cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A von Neumann–Smagorinsky turbulent transport model for stratified shear flows

A simple subgrid turbulent diffusion model based on an analogy to the von Neumann–Richtmyer artificial viscosity is explored for use in modelling mixing in turbulent stratified shear flow. The model may be more generally applicable to multicomponent turbulent hydrodynamics and to subgrid turbulent transport of momentum, composition and energy. As in the case of the von Neumann artificial viscosity and many subgrid-scale models for large-eddy simulation, the turbulent diffusivity explicitly depends on the grid size and is not based on a quantitative model of the unresolved turbulence. In order to address the issue that it is often not known a priori when and where a flow will become turbulent, the turbulent diffusivity is set to zero when the flow is expected to be stable on the basis of a Richardson/Rayleigh–Taylor stability criterion, in analogy to setting the von Neumann artificial viscosity to zero in expanding flows. One-dimensional predictions of this model applied to a simple shear flow configuration are compared to those obtained using a K –e model. The density and velocity profiles predicted by both models are shown to be very similar.
Radiation from an electromagnetic source in a half-space of compressible plasma-surface waves

The study of the radiation characteristics of localized electromagnetic sources in ionized gaseous medium, known generally as plasmas, has application to the problem of radio communication with missiles and space vehicles passing through the ionized regions in space. In this paper, the radiation characteristics of a line source of magnetic current situated in a compressible plasma medium of semi-infinite extent and bounded on one side by a perfectly conducting rigid planar screen is investigated. The special case for which the line source is on the screen becomes equivalent to the problem of radiation into a plasma half-space from an infinitely long slot radiator whose width is very much smaller in comparison to the wavelength. In a previous paper, the same problem was investigated for the case of an incompressible plasma in which the longitudinal plasma waves cannot be sustained. In this investigation, the previous analysis is extended to the case of a compressible plasma which is capable of supporting both the transverse electromagnetic waves and the longitudinal plasma waves.
A neural network based SRM drive control strategy for regenerative braking in EV and HEV

The characteristics of the regenerative braking in EV and HEV are analyzed in this paper. A neural network based SRM drive control strategy is developed for satisfying the requirements of regenerative braking in EV and HEV when SRM is chosen as the power source of EV and HEV. The energy recovery efficiency of the proposed control strategy is also evaluated.
Use of early passage fetal intestinal epithelial cells in semi-high-throughput screening assays: an approach to identify new innate immune system adjuvants.

Innate immune system stimulants (innate adjuvants) offer complementary approaches to vaccines and antimicrobial compounds to increase host resistance to infection. The authors established fetal bovine intestinal epithelial cell (BIEC) cultures to screen natural product and synthetic compound libraries for novel mucosal adjuvants. They showed that BIECs from fetal intestine maintained an in vivo phenotype as reflected in cytokeratin expression, expression of antigens restricted to intestinal enterocytes, and induced interleukin-8 (IL-8) production. BIECs could be infected by and support replication of bovine rotavirus. A semi–high-throughput enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay–based assay that measured IL-8 production by BIECs was established and used to screen commercially available natural compounds for novel adjuvant activity. Five novel hits were identified, demonstrating the utility of the assay for selecting and screening new epithelial cell adjuvants. Although the identified compounds had not previously been shown to induce IL-8 production in epithelial cells, other known functions for 3 of the 5 were consistent with this activity. Statistical analysis of the throughput data demonstrated that the assay is adaptable to a high-throughput format for screening both synthetic and natural product derived compound libraries. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening 2006:664-671)
Use of Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis for Molecular Epidemiologic and Population Genetic Studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is a powerful molecular biology technique which has provided important insights into the epidemiology and population biology of many pathogens. However, few studies have used PFGE for the molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A laboratory protocol was developed to determine the typeability, stability, and reproducibility of PFGE typing of M. tuberculosis. Formal data-analytical techniques were used to assess the genetic diversity elucidated by PFGE analyses using four separate restriction enzymes and by IS6110 RFLP analyses, as well as to assess the concordance among these typing methods. One hundred epidemiologically characterized clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were genotyped with four different PFGE enzymes (AseI, DraI, SpeI, and XbaI), as well as by RFLP analysis with IS6110. Identical patterns were found among 34 isolates known to be genetically related, suggesting that the PFGE protocol is robust and reproducible. Among 66 isolates representing population-sampled cases, heterozygosity and information content dependency estimates indicate that all five genotyping systems capture quantitatively similar levels of genetic diversity. Nevertheless, comparisons between PFGE analyses and IS6110 typing reveals that PFGE provided more discrimination among isolates with fewer than five copies of IS6110 and less clustering in isolates with five or more copies. The comparisons confirm the hypothesis that the resolution of IS6110 RFLP genotyping is dependent upon the number of IS6110 elements in the genome of isolates. The general concordance among the results obtained with four independent enzymes suggests that M. tuberculosis is a clonal organism. The availability of a robust genotyping technique largely independent of repetitive elements has implications for the molecular epidemiology of M. tuberculosis.
Spectral feature selection for supervised and unsupervised learning

Feature selection aims to reduce dimensionality for building comprehensible learning models with good generalization performance. Feature selection algorithms are largely studied separately according to the type of learning: supervised or unsupervised. This work exploits intrinsic properties underlying supervised and unsupervised feature selection algorithms, and proposes a unified framework for feature selection based on spectral graph theory. The proposed framework is able to generate families of algorithms for both supervised and unsupervised feature selection. And we show that existing powerful algorithms such as ReliefF (supervised) and Laplacian Score (unsupervised) are special cases of the proposed framework. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to unify supervised and unsupervised feature selection, and enable their joint study under a general framework. Experiments demonstrated the efficacy of the novel algorithms derived from the framework.
Justifying the business value of information systems education: a report on multi-cultural field experiments

There is little empirical evidence to support the value of information systems education and training. While IS training is conducted because of its direct impact on the accretion of skills, the lack of empirical evidence for the value of information systems education limits resource allocation for it. As organizations employ information technology which is more difficult to justify using standard cost/benefit methods, user information satisfaction (UIS) is becoming a useful metric to measure the business value of IT. In two multi-cultural field experiments it was found that information systems education caused statistically significant affects in UIS. In general, after viewing a video on the IS development process, end users became more satisfied with the information product and less satisfied with some aspects of IS support and staff, especially, the usual education and training provided.
A conservative semi-Lagrangian multi-tracer transport scheme (CSLAM) on the cubed-sphere grid

A conservative multi-tracer transport algorithm on the cubed-sphere based on the semi-Lagrangian approach (CSLAM) has been developed. The scheme relies on backward trajectories and the resulting upstream cells (polygons) are approximated with great-circle arcs. Biquadratic polynomial functions are used for approximating the density distribution in the cubed-sphere grid cells. The upstream surface integrals associated with the conservative semi-Lagrangian scheme are computed as line-integrals by employing the Gauss-Green theorem. The line-integrals are evaluated using a combination of exact integrals and high-order Gaussian quadrature. The upstream cell (trajectories) information and computation of weights of integrals can be reused for each additional tracer. The CSLAM scheme is extensively tested with various standard benchmark test cases of solid-body rotation and deformational flow in both Cartesian and spherical geometry, and the results are compared with those of other published schemes. The CSLAM scheme is accurate, robust, and moreover, the edges and vertices of the cubed-sphere (discontinuities) do not affect the overall accuracy of the scheme. The CSLAM scheme exhibits excellent convergence properties and has an option for enforcing monotonicity. The advantages of introducing cross-terms in the fully two-dimensional biquadratic density distribution functions are also examined in the context of Cartesian as well as the cubed-sphere grid which has six local sub-domains with discontinuous edges and corners.
Antigen-specific purification of blocking factors from sera of mice with chemically induced tumors

Serum from mice with growing tumors can prevent ("block") the destruction of tumor cells by immune lymphocytes, as measured in a microcytotoxicity assay. Factors responsible for this blocking activity were purified by binding to immune adsorbents that had been prepared from antibodies obtained by immunizing BALB/c mice to the homologous tumors. Two transplantable BALB/c sarcoma lines with individually different tumor-specific transplantation antigens were studied in parallel. The original tumor-specific blocking activity was recovered by elution of the immune adsorbents; that is, (i) eluates blocked the reduction of surviving tumor cell targets by immune lymphocytes only if the tumor specificity, and (ii) immune adsorbent columns prepared from tumor-immune sera recognized the purified blocking fractions in a tumor-specific fashion, indicating that a portion of the humoral response in the immune mice was directed against a factor that was individually distinct for each tumor. Absorption of eluates with the homologous tumor cells removed their blocking activity, indicating that the blocking factors have antigen-binding properties. Blocking activity in the purified fractions resided in molecules presumptively identified as glycoproteins by affinity chromatography on concanavalin A-Sepharose.
A single-port technique for laparoscopic extended stapled appendectomy.

background data. Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) has become an exciting area of surgical development. Significant limitations to this surgical concept include lack of surgical expertise and appropriate flexible instrumentation. An alternative and competing technology to NOTES is single-incision laparoscopic surgery. Methods. This study describes a patient in whom a laparoscopic surgical technique for appendectomy used incisions that were all placed within the umbilicus. Results. The operative time was 40 minutes. There were no intraoperative complications. The patient did well postoperatively and was discharged on postoperative day 1. There were no perioperative complications at 1-month follow-up. Conclusion. Appendectomy performed through laparoscopic incisions placed within the umbilicus was technically feasible and safe. Development of advanced flexible instrumentation and visualization platform may facilitate this new operative approach.
Phagocytosis by human alveolar macrophages and neutrophils: qualitative differences in the opsonic requirements for uptake of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae in vitro

The opsonic requirements for uptake of 3H-adenine-labeled Staphylococcus aureus (strains 502A, Wood 46, or 209) or Streptococcus pneumoniae (Type VII) by human alveolar macrophages (AM) or neutrophils (PMN) were evaluated and compared using a quantitative assay of phagocytosis. AM readily engulfed S. aureus organisms preopsonized with 1% albumin, serum, or serum that had been heated (56 degrees C for 30 min) to inactivate complement, whereas uptake of S. aureus by PMN occurred only after preopsonization with unheated, complement replete serum (2.5%). In contrast, uptake of S. pneumoniae organisms by AM or PMN did not occur with only albumin preopsonization, but required high concentrations (more than 40%) of unheated serum. The results indicate that there are qualitative and quantitative differences in the requirements for optimal ingestion of bacteria by human AM or PMN that relate not only to the type of organism but also to the type of phagocyte. Variations in opsonic requirements may be a key factor in the different cellular responses and clearances of inhaled S. aureus or S. pneumoniae organisms by the lungs.
A study on molecular epidemiology of a food poisoning outbreak caused by Salmonella enteritidis

Objective To perform the isolation, identification and homology analysis of pathogens of a food poisoning outbreak in Longgang, Shenzhen in 2012. Methods Filed survey was carried out for food poisoning accidents in Longgang, Shenzhen in 2012 and 15 anal swabs samples of patients and three kitchen workers, one kitchen worker′ s hand swab, and one suspicious food and two object surface swabs were collected. The pathogens were confirmed by bacteria isolation, identification, biochemical tests and serologic tests. Homology analysis was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis(PFGE) for pathogens from food poisoning and S. enteritidis isolated from patients during the same period. Susceptibility testing was carried out by K-B method. Results Results of epidemiology survey and laboratory testing showed that this food poisoning was caused by S. enteritidis. A total of 16 S. enteritidis were isolated. S. enteritidis isolated from patients, kitchen worker and suspicious food, the roast chicken, showed more than 95% homology and 89.4% homology with those isolated from patients during the same period. It meant that they might come from the same source. Conclusion This outbreak of this food poisoning was caused by S. enteritidis. The transmission route of pathogens was the roast chicken contaminated by kitchen worker who was a S. enteritidis carrier and then fed by patients.
Current Issues in Oncology Reimbursement

The reimbursement policies of Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers can have a major impact on the ability of oncologists to deliver care to their patients. This article explores current issues of particular interest to
Volatile Gas Production by Methyl Halide Transferase: An In Situ Reporter Of Microbial Gene Expression In Soil

Traditional visual reporters of gene expression have only very limited use in soils because their outputs are challenging to detect through the soil matrix. This severely restricts our ability to study time-dependent microbial gene expression in one of the Earth’s largest, most complex habitats. Here we describe an approach to report on dynamic gene expression within a microbial population in a soil under natural water levels (at and below water holding capacity) via production of methyl halides using a methyl halide transferase. As a proof-of-concept application, we couple the expression of this gas reporter to the conjugative transfer of a bacterial plasmid in a soil matrix and show that gas released from the matrix displays a strong correlation with the number of transconjugant bacteria that formed. Gas reporting of gene expression will make possible dynamic studies of natural and engineered microbes within many hard-to-image environmental matrices (soils, sediments, sludge, and biomass) at sample scal...
Genetic modifiers of repeat expansions in C9ORF72

R expansions in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9ORF72) are currently the most frequent genetic cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and motor neuron disease (MND). These devastating neurodegenerative diseases demonstrate considerable clinical heterogeneity, including variability in age at onset and disease duration. To identify genetic modifiers that may account for this heterogeneity, we selected potential modifiers based on literature, and assessed these candidates in more than 300 expansion carriers using Mass Array iPLEX and Taqman genotyping assays, in addition to fragment analysis with fluorescent-labeled primers and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assays. Our studies revealed many interesting variants; for instance, we discovered that variants in transmembrane protein 106 B (TMEM106B) protect against developing FTD in C9ORF72 expansion carriers. On the other hand, intermediate repeat lengths in ataxin-2 (ATXN2) may render C9ORF72 expansion carriers more susceptible to the development of MND. We also identified genetic modifiers associated with age at onset and/or survival after onset, such as prion protein (PRNP), ubiquitinassociated protein 1 (UBAP1), progranulin (GRN), and elongator acetyltransferase complex subunit 3 (ELP3). Although these variants have previously been linked to FTD and/or MND, we are the first to describe their effects on the background of a pathogenic expansion in C9ORF72. Importantly, these variants represent promising targets for new therapeutic interventions and prognostic tests aiming at the FTD and MND spectrum.
Pharmacy Practice and the Law, 6th Edition

By Richard R. Abood, B.S.Pharm., J.D., Published by Jones & Bartlett Learning, 40 Tall Pine Drive, Sudbury, MA 01776, 2011. 458 p. Price $98.95. This is a comprehensive guide to the laws that affect pharmacy. It is easy to follow with appropriate questions at the end of each chapter to test
Polyelectrolyte Fiber Assembly of Plant-Derived Spider Silk-like Proteins

Spider dragline silk is a proteinaceous material that combines superior toughness and biocompatibility, which makes it a promising biomaterial. The distinct protein structure and the fiber formation process contribute to the superior toughness of dragline silk. Previously, we have produced recombinant spider silk-like proteins in transgenic tobacco that are readily purified from plant extracts. The plant-derived spidroin-like proteins consisted of native major ampullate spidroin 1 or spidroin 2 N- and C-termini flanking 8, 16, or 32 copies of their respective consensus block repeats (mini-spidroins). Here, we present the generation of fibers from mini-spidroins (rMaSp1R8 and rMaSp2R8) by polyelectrolyte complex formation using an anionic polyelectrolyte, gellan gum. Mini-spidroins, when treated with acetic acid and cross-linked by glutaraldehyde, formed a thin film at the interface when overlaid with a gellan gum solution. Immediate pulling of the film resulted in autofluorescent fibrous materials from ei...
Update on Radiotherapy for Central Nervous System Malignancies

Malignancies arising from the central nervous system are rare. Brain metastases, in contrast, are perhaps the most common neurologic complication of cancer. Radiotherapy, as part of combined modality therapy, continues to evolve with the advancement of stereotactic radiosurgery indications, the addition of new technologies, such as alternating electric field therapy, and mounting advances in the complex biology of these entities. The explosion of new clinical trials combined with newly discovered molecular markers suggest the beginning of a paradigm shift in the management of these challenging malignancies that will allow for future risk-stratification strategies.
Abstract 273: Increased Blood Pressure and Proteinuria and Absence of Increased Nitric Oxide (NO) Production During Pregnancy in the Dahl Salt Sensitive (S) Rat

In normal pregnancy, systemic vasodilation due to increased NO production allows a drop in blood pressure (BP) despite increased volume retention. Little is known about the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, defined by increased BP and proteinuria, due to a lack of animal models that spontaneously develop the disease. Here we tested the hypothesis that the Dahl S rat, a genetic model of hypertension and kidney disease, is also a spontaneous model of preeclampsia. Female Dahl S rats were implanted with a telemetry unit, and baseline BP was recorded. Rats were placed in metabolic cages for 24 hr urine collection while on a low nitrate diet, and urinary protein and NO metabolite concentrations were measured via Bradford and Greiss assays, respectively. There were no differences in baseline BP (152±1 vs 151±4 mmHg) or proteinuria (61±10 vs 60±17 mg/d) in the rats selected for mating vs virgin rats (n=5-7). Pregnancy was confirmed by presence of sperm (day 1). Measurements were made during mid and late pregnancy (days 10-11, 17-18), and terminal measurements were taken on day 19. Pregnant rats exhibited an increase in BP and proteinuria with no change in urinary NOx excretion (Table), while no changes were observed in age-matched virgin rats. Kidney cortex abundance of neither NOS1 nor NOS3 was increased at late pregnancy; however, plasma concentration of the endogenous NOS inhibitor ADMA was increased in late pregnant compared to virgin rats (0.82±0.06 vs. 0.62±0.06 μM, p
If technological intelligent extraterrestrials exist, what biological traits are de rigueur.

Abstract If extraterrestrials exist in the depths of cosmic space, and are capable of interstellar communications, even space flight, there is no requirement that they be humanoid in form. However, certain humanoid capabilities would be advantageous for tool fashioning and critical to operating space craft as well as functioning under the disparate extreme conditions under which they may be forced to operate. They would have to be “gas breathing”. The reasonable assumption that life based upon the same elements as Earth life requiring water stems from the unique properties of water that no other similar low molecular weight nonmetal hydride offers. Only water offers the diversity of chemical properties and reactivity, including the existence of the three common physical states within a limited temperature range of service to life, avoiding the issues presented by any alternatives. They must, like us, possess a large, abstract-thinking brain, and probably possess at least all the fundamental senses that humankind possess. They would also be carbon-based life, using oxygen as the electron sink of their biochemistry for the reasons considered. They most likely are homeothermic as us, though they may not necessarily be mammalian as we are. Their biochemistry could differ some from ours, perhaps presenting contact hazards for both species as discussed.
Structural Mechanics and Design of Active Origami Structures

A model for the mechanics of active origami structures with smooth folds is presented in this chapter. The model entails the integration of the surface kinematics model for origami with smooth folds developed in Chap. 5 and existing plate theories to obtain a structural representation for folds of non-zero thickness. The implementation of the model in a computational environment is also addressed. We provide examples including origami structures comprised of both elastic materials and active materials. Afterwards, the unfolding polyhedra and tuck-folding methods studied in Chaps. 6 and 7 are extended to develop frameworks for the design of active origami structures. The extensions account for the folding deformation achievable by smooth folds of specified thickness and constituent materials, which is not considered in the purely kinematic formulations of Chaps. 6 and 7.
The Context of Concern for Faculty Health

So began a three-day working conference on faculty health and well-being in academic medical centers, the first to focus entirely on that subject. Henry Strobel spoke these words at the opening dinner. They both set the theme and recalled the reason for the gathering: faculty burnout and demoralization. The causes are multiple. Sometimes faculty work under onerous conditions—too much to do in too short a time, not enough resources, not enough support staff, and so on. Other times—out of what they regard as dedication and passion—faculty work past needing rest, past needing family, and past needing renewal. Either way, the result is finally a separation from the very inspiration that “sparked the notion of joining an honored tradition of service.” The conference was organized by the editors of this volume and was sponsored by the McGovern Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in collaboration with the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, also in Houston. It had its origins in concern for loss of meaning and its deleterious consequences. But what pulled us forward was envisioning a new field of inquiry that would explore all facets of faculty well-being—the major factors affecting it and resources for protecting, recovering, and enhancing it. Our aim was to convene those with expertise in relevant areas and produce a foundational book for this new field. Chapter 1 The Context of Concern for Faculty Health
PCA in Sparse Data-Dependent Noise

In recent work, we obtained finite sample guarantees for the problem of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in nonisotropic and data-dependent noise. In this work, we study an important special case of this: the problem of PCA in sparse data-dependent noise with the noise depending linearly on the signal (true data) at each time. This special case occurs in many practical applications. Two examples that we describe include (a) PCA with missing data and (b) the subspace update step of an online algorithm for dynamic robust PCA called ReProCS. The full version is [1].
Primary Care 2.0: Design of a Transformational Team-Based Practice Model to Meet the Quadruple Aim.

A new transformational model of primary care is needed to address patient care complexity and provider burnout. An 18-month design effort (2015-2016) included the following: (1) Needs Finding, (2) ...
A daily diary study of internalised weight bias and its psychological, eating and exercise correlates.

Objective: The current investigation extends ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and daily diary weight stigma research in internalised weight bias (IWB). This investigation used daily diaries to...
Chronic Abdominal Wall Pain: A Common Yet Overlooked Etiology of Chronic Abdominal Pain

Chronic abdominal wall pain is a common, yet often overlooked, cause of chronic abdominal pain in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. This disorder most commonly affects middle-aged adults and is more prevalent in women than in men. In chronic abdominal wall pain, the pain occurs due to entrapment of the cutaneous branches of the sensory nerves that supply the abdominal wall. Although the diagnosis of chronic abdominal wall pain can be made using patient history, physical examination, and response to a trigger point injection, patients often undergo extensive and exhaustive laboratory, imaging, and procedural work-up before being diagnosed with this condition, given it is often overlooked. Carnett's sign is a specialized physical examination technique that can help support the fact that the abdominal pain originates from the abdominal wall rather than from the abdominal viscera. The mainstay of treatment consists of reassurance, activity modification, over-the-counter analgesic agent, and trigger point injection. In rare cases, treatment with chemical neurolysis or surgical neurectomy may be required.
Abstract IA15: Overcoming drug resistance and tumor heterogeneity in gastrointestinal cancers

Personalized cancer medicine approaches, inhibiting kinases in tumors driven by defined genomic alterations, have demonstrated striking efficacy in many cancer types. However, the development of drug resistance is a major limitation to the efficacy of targeted therapies in oncology. Identifying and understanding the molecular mechanisms driving resistance may foster opportunities to develop therapeutic strategies to overcome resistance. For example, in the ~10% of colorectal cancer patients whose tumors harbor BRAF V600 mutations, we have found that feedback reactivation of MAPK signaling, often mediated by EGFR, underlies the relative insensitivity of these cancers to RAF inhibitors. The development of targeted therapy combination strategies to block feedback reactivation of MAPK signaling has led to marked improvements in response rates for these patients from ~5% to >30% over the past few years. However, in patients who respond to these targeted combinations, the rapid development of acquired resistance still limits clinical benefit. Acquired resistance in BRAF mutant colorectal cancer and in other molecularly defined tumor types can be marked by the development of extensive molecular heterogeneity due to the selection of sub-clonal tumor cell populations, capable of growing under drug pressures, which poses significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. We will present data demonstrating how a single-lesion biopsy at disease progression to diagnose the mechanism of acquired resistance can vastly underrepresent the molecular heterogeneity of resistant tumor clones in an individual patient, and may fail to detect the existence of distinct but important resistance mechanisms that can drive mixed or lesion-specific responses and treatment failure to subsequent targeted therapy. By contrast, liquid biopsy approaches analyzing circulating tumor DNA have the potential to detect the presence of simultaneous resistance mechanisms residing in separate metastases in a single patient and to monitor the effects of subsequent therapies on specific sub-clonal tumor cell populations. These findings highlight the critical role of tumor heterogeneity in driving therapeutic resistance and how convergent targeted therapy strategies blocking common signaling nodes capable of overcoming multiple resistance mechanisms may be needed. Citation Format: Ryan B. Corcoran. Overcoming drug resistance and tumor heterogeneity in gastrointestinal cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR International Conference held in cooperation with the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group (LACOG) on Translational Cancer Medicine; May 4-6, 2017; Sao Paulo, Brazil. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(1_Suppl):Abstract nr IA15.
Audacious Entrepreneurship: How CEO Overconfidence Influences Entrepreneurial Orientation

There is a burgeoning body of research exploring entrepreneurial orientation, its outcomes, and its antecedents, but the main mechanisms propelling firm entrepreneurship and its boundary conditions...
Remaining ambiguities surrounding theological negotiation and spiritual care: reply to Greenblum and Hubbard

Readers have much to consider when evaluating Greenblum and Hubbard’s conclusion that ‘physicians have no business doing theology’.1 The two central arguments the authors offer are fairly convincing within the confines they set for themselves, the provisos they stipulate and their notions of ‘privacy’ and ‘public reason’. However, I would ask readers to consider two questions, the answers to which I believe the authors leave opaque. First, what is theological negotiation? Second, what makes chaplains the singular group of healthcare professionals responsible for theological negotiation? In this Commentary, I explore these questions not with the goal of rejecting the authors’ conclusion, but rather with the goal of highlighting relevant considerations when evaluating the authors’ central tenets. First, I would like readers to consider Greenblum and Hubbard’s descriptions of theological negotiation. They categorise theological negotiation into metaphysical, normative and alternative responses, and hold that this kind of negotiation is, for the most part, impermissible for healthcare professionals, save chaplains.1 The examples of Dr Chatterjee and Dr Thompson expand theological negotiation to include instances where physicians add a theological veneer to their clinical recommendations. In both the examples, the physician has made the case for accepting or rejecting a certain intervention—for Dr Chatterjee, accepting …
Characterization of the regional intestinal kinetics of drug efflux in rat and human intestine and in Caco-2 cells.

Purpose. The aim of the present study was to investigate the transport kinetics of intestinal secretory processes in the jejunum, ileum and colon of rats and humans and in Caco-2 cells, in vitro.
Recent Records and Range Expansion of Erethizon dorsatum (North American Porcupine) in Virginia

Although Erethizon dorsatum (North American Porcupine, hereafter Porcupine), occurred in Virginia during the Pleistocene and into the 1700s, this species was probably extirpated from the state by the mid-1800s. Here we document recent evidence of Porcupines in Virginia from verified photographs submitted to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and voucher specimens deposited into the Mammal Collection of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. These recently collected and observed Porcupines are likely dispersers from expanding Porcupine populations in western Maryland and eastern West Virginia. This report includes evidence of reproduction in Virginia populations (or nearby populations in West Virginia) and provides a foundation for future investigations into the distribution and abundance of the Porcupine in Virginia.
Statistical Analysis to Optimize the Generation of Cryptographic Keys from Physical Unclonable Functions

Physical unclonable functions are not easy to integrate into cryptographic systems because they age, and are sensitive to environmental interferences. Excellent error correcting schemes were developed to handle such drifts, however the computing power needed at the client level can leak information to opponents, and are difficult to deploy to networks of ultra-low power Internet of Things. Response-based cryptography methods, which are server based, use search engines to uncover the erratic keys generated by the physical unclonable functions, minimizing the consumption of electric power at the client level. However, when the defect densities are high, the latencies associated with search engines can be prohibitive. The statistical analysis presented in this paper shows how the fragmentation of the cryptographic keys can significantly reduce the latencies of the search engine, even when error rates are high. The statistical model developed, with Poisson distribution, shows that the level of fragmentation in sub-keys can handle up to 15% error rates. The methodology is generic, and can be applied to any type of physically unclonable functions with defects in the 15% range, or lower.
“You Think Differently After Playing This Sport”: Experiences of Collegiate Goalball Players:

The inclusion of athletes with and without disabilities in disability sport, known as reverse integration, has received limited attention in the literature. The purpose of this study was to underst...
A Black Box Approach to Inferring, Characterizing, and Breaking Native Device Tracking Autonomy

Autonomous capabilities have emerged as a ubiquitous technology in cars, robots, drones and many other useful devices that are destined to transform our society. Many of the more advanced autonomous devices use computer vision to track and recognize objects, while others may use LIDAR or SONAR or other forms of radar. Since many of these devices are positioned to be disruptive technologies in our society, the fidelity of their abilities is paramount. In this paper, we introduce our black box approach, which can accurately infer, characterize, and break native device autonomy. We demonstrate this approach by using the tightly guarded autonomy code in the immensely popular computer vision driven autonomous DJI drones (i.e., ActiveTrack Mode) as the target native autonomy. We illustrate that this method allows us to quickly infer detailed information about the computer vision tracking algorithm, characterize the autonomous capability, and identify targets that defy these algorithms. We posit that this approach can be extended to other computer vision driven autonomous systems and is a necessary step in developing nondestructive privacy preserving mechanisms that foil the presumed tracking process.
On the shape and structure of the murine pulmonary heart valve

Murine animal models are an established standard in translational research and provides a potential platform for studying heart valve disease. To date, studies on heart valve disease using murine models have been hindered by a lack of appropriate methodologies due to their small scale. In the present study, we developed a multi-scale, imaging-based approach to extract the functional structure and geometry for the murine heart valve. We chose the pulmonary valve (PV) to study, due to its importance in congenital heart valve disease. Excised pulmonary outflow tracts from eleven 1-year old C57BL/6J mice were fixed at 10, 20, and 30 mmHg to simulate physiological loading. Micro-computed tomography was used to reconstruct the 3D organ-level PV geometry, which was then spatially correlated with serial en-face scanning electron microscopy imaging to quantify local collagen fiber distributions. From the acquired volume renderings, we obtained the geometric descriptors of the murine PV under increasing transvalvular pressures, which demonstrated remarkable consistency. Results to date suggest that the preferred collagen orientation was predominantly in the circumferential direction, as in larger mammalian valves. The present study represents a first step in establishing organ-level murine models for the study of heart valve disease.
Resilience, Mindfulness and Flourishing in Middle Aged Adults

Resilience refers to one’s ability to overcome challenges. Mindfulness is an attitude of awareness and non-judgmentally accepting one’s moment-to-moment experience. Flourishing includes a range of positive concepts and offers a more holistic construct to being well and happy. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mindfulness, resilience and flourishing. The current study was conducted on 111 middle aged adults from the age of 40-60 years old. The results showed that mindfulness, resilience and flourishing were all significantly related to one another. It was also seen that those who were working were significantly more mindful and resilient than those who were not. Lastly, the results also showed that resilience and flourishing were predicted by mindfulness. The study has important implications for the field of positive psychology.
A Study of Thermal Interface Materials with Different Thermal Conductivity for HFCBGA Package

As the chip integration level increases and the chip power consumption density increases, reducing the internal thermal resistance of package becomes the main consideration of thermal design. Currently, the widely used HFCBGA is a thermally enhanced FCBGA mounting a metal heat spreader on the back of the chip through thermal interface materials(TIM), which is applied with various high-heat-conducting filler. Selecting a highly thermally conductive TIM is already a key thermal performance index to reduce thermal resistance of junction to case. Through these series of studies, We found that one TIM material is an effective method to solve the heat dissipation problem and have also been qualification.
Assessing urban mortality from wildfires with a citizen science network

Assessment of exposure and mortality attributable to air pollution is one of the most important tasks to inform strategies for mitigation and prevention of the negative effects of degraded air quality. While the vast majority of studies rely on either satellite data or sparse (and expensive) monitoring networks and focus on global- or regional-scale assessments, emerging low-cost citizen science networks are a new source of information that can be used to provide more detailed estimates at urban scale, thereby refining previous estimates and providing spatially resolved information at census tract resolution. In this work, we demonstrate how a citizen science network, validated with a reference air pollution station, provides sensibly different (and spatially resolved) estimates of air pollution levels and associated exposure/mortality than assuming constant air pollution across the analyzed urban area. Specifically we focus on the extreme pollution episode of the 2020 California wildfires that significantly impacted the city of San Francisco. We estimate that during the wildfires, degraded air quality was responsible for an increase between 2 and 4% of the baseline mortality in the same city over the time period of study (August 19, 2020 to September 30, 2020).
Evaluating implementation outcomes (acceptability, adoption, and feasibility) of two initiatives to improve the medication prior authorization process.

BACKGROUND Processes such as prior authorization (PA) for medications, implemented by health insurance companies to ensure that safe, appropriate, cost-effective, and evidence-based care is provided to all members, have created inefficiencies within healthcare systems. Thus, healthcare systems have implemented supplemental processes to reduce burden and ensure efficiency, timeliness, and appropriate care. OBJECTIVE Evaluate implementation outcomes of two initiatives related to PA for medications: a common record that records all PA-related information that was integrated into the health record and an auto-routing of specialty prescriptions to a hospital-owned specialty pharmacy. METHODS We conducted semi-structured interviews with medical staff to understand their experience, acceptability, adoption, and feasibility of these initiatives guided by Proctor's Framework for Implementation Outcomes. Transcripts were analyzed using consensus coding. RESULTS Eleven medical staff participated in semi-structured interviews. The two initiatives were analyzed together because the findings were similar across both for our outcomes of acceptability, adoption, and feasibility. Participants found the implemented initiatives to be acceptable and beneficial but felt there were still challenges with the new workflow. The initiatives were fully adopted by only one clinic site within the healthcare system, but limitations arose when adopting to another site. Individuals felt the initiatives were feasible and improved workflow, communication, and transparency. However, participants described future adaptations that would help improve this process including improved standardization, automation, and transparency. CONCLUSION The acceptability, adoption, and feasibility of two initiatives to improve the PA process within the one clinical site were well received but issues of generalizability limited the initiatives adoption system wide.
Hegel and What is Actual

This article consists of three chapters in a work on Hegel's Science of Logic. The three chapters cover Hegel's analysis of actuality. What is actual for Hegel is that things pass away. Everything else is an illusory being or an appearance. When an appearance of essence shows itself to be finite and false, it passes away and becomes actual, since its destiny is to pass away. This leads directly to Hegel's theory of subjectivity. For Hegel, substance is subject. And what is subject is the continuance of being across the process of the disappearance or dissolution of appearances.
Pituitary stalk hemangioblastomas in von Hippel-Lindau disease.

Object Pituitary stalk hemangioblastomas are rare, and information on them is limited to a small number of case reports. To gain insight into the incidence, clinical effects, and management of pituitary stalk hemangioblastomas, the authors analyzed a series of patients with von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) disease. Methods Patients with VHL disease who were enrolled in a prospective National Institutes of Health natural history study were included. Clinical, imaging, and laboratory findings were analyzed. Results Two hundred fifty patients were included in the study (120 male and 130 female patients). In 8 patients (3%), 8 pituitary stalk hemangioblastomas were identified on MR imaging. This anatomical location was the most common supratentorial site for these lesions; 29% of all supratentorial hemangioblastomas were found there. The mean (± standard deviation) pituitary stalk hemangioblastoma volume was 0.5 ± 0.9 cm3 (range 0.08–2.8 cm3). Results of endocrine laboratory profiles were normal in all patients. All p...
A nonlinear observability formulation for power systems incorporating generator dynamics

Traditionally, a nonlinear algebraic model of the power system is used to determine the system observability. In particular, the sensitivity of the system measurements (real and reactive power for example) to the change in the system states (bus voltages and angles) is used as a measure of observability, derived from the power system state-estimation problem. It ignores, however, the nonlinear dynamics of the system related to generator performance, nonlinear components, etc. The proposed observability formulation accounts for these nonlinearities and provides a more comprehensive observability determination. The formulation is derived from a DAE model of the power system, and incorporates the dynamics of the generators present in the system.
Profile of ceftolozane/tazobactam and its potential in the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections

Drug-resistant pathogens have gained a foothold especially in the most vulnerable patient populations, hospitalized and immunocompromised individuals. Furthermore, extended-spectrum β-lactamase and carbapenemase-producing organisms are finding their way even into the community, with patients presenting to the hospital with established colonization and infection with resistant Enterobacteriaceae in particular. Recently, a novel antipseudomonal cephalosporin in combination with an established Class A β-lactamase inhibitor, ceftolozane/tazobactam has been approved by the FDA for use in the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections. Ceftolozane is a uniquely potent antipseudomonal cephalosporin because of its high affinity for the penicillin-binding proteins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, its low affinity for the intrinsic Class C β-lactamases of P. aeruginosa, its ability to enter P. aeruginosa through the outer membrane without the utilization of OprD protein, and the fact that it is not a substrate of the often upregulated MexAB/OprM efflux system of P. aeruginosa. The biological chemistry, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, microbiologic spectrum, and clinical trials that led to the approval of ceftolozane is reviewed. A discussion regarding its potential role in the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections and other infectious disease syndromes associated with drug-resistant pathogens follows.
Localization of CCK receptors in thalamic reticular neurons: a modeling study.

Sohal, Vikaas S., Charles L. Cox, and John R. Huguenard. Localization of CCK receptors in thalamic reticular neurons: a modeling study. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2827–2831, 1998. In an earlier experimen...