cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Inflammation in Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy: From Bench to Bedside

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a vision-threatening disease and a common complication of surgery to correct rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD). Several models of the pathogenesis of this disease have been described with some of these models focusing on the role of inflammatory cells and other models focusing on the role of growth factors and cytokines in the vitreous which come into contact with intraretinal and retinal pigment epithelial cells. New experiments have shed light on the pathogenesis of PVR and offer promising avenues for clinical intervention before PVR develops. One such target is the indirect pathway of activation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGRα), which plays an important role in PVR. Clinical trials assessing the efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH), daunorubicin, and 13-cis-retinoic acid, among other therapies, have yielded mixed results. Here we review inflammatory and other mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of PVR, we highlight important clinical trials, and we discuss how findings at the bench have the potential to be translated to the bedside.
UAS4SAFETY: The Potential of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Construction Safety Applications

Changing from day to day, the construction jobsite is in a constant state of flux. This constant change presents challenges for safety managers who must be able to foresee, as much as possible, hazardous conditions before they cause injuries or fatalities on the jobsite. Advances in information and sensing technology show promise in protecting workers from harm. However, they rely on data collection methods, which may not be fast enough to allow managers to act on the information they receive. This paper evaluates the potential applications that unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have for enhancing safety on construction jobsites by providing real-time visual access to jobsite environments. The type of UAS considered in this study is a quadcopter type system that can be piloted remotely using a smart phone, tablet device or a computer. The evaluation of the system consisted of a heuristic evaluation as well as a user participation analysis to determine the features of an ideal UAS for safety related tasks on construction sites. The results of the heuristic evaluation revealed some of the user interface challenges of the UAS interface considering safety related tasks. The user participation evaluation involved a simulated task in the controlled environment of the lab of determining worker compliance with the use of required personal protective equipment. This experimental approach revealed that using the UAS with a large-size interface on a tablet device would provide an accurate view of a jobsite that would be useful for safety related tasks. Recommendations for the required features of an ideal UAS for construction safety applications include autonomous navigation, vocal interaction, high-resolution cameras, and collaborative user-interface environment among others. The ultimate goal of this effort is to provide jobsites free of the hazards that affect the most precious resource of the construction industry, its workers.
The inhibition of β‐glucosidase activity in Trichoderma reesei C30 cellulase by derivatives and isomers of glucose

The inhibition of Beta-glucosidase in Trichoderma reesei C30 cellulase by D-glucose, its isomers, and derivatives was studied using cellobiose and p-nitrophenyl-beta-glucoside (PNPG) as substrates for determining enzyme activity. The enzymatic hydrolysis of both substrates was inhibited competitively by glucose with approximate K1 values of 0.5mM and 8.7mM for cellobiose and PNPG as substrate, respectively. This inhibition by glucose was maximal at pH 4.8 and no inhibition was observed at pH 6.5 and above. The alpha anomer of glucose inhibited beta-glucosidase to a greater extent than did the beta form. Compared with D-glucose, L-glucose, D-glucose-6-phosphate, and D-glucose-1-phosphate inhibited the enzyme to a much lesser extent, unlike D-glucose-L-cysteine which was almost as inhibitory as glucose itself when cellobiose was used as substrate. Fructose (2-100mM) was found to be a poor inhibitor of the enzyme. It is suggested that high rates of cellobiose hydrolysis catalyzed by beta-glucosidase may be prolonged by converting the reaction product glucose to fructose using a suitable preparation of glucose isomerase.
Formalizing architectural connection

As software systems become more complex the overall system structure - or software architecture - becomes a central design problem. An important step towards an engineering discipline of software is a formal basis for describing and analyzing these designs. We present a theory for one aspect of architectural description, the interactions between components. The key idea is to define architectural connectors as explicit semantic entities. These are specified as a collection of protocols that characterize each of the participant roles in an interaction and how these roles interact. We illustrate how this scheme can be used to define a variety of common architectural connectors. We provide a formal semantics and show how this lends to a sound deductive system in which architectural compatibility can be checked in a way analogous to type checking in programming languages. >
Reciprocal-space solvent flattening

Solvent flattening is a powerful tool for improving crystallographic phases for macromolecular structures obtained at moderate resolution, but uncertainties in the optimal weighting of experimental phases and modified phases make it difficult to extract all the phase information possible. Solvent flattening is essentially an iterative method for maximizing a likelihood function which consists of (i) experimental phase information and (ii) information on the likelihood of various arrangements of electron density in a map, but the likelihood function is generally not explicitly defined. In this work, a procedure is described for reciprocal-space maximization of a likelihood function based on experimental phases and characteristics of the electron-density map. The procedure can readily be applied to phase improvement based on solvent flattening and can potentially incorporate information on a wide variety of other characteristics of the electron-density map.
Surgical Treatment of Saphenous Vein Graft Aneurysms After Coronary Artery Revascularization

Background Saphenous vein graft (SVG) aneurysms (SVGAs) after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) occur rarely. Most reports are anecdotal. To determine early and late outcomes of surgical treatment, we reviewed our experience with management of this rare complication of surgical revascularization. Methods From July 1975 to October 2007, 16 patients (15 men), mean age, 60.9 ± 14.6 years, underwent repair of aortocoronary SVGAs. Results Chest pain was present in 11 of 16 patients. The rest were asymptomatic. The average maximum diameter of the SVGA was 64 ± 30 mm. The concern of SVGA rupture was the primary indication for operation in 9 patients (56%). Repair in the remaining patients occurred during other cardiac operations. A pseudoaneurysm (75%) at the body or anastomotic sites of the SVG was the most common cause of SVGA. In 8 patients (50%), the aneurysm involved SVG anastomotic sites. Thirteen patients (81%) had intraluminal thrombi. Vein grafts with aneurysm were patent in 9 patients (56%). Surgical procedures included excision of the aneurysm and direct distal coronary target vessel revascularization in 10 (63%), excision and interposition vein graft in 5 (31%), and exclusion by ligation in 1 (6%). Median follow-up was 7 years (maximum, 20 years). Survival was 83% at 5 years and 72% at 10 years after SVGA repair. Conclusions Ischemic symptoms often accompany SVGA, and operation is indicated to prevent rupture. Ligation or excision of SVGA with simultaneous revascularization appears to be the optimal therapy, with satisfactory midterm and long-term results.
Immersive molecular visualization and interactive modeling with commodity hardware

Continuing advances in development of multi-core CPUs, GPUs, and low-cost six-degree-of-freedom virtual reality input devices have created an unprecedented opportunity for broader use of interactive molecular modeling and immersive visualization of large molecular complexes. We describe the design and implementation of VMD, a popular molecular visualization and modeling tool that supports both desktop and immersive virtual reality environments, and includes support for a variety of multi-modal user interaction mechanisms. A number of unique challenges arise in supporting immersive visualization and advanced input devices within software that is used by a broad community of scientists that often have little background in the use or administration of these technologies. We share our experiences in supporting VMD on existing and upcoming low-cost virtual reality hardware platforms, and we give our perspective on how these technologies can be improved and employed to enable next-generation interactive molecular simulation tools for broader use by the molecular modeling community.
The crystal structure of S. cerevisiae Sad1, a catalytically inactive deubiquitinase that is broadly required for pre-mRNA splicing.

Sad1 is an essential splicing factor initially identified in a genetic screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for snRNP assembly defects. Based on sequence homology, Sad1, or USP39 in humans, is predicted to comprise two domains: a zinc finger ubiquitin binding domain (ZnF-UBP) and an inactive ubiquitin-specific protease (iUSP) domain, both of which are well conserved. The role of these domains in splicing and their interaction with ubiquitin are unknown. We first used splicing microarrays to analyze Sad1 function in vivo and found that Sad1 is critical for the splicing of nearly all yeast intron-containing genes. By using in vitro assays, we then showed that it is required for the assembly of the active spliceosome. To gain structural insights into Sad1 function, we determined the crystal structure of the full-length protein at 1.8 A resolution. In the structure, the iUSP domain forms the characteristic ubiquitin binding pocket, though with an amino acid substitution in the active site that results in complete inactivation of the enzymatic activity of the domain. The ZnF-UBP domain of Sad1 shares high structural similarly to other ZnF-UBPs; however, Sad1's ZnF-UBP does not possess the canonical ubiquitin binding motif. Given the precedents for ZnF-UBP domains to function as activators for their neighboring USP domains, we propose that Sad1's ZnF-UBP acts in a ubiquitin-independent capacity to recruit and/or activate Sad1's iUSP domain to interact with the spliceosome.
Mitigating Biodiversity Concerns in Eucalyptus Plantations Located in South China

China’s growing economy and changes in policies that encourage afforestation, particularly in the industrial sector, have led vast areas in south China to be planted with eucalyptus. These large areas of eucalyptus plantings have elicited environmental concerns for two primary reasons. First there is a concern related to the water demand of eucalyptus, in which it is feared these large areas of eucalyptus will deplete aquifers and create shortages in water supplies. The second concern is in regard to the reduction in biodiversity across large landscapes, leading to further ecological demises. This paper proposes two ideas to possibly mitigate some of the biodiversity concerns. The first is the interplanting of alder-leaf birch (Betula alnoides), a native but dwindling species in south China, to enhance biodiversity and encourage it’s reestablishment across the landscape. The second is to encourage retention harvests of alder-leaf birch planted within eucalyptus plantations to enhance not only biological diversity but also structural diversity across the landscape. Alder-leaf birch has demonstrated great potential in producing high quality timber and wood for use in furniture manufacturing.
Access to Quality: Evaluation of the Allocation of Deceased Donor Kidneys for Transplantation

Disparities in both access to the kidney transplant waiting list and waiting times for transplant candidates have been extensively documented with regard to ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic factors, and region. However, the issue of access to equivalent quality organs has garnered less attention. The principal aim of this study was to determine whether certain patient populations were more likely to receive lower quality organs. This was a retrospective cohort study of all deceased-donor adult renal transplant recipients in the United States from 1996 to 2002 (n = 45,832). Using previously reported categorization of donor quality (I to V), the propensity of transplant recipients to receive lower-quality kidneys in a cumulative logit model was evaluated. Older patients were progressively more likely to receive lower-quality organs (age ≥ 65 yr, odds ratio [OR] = 2.1, P P = 0.81) nor patient’s primary diagnosis were associated with donor quality. Findings suggest that disparities in the quality of deceased donor kidneys to transplant recipients exist among certain patient groups that have previously documented access barriers. The extent to which these disparities are in line with broad policies of equity and potentially modifiable will have to be examined in the context of allocation policy.
Statistics of calendar month averages of surface temperature: A possible relationship to climate sensitivity

[1] This study makes use of calendar month averages of surface temperature taken from the long control runs of 13 coupled atmosphere/ocean general circulation models (GCMs) as well as from the record of observational surface temperature measurements. After aggregating the data into global averages, we examine the mean seasonal cycle as well as the anomaly statistics. We find a large range of different results for the models in the seasonal cycle of anomaly statistics. There appears to be an “empirical” relationship between the published sensitivity of the models to CO2 doubling and the seasonal cycle of the anomaly statistics. We draw an inference about the sensitivity of the real climate based upon this relationship. The relationship appears to be plausible based upon simple considerations of the land–sea distribution and the wintertime variance of climatic noise forcing. This inference leads us to estimate the sensitivity of climate to a doubling of CO2 to be about 2.7°C with the 95% confidence interval (2.3°C, 3.1°C).
Passive harmonic mode-locking of a soliton Yb fiber laser at repetition rates to 1.5 GHz

We report passive harmonic mode locking of a soliton Yb fiber laser at repetition rates continuously scalable up to 1.5 GHz. The laser generates transform-limited 500 fs pulses, with pulse energies of 30-100 pJ. At the 31st harmonic (1.3 GHz), the cavity supermodes are suppressed by 35 dB, and the pulse-to-pulse timing jitter is 6 ps.
A Neurological Representation of Speech State Anxiety: Mapping Salivary Cortisol Levels of Public Speakers

Recent studies on the anxiety patterns of public speakers have generally supported perspectives on emotion from the field of neurobiology. Without relying on highly invasive or cumbersome technology, much of the biology of speech anxiety has been derived from heart rate studies of physiological arousal rather than examining more direct evidence provided by neurological activity. The neuroendocrine hormone cortisol is produced by the brain during state anxiety and, in the present study, cortisol levels of public speakers are mapped over time. The resulting pattern for cortisol response is a monotonic decelerating function over time. Moreover, these cortisol levels are related to psychological measures of speaker state anxiety. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.
Orosensory detection of fatty acids by obesity-prone and obesity-resistant rats: strain and sex differences.

A series of brief-access (15s) behavioral assays following the formation of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to linoleic acid were performed in order to follow up on observations showing differences in the chemosensory responses to dietary fat in obesityprone (Osborne-Mendel [O-M]) and obesity-resistant (S5B/Pl) rat strains. Strong aversions to linoleic acid (conditioned stimulus 100 lM) were generated in both O-M and S5B/Pl rats to concentrations as low as 2.5 lM. Observed strain differences were in contrast to expectations based upon electrophysiological studies previously showing greater fatty acid–induced inhibition of delayed rectifying K + channels in S5B/Pl rats. In the CTA assays, the O-M rats showed aversions at lower fatty acid concentrations with more resistance to extinction in brief-access orosensory tests, suggesting that the obesity-prone strain may be more sensitive in the detection and subsequent avoidance of linoleic acid than the obesity-resistant strain. The independent variable of sex produced even greater differences in the avoidance of linoleic acid following conditioning than the effects of strain. Female rats of both strains were significantly more sensitive to fatty acids, showed greater cross-generalization from linoleic to oleic acid, and showed greater avoidance of linoleic acid than male counterparts. These findings suggest genetic influences on yet to be identified mechanisms potentially within the gustatory system that affect the sensitivity to detect the fatty acid chemicals found in dietary fat during brief-access orosensory testing.
Phosphorus and Nitrogen Legacy in a Restoration Wetland, Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

Abstract The effects of sediment, ground-water, and surface-water processes on the timing, quantity, and mechanisms of N and P fluxes were investigated in the Wood River Wetland 5–7 years after agricultural practices ceased and seasonal and permanent wetland hydrologies were restored. Nutrient concentrations in standing water largely reflected ground water in winter, the largest annual water source in the closed-basin wetland. High concentrations of total P (22 mg L−1) and total N (30 mg L−1) accumulated in summer when water temperature, air temperature, and evapotranspiration were highest. High positive benthic fluxes of soluble reactive P and ammonium (NH4+-N) were measured in two sections of the study area in June and August, averaging 46 and 24 mg m−2 d−1, respectively. Nonetheless, a wetland mass balance simultaneously indicated a net loss of P and N by assimilation, denitrification (1.1–10.1 mg N m−2 h−1), or solute repartitioning. High nutrient concentrations pose a risk for water quality managemen...
On counting rules in distributed detection

A distributed network of n identical sensors sending their binary decisions to a fusion center is studied. The asymptotic performance of k out of n rules at the fusion center for finite k (finite (n-k)) is evaluated. For these rules, the error probability of making a wrong decision does not tend to zero as n to infinity , unless the probability distributions under the hypothesis satisfy certain conditions. For a specific detection example, the asymptotic performances of the OR (k=1) rule and the AND (k=n) rule are worse than that of a single sensor. >
Gene therapies that enhance hippocampal neuron survival after an excitotoxic insult are not equivalent in their ability to maintain synaptic transmission.

Research shows that overexpression of cytoprotective genes can spare neurons from necrotic death, but few studies have addressed the functional status of surviving neurons. Overexpression of a brain glucose transporter, Glut-1, or the anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, in rats decreases the size of hippocampal lesions produced by kainic acid (KA) treatment. In animals in which KA-induced lesions are reduced to similar extents by Glut-1 or Bcl-2 overexpression, spatial learning is spared by Glut-1, but not Bcl-2. We postulated that Glut-1 and Bcl-2 act differently to protect hippocampal function and investigated the effects of vector overexpression on synaptic physiology after KA treatment. Three days after KA and vector delivery to the dentate gyrus, mossy fiber-CA3 (MF-CA3) population excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) were recorded in vitro. In addition to producing a lesion in area CA3, KA treatment reduced baseline MF-CA3 synaptic strength, posttetanic potentiation (PTP), and long-term potentiation (LTP). A similar reduction in the KA-induced lesion was produced by overexpression of Glut-1 or Bcl-2. Glut-1, but not Bcl-2, attenuated the impairments in synaptic strength and PTP. Overexpression of Glut-1 or Bcl-2 preserved LTP after KA treatment. Results indicate greater protection of MF-CA3 synaptic transmission with overexpression of Glut-1 compared to Bcl-2 and suggest that not all neuroprotective gene therapy techniques are equivalent in their ability to spare function.
Differential Effects of the Huntington’s disease CAG Mutation in Striatum and Cerebellum are Quantitative not Qualitative

Huntington's disease (HD) involves marked early neurodegeneration in the striatum, whereas the cerebellum is relatively spared despite the ubiquitous expression of full-length mutant huntingtin, implying that inherent tissue-specific differences determine susceptibility to the HD CAG mutation. To understand this tissue specificity, we compared early mutant huntingtin-induced gene expression changes in striatum to those in cerebellum in young Hdh CAG knock-in mice, prior to onset of evident pathological alterations. Endogenous levels of full-length mutant huntingtin caused qualitatively similar, but quantitatively different gene expression changes in the two brain regions. Importantly, the quantitatively different responses in the striatum and cerebellum in mutant mice were well accounted for by the intrinsic molecular differences in gene expression between the striatum and cerebellum in wild-type animals. Tissue-specific gene expression changes in response to the HD mutation, therefore, appear to reflect the different inherent capacities of these tissues to buffer qualitatively similar effects of mutant huntingtin. These findings highlight a role for intrinsic quantitative tissue differences in contributing to HD pathogenesis, and likely to other neurodegenerative disorders exhibiting tissue-specificity, thereby guiding the search for effective therapeutic interventions.
Serial Monodomy in the Gypsy Ant, Aphaenogaster araneoides: Does Nest Odor Reduction Influence Colony Relocation?

Serial monodomy is the nesting behavior in which a colony of animals maintains multiple nests for its exclusive use, occupying one nest at a time. Among serially monodomous ants, the availability of unoccupied nests reduces the probability and costs of army ant attacks. It has been proposed that nest odors mediate serial monodomy in the gypsy ant, Aphaenogaster araneoides Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and that colonies avoid returning to previously occupied nests that harbor colony odors. To evaluate this hypothesis, the odors inside the nests of A. araneoides colonies were experimentally reduced through ventilation; the nest movement behaviors of treatment and control colonies were compared. Odor reduction was found to have increased the frequency of movements into and out of the treated nest, without a change in the total occupation duration in the treated nest. Nests with a more open architecture that permitted natural flow of air were reoccupied more quickly than nests with smaller nest entrances. In summary, the openness of the architecture of A. araneoides nests and the ventilation of air through nests alters the use of these nests. These findings further support the working hypothesis that nest-bound odors mediate the pattern of serial monodomy in A. araneoides.
The Occasional Lion Tamer

As mentioned earlier, Robert Matthey and Sajiro Makino spent much of their lives studying mammalian cytogenetics and cytotaxonomy in the prehypotonic era. But the application of improved techniques (tissue culture, col-chicine, hypotonic solution, etc.) to the studies of mammalian chromosomes really came about after human cytogenetics had been well established. Many human cytogeneticists occasionally worked on the chromosomes of one animal species or another as a hobby, but most of them stopped there. Only a few cytologists made serious attempts to analyze the chromosomes of various mammalian taxa. Michael Bender and Ernest Chu independently studied many primate species. Charles Ford and John Hamerton started some excellent work on the shrew populations of Europe. Others included David Hungerford, who worked on artiodactyls, Charles Nadler on Sciuridae, Alfred Gropp and T. H. Yosida on rodents, and Karl Fredga on carnivores. It is interesting to note that none of these investigators is a bona fide mammalogist. Those mammalogists who finally ventured into cytogenetic research belong to the younger generation.
“Harm as Harm” Gang Membership, Perpetration Trauma, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

The construct of perpetration-induced trauma (PT) proposes that inflicting harm on others may constitute a traumatic event, a phenomenon which might be relevant to youth in gangs. This study investigated PT, trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and gang membership in a sample of 660 youth (484 boys, 176 girls) recruited from a detention center. When compared with their non-gang-member peers, youth in gangs endorsed higher levels of exposure to violence and PT, as well as higher symptoms of dissociation and emotional numbing. Girls who endorsed gang membership were those most likely to meet full or partial criteria for a posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Results of regression analyses showed that PT predicted unique variance in posttraumatic stress above and beyond other variables and results of tests for bootstrapped indirect effects were consistent with the hypothesis that PT acts as a mediator of the association between gang membership and posttraumatic stress.
AMPK and mTOR: sensors and regulators of immunometabolic changes during Salmonella infection in the chicken

Non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica induce an early pro-inflammatory response in chickens, but the response is short-lived, asymptomatic of clinical disease, results in a persistent colonization of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and can transmit infections to naive hosts via fecal shedding of bacteria. The underlying mechanisms that facilitate this persistent colonization of the ceca of chickens by Salmonella are unknown. We have begun to concentrate on the convergence of metabolism and immune function as playing a major role in regulating the host responsiveness to infection. It is now recognized that the immune system monitors the metabolic state of tissues and responds by modulating metabolic function. The aim in this review is to summarize the literature that has defined a series of genotypic and phenotypic alterations in the regulatory host immune-metabolic signaling pathways in the local cecal microenvironment during the first 4 d following infection with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis. Using chicken-specific kinomic immune-metabolism peptide arrays and quantitative real-time-PCR of cecal tissue during the early (4 to 48 h) and late stages (4 to 17 d) of a Salmonella infection in young broiler chickens, the local immunometabolic microenvironment has been ascertained. Distinct immune and metabolic pathways are altered between 2 to 4 d post-infection that dramatically changed the local immunometabolic environment. Thus, the tissue immunometabolic phenotype of the cecum plays a major role in the ability of the bacterium to establish a persistent cecal colonization. In general, our findings show that AMPK and mTOR are key players linking specific extracellular milieu and intracellular metabolism. Phenotypically, the early response (4 to 48 h) to Salmonella infection is pro-inflammatory, fueled by glycolysis and mTOR-mediated protein synthesis, whereas by the later phase (4 to 5 d), the local environment has undergone an immune-metabolic reprogramming to an anti-inflammatory state driven by AMPK-directed oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, metabolism appears to provide a potential critical control point that can impact infection. Further understanding of metabolic control of immunity during infection should provide crucial information of the development of novel therapeutics based on metabolic modulators that enhance protection or inhibit infection.
Intrinergy: Carbon Offsets (a)

The A case describes the decision the BurMills textile company will make regarding whether to change from producing their own steam to outsourcing their steam production to Intrinergy. BurMills can calculate the present value of cost flows for three alternatives: producing their own steam from burning natural gas, outsourcing to Intrinergy with either a fixed price contract, or with a price contract that floats with the natural gas price at Henry Hub. In addition to the standard costs associated with steam production the case adds depth by providing the possibility of revenue from carbon credits. These credits are earned because the energy in the Intrinergy plant is created from biomass. A proper analysis will include a Monte Carlo simulation based on an arithmetic random walk for carbon credit pricing, a mean-reverting arithmetic random walk for Henry Hub natural gas spot prices, and other distributions. (A student spreadsheet is available to accompany this case: UVA-S-QA-0737.)
Automatically Generate a Flat Mining Table with Dataconda

Classification and regression algorithms require a flat mining table as input, which in most cases is built manually bysummarizing relational data into propositional features. This taskis not only time consuming, but it also inhibits the discoveryof new knowledge, because a small portion of the possiblefeatures will be built. Dataconda, a software program availableon www.dataconda.net, makes this task automatic, thereby facilitatingnew knowledge to emerge. The user selects a targetvariable from any table of a relational database, and Datacondabuilds and tests a large number of predictors by aggregating information from the other tables. For example, Dataconda mayfind that the best predictor for "customer loyalty" is the amountof money spent by the customer in cheap products, even if theuser has not built any such feature. This demo will illustratehow to use Dataconda in a tutorial database and in a real-world database.
Multi-organizational Alliances and Policy Change: Understanding the Mobilization and Impact of Grassroots Coalitions

Grassroots coalitions are one mechanism by which marginalized groups access the policy arena. Such alliances integrate group interests in demand making and can influence the policy process through collective action. Understanding what factors lead to formation, sustainability, and success can explain how and why alliances function as political intermediaries. This paper features one national social change organization that collaborates with local grassroots groups working on three federal policy priorities: immigration, retirement security, and economic justice. It investigates what organizational structures and processes increase the access of local organizations to policymakers through multi-organizational alliances of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations. Based on field observations and 58 interviews, the case analysis focuses on inter-organizational partnerships, intra-organizational development, and how these organizational arrangements facilitate grassroots engagement in the policy process. Factors found to impact the strength of alliances include alignment of interests and strategies; an ability to leverage heterogeneous relationships and resources; mutuality, trust, and respect in partnership; political capacity; and “bottom-up” pathways to participation for grassroots constituencies. These findings are central to understanding the structure, function, and political effectiveness of contemporary national-to-local partnerships.
Background and Status

People evaluate other people’s appearances, behaviors, and performances. For examples, teachers evaluate students, students evaluate teachers, teachers may evaluate other teachers, and students may even evaluate each other. But evaluation is also applied by people to any “objects” that are somehow subject to being experienced or used. The objects may vary greatly, both in the ways in which they were created and in the characteristics that resulted. They may include the home in which one lives, the car that one drives, the movie that one watches, the zoo that one visits, the job that one holds, and, yes, the computer that one uses on the job or at home.
Vorstudien: Geeignete Fahrmanöver und Leistungsfähigkeit des Fahrers

Gegenstand dieses Kapitels sind die Vorstudien zur Betrachtung der ersten zwei Forschungsfragen: 1) Was sind aus Sicht der Kundenakzeptanz und der technischen Machbarkeit mogliche, zu dem aktuellen Anwendungskontext von freier Fahrt und Folgefahrt erweiterte Fahrmanover fur den Einsatz in der Teilautomation (Unterkapitel 6.1) sowie 2) Welche zeitliche Dauer der Systemuberwachung im Bereich des Kraftfahrzeugs ist dem Fahrer moglich, bevor es zu einem Einbruch der Vigilanz kommt (Unterkapitel 6.2). Diese ersten Vorarbeiten bilden die Basis fur die Methodik der drei Hauptstudien.
Iron, Loadstones and Terrestrial Magnetism

William Gilbert (1544–1603) was born in Colchester, County Essex, England. A physician in the service of Queen Elizabeth, Gilbert carried out extensive studies on the properties of loadstones and other magnetic substances. In 1600, he published De Magnete, wherein he offered a comprehensive review—and a sharp critique—of his contemporaries’ understanding of magnetism. Of particular note in Gilbert’s De Magnete is the careful distinction that he draws between electrical and magnetic phenomena. Previously, this distinction had been either greatly muddled or entirely unrecognized. According to Gilbert, electrical attractions, such as those exhibited by precious stones or amber when rubbed, were attributed to a material cause—a corporeal effluvium emitted by the substance which is “awakened by friction.” Magnetic attractions and repulsions, on the other hand, such as those exhibited by loadstones and magnetized iron, Gilbert attributed to a formal cause—a native strength or vigor which ferruginous substances share with the earth itself. The language of material and formal causes which Gilbert employs, though uncommon today, was typical of the intellectual heirs of the ancient greek philosopher Aristotle. But despite this similarity, Gilbert rejected Aristotelian thinking in at least two very important ways. First, Gilbert explicitly rejected Aristotle’s geocentrism in favor of a Copernican worldview. Gilbert’s heliocentrism was later shared by the famous German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who—explicitly invoking Gilbert’s De Magnete—would attribute Earth’s motion about the sun to some type of magnetic force. After all, Kepler reasoned, the earth (and perhaps the sun also) is a huge magnet—and magnets are known to attract one another. Second, Gilbert rejected the theory of the magnetic compass needle, or versorium, which was propounded by Aristotle’s intellectual heirs, the so-called “elementarian philosophers.” It is here that we begin our reading of Gilbert’s De Magnete. The text selections that follow are extracted from Book iii of the English translation by P. Fleury Mottelay. As you consider this text—and are thereby transported back in time, as it were, to the birth of the modern science of magnetism—you might permit yourself to naively consider the following simple questions: how, exactly, is a magnetic stone different than other stones? And what might be the hidden cause of such strange and wonderful behavior?
Alirocumab (Praluent) for Treatment of Hyperlipidemia.

Alirocumab is a novel lipid-lowering therapy that is highly effective at lowering LDL cholesterol when used in addition to statin therapy and diet. Its use should be limited to patients with either heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who do not tolerate an adequate dose of a statin.
Sexual health programming for vulnerable youth: Improving knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors

Abstract Purpose Among girls in foster care, 48% become pregnant at least once by age 19 (Dworsky & Courtney, 2010). Youth in or at-risk for foster care (YFC) report limited knowledge about, access to, and use of condoms; ambivalent attitudes towards teen parenting; and participation in other risky behaviors. For the current study, we adapted and supplemented an evidence-based sexual health program called SiHLE, using a systematic adaptation framework (ADAPT-ITT, Wingood & DiClemete, 2008), to address the unique and targeted needs of youth living in a temporary shelter due to lack of housing. Youth in this study were either in foster care and awaiting placement, or having serious family problems and were at-risk of entering the foster care system. Methods Thirty-six youth participated in SiHLE-YFC during their stay at a temporary shelter. Four 90-minute sessions focused on increasing sexual health knowledge, improving attitudes towards and self-efficacy of condom use, and developing core skills such as problem-solving and communication. Results As hypothesized, youth showed high satisfaction with the intervention and significant improvement in sexual health knowledge from pre to post. At one-month follow-up, youth continued to show significant improvement in sexual health knowledge, along with a significant reduction in risky sexual behaviors. Though not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for changes in attitudes towards teen pregnancy and condoms. There were no changes in attitudes towards teen parenting. Conclusion Taken together, findings suggest that sexual health education directly targeting the unique needs of YFC may improve sexual health knowledge and behavior, and are discussed in the context of challenges associated with intervention and research with this population.
SketchSeeker: Finding Similar Sketches

Searching is a necessary tool for managing and navigating the massive amounts of data available in today's information age. While new searching methods have become increasingly popular and reliable in recent years, such as image-based searching, these methods may be more limited than text-based means in that they do not allow generic user input. Sketch-based searching is a method that allows users to draw generic search queries and return similar drawn images, giving more user control over their search content. In this paper, we present SketchSeeker, a system for indexing and searching across a large number of sketches quickly based on their similarity. SketchSeeker introduces a technique for indexing sketches in extremely compressed representations, which allows for fast, accurate retrieval augmented with a multilevel ranking subsystem. SketchSeeker was tested on a large set of sketches against existing sketch similarity metrics, and it shows significant improvements in terms of storage requirements, speed, and accuracy.
Impact of surgical approach on complication rates after elective spinal fusion (≥3 levels) for adult spine deformity.

Background: While there are variations in techniques and surgical approaches to spinal fusion, there is not a defined consensus on a recommended surgical approach. The aim of this study is to determine if there was a difference in intra- and post-operative complication rates between different surgical approaches after elective spinal fusion (≥3 levels) for adult spine deformity. Methods: The medical records of 443 adult spine deformity patients undergoing elective spinal fusion (≥3) at a major academic institution from 2005 to 2015 were reviewed. We identified 96 (21.7%) anterior only, 225 (50.8%) posterior only, and 122 (27.5%) combined anterior/posterior approaches taken for spinal fusion (anterior: n=96; posterior: n=225). Patient demographics, comorbidities, anatomical location, and complication rates were collected for each patient. The primary outcome investigated in this study was the rate of intra- and post-operative complications. Results: Patient demographics and comorbidities were similar between all groups. The posterior approach had significantly higher EBL (P vs . posterior: 11.1% vs . combined: 4.1%, P vs . posterior: 12.8% vs . combined: 13.1%, P=0.80). Conclusions: Our study suggests that posterior approaches to spinal fusion may lead to a higher incidence of complications compared to anterior or combined anterior/posterior approaches.
The Global City Cases

This section analyzes Hamburg, Barcelona, Chicago, Toronto, and Montreal in turn. They were chosen in part because their migrant populations include members of five national groups: Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Pakistanis, and Ghanaians. The same topics are covered for each city, namely, the concentrations of those migrants and their residential movements between 2000 and 2015; their dissimilarity, isolation, and exposure indices of segregation; and key indicators of their structural integration (in terms of employment, poverty, and social assistance rates) over the same period. The author also considers local policy responses in each case, highlighting trends in migrant integration strategies, housing, transportation, and neighborhood development and their effect on the shared lived experience and multicultural public spaces.
Empathy and well-being correlate with centrality in different social networks

Individuals benefit from occupying central roles in social networks, but little is known about the psychological traits that predict centrality. Across four college freshman dorms (n = 193), we characterized individuals with a battery of personality questionnaires and also asked them to nominate dorm members with whom they had different types of relationships. This revealed several social networks within dorm communities with differing characteristics. In particular, additional data showed that networks varied in the degree to which nominations depend on (i) trust and (ii) shared fun and excitement. Networks more dependent upon trust were further defined by fewer connections than those more dependent on fun. Crucially, network and personality features interacted to predict individuals' centrality: people high in well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and positive emotion) were central to networks characterized by fun, whereas people high in empathy were central to networks characterized by trust. Together, these findings provide network-based corroboration of psychological evidence that well-being is socially attractive, whereas empathy supports close relationships. More broadly, these data highlight how an individual's personality relates to the roles that they play in sustaining their community.
Understanding and treating multi-infarct dementia.

Multi-infarct dementia (MID) is second to Alzheimer’s disease as a cause for dementia. The pathogenesis, clinical syndromes, and potential therapies for MID are reviewed in this article.
Justice and the Dying

Perhaps the primary question about justice and the dying is whether justice is the appropriate category for discussing most of the significant ethical issues concerning the dying. Many works concerned with the dying, even by non-utilitarians, emphasize considerations of benevolence rather than those of justice. The extent to which one believes justice is a major consideration depends on one’s concept of justice. The following discussion is framed around three concepts of justice. The first section considers justice as respecting rights, focusing on the alleged right to die and a right to be told the truth. The second section discusses distributive justice and its possible conflicts with efficiency in the allocation of scarce resources between the dying and others. In particular, is the fact that people are dying a reason for not allocating resources to them? Compensatory justice, whether the dying are entitled to benefits to compensate for their dying, is analyzed in the last section.
Domain structure in martensitic transformation

Morphology of martensitic crystals and elastic domain mechanism of the strain accommodation are discussed. The analogy between magnetic, ferroelectric and elastic domains is emphasized. The elastic domain theory is used to estimate typical values for the surface energy of a boundary between twin-related orientation variants of the martensite phase and for the interfacial energy between the martensite and parent phases in β Fe-31 Ni alloy. An adaptive mechanism of a homogeneous nucleation in the “strong” martensitic transformation is discussed. Key words: martensite, elastic domains, nucleation, twin energy, semicoherent boundary energy, adaptive martensite
Abstract 1317: Multi-scale mapping of the physical and functional architecture of the cancer cell

Cancer is governed by modular systems of genes, the composition and organization of which remains poorly understood. Here, we integrate physical and functional networks from a wide range of molecular studies to assemble a comprehensive multi-scale map of human cancer cell biology. This map consists of a hierarchical catalog of protein complexes, signaling pathways and inter-pathway crosstalk implicated in cancer, and it suggests many uncharacterized functional modules as intriguing hypotheses for further validation. Analysis of the pattern of somatic mutations in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) reveals that these mutations target systems of varying scales above the level of individual genes. The map also provides a platform to integrate and interpret new 9omics data; we integrate new protein-protein interactions identified using AP-MS in multiple breast cancer cell lines, revealing how different functional modules are rewired in cancer cells. A general model browsing tool has been created to visualize and navigate these hierarchical cancer maps. This multi-scale mapping approach elucidates the molecular heterogeneity of cancer, connects tumor genotypes to phenotypes and, ultimately, enables a platform for cancer precision medicine. Citation Format: Fan Zheng, Michael K. Yu, Minkyu Kim, Keiichiro Ono, Mitchell Flagg, Jason F. Kreisberg, Nevan Krogan, Trey Ideker. Multi-scale mapping of the physical and functional architecture of the cancer cell [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1317.
A curative approach to central nervous system metastases of neuroblastoma.

10545Background: Neuroblastoma metastatic to the central nervous system (CNS NB) is associated with significant mortality (median survival < 6 months, < 10% survival at 36 months). Intraventricular...