cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cervical spondylotic myelopathy in the young adult: A review of the literature and clinical diagnostic criteria in an uncommon demographic

Abstract Background Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is typically encountered in the elderly population. Significant inconsistencies currently exist regarding the definition of the disorder, the true incidence of CSM in younger populations, and the established diagnostic criteria. Objective To highlight the lack of standardization in the definition and diagnosis of CSM. Methods A PubMed literature search was conducted spanning the years 2001–2011. The search was limited by the following terms: (1) English language, (2) adults (19–44 years old), and (3) “cervical spondylotic myelopathy.” Each article was reviewed to determine if the presence of the definition of CSM existed in the article. The clinical characteristics used to make the diagnosis of CSM were recorded for each article. Cochran's Q statistic was used to determine whether some clinical characteristics were more frequently used than others. Results Ninety-three papers were reviewed in detail and 16 case reports, reviews, and articles concerning less than 3 patients were excluded, resulting in 77 articles in the final analysis. The most common clinical definitions were gait disturbance (22/77 articles (28.6%)), upper limb paresthesias or sensory disturbance (21/77 (27.3%)), and clumsy hands (15/77 (19.5%)). Hyperreflexia, spasticity, and pathologically increased reflexes were identified as diagnostic criteria in a minority of patients. Conclusion The literature employs a wide range of neurologic signs and symptoms to make the diagnosis of CSM, with a majority of studies failing to rely on strict diagnostic criteria. The clinician should not discount CSM as an explanation for the aforementioned findings, as it is well-reported in the literature among the ages 18–44.
Tendances de la recherche en marketing social au niveau de la psychologie du consommateur

Cet article traite des changements structurels qui ont encourage la recherche en marketing social, notamment le mouvement Transformative Consumer Research (TCR). Il traite egalement de questions de fond qui sont etudiees dans le marketing social (la consommation et le bien-etre, la lutte contre les menaces pour soi meme, l’amelioration de la prise de decisions financieres et la reglementation des campagnes publicitaires relatives au tabac et autres produits pour adultes). Les recentes innovations methodologiques en marketing social sont identifiees, y compris l’utilisation d’etudes de terrain qui mesurent le comportement reel des consommateurs et qui completent les etudes en laboratoire plus controlees. Enfin sont incluses des suggestions pour les jeunes chercheurs en marketing social, telles que le ciblage des revues, etc.
The Land Snails of a Partially Reclaimed Abandoned Coal Mine Site

The Monahan Outdoor Education Center is located on a former active coal mine and facility for washing and processing coal that was partially recontoured and reclaimed as a grassland in 1984–1985. Terrestrial gastropods were collected at 55 sites among the reclaimed and unreclaimed areas from 2008–2013. The sites were grouped into 10 zones representing three major habitat types: woodland, grassland, and mixed. Of the 27 identified taxa, more were collected from woodland sites (26) than from grassland (13) or mixed vegetation sites (17). Glyphyalinia indentata and Gastrocopta armifera were the most commonly collected taxa and were found in all three major habitats. Pupoides albilabris, Zonitoides arboreus, and members of the Succineidae were found in at least 6 of the 10 zones. Woodlands now encroach on the original grassland reclamation, effecting the overall composition of the land snail community.
Measurements of earplug attenuation under supra-aural and circumaural headphones

Supra-aural audiometric headphones are generally not recommended for use in measuring the attenuation of earplugs, because contact between the headphone and pinna and/or earplug could alter the attenuation obtained, and because of concerns of non-comparability between modes of excitation from supra-aural headphones and the sound-fi eld procedure required by the standardized method. In this study, we compared measurements of earplug attenuation obtained under Telephonics TDH-50P supra-aural headphones with measurements obtained under circumaural headphones designed expressly for such testing. Design: The attenuation of three types of earplugs (foam, premolded quadruple-fl ange, and custom-molded) was measured in a repeated-measures design. Study sample: The study sample comprised 42 normal-hearing adults (21 females, 21 males). Results: With the foam earplugs, nearly all of the attenuation measurements under the supra-aural headphones fell within 10 dB of the measurements under the circumaural headphones. With the fl ange and custom earplugs, approximately 10% of individuals obtained spuriously high attenuation under the supra-aural headphones. Conclusions: We conclude that standard supra-aural audiometric headphones are suitable for measuring the attenuation provided by foam earplugs. However, supra-aural headphones should not be used to measure the attenuation of fl ange or custom-molded earplugs. The potential exists for substantial over-estimation of attenuation, especially of custom plugs.
Stem Cell Research on Embryonic Persons Is Just

I argue that embryonic stem cell research is fair to the embryo, even on the assumption that the embryo has attained full personhood and an attendant right to life at conception. This is because the only feasible alternatives open to the embryo are to exist briefly in an unconscious state and be killed or to not exist at all. Hence, one is neither depriving the embryo of an enduring life it would otherwise have had nor is one causing the embryo pain. I also argue that a rational agent in a situation relevantly similar to that of the embryo would consent to such research, and I use this insight to ground two justice-based arguments in favor of this research.
Predictors of Retention of Women Offenders in a Community-Based Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program

Substance abuse is a major contributing factor to women being incarcerated in the United States, and substance abuse is a critical factor in the high recidivism rates of women offenders (50–70% within one year). Understanding factors that enhance and deter women from retention in substance abuse treatment will facilitate tailored interventions to improve treatment outcomes. This prospective study examined the relationship of substance use characteristics, childhood trauma, current trauma-related symptoms, motivation to treatment, and socio-demographic characteristics, in predicting the retention of women offenders in an urban, residential substance abuse program as they re-enter the community from incarceration. All women were interviewed within the first week of admission to the residential program using the following measures: the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI), and socio-demographic characteristics. Length of stay was tra...
Discovering Activities to Recognize and Track in a Smart Environment

The machine learning and pervasive sensing technologies found in smart homes offer unprecedented opportunities for providing health monitoring and assistance to individuals experiencing difficulties living independently at home. In order to monitor the functional health of smart home residents, we need to design technologies that recognize and track activities that people normally perform as part of their daily routines. Although approaches do exist for recognizing activities, the approaches are applied to activities that have been preselected and for which labeled training data are available. In contrast, we introduce an automated approach to activity tracking that identifies frequent activities that naturally occur in an individual's routine. With this capability, we can then track the occurrence of regular activities to monitor functional health and to detect changes in an individual's patterns and lifestyle. In this paper, we describe our activity mining and tracking approach, and validate our algorithms on data collected in physical smart environments.
Alternate Bearing Affects Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and Starch Storage Pools in Mature Pistachio Trees

Abstract The relationship between crop load and the functional storage of selected macronutrients and starch was assessed to develop nutrient budgets and best management fertilization practices in orchards. Functional storage represents the amount of nutrients and starch redistributed from perennial tree parts in support of the spring growth flush. Functional storage was influenced by:(a)nutrient and starch accumulation prior to dormancy; and(b)nutrient and starch demand by vegetative and reproductive organs in spring. Lightly cropping (off-year) trees stored 7, 14 and 2 times as much N, P and K, respectively, as heavily cropping (on-year) trees. Similar to many biennial plant species, nutrients that accumulated during the vegetative phase in off-year trees were used to support reproductive growth during the subsequent on-year. Soil nutrient uptake contributed more to storage pools than leaf nutrient resorption in off-year-trees, while the reverse was true in on-year trees. Net nutrient resorption from senescing leaves accounted for all of the N and P and a third of the K stored in on-year trees. Only between 20–33% of the N, P and K stored in perennial tissues of off-year trees could be attributed to leaf nutrient resorption. This is the first study to determine the amounts of nutrients stored in the perennial parts of mature, field-grown trees and the relative contributions of leaf nutrient resorption and soil nutrient uptake to functional storage in trees.
SUMMARY OF FUNNEL CLOUD OCCURRENCES AND COMPARISON WITH TORNADOES

Climatological and environmental conditions associated with funnel cloud occurrences without tornadoes have been examined and compared with corresponding conditions of the tornado environment. The purpose was to determine if there were significant environmental differences between these two weather phenomena. Seasonal and diurnal distributions, air mass instability, tropospheric vertical wind shear, and geographical distributions are compared. The overall results show that the funnel cloud environmental characteristics are statistically very closely related to those of the tornado. As with the tornado environment, a large lower tropospheric vertical wind shear is observed. This is thought to be an important dynamical feature of both the tornado and the funnel cloud.
Using stability of interpretation as verification for low level processing: An example from egomotion and optic flow

A method is presented for validating low level optic flow computations in an image sequence by a simple analysis of the stability of the three-dimensional interpretation of the scene. Given computed optic flow and known egomotion, a viewer centered depth image is computed. By warping a finite history of previous depth images to the current viewer-centered system, the stability of the depth estimate at each point is analysed. Regions of low stability indicate image regions where the low level optic flow computation is unreliable. It is proposed that this approach is an example of performing verification mode vision, i.e., simple low-level computations are adequate when the interpretation provided is consistent with respect to the current scene interpretation. >
Assessing the multi-resolution information content of remotely sensed variables and elevation for evapotranspiration in a tall-grass prairie environment

Understanding the spatial scaling behavior of evapotranspiration and its relation to controlling factors on the land surface is necessary to accurately estimate regional water cycling. We propose a method for ascertaining this scaling behavior via a combination of wavelet multi-resolution analysis and information theory metrics. Using a physically-based modeling framework, we are able to compute spatially distributed latent heat fluxes over the tall-grass prairie in North-central Kansas for August 8, 2005. Comparison with three eddy-covariance stations and a large aperture scintillometer demonstrates good agreement, and thus give confidence in the modeled fluxes. Results indicate that the spatial variability in radiometric temperature (a proxy for soil moisture) most closely controls the spatial variability in evapotranspiration. Small scale variability in the water flux can be ascribed to the small scale spatial variance in the fractional vegetation. In addition, correlation analysis indicates general scale invariance and that low spatial resolution data may be adequate for accurately determining water cycling in prairie ecosystems.
CONVOLUTION OPERATORS INDUCED BY APPROXIMATE IDENTITIES AND POINTWISE CONVERGENCE IN L(p)(R) SPACES

Given a sequence of kernels Φ n for which the operators T n f = Φ n * f converge a.e. in all L p (R) spaces, p > 1, a perturbation method is provided with the property that the modified convolution operators converge pointwise only in selective spaces.
Growth-promoting activity of L-lyxoflavin.

SummaryL-lyxoflavin stimulates growth of chicks under these conditions. Its mode of action remains obscure. Since it has no riboflavin activity, and its growth-promoting action occurs on a ration rich in riboflavin, it is quite possible that it acts as a true vitaminlike entity. The possibility that it acts in the same manner as the known antibiotics is unlikely, since the ration contained aureomycin.
Military optical domes techniques researchful developments

Optical domes play a pivotal role in the military imaging systems for the airborne weapons.First,the design requirements and development process of the optical domes in the world are described simply.Second,the material processing,milling techniques,and experimental schemes etc.of domes are introduced in detail.Finally,the techniques development trend of domes design is analyzed briefly.The direction of the military optical domes design is discussed based on domestic and overseas techniques developments.
Chemical mechanical cleaning for CMP defect reduction

As device geometry shrinks, defect reduction for yield improvement has always been the key focus in CMP process qualification. New post-CMP cleaning capability is demanded for meeting defect reduction requirement. To address the cleaning challenges in advanced nodes, innovation is needed. This paper reviews the innovation of Applied Materials CMP in post-CMP cleaning, from Megasonic cleaning for improving particle removal efficiency, to single wafer IPA vapor dryer for achieving water-mark free drying, and to a unique chemical mechanical cleaning (PreClean) technology for fulfilling the requirement of organic residue, particle, and nano-sized slurry ball removal in sub 10nmand beyond.
Autoregulation of muscarinic and gastrin receptors on gastric parietal cells

In previous studies we demonstrated that parietal cell stimulation with gastrin and carbamoylcholine (carbachol) is accompanied by increased turnover of membrane inositol phospholipids. We conducted the present studies to examine whether membrane-associated protein kinase C activity is enhanced as a consequence of these events and to explore the role of this enzyme in regulating parietal cell function. We observed that carbachol and gastrin dose dependently increased membrane-associated protein kinase C activity while histamine did not. Furthermore, compounds such as phorbol esters and diacylglycerol, which are known to be direct stimulants of protein kinase C activity, also stimulated parietal cell aminopyrine uptake. In contrast, the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and the synthetic diacylglycerol 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol inhibited both aminopyrine uptake and membrane inositol phospholipid turnover in parietal cells induced by carbachol and gastrin. The inhibitory effect appeared to result from reduction in the quantity of muscarinic and gastrin receptors without alterations in their specific affinities. These data suggest that protein kinase C mediates stimulation of parietal cells by gastrin and carbachol but also activates an autoregulatory mechanism via downregulation of muscarinic and gastrin receptors.
Patient Counseling and Management of Symptoms During Olaparib Therapy for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

UNLABELLED : Our primary objective is to review the safety and tolerability profile of olaparib, a novel anticancer therapy, and to discuss key considerations for symptom management in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Olaparib is the first of a new class of anticancer therapies, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors that target tumors that have deficits in homologous recombination repair (such as BRCA mutations) by a process known as synthetic lethality. Through this process, neither the deficiency in homologous recombination repair nor PARP inhibition alone is cytotoxic, but the combination of these two conditions leads to cell death. In December 2014, olaparib received accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as monotherapy for patients with known or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated (as detected by an FDA-approved test) advanced ovarian cancer who had been treated with at least three lines of chemotherapy. Most adverse events (AEs) reported during olaparib clinical trials conducted in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer and measurable disease were of grade 2 or less severity according to the National Cancer Institute's Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Fatigue and gastrointestinal AEs are among the most common in ovarian cancer clinical trials and can be particularly bothersome to patients. We focus on interventions to address these AEs in patients who are candidates for treatment with olaparib and allow them to remain on therapy for as long as clinically indicated. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Olaparib therapy represents a new approach to treating recurrent ovarian cancer. Some associated adverse events can have a substantial effect on quality of life. It is therefore important for patients, caregivers, and health care providers to have realistic expectations and a thorough understanding of the safety and tolerability profile of olaparib to prevent or alleviate key symptoms so that therapy can continue uninterrupted if possible. This report summarizes a practical approach to supportive care for patients receiving olaparib therapy.
Methodological Problems Associated with Studies of Drug Metabolism in the Elderly

During the last decade geriatric clinical pharmacology has become the focus of considerable research effort. This is due, in part, to the realization that in most developed countries the elderly constitute 10% or more of the population, but spend 25 to 30% of total expenditures for drugs and drug products (Crooks, O’Malley & Stevenson, 1976; Vestal, 1978). These figures are likely to increase during the next several decades. In addition, the rate of adverse drug reactions is 2 to 3-fold higher in elderly patients than in young patients (Seidl, Thornton, Smith & Clough, 1966; Hurwitz, 1969; Caranasos, Stewart & Cluff, 1974). Factors which may alter drug disposition in the elderly have been extensively reviewed (Crooks et al., 1976; Richey & Bender, 1977; Vestal, 1978; O’Malley, Judge & Crooks, 1980), and will be discussed only briefly in this paper. However, some of the important methodological problems which confront clinical pharmacologists who conduct gerontological research will be presented along with several pertinent examples from the literature.
Optical nonlinearity enhancement in polychromatic glasses

This paper reports on the fabrication and measurement of metal-coated nanoparticles that exhibit plasmon resonant enhancement of nonlinear optical properties. There has been a great deal of interest in recent years in the application of semiconductor doped glasses (SDG) to nonlinear optical devices. However, the figure of merit for device performance was found to be marginal. Metal coating of the semiconductor nanoparticles is predicted1,2 to lead, to orders of magnitude enhancement of the figure of merit. The resonance wavelengths are tuned by control of the metal-coating thickness. We report here on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of a series of glasses with nanoparticles of silver-coated sodium (silver)-halide crystallites produced by tire photochromie process.3,4 The thickness of silver coating is controlled by the photochromie process.
Genetic Association with Ictal Cardiorespiratory Phenomena: SCN8A Case Series

Increased availability of genetic testing has led to identification of expanding SCN8A phenotypic spectrum ranging from early-infantile epileptic encephalopathy (EIEE) to developmental and cognitive disabilities, movement disorders, and a possible high incidence of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy patients (SUDEP). Children with SCN8A mutations may also have dysfunction of cardiac voltage gated sodium channels, resulting in ictal cardiac symptoms with associated respiratory distress. We report a case series of two patients with de novo SCN8A mutation. These patients presented with recurrent tonic seizures at 4 and 6 months of age, along with ictal bradycardia and asystole respectively. Interictally both patients had normal EEG and cardiac evaluation. The antiepileptic drug treatment choice was made prior to known genetic abnormality, with resultant decrease in seizure frequency and severity of cardiorespiratory symptoms in both patients. The association of SCN8A mutation–related rare epilepsy with ictal cardiac symptoms has not been well described in the literature. The association of ictal cardiac phenomena with this mutation is important in patient treatment, family education, and risk of complications such as SUDEP. The role of SCN8A in the mechanism of SUDEP requires future studies.
Coexistence—Under-Explored Facets for a USDA Policy

As the United States Department of Agriculture considers a coexistence policy, this chapter discusses three facets of the policy that appear to be under-explored. These three facets are: The National Environmental Policy Act, the mitigation-of-damages doctrine, and the benefit rule from the common law. The chapter urges careful and thoughtful attention and discussion about each of these three facets.
Scheduling Jobs with Sequence Dependent Setups on Coupled Lines

This paper introduces the problem of scheduling a set of jobs with sequence dependent setup times on a machine with a pair of coupled processing lines, i.e., both lines must be operated simultaneously. A heuristic procedure is developed to find a good schedule which then is used as a starting point for a tabu search. A mixed integer programming formulation of the problem is also given. Computational results on real-world problems are presented.
On focal points of SKS

Although SKS is one of the most important phases in investigating the core of the earth, apparently it has not yet been noted that it may have one or more focal points. The full lines in figure 1 show the observed parts of the travel-time curves (epicentral distance θ, time t) of S, ScS, and SKS in the region between 73 and 88 degrees. The problem is to find the first part of the SKS curve at distances preceding the intersection of the travel-time curves of S and SKS.
Rationale for the Evaluation of Cervical Lymph Nodes in the Setting of Thyroid Cancer

Differentiated thyroid cancer has a strong predilection for metastasis to locoregional lymph nodes. Though the reported frequency of nodal metastases can vary significantly, it is imperative to have an understanding of the impact that these findings can have on the clinical course of an individual patient. This chapter will discuss the bearing that malignant lymph nodes have on the surgical approach, the recurrence risk, and the decision to utilize adjunctive therapy. Additionally, it will outline the role of postoperative surveillance ultrasonography in thyroid cancer patients. Finally, the limitations of sonographic imaging of the neck will be discussed. The sonographic appearance of nodal metastases will be discussed in detail in the following chapter.
Two Short Proofs of the Infinitude of Primes

We present two new proofs of the infinitude of primes. The first proof uses the basic idea of Furstenberg's celebrated topological proof but without using topology. The second proof uses probabilit...
Indomethacin and poly I:C in the inhibition of carcinogen-induced bladder cancer in an experimental animal model.

Abstract Fischer rats, in whom superficial transitional cell cancers of the urinary bladder were induced by the carcinogen N-[4-(5-nitrofuryl)-2-thiazolyl] formamide, were inoculated intraperitoneally with either phosphate buffered saline, indomethacin (a prostaglandin synthetase inhibitor), poly I:C (an interferon inducer), or indomethacin together with poly I:C. While indomethacin alone appeared to have a significant albeit variable inhibitory effect on tumor size, poly I:C had a far more pronounced significant inhibitory effect. The combination of poly I:C and indomethacin together, however, led to the greatest inhibition in tumor growth, and in some instances, to tumor regression. Splenic lymphocytes from the same animals demonstrated enhanced natural cytotoxicity after treatment with poly I:C. Surprisingly, levels of natural cytotoxicity seen in animals treated with indomethacin and poly I:C together were lower than those seen with poly I:C alone. No enhancement of cytotoxicity could be demonstrated in vitro in lymphocytes from indomethacin-treated animals. Macrophages were also treated in this system under identical conditions. However, the activity of macrophages alone and of macrophages and lymphocytes together did not appear to be modified either by indomethacin alone or by the combination of prostaglandin synthetase inhibition and interferon induction together, the combination of which in vivo was suggested to be most effective in controlling tumor progression. Further studies to determine timing of these interactions and doses of immune response modifiers in order to characterize mechanisms possibly at work in modifying tumor growth in this system therefore seem highly indicated.
Hydroxyapatite Nanocrystal Deposited Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes Loaded with Antibiotics for Combining Biocompatibility and Antibacterial Properties

Hydroxyapatite (HA)/nanotubular titanium dioxide (TiO2) composite coatings loaded with antibiotics were developed to combine biocompatibility and antibacterial property. TiO2 nanotubes were first fabricated on Ti plates using anodization techniques. Then HA nanocrystals were synthesized on the TiO2 nanotubes by electrochemical deposition, followed by loading of a model drug compound, streptomycin. The streptomycin release profile of the composite coating was investigated. Bacterial tests demonstrate that the streptomycin-loaded composite coatings were highly effective in inhibiting bacterial growth. Simulated body fluid (SBF) experiments indicated that the composite coatings possessed good osseointegration capability.
CPU-GPU implementation of ensemble clustering algorithm for increased performance

Ensemble clustering algorithm is frequently used in machine learning algorithms, but it is also one of the most computationally intensive components thereby limiting their scalability. Parallel implementations of these algorithms enable researchers to pose bigger questions using larger datasets. The combinatorial and multi-objective nature of ensemble clustering algorithm makes running a large number of ensemble models a time-consuming task. In this paper, we present a CPU-GPU based implementation of ensemble clustering algorithm. Ensemble consists of agglomerative, gmm, kmeans, kmedians, and spectral clustering algorithms. Our implementation shows a 130x speedup over CPU only implementation. Primary usage and datasets used in our research are derived from risky decision making (RDM) domain.
Medication Management Performance and Associated Cognitive Correlates in Healthy Older Adults and Older Adults with aMCI.

Objective Difficulties managing medications, particularly among older adults experiencing cognitive deficits, is an important contributing factor to medication nonadherence that may have significant negative financial and health outcomes. The current study examined the performance of healthy older adults' (HOA) and individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) on the medication management abilities assessment's (MMAA, a performance-based measure of medication management) original scoring criteria and derived error process measures, assessing medication overtaking and undertaking magnitude. Exploratory correlations between performances on the MMAA and self-reported confidence in medication management skills and cognitive abilities were also examined. Method A sample of 25 HOAs with aMCI and 25 age- and education-matched HOAs completed the MMAA, a self-reported medication management confidence rating and a battery of neuropsychological tests. Results HOAs performed significantly better on the MMAA score and committed significantly less process errors than individuals with aMCI. Despite these differences in MMAA performance, the HOA and aMCI groups rated similar high levels of confidence in their ability to manage a new medication routine. Notably, while the HOA group's performance on all of the MMAA measures did not relate to cognitive measures, the aMCI group's performance on the MMAA score was significantly related to memory and executive functioning and a new process error score for overtaking was related to processing speed. Conclusions Although these results present promising potential for the MMAA as a measure of medication management in a clinical setting, further studies need to examine the validity of the MMAA against real-world adherence measures.
Particle Size Influences Preferential Consumption of Hay and Baleage in Total Mixed Dairy Rations

Lactating cows require complete balanced rations to meet their high nutritional requirements and to maximize milk and milk fat production. Total mixed rations (TMR) were developed to meet these nut...
Targeting the Latent Reservoir for HIV-1

Antiretroviral therapy can effectively block HIV-1 replication and prevent or reverse immunodeficiency in HIV-1-infected individuals. However, viral replication resumes within weeks of treatment interruption. The major barrier to a cure is a small pool of resting memory CD4+ T cells that harbor latent HIV-1 proviruses. This latent reservoir is now the focus of an intense international research effort. We describe how the reservoir is established, challenges involved in eliminating it, and pharmacologic and immunologic strategies for targeting this reservoir. The development of a successful cure strategy will most likely require understanding the mechanisms that maintain HIV-1 proviruses in a latent state and pathways that drive the proliferation of infected cells, which slows reservoir decay. In addition, a cure will require the development of effective immunologic approaches to eliminating infected cells. There is renewed optimism about the prospect of a cure, and the interventions discussed here could pave the way.
A Locally Optimal Algorithm for Estimating a Generating Partition from an Observed Time Series and Its Application to Anomaly Detection.

Estimation of a generating partition is critical for symbolization of measurements from discrete-time dynamical systems, where a sequence of symbols from a (finite-cardinality) alphabet may uniquel...
Performance and ruminal changes of early-weaned calves fed lasalocid.

Twenty-two neonatal calves were assigned to a control or lasalocid-fed group and weaned at 3 wk of age. They were fed a prestarter diet from 3 d of age until they consumed 227 g/d and then a mixture of 227 g prestarter daily and starter diet in ad libitum amounts. The lasalocid-fed group received lasalocid in milk at 1 mg/kg body weight daily from 4 to 7 d and at .5 mg/kg body weight daily in milk and medicated prestarter diet (88 mg lasalocid/kg) during the 2nd wk. After 2 wk, lasalocid-fed calves were given medicated prestarter and starter (44 mg lasalocid/kg) diets. Four calves in each group were ruminally cannulated at 3 to 5 d of age, and ruminal contents were obtained at weekly intervals to monitor microbial activity. Rectal fecal samples were collected from all calves and examined for coccidial oocysts. Lasalocid-fed calves had a greater weekly feed intake and weight gain than control calves after 6 wk of age. Total ruminal volatile fatty acid concentrations were higher, but the acetate:propionate ratio was lower in lasalocid-fed calves than in control calves. Total viable anaerobic and amylolytic bacterial counts were higher in lasalocid-fed calves than in control calves. No significant treatment effect was found for ruminal NH3-N concentration or ruminal lasalocid-resistant, lactobacilli, lactate-utilizing, cellulolytic or methanogenic bacterial numbers. No evidence of coccidiosis was detected in either group. In general, lasalocid-fed calves had greater feed intake, weight gain and ruminal microbial activity than the calves fed no lasalocid in the diet.
Microcomputer Applications for CAD/CAM in Engineering Education

For the development of robotics and factories in the future, Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) plays a central role. Among the broad spectrum of topics covered in CIM, Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM [l~3]) are addressed in this paper. In particular, views on how should the CAD/CAM courses be taught in engineering colleges are expressed. Expected to have a major impact on advancement of robotics and factories in the future is the microcomputer applications for engineering education of CAD/CAM in response to the rapid increase in availability of microcomputers at homes, in schools, and in the laboratories and factories.
Discussion on “The Game Insight Group: A model for academic-industry partnerships for sports statistics innovation”

Dr. Kovalchik presented an interesting paper about recent developments at the Game Insight Group (GIG) in Australia. It was heartening to hear that these efforts are receiving such broad support fr...
3 He-Rich Solar Energetic Particle Events with No Measurable 4 He Intensity Increases

We investigated 3He-rich solar energetic particle (SEP) events in the current solar cycle starting in 2009 through 2017. Both “impulsive” (flare-related) 3He-rich and CME-related “gradual” events are included. In the former solar cycle, we found the number of observed 3He-rich events correlated with solar activity. The same correlation is seen again in Cycle 24. Because of the comparatively weak activity, both the occurrence of 3He-rich events and their intensities are significantly less than those from Cycle 23. Interestingly, we found in several of the 3He-rich events that there is no measurable 4He intensity increase above the instrument background. Previously, we found that there is a limit on the number of 3He ions that can be released from the Sun in an impulsive SEP event, while there is no such limit on the 4He ions (Ho, Roelof, and Mason in Astrophys. J., 621, L862, 2005). In this paper, we examine several of these 3He-rich events in detail and discuss the lack of observable 4He intensity increases and the implications for the enhancement and acceleration mechanism of this special type of SEP events.
Environmentally relevant exposure to dibutyl phthalate disrupts DNA damage repair gene expression in the mouse ovary

Phthalates have a history of reproductive toxicity in animal models and associations with adverse reproductive outcomes in women. Human exposure to dibutyl phthalate (DBP) occurs via consumer products (7-10 μg/kg/day) and medications (1-233 μg/kg/day). Most DBP toxicity studies have focused on high supraphysiological exposure levels; thus, very little is known about exposures occurring at environmentally relevant levels. CD-1 female mice (80 days old) were treated with tocopherol-stripped corn oil (vehicle control) or DBP dissolved in oil at environmentally relevant (10 and 100 μg/kg/day) or higher (1000 μg/kg/day) levels for 30 days to evaluate effects on DNA damage response (DDR) pathway genes and folliculogenesis. DBP exposure caused dose-dependent effects on folliculogenesis and gene expression. Specifically, animals exposed to the high dose of DBP had more atretic follicles in their ovaries, while in those treated with environmentally relevant doses, follicle numbers were no different from vehicle-treated controls. DBP exposure significantly reduced the expression of DDR genes including those involved in homologous recombination (Atm, Brca1, Mre11a, Rad50), mismatch repair (Msh3, Msh6), and nucleotide excision repair (Xpc, Pcna) in a dose-specific manner. Interestingly, staining for the DNA damage marker, γH2AX, was similar between treatments. DBP exposure did not result in differential DNA methylation in the Brca1 promoter but significantly reduced transcript levels for the maintenance DNA methyltransferase, Dnmt1, in the ovary. Collectively, these findings show that oral exposure to environmentally relevant levels of DBP for 30 days does not significantly impact folliculogenesis in adult mice but leads to aberrant ovarian expression of DDR genes.
Estimating New Quantities from Longitudinal Test Scores to Improve Forecasts of Future Performance

Psychometric models for longitudinal test scores typically estimate quantities associated with single-administration tests, like ability at each time-point. However, models for longitudinal tests h...
Patient Willingness to Pay for Faster Return to Work or Smaller Incisions

Background: Value-based health care models such as bundled payments and accountable care organizations can penalize health systems and physicians for excess costs leading to low-value care. Health systems can minimize these extra costs by constraining diagnostic (eg, magnetic resonance imaging utilization) or treatment options with debatable necessity in the setting of clinical equipoise. Instead of restricting more expensive treatments, it is plausible that health systems could instead recoup the extra costs of these treatments by charging patients supplementary out-of-pocket charges (cost sharing). The primary aim of this exploratory study was to assess hand surgery patient willingness to pay supplementary out-of-pocket charges for a procedure that theoretically leads to an earlier return to work or smaller incisions when there are 2 procedures that lead to similar results (clinical equipoise). Methods: A total of 122 patients completed a questionnaire that included demographic information, a financial distress assessment, a series of scenarios asking patients the degree to which they are willing to pay extra for the procedure choice, as well as their perspective of how much insurers should be responsible for these additional costs. Results: Patients were willing to pay out-of-pocket to some degree for a procedure that leads to earlier return to work and smaller incision size when compared with a similar alternative procedure, but noted that insurers should bear a greater burden of costs. Approximately 10% of patients were willing to pay maximum amounts ($2500+) for earlier return to work (3, 7, and 14 days earlier) and smaller incision sizes of any length. Conclusions: Some patients may be willing to pay out-of-pocket and cost share for procedures that lead to earlier return to work and smaller incisions in the setting of clinical equipoise. As such, when developing and implementing alternative payment models, health systems could potentially offer services with debatable necessity in the setting of equipoise for a supplementary out-of-pocket charge.
ADAM10 and ADAM17 proteases mediate proinflammatory cytokine-induced and constitutive cleavage of endomucin from the endothelial surface

Contact between inflammatory cells and endothelial cells (ECs) is a crucial step in vascular inflammation. Recently, we demonstrated that the cell-surface level of endomucin (EMCN), a heavily O-glycosylated single-transmembrane sialomucin, interferes with the interactions between inflammatory cells and ECs. We have also shown that, in response to an inflammatory stimulus, EMCN is cleared from the cell surface by an unknown mechanism. In this study, using adenovirus-mediated overexpression of a tagged EMCN in human umbilical vein ECs, we found that treatment with tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) or the strong oxidant pervanadate leads to loss of cell-surface EMCN and increases the levels of the C-terminal fragment of EMCN 3- to 4-fold. Furthermore, treatment with the broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor batimastat (BB94) or inhibition of ADAM metallopeptidase domain 10 (ADAM10) and ADAM17 with two small-molecule inhibitors, GW280264X and GI254023X, or with siRNA significantly reduced basal and TNFα-induced cell-surface EMCN cleavage. Release of the C-terminal fragment of EMCN by TNF-α treatment was blocked by chemical inhibition of ADAM10 alone or in combination with ADAM17. These results indicate that cell-surface EMCN undergoes constitutive cleavage and that TNF-α treatment dramatically increases this cleavage, which is mediated predominantly by ADAM10 and ADAM17. As endothelial cell-surface EMCN attenuates leukocyte–EC interactions during inflammation, we propose that EMCN is a potential therapeutic target to manage vascular inflammation.
Chapter 10 – Lipid Membrane Properties

The previous chapter ( Chapter 9) investigated some of the major principles of the “Fluid Mosaic” model. While these principles form the core of understanding basic membrane structure, there are many other, more poorly understood membrane properties and concepts that must be considered. Membranes are just very complex. Several of these properties will be discussed in Chapters 10 and 11.
SamQL: A Structured Query Language and filtering tool for the SAM/BAM file format

The Sequence Alignment/Map Format Specification (SAM) is one of the most widely used file formats in computational biology today and several tools have been developed to process it and use it. It is a flexible file format, used by many bioinformaticians on a daily basis. Despite its flexibility, SAM encoded files can often be difficult to query and understand. As genomic data are rapidly growing, structured and efficient queries on data encoded in SAM/BAM files is becoming critical. Importantly, any new tools should be able to support existing large datasets without requiring any data transformations. Here we introduce SamQL, an SQL-like query language for the SAM format with intuitive syntax that supports complex and efficient queries on top of SAM/BAM files and that can replace commonly used Bash one-liners employed by many bioinformaticians. SamQL is a complete query language that we envision as a step to a structured database engine for genomics. SamQL is written in Go, taking advantage of modern multicore compute systems and is freely available as standalone program and as an open-source library released under an MIT license, https://github.com/maragkakislab/samql/.
Tumour-regulated anorexia preceding cachexia.

Anorexia commonly develops in patients with advanced cancer and is closely associated with cachexia. A new study shows that anorexia emerges earlier than cachexia in both Drosophila and mouse tumour models and that tumour-derived humoral factors induce anorexia by systemically dysregulating neuropeptides in the brain.
Abstract P597: Growing Prevalence of Post-Stroke Sleep-Disordered Breathing

Introduction: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is common after stroke and is associated with poor functional and cognitive outcomes, and recurrent stroke. Despite increasing prevalence of SDB in th...
Radioiodine: 80 years and counting; the past, present, and future

In this issue of Endocrine-Related Cancer we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first reported therapeutic use of radioiodine with a special issue dedicated to the history, current uses, and future research for this cornerstone of thyroid cancer therapy. Edited by Professor Christopher McCabe, one of our outstanding Associate Editors and an expert in thyroid cancer biology, a panel of expert authors provide six comprehensive and up-to-date reviews covering important topics for endocrine oncology researchers and clinicians.
Association of Thrombosis With Hypereosinophilic Syndrome in Patients With Genetic Alterations.

Importance Hypereosinophilic syndromes (HESs) are a rare group of disorders that result in overproduction of eosinophils, leading to tissue damage. Thrombotic complications in HES and associated risk factors in this patient population have not been extensively studied. Objective To investigate the rates of and risk factors associated with thrombotic events in patients with HES, including markers of clonal hematopoiesis as evidenced by molecular aberrations on next-generation sequencing. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cohort study evaluated patients seen at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2020. Patients who had hypereosinophilia with an absolute eosinophil count of 1500 cells/μL or greater on 2 separate occasions at least 1 month apart and who underwent genetic or molecular testing as part of their work-up were included. Patients with secondary eosinophilia were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures Symptomatic and asymptomatic arterial and venous thrombotic events after the diagnosis of HES and all-cause death. Results A total of 71 patients (median age, 58 years [interquartile range (IQR), 43-67 years]; 36 women [51%]; 57 White patients [80%]) were included. Patients had a median follow-up time of 29 months (IQR, 19-49 months). Seventeen patients (24%) had 1 or more thrombotic events, including 11 venous thromboembolic events and 11 arterial thrombotic events (8 patients had ≥1 event and 3 patients had recurrent events). Patients with 1 or more thrombotic events had a higher median Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (median, 1 [IQR, 1-2] vs 0 [IQR, 0-1];P = .002), had more frequent cardiac involvement (7 of 17 events [41%] vs 6 of 54 events [11%];P = .01), more frequently received treatment (17 of 17 events [100%] vs 40 of 54 events [74%];P = .02), and had more molecular aberrations on next-generation sequencing (12 of 17 [71%] vs 12 of 54 [26%];P = .003) vs patients without thrombosis. After multivariable analysis, the presence of molecular aberration was associated with increased odds of thrombosis (adjusted odds ratio, 5.4; 95% CI, 1.1-27.7). Death occurred more frequently in patients with thrombotic events compared with those without (6 of 17 [35%] vs 2 of 54 [4%];P = .002) and in patients with molecular aberrations compared with those without (6 of 24 [25%] vs 1 of 40 [3%];P = .009), although only thrombotic events were significantly associated with increased odds of death after multivariable analysis. Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study, thrombosis was common in patients with HES and was significantly associated with increased risk of death.
Introduction to Neutron Scattering as a Tool for Characterizing Magnetic Materials

This chapter will introduce the concepts of neutron scattering, including the benefits and limitations, especially in comparison to other experimental scattering techniques. It will also describe recent expansion of neutron scattering capabilities, including polarization analysis and time resolution, and their potential. Example applications demonstrating the power of neutron scattering as a characterization tool will be discussed.