cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Abstract 502: Copy number alterations identify targeted therapies in preclinical models of osteosarcoma

Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA Osteosarcoma (OS) is an aggressive pediatric bone malignancy that affects 400 children per year in the United States. It has one of the lowest 5 yr. survival rates of any pediatric cancer. OS is characterized by genomic instability and numerous copy number alterations (CNA). We hypothesized that CNA may be drivers of OS and that targeting cancer genes with CNAs may be a novel approach for treatment of OS. We have established a robust approach for generation of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) from patients with OS. To date, 12 PDX have been established from OS patients. Using whole-genome sequencing (WGS), we have identified possible target CNAs for individual patients and are currently testing them in their corresponding PDX. In one patient, an amplification in c-myc suggested possible susceptibility to the bromodomain inhibitor JQ1. In a second patient sample, amplification of Cyclin D1 in the setting of p16 loss and wild-type Rb suggested responsiveness to a CDK4/6 specific inhibitor. This patient sample also has an Aurora kinase B amplification, suggesting susceptibility to inhibition of this kinase as a therapeutic approach. We treated the corresponding PDX with the drug predicted to target the patient sample based on CNA. In one case, JQ1 treatment inhibited tumor growth in the PDX generated from the patient sample with c-myc amplification. In the second case, Aurora kinase B inhibition arrested tumor growth in the PDX harboring the Aurora kinase B amplification. We are currently testing whether CDK4/6 inhibition is sufficient to inhibit tumor growth as predicted by WGS. As a follow up we are currently submitting several more patient samples and paired PDX for WGS as well as RNAseq to determine other potential targeted therapeutics based on CNA. In summary, our work suggests that WGS can be used to identify potential novel therapies for patients with OS. Further work will be needed to determine whether response in PDX models correlates with clinical response in patients. Citation Format: Leanne C. Sayles, Marcus Breese, Alejandro Sweet-Cordero. Copy number alterations identify targeted therapies in preclinical models of osteosarcoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 502. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-502
Rethinking monetary policy after the crisis

Abstract This lecture examines how the recent global financial crisis changes our thinking about how monetary policy should be conducted. It starts with a discussion of the science and practice of monetary policy before the crisis and then uses the lessons from the crisis to argue how the practice of monetary policy should be rethought along six dimensions: flexible inflation targeting, response to asset price bubbles, dichotomy between monetary policy and financial stability policy, risk management and gradualism, fiscal dominance, and forward guidance.
Abstract 3198: Using a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout library to identify therapeutic combinations in oral cancer

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has remained a disease with poor survival for decades with few novel treatment options. We anticipate great potential for personalized targeted therapies, facilitated by recent characterizations of the mutational landscape of OSCCs. Combinations of targeted therapies may have greater efficacy through inhibiting compensatory pathways. For example, targeting EGFR has had limited success. To identify synergistic combinations with EGFR-targeted therapy, we introduced Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 Knock-Out (GeCKO) libraries into OSCC cell lines. CRISPR-Cas9 generates individual genetic knockouts through targeted gene editing. We used a pool of CRISPRs targeting over 18,000 genes to perform genome-scale screening for drivers of sensitivity to EGFR-targeted therapy. Upon selection of the OSCC GeCKO pool, we identified gene knockouts in the FGFR pathway that increased sensitivity to the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib. Using resazurin viability assays we tested combinations of EGFR and FGFR inhibitors in 14 OSCC cell lines. Six/14 (43%) of the cell lines were responsive to the combination, indicating that the FGFR pathway is an alternate mechanism of resistance to EGFR-targeted therapy in some tumors. In complement, we again used CRISPR-Cas9 to generate a syngeneic EGFR knockout (KO) OSCC cell line. The parent OSCC cell line is responsive to the EGFR and FGFR dual inhibition, and the EGFR KO derivative retains sensitivity to FGFR-targeted monotherapies. We expect that this EGFR KO cell line will be a useful tool in further evaluating the compensatory mechanism of the FGFR pathway. OSCC remains a common and frequently lethal cancer with great potential for the development of personalized targeted therapies. Here, we describe the use of genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 library to discover the synergistic combination of EGFR and FGFR inhibition. Further investigation suggests the FGFR pathway is a common compensatory mechanism to EGFR inhibition. We hope to use this approach to identify additional compensatory mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies with the eventual goal of translating these findings to clinic. Citation Format: Megan Ludwig, Andrew Birkeland, Sai Nimmagadda, Sue Foltin, Aditi Kulkarni, Hui Jiang, Thomas Carey, Chad Brenner. Using a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout library to identify therapeutic combinations in oral cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3198. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3198
CHRNA7 Deletions are Enriched in Risperidone-Treated Children and Adolescents

Abstract Objective: Aggression is among the most common indications for referral to child and adolescent mental health services and is often challenging to treat. Understanding the biological under...
Arnall Patz and Norman Alston: Oxygen and Retinopathy of Prematurity

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an iatrogenic disease which emerged with the development of neonatology and resuscitation of premature infants in the mid twentieth century. The nearly simultaneous contributions of Norman Henry Ashton in creating animal models of the condition and demonstrating that manipulation of supplemental oxygen could reproduce ROP experimentally, and Arnall Patz in demonstrating that restricted oxygen supplementation could reduce the incidence of ROP in premature infants in a randomized, controlled clinical trial, established this relationship conclusively and directly led to improved clinical results. Along with Patz and Ashton, many other clinicians and scientists contributed to the recognition of this previously unknown disease, identification of the association with prematurity, and demonstration that unrestricted oxygen therapy contributed to the condition including Kate Campbell, Mary Crosse, Theodore Terry, and others. In addition to reducing the prevalence of blindness in premature infants, ROP has become a model for other retinal diseases including diabetes; Patz’ trial for ROP demonstrated the power and feasibility of the randomized controlled clinical trial to investigate disease. Understanding the history of these investigators and their contributions may improve our ability to recognize and understand new and emerging diseases in the future.
Optogenetic Inhibition of Gαq Protein Signaling Reduces Calcium Oscillation Stochasticity.

As fast terminators of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling, regulators of G-protein signaling (RGS) serve critical roles in fine-tuning second messenger levels and, consequently, cellular responses to external stimuli. Here, we report the creation of an optogenetic RGS2 (opto-RGS2) that suppresses agonist-evoked calcium oscillations by the inactivation of Gαq protein. In this system, cryptochrome-mediated heterodimerization of the catalytic RGS2-box with its N-terminal amphipathic helix reconstitutes a functional membrane-localized complex that can dynamically suppress store-operated release of calcium. Engineered opto-RGS2 cell lines were used to establish the role of RGS2 as a key inhibitory feedback regulator of the stochasticity of the Gαq-mediated calcium spike timing. RGS2 reduced the stochasticity of carbachol-stimulated calcium oscillations, and the feedback inhibition was coupled to the global calcium elevation by calmodulin/RGS2 interactions. The identification of a critical negative fee...
Statistical Considerations for Quantitative Imaging Measures in Clinical Trials

Radiological imaging has been used as an integrated part of modern clinical trials for patient selection, safety monitoring, and measuring treatment efficacy. Before we use quantitative measures, also called markers, derived from imaging in trials, we need to establish their scientific relevance (validity), as well as clinical utility and analytic validity. Clinical utility can be demonstrated in saving time and/or cost. Analytic validity can be demonstrated for measurement consistency over time and across participating sites. This chapter discusses two statistical applications in imaging clinical trials related to these utilities. The first example (Sect. 11.2) was motivated by whether to use imaging surrogate marker in phase II oncology trials. The second example (Sect. 11.3) was motivated by monitoring longitudinal performance of dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanner performance in pediatric trials. They were from my lecture in XV BASS on November 14, 2008, in Sylvania, Georgia, USA, which has not been published elsewhere.
Abstract 190: A Systematic Alarm Management Pilot to Reduce Alarm Fatigue at a Tertiary Care Center

Background: While alarms on hospital telemetry units are vital to patient safety, alarm fatigue is a well-established and potentially dangerous consequence. Our goal was to implement an alarm manag...
Trends in Prevalence of Functional Disability in Rheumatoid Arthritis Compared With the General Population.

Abstract The objective of the study was to assess trends in functional disability (FD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) vs individuals without RA. This retrospective population-based study included 586 patients with RA and 531 individuals without RA. Information on activities of daily living was obtained from self-report questionnaires. The prevalence of FD was higher in those with RA (586 [26%]) vs those without RA (531 [11%]) at RA incidence/index date (P
Association of aortic vascular uptake of 18 FDG by PET/CT and aortic wall thickness by MRI in psoriasis: a prospective observational study

The contribution of inflammation to the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been increasingly recognized in recent years. We investigated the relationship of aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG by PET/CT and aortic wall thickness (AWT) by MRI in psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease with increased incidence of CVD. One hundred sixty-five patients with plaque psoriasis participated in an ongoing longitudinal cohort study. Subclinical atherosclerosis was assessed as aortic uptake of 18F-FDG by PET/CT reported as target-to-background ratio (TBR) and AWT by MRI reported as maximal thickness. Patients with psoriasis were middle aged, predominantly male, and had mild CV risk by traditional risk factors. Psoriasis severity as measured by PASI score was a notable determinant of AWT (ρ = 0.20, p = 0.01). Moreover, aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG associated with AWT by MRI at baseline in unadjusted analysis (β = 0.27 p = 0.001) and following adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, waist-to-hip ratio, and statin use (β = 0.21 p = 0.01). Finally, following 1 year of psoriasis treatment, a decrease in aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG was associated with a reduction in AWT in fully adjusted models (β = 0.33, p = 0.02). In conclusion, we demonstrate that psoriasis severity and aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG in the aorta were associated with AWT. Following treatment of psoriasis, a decrease in aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG was associated with a reduction in AWT at 1 year. These findings suggest that aortic vascular uptake of 18F-FDG is associated with early evidence of vascular disease assessed by aortic wall thickness. Prospective studies in larger populations including other inflammatory diseases are warranted.
Distributed Formation Control via Mixed Barycentric Coordinate and Distance-Based Approach

We present a distributed control strategy for a team of agents to autonomously achieve a desired planar formation. Our control strategy is based on combining the barycentric coordinate-based (BCB) and the distance-based (DB) approach. In the BCB approach, the almost global convergence of the agents to the desired formation shape is guaranteed, however, the formation scale cannot be controlled. In the DB method, the scale of the achieved formation is controlled, however, the convergence is local and in general stable undesired equilibria exist. By combining these methods via imposing a timescale separation between their respective dynamics, our proposed control strategy retains the advantages of each approach and avoids their shortcomings. We analyze the stability properties of the proposed control and prove that the desired formation is an almost globally stable equilibrium. We provide simulations to typify the theoretical results and compare our method with a leader-follower BCB (LF-BCB) approach that can be used to control the formation scale in the BCB strategy. In particular, we demonstrate that unlike the LF-BCB approach, our method is far more robust to measurement inaccuracies.
Humility before New Scientific Evidence: We No Longer Have Moral Certainty that "Brain Death" Is True Death.

In light of the current medical evidence, physicians and ethicists no longer have the moral certainty that Pope John Paul II deemed vital for vital organ transplantation. The current medical eviden...
Virtual Support Groups for Informal Caregivers of Individuals With Dementia: A Scoping Review.

Objective The purpose of this scoping systematic review was to inform virtual support group development for informal caregivers of dementia by identifying published approaches, outcomes, barriers, and facilitators. Methods A scoping systematic review was performed using 5 search engines. Studies were included if they utilized virtual support groups for informal caregivers of persons with dementia. Study details, support group characteristics, outcomes, barriers, facilitators, and recommended approaches were extracted and summarized. Results Of 1052 identified articles, 87 were retrieved; 62 were excluded largely because they described other virtual interventions. Groups typically used teleconferences or internet-based videoconferences, included 4 to 6 participants, lasted 60 minutes, and occurred weekly or monthly. Moderators were professionals; moderator training was common. Content focused on support, education, or both. Covered topics included dementia knowledge, caregiving skills, coping, and resources. Costs related to technology, programming, and staffing. Although most studies identified no statistical differences, caregivers described many participation benefits. Common barriers were technology and access. Facilitators included training, technology support, small groups, and skilled leaders. Conclusions Clinics desiring to start virtual support groups should consider videoconferencing or telephone approaches with pretraining, technology support, and professional moderators. Clinics need adequate resources, particularly for technology, and identification of locally relevant goals and approach.
“It’s just a cycle”: Resilience, poetics, and intimate disruptions

The phrase “It’s just a cycle” is commonly articulated in coastal resilience efforts and it also shapes broader public debates about climate change. Identifying the structure of arguments around cycles is a useful starting point for defining differences in perspective, but there is more to competing claims about cycles. It is this more that this essay aims to explore, starting with an opening example from an engaged rhetorical ethnographic project with Maine’s clam fishery. The example helps set up a methodological orientation to working with cycles within resilience-focused collaborations that draws from aesthetics and poetics. This approach aims to show how cycles shape world making and how attending to cycles as a trope can create a space for critical disruptions of colonial patterns. This is a space of intimate connection that allows cyclical rhythms, like those of tides, to help reveal a passageway to resilience.
Response to olaparib or carboplatin in a real-world cohort of men with DNA damage repair (DDR) deficient metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

43Background: PARP inhibitors (PARPi) and platinum chemotherapy cause synthetic lethality and result in clinical benefit in men with mCRPC whose tumors harbor deleterious alterations in DDR genes. ...
Transformation in Healthcare by Wearable Devices for Diagnostics and Guidance of Treatment

Wearable devices offer a promise of immense impact on worldwide global health by offering the potential for non-invasive, constantly vigilant, and low-cost monitoring of individual condition and fundamental advances in guiding healthcare. The urgency of this objective for its individual and societal benefits will attract an expanding community of researchers from backgrounds in nearly every field of computing. This article describes the unprecedented benefits and opportunities for computing research in wearable devices and the multidisciplinary challenges that have not been encountered individually or combined together in previous research. This article is focused on providing guidance to the new community of healthcare in computing researchers who will both create a new field and forge transformative solutions for healthcare delivery to a worldwide population.
Evaluating Crowdsourcing and Topic Modeling in Generating Knowledge Components from Explanations

Associating assessment items with hypothesized knowledge components (KCs) enables us to gain fine-grained data on students’ performance within an ed-tech system. However, creating this association is a time consuming process and requires substantial instructor effort. In this study, we present the results of crowdsourcing valuable insights into the underlying concepts of problems in mathematics and English writing, as a first step in leveraging the crowd to expedite the task of generating KCs. We presented crowdworkers with two problems in each domain and asked them to provide three explanations about why one problem is more challenging than the other. These explanations were then independently analyzed through (1) a series of qualitative coding methods and (2) several topic modeling techniques, to compare how they might assist in extracting KCs and other insights from the participant contributions. Results of our qualitative coding showed that crowdworkers were able to generate KCs that approximately matched those generated by domain experts. At the same time, the topic models’ outputs were evaluated against both the domain expert generated KCs and the results of the previous coding to determine effectiveness. Ultimately we found that while the topic modeling was not up to parity with the qualitative coding methods, it did assist in identifying useful clusters of explanations. This work demonstrates a method to leverage both the crowd’s knowledge and topic modeling to assist in the process of generating KCs for assessment items.
The Raman Spectrum of a Single Molecule on an Electrochemically Etched Silver Tip

We recorded the Raman spectrum of a single azobenzene thiol molecule upon picking it up from an atomically flat gold surface, using an electrochemically etched silver tip, in an ultrahigh vacuum cryogenic scanning tunneling microscope. While suppressed at the junction, the stationary spectrum appeared once the molecule was transferred to the tip, with line intensities that increased by a factor of ∼5 as the tip was retracted from 1 nm to 161 nm. The effect, and the enhanced tensorial Raman spectrum was reproduced using an explicit treatment of the electromagnetic fields to identify a cis-azobenzene thiol molecule, adsorbed on a nanometric asperity removed from the tip apex, lying in the plane normal to the tip z-axis, with enhanced incident and radiative local fields polarized in the same plane. Tips decorated with asperities break the rules and give unique insights on Raman driven by cavity modes of a plasmonic junction.
Improved hemocompatibility and reduced bacterial adhesion on superhydrophobic titania nanoflower surfaces

Thrombosis formation and bacterial infection are key challenges for blood-contacting medical devices. When blood components encounter a device's surface, proteins are adsorbed, followed by the adhesion and activation of platelets as well as an immune response. This culminates in clot formation via the trapping of red blood cells in a fibrin matrix, which can block the device's function and cause severe complications for the patient. In addition, bacteria may adhere to a device's surface. This can lead to the formation of a biofilm, a protective layer for bacteria that significantly increases resistance to antibiotics. Despite years of research, no long-term solutions have been discovered to combat these issues. To impede thrombosis, patients often take antiplatelet drugs for the life of their device, which can cause excess bleeding and other complications. Patients can take antibiotics to fight bacterial infection, but these are often ineffective if biofilms are formed. Superhydrophobic surfaces show promise in reducing both thrombosis and bacterial infection on devices by impeding contact between biological components and the biomaterial. In this study, superhydrophobic titania nanoflower surfaces were successfully fabricated on a titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V substrate with hydrothermal synthesis and vapor-phase silanization. The surface topography, surface wettability, surface chemistry, and surface crystallography of the surfaces was subsequently characterized. Surface hemocompatibility was investigated through lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) cytotoxicity analysis, blood-plasma protein adsorption, platelet and leukocyte adhesion and activation, and whole blood clotting analysis. Surface bacterial infection was characterized through Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial adhesion and biofilm morphology. The results indicated a reduction of protein adsorption, platelet and leukocyte adhesion and activation, bacterial adhesion, and biofilm formation as well as improved contact angle stability compared to control surfaces.
Bipedal hopping as a new measure to detect subtle sensorimotor impairment in people with multiple sclerosis

Background Bipedal hopping has the potential to detect subtle multiple sclerosis (MS)-related impairments, especially among patients who "pass" typical movement tests. In this narrative review, we outline the biomechanics of bipedal hopping and propose its usefulness as a novel outcome measure for people with MS having mild disability. Methods We summarize articles that (1) examined the biomechanics of jumping or hopping and (2) tested the validity and/or reliability of hopping tests. We consolidated consistencies and gaps in research and opportunities for future development of the bipedal hop test. Results Bipedal hopping requires immense power, coordination, balance, and ability to reduce co-contraction; movement components typically affected by MS. These impairments can be measured and differentiated by examining specific variables, such as hop length (power), symmetry (coordination), center of pressure (balance), and coefficient of variability (co-contraction/spasticity). Bipedal hopping challenges these aspects of movement and exposes sensorimotor impairments that may not have been apparent during walking. Conclusions Testing of bipedal hopping on an instrumented walkway may detect and monitor sensorimotor control in people with MS who do not currently present with clinical deficits. Early measurement is imperative for precise rehabilitation prescription to slow disability progression prior to onset of measurable gait impairment. Implications for rehabilitation Jumping and hopping tests detect lower limb and balance impairments in children, athletes, and older adults. Bipedal hop test measures multiple domains: power, coordination, balance, and muscle timing. Bipedal hop test may expose subtle sensorimotor impairments in people with multiple sclerosis. Multiple variables measured can discern type of sensorimotor impairment to direct personalized rehabilitation programs.
A bound on the superconducting transition temperature

It is notoriously difficult to make quantitative theoretical predictions of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, either from first-principles or even from a knowledge of normal state properties. Ultimately, this reflects the fact that the energy scales involved in the superconducting state are extremely small in natural units, and that Tc depends exponentially on a subtle interplay between different interactions so that small uncertainties in microscopic processes can lead to order one effects on Tc. However, in some circumstances, it may be possible to determine (approximate) bounds on Tc. Here we propose such a bound for the conventional phonon-mediated mechanism of pairing with strongly retarded interactions, i.e. in the case in which $$\hbar \bar \omega \ll E_F$$ , where $$\bar \omega$$ is an appropriate characteristic phonon frequency and EF is the Fermi energy. Specifically, drawing on both empirical results (shown in Fig. 2 below) and recent results1 of determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) studies of the paradigmatic Holstein model, we propose that $$k_BT_c \le A_{\max }\hbar \bar \omega$$ , where Amax is a dimensionless number of order one that we estimate to be Amax ≈ 1/10. A bound for the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is proposed for conventional superconductors with phonon-mediated pairing mechanism. I. Esterlis and S.A. Kivelson from Stanford University, and D. J. Scalapino from University of California at Santa Barbara, perform analysis on the Holstein model and propose a bound for Tc of superconductors where electron-phonon coupling (λ) plays a dominant role. They re-evaluate the Migdal-Eliashberg theory with the assumption of monotonic λ dependence of Tc and point out where the theory applies and where it doesn’t due to non-monotonic λ dependence. With this knowledge, they estimate a key dimensionless parameter, with which a bound for Tc is related. Experimentally, Tc is further related to Debye temperature, θD and a bound is proposed to be θD/10. This result adds insights into the enigmatic problem of predicting Tc.
Achilles tendon moment arm changes with total ankle arthroplasty.

Prior research on total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) has focused on improvements in pain and function following the surgical treatment of ankle arthritis, but its effect on ankle joint mechanics has received relatively little attention. The plantarflexion moment arm of the Achilles tendon is a critical determinant of ankle function with the potential to be altered by TAA. Here we investigate the effect of TAA on Achilles tendon moment arm assessed using two methods. Standing sagittal-plane radiographs were obtained for ten patients presurgery and postsurgery, from which anterior-posterior distance between the posterior calcaneus and the center of the talar dome was measured. Ultrasound imaging and three-dimensional (3D) motion capture were used to obtain moment arm pre- and post-TAA. The absolute changes in moment arm pre- to post-TAA were significantly different from zero for both methods (9.6 mm from ultrasound and 4.6% of the calcaneus length from radiographs). Only 46% of the variance in postoperative 3D Achilles tendon moment arm was explained by the preoperative value (r2 = 0.460; p = .031), while pre- and post-TAA values from radiographs were not correlated (r2 = 0.192, p = .206). While we did not find significant mean differences in Achilles tendon moment arm between pre- and post-TAA, we did find absolute changes in 3D moment arm that were significantly different from zero and these changes were partially explained by a change in location of the talar dome as indicated by measurements from radiographs (r2 = 0.497, p = .023).
User-Centered Privacy Communication Design

In this paper, we describe a user-centered privacy policy design project that we undertook at Stanford Legal Design Lab, in order to generate new models of business-to-consumer communications around data privacy. From our preliminary user research, rapid prototyping and testing, and refinement of new privacy communication designs, focused on a very particular archetype – a 20-40 year old who is tech-savvy yet largely disinterested in privacy policies – we propose a series of new concept designs for technology companies to use when presenting the terms of their privacy policies, as well as general principles to ensure that communication of these policies are more engaging and actionable to this type of target user.
Mg-related charge transitions in Mg-doped Ga2O3

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3), an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor with potential applications in power devices, may be doped with Mg to control the native n-type conductivity. The charge transitions associated with Mg in Mg-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals are studied using photoinduced electron paramagnetic resonance (photo-EPR) spectroscopy to understand the mechanisms that produce stable semi-insulating substrates. The steady state photo-EPR measurements are performed at 130 K by illuminating the samples with photon energy from 0.7 to 4.7 eV. Our results show that there are two transitions associated with Mg in the bandgap: onset of quenching of neutral Mg at 1.5 eV and excitation at 3.0 eV. The quenching threshold is consistent with several DFT predicted values for Mg-/0 level. Therefore, we suggest the quenching is due to transition of an electron from the valence band to the neutral Mg. For photoexcitation, hole capture is the only viable process due to polaronic nature of neutral Mg in Ga2O3. The measurements demonstrate that electron excitation to impurities, such as Fe and Ir, does not contribute to creation of the holes. Further, gallium vacancies must not participate since their characteristic EPR spectrum is never seen. Thus, we speculate that the defects responsible for the hole formation and consequent excitation of the neutral Mg are oxygen vacancies.
The Aftermath of Trauma and Abuse and the Impact on Family: A Narrative Literature Review.

The present narrative review examined quantitative and qualitative research on family members who support survivors of trauma or abuse. Studies included in the present review were found in peer-rev...
Low-Loss Three-Dimensional Fan-in/Fan-out Devices for Multi-Core Fiber Integration

We demonstrate a 3D fan-in/fan-out device for multi-core fiber integration fabricated by ultrafast laser inscription using an automatic 3D waveguide routing algorithm. The low propagation loss of 0.3 dB/cm and 0.16 dB/cm have been achieved for two types of glasses.
Somatic Variation as an Incidental Finding in the Pediatric Next Generation Sequencing Era.

The methodologic approach used in next-generation sequencing (NGS) affords a high depth of coverage in genomic analysis. Inherent in the nature of genomic testing, there exists potential for identifying genomic findings that are incidental or secondary to the indication for clinical testing, with the frequency dependent on the breadth of analysis and the tissue sample under study. The interpretation and management of clinically meaningful incidental genomic findings is a pressing issue particularly in the pediatric population. Our study describes a 16-month old male who presented with Dandy-Walker malformation, metopic craniosynostosis and developmental delay. Clinical exome sequencing (ES) trio analysis revealed the presence of two variants in the proband. The first was a de novo variant in the PPP2R1A gene (c.773G>A, p.Arg258His), which is associated with autosomal dominant (AD) intellectual disability, accounting for the proband's clinical phenotype. The second was a recurrent hotspot variant in the CBL gene (c.1111T>C, p.Tyr371His), which was present at a variant allele fraction of 11%, consistent with somatic variation in the peripheral blood sample. Germline pathogenic variants in CBL are associated with AD Noonan syndrome-like disorder with or without juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). Molecular analyses using a different tissue source, buccal epithelial cells, suggest that the CBL alteration may represent a clonal population of cells restricted to leukocytes. This report highlights the laboratory methodologic and interpretative processes and clinical considerations in the setting of acquired variation detected during clinical ES in a pediatric patient.
Asymptotic and Spectral Analysis of a Model of the Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with the Timoshenko Beam as a Substructure: A Recent Study

Mathematical analysis of the well-known model of a piezoelectric energy harvester is presented. The harvester is designed as a cantilever Timoshenko beam with piezoelectric layers attached to its top and bottom faces. Thin, perfectly conductive electrodes are covering the top and bottom faces of the piezoelectric layers. These electrodes are connected to a resistive load. The model is governed by a system of three partial differential equations. The first two of them are the equations of the Timoshenko beam model and the third one represents Kirchhoff’s law for the electric circuit. All equations are coupled due to the piezoelectric effect. We represent the system as a single operator evolution equation in the Hilbert state space of the system. The dynamics generator of this evolution equation is a non-selfad joint matrix differential operator with compact resolvent. The paper has two main results. Both results are explicit asymptotic formulas for eigenvalues of this operator, i.e., the modal analysis for the electrically loaded system is performed. The first set of the asymptotic formulas has remainder terms of the order O(1/n), where n is the number of an eigenvalue. These formulas are derived for the model with variable physical parameters. The second set of the asymptotic formulas has remainder terms of the order O(1/n2 and is derived for a less general model with constant parameters. This second set of formulas contains extra term depending on the electromechanical parameters of the model. It is shown that the spectrum asymptotically splits into two disjoint subsets, which we call the \(\alpha\) -branch eigenvalues and the \(\theta\)-branch eigenvalues. These eigenvalues being multiplied by “i” produce the set of the vibrational modes of the system. The \(\alpha\)-branch vibrational modes are asymptotically located on certain vertical line in the left half of the complex plane and the \(\theta\)-branch is asymptotically close to the imaginary axis. By having such spectral and asymptotic results, one can derive the asymptotic representation for the mode shapes and for voltage output. Asymptotics of vibrational modes and mode shapes is instrumental in the analysis of control problems for the harvester.
Behavioral Substitutes and Complements

Publisher Summary Biologists and economists alike have called attention to some remarkable similarities between the animal foraging optimally by the lights of ecological theory and the human consuming optimally by the lights of economic theory. Each of the two theories would allow a prominent place for notions of substitutability and complementarity. The specific selection represents an attempt to maximize biological fitness. A predator too has budgetary constraints that depend on variables such as the time and energy available for foraging and relative prey abundance. The selection depends partly on a fitness contour analogous to the indifference curve of economic theory.
Architectural implications of cache coherence protocols with network applications on chip multiprocessors

Network processors are specialized integrated circuits used to process packets in such network equipment as core routers, edge routers, and access routers. As predicted by Gilder's law, Internet traffic has doubled each year since 1997 and this trend is showing no signs of abating. Since all emerging network applications which require deep packet classification and security-related processing should be run at line rates and since network speed and network applications complexity continue increasing, future network processors should simultaneously meet two requirements: high performance and high programmability. Single processor performance will not be sufficient to support the requirements which will be imposed on future network processors. In this paper, we consider the CMP model as the baseline architecture of future network processors. We investigate the architectural implications of cache coherence protocols with network workloads on CMPs. Our results show that the token protocol which uses the tokens to control read/write permission of shared data blocks shows better performance than the directory protocol by a factor of 13.4%.
Gscope: A Visualization Tool for Time-Sensitive Software

This paper describes gscope, a visualization tool for time-sensitive applications. Gscope provides an oscilloscope-like interface that can be integrated with applications. It focuses on software visualization and is thus designed to handle various types of signal waveforms, periodic or event-driven, in single or multithreaded environments as well as local or distributed applications. Gscope helps in visually verifying system correctness and modifying system parameters and thus can complement standard debugging techniques and be used to build compelling software demos. Initial experiments with using gscope show that the library has low overhead.
Gaussian and Mean Curvature of Subdivision Surfaces

By explicitly deriving the curvature of subdivision surfaces in the extraordinary points, we give an alternative, more direct account of the criteria necessary and sufficient for achieving curvature continuity than earlier approaches that locally parametrize the surface by eigenfunctions.
Metabolism of Isolated Fat Cells V. PREPARATION OF "GHOSTS" AND THEIR PROPERTIES; ADENYL CYCLASE AND OTHER ENZYMES

Abstract A procedure is described for preparing sacs of plasma membrane from free fat cells. The resultant spherical "ghosts" were essentially devoid of fat and contained 25% of the mitochondria, 2% of the soluble glycolytic enzymes measured (glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, fructose 1,6-diphosphate aldolase, lactic dehydrogenase), and 15% of the hexokinase activity originally present in fat cells. A large fraction of the hexokinase activity was associated with particles. Some ghosts were nucleated, but all contained undefined particles and vesicles. The plasma membrane of ghosts was semipermeable to ions and sucrose and thus retained some of the characteristics of permeability shown by the plasma membrane of intact fat cells. Adenyl cyclase activity was found in ghosts and in a particulate fraction containing mitochondria released during lysis of fat cells. Ghosts contained 62% of the adenyl cyclase activity, with specific activities that averaged 2.5 times that found in the mitochondrial fraction. The enzyme was not dissociated from membranes by sonic oscillation. Adrenocorticotropin stimulated adenyl cyclase activity in both ghosts and mitochondria fractions, the effect of the hormone being greater on ghosts.
Africans in the American Labor Market

The number of migrants to the United States from Africa has grown exponentially since the 1930s. For the first time in America's history, migrants born in Africa are growing at a faster rate than migrants from any other continent. The composition of African-origin migrants has also changed dramatically: in the mid-twentieth century, the majority were white and came from only three countries; but today, about one-fifth are white, and African-origin migrants hail from across the entire continent. Little is known about the implications of these changes for their labor market outcomes in the United States. Using the 2000-2011 waves of the American Community Survey, we present a picture of enormous heterogeneity in labor market participation, sectoral choice, and hourly earnings of male and female migrants by country of birth, race, age at arrival in the United States, and human capital. For example, controlling a rich set of human capital and demographic characteristics, some migrants-such as those from South Africa/Zimbabwe and Cape Verde, who typically enter on employment visas-earn substantial premiums relative to other African-origin migrants. These premiums are especially large among males who arrived after age 18. In contrast, other migrants-such as those from Sudan/Somalia, who arrived more recently, mostly as refugees-earn substantially less than migrants from other African countries. Understanding the mechanisms generating the heterogeneity in these outcomes-including levels of socioeconomic development, language, culture, and quality of education in countries of origin, as well as selectivity of those who migrate-figures prominently among important unresolved research questions.
Tuning of thyristor-controlled series capacitors by eigenvalue sensitivity analysis

In this paper, a systematic method for the tuning of multiple power system controllers using eigenvalue sensitivity and linear programming is presented. The main feature of this method is the symbolic formulation of the eigenvalue increment and its universal applicability to FACTS controllers. The proposed method is applied to a single machine infinite-bus example with a power system stabilizer and a controller for a thyristor-controlled series capacitor. >
Cleavage of Circular, Superhelical Simian Virus 40 DNA to a Linear Duplex by S1 Nuclease

S(1) nuclease, the single-strand specific nuclease from Aspergillus oryzae can cleave both strands of circular covalently closed, superhelical simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA to generate unit length linear duplex molecules with intact single strands. But circular, covalently closed, nonsuperhelical DNA, as well as linear duplex molecules, are relatively resistant to attack by the enzyme. These findings indicate that unpaired or weakly hydrogen-bonded regions, sensitive to the single strand-specific nuclease, occur or can be induced in superhelical DNA. Nicked, circular SV40 DNA can be cleaved on the opposite strand at or near the nick to yield linear molecules. S(1) nuclease may be a useful reagent for cleaving DNAs at regions containing single-strand nicks. Unlike the restriction endonucleases, S(1) nuclease probably does not cleave SV40 DNA at a specific nucleotide sequence. Rather, the sites of cleavage occur within regions that are readily denaturable in a topologically constrained superhelical molecule. At moderate salt concentrations (75 mM) SV40 DNA is cleaved once, most often within either one of the two following regions: the segments defined as 0.15 to 0.25 and 0.45 to 0.55 SV40 fractional length, clockwise, from the EcoR(I) restriction endonuclease cleavage site (defined as the zero position on the SV40 DNA map). In higher salt (250 mM) cleavage occurs preferentially within the 0.45 to 0.55 segment of the map.
The Culture of Poverty in China Rural Area: The Cases in Junxi Village

One of the motivations in writing this paper is that the social problems in Chinese rural areas, which is named “San Nong” problem (“San Nong” means issues of agriculture, farmer and rural areas). It is a concept posed by a Chinese economist in 1996, and after that, it became popular in Chinese media and official language. In 2003, this concept was formally used in the governmental report. The economic gap between urban and rural areas is a reflection of serious social problems. Overall, issues of farmers include low income, obstacles to increasing income and the absence of civil rights among the rural population etc.; Issues of agriculture mean low interests in farming and low agricultural industrialization level etc.; Issues of rural areas include “underdevelopment” of the countryside e.g. infrastructural, economical, political and “cultural” underdevelopment), have been regarded, by the government and scholars, as the most significant aspect of social development in China. In recent years, the concept of “Cultural Construction” or “Building Culture” in “underdeveloped” rural areas has been placed on the agenda in governmental conferences (Councils of governments and National People Congress). Meanwhile, a number of Chinese scholars have started paying attention to the culture of poverty thesis. Culture of poverty has unique modalities and distinctive social and psychological consequences for the poor. Oscar Lewis believes that the culture of poverty transcends the boundaries between nations and regions. However, Chinese sociological studies usually analyze this topic rural-urban separately, even though this thesis has been discredited in the past decades in western academic circles. Under this social and academic atmosphere, as one of the members of the project “sociological intervention in Chinese poor rural area”, I conducted research about the culture of poverty in Junxi Village, a small village located in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province.
Revisiting the cache miss analysis of multithreaded algorithms

This paper revisits the cache miss analysis of algorithms when scheduled using randomized work stealing (RWS) in a parallel environment where processors have private caches. We focus on the effect of task migration on cache miss costs, and in particular, the costs of accessing "hidden" data typically stored on execution stacks (such as the return location for a recursive call). Prior analyses, with the exception of [1], do not account for such costs, and it is not clear how to extend them to account for these costs. By means of a new analysis, we show that for a variety of basic algorithms these task migration costs are no larger than the costs for the remainder of the computation, and thereby recover existing bounds. We also analyze a number of algorithms implicitly analyzed by [1], namely Scans (including Prefix Sums and Matrix Transposition), Matrix Multiply (the depth n in-place algorithm, the standard 8-way divide and conquer algorithm, and Strassen's algorithm), I-GEP, finding a longest common subsequence, FFT, the SPMS sorting algorithm, list ranking and graph connected components; we obtain sharper bounds in many cases. While this paper focusses on the RWS scheduler, the bounds we obtain are a function of the number of steals, and thus would apply to any scheduler given bounds on the number of steals it induces.
Controlled green oxidation

Oxidation catalysts are important to the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and agricultural industries, but are not always environmentally benign. Progress towards making greener catalysts and improving their selectivity has met with some success, but their lack of stability can be a problem.