cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A physiologically based criterion of muscle force prediction in locomotion

Abstract The inversely-nonlinear relationship of muscle contraction force and the possible contraction duration (i.e., endurance) is utilized in a method to mathematically predict individual muscle forces. The method uses a nonlinear optimization scheme to solve the redundant distribution problem at the joints of interest. The method is demonstrated at the elbow during isometric contraction and in the lower extremity during locomotion. During gait, the observed muscle activity pattern in the lower extremity (as determined by EMG) shows substantial agreement with that activity pattern predicted when endurance is used as the optimization criterion. The importance of selecting muscle prediction criteria based on sound physiological bases rather than on an arbitrary or mathematically convenient basis is emphasized.
Molecular mapping of adult-plant race-specific leaf rust resistance gene Lr12 in bread wheat

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) gene Lr12 provides adult-plant race-specific resistance to leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina. It is completely linked or identical to Lr31, which confers seedling resistance only when the complementary gene Lr27 is also present. F2 and F2-derived F3 families were developed from a cross between the susceptible variety Thatcher and TcLr12, an isoline carrying Lr12. Of 230 F3 families, 55 were homozygous resistant, 115 were segregating for resistance, and 60 were susceptible to P. triticina, fitting a monogenic 1:2:1 segregation ratio. Lr12 was mapped on chromosome arm 4BL and was flanked by markers Xgwm251 and Xgwm149 at distances of 0.9 and 1.9 cM, respectively. Using linked markers and wheat deletion stocks, Lr12 was located in deletion bin 4BL-5, FL = 0.86–1.0, comprising the terminal 14% of 4BL. The markers will be useful for following Lr12/Lr31 in crosses and for further mapping studies.
Mobile phone text messaging intervention to improve alertness and reduce sleepiness and fatigue during shiftwork among emergency medicine clinicians: study protocol for the SleepTrackTXT pilot randomized controlled trial

Mental and physical fatigue while at work is common among emergency medical services (EMS) shift workers. Extended shifts (for example 24 hours) and excessive amounts of overtime work increase the likelihood of negative safety outcomes and pose a challenge for EMS fatigue-risk management. Text message-based interventions are a potentially high-impact, low-cost platform for sleep and fatigue assessment and distributing information to workers at risk of negative safety outcomes related to sleep behaviors and fatigue. We will conduct a pilot randomized trial with a convenience sample of adult EMS workers recruited from across the United States using a single study website. Participants will be allocated to one of two possible arms for a 90-day study period. The intervention arm will involve text message assessments of sleepiness, fatigue, and difficulty with concentration at the beginning, during, and end of scheduled shifts. Intervention subjects reporting high levels of sleepiness or fatigue will receive one of four randomly selected intervention messages promoting behavior change during shiftwork. Control subjects will receive assessment only text messages. We aim to determine the performance characteristics of a text messaging tool for the delivery of a sleep and fatigue intervention. We seek to determine if a text messaging program with tailored intervention messages is effective at reducing perceived sleepiness and/or fatigue among emergency medicine clinician shift workers. Additional aims include testing whether a theory-based behavioral intervention, delivered by text message, changes ‘alertness behaviors’. The SleepTrackTXT pilot trial could provide evidence of compliance and effectiveness that would support rapid widespread expansion in one of two forms: 1) a stand-alone program in the form of a tailored/individualized sleep monitoring and fatigue reduction support service for EMS workers; or 2) an add-on to a multi-component fatigue risk management program led and maintained by employers or by safety and risk management services. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02063737 , Registered on 10 January 2014
Torque measurements in synchronous generators using giant magnetoresistive sensor arrays via the Maxwell stress tensor

Power system oscillations arise from various sources. One contributor that is difficult to quantify during operation is the induced (air-gap) torque. This paper presents a new approach for measuring the instantaneous air-gap torque in real-time for synchronous generators. This is achieved through recent progress in nanowire giant magnetoresistive sensor (GMR) technology that now makes it possible to directly measure magnetic fields in the air-gap of operating electrical machinery. Results show that it is possible to compute the instantaneous air-gap induced electrical torque by evaluating a discretized form of the Maxwell stress tensor. This torque measurement can then be used to extract information on the operating condition of a synchronous generator in real-time. A prototype GMR sensor is evaluated. Analysis for generator diagnostics and detection of torsional oscillations is presented.
Enhancing the Controller

The previous chapter introduced the idea of a helper class that has easy access to all the objects that are used in a controller application: the bean, the request, the response. This chapter builds on this framework and adds features to the helper class and its base class.
The maize O2 and PBF proteins act additively to promote transcription from storage protein gene promoters in rice endosperm cells.

A transient expression assay system was employed to investigate the possible use of the maize Opaque 2 (02) and prolamin box binding factor (PBF) proteins as transcriptional activators of rice and wheat storage protein gene promoters. When assayed in developing rice endosperm cells, either 02 or PBF alone could increase transcription from the promoter of the rice glutelin gene, Gtl. However, mutant forms of 02 and PBF that are defective in DNA binding could not. Co-transfection with both transcriptional activators resulted in an additive increase in transactivation of the Gtl promoter. Co-bombardment of a Gtl:: GUS construct with plasmids expressing the DNA binding domains of 02 and PBF in antisense orientation resulted in a decrease of GUS expression below background levels. Similar stimulatory and additive effects of 02 and PBF could be observed on the promoters from other storage protein genes including rice globulin (Glb), prolamins (RP6 and PG5a) and a wheat glutenin (Bx7). However, responsiveness of the promoters from non-storage protein genes like rice actin and CaMV 35S to 02 and PBF was insignificant. Our results indicate that the maize 02 and PBF proteins can act singly or additively as effective stimulators of heterologous storage protein promoters in developing rice endosperm cells. These data support the use of well-characterized transcription factors from maize as an effective means of increasing the expression level of recombinant proteins in developing rice seeds.
Evolution and reuse of orthogonal architecture

We present a case study of evolution (or vertical reuse) in the domain of visual interactive software tools. We introduce an architecture suitable for this purpose, called orthogonal architecture. The paper describes the architecture itself, the reverse engineering process by which it was obtained, and the forward engineering process by which it was evolved.
Sheep, pig, and human platelet-material interactions with model cardiovascular biomaterials.

The relationship between cardiovascular device performance in animals and humans is not straightforward. As the principal formed element in a thrombus, platelets play a major role in determining the hemocompatibility of mechanical heart valves and other high-shear-rate cardio- vascular devices. Since larger animals are required to test many such devices, sheep and porcine platelet responses were compared to humans. Adhesion, spreading, and the formation of thrombilike structures were examined in vitro on pyrolytic carbon mechanical heart valve leaflets, National Institutes of Health-reference polyethylene and silicone rub- ber, and Formvar. Principal findings were that platelet re- sponses are strongly dependent upon the biomaterial and the species: Porcine and human platelets spread extensively on pyrolytic carbon, formed thrombuslike structures on Formvar, and were least active on silicone rubber. Human and porcine platelets responded differently to polyethylene: Human platelets spread extensively, while porcine platelets remained pseudopodial. In contrast, sheep platelets attached much less, never reached fully spread shapes, and were far less active overall. Since porcine responses were generally similar to humans, pigs may be a useful predictor of in vivo platelet-biomaterial interaction in humans. Conversely, as ovine platelets were much less active, this must be ac- counted for in the evaluation of cardiovascular devices tested in sheep. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 45, 240-250, 1999.
Disparities between immobilized enzyme and solution based digestion of transferrin with trypsin

Trypsin digestion is a major component of preparing proteins for peptide based identification and quantification by mass spectral (MS) analysis. Surprisingly proteolysis is the slowest part of the proteomics process by an order of magnitude. Numerous recent efforts to reduce protein digestion to a few minutes have centered on the use of an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) to minimize both trypsin autolysis and vastly increase the trypsin to protein ratio. A central question in this approach is whether proteolysis with an IMER produces the same peptide cleavage products as derived from solution based digestion. The studies reported here examined this question with transferrin; a model protein of known resistance to trypsin digestion. Results from these studies confirmed that a trypsin-IMER can in fact digest transferrin in a few minutes; providing tryptic peptides that subsequent to MS analysis allow sequence identification equivalent to solution digestion. Although many of the peptides obtained from these two trypsin digestion systems were identical, many were not. The greatest difference was that the trypsin- IMER produces (i) numerous peptides bearing multiple lysine and/or arginine residues and (ii) identical portions of the protein sequence were found in multiple peptides. Most of these peptides were derived from five regions in transferrin. These results were interpreted to mean that proteolysis in the case of transferrin occurred faster than the rate at which buried lysine and arginine residues were unmasked in the five regions providing peptides that were only partially digested.
Recreating life-like motion in robotic limbs

A study in which the motion of living limbs was characterized and formulated for the control of mechanical limbs is discussed. Trajectories of human elbow joints performing a blind reaching motion were digitized and smoothed using an A/D converter on a personal computer. Waveforms for position over time were recorded and velocity and acceleration waveforms derived from them. Trajectories were normalized with respect to time and amplitude and a polynomial curve and its first two derivatives fitted to them. Finally, the human trajectories were compared to that of a robotic arm controlled by a biologically based algorithm using artificial nerve cells. >
Looking After Your Allergic Child

While health care delivery systems are undergoing a great deal of change, the primary responsibility for the care of your child still rests with you, the parent.
A Field Emission Stem Study of the Br Distribution in Brominated Graphite Fibers

Brominated pitch based graphite fibers exhibit certain novel properties and potential applications [1,2]. For example, it has been observed that an 18 fold reduction of their resistivities of the pitch-based graphite fibers can be achieved if the pristine fibers are allowed to fully interact with bromine [3] and even the residual fiber compounds that are formed by pumping off the bromine from the fully brominated fibers (saturated fibers), exhibit a five-fold reduction in the resistivities relative to that of the pristine fibers [3]. To understand this property, it is essential to know the Br distribution in such fiber compounds. Here we focus on the residual fibers that have a density of 2.2 gm/cm3 corresponding to a composition of BrC4 5.
Economic Grievances and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Discontents and Collective Judgments in Congressional Voting

It is widely assumed that political action is motivated most powerfully by issues that impinge immediately and tangibly upon private life. For example, this assumption pervades the aggregate research that has reported consistent relationships between general economic conditions and congressional election outcomes (e.g.,Kramer, 1971). Our analysis of individual-level data, however, indicates that voting in congressional elections from 1956 to 1976 was influenced hardly at all personal economic grieveances. Those voters unhappy with changes in their finacial cirumstance, those who had recently been personally affected by unemployment, showed little inclanation to punish candidates of the incumbant party for their personal misfortunes. The connection between economic conditions and politics was provided, instead, by judgements of a more general, collective kind-e.g., by judgments regarding recent trends in general business conditions, and, more powerfully, judgments about the relative competence of the two major parties to manage national economic problems. These collective economic judgments had little to do with privately experienced economic discontents. Rather they stemmed from voters' partisan predispositions and from their appraisal of changes in national economic conditions.
Performance and Tolerance to Phytophthora Blight of Bell Pepper Varieties

In 2011, total marketable yield, fruit size, and number of lobes; fruit discoloration due to silvering; and plant structure were compared among eight commercial green bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) varieties and four breeding lines at three field sites in central New York. Tolerance to phytophthora blight (Phytophthora capsici) was also assessed at one of these sites. No wilting or plant death due to phytophthora blight was observed on the four breeding lines. ‘Paladin’, ‘Intruder’, and ‘Aristotle’ had the highest levels of tolerance to phytophthora blight, among the commercial varieties and maintained their yields in the presence of disease. In the absence of phytophthora blight, yields from these three varieties were comparable to susceptible varieties, but fruit tended to be smaller, and incidence of silvering was high in ‘Paladin’ and ‘Intruder’. Less silvering was observed on ‘Aristotle’ fruit. Total marketable yields from the breeding lines and percent of fruit with four lobes was comparable to the commercial varieties, and some breeding lines also had a low incidence of silvering, but fruit were smaller and set later in the season. Overall, this study suggests that ‘Paladin’, ‘Intruder’, and ‘Aristotle’ will yield well in fields with a history of severe phytophthora blight, but new large-fruited varieties with low incidence of silvering and good tolerance to phytophthora blight are needed.
Evaluating Causes of Trends in Long-Term Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus Loads to Lake Erie

Renewed harmful algal blooms and hypoxia in Lake Erie have drawn significant attention to phosphorus loads, particularly increased dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) from highly agricultural watersheds. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model DRP in the agriculture-dominated Sandusky watershed for 1970–2010 to explore potential reasons for the recent increased DRP load from Lake Erie watersheds. We demonstrate that recent increased storm events, interacting with changes in fertilizer application timing and rate, as well as management practices that increase soil stratification and phosphorus accumulation at the soil surface, appear to drive the increasing DRP trend after the mid-1990s. This study is the first long-term, detailed analysis of DRP load estimation using SWAT.
Improvement and Optimization of Method for Determination of Organophosphorus Pesticides in Water

[Objective]To optimize and improve the method for determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water,and make it more sensitive,accurate and practical.[Methods]HP5 was used instead of FPD to optimize extract method.[Results]The test showed that the calibration curve was linear within the range of 0.01～1.0 μg/ml,the range of minimum detection limit was 0.01～0.10 μg/L,relative standard deviation(RSD) was 4.1%～7.2% and the average recoveries was 77.4%～92.9%.[Conclusion]he method is simple,rapid,accurate,reliable and reproducible.And it is suitable for determining organophosphorus pesticides in water.
Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis: challenges and pitfalls in diagnosis and treatment.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis occurs most frequently between the ages of two and five years. Early clinical manifestations include daily high fever, rash, arthralgia, cardiac involvement, pulmonary inflammation, severe abdominal pain and rare systemic conditions. Arthritis may occur at any time. The cause of the disease is still unknown, and no specific diagnostic test has yet been devised. All drugs used in treatment are palliative; preservation of normal motility, good nutrition and emotional well-being are most important in the therapeutic regimen.
Fault-tolerant and secure distributed data storage using random linear network coding

Network coding is a technique which can be used in wired and wireless networks to increase the throughput of the networks and provide reliable transmissions. Also, it can be used in distributed storage systems to store large data on different storages and provide fault tolerance against storage failures. Using network coding, the set of packets that form a file can be encoded to an infinite number of packets, and a subset of these coded packets is sufficient to retrieve the original data. In addition to providing fault tolerance, network coding is an efficient tool for protecting the data from eavesdroppers. An eavesdropper is not able to decode the coded packets and retrieve the original data unless it has access to a sufficient number of coded packets. Increasing the redundancy enhances the fault tolerance. However, it makes the system more vulnerable against eavesdropper attacks. In this work, we perform a tradeoff between security of a distributed storage system and its fault tolerance. We formulate the problem as a mixed integer and linear programming, and propose two linear programming optimizations to solve it.
Neurologic complications of cardiac tests and procedures

Arterial or central venous vascular access is the cornerstone of invasive cardiac diagnosis, monitoring, and therapeutics. Although procedural safety has significantly improved with protocols perfected over decades of use, their prevalence renders even the uncommon neurologic complication clinically relevant. Serious peripheral nerve complications result from direct or indirect nerve injuries in the setting of a hematoma or compartment syndrome. Functional outcome is dependent upon prompt diagnosis and early treatment, so proceduralists should be aware of the relevant anatomy and early signs of nerve injury. Ischemic stroke is the most common central nervous system complication of diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterization, and is presumed to be due to embolization of atherosclerotic plaque or thrombus dislodged during guiding catheter manipulation, platelet-fibrin thrombus that forms on the catheters, or air that appears during catheter flushing. Acute neurologic deterioration after thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarction should be presumed to be an intracranial hemorrhage until proven otherwise. The ideal angiography suite of the future is patientcentric and multipurpose, coordinating diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for multivascular disease, allowing for multispecialty collaboration, and, in the event of a neurologic complication of a cardiac procedure, facilitating the various treating physicians to converge efficiently upon the patient.
Intracellular Unbound Atorvastatin Concentrations in the Presence of Metabolism and Transport

Accurate prediction of drug target activity and rational dosing regimen design require knowledge of drug concentrations at the target. It is important to understand the impact of processes such as membrane permeability, partitioning, and active transport on intracellular drug concentrations. The present study aimed to predict intracellular unbound atorvastatin concentrations and characterize the effect of enzyme-transporter interplay on these concentrations. Single-pass liver perfusion studies were conducted in rats using atorvastatin (ATV, 1 µM) alone at 4°C and at 37°C in presence of rifampin (RIF, 20 µM) and 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT, 1 mM), separately and in combination. The unbound intracellular ATV concentration was predicted with a five-compartment explicit membrane model using the parameterized diffusional influx clearance, active basolateral uptake clearance, and metabolic clearance. Chemical inhibition of uptake and metabolism at 37°C proved to be better controls relative to studies at 4°C. The predicted unbound intracellular concentration at the end of the 50-minute perfusion in the +ABT , +ABT+RIF, and the ATV-only groups was 6.5 µM, 0.58 µM, and 5.14 µM, respectively. The predicted total liver concentrations and amount recovered in bile were within 0.94-1.3 fold of the observed value in all groups. The fold difference in total liver concentration did not always extrapolate to the fold difference in predicted unbound concentration across groups. Together, these results support the use of compartmental modeling to predict intracellular concentrations in dynamic organ-based systems. These predictions can provide insight into the role of uptake transporters and metabolizing enzymes in determining drug tissue concentrations.
Hindsight is 20/20: Reflections on the evolution of concept mapping.

Abstract This paper considers the origins and development of the concept mapping methodology, a summary of its growth, and its influence in a variety of fields. From initial discussions with graduate students, through the rise of the theory-driven approach to program evaluation and the development of a theoretical framework for conceptualization methodology, the paper highlights some of the key early efforts and pilot projects that culminated in a 1989 special issue on the method in Evaluation and Program Planning that brought the method to the attention of the field of evaluation. The paper details the thinking that led to the standard version of the method (the analytic sequence, “bridging” index, and pattern matching) and the development of the software for accomplishing it. A bibliometric analysis shows that the rate of citation continues to increase, where it has grown geographically and institutionally, that the method has been used in a wide variety of disciplines and specialties, and that the literature had an influence on the field. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of some of the key aspects of the approach that warrant further development.
The curious case of processing unaccusative verbs in aphasia.

ABSTRACTBackground: Individuals with agrammatic Broca’s aphasia (IWBA) exhibit a delay in lexical activation in S-V-O word order sentences and delayed lexical reactivation in sentences that contain syntactic dependencies. This pattern is in contrast to neurologically unimpaired individuals who immediately evince lexical reactivation at the gap in sentences that contain syntactic dependencies. However, in the case of sentences that contain unaccusative verbs, neurologically unimpaired individuals also exhibit a delay in lexical reactivation. This delay provides a unique opportunity to further examine lexical delays in IWBA.Aim: The purpose of the current studies is to investigate the online comprehension of sentences that contain unaccusative verbs in IWBA and in a group of age-matched control (AMC) individuals.Methods and Procedures: Cross-modal picture priming was used to test for priming of a displaced lexical item (direct object noun) immediately after the unaccusative verb (at the gap) during the ongo...
Blood-brain barrier-on-a-chip: Microphysiological systems that capture the complexity of the blood-central nervous system interface.

The blood–brain barrier is a dynamic and highly organized structure that strictly regulates the molecules allowed to cross the brain vasculature into the central nervous system. The blood–brain barrier pathology has been associated with a number of central nervous system diseases, including vascular malformations, stroke/vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and various neurological tumors including glioblastoma multiforme. There is a compelling need for representative models of this critical interface. Current research relies heavily on animal models (mostly mice) or on two-dimensional (2D) in vitro models, neither of which fully capture the complexities of the human blood–brain barrier. Physiological differences between humans and mice make translation to the clinic problematic, while monolayer cultures cannot capture the inherently three-dimensional (3D) nature of the blood–brain barrier, which includes close association of the abluminal side of the endothelium with astrocyte foot...
IT governance and risk mitigation approach for private cloud adoption: case study of provincial healthcare provider

Cloud computing (CC) has the potential to provide significant benefits to healthcare organizations; however, its susceptibility to security and privacy apprehensions needs to be addressed before its adoption. It is important to evaluate the risks that arise from CC prior to its adoption in healthcare projects. Failure to evaluate security and privacy concerns could result in regulatory penalties, reputation loss, financial issues, and public loss of confidence in the healthcare provider. This paper uses Alberta’s Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) requirement and COBIT 5 for Risk as guidance to highlight CC risk assessment areas and presents an IT governance and risk mitigation approach useful for CC adoption in the healthcare industry. In compliance with Alberta’s Health Information Act (HIA), the risk assessment areas are analyzed based on the security triad with emphasis on the confidentiality principle where privacy is the main focus. The proposed approach presented in this paper can be utilized by healthcare providers to mitigate and continuously evaluate CC risks from an IT governance perspective. Although the case study uses Canadian regulations, similar considerations can be taken into account in other jurisdictions.
Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori in an asymptomatic population in the United States: Effect of age, race, and socioeconomic status

Abstract A causative role is now accepted for Helicobacter (formerly Campylobacter ) pylori in type B gastritis, and evidence is accumulating that H. pylori infection plays a major contributory role in peptic ulcer disease. Preliminary studies have reported that the prevalence of H pylori infection increases with age, but detailed information on the prevalence of the bacteria in any defined population and on the factors that may influence the pattern of distribution remains scanty. In the present study, a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and a [ 13 C] urea breath test were used to investigate the prevalence of H. pylori infection among 485 healthy asymptomatic volunteers between the ages of 15 and 80 residing in the Houston metropolitan area. H. pylori infection was present in 52%. The prevalence of H. pylori infection increased rapidly with age at 1%/yr for the overall population. The frequency of H. pylori infection was higher in blacks (70%) than whites (34%) ( P H. pylori infection was independent of gender but was closely correlated with socioeconomic class. There were significant inverse correlations between age-adjusted frequency of H. pylori infection and income and between educational level and H. pylori infection. There was no association between H. pylori infection and consumption of alcohol or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug use or smoking. Having pets was associated with a lower frequency of H. pylori infection, but this was highly associated with higher socioeconomic status. The mode(s) of transmission of H. pylori is unknown, but the social patterns of H. pylori infection are consistent with fecal-oral transmission as one important pathway. Socioeconomic factors seem to determine the age of acquisition.
Extended Polynomial Growth Transforms for Design and Training of Generalized Support Vector Machines

Growth transformations constitute a class of fixed-point multiplicative update algorithms that were originally proposed for optimizing polynomial and rational functions over a domain of probability measures. In this paper, we extend this framework to the domain of bounded real variables which can be applied towards optimizing the dual cost function of a generic support vector machine (SVM). The approach can, therefore, not only be used to train traditional soft-margin binary SVMs, one-class SVMs, and probabilistic SVMs but can also be used to design novel variants of SVMs with different types of convex and quasi-convex loss functions. In this paper, we propose an efficient training algorithm based on polynomial growth transforms, and compare and contrast the properties of different SVM variants using several synthetic and benchmark data sets. The preliminary experiments show that the proposed multiplicative update algorithm is more scalable and yields better convergence compared to standard quadratic and nonlinear programming solvers. While the formulation and the underlying algorithms have been validated in this paper only for SVM-based learning, the proposed approach is general and can be applied to a wide variety of optimization problems and statistical learning models.
165 : Critical regulation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells by mast cells during allergic airway inflammation

Mast cells and basophils mediate tissue inflammation during allergy and anaphylaxis by secreting granules and cytokines; however, their role in the development of Th2 cells and type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) is not fully understood. Bas-TRECK and Mas-TRECK mice have been recently described to express diphtheria toxin receptor exclusively on basophils, or on both basophils and mast cells, respectively. Here, by using these genetic tools, we show that depletion of basophil minimally affected the size of pulmonary Th2 cells in response to fungal protease allergens, whereas additional depletion of mast cells almost completely abolished pulmonary Th2 responses as well as infiltration of inflammatory cells into airway. Of note, diphtheria toxin-treated Mas-TRECK mice exhibited a significant decrease in the frequency and number of Lin − CD45 + CD127 + IL-13-producing ILC2 in the lung compared to wild-type and Bas-TRECK mice that received same treatment. Moreover, lungs of the toxin-treated Mas-TRECK mice showed significantly decreased expression of Il33 transcript than those of wild-type. Our findings together unveil a critical contribution of mast cells rather than basophils to the induction of ILC2 as well as Th2 cells in the airway in response to fungal allergen in vivo.
Wild Flowers in the Swamp: Local Rules and Family Law

Family law reform is stuck in a rut. Reformers have criticized family law’s open-ended standards for decades and have uniformly sought to make those standards more rule-like by imposing top-down rules to cabin trial court judges’ discretion. That reform strategy failed 35 years ago, it failed 25 years ago, it failed 15 years ago, and it will fail today. This Article explores a bottom-up solution. Just as local judges routinely adopt local procedural rules, they should also be empowered to adopt substantive rules of thumb to guide their individual discretion in family law matters. This reform can accomplish what reformers have long failed to achieve: to cabin the discretion of individual judges and to bolster the democratic legitimacy of their decisions. Collective rules of thumb also create two novel dialogic benefits. They provide the first clear opportunity for local citizens to communicate to local judges about the content of local values. This is especially important when mostly heterosexual, white, wealthy judges are increasingly out of touch with minority family forms. In addition to giving a voice to local citizens, collective rules of thumb provide judges with a powerful new signaling device to communicate with appellate courts and legislatures. Whatever judges may say, they speak with much more force when they speak as a group. The vision of local power that this Article defends has implications that extend far beyond family law as well. Most notably, its novel focus on rules of thumb forces revisions to existing accounts of “rules against rulification,” and its account of citizen–judge dialogue offers insights into recent theoretical work on the proper scope of local judicial power.
Vector Measures on Topological Spaces

Let X be a completely regular Hausdorff space, E a quasi-complete locally convex space, C(X) (resp. Cb(X)) the space of all (resp. all, bounded), scalar-valued continuous functions on X, and B(X) and B0(X) be the classes of Borel and Baire subsets of X. We study the spaces Mt(X, E), Mτ (X, E), Mσ(X, E) of tight, τ -smooth, σ-smooth, E-valued Borel and Baire measures on X. Using strict topologies, we prove some measure representation theorems of linear operators between Cb(X) and E and then prove some convergence theorems about integrable functions. Also, the Alexandrov’s theorem is extended to the vector case and a representation theorem about the order-bounded, scalar-valued, linear maps from C(X) is generalized to the vector-valued linear maps. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 46E10, 28C05, 28C15, 46G10; Secondary: 28B05.
FILTER SHAPING FOR CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are powerful tools for classification of visual inputs. An important property of CNN is its restriction to local connections and sharing of local weights among different locations. In this paper, we consider the definition of appropriate local neighborhoods in CNN. We provide a theoretical analysis that justifies the traditional square filter used in CNN for analyzing natural images. The analysis also provides a principle for designing customized filter shapes for application domains that do not resemble natural images. We propose an approach that automatically designs multiple layers of different customized filter shapes by repeatedly solving lasso problems. It is applied to customize the filter shape for both bioacoustic applications and gene sequence analysis applications. In those domains with small sample sizes we demonstrate that the customized filters achieve superior classification accuracy, improved convergence behavior in training and reduced sensitivity to hyperparameters.
Psychiatric Diagnosis: Toward a Memetic–Epigenetic Multiaxial Model

The diagnosis of the whole of the patient must explicitly define the suffering dimension of the patient, the illness, and the contributing morphological, physiological, biochemical, genetic disease or conditions, the memes and stresses that interacted with them, and the assets of the patient that protect or mitigate against the noxious forces. Illness is by definition memetic, i.e., how a person experiences suffering and expresses suffering is determined by prevailing belief systems and imitation of those who suffer from ailments. Illness is often the manifestation of a strife and/or revolution within the patient’s memetic brain, caused by stress or other weakening of the dominant selfplexes, resulting in the upsurge of hitherto repressed aspects of the personality. Most psychiatric conditions are syndromes of dysregulation. The dysregulation may be a reflection of memetic conflict or memetic turmoil, or it may reflect an epigenetically unstable limbic structure, which in turn is activated by incoming memes. Major psychiatric syndromes are final common pathway syndromes that reflect a common brain functional pathology with heterogeneous genetic, biochemical, and memetic contributions. Neurosis serves as an intermediate diagnosis between normality and major final common pathway syndromes and would encompass various traits and symptoms that represent gene × meme interaction (interaction includes simple additive effect as well as synergy and mitigation) and early learned behaviors. I suggest a new multiaxial system of psychiatric diagnosis as follows: (Axis 1) Neurophysiomemetic diagnosis – the memetic, suffering, illness dimension of the patient, (Axis 2) the genomic/brain morphological/functional dimension, which we will call the genoneuroscience diagnosis, (Axis 3) medical diseases, (Axis 4) early, recent, and current stress, and (Axis 5) the protective psychosocial assets of the patient as well as global assessment of functioning. In addition, the new system should have a separate (Axis 6) for biopsychosocial and epigenetic formulation, an integration of the entries in all the axes in managing the person who is the patient.
Chemistry, Metabolism, and Transport of Hormones Controlling Insect Metamorphosis

Since the changes in hormone titer must be precise if insect growth, development, and metamorphosis are to proceed normally, knowledge of the biosynthesis and degradation of the growth hormones as well as their possible control is of utmost importance if we are to understand metamorphosis at the biochemical level. Indeed, progress in this area of insect hormone metabolism and titer regulation has been remarkable during the past decade, particularly when compared to the less precise data accumulated on gland regulation (see Granger and Bollenbacher, this volume). In this chapter we will be concerned only with the three hormones known to control molting and metamorphosis, namely the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) from the brain, the molting hormone (MH) (20-hydroxyecdysone) and the juvenile hormones (JH) secreted by the corpora allata (Fig. 1).
Development of a Thermophysical Properties Model for Flowsheet Simulation of Biomass Pyrolysis Processes

A properties model was developed for use in commercial process simulators to model pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. The component list was chosen to enable process simulations based on a recently published lumped pyrolysis kinetics model. Since many of the compounds involved in pyrolysis are not found in simulator databanks, estimation based on available literature data was used to establish missing parameters. Standard solid enthalpy of formation, solid heat capacity, and solid density estimates calculated from the limited experimental data available were prepared for six biomass constituents and nine intermediate and end-products of their pyrolysis. Ideal gas enthalpy of formation and heat capacity, critical property, and vapor pressure estimates were prepared for another four pyrolysis end-products and one biomass component. The estimates were all validated against the closest available experimental data in the literature. The addition of these new components and properties allows thermodynamicall...
Chemical and Isotopic Evidence for Organic Matter Sulfurization in Redox Gradients Around Mangrove Roots

Coastal environments like mangrove forests are increasingly recognized as potential hotspots for organic carbon burial, giving them a crucial and yet poorly constrained role in the global carbon cycle. Mangrove sediments are frequently anoxic, which facilitates elevated organic matter (OM) burial via several mechanisms, including sulfurization – abiotic reactions between dissolved (poly)sulfide and OM that decrease its lability. Although sulfurization was estimated to account for roughly half of OM preservation in a Bermuda mangrove forest, both its mechanisms and its global significance remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate S cycling in mangrove forest sediments from Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands, an environment with predominantly microbial OM inputs and no major source of terrestrial iron. We characterize the S- and C-isotope composition and organic S speciation of sedimentary OM fractions with varying degrees of resistance to acid hydrolysis, along with other inorganic S phases. Near the surface of a 3-mm-diameter, O2-releasing root, abundant organic and elemental S with a 34S-depleted composition indicates microbial sulfur cycling and OM sulfurization. A mixture of pyrite, elemental S, and organic S form a plaque within the outer 50 m of the root, which also contains strongly 34S-depleted sulfate in its xylem. OM sulfurization products in the sediments include both the alkyl sulfides and disulfides associated with the root plaque and more oxidized forms, especially sulfonates. Hydrolysis-resistant organic S in the sediments is consistently 3–5‰ more 34S-enriched than coexisting elemental S, matching the reported kinetic isotope fractionation factor for OM sulfurization via reaction with polysulfides. These sediments also contain a substantial pool of solid-phase, hydrolysable organic S with a seawater sulfate-like isotope composition, largely in the form of sulfate esters, which may represent excretions from abundant gastropods. The coexistance of sulfurized OM and aerobic macrofauna highlights how understanding spatial scales and/or temporal cycles in local redox state is critical for predicting net OM preservation, especially in dynamic, coastal environments. Future attempts to mechanistically predict changes in carbon storage in coastal systems will benefit from incorporating OM sulfurization as both a sink for microbially produced sulfide and a mechanism for enhanced carbon sequestration.
A Cluster of Bunyavirus-Associated Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Cases in a Coastal Plain Area in China, 2015: Identification of a Previously Unidentified Endemic Region for Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Bunyavirus.

Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a typical tick-borne, natural focal disease. The natural foci of SFTS were considered to exist in hilly and mountainous areas before 2015. A cluster of 3 patients exposed to a patient with a fulminant disease consistent with SFTS occurred from July to August 2015 in Dongtai County, which is characterized by alluvial plains; this prompted investigation. Methods The epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory features of 4 patients in the cluster were analyzed. Serum samples from the indigenous healthy population and native domesticated animals were collected to conduct laboratory tests, along with small wild animals and ticks. Results In 3 secondary case patients, high fever, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia developed within 8-13 days after contact with blood or bloody secretions from the index patient; SFTS was then diagnosed by means of reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Genomic sequencing and analysis of S and L segments of 2 viral strains isolated from 2 secondary case patients showed that they shared 99.8%-99.9% homology in nucleotide sequence. The seroprevalences among indigenous healthy population, native livestock, native poultry, and small wild animals was 0.74%, 17.54%, 6.67%, and 1.12%, respectively. Three questing ticks, 61 feeding ticks, and 178 small wild animals were collected in August 2015. Survey on tick density and seasonal fluctuation in 2016 showed that ticks were active from March to October. All ticks were identified as Haemaphysalis longicornis. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia bunyavirus (SFTSV)-specific RNA was detected in the ticks collected in 2016, and the minimum SFTSV infection rate in these ticks was 0.54% (1 of 185).Wild mammals and ticks collected in August 2015 tested negative for SFTSV-specific RNA. Conclusions Aside from hilly or mountainous area, a coastal plain was identified as the natural foci of SFTSV in Dongtai County, China. The involvement of migration in the evolution of SFTSV might lead to a transregional transmission event of SFTSV.
Red blood cell transfusions for emergency department patients with gastrointestinal bleeding within an integrated health system

Abstract Study objective To assess trends over time in red blood cell (RBC) transfusion practice among emergency department (ED) patients with gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding within an integrated healthcare system, inclusive of 21 EDs. Methods Retrospective cohort of ED patients diagnosed with GI bleeding between July 1st, 2012 and September 30th, 2016. The primary outcome was receipt of an RBC transfusion in the ED. Secondary outcomes included 90-day rates of RBC transfusion, repeat ED visits, rehospitalization, and all-cause mortality. Logistic regression was used to obtain confounder-adjusted outcome rates. Results A total of 24,868 unique patient encounters were used for the primary analysis. The median hemoglobin level in the ED prior to RBC transfusion decreased from 7.5 g/dl to 6.9 g/dl in the first versus last twelve months of the study period (p Conclusion Rates of ED RBC transfusion decreased over time among patients with GI bleeding, particularly in those with hemoglobin nadirs between 7.0 and 9.9 g/dl. These findings suggest that ED providers are willing to adopt evidence-based restrictive RBC transfusion recommendations for patients with GI bleeding.
Ultra-long-acting tunable biodegradable and removable controlled release implants for drug delivery

Here we report an ultra-long-acting tunable, biodegradable, and removable polymer-based delivery system that offers sustained drug delivery for up to one year for HIV treatment or prophylaxis. This robust formulation offers the ability to integrate multiple drugs in a single injection, which is particularly important to address the potential for drug resistance with monotherapy. Six antiretroviral drugs were selected based on their solubility in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and relevance as a combination therapy for HIV treatment or prevention. All drugs released with concentrations above their protein-adjusted inhibitory concentration and retained their physical and chemical properties within the formulation and upon release. The versatility of this formulation to integrate multiple drugs and provide sustained plasma concentrations from several weeks to up to one year, combined with its ability to be removed to terminate the treatment if necessary, makes it attractive as a drug delivery platform technology for a wide range of applications.
A comparison between unfocused and focused transmit strategies in cardiac strain imaging.

Unfocused ultrasound imaging, particularly coherent compounding with diverging waves, is a commonly employed high-frame rate transmit strategy in cardiac strain imaging. However, the accuracy and precision of diverging wave imaging compared to focused-beam transmit approaches in human subjects is unknown. Three transmit strategies-coherent compounding imaging, composite focused imaging with ECG gating and narrow-beams, and focused imaging with wide-beams-were compared in simulation and in transthoracic imaging of healthy human subjects (n = 7). The focused narrow-beam sequence estimated radial end-systolic cumulative strains of a simulated left ventricular deformation with 26% ± 1.5% and 34% ± 1.5% greater accuracy compared with compounding and wide-beam imaging, respectively. Strain estimation precision in transthoracic imaging was then assessed with the Strain Filter on cumulative end-systolic radial strains. Within the strain values where statistically significant differences in precision (E(SNRe|e)) were found between transmit strategies, the narrow-beam sequence estimated radial strain 13% ± 0.71% and 34% ± 8.9% more precisely on average compared to compounding or wide-beam imaging, respectively.