cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Top-Down Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Using a Highly Multiplexed Isobaric Mass Tagging Strategy

Proteomic analysis has proved key to determining drug mechanisms and assessing toxicological potential during preclinical screening studies. A major goal in proteomics is to accurately measure changes in the relative abundance of large sets of proteins in complex biological systems as a function of experimental parameters, such as drug dose or exposure time. Until recently, top-down quantitative proteomics has been restricted to 2D gel analyses or two-plex mass tagging. A new top-down approach based upon isobaric mass tagging for highly multiplexing protein quantification is presented, involving chemically tagging cysteine or lysine residues of intact proteins isolated from cells, tissues, or biological fluids. As many as ten labeled samples are then combined, fractionated, proteolytically digested, and analyzed by gel electrophoresis or LC-MS/MS. Proteins are identified using public domain search engines, such as Mascot (Matrix Science Ltd., London UK) and quantified using an in-house developed software package. During the fragmentation, the tag-labeled peptides generate a set of low-mass reporters that are unique to each sample. Measurement of the intensity of these reporters allows the relative quantification of the peptides, and consequently the proteins from which they originated. The capabilities of the approach are demonstrated by analysis of the HeLa cell nucleolar proteome after treatment with the metabolic inhibitor actinomycin D for various time periods. A total of 542 proteins were qualitatively identified, and 232 of these proteins were then unambiguously quantified. The quantification data demonstrate that the nucleolar proteome changes significantly over time in response to differences in growth conditions, which is consistent with previous observations from several groups. The highly multiplexed and quantitative nature of the new technology should herald new opportunities to provide diagnostic and functional insights into the proteomics discovery process.
Legionella pneumophila inhibits protein synthesis in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

Abstract Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative facultative intracellular parasite that causes Legionnaires disease. To explore the interactions between L. pneumophila and host cells, we have developed a continuous cell line model of infection. We show that about 80% of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were associated with L. pneumophila after incubation for 3 h at a multiplicity of infection of 20 bacteria per cell. Within 3 to 4 h of incubation with L. pneumophila, protein synthesis of CHO cells was markedly inhibited, as shown by the reduction of incorporation of radiolabeled amino acids into proteins. L. pneumophila did not inhibit transport of amino acids or cause degradation of newly synthesized proteins in CHO cells. Cytochalasin D blocked internalization of L. pneumophila by CHO cells, yet CHO cell protein synthesis was inhibited. These results indicated that L. pneumophila could inhibit host protein synthesis from the cell exterior. L. pneumophila that had been killed with antibiotics prior to incubation with CHO cells still inhibited protein synthesis, indicating that the inhibition of CHO cell protein synthesis occurred in the absence of de novo protein synthesis by L. pneumophila.
Molecular Function Prediction Using Neighborhood Features

The recent advent of high-throughput methods has generated large amounts of gene interaction data. This has allowed the construction of genomewide networks. A significant number of genes in such networks remain uncharacterized and predicting the molecular function of these genes remains a major challenge. A number of existing techniques assume that genes with similar functions are topologically close in the network. Our hypothesis is that genes with similar functions observe similar annotation patterns in their neighborhood, regardless of the distance between them in the interaction network. We thus predict molecular functions of uncharacterized genes by comparing their functional neighborhoods to genes of known function. We propose a two-phase approach. First, we extract functional neighborhood features of a gene using Random Walks with Restarts. We then employ a KNN classifier to predict the function of uncharacterized genes based on the computed neighborhood features. We perform leave-one-out validation experiments on two S. cerevisiae interaction networks and show significant improvements over previous techniques. Our technique provides a natural control of the trade-off between accuracy and coverage of prediction. We further propose and evaluate prediction in sparse genomes by exploiting features from well-annotated genomes.
Piezoelectric and dielectric performance of poled lead zirconate titanate subjected to electric cyclic fatigue

Poled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) material as a single-layer plate was tested using a piezodilatometer under electric cyclic loading in both unipolar and bipolar modes. Its responses were evaluated using unipolar and bipolar measurements on the same setup. The mechanical strain and charge density loops exhibited various variations when the material was cycled for more than 108 cycles. The various quantities including loop amplitude, hysteresis, switchable polarization, and coercive field were characterized accordingly under the corresponding measurement conditions. At the same time, the offset polarization and bias electric field of the material were observed to be changed and the trend was found to be related to the measurement conditions also. Finally, the piezoelectric and dielectric coefficients were analyzed and their implications for the application of interest have been discussed.
Automated multi-camera planar tracking correspondence modeling

This paper introduces a method for robustly estimating a planar tracking correspondence model (TCM) for a large camera network directly from tracking data and for employing said model to reliably track objects through multiple cameras. By exploiting the unique characteristics of tracking data, our method can reliably estimate a planar TCM in large environments covered by many cameras. It is robust to scenes with multiple simultaneously moving objects and limited visual overlap between the cameras. Our method introduces the capability of automatic calibration of large camera networks in which the topology of camera overlap is unknown and in which all cameras do not necessarily overlap. Quantitative results are shown for a five camera network in which the topology is not specified.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Platform Posturography for Identifying Patients With Vestibular Dysfunction

Sensitive and specific measures are needed to identify patients with vestibular impairments. The purpose of this clinical perspective is to describe the sensitivity and specificity of dynamic and static platform posturography for detecting vestibular disorders. The sensory organization test (SOT) of dynamic posturography (EquiTest), the motor "perturbation" test, and Romberg's tests on a static (fixed) force platform each had over 90% specificity. This finding means that nearly all of the subjects who should have tested negative, did test negative on each type of assessment. The sensitivity of the SOT was evaluated across five studies involving a total of 836 patients with peripheral vestibular deficits (PVDs). Abnormalities in the SOT were detected in only 40% (n = 338) of the cases. Static platform posturography sensitivity was evaluated across six studies involving a total of 571 patients with PVDs, and abnormalities were detected in 53% (n = 302) of these cases. Tests of spontaneous and positional nystagmus and the horizontal component of the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR), by comparison, detected PVDs in 48% of 798 patients with suspected vestibular impairment. For patients with vestibular deficits associated with central nervous system disease, a total of 389 cases were identified in five studies and SOT abnormalities were found in 54% (n = 209) of these cases. The motor perturbation test was abnormal in 35% (n = 41) of 119 patients with central vestibular disease. In conclusion, the sensitivity of static posturography appeared to be slightly better than that of dynamic posturography for detecting PVDs, but the level of sensitivity for each posturography test, as well as for tests of horizontal VOR function, was considered to be low. Combining either type of posturography with other tests of vestibular function, however, increased the overall sensitivity of detecting vestibular deficits to 61% to 89%. It was concluded that dynamic and static platform posturography as well as tests of VOR function lack adequate sensitivity to detect vestibular impairment when applied in isolation. Posturography appears to detect vestibular deficits in some patients who had normal VOR assessments and, therefore, provides supplemental rather than redundant information about vestibular dysfunction.
Definition of Five New Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Epitopes and Their Restricting Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Molecules: Evidence for an Influence on Disease Progression

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of the rhesus macaque is currently the best animal model for AIDS vaccine development. One limitation of this model, however, has been the small number of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes and restricting major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules available for investigating virus-specific CTL responses. To identify new MHC class I-restricted CTL epitopes, we infected five members of a family of MHC-defined rhesus macaques intravenously with SIV. Five new CTL epitopes bound by four different MHC class I molecules were defined. These included two Env epitopes bound by Mamu-A*11 and -B*03 and three Nef epitopes bound by Mamu-B*03, -B*04, and -B*17. All four restricting MHC class I molecules were encoded on only two haplotypes (b or c). Interestingly, resistance to disease progression within this family appeared to be associated with the inheritance of one or both of these MHC class I haplotypes. Two individuals that inherited haplotypes b and c separately survived for 299 and 511 days, respectively, while another individual that inherited both haplotypes survived for 889 days. In contrast, two MHC class I-identical individuals that did not inherit either haplotype rapidly progressed to disease (survived <80 days). Since all five offspring were identical at their Mamu-DRB loci, MHC class II differences are unlikely to account for their patterns of disease progression. These results double the number of SIV CTL epitopes defined in rhesus macaques and provide evidence that allelic differences at the MHC class I loci may influence rates of disease progression among AIDS virus-infected individuals.
Counterexamples to a likelihood theory of evidence

The likelihood theory of evidence (LTE) says, roughly, that all the information relevant to the bearing of data on hypotheses (or models) is contained in the likelihoods. There exist counterexamples in which one can tell which of two hypotheses is true from the full data, but not from the likelihoods alone. These examples suggest that some forms of scientific reasoning, such as the consilience of inductions (Whewell, 1858. In Novum organon renovatum (Part II of the 3rd ed.). The philosophy of the inductive sciences. London: Cass, 1967), cannot be represented within Bayesian and Likelihoodist philosophies of science.
TinyECC: A Configurable Library for Elliptic Curve Cryptography in Wireless Sensor Networks

Public key cryptography (PKC) has been the enabling technology underlying many security services and protocols in traditional networks such as the Internet. In the context of wireless sensor networks, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), one of the most efficient types of PKC, is being investigated to provide PKC support in sensor network applications so that the existing PKC-based solutions can be exploited. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of TinyECC, a configurable library for ECC operations in wireless sensor networks. The primary objective of TinyECC is to provide a ready-to-use, publicly available software package for ECC-based PKC operations that can be flexibly configured and integrated into sensor network applications. TinyECC provides a number of optimization switches, which can turn specific optimizations on or off based on developers' needs. Different combinations of the optimizations have different execution time and resource consumptions, giving developers great flexibility in integrating TinyECC into sensor network applications. This paper also reports the experimental evaluation of TinyECC on several common sensor platforms, including MICAz, Tmote Sky, and Imotel. The evaluation results show the impacts of individual optimizations on the execution time and resource consumptions, and give the most computationally efficient and the most storage efficient configuration of TinyECC.
Availability of a system with gamma life and exponential repair time under a perfect repair policy

Employing Fourier transform technique we determine the availability of a maintained system under continuous monitoring and with perfect repair policy. We obtain closed-form expressions for the availability when the system has gamma life distribution and the repair time is exponential.
Flexibility in Proteins: Tuning the Sensitivity to O2 Diffusion by Varying the Lifetime of a Phosphorescent Sensor in Horseradish Peroxidase¶

Abstract The heme in horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was replaced by phosphorescent Pt-mesoporphyrin IX (PtMP), which acted as a phosphorescent marker of oxygen quenching and allowed comparison with another probe, Pd-mesoporphyrin IX (Khajehpour et al. (2003) Proteins 53, 656–666). Benzohydroxamic acid (BHA), a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, was also used to monitor its effects on phosphorescence quenching. With the addition of BHA, in the presence of oxygen, the phosphorescence intensity of the protein increased. In contrast, the addition of BHA, in the absence of oxygen, reduced the phosphorescence intensity of the protein. Kd = 18 μM when BHA binds to PtMP-HRP. The effect of BHA can be explained by two factors: (1) BHA reduces the accessibility of O2 to the protein interior and (2) BHA itself quenches the phosphorescence. Consistent with this, the oxygen quenching of the phosphorescence of PtMP-HRP gave a quenching constant of kq = 234 mm Hg−1 s−1 in the absence of BHA and kq = 28.7 mm Hg−1 s−1 in t...
PAX6 suppression of glioma angiogenesis and the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A

We reported that PAX6 suppresses glioblastoma cell growth in vivo and anchorage-independent growth without significant alteration of cell proliferation in vitro, suggesting that PAX6 may alter the tumor microenvironment. Because we found that PAX6 downregulates expression of the gene encoding vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) in glioma cells, we used a subcutaneous xenograft model to verify PAX6 suppression of VEGFA-induced angiogenesis based on CD31-immunostaining of endothelial cells. The results showed a significant reduction of VEGFA at the transcription level in PAX6-transfected cells in xenografts and PAX6 has a suppressive effect on the microvascular amplification typically seen in glioblastoma. We showed that PAX6 suppression of VEGFA expression requires its DNA binding-domain. The C-terminal truncation mutant of PAX6, however, did not show the dominant negative function in regulating VEGFA expression that it showed previously in regulating MMP2 expression. In the glioma cell line U251HF, we further determined that blocking the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway with either adenoviral-mediated PTEN expression or LY294002 enhanced PAX6-mediated suppression of VEGFA in an additive manner; thus, PAX6-mediated suppression of VEGFA is not via the canonical pathway through HIF1A. These two VEGFA-regulatory pathways can also be similarly modulated in another malignant glioma cell line, U87, but not in LN229 where the basal VEGFA level is low and PTEN is wild-type. PAX6 suppression of VEGFA appears to be blocked in LN229. In conclusion, our data showed that PAX6 can initiate in glioma cells a new signaling pathway independent of PI3K/Akt-HIF1A signaling to suppress VEGFA expression.
Dispersion of polymer-decorated hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in poly(ethylene oxide) at low grafting densities

Abstract In this research, hydroxyapatite nanoparticles sparsely coated with tethered poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chains were added to a bulk PEO matrix of greater molecular weight. The nanoparticles were found to be dispersed homogeneously when the particle concentration was high. Two different low-aspect ratio shaped particles were used, spherical and needle, and had similar dispersion behavior in this matrix. Characterization results indicated that the homogeneous dispersion achieved here at higher particle loadings was a kinetically trapped condition and an interfacial zone had developed at the grafted polymer/matrix polymer interface. Additionally at a critical nanoparticle loading related to specific values of the nanoparticle surface area and interparticle spacing, the crystallite size and amount of crystallinity in the PEO matrix began to decrease as opposed to the level of nanoparticle dispersion. Overall, these results provide a strategy for incorporating relatively high loadings of nanoparticles into these matrices without large scale phase segregation.
Impact of Injection Rate on the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Trial Frame Count

A mechanical injection was used to determine the impact of injection rate on the TIMI frame count. The 1.0-ml/s increase in hand injection rates from the 10th to 90th percentiles for angiographers is associated with a minor decrease of <2 frames that is <7% of the corrected TIMI frame count.
On the estimation of prediction errors in linear regression models

Estimating the prediction error is a common practice in the statistical literature. Under a linear regression model, lete be the conditional prediction error ande be its estimate. We use ρ(e, e), the correlation coefficient betweene ande, to measure the performance of a particular estimation method. Reasons are given why correlation is chosen over the more popular mean squared error loss. The main results of this paper conclude that it is generally not possible to obtain good estimates of the prediction error. In particular, we show that ρ(e, e)=O(n−1/2) whenn → ∞. When the sample size is small, we argue that high values of ρ(e, e) can be achieved only when the residual error distribution has very heavy tails and when no outlier presents in the data. Finally, we show that in order for ρ(e, e) to be bounded away from zero asymptotically,e has to be biased.
Risky sexual behavior among married alcoholic men

The current study explored whether the wives of men entering alcoholism treatment are at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) exposure as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. The extramarital relationships of married alcoholic men entering outpatient treatment (n = 125) were compared with those of a demographically matched community sample of nonalcoholic married men (n = 125). The proportion of alcoholic men who reported 1 or more extramarital affairs in the previous year (14%) was significantly higher than that of the community sample (4%). Additionally, only 2 alcoholic husbands and 1 nonalcoholic husband reported that his wife was aware of the extramarital relationship. For both groups, none of the men who engaged in extramarital relationships reported consistent use of condoms when having sexual intercourse with their wives or with their extramarital partners. These results suggest that wives of alcoholic men are unknowingly placed at risk for indirect exposure to STIs as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. Thus, infidelity in treatment-seeking alcohol-abusing men represents a significant public health issue.
Criminal Gangs in Latin America: The Next Great Threat to Regional Security and Stability?

United States immigration and deportation policy is broken with regard to the removal of violent youth gang members from the United States to their nations of origin. The result is that Central America is quickly becoming a lawless region of our hemisphere as gangs known as Mara Salvatrucha (collectively mareros) struggle among themselves and against weak and failing governments to gain control of vast territory and resources in which to carry out criminal conspiracies and terrorist activities that threaten the national and regional security throughout the Americas. This article examines the origins of marero gangs, the policies in the United States and Central American states to cope with the growth of the mareros, and the implications of what may realistically occur if the gangs are allowed to continue growing and spreading lawlessness throughout regions of the Americas critical to United States interests in the hemisphere.
Static Analysis of String Encoders and Decoders

There has been significant interest in static analysis of programs that manipulate strings, in particular in the context of web security. Many types of security vulnerabilities are exposed through flaws in programs such as string encoders, decoders, and sanitizers. Recent work has focused on combining automata and satisfiability modulo theories techniques to address security issues in those programs. These techniques scale to larger alphabets such as Unicode, that is a de facto character encoding standard used in web software. One approach has been to use character predicates to generalize finite state transducers. This technique has made it possible to perform precise analysis of a large class of typical sanitization routines. However, it has not been able to cope well with decoders, that often require to read more than one character at a time. In order to overcome this limitation we introduce a conservative generalization of Symbolic Finite Transducers SFTs called Extended Symbolic Finite Transducers ESFTs that incorporates the notion of a bounded lookahead. We demonstrate the advantage ESFTs on analyzing programs for which previous approaches did not scale. In our evaluation we use a UTF-16 to UTF-8 translator utf8encoder and a UTF-8 to UTF-16 translator utf8decoder. We show, among other properties, that utf8encoder and utf8decoder are functionally correct.
Environmental Toxicology and the Aging Visual System

Research on the environmental toxicology of the visual system has virtually ignored the special concerns of the elderly. In this chapter, the elderly will be portrayed as an at-risk group for the effects of environmental toxicants upon changes in the eye and possible interactions with toxic substances present in the environment.
A PINEDALE/BULL LAKE INTERGLACIAL PALEOSOL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS, CENTRAL LEMHI MOUNTAINS, IDAHO

A calcium-rich paleosol, preserved on buried till and buried colluvial surfaces, was discovered at several locations in the central Lemhi Mountains. The strati-graphic and pedologic characteristics of the paleosol assign its formation to the Interglacial between the Pinedale and Bull Lake Glaciations, between about 127,000 and 50,000 years before present. Pollen extracted from the paleosol reveal, in association with pedologic data, the horizons above the B2t level were decapitated by subsequent glacial and colluvial erosion. Interpretation of the pollen assemblage reveals that the lower treeline rose a minimum of 120–150 m during the interglacial, which must have been considerably warmer and drier than at present. [Key words: paleosol, Pinedale/Bull Lake Interglacial, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, pollen analysis, Lemhi Mountains, Idaho.]
Current Challenges and Prospective Research for Upscaling Hybrid Perovskite Photovoltaics.

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite photovoltaics (PSCs) are poised to push toward technology translation, but significant challenges complicating commercialization remain. Though J–V hysteresis and ecotoxicity are uniquely imposing issues at scale, CH3NH3PbI3 degradation is by far the sharpest limitation to the technology’s potential market contribution. Herein, we offer a perspective on the practical market potential of PSCs, the nature of fundamental PSC challenges at scale, and an outline of prospective solutions for achieving module scale PSC production tailored to intrinsic advantages of CH3NH3PbI3. Although integrating PSCs into the energy grid is complicated by CH3NH3PbI3 degradation, the ability of PSCs to contribute to consumer electronics and other niche markets like those organic photovoltaics have sought footing in rests primarily upon the technology’s price point. Thus, slot die, roll-to-roll processing has the greatest potential to enable PSC scale-up, and herein, we present a perspective o...
Cold Alchemi: Impurity Atom Site Location and the Temperature Dependance of Dechannelling

Recent applications of the “Atom Location by Channelling Enhanced Microanalysis” (ALCHEMI) are summarised. This is a quantitative method for determining the sites of impurity atoms in crystals using an electron microscope and X-ray analysis system. Since the fractional site occupancies are given in terms of measured X-ray counts alone, it involves no adjustable parameters. New experiments have been performed on the temperature dependence of characteristic X-ray production under channelling conditions for InP and GaAs. We conclude that low temperatures will give more accurate results for “ALCHEMI” in some materials due to the reduction in diffuse inelastic phonon scattering, and that the study of this temperature dependence may provide new information from small areas or particles on the correlations amongst atom motions due to thermal vibration.
Density-independent isolation of type II pneumocytes after partial pneumonectomy.

Type II pneumocytes were isolated by immunoglobin G (IgG) panning from the lungs of normal rats and the right lung of rats (180-200 g) subjected to left pneumonectomy. Cells were studied at 7 (pnx-7) and 15 (pnx-15) days postoperative, times during and after, respectively, rapid compensatory growth of the right lung. After 24 h of primary culture, pnx-7 cells contained 32% more protein per DNA, and incorporated thymidine at a rate 224% greater than cells isolated from control rats. Both the protein-to-DNA ratio and thymidine incorporation returned to control values in pnx-15 cells. Uptake of exogenous spermidine also was increased by 50% in pnx-7 cells at 24 h of primary culture and returned to control values in pnx-15 cells. Increased spermidine uptake was due to an increase in the maximal velocity (Vmax) of transport from 30.3 (control) to 45.5 pmol.micrograms DNA-1.h-1 (pnx-7), with no change in the apparent Km of 1.32 microM. No change was observed in the relative rates of phospholipid or neutral lipid biosynthesis. The increases in thymidine incorporation and spermidine uptake were significantly greater than those previously observed [Am. J. Physiol. 254 (Cell Physiol. 23): C684-C690, 1988] in pnx-7 cells isolated by Percoll gradient sedimentation. These results suggest that pnx-7 lungs contain distinct subpopulations of type II pneumocytes, the recovery of which is dependent on the cell isolation protocol employed.
Embedded HEMT/metamaterial composite devices for active terahertz modulation

Most modern optical / electronic devices operate in two distinct regimes of the electromagnetic spectrum. Electronic devices operate at frequencies of a few hundred gigahertz and lower where electrons are medium for EM propagation. Optical devices operate from infrared through optical/UV frequencies where photons are the medium. In-between these two fundamental response regimes there exists a region comparatively devoid of material response, commonly referred to as the “terahertz gap” (0.1 – 10THz, l = 3mm – 30mm). The development of artificially structured electromagnetic materials, termed metamaterials, has led to realization of electromagnetic properties in materials that cannot be obtained with natural materials. Metamaterials (MMs) are promising candidates to fill the “terahertz gap”. Metamaterials typically consist of structured composites with patterned metallic subwavelength inclusions. These mesoscopic systems are built from the bottom up, at the unit cell level, to yield specific electromagnetic properties. Individual components respond resonantly to the electric, magnetic or both components of the electromagnetic field. In this way electromagnetic MMs can be designed to yield a desired response at frequencies from the microwave through to the near visible.
In Between: Music Therapy with Inpatients Awaiting a Heart Transplant

Individuals who are in heart failure and who are inpatients waiting for a heart transplant face many challenges. In this article, the authors describe these challenges and how patients are supported through the use of music therapy. Case examples are provided to illustrate the various uses of music therapy
Mechanisms of kinetic stabilization by the drugs paclitaxel and vinblastine

Microtubule-targeting agents (MTAs), widely used as biological probes and chemotherapeutic drugs, bind directly to tubulin subunits and "kinetically stabilize" microtubules, suppressing the characteristic self-assembly process of dynamic instability. However, the molecular-level mechanisms of kinetic stabilization are unclear, and the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic requirements for dynamic instability and its elimination by MTAs have yet to be defined. Here we integrate a computational model for microtubule assembly with nanometer-scale fluorescence microscopy measurements to identify the kinetic and thermodynamic basis of kinetic stabilization by the MTAs paclitaxel, an assembly promoter, and vinblastine, a disassembly promoter. We identify two distinct modes of kinetic stabilization in live cells, one that truly suppresses on-off kinetics, characteristic of vinblastine, and the other a "pseudo" kinetic stabilization, characteristic of paclitaxel, that nearly eliminates the energy difference between the GTP- and GDP-tubulin thermodynamic states. By either mechanism, the main effect of both MTAs is to effectively stabilize the microtubule against disassembly in the absence of a robust GTP cap.
Teaching Future Big Data Analysts: Curriculum and Experience Report

This paper documents the learning objectives, curriculum design, technology infrastructure, and classroom experience for a "big data mining and analytics" course at a small liberal arts college. The course serves as an elective for our Data Analytics minor as well as an elective for computer science and computer information systems majors. The course introduces students to data analysis, statistics, and plotting with Unix tools and the R language. It then transitions into big data projects making use of Apache Hadoop, HDFS, and Map-Reduce; Apache Spark; Apache Hive; and related tools. A primary learning objective is that students demonstrate the ability to identify which tools are most appropriate for specific datasets and data analysis tasks. We also expect students to be able to communicate their findings to a general audience. As potential future data analysts, we aim to give students the skills and sensibility to efficiently solve data analysis problems, big data or otherwise, in their future careers.
Implementation and CT sampling characterization of a third-generation SPECT-CT system for dedicated breast imaging.

Stand-alone cone beam computed tomography (CT) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) systems capable of complex acquisition trajectories have previously been developed for breast imaging. Fully three-dimensional (3-D) motions of SPECT systems provide views into the chest wall and throughout the entire volume. The polar tilting capability of the CBCT system has shown improvement in sampling close to the chest wall, while eliminating cone beam artifacts. Here, a single hybrid SPECT–CT system, with each individual modality capable of independently traversing complex trajectories around a common pendant breast volume, was developed. We present the practical implementation of this design and preliminary results of the CT system. The fully 3-D SPECT was nested inside the suspended CT gantry and oriented perpendicular to the CT source–detector pair. Both subsystems were positioned on a rotation stage, with the combined polar and azimuthal motions enabling spherical trajectories. Six trajectories were used for initial evaluation of the tilt capable CT system. The developed system can achieve polar tilt angles with a <0.02-deg positioning error and no hysteresis. Initial imaging results demonstrate that additional off-axis projection views of various geometric resolution phantoms facilitate more complete sampling, more consistent attenuation value recovery, and markedly improved reconstructions. This system could have various applications in diagnostic or therapeutic breast imaging.
Effect of conductive magnetic field concentrators on the performance of anisotropic magnetoresistors in high frequency contactless current sensing

High frequency power electronic converters require lossless, accurate and isolated current measurement. High frequency currents through a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) trace generates a non-uniform magnetic field around the trace. The non-uniform magnetic fields can be normalized by means of utilizing Magnetic Field Concentrators (MCON) using conductive materials. In this work, the effect of different magnetic field concentrators (MCONs) on the performance of Anisotropic Magnetoresistor (AMR) sensors for high frequency contactless current detection has been investigated. The performance of the AMR sensor equipped with different MCONs is demonstrated experimentally with respect to a fast rise step current. A detailed frequency analysis is performed on the sensor response with different MCONs to determine the effect on the detection bandwidth of the current sensors.
Pigmentary Tumors of the Peripheral Retina

Choroidal nevi are usually flat, well-circumscribed lesions that vary in color from brown to grey to black and vary between 0.5 disc diameters to 8 disc diameters in size. Most choroidal nevi are considered flat, but on occasion may be up to 2 mm in thickness. The edges of choroidal nevi can be sharply demarcated or feathery.
Lesbians' Sexual Activities and Efforts to Reduce Risks for Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Introduction: Little information is available regarding the specific sexual practices of lesbians, and whether these activities may carry an associated health risk. Methods: Self-identified lesbians from all U.S. states (N = 6935) responded to a questionnaire that was printed in a national biweekly gay, lesbian and bisexual news magazine. Items included sexual practices engaged in with women during the past 1 and 5 years, past history of a sexually transmitted disease (STD), number and gender of lifetime and recent sexual partners, concerns regarding STDs, and risk reduction behaviors. Results: Lesbians engaged in a variety of sexual activities with female partners including orogenital sex, use of a dildo, and anilingus. Seventeen percent reported a lifetime diagnosis of an STD. Women with a history of an STD were more likely to be concerned about STDs, to ask questions of their new female sexual partners, and to have had an HIV test. Conclusions: Lesbians participate in a variety of sexual activities with their female partners that involve the exchange of body fluids, potential exposure to blood, and genital and anal stimulation that may put them at risk for STDs.
Parallel kd-Tree Construction on the GPU with an Adaptive Split and Sort Strategy

We introduce a parallel kd-tree construction method for 3-dimensional points on a GPU which employs a sorting algorithm that maintains high parallelism throughout construction. Typically, large arrays in the upper levels of a kd-tree do not yield high performance when computing each node in one thread. Conversely, small arrays in the lower levels of the tree do not benefit from typical parallel sorts. To address these issues, the proposed sorting approach uses a modified parallel sort on the upper levels before switching to basic parallelization on the lower levels. Our work focuses on 3D point registration and our results indicate that a speed gain by a factor of 100 can be achieved in comparison to a naive parallel algorithm for a typical scene.
Progress and Challenges in Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Measurement in the First Year of the Trump Administration

An editorial is presented which addresses progress in relation to the various challenges that are associated with sexual orientation and gender identity measurement during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in office, and it mentions the political aspects of science. Data on LGBTQ populations is examined, along with America's National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants (NSOAAP) and the nation's 2020 Census and American Community Survey.
Anesthesia for TIPS

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a unique procedure that has been performed for more than 30 years to treat portal hypertension. Today, it is a widely accepted option for patients whose disease is refractory to medical treatment and is a key intervention used to manage both portal hypertension and its associated comorbidities.
Oceanic Internal Waves in the Sulu–Celebes Sea Under Sunglint and Moonglint

Moonglint and sunglint satellite imagery acquired from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite sensors were used to study the characteristics of internal waves (IWs) and their relationship to tides and stratification in the Sulu–Celebes Sea. Tidally generated IWs propagate northwestward and southeastward into the Sulu and Celebes Seas, showing a spring–neap tidal cycle behavior with larger/smaller IWs occurring under spring/neap tides, respectively. The length of IW crests, their wavelength, and phase speed derived from the sunglint/moonglint image pairs were observed to decrease from spring to neap tides. IWs in the Sulu–Celebes Sea which are correlated with oceanic stratification display seasonal and regional fluctuations. In the Celebes Sea, IWs were less frequently observed but propagated with faster phase speeds and larger scales compared to those in the Sulu Sea. Comparisons of stratification and barotropic tidal transport among the IWs generation sites indicate that the shallowing maximum Brunt–Vaisala frequency and strongest tidal transport around Pearl Bank are major factors contributing to greater IW activity compared to other generation sites. IWs generated near Pangutaran Island and Pearl Bank further merge into one dynamical system, creating longer wave crests of ~200 km that travel at faster phase speed ( $\sim 2.5\,\,\text{m}\cdot \text{s}^{-1}$ ) in the Sulu Sea. This paper demonstrates a new application using a combination of sunglint/moonglint imagery in tracking an important oceanic phenomenon.
Exploring the preliminary effectiveness and acceptability of food-based exposure therapy for eating disorders: A case series of adult inpatients

Although exposure therapy is effective in reducing eating-related fears and avoidance in individuals with eating disorders (EDs), there has been little study of this treatment in inpatient settings...
Myocardial elastography and electromechanical wave imaging

Cardiovascular diseases remain America's primary killer by a large margin, claiming the lives of more Americans than the next two main causes of death combined (cancer and pulmonary complications). In particular, coronary artery disease (CAD) is by far the most lethal, causing 17% of all (cardiac related or not) deaths every year. One of the main reasons for this high death toll is the severe lack of effective and accessible imaging tools upon anomaly detected on the electrocardiogram, especially at the early stages when CAD can be stabilized with appropriate pharmacological regimen. On the other hand, arrhythmias refer to the disruption of the natural heart rhythm. Cardiac arrhythmias lead to a significant number of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This irregular heart rhythm causes the heart to suddenly stop pumping blood. Atrial pathologies are the most common arrhythmias with atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter being the most prevalent.
Scientific Drilling to Investigate the Physical and Chemical Nature of Fluids in the Earth’s Crust at 400–500 °C

The physical and chemical natures of pore-fluids deep in the earth’s crust are of great interest from geological, geochemical, and geophysical points of view. Many geophysicists have speculated that high pore-fluid pressure in some places deep in the crust may account for extremely high electrical conductivity (e.g., Shankland and Ander 1983), for increased seismic reflectivity (e.g., Walder and Nur 1984; Matthews 1986), and for relatively low seismic velocities (e.g.. Berry and Mair 1977; Walder and Nur 1984). However, the geophysical community, in general, seems reluctant to accept models in which a free fluid phase is widespread in the crust at depths greater than about 10–15 km. In contrast, geochemists and metamorphic petrologists have used fluid inclusions, found in metamorphic minerals that formed deep in the crust, to document large ranges in compositions of discrete fluid phases existing at high temperatures and high pressures (Crawford and Hollister 1986, and references therein). There is general agreement that water and CO2 play key roles in metamorphic processes occurring throughout a wide range of temperatures and pressures up to magmatic conditions (Fyfe et al. 1978; Valley 1986; Walther and Wood 1986). There is less agreement about the relative importance of various possible sources of these and other volatile constituents, about the variation in composition of pore fluids in space and time, about fluid-rock ratios in metamorphic processes, and about the nature of convective fluid flow where the pore-fluid pressure, Pf, is greater than hydrostatic, Ph.
Nonparametric hyperrectangular tolerance and prediction regions for setting multivariate reference regions in laboratory medicine

Reference regions are widely used in clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine to interpret the results of biochemical or physiological tests of patients. There are well-established methods in the literature for reference limits for univariate measurements; however, limited methods are available for the construction of multivariate reference regions, since traditional multivariate statistical regions (e.g. confidence, prediction, and tolerance regions) are not constructed based on a hyperrectangular geometry. The present work addresses this problem by developing multivariate hyperrectangular nonparametric tolerance regions for setting the reference regions. The approach utilizes statistical data depth to determine which points to trim and then the extremes of the trimmed dataset are used as the faces of the hyperrectangular region. Also presented is a strategy for determining the number of points to trim based on previously established asymptotic results. An extensive coverage study shows the favorable performance of the proposed procedure for moderate to large sample sizes. The procedure is applied to obtain reference regions for addressing two important clinical problems: (1) assessing kidney function in adolescents and (2) characterizing insulin-like growth factor concentrations in the serum of adults.
Development of a COVID-19 alternate care site from ground zero: A nursing perspective

The novel coronavirus disease SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak rapidly generated an unprecedented global, national, and state public health crisis with the need to rapidly develop alternate care sites (ACS) to care for COVID-19 patients within an overburdened health care system. A hospital care model ACS to increase the health care capacity, provide care for mild to moderately symptomatic patients, and offer local self-sustainment for a surge of patients was developed in Memphis, Tennessee located in Shelby County. We completed a temporary conversion of a large unused newspaper publication building to a health care facility for COVID-19 patients. Developing an ACS from ground zero was met with many challenges, and throughout the process important lessons were learned. With the goal to complete the building conversion within a 28-day timeframe, collaboration among the numerous governmental, health care, and private agencies was critical and nursing leadership was key to this process. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a COVID-19 ACS in Memphis, TN, which has a large at-risk population with limited access to health care. Specifically, we will discuss the strong leadership role of nursing faculty, key challenges, and lessons learned, as well as provide checklists and models for others in similar circumstances.
Treatment of Primary Central Nervous System Germinomas With Short-course Induction Chemotherapy Followed by Low-dose Radiotherapy Without a Tumor Bed Boost: Prognostic Impact of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical utility of short-course induction chemotherapy followed by low-dose radiotherapy without a tumor bed boost in patients with primary central nervous system (CNS) germinomas. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients with primary CNS germinomas who received short-course induction chemotherapy (2 cycles of cisplatin 20 mg/m2 plus etoposide 40 or 100 mg/m2 for 5 days) followed by low-dose radiotherapy (dose: 2340 cGy) without a tumor bed boost. Disease-free survival and overall survival served as the main outcome measures. RESULTS Between February 2002 and June 2018, 24 patients (20 males and 4 females; median age: 14.1 y; age range: 7.9 to 21.2 y) with pathology-proven CNS germinomas were included. The median follow-up time was 106 months (range: 17 to 169 mo). Isolated and multifocal lesions were identified in 13 and 11 patients, respectively. Tumor location was as follows: pineal gland (n=17), suprasellar region (n=13), periventricular region (n=7), and basal ganglia (n=2). Five patients had increased levels (>5 mIU/mL) of beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG), whereas alpha-fetoprotein concentrations were within the reference range in all participants. A total of 16 patients achieved remission after induction chemotherapy. The complete response rates of patients with increased and normal β-hCG levels were 40.0% and 72.2%, respectively (P=0.208). Low-dose radiotherapy without a tumor bed boost was subsequently delivered to either the whole ventricle (n=16) or the whole brain (n=8), resulting in complete remission in all participants. Compared with patients without increased β-hCG levels, those with β-hCG-secreting germinomas had less favorable 5-year disease-free survival rates (100% vs. 60%, respectively, P=0.000115). CONCLUSIONS Some children with primary CNS germinoma may benefit from short-course induction chemotherapy followed by low-dose radiotherapy to the whole ventricle without a tumor bed boost. The validity of our findings needs to be confirmed in a randomized phase II study for children with β-hCG levels <5 mIU/mL.
Over the hills and far away: Middle to Late Woodland archaeology and toolstone conveyance at Hyre Mound (46RD1), West Virginia:

The archaeology of the eastern West Virginia uplands remains significantly understudied compared to other areas of the Appalachian Plateau. Bettye Broyles’ excavations at the Hyre Mound site (46RD1...