cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Speeding up dynamic time warping distance for sparse time series data

Dynamic time warping (DTW) distance has been effectively used in mining time series data in a multitude of domains. However, in its original formulation DTW is extremely inefficient in comparing long sparse time series, containing mostly zeros and some unevenly spaced nonzero observations. Original DTW distance does not take advantage of this sparsity, leading to redundant calculations and a prohibitively large computational cost for long time series. We derive a new time warping similarity measure (AWarp) for sparse time series that works on the run-length encoded representation of sparse time series. The complexity of AWarp is quadratic on the number of observations as opposed to the range of time of the time series. Therefore, AWarp can be several orders of magnitude faster than DTW on sparse time series. AWarp is exact for binary-valued time series and a close approximation of the original DTW distance for any-valued series. We discuss useful variants of AWarp: bounded (both upper and lower), constrained, and multidimensional. We show applications of AWarp to three data mining tasks including clustering, classification, and outlier detection, which are otherwise not feasible using classic DTW, while producing equivalent results. Potential areas of application include bot detection, human activity classification, search trend analysis, seismic analysis, and unusual review pattern mining.
Regional Economic Organizations and Conventional Security Challenges

Few dispute that security governance worldwide is insufficient. In the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, literature proliferated suggesting that regional organizations in cooperation with the United Nations represent the best hope for conflict amelioration. While early optimism has been tempered by the scope of security challenges and institutional capacity shortfalls at the global and regional levels, regional organizations have increasingly become mainstays in global security governance. This chapter asks why REOs decide to take on conventional security challenges and provides a short explication of comparative case studies methodologies, summaries of the three historical cases, and the thesis—The decision to transform the REOs from a predominantly economic organization into a conventional security actor is most influenced by decision makers’ perceptions of threat and functional necessity.
Mechanically tuned 3 dimensional hydrogels support human mammary fibroblast growth and viability

Carcinoma associated fibroblasts (CAFs or myofibroblasts) are activated fibroblasts which participate in breast tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion, metastasis and therapy resistance. As such, recent efforts have been directed toward understanding the factors responsible for activation of the phenotype. In this study, we have investigated how changes in the mechanical stiffness of a 3D hydrogel alter the behavior and myofibroblast-like properties of human mammary fibroblasts (HMFs). Here, we utilized microbial transglutaminase (mTG) to mechanically tune the stiffness of gelatin hydrogels and used rheology to show that increasing concentrations mTG resulted in hydrogels with greater elastic moduli (G’). Upon encapsulation of HMFs in 200 (compliant), 300 (moderate) and 1100 Pa (stiff) mTG hydrogels, it was found that the HMFs remained viable and proliferated over the 7 day culture period. Specifically, rates of proliferation were greatest for HMFs in moderate hydrogels. Regarding morphology, HMFs in compliant and moderate hydrogels exhibited a spindle-like morphology while HMFs in stiff hydrogels exhibited a rounded morphology with several large cellular protrusions. Quantification of cell morphology revealed that HMFs cultured in all mTG hydrogels overall assumed a more elongated phenotype over time in culture; however, few significant differences in morphology were observed between HMFs in each of the hydrogel conditions. To determine whether matrix stiffness upregulated expression of ECM and myofibroblast markers, western blot was performed on HMFs in compliant, moderate and stiff hydrogels. It was found that ECM and myofibroblast proteins varied in expression during both the culture period and according to matrix stiffness with no clear correlation between matrix stiffness and a myofibroblast phenotype. Finally, TGF-β levels were quantified in the conditioned media from HMFs in compliant, moderate and stiff hydrogels. TGF-β was significantly greater for HMFs encapsulated in stiff hydrogels. Overall, these results show that while HMFs are viable and proliferate in mTG hydrogels, increasing matrix stiffness of mTG gelatin hydrogels doesn’t support a robust myofibroblast phenotype from HMFs. These results have important implications for further understanding how modulating 3D matrix stiffness affects fibroblast morphology and activation into a myofibroblast phenotype.
Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: Exploiting Signaling Pathways Implicated in Endocrine Resistance

Advancements in molecular profiling and endocrine therapy (ET) have led to more focused clinical attention on precision medicine. These advances have expanded our understanding of breast cancer (BC) pathogenesis and hold promising implications for the future of therapy. The estrogen receptor‐α is a predominant endocrine regulatory protein in the breast and in estrogen‐induced BC. Successful targeting of proteins and genes within estrogen receptor (ER) nuclear and nonnuclear pathways remains a clinical goal. Several classes of antiestrogenic agents are available for patients with early, advanced, or metastatic BC, including selective ER modulators, aromatase inhibitors, and a selective ER degrader. Clinical development is focused upon characterizing the efficacy and tolerability of inhibitors that target the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/akt murine thymoma viral oncogene (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor (mTOR) signaling pathway or the cyclin‐dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) cell cycle pathway in women with hormone receptor‐positive, human epidermal growth receptor 2‐negative BC who have demonstrated disease recurrence or progression. De novo and acquired resistance remain a major challenge for women with BC receiving antiestrogenic therapy. Therefore, sequential combination of targeted ET is preferred in these patients, and the ever‐increasing understanding of resistance mechanisms may better inform the selection of future therapy. This review describes the intricate roles of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and CDK4/6 pathways in intracellular signaling and the use of endocrine and endocrine‐based combination therapy in BC.
Nanocomposite electrolytes for lithium batteries with reduced flammability

Abstract We report a family of flame-retardant electrolytes for lithium batteries based on ionic nanocomposites. The nanocomposites are synthesized in one pot by dispersing SiO2 nanoparticles charge-balanced by both Li ions and mono-amino-terminated polyether (PEO-b-PPO-NH3+) in an oligomeric PEO matrix. The Li+ and PEO-b-PPO-NH3+ ions lead to enhanced Li+ transference number and compatibility with the PEO matrix, respectively. The nanocomposite electrolyte containing 40% mass fraction of silica shows a notable electrochemical stability window of more than 6 V in contact with Lithium and high Li+ transference number over 0.5. Rheology measurements demonstrate the tunability of the system from liquid to gel-like as the silica mass fraction percentage increases from 0 to 40% while the conductivity remains almost constant. Thermal gravimetric and microscale combustion calorimeter measurements of the nanocomposites show decreased rate of mass loss and heat release rate compared to neat electrolyte. Finally, the fire retardancy of the nanocomposites measured by directly observing the formation and sustainability of flame, when exposed to direct fire, make them promising candidates in the ever-growing quest for safe lithium batteries.
Disobedient Bodies, Monstrous Affinities: Reframing Female Defilement in Natsuo Kirino’s The Goddess Chronicle

In this chapter, Dumas provides a reading of Natsuo Kirino’s novel The Goddess Chronicle, a feminist retelling of the eighth-century mytho-historical text Kojiki. Drawing on feminist thinkers Elizabeth Grosz and Bracha Ettinger, Dumas concentrates on its engagements with female embodiment to explore how historical notions of female defilement are reimagined as a vehicle of rebellion against patriarchal religious and sociocultural institutions. Dumas also argues that The Goddess Chronicle works to expose and resist a model of male narrative desire that is highly visible across the Japanese male literary canon. Finally, Dumas situates Kirino amid a genealogy of other modern Japanese women writers who similarly imagine female monstrosity as a vehicle of resistance to constraining gender paradigms, and from there to patriarchal constructions of nationhood.
Drug Use and Abuse: Cultural Concerns

In popular and scientific articles, drug abuse is often described as a chronic disorder and addicts are described as compulsive drug users. In support of this view, addicts who are in treatment usually resume drug use within six months. However, research based on clinic subjects does not provide a balanced account of drug abuse. In representative populations, addiction is primarily a disorder of young adulthood. This article is based largely on studies of drug use in representative populations. The main findings are (a) recovery from addiction is common, (b) addicts can learn to avoid drug cravings, (c) recovery is abetted by such factors as having a job and accepting responsibilities that are incompatible with drug use (e.g., parenthood), (d) drug pharmacology is critical, especially in regards to the transition from drug use to abuse, (e) increases in brain dopamine do not provide a distinctive, pharmacological common denominator for addictive drugs, and (f) the American Psychiatric Association criteria for classifying drug users are useful but overemphasize the compulsive-like features of addiction. The article's inclusion of data on recovery is not typical of the addiction literature, but it does reflect the epidemiological finding that, relative to other psychiatric disorders, addiction has a high recovery rate.
Optical Measurements of Photonic Band Structure in Colloidal Crystals

Polystyrene colloidal crystals form three-dimensional periodic dielectric structures which can be used for photonic band structure measurements in the visible regime. Kossel lines obtained from these crystals reveal the underlying photonic band structure of the lattice in a qualitative way. Also, Kossel lines are useful for locating symmetry points of the lattice for exact orientation of the crystals. Prom transmission measurements the photonic band structure of an fcc crystal has been obtained along the directions between the L-point and the W-point. A modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer has also been developed for accurately measuring relative phase shifts of light propagating in photonic crystals to determine the dispersion resulting from photonic band structure near the band edges.
Interfacial segregation during oxidation in O2 at 1173 K of CeO2-coated Fe-20Cr alloys

The interfacial segregation of sulphur and carbon during the oxidation in 1 torr O2 at 1173 K of Fe-20Cr alloy, which was either free of Ce, alloyed with 0.078 wt.% Ce, or sputter-coated with a 4 nm-thick CeO2 layer, was studied using polyatomic SIMS. Oxidation periods were up to 19 hr. During oxidation, sulphur and carbon accumulated at the alloy-oxide interface region of both uncoated and coated alloys. The amount of segregated sulphur did not vary appreciably with time, whereas carbon increased with time. The total amount of segregants was similar for both uncoated and coated alloys, although the scales formed on the sputter-coated alloy maintained adhesion and were about 10 times thinner than those on the uncoated alloys.
Preventing warfarin-related bleeding

Warfarin is one of the most common anticoagulants in current use. It maintains a narrow therapeutic index resulting in a significant amount of bleeding. Changes in concomitant medication use and acute illnesses are common causes of overanticoagulation. Monitoring regimens based on patient characteristics and the intensity and duration of anticoagulant therapy, along with simple prediction rules, can reduce the risk of warfarin-related bleeding. Supratherapeutic international normalized ratios are usually best treated by holding a dose and/or reducing the weekly dose of warfarin. Patients with acute bleeding require more urgent warfarin reversal.
Asymptotic Behavior Of Margin-Based Classification Methods

We investigate the asymptotic behavior of the margin-based classification methods in the limit of large dimension $ p\rightarrow \infty $ and large sample size $n \rightarrow \infty $ at fixed rate $\alpha = n/p$. Under spiked population model, we first derive a general framework for describing the performance of a class of classification methods. Then we apply this framework to two commonly used classification methods: Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Distance Weighted Discrimination (DWD). Our analytical results show that DWD is less sensitive to the tuning parameter and achieves better performance than SVM in situations where $n\lt p$. This finding provides a theoretical confirmation to the empirical results that have been observed in many previous simulation and real data studies.
The Road to Improving Home Oxygen Access: Research, Education, and Advocacy.

Supplemental oxygen has been the standard of care for management of hypoxemia for >30 y.[1][1] However, recent investigations have raised concerns about oxygen access, portable systems, patient education, safety, adherence, clinical effectiveness, and clinician training.[2][2]–[5][3] A qualitative
Multilevel Network Alignment

Network alignment, which aims to find the node correspondence across multiple networks, is a fundamental task in many areas, ranging from social network analysis to adversarial activity detection. The state-of-the-art in the data mining community often view the node correspondence as a probabilistic cross-network node similarity, and thus inevitably introduce an O(n2) lower bound on the computational complexity. Moreover, they might ignore the rich patterns (e.g., clusters) accompanying the real networks. In this paper, we propose a multilevel network alignment algorithm (Moana) which consists of three key steps. It first efficiently coarsens the input networks into their structured representations, and then aligns the coarsest representations of the input networks, followed by the interpolations to obtain the alignment at multiple levels including the node level at the finest granularity. The proposed coarsen-align-interpolate method bears two key advantages. First, it overcomes the O(n2) lower bound, achieving a linear complexity. Second, it helps reveal the alignment between rich patterns of the input networks at multiple levels (e.g., node, clusters, super-clusters, etc.). Extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm on both the node-level alignment and the alignment among rich patterns (e.g., clusters) at different granularities.
Local outlier factor based iterative outlier removal to reduce image artifacts in ultrasound guided diffuse optical tomography (Conference Presentation)

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) provides quantitative information about optical absorption and total hemoglobin concentration of breast tumors which is directly related to tumor angiogenesis. However, measurements errors caused by tissue heterogeneity may introduce artifacts in reconstructed absorption and total hemoglobin maps and therefore cause errors in quantitative characterization of lesions. With ultrasound-guided DOT, these artifacts can be recognized if they are isolated and located at edges of the absorption maps. However, effectively recognize image artifacts and automatically remove them is a challenge because artifacts can be merged partially with lesions maps. A new two-step algorithm is proposed to iteratively identify and remove measurement outliers based on assignment of local outlier factors and hence to reduce image artifacts and produce more consistent absorption maps among different wavelengths. In first step, perturbation measurements were ranked based on data density and the local outlier factor which is the probability of each measurement being an outlier. In second step, outliers are iteratively removed until normalized pattern correlation of different wavelength absorption maps is beyond a specified threshold. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on 20 clinical cases and it has demonstrated its capability to automatically reconstruct more consistent images for different wavelengths. The improvement on characterizing benign breast lesions is more dramatic because outliers can cause the reconstructed benign lesions with higher optical absorption and therefore high hemoglobin contrast.
Caring for Survivors of Gynecologic Cancer: Assessment and Management of Long-term and Late Effects.

Abstract Objective To define important aspects of survivorship care for the more than 1.2million survivors of gynecologic cancer currently living in the US. Data Sources Research articles, reviews, position statements and white papers, and evidence-based guidelines. Conclusion Survivorship care includes a coordinated plan of care, ongoing surveillance, health promotion support, and management of long-term and late effects of treatment. Implications for Nursing Practice Nurses need to be aware of the current guidelines for post-treatment surveillance and health promotion recommendations for survivors of gynecologic cancers. Early identification of long-term and late effects of treatment followed by coordinated medical intervention and self-management education are essential to improve quality of life.
A short history of sociological thought

Alan Swingewood’s A Short History of Sociological Thought has long been regarded as one of the best textbooks in its field. The book provides a clear, fair, and intellectually challenging introduct...
8 HPLC sample preparation

Abstract Sample preparation is a critical step in the analysis of pharmaceutical products. The samples being prepared can come in many forms, as neat chemical compounds such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) or in complex matrices that support discovery and toxicological studies requiring the isolation of analytes from reaction byproducts, animal feed, biological fluids and tissues, waste streams, or environmental samples. All of these require sample preparation prior to analysis, which is the point in the method where the analyst will manipulate samples and have a direct effect on quantitative analysis. Since modern instrumentation is designed in many ways to self-check to ensure that it is working properly, sample preparation becomes a major source of laboratory deviations. Since sample preparation errors are often subtle and not easily diagnosed the proper application of these techniques is critical. All sample preparation methods have their theoretical basis in chemical equilibrium, so an understanding of the fundamentals of chemical equilibrium is critical for developing, troubleshooting and investigating pharmaceutical methods is essential for the analyst. This chapter provides an overview of the fundamentals of extraction and chemical equilibrium, the traditional sample preparation techniques commonly employed in the pharmaceutical laboratory such as, direct injection, liquid liquid extraction and solid phase extraction along with some of the additional sample preparation methods that are establishing their place in lab, including solid phase microextraction, accelerated solvent extraction and microwave extraction, or are used to solve unique sample preparation challenges as in derivatization.
Abstract 1864: Verticillin A causes DNA damage and apoptosis in high grade serous ovarian cancer

High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most lethal gynecological malignancy affecting women worldwide and the fifth most common cause of cancer related deaths among U.S. women. New targeted therapies are needed to prevent HGSOC progression and metastasis related lethality from the disease. The goal of this study was to test the novel natural compound, Verticillin A, for its anticancer properties and mode of action in HGSOC cells. Verticillin A is an epipolythiodioxopiperazine (ETP) alkaloid that is isolated from several terrestrial and marine filamentous fungi and has been shown to be cytotoxic in several cancer cell lines including OVCAR8, OVCAR4 and Kuramochi. Our data indicated that Verticillin A treatment caused cytotoxicity in HGSOC cell lines in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, treatment with Verticillin A in HGSOC cell line OVCAR8 and OVCAR4 enhanced apoptosis, which was demonstrated by PARP cleavage and Annexin V/ Propidium iodide staining. To determine whether Verticillin A caused in vivo tumor growth inhibition, OVCAR8-RFP cells were xenografted in mice to form tumors and the mice were treated with Verticillin A. Encapsulated nanoparticles of Verticillin A decreased tumor growth in vivo and had low cytotoxicity compared to the naked drug. RNA-Seq analysis was performed with OVCAR8 cells treated with Verticillin A and the data found an upregulation of apoptosis signaling pathway and oxidative stress response and downregulation of cancer stemness signaling pathways. A proteomic histone profiling performed in OVCAR8 cells indicated that Verticillin A caused epigenetic modifications with global changes in histone methylation and acetylation marks. Thus, our study identifies Verticillin A as a novel epigenetic modifier in ovarian cancer cells and indicates therapeutic potential for treatment of HGSOC. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Amrita Salvi, Julia Austin, Daniel Lantvit, Joanna Burdette. Verticillin A causes DNA damage and apoptosis in high grade serous ovarian cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1864.
Temperature Increases in Aluminum Alloys During Mechanical-Impact Tests for Oxygen Compatibility

In mechanical-impact testing of Al-Li alloys and Al alloy 2219 for oxygen compatibility, specimens absorb a significant amount of energy in a short time. The absorbed energy is sufficient to crack and, in many cases, produce large fractures (splits) in the specimens. The high strain rate from impact results in the formation of adiabatic shear bands under adiabatic conditions in the deformed areas. Large local temperature increases in the specimens occur during deformation, leading to localized melting. Estimates of temperature increases assuming macroscopic homogeneous deformation during impact are presented. Characteristic times to propagate a thermal transient and to complete the mechanical deformation process are estimated. The difference between the alloy systems in this characteristic time to propagate a thermal disturbance offers a possible explanation of the differences in sizes and frequencies of reactions observed in Al alloy 2219, compared to the Al-Li alloys.
Oropharyngeal Oxygen Concentration Is Dependent on the Oxygen Mask System and Sampling Location

BACKGROUND: Numerous oxygen delivery systems are used to treat hypoxemia. It is unknown if FIO2 at the lips predicts oropharyngeal FIO2 for various oxygen mask systems. We tested whether FIO2 measurements differed between the lips and oropharynx, and whether this difference depends on the mask system. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers had one sampling catheter positioned at the lips and another catheter in the oropharynx. FIO2 was sampled at each location while the subjects breathed normal tidal volumes with oxygen at 15 L/min via 4 delivery devices: a simple mask, a non-rebreather mask, a face mask with a diffuser that concentrates and directs O2 toward the mouth and nose (mask with diffuser), and a closed mask with a Jackson-Rees circuit. Data were analyzed by using a linear mixed model to account for subject crossover in the repeated measures design. RESULTS: FIO2 levels differed significantly for the 4 delivery mask systems (P CONCLUSIONS: With high oxygen flows and normal tidal volume breathing, FIO2 measurements obtained at the oropharynx or at the lips depended on the device used, with the mask with diffuser showing the most significant discrepancies. FIO2 measures at the oropharynx and the lips were only consistent for the closed mask system. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration NCT02523586.)
Reliability of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Prediction of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Autograft Size and Comparison of Radiologist and Orthopaedic Surgeon Predictions.

Background:In anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, hamstring tendon autografts <8 mm have been associated with increased failure rates. There has been no established modality by which o...
Learning Science as Border Crossing: Experiences of Nahua Secondary School Students

This chapter explores how culturally relevant contextualized science curricula supports indigenous adolescents to learn science as border crossing between their traditional indigenous knowledge (TIK) and Western science knowledge (WSK). I propose that the dimensions of cultural cognition, socialization, and cultural narratives play a central role in shaping student prior knowledge, which is the main input for the contextualization process. Not accounting for these dimensions of prior knowledge when designing curriculum and instruction leaves marginalized students alone to navigate the differences between their culture and home language and the culture and language of school. This study takes culture and socialization into account by using multiples sources (cognitive tasks to explore teleology and essentialism, ethnographic observation of the student community and classroom, and interviews in the communities with students and adults) to develop eight principles of contextualization that align with the scholarship on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Indigenous Education. For the students, this approach resulted in a positive ethnic identity, the ability to use both TIK and WSK in a context-dependent manner, and the possibility of imagining futures in the field of science. The significance of this study lies not only in providing a set of principles and concrete examples for the contextualization of science curricula but also in providing an empirically developed process of curricular contextualization that integrates culture and cognition, socialization, experiences of border crossing, and a social justice approach. The categories of border crossing presented in this dissertation can be of great value to science teachers and curriculum designers willing to engage in culturally relevant pedagogies and provide an idea of the variety of experiences their students may have to create appropriate strategies to support all student learning.
Integrated Management of Stripe Rust and Overwintering of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in Wisconsin

Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) is the causal agent of stripe rust and is one of the most problematic pathogens of winter and spring wheat in the United States. Planting resistant cultiva...
Implementing contact angle boundary conditions for second-order Phase-Field models of wall-bounded multiphase flows.

In the present work, a general formulation is proposed to implement the contact angle boundary conditions for the second-order Phase-Field models, which is applicable to $N$-phase $(N \geqslant 2)$ moving contact line problems. To remedy the issue of mass change due to the contact angle boundary condition, a Lagrange multiplier is added to the original second-order Phase-Field models, which is determined by the consistent and conservative volume distribution algorithm so that the summation of the order parameters and the \textit{consistency of reduction} are not influenced. To physically couple the proposed formulation to the hydrodynamics, especially for large-density-ratio problems, the consistent formulation is employed. The reduction-consistent conservative Allen-Cahn models are chosen as examples to illustrate the application of the proposed formulation. The numerical scheme that preserves the consistency and conservation of the proposed formulation is employed to demonstrate its effectiveness. Results produced by the proposed formulation are in good agreement with the exact and/or asymptotic solutions. The proposed method captures complex dynamics of moving contact line problems having large density ratios.
Abstract P185: Feasibility and Outcome of Pharmacist-Enhanced Stroke Rounds

Background: Treatment of stroke patients is complex. Multidisicplinary rounds have been shown to decrease 30-day readmission rates, improve efficiency in work flow, communication between discipline...
Learning, Idea Sharing, and Transfer From a State 4-H Camp Counselor Workshop

Making eXtreme Counselors is a winter statewide camp counselor training workshop to prepare for the camp season. This training brings teens throughout Ohio together to help prepare them to serve as camp counselors in their own counties. Participants engage in competency-focused breakout sessions led by a variety of 4-H professionals, keynote presentations, and peer-to-peer sharing and interactions. To evaluate the workshop’s impact on the summer camping program, data from both teen participants and the 4-H professionals who worked with them were collected following the program for 3 years. Results indicated high ratings on gaining or enhancing skills related to leadership, teamwork, and the camping-related competencies covered in the workshop. In addition, the results indicated that participants shared ideas learned at the workshop with others and transferred their learning from the training to their performance as a camp counselor. Youth development professionals can adopt similar training strategies to enhance participants’ skills.
Evaluation of ELISA for the analysis of imidacloprid in biological matrices: Cross-reactivities, matrix interferences, and comparison to LC-MS/MS.

Abstract Imidacloprid is among the most used pesticides worldwide and there are toxicity concerns for nontarget organisms. Accurate and sensitive methods are necessary to quantitate imidacloprid concentrations in biological matrices to better understand their fate and effects. Here we evaluated an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit for the analysis of imidacloprid in biological samples. Following the dosing of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) with imidacloprid-treated wheat seeds, plasma, liver, and fecal matter samples were analyzed by ELISA and compared to previous analyses that employed liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Imidacloprid metabolites—5-OH-imidacloprid, imidacloprid-olefin, imidacloprid-urea, desnitro-imidacloprid, and 6-chloronicotinic acid—were tested for their cross-reactivity to antibodies within the commercial imidacloprid ELISA kit. The two major metabolites, 5-OH-imidacloprid and imidacloprid-olefin, showed cross-reactivities of 0.93–26 %. ELISA and LC-MS/MS results were positively correlated but there was poor agreement in concentrations: plasma and fecal matter imidacloprid concentrations were higher by ELISA, whereas liver imidacloprid concentrations were higher by LC-MS/MS. Matrix interferences observed in analyses were minimized by the application of matrix-matched calibration curves. ELISA provided an effective screening tool for imidacloprid in these biological matrices, but the presence of cross-reactants confounded results. Confirmation of ELISA results by more selective techniques (e.g., LC-MS/MS) is suggested for complex samples.
S-acylation of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: Mechanistic dissection, in vitro reconstitution and role in viral infectivity.

S-acylation, also known as palmitoylation, is the most widely prevalent form of protein lipidation, whereby long-chain fatty acids get attached to cysteine residues facing the cytosol. In humans, 23 members of the zDHHC family of integral membrane enzymes catalyze this modification. S-acylation is critical for the life cycle of many enveloped viruses. The Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, has the most cysteine-rich cytoplasmic tail among known human pathogens in the closely related family of β-coronaviruses; however, it is unclear which of the cytoplasmic cysteines are S-acylated, and what the impact of this modification is on viral infectivity. Here we identify specific cysteine clusters in the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 that are targets of S-acylation. Interestingly, when we investigated the effect of the cysteine clusters using pseudotyped virus, mutation of the same three clusters of cysteines severely compromised viral infectivity. We developed a library of expression constructs of human zDHHC enzymes and used them to identify zDHHC enzymes that can S-acylate SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. Finally, we reconstituted S-acylation of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein in vitro using purified zDHHC enzymes. We observe a striking heterogeneity in the S-acylation status of the different cysteines in our in cellulo experiments, which, remarkably, was recapitulated by the in vitro assay. Altogether, these results bolster our understanding of a poorly understood posttranslational modification integral to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. This study opens up avenues for further mechanistic dissection and lays the groundwork toward developing future strategies that could aid in the identification of targeted small-molecule modulators.
Heterogeneity of radiation response in mesenchymal subtype glioblastoma: molecular profiling and reactive oxygen species generation

Radiotherapy-induced tumor death remains critical in the successful first-line management of glioblastoma, whereas resistance to radiation serves as a major factor in disease progression. Mesenchymal shift has been identified as a driver in GBM recurrence, with gene expression associated with enhanced repair of macromolecular damage caused by radiation. Using distinct mesenchymal subtype GBM cells lines, radiation response was assessed by clonogenic assay and orthotopic mouse tumor model. RNA-sequencing was performed in the setting of increasing radiation dosing while real-time assessment of ROS generation was achieved by the measurement of hydroxyl spin trap adducts via electron paramagnetic resonance. Radiation-induced cell death determined by clonogenic assay was significantly different at low dose (4-8 Gy) between the resistant U3035 cells and the sensitive U3020 cells. Similar trends were present in the in vivo NSG mouse model following radiation dosing on post-implantation day 7–10, with the rate of reduction in tumor bioluminescence reversing between the U3020 and U3035 cells after the third dose of radiation. Changes in gene expression following radiation determined by RNA-sequencing indicate both U3035 and U3020 cells demonstrate a shift toward more mesenchymal profiles, with concurrent shift away from pro-neural subtype gene expression in the U3020 cells that appeared to develop resistance to radiation in vivo. Persistence of ROS generated following radiation was greater in U3020 cells shown to be more sensitive to radiation. Despite the same molecular classification, distinct GBM cell lines can demonstrate differential response to radiation and potential for mesenchymal shift associated with radiation resistance.
Energy insecurity and the urgent need for utility disconnection protections

Abstract Millions of Americans are unable to pay their energy bills and face the risk of being disconnected from their energy providers. This problem has grown significantly worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, with low-income households, households of color, and households with vulnerable populations particularly hard-hit by these conditions. In the early months of the pandemic, many states imposed temporary protections on utility disconnection but, as time has evolved, nearly all of these protections have lapsed. An increasing lack of protection has serious implications for vulnerable populations. Here, we present the extent of the energy insecurity problem in the United States, discuss the design and evolution of state disconnection protections, and offer policy recommendations for addressing this imminent challenge.
3D printing in cardiology: A review of applications and roles for advanced cardiac imaging

Abstract With the rate of cardiovascular diseases in the U.S increasing throughout the years, there is a need for developing more advanced treatment plans that can be tailored to specific patients and scenarios. The development of 3D printing is rapidly gaining acceptance into clinical cardiology. In this review, key technologies used in 3D printing are briefly summarized, particularly, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), open-source tools like MeshLab and MeshMixer, and 3D printing techniques such as fused deposition molding (FDM) and polyjet are reviewed. The combination of 3D printing, multiple image integration, and augmented reality may greatly enhance data visualization during diagnosis, treatment planning, and surgical procedures for cardiology.
A Reexamination of the Parens Patriae Power

Juvenile law scholars are coalescing around the idea that the originating theory of the juvenile system—the theory of the state’s parens patriae power—is a largely obsolete relic of the past. This theory holds that when children commit offenses or crimes, the state as a super-parent should respond in a manner that cares, treats, and advances the best interest of the youth. Rather than live up to its ideals, however, these benevolent aims often masked abuse and limited minors’ constitutional rights. The new consensus in current juvenile law scholarship is that juvenile law policy and advocacy ought to rely on a developmental framework as the primary guide for state action. This Article breaks from this emerging consensus. It reexamines the theory of the parens patriae power and shows that far from being obsolete, it continues to have an impact in the juvenile legal system, particularly on the interpretation of minors’ constitutional rights in juvenile and criminal law. Moreover, parens patriae principles and ideals are increasingly appearing for adults in the criminal system. The theory of this state power, therefore, should not be ignored, but rather modernized in conjunction with the developmental framework to address the contemporary concerns in juvenile and criminal law.
Procuring the Right to an Unfair Trial: Federal Rule of Evidence 804(B)(6) and the Due Process Implications of the Rule's Failure to Require Standards of Reliability for Admissible Evidence

This Comment argues that though the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing allows a court to forfeit both a defendant’s right to object to the admission of hearsay statements and the right of confrontation, the current state of the law requires all out-of-court statements admitted under Rule 804(b)(6) to possess some level of reliability in order to satisfy due process. Part I of this Comment discusses the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing, the courts’ treatment of this principle prior to 1997, and its codification into the Federal Rules of Evidence. Part II looks at Confrontation Clause issues unique to hearsay exceptions and examines Ohio v. Roberts19 and Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court’s two most important cases dealing with this issue. In discussing the guarantees of due process, Part III explains that any fair criminal trial requires convictions to be based on reliable evidence and maintains that Rule 804(b)(6), when given its plain language interpretation, violates the Due Process Clause by allowing admission of untrustworthy and unreliable evidence. Part IV of this Comment argues that the Crawford Court’s rejection of the Roberts “indicia of reliability” standard separated due process from Confrontation Clause analysis, thereby giving the accused a strengthened argument that all statements admitted under Rule 804(b)(6) must bear sufficient indicia of reliability.
Cosmochemistry: Chemistry of comets and other ice-bearing planetesimals

Overview Ices, composed of water and other volatile compounds, are a very important component of the solar system. Whether formed by condensation in the nebula or imported from the interstellar medium, these frozen substances accreted with dust and rock beyond the snowline to form vast swarms of planetesimals and some larger bodies. Most of the ice-bearing planetesimals have been swept out of the planetary region by gravitational interactions with the giant planets, and their distribution now extends out to the limits of the Sun's grasp. Occasionally these bodies careen into the inner solar system, where sunlight volatilizes their ices, revealing them to be comets. Other planetesimals that formerly contained ices have remained near their formation locations in the asteroid belt; most of these suffered aqueous alteration when ices were melted. In this chapter we consider what has been discovered about the chemistry of comets and hydrated asteroids. The importance of these objects to cosmochemistry is a consequence of their primitive compositions and remarkable state of preservation. Icy bodies in the solar system In Chapter 10, we briefly considered ices and how they trap noble gases and provide sites for the formation of organic matter in the ISM and the solar nebula. We now discuss the ices themselves, including how they originated, where they existed in the early solar system and where they exist today.
Cooperative graph search by a system of autonomous agents

Searching a random graph is known to be computationally complex. The classic example for the single agent case is the traveling salesman problem. In this paper, we generalize to the multi-agent case where n autonomous agents must cooperate to visit all the nodes of a random graph in an efficient manner. We impose a limitation on the agent's ability to communicate with each other. A satisficing game approach is ideally suited to this problem since it accommodates multiple solutions for each player and provides the opportunity for negotiation. We demonstrate performance of this approach on both deterministic and random graphs with up to 100 nodes.
Colloquium: Identifying the propagating charge modes in doped Mott insulators

High-temperature superconductivity in the copper-oxide ceramics remains an unsolved problem because we do not know what the propagating degrees of freedom are in the normal state. As a result, we do not know what are the weakly interacting degrees of freedom which pair up to form the superconducting condensate. That the electrons are not the propagating degrees of freedom in the cuprates is seen most directly from experiments that show spectral weight redistributions over all energy scales. In the correct low-energy theory, such rearrangements are minimized. This review focuses on the range of experimental consequences such ultraviolet-infrared mixings have on the normal state of the cuprates, such as the pseudogap, midinfrared band, temperature dependence of the Hall number, the superfluid density, and a recent theoretical advance which permits the identification of the propagating degrees of freedom in a doped Mott insulator. Within this theory, a wide range of phenomena which typify the normal state of the cuprates is shown to arise including $T$ linear resistivity.
Clifford-Valued Clifforms: A Geometric Language for Dirac Equations

Arguments from Cartan’s writings are shown to bear upon the related issues of “whether to use tangent or cotangent algebras to represent physical quantities” and of “the distinction, if any exists, between exterior forms and exterior differential forms.” The three series of indices that enter the tensor-valued differential forms of the Kahler calculus are then interpreted.
Broadband Acoustic Clutter

Abstract : The long term goal associated with this project is to improve performance of low-mid frequency active sonar systems against clutter. The objectives are to understand the mechanisms that lead to clutter and develop models that predict the temporal/spatial/frequency dependence of the observed clutter.
Finite element methods for viscoelastic flow

ABSTRACT Finite element methods to compute approximate solutions to flow problems involving the flows of viscoelastic fluids are discussed. The primary goals of such investigations are at least three: First, to evaluate the predictions of the many proposed constitutive theories for viscoelastic fluids. Second, to model measurement flows in various rheological measurement devices in order to quantify the deviation of the actual flow from the flow which must be presumed to interpret the measurement. Third, it is hoped that these methods will prove sufficiently robust to allow the simulation of idealized polymer processes with the aim of aiding in the design of such processes and the required apparatus. The focus of the current research of the author and a growing number of others is on two-dimensional, isothermal, steady flows of incompressible fluids. While these restrictions will be seen to be non-essential in theory, even the simplest calculations of non-viscometric flow solutions will be seen to require a high degree of computational complexity in practice. Nevertheless, the current finite element procedures seem to show promise in the continuing endeavor to understand this challenging class of problems.
Tomographic reconstruction of treponemal cytoplasmic filaments reveals novel bridging and anchoring components

An understanding of the involvement of bacterial cytoplasmic filaments in cell division requires the elucidation of the structural organization of those filamentous structures. Treponemal cytoplasmic filaments are composed of one protein, CfpA, and have been demonstrated to be involved in cell division. In this study, we used electron tomography to show that the filaments are part of a complex with a novel molecular organization that includes at least two distinct features decorating the filaments. One set of components appears to anchor the filaments to the cytoplasmic membrane. The other set of components appears to bridge the cytoplasmic filaments on the cytoplasmic side, and to be involved in the interfilament spacing within the cell. The filaments occupy between 3 and 18% of the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. These results reveal a novel filamentous molecular organization of independent filaments linked by bridges and continuously anchored to the membrane.
Impact of Soil Moisture Assimilation on Land Surface Model Spinup and Coupled Land–Atmosphere Prediction

AbstractAdvances in satellite monitoring of the terrestrial water cycle have led to a concerted effort to assimilate soil moisture observations from various platforms into offline land surface models (LSMs). One principal but still open question is that of the ability of land data assimilation (LDA) to improve LSM initial conditions for coupled short-term weather prediction. In this study, the impact of assimilating Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) soil moisture retrievals on coupled WRF Model forecasts is examined during the summers of dry (2006) and wet (2007) surface conditions in the southern Great Plains. LDA is carried out using NASA’s Land Information System (LIS) and the Noah LSM through an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) approach. The impacts of LDA on the 1) soil moisture and soil temperature initial conditions for WRF, 2) land–atmosphere coupling characteristics, and 3) ambient weather of the coupled LIS–WRF simulations are then assessed. Results show that impacts of soil m...