cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of multimedia instructional material on students' learning and their perceptions of the instruction

The present study examined the effects of multimedia instructional material on students’ learning and their perceptions of the instruction. A between-group quasiexperimental study design was used for the purpose of this study. One hundred eleven students enrolled in a Quantity Food Production laboratory class in two different semesters were designated to either the control or experimental group. Both groups received traditional instructor-led orientation sessions about table service and beverage preparation procedures. However, the experimental group was only allowed to access new instructional materials presented on DVD. A set of pretest and posttest was used to collect data. Test gain scores and students’ class performance grades were computed and analyzed to compare students’ learning outcomes between the two groups. Students’ perceptions of instruction were measured with their opinions of instruction, their self-reported level of understanding of table and beverage service procedures, and their level of satisfaction. Results of independent samples t-tests showed: (1) students in the experimental group had a significantly higher gain score than students in the control group; (2) no significant differences in students’ performance grades between the two groups; (3) two out of seven questions about students’ opinions about the instruction had more positive perception responses for students who watched the DVD than students of the control group; (4) no significant differences existed in students’ self-reported level of understanding of table service and beverage preparation procedures between the two groups; and (5) students who watched the DVD had a higher level of overall satisfaction with the instruction than students
A genomic analysis of membrane trafficking and neurotransmitter release in Drosophila.

Intracellular compartments are maintained via an organized system of transport pathways that traffic lipids and proteins in vesicular organelles in a specific and regulated manner ([Bennett and Scheller 1993][1]; [Ferro-Novick and Jahn 1994][2]). The recent completion of the Drosophila genome ([
A He II heat exchanger test unit designed for the LHC interaction region magnets

The LHC interaction region (IR) inner triplets are cooled with stagnant pressurized He II at 1.9 K. All heat loads deposited in the pressurized He II bath will be carried away by saturated He II via a He II heat exchanger. The heat exchanger, made from a corrugated copper tube inside a stainless steel pipe, will be placed outside of and parallel to the cold mass in the cryostat. The current paper details the design work of a full scale He II heat exchanger test unit for the verification of LHC inner triplet magnet cooling system.
Alkaline sulfide gold leaching kinetics

Abstract Recently, leaching of gold with cyanide has come under scrutiny for its possible detrimental effects to the environment. Also, in some gold bearing ores and concentrates, conventional cyanide leaching is not the best method for gold extraction. This is due to gold particle encapsulation, cyanicides or pregrobbing carbon such as found in refractory ores and concentrates. Hence, there is much interest in developing an alternative way to extract gold from ore. Possible benefits of leaching gold with something other than cyanide include easier processing of refractory ore bodies including: carbonaceous, cyanicides, and sulfides, cheaper reagent and operating costs and opening of mine properties in places where cyanide use has been limited by the law. Hence, this paper details the fundamentals and development of the Alkaline Sulfide Gold Leaching system.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect plant tolerance and chemical defences to herbivory through different mechanisms

Summary Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are ubiquitous plant symbionts that affect plant nutrient status, patterns of resource allocation and rates of plant growth. In addition, AMF influence the expression of plant defence, which may affect subsequent interactions between plants and higher trophic levels. Tolerance to herbivory and chemical defence represent two distinct defence strategies of plants, and there is accumulating evidence that AMF can influence each strategy separately. However, investigations on the simultaneous effects of AMF on tolerance and chemical defence mechanisms are lacking. Using six milkweed (Asclepias) species and three levels of AMF inoculum, we show that plant tolerance to herbivory increases with foliar P concentrations, while both foliar cardenolide concentration and latex exudation (major chemical defences in milkweeds) increase with foliar N concentrations, but decrease with plant growth rate. Additionally, foliar cardenolide concentration increases with foliar P concentration, and latex exudation increases with root biomass. Because AMF have significant effects on all of these traits (foliar N and P concentrations, root biomass and growth rate), AMF can change plant tolerance and chemical defence simultaneously, albeit through different mechanisms. Synthesis. Overall, plant tolerance and chemical defence to herbivores are affected by AMF through changes in basic plant physiology such as nutrient status, allocation patterns and growth rate, and our study suggests that it may be possible to predict effects of AMF on plant defences through these simple traits.
Size exclusion chromatography of synthetic polymers and biopolymers on common reversed phase and hydrophilic interaction chromatography columns.

Abstract This work describes the applicability of common reversed phase and HILIC columns for size exclusion chromatography of synthetic and natural polymers. Depending on the nature of the solute and column stationary phase, a “non-retention” condition must be created with the aid of the mobile phase to achieve a unique size-based separation in isocratic mode. The various bonded phases show remarkable differences in size separations that are controlled by mobile phase conditions. Polymer-mobile phase and column-mobile phase solvation interactions determine polymer hydrodynamic volume (or solute bulkiness) and polymer-column steric interaction. Solvation interactions in turn depend on polymer, mobile phase and stationary phase polarities. Column-mobile phase solvation interactions determine the structural order of the bonded ligands that can vary from ordered (extended, aligned away from the silica substrate) to disordered (folded, pointing toward the silica substrate). Chain order increases with increased solvent penetration into the bonded phase. Increased chain order reduces pore volume, and therefore decreases the size-separation efficiency of a column. Conversely, decreased chain order increases pore volume and therefore increases the size-separation efficiency. The thermodynamic quality of the mobile phase also plays a significant role in the separation of polymers. “Poor” solvents can significantly reduce the hydrodynamic diameter of a solute and thus change their retention behavior. Medium polarity stationary phases, such as fluoro-phenyl and cyano, exhibit a unique retention behavior. With an appropriate polarity mobile phase, polar and non-polar synthetic polymers of the same molecular masses can be eluted at the same retention volumes.
Critical gameplay

How do games effect the way we problem solve, socialize, or even view the world? When we shoot do we learn to destroy obstacles instead of work around them? Does the binary world of enemies and adversaries teach us to ignore the gray in the everyday? Are we forgetting how to play with each other because playing against each other is more fun?Critical Gameplay is a collection of "strategically designed" video games. Each game asks what common game mechanics teach us. The four games in the collection are designed to help reevaluate our perspective on gameplay experiences. As Critical Cartography changes the way we perceive the world, Critical Gameplay seeks to offer alternate perspectives on the way we play.Critical Gameplay does not attempt to answer these questions. Instead it seeks to open the dialogue with demonstrative experiments in gameplay. It attempts to fill the space of what if, with something tangible - a game. What if that avatar did have a history before you destroyed it? What if you couldn't read the game world by stereotyping characters? Critical Gameplay is simply about raising questions that encourage critical reflection on gameplay experiences. A Critical Gameplay game is valued in intellectual profit.
Mechanisms of Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation

Post-transcriptional control plays a pervasive role in the regulation of gene expression, with direct relevance to the proper function of endocrine systems. This chapter explores the mechanisms that control protein expression at the levels of translation and mRNA degradation. First, we provide an overview of the pathways and factors involved in these processes. Next, we discuss the cis and trans-acting factors that modulate the amount, timing, and location of protein production and that regulate the rates of mRNA degradation. To emphasize key concepts in post-transcriptional control, we present prime examples of signals and regulatory factors that control mRNAs. Among these, we explore RNA binding proteins and non-coding RNAs that specifically and potently influence mRNA fate.
Titration and Neutralization of the Western Strain of Equine Encephalomyelitis Virus in Tissue Culture.

ConclusionTitration of potency of W.E.E. virus and quantitative estimation of neutralizing antibodies in hyperimmune horse serum have been demonstrated by use of tissue cultures. The in vitro method of detecting the presence of virus appeared to (be more sensitive than intracerebral mouse inoculation.
Computational Study of Aortic Stenosis and Aneurysm and Comparisons with Experiments Using Phase Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Some results on the numerical simulation of blood flow in phantoms for the study of vascular stenoses and aneurysms are presented in this paper. A commercially available CFD solver “FLUENT” is employed in the numerical simulations to compare with the PC-MRI results. Comparisons of PC-MRI and FLUENT output data show qualitative agreement in streamline patterns and good quantitative agreement for pressure drop across the stenosis and aneurysm.
Wnt-1 is dominant over Neu in specifying mammary tumor expression profiles

Wnt-1 and Neu collaborate to induce mammary tumors in bitransgenic mice carrying both MMTV-Wnt-1 and MMTV-Neu. In this report, gene expression profiles were determined for tumors from these bitransgenic mice, and compared with expression profiles of tumors from mice singly transgenic for MMTV-Wnt-1 or MMTV-Neu. While very different from tumors arising in MMTV-Neu transgenic mice, tumors from these bitransgenic mice were found not to have identifiable differences from tumors from MMTV-Wnt-1 transgenic mice, using clustering and multidimensional scaling analyses (unsupervised and supervised), One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and two sample t test (the later two of which were combined with false discovery rate computation). These observations suggest that Wnt-1 is dominant over Neu in specifying mammary tumor expression profiles.
Viscid and Inviscid Self-Similar Blast Waves: Spherical, Isothermal Flows and Inferences for Supernova Remnants

We investigate the spherically symmetric, self-similar flow behind a blast wave from a point explosion in a medium whose density varies with distance asr−ω with the assumption that the flow is isothermal and viscid. If 0<ω<ω c where\(\omega _c = \tfrac{1}{9}[13 - (160)^{1/2} ]\) Lerche and Vasyliunas have shown in the inviscid situation that there exist two critical points in the flow speed-radial distance plane, and that all solutions are degenerate in that they pass through the lower critical point with thesame slope. The present paper shows that as the viscosity tends to zero, the viscid flow does not tend towards the inviscid flow pattern. Now the validity of adiabatic blast wave models has elsewhere been shown to be questionable for supernova remnants, and the inviscid blast wave models have also been shown to be inappropriate for supernova remnants. Taken together with these previous results, the results of the present calculations strongly suggest that the assumption of isothermal blast wave behavior of supernova remnants, either viscid or inviscid is not valid. Since the adiabatic blast wave models have elsewhere been shown to be inappropriate descriptions of supernova remnants, it is doubtful whether the self-similar property can be invoked at all in the case of supernova remnants.
Beyond Interface Gradient: A General Principle for Constructing Diffusion Schemes

In this paper, we introduce a general principle for constructing time-accurate diffusion schemes, which is applicable to various discretization methods, includingnite-volume, residual- distribution, discontinuous-Galerkin, and spectral-volume methods. The principle is based on a hyperbolic relaxation-system model for diffusion. It is to discretize the hyperbolic system by an advection scheme, and then derive a diffusion scheme by bringing it to the equilibrium limit in a rather simple manner. A distinguished feature of the proposed principle is that it automatically introduces a damping term into the derived diffusion scheme, which is essential for effective high-frequency error damping and, in some cases, for consistency also. Another useful feature is that the derived diffusion scheme has the same implementation structure as a corresponding advection scheme, which makes it remarkably simple to integrate it with the advection scheme for advection-diffusion problems. We demonstrate the general principle by constructing diffusion schemes on uniform grids in one dimension and unstructured grids in two dimensions, for node/cell-centerednite-volume, residual-distribution, discontinuous- Galerkin, and spectral-volume methods. Numerical results are presented to verify the accuracy of the diffusion schemes and to illustrate the importance of the damping term. It is also shown that derived diffusion schemes yield comparably or more accurate solutions than widely-used schemes for time-dependent diffusion problems on isotropic/anisotropic irregular triangular grids.
Varieties of analogical reasoning

Motivation - The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate debate concerning the nature of analogy and broaden the scope of current conceptions of analogy. Research approach - An analysis of the history of the concept of analogy, case studies on the use of analogy in problem-solving, cognitive research on analogy comprehension, and a naturalistic inquiry into the various functions of analogy. Findings and Implications - Psychological theories and computational models have generally relied on: (a) A single set of ontological concepts (a property called "similarity" and a structuralist categorization of types of semantic relations) (b) A single form category (i.e., the classic four-term analogy), and (c) A single set of morphological distinctions (e.g., verbal versus pictorial analogies). The taxonomy presented here distinguishes functional kinds of analogy, each of which presents an opportunity for research on aspects of reasoning that have been largely unrecognized. Originality/Value - The various functional kinds of analogy will each require their own treatment in macrocognitive theories and computational models. Take away message - The naturalistic investigation of the functions of analogy suggests that analogy is a macrocognitive phenomenon derivative of number of supporting processes, including the apperception of resemblances and distinctions, metaphor, and the balancing of semantic flexibility and inference constraint.
Salivary cortisol levels in students challenged with a testing stressor.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was twofold. The focus of the study was primarily to determine if the stress of a particularly difficult exam could cause students to lose the normal diurnal variation seen in human cortisol levels and secondarily, to validate the use of a competitive enzyme immunoassay for salivary cortisol. DESIGN: Physical therapy students enrolled in Research Design were asked to participate in the study by collecting baseline evening and morning salivary cortisols during what was regarded as a relatively stress free time in the Fall of 2009. The following spring, the same students were asked for samples the evening before and morning of their first Kinesiology test, traditionally a stressful time. Method validation was accomplished using instrumentation owned by the Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) Program and analysis was performed by MLS faculty and a second year MLS student. SETTING: Participants were enrolled in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Sample collection and testing was performed in the student laboratory of the Medical Laboratory Science Program. PARTICIPANTS: Physical therapy students in their first year of a three-year entry level doctorate program, DPT. RESULTS: This group of students did not lose their diurnal variation of cortisol. However, an unexpected finding was noted: the students9 salivary cortisol specimen collected in the morning of the fall semester was significantly higher than the salivary cortisol specimen collected the morning of the test in the spring semester (p = .019). Method validation was successful demonstrating a strong correlation (r = 0.915) when compared to the reference laboratory. CONCLUSIONS: Cortisol diurnal variation was not lost in the study participants, but further studies should be performed due to the low percentage of students completing the study and the lack of demographic diversity. Even though the method validation in the student laboratory setting demonstrates that it is indeed possible to obtain the same excellent correlation as is seen in a clinical setting, the student laboratory is not CLIA certified, so assays can be performed for research use only. ABBREVIATIONS:ACTH-adrenocorticotropic hormone, CRH-corticotrophin-releasing hormone, DPT-Doctorate in Physical Therapy, BS-Baccalaureate of Science, BA-Baccalaureate of Arts, IRB-Internal Review Board, GPA-Grade Point Average, EIA-Enzyme Immunoassay, BMI-Basic Metabolic Index, CLIA-Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, ND-none detected
Adult rhabdomyoma of the base of the tongue

The adult rhabdomyoma often presents as a painless mass causing a sensation of a lump in the throat. Because of its slow growth, the tumor may not produce any significant symptoms until a partial obstruction of the upper aerodigestive tract occurs, causing dyspnea and dysphagia. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography may be of value in the preoperative assessment. Magnetic resonance imaging, however, is superior in demonstrating the benign, solid tumor with a homogeneous soft tissue density
Controversial consequences of the change in the legal status of war

436. The profound change that has gripped the international legal system, as a result of the prohibition of the use of inter-State force (see supra 233) and the criminalization of acts of aggression (see supra 332 et seq .), raises searching questions in regard to a number of concepts and institutions rooted in the obsolete axiomatic postulate that States are free to commence hostilities at will (see supra 207–8). It is true that, in some measure, the international community has already adjusted itself to the new legal environment. This is manifest, for instance, in the current invalidity of peace treaties dictated by the aggressor to the victim of aggression (see supra 107 et seq .). But modification of time-honoured doctrines encounters intractable difficulties (both practical and theoretical) in many areas. 437. The need for adaptation of the law to the present status of inter-State force is particularly attractive when adumbrated against the silhouette of the antiquated perception of the two antagonists in war (aggressor and victim) as intrinsically equal in jus ad bellum standing. It is noteworthy that, as pointed out already by Grotius, the Latin word bellum is derived from the more ancient term duellum . For centuries, international law treated war in the same manner that domestic law used to deal with the duel. War, like a duel, was viewed with toleration. The parity of the contenders was taken for granted, and the sole concern was about adherence to criteria of ‘fair play’. Yet, just as the duel is no longer permitted by national legal systems, war is now forbidden by international law. The modern jus ad bellum treats one of the Belligerent Parties as a criminal while the other is either the victim of the crime or has come to the victim’s rescue. The question is whether, as a result, the ground has not been cut from under certain legal norms linked to the idea of the equality of Belligerent Parties.
Pump-Probe Investigation of Femtosecond Desorption

Desorption of NO molecules from a Pd(111) surface has been induced by femtosecond visible laser pulses. Time-resolved measurements of desorption were obtained by means of a correlation technique. The desorption process was found to be characterized by a subpicosecond response, consistent with an electronic mechanism.
Porcine Acellular Dermal Matrix for Hernia Repair in Transplant Patients.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcomes of incisional hernia repair in solid organ transplant patients using non-cross-linked porcine acellular dermal matrix (PADM), human derived acellular dermal matrix (HADM) and synthetic mesh. METHODS A retrospective review of patients who underwent hernia repair with PADM after pancreas and/or renal transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center from 2008 to 2012 was conducted. Repair type, postoperative infection, hernia recurrence, mesh removal, and length of follow-up were recorded. Results were compared with our previously published data evaluating HADM and synthetic mesh used in transplant patients between 2000 and 2005. RESULTS Twenty-seven patients underwent ventral hernia repair with PADM, 34 patients were repaired with HADM and 26 were repaired with synthetic mesh. The rate of wound infection in those repaired with PADM, HADM, and synthetic mesh were 14.8%, 14.7%, and 65.4%, respectively. Rates of recurrence were 13.3%, 23.5%, and 76.9%, respectively. Rate of mesh removal was found to be 7.4%, 11.8%, and 69.2%, respectively. These complication rates were significantly lower in patients who received HADM or PADM compared with patients repaired with synthetic mesh (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in the outcomes between the groups repaired with HADM or PADM. CONCLUSIONS The use of PADM for incisional hernia repair after kidney and/or pancreas transplant significantly reduces the incidence of hernia recurrence, wound infection, and need for mesh removal compared to synthetic mesh. No difference in morbidity between HADM and PADM was observed in the study population; however, longer follow-up in the PADM group is warranted.
Severe ischemic cardiomyopathy-a new answer in management?

An estimated 5.7 million adults in the United States have congestive heart failure (1,2). Furthermore, given our aging population and advancement in treatment, it is estimated that the prevalence of congestive heart failure will increase 0.7% by 2030 leading to a 215% increase in cost for treatment (1). Significant coronary artery disease (CAD) is still the most common cause of congestive heart failure in developed countries, commonly referred to as ischemic cardiomyopathy (3). The population-attributable risk in the United States has been estimated to be 68% in men and 56% in women (4). This patient population was found to have a shorter survival as compared to those with nonischemic cardiomyopathy (3). However, the role of revascularization of patients with CAD and left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction is not well established, particularly for patients with severe LV dysfunction [ejection fraction (EF) ≤35%].
Abstract B075: Conversion of extracellular signals to programmable genome manipulation via CRISPRouter

Molecular engineering and synthetic biology approaches have been applied (1) to replace the intracellular domain (NICD) of Notch with synthetic transcription factors 1 that bind to genes other than natural Notch targets; (2) to replace human Notch extracellular domain (NECD) with recognition motifs against novel targets (e.g. cognate receptor ligands such as Delta versus single-chain variable fragments raised against a specific antigen). The project aims to interrogate and engineer the fate of a receiver cell to surface-receptor levels of a sender cell by harnessing contact-mediated Notch-Delta signaling and RNA-guided CRISPR genome engineering. We have developed Notch1-Cas9 chimeric receptors that, upon binding Delta ligand to the extra-cellular Notch domain, cleave and release Cas9 to manipulate gene expression of transgenic reporter constructs - and - of endogenous targets in mammalian cells. First, we describe the challenges and solutions in the construction of Notch-Cas9, which led to the discovery of a naturally occurring sequence in bacterial Cas9 that is being co-opted as a nuclear localization signal (NLS) when expressed in mammalian cells. To our knowledge, this is the first reported evidence of a cognate NLS in bacterial Cas9. Second, we expand the toolkit with not only Delta-dependent gene activation, but also with gene editing in two Cas9 orthologs (Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus Cas9). The toolkit performs well in reporter-gene activation and editing assays. Finally, we demonstrate activation of and phenotypic changes associated with endogenous genes encoding for regulators of the cell-division cycle, CDKN1B and CASP8; and editing of CXCR4 and CD47, receptors relevant to immune trafficking and tolerance. This Notch-Cas9 fusion technology opens up novel biological behaviors in response to cell-cell contact and can be utilized to interrogate or manipulate existing signaling pathways. Citation Format: P C Dave P. Dingal, Nathan Kipniss, Yuchen Gao, Lei S. Qi. Conversion of extracellular signals to programmable genome manipulation via CRISPRouter [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B075.
High-throughput sequencing reveals that pale green lethal disorder in apple (Malus) stimulates stress responses and affects senescence

Pale green lethal (PGL) is a recessive genetic disorder of apple (Malus) characterized by severe chlorophyll deficiency and seedling lethality. Following germination, seedlings cannot photosynthesize and die at the cotyledon stage. We previously reported that the genetic and biochemical basis of PGL is due to a loss-of-function mutation in a gene required for the biosynthesis of phylloquinone (vitamin K1), a molecule essential for photosynthesis. For the present study, we used Illumina high-throughput RNA sequencing to identify genes differentially regulated between wild-type and PGL cotyledons. Changes in the expression of chlorophyll-related genes alone cannot explain the reduced chlorophyll content of PGL seedlings. However, genes putatively responding to numerous stress-related conditions including carbohydrate starvation, water deficit, and senescence were differentially regulated. This pattern of transcript accumulation suggests PGL seedlings alter many physiological and metabolic processes such as sorbitol metabolism, osmoprotectant production, and abscisic acid activity. The functions of individual genes relating to specific stresses are discussed. These findings provide insight into possible mechanisms PGL seedlings employ during stress response. Pale green lethal disorder may be a useful model for studying abiotic stress and senescence in rosaceous fruit tree species.
D2M: data-driven model for fast and accurate timing error simulation in statically scheduled microprocessors

The simulation of circuit level timing errors has become a critical component in the evaluation of many emerging architectures. However, existing methods for injecting these errors tend to be either excruciatingly slow or rather inaccurate. We show that by dynamically building an error model through the use of supervised learning, excellent speedups can be achieved while maintaining little divergence from cumbersome gate-level simulation. We demonstrate performance improvements as great as 40x while limiting the Root Mean Square (RMS) divergence of estimated and true error rates to 0.5% on a range of the SPEC CINT2006 benchmarks. This is a significant result because it offers great hope for accelerating simulation and easing the evaluation of new architectures.
High-performance bimetallic alloy catalyst using Ni and N co-doped composite carbon for the oxygen electro-reduction.

Abstract In this study, a novel synthesis method for the bimetallic alloy catalyst is reported, which is subsequently used as an oxygen reduction catalyst in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The support prepared from the Ni-chelate complex shows a mesoporous structure with a specific surface area of ca. 400 m2 g−1 indicating the suitable support for PEMFC applications. Ethylenediamine is converted to the nitrogen and carbon layers to protect the Ni particles which will diffuse into the Pt lattice at 800 °C. The PtNi/NCC catalyst with PtNi cores and Pt-rich shells is successfully formed when acid-treated as evidenced by line scan profiles. The catalyst particles thus synthesized are well-dispersed on the N-doped carbon support, while the average particle size is ca. 3 nm. In the PEMFC test, the maximum power density of the PtNi/NCC catalyst shows approximately 25% higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The mass activity of the PtNi/NCC catalyst showed approximately 3-fold higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The mass activity strongly depends on the ratio of Pt to Ni since the strain effect can be strong for catalysts due to the mismatch of lattice parameters of the Ni and Pt.
Clinical and electrographic features of sunflower syndrome.

Abstract Background Sunflower Syndrome describes reflex seizures – typically eyelid myoclonia with or without absence seizures – triggered when patients wave their hands in front of the sun. While valproate has been recognized as the best treatment for photosensitive epilepsy, many clinicians now initially treat with newer medications; the efficacy of these medications in Sunflower Syndrome has not been investigated. We reviewed all cases of Sunflower Syndrome seen at our institution over 15 years to describe the clinical course, electroencephalogram (EEG), and treatment response in these patients. Methods Search of the electronic medical record and EEG database, as well as survey of epilepsy providers at our institution, yielded 13 cases of Sunflower Syndrome between 2002 and 2017. We reviewed the records and EEG tracings. Results Patients were mostly young females, with an average age of onset of 5.5 years. Seven had intellectual, attentional or academic problems. Self-induced seizures were predominantly eyelid myoclonia ± absences and 6 subjects also had spontaneous seizures. EEG demonstrated a normal background with 3–4 Hz spike waves ± polyspike waves as well as a photoparoxysmal response. Based on both clinical and EEG response, valproate was the most effective treatment for reducing or eliminating seizures and improving the EEG; 9 patients tried valproate and 66% had significant improvement or resolution of seizures. None of the nine patients on levetiracetam or seven patients on lamotrigine monotherapy achieved seizure control, though three patients had improvement with polypharmacy. Conclusions Valproate monotherapy continues to be the most effective treatment for Sunflower Syndrome and should be considered early. For patients who cannot tolerate valproate, higher doses of lamotrigine or polypharmacy should be considered. Levetiracetam monotherapy, even at high doses, is unlikely to be effective.
The type 2 diabetes-associated Th17 cytokines IL-21 and IL-22 promote breast cancer cell survival.

Obesity-induced inflammation has taken center stage as a driving force in metabolic disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D). As the epidemic of obesity deepens, it has become imperative to dissect mechanisms by which obesity-induced inflammation contributes to increased cancer morbidity. Recent studies have shown that increased breast cancer mortality rates are associated with obesity-related T2D. Our goal is to understand the immunological mechanisms in T2D that contribute to increased breast cancer risk. We previously showed that PBMCs treated with T cell-targeted stimuli produce a pro-inflammatory Th17 cytokine profile that differentiates T2D from obese non-T2D subjects. We therefore tested the hypothesis that Th17 cytokines support breast cancer cells. Proliferation assays showed that IL-21 and IL-22, but not IL-17A/F, or the Th1 cytokine IL-6, maintained the proliferation of MCF7 cells, an estrogen dependent breast cancer cell line, in the absence of estrogen. Building on this result, we tested the effect of IL-21/22 on MCF7 survival. Immunoblots and mRNA arrays demonstrated that IL-21 but not IL-22 upregulated steady-state expression of BCL-2 family survival mRNA/protein. Both IL-21 and IL-22 survival was blocked by JQ1, an inhibitor of the Bromodomain and ExtraTerminal (BET) family of chromatin regulating proteins. The inferred cross-talk between BET- and Th17 cytokine-triggered pathways implicate the Th17 cytokine signature from PBMCs of patients with T2D in the higher recurrence of post-menopausal breast cancer after tamoxifen treatment. The public health impact of these data is that monitoring Th17 cytokine production by PBMCs may inform risk assessment for relapse or recurrence in breast cancer patients with T2D.
On improving a solution to the ATSP with fixed origin and precedence relationships

Given the directed graph G1 = (N, A1) with a node origin and a penalty matrix C, the ATSP with fixed origin and precedence relationships (hereafter, ASTP-PR) consists of finding the permutation of the nodes from the set N, such that it minimizes a matrix C based function and does not violate the precedence relationships given by the set A1. In this work we present an algorithm for improving a given feasible solution to the problem, by performing a local search that uses 3- and 4-change based procedures. Computational results on a broad set of cases is reported.
Faith, Crisis, Coping, and Meaning Making After Katrina: A Qualitative, Cross-Cohort Examination

Very few studies in the disaster literature include elderly adults, whose life experiences, perceptions, and spiritual needs in the post-disaster period may markedly differ in comparison to younger cohorts. In this 3, we address the topic of how young, middle age, older, and oldest-old adults coped with and made meaning of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the storms and their aftermath. The individuals who provided the qualitative interviews upon which this chapter is based were enrolled in the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study (LHAS), a multidisciplinary study of the determinants of longevity and healthy aging (see Cherry, Silva, & Galea, Chapter 9 of this volume). We begin this chapter by presenting three central themes to contextualize our findings. These themes include (1) crisis, in the sense of a significant, developmental turning point (cf. Erikson E.H., 1998); (2) coping, a behavioral response to stressful events; and (3) meaning making, which pertains to an individual’s unique interpretation of an event and attributions for why it happened. We describe the sample, interview procedures, coding process, and emergent themes arising from the qualitative interviews. Implications for adjustment, acceptance, and personal growth in the post-disaster period are considered.
Effective intervention for behavior with a daily behavior report card: A meta-analysis.

The Daily Behavior Report Card is an intervention showing promise in various formats and in multiple settings. A meta-analysis evaluated the size of effects obtained from Daily Behavior Report Card interventions within single case research designs, investigating six potential moderators of treatment effects: student age, target behavior, home/school collaboration, breadth of use, scale construction, and reliability measure. Effect sizes are based on the improvement rate difference, a new overlap-based summary. Overall, data yielded 48 separate effect sizes from 17 studies. The mean improvement rate difference for all studies was 0.61 with a range of 0.15 to 0.97. This wide range of scores highlights the need to consider specific aspects of implementation to improve outcomes. High levels of home involvement and broad use throughout the day are associated with stronger intervention outcomes.
ENZYMES AND MECHANISMS IN RNA PROCESSING

RNA processing enzymes occupy an unexpectedly central role in the metabolism of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. With only a few exceptions, each well-studied case involving a particular RNA species has revealed that transcription occurs via an intermediate containing extra regions (see Refs. 1-3 for reviews). The enzymes responsible for removing these extra regions are called RNA processing enzymes. The best studied of these occur in E . coli and include RNase III (4-6) which processes the cell's rRNA precursors as well as mRNA precursors of the bacteriophage T7; and RNase P, which processes most of the cell's tRNA precursors (7-9). Recently, analogous enzymatic activities in eukaryotic cells have been detected (10-14), although here the situation is more complex in light of recent findings that the extra sequences in RNA precursors may occur at not only both ends of the mature RNA but also within it. Thus, processing may involve not only cleavage but also rejoining of the cleaved ends in a precise manner (15-18). In this paper we will concentrate on some recent studies on the mechanism of E. coli RNase III which allow us to propose a unified mechanism for this enzyme.
The impact of fear versus state empathy on persuasion and social stigma

The study investigated the impact of fear and state empathy on persuasion and social stigma. Eighteen professionally produced public service announcements (PSAs) were employed as stimuli in a 2 (me...
Brokering a Deal with an Obsessive Compulsive Leader: The Management Consultant as Negotiator

In response to thirty two employee grievances and mounting civil suits targeting a destructive CEO, NextWorld Inc. turns to external management consultants. In this report of the consultation, the ...
Memória e história: educação profissional numa escola industrial

O presente estudo descreve o processo de criacao da Escola de Aprendizagem Industrial Nilo Pecanha, em Caxias do Sul (RS), que teve papel fundamental na formacao da classe operaria da zona de colonizacao italiana do estado, a partir da decada de 1940. A pertinencia de uma escola no interior remetia ao potencial fabril da regiao das colonias italianas, conhecida pela sua vocacao industrial. O estudo observa o surgimento dessa instituicao no contexto politico da decada de 1940, e traz a tona, por meio de narrativas de ex-professores, ex-alunos, diretores e empresarios, as recordacoes dos protagonistas do processo, dentro e fora da escola. Utilizada como metodo de analise, a historia oral da voz as memorias das praticas institucionalizadas que se adequaram a politica de educacao profissionalizante, com vistas ao fortalecimento da industria nacional. A escola atingiu os objetivos previstos na proposta de ensino, estabelecida pelo governo brasileiro, e contribuiu para a formacao do operariado e do empresariado da regiao.
Symmetry problem 1

A symmetry problem is solved. A new method is used. The idea of this methodis to reduce to a contradiction the PDE and the over-determined boundary data on the boundary.The new method allows one to solve other symmetry problems.
A conflict between van Inwagen’s metaontology and his ontology

Peter van Inwagen has in recent decades made significant and influential contributions to metaphysics. In his Material Beings he advanced a novel ontology according to which chairs and other medium-sized dry goods don’t really exist. He went on to make important contributions to metaontology. Parts of his Ontology, Identity, and Modality and Existence: Essays in Ontology defend a broadly Quinean conception of existence questions and how to address them. I argue that the metaontology articulated in those later works is in fact inconsistent with his defense of his ontology advanced in his earlier work.
Multi-Channel Overlapped Speech Recognition with Location Guided Speech Extraction Network

Although advances in close-talk speech recognition have resulted in relatively low error rates, the recognition performance in far-field environments is still limited due to low signal-to-noise ratio, reverberation, and overlapped speech from simultaneous speakers which is especially more difficult. To solve these problems, beamforming and speech separation networks were previously proposed. However, they tend to suffer from leakage of interfering speech or limited generalizability. In this work, we propose a simple yet effective method for multi-channel far-field overlapped speech recognition. In the proposed system, three different features are formed for each target speaker, namely, spectral, spatial, and angle features. Then a neural network is trained using all features with a target of the clean speech of the required speaker. An iterative update procedure is proposed in which the mask-based beamforming and mask estimation are performed alternatively. The proposed system were evaluated with real recorded meetings with different levels of overlapping ratios. The results show that the proposed system achieves more than 24% relative word error rate (WER) reduction than fixed beamforming with oracle selection. Moreover, as overlap ratio rises from 20% to 70+%, only 3.8% WER increase is observed for the proposed system.
Ypt/Rab GTPases and their TRAPP GEFs at the Golgi

The conserved Ypt/Rab GTPases regulate the different steps of all intracellular trafficking pathways. Ypt/Rabs are activated by their specific nucleotide exchangers termed GEFs, and when GTP bound, they recruit their downstream effectors, which mediate vesicular transport substeps. In the yeast exocytic pathway, Ypt1 and Ypt31/32 regulate traffic through the Golgi and the conserved modular TRAPP complex acts a GEF for both Ypt1 and Ypt31/32. However, the precise localization and function of these Ypts have been under debate, as is the identity of their corresponding GEFs. We have established that Ypt1 and Ypt31 reside on the two sides of the Golgi, early and late, respectively, and regulate Golgi cisternal progression. We and others have shown that whereas a single TRAPP complex, TRAPP II, activates Ypt31, three TRAPP complexes can activate Ypt1: TRAPPs I, III, and IV. We propose that TRAPP I and II activate Ypt1 and Ypt31, respectively, at the Golgi, whereas TRAPP III and IV activate Ypt1 in autophagy. Resolving these issues is important because both Rabs and TRAPPs are implicated in multiple human diseases, ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases.
Notch1 Expression Is Regulated at Translational Level by 3′UTR Region in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Development.

Abstract In hematopoietic stem cell development, the expression of critical genes is precisely regulated in a stage specific manner, which supports normal hematopoietic development through adequately regulating timing of cell division, self-renewal, and lineage commitment of hematopoietic stem cells. Regulation of gene expression is known to take place at transcriptional level. In addition to the transcriptional regulation, there are growing evidences that translational control of critical genes may play a role, especially in embryogenic development, suggesting an interesting possibility that translational control may also play a role in hematopoiesis. Here, we provide the evidence that the expression of a key transcription factor in lymphoid development, Notch1, is controlled at translational level in hematopoietic stem cell. To examine whether translation of mRNAs of hematopoietic major factors can be regulated at each stage of hematopoietic development, we established a retrovirus sensor vector, in which 3′UTR (untranslated region) of target genes is placed between the GFP coding region and the retrovirus 3′LTR. Since the transcribed mRNA from this vector is a fusion mRNA of GFP and 3′UTR from the gene of interest, this vector allows us to visualize the effect of 3′UTR on translational control of particular genes by GFP as a reporter. We cloned 3′UTR fragments from PU.1, GATA-1, GATA-2, C/EBPα and Notch1 genes into the sensor vector. Then, we introduced these retrovirus vectors into prospectively-purified hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, including HSC, CMP and GMP, and their GFP intensities were monitored by a flowcytometer. We found that induction of the sensor vector with the 3′UTR sequence from Notch1 showed marked suppression of the GFP intensity at the HSC stage. The 3′UTR sequences from the other 4 transcription factors did not show such intensive inhibitory effect. Suppression of Notch1 transcription by its 3′UTR was further confirmed by using a retrovirus vector which has two distinct markers of YFP and GFP-3′UTR fusion genes under bi-directional EF1α promoter. These data suggest that the expression of Notch1 should be regulated at translational level by its 3′UTR at the HSC stage as well as at transcriptional level. Our data provide the first evidence that the stage-specific translational regulation can play an important role in organization of hematopoietic development.
High-frequency soundfield microphone for the analysis of bat biosonar

Numerous bat species emit wideband frequency-modulated signals for echolocation to hunt prey and avoid obstacles. Research investigating the behavioral and physiological responses of bats to echoes typically includes analysis of acoustic signals from microphones and/or microphone arrays, using time difference of arrival between array elements or the microphones to locate flying bats (azimuth and elevation). This has provided insight into transmission adaptations such as pulse duration and duty cycle with respect to target distance, clutter, and interferers. Microphones recording transmitted signals and echoes near a stationary bat provide sound pressure as a function of time but no directional information. In this work, the authors propose a spatial audio/soundfield microphone array to both track bats in flight and pinpoint the directions of echoes received by a bat. The authors introduce an ultrasonic (20–80 kHz) tetrahedral soundfield microphone to capture bat sounds up to 80 kHz. A spatial audio decoding technique called high angular resolution planewave expansion (HARPEx) supplies angle and elevation estimates, either for a flying bat based on the bat pulses or for targets based on echoes. Experiments using the soundfield microphone and HARPEx show that the approach accurately estimates the sound direction of arrival in both scenarios.
Gatekeepers in the food industry: acceptability of edible insects

For billions of consumers around the world, insects are not only considered edible, they are considered delicious! Currently, in the United States, there is a distinct movement from ‘yuck’ to ‘yum’...
Physical Education for the Visually Impaired: A Review of the Literature:

A search of the literature published during the 1970s revealed only six articles providing empirical evidence for the value of physical education and physical fitness among blind or visually impair...
Identification and estimation of average causal effects when treatment status is ignorable within unobserved strata

This paper extends matching and propensity-score reweighting methods to settings in which unobserved variables influence both treatment assignment and counterfactual outcomes. Identification procee...