cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mechanism for Fluorescence Quenching of Tryptophan by Oxamate and Pyruvate: Conjugation and Solvation-Induced Photoinduced Electron Transfer.

Oxamate and pyruvate are isoelectronic molecules. They both quench tryptophan fluorescence with Stern–Volmer constants of 16 and 20 M–1, respectively, which are comparable to that of arcrylamide, a commonly used probe for protein structure. On the other hand, it is well known that neither the carboxylate group of these molecules nor the amide group is a good quencher. To find the mechanism of the quenching by oxamate and pyruvate, density functional theory computations with a polarizable continuum model, solvation based on density, and explicit waters, were performed. Results indicate that both molecules can be an electron acceptor via photoinduced electron transfer. There are two requirements. First, the carboxylate and amide moieties must be in direct contact to bring about noticeable quenching. The conjugation between the amide (or the keto) group and the carboxylate group leads to a lower π* orbital, which is the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), and can then accept an electron from the exci...
Survivable Network Design: Routing of Flows and Slacks

We present a new mixed—integer programming model and a column generation method for the survivable design of telecommunication networks. In contrast to other failure scenario models, the new model has almost the same number of constraints as the regular network design problem, which makes it effective for large instances. Even though the complexity of pricing the exponentially many variables of the model is NP—hard, in our computational experiments, we are able to produce capacity—efficient survivable networks with dense graphs up to 70 nodes.
Resistivity and Electron-Phonon Coupling in Palladium Alloy Hydrides

Palladium copper hydrides have been fabricated by coevaporating palladium with copper and subsequently implanting hydrogen ions. The change in high temperature resistivity as a function of temperature upon implantation is measured and correlated to the electron-phonon coupling parameter λ. This Correlation is in good agreement with the observation of high superconducting temperatures in Pd1−xCuxHy.
Simulation of selected events on the Catsop catchment by KINEROS2 A report for the GCTE conference on catchment scale erosion models

Abstract Data from the Catsop catchment in South Limburg, Netherlands was simulated with the model KINEROS2. The results of calibration and validation on a split set of runoff and sediment data are reported and the variations in apparent parameters are analyzed. Calibration was performed with regard to the temporal distribution of runoff and sediment rather than single values such as total or peak rates. Based on the simulations, soil erodibility was considerably higher in 1993 than earlier years. Sediment discharge is quite sensitive to hydrologic simulation, as the amount and velocity of runoff affects sediment transport capacity which in turn determines the delivery of soil disturbed by rainsplash. Overall ability of the model to reproduce the measured data was considered relatively good.
Graph Data Management and Mining: A Survey of Algorithms and Applications

Graph mining and management has become a popular area of research in recent years because of its numerous applications in a wide variety of practical fields, including computational biology, software bug localization and computer networking. Different applications result in graphs of different sizes and com- plexities. Correspondingly, the applications have different requirements for the underlying mining algorithms. In this chapter, we will provide a survey of dif- ferent kinds of graph mining and management algorithms. We will also discuss a number of applications, which are dependent upon graph representations. We will discuss how the different graph mining algorithms can be adapted for different applications. Finally, we will discuss important avenues of future research in the area.
Impact of substance use disorder on gray matter volume in schizophrenia.

Substance use may confound the study of brain structure in schizophrenia. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine whether differences in regional gray matter volumes exist between schizophrenia patients with (n = 92) and without (n = 66) clinically significant cannabis and/or alcohol use histories compared to 88 healthy control subjects. Relative to controls, patients with schizophrenia had reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral precentral gyrus, right medial frontal cortex, right visual cortex, right occipital pole, right thalamus, bilateral amygdala, and bilateral cerebellum regardless of substance use history. Within these regions, we found no volume differences between patients with schizophrenia and a history of cannabis and/or alcohol compared to patients with schizophrenia without a clinically significant substance use history. Our data support the idea that a clinically meaningful history of alcohol or cannabis use does not significantly compound the gray matter deficits associated with schizophrenia.
Advanced head and neck surgical techniques: A survey of US otolaryngology resident perspectives.

Abstract Objectives To assess the perspectives of OHNS residents with regards to their training in the following advanced head and neck surgery techniques: transoral robotic surgery (TORS), transoral laser microsurgery (TLM), sialendoscopy, and surgeon-performed ultrasound (SP-US) for possible curricula development. Methods Cross-sectional survey. A 20-item questionnaire was electronically distributed to OHNS residency programs assessing volume of cases, training barriers, satisfaction, additional training preferences, and pertinence to future practice. Results One hundred thirty-one residents completed the questionnaire. Trainee satisfaction with advanced techniques did not vary significantly with level of training (PGY) or intent to pursue fellowship. Residents who participated in more TLM, sialendoscopy, and SP-US cases were significantly more likely to be satisfied with their training (all p Conclusion Greater resident participation in advanced head and neck surgical procedures is associated with higher trainee satisfaction. There is a possible need for additional home institution-sponsored training courses, especially in sialendoscopy and SP-US. Level of evidence: N/A.
Dielectrophoretic Nanoparticle Propellant Injection with Plasmonic Acceleration

We describe the concept of a dielectrophoretic propellant injector and its inclusion in a plasmonic-based, small-satellite propulsion system. Thrust is achieved by applying a plasmon generated non-uniform electromagnetic field, and corresponding dielectrophoretic force, to net-neutral nanoparticles.
The role of precursor modification on the production of graphite foam

Abstract A high-conductivity graphite foam developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) exhibits properties indicative of highly graphitic structure. Similar to highly-ordered natural flake graphite, the foam exhibits a peak in thermal conductivity at temperatures approaching liquid nitrogen. This is due to its highly-aligned graphitic structure along the cell walls. This paper explores the manufacturing process to identify processing conditions that most affect the properties of the foam, such that the production of the foam can be easily tailored to different applications. This paper also examines processing conditions for the precursor's preparation as well as additives to the precursor (such as graphene) on the resulting foam structure and thermal properties. It was found that heat treating the precursor mesophase to increase melt viscosity and decrease off gassing during foaming decreased the thermal conductivity of the final foams, however, it resulted in smaller pores. Additions of graphene platelets decreases the thermal conductivity of the foams while simultaneously decreasing the pore size as well. These tradeoffs are evident and present the manufacturer options to tailor the foams.
Social Justice and Environmental Justice Is an Easy Blend For Us: You Can't Have One Without the Other-An Interview With CEEJ.

Reverend James Black and his daughter, Joi Black-Tate, are key members of the Center for Environmental and Economic Justice team that served as a community hub for risk dissemination and clinical c...
The Signaling Network Controlling C. elegans Vulval Cell Fate Patterning

EGF, emitted by the Anchor Cell, patterns six equipotent C. elegans vulval precursor cells to assume a precise array of three cell fates with high fidelity. A group of core and modulatory signaling cascades forms a signaling network that demonstrates plasticity during the transition from naive to terminally differentiated cells. In this review, we summarize the history of classical developmental manipulations and molecular genetics experiments that led to our understanding of the signals governing this process, and discuss principles of signal transduction and developmental biology that have emerged from these studies.
An evaluation of grid-integrated PV generation Based on AHP and Grey Correlation Method

Based on the influence caused by the grid-integrated photovoltaic (PV) generation, a two-stage evaluation index system is proposed. The index of voltage, frequency and total harmonic distortion (THD) are primary indexes. The index of influence coefficient, discrete degree, maximum volatility, mean THD and THD pass rate are secondary indexes. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is used to obtain the weight of the secondary index. Combined with the grey correlation method, a system to evaluate the impact of grid-integrated PV generation is established. Finally, the proposed evaluation method is applied to a certain area, and the result shows that such method is an effective and reasonable evaluation method.
Recanalization of Chronic Portal Vein Occlusion in Pediatric Liver Transplant Patients.

Abstract Purpose To evaluate technical and clinical success and report long-term outcomes of portal vein (PV) recanalization in pediatric orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) patients with chronic PV occlusion. Materials and Methods This is a retrospective review of 15 OLT patients (5 males) with chronic PV occlusion who underwent PV recanalization (33 procedures) between October 2011 and February 2018. Median age was 4.5 years (range, 1–16 years); median weight was 16.6 kg (range, 11.5–57.3 kg). Median time interval from OLT to first intervention was 3.25 years (range, 0.6–15.7 years). Clinical presentations included hypersplenism (n = 12), gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 9), and ascites (n = 3). One patient had incidental diagnosis of PV occlusion. Primary, primary-assisted, and secondary patency at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were evaluated. Results Technically successful PV recanalization and reduction of PV pressure gradient to ≤ 5 mm Hg was performed in 13/15 patients (87%). Ten of 15 (67%) patients had successful recanalization with the first attempt. Clinical success, defined as improvement in signs and symptoms of portal hypertension, was achieved in 12/13 (92%) patients. Five of 33 (15%) major complications (Society of Interventional Radiology class C), including perisplenic hematoma (n = 2), hemoperitoneum (n = 2), and hepatic artery pseudo aneurysm (n = 1), were managed with pain medication and blood product replacement. Median follow-up was 22 months (range, 1–77 months). Median primary patency was 5 months. Primary patency at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months was 53.8%, 46.2%, 38.5%, and 30.8%, respectively. Primary-assisted patency was 84.6%, 76.9%, 53.8%, and 46.2%, respectively. Secondary patency was 92.3%, 84.6%, 53.8%, and 46.2%, respectively. Conclusions PV recanalization is a safe and effective minimally invasive option in the management of chronic PV occlusion after pediatric OLT.
Abstract 1934: Development of spectrally distinct silica coated gold nanorods for detection of cancer using MSOT

Traditional cancer imaging devices are limited in their ability to screen for multiple contrast agents simultaneously in real time. Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) is an emerging imaging modality capable of real-time imaging of numerous contrast agents with enhanced spatial resolution of 75µm at depths of 5 cm. The use of exogenous contrast agents in MSOT remains largely unexplored, so we developed two species of spectrally distinct gold nanorod as contrast agents for use in MSOT. Our goal was to evaluate the potential of MSOT to spectrally differentiate two exogenous contrast agents simultaneously. Two gold nanorod species were created using hydrogen peroxide (GNR-H2O2) or ascorbic (GNR-ASC) acid as reducing agents to modify the length of each species to create nanorods with individual light absorbance spectra in the IR range (680-900 nm). These gold nanorods were highly stabilized via encapsulation with mesoporous silica along with a subsequent chitosan capping. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive (HER2+) cells were specifically targeted by conjugating these mesoporous silica-coated chitosan capped gold nanorods (CMGs) to Trastuzumab resulting in TRA-CMG particles. Both TRA-CMG-ASC and TRA-CMG-H2O2 resulted in optoacoustic spectrally distinct signals when imaged in tissue phantoms both individually as well as mixed within the same well after multispectral processing using linear regression. Treatment of HER2+ breast cancer cell lines, DY36T2Q and SKBR3, with TRA-CMG-H2O2 resulted in 2.5x and 3.1x enhanced signal, respectively, as compared to HER2- MDA-MD468 cells. Treatment of DY36T2Q and SKBR3 cells with TRA-CMG-ASC demonstrated 3.7x and 6.9x, respectively, compared to MDA-MD468. In all three cell lines treated with a combination of TRA-CMG-H2O2’s and TRA-CMG-ASC’s clear and distinct signals were observed for each particle, demonstrating that each TRA-CMG possessed and maintained a detectibly distinct optoacoustic spectrum, in the IR range, allowing them to be detectable as separate contrast agents in MSOT while proximate to other targeted contrast agents. Both particles have demonstrated that they can be simultaneously administered and targeted at HER2+ cell while also maintaining distinct photoacoustic signals in MSOT upon consolidation. Each particle species, targeted to the same cells, were capable of being monitored individually in the presence of the other gold nanorod contrast agent. Citation Format: Karl N. Thomas, Abhilash Samykutty, Molly McNally, Lacey R. McNally. Development of spectrally distinct silica coated gold nanorods for detection of cancer using MSOT [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1934.
Insights into Polish Consumer Magazine Advertising: A Study of Advertising Activity in Przekrój, 1978 - 1993

Western Marketing scholars have given sparse attention to the practice of advertising in Poland, either as a socialist state or as an emerging free-market economy. This paper attempts to address this deficiency by presenting a partial analysis of the advertising content of a representative Polish consumer magazine, Przekroj, during the period of 1978-1993. The data were drawn from personal study of 699 advertisements which were carried in 20,404 pages of 820 issues of the magazine published over the sixteen year period.
Advising Student-Athletes for Success: Predicting the Academic Success and Persistence of Collegiate Student-Athletes

Stakeholders at institutions across the United States are continuously looking for ways to improve the academic success and retention of students. We used logistical regression in an examination of...
Early plant development depends on embryo damage location: the role of seed size in partial seed predation

Seed predators sometimes inflict non‐lethal seed damage. We asked whether seed size modulates the location of insect seed damage and examined whether location‐specific damage on the embryo influences early plant development (embryo survival, germination, seedling emergence and performance). We used intact and weevil‐infested seeds of a prevalent California oak tree Quercus agrifolia as study model. We conducted observational and manipulative studies (simulate partial embryo damage). Seed size significantly affected the location of insect damage within the seed and, in turn, the probability of embryo damage, with larger seeds showing lower probability of embryo damage. The location of the larva exit hole was strongly associated with the probability of embryo damage, with 0.9 probability when the exit hole is located <5 mm from the embryo. Partial damage on the embryo was found in ca 11% of the infested seeds (n = 250). Among them, 63% showed damage only on the inner part (plumule) of the embryo. Damage on the plumule (the rudimentary shoot) was more lethal than damage on the radicle, particularly at the emergence phase, when success rate of plumule‐damaged seeds decreased by half as compared to that of radicle‐damaged seeds. Plumule‐damaged seeds also emerged much later and performed more poorly than radicle‐damaged seeds. Furthermore, seedlings that emerged from plumule‐damaged seeds showed poorer physiological parameters (lower chlorophyll and nitrogen content) than those emerged from radicle‐damaged seeds. Overall, intact seeds performed better than both types of damaged seeds. We highlight that seed size and its associated differential location of seed damage determines the occurrence of embryo damage and the region affected within the embryo (e.g. plumule versus radicle) which, in turn, affects important components of plant fitness. Different selective pressures affecting mostly the plumule (insects) versus the radicle (embryo‐clipping rodents) may contribute to elucidate the co‐evolutionary dynamics of seeds and their predators.
Camping climate resources: the camping climate index in the United States

Camping is the largest sub-sector of outdoor tourism, is growing in popularity, and is increasingly accessible to a diverse population of new campers. An outdoor accommodation and form of recreatio...
Cerebral hypoperfusion necessitating additional bypass following hunterian ligation of the internal carotid artery despite reassuring intraoperative challenges: Video case report.

Background Hunterian ligation has been adapted for complex intracranial aneurysm repair when other, more modern techniques are insufficient. Before drastic alteration of cerebral blood flow dynamics, intraoperative challenges and consideration of blood flow dynamics must be completed to ensure adequate perfusion postligation. On satisfaction, ligation may proceed; however, subtle changes related to hypoperfusion may not be immediately observed during intraoperative challenge under general anesthesia and/or before onset of the vasospasm window. Case description In this report, we describe a patient who presented with a Hunt-Hess Grade III subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), with a right internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion and a ruptured giant left ICA aneurysm. Endovascular treatment of the aneurysm was aborted because the nominal, 9 mm diameter of the ICA was too large for any intracranial balloon or stent. Three days later, she underwent a left-sided "insurance" extracranial-tointracranial arterial bypass (EIAB) using the superficial temporal artery simultaneously with hunterian ligation of the left ICA following reassuring results on intraoperative occlusion challenge. Over several days, her neurologic condition declined concurrent with the vasospasm window, and a right-sided EIAB was required to augment vascular supply. Following a protracted hospital course, the patient became progressively more independent and is currently residing in an assisted living facility. Conclusion We illustrate an ultimately successful microsurgical treatment option in the setting of acute SAH that highlights the importance of cerebrovascular reserve and blood flow replacement in the setting of a compromised circle of Willis, especially during the vasospasm window.
Stock-specific variation in the probability of precocious male maturation in hatchery Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

Age of maturation in many salmonid species is phenotypically plastic and dependent on exceeding a genetically set threshold in growth, often described as a probabilistic maturation reaction norm (P...
Novel Synthetic Material Mimicking Mechanisms from Natural Nacre

The biomimetics field has become very popular as Mother Nature creates materials with superior strength and toughness out of relatively weak material constituents. This concept is attractive because current synthetic materials have yet to achieve this level of performance from the same weak material constituents. Nacre, from Red Abalone shells, is among the natural materials exhibiting outstanding toughness, while being comprised of a brick and mortar structure of 95% brittle ceramic tablets and 5% soft organic biopolymer mortar. During loading, that tablets slide relative to each other. This generates progressive interlocking which constitutes nacre’s primary toughening mechanism [1, 2]. We have translated this concept of tablet sliding and interlocking to create a novel composite material. Fabrication of the material will be discussed as well as design parameters. Results from tensile tests will be presented as well as comparison of the synthetic material to natural nacre. Implications to the synthetic materials community will be presented.
Arrays of Robust Carbon Nanotube-Based NEMS: A Combined Experimental/Computational Investigation

We present an investigation of electrostatically-actuated carbon nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical switches. The primary goal of this study is to create a metric for design of robust, high-cycle devices. Methods for fabricating arrays of freestanding carbon nanotubes are discussed. Parametric studies, both experimental and computational, are then conducted to elucidate the failure mechanisms common to this class of carbon nanotubebased nanoelectromechanical systems, and to identify their point of onset within the design space. Experiments are performed in situ the scanning electron microscope, enabling direct imaging of device operation and the mode of eventual failure. Complimentary dynamic multiphysics finite element simulations of device operation are also presented to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the experimentally-observed failure modes.
Impairment and disability rating in low back pain.

Many publications emphasize the theoretical relationship between impairment, disability, and the workplace. This article is intended to provide the reader with some framework in this regard, but its main intent is to create a practical how-to guide in the evaluation of impairment and disability that result from low back pain.
Linking Education Policy to Labor Market Outcomes

Education plays a central role in preparing individuals to enter the labor force, as well as equipping them with the skills to engage in lifelong learning experiences. The objective of this study is to review what is known about the role of education in improving labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on policy considerations for developing countries. The report presents findings from current literature on the topic, which offers new ways of looking at the returns to education, together with evidence from four original data analysis and background studies of education and labor issues in Ghana and Pakistan. Country studies on Ghana and Pakistan are used to substantiate findings of the literature and illustrate the heterogeneity of education labor market linkages across regions. These countries were chosen because they are representative of two of the poorest regions of the world and because their inclusion in the analysis complements ongoing World Bank work on education and labor market issues in those countries. This report offers two types of findings: those relevant to the content of educational policies and those relevant to the framework for educational policy making.
Processing issues and modeling

A brief perspective is given initially on the goals, exposure methods, performance and challenges in the lithography process. The basic framework for simulating optical lithog- raphy is then presented using three important physical aspects: imaging, resist exposure- bleaching and resist development etching. Image quality in both contact/proximity and projection printing are considered. The verification by comparison of simulated resist pro- files with SEM cross sections from resist images on wafers in then considered. The chap- ter concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing projection printing and the technology directions emerging to meet them. Greater detail on many of the concepts and models introduced in this Chapter can be found in subsequent chapters.
GridSolve: The Evolution of A Network Enabled Solver

GridSolve is a stubless RPC-based client-agent-server system for remotely accessing hardware and software resources. GridSolve emphasizes ease-of-use for the user and includes resource monitoring, scheduling and service-level fault-tolerance. In addition to providing Fortran and C clients, GridSolve enables scientific computing environments (such as Matlab) to be used as clients, so domain scientists can use Grid resources from within their preferred environments. GridSolve is a more highly evolved version of the earlier NetSolve project, and it is based on the emerging GridRPC standard. This paper will discuss the changes and improvements involved in the evolution from NetSolve to GridSolve.
Connecting the dots between news articles

The process of extracting useful knowledge from large datasets has become one of the most pressing problems in today's society. The problem spans entire sectors, from scientists to intelligence analysts and web users, all of whom are constantly struggling to keep up with the larger and larger amounts of content published every day. With this much data, it is often easy to miss the big picture. In this paper, we investigate methods for automatically connecting the dots - providing a structured, easy way to navigate within a new topic and discover hidden connections. We focus on the news domain: given two news articles, our system automatically finds a coherent chain linking them together. For example, it can recover the chain of events leading from the decline of home prices (2007) to the health-care debate (2009). We formalize the characteristics of a good chain and provide efficient algorithms to connect two fixed endpoints. We incorporate user feedback into our framework, allowing the stories to be refined and personalized. Finally, we evaluate our algorithm over real news data. Our user studies demonstrate the algorithm's effectiveness in helping users understanding the news.
The Advantages of Partitioning Multicast Transmissions in a Single-Hop Optical WDM Network*

In a single-hop WDM optical network, a straightforward approach to implementing multicasting is to schedule a single transmission to multiple destinations so that all of the destinations may receive the same transmission by tuning their receivers to the same channel at the same time. Although scheduling a single transmission in this manner reduces the amount of transmitter and channel resources being used, it may also place a burden on the receivers in the network. If all receivers do not become available at the same time, then some receivers may have to wait (and be idle) for significantly long periods of time before receiving the message. In this paper, we investigate methods for partitioning a multicast group into a number of smaller subgroups and for scheduling a separate transmission for each of these subgroups. We show that this approach more effectively conserves and balances the usage of transmitter and receiver resources in the network and may lead to significantly improved system performance over the conventional single-transmission multicast approach.
Photodynamic therapy of neoplastic disease

LOCALIZATION. HPD: Structure and Determinants of Localization. Sites of Photodamage. The Relationship Between Porphyrin Transport and Tissue Uptake with Photosensitization From Singlet Oxygen. Binding of Photodynamic Photosensitizers to Human Plasma Studied By Ultracentrifugation. Localization Phenomena: pH Effects. Selective Localization of Photosensitizers in Tumors: A Review of the Phenomenon and Possible Mechanisms. Subcellular Sites of Photosensitization. Strategies for Tumor Targeting by Photodynamic Sensitizers. The Chemistry Associated with HPD. Porphyrin Chemistry. Meso-Tetra (Hydroxyphenyl) Porphyrins. The Triplet State and Singlet Oxygen Generation. Lifetime Measurements of Photosensitizers. Porphyrin Binding and Aggregation. Index.
Tight Bounds on Low-Degree Spectral Concentration of Submodular and XOS Functions

Sub modular and fractionally sub additive (or equivalently XOS) functions play a fundamental role in combinatorial optimization, algorithmic game theory and machine learning. Motivated by learn ability of these classes of functions from random examples, we consider the question of how well such functions can be approximated by low-degree polynomials in L2 norm over the uniform distribution. This question is equivalent to understanding of the concentration of Fourier weight on low-degree coefficients, a central concept in Fourier analysis. We show that. For any sub modular function f:{0, 1}n a#x2192; [0, 1], deg l2a#x03B5;(f) = O(log(1/a#x03B5;)/a#x03B5;4/5) there is a sub modular function that requires degree a#x03A9;(1/a#x03B5;4/5}). For any XOS function f:{0, 1}n a#x2192; [0, 1], deg l2a#x03B5;(f) = O(1/a#x03B5;) and there exists an XOS function that requires degree a#x03A9;(1/a#x03B5;). This improves on previous approaches that all showed an upper bound of O(1/a#x03B5;2) for sub modular and XOS functions. The best previous lower bound was a#x03A9;(1/a#x03B5;{2/3}) for monotone sub modular functions. Our techniques reveal new structural properties of sub modular and XOS functions and the upper bounds lead to nearly optimal PAC learning algorithms for these classes of functions.
Model-Based Systems Engineering approach for the development of the science processing and operations center of the NASA OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission

Abstract The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission, which is planned for launch in 2016, will study and return a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth for further detailed analysis. This mission is unique in that little information about Bennu, including the gravity field, shape model, and thermal environment, is well known at this time. This information will instead be determined via a thorough close-proximity operations phase that will fully characterize and analyze the asteroid prior to retrieving the sample, requiring a complex ground system architecture in order to provide scientists the necessary information to make key decisions regarding sample collection. Importantly, the OSIRIS-REx Science Processing and Operations Center (SPOC) is at the heart of the process to characterize the asteroid and collect the sample, as its high level functions include the data processing necessary to fully analyze the information from the spacecraft and the generation of instrument observation sequences to collect the necessary data. These factors necessitate a strong systems engineering focus across the project. The SPOC team has chosen to tackle this problem by utilizing a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach to facilitate the development of the OSIRIS-REx ground system, and more specifically, the SPOC. MBSE is a relatively new approach that formally applies modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, and verification and validation activities, and only recently been used in the development of the ground system of a space mission. As such, this approach has been lauded in key mission reviews as a significant strength of the project, especially for its ability to provide a consistent approach for the entire ground systems team. Importantly, the MBSE approach has provided many benefits to the SPOC Systems Engineering team. In particular, the MBSE approach has been utilized to generate a consistent architecture across all ground system elements, to manage all OSIRIS-REx ground system requirements easily in one location, to perform verification and validation of these requirements, and to validate the ground system operations time line. Further, through the use of common tools, project systems׳ engineers can quickly and efficiently generate documentation based on the developed model, including interface, requirements, and verification documentation. Finally, these same tools allow for the potential future re-usability of the development currently being performed for use in future mission architectures.
An epidemiologic study of risk factors associated with pregnancy following female sterilization

Abstract Data on 14,700 female sterilization patients were collected by the International Fertility Research Program (IFRP) from 1972 to 1978 and analyzed to determine risk factors associated with the incidence of pregnancy following sterilization. With a case-control approach, it was found that younger patients (≤34 years old) and those who did not lactate after sterilization had a higher risk of becoming pregnant. Patients who were sterilized in the early phases of a service program had a higher risk of pregnancy than those sterilized later. In the laparoscopic series, the relative risk of pregnancy was four times greater in patients who had the prototype spring clip than in patients who had the Falope ring. The relative risk increased to 7.0 when patients who had the prototype spring clip were compared to those who had the Falope ring, electrocoagulation, or the Rocket clip. Patients sterilized by electrocoagulation had a low pregnancy risk, but the risk of an ectopic pregnancy was significantly higher than for those sterilized with mechanical devices. In the culdoscopic series, the tantalum clip had an unacceptable pregnancy risk.
Protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B is involved in neuroendocrine differentiation of prostate cancer

425 The treatment of choice for advanced/metastatic prostate cancer (PC) is hormonal therapy, consisting of androgen deprivation and/or inhibition of androgen action. Although most patients respond initially to this therapy, the tumor will eventually recur and enter the androgen-independent (or hormone-refractory) state, which is the major obstacle in therapy. The mechanism by which PC cells proliferate in the androgen-deprived environment is unclear and many hypotheses have been proposed, mostly focusing on altered signaling by the androgen receptor. PC contains the secretory-type tumor cells and a minor component of neuroendocrine (NE) cells. The number of NE cells is increased in high grade and high stage tumors, particularly in hormonally-treated and androgen-independent tumors. In-vitro and in-vivo studies have shown that NE cells may secret neuropeptides and cytokines to act on the adjacent non-NE tumor cells to promote their androgen-independent proliferation, which may be one of the mechanisms responsible for tumor recurrence. The origin of NE cells in PC is unclear. LNCaP cells, a PC cell line, can be induced to show NE differentiation when cultured in androgen-deprived media, which supports the hypothesis that the NE tumor cells may be derived from the non-NE tumor cells. We have shown that androgen withdrawal of LNCaP cells leads to increased expression of PTP1B, an intracytoplasmic protein tyrosine phosphatase, with a corresponding increase in its tyrosine phosphatase activity. LNCaP cells that stably overexpress PTP1B show NE differentiation even when cultured in normal media (containing androgen). LNCaP cells that stably overexpress a substrate-trapping (dominant-negative) mutant PTP1B lose the ability to undergo NE differentiation in androgen-deprived media. Immunohistochemical staining shows that PTP1B is exclusively expressed in NE cells of human PC tissue. Thus, our in-vitro and in-vivo findings suggest that PTP1B plays an important role in NE differentiation of PC. Since NE differentiation may be a critical factor in the progression of PC, PTP1B may serve as an important therapeutic target that can be explored for the inhibition of NE differentiation and prevention of tumor recurrence in PC patients receiving hormonal therapy.
Quantum Observables, Lie Algebra Homology and TQFT

Let us consider a Lie (super)algebra G spanned by Tα where Tα are quantum observables in BV formalism. It is proved that for every tensor cα...α that determines a homology class of the Lie algebra G the expression cα...αTα...Tα is again a quantum observable. This theorem is used to construct quantum observables in the BV sigma model. We apply this construction to explain Kontsevich's results about the relation between homology of the Lie algebra of Hamiltonian vector fields and topological invariants of manifolds.
Heterogeneous Firms and Import Quality: Evidence From Transaction-Level Prices

A key emerging insight in international economics is that the scope for quality dierentiation can help to explain patterns in export prices. In this paper, I bring a uni…ed theoretical framework of …rm heterogeneity in cost and quality to bear on an expansive data set of U.S. import transaction prices collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In contrast to commonly used unit values, the distribution of these micro-data can be observed at the level of highly disaggregate products. I exploit the higher moments of the price data to document four facts pertaining to U.S. import quality: (i) using a novel methodology to identify the scope for quality dierentiation, highly dierentiated products account for about half of import value; (ii) quantile regression techniques reveal that productive foreign exporters specialize in high-priced varieties in goods with a large scope for quality dierentiation, and conversely for low scope goods; (iii) within a product, the prices of high-quality varieties are increasing over time in a pattern suggesting both process and product innovation; and (iv) changes in the real exchange rate are passed through more to prices in products with a higher scope for quality dierentiation. (JEL F12, F41)
Reattachment of cultured human retinal pigment epithelium to extracellular matrix and human Bruch's membrane.

PURPOSE To determine the mechanism of reattachment of harvested human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) to RPE-derived extracellular matrix and Bruch's membrane. METHODS Confluent first-to third-passage human RPE were harvested from tissue culture and plated onto RPE-derived extracellular matrix or human Bruch's membrane exoplants denuded of cells by treatment with 0.02 N ammonium hydroxide. The authors measured RPE reattachment to uncoated surfaces or surfaces precoated with extracellular matrix proteins (fibronectin, laminin, vitronectin, or type IV collagen), antibodies to extracellular matrix-proteins, or the synthetic peptide RGDS (arginine-glycine-aspartate-serine). Some RPE were pretreated with anti-beta 1 integrin antibodies before plating onto either substrate. RESULTS Coating the surface of either RPE-derived extracellular matrix or Bruch's membrane with fibronectin, laminin, vitronectin, or type IV collagen increased the RPE attachment rate. Exposing RPE to anti-beta 1 integrin antibodies or RGDS or precoating the surface with antibodies to fibronectin, laminin, vitronectin, or type IV collagen decreased the RPE attachment rate to both surfaces. The RPE attachment rate to Bruch's membrane was lower when the exoplants were harvested from the macula of older (age, 70 to 90 years) versus younger (age, 30 to 40 years) persons (52.4 +/- 3.6% versus 64.3 +/- 3.5%, respectively; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The attachment of cultured human RPE cells to human Bruch's membrane or to RPE-derived extracellular matrix is mediated by an interaction between the beta 1-subunit of integrin on the RPE surface and ligands in the extracellular matrix that include laminin, fibronectin, vitronectin, and type IV collagen. The lower rate of RPE reattachment to the macula from older human cadaveric eyes may have implications for studies aimed at RPE transplantation in elderly persons.
A formal representation for plans in the programmer's apprentice

A plan calculus is presented which is being used to represent programs and a library of standard data and control abstractions in the programmer's apprentice. Important features of this formalism include: programming language independence, additivity, verifiability and multiple points of view. The logical foundations of the representation are specified formally using a situational calculus in which side effects and overlapping mutable data structures are accounted for. The plan calculus is comparedwith other formalisms, such as program schemas, and its advantages pointed out.
Optimal Design of Optical Ring Networks with Differentiated Reliability (DiR)

Current optical networks typically offer two degrees of service reliability: full protection in presence of a single fault in the network, and no protection at all. This situation reflects the historical duality that has its roots in the once divided telephone and data environment. The circuit oriented service required protection, i.e., provisioning of readily available spare resources to replace working resources in case of a fault. The datagram oriented service relied upon restoration, i.e., dynamic search for and reallocation of affected resources via such actions as routing table updates. The current development trend, however, is gradually driving the design of networks towards a unified solution that will jointly support traditional voice and data services as well as a variety of novel multimedia applications. The growing importance of concepts, such Quality of Service (QoS) and Differentiated Services that provide varying levels of service performance in the same network evidences this trend. Consistently with this pattern, the novel concept of Differentiated Reliability (DiR) is formally introduced in the paper and applied to provide multiple reliability degrees (classes) in the same network layer using a common protection mechanism, i.e., path switching. According to the DiR concept, each connection in the layer under consideration is guaranteed a minimum reliability degree, defined as the Maximum Failure Probability allowed for that connection. The reliability degree chosen for a given connection is thus determined by the application requirements, and not by the actual network topology, design constraints, robustness of the network components, and span of the connection. An efficient algorithm is proposed to design the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) layer of a DiR ring.
Magnetization measurements on single crystals of superconducting Ba0.6K0.4BiO3

Abstract Extensive measurements of the magnetization of superconducting single-crystal samples of Ba0.6K0.4BiO3 have been made using superconducting quantum interference device and cantilever force magnetometry at temperatures ranging between 1.3 and 350 K and in magnetic fields from near zero to 27 T. Hysteresis curves of magnetization versus field allow a determination of the thermodynamic critical field, the reversibility field and the upper critical field as functions of temperature. The lower critical field is measured separately and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter is found to be temperature dependent. AU critical fields have higher T = 0 limits than have been previously noted and none of the temperature dependences of the critical fields follows the expected power laws leading to a possible alternative interpretation of the thermodynamic nature of the superconducting transition.
Prediction in projection

Prediction models that capture and use the structure of state-space dynamics can be very effective. In practice, however, one rarely has access to full information about that structure, and accurate reconstruction of the dynamics from scalar time-series data—e.g., via delay-coordinate embedding—can be a real challenge. In this paper, we show that forecast models that employ incomplete reconstructions of the dynamics—i.e., models that are not necessarily true embeddings—can produce surprisingly accurate predictions of the state of a dynamical system. In particular, we demonstrate the effectiveness of a simple near-neighbor forecast technique that works with a two-dimensional time-delay reconstruction of both low- and high-dimensional dynamical systems. Even though correctness of the topology may not be guaranteed for incomplete reconstructions like this, the dynamical structure that they do capture allows for accurate predictions—in many cases, even more accurate than predictions generated using a traditional embedding. This could be very useful in the context of real-time forecasting, where the human effort required to produce a correct delay-coordinate embedding is prohibitive.
Parameter estimation of coupled water and energy balance models based on stationary constraints of surface states

[1] We use a conditional averaging approach to estimate the parameters of a land surface water and energy balance model and then use the estimated parameters to partition net radiation into latent, sensible, and ground heat fluxes and precipitation into evapotranspiration and drainage plus runoff. Through conditional averaging of the modeled fluxes with respect to soil moisture and temperature, we write an objective function that approximates the temperature- and moisture-dependent errors of the modeled fluxes in terms of atmospheric forcing (e.g., precipitation and radiation), surface states (moisture (S) and temperature (Ts)), and model parameters. The novelty of the approach is that the error term is estimated without comparison to measured fluxes. Instead, it is inferred from the deviation of the conditionally averaged tendency terms (expectation and expectation ) from zero since each of these terms equals zero in stationary systems but diverges from zero in the presence of misspecified parameters. Minimization of the approximated error yields parameters for model applications. This strategy was previously studied for simple water balance models using soil moisture conditional averaging. Here we extend the idea to include energy balance fluxes and surface temperature conditioning. The method is tested at two AmeriFlux sites, Vaira Ranch (California) and Kendall Grassland (Arizona). The estimated fluxes (using only observed forcing and state variables) are in reasonable agreement with field measurements. Because this method is based on conditional averages, it can be applied to situations with subsampled or missing data; that is, continuous integration in time is not required.
Jade: a parallel message-driven java

We present Java, a Java-like language with parallel message-driven features. The parallel constructs include parallel classes called Chares and parallel arrays of objects called ChareArrays. Communication with a parallel object occurs through asynchronous method invocation. In the message-driven paradigm, when a method of a Chare or ChareArray is invoked, it continues to completion before any other method of the same parallel object can run. In contrast to Java's runtime compilation, the Java source code is translated to Charm++ source code, which is then compiled and executed on the target machine. The resulting code supports object migration and load-balancing and scales well to large number of processors. Java's standard libraries are not supported.
On off-topic web browsing

For many, accessing files (documents in our context) from the web is a daily activity. The web has de facto become the “first place” to find information. For example, for many of the on-line community, Wikipedia is becoming the de facto first source of information, namely, the encyclopedia of choice. This reliance on web content, however, has introduced new problems for employers, namely, their employees are simply "browsing away” their time. To combat this perceived waste of time, some employers simply block access to the web for their employees. However, by blocking employee web access, the employers eliminate a valuable information resource, one that can potentially help employees accomplish their assigned activities.