cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anti-inflammatory therapies in sepsis and septic shock

Despite advances in supportive care, the morbidity and mortality rate resulting from sepsis and septic shock remain high (30 - 50%). A central hypothesis driving sepsis research in recent years is that this syndrome is the result of excessive inflammation. Therapies designed to inhibit the inflammatory response were first shown to be markedly beneficial in animal models of sepsis and then tested in numerous clinical trials involving thousands of patients. Three broad anti-inflammatory strategies have been investigated. First, glucocorticoids in high doses administered at the onset of sepsis were studied. This approach proved unsuccessful. More recently, however, glucocorticoids in lower doses have been found to have a beneficial effect in patients with septic shock. Whether the mechanism of this treatment benefit is through inhibition of inflammation, or by counteracting a relative steroid refractoriness occurring during sepsis, remains unknown. The next focus of research were agents active against the endotoxin molecule. However, as with the experience with glucocorticoids, this approach lacked a consistent pattern of efficacy. It is unclear if this lack of efficacy is the result of endotoxin being a poor therapeutic target, or from testing agents which lacked the appropriate biological activity. Most recently, clinical trials in sepsis have focused on inhibiting specific host pro-inflammatory mediators (e.g., TNF, interleukins). While individual trials of inhibitors of these pro-inflammatory mediators failed to show a convincing benefit, pooling the results of these trials suggest that this approach has a marginal effect, supporting a role for excessive inflammation in sepsis. An unanswered question is reconcilling the very favourable effects obtained with anti-inflammatory treatments in animal models with the marginal results in humans. Further clinical and laboratory research is needed and may provide insight into more effective ways to use the anti-inflammatory agents already tested, or to investigate other potentially more effective anti-inflammatory agents in this syndrome.
Structures of breynins A and B, architecturally complex, hypocholesterolemic spiroketal glycosides. A revised formulation of breynin B

Abstract The complete structures of breynins A and B ( 1 and 2 ), orally active hypocholesterolemic glycosides, have been established via NMR analysis and chemical correlation. Breynin B ( 2 ) proved to be a sulfoxide derivative of 1 , not the isomeric hemithioacetal 3 as proposed previously.
Reading CEOS-SAR tapes: a new general reader and a proposed new standard

All recent scientific SAR data is formatted in compliance, more or less, with the CEOS standard developed recently. If this standard were followed meticulously by each organization producing SAR data a single tape-reader could read all of the data. However, there are small but significant differences in how each sensor's data is formatted and this has led to the need for a different reader for each sensor, and even for each format from the same sensor. This makes using the data difficult for most users, as the first step is to read it in to some kind of image processing system, such as ERDAS, PCI, GRASS, KHOROS, etc. The solution to this problem has been for data providers and commercial vendors to write tape readers for their customers. Unfortunately, these readers do not read all the ancillary data and do not allow easy porting to use with other image processing systems. A new general reader has been developed that solves all these problems. It uses simple text "format" files to define the data that is to be read in: variable name and type, location in file, and format. It also allows the user to write interface code to read the data (ancillary and image) into the user's image processing system. Despite this solution, a better format would make things even easier both for the data provider and for the user. A new format is proposed which addresses the following issues: (1) A single file per image, with a single record-length per file; (2) Ancillary data in ASCII: KEYWORD=value; comment; (3) Self-documenting via comments and strict syntax; (4) Self-reading, so that a program can read input file and generate code that can read in all data in input file; (5) Addition of new parameters is simple, and users can generate readers for the new format with the program in 4. This code is written and works.
Presenilin-1 and Presenilin-2 Exhibit Distinct yet Overlapping γ-Secretase Activities

Presenilin-1 (PS1) and presenilin 2 (PS2) are proposed to be transmembrane aspartyl proteases that cleave amyloid precursor protein and Notch. PS1- and PS2-mediated activities were individually characterized using blastocyst-derived (BD) cells and membranes from PS1+/–-PS2–/– and PS1–/–PS2+/+ mice, respectively. The relative amounts of PS1 and PS2 in the various BD cells were determined from the intensities of the anti-PS1 and anti-PS2 immunoblot signals by comparison with standard curves using radiolabeled PS1 and PS2 standards produced by in vitro transcription and translation. Cellular membranes from wild type, PS1–/–PS2+/+, and PS1+/–-PS2–/– but not PS1–/–PS2–/– BD cells generated the Aβ40 and Aβ42 products from the C100FLAG substrate. PS1-associated γ-secretase displays considerably higher specific activity than PS2-associated γ-secretase. Moreover, the PS1+/–PS2–/– BD cells and corresponding membranes exhibited much higher γ-secretase activity as compared with other BD cells and membranes. The PS1-mediated γ-secretase activity correlated better with the amount of PS1 that is modifiable by a photoactivated active site-directed γ-secretase inhibitor rather than total PS1; hence, only a small portion (
The Dystory of Ahmed's Clock

A 14-year-old student from Irving, Texas, took his "invented" clock to school and touched off a withering blast of media-induced hysteria.
What is photoaged skin

Photoaging is the term used to describe the clinical and histological findings in chronically sun-exposed skin. Kligman first described the hallmark histological signs of chronically sun damaged skin viz, accumulation of disorganized, coarse bundles of fibers which stained for elastic tissue and termed this elastosis. In the 30 years since that landmark observation, a wide variety of clinical and histological changes have come to be associated [...]
Modality-independent representations of small quantities based on brain activation patterns

Machine learning or MVPA (Multi Voxel Pattern Analysis) studies have shown that the neural representation of quantities of objects can be decoded from fMRI patterns, in cases where the quantities were visually displayed. Here we apply these techniques to investigate whether neural representations of quantities depicted in one modality (say, visual) can be decoded from brain activation patterns evoked by quantities depicted in the other modality (say, auditory). The main finding demonstrated, for the first time, that quantities of dots were decodable by a classifier that was trained on the neural patterns evoked by quantities of auditory tones, and vice-versa. The representations that were common across modalities were mainly right-lateralized in frontal and parietal regions. A second finding was that the neural patterns in parietal cortex that represent quantities were common across participants. These findings demonstrate a common neuronal foundation for the representation of quantities across sensory modalities and participants and provide insight into the role of parietal cortex in the representation of quantity information.
Natural Convection for Air and Molten Gallium in Square- and Elbow-Shaped Enclosures

Natural convection flow of air and molten gallium in square and elbow-shaped enclosures is studied by a two-dimensional numerical scheme developed by the lead author. The dependence of the flow field and Nusselt number (Nu) on the Rayleigh (Ra) and Prandtl (Pr) numbers is examined in both enclosures. Results are obtained with sufficiently large Rayleigh numbers to observe transition from steady to damped or undamped oscillatory, and chaotic flow. Constant and oscillatory heat transfer rates are compared in both enclosures for air (Pr=0.71) and molten gallium (Pr=0.024).
Screening for ovarian cancer: recommendation statement.

This statement summarizes the current U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for ovarian cancer and the supporting evidence, and updates the 1996 recommendations contained in the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, Second Edition: Periodic Updates. [1][1] In 1996
Memory Models: Perspectives for Study Skills Instruction

(1986). Memory Models: Perspectives for Study Skills Instruction. Journal of College Reading and Learning: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 12-21.
The effect of board-imposed changes on maternal-fetal medicine fellowships.

OBJECTIVE: A 1996 survey of Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellows revealed that there was cause for serious concern over fellow experience. In 1997, Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowships underwent significant changes, including a lengthening of the program and more stringent requirements for protected research performance. We investigated whether the changes imposed in Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowships in 1997 have improved fellow experience. METHODS: Fellows were identified through the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. An identical survey to a 1996 survey using the Likert scale, ordinal- and categorical-scale questions were used. The results of the 1996 survey were compared with the results of the 2000 survey. X 2 , Mann-Whitney U test, Fisher exact test, and analysis of variance were used where appropriate. RESULTS: Sixty-five of 100 fellows returned the survey (return rate, 65%). Overall, there has been improvement in many areas of fellow experience. Significant changes include an increase in research time (7 months versus 18 months; P <.001), number of research projects (2.9 versus 4.3 projects/fellow; P <.001), fellows rating research time as adequate (66.4% versus 85.6%; P =.003), fellows receiving grant training (20.2% versus 37.1%; P =.012), 2 or more research presentations (36.2% versus 47.1%; P =.028), pursuit of a postgraduate degree (5.7% versus 32.9%; P < .001), presence of a mentor (68.1% versus 80.8%; P =.049), and the rating of mentorship as strong (59.4% versus 77.9%; P =.039). Of concern, 24.3% of current fellows did not believe they would receive their full-protected research time. CONCLUSION: The changes imposed in Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowships in 1997 appear to have had a positive impact on fellows' experience, especially the ability to perform and present research.
Facebook como herramienta de marketing/comunicación para la atracción de estudiantes internacionales: un análisis de Chile y España

This paper aim to analyze the use of Facebook as a tool of international marketing in Chilean and Spanish universities. The study cover 93% of universities in both countries, and using the content analysis method, we can establish that the use of Fan Pages is mainly related to universities with higher number of international student enrolled. There is a direct relation between the enrollment of international students and the use of Facebook as an international marketing communication tool. On the contrary, Universities with less international enrollment seems to have better performances. There is an inverse relation between the Fan Page performance and the number of international students, and a direct one between the number of international students and the use of Fan Pages, as a way to be present in Facebook.
Survey of health risk behavior of students in a high school of Haikou City

Objective To survey health risk behaviors of students in a high school and provide scientific basis for adopting inter- vention measures.Methods Health-associated behaviors in high school students were surveyed with questionnaire.Results Totally 334 students were surveyed.There 15.3% of them rode on the wrong side of the road in the past 30 days,21.2% crossed the street at will,18.2% of them were cigarette smokers,39.0% of them had the experience of gambling activities,4.4% had sex- ual activities.Compared with boys,significant differences were observed in female students in betting activities,gambling,internet addiction,smoking and drinking(P＜0.05).Conclusion The risk behaviors of high school students are relatively serious and effective measures be adopted.
The Clostridium difficile Dlt Pathway Is Controlled by the Extracytoplasmic Function Sigma Factor σV in Response to Lysozyme.

ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile (also known as Peptoclostridium difficile) is a major nosocomial pathogen and a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea throughout the world. Colonization of the intestinal tract is necessary for C. difficile to cause disease. Host-produced antimicrobial proteins (AMPs), such as lysozyme, are present in the intestinal tract and can deter colonization by many bacterial pathogens, and yet C. difficile is able to survive in the colon in the presence of these AMPs. Our prior studies established that the Dlt pathway, which increases the surface charge of the bacterium by addition of d-alanine to teichoic acids, is important for C. difficile resistance to a variety of AMPs. We sought to determine what genetic mechanisms regulate expression of the Dlt pathway. In this study, we show that a dlt null mutant is severely attenuated for growth in lysozyme and that expression of the dltDABC operon is induced in response to lysozyme. Moreover, we found that a mutant lacking the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor σV does not induce dlt expression in response to lysozyme, indicating that σV is required for regulation of lysozyme-dependent d-alanylation of the cell wall. Using reporter gene fusions and 5′ RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) analysis, we identified promoter elements necessary for lysozyme-dependent and lysozyme-independent dlt expression. In addition, we observed that both a sigV mutant and a dlt mutant are more virulent in a hamster model of infection. These findings demonstrate that cell wall d-alanylation in C. difficile is induced by lysozyme in a σV-dependent manner and that this pathway impacts virulence in vivo.
Heparinized collagen sutures for sustained delivery of PDGF-BB: Delivery profile and effects on tendon-derived cells In-Vitro.

Abstract Suturing is the standard of repair for lacerated flexor tendons. Past studies focused on delivering growth factors to the repair site by incorporating growth factors to nylon sutures which are commonly used in the repair procedure. However, conjugation of growth factors to nylon or other synthetic sutures is not straightforward. Collagen holds promise as a suture material by way of providing chemical sites for conjugation of growth factors. On the other hand, collagen also needs to be reconstituted as a mechanically robust thread that can be sutured. In this study, we reconstituted collagen solutions as suturable collagen threads by using linear electrochemical compaction. Prolonged release of PDGF-BB (Platelet derived growth factor-BB) was achieved by covalent bonding of heparin to the collagen sutures. Tensile mechanical tests of collagen sutures before and after chemical modification indicated that the strength of sutures following chemical conjugation stages was not compromised. Strength of lacerated tendons sutured with epitendinous collagen sutures (11.2 ± 0.7 N) converged to that of the standard nylon suture (14.9 ± 2.9 N). Heparin conjugation of collagen sutures didn’t affect viability and proliferation of tendon-derived cells and prolonged the PDGF-BB release up to 15 days. Proliferation of cells seeded on PDGF-BB incorporated collagen sutures was about 50% greater than those seeded on plain collagen sutures. Collagen that is released to the media by the cells increased by 120% under the effects of PDGF-BB and collagen production by cells was detectable by histology as of day 21. Addition of PDGF-BB to collagen sutures resulted in a moderate decline in the expression of the tendon-associated markers scleraxis, collagen I, tenomodulin, and COMP; however, expression levels were still greater than the cells seeded on collagen gel. The data indicate that the effects of PDGF-BB on tendon-derived cells mainly occur through increased cell proliferation and that longer term studies are needed to confirm whether this proliferation is outweighs the moderate reduction in the expression of tendon-associated genes. Statement of Significance A mechanically robust pure collagen suture was fabricated via linear electrocompaction and conjugated with heparin for prolonged delivery of PDFG-BB. Sustained delivery of the PDGF-BB improved the proliferation of tendon derived cells substantially at the expense of a moderate downregulation of tenogenic markers. The collagen threads were functionally applicable as epitendinous sutures when applied to chicken flexor tendons in vitro. Overall, electrocompacted collagen sutures holds potential to improve repair outcome in flexor tendon surgeries by improving cellularity and collagen production through delivery of the PDGF-BB. The bioinductive suture concept can be applied to deliver other growth factors for a wide-array of applications.
Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis to Examine Receptor-Ligand Interactions

Afffinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) is a new analytical technique that has been shown to be an efficient and accurate tool in studying biomolecular noncovalent interactions and determining binding and dissociation constants of formed complexes. ACE uses as its basis the change in migration time of a receptor upon binding to a ligand found in the electrophoresis buffer. Subsequent Scatchard analysis using noninteracting markers realizes a binding constant. Herein, ACE and three modifications in the technique, partial-filling ACE (PFACE), flow through PFACE (FTPFACE), and multiple-step ligand injection ACE (MSLIACE) are used to probe the binding of ristocetin A (Rist A) and vancomycin (Van) from Streptomyces orientalis to D-Ala-D-Ala terminus peptides and carbonic anhydrase B (CAB, E.C.4.2.1.1) to arylsulfonamides.
California’s Channel Islands: A History . By Frederic Caire Chiles.

California’s Channel Islands: A History . By Frederic Caire Chiles. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. xiv + 282 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $19.95, paper.) This is a remarkable book in its completeness of research, its format, and its elegant writing style. Author Frederic Caire Childs, himself a descendent of a Santa Cruz Island family, describes California’s Channel Islands as a history, and it is surely that: an exhaustively researched history (despite the relative brevity of the book) based in an array of sources, its narrative enlivened by family histories, similar to his own family history, in each of the eight islands of the channel. As such, this history—which moves from island to island, from San Miguel to San Clemente, through successive eras of geological … kstarr{at}usc.edu
SLA analytics for adaptive service provisioning in the cloud

Service level agreements (SLAs) are considered not only a central tool for managing QoS compliance, but also a differentiating factor between service implementations. In today's application environments with fast instrumentation deployment cycles in hybrid Cloud platforms, managing QoS compliance poses tremendous challenges, including how to deliver solutions that live up to promised QoS properties and preemptively identify provisioning risks before they lead to violations. Current approaches are usually reactive, i.e. the application infrastructure reacts to changes in QoS metrics, with a huge focus on compliance enforcement after violations have occurred. Cloud service provisioning demands a proactive approach to QoS management, with support for robust predictive scaling of service capacity based on multiple metrics, including business goals as well as infrastructure-level and QoS metrics. This paper presents an approach for adaptive service provisioning in the Cloud based on QoS analytics. A major contribution of the approach is the development of an analytics engine for predictive elasticity management of Cloud service provisioning that integrates in-depth mining of SLA compliance history with knowledge of business context, e.g. workload variability, a customer's business goals, application performance, and service operational context. In this work-in-progress report, we describe the proposed framework and discuss possible implementation and deployment scenarios.
Preventing Catastrophic Filter Divergence Using Adaptive Additive Inflation for Baroclinic Turbulence

AbstractEnsemble-based filtering or data assimilation methods have proved to be indispensable tools in atmosphere and ocean science as they allow computationally cheap, low-dimensional ensemble state approximation for extremely high-dimensional turbulent dynamical systems. For sparse, accurate, and infrequent observations, which are typical in data assimilation of geophysical systems, ensemble filtering methods can suffer from catastrophic filter divergence, which frequently drives the filter predictions to machine infinity. A two-layer quasigeostrophic equation, which is a classical idealized model for geophysical turbulence, is used to demonstrate catastrophic filter divergence. The mathematical theory of adaptive covariance inflation by Tong et al. and covariance localization are investigated to stabilize the ensemble methods and prevent catastrophic filter divergence. Two forecast models—a coarse-grained ocean code, which ignores the small-scale parameterization, and stochastic superparameterization (...
The Arctic Five versus the Arctic Council

Since asserting itself in 2008 through the Ilulissat Declaration, the Arctic Five has been painted as being in competition with the Arctic Council, and as undermining the cooperative spirit that pervades Arctic international relations due to its limited membership. This, however, is an overly simplistic assessment of the relationship between these two regional associations and how the Arctic Five fits into the tapestry of international governance regimes at the top of the world. Although the overlapping purposes and differing memberships of the Arctic Five and Arctic Council certainly lend themselves to competition in certain circumstances, their unique characteristics also allow them to complement one another in positively contributing to Arctic international governance and policy formulation. This briefing examines the relationship between the Arctic Five and the Arctic Council, presenting the actual and potential antagonisms and synergies between these two bodies. It reveals that the nature of their interactions is certainly not one dimensional. The comparative advantages and deficiencies of the Arctic Five and Arctic Council can and do align to constructively influence Arctic affairs.
Teaching health campaigns by doing health campaigns

Courses: Health Campaigns, Health Communication, Communication Campaigns, Public Relations Campaigns, Persuasion.Objectives: Students will demonstrate their ability to work effectively both individually and in teams to apply health communication theory to emerging, practical, on-campus health issues via formative research, multimodal message development, community engagement, and effective presentation of findings.
Nucleation and growth of copper selective-area atomic layer deposition on palladium nanostructures

The nucleation and growth of copper atomic layer deposition (ALD) on palladium have been investigated for applications in nanoscale devices. Palladium nanostructures were fabricated by electron beam lithography and range in size from 250 nm to 5 μm, prepared on oxidized silicon wafers. Copper ALD using Cu(thd)2(s) and H2(g) as reactants was carried out to selectively deposit copper on palladium seeded regions to the exclusion of surrounding oxide surfaces. Nuclei sizes and densities have been quantified by scanning electron microscopy for different growth conditions. It is found that growth occurs via island growth at temperatures of 150-190 °C and alloy growth at temperatures above 210 °C. In the lower temperature window, nucleation density increases with decreasing temperature, reaching a maximum of 4.8 ± 0.2 × 109/cm2 at 150 °C, but growth is too slow for significant deposition at the lowest temperatures. At higher temperatures, individual nuclei cannot be quantified due to extensive mixing of copper and palladium layers. For the lower temperatures where nuclei can be quantified, rates of nucleation and growth are enhanced at high H2 partial pressures. At the smallest length scales, conformality of the deposited over-layers is limited by a finite nuclei density and evolving grain structure that cause distortion of the original nanostructure shape during growth.
Rapid development of multimodal interactive systems: a demonstration of platform for situated intelligence

We demonstrate an open, extensible platform for developing and studying multimodal, integrative-AI systems. The platform provides a time-aware, stream-based programming model for parallel coordinated computation, a set of tools for data visualization, processing, and learning, and an ecosystem of pluggable AI components. The demonstration will showcase three applications built on this platform and highlight how the platform can significantly accelerate development and research in multimodal interactive systems.
Revisiting Stock Option Exercise and CEO Overconfidence

A growing body of literature claims that CEOs are irrationally overconfident. I find evidence that this "overconfident" behavior is actually quite profitable, indicating that CEOs exhibit behavioral biases less often than previously thought. Firms with "overconfident" CEOs consistently earn returns above the S&P500, with significant Fama-French five-factor alphas. I find that most overconfidence measures mechanically sort firms on profitability and growth, and this subsequently leads to the appearance of CEO overconfidence.
Consequences of the 340B Drug Pricing Program

Abstract Background The 340B Drug Pricing Program entitles qualifying hospitals to discounts on outpatient drugs, increasing the profitability of drug administration. By tying the program eligibility of hospitals to their Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) adjustment percentage, which reflects the proportion of hospitalized patients who are low-income, the program is intended to expand resources for underserved populations but provides no direct incentives for hospitals to use financial gains to enhance care for low-income patients. Methods We used Medicare claims and a regression-discontinuity design, taking advantage of the threshold for program eligibility among general acute care hospitals (DSH percentage, >11.75%), to isolate the effects of the program on hospital–physician consolidation (i.e., acquisition of physician practices or employment of physicians by hospitals) and on the outpatient administration of parenteral drugs by hospital-owned facilities in three specialties in which parenteral dr...
The Inverse-Function Theorem

A function f with domain A and range B is a set {(x,y):x∈A,y∈B} of ordered pairs (x,y) in A x B which satisfies the following condition [see Section 96 in Appendix 2]: if (x,y) and (x,ý are in f then ý = y. We say f maps A into B and write f:A → B. If (x,y) is in f, we say y is the value of f at x and write y = f(x). Thenf is the set {(x,f(x)):x∈A}, and B={f(x):x∈A}.
Phase-measurement of interferometry techniques for nondestructive testing

This paper describes a number of different phase-measurement techniques which can be used for nondestructive evaluation in holographic interferometry and TV holography.
Content Development (with Work Documentation)

Taking a concept, making a plan to actualize that concept, and building to that plan involve a lot of skill, resources, technologies, and hands-on work. This chapter focuses on what the actual work entails, through the typical development phases: collecting digital contents, creating digital contents, drafting a learning object by integrating raw contents and information, writing, illustrating, creating assignments, creating assessments, adding a style overlay, sequencing the learning, refining the work, and so on. There may be work building context-sensitive help, so those using the learning resources may access the cognitive scaffolding at various points in their learning. There may be downloadables created to enable learners to refresh on the subject matter long after their learning experiences. Finally, work documentation is commonly included in the development work, to enable learning from the development…and to report to grant funders…to enable project handoffs to others…and to leave a historical record for later reference. If there is a point where designer/developers hesitate, it is at this crucial implementation step because the work is hard, and the costs are high. This is where concepts actualize or fail to realize.
Receding Horizon $\mathbf{H}_{\infty}$ Control of Hidden Markov Jump Linear Systems

We address stability analysis and control synthesis for time-inhomogeneous Markov jump linear systems with partial observations of the Markov chain where the Markov parameter transition probabilities are non-stationary. We assume that the transition probabilities vary in a finite set and consider the case where a finite sequence of future transition probabilities is known. We use a detector-based approach to formally guarantee stability and expected $l_{2}$ performance where the Markov chain state or scheduling parameter is indirectly measured through a detector. Our main results include a new Bounded Real Lemma for stability analysis and an output feedback $H_{\infty}$ control synthesis algorithm expressed as a finite set of matrix inequalities that can be efficiently solved.
IMPACT OF DRUG ABUSE IN ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME: ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL INPATIENT SAMPLE 2012-2015

The opioid crisis has amplified and exposed the many deadly effects of opioids and other recreational drugs. Little is known, however, about patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and drug abuse. Sociodemographic data, cardiovascular risk factors, history of drug abuse, and
Influence of concurrent diabetes mellitus on clinical progression and response to androgen deprivation therapy in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

e16036 Background: To determine if a concurrent diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with worse outcomes in advanced prostate cancer. The effect DM might have on the progression of adv...
Spacer Engineering in Negative Capacitance FinFETs

The spacer design of the negative-capacitance FinFET (NC-FinFET) is investigated by using Sentaurus technology computer-aided design (TCAD). The spacer affects not only the gate capacitance but also the drain current due to the additional gate control from the outer fringing field. It is found that in a heavily loaded circuit although the fin corner spacer improves the inverter propagation delay of the baseline FinFET, the NC-FinFET requires the fin selective spacer with the spacer height up to the ferroelectric thickness for better capacitance matching. When the wire capacitance is ~3 times larger than the gate capacitance, the inverter propagation delay of the NC-FinFET with the fin selective spacer can be improved by ~8% against the full spacer design. However, with the consideration of process complexity, the air spacer may still be attractive in the NC-FinFET, since it does not suffer from the amplified gate capacitance.
Generative Models of Monolingual and Bilingual Gappy Patterns

A growing body of machine translation research aims to exploit lexical patterns (e.g., n-grams and phrase pairs) with gaps (Simard et al., 2005; Chiang, 2005; Xiong et al., 2011). Typically, these "gappy patterns" are discovered using heuristics based on word alignments or local statistics such as mutual information. In this paper, we develop generative models of monolingual and parallel text that build sentences using gappy patterns of arbitrary length and with arbitrarily many gaps. We exploit Bayesian nonparametrics and collapsed Gibbs sampling to discover salient patterns in a corpus. We evaluate the patterns qualitatively and also add them as features to an MT system, reporting promising preliminary results.
Fusion of weigh-in-motion and global positioning system data to estimate truck weight distributions at traffic count sites

AbstractTruck weight data is needed for a wide range of applications including but not limited to pavement design, weight enforcement, traffic monitoring, and freight transportation planning. Unfor...
Pros and cons of wavefront-guided photorefractive keratectomy

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) is a widely used keratorefractive procedure for the correction of refractive error. Conventional PRK aims to treat lower order aberrations, sphere and cylinder, wh...
4 – SPIRAL ANTENNAS

The first practical frequency-independent antennas were discovered by Dyson while working for his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois.1,2 He measured hundreds of patterns on equiangular spiral antennas, but for some time the frequency-independent mode was obscured by a variety of spurious effects (which, incidentally, are always present in such measurements but they usually go undetected). When it became clear that the pattern did not change over a 20:1 band as it would for a conventional antenna, the measurement technique was refined to bring out the frequency-independent mode as strongly as possible. In the end, many designs were found that clearly showed frequency-independent performance, so that now it is hard to understand what a great number of things were tried before the fact was established. This may help to explain why some of the early measurements discussed in this chapter are not very convincing. They are included not for historical interest, however, but because they are the only evidence we have for certain effects which, in view of what we now know, appear to be significant in understanding frequency-independent operation.
RADIATIVE TRANSFER ON A LINEAR LATTICE

This chapter discusses radiative transfer on a linear lattice and describes the classical two-flow problem of radiative transfer in a plane-parallel optical medium by means of the tools of the discrete-space theory. The end result is an explicit solution in the discrete-space context of the general two-flow problem for an arbitrarily stratified source-free plane-parallel medium with arbitrary upper and lower boundary source conditions. The discrete-space theory leads to solutions of certain classes of transfer problems that are intractable in the continuous theory. The highly localized character of radiative transfer activity and the lateral extensiveness of the spherical media on which the activity takes place can be used to show that the effects of the sphericity of the media are negligible except in the most demanding of radiometric measurements. The relatively complex spherical-parallel partitioning of these media can be replaced by the mathematically more tractable and physically simpler plane-parallel partitioning.
Hepatic Uptake of Human Secretory IgA in Mice

Abstract Serum polymeric IgA (pIgA) is selectively transported through the liver into the bile. In rodents, this process is mediated by secretory component (SC). Radiolabeled human secretory IgA (sIgA), which already contains the receptor for pIgA, is rapidly removed from the serum and is localized to the liver. The amount of intact sIgA which reaches the bile is low compared to pIgA. The kinetics of clearance of serum sIgA are similar to asialofetuin and suggest a carbohydrate-mediated mechanism of removal. Several experiments confirmed this hypothesis. The in vivo clearance of human sIgA from mouse serum is inhibited by asialofetuin, a galactose-terminal glycoprotein, but not by fetuin, yeast mannan or pIgA. The binding of asialoorosomucoid to a particulate fraction of mouse liver (2000 xg pellet of liver homogenate) is maximally inhibited by sIgA and free SC compared to alpha heavy chain, light chain, J chain or yeast mannan. These results suggest that sIgA is removed from serum by hepatic receptors specific for galactose-terminal residues present on the SC moeity of sIgA.
Allosteric activation of proto-oncogene kinase Src by GPCR-beta-arrestin complexes.

G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) initiate signaling cascades via G-proteins and beta-arrestins (βarr). βarr-dependent actions begin with recruitment of βarr to the phosphorylated receptor tail and are followed by engagement with the receptor core. βarrs are known to act as adaptor proteins binding receptors and various effectors, but it is unclear whether in addition to the scaffolding role βarrs can allosterically activate their downstream targets. Here we demonstrate the direct allosteric activation of proto-oncogene kinase Src by GPCR–βarr complexes in vitro and establish the conformational basis of the activation. Whereas free βarr1 had no effect on Src activity, βarr1 in complex with M2 muscarinic or β2-adrenergic receptors reconstituted in lipid nanodiscs activate Src by reducing the lag phase in Src autophosphorylation. Interestingly, receptor–βarr1 complexes formed with a βarr1 mutant, in which the finger-loop, required to interact with the receptor core, has been deleted, fully retain the ability to activate Src. Similarly, βarr1 in complex with only a phosphorylated C-terminal tail of the vasopressin 2 receptor activates Src as efficiently as GPCR–βarr complexes. In contrast, βarr1 and chimeric M2 receptor with nonphosphorylated C-terminal tail failed to activate Src. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the phosphorylated GPCR tail interaction with βarr1 is necessary and sufficient to empower it to allosterically activate Src. Our findings may have implications for understanding more broadly the mechanisms of allosteric activation of downstream targets by βarrs.
Ten years of miniscrew use in a U.S. orthodontic residency program.

Introduction Orthodontic miniscrews have become popular not only because they can provide an absolute form of anchorage, but also because they can reduce the required patient compliance when compared with traditional orthodontic anchorage. The objective of this study was to examine success rates of miniscrews placed by orthodontic residents and to evaluate which factors may affect insertion outcomes. Methods The sample consisted of 109 consecutive miniscrews placed in 60 patients (27 males and 33 females). Miniscrews were placed at 4 different insertion sites (anterior palate [n = 31], palatal alveolar process [n = 25], maxillary buccal alveolar process [n = 15], and mandibular buccal alveolar process [n = 38]). Analysis of variance tests were used to evaluate the influence of insertion sites and anchorage type (direct vs indirect) on the success rate. Results The overall success rate for miniscrews was 72.5%. The success rate was 83.9% in the anterior palate, 76% in the palatal alveolar process, 60% in the maxillary buccal alveolar process, and 65.8% in the mandibular buccal alveolar process. The success rate was significantly higher in indirect anchorage (84.2%) compared with direct anchorage (58.8%). Conclusions Palatal miniscrews were more successful than buccal miniscrews. Indirect anchorage mechanics had a higher success rate than direct anchorage mechanics.
Frequency Independent Millimeter-Wave Beamformer via Cross-Mixing

The need for high data rate communications has led to the exploration of the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum. But, significant losses at these frequencies imply high gain phased array antennas. Concurrently, low cost fabrication and beamforming across wide bandwidths is a foundational challenge. In this paper, we present a novel hybrid beamforming design using the concept of element-to-element mixing for the signal delay compensation. Notably, our novel architecture eliminates bulky phase shifters and local oscillators. Further, our system is combined with a baseband on-site coding technique for further hardware and cost reduction. Studies show that our design offers unparalleled flexibility in signal reception and promises 95% reduction in cost and power consumption.
Cutaneous Manifestations of COVID-19: Characteristics, Pathogenesis, and the Role of Dermatology in the Pandemic

Cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19-SARS-CoV-2-are common and varied. Morbilliform, vesicular, and urticarial eruptions may be nonspecific initial features of the disease. Chilblainlike lesions on the fingers or toes typically occur as part of a resolution phase, signifying a milder course, whereas livedoid lesions and retiform purpura are associated with coaguloapthy and more severe disease. Additionally, a severe Kawasaki-like multisystem inflammatory syndrome rarely is seen in children. This diverse range of cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19 reflects a spectrum of host immunologic responses to SARS-CoV-2 and may inform disease pathophysiology.
Functional Analysis of Chlorpyrifos Biodegradation in Agricultural Soils Augmented with a Three-Strain Bacterial Consortium

Chlorpyrifos (CP) is a widely used organophosphate (OP) insecticide and a potent environmental neurotoxin. This research focuses on the potential of bacteria, both native to agricultural soil and part of a designed consortium composed of laboratory strains, to completely degrade CP and its toxic metabolites. Metabolite production and degradation kinetics analysis through gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GCMS) analysis was conducted on native soil samples and compared to soil spiked with different combinations of bacterial consortia over 7 days to determine the effectiveness of CP degradation in both non-augmented and augmented soil. GCMS analysis of augmented soil samples inoculated with putative microbial CP degradation activity identified four CP metabolites, including 3,5,6-trichloropyridinol (TCP), phosphorothioic acid, fumaric acid, and ethanol. Non-augmented ranch and crop field soil also displayed a greater native degradation capacity than garden soil, possibly due to greater pesticide exposure. CP-inoculated soil spiked with a 3-strain consortium exhibited the highest degradation rate, with 78.55% of CP degraded within 48 h. Overall, degradation kinetics for augmented and non-augmented soil samples showed that CP had an average half-life of 1.03 and 5.45 days, respectively. The outcome of this study suggests that while native agricultural populations are capable of CP degradation, supplementing contaminated soil with a bacterial consortium consisting of Pseudomonas putida CBF10-2, Ochrobactrum anthropi FRAF13, and Rhizobium radiobacter GHKF11 could be a highly efficient and safe biological approach to facilitating rapid and efficient CP degradation in agriculture.
In Reply: Tranexamic Acid Benefits Total Joint Arthroplasty Patients Regardless of Preoperative Hemoglobin Value.

Abstract While tranexamic acid (TXA) reduces transfusion in total joint arthroplasty (TJA), it remains unclear whether there is a preoperative hemoglobin (Hgb) threshold above which it is no longer beneficial. 2100 primary TJA patients were retrospectively categorized by preoperative Hgb; 1161 (55%) received TXA. Transfusion rates decreased with TXA in all groups; with Hgb>15 the transfusion rate was 0.5% with TXA and 4.5% without ( P =0.0086); with Hgb>11 the transfusion rate was 4.7% with TXA and 18.7% without ( P P P
Optimal design of geothermal power plants

OPTIMAL DESIGN OF GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS By Joshua Geiger Clarke, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014. Major Director: Dr. James T. McLeskey, Jr. Associate Professor, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering The optimal design of geothermal power plants across the entire spectrum of meaningful geothermal brine temperatures and climates is investigated, while accounting for vital real-world constraints that are typically ignored in the existing literature. The constrained design space of both double-flash and binary geothermal power plants is visualized, and it is seen that inclusion of realworld constraints is vital to determining the optimal feasible design of a geothermal power plant. The effect of varying condenser temperature on optimum plant performance and optimal design specifications is analyzed. It is shown that condenser temperature has a significant effect on optimal plant design as well. The optimum specific work output and corresponding optimal design of geothermal power plants across the entire range of brine temperatures and condenser temperatures is illustrated and tabulated, allowing a scientifically sound assessment of both feasibility and appropriate plant design under any set of conditions. The performance of genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization are compared with respect to the constrained, non-linear, simulationbased optimization of a prototypical geothermal power plant, and particle swarm optimization is shown to perform significantly better than genetic algorithms. The Pareto-optimal front of specific work output and specific heat exchanger area is visualized and tabulated for binary and double-flash plants across the full range of potential geothermal brine inlet conditions and climates, allowing investigation of the specific trade-offs required between specific work output and specific heat exchanger area. In addition to the novel data, this dissertation research illustrates the development and use of a sophisticated analysis tool, based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization, for the optimal design of geothermal power plants. Chapter
Supply-Side Optimization: Maximizing Absorptive Rates

The complexities of feeding behavior extend far beyond the simple priorities of life in The Hundred Acre Wood. Vermeij (1987), for example, has suggested that predator-prey relations have continually escalated as predators and prey co-evolved. A consequence of such escalation is that prey defences and predator weapons against them both continue to become more effective. The ultimate source of the material and energy for this escalation in heterotrophs with digestive tracts is absorption across the gut wall. Thus it is arguable that the lowest common denominator in foraging theory should be absorption of digestive products; the ultimate evolutionary escalation must be in rate of gain from food. Most foraging theory, however, focuses on choice of diet and feeding location (Stephens and Krebs, 1986) and stops with prey acquisition and pre-ingestive handling — despite the fact that digestive handling times often far exceed pursuit and ingestive handling times.