cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Enzastaurin (LY317615.HCl) dramatically enhances sensitivity to temozolomide in O6MGMT+ and O6MGMT- glioblastomas.

C211 The combination of radiation and the alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ) provides a significant survival benefit to patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common primary brain malignancy in adults (Stupp et al., NEJM , 352: 987-96, 2005). The bisindolylmaleimide, Enzastaurin (LY317615.HCl), is currently in phase I/II clinical trials for front-line treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma in combination with radiation and TMZ. Because Enzastaurin inhibits signaling through the PKC and PI3K/AKT pathways and because these pathways are often activated in tumor cells responding to oncolytics and radiation, we sought to determine whether Enzastaurin might enhance the efficacy of TMZ against glioblastomas. We now show that enzastaurin, given at clinically achievable doses, dramatically enhances TMZ- induced cell death in multiple, cultured glioblastoma cell lines including cell lines that express the repair enzyme O6-MGMT and are therefore considered to be less sensitive to the effects of TMZ. As in culture, the combination of enzastaurin + TMZ produced significantly greater tumor growth inhibition vs. vehicle control than either agent alone in multiple glioblastoma xenograft models. We therefore sought to define the mechanism for this synergy. We show that TMZ alone induces a dramatic increase in the phosphorylation of the transcription factor CREB at ser133, the key site for CREB activation. Accordingly, CREB activity as monitored by a CREB-luciferase reporter and qRT-PCR of CREB-regulated mRNAs is increased following exposure to TMZ. CREB S133 phosphorylation can be governed by both p90RSK and AKT. We show that addition of enzastaurin directly inhibits p90RSK (IC50 = 29nM) and blocks AKT activation (ser473 phosphorylation), almost completely suppressing the TMZ-mediated increase in CREB ser133 phosphorylation and CREB transcription factor activity. Collectively, these data suggest that enzastaurin enhances the efficacy of TMZ by squelching CREB activation. Further, Enzastaurin enhances the sensitivity of O6-MGMT + glioblastomas to TMZ as well, suggesting the possibility that Enzastaurin may be useful even in O6-MGMT+ GBMs.
Elasto-Plastic Analysis of Reinforced Plates

An extension of the available theories for the analysis of rectangular two-way reinforced metal deck plates into the large deflection, elasto-plastic stress region is described. A procedure is outlined which considers the yielding of the material of the reinforcing ribs caused by the combination of membrane as well as bending stress. Limit load for the procedure is achieved when full plastification of a rib is reached. The procedure uses the method of finite differences to obtain numerical solutions of the governing differential equations and to evaluate stresses. A large capacity, high speed digital computer was used in three numerical studies to test the validity of the analytical method.
UV by the fourth harmonic generation of compact side-pumped Yb:YAG laser emission

We present a compact, side pumped passively Q-switched Yb:YAG laser that was operated in a burst mode with pump durations of 2-4 ms at low duty cycles. Intra-pump pulse Q-switched pulse repetition frequencies varied from 5-20 kHz depending on the transmission of the Cr:YAG saturable absorber, which was varied from 70% to 94%. Pump duration, pulse repetition frequency and output coupler reflectivity were optimized to yield maximum Yb:YAG laser average power and laser efficiency, while providing sufficient peak intensity, typically 0.3-1 MW, to enable efficient forth harmonic generation (FHG). Pulse energies and durations were in ranges of 0.3-1.8 mJ and 1.5-7ns, respectively, dependent on the unbleached transmission of the Cr:YAG saturable absorber. We achieved an optical efficiency of greater than 15% for the Yb:YAG laser. Extra-cavity 515 nm second harmonic generation (SHG) was achieved using a 5mm long KTP crystal. The 515 nm light was then frequency doubled by focusing it into a 7mm long BBO crystal, resulting in a 15% conversion efficiency from 1030nm to 257.5 nm, with an average UV power greater than 100 mW.
Density Functional Theory for Reaction Energies: Test of Meta and Hybrid Meta Functionals, Range-Separated Functionals, and Other High-Performance Functionals

The present study compares the accuracy of 30 density functionals for four databases of reaction energies studied recently by Grimme and co-workers. For 20 of the density functionals, the calculations are new, and the calculations are compared to previous work for the other 10. We present the results in detail for 11 of the functionals and as mean unsigned errors for the others. The results presented in detail are for the seven most recent Minnesota functionals (M05-2X, M06-L, M06-HF, M06, M06-2X, M08-HX, and M08-SO), three range-separated functionals (HSE, LC-ωPBE, and ωB97X-D), and one dispersion-corrected global hybrid generalized gradient approximation (B97-D); the other functionals include five dispersion-corrected functionals and their uncorrected analogs, eight high-performing functionals on a recent catalytic-energies test, and the TPSSh functional because it is of special interest to compare its performance to that of M08-SO. Three of the four databases contain a total of 21 rearrangement reactio...
JPEG2000 for Digital Cinema

JPEG2000 is the latest international standard for image compression. It combines state-of-the-art image compression performance with a rich feature set. JPEG2000 codestreams are highly scalable. Many different image products can be extracted from a JPEG2000 codestream without decompression. For instance, lower resolution and/or lower quality imagery may be extracted from a compressed codestream of higher resolution and/or higher quality. Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) has selected JPEG2000 for future distribution of motion pictures. This selection was based in part on the fact that JPEG2000 is an open international standard that can support both 2K and 4K resolution projectors from a single codestream. The JPEG2000 feature set is discussed, followed by a high-level description of the JPEG2000 algorithm.
A Conversation with Donald Berwick on Implementing National Health Reform

Michael Birnbaum interviews Donald Berwick shortly after his departure from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about the national health care landscape. Berwick discusses the strategic vision, policy levers, operational challenges, and political significance of federal health care reform. He rejects the notion that the Affordable Care Act represents a government takeover of health care financing or service delivery but says the law's Medicaid expansion and its creation of health benefit exchanges present a "watershed moment for American federalism." Berwick argues that the solution to Medicare's cost-containment challenge lies in quality improvement. He is optimistic that accountable care organizations can deliver savings and suggests that shifting risk downstream to providers throws the health insurance model into question. Finally, looking to the future, Berwick sees a race against time to make American health care more affordable.
Re)Thinking Teacher Networking in the Russian Federation.

This article presents the findings of research in Russia on the degree to which teachers and school principals are active and how they currently network with their colleagues. It builds on the work of David Frost and John Bangs (2012) on teacher self-efficacy using a survey and semi-structured interviews with teachers and principals to collect data. It defines active teachers as those who are committed to and take pleasure from teaching both in their work with individual students and as part of a larger education community, see a personal career trajectory, and take responsibility for their own professional development. We found that the factors that indicate a teacher is more likely to be active are: age, position, size of school, opportunities to participate in decision making, frequent collaboration with others, and networking both in person and online through social networking sites. Specifically, older teachers and teachers in smaller schools are more likely to be active, as are teachers who use the ...
Toxicity of Carbonyl Sulfide to Stored Product Insects

In laboratory tests, carbonyl sulfide was toxic to 5 species of stored-product insects. At the LC 50 , the most susceptible insects in order of decreasing susceptibility were larval navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitella (Walker); adult sawtooth grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.); adult driedfruit beetle, Carpophilus hemiptems (L.), adult cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.); and adult confused flour beetle, Tribolium confusum Jacquelin duVal. Posttreatment end-point mortality was immediate for L. serricorne adults (1 d) but was delayed for O. surinamensis adults (2 d) and C. hemipterus and T. confusum adults (3 d). Susceptibilities of life stages of T. confusum, the most tolerant species of those tested, varied. The egg and pupal stages were least susceptible, requiring concentration times time products of 1,008 and 750 mg/liter/h, respectively, for a LC 99.9 during a 24-h exposure period. Based on pest toxicity, carbonyl sulfide has potential for use as a fumigant of dried fruits and nuts.
Model development for use of portable traffic signals in conjunction with pilot car operations at two-lane, two-way rural highway work zones

A portable traffic signal (PTS) system is a traffic control device designed to facilitate the movement of one-way traffic at work zones where there is a temporary lane closure. The 2009 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) provides minimal guidance for the use of PTS systems with a pilot car, flaggers, or a pilot car and flaggers. Furthermore, the MUTCD also gives minimal guidance on appropriate signal timings and the traffic volume thresholds for work zones at which a PTS system might fail, and safety could be compromised. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a model and provide guidelines for the use of PTS systems in conjunction with pilot car operations by using factors such as the roadway average annual daily traffic (AADT), length of the work zone, length of the green interval, and the pilot car's round-trip time. Over a 4-week period from August 5, 2014, to August 28, 2014, 161 h of video data were collected at four rural highway work zones in Kansas. The video field data were used to calculate the values for saturation headway and start-up lost time, which were 3.3 s and 6.0 s, respectively. The developed equations and the existing Kansas Department of Transportation policy of a maximum round-trip time for the pilot car of 15 min and a maximum pilot car speed of 40 mph were used to determine that PTS systems would fail to accommodate all traffic at and above AADTs of 7,083 vehicles per day and at a corresponding maximum green time of 446 s. Language: en
Map4k4 signaling nodes in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases

Mitogen-activated kinase kinase kinase kinase 4 (Map4k4), originally identified in small interfering (si)RNA screens and characterized by tissue-specific gene deletions, is emerging as a regulator of glucose homeostasis and cardiovascular health. Recent studies have shown that Map4k4 gene ablation or inhibition of its kinase activity attenuates hyperglycemia and plaque formation in mouse models of insulin resistance and atherosclerosis, and suggest roles for Map4k4 in multiple signaling systems, including NFκB activation, small GTPase regulation, the Hippo cascade, and regulation of cell dynamics by FERM domain proteins. This new and promising area of inquiry raises key questions that need to be addressed, such as defining which of the above or other effectors mediate Map4k4 control of metabolic and vascular functions, and identifying upstream activators of Map4k4.
Situation Investigation and Countermeasure Research on the Hospital Libraries in Guangdong Province

With "The Questionnaire of the Situation of Chinese Hospital or Medical Library" and "The Questionnaire System" made by hospital library member of China Library Association,the paper makes an intensive investigation and analysis on the hospital libraries of different levels in Guangdong Province,so as to provide reliable investigated information for the standardized and scientific construction and management of the hospital libraries in our province,and find out a developing route suitable for the hospital libraries in our province.
Dusting Off the Data: Curating and Rehabilitating Archaeological Legacy and Orphaned Collections

Archaeological projects that are described as orphaned or legacy collections are generally older materials that do not meet modern “best practice” curation standards and require considerable resources to be preserved for future research. Rehabilitation and curation of these projects allows for better inventory control of the artifacts, and accompanying documentation ensures that cultural heritage is preserved and plays an important part in the repatriation process. Procedures and methods for rehousing archaeological legacy collections are outlined. Using the 1984–1987 Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS) volunteer excavations at Redtail Village (AZ AA:12:149 [ASM]) as a case study, we propose a process for rehabilitating legacy collections and offer solutions for preserving important archaeological resources for future research.
Catching Math Problems Early: Findings From the Number Sense Intervention Project

This chapter provides an overview of a kindergarten (ie, children 5–6 years of age) number sense intervention that was developed and tested over a 4-year period. The intervention targeted core understandings of number, number relations, and number operations in high-risk learners. Over multiple trials, we obtained moderate to strong effect sizes, relative to controls, on a measure closely aligned to the intervention topics (ie, a number sense brief screener) as well as on a test of mathematics calculation achievement. Many of the gains were still present 2 months after the intervention ended. Catching number sense weaknesses early positions children for later success in formal mathematics.
Generation of Painting Data: J. Peterson, L. Dzuris and Q. Peterson

In this chapter, painting data in the form of sad, happy and neutral emotional labellings is developed. There is a careful discussion of how this data was designed and then developed. This data is then used with a special matrix called a Wurfelspiel matrix to construct as much emotionally labeled visual data as desired. This data can then be used in a brain model to train visual cortex.
Visual Assessment of Sulfate Reduction to Identify Hydric Soils

Some hydric soils present a unique set of problems associated with their identification, including morphological features not reflective of current hydrology and/or masked redoximorphic features. A simple, reliable tool to identify reduced soil environments is IRIS (Indicator of Reduction in Soil) tubes and panels. In saturated, anaerobic soils with substantial sulfur (S) contents, a commonly observed phenomenon is the reduction of S to form black iron monosulfides (FeS). The objective of this experiment was to document S reduction on polyvinylchloride surfaces coated with synthesized iron (Fe) oxides to simplify the identification of hydric soils wetlands containing moderate to high S concentrations. The IRIS panels were installed in soil mesocosms containing varying concentrations of sulfate and saturated for 11 wk. Oxidation–reduction potential and pH were measured weekly throughout the study. At the termination of the experiment, the IRIS panels were removed and analyzed quantitatively for percentage of oxidized iron (Fe³⁺) remaining, reduced iron (Fe²⁺) removed, and reduced S (FeS) precipitated onto the panel. When IRIS panels displayed 2% FeS precipitate, 77% of the panels met the National Technical Committee for Hydric Soil criteria using reduced Fe removal from IRIS panels, and 100% of the panels met the criteria established using measured oxidation–reduction potential. The strong visual observation of FeS is a simple, quick determination of highly reduced conditions. Wetlands are a valuable natural resource that can be challenging to delineate, and the incorporation of a visual S reduction criteria on IRIS surfaces is beneficial for the timely and accurate identification of hydric soils.
Physics-based switching model for Cu/SiO 2 /W quantum memristor

Memristive devices are leading candidates for realizing next generation non-volatile memory [1] and brain-inspired neuromorphic computing systems [2]. However, most of these devices operate at high voltages (1–3 V) and require 100s of μA for programming. We recently demonstrated a Cu/SiO 2 /W memristor device, exhibiting half-integer quantum conductance states at room temperature and sub-300 mV switching [3]. In this paper we develop a physics based model for this device, capturing the observed experimental programming characteristics including its switching response, conductance quantization, and pulse response.
Development of new kind of GRPC for a semi-digital hadronic calorimeter

A new concept of high granularity hadronic calorimeter using thin Glass Resistive Plate Chambers (GRPCs) as sensitive medium with embedded semi-digital readout elec­tronics is under development within the CALICE collaboration. CALICE calorimeters are intended to be used in the future linear collider experiments. To validate this new concept a prototype of 1 m is being conceived. Several GRPCs as large as 1 m were built with a new design, reducing the dead zones and improving the gas distribution system. The GRPCs were tested with an electronics board of the same size. A readout board containing 144 64-channel ASICs was conceived and built for this purpose.
The effects of Gamification on engineering lab activities

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of gamification on engineering lab activities by providing empirical evidence of the effect of gamification on students working in an engineering lab. Although gamification has been applied in several contexts including business, marketing, corporate management, and online communities and social networks, little research has been conducted on the application of gamification to engineering lab activities, nor is there empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of gamification at motivating and engaging students. For this study, two types of websites were created to collect data from students who enrolled an undergraduate introduction to human factors course taught at The Pennsylvania State University in the fall of 2015 semester. The two types of websites were Gamification (GM) and Non-Gamification (NG). While the GM website included game elements such as a Badge System, Score, Avatar, Leaderboard, Level, and Feedback (Notification), the NG website was a traditional website without game elements. In these websites, students could create their own multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and answer questions authored by classmates. The results suggest that the gamification of engineering lab activities had a positive effect in terms of motivation, engagement, and performance, indicated by the higher number of students who joined the GM website, the number of answers submitted by the GM group, the number of distinct days of participation, and the score of exam for the GM group. Thus, we can conclude that a positive effect of gamification on student learning in engineering lab activities was ultimately found.
Advances in 3D Numerical Simulation of Viscous and Viscoelastic Mixing Flows

Mixing of highly viscous and viscoelastic fluids like wheat flour dough, pastes, batters, and syrups is often encountered in the food industry. Study of the design of mixing equipment is aimed at achieving optimal mixing of the material, providing guidelines for scale-up and comparison of batch and continuous process equipment. Recent advances in numerical simulation techniques and availability of commercial computational fluid dynamics software have provided cost-effective and nonintrusive techniques for analyzing and visualizing the mixing ability in batch and continuous mixing devices of various geometries. Specifically, the finite element method (FEM) has been widely used to analyze viscous flow mixing in the laminar regime. A review of recent work analyzing the batch and continuous mixing of viscous and viscoelastic fluids using numerical simulations has been presented. While the simulation of flow and mixing for fluids of relatively simple rheological character (viscous Newtonian and non-Newtonian) has been done for complex geometries at a 3D level, there is a need for further work in simulating the mixing of more complex viscoelastic fluid models in full-scale continuous mixer geometries.
Neoadjuvant therapy preceding cytoreductive nephrectomy to develop individualized first-line therapy with everolimus for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

TPS4678 Background: Everolimus (E), an orally administered mTOR inhibitor, is the conventional agent for progressive disease following vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors for advan...
Air-Breathing Hypersonic Flight Control 1

Abstract A key issue in making air-breathing hypersonic flight feasible and efficient is the control design. The unique dynamic characteristics of air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicles together with the aerodynamic effects of hypersonic flight make this issue challenging. Moreover the hypersonic speed and the lack of broad flight databases add significant plant parameter variations and uncertainties to the control design problem. In this paper, we first review and critique the existing approaches to this problem. Then, we propose a new control design direction to address some of the shortcomings of the existing designs. Our new approach is based on use of time varying triangular plant models and robust nonlinear and adaptive controllers that have been recently developed for such models.
Fifty years of mentoring and advising.

Advancement of science depends on thoughtfully mentoring a rare group of scientists that are highly educated, creative, and motivated—and that come from every country in the world. On the basis of ...
Total Syntheses of (−)-Majucin and (−)-Jiadifenoxolane A, Complex Majucin-Type Illicium Sesquiterpenes

We report the first chemical syntheses of both (−)-majucin and (−)-jiadifenoxolane A via 10 net oxidations from the ubiquitous terpene (+)-cedrol. Additionally, this approach allows for access to other majucin-type sesquiterpenes, like (−)-jiadifenolide, (−)-jiadifenin, and (−)-(1R,10S)-2-oxo-3,4-dehydroxyneomajucin (ODNM) along the synthetic pathway. Site-selective aliphatic C(sp3)-H bond oxidation reactions serve as the cornerstone of this work which offers access to highly oxidized natural products from an abundant and renewable terpene feedstock.
Informational environments and the relative information content of analyst recommendations and insider trades

Abstract Analysts and insiders increase price informativeness by revealing new information to financial markets, and prior work has shown that these parties hold both firm-specific and aggregate information. This study examines how the level of informational efficiency with respect to a stock price's firm and industry-level information environment can differently mediate the information content of analyst recommendations and insider trades. I find that (1) the decrease in information revealed by insider trades is larger than that from analyst recommendations when a stock's price is more efficient with respect to firm-specific information, while (2) the increase in information revealed by analyst recommendations is larger than that from insider trades when a stock's price is less efficient with respect to industry-level information. Taken together, my results indicate that analysts (insiders) may have relative informational expertise with regards to industry (firm) information, and that both appear to rely on their specific expertise when informing prices.
Soft Law and Nanotechnology: A Functional Perspective

Whether and how to regulate nanotechnology is debated widely. While ad hoc bits of regulation shuffle forward, a comprehensive response eludes us. Some advocate using new governance approaches, seeking to transform regulation from an agency-centric exercise to a collaborative undertaking by actors from multiple segments of society. One central aspect of this new governance is reliance upon “soft law” approaches to regulation. In the area of nanotechnology particularly, numerous commentators have proposed a variety of soft law mechanisms. Yet the concept of soft law is fuzzy in terms of its definition, specific functions and optimal uses. This article addresses that fuzziness in two ways. First, it provides a definition of soft law informed by the four functions soft law serves: the precursive, normative, directive and complementary functions. Second, it comments upon the usefulness of soft law with respect to each of those functions in the specific context of nanotechnology.
Early Diagnosis of HIV Infection in the Breastfed Infant

More than 90% of the 370,000 pediatric human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections globally in 2009 were acquired through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) [1], and most of these transmissions occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. MTCT of HIV-1 occurs either during late pregnancy, the intrapartum period, or breastfeeding [2, 3]. With the application of prophylactic antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and breastfeeding avoidance, MTCT is now observed in only 1–2% of at-risk infants in developed countries [4, 5]. The majority of pregnant women residing in high HIV-burden, resource-limited countries (RLCs) are still not aware of their infection status and do not receive timely intervention measures to prevent vertical transmission [6–11]. Untreated infected infants have high HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Approximately 33% of the untreated infected infants in RLCs die during their first year of life, and >50% die within their first 2 years [12]. Treating infants early greatly reduces mortality and morbidity [13]. Recognition of the importance of reducing infant HIV mortality has facilitated the development of methods to bring appropriate testing closer to pregnant and lactating mothers, to identify HIV-infected infants earlier, and to provide timely access to life-saving ARV treatment and care. New and accurate diagnostic methods have emerged in the last few years, and many of these methods have been field-validated. This diagnostic service should not comprise a stand-alone program but must be integrated into the overall mother and child health programs to achieve the goal of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) [14, 15]. In this chapter, we review currently available diagnostic methodologies, including their advantages and disadvantages, their testing algorithms, and their quality assurance requirements, with a particular focus on early HIV diagnosis in the breastfed infant. Further, we discuss efforts toward the development of simple, accurate, and rapid diagnostic applications.
Adversarial Text Generation Without Reinforcement Learning.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have experienced a recent surge in popularity, performing competitively in a variety of tasks, especially in computer vision. However, GAN training has shown limited success in natural language processing. This is largely because sequences of text are discrete, and thus gradients cannot propagate from the discriminator to the generator. Recent solutions use reinforcement learning to propagate approximate gradients to the generator, but this is inefficient to train. We propose to utilize an autoencoder to learn a low-dimensional representation of sentences. A GAN is then trained to generate its own vectors in this space, which decode to realistic utterances. We report both random and interpolated samples from the generator. Visualization of sentence vectors indicate our model correctly learns the latent space of the autoencoder. Both human ratings and BLEU scores show that our model generates realistic text against competitive baselines.
Avoiding Late Preemption with the Right Kind of Influence

David Lewis championed a counterfactual account of causation, but counterfactual accounts have a notoriously difficult time handling cases of late preemption. These are cases in which we still count one event as the cause of another although the effect does not depend on the cause in the way taken to be necessary by the account. Lewis recognized these cases, but they have been shown to be problematic even for his final analysis of causation, the Influence Account. In this paper, I show how these cases led to and remain a problem for Lewis’s Influence Account, and I give a new counterfactual account available to a Lewisian that can handle late preemption cases. What is crucial to my account is that a cause not merely has counterfactual influence over its effects, but that the cause has influence of the right kind. I conclude by arguing that even if problems remain with this account, they will not be problems of late preemption, and the problems stemming from other kinds of cases will be no worse for my account than for other counterfactual accounts.
A study of laser-induced surface defects in silicon and impact on electrical properties

Laser processing of silicon solar cells has unique advantages that offer the potential for low-cost high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. The understanding, monitoring, and control of laser-induced defects in silicon become important challenges that limit photovoltaic efficiency. In this work, the fundamental investigation of laser-induced defects was achieved by identifying defect types and origins at different laser-fluence regimes, assessing defect concentrations, and evaluating their impact on surface electrical properties and photovoltaic device performance. Studies showed that below laser melting, little degradation of electrical properties is observed, but no defects are identified; between laser melting and ablation, point defects and oxygen incorporation mainly occur; above laser ablation, dislocations and strain are primarily generated. Laser-induced dislocation density and strain are found likely to increase exponentially with laser fluence, and laser-induced strain is identified to be a possible major source of dislocation generation. In order to understand carrier recombination and charge transport in laser-processed silicon surface, we quantified the drift mobility, conductivity, carrier lifetime, and leakage current at various laser fluences and dislocation levels. The laser-defect induced degradation of surface electrical properties is governed by a probable exponential relationship with laser fluence, suggesting that laser-processing fluences near silicon melting should be carefully chosen for minimizing induced defects and electrical property degradation. Finally, the control of laser-induced defects was demonstrated through laser or furnace post annealing of laser-processed solar cell devices. After two laser-annealing steps, the open circuit voltage, fill factor, series resistance, and shunt resistance were significantly improved, resulting in an increased photovoltaic efficiency.
Utilitarianism: The Distinctive Motif of American Higher Education:

Higher education in America is widely regarded as an institution without a design or character of its own. The Colonial period is generally thought to have been an exception, for then education was...
Improving MPI Reduction Performance for Manycore Architectures with OpenMP and Data Compression

MPI reductions are widely used in many scientific applications and often become the scaling performance bottleneck. When performing reductions on vectors, different algorithms have been developed to balance messaging overhead and bandwidth. However, most implementations have ignored the effect of single-thread performance not scaling as fast as aggregate network bandwidth. In this work, we propose, implement, and evaluate two approaches (threading and exploitation of sparsity) to accelerate MPI reductions on large vectors when running on manycore-based supercomputers. Our benchmark results show that our new techniques improve the MPI_Reduce performance up to $\mathbf{4}\times$ and improve BIGSTICK application performance by up to $\mathbf{2.6}\times$ .
Evidence Regarding the Use of Bubble Continuous Positive Airway Pressure in the Extremely Low Birth-Weight Infant: Benefits, Challenges, and Implications for Nursing Practice.

Background:Gentle ventilation with optimal oxygenation is integral to prevention of chronic lung disease in the extremely low birth-weight (ELBW) infant. Various types of noninvasive ventilation are used in neonatal intensive care units worldwide. Bubble continuous positive airway pressure (BCPAP) h
Expanding Genetic Code Expansion through Resource Facilities, Workshops, and Conferences

Genetic Code Expansion (GCE) enables the encoding of amino acids with diverse chemical properties. This approach has tremendous potential to advance biological discoveries in basic research, medical, and industrial settings. Given the multiple technical approaches and the associated research activities used to achieve GCE, herein we have taken the opportunity to describe ongoing out-reach efforts in the GCE community. These include Resource Facilities that nucleate expertise and reagents within a specific GCE discipline, hands-on Workshops to provide GCE training, and GCE Conferences which bring the community together in a collegial setting. The overall goal of these activities is to accelerate the integration of GCE approaches into more research settings and to facilitate solutions to common technical hurdles.
The acoustic world of odontocete biosonar and technical sonar

Bats, toothed whales (odontocetes), and man-made sonar all use the same acoustical principles of echo-location. The fundamental components of these systems include transmitter frequency response, tailored waveforms, properties of a propagation medium, clutter, background noise, target strength, and receiver properties. Across all of these elements, there are very large differences (i.e., underwater versus in-air propagation). This gives rise to several interesting questions about the performance of these sonar systems. For example, given the bandwidth and duration of transmitted signals for bats and odontocetes, what are the relative target strengths/maximum imparted Doppler shifts for common prey types? How does the ambiguity function of the echo compare to these target sizes and relative Doppler shifts? What effect does the medium has and how do these systems adapt to clutter, interferers, and noise? This talk will focus on the underwater aspects of these systems which include (i) the properties of the underwater propagation medium, (ii) the geometry and material of the boundaries that limit the underwater propagation channel (this includes targets of interest and clutter), and (iii) the time-frequency and spatial properties of the underwater sources.Bats, toothed whales (odontocetes), and man-made sonar all use the same acoustical principles of echo-location. The fundamental components of these systems include transmitter frequency response, tailored waveforms, properties of a propagation medium, clutter, background noise, target strength, and receiver properties. Across all of these elements, there are very large differences (i.e., underwater versus in-air propagation). This gives rise to several interesting questions about the performance of these sonar systems. For example, given the bandwidth and duration of transmitted signals for bats and odontocetes, what are the relative target strengths/maximum imparted Doppler shifts for common prey types? How does the ambiguity function of the echo compare to these target sizes and relative Doppler shifts? What effect does the medium has and how do these systems adapt to clutter, interferers, and noise? This talk will focus on the underwater aspects of these systems which include (i) the properties of the ...
FlexLION: A Reconfigurable All-to-All Optical Interconnect Fabric with Bandwidth Steering

We demonstrate an all-to-all interconnect fabric with bandwidth steering by wavelength routing, wavelength add/drop filtering and spatial switching. We report a proof-of-concept experiment and demonstrate scalability up to 32 ports with aggregated bandwidth of 51.2 Tb/s under worst-case crosstalk. © 2019 The Author(s)
The Effectiveness of Concept Maps for Students’ Learning and Retention

The active learning literature has greatly expanded over the past few years. This article investigates the utility of employing concept map activities in a medium-sized class, and whether or not it...
DC and RF Variability of SiGe HBTs Operating Down to Deep Cryogenic Temperatures

We present measurement results of commercially-available 90-nm SiGe HBTs at 300 K, 78 K, and 7 K. The data reveal increased variability of SiGe HBTs at 78 K and 7 K compared to that at 300 K. The variation of collector current, base current, and DC current gain (β) increase from 5% at 300 K to 50% at 7 K around the average measured values. Transconductance (g m ) variation increases from 0.6% at 300 K to 5% at 7 K. Peak f T variation increases from 2.6% to 7.1%, while the f T at low injection increases from 1.8% at 300 K to 24.9% at 7 K. Increased variability is observed at lower injection levels at 78 K and 7 K and DC parameters tend to have more variation than RF parameters. The implications of increased variability for circuit designs supporting emerging cryogenic applications such as quantum computing are discussed.
Targeted Gold Nanoparticles as an Indicator of Mechanical Damage in an Elastase Model of Aortic Aneurysm.

Elastin is a key structural protein and its pathological degradation deterministic in aortic aneurysm (AA) outcomes. Unfortunately, using current diagnostic and clinical surveillance techniques the integrity of the elastic fiber network can only be assessed invasively. To address this, we employed fragmented elastin-targeting gold nanoparticles (EL-AuNPs) as a diagnostic tool for the evaluation of unruptured AAs. Electron dense EL-AuNPs were visualized within AAs using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and the corresponding Gold-to-Tissue volume ratios quantified. The Gold-to-Tissue volume ratios correlated strongly with the concentration (0, 0.5, or 10 U/mL) of infused porcine pancreatic elastase and therefore the degree of elastin damage. Hyperspectral mapping confirmed the spatial targeting of the EL-AuNPs to the sites of damaged elastin. Nonparametric Spearman’s rank correlation indicated that the micro-CT-based Gold-to-Tissue volume ratios had a strong correlation with loaded (ρ = 0.867, p-val = 0.015) and unloaded (ρ = 0.830, p-val = 0.005) vessel diameter, percent dilation (ρ = 0.976, p-val = 0.015), circumferential stress (ρ = 0.673, p-val = 0.007), loaded (ρ = − 0.673, p-val = 0.017) and unloaded (ρ = − 0.697, p-val = 0.031) wall thicknesses, circumferential stretch (ρ = − 0.7234, p-val = 0.018), and lumen area compliance (ρ = − 0.831, p-val = 0.003). Likewise, in terms of axial force and axial stress vs. stretch, the post-elastase vessels were stiffer. Collectively, these findings suggest that, when combined with CT imaging, EL-AuNPs can be used as a powerful tool in the non-destructive estimation of mechanical and geometric features of AAs.
Crystal structures of a series of bis-(acetyl-aceto-nato)oxovanadium(IV) complexes containing N-donor pyridyl ligands.

Crystal structures for a series of bis­(acetyl­acetonato)oxovanadium(IV) complexes containing N-donor pyridyl ligands are reported, namely, bis­(acetyl­acetonato-κ2O,O′)oxido(pyridine-κN)vanadium(IV), [V(C5H7O2)2O(C5H5N)], 1, bis­(acetyl­acetonato-κ2O,O′)oxido(pyridine-4-carbo­nitrile-κN)vanadium(IV), [V(C5H7O2)2O(C6H4N2)], 2, and bis­(acetyl­acetonato-κ2O,O′)(4-meth­oxy­pyridine-κN)oxidovanadium(IV), [V(C5H7O2)2O(C6H7NO)], 3, Compounds 1–3 have the formulae VO(C5H7O2)2L, where L = pyridine (1), 4-cyano-pyridine (2), and 4-meth­oxy­pyridine (3). Compound 1 was previously reported [Meicheng et al. (1984). Kexue Tongbao, 29, 759–764 and DaSilva, Spiazzi, Bortolotto & Burrow (2007). Acta Crystallogr., E63, m2422] and redetermined here at cryogenic temperatures. Compounds 1 and 2 as pyridine and 4-cyano­pyridine adducts, respectively, crystallize as distorted octa­hedral structures with the oxo and pyridyl ligands trans to one another. A crystallographic twofold axis runs through the O—V—N bonds. Compound 3 containing a 4-meth­oxy­pyridine ligand crystallizes as a distorted octa­hedral structure with the oxo and pyridyl ligands cis to one other, removing the twofold symmetry seen in the other complexes.
Thomas More on Tyranny in the History of Richard III

Thomas More on tyranny in the History of Richard III. While Erasmus avoided the active political life, his English friend, More, accepted it and held high office (to his peril). More’s portrait of Richard III shows a man who betrays, murders, and corrupts (an “election” in London), before being killed at the Battle of Bosworth Fields.
Characterization of G-CSF receptor expression in medulloblastoma.

Author(s): Paul, Megan Rose; Huo, Yuchen; Liu, Andrea; Lesperance, Jacqueline; Garancher, Alexandra; Wechsler-Reya, Robert J; Zage, Peter E | Abstract: BackgroundIdentifying mechanisms of medulloblastoma recurrence is a key to improving patient survival, and targeting treatment-resistant subpopulations within tumors could reduce disease recurrence. Expression of the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor receptor (G-CSF-R, CD114) is a potential marker of cancer stem cells, and therefore we hypothesized that a subpopulation of medulloblastoma cells would also express CD114 and would demonstrate chemoresistance and responsiveness to G-CSF.MethodsPrevalence of CD114-positive (CD114+) cells in medulloblastoma cell lines, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors, and primary patient tumor samples were assessed by flow cytometry. Growth rates, chemoresistance, and responses to G-CSF of CD114+ and CD114-negative (CD114-) cells were characterized in vitro using continuous live cell imaging and flow cytometry. Gene expression profiles were compared between CD114+ and CD114- medulloblastoma cells using quantitative RT-PCR.ResultsCD114+ cells were identifiable in medulloblastoma cell lines, PDX tumors, and primary patient tumors and have slower growth rates than CD114- or mixed populations. G-CSF accelerates the growth of CD114+ cells, and CD114+ cells are more chemoresistant. The CD114+ population is enriched when G-CSF treatment follows chemotherapy. The CD114+ population also has higher expression of the CSF3R, NRP-1, TWIST1, and MYCN genes.ConclusionsOur data demonstrate that a subpopulation of CD114+ medulloblastoma cells exists in cell lines and tumors, which may evade traditional chemotherapy and respond to exogenous G-CSF. These properties invite further investigation into the role of G-CSF in medulloblastoma therapy and methods to specifically target these cells.
PSIG-GAN: A Parameterized Synthetic Image Generator Optimized via Non-Differentiable GAN

Deep convolutional neural networks have been successfully deployed by large, well-funded teams, but their wider adoption is often limited by the cost and schedule ramifications of their requirement for massive amounts of labeled data. We address this problem through the use of a parameterized synthetic image generator. Our approach is particularly novel in that we have been able to fine tune the generator’s parameters through the use of a generative adversarial network. We describe our approach, and present results that demonstrate its potential benefits. We demonstrate the PSIG-GAN by creating images for training a DCNN to detect the existence and location of weeds in lawn grass.
Physical Structure and Nature of Supernova Remnants in M101

Supernova remnant (SNR) candidates in the giant spiral galaxy M101 have been previously identified from ground-based H-alpha and [SII] images. We have used archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) H-alpha and broad-band images as well as stellar photometry of 55 SNR candidates to examine their physical structure, interstellar environment, and underlying stellar population. We have also obtained high-dispersion echelle spectra to search for shocked high-velocity gas in 18 SNR candidates, and identified X-ray counterparts to SNR candidates using data from archival observations made by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Twenty-one of these 55 SNR candidates studied have X-ray counterparts, although one of them is a known ultra-luminous X-ray source. The multi-wavelength information has been used to assess the nature of each SNR candidate. We find that within this limited sample, ~16% are likely remnants of Type Ia SNe and ~45% are remnants of core-collapse SNe. In addition, about ~36% are large candidates which we suggest are either superbubbles or OB/HII complexes. Existing radio observations are not sensitive enough to detect the non-thermal emission from these SNR candidates. Several radio sources are coincident with X-ray sources, but they are associated with either giant HII regions in M101 or background galaxies. The archival HST H-alpha images do not cover the entire galaxy and thus prevents a complete study of M101. Furthermore, the lack of HST [SII] images precludes searches for small SNR candidates which could not be identified by ground-based observations. Such high-resolution images are needed in order to obtain a complete census of SNRs in M101 for a comprehensive investigation of the distribution, population, and rates of SNe in this galaxy.
Uncovering Host-microbiome Interactions in Global Systems with Collaborative Programming: A Novel Approach Integrating Social and Data Sciences [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

Microbiome data are undergoing exponential growth powered by rapid technological advancement. As the scope and depth of microbiome research increases, cross-disciplinary research is urgently needed for interpreting and harnessing the unprecedented data output. However, conventional research settings pose challenges to much-needed interdisciplinary research efforts due to barriers in scientific terminologies, methodology and research-culture. To breach these barriers, our University of South Florida OneHealth Codeathon was designed to be an interactive, hands-on event that solves real-world data problems. The format brought together students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, and clinicians in a uniquely cross-disciplinary, team-focused setting. Teams were formed to encourage equitable distribution of diverse domain-experts and proficient programmers, with beginners to experts on each team. To unify the intellectual framework, we set the focus on the topics of microbiome interactions at different scales from clinical to environmental sciences, leveraging local expertise in the fields of genetics, genomics, clinical data, and social and geospatial sciences. As a result, teams developed working methods and pipelines to face major challenges in current microbiome research, including data integration, experimental power calculations, geospatial mapping, and machine-learning classifiers. This broad, transdisciplinary and efficient workflow will be an example for future workshops to deliver useful data-science products.
Socialization and Perceptions of Individuals

As has been widely discussed throughout this book, communication between sport organizations and their employees is a critical but challenging process. We’ve also discussed the importance of organizational culture in defining the organization’s identity, as well as the role person-organization fit plays in helping employees determine if their values are in line with those of their employer. This chapter explores how each of those topics relates to how sport organizations socialize new employees into the organization. Specifically, we’ll examine how organizations communicate with new employees and how new employees search for and perceive information about their workplace. The chapter ends with a brief discussion on psychological contracts between sport employees and sport organizations.