cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Macro- and micro-designed chitosan-alginate scaffold architecture by three-dimensional printing and directional freezing

While many tissue-engineered constructs aim to treat cartilage defects, most involve chondrocyte or stem cell seeding on scaffolds. The clinical application of cell-based techniques is limited due to the cost of maintaining cellular constructs on the shelf, potential immune response to allogeneic cell lines, and autologous chondrocyte sources requiring biopsy from already diseased or injured, scarce tissue. An acellular scaffold that can induce endogenous influx and homogeneous distribution of native stem cells from bone marrow holds great promise for cartilage regeneration. This study aims to develop such an acellular scaffold using designed, channeled architecture that simultaneously models the native zones of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Highly porous, hydrophilic chitosan-alginate (Ch-Al) scaffolds were fabricated in three-dimensionally printed (3DP) molds designed to create millimeter scale macro-channels. Different polymer preform casting techniques were employed to produce scaffolds from both negative and positive 3DP molds. Macro-channeled scaffolds improved cell suspension distribution and uptake overly randomly porous scaffolds, with a wicking volumetric flow rate of 445.6 ± 30.3 mm(3) s(-1) for aqueous solutions and 177 ± 16 mm(3) s(-1) for blood. Additionally, directional freezing was applied to Ch-Al scaffolds, resulting in lamellar pores measuring 300 μm and 50 μm on the long and short axes, thus creating micrometer scale micro-channels. After directionally freezing Ch-Al solution cast in 3DP molds, the combined macro- and micro-channeled scaffold architecture enhanced cell suspension uptake beyond either macro- or micro-channels alone, reaching a volumetric flow rate of 1782.1 ± 48 mm(3) s(-1) for aqueous solutions and 440.9 ± 0.5 mm(3) s(-1) for blood. By combining 3DP and directional freezing, we can control the micro- and macro-architecture of Ch-Al to drastically improve cell influx into and distribution within the scaffold, while achieving porous zones that mimic articular cartilage zonal architecture. In future applications, precisely controlled micro- and macro-channels have the potential to assist immediate endogenous bone marrow uptake, stimulate chondrogenesis, and encourage vascularization of bone in an osteochondral scaffold.
WEATHER/CLIMATE SERVICES IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA: A KEY TOOL FOR ENERGY SECTOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA1) face the same broad energy challenges as the world at large, with some regional distinctions. This chapter makes the case that modernization of national hydro-meteorological capacity to provide high-quality weather/climate services could help capture emerging economic gains, enable risk management in the energy sector, and support national economies in multiple sectors.
Hackers and Humanists: Transactions and the Evolution of Copyright

This article examines the way in which two transactions have influenced copyright culture and informed copyright policy, free software licenses in our own time and contracts for authors’ rights starting in the sixteenth century. Often, a copyright holder uses contracts to increase the control it has over a work after distribution. In these two transactions, copyright holders opted for less control over the work than the then-current copyright regime allowed. The experience of sharing rights with other stakeholders in each of these cases played a role in changing ideas about how expressive works are best created and distributed. Though early copyright generally belonged to publishers, not authors, nascent contracts that gave authors some rights in their work aided in the rise of the idea of the author as the sole creator, and eventually the copyright holder, of literary works in print. Free software licenses have been at the forefront of a revolution turning in virtually the opposite direction, championing the value of collaboration and giving the user a role in continuing the life of an expressive work. Through comparative analysis of the history of each transaction, the article describes the conditions under which extraordinary transactions like these are likely to develop and how they help to change the fundamental assumptions that underlie copyright protection. The analogy between the contracts for authors’ rights and free software licenses over time suggests that we are in the midst of a rise of the collaborative user every bit as important to the culture of copyright as was the rise of the author.
New Idria Serpentinite: A Land Management Dilemma

The New Idria asbestos-bearing serpentinite represents a unique tectonic situation. Change in plate motion produced transverse compression across the San Andreas transform fault system in the vicinity of New Idria which produced shortening of the former continental margin resulting in sub-parallel thrusting, folding, and diapirism. This tectonic activity has exposed a huge body of serpentinized mantle peridotite (45 sq mi) that may have been part of the Pacific Ocean crust basement. Continued wedging of these peridotites into the water-rich continental crust has caused a chain-reaction serpentinization and expansion. Thousands of tectonic (milling) events acting on the serpentinite near New Idria created a huge deposit of short-fiber asbestos. The main serpentine mineral is chrysotile that forms very short fibers (~5 microns) having a specific surface area 3 to 4 times greater than other commercial asbestos fibers. Its natural chemical solubility reduces its biopersistence resulting in much lower toxicity to humans. During the last 15 million years the asbestos-bearing serpentinite of the New Idria body has been eroded and contributes fibers to alluvial deposits along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and San Benito River Basin with little to no indication of excessive present-day asbestos-related respiratory diseases in this area. A study by the Bureau of Land Management concerning exposure of asbestos fibers to weekend off-road vehicle riders in the New Idria serpentinite area indicates that their risk of developing lung cancer is low. Knowledge of the geologic facts concerning the natural origin and distribution of asbestos-bearing serpentinite illustrates the dilemma of the U. S. Government attempting to remediate the small EPA superfund mining sites within this vast region of serpentinite.
Income Inequality and Transnational Corporate Penetration

This study examines whether the positive association between national income inequality and transnational corporate penetration found previously by Bornschier and Chase-Dunn (1985) and others circa the late 1960s still holds for the mid-l980s. Both methodological and theoretical problems of earlier studies are discussed and solutions are offered. Economic development, political-institutional and regional variables are also included inthe analyses. While further research is warranted, the results provide support for a World-System/Dependency perspective in understanding income inequality cross-nationally.
Research On Critical Technology of Financial Management System Based on Delphi Environment

In order to complexity of financial management and veracity of management decision-making under medium enterprise management background,this article design a business process oriented and efficient financial management system. This paper also systemic analyzes the critical technology of important functional modules based on the specific component in implementing financial data querying and taking statistics.
Difference of CO_2 and CH_4 sealing by caprock

Based on analysis of the mechanism and affecting factors of sealing natural gas by caprock, the difference of sealing CO2 and CH4 gas by caprock is studied. It is thought that the capillary sealing effect of caprock on CH4 gas is stronger than that of CO2 gas; the diffusion effect of CO2 is stronger than that of CH4, but showing different directions. CH4 always diffuses upward, while CO2 only shows upward diffusion at near surface or in deep formation, and diffuses downward in between; CO2 gas has poorer healed ability to micro leaking caprock than CH4 .
Analysis on security risk of chemical control of medical vectors and regulatory measures

The main security risk of chemical control of medical vectors is something that can do great harm to environment,human's health,non-target organisms and plants.The influencing factors include the nature of chemical drug,the performance of the application equipment and the personal quality of practitioner.The regulatory measures for the risk is as follows.The first is to choose the chemical drugs and dosage forms reasonably and to ensure the security when transporting and storing the chemical drugs.The second is to abide by the regulations when dispensing and applying the chemical drugs.The third is to take preventive measure for the operator and to protect the environment and the non-target organisms.At last is to increase the professional quality of the practitioner.
sigma 1 -Separation.

Let A be a standard transitive admissible set. Σ 1 -separation is the principle that whenever X and Y are disjoint Σ 1 A subsets of A then there is a ⊿ 1 A subset S of A such that X ⊆ S and Y ∩ S = ∅. Theorem. If satisfies Σ-separation, then (1) If 〈T n ∣n n ) is in A . (2) If A is not closed under hyperjump and α = On A then A has in it a nonstandard model of V = L whose ordinal standard part is α . Theorem. Let α be any countable admissible ordinal greater than ω. Then there is a model of Σ 1 -separation whose height is α.
Complications of lung transplantation.

The morbidity and mortality rates of lung transplantation have been decreasing, partly because of improvements in the prevention, recognition, and treatment of transplant-related complications. These complications can be classified into three broad categories: (1) complications of the operation itself, (2) complications of transplantation (i.e., rejection), and (3) complications of the immunosuppressive agents used to prevent rejection, including infection, malignancy, and direct toxicities of the medications. In each of these categories, this article describes the clinical presentations of the major transplant-related complications and strategies for their prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
MR-Guided Delivery of Hydrophilic Molecular Imaging Agents Across the Blood-Brain Barrier Through Focused Ultrasound.

A wide variety of hydrophilic imaging and therapeutic agents are unable to gain access to the central nervous system (CNS) due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In particular, unless a particular transporter exists that may transport the agent across the BBB, most agents that are larger than 500 Da or that are hydrophilic will be excluded by the BBB. Glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII), also known as the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in the periphery, has been implicated in various neuropsychiatric conditions. As all agents that target GCPII are hydrophilic and thereby excluded from the CNS, we used GCPII as a platform for demonstrating our MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) technique for delivery of GCPII/PSMA-specific imaging agents to the brain. Female rats underwent MRgFUS-mediated opening of the BBB. After opening of the BBB, either a radio- or fluorescently labeled ureido-based ligand for GCPII/PSMA was administered intravenously. Brain uptake was assessed for 2-(3-{1-carboxy-5-[(6-[18F]fluoro-pyridine-3-carbonyl)-amino]-pentyl}-ureido)-pentanedioic acid ([18F]DCFPyL) and YC-27, two compounds known to bind GCPII/PSMA with high affinity, using positron emission tomography (PET) and near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging, respectively. Specificity of ligand binding to GCPII/PSMA in the brain was determined with co-administration of a molar excess of ZJ-43, a compound of the same chemical class but different structure from either [18F]DCFPyL or YC-27, which competes for GCPII/PSMA binding. Dynamic PET imaging using [18F]DCFPyL demonstrated that target uptake reached a plateau by ∼1 h after radiotracer administration, with target/background ratios continuing to increase throughout the course of imaging, from a ratio of ∼4:1 at 45 min to ∼7:1 by 80 min. NIRF imaging likewise demonstrated delivery of YC-27 to the brain, with clear visualization of tracer in the brain at 24 h. Tissue uptake of both ligands was greatly diminished by ZJ-43 co-administration, establishing specificity of binding of each to GCPII/PSMA. On gross and histological examination, animals showed no evidence for hemorrhage or other deleterious consequences of MRgFUS. MRgFUS provided safe opening of the BBB to enable specific delivery of two hydrophilic agents to target tissues within the brain. This platform might facilitate imaging and therapy using a variety of agents that have heretofore been excluded from the CNS.
Installation of electrical instruments in hazardous locations

Electrical equipments in hazardous locations cannot always be installed in explosion-proof enclosures because of cost and space limitation and installation complexity. A suitable practice is to reduce cost and space; and install ordinary electrical instruments in an air or inert gas purged general purpose enclosure. If air for purging is used, the compressor intake air must come from a nonhazardous location, and should be of good quality as the plant compressed air is usually not suitable. Avoid instrument air that passes through hazardous locations. The sufficient addition of air or inert gas (nitrogen) into the general purpose enclosure prevents the entry of hazardous vapors. The purging of enclosures as recommended by the Instrument Society of America and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 496 is classified into three types: Z, Y and X purging. Type Z purging, reduces the classification of the area within an enclosure from Division -2 to nonhazardous. Type Y purging, reduces the classification of the area within an enclosure from division- 1 to division- 2. Type X purging, reduces the classification of the area within the enclosure from division-1 to nonhazardous.
Reconstituting Authority: American Fiction in the Province of the Law, 1880-1920

Ina"Reconstituting Authority, "aWilliam Moddelmog explores the ways in which American law and literature converged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through close readings of significant texts from the era, he reveals not only how novelists invoked specific legal principles and ideals in their fictions but also how they sought to reconceptualize the boundaries of law and literature in ways that transformed previous versions of both legal and literary authority.Moddelmog does not assume a sharp distinction between literary and legal institutions and practices but shows how writers imagined the two fields as engaged in the same cultural process. He argues that because the law was instrumental in setting the terms by which concepts such as race, gender, nationhood, ownership, and citizenship were defined in the nineteenth century, authors challenging those definitions had to engage the law on its own terrain: to place their work in a dialogue with the law by telling stories that were already authorized (though perhaps suppressed) by legal institutions.The first half of the book is devoted in separate chapters to William Dean Howells, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Pauline Hopkins. The focus shifts from large theoretical concerns to questions of contract and native sovereignty, to issues of African American citizenship and racial entitlement. In each case the discussion is rooted in a larger consideration of the rule (or misrule) of law.The second half of the book turns from the rule of law to the issue of property, specifically the Lockean version of the self that tied identity to legal conceptions of property and economic value. In separate discussions of Charles Chesnutt, Edith Wharton, and Theodore Dreiser, a"Reconstituting Authority"areveals authors as closely engaged with those changing perspectives on property and identity, in ways that challenged the racial, gendered, and economic consequences of America's possessive individualism."
Evaluating future success of whitebark pine ecosystem restoration under climate change using simulation modeling

Major declines of whitebark pine forests throughout western North America from the combined effects of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks, fire exclusion policies, and the exotic disease white pine blister rust (WPBR) have spurred many restoration actions. However, projected future warming and drying may further exacerbate the species' decline and possibly compromise long-term success of today's restoration activities. We evaluated successes of restoration treatments under future climate using a comprehensive landscape simulation experiment. The spatially explicit, ecological process model FireBGCv2 was used to simulate whitebark pine populations on two U.S. Northern Rocky Mountain landscapes over 95 years under two climate, three restoration, and two fire management scenarios. Major findings were that (1) whitebark pine can remain on some high mountain landscapes in a future climate albeit at lower basal areas (50% decrease), (2) restoration efforts, such as thinning and prescribed burning, are vital to ensure future whitebark pine forests, and (3) climate change impacts on whitebark pine vary by local setting. Whitebark pine restoration efforts will mostly be successful in the future but only if future populations are somewhat resistant to WPBR. Results were used to develop general guidelines that address climate change impacts for planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating fine-scale restoration activities.
What a Dissenting Opinion Should Have Said in Obergefell v. Hodges

This is my contribution to a project organized by Jack Balkin under the heading “What Obergefell v. Hodges Should have Said.” A number of legal scholars participated as though they were Supreme Court justices deciding Obergefell. My contribution is a dissent. Although the outcome of the case was an improvement in the institution of marriage, it was not appropriate for the courts to make such a fundamental change. Marriage as an institution belongs in each state to the people of that state and fundamental changes in the institution should be made legislatively (as they have been in almost every other country in the world that has established marriage equality). This is not just an a fortiori consequence of a general hostility to judicial review. Even if one accepts that judicial review of legislation is the appropriate remedy for a case like Loving v. Virginia, there are considerations that sharply differentiate the decision in that case from the transformation of marriage that took place as a result of the Obergefell decision.
Resonant mode feature extraction via a compressive multi-frequency linear sampling method

Recent research concerning qualitative inverse scattering approaches, and in particular the Linear Sampling Method (LSM), has revealed an interesting connection to interior Eigenmodes of scatterer(s) embedded in a known background. These modes have some desirable properties that are amenable for automatic target recognition (ATR) applications; chiefly scale, translation, and rotation invariance. In this work we apply a space-frequency regularized LSM to extract and exploit this connection for generating resonant based features. We establish initial proof-of-concept of the proposed approach using numerically generated multi-static data.
Modern naval history: debates and prospects

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, one of the earliest scholarly works of history, Thucydides recorded and analysed the naval battles between the Greek city-states and their adversaries in th...
Three Meditations on the Ruins of Detroit

Forget what you think you know about this place. Detroit is the most relevant city in the United States for the simple reason that it is the most unequivocally modern and, therefore, distinctive of our national culture: in other words, a total success. Nowhere else has American modernity so completely had its way with people and place alike. Reputedly “historic” towns, such as Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco, merely seem old by comparison. Others, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, are not American at all, but more like small, poorly run foreign countries, with insufﬁcient fresh water and arable land. And Chicago, no less than its sun-belt reﬂex, Houston, has been forced to compensate with high-rise architecture for the general lack of autochthonous culture. This makes Detroit the revealed “Capital of the 20th Century,” and likely the century ahead, because this is the place, more than any other, where the native history of modernity has been written. This same modernity has made Americans collectively, and globally, what we are all still becoming today, bringing along with us the rest of the so-called “developed” world.
Recognition of synthesized vowel sequences in steady-state and sinusoidally amplitude-modulated noises.

Modulation masking is known to impact speech intelligibility, but it is not clear whether the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is an invariant, bottom-up process, or if it is subjected to factors such as perceptual segregation and stimulus uncertainty thereby showing a top-down component. In the main experiment of the current study (Exp. II), listeners' ability to recognize sequences of synthesized vowels (i.e., the target) in sinusoidally amplitude-modulated noises (i.e., the masker) was evaluated. The target and masker were designed to be perceptually distinct to limit the top-down component of modulation masking. The duration of each vowel was either 25 or 100 ms, the rate at which the vowels were presented was either 1 or 6 Hz, and the masker modulation rate was varied between 0.5 and 16 Hz. The selective performance degradation when the target and masker modulation spectra overlap, as would be expected from modulation masking, was not observed. In addition, these results were able to be adequately captured using a model of energetic masking without any modulation processing stages and fitted only using the vowel-recognition performance in steady-state maskers, as obtained from Exp. I. Results suggest that speech modulation masking might not be mediated through an early-sensory mechanism.
Medicolegal Aspects of Asbestos I — Malignant Mesothelioma and Lung Cancer:

Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause a variety of conditions, benign and malignant, of the lungs and pleura. Illnesses and deaths in which asbestos may have had a causal or contributory role are...
Breaking paradigms in control building design

Do your control buildings meet the needs of your company? Poor control building design will leave a lasting impact on your utility. This paper lists several common paradigms seen in control building designs and how the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has remedied them creating a modern control building that has revolutionized the way TVA designs, constructs, maintains, and operates substations. The following five paradigms will be examined: Paradigm #1: Live terminals in close proximity with our electricians and operators are acceptable. Paradigm #2: Relays and other equipment must be mounted in a cabinet or other U-shaped structure. Paradigm #3: Terminal blocks must be mounted in the cabinet or panel with their corresponding relays. Paradigm #4: A standard, modular control building to suit the needs of every site, regardless of site specific demands, is simply not feasible. Paradigm #5: A control building cannot enable the reinvention of the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of a substation.
ENERGY EFFICIENT HIGH TEMPERAUTRE APPLICATION OF CERAMICS THROUGH THE BEST PRACTICE PROGRAMME

This paper describes the aims of the Best Practice programme and the collaborative work of the Department of Environment's Energy Efficiency Office and ETSU, in gathering and disseminating information on energy efficiency projects. The latter part of the paper looks at recent advances in the application of ceramics, for the development of energy efficient burner technologies which have been supported by the EEO.
Perturbation Lagrangian Theory for Scalar Fields-Ward-Takahashi Identity and Current Algebra

Under the assumption that the time-ordered products are given by Feynman rules with Bogoliubov's renormalization scheme, it is shown that the operator forms of Euler-Lagrange equations of motion and Noether's theorem for a wide class of perturbation Lagrangian theories for scalar fields are valid. Ward-Takahashi identities for currents in Noether's theorem are also proved without recourse to equal-time commutators, and current-algebra results follow naturally in a subclass of Lagrangian field theories. Covariant Schwinger terms are present in these identities and their nature is determined.
Turning Ni-based hydroxide into an efficient hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst by fluoride incorporation

Abstract The use of Ni-based oxides/hydroxides in the oxygen evolution reaction has been extensively reported and fluoride precursors have frequently been used in their synthesis. However, there have been no studies of the effect of fluoride in Ni-based oxides/hydroxides on the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as these materials are generally considered inactive for HER. Recently the HER activities of Ni-based oxides/hydroxides have been improved by doping with anions ( P, S, and Se). However, these compounds are chemically unstable during HER and can be converted into the corresponding oxides/hydroxides. In this paper we discovered an interesting phenomenon: the NiFe hydroxide can be turned into an active HER material by incorporating fluoride into it. In 1 M KOH, a significant shift of ~ 91 mV was observed in the HER overpotential at − 10 mA/cm 2 due to the enhanced charge transfer ability triggered by fluoride. This discovery provides a new approach to turning normally inactive materials, whose catalytic activity is hindered by low intrinsic conductivity, into electrocatalysts, and will lead to the discovery of new catalysts.
Causes, impacts, and detection approaches of code smell: a survey

Code smells are anomalies often generated in design, implementation or maintenance phase of software development life cycle. Researchers established several catalogues characterizing the smells. Fowler and Beck developed the most popular catalogue of 22 smells covering varieties of development issues. This literature presents an overview of the existing research conducted on these 22 smells. Our motivation is to represent these smells with an easier interpretation for the software developers, determine the causes that generate these issues in applications and their impact from different aspects of software maintenance. This paper also highlights previous and recent research on smell detection with an effort to categorize the approaches based on the underlying concept.
Failure mode and effects analysis of dual levelling valve airspring suspensions on truck dynamics

Failure mode and effects analysis are performed for a dual levelling valve pneumatic suspension to determine the effect of suspension failure on tractor–semi-trailer dynamics, using a detai...
Kantianism and Phenomenology

Even more than his theoretical works, Immanuel Kant’s ethical writings can be said to effect a break with traditions of philosophy going back to the ancient Greeks. In particular, his “Copernican Revolution” in metaphysics, purporting to show that reason is incapable of gaining theoretical knowledge of ultimate reality, rules out the approach to ethics most common in ancient, medieval, and early modern philosophy—one that depends on a metaphysical theory of the good, specifically the human good. In contrast to such “eudaimonistic” 460 theories, Kant provides an alternative conception, often called “deontological,” of how reason functions in ethics, one that treats issues of right—of duty, obligation, and law—as amenable to formal or procedural solutions that do not presuppose any metaphysical theory of what material goods are. “Kantianism,” then, generally refers to ethical theories that emphasize the need to justify moral and other norms under modern conditions of interest-pluralism—that is, in the absence of agreement over which material values ought to be preferred.
Plant Genes Involved in Carbon and Nitrogen Assimilation in Root Nodules

The availability of reduced nitrogen is the most limiting factor in plant growth. In legume plants, nitrogen is provided by symbiotic bacteria (Rhizobium spp.) in exchange for carbon supplied by the host as photosynthates. A significant portion (25 to 30%) of the carbon received by nodules from photosynthates is returned to the shoot as nitrogenous solutes. Thus, not only are large amounts of energy required to support nitrogen fixation, but assimilation of that nitrogen is also energy intensive. It has been suggested that C02 fixation in the dark, catalyzed by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase, can function as an anapleurotic pathway to supply part of the carbon skeleton needed for nitrogen assimilation.1 Legumes of temperate regions generally assimilate and export fixed nitrogen as amides, while the tropical legumes, e. g., soybean, synthesize ureides (allantoin and allantoic acid) that account for > 90% of the nitrogen in their xylem sap.2 Extensive studies have been carried out to calculate the carbon/nitrogen budget of several legumes, but our knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms controlling the expression of genes involved in carbon and nitrogen pathways in nodules is very limited. Moreover, we do not know how the regulation of these genes is affected by the supply of carbon and nitrogen and different levels of oxygen present in infected and uninfected cells of the nodules.
Photocatalytic performance of sulfated TiO2 and Degussa P-25 TiO2 during oxidation of organics

Abstract Photocatalytic oxidations (PCOs) of heptane, trichloroethylene (TCE), ethanol, acetaldehyde, and toluene were carried out on sulfated TiO2 (SO42−/TiO2) and Degussa P-25. Coverages of all organics on SO42−/TiO2 were significantly higher than on P-25, but P-25 was more active for PCO at room temperature. Pulse PCO at room temperature suggests that steady-state PCO rates of acetaldehyde on the two catalysts may be similar, however. During PCO of heptane at room temperature, SO42−/TiO2 deactivated slower than P-25 so that the CO2 formation rate on P-25 was only 11% greater than that on SO42−/TiO2 after five 110 μmol/g catalyst pulses of heptane. Both pulse and steady-state PCO of TCE showed that although P-25 was more active than SO42−/TiO2, the CO2 production rate decreased with time on P-25 but not on SO42−/TiO2. Furthermore, CO2 selectivity increased with time as PCO of TCE approached steady-state on SO42−/TiO2, whereas it decreased on P-25. Selectivity to phosgene formation on P-25 was twice that on SO42−/TiO2. Sulfated TiO2 was more active and deactivated more slowly than P-25 during PCO of acetaldehyde above 373 K. Since acetaldehyde is an intermediate for PCO of several organics, SO42−/TiO2 may be preferable to Degussa P-25 for PCO at elevated temperatures.
Abstract 004: Novel Serum Metabolites Associate With Diastolic Function: Evidence From the Bogalusa Heart Study

Introduction: Diastolic dysfunction is one key causal factor for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). We conducted a metabolome-wide association study to identify novel diastolic...
Awardee-specific economic costs of providing cancer screening and health promotional services to medically underserved women eligible in the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program

To estimate awardee-specific costs of delivering breast and cervical cancer screening services in their jurisdiction and to assess potential variation in the cost of key activities across awardees. We developed the cost assessment tool to collect resource use and cost data from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program awardees for 3 years between 2006 and 2010 and generated activity-based cost estimates. We estimated awardee-specific cost per woman served for all activities, clinical screening delivery services, screening promotion interventions, and overarching program support activities. The total cost per woman served by the awardees varied greatly from $205 (10th percentile) to $499 (90th percentile). Differences in the average (median) cost per person served for clinical services, health promotion interventions, and overarching support activities ranged from $51 to $125. The cost per woman served varied across awardee and likely reflected underlying differences across awardees in terms of screening infrastructure, population served, and barriers to screening uptake. Collecting information on contextual factors at the awardee, health system, provider, and individual levels may assist in understanding this variation in cost.
Acute kidney injury is associated with higher mortality and healthcare costs in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES AKI is known to be associated with increased risk of mortality, however limited information is available on how AKI impacts healthcare costs and resource utilization in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis. Previous studies have had variable definitions of AKI, resulting in inconsistent reporting of the true impact of AKI in patients with cirrhosis. METHODS Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) which contains data from 44 states and 4378 hospitals, accounting for over 7 million discharges were analyzed. The inclusion data were all discharges in the 2012 NIS dataset with a discharge diagnosis of cirrhosis. RESULTS A total of 32,605 patients were included in the analysis, incidence of AKI was 12.12% in patients with cirrhosis. Crude mortality was much higher for patients with cirrhosis and AKI (14.9% vs. 1.8%, OR 9.42, p<0.001) than for patients without AKI. In addition, mean LOS was longer (8.5 vs. 4.3 days, p<0.001) and median total hospital charges were higher for patients with AKI ($43,939 vs. $22,270, p<0.001). In multivariate logistic regression, controlling for covariates and mortality risk score, sepsis, ascites and SBP were predictors of AKI. CONCLUSIONS AKI is relatively common in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis. Presence of AKI results in significantly higher inpatient mortality as well as LOS and resource utilization. Median hospitalization cost was twice as high in AKI patients. Early identification of patients at high risk for AKI should be implemented to reduce mortality and contain costs. Prognosis could be enhanced by utilizing biomarkers which could rapidly detect AKI.
First real-world experience of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) in neuroendocrine tumors (NET) since US FDA approval.

e15691Background: PRRT using 177Lu-DOTATATE was US FDA approved in Jan 2018, and real world data in the US is lacking. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients who began PRR...
Abstract 3884: Advancing Glioblastoma drug regimen development to support combination therapy through integrated PKPD modeling and simulation-based predictions

Despite advancements in therapies, such as surgery, irradiation (IR) and chemotherapy, outcome for patients suffering from glioblastoma remains fatal; the median survival rate is only about 15 months. Even with novel therapeutic targets, networks and signaling pathways being discovered, monotherapy with such agents targeting such pathways has been disappointing in clinical trials. Development of tumor resistance, particularly to temozolomide (TMZ), creates a substantial clinical challenge. The primary focus of our work is to rationally develop novel combination therapies and dose regimens that mitigate resistance development. Specifically, our aim is to combine TMZ with small molecule inhibitors that are either currently in clinical trials or are approved drugs for other cancer types, and which target the disease at various resistance signaling pathways that are induced in response to TMZ monotherapy. To accomplish this objective, an integrated PKPD modeling approach is used. The approach is largely based on the work of Cardilin, et al, 2018. A PK model for each drug is first defined. This is subsequently linked to a PD model description of tumor growth dynamics in the presence of a single drug or combinations of drugs. A key outcome of these combined PKPD models are tumor static concentration (TSC) curves of dual or triple combination drug regimens that identify combination drug exposures predicted to arrest tumor growth. This approach has been applied to TMZ in combination with abemaciclib (a dual CDK4/6 small molecule inhibitor) based on data from a published study evaluating abemaciclib efficacy in combination with TMZ in a glioblastoma xenograft model (Raub, et al, 2015). A PKPD model was developed to predict tumor growth kinetics for TMZ and abemaciclib monotherapy, as well as combination therapy. Population PK models in immune deficient NSG mice for temozolomide and abemaciclib were developed based on data obtained from original and published studies. Subsequently, the PK model was linked to tumor volume data obtained from U87-MG GBM subcutaneous xenografts, again using both original data as well as data from the Raub, et al, 2015 study. Model parameters quantifying tumor volume dynamics were precisely estimated (coefficient of variation Citation Format: Saugat Adhikari, Harlan E. Shannon, Karen E. Pollok, Robert E. Stratford. Advancing Glioblastoma drug regimen development to support combination therapy through integrated PKPD modeling and simulation-based predictions [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3884.
Removing opportunities to calculate improves students' performance on subsequent word problems.

In two studies we investigated whether removing opportunities to calculate could improve students’ subsequent ability to solve similar word problems. Students were first asked to write explanations for three word-problems that they thought would help another student understand the problems. Half of the participants explained typical word problems (i.e., problems with enough information to make calculating an answer possible), while the other half explained the same problems with numbers removed, making calculating an answer impossible. We hypothesized that removing opportunities to calculate would induce students to think relationally about the word problems, which would result in higher levels of performance on subsequent transfer problems. In both studies, participants who explained the non-calculable problems performed significantly better on the transfer test than participants who explained the typical (i.e., calculable) problems. This was so in spite of the manipulation not fully suppressing students’ desire to calculate. Many students in the non-calculable group explicitly stated that they needed numbers in order to answer the question or made up numbers with which to calculate. There was a significant, positive relationship between the frequency with which students made up numbers and their self-reported mathematics anxiety. We hypothesized that the mechanism at play was a reduction in instrumental thinking (and an increase in relational thinking). Interventions designed to help students remediate prior mathematical failure should perhaps focus less on the specific skills students are lacking, and more on the dispositions they bring to the task of “doing mathematics.”
Kruskal-Katona for convex sets, with applications.

The well-known Kruskal-Katona theorem in combinatorics says that (under mild conditions) every monotone Boolean function $f: \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ has a nontrivial "density increment." This means that the fraction of inputs of Hamming weight $k+1$ for which $f=1$ is significantly larger than the fraction of inputs of Hamming weight $k$ for which $f=1.$ We prove an analogous statement for convex sets. Informally, our main result says that (under mild conditions) every convex set $K \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ has a nontrivial density increment. This means that the fraction of the radius-$r$ sphere that lies within $K$ is significantly larger than the fraction of the radius-$r'$ sphere that lies within $K$, for $r'$ suitably larger than $r$. For centrally symmetric convex sets we show that our density increment result is essentially optimal. As a consequence of our Kruskal-Katona type theorem, we obtain the first efficient weak learning algorithm for convex sets under the Gaussian distribution. We show that any convex set can be weak learned to advantage $\Omega(1/n)$ in $\mathsf{poly}(n)$ time under any Gaussian distribution and that any centrally symmetric convex set can be weak learned to advantage $\Omega(1/\sqrt{n})$ in $\mathsf{poly}(n)$ time. We also give an information-theoretic lower bound showing that the latter advantage is essentially optimal for $\mathsf{poly}(n)$ time weak learning algorithms. As another consequence of our Kruskal-Katona theorem, we give the first nontrivial Gaussian noise stability bounds for convex sets at high noise rates. Our results extend the known correspondence between monotone Boolean functions over $ \{0,1\}^n$ and convex bodies in Gaussian space.
Recognizing Radicalization Indicators in Text Documents Using Human-in-the-Loop Information Extraction and NLP Techniques

Among the operational shortfalls that hinder law enforcement from achieving greater success in preventing terrorist attacks is the difficulty in dynamically assessing individualized violent extremism risk at scale given the enormous amount of primarily text-based records in disparate databases. In this work, we undertake the critical task of employing natural language processing (NLP) techniques and supervised machine learning models to classify textual data in analyst and investigator notes and reports for radicalization behavioral indicators. This effort to generate structured knowledge will build towards an operational capability to assist analysts in rapidly mining law enforcement and intelligence databases for cues and risk indicators. In the near-term, this effort also enables more rapid coding of biographical radicalization profiles to augment a research database of violent extremists and their exhibited behavioral indicators.
Left Atrial Appendage Closure

Stroke prevention is the primary goal in atrial fibrillation (AF) given its clinical and socioeconomic impact. With AF, the prevalence of thromboembolic stroke continues to rise and there is an urgent need to develop better strategies of stroke prevention. Warfarin, although effective when used appropriately, is burdened by underutilization, narrow therapeutic windows, and life-threatening bleeding complications. Novel pharmacologic agents have been plagued by off-target toxicity and only modest improvement in bleeding complications over warfarin. Because most thromboemboli arise from the left atrial appendage (LAA), surgical exclusion of the LAA is often used in AF patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Percutaneous device LAA closure has now been developed as an adjunct and as an alternative to pharmacotherapy in patients with AF. Promising randomized data are available with the WATCHMAN device, while several other devices are in various stages of clinical and preclinical development.
CXCL12γ induces human prostate and mammary gland development

Background Epithelial stem cells (ESCs) demonstrate a capacity to maintain normal tissues homeostasis and ESCs with a deregulated behavior can contribute to cancer development. The ability to reprogram normal tissue epithelial cells into prostate or mammary stem-like cells holds great promise to help understand cell of origin and lineage plasticity in prostate and breast cancers in addition to understanding normal gland development. We previously showed that an intracellular chemokine, CXCL12γ induced cancer stem cells and neuroendocrine characteristics in both prostate and breast adenocarcinoma cell lines. However, its role in normal prostate or mammary epithelial cell fate and development remains unknown. Therefore, we sought to elucidate the functional role of CXCL12γ in the regulation of ESCs and tissue development. Methods Prostate epithelial cells (PNT2) or mammary epithelial cells (MCF10A) with overexpressed CXCL12γ was characterized by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blots, and immunofluorescence for lineage marker expression, and fluorescence activated cell sorting analyses and sphere formation assays to examine stem cell surface phenotype and function. Xenotransplantation animal models were used to evaluate gland or acini formation in vivo. Results Overexpression of CXCL12γ promotes the reprogramming of cells with a differentiated luminal phenotype to a nonluminal phenotype in both prostate (PNT2) and mammary (MCF10A) epithelial cells. The CXCL12γ-mediated nonluminal type cells results in an increase of epithelial stem-like phenotype including the subpopulation of EPCAMLo /CD49fHi /CD24Lo /CD44Hi cells capable of sphere formation. Critically, overexpression of CXCL12γ promotes the generation of robust gland-like structures from both prostate and mammary epithelial cells in in vivo xenograft animal models. Conclusions CXCL12γ supports the reprogramming of epithelial cells into nonluminal cell-derived stem cells, which facilitates gland development.
Fusobacterium nucleatum Adheres to Clostridioides difficile via the RadD Adhesin to Enhance Biofilm Formation in Intestinal Mucus

Background & Aims Although Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is known to involve the disruption of the gut microbiota, little is understood regarding how mucus-associated microbes interact with C difficile. We hypothesized that select mucus-associated bacteria would promote C difficile colonization and biofilm formation. Methods To create a model of the human intestinal mucus layer and gut microbiota, we used bioreactors inoculated with healthy human feces, treated with clindamycin and infected with C difficile with the addition of human MUC2-coated coverslips. Results C difficile was found to colonize and form biofilms on MUC2-coated coverslips, and 16S rRNA sequencing showed a unique biofilm profile with substantial cocolonization with Fusobacterium species. Consistent with our bioreactor data, publicly available data sets and patient stool samples showed that a subset of patients with C difficile infection harbored high levels of Fusobacterium species. We observed colocalization of C difficile and F nucleatum in an aggregation assay using adult patients and stool of pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease and in tissue sections of patients with CDI. C difficile strains were found to coaggregate with F nucleatum subspecies in vitro; an effect that was inhibited by blocking or mutating the adhesin RadD on Fusobacterium and removal of flagella on C difficile. Aggregation was shown to be unique between F nucleatum and C difficile, because other gut commensals did not aggregate with C difficile. Addition of F nucleatum also enhanced C difficile biofilm formation and extracellular polysaccharide production. Conclusions Collectively, these data show a unique interaction of between pathogenic C difficile and F nucleatum in the intestinal mucus layer.