cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A stable RNA G-quadruplex within the 5'-UTR of Arabidopsis thaliana ATR mRNA inhibits translation.

Guanine quadruplex structures (GQSs) play important roles in the regulation of gene expression and cellular processes. Recent studies provide strong evidence for the formation and function of DNA and RNA GQSs in human cells. However, whether GQSs form and are functional in plants remains essentially unexplored. On the basis of circular dichroism (CD)-detected titration, UV-detected melting, in-line probing (ILP) and reporter gene assay studies, we report the first example of a plant RNA GQS that inhibits translation. This GQS is located within the 5′-UTR of the ATAXIA TELANGIECTASIA-MUTATED AND RAD3-RELATED ( ATR ) mRNA of Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse-ear cress). We show that this GQS is highly stable and is thermodynamically favoured over a competing hairpin structure in the 5′-UTR at physiological K+ and Mg2+ concentrations. Results from ILP reveal the secondary structure of the RNA and support formation of the GQS in vitro in the context of the complete 5′-UTR. Transient reporter gene assays performed in living plants reveal that the GQS inhibits translation but not transcription, implicating this GQS as a translational repressor in vivo . Our results provide the first complete demonstration of the formation and function of a regulatory RNA GQS in plants and open new avenues to explore potential functional roles of GQS in the plant kingdom. Abbreviations: ATR, ATAXIA TELANGIECTASIA-MUTATED AND RAD3-RELATED; CIP, calf intestinal phosphatase; DMS, dimethyl sulfate; GQS, guanine quadruplex structures; GUS, β-glucuronidase; ILP, in-line probing; L, loop; LiCac, lithium cacodylate; mGQS, mutant GQS; 4-MU, 4-methylumbelliferone; MUG, 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-glucuronide; nt, nucleotide; PNK, polynucleotide kinase; qRT-PCR, quantitative reverse transcription–PCR; RACE, rapid amplification of cDNA ends; SHAPE, selective 2′-hydroxyl acylation analysed by primer extension
Thin-Gate-Oxide Breakdown and CPU Failure-Rate Estimation

Gate-oxide breakdown is a key mechanism limiting IC lifetime. Lifetime is typically extrapolated from accelerated tests on test capacitors, but estimating product reliability from such results requires making a number of often-untested assumptions. This paper details a capacitor-based model and compares the predictions of the model to results from accelerated lifetest of actual logic CPU products, discussing the assumptions which make such a comparison necessary. For the technology studied, lifetest failure rate was somewhat lower than model prediction, and failure analysis indicated that important factors included the different sensitivities of logic circuits versus cache cells and of and transistors in the cache. Analysis of the factors involved in determining oxide-breakdown reliability and of the statistical uncertainties in capacitor-based models indicates that it is important to calibrate models to product data, including these effects. Once a model is validated, this paper discusses how it can be used to assess the reliability impact of changes in silicon processing and product use conditions.
Hoarded Treasures: The Megiddo Ivories and the End of the Bronze Age

The magnificent collection of ivories found in an annex of the Stratum VIIA palace at Megiddo is often cited as illustrative of the internationalism characterizing the Late Bronze Age. This article re- examines the ivories from both a stylistic and archaeological perspective to provide a new reconstruction of their acquisition and deposition. Considering the diversity of the ivories’ styles, their incomplete and unreconstructible nature, and the presence of a large, articulated animal skeleton on top of them, I propose that the assemblage is best viewed within an interpretive framework of hoarding and ritual deposition at the end of the Bronze Age.
Generalized broadcast scheduling in duty-cycle multi-hop wireless networks

Network wide broadcast is a fundamental and widely-used operation in multi-hop wireless networks. Through one-to-all broadcast, a source node disseminates a message to all the other nodes in the network. In duty-cycle scenarios, the nodes alternate between active and sleep states, which results in the increasing of broadcast latency. In this paper, we investigate the Minimum Latency Broadcast Scheduling problem in Duty-Cycle (MLBSDC problem) multi-hop wireless networks. Our goal is to provide a generalized framework for the MLBSDC problem. We mathematically remodel this problem and propose a vector iteration algorithm, in which a greedy strategy is employed. We also conduct extensive simulations to show the efficiency of the broadcast schedule returned by our algorithm under various network configurations. Compared with the results of the current best algorithm, our greedy algorithm achieves significant improvement both in broadcast latency and the total number of transmissions.
Advances in breast cancer treatment and prevention: preclinical studies on aromatase inhibitors and new selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs)

Intensive basic and clinical research over the past 20 years has yielded crucial molecular understanding into how estrogen and the estrogen receptor act to regulate breast cancer and has led to the development of more effective, less toxic, and safer hormonal therapy agents for breast cancer management and prevention. Selective potent aromatase inhibitors are now challenging the hitherto gold standard of hormonal therapy, the selective estrogen-receptor modulator tamoxifen. Furthermore, new selective estrogen-receptor modulators such as arzoxifene, currently under clinical development, offer the possibility of selecting one with a more ideal pharmacological profile for treatment and prevention of breast cancer. Two recent studies in preclinical model systems that evaluate mechanisms of action of these new drugs and suggestions about their optimal clinical use are discussed.
Arterial Reconstruction for Atypical Mycotic Aneurysms

Our case involves a 67-year-old man with a post lung transplantation status for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, who was initially referred to our institution for treatment of left hip septic arthritis due to Pseudallescheria boydii infection. One month following total hip arthroplasty, he noticed left upper thigh swelling with duplex imaging consistent with a 7-cm mid-superficial femoral artery aneurysm with popliteal vein compression and associated deep venous thrombosis. During operative resection, exploration of his contralateral saphenous vein showed inadequate conduit for use. Therefore, we proceeded with proximal and distal clamp control with intraoperative arterial shunting followed by cryoarterial reconstruction after complete aneurysm sac resection and debridement. Intraoperative arterial wall cultures remained negative for bacterial pathogens; however, final operative fungal cultures once again grew Pseudallescheria boydii. Our case highlights the complexity of adequate source control with effective arterial reconstruction in these immunosuppressed patient populations, particularly with fungal organisms that historically have poor therapeutic response to medical therapy alone.
The Perception Game: Understanding Self and Other.

This experiential learning activity seeks to highlight the perceptual processes that invctriably transpire between two interactants. Participants attempt to match other participants with their prime concern when interacting with someone socially for the first time. Additionally, partidpants render a judgment as to whether or not others have correctly matched them with their own concern. Illustrative data from a sample game are presented and discussed.
Control of microcellular re-use statistics using directional antennas in the presence of scattering

In ideal homogeneous urban environments, microcellular systems may be planned using regular frequency re-use patterns. These patterns take advantage of the site shielding effect of buildings to allow channel re-use in adjacent streets. These regular patterns are rarely achieved in practice due to the effects of shadowing and scattering. The case of re-use within a linear microcellular GSM system is first examined and the effect of shadowing and directional antennas on the useful re-use pattern is established. Subsequently, a diffraction based model of site shadowing is used to evaluate the potential for re-use between adjacent streets. It is shown that discrete scatterers can produce significant deterioration in the attainable re-use patterns, but that this effect may be mitigated by the use of simple directive antennas.
Combined multilevel FMM-QR algorithm for broadband applications

This paper presents a combined multilevel FMM-QR approach applicable to three-dimensional scattering problems of widely varying electrical sizes. The classic MLFMA suffers breakdown at low frequencies (I. Bogaert et al., 2005), while QR based methods become inefficient at high frequencies (D. Gope and V. Jandhyala, 2005). The presented algorithm combines these two methods to achieve stability at all frequencies, and at the same time preserves the O(NlogN) complexity of setup, memory and matrix-vector products. Examples demonstrating time and memory requirements are presented, and the efficient nature of the overall method at all frequencies is also demonstrated.
Use of Acoustic Emission to Evaluate Residual Strength in FRP Pipes after Impact Damage

Acoustic Emission (AE) has proven to be a useful tool in the monitoring of fiberglass pressure vessels. The ASME Piping and Pressure Vessel Code (subsection X) implements AE as an approved method for quality control and in service testing of fiberglass pressure vessels, making it an accepted technique for the evaluation of fiber composite structures. This article presents the result of AE monitoring of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) pipes after impact damage has incurred. The results from these tests indicate that AE can be used as a tool to predict the level of damage incurred in the pipes after impact and during pressurization. The use of the Felicity Ratio as the benchmark for evaluation is presented as the key evaluating value.
Characterization and Surface Reactivity of Ferrihydrite Nanoparticles Assembled in Ferritin

Ferrihydrite nanoparticles with nominal sizes of 3 and 6 nm were assembled within ferritin, an iron storage protein. The crystallinity and structure of the nanoparticles (after removal of the protein shell) were evaluated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). HRTEM showed that amorphous and crystalline nanoparticles were copresent, and the degree of crystallinity improved with increasing size of the particles. The dominant phase of the crystalline nanoparticles was ferrihydrite. Morphology and electronic structure of the nanoparticles were characterized by AFM and STM. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements suggested that the band gap associated with the 6 nm particles was larger than the band gap associated with the 3 nm particles. Interaction of SO2(g) with the nanoparticles was investigated by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and results were interpr...
Humoral and cellular immune responses to Microsporum canis in naturally occurring feline dermatophytosis

Peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from cattery cats which were culture positive for Microsporum canis, or from cats which had recovered from M. canis infection, showed a significantly greater mean in vitro blastogenic response to M. canis antigen than lymphocytes from uninfected cats. Mean lymphocyte reactivity to concanavalin A was higher in cats which had recovered from infection than in either culture positive or uninfected cats, whereas reactivity to phytohemagglutinin was highest in the culture positive group. Antibody (both IgG and IgM) against dermatophyte glycoprotein antigen was detectable in the plasma of all cats, but was present in significantly higher titres in the culture positive group. Our results demonstrate that M. canis infected cats mount strong humoral and cellular immune responses to the organism; these responses can be detected by use of anti-dermatophyte antibody quantitation and lymphocyte blastogenesis assays, as has been reported previously for dermatophytosis in other species. Asymptomatic, culture positive cats were found in only three of seven catteries and were genetically related, raising the possibility of genetic predisposition to persisting asymptomatic infection.
Field video recordings reveal factors influencing predatory strike success of free-ranging rattlesnakes (Crotalus spp.)

Research on predator–prey interactions often focuses largely on prey behaviour, treating predators as static danger, rather than as active behavioural participants that can respond adaptively to prey choices. A complete understanding of the functional significance of both predator attack behaviours and prey escape behaviours can only come from examining the interaction between both parties. For example, although the predatory strike of venomous snakes has been studied extensively in the laboratory, we have little understanding of the proximate factors influencing snake strike behaviour under natural conditions. Here, we report details of the analysis of predatory strikes of free-ranging rattlesnakes (Crotalus spp.) towards their natural prey. We found that over half of strike attempts were unsuccessful, and the most significant factor influencing strike success was the ability of prey animals to initiate a rapid evasive dodge manoeuvre in the fraction of a second after snakes initiated strikes, but before snake strikes contacted them. Snakes, in turn, initiated strikes most frequently towards the flank of laterally moving prey, which is probably an attempt to counter the ability of prey to dodge strikes.
The school environment: A link to understanding stress

(1983). The school environment: A link to understanding stress. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 22, Coping with Stress, pp. 15-20.
Rhabdomyomatous hamartomata of the pharyngeal region with bilateral microtia and aural atresia: a new association?

BACKGROUND: Bilateral microtia with aural atresia is rare. Rhabdomyomatous hamartomata containing salivary tissue, situated bilaterally and symmetrically simulating the palatine (faucial) tonsils, has apparently not been reported. We present the combination of these findings in two unrelated patients. CASES: In the first case, the patient was exposed prenatally to 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin) and has typical features of this exposure, including bilateral microtia with aural atresia and bilateral 7th nerve palsies. Due to symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, patient 1 had a “tonsillectomy” and adenoidectomy. Histopathologic studies demonstrated rhabdomyomatous hamartomata containing salivary and striated muscle tissue in place of the palatine tonsils. In the second case, the patient had been prenatally exposed to alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana. He has been noted to have developmental delay and behavioral issues in addition to bilateral microtia with aural atresia. “Tonsillectomy” and adenoidectomy were performed to alleviate chronic upper respiratory infections and snoring. Again, histopathologic studies of the tissue submitted as “tonsil” demonstrated rhabdomyomatous hamartomata containing salivary and muscle tissue. Although an extended banded karyotype and subtelomere panel were normal, a genetic etiology for the second patient's features cannot be excluded. CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize that the findings of bilateral microtia with aural atresia and rhabdomyomatous hamartomata containing salivary and muscle tissue in the area of the palatine tonsils may represent a newly recognized association, which may have a teratogenic and/or genetic etiology. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A fluid-flow characterization of Internet1 and Internet2 traffic

We study the characteristics of Internet1 and Internet2 traffic at a network access point at a major USA university. With the use of fluid-flow modeling, we show that Internet1 and Internet2 traffic have different queuing behavior and that a small percentage of traffic on both networks largely contributes to this overall queuing behavior. We also demonstrate that buffer sizing, as a method to reduce loss, is largely ineffective for Internet2 traffic. These finding have implications for quality of service of Internet applications.
fatvg encodes a new localized RNA that uses a 25-nucleotide element (FVLE1) to localize to the vegetal cortex of Xenopus oocytes

Vegetally localized transcripts have been implicated in a number of important biological functions, including cell fate determination and embryonic patterning. We have isolated a cDNA, fatvg, which encodes a localized maternal transcript that exhibits a localization pattern reminiscent of Vg1 mRNA. fatvg is the homologue of a mammalian gene expressed in adipose tissues. The fatvg transcript, unlike Vg1 which localizes strictly through the Late pathway, also associates with the mitochondrial cloud that is characteristic of the METRO or Early pathway. This suggests that fatvg mRNA may utilize both the METRO and Late pathways to localize to the vegetal cortex during oogenesis. We have dissected the cis-acting localization elements of fatvg mRNA and compared these elements with Vg1 mRNA. Our results indicate that, like most localized RNAs, in a variety of systems, transcripts of fatvg contain localization elements in the 3′UTR. The 3′UTR of fatvg mRNA contains multiple elements that are able to function independently; however, it functions most efficiently when all of the elements are present. We have defined a short 25-nucleotide element that can direct vegetal localization as a single copy. This element differs in sequence from previously described Vg1 localization elements, suggesting that different localization elements are involved in the localization of RNAs through the Late pathway.
Weinstein's Methodology for Political Analysis

Weinstein’s method for political analysis begins with a critical moment, the specific situation and position in time and space that is actively being examined by the person who is doing the examining. At the critical moment, multiple parties will be interacting, and they make up the conjuncture or conjunction of actors, the actors in a situation in their relations to one another. Each actor brings a combination of power, or that which is presently at their disposal, and interest, that which they desire, to the conjuncture. The way an actor uses their power to obtain their interest is their strategy. The power-interest-strategy represents the core of political analysis and resonates with political realism. Each actor will have at least one ideology, or philosophical justifi cation and imaginary, that rationalizes their respective power-interest-strategy. Ideology defends the actor’s vision of the good and what ought to be and resonates with political idealism.The beauty of this methodology is that it is simple but infinitely scalable, providing the tools to meticulously examine complex relationships. It follows Dahl’s dual requirements for good political theory by being both comprehensive and parsimonious (Dahl, 1971: 33, 162). The rigor of this method comes not from postgraduate statistical or computational modeling but rather from sincerity.
Dissolving the Periodic Table in Cubic Zirconia: Data Mining to Discover Chemical Trends

Doped zirconias comprise a chemically diverse, technologically important class of materials used in catalysis, energy generation, and other key applications. The thermodynamics of zirconia doping, though extremely important to tuning these materials’ properties, remains poorly understood. We address this issue by performing hundreds of very large-scale density functional theory defect calculations on doped cubic zirconia systems and elucidate the dilute-limit stability of essentially all interesting cations on the cubic zirconia lattice. Although this comprehensive thermodynamics database is useful in its own right, it raises the question: what forces mechanistically drive dopant stability in zirconia? A standard tactic to answering such questions is to identify—generally by chemical intuition—a simple, easily measured, or predicted descriptor property, such as boiling point, bulk modulus, or density, that strongly correlates with a more complex target quantity (in this case, dopant stability). Thus, desc...
What can you do to prevent teen suicide

Learn to recognize the warning signs and how to answer a young person's call for help. Language: en
Agonistic Behavior and Dominance Relationships in the Harbor Seal, Phoca vitulina

A descriptive and quantitative analysis of agonistic signaling and dominance relationships in the Pacific harbor seal ( Phoca vitulina richardsi ) is presented. Harbor seals rely primarily on the forelimbs and muzzle to convey social signals on land. Communication is achieved by a series of graded responses that vary in intensity depending upon the proximity, orientation, size, and sex of the interactants. Analysis of 1,617 agonistic encounters revealed eight basic patterns: move away, head-up-stare, extended foreflipper, foreflipper wave, foreflipper scratch, growling, closed-mouth head thrust, and open-mouth head thrust. Adult and juvenile seals formed strong linear hierarchies based on size and sex. Dominance ranking among pups is less strongly linear and no clear dominance relationships between male and female pups were evident. Adult males dominated all other age and sex classes, and greatly influenced the dispersion of other groups on land. Juveniles were subordinate to adults, although juvenile males approaching physical maturity dominated some adult females. Disputes between seals were brief; prolonged and aggressive encounters were characteristic of similarly-sized individuals, and may reflect unsettled dominance ranking. Agonistic signaling in phocids exhibiting external features similar to P. vitulina are consistent in form, context, and function to signaling patterns described for P. vitulina in the present study.
Consistency of Reporting for Stressful Life Events Among Nondeployed Soldiers.

Objectives Measurement of stress exposure is central to understanding military mental health outcomes. Although temporal stability of combat event reporting has been examined, less is known about the stability of reporting for noncombat events in military samples. Objectives are to examine consistency in reporting stressful life events in nondeployed U.S. Army soldiers and its association with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. Method Examined reporting consistency over approximately 8 months among 466 soldiers. Regression models examined factors associated with decreased, increased, and stable reporting. Results Stability of the number of events endorsed over time was high. However, item-level agreement was slight to moderate (kappas: .13–.54), with inconsistencies due primarily to decreased reporting. After adjusting for covariates and initial PTSD, second assessment PTSD was associated with increased and stable reporting. Conclusions Inconsistent reporting extends beyond combat events to other stressful life events in military personnel and is associated with PTSD.
Using manifest content analysis in purchasing and supply management research

Abstract Much of the data relevant to study modern organizations is textual and qualitative in nature. With advances in computerized text analysis that enable researchers to collect and analyze large amounts of textual data, there are opportunities to address new research questions or old questions in new ways. This essay describes the use of manifest or computerized content analysis to study research questions in purchasing and supply management. The essay explores why manifest content analysis is needed to study current problems in purchasing and supply management, and discusses issues of methodological rigor, especially in the context of large data sets.
Coupling of experimentally validated electroelastic dynamics and mixing rules formulation for macro-fiber composite piezoelectric structures

Piezoelectric structures have been used in a variety of applications ranging from vibration control and sensing to morphing and energy harvesting. In order to employ the effective 33-mode of piezoe...
Understanding Interrater Reliability and Validity of Risk Assessment Tools Used to Predict Adverse Clinical Events

Purpose This article will describe how to assess interrater reliability and validity of risk assessment tools, using easy-to-follow formulas, and to provide calculations that demonstrate principles discussed. Description Clinical nurse specialists should be able to identify risk assessment tools that provide high-quality interrater reliability and the highest validity for predicting true events of importance to clinical settings. Making best practice recommendations for assessment tool use is critical to high-quality patient care and safe practices that impact patient outcomes and nursing resources. Optimal risk assessment tool selection requires knowledge about interrater reliability and tool validity. Outcome The clinical nurse specialist will understand the reliability and validity issues associated with risk assessment tools, and be able to evaluate tools using basic calculations. Conclusion Risk assessment tools are developed to objectively predict quality and safety events and ultimately reduce the risk of event occurrence through preventive interventions. To ensure high-quality tool use, clinical nurse specialists must critically assess tool properties. The better the tool's ability to predict adverse events, the more likely that event risk is mediated. Interrater reliability and validity assessment is relatively an easy skill to master and will result in better decisions when selecting or making recommendations for risk assessment tool use.
Cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of triclosan attenuates its cytotoxicity in hepatic cells.

Triclosan is a widely used broad-spectrum anti-bacterial agent. The objectives of this study were to identify which cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms metabolize triclosan and to examine the effects of CYP-mediated metabolism on triclosan-induced cytotoxicity. A panel of HepG2-derived cell lines was established, each of which overexpressed a single CYP isoform, including CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1, CYP2A6, CYP2A7, CYP2A13, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C18, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP3A7, CYP4A11, and CYP4B1. The extent of triclosan metabolism by each CYP was assessed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with online radiochemical detection. Seven isoforms were capable of metabolizing triclosan, with the order of activity being CYP1A2 > CYP2B6 > CYP2C19 > CYP2D6 ≈ CYP1B1 > CYP2C18 ≈ CYP1A1. The remaining 11 isoforms (CYP2A6, CYP2A7, CYP2A13, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP3A7, CYP4A11, and CYP4B1) had little or no activity toward triclosan. Three metabolites were detected: 2,4-dichlorophenol, 4-chlorocatechol, and 5′-hydroxytriclosan. Consistent with the in vitro screening data, triclosan was extensively metabolized in HepG2 cells overexpressing CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP2C18, and these cells were much more resistant to triclosan-induced cytotoxicity compared to vector cells, suggesting that CYP-mediated metabolism of triclosan attenuated its cytotoxicity. In addition, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 4-chlorocatechol were less toxic than triclosan to HepG2/vector cells. Conjugation of triclosan, catalyzed by human glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) and sulfotransferases (SULTs), also occurred in HepG2/CYP-overexpressing cells and primary human hepatocytes, with a greater extent of conjugation being associated with higher cell viability. Co-administration of triclosan with UGT or SULT inhibitors led to greater cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells and primary human hepatocytes, indicating that glucuronidation and sulfonation of triclosan are detoxification pathways. Among the 18 CYP-overexpressing cell lines, an inverse correlation was observed between cell viability and the level of triclosan in the culture medium. In conclusion, human CYP isoforms that metabolize triclosan were identified, and the metabolism of triclosan by CYPs, UGTs, and SULTs decreased its cytotoxicity in hepatic cells.
EVIDENCE FOR A SELF-CLEAVING PRECURSOR OF VIRUS-CODED PROTEASE, RNA-REPLICASE, AND VPg

VPg, a small protein found covalently linked to the genomic RNA of encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus, is derived from protein C, a precursor of viral RNA replicase and also of a virus-coded protease. Dilution insensitive cleavage of protein C suggests the replicase precursor is able to cleave itself, releasing a VPg-related protein and a protease in the process. Recognition of a latent coatprocessing enzyme in an autolytic replicase precursor molecule provides a useful new framework for analyzing the mechanisms by which picornaviruses coordinate translation, transcription and assembly, the three major processes in the life cycle.
Hormone dependent uterine epithelial-stromal communication for pregnancy support

Human fertility is a relatively inefficient process. Despite the presence of visibly healthy embryos, 30% of pregnancies generated by assisted reproductive technology (ART) fail before the second trimester. The uterine microenvironment plays a critical role in establishing and maintaining a successful pregnancy that requires coordinated communication between the epithelial and stromal cells of the endometrium. The epithelial cells must cease proliferation and become permissive for the conceptus (embryo and associated extraembryonic membranes), while the stromal cells undergoes mesenchymal-to-epithelioid transformation to form the decidua in support of subsequent embryo development. The ovarian steroids Estrogen (E2) and Progesterone (P4) are the major hormones governing these processes. These hormones act via their nuclear receptors, the estrogen receptor, ESR1, and progesterone receptor, PGR, to direct the transcription of genes that orchestrate epithelial and stromal cell communication. This review will discuss the molecular mechanisms utilized by steroid hormones that regulate uterine receptivity, as well, establish and maintain pregnancy.
Human multi-cancer gene expression analysis defines an inflammatory cancer-associated molecular pattern with prognostic significance (P2209)

Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of cancer. We propose that a “signature” of dysregulated inflammatory molecules exists across multiple cancer types. Genome-wide cDNA expression data was analyzed for 221 normal and 324 cancer specimens in 7 cancer types: breast, prostate, lung, colon, gastric, oral and pancreatic. 44 elevated and 52 repressed genes were identified and protein expression was confirmed by immunohistochemistry for some of these genes. This “Inflammatory Cancer-Associated Molecular Pattern” includes proteins whose roles in cancer are known and others (BST2, TNFAIP6, TNFSF4 and LEAP2) whose functions are yet to be appreciated. Clinical analysis in colon and ovarian cancer patients showed strong associations with tumor grade, stage and/or survival. In ovarian cancer, 18 genes predicted overall survival and 15 genes predicted recurrence. In colon cancer, 13 and 17 genes predicted 5-year overall and relapse-free survival, respectively. In both diseases, better prognosis correlated with high CXCL13 and lower level of GREM1, LOX, TNFAIP6, CD36, and EDNRA. An “Inflammatory Gene Integrated Score” was further developed from these genes, which also predicted survival in an independent cohort of ovarian cancer patients. This work defines an inflammatory signature shared by seven epithelial cancer types, which not only has significant biological implications, but also may serve as a novel biomarker for prognostication and individualized treatment of cancer.
On the Uses of Anti-Christian Identity Politics

This short essay, written for a conference on “Faith, Sexuality, and the Meaning of Freedom” held at Yale Law School in January 2017, briefly explores the emerging phenomenon of anti-Christian identity politics. The essay focuses on one particular legal source of it: a recondite provision of the so-called Treaty of Tripoli of 1796, which states that “the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” The uses to which the phrase has been put, it turns out, are more important than its confused and obscure historical meaning. In evaluating anti-Christian identity politics in only some of these uses, the essay considers the recent claim by Professor Mark Lilla that contemporary Americans — and American liberals in particular — ought to abandon “the politics of identity” in favor of a politics of shared citizenship. Lilla is right that identity politics as practiced today have further corroded the commonalities that remain among Americans. Identity politics also render compromise on various culture-war issues more difficult: any policy or legal victory for the opposition, however small, assumes additional symbolic power and must therefore be resisted all the more fiercely. Yet the pathologies of identity politics are only symptoms of a more potent sickness in American political and cultural life. Americans, as citizens, share less and less. They disagree in deepening ways about the nature of the political and moral good, about justice, and about what sort of people they are and aspire to be. In short, identity politics are not the cause of, but a response to, political and cultural fragmentation. And anti-Christian identity politics, like Christian identity politics, represent one strain of that response — one ostensible point of rendezvous for a nation whose people are increasingly disaffected with and alienated from one another.
How Music Moves Us: Entraining to Musicians’ Movements

We measured the postural sway of two trombonists as they each recorded multiple performances of two solo pieces in each of three different expressive styles (normal, expressive, non-expressive). We then measured the postural sway of 29 non-trombonist listeners as they moved their arms and body, “air-conducting” the recorded sound as if to draw out the emotion from the performance (Experiment 1), and of the two trombonists as they played along with the same recorded performances (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the velocity of listeners’ postural sway was more like that of the performer than expected by chance. Listeners entrained more to back-and-forth than to side-to-side sway in Experiment 1 and only to back-and-forth sway in Experiment 2. Entrainment was not due entirely to performer and listener both swaying to the musical pulse in the same way. Listeners in Experiment 1 rated performances as more expressive when they entrained more, suggesting that entrainment enhanced their aesthetic experience of the music. The whole body appears to contribute to unpacking the expressive content of musical communication.
Overdriven dislocation-precipitate interactions at elevated temperatures

Abstract The two-dimensional dislocation dynamics approach has been recently used for analyzing plastic deformation in metals and alloys at elevated temperatures. The two-dimensional approach, however, only accounts for the dislocation climbing process, and it assumes that dislocation bypassing and shearing of precipitates are negligible. To examine the validity of this assumption, the present study quantifies dislocation bypassing and shearing of precipitates in terms of critical resolved shear stress, interaction time, and thermal activation energy for various precipitate strength levels, temperatures, and precipitate spacings. This study uses a modified dislocation dynamics approach that accounts for shearable and non-shearable precipitates. Simulations focus on the overdriven dislocation dynamics regime wherein the climbing process is limited by fast interactions between dislocations and precipitates. The results show that even though the resolved shear stress level required for a dislocation to overcome an array of precipitates decreases at higher temperatures, the interaction time between the dislocation and the precipitates increases. In addition, the maximum ratio of thermal activation energy to the precipitate energy barrier is only 0.15.
A case study of metrics for assessing STEM scholarship programs

As the challenges in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education become more prominent, resources for promoting STEM education are more available. STEM scholarship programs, such as the S-STEM program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), can be an important tool for computing educators to meet the challenges of recruiting, retaining and preparing more computing undergraduates. These scholarship programs usually require a rigorous assessment plan in the proposals for evaluating program effectiveness. Although there is an abundance of literature on assessment metrics on student learning outcomes, especially those related to accreditation, similar papers on scholarship program assessment are lacking. This paper is intended to contribute toward filling this gap. Based on our experience on managing two consecutive NSF S-STEM grants over eight years, the paper proposes a simple set of criteria for designing good assessment metrics for scholarship programs: that they need to be essential, measurable, sensible and simple. The paper presents our evaluation plan and results of the evaluation that ascertained the program effectiveness. It discusses how the metrics are refined and evolved in light of the proposed criteria. It then elaborates on lessons learned and our future directions. The paper can thus be considered as a case study for computing educators interested in submitting scholarship proposals and managing scholarship programs.
Discontinuous Periodic Solutions of an Autonomous Wave Equation

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses some discontinuous periodic solutions of an autonomous wave equation. The chapter also highlights the behavior of an autonomous nonlinear wave equation using a two-variable procedure with the help of an equation. An interesting qualitative information about this equation, such as its asymptotic behavior and the existence and stability of periodic solutions, is conveniently analyzed in terms of a certain ordinary differential equation in the slow time. A solution having a 2-periodic initial condition converges with increasing time to a time-periodic limit function of the same period. The limiting value is approximated by combinations of left- and right-traveling waves.
Parity violation in deep inelastic scattering in the JLab 12 GeV era

Measurements of parity violation in electron scattering have yielded a wealth of information on the structure of the nucleon and on electroweak couplings. The upgrade of the CEBAF beam energy at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) to a maximum of 12 GeV will expand the range of kinematics in which parity violation measurements to include significantly more of the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) region, where a new information can be obtained on many interesting topics, including charge symmetry violation, higher twist contributions to proton structure and electroweak coupling constants. These coupling constants are related to sin 2 qW in the framework of the Standard Model. To differentiate between these effects, measurements of parity violation in deep inelastic scattering (PVDIS) must be made over a large kinematic range in both xBj and Q 2 . The SOLID collaboration has proposed the construction of a new, solenoidal spectrometer to make these measurements. This talk will describe these measurements and the SOLID spectrometer.
EHR IMPLEMENTATION AMONG NURSING HOMES: IS IT ASSOCIATED WITH BETTER FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE?

While electronic health records (EHR) implementation has the potential to improve quality and financial performance, the rate of EHR adoption is relatively low in nursing homes. This study explores whether EHR implementation is associated with better financial performance, among resource-constrained nursing homes (85% or higher Medicaid census). Survey data on EHR implementation among a national sample of 242 high-Medicaid nursing homes in 2017 was merged with secondary data (LTCFocus, Area Resource File, and Medicare Cost Reports). The dependent variable consisted of the total profit margin (net income/revenues). The independent variable consisted of five categories of EHR functionalities (administrative functions, documentation, order entry, results viewing, and clinical tools) derived from 23 items. Control variables consisted of organizational and market factors. Data were analyzed using multivariable regression with state fixed effects. Results shows a positive relationship between the scope of EHR implementation and total margin (β=3.92, p<0.05). However, only the documentation (β=0.35, p<0.05) and order entry (β=1.26, p<0.05) functionalities were found to have a positive association with financial performance. Documentation provides resident information, such as demographics, problem list, and medication administration and treatment records. Order entry provides resident information on medication orders and other medical orders. These EHR functionalities may be particularly important for coordination of care and in reducing duplication. High Medicaid nursing homes face unique resource challenges, which may affect the degree of EHR implementation. However, despite the initial costs of EHR implementation, it has the potential to reduce costs and ultimately improve financial performance among these resource-constrained nursing homes.
Plausible optima

We propose a framework and specific algorithms for screening a large (perhaps countably infinite) space of feasible solutions to generate a subset containing the optimal solution with high confidence. We attain this goal even when only a small fraction of the feasible solutions are simulated. To accomplish it we exploit structural information about the space of functions within which the true objective function lies, and then assess how compatible optimality is for each feasible solution with respect to the observed simulation outputs and the assumed function space. The result is a set of plausible optima. This approach can be viewed as a way to avoid slow simulation by leveraging fast optimization. Explicit formulations of the general approach are provided when the space of functions is either Lipschitz or convex. We establish both small- and large-sample properties of the approach, and provide two numerical examples.
The large N limit of Script N = 2,1 field theories from threebranes in F-theory

We consider field theories arising from a large number of D3-branes near singularities in F-theory. We study the theories at various conformal points, and compute, using their conjectured string theory duals, their large N spectrum of chiral primary operators. This includes, as expected, operators of fractional conformal dimensions for the theory at Argyres-Douglas points. Additional operators, which are charged under the (sometimes exceptional) global symmetries of these theories, come from the 7-branes. In the case of a D4 singularity we compare our results with field theory and find agreement for large N. Finally, we consider deformations away from the conformal points, which involve finding new supergravity solutions for the geometry produced by the 3-branes in the 7-brane background. We also discuss 3-branes in a general background.
Algorithms at Work: The New Contested Terrain of Control

The widespread implementation of algorithmic technologies in organizations prompts questions about how algorithms may reshape organizational control. We use Edwards’ (1979) perspective of “conteste...
Longitudinal relationships between rheumatoid factor and cytokine expression by immunostimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with rheumatoid arthritis: New insights into B-cell activation.

Abstract To identify associations between immunostimulated cytokine production and disease characteristics, peripheral blood lymphocytes were collected from 155 adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) before and after a 5-year interval. The lymphocytes were activated in vitro with T-cell stimulants, cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) oligonucleotide, and medium alone (negative control). Expression of 17 cytokines was evaluated with immunoassays, and factor analysis was used to reduce data complexity and identify cytokine combinations indicative of cell types preferentially activated by each immunostimulant. The findings showed that the highest numbers of correlations were between cytokine levels and rheumatoid factor (RF) positivity and between cytokine levels and disease duration. Scores for cytokines driven by CpG and medium alone were negatively associated with RF positivity and disease duration at baseline but positively associated with both at 5 years. Our findings suggest that RF expression sustained over time increases activation of B cells and monocytes without requirements for T-cell functions.
The Dilemma in Geometry.

THE mathematical curriculum in our elementary and secondary schools faces a serious dilemma when it comes to geom etry. It is easy to find fault with the tra ditional course in geometry, but sound advice on how to remedy these difficul ties is hard to come by. The Commission on Mathematics of the CEEB, the School Mathematics Study Group, the Illinois Project, and many other curricular reform groups at home and abroad have tackled the problem, but with singular lack of success or agreement. On the other hand, the "new math" has made great strides in arithmetic and algebra that seem to be acceptable to all except the congenital standpatters who resist change of any kind. We are, therefore, under pressure to "do something" about geometry; but what shall we do? In this article I shall discuss the reasons for the present state of confusion and make suggestions for mod est first steps toward clearing it up.
The Gut–Brain–Microbiome Axis in Bumble Bees

The brain-gut-microbiome axis is an emerging area of study, particularly in vertebrate systems. Existing evidence suggests that gut microbes can influence basic physiological functions and that perturbations to the gut microbiome can have deleterious effects on cognition and lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. While this relationship has been extensively studied in vertebrate systems, little is known about this relationship in insects. We hypothesized that because of its importance in bee health, the gut microbiota influences learning and memory in adult bumble bees. As an initial test of whether there is a brain-gut-microbiome axis in bumble bees, we reared microbe-inoculated and microbe-depleted bees from commercial Bombus impatiens colonies. We then conditioned experimental bees to associate a sucrose reward with a color and tested their ability to learn and remember the rewarding color. We found no difference between microbe-inoculated and microbe-depleted bumble bees in performance during the behavioral assay. While these results suggest that the brain-gut-microbiome axis is not evident in Bombus impatiens, future studies with different invertebrate systems are needed to further investigate this phenomenon.