cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Changes in Lamb-Lung Lipids During Gestation.

SummaryFourteen fetal lambs at various gestational ages were delivered by cesarean section with intact placental circulations. The saline extracts of lung sections obtained by surgical biopsy were studied for surface tension on a Wilhelmy balance, and lyophilized extracts were analyzed for lipid composition after separation on silicic acid columns and thin layer chromatography. Individual phos-pholipids were identified. The fatty acid composition of lecithin and neutral lipids was determined by gas chromatography. All lipid fractions increased toward the end of gestation. The greatest increase was in the lecithin fraction. The palmitic acid content in the lecithin fraction also increased toward the end of gestation. No consistent changes were observed in the fatty acids of the neutral lipids between mature and immature fetuses. The stability index also increased toward term. These qualitative and quantitative changes observed during gestation in fetal lung extracts suggest the differentiation of the lung,...
Nephrolithiasis Associated with Intestinal Disease

It has been noted since the 1960∲s that there is an increased incidence of nephrolithiasis in patients with idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease and in individuals who have undergone jejuno-ileal bypass for obesity1−14. In patients with inflammatory bowel disease, prior surgical treatment increases the risk of nephrolithiasis7,9,10. The incidence of nephrolithiasis in patients with Crohn’s disease who have undergone an ileal resection is approximately 10%. The large majority of these stones, when analyzed, are composed of calcium oxalate. The incidence of nephrolithiasis in patients with ulcerative colitis who have undergone an ileostomy is also approximately 10%. Uric acid stones, however, make up a significant proportion of the calculi in these patients1−3. The incidence of nephrolithiasis in patients who have undergone jejuno-ileal bypass for obesity is 20% or more.
The Prorated Benefit Insurance Model Using Random Interest

Based on the traditional actuary theory,we analyze the prorated benefit,calculate the pure premium and reserve using random interest for this model.We consider prorated benefit using random interest in this model,so it is close to the real world practice.The prorated benefit is relevant to the time,so there is a reference value for the property insurance of the insurance company.
The Value of Orthoses for Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

We applied knee-ankle-foot orthoses to 17 consecutive patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at the time they lost independent ambulation. We judged the value of the orthoses solely by the patients' ability to walk. With the orthoses, 7 patients (41%) became effective ambulators and benefited greatly from the appliances. Four patients (23%) had borderline results. Six patients (35%) were considered failures because they achieved only braced standing. We believe orthoses are indicated for many but not all patients with Duchenne muscular dystropy.
The Effects of Cereal Type and Xylanase Supplementation on Pig Growth Performance and Energy Digestibility

Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of cereal type (corn v. wheat) and xylanase supplementation (with vs. without) on energy digestibility and growing pig performance. In Exp. 1, 440 pigs (initial BW 7.8 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments and used in a 28-d growth study. No significant cereal x enzyme interactions or main effects of cereal and enzyme were observed for any of the growth criteria evaluated (P > 0.84). In Exp. 2, 72 pigs from Exp. 1 were used in a metabolism study. Pigs remained on the same dietary treatment as in Exp. 1. Feces were collected, and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter (DM) and gross energy (GE) were determined. A cereal × xylanase interaction was observed (P < 0.0001) for ATTD of DM and GE due to xylanase supplementation improving both ATTD of DM and GE in corn-based diets (85.6 v 87.6 % and 85.4 v 87.4 %, respectively), but decreasing ATTD of DM and GE in wheat-based diets (89.3 v 86.3 % and 89.7 v 86.6 %, respectively). Thus, the effects of xylanase supplementation on DM and GE digestibility may depend on cereal type, and increases in DM and GE may be observed when xylanase is added to corn based diets.
Effect of free-carrier concentration and optical injection on carrier lifetimes in undoped and iodine doped CdMgTe/CdSeTe double heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Time-resolved and time integrated photoluminescence (PL) studies are reported for undoped and doped CdMgTe/CdSeTe double heterostructures (DHs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Undoped DHs are studied with absorber layer thickness varying from 0.5 to 2.5 µm. The n-type free-carrier concentration is varied ~7 × 1015, 8.4 × 1016, and 8.4 × 1017 cm−3 using iodine as a dopant in different absorber layer thicknesses (0.25–2.0 µm). Optical injection is varied from 1 × 1010 to 3 × 1011 photons/pulse/cm2, corresponding to the initial injection of photo-carriers up to ~8 × 1015 cm−3, to examine the effects of excess carrier concentration on the PL lifetimes. Undoped DHs exhibit an initial rapid decay followed by a slower dependence with carrier lifetimes up to ~485 ns. The dependence of carrier lifetimes on the thickness of the absorber layers (0.5–2.5 µm) suggests interface recombination velocities () ~ 1288 and 238 cm s−1 in the initial and later decay times, respectively, corresponding to high and low photo-carrier concentrations. The Shockley–Read–Hall model is used to describe the results in which variations are observed in for undoped DHs. The lifetimes of doped DHs show a consistent trend with thickness. The ~ 80–200 cm s−1 is estimated for doping n ~ 7 × 1015 cm−3 and 240–410 cm s−1 for n ~ 8.4 × 1016 cm−3. The observed decrease in carrier lifetimes with increasing n is consistent with growing importance of the radiative recombination rate due to the excess carrier concentration. The effect of carrier concentration on the PL spectrum is also discussed.
Ethical Leadership in Today's Community Colleges: Presidents Respond to the Completion Agenda

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP IN TODAY’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES: PRESIDENTS RESPOND TO THE COMPLETION AGENDA Monica Parrish Trent Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Dana D. Burnett The role of ethical leadership for community college presidents is of concern (Anderson, Harbour, & Davies; Wood & Nevarez, 2014), especially given the added pressure on community colleges to increase completion rates for student populations that have historically underperformed academically. In these times of increased scrutiny to produce more collegeeducated people ready to enter the workforce, college CEO’s are facing a completion agenda climate that is rampant with financial constraints, greater demands from stakeholders, and governmental mandates. The purpose of this descriptive, multiple case study was to examine how community college presidents execute ethical leadership in responding to institutional policy implications stemming from the completion agenda. This study explored the ethical construct Achieving the Dream (ATD) community college presidents operationalized as they employed decision-making processes related to implementing completion agenda policies at their institutions. The findings revealed several themes that contribute to community college presidents’ ethical leadership: accountably to stakeholders, advocacy for and validation of the community college mission and its students, transparency in decision-making and issues confronting the community college, and equity when dealing with students, the community and employees.
A Longitudinal Study on the Association Between Facets of Mindfulness and Disinhibited Eating

Disinhibited eating (i.e., emotional and external eating), as well as associated features such as binge eating, bulimic symptoms, and eating concern are inversely associated with the mindfulness facets of acting with awareness, observing, and non-reactivity. However, it is unclear whether higher mindfulness is a precursor to lower disinhibited eating behaviors and symptoms or whether lower disinhibited eating behaviors and symptoms are a precursor to higher mindfulness (or both). The current study examined if acting with awareness, non-reactivity, and observing (describing and non-judging were not assessed) prospectively predicted several disinhibited eating features (emotional eating, external eating, bulimic symptoms, binge eating, and eating concern) and vice-versa across 6 months. Young adult women (N = 300) completed measures of these constructs at baseline and 6 months later. Non-reactivity inversely predicted binge eating and bulimic symptoms across 6 months. Observing predicted higher external and emotional eating across 6 months. In the opposite direction, disinhibited eating did not predict observing, non-reactivity, or acting with awareness. Interventions focusing on increasing non-reactivity could be effective in preventing and treating binge eating and bulimic symptoms.
What Makes a Competent Orthopaedist?: Commentary on an article by James F. Kellam, MD, on behalf of the General Orthopaedic Competency Task Force: "The Core Competencies for General Orthopaedic Surgeons".

It is becoming increasingly apparent that, as orthopaedic surgeons, we need to better articulate what defines the critical components of our specialty. As the breadth and depth of conditions and treatments in musculoskeletal disease continue to expand, it is necessary for training, certification, and credentialing purposes that there is a widely accepted set of competencies of an orthopaedic surgeon. These competencies should include the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that describe a competent orthopaedic surgeon in practice. The most obvious reason to achieve this understanding is that it will provide a measurable set of competencies that can be used to establish expectations for health systems, payers, educators, and certification processes. Establishing these core competencies can drive the educational programming as well as to …
High Power Interdigitated Carbon Nanotube Based Micro-Capacitors

Micro-scale energy storage devices are of great importance to the advancement of low maintenance, high power electronics. They can easily be used in applications that extract energy from mechanical, solar, thermal and thermoelectric sources. Several of these devices have achieved mean areal capacitance of 1.5 mF cm−2 and maximal energy and power densities of 6.6 mJ cm−2 and 44.9 mW cm−2, respectively. It has been demonstrated that a smaller interspace enhances the performance. Currently, these types of devices are only made possible by using several micro-fabrication steps and techniques that are cost prohibitive and limit the larger scale manufacturability. We present a simple but highly scalable and cost effective method in fabricating high power interdigitated micro energy storage devices using binder-free carbon nanotubes membranes and laser irradiation to obtain interspaces on the order of 75 μm. The binder-free electrode devices show higher power density and an improved frequency response, compared to what has been reported in the literature. Additionally, we observed significant reduction in cell resistance leading to enhancement in cell capacitance, and consequently, an increase in energy density.
Self-determined travel facilitation with mental construal priming

Abstract In order to encourage people with mobility impairments (PwMI) to become active tourists, it is crucial to enhance their self-determination for overcoming travel constraints. This study proposes mental construal priming as a relatively efficient approach to facilitating self-determined travel pursuits among PwMI. Two pretest-posttest web-based experiments within the context of accessible and inaccessible service support the construal-facilitating effect on self-determined travel motivations, particularly through moderating the relationships between autonomy/competence satisfaction and self-determined motivations. This study offers theoretical implications by bridging construal level theory and self-determination theory, and introduces a new perspective of utilizing mindset intervention to cultivate travel motivations. The context-based adoption of different construal priming programs is recommended to maximize facilitation effectiveness.
Engineering the Optical and Catalytic Properties of Co-Catalyst/Semiconductor Photocatalysts

The inclusion of metal nanoparticle electrocatalysts on semiconductor photoelectrodes is often used to increase the efficiency of photocatalytic reactions on semiconductors. It is well established that metal electrocatalysts can limit overpotential losses associated with many important photocatalytic reactions, significantly increasing the efficiency of the conversion of solar into chemical energy. On the other hand, the introduction of metal nanoparticles can also impact the light-absorbing properties of semiconductors. We have studied the impact of the introduction of Pt nanoparticles on the optical and catalytic properties of flat Si photoelectrodes for the photoelectrocatalytic evolution of hydrogen. We demonstrate that the deposition of platinum nanoparticles onto planar Si photocathodes results in improved catalytic rates for the hydrogen evolution reaction, but also a diminished light-limited rate of photon to hydrogen conversion. We also show that by embedding Pt nanoparticles into Si, the light-l...
EMT circulating tumor cells detected by cell-surface vimentin are associated with prostate cancer progression

// Arun Satelli 1, * , Izhar Batth 1, * , Zachary Brownlee 1 , Abhishek Mitra 1 , Shouhao Zhou 2 , Hyangsoon Noh 1 , Christina R. Rojas 1 , Heming Li 1 , Qing H. Meng 3 and Shulin Li 1 1 Department of Pediatrics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA 2 Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA 3 Department of Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Shulin Li, email: sli4@mdanderson.org Qing H. Meng, email: qhmeng@mdanderson.org Keywords: prostate cancer, epithelial mesenchymal transition, circulating tumor cells, vimentin, castration resistance Received: April 28, 2016 Accepted: April 21, 2017 Published: May 04, 2017 ABSTRACT Recent advances in the field of circulating tumor cells (CTC) have shown promise in this liquid biopsy-based prognosis of patient outcome. However, not all of the circulating cells are tumor cells, as evidenced by a lack of tumor-specific markers. The current FDA standard for capturing CTCs (CellSearch) relies on an epithelial marker and cells captured via CellSearch cannot be considered to have undergone EMT. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain the presence and relevance of any mesenchymal or EMT-like CTCs. To address this gap in technology, we recently discovered the utility of cell-surface vimentin (CSV) as a marker for detecting mesenchymal CTCs from sarcoma, breast, and colon cancer. Here we studied peripheral blood samples of 48 prostate cancer (PCA) patients including hormone sensitive and castration resistant sub-groups. Blood samples were analyzed for three different properties including our own CSV-based CTC enumeration (using 84-1 mAb against CSV), CellSearch-based epithelial CTC counts, and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) quantification. Our data demonstrated that in comparison with CellSearch, the CSV-based method had greater sensitivity and specificity. Further, we observed significantly greater numbers of CTCs in castration resistant patients as measured by our CSV method but not CellSearch. Our data suggests CSV-guided CTC enumeration may hold prognostic value and should be further validated as a possible measurement of PCA progression towards the deadly, androgen-independent form.
Developing and verifying a fumigant loss model for bulk stored grain to predict phosphine concentrations by taking into account fumigant leakage and sorption

Abstract To ensure fumigation effectiveness and address phosphine resistance concerns, fumigant concentrations and movement in a grain storage silo need to be understood. A mathematically accurate fumigation model was developed that is capable of predicting fumigant concentration and movement throughout a grain storage silo that takes into account fumigant loss from leakage and sorption, and was verified with experimental fumigation data. Equations estimating fumigant leakage and sorption were developed based on literature values and added to an existing finite element model. Fumigation data was used from a fumigation conducted on an Australian made silo filled with 45.5 tonnes of maize in Manhattan, Kansas. Two verifications were conducted based on phosphine concentration release times of 24 h and 30 h, with both verifications demonstrating accurate prediction of phosphine fumigant values and trends. The two verifications resulted in concentration-time products that were within 0.9% and 4.3% of the experimental values, respectively. The fumigation model is most accurate during the times of highest phosphine concentration. However, the model under predicted phosphine concentrations during the first 12 h of fumigation and over predicted phosphine concentrations beyond the first six days of fumigation. This fumigation model was found to be sufficiently accurate to allow for future experimentation on predicting fumigant concentrations as a function of environmental conditions and operational variable.
Carbon Footprint of a University Compost Facility: Case Study of Cornell Farm Services

Cornell University Farm Services collects recyclable organics from various locations around the University including the dining halls and other food service establishments, the veterinary hospital,...
Handwriting and Creativity

Graphology, which exists both as art and as science, is the analysis of handwriting. Handwriting is a complex, overlearned motor skill in which biomechanical and cognitive processes contribute to the spatial form and the kinematic features of the handwritten product. In addition to communicating the meanings of written words, graphology was founded on the dubious premise that handwriting can express features of a person's personality, mentality, and capability. While graphology as it exists is at best a weak method for inferring personality traits and predicting future performance, techniques such as the Roman–Anthony Psychogram do make it possible to generate an overall view of the personality, and make possible inferences about cognitive and affective mental structure.
Changes of MPO Activity and Brain Water Accumulation in Traumatic Brain Injury Experiments

Comparison of brain tissue water content (BWC) data with myeloperoxidase activity assay (MPO) allows for analysis of the complex pathophysiological mechanisms of cerebral edema following catastrophic brain injuries. The neuroprotective effect of an experimental anti inflammatory drug (FL1003, butyrolactone) was tested in a traumatic brain injury (TBI) model using B WC and MPO analysis.
AXONAL TRANSPORT OF DOPAMINE-β-HYDROXYLASE BY ABNORMAL HUMAN SURAL NERVES

Axoplasmic transport of dopamine-β-hydroxylase was measured in normal human sural nerves and in sural nerves from twelve patients with various peripheral neuropathies. As compared to the normals, most nerves from patients exhibiting loss of sensation or of autonomic function showed decreased transport of dopamines-β-hydroxylase. In general this decrease was greater than was the associated reduction of enzyme activity.
Constitutional Jurisprudence and the Articulation of Islamic Law: A Comparative Analysis of Egypt and Pakistan

After decolonization, Muslim states have tried to Islamize their law and society in search for legitimate basis of political authority. However, the political context of a modern nation state makes the concept of traditional Islamic law, embodied in fiqh books of the ulama', anachronistic. As a result, the social and intellectual bases of Islamic law are being redefined since the 20th century. As Baber Johansen notes, "The modern distinction between fiqh and shari'a treats the fiqh as a historical interpretation of the shari'a, and the shari'a as a metahistorical source of guidance in legal and ethical as well as other matters." But as fiqh rules are marginalized as historical, the modern states have to articulate a new body of rules in addition to normative systems to uphold these rules as Islamic. In this paper, I compare the evolution of Islamic law in, and through, the constitutional jurisprudence of Egypt and Pakistan. During the 1980s, the authoritarian regimes of Egypt and Pakistan were facing a crisis of authority. In response, they passed constitutional amendments to make Islam the principal source of legislation and empowered the constitutional courts to review legislation for consistency with "Islamic law." I compare how the constitutional courts of Egypt and Pakistan develop Islamic legal norms (use the notion of ijtihad), as opposed to applying the doctrine developed by historical madhabs (schools of Islamic law). I also explore whether these courts are defining a modern state madhab that would, in time, replace the historical madhabs. This comparative project helps us in understanding the nature of shari'a as the legal system of a modern state.
Analysis of deep convolutional features for detection of lung nodules in computed tomography

Understanding the benefits of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) may facilitate the development of robust computer-assisted image analysis methods. In this work we present features extracted from several DCNN structures with varying levels of depth for the classification of true and false lung nodules marked by a computer-aided detection system for thoracic computer tomography (CT) at a prescreening stage. 1048 true positive (TP) regions-of-interest (ROI) and 69,264 false positive (FP) ROIs from 350 patient cases were used for training VGG16, GoogLeNet, InceptionV4 and Inception-ResNet DCNN structures. For independent testing, 1022 TPs and 61,379 FPs from 310 cases were used. All nodule candidates were detected by applying multiscale Hessian enhancement filters and morphological operations to the segmented lungs. The top 200 ranked nodule candidates from each case were used for training and testing of the DCNN and for feature extraction. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the four DCNNs on the independent test set was 0.90, 0.89, 0.91, and 0.90. To analyze the characteristics of the deep features, we extracted features from the last fully connected layer by deploying the trained DCNNs to the independent test set. A total of 4096, 1024, 1536 and 1536 DCNN features from the four DCNNs were extracted and analyzed using uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP). The UMAP captured topological representation of features by clustering candidates in different anatomical regions such as lobular, terminal and respiratory bronchioles separately. FPs originated from similar global structures clustered in the UMAP space. The results indicate feature extracted from DCNNs have complementary characteristics that may be exploited to improve the accuracy of the classification tasks.
Searching for Flavor Dependence in Nuclear Quark Behavior

The observed correlation between the EMC effect and the contribution of short-range correlations (SRCs) in nuclei suggests that the modification of the quark distributions of bound protons and neutrons might occur within SRCs. This raises the possibility that the EMC effect may have an isospin dependence arising from the np dominance of SRCs. We discuss previous attempts to test this possibility and perform a new analysis of existing data. We find no experimental support for the observation of an isospin dependence of the EMC effect.
Circulating donor-derived cell-free DNA: a true biomarker for cardiac allograft rejection?

Heart transplantation remains a lifesaving therapy for adults and children with end-stage heart disease. Since the first heart transplant was performed in 1967, advances in peri-operative care and long term immunosuppression have dramatically improved post-transplant outcomes (1). Currently, adult recipients can expect a median allograft survival of greater than 10 years and infant recipients can expect a median allograft survival that is greater than 20 years (2,3).
A Two-Property Yield, Failure (Fracture) Criterion for Isotropic Matrix Materials

A yield/failure criterion is coordinated with a separate fracture criterion to provide a comprehensive three dimensional description of failure for isotropic materials. Two properties provide the entire calibration for the two criteria.
Syndemics and the PrEP Cascade: Results from a Sample of Young Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men

Young Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) are a highly vulnerable population for HIV infection. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a novel biomedical HIV prevention tool that may aid in reducing the disparity in HIV incidence among Latino MSM. However, PrEP use is disproportionally low among Latino MSM and, therefore, identifying barriers along the PrEP continuum of care (the "PrEP cascade") would provide insight into how to best deploy PrEP interventions. Syndemics theory is a prominent framework employed in HIV prevention; however, to date, no known studies have applied this theory to PrEP. Thus, the aim of the current study was to explore the association between syndemics and the PrEP cascade, including the degree to which psychosocial and structural syndemic constructs are related to the PrEP cascade. Participants were 151 young Latino MSM (M age = 24 years; SD = 3) residing in San Diego, California, who completed a battery of online self-report measures. Results indicated high levels of syndemic indicators and varying levels of engagement across the PrEP cascade. As syndemic indicators increased, the odds of engagement across the PrEP cascade were significantly lowered. Psychosocial and structural syndemic factors accounted for unique variance in the PrEP cascade. Results highlight the need for combination interventions that address both psychosocial and structural barriers to PrEP use and persistence among young Latino MSM.
Accelerating Clinical Innovation in Biomedical Engineering Education by Using a Digital Portal for Collaboration

At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a partnership formed between faculty in the School of Nursing, the School of Engineering, the Honors College, and UAB Hospital to facilitate interaction between students of biomedical engineering and clinicians. Clinicians needed a way to address their unsolved problems in delivery of health care and students needed a way to engage in meaningful real-world clinical experiences. The authors identified barriers to clinical innovation, created formal freshman and sophomore level courses to lower those barriers, and created a web-based tool to facilitate bringing together domains of expertise. The courses provide a formal mechanism for students to engage in clinical innovation. The web tool creates a collaborative innovation hub that provides a pathway for clinicians at UAB Hospital to enter their problems into a viewable database. The web tool also allows users to form project teams and use built-in functionality to enhance the possibility that they will successfully solve significant problems. Results to date have demonstrated that clinicians are invested in students' efforts to improve approaches to patient care, students are empowered to seek challenging clinical innovation opportunities, and interacting in a digital space represents a viable way to improve collaboration.
Defining Moments, Revisited

'Defining moments' are revealed by weaving three strands together in this essay. First, by reenacting stories as 'tell-aboutables,' 'defining moments' are achieved through participants' methods for drawing attention to significant events. Occasioned reconstructions are designed by speakers as timely and worthy to be heard, responded to, and appreciated by recipients. In turn, 'defining moments' of shared existence emerge through next stories, serial orderings of storytelling achievements exposing (in Goffman's terms) less about people and their moments than moments and their people. Second, numerous examples are provided of how stories about cancer comprise altogether routine everyday life activities for patients, family members, and providers. 'Defining moments' can and do become radically re-defined when landscapes of wellness give way to progressive entanglements and forfeitures of sickness. When 'health' comes into play, it is not uncommon for priorities to be given less to self-promotion (e.g. blaming and boasting), and more to efforts designed to optimize mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. Third, personal stories about 'defining moments' are shared from my long-term investigations of family cancer and patient-oncologist interactions. A vibrant reflexivity is cultivated when we recognize that, and how, our basic research can be successfully translated to advance the public good.
Performing Group Difference Testing on Graph Structured Data from GANs: Analysis and Applications in Neuroimaging.

Given impressive abilities of GANs in generating highly realistic images, they are also being used in novel ways in applications in the life sciences, raising an interesting question in scientific or biomedical studies. Consider the setting where we are restricted to only using the samples from a trained GAN for downstream group difference analysis, will we obtain similar conclusions? In this work, we explore if ?generated? data, i.e., sampled from such GANs can be used for performing statistical group difference tests in cases versus controls studies, common across many scientific disciplines. We provide a detailed analysis describing regimes where this may be feasible. We complement the technical results with an empirical study focused on the analysis of cortical thickness on brain mesh surfaces in an Alzheimer?s disease dataset. To exploit the geometric nature of the data, we use simple ideas from spectral graph theory to show how adjustments to existing GANs can yield improvements. To our knowledge, our work offers the first analysis assessing whether the Null distribution in ?healthy versus diseased subjects? type statistical testing using data generated from the GANs coincides with the one obtained from the same analysis with real cortical thickness data.
Long-Term Cocaine Self-administration Produces Structural Brain Changes That Correlate With Altered Cognition

Abstract Background An enduring question from cross-sectional clinical studies is whether the structural and functional differences often observed between cocaine users and healthy control subjects result from a history of drug use or instead reflect preexisting differences. To assess causality from drug exposure, true predrug baseline imaging and neurocognitive assessments are needed. Methods We addressed this fundamental question of causality using longitudinal anatomical magnetic resonance imaging and neurocognitive assessments in rhesus macaques. Cognitive tasks employed were stimulus reversal learning as a measure of cognitive flexibility/inhibitory control and delayed match to sample as a measure of visual working memory. Time points examined were before and following 12 months of chronic cocaine (n = 8) or water (n = 6) self-administration. A magnetic resonance imaging–only time point was also obtained following 2 years of forced abstinence. Results We identified localized patterns of gray matter density (GMD) changes that were largely concordant with cross-sectional clinical studies. These included decreases in orbitofrontal cortex, insula, amygdala, and temporal cortex. There was also a prominent increase in GMD in the caudate putamen. GMD decreases were significantly correlated with cognitive impairments across individuals only in select cortical regions. Following abstinence, changes in GMD in some regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and amygdala, were persistent and thus may play an important role in risk of relapse following extended abstinence. Conclusions Cocaine use is causal in producing regional changes in GMD, and those changes appear to drive cognitive impairments.
Altruistic Attitudes Among Older Adults: Examining Construct Validity and Measurement Invariance of a New Scale

Background and Objectives Scholarly research has established the role of altruism in facilitating human cooperation and prosocial behaviors and highlighted its contribution to psychological well-being. Given the health significance of altruistic attitudes and orientations, we developed a valid and reliable measure of this construct that is suitable for use with older adults. Research Design and Methods Based on data from a long-term panel study on adaptation to frailty among older adults (n = 366; mean age = 86 years), we used confirmatory factor analysis to perform construct validation of a five-item Elderly Care Research Center Altruism Scale among older adults (e.g., "Seeing others prosper makes me happy"). Moreover, we examined the invariance of the scale's factor structure across time and gender using nested models. Results Composite reliability (coefficient omega = 0.78), factor loadings (>0.45 with eigenvalue = 2.84) from exploratory factor analysis, and model fit indices (e.g., comparative fit index = 0.999) from confirmatory factor analysis suggest a single factor, supporting a unidimensional reliable construct of altruistic orientation at baseline. The results provided support for configural, metric, and scalar invariance across time. Findings pertaining to measurement invariance across gender confirmed full configural invariance but only offered support for partial metric, scalar, and residual invariance at baseline. Strong correlations among the altruism scale, salient personality traits, psychological well-being, religiosity, and meaning in life help establish construct validity. Discussion and Implications The availability of a reliable and valid measure of altruistic attitudes enables a comprehensive evaluation of altruism's influence on later-life health and well-being.
Pre-start-up formal business plans and post-start-up performance: A study of 116 new ventures

Abstract This study examined whether writing a business plan before launching a new venture affects the subsequent performance of the venture. The dataset comprised new ventures started by Babson College alums who graduated between 1985 and 2003. The analysis revealed that there was no difference between the performance of new businesses launched with or without written business plans. The findings suggest that unless a would-be entrepreneur needs to raise substantial start-up capital from institutional investors or business angels, there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan before opening a new business.
Experiential learning and pedagogical content knowledge in a graduate food studies program

Scholarship in experiential learning suggests that concrete or hands-on experiences are part of a multidimensional model of learning, where “learning by doing” intersects with other forms of learni...
Patterns of Corporate Social Responsibility Perceptions Across Five Stakeholder Dimensions

Prior research examining the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) has typically conceptualiz...
Bone Marrow-Derived Alk1 Mutant Endothelial Cells and Clonally Expanded Somatic Alk1 Mutant Endothelial Cells Contribute to the Development of Brain Arteriovenous Malformations in Mice

We have previously demonstrated that deletion of activin receptor-like kinase 1 (Alk1) or endoglin in a fraction of endothelial cells (ECs) induces brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) in adult mice upon angiogenic stimulation. Here, we addressed three related questions: (1) could Alk1− mutant bone marrow (BM)-derived ECs (BMDECs) cause bAVMs? (2) is Alk1− ECs clonally expended during bAVM development? and (3) is the number of mutant ECs correlates to bAVM severity? For the first question, we transplanted BM from PdgfbiCreER;Alk12f/2f mice (EC-specific tamoxifen-inducible Cre with Alk1-floxed alleles) into wild-type mice, and then induced bAVMs by intra-brain injection of an adeno-associated viral vector expressing vascular endothelial growth factor and intra-peritoneal injection of tamoxifen. For the second question, clonal expansion was analyzed using PdgfbiCreER;Alk12f/2f;confetti+/− mice. For the third question, we titrated tamoxifen to limit Alk1 deletion and compared the severity of bAVM in mice treated with low and high tamoxifen doses. We found that wild-type mice with PdgfbiCreER;Alk12f/2f BM developed bAVMs upon VEGF stimulation and Alk1 gene deletion in BMDECs. We also observed clusters of ECs expressing the same confetti color within bAVMs and significant proliferation of Alk1− ECs at early stage of bAVM development, suggesting that Alk1− ECs clonally expanded by local proliferation. Tamoxifen dose titration revealed a direct correlation between the number of Alk1− ECs and the burden of dysplastic vessels in bAVMs. These results provide novel insights for the understanding of the mechanism by which a small fraction of Alk1 or endoglin mutant ECs contribute to development of bAVMs.
The Prevalence and Burden of Interstitial Lung Diseases in the United States

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are a heterogeneous group of diseases ( i.e. idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, autoimmune ILDs, environmental exposure-related ILDs, sarcoidosis) but share several common clinical and pathophysiological features [1, 2]. ILDs are associated with significant morbidity, mortality and increased financial burden [3, 4]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Jeganathan has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Sathananthan has nothing to disclose.
SU-E-T-331: Dosimetric Impact of Multileaf Collimator Leaf Width On Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) RapidArc Treatment Plans for Single and Multiple Brain Metastases

Purpose: To determine the effects of multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf width on normal-brain-tissue doses and dose conformity of SRS RapidArc treatment plans for brain tumors. Methods: Ten patients with 24 intracranial tumors (seven with 1–2 and three with 4–6 lesions) were planned using RapidArc for both Varian Millennium 120 MLC (5 mm leaf width) and high definition (HD) MLC (2.5 mm leaf width). Between 2 and 8 arcs were used with two full coplanar arcs and the rest non-coplanar half arcs. 6 MV beams were used and plans were optimized with a high priority to the Normal Tissue Objective (to achieve dose conformity and sharp dose fall-off) and normal brain tissue. Calculation was done using AAA on a 1 mm grid size. The prescription dose ranged from 14–22 Gy. Plans were normalized such that 99% of the target received the prescription dose. Identical beam geometries, optimizations, calculations, and normalizations were used for both plans. Paddick Conformity Index (PCI), V4, V8 and V12 Gy for normal brain tissue and Integral Dose were used for analysis. Results: In all cases, HD MLC plans performed better in sparing normal brain tissue, achieving a higher PCI with a lower Integral Dose. The average PCI for all 24 targets was 0.75±0.23 and 0.70±0.23 (p ≤0.0015) for HD MLC and Millennium MLC plans, respectively. The average ratio of normal brain doses for Millennium MLC to HD MLC plans was 1.30±0.16, 1.27±0.15, and 1.31±0.18 for the V4, V8, and V12, respectively. The differences in normal brain dose for all criteria were statistically significant with p-value < 0.02. On average Millennium MLC plans had a 16% higher integral dose than HD MLC plans. Conclusion: Significantly better dose conformity with reduced volume of normal brain tissue and integral dose was achieved with HD MLC plans compared to Millennium MLC plans.
Effects of first and second generation antihistamines on muscarinic induced mucus gland cell ion transport

The first generation antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine, are fairly potent muscarinic antagonists in addition to being H1 selective antihistamines. The antimuscarinic action is often not desirable since it is in part responsible for the drying of secretions in the airways and the sedative effect. We therefore examined a number of antihistamines for antimuscarinic effects on ion transport by mucus gland cells isolated from the airways of swine. Enzymatically isolated airway mucus gland cells were purified utilizing density gradients and grown in culture on porous inserts (Millicell HA™) at an air interface. Cells grown in this manner maintain phenotype and polarity. Transport of ions, as short-circuit current measured under voltage-clamp, was measured in response to acetylcholine (ACh) or histamine applied to the serosal side of the gland cell layers. Concentration-response relationships for ACh or histamine were generated in the presence and absence of various drugs. The potencies against muscarinic receptor activation were estimated using the dose-ratio method of Schild. Three known muscarinic antagonists were used to validate the system. Atropine had a pA2 of 9.4 ± 0.1 (n = 9). 4-DAMP and methoctramine had pA2 values of 8.6 ± 0.1 and 5.6 ± 0.1, respectively (n = 12, 11) all consistent with inhibition of an M3 subtype muscarinic receptor. The rank order of potency of the antihistamines against the inhibition of M3 receptors was desloratadine = diphenhydramine > hydroxyzine (pA2; 6.4, 6.2, 4.8, respectively). pA2 values for fexofenadine, loratadine and cetirizine were not determined since they had no effect on the cholinergic response at the highest drug concentrations tested (10, 10 and 100 μM, respectively). The pA2 values for the antihistamines against the histamine response could not be calculated, but the estimates of the rank order of potency were estimated to be desloratadine> cetirizine ≈ hydroxyzine > fexofenadine > loratadine > diphenhydramine. The rank order of selectivity for histamine receptors over muscarinic receptors was estimated to be cetirizine ≈ fexofenadine > loratadine > desloratadine ≥ hydroxyzine ≥ diphenhydramine.
A Dark Age Peter Principle: Beowulf's incompetence threshold

Many readers, recognizing the incompatibility of heroism with the duties of kingship, have argued that Beowulf tells a story of colossal failure. Drawing on anthropological theory, I propose that the protagonist is more Big-Man than king and that his heroism, far from a socially dysfunctional flaw, is in fact the leash by which society yanks him back from establishing himself as king. Beowulf thus speaks to an aristocracy disinclined to submit to royalty. The poem shines a light on Anglo-Saxons' aversion to despotic rule: to protect its own decentralized political structure, society against the state foredooms King Beowulf to death.
Military applications of MMICs

The author reviews the status of the microwave and millimeter wave monolithic integrated circuits (MIMIC) program by describing some of its current and planned insertions into Department of Defense systems. He surveys smart weapons, electronic warfare, radars, and communications. He points out that MIMIC technology has already found its way into numerous military applications. Some fielded systems are currently using chips from MIMIC production lines. >
A novel control for two-stage DC/DC converter with fast dynamic response

This paper investigates the dynamic response relationship with nonlinear gain instead of conventional linear relationship in two-stage DC-DC converter, and proposes a simple novel control method for two-stage converter with fast dynamic response; it has large operating duty ratio and large voltage step-down ratio, suitable for low voltage application. Most importantly, it can achieve fast dynamic response without pushing higher frequency due to its large voltage gain slew rate. Finally an experimental prototype was carried out to verify the theoretical analysis.
Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer: distinguishing molecular profiles to guide potential therapy

Abstract Background Chemotherapy regimens for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GC) remain interchangeable; however, response rates are frequently suboptimal. Biomarkers from ICC and GC patients were interrogated to identify actionable differences with potential therapeutic implications. Methods From 2009 to 2012, pathological specimens from 217 ICC and 28 GC patients referred to Caris Life Sciences were evaluated. Specific testing by immunohistochemical analysis for 17 different biomarkers was performed. Results In the collective cohort ( n = 245), actionable targets included: 95% low thymidylate synthase (TS), 82% low ribonucleotide reductase subunit M (RMM) 1 and 74% low excision repair cross complementation group (ERCC) 1, indicating potential susceptibility to fluoropyrimidines/capecitabine, gemcitabine and platinum agents, respectively. Additional targets included TOPO1 (53.3% high, Irinotecan), MGMT (50.3% low, temozolomide), TOP2A (33% high, anthracyclines) and PGP (30.1% low, taxanes). Subgroup analysis by tumour origin demonstrated a differential biomarker expression pattern with a higher frequency of ICC tumours showing low levels of TS (99% versus 72%, P P = 0.02) when compared with GC. Conversely a greater frequency of GC demonstrated high levels of TOPO1 (76% versus 50%, P = 0.02) versus ICC, indicating a potential increased benefit from irinotecan. Discussion Differences in the molecular profiles between ICC and GC provide evidence that the two are distinct diseases, requiring different treatment strategies to optimize a response.
On damping in the vicinity of critical points.

The effect of damping on the behaviour of oscillations in the vicinity of bifurcations of nonlinear dynamical systems is investigated. Here, our primary focus is single degree-of-freedom conservative systems to which a small linear viscous energy dissipation has been added. Oscillators with saddle–node, pitchfork and transcritical bifurcations are shown analytically to exhibit several interesting characteristics in the free decay response near a bifurcation. A simple mechanical oscillator with a transcritical bifurcation is used to experimentally verify the analytical results. A transcritical bifurcation was selected because it may be used to represent generic bifurcation behaviour. It is shown that the damping ratio can be used to predict a change in the stability with respect to changing system parameters.
Using Bayesian p-values in a 2 × 2 table of matched pairs with incompletely classified data.

Summary Altham proposed Bayesian p-values for the analysis of a 2 × 2 contingency table that is formed from matched pairs. Using the same Bayesian perspective, we develop an extension of Altham’s Bayesian p-values to a 2 × 2 table from matched pairs with missing data that are missing at random. The approach is applied to a rater agreement study, in which two surgeon– reviewers rated whether or not there was a communication breakdown in malpractice cases. We also use a simulation study to explore the power and type I error rate of the Bayesian p-values.