cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Scoping the parameter space for demo and the engineering test facility (ETF)

In our IFE development plan, we have set a goal of building an Engineering Test Facility (ETF) for a total cost of $2B and a Demo for $3B. In Mike Campbell' s presentation at Madison, we included a viewgraph with an example Demo that had 80 to 250 MWe of net power and showed a plausible argument that it could cost less than $3B. In this memo, I examine the design space for the Demo and then briefly for the ETF. Instead of attempting to estimate the costs of the drivers, I pose the question in a way to define RD the design parameters are target gain, driver energy, and target yield. The resulting graphs of allowable driver cost determine the goals that the driver R&D programs must seek to meet.
Care Transitions in Childhood Cancer Survivorship: Providers' Perspectives

Purpose: Most adolescent and young adult (AYA)-aged childhood cancer survivors develop physical and/or psychosocial sequelae; however, many do not receive long-term follow-up (LTF) critical for screening, prevention, and treatment of late effects. To develop a health services research agenda to optimize care models, we conducted qualitative research with LTF providers examining existing models, and successes and challenges in maintaining survivors' connections to care across their transition to adulthood. Methods: We interviewed 20 LTF experts (MDs, RNs, social workers, education specialists, psychologists) from 10 Children's Oncology Group-affiliated institutions, and analyzed data using grounded theory and content analysis techniques. Results: Participants described the complexity of survivors' healthcare transitions. Survivors had pressing educational needs in multiple domains, and imparting the need for prevention was challenging. Multidisciplinary LTF teams focused on prevention and self-management. ...
Study on fab environment induced Al and Cu metal corrosion by TEM failure analysis

Contamination-free manufacturing environment is essential for semiconductor wafer fabs. Any contaminants from production line such as process tools and chambers need to be closely monitored and well controlled so as to avoid the direct exposure of the production wafers to these contaminants. In this paper, we discussed two typical metal corrosion issues induced by wafer fab environmental contamination, i.e. aluminum (Al) metal corrosion by fluorine (F)/chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu) metal corrosion by iodine (I). We presented detailed transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis of the defects related to metal corrosion, helping fabs to identify the root cause and to take corrective actions.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOMOPLASY AND CONFIDENCE IN A PHYLOGENETIC TREE

This chapter provides a statistical assessment of confidence in a phylogenetic tree. The analysis is done with the help of bootstrap procedure. A set of 101 phylogenetic studies was extracted from the TreeBASE data base. The data sets included 50 morphological, 29 restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP), and 22 DNA sequence data sets, ranging in size from 5 to 68 taxa and from 10 to 2226 characters. All studies were on green plants. Each data set was subjected to parsimony analysis using PAUP 3.1. Each data set was then bootstrapped (100 replicates) using heuristic search options. Results reveal several interesting differences among the three different kinds of data. RFLP data sets have the highest average consistency indices (CIs) and retention indices (RIs), the largest number of most parsimonious trees, and the lowest average level of resolution in any given minimal tree. Morphological data sets have the lowest bootstrap support, but their RIs are higher than those for sequence data sets. It can be concluded that the conventional view that confidence is directly related to the level of homoplasy in a data set is not supported by available data from phylogenetic studies. The consistency index is a measure of homoplasy, not robustness. Homoplasy and confidence are two separate issues—not completely independent perhaps, especially in carefully controlled simulation experiments—but effectively so in real data sets.
Pulmonary Vasculopathy Associated with FIGF Gene Mutation

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-D is capable of inducing angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis through signaling via VEGF receptor (VEGFR)-2 and VEGFR-3, respectively. Mutations in the FIGF (c-fos–induced growth factor) gene encoding VEGF-D have not been reported previously. We describe a young male with a hemizygous mutation in the X-chromosome gene FIGF (c.352 G>A) associated with early childhood respiratory deficiency. Histologically, lungs showed ectatic pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins. The mutation resulted in a substitution of valine to methionine at residue 118 of the VEGF-D protein. The resultant mutant protein had increased dimerization, induced elevated VEGFR-2 signaling, and caused aberrant angiogenesis in vivo . Our observations characterize a new subtype of congenital diffuse lung disease, provide a histological correlate, and support a critical role for VEGF-D in lung vascular development and homeostasis.
Locating, Analyzing and Making Available a Century of 4-H Research Studies, 1911-2011

For years, 4-H has emphasized the value of being a research-based youth organization in its long term association with the land-grant university system. But, it was the general consensus among state and national leaders that the program had no research base. The main objectives of this study were to: locate and document research studies conducted (between 1911-2010) in order to support or dispel notions about the lack of 4-H research and its focus on cows and cooking, to make information about the research studies available to the larger community of youth program practitioners and researchers and provide a general review of research topics by decade. Three thousand five hundred and fifty six studies were found over a thirteen year period and only one percent of these related to “cows or cooking.” To make the data available to current and future youth professionals and researchers, the information about each study was transferred to an Internet web-site. Finally, a full century of research topics were summarized.
Fractionalized quantum excitations in correlated two-dimensional topological phases

The research field of topological phases and materials is one of the most exciting frontiers in modern condensed matter physics [1]; [2]; [3]; [4]; [5]; [6] ; [7]. In contrast to the classification of conventional condensed matter phases according to their symmetries, different topological states of matter generally do not involve broken symmetries. Rather, they are associated with certain fundamental physical properties that are insensitive to smooth changes in materials parameters. Therefore, a topological state cannot change into another unless the system undergoes a quantum phase transition [6] ; [7].
A payment scheme in crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing coordinates a large group of workers online to do self-contained small tasks that are published by job requesters on a crowdsourcing platform. Many papers propose incentive strategies to motivate workers to participate in crowdsourcing. In this paper, we shift the focus from the workers to the job requesters by addressing two of their issues: how to design a good payment scheme to maximize profit and how to select qualified workers to do the job. We use a widely-adopted payment formula consisting of a base salary and extra bonus. We first formulate the problem as an optimization problem and then provide a general solution in which we show that the pay rate can be the same to all the workers. Next we instantiate the solution with a concrete example to derive more concrete results and propose a worker selection algorithm WS. In WS, we not only consider workers' workload demands but also their past working performance to guarantee crowdsourcing quality. Simulation results show that a job requester can pay much less to get the job done in a crowdsourcing environment and our worker selection algorithm is efficient in that it only searches a tiny space to find the solution to the optimization problem. Our effort here provides an evidence to support the benefits of using crowdsourcing in our daily lives.
Age-related decreases in the prevalence of myopia: longitudinal change or cohort effect?

PURPOSE. The prevalence of myopia shows a decline with age in cross-sectional studies. This pattern may represent an increase in the prevalence of myopia in younger generations, possibly through increased exposure to near work, or an intrinsic age-related decline in myopia prevalence. Data were analyzed from published studies to determine which of these two alternatives better explains the data: a cohort effect of changing prevalence by decade or a longitudinal effect of changing prevalence as a function of age. METHODS. Prevalence data were taken from three studies conducted in the late 1980s and compared with those obtained indirectly from a national survey conducted in the early 1970s. The prevalence of myopia was then plotted as a function of age and year of birth. RESULTS. The pattern of change in the prevalence of myopia as a function of age was consistent across all studies when data were scaled relative to the prevalence of myopia at age-range midpoints from 44.5 to 49.5 years. The pattern of change was not consistent as a function of year of birth. When the data were scaled relative to the prevalence of myopia among those with years of birth from 1940 to 1942 and plotted by year of birth, results from the early 1970s were offset from those of later studies by approximately 18 years. CONCLUSIONS. The decline in the prevalence of myopia in older adults between the early 1970s and the late 1980s can be better explained by age than by year of birth. The prevalence of myopia appears to decrease because of an intrinsic age-related decrease in the amount of an individual’s myopia rather than because of a cohort effect of increasing prevalence over time. The hypothesis that increasing environmental exposures to near work in recent decades have changed the prevalence of myopia is not supported by this analysis. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2000;41: 2103‐2107)
The Changing Epidemiology and Diagnosis of Valley Fever

Abstract Coccidioidomycosis, commonly known as valley fever, is a disease caused by two species of fungi, Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii . Coccidioidomycosis is often self-limiting; however, in some patients, the disease can rapidly progress to a severe and potentially life-threatening illness. Proper diagnostics for coccidioidomycosis are important because acute disease can manifest as community-acquired pneumonia, and can be misdiagnosed as a viral or bacterial infection. Improper diagnosis can lead to unnecessary antibacterial therapy and may encourage extra-pulmonary proliferation of the fungus, which then requires longer antifungal therapy. Although coccidioidomycosis is caused by two different species, in terms of symptoms, disease progression, or clinical diagnostics, there are no known differences between the species. Additionally, recent work has revealed that the distribution of the organism in the environment may be changing and that the organism exists in the environment beyond the region of high endemicity. Overall, disease incidence has risen, and it is not known if this represents a better reporting and diagnosis infrastructure, increased environmental load, or increasing pathogenicity. Discussed here are the most common approaches to diagnose coccidioidomycosis, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the changing epidemiology of the disease and the causative organism.
Evaluating Age-Related Cognitive Map Decay Using a Novel Time-Delayed Testing Paradigm

A critical component of effective navigation is the ability to form and maintain accurate cognitive maps. Proper cognitive map maintenance can become difficult for older adults as many of the constituent memory structures exhibit degradation with age. The present study employed a novel testing paradigm where younger adult participants (20 to 40 years) and older adult participants (60 to 80 years) learned a virtual environment through free exploration using an immersive driving simulator. After the learning phase, participants immediately sketched a map of the course. As forming an accurate baseline cognitive map was critical to this methodological procedure, they were provided additional learning time if placement of landmarks and roads were not within a given accuracy tolerance. Upon meeting criterion, participants completed egocentric and allocentric pointing tasks. Following this lab-based testing, participants were given 2 packets containing the exact same map sketching and pointing tasks to complete one-day and one-week after the study. Results showed clear age group differences, with older adult map sketching and pointing performance being significantly worse than their younger counterparts. There was also a clear numeric trend showing declines in performance for the older adults at the delayed-testing time intervals as compared to the in-lab testing. These findings suggest that the stored cognitive maps of older adults may exhibit greater decay over time as compared to younger adults. Future studies using this new methodological paradigm will be helpful in further elucidating the processes underlying spatial knowledge decay in older adults.
A Probabilistic Visit to Gauss’s Product Formula for Gamma Function

Some probabilistic methods are used to find a number of combinatorial identities in very elementary manners. One of the identities is for the Laplace transform of a suitable sequence of ordered random variables from an exponential distribution. This identity leads to Gauss’s product formula for gamma function, which itself provides many interesting formulas. Some asymptotics of the underlying distribution are described in connection with some of these identities and Gauss’s product formula.
In silico-mediated virtual screening and molecular docking platforms for discovery of non β-lactam inhibitors of y-49 β-lactamase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and remains a major worldwide health concern The emergence of M tuberculosis strains that are resistant to front line antimicrobacterial drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin have greatly complicated efforts to control the spread of TB Of the various resistance mechanisms the most effective involves the production of beta lactamases that hydrolyze beta lactam antibiotics One approach to overcoming resistance to beta lactam antibiotics is to find new drugs or additives that can prevent the beta lactam antibiotic from being hydrolyzed by beta lactamases The spectrum of anti TB drugs consisting of non beta lactamscaffolds has been expanded by the development of new boronic acid derivatives and cationic peptidic inhibitors that proved effective in neutralizing bacterial resistance especially when administered in combination with antibiotics The intrinsic resistance to beta lactam antibiotics was due mainly to the presence of a chromosomally encoded gene blaC in M tuberculosis for a Class A Ambler beta lactamase BlaC The BlaC enzyme has already been validated as one of the leading targets of tuberculosis therapy In the search for new beta lactamase inhibitors we employed the on line server Pharmit pharmit csb pitt edu to discover new D pharmacophores and search different databases of chemical libraries and commercial compounds Autodock Vina was employed to perform molecular docking of selected compounds fromChEMBL MolPort ZINCdatabasesusingthe M tuberculosis beta lactamase M B pdb as the target protein This combination of D pharmacophore screening and molecular docking lead to the discovery of natural products and novel small molecules inhibitors of Y beta lactamase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis Notably new D pharmacophores derived from hydroxyphenylglycine and fragments from the family of biphenyls aromatic ketones and stilbenes emerged as potential inhibitors of the recombinant Y beta lactamase exhibiting in vitro inhibitory constants Ki in the low uM uM range These newly discovered pharmacophore features enabled by in silico screening are extending the chemical space for discovery of novel and potent inhibitors of beta lactamases
Concurrent Surgery and the Role of the Pediatric Attending Surgeon: Comparing Parents' and Surgeons' Expectations.

Background The common practice of performing concurrent or overlapping operations has been intensely scrutinized by lay media and academic press to investigate its safety and cost-effectiveness. However, there is little information about its use within the pediatric population. Even less is known about parents' expectations about the surgeon's role on the day of operation and how they align with those of pediatric surgeons and surgical trainees, despite the potential for significant discrepancies in expectations to erode trust and damage the physician-family relationship. Study Design A 5-point Likert-style survey was designed to characterize expectations about the degree of involvement by pediatric attending surgeons throughout a surgical case (1 = strongly disagree, 3 = neutral, 5 = strongly agree). The survey was administered to parents of pediatric patients undergoing elective operations during a 3-month interval at a single academic institution. The survey was also administered to surgeons and surgical residents at the same institution. Multivariate multiplicity-adjusted t -tests were used to identify significant differences between responders. Results One hundred and ten parents and 84 pediatric surgeons and trainees completed the survey. Parents' responses to the survey ranged from 4.15 to 4.89, compared with 2.75 to 4.86 from surgeons. The differences achieved statistical significance (p Conclusions There is a significant mismatch between parents' expectations and those of pediatric surgeons about the role of the surgeon on the day of operation, with parents consistently expecting more direct involvement by the attending surgeon. These discrepancies can have implications for both parent/patient satisfaction and medical education.
Rush Skeletonweed (Chondrilla juncea) Control in Pacific Northwest Winter Wheat

Rush skeletonweed is emerging as a regionally important weed of winter wheat production in eastern Washington. Field studies were conducted during the 2016 and 2017 crop years to evaluate several auxin herbicides applied at two seasonal timings (fall or spring) for control of rush skeletonweed in winter wheat. Clopyralid (210 g ae ha-1) provided >90% visual control of rush skeletonweed in both years of the study and aminopyralid (10 g ae ha-1) provided >80% visual control. Aminocyclopyrachlor, dicamba, and 2,4-D provided <55% control of rush skeletonweed. Season of application did not meaningfully affect efficacy of any herbicide tested. Wheat yields were reduced by 39 to 69% compared to the non-treated check when aminocyclopyrachlor was applied in the spring. Clopyralid is an effective option for control of rush skeletonweed in Pacific Northwest winter wheat.Nomenclature: Aminocyclopyrachlor; aminopyralid; clopyralid; dicamba; 2,4-D; rush skeletonweed, Chondrilla juncea L.; wheat, Triticum aestivum L.
Statistical studies on optical vortices in dynamic speckle fields

New parameters to statistically describe and differentiate between different decorrelation behaviors in dynamic speckle fields are described. These decorrelation behaviors are surrogate descriptors of the dynamics of the underlying processes in object space being observed. The statistical parameters are based on the temporal variations in the location of optical vortices in the speckle fields. The length and number of optical vortex trails, motion of the vortices in the plane of observation and the distance between the mean locations of the positive and negative vortices are investigated. The implementation of the statistical analysis presents new methods to quantify and describe biophysical dynamics.
Regulation of Electrolyte Homeostasis

Electrolyte homeostasis requires the balancing of electrolyte acquisition (primarily through ingestion) against loss (primarily through urinary excretion). Renal Na + excretion is regulated by multiple, redundant control systems, including renal perfusion pressure, the sympathetic nervous system, and the hormones angiotensin II, aldosterone and norepinephrine, so that the Na + filtration fraction is normally 1% of the Na + filtered load. Renal K + excretion is regulated primarily by the level of plasma K + (the K + filtered load) and the hormone aldosterone. Renal Ca ++ excretion is regulated primarily by parathyroid hormone. The concentration of all of these ions in the body is also altered by changes in plasma water, primarily under the control of antidiuretic hormone.
Docetaxel (Taxotere) as monotherapy in the treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer: preliminary results.

Previous chemotherapy trials in hormone refractory prostate cancer have resulted in low response rates and minimal survival impact. Clearly, better agents are needed to improve outcomes in such patients. Microtubule inhibitors have been a recent focus of investigation as chemotherapeutic agents in prostate cancer; in tissue culture, docetaxel (Taxotere; Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Collegeville, PA) appears to be the most active of these drugs. Patients enrolled in this trial had hormone refractory prostate cancer and were required to have progressive disease despite hormonal therapy and, if previously treated with antiandrogens, have progressive disease despite antiandrogen withdrawal. Patients had not been exposed to any prior chemotherapy. Testosterone suppression was continued during the trial when patients received docetaxel at 75 mg/m2 every 21 days. Thirty-five patients with ages ranging from 49 to 85 years (median age, 70 years) were enrolled in the trial. Three hundred twelve treatments have been given (median, six treatments), with a minimum follow-up of 4 months. The median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) at the time of entry was 96 ng/mL (range, 24 to 2,070 ng/mL). Seven patients (20%) have had a more than 80% decline in PSA and 16 (46%) have had a more than 50% decline. Six additional patients have had a PSA decline of 40% to 50%. Soft tissue disease was seen in 25 of 35 patients. One patient had a complete response; three others had a nearly complete response. Three patients met criteria for a partial response, yielding a 28% response rate with measurable disease. Three additional patients had substantial shrinkage and 12 had prolonged stable disease. Combining both PSA and soft tissue responses, one complete response and five partial responses were seen. Substantial responses, defined as a more than 40% PSA decline and a more than 50% reduction of bidimensional cross-products in patients with measurable disease, were seen in 17 of 35 patients enrolled. Responses were maintained for a median of 9 months (range, 2 to 24 months). The median overall survival was 27 months. Three patients remain under therapy. Toxicity remained tolerable throughout the treatment. Grade 4 toxicities requiring discontinuation of treatment included stomatitis, small bowel obstruction, and a gluteal abscess. There were two deaths during the study: one due to lung toxicity/pneumonia and one due to pulmonary embolus. The patient with lung toxicity had markedly elevated transaminases with marked involvement of the liver with tumor. Six patients stopped voluntarily due to fatigue or edema Other common toxicities were neutropenia, anemia, mild edema and hyperglycemia (due to steroids), anorexia, myalgias, and mild alopecia The responses seen in this population are very encouraging and suggest substantial durable activity for docetaxel as single-agent therapy for hormone refractory prostate cancer.
Search, Availability, and Competition in Product Ranges

I study competition in product ranges between firms selling differentiated varieties of a product to consumers who use sequential search to collect information about prices and tastes for the available varieties. Competition in product ranges is recast as a competition in providing availability of different items, abstracting away from the impact of a product-range extension on the expected quality of a consumer's most-preferred item at any given firm. When the number of firms is fixed, prices, profits, and per-firm availability are increasing in consumers' search costs. As the number of entrants increases per-firm profits and availability decrease, but price surprisingly increases, in contrast to results from the model where firms are restricted to a single product. Under free-entry the long-run effect of higher search costs on per-firm availability is either zero or positive, depending on whether consumers get positive expected surplus from active search. In contrast with the previous literature the long-run effect of higher search costs on the number of entrants is U-shaped, being first positive and then negative. If consumers are initially actively searching across firms, a large enough increase in search costs leads to fewer firms in the market, each with a broader product range.
Missed connections: HIV-infected people never in care.

OBJECTIVE Clinical interventions that lengthen life after HIV infection and significantly reduce transmission could have greater impact if more HIV-diagnosed people received HIV care. We tested a surveillance-based approach to investigating reasons for delayed entry to care. METHODS Health department staff in three states and two cities contacted eligible adults diagnosed with HIV four to 24 months previously who had no reported CD4+ lymphocyte (CD4) or viral load (VL) tests. The staff conducted interviews, performed CD4 and VL testing, and provided referrals to HIV medical care. Reported CD4 and VL tests were prospectively monitored to determine if respondents had entered care after the interview. RESULTS Surveillance-based follow-up uncovered problems with reporting CD4 and VL tests, resulting in surveillance improvements. However, reporting problems led to misspent effort locating people who were already in care. Follow-up proved difficult because contact information in surveillance case records was often outdated or incorrect. Of those reached, 37% were in care and 29% refused participation. Information from 132 people interviewed generated ideas for service improvements, such as emphasizing the benefits of early initiation of HIV care, providing coverage eligibility information soon after diagnosis, and leveraging other medical appointments to provide assistance with linkage to HIV care. CONCLUSIONS Surveillance-based follow-up of HIV-diagnosed individuals not linked to care provided information to improve both surveillance and linkage services, but was inefficient because of difficulties identifying, locating, and recruiting eligible people. Inefficiencies attributable to missing, incomplete, or inaccurate surveillance records are likely to diminish as data quality is improved through ongoing use.
Securing web service by automatic robot detection

Web sites are routinely visited by automated agents known as Web robots, that perform acts ranging from the beneficial, such as indexing for search engines, to the malicious, such as searching for vulnerabilities, attempting to crack passwords, or spamming bulletin boards. Previous work to identify malicious robots has relied on ad-hoc signature matching and has been performed on a per-site basis. As Web robots evolve and diversify, these techniques have not been scaling. We approach the problem as a special form of the Turing test and defend the system by inferring if the traffic source is human or robot. By extracting the implicit patterns of human Web browsing, we develop simple yet effective algorithms to detect human users. Our experiments with the CoDeeN content distribution network show that 95% of human users are detected within the first 57 requests, and 80% can be identified in only 20 requests, with a maximum false positive rate of 2.4%. In the time that this system has been deployed on CoDeeN, robot-related abuse complaints have dropped by a factor of 10.
Error Control Sounding Strategies for Millimeter Wave Beam Alignment

Current standardization efforts for 5G cellular are focusing on millimeter wave bands for high-rate communication. These millimeter wave systems will use beamforming, in combination with increased bandwidths, to provide users with large data rates. However, it is critical to select the beamformer to maximize user throughput. This selection problem can be extremely challenging when the transmitter has many antennas and control overhead must be minimized. We show that this problem ties closely with questioning strategies in Ulam's problem. We discuss two approaches to the problem. In the open-loop sounding, the beams are sounded according to an appropriately chosen error control code. In the closed-loop sounding, the beams are selected adaptively based on the bits received through the feedback link.
Visual Attention Patterns Differ by Pictorial Health Warning Label Features.

Objectives In this study, we sought to determine how smokers allocate their attention when viewing the 9 cigarette pictorial warning labels (PWLs) proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and identify PWL attributes associated with increased attention. Methods Using eye-tracking data from an exploratory within-subject study, we examined smokers' attention (latency, latency duration, and dwell time) to areas of interest (image vs textual warning) for each PWL among 95 daily, non-treatment-seeking smokers (62.1% male, 48.4% white, mean [SD] age = 32.98 [10.14], mean [SD] cigarettes/day = 15.51 [8.43]). We also compared attention measures by PWL message congruency, textual warning location, and participant rankings of effectiveness. Results Attention measures differed significantly among PWLs (p s < .001) and by features and self-reported effectiveness rankings (p s < .001 - .039). Congruent PWLs, those displaying text across the warning label, and those ranked most effective were associated with sustained attention to image, whereas incongruent PWLs, those displaying left text, and those ranked least effective, were associated with faster and sustained attention to text. Conclusions Smokers allocated their attention differently across PWLs. Formats and participant effectiveness rankings of PWLs were associated with visual attention patterns, suggesting the importance of these features to the design of potential future PWLs.
A transfer operator methodology for optimal sensor placement accounting for uncertainty

Abstract Sensors in buildings are used for a wide variety of applications such as monitoring air quality, contaminants, indoor temperature, and relative humidity. These are used for accessing and ensuring indoor air quality, and also for ensuring safety in the event of chemical and biological attacks. It follows that optimal placement of sensors become important to accurately monitor contaminant levels in the indoor environment. However, contaminant transport inside the indoor environment is governed by the indoor flow conditions which are affected by various uncertainties associated with the building systems including occupancy and boundary fluxes. Therefore, it is important to account for all associated uncertainties while designing the sensor layout. The transfer operator based framework provides an effective way to identify optimal placement of sensors. Previous work has been limited to sensor placements under deterministic scenarios. In this work we extend the transfer operator based approach for optimal sensor placement while accounting for building systems uncertainties. The methodology provides a probabilistic metric to gauge coverage under uncertain conditions. We illustrate the capabilities of the framework with examples exhibiting boundary flux uncertainty.
Speed of person perception affects immediate and ongoing aesthetic evaluation.

Abstract Recent studies have shed light on how aesthetic judgments are formed following presentations lasting less than a second. Meanwhile, dedicated neural mechanisms are understood to enable the rapid detection of human faces, bodies, and actions. On the basis of cognitive studies of: (i) the speed and acuity of person perception, and (ii) preferential attention given to human imagery (e.g., faces and bodies), we hypothesize that the visual detection of humans in portraits increases the magnitude and stability (i.e., similarity to later responses) of aesthetic ratings. Ease of person perception is also expected to elicit longer durations of preferential viewing time, a surplus measure of viewing behavior that should be positively related to subsequent ratings. To test these ideas, we use a set of cubist portraits previously established to be more or less categorizable in terms of the aggregate time required to perceive the depicted person. Using these images, we track aesthetic judgments made following short and unconstrained presentations; in an intervening task, we measure viewing behavior when subjects are able to selectively reveal regions of these images. We find that highly categorizable artworks (those that require less time to identify the figure as human) elicit higher and more predictive aesthetic ratings following 30 ms presentations while also eliciting longer viewing durations. Changes in ratings throughout the task are positively correlated with cumulative viewing time; critically, an image's categorizability level further moderates the strength of this relationship. These results demonstrate that a particular kind of visual object recognition – the recognition of human forms – modulates aesthetic preferences at a glance, subsequent viewing patterns, as well as rating changes over time.
Gas-phase hydration of U(IV), U(V), and U(VI) dioxo monocations

The formation of adduct ions consisting of uranium oxycations and water was studied using an ion trap-secondary ion mass spectrometer. The U(IV) and U(V) species [UO(OH)]+ and [UO2]+ were produced ...
Lumbar Total Disc Replacement

Lumbar total disc replacement (TDR) is a method to treat degenerative disc disease in the lumbar spine in skeletally mature patients without high-grade spondylolisthesis who have failed conservative treatment. Although decompression and fusion for degenerative disc disease is considered the gold standard, potential drawbacks of arthrodesis include pseudarthrosis and adjacent segment disease. The purpose of TDR is to restore and maintain motion segment mobility which is intended to prevent adjacent segment disease and relieve pain. This chapter discusses the background, indications/contraindications, technique including preparation and positioning, approach, and implant placement, along with postoperative care, and outcomes.
Pharmacokinetics of Basiliximab for the Prevention of Graft-versus-Host Disease in Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation with Minimal-Intensity Cyclophosphamide and Fludarabine

Study objective Basiliximab is an immunosuppressive monoclonal antibody used for rejection prevention following solid organ transplantation; the pharmacokinetics (PK) of basiliximab in this setting are known. Basiliximab may also be used for prophylaxis and treatment of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT); however, the PK of basiliximab in this setting are not known. Clinical transplant providers expect variation in the volume of distribution and clearance after nonmyeloablative allogeneic transplantation (NMAT) compared with solid organ transplantation. Blood loss, organ site-specific antibody accumulation, and differences in blood product use during the two transplantation approaches may generate differences in basiliximab PK. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe the PK of basiliximab after its addition to a minimally intense NMAT regimen, in conjunction with cyclosporine, for GVHD prophylaxis in patients with hematologic malignancies. Design Population PK analysis of a single-center, single-arm, phase II clinical trial. Setting Academic cancer research center. Patients Fourteen adults with hematologic malignancies (acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, myelofibrosis, or severe aplastic anemia) and undergoing NMAT with a fully HLA-matched (10 of 10 antigen matched) related or unrelated donor. Measurements and main results Basiliximab was used in conjunction with cyclosporine to deplete activated T cells in vivo as GVHD prophylaxis. We developed a novel competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method using recombinant interleukin-2 receptor alpha-chain (IL-2Ra) and a commercially available soluble sIL-2R ELISA kit to permit the quantification of serum basiliximab concentrations and characterization of the PK properties of the drug in this patient population. Using a nonlinear mixed effects model with NONMEM software, a one-compartment model with first-order elimination best described the PK, as covariate analysis using stepwise covariate modeling did not improve the base model. Conclusion We suggest a one-compartment population model with first-order elimination to capture the PK profile for basiliximab for this patient population.
Autoregressive modeling to assess stride time pattern stability in individuals with Huntington’s disease

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive, neurological disorder that results in both cognitive and physical impairments. These impairments affect an individual’s gait and, as the disease progresses, it significantly alters one’s stability. Previous research found that changes in stride time patterns can help delineate between healthy and pathological gait. Autoregressive (AR) modeling is a statistical technique that models the underlying temporal patterns in data. Here the AR models assessed differences in gait stride time pattern stability between the controls and individuals with HD. Differences in stride time pattern stability were determined based on the AR model coefficients and their placement on a stationarity triangle that provides a visual representation of how the patterns mean, variance and autocorrelation change with time. Thus, individuals who exhibit similar stride time pattern stability will reside in the same region of the stationarity triangle. It was hypothesized that individuals with HD would exhibit a more altered stride time pattern stability than the controls based on the AR model coefficients and their location in the stationarity triangle. Sixteen control and twenty individuals with HD performed a five-minute walking protocol. Time series’ were constructed from consecutive stride times extracted during the protocol and a second order AR model was fit to the stride time series data. A two-sample t-test was performed on the stride time pattern data to identify differences between the control and HD groups. The individuals with HD exhibited significantly altered stride time pattern stability than the controls based on their AR model coefficients (AR1 p < 0.001; AR2 p < 0.001). The AR coefficients successfully delineated between the controls and individuals with HD. Individuals with HD resided closer to and within the oscillatory region of the stationarity triangle, which could be reflective of the oscillatory neuronal activity commonly observed in this population. The ability to quantitatively and visually detect differences in stride time behavior highlights the potential of this approach for identifying gait impairment in individuals with HD.
Weekend or Nighttime Effect: Is it True for Organ Acceptance in Thoracic Transplantation?

Purpose Weekend and nighttime effect has been examined across many surgical specialties including transplantation. We aim to understand weekend or time of day effect on organ offer acceptance for thoracic transplantation. Methods UNOS PTR dataset identifies all donor offers for heart (HTx) and lung transplantation (LTx), which are date and time stamped. Each donor is offered to many institutions at the same time, therefore we focused on the first 10 offers (high priority candidates) for each donor (number of offers: heart 153,133, lungs 410,333). Time of day was classified as (24hr format: 6-13, 14-21 and 22-5) and weekend was defined as Fri, Sat and Sun. Overall trends and chi-square comparisons were performed for total offers and percent of offers accepted. Results There is a significant trend in offer acceptance by days [trend coefficient; HTx: -0.016 (p=0.002), LTx: -0.014 (p Conclusion There is a significant trend in offer acceptance by days and time of a day. These data will inform transplant programs, organ procurement organizations and local life centers in modification of behaviors, schedules and practices to optimize donor offer acceptance rates.
Evaporation driven detachment of a liquid bridge from a syringe needle in repose

In this paper, a study of the stability of an evaporating semi-unbounded axisymmetric liquid bridge that forms between a syringe needle tip and a horizontal interface by using both theory and experiments is presented. Here, the evaporation produces slow quasistatic motion such that it allows one to use hydrostatics to analyze interface profiles via solutions to the Young–Laplace equation. The two main parameters, in the hydrostatic limit, are the familiar Bond number and a slenderness parameter that often appears in the literature that studies liquid bridge stability. The axisymmetric Young–Laplace equation yields a semi-analytical solution for capillary pressure at zero Bond number using boundary conditions appropriate for this study. At finite Bond numbers, computation of interface profiles is used to estimate the maximum slenderness. Experiments using water for Bond numbers 0.01 < Bo < 0.1 show good agreement for the maximum slenderness when comparing those results with predictions based on solutions to the Young–Laplace equation.
Liver involvement in children with SARS-COV-2 infection: Two distinct clinical phenotypes caused by the same virus.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated acute liver injury (ALI) has been linked to poor outcomes in adults. Here we compare characteristics in children with elevated ALT (E-ALT) in two distinct manifestations of the infection, multisystem inflammatory syndrome-children (MIS-C) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: This is a retrospective study of patients ≤21 years of age with positive for SARS-CoV-2 PCR. E-ALT was defined as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) > 40 U/L. Bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were obtained to describe differences in children with and without E-ALT in COVID-19 and MIS-C. RESULTS: E-ALT was detected in 36% of the 291 patients; 31% with COVID-19, and 51% with MIS-C. E-ALT in COVID-19 was associated with obesity (P < .001), immunocompromised status (P = .04), and chronic liver disease (P = .01). In the regression models, E-ALT in COVID-19 was associated with higher c-reactive protein (OR 1.08, P = .01) after adjusting for common independent predictors. Children with E-ALT and MIS-C were more often boys (P = .001), Hispanic (P = .04), or Black (P < .001). In MIS-C, male gender (OR 5.3, P = .02) and Black race (OR 4.4, P = .04) were associated with increased odds of E-ALT. Children with E-ALT in both cohorts had significantly higher multiorgan dysfunction, longer hospitalization, and ICU stay. Children with MIS-C had 2.3-fold increased risk of E-ALT compared to COVID-19. No association was found between E-ALT and mortality. CONCLUSION: E-ALT with SARS-CoV-2 presents as elevated transaminases without hepatic synthetic dysfunction. Patients with either manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection and E-ALT experienced more severe disease.
Ectopic pregnancy: a resident’s guide to imaging findings and diagnostic pitfalls

Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is a term used to describe any pregnancy which does not implant into the uterine cavity. There are several types of EPs: tubal, interstitial, ovarian, abdominal, heterotopic, cervical, and cesarean scar. Ectopic pregnancies can acutely rupture and are the number one cause of maternal death in the first trimester of pregnancy. Therefore, prompt recognition and accurate localization have significant clinical implications on patient outcome. Unfortunately, EPs have many mimickers, which can make the diagnosis challenging in certain cases. In this review, we aim to describe and illustrate sonographic findings of each type of EP, as well as present mimickers and various imaging pitfalls. We will clarify how to avoid potential misdiagnoses that could adversely affect patient outcomes. Lastly, we will briefly address management of each type of EP and discuss potential complications.
Enhanced pro-BDNF-p75NTR pathway activity in denervated skeletal muscle.

Abstract Aims Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the related receptors TrkB and p75NTR are expressed in skeletal muscle, yet their functions remain to be fully understood. Skeletal muscle denervation, which occurs in spinal injury, peripheral neuropathies, and aging, negatively affects muscle mass and function. In this study, we wanted to understand the role of BDNF, TrkB, and p75NTR in denervation-induced adverse effects on skeletal muscle. Main methods Mice with unilateral sciatic denervation were used. Protein levels of pro- and mature BDNF, TrkB, p75NTR, activations of their downstream signaling pathways, and inflammation in the control and denervated muscle were measured with Western blot and tissue staining. Treatment with a p75NTR inhibitor and BDNF skeletal muscle specific knockout in mice were used to examine the role of p75NTR and pro-BDNF. Key findings In denervated muscle, pro-BDNF and p75NTR were significantly upregulated, and JNK and NF-kB, two major downstream signaling pathways of p75NTR, were activated, along with muscle atrophy and inflammation. Inhibition of p75NTR using LM11A-31 significantly reduced JNK activation and inflammatory cytokines in the denervated muscle. Moreover, skeletal muscle specific knockout of BDNF reduced pro-BDNF level, JNK activation and inflammation in the denervated muscle. Significance These results reveal for the first time that the upregulation of pro-BDNF and activation of p75NTR pathway are involved in denervation-induced inflammation in skeletal muscle. The results suggest that inhibition of pro-BDNF-p75NTR pathway can be a new target to treat skeletal muscle inflammation.
Chapter 41 Regulation of nerve growth factor receptor expression on Schwann cells

Publisher Summary This chapter proposes specific schemes whereby another cellular component, the Schwann cell, has a critical role in mediating the trophic actions of nerve growth factor (NGF), and by analogy, other putative trophic factors. The most commonly considered mechanism by which targets exert their survival- or maintenance-promoting effects on innervating neurons is the release by the target of trophic factors, which act to sustain the health of the neuron. The results described in the chapter indicate that the potent trophic and tropic effects of NGF are involved in the process of peripheral nerve regeneration. After axonal injury, loss of axonal contact induces Schwann cells to express on their plasma membrane surface low-affinity, fast dissociating NGF receptors and to produce and release NGF molecules. The development of neuronal target dependence at critical periods in development may not reflect a switch of the neurons from a trophic factor independent phenotype to a trophic factor dependent one. Rather, the neurons may be responsive to trophic agents from their initial period of growth, but the source of these agents' changes from the Schwann cell to the target tissue.