cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Market-Based Cooperative Resource Allocation for Overlay Networks

In recent years, the notion of service overlay networks has been proposed as a promising solution for providing end-to-end QoS without changing the current Internet architecture. A major issue in deploying service overlay networks is determining how to allocate resources (such as link bandwidth) on a substrate network to overlay networks, while satisfying the end-to-end QoS requirements of applications running on each overlay network. This paper introduces the Market-based Cooperative Resource Allocation (MaCRA) architecture that achieves fair and efficient resource allocation in a decentralized manner. In MaCRA, resources on a substrate network are priced, and each overlay network provider creates an overlay network on a minimum cost basis to meet its application QoS requirements. MaCRA also allows each overlay network provider to trade their current resources with other overlay network providers when resources on a substrate network are not available or expensive. Simulation results demonstrate that MaCRA achieves fairness and efficiency in allocating resources for overlay networks when compared to existing mechanisms.
Experiment explores the dynamics of ocean mixing

In its experimental phase, the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) amassed a wealth of data about the processes that maintain and perturb the western Pacific warm pool, which is believed to be a center of action for the El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon. The COARE data are now being analyzed by five major working groups. The results from this component of the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program will make possible a much better understanding of the variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere systems on time-scales of months to years. To clarify the role of the mixing of heat and salt in the warm pool and its contributions to the ENSO mechanism, the Ocean Mixing Working Group is assessing the mechanisms for and the magnitude of vertical mixing between the upper ocean and the cooler, more saline, deep ocean. The group's work will also reveal the impact of episodic atmospheric events on the upper ocean's heat budget as well as their influence on sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the western Pacific Ocean. In particular, the group will map the spatial and temporal variation of the barrier layer and determine the processes by which it is modified and maintained.
Fear of Success: Influence of Sex, Year, and Program in College:

133 students' scores on fear of success were analyzed for influence of sex, year in college, and college program using Zuckerman and Allison's (1970) 7-point fear of success scale. As hypothesized, women scored higher on fear of success than men. However, contrary to expectations, freshmen scored higher on fear of success than seniors. No effects for college program were found. This research further explicates the decrease in scores on fear of success that have been found over the past decade. The continued use of objective methods of studying fear of success is encouraged
Distributed positioning in ad hoc networks: a Cramer-Rao bound analysis

In future applications of sensor networking technology it is envisioned that nodes would able to determine their geographical position by measuring the range differences between one another in a collaborative fashion. The aim of this paper is to provide quantitative expressions that can be used both to facilitate an understanding for why such distributed positioning works, and to assess the ultimately achievable accuracy in practice. Specifically, we compute the Cramer-Rao bound on the positioning accuracy, under different assumptions on the network synchronization. Numerical examples illustrate our results.
A novel strategy of spine defect repair with a degradable bioactive scaffold preloaded with adipose-derived stromal cells.

Abstract Background context Although the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with scaffolds for bone repair has been considered an effective method, the interactions between implanted materials and bone tissues have not been fully elucidated. At some specific sites, such as the vertebral body (VB) of the spine, the process of bone repair with implanted biomaterials is rarely reported. Recently, adipose tissue was found to be an alternative source of MSC besides bone marrow. However, the strategy of using adipose-derived stromal (ADS) cells with bioactive scaffold for the repair of spinal bone defects has seldom been studied. Purpose To use a sintered poly(lactide-co-glycolide) acid (PLGA) microspheres scaffold seeded with induced rat ADS cells to repair a bone defect of the VB in a rat model. Study design Basic science and laboratory study. Methods A sintered porous microspheres scaffold was manufactured by PLGA. ADS cells were isolated from Fischer 344 rats and then induced by osteogenic medium with growth and differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) in vitro. Before implantation, cells were cultured with inductive media for 2 weeks as a monolayer situation and 1 more week on a PLGA scaffold as a three-dimensional structure. These assembled bioactive scaffolds then were implanted in lumbar VB bone defects in Fischer 344 rats. The ex vivo differentiation of the cells was confirmed by von Kossa staining and real-time polymerase chain reaction. The performance of cells on the scaffold was detected by scanning electron microscopy and (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium) assay. In vivo bone formation was quantitatively measured by computed tomography study. And the effect of tissue repair was also evaluated by histological studies. Results Proliferation and differentiation of cells were confirmed before in vivo implantation. Quantification of bone formation in vivo through serial three-dimensional computed tomography images revealed that the VB implanted with GDF5-induced cells demonstrated more bone formation than the control groups. Besides the bone formation period that occurred between 2 and 4 weeks in all groups, a second bone formation period was found to occur only in the groups that received cells with previous induction in vitro. This second period of significant bone formation happened simultaneously with collapsing of the scaffolds. It was then demonstrated histologically that vascularization early in the process and cooperation between host bone and implanted cells accompanied by collapse of the scaffold may be the factors that influence bone formation. This study not only provides a therapeutic strategy of using biomaterial for bone repair in the spine, but also may lead to a technological method for studying the relationship between implanted stem cells and host tissue. Conclusions Adipose-derived stromal cells maintained in culture on a scaffold and treated with osteogenic induction with growth factor ex vivo could be used to enhance bone repair in vivo.
A central role for the periphery in the rapid action of cocaine on brain neurons: focus on “Rapid EEG desynchronization and EMG activation induced by intravenous cocaine in freely moving rats: a peripheral, nondopamine neural triggering”

back in the day when research in neuropharmacology was done almost exclusively on peripheral tissue, limited technology prevented sophisticated assessments of drug-induced changes in brain function. As technology improved, so did the scope of investigation, and researchers today study the brain
Progress in nemertean biology: development and phylogeny.

SYNOPSIS. This paper reviews progress in developmental biology and phylogeny of the Nemertea, a common but poorly studied spiralian taxon of considerable ecological and evolutionary significance. Analyses of reproductive biology (including calcium dynamics during fertilization and oocyte maturation), larval morphology and development and developmental genetics have significantly extended our knowledge of spiralian developmental biology. Developmental genetics studies have in addition provided characters useful for reconstructing metazoan phylogeny. Reinvestigation of the cell lineage of Cerebratulus lacteus using fluorescent tracers revealed that endomesoderm forms from the 4d cell as in other spiralians and that ectomesoderm is derived from the 3a and 3b cells as in annelids, echiurans and molluscs. Studies examining blastomere specification show that cell fates are established precociously in direct developers and later in indirect developers. Morphological characters used to estimate the phylogenetic position of nemerteans are critically re-evaluated, and cladistic analyses of morphology reveal that conflicting hypotheses of nemertean relationships result because of different provisional homology statements. Analyses that include disputed homology statements (1, gliointerstitial cell system 2, coelomic circulatory system) suggest that nemerteans form the sister taxon to the coelomate spiralian taxa rather than the sister taxon to Platyhelminthes. Analyses of small subunit rRNA (18S rDNA) sequences alone or in combination with morphological characters support the inclusion of the nemerteans in a spiralian coelomate clade nested within a more inclusive lophotrochozoan clade. Ongoing evaluation of nemertean relationships with mitochondrial gene rearrangements and other molecular characters is discussed.
The Neural Code for Motor Control in the Cerebellum and Oculomotor Brainstem

Abstract Spike trains are rich in information that can be extracted to guide behaviors at millisecond time resolution or across longer time intervals. In sensory systems, the information usually is defined with respect to the stimulus. Especially in motor systems, however, it is equally critical to understand how spike trains predict behavior. Thus, our goal was to compare systematically spike trains in the oculomotor system with eye movement behavior on single movements. We analyzed the discharge of Purkinje cells in the floccular complex of the cerebellum, floccular target neurons in the brainstem, other vestibular neurons, and abducens neurons. We find that an extra spike in a brief analysis window predicts a substantial fraction of the trial-by-trial variation in the initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements. For Purkinje cells, a single extra spike in a 40 ms analysis window predicts, on average, 0.5 SDs of the variation in behavior. An optimal linear estimator predicts behavioral variation slightly better than do spike counts in brief windows. Simulations reveal that the ability of single spikes to predict a fraction of behavior also emerges from model spike trains that have the same statistics as the real spike trains, as long as they are driven by shared sensory inputs. We think that the shared sensory estimates in their inputs create correlations in neural spiking across time and across each population. As a result, one or a small number of spikes in a brief time interval can predict a substantial fraction of behavioral variation.
Evidence for Pacific‐modulated precipitation variability during the late Holocene from the southwestern USA

[1] The mechanisms driving late Holocene drought cycles in the western United States are not well known due to the general scarcity of long-term, high-resolution, absolutely dateable proxies for precipitation in continental interiors. Here we show that late Holocene precipitation variability in the southwestern United States has been caused by changes in the Pacific Ocean. We present a stalagmite-based, annually resolved moisture record that indicates large shifts from pluvial to drought conditions alternating with periods of dampened, near-average precipitation over the last 3000 years. Significant spectral peaks at decadal-scale (∼20–50, 70–80 year) frequencies likely correspond to modern frequencies of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation or a low-frequency component of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and are dominant during episodes of large precipitation shifts. Overall pluvial conditions punctuated by severe droughts may have challenged the adaptive capacities of emerging agrarian communities of ancestral Americans.
Comparison of Oral Aspirin Versus Topical Applied Methyl Salicylate for Platelet Inhibition

Background:Oral acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) is the primary antiplatelet therapy in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction and acute coronary syndrome. Methyl salicylate (MS; oil of wintergreen) is compounded into many over-the-counter antiinflammatory muscle preparations and has been shown to inhibit platelet aggregation locally and to be absorbed systemically.Objective:To assess the ability of topically applied MS to inhibit systemic platelet aggregation for patients who are unable to tolerate oral drug therapy.Methods:A randomized, prospective, blinded, crossover study was conducted in 9 healthy men, aged 30-46 years. All subjects ingested 162 mg of aspirin or applied 5 g of 30% MS preparation to their anterior thighs. There was a minimum 2-week washout period between study arms. Blood and urine were collected at baseline and at 6 hours. An aggregometer measured platelet aggregation over time against 5 standard concentrations of epinephrine, and a mean area under the curve (AUC) was calculated....
Optimal mechanism design and money burning

Mechanism design is now a standard tool in computer science for aligning the incentives of self-interested agents with the objectives of a system designer. There is, however, a fundamental disconnect between the traditional application domains of mechanism design (such as auctions) and those arising in computer science (such as networks): while monetary "transfers" (i.e., payments) are essential for most of the known positive results in mechanism design, they are undesirable or even technologically infeasible in many computer systems. Classical impossibility results imply that the reach of mechanisms without transfers is severely limited. Computer systems typically do have the ability to reduce service quality--routing systems can drop or delay traffic, scheduling protocols can delay the release of jobs, and computational payment schemes can require computational payments from users (e.g., in spam-fighting systems). Service degradation is tantamount to requiring that users "burn money", and such "payments" can be used to influence the preferences of the agents at a cost of degrading the social surplus. We develop a framework for the design and analysis of "money-burning mechanisms" to maximize the residual surplus-the total value of the chosen outcome minus the payments required. Our primary contributions are the following. * We define a general template for prior-free optimal mechanism design that explicitly connects Bayesian optimal mechanism design, the dominant paradigm in economics, with worst-case analysis. In particular, we establish a general and principled way to identify appropriate performance benchmarks in prior-free mechanism design. * For general single-parameter agent settings, we characterize the Bayesian optimal money-burning mechanism. * For multi-unit auctions, we design a near-optimal prior-free money-burning mechanism: for every valuation profile, its expected residual surplus is within a constant factor of our benchmark, the residual surplus of the best Bayesian optimal mechanism for this profile. * For multi-unit auctions, we quantify the benefit of general transfers over money-burning: optimal money-burning mechanisms always obtain a logarithmic fraction of the full social surplus, and this bound is tight.
Prevalence of infection in ticks submitted to the human tick test kit program of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.

In 1997, ticks removed from humans and received alive by the Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM) were tested for pathogens by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thirty-three of 222 (15%) Amblyomma americanum (L.) DNAs produced amplicons of the expected size of Ehrlichia chaffeensis Anderson, Dawson & Wilson and 26/222 (12%) produced amplicons indicating Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigalt & Brenner. Five (2%) appeared to be co-infected with both organisms. Thirteen of 308 (4%) Dermacentor variabilis (Say) were PCR-positive for spotted fever group rickettsiae. Restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis indicated all were Rickettsia montana. One hundred twenty-seven D. variabilis from Monroe County, WI, were tested for B. burgdorferi and 14 (11%) were positive. Five of 24 (21%) Ixodes scapularis Say were positive for B. burgdorferi and one (2%) was positive for the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Different species of ticks transmit different pathogens, and most tick-borne diseases have similar early symptoms, therefore knowing the species and infection status of the tick enhances the physician's ability to consider tick-borne agents as a potential cause of disease and recommend appropriate therapy. Ongoing surveillance of the vector species of human diseases provides an additional estimate of human encounters with infected ticks, and testing ticks removed from humans may increase our knowledge of the vector status of tick species for transmitting tick-borne pathogens.
Impact of Combining Planting Date and Chemical Control to Reduce Larval Densities of Stem-Infesting Pests of Sunflower in the Central Plains

Abstract The guild of stem-infesting insect pests of sunflower, Helianthus annuus L., within the central Plains is a concern to producers chiefly due to losses caused by plant lodging from the sunflower stem weevil, Cylindrocopturus adspersus (LeConte) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and Dectes texanus texanus LeConte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). The incidence of a root boring moth, Pelochrista womonana (Kearfott) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), also has increased. Experiments were conducted in three locations in Colorado and Kansas during 2001–2003 to investigate the potential of combining planting date and foliar and seed treatment insecticide applications to lower insect stalk densities of these three pests. The impact of these strategies on weevil larval parasitoids also was studied. Eight sunflower stem weevil larval parasitoid species were identified. All were Hymenoptera and included the following (relative composition in parentheses): Nealiolus curculionis (Fitch) (42.6%), Nealiolus collaris (Brues) (3.2%...
Comparisons of Localized Convection due to Localized Forcing and to Preconditioning

Although observations indicate that localization of deep convection results from oceanic preconditioning and only to a lesser extent from the gradients in the atmospheric forcing, most laboratory and numerical simulations of oceanic deep convection localize convection via the buoyancy forcing. It is as yet unclear to what extent the localized forcing simplification is representative of realistic preconditioned convection and whether conclusions drawn from analyzing the former scenario can be applied to the latter. Comparison between these two localized convection scenarios is the focus of this study. The analysis is conducted using a high-resolution, nonhydrostatic numerical model that assumes no variations in the latitudinal direction. Although this model cannot represent baroclinic instability, it represents well the violent mixing phase of chimney formation that precedes baroclinic instability. Because of the inherently different initial and boundary conditions, there is no single comparison to be made between the two scenarios; all of the comparisons, however, show that a localized forcing tends to enhance the frontal structures at the edge of the convected water mass. The authors explain these results by means of some simple analytical calculations that indicate that convection as a result of a localized forcing induces a continuous increase in the horizontal density gradient, while convection in a surface-intensified, cyclonic gyre results in a decrease in the horizontal gradient. The authors conclude that the two scenarios are not equivalent and discuss how some of the conclusions, valid for localized forcing, do not necessarily apply to the preconditioned scenario. In particular, the equilibrium state observed in localized forcing simulations, in which the lateral fluxes due to the baroclinic eddies balance the surface buoyancy loss, may not have an analog for the case of preconditioned convection.
Multivariate Study of Refuse Collection Efficiency

The principal costs for urban solid waste management are related to refuse collection. Collection efficiency and therefore costs are influenced by the method of solid waste containerization. Multivariate statistical analysis of time and motion collection data quantitatively demonstrates that some classes of refuse container are superior in terms of loading efficiency. Cost coefficients are presented to identify the relative collection efficiency of various methods for solid waste containerization. Additional analyses are performed to evaluate the impact of inclement weather and human fatigue upon collection costs. Results from this analysis demonstrated that both precipitation and fatigue can account for reduced collection efficiency. The use of certain types of refuse containers can increase collection efficiency. However, residents within inner city areas may not be willing to accept the increased costs associated with the use of such containers.
The music of pulse in the writings of Italian academic physicians (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries)

IT is well known that the belief that music is inherent in the beating of the pulse was widely held throughout the Middle Ages. Numerous brief but explicit statements of this belief, and of the associated ideas that music is present in other bodily rhythms and or in the virtues and humors can be culled from the writings on music of music theorists and encyclopedists.1 For such writers, the idea of the musicality of pulse was, of course, one specific expression of the more general notion that musical harmonies inhere in the body and soul of man. The supposed links between music and human physiology and psychology were, however, not only of interest to writers on music: as might be expected, physicians too concerned themselves with the subject.2 Moreover, certain medical writers who flourished in the north Italian studia during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries seem to have been much readier than either musical theorists or natural philosophers to provide their readers with detailed discussion of the nature of the music of pulse. The works of these physicians span nearly two hundred years of the teaching of the Italian schools and represent a fairly continuous tradition. Their views not only throw light on the concept of pulse music itself, and hence on one aspect of late medieval handling of the ancient theme of the harmonies of the universe; they also illustrate, in one small area, something
Electronic Energy Migration in Solid versus Liquid Host Matrices for Concentrated Perylenediimide Dye Solutions

In this paper, we continue our evaluation of Forster-type theories of exciton diffusion in disordered environments. The perylenediimide dye Lumogen Red is used as a donor molecule in two different liquids, CHCl 3 and dimethylformamide, and the energy transfer to the acceptor molecule Rhodamine 700 is measured using time-resolved fluorescence decays. The exciton motion is measured over Lumogen Red concentrations ranging from 1 × 10 ―4 to 5 × 10 ―2 M, and the results are compared to previous results for exciton diffusion in a solid polymer. Depending on the theoretical approach used to analyze the data, we find that the energy migration in the liquids is a factor of 2―3 faster than in the solid polymer, even after taking molecular translation into account. Measurements for a Lumogen Red concentration of 10 mM in the different host environments yield diffusion constants ranging from 2.2 to 3.1 nm 2 /ns in the liquids, as compared to 1.1―1.2 nm 2 /ns in solid poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The results in the liquids are in good agreement with theoretical predictions and numerical simulations of previous workers, while the results in solid PMMA are 2―3 times slower. This discrepancy is discussed in the context of the rapid energetic averaging present in the liquid environments but absent in the solid matrix, where unfavorable configurations and low energy trapping sites are frozen in by the static disorder.
Manipulating Spectra with DTSA-II

The previous article in this series introduced DTSA-II and provided some background information including how to configure DTSA-II for your x-ray detector and how to read spectra from disk. This article presents more basic background material. It discusses how to display and perform basic manipulations on spectra including reading the contextual properties of spectra, visualizing spectra, labeling characteristic x-ray lines, and exporting the results as publication-quality graphics. You are encouraged to follow along using DTSA-II and example spectra, which may be downloaded for free from http://www.cstl.nist.gov/div837/837.02/epq/dtsa2/index.html or equivalently http://goo.gl/MI1Ku. With this background material, we will be ready to consider more sophisticated tasks like spectrum quantification and simulation in upcoming articles.
Benefits Assessment Methodology for an Air Traffic Control Tower Advanced Automation System

†‡ ‡ ‡ § This paper presents a benefits assessment methodology for an air traffic control tower advanced automation system called the Tower Flight Data Manager (TFDM), which is being considered for development by the FAA to support NextGen operations. The standard FAA benefits analysis methodology is described, together with how it has been tailored to the TFDM application to help inform the development process and the business case for system deployment. Parts of the methodology are illustrated through data analysis and modeling, and insights are presented to help prioritize TFDM capability development. I. Introduction N air traffic control tower advanced automation system known as the Tower Flight Data Manager (TFDM) is being considered for development by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 1 . It is designed to replace the numerous standalone systems within current towers with an integrated technology suite comprising an advanced surveillance display system, an electronic flight strip/data manager system and a set of decision support tools (DSTs), as shown in Figure 1. The TFDM system is designed to provide the automation environment necessary to support future flexible airport and terminal airspace operations for Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) towers 2 . The capabilities provided by the TFDM system should enable multiple system benefits, such as better performance during severe weather and other off-nominal conditions; reduced surface delay, taxi time and fuel burn (with associated improved operational and environmental performance); and enhanced safety.
Congenital heart disease and congestive heart failure in infancy.

Congenital heart disease remains one of the most important causes of infant mortality, but it is frequently unrecognized. Although recent cardiovascular surgical developments have reduced the morta...
Current concepts in the pathogenesis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

AbstractChronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is characterized by fibrotic obstruction of the proximal pulmonary arteries, and it is believed to result from incomplete thrombus resolution after acute pulmonary embolism. While treatment for this condition with surgery and medical therapy has improved outcomes, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying CTEPH is incomplete. Numerous risk factors have been associated with the development of CTEPH, including but not limited to acquired thrombophilias and chronic inflammatory states. A minority of patients with CTEPH have an abnormal fibrin structure that may delay thrombus resolution. Recently, examination of resected scar material in patients with CTEPH has suggested that deficient angiogenesis may play a role in thrombus nonresolution, and there is increasing interest in factors that drive intravascular scar formation. An additional challenge in CTEPH research is understanding the etiology and implications of the small-vessel d...
The physiology of pregnancy. Clinical pathologic correlations. 1.

Pregnancy is a physiologic stress test during which subtle impairment of any organ system is manifested. The hepatic and gastrointestinal systems are the least affected by pregnancy, whereas the endocrine system probably undergoes the greatest stress and presents some of the most confusing test results. Only by being aware of the physiologic changes that accompany pregnancy can the physician make sound clinical judgments regarding both mother and fetus.
Capridine β (C-1748): A novel 1-nitroacridine derivative targets the cyclin dependent kinase, cdk4, and the tumor suppressor gene, p16 in prostate cancer.

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 45, 2004 3034 Aromatase inhibitors (anastrozole, letrozole, and exemestane) are considered viable alternatives to tamoxifen for breast cancer therapy because they work by blocking the conversion of androgens to estrogen in post-menopausal women. Indeed, anastrozole has been shown to be superior to tamoxifen for the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer, and letrozole is being investigated in several large adjuvant trials. However, there are concerns that like tamoxifen, patients who initially respond to aromatase inhibitors will eventually develop resistance. To address the issue of acquired resistance to aromatase inhibitors, we have developed a hormone-independent breast cancer cell line, MCF7:5C, which was originally cloned from the wild-type MCF7 cells [Jiang et al ., Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 1992., 90(1):77-86]. Using DNA quantitation and trypan blue exclusion assays, we examined the effects of E2 and the antiestrogens 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4OHT), raloxifene, and fulvestrant on the growth of MCF7:5C cells. Our results showed that while E2 treatment (1 nM) stimulated the growth of parental MCF7 cells (∼10-fold above control), it caused a dramatic reduction in the growth of MCF7:5C cells with maximum inhibition (∼90%) at day 7. 4OHT, raloxifene, and fulvestrant (at 1 μM) also reduced the growth of MCF7:5C cells (55%, 62%, and 80%, respectively), however, their inhibitory effects were less than that of E2. To investigate whether the E2-induced growth inhibition of MCF7:5C cells was due to apoptosis, analyses were performed by Annexin V-FITC/Propidium iodide and DAPI staining and confirmed by electron microscopy. Flow cytometry analysis of MCF7:5C cells revealed that apoptotic cell population increased gradually from less than 5% in vehicle control to ∼70-80% with 1 nM E2, and that this effect was almost completely blocked by the universal capase inhibitor z-VAD-FMK and fulvestrant. Interestingly, we found that fulvestrant did not induce apoptosis in MCF7:5C cells despite its ability to significantly reduce the growth of these cell, thus suggesting an alternative mechanism for its growth inhibitory effects. Furthermore, western blot analyses revealed that E2 treatment significantly reduced the levels of the anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, and Hsp27 but significantly increased the levels of Bax, Bid, and Bak (pro-apoptotic). Overall, these results show that E2 is capable of inducing apoptosis in long-term estrogen-deprived breast cancer cells and that this effect is most likely capase dependent and ER-mediated. This research was supported by the DOD grant DAMD17-001-0386 and the signal transduction grant T32CA70085.
Pointwise information guided visual analysis of time-varying multi-fields

Identification of salient features from a time-varying multivariate system plays an important role in scientific data understanding. In this work, we present a unified analysis framework based on mutual information and two of its decomposition: specific and pointwise mutual information to quantify the amount of information content between different value combinations from multiple variables over time. The pointwise mutual information (PMI), computed for each value combination, is used to construct informative scalar fields, which allow close examination of combined and complementary information possessed by multiple variables. Since PMI gives us a way of quantifying information shared among all combinations of scalar values for multiple variables, it is used to identify salient isovalue tuples. Visualization of isosurfaces on those selected tuples depicts combined or complementary relationships in the data. For intuitive interaction with the data, an interactive interface is designed based on the proposed information-theoretic measures. Finally, successful application of the proposed method on two time-varying data sets demonstrates the efficacy of the system.
Odor-Cued Bitter Taste Avoidance.

In the course of our ongoing studies of odor-cued taste avoidance (OCTA) to measure olfactory capabilities in animals, we observed that mice could rapidly learn to use the vapor of the classical bitterant quinine hydrochloride to avoid contact with the tastant. Here we expand on this observation to determine which among several compounds generally classed as bitter could be detected at a distance. Since mice were initially naive we were able to assess whether the vapors of the bitter compounds tested were innately aversive as are their tastes. CD-1 mice could readily use vapor cues from quinine hydrochloride, denatonium benzoate (DB), and 6-propyl-2-thiouracil to avoid their taste. Although mice did not hesitate to make contact with these solutions on their first exposure, they did learn to do so typically after only 1 or 2 exposures. Bilaterally bulbectomized mice did not learn or retain the ability to avoid quinine and DB solutions by vapor alone, implicating olfaction as the mode of detection. Saturated aqueous solutions of sucrose octaacetate and caffeine which are bitter to humans and some strains of mice were not aversive in our studies. The very low vapor concentrations of the 3 bitterant solutions that mice detected at a distance, suggest that impurities in the reagent grade solutions, rather than the bitter molecules themselves were the basis of detection. Implications of these findings for taste testing and the role of odor in food acceptance/rejections decisions are discussed.
Metabolic principles of persistence and pathogenicity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Metabolism was once relegated to the supply of energy and biosynthetic precursors, but it has now become clear that it is a specific mediator of nearly all physiological processes. In the context of microbial pathogenesis, metabolism has expanded outside its canonical role in bacterial replication. Among human pathogens, this expansion has emerged perhaps nowhere more visibly than for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Unlike most pathogens, M. tuberculosis has evolved within humans, which are both host and reservoir. This makes unrestrained replication and perpetual quiescence equally incompatible strategies for survival as a species. In this Review, we summarize recent work that illustrates the diversity of metabolic functions that not only enable M. tuberculosis to establish and maintain a state of chronic infection within the host but also facilitate its survival in the face of drug pressure and, ultimately, completion of its life cycle.
Southeast China Late Neolithic

relative time period: Follows the Southeast China Early Neolithic and precedes the historic period.
Beyond Lines on the CV: Faculty Applications of Their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research.

This paper reports on a study focusing on a key issue in the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The goal of our research was to examine the frequency, types, supports, and barriers for the practical application of SoTL results. In this paper we report on quantitative and qualitative results from a study assessing the level and forms of concrete applications of SoTL to improve teaching and learning. We obtained data from a self-administered questionnaire and a focus group with respondents drawn from 20 faculty/staff recipients of internal SoTL grants at a large Midwestern university as well as data from a larger survey project on SoTL with 152 faculty and staff members at the same institution. We found positive attitudes about the practical value of SoTL and that most of the faculty/staff respondents reported they regularly applied their own and/or others’ SoTL work to their teaching and students’ learning. They also reported that application is less likely at other levels (e.g., department). Supports for greater application included time, funding, collaboration, and situational factors. Finally, we provide brief, concrete examples of application.
Sequence and structural variation in the genome of the Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic (Bge) cell line

The aquatic pulmonate snail Biomphalaria glabrata is a significant vector and laboratory host for the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni, an etiological agent for the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. Much is known regarding the host-parasite interactions of these two organisms, and the B. glabrata embryonic (Bge) cell line has been an invaluable resource in these studies. The B. glabrata BB02 genome sequence was recently released, but nothing is known of the sequence variation between this reference and the Bge cell genome, which has likely accumulated substantial genetic variation in the ~50 years since its isolation. Here, we report the genome sequence of our laboratory subculture of the Bge cell line (designated Bge3), which we mapped to the B. glabrata BB02 reference genome. Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were predicted and focus was given to those SNVs that are most likely to affect the structure or expression of protein-coding genes. Furthermore, we have highlighted and validated high-impact SNVs in genes that have often been studied using Bge cells as an in vitro model, and other genes that may have contributed to the immortalization of this cell line. We also resolved representative karyotypes for the Bge3 subculture, which revealed a mixed population exhibiting substantial aneuploidy, in line with previous reports from other Bge subcultures. The Bge3 genome differs from the B. glabrata BB02 reference genome in both sequence and structure, and these are likely to have significant biological effects. The availability of the Bge3 genome sequence, and an awareness of genomic differences with B. glabrata, will inform the design of experiments to understand gene function in this unique in vitro snail cell model. Additionally, this resource will aid in the development of new technologies and molecular approaches that promise to reveal more about this schistosomiasis-transmitting snail vector.
Polarization-Filtering Negative Curvature Fibers

We design a polarization-filtering negative curvature fiber. The loss ratio between the two polarizations is more than 100. This simple design will be useful in hollow-core fiber devices that are sensitive to polarization effects.
Real-time thermomechanical property monitoring during ion beam irradiation using in situ transient grating spectroscopy

Abstract A facility for continuously monitoring the thermal and elastic performance of materials under exposure to ion beam irradiation has been designed and commissioned. By coupling an all-optical, non-contact, non-destructive measurement technique known as transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) to a 6 MV tandem ion accelerator, bulk material properties may be measured at high fidelity as a function of irradiation exposure and temperature. Ion beam energies and optical parameters may be tuned to ensure that only the properties of the ion-implanted surface layer are interrogated. This facility provides complementary capabilities to the set of facilities worldwide which have the ability to study the evolution of microstructure in situ during radiation exposure, but lack the ability to measure bulk-like properties. Here, the measurement physics of TGS, design of the experimental facility, and initial results using both light and heavy ion exposures are described. Finally, several short- and long-term upgrades are discussed which will further increase the capabilities of this diagnostic.
Improving the Thermoelectric Power Factor in 2D Single-Layer MoS 2 Using Periodic Potentials

Thermoelectric (TE) devices enable robust solid-state conversion of waste heat to electricity but their applications are still limited by relatively modest efficiency. Power factor controls the TE energy conversion efficiency of a material. A higher power factor also helps to increase the passive or electronic cooling ability. Single-layer (SL) 2-dimensional (2D) materials have been analytically shown to have higher power factors [1]. In this work, we extend our 3D model to simulate quantum transport and capture energy filtering in 2D SL $\text{MoS}_{2}$ that can improve power factor. Energy relaxation and quantum effects from periodic spatially varying potential barriers are modeled in the Wigner-Rode formalism. Our simulations show an increase in power factor in both cosine- and square-shaped barriers with the height of the potential barrier, resulting in over 30% power factor enhancement. This improvement in TE efficiency helps in the development of efficient waste-heat scavenging, body-heat-powered wearables, thermal sensors, and electronic cooling.
Salmeterol with Liver Depot Gene Therapy Enhances the Skeletal Muscle Response in Murine Pompe Disease.

Gene therapy for Pompe disease with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors has advanced into early phase clinical trials; however, the paucity of cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CI-M...
Derivation and application of a Green function propagator suitable for nonparaxial propagation over a two-dimensional domain

The goal of optical simulation is to determine the performance characteristics of an optical system from a knowledge of its physical construction and how it affects light sent through it. To produce meaningful results efficiently, two simulation approaches are available for passing light through a system, geometrical raytracing and wave optics. Within the wave optics realm, there are many techniques for determining the optical fields within a system, both numerical and analytical. A few of the numerical techniques are finite-difference, finite-element, and FFT-based; analytical techniques include modal expansions, coupled wave theory, series expansions, and Green function propagators. A propagator is a function that gives the light fields at any specified location if they are known at a source location; this is possible because the light fields, electric and magnetic, satisfy a differential equation, in the case of time harmonic fields, the Helmholtz equation. The propagator is a transfer function for the fields and often takes the form of an integral, in which case, the integrand is a product of the transfer function with the source field distribution, and the integration is performed over the source field coordinates. The integrand transfer function, also known as a Green function or propagation kernel, is a solution of the Helmholtz equation. An approximation is often used in finding a solution to the Helmholtz equation, called the paraxial approximation, in which the second derivative in the propagation direction is dropped. If no approximation is made, and all second derivatives are kept, the solution is nonparaxial. In the present paper, a Green function for the propagator of the Helmholtz equation over two-dimensional domains is derived, differing in functional form from previous work on two-dimensional propagation. An angular spectrum integral is evaluated and the resulting Green function, the propagator kernel, is a nonparaxial analytic solution of the Helmholtz equation. The propagator could be applied directly to the electric and magnetic field components; instead, it is applied to the Hertz vector components. The Hertz vector is a potential function, similar to the vector potential, defined such that the electric and magnetic fields are found by taking derivatives of it. An advantage of the Hertz vector is that only it needs be propagated, versus two, electric and magnetic, vectors. In this paper, the derived propagator is applied to Hertz vector components defined by Legendre polynomial expansions, and derivatives are taken of the propagated Hertz vector components to calculate the associated electric and magnetic fields. The Green function propagator and all field quantities produced by its application are closed form analytic expressions.
Language, Continental Philosophy of

Continental philosophy of language is a tradition of reflection on language initiated in the eighteenth century by authors such as J. G. Hamann and J. G. Herder, and later developed by W. v. Humboldt. Through the work of M. Heidegger it has extended its influence to contemporary hermeneutic philosophy (H.-G. Gadamer, K.-O. Apel, J. Habermas). All the authors of this tradition are primarily interested in the world-disclosing function of language, that is, in the question of how language shapes our experience of the world through the net of concepts that it entails. Thus they oppose the traditional view of language as a mere tool for the designation of entities given independently of language or the expression of prelinguistic thoughts. In contradistinction to this view, they consider language as constitutive of our experience of the world. But given the plurality of natural languages, this view seems immediately confronted by the problem of linguistic relativism: if speakers of different languages experience the world in genuinely different ways, how can they communicate with each other or reach shared knowledge of the world? Due to this difficulty, one of the main concerns in this tradition is to explain how understanding across different languages is possible.
Some Optimism About Enhancement.

Robert Sparrow argues that an application of Moore’s law to genetic enhancement poses a serious and underappreciated ethical problem for human enhancement (Sparrow 2019). The problem is that those ...
Paired analyses of oxygen isotope and elemental ratios within individual shells of benthic foraminifera genus Uvigerina

Abstract We compare different methodologies (in situ and bulk) for obtaining oxygen isotope (δ18O) and elemental ratios in the benthic foraminifera genus Uvigerina from ODP Site 1015, (California Margin), to assess what new information can be obtained with high-resolution in situ techniques. Specimens were prepared in epoxy mounts and exposed in cross-section such that multiple high-resolution analyses could be completed on the same shells using both Secondary Ionization Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). We also measured elemental ratio data using LA-ICP-MS depth-profile measurements on whole, uncast foraminifera and elemental ratio and δ18O with standard bulk techniques using the same species of benthic foraminifera from the same sediment sub-samples. Comparison of the data collected by the different methodologies indicates that there is a consistent offset of ~0.9 ± 0.1‰ between SIMS and bulk analysis of δ18O in these samples. The in situ laser data studied in epoxy mount is correlated with the foraminifera bulk measurements for both Mg and Sr, whereas the in situ depth-profile laser measurements of Mg and Sr from whole foraminifera are less correlated with the bulk measurements. We also observe that the intra-shell variability for each of the proxies is larger than the analytical error and does not follow chamber number. We propose that the δ18O, Mg, and Sr variability within and between single specimens at this site is linked to some combination of measurement bias, vital effects, and variable environmental conditions in the pore water where the tests were precipitated. This information can in turn be related to the regional setting of the site.