cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Flexible hybrid substrates of roll-to-roll manufacturing for flexible display application

A flexible hybrid substrate was developed and demonstrated for roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing. Layer-by-layer misalignment can be well controlled within 5 µm. Top-gate amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistor was fabricated on the flexible hybrid substrate by R2R process for the first time. A 4.3-in. segment-type reflective Electro-Phoretic Display (EPD) display was also demonstrated to show the R2R capability of flexible substrates.
Some tools for fire model validation

General ideas are offered for describing fire model validity prior to starting product design. Validation of independent test results is part of this phase. Differences between comparable results, graphical methods, and distinctions between random and systematic errors are discussed.
Randomized controlled trial of behavioral treatment for comorbid obesity and depression in women: the Be Active Trial.

Depression is associated with increased risk for obesity and worse weight loss treatment outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that delivering evidence-based behavior therapy for depression before a lifestyle weight loss intervention improves both weight loss and depression. In a randomized controlled trial, obese women with major depressive disorder (N=161, mean age=45.9 (s.d.: 10.8) years) were randomized to brief behavior therapy for depression treatment followed by a lifestyle intervention (BA) or a lifestyle intervention only (LI). Follow-up occurred at 6 and 12 months. Main outcome measures included weight loss and depression symptoms. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed both conditions lost significant weight, but no differences between conditions in weight change at 6 months (BA=−3.0%, s.e.=−0.65%; LI=−3.7%, s.e.=0.63%; P=0.48) or 12 months (BA=−2.6%, s.e.=0.77%; LI=−3.1%, s.e.=0.74%; P=0.72). However, the BA condition evidenced significantly greater improvement in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores relative to the LI condition at both 6 months (BA mean change=−12.5, s.d.=0.85; LI mean change=−9.2, s.d.=0.80, P=0.005) and 12 months (BA mean change=−12.6, s.d.=0.97; LI mean change=−9.9, s.d.=0.93; P=0.045). Participants who experienced depression remission by 6 months (61.2%) lost greater weight (mean=−4.31%; s.e.=0.052) than those who did not (39.7%; mean=−2.47%, s.e.=0.53; P=.001). Adding behavior therapy to a lifestyle intervention results in greater depression remission but does not improve weight loss within 1 year. Improvement in depression is associated with greater weight loss.
Anesthetic monitoring and monitoring equipment: Application in small exotic pet practice

Careful monitoring is essential to performing anesthesia safely in small exotic animals. Because there are no flawless electronic patient monitors, no device can replace the anesthetist. Numerous monitoring devices are available to assist the anesthetist. Unfortunately, many of the available monitoring tools and techniques do not adapt well to small exotic species, and their inability to adapt emphasizes the need for careful subjective monitoring of anesthetic depth and brevity of the anesthetic episode. The utility of available monitoring tools and techniques for small exotic animals is reviewed.
Atrioventricular block: Natural history after permanent ventricular pacing

The preimplantation status, postimplantation morbidity and causes of late mortality were summarized for 246 patients who underwent pacing for atrioventricular (A-V) block at the University of Michigan for the 14 years from 1961 to 1974. The survival rate at 1, 5 and 10 years was 88, 61 and 49 percent, respectively. Risk of death was greatest among patients with antecedent ischemic or hypertensive heart disease or congestive heart failure in the period before pacemaker implantation, patients older than 74 years at initial implantation and those receiving a pacemaker before 1965. Forty-two percent of the 109 deaths were related to apparent progression of underlying cardiac disease. Pacing system malfunction was a contributing documented cause of only 3 deaths. Even with permanent pacemaker implantation, patients with A-V block have a higher age-specific mortality rate than the general U.S. population. Survival improved steadily over the period of study. This change is attributed to apparent improvements in treatment of cardiovascular disease including more effective treatment of congestive heart failure and valve replacement for selected patients as well as elimination of immediate postoperative mortality.
Rapid Communication Activation of Protein Kinase C Inhibits Kainate-Induced Currents in Oocytes Expressing Glutamate Receptor Subunits

The effect of protein kinase C (PKC) activation on maximal kainate (KA)-induced currents was studied in Xenopus oocytes expressing the glutamate receptor (GluR) subunits GluR3, GluR1 + 3, GluR2 + 3, and GluR6. The PKC activator phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) inhibited peak KA responses in a time-dependent manner. The magnitude of inhibition was greatest in GluR6-expressing oocytes. Desensitizing KA currents characterized by a peak, transient current followed by a slower, desensitizing current were observed in oocytes expressing GluR3 and GluR1 + 3 receptors. PMA inhibited the desensitization, and this effect could be observed before PMA's inhibition of peak current amplitude. PMA-mediated inhibition of both desensitization and peak current amplitude was prevented by intracellular injection of the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor peptide. These results suggest that the function of GluRs is regulated by PKC-dependent phosphorylation.
Kolmogorov random graphs only have trivial stable colorings

In this paper, we prove that random graphs only have trivial stable colorings. Our result improves Theorem 4.1 in [Proc. 20th IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Comput. Sci., 1979, pp. 39-46]. It can be viewed as an effective version of Corollary 2.13 in [SIAM J. Comput. 29 (2) (2000) 590-599]. As a byproduct, we also give an upper bound of the size of induced regular subgraphs in random graphs.
Phenotype and function of human natural killer cells purified by using a clinical-scale immunomagnetic method

Infection, disease relapse, graft failure, and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) are significant adverse events associated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Donor natural killer (NK) cells may be an ideal cell type for prevention or treatment of all these adverse events. Therefore, we investigated the phenotype and function of human NK cells purified by using a clinical-scale immunomagnetic method. We found that the NK cell purification procedures did not adversely affect the expression of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors, adhesion molecules, intracellular cytokines, perforin, and granzyme B. Purified NK cells had extensive proliferative capacity and potent antitumor activity when assessed using an immunodeficient mouse model. While all mice transplanted with unpurified mononuclear cells developed GVHD, none of the mice transplanted with purified NK cells did. NK cells were highly susceptible to lysis by antithymocyte globulin (ATG), whereas G-CSF had a minimal effect on their natural cytotoxicity. These results support future clinical investigation of the use of purified NK cells for adoptive immunotherapy in the absence of ATG.
Application of an Air Curtain-Exhaust System at a Milling Process

The purpose of this research was to investigate the air curtain-exhaust ventilation system as an effective control at a rubber milling process. The investigated system consisted of an air curtain and an enclosure added to the existing control. The air curtain was located between the contaminant source and the mill operator to create an air barrier between the operator and the emission source. The enclosure covered the space between the exhaust hood and the mill's back side to eliminate contaminant emission at this space and to increase hood face velocity at the operator side. Laboratory and field test data indicate that a significant reduction in emissions was achieved when this system was operating, even when the existing hood exhaust airflow rate was reduced by 33%.
The toughness of epoxy-poly(butylene terephthalate) blends

Blends containing 5% poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) in an anhydride-cured epoxy with three different PBT morphologies were studied. The three morphologies were a dispersion of spherulites, a structureless gel and a gel with spherulites. The average fracture toughnesses, KIc, and fracture energies, GIc, for those morphologies were 0.83, 2.3 and 1.8 MPa m1/2 and 240, 2000 and 1150 J m−2, respectively. These values should be compared with the values of 0.72 MPa m1/2 and 180 J m−2, respectively, for the cured epoxy without PBT. The elastic moduli and yield strengths in compression for all three blend morphologies remained essentially unchanged from those of the cured epoxy without PBT, namely, 2.9 GPa for the modulus and 115 MPa for the yield strength. The fracture surfaces of the cured spherulitic dispersion blends indicate the absorption of fracture energy by crack bifurcation induced by the spherulites. The fracture surfaces of the cured structureless gel blends indicate that fracture energy was absorbed by matrix and PBT plastic deformation and by spontaneous crack bifurcation. But phase transformation of the PBT and anelastic strain of the matrix below the fracture surfaces may account for most of the large fracture energy of the cured structureless gel blends.
Library Anxiety Among Undergraduates Enrolled in a Research Methods in Psychology Course

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which organized training on accessing library resources affects library anxiety. The researchers revised and used the Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale created by D. J. Van Kampen-Breit, which was designed to assess an individual's perception of an academic library and the information search process. Participants were given a pretest prior to information literacy sessions and a posttest following these sessions. Data analysis suggests a significant decrease in students’ anxiety levels following information literacy training sessions. The results of this study were applied to C. C. Kuhlthau's Information Search Process model and have implications for librarians, instructors, and students regarding factors related to library anxiety and its effective management.
Effect of estrogen withdrawal on blood pressure and insulin resistance in sucrose-fed juvenile rats

We have previously shown that juvenile Sprague-Dawley rats, fed a diet in which complex carbohydrates are replaced by sucrose, develop insulin resistance and hypertension. These conditions develop despite the absence of genetic predisposition to either. When studied with the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp technique, these rats have reduced insulin-stimulated glucose utilization, but normal suppression of hepatic glucose output. In the young sucrose-fed rats, it was noted that the degree of blood pressure elevation was greater in males than in females. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that estrogen withdrawal increases insulin resistance and hypertension. Female rats were randomized at weaning (3 weeks of life) to receive control diet or sucrose diet. Animals were assessed with weekly weight and indirect tail-cuff blood pressure. At 8 weeks of life, the sucrose-fed rats were randomized to receive bilateral oophorectomy or sham surgery (anesthesia and uterine horn exposure without removal of the ovaries). At 13 to 14 weeks of life, all animals were fasted overnight, and had an oral glucose tolerance test while conscious. Weight and weight gain were not different among the groups over the 11 week study period. Animals fed the sucrose diet developed significantly higher blood pressure than animals fed the control diet; oophorectomized animals had higher blood pressure than sham-operated animals (P <.0001). Sucrose-fed oophorectomized animals developed fasting and glucose-stimulated hyperinsulinemia. Estrogen withdrawal augments blood pressure in juvenile rats made insulin resistant and hypertensive with a sucrose diet. Estrogen withdrawal in these animals also induces fasting and glucose-stimulated hyperinsulinemia, which are signs of worsening insulin resistance. Androgen:estrogen imbalance increases metabolic dysfunction and worsens hypertension in this animal model.
Effect of Processing Methods on the Utilization of Hydrolyzed Poultry Feathers by Growing Chicks

Abstract THE high protein content of the horny tissues and keratinous areas has been recognized for some time. This protein material, feather, hoofs, horns, and hair, would appear to be nutritionally desirable. However, its low digestibility has in the past rendered it of little value as a feedstuff for most species. Annually over 50,000 tons of dry feathers are available at processing plants. Recently much interest has been shown in the processing of waste feathers for utilization in poultry feeds. Very little interest was shown in early studies concerning hydrolyzed poultry feathers as feed supplements. Scott and Payne (1928) reported that hydrolyzed poultry feathers improved egg production in one year but not in the second year. These researchers concluded that feathers added nothing of importance to poultry diets and the cost of hydrolyzing was too great to allow the use of feathers in practical poultry feeds. Draper (1944) reported that sodium …
An enhanced one-step C-testable design of two-dimensional iterative logic arrays

The authors present an improved approach to one-step C-testability of orthogonal two-dimensional iterative logic arrays. This is an improvement of the approach of W. Huang and F. Lombardi (1988) and H. Elhuni et al. (1986). A group of sufficient conditions to test two-dimensional iterative logic arrays with a constant number of test vectors independent of the array size (C-testability) is stated. It is proved that the proposed approach requires a smaller number of test vectors than in previous works. >
Essential roles of CFEX-mediated Cl−–oxalate exchange in proximal tubule NaCl transport and prevention of urolithiasis

The majority of the Na + and Cl − filtered by the kidney is reabsorbed in the proximal tubule. In this nephron segment, a significant fraction of Cl − is transported via apical membrane Cl − –base exchange: Cl − –formate exchange, Cl − –oxalate exchange, Cl − –OH − exchange, and Cl − –HCO 3 − exchange. A search for the transporter responsible for apical membrane Cl − –formate exchange in the proximal tubule led to the identification of CFEX (SLC26A6). Functional expression studies in Xenopus oocytes demonstrated that CFEX is capable of mediating not only Cl − –formate exchange but also Cl − –oxalate exchange, Cl − –OH − exchange, and Cl − –HCO 3 − exchange. Studies in CFEX-null mice have begun to elucidate which of the anion exchange activities mediated by CFEX is important for renal physiology and pathophysiology in vivo . Measurements of transport in renal brush border vesicles isolated from CFEX-null mice demonstrated that CFEX primarily mediates Cl − –oxalate exchange rather than Cl − –formate exchange. Microperfusion studies in CFEX-null mice revealed that CFEX plays an essential role in mediating oxalate-dependent NaCl absorption in the proximal tubule. CFEX-null mice were found to have hyperoxaluria and a high incidence of calcium oxalate urolithiasis. The etiology of hyperoxaluria in CFEX-null mice was observed to be a defect in oxalate secretion in the intestine, leading to enhanced net absorption of ingested oxalate and elevation of plasma oxalate. Thus, by virtue of its function as a Cl − –oxalate exchanger, CFEX plays essential roles both in proximal tubule NaCl transport and in the prevention of hyperoxaluria and calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis.
Interference in identifying attributes and attribute names

The interference of incongruous attribute names on attribute identification was studied with two different attributes, color and direction, and with two modes of identifying response, verbaland nonverbal. Nonverbal responses made for less interference under all conditions. Semantic proximity produced more interference with color than with direction. Interference in this sort of task may reflect characteristic ways in which incoming attribute information is processed.
Predictive painting of 3D seismic volumes

Predictive painting is a numerical algorithm that spreads information in 3D volumes according to the local structure of seismic events. The algorithm consists of two steps. First, local spatially variable inline and crossline slopes of seismic events are estimated by the plane-wave-destruction method. Next, a seed trace is inserted in the volume, and the information contained in that trace is spread inside the volume, thus automatically “painting” the data space. Immediate applications of this technique include automatic horizon picking and flattening in applications to both prestack and poststack seismic data analysis. Synthetic and field data tests demonstrate the effectiveness of predictive painting.
Comparison of methods to detect Pasteurella multocida in carrier waterfowl

We conducted laboratory challenge trials using mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) to compare methods for detecting carriers of Pasteurella multocida, the bacterium that causes avian cholera, in wild birds. Birds that survived the initial infection were euthanized at 2–4 wk intervals up to 14 wk post challenge. Isolates of P. multocida were obtained at necropsy from 23% of the birds that survived initial infection. We found that swab samples (oral, cloacal, nasal, eye, and leg joint) were most effective for detecting carrier birds up to 14 wk post infection. No detectable differences in isolation were observed for samples stored in either 10% dimethysulfoxide or brain heart infusion broth. The frequency of detecting carriers in our challenge trials appeared to be related to mortality rates observed during the trial, but was not related to a number of other factors including time after challenge, time delays in collecting tissues postmortem, and route of infection. In our trials, there was little associatio...
Carbon dioxide laser treatment for Hailey-Hailey disease: a retrospective chart review with patient-reported outcomes.

Background Hailey-Hailey disease (HHD) is an autosomal dominant genodermatosis that leads to skin breakdown and blister formation, usually in intertriginous areas. Laser ablation is a known surgical treatment for HHD. Objectives We report outcomes in a series of patients with HHD treated with carbon dioxide (CO2 ) laser ablation. Methods A retrospective chart review of data for 13 patients who underwent CO2 laser ablation for HHD was conducted. Questionnaires assessing effectiveness, pain, healing time, recurrence, new disease, complications, additional ablation, improvement in quality of life (QoL), and overall satisfaction were completed by all patients. Results All patients had been recalcitrant to previous treatments prior to CO2 laser ablation. Anatomic sites treated and anesthesia techniques for the procedure varied. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) score for the effectiveness of CO2 laser ablation for HHD was 9.3 ± 0.9 (maximum: 10). All patients reported improved QoL. No patient had recurring disease within the treatment field. Five patients underwent additional CO2 laser treatments at new sites. One patient reported postoperative infection. No other complications were identified. The mean ± SD score for overall satisfaction with CO2 laser ablation was 8.9 ± 1.1. Conclusions Treatment with CO2 laser ablation is very effective and can lead to prolonged or permanent remission in most HHD patients. Patients are highly satisfied with the results and report a substantial improvement in QoL.
Synergism between psychosocial and metabolic stressors: impact on reproductive function in cynomolgus monkeys.

The role of energy imbalance versus psychosocial stress in the pathogenesis of female reproductive dysfunction characterized by anovulation and amenorrhea remains controversial. In women, functiona...
Brief, Pre-learning Stress Reduces False Memory Production and Enhances True Memory Selectively in Females

Abstract Some of the previous research on stress–memory interactions has suggested that stress increases the production of false memories. However, as accumulating work has shown that the effects of stress on learning and memory depend critically on the timing of the stressor, we hypothesized that brief stress administered immediately before learning would reduce, rather than increase, false memory production. In the present study, participants submerged their dominant hand in a bath of ice cold water (stress) or sat quietly (no stress) for 3 min. Then, participants completed a short-term memory task, the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, in which they were presented with 10 different lists of semantically related words (e.g., candy, sour, sugar) and, after each list, were tested for their memory of presented words (e.g., candy), non-presented unrelated “distractor” words (e.g., hat), and non-presented semantically related “critical lure” words (e.g., sweet). Stress, overall, significantly reduced the number of critical lures recalled (i.e., false memory) by participants. In addition, stress enhanced memory for the presented words (i.e., true memory) in female, but not male, participants. These findings reveal that stress does not unequivocally enhance false memory production and that the timing of the stressor is an important variable that could mediate such effects. Such results could have important implications for understanding the dependability of eyewitness accounts of events that are observed following stress.
Congressional staff aides as candidates and as U.S. representatives

Abstract Since the early 1970s, congressional staff jobs have become a more frequent route to House election than previously. Former legislative aides, once in office, achieve leadership positions in the House more quickly than their colleagues.
Ultrafast AMO physics at the LCLS X-ray FEL

The Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, began operation in 2009 as the world's first hard x-ray free electron laser. Early experiments have concentrated on atomic physics, and have demonstrated several key features of the ultrafast high field x-ray-atom interaction. This paper reviews some of these early results. 1. INTRODUCTION: WORLD'S BRIGHTEST ULTRAFAST X-RAY SOURCE, LCLS The new class of so-called "fourth generation" synchrotron light sources are a revolutionary departure from storage ring-based electron synchrotrons. They are true x-ray lasers, which use relativistic electrons as a gain medium. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park California is the world's first hard x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) (1). It produces coherent x-ray fields that exceed the brightness of any previous source (measured in energy per unit time per unit solid angle per unit frequency interval) by a factor of one billion or more. The increase of peak brightness is due to a combination of increased pulses energy and decreased pulse duration. These novel lasers allow us to observe the fastest timescales in atoms and molecules, which are due to the interactions among electrons. The timescales involved can be characterized by electronic energy separations, which can be many electron volts. Any ultrafast laser source is limited to pulse durations no shorter than a single cycle of the electromagnetic field. For the conventional Ti : Sapphire laser ( = 800nm), this is about 2fs. But for x-rays, the pulse duration can be much shorter. Simulations show that the LCLS is capable of sub-femtosecond pulses, which could capture electronic coherences in molecules. X-rays can reveal multielectron processes inside atoms and molecules. Furthermore, these sources have not yet reached their intrinsic limits in pulse duration, where sub-femtosecond pulses are possible (2). Accelerator and x-ray laser scientists and engineers at SLAC have also begun to explore techniques that will one day provide routine operation with pulses whose time-bandwidth product is near the Fourier transform limit (3). Such control over x-ray fields could be exploited just as in the field of quantum optics with visible and ultraviolet laser pulses. This short review will highlight some of the first results, and the opportunities for further work in strong-field x-ray physics of atoms and molecules. The work described here was all done at the LCLS x-ray free electron laser by the Stanford PULSE Institute AMO group in collaboration with other AMO research groups around the world (4-9). Some of the experiments described form the thesis research of two Stanford students, Mike Glownia and James Cryan (10, 11).
Using chemical markers to detect root disease in stressed ponderosa pine stands with a low incidence of disease in eastern Oregon

Abstract A total of 284 ponderosa pine growing near the southern edge of the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon were categorized into one of three crown classes based on the degree of “tufted”, or “lion's tail” appearance of their branches, a potential symptom of black-stain root disease, then pushed over and their root systems examined for visual symptoms of disease. Only 23 (8.1%) were found to have more than a trace level of black-stain, annosum root disease, or both at about 38 cm below the root collar. Although there were many measurable differences in crown growth parameters among the three classes, they were not reliable for predicting the presence, or severity of root disease. Differences in crown morphology associated with these classes probably resulted from the combined effects of tree size, levels of resources available on site to support vigorous growth, especially water, and stresses that enhanced water deficits. The sapwood water content of diseased trees was 80.0% of the water content in healthy trees. Acetaldehyde, acetone, methanol, and ethanol concentrations, quantified in the headspace analysis of sapwood collected above the root collar prior to harvest, were all higher in trees with root disease compared to those without disease. Logistic regression models with 0–5 chemical explanatory variables were compared simultaneously by the practical information-theoretic approach to select the best model for predicting trees with root disease. The one selected contained only acetone fresh weight concentrations as an explanatory variable, and would facilitate increased rates of sapwood analysis in the laboratory. More importantly, acetone concentrations may function as useful markers to identify the most severely diseased trees for removal, or in general stand surveys to estimate the level of root disease when symptoms in the crown are lacking or confounded by other stresses.
Wide-Area Languages

I discuss the implications of programmable wide-area networks on programming language features and design. Wide-area networks (WANs) provide a fundamentally different computational infrastructure than local-area networks (LANs). As with the switch from mainframes to LANs, the semantic difference of WANs will eventually be reflected in programming language features. The spread of LANs in the 70’s and 80’s produced client-server computing and distributed object-oriented programming. The spread of WANs demands new advances including, for example, mobile secure computing.
Infectivity of Leishmania donovani amastigotes and promastigotes for golden hamsters.

SYNOPSIS. Intracardial injection of hamsters with from 5 to 114 million amastigotes or promastigotes of Leishmania donovani and screening of the 8th-day liver impression smears, provides a rapid and reproducible method for assaying infectivity. Amastigotes are at least 10X more infective than promastigotes, and log-phase promastigotes act as a single infective population for hamsters.
An exploratory study of hypermedia support for problem decomposition

Empirical hypermedia research has concentrated on usability rather than utility, and the research on utility has focused on information access as opposed to problem solving and decision making in organizations. The study based on problem reduction theory, uses a hypermedia prototype system to support decision processes for solving a financial analysis problem. An exploratory laboratory experiment was conducted to study the feasibility of the prototype for hypermedia support of decision making. The process tracing techniques used suggest that a cognitive map of a decision maker's thought process may be constructed. Results offer a great deal of promise in the use of hypermedia for organizational decision support. The implications of this study for further research are discussed. >
Performance analysis of a high resolution time delay estimation algorithm

The convergence properties of an iterative algorithm for high-resolution time delay estimation are studied for a specific example. It is shown that the functional relationship between successive iterates is a contraction mapping for high signal-to-noise ratio. The contraction mapping condition is shown by deriving the derivative of the functional relationship and then calculating the mean and variance of the derivative. The analytical computation is validated by computer simulation. >
Barriers to training family medicine residents in community health centers.

Background and Objectives: Training partnerships between family medicine residencies (FMRs) and community health centers (CHCs) are a potential solution to the chronic problem of health workforce shortages in CHCs. We conducted a national survey to identify the barriers to training family medicine residents in CHCs. Methods: We asked US family medicine residency directors to identify barriers to training residents in CHCs. Using grounded theory, three coders grouped responses by theme. We examined differences in barriers between residency programs that currently train in CHCs with programs that do not currently train in CHCs. Results: A total of 51% (226/439) of residency program directors responded. Of these, 29% cited governance as a barrier to affiliation, 26% cited administrative complexity, 24% cited financial considerations, 21% cited leadership, and 18% cited access. Programs that trained in CHCs were more likely to cite financial considerations and administrative complexity than programs that did not train in CHCs. Conclusions: Governance and administrative complexity are the most commonly cited barriers to effective CHC-FMR partnerships. Financial consideration and leadership issues are also common barriers.
ARID1A is a useful marker of malignancy in peritoneal washings for endometrial carcinoma

BACKGROUND ARID1A (AT-rich interactive domain 1A gene) has recently been identified as a novel tumor suppressor gene and one of the driver genes in endometrial carcinogenesis. Approximately 30% to 40% of endometrial carcinomas harbor mutations in the ARID1A gene, which results in complete loss of ARID1A protein expression. Although ARID1A aberrations are not restricted to endometrial cancer, the authors hypothesized that it might be a useful marker of malignancy in peritoneal washings for patients with endometrial cancer. METHODS The cytology archive of Brigham and Women's Hospital was searched to identify cell blocks from peritoneal washings that contained malignant or benign endometrial epithelium. From 2006 through 2013, 17 cases of endometrial carcinoma (EMCA) and 16 cases of endometriosis were identified. Surgical pathology reports and follow-up data were used to confirm the diagnoses. Immunohistochemistry for ARID1A was performed, and slides were scored as 0 (complete loss of staining) or 1 (retained staining) by 2 independent pathologists. The discordant cases were resolved by consensus. The two-tailed Fisher exact probability test was used to calculate statistical significance. RESULTS Complete loss of ARID1A expression was found in 8 of 17 EMCA cases (47%) and none of the 16 endometriosis cases (0%) (P = .024). The concordance among the pathologists on first review was high (96.7%). CONCLUSIONS The results of the current study demonstrated that ARID1A can be used in peritoneal washings to confirm malignancy in patients with EMCA. Complete loss of ARID1A expression by immunohistochemistry is highly specific for carcinoma, but retained expression is not informative. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2015;123:253–257. © 2014 American Cancer Society.
Capacity enhancement based on using adaptive antenna arrays optimized for trunking efficiency

Cellular systems using adaptive antennas for spatial processing have been shown to provide an increase in capacity. When employing adaptive antennas, the standard approach to achieve capacity gain has been to maximize the link quality between the mobile and base station via optimum combining. This paper presents an alternative optimization approach based on optimizing the adaptive antenna array to maximize the trunking efficiency, of which the effect was subsequently an outstanding issue. Monte Carlo simulations, substantiated with theoretical analysis, were used to evaluate this issue. Based on the analysis, the proposed approach could increase the capacity by 2 to 4 times.
Evaluating the impacts of instream flow on water supply for municipal and irrigation use

The instream flow (IF) that is a required minimum flow amount for aquatic species and inhabitants has been one of key factors for dealing with the water allocation complexities since 1960s. In particular, the requirement of IF in river flow constraints the reservoir operation that focuses on water supply of municipal and irrigation use. This study focuses on evaluating the impact of IF on municipal and irrigation use from which the Waco reservoir is supplied. The exceedance frequencies of stream flow are performed based on three conditions: pre- or post-dam construction condition and reservoir storage reallocation condition. The monthly IF percentage expressed as a percentage of naturalized flow is computed using naturalized flow and IF available in Texas Water Availability Model (WAM) and applied to generate the monthly IF for 1939–1997 hydrologic-simulation periods. The effects of IF use are assessed on period and volume reliabilities for municipal and irrigation use. Sensitivity analysis was performed to provide the optimal amount and range of IF using two different kinds of constant and seasonal IF use percentage rate plans. These results in this study indicate that the presence of IF has not changed the exceedance frequencies of low flow but reduced exceedance frequencies of flood flows. Period and volume reliabilities for municipal and irrigation use have decreased by 2 or 4%. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Alternative Splicing of an Insect Sodium Channel Gene Generates Pharmacologically Distinct Sodium Channels

Alternative splicing is a major mechanism by which potassium and calcium channels increase functional diversity in animals. Extensive alternative splicing of the para sodium channel gene and developmental regulation of alternative splicing have been reported in Drosophila species. Alternative splicing has also been observed for several mammalian voltage-gated sodium channel genes. However, the functional significance of alternative splicing of sodium channels has not been demonstrated. In this study, we identified three mutually exclusive alternative exons encoding part of segments 3 and 4 of domain III in the German cockroach sodium channel gene, para CSMA . The splice site is conserved in the mouse, fish, and human Nav1.6 sodium channel genes, suggesting an ancient origin. One of the alternative exons possesses a stop codon, which would generate a truncated protein with only the first two domains. The splicing variant containing the stop codon is detected only in the PNS, whereas the other two full-size variants were detected in both the PNS and CNS. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes, the two splicing variants produced robust sodium currents, but with different gating properties, whereas the splicing variant with the stop codon did not produce any detectable sodium current. Furthermore, these two functional splicing variants exhibited a striking difference in sensitivity to a pyrethroid insecticide, deltamethrin. Exon swapping partially reversed the channel sensitivity to deltamethrin. Our results therefore provide the first evidence that alternative splicing of a sodium channel gene produces pharmacologically distinct channels.
SymbioticSphere: A Biologically-Inspired Autonomic Architecture for Self-Managing Network Systems

The proposed architecture, called SymbioticSphere, consists of two major system components: application service and middleware platform. Each of them is modeled as a biological entity, analogous to an individual bee in a bee colony. They are designed to follow several biological principles such as decentralization, autonomy, emergence, redundancy, natural selection and symbiosis. An application service is implemented as an autonomous software agent. Each agent implements a functional service and follows biological behaviors such as migration, replication, death, energy exchange and environment sensing. A middleware platform runs on a network host and operates agents. Each platform provides a set of runtime services that agents use to perform their services and behaviors, and implements biological behaviors such as replication, death, energy exchange and environment sensing. The objectives of this study are to design and implement SymbioticSphere and evaluate the biologically-inspired mechanisms in SymbioticSphere in terms of autonomy, scalability, adaptability and survivability. Simulation results show that agents and platforms autonomously scale to network size and demand volume and adapt to dynamic changes in the network conditions (e.g., user locations, network traffic and resource availability). They also autonomously survive partial system failures such as host failures and link failures in order to retain their availability and performance
Dietary intake, eating behaviors, and quality of life in women with polycystic ovary syndrome who are trying to conceive

The Healthy Eating for Reproductive Health study was conducted among 18 (45% non-white) mostly obese (BMI 39.9 ± 6.1) women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who were experiencing infertility and interested in losing weight. A variety of markers were measured at baseline: body mass index (BMI), diet, physical activity, eating behaviors (using an Eating Behavior Inventory, a questionnaire which assesses both positive and negative eating behaviors associated with weight status, with a higher score indicating adoption of eating behaviors which have been shown in prior weight-loss research to promote a healthy weight (EBI) and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, which assesses cognitive and behavioral components of eating among overweight adults), and a quality of life (PCOS Health-Related Quality of Life (PCOSQ)) index, which assesses satisfaction around five 'domains': emotional health, presence of body hair, infertility, weight, and menstrual problems). A comparison group of overweight women without PCOS (n = 28) was used to examine differences in measured outcomes between women with and without PCOS. Participants' habitual diets were high in fat and saturated fat and low in fiber, folate, and iron and contained significantly lower amounts of carbohydrate, iron, and whole grains compared with women without PCOS who had enrolled in a behavioral weight loss programme. Participants had a low EBI (indicating that most were not adopting eating behaviors associated with achieving a healthy weight), disinhibition (indicating participants had a tendency to overeat in the presence of highly palatable foods or were susceptible to emotional cues for eating, such as stress), and hunger scores (indicating participants did not report being susceptible to hunger, prompting overeating) and moderate dietary restraint (indicating they were not consistently attempting to restrict food intake consciously). PCOSQ scores were lowest for infertility and weight domains (indicating low satisfaction with current infertility and weight status); however all domains received low scores (emotional health, body hair, and menstrual problems). Higher energy intakes (kcal/day) were associated with a lower EBI score (r = - 0.60, P = 0.02), lower dietary restraint (r =- 0.50, P = 0.04), and higher disinhibition (r = 0.63, P = 0.01). Greater energy expenditure (kcal/day) was associated with lower PCOSQ scores for body weight (r =-0.54, P = 002) and infertility (r =- 0.51, P = 0.003) domains. Results suggest that overweight women with PCOS-related infertility have poor dietary intake, particularly in terms of whole grains, fiber, and iron, and eating behaviors inconsistent with achieving a healthy body weight, as well as low scores for PCOS-related quality of life.
TNF Receptor 2 and Disease: Autoimmunity and Regenerative Medicine.

The regulatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) exerts its effects through two receptors: TNFR1 and TNFR2. Defects in TNFR2 signaling are evident in a variety of autoimmune diseases. One new treatment strategy for autoimmune disease is selective destruction of autoreactive T cells by administration of TNF, TNF inducers, or TNFR2 agonism. A related strategy is to rely on TNFR2 agonism to induce T regulatory cells (Tregs) that suppress cytotoxic T cells. Targeting TNFR2 as a treatment strategy is likely superior to TNFR1 because of its more limited cellular distribution on T cells, subsets of neurons, and a few other cell types, whereas TNFR1 is expressed throughout the body. This review focuses on TNFR2 expression, structure, and signaling; TNFR2 signaling in autoimmune disease and treatment strategies targeting TNFR2 in autoimmunity and the potential for TNFR2 to facilitate end organ regeneration.
PathCase: pathways database system

Motivation: As the blueprints of cellular actions, biological pathways characterize the roles of genomic entities in various cellular mechanisms, and as such, their availability, manipulation and queriability over the web is important to facilitate ongoing biological research. Results: In this article, we present the new features of PathCase, a system to store, query, visualize and analyze metabolic pathways at different levels of genetic, molecular, biochemical and organismal detail. The new features include: (i) a web-based system with a new architecture, containing a server-side and a client-side, and promoting scalability, and flexible and easy adaptation of different pathway databases, (ii) an interactive client-side visualization tool for metabolic pathways, with powerful visualization capabilities, and with integrated gene and organism viewers, (iii) two distinct querying capabilities: an advanced querying interface for computer savvy users, and built-in queries for ease of use, that can be issued directly from pathway visualizations and (iv) a pathway functionality analysis tool. PathCase is now available for three different datasets, namely, KEGG pathways data, sample pathways from the literature and BioCyc pathways for humans. Availability: Available online at http://nashua.case.edu/pathways
Arterial Destiffening With Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Middle-Aged and Older Adults

We tested the hypothesis that weight loss via a hypocaloric diet would reduce arterial stiffness in overweight and obese middle-aged and older adults. Thirty-six individuals were randomly assigned ...
Why and how to deceive: game results with sociological evidence

As social networking sites continue to proliferate, online deception is becoming a significant problem. Deceptive users are now not only lone wolves propagating hate messages and inappropriate content, but also are more frequently seemingly honest users choosing to deceive for selfish reasons. Their behavior negatively influences otherwise honest online community members, creating a snowball effect that damages entire online communities. In this paper, we study the phenomenon of deception and attempt to understand the dynamics of users’ deception, using a game-theoretic approach. We begin by formulating the decision process of a single user as a Markov chain with time-varying rewards. We then study the specific optimization problem a user may face in choosing to deceive when they are influenced by (1) their potential reward, (2) peer pressure and (3) their deception comfort level. We illustrate reasonable equilibria can be achieved under certain simplifying assumptions. We then investigate the inverse problem: given equilibria, we show how we can fit a model to the data and how this model exposes information about the social structure.
DISCUSSION 1: An Overview of Matters Transitional, From the Outside Looking In

This is a response to other chapters in this volume and its content is largely determined by theirs. Gowlett and Chauhan tackle entire continents (Africa and South Asia, respectively) and vast periods of time. Gowlett synthesises the Plio-Pleistocene, during which nothing startling happened. Chauhan tries to do similarly for the Palaeolithic of South Asia, but is bedevilled by a lack of data. The chapters by Lycett and Blackwell et al. are methodological and I cannot assess them as fully as they deserve. Three of the seven chapters are confined to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe (Clark, Soffer and Straus) and two of those (Clark and Straus) are further confined to southwestern Europe. Their emphases are deliberately upon cultural change. However, modern humans (“modern” in all respects) evolved in Africa and the European Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition reflects their arrival in Europe and the rapid extinction of the Neandertals. I thus believe that decoupling cultural from biological change is what we should not do at this particular transition.
A Work is a Work is a Work: There is No Fixation Requirement Inherent in the Terms 'Work' or 'Derivative Work' Under the Copyright Act

This working paper argues that there is no fixation requirement inherent in the terms "work" or "derivative work" under the 1976 Copyright Act. The paper analyzes the Copyright Office's assertion that a work by definition must be fixed and refutes that interpretation by analyzing statutory language, case law, and legislative history.
Teachers' ratings of preschool children's behaviour: Inter-teacher agreement and variation in their agreement

Teacher rating scales are an efficient, practical way to gather information on children's behaviour problems in school. Previous research has reported on agreement between parents' and teachers' reports, but less attention has been paid to interteacher agreement in young children, to the distinction between relative and absolute agreement, or to variability in teachers' agreement. In the present study, 26 United States teachers of three- to five-year-olds reported on the behaviour of 132 children in their classrooms, with the widely used Achenbach Teacher Report Form. Stronger agreement was seen on ratings of externalising than internalising behaviour. Absolute agreement was not always high even when teachers showed close relative agreement. Agreement varied significantly across informant pairs, suggesting that some teacher pairs rate children's behaviour in very similar ways, while others agree very little. Agreement was stronger in higher-SES than lower-SES classrooms.