cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Locus Coeruleus and Norepinephrine

Within the next 2–3 decades, the western world will see an increase in the number of senior citizens. This increase will be accompanied by an increase incident of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), which are commonly associated with a loss of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons and basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, respectively. Recent studies have demonstrated that noradrenergic neurons of the pontine nucleus locus coeruleus also deteriorate in PD and AD patients and that the loss of noradrenergic neurons may precede the loss of dopaminergic neurons in PD patients and cholinergic neurons in AD patients. In addition, studies on animal models have demonstrated increased sensitivity of noradrenergic neurons to neurotoxic insults. Noradrenergic neurons are thought to help regulate expression of growth factors, such as glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both of which are down regulated in neurodegenerative disorders. These neurons also play a potential role in regulating neuroinflammation, by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This article focuses on the role of noradrenergic neurons in AD and PD pathology, as well as on potential therapeutics targeting norepinephrine pathways.
DNA enters a new phase.

A phase-separated state is observed with single-stranded DNA composed of ‘polymeric’ blocks and exploited to programme the assembly of micrometre-sized all-DNA colloidal particles.
Exploring the Use of Photo-Stories and Fiction Writing to Address HIV Stigma Among Health Professions Students.

HIV/AIDS stigma exists in healthcare and is harmful to people living with HIV (PLWH). Few anti-stigma interventions target undergraduate health professions students, although evidence supports reac...
Foot’s Grammar of Goodness

My goal in this chapter is to provide a sympathetic interpretation of Foot’s grammar of goodness, clarifying and expanding it in a few places, and defending it against some objections. I begin by sketching Foot’s grammar. As I understand it, that grammar includes four main notions: (1) The Good Of, (2) Good As/Good In, (3) Good For, and (4) Goods/Good Things. I then consider the relation between Good For, on the one hand, and The Good Of and Good As, on the other. Is it always Good For a living thing to be Good As the kind of thing it is? Could something be Good For an organism without being part of The Good Of that kind of thing? I argue that Good For, Good As, and The Good Of are inseparable: What is Good For a living thing just is that which furthers or constitutes The Good Of such a creature, and The Good Of any creature is the actualization of those well-formed capacities that make it Good As the kind of creature that it is. In the final part of this chapter, I consider how happiness fits into Foot’s grammar of goodness as applied to human beings, paying special attention to the idea that The Good Of any living thing consists in a certain form of activity.
Tribocorrosion of Porous Titanium Used in Biomedical Applications

Titanium and its alloys have become increasingly important in the dental and orthopedic fields due to its good machinability, high yield strength, good ductility, excellent corrosion resistance, and superior biocompatibility compared to other materials. However, an inherent drawback of using pure titanium and its alloys as implant material is the significant mismatch between the moduli of bone and titanium, resulting in the stress shielding effect, fibrous tissue ingrowth, and bone resorption, and therefore reducing the lifespan of the implant. Porous titanium is thus a suitable candidate as implant material due to its ability to be manufactured to a specific Young’s modulus—typically that of bone. Porous titanium has the unique advantage of allowing bone tissue ingrowth into the open space of the implants, thereby accelerating the osseointegration process. The human body as well as the oral cavity is a highly complex environment in which the simultaneous interaction between wear and corrosion, namely tribocorrosion, takes place. Thus, understanding these interactions is of great interest in order to characterize the degradation mechanisms of porous titanium materials used as implants. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of porous titanium as a viable biomedical implant material. A significant part of this paper is focused on how porous titanium is manufactured and how its parameters are controlled. The following sections focus on the corrosion, wear, and tribocorrosion aspects of porous titanium implant materials. Finally, this review also determines the current limitations in the field and provides future directions in this field.
Flawed Decompression of Swinging Door Algorithm in PMU Historians

Currently, swinging door algorithm is being used by some utilities in United States for compressing phasor measurement units (PMUs) data to reduce storage cost. The algorithm compresses the PMU data by discarding a subset of the raw PMU measurements. Thus, the compressed data becomes a subset of the raw PMU measurements. During decompression, samples in the discarded subset are interpolated from samples in the compressed subset. In this paper, differences between raw and decompressed PMU measurements are investigated in both time and frequency domains for particular data sets from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council system. When compared with original raw measurements, the decompressed data is found to contain some artifacts. Further investigation revealed that the artifacts are from errors in both the decompression algorithm and phase wrapping. Using reverse engineering, plausible causes of these artifacts are hypothesized mathematically. Based on the hypothesis, a novel algorithm is proposed which corrects the decompressed data. Results of the algorithm suggests that utilities who have PMU data corrupted by the flawed decompression algorithm and/or flawed phase wrapping can use the algorithm to remove the artifacts from the corrupted decompressed data. Ideally, in the future the utilities would correct the errors in the decompression code.
Virtual reality suicide: Development of a translational approach for studying suicide causes.

Abstract Causal knowledge is crucial for understanding and preventing suicide. Unfortunately, we have little direct knowledge about suicide causes because we cannot conduct experiments that seek to make suicide more likely. In such situations, translational approaches can provide valuable, though tentative, information. We sought to establish a new translational approach by developing a laboratory approximation of suicide with new virtual reality (VR) technologies. Such an approach would allow researchers to tentatively investigate the causes of suicide by conducting experiments that introduce purported causes of suicide and observe their effects on VR suicide rates. Across three studies (total N = 498), results indicated that our two VR suicide scenarios (jumping from heights; shooting oneself) were safe; rated as unpleasant, realistic, and suicide-relevant; associated with several relevant predictors of VR suicide completion, including male sex, suicidal desire, suicidal capability, agitation, and prior suicidality; associated with reasons for not engaging in VR suicide that are similar to the reasons people give for not engaging in actual suicide; and produced 5% completion rates under neutral conditions and 25% completion rates after reward/avoid manipulations. We hope that future work further improves this approach and applies it to more directly test ideas about suicide causes and suicide prevention.
Shared Decision Making and End-of-Life Discussions in the PICU

Communication with parents about end-of-life decisions is one of the most challenging but crucial aspects of a pediatric intensivist’s role. Making decisions for dying patients was physically, emotionally and morally easier when patients were less complex and less dependent upon technology, and when physicians felt justified in making unilateral decisions. Now these decisions are more complex. They require parents to comprehend complicated medical scenarios. They also require the incorporation of the family’s values and goals through the shared decision making process. When these conversations go poorly, it can lead to compromised care for the child and increased moral distress among all involved. This chapter will describe these issues, in addition to pieces from a large body of research suggesting that such conversations require skills that can be taught and can be learned. Healthcare providers have a duty to hone these skills. In doing so, they will improve the experience of parents in the death of their child, decrease moral distress and burn-out within the PICU, and most importantly, improve the care provided to our patients.
LBA-22 PROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF 18 F- DCFPYL IN PATIENTS WITH BIOCHEMICALLY RECURRENT PROSTATE CANCER

Poster: "EANM 19 / EP-0461 / Prospective evaluation of 18F-DCFPyL in Patients with Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer" by: "A. Iagaru, H. Duan, H. Song, C. Harrison, K. Guja, B. Franc, F. Moradi, G. Davidzon; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"
Metaanalysis of Related Research

The research literature of behavioral medicine, along with that of many other areas of scientific research, is experiencing dramatic growth. Many important research areas now have several or even dozens of research studies or clinical trials that address similar questions. These circumstances pose new problems in the appraisal, evaluation, and use of the collective body of research evidence on important questions. The use of quantitative procedures for combining research results has become important as a response to increasingly complex research literatures in biostatistics as well as in the social, behavioral, and physical sciences. Such procedures can make the synthesis of research findings more rigorous and potentially more valid, while providing feasible means for addressing ever larger and more complex collections of research findings.
Edge States and Topological Pumping in Spatially Modulated Elastic Lattices

One-dimensional elastic lattices with spatial modulations of stiffness defined by the sampling of a two-dimensional surface exhibit non-trivial topological properties measured by integer valued Chern numbers. We show that non-trivial gaps in the spectrum are spanned by edge modes for finite lattices whose location is determined by the stiffness phase. These principles are applied for the implementation of a topological pump in an array of continuous elastic beams coupled elastically through a distributed stiffness. Adiabatic modulation of the coupling stiffness along the length of the beams drives a mode transition from a localized state at one boundary, to a bulk state and, finally, to another localized state at the opposite boundary.
Implementation of a standardized voiding management protocol to reduce unnecessary re-catheterization - A quality improvement project

Abstract Objective To design and implement a standardized postoperative voiding management protocol that accurately identifies patients with urinary retention and reduces unnecessary re-catheterization. Methods A postoperative voiding management protocol was designed and implemented in patients undergoing major, inpatient, non-radical abdominal surgery with a gynecologic oncologist. No patients had epidural catheters. The implemented quality improvement (QI) protocol included: 1) Foley removal at six hours postoperatively; 2) universal bladder scan after the first void; and 3) limiting re-catheterization to patients with bladder scan volumes >150 ml. A total of 96 patients post-protocol implementation were compared to 52 patients pre-protocol. Along with baseline demographic data and timing of catheter removal, we recorded the presence or absence of urinary retention and/or unnecessary re-catheterization and postoperative urinary tract infection rates. Fisher's exact test and student's t-tests were performed for comparisons. Results The overall rate of postoperative urinary retention was 21.6% (32/148). The new voiding management protocol reduced the rate of unnecessary re-catheterization by 90% (13.5% vs 2.1%, p = 0.01), without overlooking true urinary retention (23.1% vs 20.8%, p = 0.83). Additionally, there was a significant increase in hospital-defined early discharge prior to 11:00 AM (4.0% vs 22.0%, p = 0.022). There was no difference in the postoperative urinary tract infection rate between the groups (p = 1.00). Risk factors associated with urinary retention included older age (p Conclusions Implementation of this new voiding management protocol reduced unnecessary re-catheterization, captured and treated true urinary retention, and facilitated early hospital discharge.
Leveraging pleiotropy in genome-wide association studies in multiple traits with per trait interpretations

We introduce pleiotropic association test (PAT) for joint analysis of multiple traits using GWAS summary statistics. The method utilizes the decomposition of phenotypic covariation into genetic and environmental components to create a likelihood ratio test statistic for each genetic variant. Though PAT does not directly interpret which trait(s) drive the association, a per trait interpretation of the omnibus p-value is provided through an extension to the meta-analysis framework, m-values. In simulations, we show PAT controls the false positive rate, increases statistical power, and is robust to model misspecifications of genetic effect. Additionally, simulations comparing PAT to two multi-trait methods, HIPO and MTAG show PAT having a 43.0% increase in the number of omnibus associations over the other methods. When these associations are interpreted on a per trait level using m-values, PAT has 52.2% more per trait interpretations with a 0.57% false positive assignment rate. When analyzing four traits from the UK Biobank, PAT identifies 22,095 novel associated variants. Through the m-values interpretation framework, the number of total per trait associations for two traits are almost tripled and are nearly doubled for another trait relative to the original single trait GWAS.
Teaching Writing, Rhetoric, and Reason at the Globalizing University

This timely intervention into composition studies presents a case for the need to teach all students a shared system of communication and logic based on the modern globalizing ideals of universality, neutrality, and empiricism. Based on a series of close readings of contemporary writing by Stanley Fish, Asao Inoue, Doug Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, Richard Rorty, Slavoj Zizek, and Steven Pinker, this book critiques recent arguments that traditional approaches to teaching writing, grammar, and argumentation foster marginalization, oppression, and the restriction of student agency. Instead, it argues that the best way to educate and empower a diverse global student body is to promote a mode of academic discourse dedicated to the impartial judgment of empirical facts communicated in an open and clear manner. It provides a critical analysis of core topics in composition studies, including the teaching of grammar; notions of objectivity and neutrality; empiricism and pragmatism; identity politics; and postmodernism. Aimed at graduate students and junior instructors in rhetoric and composition, as well as more seasoned scholars and program administrators, this polemical book provides an accessible staging of key debates that all writing instructors must grapple with.
Efficient storage and analysis of quantitative genomics data with the Dense Depth Data Dump (D4) format and d4tools.

Abstract Modern DNA sequencing is used as a readout for diverse assays, with the count of aligned sequences, or “read depth”, serving as the quantitative signal for many underlying cellular phenomena. Despite wide use and thousands of datasets, existing formats used for the storage and analysis of read depths are limited with respect to both file size and analysis speed. For example, it is faster to recalculate sequencing depth from an alignment file than it is to analyze the text output from that calculation. We sought to improve on existing formats such as BigWig and compressed BED files by creating the Dense Depth Data Dump (D4) format and tool suite. The D4 format is adaptive in that it profiles a random sample of aligned sequence depth from the input BAM or CRAM file to determine an optimal encoding that often affords reductions in file size, while also enabling fast data access. We show that D4 uses less storage for both RNA-Seq and whole-genome sequencing and offers 3 to 440-fold speed improvements over existing formats for random access, aggregation and summarization. This performance enables scalable downstream analyses that would be otherwise difficult. The D4 tool suite (d4tools) is freely available under an MIT license at: https://github.com/38/d4-format.
Non-intrusive load decomposition model based on Group Bayesian optimization and post-processing

Non-intrusive load decomposition can decompose the power consumption of a single appliance from the household bus data, which is of great significance for users to adjust their own power consumption strategy. In order to solve the problem of large amount of computation in hyperparameter optimization of load decomposition model based on deep residual network, a Group Bayesian optimization method is proposed. This method can obtain better hyperparameter combination with less computational cost. In addition, in order to solve the problem of irrelevant activation of the model decomposition results, an improved post-processing method is proposed to improve the comprehensive performance of the model. Finally, the public data set REFIT is used to verify the proposed method, and the results show that the proposed method has a low decomposition error.
Explaining the maritime freight charges in Diocletian's Prices Edict

modius kastrensis, the Edict’s favored capacity unit that equaled 1.5 modii italici or c.12.9 liters. In contrast to unsuccessful earlier attempts to relate the attested prices to nautical distance, Arnaud argued that expenses reflected sailing time. Extrapolating from a handful of attested durations of sea voyages that match particular routes mentioned in the Edict, he hypothesized that the number of denarii in the prices was derived from the number of days of travel, at a conversion rate of 1 denarius per day. In his view, the compilators of the text had used this schematic formula to create standardized price ceilings. 2 If correct, Arnaud’s intuition offers a novel way to make sense of the otherwise decontextualized freight rates reported in the Edict. Earlier scholars had failed to establish a meaningful relationship between the attested prices and putative distances. 3 In maritime transport, however, sailing time rather than distance is the critical variable. Arnaud’s approach is consequently more promising on a priori grounds. Even so, he was unable to test his hypothesis in a more systematic way due to the fact no Roman sailing times are documented for most of the routes specified in the Edict. This is due to the objective of the text: while Hellenistic and Roman geographical sources report normative sailing times for numerous sea routes in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, 4 few of them were of use to the compilators of the Edict as they sought to impose price ceilings on connections between the main political centers of the Late Empire, such as Nicomedia, Alexandria, Antioch, Rome and Carthage, as well as a series of coastal provincial centers, which are either named (e.g., Aquileia, Ephesus or Thessalonica) or have to be inferred from provincial designations (e.g., Tarraco or Carthago Nova for Spania or Gades for Baetica). Moreover, no fewer than 4 of the 5 cases in which Arnaud observed matches between prices in denarii given in the Edict and days of travel documented elsewhere depend wholly or in part on the use of non-geographical sources that do not actually purport to provide normative information about sailing time. For these reasons, his entire reconstruction rests on shaky empirical foundations. In the absence of evidence capable of directly corroborating his proposed conversion formula, Arnaud had to fall back on relating documented normative sailing times to discrete elements of the often more elongated routes specified in the Edict. This procedure suggested to him the presence in the Edict of multiple schematic calculations that were
Outside the Wire: U.S. Military Deployments and Public Opinion in Host States

How do citizens within countries hosting U.S. military personnel view that presence? Using new cross-national survey data from 14 countries, we examine how different forms of exposure to a U.S. military presence in a country affect attitudes toward the U.S. military, government, and people. We find that contact with U.S. military personnel or the receipt of economic benefits from the U.S. presence correlates with stronger support for the U.S. presence, people, and government. This study has profound implications for the role that U.S. installations play in affecting the social fabric of host nations and policy implications for the conduct of U.S. military activities outside the United States.
Feedlot-produced ammonia emissions quantified using dual-comb spectroscopy

Ammonia flux from a cattle feedlot is characterized using two integrated-path dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) measurements. Precision agricultural DCS measurements over several months reveal temperature and wind dependence of the feedlot ammonia emission rates.
What Can For-Profit and Nonprofit Boards Learn from Each Other About Improving Governance?

For-profit and nonprofit organizations exist for different reasons: for-profits to generate a return on investment for shareholders and nonprofits to pursue charitable and social activities unrelated to commerce. The obligations of the boards of directors of both entities, however, are the same: to oversee the organization and to hire, advise, evaluate, and when necessary remove the CEO.We examine the attributes and processes both for-profit and nonprofit boards, and identify opportunities to learn from one another. We ask:• Why is there not greater sharing of practices between the two entities? • Why are both unsuccessful developing reliable nonfinancial metrics to measure organizational progress?• Why are for-profit CEOs paid so much more for their services? Do they create commensurately more value?The Closer Look series is a collection of short case studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance and executive leadership. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue that is relevant to the current debate on governance and explain why it is so important. Larcker and Tayan are co-authors of the books Corporate Governance Matters and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.
A toxicological perspective on ecosystem characteristics to track sustainable development: VII. Ecosystem health☆

Abstract “Ecosystem health,” an emerging science paralleling human and veterinary medicine, has as its goals the systematic diagnosis and treatment of stressed ecosystems. Ecosystems are stressed by physical factors such as boat traffic, biological factors such as introduction of an exotic species, and chemical factors such as pH change. Even if these classes of stressors affect the same trophic levels, the resulting ecosystem disease states have different etiologies because the stress is introduced and propagated by different mechanisms. This paper presents a toxicological perspective on ecosystem sustainability. I discuss how classical toxicological concepts have to be modified when the experimental unit is an ecosystem. When exposures are high, effects are acute and are often measurable (e.g., fish kill). However, when exposures are low and chronic, effects are often hard to separate from the background. Evidence of high risk for lack of sustainable development is the exceeding of ecosystem “threshold criteria”.
Repositioning Chinese Tourism Media Studies: A Sociocultural Perspective

This study seeks to engage in a contextualized analysis to propose the adaptation of media communication literature into examining the sociocultural constructs in China's tourism media discourse from a critical perspective. In doing so, the study is designed to deliver a deconstructionist reading of the current investigation on the sociocultural components of China's tourism with particular emphasis on the lack of investigation of China's tourism media discourse. Based on the literature review, it conceptualizes Hall's (1980) encode–decode model, proposing an integration that assists to explore the cultural complexity in the communicative fabric of Chinese tourism media.
Far-field low-power wireless powering for unattended sensors

This paper presents an overview of the design of components for wireless far-field powering of unattended distributed wireless sensors, including the power reception device design and optimization, power transmission, power management and control. Design and measured data of implementations of the various parts of the system in the 2GHz cellular and 2.45GHz unlicensed bands is shown. A design methodology for antennas integrated with rectifiers (rectennas) optimized for efficiency at low incident power levels (1–100uW/cm2) is presented. Integration of rectenna elements and arrays with the electronic application (wireless sensing in this case) requires power management, and some approaches with low power consumption are presented.
Book Review of Michael J. Zimmerman's The Immorality of Punishment

This short essay reviews Michael Zimmerman’s recent book, in which he argues that legal punishment lacks moral justification. While sympathetic to Zimmerman’s project, the essay critiques the account of moral responsibility that underpins Zimmerman’s argument.
The Vitamin D Receptor Regulates Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Fibroblast Invasion and Morphology

Serum levels of vitamin D levels are commonly reduced in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and have been implicated in disease pathogenesis. We recently identified a new vitamin D receptor transcriptional signature in synovial tissues from rats with mild and nonerosive arthritis, suggesting a vitamin D-mediated protective effect. In the present study, we address the hypothesis that part of the vitamin D protective effect is mediated via interference with fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS) invasive properties, an in vitro cellular phenotype that correlates with radiographic and histological damage in pristane-induced arthritis and RA. FLSs derived from DA rats with pristane-induced arthritis and RA patients were studied in an in vitro model of invasion through a collagen-rich barrier (Matrigel) over a 24-h period, in the presence or absence of calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D. Matrix metalloprotease (MMP) expression levels were analyzed with zymography and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and the cytoskeleton was studied with immunofluorescense microscopy. Calcitriol significantly inhibited DA and RA FLS invasion by 54% and 53%, respectively. Calcitriol also reduced interleukin (IL)-1β-induced expression of MMP-1 by 95% in DA FLSs and by 73.5% in RA FLS. Calcitriol treatment reduced actin cytoskeleton reorganization, reduced polarized formation of lamellipodia and reduced colocalization of phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (p-FAK) with lamellipodia, all consistent with reduced cell ability to move and invade. In conclusion, we identified a new effect of calcitriol in FLS invasion. This discovery suggests that the reduced serum levels of vitamin D and its metabolites commonly seen in RA might increase risk for FLS-mediated cartilage and bone invasion and erosions. Treatment with vitamin D or its analogs has the potential to become a helpful adjuvant aimed at preventing or reducing joint destruction.
Nonclassical PITPs Activate PLD via the Stt4p PtdIns‐4‐kinase and Modulate Function of Late Stages of Exocytosis in Vegetative Yeast

Phospholipase D (PLD) is a PtdCho-hydrolyzing enzyme that plays central signaling functions in eukaryotic cells. We previously demonstrated that action of a set of four nonclassical and membrane-associated Sec14p-like phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITPs) is required for optimal activation of yeast PLD in vegetative cells. Herein, we focus on mechanisms of Sfh2p and Sfh5p function in this regulatory circuit. We describe several independent lines of in vivo evidence to indicate these SFH PITPs regulate PLD by stimulating PtdIns-4,5-P2 synthesis and that this stimulated PtdIns-4,5-P2 synthesis couples to action of the Stt4p PtdIns 4-kinase. Furthermore, we provide genetic evidence to suggest that specific subunits of the yeast exocyst complex (i.e. a component of the plasma membrane vesicle docking machinery) and the Sec9p plasma membrane t-SNARE are regulated by PtdIns(4,5)P2 and that Sfh5p helps regulate this interface in vivo. The collective in vivo and biochemical data suggest SFH-mediated stimulation of Stt4p activity is indirect, most likely via a substrate delivery mechanism.
Exploiting replication in automated program verification

This dissertation shows how systems of many concurrent components, which naively engender intractably large state spaces, can nevertheless be successfully subject to exhaustive formal verification, provided the components can be classified into a few types. It therefore addresses an instance of the state explosion problem: a finite-state model of a system can be much larger than a high-level description of this system. Model checking, the technique to which this dissertation is primarily devoted, inherently relies on state space exploration and thus suffers from this problem more than other formal verification methods. The state explosion phenomenon persists even if the system consists of components that are simply replicated instances of a generic behavioral description. Examples of such systems abound; they include processes executing concurrently according to some common protocol, clusters of processors executing a parallel program, and hardware with replicated physical devices in a uniform arrangement. Fortunately, models of such systems often exhibit a regular structure, known as symmetry, which can be exploited in verification, sometimes to the extent of an exponential reduction in model size. The first contribution of this dissertation is to show how reductions based on symmetry can be performed with state-of-the-art system representations. Many of today's computing systems induce astronomically large state spaces whose formal models require a symbolic encoding using boolean formulas. Such succinct representations call for new algorithms that can process entire sets of objects at once. How to detect symmetry quickly during symbolic model checking, so that redundancy in the exploration can be avoided, was an open problem for some time. In this dissertation we provide an efficient and flexible solution to this problem by using symbolic data structures in a somewhat unconventional way. The second contribution is to extend symmetry reduction techniques to more realistic and general scenarios. We establish that the principal ideas still apply if symmetry is violated in parts of the state space. Such scenarios are common in practice, for instance when priorities determine which of several competing processes can access a resource first. In these situations it is beneficial to exploit symmetry where it exists and watch out for the (few) violations, rather than to ignore it altogether. We also demonstrate how symmetry can help us solve a practically significant instance of parameterized verification of system families. This technique traditionally attempts to prove properties about systems independently of the size parameter, but requires models of a special structure. We show that by restricting the parameter to a finite range we can solve this problem efficiently, can do so without any conditions on the models' structure, and can take advantage of symmetry in the individual systems of the family if it exists.
The evolution of down‐scale virus filtration equipment for virus clearance studies

The role of virus filtration in assuring the safety of biopharmaceutical products has gained importance in recent years. This is due to the fundamental advantages of virus filtration, which conceptually can remove all pathogens as long as their size is larger than the biomolecule of commercial interest, while at the same time being neutral to the biological activity of biopharmaceutical compound(s). Major progress has been made in the development of adequate filtration membranes that can remove even smaller viruses, or possibly even all. Establishing down-scaled models for virus clearance studies that are fully equivalent with respect to operating parameters at manufacturing scale is a continuing challenge. This is especially true for virus filtration procedures where virus clearance studies at small-scale determine the operating parameters, which can be used at manufacturing scale. This has limited volume-to-filter-area-ratios, with significant impact on process economics. An advanced small-scale model of virus filtration, which allows the investigation of the full complexity of these processes, is described here. It includes the automated monitoring and control of all process parameters, as well as an electronic data acquisition system, which is fully compliant with current regulatory requirements for electronic records in a pharmaceutical environment. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;112: 633–637. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phenotype-dependent Inhibition of Glutamatergic Transmission on Nucleus Accumbens Medium Spiny Neurons by the Abused Inhalant Toluene

Abused inhalants are voluntarily inhaled at high concentrations to produce intoxicating effects. Results from animal studies show that the abused inhalant toluene triggers behaviors, such as self-administration and conditioned place preference, which are commonly associated with addictive drugs. However, little is known about how toluene affects neurons within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region within the basal ganglia that mediates goal-directed behaviors and is implicated in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. Here we report that toluene inhibits a component of the after-hyperpolarization potential, and dose-dependently inhibits N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-mediated currents in rat NAc medium spiny neurons (MSN). Moreover, using the multivariate statistical technique, partial least squares discriminative analysis to analyze electrophysiological measures from rat NAc MSNs, we show that toluene induces a persistent depression of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-mediated currents in one subtype of NAc MSNs, and that the electrophysiological features of MSN neurons predicts their sensitivity to toluene. The CB1 receptor antagonist AM281 blocked the toluene-induced long-term depression of AMPA currents, indicating that this process is dependent on endocannabinoid signaling. The neuronal identity of recorded cells was examined using dual histochemistry and shows that toluene-sensitive NAc neurons are dopamine D2 MSNs that express preproenkephalin mRNA. Overall, the results from these studies indicate that physiological characteristics obtained from NAc MSNs during whole-cell patch-clamp recordings reliably predict neuronal phenotype, and that the abused inhalant toluene differentially depresses excitatory neurotransmission in NAc neuronal subtypes.
Response requirements and the contrast effect in loudness judgments

Ss responded to a series of soft tones via category judgments, reaction time responses, or simple nonquantitative discrimination judgments. An evaluation was then made of the contrast effects obtained in the category judgments of these same soft tones when subsequently presented along with a series of loud tones. A control group was also used which did not receive the initial trials with the soft tones. The results indicated: (1) equivalent contrast effects for all four groups for the soft tones and (2) significantly greater judgments of the loud tones in the group that had used category judgments on the initial trials with soft tones. These results, alonR with a trend analysis, were used to argue for a joint semantic shift and equalization of category usage process underlying the contrast effect when Ss are required to denote the stimuli initially by means of category judgments.
Genetic analysis of glioblastoma multiforme provides evidence for subgroups within the grade.

We analyzed 72 primary and 25 recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) samples for DNA sequence copy number abnormalities (CNAs) by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). The number of aberrations per tumor ranged from 2 to 23 in primary GBM and 5 to 25 in recurrent GBM. There were 26 chromosome regions with CNAs in more than 20% of tumors. 7q22-36 was the most common gain and 10q25-26 was the most common loss; each occurred in more than 70% of tumors. Of 27 amplification sites, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was the most common; it was observed in 25% of primary GBMs. Statistical analysis based on pairwise correlation of CNAs indicated that there is more than one class of primary GBM. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 21:195–206, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Water and identity: an urban case study for densification along Los Angeles River's Rio Hondo Confluence

When Los Angeles was founded in 1781, the mountains, river and shore formed the landscape. Today, street grids and a superimposed network of meandering freeways blanket the valleys while clusters of high-rises emerge periodically to provide underpinnings of the city’s identifiable neighborhoods. Only the Los Angeles River is invisible, reduced to concrete-lined drainage channels, denuded of riparian vegetation, bounded by rail lines, hidden behind industrial plants and beneathfreeways. What is a river without water? Throughout landscapes, urban and rural alike, rivers and infrastructure intertwine like tendons to connect cities to natural resources and each other. This dance is particularly evident in an 11-mile stretch of the 51-mile river referred to as Reach 2 where the 710 Long Beach Freeway parallels, elevates, and hurdles the concrete-lined depression of the barren riverbed. Ten cities comprise Reach2, which fail to garner the attention of Downtown Los Angeles to the north and the Long Beach estuary to the south. As a result of this intermittency, these cities suffer from social and infrastructural neglect, while struggling to develop positive community identity. In modern multi-city metropolitan areas, governmental centers dominate the political infrastructure. Meanwhile, physical infrastructures, such as freeways, often divide these cities. This research seeks to invert these paradigms in an effort to celebrate city identity at political borders, and transform physical divisions into cultural connections. Research and a design prototype were developed in a unique multi-disciplinary graduate studio environment. Reach 2 is compared to Tokyo to extract potential community identities to support dense and vibrant future development. Additionally, an innovative four-dimensional land-use analysis is conducted across the region to identify voids/opportunities for optimal multi-use development. These investigations culminate in a design prototype at the Rio Hondo Confluence.
Open tubular heterogeneous enzyme reactors: preparation and kinetic behavior.

Tubes with immobilized enzymes on the inner wall, called open tubular heterogeneous enzyme reactors, were prepared by binding enzymes either directly to the tube inside surface or to a layer of a porous matrix attached to the inner wall. Kinetic studies of the hydrolysis of N-benzoyl-L-arginine ethylester as a model reaction indicated that the reaction was kinetically controlled in reactors with surface bound trypsin and the kinetic parameters were evaluated by conventional methods. On the other hand, substrate diffusion in both the porous matrix and the bulk substrate solution strongly affected the rate of reaction in porous layer trypsin reactors. The highest overall rates of reaction were obtained when the reaction was bulk diffusion controlled and the measured rates were in agreement with those calculated from expressions derived from heat transfer theory. The design of reactors for the limiting cases of kinetic and bulk diffusion controlled reaction as well as a method for the determination of substrate diffusivity are outlined.
Innovativeness and capacity to innovate in a complexity of firm-level relationships: A response to Woodside (2004)

Abstract Woodside [Woodside, A. G. (2004). Firm orientations, innovativeness and business performance: Advancing a systems dynamics view following a comment on Hult, Hurley, and Knight's 2004 study. Industrial Marketing Management, in press.] has crafted a thoughtful paper that makes a number of contributions and raises several important issues regarding firm orientations, innovation constructs, and business performance. In this paper, we attempt to address the issues brought up by his close evaluation of our recent IMM paper [Hult, G. T. M., Hurley, R. F., & Knight, G. A. (2004). Innovativeness: Its antecedents and impact on business performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 33(5), 429–438.] in comparison with our thoughts in an earlier paper in the Journal of Marketing [Hurley, R. F., & Hult, G. T. M. (1998). Innovation, market orientation, and organizational learning: An integration and empirical examination. Journal of Marketing, 62(July), 42–54.].
An unusual case of hydranencephaly presenting with an anterior midline cyst, a posterior calcified mass, cerebellar hypoplasia and occlusion of the posterior cerebral arteries

We present an unusual case of severe hydranencephaly in a term infant who presented with the following additional unique features, which were discovered on CT, MRI and MR angiography examinations: (1) occlusion of the bilateral posterior cerebral arteries, (2) absence of the occipital lobes, (3) an ovoid calcified mass sitting on the inner table of the occipital bone, (4) severe cerebellar hypoplasia, (5) a dysmorphic cystic diencephalon, (6) a large anterior midline cyst just above the cribriform plate and (7) absence of the falx. These imaging findings were confirmed at autopsy.
Large permanent magnet quadrupoles for an electron storage ring

Abstract We have built large high quality permanent magnet quadrupoles for use as interaction region quadrupoles in the Cornell Electron Storage Ring where they must operate in the 10 kG axial field of the CLEO experimental detector. We describe the construction and the magnetic measurement and tuning procedures used to achieve the required field quality and stability.
The esdM6.5 Star LSR J0822+1700: A New Ultracool Extreme Subdwarf*

Spectroscopic observations reveal that the recently discovered high proper motion star LSR J0822+1700 is an ultracool extreme subdwarf, with spectral type esdM6.5. This is only the second known extreme subdwarf with a spectral type later than esdM6.0, the other one being the star APMPM J0559-2903 (esdM7.0). Our new spectra of LSR J0822+1700, of APMPM J0559-2903, and also of the very metal-poor esdM6.0 star LHS 1826 all show the defining signature of cool esdM objects: very deep absorption bands due to molecular CaH flanked by very weak absorption due to TiO. Our new spectrum reveals than the molecular bands in LHS 1826 are a little weaker than previously reported, and we reclassify the star as esdM5.5. We show that all three stars have low metallicities ([m/H] ≤ -1.5) and kinematics consistent with halo membership. These objects represent the low-mass end of Population II stars in the vicinity of the Sun. The new ultracool extreme subdwarf LSR J0822+1700 appears to be significantly more metal-poor than APMPM J0559-2903, as evidenced by its much weaker TiO absorption. An interesting feature in the spectrum of LSR J0822+1700 is the existence of detectable absorption lines of Rb I and Cs I, usually associated with much cooler subtypes in dwarf stars (L dwarfs). We suggest that Rb I and Cs I are relatively strong in LSR J0822+1700 because of a critical combination of very low temperature and very low metallicity.
An Evaluation of Emergency Medicine Resident Interaction Time with Faculty in Different Teaching Venues

Objectives: To measure actual emergency medicine (EM) resident interaction time with faculty and to investigate the potential to use direct observation as an assessment tool for the core competencies. By 2006 all EM residencies must implement resident assessment techniques of the six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. Emergency medicine educators recommend direct observation as the optimal evaluation tool for patient care, systems-based practice, interpersonal and communication skills, and professionalism. Continuous faculty presence in the emergency department (ED) is widely believed to facilitate direct observation as an assessment technique. Methods: Observational study of EM resident– faculty interaction time during two-hour periods. Study venues included two EDs, two trauma services, inpatient medicine, adult and pediatric intensive care units (ICUs), and a pediatric outpatient clinic. Using a priori definitions, the authors categorized faculty–EM resident interaction time as direct observation of patient care, indirect patient care, or non-patient care activities, and calculated total faculty interaction time. Subjects were blinded to the nature of the study, and data gathering was encrypted. Results: Two hundred seventy observation periods of two hours each were conducted, sampling 32 EMR1, 33 EMR2–3, 41 EM, and 38 non-EM faculty. The mean total faculty interaction time ranged from a high of 30% (95% CI = 20% to 41%) in the pediatric ICU to a low of 10% (95% CI = 3% to 16%) on internal medicine wards. Overall, EM faculty interaction time was 20% (95% CI = 18% to 22%). Direct observation by faculty ranged from a high of 6% for EMR2– 3s in the critical care areas of the ED (95% CI = 3% to 9%) to a low of 1% (95% CI = 0% to 2%) on internal medicine wards. Overall ED direct observation time was 3.6% (95% CI = 2.6% to 4.7%). Emergency department direct observation did not vary within EM resident training level or by ED site. Direct observation varied by treatment area within the EDs, with the critical care areas being substantially higher (6%) than the noncritical care areas (1%). Conclusions: Faculty direct observation time of EM residents was low in all training venues studied. Direct observation was the highest in ED critical care areas and lowest on medicine ward rotations. Emergency medicine faculty involved simultaneously in routine ED teaching, supervision, and patient care rarely performed direct observation, despite their continuous physical presence. This finding suggests that alternative strategies may be required to assess core competencies through direct observation in the ED.