cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The association of age with perioperative morbidity and mortality among men undergoing radical prostatectomy.

Abstract Introduction Older age is considered a relative contraindication to radical prostatectomy (RP). However, data are limited regarding the impact of age on perioperative outcomes following RP. We examined the association of age with perioperative outcomes following RP to inform risk-stratification and management. Materials and methods We identified 35,968 men aged 18 to 89 years who underwent RP from 2010 to 2015 in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database. The associations of age with 30-day complications and perioperative morbidity were evaluated using logistic regression, adjusted for patient features. Age was modeled both as a categorical and nonlinear continuous variable. Results Median age at surgery was 63 years (IQR: 58–67). Increasing age was associated with greater rates of perioperative morbidity. Compared to men aged Conclusions In this national cohort, we observed a nonlinear association of age with perioperative morbidity, with increasing rates of 30-day complications, perioperative blood transfusion, and readmission after approximately 70 years of age. These results have implications for risk-stratification, patient counseling, and treatment selection among older men.
QuickCast: Fast and Efficient Inter-Datacenter Transfers Using Forwarding Tree Cohorts

Several organizations have built multiple datacenters connected via dedicated wide area networks over which large inter-datacenter transfers take place. Since many such transfers move the same data from one source to multiple destinations, using multicast forwarding trees can reduce bandwidth needs and improve completion times. However, using a single forwarding tree per transfer can lead to poor performance as the slowest receiver dictates the completion time for all receivers. Using multiple forwarding trees per transfer alleviates this concern-the average receiver could finish early; however, if done naively, bandwidth usage would also increase and it is apriori unclear how best to partition receivers, how to construct the multiple trees and how to determine the rate and schedule of flows on these trees. This paper presents QuickCast, a first solution to these problems. Using simulations on real-world network topologies, we see that QuickCast can speed up the average receiver's completion time by as much as $10\times$ while only using $1.04\times$ more bandwidth; further, the completion time for all receivers also improves by as much as $1.57 >$ faster at high loads. Thereby, while some implementation challenges remain, we advocate using a cohort of forwarding trees.
Seed banks of native forbs, but not exotic grasses, increase during extreme drought

Extreme droughts such as the one that affected California in 2012-2015 have been linked to severe ecological consequences in perennial-dominated communities such as forests. In annual communities, drought impacts are difficult to assess because many species persist through facultative multiyear seed dormancy, which leads to the development of seed banks. Impacts of extreme drought on the abundance and composition of the seed banks of whole communities are little known. In 80 heterogeneous grassland plots where cover is dominated by ~15 species of exotic annual grasses and diversity is dominated by ~70 species of native annual forbs, we grew out seeds from soil cores collected early in the California drought (2012) and later in the multiyear drought (2014), and analyzed drought-associated changes in the seed bank. Over the course of the study we identified more than 22,000 seedlings to species. We found that seeds of exotic annual grasses declined sharply in abundance during the drought while seeds of native annual forbs increased, a pattern that resembled but was even stronger than the changes in aboveground cover of these groups. Consistent with the expectation that low specific leaf area (SLA) is an indicator of drought tolerance, we found that the community-weighted mean SLA of annual forbs declined both in the seed bank and in the aboveground community, as low-SLA forbs increased disproportionately. In this system, seed dormancy reinforces the indirect benefits of extreme drought to the native forb community.
Intermolecular insertion reactions of azides into 9-borafluorenes to generate 9,10-B,N-phenanthrenes

The reactions of 9-borafluorenes with organic azides result in either the insertion of the α-nitrogen and elimination of N2 or the insertion of the γ-nitrogen to generate the corresponding phenanthrene analogues with boron and nitrogen in the 9- and 10-positions, respectively.
Improving Outcomes With Subspecialization and Regionalization

Abstract Hospital and surgeon performance is being more closely scrutinized due to rising costs, increasing patient expectations, demands for greater transparency, and concerns over quality, efficiency, and safety. As neurosurgeons, we can directly improve the quality metrics being examined and also the safety and quality of care delivered. Neurosurgery has moved toward expertise and experience of both surgeons and care teams, and evidence exists that both can improve quality of care and patient satisfaction. Many studies suggest that high-volume surgeons and medical centers deliver higher quality care for patients and procedures. Experience is recognized as a key driver of individual surgical performance, giving rise to a learning curve. Since there are fewer training hours available, methods are being developed to accelerate the neurosurgical learning curve via such things as simulation training. Provider volume has been shown to have an impact on postoperative mortality, complications, and costs in neurosurgery particularly for craniotomy, transsphenoidal surgery, ventriculoperitoneal shunt operations, and carotid endarterectomy. At the hospital level, increased case volume is even more strongly associated with improved outcomes. Lastly, there is evidence that patients are more satisfied and have a favorable hospital care experience if they believe they are being cared for in a center of excellence by providers and hospitals with extensive training and experience in their particular problem area. Thus, the best available evidence would suggest that quality and safety of neurosurgical care can be improved when surgeons and hospitals focus and outcomes are improved when care is delivered by experienced high-volume providers and care teams.
Responding to the left: the effect of far-left parties on mainstream party Euroskepticism

Do far-left political parties influence the level of Euroskepticism among mainstream political parties within that same party system? This study seeks to address this question by building on previous work that has examined the effect of both far-left and far-right Euroskeptic parties on mainstream party positions regarding the EU. We theorize that when far-left parties place an emphasis on state control over the economy, mainstream parties in the same party system are less supportive of the EU. To test our theoretical expectations, we use data from the Comparative Manifestos Project in 25 EU member states from 1958 through 2015. The analysis indicates support for the hypothesis that when far-left parties place greater emphasis on a need for state control of the economy, mainstream parties in that party system are more Euroskeptic. Our findings have important implications for understanding the nature of political party dynamics both generally, and more specifically in the European Union.
Blurred Lines: Twenty-First Century Maritime Security in the South China Sea

This chapter explores the South China Sea and how the dividing lines between high and low politics in maritime security have become increasingly indiscernible in the South China Sea, creating a more complex policymaking environment in this contested ocean area. Amid long-standing territorial disputes, two major factors—China’s more assertive foreign policies and a newly acquired military power to back them—have had profound effects on maritime security in the region. The increased frequency of national security encounters with China in the South China Sea has blurred the lines between human, economic, and national security dimensions within the broader category of maritime security. Until the South China Sea disputes are resolved, they will remain in a contested arena where China and others seek to secure and control the vital sea lanes of communication, as well as the region’s untapped natural resources.
Health Behavior Research and Oral Health

For over four decades, health behavior research has been an important tool in understanding the actions of dental practitioners, patients, and administrators of oral health services. Early investigations of fluoridation of public water supplies provided information on health behaviors of organizers and policy makers at the community level. Following World Wa. II., there was increased interest in the characteristics of dentists and their practice activities and in the impact of practitioner behavior on oral health status, access, and cost. With the increasing availability of additional preventive strategies, such as topical fluoride applications and dental sealants, compliance with these new regimens on the part of the public, patients, and health care professionals was the object of considerable behavioral research (Richards & Cohen, 1971). The evolution of the profession from a treatment to a prevention orientation in the 1960s and 1970s brought increased interest in the organization of dental practices and the types of services provided, the employment of dental hygienists and auxiliary personnel, and dentist-patient interactions. Concurrently, as the population of the United States increased, there was a surge of interest in estimating the size and composition of the dental workforce. This increasing interest resulted in other thrusts for behavior research: understanding what type of health professional was attracted to dentistry, training the ideal dentist, assuring that appropriate practice strategies were developed and used, and expanding the function of dental auxiliaries.
Cluster Matching Distance for Rooted Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic trees are fundamental to biology and are benefitting several other research areas. Various methods have been developed for inferring such trees, and comparing them is an important problem in computational phylogenetics. Addressing this problem requires tree measures, but all of them suffer from problems that can severely limit their applicability in practice. This also holds true for one of the oldest and most widely used tree measures, the Robinson-Foulds distance. While this measure is satisfying the properties of a metric and is efficiently computable, it has a negatively skewed distribution, a poor range of discrimination and diameter, and may not be robust when comparing erroneous trees. The cluster distance is a measure for comparing rooted trees that can be interpreted as a weighted version of the Robinson-Foulds distance. We show that when compared with the Robinson-Foulds distance, the cluster distance is much more robust towards small errors in the compared trees, and has a significantly improved distribution and range.
Capacity, sustainability, and the community benefits of municipal utility ownership in the United States

Most literature on utility sustainability focuses on internal operations; this misses the role that utilities could play within a community. This study measures the impact of municipal ownership of...
Proceedings of the 5th ACM workshop on Security and artificial intelligence

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 5th ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security -- AISec 2012. This year's workshop serves as the premier forum for the presentation of research on the leading edge issues of security, privacy, AI and machine learning, and as a venue for developing the fundamental theory and practical applications supporting the use of machine learning for security and privacy. The needs of this burgeoning community, who are especially focused on (among other topics) learning in game-theoretic adversarial environments, privacypreserving learning, or the use of sophisticated new learning algorithms in security is not met elsewhere. The mission of this workshop is thus to share novel AI solutions that fulfill the needs of security applications, to identify the unique constraints of learning in security-sensitive environments, and to explore new directions for future research and development. AISec gives researchers and practitioners a unique opportunity to share their perspectives with others interested in the intersection of AI and security applications. We are delighted to once again be co-located with the premier ACM Computer and Communication Security (CCS 2012) conference. The call for papers attracted 24 submissions from Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. The program committee accepted 10 papers that cover a variety of topics including approaches to malware, spam, and intrusion detection as well as automatic redaction. In addition, we are delighted that the program includes a keynote speech entitled "Machine Learning Meets Social Networking Security -- Detecting and Analyzing Malicious Social Networks for Fun and Profit" to be presented by Guofei Gu from Texas A&M. Together, we hope these contributions comprise a wonderful program that will bring together leading researchers with backgrounds in both Security & Privacy and AI.
The effect of time of sowing and harvesting on growth, yield and nitrogen fertilizer requirement of sugar beet: I. Yield and nitrogen uptake at harvest

Four field experiments (1968–71) investigated the effect of changing the length of the growing period on the nitrogen fertilizer requirement of sugar beet. The crop was sown on three occasions (March–May), harvested on three occasions (September–December) and given four amounts of fertilizer (0–225 kg N/ha). Plant samples were analysed at several stages of growth (1969–71) in an attempt to predict the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed for maximum sugar yield and also at the end of the season to determine the nitrogen uptake. Increasing the length of the growing period increased sugar yield greatly but the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed for maximum sugar yield was unchanged. The crop given the largest dressing of nitrogen and with the longest growing period contained most total nitrogen, but in every experiment, giving more than 75 kg N/ha neither increased nor decreased the sugar yield significantly. As a result of the small variations in nitrogen requirement, the plant analyses during the growing season were of little value in predicting the needs of the crop.
Pretreatment Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Network Metrics Predict the Strength of the Association Between Node Change and Network Change During Treatment

Network analysis has been increasingly applied in an effort to understand complex interactions among symptoms in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although methods that initially focused on identifying central symptoms in cross-sectional networks have been extended to longitudinal data that can reveal the relative roles of acute symptoms in the emergence of the PTSD syndrome, the association between network metrics and symptom change during treatment have yet to be explored in PTSD. To address this gap, we estimated pretreatment PTSD symptom networks in a sample of patients from a multisite clinical trial for women with full or subthreshold PTSD and substance use. We tested the hypothesis that node metrics calculated in the pretreatment network would be predictive of the strength of the association between a symptom's change and the change in the severity of all other symptoms through the course of treatment. A symptom node's strength and predictability in the pretreatment network were each strongly correlated with the association between that symptom's change and overall change across the symptom network, r(15) = .79, p < .001 and r(15) = .75, p < .001, respectively, whereas a symptom's mean severity at pretreatment was not, r(15) = .27, p = .292. These findings suggest that a node's centrality prior to treatment engagement is a predictor of its association with overall symptom change throughout the treatment process.
Intermittent query processing

Many applications ingest data in an intermittent, yet largely predictable, pattern. Existing systems tend to ignore how data arrives when making decisions about how to update (or refresh) an ongoing query. To address this shortcoming we propose a new query processing paradigm, Intermittent Query Processing (IQP), that bridges query execution and policies, to determine when to update results and how much resources to allocate for ensuring fast query updates. Here, for a query the system provides an initial result that is to be refreshed when policy dictates, such as after a defined number of new records arrive or a time interval elapses. In between intermittent data arrivals, IQP inactivates query execution by selectively releasing some resources occupied in normal execution that will be least helpful (for future refreshes) according to the arrival patterns for new records. We present an IQP prototype based on PostgreSQL that selectively persists the state associated with query operators to allow for fast query updates while constraining resource consumption. Our experiments show that for several application scenarios IQP greatly lowers query processing latency compared to batch systems, and largely reduces memory consumption with comparable latency compared to a state-of-the-art incremental view maintenance technique.
Climate Change, Extreme Weather Events and Global Health Security a Lens into Vulnerabilities

Natural hazards have displaced over 26.4 million people per year since 2008 (Norwegian Refugee Council, Global estimates 2015: people displaced by disasters. Retrieved from http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/library/Media/201507-globalEstimates-2015/20150713-global-estimates-2015-en-v1.pdf, 2015). This number will only increase as climate change continues to exacerbate displacement due to monsoon-related flooding, coastal erosion, cyclones, and salinity intrusion (Barua P, Shahjahan M, Rahman M, Rahman S, Molla M. Forced Migr Rev 1(56), 88–91, 2017; Toufique K, Islam A, Int J Disaster Risk Reduction 10(Part A):236–249, 2014). Events such as Typhoon Haiyan, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Irma and Michael represent examples of extreme weather events that had devastating effects on communities. Weick and Sutcliffe (Managing the unexpected: resilient performance in an age of uncertainty, 2nd edn. Wiley, San Francisco, 2007) argue that ‘Unexpected events often audit our resilience. Everything that was left unattended becomes a complex problem and every weakness comes rushing to the forefront.’ In the Chatham House report ‘Preparing for High Impact, Low Probability Events’, Lee et al. (Preparing for high-impact, low-probability events; lessons from Eyjafjallajokull. Chatham House Report, 2012:vii) ‘…found that governments and businesses remain unprepared for such events … the frequency of ‘high-impact, low-probability’ (HILP) events in the last decade signals the emergence of a new ‘normal’. Extreme weather and climate related events pose serious public health threats to vulnerable communities and has resulted in mass migrations and displacements; creating what some refer to as ‘climate refugees’. Threats and consequences stemming from climate related events are transboundary and transnational and thereby emerge as a global health security concern. Scenario planning provides a key ‘leverage point’ in managing (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) such disaster consequences by illuminating the space of possibilities regarding impact and vulnerabilities. To do so requires a framework to help characterize the challenges associated with the impact of climate related disasters.
Hormonal Biophysiology of the Uterus.

Intrauterine development of the uterus is promoted by the hormonal influence of the maternal steroid sex hormones on the female fetus. The cyclic activity of the endometrium starts at puberty, at menarche, and is controlled by the pituitary hormones (FSH and LH) and steroid ovarian hormones, the latter acting on the target tissue—the endometrium. The proliferative and secretory cyclic changes of the endometrium prepare the uterus for implantation of a fertilized ovum. Ovarian failure to secrete steroid hormones results in the menopausal gradual atrophy of the endometrium.
Journey in Aeronautical Research: A Career at NASA Langley Research Center

An autobiography, of a noted aeronautical engineer, W. Hewitt Phillips, whose career spanned 58 years (1940-1998) at NASA Langley is presented. This work covers his early years to the Sputnik launch. His interests have been in research in aeronautics and in the related problems of spaceflight. After an introduction, his early life through the college years is reviewed, and his early interest in model airplanes is described. The first assignment for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which would later become NASA, was with the Flight Research Division. His early work involved "Flying Qualities", i.e., the stability and control characteristics of an airplane. The next chapter describes his early analytical studies. His work during World War II in the design of military airplanes, and the other effects of the war on research activities, is covered in the next two chapters. This research was involved in such innovations and refinements as the swept wing, the flettner tabs, servo tabs, spring tabs and whirlerons. The rest of the work covers the research which Mr. Hewitt was involved in, after the war until the Sputnik launch. These areas include unsteady lift, measurements of turbulence in the atmosphere, gust alleviation, and lateral response to random turbulence. He was also involved in several investigations of airplane accidents. The last two chapters cover the administration of the Langley Research Center, and the dawn of the Space Age. A complete bibliography of reports written by Mr. Hewitt, is included.
Telemedicine in Otolaryngology in the COVID-19 Era: Initial Lessons Learned.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented global changes in the delivery of healthcare over a short period of time. With the implementation of shelter-in-place orders, otolaryngology clinic visits at our institution were transitioned to telemedicine. This change enabled the rapid characterization of the patients who accepted and declined telemedicine. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis. METHODS A review was conducted of 525 otolaryngology patients at a tertiary-care referral center with scheduled visits requiring rescheduling to a future date or a telemedicine visit. Visit, demographic information, and reason for deferring telemedicine were collected for analysis. RESULTS Seventy-two percent of patients declined a telemedicine visit, with the most common reason being the lack of a physical exam (97%). There was an even distribution of demographics between those who accepted and declined visits. There was an association between declining telemedicine with older age (P = .0004) and otology visits (P = .0003), whereas facial plastics patients were more likely to accept (P < .0001). Patients scheduled earlier during the pandemic were more likely to accept a visit with a median of 28 days from onset of shelter-in-place orders versus 35 for those who declined (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS We describe our initial experience with a transition to telemedicine, where the majority of patients would decline a virtual visit due to the lack of a physical exam. Although the future remains uncertain, telemedicine will continue to play a vital role in healthcare delivery. We believe that understanding our patient base gives critical insights that will help guide and improve virtual care to meet patients' needs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 4 Laryngoscope, 130:2568-2573, 2020.
Perfluoroalkyl Acid Binding with Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors α, γ, and δ, and Fatty Acid Binding Proteins by Equilibrium Dialysis with a Comparison of Methods

The biological impacts of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are linked to their protein interactions. Existing research has largely focused on serum albumin and liver fatty acid binding protein, and binding affinities determined with a variety of methods show high variability. Moreover, few data exist for short-chain PFAS, though their prevalence in the environment is increasing. We used molecular dynamics (MD) to screen PFAS binding to liver and intestinal fatty acid binding proteins (L- and I-FABPs) and peroxisome proliferator activated nuclear receptors (PPAR-α, -δ and -γ) with six perfluoroalkyl carboxylates (PFCAs) and three perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFSAs). Equilibrium dissociation constants, KDs, were experimentally determined via equilibrium dialysis (EqD) with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for protein-PFAS pairs. A comparison was made between KDs derived from EqD, both here and in literature, and other in vitro approaches (e.g., fluorescence) from literature. EqD indicated strong binding between PPAR-δ and perfluorobutanoate (0.044 ± 0.013 µM) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (0.035 ± 0.0020 µM), and between PPAR-α and perfluorohexanoate (0.097 ± 0.070 µM). Unlike binding affinities for L-FABP, which increase with chain length, KDs for PPARs showed little chain length dependence by either MD simulation or EqD. Compared with other in vitro approaches, EqD-based KDs consistently indicated higher affinity across different proteins. This is the first study to report PPARs binding with short-chain PFAS with KDs in the sub-micromolar range.
Mantra of intention

The single most impactful intention a writer can set isn't to work every day, or finish a draft by a circled date on the calendar, or keep submitting work in the face of editorial rejection. It's t...
Stabilizing Zinc Electrodeposition in a Battery Anode by Controlling Crystal Growth

Reversible electrodeposition of metals at liquid-solid interfaces is a requirement for long cycle life in rechargeable batteries that utilize metals as anodes. The process has been studied extensively from the perspective of the electrochemical transformations that impact reversibility, however, the fundamental challenges associated with maintaining morphological control when a intrinsically crystalline solid metal phase emerges from an electrolyte solution have been less studied, but provide important opportunities for progress. A crystal growth stabilization method to reshape the initial growth and orientation of crystalline metal electrodeposits is proposed here. The method takes advantage of polymer-salt complexes (PEG-Zn2+ -aX- ) (a = 1,2,3) formed spontaneously in aqueous electrolytes containing zinc (Zn2+ ) and halide (X- ) ions to regulate electro-crystallization of Zn. It is shown that when X = Iodine (I), the complexes facilitate electrodeposition of Zn in a hexagonal closest packed morphology with preferential orientation of the (002) plane parallel to the electrode surface. This facilitates exceptional morphological control of Zn electrodeposition at planar substrates and leads to high anode reversibility and unprecedented cycle life. Preliminary studies of the practical benefits of the approach are demonstrated in Zn-I2 full battery cells, designed in both coin cell and single-flow battery cell configurations.
The G Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor 1 Regulates Endothelial Ca2+ efflux via the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase. (LB568)

The G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER) has been demonstrated to have a vast array of cardiovascular effects. Ca2+ extrusion via the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase (PMCA) plays important role...
Be United, Be Virtuous: Composite Culture and the Growth of Shirdi Sai Baba Devotion

In one popular devotional poster the Indian god-man Shirdi Sai Baba (d. 1918) gazes out at the viewer, his right hand raised in blessing. Behind him are a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, a Sikh gurdwara, and a Christian church; above him is the slogan, “Be United, Be Virtuous.” In his lifetime, Shirdi Sai Baba acquired a handful of Hindu and Muslim devotees in western India. Over the past several decades, he has been transformed from a regional figure into a revered persona of pan-Indian significance. While much scholarship on religion in modern India has focused on Hindu nationalist groups, new religious movements seeking to challenge sectarianism have received far less attention. Drawing upon primary devotional materials and ethnographic research, this article argues that one significant reason for the rapid growth of this movement is Shirdi Sai Baba’s composite vision of spiritual unity in diversity, construed by many devotees as a needed corrective to rigid sectarian ideologies.
Suppression of the SOI floating-body effects by linked-body device structure

A novel "linked-body" SOI-CMOS device structure is presented. This structure suppresses the unwanted SOI floating-body effects, yet retaining all the speed advantage of SOI devices. It has much better short-channel effect and very low off-state current compared with regular SOI devices for digital applications, and has no "kink" in the I-V curves for analog applications. Excellent ring oscillator performance, improved breakdown characteristics, and absence of transient drain-current overshoot are demonstrated in linked-body SOI devices.
Fast Hepatitis C Virus RNA Elimination and NS5A Redistribution by NS5A Inhibitors Studied by a Multiplex Assay Approach

ABSTRACT While earlier therapeutic strategies for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection relied exclusively on interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV), four direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have now been approved, aiming for an interferon-free strategy with a short treatment duration and fewer side effects. To facilitate studies on the mechanism of action (MOA) and efficacy of DAAs, we established a multiplex assay approach, which employs flow cytometry, a Gaussia luciferase reporter system, Western blot analysis, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), a limited dilution assay (50% tissue culture infectious dose [TCID 50 ]), and an image profiling assay that follows the NS5A redistribution in response to drug treatment. We used this approach to compare the relative potency of various DAAs and the kinetics of their antiviral effects as a potential preclinical measure of their potential clinical utility. We evaluated the NS5A inhibitors ledipasvir (LDV) and daclatasvir (DCV), the NS3/4A inhibitor danoprevir (DNV), and the NS5B inhibitor sofosbuvir (SOF). In terms of kinetics, our data demonstrate that the NS5A inhibitor LDV, followed closely by DCV, has the fastest effect on suppression of viral proteins and RNA and on redistribution of NS5A. In terms of MOA, LDV has a more pronounced effect than DCV on the viral replication, assembly, and infectivity of released virus. Our approach can be used to facilitate the study of the biological processes involved in HCV replication and help identify optimal drug combinations.
Nanoscale silicon as anode for Li-ion batteries: The fundamentals, promises, and challenges

Abstract Silicon (Si), associated with its natural abundance, low discharge voltage vs. Li/Li+, and extremely high theoretical capacity (~4200 mAh g−1,), has been extensively explored as anode for lithium ion battery. One of the key challenges for using Si as anode is the large volume change upon lithiation and delithiation, which causes a fast capacity fading. Over the last few years, dramatic progress has been made for addressing this issue. In this paper, we review the progress towards tailoring of Si as anode for lithium ion battery. The paper is organized such that it covers the fundamentals, the promises offered by nanoscale designs, and the challenges that remained to be addressed to allow the application of Si based materials as high capacity anode for lithium ion batteries.
Analysis of ovine lentivirus infectivity and replication by using a focal immunoassay and an antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Abstract A focal immunoassay and an antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (antigen-capture ELISA) were developed to quantify infectious ovine lentivirus (OvLV) and OvLV capsid protein (CA) (p27), respectively. The in vitro kinetics of replication and cytopathogenicity of distinct biological clones of OvLV (rapid/high and slow/low phenotypic variants) were assessed. Both viruses were detected by focal immunoassay within 48 h postinfection, 2 days before syncytia were observed in goat synovial membrane cells infected with rapid/high OvLV and 4 days before they appeared in cultures infected with slow/low OvLV. CA was first detected by antigen-capture ELISA in supernatants of cells infected with rapid/high OvLV 4 days postinfection, and it reached a plateau by 10 days, 4 days after peak syncytium formation. In contrast, in cultures infected at the same multiplicity of infection with slow/low OvLV, CA was detected 8 days postinfection, and the titer gradually increased over the following 12 days while the number of syncytia gradually decreased. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from seropositive sheep treated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) generally expressed CA earlier and at higher levels than PBMC treated with either phytohemagglutinin or concanavalin A. Serum CA levels above 3 ng/ml were found in 58% (18 of 31) of seropositive sheep. However, there was no correlation between PMA-induced CA expression and levels of antigenemia. Viral heterogeneity may account for variations both in CA expression in cultures of PBMC and in antigenemia, humoral immune response, and viral pathogenicity in infected animals.
Evaluation of the diagnostic performance of heart-type fatty acid binding protein in the BWH-TIMI ED chest pain study

Chest pain is one of the most common reasons for presentation to the Emergency Department and the ability to rapidly and correctly diagnose the minority of patients who have a myocardial infarction is of critical importance. We assessed the diagnostic performance of a multimarker strategy using heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) in combination with a contemporary sensitive troponin (cTn) assay. We measured H-FABP (Randox) and a sensitive cTn (TnI-Ultra, Siemens) at baseline in 343 patients with chest pain enrolled in the prospective BWH-TIMI ED chest pain study. Final presenting diagnosis was adjudicated using all diagnostic data, including the local cTnI results, but reviewers were blinded to H-FABP and the sensitive cTn assays. The diagnostic accuracy of H-FABP and local cTn together (AUC 0.962) was superior to local cTn alone (AUC 0.910, p = 0.0009) with an especially marked improvement in early presenters (AUC 0.983 vs. 0.840, p = 0.0098). In contrast, when combined with the sensitive cTn assay, there was no significant difference in the AUC with H-FABP as compared with the sensitive cTn alone, either in the overall cohort (AUC 0.963 vs. 0.956, p = 0.23) or in early presenters (AUC 0.999 for both). In early presenters, the addition of H-FABP resulted in a NPV of 100 % when combined with either the local or sensitive cTn assay. In our study, the addition of H-FABP significantly enhanced the sensitivity and accuracy of diagnosis as compared to a prior-generation troponin assay alone, especially in patients who presented early. H-FABP but did improve overall diagnostic accuracy when added to a current-generation sensitive troponin assay; however, their combination offered the best NPV in early presenters. Further studies are needed to determine the utility a very rapid “rule out” of MI with a single blood draw of troponin and H-FABP at presentation.
SU-E-J-74: Evaluation of the Commercial Prototype Open Face Mask Used with Surface Rendering Imaging System for Proton Therapy Patients with Cancers of the Brain and Head: Successful Preclinical Study.

Purpose: Evaluation of the commercial prototype open face mask (Fibreplast, Q‐FixTM) used with surface rendering imaging system (AlignRTTM, London, UK) for setup and monitoring of proton therapy patients with cancers of the brain and head. Methods: Fibreplastic open face masks were used with Base‐of‐Skull frame/moldcare pillow. Two sizes of the pre‐made cutouts in the masks were investigated: leaveing open skin surface in the oval‐shaped area between (I) upper lip and forehead boss, II) between mandible and forehead boss in superior‐inferior direction; and between zygomatic (cheek‐) bones/sphenoid bones laterally. Calibration of AlignRT system was verified with SRS cube phantom (VisionRT)and 2D X‐ray patient positioning system (DIPS, IBA). The accuracy of translational shifts and rotations was a) verified using a headn the option ‘Intracranial SRS’ used for surface capture. Results: For the isocenter determination accuracy within 0.3mm/0.2 degrees, the headn the volunteer tests showed the registration accuracy within 0.5mm ±0.2mm (1 s)/0.7±0.2 (1 s) degree. The simulation of the noise in the surface data such as eye blinking and attempts to swallow/chew was performed, with negligible effect on the registration. No significant differences between the study results between the masks of type (I) and (II) were noticed. Conclusions: The AlignRT surface rendering system has sufficient accuracy when used with the open face head&neck mask for localization/registration of the proton therapy patients with tumors of the head and brain.
Non-linear growth kinematics of opening-mode fractures

Abstract Fracture aperture is commonly assumed to be a linear function of fracture length, stress, and elastic material properties. Under constant stress, fracture opening displacement may change without concurrent length or height growth if the material effectively weakens after initial linear elastic fracture growth by changes in elastic properties or by non-elastic deformation processes. To investigate the kinematics of fracture opening and its dependence on length and height growth, we reconstructed the opening history of three opening-mode fractures that are bridged by crack-seal quartz cement. Similar crack-seal cement bridges had been interpreted to form by repeated incremental fracture opening and subsequent precipitation of quartz cement. Using scanning electron microscope cathodoluminescence imaging, we determined the thickness and number of crack-seal cement layers as a function of position along fracture length and height. Observed trends in crack-seal cement layer thickness and number of fracture opening increments are consistent with non-linear fracture growth kinematics, consisting of an initial stage of fast fracture propagation relative to aperture growth, followed by a stage of slow propagation and pronounced aperture growth. Consistent with earlier fluid inclusion observations indicating fracture opening and propagation occurring over 40–50 m.y., we interpret the second stage of pronounced aperture growth and slow propagation to result from fracture opening strain accommodated by solution-precipitation creep and concurrent slow, possibly subcritical, fracture propagation.
Genetic approaches identify adult pituitary stem cells

Adult tissues undergo continuous cell turnover in response to stress, damage, or physiological demand. New differentiated cells are generated from dedicated or facultative stem cells or from self-renewing differentiated cells. Here we describe a different stem cell strategy for tissue maintenance, distinct from that observed for dedicated or facultative stem cells. We report the presence of nestin-expressing adult stem cells in the perilumenal region of the mature anterior pituitary and, using genetic inducible fate mapping, demonstrate that they serve to generate subsets of all six terminally differentiated endocrine cell types of the pituitary gland. These stem cells, while not playing a significant role in organogenesis, undergo postnatal expansion and start producing differentiated progeny, which colonize the organ that initially entirely consisted of differentiated cells derived from embryonic precursors. This generates a mosaic organ with two phenotypically similar subsets of endocrine cells that have different origins and different life histories. These parallel but distinct lineages of differentiated cells in the gland may help the maturing organism adapt to changes in the metabolic regulatory landscape.
Recruitment and Retention of B Cells in the Central Nervous System in Response to Alphavirus Encephalomyelitis

Sindbis virus (SINV) infection of neurons results in nonfatal viral encephalomyelitis and provides a model system for understanding recovery from virus infection of the central nervous system (CNS). Infection is followed by clearance of infectious virus, a gradual decrease in viral RNA, and then long-term maintenance of low levels of viral RNA. Antibody to the E2 glycoprotein is important for virus clearance, and B cells enter the CNS along with CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during the early clearance phase. Antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) are present in the CNS and become enriched for SINV-specific ASCs. We have evaluated the factors within the CNS that facilitate continued local antibody production after infection. Expression of CXCL9, CXCL10, CCL1, CCL2, and CCL5 chemokine mRNAs increased early, and infiltrating B cells expressed CXCR3, CXCR5, and CCR7. The mRNAs for IL-10 and IL-21, cytokines important for B cell proliferation and differentiation, rose rapidly and remained elevated long after clearance of infectious virus. Active proliferation of B cells, as indicated by Ki-67 expression, continued for months. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling of proliferating cells showed that ASCs produced in the draining cervical lymph nodes during the early germinal center response were preferentially retained in the CNS. Sustained increase in B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) mRNA in the CNS and BAFF receptor expression by B cells coincided with the long-term maintenance of SINV-specific ASCs in the brain. We conclude that multiple changes in the brain microenvironment facilitate B-cell entry and support proliferation and differentiation and long-term survival of antiviral ASCs during recovery from alphaviral encephalomyelitis.
Chemistry comes to the cell: ASCB 2005

Chemical biology continues to find its way into biomedical research in new and exciting ways. The recent American Society of Cell Biology meeting showed how this discipline is making an impact in areas such as cell biology.
The Choline Kinase Inhibitor Hemicholinium-3 Can Inhibit Mitogen-Induced DNA Synthesis Independent of Its Effect on Phosphocholine Formation

Abstract In NIH 3T3 cells, phosphocholine (PCho) stimulates mitogenesis in synergism with insulin, ATP, and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) via an extracellular target. Intracellular PCho also has been suggested to mediate the mitogenic effects of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and several other growth factors based, in part, on the observed inhibition of growth factor-induced mitogenesis by the choline kinase inhibitor hemicholinium-3 (HC-3). Here we examined the specificity of HC-3 effects on mitogenesis in serum-starved NIH 3T3 and Swiss 3T3 cells. In both cell lines, FGF greatly enhanced DNA synthesis in a medium containing 28 μM choline, and it also stimulated the formation of [ 14 C]PCho from both 50 μM and 5 mM [ 14 C]choline. HC-3 (2 mM) inhibited basal or FGF-induced formation of [ 14 C]PCho and [ 14 C]phosphatidylcholine as well as the uptake of [ 14 C]choline only at the 50 μM, but not the 5 mM, concentration of [ 14 C]choline. In addition, HC-3 (1 mM) from three different sources (95–99.9% purity) inhibited FGF-stimulated DNA synthesis by 53–58% which was not reversed by 5 mM choline. The choline analogue dimethylethanolamine (1 mM) also inhibited FGF-stimulated formation of [ 14 C]PCho from 50 μM [ 14 C]choline, but it had no effect on FGF-induced DNA synthesis. Of the other growth regulators examined, synergistic stimulation of DNA synthesis by extracellular PCho and S1P or PCho and ATP via choline kinase-independent mechanisms was inhibited by 2 mM HC-3. However, HC-3 failed to inhibit the synergistic mitogenic effects of PCho and insulin or S1P and insulin. The results suggest that FGF-induced mitogenesis does not require PCho formation and that HC-3 can inhibit DNA synthesis independent of its inhibitory effects on choline metabolism.
Building the field of cancer pain.

176 WHEN YOU ARE ASKED to write for the Journal’s Pioneer Series it is hard to communicate the lack of planning in one’s career as it has evolved. I was neither first in the cancer pain field nor a pioneer but one of those lucky individuals who stumbled into caring for cancer patient’s pain based on a mentor’s useful advice. Having had the great fortune to work with smart, engaged, enthusiastic teams of people, I learned how we all considered ourselves pioneers in each of our own programs and silos. In retrospect, my career looks organized, stepwise, focused, and at times, even visionary. In reality, it was opportunistic, chaotic, challenging, and difficult. For each new task that I took on, I had to go to the bottom rung and climb the ladder of experience often making mistakes that might have been avoided with greater attention to detail or less certainty on my part. Along the way, my greatest teachers have been the patients and families for whom I have cared for who were generous and active participants in our clinical studies as we learned from them and with them. EARLY BEGINNINGS
Integron attI1 Sites, Not Riboswitches, Associate with Antibiotic Resistance Genes

In a recent publication in Cell (Jia et al., 2013), the authors conclude from bioinformatics, genetic, and biochemical analyses that a conserved sequence element associated with antibiotic resistance genes represents a novel widespread riboswitch class for certain aminoglycosides. Below, we point out previously reported functions for this element that were not discussed by the authors, and we note other issues with the validation experiments that raise significant concerns about the conclusions of the study.
Ignition regimes in rapid compression machines

Abstract A rapid compression machine is an experimental apparatus used to study ignition chemistry at conditions that are relevant to internal combustion engines and gas turbines. However, due to the operating characteristics of these devices, heat transfer effects and inhomogeneous ignition events can be encountered. Hence, this paper develops a combustion regime diagram, which incorporates these effects in order to better understand these physical influences on the measurements. This diagram employs familiar Damkohler number and Reynolds number scaling, and seeks to provide an operational guide for rapid compression machine experiments. This diagram is compared to experimental data and good agreement is found.
Real-Time Optical Flux Limits from Gamma-Ray Bursts Measured by the Gamma-Ray Optical Counterpart Search Experiment

The Gamma-Ray Optical Counterpart Search Experiment presents new experimental upper limits on the optical flux from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Our experiment consisted of a fully automated very wide-field opto-electronic detection system that imaged locations of GRBs within a few seconds of receiving trigger signals provided by BATSE's real-time burst coordinate distribution network. The experiment acquired 3800 observing hours, recording 22 gamma-ray burst triggers within approx. 30 s of the start of the burst event. Some of these bursts were imaged while gamma-ray radiation was being detected by BATSE. We identified no optical counterparts associated with gamma-ray bursts among these events at the mV approx. 7.0-8.3 sensitivity level. We find the ratio of the upper limit to the V-band optical flux, F nu, to the gamma-ray fluence, Phi gamma, from these data to be 1 x 10(exp-18) less than F nu Phi gamma less than 2 x 10(exp -16).