cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimal output quadratic regulation

To have an accurate information of system states is always being a challenging task for the control designers irrespective the system is linear or non linear. This information is used for state feedback in tracking of a reference signal. An observer based optimal linear quadratic scheme is presented in this paper. Linear time invariant (LTI) system is used for reference tracking in the presence of external disturbance once only plant input and output is available to us. The proposed closed loop structure is capable of rejecting the disturbance by utilizing the prior information of disturbance. A optimize quadratic cost function effectively utilizing the observed plant states is defined. Its performance in the presence of observer makes it more realistic for practical use. Suggested algorithm performance is discussed with the simulation results with third order linear system.
Exposure of rangia clams to hypoxia enhances blue crab predation

Abstract This experimental study questions whether exposure of non-mobile prey to episodic hypoxia might enhance predation by a mobile predator, which moves into the former hypoxic area immediately after a shift back to normoxic conditions. We used Rangia cuneata (common rangia clam) and Callinectes sapidus (blue crab) from an oligohaline estuary where mature clams are rare in areas subject to episodic anoxia and hypoxia. Clams were exposed to severe laboratory hypoxia for 72 h. One clam stressed by hypoxia and another clam maintained under aeration (normoxia) were placed in aerated aquaria containing a crab. Feeding choice of hypoxic vs . normoxic clams was then monitored for 12 h. We used 20 different crabs for two experimental replicates each for a total of 40 replicates. To test for homogeneity of the feeding response, we used a 1-tail binomial test with 0.5 expected probabilities. Eleven of the 20 crabs fed (55%), and 16 out of 18 hypoxia-stressed clams were eaten first compared to two out of 18 clams kept under normoxic conditions (p = 0.001). The significant frequency choice of stressed clams indicates that in this experimental study, exposure of clams to hypoxia enhanced crab predation.
Cross-correlated relaxation rates between protein backbone H–X dipolar interactions

The relaxation interference between dipole–dipole interactions of two separate spin pairs carries structural and dynamics information. In particular, when compared to individual dynamic behavior of those spin pairs, such cross-correlated relaxation (CCR) rates report on the correlation between the spin pairs. We have recently mapped out correlated motion along the backbone of the protein GB3, using CCR rates among and between consecutive HN–N and Hα–Cα dipole–dipole interactions. Here, we provide a detailed account of the measurement of the four types of CCR rates. All rates were obtained from at least two different pulse sequences, of which the yet unpublished ones are presented. Detailed comparisons between the different methods and corrections for unwanted pathways demonstrate that the averaged CCR rates are highly accurate and precise with errors of 1.5–3% of the entire value ranges.
Completion rates: An analysis of factors related to drug court program completion

AbstractDrug courts were proposed as a solution to the increasing numbers of drug involved offenders entering the criminal justice system. This study evaluates 290 Felony Drug Court participants in a large city in Texas to determine factors that are related to drug court completion. The population from which this sample was drawn consists of adults in the Felony Drug Court program from January 2006 to September 2010. The data are analyzed using bivariate analysis and descriptive analysis. This study reveals that employment and marriage are factors associated with drug court completion. The findings demonstrate that married participants who were employed when entering the program were more likely to graduate than participants that were unemployed, single and/or divorced. The analysis showed that 69.1% of the participants who graduated from the program were married and 65.0% of the participants who were employed when entering the program that graduated. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future r...
Evidence of an Intelligent Tutoring System as a Mindtool to Promote Strategic Memory of Expository Texts and Comprehension With Children in Grades 4 and 5

Reading and comprehending content area texts require learners to effectively select and encode with hierarchically strategic memory structures in order to combine new information with prior knowled...
DESEMPENHO AGRONÔMICO DE CULTIVARES DE SOJA PARA A REGIÃO CENTRO NORTE PAULISTA, SAFRA 2016/17

Objetivou-se estudar o comportamento de cultivares de soja na regiao Centro Norte Paulista, na safra 2016/17. O experimento foi instalado no Polo Centro Norte - APTA Regional, vinculado a Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos casualizados, com tres repeticoes, sendo testadas 30 cultivares de soja, 25 com tecnologia Intacta RR 2 PRO e 5 com tecnologia RR1. As parcelas uteis constituiram-se de 2 linhas de cinco metros de comprimento, com espacamento entrelinhas de 0,45 m. Por ocasiao da maturacao dos graos, foram avaliados a altura de planta na maturacao, altura de insercao da primeira vagem e produtivade de graos. As analises de variâncias foram realizadas e as medias comparadas pelo teste de Scott Knott a 5%. A produtividade media geral obtida foi de 2208 kg ha-1. As cultivares que se destacaram com melhor desempenho produtivo 10% acima da media foram: TMG 7067 IPRO, BRS Valiosa RR, Msoy 6210 IPRO e BRS 1001 IPRO. E necessario a continuidade dos estudos e repeticao dos ensaios de competicao para melhor recomendacao das cultivares mais adaptadas a Regiao Centro Norte Paulista.
Correlation function of spin noise due to atomic diffusion

We use paramagnetic Faraday rotation to study spin noise spectrum from unpolarized Rb vapor in a tightly focused probe beam in the presence of ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ buffer gas. We derive an analytical form for the diffusion component of the spin noise time-correlation function in a Gaussian probe beam. We also obtain analytical forms for the frequency spectrum of the spin noise in the limit of a tightly focused or a collimated Gaussian beam in the presence of diffusion. In particular, we find that in a tightly focused probe beam the spectral line shape can be independent of the buffer gas pressure. Experimentally, we find good agreement between the calculated and the measured spin noise spectra for ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ gas pressures ranging from 56 to 820 Torr.
Predicting Multiple Risky Behaviors via Multimedia Content

Risky behaviors pose a growing threat to our society. In the case of drug consumption, according to National Survey on Drug Use and Health, “substance abuse costs our society more than 484 billion dollars a year”, which is about thrice of what we spend on cancer. Researchers have started studying risky behaviors through big data from social media. However, to our best knowledge, most of the existing schemes focus on only one risky behavior, despite that the research in public health and psychology has shown us that there exist correlations among risky behaviors. In this work, in order to exploit such correlation, we select five risky behaviors, namely drug consumption, drinking, sleep disorder, depression, and eating disorder. Furthermore, we propose a deep learning neural network constructed by combining recurrent neural networks (RNN) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to effectively predict whether an Instagram user will conduct which kind of risky behaviors in the near future.
Erythema nodosum‐like panniculitis mimicking disease recurrence: A novel toxicity from immune checkpoint blockade therapy—Report of 2 patients

Immunotherapies targeting cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor and its ligand (PD-L1) have showed substantial therapeutic benefit in patients with clinically advanced solid malignancies. However, autoimmune toxicities are common and often significant adverse events with these agents. While rash and pruritus remain the most common cutaneous complications in treated patients, novel dermatologic toxicities related to immune checkpoint blockade continue to emerge as the number of patients exposed to immunotherapy increases. Here, we describe 2 patients treated with combination immunotherapy with ipilimumab and nivolumab who developed painful subcutaneous nodules. Although the findings were clinically concerning for disease recurrence, histopathologic examination of biopsies from the lesions revealed a subcutaneous mixed septal and lobular erythema nodosum-like panniculitis. Notably, neither patient received immunosuppressive therapy for these lesions, which subsequently remained stable, and both patients' cancer remained controlled. These cases show that the dermatologic toxicity profile of immune checkpoint blockade is diverse and continues to expand, and illustrates that recognition of such toxicities is critical to optimal patient management.
Scientific computing using consumer video-gaming embedded devices

The performance of commodity video-gaming embedded devices (consoles, graphics cards, tablets, etc.) has been advancing at a rapid pace owing to strong consumer demand and stiff market competition. Gaming devices are currently amongst the most powerful and cost-effective computational technologies available in quantity. In this article, we evaluate a sample of current generation video-gaming devices for scientific computing and compare their performance with specialized supercomputing general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs). We use the OpenCL SHOC benchmark suite, which is a measure of the performance of compute hardware on various different scientific application kernels, and also a popular public distributed computing application, Einstein@Home in the field of gravitational physics for the purposes of this evaluation.
Text to image generative model using constrained embedding space mapping

We present a conditional generative method that maps low-dimensional embeddings of image and natural language to a common latent space hence extracting semantic relationships between them. The embedding specific to a modality is first extracted and subsequently a constrained optimization procedure is performed to project the two embedding spaces to a common manifold. Based on this, we present a method to learn the conditional probability distribution of the two embedding spaces; first, by mapping them to a shared latent space and generating back the individual embeddings from this common space. However, in order to enable independent conditional inference for separately extracting the corresponding embeddings from the common latent space representation, we deploy a proxy variable trick — wherein, the single shared latent space is replaced by two separate latent spaces. We design an objective function, such that, during training we can force these separate spaces to lie close to each other, by minimizing the Euclidean distance between their distribution functions. Experimental results demonstrate that the learned joint model can generalize to learning concepts of double MNIST digits with additional attributes of colors, thereby enabling the generation of specific colored images from the respective text data.
Land Use and Transport Mode choices: Space Syntax Analysis of American Cities

Natural movement theory (from space syntax literature) postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier et al. 1993). In addition, movement economy theory asserts that retail and commercial activities migrate to configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement (Hillier 1996). These concentrations of retail and commercial activities are also the work places for a good number of people and in turn, will influence the choices of residential locations. Since journey-distance and time are two very important factors influencing transport mode choice, (Plaut 2005; Wardman, Tight, and Page 2007; Pucher and Dijkstra 2003; Schwanen and Mokhtarian 2005). This paper hypothesized that the locations of retails and commercial areas as understood by their space syntax derived configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and also influence choices of commuting mode. This hypothesis is tested in four US cities of Boston, Pittsburgh, Lubbock, and Salt Lake City using data collected from online open source database of the respective cities and US census bureau. Space Syntax topological and angular analyses of CAD drawn axial lines and street centerlines extracted from GIS maps are performed for all cities. ArcGIS spatial analysis tools were applied to combine land use, socio-economic & demographic, transportation and Space Syntax variables to the scale of census block-groups that was selected as the study unit. Multiple regression analyses are carried out to identify relevant and significant variables explaining each mode of transport. The findings indicate that Space Syntax variables play an important role in explaining choice of commuting mode. In addition, several linear regression analyses are performed to examine the land use and transport mode choice in the context of street configuration. The results indicate that commercial and retail concentration were positively correlated with integration cores. Following general trend of space syntax findings, commuters tend to live at configurationally segregated areas while walkers and bicycle riders tend to live in configurationally integrated areas where commercial and retail activities are concentrated. Regarding the differences of layout types, the results of comparative analysis between gridded and non-gridded cities indicates that closeness variable called ‘integration’ and between-ness variable called ‘choice’ are relevant to explain walking and driving modes in non-gridded and gridded cities respectively.
Seafloor Topography, Sediments, and Paleoenvironments

This chapter and the next review and synthesize the geology and geophysics of the Nordic Seas. This first chapter’s central topic is sedimentation, and the chapter relates it to seafloor spreading (an aspect of plate tectonics, explained in the appendix section of this chapter) and paleoclimate. An introductory topic is the seafloor topography (Figs. 1 2, and 3). Also considered are the processes that have created and modified the topography, and discussed in particular is the interrelationships of topography and currents. The topography discussion also provides a background for the next chapter, which relates geophysical signatures of the Nordic Seas to seafloor spreading and to the structure and composition of the igneous/metamorphic crust. A treatment of the composition of the sediments on the crust, however, is part of the present chapter. (The crust, also an aspect of plate tectonics, is defined in this chapter’s appendix section.)
Society and Environment in the East Mediterranean ca 300–1800 CE. Problems of Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation. Introductory Essay

This introductory article sets out some issues associated with the concept and theorization of ‘resilience’. We describe some historical contexts in which theories of societal resilience can be usefully deployed; we offer some challenges to critiques of the validity and usefulness of Formal Resilience Theory (Theory of Adaptive Change). Resilience, adaptation, and transformation are complex issues, and while we cannot tell the whole story through the lens of environmental change, we can integrate the various categories of evidence to attempt to focus in on where and how climate change might impact an imperial system. Using an example from Byzantine Anatolia we examine the most vulnerable segments, such as subsistence systems, with respect to the agency of elite managers and the role of religious identity. Thus we can throw light on how interconnected environmental and social factors might exert pressure on other sub-systems and thus the system as a whole.
Predictors of atrial fibrillation in patients with cryptogenic stroke (P6.294)

Objective: Identify predictors of occult atrial fibrillation in those with cryptogenic stroke. Background: A sizeable percentage of patients diagnosed with cryptogenic stroke/TIA are subsequently found to have atrial fibrillation on outpatient cardiac telemetry monitoring. Identification of predictor factors for the detection of atrial fibrillation could assist with patient selection to increase the yield of telemetry and hasten initiation of appropriate secondary stroke prevention. Design/Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of patients diagnosed with cryptogenic stroke at a comprehensive stroke center who were subsequently referred to outpatient telemetry for 21–30 days between January 2012 and July 2015 (n=121). Telemetry reports, imaging studies, EKG, echo, vitals and laboratory data were reviewed for each patient. Continuous variables were analyzed with independent samples T test and ANOVA and proportions with Chi-square. Results: Ten percent of patients were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by outpatient telemetry. There was a strong association between presence of premature atrial contractions (PACs) on admission EKG and subsequent detection of atrial fibrillation (p=0.004). Increased left atrial diameter (≥ 5.2cm) on echocardiogram was also correlated with atrial fibrillation detection in males (p=0.024). However, there was no association between atrial fibrillation and other echocardiography measurements, including ejection fraction or myocardial wall hypokinesis. Interestingly, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels were significantly higher in cryptogenic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation (p=0.008), with a TSH greater than 4.20 mIU/L predictive of detection of atrial fibrillation (p Conclusions: Consistent with prior studies, atrial fibrillation was found by outpatient monitoring in a notable percentage of cryptogenic stroke patients. Predictors of occult atrial fibrillation in our study population included PACs on EKG and higher TSH levels. Although an association between hyperthyroidism and atrial fibrillation has been well established, our results intriguingly suggest that hypothyroidism may be a predictive factor as well. Disclosure: Dr. Renati has nothing to disclose. Dr. Almeida has nothing to disclose. Dr. Warren has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wilson has nothing to disclose.
Locus of Hope: External Hope in Parents/Guardians as an Antecedent of Adolescents’ Internal Hope and Life Satisfaction

While hope has been frequently referenced as a protective factor associated with resilience, limited research exists examining hope’s origins. To expand the research base on the origins of hope among adolescents, we conducted 2 studies to test Bernardo’s locus of hope theory, along with Snyder’s theory that hope originates from attentive caregivers. Two cross sectional studies were performed with 2 independent samples collected from adolescents residing in the South Central United States (Study 1: N′ = 556; Study 2: N′ = 578). Covariance based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test an a priori model of external locus of hope in parents/guardians as an antecedent of life satisfaction mediated by children’s internal hope. The results of both studies indicate that the proposed theoretical model provided good fit to the observed data. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results, particularly the potential importance of parenting approaches that involve parents/guardians acting as external agents promoting their adolescents’ goals.
Characteristics of Children Presenting to a Behavioral Treatment Program for Pediatric Headache

This study examined headache characteristics and psychological variables associated with pediatric headache in a specialty treatment clinic. Children were referred by pediatric neurologists to a hospital-based pediatric behavioral medicine clinic for behavioral treatment in conjunction with medical management of the pain. Headache typology of the children indicated that 1/3 of the sample reported at least daily headaches, and a large percentage of patients described experiencing headaches that lasted for more than a day (26%). Child and parent report of pain revealed a fairly high level of correspondence for headache activity. Regarding other psychological characteristics, children in this study endorsed higher than expected levels of somatization even after adjusting for headache symptoms. Compared with children's report, parents' report showed only slightly higher levels of secondary gain experienced by children because of pain. Gender differences were not found. The implications of these findings for improving our understanding of pediatric headache are discussed.
Selectivity and Ion Speciation in Cation-Exchange Resins

The development of a model for the prediction of ion-exchange selectivity has been described in detail. Cation-exchange selectivity in aqueous media is shown to be determined by the difference in interaction of various cations with water. The difference in selectivity is resolvable through the analysis of osmotic coefficient data obtained for the pure ionic forms of the linear polyelectrolyte analogue of the cross-linked cation exchange resin. The utility of this approach has been tested and is shown to be applicable to a weakly dissociated cation-exchange resin as well as to the fully dissociated one. The insight gained from this study is believed to be useful to the analysis of mass transport phenomena in cation-exchange materials.
Helium and Hydrogen (super?)Solids

I develop a phenomenology of a particular model of disordered supersolidity. It is related to proposals that superflow occurs along defects—dislocations, grain boundaries, and amorphous regions—but develops a picture of the macroscopic, experimental properties of the system starting from these microscopic considerations. The essence of the idea is that superflow may exist in large disordered regions, and that the supersolid feature observed in torsional oscillator experiments corresponds to the point where these become globally phase coherent, even though the superflow \(within\) the domains is already present at higher temperatures. The experimental consequences of this are fleshed out and found to be consistent with the present state of experiments.
The Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Possible Prevention of Uremic Bone Disease

Uremic bone disease can be classified into three major types based on histomorphometric analysis of double tetracycline labeling of iliac crest bone obtained by trephine (Table I). Type I consists of patients with high-turnover bone disease. Type II consists of patients with high-turnover bone disease in which the major manifestation of the abnormal mineral metabolism associated with uremia is metastatic calcification. Type III consists of patients with low turnover bone disease.
Employment Barriers for People with Visual Impairments

This study of the perceived employment barriers of 20 unemployed adults who are legally blind found that the participants experienced personal, societal, and programmatic barriers to employment. It...
Do family physicians suffer an identity crisis? A perspective of family physicians in Bangalore city.

Background: The need of the hour in Indian healthcare is well-qualified, competent family physicians, but there is an overwhelming importance given to specialized medical care. Family physicians feel that they do not get the recognition they deserve. This study was undertaken to explore the views and perceptions of family physicians and residents about their specialty. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 110 doctors who are undergoing family medicine (FM) residency and practicing family physicians in Bangalore. The questionnaire was developed with domains on patient or family relationship, balancing breadth and depth in practice, comprehensive nature of patient care, career flexibility, and patient advocacy. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0, and P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The majority of the participants (55.5%) felt that there is poor acceptance among the people about FM doctor as a specialist. A significant proportion (39.1%) of them indicated that thought of “Jack of all trades and Master of none” bothers them much. More than 90% of respondents felt a sense of pride being family physicians. FM practitioners (28.4 ± 3.1) had a good perception score when compared with residents (27 ± 3.6) (P
Prenatal Exposure to Bisphenol A, E, and S Induces Transgenerational Effects on Male Reproductive Functions in Mice

This study was performed to examine the transgenerational effects of bisphenol (BP) A analogs, BPE, and BPS on male reproductive functions using mice as a model. CD-1 mice (F0) were orally exposed to control treatment (corn oil), BPA, BPE, or BPS (0.5 or 50 µg/kg/day) from gestational day 7 (the presence of vaginal plug = 1) to birth. Mice from F1 and F2 offspring were used to generate F3 males. Prenatal exposure to BPA, BPE, and BPS decreased sperm counts and/or motility and disrupted the progression of germ cell development as morphometric analyses exhibited an abnormal distribution of the stages of spermatogenesis in F3 males. Dysregulated serum levels of estradiol-17β and testosterone, as well as expression of steroidogenic enzymes in F3 adult testis were also observed. In the neonatal testis, although apoptosis and DNA damage were not affected, mRNA levels of DNA methyltransferases, histone methyltransferases, and their associated factors were increased by BP exposure. Furthermore, BP exposure induced immunoreactive expression of DNMT3A in Sertoli cells, strengthened DNMT3B, and weakened H3K9me2 and H3K9me3 in germ cells of the neonatal testis, whereas DNMT1, H3K4me3, and H3K27ac were not affected. In adult testis, stage-specific DNMT3B was altered by BP exposure, although DNMT3A, H3K9me2, and H3K9me3 expression remained stable. These results suggest that prenatal exposure to BPA, BPE, and BPS induces transgenerational effects on male reproductive functions probably due to altered epigenetic modification following disruption of DNMTs and histone marks in the neonatal and/or adult testis.
Parental reactions to transgender and gender diverse children: A literature review

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face stigmatization from family members and peers, placing this group at high risk of adverse outcomes including suicidality, substance abuse, and c...
The Modified Fisher Scale Lacks Interrater Reliability.

The modified Fisher scale (mFS) is a critical clinical and research tool for risk stratification of cerebral vasospasm. As such, the mFS is included as a common data element by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke SAH Working Group. There are few studies assessing the interrater reliability of the mFS. We distributed a survey to a convenience sample with snowball sampling of practicing neurointensivists and through the research survey portion of the Neurocritical Care Society Web site. The survey consisted of 15 scrollable CT scans of patients with SAH for mFS grading, two questions regarding the definitions of the scale criteria and demographics of the responding physician. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to determine the interrater reliability of mFS grading. Forty-six participants (97.8% neurocritical care fellowship trained, 78% UCNS-certified in neurocritical care, median 5 years (IQR 3–6.3) in practice, treating median of 80 patients (IQR 50–100) with SAH annually from 32 institutions) completed the survey. By mFS criteria, 30% correctly identified that there is no clear measurement of thin versus thick blood, and 42% correctly identified that blood in any ventricle is scored as “intraventricular blood.” The overall interrater reliability by Kendall’s coefficient of concordance for the mFS was moderate (W = 0.586, p < 0.0005). Agreement among raters in grading the mFS is only moderate. Online training tools could be developed to improve mFS reliability and standardize research in SAH.
Introduction to ion channels and calcium signaling in the microcirculation.

Abstract The microcirculation is the network of feed arteries, arterioles, capillaries and venules that supply and drain blood from every tissue and organ in the body. It is here that exchange of heat, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, hormones, water, cytokines, and immune cells takes place; essential functions necessary to maintenance of homeostasis throughout the life span. This chapter will outline the structure and function of each microvascular segment highlighting the critical roles played by ion channels in the microcirculation. Feed arteries upstream from the true microcirculation and arterioles within the microcirculation contribute to systemic vascular resistance and blood pressure control. They also control total blood flow to the downstream microcirculation with arterioles being responsible for distribution of blood flow within a tissue or organ dependent on the metabolic needs of the tissue. Terminal arterioles control blood flow and blood pressure to capillary units, the primary site of diffusional exchange between blood and tissues due to their large surface area. Venules collect blood from capillaries and are important sites for fluid exchange and immune cell trafficking. Ion channels in microvascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and pericytes importantly contribute to all of these functions through generation of intracellular Ca2+ and membrane potential signals in these cells.
Reactive fragment materials made from an aluminum–silicon eutectic powder

We explore the use of an aluminum–silicon eutectic powder to produce reactive materials that fragment and combust following high-velocity impact. Unlike the pure aluminum powders traditionally used in these materials, the eutectic sinters readily and has a reduced melting point. This allows the tensile strength/ductility and fracture toughness to be tuned with partial sintering; increases in these properties, however, generally result in a reduction in combustion energy release on impact. Three heat treatments were studied for isostatically compressed aluminum–silicon materials, and two baseline pure aluminum materials using fine and coarse powders were also fabricated for comparison. Mechanical measurements and impact calorimetry tests showed that partial sintering at the nominal melting point increases tensile strength and toughness by approximately 350% but does reduce combustion energy output; however, the reduction is only prominent above 1300 m/s for the conditions studied here. Below this point, the partially sintered Al–Si has similar impact-induced combustion as an extremely brittle, unannealed pressed Al powder. Pure aluminum and alloy materials with similar mechanical properties and starting particle size show comparable combustion energy release, suggesting that powder size and fragmentation properties are more important than the variation in melt point.
The effect of fatty acid perfusion on intestinal alkaline phosphatase

The effect of intestinal fatty acid perfusions on translocation of the brush-border enzyme, intestinal alkaline phosphatase, was assessed in the rat. Each of two consecutive loops of proximal small bowel were perfused simultaneously in anesthetized rats with three solutions in random order. The solutions consisted of a control solvent solution, containing sodium taurocholate, a reference fatty acid solution containing C18∶1 in taurocholate, and a test solution containing either C18∶1, C16∶1, C12∶0, C8∶0 or C6∶0 in taurocholate. When fatty acid was present in the perfusate more enzyme was released into the intestinal lumen than by taurocholate alone. Long-chain fatty acids were 3.4 times more effective than medium-chain fatty acids in releasing intestinal alkaline phosphatase (P<0.001). An exponential relationship was found between fatty acid chain length and release of enzyme. The effect of each fatty acid on the release of enzyme, was similar in the two loops and reversible. Another brush-border enzyme, sucrase, used as a reference enzyme, was also released by the fatty acid perfusions. The amount released was also related to the carbon-chain length of the fatty acid but less sucrase than intestinal alkaline phosphatase was released in response to fatty acid perfusion. Histochemical studies on the activity of alkaline phosphatase confirmed the outflow of intestinal alkaline phosphatase from the brush border into the bowel lumen. Simultaneously, intestinal alkaline phosphatase also moved in the opposite direction into the mucosal lymphatics. These changes were most pronounced following long-chain fatty acid perfusions, and less apparent after medium-chain fatty acid perfusion. The data demonstrated: (1) a bidirectional flow of brush-border intestinal alkaline phosphatase, and (2) that luminal enzyme activity is exponentially related to the carbon-chain length of the fatty acid being absorbed. The results suggest participation of intestinal alkaline phosphatase in fat absorption.
Relationship of heart rate, perceived exertion, and intra-abdominal pressure in women.

Background Exercise increases intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) acutely, which may impact the pelvic floor of women. IAP during exercise demonstrates high variability among women but is not routinely assessed. Assessing less invasive measures related to IAP during exercise may facilitate study of how IAP impacts the pelvic floor. Methods The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of heart rate and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) with IAP during a standard treadmill test. We describe the trend of IAP by predicted aerobic fitness during incremental exercise. IAP was measured using a validated transducer placed in the upper vagina. Heart rate and RPE were collected during the first 3 stages of the standard Bruce treadmill protocol. Relationships of heart rate and RPE with IAP were determined by Pearson correlation coefficients. Predicted aerobic fitness values for each participant were ranked in tertiles with IAP by treadmill stage. Results Twenty-four women participated in this study (mean age: 24.7 (5.4) years; body mass index: 22.5 (2.2) kg/m2). There were significant relationships between heart rate and IAP (r= 0.67, p < 0.001) and RPE and IAP (r= 0.60, p < 0.001) across treadmill stages. Tertiles of predicted aerobic fitness and IAP displayed similar trends as other exercise measures during incremental exercise, such as, heart rate and ventilation. Conclusion Heart rate and RPE could be used as proxy measures of IAP during incremental exercise. Aerobic fitness may help explain IAP variability in women and provide context for future research on IAP and pelvic floor health.
Examining Impacts of Clinical Practice Variation on Operational Performance

This study explores whether and how lower variations in clinical practice relate to hospital operational performance. This relation is critical to the overall search for pathways that will allow the healthcare industry to bend the cost curve, implying significant implications for practice and regulators. We define practice variation as all variation not resulting from patient mix and construct a measure using inpatient discharge data for each patient cohort having an identical medical condition. Hospitals in our data show a broad practice variation spectrum. Using statistical process control (SPC) as a theoretical lens, we hypothesize negative impacts of practice variation on operational performance. We also consider intervening impacts of hospital quality evaluations on the relationship. Analyzing six years of data from hospitals in NY and FL states using a dynamic panel system GMM estimator, we find that higher practice variation relates to longer average patient length-of-stay and higher total cost per capita. This phenomenon is even stronger when a hospital provides services with higher quality in patient experience because such a hospital tends to provide more responsive care to patients, which is often resource-intensive. To investigate further, we conduct post hoc analyses, looking into the granular elements of practice variation in test-ordering (i.e., detecting disease and monitoring its status) and care-delivery (i.e., the provision of healthcare). Our results indicate that practice variation in care-delivery could be the first target for reducing variation as it directly relates to the greater patient length-of-stay and all the cost metrics considered without significant interactions with quality measures. Interestingly, practice variation in test-ordering has combined effects with quality measures with respect to the per capita total cost and care-delivery cost. This finding suggests that hospital providers can effectively mitigate the trade-off between quality and cost by investing their efforts that can help reduce variation in test-ordering practice when they concurrently aim to improve the quality measures. Taken together, these findings imply that careful attention to the two dimensions of practice variation and the nuanced joint relationship with quality measures may provide room for improvement in practice, ultimately reducing the prevalent waste in the healthcare industry. Our measure of practice variation also contributes since it enables researchers and managers to rigorously measure and visualize the status of hospitals' practice variation closely linked to the hospital operational performance.
Cerium oxide nanoparticles protect against irradiation-induced cellular damage while augmenting osteogenesis.

Abstract Increased bone loss and risk of fracture are two of the main challenges for cancer patients who undergo ionizing radiation (IR) therapy. This decline in bone quality is in part, caused by the excessive and sustained release of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONPs) have proven antioxidant and regenerative properties and the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of CeONPs in reducing IR-induced functional damage in human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hBMSCs). hBMSCs were supplemented with CeONPs at a concentration of either 1 or 10 μg/mL 24 h prior to exposure to a single 7 Gy irradiation dose. ROS levels, cellular proliferation, morphology, senescence, DNA damage, p53 expression and autophagy were evaluated as well as alkaline phosphatase, osteogenic protein gene expression and bone matrix deposition following osteogenic differentiation. Results showed that supplementation of CeONPs at a concentration of 1 μg/mL reduced cell senescence and significantly augmented cell autophagy (p = 0.01), osteogenesis and bone matrix deposition >2-fold (p = 0.0001) while under normal, non-irradiated culture conditions. Following irradiation, functional damage was attenuated and CeONPs at both 1 or 10 μg/mL significantly reduced ROS levels (p = 0.05 and 0.001 respectively), DNA damage by >4-fold (p 3.5-fold and bone matrix deposition 5-fold (p = 0.0001 in both groups). When supplemented with 10 μg/mL, p53 expression increased 3.5-fold (p
The Early Bird Gets the Worm: Major Retention in CS3

Enrollments continue to rise in Computer Science courses, yet fostering inclusive climates and retaining diverse student bodies remain key challenges. Gender ratios remain heavily skewed and many demographics are severely underrepresented. Numerous studies investigate student retention in introductory courses, but few focus on later stages of the CS retention "pipeline", where techniques and findings from earlier courses may no longer apply. In this work, we focus on the relatively understudied transition from introductory CS courses to upper level courses via CS3 (data structures and algorithms). We conduct an analysis of archival data for a CS3 course at a large, public university in the US, analyzing anonymized student assignments and university student records to identify factors that result in students choosing not to declare the major. Our analysis indicates that sex alone is not enough to predict students leaving the program after CS3 (despite reporting a desire to declare the major). However, we identify that students intending to major in CS who take CS3 later in their academic careers (often associated with non-traditional students) are 13% less likely to actually declare a CS major (p = 0.00005). Further, we find a disparity between these students and their "fast-tracked" counterparts in their project performance as measured by an autograder (p = 0.00003). Our findings indicate that the strategy of introducing students to CS early in their college careers and swiftly passing them through the intro sequence is effective in retaining students, yet unintentionally leaves behind those who reach CS in a more roundabout way.
Rancière and Aristotle: Parapolitics, Party Politics, and the Institution of Perpetual Politics

This article addresses Ranciere’s critique of Aristotle’s political theory as parapolitics in order to show that Aristotle is a resource for developing an inclusionary notion of political community. Ranciere argues that Aristotle attempts to cut off politics and merely police (maintain) the community by eliminating the political claim of the poor by including it. I respond to three critiques that Ranciere makes of Aristotle: that he ends the political dispute by including the demos in the government; that he includes the free masses only incidentally because, by chance, the rule is political, not based on mastery; and that he attempts to close off politics by determining in advance what speech counts as speech. I argue that Aristotle attempts to institute this contest by accepting the incommensurable claims of arithmetic and geometric equality. Aristotle puts this conflict at the root of political life in such a way that serves Ranciere’s larger project of perpetuating politics.
Methionine- and Choline-Deficient Diet–Induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Is Associated with Increased Intestinal Inflammation

Inflammation drives the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The current study examined changes in intestinal inflammation during NASH. In male C57BL/6J mice, feeding a methionine- and choline-deficient diet (MCD) resulted in severe hepatic steatosis and inflammation relative to feeding a chow diet (CD). MCD-fed mice exhibited characteristics of mucosal and submucosal inflammatory responses compared with CD-fed mice. Moreover, intestinal phosphorylation states of c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase p46 and mRNA levels of IL-1B, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 were significantly higher and intestinal mRNA levels of IL-4 and IL-13 were significantly lower in MCD-fed mice compared with those in CD mice. Surprisingly, upon treatment with MCD-mimicking media, the proinflammatory responses in cultured intestinal epithelial CMT-93 cells did not differ significantly from those in CMT-93 cells treated with control media. In contrast, in RAW264.7 macrophages, MCD-mimicking media significantly increased the phosphorylation states of c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase p46 and mitogen-activated protein kinases p38 and mRNA levels of IL-1B, IL-6, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor alpha under either basal or lipopolysaccharide-stimulated conditions. Collectively, these results suggest that increased intestinal inflammation is associated with NASH phenotype. Thus, elevated proinflammatory responses in macrophages likely contribute to, in large part, increased intestinal inflammation in NASH.
Doubly Polarized QM/MM with Machine Learning Chaperone Polarizability.

A major shortcoming of semiempirical (SE) molecular orbital methods is their severe underestimation of molecular polarizability compared with experimental and ab initio (AI) benchmark data. In a combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) treatment of solution-phase reactions, solute described by SE methods therefore tends to generate inadequate electronic polarization response to solvent electric fields, which often leads to large errors in free energy profiles. To address this problem, here we present a hybrid framework that improves the response property of SE/MM methods through high-level molecular-polarizability fitting. Specifically, we place on QM atoms a set of corrective polarizabilities (referred to as chaperone polarizabilities), whose magnitudes are determined from machine learning (ML) to reproduce the condensed-phase AI molecular polarizability along the minimum free energy path. These chaperone polarizabilities are then used in a machinery similar to a polarizable force field calculation to compensate for the missing polarization energy in the conventional SE/MM simulations. Because QM atoms in this treatment host SE wave functions as well as classical polarizabilities, both polarized by MM electric fields, we name this method doubly polarized QM/MM (dp-QM/MM). We demonstrate the new method on the free energy simulations of the Menshutkin reaction in water. Using AM1/MM as a base method, we show that ML chaperones greatly reduce the error in the solute molecular polarizability from 6.78 to 0.03 A3 with respect to the density functional theory benchmark. The chaperone correction leads to ∼10 kcal/mol of additional polarization energy in the product region, bringing the simulated free energy profiles to closer agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, the solute-solvent radial distribution functions show that the chaperone polarizabilities modify the free energy profiles through enhanced solvation corrections when the system evolves from the charge-neutral reactant state to the charge-separated transition and product states. These results suggest that the dp-QM/MM method, enabled by ML chaperone polarizabilities, provides a very physical remedy for the underpolarization problem in SE/MM-based free energy simulations.
The Insulin-Sensitizer Pioglitazone Remodels Adipose Tissue Phospholipids in Humans

The insulin-sensitizer pioglitazone exerts its cardiometabolic benefits in type 2 diabetes through a redistribution of body fat, from ectopic and visceral areas to subcutaneous adipose depots. Whereas excessive weight gain and lipid storage in obesity promotes insulin resistance and chronic inflammation, the expansion of subcutaneous adipose by pioglitazone is associated with a reversal of these immunometabolic deficits. The precise events driving this beneficial remodeling of adipose tissue with pioglitazone remain unclear and whether insulin-sensitizers alter the lipidomic composition of human adipose has not previously been investigated. Using shotgun lipidomics, we explored the molecular lipid responses in subcutaneous adipose tissue following six months of pioglitazone treatment (45 mg / day) in obese humans with type 2 diabetes. Despite an expected increase in body weight following pioglitazone treatment, no robust effects were observed on the composition of storage lipids (i.e. triglycerides) or the content of lipotoxic lipid species (e.g. ceramides, diacylglycerides) in adipose tissue. Instead, pioglitazone caused a selective remodeling of the glycerophospholipid pool, characterized by a decrease in lipids enriched for arachidonic acid such as plasmenylethanolamines and phosphatidylinositols. This contributed to a greater overall saturation and shortened chain length of fatty acyl groups within cell membrane lipids, changes that are consistent with the purported induction of adipogenesis by pioglitazone. The mechanism through which pioglitazone lowered adipose tissue arachidonic acid, a major modulator of inflammatory pathways, did not involve alterations in phospholipase gene expression but was associated with a reduction in its precursor linoleic acid, an effect that was also observed in skeletal muscle samples from the same subjects. These findings offer important insights into the biological mechanisms through which pioglitazone protects the immunometabolic health of adipocytes in the face of increased lipid storage.