cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Should we promote organ donor registries when so few registrants will end up being donors

BACKGROUND: A major obstacle facing efforts to register organ donors is that the likelihood that any given registrant will die in such a way as to render his or her organs suitable for donation is extremely low. Such policies make sense only if the resources used to sign up an additional donor are proportional to the expected benefits. METHODS: Using data on historical donation patterns, estimates of the potential donor supply, and an estimate of the monetary value of an organ donor, the authors calculate the average value to society of a registrant as a function of age at registration. RESULT: Under a "first-person consent" regime, the value of a registrant ages 18 to 34 years is $1900. The value of registering individuals who have not already registered is even higher because these persons are more likely to become donors. If donor families have the right of refusal, the value of a registrant is substantially less, around $840. CONCLUSION: Given that most donor registries are fairly limited operations, piggybacking on drivers' license registration and renewal administration, results suggest that registries are cost-effective. Of course, a complete analysis awaits concrete data on the costs of operating registries and attracting new registrants.
Peptidylproline cis-trans-Isomerase Pin1 Interacts with Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Tax and Modulates Its Activation of NF-κB

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is an oncogenic retrovirus etiologically causal of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). The virus encodes a Tax oncoprotein that functions in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle control, and transformation. ATL is a highly virulent cancer that is resistant to chemotherapeutic treatments. To understand this disease better, it is important to comprehend how HTLV-1 promotes cellular growth and survival. Tax activation of NF-kappaB is important for the proliferation and transformation of virus-infected cells. We show here that prolyl isomerase Pin1 is over expressed in HTLV-1 cell lines; Pin1 binds Tax and regulates Tax-induced NF-kappaB activation.
The Use of a DNA Probe for Epidemiological Studies of Candidiasis in Immunocompromised Hosts

Reproducible typing procedures to differentiate isolates of Candida albicans are limited. C. albicans isolates were obtained from immunocompromised patients by using DNA restriction enzyme fragment analysis and hybridization with both a radiolabeled mitochondrial DNA probe and a nonradioactive (biotinylated) DNA probe. There were 110 pathogenic and nonpathogenic C. albicans isolates from 63 immunocompromised patients. EcoRI restriction fragment analysis with the biotinylated probe revealed different "fingerprint" patterns for 60 of 63 patients. Analysis of 57 isolates from 20 patients showed no intrapatient variation regardless of the isolation site. DNA probe "fingerprint" patterns were analyzed for eight patients on serially recovered (range, 2-18 mo) C. albicans isolates. The unique patient profiles persisted over time. The application of this biotinylated C. albicans DNA probe provides a more sensitive means than simple gel restriction fragment analysis to define the epidemiology of C. albicans infection. The use of this biotin-labeled nonradioactive probe has potential application in clinical evaluations of outbreaks of nosocomial candidiasis.
Surfzone to inner‐shelf exchange estimated from dye tracer balances

Surfzone and inner-shelf tracer dispersion are observed at an approximately alongshore-uniform beach. Fluorescent Rhodamine WT dye, released near the shoreline continuously for 6.5 h, is advected alongshore by breaking wave- and wind-driven currents, and ejected offshore from the surfzone to the inner-shelf by transient rip currents. Novel aerial-based multispectral dye concentration images and in situ measurements of dye, waves, and currents provide tracer transport and dilution observations spanning about 350 m cross-shore and 3 km alongshore. Downstream dilution of near-shoreline dye follows power law decay with exponent -0.33, implying that a 10-fold increase in alongshore distance reduces the concentration about 50%. Coupled surfzone and inner-shelf dye mass balances close, and in 5 h roughly 1/2 of the surfzone-released dye is transported offshore to the inner-shelf. Observed cross-shore transports are parameterized well using a bulk exchange velocity and mean surfzone to inner-shelf dye concentration difference (r2 = 0.85, best fit slope = 0.7). The best fit cross-shore exchange velocity u*=1.2 × 10−2 ms−1 is similar to a temperature-derived exchange velocity on another day with similar wave conditions. The u* magnitude and observed inner-shelf dye length scales, time scales, and vertical structure indicate the dominance of transient rip currents in surfzone to inner-shelf cross-shore exchange during moderate waves at this alongshore-uniform beach. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
An Automatic Reliability Assessment and Analysis System for Spacecraft Automatic Checkout Equipment

Operational computerized system for automatic surveillance of reliability and maintainability of spacecraft hardware
URobotics—Urology Robotics at Johns Hopkins

URobotics (Urology Robotics) is a program of the Urology Department at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions dedicated to the development of new technology for urologic surgery (http://urology.jhu.edu/urobotics). The program is unique in that it is the only academic engineering program exclusively applied to urology. The program combines efforts and expertise from the medical and engineering fields through a close partnership of clinical and technical personnel. Since its creation in 1996, the URobotics lab has created several devices, instruments, and robotic systems, several of which have been successfully used in the operating room. This article reviews the technology developed in our laboratory and its surgical applications, and highlights our future directions.
Atrial Fibrillation Ablation in Obese Patients

Despite the increased burden of atrial fibrillation (AF), obese patients have similar, if not slightly improved, mortality, described as the "obesity paradox." Catheter ablation for AF in obese patients is a reasonable option, but patients should be screened for sleep apnea and counseled about the possibility of longer procedure times and repeat procedures to achieve similar success rates. Quality of life will likely improve after successful ablation. Although no statistically significant increases in procedural complications have occurred in obese subjects, patients should be counseled about the increased radiation dose and higher incidence of left atrial thrombus preablation.
Controlling Childhood Rumination through Differential Reinforcement of other Behavior

Rumination is a rare behavior disorder of childhood involving regurgitation of food which is then ejected or reswallowed. The present study investigated the control of rumination through use of a positive reinforcer (a mixture of honey and water) delivered on a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) schedule. The subject was a 26-month-old girl who had lost 50% of body weight through rumination. DRO was used as part of a multifaceted treatment program which also included, at different phases, punishment and time out from positive reinforcement. Evaluation of treatment components via a single-subject experimental design with withdrawals indicated the DRO procedure exerted powerful controlling effects over rumination. Transfer of control to social consequences was attempted through use of time out with punishment. The subject's weight increased over her 69-day hospitalization from 7.1 kg. to 11 kg. A 10-month followup revealed continued weight gain and suppression of rumination. Possible limitat...
Oil-Water Separation in Liquid -Liquid Hydrocyclones (LLHC) -Experiment and Modeling

The liquid-liquid Hydrocyclone (LLHC) has been widely used by the Petroleum Industry for the past several decades. A large quantity of information on the LLHC available in the literature includes experimental data, computational fluid dynamic simulations and field applications. The design of LLHCs has been based in the past mainly on empirical experience. However, no simple and overall design mechanistic model has been developed to date for the LLHC. The objective of this study is to develop a mechanistic model for the de-oiling LLHCs, and test it against available and new experimental data. This model will enable the prediction of the hydrodynamic flow behavior in the LLHC, providing a design tool for LLHC field applications. A simple mechanistic model is devel oped for the LLHC. The required input for the model is: LLHC geometry, fluid properties, inlet droplet size distribution and operational conditions. The model is capable of predicting the LLHC hydrodynamic flow field, namely, the axial, tangential and radial velocity distributions of the continuous-phase. The separation efficiency and migration probability are determined based on swirl intensity prediction and droplet trajectory analysis. The flow capacity, namely, the inlet-to-underflow pressure drop is predicted utilizing an energy balance analysis. An extensive experimental program has been conducted during this study, utilizing a 2” MQ Hydroswirl hydrocyclone. The inlet flow conditions are: total flow rates between 27 to 18 gpm, oil-cut up to 10%, median droplet size distributions from 50 to 500 µm, and inlet pressures between 60 to 90 psia. The acquired data include the flow rate, oil-cut and droplet size distribution in the inlet and in the underflow, the reject flow rate and oil concentration in the overflow and the separation efficiency. Additional data for velocity profiles were taken from the literature, especially from the Colman and Thew (1980) study. Excellent agreement is observed between the model prediction and the experimental data with respect to both separation efficiency (average absolute relative error of 3%) and pressure drop (average absolute relative error of 1.6%).
Developing a Human Computer Interaction Course for an Information Technology Major

It has been reported that even in the slowing economy in the United States, that the field of technology will continue its projected growth in the job market through the year 2018. Consequently, many institutions have begun to offer degrees that specialize not just in engineering or computer science, but in information technology, as well. Degrees are offered at the associate's, bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels from a variety of two-year and four-year institutions. Students who major in information technology explore management and information theory. More specifically, students focus on current technology trends and applications as it relates to the business and communication applications of computing with special emphasis on e-business, e-commerce and business computing. As a result of the merger between technology and business many of the degree programs especially at the undergraduate and graduate levels offer specific courses in human factors in information systems or human-computer interface to cover designing systems with human behavior in mind. The aim of this paper is to present the development of an undergraduate human computer interaction course for a newly developed information technology major leading to a bachelor's degree in information technology. The paper presents the teaching pedagogy selected for the course; course description including course outcomes and topics; and, student assessments. Also discussed are challenges in the development of the course as it relates to being cross-listed for enrollment by both information technology and computer science majors.
Experimental evaluation of a doubly-fed linear generator for ocean wave energy applications

A versatile doubly-fed linear generator was recently presented for application in the point absorber ocean wave energy converter (WEC). While this machine may be operated as a singly- or doubly-fed induction machine or via a self-synchronous approach, operation as a synchronous machine is found to be an attractive method for experimental testing. Using this mode of operation, the generator may be run with a DC field in either the translator or stator, thus producing power from the stator or translator respectively. Given the unique hybrid-flux architecture of this linear generator, synchronous testing in this manner provides a way to quantify the difference in electrical and reactive force production between the translator and stator topologies under WEC operating conditions, i.e. low speed with high force. This paper presents the testing procedure and setup along with detailed prototype results.
Why Bankers Ration Credit

I. Introduction, 397. — II. Variation in optimal loan with interest rate on a fixed-size investment, 399. — III. Variation in optimal loan with interest rate on an open-end investment, 405. — IV. Aversion to risk and other factors which reduce variability in interest rates, 408. — V. Factors which cause some variation in interest rates, 415.
Theory Testing, Effect-Size Evaluation, and Differential Susceptibility to Rearing Influence: The Case of Mothering and Attachment

It is important to distinguish theory testing from effect-size evaluation when considering the impact of mothering on attachment security discerned in the De Wolff and van Ijzendoorn meta-analysis. Moreover, the possibility exists that this analysis both over- and underestimates mothering effects, as would be the case if infants vary in their susceptibility to rearing influence.
The Image of God in Man—is Woman Included?

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind (adam) in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion….’ And God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:26–27 clarifies that the Hebrew term adam stands for the generic species of humanity which is composed of men and women. If there is any doubt on this interpretation, Gen 5:2–3 declares and defines again: “When God created humankind, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them humankind when they were created.”The “image of God in man and woman” opens us to transcend both the masculine and feminine metaphors for God which abound in the Bible and to transcend our historical selves and social institutions in recognition of the Holy One. It would appear that whatever one's interpretation of the “image” and “likeness” of God, one would have to recognize that the biblical text makes explicit that in our resemblance to the Divinity and in our dominion over the earth and animals, men and women share a common human dignity.
Learning How to "Make a Deal": Human (Homo sapiens) and Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Performance When Repeatedly Faced With the Monty Hall Dilemma

The Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) is a well-known probability puzzle in which players try to guess which of three doors conceals a prize. After selecting a door, players are shown that there is no prize behind one of the remaining doors. Players then are given a choice to stay with their door or switch to the other unopened door. Most people stay, even though switching doubles the probability of winning. The MHD offers one of the clearest examples of irrational choice behavior in humans. The present experiment investigated how monkeys and humans would behave when presented with a computerized version of the MHD. Specifically, we were interested in whether monkeys were more likely to engage in a switching strategy than humans and whether both species could learn to switch with repeated trials. Initially, humans and monkeys showed indifference between the two options of either staying with their initial choice or switching. With experience, members of both species learned to use the switch strategy at above chance levels, but there were individual differences with only approximately half of the participants in each species learning to choose the more optimal response. Thus, humans and monkeys showed similar capacity to adjust their responding as a result of increased experience with this probabilistic task.
Time Course of Attentional Bias in Anxiety: Emotion and Gender Specificity

Anxiety is characterized by cognitive biases, including attentional bias to emotional (especially threatening) stimuli. Accounts differ on the time course of attention to threat, but the literature generally confounds emotional valence and arousal and overlooks gender effects, both addressed in the present study. Nonpatients high in self-reported anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, or neither completed an emotion-word Stroop task during event-related potential (ERP) recording. Hypotheses differentiated time course of preferential attention to emotional stimuli. Individuals high in anxious apprehension and anxious arousal showed distinct early ERP evidence of preferential processing of emotionally arousing stimuli along with some evidence for gender differences in processing. Healthy controls showed gender differences at both early and later processing stages. The conjunction of valence, arousal, and gender is critical in the time course of attentional bias.
Cortisol-mediated regulation of uterine artery contractility: effect of chronic hypoxia.

We previously demonstrated that cortisol regulated α1-adrenoceptor-mediated contractions differentially in nonpregnant and pregnant uterine arteries. Given that chronic hypoxia during pregnancy has...
Beyond Mysterium Tremendum: Thoughts toward an Aesthetic Study of Religious Experience

Much sociological ethnography of religion values an objective distance between observer and subject to the point of reducing religion to a catalogue of doctrines and rituals, failing all the while to take seriously the subjective experiences of believers and the experiences of ethnographers themselves. The association of religious experience with transcendent feelings of awe or ecstasy, coupled with the methodological impossibility of perfect empathy, further drives the ethnography of religion away from the consideration of religious experience. I offer thoughts toward an aesthetics-oriented method of studying lived religiosity, whereby the ethnographer becomes sensitive to aspects of religious experience that are precognitive but not necessarily spiritual.
Application of Pre-NEXRAD Reflectivity Data to Hourly Precipitation Analyses

AbstractMultidecadal records of hourly precipitation estimates are needed to provide forcings for the simulation of subdaily processes in hydrologic models. Existing climatological datasets, such as the North American Land Data Assimilation System version 2 (NLDAS2), determine hourly rainfall estimates via the temporal downscaling (disaggregation) of far-more-plentiful daily rain gauge reports. The National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Water Center (NWC) compared NLDAS2 hourly precipitation estimates in the period since 1996, when Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) Stage-II hourly data became available for use in achieving the disaggregation, with analogous estimates from before 1996, which were disaggregated without the use of radar data. For 20 independently selected days/cases with substantial precipitation during each of the two periods, the post-1996 NLDAS2 hourly amounts were found to be far more highly correlated with cooperative (COOP) rain gauge reports, used for verification, than were t...
A photoactive bimetallic framework for direct aminoformylation of nitroarenes

A bimetallic catalyst, AgPd@g-C3N4, synthesized by reducing silver and palladium salts over graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), enables the concerted reductive formylation of aromatic nitro compounds under photo-chemical conditions using formic acid, which serves the dual role of a hydrogen source and a formylating agent.
Carbon Black Distribution in Elastomer Blends

Abstract A new electron microscope technique permits study of the heterogeneity of elastomer blends and filler distribution therein. Vulcanizates are embedded with a specific monomer system which is subsequently polymerized. Specimens are then sectioned with an ultramicrotome and examined in the electron microscope. Excellent contrast between polymers was obtained in examination of blends of natural rubber with several other elastomers. The homogeneity of these blends is shown to be influenced by mixing procedure and polymer characteristics such as viscosity and various interaction effects. Differences in filler location in elastomer blends can also be detected readily. Carbon black (ISAF) will usually locate preferentially in the polybutadiene in a 50/50 preblend with natural rubber. This affinity is shown to depend on polymer viscosity and can be varied. Investigations with precipitated silica and chemically oxidized ISAF suggest that polarity factors can supersede viscosity considerations and determine...
Abstract 3822: Neutrophils and Toll-like receptor 4 Contribute to Injury after Intracerebral Hemorhage

Background: Inflammation contributes to injury after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We have previously demonstrated that activation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on cells within the hemorrhage is...
Passive geolocation of mobile subscribers using a single base station with third party capture

In many densely populated environments, there is an abundance of base stations by which a mobile station may be passively geographically located (geolocated) using various techniques that require multiple base stations. Areas in which base station density is sparse may not possess the requisite number of base stations to perform such techniques and, therefore, require different methods by which to geolocate mobile stations. In this paper, we present a passive geolocation scheme that only requires observation of the initial ranging information exchange between a mobile station and a single base station in order to determine a position estimate for the mobile station. The scheme is specifically applied to the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) 4G standard. The method is validated through computer simulation and field experimentation in a WiMAX network.
Hormonal and renal responses to water drinking in moderately trained and untrained humans

Endurance exercise training alters the regulation of body fluids. To investigate specifics of these alterations, hormonal, electrolyte, and renal responses to water ingestion (1% of lean body wt) were studied in six moderately trained (T) and 6 untrained (UT) male subjects. No differences between groups for base-line hormonal, electrolyte, or renal measurements were found. After water ingestion, atrial natriuretic factor remained unaltered in both groups. Predrink plasma antidiuretic hormone (ADH) levels of 0.51 +/- (SE) 0.19 (UT) and 0.47 +/- 0.07 microU/ml (T) remained unchanged in the T group but were reduced from min 9 through 90 in the UT group. At 30 min postdrink, UT subjects had lower ADH values than T subjects (0.18 +/- 0.02 vs. 0.33 +/- 0.05 microU/ml), while plasma osmolality was similarly reduced by approximately 3 mosmol/kg in both groups. Urine flow rates increased in both groups from similar values of 0.85 +/- 0.24 (UT) and 0.67 +/- 0.11 ml/min (T) to peak flows of 4.6 +/- 1.6 for UT and 2.7 +/- 1.1 ml/min (T) to peak T, P less than or equal to 0.05) at 60 min postdrink. Urine osmolality was reduced from similar values of 809.1 +/- 62.1 and 867.0 +/- 56.1 mosmol/kg to values of 248.8 +/- 87.6 and 469 +/- 146.1 mosmol/kg for UT and T, respectively (UT vs. T, P less than 0.05), at 60 min. Reduced ADH before reductions in plasma osmolality in the UT but not the T subjects suggests that T subjects have a reduced oropharyngeal inhibition of ADH.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The British-Norwegian Migrant Study: 5-Year Mortality Differentials Due to Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking and 5-year survivorship of 20017 British and 10016 Norwegian migrants to the United States were compared with [data for] 17696 British and 26155 Norwegian nonmigrants. The highest mortality ratios for 5-year age-adjusted death rates observed were of cigarette smokers to nonsmokers ranging from 1.40 to 1.60 for men and from 1.18 to 1.36 for women. (EXCERPT)
Pancreaticobiliary direct imaging and novel therapies

Abstract Known or suspected pathology within the pancreaticobiliary system is a common clinical problem which can often be assessed with data such as history, physical examination, and laboratory tests. Noninvasive or indirect imaging techniques, such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography are widely available and can provide useful information in the evaluation of pancreaticobiliary pathology. The gold standard for direct imaging and evaluation of the pancreaticobiliary tree is endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. This technique not only allows for diagnostic imaging with injection of contrast dye into the biliary and pancreatic ducts but also allows for therapeutic interventions such as stone extraction, dilation, stent placement, and tissue sampling. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is another commonly used direct imaging modality which allows for more precise images and directed therapy such as aspiration or ablation. EUS is considered to be one of the most sensitive tests for staging malignancy and detecting a wide range of pancreaticobiliary illnesses, and has also been shown to be useful in evaluation of indeterminate biliary strictures. Despite the accuracy and widespread use of these modalities, there are limitations to their diagnostic and therapeutic utility. For this reason, novel imaging and therapy techniques have been and continue to be developed. Although some of these modalities have been used for many years, recent advances in technology have enabled these modalities to have greater clinical utility, as well as allowing endoscopists more experience. This article focuses on these "novel" techniques, including direct pancreaticobiliary imaging with cholangioscopy and pancreatoscopy, and probe-based technologies such as intraductal ultrasonography, probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy, and optical coherence tomography. Endoscopic ablative techniques such as radiofrequency ablation and intraductal argon plasma coagulation as well as stent and lithotripsy technologies would be described as they pertain to the pancreaticobiliary tree. Briefly discussed would be fiber-optic scopes through an fine needle aspiration to directly image cystic lesions, as well as novel guidewire and EUS-based technologies.
The Effects of Technological Self-Efficacy and Job Focus on Job Performance, Attitudes, and Withdrawal Behaviors

ABSTRACT We examined the impact of self-efficacy (the belief in one's ability to successfully perform a task) on the performance and attitudes of telecommunications field service technicians whose jobs had undergone a major technological change. Two hundred five technicians responded to a survey measuring technological self-efficacy (TSE) and job attitudes, behaviors, and performance. TSE was positively correlated with satisfaction, commitment, and work quality and quantity and was negatively correlated with absenteeism and tardiness. Job focus and TSE interacted to predict withdrawal behaviors.
Generation of senescent cell antigen on old cells initiates IgG binding to a neoantigen

An aging antigen, senescent cell antigen, resides on the 911 amino acid membrane protein band 3. It marks cells for removal by initiating specific IgG autoantibody binding. Band 3 is a ubiquitous membrane transport protein found in the plasma membrane of diverse cell types and tissues, and in nuclear, mitochondrial and Golgi membranes. Band 3 in tissues such as brain performs the same functions as it does in red cells. Senescent cell antigen is generated on brain membranes. Oxidation is a mechanism for generating senescent cell antigen. Neither cross-linking nor hemoglobin appear to play a role in generating senescent cell antigen. Although storage is the only in vitro model that mimics cellular aging in situ, we have discovered three alterations/mutations of band 3 that permit insight into aging in situ. One mutation with an addition to band 3 has normal or decelerated red cell aging. In contrast, another band 3 alteration with a suspected deletion or substitution that renders band 3 more susceptible to proteolysis, shows accelerated aging. The third alteration which is also more susceptible to proteolysis is associated with neurologic defects. Peptide technology was used to map the aging antigenic sites and anion transport sites on band 3 using a competitive inhibition assay and immunoblotting with IgG directed against the aging antigen on old cells. Results indicate that: a) aging antigenic sites reside on human band 3 residues 538-554, and 812-830; b) a putative ankyrin binding region peptide is not involved in senescent cell antigen activity and c) carbohydrate moieties are not required for the antigenicity or recognition of senescent cell antigen since synthetic peptides alone abolish binding of senescent cell IgG to erythrocytes. Peptide residues 588-594 (a 7 amino acid peptide), 822-839 and 869-883 were the most active inhibitors of anion transport (P < or = 0.001 compared to control without peptide). Localization of the active antigenic and transport sites on band 3 molecule facilitates the definition of molecular changes occurring during aging that initiate molecular as well as cellular degeneration. The role of senescent cell antigen and band 3 in brain aging and Alzheimer's disease is discussed.
Potential role of nuclear PD-L1 expression in cell-surface vimentin positive circulating tumor cells as a prognostic marker in cancer patients

Although circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have potential as diagnostic biomarkers for cancer, determining their prognostic role in cancer patients undergoing treatment is a challenge. We evaluated the prognostic value of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in CTCs in colorectal and prostate cancer patients undergoing treatment. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 62 metastatic colorectal cancer patients and 30 metastatic prostate cancer patients. CTCs were isolated from the samples using magnetic separation with the cell-surface vimentin(CSV)-specific 84-1 monoclonal antibody that detects epithelial-mesenchymal transitioned (EMT) CTCs. CTCs were enumerated and analyzed for PD-L1 expression using confocal microscopy. PD-L1 expression was detectable in CTCs and was localized in the membrane and/or cytoplasm and nucleus. CTC detection alone was not associated with poor progression-free or overall survival in colorectal cancer or prostate cancer patients, but nuclear PD-L1 (nPD-L1) expression in these patients was significantly associated with short survival durations. These results demonstrated that nPD-L1 has potential as a clinically relevant prognostic biomarker for colorectal and prostate cancer. Our data thus suggested that use of CTC-based models of cancer for risk assessment can improve the standard cancer staging criteria and supported the incorporation of nPD-L1 expression detection in CTCs detection in such models.
The Happy-Ending Deception; or, Uncovering the Subversive Potential of Detective Dirne Novels

From marketing materials and cover art, we might expect Dirne novels to conclude with happy endings embedded in simplistic moral frameworks that offer a point of identification to an adolescent male readership. And indeed, many of them do. An 1883 Dirne novel, Young Sleuth, The Keen Detective, from the New York Detective Library, for example, provides such Nash Smith leads us to expect from these texts: Well, this story is about wound up. The mystery is cleared up, the fathers have found their sons, the cousins — Hal and Joe — have been brought together; everybody is happy, vice is justly punished, virtue is rewarded after long years of patient suffering, and having no more events to chronicle concerning the characters of this story, we take leave of the reader and of Young Sleuth, the Keen Detective, still believing him to be ‘THE SHARPEST BOY IN NEW YORK’
What Is a Revolution? Reflections on the Significance of 1989/90

Before 1989, few people expected the overthrow of what was called “really existing socialism.” Although that euphemism signaled a kind of political pessimism it also expressed a shared understanding that, whatever name the rulers gave it, this was not the socialism that had inspired and given courage to so many people for well over a century. That may be one reason that, once the Wall had fallen, everyone seemed to have his or her own explanation of why the rupture was inevitable. The fact that only a few expected it does not mean that no one wished for change, even radical and systemic change; but the other fact, that everyone thought that they could understand it after it had occurred, does not mean that the roots of change could actually have been understood prior to its occurrence. That is the nature of politics: there is no certainty of success, yet, after the fact, the results seem to have been preordained.
Income and Technology as Drivers of Australian Healthcare Expenditures

Summary The roles of income and technology as the major determinants of aggregate healthcare expenditure (HEXP) continue to interest economists and health policy researchers. Concepts and measures of medical technologies remain complex; however, income (on the demand side) and technology (on the supply side) are important drivers of HEXP. This paper presents analysis of Australia's HEXP, using time-series econometrics modeling techniques applied to 1971–2011 annual aggregate data. Our work fills two important gaps in the literature. First, we model the determinants of Australia's HEXP using the latest and longest available data series. Second, this novel study investigates several alternative technology proxies (input and output measures), including economy-wide research and development expenditures, hospital research expenditures, mortality rate, and two technology indexes based on medical devices. We then apply the residual component method and the technology proxy approach to quantify the technology effects on HEXP. Our empirical results suggest that Australian aggregate healthcare is a normal good and a technical necessity with the income elasticity estimates ranging from 0.51 to 0.97, depending on the model. The estimated technology effects on HEXP falling in the 0.30–0.35 range and mimicking those in the literature using the US data, reinforce the global spread of healthcare technology. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Parallelization of the Knapsack Problem as an Introductory Experience in Parallel Computing

students learned parallel computing techniques and got to run their programs on a supercomputer, one student designed and implemented a sequential algorithm and two versions of a parallel algorithm to solve the knapsack problem. Performance tests of the programs were conduct ed on the Ranger supercomputer. The performance of the sequential and parallel implementations was compared to determine speedup and efficiency. We observed 82%-86% efficiency for the MPI version and 89% efficiency for the OpenMP version for sufficiently large inputs to the problem. Additionally, we discuss both the student and faculty member's reflections about the experience.
Osmotic Ballasts Enhance Faradaic Efficiency in Closed-Loop, Membrane-Based Energy Systems.

Aqueous processes for energy storage and conversion based on reverse electrodialysis (RED) require a significant concentration difference across ion exchange membranes, creating both an electrochemical potential and an osmotic pressure difference. In closed-loop RED, which we recently demonstrated as a new means of energy storage, the transport of water by osmosis has a very significant negative impact on the faradaic efficiency of the system. In this work, we use neutral, nonpermeating solutes as “osmotic ballasts” in a closed-loop concentration battery based on RED. We present experimental results comparing two proof-of-concept ballast molecules, and show that the ballasts reduce, eliminate, or reverse the net transport of water through the membranes when cycling the battery. By mitigating osmosis, faradaic and round-trip energy efficiency are more than doubled, from 18% to 50%, and 7% to 15%, respectively in this nonoptimized system. However, the presence of the ballasts has a slightly negative impact ...
Article 20 [Personal Mobility]

The CRPD was adopted by the UNGA on December 13, 2006, and entered into force on May 3, 2008, together with its Optional Protocol. The Convention is the first UN human rights treaty to be adopted in the twenty-first century and is reputed to be the most rapidly negotiated ever. The CRPD aspires “to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity” (Art. 1) and marks a turning point in the approach toward disabilities. Indeed, since its adoption, it has played a vanguard role as to the promotion and protection of disability rights, as well as a driving force toward legal change at national level, including the EU level. From the first perspective, the CRPD has not only rapidly become part of the international anti-discrimination law framework, but it has also given a fundamental contribution in the acknowledgement that disability has to be seen as an evolving concept resulting “from the interaction between person with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others” and that the focus of this notion has to be centered not only on individual impairments but mainly on the barriers to participation. The CRPD, in sum, has contributed to a dramatic cultural shift of the approach towards disabilities from the so-called medical model, according to which it is the impairment itself that causes the limitation, to a social model of disability, according to which the experience of disability has to be located in the social environment rather than in the impairment. The social model to disability carries with it the inference that problems of disability have to be located squarely within society. Under this model, it is not individual limitations that are the cause of the problem but society’s failure to provide appropriate services and adequately ensure that the needs of persons with disabilities are fully taken into account in its social organization. The application of a right-based approach to disability has paved the way to the acknowledgment of the centrality of the principle of accessibility, one of the three pillars of the CRPD, in the mechanism of protection set forth by the Convention and of the pivotal role played by the right to personal mobility enshrined in Article 20.
Targeted Sheep Grazing to Suppress Sulfur Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) on Northwestern Montana Rangeland

Sulfur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta L.), a perennial forb native to the eastern Mediterranean region of Eurasia, is a major noxious weed on rangelands of the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada. We assessed targeted sheep grazing to suppress sulfur cinquefoil in a 2-yr rangeland field experiment in northwestern Montana. We evaluated targeted sheep grazing with and without protein-energy supplementation (37 g crude protein [CP] sheep-1 d-1 and 0.17 kg total digestible nutrients [TDN] sheep-1 d-1) during late June (sulfur cinquefoil in early flowering stage) and mid-July (sulfur cinquefoil in late flowering—early seedset stage). Sheep readily consumed sulfur cinquefoil stems, leaves, flowers, and developing seed heads, with or without supplementation. Sulfur cinquefoil comprised the largest proportion of sheep diets during both late June and mid-July, averaging 46%, but more sulfur cinquefoil dry matter (DM) was consumed by sheep during mid-July (0.6 vs. 1.0 kg DM sheep-1 d-1 in June vs. July, respectively). Supplementation did not increase DM intake (DMI) of sulfur cinquefoil, nor did supplementation improve the nutritive quality of sheep diets. We also documented that 1) targeted sheep grazing achieved heavy utilization of sulfur cinquefoil (67%) while keeping perennial graminoid use light to moderate (18–41%); 2) targeted sheep grazing reduced viable seed production of sulfur cinquefoil by 97% in June-grazed paddocks and 95% in July-grazed paddocks; and 3) targeted sheep grazing reduced sulfur cinquefoil yield the next summer by 41% in June-grazed paddocks and 47% in July-grazed paddocks without decreasing yield or plant community composition of perennial graminoids. We conclude that supplemented or nonsupplemented targeted sheep grazing applied in either late June or mid-July can effectively suppress sulfur cinquefoil. Sheep nutrition and sulfur cinquefoil DMI will be optimized by targeted sheep grazing applied during mid-July.
The child is father of the man. Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of immortality and his secret sharers.

William Wordsworth's “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” is manifestly about both the poet's loss of inspirational perceptive powers and emotional intensity with age, and the compensations of maturit...
Occurrence, Toxicity, and Analysis of Major Mycotoxins in Food

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain filamentous fungi (molds). These low molecular weight compounds (usually less than 1000 Daltons) are naturally occurring and practically unavoidable. They can enter our food chain either directly from plant-based food components contaminated with mycotoxins or by indirect contamination from the growth of toxigenic fungi on food. Mycotoxins can accumulate in maturing corn, cereals, soybeans, sorghum, peanuts, and other food and feed crops in the field and in grain during transportation. Consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated food or feed can cause acute or chronic toxicity in human and animals. In addition to concerns over adverse effects from direct consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated foods and feeds, there is also public health concern over the potential ingestion of animal-derived food products, such as meat, milk, or eggs, containing residues or metabolites of mycotoxins. Members of three fungal genera, Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium, are the major mycotoxin producers. While over 300 mycotoxins have been identified, six (aflatoxins, trichothecenes, zearalenone, fumonisins, ochratoxins, and patulin) are regularly found in food, posing unpredictable and ongoing food safety problems worldwide. This review summarizes the toxicity of the six mycotoxins, foods commonly contaminated by one or more of them, and the current methods for detection and analysis of these mycotoxins.
The Complexity of Immigration Reform

These vignettes, which are framed as appeals from local citizens to their legislator, serve to facilitate discussion of some of the issues surrounding immigration reform, including taxes, business operations, and education. Excerpt UVA-E-0394 Rev. Mar. 11, 2014 THE COMPLEXITY OF IMMIGRATION REFORM Your team represents a group of legislators and industry experts from the same state, which has a large population of immigrants. Your assignment is to draft a conceptual piece of legislative policy on immigration that your group of legislators and industry experts can agree on. Some of your key constituents have raised a number of issues with regard to immigration reform. As a legislator, how would you collectively deal with these issues, some of which are in conflict with one another? How might your group collectively come up with an approach to immigration reform that would address the kinds of issues raised? One of your constituents, Deborah Theobald, just received second-stage funding for her growing high-tech manufacturing business. The company currently employs 100 engineers, but the additional capital raised will allow it to triple in size. This means that it needs to hire another 150 to 200 engineers as soon as possible, in conjunction with expanding its facility. The facility-expansion plans are fairly straightforward, and the influx of new high-tech workers would be a boon to the community. But the primary challenge is finding qualified workers who are already citizens or who hold green cards, so to meet growth objectives, Theobald is looking into hiring H-1B visa holders. If she can't hire more engineers through these channels, Theobald is considering a move to Vancouver, British Columbia. She has requested a meeting with you next week, because she knows you are working on pending legislation and she wants to know if and how it will help her business. . . .
An Unsupervised Anomalous Event Detection Framework with Class Aware Source Separation

This paper presents a novel problem of detection and localization of anomalous events due to a certain class of objects in video data with applications to smart surveillance. A baseline system is proposed that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to generate pixel level masks corresponding to objects of a class of interest. A Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) is then trained on the mask to learn patterns of normal behavior. The free energy of the RBM is used to detect the presence of an anomaly while the reconstruction error is used to localize the anomaly. Our approach is scalable to a low power and energy constrained setting with 1930.48 ms of latency and 4826 mJ energy consumed per frame on a mGPU.
Diagnostic Dissent: Experiences of Perceived Misdiagnosis and Stigma in Persons Diagnosed With Schizophrenia:

It is not uncommon for individuals to disagree with their psychiatric diagnosis. The experience of perceived misdiagnosis can be challenging for service users, as mainstream psychiatric theory ofte...
On-sky performance evaluation of RITMOS, a micromirror-based multi-object spectrometer

Multi-object spectrometers (MOSs) are astronomical instruments capable of accurately acquiring spectra of up to several hundreds of objects of interest in a single exposure. Digital micromirror devices (DMDs) have proven to be an excellent candidate for use as slit masks in both terrestrial and space-based MOSs because they are highly reliable and rapidly re-configurable. The Rochester Institute of Technology Multi-Object Spectrometer (RITMOS) is a terrestrial DMD-based MOS, which uses a newer generation DMD, with improved scattered light characteristics. RITMOS utilizes a 0.700 XGA DMD with a micromirror pitch of 13.68 microns and a micromirror flip angle of 12 degrees. By design, RITMOS covers the spectral range 3900 - 4900 angstroms, with a dispersion of 0.7 angstroms per pixel; the resolving power is R∼5300. Performance evaluation has been conducted both in the laboratory and on-sky. The results presented here show that DMD-based MOSs are highly capable instruments, offering great observational flexibility, while achieving excellent signal-to-noise ratios by optimally rejecting the sky background.
Shape Analysis of White Matter Tracts via the Laplace-Beltrami Spectrum

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) allows for non-invasive, detailed examination of the white matter structures of the brain. White matter tract specific measures based on either the diffusion tensor model (e.g. FA, ADC, and MD) or tractography (e.g. volume, streamline count or density) are often compared between groups of subjects to localize differences within the white matter. Less commonly examined is the shape of the individual white matter tracts. In this paper, we propose to use the Laplace-Beltrami (LB) spectrum as a descriptor of the shape of white matter tracts. We provide an open, automated pipeline for the computation of the LB spectrum on segmented white matter tracts and demonstrate its efficacy through machine learning classification experiments. We show that the LB spectrum allows for distinguishing subjects diagnosed with bipolar disorder from age and sex matched healthy controls, with classification accuracy reaching 95%. We further demonstrate that the results cannot be explained by traditional measures, such as tract volume, streamline count, or mean and total length. The results indicate that there is valuable information in the anatomical shape of the human white matter tracts.