cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Compressive neural activity detection with fMR images using Graphical Model Inference.

In this paper, a neural activity detection framework using fMRI data is proposed. The framework consists of three stages: Prediction: Predicting regions of interest associated with an extraordinary amount of neural activities through Temporal Clustering Analysis (TCA). Modelling: Categorising fMRI signals related to neural activities into event prototypes through Linear Predictive Coding (LPC). Inference: Determining the types of neural activities in terms of activation, deactivation and normality through graphical model based Bayesian inference. The experiment results demonstrate the advantages of this approach in terms of computational cost and robustness against artefacts.
An Abstract Framework for Elliptic Inverse Problems: Part 2. An Augmented Lagrangian Approach

The coefficient in a linear elliptic partial differential equation can be estimated from interior measurements of the solution. Posing the estimation problem as a constrained optimization problem with the PDE as the constraint allows the use of the augmented Lagrangian method, which is guaranteed to converge. Moreover, the convergence analysis encompasses discretization by finite element methods, so the proposed algorithm can be implemented and will produce a solution to the constrained minimization problem. All of these properties hold in an abstract framework that encompasses several interesting problems: the standard (scalar) elliptic BVP in divergence form, the system of isotropic elasticity, and others. Moreover, the analysis allows for the use of total variation regularization, so rapidly-varying or even discontinuous coefficients can be estimated.
The Loyal Patient at the End of Life: A Roycean Argument for Assisted Suicide

The philosophy of Josiah Royce (1855–1916) has recently begun to regain attention; Griffin Trotter, in particular, has utilized Royce in questions concerning medical ethics. This resurgence in attention is for good reason—Royce's philosophies of loyalty and community provide both a descriptively accurate picture of the self and a prescriptively solid ethical system. Royce recognized, as do all pragmatic philosophers, that persons only exist socially, and this sociality will necessarily influence the individual ethically, but also epistemologically. What we know, how we act, how we think we ought to act are not individual questions, but rather questions that arise for individuals only in the context of a larger community.
International Drilling to Recover Aquifer Sands (IDRAs) and Arsenic Contaminated Groundwater in Asia

A group of forty-four scientists and students from fourteen countries met on 25–27 April 2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam to set the stage for a new continental drilling program focused on the groundwater arsenic (As) problem in Asia. Half of the participants were from low and lower-middle income countries directly facing the major health threat of elevated groundwater As. This issue affects over 100 million rural inhabitants across Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam who rely on shallow (typically <100-m-deep) wells as their main source of drinking water (Ravenscroft et al., 2009). Groundwater from these areas can contain As at levels that have been shown to cause deadly cancers and cardiovascular disease and to inhibit the mental development of children (Smith, A.H. et al., 2000; Wasserman et al., 2004; Kapaj et al., 2006; Argos et al., 2010).
The Greek Inscriptions of the Sardis Synagogue

Since its discovery and excavation in the 1960s, the Synagogue at Sardis has taken its place as the most significant monument of diaspora Judaism in Roman Asia Minor. For their assistance and involvement with this study, I especially wish to thank Marianne Bonz, Katherine Kiefer, David Mitten, Andrew Seager, Jane Scott, Thomas Kraabel, and L. Michael White, and Walter Ameling. Notable for its size, richness, basilical form, and prominent location within the city, the Synagogue is exceptional also for the more than eighty inscriptions recovered from its interior. With the exception of six fragments in Hebrew, To be published by Frank M. Cross in the final Synagogue volume. The Hebrew texts, all inscribed on fragments of marble wall revetment, give the words, “Peace ( Shalom )” (Hanfmann 1972, fig. 86; Seager and Kraabel 1983, 171, fig. 269) and “vow” (twice each), and two proper names, Yohanan and Severus (formerly read as “Verus” [Hanfmann 1967, 25, n. 25; Seager and Kraabel 1983, 171, 179, n. 9]). the inscriptions are in Greek and for the most part commemorate members of the congregation who contributed the many elements of interior decoration: the mosaics on the floor, the marbling of the walls, and a number of architectural and ritual furnishings.
Physical Properties of Lactic Dehydrogenase-Elevating Virus and Its Ribonucleic Acid

Infectious lactic dehydrogenase-elevating virus propagated in primary cultures of mouse peritoneal macrophages in the presence of (3)H-uridine and isolated by isopycnic centrifugation was found to have a density of 1.12 g/cm(3). Ribonucleic acid extracted from the virus by treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate was single stranded with a sedimentation coefficient of approximately 48S.
Receptive Field Formation in Natural Scene Environments: Comparison of Single Cell Learning Rules

We study several statistically and biologically motivated learning rules using the same visual environment, one made up of natural scenes, and the same single cell neuronal architecture. This allows us to concentrate on the feature extraction and neuronal coding properties of these rules. Included in these rules are kurtosis and skewness maximization, the quadratic form of the BCM learning rule, and single cell ICA. Using a structure removal method, we demonstrate that receptive fields developed using these rules depend on a small portion of the distribution. We find that the quadratic form of the BCM rule behaves in a manner similar to a kurtosis maximization rule when the distribution contains kurtotic directions, although the BCM modification equations are computationally simpler.
Thermally constrained motor operation for a climbing robot

Climbing robots are especially susceptible to thermal overload during normal operation, due to the need to oppose gravity and to frequently apply internal forces for clinging. As an alternative to setting conservative limits on the motor peak and average current, we investigate methods for measuring motor temperatures, predicting motor thermal conditions and generating thermally constrained behavior. A thermal model, verified using empirical data, predicts the motor's winding temperature based on measured case temperature and input current. We also present a control strategy that maximizes robot velocity while satisfying a constraint on the maximum permissible motor winding temperature.
Toxic Microcystis is Widespread in Lake Erie: PCR Detection of Toxin Genes and Molecular Characterization of Associated Cyanobacterial Communities

During the past decade, algae blooms, which include the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis, have reoccurred in the Laurentian Great Lakes, most commonly in the western basin of Lake Erie. Whereas the western basin is the most impacted by toxic Microcystis in Lake Erie, there has historically been little effort focused on identifying the spatial distribution of Microcystis throughout this lake. To address this lack of knowledge, we have employed a polymerase-chain-reaction-based detection of genes required for synthesis of the toxin microcystin (mcyD and mcyB), as well as 16S rDNA fragments specific to either all Microcystis or all cyanobacteria. Using a multiplex approach, we tested 21 samples from 13 field stations and found that toxigenic Microcystis were present in the western and eastern basins in the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2002 and the central basin in 1999 and 2002. This is the most extensive distribution of Microcystis reported in Lake Erie. Clone libraries (16S rDNA) of these cyanobacterial communities were generated from 7 of the 13 field stations (representing all three basins) to partially characterize this microbial community. These libraries were shown to be dominated by sequences assigned to the Synechococcus and Cyanobium phylogenetic cluster, indicating the importance of picoplankton in this large lake system.
The value of the Aschheim-Zondek reaction in the diagnosis and prognosis of chorionepithelioma

CHORIONEPITHELIOMA is a relatively rare disease, usually presenting diagnostic difficulties until unmistakable symptoms of metastasis, either local or distant, appear. ·when the condition develops before the expulsion of the products of conception, as in the case reported by Schmitz wherein renal hematuria due to metastasis preceded termination of pregnancy by three months, a definite diagnosis is impossible without microscopic examination of the metastatic tissue. Even the usual case of chorionepithelioma, characterized in its early stage by abnormal uterine bleeding a month or two after the expulsion of the products of conception, is difficult to diagnose by microscopic examination of uterine scrapings, because the chorionic epithelium is normally a proliferative and invasive tissue showing a tendency to persist and penetrate to a considerable depth into the uterine musculature. '.i'his is especially marked when the syncytial covering proliferates for no accountable reason and forms polypoid processes which invade the surrounding tissue and lodge in the uterine and even in distant veins (SchmorP). The layer of Langhans is also prone to proliferate in the course of normal or mole pregnancy, break through the surrounding syncytial covering and invade the uterine musculature. The inadequacy of uterine curettage in the diagnosis of chorionepithelioma is clearly illustrated by the two case histories, herein recorded. Though the absence of fragments of chorionic villi and the presence of anaplasia in trophoblastic tissue recovered a month or two after termination of pregnancy are strongly suggestive of chorionepithelioma, a definite diagnosis cannot be made on the strength of these findings alone because they do not show the extent of invasion and necrosis of the myometrium. In reporting these two cases of chorionepithelioma, the authors hope to emphasize by contrast the value of the Aschheim-Zondek test in the early diagnosis and prognosis of chorionepithelioma and to stress the irreparable damage that may result from intrauterine application of radium in suspected cases through masking pelvic symptoms which
Research Design Effects on the Reliability of Rating Scales in Marketing: An Update on Churchill and Peter

Churchill and Peter ( 1984) conducted a landmark study in which they used meta-analysis to determine whether particular research design variables (type of sample, type of subjects, use of reverse scoring, etc.) affected the overall reliability of rating scales in marketing. In other words, they studied the question, "What research design variables are likely to make one measurement scale more reliable than another?" If a researcher knows, for example, that a scale composed of semantic differential items with both numerical and verbal labels tends to have a higher reliability score, on average, than a scale using Likert-type items with labels on the polar points only, then that researcher can build in those aspects when designing a new measure.
Effects of elevated nitrate concentration on early thyroid morphology in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar Linnaeus, 1758)

Summary A study was conducted to determine if exposure to elevated nitrate (NO3-)(3.76 ± 0.07 and 93.15 ± 2.79) during embryonic development influences the morphology of thyroid tissue in newly hatched Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Digital three-dimensional imaging of thyroid follicles in S. salar showed that the thyroid tissue in newly hatched alevin consisted mainly of spherical follicles dispersed throughout the lower jaw in close proximity to the ventral aorta and other blood vessels. With these digital models, the number of follicles, average volume per follicle, and total luminal volume were calculated for alevin exposed to well water or 93.15 mg L−1 NO3-N during embryogenesis. There were no statistically significant differences in any of these parameters, suggesting that the normal thyroid development of S. salar could be relatively insensitive to excess environmental NO3-. These results are promising for the culture of Atlantic salmon embryos in recirculating aquaculture systems that naturally accumulate NO3- as a product of nitrification.
Special Issues Regarding Life Insurance, Annuities and Retirement Benefits

This article considers estate planning issues in connection with 3 major types of non-probate assets, including naming the correct beneficiary, additional points to consider in connection with beneficiary designations, and planning for events such as incapacity.
Democracy and Communicative Rifts: Foucault, Fish, and Yucca Mountain

This paper explores the descriptive, critical, and prescriptive potential of a discourse approach for the analysis of environmental policy processes by examining the political controversy surroundi...
Abstract 4957: Mixed Lineage Kinase 3 mediates vanadium-induced cell death in cancer cells

Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL Vanadium is a transition metal and occurs naturally in a variety of minerals. In mammals, vanadium has been shown to promote cancer cell death and can also mimic insulin action, most probably through the inhibition of cellular tyrosine phosphatase and subsequent activation of signaling pathways. The mechanism by which vanadium causes cancer cell death is still not known. Interestingly, it has been shown that various mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) members are activated upon vanadium treatment. However, the contribution of any specific MAPK member that mediates vanadium-induced cell death has not been clearly delineated. It has been reported that JNK is activated by vanadium and therefore we investigated the role of Mixed Lineage Kinase 3 (MLK3) on vanadium-induced cell death. MLK3 is a MAP3K member that is known to specifically activate JNK pathway. We have earlier reported that MLK3 activation promotes cell death in cancer and neuronal cells. Our results demonstrated that endogenous MLK3 was activated by vanadium and MLK3 was highly phosphorylated on tyrosine residues. We also identified Src as a tyrosine kinase that phosphorylated MLK3 on specific tyrosine residues and phosphorylation of these tyrosine residues by Src was essential for MLK3 activation. Vanadium-induced cancer cell death was mediated by MLK3 or MLKs, because CEP-1347, a pan MLK inhibitor, prevented this cell death. Furthermore, the tyrosine phospho-deficient mutants of MLK3 also prevented vanadium-induced cell death. Interestingly, the activity of Src was seen to be in parallel with MLK3 kinase activity in human primary breast tumors. Taken together, our data demonstrate that tyrosine phosphorylation of MLK3 by oncogenic Src leads to MLK3 activation, which subsequently promotes vanadium-induced cell death in cancer cells. Our results also implicate a paradoxical pro-apoptotic role of Src in cancer cells, and thus it is conceivable that in tumors where both Src and MLK3/MLKs activities are higher, targeting of this axis might promote cell death. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4957. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4957
Abrupt Increase in Resistance to Crotalus Venom

by such procedures that Sewall' first showed that animals repeatedly injected with snake venom (crotalus) acquire an increased resistance to that venom, and by which also Calmette2 made the fundamental determination that animals displaying increased resistance to cobra venom possess in their body-fluids newly formed substances of high neutralizing value for that venom. The observations which it is the purpose of this paper to present, relate to a phenomenon distinctly different from those recorded by Sewall and by Calmette; they concern, namely, an abrupt but transient increase in resistance
Rectal administration of warfarin (coumadin) sodium (sodium [3(2-acetonyl-benzyl)-4 hydroxycoumarin)]).

SummaryExperience with rectal use of warfarin sodium in 23 patients has been recorded. In contrast to Dicumarol, the rectal administration of warfarin sodium is consistently effective. If certain precautions are taken, the rectal route appears to be as reliable as the oral or intravenous, and in some circumstances it may be the route of choice.
Finding the Disappearing Dividends: Stock Repurchaser Characteristics and Their Increasing Propensity to Pay

The total propensity to repay capital has risen not fallen as suggested by Fama and French 2001. What has fallen is the time series regularity, in respect to annual capital repayment as firms have shifted from dividend payments to stock repurchases. To understand capital repayment policy I focus my attention on the repayment participation decision of the marginal firm by classifying firms into discrete payment-types and weighting by firms not dollars. Weighting by dollars or using a continuous payment-type variable only answers the question: why do the largest most successful firms pay dividends? That is an interesting question but not the only one. I show that the first firms to employ stock repurchases in the 1980s look like an average of firms that did not repay capital and firms that paid dividends. Over time stock repurchasers have encroached on the territory of dividend payers, supporting the substitution hypothesis and explaining the disappearing dividends of Fama and French 2001. Stock repurchasers have also encroached on the territory of non-payers, helping to increase overall capital repayment rates at the bottom of the firm distribution. After showing the spread of stock repurchases, I document the time series behavior of stock repurchases shows regular patterns despite not occurring annually as dividend payments do. The lower frequency of stock repurchases causes the standard cross-sectional classification of firms that worked well when dividend payments dominated, to undercount stock repurchasers by as much as 50%. To correct this bias I propose an alternative measure: classify firms by their lifetime payment behavior rather than annual payment behavior.
Analysis of infectious disease monitoring in Haidian District of Beijing City in 2013

[Objective]To understand the incidence,epidemic status and clinical characteristics of infectious diseases in Haidian District of Beijing City in 2013,and provide a scientific basis for legal infectious disease prevention and control. [Methods]The descriptive epidemiology was used for analyzing the legal infectious diseases in Haidian District in 2013. [Results]A total of14 548 cases of 25 infectious diseases were reported in Haidian District in 2013. The annual incidence rate was 424.369 6/100 000.There were 4 082 cases of 15 kinds of category B infectious disease,with average annual incidence rate of 119.073 4/100 000,10 465 cases of 7 kinds of category C infectious diseas e,with average annual incidence rate of 304.471 7/100 000. The top 3 diseases were other infectious diarrhea,hand-foot-mouth disease,dysentery.[Conclusion]Compared with 2012,the annual incidence of legal infectious diseases showed a trend of decline in Haidian District of Beijing City in 2013,but high incidence is detected for some infection diseases. Prevention and control should focus on fecal-oral route of enteric infection disease was the most important.
Use of a generally applicable tissue factor--dependent factor V assay to detect activated protein C-resistant factor Va in patients receiving warfarin and in patients with a lupus anticoagulant

The original activated partial thromboplastin time-based assay for activated protein C (APC)-resistant factor Va (FVa) requires carefully prepared fresh plasma and cannot be used in patients receiving warfarin or in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies. A new test is described here that circumvents these limitations and distinguishes without overlap heterozygotes for APC-resistant FVa from persons with normal FV. A diluted test plasma is incubated with an FV-deficient substrate plasma and tissue factor and then clotted with Ca2+ or Ca2+ plus APC. Test results are independent of the FV level or the dilution of the test plasma used. Of 39 controls, 37 gave normal results. Two controls (5%) gave results indicative of APC resistant FVa and on DNA analysis were found to be heterozygous for FV R506Q. Twenty of 21 randomly selected patients receiving warfarin gave normal results. In the single patient with abnormal results, heterozygous FV R506Q was confirmed by DNA analysis. Two of 15 patients with protein S deficiency and 5 of 29 patients with a lupus anticoagulant had abnormal results. APC resistance caused by FV R506Q was confirmed in the five of these seven patients available for DNA analysis. APC-resistant FVa was also detected in 10 of 21 (46%) stored plasma from unrelated patients with venous thrombosis and negative earlier evaluation for a lupus anticoagulant or a deficiency of protein C, protein S, or antithrombin, which confirms a high incidence of this defect among patients with venous thrombosis.
Oxalate improves protein synthesis by enhancing ATP supply in a cell-free system derived from Escherichia coli

The utilization efficiency of a secondary energy source in a cell-free protein synthesis system can be improved by use of a metabolic inhibitor. Oxalate, a potent inhibitor of phophoenolpyruvate synthetase, substantially increased the yield of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase synthesis through the enhanced supply of ATP. Oxalate, at 2.7 mM, increased the synthesis yield by 47% when successive amino acids additions prevent amino acid depletion during protein synthesis. These results suggest that cell-free protein synthesis efficiency could also be improved by disrupting the gene encoding phosphoenolpyruvate synthetase.
Electrothermal instability evolution on Z-pinch rods and imploding liners pulsed with intense current

Magnetically imploded liners assemble high-energy-density plasmas for radiation effects and inertial confinement fusion experiments. The stagnation pressures and temperatures achieved are limited by the Magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor (MRT) instability, which can grow to large amplitude from a small seed perturbation. While the metallic liners used for experiments on the Sandia National Laboratories Z Facility are typically diamond turned to 10–30 nm rms surface roughness, the observed MRT amplitude is unexpectedly large. Early in the current pulse an electrothermal instability (ETI), driven by non-uniform runaway Ohmic heating, may provide a mass perturbation on the liner's surface which exceeds the machining roughness; ETI may then provide the dominant seed from which MRT grows.
The bigger they are the better they taste: size predicts predation risk and anti-predator behavior in giant clams

The decision to hide from predators and the time allocated to hiding are economic decisions that integrate the benefits of escaping a predator and the costs of reduced resource acquisition. Body size is a factor that influences many antipredator decisions. Giant clams, Tridacna maxima, depend on photosynthesis as their main source of energy; thus, retracting their mantle into their shell inhibits energy acquisition and ultimately growth. We experimentally encouraged 95 individual clams to hide by touching them and found that after accounting for variation explained by observer, larger clams remained closed longer. When we looked at the response of these 95 clams to a total of four consecutive experimentally induced closings over about 10 min, we found that larger clams on average hid longer and that clams had individually consistent hiding times and generally habituated to repeated experiments. We then focused on a subset of 30 clams and continued this experiment every other day over 6 days for a total of four sessions. Over this longer duration, clams consistently habituated to repeated disturbance, but the effect of size disappeared. We also found that larger clams were bitten by predators more often than smaller clams. Large clams pay an immediate cost to hiding from benign stimuli and apparently learn to modify their behavior to repeated benign experiences.
Slow-Time MIMO STAP with Improved Power Efficiency

This paper concerns a multiple-input multiple- output (MIMO) generalization of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) to mitigate radar clutter subject to multipath propagation between transmit and receive arrays. Slow-time MIMO transmit channels are phase-coded to be orthogonal post-Doppler processing at the receiver (";slow-time";) and are easily implemented without receiver modification before range pulse-compression. Slow-time MIMO STAP methods coherently combine orthogonal received waveforms, steering virtual transmit nulls in cone angles responsible for multipath clutter [1]. A potential problem with MIMO STAP is the occurrence VSWR peaks over the course of a dwell. Herein, we consider sub-array designs that improve power efficiency by reducing VSWR.
On trivial solution and scale transfer problems in graph regularized NMF

Combining graph regularization with nonnegative matrix (tri-)factorization (NMF) has shown great performance improvement compared with traditional nonnegative matrix (tri-)factorization models due to its ability to utilize the geometric structure of the documents and words. In this paper, we show that these models are not well-defined and suffering from trivial solution and scale transfer problems. In order to solve these common problems, we propose two models for graph regularized non-negative matrix (tri-)factorization, which can be applied for document clustering and co-clustering respectively. In the proposed models, a Normalized Cut-like constraint is imposed on the cluster assignment matrix to make the optimization problem well-defined. We derive a multiplicative updating algorithm for the proposed models, and prove its convergence. Experiments of clustering and coclustering on benchmark text data sets demonstrate that the proposed models outperform the original models as well as many other state-of-the-art clustering methods.
Using video-supported reflection in peer groups to increase instructional effectiveness

AbstractThis article reports upon the findings of research that explored change in teachers’ reflective thought and practice on a core set of complex teaching practices after the teachers participated in video-supported reflection model. Five 4th–7th grade teachers participated in the model that paired video-supported collaborative reflection with a research-based observation instrument, Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Classroom observation data was collected by video and scored to determine change in teaching practice. All video-supported collaborative dialogue sessions between peers were videotaped and transcribed. Findings point to the developmental process necessary when learning to critically reflect upon and enact complex instructional practices that are not already prominent in practice. Individual development of practice progressed as the collaborative dialogue group expanded their capacity for describing, understanding, and evaluating practice based upon a new schema of effective pra...
Effects of particle dispersion and slurry preparation protocol on electrochemical performance of capacitive flowable electrodes

In this study, the effects of dispersion time and mixing methodology on electrochemical performance of flowable carbon electrodes have been investigated. Specifically, 20 different cases have been tested by systematically changing the mixing time (1.5, 3, 4.5, 8, 15 min), the mixing methodology (stir-bar vs. high-speed shear mixing), and the electrode composition (activated carbon (AC) only and AC with multi-walled carbon nanotube slurries). Each case was subjected to direct current conductivity and cyclic voltammetry measurements to identify the contribution of studied parameters on the dispersion and electrochemical performance. Results indicate that up to 60% difference in conductivity can be observed by changing mixing time and methodology for the same electrode composition. Additionally, capacity differences up to 90% within the same slurry composition have been noticed by slightly changing the electrode preparation protocol. Such major discrepancy in electrochemical performance with minimal changes in the electrode preparation highlights the significance of the degree of particle dispersion in these systems and the necessity for establishing an optimal slurry preparation protocol to achieve the best performance for a selected composition and application. This study provides insights into potential effects of electrode preparation methods and degree of dispersion of active materials on the electrochemical performance of capacitive flowable electrodes.
Evaluation of berseem clover in diets of ruminants consuming corn crop residues.

Berseem clover hay was compared to alfalfa hay provided at 0, 25, and 50% of the diet DM in mixtures with corn crop residues to wether lambs. Berseem clover hay had lower (P .05) between diets containing alfalfa hay or berseem clover hay. To evaluate stockpiled berseem clover as a supple- ment for grazed corn crop residues, berseem clover and oats were incorporated into a corn-corn-oat/berseem clo- ver crop rotation for 3 yr in replicated 6.1-ha fields. Two cuttings of oat-berseem clover hay were harvested each summer before forage was stockpiled for winter grazing. After corn grain harvest, multiparous and pri- miparous crossbred cows in midgestation were allotted to each field at 1.01 ha/cow to strip-graze corn crop residues with or without stockpiled berseem clover or allocated to replicated drylots for 98 to 140 d. Each group was offered alfalfa-grass hay as large bales to maintain a mean body condition score of 5 on a 9-point
Electrochemical deposition for the separation and recovery of metals using carbon nanotube-enabled filters

Rare earth and specialty elements (RESE) are functionally integral to several clean energy technologies, but there is no domestic source of virgin RESE in the United States. Manufacturing waste streams, which are relatively simple compositionally, and electronic wastes, which are chemically complex, could both serve as viable sources of secondary RESE if efficient methods existed to recover and separate these metals for reuse. Leveraging differences in RESE reduction potentials, high surface area, high conductivity carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could enable space- and solvent-efficient, selective recovery of RESE from mixed metal wastes. In this study, unaligned CNTs encapsulated in polyvinyl alcohol were used to develop an electrochemically active filter and tested for recovery of six metals or metalloids (Cu, As, Eu, Nd, Ga, and Sc) as a function of flow rate (1–5 mL min−1), pH (2–10), and voltage (0.1–3.0 V), with maximum recoveries of 86–96%, except for As, which was unretained. All metals were recovered as oxides, rather than their zero valent or reduced forms (except for Cu, which was partially reduced at low pHs). Deaeration experiments suggested electrochemical reduction of dissolved O2 and O2 derived from water splitting were jointly responsible for metal capture, where metal oxides were first formed via metal hydroxide intermediates, and this mechanism was enhanced at higher pHs. A synthetic, multi-metal waste stream of Cu and Eu was successfully separated on multiple stages with increasing voltages (97 ± 0.1% Cu and 65 ± 0.3% Eu recovery), indicating the approach might be useful for the treatment of electronic end-of-life and manufacturing derived wastes.
Get paid for your genetic data [Spectral Lines]

As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to drop, academics and biotech companies have been waiting for more individuals to sequence and share their full genomes. But so far, that isn't happening. Personal genomics companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com, perform consumer genotyping, a relatively inexpensive process that identifies single DNA letters at regular intervals across the genome. While such genotyping has become popular, academics, medical researchers, and pharmaceutical companies want something different. They want whole genome sequences-every single one of the roughly 6.4 billion letters in the human genome-to do research, develop drugs, and more. But they're not getting them: Consumers have been loath to pay up to US $1,000 for full genome sequencing, and they are even more wary of sharing that detailed, private data.
Linking Science Education and HIV Using Viral Biology, Epidemiology and Science Practices.

Objective:To examine the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary, discovery-oriented teaching unit designed to provide science and health information about HIV from the perspective of viral biology, ...
FRAME: the early days.

The article reviews the early history of FRAME from the perspective of its first “Scientific Administrator”. The roles of Mrs Hegarty the founder, and other early contributors to FRAME's developmen...
Utilization of Neoadjuvant Intensity-modulated Radiation Therapy for Rectal Cancer in the United States.

BACKGROUND/AIM Advances in technology have expanded the use of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The goal of this study was to investigate trends in the utilization of IMRT for rectal cancer (RC) in USA. MATERIALS AND METHODS The National Cancer Database was queried for RC patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with either IMRT or three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT). Differences in factors associated with receipt of 3DCRT versus IMRT were determined and temporal trends were analyzed. RESULTS From 2005 to 2009, IMRT utilization increased, but remained constant and roughly equivalent to 3DCRT from 2010 to 2014. Patients who received IMRT were more likely to have T4 disease (p=0.014), while patients diagnosed in 2004-2006 (p<0.0001) and 2007-2008 (p=0.015) were less likely to receive IMRT. There were no significant differences in postoperative outcomes between patients receiving 3DCRT and IMRT. CONCLUSION IMRT utilization initially increased, but is now used at similar frequencies to 3DCRT and offers similar short-term postoperative outcomes.
Development of a Videoconference-Adapted Version of the Community Diabetes Prevention Program, and Comparison of Weight Loss With In-Person Program Delivery.

INTRODUCTION Effective, standardized, and easily accessible weight management programs are urgently needed for military beneficiaries. Videoconference interventions have the potential for widespread scaling, and can provide both real time interaction and flexibility in delivery times regardless of location, but there is little information on their effectiveness and acceptability. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study as part of a larger weight loss trial describes the videoconference adaption of Group Lifestyle Balance (GLB) program, a community group-based Diabetes Prevention Program intervention, and provides a comparison of weight loss and meeting attendance between in-person and videoconference delivery modes over 12 weeks in adult family members of military service members. Forty-three participants were enrolled from two military installations and received either the videoconference-adapted or an in-person GLB program in a non-randomized trial design. Differences in program attendance and percent weight lost at 12 weeks were compared by independent samples t-tests and nonparametric methods. Group differences in the percentage of weight lost over the 12-week period were analyzed using a linear mixed model. RESULTS All GLB intervention components were successfully delivered by videoconference with minor adaptations for the different delivery mechanism. Participant retention was 70% and 96% in the in-person and videoconference groups, respectively (p = 0.04). Completing participants in both groups lost a significant percent body weight over the 12 week intervention (p < 0.001) and there was no difference in percent body weight after 12 weeks of intervention (6.2 ± 3.2% and 5.3 ± 3.4% for in-person and videoconference at 12 weeks, respectively; p = 0.60). CONCLUSION This study describes the first videoconference adaption of the GLB program for use in military families. Attrition was lower in the videoconference group, and there were a similar levels of weight loss in both groups regardless of delivery modality. Videoconference weight loss interventions are effective and feasible for scaling to support healthy weight management in military as well as civilian populations.
Performance and Stability of Application Placement in Mobile Edge Computing System

We investigate the design of a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) system in which self-interested users minimize their own costs and a MEC service provider attempts to maximize its revenue. We introduce a third-party platform that works as an intermediary to facilitate the service transaction between the users and the provider. The platform collects MEC server information and discloses that to users; users rely on their user agent apps to place their application jobs on edge computing servers during their stay in the system. We propose a dynamic programming algorithm for a user to minimize his/her own cost and an efficient heuristic algorithm for the platform to minimize the cost of all users by optimally scheduling the admission of users' jobs and still allowing users to make independent optimal decisions. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of these algorithms via extensive simulations based on an empirical Google cloud dataset and a Web file dataset. Furthermore we model the interaction between users and a provider as a game, referred to as User-Provider Game. We find that when the provider always attempts to maximize its own revenue by adjusting the prices of edge servers, the interaction will lead to an unstable system with severe oscillation and degraded performance. To address the issue, we propose a better response algorithm for the provider which stabilizes the system and results in high performance. This paper sheds light on this important area of MEC, and points a promising direction to further investigate and design an effective MEC system of independent self-optimizing mobile users.
Abstract 1160: Endoplasmic reticulum stress disrupts stemness-related transcriptional regulatory network: Implication for therapy response in cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-associated deaths in the United States. We have recently demonstrated that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress correlates with improved survival in human pancreatic cancer patients on gemcitabine therapy. Cancer cell stemness is a significant contributor of poor response to therapy and disease recurrence. We also observed that inducing ER stress can diminish stemness in cancer cells. Hence, to investigate the mechanism of ER stress-mediated alterations in diminishing cancer stemness, we investigated the impact of ER stress on transcriptomic alterations by performing RNAseq studies. We subjected cancer cells to treatment with thapsigargin and the harvested mRNA was utilized for RNAseq analysis. We observed significant alterations in mRNA expression levels of the stemness-associated gene set, which also showed significant enrichment in Ingenuity pathway analysis. Hence, our studies demonstrate that ER stress regulates stemness at the transcriptional level. Our ongoing and future studies will target individual genes/pathways to identify their relative contributions to ER stress-mediated regulation of stemness. Considering the role of stemness in disease recurrence, our studies will provide novel mechanistic insights that may lead to novel therapies for targeting disease recurrence in pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Appolinaire Olou, Kamiya Mehla, Pankaj Singh. Endoplasmic reticulum stress disrupts stemness-related transcriptional regulatory network: Implication for therapy response in cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1160.
Aggregated Solution Morphology of Poly(acrylic acid)-Poly(styrene) Block Copolymers Improves Drug Supersaturation Maintenance and Caco-2 Cell Membrane Permeation.

Amorphous solid dispersions of polymers and drugs have been shown to improve supersaturation maintenance of poorly water-soluble drugs. Herein, amorphous spray-dried dispersions (SDDs) of poly(acry...
46,XY,9(p24)dup(2q35q37.3) with cryptorchidism: A case report and literature review

A young boy with a facial abnormality was brought to our genetics clinic. Physical examination found bilateral cryptorchidism. Several clinical genetic tests, including chromosome microarray analysis (CMA), karyotyping, and azoospermia factor (AZF) microdeletions on the Y chromosome, were used to identify the genetic basis for this abnormality. The karyotype showed a duplication of the chromosome 2q35q37.3 fragment attached to chromosome 9(p24); CMA revealed 2q35q37.3(220,558,895-243,006,013)x3; the Y chromosome showed no AZF microdeletions; and the parent karyotypes were normal. Surgery has been planned to correct cryptorchidism a year after the original examination. A similar case was found previously. Key words: Azoospermia Factor; Chromosome Microarray Analysis; Cryptorchidism; Karyotype; Partial Trisomy of Chromosome
Evaluation of the PEAK-DT and PEAK-G Pre-assessments: Comparing Directly Implemented and Indirect Assessments of Verbal Abilities

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between the PEAK Direct Training Pre-assessment (PEAK-DT-PA) and the PEAK Generalization Pre-assessment (PEAK-G-PA) with the corresponding indirect assessments based on parent and therapist reports. Participants were administered the PEAK-DT-PA and PEAK-G-PA. Parents and therapist completed a 184-item skills checklist for each of the corresponding modules. The results of the study suggest that there was a strong correlation between the pre-assessments and the indirect reports from both the parents and the therapists for each module. Additional correlations and inter-rater reliability across factors and individual test items were also investigated. Finally, trends in inter-rater reliability between caregiver report and direct assessments suggest that caregivers reporting for participants with lower overall scores more reliably identified whether their child had a deficit with an advanced skill, but could less reliably identify whether their child had a more basic skill. The opposite trend was found for caregivers reporting on participants with greater overall scores. Implications of these findings for clinicians and future research are discussed.
A framework for adding low-overhead, fine-grained power domains to CGRAs

To effectively minimize static power for a wide range of applications, power domains for a coarse-grained reconfigurable array (CGRA) need to be finer-grained than a typical ASIC. However, the special isolation logic needed to ensure electrical protection between off and on domains makes fine-grained power domains area- and timing-inefficient. We propose a novel design of the CGRA routing fabric that intrinsically provides boundary protection. This technique reduces the area overhead of boundary protection between power domains for the CGRA from around 9% to less than 1% and removes the delay from the isolation cells. However, with this design choice, we cannot leverage the conventional UPF-based flow to introduce power domain boundary protection. We create compiler-like passes that iteratively introduce the needed design transformations, and formally verify the passes with satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) methods. These passes also allow us to optimize how we handle test and debug signals through the off tiles. We use our framework to insert power domains into an SoC with an ARM Cortex M3 processor and a CGRA with 32 × 16 processing element (PE) and memory tiles and 4MB secondary memory. Depending on the size of the applications mapped, our CGRA achieves up to an 83% reduction in leakage power and 26% reduction in total power versus a CGRA without multiple power domains, for a range of image processing and machine learning applications.
Repeat Exposure to Hypercapnic Seawater Modifies Performance and Oxidative Status in a Tolerant Burrowing Clam

Abstract Moderate oxidative stress is a hypothesized driver of enhanced stress tolerance and lifespan. Whereas thermal stress, irradiance, and dietary restriction show evidence of dose-dependent benefits for many taxa, stress acclimation remains understudied in marine invertebrates, despite being threatened by climate change stressors such as ocean acidification. To test for life-stage and stress-intensity dependence in eliciting enhanced tolerance under subsequent stress encounters, we initially conditioned pediveliger Pacific geoduck (Panopea generosa) larvae to (i) ambient and moderately elevated pCO2 (920 μatm and 2800 μatm, respectively) for 110 days, (ii) secondarily applied a 7-day exposure to ambient, moderate, and severely elevated pCO2 (750 μatm, 2800 μatm, and 4900 μatm, respectively), followed by 7 days in ambient conditions, and (iii) implemented a modified-reciprocal 7-day tertiary exposure to ambient (970 μatm) and moderate pCO2 (3000 μatm). Initial conditioning to moderate pCO2 stress followed by secondary and tertiary exposure to severe and moderate pCO2 stress increased respiration rate, organic biomass, and shell size suggesting a stress-intensity-dependent effect on energetics. Additionally, stress-acclimated clams had lower antioxidant capacity compared to clams under initial ambient conditions, supporting the hypothesis that stress over postlarval-to-juvenile development affects oxidative status later in life. We posit two subcellular mechanisms underpinning stress-intensity-dependent effects on mitochondrial pathways and energy partitioning: i) stress-induced attenuation of mitochondrial function and ii) adaptive mitochondrial shift under moderate stress. Time series and stress intensity-specific approaches can reveal life-stages and magnitudes of exposure, respectively, that may elicit beneficial phenotypic variation. Summary statement Hypercapnic conditions during postlarval development improves physiological performance and oxidative status. This novel investigation of adaptive stress acclimation highlights the plasticity of bioenergetic and subcellular responses in Panopea generosa.