cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anti-tubulin drugs conjugated to anti-ErbB antibodies selectively radiosensitize

Tumour resistance to radiotherapy remains a barrier to improving cancer patient outcomes. To overcome radioresistance, certain drugs have been found to sensitize cells to ionizing radiation (IR). In theory, more potent radiosensitizing drugs should increase tumour kill and improve patient outcomes. In practice, clinical utility of potent radiosensitizing drugs is curtailed by off-target side effects. Here we report potent anti-tubulin drugs conjugated to anti-ErbB antibodies selectively radiosensitize to tumours based on surface receptor expression. While two classes of potent anti-tubulins, auristatins and maytansinoids, indiscriminately radiosensitize tumour cells, conjugating these potent anti-tubulins to anti-ErbB antibodies restrict their radiosensitizing capacity. Of translational significance, we report that a clinically used maytansinoid ADC, ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), with IR prolongs tumour control in target expressing HER2+ tumours but not target negative tumours. In contrast to ErbB signal inhibition, our findings establish an alternative therapeutic paradigm for ErbB-based radiosensitization using antibodies to restrict radiosensitizer delivery.
A multiple correspondence analysis of at-fault motorcycle-involved crashes in Alabama

Summary According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2012, more than 4950 motorcyclists were killed in traffic accidents. Compared to passenger car occupants, mile for mile, motorcyclists are more than 26 times more at risk to dying in crashes. Due to the high fatality rate associated with motorcycle crashes, factors contributing to this type of crash must be identified in order to implement effective safety countermeasures. Given that the available datasets are large and complex, identifying the key factors contributing to crashes is a challenging task. Using multiple correspondence analysis, as an exploratory data analysis technique to determine the dataset structure, we identified the roadway/environmental, motorcycle, and motorcyclist-related variables influencing at-fault motorcycle-involved crashes. This study used the latest available dataset (2009 to 2013) from the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment database to study motorcycle crashes in the state of Alabama. The most significant contributors to the frequency and severity of at-fault motorcycle-involved crashes were found to be light conditions, time of day, driver condition, and weather conditions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Eigenmode operation as a quadrature error cancellation technique for piezoelectric resonant gyroscopes

This paper presents a quadrature error cancellation technique based on the virtual alignment of the gyroscope excitation and readout electrodes to the actual direction of vibration mode shapes in the presence of fabrication non-idealities. The proposed method which is herein referred to as eigenmode operation, enables modal alignment of all-piezoelectric resonant gyroscopes and along with dynamic frequency matching via displacement feedback obviates the need for submicron capacitive gaps and relatively large DC voltages that are otherwise required for electrostatic mode matching. We demonstrate gyroscopic operation of a 3.1 MHz AlN-on-silicon annulus resonator, which utilizes a pair of high-Q degenerate in-plane vibration modes. The piezoelectric gyroscope shows a large operation bandwidth of ∼150 Hz with a scale factor of 1.6 nA/°/s while operating in air, which greatly relaxes packaging requirements. Eigenmode operation results in ∼35 dB reduction of the quadrature error at resonance.
The effects of multiphasic prepulses on automatic and attention-modulated prepulse inhibition

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is widely viewed as an operational measure of sensorimotor gating. Previous research has shown that sensorimotor gating can occur automatically and also can be influenced by selective attention. The present research investigated the relationship of the transient detection response (TDR) with automatic and attention-modulated PPI using a novel "multiphasic" prepulse stimulus. Experiment 1 compared discrete versus multiphasic prepulse types in a no-task PPI protocol to validate multiphasic prepulses as effective elicitors of automatic sensorimotor gating. Results revealed that the two prepulse types elicited equivalent levels of PPI. Experiment 2 compared the effectiveness of continuous monophasic versus continuous multiphasic prepulses within a task-based PPI protocol using a lead interval of 120 ms. Results revealed a significant attention effect for monophasic prepulses only. However, robust PPI was produced by the multiphasic prepulses independent of attention as well as over time. These results suggest that multiple influences on PPI can be assessed concurrently depending on prepulse parameters designed to activate the TDR when used in a PPI protocol capable of assessing the effects of selective attention on prepulse processing [corrected]
Gated Coupling of Dopamine and Neuropeptide Signaling Underlies Perceptual Processing of Appetitive Odors in Drosophila

How olfactory stimuli are perceived as meaningful cues for specific appetitive drives remains poorly understood. Here we show that despite their enormous diversity, Drosophila larvae can discriminatively respond to food-related odor stimuli based on both qualitative and quantitative properties. Perceptual processing of food scents takes place in a neural circuit comprising four dopamine (DA) neurons and a neuropeptide F (NPF) neuron per brain hemisphere. Furthermore, these DA neurons integrate and compress inputs from second-order olfactory neurons into one-dimensional DA signals, while the downstream NPF neuron assigns appetitive significance to limited DA outputs via a D1-type DA receptor (Dop1R1)-mediated gating mechanism. Finally, Dop1R, along with a Gβ13F/Irk2-mediated inhibitory and a Gαs-mediated excitatory pathway, underlie a binary precision tuning apparatus that restricts the excitatory response of NPF neurons to DA inputs that fall within an optimum range. Our findings provide fresh molecular and cellular insights into cognitive processing of olfactory cues.
Addressing the influence of hegemonic masculinity on veterans through brief dynamic interpersonal therapy.

This paper explores a concept of masculinity that can emerge among veterans seeking psychotherapy. Specifically, we outline the impact of hegemonic masculinity, a view of masculinity that emphasizes hierarchically defined relationships, on the psychotherapeutic process. Within the hierarchy defined
Colpotomy and the Modalities for Closure

Optimal setup is the key for a successful vaginal hysterectomy. Even though there are a variety of approaches for colpotomy and closure steps of vaginal hysterectomy, they have not been well-studied. However, in all techniques, good knowledge of anatomy, increased familiarity with tissue planes, sharp anterior and posterior dissection, and anchoring of the uterosacral ligaments to the vaginal apex are emphasized.
Herpes zoster in hospitalized adults: Practice gaps, new evidence, and remaining questions

Herpes zoster can present many uncertainties for consulting dermatologists. We review the current guidelines and recent literature on important issues that arise in the care of hospitalized patients with herpes zoster, including infection control isolation practices, treatment courses for zoster and acute zoster-associated pain, and indications for long-term prophylaxis. We present the findings of an inpatient zoster management practices survey of the membership of the Society of Dermatology Hospitalists, an expert resource group of the American Academy of Dermatology, and discuss directions for future investigation and potential opportunities for management improvements in light of these collective data.
Steric redirection of alkylation in 1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylate esters

Abstract The alkylation of ethyl 1 H -pyrazole-3-carboxylate with a variety of alkylating agents in the presence of K 2 CO 3 was found to largely favor the formation of ethyl 1-substituted pyrazole-3-carboxylates. The alkylation could be sterically redirected by the use of a triphenylsilyl group (ethyl 3-(triphenylsilyl)-1 H -pyrazole-5-carboxylate) to provide synthetically useful yields of ethyl 1-substituted-3-(triphenylsilyl)-1 H -pyrazole-5-carboxylates. The triphenylsilyl group could be removed with Bu 4 NF. Other triorganosilyl groups (TMS, TES, TBDMS) failed to provide significant redirection, while TIPS proved refractory to protodesilylation.
A Dynamically Reconfigurable Automata Processor Overlay

This paper describes a design for a parameterizable automata processor overlay and a placement algorithm required for its support software. The resulting framework serves as both an open-source alternative to Micron's Automata Processor (AP) and as an experimental testbed for exploration of architectural tradeoffs. An automata processor is a processor-in-memory architecture designed to recognize patterns in streaming data. Our framework takes a description of a nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) described in Micron's ANML language and uses instantiated JTAG sources to configure the on-chip RAM and programmable interconnect of the overlay programmed onto an FPGA. Like the Micron AP, our design is comprised of an array of interconnected state transition elements (STEs). While our STE design is equivalent to that of the Micron AP, our overlay uses a simpler, non-switched interconnect based on pairwise gated connections. This interconnect design creates a constraint satisfaction problem when mapping logical states to the physical STEs. In this paper, we explore the impact of tradeoffs in the interconnect architecture as it relates to a Stratix 5 GX target device and we describe and evaluate an algorithm for STE placement with respect to the ANMLZoo benchmark suite. As far as the authors know, this is the first example of an FPGA-based automata processor overlay.
Abstract P194: LDL-Cholesterol Reduction and Efficacy of Statin Intensity Over One Year in Veterans With the Familial Hypercholesterolemia Phenotype

Introduction: Severe elevations of LDL-Cholesterol (LDL-C) ≥190mg/dl in adults, representing the familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) phenotype, have been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The 2013 AHA/ACC guidelines recommend high intensity statin therapy to reduce LDL-C by ≥50%. We identified patients with FH phenotype in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) who were statin-naive and determined the degree of LDL-C reduction over one year after statin initiation and the efficacy of statin intensity on ≥50% reduction. Methods: Patients receiving care at the VHA from 2002-2007, ≥21 years of age, with baseline LDL-C measurement of ≥190 mg/dl (LDL-C0), and statin-naive were included. Statin initiation was required within 90 days of LDL-C0, and a follow up level (LDL-C1) had to be collected within one year ± 90 days.All participants were free of clinical CVD at baseline. Baseline characteristics were ascertained from patient charts. LDL-C reduction was defined as the difference...
Architecture independent integrated early performance and energy estimation

The end of Dennard's scaling, coupled with the necessity to keep increasing computational performance in constrained power envelopes, is leading developers towards the need to optimize applications not only for performance, but also for energy consumption. In such a scenario, solutions that enable estimating performance and energy consumption of a program as early as possible, even during development and without the necessity to access the final target hardware, can become fundamental tools to reduce the design space, the optimization effort, and provide potential opportunities to automate the optimization process itself. In this position paper, we discuss the design of a performance and energy estimation framework based on a retargetable compiler. Our proposed approach targets the Intermediate Representation (IR) of the LLVM compiler. The IR based approach enables, after a model is built, estimation from a host different from the target architecture, even considering dynamic information. We present the rationale behind such a framework, identify opportunities and components readily available (such as static analysis, quick ways to add instrumentation for dynamic profiling, and the multiple backends), and aspects that still need further research efforts (such as more effective non-linear, or machine learning based models). We also discuss a hand-developed case study, based on a simple sparse matrix vector multiplication with a linear model, to motivate the needs for such a framework.
A Six-Step Decision-Making Process to Guide Social Skills Instruction:

The availability of effective research-based interventions and practices within schools is a growing concern within the field of education. There remains a lack of interventions that have been fully evaluated for use within schools and by school personnel, particularly in the area of social skills interventions. Understanding the need for social skills interventions and the long-term impact of not receiving appropriate programming is clear. Less is established on how to define the specific need and appropriate manner by which to match intervention to those needs within school settings. This article provides a six-step decision-making process designed to support educators in determining best practice social skills instruction.
Equity and balance in the exchange of contributions in close relationships.

Close relationships, particularly between men and women, are in transition. Brehm (1992) argues that one of the major changes in heterosexual relationships over the past two decades is increased egalitarianism. More and more marriages and other intimate relationships aspire to what has been called an equal-partner pattern (Scanzoni & Scanzoni, 1988). In these relationships, the partners are equally committed to work and domestic roles and contribute equally in other areas of the relationship as well. When relationship partners participate equally in important roles, do fairness and justice issues become less relevant? The answer seems to be no. The interchangeability of roles and the freedom to develop unique scripts in the close relationship can make issues of fairness and justice even more salient and problematic.
Made in the Shade: Moral Compatibilism and the Aims of Moral Theory

The general facts about human needs and abilities are perhaps clear enough and I shall assume that commonsense knowledge suffices for our purposes here.John RawlsTheorizing is a distinctive activity. Within almost any discipline, for example, one finds a recognized distinction between theorists and nontheorists, theoretical work and non-theoretical work. To be sure, the distinction is often a matter of degree. Typically, theorists are identified by their commitment to developing an understanding of their subject matter that possesses certain characteristic features- they aim for generality, comprehensiveness, coherence, well-foundedness, and explanatoriness. They aim to formulate and justify systematic representational systems.Theorizing is not to be confused with reflection, which can be more or less lacking in theoretical ambition. Nor is theorizing to be confused with criticism, which can be piecemeal. Theorizing is a form of reflection, and it can be critical, but theories can be vindicatory, even apologetic.
Retrograde ejaculation: etiology and treatment via the use of a new noninvasive method

Retrograde ejaculation (RE) is not a common infertility problem, but has increased in incidence recently due to surgical aggressiveness in pelvic and genital malignancies. However, RE is the most common cause of aspermia, or absence of ejaculate at orgasm. Meanwhile, surgical or drug therapy methods have not been very promising in regaining normal antegrade ejaculation. As yet, the standard procedures for treatment of RE involve the artificial insemination of either nonprocessed or processed (via centrifugation and resuspension) postcoital voided bladder contents. RE specimens in this study were collected after postcoital voiding into a TEST buffer and resuspended in TEST-yolk buffer. The urine effects on the voided spermatozoa were studied. The technique employed in this study assists in the recovery and reconstitution of RE fit for artificial insemination.
Exclusion of injection efficiency as the primary cause of efficiency droop in semipolar ( 20 2 ̄ 1 ̄ ) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

We extract the injection efficiency as a function of current density in single-quantum-well semipolar ( 20 2 ¯ 1 ¯) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using small-signal RF measurements and rate equation analysis of the dominant carrier mechanisms. The rate equations are used to derive a small-signal equivalent circuit that yields expressions for the modulation response and the input impedance of the LED. Simultaneous fitting of the modulation response and the input impedance of the circuit to the measured modulation response and the input impedance of the LED gives the differential carrier lifetime, the net differential carrier escape time from the active region, and the differential recombination lifetime in the cladding layers. The extracted lifetimes are used to calculate the injection efficiency of the LED at various current densities. Carrier leakage from the active region results in an injection efficiency below one at low current densities. At high current densities, the injection efficiency approaches one due to the higher recombination rate in the quantum well (QW) and the lower carrier leakage. Analysis of the lifetimes shows that the higher recombination rate in the QW results in a slower increase in the carrier population in the QW compared to that in the cladding layers. However, the recombination current in the QW is generally higher than that in the cladding, leading to high injection efficiency at high current densities. The data are consistent with a Coulomb-enhanced capture process. The high injection efficiency obtained at high current densities rules out injection-related mechanisms as the primary cause of efficiency droop in semipolar ( 20 2 ¯ 1 ¯) InGaN/GaN LEDs.
David Oliver: What's behind the reported rise in sepsis deaths?

Recently, Brian Jarman, emeritus professor at Imperial College London and former director of its Doctor Foster Unit—which sends real time mortality rate alerts to hospitals—shared headline data with the BBC from an analysis of deaths from sepsis in the NHS. “Hospital sepsis deaths ‘jump by a third,’” was the BBC’s headline.1 The story was widely reported by the broadcaster and was picked up in other media outlets.2 The reported finding was that absolute numbers of deaths clinically coded as being from sepsis as the primary cause, either in hospital or within 30 days of leaving, rose to 15 722 in the year to April 2017, up 38% since 2015. I’ve since enjoyed very informative correspondence with Professor Jarman on his data analyses and write with his permission. To encompass sepsis, his team looked at coded care episodes …
Ergonomic Improvements in Heavy-Duty Four-Wheel Cart with Pelvis Support

Industrial carts require significant pushing/pulling forces causing postural discomfort to operators in shoulder, neck, lower back. The purpose of this study was to diminish postural uneasiness during the operation of the cart by modifying it. The modified cart includes a pelvis support with a waist belt, an increased handle height and all swivel wheels to scale down the discomfort levels in specific regions and assist with improved motion of the cart. After modification, the discomfort levels on shoulder, lower arms, mid back and lower back are significantly lesser. The results of this study indicate significant difference in discomfort levels and better maneuverability with the modified cart.
MRI radiomic features are associated with survival in melanoma brain metastases treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Background Melanoma brain metastases historically portend a dismal prognosis, but recent advances in immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been associated with durable responses in some patients. There are no validated imaging biomarkers associated with outcomes in patients with melanoma brain metastases receiving ICIs. We hypothesized that radiomic analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRIs) could identify higher-order features associated with survival. Methods Between 2010 and 2019, we retrospectively reviewed patients with melanoma brain metastases who received ICI. After volumes of interest were drawn, several texture and edge descriptors, including first-order, Haralick, Gabor, Sobel, and Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) features were extracted. Progression was determined using Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases. Univariate Cox regression was performed for each radiomic feature with adjustment for multiple comparisons followed by Lasso regression and multivariate analysis. Results Eighty-eight patients with 196 total brain metastases were identified. Median age was 63.5 years (range, 19-91 y). Ninety percent of patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 and 35% had elevated lactate dehydrogenase. Sixty-three patients (72%) received ipilimumab, 11 patients (13%) received programmed cell death protein 1 blockade, and 14 patients (16%) received nivolumab plus ipilimumab. Multiple features were associated with increased overall survival (OS), and LoG edge features best explained the variation in outcome (hazard ratio: 0.68, P = 0.001). In multivariate analysis, a similar trend with LoG was seen, but no longer significant with OS. Findings were confirmed in an independent cohort. Conclusion Higher-order MRI radiomic features in patients with melanoma brain metastases receiving ICI were associated with a trend toward improved OS.
Modern Plication Strategies for Surgical Correction of Peyronie’s Disease

Peyronie’s disease (PD) is an acquired healing disorder of the penis resulting in development of scar tissue within the tunica albuginea which can manifest as bothersome penile curvature and deformity, penile pain, and potentially erectile dysfunction. Surgical correction remains the most reliable and durable treatment for patients with stable disease, which is defined as having penile curvature for at least one year from onset and at least six months of stable deformity (Jordan, Peyronie’s disease. In: Wein, Kavoussi, Novick et al. editors. Campbell-walsh urology. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier; p. 818–838, 2010; Ralph et al. J Sex Med 7:2359–74, 2010; Levine and Burnett, Sex Med 7:3775–83, 2010). Surgery should be offered to those patients who have failed conservative therapy and who are unable to engage in satisfactory penetrative sexual intercourse due to the penile deformity and/or erectile dysfunction. The currently accepted surgical treatments include tunica albuginea plication (TAP) for correction of curvature less than 70 degrees and tunica lengthening (plaque incision or partial excision and grafting) for correction of curvature greater than 70 degrees with or without severe indentation, and/or bothersome penile shortening. When drug-refractory erectile dysfunction is also present, the management option should be placement of a penile prosthesis with straightening maneuvers (Ralph et al., J Sex Med 7:2359–74, 2010; Levine and Burnett, Sex Med 7:3775–83, 2010; Kadioglu et al., Eur Urol 50:235–48, 2006; Hatzimouratidis et al., Eur Urol 62:543–52, 2012).
The Sociological Imagination, Neoliberalism, and Higher Education:

One of the main goals of sociology is to identify and evaluate institutional changes in society. The concept of the sociological imagination has gained wide use as a means of observing how personal...
On Distributed Stochastic Gradient Descent for Nonconvex Functions in the Presence of Byzantines

We consider the distributed stochastic optimization problem of minimizing a nonconvex function f in an adversarial setting. All the w worker nodes in the network are expected to send their stochastic gradient vectors to the fusion center (or server). However, some (at most α-fraction) of the nodes may be Byzantines, which may send arbitrary vectors instead. Vanilla implementation of distributed stochastic gradient descent (SGD) cannot handle such misbehavior from the nodes. We propose a robust variant of distributed SGD which is resilient to the presence of Byzantines. The fusion center employs a novel filtering rule that identifies and removes the Byzantine nodes. We show that$T = \tilde O\left( {\frac{1}{{w{\varepsilon ^2}}} + \frac{{{\alpha ^2}}}{{{\varepsilon ^2}}}} \right)$ iterations are needed to achieve an -approximate stationary point (x such that${\left\| {\nabla f(x)} \right\|^2} \leq \varepsilon $) for the nonconvex learning problem. Unlike other existing approaches, the proposed algorithm is independent of the problem dimension.
A tale of two sets of norms: Comparing opportunities for student agency in mathematics lessons with and without interactive simulations

Abstract Previous research has documented the importance of setting up productive norms in mathematics classrooms. Studies have also shown the potential for activities involving interactive simulations (sims) to support student engagement and learning. In this study, we investigated the relationship between norms and sim-based activities. In particular, we examined the social and sociomathematical norms in lessons taught with and without the use of PhET sims in the same teacher’s middle-school mathematics classroom. There were statistically significant differences in indicators of social norms between the two types of lessons. In sim lessons, the teacher more frequently took the role of a facilitator of mathematical ideas, and students exhibited conceptual agency more often than they did in non-sim lessons. On the other hand, there was substantial overlap: the teacher usually acted as an evaluator, and the students usually exhibited disciplinary agency in both types of lessons. However, there was a stark contrast in sociomathematical norms between the two types of lessons. Students’ specifically mathematical obligations in non-sim lessons consistently included practicing procedures in isolation and appealing to rules. Obligations in sim lessons included developing and sharing strategies, making conjectures and providing justifications. In both types of lessons, students were obligated to recall mathematical facts and vocabulary. Thus, the social norms were broadly consistent except for important differences in frequency, whereas we found substantial qualitative contrasts in the sociomathematical norms in the two types of lessons. This case provides evidence that contrasting norms can exist within the same classroom. We argue from our data that these differences may be mediated by curricular choices—in this case, the use of sims.
Latent Profile Analysis of Traditional and Cyber-Aggression and Victimization: Associations with Dark Triad Traits and Psychopathology Symptoms

Research has shown that while traditional (e.g., physical and relational) and cyber aggression and victimization often co-occur, individuals may differ in terms of their experiences with aggression and victimization as well as social-psychological adjustment. The current study investigated whether there are distinct groups of college students who experience different forms of aggression and victimization using latent profile analysis (LPA), and whether these groups differ from one another in their maladaptive personality characteristics and psychopathology symptoms. Participants were 540 undergraduate students from a Midwestern university (53% female; 78.5% White; average age = 19.27 years). Four profiles were identified: Non-Involved (80.7%), Traditional Victim-Only (10.3%), Traditional Aggressor/Victim (4.8%), and Combined Aggressor/Victim (traditional aggression, cyber aggression and victimization; 4.1%). Maladaptive personality traits and psychopathology symptoms differed across the four groups. Both the traditional aggressor/victim group and the combined aggressor/victim group, compared to the non-involved and traditional victim-only group, reported higher levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. The traditional aggressor/victim group, compared to the combined aggressor/victim group, reported higher levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and CU traits. The combined aggressor/victim group reported higher levels of psychopathology symptoms (i.e., emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, and stress) compared to the traditional aggressor/victim group. These findings enhance our understanding of the heterogeneity in experiences with aggression and victimization among college students, and highlight the importance of developing interventions that target their specific mental health needs.
Comparison of the Wind-over-Water with the Wind-Water-Solar Concept

In this chapter the previously described evaluation criteria for global renewable power generation methods are applied to the wind-over-water and the wind-water-solar proposal.
O fenômeno das fake news e a pandemia: os multiletramentos digitais em questão

The study, with a hermeneutic approach, holds a debate about fake news and its resonance in social life, in particular, during the pandemic period caused by COVID-19. We reflected on how contact with fake news can cause interference in educational processes and in different segments of society. We list considerations about digital multi-tools as a means of pedagogical dialogue, which involves the mobilization of a set of literacies and social practices interconnected and sensitive to vital contexts as a condition for tackling fake news in education.
Attention Mechanism with BERT for Content Annotation and Categorization of Pregnancy-Related Questions on a Community Q&A Site

In recent years, the social web has been increasingly used for health information seeking, sharing, and subsequent health-related research. Women often use the Internet or social networking sites to seek information related to pregnancy in different stages. They may ask questions about birth control, trying to conceive, labor, or taking care of a newborn or baby. Classifying different types of questions about pregnancy information (e.g., before, during, and after pregnancy) can inform the design of social media and professional websites for pregnancy education and support. This research aims to investigate the attention mechanism built-in or added on top of the BERT model in classifying and annotating the pregnancy-related questions posted on a community Q&A site. We evaluated two BERT-based models and compared them against the traditional machine learning models for question classification. Most importantly, we investigated two attention mechanisms: the built-in selfattention mechanism of BERT and the additional attention layer on top of BERT for relevant term annotation. The classification performance showed that the BERT-based models worked better than the traditional models, and BERT with an additional attention layer can achieve higher overall precision than the basic BERT model. The results also showed that both attention mechanisms work differently on annotating relevant content, and they could serve as feature selection methods for text mining in general.
Biomolecular Systems Engineering: Unlocking the Potential of Engineered Allostery via the Lactose Repressor Topology.

Allosteric function is a critical component of many of the parts used to construct gene networks throughout synthetic biology. In this review, we discuss an emerging field of research and education...
A model of surface dielectric barrier discharge power

Surface dielectric barrier discharges (SDBDs) are a type of asymmetric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) that can be used to generate ions and produce aerodynamic forces in air. They have shown promise in a range of aerospace applications, including as actuators for solid-state aircraft control or aerodynamic enhancement and as ion sources for electroaerodynamic aircraft propulsion. However, their power draw characteristics are not well understood. Whereas existing approaches use empirical functional fits to estimate the power of specific SDBD configurations, we develop here a physics-based model for SDBD power consumption that accounts for material and geometric variation between SDBDs. The model is based on models for parallel-plate or “volume” DBDs but accounts for the “virtual electrode” resulting from changing plasma length that is particular to SDBDs. We experimentally measure the power of SDBDs of three materials, eleven thicknesses, and 29 electrical operating points to find a correlation with r2=0.99 (n = 106) between model and experiment. We also use SDBD power measurements from four experiments in the literature and find a correlation with r2=0.99 (n = 101) between our model and these experiments. Since we do not use any measured parameters from those experiments in our model, this suggests that our model has the ability to robustly predict the power for different SDBD construction methods and experimental techniques. Therefore, this work provides a robust method for the quantitative design and power optimization of SDBDs for a range of engineering applications, including aerospace propulsion.
The Association Between Upper Airway Patency and Speaking Valve Trial Tolerance for Patients With Tracheostomy: A Clinical Retrospective Study and an In Vitro Study.

Purpose Upper airway patency is crucial in a patient's ability to tolerate a one-way speaking valve (SV). Traditional assessment of airway patency is mainly subjective. We developed four noninvasive methods to assess patency (leak volume, transtracheal pressure [TTP], end-tidal CO2, and Mallampati score) in our institution. This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the four methods and explore the relationship between the patient's upper airway patency and SV trial tolerance. Method A retrospective cohort study was conducted to enroll adult patients with tracheostomies eligible for an SV trial from April 2019 through January 2020. An in vitro study was also implemented to explore the relationship between upper airway patency and noninvasive measurements. Results Forty patients (22 men and 18 women) were included; 16 used SV in-line with mechanical ventilation. Twenty-four patients tolerated an SV trial of > 10 min; they had lower TTP (3.0 [2.0-9.0] vs. 15.0 [9.3-21.3] cm H2O, p 9 cm H2O (86.4 vs. 35.3%, p = .002). The in vitro study demonstrated a strong correlation between upper airway patency and TTP, peak inspiratory flow, and tidal volume inhaled from the upper airway. Conclusions TTP, Mallampati classification, and leak volume can be used to assess upper airway patency for adult patients with tracheostomies undergoing an SV trial. A TTP of ≤ 9 cm H2O might indicate adequate upper airway patency to tolerate the SV trial.
Identification of resistance sources to Fusarium wilt race 4 in Gossypium barbadense and cultivated Asiatic diploid species

Fusarium wilt (FW, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum Atk. Sny & Hans) race 4 (FOV4) in cotton was originally identified in India and has become a serious problem in the US production. The cultivated diploid or Asiatic cotton species (Gossypium arboreum L. and G. herbaceum L.) may contain resistance to FOV4, because both the host and the pathogen originated from the same region. In addition to Pima S-6 which is currently the sole source of FOV4 resistance in Pima cotton (G. barbadense L.), other sources of resistance are urgently needed. In this study, 372 Asiatic and 152 G. barbadense accessions were evaluated for FOV4 resistance at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after inoculation (DAI) under temperature-controlled conditions (20–23 °C). Foliar disease severity ratings (DSR) at 28 DAI were determined using a rating scale from 0 (for no symptoms) to 5 (for plant death). Significant genotypic differences were detected for FOV4 resistance within the Asiatic and the G. barbadense L. accessions. Most accessions were highly susceptible to FOV4 in that the diploid and Pima accessions had an overall DSR of 4.05 and 4.32, respectively, and 50 and 60% of the accessions exhibited 100% mortality, respectively. Ten diploid accessions were most resistant with a DSR ranging from 0.63 to 2.61. The most resistant G. barbadense accessions were Giza 67, Tanguis 84–65, XH30, PHY 800 Pima, AZK 144, Sind S.I. (AZK 271), Pima 84524, Pima 93252, PHY 805 RF and 8945-1, with a DSR ranging from 2.5 to 3.17. These accessions will provide important sources of resistance to FOV4. Heterogeneity in FOV4 resistance was detected, even in the most resistant accessions. Further pedigree selection should increase the frequencies of resistant plants in the heterogeneous accessions.
Li 8 from the Be 9 ( t ,α ) 8 Li reaction

The $^{9}\mathrm{Be}$(t,\ensuremath{\alpha}) reaction has been used to populate states in $^{8}\mathrm{Li}$. Angular distributions were measured for four low-lying narrow states, and distorted-wave Born approximation calculations (including coupled channels) were used to analyze the data. The results are compared with results of a $^{9}\mathrm{Be}$(d${,}^{3}$He) reaction and with Cohen-Kurath shell-model predictions.
Least Sum of Absolute Residuals Orbit Determination

A statistical orbit determination approach that minimizes the sum of absolute errors incurred by the vector measurements is developed. An iterative linear program is derived for the differential co...
Hydrologic and water quality impacts and biomass production potential on marginal land

Marginal land is proposed as viable land resources for biofuel production. However, environmental impacts of perennial biomass production on marginal lands is not clear. This study defined three marginal land types and assessed their availability and potential for biofuel production in the St. Joseph River watershed. The potential impacts were evaluated using the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. The total area of marginal land was estimated to be 611?km2 covering 21.7% of the watershed. 161 and 207 million liters of bioethanol could be produced from the marginal land utilizing switchgrass and Miscanthus, respectively. Converting marginal land currently under corn/soybean production to switchgrass and Miscanthus reduced water yield by 13.4-36.3% and improved water quality by reducing soil erosion by 27%-98%. Similarly, total nitrogen losses were reduced by 30-91% and total phosphorus losses were reduced by 65-76%, respectively, at the field scales under various energy crop production scenarios. 21.7% of the St. Joseph River watershed are identified as marginal land.161 to 207 million liter bioethanol could be produced from marginal land.Water yield will potentially be reduced by 13%-36% at field scale.Soil erosion will potentially be reduced by 27%-90% at field scale.Nitrogen and phosphorus losses will generally be reduced at field scale.
Disorders of Sex Development

Any infant in whom there is discordance between the appearance of the external genitalia and the karyotype may be considered to have ambiguous genitalia or a disorder of sex development (DSD) condition. For both medical and social reasons, DSD are considered urgent urological conditions to evaluate and treat. The initial medical evaluation and treatment are focused on an evaluation of the underlying condition and a determination of the most appropriate gender of rearing for the infant. Careful communication via a DSD multidisciplinary team with the family is essential in cases of ambiguous genitalia. The ultimate success for an infant with ambiguous genitalia may depend as much on the quality and extent of psychosocial support as on sophisticated medical and surgical management.
Bence-Jones Proteins and Light Chains of Immunoglobulins VII. LOCALIZATION OF ANTIGENIC SITES RESPONSIBLE FOR IMMUNOCHEMICAL HETEROGENEITY OF κ CHAINS

Abstract The evaluation of numerous anti-κ chain antisera through immunochemical studies of κ light chains for which complete or partial sequence data were available has resulted in the localization of three distinct regions in the variant half of the light chain which are associated with specific antigenic sites. The residue at position 9 appears to be associated with an antigenic site which, in general, may be termed a group-related antigenic site. The residues at positions 45 and 94 through 96 are associated with two distinct antigenic sites which are recognized specifically by numerous antisera and are responsible for certain intergroup similarities and intragroup differences among κ chains. Many of the antisera readily distinguish among proteins which have been structurally assigned to the same subgroup. The localization of distinct regions which markedly influence the nature of the antigenicity of the light chain molecule provides a molecular basis for the observed heterogeneity among κ chains and contributes to the knowledge of the tertiary structure of the polypeptide chain.
A 20-kilodalton protein preserves cell viability and promotes CytA crystal formation during sporulation in Bacillus thuringiensis.

The effect of a 20-kDa protein on cell viability and CytA crystal production in its natural host, Bacillus thuringiensis, was studied by expressing the cytA gene in the absence or presence of this protein. In the absence of the 20-kDa protein, B. thuringiensis cells either were killed during sporulation (strain cryB) or produced very small CytA crystals (strain 4Q7). Expression of cytA in the presence of the 20-kDa protein, however, preserved cell viability, especially in strain cryB, and in both strains yielded bipyramidal crystals of the CytA protein that were larger than those of wild-type B. thuringiensis. These results suggest that the 20-kDa protein promotes crystal formation, perhaps by chaperoning CytA molecules during synthesis and crystallization, concomitantly preventing the CytA protein from interacting lethally with the bacterial host cell. Images
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour

In Reassembling the Social, Bruno Latour elucidates a set of ideas that are provocative, difficult, and potentially tremendously important for any kind of social analysis. Latour's project is funda...
Linking the bands of the MOT spectrum through product design: an internationally applicable management operation for reconciling divergent view of MOT

An attempt is made to reconcile divergent views of management of technology (MOT) by emphasizing the role of product design as a most important attribute/component of the MOT strategy and by relating MOT to other identifiable parallel broad-management parameters/philosophies, such as total quality management, total productivity, technology transfer, and the more encompassing concept of life-cycle enterprise management. The current status of cooperative efforts is examined, and product design is considered as a foundation for motivating cooperation and reducing the risks of decisions. >
Variable electricity prices for aluminium smelting in northwestern USA

Abstract Bonneville Power Administration, the marketing agency for the federally developed regional electric power system, has served power to a large part of the US aluminium industry for 50 years. During the last decade changes in regional energy economics and legislation have led to steeply rising power rates. These rate increases collided with an aluminium industry itself under-going structural changes, resulting in increased competition and poor market conditions. This situation threatened not only aluminium smelting capacity, but also Bonneville's financial condition, which depends heavily on aluminium power sales revenue. The solution was a programme designed to increase the flexibility and predictability of power rates and provide incentives to restore the competitiveness of the regional industry. The results, so far, are encouraging.
Safety Issues Specific to Clinical Development of Protein Therapeutics

Discoveries in molecular sciences have advanced research into therapeutics that target an array of newly identified ligands and receptors with the hope of meeting critical needs of patients with chronic or life-threatening diseases. Protein or biologic therapeutics include peptides, endogenous proteins, monoclonal antibodies, hybrids such as Fc construct molecules (including peptibodies and soluble receptors), and avimers. Proteins may be purified animal derivatives, fully human, or have portions of animal and human proteins engineered together into chimeric and humanized monoclonal antibodies. Although some reports distinguish therapeutic proteins from monoclonal antibodies, for the purposes of this article the terms biologics and proteins are used interchangeably. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2008); 84, 5, 624–627 doi:10.1038/clpt.2008.158
Neonatal oxytocin treatment modulates oxytocin receptor, atrial natriuretic peptide, nitric oxide synthase and estrogen receptor mRNAs expression in rat heart.

Oxytocin (OT) has been implicated in reproductive functions, induction of maternal behavior as well as endocrine and neuroendocrine regulation of the cardiovascular system. Here we demonstrate that neonatal manipulation of OT can modulate the mRNAs expression for OT receptor (OTR), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in the heart. On the first day of postnatal life, female and male rats were randomly assigned to receive one of following treatments; (a) 50 µl i.p. injection of 7 µg OT, (b) 0.7 µg of OT antagonist (OTA), or (c) isotonic saline (SAL). Hearts were collected either on postnatal day 1 or day 21 (D1 or D21) and the mRNAs expression of OTR, ANP, inducible NOS (iNOS), eNOS, ERα and estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) were compared by age, treatment, and sex utilizing Real Time PCR. OT treatment significantly increased heart OTR, ANP and eNOS mRNAs expression on D1 in both males and females, ERα increased only in females. While there were significant changes in the relative expression of all types of mRNA between D1 and D21 there were no significant treatment effects observed in D21 animals. OTA treatment significantly decreased basal ANP and eNOS mRNAs expression on D1 in both sexes. The results indicate that during the early postnatal period OT can have an immediate effect on the expression OTR, ANP, eNOS, and ERα mRNAs and that these effects are mitigated by D21. Also with the exception of ERα mRNA, the effects are the same in both sexes.
Effectiveness of Brand‐related 15‐second Commercials

While 15‐second commercials appeared to have peaked at 40 percent in terms of network usage in the US, it appears that the commercial format is here to stay. A recent development has been the use of “book‐end” configurations of such commercials, where the 15‐second commercials are separated by other advertising. Looks at a variation of this approach where self‐contained but related 15‐second commercials are used in a single one‐minute pod. Results show that pod configuration matters in terms of copy point recall for the 15‐second commercial. In short, pod configuration matters when using 15‐second related and unrelated commercials in conjunction with other longer commercials.
Environmental management: A system approach

This paper presents a system framework whose purpose is to improve understanding of environmental management. By analyzing the links between elements of the environmental management system, it is possible to construct a model that aids thinking systematically about the decision-making subsystem, and other subsystems, of the entire environmental management system. Through a multidisciplinary environmental approach, each of the individual subsystems is able to adapt to threats and opportunities. The fields of government, market economics, social responsibility and ecology, for example, are so complex that it is extremely difficult to develop a framework that gives full consideration to all aspects. This paper, through the application of a highly idealized system framework, attempts to show the general relationships that exist between complex system elements.