cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Serine/Threonine Kinase STK11 Promotes Shigella flexneri Dissemination through Establishment of Cell-Cell Contacts Competent for Tyrosine Kinase Signaling

Shigella flexneri is an intracellular pathogen that disseminates in the intestinal epithelium by displaying actin-based motility. We found that although S. flexneri displayed comparable actin-based motilities in the cytosols of HeLa229 and HT-29 epithelial cell lines, the overall dissemination process was much more efficient in HT-29 cells. Time-lapse microscopy demonstrated that as motile bacteria reached the cell cortex in HT-29 cells, they formed membrane protrusions that resolved into vacuoles, from which the bacteria escaped and gained access to the cytosol of adjacent cells. In HeLa229 cells, S. flexneri also formed membrane protrusions that extended into adjacent cells, but the protrusions rarely resolved into vacuoles. Instead, the formed protrusions collapsed and retracted, bringing the bacteria back to the cytosol of the primary infected cells. Silencing the serine/threonine kinase STK11 (also known as LKB1) in HT-29 cells decreased the efficiency of protrusion resolution into vacuoles. Conversely, expressing STK11 in HeLa229 cells, which lack the STK11 locus, dramatically increased the efficiency of protrusion resolution into vacuoles. S. flexneri dissemination in HT-29 cells led to the local phosphorylation of tyrosine residues in protrusions, a signaling event that was not observed in HeLa229 cells but was restored in STK11-expressing HeLa229 cells. Treatment of HT-29 cells with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib abrogated tyrosine kinase signaling in protrusions, which correlated with a severe decrease in the efficiency of protrusion resolution into vacuoles. We suggest that the formation of STK11-dependent lateral cell-cell contacts competent for tyrosine kinase signaling promotes S. flexneri dissemination in epithelial cells.
Clinical Practice of Steroid Avoidance in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation.

Steroid-avoidance protocols have recently gained popularity in pediatric kidney transplantation. We investigated the clinical practice of steroid avoidance among 9494 kidney transplant recipients at 124 transplant centers between 2000 and 2012 in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network database. The practice of steroid avoidance increased during the study period and demonstrated significant variability among transplant centers. From 2008 to 2012, 39% of transplant centers used steroid avoidance in 40% of discharged patients. Children receiving steroid avoidance more frequently received induction with lymphocyte-depleting agents. Repeat kidney transplants were the least likely to receive steroid avoidance. Children who received a deceased donor kidney, underwent pretransplant dialysis, were highly sensitized, or had glomerular kidney disease or delayed graft function were also less likely to receive steroid avoidance. The variation in practice between centers remained highly significant (p < 0.0001) after adjustment for all patient- and center-level factors in multivariate analysis. We conclude that significant differences in the practice of steroid avoidance among transplant centers remain unexplained and may reflect uncertainty about the safety and efficacy of steroid-avoidance protocols.
Accelerating sine and cosine evaluation with compiler assistance

Some software libraries add special entry points to enable both the sine and cosine to be evaluated with one call for performance purposes. We propose another method which does not involve new function names. By having the compiler front end recognize trigonometric function invocations, and replace them with a call to a common function which executes the code common to all the functions, followed by a short routine to produce the desired computation, it is possible to compute both the sine and cosine, when needed in about the same time as to compute only one of them.
Multilayered YSZ/GZO films with greatly enhanced ionic conduction for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

Strain confinement in heterostructured films significantly affects ionic conductivity of the electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cells based on a multi-layered design strategy. Nearly ideal tensile strain can be achieved by a dedicated manipulation of the lattice mismatch between adjacent layers and fine control of the layer thicknesses to minimize the formation of dislocations and thus to achieve optimized ionic conduction. This strategy was demonstrated by a model system of multilayered 8 mol%Y2O3 stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) with Gd2Zr2O7 (GZO) films, which were epitaxially grown on Al2O3 (0001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with the {111} planes of YSZ/GZO along the Al2O3 [0 1 −1 0] direction. The tensile strain (3%) resulting from the lattice mismatch can be confined in individual YSZ layers with the formation of a coherent, dislocation-free interface upon the manipulation of the layer thickness below a critical value, e.g., down to 5 nm. The strained heterostructure displays a two order-of-magnitude increase in oxide-ion conductivity as compared with bulk YSZ, and a high ionic conductivity of 0.01 S cm−1 at 475 °C can be achieved, five times greater than that of Gd-doped ceria/zirconia. The approach of strain confinement by fine control of lattice mismatch and layer thickness represents a promising strategy in developing advanced electrolytes enabling the miniaturization of solid-state ionic devices that can be operated at low temperatures below 500 °C.
Mapping sound to meaning: Connections between learning about sounds and learning about words

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with the connections between learning about sounds and learning about words and explores the potential links between the sounds of words and the word learning process. The chapter overviews some relevant results in the field of infant speech processing and preview that how representations of speech might relate to lexical development and highlights empirical and theoretical developments in two areas where learning about the sounds of language may be relevant, especially for word learning: the phonetic specificity of early lexical representations and how familiarity with the sounds of words affects word learning, specifically through the influence of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density and the process of word segmentation. The chapter also explores possible connections between infants' knowledge about the sound structure of their language and how infants map these sounds to meaning. This chapter describes the debate about the phonetic specificity of early lexical representations focusing on whether infants apply their fine-grained perceptual discrimination skills to word learning and illustrates that the process of word segmentation contributes to infants' association of word forms with meanings.
M-CSF, c-Fms, and signaling in osteoclasts and their precursors

Prevention of conditions, such as osteoporosis, requires an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of bone resorption. The understanding that cells of the myeloid lineage are osteoclast precursors suggests that macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) plays an important role in osteoclast biology. Signals generated by the binding of M-CSF to the cell-surface receptor c-Fms appear to trigger events leading to osteoclast differentiation. We have created a chimeric variant of the c-Fms receptor, which has allowed study of downstream events activated by M-CSF in a model more relevant to normal physiology than prior studies, which have relied on myeloid tissues. Our studies suggest novel regulatory signaling pathways initiated via the c-Fms receptor.
Virginia Market Type Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Response to the Nitrophenolic Plant Growth Regulator Chaperone

Experiments were conducted during 2004 and 2005 in Virginia and North Carolina to evaluate large-seeded, Virginia market type peanut response to a nitrophenolic plant growth regulator applied at 0.37 to 1.46 L/ha to peanut 45-60 DAP. Pod yield, percent extra large kernels (%ELK), percent total sound mature kernels (%TSMK), and crude protein levels of seed were not affected by the nitrophenolic plant growth regulator regardless of experiment (location and year). These experiments were conducted under a range of environmental and edaphic conditions with four cultivars. These data indicate that there is no benefit of applying the nitrophenolic plant growth regulator to Virginia market type peanut.
Membrane topology of the yeast endoplasmic reticulum-localized ubiquitin ligase Doa10 and comparison with its human ortholog TEB4 (MARCH-VI)

Quality control machinery in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) helps ensure that only properly folded and assembled proteins accumulate in the ER or continue along the secretory pathway. Aberrant proteins are retrotranslocated to the cytosol and degraded by the proteasome, a process called ER-associated degradation. Doa10, a transmembrane protein of the ER/nuclear envelope, is one of the primary ubiquitin ligases (E3s) participating in ER-associated degradation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we report the membrane organization of the 1319-residue Doa10 polypeptide. The topology was determined by fusing a dual-topology reporter after 16 different Doa10 fragments. Our results indicate that Doa10 contains 14 transmembrane helices (TMs). Based on protease digestion of yeast microsomes, both the N-terminal RING-CH domain and the C terminus face the cytosol. Notably, the experimentally derived topology was not predicted correctly by any of the generally available TM prediction algorithms. Bioinformatic analysis and in silico mutagenesis guided the topological studies through problematic regions. The conserved TD domain in Doa10 includes three TMs. These TMs might function in cofactor binding or substrate recognition, or they might be part of a retrotranslocation channel. The Derlins were previously proposed to provide such channels, but we show that the two yeast Derlins are not required for degradation of Doa10 membrane substrates, as was found before for the Sec61 translocon. Finally, we provide evidence that the likely human Doa10 ortholog, TEB4 (MARCH-VI), adopts a topology similar to that of Doa10.
POLYMERIZATION OF WATER-SOLUBLE CONDUCTIVE POLYPHENOL USING HORSERADISH PEROXIDASE

Template assisted enzymatic polymerization of phenol has been carried out in aqueous media at room temperature. The templates used to facilitate this reaction, were polystyrene sulfonate, lignin sulfonate and dodecyl benzene sulfonate. The enzyme, horseradish peroxidase, proved to be an active catalyst for the polymerization, yielding a phenolic polymer that is permanently complexed with the template used. These polyphenol complexes are high molecular weight, soluble in water and/or mixed organic solvents and show good thermal stability. Under certain conditions, physical SPS-polyphenol gels can be formed in water that have high ionic conductivity. UV-vis, FTIR and electro-absorption spectroscopy show the presence of significant backbone conjugation and NLO properties. This novel enzymatic approach is a simple, inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to prepare processable polyphenolic materials with interesting electrical and optical properties. †Deceased.
The development of three-dimensional spatial modeling techniques for the construction planning of nuclear power plants

The results are presented of the first phase of a research project on the application of spatial modeling techniques to the process of planning and executing the construction of a nuclear power plant. A computer modeling technique, based on sets of polyhedra and spatial operations, was developed and applied to modeling the components of a nuclear power plant. The objectives of the modeling are: to store and retrieve information about the various systems in the facility; to produce drawings of those systems from any angle in differing amounts of detail; to aid in the search for interference among the parts of the plant by identifying those elements that occupy the same space or are too close to each other; to calculate information such as surface area, length, and volume of selected elements of the plant; and to aid in finding the optimum construction sequence by simulated construction of selected areas of the plant. Computer techniques are described for inputting information by digitizing directly from engineering drawings, for editing the spatial model, for management of the spatial and non-spatial data, and for graphic output from the model. The software is implemented on the University's central time-sharing computer system and on a mini-computer system in the Architectural Research Laboratory.
Closing the Loop of the Soil Water Retention Curve

AbstractThe authors, to their knowledge for the first time, produced two complete principal soil water retention curves (SWRCs) under both positive and negative matric suction regimes. An innovative testing technique combining the transient water release and imbibition method (TRIM) and constant flow method (CFM) was used to identify the principal paths of SWRC in the positive pore-water pressure regime under unsaturated conditions. A negative matric suction of 9.8 kPa is needed to reach full saturation or close the loop of the SWRC for a silty soil. This work pushes the understanding of the interaction of soil and water into new territory by quantifying the boundaries of the SWRC over the entire suction domain, including both wetting and drying conditions that are relevant to field conditions such as slope wetting under heavy rainfall or rapid groundwater table rise in earthen dams or levees.
In Vivo Imaging of Single-Molecule Translocation Through Nuclear Pore Complexes by Pair Correlation Functions

Background: Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) mediate bidirectional transport of proteins, RNAs, and ribonucleoproteins across the double-membrane nuclear envelope. Although there are many studies that look at the traffic in the nucleus and through the nuclear envelope we propose a method to detect the nucleocytoplasmic transport kinetics in an unperturbed cell, with no requirement for specific labeling of isolated molecules and, most important, in the presence of the cell milieu. Methodology: The pair correlation function method (pCF) measures the time a molecule takes to migrate from one location to another within the cell in the presence of many molecules of the same kind. The spatial and temporal correlation among two arbitrary points in the cell provides a local map of molecular transport, and also highlights the presence of barriers to diffusion with millisecond time resolution and spatial resolution limited by diffraction. We use the pair correlation method to monitor a model protein substrate undergoing transport through NPCs in living cells, a biological problem in which single particle tracking (SPT) has given results that cannot be confirmed by traditional single-point FCS measurements because of the lack of spatial resolution. Conclusions: We show that obstacles to molecular flow can be detected and that the pCF algorithm can recognize the heterogeneity of protein intra-compartment diffusion as well as the presence of barriers to transport across NE.
A Lower Bound for the Mass of a Random Gaussian Lattice

We give a criterion that the two point function for a Gaussian lattice with random mass decay exponentially. The proof uses a random walk representation which may be of interest in other contexts.
Systems Genetics: a Powerful Approach for Gene-Environment Interactions

Genetic variation in a population creates an impressive spectrum of phenotypic diversity, particularly when changes in diet or the environment are imposed on the population. Genome-wide association studies have become a powerful tool for linking sequence variants with overlying systems level phenotypes, but they do not provide insight into the mechanisms through which genetic variation drives phenotypic variation. Systems genetics is an emerging discipline that provides a means to fill this knowledge gap by assembling the hierarchy of interactions among genes, proteins, and other intermediate phenotypes that manifest as phenotypic variation. When applied to nutrition, systems genetics enables the identification of pathways through which nutrients influence health and the determination of the mechanisms that cause individuals to differ in their response to diet. J. Nutr. 141: 515‐519, 2011. Fundamentals of systems genetics Systems biology represents a paradigm shift in the study of health and disease that is distinct from, but complementary to, reductionist approaches that predominated in the past few decades as individual genes were cloned, sequenced, and characterized. Systems biology is anchored in the concept that traits are emergent properties of complex interactions among genes, proteins, cells, and tissues. Just as Galen and other pioneers of medical research attempted to understand the body based on physical interconnections between its components, systems biology constructs a systems level view of the organism by assembling the interconnections between traits measured at multiple levels of complexity and scale using a variety of statistical and computational tools (1). Systemsgenetics is a specializedversion ofsystems biology that can most succinctly be described as systems biology of populations. Populations, whether “natural” or laboratory derived, consist of individuals in which genetic variants at multiple loci across the genome create parallel variation in overlying phenotypes, akin
Robust gate sizing via mean excess delay minimization

We introduce mean excess delay as a statistical measure of circuit delay in the presence of parameter variations. The β-mean excess delay is defined as the expected delay of the circuits that exceed the β-quantile of the delay, so it is always an upper bound on the β-quantile. However, in contrast to the β-quantile, it preserves the convexity properties of the underlying delay distribution. We apply the β-mean excess delay to the circuit sizing problem, and use it to minimize the delay quantile over the gate sizes. We use the Analytic Centering Cutting Plane Method to perform the minimization and apply this sizing to the ISCAS '85 benchmarks. Depending on the structure of the circuit, it can make significant improvements on the 95% quantile
Lactobacilli and Vaginal Host Defense: Activation of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Long Terminal Repeat, Cytokine Production, and NF-κB

Lactobacilli, a component of the normal vaginal flora, can activate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) in the Jurkat T lymphocyte and THP-1 macrophage cell lines. Activation of the LTR in Jurkat cells was strongly enhanced by vanadate and inhibited by catalase, implicating H2O2. In contrast, activation in THP-1 cells occurred in the absence of vanadate and was unaffected by catalase. The active material partitioned into the phenol layer on hot aqueous phenol extraction. Lactobacilli also increased tumor necrosis factor-alphaand interleukin-1betaproduction and activated NF-kappaB in THP-1 cells and increased tumor necrosis factor-alphaproduction by human monocytes. Human vaginal fluid specimens had comparable properties, which correlated with their bacterial content. These findings suggest the presence in vaginal fluid of agent(s) derived from indigenous bacteria that can activate the HIV-1 LTR, cytokine production, and NF-kappaB in cells of macrophage lineage, with possible influence on vaginal physiology and host defense.
Semantic Multimedia Retrieval using Lexical Query Expansion and Model-Based Reranking

We present methods for improving text search retrieval of visual multimedia content by applying a set of visual models of semantic concepts from a lexicon of concepts deemed relevant for the collection. Text search is performed via queries of words or fully qualified sentences, and results are returned in the form of ranked video clips. Our approach involves a query expansion stage, in which query terms are compared to the visual concepts for which we independently build classifier models. We leverage a synonym dictionary and WordNet similarities during expansion. Results over each query are aggregated across the expanded terms and ranked. We validate our approach on the TRECVID 2005 broadcast news data with 39 concepts specifically designed for this genre of video. We observe that concept models improve search results by nearly 50% after model-based re-ranking of text-only search. We also observe that purely model-based retrieval significantly outperforms text-based retrieval on non-named entity queries.
A study of content diversity in online citizen journalism and online newspaper articles

The presence of a diversity of information offers citizens access to a range of ideas, expertise and topics. In this study, a measure of content diversity was created to determine whether online citizen journalism and online newspaper publications were serving this function in the USA. Based on the findings from a quantitative content analysis (n = 962), online citizen journalism articles were more likely to feature a greater diversity of topics, information from outside sources and multimedia and interactive features. The findings suggest online citizen journalism content adds to the diversity of information available in the marketplace.
Albuterol delivered by metered-dose inhaler to treat acute bronchitis.

Background Previous research has suggested that cough associated with acute bronchitis is more likely to subside within 7 days when treated with albuterol than with an antibiotic. This study examines the effectiveness of aerosolized albuterol for the treatment of acute bronchitis in patients treated with erythromycin or placebo. Methods A double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial of albuterol delivered by metered-dose inhaler (MDI) was conducted in a primary care setting with healthy adult patients who presented with a productive cough of fewer than 30 days' duration. In addition to randomization for albuterol, patients were also randomized to receive erythromycin or placebo. Outcomes were assessed at follow-up after 7 days. Results Patients treated with albuterol MDI were less likely to be coughing after 7 days of treatment than were patients using a placebo inhaler (61% still coughing vs 91%, P = .02). When analysis was stratified by cigarette smoking status and the use of erythromycin, the differences observed between albuterol MDI patients and controls persisted. Conclusions Albuterol appears to reduce the likelihood that patients with acute bronchitis will be coughing after 7 days following initiation of treatment. This effect appears to be independent of cigarette smoking or the concomitant use of antibiotics.
Investigating Morality with David Hume

Scholars are divided over the character of Hume’s moral theory: Is he a value-free social scientist or a moral sentiment theorist? This essay examines Book III of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature in order to understand the character of his moral investigations. I argue that Hume has a distinctive and insufficiently appreciated approach to morality that is both phenomenological and investigative. Political science must start with everyday moral opinion, but tensions within opinion compel us to search for moral foundations. Yet morality is not what it seems – a good in itself – but is a requirement for the successful functioning of society as a means for addressing deeply rooted problems in the human condition. Hume’s final analysis of morality must thus be sought in his treatment of the natural virtues. Through his investigation of morality, Hume offers us a political science more compelling than either positivism or moral sentiment theory.
Lipoprotein Lipase Activity of Rat and Human Placenta.

SummaryLipoprotein lipase activity was found to be present in homogenates of placentas of rats pregnant 18–21 days and of human placentas obtained post partum. In the rat, the LPL activity in placenta was equal to that in heart, but much less than that found in adipose tissue. LPL activity in human placenta was smaller than that in rat placenta. Placental lipase activity was inhibited by DFP, protamine and 1 M NaCl, and considerably reduced in the absence of serum in the incubating medium. LPL activity in placenta may be related to the vascularity of this organ and may act to supply the fetus with fatty acids by hydrolyzing lipoproteins obtained from the maternal circulation.
125-μm-Cladding Eight-Core Multi-Core Fiber Realizing Ultra-High-Density Cable Suitable for O-Band Short-Reach Optical Interconnects

A novel multi-core fiber (MCF), having eight cores within a 125-μm-diameter cladding and suitable for short-reach transmissions, is proposed. By optimizing O-band transmission, the proposed MCF realized the high-density core packing simultaneously achieving the optical characteristics comparable to those of the standard single-mode fiber in O-band, where low material dispersion can be leveraged. The standard 125-μm-diameter cladding is compatible with conventional cabling/connecting technologies and has the tightly bendable mechanical reliability proven by the widely installed standard optical fibers. An ultra-high-density 12-MCF cable was fabricated with the proposed MCF, and achieved 13.6 cores/mm2 (96 cores in the 3-mm-diameter cable). The transmission characteristics of the cabled MCF were evaluated using a 100GBASE-LR4 transceiver, and error-free 8-SDM × 4-WDM × 25-Gb/s (800-Gb/s/fiber) signals in O-band were successfully transmitted over the 1.11-km-long cabled MCF.
Molecular orientation analysis of alkyl methylene groups from quantitative coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy

Quantitative data analysis in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy is important for extracting molecular structural information. We developed a method to derive molecular tilt angle with respect to the surface normal based on quantitative CARS spectral analysis. We showed that the tilt angle of methylene alkyl chains on a surface can be directly obtained from the CH2 symmetric/asymmetric peak ratio in a CARS spectrum. The lipid alkyl chain tilt angle from a lipid monolayer was measured to be ∼0° and was verified by sum frequency generation spectroscopy, which probes the orientations of the lipid methyl end groups. The tilt angle of a silane monolayer alkyl chain was derived to be ∼35°, which agrees with the theoretical prediction. This method is submonolayer sensitive and can also be used to interpret polarization-dependent signals in CARS microscopy. It can be applied to elucidate detailed molecular structure from CARS spectroscopic and microscopic measurements.
Toxicological security study on the multi- amino acid soft capsule

Objective To assess the toxicological security of multi- amino acids soft capsule as health food. Methods Acute oral toxicity test,genetic toxicity tests( Ames test,bone marrow micronucleus test and sperm abnormality test in mice) and rats 30- day feeding test were conducted to evaluate the toxicological safety of multi- amino acids soft capsule. Results No apparent symptom of poisoning or death was observed at the greatest dose of 15000 mg / kg body weight( BW) for the acute oral toxicity test in mice. Results of the three genetic toxicity tests( the Ames test,the mice sperm abnormality test and the bone marrow cell micronucleus test) showed no significant difference between treated groups and control group. There was also no significant difference in food intake,food utilization rate,rat weight gain,blood count and biochemistry index between treatment groups and control group for the 30d- feeding test. No apparent pathological injury to the major organs of rats was observed in the pathological examination of rats' tissues. Conclusion The multi- amino acids soft capsule was found no acute toxicity,no genetic toxicity and non- sub- chronic toxicity under the current experimental conditions.
Syntax-Pragmatics interface in converbal constructions

Converbs are non-finite verb forms which indicate adverbial subordination (Haspelmath 1995). Converbal clauses can occur in chaining constructions, where they are stacked one after the other to advance the narration (Nedjalkov 1995). Bickel (2006) has claimed that there are cross-linguistic occurrences of such constructions, where the scope of an interrogative marker is indeterminate. The chaining constructions in Sakha (Yakut), a Turkic language, show variation in illocutionary scope, which is determined by focus assignment. This study provides a mechanism for deriving Sakha converbs and their interaction in terms of mood and information-structure in chaining constructions.
Provincial Valuations of Human Capital in Urban China, Inter-provincial Inequality and the Implicit Value of a Guangdong Hukou

This paper assesses regional inequality in urban China. It predicts earnings for each worker in multiple provinces, compares provinces of residence and maximum predicted earnings, and estimates predicted relocation gains. It presents a reference comparison for the U.S. in 1940. Only 7.4% of U.S. urban workers predicted maximum earnings outside their home divisions that exceeded predicted home division earnings by more than 20%. In contrast, in 1988, 1995, 2002, 2008 and 2013, respectively, 45%, 54%, 74%, 57% and 42% of urban Chinese workers predicted maximum earnings outside their home provinces that exceeded predicted home province earnings by more than 50%. These potential gains were equivalent to the earnings gains from at least seven years of additional schooling. If workers had received maximum predicted earnings, average earnings would have been greater by between 42% and 83% and interpersonal inequality would have been less in all but 2013. If they had received maximum predicted earnings in their home provinces, inter-provincial inequality would have vanished. Predicted earnings were generally greatest in Guangdong, most strikingly in the earliest years. Discrepancies of these magnitudes suggest that the Chinese internal economy suffers from multiple obstacles to internal integration.
Does Access to Family Planning Increase Children's Opportunities? Evidence from the War on Poverty and the Early Years of Title X.

This paper examines the relationship between parents' access to family planning and the economic resources of their children. Using the county-level introduction of U.S. family planning programs between 1964 and 1973, we find that children born after programs began had 2.8% higher household incomes. They were also 7% less likely to live in poverty and 12% less likely to live in households receiving public assistance. A bounding exercise suggests that the direct effects of family planning programs on parents' resources account for roughly two-thirds of these gains. [End Page 825] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Changes in attitudes toward animals in the United States from 1978 to 2014

Abstract More than three decades ago, Stephen Kellert surveyed > 3000 Americans to gain a better understanding of their attitudes toward wildlife. We used a web-based questionnaire to survey a nationally representative sample of 1287 U.S. residents, replicating 26 single-item measures of attitudes toward animals from Kellert's study. Attitudes toward all animals were remarkably similar in 1978 and 2014. The average change in rank was 2.1 (of 26), and species mean scores from 1978 and 2014 correlated at r = 0.95. Americans' attitudes toward eight species exhibited substantive differences (Cohen's d > 0.4). The greatest differences were for historically stigmatized species (e.g. bats, sharks, vultures, wolves and coyotes)—attitudes in 2014 were significantly more positive for these species. The majority of respondents reported positive attitudes toward wolves and coyotes, and the proportion of people reporting positive attitudes toward these species increased by 42 and 47%, respectively. The differences in attitudes witnessed in this study may be indicative of growing concern for the welfare of animals – both wild and domestic.
Ferrar Group: Dolerite Sills and the Dufek Intrusion

During Robert Scott’s first expedition to Antarctica from 1901–1904, a group of men led by Albert Armitage and including the geologist Hartley Ferrar crossed McMurdo Sound and explored the mountains of Victoria Land. They discovered the Ferrar Glacier and ascended it to the edge of the polar plateau (Section 1.4.1). During this trip, Hartley Ferrar photographed diabase sills that intruded the Beacon sandstones and later described the geology of the region (Ferrar 1907). The diabase samples he collected plus others that were collected during Shackleton’s first expedition from 1907–1909 were later described by Prior (1907) and Benson (1916), respectively. Several other geologists worked in the ice-free valleys during Scott’s “Terra Nova” expedition, but only the report by Smith (1924) provided information about the diabase sills. That was pretty much the extent of the information on the diabase sills of southern Victoria Land until the IGY (1957/58) when several geologists from New Zealand and the USA began to map the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains. British geologists prefer the term “dolerite” for rocks which American geologists call “diabase”. We will use the British term out of respect for the New Zealand geologists who continue to work in Antarctica.
An acetyltransferase-independent function of Eso1 regulates centromere cohesion

Eukaryotes contain three essential Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes: cohesin, condensin, and Smc5/6. Cohesin forms a ring-shaped structure that embraces sister chromatids to promote their cohesion. The cohesiveness of cohesin is promoted by acetylation of N-terminal lysines of the Smc3 subunit by the acetyltransferases Eco1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the homologue, Eso1, in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In both yeasts, these acetyltransferases are essential for cell viability. However, whereas nonacetylatable Smc3 mutants are lethal in S. cerevisiae, they are not in S. pombe We show that the lethality of a temperature-sensitive allele of eso1 (eso1-H17) is due to activation of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) and is associated with premature centromere separation. The lack of cohesion at the centromeres does not correlate with Psm3 acetylation or cohesin levels at the centromeres, but is associated ith significantly reduced recruitment of the cohesin regulator Pds5. The SAC activation in this context is dependent on Smc5/6 function, which is required to remove cohesin from chromosome arms but not centromeres. The mitotic defects caused by Smc5/6 and Eso1 dysfunction are cosuppressed in double mutants. This identifies a novel function (or functions) for Eso1 and Smc5/6 at centromeres and extends the functional relationships between these SMC complexes.
Validating precision estimates in horizontal wind measurements from a Doppler lidar

Abstract. Results from a recent field campaign are used to assess the accuracy of wind speed and direction precision estimates produced by a Doppler lidar wind retrieval algorithm. The algorithm, which is based on the traditional velocity-azimuth-display (VAD) technique, estimates the wind speed and direction measurement precision using standard error propagation techniques, assuming the input data (i.e., radial velocities) to be contaminated by random, zero-mean, errors. For this study, the lidar was configured to execute an 8-beam plan-position-indicator (PPI) scan once every 12 min during the 6-week deployment period. Several wind retrieval trials were conducted using different schemes for estimating the precision in the radial velocity measurements. The resulting wind speed and direction precision estimates were compared to differences in wind speed and direction between the VAD algorithm and sonic anemometer measurements taken on a nearby 300 m tower. All trials produced qualitatively similar wind fields with negligible bias but substantially different wind speed and direction precision fields. The most accurate wind speed and direction precisions were obtained when the radial velocity precision was determined by direct calculation of radial velocity standard deviation along each pointing direction and range gate of the PPI scan. By contrast, when the instrumental measurement precision is assumed to be the only contribution to the radial velocity precision, the retrievals resulted in wind speed and direction precisions that were biased far too low and were poor indicators of data quality.
Abstract 1733: Development of chemical tools to study the endogenous Hsp70 interactome in malignant cells

Background: Heat shock protein 70 family members play an important role in cancer. They are up-regulated in wide variety of tumors and the increased Hsp70 protein expression correlates with metastases, resistance to treatment and poor prognosis. Multiple mechanisms explain cancer cells dependence on Hsp70, such as inhibition of apoptosis by Hsp70, induction of autophagy and control of stability of onco-proteins. These Hsp70 activities are mediated in cancer by its ability to chaperone and interact with a large number of proteins in a cell-specific, context dependent manner. Hypothesis: Reagents that enable the capture of tumor-specific Hsp70 complexes facilitate the identification of context-dependent Hsp70 interactomes. Results: Our laboratory recently reported the identification of a novel allosteric site located in the nucleotide binding domain of Hsp70 (Chem Biol 2013). It has also reported the discovery of ligands that bind to the allosteric pocket of Hsp70, inhibit its function in cancer cells and result in anti-cancer activity (J Med Chem 2013). Structure-activity relationship studies in this ligand series gave insights on the attachment of specific linkers for the design of Hsp70-related chemical tools. Here we present the design of Hsp70-directed reagents and use biochemical and cell-based methods to validate Hsp70-directed affinity purification probes. We demonstrate that these tools lock Hsp70 in complex with onco-client proteins and effectively isolate Hsp70 complexes for identification through biochemical techniques. Using these tools we provide proof-of-concept analyses that glimpse into the complex roles played by Hsp70 in maintaining a multitude of cell-specific malignancy-driving proteins. Significance: The knowledge derived from the use of such reagents will be extremely valuable not only to understand tumor-specific roles of Hsp70 and associated mechanisms but also to develop rational strategies for the clinical implementation of these agents to cancer treatment. They may also provide clues on the altered functional proteome in individual tumors, a quest yet elusive by today9s proteomics methods. Citation Format: Anna A. Rodina, Tony Taldone, Yanlong Kang, Pallav Patel, John Koren, Pengrong Yan, Erica DaGama Gomes, Chenghua Yang, Maulik Patel, Liza Shrestha, Stefan Ochiana, Ronnie Maharaj, Alexander Gozman, Marc Cox, Hediye Erdjument-Bromage, Ronald Hendrickson, Leandro Cerchietti, Ari Melnick, Monica Guzman, Gabriela Chiosis. Development of chemical tools to study the endogenous Hsp70 interactome in malignant cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1733. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1733
Being Wholesaled: An Investigation of Chinese International Students’ Higher Education Experiences

Using academic capitalism as a theoretical foundation, this phenomenological study examined the new study abroad experiences of Chinese college students in six popular English-speaking study destination countries—the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore. Qualitative data collected from 20 interviews indicate some hosting higher education institutions prioritize enrollment growth and neglect recruitment process and student development. Three main findings are 1) delegating recruitment to overseas agencies causes mismatches between host institutions and the Chinese students, 2) Chinese students having insufficient language skills are prone to have a dissatisfied study abroad experience, and 3) high density of student population from one country impedes Chinese students’ integration on campus. Implications for higher educational professionals, students, and faculty are presented.
Human-Centered Design Using System Modeling Language:

The human user is important to consider during system design. However, common system design models, such as the system modeling language, typically represent human users and operators as external a...
Games between humans and AIs

Various potential strategic interactions between a “strong” Artificial intelligence (AI) and humans are analyzed using simple 2 × 2 order games, drawing on the New Periodic Table of those games developed by Robinson and Goforth (The topology of the 2 × 2 games: a new periodic table. Routledge, London, 2005). Strong risk aversion on the part of the human player(s) leads to shutting down the AI research program, but alternative preference orderings by the human and the AI result in Nash equilibria with interesting properties. Some of the AI-Human games have multiple equilibria, and in other cases Pareto-improvement over the Nash equilibrium could be attained if the AI’s behavior towards humans could be guaranteed to be benign. The preferences of a superintelligent AI cannot be known in advance, but speculation is possible as to its ranking of alternative states of the world, and how it might assimilate the accumulated wisdom (and folly) of humanity.
Understanding ECH density pump-out in DIII-D H-mode plasmas

In this paper, we show that the often observed 'density pump-out' with electron cyclotron heating (ECH) (Angioni et al 2004 Nucl. Fusion 44 827, 2009 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51 124017), at low density and/or collisionality is the result of an increase in turbulence drive at the plasma edge (Angioni et al 2004 Nucl. Fusion 44 827, 2005 Phys. Plasmas 12 040701, Mordijck et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion 43 113025). Prior results were limited to comparison of steady-state conditions, before and after the ECH was applied, and thus failed to capture the dynamics of the density pump-out. In this paper, we find, similar to prior results, that when the plasma reaches a new equilibrium after ECH is applied, gyro-kinetic simulations indicate that the plasma has transitioned from the ion temperature gradient (ITG) to a trapped electron mode (TEM) regime around mid-radius. However, this transition from ITG to TEM only occures in the core after 100 ms. The pump-out on the other hand, starts immediately and is strongest around . Linear gyrokinetic simulations with TGLF show that there is an increase in turbulence drive simultaneously with the density pump-out and the doppler backscattering (DBS) measures an instant increase in density fluctuations at the same radial location. On the other hand, around mid-radius the DBS measures no increase in density fluctuations. All these calculations along with experimental measurements show that the density pump-out is not the result of a change in turbulence type (i.e. not caused by a change from ITG to TEM), but the result of a change in turbulence drive (an increase in linear growth rates), which is later followed by the ITG to TEM transition. This highlights the need for studying not just the equilibrium conditions after a transition, but also the time-dependent changes.
Demonstration and implications when 50% beam combiners can behave as 0% or 100% reflector/transmitter inside some interferometers

The purpose of this paper is to embolden students to raise basic questions regarding the feasibility of “indivisible single photon interference”. We do this by presenting experimental results of well-known classical Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) under two different conditions of beam alignment. We routinely do such experiments in our laboratories. In the first case, we align the light beams on the beam combiner (BC) with their Poynting vectors as perfectly collinear. The 50% dielectric boundary can now transmit 100% of the energy of both the beams into either one of the two MZI output ports, depending upon the relative phase between the two beams combined on the BC from the opposite directions. The dielectric boundary layer actively re-directs the energy from one beam to the other. This is pure classical superposition effect. In the second case, we combine the two beams on the BC with a small intersecting angle. Now the BC functions as a 50% beam splitter to both the beams. One can see spatial fringes as the relative phase varies with spatial distance by placing a photo detector array after the BC. At very low intensity, the quantum properties of the photo detector will become apparent because the photo electrons are discrete and are always bound quantum mechanically to its host molecular assembly; and not because light is definitely quantized. Students can learn to distinguish the pedagogical difference between the Superposition Principle (linear sum of wave amplitudes) and the Superposition Effect (square modulus of the sum of all the wave-induced stimulations) as observable intensity variations due to interaction with materials, classical or quantum.
Stochastic day ahead load scheduling for aggregated distributed energy resources

This paper presents an optimal Day-Ahead Electricity Market (DAM) bidding strategy for an aggregator leveraging a pool of residential prosumers: residential customers with local photovoltaic (PV) production and plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging flexibility. The aggregator's point-of-view differs from the social planner angle that is taken in the majority of the existing literature, mainly the aggregator is considered to be a private entity (e.g. an electricity retailer). We propose a novel approach to tackling this optimization problem, by including risk management in the objective function and chance constraints on the aggregated PEV mobility constraints. In a first step, we model local system constraints and define a stochastic optimization scheme that exploits the problem structure to distribute the objective among prosumers via dual-splitting. Dual splitting is achieved with two consensus variables: a shadow price for energy and for PEV charging. In a second step, we propose a projected gradient ascent algorithm to solve the dual problem and we prove its corresponding rate of convergence (upper-bound). Finally, we implement a case study, with a model of 100 prosumers, to illustrate the convergence rate of our algorithm. We show that we reach an acceptable level of precision with less than 50 iterations.
Security Analytics: Adapting Data Science for Security Challenges

We review the unique needs of the security domain that necessitate adaptation rather than straightforward application of data science techniques to cyber security. Subsequently, we highlight key data science approaches and best practices, which we believe are more appropriate for the security domain. Unfortunately, the uptake of these approaches and practices has not been satisfactory so far. Hence, we present our reasons and then invite more discussion on why these "seemingly better ideas" are not yet so popular as the basic ideas and techniques. We then discuss our experiences with a course on security analytics that we have been teaching for over three years now.
Representing Additive Compare (AC) Problems

Learning Outcome: Be able to represent AC word problem stories with the bar model and the PPW diagram equation Materials Needed: Diagram Part-Part-Whole (PPW) Diagram Equation for AC Overhead Modeling Modeling AC-more problem representation 1, 2, & 3 Student Worksheets Modeling AC-more problem representation 1, 2, & 3 Try It Out: AC–more problem representation 4, 5, & 6 Independent Worksheet: AC-more problem representation 7, 8, & 9 Reference Guide Reference Guide: AC-more problem representation 1–9
Algebraic K-Theory and Motivic Cohomology

The general idea of motivic cohomology as a universal cohomology theory on the category of schemes goes back to Grothendieck. But it was not until 1982 that this general idea got a precise form. Around that time Beilinson formulated his famous conjectures.
Atomism—the evidence of things not seen

Whether matter be atomic or not, this much is certain, that granting it to be atomic, it would appear as it now does.