical buckling loads were found to agree well with the theoretical buckling loads predicted from an equation by Davisson and Robinson, and thus tend to support the use of this theoretical equation for designing full size, long, partially embedded piles against the possibility of buckling.
Planificación estratégica y liderazgo: renovando su relación para reclamar recompensas

Articulo de reflexionLa creciente desconexion entre las caracteristicas de un entorno de negocios complejo e incierto y las percepciones de los lideres sobre la estrategia, lo cual incluye su rol como aquellas personas que desarrollan y mantienen la estrategia, esta teniendo un impacto creciente sobre la ventaja competitiva de las organizaciones y su efectividad global.La necesidad de conseguir el exito en un entorno complejo establece la urgencia para renovar la relacion entre el liderazgo y la planificacion estrategica que se basa en los roles y responsabilidades del lider para construir una base para la accion estrategica y para poner la estrategia y la planificacion a trabajar. El aspecto clave para conseguir superar los desafios de hoy en dia y las oportunidades de manana reside en el desarrollo de un plan estrategico que esta basado de hecho en una estrategia organizativa y un plan de implantacion que estan sustentados sobre las competencias esenciales de la organizacion y comunica el valor a largo plazo que se genera para los clientes sin importar cuanto pueda cambiar el mundo. El poder real de la estrategia descubierto hace unos dos mil anos por el estratega chino, Sun Tzu, es que: ila estrategia no es un plan!. La estrategia es la fortaleza que se elige para conseguir ganar una relacion estable y duradera con el cliente. El empleo de una estrategia unica y singular para enfocar su organizacion es el comienzo de una renovada relacion entre el Liderazgo y la Planificacion Estrategica y es una forma fiable de obtener las recompensas como consecuencia de pensar de una forma mas estrategica. Siendo capaces de desarrollar y desplegar una estrategia competitiva efectiva y un plan de implantacion que pueda enfocar todos los esfuerzos de la organizacion se consigue: incrementar los retornos sobre la inversion y sobre los activos; eliminar las perdidas de tiempo, esfuerzo y recursos; al mismo tiempo que se logra diferenciar su organizacion de la competencia, por lo tanto se trata de una recompensa que merece la pena conseguir.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Pathobiology

The current theory on the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease involves the interaction between a triggering environmental factor, possibly in the microbiome, and an individual susceptible to the disease due to genetic defects in immune function and regulation. To date over 300 genes and over 20 bacteria and viruses have been associated with the disease. No single factor is causative of the disease. Instead, an interplay of these factors leads to an inappropriate immune response resulting in the clinical characteristics or phenotype of the disease. Defects in the main innate immune functions of epithelial barrier function, pathogen recognition, and autophagy as well as adaptive immune dysfunction, particularly in T cell activation, differentiation, and function, have all been implicated in the disease.
Role of Fluorouracil, Doxorubicin, and Streptozocin Therapy in the Preoperative Treatment of Localized Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

5-Fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and streptozocin (FAS) leads to a 39 % response rate in advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs). We sought to validate our hypothesis that preoperative FAS may facilitate resection of locoregionally advanced pNETs by reducing the anatomic extent of the primary tumor. All patients who received FAS between 2000 and 2012 as initial therapy for a localized pNET were reviewed. Tumor size and vascular relationships were compared on pretreatment and posttreatment imaging studies to quantify treatment response. Twenty-nine patients received a median 4 cycles of FAS (range 2–15). Rates of RECIST progressive disease (PD), stable disease (SD), and partial response (PR) were 3, 90, and 7 %, respectively. An interface was observed between the tumor and a major mesenteric artery and/or vein in 19 (66 %) and 24 (83 %) patients, respectively; after therapy with FAS, 17 (59 %) and 22 (76 %) had persistent interface with artery and/or vein. Fourteen (48 %) patients underwent pancreatectomy, 7 (50 %) required vascular management, and 9 (64 %) operations were R0. The median overall survival of unresected and resected patients was 41 months (95 % CI, 16–66) and 112 months (95 % CI, 104–120) (P = 0.04). Although patients receiving FAS for locoregionally advanced pNETs are unlikely to progress during systemic therapy, significant “downstaging” appears uncommon.
Multicultural Women's Experience of Household Labor, Conflicts, and Equity

This study examines a group of 419 multicultural women (64 African Americans, 136 Asian Americans, 171 Hispanic Americans, and 48 Middle Eastern Americans) from Southern California. It examines Chafetz's thesis that women with macrolevel power (high socioeconomic status, SES) will show higher levels of conflict with their spouses over household labor. Such conflict is expected to relate to dissatisfaction with the division of household labor as well as time or task differences with spouses over housework. The multicultural women in this study differed among themselves by SES (proportional income, job status, and education) as well as by the household time and tasks with their spouses, but such factors did not influence conflict. Results indicate that regardless of ethnicity or macrolevel power, multicultural women who perform more household tasks than other women are more dissatisfied with the division of labor. These variables alone influence the number of conflicts per week reported by racial and ethnic couples. When reasons for conflict are compared, the equity issue of “unfair share” is cited more frequently than any others. In general, comparisons with one's spouse on traditional “woman's tasks” and time on “women's work” are not salient to the experience of household labor conflicts among multicultural women even when macrolevel power is attained. The majority of our respondents earn 39% of the household income and work for pay ≥30 hr/week, yet perform the majority of necessary household labor. The proportional income and overall education levels of this sample are similar to Census Bureau statistics for their respective U.S. groups in 1995–1996.
Renal Dysfunction Is Associated With Poststroke Discharge Disposition and In-Hospital Mortality: Findings From Get With The Guidelines-Stroke.

Background and Purpose—Kidney disease is a frequent comorbidity in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke. We evaluated whether the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) on admission ...
In-vitro analysis of early calcification in aortic valvular interstitial cells using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a major cardiovascular disorder caused by osteogenic differentiation of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) within aortic valves. Conventional methods like colorimetric assays and histology fail to detect small calcium depositions during in-vitro VIC cultures. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a robust analytical tool used for inorganic materials characterizations, but relatively new to biomedical applications. We employ LIBS, for the first time, for quantitative in-vitro detection of calcium depositions in VICs at various osteogenic differentiation stages. VICs isolated from porcine aortic valves were cultured in osteogenic media over various days. Colorimetric calcium assays based on arsenazo dye and Von Kossa staining measured the calcium depositions within VICs. Simultaneously, LIBS signatures for Ca I (422.67 nm) atomic emission lines were collected for estimating calcium depositions in lyophilized VIC samples. Our results indicate excellent linear correlation between the calcium assay and our LIBS measurements. Furthermore, unlike the assay results, the LIBS results could resolve calcium signals from cell samples with as early as 2 days of osteogenic culture. Quantitatively, the LIBS measurements establish the limit of detection for calcium content in VICs to be ∼0.17±0.04 μg which indicates a 5-fold improvement over calcium assay. Picture: Quantitative LIBS enables in-vitro analysis for early stage detection of calcium deposition within aortic valvular interstitial cells (VICs).
Effect of neoadjuvant pertuzumab-containing regimens on pathologic complete response rates in stage II-III HER2-neu positive breast cancer: A retrospective, single institutional experience.

580Background: Pertuzumab (P) in combination with trastuzumab (H) based chemotherapy is currently FDA- approved as a standard neoadjuvant treatment for patients with clinical stage II-III HER2-posi...
CHARLES LAMB: A MAN OF LETTERS AND A CLERK IN THE ACCOUNTANT'S DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

Charles Lamb (1775–1834), English author, who became famous for his informal, personal essays and literary criticism, is presented here in his vocational role as accounting clerk. Lamb's long years of experience in and out of London's counting-houses permitted him to capture the early nineteenth-century business and accounting life in some of his renowned essays and letters to friends. His unique wit, humor, and warm humanity bring to life one of the most interesting periods in accounting history.
Assignment and collaborative execution of tasks on transient clouds

Transient clouds (TC) are temporal clouds that enable nearby mobile devices to form an ad hoc network and advertise their capabilities as cloud services. Through utilizing the collective power of the group, devices are no longer constrained by their local hardware and software capabilities. TC harness the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices along with their ever-increasing sets of capabilities in providing a rich computing platform. In this paper, we present two instantiations of task assignment algorithms that achieve various goals such as balancing the load on devices and minimizing the cost of communication. In the first instantiation, we consider a centralized approach in which a cluster head is responsible for maintaining the list of capabilities and assigning tasks to devices based on their capabilities. We present a modified version of the Hungarian method that allows for balancing the load on devices. In the second instantiation, we consider a distributed approach in which devices advertise and find capabilities through an overlay network. The overlay is designed to capitalize on locality and thus seeks to minimize the cost in finding devices with certain capabilities. We evaluate the performance of our TC through extensive simulation experiments complemented by a realistic implementation on a set of devices.
On Robust Aggregation Procedures

A notion of a robust aggregation procedure is introduced and studied in connection with invariance properties of aggregation procedures. We prove that a robust aggregation procedure is invariant if measurements are in the ordinal scale. We also show that any robust mean on the set of all fuzzy sets on a finite universe is a pointwise order statistic.
Flow Battery Molecular Reactant Stability Determined by Symmetric Cell Cycling Methods

We present an unbalanced compositionally-symmetric flow cell method for revealing and quantifying different mechanisms for capacity fade in redox flow batteries that are based on molecular energy storage. We utilize it, accompanied in some cases by a corresponding static-cell cycling method, to study capacity fade in cells comprising anthraquinone di-sulfonate, di-hydroxy anthraquinone, iron hexacyanide, methyl viologen, and bis-trimethylammoniopropyl viologen. In all cases the cycling capacity decay is reasonably consistent with exponential in time and is independent of the number of charge-discharge cycles imposed. By introducing pauses at various states of charge of the capacity-limiting side during cycling, we show that in some cases the temporal fade time constant is dependent on the state of charge. These observations suggest that molecular lifetime is dominated by chemical rather than electrochemical mechanisms. These mechanisms include irrecoverable chemical decomposition and recoverable interactions with cell materials. We conclude with recommendations for cell cycling protocols for evaluating stability of single electrolytes.
Replication and Expression of Constructed Plasmid Chimeras in Transformed Escherichia coli—A Review

EcoRI restriction-endonuclease-generated fragments of bacterial plasmids isolated from Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli, or of amplified DNA coding for the 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA of Xenopus laevis, have been linked to the pSC 101 plasmid replicon and introduced into E. coli by transformation. The constructed plasmid chimeras can be cloned as stable replicons in E. coli, where they synthesize RNA and/or protein products specified by their component genes.
SNAP Benefits and Crime: Evidence from Changing Disbursement Schedules

In this paper, we study the effects of the timing of nutritional aid disbursement on crime, using two main sources of variation: (a) a policy change in Illinois that substantially increased the num...
Accurate timeout detection despite arbitrary processing delays

Timeout is widely used for failure detection. This paper proposes SafeTimer, a mechanism to enhance existing timeout detection protocols to tolerate long delays in the OS and the application: at the heartbeat receiver, Safe-Timer checks whether there are any pending heartbeats before reporting a failure; at the heartbeat sender, Safe-Timer blocks the sender if it cannot send out heartbeats in time. We have proved that SafeTimer can prevent false failure report despite arbitrary delays in the OS and the application. This property allows existing protocols to relax their timing assumptions and use a shorter timeout interval for faster failure detection. Our evaluation shows that the overhead of SafeTimer is small and applying SafeTimer to existing systems is easy.
Integrating genetic, transcriptional, and biological information provides insights into obesity.

Indices of body fat distribution are heritable, but few genetic signals have been reported from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of computed tomography (CT) imaging measurements of body fat distribution. We aimed to identify genes associated with adiposity traits and the key drivers that are central to adipose regulatory networks. We analyzed gene transcript expression data in blood from participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a large community-based cohort (n up to 4303), as well as implemented an integrative analysis of these data and existing biological information. Our association analyses identified unique and common gene expression signatures across several adiposity traits, including body mass index, waist–hip ratio, waist circumference, and CT-measured indices, including volume and quality of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues. We identified six enriched KEGG pathways and two co-expression modules for further exploration of adipose regulatory networks. The integrative analysis revealed four gene sets (Apoptosis, p53 signaling pathway, Proteasome, Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis) and two co-expression modules with significant genetic variants and 94 key drivers/genes whose local networks were enriched with adiposity-associated genes, suggesting that these enriched pathways or modules have genetic effects on adiposity. Most identified key driver genes are involved in essential biological processes such as controlling cell cycle, DNA repair, and degradation of regulatory proteins are cancer related. Our integrative analysis of genetic, transcriptional, and biological information provides a list of compelling candidates for further follow-up functional studies to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying obesity. These candidates highlight the value of examining CT-derived and central adiposity traits.
Using the Linear Mixed-Effect Model Framework to Estimate Generalizability Variance Components in R

Abstract. Extending from classical test theory, G theory allows more sources of variations to be investigated and therefore provides the accuracy of generalizing observed scores to a broader univer...
Map Symbols for Crisis Mapping: Challenges and Prospects

Crisis maps and visualizations utilized routinely by international agencies, humanitarian organizations, and non-governmental organizations for aid and relief activities commonly require complex se...
Bovine annulus fibrosus hydration affects rate-dependent failure mechanics in tension.

Abstract The high water content of the intervertebral disc is essential to its load bearing function and viscoelastic mechanical behavior. One of the primary biochemical changes associated with disc degeneration is the loss of proteoglycans, which leads to tissue dehydration. While previous studies have reported the effects of in vivo degeneration on annulus fibrosus (AF) failure mechanics, the independent role of water remains unclear, as does the tissue’s rate-dependent failure response. Our first objective was to determine the effect of loading rate on AF failure properties in tension; our second objective was to quantify the effect of water content on failure properties. Water content was altered through enzymatic digestion of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and through osmotic loading. Bovine AF specimens were tested monotonically to failure along the circumferential direction at 0.00697%/s or 6.97%/s. Increased loading rate resulted in a ∼50% increase in linear-region modulus, failure stress, and strain energy density across all treatment groups (p
Effects of stabilization treatment on the precipitation behavior of β phase and stress corrosion for AA5383-H15 alloys

This article mainly focuses on stabilization treatments that influence stress corrosion resistance of an AA5383-H15 alloy after undergoing sensitization treatment at 100 °C/168 h. The results show that without stabilization of the sensitized AA5383-H15 alloy, the β precipitates are distributed continuously like a mesh at grain boundary, and this is the main cause of intergranular corrosion failure. However, applying 3 different stabilization treatments (220 °C/3 h, 250 °C/3 h, and 280 °C/3 h) to the AA5383-H15 alloy shows a dramatic decrease in the β phase precipitation routes along the grain boundaries after the sensitization treatment, and thus an effective improvement in the corrosion resistance performance of AA5383-H15 alloys. Of all the stabilization treatments, the application of 250 °C/3 h stabilization treatment is found to be most effective. Applying 250 °C/3 h stabilization treatment facilitated partial recrystallization of the matrix, leading to suppress the continuous precipitation of the β phase along the grain boundaries during sensitization but instead precipitate in discontinuous mesh-like distribution, which can decrease its sensitivity to stress corrosion.
The Army Uses R&M Techniques to Develop Novel Flash Requirement for the M62A1 Tracer Munition

Making novel changes to military specifications can be a challenging process for good reason. These specifications have years of subject matter expertise, mathematical underpinning, and production experience built in, all of which are indispensable. Due to the nature of these specifications, making novel changes is generally avoided unless sufficient evidence exists to justify the change. This evidence has to have some component of real life test data, and some rationale for the change that is compelling and relevant to today’s mission. Even with all of this, the changes can be rejected for a variety of complex reasons.
Pediatric Delirium Assessment, Prevention, and Management

Pediatric patients are at risk for delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, that is characterized by a disturbance in attention and awareness. The overall prevalence of delirium in the pediatric ICU is ~40%, with rates as high as 60% in patients less than 5 years of age, including infants. Tools to detect delirium focus on the cardinal features including inattention and have been adapted to account for the unique developmental variances that occur across the age span of pediatric patients from infancy to adolescence. Implementation of these tools allow for early detection of delirium in the hopes of decreasing the development and duration of delirium and improving associated outcomes.
Fentanyl self-administration impacts brain immune responses in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Abstract Opioid use disorder (OUD) affects over two million in the United States and is an increasing public health crisis. The abuse of fentanyl and the emergence of potent fentanyl derivatives increases the risk for the user to succumb to overdose, but also to develop OUD. While intense attention is currently focused on understanding the complexity of behaviors and neural functions that contribute to OUD, much remains to be discovered concerning the interactions of opioid intake with the immune response in the central nervous system (CNS). In the present studies, we tested the hypothesis that short-term abstinence from fentanyl self-administration associates with altered expression of innate immune markers. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to self-administer fentanyl (0.0032 mg/kg/infusion) to stability followed by 24 h of abstinence. Several innate immune markers, as well as opioid receptors (ORs) and intracellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), were interrogated within nodes of the neurocircuitry involved in OUD processes, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc), caudate putamen (CPu), hippocampus (HIP) and midbrain (MB). In the present study, few immune targets were impacted in the PFC and MB during short-term abstinence from fentanyl (relative to saline) self-administration. However, increased expression of cytokines [e.g., interleukin (IL)1β, IL5], chemokines [e.g., C–C motif chemokine 20 (MIP3α)], tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interferon (IFN) proteins (e.g., IFNβ and IFNγ)] was seen in the NAc, while decreased expression of cytokines (e.g., several ILs), chemokines [e.g., granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GMCSF), monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP) MCP1, MIP3α], the chemokine ligand 5 (RANTES) and interferons (e.g., IFNβ and IFNγ) in the HIP. Positive correlations were observed between cumulative fentanyl intake and expression of IL1β and IL6 in the NAc, and significant negative correlations with fentanyl intake and IFN β, IL2, IL5, IL12p70 and IL17 in the HIP. Few changes in OR expression was observed during early abstinence from fentanyl self-administration. Excitingly, the expression of the PRR, stimulator of interferon genes (STING) negatively correlated with cumulative fentanyl intake and significantly correlated to specific cytokines, chemokines and interferon proteins in the HIP. Although the CPu appears relatively invulnerable to changes in innate immune markers, the highest correlations between cumulative fentanyl intake with MAVS and/or STING was measured in the CPu. Our findings provide the first evidence of CNS innate immune responses and implicate STING as novel mechanistic targets of immunomodulation during short-term abstinence from fentanyl self-administration.