cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Transcription factor foxq1 controls mucin gene expression and granule content in mouse stomach surface mucous cells.

Background & Aims: The gastric mucosa provides a stringent epithelial barrier and produces acid and enzymes that initiate digestion. In this regenerating tissue, progenitors differentiate continually into 4 principal specialized cell types, yet underlying mechanisms of differentiation are poorly understood. We identified stomach-restricted expression of the forkhead transcription factor FOXQ1. Methods: We used a combination of genetic, histochemical, ultrastructural, and molecular analysis to study gastric cell lineages with respect to FOXQ1. Results: Within the developing and adult gastrointestinal tract, Foxq1 messenger RNA (mRNA) is restricted to the stomach and expressed predominantly in foveolar (pit) cells, the abundant mucin-producing cells that line the mucosal surface. Mice carrying Foxq1 coding mutations show virtual absence of mRNA and protein for the backbone of the major stomach mucin MUC5AC. These observations correspond to a paucity of foveolar cell secretory vesicles and notable loss of stomach but not intestinal mucus. Transcriptional profiling identified a surprisingly restricted set of genes with altered expression in Foxq1 mutant stomachs. MUC5AC is a highly tissue-restricted product that similarly depends on FOXQ1 in its other major site of expression, conjunctival goblet cells. Conclusions: Taken together, these observations imply that promotion of gastric MUC5AC synthesis is a primary, cell-autonomous function of FOXQ1. This study is the first to implicate a transcription factor in terminal differentiation of foveolar cells and begins to define the requirements to assemble highly specialized organelles and cells in the gastric mucosa.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 derived peptide, EEIIMD, diminishes cortical infarct but fails to improve neurological function in aged rats following middle cerebral artery occlusion.

Abstract Age is a primary risk factor in stroke that is often overlooked in animal studies. We contend that using aged animals yields insight into aspects of stroke injury and recovery that are masked, or not elicited, in younger animals. In this study, we examined effects of co-administration of a plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 derived peptide, Glu-Glu-Iso-Iso-Met-Asp (EEIIMD), with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) on infarct volume and functional outcome in aged rats following a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Results of our study showed aged (18–20 months) rats treated with EEIIMD along with tPA had reduced cortical infarction volume. However, aged rats showed no improvement in total infarction volume, edema formation, or functional outcome as compared to aged rats administered only tPA. Young adult rats (3–4 months) treated with EEIIMD showed significant improvement in cortical and total infarction volumes, edema formation, and functional outcome. Striatal infarction volume was unaffected by EEIIMD treatment in both young adult and aged rats. These findings emphasize that physiological differences exist between young adult and aged rats and suggest that taking aging processes into account when assessing stroke may improve our ability to discern which therapeutics can be translated from bench to bedside.
EPRI-developed computer programs for electric utilities

Computer application in utility planning, engineering analysis, and operations and maintenance are addressed. Five areas of planning are described together with examples of EPRI software packages that illustrate the current status of digital computer program development in the US. These are corporate, environmental, demand-side, generation, and transmission planning. Utility engineering tools are divided into a number of design and analysis categories: transmission and distribution, power plant design, reliability assessment, fluid flow and heat transfer, and structural. Key examples of an advanced software problem in each of these categories are given. Examples of computer applications in utility system operations, power plant operations, and maintenance are described. >
Ofatumumab for refractory opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome following treatment of neuroblastoma

Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) may be associated with ANNA-1 (anti-Hu) autoantibodies. The standard treatment with IVIG, steroids, and anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody may fail, and optimal therapy is unknown. A patient developed OMS with high-titer ANNA-1 following recovery from neuroblastoma. She failed standard therapy and had only transient response to rituximab. Treatment with the humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ofatumumab combined with methotrexate resulted in transient neurologic improvement and decrease of ANNA-1. This suggests that ofatumumab combined with methotrexate should further be considered OMS patients, particularly in refractory disease. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2013;60:E163–E165. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Mechanism for transition from branch to bush electrical tree

A mechanism is proposed for the transition from branch to bush-type electrical tree growth electric fields above a critical Laplacian field, a hypothesis which Dissado (1994) has shown can explain a wide range of observed treeing-related phenomena. The reduction in tree growth results from a combination of the high limiting electric field at high frequencies, high electric field, high space charge density, and the electro-mechanical and electro-thermal phenomena which result therefrom.
Analysis of Cache Performance for Processing XML-Based Application Data on Multi-core Processors

Computer architecture is now at an important juncture as single-core CPU power is expected to be nearly constant. The microprocessor industry is rapidly moving towards chip multi-processors (CMPs), commonly referred to as multi-core processors. The transition of CPUs from single to multi-core implementations requires a corresponding shift in the programming paradigm for grid and e-science libraries. Naive implementations of processing on multi-core systems can severely impact performance because of limitations of shared bus bandwidth, cache size and coherency, and communication between threads. To optimize the performance of e-science services, careful application of thread-level parallelism is needed. We study this problem in the context of processing XML data used in grid and e-science applications. The web services model, which strongly leverages XML, has been adopted as the basic architecture for grid and e-science services. As a result, the optimization of separate Web services applications is critical because Web services that are deployed in a longer chain of service processing events must guarantee minimal response times to ensure overall system performance. Our goal is to analyze and provide insightful feedback on cache behavior of each core and reveal performance limitations, bottlenecks, and multi-threaded optimization opportunities for processing XML data relevant to grid and e-science application data formats. We use a micro-architectural emulation framework, Multi-core Grid (McGrid), to generate performance data at various levels of granularity. We analyze cache behavior to quantify the exact gains and present recommendations for processing XML data in grid and e-science applications that will be deployed on emerging multi-core systems.
The capacity region of a class of deterministic Z channels

We characterize the capacity region of a class of the deterministic Z channels. We show that, interestingly, Han-Kobayashi type rate-splitting is not required in the optimal achievable scheme for the class of channels considered.
Fast Acquisition for Transmitted Reference Ultra-Wideband Systems with Channelized Receiver

The acquisition performance of the channel- ized receiver for ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitted reference (TR) system is presented. Instead of sampling the received UWB signal with a single ADC as in a conventional fullband receiver, the channelized receiver digitizes with multiple slow ADCs, each of which samples a partial band of the UWB sig- nal. In this paper, we show that the frequency channelized receiver naturally leads to fast acquisition. In the channelized receiver, the reduced bandwidth in each subband widens the correlation peak, allowing the search increment to be corre- spondingly increased. Consequently, the search space in the channelized receiver is reduced, resulting in significantly faster acquisition time than in a fullband receiver.
Deterioration Rates of Typical Bridge Elements in New York

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) maintains an inventory of over 17,000 highway bridges across the state. These bridges are inspected biennially or more often as necessary. Bridge inspectors are required to assign a condition rating for up to 47 structural elements of each bridge, including 25 components of each span of a bridge, in addition to the general components common to all bridges. The bridge condition rating scale ranges from 7 to 1; 7 being new and 1 being in failed condition. These condition ratings may be used to calculate the deterioration rates for each bridge element, while considering the effects of key factors, such as the bridge material type, on the deterioration rates. This paper describes an approach based on the Weibull distribution to calculate the deterioration rates of typical bridge elements in New York State using historical bridge inspection data and compares the results with those using the traditionally used Markov chains approach. It is observed that the Weibull-based approach performs better in terms of the observed conditions than the traditionally used Markov chains approach for developing deterioration curves for different bridge elements. Both Markov chains and Weibull-based approaches have been incorporated into a computer program that generates the deterioration curves for specific bridge elements based on historical NYSDOT bridge inspection data dating back to 1981. Case studies on the deterioration rates of various bridge elements in New York State are presented to demonstrate the two approaches. The case studies show that the element deterioration rate information can be used to determine the expected service life of different bridge elements under a variety of external factors. This information is extremely valuable for making bridge management decisions. Based on the Weibull-based approach, the deterioration rates for typical bridge elements in New York State have been presented.
Recent Great Lakes Evaporation Model Estimates

NOAA's lumped-parameter Great Lakes continuous evaporation model solves for each day's over-water and over-ice surface fluxes (which in turn are fun ctions of heat storage and ice and water surface temperatures). They include inc ident short-wave radiation, reflection, evaporative heat transfer (b oth latent and advected), sensible heat transfer, precipitation heat advection, long -wave radiation exchange, and surface flow advection. The model simultaneously finds daily heat storage and surface te m- perature with a heat balance, a model of linear temp erature rise (or loss) with volume beneath the water surface, an empirical wind mixing model, and a one -dimensional (vertical) superposition of past aged heat a dditions or losses. The model couples ice formation and loss to lake thermodynamics and heat st orage by utilizing both heat and mass balances for the ice pack and boundary conditions of ice -water existence. It simultaneously finds ice temperatures, pack size, and heat transferred between ice pack and both the atmosphere and the water. Since measured whole-lake evaporation is unavailable, the model is calibrated to e x- isting daily water surface temperatures and ice cover, and compared with measured temperature-depth profiles and independently estimated or measured water surface thermodynamic fluxes. Two calibrations are used to apply the model; the first min i- mizes error with observed water surface te mperatures to determine parameters for superposition heat storage, wind mixing, and radiation exchange. The second min i- mizes error with observed ice cover to determine ice cover parameters. The calibr a- tions alternate until changes in all parameters are insignificant. Presented calibrated parameters result in 1.1—1.6°C root mean square error with water surface temper a- tures and verify well over a time peri od independent of the calibration. Example results of the evaporation model include estimated temperature -depth pro- files over a year on Lake Michigan, and both a year's worth of daily evaporation and five years' worth of monthly evaporation on Lake Superio r. Deep water evaporation characteristics are readily seen and described. Turnovers occur as a fundamental b e- havior of the model. Hysteresis between heat in storage and surface temperature, o b- served during the heating and cooling c ycles on the lakes, is preserved. The model also correctly depicts lake -wide seasonal heating and cooling cycles, vertical te m- perature distributions, and other mixed -layer developments.
A new variant of trichothiodystrophy with recurrent infections, failure to thrive, and death

Two brothers demonstrated a severe variant of trichothiodystrophy. Both had brittle hair, developmental delay with severe failure to thrive, recurrent infections, cataracts, and angioendotheliomas of the liver at autopsy. The elder died at 12 weeks, the younger at 6 months. The younger had the typical appearance of banded hair on polarizing microscopy and a low cystine content measured by ion exchange chromatography. The history, clinical findings, and basic defects of trichothiodystrophy are discussed.
Culture and Negotiation

This article develops a model of how culture affects negotiation processes and outcomes. It begins with a description of negotiation from a Western perspective: confrontational, focused on transactions or the resolution of disputes, evaluated in terms of integrative and distributive outcomes. It proposes that power and information processes are fundamental to negotiations and that one impact of culture on negotiations is through these processes. The cultural value of individualism versus collectivism is linked to goals in negotiation; the cultural value of egalitarianism versus hierarchy is linked to power in negotiation; and the cultural value for high versus low context communication is linked to information sharing in negotiation. The article describes why inter-cultural negotiations pose significant strategic challenges, but concludes that negotiators who are motivated to search for information, and are flexible about how that search is carried out, can reach high-quality negotiated outcomes. Cet arti...
Seismic simulations of experimental strata

Experimental strata formed in the new Experimental Earthscape (XES) basin at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory of the University of Minnesota offer a realistic model for simulating the seismic response of natural strata and thus for advancing understanding of the geologic information that can be extracted from seismic data. A new method is presented here for using digital photos of the experimental strata to generate synthetic seismic data at the length scales and frequencies relevant to oil and gas exploration. In the method, the digital photos are transformed into models of acoustic velocity and bulk density, which are then input into algorithms that generate synthetic seismic data. Three such algorithms are used to demonstrate the approach: a convolutional algorithm, which produces the equivalent of ideal, poststack, time-migrated seismic data; an exploding-reflector algorithm, which produces unmigrated, poststack seismic data; and a full-wave equation algorithm, which we use to produce a synthetic version of prestack, unmigrated, multichannel seismic data. Data generated by the latter two algorithms are processed to compare their information content against both the experimental strata and the ideal seismic data derived from the convolutional algorithm. The qualitative comparison nicely illustrates the filtering of geologic information in seismic data and its further degradation by wave-propagation phenomena, such as diffractions, multiples, and interbed reverberations.
Cultural Models and Fertility Timing among Cherokee and White Youth in Appalachia: Beyond the Mode

Much anthropological research and theory concerns how group differences in behavior, subjective experience, and ways of seeing the world (i.e., cultural differences) are created and maintained. Both within and outside the United States, there are dramatic group differences in fertility. In the United States, American Indian groups exhibit some of the highest and earliest fertility. We used ethnographic data as well as structured card-sort and questionnaire data to compare cultural models of childbearing among Cherokee and white youth in Appalachia. The critical difference between Cherokee and white youth was not a modal difference in ideal ages for first childbirth but, rather, the degree of latitude for the timing of having children vis-` a-vis other major life events. Group differences in modal norms are often posited as the critical axis of group distinction. In many cases, group differences in the intrapopulation variability among multiple norms may play a more critical role. (Keywords: American Indian, cross-cultural comparison, cultural models, life course, fertility)
Further thoughts on the history of the unconscious: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

While feminist Hispanists of recent decades have justifiably broken with some of the broad patriarchal assumptions that have long characterized their discipline, in order to instate Sor Juana de la Cruz within a reconfigured literary canon, they have accepted unquestioningly the key bourgeois concept of the “free subject,” together with its associated ideological problematic, through which to press the relevance of this same writer to “modernity.” The present article, by way of contrast, locates Sor Juana's writings historically within a play of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ideologies that transcend the level of individuality. These ideologies serve, in the case of Sor Juana, as a basis from which to develop the Althusserian concept of an ideological unconscious. Taken in combination with its libidinal counterpart, this ideological unconscious serves in turn to theorize how, in the transition from feudalism to capitalism, modes of production enlist gender to prosecute their exploitative practices.
Effect of diamondlike carbon coating and surface topography on the performance of metal evaporated magnetic tapes

In this study, metal evaporated (ME) tapes with and without diamondlike carbon (DLC) coating were tested for friction, wear, and magnetic performance. Performance of flat DLC ME tape is compared with two non-DEC ME tapes (one being flat and the other with waviness). By using a commercial VCR as a magnetometer and the Wallace equation, changes in the rms head output level were correlated to changes in head-to-tape spacing as tape wear occurred during play/rewind cycling tests. Interface stability and recording performance at a 0.6 /spl mu/m recording wavelength were measured to bit level resolution using a dropout counter. Some pause mode and environmental testing were also performed. Tribological performance and magnetic reliability of ME tape was affected by waviness of the ME tape surface as well as by the presence of a DLC coating. Waviness of one kind of non-DEC ME tape caused poor magnetic performance and localized wear of the tape surface, but loose wear debris could escape contact areas by settling into valleys on the tape surface. In the case of flat non-DLC ME tape, loose wear debris could not escape from contact areas leading to early failure. DLC coating prevented catastrophic abrasive wear and reduction in head-to-tape spacing or intimate contact during cycling tests, but could not significantly improve the durability of ME tape. DLC coating reduces asperity compliance as compared to non-DEC tapes. All ME tapes failed by lateral crack formation (cracks often propagated through coating defects) driven by longitudinal tape tension or flexing of the tape in the transport. In pause mode, DLC coating improved magnetic reliability and tribological performance by preventing the heads from contacting the metallic magnetic layer. Based on this study, a flat tape must be used for magnetic considerations and DLC coating is needed to prevent abrasive wear and intimate contact. Reducing the number of coating defects and optimization of the toughness of magnetic and DLC coatings are key parameters for future ME tapes. At fixed temperature, high relative humidity leads to severe tape instability and high dropout frequency. At high specific humidities, lower temperature leads to severe tape instability and high dropout frequency. Bearing ratio curves for the tapes determine the onset of high friction and tape instability at high humidities.
Prevention and Mitigation of Acute Death of Mice after Abdominal Irradiation by the Antioxidant N-Acetyl-cysteine (NAC)

Gastrointestinal (GI) injury is a major cause of acute death after total-body exposure to large doses of ionizing radiation, but the cellular and molecular explanations for GI death remain dubious. To address this issue, we developed a murine abdominal irradiation model. Mice were irradiated with a single dose of X rays to the abdomen, treated with daily s.c. injection of N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) or vehicle for 7 days starting either 4 h before or 2 h after irradiation, and monitored for up to 30 days. Separately, mice from each group were assayed 6 days after irradiation for bone marrow reactive oxygen species (ROS), ex vivo colony formation of bone marrow stromal cells, and histological changes in the duodenum. Irradiation of the abdomen caused dose-dependent weight loss and mortality. Radiation-induced acute death was preceded not only by a massive loss of duodenal villi but also, surprisingly, abscopal suppression of stromal cells and elevation of ROS in the nonirradiated bone marrow. NAC diminished these radiation-induced changes and improved 10- and 30-day survival rates to >50% compared with <5% in vehicle-treated controls. Our data establish a central role for abscopal stimulation of bone marrow ROS in acute death in mice after abdominal irradiation.
Development and application of a linear induction machine for instructional laboratory use

One of the difficulties of introductory electric machinery laboratory courses is developing labs that allow students to observe the physics and internal hardware of a motor while it is operating. As a solution to this challenge, this paper discusses the development of a linear induction motor and mount system that allows students to easily visualize the motor while in motion, vary parameters in the motor design to observe their effect on performance, and gain experience with a type of motor that is often overlooked in introductory courses. Introductory laboratory experiments are presented to demonstrate how this experimental hardware can be integrated into a laboratory course.
Business Communication Students Learn To Hear A Bad Speech Habit

Students were trained to perceive filled pauses (FP) as a bad speech habit. In a series of classroom sensitivity training activities, followed by students being rewarded to observe twenty minutes of live television from the public media, no differences between male and female Business Communication students was revealed. The practice of teaching students to regard FP as a “bad” speech habit was supported by the literature. Male and female students learned to recognize FP they heard professional and non-professional speakers make.
A rapid spin through oil results in higher cell-associated concentrations of antiretrovirals compared with conventional cell washing

Background: Determination of cell-associated antiretroviral drug concentrations is necessary for research into reservoirs of HIV. Variation exists in cell-associated drug concentrations among research groups. One cause for this may be washing cells during processing. We explored spinning cells through oil to minimize this variability. Methods & results: Raltegravir, atazanavir, darunavir, efavirenz, lopinavir and ritonavir concentrations were assessed in CEM.ss T cells washed with HBSS and oil-spun cells. Oil-spun cells had significantly higher concentrations for all drugs compared with samples washed with HBSS. Conclusion: The decline in cell-associated drug concentrations with saline washes compared with a single spin through oil shows the utility of a spin through oil. Oil centrifugation results in high cell-associated drug concentrations, and can be done in a fast, efficient manner.
Reinforcement in Continuous Concrete Pavements

Straight forward reinforcement design procedure for continuously reinforced concrete highway pavements; upon selection of maximum permissible crack width, section of slab between cracks is analyzed to satisfy static equilibrium, under assumption that slab length does not change; formulas for necessary crack spacing and optimum steel area and perimeter.
Semantic Localization Via the Matrix Permanent

Most approaches to robot localization rely on lowlevel geometric features such as points, lines, and planes. In this paper, we use object recognition to obtain semantic information from the robot’s sensors and consider the task of localizing the robot within a prior map of landmarks, which are annotated with semantic labels. As object recognition algorithms miss detections and produce false alarms, correct data association between the detections and the landmarks on the map is central to the semantic localization problem. Instead of the traditional vectorbased representations, we use random finite sets to represent the object detections. This allows us to explicitly incorporate missed detections, false alarms, and data association in the sensor model. Our second contribution is to reduce the problem of computing the likelihood of a set-valued observation to the problem of computing a matrix permanent. It is this crucial transformation that enables us to solve the semantic localization problem with a polynomial-time approximation to the set-based Bayes filter. The performance of our approach is demonstrated in simulation and in a real environment using a deformable-part-model-based object detector. Comparisons are made with the traditional lidarbased geometric Monte-Carlo localization.
Altered reactivity to respiratory syncytial virus: Antibody response to RSV antigens and studies of the pathogensis of atypical RSV illness in recipients of inactivated vaccine

Altered reactivity to respiratory syncytial virus: Antibody response to RSV antigens and studies of the pathogensis of atypical RSV illness in recipients of inactivated vaccine
A Theology of Power

We live in an unprecedented age of power. Power may be defined as the ability to do or to act, the capacity of doing or accomplishing something. In simplest terms, power is might, energy, or strength. With few exceptions, the quest for power characterizes the present era, for both men and nations. While this is commonly called an age of revolution, the desire for power—economic, political, social, technological—dominates the masses of the world's population. Familiar phrases such as "power politics," "balance of power," "power of government," "the power of attorney," "the power of speech," "Black Power," "people power," and "nuclear power" all attest to the manifold ramifications of power in the life and experience of modern man. Organizations of modern man are expressly constituted for the purpose of wielding power. Contemporary society is necessarily described in terms of power structures and nation-states are referred to as "powers" and are further designated as major or minor depending upon their capacity or resources to exercise power in international relations and beyond their own borders. The overriding obsession of men and nations is power, the reali zation of which is the mark of success or failure. No amount of wishful thinking otherwise can obscure the harsh reality that the quest for power is the driving force of contemporary civil ization. There is a tendency on the part of many Christians to assume that any proclivity for power is, in and of itself, evil. The fact is that to have power does not necessarily mean the exercise, let alone the abuse, of power. Power is a morally neutral con cept and therefore ought not to be thought of as some negative
Logistic Regression with Structured Sparsity.

Binary logistic regression with a sparsity constraint on the solution plays a vital role in many high dimensional machine learning applications. In some cases, the features can be grouped together, so that entire subsets of features can be selected or zeroed out. In many applications, however, this can be very restrictive. In this paper, we are interested in a less restrictive form of structured sparse feature selection: we assume that while features can be grouped according to some notion of similarity, not all features in a group need be selected for the task at hand. This is sometimes referred to as a “sparse group” lasso procedure, and it allows for more flexibility than traditional group lasso methods. Our framework generalizes conventional sparse group lasso further by allowing for overlapping groups, an additional flexiblity that presents further challenges. The main contribution of this paper is a new procedure called Sparse Overlapping Sets (SOS) lasso, a convex optimization program that automatically selects similar features for learning in high dimensions. We establish consistency results for the SOSlasso for classification problems using the logistic regression setting, which specializes to results for the lasso and the group lasso, some known and some new. In particular, SOSlasso is motivated by multi-subject fMRI studies in which functional activity is classified using brain voxels as features, source localization problems in Magnetoencephalography (MEG), and analyzing gene activation patterns in microarray data analysis. Experiments with real and synthetic data demonstrate the advantages of SOSlasso compared to the lasso and group lasso.
Aggregations of Amazonian owflies (Neuroptera: Ascalaphidae: Cordulecerus)

Agregacoes de Ascalafideos estao sendo descritas pela primeira vez. Estas agregacoes foram vistas somente no genero Cordulecerus, perto da Iquitos, Peru; na Reserva Ducke, 27 km noroeste de Manaus, Brasil; e na especie Ululodes villosus na Republica Dominicada. Este ultimo exemplar levanta perguntas sobre a separacao destes dois generos. Fora deste grupo, as concentracooes de Neuroptera sao conhecidas somente em Ithonidae e Polystoechotidae.
Cellulose-Based Porous Membrane for Suppressing Li Dendrite Formation in Lithium–Sulfur Battery

Dendrite-free, reversible plating and stripping of Li into and from a metallic-lithium anode from an organic-liquid electrolyte is demonstrated. A porous cellulose-based membrane used for skin care absorbs the electrolyte and is wet by metallic lithium. The membrane separator was tested in symmetric lithium cells and in Li(S) rechargeable coin cells assembled in the charged state.
Developmental Screening of Refugees: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Refugee children are at high developmental risk due to dislocation and deprivation. Standardized developmental screening in this diverse population is challenging. We used the Health Belief Model to guide key-informant interviews and focus groups with medical interpreters, health care providers, community collaborators, and refugee parents to explore key elements needed for developmental screening. Cultural and community-specific values and practices related to child development and barriers and facilitators to screening were examined. METHODS: We conducted 19 interviews and 2 focus groups involving 16 Bhutanese-Nepali, Burmese, Iraqi, and Somali participants, 7 community collaborators, and 6 providers from the Center for Refugee Health in Rochester, New York. Subjects were identified through purposive sampling until data saturation. Interviews were recorded, coded, and analyzed using a qualitative framework technique. RESULTS: Twenty-one themes in 4 domains were identified: values/beliefs about development/disability, practices around development/disability, the refugee experience, and feedback specific to the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status screen. Most participants denied a word for “development” in their primary language and reported limited awareness of developmental milestones. Concern was unlikely unless speech or behavior problems were present. Physical disabilities were recognized but not seen as problematic. Perceived barriers to identification of delays included limited education, poor healthcare knowledge, language, and traditional healing practices. Facilitators included community navigators, trust in health care providers, in-person interpretation, visual supports, and education about child development. CONCLUSIONS: Refugee perspectives on child development may influence a parent’s recognition of and response to developmental concerns. Despite challenges, standardized screening was supported.
Effect of graphene nanoplatelet thickness on electrochemical performance of dye-sensitized solar cell

Graphene nanoplatelets were activated by a hydrothermal method using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating agent. The activation process significantly increases the sample specific surface area from 2.4 m2/g to 48 m2/g. The activated graphene nanoplatelets (aGNP) were used as counter electrode (CE) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs fabricated using aGNP as counter electrodes were tested under standard AM 1.5 illumination with an intensity of 91.5 mW/cm2. The optimized device achieved an overall power conversion efficiency of 7.7%, which is comparable to the conventional platinum counter electrode (8%). The device efficiency (η) and short-circuit current density (J sc ) are dependent on the thickness which is in turn proportional to the surface area, indicating that the surface area could be a dominating factor that dictates the device performance. In addition, it was found that the performance of DSSC is sensitive to the thickness of aGNP thickness. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) indicated that aGNP possessed excellent electrocatalytic activity for triiodide reduction at the interface between electrolyte and counter electrode. This suggests that the aGNP is a promising, cost effective counter electrode material with similar efficiency to Pt counter electrode for the DSSC application.
NATIONAL GOALS AND STRATEGIES FOR COMPUTER LITERACY

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the national goals and strategies for computer literacy. The rapid changes in technology as it moves toward more interfacing of brands of computers and types of technologies (audio–video, communications, etc.,) makes predictions for the next 5 years very difficult. One of the goals for computer literacy should be to keep abreast of the changing nature of the field. The implementation of any dynamic force presents the difficulties of shooting at a moving target; nevertheless, there are some constants in the equation that we can zero in on. The student to be served, the organizational framework, and the measurable competencies are three parameters possible for consideration. Networks offer great promise for the effective and extensive dissemination of knowledge and for the amalgamation and coordination of technological advances.
MOVES-Matrix and distributed computing for microscale line source dispersion analysis.

ABSTRACTMOVES and AERMOD are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended models for use in project-level transportation conformity and hot-spot analysis. However, the structure and algorithms involved in running MOVES make analyses cumbersome and time-consuming. Likewise, the modeling setup process, including extensive data requirements and required input formats, in AERMOD lead to a high potential for analysis error in dispersion modeling.This study presents a distributed computing method for line source dispersion modeling that integrates MOVES-Matrix, a high-performance emission modeling tool, with the microscale dispersion models CALINE4 and AERMOD. MOVES-Matrix was prepared by iteratively running MOVES across all possible iterations of vehicle source-type, fuel, operating conditions, and environmental parameters to create a huge multi-dimensional emission rate lookup matrix. AERMOD and CALINE4 are connected with MOVES-Matrix in a distributed computing cluster using a series of Python scrip...
The correlation of serum interleukin-6, interleukin-10 and tumor necrosis factor-α concentrations and the prognosis of sepsis in children

Objective To investigate the correlation of serum concentrations of interleukin(IL)-6,IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α and the prognosis of sepsis in children.Methods Fifty-seven septic patients in PICU were enrolled in the study,of whom 44 patients survived(sepsis survival group),13 patients died(sepsis dead group).Another 65 cases of non-sepsis patients served as control(non-sepsis group).The critical illness score,the number of damaged organs,and serum levels of IL-6,IL-10,TNF-α,IL-6/IL-10,TNF-α/IL-10 in each group were compared.Results The critical illness score was decreased and the number of damaged organs was more in sepsis dead group than those in non-sepsis group and sepsis survival group.Compared with non-sepsis group and sepsis survival group,the expression of IL-6 and IL-10 increased,TFN-α/IL-10 ratio significantly decreased in sepsis dead group(P ＜ 0.05),but the difference between the sepsis survival group and non-sepsis group was not statistically significant(P ＞ 0.05).The serum levels of TNF-α and IL-6/IL-10 ratio showed no significant difference among three groups(P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion In sepsis patients,the serum concentrations of IL-6,IL-10 are higher and the TNF-α/IL-10 ratio is smaller,the prognosis is worse. Key words: Cytokines; Inflammatory Mediators; Anti-inflammatory Media; Interleukin-6; Interleukin-10; tumor necrosis factor-α; Sepsis; Children
Anti-Tumor Phagocytic Cell Activation in Multiple Myeloma By the IAP Antagonist LCL161: Results of a Phase II Clinical Trial

Dexamethasone is a powerful anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive agent widely used in the treatment of MM with pleiotropic effects on both the tumor, and host immune cells. We report on a completely novel approach to immune modulation using an agent with almost directly opposite effects to glucocorticoids on innate immune cells. LCL161 is an IAP antagonist targeting the cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins cIAP1 and -2 (cIAP1/2) that in a phase I study in solid tumors was well tolerated with a cytokine release syndrome as the dose limiting toxicity. We previously reported that loss of cIAP1/2 in MM cells results in the stabilization of NIK and activation of the non-canonical NFkB pathway, a pathway we found frequently activated by a promiscuous array of mutations in multiple myeloma (MM). As expected, we found that LCL161 has no direct anti-tumor activity against MM cells in vitro and ex vivo. However, the non-canonical NFkB pathway is also a key activator of the innate immune response. Remarkably, we found that in vivo LCL161 has dramatic, apoptosis-independent activity associated with marked phagocytosisagainst MM that develops spontaneously in an immunocompetent genetically engineered mouse model of MM (Vk*MYC). Cyclophosphamide (Cy), which has been shown to induce an acute secretory activating phenotype in tumor-associated macrophages, markedly potentiated the anti-tumor effects of LCL161. We show that phagocytes (depleted by liposomal clodronate), but not adaptive immune cells, are required for the anti-tumor effect. Consistently we show that LCL161 activates dendritic cells and macrophages in vitro, and in vivo, and upregulates production of inflammatory cytokines. A phase 2 clinical trial of LCL161 was conducted in 24 patients with relapsed MM previously exposed to both IMiDs and PIs, but less than 5 prior lines of therapy. Patients received LCL161 1200mg po weekly, with Cy 500mg po weekly added for progressive disease or lack of response. Single agent LCL161 was well-tolerated, with grade 3 or 4 non-hematologic toxicity in four patients, and following the addition of cyclophosphamide in 9 patients. No patients responded to single agent LCL161, and the best response was stable disease in 6/24. In 21 patients, Cy was added after a median of 2 cycles, in whom the best response was stable disease or better in 18/21 (p Disclosures Bergsagel:Novartis: Research Funding; Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy; Jannsen: Consultancy; Mundipharma: Consultancy. Off Label Use: Use of LCL161 to treat multiple myeloma. Kumar:Celgene: Research Funding; Millenium/Takeda: Research Funding; Onyx: Research Funding; AbbVie: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Celgene, Millenium, Sanofi, Skyline, BMS, Onyx, Noxxon,: Other: Consultant, no compensation,; Skyline, Noxxon: Honoraria. Stewart:Oncospire Genomics: Research Funding.
Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students’ development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers’ instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern’s decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher’s beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers’ planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.
Work-related trauma, alienation, and posttraumatic and depressive symptoms in medical examiner employees.

OBJECTIVE First-responder employees, including firefighters, police, and medical examiners, are at risk for the development of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of exposure to workplace trauma. However, pathways linking workplace trauma exposure to mental health symptoms are not well understood. In the context of social-cognitive models of depression/PTSD, we examined the role of negative cognitions as mediators of the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship of workplace trauma exposure to symptoms of depression/PTSD in medical examiner (ME) employees. METHOD 259 ME personnel were recruited from 8 sites nationwide and completed an online questionnaire assessing potential trauma exposure (i.e., exposure to disturbing cases and contact with distressed families of the deceased), negative cognitions, and symptoms of depression and PTSD, and 151 completed similar assessments 3 months later. RESULTS Longitudinal analyses indicated that increases in negative cognitions, and, in particular, thoughts about alienation predicted increases in depressive symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. In cross-sectional analyses, but not longitudinal analyses, negative cognitions mediated the relationship of case exposure to symptoms of both depression and PTSD. Negative cognition also mediated the relationship of contact with distressed families to depressive symptoms. The strongest effects were for negative cognitions about being alienated from others. CONCLUSION The results of this study support social-cognitive models of the development of posttraumatic distress in the workplace and have implications for the development of interventions to prevent and treat mental health symptoms in first responders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
In Memoriam: Tien H. (T.H.) Wu, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE

With sadness, The Ohio State University civil engineering community mourns the passing of professor emeritus Tien H. Wu on 7 June 2018. For more than 50 years, he shared his experience, knowledge, ...
Retinal Neurons in Primary Cell Culture

We have been interested in cellular regulatory mechanisms operating in mammalian retinal neurons, especially those determining sensitivity to factors which either promote or inhibit cell death. The production of reactive oxygen species through oxidative stress is believed to be an important mediator of neuronal cell death although the precise mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. Pigment epithelia derived factor (PEDF) has been shown to promotes neurotrophic differentiation and the survival of neurons of the central nervous system. Using a cell culture system, we demonstrate that multiple populations of retinal neurons can differentiate and be maintained in a chemically defined environment and that cell death induced by reactive oxygen species can be quantitated. The data also show that this induced death is dose dependent and occurs by an apoptotic mechanism which can be inhibited by PEDF. The mechanism by which PEDF provides this protection may be very important for inhibiting the apoptotic death of retinal neurons which occurs in retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, glaucoma or other neurodegenerative diseases. These cultured neurons will also be useful for analyzing apoptotic responses of each of the retinal neuron cell types to a variety of “cytotoxic” agents and to the rescue effect of a number of “factors” either alone or in combination.
Reviews of Science for Science Librarians: The National Weight Control Registry - 25 Years of Compiling Strategies Used by Long Term Weight Loss Maintainers

ABSTRACTEstablished in 1994, the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a repository for the completed questionnaires and medical records of more than 10,000 individuals distinguished by their ...
Differentiation of Essential Oils Using Nanofluidic Protein Post-Translational Modification Profiling

Current methods for the authentication of essential oils focus on analyzing their chemical composition. This study describes the use of nanofluidic protein post-translational modification (PTM) profiling to differentiate essential oils by analyzing their biochemical effects. Protein PTM profiling was used to measure the effects of four essential oils, copaiba, mandarin, Melissa, and turmeric, on the phosphorylation of MEK1, MEK2, and ERK1/2 in the MAPK signaling pathway; Akt and 4EBP1 in the pI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway; and STAT3 in the JAK/STAT signaling pathway in cultured HepG2 cells. The gain or loss of the phosphorylation of these proteins served as direct read-outs for the positive or negative regulatory effects of essential oils on their respective signaling pathways. Furthermore, protein PTM profiling and GC-MS were employed side-by-side to assess the quality of the essential oils. In general, protein PTM profiling data concurred with GC-MS data on the identification of adulterated mandarin, Melissa, and turmeric essential oils. Most interestingly, protein PTM profiling data identified the differences in biochemical effects between copaiba essential oils, which were indistinguishable with GC-MS data on their chemical composition. Taken together, nanofluidic protein PTM profiling represents a robust method for the assessment of the quality and therapeutic potential of essential oils.