cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural Analysis of the Membrane Docking Geometry of PI(3,4,5)P3-Specific GRP1-PH Domain Via Site-Directed Spin Labeling

Peripheral membrane binding proteins play critical roles in dynamic cell signaling processes that occur at membrane surfaces. Many of these signaling proteins contain membrane targeting domains that act to mediate signal dependent membrane localization for proper enzyme function. Phosphoinositide-specific pleckstrin homology (PH) domains are an important class of membrane targeting domains that specifically bind target phosphoinositides present at the surface of inner cell membranes. Aside from target lipid headgrouprecognition, the other protein-lipid interactions that occurduring membrane docking are not well defined. Currently, high-resolution structural characterization of protein-membrane interfaces is difficult to achieve while this information is crucial to a physical chemical understanding of reversible protein-membrane binding. In this study, site-directed spin-labeling and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) power saturation measurements were employed to determine membrane depth parameters for the PI(3,4,5)P3-specific GRP1-PH domain docked to synthetic bilayer membranes. A library of nitroxide spin-labeled PH domain mutants was generated using site-directed cysteine mutagenesis and disulfide coupling to a methanethiosulfonate spin label (MTSSL). Subsequently, membrane depth parameters were determined for each spin-labeled position in the membrane-docked state. The depth parameters were then used as constraints to model the angular orientation and depth of penetration that describes the membrane docking geometry. Our preliminary structural model identifies the membrane binding surface of GRP1-PH and characterizes its partitioning into the membrane bilayer. Ultimately, the results of this study will aid in understanding the molecular determinants of the electrostatic search mechanism this PH domain uses to rapidly find its rare target lipid on the plasma membrane surface. Supported by NIH GM063235 (J.J.F.).
Slow imbalance relaxation and thermoelectric transport in graphene

We compute the electronic component $(\ensuremath{\kappa})$ of the thermal conductivity and the thermoelectric power $(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ of monolayer graphene within the hydrodynamic regime, taking into account the slow rate of carrier population imbalance relaxation. Interband electron-hole generation and recombination processes are inefficient due to the nondecaying nature of the relativistic energy spectrum. As a result, a population imbalance of the conduction and valence bands [i.e., a nonequilibrium state with ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{e}+{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{h}\ensuremath{\ne}0$, where ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{e}$ $({\ensuremath{\mu}}_{h})$ denotes the electron (hole) chemical potential] is generically induced upon the application of a thermal gradient. We show that the thermoelectric response of a graphene monolayer depends upon the ratio of the sample length to an intrinsic length scale ${l}_{Q}$ set by the imbalance relaxation rate. At the same time, we incorporate the crucial influence of the metallic contacts required for the thermopower measurement (under open circuit boundary conditions) since carrier exchange with the contacts also relaxes the imbalance. These effects are especially pronounced for clean graphene, where the thermoelectric transport is limited exclusively by intercarrier collisions. For specimens shorter than ${l}_{Q}$, the population imbalance extends throughout the sample; $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ and $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ asymptote toward their zero imbalance relaxation limits. In the opposite limit of a graphene slab longer than ${l}_{Q}$, at nonzero doping $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ and $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ approach intrinsic values characteristic of the infinite imbalance relaxation limit. Samples of intermediate (long) length in the doped (undoped) case are predicted to exhibit an inhomogeneous temperature profile, while $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ and $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ grow linearly with the system size. In all cases except for the shortest devices, we develop a picture of bulk electron and hole number currents that flow between thermally conductive leads, where steady-state recombination and generation processes relax the accumulating imbalance. Our analysis incorporates, in addition, the effects of (weak) quenched disorder.
Inhibition of rabbit liver arylsufatase B by phosphate esters

Abstract Arylsulfatase B (aryl-sulfate sulfohydrolase, EC 3.1.6.1) purified from rabbit liver is competitively inhibited at modest concentrations by a variety of phosphate esters derived from amino acids, amines and simple sugars. Phospho- l -serine coupled to Sepharose 4B could be used as an affinity column to enhance the purity of a crude preparation of the enzyme. It is suggested that phosphate esters containing functional groups can be used to obtain affinity reagents to purify arylsulfatases and also to probe their active sites
Outbreak of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Colonization Among Pediatric Oncology Patients

OBJECTIVE To detect the burden of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) colonization among pediatric oncology patients and to determine risk factors for VRE acquisition.
Point-of-Use Ultra-Pure Water for Immersion Lithography

In this paper we describe the design and development of point-of-use UPW (ultra pure water) components and systems for the immersion application. The paper addresses the water quality needs for the immersion lithography process and presents key contaminant removal techniques and performance results. POU water delivery systems are designed based upon individual customer needs
Vibrational quenching of the electronic ground state in ThO in cold collisions with 3He

We measure the ratio $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ of the momentum transfer--to--vibrational quenching cross section for molecular thorium monoxide (ThO) [$X{(}^{1}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+})$, $v=1$, $J=0$] in collisions with atomic helium between 800 mK and 2.4 K. We find $\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{4}$. We also observe indirect evidence for ThO-He van der Waals complex formation, which has been predicted by theory [Tscherbul, Sayfutyarova, Buchachenko, and Dalgarno, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 144301 (2011)], and in conjunction, we determine the three-body recombination rate constant at 2.4 K, ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}_{3}=8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}33}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{6}$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$.
2001: A NUMERICAL MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN TOOL ODYSSEY

Due to the complex geometry of modern wind turbine blades, structural modeling using the finite element method is usually difficult and extremely time-consuming. Twisted and tapered geometries, internal support structures, and involved material schedules all contribute to the model complexity. In addition, development time spent creating a model for one blade may not aid in the development of a model for a different blade. In an effort to increase the usability of advanced finite element analysis capabilities and reduce model development time for wind turbine blades, a software tool, NuMAD (Numerical Manufacturing And Design), has been developed.
Enhancing spontaneous emission rates of molecules using nanopatterned multilayer hyperbolic metamaterials

The spontaneous emission rate and emission intensity of dye molecules are significantly enhanced by using a nanopatterned multilayer hyperbolic metamaterial.
Preparation of 3H-labelled apomorphine, N-n-propylnorapomorphine, and O, O-dipivaloylapomorphine

Apomorphine and N-n-propylnorapomorphine were tritiated using trifluoroacetic acid- tritiated water mixtures. This provides a route to the synthesis of tritiated O,O-dipivaloylapomorphine. Deuterium exchange and NMR studies indicate that exchange only involves protons at the C-8 and C-9 positions.
Does Interstate War Have A Future

Interstate wars are part of a process of "bargaining" beriveen and among nation-stales that also involves voluntary and forced migrations, as well as the definition and re-drawing of boundaries. Europe has undergone such a thorough process of this kind in recent centuries that interstate wars may not occur there in the future. Territorial disputes and wars also seem unlikely in Narth America. Even Latin America may have enough states with definitive boundaries to make interstate wars unlikely. Africa, however, has mostly new states, with recently drawn and fragile boundaries. Though it was mostly Penceful from 1960 to 1990, since the end of the Cold War military conflicts with interstate aspects have become commonplace in Africa. Interstate wars hare occurred periodically in the Middle East in recent decades and are likely to continue to occur. Asia's future may be like Europe's past. Independent. strong states interact intensively there, as European states did in the late nineteenth and early twentieth c...
Calcium Intake and Reduction in Weight or Fat Mass

Obesity is a growing epidemic with subsequent health consequences leading not only to reduced quality of life but also to increased medical costs. Growing evidence supports a relationship between increased calcium intakes and reductions in body weight specific to fat mass. Since the first observations in rats >10 y ago, several recently published clinical studies support this relationship as well. The impact of calcium intake on weight loss or prevention of weight gain has been demonstrated in a wide age range of Caucasian and African-Americans of both genders. This review focuses on the results of clinical trials that have investigated the impact of calcium and dairy products on prevention of weight gain, weight loss or development of the insulin resistance syndrome. The implications of these results are that calcium may play a substantial contributing role in reducing the incidence of obesity and prevalence of the insulin resistance syndrome.
A Review of the Applications of Agent Technology in Traffic and Transportation Systems

The agent computing paradigm is rapidly emerging as one of the powerful technologies for the development of large-scale distributed systems to deal with the uncertainty in a dynamic environment. The domain of traffic and transportation systems is well suited for an agent-based approach because transportation systems are usually geographically distributed in dynamic changing environments. Our literature survey shows that the techniques and methods resulting from the field of agent and multiagent systems have been applied to many aspects of traffic and transportation systems, including modeling and simulation, dynamic routing and congestion management, and intelligent traffic control. This paper examines an agent-based approach and its applications in different modes of transportation, including roadway, railway, and air transportation. This paper also addresses some critical issues in developing agent-based traffic control and management systems, such as interoperability, flexibility, and extendibility. Finally, several future research directions toward the successful deployment of agent technology in traffic and transportation systems are discussed.
Evolving Systems: Inheriting Stability with Decentralized Adaptive Control

Evolving Systems is newly developed framework that is designed to describe the autonomous assembly of actively controlled subsystems. One area of interest is the inheritance of stability during evolution. A fixed-gain control approach has shown that an instability can result from the evolution of two actively controlled stable subsystems. In this paper, we show that the stability of the aforementioned partially or fully evolved systems can be improved by using a decentralized adaptive output feedback controller with a direct adaptive disturbance rejection scheme.
Factors Involved in Juveniles' Decisions about Crime.

Delinquency is viewed as a purposeful behavior that is the result of a rational decision in which the pros and cons are weighed and the act that promises the greatest potential gain is performed. As a first step in evaluating this view, an experiment was run using 45 male juvenile offenders as subjects and the Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) model from decision theory as the model of the decision process. Results showed that the SEU model correctly predicted 62.7% of the subjects' decisions, and that the proportion of decisions favoring committing an offense increased as a function of the degree to which the SEU favored such a decision.
Creating an automated and emulated 802.11g wireless interfering network for wireless coexistence testing

Although the proliferation of wireless medical devices is mounting-partially due to benefits of wireless technology-associated risks must be evaluated. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking medical device manufacturers to quantify these by testing their wireless medical devices for coexistence. This can be a tedious and complicated chore. To streamline the process and to disseminate information about wireless coexistence testing, we are undertaking the task of automating the process. One of the most difficult steps in coexistence testing is setting up an interfering network. A major source of interference in the 2.4 GHz ISM band is Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n). This paper informs about tools developed to accurately characterize 802.11g and then emulate an 802.11g access point. Our previous work has shown that by employing a similar period and duty cycle, a signal generator can emulate an interfering 802.11g wireless network during wireless coexistence; however, the outcome performance of the wireless network under test is drastically different. An emulated interfering network must mimic channel characteristics of an actual network, as well as its influence on the wireless network under test. In response to previous findings, we performed wireless coexistence testing and compared the influence of an actual 802.11g wireless network with an emulated interfering 802.11g wireless network. A ZigBee network acted as the wireless network under test.
The durable experiment: State insurance of workers' compensation risk in the early twentieth century

In the early 1910s state governments debated the private versus public underwriting of workers' compensation risk. The choices they made established the existing system today and set the stage for later debates over the government's underwriting of unemployment, health, and disability risks. This article offers both quantitative and case-study analyses of states' original choices between public and private insurance. Monopoly state funds were adopted in some states because of an unusual combination of strong unions and weak insurance and agricultural interests. In other states, the emergence of progressive political coalitions played the decisive role.
Further analysis of the specificity of a novel animal model of depression—effects of an antihistaminic, antipsychotic and anxiolytic compound

In previous papers we reported that chronic stress elicited reductions in selected forms of open field activity resembled endogenomorphic depression upon behavioral, motivational, neuroendocrine, and neuropharmacological grounds. In particular, the loss of acute stress elicited activity proved to be exclusively reversible by antidepressant treatments. Insofar as clinically ineffective compounds were tested, the deficit proved refractory to treatment, further suggesting the model reflected just those processes which were disrupted in depression. A number of ineffective compounds are known to yield false positives upon other related tests, but have yet to be examined in the present model. Three such compounds, an antihistamine (tripelennamine), a neuroleptic (haloperidol), and an anxiolytic (oxazepam) were examined for their behavioral and neuroendocrine effects. Although other stress related phenomena were replicated, none of the above compounds was effective in restoring the activation deficit or in eliminating the endocrine abnormality. This suggests the depression model is relatively selective pharmacologically and not critically dependent upon receptor blocking properties of the above drugs.
The Genetics of an Alcohol Dehydrogenase in the Mosquito Anopheles Stephens

Elretrophoretic variants of alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) in Anopheles stephensi are described. Three variants have been uncovered from mosquitoes originating in Pakistan. Genetic experiments indicate that the variants are codominant alleles at a single locus. The Adh locus is apparently on one of the autosomes as no evidence of sex linkage could be found. Substrate specificity tests suggest that the enzyme has a relatively low specificity among the straight chain, primary alcohols.
Pediatric to adult mental health service use of young people leaving the foster care system.

Purpose To assess and predict changes in mental health service use as older youth leave the foster care system.
A Simple Algorithm for (l, d) Motif Search1

Extracting meaningful patterns from voluminous amount of biological data is a very big challenge. Motifs are biological patterns of great interest to biologists. There are different versions of the Motif Finding Problem. In this paper we concentrate on the Planted (l, d) Motif Search Problem. There have been numerous algorithms designed to solve this problem. Many instances of the Planted (l, d) Motif Problem have been identified as challenging instances. The algorithm proposed here is an extension of PMS3 [1]. It uses a very simple approach and solves challenging instances ((21, 8), for example) that have not been reported solved before in the literature. We also propose a new algorithm PMS3p. We expect PMS3p to be significantly faster than PMS3.
Mechanism of the Preferential Edge-Positioning of Self-Organized Ge Quantum Dots on Si Mesas

We have investigated the preferential positioning of self-organized Ge quantum dots on Si (001) mesas fabricated in a selective epitaxial growth (SEG) mode of gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. The surface morphology was evaluated by atomic force microscopy, and for the Si SEG structures, showed mass accumulation at the periphery. Using micro-Raman spectroscopic imaging, the strain-field distribution of Si structures was studied before Ge deposition, and the results suggest a tensile strain at/near the periphery of the structure while a compressive strain at the center. These structures were subsequently used as a template for Ge dots, which tended to align along the mesa edge. The strain field distribution on Si mesas is speculated to be the driving force for preferential nucleation of Ge dots.
Average power in digital CMOS circuits using least square estimation

Power estimation is an important issue in digital VLSI circuit design. The estimation of average power dissipation of a circuit through exhaustive simulation is impractical due to the large number of primary inputs and their combinations. In this paper, two algorithms based on least square estimation are proposed for determining the average power dissipation in CMOS circuits. Least square estimation converges faster by attempting to minimize the mean square error value during each iteration. Two approaches namely, the sequential least square estimation and the recursive least square estimation, are investigated. The proposed methods are distribution independent in terms of the input samples, unbiased and point estimation based. Experimental results for the MCNC'91 and the ISCAS'89 benchmark circuits are presented. While the sequential least square algorithm performs comparable with the Monte-Carlo method, the recursive least square method converges up to 12 times faster than the Monte-Carlo technique.
Oxidative stress promotes benign prostatic hyperplasia

BACKGROUND Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is characterized by increased tissue mass in the transition zone of the prostate, which leads to obstruction of urine outflow and significant morbidity in the majority of older men. Plasma markers of oxidative stress are increased in men with BPH but it is unclear whether oxidative stress and/or oxidative DNA damage are causal in the pathogenesis of BPH. METHODS Levels of 8-OH deoxyguanosine (8-OH dG), a marker of oxidative stress, were measured in prostate tissues from normal transition zone and BPH by ELISA. 8-OH dG was also detected in tissues by immunohistochemistry and staining quantitated by image analysis. Nox4 promotes the formation of reactive oxygen species. We therefore created and characterized transgenic mice with prostate specific expression of Nox4 under the control of the prostate specific ARR2PB promoter. RESULTS Human BPH tissues contained significantly higher levels of 8-OH dG than control transition zone tissues and the levels of 8-OH dG were correlated with prostate weight. Cells with 8-OH dG staining were predominantly in the epithelium and were present in a patchy distribution. The total fraction of epithelial staining with 8-OH dG was significantly increased in BPH tissues by image analysis. The ARR2PB-Nox4 mice had increased oxidative DNA damage in the prostate, increased prostate weight, increased epithelial proliferation, and histological changes including epithelial proliferation, stromal thickening, and fibrosis when compared to wild type controls. CONCLUSIONS Oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage are important in the pathogenesis of BPH. Prostate 76:58–67, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Grain Boundary Engineering of Highly Deformable Ceramics

Highly deformable ceramics can be created with the addition of intergranular silicate phases. These amorphous intergranular phases can assist in superplastic deformation by relieving stress concentrations and minimizing grain growth if the appropriate intergranular compositions are selected. Examples from 3Y-TZP and 8Y-CSZ ceramics are discussed. The grain boundary chemistry is analyzed by high resolution analytical TEM is found to have a strong influence on the cohesion of the grains both at high temperature and at room temperature. Intergranular phases with a high ionic character and containing large ions with a relatively weak bond strength appear to cause premature failure. In contrast, intergranular phases with a high degree of covalent character and similar or smaller ions than the ceramic and a high ionic bond strength are the best for grain boundary adhesion and prevention of both cavitation at high temperatures and intergranular fracture at room temperature.
Promotion of preneoplastic lesions and induction of CYP2B by unleaded gasoline vapor in female B6C3F1 mouse liver.

An initiation-promotion protocol was used to test the hypothesis that unleaded gasoline (UG) vapor acts as a liver tumor promoter in female mice under exposure conditions in which UG was hepatocarcinogenic in a cancer bioassay. Twelve day old female B6C3F1 mice were injected with N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN, 5 mg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle. Starting at 5-7 weeks of age, mice were exposed by inhalation 6 h/day, 5 days/week for 13 weeks to 0 or 2039 p.p.m. of PS-6 blend UG, the same gasoline blend used in the cancer bioassay. Putative preneoplastic lesions in liver, characterized mainly as basophilic foci in H&E-stained liver sections, were found exclusively in mice treated with DEN. While similar numbers of altered hepatic foci were found in DEN-initiated mice treated with 0 or 2039 p.p.m. UG, UG treatment significantly increased both the mean volume (3.2-fold) and the volume fraction (3.6-fold) of the foci. To determine if UG induced CYP2B, a subfamily of cytochrome P450 commonly induced by liver tumor promoters in rodents, pentoxyresorufin-O-dealkylase (PROD) activity was assayed in hepatic microsomes derived from the above livers. UG vapor increased hepatic PROD activity approximately 8-fold, while increasing cytochrome P450 content only approximately 30%. To ascertain if a more recent blend of UG, API 91-1, would have similar biological effects as PS-6, female B6C3F1 mice were gavaged for 3 days with corn oil or 1800 mg/kg/day PS-6 or API 91-1 blend UG. PS-6 and API 91-1 blend UG induced similar increases in relative liver weight (approximately 25%), PROD activity (approximately 9-fold) and hepatocyte labeling index (approximately 8-fold) relative to controls. These data demonstrate that PS-6 blend UG vapor promotes preneoplastic lesions and induces CYP2B in female mouse liver under exposure conditions in which it causes liver tumors, and suggest that a more recent blend of UG may have similar effects.
Do I Enjoy Prescribing Medications

After I had talked for a while over lunch at work about “big pharm” corruption, the distortion of research and academic psychiatry, and the overselling of psychiatric medications, a bright social work intern fairly new to our team pointedly asked me, “So, do you enjoy helping people more by prescribing medications or by helping them in other ways?” I had to pause for a moment to think about it. “I don’t enjoy prescribing as much as I used to,” I replied. As a psychiatrist just out of residency, I took great pride in my ability to help people with medications. I could get the symptoms of more than 90% of people in the hospital well under control by the time they were discharged, usually after a week or two. After I left residency and went to work in a community mental health center, I estimate that more than 80% of my patients got much better if they didn’t use illegal drugs and more or less complied with the medications I prescribed. I was doing battle with illnesses and winning. That was enjoyable. But over the years, I have seen need that far exceeds the need for symptom relief, and I feel far less like an all-powerful warrior.
Robust Deflection Indices from Traffic-Speed Deflectometer Measurements to Predict Critical Pavement Responses for Network-Level Pavement Management System Application

AbstractTraffic-speed deflectometers (TSD) are used in several countries to evaluate the pavement structural condition at the network level. Fatigue and rutting strains are commonly used as pavement critical responses in mechanistic-empirical design procedures to predict pavement structural performance. For successful pavement management system (PMS) application, robust indices that can be readily computed from TSD measurements and best related to the pavement critical responses should be identified. In this study, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis on deflection basin indices and their correlations with fatigue and rutting strains is performed using a range of pavement structures. A commercially available program was used in the first part of the study to compute dynamic deflection basins and evaluate the effects of material properties and vehicle speed on the indices. The indices that best relate to critical responses were identified from the software analyses and subsequently evaluated with a wider r...
Study of Capacity and Conflict Resolution in a Hexagonal Airspace Sector

As the NAS becomes increasingly crowded with the current rate of growth in air traffic, there are many ongoing studies focusing on how to alleviate the pressure on the airspace system in the United States. One such method is to focus on the structure of the airspace in hopes of reducing the workload of controllers and increasing capacity. Currently, the various enroute sectors above the United States are of various shapes and sizes and have been continuously updated to reflect the needs of the changing volume of traffic moving through the airspace. In the future, it may be beneficial to incorporate a new design for each sector such that they are all of a uniform shape and size. This would allow for the introduction of set of standard procedures that would make flight paths more predictable, reduce the required training and strain on controllers moving to different sectors, and would also ease the development of computational tools that could be used to optimize the capacity in each sector. One shape of such a sector that is studied in this paper is the hexagon. For the purposes of this paper, a hexagon with sides of 250 NM was chosen, but similar methods could be used for a hexagon of any size. A simple procedure was also chosen. For this procedure, traffic would enter through the middle of three adjacent sides and exit out of the middle of the other three adjacent sides. Aircraft would fly on a straight line through the sector, making heading changes only when they enter at the boundary or when they exit at the boundary. This can be seen in Figure 1. One strength of this procedure is that it allows for two or three parallel streams in each flow direction. The flow directions would be reversed at different altitudes to allow for flights in all directions. The paper is divided into the following sections. Section III. describes the methodology used to determine the maximum rate at which aircraft can enter the sector as a function of traffic distribution. It was assumed that all aircraft are flying at the common speed of Mach 0.8 and the time of their entrance into the sector is optimized. Section IV. details the approach used to deconflict the flows in case the Requested Time of Arrival (RTA) at the entrance to the sector is not met.
Ambulance Design Survey 2011: A Summary Report.

Current ambulance designs are ergonomically inefficient and often times unsafe for practical treatment response to medical emergencies. Thus, the patient compartment of a moving ambulance is a hazardous working environment. As a consequence, emergency medical services (EMS) workers suffer fatalities and injuries that far exceed those of the average work place in the United States. To reduce injury and mortality rates in ambulances, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has teamed with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and BMT Designers & Planners in a joint project to produce science-based ambulance patient compartment design standards. This project will develop new crash-safety design standards and improved user-design interface guidance for patient compartments that are safer for EMS personnel and patients, and facilitate improved patient care. The project team has been working with practitioners, EMS workers’ organizations, and manufacturers to solicit needs and requirements to address related issues. This paper presents an analysis of practitioners’ concerns, needs, and requirements for improved designs elicited through the web-based survey of ambulance design, held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This paper also introduces the survey, analyzes the survey results, and discusses recommendations for future ambulance patient compartments design.
Recent progress in mode-locked fiber lasers with carbon nanotube saturable absorber

We report our recent results in the development of compact mode-locked fiber lasers with carbon nanotube saturable absorber for various applications
Plasma filtration on mediators of thrombotic microangiopathy: an in vitro study.

Objectives Sepsis-induced thrombotic microangiopathy is successfully treated by plasma exchange therapy. However, certain putative mediators of thrombotic microangiopathy may not be removed by plasma filtration. Methods We conducted an in vitro study to determine whether plasma filtration can remove ultralarge von Willebrand factor (ULvWF) multimers and other mediators. In separate experiments, human umbilical venous endothelial cell (HUVEC) supernatant enriched with ULvWF or human whole blood was passed through a therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE 2000, PRISMA) filter and samples were taken for measurement of ULvWF, vWF ristocetin cofactor, vWF antigen and PAI-1. Results The sieving coefficients for vWF and PAI-1 were above 0.9. The ULvWF was gradually eliminated, and nearly disappeared after four circulations. Conclusion The TPE 2000 filter can directly remove potential mediators of sepsis-induced thrombotic microangiopathy.
Low Linolenic Soybean Variety Test

Introduction This project was designed to compare the yields of low linolenic soybean varieties being marketed in the area served by the Southeast Research Farm, Crawfordsville, IA. The area served by the Southeast Research Farm is fairly broad so the maturity range of the varieties used varies by one maturity range. The new low linolenic soybean varieties are adapted to the area surrounding the research facility, and producers will need performance data to determine whether the premium offered for growing the new soybeans is adequate. Premiums are designed to cover yield drag and identity preservation cost.
A Tale of Two Compilations: Quadrupole Deformations and Internal Conversion Coefficients

(i) The deformation of the nuclear ground state is a fundamental property that can be deduced in even-even nuclei from the B(E2) value for the first 2+ (21+) state. In 1987, we published a compilation of such B(E2: 01+→ 21+) values for ~ 280 even-even nuclei. Very recently, we have updated the 1987 compilation and have compared the adopted B(E2: 01+ → 21+) values (for ~ 330 even-even nuclei) with those given by various theoretical models (Finite-Range Droplet Model, Woods Saxon Model, Relativistic Mean-Field Calculations, Extended Thomas-Fermi Strutinski Integral Method, Hartree-Fock+BCS Calculations, and Dynamical Microscopic Model). Agreement between theory and experiment varies from “reasonable” to “excellent”.(ii) Currently, the most widely used Internal Conversion Coefficient (ICC) compilations are those by Hager and Seltzer, Rosel et al., and Band and Trzhaskovskaya. In all three cases, the calculation of electron wave functions is carried out in the framework of the Hartree-Fock-Slater (HFS) method...
Academic research in the 21st century: maintaining scientific integrity in a climate of perverse incentives and hypercompetition.

Abstract Over the last 50 years, we argue that incentives for academic scientists have become increasingly perverse in terms of competition for research funding, development of quantitative metrics to measure performance, and a changing business model for higher education itself. Furthermore, decreased discretionary funding at the federal and state level is creating a hypercompetitive environment between government agencies (e.g., EPA, NIH, CDC), for scientists in these agencies, and for academics seeking funding from all sources—the combination of perverse incentives and decreased funding increases pressures that can lead to unethical behavior. If a critical mass of scientists become untrustworthy, a tipping point is possible in which the scientific enterprise itself becomes inherently corrupt and public trust is lost, risking a new dark age with devastating consequences to humanity. Academia and federal agencies should better support science as a public good, and incentivize altruistic and ethical outco...
From the Experience of Interactivity and Entertainment to Lower Intention to Smoke: A Randomized Controlled Trial and Path Analysis of a Web-Based Smoking Prevention Program for Adolescents

Background: Web-based programs for smoking prevention are being increasingly used with some success among adolescents. However, little is known about the mechanisms that link the experience of such programs to intended nicotine or tobacco control outcomes. Objective: Based on the experiential learning theory and extended elaboration likelihood model, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of a Web-based intervention, A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience (ASPIRE), on adolescents’ intention to smoke, while considering the experience of interactivity and entertainment as predictors of reduced intention to smoke, under a transitional user experience model. Methods: A total of 101 adolescents were recruited from after-school programs, provided consent, screened, and randomized in a single-blinded format to 1 of 2 conditions: the full ASPIRE program as the experimental condition (n=50) or an online , text-based version of ASPIRE as the control condition (n=51). Data were collected at baseline and immediate follow-up. Repeated-measures mixed-effects models and path analyses were conducted. Results: A total of 82 participants completed the study and were included in the analysis. Participants in the experimental condition were more likely to show a decrease in their intention to smoke than those in the control condition (beta=−0.18, P=.008). Perceived interactivity (beta=−0.27, P=.004) and entertainment (beta=−0.20, P=.04) were each associated with a decrease in intention to smoke independently. Results of path analyses indicated that perceived interactivity and perceived entertainment mediated the relationship between ASPIRE use and emotional involvement. Furthermore, perceived presence mediated the relationship between perceived interactivity and emotional involvement. There was a direct relationship between perceived entertainment and emotional involvement. Emotional involvement predicted a decrease in intention to smoke (beta=−0.16, P=.04). Conclusions: Adolescents’ experience of interactivity and entertainment contributed to the expected outcome of lower intention to smoke. Also, emphasis needs to be placed on the emotional experience during Web-based interventions in order to maximize reductions in smoking intentions. Going beyond mere evaluation of the effectiveness of a Web-based smoking prevention program, this study contributes to the understanding of adolescents’ psychological experience and its effect on their intention to smoke. With the results of this study, researchers can work to (1) enhance the experience of interactivity and entertainment and (2) amplify concepts of media effects (eg, presence and emotional involvement) in order to better reach health behavior outcomes. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02469779; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02469779 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6nxyZVOf0) [J Med Internet Res 2017;19(2):e44]
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increases the Risk of Cardiopulmonary Adverse Events Associated with Ambulatory Colonoscopy Independent of Body Mass Index.

The relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiopulmonary adverse events (CAEs) for ambulatory colonoscopy is unclear. To assess the association of BMI and CAEs associated with ambulatory colonoscopy. This is a retrospective cohort analysis of 418 patients who underwent outpatient colonoscopy at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center categorized as normal/overweight (BMI 30 that require further evaluation with larger studies.
Interactions among Streptomyces griseoviridis, Fusarium root disease, and Douglas-fir seedlings

In a laboratory experiment, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca [Beissn.] Franco) seedlings had similar disease ratings when treated with known Fusarium isolates or concurrently with Fusarium and Streptomyces griseoviridis. When tested under greenhouse conditions and against known Fusarium isolates, more seeds germinated and survived as seedlings in control medium than survived in S. griseoviridis-inoculated medium or when S. griseoviridis and Fusarium were added together. A series of applications of S. griseoviridis as a soil drench to a crop of Douglas-fir seedlings did not affect seedling morphology. However, against resident levels of Fusarium, S. griseoviridis reduced Fusarium infection by 16%, but increased infection by F. oxysporum and F. proliferatum, two potentially pathogenic fungi, by 40%.
CONSTAX: a tool for improved taxonomic resolution of environmental fungal ITS sequences

One of the most crucial steps in high-throughput sequence-based microbiome studies is the taxonomic assignment of sequences belonging to operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Without taxonomic classification, functional and biological information of microbial communities cannot be inferred or interpreted. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA is the conventional marker region for fungal community studies. While bioinformatics pipelines that cluster reads into OTUs have received much attention in the literature, less attention has been given to the taxonomic classification of these sequences, upon which biological inference is dependent. Here we compare how three common fungal OTU taxonomic assignment tools (RDP Classifier, UTAX, and SINTAX) handle ITS fungal sequence data. The classification power, defined as the proportion of assigned OTUs at a given taxonomic rank, varied among the classifiers. Classifiers were generally consistent (assignment of the same taxonomy to a given OTU) across datasets and ranks; a small number of OTUs were assigned unique classifications across programs. We developed CONSTAX (CONSensus TAXonomy), a Python tool that compares taxonomic classifications of the three programs and merges them into an improved consensus taxonomy. This tool also produces summary classification outputs that are useful for downstream analyses. Our results demonstrate that independent taxonomy assignment tools classify unique members of the fungal community, and greater classification power is realized by generating consensus taxonomy of available classifiers with CONSTAX.
Mass Media and Electoral Preferences During the 2016 US Presidential Race

This paper uses analyses of commercial polls alongside content-analytic measures of sentiment in the content of nine newspapers to explore the relationship between voter preferences and the tone of news coverage in the 2016 presidential election campaign. Both media coverage and voter preferences reflected the effects of certain campaign events—the conventions and the initial Comey intrusion—and there also is evidence of a relationship between the two. Indeed, it appears that the media both led and followed public preferences throughout much of the campaign, though evidence of followership actually is more robust; and the final weeks of the campaign show little to no media effects at all. Results speak to the importance of considering media not just as a driver, but also a follower of public sentiment.
Safety of Fruit, Nut, and Berry Products

Most food safety problems associated with fruits and berries arise from fresh-cut fruits and raw juices produced to meet consumer demand for minimally processed products. This chapter describes the most important bacterial, viral, protozoan, and chemical contaminants linked to the consumption of fruits, nuts, berries, or associated products. Avenues of contamination vary for fresh commodities throughout processing and distribution, including producer and consumer mishandling. Problems have been linked to both domestically grown and imported fruits, berries, nuts, and associated products. There is no comprehensive protocol to guarantee that raw products will be free of pathogens, but careful management, record keeping, and continuous consumer education can reduce the chances of illness from contaminated fresh commodities.
Teaching Business Ethics: A Case Study Of An Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy

The faculty within the undergraduate businessdepartment at Nova Southeastern University hasinstituted an Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy. This paper shares the steps the faculty followed inthe development and adoption of this policy. It isour hope that sharing our experiences concerning thispolicy implementation will help others consider asimilar policy. Recommendations are provided forpolicy development.
BAT: the bit-level analysis tool

While effective methods for bit-level verification of low-level properties exist, system-level properties that entail reasoning about a significant part of the design pose a major verification challenge. We present the Bit-level Analysis Tool (BAT), a state-of-the-art decision procedure for bit-level reasoning that implements a novel collection of techniques targeted towards enabling the verification of system-level properties. Key features of the BAT system are an expressive strongly-typed modeling and specification language, a fully automatic and efficient memory abstraction algorithm for extensional arrays, and a novel CNF generation algorithm. The BAT system can be used to automatically solve system-level RTL verification problems that were previously intractable, such as refinement-based verification of RTL-level pipelined machines.
Toward Scalable Analysis of Multidimensional Scientific Data: A Case Study of Electrode Arrays

Many modern scientific applications involve large volumes of multidimensional data and extensive computation. Although distributed systems and tools are becoming increasingly scalable, they are still far away to catch up the exponential growth rate exhibited by many of those scientific big-data applications. This paper presents our early effort on overcoming the exponential complexity of one widely deployed workload over multidimensional scientific data—the n×n numerical analysis on two-dimensional arrays. More specifically, we propose a new approach to reduce the exponentially-grown data into a semantically-equivalent polynomial form in the context of two-dimensional electrode arrays, which are widely used in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. We have implemented a system prototype in Python, preliminary results show that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-practice in various metrics: (i) the consumed space is six orders of magnitude smaller; (ii) the execution time is three orders of magnitude faster; and (iii) the scalability is improved by two orders of magnitude—from 6×6 to 100 × 100—on mainstream servers in reasonable time.
Intrinsic Gap States in Semiconductors with Inverted Band Structure: Comparison of SnTe vs PbTe Nanocrystals

In this contribution we compare size-dependent optical properties of PbTe and SnTe nanocrystals (NCs). We demonstrate that the size dependence of the band edge absorption line and the photoluminescence (PL) of PbTe NCs can be quantitatively described by optical transitions between the lowest quantum confined states of conduction and valence bands. In contrast, the optical properties of SnTe NCs are strongly influenced by intrinsic gap states that arise from the inverted band structure that can be described by introducing a negative energy gap Eg < 0. In principle, these intrinsic gap states could be observed directly in PL and absorption of small size SnTe NCs, where the wave functions of these states are spread over the entire NC volume. In our samples, however, these transitions are not observed due to self-doping of SnTe NCs by holes created from negatively charged Sn vacancies. As a result, the absorption is blue-shifted due to filling of the gap states and confined valence band levels by holes (pheno...
The Influence of Treatment on Children's Recovery From Stuttering: Comments on Kefalianos et al. (2017) and Leech et al. (2017)

Purpose Two studies published recently in this journal sought to expand on previous attempts to explain and predict young children's recovery from stuttering. This letter addresses the influence of treatment on such research. Conclusions Recent publications from Kefalianos et al. (2017) and Leech, Bernstein Ratner, Brown, and Weber (2017) added to previous information that gender and language ability (or language growth) may be related to children's recovery from stuttering. The conclusions from both studies are difficult to interpret, however, because neither incorporated two factors known to influence children's recovery: a family history of recovery and, especially, the type and timing of treatment. Consideration of these two articles therefore raises multiple empirical, theoretical, and clinical issues that deserve to be fully addressed if our discipline is seeking to understand and to maximize recovery for young children who stutter.
Pre-service Teachers Exploring the Role of Pattern-based Reasoning in the Context of Algebraic Thinking

This paper explores how a group of pre-service elementary school teachers training to become mathematics teachers for elementary schools arrived at generalizations based on patterns. Two representative problems were investigated with these preservice teachers. The focus of this study was how these preservice teachers analyze and symbolize algebraically their generalizations during a problem-solving process. The results indicate that the preservice teachers had difficulty making use of input-output (having two variables in the table) relationships in a generalization process associated with developing symbolic functions. This study identifies the crucial need for introducing students to pattern activities early on in their lives.