cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Integrin-mediated resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor-targeted therapy: an inflammatory situation

Targeting the function of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has failed as an effective clinical option for breast cancer. Understanding the drivers of inherent resistance has been a challenge. One possible mechanism is the acquisition of stem-like properties through the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. A recent study by Seguin and colleagues adds to our understanding of this process by demonstrating a functional role for unligated αvβ3 integrin in mediating a stem-like phenotype and facilitating resistance to EGFR-targeted therapy via enhanced downstream coupling to a KRAS:RalB:NF-κB pathway. Importantly, the identified mechanism may reveal a possible strategy for sensitizing breast cancer cells to EGFR-targeted therapies.
Inhibition of prostaglandin (PG) synthesis in sheep vesicular gland microsomes (SVGM) by nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) and vitamin E (VE).

Abstract Previous studies have shown that NBT and VE together are potent inhibitors of platelet aggregation, secretion and PG synthesis. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of NBT to detect PG synthesis by SVGM. Aspirin pretreatment of SVGM decreased the amount of NBT reduced after addition of arachidonic acid, demonstrating that products generated by the cyclo-oxygenase were involved in NBT reduction. The influence of NBT and VE on PG synthesis by SVGM was then evaluated by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA) production. NBT or VE alone had no significant effect, but together these agents were as effective as aspirin in preventing MDA formation. The effect of NBT and VE on 14 C-arachidonic acid conversion was followed by thin layer chromatography and radioscanning. Again, NBT or VE alone were ineffective, whereas the combination was as effective as aspirin in preventing conversion of arachidonic acid. We speculate NBT and VE together inhibit PG synthesis by scavenging a free radical species of arachidonic acid generated in the initial step of fatty acid peroxidation.
Bureaus, Clients, and Congress The Impact of Interest Group Support on Budgeting

Richard Fenno, in Power of the Purse, contends that the budget process responds to interest group pressures. This study examines that hypothesis for 20 bureaus in the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal years 1971-1976. Cultivating clientele support both among interest groups and members of Congress appears to aid a bureau's budget position. Bureaus with strong support not only avoid budget cuts but grow rapidly from year to year.
Efficient sticking of surface-passivated Si nanospheres via phase-transition plasticity

The fundamental understanding of the nanoparticlesurface collision modes in the low-energy regime of less than 1e V/atom is of considerable importance because achieving efficient sticking to surfaces with preservation of a grainy structure are key issues for creating new materials. Nanoparticle production in the gas phase, coupled with the application of chemical coatings and the deposition onto substrates, is a combination of aerosol technologies used for manufacturing novel nanostructured surfaces and thin films. 1‐6 Chemical passivation in the gas phase is essential for preventing coalescence and large particle growth but makes the deposition step challenging. Deposition strategies have been developed, some necessitating the creation of defects in the substrate in order to pin the impinging nanoparticles, 1 which otherwise would be reflected. Remarkably,
“OH NO! I'M A NERD!”: Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum

In this article, the author presents findings based on her research on BlueSky, an online interactive textbased forum. She discusses BlueSky participants' online performances of gendered and raced identities. Participants interpret their own and others' identities within the context of expectations and assumptions derived from offline U.S. culture, as well as from their membership in various computer-related subcultures. Given the predominance of white men on BlueSky, such identity interpretations also rely on expectations concerning masculinity and whiteness. The author explores BlueSky participants' understandings of themselves as “nerds” and considers the implications of this nerd identity for their relationship to hegemonic masculinity, especially to expectations of heterosexuality. Analyzing online identity performances in this way provides information pertaining not just to online interaction but to a better understanding of the social construction of gendered and raced identities more generally.
A new scheme for traffic estimation and resource allocation for bandwidth brokers

This paper is motivated by the concern of a multi-service network provider who plans to offer quality of service guarantees to users. A bandwidth broker acts as the resource manager for each network provider. Neighboring bandwidth brokers communicate with each other to establish inter-domain resource reservation agreements. Conventional approaches for resource allocation rely on pre-determined traffic characteristics. If allocation follows the traffic demand very tightly, the resource usage is efficient but leads to frequent modifications of the reservations. This would lead to increased inter-bandwidth-broker signaling in order to propagate the changes to all the concerned networks. Contrarily, if large cushions are allowed in the reservations, the modifications are far spaced in time but the resource usage becomes highly inefficient. In this paper, a new scheme for estimating the traffic on an inter-domain link and forecasting its capacity requirement, based on a measurement of the current usage, is proposed. The method allows an efficient resource utilization while keeping the number of reservation modifications to low values.
Use of Double Cross-Validation and Bootstrap Methods to Estimate Replicability of Results of Multiple Regression

Researchers have all too often ignored replicability of results because they overly rely on significance testing. This is a misinformed view because statistical significance does not evaluate the importance or replicability of a result. This paper focuses on two methods of assessing replicability of results, double cross-validation and bootstrap procedures. Selected variables from Hughes, Cavell, and Grossman's (1997) data set of 112 cases are used to illustrate all these techniques as applied to the interpretation of multiple regression results. One statistical computer package SPSS is used for the double cross-validation procedure, and a 1987 microcomputer program package of Lunneborg is used to demonstrate the bootstrap procedure.
Sample images can be independently restored from face recognition templates

Biometrics promise the ability to automatically identify individuals from reasonably easy to measure and hard to falsify characteristics. They are increasingly being investigated for use in large scale identification applications in the context of increased national security awareness. This paper addresses some of the security and privacy implications of biometric storage. Biometric systems record a sample image, and calculate a template: a compact digital representation of the essential features of the image. To compare the individuals represented by two images, the corresponding templates are compared, and a match score calculated, indicating the confidence level that the images represent the same individual. Biometrics vendors have uniformly claimed that it is impossible or infeasible to recreate an image from a template, and therefore, templates are currently treated as nonidentifiable data. We describe a simple algorithm which allows recreation of a sample image from a face recognition template using only match score values. At each iteration, a candidate image is slightly modified by an eigenface image, and modifications which improve the match score are kept. The regenerated image compares with high score to the original image, and visually shows most of the essential features. This image could thus be used to fool the algorithm as the target person, or to visually identify that individual. Importantly, this algorithm is immune to template encryption: any system which allows access to match scores effectively allows sample images to be regenerated in this way.
New horizons in the study of child language acquisition

Naturalistic longitudinal recordings of child development promise to reveal fresh perspectives on fundamental questions of language acquisition. In a pilot effort, we have recorded 230,000 hours of audio-video recordings spanning the first three years of one child’s life at home. To study a corpus of this scale and richness, current methods of developmental cognitive science are inadequate. We are developing new methods for data analysis and interpretation that combine pattern recognition algorithms with interactive user interfaces and data visualization. Preliminary speech analysis reveals surprising levels of linguistic fine-tuning by caregivers that may provide crucial support for word learning. Ongoing analyses of the corpus aim to model detailed aspects of the child’s language development as a function of learning mechanisms combined with lifetime experience. Plans to collect similar corpora from more children based on a transportable recording system are underway.
Integrated metrology: the next generation in HVM

Recent generation 193 nm lithography tools offer unique challenges for Intel and the semiconductor industry. Technologies are pushing the high volume manufacturing capability of critical dimension metrology tools in measurement and speed. The runrate for the latest generation lithography tools exceeds all previous generations by a wide margin requiring a change in metrology. How we respond to these challenges has far reaching implications for both our ability to successfully run new technologies in high volume as well as our ability to remain competitive in the marketplace. This paper will examine the case for integrated metrology (IM) for lithography as a technology driver that moves the industry towards adoption of integrated metrology as the next generation solution for lithography productivity.
It's My Party and I'll Institutionalize If I Want To: Party System Institutionalization in Young Democracies

Scholars today mostly agree that party system institutionalization (PSI) is a key ingredient in the transition to a functioning democracy. The question of whether PSI matters is more or less resolved. What is less clear is a general theory of what can help new democracies reach a high level of PSI. The aim of this research is to discover the pre-conditions and elite choices that enhance the level of PSI in new democracies. This research uses two Most Different System designs to explore the results of ten hypotheses that test the relationship between the level of PSI and an array of independent variables in country cases across the globe. Analyses reveal that there is no single magic variable or even a single set of factors that reliably lead to PSI across cases. What does emerge is the importance of elite behavior and choices during the initial regime change. This article is available in Res Publica Journal of Undergraduate Research: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/respublica/vol18/iss1/8
Inside time-consciousness: Diagramming the flux

L'A. etudie les diagrammes de la conscience du temps chez Husserl a travers les «Time Lectures» et les supplements au volume X des «Husserliana». L'A. soutient l'hypothese selon laquelle Husserl applique le meme schema d'apprehension-contenus-apprehension-selon la formule de R. Boehm- au cours du developpement de sa theorie du temps, mais qu'il introduit une distinction entre l'apprehension de la perception transcendante et l'apprehension de la conscience interne du temps
Rapid Assembly of Amyloid-β Peptide at a Liquid/Liquid Interface Produces Unstable β-Sheet Fibers†

Accumulation of aggregated amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In vitro studies indicate that the 40- to 42-residue Aβ peptide in solution will undergo self-assembly leading to the transient appearance of soluble protofibrils and ultimately to insoluble fibrils. The Aβ peptide is amphiphilic and accumulates preferentially at a hydrophilic/hydrophobic interface. Solid surfaces and air−water interfaces have been shown previously to promote Aβ aggregation, but detailed characterization of these aggregates has not been presented. In this study Aβ(1−40) introduced to aqueous buffer in a two-phase system with chloroform aggregated 1−2 orders of magnitude more rapidly than Aβ in the buffer alone. The interface-induced aggregates were released into the aqueous phase and persisted for 24−72 h before settling as a visible precipitate at the interface. Thioflavin T fluorescence and circular dichroism analyses confirmed that the Aβ aggregates had a β-sheet secon...
Unintended consequences of cigarette price changes for alcohol drinking behaviors across age groups: evidence from pooled cross sections

Background Raising prices through taxation on tobacco and alcohol products is a common strategy to raise revenues and reduce consumption. However, taxation policies are product specific, focusing either on alcohol or tobacco products. Several studies document interactions between the price of cigarettes and general alcohol use and it is important to know whether increased cigarette prices are associated with varying alcohol drinking patterns among different population groups. To inform policymaking, this study investigates the association of state cigarette prices with smoking, and current, binge, and heavy drinking by age group.
A Genealogy of Radical Islam

A genealogy of the radical ideas that underline al-Qaeda"s justification for violence shows that the development of jihadi thought over the past several decades is characterized by the erosion of critical constraints used to limit warfare and violence in classical Islam. This erosion is illustrated by the evolution of jihadi arguments related to apostasy and waging jihad at home, global jihad, civilian targeting, and suicide bombings.
Smart Transducer Web Services Based on the IEEE 1451.0 Standard

This paper describes the proposed smart transducer Web services (STWS) developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) based on the IEEE 1451.0 standard. The STWS are described in WSDL (Web service description language). A prototype system has been established to test the STWS. This prototype system consists of a service consumer, service provider (wireless network node), and wireless sensor node. The service consumer and provider can communicate with each other through SOAP (simple object access protocol) messages. The STWS were tested successfully through a case study of reading an IEEE 1451 TEDS (transducer electronic data sheet). The proposed STWS provide a standard way for IEEE 1451 applications to achieve interoperability with other sensor applications in WSDL. Hence it provides a foundation for STWS standardization.
Tracing Human Movements from Siberia to the Americas: Insights from Genetic Studies

Based on archeological and genetic data, the Altai-Sayan region appears to be the area from which human populations began expanding eastward toward Beringia some 25,000 years ago, and then much later to the west with the expansion of Turkic- and Mongolic-speaking groups. The initial human expansion into the New World appears to have occurred around 15,000–20,000 BP, with most genetic data supporting a single early expansion into the Americas giving rise to Amerindian populations. The ancestors of Eskimo-Aleut- and Na-Dene-speaking groups entered northern North America around 8,000–10,000 years ago, having become genetically distinctive from Amerindian populations to the south. From a Eurasian perspective, mtDNA and Y-chromosome data indicate that southern Altaians and Native Americans shared a common genetic ancestor some 20,000–25,000 BP. Such data from indigenous Altaians also link them to Japanese and Koreans (possibly Tibetans), tentatively supporting connections among Altaic (Transeurasian) speakers. Within the Altai-Sayan region, northern Altaians show genetic affinities with Yeniseian, Ugric, and Samoyedic speakers to the north, whereas southern Altaians have greater affinities to other Turkic-speaking populations of southern Siberia and Central Asia, revealing complex population dynamics there. Turkic and Mongolic groups show genetic influences from both West and East Eurasia, reflecting the entry of steppe peoples into Central Asia several thousand years ago, while Mongols have strongly genetically influenced southern Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs (Y-chromosome haplogroups C3c and O3e). Overall, this research has yielded important insights into the phylogeography and ancestry of populations from across Eurasia and the Americas.
A distributed cognition approach to understanding information transfer in mission critical domains

We developed a conceptual framework that describes how information transfer occurs in mission critical domains using a distributed cognition approach. According to this framework, information tools and the physical workspace comprise an “information arena”, which plays a crucial role in information transfer. Information tools and the information arena support joint work and may improve efficiency and reliability by providing visual cues to collaborators, by getting everyone on the same page, by helping collaborators focus on critical information, by facilitating attention management under time pressure, and by providing an evanescent (transient) communication space. We illustrate the concepts in this framework using an example from multidisciplinary rounds, an information transfer mechanism common in the intensive care unit, a mission critical domain. The framework can be used as a guide to further understanding of information transfer in mission critical domains and to develop information tools that faci...
Knowledge work, knowledge play: a heuristic approach to communication design for hybrid spaces

Everyday spaces and places are increasingly experienced as hybrid---as a confluence of material and informatic possibility---thanks to the ubiquity of always connected mobile devices and robust sociotechnical networks. For example, the interiors of many contemporary vehicles are personal area networks that move with drivers through daily commutes, connecting them to their phone's text messages and social networks in and through the material space of their car. In such cases, communication flows strongly mediate people's experiences in, movements through, and perceptions toward spaces of work, learning, and leisure. This article explores such hybrid spaces from the perspective of communication design, offering a heuristic approach to user experience in a world where spaces are often crosshatched and multiple. This exploration focuses on the kinds of tools and practices common to knowledge work and its recent extensions into forms of knowledge play, where the means of knowledge work are coordinated and transformed for non-work pursuits. This article, then, presents a practical, persona driven perspective on the relationships between communication flows and hybrid spaces, challenging design of communication researchers and user experience professionals to rethink the everyday combinations of symbolic action, knowledge work tools and networks, and mundane locations and movements.
A Sequence of Families Converging in an Equiconvergent Manner

The theorem of Arzela-Ascoli states that a necessary and sufficient condition for a family B of real-valued continuous functions defined on a compact metric space X to be compact in C(X) is that the family B be uniformly bounded and equicontinuous. In showing that B is compact in C(X) the difficult part generally is to show that B is equicontinuous. The following theorem may be of some value in this regard. We first, however, state a definition.
A Research on Resources Sustainable Utilization Based on Multi-Agent Modeling

Multi-agent model is a kind of dynamic research method on complex system of ecology,society and economy.The social economy system is a kind of complex system composed with diverse types and large numbers of economical individuals,the complicate mutual action among agents displays some characteristic that single agent does not have.Introduced the concept of multi-agent modeling and resources sustainable utilization,with the aid of the Netlogo software platform,using the Cooperation model to study the economical development support effect with limited resources under the different utilization mode,obtained the data of social wealth vary with time,according to the curve,gained the economic enlightenment.
Current-Aided Order Tracking of Vibration Signals for Bearing Fault Diagnosis of Direct-Drive Wind Turbines

Vibration monitoring is one of the most popular, effective, and reliable methods for bearing fault diagnosis. A key issue in the vibration monitoring for the bearings used in variable-speed wind turbines is the elimination of the effect of the turbine shaft speed fluctuation in the vibration signals measured under varying-rotating-speed conditions. This paper proposes a new current-aided vibration order tracking method for bearing fault diagnosis of variable-speed direct-drive (i.e., no gearbox) wind turbines. The method explores a new simple and effective approach to acquire the reference signal from a current signal measured from the stator of the generator for vibration order tracking. First, the instantaneous fundamental frequency of the current signal is estimated in the time-frequency domain to obtain the shaft rotating frequency. Then, the shaft phase-time relationship is established. With this information, the envelope of the synchronously recorded vibration signal is subsequently resampled at the equal-phase-increment time points. Finally, bearing fault diagnosis is performed by observing the peaks at bearing characteristic frequencies in the power spectrum of the resampled vibration envelope signal. The proposed method is validated by successful diagnosis of different bearing faults in a direct-drive wind turbine under varying-speed conditions.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

COPD continues to be a severe condition in horses. Despite increased understanding of its pathogenesis, there is relatively little information on effective treatment regimens. Management and prevention are critical, and more emphasis should be placed on improved housing, bedding, and feeding. More sophisticated accurate methods also are required for identifying specific causative allergens.
Diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Pandora's box has been opened.

As a result of an aging, increasingly obese, and decreasingly physically active population, the global incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is increasing. While little can be done to influence the contribution of aging to the increasing global prevalence of diabetes, opportunities abound to develop effective interventions with regard to diet, exercise and obesity to prevent type 2 DM and more importantly, diabetes-associated complications. The major cause of morbidity and mortality from diabetes is from atherosclerotic macrovascular disease—including peripheral, cerebrovascular, and coronary artery disease. The markedly increased risk for cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes compound medical and public health challenges in the face of the burgeoning global epidemic of diabetes and will inevitably strain healthcare resources. Although the cardiovascular benefits of glycemic control have yet to be clearly established, a number of therapeutic interventions improve cardiovascular risk among the high-risk cohort of patients with diabetes. The development of new strategies targeting both primary prevention of diabetes and the prevention of diabetic complications will remain important research and clinical objectives. Great advances are being made in the realm of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and there is much optimism for the future.
Neomycin metabolism in calves

Disposition of oral neomycin in calves was determined using 14C-labeled neomycin. The influences of age, diet, and method of administration were observed. All calves were killed 96 h after a single oral dose of [14C]neomycin (approximately 30 mg/kg) and the distribution of 14C in excreta and tissues was determined. As indicated by urinary excretion, absorption of neomycin was greater in 3-d-old calves (11.1 +/- 1.8% of the dose) than in 54- to 64-d-old nonruminating calves (1.5 +/- .58% of the dose) dosed similarly. Absorption of neomycin was similar in nonruminating (1.5 +/- .58%) and ruminating (2.13 +/- .62%) calves when the doses were administered in solution via a nippled bottle. In ruminating calves, absorption was somewhat less when the dose was administered on feed via a gelatin capsule (.5 +/- .06% of the dose) than when given in solution via a nippled bottle (2.13 +/- .62% of the dose). In calves dosed at 3 d of age, 14C concentration in the kidneys represented 55 +/- 4.9 ppm of neomycin equivalents. The next highest concentration occurred in the livers, which contained less than 5% of the level in kidneys. Tissue concentrations of 14C were related to absorption (as indicated by urinary excretion). Isolation and characterization (positive-ion fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) of 14C compounds in kidneys of calves dosed at 3 d of age indicated that at least 90% of the 14C was present as neomycin. Neomycin was also the major 14C compound in feces of all calves (70 to 80% of the 14C present).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Real time monitoring of ischemic changes in electrocardiograms using discrete Hermite functions

A novel scheme for real time detection of ischemic features from long term electrocardiograms (ECG), based on the dilated discrete Hermite expansion is proposed. The discrete Hermite functions used for the expansion are eigenvectors of a symmetric tridiagonal matrix that commutes with the centered Fourier matrix. The ECG signals were expanded in terms of Hermite functions using a simple dot product. The resulting coefficients were found to have details about the shape of the ECG signal. The first 50 coefficients had all sufficient information to reconstruct the ECG signal with acceptable percentage RMS difference (PRD). A committee neural network classifier with these 50 input parameters was trained to identify ischemic features, namely ST segment and T wave changes. A sensitivity of 98% and a specificity of 97.3% were achieved. A comparison of these figures with other contemporary classification schemes revealed a superior performance.
The Mobilization of Criminal Law

Perhaps few decisions have more of an impact on the operational functioning of the criminal justice system than the decision by victims of crime to notify the police. Researchers in the United States and abroad have found that victims often choose not to mobilize the criminal law in the aftermath of a victimization event. A large percentage of property and violent crimes never appear in official crime data estimates. Most remain hidden in the dark figure of crime. Victim nonreporting has numerous implications for criminal justice system processing, crime control policy, and substantive research on the causes and correlates of crime. Studies have long sought to identify the victim-, incident-, and community-based mechanisms that might account for patterns of police notification. Although several important findings have emerged, critical questions remain unanswered. This article provides a critical overview of the determinants of victim nonreporting and charts potential avenues for future research.
Reproducible in vitro model for dystrophic calcification of cardiac valvular interstitial cells: insights into the mechanisms of calcific aortic valvular disease

Calcific aortic valvular disease (CAVD) is the most prevalent valvular pathology in the United States. Development of a pharmacologic agent to slow, halt, or reverse calcification has proven to be unsuccessful as still much remains unknown about the mechanisms of disease initiation. Although in vitro models of some features of CAVD exist, their utility is limited by the inconsistency of the size and time course of the calcified cell aggregates. In this study, we introduce and verify a highly reproducible in vitro method for studying dystrophic calcification of cardiac valvular interstitial cells, considered to be a key mechanism of clinical CAVD. By utilizing micro-contact printing, we were able to consistently reproduce cell aggregation, myofibroblastic markers, programmed cell death, and calcium accumulation within aggregates of 50–400 μm in diameter on substrates with moduli from 9.6 to 76.8 kPa. This method is highly repeatable, with 70% of aggregates staining positive for Alizarin Red S after one week in culture. Dense mineralized calcium-positive nanoparticles were found within the valvular interstitial cell aggregates as shown by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The area of micro-contact printed aggregates staining positive for caspase 3/7 activity increased from 5.9 ± 0.9% to 12.6 ± 4.5% over one week in culture. Z-VAD-FMK reduced aggregates staining positive for Alizarin Red S by 60%. The state of cell stress is hypothesized to play a role in the disease progression; traction force microscopy indicates high substrate stresses along the aggregate periphery which can be modulated by altering the size of the aggregates and the modulus of the substrate. Micro-contact printing is advantageous over the currently used in vitro model as it allows the independent study of how cytokines, substrate modulus, and pharmacologic agents affect calcification. This controlled method for aggregate creation has the potential to be used as an in vitro assay for the screening of promising therapeutics to mitigate CAVD.
Joint Embedding of Graphs

Feature extraction and dimension reduction for networks is critical in a wide variety of domains. Efficiently and accurately learning features for multiple graphs has important applications in statistical inference on graphs. We propose a method to jointly embed multiple undirected graphs. Given a set of graphs, the joint embedding method identifies a linear subspace spanned by rank one symmetric matrices and projects adjacency matrices of graphs into this subspace. The projection coefficients can be treated as features of the graphs, while the embedding components can represent vertex features. We also propose a random graph model for multiple graphs that generalizes other classical models for graphs. We show through theory and numerical experiments that under the model, the joint embedding method produces estimates of parameters with small errors. Via simulation experiments, we demonstrate that the joint embedding method produces features which lead to state of the art performance in classifying graphs. Applying the joint embedding method to human brain graphs, we find it extracts interpretable features with good prediction accuracy in different tasks.
Photodynamic therapy: priorities for 1990

Photodynamic therapy is a relatively new modality for therapy of neoplastic disease and also shows promise in other therapeutic settings. While PDT research has proceeded without any special programs being put in place, further development depends on support- ing clinical data and perhaps some new approaches with regard to re- search support.
Surface Grafting of Ru(II) Diazonium-Based Sensitizers on Metal Oxides Enhances Alkaline Stability for Solar Energy Conversion.

The electrografting of [Ru(ttt)(tpy-C6H4-N2+)]3+, where “ttt” is 4,4′,4″-tri-tert-butyl-2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine, was investigated on several wide band gap metal oxide surfaces (TiO2, SnO2, ZrO2, ZnO, In2O3:Sn) and compared to structurally analogous sensitizers that differed only by the anchoring group, i.e., -PO3H2 and -COOH. An optimized procedure for diazonium electrografting to semiconductor metal oxides is presented that allowed surface coverages that ranged between 4.7 × 10-8 and 10.6 × 10-8 mol cm-2 depending on the nature of the metal oxide. FTIR analysis showed the disappearance of the diazonium stretch at 2266 cm-1 after electrografting. XPS analysis revealed a characteristic peak of Ru 3d at 285 eV as well as a peak at 531.6 eV that was attributed to O 1s in Ti-O-C bonds. Photocurrents were measured to assess electron injection efficiency of these modified surfaces. The electrografted sensitizers exhibited excellent stability across a range of pHs spanning from 1 to 14, where classical binding gr...
Fundamentals of Prosthetic Materials for the Abdominal Wall

The use of mesh in the repair of fascial defects has served as a major advancement in the treatment of hernia disease. Contemporary studies show that prosthetic materials are used in the vast majority of ventral and inguinal hernias as data has consistently supported significant reduction in recurrence rates with their use. Innovative laparoscopic and robotic techniques have only expanded the use of mesh as surgeons can now introduce large prosthetic materials through small incisions to address larger and more complex defects. Concurrently, efforts to engineer the ideal mesh have resulted in a wide array of mesh products on the market. Despite some advances, the key question of what constitutes the ideal mesh continues to evade a definitive answer. Rather, it seems the ideal mesh is the one selected appropriately for the correct patient and operation. Despite this lack of clarity, numerous factors must be taken into consideration when selecting a prosthetic material for patients. These include patient comorbidity, hernia anatomy and surgical history, presence of wound contamination or prior wound complications, anatomic location in need of mesh deployment, defect size, and prevention of mesh contact with the viscera. The purpose of this chapter is to outline objective fundamentals of mesh selection and use for abdominal wall hernia repair to optimize outcomes.
Assessment of Intracardiac Anatomy by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Recent advances of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology enable us to visualize more fine and accurate structures of intracardiac anatomy and morphology in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) before and after the surgical interventions.
Familial clustering of cardiac conditions in patients with anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery and myocardial bridges.

BackgroundAnomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery is the second leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest/death in young athletes in the United States of America. Limited data are available regarding family history in this patient population.MethodsPatients were evaluated prospectively from 12/2012 to 02/2017 in the Coronary Anomalies Program at Texas Children’s Hospital. Relevant family history included the presence of CHD, sudden cardiac arrest/death, arrhythmia/pacemaker use, cardiomyopathy, and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease before the age of 50 years. The presence of one or more of these in 1st- or 2nd-degree relatives was considered significant.ResultsOf 168 unrelated probands (171 patients total) included, 36 (21%) had significant family history involving 19 (53%) 1st-degree and 17 (47%) 2nd-degree relatives. Positive family history led to cardiology referral in nine (5%) patients and the presence of abnormal tests/symptoms in the remaining patients. Coronary anomalies in probands with positive family history were anomalous right (27), anomalous left (five), single right coronary artery (two), myocardial bridge (one), and anomalous circumflex coronary artery (one). Conditions present in their family members included sudden cardiac arrest/death (15, 42%), atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (14, 39%), cardiomyopathy (12, 33%), CHD (11, 31%), coronary anomalies (3, 8%), myocardial bridge (1, 3%), long-QT syndrome (2, 6%), and Wolff–Parkinson–White (1, 3%).ConclusionIn patients with anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery and/or myocardial bridges, there appears to be familial clustering of cardiac diseases in approximately 20% of patients, half of these with early occurrence of sudden cardiac arrest/death in the family.
Real-time quantitative detection of Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus , an obligate bacterial pathogen of Chlorella sorokiniana

Vampirovibrio chlorellavorus is an obligate, predatory bacterial pathogen of the genus Chlorella. It is recognized as an important pathogen of Chlorella sorokiniana, field isolate DOE 1412, a highly-favored microalga for cultivation in outdoor reactors in the arid USA Southwest for feedstocks used in biofuel production. To determine the V. chlorellavorus titer, based on gene copy number, required to cause infection and mortality of C. sorokiniana in an experimental outdoor reactor, a multiplexed quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was developed for pathogen detection, based on the 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA gene of V. chlorellavorus and C. sorokiniana, respectively. The assay was further used to establish the optimal effective concentration of benzalkonium chloride required to achieve a below “disease-threshold”-bacterial titer, while minimizing biocidal effects on algal growth and enable economic biomass production. Reactors treated with 2.0 ppm benzalkonium chloride at four-day intervals throughout the cultivation cycle experienced runs of 22 days or longer, compared to 12 days for the untreated control. The qPCR assay was used to estimate disease severity over time using the Area Under the Disease Progress Stairs (AUDPS) metric, indicating a severity rating of 0.016 and 62.308 in biocide-treated and untreated cultures, respectively. The near-real time assay detected as few as 13 copies of V. chlorellavorus, allowing for the recognition of its presence in the reactor just before algal cell density decreased, an indication of pathogen attack, while also informing the timing of biocide applications to minimize DOE 1412 infection such that harvestable biomass could be produced.
MutSγ-Induced DNA Conformational Changes Provide Insights into Its Role in Meiotic Recombination.

Abstract In many organisms, MutSγ plays a role in meiotic recombination, facilitating crossover formation between homologous chromosomes. Failure to form crossovers leads to improper segregation of chromosomes and aneuploidy, which in humans result in infertility and birth defects. To improve current understanding of MutSγ function, this study investigates the binding affinities and structures of MutSγ in complex with DNA substrates that model homologous recombination intermediates. For these studies, we overexpressed and isolated from Escherichia coli the yeast MutSγ protein Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc) Msh4-Msh5. Sc Msh4-Msh5 binds Holliday junction (HJ)-like substrates, 3′ overhangs, single-stranded (ss) forks, and the displacement loop with nanomolar affinity. The weakest binding affinities are detected for an intact duplex and open-junction construct. Similar to the human protein, Sc Msh4-Msh5 exhibits the highest affinity for the HJ with a Kd
Approximate Number System Task Performance: Associations With Domain-General and Domain-Specific Cognitive Skills in Young Children

We investigated the associations between young children’s domain-general executive functioning (EF) skills and domain-specific spontaneous focusing on number (SFON) tendencies and their performance on an approximate number system (ANS) task, paying particular attention to variations in associations across different trial types with either congruent or incongruent non-numerical continuous visual cues. We found that children’s EF skills were strongly related to their performance on ANS task trials in which continuous visual cues were incongruent with numerosity. Novel to the current study, we found that children’s SFON tendencies were specifically related to their performance on ANS task trials in which continuous visual cues were congruent with numerosity. Children’s performance on ANS task trials in which children can use both congruent numerical and non-numerical continuous visual cues to approximate large quantities may be related to their unprompted tendency to focus on number in their early environment when there are not salient distractors present. On the other hand, children’s performance on incongruent ANS trials may be less a function of number-specific knowledge but more of children’s domain-general ability to inhibit salient but conflicting or irrelevant stimuli. Importantly, these effects held even when accounting for global math achievement and children’s cardinality knowledge. Overall, results support the consideration of both domain-specific and domain-general cognitive factors in developmental models of children’s early ability to attend to numerosity and provide a possible means for reconciling previous conflicting research findings.
Nanoscale 3D Shape Process Monitoring Using TSOM

Through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM) is sensitive to three-dimensional shape changes of nanoscale to microscale targets. Here we demonstrate process monitoring method of 3D targets using TSOM down to sub-nanometer.
Volume Augmentation of Anesthetic Mixture in Spinal Anesthesia

This study was undertaken at the University of Pennsylvania, and originally reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Washington, DC, October 1974.
INTERSTITIAL-TO-BLOOD MOVEMENT OF PLASMA PROTEINS

Publisher Summary Macromolecules can move in significant quantities across skeletal muscle capillaries in the direction of interstitium to blood. Using the protein efflux method, it has been demonstrated that gamma globulin entered tracer-free perfusate initially at a fast rate followed by a slower, more prolonged rate of efflux. The results of a study described in the chapter indicate that interstitial to blood movement of macromolecules also occurs in the nonabsorbing small intestine under similar experimental conditions. The slow efflux of gamma globulin from the small intestine was twice the rate reported for skeletal muscle. However, when the efflux is expressed per unit of surface area, the values for skeletal muscle and small intestine become indistinguishable. As these two tissues represent continuous and predominatly fenestrated capillary beds, the similarity in the efflux rates suggests that the limiting barrier governing the movement of macromolecules is not the endothelium. The diffusive and convective fluxes of macromolecules across intestinal capillaries were estimated by applying steady-state lymphatic protein flux data to phenomenological transport equations. This approach was applied to data acquired when intestinal capillaries were either filtering because of venous pressure elevation or absorbing because of enhanced water transport across the mucosal membrane. The results acquired using this approach suggest that convective transport is the predominant process tending to move proteins from blood to interstitium across filtering capillaries.
Sociology Meets Biography: Peter Berger and the Social Construction of Discontinuous Selves

This article examines the idea of a “sociology of biography.” As such, it focuses on the social construction of both biographical continuity and biographical discontinuity. It explores in particular the contribution of Harold Garfinkel to the study of biographical continuity and Peter Berger to the study of biographical discontinuity.
Host immune response-inspired development of the influenza vaccine.

Abstract Objective To assess the current and future development of influenza vaccines. Data Sources PubMed searches were performed cross-referencing the keywords influenza, influenza vaccine, host immune response, correlates of protection, vaccine development, vaccine efficacy. Articles were reviewed for additional citations. Study Selections Articles were reviewed and selected on the basis of relevance to subject matter. Results In this review, we first introduce the influenza virus, its nomenclature, and the concepts of antigenic drift and shift. Second, we discuss the status of currently licensed influenza virus vaccines. We briefly focus on influenza vaccine responses beyond hemagglutination inhibition that may correlate with protection against influenza viruses of different subtypes. Third, we explain how studying host responses to influenza infection and vaccination with advanced serologic methods, B-cell receptor sequencing, and transcriptomic profiling can guide the development of improved influenza virus vaccines. Fourth, we provide 2 suggestions on how current influenza vaccines can be optimized by redirecting immune responses toward conserved viral antigens and the use of adjuvants. Conclusion Influenza vaccine design can benefit from novel insights obtained from the study of host responses to influenza virus infection and vaccination. Integration of the large amount of available clinical and preclinical data requires systems approaches that can elucidate novel correlates of protection and will guide further development of influenza vaccine.
THE ROLE OF INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING IN THE ORGANIZATION AND MAINTENANCE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CONTROL MECHANISMS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of instrumental learning in the organization and maintenance of physiological control mechanisms. Many physiological regulatory mechanisms resemble conventional control systems with a fixed linkage between the sign and magnitude of the displacement of a homeostatic parameter from equilibrium and a corrective process, which incorporates a behavioral response. While distinctive patterns may emerge and be repeated for periods of time, the behavior remains disorganized and random, presumably because none of the behaviors lower the ambient temperature. The essential concept of instrumental learning is deceptively simple: present behavior is to an extent determined by the consequences of prior behavior. When a response is followed by reinforcement such as the disturbance or restoration of homeostasis, the probability of the response occurring in the future under similar stimulus conditions is modified. While the probability increases for some reinforcers and decreases for the others, the effect of a particular reinforcer, though not necessarily obvious, is consistent within specifiable set responses, and, post hoc, the effect on other members of the same response set is predictable.
A study of the effects of using complete hypertext compared with the effects of using focused hypertext in the delivery of computer-based instruction

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact that hypertext and hypertext design on the cognitive process. The study used two identical computer based lessons. One set of lessons used a complete set of hypertext resources that supported all of the learning objectives throughout the lessons. The other set of lessons focused the hypertext resources by limiting them to the immediate learning objective.
Older adults’ self-efficacy in computer use and the factors that impact their self-efficacy: a path analysis

The current study examined the older adults’ self-efficacy in computer use and explored the factors that impacted and mediated their self-efficacy. Older adults (N = 339) were recruited from a west...
Normal bundle and Almgren’s geometric inequality for singular varieties of bounded mean curvature

In this paper we deal with a class of varieties of bounded mean curvature in the viscosity sense that has the remarkable property to contain the blow up sets of all sequences of varifolds whose mea...
Menstrual Hygiene - Cognition and Obligation

Menstrual hygiene is an integral part of woman’s health. Ignoring it can pose serious consequences on the health of female and environment as well. Sadly, majority of the women are not cognizant as to what is Menstrual Hygiene. Reasons being lack of awareness, access and acceptance. Their mindsets are blocked by age old customs, myths, taboos and patriarchal nature of the society. A combined endeavour is required to remove the stigma and shame associated with menstruation and raising awareness about Menstrual Hygiene. Vision is to build a world in which no girl or women is held back due to periods.