cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A farm-scale biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment tool: The healthy farm index

Farm management focused on maximizing biomass production results in biological simplification and ultimately a degraded production potential for the future. Despite the large and growing body of evidence pointing to the need to restore biodiversity to farm systems, incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services into local agricultural land-use decision-making remains limited. The lack of planned and associated biodiversity may reduce resiliency of local managed ecosystems and add management costs; however, the tradeoff for individual landowners of greater diversity is increased management complexity and uncertainty. To assist farmers in managing biodiversity and to encourage ecological thinking, we developed the Healthy Farm Index, a farm-scale tool that complements existing farm assessment tools by integrating multiple metrics and outputs suitable for applied decision-making and annual evaluation. In this article, we describe the impetus for the index development and the structure of the index and ...
Use of magnetic hysteresis properties and electron spin resonance spectroscopy for the identification of volcanic ash: a preliminary study

SUMMARY This initial study investigates the possible use of hysteresis parameters and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy to identify and correlate volcanic ash. ESR and hysteresis properties are sensitive to characteristics such as the chemical composition, mineralogy, and grain size and shape. These characteristics are determined by the tectonic setting of the volcano and by the magmatic and eruptive history of the volcanic ash. Hysteresis properties and ESR spectra, therefore, should be distinct for each ash eruption and may help to identify the eruptive source of the ash and to correlate ash from unknown sources. We conducted ESR spectroscopy at room temperature and magnetic hysteresis measurements on 19 samples of a single ash, the 1974 October 14 eruption of the Fuego volcano, Guatemala, and on single samples of ash obtained from eight diVerent volcanoes. The Fuego ash samples were obtained at increasing distances from the volcano. For the single Fuego ash, ESR spectra and hysteresis parameters become increasingly similar as the distance from the volcano increases. At distances greater than 30 km, ESR spectra and hysteresis properties are uniform. The variability of magnetic and ESR properties with distance from Fuego is due to the preferential fall-out of phenocrysts closer to the volcano. At large distances, the ash is more uniform, containing more glass and microcrystals. All eight ash samples from the diVerent volcanoes can be distinguished from the distal Fuego 1974 October 14 ash using ESR spectra and hysteresis parameters. These results suggest that ESR and hysteresis measurements have a potential to be used as tools to identify distal ash when used in conjunction with geochemical, mineralogical and/or other types of data.
Getting Right without Lincoln

More than sixty years ago, David Donald wrote his landmark essay “Getting Right With Lincoln.” 1 Donald wrote mostly about politicians’ use of Abraham Lincoln since his assassination, and in particular how Lincoln was transformed from a deeply divisive symbol, into, by the end of World War II, “everybody’s grandfather” or a “nonpartisan, nonsectional hero. “ It thus became increasingly necessary to seek Lincoln’s imagined blessing for a given political position or candidate or party, and by the middle of the20th century, “no reputable political organization could omit a reference to the Great Emancipator, nor could the disreputable ones.” What Donald brought to light most vividly was the blatantly opportunistic use of Lincoln in political discourse. Yet in the end, D onald is careful not to mock or condemn this practice outright, which remains a staple of our politics. The symbolism of Lincoln remains potent and
Pain Maps from Facial Pain Patients Indicate a Broad Pain Geography

Two hundred consecutive female patients, who were referred to a university-based facial pain clinic, were asked to mark all painful sites on sketches showing the contours of a human body in the frontal and rear views. The drawings were analyzed with transparent templates containing 1875 (frontal view) and 1929 (rear view) square cells of equal size. The average patient scored 71.8 cells in the frontal and 99.7 cells in the rear view (corresponding to 3.8% and 5.2% of the maximum possible scores). In individual patient drawings, however, up to 42.7% and 44.9% of all cells were marked. Only 37 cases (18.5%) exhibited pain that was limited to the trigeminal system. An analysis of the pain distribution according to the arrangements of dermatomes revealed three distinct clusters of patients: (1) pain restricted to the region innervated by the trigeminal nerves (n = 37); (2) pain in the trigeminal dermatomes and any combination involving the spinal dermatomes C2, C3, and C4, but no other dermatomes (n = 32); an...
Glass-forming alloys: Order at the interface

Discrepancies in the glass-forming ability of metallic glasses have been explained in terms of the presence of local structural features in the liquid. Findings from molecular dynamics simulations now show that the structure of the crystal/liquid interface may play a bigger role than previously thought.
Genetic Algorithms for Belief Network Inference: The Role of Scaling and Niching

Belief networks encode joint probability distribution functions and can be used as fitness functions in genetic algorithms. Individuals in the genetic algorithm's population then represent instantiations, or explanations, in the belief network. Computing the most probable explanations (belief revision) is thus cast as a genetic algorithm search in the joint probability distribution space. At any time, the best fit individual in the genetic algorithm population is an estimate of the most probable explanation. This paper argues that joint probability distribution functions represented by belief networks typically are multimodal and highly variable. Thus the genetic algorithm techniques known as sharing and scaling should be of help. It is shown empirically that this is indeed the case, in particular that niching combined with scaling significantly improves the quality of a genetic algorithm's estimate of the most probable explanations. A novel scaling approach, root scaling, is also introduced.
Effective generation of test sequences for structural testing of concurrent programs

One common approach to test sequence generation for structurally testing concurrent programs involves constructing a reachability graph (RG) and selecting a set of paths from the graph to satisfy some coverage criterion. It is often suggested that test sequence generation methods for testing sequential programs based on a control flow graph (CFG) can also be used to select paths from a RG for testing concurrent programs. However, there is a major difference between these two, as the former suffers from a feasibility problem (i.e., some paths in a CFG may not be feasible at run-time) and the latter does not. As a result, even though test sequence generation methods for sequential programs can be applied to concurrent programs, they may not be efficient. Moreover, in order to reduce testing effort and costs, it is important to reduce the number of test sequences being generated. Stated differently, we need methods which can generate efficient test sequences to increase the coverage in an effective way. We propose four different methods - two based on hot spot prioritization and two based on topological sort -to effectively generate a small set of test sequences that cover all the nodes in a RG. The same methods are also applied to the corresponding dual graph for generating test sequences to cover all the edges. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the use of our methods.
Direct binding of the Kex2p cytosolic tail to the VHS domain of yeast Gga2p facilitates TGN to prevacuolar compartment transport and is regulated by phosphorylation

Human Golgi-localized, γ-ear–containing, ADP-ribosylation factor–binding proteins (Ggas) bind directly to acidic dileucine sorting motifs in the cytosolic tails (C-tails) of intracellular receptors. Despite evidence for a role in recruiting ubiquitinated cargo, it remains unclear whether yeast Ggas also function by binding peptide-sorting signals directly. Two-hybrid analysis shows that the Gga1p and Gga2p Vps27, Hrs, Stam (VHS) domains both bind a site in the Kex2p C-tail and that the Gga2p VHS domain binds a site in the Vps10p C-tail. Binding requires deletion of an apparently autoinhibitory sequence in the Gga2p hinge. Ser780 in the Kex2p C-tail is crucial for binding: an Ala substitution blocks but an Asp substitution permits binding. Biochemical assays using purified Gga2p VHS–GGA and TOM1 (GAT) and glutathione S-transferase–Kex2p C-tail fusions show that Gga2p binds directly to the Kex2p C-tail, with relative affinities Asp780 > Ser780 > Ala780. Affinity-purified antibody against a peptide containing phospho-Ser­780 recognizes wild-type Kex2p but not S780A Kex2p, showing that Ser780 is phosphorylated in vivo; phosphorylation of Ser780 is up-regulated by cell wall–damaging drugs. Finally, mutation of Ser780 alters trafficking of Kex2p both in vivo and in cell-free trans-Golgi network (TGN)–prevacuolar compartment (PVC) transport. Thus yeast Gga adaptors facilitate TGN–PVC transport by direct binding of noncanonical phosphoregulated Gga-binding sites in cargo molecules.
Long-Wavelength Electromagnetic Power Absorption in Ellipsoidal Model of Man and Animals

A previously developed long-wavelength analysis is applied to ellipsoidal models of humans and experimental animals to obtain the distribution of tissue power absorption and average power absorption for different frequencies and orientations of the model with respect to the field vectors. Curves showing the distribution of absorbed power inside the model, and the average absorbed power versus frequency are presented for several species. Comparisons of calculated data with preliminary experimental data on monkeys are given. The theoretical results show that the power absorption in the ellipsoidal model is a strong function of frequency and orientation with respect to the incident plane wave field vectors. The quantitative data presented here are valuable for estimating tissue electromagnetic (EM) power absorption in experimental animals and humans. These data may also be used in extrapolating EM induced effects measured in animals to those expected in humans.
Aging and Drug Interactions. III. Individual and Combined Effects of Cimetidine and Ciprofloxacin on Theophylline Metabolism in Healthy Male and Female Nonsmokers

The individual and combined effects of cimetidine and ciprofloxacin on theophylline metabolism were examined in healthy young and elderly male and female nonsmokers. Single-dose studies of theophylline pharmacokinetics were performed at base line and on the fifth day of each of three treatment regimens consisting of 400 mg cimetidine every 12 hr, 500 mg ciprofloxacin every 12 hr and the combination of cimetidine and ciprofloxacin. Base-line theophylline plasma clearance and formation clearance of theophylline metabolites decreased with age in both gender groups to a similar extent (20% less in elderly men than in young men; 24% less in elderly women than in young women). Individually, cimetidine and ciprofloxacin produced proportionate declines in plasma theophylline clearance that were similar among the four groups (range, 23.4–32.7% decrease). The combined regimen yielded further impairment in theophylline elimination compared with each agent alone (range, 35.9–42.6% decrease). Cimetidine was a nonselective inhibitor of theophylline metabolic pathways in young men, but it exerted a greater inhibitory effect on N-demethylation pathways in the other groups. Ciprofloxacin inhibited N-demethylations of theophylline to a greater extent than the hydroxylation pathway. Coadministration of these two inhibitors further reduced the formation of theophylline metabolites. The proportionate reduction in formation clearance of theophylline metabolites was similar among the four groups. Thus, the response to inhibition of theophylline metabolism by cimetidine and ciprofloxacin is not influenced by age or gender.
Absence of interleukin 1 alpha radioprotection in tumor-bearing animals: elevated plasma levels of prostaglandin E versus a preexisting primed marrow.

Recombinant human interleukin 1 (IL-i) ad- ministered as a "priming" agent 24 h prior to hematopoietically lethal doses of total body irradiation (TBI) confers radioprotection to normal CS7B1/6 (B6) mice, but not to B6 tumor-bearing animals (TBAs) known to have altered hematopoietic steady states. Using the Lewis lung tumor (LLca) in the B6 mouse, studies were carried out to determine whether the failure of IL-i to radioprotect the LLca TBA was related to a preexisting "primed" hematopoietic state in the TBA or resulted from inhibition of myelopoietic activity associated with the production of prostaglandin E (PGE) by, or in response to, the tumor. Both normal B6 and LLca B6 TBAs were injected (every 24 h x 1-5) with 100 �g of indomethacin (IND) prior to the administration of IL-i. A single treat- ment with IND was sufficient to reduce the elevated levels of PGE found in the plasma of the TBAs. After five treat- ments, IND reduced the PGE level to below that of con- trols. Neither the acute nor the protracted IND treatment, however, affected the expansion of the stem and progeni- tor cell compartments of the marrow in the LLca TBA. Furthermore, no evidence of restoration of the radio- protective properties of IL-i was observed in TBAs pretreated with IND. Collectively, these data suggest that the failure of IL-i to provide radioprotection to the LLca TBA is not a direct result of the elevated plasma PGE levels associated with growth of the LLca tumor. In addi- tion, these studies provide insight into the importance of examining in vivo effects of biological molecules in altered, as well as normal, physiological states.J. Leukoc. Biol. Si: 53-58; 1992.
Solubility Products of Metal Sulfides in Molten Salts Measurements and Calculations for Iron Sulfide in the Eutectic Composition

An electrochemical titration technique is used to determine the solubilities of and the solubility products of in the molten eutectic composition in the temperature range from 673° to 773°K. The solubility products of are, on an ion fraction basis, , , and at 673°, 723°, and 773°K, respectively. These values are in good agreement with values calculated a priori from an exact thermodynamic cycle; at 723°K, we deduce a value of −38.36 kcal mole−1 (or −160.50 kJ mole−1) for , as compared with an experimentally derived value of −38.50 kcal mole−1 (or −161.11 kJ mole−1). During the operation of the cells at relatively high sulfide compositions, the complex phases (≡X phase) and (≡J phase) are formed, as established by x‐ray and metallographic analyses. A discussion of their chemical stability in the electrolyte in the temperature range of this study is presented. A moderate change in the activities of and can influence the formation of the J phase.
Holmes + Moriarty = Mathematics

In the autumn of 2011 the movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows appeared (see [1]). It was a sequel to the Holmes movie from two years earlier. Unlike the first movie, A Game of Shadows Holmes' arch enemy Professor Moriarty featured more prominently than Holmes himself. One scene, in particular, has Holmes sizing up his opponent by making a visit to Moriarty at his university office. But in the background sits Moriarty's blackboard, filled completely with mathematical equations, symbols, drawings, and formulas. One of these deserves our special attention.
Responding to the Recession: The Challenge for Unemployment Insurance

By any measure, the U.S. labor market is in poor health, a condition that is not likely to immediately improve. In early February, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke cautioned that ‘‘with output growth likely to be moderate for a while and with employers reportedly still reluctant to add to their payrolls, it will be several years before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level.’’ Ongoing high unemployment is placing an unsustainable strain on the unemployment insurance (UI) system. Many states already face insolvent UI trust funds and mounting debt. Significant tax increases will be required to shore up the UI system. To address the UI budget woes, President Obama proposes in his fiscal 2012 budget a two-year forgiveness of interest and penalties for states and employers, followed by a dramatic increase in the minimum unemployment tax base from $7,000 to $15,000 in 2014 (indexed by wage growth after 2014). The latter policy would have a direct effect on the 35 states that have a UI tax base less than $15,000. This article provides an overview of the UI program, a description of the impact of the recession, an assessment of state preparedness pre-recession, and a brief analysis of Obama’s proposal.
Screening for Intensive Intervention Needs in Secondary Schools Directions for the Future

In this article, we provided descriptive and methodological illustrations of how to conduct systematic behavior screenings at the middle and high school levels to detect students with intensive intervention needs using one systematic screening tool: the Student Risk Screening Scale. We discussed the importance of systematic screening and presented data from secondary schools conducting systematic screenings to illustrate the proportion of students with these intensive needs. Results suggested 5.49% of the more than 10,000 students placed into the high-risk category, with results varying across states and school levels (middle vs. high school). Then, we offered recommendations for using systematic screening data to address the needs of middle- and high-school students including the use of research-based, intensive supports within tiered systems of support. We discussed challenges of conducting screenings in secondary school settings and addressed limitations and future directions for subsequent inquiry.
Fabrication Integration and Initial Testing of a SMART Rotor.

EDUCING ultimate and oscillating (or fatigue) loads on the wind turbine rotor can lead to reductions in loads on other turbine components such as the drive train, gearbox, and generator. This, in turn, is expected to reduce maintenance costs and may allow a given turbine to user longer blades to capture more energy. In both cases, the ultimate impact is reduced cost of wind energy. With the ever increasing size of wind turbine blades and the corresponding increase in non-uniform loads along the span of those blades, the need for more sophisticated load control techniques has produced great interest in the use of aerodynamic control devices (with associated sensors and control systems) distributed along each blade to provide feedback load control (often referred to in popular terms as „smart structures‟ or „smart rotor control‟). A recent review of concepts and feasibility and an inventory of design options for such systems have been performed by Barlas and van Kuik at Delft University of Technology (TUDelft) 1 . Active load control utilizing trailing edge flaps or deformable trailing edge geometries (referred to here as Active Aerodynamic Load Control or AALC) is receiving significant attention, because of the direct lift control capability of such devices and recent advances in smart material actuator technology. Researchers at TUDelft 2-3 , Riso/Danish Technical University Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Riso/DTU) 4-10 and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) 11-17 have been very active in this area over the past few years. The SNL work has focused on performing extensive simulations of AALC on several turbine configurations and has analyzed the simulation results to estimate the fatigue damage reduction on the rotor and gearbox and the costof-energy benefits of integrating trailing edge technology into the tip region of the turbine blades. These simulation results show the potential for significant impacts on fatigue damage and cost of energy, but experimental data is badly needed to confirm the simulation-based analyses. To the best of our knowledge, no research group has yet built and field tested a rotor with a full smart blade set. SNL has built a set of blades for its 100 kW test turbine in order to test AALC concepts. The main thrusts of this effort are to develop and validate a highly accurate structural dynamics model of the operating rotor, to work through the implementation details involved with developing appropriate control algorithms for such a rotor, and to obtain experimental verification of simulation runs; we are not attempting to design the optimal rotor for integration of AALC control capability or to develop the optimal control strategy. The design of the blade set is covered briefly in this paper and the reader is directed to a previous AIAA paper 18 for additional information. The fabrication, integration, and test results to date for this smart blade set are the subjects of this paper.
Underwriting Standards, Loan Products and Performance: What Have We Learned?

Responses to the mortgage market crisis of the past decade led to myriad changes in the structure of the industry, expanded market regulations, and resulted in a shift in the composition of products being offered to borrowers. To name but a few changes, the subprime market virtually disappeared, the Dodd-Frank bill added both Qualified Mortgage (“QM”) and Qualified Residential Mortgage (“QRM”) requirements to the regulatory environment, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage (“FRM”) almost monopolized product space, and lenders significantly tightened their underwriting standards. On the positive side, these changes reduce the likelihood of another foreclosure crisis, but they do so at the cost of significantly reducing access to credit for borrowers making small down payments or those with poor credit histories. Mortgage histories from the past decade now contribute to unique data on the performance of a wide variety of products during stressful economic environments. The aim of this paper is to assess whether these data can be leveraged in a traditional automated underwriting system to responsibly extend credit to underserved borrowers. We find that traditional automated underwriting systems do offer potential for addressing access to credit concerns for these borrowers. They are unlikely to be a panacea by themselves, but they appear to offer a valuable tool to those trying to extend credit to targeted borrowers at acceptable risks.
843 cases of post-exposure rabies vaccination by epidemiological analysis

Objective This report was to analyse conditions of animal injury and exposure to disposal of Shanggao County,in order to further provide a basis for improving the rabies post-exposure preventive treatment.Methods Collected the imformation on the Centers for Disease Control of ShangGao county rabies vaccination clinics in 2007,makes statistical analysis to rabies vaccine recipients and their disposition.Results 843 cases of post-exposure immunization of persons,male to female ratio of 1.57:1,injury-risk age group of 15 years of age and 30-44 years of age,mostly students and farmers,7,8 compared with the peak injury.Wounding animal to be most by the dog,nest is the cat.Wounds the spot by the lower limb and the upper limb primarily,Ⅲdegree andⅡdegree of exposure accounted for 96.69%.Disposition of timely treatment within 24 hours accounted for 91.10%,70.34%of the exposed persons debridement and disinfection of the specification,the completion of full vaccination rabies vaccine accounted for 99.05%,7.59%exposure to use a human source of rabies immune globulin.Conclusion Post-exposure preventive treatment for rabies prevention play an important role,is still ahead of the implementation of the normative disposition of exposed populations,strengthen the knowledge of babies prevention and control advocacy,high-risk groups to improve awareness of self-protection.
Effects of lasalocid or monensin on legume or grain (feedlot) bloat.

Doses of .66 to .99 mg monensin/kg body weight reduced legume bloat in cattle about 66% when compared with pretreatment bloat scores. Similar doses of lasalocid reduced legume bloat about 26%. A dose of 44 mg poloxalene/kg body weight (recommended dose for field use) reduced legume bloat 100%. Monensin or lasalocid combined with 25 or 50% of the recommended dose of poloxalene reduced bloat under that of the antibiotics alone, but did not achieve 100% reduction. The antibiotic thiopeptin provided no preventive effect on legume bloat. Lasalocid, monensin or an experimental polyether antibiotic (X-14,547 A) at a dose of 1.32 mg/kg body weight when tested on cattle bloated on high grain diets reduced bloat by 92, 64 and 25%, respectively. Lasalocid at .66 mg/kg effectively prevented bloat from developing when given to animals before the feeding of high grain diets; however, a 1.32-mg dose was required to control bloat in cattle that were already bloating before they were given lasalocid. A dose of 1.32 mg salinomycin was ineffective in controlling grain bloat.
Assessing state-of-the-art capabilities for probing the atmospheric boundary layer: The XPIA field campaign

AbstractTo assess current capabilities for measuring flow within the atmospheric boundary layer, including within wind farms, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored the eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment (XPIA) campaign at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in spring 2015. Herein, we summarize the XPIA field experiment, highlight novel measurement approaches, and quantify uncertainties associated with these measurement methods. Line-of-sight velocities measured by scanning lidars and radars exhibit close agreement with tower measurements, despite differences in measurement volumes. Virtual towers of wind measurements, from multiple lidars or radars, also agree well with tower and profiling lidar measurements. Estimates of winds over volumes from scanning lidars and radars are in close agreement, enabling the assessment of spatial variability. Strengths of the radar systems used here include high scan rates, large domain coverage, and availability during most precipita...
Otto von Freising

Sohn eines Markgrafen; ca. 1126 Propst des Stifts Klosterneuburg; Studium in Paris; ab 1132 im Zisterzienserkloster Morimond, dort 1138 kurzzeitig Abt; ab 1138 Bischof von Freising; 1146/47 Teilnahme am 2. Kreuzzug; einflussreicher Diplomat, Kirchenreformer und Geschichtsschreiber.
Entanglement Between a Single Quantum Dot Spin and a Single Photon

While fast, complete SU(2) control of a long-lived qubit is an essential ingredient of any quantum information system, our focus on quantum communication systems, and quantum repeaters in particular, requires a means of interfacing the stationary, matter and memory qubits, with flying, photonic qubits. As we derived in Sects. 1.1.3.1 and 1.4, entanglement between a spin-qubit and a photonic qubit [1–5] provides exactly the type of interface required in order to generate remotely-entangled spin-pairs and implement the quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping schemes that are at the heart of quantum repeaters [6–11].
Users’ Privacy Perceptions About Wearable Technology: Examining Influence of Personality, Trust, and Usability

Wearable technologies have become useful instruments in providing accurate and trustworthy information about individuals’ activities, especially for health-and-fitness related purposes. However, the constant and ubiquitous data practices of wearable devices bring challenges to users’ privacy and security. This study focused on smartwatches and investigated how users’ personalities, trust, and the usability of the device affected their privacy perceptions while using the wearable device. Our results indicated that users who demonstrated a high tendency towards neuroticism had more awareness about third-party data sharing after a wearable trial. Also, those high in personal trust were less concerned about privacy. In addition, we found that the usability of a device affected the users’ perceptions of data practices. As the first study of its kind, we provide several suggestions for designing privacy-enhancing wearable devices and for future research.
Benign Childhood Occipital Epilepsy

The clinical and EEG features of the syndrome of benign childhood occipital epilepsy (Panayiotopoulos syndrome [PS]) were studied in 66 patients seen between 1990 and 1997 at the Hospital Nacional de Pediatria "Juan P Garrahan," Buenos Aires, Argentina.
MAC sub-layer design to reduce interference in LTE networks

In this paper, synergy between the physical layer and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is exploited to reduce the co-channel interference in both the forward and reverse channels. By doing such cross-layer optimization analysis, physical and MAC layer control decisions reach their full potential when they are designed in an integrated manner. The proposed solution focuses on the integration of the concepts of orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), sectorization, and Latin Square to improve the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) with the most effective resource utilization. The solution seeks to achieve an optimum point of tradeoff between improvement in the SIR and the acceptable amount of the unutilized resources.
Methodology for Image-driven High-resolution Additive Manufacturing Using Discretized Data Set

Abstract Additive manufacturing of patient-specific biomedical devices from 3D medical scans involves several steps of conversion which can introduce error into the final part. This is particularly critical to the fabrication of minute anatomical features, such as microvasculature. We show a direct conversion of the raw optical coherence tomography (OCT) volumetric data into photomasks in bitmap format, which streamlines the typical process steps used in 3D printing medical scans. OCT scans of rodent retinal microvasculature and projection microstereolithography are used to fabricate a solid vascular replica and a solid volume with hollow embedded microvessels.
Artificial Anti-Tumor Opsonizing Proteins with Fibronectin Scaffolds Engineered for Specificity to Each of the Murine FcγR Types

We have engineered a panel of novel Fn3 scaffold-based proteins that bind with high specificity and affinity to each of the individual mouse Fcγ receptors (mFcγR). These binders were expressed as fusions to anti-tumor antigen single-chain antibodies and mouse serum albumin, creating opsonizing agents that invoke only a single mFcγR response rather than the broader activity of natural Fc isotypes, as well as all previously reported Fc mutants. This panel isolated the capability of each of the four mFcγRs to contribute to macrophage phagocytosis of opsonized tumor cells and in vivo tumor growth control with these monospecific opsonizing fusion proteins. All activating receptors (mFcγRI, mFcγRIII, and mFcγRIV) were capable of driving specific tumor cell phagocytosis to an equivalent extent, while mFcγRII, the inhibitory receptor, did not drive phagocytosis. Monospecific opsonizing fusion proteins that bound mFcγRI alone controlled tumor growth to an extent similar to the most active IgG2a murine isotype. As expected, binding to the inhibitory mFcγRII did not delay tumor growth, but unexpectedly, mFcγRIII also failed to control tumor growth. mFcγRIV exhibited detectable but lesser tumor-growth control leading to less overall survival compared to mFcγRI. Interestingly, in vivo macrophage depletion demonstrates their importance in tumor control with mFcγRIV engagement, but not with mFcγRI. This panel of monospecific mFcγR-binding proteins provides a toolkit for isolating the functional effects of each mFcγR in the context of an intact immune system.
Human interleukin-10 delivered intrathecally by self-complementary adeno-associated virus 8 induces xenogeneic transgene immunity without clinical neurotoxicity in swine.

INTRODUCTION Intrathecal interleukin (IL)-10 delivered by plasmid or viral gene vectors has been proposed for clinical testing because it is effective for chronic pain in rodents, is a potential therapeutic for various human diseases, and was found to be nontoxic in dogs, when the human IL-10 ortholog was tested. However, recent studies in swine testing porcine IL-10 demonstrated fatal neurotoxicity. The present study aimed to deliver vector-encoded human IL-10 in swine, measure expression of the transgene in cerebrospinal fluid and monitor animals for signs of neurotoxicity. RESULTS Human IL-10 levels peaked 2 weeks after vector administration followed by a rapid decline that occurred concomitant with the emergence of anti-human IL-10 antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid and serum. Animals remained neurologically healthy throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the present study suggest that swine are not idiosyncratically sensitive to intrathecal IL-10 because, recapitulating previous reports in dogs, they suffered no clinical neurotoxicity from the human ortholog. These results strongly infer that toxicity of intrathecal IL-10 in large animal models was previously overlooked because of a species mismatch between transgene and host. The present study further suggests that swine were protected from interleukin-10 by a humoral immune response against the xenogeneic cytokine. Future safety studies of IL-10 or related therapeutics may require syngeneic large animal models.
The Proof Is in the Pidan: Generalizing Proteins as Patchy Particles

The Chinese century egg, or pidan, is a traditional preparation of duck eggs that can be stored for months at room temperature without degradation. Raw eggs are soaked in a strong alkaline and salt solution, and the albumin gradually forms a stable, transparent gel. Here, we show that pidan gels belong to the class of materials formed from “patchy particles”. We found that the β-sheet structure of ovalbumin, the major protein constituent of egg white, is preserved during gelation, while α-helical regions undergo a degree of unfolding into unstructured random coils that may form attractive patches. Upon dilution in additional strong base, the phase behavior of pidan gels is consistent with patchy-particle thermodynamics. This protein gel is also physically and structurally similar to the protein gels that form the squid lens. Both systems exhibit patchy thermodynamics, and the constituent proteins share physical features including a structured, charged core, and polar, unstructured “arms” that form attract...
Copper electrodeposition from a copper acid baths in the presence of PEG and NaCl

Copper electrodeposition from copper acid solutions containing PEG and NaCI has been investigated onto Cu(111), Cu(100) and polycrystalline copper electrodes using polarization and EIS measurements. The adsorption of sulphate and chloride anions, and PEG molecules, was investigated onto Cu(111) and Cu(100) by cyclic voltammetry and differential capacitance measurements. Differential capacitance vs. potential curves recorded onto Cu(100) in solutions containing 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 , 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 + 10 - 3 M PEG and 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 + 10 - 3 M PEG + 10 - 3 M NaCl confirm that "specific adsorption" of PEG molecules occurs in the absence of NaCl in the solution, in the potential region of copper electrodeposition, e.g, between -1.0 V and -0.5 V vs. SSE. In the presence of chloride ions, the adsorption of PEG molecules is suppressed and there is no evidence of adsorption of neutral PEG molecules. It is shown that hysteresis, appearing on the polarization curves of copper electrodeposition, is not a consequence of competition between inhibition provided by the Cl-PEG/Cu 2 + /Cu + /Cu interface and the catalytic effects of Cl-MPSA/Cu 2 + /Cu + /Cu interaction, because hysteresis is present in the solution containing only PEG and NaCI, e.g., in the absence of MPSA. EIS measurements confirm the simultaneous occurrence of two processes during copper electrodeposition: deposition of copper by discharge of Cu 2 + ions and "specific adsorption" and discharge of some heavily charged species, most probably containing Cu, PEG and Cl.
Simian Immunodeficiency Virus: Animal Models of Disease

Simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) are members of the genus Lentivirus and the family Retroviridae. SIVmac was the first member of the group to be identified following isolation of a retrovirus from a captive rhesus macaque housed at a US primate center. The virus was introduced into captive macaque populations in the US during transfer of tissue from SIV-infected African monkeys to Asian macaques. Lentivirus genomes contain long terminal repeats at each end and genes encoding three virion structural proteins: core, polymerase, and envelope. In addition, all SIV genomes also contain five accessory genes, vif, vpr, rev, tat, and nef, and a subset of SIVs has one of two unique genes: vpr or vpu. SIV infects CD4+ cells of the immune system including T-cell, macrophages, and dendritic cells. While the CD4 molecule is the primary cellular receptor for SIV, a number of chemokine receptors are required co-receptors for SIV infection. While the endemic SIV infections of African monkeys and apes seem to be minimally pathogenic, SIV infections of Asian macaques cause simian acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This disease results from the profound destruction of CD4+ T cells in lymphoid organs throughout the body. SIV infection of macaques closely mimics the pathogenesis, virology, immunology, and pathology of HIV infection in people and it has been used as a model to test strategies to prevent ot treat AIDS.
Antagonists of NMDA-activated current in cortical neurons: competition with glycine and blockade of open channels.

There is increasing evidence that ion channels activated by L-glutamate underlie rapid excitatory synaptic transmission throughout the vertebrate central nervous system (Mayer and Westbrook, 1987) Nearly 30 years ago, glutamate was found to depolarize neurons in most areas of the brain and spinal cord (Hayashi, 1954; Curtis et al. 1960; Krnjevic and Phillis, 1963) but it was not until pharmacological experiments revealed the presence of several distinct receptors (Watkins and Olverman, 1987) for glutamate that significant progress was made toward understanding the mechanisms of glutamate excitation. Over the past ten years, the discovery of selective agonists and antagonists has played a major role in defining the subtypes of glutamate receptors (Dingledine et al. 1988) and recent studies (Jahr and Stevens, 1987; Ascher et al., 1988; Cull-Candy et al., 1988) of whole-cell and single channel currents using the patch clamp technique (Hamill et al., 1981) have begun to provide information about the channels gated by glutamate receptors.
Suicide prevention in late life: directions for science and practice.

Abstract Suicide among the elderly is a critical public health problem, yet there remains limited information on risk factors to target due to the few number of controlled studies that could help isolate and focus on the most potent risk factors. We suggest that because there are no proven, effective interventions showing reduced suicidal behaviors in older adults, the best current approach is to improve detection and treatment of later-life depression. This effort may be especially effective in primary care settings, where the majority of our nation's elderly seek and receive their mental health care. We review approaches to assessment and treatment of later life depression that seem most relevant for later life suicide prevention. Testing and determining whether these treatment approaches are effective is an immediate goal on the path to advancing the science and practice of late-life suicide prevention. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
The roles of intrinsic disorder in protein interaction networks

Proteins participate in complex sets of interactions that represent the mechanistic foundation for much of the physiology and function of the cell. These protein–protein interactions are organized into exquisitely complex networks. The architecture of protein–protein interaction networks was recently proposed to be scale-free, with most of the proteins having only one or two connections but with relatively fewer ‘hubs’ possessing tens, hundreds or more links. The high level of hub connectivity must somehow be reflected in protein structure. What structural quality of hub proteins enables them to interact with large numbers of diverse targets? One possibility would be to employ binding regions that have the ability to bind multiple, structurally diverse partners. This trait can be imparted by the incorporation of intrinsic disorder in one or both partners. To illustrate the value of such contributions, this review examines the roles of intrinsic disorder in protein network architecture. We show that there are three general ways that intrinsic disorder can contribute: First, intrinsic disorder can serve as the structural basis for hub protein promiscuity; secondly, intrinsically disordered proteins can bind to structured hub proteins; and thirdly, intrinsic disorder can provide flexible linkers between functional domains with the linkers enabling mechanisms that facilitate binding diversity. An important research direction will be to determine what fraction of protein– protein interaction in regulatory networks relies on intrinsic disorder.
Cowpea chlorotic mottle bromovirus replication proteins support template-selective RNA replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Positive-strand RNA viruses generally assemble RNA replication complexes on rearranged host membranes. Alphaviruses, other members of the alpha-like virus superfamily, and many other positive-strand RNA viruses invaginate host membrane into vesicular RNA replication compartments, known as spherules, whose interior is connected to the cytoplasm. Brome mosaic virus (BMV) and its close relative, cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV), form spherules along the endoplasmic reticulum. BMV spherule formation and RNA replication can be fully reconstituted in S. cerevisiae, enabling many studies identifying host factors and viral interactions essential for these processes. To better define and understand the conserved, core pathways of bromovirus RNA replication, we tested the ability of CCMV to similarly support spherule formation and RNA replication in yeast. Paralleling BMV, we found that CCMV RNA replication protein 1a was the only viral factor necessary to induce spherule membrane rearrangements and to recruit the viral 2a polymerase (2apol) to the endoplasmic reticulum. CCMV 1a and 2apol also replicated CCMV and BMV genomic RNA2, demonstrating core functionality of CCMV 1a and 2apol in yeast. However, while BMV and CCMV 1a/2apol strongly replicate each others' genomic RNA3 in plants, neither supported detectable CCMV RNA3 replication in yeast. Moreover, in contrast to plant cells, in yeast CCMV 1a/2apol supported only limited replication of BMV RNA3 (<5% of that by BMV 1a/2apol). In keeping with this, we found that in yeast CCMV 1a was significantly impaired in recruiting BMV or CCMV RNA3 to the replication complex. Overall, we show that many 1a and 2apol functions essential for replication complex assembly, and their ability to be reconstituted in yeast, are conserved between BMV and CCMV. However, restrictions of CCMV RNA replication in yeast reveal previously unknown 1a-linked, RNA-selective host contributions to the essential early process of recruiting viral RNA templates to the replication complex.
Revisiting the Analytical Solutions of Heat Transport in Fractured Reservoirs Using a Generalized Multirate Memory Function

Author(s): Zhou, Q; Oldenburg, CM; Rutqvist, J | Abstract: Numerous analytical solutions have been developed for modeling thermal perturbations to underground formations caused by deep-well injection of fluids. Each solution has been derived for a specific boundary value problem and a simplified flow network with one set of parallel fractures. In this paper, new generalized solutions G*(x, s) are developed using (existing) global transfer functionsG*0 (x,s) and a new memory function g*(s), where x and s are the space and Laplace variable. The memory function represents the solutions of conductive heat exchange between fractures and matrix blocks and between fractured aquifers and unfractured aquitards. The memory function is developed to account for multirate exchange induced by different shapes, sizes, properties, and volumetric fractions of matrix blocks bounded by multiple sets of orthogonal fractures with different spacing. The global transfer functions represent the fundamental solutions to convective, convective-conductive, and convective-dispersive heat transport in fractures (or aquifers) without exchange and are available for various (1-D linear, 1-D radial, 2-D dipole, and single-well injection-withdrawal) flow fields. The new solutionswith exchange are developed usingG*(x,s) = B*(s)G*0{x, s[1 + Θg*(s)]}, thereby greatly simplifying solution development in a novel way, where Θ and B*(s) are a fracture-matrix scaling factor and the boundary condition function. The new solutions are applied to several example problems, showing that heat transport in fractured aquifers is significantly impacted by (1) thermal dispersion in fractures that is rarely considered, (2) multirate heat exchange with a wide range of size and anisotropy of rectangular matrix blocks, and (3) heat exchange between aquifers and aquitards.
Wayfair on Internet Taxation

Can states charge sales tax on purchases their citizens make online, even when the retailer is located outside the state? This question has tremendous ramifications for American commerce in the Internet era. The constitutional question revolves around the limits of the Commerce Clause—or specifically the Negative or Dormant Commerce Clause—as well as the facts of the contemporary economy in the internet era. The Court ruled that these facts have changed, creating a company’s presence in a state even when there is no physical presence. In this sense, “the Internet’s prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy.” The Court corrected the “false constitutional premise” of prior decisions, arguing that the social facts of the Internet—and hence of commerce—have clearly changed.
A Mechanism Design Approach to Blockchain Protocols

Blockchain-based systems such as cryptocurren-cies are achieving widespread usage, with a market capitalization of $150B (USD)as of September 2017. However, the most prominent platforms that account for over 70% of this market - Bitcoin & Ethereum - are exhibiting increasingly lower levels of decentralization. This poses the problem of concentrating levers of consensus to a select group of agents in the system. At the same time, attempts at higher levels of decentralization poses the problem of limiting scalability of such systems. In this paper, using mechanism design we propose a way of designing payoffs in order to disincentivize certain exhibited behaviors and incentivize desired behaviors of miners in such systems. Our approach indicates potential for research in this area for solving the much larger problem of centralization in decentralized systems such as blockchain.
On the Cauchy Problem for Nondegenerate Parabolic Integro-Differential Equations in the Scale of Generalized Hölder Spaces

Parabolic integro-differential nondegenerate Cauchy problem is considered in the scale of Holder spaces of functions whose regularity is defined by a radially O-regularly varying Levy measure. Existence and uniqueness and the estimates of the solution are derived.