cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An analytical process model of two-party negotiations

There has been a call to investigate the negotiation process Gale [Gale, D. 1986. Bargaining and competition part I: Characterization. Econometrica544 785-806.], Shubik [Shubik, M. 1982. Game Theory in the Social Sciences: Concepts and Solutions. M. I. T. Press, Boston, MA.], as it is felt that this would yield important insights beyond those obtained by outcome-oriented theories Roth [Roth, A. E. 1979. Axiomatic Models of Bargaining. Springer-Verlag.]. This paper proposes a new analytical process model that captures both behavioral and economic aspects related to two-party negotiations. The proposed model, inspired by Pruitt's Pruitt, D. G. 1981. Negotiation Behavior. Academic Press, New York. work, explicitly incorporates concepts which are both relevant and crucial, such as the negotiators' power, concession points, aspiration level, limit, and time pressure. Based on this process model, it is possible to predict 1 conditions under which agreements will not be reached despite the existence of a zone of agreement, 2 conditions under which agreements will be reached, and 3 the patterns of the negotiators' offers and counteroffers.
Protection from UV radiation in the economic crop, Opuntia spp.

Cacti of the genus Opuntia are an economically important crop. Understanding the mechanisms they possess to protect against UV radiation is important for assessing their possible response to climatic change. Measurements of the concentrations of UV-screening compounds and epidermal transmittance for two species of platyopuntia, Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck. and O. phaeacantha Engelm. during 1998 and 1999 were used to investigate the UV-protection afforded by the cactus epidermis. A UV-radiative transfer model was used to investigate the interception of UV radiation on differently oriented surfaces. We show that vertical morphology itself confers significant protection against UV radiation compared to a horizontal surface. Concentrations of UV-screening flavonoids were found to vary depending on the UV exposure of different surfaces. West-facing surfaces had lower concentrations than east-facing surfaces, although theoretically they should be identical. This might be explained by the higher mean temperatures on west-facing surfaces. Although UV-absorbing soluble flavonoids in the epidermis block both UV-B and UV-A, the structure of the epidermis alone may be sufficient to remove up to 94% of the UV-B portion of the spectrum. These data yield insights into possible mechanisms of recent declines in cacti populations.
Draft Genome Sequence of Streptomyces vitaminophilus ATCC 31673, a Producer of Pyrrolomycin Antibiotics, Some of Which Contain a Nitro Group.

Streptomyces vitaminophilus produces pyrrolomycins, which are halogenated polyketide antibiotics. Some of the pyrrolomycins contain a rare nitro group located on the pyrrole ring. In addition, the 6.5-Mbp genome encodes 5,941 predicted protein-coding sequences in 39 contigs with a 71.9% G+C content.
Evolutionary approaches toward practical network coding

There have been numerous studies showing various benefits of network coding. However, in order to have network coding widely deployed in real networks, it is also important to show that the amount of overhead incurred by network coding can be kept minimal and eventually be outweighed by the benefits network coding provides. Owing to the mathematical operations required, network coding necessarily incurs some additional cost such as computational overhead or transmission delay, and as a practical matter, the cost of special hardware and/or software for network coding. While most network coding solutions assume that the coding operations are performed at all nodes, it is often possible to achieve the network coding advantage for multicast by coding only at a subset of nodes. However, determining a minimal set of the nodes where coding is required is NP-hard, as is its close approximation; hence there are only a few existing approaches each with certain limitations. In this thesis, we develop an evolutionary approach toward a practical multicast protocol that achieves the full benefit of network coding in terms of throughput, while performing coding operations only when required at as few nodes as possible. We show that our approach operates in a very efficient and practical manner such that it is distributed over the network both spatially and temporally, yielding a sufficiently good solution, which is at least as good as those obtained by existing centralized approaches but often turns out to be much superior in practice. We broaden the application areas of our evolutionary approach by generalizing it in several ways. First, we show that a generalized version of our approach can effectively reveal the possible tradeoff between the costs of network coding and link usage, enabling more informed decisions on where to deploy network coding. Also, we demonstrate that our approach can be applied to investigate many important but, because of the lack of appropriate tools, largely unanswered questions arising in practical scenarios based on heterogeneous wireless ad hoc networks and fault-tolerant optical networks. Finally, further generalizing our evolutionary approach, we propose a novel network coding scheme for the general connection problem beyond multicast, for which no optimal network coding strategy is known. Our coding scheme allows general random linear coding over a large finite field, in which decoding is done only at the receivers and the mixture of information at interior nodes is controlled by evolutionary mechanisms. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Making an honest man of Oxford: good news for Mali

Readers may know, from editorial comments and notes in ANTIQUITY, and from newspaper letters and articles early in 1991, the deep concern felt over the destruction of archaeological sites in West Africa, particularly in Mali, to satisfy the demands of art dealers for terracotta figurines (see ANTIQUITY 65: 904-5). Oxford University has re-considered its attitude.
Classification of Valleytronics in Thermoelectricity.

The theory of valleytronics as a material design tool for engineering both thermal and electrical transport properties is presented. It is shown that the interplay among the valleytronics parameters such as the degeneracy of the band, intervalley transitions, effective mass, scattering exponent, and the Fermi energy may deteriorate or ameliorate any or all of the main thermoelectric properties. A flowchart classifying the different paths through which the valleytronics can influence the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT is derived and discussed in detail. To exemplify the application of the flowchart, valleytronics in four different semiconductors, Mg2Si, Si0.8Ge0.2, AlxGa1−xAs and clathrate Si46-VIII were studied, which showed different trends. Therefore, a degenerate multivalley bandstructure, which is typically anticipated for a good thermoelectric material, cannot be a general design rule for ZT enhancement and a detailed transport study is required to engineer the optimum bandstructure.
A field report from Sarajevo and Pale

Unlike most economists, I am a strong believer in the value of field reports. What follows are observations based on a trek I took to Sarajevo and Pale (11-13 December 1996). And a trek it was, one that included military transport flights, armoured cars, body guards and other local oddities. All this was in the line of duty, not military, but economic. I was gauging the progress being made towards establishing a currency board system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or what is commonly known as Bosnia.
The incubation period of typhoid fever

In most cases of typhoid fever the incubation period cannot be determined accurately, as the precise date of infection is unknown. There are, however, cases in the literature in which the time of infection is definitely known and in which, therefore, the distribution of the incubation period can be determined. Certain of these are treated in the present paper. In an epidemic, described by Sawyer,1 caused by the eating of infected spaghetti at a church dinner the distribution of the incubation periods of definite and of doubtful cases was as given in table 1: The definite and doubtful cases do not therefore differ significantly in length of incubation period. In an epidemic reported by Cumming,2 due to the contamination of ice cream by a typhoid carrier, the distribution of incubation periods is given in table 2. The mean of the fatal cases is 5.67 days, and the standard deviation is 0.471, while the mean of the nonfatal cases is 7.2 and the standard deviation is 1.887. By Pearson's goodness of fit test the probability that the fatal and nonfatal cases are random samples of the same population is 0.8. The difference in the means cannot, therefore, be considered significant on the basis of the present small numbers. The mean of the combined cases is 7 ? 0.26 days, and their standard deviation 1.84 dz 0.18 days. Other cases due to infection of food have been reported by Schenck.3 He reports nineteen cases with an incubation period of 12-16 days. Waterman4 reports seventeen cases, 13-22 days. Pixley 5 reports two cases with an incubation period of 2 weeks ; also 3 cases due to infected water with an incubation period of three weeks.
Immunohistochemical characterisation of the costo-chondral junction in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

A number of studies have concluded that infants who die of SIDS have evidence of significant growth retardation. Although there appears to be considerable overlap with control infants, reduced weight gain, poor neurological development and specific abnormalities of the bone growth plate have all been reported. This raises the possibility that SIDS infants may have been physiologically compromised for some time prior to death. Alteration of growth plate morphology may, however, be influenced by primary abnormalities of proteoglycan composition, given that growth plate organisation depends on the intimate interaction of chondrocytes with extracellular matrix. The following study was undertaken to characterise the distribution of major growth plate proteoglycans in a group of SIDS infants compared to control infants. Sections of rib and adjacent costal cartilage were taken at autopsy from 9 SIDS infants and 8 age- matched controls (4 asphyxial deaths, 2 traumatic deaths, 1 poisoning and 1 drowning). Following decalcification and routine processing, immunohistochemical staining was performed for chondroitin (ch)-4-SO 4 , ch-6-SO 4 , keratan SO 4 and over- sulphated ch-SO 4 with antibodies 2-B-6, 3-B-3, 5-D-4 and 7-D-4 using standard methods. The tested proteoglycans showed either a uniform or zonal distribution in the growth plate in SIDS infants, with an identical pattern of distribution in controls. This preliminary finding suggests that the abnormal growth plate morphology reported in a percentage of infants dying of SIDS may well be a secondary phenomenon , not related to primary skeletal dysfunction. In summary, the distribution of proteoglycans within the extracellular matrix of the costochondral junction in SIDS infants in this study appeared normal.
A computational approach to modeling chaff clouds consisting of fractal particles

A chaff cloud is an electronic countermeasure to radio frequency emitters. The cloud immerses a protected entity in a multitude of false targets by reradiating incident electromagnetic energy from ...
Biology and Distribution of Tetrastichus incertus1, a Parasite of the Alfalfa Weevil2

Tetrastichus incertus (Ratzeburg), a parasite of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Gyllenhal), was introduced from France and established in the eastern United States in 1960. It has been released in 12 Eastern States and recovered from 11. The life history and immature stages are described. Laboratory experiments indicate that both photoperiod and parent parasites have effects on incidence of larval diapause. Parasitism of alfalfa weevil larvae collected in southeastern Pennsylvania alfalfa fields averaged 71 and 73%, respectively, during the summer months of 1964 and 1965.
On Transforming Model of Coal Enterprises in China and Strategies

Coal enterprises run on basis of natural resources.It will take big risks and cost to carry out business transformation when the coal resources are exhausted.The coal enterprises should seize the prosperous opportunity of coal industry to advance gradually the business transformation into practice at as early time as possible.After analyzing the model and characteristics of coal enterprises transformation,the paper comes up with some reforming strategies from the aspect of system transformation,processing transformation,organization transformation and the industry transformation respectively.
Mach 10 Bow Shock and Gas-Cap Unsteadiness Measurements Using Rayleigh Scattering

This study demonstrates the usefulness of instantaneous and mean density ρ, standard deviation σ, relative standard deviation σ/ρ, and product standard deviation σ*ρ acquired using a low-sampling-rate instantaneous (10 ns) laser-based method to study effects of high-frequency phenomena on offbody freestream, bow-shock wave, and gas-cap unsteadiness. Spatial correlations of relative flow unsteadiness are acquired using laser Rayleigh scattering performed along a 38.7 mm line containing 200 pixels spanning the freestream, gas cap, near-normal, and oblique shocks created by a multipurpose crew vehicle model in the NASA Langley 31-in. Mach 10 air wind tunnel. A total of 371 instantaneous images are acquired at a fixed stagnation temperature of 990±11 K and five stagnation pressures spanning 2.41–10.0 MPa (350–1454 psi). Maximum σ occurs at the bow-shock-wave spatial density profile first-derivative maximum for a near-normal and oblique shock. Maximum σ/ρ and σ*ρ occur at the bow-shock-wave spatial density pr...
Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations by William W. Sannwald

The planning and design considerations for new or existing libraries present a daunting task. This work serves as a guide during the various stages of the design process to make sure that all neede...
Graph partitioning-based zonal reserve allocation for congestion management in power systems with wind resources

Real-time actuation of scheduled reserve capacity in power system operations with high penetration of wind power is prone to failure on account of unexpected shortcomings in network transfer capability. In this paper, a graph partitioning-based reserve zoning method is incorporated into the security-constrained unit commitment to improve the deliverability of operating reserves in a reserve zone and mitigate possible congestions caused by uncertain wind power. A graph representation of power system is proposed in which the edge weights are quantified by the likelihood of secure transmission utilization for each line. The probability distribution of line flows are characterized by the uncertainty of multiple correlated wind farm output forecasts as well as credible line outage contingencies reflected on the line flows using distribution factors. The minimum k-cut problem using the Gomory-Hu equivalent tree is addressed as a simple and efficient method to solve the NP-complete partitioning problem. The resultant zones can assure reduced risk of congested operating conditions and thus, provide a new approach to efficient management of intra-zonal congestions.
CORRELATION OF FOUR MASTITIS DETECTION TESTS WITH RESPECT TO THE LEUCOCYTE COUNT

A descending order of correlation with respect to the Microscopic Leucocyte Count was obtained as follows: Feulgen-DNA > California Mastitis Test > Modified Whiteside Mastitis Test > Strip Tray Test. The average overall sample per cow and the composite sample correlations were statistically significant at the 1% level of significance, but many individual composite relationships were not significant. The bulk tank correlations, which represent the entire herd, were not significant. Results indicate that intermixing of raw milk from different sources lowered the concentration of reactive nuclear material to such a level that it was not measurable by the mastitis screening tests employed in these trials.
Costly Values: The Limited Benefits and Potential Costs of Targeted Policy Justifications

Can politicians use targeted messages to offset position taking that would otherwise reduce their public support? We examine the effect of a politician’s justification for their tax policy stance on public opinion and identify limits on the ability of justifications to generate leeway for incongruent position taking on this issue. We draw on political communication research to establish expectations about the heterogeneous effects of justifications that employ either evidence or values based on whether or not constituents agree with the position a politician takes. In two survey experiments, we find small changes in support in response to these types of messages among targeted groups, but rule out large benefits for politicians to selectively target policy justifications toward subsets of the public. We also highlight a potential cost to selective messaging by showing that when these targeted messages reach unintended audiences they can backfire and reduce a candidate’s support.
Celebrating Locality: A Small Fair Near Kifissos River

Religious fairs in Greece are well-known for their variety and diversity, as they encompass three different aspects (Vozikas 2009): the religious, the commercial and the entertaining ones. Usually, a Greek religious fair, held apropos the memory of a Saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church, combines religious sentiments, as well as financial activities with street vendors selling snacks, clothing and various goods, and, finally, entertaining opportunities for children and adults, i.e, free cooked food for the gathering and the staging of singing and dancing performances. Although this typology is quite standard in the rural and urban Greece, it is quite striking that small medieval, and almost defunct or abandoned churches in the industrial outskirts of Athens offer the opportunity to older communities to celebrate the memory of a religious person and also to give prominence to their locality. During my fieldwork at the districts situated at the former riverbeds of Kifissos river, which is the largest river flowing throughout the Attica plain and has now been enclosed since the late 1990s under tons of cement, I came across various private churches, which belonged to very old field proprietary-owners of the area. In their large, fertile -due to the Kifissos’ water- and dense fields, they dedicated small churches to honor and protect their first-born daughters.
Design, Synthesis, and in Vitro and in Vivo Evaluation of Ouabain Analogues as Potent and Selective Na,K-ATPase α4 Isoform Inhibitors for Male Contraception

Na,K-ATPase α4 is a testis-specific plasma membrane Na+ and K+ transporter expressed in sperm flagellum. Deletion of Na,K-ATPase α4 in male mice results in complete infertility, making it an attractive target for male contraception. Na,K-ATPase α4 is characterized by a high affinity for the cardiac glycoside ouabain. With the goal of discovering selective inhibitors of the Na,K-ATPase α4 and of sperm function, ouabain derivatives were modified at the glycone (C3) and the lactone (C17) domains. Ouabagenin analogue 25, carrying a benzyltriazole moiety at C17, is a picomolar inhibitor of Na,K-ATPase α4, with an outstanding α4 isoform selectivity profile. Moreover, compound 25 decreased sperm motility in vitro and in vivo and affected sperm membrane potential, intracellular Ca2+, pH, and hypermotility. These results proved that the new ouabagenin triazole analogue is an effective and selective inhibitor of Na,K-ATPase α4 and sperm function.
Report on the First “In Art We Trust” Chinese Opera in New York Forum, New York City, USA, 2016

On October 12, 2016, the Flushing Town Hall in New York City held its first forum on Chinese Opera in New York entitled “In Art We Trust.” As a joint program cohosted by The Permanent Conference on...
Exploring Interventions for Sleep Disorders in Adolescent Cannabis Users.

This review summarizes the available literature on the intersection of adolescent cannabis use and sleep disturbances, along with interventions for adolescent cannabis users who suffer sleep impairments. Adolescents are susceptible to various sleep disorders, which are often exacerbated by the use of substances such as cannabis. The relationship between cannabis and sleep is bidirectional. Interventions to improve sleep impairments among adolescent cannabis users to date have demonstrated limited efficacy, although few studies indicating the benefits of behavioral interventions—such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction—appear promising in the treatment of sleep disorders, which are present for users of cannabis. Further research is necessary to elucidate the precise mechanisms by which cannabis use coexists with sleep impairments, along with effective interventions for those users who suffer sleep difficulties.
Enhancing the Power Output of Bifacial Solar Modules by Applying Effectively Transparent Contacts (ETCs) With Light Trapping

We have performed a computational study on the enhancement of the power output of bifacial solar modules with effectively transparent contacts (ETCs). ETCs are triangular cross-sectional silver grid fingers that redirect light to the active area of the solar cell, therefore mitigating grid finger shading losses. Furthermore, ETCs can be spaced densely leading to light trapping. We modeled bifacial silicon heterojunction solar modules with varying front and rear illumination and ETC coverages. We determined that shading losses can be almost fully mitigated and that light absorption can be increased by up to 4.7% compared with state-of-the-art screen-printed bifacial modules. Furthermore, we calculated that grid resistance and silver usage can be improved when using ETCs.
Family ties: re-defining families with Dorothy Allison's Trash and Audre Lorde's Zami: a new spelling of my name

iv INTRODUCTION: FAMILY IN BLACKAND WHITE 1 CHAPTER 1. RE-DEFINING FAMILIES THROUGH CLARIFICATION 3 CHAPTER 2. RE-DEFINING FAMILIES THROUGH EXPANSION 22 CONCLUSION: COMING HOME 42
ACE2 activator diminazene aceturate reduces adiposity but preserves lean mass in young and old rats

The obesity epidemic is multi-generational and is particularly debilitating in the aging population, necessitating the use of pharmaceutical interventions. Recent evidence suggests that increasing the activity of the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 [ACE2]/angiotensin-(1-7)[Ang-(1-7)]/Mas receptor (MasR) axis in obese animal models leads to significant reductions in body weight. It was hypothesized that activation of ACE2 via diminazene aceturate (DIZE) will significantly reduce body weight of rats fed a high fat diet. Young and old (4 and 23 months, respectively) male Fisher 344 × Brown Norway rats were fed 60% high fat diet for one week, and subsequently given either 15 mg/kg/day DIZE s.c. or vehicle for three weeks. DIZE treatment resulted in a significant reduction of food intake and body weight in both young and old animals. However, that decrease was so dramatic in the older animals that they all nearly stopped eating. Interestingly, the TD-NMR assessments revealed that the weight-loss was primarily a result of decreased body fat percentage, with a relative preservation of lean mass. Tissue weights confirm the significant loss of white adipose tissue (WAT), with no change in muscle weights. Gene expression and serum ACE2 activity analyses implied that increased activation of the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/MasR axis plays a role in reducing fat mass. Collectively, our results suggest that DIZE may be a useful tool in the study of obesity; however, caution is recommended when using this compound in older animals due to severe anorectic effects, although there is a mechanism by which muscle is preserved.
Galilei-and Lorentz-Invariant Particle Systems and their Conservation Laws

Newton’s mechanics of point particles has served as a model of physical theory for two centuries. In its usual formulation, the forces considered are two-body forces depending on the mutual separation of the particles at the same time. The third law implies that these forces are derivable from a potential also depending only on this separation, which allows a Lagrangean formulation of the theory. As was gradually recognized during the past century, this particular form of Newtonian mechanics is invariant under a ten-parameter group, the inhomogeneous Galilei group [1], and possesses ten integrals which are algebraic functions of the positions and velocities; one of these corresponds to the conservation of energy, three to the conservation of linear momentum, three to the conservation of angular momentum, and three express the uniform motion of the center of mass.
Performance Evaluation of Sequential Decoding System for UDP-Based Systems for Wireless Multimedia Networks.

Sequential decoders are convolutional channel decoders that are characterized by having variable decoding complexity in changing channel conditions. They are widely used in wireless packet-switching networks and mobile communications. The major difference of multimedia networks from traditional networks is the deadline to display or (play) the arriving packets. Especially, this is more obvious in realtime video streaming applications. Real-time video streaming applications prefer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for video packet transfers. The operation of sequential decoding in this paper is applied on wireless multimedia networks. Buffers are usually required by the sequential decoder to store packets if there is an empty space. Geometric/Pareto/1/N queue model is used to describe the behavior of the sequential decoders with finite buffers. In this paper, we present an analytical study on the finite buffer behaviors of the sequential decoding system and provide closed form expression for the blocking probability due to limited buffer capacity, system throughput, and average buffer occupancy. We present also a simulation study to show the average buffer occupancy. KEYWORDS—Sequential decoder, average buffer occupancy, queuing analysis, blocking probability, system throughput.
Analysis of Inorganic Particulate Pollutants by Nuclear Methods

Over the past years the concentrations of many trace metals in the atmosphere have risen dramatically to the point where industrial and automobile emissions now dominate the natural biogeochemical cycling in many urban and to some extent rural and remote environments. From the results of numerous studies it has been suggested that increased urban air concentrations of toxic metals, such as chromium, arsenic, cadmium, and lead, have been associated with various disease risk factors. Airborne particulate matter is a complex pollutant which requires reliable analytical methods to measure accurately the elemental concentrations in air. Besides good trace element analytical techniques, proper sampling methodologies and the use of source-receptor modeling are needed. Nuclear analytical methods such as neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) are ideally suited to be implemented in research and routine air monitoring programs, particularly in urban environments. An overview of these methods is presented. Special emphasis on NAA is given including its usefulness in several programs conducted in various parts of the world for monitoring and source receptor modeling purposes.
Manipulating Fixed Charges in ZrO2 by Doping for Passivation and Antireflection on Wafer-Si Solar Cells

In this study, we attempted to manipulate fixed charges within ZrO2 films by doping for effective field-effect passivation. ZrO2 films doped with Cr, Mn or Zn (1-10 at. %) were grown on p-type Si (100) wafers by spray pyrolysis, followed by rapid thermal annealing at 700-850°C in air. Flat-band voltage shifts from capacitance-voltage measurements indicate that incorporation of dopants into Zr+ sites leads to changes in sign and density of fixed charges in ZrO2. The optical properties of doped ZrO2 are comparable to, and in some cases slightly better than, PECVD SiNx. These results suggest that spray-deposited doped ZrO2 could be a suitable material for antireflection and passivation on p-type Si in wafer-Si solar cells.
Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s (The Focal Press Costume Topics Series)

Let Historical Wig Styling be your guide to creating beautiful, historically accurate hairstyles for your productions and events. Chapters begin with artwork of historic figures that influenced the look of each period. Detailed step-by-step instructions explain how to create their iconic hairstyles, illustrated by photographs showing the finished look from every angle.
A Respiratory Therapist-Driven Asthma Pathway Reduced Hospital Length of Stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a common reason for admissions to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Since June 2014, our institution has used a pediatric asthma clinical pathway for all patients, including those in PICU. The pathway promotes respiratory therapist– driven bronchodilator weaning based on the Modified Pulmonary Index Score (MPIS). This pathway was associated with decreased hospital length of stay (LOS) for all pediatric asthma patients; however, the effect on PICU patients was unclear. We hypothesized that the implementation of a pediatric asthma pathway would reduce hospital LOS for asthmatic patients admitted to the PICU. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all pediatric asthma subjects 2–17 y old admitted to our PICU before and after pathway initiation. Primary outcome was hospital LOS. Secondary outcomes were PICU LOS and time on continuous albuterol. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test for categorical data, the t test for normally distributed data, and the Mann-Whitney test for nonparametric data. RESULTS: A total of 203 eligible subjects (49 in the pre-pathway group, 154 in the post group) were enrolled. There were no differences between groups for age, weight, gender, home medications, cause of exacerbation, medical history, or route of admission. There were significant decreases in median (interquartile range) hospital LOS (4.4 [2.9 – 6.6] d vs 2.7 [1.6 – 4.0] d, P CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of an asthma pathway was associated with decreased hospital LOS, PICU LOS, and time on continuous albuterol. There was also an increase in the use of high-flow nasal cannula and noninvasive ventilation after the implementation of this clinical pathway.
Trends in surgical management of multicystic dysplastic kidney at USA children's hospitals.

Summary Introduction and objective Multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) is a congenital renal cystic disease often incidentally diagnosed in children. Historically, children with MCDK underwent early nephrectomy because of concerns for the development of hypertension or malignancy. Over the last decade, management recommendations have not supported routine early surgical removal of MCDK. The study authors sought to determine the current trends in the use of nephrectomy for MCDK in US children's hospitals because national practice patterns have not been investigated. Methods A population-based retrospective cohort study using the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) was conducted. The study population was comprised of patients aged 0–18 years with a diagnosis of MCDK (International Classification of Diseases-9th revision, code 753.19) admitted to the inpatient department of the study hospital between January 2006 and September 2015. Patients with additional renal anomalies including polycystic kidney, medullary cystic kidney, and medullary sponge kidney were excluded, as were patients treated in a hospital that did not contribute data to the PHIS continuously throughout the study period. Trends in the annual proportion of nephrectomies performed were analyzed among admissions in the study population, along with patient clinical and demographic information. Results A total of 3792 MCDK admissions, in 34 hospitals, were included in the study. Overall, 569 nephrectomies were performed during the study period. The proportion of nephrectomy decreased annually by 9.2% on average, from 22.1% in 2006 to 7.3% in the first 3 quarters of 2015. No significant trends were observed in the annual number of overall MCDK admissions or patient age at procedure among patients who had a nephrectomy. Among nephrectomies, 84.2% were open and 15.8% were minimally invasive procedures (laparoscopic non-robotic, 10% and robotic, 5.8%). The proportion of minimally invasive nephrectomies increased annually by 13.7%, from 8% in 2006 to 29% in 2015. Discussion Trends in the use of nephrectomy for MCDK at a national level have not been previously reported. This study is limited by the use of inpatient discharge data, which did not allow estimating the true rate of nephrectomy in patients born with MCDK. Conclusions During the study period, there has been a decrease in the use of nephrectomy for MCDK in pediatric hospitals, along with a concurrent increase in utilization of minimally invasive techniques to perform nephrectomies. These results suggest that in general, urologists at freestanding children's hospitals are heeding recommendations for observation and against routine early surgical removal of these kidneys; although trends in the use of nephrectomy varied between hospitals, there is room for continued improvement in following these recommendations. Download : Download high-res image (346KB) Download : Download full-size image Fig. . Inpatient MCDK admissions and admissions with a nephrectomy in the study population. MCDK, multicystic dysplastic kidney.
Suppressive action of gonadotropin-releasing hormone and luteinizing hormone on function of the developing ovine corpus luteum.

Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of exogenous GnRH and LH on serum concentrations of progesterone (P4) in the ewe. Ewes in Exp. 1 and 2 were laparotomized on d 2 of an estrous cycle and ewes with corpora lutea (CL) in both ovaries were unilaterally ovariectomized. Ewes with CL in one ovary only were not ovariectomized. While they were anesthetized, ewes (n = 5) were injected with 25 micrograms GnRH (Exp. 1) or 50 ng GnRH (Exp. 2) into the artery supplying the ovary bearing the CL. Control ewes (n = 5 in each experiment) were injected similarly with saline. In Exp. 3, six ewes were injected i.v. (jugular) on d 2 with 100 micrograms oLH (t = 0) and 50 micrograms oLH at 15, 30 and 45 min; six control ewes were injected similarly with saline. Jugular blood was collected from all ewes at frequent intervals after treatment for LH analysis and on alternate days of the cycle through d 10 or 11 for P4 analysis. Treatment with 25 micrograms GnRH increased serum concentrations of LH at 15, 30, 45 and 60 min postinjection (P less than .001) and reduced serum concentrations of P4 on d 7 through 11 (treatment x day interaction; P less than .05). Injection with 50 ng GnRH caused a slight increase in serum concentrations of LH at 15 min but had no effect on serum concentrations of P4.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
FUNCTIONS OF THE ENDOCRINE PANCREAS IN REGULATION OF AVIAN CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the functions of the endocrine pancreas in regulation of avian carbohydrate metabolism. Avian glucagon circulates at plasma levels 4–8 times greater than that found in plasma of mammals and all birds are very sensitive to minute amounts of the polypeptide. The hormone is a 29-amino acid residue which differs from mammalian glucagon by a single residue at position 28. Glucagon is a powerful glycogenolytic, hyperglycemic agent, causing within minutes very rapid increases in plasma glucose probably by an activation of the adenylate cyclase system. A greater appreciation of glucagons physiological significance may be gained by the evaluation of the hormones effect on lipid metabolism. A better correlation appears to exist between the plasma levels of glucagon and simultaneous fatty acid levels. Glucagon is also a powerful lipolytic agent in birds, mobilizing depot fat readily and raising fatty acid levels to impressively high levels. Evidence has accumulated indicating that carbohydrate is spared in migrating avian species because of the efficient mobilization and the utilization of fatty acid substrate during the protracted flight. The observation that depancreatized chickens dispose of glucose loads in a manner almost identical to that of intact birds again emphasizes the conclusion.
Extremely Robust Pulse Retrieval From Even Noisy Second-Harmonic-Generation Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating Traces

We further improve and then demonstrate the reliability of the previously introduced RANA approach for the second-harmonic-generation frequency-resolved optical gating (SHG FROG) phase-retrieval algorithm in the presence of significant noise in the traces. We provide a set of relevant parameters for this approach according to the noise level and trace size. Using it, we achieve 100% convergence for thousands of even extremely complex sample pulses, even when contaminated with the introduced significant noise.
Effect of PKA Gene on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children and Its Mechanism

OBJECTIVE To explore the effect of PKA gene on acute T lymphocyte leukemia cells in children and its mechanism. METHODS Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells were divided into 2 group: control group (Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells treated with non-specific siRNA) and transfected group (Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells transfected with PKA siRNA). The effects of down-regulating the expression of PKA gene on the viability, proliferotion, migration and cell cycle distribution of Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells in 2 groups were analyzed by CCK-8 assay, transwell experiment, cell colony-formation test and flow cytometry; the cyclin-related protein levels after transfection with PKA siRNA were detected by Western blot. RESULTS It was revealed that the expression of PKA in Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells decreased to different degree after siRNA transfection(P<0.05). CCK-8 assay showed that the proliferation of Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells in the transfected group was slower than that in the control group(P<0.05). Transwell experiment showed that the migration and invasion ability of Jurkat cells in the transfection group was weaker than that in the control group (P<0.05). The cell colong formation number of Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells in the transfection group decreased significantly (P<0.05). The cell level of Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells in G0/G1 phase increased after tansfection (P<0.05). Western blot assay revealed that the expression levels of CDK2, CyclinD1 and p-Rb in the Jurkat and Sup-T1 cells of the transfection group were suppressed (P<0.05). CONCLUSION The down-regulating PKA gene expression can decrease the proliferation and migration of tumor cells, and also can restrict the cell proliferation through related cell cycle proteins.
Insight into biogeochemical models from Scale Transition Theory: A dimensionless, scale-free approach

Leading an effective response to the accelerating crisis of anthropogenic climate change will require improved understanding of global carbon cycling. A critical source of uncertainty in Earth Systems Models (ESMs) is the role of microbes in mediating both the formation and decomposition of soil organic matter, and hence in determining patterns of CO2 efflux. Traditionally, ESMs model carbon turnover as a first order process impacted primarily by abiotic factors, whereas contemporary biogeochemical models often explicitly represent the microbial biomass and enzyme pools as the active agents of decomposition. However, the combination of non-linear microbial kinetics and ecological heterogeneity across space guarantees that upscaled dyamics will violate mean-field assumptions via Jensen9s Inequality. Violations of mean-field assumptions mean that parameter estimates from models fit to upscaled data (e.g. eddy covariance towers) are likely systematically biased. Here we present a generic mathematical analysis of upscaled michaelis-menten kinetics, grounded in Scale Transition Theory. We advance the framework by providing solutions in dimensionless form, and illustrate how this approach facilitates qualitative insight into the significance of this scale transition, and argue that it will facilitate future cross site intercomparisons of scale transition effects from flux data. We also discuss the critical terms that need to be constrained in order to unbias parameter estimates.
Magnesium Oxide (MgO)

Publisher Summary Magnesium oxide (MgO) is an ionic material, crystallizing in the rock-salt structure and cleaving on 100 and 111 planes. It is found in nature as periclase or β-magnesia. MgO is insoluble in water but atmospheric moisture reacts with the surface to form a thin film, which can be easily polished off. High physical strength and stability, and excellent optical transparency throughout the range 0.25 to 6.8 μm, combines to make the material of considerable interest. It is noted that very pure, microcrystalline powders can be prepared in several ways and exhibit higher diffuse reflectance throughout the visible region and extending into both the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR). MgO as reference standards in optical work and as coatings in devices,such as integrating spheres are also established. Similar optical properties are exhibited by smoked or fumed MgO, produced by burning magnesium ribbon and collecting the smoke on a substrate. Pressed, sintered material can be made to have optical properties close to those of the single crystal.
Keynote: Algorithmic Targeting of Social Policies: Fairness, Accuracy, and Distributed Governance

Targeted social policies are the main strategy for poverty alleviation across the developing world. These include targeted cash transfers (CTs), as well as targeted subsidies in health, education, housing, energy, childcare, and others. Due to the scale, diversity, and wide-spread relevance of targeted social policies like CTs, the algorithmic rules that decide who is eligible to benefit from them-and who is not�are among the most important algorithms operating in the world today. Here we report on a year-long engagement towards improving social targeting systems in a couple of developing countries. We demonstrate that a shift towards the use of AI methods in poverty-based targeting can substantially increase accuracy, extending the coverage of the poor by nearly a million people in two countries, without increasing expenditure. However, we also show that, absent explicit parity constraints, both status quo and AI-based systems induce disparities across population subgroups. Moreover, based on qualitative interviews with local social institutions, we find a lack of consensus on normative standards for prioritization and fairness criteria. Hence, we close by proposing a decision-support platform for distributed governance, which enables a diversity of institutions to customize the use of AI-based insights into their targeting decisions.
A combination of machine learning and infrequent metadynamics to efficiently predict kinetic rates, transition states, and molecular determinants of drug dissociation from G protein-coupled receptors

Determining the drug-target residence time (RT) is of major interest in drug discovery given that this kinetic parameter often represents a better indicator of in vivo drug efficacy than binding affinity. However, obtaining drug-target unbinding rates poses significant challenges, both computationally and experimentally. This is particularly palpable for complex systems like G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) whose ligand unbinding typically requires very long timescales oftentimes inaccessible by standard molecular dynamics simulations. Enhanced sampling methods offer a useful alternative, and their efficiency can be further improved by using machine learning tools to identify optimal reaction coordinates. Here, we test the combination of two machine learning techniques, automatic mutual information noise omission and reweighted autoencoded variational Bayes for enhanced sampling, with infrequent metadynamics to efficiently study the unbinding kinetics of two classical drugs with different RTs in a prototypic GPCR, the μ-opioid receptor. Dissociation rates derived from these computations are within one order of magnitude from experimental values. We also use the simulation data to uncover the dissociation mechanisms of these drugs, shedding light on the structures of rate-limiting transition states, which, alongside metastable poses, are difficult to obtain experimentally but important to visualize when designing drugs with a desired kinetic profile.
Abstract PO-015: Hypermethylated genes in leiomyosarcoma can be targeted through guadecitabine treatment

Leiomyosarcomas (LMS) are aggressive mesenchymal tumors of smooth muscle origin. Understanding the molecular alterations associated with LMS is needed to identify potential therapeutic targets. Epigenetic alterations such as hypermethylation of gene promoter regions with associated transcriptional silencing is a hallmark of most cancers. Epigenetic reprograming is fundamentally linked to tumor initiation, progression and metastasis. Frequent epigenetic alterations have been observed in LMS. Epigenetic drugs such as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi) have been used to reverse aberrant DNA methylation and restore expression of silenced genes. Our previous studies using DNMTi, including guadecitabine, have shown that DNMTi treatment has anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in in vitro and in vivo models of LMS. Our goal was to characterize the methylation changes following guadecitabine treatment of the leiomyosarcoma cell line SK-UT1. SK-UT1 cells were treated with guadecitabine (0.05 µM-0.1 µM) and methylation was determined using Illumina 450K platform. We filtered the promoter CpG island regions that respond to guadecitabine treatment and were associated with decreased methylation compared to untreated SK-UT1 control (p≤0.05, Δβ≥0.15). In order to assess the relevance of these differentially methylated regions, we compared them to the methylation and expression profiles of LMS patient samples (GSE68312). We focused on the genes that have decreased expression and are associated with increased methylation of the promoter CpG island regions in the patient LMS samples. In conclusion, treatment of SK-UT1 cell line with guadecitabine resulted in decrease of methylation of a subset of promoter CpG island regions that were differentially hypermethylated in LMS patient samples. Further studies are needed to explore the effect of differential methylation on gene expression in guadecitabine treated SK-UT1 cell line. Understanding the effect of DNMTi on LMS is needed to identify potential therapeutic applications targeting the epigenetic pathways. Funding supported by Astex Pharmaceuticals. Citation Format: Nesrin Hasan, Cynthia De Carvalho Fischer, Anup Sharma, Nita Ahuja. Hypermethylated genes in leiomyosarcoma can be targeted through guadecitabine treatment [abstract]. In: Abstracts: AACR Special Virtual Conference on Epigenetics and Metabolism; October 15-16, 2020; 2020 Oct 15-16. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(23 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-015.