cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The General, the Watchman, and the Engineer of Control The Relationship Between Cooperation, Communication, and Command in the Society of Control

Taking cue from the Marxian analysis of the relationship between cooperation and capitalist command in Capital and the Grundrisse, the article reviews how Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have addressed this matter. Drawing from the notorious fragment of the Grundrisse on the general intellect, Hardt and Negri argue that in post-industrial societies the production of value tends to coincide with the ensemble of social activities. Hardt and Negri maintain that since any social activity is potentially a value-generating practice, the capitalist organization of labor is increasingly parasitical and external to the social bios. From this flows that labor can no longer be measured in abstract units of time and the exploitation of living labor leaves way to the expropriation of the common. The second part of the article challenges Hardt and Negri’s idealized view of the common by arguing that in the society of control communication and cooperation are always affected and tinged by the media that enable them—the ...
FinFET Based SRAM Design for Low Standby Power Applications

It is well known that leakage savings using transistor stacks is not effective in double-gate technologies such as FinFETs (back and front-gate connected together), due to the absence of body effect. However, transistor stacking along with independent gate operation of FinFETs can offer larger leakage savings compared to that of bulk devices. In this paper, we show that the sleep transistor based source biasing technique can be an effective means to control leakage for static random access memory (SRAM) with independent gate FinFETs. The array area penalty of the approach is ~5%. We show that lower gate leakage at a given short channel effect (SCE), lower band-to-band tunneling and higher sub-threshold slope offered by well tempered undoped ultra thin body FinFETs can lead to ultra low power SRAM arrays
Is This for Real? Fast Graphicality Testing

When we have an integer sequence that can be realized as the degree sequence of some graph, we say that the sequence is graphic. While almost any graph theory book describes how a sequence can be tested to see if it's graphic, surprisingly (because this testing has common applications), very little has been written about how to do it efficiently. This highlights the gap between simply knowing that a problem is theoretically tractable and being able to implement an efficient algorithm for practical use.
Using Implementation Intentions to Teach Practitioners: Changing Practice Behaviors via Continuing Education

Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of implementation intentions on increasing the use of a practice behavior among mental health practitioners who attended a one-day continuing education class. Methods: Seventy-eight practitioners were randomly assigned to one of two classes on psychiatric advance directives. One class incorporated instruction in implementation intentions (N=40) and the other class did not (N=38). Implementation intention training involved having the participants describe the best time and place to use a practitioner-guided procedure to assist consumers to complete a psychiatric advance directive. Use of the practitioner-guided procedure was the dependent variable in this study. Use of the procedure in practice was assessed three months after the class via an electronic self-report survey. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the two class conditions in participant characteristics or preclass or postclass knowledge of and intentions to use the procedure. Fifty-four participants (69%) responded to the three-month follow-up survey, indicating that they had used the practitioner-guided procedure. The results of the follow-up survey showed that overall those attending the class that incorporated implementation intentions used the practitioner-guided procedure significantly more often than those in the other class (80% versus 58%). The effect of implementation intentions on utilization of the practitioner-guided procedure was evident among practitioners whose post-class intentions were high but below the median for the overall sample (Χ 2 =7.1, df=1, p<.01). Implementation rates among practitioners with the highest post-class intentions were equivalent in the two class conditions. Conclusions: Incorporating implementation intentions into continuing education classes can increase the use of practices taught in these classes among well-motivated practitioners.
Enhancement of Ca current in the accessory radula closer muscle of Aplysia californica by neuromodulators that potentiate its contractions

A major goal of neuroscience is to identify the neural and cellular mechanisms of behavior and its plasticity. Progress toward this goal has come particularly from work with a small number of tractable model preparations. One of these is the simple neuromuscular circuit consisting of the accessory radula closer (ARC) muscle of the mollusk Aplysia californica and its innervating motor and modulatory neurons. Contraction of the ARC muscle underlies a component of Aplysia feeding behavior, and plasticity of the behavior is in large part due to modulation of the amplitude and duration of the contractions of the muscle by a variety of modulatory neurotransmitters and peptide cotransmitters, among them the small cardioactive peptides (SCPs), myomodulins (MMs), and serotonin (5-HT). We have studied single dissociated ARC muscle fibers in order to determine whether modulation of membrane ion currents in the muscle might underlie these effects. First, we confirmed that the dissociated fibers were functionally intact: just as with the whole ARC muscle, their contractions were potentiated by 5-HT and SCPB and potentiated as well as depressed by MMA, and their cAMP content was greatly elevated by 5-HT, SCPA and SCPB, and to a lesser extent by MMA and MMB. Next, using voltage-clamp techniques, we found that two ion currents present in the fibers were indeed modulated. The fibers possess a dihydropyridine-sensitive, high-threshold "L"-type Ca current. This current was enhanced by the modulators that potentiate ARC-muscle contractions--5-HT, SCPA and SCPB, and MMA and MMB--but not by buccalinA, a modulator that does not act directly on the ARC muscle. All of the potentiating modulators, as well as elevation of cAMP in the fibers by forskolin or a cAMP analog, maximally enhanced the current about twofold and mutually occluded each other's effects. Since the Ca current supplies Ca2+ necessary for contraction of the muscle, the enhancement of the current is a good candidate to be a major mechanism of the potentiation of the contractions. In the following article we report that the modulators also, to different degrees, activate a distinctive K current and thereby depress the contractions. Net potentiation or depression then depends on the balance between the relative strengths of the modulation of the two ion currents.
Cubic spline Galerkin approximations to parabolic systems with coupled non-linear boundary conditions†

This paper describes a practical implementation of the Galerkin finite element procedure for solving systems of parabolic partial differential equations with non-linear boundary conditions. This technique consists of finding an approximation in the form of a finite sum of cubic B-splines, which yield high-order accurate results, and consequently, solutions can be developed with remarkable precision and speed up to the steady state region where conventional finite difference methods often fail. In addition, the choice of mesh width and nodal spacing can be automatically determined for a predictor-corrector routine, thereby relieving the engineer of a great deal of ‘guess work’ that is normally characteristic of solving such problems.
Effect of staged ovariectomy on measures of mammary growth and development in prepubertal dairy heifers

Previous studies in prepubertal heifers suggest that the magnitude of reduction in mammary parenchymal growth in response to ovariectomy varies with the age at which surgery is performed. We hypothesized that ovarian secretions are essential for initiating mammary development but not required to maintain allometric mammary growth in prepubertal dairy heifers. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of staged ovariectomy during the prepubertal period on mammary growth and tissue composition and the expression of selected genes. Prepubertal Holstein heifers at 2, 3 or 4 months of age were randomly assigned to one of two treatments, ovariectomized (OVX; n = 12) or sham operated (INT; n = 12). Mammary parenchyma (PAR) and fat pad (MFP) were harvested 30 days after surgery. Proximate composition of PAR and MFP (DNA, protein and lipid) as well as expression of the selected estrogen-responsive genes stanniocalcin1 (STC1), tissue factor pathway inhibitor precursor (TFPI) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were determined in PAR and MFP by quantitative real-time PCR. The relative amount of epithelium and proportion of epithelia cell nuclei expressing the proliferation marker Ki67 were determined by histological and immunohistochemical analyses, respectively. MFP mass was not impacted by treatment but was decreased with age as was lipid content and concentration (P ⩽ 0.01). The mass of mammary PAR was reduced in OVX and increased with age (P ⩽ 0.01). Parenchymal tissue tended to have less total DNA, protein and lipid in OVX heifers. Parenchymal tissue concentrations of protein and DNA were increased with age and there was an age × treatment interaction. Treatment had no effect on either the Ki67 labeling index or percent epithelial area. The relative abundances of STC1, TFPI and PCNA mRNA in PAR were reduced in OVX. We did not find a significant impact of ovariectomy on mRNA expression when surgery was performed at 2 months compared with surgery at 3 or 4 months of age. However, having nearly undetectable PAR in two heifers ovariectomized at the earliest period (2 months of age) suggests that early ovariectomy is especially detrimental to subsequent parenchymal development.
THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENERGY CONTRARIAN

▪ Abstract An analysis of the forces that have shaped energy and energy-related environmental policies is presented through the eyes of an active participant in their evolution over the past 53 years. The problem of self-interest in taking energy and environmental policy positions is addressed candidly. The “energy crisis” is cited as an example. Its credibility depended on excessive demand projections, coupled with erroneous assessments of US and global hydrocarbon resources and of prospects for making these resources economically recoverable through technology advances. Many energy crisis proponents benefited from the misguided government response and from the large investments in uneconomic synthetic fuel technologies. Today, proponents of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change, again claiming scientific consensus, threaten to create even greater energy market distortions at large social and economic costs. The author traces his conversion to energy contrarian to the general failure of consensus and...
M2 muscarinic receptor subtype in the feline medial pontine reticular formation modulates the amount of rapid eye movement sleep.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is generated, in part, by activating muscarinic cholinergic receptors (mAChRs) in the medial pontine reticular formation (mPRF). Molecular cloning has identified five mAChR subtypes, and this study tested the hypoth- esis that the M2 subtype in the mPRF modulates the amount of REM sleep. This hypothesis cannot be tested directly, due to lack of subtype selective muscarinic agonists. However, the amount of REM sleep can be enhanced by mPRF microinjection of a mus- carinic agonist, and the relative potencies of muscarinic antagonists to block the REM sleep enhancement can be determined. Two muscarinic antagonists, methoctramine and 4-DAMP, were studied. Six concentrations of each antagonist were microinjected into the mPRF of conscious cat 15 min prior to the agonist bethanechol. Nonlinear regression analysis was used to calculate the dose of antagonist that caused a 50% inhibition (ID50) of bethanechol-induced REM sleep. Bethanechol significantly increased (442%) the amount of time spent in REM sleep. Both methoctramine and 4-DAMP significantly blocked the bethanechol-induced REM sleep increase, with an ID50 of 1.8 µM and 0.6 µM, respectively. The ID50 ratio for methoctramine-to-4-DAMP (3.0) was similar to the affin- ity ratio of methoctramine-to-4-DAMP only at the M2 subtype (3.5), suggesting that the M2 subtype in the mPRF modulates the amount of REM sleep. This study also tested the null hypothesis that sleep-dependent respiratory depression evoked by mPRF
Role of renin secretion and kidney function in hypertension and attendant heart attack and stroke.

Control of blood pressure usually has not, by itself, affected the incidence of heart attack in hypertensive patients. This suggests a need for cause-specific therapy targeted against mechanisms that engage the risks of myocardial infarction. Study of the renin system, the ongoing, long-term servo-control over blood pressure and electrolyte homeostasis may provide answers. Inappropriately high renin production, generating the powerful vasoconstrictor, angiotensin II, may cause ischemic vascular damage in the heart, kidney and brain, predisposing to infarction. Many clinical situations associated with high plasma renin levels are accompanied by striking vascular damage, heart attack, or stroke. A recent prospective study of 1,717 hypertensive patients shows an unequivocally positive relationship between myocardial infarction and high-renin status regardless of other risk factors such as smoking, hypercholesteremia, or diabetes. The data also suggest the possibility that renin is a continuous variable, sinc...
Cortical basic fibroblast factor expression after head injury: Preliminary results

Growth factors are important for normal development and maturation of the CNS. Recently, interest has centred on the role of these factors in response to the CNS injury. Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF) stimulates mitogenesis of neuroectodermal tissues, potentially promoting neuronal survival and astrocytic growth suggesting a possible role following injury. We have studied expression of bFGF in male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to a fluid percussion head injury of 4 atmospheres. Sham operated controls and injured animals were perfused 48 h after injury. 50 micron frozen sections of fixed tissue were immunohistochemically analysed for bFGF expression using the avidin-biotin complex technique with antibodies to bFGF. In the cortex, bFGF expression on astrocytes was enhanced in the injured hemisphere as compared with the contralateral uninjured hemisphere or controls (914 vs. 334 cells/mm2). bFGF expression in the hippocampal (CA2) neurons was the same for both normal and injured rats. The finding of enhanced bFGF in the cortex is consistent with the pathologic astrocytic responses found 48 h after injury and may correlate with later gliosis. These results suggest further study of bFGF, its temporal expression and relationship to other growth factors is warranted.
Effect of Dietary Cholic Acid on in vivo Cholesterol Metabolism.

Summary1. Dietary cholic acid reduced the rate of in vivo hepatic cholesterol synthesis within 3 days, as indicated by incorporated acetate-1-C14. 2. Continued feeding of cholic acid produced no further decrease in hepatic cholesterol synthesis rate over the 21-day period. 3. Increased serum bile acid level correlated with decreased liver cholesterol synthesis rates at all time intervals. 4. There was a small but significant increase in liver cholesterol concentration caused by dietary cholic acid. This increase remained constant throughout the experimental period. 5. Dietary cholic acid had no effect on in vivo kidney and intestine cholesterol synthesis rates.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN ACUTE EFFECTS OF DRUGS IN HUMANS : THEIR RELEVANCE TO RISK FOR ABUSE

It is known that individuals differ in their likelihood of becoming drug abusers. Many people never take any drugs at all, even on a single occasion. Of those who take drugs at least once, only a small number go on to use the drugs on a regular basis, and even fewer go on to use them in excessive quantities or abusive patterns. The differences in numbers of individuals who have ever tried drugs and those who become regular users is roughly illustrated by data from a national household survey (National Institute on Drug Abuse 1992): 37 percent of U.S. adults reported having used an illicit drug at least once in their lives, while only 6.3 percent report having used an illicit drug in the past month. “Illicit drug” here includes marijuana, nonmedical use of psychotherapeutics, inhalants, cocaine, hallucinogens, or heroin. Similarly, in 1993, 43 percent of U.S. high school students reported having tried an illicit drug at least once in their lives, while only 18 percent used any drugs in the past month (National Institute on Drug Abuse 1994). Many individuals limit their use to an initial sampling of the drug. Other individuals become occasional users, but use the drugs in moderation without developing any problems of abuse or dependence. However, a small but significant proportion of young individuals appears to progress rather rapidly (i.e., in their late teens and early twenties) to excessive use, and continue to use drugs despite harmful consequences. Why some individuals and not others are susceptible to drug or alcohol abuse is unclear. Some researchers have investigated risk factors through epidemiological or longitudinal studies designed to detect predictors and correlates of heavy drug use (see Tarter, this volume). Other researchers have used laboratorybased procedures to investigate individual differences in acute responses to drugs. This chapter will focus on a series of studies that used the latter approach to examine individual differences in response to acute doses of benzodiazepines.
Estradiol stimulates the secretion of prostacyclin and thromboxane from endometrial stromal cells in culture

Objective To determine the production of the vasoactive prostaglandins (PGs), prostacyclin, and thromboxane (TX) in endometrial stromal cell cultures and their steroid modulation by sex steroids. Design Primary stromal cell cultures with steroid modulation in tissues from the follicular and luteal phases of normal women. Setting Laboratories of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and tissues obtained from normal patients at the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Measures Stromal cell tissue culture for 14days. Radioimmunoassay of 6-keto-PGF 1α , TXB 2 , and prolactin (PRL) as well as determination of protein content. Results Estradiol stimulated 6-keto-PGF 1α production more than TXB 2 . This effect occurred after day 6 and was as much as 10-fold greater in luteal phase tissue. The effect was eliminated by progestins that alone had no effect. This modulatory response was greater in luteal endometrial tissue than in follicular phase tissue. As expected, in these tissues progestin stimulated PRL, an effect opposite to its negative influence on the vasoactive PGs. Conclusion These data provide evidence for a steroid-related influence on the balance of vasoactive PGs in the stroma of the endometrium.
Effects of No Feeding, Maintenance Feeding, and Refeeding on Production and Processing Characteristics of Market-Size Hybrid Catfish

AbstractA pond study was initiated to evaluate effects of no feeding, maintenance feeding, and refeeding on production and processing characteristics of market-size hybrid catfish (female Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus × male Blue Catfish I. furcatus). Fish with an average weight of 644 g were stocked into 20 earthen ponds (0.04 ha) at 14,826 fish/ha at the end of May. They were either not fed (N2), fed once weekly (W2) to satiation for 2 months to simulate a long-term harvest delay, or fed daily (D2) to satiation. After 2 months fish in half the ponds in each of the two feed-restricted treatments were harvested, and all fish in the remaining ponds were fed daily for an additional month. After 2 months N2 fish experienced a 14.3% weight loss compared with a weight gain of 6.7% for FW2 fish. After 2 months both N2 and W2 fish had reduced visceral fat and fillet yield compared with fish fed daily, but there were no significant differences in visceral fat percentage and fillet yield between N2 and W2 fi...
Social Media News Use and Political Discussion: A Focus on Chinese Users’ News Reception and Dissemination

Social media has been evidenced as a meaningful platform in terms of informing citizens and promoting democracy. The present research adds to the existing literature by examining various predictors...
12 – Nuclear heat energy

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the principal modes by which fission energy is transferred to a cooling agent and transported to devices that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Most of the energy released in fission appears as kinetic energy of high-speed particles. As these particles pass through matter, they are slowed down by multiple collisions and thus impart thermal energy to the medium. The radial temperature distribution in a fuel pellet is approximately parabolic. The rate of heat transfer from fuel surface to coolant by convection is directly proportional to the temperature difference. The coolant flows along channels and extracts the thermal energy for delivering it to an external circuit consisting of a heat exchanger (PWR), a steam turbine that drives an electrical generator, a steam condenser, and various pumps. Large amounts of waste heat are discharged by electrical power plants because of inherent limits on efficiency. Typically, a billion gallons of water per day must flow through the steam condenser to limit the temperature rise of the environment.
Hemodialysis Vascular Access

The incidence and prevalence of end stage renal disease (ESRD) continue to rise in the pediatric population. From a modality perspective, hemodialysis (HD) has been used in the majority of incident ESRD patients. The most impactful breakthrough in HD was the creation of the native arteriovenous fistula (AVF) by Brescia and Cimino in 1966. This radiocephalic AVF has become the signature surgical treatment to prepare a patient to receive optimal HD care. Years later, arteriovenous grafts (AVGs) were developed by surgically interposing a synthetic material between the arterial and venous systems. These gained favor for a few reasons: technically easier to place, ability to place in patients whose native vessels were undersized, and ability to cannulate for dialysis initiation sooner than with an AVF. Central venous catheters (CVC) are a mainstay in HD, but for the past 10–15 years, there has been a strong movement away from CVCs for long term HD in favor of AVF. While CVCs are now considered a poor choice for long term vascular access, they are often necessary in children with hemodialysis dependent ESRD who are awaiting maturation of a permanent vascular access. Uncuffed, temporary catheters, which are typically used for a week or less, are often needed in the setting of intoxications and severe acute kidney injury. The major problems with CVC (both tunneled, cuffed and temporary, uncuffed) include infection and thrombosis. The most common means by which a catheter may become infected are migration of cutaneous organisms along the portal of entry (on the external surface of the catheter) to the catheter tip (most common with short-term, uncuffed catheters, and direct contamination of the catheter or its hub by contact with hands or contaminated fluids or devices. The thrombotic and central venous stenosis risks of a HD catheter are lower when placed into the right IJ vein as opposed to the subclavian, and as such it is the site of first choice for a tunneled HD catheter. Novel insights into vascular access failure pathogenesis and treatment strategies are ongoing. Neointimal hyperplasia and its role in access failure are actively being studied; the goal being improved long term vascular access survival with reduced need for interventions to maintain patency. Similarly, improving safety of dialysis CVC’s for short term use and rarely long term use has focused on infection prevention strategies to reduce the likelihood of catheter exit site and catheter related bacteremia. In summary, pediatric vascular access is a cornerstone of hemodialysis provision in children with ESRD. While AVFs and AVGs are preferred, CVCs are still utilized in this setting. Ongoing studies continue to evolve to focus on optimizing outcomes in pediatric and adult vascular access in dialysis.
Constraints on the CKM angle α in the B → ρρ decays

Using a data sample of 122 million decays collected with BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory at SLAC, we measure the time-dependent-asymmetry parameters of the longitudinally polarized component in the B0 → ρ+ρ- decay as CL = -0.23 ± 0.24 (stat) ± 0.14 (syst) and SL = -0.19 ± 0.33 (stat) ± 0.11 (syst). The B0 → ρ0ρ0 decay mode is also searched for in a data sample of about 227 million pairs. No significant signal is observed, and an upper limit of 1.1 × 10-6 (90% C.L.) on the branching fraction is set. The penguin contribution to the CKM angle α uncertainty is measured to be 11°. All results are preliminary.
Student Veterans’ Participation in High-Impact Practices: Veterans’ Experiences at Three Institutions of Higher Education in Southeastern North Carolina

This qualitative study explores student veteran engagement in educational practices the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU) identifies as High-Impact Practices (HIPs). This is a result of a university-wide systematic study on how to enhance equitably HIPs for all students at the authors’ institution, later broadening to encompass three institutions in North Carolina of varying size and mission: (a) Mid-sized Regional University (MRU), a comprehensive regional university; (b) State Community College (SCC), a two-year public institution located within 10 miles of USS; and (c) Salisbury College, a small, private liberal arts college. Fourteen student veterans were interviewed about their perceptions of and participation in HIPs. Three themes emerged: mission-orientation, competing priorities, and marketing to student veteran populations. Although contextualized within the state of North Carolina, implications and recommendations from the current study provide meaningful insights for both practice and research on student veteran populations.
Effects of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on anticardiolipin antibody immunoreactivity.

The effect of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on anticardiolipin antibody levels was evaluated using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Normal human serum was spiked with known quantities of freeze-dried human polyclonal anticardiolipin antibody IgG and IgM (19 samples each) or IgA (11 samples). Each spiked sample was split into four identical aliquots; one aliquot was never frozen, and the remaining three were taken through successive freeze-thaw cycles. All aliquots from each sample were evaluated on the same day using the same plate and reagents. A significant decline in mean anticardiolipin IgG levels occurred between the aliquot which had never been frozen and the one which had been through three freeze-thaw cycles (Student's t-test, P = .04). Although mean IgM and IgA values declined as well, the differences were not significant. When individual samples were evaluated the decline appeared to occur most often between the second and third freeze-thaw cycle. Eight anticardiolipin IgG and three IgM-containing samples which had been positive initially became negative by the third freeze-thaw cycle. These data show that handling and storage of serum used to perform anticardiolipin antibody assays are important potential sources of assay variability.
Hypertension, Vitamin D Deficiency, and Calcium Metabolism

Vitamin D deficiency like many other chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension is increasing in prevalence. Traditionally, vitamin D was thought to be only important for its role in bone and calcium homeostasis. With the improvement of vitamin D assays including utilization of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), measuring serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] has become more reliable. The optimal serum 25(OH)D concentration for skeletal health remains to be debated and is even less certain for extra-skeletal health such as hypertension. The target serum 25(OH)D concentration may differ according to the genetic make-up/profile of each individual, which may consist of different gene polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor and proteins involved in vitamin D metabolism. Potential mechanisms of vitamin D deficiency causing hypertension involve the renin–aldosterone–angiotensin system (RAAS) and endothelial function. As many patients with obesity also have insulin resistance, one could consider insulin resistance as a mediator in causing elevated blood pressure. Based on data from cross-sectional and cohort studies, vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of incident hypertension. Although more definitive trials have not yet been completed to examine the role of vitamin D in hypertension, it seems prudent to recommend that patients with vitamin D deficiency be encouraged to modify their lifestyles and take vitamin D supplementation to achieve serum 25(OH)D concentrations that are optimal for skeletal health (at least 30 ng/mL). The completion of randomized controlled trials will inform whether vitamin D can influence the onset of hypertension and/or reduce blood pressure in individuals with established hypertension.
Effects of physical activity calorie expenditure (PACE) labeling: study design and baseline sample characteristics

Obesity and physical inactivity are responsible for more than 365,000 deaths per year and contribute substantially to rising healthcare costs in the US, making clear the need for effective public health interventions. Calorie labeling on menus has been implemented to guide consumer ordering behaviors, but effects on calories purchased has been minimal. In this project, we tested the effect of physical activity calorie expenditure (PACE) food labels on actual point-of-decision food purchasing behavior as well as physical activity. Using a two-group interrupted time series cohort study design in three worksite cafeterias, one cafeteria was assigned to the intervention condition, and the other two served as controls. Calories from food purchased in the cafeteria were assessed by photographs of meals (accompanied by notes made on-site) using a standardized calorie database and portion size-estimation protocol. Primary outcomes will be average calories purchased and minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) by individuals in the cohorts. We will compare pre-post changes in study outcomes between study groups using piecewise generalized linear mixed model regressions (segmented regressions) with a single change point in our interrupted time-series study. The results of this project will provide evidence of the effectiveness of worksite cafeteria menu labeling, which could potentially inform policy intervention approaches. Labels that convey information in a more readily understandable manner may be more effective at motivating behavior change. Strengths of this study include its cohort design and its robust data capture methods using food photographs and accelerometry.
Epidemiology and Economics of Pediatric Heart Failure

Abstract Pediatric heart failure is a complex and costly disease, with myriad etiologies ranging from congenital disease, genetic predispositions, to acquired conditions. Compared to the adult population, heart failure in children has a low incidence, but comparable morbidity and mortality despite significant advances in the last two decades. The cost of pediatric heart failure is poorly delineated, although inpatient charges likely exceed $1 billion annually, with even higher total economic burden from outpatient care and indirect costs. There is a high degree of variability in care, and best practices are not well defined. Outpatient costs, value to patients, and quality of life all require further research.
A new tool in the cancer immunotherapy toolbox

Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), a member of the CD28 superfamily, is primarily expressed on the surface of T cells. The normal function of PD-1 is to dampen the immune activity and promote self-tolerance of activated CD8 + cytotoxic T cells by suppressing T cell inflammatory reactions. Binding of PD-1 with its ligand PD-L1 (or B7-H1) or PD-L2 (or B7-DC) excessively leads to the exhaustion of CD8 + cytotoxic T cells (1). In most of patients with advanced cancers, CD8 + cytotoxic T cells are exhausted owing to the engagement of PD-1 by the aberrantly expressed PD-L1 on tumor cells and/or nurse cells in the tumor microenvironment.
Luba-Kasai: A Working Bibliography

The Luba-Kasai people are the Bantu-speaking cluster of people of south-central Congo (Kinshasa) or the Democratic Republic of Congo (see below). Also known as the “Baluba”, the Luba-Kasai number about 5,594,000 in the late 20th century and inhabit a wide area extending throughout much of southern Congo. The name Luba applies to a variety of groups who, though of different origins, share closely related languages, exhibit many common cultural traits, and share a common political history founded on the origins and disintegration of the Luba empires. Three main subdivisions may be recognized: the Luba-Shankaji of Katanga, the Luba-Bambo of Kasai, and the Luba-Hemba of northern Katanga and southern Kivu. All are historically, linguistically, and culturally linked with other Congo peoples.
Selective abstraction of AI system activity

The need for presenting useful descriptions of problem solving activities has grown with the size and complexity of contemporary AI systems. Simply tracing and explaining the activities that led to a solution is no longer satisfactory. We describe a domain-independent approach for selectively abstracting the chronological history of problem solving activity (a system trace) based upon user-supplied abstraction goals. An important characteristic of our approach is that, given different abstraction goals, abstracted traces with significantly different emphases can be generated from the same original trace. Although we are not concerned here with the generation of an explanation from the abstracted trace, this approach is a useful step towards such an explanation facility.
U-50,488 and the к receptor: A personalized account covering the period 1973 to 1990

All clinically significant analgesics for severe pain derive from the morphine model. Morphine has provided a fertile area for medicinal chemistry research and received an additional stimulus in the 1970s with the appearance of the Opioid receptors. The background for the birth of U-50,488 is described herein. It occurred before the discovery of the K receptor and, thus, U-50,488 was classified originally as a non-μ compound, and only later as a K agonist. U-50,488 provided a succinct template for structural modifications and they are described for the period up to 1990. A description of the structural classes of K agonists is provided including a summary of K recognition sites based on known agonists.
Biblical versus Israelite images of the heavenly realm

The biblical editors did not create a record of the entire spectrum of ancient Israel's religious beliefs and practices. Theirs was by necessity a selective and biased account. It is left to modern scholarship to sift through all the evidence to create a more complete picture of ancient Israelite piety. This paper explores the available artifactual, inscriptional, literary and iconographic evidence in order to reconstruct what ancient Israelites and Judaeans believed about the heavenly realm, and not simply what the editors of the Hebrew Bible wanted people to believe or what they deemed appropriate to record.
Conversion of Single- and Multilevel Breit-Wigner Resonance Parameters to Pole Representation Parameters

One reliable and convenient way of processing the cross sections in the resolved energy region is by use of the generalized pole representation, whereby the Doppler-broadening calculation can be carried out rigorously using the analytical approach. So far, its applications have been limited to cases with resonance parameters specified by the Reich-Moore formalism. Although such an approach can in principle be extended to all three remaining representations of resolved resonance parameters specified by the ENDF data format, there is no computational tool for handling such a task at present. Given that Breit-Wigner formalisms are probably the most widely used by any evaluated nuclear data library to represent cross sections, a special effort needs to be made to convert the single- and multilevel Breit-Wigner resonance parameters to pole parameters. The FORTRAN computer code BW2PR has been developed for this purpose. Extensive calculations have been performed to demonstrate that the proposed method ensures the conservation of the information contained originally in Breit-Wigner resonance parameters. This will make it possible to apply the exact Doppler-broadening method to a larger collection of nuclides.
Oxygen radical generation and endosulfan toxicity in Jurkat T-cells.

The mechanism by which endosulfan exposure causes cellular dysfunction in experimental animals and humans is not clear. In the present study, we provide experimental evidence in support of the role of oxidative stress in endosulfan toxicity. Using both cell free system and Jurkat cells as in vitro models, we demonstrate that endosulfan can generate oxygen radicals that is inhibitable by superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH). In the cell culture model, oxygen radical generation in response to endosulfan was dose- (0–100 μM) and time-dependent (0–12 h). Two-color flowcytometric analysis showed that endosulfan mediated changes in ΔΨm and generation of superoxide radicals do occur simultaneously in the affected cell population. It was hypothesized that endosulfan exerts a severe oxidative stress in Jurkat cells and this could be prevented or minimized by an antioxidant. To test this hypothesis, GSH was added exogenously and endosulfan toxicity was evaluated by alamarblue assay. In conclusion, our results demonstrate a role for reactive oxygen species (ROS) in endosulfan toxicity and that supplementation of antioxidants such as GSH may be useful in individuals who are at risk to endosulfan toxicity.
Fifth Order Mock Theta Functions: Proof of the Mock Theta Conjectures

In Chapter 3, Section 3.1, we defined Ramanujan’s ten fifth order mock theta functions, and in Chapter 5 we stated the ten mock theta conjectures. The point of the latter chapter was to reveal that the conjectures could be separated into two groups of 5 each and that the conjectures within each group are equivalent.
Persistence of Fungi in Atypical, Closed Environments: Cultivation to Omics

Filamentous fungi are dual organisms that can be both useful for mankind and threatening to human habitats and health. These omnipresent extremotolerant microorganisms are associated with a range of hostile environments and the human body. Immense adaptability to a variety of conditions enables fungi residing on people to thrive anywhere they go, including man-made closed habitats. One such habitat is the International Space Station (ISS), which is a research platform under strict microbiological scrutiny. Over time microbial monitoring of the ISS has shifted from cultivation to state-of-the-art molecular techniques. Such in-depth analyses have facilitated the identification of a myriad of fungal isolates and their associated molecular phenotypes following adaptation to the unique space environment. As space-faring nations are preparing for the era of long-term manned missions to explore outer space, it is imperative to understand physiological changes of fungi coexisting with humans in closed habitats.
Association of phthalates, parabens and phenols found in personal care products with pubertal timing in girls and boys.

STUDY QUESTION Are in-utero or peripubertal exposures to phthalates, parabens and other phenols found in personal care products associated with timing of pubertal onset in boys and girls?
Persian Interventions: The Achaemenid Empire, Athens & Sparta, 450–386 BCE

Toward the end of this tightly argued, slim volume, its author pauses to provide us with a summary of its argument:The traditional interpretation [of Achaemenid defensive strategy] states that afte...
Utilization of Overnight Pulse Oximetry in Fibromyalgia Patients.

ObjectiveTo assess whether the Berlin Sleep Questionnaire and the Snoring, Tired, Observed, Pressure, Body mass, Age, Neck, and Gender questionnaire (STOP-BANG) might be suitable replacements for a...
AREA-PRESERVING DIFFEOMORPHISMS, W∞ AND ${\mathcal U}_q [{\rm sl}(2)]$ IN CHERN–SIMONS THEORY AND THE QUANTUM HALL SYSTEM

We discuss a quantum symmetry in the Landau problem, which naturally arises due to the relation between and the group of magnetic translations. The latter is connected with W∞ and area-preserving (symplectic) diffeomorphisms which are the canonical transformations in the two-dimensional phase space. We shall discuss the hidden quantum symmetry in a 2 + 1 gauge theory with the Chern–Simons term and in a quantum Hall system, which are both connected with the Landau problem.
Suggesting Policies and Practices for Increasing Justice and Assuring the Sustainability of the U.S. Healthcare System

The goal of this chapter is to suggest policies and practices that would render the U.S. health care system just and sustainable by: (1) Curbing current unethical and scientifically unsound medical practices that are unjustifiably harmful and of little or no benefit; (2) Financing healthcare by drawing upon the profits earned by all those individuals, organizations, and manufacturers that provide healthcare. To have this happen, the healthcare system must be purged of conflicts of interest, especially the FDA. Dealing justly with costs requires that excess profits that amount to gouging be mandated to be used for medical interventions.
New fossil birds from the earliest Eocene of Mongolia

Understanding of the Asian early Paleogene avifauna is limited relative to that of North American and European avifauna of the same period. While major patterns of mammalian faunal exchange among these three regions across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary have been described, much less is known about the dynamics of bird diversity over the same time interval. Here, we report bird fossils from the earliest Eocene Bumban Member of the Naranbulag Formation in central Mongolia that add to the known record from Asia from just after this boundary. Most of this material, collected by the joint American Museum of Natural History/ Mongolia Academy of Sciences expeditions, is referable to a previously described taxon in Presbyornithidae (Anseriformes). However, five isolated elements are identified as comprising at least four species from at least three other major avian clades. While further inclusive phylogenetic analyses of each of these clades are necessary, the new remains represent possible earliest occurrences in Asia of these clades. The material includes a humerus and a furcula from shorebirds (Pan-Charadriiformes), a quadrate from a stem member of the flamingo-grebe lineage (Pan-Mirandornithes), and a coracoid from a stem galliform (Pangalliformes). We also report a humerus with uncertain phylogenetic affinities but with similarities to core Gruiformes. These new fossils expand our knowledge of the Asian avifauna during this time and have the potential to further inform our understanding of the early biogeography of these clades. The shorebird and flamingo-grebe material indicate that both these lineages were present in Asia by the earliest Eocene. The pan-mirandornithine quadrate provides insight into the early feeding ecology of the flamingo-grebe clade.
13. CORRELATION BETWEEN ANEUPLOIDY, MOSAICISM AND MORPHOKINETIC DEVELOPMENT IN 1550 BIOPSIED BLASTOCYSTS

Introduction Despite the high number of recent studies, conflicting data are reported, and there is still considerable disagreement regarding which morphokinetic parameters are useful to predict blastocyst formation, implantation potential and ploidy status of the embryo. The first attempt to develop a model predicting embryo implantation used the time of division to 5 cells, the time between division from 3 to 4 cells and the time between division from 2 to 3 cells (Meseguer et al., 2011). More recently, the aneuploidy status of embryos was related to the start of blastulation and the formation of a full blastocyst. The aneuploidy risk classification built proved beneficial in a correlation with live birth when applied to non-biopsied embryos (Campbell et al., 2013). Material and Methods This retrospective study was based on 1550 blastocysts which were subjected to preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) between August 2011 and December 2018 in Istanbul Memorial Hospital (n=659 euploids; n=831 aneuploids; n=60 mosaics). Incubation was performed in time-lapse incubators (EmbryoScope™). All relevant events (fertilization, cleavages, morula and blastocyst formation) were checked daily, and time of cleavage to two-cell embryo (t2) and subsequent divisions t3, t4, t5, t6, t7, t8, t9+, tM, tSB, tB and tEB were recorded in the EmbryoViewer® workstation. PGT-A was done by NGS ReproSeq on Ion Torrent S5 (Thermo Fisher Scientific) or aCGH (Illumina) following trophectoderm biopsy. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used in this study. Results When euploid embryos were compared with aneuploids, the time to reach the blastocyst stage was 3 hours earlier in euploids (tB=104.60h vs. 107.64h; p Conclusions The mosaic embryos’ morphokinetic parameters were similar with the euploid blastocysts. Observed time-lapse differences between euploid and aneuploid blastocysts suggests that the embryos are being affected by the chromosomal constitution throughout the embryo development. Even though the variances at the initial cleavages are as short as half an hour, this increases to a three hour at the blastocyst stage. The study presented above can be used to prioritize the embryos according to the morphokinetic variables to biopsy and diagnose the embryos with highest chance of being euploid thus reducing the costs especially for couples who have more than one blastocyst.