cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Automating the News: How Personalized News Recommender System Design Choices Impact News Reception

This study investigates the impact of personalized news recommender system design on selective exposure, elaboration, and knowledge. Scholars have worried that proliferation of personalization technologies will degrade public opinion by isolating people from challenging perspectives. Informed by selective exposure research, this study examines personalized news recommender system designs using a communication mediation model. Recommender system design choices examined include computer-generated personalized recommendations, user-customized recommendations, and full or limited news information environments based on recommendations. Results from an online mock election experiment with Ohio adult Internet users indicate increased selective exposure when using personalized news systems. However, portals recommending news based on explicit user customization result in significantly higher counterattitudinal news exposure. Expected positive effects on elaboration and indirect effects on knowledge through elabor...
Accelerated control of visceral Leishmania donovani infection in interleukin-6-deficient mice.

In patients with visceral leishmaniasis, increased levels of circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) regularly accompany fully expressed, progressive infections (kala-azar). To experimentally test the role of IL-6, responses to an intracellular Leishmania donovani infection in the livers of IL-6−/− and wild-type mice were compared. IL-6−/− mice showed an enhanced control of the infection and earlier, rapid parasite killing along with additional evidence of a stimulated antileishmanial Th1-cell-type response: increased levels of circulating gamma interferon, accelerated granuloma assembly, and heightened responsiveness to chemotherapy. In this model of visceral leishmaniasis, IL-6 appears to act in a suppressive, macrophage-deactivating fashion, which identifies it as a potential target for therapeutic blockade.
Nonlinear Pitch Decay Motion of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Structure

Model tests were conducted on three generic floating wind turbine systems in 2011 and reported in a series of papers at the 31st Ocean, Offshore, and Arctic Engineering Conference in 2012. These tests were conducted at the MARIN facility in The Netherlands, by a consortium of universities, government research organizations, and industry. As part of the testing program, decay tests in platform pitch were conducted with and without wind forcing. It was found that for spar and semisubmersible type structures, resonant pitch motion was damped due to wind in storm sea conditions. The nonlinear decay motion of a floating wind turbine platform is modeled using a one degree-of-freedom nonlinear oscillation equation about a mean offset angle. Attention is paid to the turbine thrust coefficient and its variability with respect to oncoming flow speed, which in turn is affected by the structure pitch motion. The equation of motion reveals that the mean offset position has an important role in the stiffness, damping, and consequently the natural period of pitch motion. Several important dimensionless parameters are introduced. The paper discusses a simple thrust model for an offshore wind turbine (OWT) based on rudiments of blade element theory. Using the simplified thrust coefficient formulation, the increase in platform pitch damping due to wind is formulated. Experimental data reported from prior tests described above show good agreement with the theoretical model.
A Competent Speaker Who Can't Speak: The Social Life of Aphasia

This article examines how a man able to speak only three words because of a severe stroke is nonetheless able to act as a competent speaker, indeed position himself as the teller of a complex story, by linking his limited talk and embodied action to the talk and action of others. This suggests a view of what it means to be a speaker that does not take as its point of departure the mental life and symbolic competence of the individual, but instead focuses on the practices required to participate in the public processes of sign exchange that constitute talk as a primordial site for human social life.1
Use of solar energy to reduce carbon dioxide

Abstract It is thermodynamically possible to decompose carbon dioxide to carbon and oxygen by means of thermochemical cycles analogous to cyclic processes for decomposing water. Highly concentrated solar energy can supply the necessary energy at temperatures that permit short, efficient cycles. The reduced carbon can be converted to fuels that are dense, convenient, and require no major changes in the consuming sector of the economy.
A two-mode structure of adaptive linear predictor

In this paper, we investigate a two-mode structure of adaptive linear predictor with application to speech coding. Initially, this structure has independently adapting low-order cascaded stages that use forward-backward linear prediction algorithm. Later, it switches to a regular transversal structure using least mean square (LMS) algorithm. This method enjoys fast convergence rate at the beginning and accurate tracking of inputs in the steady state.
Understanding the phase contrast optics to restore artifact-free microscopy images for segmentation

Phase contrast, a noninvasive microscopy imaging technique, is widely used to capture time-lapse images to monitor the behavior of transparent cells without staining or altering them. Due to the optical principle, phase contrast microscopy images contain artifacts such as the halo and shade-off that hinder image segmentation, a critical step in automated microscopy image analysis. Rather than treating phase contrast microscopy images as general natural images and applying generic image processing techniques on them, we propose to study the optical properties of the phase contrast microscope to model its image formation process. The phase contrast imaging system can be approximated by a linear imaging model. Based on this model and input image properties, we formulate a regularized quadratic cost function to restore artifact-free phase contrast images that directly correspond to the specimen’s optical path length. With artifacts removed, high quality segmentation can be achieved by simply thresholding the restored images. The imaging model and restoration method are quantitatively evaluated on microscopy image sequences with thousands of cells captured over several days. We also demonstrate that accurate restoration lays the foundation for high performance in cell detection and tracking.
Reconstruction and Function of Ancestral Center-of-Tree Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Proteins

The extensive diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and its capacity to mutate and escape host immune responses are major challenges for AIDS vaccine development. Ancestral sequences, which minimize the genetic distance to circulating strains, provide an opportunity to design immunogens with the potential to elicit broad recognition of HIV epitopes. We developed a phylogenetics-informed algorithm to reconstruct ancestral HIV sequences, called Center of Tree (COT). COT sequences have potentially significant benefits over isolate-based strategies, as they minimize the evolutionary distances to circulating strains. COT sequences are designed to surmount the potential pitfalls stemming from sampling bias with the consensus method and outlier bias with the most-recent-common-ancestor approach. We computationally derived COT sequences from circulating HIV-1 subtype B sequences for the genes encoding the major viral structural protein (Gag) and two regulatory proteins, Tat and Nef. COT genes were synthesized de novo and expressed in mammalian cells, and the proteins were characterized. COT Gag was shown to generate virus-like particles, while COT Tat transactivated gene expression from the HIV-1 long terminal repeat and COT Nef mediated downregulation of cell surface major histocompatibility complex class I. Thus, retrodicted ancestral COT proteins can retain the biological functions of extant HIV-1 proteins. Additionally, COT proteins were immunogenic, as they elicited antigen-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses in mice. These data support the utility of the COT approach to create novel and biologically active ancestral proteins as a starting point for studies of the structure, function, and biological fitness of highly variable genes, as well as for the rational design of globally relevant vaccine candidates.
Variable Structure Control Method for Fuel-Injected Systems

A nonlinear control method for automotive fuel-injection systems is developed using the theory of variable structure systems. This fuel-injection control method is formulated to be compatible with production sensors and actuators, and its feasibility and potential benefits are demonstrated using a research automobile. The motivation for this research stems from the fact that fuel-injection control is a difficult control problem due to the nonlinear and complex nature of engine dynamics and due to the limitations imposed by a switching-type feedback sensor.
Comparison of models of middle atmosphere composition with observations

Abstract This is a review of some of the more recently published comparisons of models with middle atmosphere trace species measurements. The extent to which models emulate the actual chemical composition of the atmosphere is delineated by emphasizing areas where models have done poorly, or are in disagreement with each other, rather than areas where there is good agreement between models and measurements. The trace species discussed are primarily N2O, HNO3, NO2, NO, NO3, N2O5, HCl, ClONO2, ClO, and ozone. It is hoped that these remarks on the relation of model results to the existing measurements will aid in the preparation of the future COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere of Trace Species.
Jobless Recovery: A Time Series Look at the United States

We use vector auto regression models controlling for log differences in gross domestic product (GDP), the unemployment rate, and changes in the unemployment rate to show that following a recession, the rate of decrease in the unemployment rate significantly slowed over time. Controlling for GDP growth rates, we find two structural breaks indicating weaker recoveries in the unemployment rate over time, i.e. recoveries that are increasingly jobless. The first break is in 1959, and the second is in 1984 coinciding with the usual timing of the Great Moderation. Using the 7.85% unemployment rate at the end of 2012 and assuming average annual recovery growth of 2%, the structural breaks imply an additional two full years are necessary to return to a historical long-run average of 5.5%. We empirically explore possible causes proposed in the literature including industry composition, participation rates and social benefits. Demographic shifts in the labor force and changing industry composition appear to be the strongest contributors to jobless recovery.
Numerical Error in Structural Solutions

Numerical error may destroy the significance of the results of a structural analysis, particularly for certain classes of structures. The initial truncation error originating from representing each value of the structural matrices to constant computer word length approximates the total numerical error in the solution for displacements in medium-sized problems. An upper bound for this error can be readily calculated, and is usually not too conservative when the global stiffness matrix is scaled before solution. When this error appears too large, only consistent higher precision representation and solution of the various structural matrices will ensure a more accurate solution. The varying accuracy of the displacements due to different loading conditions on the same structure is rigorously explained. The normal expression for the a posteriori error bound on the solution is unreliable as it omits the effect of initial truncation in representing the global stiffness matrix. Flexible areas within generally stiff structures and stiff areas within generally flexible structures can both lead to inaccurate solutions for displacements throughout the structure.
Controlling Conformations of Conjugated Polymers and Small Molecules: The Role of Nonbonding Interactions

The chemical variety present in the organic electronics literature has motivated us to investigate potential nonbonding interactions often incorporated into conformational “locking” schemes. We examine a variety of potential interactions, including oxygen–sulfur, nitrogen–sulfur, and fluorine–sulfur, using accurate quantum-chemical wave function methods and noncovalent interaction (NCI) analysis on a selection of high-performing conjugated polymers and small molecules found in the literature. In addition, we evaluate a set of nonbonding interactions occurring between various heterocyclic and pendant atoms taken from a group of representative π-conjugated molecules. Together with our survey and set of interactions, it is determined that while many nonbonding interactions possess weak binding capabilities, nontraditional hydrogen-bonding interactions, oxygen–hydrogen (CH···O) and nitrogen–hydrogen (CH···N), are alone in inducing conformational control and enhanced planarity along a polymer or small molecule...
Computational Sensing of Anisotropic Polarizability in Multiply Scattering Media

Stochastic sensing offers robust information about systems that vary randomly in time or space. Using polarimetric measurements and computational approaches, we show that is possible to determine anisotropies in the effective polarizability of inhomogeneous materials.
The Yield Anomaly in CoTi

Compression tests performed on both stoichiometric and cobalt-rich CoTi over a range of temperatures show a positive temperature dependence of the yield stress with increasing temperature, before a decline occurs at high temperatures. In the region of the peak yield stress, serrated yielding and a negative rate sensitivity of the yield stress were observed. Static strainaging also occurs. These observations are consistent with strong solute-dislocation interactions. Results from quenching experiments and strain rate change tests are presented, together with transmission electron microscope observations of the dislocation structures below, at, and slightly above the peak temperature. The results suggest that the yield anomaly in CoTi can be accounted for by a classical dynamic strain aging mechanism.
Abstract 1336: Concurrent Snail expression and Kras mutation promote pancreatic fibrosis

Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL One of the hallmarks of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the 4th leading cause of cancer related death in the US, is a pronounced collagen-rich stromal reaction. We recently published that type I collagen induces expression of Snail, a key regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, to promote invasion and scattering of PDAC cells (Shields MA, et al. JBC 2011). To further understand the role of Snail in PDAC progression we generated transgenic mice expressing Snail in the pancreas. While there was robust Snail expression in the mouse pancreas, no phenotypic changes were observed. Since inflammation can promote Snail-mediated invasion and metastasis, we treated the Snail-expressing mice with cerulein to induce chronic pancreatitis. Although there was significant inflammation associated with vacuolization, no difference in the pancreatitis response was observed between control and Snail-expressing mice. Since Kras mutation has been shown to be necessary for tumor development in mouse models of pancreatic cancer, we generated mice expressing both mutant KrasG12D and Snail (Kras+/Snail+). Compared to control mice (Kras+/Snail-), Kras+/Snail+ mice developed significantly more acinar to ductal metaplasia, cystic papillary lesions that were associated with increased fibrosis, increased Smad2 and Stat3 phosphorylation. Experiments are underway characterizing the mechanism by which Snail promotes pancreatic fibrosis in Kras-expressing mice. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1336. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1336
PCR detection and sequence analysis of the Wolbachia wsp gene in four gall wasps

Wolbachia is a cytoplasmically inherited bacterium which occurs widely in the reproductive tissues of arthropods. It causes a wide range of alterations to host reproduction,including induction of cytoplasmic incompatibility( CI),parthenogenesis induction( PI),genetic male feminization and male mortality. We examined the presence of Wolbachia in four American gall wasps,Callirhytis punctate Bassett,Dryocosmus palustris Osten Sacken,Antistrophus silphii Gillette and Antistrophus sp.,using polymerase chain reaction and sequence determination of the Wolbachia wsp gene. Wolbachia infection rates were found to be 60% and 36%,in C. punctate and D. palustris,respectively,but no infection was detected in the two Antistrophus species. The two wsp sequences of C. punctata and D. palustris have lengths of 564 bp and 561 bp,respectively,and were 94% similar. Further comparison with known wsp gene sequences in other cynipid wasps revealed a 100% similarity with those in C. punctata and Andricus solitarius( strain 1),Neuroterus macropterus and Synergus crassicornis and a similarity ranging between 79%- 99% in the remaining species. Phylogenic reconstruction of the relationships of Wolbachia strains in Cynipidae with known wsp sequences indicated that the Wolbachia strain of Callirhytis punctata is closely related to that of A. solitarius( strain 1),N. macropterus,Biorhiza pallida,and S. crassicornis,whereas the Wolbachia strain of D. palustris is closely related to that of A. mairei. Addition of the new wsp sequences did not change Wolbachia's established pattern of association in cynipid wasps,i. e.,the Wolbachia strain of Ceroptres cerri belongs to the B group whereas that of all other species belong to the A group. Additionally,we used the sexually reproductive generation to examine the presence of Wolbachia both in C. punctate and D. palustris. The results indicate that Wolbachia does not induce parthenogenesis in these species.
Who Needs to be Treated

Controversy surrounds the appropriate treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer. Physicians debate not only which treatment is best but also who needs to be treated. Men at high risk of developing symptomatic metastatic disease are clearly in need of therapy designed to relieve symptoms and, if possible, prolong life. Risk factors that predict disease progression include high-grade tumor (Gleason score 7-10), tumor volume >0.5 cc, younger age at diagnosis (<72 years), and the absence of competing medical hazards. These are the men destined to die from prostate cancer and who should be enrolled in randomized studies designed to optimize treatment strategies.
Stress echocardiography and its role in performance assessment.

Stress echocardiography in the horse is in its infancy, and investigations need to continue to determine the significance and mechanism of postexercise echocardiographic abnormalities detected in horses. This work should be coupled with investigations on the exercise-induced changes in cardiac isoenzymes, cTnl, arterial oxygen content, and cardiac rhythm that may occur concurrently. With continued investigations into the cardiovascular problems that occur in the exercising horse, the sport horse veterinarian should be better able to accurately diagnose and treat problems causing poor performance in the horse.
Bio-Resource Exchange: Study of Prevalence of Antibody Donation and Development of a Web Portal to Facilitate it

Bio-molecular reagents like antibodies required in experimental biology are expensive and their effectiveness, among other things, is critical to the success of the experiment. Although such resources are sometimes donated by one investigator to another through personal communication between the two, there is no previous study to our knowledge on the extent of such donations, nor a central platform that directs resource seekers to donors. In this paper, we describe, to our knowledge, a first attempt at building a web-portal titled Bio-Resource Exchange that attempts to bridge this gap between resource seekers and donors in the domain of experimental biology. Users on this portal can request for or donate antibodies, cell-lines and DNA Constructs. This resource could also serve as a crowd- sourced database of resources for experimental biology. Further, in order to index donations outside of our portal, we mined scientific articles to find instances of donations of antibodies and attempted to extract information about these donations at the finest granularity. Specifically, we extracted the name of the donor, his/her affiliation and the name of the antibody for every donation by parsing the acknowledgements sections of articles. To extract annotations at this level, we propose two approaches - a rule based algorithm and a bootstrapped relation learning algorithm. The algorithms extracted donor names, affiliations and antibody names with average accuracies of 57% and 62% respectively. We also created a dataset of 50 expert-annotated acknowledgements sections that will serve as a gold standard dataset to evaluate extraction algorithms in the future.
Evidence of discrimination against international medical graduates applying to family practice residency programs.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that discrimination exists against international medical graduates (IMGs) applying to US family practice residency programs. METHODS Two sets of letters were sent to 146 family practice residency programs randomly selected from the Directory of Graduate Medical Education Programs. The letters requested information and an application. All letters were identical except that the author of the first set was described as "a foreign medical graduate." The author of the second set was described as "a fourth-year medical student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center." Replies were monitored for 6 weeks after the second mailing. Response rates to each "candidate" were measured. In addition, responses were evaluated for the presence of a brochure describing the residency program, an application, cover letter, invitation for interview, eligibility criteria, and other material. RESULTS A total of 113 programs (79%) responded. Of these, 102 responded to the fourth-year medical student and 57 responded to the IMG. Of the 46 programs replying to both candidates, only 20 provided identical mailings. Nine of the 46 programs required IMGs to meet standards that exceeded requirements set by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates for residency training in the United States. CONCLUSIONS A pattern of dissimilarity exists in the way family practice residency programs respond to requests for application materials, and the differences appear to depend on whether the candidate is a US medical graduate or an IMG. These results raise questions about the fairness of current methods of resident selection.
Gifted Child Education

(1988). Gifted Child Education. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas: Vol. 61, No. 6, pp. 280-282.
Effect of stratum corneum heterogeneity, anisotropy, asymmetry and follicular pathway on transdermal penetration

The impact of the complex structure of the stratum corneum on transdermal penetration is not yet fully described by existing models. A quantitative and thorough study of skin permeation is essential for chemical exposure assessment and transdermal delivery of drugs. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of heterogeneity, anisotropy, asymmetry, follicular diffusion, and location of the main barrier of diffusion on percutaneous permeation. In the current study, the solution of the transient diffusion through a two-dimensional-anisotropic brick-and-mortar geometry of the stratum corneum is obtained using the commercial finite element program COMSOL Multiphysics. First, analytical solutions of an equivalent multilayer geometry are used to determine whether the lipids or corneocytes constitute the main permeation barrier. Also these analytical solutions are applied for validations of the finite element solutions. Three illustrative compounds are analyzed in these sections: diethyl phthalate, caffeine and nicotine. Then, asymmetry with depth and follicular diffusion are studied using caffeine as an illustrative compound. The following findings are drawn from this study: the main permeation barrier is located in the lipid layers; the flux and lag time of diffusion through a brick-and-mortar geometry are almost identical to the values corresponding to a multilayer geometry; the flux and lag time are affected when the lipid transbilayer diffusivity or the partition coefficients vary with depth, but are not affected by depth-dependent corneocyte diffusivity; and the follicular contribution has significance for low transbilayer lipid diffusivity, especially when flux between the follicle and the surrounding stratum corneum is involved. This study demonstrates that the diffusion is primarily transcellular and the main barrier is located in the lipid layers.
The Phylum Actinobacteria

Due to similarities between members of the genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus , historically the taxonomy of these organisms has often been confused; indeed, many former and contemporary texts have addressed these genera together. A major factor for this intermixing is that both taxa share several morphological and physiological similarities; for example, both are Gram-stain positive, are nonspore-forming and produce significant amounts of lactic acid as end-products of glucose metabolism. Furthermore, both Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus are regularly isolated from the GI tract of human infants and adults and both genera have been associated with potential health-promoting properties. However, several important traits can be used to differentiate between these taxa, the DNA mol.% G + C of bifidobacteria is much higher than lactobacilli and, in addition, the metabolic hexose bifidum shunt containing the key enzyme fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase are unique to the genus Bifidobacterium . But, it was not until the advent of molecular methods, and most significantly the application of 16S and 23 rRNA gene sequencing, that the taxonomy of these groups was finally resolved. Not only were the two genera found to be well separated, but more extraordinary, were phylogenetically located in different phyla; Lactobacillus was located within the Firmicutes while Bifidobacterium was found to be placed within the Actinobacteria . The phylum Actinobacteria is one of the major phyla in the domain Bacteria and is based on the branching pattern in the 16S rRNA gene tree and taxon-specific 16S rRNA signatures. This is further supported by the presence of conserved insertions and deletions (or indels) in certain proteins, and characteristic gene rearrangements. Within the phylum six classes have been circumscribed: Actinobacteria, Acidimicrobidiia, Coriobacteria, Nitriliruptoria, Rubrobacteria , and Thermoleophilia .
Drug-induced Adverse Events and Prescribing Cascades in Older Adults: Pharmacy Stakeholder Survey

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess pharmacists’ and student pharmacists’ understanding of drug-induced adverse events (DIAEs) and prescribing cascades (PC) and assess their willingness to use system-level approaches to identify DIAEs and PC for future patient interventions. Methods: Following a continuing education presentation on DIAEs and PC, pharmacists and student pharmacists completed a survey. A retrospective post-then-pre method was used to assess knowledge. McNemar tests and chi-square analyses were used to determine differences in understanding of DIAEs and PCs, as well as between pharmacists and student pharmacists. Results: A total of 53 participants completed the survey including pharmacists (n=39) and student pharmacists (n=14). Fewer participants had previously heard of the term (40%; p<0.001) and concept (60%; p<0.001) of PC compared to the term and concept (98% in both) of DIAE. Student pharmacists were less likely to have heard of the term PC (14%) compared to pharmacists (40%; p=0.029). There was no difference in knowledge of the concept of PC. Nearly all respondents were willing to assess for DIAE and PC in their patients, and over 75% of respondents were willing to receive systems-based alerts for DIAE and PC. Conclusion: There was a differential in understanding DIAE and PC among respondents. Programs aimed at building understanding, as well as systems-level alerts for PC, are needed. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: This author declare no conflicts of interest for this manuscript. Support: This publication was supported by the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences grant UL1TR000448, sub-award KL2TR000450, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Type: Student Project
Ovary and Fallopian Tube

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most frequent cause of cancer death in women. It accounts for 5% of all cancer deaths, with a mortality rate that exceeds the combined rates of cervical and endometrial carcinoma. Early detection is elusive as many cases present with nonspecific symptoms and are identified late in the course of the disease. A wide variety of non-neoplastic functional, inflammatory lesions of the ovary, the tube, and the broad ligament also result in the development of adnexal masses. Surgical exploration is indicated in many of these cases in order to clarify the nature of the lesions and manage the disease (Table 6.1). Gross and frozen section consultations are often needed to establish the neoplastic nature of an ovarian mass and help in differentiating benign tumors from borderline or malignant ones. Although a detailed discussion of the pathology of ovarian tumors is beyond the scope of this text, consideration of the different types is important, since handling such specimens should be tailored to the suspected tumor type, size, and the clinical presentation, with an emphasis on answering questions that will have an impact on the type and extent of surgery. Interpretation by frozen sections is also utilized to determine the presence of peritoneal spread and differentiation of primary from metastatic malignancies (Table 6.2). The status of the pelvic lymph nodes plays only a minor role in the immediate intraoperative decision-making in the case of ovarian lesions; thus, lymph node sampling for frozen section consultation is not routinely requested. Rarely, a biopsy is performed in cases of ovarian failure, and such cases require consultation with the surgeon prior to the procedure, to ensure proper handling of the specimen.
Enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism in developing galactose cataracts of rats.

Information on the nature of alterations in the protein composition of the lens preceding the formation of nuclear cataracts in galactose-fed rats was sought in an investigation of a group of enzymatic proteins. Changes in the levels of five enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism were followed through the progressive phases of cataract development. A marked decrease in the activity (per lens) of aldolase occurs early in the first week of galactose feeding and appears to correlate with the vacuolization of the lens cortex. The other enzymes studied remain at control levels until a few days after the appearance of nuclear cataracts, at the end of the second week. They then decrease up to 50 per cent in activity xohen half of the total protein is lost from the lens. The sensitivity of an enzymatic protein to lens changes induced by galactose is probably influenced by its intrinsic metabolic stability, regional distribution, and subcellular localization, but is not related to a sulfhydryl requirement for catalytic activity.
Use of predicted vital status to improve survival analysis of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cohorts

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cohorts often lack long-term survival data, and are summarized instead by initial treatment outcomes. When using Cox proportional hazards models to analyze these cohorts, this leads to censoring subjects at the time of the initial treatment outcome, instead of them providing full survival data. This may violate the non-informative censoring assumption of the model and may produce biased effect estimates. To address this problem, we develop a tool to predict vital status at the end of a cohort period using the initial treatment outcome and assess its ability to reduce bias in treatment effect estimates. We derive and apply a logistic regression model to predict vital status at the end of the cohort period and modify the unobserved survival outcomes to better match the predicted survival experience of study subjects. We compare hazard ratio estimates for effect of an aggressive treatment regimen from Cox proportional hazards models using time to initial treatment outcome, predicted vital status, and true vital status at the end of the cohort period. Models fit from initial treatment outcomes underestimate treatment effects by up to 22.1%, while using predicted vital status reduced this bias by 5.4%. Models utilizing the predicted vital status produce effect estimates consistently stronger and closer to the true treatment effect than estimates produced by models using the initial treatment outcome. Although studies often use initial treatment outcomes to estimate treatment effects, this may violate the non-informative censoring assumption of the Cox proportional hazards model and result in biased treatment effect estimates. Using predicted vital status at the end of the cohort period may reduce this bias in the analyses of MDR-TB treatment cohorts, yielding more accurate, and likely larger, treatment effect estimates. Further, these larger effect sizes can have downstream impacts on future study design by increasing power and reducing sample size needs.
The genetically engineered American chestnut tree as opportunity for reciprocal restoration in Haudenosaunee communities

Abstract As genetic engineering becomes a part of the toolkit for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, a broad range of social science frameworks are required to understand how different groups of people perceive these emerging technologies. Reciprocal restoration is one such framework that offers Indigenous-specific perspective on new applications of genetic engineering for conservation and restoration. The restoration plan for the American chestnut tree includes the potential wild release of a genetically engineered tree in close proximity to the sovereign Haudenosaunee communities of Central and Upstate New York. This paper uses reciprocal restoration as a framework for evaluating if a restoration project that uses a genetically engineered species could support broader cultural restoration efforts in these communities. Results are complex, but suggest that reciprocal restoration may be possible if certain foundational dimensions – such as kincentric relationships and spiritual responsibilities – are attended to. Reciprocal restoration also offers insight for future cases where Indigenous perspectives on the use of genetic engineering for conservation and restoration are important dimensions of broader governance considerations.
Change Theory Contributes to Choosing Wisely for Immune Thrombocytopenia.

OBJECTIVES: Despite 2011 guidelines in which it is suggested that treatment of acute immune thrombocytopenia purpura (aITP) is not needed for patients without significant bleeding, only 14% of children treated for aITP have bleeding symptoms. Our aim was to decrease the percentage of children with first-episode aITP who were unnecessarily treated by 50% within 12 months of guideline implementation. METHODS: An intervention was designed by using the precaution-adoption-process model. A standard-of-practice meeting was organized and focused on clinician readiness for change. After education on current evidence and common cognitive errors, consensus clinical guidelines were created. After implementation, an article in a statewide professional newsletter was published to educate community providers. Unnecessary treatment (UT) was defined as treatment of any patient who only had bruising and/or self-resolving nose bleeds. Statistical process control charts were used to track progress, midline shifts were determined by Nelson’s rules, and hospital costs were derived from administrative billing data. RESULTS: One hundred children with aITP were seen from January 2013 to September 2018. UT decreased from 70% to a sustained rate of CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated successful improvement in UT of aITP through an educational intervention informed by the precaution-adoption-process model change theory.
Caregiver coaching for language facilitation in early intervention for children with hearing loss

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this systematic review was to examine the empirical literature on caregiver coaching in early intervention with subsequent positive effects on language development of childre...
Water-Mediated Electronic Structure of Oligopeptides Probed by Their UV Circular Dichroism, Absorption Spectra, and Time-Dependent DFT Calculations

We investigate the UV absorption spectra of a series of cationic GxG peptides (where x denotes a guest residue) in aqueous solution and find that only a subset of these spectra show a strong depend...
Drug Combination Studies, Uniform Experimental Design and Extensions

Drug combination has been an important therapeutic development approach for cancer, viral or microbial infections, and other diseases involving complex biological networks. Synergistic drug combinations, which are more effective than predicted from summing effects of individual drugs, often achieve improved therapeutic index. Because drug-effect is dose-dependent, multiple doses of an individual drug need to be evaluated, giving rapidly escalating number of combinations and a challenging high dimensional statistical modeling problem. The lack of proper design and analysis methods for multi-drug combination studies have resulted in many missed therapeutic opportunities. It is known that, in the presence of model uncertainties, uniform measures that scatter the design points (the dose levels) uniformly in the experiment domain is the best strategy to yield maximum information on the dose response relation. This chapter will review some efficient experimental designs for drug combination studies especially those related to uniform measures and extensions using maximum entropy design.
Adaptive Feature Aggregation for Video Object Detection

Object detection, as a fundamental research topic of computer vision, is facing the challenges of video-related tasks. Objects in videos tend to be blurred, occluded, or out of focus more frequently. Existing works adopt feature aggregation and enhancement to design video-based object detectors. However, most of them do not consider the diversity of object movements and the quality of aggregated context features. Thus, they can not generate comparable results given blurred or crowded videos. In this paper, we propose an adaptive feature aggregation method for video object detection to deal with these problems. We introduce an adaptive quality-similarity weight, with a sparse and dense temporal aggregation policy, into our model. Compared with both image-based and video-based baselines on Im-ageNet and VIRAT datasets, our work consistently demonstrates better performance. Especially, our model improves the average precision of person detection in VIRAT from 85.93% to 87.21%. Several demonstration videos of this work are available1.
Multivariate remotely sensed and in-situ data assimilation for enhancing community WRF-Hydro model forecasting

Abstract Flood is one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the United States, particularly in the Southeast states where hurricanes and tropical storms are most prevalent, causing billions of dollars in damage annually and significant losses of life and property. The Weather Research and Forecasting Hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) is a community-based hydrologic model designed to improve the skill of hydrometeorological forecasts, such as river discharge, through simulating hydrologic prognostic (e.g., soil moisture) and diagnostic (e.g., energy fluxes) variables. These quantities are potentially biased or erroneous due to the uncertainties involved in all layers of hydrologic predictions. In this study, we use an ensemble based Data Assimilation (DA) approach to explore the benefit of independently and jointly assimilating remotely sensed SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) soil moisture (at different spatial resolutions) and USGS streamflow observations to improve the accuracy and reliability of WRF-Hydro model predictions while accounting for uncertainties. This study is conducted over a large region near to Houston, Texas where heavy rainfall from hurricane Harvey caused flooding in 2017. Before implementing DA, we first calibrated the WRF-Hydro model parameters using four United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauges installed within the watershed. In this step, we identified the most dominant model parameters, which were used later in the development of joint state-parameter DA. The findings of this study showed that the multivariate assimilation of soil moisture and streamflow observations results in improved prediction of streamflow as compared to univariate assimilation configurations and regardless of the watershed's streamflow regime. The results also revealed that, during the normal streamflow condition, assimilation of downscaled SMAP soil moisture at 1 km spatial resolution, would improve the accuracy of streamflow simulation more than the assimilation of coarse resolution products (i.e., the native SMAP at 36 km spatial resolution and its interpolated version at 9 km spatial resolution). However, during the period of hurricane Harvey, the soil moisture observations at different resolutions showed a similar impact on improving the streamflow prediction.
Use of the Lévy Flight Firefly Algorithm in 2D McClellan Unconstrained Transform Adaptive Filters

Recently published results demonstrated that bio-inspired Levy Flight Firefly Algorithms (LFFAs) can be effectively applied to IIR adaptive filter structures, non-linear adaptive structures, adaptive filters using second order coupled form sections, and adaptive lattice-ladder structures which have been well known for many decades. This paper shows how the LFFA can be used in 2D McClellan Unconstrained Transform adaptive filters so the transform domain parameters can be adjusted to accurately approximate the frequency domain contours when no a priori contour information is available. It appears that this is the first time that the LFFA has been used in 2D adaptive filtering.
Copper Nanomaterial Morphology and Composition Control Foliar Transfer through the Cuticle and Mediate Resistance to Root Fungal Disease in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Two copper nanomaterials (CuO nanoparticles [NPs] and Cu3(PO4)2·3H2O nanosheets) and CuSO4 were applied to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) leaves and elemental Cu movement from the leaf surface throu...
Age and social experience induced plasticity across brain regions of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus.

Developmental studies of brain volumes can reveal which portions of neural circuits are sensitive to environmental inputs. In social insects, differences in relative investment across brain regions...
A FFT accelerated high order finite difference method for elliptic boundary value problems over irregular domains

Abstract For elliptic boundary value problems (BVPs) involving irregular domains and Robin boundary condition, no numerical method is known to deliver a fourth order convergence and O ( N log ⁡ N ) efficiency, where N stands for the total degree-of-freedom of the system. Based on the matched interface and boundary (MIB) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) schemes, a new finite difference method is introduced for such problems, which involves two main components. First, a ray-casting MIB scheme is proposed to handle different types of boundary conditions, including Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, and their mix combinations. By enclosing the concerned irregular domain by a large enough cubic domain, the ray-casting MIB scheme generates necessary fictitious values outside the irregular domain by imposing boundary conditions along the normal direction of the boundary, so that a high order central difference discretization of the Laplacian can be formed. Second, an augmented MIB formulation is built, in which Cartesian derivative jumps are reconstructed on the boundary as auxiliary variables. By treating such variables as unknowns, the discrete Laplacian can be efficiently inverted by the FFT algorithm, in the Schur complement solution of the augmented system. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed augmented MIB method are numerically examined by considering various elliptic BVPs in two and three dimensions. Numerical results indicate that the new algorithm not only achieves a fourth order of accuracy in treating irregular domains and complex boundary conditions, but also maintains the FFT efficiency.
Systematic Approach to Arthropathies

Arthritis is, by definition, a disease confined to the joints. Many arthropathies result from systemic diseases. The goal of this chapter is to provide a systematic approach to the analysis and classification of arthritis. Arthropathies can be divided into four basic categories: productive, destructive, both productive and destructive, and those that only affect the ligaments surrounding joints. The major and common entities causing each of these Types of arthritis is discussed from the point of view of pathophysiology and diagnosis. Appropriate imaging modalities are reviewed.
Dengue virus and dendritic cells.

Little is known about the pathogenesis of the Dengue virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes about 50 million human infections annually, some of which may be fatal. Recent studies have demonstrated two subsets of dendritic cells, monocyte-derived dendritic cells and human skin Langerhans cells, that are targets for Dengue virus infection (pages 816–820 ).
Self-assembly in well-defined block copolymers as a route to novel nanostructured sp/sup 2/ carbon materials

This presentation describes two recently developed approaches to electrically active sp/sup 2/ carbon materials ("/spl pi/ cluster materials") utilizing self-assembly in well-defined block copolymers: i) control of nanostructure in block copolymers of regioregular poly(alkylthiophenes) and ii) synthesis of nanostructured carbon materials through pyrolysis of self-assembled block copolymer precursors containing polyacrylonitrile. The role of copolymer composition and processing conditions in determining the nanostructure as well as some potential applications of resulting materials are discussed.