cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Immune Complex–Mediated Neutrophil Recruitment and Tissue Injury

Deposition of antibody-antigen immune complexes (ICs) in tissues underlies the pathogenesis of a range of human autoimmune diseases from glomerulonephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), arthritis, and transplantation rejection to rheumatic fever. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that autoimmunity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here, we overview the literature that links autoimmune diseases and accelerated atherosclerosis and review our understanding of IC-induced inflammation. In particular, we discuss the contribution of the location and composition of ICs to the cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease that develop and detail the steps leading to IC-mediated leukocyte recruitment and tissue injury. The focus is on neutrophil-dependent tissue injury. Although these cells have not found a prominent place in discussions of chronic inflammatory conditions such as autoimmunity and atherosclerosis, recent literature discussed here indicates that neutrophils initiate IC-induced inflammation that in turn launches and informs the subsequent immune response. A fuller understanding of the mechanisms involved in the initiation and perpetuation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody mediated inflammation may lead to the design of innovative therapeutic strategies to prevent cardiovascular complications in patients with autoimmune diseases. Well-controlled studies have demonstrated that autoimmunity is an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic lesions and premature myocardial infarction.1,2 Population-based studies in various countries have shown that CVD-associated mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than in control individuals.3–6 Similarly, increased rates of CVD have been reported in other forms of inflammatory arthritis, including giant cell arteritis7 and psoriatic arthritis.8 The risk for CVD and myocardial infarction is also pronounced in patients with SLE, a complex autoimmune disease affecting multiple organs. The Pittsburgh lupus cohort presented a 52-fold increase in cardiovascular events in young women with SLE.9 The Framingham Heart Study risk factors contribute to CVD …
Fas and Fas-Associated Death Domain Protein Regulate Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Expression by Human Smooth Muscle Cells Through Caspase- and Calpain-Dependent Release of Interleukin-1α

We previously reported that treatment of human vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with proapoptotic stimuli, including Fas ligand plus cycloheximide (FasL/Chx), or overexpression of Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) result in increased expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and other proinflammatory genes. In this study, we demonstrate that Fas/FADD-induced MCP-1 upregulation is driven by an autocrine/paracrine signaling loop in which interleukin (IL)-1α synthesis and release are activated through caspase- and calpain-dependent processes. Untreated SMCs contain very little IL-1α protein or transcript. Both were increased greatly in response to Fas/FADD activation, primarily through an autocrine/paracrine pathway in which secreted IL-1α stimulated additional IL-1α synthesis and release. Caspase 8 (Csp8) activity increased in response to FasL/Chx treatment, and Csp8 inhibitors markedly reduced IL-1α release and MCP-1 upregulation. In contrast, Csp8 activity was not significantly increased in response to FADD overexpression and caspase inhibitors did not effect FADD-induced MCP-1 upregulation. Both FasL/Chx treatment and FADD overexpression increased the activity of calpains. Calpain inhibitors reduced IL-1α release and MCP-1 upregulation in both FADD-overexpressing SMCs and FasL/Chx-treated SMCs without blocking Csp8 activity. This indicates that calpains are not required for activation of caspases and that caspase activation is not sufficient for IL-1α release and MCP-1 upregulation. These data suggest that calpains play a dominant role in Fas/FADD-induced IL-1α release and MCP-1 upregulation and that caspase activation may function to amplify the effects of calpain activation.
Capacity planning and power management to exploit sustainable energy

This paper describes an approach for designing a power management plan that matches the supply of power with the demand for power in data centers. Power may come from the grid, from local renewable sources, and possibly from energy storage subsystems. The supply of renewable power is often time-varying in a manner that depends on the source that provides the power, the location of power generators, and the weather conditions. The demand for power is mainly determined by the time-varying workloads hosted in the data center and the power management policies implemented by the data center. A case study demonstrates how our approach can be used to design a plan for realistic and complex data center workloads. The study considers a data center's deployment in two geographic locations with different supplies of power. Our approach offers greater precision than other planning methods that do not take into account time-varying power supply and demand and data center power management policies.
The Geography of Italian Pasta

Pasta is as much an institution as a food in Italy, where it has made a significant contribution to national culture. Its historical geography is one of strong regional variations based on climate, social factors, and diffusion patterns. These are considered herein; a taxonomy of pasta types is presented and illustrated in a series of maps that show regional variations. The classification scheme divides pasta into eight classes based on morphology and, where appropriate, filling. These include the spaghetti and tubular families, pasta shells, ribbon forms, short pasta, very small or “micropasta” types, the ravioli family of filled pasta, and the dumpling family, which includes gnocchi. Three patterns of diffusion of pasta types are identified: by sea, usually from the Mezzogiorno and Sicily, locally through adjacent regions, and outwards from the main centers of adoption. Many dry pasta forms are native to the south and center of Italy, while filled pasta of the ravioli family predominates north of the Ap...
The effects of ionizing radiation on the dividing cells of the conjunctival epithelium.

The influence of an X-ray dose of 10 Gy (1000 rads) on mitosis in the rat conjunctival epithelium was assessed. A mitotic inhibition began 1 hour postirradiation and continued for 4 days. The mitotic index was depressed to 10% of control values. After 5 days postirradiation, the mitotic index surpassed the control values peaking at 7 days postirradiation.The spindle axes of cells in telophase of the perilimbal rat conjunctival epithelium assume a characteristic, three dimensional orientation relative to the limbus. Ionizing radiation did not disrupt this organization at any time postirradiation. In fact, the frequency of mitotic figures preferentially aligned in irradiated tissue was enhanced during the mitotic rebound.
Successful Cold Acclimation Following Bilateral Adrenodemedullation in Rats

SummaryBilaterally adrenodemedullated rats were successfully cold acclimated at 5°C for 5 weeks. This was evidenced by (i) successful survival, (ii) elevated oxygen uptake measured at 28°C, (iii) enhanced calorigenic response to tyramine although demedullated rats had significantly lower oxygen uptakes than the intact rats, and (iv) an increased tolerance to cold (−10°C) similar to that observed in intact rats after 5 weeks of acclimation. Non-cold-acclimated demedullated rats were unable to maintain their colonic temperature to the same extent as the intact non-cold-acclimated rats during exposure to −10°C. All cold-acclimated rats had greater response to tyramine and better tolerance to −10°C than non-cold-acclimated rats.This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health under Grant NIH AG00021.
Writing Feminist Webzines and the Confusion of Identity

Les Webzines sont des mini-magazines publies par les auteurs eux-memes. L'article presente des exemples de ces magazines pour faire ressortir les questions identitaires et communautaires soulvees. Par exemple, une nouvelle generation de feministes utilise une forme d'ecriture decalee utilisant le pastiche et le collage. L'article souligne les tensions que cela peut provoquer chez les enseignants charges de diffuser la culture traditionnelle et confrontes a ces initiatives alternatives.
A Perspective on Controversies Over Neonatal Circumcision

Controversy continues to surround the issue of male circumcision, especially in the United States. The following report reviews the history of this practice, along with the medical and sociopolitical positions currently espoused. It is our conclusion that, as the safest and most commonly performed surgical procedure in this country, the benefits of posthetomy, which include a reduction in some kinds of cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, well outweigh the risks cited by those who oppose it.
Colistin Heteroresistance in Enterobacter cloacae Is Associated with Cross-Resistance to the Host Antimicrobial Lysozyme

Here, we describe the first identification of colistin-heteroresistant Enterobacter cloacae in the United States. Treatment of this isolate with colistin increased the frequency of the resistant subpopulation and induced cross-resistance to the host antimicrobial lysozyme. This is the first description of heteroresistance conferring cross-resistance to a host antimicrobial and suggests that clinical treatment with colistin may inadvertently select for bacteria that are resistant to components of the host innate immune system.
Exergy and economic analyses of advanced IGCC–CCS and IGFC–CCS power plants

Abstract We present exergy and economic analyses of two advanced fossil fuel power plants configurations: an integrated gasification combined cycle with advanced H2 and O2 membrane separation including CO2 sequestration (Adv. IGCC–CCS) and an integrated gasification fuel cell cycle with a catalytic gasifier and a pressurized solid oxide fuel cell including CO2 sequestration (Adv. IGFC–CCS). The goal of the exergy analysis was to evaluate the power generation and the exergy destruction of each of the major components. We estimated the capital, labor, and fuel costs of these power plants, and then calculated the internal rate of return on investment (IRR) and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). In the Adv. IGFC–CCS case, we chose a configuration with anode gas recycle back to the gasifier, and then varied the SOFC pressure to find the optimal pressure under this particular configuration. Using a base load generation price of electricity of $50/MWh, the IRR of the Adv. IGFC–CCS configuration was 4 ± 3%/yr if the CO2 can be used for EOR and 1 ± 3%/yr if the CO2 can only be sequestered in a saline aquifer. The IRR of the Adv. IGCC–CCS configuration with H2 and O2 membrane separation was 8 ± 4%/yr if the CO2 can be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and 3 ± 3%/yr if the CO2 must be sequestered in a saline aquifer. The uncertainty here reflects the uncertainty in capital costs, operation & maintenance (O&M) costs, and CO2 sequestration costs. One goal of the economic analysis was to compare the IRR and LCOE of these configurations with the IRR and LCOE of other fossil fuel power plant configurations. For example, using capital/labor/maintenance cost estimates from the literature, we calculated the IRR and LCOE of conventional fossil fuel power plant configurations, including scenarios with CCS and scenarios with varying costs to emit CO2. We also present results on which power plant configuration yields the lowest value of LCOE as a function of the price of CO2 emissions and a function of the price of natural gas, holding all other variables constant. An Adv. IGCC–CCS–EOR configuration yields the lowest value of LCOE when the price of natural gas and the price of CO2 emissions are above the line between ($5/GJ, $10/tCO2) and ($2.5/GJ, $50/tCO2).
Allergic rhinitis: the “Ghost Diagnosis” in patients with asthma

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common comorbidity of asthma that contributes to asthma severity. Although over 80 % of asthmatics have AR, the condition is frequently underdiagnosed in subjects with asthma. AR itself is also a highly prevalent condition, affecting 10-30 % of adults and up to 40 % of children. AR has been associated with both increased risk of asthma development and asthma severity. The exact mechanisms underlying these relationships have yet to be fully elucidated, but evidence supports a role for allergen sensitization. Compared to those with asthma alone, patients with comorbid AR and asthma have greater use of health care resources, including visits to the general practitioner, emergency department and hospitalizations. Pharmacological treatment of AR reduces this health care burden. Immunotherapy for AR improves both asthma and rhinitis symptoms in addition to preventing future allergen sensitizations and asthma development. Appropriate recognition, diagnosis and treatment of AR can significantly reduce asthma morbidity and improve quality of life.
Cancer Vaccines in the World of Immune Suppressive Monocytes (CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg Cells): The Gateway to Improved Responses

Dendritic cells are an important target in cancer immunotherapy based on their critical role in antigen presentation and response to tumor development. The capacity of dendritic cells to stimulate anti-tumor immunity have led investigators to use these cells to mediate anti-tumor responses in a number of clinical trials. However, these trials have had mixed results. The typical method for generation of ex-vivo dendritic cells starts with the purification of CD14+ cells. Our studies identified a deficiency in the ability to generate mDC using CD14+ cells from cancer patients that corresponded with an increased population of monocytes with altered surface marker expression (CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg). Further studies identified systemic immune suppression and increased concentrations of CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes capable of inhibiting T cell proliferation and DC maturation. Together these findings strongly suggest that protocols aimed at immune stimulation via monocytes/dendritic cells, if optimized on normal monocytes or in systems without these suppressive monocytes, are unlikely to engender effective DC maturation in vitro or efficiently trigger DC maturation in vivo. This highlights the importance of developing optimal protocols for stimulating DCs in the context of significantly altered monocyte phenotypes in patients.
Enhancing the performance and dependability of real-time systems

The imprecise-computation technique was proposed as a way to handle transient overloads and enhance the dependability of real-time systems. In a system based on this technique, each time-critical task produces an approximate but usable result whenever a failure or overload prevents the system from producing a precise result. This approach makes meeting deadlines easier, increases the availability of data and services, reduces the need for error-recovery operations, and minimizes the costs in replication. We provide an overview of ways to implement and schedule imprecise computations. We then describe the Imprecise Computation Server (ICS) and how it is used to ensure real-time performance of time-critical applications. >
Design of Pareto optimal CO2 cap-and-trade policies for deregulated electricity networks

Among the CO2 emission reduction programs, cap-and-trade (C&T) is one of the most used policies. Economic studies have shown that C&T policies for electricity networks, while reducing emissions, will likely increase price and decrease consumption of electricity. This paper presents a two layer mathematical–statistical model to develop Pareto optimal designs for CO2 cap-and-trade policies. The bottom layer finds, for a given C&T policy, equilibrium bidding strategies of the competing generators while maximizing social welfare via a DC optimal power flow (DC-OPF) model. We refer to this layer as policy evaluation. The top layer (called policy optimization) involves design of Pareto optimal C&T policies over a planning horizon. The performance measures that are considered for the purpose of design are social welfare and the corresponding system marginal price (MP), CO2 emissions, and electricity consumption level.
Teaching IC design, layout, and testing through a university-industry cooperative venture

Students and faculty at Georgia Tech design, simulate, layout, and design-rule-check CMOS integrated circuits for fabrication at Harris Corp.. Circuits designed in this way become part of a multiproject chip. Harris engineers also design-rule-check all circuits, fabricate the ICs, and return wafers to Georgia Tech. Students test circuits both at the wafer level and at the package level after dicing and bonding. Project results are summarized in student reports made available to Harris. Objectives of the program are described and the factors that have contributed to the success of this activity are detailed. A typical project is discussed to illustrate how this project has served as the stimulation and motivation for student and faculty education. >
Hydroquinone, a benzene metabolite, increases the level of aneusomy of chromosomes 7 and 8 in human CD34-positive blood progenitor cells

Benzene is an established human carcinogen, producing leukemia, hematotoxicity and perhaps lymphoma. Its carcinogenicity is most likely dependent upon its conversion to phenol and hydroquinone, the latter being oxidized to the highly toxic 1,4-benzoquinone in the bone marrow. Exposure of human lymphocytes and cell lines to hydroquinone has previously been shown to cause various forms of genetic damage, including aneusomy and the loss and gain of chromosomes. However, the target cells for leukemogenesis are the pluripotent stem cells or early progenitor cells which carry the CD34 antigen (CD34(+) cells). In this study, human cord blood, which is particularly rich in CD34(+) cells, was exposed to hydroquinone for 72 h in a medium that favored CD34(+) cell survival and growth. CD34(+) and CD34(-) cells were then isolated. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was employed to determine the level of aneusomy of chromosomes 7 and 8 in both cell types. CD34(+) cells were generally more susceptible to aneusomy induction by hydroquinone than CD34(-) cells. Increased trisomy and monosomy of chromosomes 7 and 8 were observed in CD34(+) cells (P(trend) < 0.001), whereas in CD34(-) cells only an increased level of monosomy 7 was detected (P(trend) = 0.002). Particularly striking effects of hydroquinone were observed in CD34(+) cells on monosomy 7 and trisomy 8, two common clonal aberrations found in myeloid leukemias, suggesting that these aneusomies produced by hydroquinone in CD34(+) cells play a role in benzene-induced leukemogenesis.
Comparing Mandated Health Care Reforms: The Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations, and the Medicare ESRD Program

In addition to extending health insurance coverage, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 aims to improve quality of care and contain costs. To this end, the act allowed introduction of bundled payments for a range of services, proposed the creation of accountable care organizations (ACOs), and established the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test new care delivery and payment models. The ACO program began April 1, 2012, along with demonstration projects for bundled payments for episodes of care in Medicaid. Yet even before many components of the Affordable Care Act are fully in place, the Medicare ESRD Program has instituted legislatively mandated changes for dialysis services that resemble many of these care delivery reform proposals. The ESRD program now operates under a fully bundled, case-mix adjusted prospective payment system and has implemented Medicare's first-ever mandatory pay-for-performance program: the ESRD Quality Incentive Program. As ACOs are developed, they may benefit from the nephrology community's experience with these relatively novel models of health care payment and delivery reform. Nephrologists are in a position to assure that the ACO development will benefit from the ESRD experience. This article reviews the new ESRD payment system and the Quality Incentive Program, comparing and contrasting them with ACOs. Better understanding of similarities and differences between the ESRD program and the ACO program will allow the nephrology community to have a more influential voice in shaping the future of health care delivery in the United States.
Axillary dissection in breast cancer: when, why, how much, and for how long? Another operation soon to be extinct?

The prognostic significance of tumor size and location of the primary tumor in the breast as well as the pathologic status of the axillary lymph nodes in patients with invasive primary breast cancer have been thoroughly studied. A direct adverse relationship between increasing tumor size and prognosis is well established. Likewise, even though 50% of invasive tumors are located in the upper outer quadrant of the breast, it is unusual to find statistically significant differences in survival based on quadrant location alone. Although the American College of Surgeons' (ACS) National Survey in 1978 [1] and even earlier data from Fisher et al. [2] both indicate that women with medial tumors and negative nodes do somewhat worse than patients with lateral tumors and negative nodes, this difference is, at most, 5%. Moreover, the prognosis for patients with positive nodes was not statistically different based on tumor location. However, the likelihood of axillary lymph node involvement is influenced by location of the primary tumor in the breast. In the ACS survey, 43% of patients with tumors in the lateral half of the breast had positive axillary nodes, compared with 35% for patients with medial-half tumors. Fisher has observed that 52% of patients with lateral-half tumors had positive nodes, compared with 29% of patients with medial-half tumors. This tendency occurs independent of tumor size.
On inversive localization

P.M.Cohn introduced in [4] the invers ive loca l i za t ion at a semiprime ideal N of a l e f t Noetherian r ing R. He gave a construct ion for a r ing of quotients RF(N) universal with respect to the property that every matrix regular modulo N is in ve r t i b le over Rr(N). That i s , in each r ing (RF(N)) n of n ×n matrices over RF(N), every element of (R) n which is regular modulo (N) n becomes i nve r t i b l e . The ring RF(N) always ex is ts , but i t can be very d i f f i c u l t to determine. In fac t , i t is hard to compute even the kernel of the mapping R ÷ RF(N). On the other hand, Re(N) has some very desirable propert ies which are lacking in the torsion theoret ic loca l i za t ion RC(N), and so i t appears to be worthy of fu r ther study. This paper contains the announcement of some prel iminary resul ts in studying invers ive loca l i za t i on . I t also contains some e x p l i c i t computations, since one of the f i r s t tasks must be to bu i ld a co l lec t ion of examples. Included is the computation of Ar(~) for every prime ideal ~ of the r ing of formal matrices A = [~ ~I, where R is a commutat i ve r ing and M and N are modules over R which have the pair ings necessary to define matr ix mu l t i p l i ca t i on in A. This includes as special cases several examples given by Cohn in [4] .
Characteristics and Trends of Indian Healthcare Industry

Above the precedent decade, average life expectancy has increased, infant and child mortality rates have declined, and the amount of underweight and stunted children has decreased. In developing countries, the percentage of people with life expectancy at birth below sixty declined from 18 per cent to 7 per cent between 2001 and 2011. The quantity of people without contact to improved water supply fell from 21 per cent to 18 per cent over the past decade. Many communicable diseases have receded, owing to improved sanitation, nutrition, drugs and vaccines. This paper highlights the recent trends in health care of India and identifies issues and trends warranting future consideration. India has 48 doctors per 100,000 persons which are fewer than in developed nations. India has wide urban-rural gap in the accessibility of medical services. Over 60,000 cardiac surgeries done per year without come at par with international standards. Multi organ transplants like Renal, Liver, Heart, Bone Marrow Transplants, are productively performed at one tenth the cost. Patients from over 55 countries treated at Indian Hospitals. Adopting innovations is increasingly becoming the standard athwart sectors including healthcare. The range and avenues available for innovations in healthcare are ample depending on the implementing stakeholder and the intended benefit. e.g. whereas hospitals may outlook products which help decrease costs and get better health as an innovation, patients and consumers of health care may view products that offer financial protection as innovations. The drivers of innovations are many in the emerging markets. The sole and sensitive developmental challenges, which have required these markets to expand original solutions and perspectives has been a big driver for innovations. Healthcare is racing towards high-tech, automated technologies like, healthcare delivery through application of telecommunications technology or rather tele-medicine.
Characterization of adiponectin receptor expression and function in TRAMP prostate tumors and the TRAMP-C2 cell line

A85 Introduction: Obesity is associated with increased risk for more aggressive prostate cancer (Pca) as defined by an increase in the risk of Pca death and an increased chance of progression after surgery. Obesity may mediate its effects on Pca in part due to factors secreted from adipose tissue. One factor potentially involved in the interaction between Pca and obesity is adiponectin, also known as adipocyte complement-related protein of 30 kDa (Acrp30). Lower serum Acrp30 levels have been reported for Pca patients compared to patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia or healthy controls. In addition, lower expression levels of Acrp30 receptors are found in prostate tumors as compared to healthy prostate tissue. Here we assessed how Acrp30 impacted cell growth in vitro in the TRAMP-C2 cell line which is derived from a TRAMP prostate tumor and determined Acrp30 receptor expression in the TRAMP model. >Procedures: TRAMP-C2 cells (ATCC) were used in growth assays (CC8 kit Dojindo Laboratories). Whole cell extracts were obtained using Phosphosafe extraction reagent from Novagen for determination of adiponectin receptors (AdipoR1 and R2) and signaling proteins by western blot. Antibodies were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology except antibodies to AdipoR1 (Abcam Inc), AdipoR2 (Phoenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) and anti-rabbit secondary (Cell Signaling Inc.).TRAMP mice were euthanized at 50 weeks and urogenital tracts plus abnormal growths/tumors removed. Sections were stained with the rabbit ABC staining system for AdipoR1 and R2. >Results: There was a dose-related reduction in proliferation of the TRAMP-C2 cells after 48 hours in response to the addition of Acrp30. The difference in proliferation was statistically significant at physiological Acrp30 concentrations of 10 and 20 ug/ml (Student’s t-test p We also found that tumors from TRAMP mice expressed the two receptors for Acrp30, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2. Using immunohistochemical analysis we found expression of AdipoR1 in prostate tumor tissue from TRAMP mice was mostly in epithelial cells on the apical membrane. AdipoR2 was present in the same areas as AdipoR1 but the staining was lower. Western blot analysis of frozen tissue from the same mice also indicated expression of AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 in prostate tumor tissue. >Conclusions: Here,we are the first to report the presence of AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 in prostate tumor tissues from TRAMP mice and in the TRAMP-C2 cell line which is derived from the prostate tumor of a TRAMP mouse. The receptors appear to be functional since proliferation of TRAMP-C2 cells was inhibited by addition of Acrp30. This decrease in cell growth may be attributable to increased signaling through ERK 1/2 since Acrp30 increased the phosphorylation of ERK 1/2. We are currently investigating the levels of Acrp30 in vivo with ongoing mouse studies in relationship to body weight and Pca development. Support from DOD PC 050284 and The Hormel Foundation.
Nonlinear Programming Properties for Stable and Robust NMPC

Abstract We explore properties of nonlinear programming problems (NLPs) that arise in the formulation of NMPC subproblems and show their influence on stability and robustness of NMPC. NLPs that satisfy linear independence constraint qualification (LICQ), second order sufficient conditions (SOSC) and strict complementarity (SC), have solutions that are continuous and differentiable with perturbations of the problem data. As a result, they are important prerequisites for nominal and ISS stability of NMPC controllers. Moreover, we show that ensuring these properties is possible through reformulation of the NLP subproblem for NMPC, through the addition of l1 penalty and barrier terms. We show how these properties also establish ISS of related sensitivity-based NMPC controllers, such as asNMPC and amsNMPC. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of our reformulated NLPs on several examples that have shown nonrobust performance on earlier NMPC strategies.
Autotaxin, a lysophospholipase D with pleomorphic effects in oncogenesis and cancer progression

The ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase type 2, more commonly known as autotaxin (ATX), is an ecto-lysophospholipase D encoded by the human ENNP2 gene. ATX is expressed in multiple tissues and participates in numerous key physiologic and pathologic processes, including neural development, obesity, inflammation, and oncogenesis, through the generation of the bioactive lipid, lysophosphatidic acid. Overwhelming evidence indicates that altered ATX activity leads to oncogenesis and cancer progression through the modulation of multiple hallmarks of cancer pathobiology. Here, we review the structural and catalytic characteristics of the ectoenzyme, how its expression and maturation processes are regulated, and how the systemic integration of its pleomorphic effects on cells and tissues may contribute to cancer initiation, progression, and therapy. Additionally, the up-to-date spectrum of the most frequent ATX genomic alterations from The Cancer Genome Atlas project is reported for a subset of cancers.
Child's play: activity recognition for monitoring children's developmental progress with augmented toys

The way in which infants play with objects can be indicative of their developmental progress and may serve as an early indicator for developmental delays. However, the observation of children interacting with toys for the purpose of quantitative analysis can be a difficult task. To better quantify how play may serve as an early indicator, researchers have conducted retrospective studies examining the differences in object play behaviors among infants. However, such studies require that researchers repeatedly inspect videos of play often at speeds much slower than real-time to indicate points of interest. The research presented in this dissertation examines whether a combination of sensors embedded within toys and automatic pattern recognition of object play behaviors can help expedite this process. For my dissertation, I developed the Child'sPlay system which uses augmented toys and statistical models to automatically provide quantitative measures of object play interactions, as well as, provide the PlayView interface to view annotated play data for later analysis. In this dissertation, I examine the hypothesis that sensors embedded in objects can provide sufficient data for automatic recognition of certain exploratory, relational, and functional object play behaviors in semi-naturalistic environments and that a continuum of recognition accuracy exists which allows automatic indexing to be useful for retrospective review. I designed several augmented toys and used them to collect object play data from more than fifty play sessions. I conducted pattern recognition experiments over this data to produce statistical models that automatically classify children's object play behaviors. In addition, I conducted a user study with twenty participants to determine if annotations automatically generated from these models help improve performance in retrospective review tasks. My results indicate that these statistical models increase user performance and decrease perceived effort when combined with the PlayView interface during retrospective review. The presence of high quality annotations are preferred by users and promotes an increase in the effective retrieval rates of object play behaviors.
Blast-related lung injuries

Blast-related lung injuries are occurring with increased frequency in a variety of circumstances, necessitating that both civilian and military providers across the healthcare spectrum understand how to promptly diagnose and manage these injury patterns. Primary, secondary, and tertiary blast injury mechanisms are most commonly encountered and can result in primary blast lung injury, air embolism, pulmonary contusion, rib fractures, and penetrating lung injuries. Primary blast lung injury occurs when a blast wave injures the lung parenchyma and vasculature and presents as acute dyspnea, cough, and hypoxemia with airspace disease on chest imaging. The treatment of primary blast lung injury, as well as other blast-related lung injuries, involves maintaining oxygenation and using a lung-protective strategy with low tidal volumes and minimal PEEP for patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Pain management, preferably in the form of regional anesthesia, is also crucial in improving outcomes in patients with blast-related lung injury.
Chlorophyll fluorescence as affected by some superficial defects in stored apples

Chlorophyll fluorescence, skin coloration and surface contour were measured for apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) fruit with and without common storage and handling surface defects. Defects included C...
Adaptation to Intermittently Flooded Swamps by Anopheles quadrimaculatus Species C1 (Diptera: Culicidae)

Anopheles quadrimaculatus species C1 is a member of the recently described A. quadrimaculatus complex and has been collected from temporary pools in intermittently flooded swamps in north Florida. We examined the hypothesis that species C1 uses persistence in the egg stage as a survival strategy. Species C1 larvae appeared in 40 of 153 samples of dry substrate collected from the floor of four intermittently flooded swamps and flooded with distilled water. Cohorts of first-instar species C1 were collected from temporary pools <24 h after the pools formed and at the same time as first instars of the floodwater mosquitoes Aedes infirmatus and Psorophora ferox appeared. In the laboratory, eggs of species C1 were successfully hatched after storage for up to 28 d on moist filter paper. Survival of species C1 eggs allows this species to exploit a niche used by floodwater mosquitoes.
Gluten sensitivity: fact or fashion statement?

Purpose of reviewIn recent years, the concern over food sensitivities in general and gluten intolerance in particular has sharply increased. Patients and medical providers are awash in various claims about the potential implications of including or excluding gluten from the diet.Recent findingsThree
Key Mechanisms of Secondary Neuronal Damage After Brain Trauma

Progress in the successful application of novel therapies in the treatment of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans has been disappointing [1]. Currently, treatment is limited to field stabilization and supportive neurointensive care, the application of clinically accepted strategies to control intracranial hypertension, and surgical resection of mass lesions [2]. A number of novel therapies have shown promise in contemporary experimental models of severe TBI [3], but none has been successfully translated to clinical use via a randomized controlled clinical trial demonstrating a beneficial effect on outcome. Examples of important failures include the trials of two agents targeting oxidative injury, tirilazad [4] and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) [5], and one targeting excitotoxicity, Selfotel [6]. Both oxidative injury and excitotoxicity are felt to represent important mechanisms of secondary damage in laboratory models and in the clinical condition [3, 7]. Even mild hypothermia (32-34°C), the most promising therapy as applied in experimental models of TBI [8, 9, 10, 11] and in preliminary clinical investigation [12, 13, 14, 15], failed to demonstrate unequivocal efficacy in a recent multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial of severe TBI. Some of these failures may reflect the considerable difficulties encountered in conducting successful randomized clinical trials in the setting of acute brain injury, such as the lack of knowledge of temporal therapeutic windows of opportunity for any therapy and the inability to select appropriate patients during the acute phase [1, 4, 16]. For example, Shiozaki et al. [16] reported that therapeutic hypothermia, applied after severe TBI in adults was ineffective in the absence of intracranial hypertension. However, delaying the application of hypothermia until intracranial hypertension has developed would very likely diminish its efficacy [17, 18].
Current-and Varifold-Based Registration of Lung Vessel and Airway Trees

Registering lung CT images is an important problem for many applications including tracking lung motion over the breathing cycle, tracking anatomical and function changes over time, and detecting abnormal mechanical properties of the lung. This paper compares and contrasts current-and varifold-based diffeomorphic image registration approaches for registering tree-like structures of the lung. In these approaches, curve-like structures in the lung—for example, the skeletons of vessels and airways segmentation—are represented by currents or varifolds in the dual space of a Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS). Current and varifold representations are discretized and are parameterized via of a collection of momenta. A momenta corresponds to a line segment via the coordinates of the center of the line segment and the tangent direction of the line segment at the center. A varifold-based registration approach is similar to currents except that two varifold representations are aligned independent of the tangent vector orientation. An advantage of varifolds over currents is that the orientation of the tangent vectors can be difficult to determine especially when the vessel and airway trees are not connected. In this paper, we examine the image registration sensitivity and accuracy of current-and varifold-based registration as a function of the number and location of momentum used to represent tree like-structures in the lung. The registrations presented in this paper were generated using the Deformetrica software package ([Durrleman et al. 2014]).
Recognition of Social Pain among Peers: Rethinking the Role of Bystanders in Bullying and Cyberbullying

ABSTRACTAntibullying interventions that encourage bystanders to intervene have variable outcomes, some even associated with increased rates of bullying. In this article, I account for these challenges with a reconceptualization of the bystander role within an intersubjective field of traumatic enactment. Bystanders in adolescence and emerging adulthood can learn to play a crucial role in mitigating the traumatic effects of peer aggression by providing recognition of social pain from the unique vantage of peers—a role that parents, teachers, and clinicians must play with younger children. Two case examples demonstrate the need and potential for peers to provide empathic and accountable recognition.
Scalable Graph-based Bug Search for Firmware Images

Because of rampant security breaches in IoT devices, searching vulnerabilities in massive IoT ecosystems is more crucial than ever. Recent studies have demonstrated that control-flow graph (CFG) based bug search techniques can be effective and accurate in IoT devices across different architectures. However, these CFG-based bug search approaches are far from being scalable to handle an enormous amount of IoT devices in the wild, due to their expensive graph matching overhead. Inspired by rich experience in image and video search, we propose a new bug search scheme which addresses the scalability challenge in existing cross-platform bug search techniques and further improves search accuracy. Unlike existing techniques that directly conduct searches based upon raw features (CFGs) from the binary code, we convert the CFGs into high-level numeric feature vectors. Compared with the CFG feature, high-level numeric feature vectors are more robust to code variation across different architectures, and can easily achieve realtime search by using state-of-the-art hashing techniques. We have implemented a bug search engine, Genius, and compared it with state-of-art bug search approaches. Experimental results show that Genius outperforms baseline approaches for various query loads in terms of speed and accuracy. We also evaluated Genius on a real-world dataset of 33,045 devices which was collected from public sources and our system. The experiment showed that Genius can finish a search within 1 second on average when performed over 8,126 firmware images of 420,558,702 functions. By only looking at the top 50 candidates in the search result, we found 38 potentially vulnerable firmware images across 5 vendors, and confirmed 23 of them by our manual analysis. We also found that it took only 0.1 seconds on average to finish searching for all 154 vulnerabilities in two latest commercial firmware images from D-LINK. 103 of them are potentially vulnerable in these images, and 16 of them were confirmed.
Consumption of Native Green Ash and Nonnative Common Buckthorn Leaves by the Amphipod Gammarus pseudolimnaeus

Abstract Decomposition of allochthonous organic matter that enters shaded headwater streams during a short autumn leaf fall period provides much of the energy the streams receive throughout the year. As such, alterations of riparian communities, including those resulting from invasive species, should have a significant impact on these energy inputs and potentially alter microbial communities and the behavior of shredders that process leaf litter. We compared consumption of leaves of an abundant native species (green ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica) and nonnative species (common buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica) by the northern spring amphipod Gammarus pseudolimnaeus, with and without periods of stream conditioning. Amphipods consumed a very small proportion of the unconditioned leaves of common buckthorn and green ash and demonstrated no significant preference for the unconditioned leaves of either species. When leaves were stream-conditioned, there was a significant interaction between the effects of leaf species...
The Procedure Abstraction

Procedures play a critical role in the development of software systems. They provide abstractions for control flow and naming. They provide basic information hiding. They are the building block on which systems provide interfaces. They are one of the principal forms of abstraction in Algol-like languages; object-oriented languages rely on procedures to implement their methods or code members.
SPONTANEOUS ORDER, EVOLUTION, AND AUTOCATAKINETICS: THE NOMOLOGICAL BASIS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF MEANING

Something has meaning when it has the property of “information about” some part of the world with respect to an end or ends of some intentional system or agent. Intentional systems are end-directed systems, but not all end-directed systems are intentional. Not all end-directed systems require information about or meaning to determine their actions towards their ends. We need not invoke intentionality, or meaning, for example, to explain the flow of a river down a slope, or the flow of heat down a temperature gradient from a hotter to a cooler region because these processes are explicable in terms of local physical potentials and fundamental laws. On the other hand, when a bird flies above the Earth, a bacterium swims up a concentration or chemical gradient, or a human drives a car, takes a plane, or moves a bit of food from her plate to her mouth, the action is seen to go in directions that are different, or orthogonal, to processes taken to causally follow from local physical potentials (the “orthogonality condition”). Such behavior is determined by information about the paths to ends, not by local potentials and it is these systems we call intentional.
Dissecting drug effects in preclinical models of impulsive choice: emphasis on glutamatergic compounds.

Impulsive choice is often measured with delay discounting paradigms. Because there are multiple discounting procedures, as well as different statistical analyses that can be applied to data generated from these paradigms, there are some inconsistencies in the literature regarding drug effects on impulsive choice. The goal of the current paper is to review the methodological and analytic approaches used to measure discounting and to discuss how these differences can account for differential drug effects observed across studies. Because some procedures/analyses use a single data point as the dependent variable, changes in this value following pharmacological treatment may be interpreted as alterations in sensitivity to delayed reinforcement, but when other procedures/analyses are used, no changes in behavior are observed. Even when multiple data points are included, some studies show that the statistical analysis (e.g., ANOVA on raw proportion of responses vs. using hyperbolic/exponential functions) can lead to different interpretations. Finally, procedural differences (e.g., delay presentation order, signaling the delay to reinforcement, etc.) in the same discounting paradigm can alter how drugs affect sensitivity to delayed reinforcement. Future studies should utilize paradigms that allow one to observe alterations in responding at each delay (e.g., concurrent-chains schedules). Concerning statistical analyses, using parameter estimates derived from nonlinear functions or incorporating the generalized matching law can allow one to determine if drugs affect sensitivity to delayed reinforcement or impair discrimination of the large and small magnitude reinforcers. Using these approaches can help further our understanding of the neurochemical underpinnings of delay discounting.
Simulation of Alpine Soil Temperature Conditions

A controlled environment unit is described for simulating alpine plant environments. The design permits independent control of aerial and edaphic temperatures and establishment of soil temperature ...
Development and Regulation of Novel Influenza Virus Vaccines: A United States Young Scientist Perspective

Vaccination against influenza is the most effective approach for reducing influenza morbidity and mortality. However, influenza vaccines are unique among all licensed vaccines as they are updated and administered annually to antigenically match the vaccine strains and currently circulating influenza strains. Vaccine efficacy of each selected influenza virus vaccine varies depending on the antigenic match between circulating strains and vaccine strains, as well as the age and health status of the vaccine recipient. Low vaccine effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccines in recent years provides an impetus to improve current seasonal influenza vaccines, and for development of next-generation influenza vaccines that can provide broader, long-lasting protection against both matching and antigenically diverse influenza strains. This review discusses a perspective on some of the issues and formidable challenges facing the development and regulation of the next-generation influenza vaccines.