cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clinical Evaluation of Cefoxitin in the Treatment of Respiratory Tract and Other Acute Bacterial Infections

A clinical trial was designed for evaluation of the efficacy, safety, and patient tolerance of cefoxitin. Of 26 patients who could be evaluated clinically, 21 had respiratory tract infections; all but one patient responded satisfactorily to therapy with cefoxitin. There were no adverse systemic reactions, nor was any renal or hematologic toxicity noted. In two instances levels of hepatic enzymes became slightly elevated; these changes were possibly related to administration of cefoxitin. About onethird of patients receiving cefoxitin developed minor local reactions at the site of intravenous administration; however, there was only a single instance of true thrombophlebitis. Results of this study suggest that cefoxitin is a safe and well-tolerated antibiotic that is efficacious in therapy of acute respiratory tract infections caused by bacteria that are sensitive to this drug. Presently available cephalosporin antibiotics have excellent activity against most gram-positive bacteria but are of more limited value in the treatment of infections caused by gram-negative organisms. Cefoxitin, a new semisynthetic cephamycin antibiotic, has been shown to be highly active in vitro against most aerobic and anaerobic gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species, all Proteus species, Providencia species, and Bacteroides species (including Bacteroides fragilis). In addition, cefoxitin possesses a level of activity against gram-positive organisms which is comparable to that demonstrated by cephalosporins [1-10].
The Physiological Specification of American English Vowels

Use of a new opto-elcctronic device showed that the stressed vowels produced by a native speaker of English could be clearly differentiated according to tongue position. The distance of the tongue ...
Different roles for serotonin in anti-obsessional drug action and the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background There is a major role for serotonin in the mechanism of anti-obsessional drug action. Drugs that block uptake of noradrenaline are not effective in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), while drugs that potently bock serotonin reuptake are effective. While enhancement of serotonin neurotransmission is clearly involved in the treatment of OCD, the role of serotonin in the pathophysiology of OCD is less clear. Method This paper provides a brief, focused review ofthe literature regarding treatment of OCD, the effects of drugs with selective action at various serotonin receptors and results of neurotransmitter depletion studies in patients with OCD. Results Some patients with OCD may experience remission of OCD symptoms during intoxication with psychedelic drugs that have potent 5-HT2A/2c agonist activity. These findings, coupled with results from serotonin depletion studies in depressed and OCD patients, suggest that enhancement of serotonin neurotransmission may underlie both antidepressant and anti-obsessional drug action, although the targeted brain areas may differ. Conclusions OCD may not involve a dysfunction ofthe serotonin system. Rather, it is more likely to involve a dysfunction of specific brain circuits, particularly in the frontal cortex. Modulation of these circuits by serotonin neurons may underlie the specific action of anti-obsessional drugs.
The Role of Abdominal and Pelvic Computed Tomography Scans for Geriatric Blunt Trauma Patients on Antiplatelet and/or Anticoagulation Medications

Abstract Abstract Background Blunt trauma is the most common mechanism of injury in the geriatric population. The benefits of computed tomography (CT) scanning have demonstrated improved outcomes for blunt trauma patients with head injuries. Aim The purpose of our study is to evaluate the clinical value of utilizing a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis on geriatric blunt trauma patients on antiplatelet/anticoagulation (AP/AC) therapy. Methods A retrospective study reviewing geriatric patients admitted to our urban level one trauma center from December 2012 to September 2014 was performed. The inclusion criteria for the study included patients older than 65 years of age, admission after a blunt trauma, and on AP/AC therapy. Results Male and female patients with dementia were more likely to have a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis (P=0.002, P=1x10-6, respectively). There was no statistical significance in the difference in outcomes between the demented patients who received a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvi...
Generalized Minimax: A Self-Enforcing Pricing Scheme for Load Aggregators

This paper introduces a novel electricity retail pricing scheme we designate generalized minimax (GenMinimax). GenMinimax is characterized by three rate zones with the narrowest in the middle, called threshold band, constituting the attraction zone where the lowest rate is charged. The scheme is designed so that the threshold band envelops a negotiated reference consumption profile. We consider a cooperative group of customers pooling together their flexible loads and participating in the energy market via an aggregator. The aggregator computes an optimal daily profile taking into account the gross daily demand from the consumer group and the energy market’s expected conditions and opportunities, and assigns prices and rate zones accordingly. The consumer group reacts by deferring and curtailing the flexible loads in order to minimize their daily cost consisting of the energy bill, the utility cost, and the curtailment reward. We model the consumers’ response and interaction with the aggregator as a two-stage sequential optimization problem. We perform sensitivity analysis over the most significant parameter combinations through two scenarios and five cases. We compare the performance of our scheme to that of time-of-use (TOU) and real time pricing (RTP). Using a 40-home aggregate energy profile, we show that consumers can match a test supply profile with 5% maximum error and 2% average error while TOU and RTP can lead, respectively, to 163% and 97% maximum error, and 37% and 25% average error.
Distinctive Molecular Genetic Alterations in Sporadic and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis-Associated Pancreatoblastomas: Frequent Alterations in the APC/β-Catenin Pathway and Chromosome 11p

Pancreatoblastomas are unusual malignant neoplasms of the pediatric pancreas that may also rarely affect adults. The molecular pathogenesis of pancreatoblastomas is unknown. They are clinicopathologically distinct from adult pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, but their occasional occurrence in patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and the case presented here of a pancreatoblastoma in an adult patient with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) suggests that they might bear a genetic similarity to other infantile embryonal tumors such as hepatoblastomas. We analyzed a series of nine pancreatoblastomas for mutations common to other embryonal malignancies including somatic alterations in the adenomatous polyposis coli ( APC )/ β-catenin pathway and chromosome 11p, using immunohistochemistry for β-catenin, 5q and 11p allelic loss assays, and direct DNA sequencing of exon 3 of the β-catenin gene and the mutation cluster region of the APC gene. In addition, we analyzed the pancreatoblastomas for alterations found in adult-type pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas including mutations in the K-ras oncogene and the p53 and DPC4 tumor suppressor genes, using direct DNA sequencing of exon 1 of K-ras and immunohistochemistry for p53 and Dpc4. Allelic loss on chromosome 11p was the most common genetic alteration in pancreatoblastomas, present in 86% (six of seven informative cases). Molecular alterations in the APC/β-catenin pathway were detected in 67% (six of nine), including five neoplasms with activating mutations of the β-catenin oncogene and the one FAP-associated tumor with biallelic APC inactivation (germline truncating mutation combined with loss of the wild-type allele); seven neoplasms showed abnormal nuclear accumulation of β-catenin protein. In contrast, loss of Dpc4 protein expression was present in only two cases (one diffuse and one focal), and no alterations in the K-ras gene or p53 expression were detected. Our findings indicate that pancreatoblastomas are genetically distinct from the more common pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, but bear a close molecular pathogenesis to hepatoblastomas. In addition, pancreatoblastoma may represent an extracolonic manifestation of FAP.
A Classroom Game on a Negative Externality Correcting Tax: Revenue Return, Regressivity, and the Double Dividend.

ABSTRACTThe concept of negative externality is central to the teaching of environmental economics, but corrective taxes are almost always regressive. How exactly might governments return externality-correcting tax revenue to overcome regressivity and not alter marginal incentives? In addition, there is a desire to achieve a double dividend in the use of externality-correcting taxes, that is, to use the revenue to offset existing distortionary taxes, such as those on labor that produce a dead weight loss. In this article, the authors explain a classroom game that was developed for students to understand the theory of externalities, taxation dead weight loss, and regressivity. Then, the problem helps students explore the actual design of a policy that satisfies the double dividend hypothesis and corrects for regressivity.
Gears of War 4: creating a layered material system for 60fps

We have created a new material system for Gears of War 4 inside Unreal Engine that allows artists to layer dozens of materials with complete material tuning control and flexibility - then cook out the results in-engine for efficient run-time performance.
Are Proximity Attacks a Threat to the Security of Split Manufacturing of Integrated Circuits

Split manufacturing is a technique that allows manufacturing the transistor-level and lower metal layers of an integrated circuit (IC) at a high-end, untrusted foundry, while manufacturing only the higher metal layers at a smaller, trusted foundry. Using split manufacturing is only viable if the untrusted foundry cannot reverse engineer the higher metal layer connections (and thus the overall IC design) from the lower layers. This paper studies the effectiveness of proximity attack as a key step to reverse engineer a design at the untrusted foundry. We propose and study different proximity attacks based on how a set of candidates are defined for each broken connection. The attacks use both placement and routing information along with factors which capture the router’s behavior such as per-layer routing congestion. Our studies are based on designs having millions of nets routed across nine metal layers and significant layer-by-layer wire size variation. Our results show that a common, Hamming distance-based proximity attack seldom achieves a match rate over 5%. But our proposed attack yields a relatively small list of candidates which often contains the correct match. Finally, we propose a procedure to artificially insert routing blockages in a design at a desired split level, without causing any area overhead, in order to trick the router to make proximity-based reverse engineering significantly more challenging.
KRAS mutation amplifies ligand-dependent CXCR4 signal transduction in pancreatic cancer to increase cell proliferation

5232 Introduction: Recent studies have implicated the contribution of chemokine receptor CXCR4 to the invasive and metastatic phenotype of pancreatic cancer. CXCR4 propagates its signals in part through K-ras, which is often constitutively active in pancreatic cancer secondary to mutant KRAS. We hypothesized that activated K-ras and CXCR4 cooperate to enhance pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Methods: Established human pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1 and BxPC-3, which harbor mutant and wild-type KRAS alleles at codon 12, respectively, were selected. Mutant-specific KRASG12D short-interfering RNA (siRNA) for PANC-1 cells was designed. KRAS knockdown was measured by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) and Western blot assay. Cell proliferation following exposure to CXCL12, the specific CXCR4 ligand, was assessed by a 3[H]-thymidine incorporation assay. The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3K)/AKT and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) (i.e., RAF/MEK/ERK) pathways were assessed with pharmacologic inhibitors to determine the roles of these pathways in CXCR4 and K-ras signal transduction. Results: PANC-1 cells have a heterozygous allele for KRASG12D, whereas BxPC-3 cells are homozygous for the wild-type KRAS allele. Mutant-specific KRASG12D siRNA was transfected in both cell lines. qPCR and Western blot assay demonstrated K-ras knockdown in PANC-1 cells but intact K-ras in BxPC-3 cells. We noted that PANC-1 cell exposure to CXCL12 increased the phosphorylation of AKT (pAKT) and ERK-1/ERK-2 (pERK-1/2) with a concomitant increase in cell proliferation. When exposure to CXCL12 was coupled with KRASG12D knockdown, there was a significant decrease in cell proliferation. Pharmacologic inhibition of MEK with U0126 (+/-) CXCL12 led to the loss of detectable pERK-1/2 with a subsequent decrease in cell proliferation compared to CXCL12 exposure alone, thereby substantiating the role of the MAPK pathway in CXCR4-mediated cell proliferation. Interestingly, pharmacologic inhibition of PI-3K with wortmannin coupled with exposure to CXCL12 resulted in an increased level of pERK-1/2 and a concomitant increase in cell proliferation beyond that seen with CXCL12 exposure alone. The wortmannin induced upregulation of cell proliferation could be blocked by co-treatment with U0126. Conclusions: CXCR4 mediates ligand-dependent cell proliferation that is enhanced in the presence of activated K-ras signaling. This downstream cell function occurs selectively through the MAPK signal transduction pathway. Therapeutic inhibitors that block PI-3K should be used with caution because of the apparent promotion of cell proliferation through augmented MAPK signaling.
Automated Clinical Exome Reanalysis Reveals Novel Diagnoses

Clinical exome sequencing (CES) has a reported diagnostic yield of 20% to 30% for most clinical indications. The ongoing discovery of novel gene–disease and variant–disease associations are expected to increase the diagnostic yield of CES. Performing systematic reanalysis of previously nondiagnostic CES samples represents a significant challenge for clinical laboratories. Here, we present the results of a novel automated reanalysis methodology applied to 300 CES samples initially analyzed between June 2014 and September 2016. Application of our reanalysis methodology reduced reanalysis variant analysis burden by >93% and correctly captured 70 of 70 previously identified diagnostic variants among 60 samples with previously identified diagnoses. Notably, reanalysis of 240 initially nondiagnostic samples using information available on July 1, 2017, revealed 38 novel diagnoses, representing a 15.8% increase in diagnostic yield. Modeling monthly iterative reanalysis of 240 nondiagnostic samples revealed a diagnostic rate of 0.57% of samples per month. Modeling the workload required for monthly iterative reanalysis of nondiagnostic samples revealed a variant analysis burden of approximately 5 variants/month for proband-only and approximately 0.5 variants/month for trio samples. Approximately 45% of samples required evaluation during each monthly interval, and 61.3% of samples were reevaluated across three consecutive reanalyses. In sum, automated reanalysis methods can facilitate efficient reevaluation of nondiagnostic samples using up-to-date literature and can provide significant value to clinical laboratories.
Influences of Na+ co-cation on the structure and performance of Cu/SSZ-13 selective catalytic reduction catalysts

Abstract A series of Cu/H-SSZ-13 and Cu/Na-SSZ-13 catalysts are synthesized, degreened and hydrothermally aged for use in the standard NH3-SCR reaction. Surface area/pore volume and XRD analyses are used to probe the textural properties of the catalysts. H2-TPR and EPR are used to quantitatively describe the various Cu species. NH3-SCR is carried out at a lower space velocity to probe the light-off behavior, and a higher space velocity to generate data for kinetic analysis. Na+ co-cation addition is found to promote turnover rates of isolated Cu-ions at low reaction temperatures. However, as Cu loadings increase, this promoting effect is compromised by decreases in Cu exchange capacity and hydrothermal stability of the Cu/Na-SSZ-13 catalysts.
Mapping and Ablation of Arrhythmias from Uncommon Sites (Aortic Cusp, Pulmonary Artery, and Left Ventricular Summit)

Despite advances in our understanding of the relevant anatomy and mapping and catheter ablation techniques of idiopathic outflow tract ventricular arrhythmias, challenging sites for catheter ablation remain the aortic cusps, pulmonary artery, and notably the left ventricular summit. A systematic approach should be used to direct mapping efforts efficiently between endocardial, coronary venous, and epicardial sites. Foci at the left ventricular summit, particularly intraseptal and at the inaccessible epicardial region, remain difficult to reach and when percutaneous techniques fail, surgical ablation remains an option but with risk of late coronary artery stenosis.
Testing the cryovolcanism and plate bending hypotheses for Charon's smooth plains

Abstract Topographic moats are found at the edges of Charon's Vulcan Planitia, both where the plains meet the higher elevation terrain in Oz Terra, and surrounding isolated mountains within the smooth plains. The curved edges of the moats have been hypothesized to represent either the front of a cryolava flow from the emplacement of the plains material, or the result of elastic flexure of the plains surface due to the load of adjacent mountains or sinking crustal blocks. We tested both of these hypotheses by taking topographic profiles across the moats and comparing the observations to theoretical predictions from two lava flow models and two plate bending models. The algorithm we used returns a correlation coefficient as well as the parameter values for the theoretical model necessary to match the topography. Our results show that the plate bending models provided the best fits for the topography, though the lava flow models provided good matches for a few profiles. Our results for elastic thickness of ~1 km for a continuous plate or ~3 km for a broken plate are similar to results previously derived at Serenity Chasma. The values obtained for Bingham yield strength of ~10 kPa are also consistent with previous results from hypothesized cryovolcanic material on Ariel and Charon.
Development of Residents' Self-Efficacy in Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer Survey.

BACKGROUND Treating patients with breast cancer is multidisciplinary; however, it is unclear whether surgery residency programs provide sufficient training in multidisciplinary care. Self-efficacy is one way of measuring the adequacy of training. Our goal was to develop a method of assessing self-efficacy in multidisciplinary breast cancer care. METHODS Based on a literature review and subject-matter expert input, we developed a 30-item self-efficacy survey to measure six domains of breast cancer care (genetics, surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, and radiology). We constructed and validated the survey using a seven-step survey development framework. The survey was administered to general surgery residents at a single academic surgical residency. RESULTS Response rate was 66% (n = 31). Internal consistency was strong (Cronbach alpha = 0.92). Self-efficacy was moderate (mean = 3.05) and tended to increase with training (postgraduate year [PGY] 1: mean= 2.37 versus PGY 5: mean= 3.54; P < 0.001), providing evidence for construct validity. Self-efficacy was highest in the surgery (3.56) compared with others (genetics 2.67, medical oncology 3, radiation oncology 2.67, pathology 2.67, and radiology 3.33). This trend was similar across all PGY groups, except for interns, whose self-efficacy in surgery was low. CONCLUSIONS We created a survey to assess self-efficacy in multidisciplinary breast cancer care and provided initial evidence of survey validity. Although self-efficacy in surgery improved with years in training, medical and radiation oncology self-efficacy remained low. As modern breast cancer treatment is highly multidisciplinary, an expanded education program is needed to help trainees incorporate multidisciplinary clinical perspectives.
Pan-cancer molecular analysis of the RB tumor suppressor pathway

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene (RB1) plays a critical role in coordinating multiple pathways that impact cancer initiation, disease progression, and therapeutic responses. Here we probed molecular features associated with the RB-pathway across 31 tumor-types. While the RB-pathway has been purported to exhibit multiple mutually exclusive genetic events, only RB1 alteration is mutually exclusive with deregulation of CDK4/6 activity. An ER+ breast cancer model with targeted RB1 deletion was used to identify signatures of CDK4/6 activity and RB-dependency (CDK4/6-RB integrated signature). This signature was prognostic in tumor-types with gene expression features indicative of slower growth. Single copy loss on chromosome 13q encompassing the RB1 locus is prevalent in many cancers, yielding reduced expression of multiple genes in cis, and is inversely related to the CDK4/6-RB integrated signature supporting a cause-effect relationship. Genes that are positively and inversely correlated with the CDK4/6-RB integrated signature define new tumor-specific pathways associated with RB-pathway activity. Erik Knudsen et al. present a pan-cancer analysis of the RB tumor suppressor protein pathway in 31 tumor types. They find that pathway deregulation is multi-faceted with context dependent association with survival. However, gene expression features are surprisingly invariant and support new therapeutic targets.
Detection and genotypingof rotavirus among children under 5 years old hospitalized with diarrhea in Tianjin

：Objective To study the prevalence and genotypes of rotavirus(RV) among children,< 5 years old hospitalized with viral diarrhea in Tianjin. MethodsStool specimens were collected from hospitalized diarrhea children in Tianjin children'shospital between May 2008 and April 2009. Detection of rotavirus was employed by ColloidalGold Device. The detected positives were inoculated to MA-104 cells. The total RNA ofvirus was extracted after CPE which was caused by rotavirus were observed, The VP7serotypes were determined by using RT-PCR to amplify the VP7 gene and sequencing theRT-PCR products.The clinical data for each patient were also collected. Results Among 837specimens, the RV antigen positive rate was 26. 3% (220/837). Among all the children withrotavirus diarrhea, 90. 5% (199/220)were < 2 years old. The prevalence of rotavirusdiarrhea in children peaked during Oct. 2008 through Apr.2009. Of the 208 rotaviruspositive specimens, 95 were successfully identified by RT-PCR Thirty-five positive strainsof RV were sequenced, and the sequencing results showed that 32 positive strains werebelonged to rotavirus G1 type, 2 positive strains were belonged to rotavirus G3 type and 1positive strain were belonged to rotavirus C9 type. Conclusion RV was the dominantetiological agent for infantile diarrhea infection in Tianjin, and the predominantserotype was G1. Key words: Rotavirus infections; Rotavirus;
Brachyury controls Ciona notochord fate as part of a feedforward network and not as a unitary master regulator

The notochord is a defining feature of the chordates. The transcription factor Brachyury (Bra) is a key regulator of notochord fate but here we show that it is not a unitary master regulator in the model chordate Ciona. Ectopic Bra expression only partially reprograms other cell types to a notochord-like transcriptional profile and a subset of notochord-enriched genes are unaffected by CRISPR Bra disruption. We identify Foxa.a and Mnx as potential co-regulators and find that combinatorial cocktails are more effective at reprograming other cell types than Bra alone. We reassess the network relationships between Bra, Foxa.a and other components of the notochord gene regulatory network and find that Foxa.a expression in the notochord is regulated by vegetal FGF signaling. It is a direct activator of Bra expression and has a binding motif that is significantly enriched in the regulatory regions of notochord-enriched genes. These and other results indicate that Bra and Foxa.a act together in a regulatory network dominated by positive feed-forward interactions, with neither being a classically-defined master regulator.
Alpha-Synuclein Oligomers and Neurofilament Light Chain in Spinal Fluid Differentiate Multiple System Atrophy from Lewy Body Synucleinopathies.

OBJECTIVE To explore the role of alpha-synuclein (αSyn) oligomers and neurofilament light chain (NFL) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as markers of early multiple system atrophy (MSA) and to contrast findings with Lewy body synucleinopathies. METHODS In a discovery cohort of well-characterized early MSA patients (n = 24) and matched healthy controls (CON, n = 14), we utilized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure NFL and protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) to detect αSyn oligomers in CSF. We confirmed findings in a separate prospectively enrolled cohort of patients with early MSA (n = 38), Parkinson disease (PD, n = 16), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB, n = 13), and CON subjects (n = 15). RESULTS In the discovery cohort, NFL was markedly elevated in MSA patients, with perfect separation from CON. αSyn-PMCA was nonreactive in all CON, whereas all MSA samples were positive. In the confirmatory cohort, NFL again perfectly separated MSA from CON, and was significantly lower in PD and DLB compared to MSA. PMCA was again nonreactive in all CON, and positive in all but 2 MSA cases. All PD and all but 2 DLB samples were also positive for αSyn aggregates but with markedly different reaction kinetics from MSA; aggregation occurred later, but maximum fluorescence was higher, allowing for perfect separation of reactive samples between MSA and Lewy body synucleinopathies. INTERPRETATION NFL and αSyn oligomers in CSF faithfully differentiate early MSA not only from CON but also from Lewy body synucleinopathies. The findings support the role of these markers as diagnostic biomarkers, and have important implications for understanding pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying the synucleinopathies. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:503-512.
Social Media: Exploring Entrepreneurial Opportunities

The main purpose of this chapter is to review entrepreneurial opportunities presented by the social media. Although it grew over time and became a part of a business strategy, social media is still used mostly for communication purposes. Other areas of business transactions can gain from the social media as well. Creating value for customers, changing business models, and the environment in which a company operates are among those areas that are being overlooked by entrepreneurs. Businesses might see only the most visible part of the social media – online presence and marketing communication. However, there is more to social media than just online communication.
The Kidney Failure Risk Equation for Prediction of Allograft Loss in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Rationale & Objective The Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) is a simple widely validated prediction model using age, sex, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio to predict the risk for end-stage kidney disease. Data are limited for its applicability to kidney transplant recipients. Study Design Validation study of the KFRE as a post hoc analysis of the Folic Acid for Vascular Outcomes Reduction in Transplantation (FAVORIT) Trial. Setting & Participants Adult kidney transplant recipients with functioning kidney allografts at least 6 months posttransplantation from 30 centers in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Participants with estimated glomerular filtration rates Predictor 2- and 5-year kidney failure risk predicted by the KFRE using variables at study entry. Outcome Graft loss, defined by initiation of dialysis. Analytical Approach Discrimination of the KFRE was assessed using C statistics; calibration was assessed by plotting predicted risk against observed cumulative incidence of graft loss. Results 2,889 participants were included. Within 2 years, 98 participants developed graft loss, 107 participants died with a functioning graft, and 129 participants were lost to follow-up, and by 5 years, 252 had developed graft loss, 265 died with a functioning graft, and 1,543 were lost to follow-up. The KFRE demonstrated accurate calibration and discrimination (C statistic, 0.85 [95% CI, 0.81-0.88] at 2 years and 0.81 [95% CI, 0.78-0.84] at 5 years); performance was similar regardless of donor type (living vs deceased) and graft vintage, with the noted exception of poorer calibration for graft vintage less than 2 years. Limitations Unavailable cause of graft loss. Conclusions The KFRE accurately predicted the risk for graft loss among adult kidney transplant recipients with graft vintage longer than 2 years and may be a useful prognostic tool for nephrologists caring for kidney transplant recipients.
New upper bounds on sphere packings I

We continue the study of the linear programming bounds for sphere packing introduced by Cohn and Elkies. We use theta series to give another proof of the principal theorem, and present some related results and conjectures. This article is in the arXiv as: arXiv:math.MG/0110010
What's New in Sports Medicine.

This update is based on the scientific and investigational activities in the specialty of sports medicine from September 2014 to August 2015. It includes a review of pertinent research and articles published in the three premier journals of our specialty, namely, The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, The American Journal of Sports Medicine , and Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery. ### Rotator Cuff #### Degenerative Rotator Cuff Tear History The natural history of degenerative rotator cuff tear progression is still being elucidated. There are many studies that show the prevalence of asymptomatic rotator cuff tears, but few exist that evaluate the long-term prospective patient history. Keener et al. attempted to characterize the amount of rotator cuff tear enlargement and progression of symptoms with initial asymptomatic tears. They studied asymptomatic rotator cuff tears in patients who had a symptomatic contralateral rotator cuff tear. In their study, they showed that tears enlarged in almost one-half of the patients over a median of 3 years and those patients who experienced tear enlargement tended to have an onset of new pain. Progressive degenerative changes within the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles were associated with tear enlargement compared with the control group. These findings show that many of these tears may progress and may become symptomatic1. #### Therapy After Rotator Cuff Repair Although therapy after rotator cuff repair is universal, the optimal timing of rehabilitation initiation is still unknown. Studies have suggested that outcome scores are better with early passive motion (<6 weeks after the surgical procedure) than with delayed motion (≥6 weeks), but the association of rehabilitation schedule and retear rate is not fully understood. In a systematic review and meta-analysis, Kluczynski et al. found that, in randomized controlled studies, there was not a significant difference between the 2 rehabilitation schedules with respect to retear rates. With analysis of those studies that did not …
Hemoglobinopathies: ocular manifestations in children and adolescents.

Hemoglobinopathies are genetic disorders that lead to abnormal structure of the hemoglobin molecule. Sickle cell disease, the most common inherited blood disorder, is characterized by defective oxy...
The most westward European occurrence point for Dreissena bugensis (Andrusov 1897)

The occurence of Dreissena bugensis (Andrusov 1897) from the Romanian Danube is reported. This represents the most westward occurrence point of quagga mussel in Europe.
Light-Induced Passivation of Si by Iodine Ethanol Solution

We report on our observations of light-activated passivation of silicon surfaces by iodine-ethanol solution.
Buoyancy Effects on Liquid-Nitrogen Film Boiling in Vertical Flow

Film boiling occurs when a continuous vapor film exists between the heat-transfer surface and the liquid. The evaporation of liquid is essentially on the liquid-vapor interface with heat transfer across the film primarily by conduction. This mode of heat transfer has been analyzed for both the pool (nonflow) and forced-flow system. In these analyses, both buoyancy and viscous forces are known to influence the thickness and stability of the vapor film which are recognized as controlling parameters in this heat-transport mechanism.
Improving Support for Multimedia System Experimentation and Development

New applications with increasingly complex complex requirements present significant challenges to existing operating systems, motivating the design and implementation of new system abilities. Multimedia applications are excellent driving problems because they exhibit stringent temporal constraints and non-trivial interactions among applications within and across machine boundaries. This paper describes work done under several projects conducted by the author in the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at the University of Kansas which had the need for real-time software in common. This common set of requirements motivated the development of real-time extensions to Linux capable of scheduling events with microsecond accuracy, and the creation of a facility called the Data Stream Kernel Interface capable of gathering performance data with sub-microsecond precision. This paper provides an overview of these new system abilities, how we have used them, and discusses their relevance to the design, implementation, and evaluation of multimedia systems.
Conceptual Change as an Agent for Teacher Recruitment

Rural education is faced with a serious teacher shortage, specifically FL educators. FL enrollments are increasing at both the K-12 and higher education levels as the number of qualified FL teachers is decreasing rapidly. The purpose of this study was to recruit undergraduate students into language teaching by investigating students’ perceptions of second language learning and becoming a FL teacher in a rural context. Two quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with undergraduates in second-and third-semester FL courses at a western university were used to evaluate this group as a potential pool from which to recruit rural FL educators. Working through Posner et al.’s (1982) Conceptual Change Model, students were invited to participate in a teacher recruitment event. Later, 15 students changed majors to become FL educators. This article details the project and provides recommendations for not only the recruitment of language teachers but for all teachers regardless of content area specialty. Over the last decade, efforts have been focused on helping rural school districts be more responsive to growth and survival needs of their communities (Israel, Coleman, & Ilvento, 1993; Spears, Combs, & Bailey, 1990). These efforts have been driven by a number of factors that have made rural communities vulnerable to the economic, social, and environmental trends emerging from the nation’s move away from local manufacturing and resource-based industries toward a more global economy, which negatively impacts those communities with low population density and geographic isolation. Clearly, this is important information since almost half of the nation’s 80,000 public elementary and secondary schools are located in rural areas or small towns. Further, nearly one in three of America’s school-aged children attend public schools in rural areas or small towns of fewer than 25,000 inhabitants, and more than one in every six attend schools in the very smallest communities (Johnson, 2003; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1996). These rural schools play an important part in many small communities, and can be the community center and symbol of community pride (Hobbs, 1995; Miller, 1995). Characteristically, rural districts tend to serve fewer children, have less construction money available, have lower property value assessments, and have a higher proportion of residents in or near poverty compared to metropolitan areas (Dewees, 1999).
Developing stratified epithelia: lessons from the epidermis and thymus

Stratified squamous epithelial cells are found in a number of organs, including the skin epidermis and the thymus. The progenitor cells of the developing epidermis form a multi-layered epithelium and appendages, like the hair follicle, to generate an essential barrier to protect against water loss and invasion of foreign pathogens. In contrast, the thymic epithelium forms a three-dimensional mesh of keratinocytes that are essential for positive and negative selection of self-restricted T cells. While these distinct stratified epithelial tissues derive from distinct embryonic germ layers, both tissues instruct immunity, and the epithelial differentiation programs and molecular mechanisms that control their development are remarkably similar. In this review, we aim to highlight some of the similarities between the thymus and the skin epidermis and its appendages during developmental specification. WIREs Dev Biol 2014, 3:389–402. doi: 10.1002/wdev.146 Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Analysis of Program Administration and Food Law Definitions

Under the current version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), participants can purchase virtually any food or beverage (collectively, food). Research indicates that SNAP recipients may have worse dietary quality than income-eligible nonparticipants. Policymakers have urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pilot SNAP purchasing restrictions intended to support a healthier diet, and state legislators have proposed similar bills. The USDA rejected these invitations, stating that it would be administratively and logistically difficult to differentiate among products, amid other concerns. However, the USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) do just that. Further, state governments define and differentiate among foods and beverages for tax purposes. This paper reviews several factors intended to inform future policy decisions: the science indicating that SNAP recipients have poorer diet quality than income-eligible nonparticipants; the public's support for revising the SNAP program; federal, state, and city legislators' formal proposals to amend SNAP based on nutrition criteria and the USDA's public position in opposition to these proposals; state bills to amend eligible foods purchasable with SNAP benefits; state retail food tax laws; and the retail administration and program requirements for both WIC and SNAP. The paper finds that the government has a clear ability to align SNAP benefits with nutrition science and operationalize this into law.
Coordinated regulation of vascular Ca2+ and K+ channels by integrin signaling.

A role for integrins in mechanotransduction has been suggested because these molecules form an important mechanical link between the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the cytoskeleton. An example of mechanotransduction in blood vessels is the myogenic response—the rapid and maintained constriction of arterioles in response to pressure elevation. L-type calcium channels and large-conductance, calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels are known to play important roles in the myogenic response and in the maintenance of myogenic (pressure-induced) vascular tone. Our recent studies on isolated, cannulated arterioles and freshly-dispersed arteriolar smooth muscle cells show that both L-type calcium channels (Cav1.2) and BK channels are regulated by α5β1 integrin activation. α5β1 integrin interacts with the ECM protein fibronectin, which is distributed in basement membrane and interstitial matrices surrounding smooth muscle cells within the arteriolar wall. Truncation and site-directed mutagenesis strategies reveal that regulation of Cav1.2 by α5β1 integrin requires phosphorylation of the channel α1C subunit at C-terminal residues Ser-1901 and Tyr-2122. Likewise, BK channel potentiation by α5β1 integrin activation requires c-Src phosphorylation of the channel α-subunit at residue Tyr-766. Thus, both L-type calcium channels and BK channels can be regulated coordinately through integrin-linked phosphorylation cascades involving c-Src. We propose that these two channels are under constitutive control by α5β1 integrin-fibronectin interactions in the vessel wall such that the balance of their activity determines myogenic tone and the vascular response to vessel wall injury/remodeling.
Advanced satellite system architecture for VSATs with ISDN compatibility

This paper describes a future communications satellite system architecture concept which allows the use of Very Small Aperature Terminals (VSATs) of 1.2 m to 1.8 m diameter and which provides access according to the international Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) standard. This satellite system design could make dial-up integrated voice and data service available nationwide and perhaps worldwide. The paper gives a conceptual system design based on the year 1995 technology for the communications satellite, the earth terminal, and the ground-based master control station and interface to the terrestrial ISDN network.
Bryostatins mimic the effects of phorbol esters in intact human platelets.

Abstract Bryostatin-7 induces aggregation of human platelets and the phosphorylation of specific platelet proteins. Both the rate and extent of aggregation are similar to that induced by the tumor promoter phorbol ester 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA); however, the rate of response is markedly reduced compared to that induced by thrombin. The addition of bryostatin-7 to 32 P-labeled platelets results in a time-dependent incorporation of 32 P into proteins of 20, 47 and 250 kDa; proteins of similar molecular mass are phosphorylated in response to the addition of thrombin or PMA. The time courses and dose responses of the phosphorylations induced by byrostatin-7 are similar to those found with PMA. In addition, bryostatin-7 increases the level of 32 P incorporation into platelet polyphosphoinositides, which also occurs in response to PMA. These results suggest that, in intact human platelets, bryostatin-7 mimics the phorbol ester tumor promoter by directly activating protein kinase C.
A bottleneck situation involving interdependent industries

In this paper, we consider the computational solution of a maximization problem arising in the study of the utilization of interdependent industries. Under the assumption of proportional costs and returns. it is shown that the dimensionality of the problem can always be reduced by one and all the transformations occurring can be taken to be “shrinking transformations.” These transformations greatly improve the efficiency of the method.
High Impact Computing: Computing for Science and the Science of Computing

Modern science often requires the processing and analysis of vast amounts of data in search of postulated phenomena, and the validation of core principles through the simulation of complex system behaviors and interactions. This is the case in fields such as astronomy, bioinformatics, physics, and climate and ocean modeling, and others. In order to support the computational and data needs of today's science, new knowledge must be gained on how to deliver the growing high-performance and distributed computing resources to the scientist's desktop in an accessible, reliable and scalable way. In over a decade of working with domain scientists, the Pegasus project [1,2] has developed tools and techniques that automate the computational processes used in data- and compute-intensive research. Among them is the scientific workflow management system, Pegasus, which is being used by researchers to model seismic wave propagation, to discover new celestial objects, to study RNA critical to human brain development, and to investigate other important research questions. This talk will review the conception and evolution of the Pegasus research program. It will touch upon the role of scientific workflow systems in advancing science, and will give specific examples of how the Pegasus Workflow Management System has done so. It will describe how the Pegasus project has adapted to changes in application needs and to advances in high performance and distributed computing systems. It will discuss the interleaving of Computer Science research and software development and how each benefits from the other while providing value to other science domains. The talk will also stress the importance of forming collaborations, both within Computer Science and with other disciplines, to help solve real-world problems and have fun along way.
Short text keyphrase extraction with hypergraphs

Graph-based ranking for keyphrase extraction has become an important approach for measuring saliency scores in text due to its ability to capture the context. By modeling words as vertices and the co-occurrence relation between words as edges, the importance of words is measured from the whole graph. However, graphs by nature can only capture the pair-wise relation between vertices. Therefore, it is not clear if graphs can capture high-order relations of more than two words. In this paper, we propose to use a hypergraph to capture high-order relations appearing in short documents, and use such information to infer better ranking of words. Additionally, we model the temporal and social attributes of short documents and discriminative weights of words into the hypergraph as weights which give us the ability of capturing recent and topical keyphrases. Furthermore, to rank vertices in the proposed hypergraph, we propose a probabilistic random walk that takes into account weights of both vertices and hyperedges. We show the effectiveness of our approach by conducting extensive experiments over two different data sets which demonstrate the robustness of the proposed approach.
Synthesis of Glycopolymers for Microarray Applications via Ligation of Reducing Sugars to a Poly(acryloyl hydrazide) Scaffold

In this paper, we report on a general synthetic strategy for the assembly of glycopolymers that capitalizes on the intrinsic reactivity of reducing glycans toward hydrazides to form stable cyclic N-glycosides. We developed a poly(acryloyl hydrazide) (PAH) scaffold to which we conjugated a variety of reducing glycans ranging in structure from simple mono- and disaccharides to considerably more complex human milk and blood oligosaccharides. The conjugation proceeds under mild conditions with excellent ligation efficiencies and in a stereoselective manner, providing glycopolymers with pendant glycans accommodated mostly in their cyclic β-glycosidic form. Utilizing a biotin-terminated PAH scaffold prepared via RAFT polymerization, we quickly assembled a panel of glycopolymers that we microarrayed on streptavidin-coated glass. We then demonstrated that in these microarrays, the glycopolymer ligands bind lectins according to the structures of their pendant glycans. Importantly, glycopolymers containing biologic...