cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of tobacco smoke on gene expression and cellular pathways in a cellular model of oral leukoplakia

In addition to being causally linked to the formation of multiple tumor types, tobacco use has been associated with decreased efficacy of anticancer treatment and reduced survival time. A detailed understanding of the cellular mechanisms that are affected by tobacco smoke (TS) should facilitate the development of improved preventive and therapeutic stra- tegies. We have investigated the effects of a TS extract on the transcriptome of MSK-Leuk1 cells, a cellular model of oral leukoplakia. Using Affymetrix HGU133 Plus 2 arrays, 411 dif- ferentially expressed probe sets were identified. The observed transcriptome changes were grouped according to functional information and translated into molecular interaction net- work maps and signaling pathways. Pathways related to cellular proliferation, inflammation, apoptosis, and tissue injury seemed to be perturbed. Analysis of networks connecting the affected genes identified specific modulated molecular interactions, hubs, and key transcrip- tion regul ators. Thus, TS was found to induce severalepidermalgrowth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands forming an EGFR-centered molecular interaction network, as well as several arylhydrocarbon receptor -dependent genes, including the xenobiotic metabolizing en- zymes CYP1A1 and CYP1B1. Notably, the latter findings in vitro are consistent with our par- allel finding that CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 levels were increased in oral mucosa of smokers. Collectively, these results offer insights into the mechanisms underlying the procarcinogenic effects of TS and raise the possibility that inhibitors of EGFR or aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling will prevent or delay the development of TS-related tumors. Moreover, the induc- tive effects of TS on xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes may help explain the reduced efficacy of chemotherapy, and suggest targets for chemopreventive agents in smokers.
Penalized logistic regression for high-dimensional DNA methylation data with case-control studies

Motivation: DNA methylation is a molecular modification of DNA that plays crucial roles in regulation of gene expression. Particularly, CpG rich regions are frequently hypermethylated in cancer tissues, but not methylated in normal tissues. However, there are not many methodological literatures of case-control association studies for high-dimensional DNA methylation data, compared with those of microarray gene expression. One key feature of DNA methylation data is a grouped structure among CpG sites from a gene that are possibly highly correlated. In this article, we proposed a penalized logistic regression model for correlated DNA methylation CpG sites within genes from high-dimensional array data. Our regularization procedure is based on a combination of the l1 penalty and squared l2 penalty on degree-scaled differences of coefficients of CpG sites within one gene, so it induces both sparsity and smoothness with respect to the correlated regression coefficients. We combined the penalized procedure with a stability selection procedure such that a selection probability of each regression coefficient was provided which helps us make a stable and confident selection of methylation CpG sites that are possibly truly associated with the outcome. Results: Using simulation studies we demonstrated that the proposed procedure outperforms existing main-stream regularization methods such as lasso and elastic-net when data is correlated within a group. We also applied our method to identify important CpG sites and corresponding genes for ovarian cancer from over 20 000 CpGs generated from Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation27K Beadchip. Some genes identified are potentially associated with cancers. Contact: sw2206@columbia.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Assessing immunization rates: the importance of denominators.

Most childhood immunizations in the United States are provided by office-based practitioners.1 The assessment of immunization rates is key to any attempt to increase immunization rates in office practice. The measurement of immunization rates and feedback of that information to providers, as an isolated intervention, has been shown to be effective in improving immunization coverage.2 The article by Morrow et al3 in this issue of the Journal represents an important contribution to our knowledge about the measurement of immunization rates in office practice. Measuring immunization rates in office practice is conceptually easy to understand. One simply measures the immunization status of the patients in the practice. As Morrow et al3 demonstrate, implementing this concept is fraught with difficulties. The authors compare several different methods of assessing immunization rates. Two of these methods (the standard and the consecutive methods) are currently recommended for practices to assess their immunization rates.4,,5 All of the methods used the same definition of up-to-date immunizations—the numerator. The difference between these methods is in the definition of the patients in the practice—the denominator. The biases inherent in each of these methods have only recently begun to be realized …
SEASONALITY AND THERMAL ACCLIMATION OF REACTIVE OXYGEN METABOLISM IN FUCUS VESICULOSUS (PHAEOPHYCEAE)

The intertidal brown macroalga Fucus vesiculosus L. acclimates its defense against reactive oxygen in response to both (1) growth at different temperatures in laboratory culture and (2) seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Fucus vesiculosus was grown in seawater at 0° C, 20° C, and at 0° C with a 3-h daily emersion at −10° C. Algae grown at low temperature, both with and without freezing, produced less reactive oxygen after severe freezing stress than those grown at 20° C. These differences were correlated with growth temperature-induced changes in activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase, and ascorbate peroxidase. The contents of tocopherols increased with increased cultivation temperature, whereas the activity of catalase and the content of glutathione and ascorbate did not change. Growth at 0° C increased the resistance of photosynthesis to freezing and reduced photoinhibition in high light at 5° C; the latter effect was further increased in algae subject to daily freezing. These data suggest that elevated activity of reactive oxygen scavenging enzymes, especially SOD, increases the resistance to photoinhibition, at least at low temperature, as well as being important for freezing tolerance. Seasonal changes in reactive oxygen metabolism showed a similar pattern to those elicited by temperature in laboratory culture. Summer samples had lower activities of most reactive oxygen scavenging enzymes than algae collected in autumn and winter when water temperatures were lower. In contrast to the laboratory experiments, ascorbate content did change and was lower during the winter than summer, whereas the content of glutathione was not influenced by season. Overall, the data not only indicate that temperature plays an important role in the regulation of stress tolerance and reactive oxygen metabolism but also suggest that other factors are also involved.
Detection of Viable Cryptosporidium parvum in Soil by Reverse Transcription–Real-Time PCR Targeting hsp70 mRNA

Extraction of high-quality mRNA from Cryptosporidium parvum is a key step in PCR detection of viable oocysts in environmental samples. Current methods for monitoring oocysts are limited to water samples; therefore, the goal of this study was to develop a rapid and sensitive procedure for Cryptosporidium detection in soil samples. The efficiencies of five RNA extraction methods were compared (mRNA extraction with the Dynabeads mRNA Direct kit after chemical and physical sample treatments, and total RNA extraction methods using the FastRNA Pro Soil-Direct, PowerSoil Total RNA, E.Z.N.A. soil RNA, and Norgen soil RNA purification kits) for the direct detection of Cryptosporidium with oocyst-spiked sandy, loamy, and clay soils by using TaqMan reverse transcription-PCR. The study also evaluated the presence of inhibitors by synthesis and incorporation of an internal positive control (IPC) RNA into reverse transcription amplifications, used different facilitators (bovine serum albumin, yeast RNA, salmon DNA, skim milk powder, casein, polyvinylpyrrolidone, sodium hexametaphosphate, and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi) to mitigate RNA binding on soil components, and applied various treatments (β-mercaptoethanol and bead beating) to inactivate RNase and ensure the complete lysis of oocysts. The results of spiking studies showed that Salmonella cells most efficiently relieved binding of RNA. With the inclusion of Salmonella during extraction, the most efficient mRNA method was Dynabeads, with a detection limit of 6 × 10(2) oocysts g(-1) of sandy soil. The most efficient total RNA method was PowerSoil, with detection limits of 1.5 × 10(2), 1.5 × 10(3), and 1.5 × 10(4) C. parvum oocysts g(-1) soil for sandy, loamy, and clay samples, respectively.
Mechanical loading history and skeletal biology

A comprehensive theory which relates tissue mechanical stresses to many features of skeletal morphogenesis, growth, regeneration, maintenance and degeneration is reviewed. The theory considers the repeated or intermittent mechanical forces which constitute the loading history on the chondro-osseous skeleton. The results of numerous mechanical stress analyses indicate that the local tissue stress history plays a major role in controlling connective tissue biology. The strong influence of mechanical energy in ontogenesis implies a comparably strong influence in phylogenesis. The fact that the mechanical stress histories in skeletal tissues are directly related to the force of gravity suggests that the life forms that have evolved on Earth are closely tied to our gravitational field.
Pinhole shifting lifetime imaging microscopy.

Lifetime imaging microscopy is a powerful tool to probe biological phenomena independent of luminescence intensity and fluorophore concentration. We describe time-resolved imaging of long-lifetime luminescence with an unmodified commercial laser scanning confocal/multiphoton microscope. The principle of the mea- surement is displacement of the detection pinhole to collect delayed luminescence from a position lagging the rasting laser beam. As proof of principle, luminescence from microspheres containing europium Eu 3+ , a red emitting probe, was compared to that of short-lifetime green-fluorescing microspheres and/or fluorescein and rhodamine in solution. Using 720-nm two-photon excitation and a pinhole diam- eter of 1 Airy unit, the short-lifetime fluorescence of fluorescein, rhodamine and green microspheres disappeared much more rapidly than the long-lifetime phosphorescence of Eu 3+ microspheres as the pinhole was repositioned in the lagging direction. In contrast, reposi- tioning of the pinhole in the leading and orthogonal directions caused equal loss of short- and long-lifetime luminescence. From measure- ments at different lag pinhole positions, a lifetime of 270 s was es- timated for the Eu 3+ microspheres, consistent with independent mea- surements. This simple adaptation is the basis for quantitative 3-D lifetime imaging microscopy. © 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation En-
Energetic-Nanoparticle-Enhanced Combustion of Liquid Fuels in a Rapid Compression Machine

An aerosol rapid compression machine is developed to investigate energetic-nanoparticleenhanced combustion of liquid fuels using ethanol and aluminum nanoparticles as a model system. An ultrasonic nozzle is used to nebulize neat ethanol and mixtures containing nanoparticles for ignition delay tests in the rapid compression machine. It is determined that 2%-weight nano-aluminum can lead to a dramatic reduction in the ignition delay (90%). The aerosol is introduced to the rapid compression machine through a poppet valve that is optimized by CFD simulations to maximize turbulent mixing and improve charge homogeneity.
Assessing zeolite frameworks for noble gas separations through a joint experimental and computational approach

Abstract All 229 identified zeotype frameworks are screened in their siliceous form by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation for their ability to separate a radiochemically relevant Kr/Xe mixture in a pressure swing adsorption process. Prior to screening, our model was benchmarked against experimental single gas adsorption measurements, and it was found that for Kr and Xe a Lennard-Jones 9-6 potential with a softer repulsion than an equivalently parameterized Lennard-Jones 12-6 potential was necessary to accurately model fluid–fluid interactions. Examination of the most promising candidate materials, we concluded that zeolites with small, accessible cages about the size of a Xe atom performed the best initially. Zeolites with narrow pore channels with spots along the pore wall with high local surface area are the best performers across all loadings.
Parallel boosting with momentum

We describe a new, simplified, and general analysis of a fusion of Nesterov's accelerated gradient with parallel coordinate descent. The resulting algorithm, which we call BOOM, for boosting with momentum, enjoys the merits of both techniques. Namely, BOOM retains the momentum and convergence properties of the accelerated gradient method while taking into account the curvature of the objective function. We describe a distributed implementation of BOOM which is suitable for massive high dimensional datasets. We show experimentally that BOOM is especially effective in large scale learning problems with rare yet informative features.
Creating a Cyber Moving Target for Critical Infrastructure Applications

Despite the significant amount of effort that often goes into securing critical infrastructure assets, many systems remain vulnerable to advanced, targeted cyber attacks. This paper describes the design and implementation of the Trusted Dynamic Logical Heterogeneity System (TALENT), a framework for live-migrating critical infrastructure applications across heterogeneous platforms. TALENT permits a running critical application to change its hardware platform and operating system, thus providing cyber survivability through platform diversity. TALENT uses containers (operating-system-level virtualization) and a portable checkpoint compiler to create a virtual execution environment and to migrate a running application across different platforms while preserving the state of the application (execution state, open files and network connections). TALENT is designed to support general applications written in the C programming language. By changing the platform on-the-fly, TALENT creates a cyber moving target and significantly raises the bar for a successful attack against a critical application. Experiments demonstrate that a complete migration can be completed within about one second.
Simplified method of estimating the oxygen pressure difference between maternal and fetal blood in the placenta.

Abstract The transplacental difference in oxygen pressure can be estimated from the “effective” oxygen tMlsions in the uterine and umbilical circulations. The “effective” oxygen tensions are determined from the mean values of arterial and venous percentage saturations and pH's by extrapolation from the maternal and fetal oxygen dissociation curves. Results with this method have bun compared with 34 published estimations of the oxygen pressure difference in two species, using the Bohr integration procedure. The two estimates agru to within 2 mm. Hg in 29 of the 34 and to within 3.6 mm. Hg in the remaining 5 cases. In an additional comparison of mean gradient values for a single species, the difference between the two estimates is only 1.2 mm. Hg. The simplified method presented appears to be sufficiently accurate for use in the quantitative description of the transplacental diffusion of oxygen.
Tributes to H.W. van der MerweHendrik W. van der Merwe (1929-2001)

Hendrik W. van der Merwe (H.W.) died March 5, 2001. He was born June 24, 1929, in rural South Africa, about 130 miles east of Cape Town and he died on his farm near his birthplace. But he had travelled far in his life and helped bring his country with him. In the Foreword to his memoir, Peacemaking in South Africa: A life in conflict resolution, Nelson Mandela wrote about H.W.'s 'long journey from a rural conservative and Calvinist environment as an Afrikaner farm boy to the cosmopolitan, multicultural rainbow nation of the new South Africa'. Mandela continued, 'These memoirs tell the story of the gradual development of a Calvinist dissident to an anti-apartheid activist and a Quaker peacemaker whose religious commitment and academic insights enabled him to reach out to all sides of the conflict in South Africa'.
Simulating Local Tg Reporting Layers in Glassy Thin Films

One of the most notable deviations from bulk fluid properties is the onset of a thickness-dependent glass transition temperature (Tg) for nanometrically thin polymer films. Experimental and theoretical observations suggest that this behavior is a response to the interfaces, which perturb the local properties of a film and play an increasingly important role in influencing the global properties of a film as its thickness decreases. In this work, we probe the global and local properties of free-standing films using our limited mobility (LM) model, which is a simple kinetic lattice model that simulates free volume and mobility in a fluid. We provide insight about the role of mobility in affecting the thickness-dependent film-average Tg of free-standing polymer films by characterizing the depth to which mobility propagates from a free surface, i.e., the “mobile layer depth”. We also consider the effect of “stacking” free-standing polymer films, where confinement by interfaces composed of the same material yie...
Hero with a thousand faces: the rhetoric of Byronism

WE THINK OF BYRON AS THE MOST PERSONAL of poetS, recklessly candid, self-revealing to a fault. Like most long-standing literary judgments, this one still strikes home. Nevertheless, its truth involves a paradox best defined by a later English writer who is in many ways Byron's avatar. "Man is least himself," wrote Oscar Wilde, "when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth."1 Perhaps no English writer, not even Wilde himself, executed this theory of the mask so completely as Byron. "Before Oscar Wilde was, I am." Many of Byron's masks are famous, Childe Harold being, I suppose, the most famous of them all?and the prototype of those subsequent masked men we call Byronic Heroes. But Byron was operating en masque from his first appearances in print. His three early books of poetry, now
Pathogenesis of disease caused by Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli

A number of virulence factors are known to be important in disease causation by these enteric bacteria. Proteins expressed by these bacteria regulate invasiveness and allow penetration of the bacterium into the enterocyte and into the adventitia (enteroinvasiveness) with production of typical symptoms and signs of disease. Sh.dyenteriae is internalized via bacterium-directed phagocytosis; polymerization of host cell actin filaments is also bacterially encoded. Other genes (invasion plasmid antigens: IpaA, IpaB, IpaC, IpaD, etc.) encode invasins through plasmid DNA, Virulence genes (VirB, VirG, VirF), are encoded also by a large plasmid. The gene products are produced in defined amounts at critical times in the infection cycle in response to environmental signals such as temperature, osmolality, etc. Cell wall lipopolysaccharide (O-antigen) is needed for intercellular spread and protection against epithelial cell defenses. Enteroinvasive E.coli (EIEC) use shigella-like mechanisms to invade enterocytes. Shiga toxin produced by Sh. dysenteriae 1 is a ribosome poison. Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) utilise Shiga-like toxins I, II, and variants of these toxins to induce disease. Not only are these toxins a major mechanism for production of bloody diarrhoea, but they are responsible for severe forms of toxaemic systemic disease including haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) (mainly SLT-II mediated), and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) through perturbation of endothelial cell and platelet function. SLT-I and SLT-II are encoded in DNA of bacteriophages and become incorporated into the genome of a restricted number of E. coli OH serotypes. E. coli O157:H7 is responsible for ≈ 50% of cases of HUS in the Northern Hemisphere but is still uncommon in Australia where a wide variety of serotypes are associated with HUS, but E. coli O111:H- seems to be common. Glycosphingolipid (ceramide) receptors for B subunits of SLTs (Gb 3 and Ga 2 on endothelial cells, and erythrocyte P 1 antigen) probably play a role in pathogenesis of HUS and TTP. Enterotoxigenic E.coli (ETEC), cause disease through production of either or both heat stable toxin(s) (ST) or heat labile toxin(s) (LT). Enteropathogenic (EPEC) cause diarrhoea via non-toxigenic mechanisms.
The impact of conventional dietary intake data coding methods on foods typically consumed by low-income African-American and White urban populations

Objective Analysing dietary data to capture how individuals typically consume foods is dependent on the coding variables used. Individual foods consumed simultaneously, like coffee with milk, are given codes to identify these combinations. Our literature review revealed a lack of discussion about using combination codes in analysis. The present study identified foods consumed at mealtimes and by race when combination codes were or were not utilized. Design Duplicate analysis methods were performed on separate data sets. The original data set consisted of all foods reported; each food was coded as if it was consumed individually. The revised data set was derived from the original data set by first isolating coded foods consumed as individual items from those foods consumed simultaneously and assigning a code to designate a combination. Foods assigned a combination code, like pancakes with syrup, were aggregated and associated with a food group, defined by the major food component (i.e. pancakes), and then appended to the isolated coded foods. Setting Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span study. Subjects African-American and White adults with two dietary recalls ( n 2177). Results Differences existed in lists of foods most frequently consumed by mealtime and race when comparing results based on original and revised data sets. African Americans reported consumption of sausage/luncheon meat and poultry, while ready-to-eat cereals and cakes/doughnuts/pastries were reported by Whites on recalls. Conclusions Use of combination codes provided more accurate representation of how foods were consumed by populations. This information is beneficial when creating interventions and exploring diet–health relationships.
Review on Discharge Mechanism and Breakdown Characteristics of Transmission Line Gap Under Forest Fire Condition

The high temperature, high electrical conductivity and ashes of forest fire flames can greatly reduce the insulation strength of high voltage overhead transmission line gaps, and can cause transmission line trip out, and the probability of successful re-closing is very low, this may lead to the serious accidents of transmission line out of operation. In recent years, frequent occurrences of forest fire bring great challenge to the safe and steady operation of the power grid. The discharge mechanism and breakdown characteristics of transmission line gap under forest fire condition are reviewed in this paper. The study status of the transmission line forest fire simulation test platforms, experimental methods, discharge mechanism and breakdown characteristics of AC and DC transmission line gap under forest fire conditions in China and abroad are analyzed. The analysis indicates that some test platforms only consider single influencing factor; the differences and disparity are large for the differences of the simulation tests' dimension, vegetation forms, and experimental methods; the influencing mechanism studies of flame combustion characteristics and products to the gaps' discharge also consider single influencing factor. There is a limitation for the guidance of transmission line trip-out prevention under fire conditions. The systematically study of breakdown characteristics of AC and DC transmission line gaps under forest fire conditions with different dimensions and electrodes, and the single and multi-factor influencing mechanism to the gap discharge study with electric field, flame temperature, conductivity, ashes and particles is suggested.
Summary of Field-bus Technique

This paper elucidates appearance of Field-bus technique, its features and main functions at first. Then some kinds of mainstream field-buses are discussed. At last, development of our field-bus technique is introduced. On this basis, our clew developing field-bus technique is put forward and it is concluded that PROFIBUS certainly will be applied to electric power industry.
From the New Editor-in-Chief

I am pleased to introduce myself as the new Editor-in-Chief of Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology (ABAB). While new to ABAB, I have served as Associate Editor and then Managing Editor for another Springer journal, The Journal of Membrane Biology. These are exciting but critical times in the development of biotechnology as an academic field, and we aim to place our journal at the center of this growth over the coming decade. Biotechnology is here to stay as a major economic driver throughout the modern world, and significant challenges will be met through increasingly inter-woven collaboration between academic science and industry. In particular, this journal will strive to keep pace with this and to serve the community by publishing cutting edge articles in areas including, among others: energy and environmental sustainability; food production and safety; and innovative biotechnologies in heath and medicine for an increasingly globalized and economically stratified world. One main goal is to raise the journal’s profile and impact factor through a multi-faceted process of rigorous peer review, anti-plagiarism vigilance, and a transformation in the quality of research articles submitted to and published by the journal. You may have already noticed some changes in the journal. In particular, the journal is now divided into five topical sections, each of which is led by one of our dedicated Associate Editors:
The 'family cap': a popular but unproven method of welfare reform.

Family Planning Perspectives standing federal requirement that states provide family planning services to AFDC recipients. Such services are estimated to prevent nearly 300,000 pregnancies annually to women on welfare.* In addition, opponents assert, the incremental increases that accompany the birth of additional children—$24–147, depending on the state and the birth order4— are too small to cover the cost of caring for a new baby and therefore are not an incentive to have another birth. But, they add, the loss of those extra payments is almost certain to result in greater hardship for poor families already striving to obtain such basic necessities as shelter and food. Moreover, many prochoice activists and antiabortion advocates share a concern that the family cap will lead to more abortions among welfare recipients faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Right-to-life groups oppose the cap because they find abortion abhorrent, while prochoice groups believe the cap violates the reproductive rights of women on welfare. This special report details the status of family caps in Congress and the states as of July 1, 1995, and examines plans for and potential barriers to evaluating their impact. It relies on state documents requesting the federal government’s permission to impose a family cap and federal documents stipulating the terms and conditions under which a cap may be implemented,5 as well as on personal interviews with individuals familiar with the implementation or evaluation of the family cap in various states.
Infertility surgery of the oviduct: comparison between macrosurgery and microsurgery*

The purpose of this study is to compare the results of macrosurgical and microsurgical tuboplasty procedures performed on infertility patients after other causes of their infertility were ruled out. During a 6-year period from July 1971 through June 1977,128 macrosurgical tuboplasties were performed, and from July 1977 through July 1979, 73 cases of microsurgical procedures were performed. The senior author was the actual or first assistant surgeon in every case. For comparison, the procedures performed were divided into seven categories: salpingolysis, fimbrioplasty, salpingoneostomy, midsegment anastomosis, tubouterine anastomosis, tubouterine implantation, and combined procedures. The results of both groups were analyzed and compared. Use of the microscope improved results in all categories, particularly in anastomosis procedures. It is concluded that the microscopic techniques have a definite advantage and are recommended for use in all tuboplasty procedures.
Aortic Endograft Infection by Pasteurella multocida: A Rare Case

Infection of an aortic endograft is a rare complication following endovascular aneurysm repair. These patients have been treated with explantation of the graft to obtain source control followed by an extra-anatomic bypass to restore circulation. The present case study describes an interesting case of Pasteurella infection involving an aortic endograft managed nonoperatively by percutaneous drainage and graft preservation.
A method to extract image noise level from patient images in CT

Purpose Image quality in computed tomography (CT) is usually not quantified in real time from patient scans. Rather, phantom scans are employed to measure the contrast, noise, and spatial resolution properties of a given system. This approach, however, is not ideal because many factors are difficult to represent using phantoms like variations in patient size, composition, and position within the gantry. Several methods for measuring the noise found within patient scans have been proposed. All of these methods rely on segmenting out relatively uniform regions within the patient in order to differentiate between morphological variations and pixel differences due to photon noise. In order to avoid this segmentation step, we propose to analyze the noise signal in the air surrounding the patient. We will demonstrate that the air signal surrounding the patient acts as a surrogate for the noise within the contours of the patient. Methods Our work builds off the global noise index (GNI) method. In the GNI method, adjacent axial CT image slices are subtracted to remove the majority of the morphological variations in the data. Remaining morphological variations are removed with an edge-finding algorithm. Then the image is divided up into small regions of interest (ROI) and the pixel standard deviation is computed for each ROI. Only those ROIs not containing bone or air are then used to make a histogram of the standard deviation within the image. The mode of this histogram is referred to as the GNI. We refer to this as the traditional GNI (tradGNI). Our modification to this workflow is to apply this metric to just the air signal surrounding the patient. We evaluate the correlation between using the air signal and the in-phantom metric value for titration over: dose level, image slice thickness, kernel sharpness, iterative reconstruction level, model based iterative reconstruction, reconstruction field of view, and reconstruction interval. 373 patient abdomen pelvis exams were collected and the air based noise estimation metrics applied. Liver standard deviation values were measured on 40 of the patients and correlated with air GNI calculations. Results Our results show excellent linear correlation (R2 > 0.99) between the tradGNI being applied inside and outside of a phantom object. Our results are also shown to still be predictive of the noise under all scan parameters studied, including iterative and model based reconstruction. Fits of tradGNI versus dose level exhibited the expected square root dependence. Air based GNI metrics were predictive of human patient noise level and also correlated with manual liver standard deviation measurement (R2 = 0.73). Conclusions Our results demonstrate the signal in the air surrounding an imaging object can accurately be used as a surrogate for the image noise within the object. Our method should enable faster and more robust patient specific image quality assessment due to the lack of the need to segment noise from morphological variations within a patient. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Social Demography: Role of Inequality and Social Differentiation

This article discusses how four theoretical perspectives, separately and combined, have provided insights into the role of social diversity and inequality in affecting demographic behavior. The first emphasizes cultural explanations; competing somewhat with it are resource-based explanations which focus particularly on differences in opportunities and constraints. Cutting across both of these are reference group theory and life-course analysis. The Princeton European Fertility Project's (EFP) argument that the fertility transition in Europe was more a result of cultural phenomena rather than an adaptation to the changing constraints of economic development is reviewed, as well as critiques of it. The development of the innovation and diffusion hypothesis (partly a reference group model) coming out of the EFP, as well as its extension to fertility analysis in currently developing countries, is also discussed. Easterlin's relative cohort size explanation of demographic behavior is examined as an example of the combined role of changing preferences and changing economic constraints in creating feelings of relative deprivation, itself one version of a reference group model. The combination of relative economic status with innovation and diffusion models is applied to married women's rising employment in the US and the general theoretical value of relative economic status models is discussed. Finally, the combined role of socioeconomic inequalities and the life course in affecting demographic behavior is explored within two historical contexts. The first is variations in relative economic deprivation over the developmental cycle of the family in middle and working class families around the turn of the century in the US and Europe and its impact on marriage timing and the family's reliance on child labor. The second is socioeconomic differentials in the speed and difficulty of the career-entry process and their impact on male marriage timing in late twentieth century America.
The Valuation Implications of Overproduction

Overproduction reduces cost of goods sold by spreading fixed costs over an inflated number of units. An estimate of the overproduction bias helps predict future profitability, and adjusting profitability measures to undo this distortion improves their explanatory power for future profitability. The estimated bias also helps predict stock returns, suggesting that investors do not fully understand the impact of overproduction on reported profitability. These findings hold for LIFO firms as well as after the implementation of SFAS 151 in 2005, although the information content of the estimated overproduction bias for future profitability has significantly declined since 2005.
Biologic Scaffolds Composed of Extracellular Matrix for Regenerative Medicine

Abstract Mammalian biologic scaffolds composed of extracellular matrix (ECM) contain countless structural and functional moieties that have been shown to be necessary for tissue development, homeostasis, and response to injury. Biologic scaffold materials are employed in clinical medicine and their use will likely expand as regenerative medicine strategies evolve. This chapter discusses the generation and use of biologic scaffold materials for regenerative medicine applications with a focus on ECM scaffolds. The biologic properties and known functions of the individual components of the ECM, the generation of three-dimensional whole-organ scaffolds, and the federal regulation of biologic scaffolds are also discussed.
Impact of travel time on hospitalizations and patient cost responsibility by phase of care for older patients with cancer.

37Background: Healthcare reimbursement changes are contributing to increased closures of community hospitals and oncology practices, which may lead cancer patients to travel greater distances for c...
Kiasu Tendency and Tactics: A Study of their Impact on Task Performance

Kiasu reflects an “obsessive concern with getting the most out of every transaction and a desire to get ahead of others” (Hwang, Ang, & Francesco, 2002: 75). It can have both positive and negative effects. This paper generates three hypotheses about kiasuism and task performance. Using hierarchical regression to analyze the results of a survey of 261 senior-level undergraduate business students in the United States, all three hypotheses are supported. The results indicate that the kiasu construct is generalizable to the United States, and that the key to obtaining competitive advantage through kiasuism lies in selecting and implementing the right tactic for the situation.
Intra-organizational Knowledge Transfer: How language and hierarchy matter

This study investigated how differences in native language as well as position within a sociotechnical community hierarchy impact intra-organizational knowledge transfer. Since knowledge transfer r...
Potential Mediators of Load-Related Changes in Movement Complexity in Young, Healthy Adults

Context Movement screening has become increasingly popular among tactical professionals. This popularity has motivated the design of interventions that cater to improving outcomes on the screens th...
Metamodel-assisted risk analysis for stochastic simulation with input uncertainty

For complex stochastic systems, simulation can be used to study the system inherent risk behaviors characterized by a sequence of percentiles. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian framework to quantify the overall estimation uncertainty of percentile responses. Suppose that the input parametric families are known. The input model estimation uncertainty is quantified by posterior samples of input parameters. Then, a distributional metamodel is introduced to simultaneously model the percentile response surfaces, which can efficiently propagate the input uncertainty to outputs. Our Bayesian framework can deliver credible intervals for percentiles, and a variance decomposition is further derived to estimate the contributions of input and simulation uncertainties. The empirical studies indicate that our approach has promising performance for system risk analysis.
Visualizing vibrational normal modes of a single molecule with atomically confined light

The internal vibrations of molecules drive the structural transformations that underpin chemistry and cellular function. While vibrational frequencies are measured by spectroscopy, the normal modes of motion are inferred through theory because their visualization would require microscopy with angstrom-scale spatial resolution—nearly three orders of magnitude smaller than the diffraction limit in optics1. Using a metallic tip to focus light and taking advantage of the surface-enhanced Raman effect2 to amplify the signal from individual molecules, tip-enhanced Raman spectromicroscopy (TER-SM)3,4 reaches the requisite sub-molecular spatial resolution5, confirming that light can be confined in picocavities6–10 and anticipating the direct visualization of molecular vibrations11–13. Here, by using TER-SM at the precisely controllable junction of a cryogenic ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunnelling microscope14–16, we show that angstrom-scale resolution is attained at subatomic separation between the tip atom and a molecule in the quantum tunnelling regime of plasmons6,8,9,17. We record vibrational spectra within a single molecule, obtain images of normal modes and atomically parse the intramolecular charges and currents driven by vibrations. Our analysis provides a paradigm for optics in the atomistic near-field. The vibrational normal modes in a single molecule are imaged using tip-enhanced Raman spectromicroscopy performed in the atomistic near-field.
Africanizing African Legal Ethics

This book is a philosophical inquiry into indigenous African legal ethics, asking what is African about African legal ethics? Taking us beyond a geographical understanding of Africa, the author argues for an African legal ethics that is distinct from non-African African legal ethics which are rooted in Euro-Western constructions. De-silencing African voices on African legal ethics this book decolonizes the prevailing wisdom on legal ethics and broadens our understanding of how law in Africa bears on ethics in Africa or, conversely, on how ethics bears on law in Africa. This book will be of interest to scholars of African philosophy, philosophy of law, and legal ethics.
Identification of Contacts in Volumetric Images of Granular Soils

The contacts are critical in granular soils because they control force transmission and therefore the loadbearing capacity of granular soils. In the last decade, the advances of X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) techniques enabled researchers to capture three-dimensional (3D) volumetric images of soils, in which contacts can be observed. Many researchers have used a 3D image processing technique, called watershed analysis, to identify contacts in 3D volumetric images of soils. However, the watershed analysis cannot discriminate contacting particles and peanut-shaped particles, resulting in oversegmentation of peanut-shaped particles. This research developed an improved watershed analysis to solve this issue. The proposed algorithm was validated using a crushed limestone specimen, which contains many elongated and peanut-shaped particles. The results showed that the improve watershed analysis can accurately identify all the contacts in this challenging soil specimen.
Specimen Fragmentation and Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure and Cold Knife Cone Biopsy Outcomes

OBJECTIVE Surgical technique for loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) and cold knife cone (CKC) emphasizes a uniform specimen, but sequelae of specimen fragmentation are not established. We evaluated outcomes between fragmented and unfragmented excisional biopsy specimens. MATERIALS AND METHODS Loop electrosurgical excision procedure and CKCs from January 2010 to October 2013 were reviewed. Intraepithelial lesion grade, fragmentation, margin, and Endocervical curettage status were analyzed. Adenocarcinoma in situ and cancer were excluded. Repeat procedures during the study period were included in follow-up. Loop electrosurgical excision procedures with top hat with no separate fragments were analyzed independently versus those with fragmented LEEP and/or top hat. Indeterminate margin was defined as inconclusive or unevaluable margin, or intraepithelial lesion in unidentifiable margin or fragment. Outcomes involved residual or recurrent disease and repeat procedures for intraepithelial lesion. χ was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Fragmented specimens were more likely to have any positive margin (p = .01), multiple positive margins (p < .001), and indeterminate margin (p < .001) than unfragmented specimens. There was no significant difference in rates of positive, insufficient, or high-grade Endocervical curettage (p = .74, 0.54, 0.92). Patients with fragmented specimens were more likely to have high-grade lesion recurrence in the following 3 years (p = .04) versus patients with index unfragmented specimens, though not compared with those with unfragmented LEEP + top-hat cases. Overall rates of repeat LEEP/CKC or hysterectomy for dysplasia were not different (p = .56). CONCLUSIONS Fragmentation of LEEP and CKC specimens is associated with higher rates of positive margins, recurrent high-grade intraepithelial lesions, and indeterminate margins. These may cause diagnostic uncertainty, require closer follow-up, and increase cost with more visits and studies.
Clinical predictors of blood pressure response after renal artery stenting

Abstract Objective The Cardiovascular Outcomes in Renal Atherosclerotic Lesions (CORAL) trial, a multicenter randomized controlled trial, failed to demonstrate a benefit of renal artery stenting (RAS) over medical therapy in patients with renal artery stenosis and hypertension. However, there are patients for whom RAS is a consideration because of failure of medical therapy. Unfortunately, selection of patients for RAS is complicated by a lack of validated predictors of blood pressure (BP) response. A previous single-center study identified three preoperative markers of BP response to RAS: requirement for four or more antihypertensive medications, preoperative diastolic BP >90 mm Hg, and preoperative clonidine use. To date, these markers of outcome have not been independently validated. The aim of this study was to validate these markers using data from the CORAL trial. Methods All patients randomized in the CORAL trial to RAS were included. American Heart Association guidelines were used to categorize patients as BP responders or nonresponders to RAS. BP responders were defined by a postoperative BP Results There were 436 patients who underwent RAS with a median age of 70 years (interquartile range [IQR], 63-76 years). The median systolic and diastolic BPs of the stented cohort at baseline were 149 mm Hg (IQR, 132-164 mm Hg) and 78 mm Hg (IQR, 70-87 mm Hg), respectively. A positive BP response occurred in 284 of 436 (65.1%) stented patients. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified three independent markers of a positive BP response: requirement for four or more medications (odds ratio, 5.9; P 90 mm Hg (odds ratio 13.9; P Conclusions In patients from the CORAL trial who underwent RAS, the previously reported clinical markers of BP response were validated. A prospective trial to validate their utility as predictors of BP response to RAS is warranted.
Competing in a Complex Hidden Role Game with Information Set Monte Carlo Tree Search.

Advances in intelligent game playing agents have led to successes in perfect information games like Go and imperfect information games like Poker. The Information Set Monte Carlo Tree Search (ISMCTS) family of algorithms outperforms previous algorithms using Monte Carlo methods in imperfect information games. In this paper, Single Observer Information Set Monte Carlo Tree Search (SO-ISMCTS) is applied to Secret Hitler, a popular social deduction board game that combines traditional hidden role mechanics with the randomness of a card deck. This combination leads to a more complex information model than the hidden role and card deck mechanics alone. It is shown in 10108 simulated games that SO-ISMCTS plays as well as simpler rule based agents, and demonstrates the potential of ISMCTS algorithms in complicated information set domains.
Orbit and Orbit Closure Containments for Cubic Surfaces

Given two elements of a vector space acted on by a reductive group, we ask whether they lie in the same orbit, and if not, whether one lies in the orbit closure of the other. We develop techniques to optimize the orbit and orbit closure algorithms and apply these to give a partial classification of orbit closure containments in the case of cubic surfaces with infinitely many singular points, which are known to fall into 13 normal forms. We also discuss the computational obstructions to completing this classification, and discuss tools for future work in this direction.