cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nasal Immunity to Staphylococcal Toxic Shock Is Controlled by the Nasopharynx-Associated Lymphoid Tissue

The nasopharynx-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) of humans and other mammals is associated with immunity against airborne infections, though it is generally considered to be a secondary component of the mucosa-associated lymphoid system. We found that protective immunity to a virulence factor of nasal mucosa-colonizing Staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), requires a functional NALT. We examined the role of NALT using intranasal (IN) vaccination with a recombinant SEB vaccine (rSEBv) combined with an adjuvant in a mouse model of SEB-induced toxic shock. The rSEBv was rapidly internalized by NALT cells at the mucosal barrier, and transport into NALT was accelerated by inclusion of a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonist. Vaccine-induced germinal centers of B cells formed within NALT, accompanied by elevated levels of IgA(+) and IgG(+) cells, and these were further increased by TLR4 activation. The NALT was the site of specific anti-rSEBv IgA and IgG production but was also influenced by intraperitoneal (IP) inoculation and perhaps other isolated lymphoid follicles observed within the nasal cavity. Vaccination by the IN route generated robust levels of anti-rSEBv IgA in saliva, nasal secretions, and blood compared to much lower levels after IP vaccination. IN vaccination also induced secretion of anti-rSEBv IgG in the blood and nasal secretions. Significantly, the efficacy of IN vaccination was dependent on NALT, as surgical removal resulted in greater sensitivity to IN challenge with wild-type SEB. Thus, protective immunity to SEB within the nasal sinuses was elicited by responses originating in NALT.
Measurement of glucose consumption by hybridoma cells growing in hollow fiber cartridge bioreactors: use of blood glucose self-monitoring devices

Two different types of blood glucose self-monitoring device, designed for use by diabetics (Accu-Chek Advantage* and Accu-Chek III*), were evaluated for the purpose of monitoring glucose concentration in tissue culture media. The Accu-Chek Advantage* meter was found to systematically overestimate the glucose concentration in a variety of commonly used tissue culture media by 50-90%, in comparison with their formulated glucose concentration. The Accu-Chek III* meter reliably estimated glucose concentrations from 100 to 300 mg/dl and overestimated glucose concentrations above 300 mg/dl. The systematic overestimation of glucose concentration in tissue culture fluids by the Accu-Chek Advantage* meter was further investigated. A standard curve was constructed and the meter reading was found to be linearly related to the actual glucose concentration and the best linear fit was given by the formula y = -43.504 + 1.9246x, where y is the meter reading and x is the actual glucose concentration. Rearranging the equation to make x the subject gave the following algorithm x = (y + 43.504) divided by 1.9246 which could be used to correct the 'raw' meter reading. The mean corrected glucose concentrations deviated from the formulated glucose concentration by less than 3.5% in five media tested, indicating that this meter is more than adequate for monitoring glucose consumption by cells growing in hollow fiber cartridge bioreactors, when used in conjunction with this correction factor.
Effects of exposure to sexist humor on perceptions of normative tolerance of sexism.

The results of an experiment supported the hypotheses that (1) for men high in hostile sexism, exposure to sexist humor creates a perceived social norm of tolerance of sexism relative to exposure to nonhumorous sexist communication or neutral humor, and (2) due to this ‘relaxed’ normative standard in the context of sexist humor, men high in hostile sexism anticipated feeling less self-directed negative affect upon imagining that they had behaved in a sexist manner. Finally, exposure to sexist humor did not affect the evaluative content of men's stereotypes of women relative to exposure to neutral humor or nonhumorous sexist communication for participants high or low in hostile sexism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of continuous positive airway pressure on type 2 diabetes mellitus and glucose metabolism.

AbstractBackground: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent condition that is associated with significant comorbidities, including obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and insulin resistance. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an effective treatment for OSA. The effect of CPAP on glucose metabolism in patients with OSA has been controversial. This study evaluates the impact of CPAP on patients with OSA and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or prediabetes. Materials and Methods: PubMed, Ovid Medline, and EMBASE were searched for original English language studies performed on or after 2003. Subjects were aged > 18 years, were diagnosed with OSA via polysomnography, and had either T2DM or prediabetes according to laboratory evaluation. Results: Of the 22 articles that met the selection criteria, 17 studies (77%) showed that a prolonged use of CPAP produced significant changes in glucose metabolism of patients who had T2DM and prediabetes. These changes were observed in studies measuri...
Climate Change: Leveraging Legacy

Drawing on the emerging private governance literature and the results of an empirical study, this Article explores whether legacy concerns can be harnessed to address climate change. The socio-temporal trap is an important barrier to climate change mitigation: the costs of reducing carbon emissions will be incurred by this generation, but most of the benefits will accrue to future generations. Research suggests that social influences — including concerns about legacy — can induce individuals to overcome collective action problems, but individuals know that future generations will not have information about who acted today in ways meriting social sanctions or rewards. Insufficient information may undermine three aspects of legacy-driven behavior: the concern about how one’s actions today will be viewed by future generations, the concern about how these actions will affect the social status of progeny, and the alignment of these actions with moral beliefs regarding the treatment of future generations. Making legacy-related information public today also may influence social sanctions and rewards from contemporaries. The Article examines the nature of legacy concerns, their effects on behavior, and the feasibility of a private legacy registry designed to record individuals’ responses to climate change in ways that will not only be disclosed today, but also will be easily accessible for many generations.
Directly Manipulated Free-Form Deformation Image Registration

Previous contributions to both the research and open source software communities detailed a generalization of a fast scalar field fitting technique for cubic B-splines based on the work originally proposed by Lee . One advantage of our proposed generalized B-spline fitting approach is its immediate application to a class of nonrigid registration techniques frequently employed in medical image analysis. Specifically, these registration techniques fall under the rubric of free-form deformation (FFD) approaches in which the object to be registered is embedded within a B-spline object. The deformation of the B-spline object describes the transformation of the image registration solution. Representative of this class of techniques, and often cited within the relevant community, is the formulation of Rueckert who employed cubic splines with normalized mutual information to study breast deformation. Similar techniques from various groups provided incremental novelty in the form of disparate explicit regularization terms, as well as the employment of various image metrics and tailored optimization methods. For several algorithms, the underlying gradient-based optimization retained the essential characteristics of Rueckert's original contribution. The contribution which we provide in this paper is two-fold: 1) the observation that the generic FFD framework is intrinsically susceptible to problematic energy topographies and 2) that the standard gradient used in FFD image registration can be modified to a well-understood preconditioned form which substantially improves performance. This is demonstrated with theoretical discussion and comparative evaluation experimentation.
A new wide range Euclidean distance circuit for neural network hardware implementations

In this paper, we describe an analog very large-scale integration (VLSI) implementation of a wide range Euclidean distance computation circuit - the key element of many synapse circuits. This circuit is essentially a wide-range absolute value circuit that is designed to be as small as possible (80 /spl times/ 76 /spl mu/m) in order to achieve maximum synapse density while maintaining a wide range of operation (0.5 to 4.5 V) and low power consumption (less than 200 /spl mu/W). The circuit has been fabricated in 1.5-/spl mu/m technology through MOSIS. We present simulated and experimental results of the circuit, and compare these results. Ultimately, this circuit is intended for use as part of a high-density hardware implementation of a self-organizing map (SOM). We describe how this circuit can be used as part of the SOM and how the SOM is going to be used as part of a larger bio-inspired vision system based on the octopus visual system.
Follicular Lymphoma: Recent Advances

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a B-cell lymphoma that recapitulates the germinal center (GC)-B-cell stage of differentiation and in most cases form neoplastic follicles that resemble the normal GC. Normal GCB-cells do not express the anti-apoptotic protein B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (BCL2) and they readily undergo apoptosis if they do not have a high affinity antigen receptor that will transmit survival signals on recognition of the antigen. The vast majority of FL has a translocation that leads to an inappropriate constitutive expression of the BCL2 protein that protects the cell from apoptosis. This cell can survive for long periods in the GC environment and undergoes further genetic alterations that eventually establish the neoplastic clonal population as a FL. These critical secondary changes are of great interest in understanding the evolution of a pre-neoplastic clone with BCL2 translocation to a malignant lymphoma.
Cutting Edge: CD8 T Cell-Mediated Demyelination Is IFN-γ Dependent in Mice Infected with a Neurotropic Coronavirus

Mice infected with the murine coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus, strain JHM (MHV) develop an immune-mediated demyelinating encephalomyelitis. We showed previously that adoptive transfer of MHV-immune splenocytes depleted of either CD4 or CD8 T cells to infected RAG1(-/-) recipients (mice deficient in recombination activation gene 1) resulted in demyelination. Herein we show that transfer of CD8 T cell-enriched splenocytes from MHV-immune IFN-gamma(-/-) donors resulted in a substantial decrease in demyelination (4.8% of the white matter of the spinal cord compared with 26.3% in those receiving cells from C57BL/6 donors). Similar numbers of lymphocytes were present in the CNS of recipients of either C57BL/6 or IFN-gamma(-/-) CD8 T cells, suggesting that IFN-gamma was not crucial for lymphocyte entry into the CNS. Rather, IFN-gamma was critical for optimal activation or migration of macrophages or microglia into the white matter in the context of CD8 T cell-mediated demyelination.
From 'omics' to complex disease: a systems biology approach to gene-environment interactions in cancer

Background Cancer is a complex disease that involves a sequence of gene-environment interactions in a progressive process that cannot occur without dysfunction in multiple systems, including DNA repair, apoptotic and immune functions. Epigenetic mechanisms, responding to numerous internal and external cues in a dynamic ongoing exchange, play a key role in mediating environmental influences on gene expression and tumor development.
Three-Dimensional Characteristics of Fat Globules in Cheddar Cheese

The microstructure of 1-mo-old Cheddar cheese samples of different fat contents was observed with confocal laser scanning microscopy. An observation depth of 40 μm was used with a 0.5-μm distance between observation planes, which resulted in 81 sequential, two-dimensional layered images of the samples. These images were digitally reconstructed using a digital image processing algorithm we developed in 1998. Both two- and three-dimensional image analyses were performed to evaluate number, size, and shape characteristics of fat globules in the samples. Because fat globules are three-dimensional, two-dimensional views are affected by the viewing direction and location of the sample. Therefore, three-dimensional analysis provided more accurate characterization of fat globule properties than did the two-dimensional analysis. Because of limited observation depth, however, many of views of the large fat globules were cropped by the image boundaries. These globules were not easily used for overall property characterization.
Probability of Fracture and Life Extension Estimate of the High-Flux Isotope Reactor Vessel

The state of the vessel steel embrittlement as a result of neutron irradiation can be measured by its increase in ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT)for fracture, often denoted by RT NDT for carbon steel. This transition temperature can be calibrated by the drop-weight test and, sometimes, by the Charpy impact test. The life extension for the high-flux isotope reactor (HFIR) vessel is calculated by using the method of fracture mechanics that is incorporated with the effect of the DBTT change. The failure probability of the HFIR vessel is limited as the life of the vessel by the reactor core melt probability of 10 -4 . The operating safety of the reactor is ensured by periodic hydrostatic pressure test (hydrotest). The hydrotest is performed in order to determine a safe vessel static pressure. The fracture probability as a result of the hydrostatic pressure test is calculated and is used to determine the life of the vessel. Failure to perform hydrotest imposes the limit on the life of the vessel. The conventional method of fracture probability calculations such as that used by the NRCsponsored PRAISE CODE and the FAVOR CODE developed in this Laboratory are based on the Monte Carlo simulation. Heavy computations are required. An alternative method of fracture probability calculation by direct probability integration is developed in this paper. The present approach offers simple and expedient ways to obtain numerical results without losing any generality. This approach provides a clear analytical expression on the physical random variables to be integrated, yet requires much less computation time. In this paper, numerical results on 1) the probability of vessel fracture, 2) the hydrotest time interval, and 3) the hydrotest pressure as a result of the DBTT increase are obtained. Limiting the probabilities of the vessel fracture as a result of hydrotest to 10 -4 implies that the reactor vessel life can be extended up to 50 EFPY (100 MW) with the minimum vessel operating temperature equal to 85°F.
Toward A Multidimensional Model Of Social Entrepreneurship: Definitions, Clarifications, And Theoretical Perspectives

A number of significant research projects have explored various aspects of social entrepreneurship, some demonstrating that, given an appropriate level of focus, social entrepreneurship is a viable area for research that can be studied and explored like its counterpart and predecessor, general entrepreneurship. This paper offers a true definition of social entrepreneurship by relating it to three key measures from general entrepreneurship: human capital, network structure, and financial capital. The current status of social entrepreneurship is also examined and summarized.
Financing Patterns of Minority-Owned Small Business

This study examines the initial, seasonal, and refinancing characteristics of 67 minority business owners. The results are compared to the financial characteristics of women-owned and mixed ownership small firms. Minority-owned firms are found to rely primarily on equity to finance initial operations. Minority business owners' initial debt was commonly obtained through Small Business Administration (SBA)guaranteed loans and government grants. A very large percent of the minority business owners who acquired debt were required to provide numerous supporting documents. The results indicate that minority firms that experienced difficulty in obtaining initial capital continue to experience financial problems relating to operations.
Role of Vitamin A and Its Derivatives in the Treatment of Human Cancer

Vitamin A and its natural and synthetic derivatives have gained attention in the last five years as promising agents for the management of human cancer. The interest in their preventive role has been intense-although the number of completed trials have been few (see 24)-and this experience will not be repeated here. This current manuscript will summarize the progress that retinoids have demonstrated as potential therapeutic agents, since the first large report of their potential efficacy appeared-a phase II trial of 13-cis retinoic acid (13cRA) in advanced cancers (31).
Techniques and Results for Open Hip Preservation.

While hip arthroscopy grows in popularity, there are still many circumstances under which open hip preservation is most appropriately indicated. This article specifically reviews open hip preservation procedures for a variety of hip conditions. Femoral acetabular impingement may be corrected using an open surgical hip dislocation. Acetabular dysplasia may be corrected using a periacetabular osteotomy. Acetabular protrusio may require surgical hip dislocation with rim trimming and a possible valgus intertrochanteric osteotomy. Legg-Calve -Perthes disease produces complex deformities that may be better served with osteotomies of the proximal femur and/ or acetabulum. Chronic slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) may also benefit from a surgical hip dislocation and/or proximal femoral osteotomy.
“I Don’t Fit Anywhere”: How Race and Sexuality Shape Latino Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health

Society’s negative views toward homosexuality continue to decline, although gay, lesbian, and transgender people in the United States experience stigma (Weitz, 1991; Herek, 1999; Kaiser Foundation, 2001; Loftus, 2001). The stigma of homosexuality has serious consequences for many gay men, such as stress, low self-esteem, suicide, unemployment, and dislocation (Cochran & Mays, 2000; Link & Phelan, 2001; Mays & Cochran, 2001; Paul et al., 2002). The AIDS epidemic has intensified this stigma (Herek, 1999). Moreover, stigma of homosexuality may be particularly critical for ethnic minorities, such as Latino gay men, because of the added racial discrimination (Diaz, 1998; Finch et al., 2000; Ramirez-Valles et al., 2005).
Competitive Advantage Valuation of Intellectual Property Assets: A New Tool for IP Managers

This paper provides a detailed description of a new method to value intellectual property assets - Competitive Advantage Valuation (CAV). The use of the CAV method to value patents, research and development investments, and patent licenses is explained through a series of hypothetical valuation examples.
Hepatitis-associated antigen in chimpanzees.

The hepatitis-associated antigen, or Australia antigen, is rarely found in sera collected randomly from normal populations of the United States, but it appears with high frequency in acute-phase sera of patients with long-incubation-period hepatitis [1,2]. Inoculation of such serum into human volunteers has been followed by hepatitis in these individuals [3]. However, failure to demonstrate nucleic acid in purified preparations of the antigen indicates that it may not itself be the virus of longincubation-period hepatitis, but rather some component of the viral particle or a secondary byproduct of viral multiplication [4]. Hirschman and colleagues have detected hepatitis-associated antigen in two of 128 healthy chimpanzees by the technique of agar-gel diffusion [2], and Prince found antigen by the same method in eight of 138 chimpanzees. He also detected antibody to the antigen in the serum of six separate animals [5]. In both studies, the qualitative identity of the simian antigen with human antigen was established by agar-gel diffusion. The occurrence of viral hepatitis in chimpanzees imported into this country has been well documented [6]. The clinical, histopathologic, and chemical features of this illness are similar to those seen in man [7], and the disease may be transmitted from chimpanzees to humans [8, 9]. Since 1963, the Phoenix Laboratories of the Center for Disease Control has housed successive cohorts of chimpanzees for research on hepatitis and related problems. Intensive surveillance of illness, including serial bleedings and biopsies of livers, allowed evaluation of the incidence and duration of viral hepatitis in these animals. Avail-
Lift-Off: Using Reference Imagery and Freehand Sketching to Create 3D Models in VR

Three-dimensional modeling has long been regarded as an ideal application for virtual reality (VR), but current VR-based 3D modeling tools suffer from two problems that limit creativity and applicability: (1) the lack of control for freehand modeling, and (2) the difficulty of starting from scratch. To address these challenges, we present Lift-Off , an immersive 3D interface for creating complex models with a controlled, handcrafted style. Artists start outside of VR with 2D sketches, which are then imported and positioned in VR. Then, using a VR interface built on top of image processing algorithms, 2D curves within the sketches are selected interactively and “lifted” into space to create a 3D scaffolding for the model. Finally, artists sweep surfaces along these curves to create 3D models. Evaluations are presented for both long-term users and for novices who each created a 3D sailboat model from the same starting sketch. Qualitative results are positive, with the visual style of the resulting models of animals and other organic subjects as well as architectural models matching what is possible with traditional fine art media. In addition, quantitative data from logging features built into the software are used to characterize typical tool use and suggest areas for further refinement of the interface.
Hepatitis C– A clinical review

With an estimated prevalence of about 170 million people worldwide, chronic hepatitis C is an important cause of chronic liver disease associated with a substantial risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The recent past has borne witness to remarkable advancements in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C with the development of novel, effective, and well tolerated medications that have resulted in paradigm shifts in treatment approaches and may potentially affect the natural history of the disease. We provide a clinical review of current concepts and future developments in the management of chronic hepatitis C to aid in the understanding and individualization of chronic hepatitis C treatment. J. Med. Virol. 88:1844-1855, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Peak-shaving Margin Evaluation Associated with Wind Power Integrated System Based on Sequential Monte-Carlo Method

A peak-shaving margin evaluation method associated with wind power integrated system is developed.It is based on the analysis of peak-shaving demand changes of wind power integrated system,and sequential Monte-Carlo method,using reliability theory.Considering unit forced outage rate and random fluctuation of wind power,the proposed method makes full use of sequential Monte-Carlo method features of easy to add rules.Peak-shaving capacity insufficient probability index and its calculation method are proposed.Peak-shaving margin evaluation of IEEE-RTS system demonstrates that the proposed method is feasible and effective.
Study on Turkic Official Positions——A Case Study of Turkic Official Positions Recorded in the Official History

As an ancient nomadic people,Turkic people were very active in the grasslands of northern Asia from 6th to 8th Century.At one time,they built a powerful slavery nomadic khanate,and created a splendid grassland civilization.Their activities could be found in Chinese,Persian,Arabic and Western literature,and for a hundred years,the relevant study has already made considerable accomplishments.However,the issue about Turkic official positions still remains unsolved.Accordingly,it is of great significance to further explore the historical data about Turkic official positions and to make a comprehensive and systematic study on this issue for the purpose of understanding the political system of Khanate.
A Multiple Cone-Beam Reconstruction Algorithm for X-Ray Microtomography

The laboratory scale X-ray shadow projection imaging system currently under development at SUNY has the capability of making multiple cone-beam projections from physically separated X-ray sources. To take advantage of such a hardware design, we have developed a multiple cone-beam reconstruction algorithm. The reconstruction errors of the single cone-beam and the multiple cone-beam algorithm are simulated and compared using mathematical phantoms. It is shown that the multiple cone-beam algorithm significantly improves the reconstruction accuracy for off-mid-plane structures.
Regulation of Contractility in Immature Airway Smooth Muscle

Airway smooth muscle (ASM) plays an important role in the regulation of airway tone at all stages of life. While there has been much examination of the mechanisms by which adult ASM contracts and relaxes, especially given its importance in diseases such as asthma, there has been substantially less exploration of immature ASM. Here, given the fact that embryonic/fetal and postnatal lung development is associated with substantial and rapid changes in airway structure and size, the immature ASM must maintain the capability to contract/relax as well as proliferate. Beyond this obvious physiological relevance, the clinical importance of understanding the developing ASM lies in its potential role in diseases of the newborn that predispose infants to adult problems such as asthma. In this chapter we briefly describe the current state of knowledge regarding immature ASM and mechanisms that regulate its contractility.
Lumos+: Rapid, pre-RTL design space exploration on accelerator-rich heterogeneous architectures with reconfigurable logic

We propose Lumos+, an analytical framework for power and performance modeling of accelerator-rich heterogeneous architectures. As accelerators proliferate, the search space becomes too expensive for brute-force search. We describe a novel and highly accurate genetic search algorithm. We then use Lumos+ to explore the tradeoffs between using fixed-function accelerators and reconfigurable logic blocks, while accounting for diverse workload characteristics, hardware overheads, and system constraints, and show that reconfigurable logic can improve power and performance while improving overall system flexibility and the ability to adapt to diverse and changing workloads.
Emergent laparotomy and temporary abdominal closure for the cirrhotic patient

Abstract Background Temporary abdominal closure (TAC) may be performed for cirrhotic patients undergoing emergent laparotomy. The effects of cirrhosis on physiologic parameters, resuscitation requirements, and outcomes following TAC are unknown. We hypothesized that cirrhotic TAC patients would have different resuscitation requirements and worse outcomes than noncirrhotic patients. Methods We performed a 3-year retrospective cohort analysis of 231 patients managed with TAC following emergent laparotomy for sepsis, trauma, or abdominal compartment syndrome. All patients were initially managed with negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) TAC with intention for planned relaparotomy and sequential abdominal closure attempts at 24- to 48-h intervals. Results At presentation, cirrhotic patients had higher incidence of acidosis (33% versus 17%) and coagulopathy (87% versus 54%) than noncirrhotic patients. Forty-eight hours after presentation, cirrhotic patients had a persistently higher incidence of coagulopathy (77% versus 44%) despite receiving more fresh frozen plasma (10.8 units versus 4.4 units). Cirrhotic patients had higher NPWT output (4427 mL versus 2375 mL) and developed higher vasopressor infusion rates (57% versus 29%). Cirrhotic patients had fewer intensive care unit-free days (2.3 versus 7.6 days) and higher rates of multiple organ failure (64% versus 34%), in-hospital mortality (67% versus 21%), and long-term mortality (80% versus 34%) than noncirrhotic patients. Conclusions Cirrhotic patients managed with TAC are susceptible to early acidosis, persistent coagulopathy, large NPWT fluid losses, prolonged vasopressor requirements, multiple organ failure, and early mortality. Future research should seek to determine whether TAC provides an advantage over primary fascial closure for cirrhotic patients undergoing emergency laparotomy.
The Prevention and Treatment of Radiation and Chemotherapy-Induced Intestinal Mucositis

Abstract Gut microbiota and cancer therapy share an intimate and dynamically connected relationship. The mucosa lining the gastrointestinal (GI) tract forms a selective barrier between ourselves and the external environment. From mouth to rectum, cytotoxic cancer therapy (radiation and chemotherapy) can lead to dysfunction and disruption of this mucosal lining with a pathophysiology involving epithelial and endothelial cell death as well as activation of the mucosal immune system. The symptoms of mucositis, the clinical term for this condition include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Radiation and chemotherapy-induced mucositis is a frequent and major dose limiting side effect of cancer therapy. In practice, there is currently no therapy that successfully prevents or treats mucositis. However, therapeutic manipulation of gut microbiota or harnessing the biologic effects of microbial products may hold the key to mucositis prevention and treatment. Recent advances also indicate that beneficial commensals and probiotic bacteria have the potential to dramatically enhance the antitumor effects of cytotoxic therapies as well as immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Electrospun Nafion-Polyacrylonitrile nanofibers as an ion exchange ultrathin layer chromatographic stationary phase

An ion-exchange method to separate charged biomolecules on ultrathin layer chromatographic (UTLC) plates using electrospun Nafion-Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers as the stationary phase is described. Sulfonate groups on Nafion provide the ion-exchange sites. The addition of PAN (a higher molecular weight polymer than Nafion) was used to facilitate the nanofiber formation process using electrospinning. Electrospinning parameters and separation conditions were optimized using fractional factorial design and response surface methodology. Nafion-PAN nanofibers containing 45% (w/w) Nafion with 0.407 mmol/g of SO3H group and 16.0 mmol/g of fluorine as an ion exchange stationary phase for UTLC were evaluated using the separations of amino acids and proteins, followed by visualizations using ninhydrin and fluorescamine, respectively. The electrospun Nafion-PAN plates showed high chemical stability under various mobile phase conditions. Mobile phase velocity decreased with the addition of Nafion into the electrospinning solutions. The sources of band broadening of analyte spots were investigated. The separation of amino acids showed high selectivity and separation efficiency. The separation of four proteins demonstrated the feasibility of Nafion-PAN UTLC for separating large biomolecules.
Structurally Guided Removal of DeISGylase Biochemical Activity from Papain-Like Protease Originating from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an emerging human pathogen that is the causative agent for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). With MERS outbreaks resulting in over 35% fatalities and now spread to 27 countries, MERS-CoV poses a significant ongoing threat to global human health. As part of its viral genome, MERS-CoV encodes a papain-like protease (PLpro) that has been observed to act as a deubiquitinase and deISGylase to antagonize type I interferon (IFN-I) immune pathways. This activity is in addition to its viral polypeptide cleavage function. Although the overall impact of MERS-CoV PLpro function is observed to be essential, difficulty has been encountered in delineating the importance of its separate functions, particularly its deISGylase activity. As a result, the interface of MERS-CoV and human interferon-stimulated gene product 15 (hISG15) was probed with isothermal calorimetry, which suggests that the C-terminal domain of hISG15 is principally responsible for interactions. Subsequently, the structure of MERS-CoV PLpro was solved to 2.4 A in complex with the C-terminal domain of hISG15. Utilizing this structural information, mutants were generated that lacked appreciable deISGylase activity but retained wild-type deubiquitinase and peptide cleavage activities. Hence, this provides a new platform for understanding viral deISGylase activity within MERS-CoV and other CoVs.IMPORTANCE Coronaviruses, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), encode a papain-like protease (PLpro) that possesses the ability to antagonize interferon immune pathways through the removal of ubiquitin and interferon-stimulated gene product 15 (ISG15) from target proteins. The lack of CoV proteases with attenuated deISGylase activity has been a key obstacle in delineating the impact between deubiquitinase and deISGylase activities on viral host evasion and pathogenesis. Here, biophysical techniques revealed that MERS-CoV PLpro chiefly engages human ISG15 through its C-terminal domain. The first structure of MERS-CoV PLpro in complex with this domain exposed the interface between these two entities. Employing these structural insights, mutations were employed to selectively remove deISGylase activity with no appreciable impact on its other deubiquitinase and peptide cleavage biochemical properties. Excitingly, this study introduces a new tool to probe the pathogenesis of MERS-CoV and related viruses through the removal of viral deISGylase activity.
Nonlinear dynamics of mistuned bladed disks with ring dampers

Abstract In turbomachinery applications, rotating bladed disks (blisks) are often subject to high levels of dynamic loading, such as traveling wave excitations, which result in large response amplitudes at resonance. To prevent premature high cycle fatigue, various dry friction dampers are designed for blisk systems to reduce the forced responses. Ring dampers are located in the disk, underneath the blades, and are held in contact with the blisk by centrifugal loading. Energy is dissipated by nonlinear friction forces when relative motions between the ring damper and the blisk take place. To investigate the dynamic responses of blisk–damper systems in the presence of the nonlinear frictional contacts, conventional methods based on numerical time integration are not suitable since they are computationally expensive. This paper presents a reduced-order modeling technique to efficiently capture the nonlinear dynamic responses of the blisk–damper systems. Craig–Bampton component mode synthesis (CB-CMS) serves as the first model reduction step. A novel mode basis that mimics the contact behavior under sliding and sticking conditions is developed to further reduce the CB-CMS model while maintaining its accuracy. The resulting reduced nonlinear equations of motion are solved by a hybrid frequency/time domain (HFT) method. In the HFT method, the contact status and friction forces are determined in the time domain by a three-dimensional contact model at each contact point, whereas the reduced equations of motion are solved in the frequency domain according to a harmonic balance formulation. Moreover, to investigate the effects of blade mistuning, which can lead to drastic increase of forced responses, an extension of the reduced-order models (ROMs) is developed based on component mode mistuning. Forced responses computed by the proposed ROMs are validated for both tuned and mistuned systems. A statistical analysis is performed to study the effectiveness of ring dampers under random blade mistuning patterns.
Experimental and numerical investigation of the stable crack growth regime under pseudoelastic loading in shape memory alloys

A combined experimental and numerical analysis of fracture and crack growth in SMAs is presented. Crack extension is investigated under mode-I, isothermal, monotonic, mechanical loading in near-equiatomic nickel- titanium (NiTi) SMA compact tension (CT) specimens. Stable crack growth is observed and the associated J-R curve is evaluated along with the crack initiation toughness. Finite element analysis (FEA) with an energetics based fracture toughness criterion is also carried out and crack is assumed to extend when crack-tip energy release rate reaches the material specific critical value. Fracture toughening behavior is observed during crack growth and is mainly associated with the energy dissipated by the progressively occurring phase transformation close to the moving crack tip. A comparison between the experimental and numerical results is presented.
Ultra-low voltage triggered release of an anti-cancer drug from polypyrrole nanoparticles.

We have synthesized polypyrrole nanoparticles using three different oxidizing agents (hydrogen peroxide, chloroauric acid and ferric chloride) and shown that films assembled from these nanoparticles have significantly different drug release profiles. When ferric chloride is used as the oxidizing agent, it is possible to release drugs at voltages as low as −0.05 V, almost an order of magnitude lower than typically used voltages. These ultra-low voltage responsive nanoparticles widen the window of operation of conducting polymers and enable delivery of redox active drugs. As an example, we have shown pulsed release of the chemotherapeutic methotrexate at voltages as low as −0.075 V, demonstrating the potential application of these nanoparticles in cancer treatment. We have also verified the anti-tumor efficacy of the released drug using PC12 cell cultures.
Age and Academic Advising in Community Colleges: Examining the Assumption of Self-Directed Learning.

ABSTRACTInformed by self-directed learning theory, we explored the relationship between community college students’ ages and their use of academic advising. Although academic advising has been shown to be an important part of student success, few studies have explored academic advising at community colleges and among adult learners. We performed regression analyses on data representing two incoming classes (n = 4207) at an urban community college in the Northwest. We investigated if older students used first-year academic advising services similarly to younger students while controlling for time commitments such as work and family. We found as students’ age increased they were less likely to participate in academic advising. Women students showed a steeper decline in their participation from ages 20 to 25, and they continued to have lower probabilities than men students across the life span. Our findings simultaneously support assumptions of self-directed learning theory and highlight that not all student...
CuriOS: improving reliability through operating system structure

An error that occurs in a microkernel operating system service can potentially result in state corruption and service failure. A simple restart of the failed service is not always the best solution for reliability. Blindly restarting a service which maintains client-related state such as session information results in the loss of this state and affects all clients that were using the service. CuriOS represents a novel OS design that uses lightweight distribution, isolation and persistence of OS service state to mitigate the problem of state loss during a restart. The design also significantly reduces error propagation within client-related state maintained by an OS service. This is achieved by encapsulating services in separate protection domains and granting access to client-related state only when required for request processing. Fault injection experiments show that it is possible to recover from between 87% and 100% of manifested errors in OS services such as the file system, network, timer and scheduler while maintaining low performance overheads.
“Artificial Oligonucleotides”: Molecular Recognition by Base Pairing

The synthesis of a novel cytosine-guanine ribose- and phosphate-free “artificial dinucleotide” 1 and its cytosine-cytosine analogue 2 are described. The syntheses of derivatives of these core compounds bearing porphyrin and polymeric side chains are also presented.
Relations between spermidine content and RNA stability in rifampicin treated Escherichiacoli

Abstract During incubation in the presence of chloramphenicol (CM), E. coli synthesizes RNA (CM-RNA). When CM is removed and further RNA synthesis is blocked with rifampicin, cells lose spermidine and CM-RNA degrades with a 15 minute half-life. However, if RNA synthesis is blocked by starving for a required amino acid, spermidine is retained by the cells and CM-RNA degrades with a 24 minute half-life. Raising the intracellular spermidine concentration in rifampicin treated cultures by the addition of spermidine to the growth medium stabilizes CM-RNA to the level observed in histidine starved cultures.
Information and Communication Technology and Quality of Working Life: Backgrounds, Facts, and Figures

The Digital Revolution that took place in the past 30 years has had and continuous to have a major impact on our lives. The introduction of personal computers in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s, smartphones in 2000–2010, and social networking since 2005 has caused changes in the way we live our lives and work that can only be compared to the effects of the Industrial Revolution. In this chapter, the developments of the development and implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) will be described briefly, as well as the impact it has on our quality of working life. Data from five countries will be used to examine the impact of ICT on intensification and satisfaction of employees in these five countries.
Improving the Transient Thermal Characterization of GaN HEMTs

Transient thermoreflectance imaging (TTI) is a thermometry technique employed to map the surface temperature distribution of GaN HEMTs. The accuracy of the technique is dependent on applying the correct thermoreflectance coefficient to the region of interest on the device surface. TTI has shown high accuracy when measuring the temperature rise of metals such as Schottky contacts but the technique has never been verified when applied to semiconductors. Using UV LED excitation sources, TTI of the GaN channel in GaN/Si HEMTs is presented and verified for the first time via the comparison of the gate metal temperature. A pixel by pixel calibration method is implemented to improve the spatial accuracy and account for any variability in the thermoreflectance coefficient across the device. The improvements of TTI discussed in this study make the technique an accurate and effective method to measure the temperature distribution of both the gate metal and GaN.
Partitioning of Size-Mismatched Impurities to Grain Boundaries in 2d Solid Hard-Sphere Monolayers.

Computational studies have been carried out to investigate the equilibrium partitioning of size-mismatched impurities between the bulk solid and grain boundary (GB) environments in 2d hard-sphere monolayers. The solvent repacking Monte Carlo method and a new variation were used to exchange varying numbers and types of particles under conditions of fixed particle fugacities, allowing efficient sampling of impurity particle distributions even within the bulk solid. Measurements of GB stiffness depression arising from the impurities were made via the capillary fluctuation method and found to agree with calculations based on the Gibbs adsorption isotherm, providing a test of the internal consistency of the results. The dependence of the excess concentration at the GB on factors, including impurity size (diameter ratios λ = 0.5–4 times the majority host particle diameter), impurity concentration, grain misorientation angle, and packing pressure, was studied. In general, the affinity of impurity particles for G...
Abstract TP83: Age-Related Intra-Pipeline Stenosis: Complication or Benign Endothelial Healing

Background: The use of flow diverters has stretched to address several sets of aneurysms such as giant, small blister, fusiform, distal IAs of the anterior and posterior circulation. Only very few ...
Solid-solid hydration and dehydration of Mars-relevant chlorine salts: Implications for Gale Crater and RSL locations

Abstract Water vapor is likely being exchanged between the regolith and the atmosphere on Mars, according to evidence from multiple landing sites (including Gale Crater), satellite measurements and numerical modeling. The mechanism of this exchange is largely unknown but could involve the formation of water frost, the adsorption of thin films of water onto mineral surfaces, or the deliquescence or hydration of salts. Hydration, a solid-solid phase transition during which water molecules are incorporated into a crystal structure in stoichiometric amounts, is possible for many salts found at Gale Crater and elsewhere on Mars. These salts may therefore be acting as a source and sink for water vapor in the Martian regolith. Furthermore, salt hydration state may be used as a marker for the presence of liquid water on present-day Mars. For example, the hydrated, crystalline perchlorate and chloride salts detected at recurring slope lineae (RSL) locations have been proposed to form from liquid brines rather than by experiencing hydration by atmospheric water vapor. Here we use an environmental cell coupled to a Raman microscope to experimentally study the hydration and dehydration of magnesium chloride (MgCl2), calcium perchlorate (Ca(ClO4)2), and calcium chloride (CaCl2) with the goal of determining which of these salts are capable of experiencing hydration on diurnal time scales. Other potential hydration phase transitions of chlorine-containing salts are thought to be less likely. Specifically, we study the transition between magnesium chloride tetrahydrate and hexahydrate, anhydrous calcium perchlorate and hydrated calcium perchlorate, and calcium chloride dihydrate and hexahydrate. We find that under conditions measured by the REMS instrument at Gale Crater, some chlorine-containing salts can readily hydrate and other salts can readily dehydrate, but no salt system studied here is likely to undergo both processes at the surface on diurnal time scales. With respect to RSL formation, these experiments suggest that atmospheric hydration of these salt systems may be too slow or otherwise not feasible. Hence, hydrated salts formed recently at active RSL locations on Mars may indeed be an indicator of the presence of liquid water.
Pathways from Financial Knowledge to Relationship Satisfaction: The Roles of Financial Behaviors, Perceived Shared Financial Values with the Romantic Partner, and Debt

We examined how subjective and objective financial knowledge were associated with relationship satisfaction through pathways of finance-related rewards (positive financial behaviors, perceived shared financial values with the romantic partner, or lower debt) in a sample of cohabiting or married young adults (N = 162). We used Waves 2, 3, and 4 of the Arizona Pathways to Life Success for University Students (APLUS) study to conduct path analyses. No pathways were significant in longitudinal models. In the cross-sectional models (Wave 4), we found individuals’ own subjective (but not objective) financial knowledge was associated with relationship satisfaction. This association was indirect in the model with perceived shared financial values, demonstrating that shared financial values with the romantic partner may be a key mechanism linking financial knowledge to improved relationship quality.