cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Genetic Validation of the Protein Arginine Methyltransferase PRMT5 as a Candidate Therapeutic Target in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive histologic subtype of brain cancer with poor outcomes and limited treatment options. Here we report the selective overexpression of the protein arginine methyltransferase PRMT5 as a novel candidate theranostic target in this disease. PRMT5 silences the transcription of regulatory genes by catalyzing symmetric di-methylation of arginine residues on histone tails. PRMT5 overexpression in patient-derived primary tumors and cell lines correlated with cell line growth rate and inversely with overall patient survival. Genetic attenuation of PRMT5 led to cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and loss of cell migratory activity. Cell death was p53-independent but caspase-dependent and enhanced with temozolomide, a chemotherapeutic agent used as a present standard of care. Global gene profiling and chromatin immunoprecipitation identified the tumor suppressor ST7 as a key gene silenced by PRMT5. Diminished ST7 expression was associated with reduced patient survival. PRMT5 attenuation limited PRMT5 recruitment to the ST7 promoter, led to restored expression of ST7 and cell growth inhibition. Lastly, PRMT5 attenuation enhanced GBM cell survival in a mouse xenograft model of aggressive GBM. Together, our findings defined PRMT5 as a candidate prognostic factor and therapeutic target in GBM, offering a preclinical justification for targeting PRMT5-driven oncogenic pathways in this deadly disease.
Multi-bit upsets in 65nm SOI SRAMs

We study multi-bit upsets (MBU) in 65 nm SOI SRAMs. Proton beam and thorium foil experiments demonstrate that SOI SRAMs have lower soft error rate than bulk SRAMs. Monte Carlo SER simulations show that SOI SRAMs have a lower fraction of MBU than bulk SRAMs. The probability of MBU correlates with the spacing of sensitive devices in neighboring cells.
Perception and understanding of effects of gravity and inertia on object motion

Experiments using a preferential looking method, a perceptual judgment method, and a predictive judgment method investigated the development, from 7 months to 6 years of age, of sensitivity to the effects of gravity and inertia on inanimate object motion. The experiments focused on a situation in which a ball rolled off a flat surface and either continued in linear motion (contrary to gravity), turned abruptly and moved downward (contrary to inertia), or underwent natural, parabolic motion. When children viewed the three fully visible motions, both the preferential looking method and the perceptual judgment method provided evidence that sensitivity to inertia developed between 7 months and 2 years, and that sensitivity to gravity began to develop after 3 years. When children predicted the future location of the object without viewing the motions, the predictive judgment method provided evidence that sensitivity to gravity had developed by 2 years, whereas sensitivity to inertia began to develop only at 5‐6 years. These findings suggest that knowledge of object motion develops slowly over childhood, in a piecemeal fashion. Moreover, the same system of knowledge appears to be tapped both in preferential looking tasks and in judgment tasks when children view fully visible events, but a different system may underlie children’s inferences about unseen object motions.
Diaphragm Muscle Sarcopenia is Present in Both Male and Female Mice

The diaphragm muscle (DIAm) must be able to generate sufficient forces to sustain ventilatory and non-ventilatory behaviors throughout the lifespan. Age-related decreases in DIAm fiber cross-sectio...
The timing of preventive services for women and children: the effect of having a usual source of care.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the causal effect of having a usual source of medical care on the timing of preventive services by women and children. METHODS: Data on 17,110 children and 23,488 women from the 1988 and 1990 National Health Interview Surveys were used to estimate ordered probit models of the effect of having a usual source of medical care on the time since the last receipt of each preventive service (routine checkups for children; blood pressure checks, Pap smears, and breast exams for adult women; mammograms for older women). Two-stage instrumental variables methods were used to eliminate simultaneity bias. RESULTS: The existence of a usual source of medical care was strongly correlated with the earlier receipt of preventive services, and the relationship appears to be causal for Pap smears, breast exams, and mammograms. However, there was little evidence that having a regular provider caused an increased rate of routine checkups for children or blood pressure checks for adult women. ...
Creating the Cosmopolitan US Undergraduate: Study Abroad and An Emergent Global Student Profile

Undergraduates in the USA bring to college a wide array of backgrounds, resources, and supports that make it more or less likely that they will participate in study abroad during their undergraduate career. This study investigates the experiences of undergraduates who have studied abroad, as well as the elements that facilitate the study abroad experience. The data suggests that students must overcome a number of constraints in order to study abroad. While the paths to study abroad are divergent, a number of common individual and institutional factors affect students' likelihood for successful participation in a study abroad experience while at college. The data indicate that students must have at their disposal the necessary tools to overcome significant hurdles to study abroad. Institutions of higher education play a crucial role in facilitating not only the study abroad process itself, but also the pre-existing mindset, goals, and sense of agency that students possess in order to take advantage of study abroad opportunities. This study seeks to investigate the resources, constraints, experiences, and supports for undergraduates who participated in study abroad while attending Porter College, a medium-size four-year college located in an urban center in the north-eastern United States. At many US institutions of higher education, campus internationalization efforts meet the needs of only a small percentage of undergraduate students (Bonfiglio, 1999; Fischer, 2008). By gathering data that help bring shape to an emergent global American student profile, this study provides insights into the factors that contribute to US undergraduates' ability to study abroad, and more broadly, to engage in international education experiences during their undergraduate years.
Synthesis of magnetoliposomes with monodisperse iron oxide nanocrystal cores for hyperthermia

Abstract Heating rates generated by superparamagnetic particles deteriorate quickly with particle polydispersity. We prepared highly uniform, monodisperse, single-crystal magnetite nanoparticles of tailorable size via organometallic decomposition. As-synthesized nanocrystals were coated with phospholipids to form biocompatible magnetoliposomes. Modeling of AC-magnetic field parameters indicates that 11 nm nanocrystals have maximum heating rates within the biologically safe frequency range.
Using google street view for systematic observation of the built environment: analysis of spatio-temporal instability of imagery dates

Background: Recently, Google Street View (GSV) has been examined as a tool for remotely conducting systematic observation of the built environment. Studies have found it offers benefits over in-person audits, including efficiency, safety, cost, and the potential to expand built environment research to larger areas and more places globally. However, one limitation has been the lack of documentation on the date of imagery collection. In 2011, Google began placing a date stamp on images which now enables investigation of this concern. This study questions the spatio-temporal stability in the GSV date stamp. Specifically, is the imagery collected contemporaneously? If not, how frequently and where is imagery from different time periods woven together to represent environmental conditions in a particular place. Furthermore, how much continuity exists in imagery for a particular time period? Answering these questions will provide guidance on the use of GSV as a tool for built environment audits. Methods: GSV was used to virtually “drive” five sites that are a part of the authors’ ongoing studies. Each street in the sites was “driven” one mouse-click at a time while observing the date stamp on each image. Every time the date stamp changed, this “disruption” was marked on the map. Every street segment in the site was coded by the date the imagery for that segment was collected. Spatial query and descriptive statistics were applied to understand the spatio-temporal patterns of imagery dates. Results: Spatio-temporal instability is present in the dates of GSV imagery. Of the 353 disruptions, 82.4% occur close to (<25 m) intersections. The remainder occurs inconsistently in other locations. The extent of continuity for a set of images collected with the same date stamp ranged from 3.13 m to 3373.06 m, though the majority of continuous segments were less than 400 m. Conclusion: GSV offers some benefits over traditional built environment audits. However, this investigation empirically identifies a previously undocumented limitation in its application for research. Imagery dates can change often and without warning. Caution should be used at intersections where these disruptions are most likely to occur, though caution should be used everywhere when using GSV as a data collection tool.
Supermolecular structure of poly(ethylene oxide) fractions

The crystalline morphology, or supermolecular structure, of poly(ethylene oxide) has been studied as a function of molecular weight and crystallization conditions. Molecular weight fractions, covering the range 6 × 103 to 1 × 107 are used over the range of accessible temperatures for isothermal crystallization as well as for a large set of controlled nonisothermal crystallization conditions. A morphological map is constructed from these studies and compared with the literature results. Prior reports were primarily confined to low molecular weights, which restricted the generalization of the findings. In the present work, as a consequence of the extended molecular weight range, conditions are established for the systematic development of several different, well-defined, organized super-molecular structures as well as for highly crystalline but disorganized systems. Strong similarities are found between the results for poly(ethylene oxide) and previous reports for linear polyethylene. A generalization for all chain molecules is suggested.
Through a Glass Darkly: Seeking Clarity in Preventing Late Kidney Transplant Failure

A common lament is that long-term kidney transplant outcomes remain the same despite improvements in early graft survival. To be fair, progress has been made—in both our understanding of chronic injury and modestly, graft survival. However, we are still a long way from actually solving this important and difficult problem. In this review, we outline recent data supporting the existence of several causes of renal allograft loss, the incidences of which peak at different time points after transplantation. On the basis of this broadened concept of chronic renal allograft injury, we examine the challenges of clinical trial design in long-term studies, including the use of surrogate end points and biomarkers. Finally, we suggest a path forward that, ultimately, may improve long-term renal allograft survival.
Reading the Willey Disaster: An Evolutionary Approach to Environmental Aesthetics in Cole's Notch of the White Mountains and Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest"

Inspired by the Willey Disaster of 1826, a landslide in the White Mountains that killed an entire family living in Crawford Notch, both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Cole produced works of art commemorating the event. Hawthorne’s story “The Ambitious Guest” and Cole’s painting The Notch of the White Mountains are usually read in light of their cultural significance, most often as contributions to a nationalist aesthetic that sought to celebrate American landscapes—and the history and legends associated with them—as the basis for distinctly American art forms. But applying ideas about the evolutionary basis for environmental preferences, as described in articles by Gordon Orians and Judith Heerwagen and Stephen Kaplan, gives us a different way to account for the lasting appeal of these classic works of landscape art and environmental literature. Recognizing the importance of habitat selection to any species, Orians and Heerwagen outline the “savanna hypothesis,” “prospect-refuge theory,” and the temporal and spatial frames of reference as they account for our intuitive and subconscious preference for certain landscapes. Kaplan describes a four-part “preference model,” discussing the appeals of coherence, complexity, legibility, and mystery in determining our landscape preferences. Together, their analyses demonstrate why we are drawn to landscapes which offer both access to resources and protection from predators, which allow us to see without being seen, and which offer the promise of successful inhabitation. Successful artists and writers like Cole and Hawthorne know how to appeal to these innate, genetically-imprinted preferences for certain kinds of environments. Landscape art, then, in all its forms, succeeds not only by invoking cultural themes and influences but by appealing to human nature.
Device requirements for dense interconnects

We project the requirements for optoelectronic and optical devices if optics is to solve the major problems of interconnects to future high performance information processing systems, especially in interconnect density and energy.
Electroweak limits on physics beyond the Standard Mode

We briefly review the global Standard Model fit to electroweak precision data, and discuss the status of electroweak constraints on new interactions. We follow a general effective Lagrangian approach to obtain modelindependent limits on the dimension-six operators, as well as on several common new physics extensions.
Subcode graphs of linear block codes

The Hamming-distance related lattice of subcodes of a linear code C is represented by a subcode graph. The dimensions of these subcodes and the dimensions of the subcodes of the dual are related by MacWilliams-like identities. The coordinate permutation problem for minimum trellis-complexity is approached by introducing suitable vertex functions on the subcode graph that reflects the trellis-complexity measure. This approach gives a simple new proof for well-known results on maximum-distance separable (MDS) codes and a slight sharpening of the Wolf bound for a large class of binary codes.
The Fabrication and Characterization of Amorphous Indium Zinc Oxide (In2O3:10wt%ZnO) based Thin Film Transistors

Thin film transistors were fabricated using amorphous IZO (In2O3-10wt%ZnO) with low carrier concentration (~3x1017/cm3) for the channel material and a-IZO with high carrier concentration (~2×1020/cm3) for source-drain metallization. The performance of a-IZO channel materials processed entirely at room temperature was established using a simple gate-down thin film transistor device. The TFT test structures were fabricated on p-type Si substrates with a thermally grown SiO2 gate oxide. The channel and metallization layers were sputter deposited from a commercially available IZO target at room temperature in a gas atmosphere containing 10 vol.% and 0 vol.% oxygen, respectively. The TFT devices are depletion mode n-channel devices with a high saturation mobility (~20cm2/Vs) and high on/off ratio (~108) and, as such, appear to be well suited for active matrix TFT applications.
Evidence-based decision making: global evidence, local decisions.

Variations in health care services have been well documented worldwide. The result is that increased health care spending is not uniformly associated with improved health. Interest in increasing th...
Permanent of the product of doubly stochastic matrices

If A = [aij] is an n × n matrix, the permanent of A is the scalar valued function of A defined bywhere the summation extends over all permutations (i1, i2, …, in) of the integers 1, 2, …, n. If we assume that A is a non-negative matrix (that is, that A has non-negative entries) then we come upon an extremely interesting situation. Much work has been done in finding significant upper bounds for the permanent and permanental minors of A (see, e.g. (2, 4–7) in (5) an excellent bibliography is given). If B = [bij] is another n × n non-negative matrix, then we may form the product AB and consider the permanent of this matrix. Unlike the determinant, the permanent is not a multiplicative function. In our circumstances here, however, it is easy to verify and indeed a proof was written down in (1) that
Molecular design for growth of supramolecular membranes with hierarchical structure.

Membranes with hierarchical structure exist in biological systems, and bio-inspired building blocks have been used to grow synthetic analogues in the laboratory through self-assembly. The formation of these synthetic membranes is initiated at the interface of two aqueous solutions, one containing cationic peptide amphiphiles (PA) and the other containing the anionic biopolymer hyaluronic acid (HA). The membrane growth process starts within milliseconds of interface formation and continues over much longer timescales to generate robust membranes with supramolecular PA–HA nanofibers oriented orthogonal to the interface. Computer simulation indicates that formation of these hierarchically structured membranes requires strong interactions between molecular components at early time points in order to generate a diffusion barrier between both solutions. Experimental studies using structurally designed PAs confirm simulation results by showing that only PAs with high ζ potential are able to yield hierarchically structured membranes. Furthermore, the chemical structure of such PAs must incorporate residues that form β-sheets, which facilitates self-assembly of long nanofibers. In contrast, PAs that form low aspect ratio nanostructures interact weakly with HA and yield membranes that exhibit non-fibrous fingering protrusions. Furthermore, experimental results show that increasing HA molecular weight decreases the growth rate of orthogonal nanofibers. This result is supported by simulation results suggesting that the thickness of the interfacial contact layer generated immediately after initiation of self-assembly increases with polymer molecular weight.
Growing Pains in financial development : institutional weakness and investment efficiency

Falling barriers to credit access have had some unexpected consequences. In the developing world, there is little evidence that the rapid expansion of microfinance has had a significant impact on poverty, but is instead increasingly associated with problematic multiple borrowing at high interest rates and high levels of debt and default. We develop a model that rationalizes these outcomes when the institutions supporting financial contracting are weak -- if entrepreneurs cannot commit to exclusive borrowing from a single lender, expanding financial access by introducing multiple sources of credit may severely backfire. Capital allocation can be distorted away from the most productive uses, generating a perverse incentive for micro-entrepreneurs to choose inefficient and limited-growth endeavors. These problems are exacerbated when borrowers have access to more lenders, providing an explanation of why increased access to finance does not always improve outcomes. Optimal policy in the model closely mirrors what was proposed and adopted following the recent microfinance repayment crisis in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Equation of Heat Transfer

This chapter presents the equation of nonstationary heat transfer in a rod. Because of the original variable temperature distribution in the rod, heat flows from the hot regions of the rod into the cold, causing the temperature distribution to change not only along x but also with the time t . The chapter discusses finite difference approximation. Finite elements or finite differences discretize the boundary value problem by reducing the differential equation and boundary conditions to a system of linear algebraic equations. Discretization in space only of the partial differential equation reduces it to a system of ordinary differential equations in time. Finite difference discretization of the more general heat conduction problem leads to the same system of equations. The chapter presents Euler's method, which is one of the earliest and simplest of time marching schemes and is based on a backward difference formula for y . The possibilities to create higher-order explicit multistep schemes by either including more steps or higher-order derivatives of y at the nodes are enormous, but owing to stability limitations, the practical usefulness of these schemes is small. The idea behind the predictor-corrector method is to use an explicit method to predict the next y , and then to use an implicit scheme to correct it to get improved accuracy and stability.
Dynamic Control of Water Concentration to Prolong The Life Time of Encapsulated Electronic Devices in High Humidity Environments

Silicone resins and gels have been used extensively for IC protection. Reduction of interfacial moisture and ionic contamination is considered crucial to device reliability. The present research has revealed an interesting phenomenon. Prolonged lifetime was obtained for comb pattern samples using a non-conventional encapsulation method. In order to increase specimen sensitivity to interfacial moisture, samples were contaminated prior to encapsulation. Three groups of contaminated samples encapsulated with polysiloxane were produced. Group I was encapsulated with a polymer/CaCl2/polymer/substrate structure. The structure of group II consisted of only the polymer on the contaminated substrates. Group III was encapsulated with a CaCl2 embedded polymer/polymer /substrate structure. Following exposure at 85°C, 100−10 amperes after 2,000 hrs, with no visible corrosion. Group II and III samples showed visible corrosipn after 390 to 470 hrs with leakage current of the order of 10−5 amperes. Direct measurement of RH at the polymer/substrate interface and water sorption experiments were done to explain the mechanisms of these packaging structures. The experimental results suggest that a desiccating multilayer coating can maintain low interfacial water concentrations. During exposure to high external RH, water from the surroundings diffuses through the top layer, producing an interlayer consisting of a solid CaCl2 and a CaCl2-saturated solution. Until all of the salt dissolves, the water chemical potential of the saturated solution defines the water content at the polymer/substrate interface. Hence the RH at the polymer/substrate interface was maintained below that required to dissolve the residual surface contamination for a longer time than by conventional encapsulation. This technique could be useful to reduce the dependence of IC reliability upon pre-encapsulation cleaning.
Homogenization and Path Independence of the J-Integral in Heterogeneous Materials

The J-integral that determines the driving force on a crack tip is a central concept of fracture mechanics. It is particularly useful since it is path independent in homogeneous materials. However, most materials are heterogeneous at a microscopic scale, and the J-integral is not necessarily path independent in heterogeneous media. In this paper, we prove the existence of an effective J-integral in heterogeneous media, show that it can be computed from the knowledge of the macroscopic or homogenized displacement fields and that it is path independent in macroscopically homogeneous media as long as the contours are large compared to the length scale of the heterogeneities. This result justifies the common engineering use of the J-integral.
Vortex Flux Dynamics and Harmonic ac Magnetic Response of Ba(Fe0.94 Ni0.06)2As2 Bulk Superconductor

Vortex dynamics and nonlinear ac response are studied in a Ba(Fe0.94 Ni0.06)2As2(T c = 18.5 K) bulk superconductor in magnetic fields up to 12 T via ac susceptibility measurements of the first ten harmonics. A comprehensive study of the ac magnetic susceptibility and its first ten harmonics finds shifts to higher temperatures with increasing ac measurement frequencies (10 to 10,000 Hz) for a wide range of ac (1, 5, and 10 Oe) and dc fields (0 to 12 T). The characteristic measurement time constant t 1 is extracted from the exponential fit of the data and linked to vortex relaxation. The Anderson-Kim Arrhenius law is applied to determine flux activation energy E a /k as a function dc magnetic field. The de-pinning, or irreversibility lines, were determined by a variety of methods and extensively mapped. The ac response shows surprisingly weak higher harmonic components, suggesting weak nonlinear behavior. Our data does not support the Fisher model; we do not see an abrupt vortex glass to vortex liquid transition and the resistivity does not drop to zero, although it appears to approach zero exponentially.
Sustained delivery of vincristine inside an orthotopic mouse sarcoma model decreases tumor growth

Abstract Background Sarcoma accounts for 20% of solid tumors in children. Surgery has significant morbidity. We hypothesized that delivering chemotherapy directly into tumors through sustained release silk systems could slow tumor growth. Methods Human Ewing sarcoma cells A673 were cultured with vincristine and doxorubicin to determine half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ). Cells were injected into mouse hind leg to create orthotopic tumors. Tumor volumes were measured using ultrasound. When volume reached >250mm 3, interventions included: implantation of drug-free silk foam (Control-F), doxorubicin 400μg foam (Dox400-F), vincristine 50μg foam (Vin50-F), drug-free silk gel (Control-G), vincristine 50μg gel (Vin50-G), or single dose intravenous vincristine 50μg (Vin50-IV). End-point was volume>1000mm 3 . Kaplan Meier and ANOVA were used. Results IC 50 for vincristine and doxorubicin was 0.5ng/mL and 200ng/mL, respectively. There was no difference between Dox400-F [6±1days to end point (DTEP)] and Control-F (5±1.3 DTEP). Vin50-F (12.4±3.5 DTEP) had slower growth compared to Control-F (p Conclusion Sustained delivery of vincristine inside the sarcoma tumor with silk gel decreased tumor growth. Applying this intratumoral treatment strategy may potentially decrease the extent of surgical excision.
Foundry: Hierarchical Material Design for Multi-Material Fabrication

We demonstrate a new approach for designing functional material definitions for multi-material fabrication using our system called Foundry. Foundry provides an interactive and visual process for hierarchically designing spatially-varying material properties (e.g., appearance, mechanical, optical). The resulting meta-materials exhibit structure at the micro and macro level and can surpass the qualities of traditional composites. The material definitions are created by composing a set of operators into an operator graph. Each operator performs a volume decomposition operation, remaps space, or constructs and assigns a material composition. The operators are implemented using a domain-specific language for multi-material fabrication; users can easily extend the library by writing their own operators. Foundry can be used to build operator graphs that describe complex, parameterized, resolution-independent, and reusable material definitions. We also describe how to stage the evaluation of the final material definition which in conjunction with progressive refinement, allows for interactive material evaluation even for complex designs. We show sophisticated and functional parts designed with our system.
Development of a radiopharmaceutical update course for radiologic technologists preparing to take the NMTCB exam

1057 Objectives: Many registered radiologic technologists in this country who have received some on the job training to perform nuclear medicine scans. Some of these technologists would like to become certified nuclear medicine technologists (CNMT) by passing the NMTCB exam. This course will help prepare these technologists for the radiopharmacy portion of the NMTCB exam. Methods and Materials: Radiopharmacy Update is an online course utilizing WebCT for course presentation. This course was developed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the Imaging and Radiation Sciences Department. The course is divided into modules covering different radiopharmaceutical topics. Each module consists of a narrated power point presentation, a print out of the presentation slides, a topics notes handout, and a study guide. Each student is asked to complete a comprehensive course pre-test prior to reviewing any course material and a comprehensive course post-test upon completion of course modules. The course is offered for both continuing education credits or for college credit. Students completing the course for college credit will also complete at least one online exam during the course which will count toward their final course grade. Results: One student has piloted the Radiopharmacy Update course and received 15 hours of continuing education credit. This student successfully completed each course module quiz and had a 33% increase from the course pre-test to the course post-test. Conclusions: The one student who has completed the course did exhibit an overall increase in core radiopharmaceutical knowledge from the beginning to the end of the course. This course may provide a method for working radiologic technologists to increased their didactic radiopharmacy knowledge base and be better prepared to complete the radiopharmacy portion of the NMTCB exam.
Central Sleep Apnea, Hypoventilation Syndrome, and Sleep in High Altitude

Central sleep apnea (CSA) syndromes (CSAS) and sleep-related hypoventilation disorders encompass a group of sleep-related breathing disorders with diverse pathophysiology, ranging from instability of the respiratory metabolic control system to impaired lung function or chest wall mechanics. Based upon their effect on arterial CO2 concentration, these diseases can be divided into two groups: those with “hypocapnic–eucapnic CSA” and those with “hypercapnic CSA.” Even though the clinical presentation and sleep-related complaints may overlap, characteristic patterns in the polysomnographic airflow, overnight oximetry trace, and pulmonary function test can differentiate them further. The current evidence supports the treatment of CSA with modified methods of delivering positive airway pressure. Otherwise, limited evidence is available to support pharmacological intervention. Practical application of gas therapy is limited to nocturnal oxygen supplementation for the treatment of CSAS related to congestive heart failure (CHF). Further research is needed to expand our knowledge of CSAS pathophysiology and to develop novel therapeutic strategies.
Rotation invariance through structured sparsity for robust hyperspectral image classification

Sparse representation based classification has gained popularity with geospatial image analysis in general and hyperspectral image analysis in particular. A central idea with such classification approaches is that a test pixel (spectral reflectance vector) can be sparsely represented in a training dictionary of pixels from all classes - in particular, only training pixels in the dictionary that bear the same class membership of the test pixel will contribute significant coefficients in the sparse representation. The traditional applications of such classifiers to hyperspectral imagery utilize pixel (sample) level information, not spatial contextual information. We propose a sparse representation based classification paradigm that effectively and optimally captures the key geometric properties in hyperspectral images - our classifier that is built on this structured sparse representation then offers very robust classification, including in scenarios where training and test objects have rotational variations (a common occurrence with geospatial images). We validate the proposed approach with benchmark hyperspectral data and present results demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed method.
Statistical Decision Making for Dynamic Parity Relations

Abstract Generalized Likelihood Ratio testing is applied to time-correlated residuals with fault isolation enhancement. Faults contribute a time-varying mean to the noise-induced zero-mean residuals. The geometric properties of the enhanced residual act as constraints on the Maximum Likelihood estimate. The fault-free distribution is derived for the full correlated sequence over a time window, and for empirical averages computed from it. GLR is shown both for the full window sequence and for the averages. Simplifications arising from the polynomial nature of the residual generator are utilized.
The Role of Cationic Amino Acid Transporters in the Regulation of Blood Flow and Nitric Oxide in Rat Kidney

P94 Previous studies from our laboratory have indicated that nitric oxide (NO) production by isolated inner medullary collecting duct cells is dependent on cellular uptake of L-arginine via cationic amino acid (CAT) transporters ( FASEB J 13:A723,1999). In the present study we performed experiments to determine if CAT transport regulates NO production and renal hemodynamics in the renal medulla in vivo . The effects of renal medullary interstitial infusion of cationic amino acids (100 μg/kg/min) on renal medullary blood flow and NO levels were examined in anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats by laser-Doppler flowmetry and a microdialysis-oxyhemoglobin trapping technique. Furthermore, we studied the effect of chronic intramedullary infusion of L-ornithine (50 μg/kg/min) on arterial pressure in uninephrectomized SD rats. Renal medullary blood flow was significantly reduced during the acute intramedullary infusion (30 min) of the cationic amino acids L-ornithine (-24±3%, N=4), L-lysine (-20±1%, N=4), and L-homoarginine (-21±2%, N=4), and during infusion of the NOS inhibitor N ω -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; -38±4%, N=6). In contrast, infusion of L-arginine significantly increased medullary blood flow (+17±4%, N=4) and the neutral amino acids L-leucine, L-serine, and L-glycine (N=4 each) had no effect on renal medullary blood flow. NO concentration in the renal medulla was significantly decreased by the intramedullary infusion of L-ornithine (for 60 min; 336 ± 25 vs 232 ± 34 nmol/L, N=6, p
Comparative Method in the 1990s

The late 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of the “comparative method” as a new, fundamental component of the comparative politics enterprise; a quarter century later, a new set of debates have emerged on this branch of methodology. The article addresses the debate on the role of the comparative method versus the statistical method, concluding that while there is some movement away from the comparative method toward the statistical method, there is also movement back to it – the statistical method may be complemented by subsequent comparative work, and vice versa. Another long-standing concern of the comparative method is that of careful work with concepts. In an attempt to extend theories and hypotheses to a larger number of cases, conceptual stretching and loss of validity may occur. The article addresses the need for a disciplined understanding of how to employ concepts, as well as how to organize them into worthwhile theoretical arguments. In addressing the evolution of the comparative method, the article analyzes the effects of both debates.
HIV in Children

About 2.5 million children are infected with HIV-1 and 350,000 million of these die per year of the infection. The vast majority of infections in children are acquired from an infected mother in utero, during delivery, or through breast feeding. While children comprise only 7.5% of total HIV-1 infections, they die at a disproportionately high rate of nearly 16% of total deaths. And, nearly 17% of new HIV-1 infections are in children. Thus, globally, pediatric HIV-1 is a significant and increasing cause of morbidity and mortality, and the relative contribution of pediatric HIV-1 to the overall HIV burden is increasing. In contrast to these dismal numbers, pediatric HIV has witnessed a major advance in the prevention of HIV-1 infection, blocking of maternal-to-newborn transmission. And, infections in children can be well controlled by antiretroviral therapies causing many prenatally infected children to survive to a healthy adulthood. Thus, there are currently two epidemiological patterns of pediatric HIV-1 infection: that of proven intervention-driven markedly reduced rates of maternal-to-child transmission and markedly decreased morbidity and mortality for infected children because of application of combined antiretroviral therapies; and, for 95% of infected children resident in resource poor regions the pattern is of an infection progressing without intervention.
Multitasking in Nursing Homes: Differences Between For-Profit and Nonprofit Quality Outcomes.

Background and objectives Nursing homes (NHs) in the United States face increasing pressures to admit Medicare postacute patients, given higher payments relative to Medicaid. Changes in the proportion of residents who are postacute may initiate shifts in care practices, resource allocations, and priorities. Our study sought to determine whether increases in Medicare short-stay census have an impact on quality of care for long-stay residents. Research design and methods This study used panel data (2005-2010) from publicly-available sources (Nursing Home Compare, Area Health Resource File, LTCFocus.org) to examine the relationship between a 1-year change in NH Medicare census and 14 measures of long-stay quality among NHs that experienced a meaningful increase in Medicare census during the study period (N = 7,932). We conducted analyses on the overall sample and stratified by for- and nonprofit ownership. Results Of the 14 long-stay quality measures examined, only one was shown to have a significant association with Medicare census: increased Medicare census was associated with improved performance on the proportion of residents with pressure ulcers. Stratified analyses showed increased Medicare census was associated with a significant decline in performance on 3 of 14 long-stay quality measures among nonprofit, but not for-profit, facilities. Discussion and implications Our findings suggest that most NHs that experience an increase in Medicare census maintain long-stay quality. However, this may be more difficult to do for some, particularly nonprofits. As pressure to focus on postacute care mount in the current payment innovation environment, our findings suggest that most NHs will be able to maintain stable quality.
Robust fuzzy clustering for multiple instance regression

Abstract Multiple instance regression (MIR) operates on a collection of bags, where each bag contains many instances sharing the same real-valued label. Only few instances, called primary instances, contribute to the bag labels. The remaining ones are noisy observations. The goal in MIR is to identify the primary instances within each bag and learn a regression model that can predict the label of a previously unseen bag. In this paper, we show that regression models can be identified as clusters when appropriate features and distances are used. We introduce an algorithm, called Robust Fuzzy Clustering for Multiple Instance Regression (RFC-MIR), that can learn multiple linear models simultaneously. First, RFC-MIR uses constrained fuzzy memberships to obtain an initial partition where instances can belong to multiple models with various degrees. Then, it uses unconstrained possibilistic memberships to allow the initial local models to expand and converge to the global model. These memberships are also used to identify the primary instances within each bag. After clustering, the possibilistic memberships are used to identify the optimal number of regression models. We evaluate our approach on synthetic data sets generated by varying the dimensionality of the feature space, the number of instances per bag, and the noise level. We also validate the RFC-MIR using two real applications: prediction of the yearly average yield of a crop using remote sensing data; and drug activity prediction. These applications have been used consistently to validate existing MIR algorithms. We show that our approach achieves higher accuracy than existing methods.
X-ray structure of an inactive zymogen clostripain-like protease from Parabacteroides distasonis.

The clostripain-like (C11) family of cysteine proteases are ubiquitously produced by the vast majority of the bacterial strains that make up the human distal gut microbiome. Recent reports show that some C11 proteases promote host immune responses and bacterial pathogenesis, including the induction of neutrophil phagocytosis and the activation of bacterial pathogenic toxins, respectively. The crystal structure of distapain, the only C11 protease predicted within the genome of the commensal bacterium Parabacteroides distasonis, was determined in the inactive zymogen state to 1.65 A resolution. This is the first C11 protease structure of a zymogen, and the structure helped to uncover key unique conformations among critical active-site residues that are likely to assist in preserving the inactive protease. His135, a member of the catalytic dyad, is repositioned approximately 5.5 A from the orientation found in active C11 structures and forms a hydrogen bond to Asp180 and a π-stacking interaction with Trp133. The structure sheds light on the potential importance of Asp180 and Trp133, as these residues are highly conserved across C11 proteases. Structure elucidation of C11 proteases will ultimately help to identify new ways to chemically and/or biologically regulate this family of enzymes, which represent potential drug-discovery targets in microbiome-related gastrointestinal diseases.
Salmonella enterica in Soils Amended with Heat-Treated Poultry Pellets Survived Longer than Bacteria in Unamended Soils and More Readily Transferred to and Persisted on Spinach.

ABSTRACT Untreated biological soil amendments of animal origin (BSAAO) are commonly used as biological fertilizers but can harbor foodborne pathogens like Salmonella enterica, leading to potential transfer from soils to fruits and vegetables intended for human consumption. Heat-treated poultry pellets (HTPP) can provide produce growers with a slow-release fertilizer with a minimized risk of pathogen contamination. Little is known about the impact of HTPP-amended soil on the survival of Salmonella enterica. The contributions of RpoS and formation of viable but nonculturable cells to Salmonella survival in soils are also inadequately understood. We quantified the survival of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Newport wild-type (WT) and rpoS -deficient (Δ rpoS mutant) strains in HTPP-amended and unamended soil with or without spinach plants over 91 days using culture and quantitative PCR methods with propidium monoazide (PMA-qPCR). Simulated “splash” transfer of S. Newport from soil to spinach was evaluated at 35 and 63 days postinoculation (dpi). The S. Newport WT and Δ rpoS mutant reached the limit of detection, 1.0 log CFU/g (dry weight), in unamended soil after 35 days, whereas 2 to 4 log CFU/g (dry weight) was observed for both WT and Δ rpoS mutant strains at 91 dpi in HTPP-amended soil. S. Newport levels in soils determined by PMA-qPCR and plate count methods were similar ( P > 0.05). HTPP-amended soils supported higher levels of S. Newport transfer to and survival on spinach leaves for longer periods of time than did unamended soils ( P IMPORTANCE Heat-treated poultry pellets (HTPP) often are used by fruit and vegetable growers as a slow-release fertilizer. However, contamination of soil on farms may occur through contaminated irrigation water or scat from wild animals. Here, we show that the presence of HTPP in soil led to increased S. Newport survival in soil and to greater likelihood of its transfer to and survival on spinach plants. There were no significant differences in survival durations of WT and Δ rpoS mutant isolates of S. Newport. The statistically similar populations recovered by plate count and estimated by PMA-qPCR for both strains in the amended and unamended soils in this study indicate that all viable populations of S. Newport in soils were culturable.
A Watt-Level Quadrature Class-G Switched-Capacitor Power Amplifier With Linearization Techniques

A 30.1-dBm quadrature transmitter is implemented based on Class-G IQ-cell-shared switched-capacitor power amplifier (SCPA) and voltage mismatch compensation techniques for dual-supply voltage in a Class-G SCPA. For the Class-G operation in the IQ-cell-shared quadrature SCPA, a merged cell switching (MCS) technique comprising vector amplitude switching (VAS) and vector phase switching (VPS) is proposed. The VAS boosts system efficiency (SE) by enabling the Class-G operation with multiple supply voltages and the VPS conserves vector information in the merged cells that process the quadrature vectors. The linearization technique for Class-G SCPA minimizes the distortion that arises from the supply-voltage mismatches in a multiple supply-voltage system. Two SCPAs are coupled with a power combining transformer to achieve a watt-level output power. A time-domain interpolation minimizes the spectral image. The prototype SCPA, fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS, achieves peak output power and SE of 30.1 dBm and 37.0%, respectively. It achieves error vector magnitude (EVM) of −40.7 dB (−40.3 dB) and SE of 14.7% (18.3%) at an average output power of 19.5 dBm (22.5 dBm) with 802.11g 64-QAM OFDM signal with 10.6 dB peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) (20-MHz single-carrier 256-QAM signal with 7.6-dB PAPR).
The Strain of Procedural Injustice in Parole among Former Prisoners: A Test with a Mixed-Gender Sample

The concept of procedural justice has been examined in a plethora of studies that encompass topics from citizens’ trust in police to their wiliness to obey the law. However, extant research has not...
Paired electrocatalytic hydrogenation and oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural for efficient production of biomass-derived monomers

Electrochemical conversion of biomass-derived compounds is a promising route for sustainable chemical production. Herein, we report unprecedentedly high efficiency for conversion of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) to biobased monomers by pairing HMF reduction and oxidation half-reactions in one electrochemical cell. Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of HMF to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF) was achieved under mild conditions using carbon-supported Ag nanoparticles (Ag/C) as the cathode catalyst. The competition between Ag-catalyzed HMF hydrogenation to BHMF and undesired HMF hydrodimerization and hydrogen evolution reactions was sensitive to cathode potential. Also, the carbon support material in Ag/C was active for HMF reduction at strongly cathodic potentials, leading to additional hydrodimerization and low BHMF selectivity. Accordingly, precise control of the cathode potential was implemented to achieve high BHMF selectivity and efficiency. In contrast, the selectivity of HMF oxidation facilitated by a homogeneous electrocatalyst, 4-acetamido-TEMPO (ACT, TEMPO = 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl), together with an inexpensive carbon felt electrode, was insensitive to anode potential. Thus, it was feasible to conduct HMF hydrogenation to BHMF and oxidation to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in a single divided cell operated under cathode potential control. Electrocatalytic HMF conversion in the paired cell achieved high yields of BHMF and FDCA (85% and 98%, respectively) and a combined electron efficiency of 187%, corresponding to a nearly two-fold enhancement compared to the unpaired cells.
ROLE FOR METHYLATION IN LEUKOCYTE CHEMOTAXIS

Key words: Chemotaxis, leukocyte, methylation, protein carboxyl groups, membrane phospholipids