cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Compiling with Optimization

ILDJIT translates the CIL program given as input to its intermediate representation (IR). Several code optimization algorithms can be applied to IR code before producing the correspondent machine code. This chapter starts by describing the general idea behind code optimization algorithms in order to better describe how they can be applied inside the ILDJIT compilation framework, which organizes them in optimization levels.
Elucidating the Preadipocyte and Its Role in Adipocyte Formation: a Comprehensive Review

Adipogenesis is a complex process whereby the multipotent adipose-derived stem cell is converted to a preadipocyte before terminal differentiation into the mature adipocyte. Preadipocytes are present throughout adult life, exhibit adipose fat depot specificity, and differentiate and proliferate from distinct progenitor cells. The mechanisms that promote preadipocyte commitment and maturation involve numerous protein factor regulators, epigenetic factors, and miRNAs. Detailed characterization of this process is currently an area of intense research and understanding the roles of preadipocytes in tissue plasticity may provide insight into novel approaches for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and treating a host of obesity-related conditions. In the current study, we analyzed the current literature and present a review of the characteristics of transitioning adipocytes and detail how local microenvironments influence their progression towards terminal differentiation and maturation. Specifically, we detail the characterization of preadipocyte via surface markers, examine the signaling cascades and regulation behind adipogenesis and cell maturation, and survey their role in tissue plasticity and health and disease.
Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in the Food and Drug Administration Pilot Compendium: Meeting Today's Standards for Patient Engagement in Development?

Abstract Background In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a Pilot Clinical Outcome Assessment Compendium (COA Compendium) intended to foster patient-focused drug development (PFDD). However, it is unclear whether patient perspectives were solicited during development or validation of the included patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Objective To examine the pedigree of a sample of measures included in the COA Compendium. Methods PROs included in chapters 1 or 2 of the COA Compendium were extracted and three reviewers independently searched PubMed and Google to identify information on measure pedigree. Data on method and stage of measure development where patient engagement took place were documented. Results Among the 26 evaluated PRO measures, we were unable to identify information on development or validation on nearly half the sample (n = 12). Among the remaining 14 measures, 5 did not include any evidence of patient engagement; 2 engaged patients during concept elicitation only; 1 engaged patients during psychometric validation only; and 6 engaged patients during both concept elicitation and cognitive interviewing. Measures either previously qualified or submitted for qualification were more likely to include patient engagement. Conclusions For the FDA Pilot COA Compendium to fulfill its purpose of fostering PFDD, it needs fine-tuning to reflect today's standards, improving transparency and facilitating clear identification of included measures so that the level of patient engagement, among other factors, can be properly assessed. Suggested improvements include identifying clinical trials that correspond to the COA Compendium's use in drug development; more clearly identifying which measure is referred to; and including only those measures that already qualified or undergoing qualification.
Productivity Patterns and Research Benefits

In Chapter 10 we reported the results from estimating models of productivity as a function of variables representing agricultural research and extension knowledge stocks. Various transformations of these models can be used to derive implications that are of interest to economists and policymakers. For instance, we can use the estimated model to evaluate the roles of policies in influencing the pas time path and spatial pattern of agricultural productivity. Alternatively, we can use the model to evaluate the future time path and spatial pattern of agricultural productivity given actual past and likely future research spending patterns or alternative counterfactual spending patterns. Or, we can compare productivity patterns under alternative scenarios of research spending patterns and infer measures such as benefit-cost ratios or internal rates of return.
Interventions That Address Sensory Dysfunction for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Preliminary Evidence for the Superiority of Sensory Integration Compared to Other Sensory Approaches

It is estimated that 80–90% of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate sensory-related problem behaviors such as self-stimulating behaviors (finger flicking or excessive rocking), avoiding behaviors (such as placing hands over ears in response to typical levels of auditory input), sensory seeking behaviors (twirling, chewing, etc.), “tuning out” behaviors such as not responding to their name or other environmental cues, and difficulty enacting purposeful plans of action (Baranek et al. 2006; Huebner 2001; Kientz and Dunn 1997; O’Neill and Jones 1997; Ornitz 1974, 1989; Rogers et al. 2003; Tomchek and Dunn 2007). These behaviors, which may have a sensory basis, are termed sensory dysfunction (SD) and findings show that they limit participation in play, social, self-care and learning activities (Adrien et al. 1987; Baranek 1999, 2002; Edelson et al. 1999; Grandin 1995; Leekam et al. 2007; McClure and Holtz-Yotz 1991; Leekam et al. 2007, 1997; O’Riordan and Passetti 2006; Ornitz 1974, 1989; Rapin and Katzman 1998; Rogers and Ozonoff 2005; Schaaf et al. 2010; Williams 1992, 1994). Although interventions for SD are among the most requested services for children with ASD (Mandell et al. 2005; Green et al. 2006), there is limited evidence about their efficacy (Baranek et al. 2006; Dawson and Watling 2000; Rogers and Ozonoff 2005). The National Research Council (2001, p. 131) reports that there is a “pressing need for more basic and applied research to address the sensory aspects of behavior problems (in children with ASD).” Baranek (2002) also stressed that “best practice” for children with ASD should include interventions to address SD, but that more research is needed to guide parents, teachers, and other professionals to make informed decisions about intervention. Most studies to date fail to link basic science findings to behavioral or functional changes, and thus, it is not possible to determine the specific processes underlying behavioral gains reported in intervention studies. The purpose of this chapter is to define and describe SD in ASD, evaluate the evidence for current interventions that address SD in ASD, and discuss practice recommendations in light of these data.
Corneal Transplantation: Endothelial Keratoplasty

In the past years, a new technique for corneal transplantation has emerged. Termed endothelial keratoplasty (EK), this procedure selectively replaces only the inner layers of the cornea, i.e., the endothelium. Because EK involves transplantation of only the inner layers of the cornea, it has several advantages over PK: these include less extensive surgery, faster recovery, better wound integrity, and less irregularity induced by suturing. Because of these advantages, EK is the preferred operation over PK when only the endothelium of the patient’s cornea is diseased.
Foot Yang Ming Stomach Meridian 足陽明胃經穴

ST 1 Chengqi 承泣 On the depression in the midline of lower eyelid. ST 2 Sibai 四白 Three tsun below ST 1, in the depression at the infraorbital foramen. ST 3 Juliao 巨髎 Directly below the midline of lower eyelid at the level of lower border of the ala of nose. ST 4 Dicang 地倉 Half tsun lateral to the corner of the mouth. ST 5 Daying 大迎 Anterior to the angle of mandible, in the depression anterior to the masseter attachment. ST 6 Jiache 頰車 One-finger breadth anterior and superior to the angle of the mandible. ST 7 Xiaguan 下關 On the lateral of face, in the depression between midpoint below of the lateral zygomatic arch and mandibular notch. ST 8 Touwei 頭維 Half tsun within the ideal hairline at the corner of the forehead; 4.5 tsun lateral to the midline. ST 9 Renyins 人迎 At the anterior margin of the sternocleidomastoid muscle at the level of upper border of thyroid cartilage. ST 10 Shuitu 水突 At the anterior margin of the sternocleidomastoid muscle at the level of upper border of cricoids cartilage. ST 11 Qishe 氣舍 Above the clavicle at the depression between sterna head and clavicle head of sternocleidomastoid muscle. ST 12 Quepen 缺盆 At supraclavicle fossa 4 tsun lateral to the anterior median line of the neck.
Environmental and economic implications of food safety interventions: Life cycle and operating cost assessment of antimicrobial systems in U.S. beef packing industry

Abstract Antimicrobial systems in the U.S. beef packing industry are key treatments to improve the microbiological safety of beef products. However, product loss due to discoloration and use of chemicals, energy, and water have environmental and cost implications. This study compared environmental life cycle impacts and relative operating costs among three scenarios of antimicrobial systems currently applied in the commercial U.S. beef packing industry. Key differences between the three scenarios are the dominant use of antimicrobial chemicals, steam, and hot water pasteurization. Findings reveal that antimicrobial systems featured with chemicals result in greater human toxicity, ecotoxicity, and eutrophication impacts while antimicrobial systems featured with steam or hot water pasteurization lead to higher global warming and energy depletion. Contributions within each antimicrobial system were evaluated by: 1) seven components and 2) four intervention steps. Results show that antimicrobial chemical, wastewater treatment, and natural gas use are the three leading contributors across all environmental impacts. Evaluating environmental impact contributions of intervention steps helps target reduction goals in primary intervention steps and reveals potential opportunities for further impact reductions. A relative operating cost analysis of each scenario found revenue loss from discolored products in antimicrobial systems applying thermal pasteurization is the most significant contributor, resulting in higher operating costs than that of antimicrobial system featured with chemicals. This study provides a systematic assessment regarding environmental and cost impacts of three scenarios of antimicrobial systems. Also it can help guide process optimization, and provide a baseline for comparison with future new antimicrobial systems.
Cybersecurity Management Framework for a Cloud-Based BIM Model

Today, building information models (BIM) are developed independently among participating project stakeholders, often using independent technology platforms. Integrating the information these models convey into one standalone system results in substantial challenges. It hinders the stakeholders’ use of a shared and common platform, thereby restricting access to a common data environment (CDE). These problems lead to inefficiencies in managing the information exchange process among the actors throughout a project’s lifecycle. Cloud computing has emerged as a new model for hosting and delivering services over the internet. This model has rapidly altered the methods by which information technology is used to meet today’s demand for economically efficient, powerful, and ubiquitously available computer resources. The model promises a technology transformation across the highly interconnected business environments of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Integrating Cloud computing and BIM technologies is the next generation of BIM development and will further pervade the adoption of BIM in the AEC industry, thereby incorporating new forms of collaboration amongst project stakeholders. Cloud-BIM implementation overcomes the natural limitations of standalone models in multiple ways. Benefits include reducing up-front investments in computer resources, lowering operating and maintenance costs through on-demand service allocation, enabling rapid scalability of computing, and enhancing and facilitating rapid access, to name several benefits. Cloud-BIM models enable distributed and highly intensive data transactions among project actors; however, a new way of operating and transacting, they bring with them challenges related to security management. For instance, data redundancy occurs when multiple instances of the same data exist, and it leads to problems of inconsistency (i.e., identical fields having different or multiple values) where an update is not reflected in all fields. A Cloud-BIM model provides a central access point to the project actors, safeguards data and promotes data consistency by helping to avoid redundant data and promote positive types of data redundancy. Another major challenge is the data breach that involves leaks of information not intended for public release. Data breach is the result of application vulnerabilities, human error, and/or poor security practices. The most common types of security challenges in cloud computing are addressed by this research.
LONG TERM OUTCOMES IN ADULT PATIENTS WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE AND IMPLANTABLE CARDIOVERTER-DEFIBRILLATORS

Adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients may be at risk of sudden cardiac death and be candidates for an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). We evaluated the long-term rates of ventricular arrhythmias and mortality in these patients. A single-center retrospective case-series
A New MIMO ORC Architecture for Power Oscillation Damping Using Remote Feedback Signals Under Intermittent Observations

A new multi-input multi-output (MIMO) observer-driven reduced copy (ORC), i.e., MIMO-ORC architecture is proposed for wide-area damping control using multiple doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind farms to mitigate the issue of intermittent observations with multiple feedback signals and actuators. In this context, the concepts of cyber-physical self-coupling and cross-coupling are introduced, and their impact on the deterioration of closed-loop performance with data-dropout is quantified using an analytical derivation. A framework for the stability analysis of MIMO-ORC architecture is also proposed. Finally, time-domain simulations show the superiority of the proposed approach over its single-input single-output ORC counterpart in a 16-machine New England–New York power system.
Omega-3 fatty acids are protective in hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in the absence of GPR120 signaling.

Abstract Background A single dose of IV fish oil (FO) before hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury (HIRI) increases hepatocyte proliferation and reduces necrosis in wild type (WT) mice. It has been suggested that the GPR120 receptor on Kupffer cells mediates FO's ability to reduce HIRI. The purpose of this study was to determine whether GPR120 is required for FO to reduce HIRI. Methods Sixty-four (n = 8/group) adult male WT (C57BL/6) and GPR120 knockout (KO) mice received IV FO (1 g/kg) or saline 1 h prior to HIRI or sham operation. Mice were euthanized 24 h postoperatively for analysis of hepatic histology, NFκB activity, and serum alanine transaminase (ALT) levels. Results FO pretreated livers had less necrosis after HIRI than saline pretreated livers in both WT (mean ± SEM 25.9 ± 7.3% less, P = 0.007) and KO (36.6 ± 7.3% less, P Conclusions IV FO pretreatment was able to reduce HIRI in GPR120 KO mice, suggesting the hepatoprotective effects of FO are not mediated by GPR120 alone.
Understanding Quality in Research: Avoiding Predatory Journals

Peer-review publishing has long been the gold standard for disseminating research. The peer-review process holds researchers accountable for their work and conveys confidence that the article is of value to the reader. Predatory journals and publishing pose a global threat to the quality of scientific literature, accuracy of educational resources, and safety of patient care. Predatory publishing uses an exploitative business model, substandard quality control measures, and deceptive publishing practices. Given the proliferation of these journals and the extreme measures utilized to disguise substandard publishing practices, avoiding them can prove difficult. Understanding the nature of predatory publishing and how to recognize the warning signs provide helpful measures to authors, researchers, students, and readers. Additional resources known to help avoid predatory publishers have been discussed in addition to reviewing the Journal of Human Lactation guidelines for publishing.
Inhibition of CKS1B Expression Affects Myeloma Cell Growth In Vivo.

Abstract CKS1B is the regulatory component of the SCF-Skp2 ubiquitin ligase that ubiquinates the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1 targeting it for proteasomal degradation. Overexpression of CKS1B is associated with poor prognosis in malignancies such as oral squamous cell carcinomas, colorectal carcinoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and others. Recently, high expression levels of CKS1B were associated with an aggressive course of Multiple Myeloma (Shaughnessy J. Hematology . 2005; 10 Suppl 1:117). We investigated whether inhibition of CKS1B in myeloma cell lines with multiple copies of 1q21 and high expression of CKS1B affects in vivo tumor growth. Myeloma cell lines were transduced with lentivirus conditionally expressing (tet on) CKS1B shRNA and lentivirus constitutively expressing luciferase (for in vivo experiments), or with lentivirus constitutively expressing CKS1B shRNA (for in vitro work). Cells with inducible expression were injected into the human bones of SCID-hu mice, and, once tumors established, expression was induced with doxycycline in the drinking water. Changes in tumor sizes were followed by weekly luminescence imaging. Cells with constitutive shRNA expression were used to determine effects on cell cycle by propidium iodide flow cytometry. Effects of shRNA expression on cytoplasmic and nuclear CKS1B and p27kip1 levels were determined by western blot analysis. Induction of CKS1B shRNA expression in JJN3 and OCI-MY5 cells in SCID-hu mice inhibited tumor growth by 57% and 81% within one week, compared to non-targeting construct. As expected, viable cells recovered from these tumors had low levels of CKS1B and higher levels of p27kip1 proteins. Similar to observations in the MM cell lines JJN3 and OCI-MY5 (see Abstract by Zhan and colleagues), constitutive expression of shRNA in CAG and XG1 cells effectively reduced cytoplasmic and nuclear CKS1B protein levels. This was associated with increased levels of p27kip1 protein, marked (51%) increases of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, and reduced S and G2 (33% and 52%, respectively), compatible with a G1 arrest, and a 76% increase in the number of sub G1 (apoptotic) cells. In contrast to these observations, cells constitutively over-expressing p27kip1 had no change in G1, 50% fewer cells in S, and a 150% increase in G2, indicating G1 and G2 arrests, with no change in the sub G1 fraction. Interestingly, cells over-expressing p27kip1 had lower levels of CKS1B proteins, compatible with the reported proteasomal degradation of the molecule during the later phases of the cell cycle (Hattori T et al, Genes Cells. 2003; 8:889). These observations suggest that the poor prognosis associated with 1q21 amplifications and high CKS1B expression in myeloma reflects an elevated proliferative state of the tumor cells that results in rapid regrowth of minimal residual disease.
Acceleration and plateau: two patterns and outcomes of isolated severe fetal cerebral ventricular dilation.

We sought to characterize patterns of in utero dilation in isolated severe fetal ventriculomegaly (ISVM) and investigate their value in predicting obstetrical and postnatal outcomes.This is a retro...
Multipole Graph Neural Operator for Parametric Partial Differential Equations.

One of the main challenges in using deep learning-based methods for simulating physical systems and solving partial differential equations (PDEs) is formulating physics-based data in the desired structure for neural networks. Graph neural networks (GNNs) have gained popularity in this area since graphs offer a natural way of modeling particle interactions and provide a clear way of discretizing the continuum models. However, the graphs constructed for approximating such tasks usually ignore long-range interactions due to unfavorable scaling of the computational complexity with respect to the number of nodes. The errors due to these approximations scale with the discretization of the system, thereby not allowing for generalization under mesh-refinement. Inspired by the classical multipole methods, we propose a novel multi-level graph neural network framework that captures interaction at all ranges with only linear complexity. Our multi-level formulation is equivalent to recursively adding inducing points to the kernel matrix, unifying GNNs with multi-resolution matrix factorization of the kernel. Experiments confirm our multi-graph network learns discretization-invariant solution operators to PDEs and can be evaluated in linear time.
A derivation of the optimal solution for exponentially deteriorating items without derivatives

Abstract We study the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model for exponentially deteriorating items in which the inventory deterioration rate is proportional to the inventory level, which leads to an exponentially decreasing inventory level function. Because of the coexistence of exponential and polynomial terms, an exact closed form solution is not possible. An approximate model and a heuristic solution approach has previously been proposed for this problem. We derive the exact optimal solution for this model without using derivatives and propose a more accurate way to model the inventory holding cost. We show that the difference in total cost is significant between the improved and the original model. We also compare our model with another one based on a different approximation and show that our approach is far superior than the former.
Educating for Justice in an Unjust Society

My aim in this paper is to clarify the significance of the social and political assumptions underlying the program for educational reform that is emerging from the work of Lawrence Kohlberg and his followers. I will presume some familiarity with Kohlberg’s research on moral development and moral education, but my main point can be made outside the framework he develops. Kohlberg is interested in devising and implementing programs that will promote the moral development of those who participate. They involve not only discussion of moral dilemmas, but the actual development of democratic structures for collective decision-making about institutional policies.(1)
Why Do Sales People Spend So Much Time Lobbying for Low Prices

In business-to-business settings a company’s sales force often spends considerable time lobbying internally for authorization to charge lower prices. These internal lobbying activities are time consuming, and divert attention from other tasks, such as interacting with customers. We explain why the sales force’s internal lobbying activities serve an important role. They help the firm elicit truthful reporting of demand information from the sales force. As a result, it may be profitable for the firm to require lobbying (and make the requirement onerous), even though lobbying is a nonproductive activity that creates an additional administrative burden and imposes a deadweight loss.
Parental feeding practices and children's disordered eating among single parents and co-parents.

Objective Some parental feeding practices are associated with pediatric disordered eating and weight status. Existing research, however, has focused on maternal feeding practices in co-parent households. Single parents and fathers are notably understudied in this area. The current study examined associations of parental feeding practices with child disordered eating behaviors and weight, and compared associations between single mothers and fathers with a matched sample of co-parenting mothers and fathers. Method Parents (N = 524) of youth between 5 and 16 years completed an online survey that included measures of parental feeding practices and unhealthy eating/weight-related parenting practices. Co-parents were matched to each single parent based on gender, race, ethnicity, education level, age, and BMI. Results Single parents reported significantly greater concern about their child's weight, eating and shape, and reported engaging in more restraint and restriction of their child's eating, as well as having more perceived responsibility of their child's eating than caregivers in co-parent households. Children of single parents were significantly more likely to engage in secretive eating. Discussion Associations between single parents' feeding practices and child weight and disordered eating parallel the broader literature. There were differences between single mothers and fathers and co-parenting mothers and fathers, particularly in their report of their unhealthy eating/weight-related parenting practices. Such differences may influence children's longer-term eating behaviors and weight status. Further research on single-parent households is needed, including longitudinal and epidemiological studies.
Sub-optimal construction of an auditory profile from temporally distributed spectral information

When spectral components of a complex sound are presented not simultaneously but distributed over time, human listeners can still, to a degree, perceptually recover the spectral profile of the sound. This capability of integrating spectral information over time was investigated using a cued informational masking paradigm. Listeners detected a 1-kHz pure tone in a simultaneous masker composed of six random-frequency tones drawn on every trial. The spectral profile of the masker was cued using a precursor sound that consisted of a sequence of 50-ms bursts, separated by inter-burst intervals of 100 ms. Each burst in the precursor consisted of pure tones at the masker frequencies with tones appearing at each of the masker frequencies at different presentation probabilities. As the presentation probability increased in different conditions, the detectability of the target improved, indicating reliable precursor cuing regarding the spectral content of the masker. For many listeners, performance did not significantly improve as the number of precursor bursts increased from 2 to 16, indicating inefficient integration of information beyond 2 bursts. Additional analyses suggest that when intensity of the bursts is relatively constant, the contribution of the precursor is dominated by information in the initial burst.
On Environmental Policy and Jobs: An Analogy with Trade and an Illustration with Coal

Popular discussions of environmentally-motivated policies include much talk about job loss that can be confusing. Does job loss in a polluting industry mean that others should endure dirty air or that complementary policies are needed? I make sense of the issue by drawing concepts from research on international trade and its effects and applying them to recent job loss in the coal industry. The coal case study illustrates the economic adjustment that could plausibly stem from an environmental policy as well as the equity, efficiency, and political issues that adjustment raises. Each coal job lost reduced earnings in the county by nearly $100,000, and one third of those who lost jobs did not move and remained unemployed. The losses affected counties that were poorer on average, and the losses exacerbated the disparity. They also contributed to a shift towards pro-coal Trump in the 2016 presidential election, a shift that helped him win Pennsylvania. More broadly, a type of environmental adjustment assistance may improve the equity and political feasibility of environmental policies that benefit many but harm some. The how and when of assistance is unclear, but one case for study is the Assistance to Coal Communities initiative.
Tips and tools for dairy practitioners to take an active role in a dairy's foot health program

There are copious opportunities for veterinarians to get involved in providing foot health services. The type of services that could be offered include; lame cow detection and treatment, comprehensive hoof trimming, monitoring or training of farm staff and routine monitoring of hoof health data. These opportunities come with their own unique set of barriers and challenges. However, veterinarians are ideally positioned to overcome these challenges and, at the current time, there is limited competition for these type of services thus veterinarians should consider foot health management as a practice growth opportunity.
Cross-sectional study of psychosocial well-being among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual gynecologic cancer survivors.

Background Delays in care and increased risk for mental health diagnoses put individuals identifying as a sexual minority with cancer at risk for decreased quality of life. Aim To assess psychosocial health among sexual minority gynecologic cancer survivors, we compared self-reported quality of life and psychosocial measures between individuals diagnosed with gynecologic cancers identifying as lesbian/gay/bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual. Methods and results English-speaking adults with gynecologic cancers were invited to participate in an ongoing cohort survey study. Quality of life and psychosocial measures included the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General, Distress Thermometer (distress), Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (depression), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (anxiety), and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (post-traumatic stress disorder; PTSD). Measures were compared by self-reported sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. LGB) using descriptive statistics (frequencies and means) and linear and logistic regression models, adjusting for college education. Of 814 patients invited, 457 enrolled (56.1%) and 401 (92.6%) completed the survey and provided information on their sexuality. All but one self-identified as cisgender women and 22 (5.5%) as LGB. LGB participants were more likely to have completed college (68.2% vs. 40.1%, p = .009) but were otherwise similar across demographic and clinical characteristics. Quality of life and distress scores were similar between groups. LGB participants, compared to heterosexual, reported higher rates of depression (31.8% vs. 10.6%, adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 4.1 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6-11.0], p = .004), anxiety (25.0% vs. 7.1%, adjusted OR = 5.4 [95% CI: 1.7-16.7], p= .004), and PTSD (13.6% vs. 3.5%, adjusted OR = 4.2 [95% CI: 1.1-16.3], p = .04). Conclusion LGB participants reported poorer emotional health following a gynecologic cancer diagnosis than heterosexual participants. Our data suggest this population may need additional resources and support during and after their cancer diagnosis. Future work is needed to identify additional risk factors and the underlying sources of these disparities in order to improve patient care and wellness in this population.
Overweight/Obesity and HIV Disease Progression in HIV+ Adults in Botswana

Objective: This study evaluated the relationship between inflammatory markers including C-reactive protein, leptin, and bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and body composition and HIV disease progression in HIV+ asymptomatic adults not on ART in Botswana over 18 months. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of data and specimens from a nutritional study, henceforth called parent study. Current study was conducted in 144 HIV+ ART naive adults who were in the early stages of HIV disease in Botswana. CRP was measured by the parent study and plasma leptin and LPS were determined in a subset of 60 participants at baseline and 18 months. Linear and logistic multivariable regression analyses were conducted and adjusted for age, gender, smoking and body fat mass%. Results: CRP was positively associated with BMI and waist circumference and inversely with CD4%. Leptin had significant relationships with BMI, fat mass%, and waist circumference. Higher HIV viral load was significantly associated with lower levels of leptin. LPS was inversely associated with BMI and fat mass%. Higher levels of LPS were also associated with higher viral load. Conclusions: HIV disease progression was predictive of inflammation and found to be independent of body fat. These findings suggest that at least one explanation for the obesity paradox may be accounted for by increased LPS and lower leptin among those with lower BMI which was associated with higher HIV viral load. The mechanisms
Two Brains, Two Kidneys, Two Lungs: Functional Brain Asymmetry

The weight and the essence of the world rest squarely on the shoulders of the right brain, as it watches over all else, including its literal and loquacious brother. There exists the functional and anatomical equivalent of two brains, much like the dual representatives of most other structures in the human body, including two kidneys, two lungs, and so forth. The two cerebral hemispheres are set on top of their respective brain stems, with each brain having its own complement of brain-stem structures. This arrangement is somewhat reminiscent of the appearance of a cauliflower with a large head on top of the stem. Several explanations for the emergence of hemispheric specializations have been proposed, including an enhancement of an individual’s ability to perform two different tasks at the same time, an increase in neural capacity due to an avoidance of unnecessary duplication of neural networks, and the greater speed of uni-hemispheric processing since no interhemispheric transfer via the corpus callosum is required.
Elliptic and Hypergeometric Functions

For an elliptic curve E over the complex numbers C we have already observed in (7.3) of the Introduction that the group E(C) is a compact group isomorphic to the product of two circles. This assertion ignores the fact that there is a complex structure on E(C) coming from a representation as a quotient group C/L where L is a lattice in the complex plane, that is, a discrete subgroup on two free generators L = Zω1 + Zω2.
The Heart of the Game: Putting Race and Educational Equity at the Center of Title IX

This article examines how race and educational equity issues shape women's sports experiences, building upon the narrative of Darnellia Russell, a high school basketball player profiled in the documentary The Heart of the Game. Darnellia is a star player who, because of an unintended pregnancy, has to fight to play the game she loves. This girl's story provides a unique and underutilized lens through which to examine gender and athletics, as well as evaluate the legal framework for gender equality in sport. In focusing on this narrative, we seek to give voice to black female athletes and to express their concerns in ways the law and scholarship have yet to do. The article focuses on several under-theorized areas: among them, how the push for greater Title IX enforcement in the context of ongoing inequalities in public education has ignored the deeper educational inequalities and educational policy issues that provide the broader context for sports programs, and the impact of policies concerning pregnancy and motherhood on female athletes. The absence of attention to these issues in the discourse and public policy debates surrounding Title IX undermines the law's transformative potential and its ability to succeed in enhancing the sports experiences of all women.
Macromolecular competition titration method accessing thermodynamics of the unmodified macromolecule-ligand interactions through spectroscopic titrations of fluorescent analogs.

Analysis of thermodynamically rigorous binding isotherms provides fundamental information about the energetics of the ligand–macromolecule interactions and often an invaluable insight about the structure of the formed complexes. The Macromolecular Competition Titration (MCT) method enables one to quantitatively obtain interaction parameters of protein–nucleic acid interactions, which may not be available by other methods, particularly for the unmodified long polymer lattices and specific nucleic acid substrates, if the binding is not accompanied by adequate spectroscopic signal changes. The method can be applied using different fluorescent nucleic acids or fluorophores, although the etheno-derivatives of nucleic acid are especially suitable as they are relatively easy to prepare, have significant blue fluorescence, their excitation band lies far from the protein absorption spectrum, and the modification eliminates the possibility of base pairing with other nucleic acids. The MCT method is not limited to the specific size of the reference nucleic acid. Particularly, a simple analysis of the competition titration experiments is described in which the fluorescent, short fragment of nucleic acid, spanning the exact site-size of the protein–nucleic acid complex, and binding with only a 1:1 stoichiometry to the protein, is used as a reference macromolecule. Although the MCT method is predominantly discussed as applied to studying protein–nucleic acid interactions, it can generally be applied to any ligand–macromolecule system by monitoring the association reaction using the spectroscopic signal originating from the reference macromolecule in the presence of the competing macromolecule, whose interaction parameters with the ligand are to be determined.
Ring Shear Testing of Deposited Coatings

Ring shear testing is a valuable, effective method for obtaining quantitative data on the adhesion between metal coatings and their substrates. The process was reviewed in detail in this paper as were all known previous applications of this testing procedure. Information was presented on the influence of die diameter on ring shear strength and use of longitudinal slits in the ring collar to minimize the influence of radial and hoop stresses. Lastly, some information was presented on the use of ring shear tests to define procedures to prepare 6061 aluminum, beryllium and 304 stainless steel for silver plating and 440 C stainless steel for nickel plating.
Wetting behaviors of individual nanostructures.

Pinning of a liquid contact line by micro/nanoscale defects is attributed as the physical origin of macroscopic contact angle hysteresis. However, direct experimental quantification of the pinning effect at the nanoscale has yet to be fully explored to establish this link. Here we present an experimental technique to systematically investigate the wetting behaviors of individual hydrophilic nanostructures with diameters from 2000 nm down to 75 nm. Our results show that the macroscopic pinning behavior is preserved for nanostructures with dimensions down to ∼200 nm. In addition, the estimated depinning liquid contact angle at the nanoscale is in agreement with the macroscopic receding contact angle, which indicates a physical link between nanoscopic pinning to the macroscopic liquid receding phenomenon.
Glutamine enhances selectivity of chemotherapy through changes in glutathione metabolism.

Objective Chemotherapy doses are limited by toxicity to normal tissues. Intravenous glutamine protects liver cells from oxidant injury by increasing intracellular glutathione (GSH) content. The authors hypothesized that supplemental oral glutamine (GLN) would increase the therapeutic index of methotrexate (MTX) by improving host tolerance through changes in glutathione metabolism. The authors examined the effects of oral glutamine on tumor and host glutathione metabolism and response to methotrexate. Methods Thirty-six 300-g Fischer 344 rats were implanted with fibrosarcomas. On day 21 after implantation, rats were randomized to receive isonitrogenous isocaloric diets containing 1 g/kg/day glutamine or glycine (GLY) by gavage. On day 23 after 2 days of prefeeding, rats were randomized to one of the following four groups receiving an intraperitoneal injection of methotrexate (20 mg/kg) or saline (CON) : GLN + MTX, GLY + MTX, GLN-CON, or GLY-CON. On day 24, rats were killed and studied for arterial glutamine concentration, tumor volume, tumor, kidney and gut glutaminase activity, and glutathione content (tumor, gut, heart, liver, muscle, kidney, and lung). Results Provision of the glutamine-enriched diets to rats receiving MTX decreased tumor glutathione (2.38 ± 0.17 in GLN + MTX vs. 2.92 ± 0.20 in GLY + MTX, p < 0.05), whereas increasing or maintaining host glutathione stores (in gut, 2.60 ± 0.28 in GLN + MTX vs. 1.93 ± 0.18 ; in GLY + MTX, p < 0.05). Depressed glutathione levels in tumor cells increases susceptibility to chemotherapy. Significantly decreased glutathione content in tumor cells in the GLN + MTX group correlated with enhanced tumor volume loss (-0.8 ± 1.0 mL in GLN + MTX vs. +9.5 ± 2.0 mL in GLY + MTX, p < 0.05). Conclusion These data suggest that oral glutamine supplementation will enhance the selectivity of antitumor drugs by protecting normal tissues from and possibly sensitizing tumor cells to chemotherapy treatment-related injury.
Involvement of TRAF4 in Oxidative Activation of c-Jun N-terminal Kinase

We previously found that the angiogenic factors TNFα and HIV-1 Tat activate an NAD(P)H oxidase in endothelial cells, which operates upstream of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), a MAPK involved in the determination of cell fate. To further understand oxidant-related signaling pathways, we screened lung and endothelial cell libraries for interaction partners of p47 phox and recovered the orphan adapter TNF receptor-associated factor 4 (TRAF4). Domain analysis suggested a tail-to-tail interaction between the C terminus of p47 phox and the conserved TRAF domain of TRAF4. In addition, TRAF4, like p47 phox , was recovered largely in the cytoskeleton/membrane fraction. Coexpression of p47 phox and TRAF4 increased oxidant production and JNK activation, whereas each alone had minimal effect. In addition, a fusion between p47 phox and the TRAF4 C terminus constitutively activated JNK, and this activation was decreased by the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine. In contrast, overexpression of the p47 phox binding domain of TRAF4 blocked endothelial cell JNK activation by TNFα and HIV-1 Tat, suggesting an uncoupling of p47 phox from upstream signaling events. A secondary screen of endothelial cell proteins for TRAF4-interacting partners yielded a number of proteins known to control cell fate. We conclude that endothelial cell agonists such as TNFα and HIV-1 Tat initiate signals that enter basic signaling cassettes at the level of TRAF4 and an NAD(P)H oxidase. We speculate that endothelial cells may target endogenous oxidant production to specific sites critical to cytokine signaling as a mechanism for increasing signal specificity and decreasing toxicity of these reactive species.
Content-based image compression

First generation image compression methods using block-based DCT or wavelet transforms compressed all image blocks with a uniform compression ratio. Consequently, any regions of special interest were degraded along with the remainder of the image. Second generation image compression methods apply object-based compression techniques in which each object is first segmented and then encoded separately. Content-based compression further improves on object-based compression by applying image understanding techniques. First, each object is recognized or classified, and then different objects are compressed at different compression rates according to their priorities. Regions with higher priorities (such as objects of interest) receive more encoding bits as compared to less important regions, such as the background. The major difference between a content-based compression algorithm and conventional block-based or object-based compression algorithms is that content-based compression replaces the quantizer with a more sophisticated classifier. In this paper we describe a technique in which the image is first segmented into regions by texture and color. These regions are then classified and merged into different objects by means of a classifier based on its color, texture and shape features. Each object is then transformed by either DCT or Wavelets. The resulting coefficients are encoded to an accuracy that minimizes recognition error and satisfies alternative requirements. We employ the Chernoff bound to compute the cost function of the recognition error. Compared to the conventional image compression methods, our results show that content-based compression is able to achieve more efficient image coding by suppressing the background while leaving the objects of interest virtually intact.
Solution 1H NMR of the molecular and electronic structure of the heme cavity and substrate binding pocket of high-spin ferric horseradish peroxidase: effect of His42Ala mutation.

Solution 1H NMR has been used to assign a major portion of the heme environment and the substrate-binding pocket of resting state horseradish peroxidase, HRP, despite the high-spin iron(III) parama...
Ridge-waveguide modified triple-quantum-well high-power AlGaAs laser grown by MOVPE

The materials quality of the InxGa1-xAs epilayers with 0.28 xGa1-xAs were also grown on GaAs to study the strain relaxation process in the initial growth stage and their effects on the generation of dislocations. For the x equals 0.5 case, the thin InGaAs formed a high density and many small size coherent islands; while for x equals 1, they changed to a low density and much larger size relaxed islands. This shows that the growth of highly mismatched InxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterojunction (x >= 0.28) is a kinetically limited strain relaxation process. The large lattice mismatch (7.16%) between InAs and GaAs favors the early relaxation of InAs islands before they coalesce, this explains why the bulk material quality of the InAs is better than InxGa1-xAs with x equals 0.28, 0.5 and 0.75 in spit of its larger lattice mismatch.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The rise and fall of normative control

Abstract Widely-publicized breaches of professional norms among accountants in the United States have kindled their interest in the problem of norms and normative control. This article discusses the current literature on norms. It suggests that normative control, which is always problematic, is especially so when agents are subject to the control of two or more principals having divergent interests. It is argued that the agent’s compliance will tend to flow to that principal upon whom the agent is most dependent. The analysis is illustrated by the case of the rise and fall of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.