cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stimulated gracilis neosphincter operation. Initial experience, pitfalls, and complications.

PURPOSE: The stimulated gracilis neosphincter is accepted as a viable option in select patients with fecal incontinence. The aim of this study was to review the initial problems and complications. METHODS: A prospective analysis of all patients who underwent this procedure was undertaken. Stage I consisted of the distal vascular delay of the muscle and creation of a temporary stoma. Stage II was the transposition of the muscle and implantation of the stimulator and electrodes. Low frequency electrical stimulation was applied to the muscle for 12 weeks, after which Stage III (stoma closure) was undertaken. RESULTS: From March 1993 to December 1995, 17 patients (9 females and 8 males) with a mean age of 42.2 (range, 19–72) years underwent the procedure. One patient died from pancreatitis and another from small-bowel adenocarcinoma, three and six months after the procedure, respectively. Two patients (one with Crohn's disease) required permanent stomas. One additional patient required a permanent stoma because of lead fibrosis. Other complications noted during ascent of the learning curve included seroma of the thigh incision, excoriation of the skin above the stimulator, fecal impaction, anal fissure, parastomal hernia, rotation of the stimulator, premature battery discharge, fracture of the lead, perineal skin irritation, perineal sepsis, rupture of the tendon, tendon erosion, muscle fatigue during programming sessions, and electrode displacement from the nerve or fibrosis around the nerve. However, ultimately after rectification of these problems, 13 of the 15 eligible patients had stoma reversal. Manometric results showed an average basal pressure of 43 mmHg and an average maximum squeeze pressure that increased from 36 mmHg before surgery to 145 mmHg by stimulation (P<0.01). Based on objective functional questionnaires, 9 of 15 (60 percent) evaluable patients reported improvement in continence, social interactions, and quality of life. Three of these nine patients require daily use of enemas. CONCLUSION: Although the stimulated gracilis operation is a feasible procedure for selected patients with severe incontinence, the learning curve is steep. Although the ultimate outcome in a selected group of patients can be very gratifying, major technical modifications are required before use beyond a research protocol setting. Furthermore, patients must have the psychological strength, emotional commitment, and financial resources that may be necessary for multiple revisional surgeries or ultimate device failure.
Bed Topography and Sand Transport Responses to a Step Change in Discharge and Water Depth

AbstractAt base-flow conditions, ephemeral streams with mobile beds may inherit bed topography caused by previous higher flow events, resulting in bed topography that is not in equilibrium with flow conditions. Major flow events can generate large bedforms that result in hydrodynamics and sediment transport that are not in equilibrium with subsequent lower flow conditions. To simulate a large storm runoff–driven stream flow followed by lower base-flow conditions, changes in sand bed topography and sand transport caused by a simultaneous reduction in discharge and flow depth in a laboratory flume with an equilibrium sand bed and steady, approximately uniform, flow were investigated. Bed topography was evaluated using second-order structure functions, semivariograms, and statistical analyses. Sediment transport responded rapidly to a near-instantaneous negative step in mean flow depth and discharge. The relative contributions of reduced bedform height and celerity to the decreased transport rate are quantif...
El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO): A Review

The ENSO observing system in the tropical Pacific plays an important role in monitoring ENSO and helping improve the understanding and prediction of ENSO. Occurrence of ENSO has been explained as either a self-sustained and naturally oscillatory mode of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system or a stable mode triggered by stochastic forcing. In either case, ENSO involves the positive ocean-atmosphere feedback hypothesized by Bjerknes. After an El Nino reaches its mature phase, negative feedbacks are required to terminate growth of the mature El Nino anomalies in the central and eastern Pacific. Four negative feedbacks have been proposed: reflected Kelvin waves at the ocean western boundary, a discharge process due to Sverdrup transport, western Pacific wind-forced Kelvin waves, and anomalous zonal advections. These negative feedbacks may work together for terminating El Nino, with their relative importance varying with time. Because of different locations of maximum SST anomalies and associated atmospheric heating, El Nino events are classified as eastern and central Pacific warming events. The identification of two distinct types of El Nino offers a new way to examine global impacts of El Nino and to consider how El Nino may respond and feedback to a changing climate. In addition to interannual variations associated with ENSO, the tropical Pacific SSTs also fluctuate on longer timescales. The patterns of Pacific Decadal Variability (PDV) are very similar to those of ENSO. When SST anomalies are positive in the tropical eastern Pacific, they are negative to the west and over the central North and South Pacific, and positive over the tropical Indian Ocean and northeastern portions of the high-latitude Pacific Ocean. Many mechanisms have been proposed for explaining PDV. Changes in ENSO under global warming are uncertain. Increasing greenhouse gases change the mean states in the tropical Pacific, which in turn induce ENSO changes. Due to the fact that the change in mean tropical condition under global warming is quite uncertain, even during the past few decades, it is difficult to say whether ENSO will intensify or weaken, but it is very likely that ENSO will not disappear in the future.
An Examination of Correlations between MMI scores and Pharmacy School GPA

Objective. To investigate the correlation of mean admission multiple mini-interview (MMI) scores with cumulative and overall GPA across didactic years 1-3 in the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.Methods. The mean admission MMI score and cumulative and overall GPA for first year (P1), second year (P2), and third year (P3) students in the PharmD curriculum was used to conduct a multiple regression analysis and to calculate a Pearson correlation coefficient. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS, v20.Results. A negative correlation between mean admission MMI and overall GPA was observed for P1 students and P2 students. A significant positive correlation was observed between mean admission MMI and overall GPA for P3 students.Conclusion. A weak association between mean admission MMI score and GPA was observed, and the direction of the association between MMI and GPA was mixed across cohorts of students in the PharmD curriculum. Further research is needed that includes measurement of noncognitive ...
Near-Real-Time Cheatgrass Percent Cover in the Northern Great Basin, USA, 2015

On the Ground Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) dramatically changes shrub steppe ecosystems in the Northern Great Basin, United States. Current-season cheatgrass location and percent cover are difficult to estimate rapidly. We explain the development of a near-real-time cheatgrass percent cover dataset and map in the Northern Great Basin for the current year (2015), display the current years map, provide analysis of the map, and provide a website link to download the map (as a PDF) and the associated dataset. The near-real-time cheatgrass percent cover dataset and map were consistent with non-expedited, historical cheatgrass percent cover datasets and maps. Having cheatgrass maps available mid-summer can help land managers, policy makers, and Geographic Information Systems personnel as they work to protect socially relevant areas such as critical wildlife habitats.
Tumor-associated Glycans and Tregs in Immunogenicity of an Autologous Cell-based Vaccine

ABSTRACTDevelopment of cancer vaccines targeting tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) is an alternative approach to chemotherapy with sustained anti-tumor effects. The success of active immunotherapy has been hampered by tumor-induced immune suppressors. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a population of immune suppressors with a proven role in regulating anti-tumor immune responses. Removing or subduing Tregs activity leads to more robust anti-tumor immune responses. Here, we used a cell-based vaccination strategy in the 4T1 murine mammary model to examine whether bulk removal of certain TAAs, using their glycan profile, can affect the immunogenicity of the vaccine. We employed affinity columns of several lectins that are reactive with breast cancer cell lines to deplete lectin-reactive TAAs, while enriching for other antigens. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), concanavalin A (Con A), Vicia villosa (VVA), and Griffonia simplicifolia lectin-I (GS-I) were used to fraction crude tumor secreted antigens (TSA). Fractions ...
Rapid solution of ray tracing problems in heterogeneous media

abstract The determination of local earthquake hypocenters and orgin times from first- P -arrival times by Geiger9s method requires a technique for finding the minimum travel time (and derivatives) between the source and the station. Sophisticated ray tracing techniques have been developed for this purpose for use in complex velocity structures. Unfortunately, the two common techniques, shooting and bending, are generally prohibitively expensive for routine use in data analysis. The bending method is also particularly vulnerable to the problem of local minima in travel time. A method has been developed known as the ray initializer, which can be used to circumvent these problems in many cases. First, the technique can find a reasonable estimate of the minimum-time ray path in a quick and efficient manner. The velocity in a region local to the source and receiver is laterally averaged to yield an approximate layered velocity model. One-dimensional ray tracing techniques are used to find the minimum-time path for this layered structure. The ray path estimate can then be used as the starting path in a bending routine, a procedure resulting in more rapid convergence and the avoidance of local minima. Second, the travel time found by numerical integration along the estimated ray path is an excellent approximation to the actual travel time. Thus, in many cases, the ray initializer can be substituted for a three-dimensional ray tracing routine with a tremendous increase in efficiency and only a small loss in accuracy. It is found that the location of an explosion, derived using the ray initializer, is nearly identical to a complete ray tracing solution, even for a highly complex velocity structure.
Pose-dependent Low-Rank Embedding for head pose estimation

Head pose estimation via embedding model has been demonstrated its effectiveness from the recent works. However, most of the previous methods only focus on manifold relationship among poses, while overlook the underlying global structure among subjects and poses. To build a robust and effective head pose estimator, we propose a novel Pose-dependent Low-Rank Embedding (PLRE) method, which is designed to exploit a discriminative subspace to keep within-pose samples close while between-pose samples far away. Specifically, low-rank embedding is employed under the multi-task framework, where each subject can be naturally considered as one task. Then, two novel terms are incorporated to align multiple tasks to pursue a better pose-dependent embedding. One is the cross-task alignment term, aiming to constrain each low-rank coefficient to share the similar structure. The other is pose-dependent graph regularizer, which is developed to capture manifold structure of same pose cross different subjects. Experiments on databases CMU-PIE, MIT-CBCL, and extended YaleB with different levels of random noise are conducted and six embedding model based baselines are compared. The consistent superior results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
The Rise of ‘Analytic Philosophy’: When and How Did People Begin Calling Themselves ‘Analytic Philosophers’??

Many have tackled the question ‘What (if anything) is analytic philosophy?’ I will not attempt to answer this vexed question. Rather, I address a smaller, more manageable set of interrelated questions: First, when and how did people begin using the label ‘analytic philosophy’? Second, how did those who used this label understand it? Third, why did many philosophers we today classify as analytic initially resist being grouped together under the single category of ‘analytic philosophy’? Finally, for the first generation who described themselves as analytic philosophers, what was their intended contrast class? Relatedly, when did ‘continental philosophy’ become the standard opposition? Some evidence I present justifies received answers to these questions; other evidence supports surprising and unorthodox answers to these questions.
On Expected Neighbor Discovery Time With Prior Information: Modeling, Bounds and Optimization

Neighbor discovery (ND) is an essential prerequisite for any peer-to-peer communication. In general, minimizing the discovery time is the goal for ND schemes. In this paper, we study the average discovery time for directional random ND when nodes have prior information about their set of possible neighbors, which also helps identify the performance limits of random ND schemes. Typically, discovery time analysis is done for assumptions that simplify the network structure, such as uniform neighbor relations for all nodes. However, with prior information the directional transmission probabilities depend on the node and the direction. This complicates the analysis of the expected discovery time. We first provide a closed-form expression for the expected discovery time based on the non-uniform coupon collector problem. Next, we identify directional transmission probabilities of each node that achieve a small discovery time. Due to the mathematical complexity, we provide a lower and an upper bound on the expected discovery time, which allows us to write the problem as a convex optimization problem. Through simulations, we demonstrate the performance gain due to prior knowledge with the proposed methods as compared with when no prior information is available, as well as the impact of uncertainty in the prior knowledge.
GFEL: Generalized Feature Embedding Learning Using Weighted Instance Matching

Feature embedding is an emerging research area which intends to transform features from the original space into a new space to support effective learning. Many feature embedding algorithms exist, but they are often designed to handle a single type of feature, or users have to clearly separate features into different feature views and supply such information for feature embedding learning. In this paper, we propose a generalized feature embedding learning algorithm, GFEL, which learns feature embedding from any type of data or data with mixed feature types. GFEL is an eigendecomposition based approach, which calculates weighted instance matching in the original feature space, and then uses an eigenvector decomposition to convert the proximity matrix into a low-dimensional space. The learned numerical embedding features, which blend the original features, can be directly used to represent instances for effective learning. Our experiments and comparisons on 28 datasets, including categorical, numerical, and ordinal features, demonstrate that embedding features learned from GFEL can effectively represent the original instances for clustering and classification tasks.
Health Care for All: An Overview of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion in the USA:

One of the most significant health care reforms since the implementation of Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted into law in 2010, was met with widespread criticism. The exp...
Categorical Constructions and Generalizations of the Quantum Yang-Baxter Equation

We introduce some categorical constructions related to the QYBE in this Chapter. This is intended to be an introduction to the work found in [Joyal and Street, 1991a], [Joyal and Street, 1991b], [Joyal and Street, 1991c], [Joyal and Street, 1993], [Pareigis, 1996], [Schauenburg, 1992a], [Schauenburg, 1992b] and the references found therein. Our basic reference for category theory is [MacLane, 1988].
Unusual causes of hypercalcemia

Approximately 25% of patients with hypercalcemia may not show an elevated serum calcium secondary to hyperparathyroidism, cancer, or disorders of vitamin D metabolism. The work-up and therapy of these unusual causes of hypercalcemia are reviewed using a mnemonic that provides a guide to the differential diagnosis of hypercalcemic states.
Finite Fields II: Additional Properties

There are several ways in which to represent the elements of a finite field. One way is to use a factor ring GF(q)[x]/〈p(x)〉,where p(x) is irreducible. Another is to use the fact that GF(q)* is cyclic, and so its elements are all powers of a group primitive element. It is clear that addition is more easily performed when field elements are written as polynomials and multiplication is more easily performed when all elements are written as a power of a single group primitive element. Fortunately, the two methods can be combined to provide an effective means for doing finite field arithmetic.
(No) Shame in the Game: The Influence of Pornography Viewing on Attitudes Toward Transgender People

The current study employs an online survey of viewers of pornography featuring transgender performers (N = 250) to investigate the relationship between pornography consumption and attitudes toward ...
Optimization of analytical conditions for precise and accurate isotope analyses of Li, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Zn by MC-ICPMS

Analytical advances in Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICPMS) over the past decade have led to rapid growth in studies utilizing non-traditional stable isotopes. There are substantial analytical challenges for achieving precise and accurate measurements of these isotopes that limit their applications in geoscience where natural isotopic variations are generally small. Here, we evaluate experimental factors that may affect the accuracy and repeatability of isotopic measurements of selected stable metal isotopes (Li, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Zn) on a Nu Plasma II MC-ICPMS to provide optimized analytical protocols for acquiring high quality data. Our results suggest that the repeatability level (2SD) that is readily obtainable for δ7Li is ±0.09‰ to ±0.24‰, for δ26Mg is ±0.03‰ to ±0.07‰, for δ56Fe is ±0.05‰ to ±0.07‰, for δ65Cu is ±0.03‰ to ±0.05‰, and for δ66Zn is ±0.02‰ to ±0.04‰. Instrumental mass bias for these isotope systems can be corrected adequately using the standard–sample bracketing method but it requires that target elements are of high purity, a close match in analyte concentrations between samples and bracketing standards, and preparation of all running solutions using the same concentration of nitric acid. Overall, the Nu Plasma II is well suited for precise and accurate analyses of the isotopes studied here, and the optimal results were obtained using a ‘wet’ plasma operating at a normal radio-frequency (RF) power.
Abstract A10: Using cluster analysis to explore heart age among cancer survivors in Alabama

Introduction: More than 223,000 cancer survivors reside in Alabama. The five-year survival rate of all cancer survivors is approximately 67%. Cancer treatment and behavioral risk factors may contribute to increased cardiovascular disease risk among cancer survivors. Heart age estimates cardiovascular disease risk using chronologic age, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, diabetes status, antihypertensive use, height, and weight. The purpose of this poster is to explore heart age in Alabama using cluster analysis. Methods: Data were from the CDC-established Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System using Alabama years 2011 and 2013. Records were included if between ages 30-74 years. Cluster analysis uses a k-means clustering algorithm to fit the data. The first step is to identify optimal number of clusters based on similar properties (e.g., chronologic age, heart age, and body mass index) using the plot within cluster error. The second step is to assess the plot using the “elbow method” by selecting the optimal number of clusters based on the “elbow.” SAS 9.4, SUDAAN 11.0.1, and RStudio 3.2.3 were used to conduct statistical analyses. Results: Four clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (n = 2,523) comprised older participants (66 years), who had a higher heart age (86 years) and overweight body mass index (28). Cluster 1 included 50% of the cancer survivor participants. Cluster 2 (n = 2,088) and Cluster 3 (n = 2,405) were younger (means of 39 and 55) with a lower excess heart age (means of 2 and 6) and overweight body mass index (28 and 25). Cluster 4 (n = 1,137) participants were middle-aged (mean 54 years), mean excess heart age of 22 years, morbidly obese, 42% non-Hispanic Blacks, and high self-report rate of diabetes (33%). Discussion: Cluster analysis provides for additional data not found through mean comparison tests. Obesity is not a sole factor in increased cardiovascular disease risk among cancer survivors. Cancer treatment, not accounted for in heart age calculations, may contribute to risk. Additionally, middle-aged Alabama residents in Cluster 4 may be at risk for both cancer and cardiovascular disease. Future considerations may include creating a cancer-specific heart age tool. Citation Format: Jacqueline B. Vo, Dheeraj Raju, Karen Meneses. Using cluster analysis to explore heart age among cancer survivors in Alabama [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A10.
A Prelude—Unsettling Traditions: Reimagining the Craft of Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Inquiry

This is the editorial introduction for the special issue “Unsettling Traditions: Reimagining the Craft of Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Inquiry.”
Characters of Vulnerability of Girls to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC): Case Studies in Lombok and Jakarta

The victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) -especially girls- both in Jakarta - and Lombok area are having unique characteristic of vulnerability, therefore in order to optimize supporting the victims, an understanding of these characteristics of vulnerability in both areas are required. The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the implementation of Down to Zero Project conducted by Plan International Indonesia (PII) in North Jakarta, East Jakarta, West Lombok, and Central Lombok. By conducting desk review of documents and results of previous studies during the implementation of this project, this study argues that; first, on the one side, the vulnerability of CSEC victims in Lombok areas tends to have a relation with poverty, furthermore the strict norms and value of custom could be challenging. On the other side, ineffective protection from family or caregiver makes a huge challenge for CSEC victims in the Jakarta area, in addition a heterogenous society and individualist characters create ineffective social protection for them. Secondly, these differences showed that the existing child protection system for girl victims of CSEC is not fully able to support them to reach the quality of life.
Correspondence on 'Interleukin-6 receptor blockade with subcutaneous tocilizumab in severe COVID-19 pneumonia and hyperinflammation: a case-control study' by Potere et al .

I read with interest the recent case–control study by Potere et al , which describes the potential efficacy and safety of tocilizumab in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia and hyperinflammation.1 Since publication of this analysis, new information on anti-inflammatory therapies in COVID-19 has become available. The RECOVERY trial randomised 2104 patients with COVID-19 to receive dexamethasone 6 mg daily or usual care for up to 10 days. …
Coupling of Navier-Stokes Equations and Their Hydrostatic Versions for Ocean Flows: A Discussion on Algorithm and Implementation

Now it is necessary to advance our capabilities to direct simulation of many emerging problems of coastal ocean flows. Two examples of such flow problems are the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the 2011 Japan tsunami. The two examples come from different backgrounds, however, they present a same challenge to our modeling capacity; the both examples involve distinct types of physical phenomena at vastly different scales, and they are multiscale and multiphysics flows in nature.
Beyond internal conflict: The emergent practice of climate security:

The field of climate and security has matured over the past 15 years, moving from the margins of academic research and policy discussion to become a more prominent concern for the international com...
Pushing the Envelope: How a Handful of Innovative Law Professors Delivered Distance Education in the Age of Langdell

This is the introduction and first section of a much longer paper on university law professors’ brief and ultimately doomed dalliance with correspondence legal education in the 1870s and 1880s before multiple for-profit concerns enthusiastically adopted the method in the 1890s. In this segment I outline the trajectory of the paper and then discuss the legal, social and educational circumstances that led a few maverick law professors at Yale and later Columbia to entertain the radical notion of teaching non-resident students by mail at roughly the same time that Christopher Columbus Langdell was developing the case method at Harvard. I give extended consideration to the disruption of the antebellum law school structure by the Civil War, the passion for innovation of all sorts that swept the United States in the late 1860s and 1870s, critical changes in the American postal and transportation infrastructure that effectively wired the country for correspondence instruction, and early experiments in extension and correspondence education in England and the United States after 1867 that appeared to demonstrate proof of concept in advance of the Yale and Columbia experiments.
Processing and Thermal Diffusivity Measurements of Compositionally Graded Al-12Si to Al2O3 Structures.

Abstract The directed energy deposition (DED)-based additive manufacturing (AM) was used to create compositionally graded pure Al-12Si to pure Al2O3 structures varying the powder feed rates during deposition. Thermal diffusivity of Al-12Si + Al2O3 structures was reduced by >60% compared to pure Al-12Si. With a pure Al2O3 ceramic layer on Al-12Si + Al2O3, our results confirm the feasibility of designing and manufacturing metal-ceramic composites via AM with tailored thermal properties.
r-LSTM: Time Series Forecasting for COVID-19 Confirmed Cases with LSTMbased Framework

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a pandemic outbreak with affecting 213 nations worldwide. Global policymakers are imposing many measures to slow and reduce the rapid growth of the infections. On the other hand, the healthcare system is encountering significant challenges for a massive number of COVID-19 confirmed or suspected individuals seeking treatment. Therefore, estimating the number of confirmed cases is necessary to provide valuable insights into the growth of the outbreak and facilitate policy making process. In this study, we apply ARIMA models as well as LSTM-based recurrent neural network to forecast the daily cumulative confirmed cases. The LSTM architecture generates more precise forecasting by leveraging both short- and long-term temporal dependencies from the pandemic time series data. Due to the stochastic nature in optimization and random initialization of weights in neural network, the LSTM based model produce less reproducible outcome. In this paper, we propose a reproducible-LSTM (r-LSTM) framework that produces a reproducible and robust results leveraging z-score outlier detection method. We performed five round of nested cross validation to show the consistency in evaluating model performance. The experimental results demonstrate that r-LSTM outperformed the ARIMA model producing minimum MAPE, RMSE, and MAE.
Abundance of Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri) along Bayou Lacombe, Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Few ecological studies have been conducted on Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri), and published studies have focused on relatively small stream sections of 125 m to 1.75 km. In 2015, we sampled 25 sites along a 13.4-km stretch of Bayou Lacombe (Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA) to better understand factors that may influence the distribution of Gulf Coast Waterdogs within streams. We checked 250 unbaited traps once per week for 3 weeks, capturing 170 Gulf Coast Waterdogs at 18 of 25 sites. We used hierarchical models of abundance to estimate abundance at each site, as a function of site covariates including pH, turbidity, and distance from headwaters. The abundance of Gulf Coast Waterdogs within Bayou Lacombe was highest toward the center of the sampled stream segment, but we found no evidence that pH or turbidity affected abundance within our study area. Site-level abundance estimates of Gulf Coast Waterdogs ranged from 0 to 82, and we estimated there were 767 (95% Bayesian credible interval [CRI]: 266–983) Gulf Coast Waterdogs summed across all 25 sampling sites. We derived an estimate of 6,321 (95% CRI: 2,139–15,922) Gulf Coast Waterdogs for the entire 13.4-km stream section, which includes our 25 sites and the adjoining stream reaches between sites. Our results suggest that Gulf Coast Waterdogs may be uncommon or absent in the headwaters, possibly because of shallow water and swift currents with limited preferred habitats. Gulf Coast Waterdogs favor the middle stream reaches with adequate depth and abundant preferred microhabitats.
Performance Evaluation of Highway Bridge Piers under Medium Truck Collision Combined with Air Blast

AbstractThe extreme multihazardous event involving a truck collision and an air blast is a low-probability, high-consequence event for bridge piers. This study aimed to numerically investigate the ...
Detecting Short-lasting Topics Using Nonnegative Tensor Decomposition.

Temporal data (such as news articles or Twitter feeds) often consists of a mixture of long-lasting trends and popular but short-lasting topics of interest. A truly successful topic modeling strategy should be able to detect both types of topics and clearly locate them in time. In this paper, we compare the variability of topic lengths discovered by several well-known topic modeling methods including latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), as well as its tensor counterparts based on the nonnegative CANDECOMP/PARAFAC tensor decomposition (NCPD and Online NCPD). We demonstrate that only tensor-based methods with the dedicated mode for tracking time evolution successfully detect short-lasting topics. Furthermore, these methods are considerably more accurate in discovering the points in time when topics appeared and disappeared compared to the matrix-based methods such as LDA and NMF. We propose quantitative ways to measure the topic length and demonstrate the ability of NCPD (as well as its online variant), to discover short and long-lasting temporal topics in semi-synthetic and real-world data including news headlines and COVID-19 related tweets.
Design and Fabrication of Single-Element CMUTs for Forming a Transcranial Array for Focused Beam Applications

Focused ultrasound (FUS) offers numerous applications, including ablative therapies and transcranial neural stimulation. Prototypes of high-intensity FUS transducer arrays have been fabricated with the aid of rapid prototyping using piezoelectric (lead zirconate titanate, PZT) elements. However, piezoelectric transducer elements used in this process are manufactured through convoluted process steps, contain harmful element lead (Pb), and require matching layers for effective operation, which adds to the complexity and cost of the overall process. With capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) technology, such transducers can be fabricated in a substantially simplified microfabrication process. We have previously reported a three-mask process for fabricating vacuum-sealed CMUTs using anodic bonding. In this work, we designed CMUTs aiming at achieving a negative peak pressure (on the transducer surface) up to 400 kPa at 750-kHz center frequency which is required for the intended transcranial application. Later, we fabricated the designed single-element CMUT transducers and completed the initial characterization.
EXPRESSION OF THE INTEGRIN ALPHA-4-BETA-1 ON MELANOMA-CELLS CAN INHIBIT THE INVASIVE STAGE OF METASTASIS FORMATION

Among a series of adhesion molecules, expression of integrin alpha 4 beta 1 showed a unique inverse correlation with the invasive potential of B16 melanoma cell lines. When an alpha 4 cDNA was introduced into an alpha 4-beta 1+ highly invasive melanoma line, alpha 4 beta 1 heterodimers were expressed on the surface. Matrigel invasion by the alpha 4+ beta 1+ cells was reduced. Pulmonary metastasis was also suppressed when the transfectants were placed subcutaneously, but not when injected intravenously. Expression of alpha 4 beta 1 promoted homotypic intercellular adhesion. The homotypic adhesion was abrogated, and the alpha 4+ beta 1+ (less invasive cell lines) increased matrigel invasion following the anti-alpha 4 MAb treatment. These results suggest that integrin alpha 4 beta 1 could play a role in controlling melanoma cell metastasis at the invasive stage.
Distinct mRNAs that encode La autoantigen are differentially expressed and contain internal ribosome entry sites.

Analysis by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction has suggested the existence of at least two La autoantigen-encoding mRNAs that contain different 5′ noncoding regions (NCRs) linked to the same La coding region (Troster, H., Metzger, T. E., Semsei, I., Schwemmle, M., Winterpacht, A., Zabel, B., and Bachmann, M. (1994) J. Exp. Med.180, 2059–2067). La-encoding transcripts La1 and La1′ contain 115- and 483-nucleotide 5′ NCRs, respectively. To determine whether the various La transcripts are functional mRNAs, the expression and polysomal association of natural La1 and La1′ RNAs were examined. Although La1 transcripts were ubiquitously expressed in human tissues, La1′ transcripts were predominantly expressed in peripheral blood leukocytes, especially in B, T, and natural killer cells. Both La1 and La1′ transcripts associated with polysomes in natural killer cells, suggesting that these transcripts were functional mRNAs. Upon activation of B cells with the mitogens phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and ionomycin, the amount of La1′ mRNA, but not La1, declined. In contrast, after chemical activation of T cells, the amount of La 1 mRNA, but not La1′, declined. The mechanism by which the La1 and La1′ 5′ NCRs initiate translation initiation was tested in cultured human HeLa cells and in two different in vitro translation systems. It was found that both 5′ NCRs can mediate translation initiation by internal initiation. These findings indicate that the constitutive expression of La1 mRNA and the tissue-specific expression of La1′ mRNA can both allow La protein synthesis under conditions when cap-dependent translation is compromised, such as inflammation, apoptosis, or certain viral infections.
A comparison of team evolution operators

One of the main research topics in multi-agent systems is learning cooperation among agents. In the MARLBS system, we use genetic algorithms to evolve neural networks, which enhances the cooperation between agents. In this paper, we examine several evolutionary operators to evolve a team, in which team members cooperate with each other to solve problems. The best operators found from experiments efficiently reduce learning time.
Demystifying the data interview

Purpose – As libraries become more involved in curating research data, reference librarians will need to be trained in conducting data interviews with researchers to better understand their data and associated needs. This article seeks to identify and provide definitions for the basic terms and concepts of data curation for librarians to properly frame and carry out a data interview using the Data Curation Profiles (DCP) Toolkit.Design/methodology/approach – The DCP Toolkit is a semi‐structured interview designed to assist librarians in identifying the data curation needs of researchers. The components of the DCP Toolkit were analyzed to determine the base level of knowledge needed for librarians to conduct effective data interviews. Specific concepts, definitions, and examples were sought through a review of articles, case studies, practitioner resources and from the experiences of the Purdue University Libraries.Findings – Data curation concepts and terminology are not yet well‐defined and often vary ac...
Association Between Lipoprotein (a) Levels and Vascular Events in the Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial. (P1.147)

Background: Lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) is an atherothrombogenic lipid particle that has been associated with severity and extent of intracranial atherosclerosis. We sought to determine the prevalence of high Lp(a) as well as the association of high Lp(a) with other baseline vascular risk factors in patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis in the Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial. Methods: The main SAMMPRIS entrance criteria were a TIA or non-disabling stroke ≤ 30 days prior to enrollment due to 70-99% intracranial atherosclerosis. Data on patients with baseline Lp(a) values measured at a Central Core Lab were used for these analyses (n=446). High Lp(a) was defined as > 35 mg/dL in Whites and > 65 mg/dL in Blacks, based on prior studies. Baseline characteristics and vascular risk factors were compared in patients with high Lp(a) to those with normal Lp(a) in univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Baseline Lp(a) was high in 30/55(55%) of Black males, 29/49(59%) of Black females, 86/202(43%) of White males, and 39/116(34%) of White females. Baseline features associated with high Lp(a) in the univariate analyses are shown in Table 1. Multivariate analysis showed that high Lp(a) was independently associated with higher HDL (p=0.0182) and any lipid lowering medication use prior to enrollment (p= 0.0138), and there was a trend toward an association with higher BMI (p=0.0521). Conclusion: SAMMPRIS patients had a high prevalence of high Lp(a), consistent with prior studies of patients with intracranial stenosis, suggesting Lp(a) may have a pathogenic role in intracranial stenosis. However, high Lp(a) was associated with other vascular risk factors and may therefore be a component of an overall elevated risk factor profile. Further analyses of the SAMMPRIS results (after follow-up is completed) will determine if there is an association between high Lp(a) and recurrent stroke risk. Disclosure: Dr. Pawar has nothing to disclose. Dr. Turan has received personal compensation for activities with Gore Laboratories Inc., and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Turan has received research support from Stryker Co., the National Institutes of Health, and AstraZeneca. Dr. Chimowitz has received personal compensation for activities with Axio Research, Merck & Co. Inc., and Gore. Dr. Chimowitz has received research support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Stryker, and Boston Scientific Corporation.
On Capacity of Frequency Non-Selective Slowly Time-Varying Fatling Channel

We consider a frequency non-selective slowly time-varying Rayleigh fading code-division multiaccess (CDMA) additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Assuming that the signature waveforms are time-limited to the symbol interval, we find the capacity region of the two-user symbol-synchronous channel. If the signature waveforms span several symbol intervals, we have to further assume that the fading process is constant over the duration of every codeword. In that case, we find the capacity and the optimal input power spectral density (PSD) in a parametric expression similar to that in the classical water-filling argument.
Photothermally enhanced catalytic activity of partially aggregated gold nanoparticles

This report describes the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) using gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in aqueous solution upon exposure to a solar-simulated light. As monodispersed GNPs possess a strong but narrow absorption band in the visible areas, anisotropic/partially aggregated GNPs are designed to have a strong and wide absorption band across visible to near-infrared wavelengths of light. Given their strong and broad absorption properties, these partially aggregated GNPs exhibited slightly superior photothermally induced heating of the reaction medium (i.e., water) when compared to the monodispersed GNPs upon exposure to a solar-simulated light. Subsequently, the catalytic reduction of 4-NP to 4-aminophenol was examined in the presence of various GNPs with and without the irradiation of light. While the monodispersed GNPs exhibited a moderate increase in the reaction rates of 4-NP with the light irradiation, the partially aggregated GNPs afforded the notable enhancement of the reaction rate, presumably due to their higher photon-to-heat conversion efficiency.
Glucose metabolism—A “mixed-cycle” system

Emphasis upon the importance of homeostatic feedback has drawn attention away from the complexity of biological processes. A study of glucose metabolism indicates the importance of open-cycle as well as closed-cycle mechanisms. Besides the glucose-dependent mechanism of insulin secretion, many open-cycle processes involving the liver, adrenal glands and kidneys, play important roles in the variation of blood glucose. In addition, glucose utilization by the tissues is essentially open-cycle in nature.
Circular dichroism of superhelical DNA.

The circular dichroism (CD) spectra of a number of superhelical DNA's have been measured. The introduction of negative superhelical turns causes an increase in magnitude of the positive band around 280 mμ, while the trough around 250mμ is little affected. For two samples of λb2b5c DNA (20 Mdalton) containing different number of negative superhelical turns, the magnitude of the positive band relative to that of the nicked control increases with increasing number of superhelical turns. In 2M NaCl, the small (1.45 Mdalton) superhelical DNA from E. coli 15 shows an unusually large difference in CD compared with that of the same DNA with a few single-chain scissions per molecule. This large difference is not observed in a medium containing p. 0.11M NaCl. These results indicate that the double helix in a superhelical DNA is perturbed somewhat due to the bending and torsional forces in such a molecule. The magnitude of such structural alteration seems to depend on the number of superhelical turns per unit length, the size of the DNA molecule, as well as the ionic medium.
Dietary Fiber Supplements: Effects in Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome and Relationship to Gastrointestinal Functions

Dietary fiber is a term that reflects a heterogeneous group of natural food sources, processed grains, and commercial supplements. Several forms of dietary fiber have been used as complementary or alternative agents in the management of manifestations of the metabolic syndrome, including obesity. Not surprisingly, there is a great variation in the biological efficacy of dietary fiber in the metabolic syndrome and body weight control. Diverse factors and mechanisms have been reported as mediators of the effects of dietary fiber on the metabolic syndrome and obesity. Among this array of mechanisms, the modulation of gastric sensorimotor influences appears to be crucial for the effects of dietary fiber but also quite variable. This report focuses on the role, mechanism of action, and benefits of different forms of fiber and supplements on obesity and the metabolic syndrome, glycemia, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular risk and explores the effects of dietary fiber on gastric sensorimotor function and satiety in mediating these actions of dietary fiber.
Investigation of phase transitions in ammonium nitrate by nitrogen–15 nuclear magnetic resonance

Abstract Exploratory Nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of ammonium nitrate (AN) have been undertaken using both conventional and magic angle spinning (MAS) methods. The chemical shift anisotropy is measured by two different methods at room temperature, and a precise measurement of the difference in isotropic chemical shift occurring at the phase transition IV to III is reported. Finally, the activation energy for the motion of both ions in the room temperature phase are obtained. No evidence in discontinuity of nitrogen relaxation times across the phase boundary at 32°C was observed.
EMG responses resulting from transient and steady-state dynamic isometric loading of the human biceps can be distinguished.

Abstract In order to determine if differences in human muscle EMG response to steady-state (STD) dynamic load and transient (TRN) load could be detected, two distinct sinusoidal loads having identical amplitude and frequency were applied to the forearm, which was held in a fixed posture. The first condition used application of a constant amplitude, constant frequency, STD sinusoid, and the second condition used application of a single sinusoid of identical amplitude and frequency as the STD load. Time-domain parameters of Half-Mass, Dispersion Moments, Asymmetry Moments, Peak Ratio (ratio of cycle peak RMS EMG to cycle mean RMS EMG) and Time-to-Peak Ratio (ratio of cycle time to reach peak RMS EMG to cycle time duration) were used to quantify responses in the time domain. A single frequency-domain parameter, Dispersion Moments, was used to quantify responses in the frequency domain. Individual ANOVA's of the time domain parameter results revealed that p =0.689 for Dispersion Moments, p =0.111 for Half-Mass, p =0.007 for Asymmetry Moments, p =0.001 for Peak Ratio, and p =0.001 for Time-to-Peak Ratio. The time-domain MANOVA and frequency-domain ANOVA revealed that EMG responses resulting from STD and TRN applied loads were statistically different in the time domain ( p =0.001), but not in the frequency domain ( p =0.810). Thus, use of Asymmetry Moments, Peak Ratio, and Time-to-Peak Ratio parameters can distinguish EMG responses to STD and TRN loads.