cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reputation in the Internet black market: an empirical and theoretical analysis of the Deep Web

This paper is an analysis of the role reputation plays in the Deep Web using data from the Internet black-market site, The Silk Road. This encrypted online marketplace employed cryptocurrency and functioned over the Tor network. Utilizing a modeling technique, informed by trade auction theory, we investigate the effect of seller reputation. Analysis of the seller's reputation gives us insights into the factors that determine the prices of goods and services in this black marketplace. Data on cannabis listings is parsed from the Silk Road website and covers an 11-month time period, from November 2013 to October 2014. This data demonstrates that reputation acts as a sufficient self-enforcement mechanism to allow transactions. These findings exemplify the robustness of spontaneous order with respect to the Deep Web as an emergent marketplace.
WE-E-BRB-01: Personalized Motion Management Strategies for Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy

Strategies for treating thoracic and liver tumors using pencil beam scanning proton therapy Thoracic and liver tumors have not been treated with pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy until recently. This is because of concerns about the significant interplay effects between proton spot scanning and patient's respiratory motion. However, not all tumors have unacceptable magnitude of motion for PBS proton therapy. Therefore it is important to analyze the motion and understand the significance of the interplay effect for each patient. The factors that affect interplay effect and its washout include magnitude of motion, spot size, spot scanning sequence and speed. Selection of beam angle, scanning direction, repainting and fractionation can all reduce the interplay effect. An overview of respiratory motion management in PBS proton therapy including assessment of tumor motion and WET evaluation will be first presented. As thoracic tumors have very different motion patterns from liver tumors, examples would be provided for both anatomic sites. As thoracic tumors are typically located within highly heterogeneous environments, dose calculation accuracy is a concern for both treatment target and surrounding organs such as spinal cord or esophagus. Strategies for mitigating the interplay effect in PBS will be presented and the pros and cons of various motion mitigation strategies will be discussed. Learning Objectives: 1.Motion analysis for individual patients with respect to interplay effect 2.Interplay effect and mitigation strategies for treating thoracic/liver tumors with PBS 3.Treatment planning margins for PBS 4.The impact of proton dose calculation engines over heterogeneous treatment target and surrounding organs I have a current research funding from Varian Medical System under the master agreement between University of Pennsylvania and Varian; L. Lin, I have a current funding from Varian Medical System under the master agreement between University of Pennsylvania and Varian.; H. Li, Na
Myth and archive: The novel as myth and archive: ruins and relics of Tlön

Either that voice does not belong to that skin, or that skin does not belong to that voice. Pedro Calderon de la Barca, En la vida todo es verdad y todo mentira , 1, 901–2 In the summer of 1947, the American Hispanist John E. Englekirk flew from Caracas to San Fernando de Apure to research in the field the genesis of Dona Barbara (1929). At approximately the same time, Alejo Carpentier was traveling to the interior of Venezuela in the first of two journeys that would lead him to write Los pasos perdidos . In that summer of 1947 Romulo Gallegos was in the midst of the political campaign that would take him to the presidency of Venezuela in December of that year. Gallegos was a politician whose only baggage, according to campaign promotion, was a book under his arm: that book was, needless to say, Dona Barbara . The novel had culled from the countryside, from the endless llano , the essence of Venezuelan culture, which would now be transformed into a political program to save the country. Although Gallegos had toured the Apure while preparing to write Dona Barbara , the region had entered the realm of writing long before. San Fernando had not only been described by Alexander von Humboldt, but also by Ramon Paez, the British-educated son of Venezuelan general Jose Antonio Paez, in his Wild Scenes in South America, or Life in the llanos of Venezuela (1862).
The Flow Cytometrical Evaluation of P-gp Pump Function on Leukemic Cells with Calcein-AM and Its Significance.

Abstract Multi-drug resistance (MDR) remains the major obstacles for the successful treatment of patients with unfavorable hematopoietic malignancies. The mechanism of MDR is very sophisticated and not well understood. One of the major mechanisms for MDR is the pump function of the MDR1 gene product P-glycoprotein (P-gp). However a practical assay to accurately determine the pump function of P-gp is still lacking. In this study, an assay based on a fluorescent dye (Calcein acetoxymethyl esteror, Calcein-AM) and multi-parameter flow cytometry capable of accurately determining the pump function was established. By using the assay, the effectiveness of two reversal agents, Verapamil (VER) and cyclosporin A (CsA) could be evaluated. Methods: A pair of leukemia cell lines, K562 and its vincristine (VCR) resistant counterpart K562/VCR were used in the study. IC50s of VCR cytotoxicity on both K562 and K562/VCR were carried out after 72 hrs of incubation under a clinical achievable level of VCR. The cells were treated with VER, CsA and VER+CsA 15 minutes prior to the addition of VCR and the reversal folds calculated. A multi-parameter flow cytometry was used to analyze the pump function of the P-gp on K562/VCR stained with Calcein-AM in either its uptake inhibition or its efflux promotion. All data were analyzed on SPSS 10.0 software. Results: The positive rate of P-gp on K562/VCR cell membrane was 61.69% with no expression of multi-drug resistance associated protein (MRP) and both P-gp and MRP were negative on K562 cells. The resistance factor (RF) of K562/VCR to VCR was 1,287 folds more than its parental cell line K562. Although CsA, VER and CsA+VER could increase the sensitivity of K562/VCR to VCR significantly, all the reversal activities were only minimal. When Calcein-AM was used to evaluate the function of the P-gp pump on K562/VCR cells, the fluorescent intensity in K562 and K562/VCR cell lines was found to be brighter during the first 24 hrs and almost faded away at 48 hrs. The fluorescent intensity of the dye in K562 was significantly greater than that in K562 /VCR cells at each time points of 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 120 hrs (48 hrs and 120hs P Conclusions: With the increment of P-gp expression on the K562/VCR cells, the accumulation of Calcein-AM is reduced and the efflux is increased. CsA, VER and CsA+VER can increase the uptake of Calcein-AM in K562/VCR while reduce the efflux of the dye from the cells. However, no significance has been found statistically between the CsA+VER and CsA or VER. CsA, VER and CsA+VER can increase K562 to uptake the Calcein-AM into the cytoplasm, but they did not affect the efflux of the dye. As compared with the use of CsA or VER alone, the combination of the two is not shown to generate higher reversal activity on MDR positive cells significantly. The assay can be used to evaluate the MDR reversal agent(s) and might be used to facilitate the discovery of new reversal agents in our future work.
Accumulation & Power: An Economic History of the United States

(1990). Accumulation & Power: An Economic History of the United States. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 917-920.
A Verification Driven Process for Rapid Development of CFD Software

Previous work by the authors has demonstrated a high-order fully-automated output-error based mesh adaptation method suitable for solving the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The high-order of accuracy is achieved with a discontinuous Galerkin discretization. While the adaptation method has proven to provide significant reduction in computational cost relative to second-order methods, the authors are currently exploring alternate high-order finite element discretizations to further reduce the computational cost. However, the previously developed software framework is not suitable for all discretizations of interest. Hence, a new software framework is being developed with enhanced maintainability and flexibility relative to the previous framework. This paper focuses on strategies employed to accelerate the development of the new software framework. A software development environment that promotes a verification driven process for software development is presented. The development environment encourages developers to incorporate the verification principles of Verification and Validation as part of the software development process to promote maintainability and collaboration. The software development is further accelerated through the use of automatic differentiation, which is used here to automatically compute the linearization of a mathematical model. This paper outlines an implementation of automatic differentiation with minimal computational overhead relative to manually written linearizations.
Turbulence, and Energy Loss, at Combining Pipe Junctions

Efforts to measure and describe the loss of energy at 90° sharp-edged junctions are described. The work is focussed on energy losses at discharge and area ratios for which there are no data available and no satisfactory theory.
Microstress in the matrix of a melt‐infiltrated SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite

Microstress in the SiC: Si matrix of a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) has been characterized using Raman spectroscopy. The matrix of the composite was manufactured using liquid melt infiltration, and has about 20% unreacted free silicon. During the processing of the composite, the unreacted free silicon expands 11 vol% when transforming from liquid to solid. This crystallization expansion creates compressive microstress in the silicon phase of the matrix, which ranges from 2.4 – 3.1 GPa, and tensile microstress in the SiC of the matrix which ranges from 0.24 – 0.75 GPa. The microstress varies significantly with position, following a normal distribution. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Stochastic watershed models for hydrologic risk management

Over half a century ago, the Harvard Water Program introduced the field of operational or synthetic hydrology providing stochastic streamflow models (SSMs), which could generate ensembles of synthetic streamflow traces useful for hydrologic risk management. The application of SSMs, based on streamflow observations alone, revolutionized water resources planning activities, yet has fallen out of favor due, in part, to their inability to account for the now nearly ubiquitous anthropogenic influences on streamflow. This commentary advances the modern equivalent of SSMs, termed ‘stochastic watershed models’ (SWMs) useful as input to nearly all modern risk based water resource decision making approaches. SWMs are deterministic watershed models implemented using stochastic meteorological series, model parameters and model errors, to generate ensembles of streamflow traces that represent the variability in possible future streamflows. SWMs combine deterministic watershed models, which are ideally suited to accounting for anthropogenic influences, with recent developments in uncertainty analysis and principles of stochastic simulation.
Does Continuous Diffusion of Oxygen Improve Diabetic Foot Ulcer Healing

The objective of this article is to evaluate the study design, rational and results of Continuous Diffusion of Oxygen Therapy (CDOT) to heal diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). The study was a double-blinded placebo controlled randomized clinical study to evaluate DFUs over a 12-week period. The primary outcome was the proportion of ulcers that healed and the secondary outcome that was reported was the time to ulcer healing. In the per protocol analysis and in the intent to treat analysis, a higher proportion of DFUs healed in the CDOT group (per protocol 46% vs 22%, P = .02, intent to treat 31.5% vs 15.1%, P = .03). CDOT patients healed ulcers faster compared to the in the sham treatment arm ( P = .026).
A regional life cycle assessment and economic analysis of camelina biodiesel production in the Pacific Northwestern US

Abstract The primary goal of this study was to model the soil emissions during camelina and wheat production in a three-year cycle in the Pacific North West region of the United States considering spatial variations in agro-climatic factors. The second goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of regional agro-climatic variations on the life cycle impact of biofuel production from camelina. DNDC (Denitrification-Decomposition) model was used to estimate the soil emissions in different regions, and openLCA software was used to quantify the environmental impacts of camelina biodiesel production in the State of Oregon. The suitable lands for the cropping system were lands with winter wheat-fallow cropping system and rainfall of 20–40 cm. The model was run for 60 years to reach to the soil organic carbon (SOC) equilibrium point. The results from the cycle with the SOC equilibrium were used to conduct life cycle assessment (LCA). Energy allocation method was selected to allocate LCA results based on the energy content of products and co-products. The results showed that the global warming potential of camelina biodiesel produced under two scenarios was significantly different (P-value
Bullying and Identity Development: Insights from Autistic and Non-autistic College Students

Reduced cognitive empathy may put autistic people at risk for bullying. We compared interpretations of bullying provided by 22 autistic and 15 non-autistic college students. Autistic (and non-autistic) students reported less severe bullying in college relative to earlier in development. Chronic bullying was associated with improvements in self-descriptions and self-acceptance. Autistic students who were chronically bullied were more likely to self-identify as autistic when asked to explain their disability. Autistic and non-autistic students demonstrated similar levels of cognitive empathy, providing no evidence that a "double empathy problem" contributes to bullying for all autistic individuals. Findings suggest that recovery from bullying can contribute to resilience and that autistic people gain insights about bullying and how to overcome it with development.
Generalisation und Diskrimination

Reizgeneralisation ist definiert als der Prozes, bei dem der Organismus auf einen neuen Reiz hin — d. h. einen anderen als den ursprunglichen CS oder SD, der dem gelernten Reiz ahnlich ist — die bedingte Reaktion ausfuhrt. War der ursprungliche CS beispielsweise ein Ton, so reagiert der Organismus jetzt auch auf einen neuen Ton mit anderer Hohe oder Lautstarke. In der Tat stellt eigentlich jedes Reizmerkmal eine Dimension dar, entlang der eine Reizgeneralisation stattfinden kann. Die Reaktion auf diesen generalisierten Reiz wird jedoch schwacher, je mehr sich dieser vom ursprunglich gelernten Reiz unterscheidet.
Grammar and Interpretation

This chapter presents basic criteria of adequacy for grammars. Section 2.1 explains the empirical limitations of constituent-structure analysis. Section 2.2 presents the basic theory of natural-language communication. Section 2.3 illustrates the process of understanding a sentence with a simple formal example. Section 2.4 presents the Criteria of Psychological Well-Foundedness. Section 2.5 shows that grammars within current paradigms of linguistic analysis are not psychologically well-founded.
Campus Sexual Assault Prevention: Supporting Male Student Allies in an Effort to Sustain Engagement

Travis Annan is a second year HESA student and received his Bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University in 2007. He currently works in Health Promotion Services in the Center for Health and Wellbeing at UVM. He is excited to continue living in the Burlington area after finishing his Master’s and hopes to one day return to his home state of Colorado. Campus Sexual Assault Prevention: Supporting Male Student Allies in an Effort to Sustain Engagement
Effects of silica nanoparticles on endolysosome function in primary cultured neurons 1

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been used as vehicles for drug delivery, molecular detection, and cellular manipulations in nanoneuromedicine. SiNPs may cause adverse effects in the brain includi...
A Proliferation of Bad Shit: Informational Entropy, Politics and The Crying of Lot 49

Many reviewers of The Crying of Lot 49 in 1966 found in it a timely satire of American society. Stanley Trachtenberg noted a debunking of "such communal myths as the development of the west, the Hollywood scenario, the manipulation of the corporate structure, the hypocrisy of bohemian retreat, and the complementary inanity of super-patriotic organizations" (133). Erik Wensberg saw "an exuberant ribbing of all the California manias, of pop culture gone to rock and ruin, of the wreckage of taste that our machinery produces in abundance" (446). But if Pynchon's novel merely satirized mid-sixties California life, wouldn't it have lost its political and pedagogic significance as the historical and theoretical distance from its first publication increased? The economic, cultural and political reality of California, as well as the rest of the world, has changed greatly since the mid-sixties. That time was the golden age of an economic system in which centralized "mass production was coupled with mass consumption in a virtuous circle of growth." Now we inhabit an age of decentralized globalization integrating the world "into one economic space via increased international trade, the internationalization of production and financial markets, and the internationalization of a commodity culture promoted by an increasingly networked global telecommunications system" (Gibson-Graham 150, 120).
Lowering protein fouling by rational processing of fluorine-free hydrophobic coatings

Abstract Protein fouling has a tremendous economic impact and thus requires persistent endeavors directed towards designing surfaces that are able to suppress this phenomenon. One approach is to use multifunctional protective coatings and reduce protein adhesion. While it is commonly accepted that hydrophilic surfaces repel proteins, conflicting data have lately concerned their hydrophobic counterparts. Here we investigate the potential in reducing protein adhesion of hydrophobic surfaces, glass (GS) and stainless steel (SS), modified by a two-step inorganic and a multi-step organic coatings. The inorganic coating derives from methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and the organic homologue consists of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The first part of the study offers new insights into systematically tuning preparation parameters leading to reproducible hydrophobic coating thicknesses that were highly robust and durable, regardless of the substrate nature. Treatment of SS with the two coatings under the same conditions confirmed the results found for GS. The last part of the study found that both MTMS-derived and PMMA-based coatings significantly reduced fetal bovine serum protein fouling with respect to uncoated substrates. The findings revealed that the dual-level coating morphology together with the molecular structure of MTMS and PMMA films are the key features in reducing protein fouling. The study is relevant for biomedical applications that require antifouling surfaces such as implant devices and surgical instruments.
The effect of majority party agenda setting on roll calls

How well can roll calls detect the causal impact of majority party agenda setting in Congress? Estimating the counterfactual required to assess the effects of majority party agenda setting is complicated by time-varying differences in the political environment and the fact that measures commonly used to control for compositional changes may themselves depend on the extent of agenda control being exercised. Using techniques popularized by recent work focused on causal inference, I characterize whether agenda changes occuring during changes in majority party control in the US House of Representatives are consistent with predictions from models of majority party agenda control. Comparing how the same members in consecutive Congresses are affected by changes in party control and using fixed effects to account for time-varying differences between consecutive Congresses helps isolate the changes in the agenda attributable to agenda setting. The analyses highlight the challenge in consistently estimating the effects of agenda control and suggest that although recent transitions produce patterns consistent with the predictions of agenda setting theories, the average effect over the post-Reconstruction period is harder to interpret as being produced by agenda control.
Financial Services Industry Challenges and Innovation Opportunities

Financial services provide complex financial intermediation to match sources and uses of USD $262T of funds globally, generating an annual revenue of USD $5T. Retail Banking (35%), Corporate and Commercial Banking (30%), Wealth, Asset Management and Investment Banking (18%), Payments (14%), and Financial Market Infrastructure (3%) constitute the five major financial services in terms of the share of this revenue. This paper presents an industry viewpoint of the financial services challenges with a call for action to the R&D community through broad finance industry goals to advance smart financial services to meet the economic, societal, and individual needs.
Learning from Ethical Violations in Public Accounting: A South African Audit Scandal and a Firm's Transformation

This case provides students with an opportunity to examine ethical issues and challenges encountered in public accounting. This real-life case occurred in South Africa, where wide-spread corruption...
Search for Ferroelectric Binary Oxides: Chemical and Structural Space Exploration Guided by Group Theory and Computations

The presence of bistable polarization states along with accessible switching capabilities make ferroelectrics an ideal candidate for a variety of applications. Although many conventional ferroelect...
Neural Crest Cell Diversification and Specification: Melanocytes

Melanocytes are neural crest-derived, melanin-producing pigment cells. They provide for pigmentation of the skin and its appendages, including feathers and hairs, and play critical roles in sensory organs. In the inner ear of mammals, they regulate the endocochlear milieu that enables auditory hair cells to function properly, and in the eye they influence organogenesis, light penetration, and image quality. The precursors to melanocytes, called melanoblasts, are segregated from other neural crest derivatives through interactions between signaling pathways and transcription factors, notably between the Wingless/Int family of protein/β-catenin signaling pathway, the KIT ligand/KIT-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, and the melanoblast/melanocyte transcription factor MITF (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor). In conjunction with a variety of other factors, including cell adhesion molecules, cell cycle regulators, and cytoskeletal components, extracellular signaling and MITF together control melanoblast survival, proliferation, migration, homing into distinct tissues, and ultimately regeneration of melanocytes from undifferentiated precursors. Hence, melanocytes are cells with multiple functions in the body, including essential functions in eye and inner ear, and they serve as an excellent model system to elucidate the fundamental principles of cell lineage development in the neural crest.
Inference of entropies of discrete random variables with unknown cardinalities

We examine the recently introduced NSB estimator of entropies of severely undersampled discrete variables and devise a procedure for calculating the involved integrals. We discover that the output of the estimator has a well defined limit for large cardinalities of the variables being studied. Thus one can estimate entropies with no a priori assumptions about these cardinalities, and a closed form solution for such estimates is given.
Individual- and party-level determinants of far-right support among women in Western Europe

Support for Western Europe’s far-right is majority-male. However, given the sweeping success of the party family, literature on this ‘gender gap’ belies support given to the radical right by millions of women. We examine differences between men and women’s support for far-right parties, focusing on workplace experience, positions on economic and cultural issues, and features of far-right parties themselves. We find that the received scholarship on blue-collar support for far-right populists is a largely male phenomenon, and women in routine nonmanual (i.e. service, sales, and clerical) work are more likely than those in blue-collar work to support the far-right. Moreover, while men who support the far-right tend to be conservative on other moral issues, certain liberal positions predict far-right support among women, at both the voter and party level. Our analysis suggests that gender differences may obscure the socio-structural and attitudinal bases of support for far-right parties and have broader implications for comparative political behavior and gender and politics.
Tatar empire: Kazan’s Muslims and the making of imperial Russia: by Danielle Ross, Bloomington, USA, Indiana University Press, 2020, 288 pp., $30.00 (paperback), ISBN: 9780253045713; $70.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9780253045706; $16.99 (eBook), ISBN: 9780253045720

Despite what might be inferred from the existence of at least two general survey books on Russia’s relation with Islam and its Muslims, the sheer variety of Muslims within the borders of the Russia...
Interconnect scaling challenges, and opportunities to enable system-level performance beyond 30 nm pitch

On-chip interconnects are fundamental to semiconductor functionality. We discuss the scaling challenges and opportunities to continue to offer increased system performance, especially as computing systems become heterogeneous. Continued focus must shift from traditional scaling and device performance towards providing the high interconnectivity needed to support heterogeneous systems.
Disseminated coccidioidomycosis in a patient who is immunocompromised in the setting of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

Coccidioidomycosis is a systemic fungal infection first described in 1892. More than 95% of annual cases occur in Arizona and California. It is an opportunistic infection (OI) transmitted via inhalation of airborne spores (arthroconidia) and rarely via percutaneous inoculation into a tissue or solid organ transplantation in patients who are immunocompromised and with HIV. With the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART), the incidence of OIs has markedly reduced; however, OIs continue to occur, particularly in patients who present late for medical care or delay ART initiation. In rare cases, immunodeficient individuals may experience a paradoxical worsening or unmasking of OI symptoms, known as the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). We present a case of a 31-year-old man with disseminated coccidioidomycosis affecting the spleen, lymph nodes, lungs, bone marrow, and adrenals who developed IRIS after the initiation of ART.
Postmeal optogenetic inhibition of dorsal hippocampal principal neurons increases future intake in a time-dependent manner.

Abstract Research involving human participants indicates that memories of recently eaten meals limit how much is eaten during subsequent eating episodes; yet, the brain regions that mediate the inhibitory effects of ingestion-related memory on future intake are largely unknown. We hypothesize that dorsal hippocampal (dHC) neurons, which are critical for episodic memories of personal experiences, mediate the inhibitory effects of ingestion-related memory on future intake. Our research program aimed at testing this hypothesis has been influenced in large part by our mentor James McGaugh and his research on posttraining manipulations. In the present study, we used an activity-guided optogenetic approach to test the prediction that if dHC glutamatergic neurons limit future intake through a process that requires memory consolidation, then inhibition should increase subsequent intake when given soon after the end of a meal but delayed inhibition should have no effect. Viral vectors containing CaMKIIα-eArchT3.0-eYFP and fiber optic probes were placed in the dHC of male Sprague-Dawley rats. Compared to intake on a day when no inhibition was given, postmeal inhibition of dHC glutamatergic neurons given for 10 min after the end of a saccharin meal increased the likelihood that rats would consume a second meal 90 min later and significantly increased the amount of saccharin solution consumed during that next meal when the neurons were no longer inhibited. Importantly, delayed inhibition given 80 min after the end of the saccharin meal did not affect subsequent intake of saccharin. Given that saccharin has minimal postingestive gastric consequences, these effects are not likely due to the timing of interoceptive visceral cues generated by the meal. These data show that dHC glutamatergic neural activity is necessary during the early postprandial period for limiting future intake and suggest that these neurons inhibit future intake by consolidating the memory of the preceding meal.
Online Verification of Deep Neural Networks under Domain or Weight Shift.

Although neural networks are widely used, it remains challenging to formally verify the safety and robustness of neural networks in real-world applications. Existing methods are designed to verify the network before use, which is limited to relatively simple specifications and fixed networks. These methods are not ready to be applied to real-world problems with complex and/or dynamically changing specifications and networks. To effectively handle dynamically changing specifications and networks, the verification needs to be performed online when these changes take place. However, it is still challenging to run existing verification algorithms online. Our key insight is that we can leverage the temporal dependencies of these changes to accelerate the verification process, e.g., by warm starting new online verification using previous verified results. This paper establishes a novel framework for scalable online verification to solve real-world verification problems with dynamically changing specifications and/or networks, known as domain shift and weight shift respectively. We propose three types of techniques (branch management, perturbation tolerance analysis, and incremental computation) to accelerate the online verification of deep neural networks. Experiment results show that our online verification algorithm is up to two orders of magnitude faster than existing verification algorithms, and thus can scale to real-world applications.
Characterizing the Shearing Stresses within the CDC Biofilm Reactor Using Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Shearing stresses are known to be a critical factor impacting the growth and physiology of biofilms, but the underlying fluid dynamics within biofilm reactors are rarely well characterized and not always considered when a researcher decides which biofilm reactor to use. The CDC biofilm reactor is referenced in validated Standard Test Methods and US EPA guidance documents. The driving fluid dynamics within the CDC biofilm reactor were investigated using computational fluid dynamics. An unsteady, three-dimensional model of the CDC reactor was simulated at a rotation rate of 125 RPM. The reactor showed turbulent structures, with shear stresses averaging near 0.365 ± 0.074 Pa across all 24 coupons. The pressure variation on the coupon surfaces was found to be larger, with a continuous 2–3 Pa amplitude, coinciding with the baffle passage. Computational fluid dynamics was shown to be a powerful tool for defining key fluid dynamic parameters at a high fidelity within the CDC biofilm reactor. The consistency of the shear stresses and pressures and the unsteadiness of the flow within the CDC reactor may help explain its reproducibility in laboratory studies. The computational model will enable researchers to make an informed decision whether the fluid dynamics present in the CDC biofilm reactor are appropriate for their research.
Malignant Gliomas: Treatment Using Genetically-Modified Neural Stem Cells

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive form of primary brain tumors, contain small population of tumor cells that carry cancer stem cell properties. These brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs) are highly invasive and mobile, have the capacity to self-renew, and are more resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. BTSCs can migrate away from the primary tumor sites and form microsatellite tumors. Thus, BTSCs have been proposed to play a key role in tumor progression, metastasis, and recurrence. Recent studies indicate that neural stem cells have the innate ability to track down tumor cells and may even slow tumor growth and progression. Thus, therapeutic neural stem cells can be developed by “arming” normal neural stem cells with genes cytotoxic to glioma cells and, more importantly, to BTSCs. Studies are currently underway to explore this new therapeutic approach to treat GBM using neural stem cells.
The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857)

Before her wedding-day, she had thought she was in love; but since she lacked the happiness that should come from that love, she must have been mistaken, she fancied. And Emma sought to find out exactly what was meant in real life by the words felicity , passion and rapture , which had seemed so fine on the pages of books. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857) Emma Bovary is the second wife of a provincial doctor characterized by plodding decency and his love of a wife he does not understand. When, after her willing seduction by the shallow Rodolphe, Emma suddenly announces to no one “I have a lover! A lover!” we know why she is so happy: for the first time this avid reader has managed to make her disappointingly ordinary existence conform to the conventions of fiction (150). Famously, marriage is the final destination toward which the story of a fictional heroine traditionally tends, but Emma's story begins only after hers. Madame Bovary works by literalizing the symbolism of the traditional female plot that makes marriage a kind of figurative death, the conclusion to the heroine's existence on the page, the point at which her story ends. The outcome of all plots is, you might say, plotlessness, and death is the plotless condition par excellence because it is where nothing else can happen. Emma's “failing” is that she cannot see that marriage is supposed to be, death-like, an end to all adventures.
Improved efficiency piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite transducers

Conventional piezoelectric ceramic/polymer 1-3 composite transducers comprise ceramic pillars embedded in a solid polymer matrix. In the new design described, an additional phase in the form of aligned vertical compressible inclusions in present. These inclusions, which typically take the form of gas filled holes, permit improved electromechanical efficiency and unformity of thickness dilation. The design has applications in both the active pulse-echo mode and the passive low frequency receiver mode. Finite element analysis is employed to obtain theoretical results. These findings are supported by a limited number of experimental results. >
Signatures of surface targets with increasing speed in spotlight synthetic aperture radar

This paper investigates the signature characteristics in spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery for surface targets that are increasing speed during the collection interval. This study considers the broadside geometry case wherein the radar sensor moves with constant speed and heading on a level flight path. The analysis concentrates on the target migration effects in which the moving target smear exhibits some defocus in the range direction, although much smaller in magnitude than the smearing in the radar cross-range direction. This paper focuses on the case of a target that executes a speed transition during the SAR collection interval. The SAR simulations are shown to give moving target signatures that are in agreement with the predicted shapes of the central contours.
Personality's association with IADLs in community dwelling older adults.

Objectives Extant research has established several predictors of functional ability (FA) in older adults (OAs); however, one factor that has been relatively ignored is personality. Preliminary evidence suggests that openness and agreeableness are associated with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). However, how personality is related to IADLs remains unclear. We aimed to determine how personality factors predict performance of IADLs, which we hypothesized, was because of executive functioning (EF). Methods To best understand the relationship between personality and IADLs, we recruited and ran 65 independent community dwelling OAs. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical regressions were completed to determine the associations between openness and agreeableness with IADLs. Lastly, mediation analyses were completed to examine our hypothesis that EF would mediate this relationship Results Correlation and regression findings support the relationship between openness and IADLs but not agreeableness and IADLs. As hypothesized, the relationship between openness and IADLs was mediated by EF. Conclusions We replicated the relationship between openness and IADLs and extend the literature by showing the mechanism of action for this relationship is EF. While our mediation results support this perspective, future research should determine if interventions that increase OAs' EF, in turn, increase or attenuate decline in IADLs over time. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A 3.3 volt electronically tunable active filter usable to beyond 1 GHz

A very high frequency low voltage active filter is proposed which is based on the "log filters" introduced by Frey (1993). These filters have been shown to be a special case of exponential state space filters. Log filters are particularly well suited for high frequency applications since they are essentially current mode networks. They are also well suited to low power supply operation, not only because of their current-mode nature, but also because there is no overhead associated with linearization, since the intrinsic nonlinearity is an integral part of the design formulation. In this paper it is shown that log filter topologies are possible which function well at 3.3 volts. >
Reliability VIA Designed Experiments

The sections in this article are 1 Reliability Theory Overview 2 Factors Affecting Reliability 3 Types of Experimental Design 4 Applicability of Experimental Design to Software Testing 5 Experimental Assessment of Software Reliability 6 Software Reliability: an Overview of the Problem 7 Foundations 8 Getting the Metaphor Right 9 The Conduct of Inquiry 10 Experimental Objectives
Who receives drug education in our schools?: a paradox.

Data from a national survey by the United States Department of Justice of 47,000 households reveals a paradox regarding who receives drug education in primary and secondary schools. Those who would seem to need it the most are least likely to receive it. Thus, blacks receive drug education classes less often than whites, students in central city classes less often than those in other regions, and students who report that drugs are available are also less likely to receive drug education classes than students who report that drugs are not available. The results are paradoxical, but consistent with a study by Denson, Voight, and Eisenman which found that predominantly black schools in Louisiana provided less AIDS education than predominantly white schools [1].
Stable second-order optical non-linearity in novel photocrosslinkable polymers

Optical characterization of novel photocrosslinkable second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers are presented. These polymer systems have been designed with nonlinear optical moieties in the polymer main chain. When poled and sufficiently photocrosslinked these polymers exhibit relatively stable second-order optical nonlinearity at room temperature. The linear optical and second-order NLO properties of these recently synthesized polymers have been investigated. Second harmonic generation (SHG) was utilized to monitor the temporal stability of the nonlinearity. The linear electro-optic coefficients were measured with a modified Michelson interferometer. 1.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Peritoneal metastases in two patients with pineoblastoma and ventriculo-peritoneal shunts.

We report the uncommon occurrence of ventriculo-peritoneal shunt-associated peritoneal metastases in two patients with pineoblastoma. In one patient, the peritoneal cavity was the only site of recurrence; there was no evidence of disease recurrence in the central nervous system. One other patient with recurrent intracranial disease had synchronous, but asymptomatic, peritoneal metastases which were detected on an elective ultrasound. Although rare, peritoneal metastases appear to respond well to systemic chemotherapy. Ultrasound surveillance of the abdomen should be considered as a part of the routine follow-up evaluation in patients with embryonal central nervous system tumors and ventriculo-peritoneal shunts. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Transforming growth factor-β1 stimulates vascular smooth muscle cell l-proline transport by inducing system A amino acid transporter 2 (SAT2) gene expression

Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta 1) is a multifunctional cytokine that contributes to arterial remodelling by stimulating vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) growth and collagen synthesis at sites of vascular injury. Since l-proline is essential for the synthesis of collagen, we examined whether TGF-beta 1 regulates the transcellular transport of l-proline by vascular SMCs. l-Proline uptake by vascular SMCs was primarily sodium-dependent, pH-sensitive, blocked by neutral amino acids and alpha-(methylamino)isobutyric acid, and exhibited trans-inhibition. Treatment of SMCs with TGF-beta 1 stimulated l-proline transport in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The TGF-beta 1-mediated l-proline uptake was inhibited by cycloheximide or actinomycin D. Kinetic studies indicated that TGF-beta 1-induced l-proline transport was mediated by an increase in transport capacity independent of any changes in the affinity for l-proline. TGF-beta 1 stimulated the expression of system A amino acid transporter 2 (SAT2) mRNA in a time-dependent fashion that paralleled the increase in l-proline transport. Reverse transcriptase PCR failed to detect the presence of SAT1 or amino acid transporter 3 (ATA3) in either untreated or TGF-beta 1-treated SMCs. These results demonstrate that l-proline transport by vascular SMCs is mediated predominantly by the SAT and that TGF-beta 1 stimulates SMC l-proline uptake by inducing the expression of the SAT2 gene. The ability of TGF-beta 1 to induce SAT2 expression may function to provide SMCs with the necessary levels of l-proline required for collagen synthesis and cell growth.
Overturning of Stearic Acid Molecules in Monolayers

I HAVE recently reported some experiments on the exchange of stearic acid molecules and potassium ions between mica surfaces brought into contact and emphasized the importance of these phenomena in lubrication1. I wish now to describe some further results of these experiments, and discuss their significance in terms of the motions which long-chain polar molecules in mono-molecular layers on solid surfaces may undergo.
Abstract B47: New role for α-catenin family member α-catulin in squamous cell carcinoma invasion and metastasis.

The capacity of tumor cells to produce metastases is the main features of malignant tumors and the main causes of death for cancer. Squamous cell cancers comprise the most common types of human epithelial cancers. One subtype, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), is a particularly aggressive cancer with poor prognosis due to late diagnosis and metastasis. Here we find that in vivo, the α-catenin homologue — α-catulin, is highly expressed at the tumor invasion front and in the metastatic streams of cells in both malignant human HNSCCs and a mouse model of oral SCC. Knockdown of α-catulin in hHNSCC cell lines dramatically decrease the migratory and invasive potential of those cells in vitro and metastatic potential in xenotransplants in vivo. Analysis of tumors deficient in α-catulin showed that the tumor cells are unable to invade the surrounding stroma. Accordingly, transcriptional profiling of those tumors revealed that α-catulin ablation is accompanied by changes in genes involved in cell migration and invasion. In vitro an upregulation of α-catulin expression correlates with the transition of tumor cells from an epithelial to a mesenchymal morphology, as well as an upregulation of EMT markers vimentin and snail. Overall, these results strongly indicate that α-catulin contributes to the invasive behavior of metastatic cells, and may be used as a prognostic marker and future therapeutic target for cancer patients. Citation Format: Christine Cao, Yibu Chen, Rizwan Masood, Uttam Sinha, Agnieszka Kobielak. New role for α-catenin family member α-catulin in squamous cell carcinoma invasion and metastasis.. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Invasion and Metastasis; Jan 20-23, 2013; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(3 Suppl):Abstract nr B47.
Informing disease models with temporal and spatial contact structure among GPS-collared individuals in wild populations.

Contacts between hosts are essential for transmission of many infectious agents. Understanding how contacts, and thus transmission rates, occur in space and time is critical to effectively responding to disease outbreaks in free-ranging animal populations. Contacts between animals in the wild are often difficult to observe or measure directly. Instead, one must infer contacts from metrics such as proximity in space and time. Our objective was to examine how contacts between white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) vary in space and among seasons. We used GPS movement data from 71 deer in central New York State to quantify potential direct contacts between deer and indirect overlap in space use across time and space. Daily probabilities of direct contact decreased from winter (0.05–0.14), to low levels post-parturition through summer (0.00–0.02), and increased during the rut to winter levels. The cumulative distribution for the spatial structure of direct and indirect contact probabilities around a hypothetical point of occurrence increased rapidly with distance for deer pairs separated by 1,000 m – 7,000 m. Ninety-five percent of the probabilities of direct contact occurred among deer pairs within 8,500 m of one another, and 99% within 10,900 m. Probabilities of indirect contact accumulated across greater spatial extents: 95% at 11,900 m and 99% at 49,000 m. Contacts were spatially consistent across seasons, indicating that although contact rates differ seasonally, they occur proportionally across similar landscape extents. Distributions of contact probabilities across space can inform management decisions for assessing risk and allocating resources in response.