cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Profiling of secure chat and calling apps from encrypted traffic

Increased use of secure chat and voice/ video apps has transformed the social life. While the benefits and facilitations are seemingly limitless, so are the asscoiacted vulnerabilities and threats. Besides ensuring confidentiality requirements for common users, known facts of non-readable contents over the network make these apps more attractive for criminals. Though access to contents of cryptograhically secure sessions is not possible, network forensics of secure apps can provide interesting information which can be of great help during criminal invetigations. In this paper, we presented a novel framework of profiling the secure chat and voice/ video calling apps which can be employed to extract hidden patterns about the app, information of involved parties, activities of chatting, voice/ video calls, status indications and notifications while having no information of communication protocol of the app and its security architecture. Signatures of any secure app can be developed though our framework and can become base of a large scale solution. Our methodology is considered very important for different cases of criminal investigations and bussiness intelligence solutions for service provider networks. Our results are applicable to any mobile platform of iOS, android and windows.
Stabilization of RNA Encapsulated in Silk

The use of mRNA and miRNA as diagnostic parameters and therapeutic agents has drawn wide interest both clinically and in research. However, RNA is a labile molecule, which requires strict storage conditions, often including cold temperatures or dry environments, in order to preserve RNA integrity. Achieving this requires huge costs for storage and added difficulty in transport. To address these issues, we introduce a system to encapsulate and store it long-term in dried silk fibroin matrices. At temperatures up to 45 °C, mRNA samples stored in lyophilized silk matrices showed good stability over 1 week, as measured by real-time PCR to assess transcript recovery. While the presence of the silk interfered with the generation of cDNA required for quantitation at roughly 1% w/v (400:1 silk:RNA mass), this phenomenon was resolved by the use of commercial RNA purification kits for silk concentrations up to 4% w/v. A higher concentration of silk correlated with increased thermal protection. As an alternative to ...
A Market for Knowledge

For more than a decade, market-oriented education reformers have touted the ability of competition to improve American education. While arguing that competition will nonetheless promote quality, efficiency, and innovation, these advocates have avoided the blunt, self-interested language of markets.
Photobiological Methods of Renewable Hydrogen Production

Oxygenic photosynthetic microbes such as green algae and cyanobacteria normally absorb sunlight and store the energy in the form of polysaccharides such as starch (in green algae) or glycogen (in cyanobacteria). These storage biomolecules are mobilized, as required, to produce the energy needed to drive microbial metabolism. The conversion of light energy into chemical potential, “the light reactions of photosynthesis”, is well described and has been reviewed recently (cf. Ref. 32,132,184, and references therein). Under certain conditions these microbes can use the energy from sunlight to produce H2 gas instead of fixing carbon, and thus are at least partially able to sustain growth and cellular repair function although at lower than normal levels for up to several days. However, H2 production is not the normal function of algal and cyanobacterial photosynthesis. Indeed, the H2-producing enzymes are not even synthesized under normal growth conditions (with the exception of some cyanobacteria), and their genes are only expressed following exposure to specific environmental conditions. Nevertheless, it is this type of biological function that offers the potential to efficiently generate renewable H2 in direct light conversion processes. The photobiological production of H2 by oxygenic, photosynthetic organisms occurs in four major sequential steps:
Inner Strength—State of the Science

The phenomenon of inner strength has been investigated since 1990. Foundations for inner strength have been developed using inductive designs that have led to a middle-range theory of inner strength and a conceptual model. Two instruments have been developed to measure and test inner strength and have been predominantly used in samples of women and the elderly. This paper will trace the development of inner strength knowledge from two distinct paradigms in North America and Northern Europe. Empirical testing is described. Gaps in the current state of knowledge of inner strength are identified as well as implications for future research.
Epidemiology of Cannabis Use Disorder

The field of epidemiology provides information about the occurrence and distribution of cannabis use disorders (CUD) over the years, giving clinicians a greater understanding of who may be at increased or decreased risk of cannabis-related problems and why, with the ultimate goal of helping to help guide interventions to reduce public health burden. This chapter describes the goals of epidemiology, defines what constitutes cannabis use and disorder, and summarizes national CUD trends at a population level. Included are discussions of risk factors, subgroup differences, and comorbidity as integral components of a comprehensive picture of CUD, as well as a necessary and timely discussion of cannabis policy and how the continuing evolution of cannabis legislation across US states could impact cannabis use and disorder, and how we treat them, moving forward.
Student health administrator perspectives on college vaccine policy development and implementation.

Abstract Background Immunization policies at colleges and universities differ greatly for many reasons, including prior experience with disease outbreaks and state immunization requirements. Few studies comprehensively explore the range of factors that influence the development of college vaccine policies or facilitators and barriers to their implementation. Objective To explore the perceptions and decision-making process that influence college vaccine policy development and implementation from the perspective of student health administrators. Methods This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with student health administrators (N = 10) from ten U.S. colleges and universities purposefully sampled by school type (public vs. private) and geographic region. A descriptive codebook was developed from the interview guide, and each interview was double-coded using NVivo 11 software (κ = 0.87; inter-observer reliability = 99.4%). Results We coded 5785 phrases. Administrators positively viewed their institutions’ vaccine requirements, but some expressed concerns about the acceptance of philosophical and religious exemptions. They noted that students were generally ambivalent towards vaccine requirements, and while students recognized the benefits of vaccination, they did not prioritize immunizations. All administrators cited reliance on governmental and professional organizations as well as state regulations for decisions regarding vaccine requirements and recommendations at their institutions. Partnerships with other school departments, pharmaceutical companies, immunization coalitions, and healthcare providers were frequently cited as facilitators of college vaccine programs. Costs of purchasing, storing, and tracking vaccines were identified as major barriers. Conclusions We identified key themes that can be evaluated in subsequent studies to identify factors associated with successful implementation of university immunization programs and inform initiatives to increase vaccine acceptance and optimize immunization rates on college and university campuses.
PEPTIDES | Tachykinins and Epilepsy

There are at least seven tachykinins in the human body, and their actions are diverse. Tachykinins are predominantly excitatory, in the brain (presynaptic enhancement of glutamate release), and enhance motility in the gut and inflammation in many tissues. Substance P and neurokinin B are involved in status epilepticus, and are overexpressed in the mossy fibers, the axons of hippocampal granule cells, after intense seizure activity. Their antagonists are among the most potent inhibitors of established status epilepticus, but have not so far been developed for clinical use. Our understanding of the physiological functions of tachykinins is still fragmentary, and we need more studies of the physiological and pathological roles that tachykinins play in the human brain and in human epilepsy.
Non-invasive plant disease diagnostics enabled by smartphone-based fingerprinting of leaf volatiles.

Plant pathogen detection conventionally relies on molecular technology that is complicated, time-consuming and constrained to centralized laboratories. We developed a cost-effective smartphone-based volatile organic compound (VOC) fingerprinting platform that allows non-invasive diagnosis of late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans by monitoring characteristic leaf volatile emissions in the field. This handheld device integrates a disposable colourimetric sensor array consisting of plasmonic nanocolorants and chemo-responsive organic dyes to detect key plant volatiles at the ppm level within 1 min of reaction. We demonstrate the multiplexed detection and classification of ten individual plant volatiles with this field-portable VOC-sensing platform, which allows for early detection of tomato late blight 2 d after inoculation, and differentiation from other pathogens of tomato that lead to similar symptoms on tomato foliage. Furthermore, we demonstrate a detection accuracy of ≥95% in diagnosis of P. infestans in both laboratory-inoculated and field-collected tomato leaves in blind pilot tests. Finally, the sensor platform has been beta-tested for detection of P. infestans in symptomless tomato plants in the greenhouse setting. A simple, cheap and portable smartphone-based sensor is used to detect the presence of ten different volatiles emitted during tomato infection by an oomycete.
Varying Food Practices Among Three Low-Income Groups in the Northeastern United States: Rural, Homeless & Refugee

The purpose of this research is to gain an in-depth understanding of low-income food practices among groups at or below the poverty line, to include: a rural group, a homeless group, and a refugee group. To explore how food practices differ among the low-income groups, an ethnographic design was used, including 60 hours of observations in group venues and individual/family homes, and 22 semi-structured interviews, conducted in the Northeastern United States. The findings from this study suggest that each low-income group has distinct food practices and consumption patterns. The following paper describes three main characteristics found within each group: 1) time spent preparing and eating food, 2) food item types, and 3) cooking skills. This research adds to the growing body of literature showing heterogeneity in food practices among low-income groups, and calls for increased scholarly and political recognition of the differences that exist within groups sharing similar economic situations.
Nuclear Fission Dynamics: Past, Present, Needs, and Future

Significant progress in the understanding of the fission process within a microscopic framework has been recently reported. Even though the complete description of this important nuclear reaction remains a computationally demanding task, recent developments in theoretical modeling and computational power have brought current microscopic simulations to the point where they can provide guidance and constraints to phenomenological models, without making recourse to parameters. An accurate treatment compatible with our understanding of the inter-nucleon interactions should be able to describe the real-time dynamics of the fissioning system and could justify or rule out assumptions and approximations incompatible with the underlying universally accepted quantum-mechanical framework. Of particular importance are applications to observables that cannot be directly measured in experimental setups (such as the angular momentum distribution of the fission fragments, or the excitation energy sharing between the fission fragments, or fission of nuclei formed during the $r$-process), and their dependence of the excitation energy in the fissioning system. Even if accurate predictions are not within reach, being able to extract the trends with increasing excitation energy is important in various applications. The most advanced microscopic simulations of the fission process do not support the widely used assumption of adiabaticity of the large amplitude collective motion in fission, in particular for trajectories from the outer saddle towards the scission configuration. Hence, the collective potential energy surface and inertia tensor, which are the essential elements of many simplified microscopic theoretical approaches, become irrelevant. In reality, the dynamics of the fissioning system is slower than in the case of pure adiabatic motion by a factor of three to four times and is strongly overdamped. The fission fragment properties are defined only after the full separation, while in most of the current approaches no full separation can be achieved, which increases the uncertainties in describing fission-related observables in such methods
Relational Peer Victimization Interacts With Depression Severity to Predict the Timing of Alcohol Use Initiation in Adolescent Girls.

Background Peer victimization is consistently linked to adolescents' alcohol use. However, the relative influence of relational and physical peer victimization on alcohol use, and timing of drinking initiation, is not well understood. In this study, we evaluate the impact of both relational and physical peer victimization on adolescent girls' alcohol use initiation, and the extent to which depression severity moderates these associations. Methods Participants were 2,125 girls in the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a longitudinal community-based study. Participants reported experiences of relational and physical peer victimization, depression severity, and alcohol use each year from ages 10 to 17. Cox proportional hazards (PH) regression analyses predicting the timing of first drink were conducted in 2 stages, testing for main effects of peer victimization in Model 1 and moderation by depression severity in Model 2. Results Analyses were split at age 14 to adjust for PH violations. Model 1 results supported a main effect for relational (Hazards ratio [HR] = 1.83, CI: 1.46 to 2.28 ≤ age 13; HR = 1.23, CI: 1.05 to 1.45 ≥ age 14) but not physical victimization on timing of alcohol use onset (HR = 1.10, CI: 0.88 to 1.39). Model 2 results show that depression severity moderates the association between relational victimization and alcohol use initiation: the association between relational victimization and early alcohol use onset was stronger for lower depression severity (-1 SD HR = 2.38, CI: 1.68 to 3.39 ≤ age 13; -1 SD HR = 1.48, CI: 1.10 to 1.52 ≥ age 14). Conclusions Results demonstrate that relational (and not physical) victimization predicts earlier drinking among adolescent girls. Relational peer victimization conferred greater risk for alcohol use initiation when depression severity was lower, whereas girls with high depression severity engaged in early alcohol use regardless of peer victimization. Results suggest that interventions focused on relational peer victimization may have spillover effects for delaying girls' alcohol use initiation, particularly in early adolescence, when this association is most robust.
Whole Food-Based Approaches to Modulating Gut Microbiota and Associated Diseases

Intake of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables, may confer health benefits to the host. The beneficial effects of fruits and vegetables were mainly attributed to their richness in polyphenols...
Advances in the Diagnosis of Venous Thromboembolism: A Literature Review

The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), including lower extremity deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is increasing. The increase in suspicion for VTE has lowered the threshold for performing imaging studies to confirm diagnosis of VTE. However, only 20% of suspected cases have a confirmed diagnosis of VTE. Development of pulmonary embolism rule-out criteria (PERC) and update in pre-test probability have changed the paradigm of ruling-out patient with low index of suspicion. The D-dimer test in conjunction to the pre-test probability has been utilized in VTE diagnosis. The age appropriate D-dimer cutoff and inclusion of YEARS algorithm (signs of the DVT, hemoptysis and whether PE is the likely diagnosis) for the D-dimer cutoff have been recent updates in the evaluation of suspected PE. Multi-detector computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and compression ultrasound (CUS) are the preferred imaging modality to diagnose PE and DVT respectively. The VTE diagnostic algorithm do differ in pregnant individuals. The prerequisite of avoiding excessive radiation has recruited planar ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) scan as preferred in pregnant patients to evaluate for PE. The modification of CUS protocol with addition of the Valsalva maneuver should be performed while evaluating DVT in pregnant individual.
DCT-Based Local Descriptor for Robust Matching and Feature Tracking in Wide Area Motion Imagery

We introduce a novel discrete cosine transform-based feature (DCTF) descriptor designed for both robustly matching features in aerial video and tracking features across wide-baseline oblique views in aerial wide area motion imagery (WAMI). Our DCTF descriptor preserves local structure more compactly in the frequency domain by utilizing the mathematical properties of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and outperforms widely used the spatial-domain feature extraction methods, such as speeded up robust features (SURF) and scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT). The DCTF descriptor can be used in combination with other feature detectors, such as SURF and features from accelerated segment test (FAST), for which we provide experimental results. The performance of DCTF for image matching and feature tracking is evaluated on two city-scale aerial WAMI data sets (ABQ-215 and LA-351) and a synthetic aerial drone video data set digital imaging and remote sensing image generation (Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)-DIRSIG). DCTF is a compact 120-D descriptor that is less than half the dimensionality of state-of-the-art deep learning-based approaches, such as SuperPoint, LF-Net, and DeepCompare, which requires no learning and is domain-independent. Despite its small size, the DCTF descriptor surprisingly produces the highest image matching accuracies ( $F_{1} = 0.76$ and ABQ-215), the longest maximum and average feature track lengths, and the lowest tracking error (0.3 pixel, LA-351) compared with both handcrafted and deep learning features.
A Multi-modal Graph Neural Network Approach to Traffic Risk Forecasting in Smart Urban Sensing

Forecasting traffic accidents at a fine-grained spatial scale is essential to provide effective precautions and improve traffic safety in smart urban sensing applications. Current solutions primarily rely on complete historical traffic accident records and/or accurate real-time traffic sensor data for traffic risk prediction. These solutions are prone to various limitations (e.g., facility availability, privacy and legal constraints). In this paper, we address those limitations by exploring two types of widely available and complementary data sources: social media sensing and remote sensing. However, three important technical challenges exist: i) the social media data and remote sensing data often have different data modalities and characteristics, which makes it difficult to effectively fuse them for traffic risk forecasting; ii) the social media data is often noisy, providing fuzzy evidence to capture the spatial-temporal dynamics of traffic accident occurrences; iii) the remote sensing data often contains complex visual features, making it a non-trivial task to explore the accident occurrence correlation between different locations. To address the above challenges, we propose GraphCast, a multi-modal graph neural network framework to accurately forecast the traffic risks in a city by jointly exploring the social media sensing and remote sensing paradigms. The evaluation results on a real-world case study in New York City show that our GraphCast scheme significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art conventional and deep learning baselines in accurately forecasting the traffic risks in a city.
Factors Affecting International Contractors’ Performance in the 21st Century

AbstractApplying advanced technologies and efficient project management techniques helped United States (US) contractors build a strong track record in international construction. Engineering News-...
An experimentally validated model of diffusion charging of arbitrary shaped aerosol particles

Abstract Particle shape strongly influences the diffusion charging of aerosol particles exposed to bipolar/unipolar ions and accurate modeling is needed to predict the charge distribution of non-spherical particles. A prior particle-ion collision kernel β i model including Coulombic and image potential interactions for spherical particles is generalized for arbitrary shapes following a scaling approach that uses a continuum and free molecular particle length scale and Langevin dynamics simulations of non-spherical particle-ion collisions for attractive Coulomb-image potential interactions. This extended β i model for collisions between unlike charged particle-ion (bipolar charging) and like charged particle-ion (unipolar charging) is validated by comparing against published experimental data of bipolar charge distributions for diverse shapes. Comparison to the bipolar charging data for spherical particles shows good agreement in air, argon, and nitrogen, while also demonstrating high accuracy in predicting charge states up to ± 6 . Comparisons to the data for fractal aggregates reveal that the LD-based β i model predicts within overall ± 30 % without any systematic bias. The mean charge on linear chain aggregates and charge fractions on cylindrical particles is found to be in good agreement with the measurements ( ~ ± 20 % overall). The comparison with experimental results supports the use of LD-based diffusion charging models to predict the bipolar and unipolar charge distribution of arbitrary shaped aerosol particles for a wide range of particle size, and gas temperature, pressure. The presented β i model is valid for perfectly conducting particles and in the absence of external electric fields; these simplifications need to be addressed in future work on particle charging.
Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Sampling of Solid Pancreatic Lesions: A Comparative Analysis of 25 Gauge Versus 22 Gauge Core Biopsy Needles

Background Pancreatic mass sampling has historically been performed by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). However, its sensitivity has been reported to be within a wide range, which limits its reliability. Fine needle biopsy (FNB) has been shown to have superior diagnostic performance and is increasingly replacing fine needle aspiration. In FNA, 25 gauge (G) needles appear to outperform 22G. Data comparing these sizes in FNB platforms is limited. We aimed to prospectively compare the performance of 22G and 25G Franseen-tip core biopsy needles in the sampling of solid pancreatic lesions. Patients and methods Patients who underwent EUS-FNB of pancreatic lesions at the Indiana University Hospital using 2 needle sizes: 25G (Study group) and 22G (Control group) using the Acquire needle (Boston Scientific Co., Natick, MA, USA) were enrolled. Needle choice was left to the discretion of the endosonographer. Tissue specimens were evaluated onsite, and underwent touch and smear and cellblock preparation. Specimens were independently evaluated by 2 expert cytopathologists blinded to diagnosis. Cytopathologists assessed cytological yield (on smears) and histological yield (on cellblock) using a validated scoring system reached by a consensus among our cytopathologists as we have previously published. Results A total of 75 patients (42 males, median=65 years) underwent EUS-FNB during the study period (2017-2018): 50 using 25G and 25 using 22G needle. Diagnostic yield was numerically higher in 25G (98% vs. 88%, p=0.105). Number of passes for smears were similar, however the 25G group required additional passes for cell-block (1.6 vs. 0.4, p=0.001). 25G was used more frequently for pancreatic head and uncinate process sampling (70% vs. 52%, p=0.126). Four patients had self-limited adverse events in the 22G group, but none in the 25G group. Conclusion We report no difference in the diagnostic yield between 25G FNB vs. 22G sampling device with Franseen style tip, however, the 25G needle use was associated with the need of additional passes to collect a sufficient cell block.
The Effect of a Clinical Pathway on Reducing the Rate of Healthcare-Onset Clostridioides difficile.

Introduction Stool assays used to diagnose Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) do not differentiate acute CDI from asymptomatic carriers, which contributes to a falsely elevated rate of healthcare-facility onset (HO) CDI when CD stool assays are inappropriately ordered. The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of HO-CDI before and after implementing a mandatory clinical pathway prior to ordering stool tests when suspecting CDI. Methods A single-center retrospective observational study was conducted that spanned 12 months. All patients who developed diarrhea 48 hours after being admitted and whose primary physician requested a CD stool assay were included in the study. The intervention consisted of a mandatory sequence of questions that allowed providers to order a CD stool assay only if clinically indicated. Results Differences in HO-CDI rates pre- and post-intervention were analyzed. The HO-CDI rate during the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods were 24.1 and 0.0, respectively (p = 0.023). Conclusion A marked reduction of the rate of HO-CDI occurred after implementing a mandatory clinical pathway. Setting up a mandatory pre-testing questionnaire could decrease the misclassification of asymptomatic carriers as HO-CDI and the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics in situations where it is not indicated.
On the Possibilities and Politics of Feminist Energy Analytics in University Campus Spaces

Sustainability professionals working on university campuses in the United States increasingly use data management and analytics platforms for tracking proliferating energy and other sustainability data. Such practices reflect a pervasive audit culture replete with version upgrades, ratings and rankings. Numbers-driven practices can move decisions affecting particular places and people from political spheres of governance to technical realms managed by experts and administrators. I draw from my ongoing ethnographic study of energy analytics services marketed to those attempting to ‘green’ higher education campuses to examine networks of sub-metering devices, advertisements, online interactive energy dashboard platforms and sustainability conferences. I argue that a diverse and intersectional feminist energy politics demands critical attention to power, expertise and technological innovation in the energy transition.
Effect of Chemical Reaction Equilibria on Changes in Thermodynamic Properties and Sample Problem

The material presented in this lecture, except for the Solution to Sample Problem 36.1, is adapted from Chapter 16 of T&M.
The interaction between diet and neurobehavior in very low birth weight infants.

BACKGROUND Modulation of behavior and physiology by dietary perturbations early in life can provide clues to the pathogenesis of adult diseases. We tested the hypothesis that a period of early protein supplementation modulates sympathetic nervous system activity demonstrated indirectly by an increase in active sleep state distribution in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. METHODS VLBW infants (n = 71) were randomized to a total parenteral nutritional regimen providing 18% of the energy intake as amino acids (AA) or a conventional regimen providing 12.5% to achieve targeted AA intakes of 4 g/kg/day (0.004 kcal/kg/day) and 3 g/kg/day (0.003 kcal/kg/day), respectively. Both groups were weaned to enteral feeding and advanced to provide similar AA intake of 4 g/kg/day (0.004 kcal/kg/day). Six-hour daytime, behavioral sleep studies were performed when the infants reached full enteral intake (165 ml/kg/day). RESULTS Infants in the high protein group spent more time in active sleep (77.2 ± 10.5% vs. 70.7 ± 11.8%), p < 0.01 and less time in quiet sleep (12.9 ± 3.4% vs. 17.7 ± 7.0%, p < 0.01) as compared to the conventional group. No group differences were observed for indeterminate sleep, awake, or crying states. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that dietary intake may indirectly influence sympathetic nervous system activity. IMPACT Infants randomized to an early, high protein nutritional regimen spent an increased percentage of time in active sleep, supporting the hypothesis that nutrition and behavior are interactive. Furthermore, sleep states are an indirect measure of sympathetic nervous system activity, suggesting that dietary intake may influence sympathetic nervous system activity. This study highlights the importance of considering the impact of nutrition during critical periods of development in order to further understand and improve the long-term outcomes of very low birth weight infants.
Enhancing Multi-Channel Eeg Classification with Gramian Temporal Generative Adversarial Networks

Deep learning’s requirements for large amounts of training data remains a challenge for researchers and developers. Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is commonly used in medical image analysis to generate novel training images to help resolve this issue. While deep learning has many clinical applications in radiology, its applications in medical time series data such as electroencephalogram (EEG) are usually constrained to 1 dimension. Hence, there are few available GAN architectures that effectively synthesize single and multi-channel EEG. In this paper, we propose a novel method to synthesize multi-channel EEG in the form of Gramian Angular Field (GAF) images with a Gramian Temporal Generative Adversarial Network (GT-GAN). The proposed network is capable of generating realistic GAF images and enhances EEG anomaly detection accuracy in residual learning frameworks.
A Prospective Trial Evaluating the Safety and Systemic Response From the Concurrent Use of Radiation Therapy with Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy in Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Abstract Introduction/Background This study assessed the safety and systemic (abscopal) response from the addition of local stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) immunotherapy in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer. Patients/Methods Thirty-five patients with at least 2 sites of measurable disease on PET/CT received standard-of-care CPI immunotherapy alone (n = 19), or in combination with 4 cycles doublet carboplatin/pemetrexed chemotherapy (n = 16), and 3 to 5 fractions SBRT to a single extracranial target lesion between cycles 1 to 2 of the systemic therapy. Adverse events were assessed using CTCAE version 5.0. Best systemic objective response rate (ORR) was assessed using iRECIST criteria, excluding any irradiated lesion(s). Additional SBRT to a different target lesion was offered to patients who continued on immunotherapy with unconfirmed progressive disease or mixed response. Results Fifteen patients (44%) experienced 22 grade 1 to 2 toxicities potentially attributable to radiation, most commonly pneumonitis (n = 9) and fatigue (n = 6), and no grade 3 to 5 radiation-induced toxicities. Patients undergoing combined CPI-chemotherapy received a lower median biologically effective dose of SBRT than those undergoing CPI monotherapy (43.2 vs. 60Gy), but had a higher rate of radiation-induced toxicity (56% vs. 32%, P Conclusions Addition of SBRT to CPI immunotherapy (with/without chemotherapy) is safe. The favorable systemic response observed warrants further assessment with a randomized trial.
Simultaneous Learning of Perceptual Ambiguity and Expected Value Estimates Alter Preferences, Discrimination Performance, and Choice

The ability to simultaneously learn how to distinguish between visually similar unknown items and their value was tested in three studies conducted across multiple days. In each study, participants took the role of a merchant in a market for obscure fruits. Merchants traded unknown fruits and earned money by identifying ripe ones. The ripe fruits had a fixed positive value, while the unripe ones had varying values at certain unknown probabilities. Participants had to learn that one fruit category (ripe or unripe) was always associated with a fixed monetary gain, whereas another category was associated with a lottery that had either monetary gains or losses. The fruit categories were always perceptually similar. We show that learning the value of items typically leads to (1) improvement in the ability to visually discriminate between high/low-value ones, and (2) a change in subjective preference towards the high-value items. When item values are ambiguous and determined by lotteries, participants do not show preference change. In those ambiguous cases, as the values of items become known, individuals’ risk-tolerance is predictive of item preferences such that a reinforcement learning model can be used to estimate the preferences. Despite the consistent behavior by the participants, their reflections on the decision heuristics typically fail to recognize key drivers of the rational choices. This suggests a discrepancy between the explicit interpretation of the choice heuristics and the intuitive decision practices. We propose a rationale for the behavioral outcomes and ways to use the novel experimental paradigm for further decision theory explorations.
Submerged aquatic vegetation habitat use of age-0 Florida bass Micropterus floridanus

Hatchery-raised, age-0 Florida bass Micropterus floridanus are commonly used for fish enhancement efforts to support popular recreational fisheries and are ecologically important as both a food source and consumer. Despite their importance and frequent use of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) habitats, critical information is lacking on the specific characteristics of SAV that influence habitat occupancy. Using the SAV species Vallisneria americana and Potamogeton illinoensis, which are native to the southeast USA, and the invasive SAV Hydrilla verticillata, we conducted seven different habitat choice experiments to examine hatchery-raised, age-0 M. floridanus habitat use of different SAV populations (i.e., hydrologically isolated collection sources of varied physical characteristics), population diversity (i.e., increased richness of genotypically and phenotypically variable SAV), species, and species diversity (i.e., increased species richness). Fish spent more time in taller, larger V. americana but did not seem to favor any particular P. illinoensis population, SAV species, or species diversity tested. Additionally, fish spent more time in increased V. americana population diversity when the populations used were randomized, but fish spent more time in decreased population diversity when their favored V. americana population was used in all choices. This research adds additional nuance to our understanding of optimal vegetation for fish habitat use and is informative for future SAV plantings and invasive SAV management aimed at maximizing fish habitat and restoring recreational fisheries.
Functional characteristics and regulated expression of alternatively spliced tissue factor: An update

In human and mouse, alternative splicing of tissue factor's primary transcript yields two mRNA species: one features all six TF exons and encodes full-length tissue factor (flTF), and the other lacks exon 5 and encodes alternatively spliced tissue factor (asTF). flTF, which is oftentimes referred to as "TF", is an integral membrane glycoprotein due to the presence of an alpha-helical domain in its C-terminus, while asTF is soluble due to the frameshift resulting from the joining of exon 4 directly to exon 6. In this review, we focus on asTF-the more recently discovered isoform of TF that appears to significantly contribute to the pathobiology of several solid malignancies. There is currently a consensus in the field that asTF, while dispensable to normal hemostasis, can activate a subset of integrins on benign and malignant cells and promote outside-in signaling eliciting angiogenesis; cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion; and monocyte recruitment. We provide a general overview of the pioneering, as well as more recent, asTF research; discuss the current concepts of how asTF contributes to cancer progression; and open a conversation about the emerging utility of asTF as a biomarker and a therapeutic target.
Pulp Fiction: Reflections on Scientific Misconduct

The problem of scientific misconduct is alive and well, and is not limited to a few deranged and obscure individuals. Unjustifiably ignored, it is significant and has serious legal implications. In a societal sphere where honesty is one of the cardinal principles, scientific misconduct is a legal issue masquerading itself as peer review. Most reports of scientific misconduct reach the public through news stories. The totality of such cases is much greater, since only the most prominent and disputed cases are considered newsworthy. Because the federally mandated codes and the intra-institutional control have accomplished little in the control of scientific misconduct and the conduct of science has evolved in new directions, there is a need for additional solutions to the control of this deviant behavior. A more rigorous and legalized approach towards the control of the malady of scientific conduct is needed. The law can operate as a complex system of social cues, when the state guides its citizenry toward a new view of morality. This has been exemplified in the past through control of medical malpractice and manufacturing of goods. A similar approach could be attempted in the scientific enterprise. Institutions that conduct research need to comply with a variety of legal rules, which are laxly enforced. Many academic leaders will cry out loud about yet more bureaucracy, will question the effectiveness of these suggestions, and will attempt to find reasons why they are impossible to implement. My answer to them is that, as a matter of policy, guarding research integrity through a vigilant system of adjudication will allow weeding out and deterring the malefactors, achievement of excellence beyond personal gain, and retention of the public's trust. The success of preserving the principles we value will depend on our trust of the procedures put in place, the investment of experience, dedication to the goals of science, grasp of the legal framework, and good judgment.
Magnetostriction of Polycrystalline Tb-Dy Alloys at Cryogenic Temperatures

Single crystals of Tb-Dy alloys exhibit magnetostrictive strains and forces sufficiently large to make them useful as actuators in cryogenic mechanical devices. These actuators offer many advantages over piezoelectric actuators and actuators using motion feedthroughs from higher temperature. We are developing textured polycrystalline materials as alternatives to single crystals, since polycrystals are much simpler to prepare and are less costly. Magnetostrictive strains of 56% of the single crystal value are reported for deformation-processed Tb-Dy. We show that substantial magnetostriction can be attained using low cost commercial grade (total purity 99.7%) Tb-Dy material (as opposed to expensive high purity (99.94%) material required for the growth of single crystals). The effect of grain size and texture on magnetostrictive performance is discussed.
Methods for separating actinides from reprocessing and refabrication plant wastes

Chemical processing flowsheets have been developed to partition actinides from all actinide-bearing LWR fuel reprocessing and refabrication plant wastes. These wastes include high-activity-level liquids, scrap recovery liquors, HEPA filters and incinerator ashes, and chemical salt wastes such as sodium carbonate scrub solutions, detergent cleanup streams, and alkaline off-gas scrubber liquors. The separation processes that were adopted for this study are based on solvent extraction, cation exchange chromatography, and leaching with Ce4 +-HNO3 solution.
The dysmature infant: Associated factors and outcome at 7 years of age

Dysmaturity, diagnosed according to the Clifford criteria, was studied for the first time in a black population. The infants and matched control subjects were participants in the Collaborative Perinatal Study in Philadelphia from birth to 7 years of age. The incidence of dysmaturity was 25/1,000 live births; more boys than girls were born dysmature, reversing the normal male/female ratio found among black infants in the Collaborative Study as a whole. The condition, was more common among post-term infants but did occur in earlier gestational weeks. The overall characteristics of the condition among this black population did not differ from those previously reported among white populations of various races. Surviving infants developed mentally and physically as well as control subjects. No prenatal or environmental characteristics were found that distinguished mothers of dysmature infants from those of nondysmature infants.
Bootstrapping Confidence Intervals For Robust Measures Of Association

A Monte Carlo simulation study compared four bootstrapping procedures in generating confidence intervals for the robust Winsorized and percentage bend correlations. Results revealed the superior resiliency of the robust correlations over r, with neither outperforming the other. Unexpectedly, the bootstrapping procedures achieved roughly equivalent outcomes for each correlation.
Evidence Against Formation of the Stellar Bulge by Mergers Taking Place Over a Hubble Time

Data on abundances and ages of stars in the nuclear bulge of the Galaxy are in conflict with a scenario in which the bulge has been slowly accumulated by mergers of Magellanic Cloud-like systems taking place over a Hubble Time.
Endotoxin induction of murine metallothionein gene expression.

Bacterial endotoxin-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) rapidly induced hepatic metallothionein (MT) mRNA levels in the LPS-sensitive CD-1 strain of mice. This LPS effect was severely attenuated in the LPS-resistant C3H/HeJ strain of mice, but could be mimicked by injection of human recombinant interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) or human recombinant tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha). In the CD-1 strain, LPS induction of MT gene expression occurred in each of 10 organs examined (liver, kidney, pancreas, intestine, lung, heart, brain, ovary, uterus, and spleen). Solution hybridization with probes specific for MT-I or MT-II mRNA established that these genes were co-induced in each of the organs and that the liver and kidney contained the highest absolute levels of these mRNAs, whereas in the intestine and spleen they were 10-20-fold lower. LPS and cytokine induction of hepatic MT gene expression occurred in hypophysectomized mice, which suggests a lack of significant involvement of glucocorticoids. Several recombinant cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-1 alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), as well as poly(rI.rC) were effective inducers of hepatic MT-I and MT-II genes. As an attempt to determine which of these cytokines may mediate LPS effects on MT gene expression in vivo, CD-1 mice were injected with LPS or various cytokines, and RNA from liver, ovary, and uterus was extracted at various times postinjection and analyzed by Northern blotting using probes specific for IL-1 alpha, IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, and MT mRNA. In each organ examined, LPS, IL-1 alpha, or IL-1 beta injection caused a rapid, coordinate, transient increase in the levels of each of the cytokine mRNAs which peaked by 1 h and declined to low levels by 4 h. In contrast, levels of MT mRNA did not reach a peak until 4-6 h postinjection. TNF-alpha had minimal effects on expression of cytokine and MT genes in organs other than liver. IL-6 had no effect on hepatic cytokine mRNA levels, and induced MT mRNA only in the liver which suggests a direct effect of IL-6 on hepatic MT gene expression. These data suggest that the acute effects of LPS on MT gene expression may include complex paracrine interactions between a variety of cytokines and the cells expressing MT genes in each organ, and tissue-specific cytokine effects on the MT genes.
Disentangling the effects of self-protective behaviors on the risk of injury in assaults against women

Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, this paper attempts to disentangle the effects of self-protective behaviors on the risk of injury in assaults against women. Unlike previous research, in this study we address simultaneously three important conceptual and methodological issues: (1) type of self-protective behavior, (2) temporal sequencing of self-protective behavior in relation to injury, and (3) the victim/offender relationship. Results indicate that even after controlling for other contextual characteristics of an assault, the probability of a woman being injured was lowest when she employed non-physical resistance strategies such as arguing or reasoning with the offender. This was true for all types of offenders. However, for assaults involving intimates, the probability of injury was increased for women who physically resisted their attackers.
Service Burstiness and Dynamic Burstiness Measures: A Framework

We introduce a framework for characterizing service disciplines in terms of service burstiness. A wide range of service disciplines recently proposed for high-speed integrated services networks fall within this unifying framework. We introduce dynamic burstiness measures, and use them to describe the relationship between the burstiness of traffic entering a server, the burstiness of traffic exiting a server, the service burstiness of a server, and queueing delay. This relationship can be exploited to characterize end-to-end network delay in terms of the burstiness of traffic sources, the burstiness of traffic arriving at destinations, and the servi.ce burstiness of the servers which comprise the network. In addition, new classes of service disciplines are presented which support delay guarantees as well as efficient statistical sharing.
Copper(I) Chloride–Sulfur Dioxide

(CuCl) [7758-89-6] ClCu (MW 99.00) InChI = 1S/ClH.Cu/h1H;/q;+1/p-1 InChIKey = OXBLHERUFWYNTN-UHFFFAOYSA-M (SO2) [7446-09-5] O2S (MW 64.06) InChI = 1S/O2S/c1-3-2 InChIKey = RAHZWNYVWXNFOC-UHFFFAOYSA-N (reagent for the preparation of arenesulfonyl chlorides from arenediazonium ions1) Physical Data: see entries for Copper(I) Chloride and Sulfur Dioxide. Form Supplied in: individual reagents commercially available; mixture is normally prepared in glacial acetic acid. Preparative Methods: for a reaction of typical scale, glacial acetic acid (600 mL) is placed in a 4000 mL beaker and stirred magnetically. Sulfur dioxide is delivered from a cylinder through a bubbler tube with a fritted glass end immersed beneath the surface of the acetic acid. Introduction is continued for 15–30 min until saturation is evidenced by the fact that most of the SO2 bubbles reach the surface of the acetic acid. Copper(I) chloride (15 g) is added to the solution, and the introduction of sulfur dioxide is continued until the yellow-green suspension becomes blue-green and most of the solids dissolve (20–30 min). The mixture is placed in an ice bath until use. Handling, Storage, and Precautions: mixtures of copper(I) chloride and sulfur dioxide should be prepared immediately before use. The saturated SO2 solution is noxious and must be prepared and used in a fume hood. Sulfur dioxide is intensely irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract.