cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary transitions in symbioses: dramatic reductions in bathymetric and geographic ranges of Zoanthidea coincide with loss of symbioses with invertebrates

Two fundamental symbiosis-based trophic types are recognized among Zoanthidea (Cnidaria, Anthozoa): fixed carbon is either obtained directly from zooxanthellae photosymbionts or from environmental sources through feeding with the assistance of host-invertebrate behaviour and structure. Each trophic type is characteristic of the suborders of Zoanthidea and is associated with substantial distributional asymmetries: suborder Macrocnemina are symbionts of invertebrates and have global geographic and bathymetric distributions and suborder Brachycnemina are hosts of endosymbiotic zooxanthellae and are restricted to tropical photic zones. While exposure to solar radiation could explain the bathymetric asymmetry it does not explain the geographic asymmetry, nor is it clear why evolutionary transitions to the zooxanthellae-free state have apparently occurred within Macrocnemina but not within Brachycnemina. To better understand the transitions between symbiosis-based trophic types of Zoanthidea, a concatenated data set of nuclear and mitochondrial nucleotide sequences were used to test hypotheses of monophyly for groups defined by morphology and symbiosis, and to reconstruct the evolutionary transitions of morphological and symbiotic characters. The results indicate that the morphological characters that define Macrocnemina are plesiomorphic and the characters that define its subordinate taxa are homoplasious. Symbioses with invertebrates have ancient and recent transitions with a general pattern of stability in host associations through evolutionary time. The reduction in distribution of Zoanthidea is independent of the evolution of zooxanthellae symbiosis and consistent with hypotheses of the benefits of invertebrate symbioses, indicating that the ability to persist in most habitats may have been lost with the termination of symbioses with invertebrates.
Enzyme-carbon nanotube conjugates in room-temperature ionic liquids

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are intriguing solvents, which are recognized as "green" alternatives to volatile organics. Although RTILs are nonvolatile and can dissolve a wide range of charged, polar, and nonpolar organic and inorganic molecules, there remain substantial challenges in their use, not the least of which is the solvents' high viscosity that leads to potential mass transfer limitations. In the course of this work, we discovered that the simple adsorption of the bacterial protease, proteinase K, onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) results in intrinsically high catalytic turnover. The high surface area and the nanoscopic dimensions of SWNTs offered high enzyme loading and low mass transfer resistance. Furthermore, the enzyme-SWNT conjugates displayed enhanced thermal stability in RTILs over the native suspended enzyme counterpart and allowed facile reuse. These enzyme-SWNT conjugates may therefore provide a way to overcome key operational limitations of RTIL systems.
83-Year-Old Woman With Abdominal Distention and Constipation

© 2009 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research An 83-year-old woman with Alzheimer dementia presented to the emergency department with abdominal distention. Her husband provided the history. After having constipation for 1 week, she developed a progressively distended abdomen in the course of 2 days, with anorexia but no vomiting, melena, or hematochezia. She had no history of fever, rigors, dyspnea, or weight loss. Her medical history was remarkable for hypertension, coronary artery disease, and impaired fasting blood glucose levels. Despite the recent symptoms, she had no history of gastroenterologic symptoms, cancer, abdominal surgeries, or colon screening studies. She lived with her husband in the community and was dependent on him for her activities of daily living except for ambulation with a walker and feeding herself. She was a nonsmoker and nondrinker. Her medications were 60 mg/d of isosorbide mononitrate, 325 mg/d of aspirin, 2.5 mg/d of amlodipine, 20 mg/d of atorvastatin, and a combination of 37.5 mg/d of triamterene and 25 mg/d of hydrochlorothiazide. On examination, the patient appeared to be in mild distress with abdominal distention. Her vital signs were as follows: temperature, 36.6oC; blood pressure, 154/89 mm Hg; regular pulse, 84 beats/min; respiration rate, 20 breaths/ min; and oxygen saturation, 94% while breathing room air. Abdominal examination revealed marked distention with diminished bowel sounds and moderate discomfort with deep palpation of the left lower quadrant, but no peritoneal irritation signs, Murphy sign, McBurney point tenderness, abdominal bruit, ascites, hepatosplenomegaly, or palpable mass. Rectal examination revealed no stool in the vault and no obvious mass. The patient had normal levels of hemoglobin, white blood cells, platelets, chloride, bicarbonate, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, troponin, and lipase, as well as a prothrombin time within the normal range. She had a serum sodium of 126 mEq/L (reference ranges provided parenthetically) (135-145 mEq/L), a potassium level of 2.5 mmol/L (3.6-4.8 mmol/L), and a blood glucose level of 198 mg/ dL (70-100 mg/dL). Urinalysis was positive for trace occult blood and 1+ protein. Abdominal plain radiography showed prominent gaseous dilatation of the transverse colon and redundant sigmoid colon without distinct signs of obstruction or free air.
A Clinical Comparison of two Radioimmunoassays for Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA)

Aliquots of the same blood samples were assayed for CEA by both the Gold and Hansen techniques. Levels of antigenemia and “positivity” vs. “negativity” were compared in 291 patients with various malignant and nonmalignant diseases. Both assays detected CEA in all disease categories studied with an overall correlation of 83-86% (p<.001).Apparent “differences” between the two assays were primarily quantitative. Hansen (Nutley) values were slightly higher than Hansen (Boston) values and both were slightly higher than Gold values in the low ranges of antigenemia. The Gold assay tended to read higher than either Hansen assay in the group with alcoholic liver disease, when values (Gold) were greater than 4 ng/ml.The lowest frequency of agreement between assays occurred in those groups with low-levels of antigen such as the postoperative colon carcinoma and the inflammatory bowel disease patients. This reflects variations inherent in the assays as currently performed. Variation of ± 1 around the 2.5 ng/ml “cut-o...
Can Face Recognition Really be Dissociated from Object Recognition

We argue that the current literature on prosopagnosia fails to demonstrate unequivocal evidence for a disproportionate impairment for faces as compared to nonface objects. Two prosopagnosic subjects were tested for the discrimination of objects from several categories (face as well as nonface) at different levels of categorization (basic, subordinate, and exemplar levels). Several dependent measures were obtained including accuracy, signal detection measures, and response times. The results from Experiments 1 to 4 demonstrate that, in simultaneous-matching tasks, response times may reveal impairments with nonface objects in subjects whose error rates only indicate a face deacit. The results from Experiments 5 and 6 show that, given limited stimulus presentation times for face and nonface objects, the same subjects may demonstrate a deacit for both stimulus categories in sensitivity. In Experiments 7, 8 and 9, a match-to-sample task that places greater demands on memory led to comparable recognition sensitivity with both face and nonface objects. Regardless of object category, the prosopagnosic subjects were more affected by manipulations of the level of categorization than normal controls. This result raises questions regarding neuropsychological evidence for the modularity of face recognition, as well as its theoretical and methodological foundations.
A targeted program of providing 400-ppm F or 1450-ppm F toothpaste for low socioeconomic families was not associated with increased risk of esthetically objectionable fluorosis.

Article Title and Bibliographic Information The Prevalence and Severity of Fluorosis in Children Who Received Toothpaste Containing either 440 or 1450 ppm F from the Age of 12 Months in Deprived and Less Deprived Communities Tavener JA, Davies GM, et al. Caries Res 2006;40(1):66-72 Level of Evidence 1b Purpose/Question This study compared fluorosis in the permanent upper central incisor of children from socially diverse backgrounds who had received either 400- or 1450-ppm F toothpaste from 12 months of age. Source of Funding Information not available Type of Study/Design Randomized Controlled Trial
FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE TOEFL INTERNET-BASED TEST ACROSS SUBGROUPS

This study assessed the invariance in the factor structure of the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ Internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT) across subgroups of test takers who differed in native language and exposure to the English language. The subgroups were defined by (a) Indo-European and Non-Indo-European language family, (b) Kachru's classification of outer and expanding circles of countries (based on prevalence of English use in educational and business contexts), and (c) years of classroom instruction in the English language. The same factor structure (four first-order factors corresponding to the test sections and a single higher-order factor encompassing these factors) was identified in each subgroup. The results support the present scoring scheme for the TOEFL iBT assessment and suggest that the test functions the same way for diverse subgroups of test takers.
High-performance multi-queue buffers for VLSI communications switches

Small nxn switches are key components of multistage interconnection networks used in multiprocessors as well as in the communication coprocessors used in multicomputers. The design of the internal buffers in these switches is of critical importance for achieving high throughput low latency communication. We discuss several buffer structures and compare them in terms of implementation complexity and their ability to deal with variations in traffic patterns and message lengths. We present a new design of buffers that provide non-FIFO message handling and efficient storage allocation for variable size packets through the use of linked lists managed by a simple on-chip controller. We evaluate the new buffer design by comparing it to several alternative designs in the context of a multi-stage interconnection network. Our modeling and simulations show that the new buffer outperforms its “competition” and can thus be used to improve the performance of a wide variety of systems currently using less efficient buffers.
Protective head-cooling during cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation: the original animal studies

Prolonged standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) does not reliably sustain brain viability during cardiac arrest. Pre-hospital adjuncts to standard CPR are needed in order to improve outcomes. A preliminary dog study demonstrated that surface cooling of the head during arrest and CPR can achieve protective levels of brain hypothermia (30°C) within 10 minutes. We hypothesized that protective head-cooling during cardiac arrest and CPR improves neurological outcomes. Twelve dogs under light ketamine-halothane-nitrous oxide anesthesia were arrested by transthoracic fibrillation. The treated group consisted of six dogs whose shaven heads were moistened with saline and packed in ice immediately after confirmation of ventricular fibrillation. Six control dogs remained at room temperature. All 12 dogs were subjected to four minutes of ventricular fibrillation and 20 minutes of standard CPR. Spontaneous circulation was restored with drugs and countershocks. Intensive care was provided for five hours post-arrest and the animals were observed for 24 hours. In both groups, five of the six dogs had spontaneous circulation restored. After three hours, mean neurological deficit was significantly lower in the treated group (P=0.016, with head-cooled dogs averaging 37% and the normothermic dogs 62%). Two of the six head-cooled dogs survived 24 hours with neurological deficits of 9% and 0%, respectively. None of the control group dogs survived 24 hours. We concluded that head-cooling attenuates brain injury during cardiac arrest with prolonged CPR. We review the literature related to the use of hypothermia following cardiac arrest and discuss some promising approaches for the pre-hospital setting.
Prohibitin, an evolutionarily conserved intracellular protein that blocks DNA synthesis in normal fibroblasts and HeLa cells.

Abstract Genes that act inside the cell to negatively regulate proliferation are of great interest because of their implications for such processes as development and cancer, but these genes have been difficult to clone. This report details the cloning and analysis of cDNA for prohibitin, a novel mammalian antiproliferative protein. Microinjection of synthetic prohibitin mRNA blocks entry into S phase in both normal fibroblasts and HeLa cells. Microinjection of an antisense oligonucleotide stimulates entry into S phase. By sequence comparison, the prohibitin gene appears to be the mammalian analog of Cc, a Drosophila gene that is vital for normal development.
Statistical power comparisons among alternative morphometric methods

This paper compares the statistical power of various tests that have been proposed to test for equality of shape in two populations. Power surfaces are computed with emphasis on the simplest case of three points in the plane (i.e., landmarks at the vertices of a triangle). Goodall's ((1991) J Roy Stat Soc Serb 53:285-339) F-test was found to have the highest power followed by T 2 -tests using Kendall tangent space coordinates. Power for T 2 -tests using Bookstein shape coordinates was good if the baseline was not the shortest side of the triangle. The Rao and Suryawanshi ((1996) Proc Natl Acad Sci 93:12132-12136 and (1998) Proc Natl Acad Sci 95:4121- 4125) shape variables had much lower power when triangles were not close to being equilateral. Power surfaces for the EDMA-I T statistic revealed very low power for many shape comparisons including those between very different shapes. Power surface for the EDMA-II Z statistic were also complicated and depended strongly on the choice of baseline used for size scaling. The type I error rate was also often not correct for this method. Results for more than three landmarks are also presented. The implications of the results for practical applications of morphometrics are discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol 111:463- 478, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc. The fundamental advances of geometric morphometrics over traditional approaches (multivariate morphometrics, e.g., Reyment et al., 1984) are in the development of pow- erful statistical methods based on models for shape variation of entire configurations of points corresponding to the locations of morphological landmarks. This is in con- trast to the application of standard multi- variate methods to ad hoc collections of dis- tances, angles, and ratios based on these same landmarks. The shape of a set of p morphological landmark points is defined as those attributes of the configuration of points that are invariant to the effects of translation, rotation, and scale. The posi- tions of the points can be captured conve- niently by their coordinates ( x, y for images
A Cognitive-Process Taxonomy for Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities

Females and males show different average patterns of academic achievement and scores on cognitive ability tests. Females obtain higher grades in school, score much higher on tests of writing and content-area tests on which the questions are similar to material that was learned in school, attain a majority of college degrees, and are closing the gap in many careers that were traditionally male. By contrast, males score higher on standardized tests of mathematics and science that are not directly tied to their school curriculum, show a large advantage on visuospatial tests (especially those that involve judgments of velocity and navigation through three-dimensional space), and are much more knowledgeable about geography and politics. A cognitive-process taxonomy can shed light on these differences.
Genetic Configurations of Political Phenomena: New Theories, New Methods

Recent research by E. O. Wilson, Alford-Hibbing, Carmen, and others indicates that the competing social science paradigms of behavioralism and rational choice are in their last throes. Their salient weakness is insensitivity, bordering on ignorance, to politics as a biologically orchestrated phenomenon. More specifically, political scientists know precious little about either genetics or evolutionary dynamics. In this article, the author presents a new theory—sociogenomics—to replace the shopworn conceptions of yesterday's political science. The author then demonstrates how social scientists can employ the tools of molecular biology to flesh out the genes coding for baseline political attitudes and behaviors. The theory and methods of sociogenomics will serve to synthesize the social sciences with the natural sciences in a broader consilient framework, so that the laboratory of Darwinian investigation can become the laboratory of Aristotelian investigation.
Drive-current tuning of self-oscillation frequency of external cavity VCSEL

We demonstrated the tuning of the self-oscillation frequency of an external cavity VCSEL using drive current. This frequency tuning occurs for all cavity lengths constructed; however, the degree of frequency tuning correlates with cavity length.
Different strokes: Can managing behavioral types increase post-release success?

Abstract Re-introduction programs for endangered animals operate under the hope that protected habitats can sustain viable populations that rely little on humans. The goal of these programs is to supply animals with the resources and skills they need to succeed in the modern wild. However, predicting the set of skills necessary to respond to unpredictable selection events is difficult and efforts sometimes fail as animals respond inappropriately to environmental variation because they lack behavioral flexibility. Population resilience to environmental change may be enhanced if all members of a population do not exhibit the same response when selection pressures change. In many species individual animals express behavioral types that exhibit alternative responses to the same stimuli. Yet when animals are prepared for release to the wild, there is rarely consideration of consistent behavioral variation between individuals. Since experience influences both behavioral and physiological responses to varied stimuli and can shape the future behavioral type of captive animals, pre-release environmental enrichment may be successful in facilitating the expression of varied behavioral types in populations slated for release. This approach to environmental enrichment requires a departure from a ‘one size fits all’ strategy and may also involve exposure to increased challenge and competition. In addition, there is a need for empirical evidence to better understand the role of environmental enrichment and behavioral types on post-release success. The zoo environment provides an excellent arena for examining the development and expression of behavioral types and for taking a novel functional approach to environmental enrichment research that may prove to be very important to re-introduction efforts.
Computing optimal rebalance frequency for log-optimal portfolios in linear time

The pure form of log-optimal investment strategies are often considered to be impractical due to the inherent need for continuous rebalancing. It is however possible to improve investor log utility by adopting a discrete-time periodic rebalancing strategy. Under the assumptions of geometric Brownian motion for assets and approximate log-normality for a sum of log-normal random variables, we find that the optimum rebalance frequency is a piecewise continuous function of investment horizon. One can construct this rebalance strategy function, called the optimal rebalance frequency function, up to a specified investment horizon given a limited trajectory of the expected log of portfolio growth when the initial portfolio is never rebalanced. We develop the analytical framework to compute the optimal rebalance strategy in linear time, a significant improvement from the previously proposed search-based quadratic time algorithm.
Georgia's County Unit System of Election

The most distinctive feature of Georgia's political organization is the county unit system of election. The system is an outgrowth of certain aspects of Georgia history. No careful study has been made of the organization of political parties in ante bellum Georgia. We do know that in the early 1830's factions in the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia served as executive committees of the Troup and Clark parties, and that nominations for Governor were customarily made at caucuses held in Athens on commencement day at the University.' By 1840 parties in Georgia had developed the practice of holding state conventions to nominate candidates for Governor, for Congress, and for the electoral college.2 During most of the period before the Civil War, Georgia had a biparty political organization. The party formed by James Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Michael Troup, and allied nationally with Jefferson's Republican Party, dominated the political scene at the opening of the nineteenth century, but party organization was not strong in the period prior to the constitutional amendment of 1825 which provided for popular election of the Governor. By this time a rival party, known by the name of its leader, John Clark, had arisen. The two parties were differentiated more on economic and social grounds than any other, the aristocrats tending to be in the Troup Party. Division of the Jeff ersonian-Republican Party into two wings during the period of Andrew Jackson was paralleled in Georgia by the rise of a State Rights and a Union party, the former largely a continuation of the Troup Party and the latter made up principally
The Interaction of Liquid Environments with Hard Elastic High Impact Polystyrene

The hard-elastic behavior exhibited by specially prepared polymers has been under intensive investigation since its patenting in the mid-1960’s [1]. Recently, the phenomenology of hard elasticity in crystalline polymers has been thoroughly reviewed by Sprague [2] and more recently, Cannon, McKenna and Statton [3]. Common mechanical and physical properties of these unique materials include (a) an initial Hookean elasticity, (b) high recoverability from large strains, (c) energetic retractive forces, (d) rehealing after work softening, and (e) constant cross-sectional area during deformation.
Role of Chain Morphology and Stiffness in Thermal Conductivity of Amorphous Polymers.

Designing thermally conductive polymer is of scientific interest and practical importance for applications like thermal interface materials, electronics packing, and plastic heat exchangers. In this work, we study the fundamental relationship between the molecular morphology and thermal conductivity in bulk amorphous polymers. We use polyethylene as a model system and performed systematic parametric study in molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the thermal conductivity is a strong function of the radius of gyration of the molecular chains, which is further correlated to persistence length, an intrinsic property of the molecule that characterizes molecular stiffness. Larger persistence length can lead to more extended chain morphology and thus higher thermal conductivity. Further thermal conductivity decomposition analysis shows that thermal transport through covalent bonds dominates the effective thermal conductivity over other contributions from nonbonded interactions (van der Waals) and translat...
Macroscopic and Microscopic Views of Life

I read with great interest the letter of Shi V. Liu about “Rectify the Distorted Microscopic View on Life: an Open Letter to Microbiologists” (Microbe, January 2006, p. 1) and the response by Dennis Hill about “Defining Life Principles” (Microbe, April 2006, p. 159). Liu described that, with the establishment of microbiology, we have a dichotomous view on life in regard to the observable differences in reproduction patterns of macroorganisms and microorganisms, and that perhaps the microscopic view on life is distorted and requires the formation of a new biology. Hill pointed out that prokaryotes and eukaryotes reproduce differently, and that a particular view of life needs only to be properly refined and should not be too constrictive, but rather be handled with an open mind, thus eliminating the need for a new biology.
Arteriovenous Malformation of the Spermatic Cord

AbstractWe report a case of an arteriovenous malformation of the spermatic cord, a lesion that to our knowledge has not been described previously.
Almost Fair: Conjoint Measurement Theory and Score-Based Bargaining Solutions

A bargaining problem is a cooperative game in which players are permitted to negotiate before the game is played. Bargaining theory can be used to economic interactions such as union negotiations, international trade agreements, and duopolies. A general theory of bargaining games thus has a wide application to many areas of economics and political science.
Training and Education

The fundamentally dual nature of the concept of education has already been discussed. Education on the one hand is the residue of life or experience, the cumulation of the human process, which is not only a sum of past events, but a motive influence on present ones. The process of experience cumulates, and in any particular situation or perspective this cumulation is what characterizes the situation with its qualities and commitments. In this sense of education, all of experience is educative, for it is relevant to the perspectives an individual adopts, and the determinations they have for him.
Alzheimer disease: Preclinical Alzheimer disease - the new frontier.

Studies of preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD) have unexpectedly shown amyloid-β deposition and/or AD-like neurodegenerative changes in the brains of a high proportion of clinically normal elderly individuals. As two recent reports illustrate, imaging and fluid biomarker studies in these individuals are yielding new insights into the pathophysiology of cognitive ageing.
Gastrojejunal anastomotic reduction for weight regain in roux-en-y gastric bypass patients: physiological, behavioral, and anatomical effects of endoscopic suturing and sclerotherapy.

Abstract Background Weight regain is common after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Objectives To assess the mechanisms of weight loss after 2 gastrojejunal anastomotic reduction (GJAR) procedures to treat weight regain. Setting University hospital, United States. Methods Forty-three Roux-en-Y gastric bypass patients with weight regain were prospectively enrolled. Weight, ghrelin levels, responses to the 21-item three-factor eating questionnaire, and gastrojejunal anastomotic diameter were assessed. Nine patients underwent endoscopic suturing and 34 patients underwent sclerotherapy. At 3 months, weight, ghrelin levels, eating behavior, and outlet diameter were reassessed. Results Patients were aged 47±10 years and regained 43%±26% of maximal lost weight. Ghrelin levels were 123±106 ng/mL and outlet diameter was 21±6.3 mm. At 3 months, the entire cohort lost 4.1%±5.9% of total weight (TBW) and showed improvement in cognitive eating habits (P (P (P (P = .02). Suturing resulted in greater improvement in cognitive eating behavior than sclerotherapy ( P = .03). Reduction in outlet size and changes in cognitive and emotional eating behaviors were predictors of weight loss after GJAR on a univariate analysis. On a multivariate analysis, the only predictor of weight loss was a reduction in outlet size (P Conclusions Endoscopic suturing resulted in greater reduction in outlet size, improvement in eating behavior, and weight loss than sclerotherapy. Reduction of anastomosis size was a significant predictor of weight loss after GJAR.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur. By Mark Perry. (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2014. Pp. xviii, 380. $29.99.)

The dozens of biographies written about General Douglas MacArthur range in style from boys’ adventure stories to hagiographies to the magisterial three‐volume work of D. Clayton James, The Years of...
Low temperature annealing dedicated to AlSi10Mg selective laser melting products

Abstract In this work a new heat treatment specific for selective laser melted (SLM) AlSi10Mg products is studied. Samples were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM); two exothermic phenomena were recognized, kinetically analyzed and associated to the precipitation of Mg2Si and to the rupture and spheroidization of the silicon network, which is characteristic of SLM built parts. Thermal treatments, based on the results of calorimetric analyses, were defined and applied to SLM built samples. The evolution of the silicon network morphology was confirmed by SEM observations and corresponding hardness variations were correlated to the treatment conditions. Dedicated thermal treatment is therefore proposed as a lower temperature alternative to the usually applied post – building annealing.
Mechanisms and time course of menthol-induced cutaneous vasodilation

Menthol is a vasoactive compound that is widely used in topical analgesic agents. Menthol induces cutaneous vasodilation, however the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Determining the rates of appearance and clearance of menthol in the skin is important for optimizing topical treatment formulation and dosing. The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanisms contributing to menthol-mediated cutaneous vasodilation and to establish a time course for menthol appearance/clearance in the skin. Ten young (23±1years, 5 males 5 females) subjects participated in two protocols. In study 1, four intradermal microdialysis fibers were perfused with increasing doses of menthol (0.1-500mM) and inhibitors for nitric oxide (NO), endothelium derived hyperpolarizing factors (EDHFs), and sensory nerves. Skin blood flow was measured with laser Doppler flowmetry and normalized to %CVCmax. In study 2, two intradermal microdialysis fibers were perfused with lactated Ringer's solution. 0.017mL·cm-2 of a 4% menthol gel was placed over each fiber. 5μL samples of dialysate from the microdialysis fibers were collected every 30min and analyzed for the presence of menthol with high performance gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Skin blood flow (laser speckle contrast imaging) and subjective ratings of menthol sensation were simultaneously obtained with dialysate samples. In study 1, menthol induced cutaneous vasodilation at all doses ≥100mM (all p 0.05). In study 2, significant menthol was detected in dialysate 30min post menthol application (0.89ng, p=0.0002). Relative to baseline, cutaneous vasodilation was elevated from minutes 15-45 and ratings of menthol sensation were elevated from minute 5-60 post menthol application (all p<0.05). Menthol induces cutaneous vasodilation in the skin through multiple vasodilator pathways, including NO, EDHF, and sensory nerves. Topical menthol is detectable in the skin within 30min and is cleared by 60min. Skin blood flow and perceptual measures follow a similar time course as menthol appearance/clearance.
The iron status at birth of neonates with risk factors for developing iron deficiency: a pilot study.

The iron status at birth of neonates with risk factors for developing iron deficiency: a pilot study
Modeling workers’ daily out-of-home maintenance activity participation and duration

Abstract This paper applies a multiple discrete–continuous choice model to determine worker’s decisions on interdependencies of maintenance activity participation and duration over different time periods in a worker’s day. To accommodate household effect, each time period is further defined according to whether the maintenance activities were conducted independently or jointly with other household members. Using the household survey data from the New York metropolitan area, the worker’s participation and duration decisions were jointly estimated for four time periods, including the morning commute, midday, evening commute, and after evening commute. To account for the censored nature of the duration data, a “censored system of equations” proposed by Shonkwiler and Yen was adopted and modified to increase asymptotic efficiency of the parameter estimates. Despite simplicity of the model and its ease of implementation, the estimation results offer valuable insights into the effects of socio-demographics, land use density, transportation service, and work duration characteristics on worker’s daily scheduling of maintenance activities and travel in a highly urbanized environment.
A convolutional Riemannian texture model with differential entropic active contours for unsupervised pest detection

Pest camouflages in grains or natural environment cause significant difficulties in pest detection using imaging technologies. This paper proposes a convolutional Riemannian texture with differential entropic active contours to distinguish the background regions and expose pest regions. An image texture model is firstly introduced on the Riemannian manifold. A convolutional Riemannian texture structure is then explored to reduce the environmental background textures and highlight potential pest textures. Subsequently, a differential entropic active contour model is developed to estimate the foreground and background distributions. Finally, the estimated foreground and background distributions are used to distinguish pest textures and environmental textures. The final detected regions are obtained by maximizing pixel-wise posterior probabilities on the estimated distributions. Experimental results show that effective detections can be achieved by the proposed method on forestry pests imaging datasets.
Drone Networks for Virtual Human Teleportation

We consider a drone-based vision sensor network that captures collocated viewpoints of the scene underneath and sends them to a remote user for volumetric 360-degree navigable visual immersion on his virtual reality head-mounted display. The reconstruction quality of the immersive scene representation on the device and thus the quality of user experience will depend on the signal sampling rate and location of each drone. Moreover, there is a limit on the aggregate amount of data the network can sample and relay towards the user, stemming from transmission constraints. Finally, the user navigation actions will dynamically place different priorities on specific viewpoints of the captured scene. We make multiple contributions in this context. First, we formulate the viewpoint-priority-aware scene reconstruction error as a function of the assigned sampling rates and compute their optimal values that minimize the former, for given drone positions and system constraints. Second, we design an online view sampling policy that takes actions while exploring new drone locations to discover the best drone network configuration over the scene. We characterize its approximation versus convergence characteristics using novel spectral graph analysis and show considerable advances relative to the state-of-the-art. Finally, to enable the drone sensors to efficiently communicate their data back to the aggregation point, we formulate computationally efficient rate-distortion-power optimized transmission scheduling policies that meet the low-latency application requirements, while conserving the available energy. Our experimental results demonstrate the competitive advantages of our approach over multiple performance factors. This is a first-of-its-kind study of an emerging application of prospectively broad societal impact.
Fine-grained RFID Localization via Ultra-wideband Emulation

This demo presents RFind, a system that enables fine-grained RFID localization via ultra-wideband emulation. RFind operates by measuring the time-of-flight -- i.e., the time it takes the signal to travel from an antenna to an RFID tag. To do so, it emulates an ultra-wide bandwidth on today's narrowband RFIDs without requiring any hardware modification to the tags. It then uses the large emulated bandwidth to estimate the time-of-flight and localize RFIDs. In contrast to past RFID localization proposals, RFind can operate in multipath-rich environments without reference tags and without requiring tag or antenna motion. The demo will allow users to move RFID-tagged objects to any location in line-of-sight, non-line-of-sight, and multi-path rich settings and check that the system can accurately localize the objects.
Study of polymorphism using patterned self-assembled monolayers approach on metal substrates

Abstract Polymorphism is a molecule’s ability to possess altered physical crystalline structures and has become an active interest in pharmaceuticals due to its ability to influence a drug’s physical and chemical properties. Crystal stability and solubility are crucial in determining a drug’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Changes in these properties due to polymorphisms have contributed to recalls and modifications in industrial production. For this study, the effects of surface interactions with pharmaceuticals were examined through surface modification methodology using organic phosphonic and sulfonic acid self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) developed on a nickel or zinc oxide metal substrate. Drugs analyzed included carbamazepine, cimetidine, tolfenamic acid, and flufenamic acid. All drugs were thermodynamically applied to the reformed surface to aid in recrystallization. It was hypothesized and confirmed that intermolecular bonds, especially hydrogen bonds between the SAMs and pharmaceutical drugs, were the force that assisted in polymorph development. The study was successful in revealing multiple forms for each drug, including their commercial form and at least one additional form using micro FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, and PXRD. Visual comparisons of crystal polymorphisms were performed with IR microscopy.
A Customizable Pipeline for Social Media Text Normalization

Social networks are persistently generating text-based data that encapsulate vast amounts of knowledge. However, the presence of non-standard terms and misspellings in texts originating from social networks poses a crucial challenge for natural language processing and machine learning systems that attempt to mine this knowledge. To address this problem, we propose a sequential, modular, and hybrid pipeline for social media text normalization. In the first phase, text preprocessing techniques and social media-specific vocabularies gathered from publicly available sources are used to transform, with high precision, out-of-vocabulary terms into in-vocabulary terms. A sequential language model, generated using the partially normalized texts from the first phase, is then utilized to normalize short, high-frequency, ambiguous terms. A supervised learning module is employed to normalize terms based on a manually annotated training corpus. Finally, a tunable, distributed language model-based backoff module at the end of the pipeline enables further customization of the system to specific domains of text. We performed intrinsic evaluations of the system on a publicly available domain-independent dataset from Twitter, and our system obtained an F-score of 0.836, outperforming other benchmark systems for the task. We further performed brief, task-oriented evaluations of the system to illustrate the customizability of the system to domain-specific tasks and the effects of normalization on downstream applications. The modular design enables the easy customization of the system to distinct types domain-specific social media text, in addition to its off-the-shelf application to generic social media text.
An Additive Analysis of Lag Schedules of Reinforcement and Rules on Novel Responses of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Lag schedules of reinforcement have been found to be useful in addressing invariant behavior of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to conduct an additive analysis of lag schedules and rules. Three participants with ASD were exposed to a Lag 2 schedule of reinforcement in isolation. Following, participants were introduced to an incomplete rule and then a complete rule regarding reinforcement in conjunction with the lag schedule. Results indicated that lag schedules in isolation were generally sufficient for increasing novel responding. The addition of incomplete and complete rules often resulted in increases, albeit small, in novel responding. Results are discussed in terms of applied use of lag schedules of reinforcement and addressing nonresponse.
Sequential Development of Intracortical Processing Channels in Human Visual Cortex

Publisher Summary The idea that the human visual system is composed of different functional channels is based on psychophysical studies and analogies to experimental animals. The close resemblance of the connections of human visual cortex with those in non-human primates supports the conclusion that the M and the P processing systems are represented in different cortical compartments of V1 and V2. Although anatomical and physiological evidence from monkeys indicates a partial convergence of the two systems in the upper layers of V1, the difference between the relatively mature pattern of connections within layer 4B in newborns and the absence of connections within upper layers suggests that the M system develops in advance of the P system. To equate the development of upper layer connections with the development of the P system is problematic for at least two reasons—upper layers are not free of M input and the emergence of long-range connections after 7 months postnatal is not synchronous with the development of the elementary functions of the P system.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a commonly occurring endocrine disorder characterized by hirsutism, anovulation, and polycystic ovaries. Often comorbid with insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and obesity, it also carries significant risk for the development of cardiovascular and metabolic sequelae, including diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Traditionally, the treatment of patients with PCOS has focused on relief of symptoms. Here, the criteria for the diagnosis of PCOS are reviewed with an emphasis on the stratification of subtypes by metabolic features. Then treatment options are reviewed according to the management goal: relief of hyperandrogenic symptoms, regulation of menstruation, and restoration of fertility.
A Third Sound Resonator with Cesium Boundaries

We have created a two dimensional third sound resonator with cesium boundaries on a PMMA-coated glass substrate. At chemical potential values below those necessary for pre-wetting, the cesium boundaries act as non-wet edges, effectively confining the helium to the region enclosed by the cesium. Aluminum transition-edge bolometers and silver electrodes are used as detectors and thermal sources of third sound, respectively. A first-generation resonator is described and preliminary results of third sound attenuation and 4 He - Cs reflection coefficient measurements made in the resonator are presented.
Social Media’s Role in Romantic Partners’ Retroactive Jealousy: Social Comparison, Uncertainty, and Information Seeking:

Social media often have a dark side in romantic relationships. Affordances such as persistence, association, and visibility can promote romantic jealousy and the salience of relationship threats, i...
Silicone optical elements for cost-effective solar concentration

Silicone optical elements are demonstrated for a concentrated photovoltaic system. These components show over 96% transmission through most of the solar spectrum and excellent temperature stability. Unique moldability enables cost-effective and complex shape production.
Cross-Sensitization to Binge Alcohol Intake Following Binge Intake of Palatable Diets

Obesity and alcoholism, two of the most common chronic conditions in the United States, may be behaviorally linked as binge intake of palatable diets, such as diets high in fat (HFD), and binge alc...
Determination of Teton Fault slip rates using surface exposure dating of fault-offset glacial landforms in Grand Teton National Park

The central goal of this project is to establish direct constraints on time-integrated slip rates along the trace of the Teton fault in Grand Teton National Park. The key research strategy is to develop cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure ages of glacial deposits bisected by the fault – in particular lateral moraines along the eastern Teton Range front – and to combine these landform ages with precise geomorphic measurements of postglacial fault scarp offsets on these features as determined from field surveys and analyses of newly available LiDAR data. Time-integrated slip rates on the Teton fault will then be derived from the amount of tectonic displacement on the dated lateral moraines. Improved constraints on the rate of tectonic activity along the Teton fault resulting from this project are anticipated to lead to better-informed geologic hazard assessment in the park and adjacent regions. Furthermore, the moraine chronologies developed in this work will advance our understanding of the late Pleistocene glacial and paleoclimatic history in Grand Teton National Park and more broadly in the northern Rocky Mountains. Featured photo taken from AMK Ranch photo collection.
Level and Change in N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and Kidney Function and Survival to Age 90.

Background Many traditional cardiovascular risk factors do not predict survival to very old age. Studies have shown associations of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) with cardiovascular disease and mortality in older populations. This study aimed to evaluate the associations of the level and change in eGFR and NT-pro-BNP with longevity to age 90 years. Method The population included participants (n = 3,645) in the Cardiovascular Health Study, aged between 67 and 75 at baseline. The main exposures were eGFR, calculated with the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS) 2 equation, and NT-pro-BNP, and the main outcome was survival to age 90. Mixed models were used to estimate level and change of the main exposures. Results There was an association between baseline level and change of both eGFR and NT-pro-BNP and survival to 90, and this association persisted after adjustment for covariates. Each 10 mL/min/1.73 m2 higher eGFR level was associated with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.23 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.34) of survival to 90, and a 0.5 mL/min/1.73 m2 slower decline in eGFR was associated with an OR of 1.51 (95% CI: 1.31, 1.74). A twofold higher level of NT-pro-BNP level had an adjusted OR of 0.67 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.73), and a 1.05-fold increase per year in NT-pro-BNP had an OR of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.65) for survival to age 90. Conclusion eGFR and NT-pro-BNP appear to be important risk factors for longevity to age 90.