cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Proteomic analysis of arsenic-exposed zebrafish (Danio rerio) identifies altered expression in proteins involved in fibrosis and lipid uptake in a gender-specific manner

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) was used to investigate protein expression in the liver following arsenic exposure. Several disorders have been linked to arsenic exposure, including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The mechanisms of arsenic toxicity are poorly understood. Prior studies have described altered gene expression, inflammation, and mitogenic signaling in acute or chronic exposure models. A proteomic approach was employed to investigate arsenic-induced alteration in the zebrafish liver proteome following a 7-day exposure to 50 ppb sodium arsenite. Over 740 unique proteins were identified, with fewer than 2% showing differential expression. Molecular pathway analysis software identified lipid metabolism and transport as potential molecular targets. Immunoblots were used to confirm protein expression changes, whereas qPCR was employed to investigate gene expression changes. Overall, 25 proteins were differentially expressed in a gender-specific manner, 11 in males and 14 in females. Of these 25, a single protein, hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase like 2, showed decreased expression in both males and females following arsenic exposure. These findings indicate that protein expression is altered following arsenic exposure. The changes presented here seem to be most prevalent in lipid transport and metabolic pathways, suggesting a potential increase in fibrosis in males and decreased lipid accumulation and uptake in females.
Feral Swine Behavior Relative to Aerial Gunning in Southern Texas

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) impact resources through their destructive feeding behavior, competition with native wildlife, and impacts to domestic animal agriculture. We studied aerial gunning on feral swine to determine if aerial gunning altered home range and core area sizes, distances between home range centroids, and distances moved by surviving individuals. We collected data before, during, and after aerial gunning in southern Texas. Using Global Positioning System collars deployed on 25 adult feral swine at 2 study sites, we found home range and core area sizes did not differ before and after aerial gunning. However, feral swine moved at a greater rate during the aerial gunning phase than during the before and after periods. We concluded that aerial gunning had only minor effects on the behavior of surviving swine and that this removal method should be considered a viable tool in contingency planning for a foreign animal disease outbreak.
Predicting the Uniaxial Compressive Response of Granular Media over a Wide Range of Strain Rates Using the Strain Energy Density Concept

An empirical non-linear method to predict stress–strain response of sand over a wide range of strain rates is presented. The method is inspired by the equivalence of the strain energy density (SED) of the material, at different strain rates. Silica based and calcium based sands were subjected to one-dimensional compression radially constrained tests to calibrate the methodology. Axial stress, axial strain and stiffness are also presented to assess the sensitivity of mechanical properties to strain rate. The observations show that sand under monotonic loading exhibits moderate strain rate dependency. This extent of rate varies with sand composition. There is good agreement between the strain rate behavior obtained from conventional tests and SED predictions derived from the proposed analysis.
Human-robot information sharing with structured language generation from probabilistic beliefs

This paper presents a framework for information sharing and fusion in cooperative tasks involving humans and robots. In this context, all information regarding the state of interest is recursively fused and maintained by each agent in a form of belief. For a robot agent, its belief is commonly and practically represented as a probability density function (pdf), formed by traditional sensor fusion and state estimation algorithms. In cooperative tasks with non-expert humans, a robot needs to effectively communicate its belief so that the gathered information can be easily processed and interpreted by the humans. The goal of this research is to provide two-way information exchange and fusion between robots and humans, the former operating on pdfs, while the latter on English sentences. This is achieved by considering two goodness measures: semantic correctness and information preservation. Based on the goodness measures studied, results show that the proposed framework is able to generate optimal statements describing the given belief pdfs and successfully recover the initial inputs used to generate them. Additionally, in order to describe complex belief pdfs, a Mixture of Statements (MoS) model is proposed such that the optimal expression can be generated through a composition of more than one statements. With a nonparametric Dirichlet Process MoS generation, it is found that the robot can determine correctly the number of statements as well as the corresponding reference parameters needed to describe all hypotheses underlying its belief.
Incipient Events in Human Carcinogenesis: A Concept of Forerunner Genes

Many common epithelial human cancers start as in situ expansions of cells, which exhibit almost normal phenotype. Such expansions form large plaques involving the affected mucosal membrane and are antecedent to the development of dysplasia or carcinoma in situ. Here we describe a whole-organ genomic mapping strategy to identify specific chromosomal regions involved in the development of early intraurothelial lesions in human bladder carcinogenesis. High resolution mapping of one such regions containing the model tumor suppressor RB1 provided evidence supporting the existence of a new class of genes termed forerunner (FR) genes. These genes map near tumor suppressors and provide a critical driving force for the early clonal expansion of neoplastic cells. The FR genes are related to tumor suppressors as they contribute to tumor development by their loss of function but their inactivation occurs prior to that of tumor suppressors such as RB1 in tumorigenesis.
Status of the Regional Nodal Basin Remains Highly Prognostic in Melanoma Patients with In-Transit Disease

Background The role of SLNB for in-transit (IT) melanoma is controversial. The objective of this study was to determine the rate and prognostic significance of occult nodal disease in patients undergoing surgical nodal staging for IT disease. Study Design We conducted a retrospective review of patients with IT melanoma from May 2005 through September 2014. Analysis was limited to patients with a first-time IT event who underwent surgical excision. Associations between clinicopathologic characteristics, patterns of recurrence, and survival were analyzed. Results A total of 261 patients treated at our center were identified and 157 met inclusion criteria, of which 135 (86%) presented with no evidence of nodal disease. At the time of surgical excision of the IT lesion, 80 (58%) clinically node-negative patients underwent observation of the nodal basin and 55 (41%) surgical nodal staging. Twenty (36%) clinically node-negative but surgically staged patients were found to have nodal disease. Distant metastasis-free survival was 70.8 months for surgically staged node-negative patients, 19.2 months for surgically staged node-positive patients, 22.8 months for those staged node-negative by clinical examination only and 4.8 months for those with clinical nodal disease (p = 0.01). The regional nodal basin was the first site of failure in 14 of 66 (21%) clinically staged patients, 5 of 50 (10%) for those surgically staged, and 6 of 16 (38%) for those with clinical nodal disease. Conclusions Patients with IT disease are at high risk for occult nodal metastasis. Because clinical staging is unreliable, SLNB should be considered. For patients with IT recurrence, the status of the regional basin is strongly prognostic and stratifies patients into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups.
Development of a Suite of Hybrid Electric Propulsion Modeling Elements Using NPSS

NASA is actively funding research into advanced, unconventional aircraft and engine architectures to achieve drastic reductions in vehicle fuel burn, noise, and emissions. One such concept is being explored by Boeing, General Electric, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech under the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) project [1]. A major cornerstone of this research is evaluating the potential performance benefits that can be attributed to using hybrid electric propulsion. Hybrid electric propulsion in this context involves a non-Brayton power generation or storage source, such as a battery or a fuel cell, which can be used to provide additional propulsive energy to a conventional Brayton cycle powered turbofan engine. Employing additional power sources for thrust production increases the number of degrees of freedom both from a design and configuration standpoint and from an operational one. In order to assess and understand the myriad number of potential new configurations a modeling and simulation tool is needed; however, current state of the art propulsion modeling tools such as the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) are not natively capable of assessing novel hybrid electric configurations.This research addresses the gap between hybrid electric propulsion and conventional cycle analysis tools by developing a suite of native NPSS elements suitable for hybrid electric engine cycle design and analysis. Elements have been developed for a fuel cell, battery, motor, generator, and electrical distribution system. Both room temperature and cryogenically cooled superconducting variants are developed. The elements are designed such that they can be seamlessly integrated into existing NPSS cycle models to assess any system configuration or architecture the designer can envision.© 2014 ASME
Control of the Clover Root Borer in New York

Heptachlor, lindane, and Telodrin® (1,3,4,5,6,7,8,8-octachloro-1,3,3a,4,7,7a-hexahydro-4,7-methanoisobenzofuran) applied at Dosages as low as 0.5 lb/acre significantly reduced the number of clover root borers, Hylastinus obscurus (Marsham) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), infesting red clover, whereas none of several new organophosphorous insecticides was effective at 1 lb per acre.
ETHOLOGICAL DIVERGENCE IN ALLOPATRY AND ASYMMETRICAL ISOLATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC AEDES SCUTELLARIS SUBGROUP.

Ethological isolation among eight species of mosquitoes in the Aedes scutellaris subgroup of the south Pacific was investigated by offering females a simultaneous choice between males of their own species and males of another species. The degree of ethological isolation between these largely allopatric, island-dwelling mosquitoes was associated with time since the species had become geographically isolated by the fragmentation of the Outer Melanesian Arc 2-10 mya. The degree of ethological isolation between species pairs was observed to be significantly correlated with the degree of genetic isolation based on other published studies of allozyme variation and percentage egg hatch from interspecific hybridizations. However, ethological isolation was asymmetrical for some species pairs within the same island region. Asymmetrical isolation was especially prominent in Polynesia, where females of two older species discriminated against males of newer species, while females of the newer species failed to discriminate.
Performance Control of High Mobility, Printed Thin Film Transistors using Semiconducting Nanotube Ink

In this work, we present progress towards device fabrication using purified, semiconducting-enriched SWNT as the base material. Nanotubes were deposited in different densities (low, moderate, and high density) with different gate length of transistors and effect of each parameter has been studied using DC measurements. It is been shown that the nanotube network density plays a significant role in controlling the performance of such devices. By controlling the density of nanotubes in the network, we laid down a road map to predict and enhance the device performance based on their mobility and on/off ratio. From this work the DC analysis of devices characterization shows a mobility more than 90 cm2/V-s and also on/off ratios as high as, 105 have been achieved. We have demonstrated the first density-control technique over the nanotube network as a key point to modify the transistor’s mobility and on/off ratio [1]. When dense network mats of nanotubes were deposited, devices outperformed with higher mobility more than 90 cm2/V-s, enabling a faster switching speed. While relatively low-density mats yielded devices with on/off ratio of more than 105, which makes this technique feasible for low power nanoelectronics. Besides, the effect of various gate lengths have been studied which reveals an interesting trend between the channel length and the mobility.
Solid-State NMR Study of Cysteine on Gold Nanoparticles

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is used to characterize the interaction of l-cysteine with gold nanoparticles. The experiments show that there are two types of cysteine in the gold−cysteine complex, with nearly equal populations. We postulate that cysteine forms a two-layer boundary around the gold nanoparticles. The first layer is made of cysteine molecules forming a thiolate bond with the gold surface and having its charged amino and carboxyl groups oriented away from the gold surface. The second layer has its amino and carboxyl groups oriented toward the first layer and its sulfur group oriented away from the gold particles.
Selective estrogen receptor modulators suppress mesangial cell collagen synthesis

Estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are “designer drugs” that exert estrogen-like actions in some cells but not in others. We examined the effects of the SERMs LY-117018 (an analog of raloxifene) ...
Analysis of a variant Max sequence expressed in Xenopus laevis

Max is a small helix-loop-helix protein which forms heterodimers with members of the Myc protein family. Myc/Max heterodimers exhibit sequence-specific DNA binding with much greater affinity than Myc homodimers. The Xenopus laevis homologue of Max, XMax, is shorter than the equivalent mammalian protein. This difference results from the deletion of a 24 amino acid sequence located near the C-terminus of the protein. Xenopus max transcripts undergo alternative splicing. In addition to the 27 base alternatively spliced sequence (exon A) previously detected in mice and humans, some Xmax transcripts also contain an 81 base sequence (exon B) at a second site within the coding sequence. Although exon B insertion alters part of the leucine zipper protein/protein interaction domain, the resulting XMax protein retains the ability to form stable heterodimers with both c-Myc and N-Myc. Xmax mRNA is present at approximately constant levels during early development. This contrasts with the rapidly changing levels of c-myc and N-myc mRNA in the embryo and has implications for regulation of gene expression during differentiation. All four alternatively spliced forms of Xmax mRNA are present during development and in all adult tissue examined.
Strategies for the Investigation of Crowding

A variety of methods for systematically investigating crowding have merged. These include studies of humans and animals in both laboratory and field settings. Each of these approaches is viewed as having unique strengths and limitations. The potential of these varying research strategies is explored and the need for appropriate caution in generalizing from the results obtained is noted. A recent attempt to study real world crowding in a natural experiment is commented on in detail.
7-Year-Old With a Painful Rash.

An African American boy aged 7 years presented with right ankle pain, overlying soft tissue erythema, and swelling. He was diagnosed with cellulitis and prescribed 10 days of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim.Althoughhis right ankle pain and swelling initially improved, he presented 1 week later with left ankle and right knee pain and swelling. He had a tender, nonerythematous, subcutaneous 1-cm nodule above the right olecranon. Laboratory results were notable for an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 44mm/h, a C-reactiveprotein level of0.84mg/L (to convert tonanomolesper liter,multiplyby9.524), an antistreptolysinO titer of 1150 IU/mL, andananti-DNaseB titer of961U/mL. The results of the rapid strep test and throat culturewere normal, but given his constellation of symptoms, he was diagnosed with acute rheumatic fever. Echocardiogram and electrocardiogram were normal, and he was treated with amoxicillin. Four days after discharge, he developed new painful skin lesions on his elbows, forearms, and legs. He remained afebrile but continued to complain of persistent left ankle and right knee pain. On examination, he had amultitude of skin lesions, including a raised follicular rash on both shins; painful flesh-colored raised nodules on the right knee, left index finger, and elbows; and painful raised circular violaceous papulonecrotic lesions with surrounding erythema and induration on the bilateral shins, left knee, right upper arm (Figure, A), and bilateral buttocks. Admission laboratory results included a hemoglobin concentration of 9.3g/dL (toconvert togramsper liter,multiplyby 10), indicatingnormocytic anemia; awhite blood cell count of 11 500/μL (to convert to × 109/L,multiply by0.001), with 64%neutrophils; anelevatederythrocyte sedimentation rateof46mm/h;andaC-reactiveprotein level of0.57mg/L. Punchbiopsywasobtained froma lesion (Figure, B),which showedadermal neutrophilic infiltrate with normal Gram and Grocott methenamine silver stains. A Papulonecrotic lesion B Punch biopsy
Primary Retrograde Tibiotalocalcaneal Nailing For Fragility Ankle Fractures.

Background Ankle fragility fractures are difficult to treat due to poor bone quality and soft tissues as well as the near ubiquitous presence of comorbidities including diabetes mellitus and peripheral neuropathy. Conventional open reduction and internal fixation in this population has been shown to lead to a significant rate of complications. Given the high rate of complications with contemporary fixation methods, the present study aims to critically evaluate the use of acute hindfoot nailing as a percutaneous fixation technique for high-risk ankle fragility fractures.
Hot embossed micro-textured thin superhydrophobic Teflon FEP sheets for low ice adhesion

Abstract Various efforts have been conducted by researchers to create synthetic superhydrophobic surfaces. However, most of these fabrication procedures are convoluted and not suitable to be applied on surfaces with complex shapes and sizes. We report a simple and low cost fabrication of a thin superhydrophobic sheet (127 μm thick) of low ice adhesion strength by laser micro-texturing an aluminum master substrate followed by hot embossing on a Teflon fluoroethylene propylene (FEP) sheet for a water contact angle and roll-off angle of 160° and 4°, respectively. The micro-textured aluminum master substrate could be used multiple times to emboss the FEP sheet for a reduction in fabrication complexity and cost. The fabrication procedure also ensured that the structure of the sheet remains intact, therefore allowing it to be wrapped and adhered to target surfaces of different shapes. Ice adhesion experiment on the superhydrophobic sheet showed ice detachment strength at approximately 20 kPa on average, which was
Effectiveness of a News Media Literacy Advertisement in Partisan Versus Nonpartisan Online Media Contexts

Moving media literacy messages out of the classroom and onto the Internet, where much news consumption happens, offers an opportunity to extend media literacy education to a wider public. However, ...
Social Movements as Catalysts for Corporate Social Innovation: Environmental Activism and the Adoption of Green Information Systems:

Although the literature on social innovation has focused primarily on social enterprises, social innovation has long occurred within mainstream corporations. Drawing upon recent scholarship on soci...
Obscure Objects/Defiant Subjects: Anglo-Indian Women in Hindi Cinema

(2006). Obscure Objects/Defiant Subjects: Anglo-Indian Women in Hindi Cinema. South Asian Review: Vol. 27, 'Empire and Racial Hybridity'. Guest Edited by Deepika Bahri, pp. 182-203.
Opinion: How to tackle the childcare-conference conundrum.

Conferences are vital forums for academic researchers. At these meetings, scientists communicate new discoveries, form research collaborations, make contacts with funding agencies, and attract new members to our labs and programs. Even with new technological advances that allow remote communication, resource sharing, and networking, face-to-face interactions are a crucial component for one’s career advancement and ongoing education. Early-stage researchers, who benefit significantly from these events, face some notable barriers to attendance. One major challenge is what we call the childcare–conference conundrum: Parent–researchers face a conundrum as they struggle to attend key conferences and further their careers while finding care for the children. Conferences face a conundrum as they assess how to better accommodate mothers and families. With childcare accommodations seemingly elusive, many parents make a calculated decision to forego conference attendance and suffer the career consequences. Image courtesy of Dave Cutler (artist). The bottom line is this: Primary caretakers of dependent children face inequitable hurdles to fully attending and participating in conference activities because of responsibilities related to pregnancy, breastfeeding, and caretaking. It’s a serious problem because it creates a culture of inequity for parents, with mothers generally experiencing greater disadvantages than fathers because of biological, prejudicial, and often socially driven childcare demands. With solutions seemingly elusive, many women, and occasionally men, make a calculated decision to forego conference attendance and suffer the career consequences. Research reveals that this “baby penalty” (1) negatively affects women’s, but not men’s, career mobility, with even larger penalties for women of color. We and others (2) argue that collective and structural ideas for addressing the childcare–conference conundrum—going beyond measures that some conferences have taken thus far—could lead to more impactful, efficient, and equitable solutions that help women with children thrive in science. There are clear ethical and social-justice concerns when certain groups are excluded … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: rmcalisi{at}ucdavis.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Do Performance-Based Funding Policies Affect Underrepresented Student Enrollment?

ABSTRACTMore states are using performance-based funding (PBF) systems in an effort to incentivize public colleges to operate more effectively. Responding to concerns about equity, states are also adopting provisions that encourage colleges to serve more students who at risk of not completing college. In this paper, I examine whether PBF policies in general—and more specifically policies that have provisions designed to incentivize colleges to enroll underrepresented students—are associated with the number of lower-income, underrepresented minority, and adult students enrolled at four-year public colleges. Using a generalized difference-in-difference framework, I find little evidence that PBF systems as a whole meaningfully affect underrepresented student enrollment. However, the presence of bonuses for serving at-risk students appears to help mitigate any efforts to enroll a more advantaged student body that may be present in other PBF systems.
Revolute-Leaf, a New Completely Dominant Mutant in Peanut

ABSTRACT A Revolute-Leaf mutant plant was discovered in an advanced Georgia peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) breeding line, GA 112702. The mutant had leaf margins that curve downward on each of the fou...
Nutritional Epidemiology of Nitrogen Oxides: What do the Numbers Mean?

Careful consideration of the study design, implementation, and accuracy of dietary assessment is necessary when evaluating epidemiologic data on nutrition. Prospective cohort studies on diet may avoid biases commonly observed in case–control studies and may be less problematic than large randomized experiments. Food-frequency questionnaires are a practical option for dietary assessment in large studies and provide useful information about intake of major nutrients. Biochemical measurements of nutrients are particularly important when a specific nutrient is poorly measured by other methods but it is essential to evaluate its sensitivity and the validity of this measure as an indicator of long-term intake. The great variability in nitrate and nitrite contents of foods and the short half-lives of their biochemical indicators complicate exposure measurement; however, some studies suggest that nitrate and nitrite intake in epidemiologic studies is feasible. The epidemiologic evidence for the relation between dietary nitrate and nitrite and cancer is limited and weak. There is no direct epidemiologic evidence relating nitrite and nitrate intake and cardiovascular disease, and this deserves investigation.
Carbohydrate Intolerance and Impaired Pancreatic Insulin Release in Chronic Renal Failure: Role of Excess Blood Levels of Parathyroid Hormone

Patients with chronic renal failure display abnormalities in carbohydrate metabolism (1–5). They almost always have resistance to the peripheral action of insulin (5, 6), while insulin secretion could be normal (4,7), increased (8,9) or decreased (3). Glucose intolerance is, therefore, usually encountered in uremic patients in whom both impaired tissue sensitivity to insulin and impaired secretion of the hormone co-exist (5,10).
Leveraging Data Relationships to Resolve Conflicts from Disparate Data Sources

Recently, a number of data fusion systems have been proposed that offer conflict resolution as a mechanism to integrate conflicting data from multiple information providers. State-of-the-art data fusion systems largely consider claims for a data item to be unrelated to each other. In many domains, however, the observed claims are often related to each other through various entity-relationships. We propose a formalism to express entity-relationships among claims of data items and design a framework to integrate the data relationships with existing data fusion models to improve the effectiveness of fusion. We conducted an experimental evaluation on real-world data, and show that the performance of fusion was significantly improved with the integration of data relationships by (a) generating meaningful correctness probabilities for claims of data items, and (b) ensuring that the multiple correct claims output by the fusion models were consistent with each other. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms that consider the presence of relationships over claims of data items.
Alterations in the muscle force transfer apparatus in aged rats during unloading and reloading: impact of microRNA-31.

Key points Force transfer is integral for maintaining skeletal muscle structure and function. One important component is dystrophin. There is limited understanding of how force transfer is impacted by age and loading. Here, we investigate the force transfer apparatus in muscles of adult and old rats exposed to periods of disuse and reloading. Our results demonstrate an increase in dystrophin protein during the reloading phase in the adult tibialis anterior muscle that is delayed in the old muscle. The consequence of this delay is an increased susceptibility towards contraction-induced muscle injury. Central to the lack of dystrophin protein is an increase in miR-31, a microRNA that inhibits dystrophin translation. In vivo electroporation with a miR-31 sponge led to increased dystrophin protein and decreased contraction-induced muscle injury in old skeletal muscle. Overall, our results detail the importance of the force transfer apparatus and provide new mechanisms for contraction-induced injury in ageing skeletal muscle. Abstract In healthy muscle, the dystrophin-associated glycoprotein complex (DGC), the integrin/focal adhesion complex, intermediate filaments and Z-line proteins transmit force from the contractile proteins to the extracellular matrix. How loading and age affect these proteins is poorly understood. The experiments reported here sought to determine the effect of ageing on the force transfer apparatus following muscle unloading and reloading. Adult (9 months) and old (28 months) rats were subjected to 14 days of hindlimb unloading and 1, 3, 7 and 14 days of reloading. The DGC complex, intermediate filament and Z-line protein and mRNA levels, as well as dystrophin-targeting miRNAs (miR-31, -146b and -374) were examined in the tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius muscles at both ages. There was a significant increase in dystrophin protein levels (2.79-fold) upon 3 days of reloading in the adult TA muscle that did not occur in the old rats (P ≤ 0.05), and the rise in dystrophin protein occurred independent of dystrophin mRNA. The disconnect between dystrophin protein and mRNA levels can partially be explained by age-dependent differences in miR-31. The impaired dystrophin response in aged muscle was followed by an increase in other force transfer proteins (β-dystroglycan, desmuslin and LIM) that was not sufficient to prevent membrane disruption and muscle injury early in the reloading period. Inserting a miR-31 sponge increased dystrophin protein and decreased contraction-induced injury in the TA (P ≤ 0.05). Collectively, these data suggest that increased miR-31 with age contributes to an impaired dystrophin response and increased muscle injury after disuse.
Effect of Gender, Toe Extension Position, and Plantar Fasciitis on Plantar Fascia Thickness:

Background:Ultrasound is a widely used diagnostic tool for patients with plantar fasciitis. However, the lack of standardization during the measurement for plantar fascia thickness has made it chal...
Abstract # 3195 HIV disease duration and endothelial progenitor cell function predict subcortical cerebral blood flow in post-menopausal women

Chronic infection with HIV is associated with impaired endothelial function and altered cerebral blood flow (CBF). Using fMRI Arterial Spin Labeling, we sought to determine 1) whether CBF in HIV+ postmenopausal women (n = 8, mean age = 55.13, SD = 5.38) differs from that of HIV- controls (n = 13, mean age = 53.77, SD = 6.41), and 2) whether a marker of angiogenic potential, i.e. endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) cluster formation, and time since HIV infection covary with CBF in HIV+ women (n = 8). After controlling for age, HIV+ individuals showed increased ventral perfusion extending from the inferior frontal lobes through the basal ganglia and cerebellar regions, k = 105271, p = .001, FWE-corrected (cluster). However, longer disease duration was associated with reduced perfusion to the right parahippocampal gyrus, k = 4,916, p = .001, uncorrected. Paradoxically, higher EPC clusters predicted greater CBF to the right parahippocampal gyrus, k = 10791, p .05, uncorrected. Post hoc correlational analyses revealed a trend towards lower numbers of ex vivo EPC clusters with longer disease duration in the HIV+ group, r = .576, p > .05. While longer disease duration places postmenopausal HIV+ women at risk of lower CBF to the parahippocampal gyrus, this effect may be mitigated by the angiogenic potential of peripheral blood mononuclear cell derived EPCs.
The risk of introduction of swine vesicular disease virus into Kenya via natural sausage casings imported from Italy.

Abstract Pig production in Kenya is hampered by seasonal markets. As an alternative outlet for the finished pigs, several value-added meat-processing firms have been established. Sausage, which is produced using casings derived from intestines of pigs, is one form of processed meats. Kenya imports several kgs of natural casings every year; and a recent concern is Swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV), which has never been reported in Kenya, might be introduced via natural casings imported from Italy. To determine conditions (with associated probabilities) that could lead to the introduction of SVDV, a quantitative risk assessment model was developed. Using Monte Carlo simulations at 10,000 iterations, the probability of introducing SVDV was estimated to be 1.9x10-8. Based on the suggested volume of import and mitigations used in the analysis, contaminated casings derived from an estimated 0.003 (Range = 8.1x10-8 - 0.08) infected pigs will be included in the consignment each year. The critical pathway analysis revealed that rigorous surveillance programs in Italy have a potential to dramatically reduce the risk of introducing SVDV into Kenya by this route.
Abstract 3593: PDK1 is a preferential metabolic target in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common adult primary malignant brain tumor, carries a high morbidity and mortality despite therapeutic advances. GBM’s progression is associated with a transition from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis as its main source of energy. Our laboratory recently confirmed that overexpression of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isoform 1 (PDK1) positively contributes to GBM progression. Here we report a novel role of mitofusin 1 (MFN1), a mitochondrial outer membrane GTPase that is a key regulator of mitochondrial fusion associated with glycolysis. We have shown that both PDK1 and MFN1 are highly co-expressed in glioblastoma patient specimens. Data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas demonstrated a positive correlation between PDK1 and MFN1 mRNA levels and the survival of GBM patients. The data obtained from the subtyped glioma stem cells corroborated with the datamining studies. To directly explore the potential MFN1-PDK1 interplay, we used CRISPR/Cas9 to suppress MFN1 expression in proneural, classical and mesenchymal subtypes of GBM stem cells (CSC). In another experiment, using ChIP assay, we showed that both PDK1 and MFN1 are under the transcriptional control of Myc oncogene. We present evidence that silencing MFN1 regulates altered metabolism in GBM CSC by increasing ROS levels, altering mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced lactate metabolites via NMR spectroscopy. Taken together, our results indicate that combined targeting of PDK1 and MFN1 shift Warburg effect towards oxidative phosphorylation, and may have increased therapeutic potential for glioblastoma patients. Citation Format: Maheedhara R. Guda, Swapna Asuthkar, Andrew J. Tsung, Kiran K. Velpula. PDK1 is a preferential metabolic target in glioblastoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3593.
Generating Medical Assessments Using a Neural Network Model: Algorithm Development and Validation

Background: Since its inception, artificial intelligence has aimed to use computers to help make clinical diagnoses. Evidence-based medical reasoning is important for patient care. Inferring clinical diagnoses is a crucial step during the patient encounter. Previous works mainly used expert systems or machine learning–based methods to predict the International Classification of Diseases - Clinical Modification codes based on electronic health records. We report an alternative approach: inference of clinical diagnoses from patients’ reported symptoms and physicians’ clinical observations. Objective: We aimed to report a natural language processing system for generating medical assessments based on patient information described in the electronic health record (EHR) notes. Methods: We processed EHR notes into the Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan sections. We trained a neural network model for medical assessment generation (N2MAG). Our N2MAG is an innovative deep neural model that uses the Subjective and Objective sections of an EHR note to automatically generate an “expert-like” assessment of the patient. N2MAG can be trained in an end-to-end fashion and does not require feature engineering and external knowledge resources. Results: We evaluated N2MAG and the baseline models both quantitatively and qualitatively. Evaluated by both the Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation metrics and domain experts, our results show that N2MAG outperformed the existing state-of-the-art baseline models. Conclusions: N2MAG could generate a medical assessment from the Subject and Objective section descriptions in EHR notes. Future work will assess its potential for providing clinical decision support.
Social (in)equity in access to cycling infrastructure: cross-sectional associations between bike lanes and area-level sociodemographic characteristics in 22 large U.S. cities

Abstract Cycling advocates have recently argued that low-income and minority communities across the U.S. have disproportionately low access to bike lanes. To date, however, quantitative evidence of disparities in access to bike lanes has been limited to a small number of cities. We addressed this research gap by examining cross-sectional associations between bike lanes and sociodemographic characteristics at the block group level for 22 large U.S. cities (n = 21,843 block groups). Dependent variables included the presence (yes/no), coverage, connectivity, and proximity of bike lanes, measured using secondary GIS data collected by each of the 22 cities between 2012 and 2016. Primary independent variables included indicators of race, ethnicity, educational attainment, income, poverty, and a composite socioeconomic status (SES) index, all measured using data from the 2011–2015 American Community Survey. We used linear and logistic multilevel mixed-effects regression models to estimate associations between these sociodemographic characteristics and each bike lane dependent variable, before and after adjusting for traditional indicators of cycling demand (population and employment density, distance to downtown, population age structure, bicycle commuting levels). In unadjusted associations, disadvantaged block groups (i.e. lower SES, higher proportions of minority residents) had significantly lower access to bike lanes. After adjusting for indicators of cycling demand, access to bike lanes was lower in block groups with particular types of disadvantage (lower educational attainment, higher proportions of Hispanic residents, lower composite SES) but not in those with other types of disadvantage (higher proportions of black residents, lower income, higher poverty). These results provide empirical support for advocates' claims of disparities in bike lane access, suggesting the importance of more closely considering social equity in bicycle planning and advocacy.
Predicting and Comparing the Performance of Array Management Libraries

Many applications are increasingly becoming I/O-bound. To improve scalability, analytical models of parallel I/O performance are often consulted to determine possible I/O optimizations. However, I/O performance modeling has predominantly focused on applications that directly issue I/O requests to a parallel file system or a local storage device. These I/O models are not directly usable by applications that access data through standardized I/O libraries, such as HDF5, FITS, and NetCDF, because a single I/O request to an object can trigger a cascade of I/O operations to different storage blocks. The I/O performance characteristics of applications that rely on these libraries is a complex function of the underlying data storage model, user-configurable parameters and object-level access patterns. As a consequence, I/O optimization is predominantly an ad-hoc process that is performed by application developers, who are often domain scientists with limited desire to delve into nuances of the storage hierarchy of modern computers.This paper presents an analytical cost model to predict the end-to-end execution time of applications that perform I/O through established array management libraries. The paper focuses on the HDF5 and Zarr array libraries, as examples of I/O libraries with radically different storage models: HDF5 stores every object in one file, while Zarr creates multiple files to store different objects. We find that accessing array objects via these I/O libraries introduces new overheads and optimizations. Specifically, in addition to I/O time, it is crucial to model the cost of transforming data to a particular storage layout (memory copy cost), as well as model the benefit of accessing a software cache. We evaluate the model on real applications that process observations (neuroscience) and simulation results (plasma physics). The evaluation on three HPC clusters reveals that I/O accounts for as little as 10% of the execution time in some cases, and hence models that only focus on I/O performance cannot accurately capture the performance of applications that use standard array storage libraries. In parallel experiments, our model correctly predicts the fastest storage library between HDF5 and Zarr 94% of the time, in contrast with 70% of the time for a cutting-edge I/O model.
A single base mutation at position 2661 in E. coli 23S ribosomal RNA affects the binding of ternary complex to the ribosome.

A single base substitution mutation from guanine to cytosine was constructed at position 2661 of Escherichia coli 23S rRNA and cloned into the rrnB operon of the multi-copy plasmid pKK3535. The mutant plasmid was transformed into E.coli to determine the effect of the mutation on cell growth as well as the structural and functional properties of the mutant ribosomes in vivo and in vitro. The results show that the mutant ribosomes have a slower elongation rate and an altered affinity for EF-Tu-tRNA-GTP ternary complex. This supports previous findings which indicated that position 2661 is part of a region of 23S rRNA that forms a recognition site for binding of the ternary complex in the ribosomal A site. Combinations of the 2661 mutation with various mutations in ribosomal protein S12 also demonstrate that elements of both ribosomal subunits work in concert to form this binding site.
Health and economic costs of an import-initiated measles outbreak in an international border area of Yunnan Province.

Measles outbreaks often require labor- and resource-intense response. A border-area measles outbreak occurred in Yunnan province that required outbreak response immunization for its containment. We...
Effect of surface corrosion on glass fracture

The nature of aqueous corrosion reactions on glass surfaces varies with glass composition and environmental conditions. We have shown how the physical effects of the various surface reactions can be incorporated into simple fracture mechanics models to predict measured crack velocity effects in silicate glasses. Reactions on glass surfaces are divided into four categories: 1) Bond rupture reactions — Crack tip bond rupture reactions in silica are modeled through a combination of theoretical and experimental surface reaction studies. The atomistic fracture model which we developed predicts both the stress dependence and environmental dependence of measured crack growth behavior in vitreous silica. 2) Alteration layer formation — Aqueous corrosion reactions alter the chemical composition and physical properties of glass surfaces. Sodium silicate glasses develop a surface tensile layer when exposed to aqueous environments. This tensile layer adds to the crack tip stress intensity to produce a low velocity plateau in the crack growth curve. Phase separated sodium-borosilicate glasses undergo selective leaching to produce a porous-reaction layer. The porous layer around the crack tip reduces the stress which is transferred to the crack tip to produce a fatigue limit. 3) Surface deposition — Preferential deposition of silica at the crack tip can increase the radius of curvature and reduce the crack tip stress concentration. Measured silica deposition rates predict the fatigue limit for soda-lime-silica glass. 4) Intermolecular surface forces — Attractive forces between surfaces decrease the crack tip stress and lead to crack healing. Crack healing measurements for vitreous silica and soda-lime-silica glass can be explained by the formation of hydrogen bonded linkages of surface adsorbed water molecules and electrostatic bonds between anionic surface groups.
Modifications of Mitosis

Although normal mitosis is characterized by the regular alternation of chromosome reproduction and segregation of daughter chromosomes, the two processes are not necessarily correlated, and their relationship can be changed in different ways (cf. Oksala, 1954). As a rule, such modifications lead to a chromosome constitution differing from the basic complement of the individual (Fig. XII.1). Apart from multipolar mitoses, all other mitotic modifications are characterized by an absent or defective spindle, and in most cases these result in the duplication of the chromosome number (Fig. XII.2). Nagl (1978) has united the most important of these mechanisms, endoreduplication and endomitosis, under the term endocycles. The terminology referring to mitotic modifications has been the subject of considerable dispute. I shall use that proposed by Levan and Hauschka (1953), since it is established in the literature.
Experimental Verification of Calculated Neutron Streaming in the Bottom Reflector and Core Support Regions of a Large-Scale High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Design Concept

The analysis of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory Tower Shielding Facility (TSF) experiment in which measurements were made of neutrons streaming through a mockup of a section of the lower core support structure of a large-scale high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design concept is described. The analysis was performed with the same calculational methods used for an analysis of the HTGR design itself, the purpose of the experiment being to provide data against which the validity of the calculational methods could be tested. Also summarized are the HTGR design calculation results; how they affected the design and objectives of the TSF experiment is described. Comparisons of the neutron detector responses observed in the experiment with calculated responses showed satisfactory agreement in most cases, and the implications of these results for the HTGR shield design are highlighted.
The orthogonality in C

Orthogonality was first introduced to the design of programming languages in 1960s and still stands well to the test of time. A language with better orthogonality tends to be easier to understand and more intuitive to use. In this paper, I examine the orthogonality in C++ from the perspectives of type systems, expressions and flow controls.
The Mechanism for 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane to Strengthen the Interface of Polycarbonate Substrates with Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Sol-Gel Coatings

An aminolysis mechanism is proposed to explain the enhanced adhesion between the interface of a bisphenol-A polycarbonate substrate with an alkoxysilane containing sol-gel coating when 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (3-APS) is used as a primer. Both a model solution study and surface analyses of polycarbonate substrates exposed to 3-APS indicate that the latter reacts with the carbonate groups in the polycarbonate chain by forming urethane linkages. With 3-APS bonded to the substrate, a sol-gel coating can be chemically bonded to the substrate through hydrolysis of alkoxysilane groups and subsequent silanol condensation. Consequently, enhanced adhesion between the sol-gel coating and the substrate is achieved.
Nodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma

Nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) is a type of lymphoma that is currently defined by clinical and pathologic criteria. These neoplasms commonly have pale cytoplasm and a nondistinctive B-cell immunophenotype thought to be consistent with derivation from nodal marginal zone B-cells. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) system suggests that patients with NMZL should not have evidence of extranodal or splenic disease.