cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Deliberate deceit of family members: a challenge to providers of clinical genetics services.

The proband was a 55-year-old white female who sought pretest counseling when she learned that her father was a BRCA1 mutation carrier. Her father is 85 years old, in good health, and is a brother of a woman who died as a result of ovarian cancer at the age of 35. He learned his mutation status as a participant in a National Cancer Institute research study of familial breast and ovarian cancer. He encouraged all of his children to enroll onto the study and to consider testing. The proband and her siblings (two sisters ages 40 and 48, and a brother age 38, all unaffected) decided to obtain pretest counseling and consider genetic testing. During pretest counseling, the proband revealed her preference that information related to a positive mutation test, in either herself or her siblings, be withheld from her parents. Her rationale was to protect her father from the guilt of having passed a mutation on to an offspring. She stated that her test results “were her own,” and that she would not disclose results to her relatives, whether she tested negative or positive. She also indicated that she would attempt to influence how her siblings communicated their personal test results within the family, by encouraging them to withhold their results, should they learn that they were mutation carriers. All four siblings chose to be tested and their results were disclosed in individual sessions on the same day. The proband, one sister, and her brother had the same mutation that had been identified in their father; the other sister tested negative. The proband was assured that the research team would preserve the confidentiality of her information. She stated that she clearly understood the implications of her test results for her children, that she would “take care of them,” promising that they would be informed of the test results when it “was appropriate.” The proband’s siblings shared their mutation results with family members in the waiting room following their disclosure session. However, in the presence of several members of the research team, the proband lied to her family members about her test results, informing her family that she had tested negative for the BRCA1 mutation.
Stereotactic radiosurgery for hemangiomas and ependymomas of the spinal cord

Object. The optimal treatment for intramedullary spinal tumors is controversial, because both resection and conventional radiation therapy are associated with potential morbidity. Stereotactic radiosurgery can theoretically deliver highly conformal, high-dose radiation to surgically untreatable lesions while simultaneously mitigating radiation exposure to large portions of the spinal cord. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the authors’ initial experience with frameless stereotactic radiosurgery for intramedullary spinal tumors. Methods. Between 1998 and 2003, 10 intramedullary spinal tumors were treated with stereotactic radiosurgery at the authors’ institution. Seven hemangioblastomas and three ependymomas were treated in four men and three women. These patients either had recurrent tumors, had undergone several previous surgeries, had medical contraindications to surgery, or had declined open resection. Conformal treatment planning delivered a prescribed dose of 1800 to 2500 cGy (mean 2100 cGy) to the lesions in one to three stages. No significant treatment-related complications have been recorded. The mean radiographic and clinical follow-up duration was 12 months (range 1–24 months). One ependymoma and two hemangioblastomas were smaller on follow-up neuroimaging. The remaining tumors were stable at the time of follow-up imaging. Conclusions. Stereotactic radiosurgery for intramedullary spinal tumors is feasible and safe in selected cases and may prove to be another therapeutic option for these challenging lesions.
Mold‐filling studies for the injection molding of thermoplastic materials. Part II: The transient flow of plastic materials in the cavities of injection‐molding dies

A practically-oriented computer model which computes the temperature, pressure, and velocity fields in a cavity during the mold filling portion of the injection molding process is described. The model is structured so that it can be used for cavities having non-simple shapes and for commonly used molding compounds with complicated viscosity, shear rate, temperature relationships. Predictions from the model are found to be in good agreement with results obtained from exact solutions to special cases. Model predictions in molding problems have been found to correctly describe trends such as an increase in the pressure required to fill molds as injection rate, shot temperature, and mold temperature decrease, and to be reasonably accurate when compared to data for plaque, disc, and telephone housing molds over a wide range of molding conditions. Some illustrative examples of the use of the model in solving real molding problems are provided.
Analytic Field Propagation TFSF Boundary for FDTD Problems Involving Planar Interfaces: PECs, TE, and TM

A total-field scattered-field (TFSF) boundary can be used to introduce incident plane waves into finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. For fields which are traveling obliquely to the grid axes, there is no simple way to account fully for the effects of the inherent numerical artifacts associated with plane-wave propagation in the FDTD grid. Failure to account for these artifacts causes erroneous fields to leak across the TFSF boundary. Recent publications have proposed ways to use the dispersion relation to describe precisely plane-wave propagation in the FDTD grid thus permitting the realization of a nearly perfect TFSF boundary. However, these publications did not cover certain implementations details (such as the type of Fourier transform which is needed) or their scope was so broad as to mask the relative simplicity with which the approach can be applied to problems involving planar interfaces. This work considers the Fourier transforms needed in order for the implementation to be exact. Reflection and transmission coefficients for a planar interface are derived. Implementation for planar perfect electric conductors is also presented
A Feasibility Study of Hand Kinematics for EVA Analysis Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging

A new method of analyzing the kinematics of joint motion is developed. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers several distinct advantages. Past methods of studying anatomic joint motion have usually centered on four approaches. These methods are x-ray projection, goniometric linkage analysis, sonic digitization, and landmark measurement of photogrammetry. Of these four, only x-ray is applicable for in vivo studies. The remaining three methods utilize other types of projections of inter-joint measurements, which can cause various types of error. MRI offers accuracy in measurement due to its tomographic nature (as opposed to projection) without the problems associated with x-ray dosage. Once the data acquisition of MR images was complete, the images were processed using a 3D volume rendering workstation. The metacarpalphalangeal (MCP) joint of the left index finger was selected and reconstructed into a three-dimensional graphic display. From the reconstructed volumetric images, measurements of the angles of movement of the applicable bones were obtained and processed by analyzing the screw motion of the MCP joint. Landmark positions were chosen at distinctive locations of the joint at fixed image threshold intensity levels to ensure repeatability. The primarily two dimensional planar motion of this joint was then studied using a method of constructing coordinate systems using three (or more) points. A transformation matrix based on a world coordinate system described the location and orientation of a local target coordinate system. Future research involving volume rendering of MRI data focusing on the internal kinematics of the hand's individual ligaments, cartilage, tendons, etc. will follow. Its findings will show the applicability of MRI to joint kinematics for gaining further knowledge of the hand-glove (power assisted) design for extravehicular activity (EVA).
Influence of radiotherapy technique and dose on patterns of failure for mesothelioma patients after extrapleural pneumonectomy.

Purpose: Extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) is an effective treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. We compared the outcomes after moderate-dose hemithoracic radiotherapy (MDRT) and high-dose hemithoracic RT (HDRT) after EPP for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Methods and Materials: Between July 1994 and April 2004, 39 patients underwent EPP and adjuvant RT at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women's Hospital. Between 1994 and 2002, MDRT, including 30 Gy to the hemithorax, 40 Gy to the mediastinum, and boosts to positive margins or nodes to 54 Gy, was given, generally with concurrent chemotherapy. In 2003, HDRT to 54 Gy with a matched photon/electron technique was given, with sequential chemotherapy. Results: A total of 39 patients underwent RT after EPP. The median age was 59 years (range, 44–77). The histologic type was epithelial in 25 patients (64%) and mixed or sarcomatoid in 14 patients (36%). Of the 39 patients, 24 underwent MDRT and 15 (39%) HDRT. The median follow-up was 23 months (range, 6–71). The median overall survival was 19 months (95% confidence interval, 14–24). The median time to distant failure (DF) and local failure (LF) was 20 months (95% confidence interval, 14–26) and 26 months (95% confidence interval, 16–36), respectively. On univariate and multivariate analyses, only a mixed histologic type was predictive of inferior DF ( p p p = NS). Four patients who had undergone HDRT were alive and without evidence of disease at the last follow-up. Conclusions: High-dose hemithoracic RT appears to limit in-field LF compared with MDRT. However, DF remains a significant challenge, with one-half of our patients experiencing DF.
Bandwidth-efficient multiple access (BEMA): a new strategy based on signal design under quality-of-service constraints for successive-decoding-type multiuser receivers

This paper considers the design of signature waveforms for successive-decoding-type multiuser receivers (including the optimum successive decoder (OSD)) in a correlated-waveform multiple-access channel. The problem is to obtain signature waveforms that require as little bandwidth as possible while allowing the receiver to meet a given set of quality-of-service (QoS) objectives. The QoS objectives are specified for each user in terms of capacity, or equivalently, the signal-to-interference ratio. A (generally unachievable) lower bound is obtained on the minimum bandwidth required to achieve these QoS constraints. Moreover, a simple algorithm is proposed for obtaining signal sets that meet the QoS constraints when used with the OSD, and which, while not optimal, require a bandwidth that can be very close to the minimum required bandwidth. It is also shown that such signal sets allow for a significantly more efficient use of bandwidth than do orthogonal signals used in time- or frequency-division multiple access (TDMA/FDMA). Based on our signal design approach, we propose a new multiple-access strategy that we refer to as bandwidth-efficient multiple access (BEMA). While BEMA is more bandwidth efficient than TDMA or FDMA, it retains their desirable feature of needing only single-user coding (and decoding) for each user.
Constant Width Planar Branching Programs Characterize ACC^0 in Quasipolynomial Size

We revisit the computational power of constant width polynomial size planar nondeterministic branching programs. We show that they are capable of computing any function computed by a Pi2 o CC0 o AC0 circuit in polynomial size. In the quasipolynomial size setting we obtain a characterization of ACC0 by constant width planar non-deterministic branching programs.
Quality indicators for the care of dementia in vulnerable elders.

The literature summaries that support each of the indicators judged to be valid in the expert panel process are described.
Nutritional Prevention of Cognitive Decline

By the year 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be over the age of 65 y (1). The demographic shift will increase the prevalence of age-related chronic diseases and place considerable demands on the healthcare system. Chronic disease, common among older adults, contributes to disability and diminishes quality of life (2). Thus, there is a critical need to understand the preventative role of nutrition in modifying the risk of age-related chronic disease. Cognitive impairment results from a complex interplay of many factors. The single most important predictor of cognitive decline is age (3). However, demographic, genetic, socio-economic, and environmental factors, including nutrition, play important roles. Thus, nutritional strategies to prevent or slow cognitive decline could have a tremendous public health impact. Previous evidence suggests the preventative role of nutrients and foods, either singly or in combination, through specific patterns of intake on reduction in cognitive decline. Recently, a scientific symposium was held at the 2012 Experimental Biology Meeting to present emerging research in this field, focusing on 4 topic areas: B vitamins; coffee, tea, and caffeine; (n-3) fatty acids; and vitamin D.
Evaluation of cortical plasticity in children with cerebral palsy undergoing constraint-induced movement therapy based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Sensorimotor cortex plasticity induced by constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) in six children (10.2±2.1 years old) with hemiplegic cerebral palsy was assessed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The activation laterality index and time-to-peak/duration during a finger-tapping task and the resting-state functional connectivity were quantified before, immediately after, and 6 months after CIMT. These fNIRS-based metrics were used to help explain changes in clinical scores of manual performance obtained concurrently with imaging time points. Five age-matched healthy children (9.8±1.3 years old) were also imaged to provide comparative activation metrics for normal controls. Interestingly, the activation time-to-peak/duration for all sensorimotor centers displayed significant normalization immediately after CIMT that persisted 6 months later. In contrast to this improved localized activation response, the laterality index and resting-state connectivity metrics that depended on communication between sensorimotor centers improved immediately after CIMT, but relapsed 6 months later. In addition, for the subjects measured in this work, there was either a trade-off between improving unimanual versus bimanual performance when sensorimotor activation patterns normalized after CIMT, or an improvement occurred in both unimanual and bimanual performance but at the cost of very abnormal plastic changes in sensorimotor activity.
Mining models of human activities from the web

The ability to determine what day-to-day activity (such as cooking pasta, taking a pill, or watching a video) a person is performing is of interest in many application domains. A system that can do this requires models of the activities of interest, but model construction does not scale well: humans must specify low-level details, such as segmentation and feature selection of sensor data, and high-level structure, such as spatio-temporal relations between states of the model, for each and every activity. As a result, previous practical activity recognition systems have been content to model a tiny fraction of the thousands of human activities that are potentially useful to detect. In this paper, we present an approach to sensing and modeling activities that scales to a much larger class of activities than before. We show how a new class of sensors, based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, can directly yield semantic terms that describe the state of the physical world. These sensors allow us to formulate activity models by translating labeled activities, such as 'cooking pasta', into probabilistic collections of object terms, such as 'pot'. Given this view of activity models as text translations, we show how to mine definitions of activities in an unsupervised manner from the web. We have used our technique to mine definitions for over 20,000 activities. We experimentally validate our approach using data gathered from actual human activity as well as simulated data.
The Psychosocial Intimacy Questionnaire: Validational Studies and an Investigation of Sex Roles:

The purpose of the present research was to develop an easily administered measure of intimacy that could apply to several types of relationships in adolescents and adults. In a set of four survey studies, the sixty-item Psychosocial Intimacy Questionnaire (PIQ) was found to have high internal consistency (alpha = 0.97) and good test-retest stability over a three-week interval, r = 0.84. Correlations with other measures provided evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the PIQ. Factor analysis indicated that psychosocial intimacy may be a function of romantic love, supportiveness and communication ease. Intimacy level of heterosexual relationships in young adults appears to be more affected by partners' feminine qualities than by sex-typing or androgyny.
Quantitation of the Area of Overlap between Second-Derivative Amide I Infrared Spectra To Determine the Structural Similarity of a Protein in Different States

Maintaining a nativelike structure of protein pharmaceuticals during lyophilization is an important aspect of formulation. Infrared spectroscopy can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of formulations in protecting the secondary structural integrity of proteins in the dried solid. This necessitates making quantitative comparisons of the overall similarity of infrared spectra in the conformationally sensitive amide I region. We initially used the correlation coefficient r, as defined by Prestrelski et al. (Biophys. J. 1993, 65, 661-671), for this quantitation. Occasionally, we noticed that the r value did not agree with a visual assessment of the spectral similarity. In some cases this was due to an offset in baselines, which led artifactually to an unreasonably low rvalue. Conversely, if the spectra were baseline corrected and there existed a large similarity between peak positions, but differences in relative peak heights, the r value would be unreasonably high. Our approach to avoiding these problems is to use area-normalized second-derivative spectra. We have found that quantitating the area of overlap between area-normalized spectra provides a reliable, objective method to compare overall spectral similarity. In the current report, we demonstrate this method with selected protein spectra, which were taken from experiments where unfolding was induced by lyophilization or guanidine hydrochloride, and artificial data sets. With this analysis, we document how problems associated with calculation of the correlation coefficient, r, are avoided.
The K-ABC in Historical and Contemporary Perspective

The K-ABC is examined within the setting of contemporary ability testing, with particular attention to the evolution of current psychometric concepts and methods, as well as the historical sources of popular misconceptions. The discussion focuses on five key questions relevant to test construction and to the interpretation of test results : what intelligence tests measure, the effects of training on the development of intelligence, cultural differences in the meaning of intelligence, how to construct valid tests, and the differentiation between aptitude and achievement testing. When examined in this light, the K-ABC reveals sophisticated application of current test construction methodology. Like any psychological test designed for intensive individual assessment, however, it requires an examiner thoroughly knowledgeable about both clinical assessment procedures and research findings in the psychology of individual differences.
Comparison of distribution of brush-border exo- and endopeptidases in rat and rabbit intestine.

— The distribution of brush-border endopeptidase-2, aminopeptidase W, carboxypeptidase P, and aminopeptidase P along the rat and rabbit intestine was examined. In both species, aminopeptidases P and W increased distally and reached the highest in the ileum; their activities in the ileo-caecal junction were the lowest. Endopeptidase-2 had a uniform intestinal distribution in both species with the highest activity in the ileum and little activity in the ileo-caecal junction or caecum. With a distribution similar to that of endopeptidase-2, carboxypeptidase P also had high activity in the ileum in rats and rabbits.
Bilateral wilms' tumor

Abstract Twenty children with bilateral Wilms' tumor presented to the Children's Hospital Medical Center and Children's Cancer Research Foundation, Sidney Farber Cancer Institute, and Joint Center for Radiation Therapy (CHM-CCCRF, SFCI, JCRT) from January 1, 1956 to December 31, 1976. Of these 20, 16 had simultaneous and 4 had metachronous disease on presentation. All patients were treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Of the 16 patients with simultaneous disease, 10 (63%) are alive and free of disease 12+ to 175+ months post diagnosis and treatment, with median follow-up of 121 months. There were no long-term survivors in the metachronous group; all were dead of disease within 21 months from initial presentation of original tumor. With these data we relate prognosis to extent of disease and discuss a general approach to the mangement of bilateral Wilms' tumor.
Upgrading Missouri Transportation Infrastructure: Solid Reinforced-Concrete Decks Strengthened with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Systems

More than 40 percent of the bridges in the United States need repair, strengthening, or replacement. Because of limited funds, many states are forced to post load restrictions on their bridges as a temporary measure. Recently, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) have emerged as a practical solution for repair or strengthening of highway bridges. Since there are no nationally accepted specifications for design and construction with bonded FRP reinforcement, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has funded a research program aimed at validating the design and analysis procedure through strengthening and testing to failure of bridges under realistic highway loading and conditions. Two bridges, Bridge G270 and Bridge J857, were selected for this demonstration. Both bridges are solid reinforced-concrete (RC) slab bridges. Bridge G270 was strengthened to increase its load-carrying capacity by using externally bonded carbon FRP and is still in service. Two of the three deck slabs of Bridge J857 were str...
Effects of irradiation on the Mediterranean meal moth, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller, cultured on 89Srspiked food.

SummaryEphestia kuehniella Zeller was cultured on corn-meal spiked with 89Sr at concentrations of 0, 0·1, 0·3, 1·0, 3·0 and 5·0 µc/g of food.As the environmental radiation was increased, the adults which were subjected throughout their life-cycle produced progressively fewer progeny.5·0 µc 89Sr/g food approaches the critical level which will inhibit population development.Life-span of the adults was not influenced by the experimental conditions.Delayed development occurred at all isotopic concentrations employed.The radiostrontium-content of females at the end of their life-cycle was half that of males. Twenty-four hours after eclosion, the radioactivity of the female moth was equal to, or greater than, that of corresponding males. Reproductive metabolism is offered in explanation.At the two highest culture levels (3 and 5 µc 89Sr/g), the increased number of males (homogametic sex) over females (heterogametic sex) is consistent with the radiation genetic effect of induced recessive lethals. No selective r...
Pleural cavity type 2 innate lymphoid cells precede Th2 expansion in murine Litomosoides sigmodontis infection.

Recently, a family of innate cells has been identified that respond to IL-25 and IL-33 in murine intestinal helminths. Termed Type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) they facilitate the development of Th2 responses responsible for helminth clearance. We evaluated these cells in a tissue-invasive helminth model. Using Litomosides sigmodontis (a strong Th2 polarizing filarial infection) we observed a robust Th2 response in the pleural cavity, where adult worms reside, marked by increased levels of IL-5 and IL-13 in infected mice. In parallel, ILC2s were expanded in the pleural cavity early in the infection, peaking during the pre-patent period. L. sigmodontis also elicits a strong systemic Th2 response, which includes significantly increased levels of IgG1, IgE and IL-5 in the plasma of infected mice. Although ILC2s were expanded locally, they were not expanded in the spleen, blood, or mediastinal lymph nodes in response to L. sigmodontis infection, suggesting that ILC2s function primarily at the site of infection. The increase in ILC2s in the pleural cavity and the expansion in Th2 responses indicates a probable role for these cells in initiating and maintaining the Th2 response and highlights the importance of these cells in helminth infections and their role in Th2 immunity.
Ultrastructure of Meiosis in Ustilago Maydis

Ultrastructure of meiosis and the spindle pole body cycle in Ustilago maydis (Basidiomycota, Ustilaginales) was analyzed by three-dimensional reconstructions from serial sections of preselected sta...
Dephosphorylation of adenosine triphosphate by concentrates of the virus of avian erythromyeloblastic leucosis.

SummaryA highly potent capacity for the dephosphorylation of adenosine triphosphate has been observed with preparations containing the virus of avian erythromyeloblastic leucosis. This enzymatic reaction occurred with the filtered plasma of birds diseased with the virus and with virus concentrates obtained from the plasma by ultracentrifugal procedures. The partition of enzymatic activity in these preparations has closely paralleled the distribution of virus infectivity of analogous materials measured in other work by titration of the virus in susceptible host chicks. No evidence of the reaction was obtained with the plasma from normal chickens. These experiments demonstrate the specific relationship of the dephosphorylation of adenosine triphosphate with avian erythromyeloblastic leucosis and indicate that the activity is a property of the etiological virus.
Survival and Reproduction of Artificially Fed Cat Fleas, Ctenocephalides felis Bouché (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae)

An artificial feeding system for adult cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouche), is described. Survival and reproductive success of artificially fed fleas were attributed to continuous provision of blood at 37°C and a substrate that allowed the fleas to walk but not to jump. Fleas were confined for artificial feeding in three different kinds of cages, all of which were cylinders of clear plastic with nylon mesh cemented across both ends. The cages differed in dimensions and in the inclusion or lack of hair. The upper end of the cage was apposed to a Rutledge insect blood feeder supplied with a Parafilm membrane through which the fleas were able to feed on cattle or dog blood. Artificially fed fleas yielded equivalent survival rates and 13–19% the reproductive output of fleas fed on cats. This system in conjunction with standard larval and pupal rearing techniques has resulted in a colony that has completed 14 artificially reared generations at the time of writing.
Cardiac contractile injury after intestinal ischemia-reperfusion

Experimental and clinical data suggest that even a brief period of intestinal ischemia followed by reperfusion initiates a sequence of events that include release of inflammatory mediators and multiorgan failure. In this study, 41 rats were subjected to occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) for 20 min and collateral arcade ligation. Twelve rats were sham operated and served as controls (group 1). Groups of rats with SMA occlusion were killed at several time intervals after reperfusion (group 2, 2-3 h; group 3, 4-5 h; group 4, 12-16 h). In group 5, rats were pretreated with enterally administered allopurinol (10 mg.kg-1.day-1) for 4 days before the intestinal ischemia episode and were studied 2-3 h after reperfusion. In vivo studies confirmed that 20 min of intestinal ischemia produced a transient bradycardia (P less than 0.05) and no change in systemic blood pressure, acid-base balance, or hematocrit. In vitro studies showed marked cardiac contractile depression as early as 2 h after ischemia-reperfusion as indicated by a fall in left ventricular pressure (LVP; from 77 +/- 3 to 63 +/- 4 mmHg, P = 0.01) and +dP/dtmax (from 1,827 +/- 59 to 1,557 +/- 99 mmHg/s, P less than 0.02) and -dP/dtmax (from 1,267 +/- 57 to 953 +/- 67 mmHg/s, P = 0.02), a rightward shift in LV function curves, and a decreased responsiveness to perfusate Ca2+. Allopurinol pretreatment prevented ischemia-reperfusion-mediated deficits in cardiac contraction and relaxation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Genetic and Epigenetic Aspects of Bone Development

It now is widely accepted that genes provide the template for the cell and ultimately for the organism, but that was not always the case. Gregor Mendel first developed the hypothesis that a hereditary force was at work when he crossed green and yellow pea plants in the mid 1800s [40]. Although Mendel was unable to identify what we now know to be genes, several years later, Oswald Avery led us to that discovery [40]. Genes carry the information needed to develop in utero, grow postnatally, and mature into adult beings. As development proceeds into adulthood, various genes are expressed at different times. Most humans carry 23 pairs of chromosomes with 22 pairs made up by somatic chromosomes and 1 pair determining whether an individual will be a male (XY) or a female (XX). Major advances in the DNA technology and high throughput sequencing have shown that there are fewer than 30,000 genes that encode proteins in the human body, and even fewer than that number are expressed and still a smaller subset is expressed at any one time in an individual differentiated cell. Nonetheless, the transcriptome of a cell is complex and may include more than tens of thousands of gene products than the active genes owing to the alternative exon utilization, allelic preferences, and transcript processing. The osteoblast transcriptome has been analyzed and compared with those in similar cells, such as chondrocytes and fibroblasts [50]. As expected, while there are many common gene products expressed, the osteoblast transcriptome is unique and endows this specialized bone cell with its characteristic properties. The combined forces of inherited genetic sequence and epigenetic control of gene expression further refine the transcriptome of each individual human being, such that no two individuals possess exactly identical bone cells. These differences account for the fundamental variation in bone shape, length, subarchitecture, mineral density, and responses to stimuli that occur in the human population.
Beyond the Slave Narrative: Introduction: Race and Voice in the Archives: Mediated Testimony and Interracial Commerce in Saint-Domingue

The fundamental purpose of this book is to introduce a literary tradition that sprang directly from the Haitian Revolution, by Haitians. Not literature from afterwards, like Haitian writer Jean Casimir's Creole and French treatise on the Revolution, Pa Bliye 1804 ; not literature from elsewhere, like Alejo Carpentier's wonderful historical fiction The Kingdom of this World ; not literature on the symbolic resonance of the Haitian Revolution or “the idea of 1804” in Nick Nesbitt's philosophical coinage; but the first Haitians speaking publicly and potently for their culture in the revolutionary era, and becoming authorial voices whose words left a profound mark on the Western world. Despite the wealth of materials representing early Haitian voices, scholars have proven reticent in treating them as literary sources, or even as reliable political sources. The naturalization of the slave narrative as the genre most associated with blacks' self-expression in the era of Caribbean and American slavery privileged an autobiographical mandate. Early texts by blacks devoted to state-building in a racialized world, which was the fundamental motivation for the public texts of Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, or to poetic representation of the social and sexual interrelations that marked the complex interracial space of colonial culture, which is the major preoccupation of popular Creole poetry, have proven more challenging to recognize and categorize appropriately. This heteroclite corpus of political texts and correspondence, political memoirs, and early Creole poems challenges readers to think outside the box of the dominant genre of early Afro-diasporic literature in the Anglophone world: the slave narrative.
Real-Time Automated Aerial Refueling Using Stereo Vision

Aerial Refueling (AAR) of Unammed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is vital to the United States Air Force’s (USAF) continued air superiority. Inspired by the stereo vision system organic to the new KC-46A Pegasus tanker, we present a novel solution for computing a real time relative navigation (rel-nav) vector between a refueling UAV and a KC-46. Our approach relies on a real time 3D virtual simulation environment that models a realistic refueling scenario. Within this virtual scenario, a stereo camera system mounted beneath the KC-46 consumes synthetic imagery of a receiver conducting an aerial refueling approach. This synthetic imagery is processed by computer vision algorithms that calculate the sensed rel-nav position and orientation. The sensed solution is compared against the virtual environment’s truth data to quantify error and evaluate the stereo vision performance in a deterministic, real time manner. Our approach yields sub-meter precision at approximately 30 Hz.
Outcomes of Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy in Secondary Acquired Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction: A Case-Control Study.

Introduction Secondary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction (SANDO), where the obstruction is caused by a known process, is becoming more commonly treated by endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (endoDCR). This study evaluates outcomes of endoDCR for cases of SANDO in comparison to endoDCR outcomes treating primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction (PANDO). Methods All patients undergoing endoDCR from 2006 to 2015 at a tertiary referral center were reviewed for etiology of nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO) and success of procedure. Inclusion criteria were preoperative determination of NLDO via probing and irrigation, greater than 60-day follow up with assessment of duct patency via probing and irrigation after silicone tube removal, and postoperative survey for recurrent epiphora. Exclusion criteria were cases treating partial NLDO, patients undergoing concurrent conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy, and patients lost to follow up or with incomplete records. Preanalysis stratification was performed for the following preexisting conditions: PANDO, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, sarcoidosis, midfacial radiotherapy, radioactive iodine therapy, severe prolonged sinusitis, prior failed DCR, and midface trauma. The primary outcome was postoperative anatomical patency of the nasolacrimal system with resolution of epiphora. Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact tests were performed comparing each SANDO group to the PANDO group with statistical significance set at p Results Fifty-nine cases of NLDO underwent endoDCR in this series, 21 of which had a diagnosis consistent with SANDO. All patients treated with the aggressive perioperative management protocol the authors describe achieved anatomical patency. Patients with history of radioactive iodine therapy and radiotherapy had statistically worse outcomes compared with patients with PANDO, p = 0.011, p = 0.045, respectively. Stratified groups with increased intranasal sinus inflammation trended toward worse outcomes, but were not statistically different. Conclusions EndoDCR is a viable approach for the treatment of SANDO. In patients with history of radiotherapy or radioactive iodine therapy, however, endoDCR demonstrated decreased success rates as compared with patients with PANDO. Modifications of operative and postoperative management based on underlying etiology of NLDO may improve outcomes of endoDCR in SANDO cases. The authors describe an aggressive protocol for perioperative management of patients with pathologic nasal inflammation undergoing endoDCR.
Characterization of Charge-Transfer Kinetics at Organic/Electrode Interfaces Using Potential-modulated Attenuated Total Reflectance (PM-ATR) Spectroscopy

Potential-modulated attenuated total reflectance (PM-ATR) spectroscopy is a spectroelectrochemical method that utilizes the potential modulation approach and a waveguide ATR geometry. This unique combination enables measurements of electron-transfer (ET) kinetics of monolayer to submonolayer thin films on waveguide electrode surfaces. Selective probing of molecular subpopulations in a film can be achieved by choosing appropriate combinations of applied potential, wavelength, and polarization of light, which allows subpopulation structure to be correlated with ET kinetics. In this review, the basic theory of PM-ATR is introduced, and examples illustrating characterization of the structure and ET kinetics of organic semiconductor monolayers on electrode surfaces are presented, demonstrating the capabilities and applications of the PM-ATR technique.
Imaging to Diagnose and Manage Patients in Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction

A 60-year-old man was referred for evaluation of progressive dyspnea and fatigue. He reports shortness of breath for the past 3 months and now experiences this symptom while walking in his house. He prefers to sleep with 2 pillows, a change for him that he felt makes him breathe better. He has diabetes mellitus and is on oral hypoglycemic medications. He is a former smoker but quit 15 years ago. He has no symptoms of chest pain, but he reports one instance of near-syncope. He has a positive family history of HF that affected his father, who was a nonsmoker. The patient is unsure whether his father had coronary artery disease (CAD). On physical examination, heart rate was regular at 85 per minute and blood pressure was 126/80 mm Hg. His respiratory rate was 22 per minute and pulse oximetry at room air was 93%. Jugular venous pressure in the upright position was 14 cm with inspiratory collapse but with systolic expansion. Carotid upstroke was not delayed. Cardiac examination revealed a downward and outward displacement of the point of maximum impulse to the sixth intercostal space at the anterior axillary line. Parasternal uplift was present, and no thrills were noted. Apical auscultation revealed a diminished intensity of S1, an S3, and a grade III/VI holosystolic murmur with radiation to the axilla. Auscultation at the second left intercostal space showed prominent P2. The liver was enlarged at 3 fingerbreadths below the costal margin with a tender edge. Lower extremity examination showed bilateral pitting pretibial edema to the knee level. Peripheral arterial pulses were intact. Laboratory findings showed serum sodium at 131 mEq/L, blood urea nitrogen at 35 mg/dL, and serum creatinine at 1.5 mg/dL. Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were slightly elevated as was total bilirubin. …
Distinct Mechanisms Underlying Resveratrol-Mediated Protection from Types of Cellular Stress in C6 Glioma Cells

The polyphenolic phytostilbene, trans-resveratrol, is found in high amounts in several types and tissues of plants, including grapes, and has been proposed to have beneficial effects in the central nervous system due to its activity as an antioxidant. The objective of the present study was to identify the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of resveratrol under conditions of oxidative stress or DNA damage, induced by the extracellularly applied oxidant, tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide, or UV-irradiation, respectively. In C6 glioma cells, a model system for glial cell biology and pharmacology, resveratrol was protective against both types of insult. Prevention of tau protein cleavage and of the formation of neurofibrillary tangles were identified as mechanisms of action of resveratrol-mediated protection in both paradigms of cellular damage. However, depending on the type of insult, resveratrol exerted its protective activity differentially: under conditions of chemically induced oxidative stress, inhibition of caspase activity, while with DNA damage, resveratrol regulated tau phosphorylation at Ser422. Results advance our understanding of resveratrol’s complex impact on cellular signaling pathway and contribute to the notion of resveratrol’s role as a pleiotropic therapeutic agent.
Predicting Pulmonary Pharmacokinetics from In Vitro Properties of Dry Powder Inhalers.

The ability of two semi-mechanistic simulation approaches to predict the systemic pharmacokinetics (PK) of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) delivered via dry powder inhalers (DPIs) was assessed for mometasone furoate, budesonide and fluticasone propionate. Both approaches derived the total lung doses and the central to peripheral lung deposition ratios from clinically relevant cascade impactor studies, but differed in the way the pulmonary absorption rate was derived. In approach 1, the rate of in vivo drug dissolution/absorption was predicted for the included ICSs from in vitro aerodynamic particle size distribution and in vitro drug solubility estimates measured in an in vivo predictive dissolution medium. Approach 2 derived a first order absorption rate from the mean dissolution time (MDT), determined for the test formulations in an in vitro Transwell® based dissolution system. Approach 1 suggested PK profiles which agreed well with the published pharmacokinetic profiles. Similarly, within approach 2, input parameters for the pulmonary absorption rate constant derived from dissolution rate experiments were able to reasonably predict the pharmacokinetic profiles published in literature. Approach 1 utilizes more complex strategies for predicting the dissolution/absorption process without providing a significant advantage over approach 2 with regard to accuracy of in vivo predictions.
Persistence of Open Stone Surgery in the United States in the 21st Century.

Abstract Introduction: In the era of minimally invasive surgery, endoscopic and percutaneous interventions for urinary tract stones have become a mainstay, and the need for open stone surgery (OSS)...
Antisense Oligonucleotide-mediated Knockdown in Mammary Tumor Organoids

Primary mammary tumor organoids grown in 3D are an excellent system to study tumor biology. They resemble the organization and physiology of native epithelia more closely than cancer cell lines grown in 2D, and additionally model interactions with the ECM (Boj et al., 2015; Clevers, 2016; Shamir and Ewald, 2014). Mammary tumor organoids are therefore a promising model system to identify and characterize novel drivers of breast cancer that would be unlikely to be identified using 2D cell lines. Antisense oligonucleotides can be used to efficiently and specifically knockdown target genes in the cell (Bennett et al., 2017). They can be taken up freely by organoids without the need for a transfection agent, making them a convenient tool for routine lab studies and screens.
Will EROI be the Primary Determinant of Our Economic Future? The View of the Natural Scientist versus the Economist

Charles A.S. Hall is a Systems Ecologist who received his PhD under Howard T. Odum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970. He was professor over the past 45 years at Cornell University, the University of Montana, and the College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State University of New York. He is now retired (but very active as Professor Emeritus) in Western Montana. Dr. Hall is the author or editor of 14 books and 300 scholarly articles and has been awarded the distinguished Hubbert-Simmons Prize for Energy Education and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of BioPhysical Economics. He is best known for his development of the concept of EROI, or energy return on investment, which is an examination of how organisms, including humans, invest energy into obtaining additional energy to improve biotic or social fitness, and also a new field, BioPhysical Economics, as a supplement or alternative to conventional economics. He has applied systems and EROI thinking to a broad series of biological, resource, and economic issues in more than 30 countries. His most recent books are Energy and the Wealth of Nations: An Introduction to BioPhysical Economics (with Kent Klitgaard), America's Most Sustainable Cities and Regions (with John Day), and Energy Return on Investment. A unifying Principle for Biology, Economics and Sustainability , all available from Springer. He is coeditor with Ugo Bardi and Gael Giraud of the journal BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality .
Visualization of molecular biology: The LANA tether.

The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) plays a central role in the biology and pathogenesis of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Both classical and endemic KS in HIV-infected individuals and two lymphoproliferative diseases are associated with KSHV. During the latent phase of the viral life cycle in dividing tumor cells, the LANA protein ensures that viral genomes persist by supporting both the initiation of DNA replication and segregation of viral episomes (nonintegrated circular viral genomes) into daughter cells. Arguably, interrupting these complex LANA-dependent processes could be one of the most promising antiviral and antitumor therapeutic strategies. Hence, studying the molecular and cell biological details of LANA’s host/viral protein and chromatin interactions has been a focus in a number of laboratories since 1996. In PNAS, Grant et al. (1) propose an intriguing model of the architectural superstructure of LANA multimers bound to the terminal repeats (TRs) of KSHV genomes by applying superresolution microscopy in combination with computational modeling. Shortly after KSHV was discovered in KS lesions and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) cells had been identified as a source for KS virus, reports described characteristic nuclear speckles that were observed by immunofluorescence when staining PEL cells with sera from patients who were PCR-positive for KSHV (2⇓–4). Soon after, cloning and sequencing of the complete KSHV genome and identification of the major KSHV latency-associated genes, in combination with transfection experiments, revealed that LANA encoded by ORF73 is the antigen that reacts with KSHV-positive patient antisera to give rise to “LANA speckles” (5, 6). To date, detection of LANA speckles is the gold standard for KSHV diagnostics (7). LANA is a large 220- … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: rrenne{at}ufl.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Distributed Computing Column 70: Formalizing and Implementing Distributed Ledger Objects

Blockchains and distributed ledgers, the technologies underlying Bitcoin and other decentralized transaction systems, have been garnering increasing interest in the theoretical distributed comput- ing community. The current column, by Antonio Fernandez Anta, Chryssis Georgiou, Kishori Konwar, and Nicolas Nicolaou, starts with an informative overview of the world of distributed ledgers and motivates the need for rigorous approaches. The authors present an approach for formally specifying a distributed ledger in the context of several popular consistency conditions. The authors then give algorithms that implement the di erent variants in message-passing systems subject to crash failures. The article closes with a discussion of intriguing open questions. Many thanks to Antonio, Chryssis, Kishori and Nicolas for their timely contribution!