cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Negotiation on cyber warfare

In spite of the growing the risk that cyber capacities could be used as military tools no international agreement has been finalized so far to prevent a cyberwarfare involving sovereign states as well as non-state actors. States have different conceptual approaches and priorities when approaching this subject and discussing definitions. There are additional peculiarities. The possession and use of cyber weapons capacities are not visible. The author of an attack cannot be clearly identified, and non-state actors can play at the same level as national states. The operators of such weapons can hardly be included in the classical legal category of “combatant”. Most countries have already established cyber structures integrated into their military chains of command and fully dedicated them to cyber defense and cyber offense. The cases of the US, Nato, European Union and the United Nations. Cyberwarfare has not yet acquired a legal status of its own in spite of the fact that after land, sea, air and outer space, cyberspace has become the fifth domain in which states can confront each other militarily. States have not even started to negotiate any sort international regulation. The Tallinn Manual on the International Law applicable to cyber warfare has no international legal value but has the merit of having established some fundamental principles. It indicates that the norms applicable to cyber are the same as those applicable to the other types of weapons and in particular the International humanitarian law. Nothing prevents the international community from considering cyberwarfare also in a preventive mode, and to craft cyber-specific rules prohibiting cyber instruments capable of provoking catastrophic consequences. A general prohibition of possession and use of cyber offensive capabilities would ideally be the preferable solution but we are nowhere close to such a solution. An uncontrolled cyber incident could act as a shock absorber to prevent a conflict from escalating; it could also become a trigger for a wider confrontation that the international community cannot risk. The problem of how to address the security implications of a cyber world will be with us for the years to come. Better to address the issue in a preventive mode rather than subsequently to a possible cyber confrontation.
Reducing the distance: financial services education in web-extended learning environments

It is estimated that financial services comprise around 15% of the global economy. From the supply side, one key to meeting this demand is being able to educate and certify the people who provide these services. With the advent of the internet and related technologies, the ability to deliver financial services education synchronously to both online and on-campus attendees has become a viable alternative to pure face-to-face or pure online asynchronous education. Nonetheless, one question remains: can virtual technology deliver comparable quality of financial services educational experience as face-to-face teaching? It is this question our paper addresses using the theory of transactional distance. The theory of transactional distance postulates that for optimal learning, the cognitive gap between instructor(s) and learner(s) needs to be minimized. We explore how transactional distance in financial services education varies by attendance modality (in-class, online and mixed) in a synchronous, web-extended classroom. The implications for managers and researchers are explored.
Using language models for improving speech recognition for U.S. Open Tennis Championships

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems deployed to sporting events generate subtitles to help people understand the sports action when they are in a noisy environment or if they are hearing impaired. The signal quality can be degraded due to crowd noise, emotional outbursts, and other sounds from sports play. Different accents from sports players around the world, in combination with different terminologies and slang, cause challenges for ASR systems. The use of our custom online supervised learning method provides a learning mechanism to enable ASR systems to adapt to sporting domains. In this paper, we discuss the results of a novel language model expansion for the 2016 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Words in the corpora are expanded by hypernyms (which provide broader meaning to a target word) and hyponyms (which provide specific meaning) of a synset, or groups of words that are synonyms. The candidate word is filtered on the basis of relevancy predictors. The contextual evidence provides our language model with "understanding" of tennis words to decrease the word error rate by 5.41% and to increase word confidence by 6.71%. Subtitling corrections by human annotators provide online learning for our language model. Transcribed videos from previous U.S. Open tournaments and from YouTube are used to evaluate all experiments.
Conformal Basis, Optical Theorem, and the Bulk Point Singularity

We study general properties of the conformal basis, the space of wave functions in ($d+2$)-dimensional Minkowski space that are primaries of the Lorentz group $SO(1,d+1)$. Scattering amplitudes written in this basis have the same symmetry as $d$-dimensional conformal correlators. We translate the optical theorem, which is a direct consequence of unitarity, into the conformal basis. In the particular case of a tree-level exchange diagram, the optical theorem takes the form of a conformal block decomposition on the principal continuous series, with operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients being the three-point coupling written in the same basis. We further discuss the relation between the massless conformal basis and the bulk point singularity in $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$. Some three- and four-point amplitudes in ($2+1$) dimensions are explicitly computed in this basis to demonstrate these results.
New device for nonvolitional evaluation of quadriceps force in ventilated patients.

INTRODUCTION In mechanically ventilated patients, nonvolitional assessment of quadriceps weakness using femoral-nerve stimulation (twitch force) while the leg rests on a right-angle trapezoid or dangles from the bed edge is impractical. Accordingly, we developed a knee-support apparatus for use in ventilated patients. METHODS Ninety subjects (12 ventilated patients, 28 ambulatory patients, and 50 healthy subjects) were enrolled. Twitches with leg-dangling, trapezoid, and knee-support setups were compared. RESULTS Knee-support twitches were similar to trapezoid twitches but smaller than leg-dangling twitches (P < 0.0001). Inter- and intraoperator agreement was high for knee-support twitches at 1 week and 1 month. In ventilated patients, knee-support twitches were smaller than in healthy subjects and ambulatory patients (P < 0.004). DISCUSSION The new knee-support apparatus allows accurate recording of quadriceps twitches. The ease of use in ventilated patients and excellent inter- and intraoperator agreement suggest that this technique is suitable for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in critically ill patients. Muscle Nerve 57: 784-791, 2018.
Changing Forms of Corruption in India

© Copyright Cambridge University Press 2018. This article has four important goals. First, I want to ask why liberalization and market-friendly reforms failed to curb corruption in India. Indeed, confounding the predictions of most proponents of reform, corruption seems to have increased after the neoliberal reforms of 1991. Second, I aim to develop a typology in which the importance of particular sectors to corrupt practices is highlighted and explained. Third, I point out that India has failed to make the 'transition' historically seen in low-income countries as they develop. Nation-states have in the past moved from a system of vertical corruption - marked by the extraction of small sums from a large number of transactions with citizens in everyday life - to a system of horizontal corruption, in which governmental elites extract large sums in a small number of transactions from corporate and commercial bodies. Finally, I argue that anti-corruption movements cannot be understood without paying attention to the affective and emotional ties that bind citizens to the state. We have to take account of contradictory feelings about the state: cynicism about the state and popular anger against corruption on one side, and an attachment to popular sovereignty and patronage on the other. These contradictory sentiments will better enable us to understand the conjunctures that lead to effective institutional change.
Near optimal finite-time terminal controllers for space trajectories via SDRE-based approach using dynamic programming

Abstract This paper presents a novel development to synthesize finite-time near optimal feedback control for nonlinear systems with nonlinear terminal constraints such as hypersurfaces. Especially when terminal hypersurfaces are posed as transcendental equations, the developed SDRE-based method contributes first-ever treatment for such cases. The SDRE-based approach, to synthesize continuous-time terminal controllers, is first extended for the fixed-final-time optimal control problems via solving the pointwise governing Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation subject to the pseudo-linear dynamical system with linear terminal constraints. Then, to fit these derived settings into a general class of terminal constraints as hypersurfaces, the method of successive linearization is employed to obtain approximated hyperplane which facilitates state-dependent boundary conditions in order to compute the feedback control input. To establish the developed methodology, numerical investigations on nonlinear systems including the fixed-finite-time optimal control problem of spacecraft spin maneuvers with a variety of terminal cases are illustrated with details. The obtained feedback solution, for all the examples, is compared with the respective openloop solution to validate the efficacy of the novel approach that accomplishes a very high accuracy of the synthesized terminal controller incurring the least cost-to-go even though terminal hypersurface has multiple endpoint solutions which are not a priori known.
Acoustically neglected and ignored building spaces

Often neglected and ignored building spaces in regard to room acoustics and building noise are corridors, stairways, and lobbies. For example, reverberant corridors in school teaching buildings are often noisy and provide an undesirable acoustic connection between classrooms; stairways are typically reverberant spaces that act as vertical corridors and are generally unpleasant spaces; lobbies are actually multipurpose spaces that serve as entrance, exit, and gathering spaces, and for performance facilities, they are also used as performance spaces. Examples of each of these building spaces will be discussed along with acoustic data and practical acoustic requirements.Often neglected and ignored building spaces in regard to room acoustics and building noise are corridors, stairways, and lobbies. For example, reverberant corridors in school teaching buildings are often noisy and provide an undesirable acoustic connection between classrooms; stairways are typically reverberant spaces that act as vertical corridors and are generally unpleasant spaces; lobbies are actually multipurpose spaces that serve as entrance, exit, and gathering spaces, and for performance facilities, they are also used as performance spaces. Examples of each of these building spaces will be discussed along with acoustic data and practical acoustic requirements.
Mechanistic investigations in α‐hydroxycarbonyls reduction by BH 4 ‐

BH4-, a well-known and widely used reducing agent for carbonyl compounds, has been reported to have the ability to participate in dihydrogen bonding, an interaction with applications in catalysis, stereoselectivity and crystal engineering. Specifically, α-hydroxycarbonyls are activated for reduction by dihydrogen bonding that occurs between BH4- and hydroxyl group. We explored the effect of the interaction on the mechanism of these reactions by examining their activation parameters. We found that dihydrogen bonding activates α-hydroxycyclopentanone for reduction with NBu4BH4 by lowering the activation enthalpy by 6.6 kcal/mol. While the activation entropy is a significant component of the barrier, the changes resulting from the occurrence of dihydrogen bonding are manifested predominantly in the enthalpy term. Computational studies suggest that, while internal hydrogen bonding is allowed by the flexibility of the carbon backbone, that interaction is outweighed by dihydrogen bonding once BH4- is present in the system. Experimentally, a red shift of the hydroxyl frequency is observed upon addition of BH4- to the reaction mixture, suggesting a dihydrogen bonding interaction. The flexibility of the substrate's skeleton or the selectivity of the hydride sites in BH4- does not account for the lack of directing effect of the dihydrogen bonding. When a substrate with a rigid naphthalene backbone moiety, 2-hydroxyacenaphthylen-1(2H)-one, is reduced, the stereochemical outcome is very similar to the one corresponding to the α-hydroxycyclopentanone. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Automated Extraction of Diagnostic Criteria From Electronic Health Records for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Development, Evaluation, and Application

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) bring many opportunities for information utilization. One such use is the surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This process currently comprises manual collection and review of EHRs of 4- and 8-year old children in 11 US states for the presence of ASD criteria. The work is time-consuming and expensive. Objective: Our objective was to automatically extract from EHRs the description of behaviors noted by the clinicians in evidence of the diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Previously, we reported on the classification of entire EHRs as ASD or not. In this work, we focus on the extraction of individual expressions of the different ASD criteria in the text. We intend to facilitate large-scale surveillance efforts for ASD and support analysis of changes over time as well as enable integration with other relevant data. Methods: We developed a natural language processing (NLP) parser to extract expressions of 12 DSM criteria using 104 patterns and 92 lexicons (1787 terms). The parser is rule-based to enable precise extraction of the entities from the text. The entities themselves are encompassed in the EHRs as very diverse expressions of the diagnostic criteria written by different people at different times (clinicians, speech pathologists, among others). Due to the sparsity of the data, a rule-based approach is best suited until larger datasets can be generated for machine learning algorithms. Results: We evaluated our rule-based parser and compared it with a machine learning baseline (decision tree). Using a test set of 6636 sentences (50 EHRs), we found that our parser achieved 76% precision, 43% recall (ie, sensitivity), and >99% specificity for criterion extraction. The performance was better for the rule-based approach than for the machine learning baseline (60% precision and 30% recall). For some individual criteria, precision was as high as 97% and recall 57%. Since precision was very high, we were assured that criteria were rarely assigned incorrectly, and our numbers presented a lower bound of their presence in EHRs. We then conducted a case study and parsed 4480 new EHRs covering 10 years of surveillance records from the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program. The social criteria (A1 criteria) showed the biggest change over the years. The communication criteria (A2 criteria) did not distinguish the ASD from the non-ASD records. Among behaviors and interests criteria (A3 criteria), 1 (A3b) was present with much greater frequency in the ASD than in the non-ASD EHRs. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that NLP can support large-scale analysis useful for ASD surveillance and research. In the future, we intend to facilitate detailed analysis and integration of national datasets.
Energy Homeostasis: Hypothalamic Development

The neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH) are key sensors for the peripheral metabolic signals (such as leptin and insulin) that are important for homeostatic feedback control of food intake and energy expenditure. In rodents, ARH neurons start developing between the first and third postnatal weeks. In the nonhuman primate, these projections develop during the third trimester of pregnancy. This species difference suggests that postnatal environmental cues, that is, nutrition, can have a significant impact on the development of these circuits. In contrast, maternal health and diet may play a more critical role in primates.
Role of Trophic Factors in Neuronal Aging

Neuronal cell death is an event associated with the pathophysiology of nerve injury, stroke and aging that is also a positive regulatory element in neuronal development. Whereas in all the aforementioned, the neurite outgrowth, as a part of the spectrum of responses by the surviving neurons, has been extensively studied at the molecular level; less is known about the molecular mechanisms that determine cell survival, except for the many classical biological experiments that have established that in vertebrate development, neuronal cell death is, in large measure but not uniquely, under the control of neuronotrophic factors such as the nerve growth factor protein, NGF (Thoenen et al., 1981). Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the phenomena resulting in neuronal death. One hypothesis is that neurons are particularly susceptible to free radical damage because of their very low basal endogenous levels of antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes and that neuronotrophic factors acting through their respective cell surface receptors can shift the oxidant-antioxidant balance through induction of antioxidant enzymes (Perez-Polo et al., 1986). The second hypothesis proposes that there are “suicide genes” whose repression by NGF results in cell survival (Martin et al., 1988). Following axotomy to peripheral sympathetic and sensory neurons or the more central projections of the basal forebrain into the hippocampal areas, NGF has also been shown to be necessary to peripheral regeneration and to sparing effects on cholinergic basal forebrain neurons following deafferentation. NGF has dramatic trophic effects on cholinergic neurons of the CNS in vitro, a regeneration paradigm (Bostwick et al, 1987; Hatanaka et al, 1988). In aged rodent and human CNS and PNS, there are reported decreases in the levels of NGF and its receptor, NGFR (Goedert et al, 1986; Angelucci et al, 1988; Uchida and Tonionaga, 1987). In the periphery, NGF has well documented effects on certain neuronal and non-neuronal cells alike whose physiological relevance is not understood in a definitive fashion (Levi-Montalcini, 1987; Lillien and Claude, 1985; Thorpe, et al., 1988).
Maajid Nawaz, Irshad Manji, and the Call for a Muslim Reformation

In the wake of unimaginable atrocities committed by militants of so-called ISIS or ISIS sympathizers and other terror groups around the world, a number of reform-minded Muslims are calling for an h...
Comparisons of Modern United States and Canadian Malting Barley Cultivars with Those from Pre-Prohibition: IV. Malting Quality Assessments Using Standard and Nonstandard Measures

AbstractThis study was conducted to identify which traits or combination of traits associated with malting quality and mashing performance could best define the differences between and within a population of six pre-Prohibition malting barley varieties and a population of five modern elite malting barley cultivars. To accomplish this, standard and nonstandard metrics of malt quality and of performance during Congress mashing were analyzed by simple linear correlations and multivariate statistics. Analyses of the two populations combined revealed that activities of α-amylase at each time sampled during mashing were positively and significantly correlated with the concentrations of glucose at that same time, were not significantly correlated with maltose concentrations at any time, and were only significantly correlated with maltotriose concentrations for the first 30 min of mashing. Activities of β-amylase were not significantly correlated with concentrations of glucose, maltose, or maltotriose at any time...
Going with the Flow? Public Lands and Private Property Along the Red River

If public land lies under the Red River, does the public land move as the river moves — does it go with the flow? Several treaties and a 1923 Supreme Court decision established federal ownership of the bed of the Red River from the river’s medial line to its south bank. But over almost one hundred years the river has meandered several miles north of what had been its south bank in 1923. In 2003, the United States (U.S.) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began a series of land surveys along the Texas side of the Red River. BLM surveyors appeared to stake out public land claims well south of the bank of the Red River onto property to which several Texas families held deeds and on which they had paid taxes, touching off a political and legal dispute. Individual landowners were joined by local counties and the State of Texas in a suit against the BLM, asserting that BLM actions and land claims were unlawful and unconstitutional, and seeking to establish their title to the disputed lands. At the center of the case is a dispute over how the boundaries of a river are established as its flow changes over time, but the case also illustrates how public lands policies evolve in an ecological process through the interaction of political and natural landscapes.
GPU accelerated t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding

Abstract Modern datasets and models are notoriously difficult to explore and analyze due to their inherent high dimensionality and massive numbers of samples. Existing visualization methods which employ dimensionality reduction to two or three dimensions are often inefficient and/or ineffective for these datasets. This paper introduces t-SNE-CUDA, a GPU-accelerated implementation of t-Distributed Symmetric Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) for visualizing datasets and models. t-SNE-CUDA significantly outperforms current implementations with 15-700x speedups on the CIFAR-10 and MNIST datasets. These speedups enable, for the first time, large scale visualizations of modern computer vision datasets such as ImageNet, as well as larger NLP datasets such as GloVe. From these new visualizations, we can draw a number of interesting conclusions. In addition, the performance on machine learning datasets allows us to compute t-SNE embeddings in close to real time, and we explore the applications of such fast embeddings in the domain of importance sampling for neural network training.
Immune Cell Infiltration May Be a Key Determinant of Long-Term Survival in Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Abstract Introduction Although most patients with SCLC die within a few months of diagnosis, a subgroup of patients survive for many years. Factors determining long-term survivorship remain largely unknown. We present the first comprehensive comparative genomic and tumor microenvironment analyses of SCLC between patients with long-term survivorship and patients with the expected survivorship. Methods We compared surgically resected tumors of 23 long-term SCLC survivors (survival >4 years) and 18 SCLC survivors with the expected survival time (survival ≤2 years). There were no significant differences in clinical variables, including TNM staging and curative- versus non–curative-intent surgery between the groups. Gene expression profiling was performed by using microarrays, and tumor microenvironment analyses were performed by immunohistochemistry of prominent immune-related markers. Results Immune-related genes and pathways represented the majority of the differentially overexpressed genes in long-term survivorship compared with in expected survivorship. The differences in the immunological tumor microenvironment were confirmed by quantitative immunostaining. Increased numbers of tumor-infiltrating and associated lymphocytes were present throughout tumors of long-term survivors of SCLC. Several differentiating patterns of enhanced antitumor immunity were identified. Although some areas of the tumors of long-term survivors of SCLC also harbored higher numbers of suppressive immune cells (monocytes, regulatory lymphocytes, and macrophages), the ratios of these suppressive cells to CD3-positive lymphocytes were generally lower in the tumors of long-term survivors of SCLC, indicating a less tumor-suppressive microenvironment. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that long-term survivorship of patients with SCLC is strongly influenced by the presence of the immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Characterization of the antitumor immune responses may identify opportunities for individualized immunotherapies for SCLC.
Impact of the microbiome on checkpoint inhibitor treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma

The microbiome is increasingly recognized for its role in multiple aspects of cancer development and treatment, specifically in response to checkpoint inhibitors. While checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment by producing durable anti-tumor responses, only a minority of patients respond to the available immunotherapy drugs and accurate, sensitive and specific microbiome predictors of response to treatment remain elusive. Additionally, the specific mechanisms linking the microbiome and host immunological responses remain unclear. In this review, we examine the evidence for the gut microbiome's association with anti-tumor responses to checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and renal cell carcinoma. Furthermore, we discuss the current evidence available from murine models seeking to explain the immunological mechanisms that may drive this process. While this work is promising in defining the impact of gut microbiota in cancer treatment, many unanswered questions indicate the need for additional human and experimental studies.
Management of metabolic disorders (including metabolic diseases) in ruminant and nonruminant animals

Abstract Metabolic disorders (including metabolic diseases), either inherited or acquired, result from defective biochemical pathways and deficiencies in enzymes, coenzymes or cofactors. Disorders caused by abnormal carbohydrate metabolism include diabetes, hypoglycemia, ruminal acidosis, ruminal bloat, equine exertional myopathy, hepatic and muscle glycogenosis, diarrhea in sucrose-fed neonatal pigs and lactose-fed chicks, and galactosemia. Disorders caused by abnormal lipid metabolism include fatty acid deficiency syndrome, ketosis in dairy cows, fatty cow syndrome, milk fat depression in dairy cows, fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome in laying hens, fatty liver and kidney syndrome in chickens, pregnancy toxemia, yellow fat disease, obesity, and gangliosidosis. Disorders caused by abnormal amino acid metabolism include amyloidosis, kwashiorkor, hyperhomocysteinemia, hyperammonemia, gout, edma, anemia, ascites syndrome in broilers, melanosis, and porphyria. Dietary deficiencies of vitamins and minerals result in certain metabolic diseases or disorders, such as beriberi, pellagra, edema, burning-foot syndrome, neural tube defects, scurvy, photophobia, xerophthalmia, keratomalacia, rickets, osteomalacia, liver steatosis, myopathy, liver necrosis, hemorrhage, milk fever, grass tetany, anemia, Keshan's disease, goiter, dental caries, Menke's disease, polioencephalomalacia, and infertility. Acquired deficiency syndromes can be cured by supplementation with the deficient nutrients. Excessive vitamins (particularly lipid-soluble vitamins) and minerals in diets are toxic to animals and must be avoided. Knowledge of metabolic disorders is necessary to enhance the efficiency of animal production.
The structure of helical lipoprotein lipase reveals an unexpected twist in lipase storage.

Lipases are enzymes necessary for the proper distribution and utilization of lipids in the human body. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is active in capillaries, where it plays a crucial role in preventing dyslipidemia by hydrolyzing triglycerides from packaged lipoproteins. Thirty years ago, the existence of a condensed and inactive LPL oligomer was proposed. Although recent work has shed light on the structure of the LPL monomer, the inactive oligomer remained opaque. Here we present a cryo-EM reconstruction of a helical LPL oligomer at 3.8-A resolution. Helix formation is concentration-dependent, and helices are composed of inactive dihedral LPL dimers. Heparin binding stabilizes LPL helices, and the presence of substrate triggers helix disassembly. Superresolution fluorescent microscopy of endogenous LPL revealed that LPL adopts a filament-like distribution in vesicles. Mutation of one of the helical LPL interaction interfaces causes loss of the filament-like distribution. Taken together, this suggests that LPL is condensed into its inactive helical form for storage in intracellular vesicles.
Measurement extraction of two targets with unequal intensities in a FPA

This paper concerns measurement extraction for targets in electro-optical (EO) sensors. The goal is to be able to estimate the location and intensities of two targets in a focal plane array (FPA). Work has been done previously on extracting single targets, as well as two targets of equal intensity. The current work extends this to two targets with unequal and unknown intensities. We consider point targets that deposit energy in the FPA according to a Gaussian point spread function (PSF) with parameter σPSF . The measurement extraction for the targets is performed using a Maximum Likelihood method using two different models: a two target model for resolved targets, and a one target centroid model for unresolved targets. We present the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) on estimation accuracy for both models and provide simulations that confirm of our method’s efficiency (i.e., that this lower bound is achieved). Our results show that a target separation of about 1:15σPSF is needed for efficient extraction.
Palatomaxillary Reconstruction: Fibula or Scapula.

Palatomaxillary reconstruction presents a unique challenge for the reconstructive surgeon. The maxillofacial skeleton preserves critical aerodigestive functions—it provides a stable hard palate to support mastication and separate the nasal and oral cavities, and buttress support to provide adequate midface contour. Free tissue transfer has become a routine part of the reconstructive ladder in managing palatomaxillary defects. While there is a wide variety of options for bony reconstruction within the head and neck, the fibula and the scapula, and their variations, have become two of the most commonly used options for midface reconstruction. This review will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both in specific regard to reconstruction of the palatomaxillary area.
Carcinogenesis: Failure of resolution of inflammation?

Abstract Inflammation in the tumor microenvironment is a hallmark of cancer and is recognized as a key characteristic of carcinogens. However, the failure of resolution of inflammation in cancer is only recently being understood. Products of arachidonic acid and related fatty acid metabolism called eicosanoids, including prostaglandins, leukotrienes, lipoxins, and epoxyeicosanoids, critically regulate inflammation, as well as its resolution. The resolution of inflammation is now appreciated to be an active biochemical process regulated by endogenous specialized pro-resolving lipid autacoid mediators which combat infections and stimulate tissue repair/regeneration. Environmental and chemical human carcinogens, including aflatoxins, asbestos, nitrosamines, alcohol, and tobacco, induce tumor-promoting inflammation and can disrupt the resolution of inflammation contributing to a devastating global cancer burden. While mechanisms of carcinogenesis have focused on genotoxic activity to induce mutations, nongenotoxic mechanisms such as inflammation and oxidative stress promote genotoxicity, proliferation, and mutations. Moreover, carcinogens initiate oxidative stress to synergize with inflammation and DNA damage to fuel a vicious feedback loop of cell death, tissue damage, and carcinogenesis. In contrast, stimulation of resolution of inflammation may prevent carcinogenesis by clearance of cellular debris via macrophage phagocytosis and inhibition of an eicosanoid/cytokine storm of pro-inflammatory mediators. Controlling the host inflammatory response and its resolution in carcinogen-induced cancers will be critical to reducing carcinogen-induced morbidity and mortality. Here we review the recent evidence that stimulation of resolution of inflammation, including pro-resolution lipid mediators and soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors, may be a new chemopreventive approach to prevent carcinogen-induced cancer that should be evaluated in humans.
An evaluation of a novel nanoformulation of imatinib mesylate in a mouse model of lupus nephritis

Studies have suggested imatinib mesylate (ImM) as a potential treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis (SLEN). However, ImM has limited renal excretion. The goal of the current research was to develop an ImM containing nanoformulation, conduct studies to evaluate pharmacokinetics, and determine whether kidney deposition can be enhanced in a mouse model of SLEN. A fish oil–based ImM oil-in-water nanoemulsion was developed and characterized for particle size, zeta potential, pH, and stability. MRL/MpJ-Faslrp (model of SLEN) and MRL/MpJ (control) mice (12–13 weeks) received one dose of ImM as either a nanoemulsion or naked drug. Pharmacokinetics and kidney deposition studies were performed. Statistics were conducted with a student’s T-test. The nanoemulsion characteristics included particle size range of 60–80 nm, zeta potential of −6.6 to −7.8 mV, polydispersity index < 0.3, 3-day stability at 4 °C, and limited ImM leakage from the nanoemulsion in serum. Pharmacokinetics of the nanoformulation showed changes to pharmacokinetic parameters suggesting reduced systemic exposures (with reduced potential for toxicities) to ImM. Kidney deposition of ImM was threefold higher after 4 h in the MRL/MpJ-Faslrp mice that received the nanoformulation vs. naked drug. The current study showed encouraging results for development of a stable and well-characterized nanoemulsion for optimizing kidney deposition of ImM. Future strategies will define dose-efficacy and dose-toxicity relationships and evaluate approaches to further enhance kidney delivery and optimize deposition to the mesangial location of the kidney.
Wolf syndrome

Since the initial description in 1965 of Wolf syndrome, or deletion of the short arm of chromosome number four, over one hundred cases have been reported. Much less, however, has been published on the radiologic findings in this disorder. We report a case with both typical and unusual features of the 4p- syndrome, including “bottle opener” deformity of the clavicles, and review the relevant literature.
Oral spindle cell lipoma: a rare occurrence and review of the literature

The spindle cell variant is a histologic subtype of lipoma that is rarely found in the oral cavity. Forty cases of oral spindle cell lipoma have been reported in the literature. A new case of a 71-year-old man with an asymptomatic buccal mucosal lesion is presented here. The lesion was removed locally and was sent for histopathologic diagnosis, and a final diagnosis of spindle cell lipoma was made. A literature review identified that the most common intraoral location of spindle cell lipoma is the tongue, with a male predilection for this specific lesion.
Starspots on by DRA-Type Stars

The first detection of spots on dwarf M stars was by Kron on YY Geminorum in 1948. Since then phenomena attributable to starspots have been found by numerous authors beginning with Kraft and Krzeminski on the star now known as BY Draconis and on CC Eridani by Evans. There is a close correlation between spottedness, Balmer emission and flaring in dwarf M stars.Evans appears to have been the first to attempt to analyse the small range light variations on spotted stars in terms of modulation caused by axial rotation. In comparison with the solar case one must assume that the spots are very large and long lived. There is also an ambiguity in dealing with very large dark spots as between a star with a dark area or a cool star with a bright area (the zebra effect—is a zebra a black animal with white stripes or a white animal with black stripes?). It is difficult to arrive at a solution for the spot parameters which is unique. In particular several analyses which have appeared have assumed that maximum light corresponds to the immaculate star whereas in fact the maximum light in the variation corresponds to the immaculate star dimmed by the light of any constant star abstraction.
Feast and Famine: Explaining Big Swings in the Hong Kong Economy between 1981 and 2007

On average between 1981 and 2007, output per capita in Hong Kong grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. But economic performance over the period was far from even. Between 1987 and 1997, output per capita averaged 9.7 percent above its long run growth path. In 1997, the feast ended and the famine began. Over the next 11 years, output per capita averaged 5.2 percent below its long run path. This paper attempts to explain this big swing. We use two types of analysis. First, we use a nine-variable Bayesian Vector Autoregression and summarize the results as a set of stylized facts. Chief among these is the finding that economic activity in Hong Kong is highly sensitive to shocks of foreign origin. Second, we set our and estimate a dynamic, general equilibrium model which is able to account, at least qualitatively, for our stylized facts. We use the model to infer the relative importance of different shocks in accounting for feast and famine in Hong Kong.
Experimental and theoretical evidence for cyclic selenurane formation during selenomethionine oxidation.

The oxidation products of selenomethionine (SeMet) have been studied via experimental 77Se NMR and theoretical 77Se chemical shifts. Four signals are observed: a diastereomeric pair of selenoxides at 840 ppm and two unidentified resonances at 703 and 716 ppm. Theoretical ΔG and chemical shifts suggest the 703 and 716 ppm resonances correspond to hypervalent selenium heterocycles, called selenuranes, formed by reaction with the amine or acid group of the amino acid and the selenoxide. To identify which of these selenuranes is formed, the amine and acid groups were individually protected. The N-formyl SeMet formed only the selenoxide pair at 840 ppm. The oxidized SeMet methyl ester produced signals at 703 and 716 ppm which are assigned as the Se–N selenurane.
Time course to hypothyroidism after fixed-dose radioablation therapy of Graves' disease in children.

Abstract Objective: To characterize the development of hypothyroidism in pediatric patients who receive a fixed dose of radioactive iodine (RAI). Study design: Medical records of children treated with fixed-dose RAI for Graves'disease between 1993 and 2001 were reviewed. Multiple variables including sex, age, thyroid hormone levels, thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin titer, antithyroid medication use, and 24-hour radioiodine uptake were investigated as possible predictive factors for the development of hypothyroidism after treatment. All patients received RAI at a dose of between 13.8 and 15.6 mCi (average, 14.7 mCi; SD, 0.5). Results: Permanent hypothyroidism developed in all 40 patients, although a second dose of RAI was required in one case. The average time to hypothyroidism was 77 days (SD, 32), with a range of 28 to 194 days; 75% of the patients were diagnosed with hypothyroidism between 40 and 90 days. RAI treatment was ineffective in an additional patient, who required subtotal thyroidectomy. Conclusions: We conclude that a fixed dose of RAI is effective therapy in nearly all pediatric patients with Graves'disease. Factors predicting the time course to hypothyroidism were not identified. (J Pediatr 2002;140:99-103)
Regional expression of the 1988 U.S. Midwest drought in seasonal δ13C of tree rings

[1] This study analyzes δ13C of subdivisions of the 1988 and 1989 growth rings from three conifer species (Pinus resinosa, Pinus strobus, and Picea glauca) across a network of nine sites over four states in the upper U.S. Midwest to infer seasonal and interannual environmental moisture conditions. Both years were characterized by different spatial patterns of drought (expressed through rainfall and Palmer Drought Indices), with the area of 1989 drought being smaller and shifting westward relative to 1988. Rings were subdivided into four equal segments from which holocellulose was separated. The range of δ13C variation within each ring was typically 1–2‰ for both years, and the single site where all three species co-occurred revealed coherent seasonal δ13C patterns for the pines but no correlation of the spruce δ13C patterns with those of the pines. Various averaged combinations of monthly Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and precipitation assigned to each subdivision versus both δ13C and discrimination (Δ ≈ δ13Cair − δ13Cplant) yielded significant correlations (generally higher with PDSI) and even stronger correlations when the spruce data were removed. The fraction of average monthly cumulative precipitation (relative to 1900–2001 means) for these 2 years was more strongly related to δ13C than either monthly precipitation or monthly fraction of average precipitation, but was not as strongly related to δ13C as was PDSI. Furthermore, the pattern of increasing δ13C in 1988 observed at several sites is an indicator of the increasing moisture stress of that year, and the difference between the 1988 and 1989 average isotopic compositions of the third and fourth subdivisions matched the regional moisture shift well.
Rates of starch hydrolysis and changes in viscosity in a range of common foods subjected to simulated digestion in vitro

A range of common starch-rich foods and pure starches was analysed for available carbohydrates and dietary fibre content, and subjected to a simulated digestion procedure in vitro. The initial rates of free sugar release differed markedly between foods; the time required for the release of 50% of the starch content of some legumes was up to 100 fold longer than that for foods such as potatoes and rice. A significant correlation (r=0.806; P<0.01) between the time required for hydrolysis and the total dietary fibre content of the foods was observed. The viscosity of the food samples declined during the course of digestion, but always remained markedly higher than that of pure starch. The rate of hydrolysis of starch appears to be the most important factor governing the human glycaemic response to foods described by other authors, but the final viscosity of partially digested foods may be of some significance.
Soil Phosphorus Distribution as Affected by Manure Compost Phosphorus Concentration and Incorporation

Phosphorus (P) from manure can become an environmental pollutant if applied to soil at rates in excess of plant uptake. This research examined the effects of composted beef cattle manures from two feeding regimens on soil P storage and forms. Composted manures were applied in the spring before planting (preplant) with incorporation, in spring after planting (postplant) without incorporation, or in winter without incorporation. Soils were sampled following 1 and 2 years of treatment at depths to 15.0 cm. All P fractions from both composted manures increased over pre-amended levels. High-P composted manure increased total P (TP) and inorganic P (IP) more than low-P composted manure. Total P and IP were greater in soils receiving low-P composted manure postplant than in those receiving manure preplant. Accumulation of TP and IP in uppermost depths was greater in the second year of composted manure application than in the first year. Appropriately managing composted manure requires integrating P concentration...
Broadband ultrafast transient absorption of iron (III) tetraphenylporphyrin chloride in the condensed phase

Abstract Ultrafast transient absorption of iron (III) tetraphenylporphyrin chloride [Fe (III) TPPCl] is used to probe the excited state relaxation in room temperature solution. The ground state was excited either at 400 nm near the Soret resonance or at 520 nm in the Q resonance. Relaxation from the lowest lying porphyrin singlet ( π , π ∗ ) manifold results in formation of a LMCT ( π , d π ) state on a time scale of 0.4–0.6 ps followed by a metal-to-ligand charge transfer transition from the iron to the porphyrin on a time scale of 1.8–2.3 ps, producing an excited 4 T intermediate spin state of Fe (III) TPPCl. The system relaxes back to the high spin 6 A 1 ground state on a time scale of 13–18 ps. The relatively slow electronic relaxation of the more symmetric Fe (III) TPPCl compound is contrasted with the much faster subpicosecond ground state recovery observed for less symmetric biologically active heme systems at room temperature.
Sequestration of virus-specific T cells in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with varicella zoster viral meningoencephalitis.

Abstract The frequency of virus-specific T cells in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with viral infection of the brain and meninges was determined by using a single-T-cell cloning technique where a representative sampling of T cells was cloned from cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with varicella zoster viral (VZV) meningoencephalitis. That the derived T-cell clone were in fact clonal was shown by demonstrating, on Southern blot analyses, unique rearrangements of the T-cell antigen-receptor β-chain genes of each clone. Five out of the 15 of the T4 + (CD4), 0/4 of the T8 + , and 0/1 of the T4 + T8 + T-cell clones proliferated to VZV, while no clones proliferated to mumps virus or myelin basic protein. There was no clonal expansion of any VZV-reactive T cell in this patient's cerebrospinal fluid. As VZV meningoencephalitis is thought to be due to the reactivation of a dormant herpes zoster viral infection, it can be regarded as a secondary immune response. The presence of different T-cell receptor β-chain gene rearrangements in each T-cell clone suggests that the T-cell response was polyclonal. These results demonstrate that a high frequency of polyclonal, T4 + antigen-specific T cells can be found in a naturaly occurring, localized, immune response.
Climate and intraspecific competition control the growth and life history of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Iliamna Lake, Alaska

Recent climate changes have had marked effects on the ice-free season and thermal conditions in many high-latitude lakes, but their ecological effects combine with density-dependent processes to af...