cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exercise and Diet as Potential Moderators Between Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress, Depression, and Relationship Quality Among Emerging Adults

ABSTRACTExercise and diet have not been examined as potential protective factors between trauma and trauma-related sequelae. Using data collected from emerging adults (N = 321), we tested a path analysis to determine if exercise and diet would moderate the association between the number of potentially traumatic life events experienced and posttraumatic stress, depression, and relationship quality. More exercise was directly associated with higher posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. A healthier diet was directly associated with lower posttraumatic stress, lower depressive symptoms, and higher relationship quality. Results suggest there may be value in highlighting exercise and diet in family therapy.
Characterization of Spin Effects on Warhead Fragment Flyout Distance

Given the widespread proliferation of surface-to-air missile systems, contested airspace has become a constant reality for modern aerial combat. One avenue to protect airborne assets against these threats is through the use of active towed decoys. This simulation and analysis accurately models the flight of fragments from a given warhead based on known or estimated initial velocities, material selection, and fragment size. The data was modeled to determine the maximum fragment travel distance relative to an aircraft moving through the air. This information allows for the determination of an appropriate towed decoy line length, which is adaptable to specific weapon threats. Three cases of fragment flyout were modeled to illustrate the robustness of the software package and to emphasize the impact of spin on fragment travel distance. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a flexible tool which can accurately determine fragment travel distances given a partial set of threat data and to provide the warfighter with optimized defensive countermeasures on the battlefield.
A Trehalose Derivative in Hemolymph of the Differential Grasshopper

Randall and Derr (1965) showed that trehalose was the principal sugar in the hemolymph of the differential grasshopper, Melanoplus differentialis (Thomas), in which it constitutes 93% of the free, neutral sugar. In 1962, in the course of their investigation, they fed commercially grown lettuce to the test grasshoppers, where-upon a new sugar appeared in the blood. Concurrently with the appearance of the new sugar the percentage of trehalose fell to 63%.
The Geometry of Grain Disappearance in Thin Polycrystalline Films

During grain growth, shrinking columnar grains in thin-film polycrystalline microstructures eventually reach sizes comparable to the film thickness. Due to surface drag, the sides of such grains may bow inward rather than remaining fiat through the bulk of the film. The grain boundaries delimiting such small shrinking grains may become unstable long before the surface of the shrinking grain reaches zero area. We report simulation results demonstrating such an instability in the limit of infinite surface drag. This may lead to extremely rapid disappearance of 4- or 5- sided grains, such as have been recently observed in in situ hot-stage TEM experiments on aluminum thin film polycrystals.
Quality assurance in North America

Quality insurance (QA) in North America traditionally has been aimed at insuring accuracy and precision of the analytical process in clinical laboratory determinations, Almost all hospital laboratories in the United States and Canada subscribed to programs sponsored by the College of American Pathologists (COP) assessing analytical accuracy and precision, A recent change in these programs includes establishment of CRP programs for physician office laboratories. Proposed regulatory changes for 1990 will require laboratories to demonstrate adequate performance In proficiency testing (PT) programs. Laboratories falling PT will be required to participate in enhanced PT. In 1987 a major change occurred when the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) redefined QA in terms of patient outcomes, thereby establishing activities involving the analytical process as quality control (QC). During on-site inspections, JCAHO representatives require demonstration studies relating laboratory quality and patient care, institutions without these studies have had accreditation withheld. New programs have been established evaluating pathologists’ performance, and assessing the preanalytical and post-analytical aspects of laboratory testing, and linking these with patient outcomes. One of these programs of the CAP, Q-Probes, has over 800 participating institutions for its first subscription year in 1989. Data will be presented from Q Probe Pilot study in 36 hospitals, and subscription program studies already complete.
Determination of mammalian serum -amylase levels with a radioactive-substrate assay.

An α -amylase assay which employs the hydrolysis of radioactive 14C starch as a substrate is described. Rat serum is employed as a source of enzyme and the salient features of the time course and activity parameters are presented. The reaction rate is a linear function of time over 30 min. and is proportional to serum concentrations over a severalfold range. The amylase concentrations of various mammalian sera were examined with this method. This assay system is designed for the determination of α -amylase activity in those tissues and organs which contain relatively low levels of the enzyme.
An Approach to Evaluating Therapeutic Misconception: A Pilot Study in Gene Transfer for Parkinson's Disease

Subjects enrolled in studies testing high risk interventions for incurable or progressive brain diseases may be vulnerable to deficiencies in informed consent, such as the therapeutic misconception (TM). However, there is a continuing debate about the definition and measurement of TM, making assessments of TM controversial. In this qualitative pilot study of persons enrolled in a phase I test of gene transfer for Parkinson’s disease, we developed and tested an interview guide focusing on how the subjects made their decision to participate, with an emphasis on understanding the subject as the unit of interest, rather than focusing only on isolated statements. The results indicate that a subject’s understanding of the purpose of research is best explored in juxtaposition to the subject’s motivation for participation. Doing so reveals potential avenues for measuring and preventing TM.
Annual cycle and destruction of Eighteen Degree Water

Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), the subtropical mode water of the western North Atlantic, is a voluminous, weakly stratified upper ocean water mass that acts as a subsurface reservoir of heat, nutrients, and CO2. This thick layer persists throughout the year, but nearly half of its volume is dispersed or mixed away, diffusing its properties into the thermocline, from the time it outcrops in winter until it is renewed the following year. CTD observations from Argo profiling floats and acoustically tracked, isothermally bound profiling floats are used to quantify EDW destruction rates and investigate the relevant processes responsible for the large annual cycle of EDW. EDW destruction occurs primarily at the top of the EDW layer, with the highest EDW destruction rates occurring during early summer. Slower, steadier EDW destruction is observed in early winter. EDW destruction is dominated by 1-D vertical diffusion, while mesoscale, along-isopycnal stirring is also significant, explaining approximately 1/3 of the total annual EDW destruction. Destruction via along-isopycnal processes is more prevalent near the Gulf Stream than in the southern Sargasso Sea, due to higher potential vorticity gradients and enhanced mesoscale activity.
Kányádi, Sándor. 2013. In Contemporary Tense (trans. Paul Sohar). Arad, Romania: Irodalmi Jelen Könyvek. Published in the United States by Iniquity Press. 342 pages.

Kanyadi, Sandor. 2013. In Contemporary Tense (trans. Paul Sohar). Arad, Romania: Irodalmi Jelen Konyvek. Published in the United States by Iniquity Press. 342 pages.
Bulk power energy storage and concentrated solar power: Is there a future in USA?

Long-term solutions of global energy crisis and applications of mass scale renewable energy depend heavily on the availability of storage system. Currently the storage technology for large scale power system is practically non-existent except for the pumped hydro scheme, which has been known and successfully implemented for over 80 years. Besides being expensive, it depends on the site location. Concentrated Solar Power has been emerging as a possible alternative. However, this is not a proven technology and needs more research and development before it could be employed. This paper takes a fresh look at the technologies and the global development and its possible utilization in the US market.
Topological photonic light sources(Conference Presentation)

We have demonstrated for the first time lasing action in a Bound stae in the Continuum (BIC)-based cavity. We have achieved this result on a platform made of an ensemble of dielectric resonators that is compatible with electrical pumping. Lasing action was observed at room temperature in a compact array with a footprint as small as 9x9 μm2. The lasing wavelength follows the prediction of the BIC mode as the radius is varied for different array sizes thereby demonstrating the robustness and scalability of the system. Additionally, this work paves the way for future investigation into the intriguing topological properties of BICs. Furthermore, this design can be implemented for an electrically pumped equivalent thereby taking full advantage of its power-efficient performance. The fundamental principle of bound states can also be used to design in-plane emitting laser.
Flexfly: enabling a reconfigurable dragonfly through silicon photonics

The Dragonfly topology provides low-diameter connectivity for high-performanceleb computing with all-to-all global links at the inter-group level. Our traffic matrix characterization of various scientific applications shows consistent mismatch between the imbalanced group-to-group traffic and the uniform global bandwidth allocation of Dragonfly. Though adaptive routing has been proposed to utilize bandwidth of non-minimal paths, increased hops and cross-group interference lower efficiency. This work presents a photonic architecture, Flexfly, which "trades" global links among groups using low-radix Silicon photonic switches. With transparent optical switching, Flexfly reconfigures the inter-group topology based on traffic pattern, stealing additional direct bandwidth for communication-intensive group pairs. Simulations with applications such as GTC, Nekbone and LULESH show up to 1.8x speedup over Dragonfly paired with UGAL routing, along with halved hop count and latency for cross-group messages. We built a 32-node Flexfly prototype using a Silicon photonic switch connecting four groups and demonstrated 820 ns interconnect reconfiguration time.
Pedagogy and Politics, Confrontational Negotiations: A Response to Zhao

In her review of my book, Weili Zhao sheds a new light on what it means to study like a communist, particularly by focusing on the concept of the encounter and the dao movement. In this response, I build on her insights by proposing that the binary and the planar be heterogeneously blocked together. Rather than critical pedagogy, critical education, liberal education, and postmodern education, we need to see pedagogy and politics as hanging together in a confrontational negotiation.
Curricular Guidance for Associate-Degree Transfer Programs in Computer Science with Contemporary Cybersecurity Concepts (Abstract Only)

In 2015, under the auspices of the ACM Education Board the Committee for Computing Education in Community Colleges (CCECC) began an effort to update the ACM Computing Curricula 2009: Guidelines for Associate-Degree Transfer Curriculum in Computer Science with inclusion of contemporary cybersecurity concepts. To this end, the CCECC established a task force of community college educators to review the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013 (CS2013) and identify foundational material in CS2013 that is appropriate for the first two years of a computer science education. To further inform the guidance, the CCECC administered surveys to a global audience of computer science educators to solicit input related to CS2013 knowledge areas (KAs) and knowledge units (KUs) and on cybersecurity topics, which are appropriate for associate-degree computer science transfer programs. The guidance has been through two rounds of public review and comment
Parametric study of the 5d3, 5d26s and 5d26p configurations in the Lu I isoelectronic sequence (Ta III–Hg X) using orthogonal operators

Abstract Data available on the 5d 3 , 5d 2 6s and 5d 2 6p configurations in the Lu I isoelectronic sequence have been critically reviewed by means of calculations with the orthogonal operators. The study included spectra from Ta III through Hg X. The calculations agree very well with the experimental data. The isoelectronic behavior of parameters and deviations of the experimental levels from the calculated positions, Δ E = ( E exp − E calc ), show regular trends. Three missing 5d 2 6s levels have been accurately predicted theoretically and confirmed experimentally: the level ( 3 P) 2 P 3∕2 in Pt VIII and the levels ( 3 P) 4 P 5∕2 and ( 3 P) 2 P 1∕2 in Os VI have been determined in the study. The research suggested revision of the published initial analyses of the Re V and Hg X spectra. The recently completed revised analysis of Re V has confirmed the issues noticed in the initial analysis and has resulted in the data that fit very well in the current parametric study. The isoelectronic evolution of the higher order interactions was studied for the first time in the Lu I sequence. The study included the parameters A c , A 3 – A 6 describing two-particle magnetic interaction of the dd-type, the parameter A mso describing two-particle magnetic ds-type effect, the parameter T dds describing 3-particle electrostatic ds-type interaction, and the effective parameters S 1 and S 2 of the dp-type.
A multiple degree of freedom model of piezoelectret foam in an updated multilayer stack configuration

Piezoelectric polymers, such as the Emfit polypropylene piezoelectret foam investigated in this study, have distinct advantages over traditional piezoceramics. Although piezopolymers have a smaller piezoelec tric coupling coefficient when compared to piezoceramics, they are well suited for in vivo applications , having a lead - free composition, for applications with curved or flexible surfaces, being flexible, or where weight or large shocks are factors, being l ight weight and r esilient. Presented here is an improved electromechanical multiple degree of freedom (MDOF) model of a mult ilayer piezoelectret foam stack that implements a complex stiffness damping model as a function of measureable material properties , as well as an updated stack configuration which makes use of lighter and more fle xible materials than the author’s previous configuration. The model predicts the energy harvesting performance of the stack at varying excitation frequencies and for varying s tack properties. Finally, the stack model parameters are validated with experimentally determined foam material properties .
United States Medical Licensing Examination and American Board of Pediatrics Certification Examination Results: Does the Residency Program Contribute to Trainee Achievement.

Objective To determine whether training site or prior examinee performance on the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 1 and step 2 might predict pass rates on the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) certifying examination. Study design Data from graduates of pediatric residency programs completing the ABP certifying examination between 2009 and 2013 were obtained. For each, results of the initial ABP certifying examination were obtained, as well as results on National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) step 1 and step 2 examinations. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to nest first-time ABP results within training programs to isolate program contribution to ABP results while controlling for USMLE step 1 and step 2 scores. Stepwise linear regression was then used to determine which of these examinations was a better predictor of ABP results. Results A total of 1110 graduates of 15 programs had complete testing results and were subject to analysis. Mean ABP scores for these programs ranged from 186.13 to 214.32. The hierarchical linear model suggested that the interaction of step 1 and 2 scores predicted ABP performance (F[1,1007.70] = 6.44, P = .011). By conducting a multilevel model by training program, both USMLE step examinations predicted first-time ABP results (b = .002, t = 2.54, P = .011). Linear regression analyses indicated that step 2 results were a better predictor of ABP performance than step 1 or a combination of the two USMLE scores. Conclusions Performance on the USMLE examinations, especially step 2, predicts performance on the ABP certifying examination. The contribution of training site to ABP performance was statistically significant, though contributed modestly to the effect compared with prior USMLE scores.
Pathophysiology of keratoconus: What do we know today

Keratoconus is a common corneal ectasia that leads to progressive visual impairment. Numerous studies have shown abnormal protein expression patterns in keratoconic corneas. However, the specific mechanisms causing this disease remain ambiguous. This review aims to provide an update on morphological studies of the keratoconic cornea, relate these early studies with current findings from proteomic, biochemical and cell culture studies and to postulate possible pathogenic pathways.
Spiritual coping, perceived growth, and the moderating role of spiritual mindfulness in cancer survivors

Purpose: This study examined the moderating role of spiritual mindfulness on the association between spiritual coping and perceived growth in individuals with and without current treatment for canc...
Tailoring the Morphology of LiCoO2: A First Principles Study

Surface energies of several low-index surfaces of layered LiCoO2 are investigated as a function of the external lithium and oxygen chemical potentials by means of First Principles calculations in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to density functional theory (DFT), treating on-site electron correlation within the DFT+U framework. We find the set of surfaces contained in the equilibrium shape to be depending on environment. The (0001) and (1014) surfaces are present for all reasonable values of the Li and O chemical potentials. The (0112) surface, however, is stable only under oxidizing conditions. The equilibrium shape is sensitive to the equilibration environment because the thermodynamically favorable surface terminations and surface energies of the polar (0001) and (0112) surfaces are a function of environment. This provides a lever to tailor the crystal shape according to application requirements (e.g., as active material in lithium-ion batteries).
Immune Responses in Animal Models

Animal models have made major contributions to our understanding of the nature of the immune response to tuberculosis. Although each of the most popular models tend to give us a different perspective of the disease process, the collective information gained has given us considerable insight into the basis of susceptibility and resistance to disease as well as the nature of both protective immunity and immunopathology.
Favorable prognostic significance of raised serum C3 concentration in patients with idiopathic focal glomerulosclerosis.

This study examined the relationship between the clinical and pathologic variables and renal outcome in patients with idiopathic focal glomerulosclerosis (FGS). The study population included 106 patients with biopsy proven idiopathic FGS followed for a mean of 31 months. Forty-nine patients (46%) maintained stable renal function, 21 patients (20%) had a progressive deterioration of renal function and an additional 36 patients (34%) progressed to end-stage kidney disease. By multivariate analysis the following baseline variables (i. e. variables measured at the time of renal biopsy) were associated with the loss of renal function : 1. An elevated serum creatinine ; 2. an elevated systemic blood pressure ; 3. extensive interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy by kidney biopsy ; 4. a low-normal serum C3 level. At baseline serum C3 levels were abnormally high in 31 patients (29%). Baseline C3 levels were inversely correlated with baseline serum creatinine levels (p <0.0001), the severity of histologic changes (p <0.0001), and better preservation of renal function during follow-up (p <0.0001). Serum C3 levels did not correlate with proteinuria or with other clinical variables tested. The presence of C1q in the mesangium did not correlate with renal outcome. In conclusion, serum C3 levels measured at the time of biopsy correlate with renal outcome in patients with idiopathic FGS. The basis for this correlation is unknown but it cannot be fully explained by relationships between serum C3 levels and other clinical variables.
Collective intentionality: A basic and early component of moral evolution

ABSTRACTMichael Tomasello’s account of moral evolution includes both a synthesis of extensive experimental work done on humans and chimpanzees on their potential for perspective-taking and helpful, altruistic generosity and a major emphasis on “collective intentionality” as an important component of morality in humans. Both will be very useful to the evolutionary study of this subject. However, his disavowal of collective intentions on the parts of chimpanzees would appear to be empirically incorrect, owing to reliance on experimental captive research focused only on dyadic interactions. Here, evidence to the contrary is provided from studies of wild chimpanzees as they naturally cooperate in sizable groups. Collective intentions are inferable when they go on patrol, when they mob predators, when they go hunting, and when large coalitions gang-attack disliked members of the same community. This last behavior has particularly significant pre-adaptive implications for the evolution of moralistic social cont...
Time Stability and Coherence Analysis of Multiunit, Single-Unit and Local Field Potential Neuronal Signals in Chronically Implanted Brain Electrodes

Introducing neural sensing and decoding to open-loop neurostimulation technologies has the potential to significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of diseases treated through bioelectronic medicine. Chronically implanted multi-electrode arrays (MEA) can be used for such neural sensing and are critical for obtaining data of high spatial and temporal resolution to provide accurate decoding. Signals recorded from these arrays include local field potentials (LFP), and multiunit (MU) and single-unit (SU) activity. LFP offer signal stability over time, but at the expense of decreased spatial resolution. SU activity, on the other hand, offers better spatial resolution, but is considered less stable in chronic applications. MU activity, which represents an aggregate spiking activity of a population of neurons on the order of several hundred microns away from the recording tip, is considered a signal that can offer a compromise between the two signals. Here we used a wavelet decomposition method to extract and characterize the LFP, MU and SU signals obtained from a 96-channel MEA implanted in the motor cortex of a nonhuman primate over a 7.5-month period. We observed that not only are the MU signals more stable over time compared with SU activity, but that they are also significantly less correlated among electrodes compared with LFP over the spatial scale of the implanted array. Histological analysis of tissue sections also revealed a 51% reduction in the number of neuronal cell bodies within a radius around the electrode tips of the implanted tissue compared with control tissue. Our results indicate that MU activity offers long-term signal stability with less correlated signals, potentially providing an effective signal for neural sensing in bioelectronic medicine.
Inter-Femtocell Interference Identification and Resource Management

OFDMA femtocell is a promising technology to improve indoor cellular network coverage cost-effectively. Large-scale deployment of femtocells in the urban area is expected to be realized in the near future. However, inter-femtocell interference significantly limits the achievable throughput of an OFDMA femtocell system, which calls for interference management tailored for femtocell networks. A typical approach to mitigate inter-femtocell interference is known as resource isolation, which aims at assigning non-overlapping resources to interfering femtocells. One of the main challenges for interference mitigation in femtocell networks is that end consumers often install the femtocells. Very limited information about the femtocells is available, making it hard to decipher the inter-femtocell interference. Previous studies either take time to resolve collisions online or adopt a conservative approach to identify interferers. Although the latter approach avoids wasting time on resolving collisions, it may result in resource underutilization. In this paper, we propose an efficient method to identify inter-femtocell interference by analyzing the received patterns observed by mobile stations. We conducted experiments on GNU Radio/USRP to demonstrate that the proposed interference identification method can successfully identify real interferers while excluding non-interfering femtocells from suspect femtocells. Based on the proposed interference identification, we propose a weighted vertex-coloring based resource assignment algorithm to allocate resources with better fairness and higher throughput.
Reputation-Aware Data Fusion and Malicious Participant Detection in Mobile Crowdsensing

Mobile crowdsensing, an emerging sensing paradigm, promotes scalability and reduction in the deployment of specialized sensing devices for large-scale data collection in a decentralized fashion. However, its open structure allows malicious entities to interrupt a system by reporting fabricated or erroneous data, making trust evaluation a highly important issue in mobile crowdsensing applications. The goal of this research is to show that an introduction of a reputation system in the process of correlated sensor-based data fusion will enhance the overall quality of the sensed data. To do so, we design a reputation-aware data fusion mechanism to ensure data integrity. We use Gompertz function in our reputation method to rate the trustworthiness of the data reported by a crowdsensing participant. The proposed mechanism, on one hand, is capable of defending a data corruption attack and identifying malicious or honest participants based on their reported data in real time. On the other hand, this mechanism yields more accurate data prediction in terms of lower data prediction error. We conducted experiments using two different real-world datasets. We compare our correlated data and reputation-aware data prediction (CDR) method with other popular methods, and the results show that our effective method incurs lower data prediction error.
Tonic resting-state hubness supports high-frequency activity defined verbal-memory encoding network in epilepsy

Abstract High-frequency gamma activity (HFA: 45–95Hz) on invasive-electroencephalogram coupled with verbal-memory encoding has laid the foundation for numerous studies testing the integrity of memory in diseased populations. Yet, the functional connectivity characteristics of networks subserving these HFA-memory linkages remains uncertain. By integrating this electrophysiological biomarker of memory encoding from IEEG with resting-state BOLD fluctuations, we estimated the segregation and hubness of HFA-memory regions in drug-resistant epilepsy patients and matched healthy controls. HFA-memory regions express distinctly different hubness compared to neighboring regions in health and in epilepsy, and this hubness was more valuable than segregation in predicting verbal memory encoding. The HFA-memory network comprised regions from both the cognitive control and sensorimotor processing networks, validating that effective verbal-memory encoding requires multiple functions, and is not dominated by a central cognitive core. Our results demonstrate a tonic intrinsic set of functional connectivity, which provides the necessary conditions for effective, phasic, task-dependent memory encoding. Highlights High gamma memory activity in IEEG corresponds to specific BOLD changes in resting-state data. HFA-defined memory regions had lower betweenness centrality relative to neighbouring control nodes in both epilepsy patients and healthy controls. The betweenness centrality hubness of the HFA-memory network was distinct from other cognitive networks. HFA-memory network shares regional membership and interacts with multiple cognitive networks required for successful verbal memory encoding. HFA-memory network hubness predicted both concurrent task (phasic) and baseline (tonic) verbal-memory encoding success.
Distributed Low-rank Matrix Factorization With Exact Consensus

Low-rank matrix factorization is a problem of broad importance, owing to the ubiquity of low-rank models in machine learning contexts. In spite of its non- convexity, this problem has a well-behaved geometric landscape, permitting local search algorithms such as gradient descent to converge to global minimizers. In this paper, we study low-rank matrix factorization in the distributed setting, where local variables at each node encode parts of the overall matrix factors, and consensus is encouraged among certain such variables. We identify conditions under which this new problem also has a well-behaved geometric landscape, and we propose an extension of distributed gradient descent (DGD) to solve this problem. The favorable landscape allows us to prove convergence to global optimality with exact consensus, a stronger result than what is provided by off-the-shelf DGD theory.
Nanoimprint Directed Assembly of Associating Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles for Polymer Thin Films with Enhanced Stability

We find that changing the chemistry of the inorganic core of polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) from Au to TiO2 in a polymer matrix having the same chemistry leads to a qualitative change in the...
Phase III Precision Medicine Clinical Trial Designs That Integrate Treatment and Biomarker Evaluation

Recent advances in biotechnology and cancer genomics have afforded enormous opportunities for development of more effective anticancer therapies. A key thrust of this modern drug development paradigm is successful identification of predictive biomarkers that can distinguish patients who might be sensitive to new targeted therapies. To respond to this challenge, a number of phase III cancer trial designs integrating biomarker-based objectives have been proposed and implemented in oncology drug development. In this article, we provide an updated review of commonly used biomarker-based randomized clinical trial designs, with a particular focus on design efficiency. When the efficacy of a new therapy may be limited to a biomarker-defined subgroup, the choice of an appropriate randomized clinical trial design should be guided by the strength of the biomarker's credentials. If compelling evidence indicates that a targeted therapy is beneficial only in a particular biomarker-defined subgroup, an enrichment design should be used. If there is strong evidence that the treatment is likely to be more beneficial in the biomarker-positive patients but a meaningful benefit is also possible in the biomarker-negative patients, then a properly powered biomarker-stratified design (eg, a subgroup-specific or Marker Sequential Test strategy) would provide the most rigorous determination of the sensitive populations. If the evidence supporting the predictive value of the biomarker is weak and the treatment is expected to work in the overall population, then a fallback design could be used. Careful selection of an appropriate phase III design strategy that integrates evaluation of a new anticancer therapy and its companion diagnostic is critical to the success of precision medicine in oncology.
PTC209, a Specific Inhibitor of BMI1, Promotes Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis in Cervical Cancer Cell Lines.

BACKGROUND/AIM Aberrant expression of the BMI1 oncogene has been prevalently found in a variety of human cancers, including cervical cancer. Recent studies have shown that PTC209, a specific BMI1 inhibitor, exhibits high potency in inhibiting the growth of colon, breast, oral cancer cells and cancer-initiating cells, indicative of its chemotherapeutic potential. In the current study, we evaluated the inhibitory abilities of PTC209 in cervical cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three cervical cell lines, C33A, HeLa, and SiHa were treated with PTC209. The impacts of PTC209 on BMI1 were investigated using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR assay (qRT-PCR) and western blotting; changes in cell viability, cell cycle distribution, and apoptosis were assessed using cell viability testing, colony formation assay and flow cytometry analyses, respectively. RESULTS PTC209 exhibited considerably high short-term and long-term cytotoxicities in all tested cervical cancer cell lines regardless of their HPV infection status, TP53 and pRb statuses. PTC209 significantly downregulated the expression of BMI1 in cervical cancer cell lines, and such downregulation led to G0/G1 arrest (p<0.05). Moreover, PTC209 drove more cells into apoptosis (p<0.05). CONCLUSION PTC209 (BMI1-targeting agents, in general) represents a novel chemotherapeutic agent with potential in cervical cancer therapy.
Microbiome: Insect Herbivory Drives Plant Phyllosphere Dysbiosis

A well-known trade-off exists between plant defenses against herbivores and defenses against pathogens, but few studies incorporate the plant microbiome. A new study by Humphrey and Whiteman shows that herbivory reshapes the leaf microbiome and increases susceptibility to potential bacterial pathogens.
Synergistic adversities and behavioral problems in traumatized children and adolescents

Abstract Objective This study investigated synergy of commonly co-occurring pairs of childhood traumas/adversities to determine: 1) if synergistic pairings differ by gender and/or age grouping; and 2) if some traumas/adversities were more synergistically reactive. Methods A sample of 10,355 clinic-referred youth (1.5–18 years) from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set was divided by gender and categorized into salient age groups (1.5−5 years, 6−12 years, and 13−18 years). Attributable Proportion (AP), a biomedically relevant metric, was calculated to assess additive synergy for behavior problems on the CBCL. Results Overall, only four pairs of adversities were synergistic. Three involved sexual abuse with physical abuse, parental loss, and domestic violence. When the sample was analyzed by Gender X Age group, however, a more complicated picture emerges. Twelve of the twenty-one possible pairings (57 %) show additive synergy in one or more categories. The mean AP accounted for approximately 40 % of outcome variance. Males had more synergistic pairings (16) than females (7). The average synergistic effect was higher for males (42 % of variance) than females (36 % of variance). The vast majority of synergy occurs in the 6−12 and 13−18 age groups. Sexual abuse was the most synergistically reactive trauma, pairing most frequently (16) followed by physical abuse (10) or neglect (9). Conclusion Sexual abuse was malignantly synergistic, frequently pairing with other adversities, followed by physical abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. The findings underscore that all ACEs are not equal in their contributions to commonly assessed outcomes. The findings also have considerable implications for prevention, intervention, and future research.
Pre-peritoneal pelvic packing for early hemorrhage control reduces mortality compared to resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta in severe blunt pelvic trauma patients: A nationwide analysis.

Abstract Background Early hemorrhage control after severe blunt pelvic trauma is life-saving. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and outcomes of pre-peritoneal packing (PPP) and Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) with a subsequent hemorrhage control procedure to control life-threatening pelvic hemorrhage in trauma patients. Methods A 3-year (2015–2017) retrospective analysis of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) was performed. All blunt trauma patients (aged ≥15 years) who underwent PPP or Zone 3 REBOA placement were included while deaths on arrival and transfers were excluded. Patients were matched on clinical characteristics using propensity score matching (PSM). Univariate analysis was performed to compare mortality, time to procedure, time in ED, transfusion requirements, complications rates, and ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS) amongst patient groups. Results Of 420 trauma patients, 307 underwent PPP and 113 REBOA. Patients had similar hemodynamics and ISS upon presentation, but PPP patients had a higher GCS (P = 0.037) and more blunt kidney injuries (P = 0.015). After PSM, 206 trauma patients were included in the analysis. There were no significant differences in blood transfusion, LOS, or major complications. Time to REBOA was shorter than time to PPP (52 vs 77.5 min; P Conclusion PPP is associated with improved survival compared to REBOA placement. Delay in definitive hemorrhage control may provide a potential explanation, but causation remains unresolved. This data suggests that early PPP may offer a benefit over REBOA in the setting of hemorrhage after blunt pelvic trauma. Further, large, multi-institutional studies are warranted to support these findings. Level of Evidence Prognostic study, level III.
Space-time dependent thermal conductivity in nonlocal thermal transport

Here, a direct solution is provided of a time-space-dependent Peierls-Boltzmann equation with a linearized collision matrix. This will expand the state-of-the-art of thermal transport prediction and provide an avenue for understanding novel nonlocal transport measurements. Application ofmethodology developed here will illuminate physical insights into length and time scale dependent transport behavior in ultrahigh thermal conductivity materials, thus guiding interpretation of measurements and enabling critical understanding of materials for design of novel thermal management applications.
Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaics: Current Progress and Path to Gigawatt Scale Enabled by Smart Manufacturing

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have lately been pursued with intense vigor for optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaics (PV), flexible electronics, displays, mid-infrared photodetectors, las...
Chapter 5 A game theoretic approach to the theory of money and financial institutions

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a game theoretic and gaming approach to the development of an appropriate microeconomic theory of money and financial institutions. The monetary and financial systems of an economy are part of the socio-politico-economic control mechanism used by every state to connect the economy with the polity and society. This neural network provides the administrative means to collect taxes, direct investment, provide public goods, finance wars, and facilitate international and intertemporal trade. Money measures provide a crude but serviceable basis for the accounting system, which, in turn, along with the codification of commercial law and financial regulation, are the basis for economic evaluation and the measurement of trust and fiduciary responsibility among economic agents. A basic purpose of the approach is adopted to show the minimal conditions that require that financial institutions and instruments emerge as the necessary carriers of process. The thrust is for the development of a mathematical institutional economics. A theory of money and financial institutions at the level of abstraction of general equilibrium theory is a theory of mechanisms and how they might work given the combination of economic forces and more or less exogenous socio-political forces.
Does insurance type influence overall survival in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Objective Patients with head and neck cancer with Medicaid or no insurance present at a more advanced stage and have lower survival. This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between specific insurance types and overall survival for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients. Study design Retrospective chart review. Setting Henry Ford Cancer Institute. Subjects and methods A retrospective database review was performed using the Henry Ford Virtual Data Warehouse Tumor Registry. Six hundred and fifty patients diagnosed with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma were identified. Insurance groups analyzed were fee for service, health maintenance organization, Henry Ford Medical Group - a managed care type insurance, Medicare and Medicaid/uninsured. Cox proportional hazards and Kaplan-Meier curves were generated to analyze overall survival and display survival differences respectively. Results The uninsured group had the lowest median survival time of 29.8 months (95% CI: 20.3–44.8) and the highest HR of 1.85 (95% CI 1.16–2.93) as compared to the HMO group at p Conclusions Fee for service had the highest overall survival of the different insurance types, but it was only statistically significant when compared to the Medicaid/uninsured group.
Development of a Dissemination Platform for Spatiotemporal and Phylogenetic Analysis of Avian Infectious Bronchitis Virus

Infecting large portions of the global poultry populations, the avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) remains a major economic burden in North America. With more than 30 serotypes globally distributed, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, and Massachusetts are among the most predominant serotypes in the United States. Even though vaccination is widely used, the high mutation rate exhibited by IBV is continuously triggering the emergence of new viral strains and hindering control and prevention measures. For that reason, targeted strategies based on constantly updated information on the IBV circulation are necessary. Here, we sampled IBV-infected farms from one US state and collected and analyzed 65 genetic sequences coming from three different lineages along with the immunization information of each sampled farm. Phylodynamic analyses showed that IBV dispersal velocity was 12.3 km/year. The majority of IBV infections appeared to have derived from the introduction of the Arkansas DPI serotype, and the Arkansas DPI and Georgia 13 were the predominant serotypes. When analyzed against IBV sequences collected across the United States and deposited in the GenBank database, the most likely viral origin of our sequences was from the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Delaware. Information about vaccination showed that the MILDVAC-MASS+ARK vaccine was applied on 26% of the farms. Using a publicly accessible open-source tool for real-time interactive tracking of pathogen spread and evolution, we analyzed the spatiotemporal spread of IBV and developed an online reporting dashboard. Overall, our work demonstrates how the combination of genetic and spatial information could be used to track the spread and evolution of poultry diseases, providing timely information to the industry. Our results could allow producers and veterinarians to monitor in near-real time the current IBV strain circulating, making it more informative, for example, in vaccination-related decisions.
Secure 5G Network for a Nationwide Drone Corridor

5G can provide the multiplicative capacity gains needed to support a large number of drones/UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems). 5G cellular networks with newly available millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency bands can provide wireless communication links for control as well as data traffic for drones and drone swarms. Drones are becoming increasingly important for commercial uses such as delivery and transportation as well as for public safety search and rescue of natural disaster victims, surveillance of remote critical infrastructure, surveys of environmental quality in protected regions, and detection of threats during major public events. This paper presents research findings in the following areas critical to validating the effectiveness of providing required 5G access to the drones with security, reliability, and spectral efficiency: 1) Radio coverage for the drone corridor by adding a separate set of antennas for coverage in the air while the conventional set of antennas continues to provide coverage on the ground. Beam transmission and validation with ray-tracing simulations are covered. 2) Optimization of uplink communication from a swarm of drones with a single mmWave beam by grouping the drones with power allocations for non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). 3) Optimization of the network lifetime of a swarm of drones resulting in suitable trajectories in the presence of interference. 4) Methods including precoding that can enhance physical layer security with channel information about the interference source. The paper concludes with plans for future research to provide further scientific basis for the proposed cellular drone network.
A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Post-Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography Pancreatitis Prophylaxis in the United States

Background & Aims Post–endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis (PEP) is the most common adverse event after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and is responsible for substantial morbidity and health care expenditures of at least $200 million. Therapies for PEP prevention include pancreatic stent placement (PSP), rectal indomethacin, sublingual nitrates, and aggressive lactated Ringer’s hydration. Our objective was to determine which PEP prophylactic strategies are cost effective. Methods We developed 2 separate decision trees to evaluate PEP prophylactic strategies. The first, in high-risk patients, compared rectal indomethacin, PSP, PSP with indomethacin, sublingual nitrates, aggressive hydration with lactated Ringer’s, and no prophylaxis. The second, in average-risk patients, compared rectal indomethacin, sublingual nitrates, aggressive hydration, and no prophylaxis. We used incidence rates, transition probabilities, and costs from publications and public data sources. Outcome measures were reported as incremental cost-effectiveness ratios, with a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of $100,000/quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Results Compared with no prophylaxis, all strategies were cost effective at a WTP of $100,000 in preventing PEP in high-risk patients. When directly compared with each other, rectal indomethacin was the cost-effective strategy in high-risk patients ($31,589/QALYs). In average-risk patients, indomethacin and sublingual nitrates were cost effective at a WTP of $100,000/QALYs compared with no prophylaxis. When directly compared with each other, rectal indomethacin was the cost-effective strategy ($53,016/QALYs). Conclusions Rectal indomethacin was the cost-effective strategy for preventing PEP in both average-risk and high-risk patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. All strategies were cost effective when compared with no prophylaxis in high-risk patients, whereas all strategies except for aggressive hydration with lactated Ringer’s were cost effective in average-risk patients. Further studies are needed to improve the utilization of PEP prevention strategies.
Physical Education and Social Learning in the Secondary School

(1949). Physical Education and Social Learning in the Secondary School. Journal of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation: Vol. 20, No. 7, pp. 452-494.