cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Development of a flattening filter free multiple source model for use as an independent, Monte Carlo, dose calculation, quality assurance tool for clinical trials

Purpose The Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core – Houston (IROC-H) Quality Assurance Center (formerly the Radiological Physics Center) has reported varying levels of compliance from their anthropomorphic phantom auditing program. IROC-H studies have suggested that one source of disagreement between institution submitted calculated doses and measurement is the accuracy of the institution's treatment planning system dose calculations and heterogeneity corrections used. In order to audit this step of the radiation therapy treatment process, an independent dose calculation tool is needed. Methods Monte Carlo multiple source models for Varian Flattening Filter Free (FFF) 6MV and FFF 10MV therapeutic x-ray beams were commissioned based on central axis depth dose data from a 10 x 10 cm2 field size and dose profiles for a 40 x 40 cm2 field size. The models were validated against open field measurements in a water tank for field sizes ranging from 3 x 3 cm2 to 40 x 40 cm2. The models were then benchmarked against IROC-H's anthropomorphic head and neck phantom and lung phantom measurements. Results Validation results, assessed with a ±2%/2mm gamma criterion, showed average agreement of 99.9% and 99.0% for central axis depth dose data for FFF 6MV and FFF 10MV models, respectively. Dose profile agreement using the same evaluation technique averaged 97.8% and 97.9% for the respective models. Phantom benchmarking comparisons were evaluated with a ±3%/2mm gamma criterion, and agreement averaged 90.1% and 90.8% for the respective models. Conclusions Multiple source models for Varian FFF 6MV and FFF 10MV beams have been developed, validated, and benchmarked for inclusion in an independent dose calculation quality assurance tool for use in clinical trial audits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Evaluation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Roadway Drainage Systems.

Roadway drainage design has traditionally focused on cost-effectively managing water quantity; however, runoff carries pollutants, posing risks to the local environment and public health. Additionally, construction and maintenance incur costs and contribute to global environmental impacts. While life cycle assessment (LCA) can potentially capture local and global environmental impacts of roadway drainage and other stormwater systems, LCA methodology must be evaluated because stormwater systems differ from wastewater and drinking water systems to which LCA is more frequently applied. To this end, this research developed a comprehensive model linking roadway drainage design parameters to LCA and life cycle costing (LCC) under uncertainty. This framework was applied to 10 highway drainage projects to evaluate LCA methodological choices by characterizing environmental and economic impacts of drainage projects and individual components (basin, bioswale, culvert, grass swale, storm sewer, and pipe underdrain). ...
The Griffith Criterion and the Reversible and Irreversible Fracture of Brittle Materials

On the basis of the concepts of global and local instability of mechanical systems, it is concluded that the Griffith criterion represents a necessary, but not sufficient condition for catastrophic fracture. Instead, a brittle material with a microcrack will have two values of critical fracture stress. The lower critical fracture stress which corresponds to the Griffith criterion for reversible fracture, represents the minimum stress level for slow crack growth by a reversible thermally activated process, i. e the fatigue limit. The higher critical fracture stress corresponds to the stress required for irreversible catastrophic fracture, which requires an energy expenditure in excess of the surface free energy of the new crack surfaces even in the absence of energy dis-sipative processes, such as plastic flow at the crack tip. Over the stress range intermediate of the two critical fracture stresses, the crack exhibits slow crack growth, without requiring the presence of stress-corrosion reactions. It is concluded that the surface free energy of a material cannot be measured by a fracture experiment.
Just say NO to leaky bone marrow vasculature in AML

Inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production improved treatment response and normalized NO-mediated alterations in bone marrow vascular architecture and function in acute myeloid leukemia.
Mathematics Course Placement Using Holistic Measures: Possibilities for Community College Students

Background/ContextMost community colleges across the country use a placement test to determine students’ readiness for college-level coursework, yet these tests are admittedly imperfect instruments...
Composable Multicore Chips

When designing a multicore chip, two primary concerns are how large and powerful to make each core and how many cores to include. A design with a few large cores is attractive for general purpose computing that has coarse-grained threads which depend on instructional-level parallelism for performance. At the other end of the processor granularity spectrum, a large collection of small processors is suited to applications with ample thread-level parallelism. While much of the spectrum between large cores and tiny cores is being pursued by different vendors, each of these fixed architectures are suited only to the range of workloads that maps well to its granularity of parallelism. An alternative is a class of architectures in which the processor granularity (and the number of processors) can be dynamically configured–at runtime. Called composable lightweight processors (CLPs), these architectures consist of arrays of simple processors that can be aggregated together to form larger more powerful processors, depending on the demand of the running application. Experimental results show that matching the granularity of the processors to the granularity of the tasks improves both performance and efficiency over fixed multicore designs.
Emedded Questions and ‘De Dicto’ Readings

It is argued, contra Beck and Rullmann (1999), and with Heim (1994), that the sources of strongly exhaustive interpretations and `de dicto' interpretations of wh-complements of veridical question-embedding verbs are one and the same. Beck and Rullmann's theory is shown to predict certain `de dicto' readings which do not exist, while a particular rendition of Heim's theory is shown to constrain the generation of `de dicto' readings in the correct way.
Quantum Mechanical Description of Solids

Condensed matter is a many-body problem in quantum mechanics. The many-electron and many-atom systems are separated from each other by the adiabatic approximation. These two many-body problems are then treated differently: the electron problem in the Hartree-Fock approximation leading to single electron states and specifically to band structure for crystals; the atomic dynamics of crystals as collective excitations which when quantized lead to phonons. Collective excitations of electrons are then considered and plasmons formulated. Some general characteristics of quasi-particle and collective excitations will be discussed and inter-related where possible. In addition to intrinsic properties of solids, some of their extrinsic properties are treated theoretically, including the effects of applied stress on electronic states and vibrational levels of ions and molecules in crystals.
Estimating Tropical Principal Components Using Metropolis Hasting Algorithm

Principal component analysis is one of the most popular unsupervised learning methods for reducing the dimension of a given data set in a high-dimensional Euclidean space. However, computing principal components on a space of phylogenetic trees with fixed labels of leaves is a challenging task since a space of phylogenetic tree is not Euclidean. In 2017, Yoshida et al. defined a notion of tropical principal component analysis and they have applied it to a space of phylogenetic trees. The challenge, however, they encountered was a computational times.
The Frozen Formula: A Reading of the Film’s Calculated Rise to National Popularity

Once upon a time there was a man with an odd sounding name. This man loved to tell stories and dreamed of bringing happiness to all the world, especially its children. The man started his own company and as he grew in success his company also grew. From this company came many stories and songs. These stories and songs gave the world joy and wonder. One day, this man’s company, long after he was gone, created a story and songs so wonderful it took the world by storm- a snowstorm as a matter of fact. This creation, so intense, so satisfying, amassed immense popularity with old and young alike. People everywhere were so taken by the company’s new masterpiece that they couldn’t control themselves; they couldn’t let it go. But why? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
A behavioural economics approach to improving healthy food selection among food pantry clients.

Objective To test the effect of a behavioural economics intervention in two food pantries on the nutritional quality of foods available at the pantries and the foods selected by adults visiting food pantries. Design An intervention (SuperShelf) was implemented in two food pantries (Sites A and B), with two other pantries (Sites C and D) serving as a control for pantry outcomes. The intervention aimed to increase the amount and variety of healthy foods (supply), as well as the appeal of healthy foods (demand) using behavioural economics strategies. Assessments included baseline and 4-month follow-up client surveys, client cart inventories, pantry inventories and environmental assessments. A fidelity score (range 0-100) was assigned to each intervention pantry to measure the degree of implementation. A Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) score (range 0-100) was generated for each client cart and pantry. Setting Four Minnesota food pantries, USA.ParticipantsClients visiting intervention pantries before (n 71) and after (n 70) the intervention. Results Fidelity scores differed by intervention site (Site A=82, Site B=51). At Site A, in adjusted models, client cart HEI-2010 scores increased on average by 11·8 points (Pl0·0001), whereas there was no change at Site B. HEI-2010 pantry environment scores increased in intervention pantries (Site A=8 points, Site B=19 points) and decreased slightly in control pantries (Site C=-4 points, Site D=-3 points). Conclusions When implemented as intended, SuperShelf has the potential to improve the nutritional quality of foods available to and selected by pantry clients.
Principles of Surgical Evaluation and Techniques for the Elbow in the Overhead Athlete

Appropriate orthopedic management of elbow pathologies in the athlete requires thoughtful history-taking, thorough physical examination, and well-selected diagnostic imaging. Obtaining a thorough history of an overhead athlete should include past injuries and treatments to the elbow as well as the remainder of the kinetic chain (shoulder, core, hips, and legs). Physical examination of such athletes should involve evaluation of the neck/cervical spine, both shoulder girdles (clavicles with associated joints, scapulae, and glenohumeral joints), both elbows, and the remainder of the kinetic chain, including inspection, palpation, range of motion, strength and sensation testing, as well as special provocative maneuvers. Diagnostic imaging may begin with plain radiographs but will often require advanced modalities such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. This thorough evaluation will allow the clinician to confirm the suspected diagnosis as well as thoroughly exclude alternative or potential concomitant diagnoses. This chapter will review the surgical management of five elbow pathologies common among overhead throwing athletes: ulnar collateral ligament injury, medial elbow tendinopathy/epicondylitis, lateral elbow tendinopathy/epicondylitis, distal biceps injury, and distal triceps injury.
Mergers, Product Prices, and Innovation: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

Using novel data from the pharmaceutical industry, we study the impact of mergers on product prices and innovation. Exploiting within-deal variation in product market consolidation, we show prices increase 2.4–3.5% more within drugs belonging to consolidating markets than within matched control drugs. Elevated prices persist for two years. Price increases are more pronounced within concentrated product markets and for acquisitions of drugs still in the pipeline. These ﬁndings are consistent with the eﬀects of market power consolidation from mergers outweighing synergistic gains. Examination of trade-oﬀs reveals these deals generate signiﬁcant shareholder value but fail to spur meaningful innovation.
Transcriptional Regulation of Mouse Tissue-Resident Natural Killer Cell Development

Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic innate lymphocytes that are well-known for their ability to kill infected or malignant cells. Beyond their roles in tumor surveillance and anti-pathogen defense, more recent studies have highlighted key roles for NK cells in a broad range of biological processes, including metabolic homeostasis, immunomodulation of T cells, contact hypersensitivity, and pregnancy. Consistent with the breadth and diversity of these functions, it is now appreciated that NK cells are a heterogeneous population, comprised of specialized and sometimes tissue-specific subsets with distinct phenotypes and effector functions. Indeed, in addition to the conventional NK cells (cNKs) that are abundant and have been well-studied in the blood and spleen, distinct subsets of tissue-resident NK cells (trNKs) and "helper" Group 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILC1s) have now been described in multiple organs and tissues, including the liver, uterus, thymus, adipose tissue, and skin, among others. The cNK, trNK, and/or helper ILC1 populations that co-exist in these various tissues exhibit both common and distinct developmental requirements, suggesting that a combination of lineage-, subset-, and tissue-specific differentiation processes may contribute to the unique functional properties of these various populations. Here, we provide an overview of the transcriptional regulatory pathways known to instruct the development and differentiation of cNK, trNK, and helper ILC1 populations in specific tissues in mice.
A climatic dipole drives short- and long-term patterns of postfire forest recovery in the western United States

Researchers are increasingly examining patterns and drivers of postfire forest recovery amid growing concern that climate change and intensifying fires will trigger ecosystem transformations. Diminished seed availability and postfire drought have emerged as key constraints on conifer recruitment. However, the spatial and temporal extent to which recurring modes of climatic variability shape patterns of postfire recovery remain largely unexplored. Here, we identify a north–south dipole in annual climatic moisture deficit anomalies across the Interior West of the US and characterize its influence on forest recovery from fire. We use annually resolved establishment models from dendrochronological records to correlate this climatic dipole with short-term postfire juvenile recruitment. We also examine longer-term recovery trajectories using Forest Inventory and Analysis data from 989 burned plots. We show that annual postfire ponderosa pine recruitment probabilities in the northern Rocky Mountains (NR) and the southwestern US (SW) track the strength of the dipole, while declining overall due to increasing aridity. This indicates that divergent recovery trajectories may be triggered concurrently across large spatial scales: favorable conditions in the SW can correspond to drought in the NR that inhibits ponderosa pine establishment, and vice versa. The imprint of this climatic dipole is manifest for years postfire, as evidenced by dampened long-term likelihoods of juvenile ponderosa pine presence in areas that experienced postfire drought. These findings underscore the importance of climatic variability at multiple spatiotemporal scales in driving cross-regional patterns of forest recovery and have implications for understanding ecosystem transformations and species range dynamics under global change.
UTILIZING A REDUCED-ORDER MODEL AND PHYSICAL PROGRAMMING FOR PRELIMINARY REACTOR DESIGN OPTIMIZATION

Reactor core design is inherently a multi-objective problem which spans a large design space, and potentially larger objective space. This process relies on high-fidelity models to probe the design space, and sophisticated computer codes to calculate the important physics occurring in the reactor. In the past, the design space has been reduced by individuals with extensive knowledge of reactor core design; however, this approach is not always available. In this paper, we utilize a set of high-fidelity models to generate a reduced-order model, and couple this with a genetic algorithm to quickly and effectively optimize a preliminary design for a prototypical sodium fast reactor. We also examine augmenting the genetic algorithm with physical programming to generate the fitness function(s) that evaluates the degree to which a core has been optimized. Physical programming is used in two variations of multi-objective optimization and is compared with a traditional weighting scheme to examine the solutions present on the Pareto front.Optimization on the reduced-order model produces a set of solutions on the Pareto front for a designer to examine. The uncertainty for the objective functions examined in the reduced-order model is less than 7% for the given designs, and improves as additional data points are employed. Utilizing a reduced-order model can significantly reduce the computation time and storage to perform preliminary optimization. Physical programming was shown to reduce the objective space when compared with a traditional weighting scheme. It also provides an intuitive and computationally efficient way to produce a Pareto front that meets the designer’s objectives.
Alternative Formulations of Trap Lures for Operational Detection, Population Monitoring, and Outbreak Forecasting of Southern Pine Beetle in the United States

The southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is a major destructive pest of Pinus L. In the southeastern United States, numbers of this species and a major predator, Thanasimus dubius (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Cleridae), captured during an annual springtime trapping survey are used to make forecasts of the likelihood and severity of an outbreak during the following summer. We investigated responses by both species to six lure formulations to evaluate their suitability for the survey and allow integration of historical data sets produced with differing lure compositions. Trapping trials were performed at four locations across three states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) during spring, and at these and one additional location (North Carolina) in fall 2016. All lures included the pheromone component frontalin. Southern pine beetle preferred lures that additionally included the pheromone component endo-brevicomin and turpentine as a source of host odors (rather than a 7:3 mixture of monoterpenes alpha- and beta-pinene). Thanasimus dubius displayed little discrimination among lure compositions. Lure preferences by southern pine beetle did not differ significantly among locations in spring but were influenced by season. Gas chromatography (GC)-electroantennographic detection analyses with southern pine beetle and GC-mass spectrometry identified numerous known and potential semiochemicals that distinguished volatiles released by the tested host odor devices. The lure combination that included endo-brevicomin and alpha/beta-pinene is recommended for the trapping survey because of its high sensitivity for southern pine beetle and potential for greater data integrity resulting from its reproducible composition.
Quasistatic Solutions versus Full-Wave Solutions of Single-Channel Circular RF Receive Coils on Phantoms of Varying Conductivities at 3 Tesla

Purpose. Although full-wave simulations could be used to aid in RF coil design, the algorithms may be too slow for an iterative optimization algorithm. If quasistatic simulations are accurate within the design tolerance, then their use could reduce simulation time by orders of magnitude compared to full-wave simulations. This paper examines the accuracy of quasistatic and full-wave simulations at 3 Tesla. Methods. Three sets of eight coils ranging from 3–10 cm (24 total) were used to measure SNR on three phantoms with conductivities of 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 S/m. The phantom conductivities were chosen to represent those typically found in human tissues. The range of coil element sizes represents the sizes of coil elements seen in typical coil designs. SNR was determined using the magnetic and electric fields calculated by quasistatic and full-wave simulations. Each simulated SNR dataset was scaled to minimize the root mean squared error (RMSE) when compared against measured SNR data. In addition, the noise values calculated by each simulation were compared against benchtop measured noise values. Results. The RMSE was 0.285 and 0.087 for the quasistatic and full-wave simulations, respectively. The maximum and minimum quotient values, when taking the ratio of simulated to measured SNR values, were 1.69 and 0.20 for the quasistatic simulations and 1.29 and 0.75 for the full-wave simulations, respectively. The ratio ranges, for the calculated quasistatic and full-wave total noise values compared to benchtop measured noise values, were 0.83–1.06 and 0.27–3.02, respectively. Conclusions. Full-wave simulations were on average 3x more accurate than the quasistatic simulations. Full-wave simulations were more accurate in characterizing the wave effects within the sample, though they were not able to fully account for the skin effect when calculating coil noise.
MYB interacts with androgen receptor, sustains its ligand-independent activation and promotes castration resistance in prostate cancer.

Background Aberrant activation of androgen receptor signalling following castration therapy is a common clinical observation in prostate cancer (PCa). Earlier, we demonstrated the role of MYB overexpression in androgen-depletion resistance and PCa aggressiveness. Here, we investigated MYB-androgen receptor (AR) crosstalk and its functional significance. Methods Interaction and co-localization of MYB and AR were examined by co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence analyses, respectively. Protein levels were measured by immunoblot analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The role of MYB in ligand-independent AR transcriptional activity and combinatorial gene regulation was studied by promoter-reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. The functional significance of MYB in castration resistance was determined using an orthotopic mouse model. Results MYB and AR interact and co-localize in the PCa cells. MYB-overexpressing PCa cells retain AR in the nucleus even when cultured under androgen-deprived conditions. AR transcriptional activity is also sustained in MYB-overexpressing cells in the absence of androgens. MYB binds and promotes AR occupancy to the KLK3 promoter. MYB-overexpressing PCa cells exhibit greater tumorigenicity when implanted orthotopically and quickly regain growth following castration leading to shorter mice survival, compared to those carrying low-MYB-expressing prostate tumours. Conclusions Our findings reveal a novel MYB-AR crosstalk in PCa and establish its role in castration resistance.
Age-Related Diseases of the Vitreous

The vitreous gel is a transparent, hypocellular tissue that effectively transmits light with negligible scatter or energy absorption. Although it is relatively resilient to age-related wear and tear, the vitreous is susceptible to injury from inflammatory cells and substances that breech the blood-retinal barrier. Over the course of a lifetime, the vitreous undergoes a variety of poorly understood, degenerative changes that lead to liquefaction—also referred to as syneresis. Vitreous syneresis is the most common predisposing factor for posterior vitreous detachment, which places a patient at risk for retinal detachment. While vision-threatening complications from deposits within the vitreous are uncommon (e.g., amyloid), the formation of vitreous membranes inflict considerable ocular morbidity. Vitreous membranes are a manifestation of a heterogeneous collection of disorders that share a final common pathway. Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is the term applied to the uncontrolled growth of fibroglial membranes associated with rhegmatogenous retinal detachments. The most common reason for failed retinal reattachment surgery, PVR appears to exhibit an exaggerated reparative response to injury.
Cosmic Evolution, Reciprocity, and Interstellar Tit for Tat

Drawing on many fields in the physical, biological and social sciences, the present book explores altruism and related topics such as predation, conflict, and reciprocity within the broadest possible context: the cosmos. This introductory chapter compares two opposing themes in discussions of how societies achieve great age. The paranoid theme holds that authoritarian, egotistical, self-serving societies that rely on threat, bluff and force in interstate relations will prevail. The pronoid theme holds that democratic, inclusive, and cooperative societies that are reluctant to use force achieve greater longevity. Research shows that over time, societies on Earth have accorded increasingly larger groups of people favored insider status; that authoritarian governments are giving way to liberal democracies; that democracies do not go to war with one another but rather enter into effective defensive pacts; and that across many different timescales and locations, violence of all kinds, including warfare, is on the decline. Reciprocity and win-win thinking form powerful social glue that binds diverse societies and people together. These results, which are more consistent with pronoid than paranoid expectations, hint that our own civilization may be working its way through a period of “technological adolescence” where the availability of dangerous technology outpaces cultural adaptations to use such technology with wisdom and restraint. After considering a few possible implications of these discoveries for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, this chapter concludes with an overview of the rest of this book.
Effects of acoustic streaming from moderate-intensity pulsed ultrasound for enhancing biofilm mitigation effectiveness of drug-loaded liposomes

Because biofilms have resistance to antibiotics, their control using minimum amounts of chemicals and energy becomes a critical issue particularly for resource-constrained long-term space and deep-sea explorations. This preliminary study investigates how ultrasound promoting penetration of antibiotic-loaded liposomes into alginate-based bacterial biofilms, resulting in enhanced bacterial (Ralstonia insidiosa) killing. Nano-sized liposomes are used as a delivery vehicle for the antibiotic gentamicin. Alginate-based synthetic biofilms, which are widely acknowledged as biofilm phantoms, filled with liposome solution are formed at the bottoms of six-well Petri dishes and exposed to ultrasound (frequency = 2.25 MHz, 10% duty cycle, and spatially and temporally averaged intensity ISAPA = 4.4 W/cm2). Gentamicin is released from liposomes after they are lysed using detergent solution (0.05% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 1.0% Triton X-100) and incubated for 20 min. The alginate biofilm is dissolved and diluted, counting...
The Affirmative Duties of Property Owners

As a result of his ownership of property, Rip Van Winkle might have incurred a variety of criminal and civil liabilities during the course of his twenty-year sleep. Possibilities are a conviction for neglecting care of his livestock, civil liability to a neighbor for having failed to contribute to the costs of a fence along a common boundary, and forfeiture of his lands for having failed to pay local property taxes. This essay investigates the nature of these affirmative obligations of owners. Concerns about curbing information costs, a central theme in Thomas Merrill’s scholarly works, underlie the structure of many of these duties, and help explain their relative paucity. The analysis illuminates several recent strands of property theory, including Larissa Katz’s notion that a state may choose to “govern through owners.” It reveals major defects in Gregory Alexander’s argument that owners should bear a generalized obligation to share their wealth. Alexander’s proposed duty would greatly increase the information costs that individuals would bear in navigating daily life, and would embroil adjudicators in tasks far better handled by drafters of tax and welfare legislation.
Semiblind multichannel identification in asynchronous multiuser OFDM systems

This paper presents a novel subspace-based semiblind channel identification scheme for asynchronous multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with antenna diversity. The inherent property of asynchronous OFDM signals allows separation of the desired user's channel from the interfering users' channels via subspace decomposition. Moreover, the proposed semiblind channel estimator overcomes practical limitations of the conventional subspace method due to unknown channel lengths and noise-corrupted data by employing pilot symbols. Simulation results demonstrate that the semiblind channel estimator significantly outperforms a pilot-only estimator when most part of the noise subspace is exploited.
Identification of Fli-1 as a novel regulator of the inflammatory chemokine CCL5/RANTES (CCR5P.253)

The Fli-1 transcription factor is implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in both human patients and murine models of lupus. Lupus-prone mice with reduced Fli-1 expression have significantly less nephritis, prolonged survival and significantly decreased infiltrating inflammatory cells into the kidney. The chemokine, CCL5, attracts inflammatory cells and expression is increased in patients with SLE. In this study, decreased expression of CCL5 mRNA was observed in kidneys of NZM2410 mice with reduced Fli-1 expression. CCL5 protein expression was significantly impaired in endothelial cells treated with Fli-1 specific siRNA compared to controls. Fli-1 binds to Ets binding sites in the CCL5 promoter and transfection assays show that Fli-1 drives transcription in a dose-dependent manner. Mutation of the Fli-1 DNA binding domain demonstrates that activation of the CCL5 promoter is through direct binding by Fli-1. Ets1 also drives transcription from the CCL5 promoter, although Fli-1 driven transactivation is significantly stronger. The Ets1 transcription factor acts as a dominant negative to Fli-1, indicating that the genes may share a DNA binding site. Fli-1 is a novel regulator of CCL5 gene transcription. Combined with previous results, demonstrating that Fli-1 regulates MCP-1, we conclude that Fli-1 is a critical regulator of proinflammatory chemokines and affects disease pathogenesis by regulating factors involved inflammatory cell recruitment.
Low complexity channel estimation and equalization for block transmission systems

In this work, a channel estimation scheme is introduced to single carrier block transmission systems. Compared to the conventional method, the proposed scheme has similar estimation accuracy but with higher transmission efficiency and lower complexity. Under the anti-polar constellation constraint, the optimal training sequence design is studied. Furthermore, a simplified minimum mean square error (MMSE) block equalizer is derived. Numerical results show that the proposed equalizer outperforms the conventional method
The Control of Hemoglobin Synthesis A COMPARISON OF THE ROLE OF HEME IN RABBIT BONE MARROW AND RETICULOCYTES

Abstract The incorporation of l-[U-14C]lysine into the α and β chains of hemoglobin has been compared in acetylphenylhydrazine-induced rabbit reticulocytes and normal and acetylphenylhydrazine-induced rabbit marrow. Evidence for a pool of α chains and αβ dimers in both reticulocytes and marrow cells was found in (a) an α:β specific activity ratio of less than 1.0 in purified hemoglobin, (b) the relative losses of α and β chain radioactivity on purification of the hemoglobin, (c) the radioactivity elution profile observed on gel filtration of the ribosome-free hemolysate, and (d) the effects of hemin added to the postincubation hemolysate. However, the data also indicated that the pool of α chains is smaller in the marrow cell than in the reticulocyte. In both groups of cells, addition of hemin to the incubation medium was followed by greater synthesis of α and β chains than was observed in the control cells. In addition, in marrow cells it was associated with virtually complete disappearance of the α chain and αβ pools, as evidenced by an increase in the α:β specific activity ratio in purified hemoglobin to almost 1.0 and by the disappearance of the high specific activity minor peak from the gel elution profile. On the basis of pulse labeling and chase experiments it was confirmed that both the pool of α chains and αβ dimers exist as intermediates in the pathway of hemoglobin biosynthesis. However, in the reticulocyte the radioactive α chain pool could be chased into hemoglobin to only a limited extent, in contrast to the marrow where almost complete transfer of radioactivity into hemoglobin occurred during the chase period. It is suggested that in the developing erythroid cell heme serves to promote hemoglobin synthesis by (a) promoting the synthesis of α and β chains and (b) promoting the conversion of αβ dimers to the hemoglobin tetramer. In addition it also serves to coordinate the synthesis and assembly of α and β chains.
Critical issues in corporate real estate: Developing a better understanding of public sector project impact analysis practices

Purpose – Community impacts resulting from corporate facility new development, expansion, renovation, merger, consolidation, closure and disposition activities are under greater scrutiny by public officials, citizen, and special interest groups. The paper reports public sector views on municipal structure, most desired industries, community advantages, use of cost benefit studies and the methods used to evaluate development impacts.Design/methodology/approach – The research presented is based on a national survey of US economic development officials and their methods for measuring project impacts and determining public costs and benefits associated with economic development projects.Findings – The research found that the public sector emphasized community advantages that were abstract and hard to measure in response to the corporate need for hard data on facility and development costs. About 30 percent of the public administrators surveyed never or rarely used any measures to determine community impacts a...
Superfluidity of a Two-Dimensional Bose-Coulomb Gas

We have observed that superfluidity occurs in Monte Carlo path integral calculations of a two-dimensional Bose-Coulomb gas when the thermal de Broglie wavelength, λ, is comparable to the interparticle distance “a.” By this criterion, utilizing only the experimentally determined charge carrier density and effective mass for the new high-Tc superconductors, superconducting transition temperatures in the range of 100–200 K are obtained, the range reflecting the experimental uncertainties in these two observables.
Book Review: Applied Meta-Analysis With R, by Ding-Geng Chen and Karl E. Peace

In an era of evidence-based medicine, meta-analysis has become an essential part of the health researcher’s toolkit. Defined as an “analysis of analyses,” meta-analysis synthesizes evidence from mu...
Predictive Validity of the Kuder Preference Record, Form B, Over a 25-Year Span.

One hundred and two males and females were located 25 years after they had taken a Kuder Preference Record—Form B (KPR-B) at an average age of 14 years. Fifty-three percent were engaged in occupati...
Digital Literacy in Rural Women's Lives

This qualitative study looks at how rural women in the American South have obtained access to digital technologies for reading and writing. usin g the "life history" approach (Brandt; Hawisher and Selfe), we interviewed five women. We look at the challenges caused by the Digital Divide, at economies of access, including the financial factors that shape individuals' uses of digital technologies for reading and writing, at the strategies that the women used for gaining access to needed technologies, and at the nature of sponsorship in digital, rural contexts.
Recent Advances in Solid Organ Transplantation

Advances in organ transplantation have come rapidly and consistently in recent years as the result of improved surgical techniques and immunosuppressive drug therapies. Experience gained in renal transplantation over the past 30 years has made this a standard therapeutic approach for treating chronic renal failure. This knowledge has been successfully applied to the transplantation of other organs to produce steadily increasing survival rates and improved quality of life. This article reviews the advances that have been made in solid organ transplantation and immunosuppressive drug therapy.
FEMALE RESPONSES TO INTRASPECIFIC BROOD PARASITISM IN THE TREE SWALLOW

Abstract We studied female responses to experimental intraspecific brood parasitism (IBP), or egg-dumping, in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Unlike other species of swallows, Tree Swallow nests are rarely parasitized by conspecifics. We experimentally parasitized nests of Tree Swallows to investigate how females respond to uncertain maternity. Host females accepted a parasitic egg if it was added to the nest within 3 days of the host's first egg (62%). In contrast, the host female buried the parasitic egg (24%) or deserted the nest (14%) when the parasitic egg was added 4 or more days before the host's first egg. The acceptance of parasitic eggs close to the host's own laying date is similar to the behavior reported for other species; however, egg burial and nest desertion appear to be rare as responses to intraspecific brood parasitism. We suggest that the low level of IBP in Tree Swallows has evolved as an indirect consequence of females defending their nest cavity against usurpation.
Transistor-Less Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic Random Access Memory Cell Design

Current mainstream spin torque transfer magnetic random accessible memory (STT-MRAM) architecture requires an isolation transistor in each MRAM cell. Processing flow for magnetic tunneling junctions is intrinsically capable of multilayer 3-D integration. However, there is no mature multilayer 3-D CMOS technology available. Therefore, including isolation CMOS transistor in each MRAM cell makes it impractical to achieve a 3-D multilayer MRAM. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of a new transistor-less MRAM architecture aiming for multilayer 3-D STT-MRAM. In addition to a new array structure, new programming and reading mechanisms are presented. Various voltage biasing schemes are introduced to address individual bits during writing and reading operations. The first-order feasibility is demonstrated by analysis and numerical simulation on programming current margin.
Projectile angular dependence of the ratio of double to single ionization of helium by fast proton impact

Abstract We investigate differential cross sections for single and double ionization and ratios of double to single ionization of He by proton projectiles at a few MeV/amu. A factor-of-two difference is found in the T-matrix at large deflection angles, with the target nucleus-electron interaction in the final state turned on and off. The differential cross sections for single ionisation, calculated in the first Born approximation with the effect of nuclear deflection of the projectile included, are in good agreement with the experimental data. The shakeoff mechanism is calculated on an s-wave basis. The two-hard-hit mechanism, in which two energetic recoiling electrons are produced, is also calculated and a sharp peak in the ratio is found. The magnitude of the calculated peak is discussed. The ratio calculated by combining different mechanisms is compared to the experimental data and discussed.
Chaotic nature of mesh networks with distributed routing

This paper proposes a new formalism to classify distributed systems. Traditional tools like queuing theory Markov chains and perturbance analysis assume linear system behaviors and are used to characterize steady state operation meaningful only if the dynamic transients are disregarded. An approach based upon methodology used to characterize nonlinear chaotic systems is introduced. A simulation model a mesh of processors with distributed routing is used to demonstrate typical behaviors including chaos.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Cosmological information from lensed CMB power spectra

Gravitational lensing distorts the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization fields and encodes valuable information on distances and growth rates at intermediate redshifts into the lensed power spectra. The non-Gaussian band-power covariance induced by the lenses is negligible to $l=2000$ for all but the $B$ polarization field where it increases the net variance by up to a factor of 10 and favors an observing strategy with 3 times more area than if it were Gaussian. To quantify the cosmological information, we introduce two lensing observables, characterizing nearly all of the information, which simplify the study of non-Gaussian impact, parameter degeneracies, dark energy models, and complementarity with other cosmological probes. Information on the intermediate-redshift parameters rapidly becomes limited by constraints on the cold dark matter density and initial amplitude of fluctuations as observations improve. Extraction of this information requires deep polarization measurements on only 5%--10% of the sky, and can improve Planck lensing constraints by a factor of $\ensuremath{\sim}2--3$ on any one of the parameters ${{w}_{0},{w}_{a},{\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{K},\ensuremath{\sum}_{}^{}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}}$ with the others fixed. Sensitivity to the curvature and neutrino mass is the highest due to the high-redshift weight of CMB lensing but degeneracies between the parameters must be broken externally.
Gas chromatographic retention characteristics of different polysiloxane oligomers

Abstract The effects on the Kovats and McReynolds indices for a modified set of Rohrschneider solutes have been examined using two different batches of a commercial polysiloxane stationary phase, Dow-Corning DC-710, and five pure oligomers isolated from the mixture. The significant differences that were found between batches appear to be due primarily to changes in the percentage of one oligomer, the cyclic pentamer. This finding emphasizes the desirability of using a pure stationary phase as well as carefully specifying the column temperature in order to improve intra and interlaboratory comparisons of retention indices.
Short Circuiting the Circadian System with a New Generation of Precision Tools

Circadian behavior in mammals is coordinated by neurons within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). In this issue, Lee et al. (2015) and Mieda et al. (2015) applied state-of-the-art genetic tools to dissect the microcircuits within the SCN generating circadian rhythmic behavior.
Post-Newtonian gravitational radiation and equations of motion via direct integration of the relaxed Einstein equations: Foundations

We present a self-contained framework called Direct Integration of the Relaxed Einstein Equations (DIRE) for calculating equations of motion and gravitational radiation emission for isolated gravitating systems based on the post-Newtonian approximation. We cast the Einstein equations into their ``relaxed'' form of a flat-spacetime wave equation together with a harmonic gauge condition, and solve the equations formally as a retarded integral over the past null cone of the field point (chosen to be within the near zone when calculating equations of motion, and in the far zone when calculating gravitational radiation). The ``inner'' part of this integral(within a sphere of radius $\cal R \sim$ one gravitational wavelength) is approximated in a slow-motion expansion using standard techniques; the ``outer'' part, extending over the radiation zone, is evaluated using a null integration variable. We show generally and explicitly that all contributions to the inner integrals that depend on $\cal R$ cancel corresponding terms from the outer integrals, and that the outer integrals converge at infinity, subject only to reasonable assumptions about the past behavior of the source. The method cures defects that plagued previous ``brute-force'' slow-motion approaches to motion and gravitational radiation for isolated systems. We detail the procedure for iterating the solutions in a weak-field, slow-motion approximation, and derive expressions for the near-zone field through 3.5 post-Newtonian order in terms of Poisson-like potentials.
Vibro-acoustics of a pressurized optical membrane

Abstract Optical membranes are currently pursued for their ability to replace the conventional rigid mirrors that are used in space-based telescopes. Among some of the many benefits of using optical membranes is their ability to considerably reduce the weight of the structure. Given the low density of these thin-film membranes, the lower end dynamics play a more significant role than in their rigid plate-like counterparts. Space-based mirrors are subjected to a series of disturbances. Among those encountered are thermal radiation, debris impact, and slewing maneuvers. Thus, being able to model the dynamics appropriately is essential for the adequate performance of thin-film membrane mirrors. With this in mind, the work presented herein uses an impedance based modeling approach to describe the coupled dynamics of a pressurized optical membrane mirror with the end goal of performing vibration suppression of a membrane through acoustic excitation. First the effects of mass loading due to air surrounding a membrane and energy loss due to sound radiation to the far field are modeled in the case of a single membrane. These results are compared to the case of a membrane in vacuum. Second, the membrane is then coupled to a cylindrical cavity where the modeling takes into account the structural acoustic coupling between a cylindrical membrane and a rigid cylindrical cavity, similar to a drum. The coupled model also takes into account the energy loss by sound radiation to the far field due to the membrane's vibration. Third, this paper also looks at using a positive position feedback controller for vibration suppression of the membrane. This is done using a centralized acoustic source at the base of the cavity as the method of actuation. The acoustic actuation is of great interest since it does not mass load the membrane in the conventional way, as most methods of actuation would.