cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer accounts for approximately 15% of bronchogenic carcinomas. It is the cancer most commonly associated with various paraneoplastic syndromes, including the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion, paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, and Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome. Because of the high propensity of small cell lung cancer to metastasize early, surgery has a limited role as primary therapy. Although the disease is highly sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation, cure is difficult to achieve. The combination of platinum and etoposide is the accepted standard chemotherapeutic regimen. It is also the accepted standard therapy in combination with thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) for limited-stage disease. Adding TRT increases absolute survival by approximately 5% over chemotherapy alone. Thoracic radiotherapy administered concurrently with chemotherapy is more efficacious than sequential therapy. Furthermore, the survival benefit is greater if TRT is given early rather than late in the course of chemotherapy. Regardless of disease stage, no relevant survival benefit results from increased chemotherapy dose intensity or dose density, altered mode of administration (eg, alternating or sequential administration) of various chemotherapeutic agents, or maintenance chemotherapy. Prophylactic cranial radiation prevents central nervous system recurrence and can improve survival. In Japan and some other Asian countries, the combination of irinotecan and cisplatin is the standard chemotherapeutic regimen. Clinical trials using thalidomide, gefitinib, imatinib, temsirolimus, and farnesyltransferase inhibitors have not shown clinical benefit. Other novel agents such as bevacizumab have shown promising early results and are being evaluated in larger trials.
Seasonal pattern of apoplastic solute accumulation and loss of cell turgor during ripening of Vitis vinifera fruit under field conditions

Using a novel pressure membrane (PM) apparatus for the extraction of apoplastic fluid from field-grown grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berries, our hypothesis that significant apoplast solutes accumulate at the beginning of the ripening process (i.e. veraison), and that this accumulation might contribute to progressive berry softening due to a progressive loss of mesocarp cell turgor pressure (P) was tested. It was necessary to correct the solute potential (Psi(s)) of fluid collected with the PM for dilution due to the presence of a dead volume in the apparatus, but after correction, the Psi(s) obtained with the PM agreed with that obtained by low speed centrifugation. A clear decline in fruit apoplastic solute potential (psi(S)(A)) began approximately 10 d prior to fruit coloration, and it was found to be coincident with a decline in mesocarp cell P and fruit elasticity (E). By late in fruit development when berry growth ceased (90 d after anthesis), both apoplast and fruit Psi(s) reached almost -4 MPa. These results support the hypothesis that a decrease in psi(S)(A) is responsible for the observed loss in mesocarp cell P, and is the mechanistic cause of berry softening.
A traffic-aware top-N firewall approximation algorithm

Packet classification is widely used in various network security and operation applications. Two of the main challenges are the increasing number of classification rules, amount of traffic and network line speed. In this paper, we investigate an approximation algorithm for selecting the top- N most frequently matched subset of rules from the original ruleset. The goal is to obtain Top-N rules that covers as much traffic as possible while preserving the dependency relationships. Through simulations, we show that our approaches the optimal while runs in seconds, allowing online adaptation to changing traffic patterns.
Piezoelectric Wafer Embedded Active Sensors for Aging Aircraft Structural Health Monitoring

Piezoelectric wafer active sensors may be applied on aging aircraft structures to monitor the onset and progress of structural damage such as fatigue cracks and corrosion. The state of the art in piezoelectric-wafer active sensors structural health monitoring and damage detection is reviewed. Methods based on (a) elastic wave propagation and (b) the Electro–Mechanical (E/M) impedance technique are cited and briefly discussed. For health monitoring of aging aircraft structures, two main detection strategies are considered: the E/M impedance method for near field damage detection, and wave propagation methods for far-field damage detection. These methods are developed and verified on simple-geometry specimens and on realistic aging aircraft panels with seeded cracks and corrosion. The experimental methods, signal processing, and damage detection algorithms are tuned to the specific method used for structural interrogation. In the E/M impedance method approach, the high-frequency spectrum, representative of the structural resonances, is recorded. Then, overallstatistics damage metrics can be used to compare the impedance signatures and correlate the change in these signatures with the damage progression and intensity. In our experiments, the (1 � R 2 ) 3 damage metric was found to best fit the results in the 300–450 kHz band. In the wave propagation approach, the pulse-echo and acousto-ultrasonic methods can be utilized to identify the additional reflections generated from crack damage and the changes in transmission phase and velocity associated with corrosion damage. The paper ends with a conceptual design of a structural health monitoring system and suggestions for aging aircraft installation utilizing active-sensor arrays, data concentrators, wireless transmission, and a health monitoring and processing unit.
Conservation implications of genetic variation in three rare species endemic to Florida rosemary scrub

Habitat conversion and fire suppression during the last 50 yr have greatly reduced and altered Florida scrub vegetation, resulting in threats to the persistence of its unique flora. As part of a larger conservation project, we investigated patterns of isozyme variation in three rare perennial scrub plants with overlapping ranges endemic to Florida rosemary scrub on the Lake Wales Ridge. All three species have low levels of genetic variation, comparable to or lower than those generally reported for rare plants with restricted geographic ranges. Liatris ohlingerae has more than twice the expected heterozygosity of the other two species, with little population differentiation. In contrast, Hypericum cumulicolahas highly differentiated populations with little apparent interpopulation gene flow and heterozygote deficiencies indicative of inbreeding. Eryngium cuneifolium, the species with the narrowest range and fewest populations, has intermediate values for genetic parameters. Although the three species have narrow and overlapping geographic ranges and similar habitat specificity, we discuss how optimal conservation of each species differs.
Development of feeding structures in larval fish with different life histories: winter flounder and Atlantic cod

The size at which feeding structures developed and shifts in head proportions occurred, differed between Atlantic cod Gadus morhua and winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus. The sequence and timing of the development of feeding structures may not be dependent on size, but may occur because they are necessary to meet specific requirements of fish larvae feeding in the plankton. In early larval stages development of feeding structures was similar in number and type and was necessary for first-feeding in both species. In later stages, significant differences between species occurred in the timing of the development of feeding structures. In cod differentiation of new structures and changes in head proportions occurred at about two-thirds of the way through larval life, which coincided with an increase in growth. In flounder changes in feeding morphology did not occur during the symmetrical larval stage, but occurred only after metamorphosis to the asymmetrical demersal juvenile stage. Differences between cod and flounder in the size at which feeding structures develop may reflect life history adaptations expressed in the duration of the pelagic larval stage, as well as differences in juvenile habitat and feeding ecology.
Study of delay jitter with and without peak rate enforcement

In this paper, the modification of a tagged traffic stream due to statistical multiplexing is studied by presenting a numerical approach for the calculation of the tagged delay jitter and interdeparture processes. Both the single- and multiple-node cases are considered. Unlike the past work, the developed approach is applicable under both the standard first come first served (FCFS) policy and a peak-rate enforcing multiplexing policy. The latter policy can be adopted to reshape the tagged traffic stream within the network. Restoring a shaped traffic profile within the network may be necessary to obtain some of the benefits for which the original shaping is carried out at the network edge. This study also provides results and insight regarding the potential gains of reregulation within the network.
Middle aortic syndrome: Distal thoracic and abdominal coarctation, a disorder with multiple etiologies

Abstract BACKGROUND: Congenital coarctation of the thoracic aorta at the ligamentum arteriosum or the aortic arch is well recognized. But a much less common variety (0.5% to 2.0%) of aortic coarctation is located in the distal thoracic aorta, or abdominal aorta, or both and is often called "middle aortic syndrome" or "mid-aortic dysplastic syndrome." These types of aortic coarctation are most often secondary to a form of granulomatis vasculitis commonly known as Takayasu's disease in this country or aortitis syndrome in Japan. No single genesis explains every case and beside vasculitis as a cause, some are thought to be congenital in origin and others are associated with von Recklinghausen's disease. STUDY DESIGN: Eight patients with severe hypertension or claudication secondary to middle aortic coarctation were studied with aortograms and subsequently treated by vascular reconstruction procedures. RESULTS: Vascular reconstructions consisted of aortoaortic bypass, aortic resection with interposed grafting, reanastomotic resection of renal arteries into prosthetic grafts, and renal artery bypass with autogenous material. All eight patients' grafts have remained patent, with followups of 4 to 9 years, with relief of hypertension and claudication. Although Takayasu's disease can be progressive, aggressive surgical treatment in eight patients followed for 4 to 8 years postoperatively demonstrates that severe hypertension, claudication, or both are important indications for revascularization. CONCLUSIONS: Whatever the cause, assuming that active aortic inflammation has been medically treated and is in a burned-out state, patients with abdominal coarctation who have symptomatic renovascular hypertension, claudication, or both are good candidates for revascularization. Although surgical repair is more difficult than with congenital thoracic coarctation, because aortic walls are fibrotic and often also involve the renals, all eight of our patients had successful longterm correction of their hypertension and coarctation.
Specific N-terminal cleavage of ribosomal protein L27 in Staphylococcus aureus and related bacteria

Summary Ribosomal protein L27 is a component of the eubacterial large ribosomal subunit that has been shown to play a critical role in substrate stabilization during protein synthesis. This function is mediated by the L27 N-terminus, which protrudes into the peptidyl transferase center. In this report, we demonstrate that L27 in Staphylococcus aureus and other Firmicutes is encoded with an N-terminal extension that is not present in most Gram-negative organisms and is absent from mature ribosomes. We have identified a cysteine protease, conserved among bacteria containing the L27 N-terminal extension, which performs post-translational cleavage of L27. Ribosomal biology in eubacteria has largely been studied in the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli; our findings indicate that there are aspects of the basic biology of the ribosome in S. aureus and other related bacteria that differ substantially from that of the E. coli ribosome. This research lays the foundation for the development of new therapeutic approaches that target this novel pathway.
Emerging technology in stress echocardiography

Stress echocardiography has seen substantial expansion as a clinically useful tool for evaluation of patients with chest pain syndromes, determining the physiological significance of coronary artery lesions and assessing prognosis in patients known to have coronary disease. Several newly developing technologies show promise for enhancing the accuracy and clinical applicability of the examination. These include automatic edge detection systems, intravenous contrast for enhanced endocardial definition, tissue Doppler imaging, and tissue characterization techniques. Finally, new methods of cardiovascular stress, including combinations of exercise and pharmacological agents as well as newly developed pharmacological agents, also show promise for enhancing the clinical utility of stress echocardiography.
Determination of Benzene and Toluene in Gasoline by Gas Chromatography Using a Liquid Organic Salt Column

L'analyse du benzene et du toluene de l'essence est realisee par chromatographie en phase gazeuse avec du tetra-n-ethylammonium 4-toluenesulfonate comme phase stationnaire. L'optimisation de l'analyse est etudiee en fonction des conditions operatoires
Achieving arbitrary passband profiles and high stopband attenuation in microwave photonic filters

Microwave photonic filters utilizing optical frequency combs have been shown to achieve narrow bandwidths, high stopband attenuation as well as easy tunability of center frequency and bandwidth. The ability to achieve smooth apodization of optical frequency comb spectrum to specific spectral profiles is important to obtain high stopband attenuations. Previously, by utilizing an optical pulse shaper to crease a Gaussian profile spectrum, filters with high stopband attenuation and Gaussian passbands were demonstrated. However this technique is flexible and can be used to easily program the filter passband profile. We demonstrate this by creating filters with a flat top passband. We also demonstrate that the stopband attenuation can be significantly enhanced by utilizing frequency combs which achieve the necessary spectral shapes directly from the source. By generating an optical comb with a smooth quasi-Gaussian profile, we demonstrate filters with a record >60dB stopband attenuation.
DIVISION OF BIOPHYSICS: COMPARATIVE RESOLUTION OF SINGLE GAMMA COUNTING AND COINCIDENCE COUNTING IN FOCUSING COLLIMATOR SCANNING SYSTEMS*

High resolution radioisotope scanning systems have been restricted in general to: (1) focusing collimators, and (2) positron coincidence scanning. If the nuclear decay process includes the nearly simultaneous emission of the gammas in cascade with the direct transition highly forbidden or if, as for I/sup 125/ and Hg/sup 197/, electron capture occurs, following which a gamma ray and a characteristic K x-ray are emitted, a third type of scanning may be carried out. By setting the pulse height window of any standard scanner at the summed energy either of the two gammas or of the gamma and x-ray, only coincidences will be recorded, and an essentially composite type of scanning, namely, focusing collimator coincidence scanning (FCCS), becomes possible. Although improved resolution for FCCS has already been demonstrated under special experimental conditions in order to investigate the range of applicability of the scanning method and to indicate appropriate collimator design, a general theoretical analysis has been attempted. As will be seen in detail, a general analytic comparison of the resolutions obtainable with single gamma scanning and with FCCS is not likely to be possible. All of the problems associated with characterizing collimator detector performance in single gamma scanning are compounded bymore » coincidence considerations. The inherent three-dimensionality of FCCS makes the theoretical resolution of the method quite different, for example, in hot spot scanning against a cold background (brain scans) as contrasted with searching for cold regions embedded in a radioactive volume (liver scans).« less
Trauma and Hemorrhage

The Techniques of interventional neuroradiology can be used to control a variety of vascular injuries in the head and neck that are difficult to control through other means.
Mining Data Streams

Advances in hardware technology have led to new ways of collecting data at a more rapid rate than before. For example, many transactions of everyday life, such as using a credit card or a phone, lead to automated data collection. Similarly, new ways of collecting data, such as wearable sensors and mobile devices, have added to the deluge of dynamically available data. An important assumption in these forms of data collection is that the data continuously accumulate over time at a rapid rate. These dynamic data sets are referred to as data streams.
Defining Success The Case against Rail Transit

Over the past four decades, American cities have spent close to $100 billion constructing rail transit systems, and many billions more operating those systems. The agencies that spend taxpayer dollars building these lines almost invariably call them successful even when they go an average of 40 percent over budget and, in many cases, carry an insignificant number of riders. The people who rarely or never ride these lines but still have to pay for them should ask, "How do you define success?"This Policy Analysis uses the latest government data on scores of rail transit systems to evaluate the systems' value and usefulness to the public using six different tests: * Profitability: Do rail fares cover operating costs? * Ridership: Do new rail lines significantly increase transit ridership? * Cost-Effectiveness: Are new rail lines less expensive to operate than buses providing service at similar frequencies and speeds? * The "Cable Car" Test: Do rail lines perform as well as or better than cable cars, the oldest and most expensive form of mechanized land-based transportation? * The Economic Development Test: Do new rail lines truly stimulate economic development? * The Transportation Network Test: Do rail lines add to or place stresses upon existing transportation networks?No system passes all of these tests, and in fact few of them pass any of the tests at all.
Endothelial cell nitric oxide inhibits aldosterone synthesis in zona glomerulosa cells: modulation by oxygen

The regulation of aldosterone synthesis by endogenous nitric oxide (NO) was examined in cultured cells of the adrenal cortex. Endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) was detected by Western blot in cultured...
HetroCV: Auto-tuning Framework and Runtime for Image Processing and Computer Vision Applications on Heterogeneous Platform

With the wide adoption of high-performance processors and accelerators, large-scale computer vision applications have gained great performance improvement. However, it often requires extensive experiments and expertise to achieve optimal performance from manually-tuned programs, and the programs often need to be re-tuned when transplanted to a different platform, or using a different system configuration. To overcome this problem, in this paper we proposed Hetro CV, a programmer-directed auto-tuning framework and runtime for computer vision applications on heterogeneous CPU-MIC platform. In Hetro CV auto-tuning framework, computation units in the application pipeline are categorized in to one of three patterns: Map, Stencil and MapReduce, and program statistics are extracted from units' meta-information. Machine learning is adopted to train models for each pattern using the tuned parameters and program statistics from trial run sets, so that when a new unit is presented, Hetro CV auto tuner can use the corresponding trained model to generate optimized tuning parameters. In Hetro CV runtime, performance models for processor and co-processor are built to predict the prospective execution time of each computation unit in the application pipeline. We adopted the maximum-throughput mapping strategy, thus each unit would be mapped dynamically to the processor/co-processor queue, which would generate the minimum overall execution time. Experiments on two medical image processing applications running on heterogeneous platform composed of Intel Xeon CPU and Intel Phi co-processor showed advanced performance over naive Open MP tuning and Genetic Algorithm (GA) based heuristic tuning.
In vivo adaptive optics imaging of the temporal raphe and its relationship to the optic disc and fovea in the human retina.

PURPOSE To investigate the anatomy of the temporal raphe and its angular relationship to the optic disc and fovea in the human retina in vivo. METHODS Adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO) was used to image the temporal raphe in 11 young subjects. The raphe's angle relative to a horizontal line and the raphe-fovea-disc angle (angle between the raphe and the line connecting the disc and fovea center) were determined. In addition, to investigate the impact of aging on the raphe, we imaged the raphe at 9° eccentricity in 10 additional older healthy subjects and compared the raphe's anatomy between the two age groups. RESULTS The raphe's in vivo appearance was generally in agreement with major findings of ex vivo studies. The raphe angle was -1.67° ± 4.8°, with the ranges from -9° to 6°. It was related to the angle of the foveal depression relative to the disc. The raphe-fovea-disc angle was 170.3° ± 3.6°. The raphe gap, defined as the averaged distance between superior and inferior bundles, was significantly larger in the older subjects than in younger subjects (230.83 ± 113.22 μm vs. 1.93 ± 68.73 μm, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS The angle of the raphe in the study was not consistent with classic raphe models. While the angle showed relatively large individual variability, there seems to be a systematic relation between the disc, fovea, and raphe. It may be useful for individualizing retinal measurement strategies with regard to perimetry.
Borehole Geophysical Investigation: Seminoe Dam, WY Characterization of Internal Fracturing and Dynamic Moduli Reduction of Mass Concrete Undergoing Aar

Alkali aggregate reaction (AAR) is the general term for a slowly occurring chemical reaction in which highly alkali cement paste reacts with concrete aggregate. AAR is a common problem in concrete poured prior to the 1950’s. The reaction leads to the formation of an alkali silicate gel at the interface of the aggregate and cement. This gel product is less dense than the reactants, causing expansion. The gel product also increases in volume with water. During July of 2009, five six-inch diameter boreholes with varying depths were drilled into Seminoe Dam. Down hole optical and acoustic imaging tools were utilized to locate and characterize fractures within the concrete surrounding the borehole. Data collected from sonic and density logging tools were used to calculate the in-situ dynamic modulus values of the concrete surrounding the borehole wall. Imaging data was analyzed for fracture dip, orientation and frequency. Sonic data was analyzed for the concrete’s compression and shear wave velocities. Concrete density was computed from gamma ray logging data. In-situ shear, bulk and Young’s modulus values were determined throughout the depth of the boreholes. Characterization of the fractures and in-situ dynamic modulus values of the concrete are used in comparison with past investigations of Seminoe Dam to gauge the progression and effects of AAR throughout the structure.
Survey of the Theory of Rubberlike Elasticity

Abstract The problem of rubberlike elasticity has been under intensive investigation, both theoretically and experimentally, for over thirty years. The resulting literature has become so voluminous that adequate coverage, even at the survey level, demands the selection of a small segment of the overall problem. For this reason our review will deal exclusively with the reversible aspects of rubberlike elasticity. Furthermore, the historical development of the theoretical treatment is admirably covered in a number of recent books. Hence, our objective will be to present a fairly detailed and comprehensive survey of the current state of theory of rubberlike elasticity, and to compare this with pertinent experimental observations.
Reconstruction of Low-Index α-V2O5 Surfaces

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations with a PBE+U functional and a larger supercell than used previously find that that the (100) and (001) surfaces reconstruct. These reconstructions involve fairly extensive rearrangements of the surface atoms and lead to changes in the density of states and the energies of oxygen-vacancy formation.
Modeling 2-D Lens-Based Forward-Scan Sonar Imagery for Targets With Diffuse Reflectance

Sonar images are formed by transmitting acoustical pulses and measuring the reflected sound power from the scene surfaces. The recorded signal by a sonar device encodes information about the shape and material properties of these surfaces. In this paper, we present a detailed derivation of an image model for a new class of high-resolution lens-based 2-D forward-looking sonar systems, when the diffuse reflectance of scene/target can be characterized by the Lambertian model. A simplified single patch model is generalized to account for the finite pulse width of the transmitted beam and the simultaneous arrival of scattered signals from multiple patches at the same range in a given azimuthal direction. Validating the model using intensity measurements of isolated cylindrical targets, we then demonstrate application for multipath reflections from bottom surfaces with cylindrical and spherical targets.
Survey of SFTSV carrying situation in rodents in SFTS epidemic area of Donghai county

Objective To investigate host animal and source of infection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus(SFTSV),and provide a scientific basis for the prevention of the infectious disease.Method Mice were caught using squirrel-cage method in the onset district field and residential areas,rodent species classification and calculate rodent densities were calculated.Meanwhile,the heart,liver,spleen,lung,kidney,brain organs of the mouse were collected.SFTSV nucleic acid was detected using fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR in mouse.Result There are about six kinds of mice in Donghai county including apodemus agrarius,large hamsters,hamster,musk Xi,Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus.Wild rodent density was 13.47%,the main rodent species apodemus agrarius.Home rodent density is relatively lower by 6.98%,mainly of them were mus musculus and rattus norvegicus.A variety of mice have varying degrees of SFTSV carrier.The voles had a total infection rate of 6.90%,while norvegicus with a total infection rate of 7.87%.The heart,liver,spleen,lung,kidney,brain of voles have different levels of SFTSV carrying rate.Organs with two or over two carried SFTS virus.While for indoor mice,there was a single organ infected with SFTS virus.Gene sequencing showed the NP gene sequence of the SFTSV detected has a homology of 95% with that of the MEDLINE announced.Conclusion In Donghai County,in addition to the small hamster,the other five kinds of rats carry SFTS virus,and they were host animal of the SFTSV,however,as a infectious source of SFTS,it still need further investigation.
Do the Rich Know Better? – University Endowment Return Inequality Revisited

This paper revisits capital return inequality across university endowments. It combines university-level data on endowment size, investment returns, and portfolio allocations into a unified dataset. Using panel data regression, we replicate Piketty (2014)’s finding of a strong impact of size on investment return. Everything else the same, the biggest endowment has a capital return 8% higher than the smallest endowment. How- ever, after adjusting for risk using Sharpe Ratios, the strong positive correlation turns negligible or even negative. This result suggests that the higher return of bigger endowments can be attributed to risk compensation rather than to an informational premium.
The management of vascular injuries of the extremity associated with civilian firearms

A penetrating extremity trauma registry was created to prospectively study the physical findings, use of arteriography, nonoperative management with embolization or observation and operation in the management of vascular injuries. During a recent ten month period, 228 patients with 320 injuries of the extremity secondary to firearms were admitted to the Trauma Service. Twenty-four percent of the patients had more than one injury, and there were six perioperative deaths related to associated injuries. Fifty-one patients had 50 arterial and 17 venous injuries. Limb salvage was 100 percent. Twenty-two patients with obvious arterial injuries were taken directly to the operating room without arteriography. Arteriography was performed immediately after admission in 41 patients and the findings were positive in 46.4 percent of the patients; nine required operation. Arteriography was performed for injuries in proximity to a major vessel as the indication in 153 injuries and revealed seven arterial injuries (4.6 percent). Three patients underwent operation. Five patients with arterial injuries had successful embolization during the initial arteriography and five patients with intimal injuries were observed, four healed and one patient was lost to follow-up evaluation. Operative repair of arterial injuries included the use of saphenous vein (21 patients), prosthetic grafts (seven patients) and ligations (four patients). Seventeen venous injuries were either repaired (eight patients) or ligated (nine patients). In the patients undergoing operative repairs, 68.7 percent had fasciotomies performed. The excellent results in the current study (no amputations with 51 survivors of arterial injuries) were obtained by a multidisciplinary approach, involving selective arteriography to avoid unnecessary operation and operative repair in those with extensive vascular injuries. The use of arteriography for proximity characterized a few vascular injuries requiring operation or observation. It should serve as the standard for evaluating noninvasive diagnostic studies and for studying the natural history of asymptomatic injuries.
Pathology Quiz Case 1

A 57-YEAR-OLD WOMAN PRESENTED WITH A 2-year history of chronic cough. Onset was associated with flulike symptoms. Her cough worsened, and she started to have difficulty in airway functioning and dysphagia. She denied any hoarseness. A physical examination showed that she was in no apparent distress. Her voice was normal. Flexible fiber-optic laryngoscopy showed a large, posterior, broadly based interarytenoid mass significantly obstructing the posterior glottis, splaying open the arytenoids (Figure 1). The vocal cords were mobile. Computed tomographic imaging of the neck showed a soft-tissue lesion in the larynx obstructing the airway and bilateral level II and III lymphadenopathy. Computed tomographic imaging of the abdomen and pelvis showed hypodense liver lesions. A biopsy of the mass was performed under local anesthesia. Hematoxylin-eosin staining at low (original magnification 40) (Figure 2) and higher (original magnification 200) (Figure 3) magnifications is shown. Immunohistochemical staining was positive for c-Kit (CD117) and DOG1 (discovered on GIST), and negative for pancytokeratin, CD34, CD45, melan-A, S100, and CD68. Gomori methenamine silver stain demonstrated focal fungal organisms, and the acid-fast bacilli stain was negative for organisms. The patient then underwent an awake tracheotomy, endoscopic transoral laser partial laryngectomy, and bilateral selective neck dissections. A rubbery mass originating from the right arytenoids, growing over the interarytenoid area and extending to the left arytenoid, was discovered. The left arytenoid itself was free of tumor. Infiltrating portions of the tumor were not completely removed. The postcricoid area, esophageal inlet, and bilateral true cords were free of tumor. The final pathologic findings showed a spindle cell tumor measuring 2.7 1.2 1.7 cm in size with 5 mitoses per 50 high-power fields (HPFs). Twenty of 30 lymph nodes were positive for metastatic disease. What is your diagnosis?
Final Technical Report: PV Fault Detection Tool.

The PV Fault Detection Tool project plans to demonstrate that the FDT can (a) detect catastrophic and degradation faults and (b) identify the type of fault. This will be accomplished by collecting fault signatures using different instruments and integrating this information to establish a logical controller for detecting, diagnosing and classifying each fault.
Seven different proofs for

Solving one problem in different ways has its established benefits in developing and enhancing students' problem-solving abilities at all levels of school. But this teaching strategy does not seem to have received sufficient attentions and been accordingly practiced in college level computer science classrooms. We in this paper present seven different ways of proving the cardinality of power set |P(A)|=2n for any set A with |A|=n, and then discuss their main ideas, complexity (or simplicity), and internal connections. Our goal is to advocate and contribute to this teaching strategy.
Wartime Resistance and Republican Political Agency in Primo Levi’s Partisan Novel

Primo Levi is best known as a Holocaust survivor whose works are considered to be indispensable contributions to the literature of testimony about Nazi genocide. In trying to draw politically-relevant insights from Levi, readers have generally focused on his analysis of the extremes of human deprivation in his Holocaust writings. This article considers Levi more broadly as an analyst of the various forms of human agency and argues that his novel of partisan warfare, Se non ora quando? (1982), presents a vision of virtuous republican political agency. Levi's partisan novel dramatizes the fraught relationship between civil and military values in order to investigate what it takes for a republic to be founded and maintained in a world of risk. Considered against the backdrop of Levi's own short-lived experience as a partisan, relevant writings from republican theorist and fellow Jewish refugee Hannah Arendt, and the early Eighties presidency of ex-partisan Sandro Pertini, Levi's novel is revealed to be a tex...
5-Fluorouracil upregulates cell surface B7-H1 (PD-L1) expression in gastrointestinal cancers

Resistance to chemotherapy is a major obstacle in the effective treatment of cancer patients. B7-homolog 1, also known as programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), is an immunoregulatory protein that is overexpressed in several human cancers. Interaction of B7-H1 with programmed death 1 (PD-1) prevents T-cell activation and proliferation, sequestering the T-cell receptor from the cell membrane, inducing T-cell apoptosis, thereby leading to cancer immunoresistance. B7-H1 upregulation contributes to chemoresistance in several types of cancer, but little is known with respect to changes associated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or gastrointestinal cancers. HCT 116 p53+/+, HCT 116 p53−/− colorectal cancer (CRC) and OE33 esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) cells were treated with increasing doses of 5-FU (0.5 uM, 5 uM, 50 uM, 500 uM) or interferon gamma (IFN-γ, 10 ng/mL) in culture for 24 h and B7-H1 expression was quantified using flow cytometry and western blot analysis. We also evaluated B7-H1 expression, by immunohistochemistry, in tissue collected prior to and following neoadjuvant therapy in 10 EAC patients. B7-H1 expression in human HCT 116 p53+/+ and HCT 116 p53−/− CRC cells lines, while low at baseline, can be induced by treatment with 5-FU. OE33 baseline B7-H1 expression exceeded CRC cell maximal expression and could be further increased in a dose dependent manner following 5-FU treatment in the absence of immune cells. We further demonstrate tumor B7-H1 expression in esophageal adenocarcinoma patient-derived pre-treatment biopsies. While B7-H1 expression was not enhanced in post-treatment esophagectomy specimens, this may be due to the limits of immunohistochemical quantification. B7-H1/PD-L1 expression can be increased following treatment with 5-FU in gastrointestinal cancer cell lines, suggesting alternative mechanisms to classic immune-mediated upregulation. This suggests that combining 5-FU treatment with PD-1/B7-H1 blockade may improve treatment in patients with gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma.
Health Reform and the Changing Safety Net in the United States

The authors describe the implications of the Affordable Care Act for safety-net health systems and how hospital-based safety-net care systems are responding to health care reform.
Impact of an alternative chromosome 17 probe and the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology and College of American Pathologists guidelines on fluorescence in situ hybridization for the determination of HER2 gene amplification in breast cancer.

Background: The dual-probe fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) gene amplification in breast cancer provides an HER2:CEP17 (centromere enumeration probe for chromosome 17) ratio. Copy number alteration (CNA) in CEP17 may skew this ratio. The authors analyzed the impact of the 2013 American Society of Oncology/College of American Pathologists (ASCO/CAP) guidelines and an alternative chromosome 17 probe on HER2 status in tumor specimens with CEP17 CNA. Methods: Specimens with CEP17 CNA (n = 310) were selected from 3048 tumor samples that were received from January 2013 to June 2015 for testing with the alternative chromosome 17 probe D17S122. Reclassification of HER2 status was assessed using the 2007 and 2013 ASCO/CAP guidelines. Results: The alternative chromosome 17 probe reclassified 82 of 310 (26.5%) and 87 of 310 (28.1%) tumors using the 2007 and 2013 guidelines, respectively. Of the 41 of 310 tumors (13.2%) that were reclassified from nonamplified to amplified according to 2007 guidelines, 28 of 41 (68.3%) had an average HER2 copy number ≥4.0 and <6.0. The 39 of 310 tumors (12.6%) that were reclassified from equivocal to amplified according to 2013 guidelines had a mean HER2 copy number between ≥4.0 and <6.0. Most of these patients had stage I, hormone receptor-positive, lymph node-negative tumors, which is an unusual clinicopathologic profile for HER2-amplified tumors, and most received HER2-targeted therapy in addition to endocrine therapy. Conclusions: Reflex testing with an alternative chromosome 17 probe using the 2013 ASCO/CAP guidelines reclassified 28.1% of tumor samples that had CEP17 CNA, converting nearly one-half from equivocal to amplified. The benefit of HER2-targeted therapy in this patient population requires further study. Cancer 2017;123:2230-2239. © 2017 American Cancer Society.
The quality of Medicaid and Medicare data obtained from CMS and its contractors: implications for pharmacoepidemiology.

Administrative claims of United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) beneficiaries have long been used in non-experimental research. While CMS performs in-house checks of these claims, little is known of their quality for conducting pharmacoepidemiologic research. We performed exploratory analyses of the quality of Medicaid and Medicare data obtained from CMS and its contractors. Our study population consisted of Medicaid beneficiaries (with and without dual coverage by Medicare) from California, Florida, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. We obtained and compiled 1999–2011 data from these state Medicaid programs (constituting about 38% of nationwide Medicaid enrollment), together with corresponding national Medicare data for dually-enrolled beneficiaries. This descriptive study examined longitudinal patterns in: dispensed prescriptions by state, by quarter; and inpatient hospitalizations by federal benefit, state, and age group. We further examined discrepancies between demographic characteristics and disease states, in particular frequencies of pregnancy complications among men and women beyond childbearing age, and prostate cancers among women. Dispensed prescriptions generally increased steadily and consistently over time, suggesting that these claims may be complete. A commercially-available National Drug Code lookup database was able to identify the dispensed drug for 95.2–99.4% of these claims. Because of co-coverage by Medicare, Medicaid data appeared to miss a substantial number of hospitalizations among beneficiaries ≥ 45 years of age. Pregnancy complication diagnoses were rare in males and in females ≥ 60 years of age, and prostate cancer diagnoses were rare in females. CMS claims from five large states obtained directly from CMS and its contractors appeared to be of high quality. Researchers using Medicaid data to study hospital outcomes should obtain supplemental Medicare data on dual enrollees, even for non-elders. Not applicable.
Detection in a Non-Gaussian Environment: Weak and Fading Narrowband Signals

Procedures for the detection of both weak and narrowband signals in non–Gaussian noise environments are discussed. For the weak signal case, nonlinear processors based on the Middleton Class A noise model and the mixture representation are developed. Significant processing gains are achievable with some rather simple procedures. A variant of the mixture model leads to a nonstationary detector, called the “switched detector.” Experiments with this detector on ambient arctic and shrimp noises show processing gains of 1.4 to 4.1 dB, respectively.
Cigarette Smoke Regulates Calcium-Independent Phospholipase A2 Metabolic Pathways in Breast Cancer.

Phospholipase A 2 (PLA 2 )–dependent pathways are important in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, motility, and immune responses, and can be dysregulated during tumor development and progression. We show herein, for the first time, that cigarette smoking leads to an increase in platelet-activating factor (PAF) content and PAF receptor expression in human breast cancer cells and tissue. PAF production could be abrogated in triple-negative breast cancer cells by inhibition of calcium-independent PLA 2 (iPLA 2 ). We also demonstrate that cigarette smoke induces the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 and reduces 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase, resulting in prostaglandin E 2 release in human breast cancer. Increased cyclooxygenase-2 expression and prostaglandin E 2 release could be abrogated in metastatic breast cancer cells by inhibition of iPLA 2 . These studies indicate that iPLA 2 -dependent metabolic pathways play an important role in tumor initiation or progression in smokers, representing novel therapeutic targets for breast cancer patients who smoke.
On analyticity of linear waves scattered by a layered medium

Abstract The scattering of linear waves by periodic structures is a crucial phenomena in many branches of applied physics and engineering. In this paper we establish rigorous analytic results necessary for the proper numerical analysis of a class of High-Order Perturbation of Surfaces methods for simulating such waves. More specifically, we prove a theorem on existence and uniqueness of solutions to a system of partial differential equations which model the interaction of linear waves with a multiply layered periodic structure in three dimensions. This result provides hypotheses under which a rigorous numerical analysis could be conducted for recent generalizations to the methods of Operator Expansions, Field Expansions, and Transformed Field Expansions.
Robust policy search with applications to safe vehicle navigation

This work studies the design of reliable control laws of robotic systems operating in uncertain environments. We introduce a new approach to stochastic policy optimization based on probably approximately correct (PAC) bounds on the expected performance of control policies. An algorithm is constructed which directly minimizes an upper confidence bound on the expected cost of trajectories instead of employing a standard approach based on the expected cost itself. This algorithm thus has built-in robustness to uncertainty, since the bound can be regarded as a certificate for guaranteed future performance. The approach is evaluated on two challenging robot control scenarios in simulation: a car with side slip and a quadrotor navigating through obstacle-ridden environments. We show that the bound accurately predicts future performance and results in improved robustness measured by lower average cost and lower probability of collision. The performance of the technique is studied empirically and compared to several existing policy search algorithms.
Triglyceride concentrations in neonatal foals: Serial measurement and effects of age and illness

Few studies have evaluated the effects of age and illness on serum triglyceride concentrations in neonatal foals. The objectives of this study were to evaluate triglyceride concentrations in neonatal foals and their dams through serial measurement immediately postpartum and at 1-2 days and 10-12 days of age, as well as to measure them in sick foals. Serially measured serum triglycerides in seven healthy foals varied with age. Median (range) triglyceride concentrations were 28mg/dL (12-50mg/dL), 89mg/dL (51-264mg/dL), and 60mg/dL (28-135mg/dL) immediately postpartum, at 1-2 days of age, and 10-12 days of age, respectively (P 24h old. Sick foals <24h old had lower triglycerides than sick foals aged 1-7 days (median, 41mg/dL [range, 16-116]; median, 110mg/dL [range, 24-379mg/dL]; P<0.001). Age and triglyceride concentration showed a non-linear association independent of foal health status (P=0.01). Sick foals with positive bacterial cultures had higher triglycerides than those with negative cultures (median, 111mg/dL [range, 10-379mg/dL] and median 53mg/dL [range, 17-271mg/dL], respectively; P=0.033). Nonsurvivors had higher triglycerides than survivors (median, 116mg/dL [range, 41-379mg/dL] and median, 55mg/dL [range, 10-311mg/dL], respectively; P=0.04). In conclusion, triglycerides were highest in healthy neonatal foals aged 1-2 days, and in nonsurviving sick foals and those with positive bacterial cultures. Age was associated with triglyceride concentration regardless of health status.
The Malleability of the Law

The first subsection, “Circumventing the Law,” examines crimes and their social context in Shaw’s dramatic and non-dramatic writing, notably slum landlordism, sweatshops, insider trading on the stock exchange, burglary, thefts that are not unlawful, thefts by the poor as payback to those of the wealthy, crimes exonerated by magistrates during wartime, the suspension of civil liberties in wartime, and law as administered by governors of crown colonies. The second subsection, “Legalized Criminality,” explores laws that define what constitutes crime; it studies actions that are unethical but break no laws, such as deeds committed by businessmen, as in John Bull’s Other Island and Heartbreak House. It explains why a murder, in The Doctor’s Dilemma, is not a murder according to law.
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: A Biblical Approach and Critique

Cognitive-behavior therapy has gained prominence as a school of psychotherapy or counseling in recent years among secular as well as Christian therapists. This article describes some recent develop...
Abstract 17042: Unique Hemodynamic Parameters Predict GI Bleeding in Patients With Continuous Flow Ventricular Assist Devices

Introduction: Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding remains a major morbid event during continuous flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support. Hypothesis: This study investigated whether a common ...