cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Burn-induced gut mucosal homeostasis in TCR delta receptor-deficient mice.

Received 26, Aug 2003; first review completed 8 Sep 2003; accepted in final form 7 Oct 2003 γδ T lymphocytes make up approximately 50% of lymphocytes in the intestine. These cells have been shown to prime macrophages for TNF-a production after burn. We previously showed that neutralizing anti-TNF-a antibodies reduce mucosal atrophy by decreasing gut epithelial apoptosis after severe burn. We hypothesized that burn-induced mucosal turnover is diminished in T cell receptor 8 gene knockout (TCR δ -/- ) mice through diminished TNF-a activity. Forty-two wild-type and 42 TCR δ -/- mice (C57-BL6) were randomly assigned to burn and sham burn groups. The burn group underwent a 25% total body surface area (TBSA) scald burn. The proximal small intestine was harvested at 2, 12, and 48 h. To assess mucosal atrophy, mucosal height and cell numbers in the villi and crypts were determined on hematoxylin and eosin-stained tissue sections. Apoptotic gut epithelium was identified by terminal deoxyuridine nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining, and cell proliferation was detected by immunostaining for proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). TNF-a mRNA expression was measured by RT-PCR. Caspase-8 activity was measured by colorimetric assay. Statistical analysis was performed with two-way analysis of variance and t testing. Significance was accepted at P < 0.05. Data are expressed-as means ± SEM. TNF-a mRNA expression was significantly decreased in TCR δ -/- mice at 2 h after burn. Gut epithelial apoptosis and proliferation in both wild-type and TCR δ -/- mice were significantly increased after burn, but TCR δ -/- mice had a significantly lower levels of apoptosis (P < 0.01) and proliferation (P < 0.05) when compared with wild-type mice. Burn-induced mucosal atrophy was identified in groups by decreasing villus height, crypt depth, and villus and crypt cell number (P < 0.001) compared with sham, but no difference was found between wild-type and TCR δ -1- mice. Caspase-8 activity was significantly diminished in TCR δ -1- mice compared with wild-type mice. γδ T cells are associated with increased TNF-a expression and gut epithelial turnover in the small bowel after severe burn. However, absence of δ T cell receptor did not inhibit mucosal atrophy after severe burn. This study suggests that gut mucosal atrophy after severe burn is a multifactorial process associated with increased TNF-a activity.
Wavelength detection using narrowband reflectance filters

We have developed a novel system to detect the wavelength of an optical beam that is compact, inexpensive, yet capable of extremely high wavelength resolution. The system is comprised of a one- dimensional photonic crystal slab (PCS) narrowband reflectance filter operating as a position sensitive sensor and a linear charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor array. Depending on the wavelength of the incident light, the PCS provides a transmission minimum at different locations along its length, as shown in Fig. 1. The position of the transmission minimum is recorded by the CCD sensor array and is used to determine the incident wavelength. Using this technique, we show that wavelength changes as small as 0.011 nm can be resolved. Such a system could be utilized for a wide variety of applications including spectroscopic identification of compounds and rapid testing of light emitters such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and Organic LEDs, in a compact and economical fashion.
Unusual pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties of fresnoite (Ba2TiSi2O8) single crystal and polar glass-ceramics

The dielectric, piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of fresnoite (Ba2TiSi2Os) single crystal and polar glass-ceramics were studied in the temperature range - 150 to 200°C. The sign of pyroelectric coefficient is positive at room temperature and becomes negative at 190°C. The dielectric constant, pyroelectric coefficient and planar coupling coefficient show a maximum value at 160°C and the frequency constant shows a minimum at the same temperature. The probable reasons for the anomaly in these properties are discussed.
Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Reduced β-Cell Function in Overweight Latino Children with a Positive Family History for Type 2 Diabetes

The objective of this study was to examine relationships between impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and body composition and insulin-related phenotypes in 150 overweight Latino children with a family history of type 2 diabetes. Glucose tolerance was assessed by an oral glucose challenge. Body composition was assessed by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and magnetic resonance imaging. Insulin sensitivity, the acute insulin response, and the disposition index (DI), as an index of beta-cell function, were determined by an iv glucose tolerance test and compared between normal glucose-tolerant and IGT children. IGT was present in 28% of children, and was similar across obesity groups, but higher in children exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus (41% IGT). There were no significant differences in body composition, fat distribution, insulin sensitivity, or acute insulin response, but DI was significantly lower in IGT children by 16% (P < 0.02), and DI was inversely related to age. In conclusion, IGT is present in 28% of overweight Latino children with a family history of type 2 diabetes, is not influenced by obesity, is more prevalent in children exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus, and is related to poor beta-cell function, which shows signs of deterioration with age in this population.
Do Treaties Constrain or Screen? Selection Bias and Treaty Compliance

Much recent research has found that states generally comply with the treaties they sign. The implications of this finding, however, are unclear: do states comply because the legal commitment compels them to do so, or because of the conditions that led them to sign? Drawing from previous research in this Review on Article VIII of the IMF Treaty (Simmons 2000a), I examine the problem of selection bias in the study of treaty compliance. To understand how and whether international legal commitments affect state behavior, one must control for all sources of selection into the treaty—including those that are not directly observable. I develop a statistical method that controls for such sources of selection and find considerable evidence that the unobservable conditions that lead states to make the legal commitment to Article VIII have a notable impact on their propensity to engage in compliant behavior. The results suggest that the international legal commitment has little constraining power independent of the factors that lead states to sign.
Stereoselective inhibition of CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 by fluoxetine and its metabolite: implications for risk assessment of multiple time-dependent inhibitor systems.

Recent guidance on drug-drug interaction (DDI) testing recommends evaluation of circulating metabolites. However, there is little consensus on how to quantitatively predict and/or assess the risk of in vivo DDIs by multiple time-dependent inhibitors (TDIs) including metabolites from in vitro data. Fluoxetine was chosen as the model drug to evaluate the role of TDI metabolites in DDI prediction because it is a TDI of both CYP3A4 and CYP2C19 with a circulating N-dealkylated inhibitory metabolite, norfluoxetine. In pooled human liver microsomes, both enantiomers of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine were TDIs of CYP2C19, (S)-norfluoxetine was the most potent inhibitor with time-dependent inhibition affinity constant (KI) of 7 μM, and apparent maximum time-dependent inhibition rate (kinact,app) of 0.059 min−1. Only (S)-fluoxetine and (R)-norfluoxetine were TDIs of CYP3A4, with (R)-norfluoxetine being the most potent (KI = 8 μM, and kinact,app = 0.011 min−1). Based on in-vitro-to-in-vivo predictions, (S)-norfluoxetine plays the most important role in in vivo CYP2C19 DDIs, whereas (R)-norfluoxetine is most important in CYP3A4 DDIs. Comparison of two multiple TDI prediction models demonstrated significant differences between them in in-vitro-to-in-vitro predictions but not in in-vitro-to-in-vivo predictions. Inclusion of all four inhibitors predicted an in vivo decrease in CYP2C19 (95%) and CYP3A4 (60–62%) activity. The results of this study suggest that adequate worst-case risk assessment for in vivo DDIs by multiple TDI systems can be achieved by incorporating time-dependent inhibition by both parent and metabolite via simple addition of the in vivo time-dependent inhibition rate/cytochrome P450 degradation rate constant (λ/kdeg) values, but quantitative DDI predictions will require a more thorough understanding of TDI mechanisms.
High-throughput pairwise point interactions in Anton, a specialized machine for molecular dynamics simulation

Anton is a massively parallel special-purpose supercomputer designed to accelerate molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by several orders of magnitude, making possible for the first time the atomic-level simulation of many biologically important phenomena that take place over microsecond to millisecond time scales. The majority of the computation required for MD simulations involves the calculation of pairwise interactions between particles and/or gridpoints separated by no more than some specified cutoff radius. In Anton, such range-limited interactions are handled by a high-throughput interaction subsystem (HTIS). The HTIS on each of Antonpsilas 512 ASICs includes 32 computational pipelines running at 800 MHz, each producing a result on every cycle that would require approximately 50 arithmetic operations to compute on a general-purpose processor. In order to feed these pipelines and collect their results at a speed sufficient to take advantage of this computational power, Anton uses two novel techniques to limit inter- and intra-chip communication. The first is a recently developed parallelization algorithm for the range-limited N-body problem that offers major advantages in both asymptotic and absolute terms by comparison with traditional methods. The second is an architectural feature that processes pairs of points chosen from two point sets in time proportional to the product of the sizes of those sets, but with input and output volume proportional only to their sum. Together, these features allow Anton to perform pairwise interactions with very high throughput and unusually low latency, enabling MD simulations on time scales inaccessible to other general- and special-purpose parallel systems.
Simulation of Charge and Mass Distributions of Indium Droplets Created by Field Emission

Field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) thrusters are useful as µN, µ-radian attitude control devices for satellites. In this study, we simulate in axisymmetric 2D coordinates the emission of charged indium leaving the surface and forming unique droplets. The boundary element method is used to rapidly and accurately calculate the electric field on the fluid surface, which is then advected forward in time using the combined level set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) method. The probability density function (PDF) of droplet charge to mass ratio is simulated. Each drop influences the size, charge and path of the following new drop.
Power, Professionalism, and Commitment: A Special Purpose Organization

Although traditional models of professionalism view professional and bureaucratic norms as incompatible, recent studies have found a direct relationship between the two sets of norms. This article reports on the results of research on the reactions of professionals to change in the distribution of power in an educational organization. Interviewed were members of three teacher training projects in which the traditional power and autonomy of professionals were considered inappropriate for innovation. Both amateurs and professionals who were highly committed to the organization supported greater sharing of power, suggesting that the relationship between professionalism, commitment, and attitudes toward power change in organizations is more complex than either the traditional or revised models of professionalism imply.
Dual-modality fluorescence and full-field optical coherence microscopy for biomedical imaging applications

Full-field optical coherence microscopy (FFOCM) is a high-resolution interferometric technique that is particularly attractive for biomedical imaging. Here we show that combining it with structured illumination fluorescence microscopy on one platform can increase its versatility since it enables co-localized registration of optically sectioned reflectance and fluorescence images. To demonstrate the potential of this dual modality, a fixed and labeled mouse retina was imaged. Results showed that both techniques can provide complementary information and therefore the system could potentially be useful for biomedical imaging applications.
Energy-based sensor network source localization via projection onto convex sets

This correspondence addresses the problem of locating an acoustic source using a sensor network in a distributed manner, i.e., without transmitting the full data set to a central point for processing. This problem has been traditionally addressed through the maximum-likelihood framework or nonlinear least squares. These methods, even though asymptotically optimal under certain conditions, pose a difficult global optimization problem. It is shown that the associated objective function may have multiple local optima and saddle points, and hence any local search method might stagnate at a suboptimal solution. In this correspondence, we formulate the problem as a convex feasibility problem and apply a distributed version of the projection-onto-convex-sets (POCS) method. We give a closed-form expression for the projection phase, which usually constitutes the heaviest computational aspect of POCS. Conditions are given under which, when the number of samples increases to infinity or in the absence of measurement noise, the convex feasibility problem has a unique solution at the true source location. In general, the method converges to a limit point or a limit cycle in the neighborhood of the true location. Simulation results show convergence to the global optimum with extremely fast convergence rates compared to the previous methods
A DNA-based pattern recognition technique for cancer detection

The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique (also known as the Karhunen-Loeve transform) has been used as a model reduction tool for many applications in engineering and science. In principle, one begins with an ensemble of data, called snapshots, collected from an experiment or laboratory results. The POD technique is then used to produce a set of basis elements that can span the original snapshot collection using the fewest possible degrees of freedom. It is such capability that allows us to extract the representative characteristics of a cancer from a collection of DNA microarray samples known to be cancerous. The resulting few POD elements can be regarded as dominant cancerous patterns, which can be used to determine whether an arbitrary DNA microarray sample is cancerous. In our study, we consider two types of cancers, liver and bladder. DNA microarray data are downloaded from the Stanford Microarray Database. Our findings indicate that the POD method can successfully detect both cancer types, although our approach can be applied to other types of disease or cancer.
PERCENT PROSTATE NEEDLE BIOPSY TISSUE WITH CANCER IS MORE PREDICTIVE OF BIOCHEMICAL FAILURE OR ADVERSE PATHOLOGY AFTER RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY THAN PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN OR GLEASON SCORE

Purpose: Biopsy Gleason score, serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, and clinical stage are known to be independent predictors of adverse pathological features and biochemical failure after radical prostatectomy. We determine whether various prostate needle biopsy parameters were predictive of either adverse pathological findings or disease recurrence after radical prostatectomy.Materials and Methods: A single pathologist reviewed the prostate needle biopsy specimens of 190 men who underwent radical prostatectomy between 1991 and 2000. Biopsy specimens were examined for Gleason score, perineural invasion, number and percent of cores with cancer, and percent of total biopsy tissue with cancer and Gleason grade 4 or 5 cancer. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the prostate needle biopsy parameters and preoperative clinical variables, including serum PSA, clinical stage, patient age and race, that were most significant for predicting positive surgical margins, nonorgan confined disease, semi...
A new surface interpolation technique for reconstructing 3D objects from serial corss-sections

Abstract A new method for automatically reconstructing a 3-dimensional object from serial cross sections is presented in this paper. The method combines the techniques of dynamic elastic contour interpolation, spline theory, and quadratic variation-based surface interpolation. In the proposed method, the initial description of the object is formed by applying the elastic interpolation algorithm to generate a series of intermediate contours between each pair of consecutive cross sections. After this, a preliminary processing for surface computation is carried out by mapping the contours into the domain of surface function and then using spline functions to calculate the initial surface values. Based on the output from preliminary processing, we apply the quadratic variation-based surface interpolation algorithm to calculate the final surface representation. Since our method takes the continuity of high order derivatives into consideration, smooth and complete surfaces of a 3D object can thus be reconstructed.
Effectiveness of commercial and experimental termite monitors for the desert subterranean termite Heterotermes aureus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in southern Arizona.

ABSTRACT In Arizona, the subterranean termite Heterotermes aureus (Snyder) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) is the most economically important termite pest. We report here the evaluation of several commercial and experimental monitoring stations to capture and monitor H. aureus. In total, 12 monitoring stations were evaluated over two study periods. In 2001–2002, the commercial monitors Firstline and Termicon did not capture any H. aureus, whereas Termitrol did not capture significantly more termites than these two monitors. In contrast, three experimental Arizona Research Monitoring Stations (ARMS)—ARMS-PINE, ARMS-ASH, and ARMS-BBT— captured significantly more termites than Firstline and Termicon, and ARMS-BBT captured termites significantly more frequently than the commercial monitors. Similarly in 2003, the commercial monitors Firstline and Defender did not capture any H. aureus, whereas Extera did not capture significantly more termites than these two monitors. However, four monitor designs including the t...
General air conformity applicability analysis

The Clean Air Act requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate rules that ensure federal actions conform to applicable state implementation plans (SIPs). Federal agencies are responsible for determining if proposed actions conform to the applicable SIP. The General Conformity Rule applies to federal actions occurring in air basins designated as nonattainment or maintenance for criteria pollutants. Federal actions in attainment areas are not subject to the Rule. Detailed emissions calculations are performed for a project. The results are compared to threshold (de minimis) levels and evaluated for regional significance to determine whether a full conformity determination must be performed for the action. If a full conformity determination is required, the general conformity procedure must be completed prior to commencing the federal action. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Outcome after surveillance of low-grade and indefinite dysplasia in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Patients with long-standing ulcerative colitis (UC) are at increased risk for colorectal cancer (CRC).1–4 Because it is believed that nearly all CRCs develop from dysplastic lesions, the current recommendation is for patients with chronic ulcerative colitis (UC) to undergo frequent surveillance for dysplasia in order to prevent cancer through early identification of neoplastic lesions.5–8 This secondary approach to cancer prevention is fraught with logistical and technical challenges, however, and the field as well as our approach to these precancerous lesions are evolving. Microscopically, dysplastic lesions are classified as indefinite for dysplasia (IND), low-grade dysplasia (LGD), or having high-grade dysplasia (HGD).9 For patients with HGD, colectomy has been nearly universally recommended because the risks of harboring a synchronous adenocarcinoma as well as the apparent progression to cancer over time are significantly elevated.11 Conversely, the management of patients with IBD-associated IND or LGD remains controversial, especially in recent years.12 There is significant heterogeneity among previous studies examining the progression of low-grade lesions to cancer, with reported rates varying from 16%–54%.10–15 Furthermore, progression to adenocarcinoma in patients with IND has not been well defined, as there are limited surveillance studies with few patients. As such, there is currently no consensus regarding monitoring with endoscopic surveillance or recommending surgery after a diagnosis of IND or LGD. The aim of this study was to determine the likelihood of progression of IND or LGD to HGD or CRC in patients with chronic UC seen at our single referral center.
Charge Storage in Conducting Polymers: Solitons, Polarons, and Bipolarons

The results of a series of experiments demonstrate that solitons are the important excitations in trans-(CH)x and that the properties of these nonlinear excitations can be directly studied during photoexcitation or after doping. The importance of these concepts in the more general context of conducting polymers is addressed. Although the two-fold degenerate ground state of trans-(CH)x is quite special, the relevant concepts have been generalized to confined soliton pairs (bipolarons). Experimental results which demonstrate electron-hole symmetry and weak confinement in poly(thiophene) make this polyheterocycle a nearly ideal example of a model system in which the ground state degeneracy has been lifted. In the dilute doping regime, in-situ absorption spectroscopy data (during electrochemical doping) are in detailed agreement with charge storage via bipolarons with confinement parameter γ≃0.1–0.2. These results on polythiophene demonstrate that a quantitative fundamental understanding is possible even for relatively complex systems.
Optimizing Nonmonotonic Interconnect Using Functional Simulation and Logic Restructuring

The relatively poor scaling of interconnect in modern digital circuits necessitates a number of design optimizations, which must typically be iterated several times to meet the specified performance objectives. Such iterations are often due to the difficulty of early delay estimation, particularly before placement. Therefore, effective logic restructuring to reduce interconnect delay has been a major challenge in physical synthesis, a phase during which more accurate delay estimates can be finally gathered. In this paper, we develop a new approach that enhances modern high-performance logic synthesis techniques with flexibility and accuracy in the physical domain. This approach is based on the following: 1) a novel criterion based on path monotonicity, which identifies those interconnects that are amenable to optimization through logic restructuring, and 2) a synthesis algorithm relying on logic simulation and placement information to identify placed subcircuits that hold promise for interconnect reduction. Experiments indicate that our techniques find optimization opportunities and improve interconnect delay by 11.7% on average at less than 2% wirelength and area overhead.
Detection and Correction of Diurnal Sampling Bias in HIRS/2 Brightness Temperatures

Abstract Diurnal sampling biases arise in the High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) satellite observations because some of the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites drift significantly from their original local observation time. Such bias adversely affects interpretation of these data for climate studies. Twenty-six years of HIRS/2 radiance satellite data (1979–2004) were examined by creating monthly mean gridded data that categorize the observations by local observing time through averaging ascending and descending orbits separately. Corresponding HIRS/2 simulated radiance data from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) climate model were constructed using HIRS/2 satellite sampling and were found to accurately represent the diurnal sampling bias. Correction of the HIRS/2 observations from the observed diurnal sampling bias was using the model simulations of HIRS brightness temperatures to adjust the observed brightness temperatures to the model daily mean. The diurnal bias was found to va...
JAT4BDI: An Aspect-Based Approach for Testing BDI Agents

Multi-agent systems (MAS) for software construction is an approach that has been applied to different and complex domains that require distributed and intelligent environments. A crucial concern related to MAS is how software agents based on the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model should be tested. An agent is an autonomous and pro-active entity that can exchange information with other agents distributed. Due these characteristics to create unit tests for agents is a big challenge. In the literature there are several approaches that tries to deal with such challenge, however, they do not provide mechanisms to assist developers in identifying errors and in how observe the internal state of agent elements (e.g. beliefs, goals, plans, events, messages) during the development process. Thus, this paper presents a new approach to testing BDI agents based on the aspect technology.
Transmedia Testimonio: Examining Undocumented Youth’s Political Activism in the Digital Age

Undocumented youth activists, otherwise known as DREAMers, have drawn attention for the ways they use and deploy new media in challenging anti-immigrant policies and making various claims to rights. In this article, I focus on “coming out” events wherein undocumented youth declare their undocumented legal status at protests and meetings and through social media, including digital videos, blogs, and podcasts. I refer to these events as forms of transmedia testimonio in which activists give accounts of their immigration experiences, reveal their legal status, and document their participation in civil disobedience. Through the concept of transmedia testimonio, I demonstrate how undocumented youth broaden the boundaries of public space beyond the confines of formal and state-sanctioned public spheres. By doing so, undocumented youth can use the testimonio to make claims to citizenship as new rights-bearing subjects, even if the state has not legitimized or recognized them as such. This article adds to the literature on how face-to-face activism interweaves with online activism, understanding media tactics from the vantage point of activists.
Foundations of Wellness, by Bill Reger-Nash, Meredith Smith, and Gregory Junkett

Foundations of Wellness attempts to broaden the reader’s perception of the concepts of both health and wellness. Whether or not we live with an awareness of our personal cycles of light and dark, a...
Initial evaluation of inlet thermal desorption GC–MS analysis for organic gunshot residue collected from the hands of known shooters

Abstract The discharge of a firearm produces a wealth of physical and chemical evidence. Traditional forensic analysis has focused on inorganic particulates formed from the primer, referred to as gunshot residue (GSR). The last few years have seen interest in expanding the list of target compounds to include organic constituents of firearm discharge residue (OGSR). To facilitate adoption by the forensic community, new assays ideally should exploit instrumentation commonly found in forensic laboratories such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Here, a commercially available thermal separation probe that fits directly into the injection port was evaluated as a means of sample introduction for GC/MS operated in a selected ion monitoring mode. A statistical approach utilizing bivariate plots linked retention time to ion ratio data to afford a probabilistic interpretation of the results. A total of 27 authentic shooter swabs were collected after firing of 1–5 rounds and were analyzed in halves or triplicates. Ethyl centralite was detected in 81% of the samples; diphenylamine in 56%, and 2-nitrodiphenylamine in 14%. Dimethyl and dibutyl phthalates were detected in a majority of the swabs but also in many of the hand swab blanks. The use of surrogate standards provided a measure of recovery and reproducibility for retention times and ion ratios.
Integrated real time multi-channel wavelength monitoring circuit using phased-array waveguide grating

An integrated multichannel wavelength monitoring circuit using specially designed phased-array waveguide grating and detector arrays, which monitors all wavelength-division multiplexing channels in real-time (sixteen channels at 200-GHz spacing), has been demonstrated with /spl sim/0.02 nm accuracy.
Mining Online Heterogeneous Healthcare Networks for Drug Repositioning

Drug repositioning represents the application of known drugs for new indications and plays an important role in healthcare research and industry. With its increasing value in drug development, multiple approaches have been applied in its exercise, basically classified as drug-based and diseasebased approaches. Our study adopted a disease-based approach and utilized Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) as an intermediary to associate drugs with diseases for drug repositioning. Based on the collected health-related social media data, we constructed a heterogeneous healthcare network and developed three path-mining techniques to identify significant associations between ADRs and diseases and then determine the associations between potential drugs and diseases for repositioning. When an ADR has a strong association with a disease based on the drugs indicated for the disease, there is an underlying mechanism-of-action (MOA) between the disease and the ADR. The ADR can be considered as a clinical phenotypic biomarker of the disease. Others drugs that have a strong association with the ADR are prospective for repositioning [12]. The experiment results demonstrate the repositioning capability of the proposed method and the advantages of using social media data. The case studies and the ratio of supporting articles show its effectiveness and the potential for further drug development research.
A multi-frequency finite-difference frequency-domain algorithm for active nanophotonic device simulations

We introduce a multi-frequency finite-difference frequency-domain algorithm for active nanophotonic devices simulations from first principles. This algorithm overcomes large time-scale differences between optical and modulation frequencies and efficiently simulates performances of modulated devices.
Improved resilience and metabolic response of transplanted blackberry plugs using chitosan oligosaccharide elicitor treatment

Transplanting of micropropagated blackberry plugs in the field during late summer and early fall is a common nursery practice for commercial blackberry production. During this field transition, bla...
Rapid thermal adaptation in a marine diatom reveals constraints and trade‐offs

Rapid evolution in response to environmental change will likely be a driving force determining the distribution of species across the biosphere in coming decades. This is especially true of microorganisms, many of which may evolve in step with warming, including phytoplankton, the diverse photosynthetic microbes forming the foundation of most aquatic food webs. Here we tested the capacity of a globally important, model marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, for rapid evolution in response to temperature. Selection at 16 and 31°C for 350 generations led to significant divergence in several temperature response traits, demonstrating local adaptation and the existence of trade-offs associated with adaptation to different temperatures. In contrast, competitive ability for nitrogen (commonly limiting in marine systems), measured after 450 generations of temperature selection, did not diverge in a systematic way between temperatures. This study shows how rapid thermal adaptation affects key temperature and nutrient traits and, thus, a population's long-term physiological, ecological, and biogeographic response to climate change.
Indications for Ureterectomy in Men Undergoing Single Stage Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer

AbstractDuring a 10-year period 174 consecutive male patients underwent radical cystectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection for transitional cell cancer of the bladder. Urethrectomy, either performed en bloc with the cystectomy or secondarily, was required in 23 patients. Of these 23 patients 9 died of metastatic disease and 4 deaths were believed to be directly related to development of tumor in the urethra. A careful review of our data suggests that patient selection is possible so that urethrectomy in all patients undergoing cystectomy may be avoided, while maintaining the ability to treat those at risk for carcinoma in the retained urethra before invasion occurs. We recommend the following indications for urethrectomy: 1) en bloc cystourethrectomy for clinically overt involvement of the anterior urethra with carcinoma or tumor extending into the prostatic urethra, 2) immediate or delayed total urethrectomy either during the initial hospitalization or within 2 months of cystectomy for all patients wit...
Essay: The Lure of Field Research on Electric Fish

Since 1979, I have spent many years studying electric fish in wild and remote jungle rivers of Central America, Africa, and the Amazon. It is one of the most fascinating and biologically rich yet dangerous occupations in the world. There is no 24-hour emergency medical care. A snake bite or fall from a tree could be lethal. Regardless, I rarely thought of these negative aspects of my work. Recently, after the death of a close friend who drowned while collecting fish, I began questioning my motives in pursuing such a dangerous lifestyle. I wondered what drove me and my colleagues who work on electric fish to do fieldwork.
Ontology of RNA Sequencing (ORNASEQ) and its application

Background: Next-generation RNA sequencing is a rapidly developing technology with complex procedures encompassing different experimental modalities. As the technology evolves and its use expand, so does the need to capture the data provenance from these sequencing studies and the need to create new tools to manage and manipulate these provenance stores. Results: Here we used the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) and many other ontologies from the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry as a framework from which to create an application ontology (ORNASEQ: Ontology of RNA sequencing) to capture data provenance for next-generation RNA sequencing studies. Additionally, we provide an extensive real-life sample provenance data set for use in developing new provenance tools and additional sequencing data models. Conclusions: The Ontology of RNA Sequencing (ORNASEQ) provides core terms for use in building data models to capture the provenance from next-generation RNA sequencing studies. The supplied sample provenance data also exemplifies many of the complexities of RNA sequencing studies and underscores the need for potent workflow management systems.
Social media and the university decision. Do prospective students really care

ABSTRACTIn the world of social media marketing, colleges and universities can benefit from enhanced understanding of how prospective students use social media. Due to the ever-evolving nature of so...
Theoretical Production Restrictions and Agricultural Technology in the United States

Agricultural production studies are usually conducted using classical econometrics that make it difficult, if not impossible, to impose conditions derived from economic theory on flexible functional forms. Therefore, such conditions need not hold in estimation. We apply Bayesian econometrics to estimate a flexible production function using U.S. agricultural data under alternative restrictions dictated by theory, including a fully theoretically consistent model that satisfies all restrictions at each point of the data. The probability density functions of parameters, output elasticities, scale elasticity, and productivity gains vary substantially across models. Output elasticities from the fully theoretically consistent model suggest that agricultural production in the United States has typically been more responsive to land than to other factors of production. However, output became more responsive over time to changes in materials, and less responsive to changes in land and labor. By the early 2000s, the elasticity of output to materials was very similar to the elasticity of output to land. The elasticity of output to capital remained relatively stable over the entire sample. The estimates from the fully theoretically consistent model also show a slight increase in the average rate of productivity gains between the 1960s and the 1970s, a relative slowdown in the 1980s and 1990s, and a relative stabilization afterwards. All inputs are substitutes in production; all the elasticities of substitution have increased through the decades, though at different rates.
Use of a Transformed ECG Signal to Detect Respiratory Effort During Apnea.

Study Objectives:To evaluate the ability of a transformed electrocardiography (ECG) signal recorded using standard electrode placement to detect inspiratory bursts from underlying surface chest wal...
Политика поддержки инноваций: набор инструментов

Economic theory suggests that market economies are likely to underprovide innovation because of the public good nature of knowledge. Empirical evidence from the United States and other advanced economies supports this idea. We summarize the pros and cons of different policy instruments for promoting innovation and provide a basic “toolkit” describing which policies are most effective according to our reading of the evidence. In the short run, R&D tax credits and direct public funding seem the most productive, but in the longer run, increasing the supply of human capital (for example, relaxing immigration rules or expanding university STEM admissions) is likely more effective.
Polish on Metals

WE are much interested in Mr. French's letter in NATURE of Jan. 30, as we ourselves have just constructed an electron camera for the examination of the polish on metals and similar problems. In an earlier paper by Prof. G. P. Thomson1 it has been stated that no pattern was detected from polished metal surfaces, and it was felt at the time that this result was not in accord with other work then proceeding in this laboratory. It had been found2 that so called amorphous substances, such as glasses of widely differing chemical compositions, gave rise to very definite X-ray diffraction patterns which bore strong similarities to the line patterns of corresponding crystalline substances. This led us to the view that, while glasses may contain some material in a truly amorphous form, the greater number of atoms are built up in the form of exceedingly small crystals, probably not exceeding 10-6 cm. in size. At the same time, small differences were noted between the spacings of the diffuse bands of the vitreous substance and those of the corresponding completely crystalline substance.
Comparative Pathology of West Nile Virus in Humans and Non-Human Animals

West Nile virus (WNV) continues to be a major cause of human arboviral neuroinvasive disease. Susceptible non-human vertebrates are particularly diverse, ranging from commonly affected birds and horses to less commonly affected species such as alligators. This review summarizes the pathology caused by West Nile virus during natural infections of humans and non-human animals. While the most well-known findings in human infection involve the central nervous system, WNV can also cause significant lesions in the heart, kidneys and eyes. Time has also revealed chronic neurologic sequelae related to prior human WNV infection. Similarly, neurologic disease is a prominent manifestation of WNV infection in most non-human non-host animals. However, in some avian species, which serve as the vertebrate host for WNV maintenance in nature, severe systemic disease can occur, with neurologic, cardiac, intestinal and renal injury leading to death. The pathology seen in experimental animal models of West Nile virus infection and knowledge gains on viral pathogenesis derived from these animal models are also briefly discussed. A gap in the current literature exists regarding the relationship between the neurotropic nature of WNV in vertebrates, virus propagation and transmission in nature. This and other knowledge gaps, and future directions for research into WNV pathology, are addressed.
Exploring selves and worlds through affective and imaginative engagements with literature

To engage in critical readings of literary texts, in ways that are also ethical and compassionate, requires readers to enter emotionally and imaginatively into the complex, textual worlds of others...
Measurement of realistic fracture conductivity in the Barnett shale

Abstract The Mississippian Barnett shale of the Fort Worth Basin is one of the most successfully developed shale gas plays in North America by applying multistage hydraulic fracturing stimulation techniques. The fracturing design involves pumping low viscosity fluid with low proppant concentrations at high pump rate, commonly known as “slick water fracturing”. Direct laboratory measurement of natural and induced fracture conductivity under realistic conditions is needed for reliable well performance analysis and fracturing design optimization. During the course of this study a series of conductivity experiments was completed. The cementing material present on the surface of natural fractures was preserved during the initial unpropped conductivity tests. The induced fractures were artificially created by breaking the shale rock along the bedding plane to account for the effect of irregular fracture surfaces on conductivity. Proppants of various sizes were manually placed between rough fracture surfaces at realistic concentrations. The two sides of the induced fractures were cut in a way to represent either an aligned or a displaced fracture face with a 0.1 inch offset. The effect of proppant partial monolayer was also studied by placing proppants at ultra-low concentrations. Results from the experiments show that unpropped induced fractures can provide a conductive path after removal of free particles and debris generated when cracking the rock. Poorly cemented natural fractures are effective flow paths. Unpropped fracture conductivity depends strongly on the degree of shear displacement, the presence of shale flakes and particles, and the amount of cementing material removed. The propped fracture conductivity is weakly dependent on fracture surface roughness at higher proppant concentrations. Moreover, propped fracture conductivity increases with larger proppant size and higher concentration in the testing range of this study. Results also show that proppant partial monolayers cannot survive higher closure stresses.
Specialty-Specific Readmission Risk Models Outperform General Models in Estimating Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery Readmission Risk.

BACKGROUND Readmissions are costly and inconvenient for patients, and occur frequently in hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgery practice. Readmission prediction tools exist, but most have not been designed or tested in the HPB patient population. METHODS Pancreatectomy and hepatectomy operation-specific readmission models defined as subspecialty readmission risk assessments (SRRA) were developed using clinically relevant data from merged 2014-15 ACS NSQIP Participant Use Data Files and Procedure Targeted datasets. The two derived procedure-specific models were tested along with 6 other readmission models in institutional validation cohorts in patients who had pancreatectomy or hepatectomy, respectively, between 2013 and 2017. Models were compared using area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC). RESULTS A total of 16,884 patients (9169 pancreatectomy and 7715 hepatectomy) were included in the derivation models. A total of 665 patients (383 pancreatectomy and 282 hepatectomy) were included in the validation models. Specialty-specific readmission models outperformed general models. AUC characteristics of the derived pancreatectomy and hepatectomy SRRA (pancreatectomy AUC=0.66, hepatectomy AUC=0.74), modified Readmission After Pancreatectomy (AUC=0.76), and modified Readmission Risk Score for hepatectomy (AUC=0.78) outperformed general models for readmission risk: LOS/2 + ASA integer-based score (pancreatectomy AUC=0.58, hepatectomy AUC=0.66), LACE Index (pancreatectomy AUC=0.54, hepatectomy AUC=0.62), Unplanned Readmission Nomogram (pancreatectomy AUC=0.52, hepatectomy AUC=0.55), and institutional ARIA (pancreatectomy AUC=0.46, hepatectomy AUC=0.58). CONCLUSION HPB readmission risk models using 30-day subspecialty-specific data outperform general readmission risk tools. Hospitals and practices aiming to decrease readmissions in HPB surgery patient populations should use specialty-specific readmission reduction strategies.
Activation of Sting in Response to Partial-Tumor Radiation Exposure.

Purpose/Objective(s) It has been shown that ionizing radiation can mediate antitumor immunity via the activation of the cytosolic DNA sensor cGAS/STING pathway. Therefore, the purpose of this study, was to determine whether STING activation is involved in partial volume radiation therapy (RT). Materials/Methods We investigated 67NR murine orthotopic breast tumors in Balb/c mice and LLC cells injected in the flank of C57Bl/6, cGAS or STING KO mice. RT was delivered to 50% or 100% of the tumor volume using a 2 × 2 cm collimator on a microirradiator allowing precise irradiation. Tumors were collected at different time points post-RT and assessed for different measurements. Results We previously showed that a single dose of radiation delivered to half of the tumor (50% RT) activated an anti-tumor immune response comparable to the response in a fully-irradiated tumor in the immunogenic 67NR murine breast carcinoma tumor model and in the less immunogenic and more radioresistant Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) tumor model. We have also demonstrated that this immune response was due to the infiltration of CD8+ T cells along with an increased expression of ICAM adhesion molecules. Treatment with either anti-CD8 or anti-ICAM antibodies abrogated the hemi-RT response. Furthermore, a significant abscopal effect was observed after partial irradiation with a single dose of 10Gy in a bilateral 67NR tumors model. In this study we tested whether the hemi-irradiation-mediated immune response involves the cGAS/STING canonical pathway, or a non-canonical activation of STING, in the 67NR or LLC tumor models. It has been reported that STING can be activated, independently of cGAS, via non-canonical activation of STING, involving ATM and TRAF6, among other factors. We found a significant activation of the cGAS/STING pathway in the hemi-irradiated tumors as compared to control and to 100% exposed 67NR tumors. Interestingly, the increased expression of the cGAS/STING pathway was found in the hemi-irradiated tumor but, also in the non-irradiated part of this hemi-irradiated tumor. In the LLC model, a non-canonical activation of STING was involved. Using both cGAS and STING KO mice, we demonstrated that the partial exposure RT-mediated immune response is dependent on STING activation in the host while cGAS is dispensable. Conclusion Upstream pathways responsible for STING activation are tumor type specific. Identifying the upstream pathways responsible for STING activation in the partial RT-mediated immune response in different tumor types would improve this therapy and its potential combination with immune checkpoint blockade.