cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bifunctional Role of Transforming Growth Factor-β during Granulosa Cell Development

Regulatory actions of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) on granulosa cell function were analyzed in cells cultured from the ovaries of diethylstilbestrol-implanted rats. In the presence of a suboptimal concentration of FSH (5 ng/ml) that increased LH receptors by 100-fold during a 72-h culture, TGF beta augmented this response in a dose-dependent manner with a maximal effect at 16 pM. In contrast, the growth factor inhibited the LH receptor response to an optimal dose of FSH (50 ng) by up to 50% and was inactive in the absence of gonadotropin. TGF beta also enhanced the formation of cAMP by 5 ng FSH and partially inhibited the effects of higher FSH concentrations. However, the actions of TGF beta were more prominent on LH receptor induction than on cAMP production with either low or high amounts of FSH. In addition, TGF beta had little effect on cAMP production stimulated by cholera toxin or forskolin, but amplified the actions of these ligands as well as that of 8-bromo-cAMP on LH receptor expression. TGF beta also modulated the steroidogenic activity of the granulosa cells, with increased production of progesterone in response to 5-100 ng FSH. The bifunctional actions of TGF beta on FSH-induced LH receptor formation were observed throughout a 96-h culture period. However, the presence of the growth factor was not required for the first 24 h of culture, indicating that TGF beta alters the later events involved in LH receptor formation. TGF beta augmented the stimulatory actions of 5 ng FSH on LH receptors in the absence or presence of insulin, but its inhibitory effect on these receptors was only observed in cells treated with insulin. These results indicate that TGF beta modifies FSH action during granulosa cell development in a biphasic manner. TGF beta can exert stimulatory or inhibitory effects depending upon the concentration of FSH and the presence of insulin, and these are due to alterations in cAMP action as well as cAMP production. Autocrine and/or endocrine actions of TGF beta during granulosa cell differentiation may be involved in the processes of follicle selection and development.
The Lack of Fidelity between Cognitively Complex Constructs and Conventional Test Development Practice.

Do current test development practices align well with the cognitively complex constructs being called for in the educational reform movement? What types of test development practices are needed to develop measures of cognitively complex constructs?
From Traditional to Non-Traditional: An Adaptive Procedure for Assessing the Instruction Librarian

Assessment of teaching is an important part of growing as an instruction librarian. The article presents how instruction librarians can apply the small group analysis technique to improve their teaching skills. The benefit of using the small group analysis is its flexibility; it can be customized to meet the needs of the librarian and feedback from students can be collected and used to make changes. Through a case study, the authors demonstrate how the continuous use of this teaching assessment can improve the teaching skills of the librarian and lead to curriculum changes as well.
Language, art, and documentation: exploring yte visual process for greater audience comprehension

Technical Writer - Document - Audience: The Technical Writer, ever-concerned with providing their audience with documents that will communicate ideas in as clear and concise a manner as possible, has relied all too heavily on the written word to accomplish this objective. This, however, is not enough and further investigation of the communication process is required. The Technical Writer, in order to create new ways to facilitate audience comprehension, must explore the visual process for more progressive alternatives. The result: fusing Language with the visual richness of Art.
Group decision support systems (GDSS): present and future

Experience with an automated system of support (PLEXSYS), to make meetings more productive through improved communication, decision making, consensus building, negotiation and deliberation is discussed. Observations, case studies, and experiments indicate that there is high potential for improving the performance of group meetings. Six group work systems are briefly described. Findings are discussed in terms of anonymity of participation, facility design, need for multiple public screens, organizational memory, communications network speed, methodological approach, software design, mixing of manual and electronic sessions, group size and composition, and satisfaction of the users. >
Child and Family Characteristics Influencing Intervention Choices in Autism Spectrum Disorders

A myriad of treatment options are available for children with autism, yet little is understood regarding characteristics of parents (e.g., education) and children (e.g., severity of autism symptoms) that influence types and amounts of therapy utilization. Interviews from 70 families were analyzed to determine potential influences on utilization (e.g., start of first services, use of traditional services). Descriptive findings regarding therapy types were similar to national studies. However, only three of the variables predicted utilization of specific therapies: severity of sensory processing problems was associated with earlier initiation of services in general, and higher maternal and paternal education was associated with the use of dietary and/or vitamin therapy as well as with more types of services. No other variables had predictive value; thus, the amount and type of therapies received may be more related to diagnostic practices and/or to the affordances/constraints of service delivery and reimbursement systems at particular ages.
On-demand location-aided QoS routing in ad hoc networks

With the development and application of position devices, location-based routing has received growing attention. However, little study has been done on QoS routing with the aid of location information. The existing location-based routing approaches, such as flooding-based routing schemes and localized routing schemes, have their limitations. Motivated by ticket-based routing, we propose an on-demand location-aided, ticket-based QoS routing protocol (LTBR). Two special cases of LTBR, LTBR-1 and LTBR-2, are discussed in detail. LTBR-1 uses a single ticket to find a route satisfying a given QoS constraint. LTBR-2 uses multiple tickets to search valid routes in a limited area. All tickets are guided via both location and QoS information. LTBR has lower overhead compared with the original ticket-based routing, because it does not rely on an underlying routing table. On the other hand, LTBR can find routes with better QoS qualities than traditional location-based protocols. Our simulation results show that LTBR-1 can find high quality routes in relatively dense networks with high probability and very low overhead. In sparse networks, LTBR-2 can be used to enhance the probability of finding high quality routes with acceptable overhead.
Planar [00. l] disorder in sodium beta alumina

00./and 01./ lattice images are used to show the presence of [OO.l] disorder in β alumina. It is shown that both stacking sequence faults and β″ intergrowth are present. The faults are believed to be introduced in the early stages of sintering when spinel block ledges are added out of sequence during growth in the [00. l] direction. The observations show that the planar disorder observed by Bevan et al. [4] cannot be attributed solely to heterophase intergrowth.
Value of mucosal assessment and biomarkers in inflammatory bowel disease.

Clinical remission at a single point in time provides surprisingly little predictive value for future inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) activity owing to the waxing and waning nature of the disease course. Furthermore, patients often present with complications of IBD despite apparent clinical remission, suggesting that undetected subclinical inflammation is driving these complications. This has led to research on a variety of surrogate markers of biologically significant asymptomatic inflammatory disease activity, including endoscopic healing, histologic normalization and biomarkers of inflammation in the blood and stool. If these have strong predictive value, they could be used to risk-stratify patients and justify the early use of immunomodulators and anti-TNF agents. Mucosal healing has been associated with positive outcomes in IBD, but the supporting data are largely retrospective and subject to channeling bias, and it is not clear whether complete mucosal healing produces better outcomes than partial ...
Hormone Replacement Therapy and the Risk of Reproductive Cancers

The current literature evaluating the associations between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers is reviewed. These associations are examined in the context of risks conveyed by exposure to endogenous hormones, as well as other exogenous exposures, particularly oral contraceptive use. The extensive and controversial literature on HRT and breast cancer risk is reviewed in detail. On balance, these data suggest a small increased risk (RR = 1.2–1.3) for long-term, current users of HRT. The most recent and largest cohort study found a greater risk, even for lower estrogen formulations (≤ 0.625 mg/day), particularly among older women who have used HRT for at least 5 years (RR = 1.7). There is little evidence that the addition of progestin protects against this risk. The extent to which associations vary by: subject characteristics (such as type of menopause, or family history), exposure characteristics (dose, duration and type of hormone) and study design issues (study q...
Retinoic acid represses CYP7A1 expression in human hepatocytes and HepG2 cells by FXR/RXR-dependent and independent mechanisms

Cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) plays a key role in maintaining lipid and bile salt homeostasis as it is the rate-limiting enzyme converting cholesterol to bile acids. Deficiency of CYP7A1 leads to hyperlipidemia in man and mouse. Hyperlipidemia is often seen in patients when treated with high-dose retinoic acid (RA), but the molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Our present study revealed that CYP7A1 mRNA expression is greatly repressed by RA in both human hepatocytes and HepG2 cells where increased fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and small heterodimer partner (SHP) expressions were also observed, suggesting farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR) were activated. Promoter reporter assays demonstrate that all-trans RA (atRA) specifically activated FXR/RXR. However, detailed molecular analyses indicate that this activation is through RXR, whose ligand is 9-cis RA. Knocking down of FXR or RXRα by small interference RNA (siRNA) in human hepatocytes increased CYP7A1 basal expression, but the repressive effect of atRA persisted, suggesting there are also FXR/RXR-independent mechanisms mediating atRA repression of CYP7A1 expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay and cell transfection results indicate that PGC-1α plays a role in the FXR/RXR-independent mechanism. Our findings may provide a potential explanation for hyperlipidemic side effects observed in some patients treated with high-dose RA.
Generative modeling: a symbolic system for geometric modeling

This paper discusses a new, symbolic approach to geometric modeling called generative modeling. The approach allows specification, rendering, and analysis of a wide variety of shapes including 3D curves, surfaces, and solids, as well as higher-dimensioned shapes such as surfaces deforming in time, and volumes with a spatially varying mass density. The system also supports powerful operations on shapes such as “reparameterize this curve by arclength”, “compute the volume, center of mass, and moments of inertia of the solid bounded by these surfaces”, or “solve this constraint or ODE system”. The system has been used for a wide variety of applications, including creating surfaces for computer graphics animations, modeling the fur and body shape of a teddy bear, constructing 3D solid models of elastic bodies, and extracting surfaces from magnetic resonance (MR) data. Shapes in the system are specified using a language which builds multidimensional parametric functions. The language is baaed on a set of symbolic operators on continuous, piecewise differentiable parametric functions. We present several shape examples to show bow conveniently shapes can be specified in the system. We also discuss the kinds of operators useful in a geometric modeling system, including arithmetic operators, vector and matrix operators, integration, differentiation, constraint solution, and constrained minimisation. Associated with each operator are several methods, which compute properties about the parametric functions represented with the operators. We show how many powerful rendering and analytical operations can be supported with only three methods: evaluation of the parametric function at a point, symbolic dlfferentiation of the parametric function, and evacuation of an inclusion function for the parametric function. Like CSG, and unlike most other geometric modeling approaches, 3Ms modeling approach is closed, meaning that further modeling operations cart be applied to any results of modeling operations, yielding valid models. Because of this closure property, the symbolic operators can be composed very flexibly, allowing the construction of higher-level operators without changing the underlying implementation of the system. Because the modeling operations are described symbolically, specified models can capture the designer’s intent without approximation error.
Androgen Influence on Prefrontal Dopamine Systems in Adult Male Rats: Localization of Cognate Intracellular Receptors in Medial Prefrontal Projections to the Ventral Tegmental Area and Effects of Gonadectomy and Hormone Replacement on Glutamate-Stimulated Extracellular Dopamine Level

Although androgens are known to modulate dopamine (DA) systems and DA-dependent behaviors of the male prefrontal cortex (PFC), how this occurs remains unclear. Because relatively few ventral tegmental area (VTA) mesoprefrontal DA neurons contain intracellular androgen receptors (ARs), studies presented here combined retrograde tracing and immunolabeling for AR in male rats to determine whether projections afferent to the VTA might be more AR enriched. Results revealed PFC-to-VTA projections to be substantially AR enriched. Because these projections modulate VTA DA cell firing and PFC DA levels, influence over this pathway could be means whereby androgens modulate PFC DA. To assess the hormone sensitivity of glutamate stimulation of PFC DA tone, additional studies utilized microdialysis/reverse dialysis application of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subtype-selective antagonists which act locally within the PFC and tegmentally via inhibition or disinhibition of PFC-to-VTA afferents to modulate intracortical DA levels. Here, we compared the effects of these drug challenges in control, gonadectomized, and gonadectomized rats given testosterone or estradiol. This revealed complex effects of gonadectomy on antagonist-stimulated PFC DA levels that together with the anatomical data above suggest that androgen stimulation of PFC DA systems does engage glutamatergic circuitry and perhaps that of the AR-enriched glutamatergic projections from PFC-to-VTA specifically.
A simple method to incorporate the effects of an RF shield into RF resonator analysis for MRI applications

A simple but effective method is proposed to incorporate the effects of a radiofrequency (RF) shield into the analysis of RF resonators for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications. It Is shown that the method can predict the resonant frequencies of RF resonators within 5% of the measured values. >
Reovirus Growth in Cell Culture Does Not Require the Full Complement of Viral Proteins: Identification of a ς1s-Null Mutant

The reovirus sigma1s protein is a 14-kDa nonstructural protein encoded by the S1 gene segment. The S1 gene has been linked to many properties of reovirus, including virulence and induction of apoptosis. Although the function of sigma1s is not known, the sigma1s open reading frame is conserved in all S1 gene sequences determined to date. In this study, we identified and characterized a variant of type 3 reovirus, T3C84-MA, which does not express sigma1s. To facilitate these experiments, we generated two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that bind different epitopes of the sigma1s protein. Using these MAbs in immunoblot and immunofluorescence assays, we found that L929 (L) cells infected with T3C84-MA do not contain sigma1s. To determine whether sigma1s is required for reovirus infection of cultured cells, we compared the growth of T3C84-MA and its parental strain, T3C84, in L cells and Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. After 48 h of growth, yields of T3C84-MA were equivalent to yields of T3C84 in L cells and were fivefold lower than yields of T3C84 in MDCK cells. After 7 days of growth following adsorption at a low multiplicity of infection, yields of T3C84-MA and T3C84 did not differ significantly in either L cells or MDCK cells. To determine whether sigma1s is required for apoptosis induced by reovirus infection, T3C84-MA and T3C84 were tested for their capacity to induce apoptosis, using an acridine orange staining assay. In these experiments, the percentages of apoptotic cells following infection with T3C84-MA and T3C84 were equivalent. These findings indicate that nonstructural protein sigma1s is not required for reovirus growth in cell culture and does not influence the capacity of reovirus to induce apoptosis. Therefore, reovirus replication does not require the full complement of virally encoded proteins.
Dynamic Var/Harmonic Compensation with Inverter-Less Active Filters

Industrial plants are faced with stringent requirements enforced by the utility to meet power factor and power quality requirements. These plants, in order to avoid very costly penalties, have traditionally utilized switchable shunt capacitor banks with detuning reactors for power factor correction, along with a separate active harmonic filter in cases where harmonic currents are an issue as well. Alternate solutions such as SVCs and STATCOMs have been considered to be too expensive for use in industrial power conditioning applications. This paper proposes a dynamic capacitor (D-CAP) based on the family of inverter-less active filters (ILAF) that is able to provide a dynamically controllable capacitance with active harmonic compensation integrated onto the same unit. This new device is seen to be compact, and is likely to be cost competitive against simple switched shunt capacitors. It can maintain power factor close to unity, offering dynamic capabilities better than switched capacitors or SVCs, possibly lending itself for arc-furnace type of loads.
DISTRIBUTION OF POST-VOID RESIDUAL URINE VOLUME IN RANDOMLY SELECTED MEN

AbstractPurpose: We describe the distribution of post-void residual urine volume and its relationship to other urological measurements in a random sample of men.Materials and Methods: Post-void residual was measured by transabdominal ultrasonography after voiding and prostate volume was measured by transrectal ultrasonography in 477 randomly selected community dwelling white men as part of a baseline urological evaluation. Symptoms were characterized with the American Urological Association symptom index. Acute urinary retention cases with catheterization in the subsequent 3 to 4 years were identified through chart review.Results: The distribution of post-void residual was highly skewed with a median of 9.5 ml., and 25th and 75th percentiles equal to 2.5 and 35.4, respectively. There was a significant correlation of post-void residual with prostate volume (rs = 0.24, p <0.001). The odds of post-void residual greater than 50 ml. were 2.5 times greater for men with prostate volume greater than 30 ml. than t...
Template-directed self-assembly by way of molecular recognition at the micellar-solvent interface: modulation of the critical micelle concentration.

By incorporating the concepts of structural preorganisation and complementarity in concert with non-covalent donor–acceptor [π⋯π] and hydrophobic interactions, a duo of π-electron deficient bipyridinium-based linear and gemini amphiphiles capable of responding to molecular templation have been designed and synthesised. When combined with π-electron rich di(ethylene glycol)-disubstituted 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene, a dramatic decrease in the critical aggregation concentration by ≈66% was observed with concomitant increases in the hydrodynamic diameter, ζ-potential, and Langmuir surface pressures of the micellar solutions—thus enhancing the detergents’ efficiency and effectiveness at lowering the surface tension of water. By employing a phase separation model that takes into account the degree of counterion binding to the micellar aggregate superstructure, the effects of donor–acceptor templation on the Gibb's free energy of micellisation (ΔG°M) for the amphiphiles was quantified. It was found that donor–acceptor templation was capable of lowering ΔG°M by up to 1.75 kcal mol−1 at which point it was observed, while under the influence of molecular templation, that linear single hydrophobic tailed detergent molecules exhibit properties characteristic of double-tailed phospholipid-like gemini surfactants.
Periodic mesoporous silica gels

We have synthesized monolithic particulate gels of periodic mesoporous silica by adding tetramethoxysilane to a homogeneous alkaline micellar precursor solution. The gels exhibit 5 characteristic length scales over 4 orders of magnitude: fractal domains larger than the particle size (>500 nm), particles that are {approximately}150 to 500 nm in diameter, interparticle pores that are on the order of the particle size, a feature in the gas adsorption measurements that indicates pores {approximately}10-50 nm, and periodic hexagonal arrays of {approximately}3 nm channels within each particle. The wet gel monoliths exhibit calculated densities as low as {approximately}0.02 g/cc; the dried and calcined gels have bulk densities that range from {approximately}0.3-0.5 g/cc. The materials possess large interparticle ({approximately}1.0-2.3 cc/g) and intraparticle ({approximately}0.6 cc/g) porosities.
Reference priors for a product of normal means when variances are unknown

The reference priors of Berger and Bernardo (1992) are derived for normal populations with unknown variances when the product of means is of interest. The priors are also shown to be Tibshirani's (1989) matching priors. Les auteurs determinent la forme des lois a priori de reference de Berger et Bernardo (1992) dans le cas de populations normales de variances inconnues dont le produit des moyennes est le parametre d'interet. Ils demontrent en outre que ces lois a priori coincident avec les lois a priori appariees de Tibshirani (1989).
Measurement time reduction for generation lifetimes

The defect properties of thin semiconductor layers (epitaxial and denuded zones as well as silicon on insulator) are not as easily characterized as those of bulk wafers. Recombination lifetime or diffusion length measurements, routinely used for bulk wafers, are unreliable when the layer thickness is significantly less than the diffusion length. Generation lifetime measurements are eminently suitable for such characterization because the characterized thickness of the sample is determined by the space-charge region width. However, the measurement times become inordinately long for high quality layers when pulsed MOS capacitors are used as test structures. Times of hundreds or even thousands of seconds per measurement are not uncommon. We present two methods to reduce this measurement time: optical excitation and elevated temperature. Optical excitation can only be used if the light is pulsed and the lifetime is measured from the remaining "dark" curve. Steady-state light leads to erroneous lifetimes and should not be used. Elevated temperature measurements lead to temperature-varying lifetimes, because the generation lifetime may be temperature dependent.
The effect of fire interval on post-fire understorey communities in Yellowstone National Park

Abstract Questions: How does the time interval between subsequent stand-replacing fire events affect post-fire understorey cover and composition following the recent event? How important is fire interval relative to broad- or local-scale environmental variability in structuring post-fire understorey communities? Location: Subalpine plateaus of Yellowstone National Park (USA) that burned in 1988. Methods: In 2000, we sampled understorey cover and Pinus contorta density in pairs of 12-yr old stands at 25 locations. In each pair, the previous fire interval was either short (7–100 yr) or long (100–395 yr). We analysed variation in understorey species richness, total cover, and cover of functional groups both between site pairs (using paired t-tests) and across sites that experienced the short fire intervals (using regression and ordination). We regressed three principal components to assess the relative importance of disturbance and broad or local environmental variability on post-fire understorey cover and r...
I CRM – Einflussfaktoren und theoretische Grundlagen

Ein klares, umfassendes Verstandnis von CRM ist grundlegende Voraussetzung fur eine ganzheitliche Analyse der Bedeutung und der Rollen, d. h. der Aufgaben und Funktionen, der Mitarbeiter im CRM.
Scarab-Stamped Impressions and Weaving at Middle Bronze Age Tell Dothan

The excavations at Tell Dothan in Palestine, which took place during the middle of the past century, uncovered important remains from the Middle Bronze Age. This article presents previously unpublished artifacts from the courtyard of the "patrician's house" at Tell Dothan. The most significant artifacts from this assemblage are a scarab-stamped jar handle and two scarab-stamped loom weights. In addition to making these objects available for the first time, this article also considers how scarab-stamped loom weights may have functioned at the site. DOI:10.2458/azu_jaei_v06i2_migilio
Relationship building in nation branding: The central role of nation brand commitment

The essence of nation branding is relationship building. Nation brand commitment is proposed in this study to indicate the strength of one’s relationship with a nation brand. A conceptual model is posited to explain how a nation brand impacts consumers’ traveling and product purchasing intention. It is discovered that nation brand trustworthiness positively predicts nation brand commitment, which in turn positively influences consumers’ traveling intention. The cultural value of uncertainty avoidance influences nation brand commitment in a negative way. Moreover, cultural distance attenuates the impact of nation brand commitment on traveling intention and product purchase intention. Implications and directions for future research are also provided.
Fault tolerant finite-time leader-follower formation control for autonomous surface vessels with LOS range and angle constraints

In this work, we present a novel fault tolerant leader-follower formation control scheme for a group of underactuated autonomous surface vessels with partially known control input gain functions, where the line-of-sight (LOS) range and angle tracking errors are required to be constrained. Both parametric system uncertainties with time-varying unknown functions and nonparametric system uncertainties satisfying norm-bounded conditions are discussed. To address LOS range and angle constraints and finite time convergence, time-varying t a n -type barrier Lyapunov functions (BLFs) are incorporated with the control scheme. For the formation control, only measurements of LOS range and angle are used for control implementation, no other information about the leader is required. We show that under the proposed control method, despite the presence of actuator faults and system uncertainties, the formation tracking errors can converge into arbitrarily small neighborhoods around zero in finite time, while the constraint requirements on the LOS range and angle will not be violated. All closed loop signals are bounded. Simulation results further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Adrenal Responses of California Quail Subjected to Various Physiologic Stimuli.

SummaryAdrenal responses of pen-raised and wild California valley quail subjected to caging, cold, cortisol, and ACTH treatments have been studied and compared. Groups of pen-raised and wild birds showed no consistent nor significant differences in either adrenal weight or histometry. Spleen weights were highly variable. No histologic evidence of thyroid activation was seen in birds subjected to cold. Experimental treatments, potentially capable of causing marked adrenal responses in common laboratory mammals, were relatively ineffectual in eliciting adrenal response in the quail. It is suggested that the adrenal, and possibly the thyroid, may be comparatively non-reactive in quail as compared with laboratory mammals.
Improvements in medical laboratory performance.

How can the physician be sure he is getting reliable laboratory results? He can check with laboratory personnel to see if they control quality. Do they use proper standards? Do they calibrate instruments? Do they participate and perform satisfactorily in proficiency-testing services originating outside their laboratory? And finally, do laboratory results consistently jibe with clinical judgment?
Effector, Memory, and Dysfunctional CD8+ T Cell Fates in the Antitumor Immune Response

The adaptive immune system plays a pivotal role in the host's ability to mount an effective, antigen-specific immune response against tumors. CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) mediate tumor rejection through recognition of tumor antigens and direct killing of transformed cells. In growing tumors, TILs are often functionally impaired as a result of interaction with, or signals from, transformed cells and the tumor microenvironment. These interactions and signals can lead to transcriptional, functional, and phenotypic changes in TILs that diminish the host's ability to eradicate the tumor. In addition to effector and memory CD8+ T cells, populations described as exhausted, anergic, senescent, and regulatory CD8+ T cells have been observed in clinical and basic studies of antitumor immune responses. In the context of antitumor immunity, these CD8+ T cell subsets remain poorly characterized in terms of fate-specific biomarkers and transcription factor profiles. Here we discuss the current characterization of CD8+ T cell fates in antitumor immune responses and discuss recent insights into how signals in the tumor microenvironment influence TIL transcriptional networks to promote CD8+ T cell dysfunction.
The changing political character of American farmers: 1954–2008

Abstract Early studies of political attitudes and behaviors of agrarian voters in the United States argue that farmers are one of the most volatile voting groups in American history and that they have fluctuated over the 19th and 20th centuries in their political loyalties. More recent studies have produced contradictory findings about their partisan loyalties, ideology, efficacy, and participation rates, though, leaving the nature of this voting group unclear. Furthermore, as the size of the farm population has declined, studies of their political loyalties have become scarce. I review the previous research on farmers and their political attitudes; I then update these studies by examining farmers' party loyalties and political attitudes (partisanship, interest in public affairs, political trust, and efficacy) over time from the 1950s through 2008 using pooled American National Election Studies (ANES) data. I examine whether the changes result from aging, period, or generational (cohort) forces. I then compare the changes identified in this study with previous findings to assess whether agrarian attitudes remain unique and changing or have stabilized and become more like the rest of the population.
Method of Dyadic Green’s Functions

In this chapter, method of dyadic Green’s function (DGF) for electromagnetic wave problems is introduced. A very practical method to obtain dyadic Green’s function for general anisotropic medium is discussed. The duality relations between DGFs are obtained and their application is illustrated. DGFs for unbounded and layered uniaxially anisotropic, unbounded and layered gyrotropic medium are derived.
On univariate function identification problems

Applications in the areas of data fitting, forecasting, and estimation naturally lead to a rich class of constrained infinite-dimensional optimization problems over extended real-valued semicontinuous functions. We discuss a framework for dealing with such applications, even in the presence of nearly arbitrary constraints on the functions. We formulate computationally tractable approximating problems relying on piecewise polynomial semicontinuous approximations of the actual functions. The approximations enable the study of evolving problems caused by incrementally arriving data and other information. In contrast to an earlier more general treatment, we focus on optimization over functions defined on a compact interval of the real line, which still addresses a large number of applications. The paper provides an introduction to the subject through simplified derivations and illustrative examples.
Implications of Rapid Environmental Change for Polar Bear Behavior and Sociality

Historically, the Arctic sea ice has functioned as a structural barrier that has limited the nature and extent of interactions between humans and polar bears (Ursus maritimus). However, declining sea ice extent, brought about by global climate change, is increasing the potential for human-polar bear interactions. Loss of sea ice habitat is driving changes to both human and polar bear behavior—it is facilitating increases in human activities (e.g., offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction, trans-Arctic shipping, recreation), while also causing the displacement of bears from preferred foraging habitat (i.e., sea ice over biologically productive shallow) to land in some portions of their range. The end result of these changes is that polar bears are spending greater amounts of time in close proximity to people. Coexistence between humans and polar bears will require imposing mechanisms to manage further development, as well as mitigation strategies that reduce the burden to local communities.
Thalamus Gated Recurrent Modules

We propose a deep learning model inspired by neuroscience theories of communication within the neocortex. Our model consists of recurrent modules that send features via a routing center, endowing the neural modules with the flexibility to share features over multiple time steps. We show that our model learns to route information hierarchically, processing input data by a chain of modules. We observe common architectures, such as feed forward neural networks and skip connections, emerging as special cases of our architecture, while novel connectivity patterns are learned for the text8 compression task. Our model outperforms multi-layer recurrent networks on three sequential tasks.
Just-In-Time: A Case Study of Buying Instead of Borrowing at the University of North Texas Libraries, 2014–2017

ABSTRACTThere is a trend among academic libraries to increase collaboration between interlibrary loan and collection development to improve patron access to materials and build library collections. Instead of borrowing returnable materials, interlibrary loan may initiate purchases that will become part of the library's collection. This can mean anything from an organizational change combining interlibrary loan with the acquisitions unit or creating new workflows to facilitate purchasing. At the University of North Texas Libraries, the Interlibrary Loan office is a unit of the Access Services Department. Buying instead of borrowing for the ILL unit began with a Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA) program and has expanded with the establishment of the University of North Texas Libraries' access-based collection development policy. Interlibrary Loan provides “Just-In-Time” (JIT) access to materials not available through regular interlibrary loan sources and adds relevant materials to the Libraries' collections.
A Social Service Model of Management by Objectives

Five guidelines are offered to modify an approach intended for use in business and industry to the administration of social agencies
Choice Based Conjoint Studies: Design and Analysis

One of the major objectives in conjoint analysis has been to predict the choices made by a sample of individuals for a new item which is described in terms of a set of attributes used in a conjoint study. Ratings-based conjoint studies involve the conversion of an individual’s stated utility for an item to predict the probability of choice of an alternative under various conditions (e.g. when other alternatives available). As described in Chap. 3, such a prediction is made using preference data (ratings or rankings) collected on a set of hypothetical choice alternatives. A parallel stream of research pursues the path of choice experiments in which an individual makes a choice among a set of choice alternatives, each of which is typically described by a set of attributes; several choice sets are presented to each individual. These choice data, across all the choice sets and all individuals, are then analyzed using a choice model (usually a multinomial logit model and sometimes multinomial probit model) to obtain a function that relates the attribute levels to probability of choice. This approach has come to be known as choice-based conjoint analysis and has its roots in discrete choice analysis; these methods are also called “stated” choice methods (or stated choice experimental methods) because they represent intended choices of respondents among hypothetical choice possibilities. This chapter describes these methods.
Circadian Regulation of Cellular Physiology

The circadian clock synchronizes behavioral and physiological processes on a daily basis in anticipation of the light–dark cycle. In mammals, molecular clocks are present in both the central pacemaker neurons and in nearly all peripheral tissues. Clock transcription factors in metabolic tissues coordinate metabolic fuel utilization and storage with alternating periods of feeding and fasting corresponding to the rest–activity cycle. In vitro and in vivo biochemical approaches have led to the discovery of mechanisms underlying the interplay between the molecular clock and the metabolic networks. For example, recent studies have demonstrated that the circadian clock controls rhythmic synthesis of the cofactor nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and activity of NAD+-dependent sirtuin deacetylase enzymes to regulate mitochondrial function across the circadian cycle. In this chapter, we review current state-of-the-art methods to analyze circadian cycles in mitochondrial bioenergetics, glycolysis, and nucleotide metabolism in both cell-based and animal models.
Thomas Gellhaus, MD

Dr. Thomas Gellhaus, the recently appointed Division Director for General Obstetrics and Gynecology, brings to the Department a wealth of clinical experience and passions for teaching, advocacy, and providing care to patients in the developing world.
Performance of Branch-Current Based Distribution System State Estimation

The introduction of distributed generators (DG) and other emerging technologies such as electric vehicle charging (EV) to distribution networks have influenced the philosophy of operating the distribution networks. With the presence of these technologies, the nature of the distribution networks are changing from being passive networks to active networks and in order to accommodate these changes, the way of controlling and operating distribution systems must be reconfigured and distribution system state estimation based real-time model is needed for a secure control and protection in distribution systems. The objective of this paper is to present a comparison between the branch-current based distribution system state estimation in polar and rectangular coordinates. Moreover, the inclusion of the synchronized measurements, obtained from Micro-PMU is discussed. The methods are conducted on the IEEE-13 bus distribution test feeder and results are discussed.
The role of imaging in gastrointestinal bleed

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleed accounts for approximately 20% of emergency visits; 2% of hospital admissions and its incidence has been increasing. In patients where the GI bleed does not stop spontaneously, intervention is required to identify the source of bleeding and stop the hemorrhage. Although identifying the source of bleeding can be challenging due to the vast number of underlying etiologies, radiology plays a vital role in patients where endoscopy and/or medical management fail. Radiology offers both non-invasive and invasive options for the diagnosis as well as management of GI bleeds. Scintigraphy and computed tomography angiography (CTA) are the most important non-invasive imaging tests that can identify presence of and help locate the site of bleeding and are used when the patient is hemodynamically stable. If the patient is hemodynamically unstable, conventional angiography (CA) allows diagnosis of the presence, site of bleeding as well as the means of treating the bleed by embolization. Our review article focuses on the various etiologies of GI bleed, the role of imaging in diagnosis as well as treatment of these patients based on the underlying etiologies, the merits and disadvantages of each of these modalities with emphasis on triaging patients for the most appropriate imaging test to guide the most suitable management.
Glycemic Control During Gender-Affirming Therapy in a Patient With Type 1 Diabetes

A 20-year-old transgender woman (natal male with feminine gender identity) with a 15-year history of type 1 diabetes presented to the clinic to begin gender-affirming hormone therapy. The patient was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 5 years. Around the time of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, she experienced two episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis but has had no additional episodes since adolescence. At initial presentation to the endocrinology clinic, her A1C was 6.8% (51 mmol/mol) on therapy with insulin detemir 33 units each night and mealtime insulin lispro at a 1:8 insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio. At this time, she was experiencing approximately one episode of hypoglycemia per week. The patient reported gender dysphoria since the age of 15 or 16 years but had no prior gender-affirming hormonal therapy or surgery. She had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt. The patient’s family history was unknown because she was raised in the foster care system. On social history, she had no history of tobacco use. She had a history of being abused by her biological father and foster parents. At the time of presentation, she had had two sexual partners and no history of sexually transmitted infections. Baseline laboratory test values before starting gender-affirming therapy included thyroid-stimulating hormone 3.301 units/mL, prolactin 7.0 ng/mL, estradiol <20 pg/mL (<73.4 pmol/L), and testosterone 473.9 ng/dL (16.4 nmol/L). Her total cholesterol was 145 mg/dL (3.75 mmol/L), triglycerides were 44 mg/dL (0.50 mmol/l), LDL cholesterol was 73 mg/dL (1.89 …
Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop Validation of a Graph Search Based Energy Management Strategy for Grid-Connected Distributed Energy Resources

This article presents a controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) validation of a novel energy storage management (ESM) solution designed to optimize the use of grid-connected distributed energy resources (DERs) based on the forecasting of generation, load, and real-time energy prices. The proposed control strategy aims to control the operations of the energy storage (ES) using the A* searching algorithm so that the total cost of energy used to serve the local electrical load is minimized. The proposed solution uses the energy storage states and available forecast data to generate a graph that is explored using the A* search algorithm with the objective of finding the optimum cost of energy. The proposed ESM is tested offline against genetic algorithm and sequential quadratic programming based solutions and shows cost improvement of 5% to 8.9%. A CHIL validation testbed was also implemented to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. A Florida based distribution grid was simulated using real field data in a DTRS, and the IEEE 1815 DNP3 communication protocol was used to establish the communication between the controller and the simulation. The graph search-based ESM was implemented in python in an external computer which served as the controller. Offline and real-time simulations are presented showing comparable results.
Privacy Risks of Sharing Data from Environmental Health Studies.

Background: Sharing research data uses resources effectively; enables large, diverse data sets; and supports rigor and reproducibility. However, sharing such data increases privacy risks for partic...
Manipulation of the Gut Microbiome Alters Acetaminophen Biodisposition in Mice

The gut microbiota is a vast and diverse microbial community that has co-evolved with its host to perform a variety of essential functions involved in the utilization of nutrients and the processing of xenobiotics. Shifts in the composition of gut microbiota can disturb the balance of organisms which can influence the biodisposition of orally administered drugs. To determine how changes in the gut microbiome can alter drug disposition, the pharmacokinetics (PK), and biodistribution of acetaminophen were assessed in C57Bl/6 mice after treatment with the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, or a cocktail of ampicillin/neomycin. Altered PK, and excretion profiles of acetaminophen were observed in antibiotic exposed animals. Plasma Cmax was significantly decreased in antibiotic treated animals suggesting decreased bioavailability. Urinary metabolite profiles revealed decreases in acetaminophen-sulfate metabolite levels in both the amoxicillin and ampicillin/neomycin treated animals. The ratio between urinary and fecal excretion was also altered in antibiotic treated animals. Analysis of gut microbe composition revealed that changes in microbe content in antibiotic treated animals was associated with changes in acetaminophen biodisposition. These results suggest that exposure to amoxicillin or ampicillin/neomycin can alter the biodisposition of acetaminophen and that these alterations could be due to changes in gut microbiome composition.
Antidepressants Plus Benzodiazepines for Adults with Major Depression.

A combination of tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines is more effective for major depression in adults than tricyclic antidepressants alone in the first four weeks of treatment.