cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Amino acid influences on seizures elicited within the inferior colliculus.

Using a model in which seizure activity was elicited electrically from the inferior colliculus, the influence of both inhibitory and excitatory putative neurotransmitter amino acids on this seizure activity was assessed by manipulating neurotransmitter amino acid function. It was found that i.c.v. administration of the inhibitory amino acids taurine (2.5 micrograms) or glycine (30 micrograms), or the gamma-aminobutyric acidA agonist, muscimol (300 ng), significantly elevated the threshold current necessary to initiate seizure activity from the inferior collicular cortex. Similarly, the microinjection of muscimol (10 or 30 ng) or racemic baclofen (20 or 60 ng), a gamma-aminobutyric acidB agonist, into the inferior collicular cortex significantly elevated the seizure threshold current, but inferior collicular microinjections of taurine (1 microgram) or glycine (1 microgram) exerted no effect on the seizure threshold current. When excitatory amino acid influences were assessed on seizure production, neither ventricular administration of glutamate or aspartate (100 micrograms) nor inferior collicular administration of glutamate (1 or 10 micrograms) or aspartate (10 micrograms) changed the seizure initiation threshold. Although the site administration of 30 or 100 ng of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid did not alter the seizure initiation threshold, 300 ng of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid significantly lowered the amount of electrical stimulation necessary to elicit the seizure activity. Conversely, blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors in the inferior colliculus with L-3-amino-7-phosphonoheptanoic acid (100 ng) or gamma-glutamylglycine (200 ng) significantly elevated the threshold current for seizure production, whereas microinjection of DL-3-amino-phosphonobutyric acid (200 ng) or glutamic acid diethyl ester (1 microgram) had no effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Amniotic fluid interleukin-18-mediated apoptosis is invoved in intraamniotic infection

INTRAAMNIOTIC INFECTION CHAUR-DONG HSU, STEPHANIE HONG, JOHN NGUYEN, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, New York Medical College-Westchester Medcial Center, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Valhalla, New York OBJECTIVE: We measured the levels of interleukin-18 (IL -18), soluble Fas (sFas) and Fas ligand (sFasL) to assess whether IL-18-mediated apoptosis is involved in intraamniotic infection. STUDY DESIGN: Amniocentesis was performed on 81 singleton pregnant women with preterm contractions, labor, or rupture of membranes. Twentyfive patients had intraamniotic infection, and 56 did not. Intraamniotic infection was defined as the presence of a positive amniotic fluid culture. Amniotic fluid neutrophil counts were determined. Amniotic fluid levels of IL18, sFas, and sFaL were measured by an enzyme-linked immunoassay. Student t test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for statistical analyses. Data were expressed as mean G SEM. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in maternal age, gestational age, race or parity between two groups. Amniotic fluid mean levels of IL-18, sFas, and sFasL were significantly higher in pregnant women with intraamniotic infection than in those without intraamniotic infection (IL-18: 2202.14 G 176.18 pg/mL vs. 594.06 G 140.27 ng/mL, p ! 0.0001; sFas: 5.37 G 0.65 U/ml vs. 2.02 G 0.21 U/ml, P!0.0001; sFasL: 0.39 G 0.05 ng/ml vs. 0.29 G 0.02 ng/ml, p=0.01). Patients with intraamniotic infection had significantly higher amniotic fluid leukocyte counts compared with those without intraamniotic infection. Amniotic fluid IL-18, sFas, and sFasL were positively correlated, and each was positively correlated with amniotic fluid leukocytes. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate amniotic fluid IL-18 is an apoptosispromoting factor. Elevated and correlated amniotic fluid IL-18, sFas, and sFasL may suggest amniotic fluid IL-18-mediated apoptosis is involved in patients with intraamniotic infection.
Fibre tracks: explaining investment in fibre optic backbones

This paper examines the US portion of the global communications network known as the Internet. The stages in the Internet's evolution, telecommunications deregulation, and a rush by new competitors to new market opportunities associated with the Internet combined to prompt a flurry of investment in new fibre-optic networks. Frameworks to explain new networks built upon, and added to, existing telecommunications networks include network economies and the opportunity-rich paths located between the large markets on the east and west coasts of the country and a capital-driven set of new and old network suppliers. The paper then reviews the small but growing body of research on the geographic structure of the Internet. The empirical section of the paper focuses on analyses of the variation among urban areas both in bandwidth on interurban Internet backbone networks and in the number of web design firms in the USA. Bandwidth investment was attracted not only to cities with larger populations but also to cities ...
An American Civic Forum: Civil Society Between Market Individuals and the Political Community

The polarization of the individual and the community that underlies much of the debate between individualists and communitarians is made possible in part by the literal vanishingof civil society—the domain whose middling terms mediate the stark opposition of state and private sectors and offer women and men a space for activity that is both voluntary and public. Modern democratic ideology and the reality of our political practices sometimesseem to yield only a choice between elephantine and paternalistic government or a radically solipsistic and nearly anarchic private market sector—overnment gargantuanism or private greed.Americans do not much like either one. President Clinton's callfor national service draws us out of our selfishness without kindling any affection for government. Private markets service our avarice without causing us to like ourselves. The question of how America's decentralized and multi-vocal public can secure a coherentvoice in debates over public policy under the conditions precipitated by so hollow and disjunctive a dichotomy is perhaps the most important issue facing both the political theory and social science of democracy and the practice of democratic politics in America today. Two recent stories out of Washington suggest just how grave the situation has become. Health-care reform failed in a paroxysm of mutual recrimination highlighted by the successful campaign of the private sector (well represented in Congress) against a presidential program that seemed to be widely misunderstood. The public at large simply went missing in the debates.
Autologous transplantation for Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieves outcomes similar to allogeneic transplantation: results of CALGB Study 10001 (Alliance).

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the standard approach to Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We hypothesized that imatinib plus sequential chemotherapy will result in significant leukemia cell cytoreduction in patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, allowing collection of normal hematopoietic stem cells uncontaminated by residual BCR/ABL1+ lymphoblasts and thus reduce the likelihood of relapse after autologous stem cell transplantation for patients under 60 years of age without sibling donors. We enrolled 58 patients; 19 underwent autologous and 15 underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantation on study. Imatinib plus sequential chemotherapy resulted in reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction-negative stem cells in 9 patients and remained minimally positive in 4 (6 were not evaluable). Overall survival (median 6.0 years vs. not reached) and disease-free survival (median 3.5 vs. 4.1 years) were similar between those who underwent autologous and those who underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantation. We conclude that autologous stem cell transplantation represents a safe and effective alternative for allogeneic stem cell transplantation in Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients without sibling donors (clinicaltrials.gov identifier:00039377).
Making Windows in Walls: Strategies for Prison Research

This article examines the relationships between prison structure, researcher access to prisons, and scholarship about prisons. Drawing on the author’s own work over more than 10 years as a prison educator, legal advocate, and prison researcher, as well as on the scholarship of other prison researchers throughout the social sciences, the article argues that prisons resist scrutiny at two stages. First, prisons are structurally and bureaucratically closed off from research; second, prison researchers are emotionally disconnected from their work. These two layers of obfuscation maintain the prison as a social “black site”: physically located outside of our communities, invisible to the public and the researcher alike. In an effort to overcome these barriers, this article outlines a mixed method, collaborative approach to prison research and discusses the ethical and emotional challenges of this approach. By identifying the major obstacles to meaningful prison research, as well as some possible strategies to ...
Multinodular Hyperplastic Pannephric Nephroblastomatosis with Tubular Differentiation: A New Morphologic Variant

We report a case of bilateral nephromegaly detected prenatally with oligohydramnios. Delivered at 35 weeks, this black male infant rapidly developed renal failure, requiring dialysis. He lived 3 1/2 months. The kidneys were three times normal size and diffusely multinodular, with hypoplastic calyces, no corticomedullary demarcation, and no pyramids. Histologically, they revealed hyperplastic embryonal rests composed of tubules and ducts with prominent branching. The nodular rests were intermixed with areas of mature parenchyma, which showed prominent oxalosis. By flow cytometry, rests were diploid, with an S-phase fraction of 25.9%. The proliferation of embryonal collecting system analogs is attributed to excessively rapid and prolonged branching of the ureteric bud, dating from the fourth gestational month or earlier. This unique case may represent a new morphologic variant of universal nephroblastomatosis.
Diversity order analysis of training codes for MIMO block fading channels

A general class of training-based space-time codes is considered for the noncoherent block correlated Rayleigh fading channel. Such codes can be efficiently decoded by first forming the MMSE estimate of the channel and then decoding the underlying coherent space-time code using the channel estimate as if it were perfect. The diversity order of this (in general, suboptimal) estimator-decoder is obtained, and it is shown that under certain conditions on the channel correlation matrix, training codes inherit the diversity order of the underlying coherent code.
Systematics of High-Pressure Silicate Structures

Mineral-like phases quenched from high-pressure synthesis experiments, as well as minerals formed in natural high-pressure environments, reveal crystal chemical principles that govern the formation of dense oxide and silicate structures. A systematic survey of known high-pressure silicate structures that incorporate octahedrally-coordinated silicon (VISi) is thus appropriate for this volume on the variation of crystal structures with temperature and pressure. The pace of discovery of new high-pressure silicates is rapid. A decade ago, Finger and Hazen (1991) summarized the twelve known high-density structural topologies with VISi. By late 1999, twice that number had been described. Of the original dozen structure types, seven (stishovite, perovskite, ilmenite, hollandite, calcium ferrite, pyrochlore, and K2NiF4) contain only six-coordinated silicon. The five additional high-pressure silicates known at that time, including the garnet, pyroxene, wadeite, anhydrous phase B, and phase B structures, contain both IVSi and VISi. Finger and Hazen (1991) used these twelve structure types to identify five systematic trends related to structural topology and isomorphous substitutions that might point to the existence of other high-pressure silicate structures. Two of these trends systematize groups of structurally related phases: 1. the structures of rutile, hollandite and calcium ferrite form from edge-sharing chains of silicon octahedra; and, 2. homologous structures in the system Mg-Si-O-H, including phase B and anhydrous phase B, feature edge-sharing clusters of twelve magnesium octahedra surrounding a silicon octahedron (Finger and Prewitt 1989). The other three criteria recognize similarities between high-pressure silicates and room-pressure isomorphs. High-pressure silicates often have structure types that were first observed in:
A software architecture-based human-machine interface for reconfigurable sensor-based control systems

The authors report on Onika, an iconically programmed human-machine interface, to interact with a reconfigurable software framework to create a reusable code. Onika presents appropriate work environments for both application engineers and end-users. For engineers, icons representing real-time software modules can be combined to form real-time jobs. For the end-user, icons representing these jobs are assembled by the user into applications. Onika verifies that all jobs and applications are syntactically correct, non-ambiguous, and complete. They can then be executed from within Onika, or can be saved as a stand-alone program which can be executed independently on the underlying real-time operating system. Onika has been fully integrated with the Chimera real-time operating system in order to control several different robotic systems in the Advanced Manipulators Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. >
Recent Developments in Observation, Modeling, and Understanding Atmospheric Turbulence and Waves

This review covers recent developments in turbulence and waves pertinent to radar meteorology. As radar techniques have become more sophisticated and Doppler radar profilers have come into widespread use, more has been learned about the use of radar as a tool in observing atmospheric turbulence and waves. While much of the paper is devoted to recent developments in observations of turbulence and waves, the review also places these developments in a broader context of developments in fluid dynamics that are fundamental to the understanding of atmospheric observations.
Phospholipase C-γ Contains Introns Shared by src Homology 2 Domains in Many Unrelated Proteins

Many proteins with novel functions were created by exon shuffling around the time of the metazoan radiation. Phospholipase C-gamma (PLC-gamma) is typical of proteins that appeared at this time, containing several different modules that probably originated elsewhere. To gain insight into both PLC-gamma evolution and structure-function relationships within the Drosophila PLC-gamma encoded by small wing (sl), we cloned and sequenced the PLC-gamma homologs from Drosophila pseudoobscura and D. virilis and compared their gene structure and predicted amino acid sequences with PLC-gamma homologs in other animals. PLC-gamma has been well conserved throughout, although structural differences suggest that the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in enzyme activation differs between vertebrates and invertebrates. Comparison of intron positions demonstrates that extensive intron loss has occurred during invertebrate evolution and also reveals the presence of conserved introns in both the N- and C-terminal PLC-gamma SH2 domains that are present in SH2 domains in many other genes. These and other conserved SH2 introns suggest that the SH2 domains in PLC-gamma are derived from an ancestral domain that was shuffled not only into PLC-gamma, but also into many other unrelated genes during animal evolution.
Understanding properties of engineered catalyst supports using contact angle measurements and X-Ray reflectivity

There is significant interest in broadening the type of catalyst substrates that support the growth of high-quality carbon nanotube (CNT) carpets. In this study, ion beam bombardment has been utilized to modify catalyst substrates for CNT carpet growth. Using a combination of contact angle measurements (CAMs) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) for the first time, new correlations between the physicochemical properties of pristine and engineered catalyst substrates and CNT growth behavior have been established. The engineered surfaces obtained after exposure to different degrees of ion beam damage have distinct physicochemical properties (porosity, layer thickness, and acid–base properties). The CAM data were analyzed using the van Oss–Chaudhury–Good model, enabling the determination of the acid–base properties of the substrate surfaces. For the XRR data, a Fourier analysis of the interference patterns enabled extraction of layer thickness, while the atomic density and interfacial roughness were extracted by analyzing the amplitude of the interference oscillations. The dramatic transformation of the substrate from “inactive” to “active” is attributed to a combined effect of substrate porosity or damage depth and Lewis basicity. The results reveal that the efficiency of catalyst substrates can be further improved by increasing the substrate basicity, if the minimum surface porosity is established. This study advances the use of a non-thermochemical approach for catalyst substrate engineering, as well as demonstrates the combined utility of CAM and XRR as a powerful, nondestructive, and reliable tool for rational catalyst design.
Behavioral Screening and Intervention for Improving Lower-Extremity Arthroplasty Outcomes and Controlling Costs.

Behavioral Screening and Intervention for Improving Lower-Extremity Arthroplasty Outcomes and Controlling Costs To the Editor Jackson and colleagues1 described an opportunity for orthopedic surgeons to improve outcomes and reduce costs under Medicare’s new bundled payment plan for lower-extremity joint replacements. They identified transplant surgeons as role models because transplant surgeons “have learned to engage both traditional and nontraditional partners...in care redesign.”1 Theymentioned skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies as such partners. They could have also mentioned behavioral health professionals, whohavehelped transplant surgeons identify andmanagebehavioral health conditions that frequentlyworsenoutcomes.2 Ample research has found that hospitalized patients with behavioral issues, including those undergoing joint replacement, frequently have worse outcomes and generate higher costs.3 A meta-analysis of 6 studies of more than 8000 patientswhounderwenthiparthoplastyfoundthatsmokersmanifested 2.58 to 3.71 times the incidence of prosthetic loosening, deep infection, andsurgical revisioncomparedwithnonsmokers. In a studyof 56000patientswhounderwent initial hip arthroplasty between 1998 and 2010, depression increased the chancesofsurgical revisionoverthenextyearby64%—thehighest of all 29 potential risk factors examined. Among 9000Veterans Administration patients who underwent various surgical procedures, complication rates increased from5.6%to 14% in a dose-responsemanner, with higher levels of preoperative alcohol consumption. These behavioral issues are also important risk factors for 30-day readmissions. Ample research has found that systematic, evidencebased screening and intervention for smoking, unhealthy drinking, and depression improve behavioral outcomes and reducenet health care costs.3Well-trainedhealth coaches can effectively deliver these services at a low cost.4 Such coaches could help orthopedic surgeons and their hospitals recognize and address important behavioral risks and disorders, improve joint replacementoutcomes, reducecosts, andthriveunder Medicare’s new bundled payment plan.
Scaling and Structure Functions in Turbulent Shear Flows

An experimental investigation was made to obtain the statistics of velocity differences measured simultaneously in time at laterally separated spatial locations in a laboratory turbulent boundary layer flow. For large separations the measured probability density function of velocity differences is self-similar and near Gaussian. The probability distribution of squared velocity differences exhibits exponential behavior, rather than hyperbolic as was suggested for atmospheric turbulence by Schertzer and Lovejoy in the limit of very high Reynolds number.
Incentivizing peer grading in MOOCS: an audit game approach

In Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) TA resources are limited; most MOOCs use peer assessments to grade assignments. Students have to divide up their time between working on their own homework and grading others. If there is no risk of being caught and penalized, students have no reason to spend any time grading others. Course staff want to incentivize students to balance their time between course work and peer grading. They may do so by auditing students, ensuring that they perform grading correctly. One would not want students to invest too much time on peer grading, as this would result in poor course performance. We present the first model of strategic auditing in peer grading, modeling the student's choice of effort in response to a grader's audit levels as a Stackelberg game with multiple followers. We demonstrate that computing the equilibrium for this game is computationally hard. We then provide a PTAS in order to compute an approximate solution to the problem of allocating audit levels. However, we show that this allocation does not necessarily maximize social welfare; in fact, there exist settings where course auditor utility is arbitrarily far from optimal under an approximately optimal allocation. To circumvent this issue, we present a natural condition that guarantees that approximately optimal TA allocations guarantee approximately optimal welfare for the course auditors.
Stimulus compounding with an instrumental avoidance response

A light and buzzer each separately maintained a latency of response which avoided shock in a shuttle box. When the light and buzzer were compounded, the latency was significantly shorter than the latency to either single stimulus. This result reliably occurred only with Ss that had a high percentage of avoidance responses and fairly, short latencies to the single stimuli The results were interpreted in terms of summation of response tendencies.
Gigaspora Gigantea: Observations on Spore Germination of a Va-Mycorrhizal Fungus

Spore germination of a vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus in the absence of a host plant was investigated. Spores of Gigaspora gigantea were tested for the ability to germinate under laborator...
THE ORIGIN OF AN ORGAN: PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION IN THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF FLIES (INSECTA: DIPTERA).

The cardia, a prominent digestive tract organ consisting of several specialized cell types, occurs throughout the "higher" or muscoid flies, division Schizophora of order Diptera. Phylogenetic analysis of cellular organization in 65 insect species from 36 families indicates that this organ originated within the order Diptera from ancestrally undifferentiated tissues. "Lower" flies, suborder "Nematocera," display little or no epithelial cell specialization at the corresponding site. Scorpionflies of the outgroup order Mecoptera are similarly unspecialized. Intermediate levels of cellular specialization occur in Tabanomorpha, Asilomorpha and Aschiza, dipteran taxa that diverge between "Nematocera" and Schizophora. The distribution of epithelial characteristics suggests that the cardia evolved through a sequence of simple tissue transformations, combining changes in epithelial configuration with local differentiation of cell structure and function. The evolution of locally specialized cell types implies the emergence of structural genes and regulatory mechanisms through the modification of an ancestral genome that had not supported such extensive differentiation. Comparison of localized gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster with that in other fly species having greater or lesser degrees of cell specialization may provide a practical model system for studying specific patterns of mutation associated with such evolutionary innovation.
Dynamic response of anisotropic foundation under earthquake:experimental research on centrifuge model

Intrinsic anisotropy caused by the contact normal distribution and particle shape may have obvious effect on the seismic response of the foundation.To examine the effect of intrinsic anisotropy on seismic response of earth layer,a special rigid container was made to control different directions of soil deposition,simulate the anisotropy of the sand and reproduce the effect of the intrinsic anisotropy on dynamic behavior of the sand,including acceleration,velocity,displacement and super pore water pressure through a series of model tests.Test results show that the effect is obvious especially in the saturated condition,while the liquefaction resistance capability of the sand sample modeled with 90° deposition direction is less obvious,which would lead to large settlement.To better predict the dynamic behavior of structures in seismic area,it is suggested to consider the effect of the intrinsic anisotropy of the sand in engineering.
High-frequency AC distributed power delivery system

A novel high-frequency-AC (HFAC) distributed power delivery system is presented in this paper. The target applications of the proposed system are the aerial and ground transportation, and renewable energy systems. Unlike traditional line-frequency-AC (LFAC) or DC distributed power delivery system, the bus frequency of the proposed system can be set at tens or hundreds of kilo-Hertz, so as the power transmission frequency. As a result, 50 or 60 Hz transformers will be eliminated from the system. DC arcing flash will not exist as well with the utilization of HFAC bus. In this paper, single-stage isolated bi-directional power electronics interfaces are developed which enables distributed AC and DC sources or loads to access the main HFAC bus. Soft-switching is also realized for all the semiconductor devices in the power electronics interface. Distributed control architecture is developed so that each source or load can operate independently. Simulation results are provided to validate the distributed control architecture. A scaled-down hardware demonstration, with the bus specification of 54 kHz and 400 VAC, is presented to validate the proposed architecture of the HFAC distributed power delivery system.
Crowding, Conflict, and Neighborhood Regulation

Neighborhoods are physical places. They are geographical locations in which people live side by side in a wide range of physical arrangements. This spatial proximity inevitably produces certain kinds of intrusions or annoyances among the households that share the space. Intrusions may take the form of noises, smells, or visually observable messes. They may be produced by mobile members of households such as dogs and children, or they may result from the social interdependence of people who live together. In American neighborhoods, at least, the appearance and upkeep of one person’s house makes a statement about the other houses in that neighborhood and the nature of the neighborhood as a whole. People who live together in neighborhoods must find some way to regulate that part of their lives that they share; they must learn to deal with these inevitable intrusions and annoyances. Most of the time, in most neighborhoods, residents find ways to cooperate, to reciprocate, and to develop shared rules and techniques for managing dogs, noise, children, neatness, and so forth. But occasionally these systems of neighborhood regulation fail, and conflicts erupt.
Potential Antineoplastic Structural Variations of Uracil Mustard (Uramustine) Retaining Cytotoxic Activity and Drug - likeness Suitable for Oral Administration

Aims: To present 12 new variants of uracil mustard having drug-like properties and cytotoxic functional group, by utilizing uracil mustard (uramustine) as a lead compound. Utilize rigorous substructure and similarity of a molecular scaffold to determine drug like variants. Physicochemical properties determined indicate the variants have favorable drug-likeness. Study Design: Conduct molecular database search utilizing features of substructure and similarity based upon uracil mustard. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry Study Section, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Nebraska between January 2015 to March 2015. Methodology: Uracil mustard consists of the pyrimidine derivative uracil, having the bifunctional nitrogen mustard cytotoxic moiety covalently bonded onto the ring. A systematic search, utilizing substructure component and similarity, within an in-silico database search successfully determined 12 variants. Rigorous criteria for drug-likeness was implemented to screen potential candidates Original Research Article Bartzatt; JCTI, 2(2): 50-58, 2015; Article no.JCTI.2015.007 51 that included the application of the Rule of 5. In addition, maintaining the cytotoxic moiety of nitrogen mustard was crucial. Results: A total of 12 variants of uracil mustard was identified after an extensive molecular database search using rigorous criteria. All 12 variants, and including uracil mustard, showed zero violations of the Rule of 5, thereby indicating favorable drug-likeness. Values of polar surface area for all compounds at less than 80 Angstroms 2 are suitable for central nervous system penetration. Polar surface area, number of atoms, and Log P for all compounds increased as the molecular weight increases. Structure substituents include nitrogen mustard groups, hydroxyl, alkyl and carbonyl moieties. Cluster analysis discerned greatest similarity among members of this group. Conclusion: Applying rigorous search criteria within a molecular data base, for comparison and reject, successfully identified 12 variants of uracil mustard that show favorable drug-likeness in addition to cytotoxic capability. The design of new antitumor agents is important for increasing efficacy of the clinical treatment of cancer.
An Empirical Analysis of Risk Factors in Aviation: Evidence from 1995-2016 NTSB Data

At the beginning of the 20th Century, people endeavored into the skies for the first time. While this once audacious pursuit has become commonplace in 21st Century life, the safety of air travel has come at the expense of many aircraft accidents and incidents. Aviation safety analysis is traditionally retroactive, as new policies, procedures, practices, and regulation are driven by these accidents and incidents. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently advocating a more proactive approach to aviation safety wherein certain factors, whether they be environmental, mechanical, human, or some combination thereof are analyzed in order to identify the level of risk of an operation. The intent of this paper is to demonstrate two models by which risk analysis can be conducted using data that contains external factors and the outcome of the flight.
Fish kairomones induce spine elongation and reduce predation in marine crab larvae.

Specialized defense strategies are induced in zooplankton upon detection of predator chemical cues or kairomones. These defenses are well-described for freshwater zooplankters, with morphological defenses being particularly striking, but few studies have reported kairomone-induced morphological defenses in marine zooplankton. Here, we compare morphological responses to kairomones in the larvae of two marine crab species, estuarine mud crabs (Rhithropanopeus harrisii) and Asian shore crabs (Hemigrapsus sanguineus). When reared in the presence of fish kairomones, spine length increased by 2–3% in larval R. harrisii, while no morphological changes were identified in H. sanguineus. In subsequent feeding assays with a co-occurring fish predator (Atlantic silversides, Menidia menidia), consumption of R. harrisii was lower on larvae that had been reared with kairomones. In addition, we found that broods with smaller larvae are more likely to exhibit increases in spine length after kairomone exposure. Hence, the observed morphological response is likely influenced by larval size. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Teaching and Learning Philosophical “Special” Topics: Black Feminism and Intersectionality

This chapter considers Black women’s pedagogies, including my approach to teaching a philosophy graduate seminar on “Black Feminism and Intersectionality,” along with lessons and insights gleaned from the course readings. We archive our experience, arguing that this course was distinctly transformative because we could, in Michele Russell’s words, “evoke and evaluate our collective memory of what is done to us, and what we do in turn.” This experience was shaped by the unique class dynamics created by demographics (our races, genders, sexual orientations, nationalities, etc. mattered for us) coupled with my pedagogical practices—the structure (student-led discussion), content (readings), and the intentional cultivation of an affirming community. Each co-author writes from her/his unique standpoint while remaining attentive to these guiding threads and themes interwoven throughout.
Phase Transitions and Their Interaction with Dislocations in Silicon

In this paper, phase transformations (PTs) in silicon were investigated through molecular dynamics (MD) using Tersoff potential. In the first step, simulations of PTs in single crystal silicon under various stress-controlled loading were carried out. Results shows that all instability points under various stress states are described by criteria, which are linear in the space of normal stresses. There is a region in the stress space in which conditions for direct and reverse PTs coincide and a unique homogeneous phase transition (without nucleation) can be realized. Finally, phase transition in bi-crystalline silicon with a dislocation pileup along the grain boundary (GB) was carried out. Results showed that the phase transition pressure first decreases linearly with the number of dislocation pileups and then reaches a plateau with the accumulation of dislocations in the pileup. The maximum reduction of phase transition pressure is 30% compared to that for perfect single crystalline silicon.
Associations between season and surgical site infections in orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery.

Abstract Background Surgical site infections (SSI) in orthopaedic surgery are common nosocomial complications that contribute significantly to patient morbidity and increased healthcare costs. While past studies support an increase in the incidence of SSI during the summer months in orthopaedic spine surgery and joint arthroplasty, there has not been any study examining the association between season and SSI in the setting of orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery. Methods A retrospective analysis of data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database from 2011–2015 was conducted. 17,939 patients who received at least one of 218 CPT codes specific to orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery were identfied from the NSQIP database. Descriptive statistics of patient demographics, comorbidities, and complications were stratified by quarter of admission. Results Of the 17,939 patients, there were 4995 in the 1st quarter (27.8%), 4078 in the 2nd quarter (22.7%), 4333 in the 3rd quarter (24.2%), and 4533 in the 4th quarter (25.3%). The overall rate of surgical complications was 2.3%. The highest incidence of surgical complications was during the summer at 2.7% and the lowest was during the fall at 2.1% (p = 0.338). The summer months also demonstrated the highest incidence of medical complications at 5.9% (p = 0.524). There were significantly more women undergoing surgery in the winter and summer months (p = 0.028). Conclusion The surgical site infection rate in the setting of orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery was higher, although not significantly, in the summer months. Level of evidence Level III retrospective.
The Budding and Fission Yeast Model Systems for Aging Biology: Rapid Advancement With New Technologies

Abstract The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe have long been important models for human biology. These two yeasts diverged from each other when fungi diverged from mammals and have evolved different strategies for aging that have allowed major advances in replicative aging, the number of times a cell can divide prior to senescence or death, and chronological aging, the amount of time a cell can survive in the absence of division. These model systems have allowed the identification of proteins that are retained by old cells, of universally conserved genes that affect both replicative and chronological aging, exploited new technologies in next-generation sequencing to further probe the genetic factors that regulate life span, and increased characterization of the G0 state, where cells can survive for months at time. This chapter will introduce these areas so the progress in yeast can be applied to mammals.
Peyote’s Race Problem

In the years since peyote became a controlled substance in Mexico and the US, a steady stream of advocates and activists have laid claim to two types of exemption, rooted in both US Law (the First Amendment) and International Law (the 1971 Vienna Convention on Psychotropic Drugs). Indigenous peyotists in particular have been largely successful in making a claim to a legal right to be exempt from national prohibitions on peyote possession and consumption. This has represented a significant advance in indigenous rights, yet in both contexts it has had the unpleasant effect of signaling that a drug that is otherwise so dangerous as to be prohibited should be permitted for Indians, because they are somehow essentially different from all other citizens. This, then, is Peyote’s Race Problem. The ways in which we have created a legal framework that makes peyote use licit among indigenous peoples has hardened a certain notion of profound, an unalterable difference to the point that Indian bodies are said to be incommensurably different from the bodies of others who might desire to consume peyote, but for whom it is deemed too dangerous. This notion of difference has been exacerbated by the increasing scarcity of peyote in the US and Mexico, which as further racialized the spaces where peyote grows.
A representation language language

The field of AI is strewn with knowledge representation languages. The language designer typically has one particular application domain in mind; as subsequent types of applications are tried, what had originally been useful features become undesirable limitations, and the language is overhauled or scrapped. One remedy to this bleak cycle might be to construct a representational scheme whose domain is the field of representational languages itself. Toward this end, we designed and implemented RLL, a frame-based Representation Languange Language. The components of representation languages in general (such as slots and inheritance mechanisms) and of RLL itself are encoded declaratively as frames. Modifying these frames can change the semantics of RLL, by radically altering the character of the RLL environment.
Öffentliche Förderung internationaler Forschungskooperationen

Wissen ist eine der wichtigsten Ressourcen, die in Zeiten steigenden internationalen Wettbewerbdrucks den Wohlstand Deutschlands auch in Zukunft sichern kann. Nur die Aufrechterhaltung eines Wissensvorsprungs kann Deutschlands Positionierung als Hochlohnland langfristig rechtfertigen. Ahnlich druckt es das Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) aus: „Einen Kostenwettbewerb kann Deutschland nicht gewinnen. Deswegen mussen wir besser sein als andere. Wettbewerbsvorteile und damit Wachstumschancen lassen sich aber nur durch Innovationen erschliesen -mit neuen Produkten und Dienstleistungen.“ Aus Befurchtung, den bestehenden Vorsprung zu verlieren, besteht eine Skepsis gegenuber internationalen Forschungs-kooperationen, insbesondere mit asiatischen Landern. Diese wird verstarkt, wenn der Staat Forschungskooperationen mit dem Ausland mit Steuergeldern zusatzlich for-dert. Wissen kann aber ohnehin nur zu einem gewissen Grad geschutzt und im eigenen Land gehalten werden. Anstatt des Versuchs einer Abschottung gegenuber anderen Nationen ist es vielmehr notwenig, internationale Kooperationen in Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) punktuell zu forcieren, denn auch deutsche Forschung, sei es offentlich finanziert oder privatwirtschaftlich, kann von internationaler Zusammenar-beit profitieren. Wie es gelingen kann, internationale Forschungskooperationen so zu gestalten, dass es beiden Kooperationspartnern nutzt und kein einseitiger Wissensab-fluss stattfindet, soll am Beispiel von Kooperationen mit der Republik Korea (nachfol-gend: Sudkorea) gezeigt werden. Im Folgenden soll zunachst kurz die deutsche For-schungsforderungslandschaft beschrieben werden, bevor Sudkorea hinsichtlich seiner Starken in F&E dargestellt wird sowie Masnahmen der offentlichen Forderung zur Zusammenarbeit aufgezeigt werden. Anschliesend wird die Kooperation von INI-GraphicsNet mit Sudkorea als Beispiel einer teilweise offentlich geforderten Zusammenarbeit zwischen beiden Landern vorgestellt.
Dynamic Models for Wind Generators

In the previous chapters some details regarding the types of wind generators, converter configurations used in wind turbine generators, and the nature of controllers used in the wind generators were provided. In this chapter, a description of the mathematical models used for the time domain simulation of the electro-mechanical phenomena associated with wind turbine generators will be provided. A discussion regarding the suitability of these models for time domain simulation will also be presented.
Notes on linear discrete-space systems and undergraduate education

The cornerstone of the theory of discrete-space linear systems is the idea that every such system has an input-output map H that can be represented by a convolution sum or the familiar generalization of a convolution sum. This thinking involves an oversight which, for the case of bounded inputs mapped continuously into bounded outputs, was recently corrected by adding an additional term to the representation. Here we give a necessary and sufficient condition under which the additional term vanishes. The condition provides the basis for some related material given concerning engineering education and introductory courses in the area of signals and systems.
Functional Independence After Stroke Thrombectomy Using Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction Grade 2c: A New Aim of Successful Revascularization.

Background Within the Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction (TICI) classification, TICI 2b has been historically considered successful recanalization. However, TICI 2b may result in worse functional outcomes compared with TICI 3 or a proposed TICI 2c revascularization grade. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in functional independence at 90 days between TICI 2b, 2c, and 3 grades. Methods A retrospective review of 185 consecutive patients with anterior cerebral circulation occlusions was performed; 33 patients who were treated >8 hours after onset were excluded. Patient angiograms were graded by 2 experienced neurointerventional physicians. Baseline demographics and functional independence at 90 days were compared. Results Of 152 patients included in the study, 113 patients achieved TICI grade 2b (n = 37), 2c (n = 34), or 3 (n = 42). A significant difference in functional independence at 90 days was observed between TICI 2b and 2c/3 (P = 0.0008), between 2b and 2c (P = 0.0005), and between 2b and 3 (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference in functional independence between 2c and 3 (P = 0.24). Conclusions TICI 2c revascularization is associated with significantly improved outcomes compared with TICI 2b revascularization and similar outcomes compared with TICI 3 revascularization. Using a TICI grading system that includes an additional TICI 2c grade or expands the current definition of TICI 3 allows for refined prediction of functional independence. Achieving TICI 2c/3 reperfusion should be considered during stroke thrombectomy.
Patterns of Hydrocephalus in Rural Haiti: A Computed Tomography–Based Study

Introduction/Objective Hydrocephalus is a common neurosurgical disorder that can lead to significant disability or death if not promptly identified and treated. Data on the burden of hydrocephalus in low-income countries are limited, given a lack of radiologic resources for the diagnosis of this condition. Here, we present an analysis of patterns of hydrocephalus from a large sample of computed tomography (CT) scans of the head performed at a public hospital in rural Haiti, a low-income country in the Caribbean. Methods We analyzed reports from 3614 CT scans of the head performed between July 2013 and January 2016 for findings that were consistent with a diagnosis of hydrocephalus (report indicating “hydrocephalus,” “ventriculomegaly,” or “enlargement of the ventricles”). Extracted data included demographics, study indication, radiologic findings, and reported etiology of hydrocephalus. Results In total, 119 scans had findings concerning for hydrocephalus (3.5% of all scans, 6.3% of abnormal scans; age range 0–90 years; median age 35.5 years; 49.6% male). Pediatric patients ( Conclusions In a large sample of CTs performed in a rural low-income setting, hydrocephalus was common, predominantly noncommunicating, and often associated with potentially operable intracranial lesions. Data of this nature can inform research, policy, and clinical collaborations that strengthen the neurosurgical capacity of low-income countries.
Early Detection of Ovarian Dysfunction by Anti-Mullerian Hormone in Adolescent and Young Adult-Aged Survivors of Childhood Cancer.

Purpose: Current guidelines recommend screening at-risk childhood cancer survivors for ovarian dysfunction using follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). However, FSH identifies diminished ovarian reser...
The roles of early-life adversity and rumination in neural response to emotional faces amongst anxious and depressed adults

Background Early-life adversity (ELA) is a risk factor for internalizing psychopathology (IP). ELA is also linked to alterations in neural phenotypes of emotion processing and maladaptive emotion regulatory strategies, such as ruminative brooding, in adulthood. We therefore expected that ELA would predict cortical brain activation to emotional faces in transdiagnostic IP and in turn, mediate the extent of rumination amongst patients with IPs and ELA (IP + ELA). Method One hundred and thirty-two individuals, including 102 treatment-seeking adults with heterogeneous IPs and 30 healthy controls (HCs) performed an Emotional Face-Matching Task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Whole-brain analyses compared HC (n = 30), IP (n = 52), and IP + ELA (n = 50) neural responses to emotional (angry, fearful, happy, and sad) faces v. shapes, controlling for depression and anxiety symptoms. Parameter estimates of activation were extracted for significant between-group differences and tested as a mediator of ruminative brooding in IP + ELA. Results IP + ELA demonstrated increased activation in the superior frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex (fear), superior parietal lobule, precuneus, posterior cingulate, and inferior temporal gyrus (fear only), and cuneus (fear and angry). These regions were preferentially correlated with ruminative brooding in IP + ELA, many of which mediated the link between IP + ELA and ruminative brooding. Conclusions Results provide evidence that ELA history amongst IP patients augments engagement of brain regions involved in emotion processing, above and beyond what is accounted for by current symptoms. Though longitudinal designs are needed, alterations in the neural correlates of maladaptive processing of socio-emotional information may be a common pathway by which ELA poses risk for psychopathology.