cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Identification, immunogenicity, and cross‐reactivity of type IV pilin and pilin‐like proteins from Clostridium difficile

The Gram-positive anaerobe Clostridium difficile is the major cause of nosocomial diarrhea; manifestations of infection include diarrhea, pseudomembranous colitis, and death. Genes for type IV pili, a bacterial nanofiber often involved in colonization and until relatively recently described only in Gram-negatives, are present in all members of the Clostridiales. We hypothesized that any pilins encoded in the C. difficile genome would be immunogenic, as has been shown with pilins from Gram-negative organisms. We describe nine pilin or pilin-like protein genes, for which we introduce a coherent nomenclature, in the C. difficile R20291 genome. The nine predicted pilin or pilin-like proteins have relatively conserved N-terminal hydrophobic regions, but diverge at their C-termini. Analysis of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions revealed evidence of diversifying selective pressure in two pilin genes. Six of the nine identified proteins were purified and used to immunize mice. Immunization of mice with each individual protein generated antibody responses that varied in titer and cross-reactivity, a notable result given the low amino acid sequence identity among the pilins. Further studies in other small mammals mirrored our results in mice. Our results illuminate components of the C. difficile type IV pilus and help identify targets for an anti-C. difficile vaccine.
GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN PHRYNOSOMA CORONATUM (LACERTILIA, PHRYNOSOMATIDAE): FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A PENINSULAR ARCHIPELAGO

Principal components analysis of 24 morphological and color-pattern characters scored for 634 specimens reveals four distinct, geographic groups within Phrynosoma coronatum. The four groups can be diagnosed on the basis of color pattern characters, but there are nearly discrete differences in morphological characters as well. Morphological evidence of hybridization has been detected between two groups. The four morphological groups are likely genetic entities given the close correspondence between the morphological patterns in Phrynosoma and genetic units detected in Urosaurus. Therefore, the four groups of coast horned lizards are treated as separate species. Latinized names (blainvillii, cerroense, coronatum) are available for three of the four taxa. The subspecies frontale and schmidti cannot be adequately distinguished by the multivariate analysis and are placed in the synonymy of P. blainvillii. In addition, a new species, Phrynosoma wigginsi, is described from the eastern side of the Sierra de Guadalupe and Sierra de La Giganta in the central Gulf Coast region of the peninsula of Baja California. Diversification in Phrynosoma has occurred via allopatric speciation and the geographic juxtaposition of these morphological groups provides additional evidence for two ancient transpeninsular seaways.
A Qualitative Study of Early Family Histories and Transitions of Homeless Youth

Using intensive qualitative interviews with 40 homeless youth, this study examined their early family histories for abuse, neglect, and other family problems and the number and types of transitions that youth experienced. Multiple forms of child maltreatment, family alcoholism, drug use, and criminal activity characterized early family histories of many youth. Leaving home because of either running away or being removed by child protective services often resulted in multiple transitions, which regularly included moving from foster care homes to a group home, back to their parents, and then again returning to the streets. Although having experienced family disorganization set youth on trajectories for early independence, there were many unique paths that youth traveled prior to ending up on the streets.
Optimizing utilization of resource pools in web application servers

Among the web application server resources, the most critical for their performance are those that are held exclusively by a service request for the duration of its execution (or some significant part of it). Such exclusively held server resources become performance bottleneck points, with failures to obtain such a resource constituting a major portion of request rejections under server overload conditions. In this paper, we propose a methodology that computes the optimal pool sizes for two such critical resources: web server threads and database connections. Our methodology uses information about incoming request flow and about fine-grained server resource utilization by service requests of different types, obtained through offline and online request profiling. In our methodology, we advocate (and show its benefits) the use of a database connection pooling mechanism that caches database connections for the duration of a service request execution (so-called request-wide database connection caching). We evaluate our methodology by testing it on the TPC-W web application. Our method is able to accurately compute the optimal number of server threads and database connections, and the value of sustainable request throughput computed by the method always lies within a 5p margin of the actual value determined experimentally. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hierarchical Segmentation of Piecewise Pseudoextruded Surfaces for Uniform Coverage

Complete automation of trajectory planning tools for material deposition/removal applications has become increasingly necessary to reduce the ldquoconcept-to-consumerrdquo timeline for rapid product introduction in industries such as the automotive industry. The work in this paper is specifically motivated by automotive spray painting. Prior developments in automated trajectory planning tools promise to reduce the time required to program the robots; however, these approaches are limited to surfaces that are either approximately planar or topologically simple (i.e., with no holes). To extend the applicability of these planning tools to nonplanar and topologically complex surfaces, currently the user has to manually segment a complex surface into simpler subsets, i.e., subsets that are approximately extruded surfaces and contain no holes. However, the complex nature of the relationships between surface segmentation and resulting output characteristics such as material deposition uniformity, process cycle time, and material waste makes the task of manually segmenting the surface difficult. In this paper, we develop a hierarchical procedure that automatically segments a surface based on surface geometry, surface topology, and path geometry to obtain topologically simple subsets that are approximately extruded surfaces. Finally, we compare the effectiveness of our segmentation with the state of the art on a few automotive surfaces in simulation.
Nonlinear internal model control and model predictive control using neural networks

The ramifications of incorporating neural networks into two model-based control architectures, namely internal model control (IMC) and model predictive control (MPC), are considered. The development of a neural network analog to the conventional IMC design is described, the controller behavior is discussed, and control architectures necessary to improve controller performance are presented. The performance of the neural network controller under less restrictive assumptions is examined, and a neural network analog to the conventional MPC design is developed and tested. An IMC-type neural network controller in which the process model replaced by a neural network gives very good performance, even when only partial state data are available, also gives excellent performance. These results indicate that neural networks can learn accurate models and give good nonlinear control when model equations are not known. Suggestions for improving performance are presented. >
MC3: a steady-state model and constraint consistency checker for biochemical networks.

Background Stoichiometric models provide a structural framework for analyzing steady-state cellular behavior. Models are developed either through augmentations of existing models or more recently through automatic reconstruction tools. There is currently no standardized practice or method for validating the properties of a model before placing it in the public domain. Considerable effort is often required to understand a model’s inconsistencies before its reuse within new research efforts.
Asymptotic Analysis on Spatial Diversity versus Multiuser Diversity in Wireless Networks

Spatial diversity provided by multiple antennas implemented at the physical layer (PHY) can protect a wireless link from harmful fading, while opportunistic scheduling that exploits multiuser diversity at the media access control (MAC) layer can increase the system throughput with the aid of constructive fading in a multiuser wireless network. In this paper, by studying the average system capacity of opportunistic scheduling and scheduling gain (defined as the average system capacity difference between opportunistic scheduling and conventional round-robin scheduling), we investigate the cross-layer interaction between spatial diversity and multiuser diversity. Our analyses focus on the asymptotic scenarios, by allowing either the number of users or the number of antennas, or both, to go to infinity, for which some succinct closed-form expressions can be obtained and the connections among system parameters become clear.
Sources of variation in the long-distance vocalizations of spotted hyenas

It has long been recognized that vocal signals communicate information about the age, sex and affective state of callers. However, the mechanisms by which these types of information are communicated are less well understood. Here we investigated variation in the acoustic properties of the long-distance vocalizations, called 'whoops', emitted by free-living spotted hyenas, Crocuta crocuta. Specifically we investigated whether the fundamental frequency, length and rate of whoops provide information about the caller's age, sex and/or level of arousal. We determined the latter by contrasting whoops emitted spontaneously with whoops emitted during periods of social excitement, when callers typically also exhibited visual signals associated with heightened arousal. We found that the minimum fundamental frequency of a whoop provides reliable information about the caller's general age and, for adult callers, information about sex as well. The vast majority of adult male whoop bouts were emitted spontaneously, but juveniles and adult females produced many of their bouts during periods of social excitement. Although context did not significantly affect the whoop bouts of adult females, juvenile bouts emitted during social excitement had higher maximum fundamental frequencies, greater proportions of asymmetric whoop subtypes, and reduced inter-whoop intervals. By reducing the inter-whoop intervals of bouts, juvenile hyenas significantly increased the likelihood that conspecifics would respond to whoops by approaching the caller or its social companion. Peak fundamental frequency and the relative abundance of whoop subtypes did not appreciably affect response. We discuss the potential functions of whooping by juvenile and adult hyenas in light of these findings.
The contribution of wood to the flavor of alcoholic beverages

Abstract Wood can play a significant role in contributing flavor to alcoholic beverages. Specific aspects covered in this review include wood composition in general; the various types of wood used in aging alcoholic products; oak composition and flavor properties; cork composition and its desirable and undesirable flavors; the effect of wood on wine flavor; the effect of wood on distilled spirit flavor; and the practice of accelerated wood aging of alcoholic beverages.
Restoration through reassembly: plant traits and invasion resistance

One of the greatest challenges for ecological restoration is to create or reassemble plant communities that are resistant to invasion by exotic species. We examine how concepts pertaining to the assembly of plant communities can be used to strengthen resistance to invasion in restored communities. Community ecology theory predicts that an invasive species will be unlikely to establish if there is a species with similar traits present in the resident community or if available niches are filled. Therefore, successful restoration efforts should select native species with traits similar to likely invaders and include a diversity of functional traits. The success of trait-based approaches to restoration will depend largely on the diversity of invaders, on the strength of environmental factors and on dispersal dynamics of invasive and native species.
Rapid Thermal Annealing of Ion Implanted p-n Junction in Silicon

The rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of p+n and n+p diodes, fabricated by the LOCOS process, and its subsequent effects on junction leakage current, junction depth and dopant activation were investigated. The reverse bias diode leakage currents of implanted Si samples (As+: 60 KeY, 5×1014 5×1015 cm−2, B+: 25 KeV, 1×1014, 1×1015 cm−2 and $${\rm{B}}{{\rm{F}}_2}^ + $$ : 45 KeV, 1×1015cm−2) were measured as functions of annealing temperature, and dwell time. The annealing was performed using an Eaton RTA system (Nova ROA-400) at temperatures ranging from 950 °C to 1150 °C. Annealing times ranged from 0.2 sec. to 10 sec. The results from the diode leakage current analysis are correlated with those from Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) and differential Hall measurements. The reverse-biased leakage currents from the RTA-treated samples are compared with those from furnace-annealed samples.
‘The man from New Line knocked on the door’: Tourism, media power, and Hobbiton/Matamata as boundaried space:

This study investigates the emergence and maintenance of tourist activity surrounding the film location site of ‘Hobbiton’, constructed during the filming of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.The paper engages the theoretical propositions of Nick Couldry, who detects the presence of media power in those places that are boundaried as ‘special’ in terms of their mediation and that motivate certain reificational behaviors and attitudes in their visitors. Moreover, the paper considers Michel de Certeau’s location of the subversion of power structures in what he calls the ‘enunciation’ of discursive material. Reporting on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation of the tour experience and interviews with Hobbiton tourism providers, local community members, and the owners of the property in question, the study concludes that the activity surrounding Hobbiton is emblematic of an embodied assent to the kind of normative media categories named in Couldry’s work.
Rethinking and Retooling Teacher Preparation to Prevent Perpetual Failure by Our Children

The disproportionate representation of children of color in special and gifted education can be conceptualized through an a-b-c analysis: antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The focus for remedies should be shifted from antecedent conditions and the resulting behaviors to the consequences that perpetuate disproportionate representation. Educators and policymakers should examine who is present in the schools, reconsider how teachers are recruited for training, and use the article's recommendations for reconfiguring preservice and inservice training.
Band versus bypass: randomization and patients’ choices and perceptions

Abstract Background Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) are becoming increasingly popular; however, little is understood about patients' motivational factors and reasons for choosing a particular procedure. This investigation explored patient choices and perceptions concerning LRYGB and LAGB. Methods A survey was given to 120 consecutive patients who had undergone LRYGB or LAGB 3–24 months earlier. The survey was designed to ascertain why patients chose banding or bypass, and how they rated their surgical outcome. Results A total of 101 patients responded (84%): 22 had undergone LAGB, 79 LRYGB. The top reason for choosing LRYGB was greater expectation of weight loss, whereas LAGB was chosen for its lower risk. Overall, 21% (18/84) of the patients were willing to be involved in a prospective randomized study of bariatric procedure choice. Six of 19 (32%) patients who underwent LAGB, but only 12 of the 65 (18%) who underwent LRYGB stated that they would be willing to accept randomization between the operations. Conclusions Patients expressed varied reasons for choosing their procedure, most related to weight loss or safety profiles. Patients undergoing LAGB would have predicted similar results with either procedure, whereas those undergoing LRYGB showed a trend toward greater overall satisfaction with their operations (p = 0.06) and would have predicted an inferior outcome with the other procedure. Although the overall percentage of patients willing to be randomized is not high, a busy bariatric practice could recruit sufficient numbers of willing patients to undergo a prospective randomized trial of LRYGB and LAGB.
A novel suppressor of ras1 in fission yeast, byr4, is a dosage-dependent inhibitor of cytokinesis

A novel gene, designated byr4, was identified in Schizosaccharomyces pombe that affects the mitotic cell cycle and shows genetic interactions with the ras1 signaling pathways. Null alleles of byr4 cause cell cycle arrest in late mitosis and permit multiple rounds of septation. The multiple septa typically divide two nuclei, but the nuclei frequently do not stain equally with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), suggesting that byr4 is required for proper karyokinesis. Overexpression of byr4 inhibits cytokinesis, but cell cycle progression continues leading to multinucleate cells. When byr4 is overexpressed, the early steps in the cytokinesis pathway, including formation of the medial F-actin ring, occur normally; however, the later steps in the pathway, including contraction of the F-actin ring, septation, and rearrangement of the medial F-actin following mitosis, rarely occur, byr4 shows two genetic interactions with ras1. The inhibition of cytokinesis by byr4 overexpression was exacerbated by null alleles of ras1 and scd1, suggesting a link between pathways needed for cell polarity and cytokinesis. Overexpression of byr4 also partially bypasses the need for ras1 for sporulation. The electrophoretic mobility of the byr4 protein varied in response to mutants that perturb cytokinesis and karyokinesis, suggesting interactions between byr4 and these gene products. A more rapidly migrating byr4 protein was found in cells with mutations in cdc16, which undergo repeated septation, and in cdc15, which fail to form a medial F-actin ring in mitosis. A slower migrating byr4 protein was found in cells with a mutation in the beta-tubulin gene, which arrests cells at the metaphase-anaphase transition.
The Panda Man and the Anti-Counterfeiting Hero: Art, Activism and Appropriation in Contemporary China

This article examines the public art practice of the Chinese performance artist Zhao Bandi, aka the ‘Panda Man’, and situates it in relation to the social activism of the Chinese consumer rights campaigner Wang Hai, aka the ‘Anti-Counterfeiting Hero’. Contextualizing the appropriation strategies of these two unlikely figures within contemporary China’s changing legal, market, and media spheres, this article places global contemporary concerns with authenticity, copyright, counterfeits, and fakes in relation to notions of performativity and behavior. Challenging the expectation that appropriation need resemble oppositional or antagonistic strategies of Western precedent, it argues that Chinese figures like Zhao and Wang presented transformative models for consumption and citizenship in 1990s China, laying the groundwork for today’s public discourse of ‘shanzhai’ − a distinctly self-conscious Chinese claim on appropriation.
Radiation Treatment for Gastric Cancer

Locoregional recurrence in the gastric or tumor bed, the anastomosis, or regional lymph nodes occurs in 40–65 % of patients after gastric resection with curative intent. Nearly every combination of adjuvant therapy to surgery can be justified. Two large randomized control studies have evaluated postoperative chemoradiation treatment in surgically resectable locally advanced gastric cancer. The Gastric Surgical Adjuvant Trial (INT-0116) assigned patients to surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy or surgery alone and established postoperative chemoradiation as a standard of care for patients with resected stage IB through intravenous (IV) (M0), gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. The Adjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy in Stomach Cancer (ARTIST) trial showed that in the subgroup of patients with pathologic lymph node metastases at the time of surgery, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy improves disease-free survival (DFS) compared with chemotherapy alone. Preoperative chemoradiation may also be a promising approach with a 26 % pathologic complete response rate demonstrated in the RTOG 99-04 phase II study. Perioperative chemotherapy with or without radiation treatment is currently being studied in the ongoing Chemoradiotherapy After Induction Chemotherapy of Cancer in the Stomach (CRITICS) and TOPGEAR trials. Radiation treatment for gastric cancer can be technically challenging and associated with significant toxicities. The clinical target volume for adjuvant radiation treatment for gastric cancer depends on the location of the primary disease as well as the status of the lymph nodes involved by disease. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy and respiratory gating allow selective delivery of high doses of radiation to the region of interest while lowering the doses to adjacent normal tissues such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver.
Controlled clinical studies of orally administered antiemetic drugs.

In a controlled double blind study of marketed antiemetic drugs administered by the oral route, the phenothiazine agents, thiethylperazine (Torecan) and thiopropazate (Dartal), were found to have significant therapeutic activity when compared to placebo. Chlorprothixene (Taractan) showed antiemetic effectiveness but at a price of clinically intolerable sedative effect. A barbiturate (pentobarbital sodium) was not effective as an antiemetic. Of two investigational drugs studied, metoclopramide proved to be of no therapeutic value. Metopimazine showed an indication of antiemetic effect in the absence of any significant sedative effect. This agent should be evaluated over a higher dosage range. No consistent correlation was noted in comparing sedative effect and antiemetic effect of these agents.
Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Challenging Behavior

Challenging behavior can have adverse effects on both students and teachers, and preservice teachers often report feeling ill prepared to manage this behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) preservice teacher perceptions of student and teacher behavior during scenarios of challenging behavior, (b) alternative solutions or strategies in examining the teacher’s role in the scenarios, (c) perceptions of challenging behaviors that may present the greatest difficulty in their future positions, and (d) their attitudes and opinions regarding challenging behavior in the classroom. Results indicated that preservice teachers are able to identify the teacher’s role in scenarios both positively and negatively. The preservice teachers perceived certain behaviors as easy or difficult to manage. Overall, preservice teachers feel moderately confident with classroom management and challenging behavior. Future research on preservice teacher implementation of strategies and behavior management in real-life co...
Dynamic Stability of Thin-Walled Column

The dynamic stability of the free longitudinal vibrations of a thin-walled column of open section is investigated. A criterion to predict the development of flexural and torsional oscillations through nonlinear coupling with the axial motion is presented. In contrast to static buckling of typical thin-walled columns, slenderness ratios exist for which the growth of torsional oscillations takes precedence over the growth of flexural oscillations. The effect of an initial axial load on the boundaries between regions of stability and instability of the axial motion is considered. A substantial interchange of energy between the axial motion and the parametrically excited flexural and torsional motion is demonstrated.
The differential impact of preoperative comorbidity on perioperative outcomes following thoracoscopic and open lobectomies

OBJECTIVES Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy is quickly becoming the standard of care for many patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and benign lung conditions. There is a lack of published data defining the differential impact of preoperative patient comorbidity on outcomes following VATS and OPEN lobectomies, which would be beneficial for procedure selection and clinical decision-making. METHODS A retrospective analysis of the 2008-2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) database was performed. Demographic and clinical data on patients ≥18 years having undergone VATS or OPEN lobectomy were included. Measured outcomes included postoperative length of stay (PO-LOS), in-hospital mortality and perioperative pulmonary complications. PO-LOS was further analysed using multivariable logistic regression and cumulative incidence models. RESULTS VATS lobectomies were associated with shorter PO-LOS and fewer complications even after censoring for inpatient mortality. Furthermore, VATS lobectomy patients had improved PO-LOS compared with OPEN lobectomy patients, even with greater comorbidity. Logistic regression modelling for PO-LOS ≥14 days identified independent predictors of prolonged PO-LOS, including male gender, non-elective admission, lower hospital lobectomy volume, several Elixhauser comorbidities and performance of OPEN lobectomy. CONCLUSIONS The expected postoperative length of stay for a patient treated by OPEN lobectomy is approximately equal to that of a VATS lobectomy patient with an additional 2-3 comorbidities. The VATS approach remains advantageous with respect to PO-LOS, regardless of the number of comorbidities.
Eradicating Borders: An Exploration of ScholArtistry for Embracing Mexican Immigrant Children and Youth in Education

In this paper, I use Nielsen’s (2005) scholARTistry (as cited in Siegesmund & CahnmannTaylor, 2008), interweaving art and written text to interpret and challenge the widespread impact of Borders in school and society. With an artistic and scholarly eye, I argue that the Border needs to be removed, not only the physical wall, but also the many Borders that exist in society to bar Mexican and other Latino immigrants and the children of Mexican immigrant immigrants from gaining full access life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including the right to meaningful education in American public schools. Using art (oil paintings) and written text, I intend to provoke readers to envision education from a hybrid lens of art and scholarship, to engage in exploring a world without Borders.
Principles of Treatment for Borderline, Micropapillary Serous, and Low-Grade Ovarian Cancer

Borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) are less common than epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs). Low-grade EOCs (LG-EOCs) occur even less frequently than BOTs. After primary therapy, recurrence rates of BOTs and LG-EOCs are significantly lower and the stage-adjusted survival is higher than for high-grade EOCs. Thus, determining the best management in terms of traditional ovarian cancer staging and debulking procedures is more challenging and has been recently brought to question. This article reviews the particulars of BOTs and LG-EOCs, their similarities and differences, and how they are best managed and treated, and emphasizes the major role of surgery and the controversial role of chemotherapy. Because these tumors disproportionately affect younger women, this review addresses ovarian preservation in circumstances when fertility or hormonal preservation is desired.
Fast and reliable example-based mesh IK for stylized deformations

Example-based shape deformation allows a mesh to be easily manipulated or animated with simple inputs. As the user pulls parts of the shape, the rest of the mesh automatically changes in an intuitive way by drawing from a set of exemplars. This provides a way for virtual shapes or characters to be easily authored and manipulated, or for a set of drawings to be animated with simple inputs. We describe a new approach for example-based inverse kinematic mesh manipulation which generates high quality deformations for a wide range of inputs, and in particular works well even when provided stylized or "cartoony" examples. This approach is fast enough to run in real time, reliably uses the artist's input shapes in an intuitive way even for highly nonphysical deformations, and provides added expressiveness by allowing the input shapes to be utilized in a way which spatially varies smoothly across the resulting deformed mesh. This allows for rich and detailed deformations to be created from a small set of input shapes, and gives an easy way for a set of sketches to be brought alive with simple click-and-drag inputs.
An evaluation of adding a low-cost temperature string to NDBC Weather Buoys for monitoring heat content in the Caribbean Sea

In 2005, the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) Weather Buoy network was expanded with 15 additional buoys in the Caribbean Sea in support of early detection and improved forecasts of Atlantic Hurricanes. These buoys have now become a standard and highly valuable asset to the Weather Buoy network, and as such, some will be upgraded with the modular Self Contained Ocean Observing Payload (SCOOP) to add new capabilities and value. One of these new capabilities includes real-time observations of subsurface temperature and salinity measurements. With this new ability, the enhanced Weather Buoys located in “hurricane alley” will be better positioned to support the real-time analyses of ocean heat content and high frequency weather phenomena linked to hurricanes. As part of this effort, NDBC assessed the utility of adding a low-cost thermistor string in lieu of traditional oceanographic sensors and deployed two SCOOP stations 13 km apart in the Caribbean Sea at Weather Buoy station 42058. One station was equipped with standard oceanographic sensors used as a reference, while the other station was equipped with a thermistor string. The purpose of the field test was verify the thermistor string observations meet NDBC accuracy requirements and to evaluate the ease of operation and durability within the field environment. The results indicate the thermistor string is acceptable within ±0.1°C greater than 80% of the time in the upper layer, yet when using the observations to calculate ocean heat content, there is an average error of 11%, Lastly, our results show the sensor response time, ease of deployment and durability of the thermistor string are not suitable for hurricane observations.
On the Performance of Relay-Assisted D2D Networks under Spatially Correlated Interference

With the explosive growth of mobile traffic demand, device-to-device (D2D) communication offers a promising approach to reduce cellular congestion by offloading users' traffic to D2D network. In this paper, we consider a relay- assisted D2D communication in underlay cellular networks, where D2D users access a proportion of the spectrum occupied by cellular users. This poses two fundamental issues. The first issue is related to protecting the cellular transmissions by reducing the spectrum partition factor, which measures the fraction of spectrum available to D2D users. The second issue is that as we limit the spectrum available to D2D users, less D2D transmissions can be supported, which in turn increases the distances between them. To address these issues, we allow a relay user to assist D2D communications in order to achieve higher D2D spectral efficiency without affecting cellular spectral efficiency. In fact, results show significant improvements in spectral efficiency not only to D2D, but to the whole network, especially in a dense D2D environment.
Agonist-Induced Binding of the Regulatory Scaffold Protein Spinophilin to Protein Phosphatase-1 In Platelets

Abstract Abstract 2029 Platelet regulation plays a critical role in hemostasis. Underactivation can result in failure to stop bleeding, whereas inappropriate platelet activation can cause thrombus formation. The 130-kDa scaffold protein spinophilin (SPL) has recently been shown to play a role in preventing platelet overactivation by forming a complex with the proteins RGS10, RGS18, and the tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1. This complex dissociates when platelet are activated by thrombin or thromboxane A2 and evidence from spinophilin knockout mice suggests that this regulates platelet activation in vitro and in vivo. Spinophilin was originally isolated as a binding partner for the serine/threonine phosphatase, PP-1, in neurons. Here we asked whether PP-1 forms a complex with spinophilin in human platelets and, if so, whether the complex is affected by platelet activation. The approaches that we used to answer this question included Western blotting with antibodies to PP-1 and spinophilin, and co-precipitation studies looking for an association between spinophilin and PP-1. The results of the Western blots confirm the presence of PP-1 in platelets. The initial co-precipitation studies show that little, if any, PP-1 is associated with spinophilin in resting platelets, but there is a time-dependent increase in the SPL/PP-1 complex when platelets are activated with the PAR1 (thrombin receptor) activating peptide, SFLLRN. Thus it appears that within approximately the same time frame that the SPL/RGS/SHP-1 complex is decaying in activated platelets, the SPL/PP-1 complex is forming. Targets for PP1 have not been fully identified in platelets, but it is known that spinophilin localizes to the plasma membrane upon platelet activation. Since spinophilin is thought to direct PP1 targeting in neurons, it is reasonable to propose that it may be directing PP1 to targets in platelets in a similar manner. The studies described in this abstract were supported in part by a 2010 ASH Trainee Research Award to Andrew Sinnamon, who is a first year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Cutting the Losses: Reassessing the Costs of Import Competition to Workers and Communities

In any dynamic economy, there is a risk of job loss. Job loss resulting from foreign rather than domestic competition has come under intense scrutiny recently with Britain’s exit from the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. While economists generally conclude that trade is broadly enriching, recent works have brought attention to the costs of trade to workers and communities. At the individual level, I find that the risk of layoff and unemployment to workers in trade-exposed sectors is comparable — or even lower — than the risk to workers in non-traded sectors and that these risks have not increased during the period of more intense competition with Chinese imports. At the community level, Autor, Dorn and Hanson (2013) find that local areas have experienced slower job and wage growth and higher unemployment because of import competition with China. Upon analyzing their data, I conclude that their results are biased by the weaker macroeconomic performance of 2000-2007 relative to the 1990s. When I analyze inter-local area economic changes — rather analyzing changes within and across areas — I fail to reject the null hypotheses that import competition has no effect on wage or employment growth, except within the manufacturing sector during the most recent period, or that it has no effect on many other outcomes, including labor force participation, intergenerational mobility, and mortality. During each period, import competition actually predicts an increase in average wages for manufacturing workers, as well as non-manufacturing during the 1990s period, and import competition predicts a shift toward college educated non-manufacturing jobs in the second period. I conclude that foreign competition does not appear to elevate the risk of job loss to a greater extent than domestic competition, and people living in the communities most exposed to foreign competition are no worse off on average.
The CURE for Culturing Fastidious Microbes

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) expand scientific educational benefits of research to large groups of students through a course setting. As part of an ongoing effort to integrate CUREs into freshman biology, we developed a microbiology CURE (mCURE) that uses a modified version of a dilution-to-extinction high throughput culturing protocol for isolating abundant yet fastidious aquatic bacterioplankton. Students learn to serially dilute and inoculate microbial cultures, perform DNA extractions and PCR, and identify microbial isolates via 16S rRNA gene sequences. The curriculum also includes exercises for learning to critically read and evaluate scientific literature, and emphasizes scientific communication through written and oral exercises that incorporate social media elements. In the first three semesters, the mCUREs achieved similar cultivability success as implementation of the protocol in a standard laboratory setting. The mCURE students have cultivated 43 unique bacterioplankton taxa, many of which occur as abundant taxa in the coastal environments from which the initial inoculum was sampled. Moreover, trends observed in the pre- and post-course survey data provide preliminary evidence that the mCURE format may improve a variety of scientific training objectives, based on the students9 perceptions of the course. Our modular framework facilitates customization of the curriculum for use in multiple settings, and we provide classroom exercises, assignments, assessment tools, and examples of student output to assist with implementation.
Postural stability during long duration quiet standing in post stroke hemiplegia

Abstract Background Inter-limb center of pressure changes and stance asymmetry in individuals with hemiplegia secondary to stroke have previously been reported for short duration quiet standing (QS). The purpose of this investigation was to assess COP displacement, velocity, and loading forces during long duration (120 s) quiet standing. The investigation also aimed at performing an inter-limb stability assessment using COP distance and velocity dependent phase plane analysis during 120 s of quiet standing in healthy controls and individuals with hemiplegia post stroke. Methods Healthy adults (n = 12 control subjects) and individuals with hemiplegia secondary to stroke (n = 10) stood on a level floor with eyes open for 120 s while plantar pressure data was collected bilaterally. Main outcome variables included COP displacement, COP velocity, stability indices based on COP displacement and velocity variations, and the Berg Balance Assessment. In the stroke group, paired t-tests were used to perform inter-limb comparisons of the main COP outcome measures. Secondary analysis evaluated the inter-limb symmetry ratios for both groups, and independent sample t- tests were conducted to compare inter-limb ratios of COP, stability indices measures, and Berg Balance Assessment Scores between the two groups. Results In the stroke group, COP range, COP mean velocity, COP peak velocity, and stability indices were significantly asymmetrical and greater on non-paretic side in anterior-posterior (AP) direction. Individuals with stroke demonstrated symmetrical loading forces, COP range, RMS COP, COP velocity medial-lateral (ML) ratios and this was not significantly different from the healthy controls. Conclusion The majority of the weight bearing was imposed on the non-paretic side during 120 s of QS. As being the major contributor in maintaining balance, the non-paretic side may be over-utilized which may further lead to greater COP displacements, velocities, and potentially postural instability in AP direction. Such asymmetry in AP direction resulted in a compensatory weight “switching” strategy in ML direction.
Predicting Student Success: A Naïve Bayesian Application to Community College Data

This research focuses on developing and implementing a continuous Naive Bayesian classifier for GEAR courses at Rio Salado Community College. Previous implementation efforts of a discrete version did not predict as well, 70%, and had deployment issues. This predictive model has higher prediction, over 90%, accuracy for both at-risk and successful students while easing interpretation and implementation. Predictive results across eleven courses and cumulative gain charts show potential improvements to be made in students’ academic success by focusing on high level risk students. Researchers at other colleges might find this empirical application relevant for implementation of early alert systems.
Young Adult Perceptions Surrounding Hookah Use

Objective We aimed to improve understanding of young adults' perceptions and interpretations of the contexts surrounding use. Methods We conducted focus groups with young adult hookah users (ages 18-28) to examine hookah-use experiences and risk perceptions. Results Two dominant themes that emerged from the discussions were the social aspects of use (eg, "ending up" at a hookah cafe while out with friends), and the mental and physiological reactions to use (eg, relaxation and a "high" feeling). Participants often argued that because they only used hookah every few weeks, hookah use was much less dangerous than cigarette use. Conclusions Findings suggest that hookah research should account for heuristic processing and point to several areas where better health communication and stricter regulatory policies are needed.
Evolutions of unequal mass, highly spinning black hole binaries

We evolve a binary black hole system bearing a mass ratio of $q={m}_{1}/{m}_{2}=2/3$ and individual spins of ${S}_{1}^{z}/{m}_{1}^{2}=0.95$ and ${S}_{2}^{z}/{m}_{2}^{2}=\ensuremath{-}0.95$ in a configuration where the large black hole has its spin antialigned with the orbital angular momentum, ${L}^{z}$, and the small black hole has its spin aligned with ${L}^{z}$. This configuration was chosen to measure the maximum recoil of the remnant black hole for nonprecessing binaries. We find that the remnant black hole recoils at just above $500\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}$, the largest recorded value from numerical simulations for aligned spin configurations. The remnant mass, spin, and gravitational waveform peak luminosity and frequency also provide a valuable point in parameter space for source modeling.
New England Regional Conference emphasizes continuous casting

Interest and enthusiasm was high at the Thirteenth Annual AIME New England Regional Conference. One of the discussion panelists observed, “This was the largest conference dealing with continuous casting (of non-ferrous metals) that has been held in the United States or in Europe.”
Plk1 Inhibition Enhances the Efficacy of BET Epigenetic Reader Blockade in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), a crucial regulator of cell-cycle progression, is overexpressed in multiple types of cancers and has been proven to be a potent and promising target for cancer treatment. In case of prostate cancer, we once showed that antineoplastic activity of Plk1 inhibitor is largely due to inhibition of androgen receptor (AR) signaling. However, we also discovered that Plk1 inhibition causes activation of the β-catenin pathway and increased expression of c-MYC, eventually resulting in resistance to Plk1 inhibition. JQ1, a selective small-molecule inhibitor targeting the amino-terminal bromodomains of BRD4, has been shown to dramatically inhibit c-MYC expression and AR signaling, exhibiting antiproliferative effects in a range of cancers. Because c-MYC and AR signaling are essential for prostate cancer initiation and progression, we aim to test whether targeting Plk1 and BRD4 at the same time is an effective approach to treat prostate cancer. Herein, we show that a combination of Plk1 inhibitor GSK461364A and BRD4 inhibitor JQ1 had a strong synergistic effect on castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cell lines, as well as in CRPC xenograft tumors. Mechanistically, the synergistic effect is likely due to two reasons: (i) Plk1 inhibition results in the accumulation of β-catenin in the nucleus, thus elevation of c-MYC expression, whereas JQ1 treatment directly suppresses c-MYC transcription; (ii) Plk1 and BRD4 dual inhibition acts synergistically in inhibition of AR signaling. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(7); 1554-65. ©2018 AACR.
Experimental search for high-temperature ferroelectric perovskites guided by two-step machine learning

Experimental search for high-temperature ferroelectric perovskites is a challenging task due to the vast chemical space and lack of predictive guidelines. Here, we demonstrate a two-step machine learning approach to guide experiments in search of xBi $$[ {{\mathrm{Me}}_y' {\mathrm{Me}}_{(1 - y)}'' } ]$$ O3–(1 − x)PbTiO3-based perovskites with high ferroelectric Curie temperature. These involve classification learning to screen for compositions in the perovskite structures, and regression coupled to active learning to identify promising perovskites for synthesis and feedback. The problem is challenging because the search space is vast, spanning ~61,500 compositions and only 167 are experimentally studied. Furthermore, not every composition can be synthesized in the perovskite phase. In this work, we predict x, y, Me′, and Me″ such that the resulting compositions have both high Curie temperature and form in the perovskite structure. Outcomes from both successful and failed experiments then iteratively refine the machine learning models via an active learning loop. Our approach finds six perovskites out of ten compositions synthesized, including three previously unexplored {Me′Me″} pairs, with 0.2Bi(Fe0.12Co0.88)O3–0.8PbTiO3 showing the highest measured Curie temperature of 898 K among them. Experimental search for high-temperature ferroelectric perovskites is challenging due to the vast chemical space and lack of predictive guidelines. Here the authors demonstrate a two-step machine learning approach to sequentially guide experiments in search of promising perovskites with high ferroelectric Curie temperature.
Predictors of Earnings Enabling Likely Roll Departure for SSDI Beneficiaries With Visual Impairments in Vocational Rehabilitation

We examined individual, socioeconomic, disability, service, and state-level factors predicting vocational rehabilitation (VR) closure earnings exceeding substantial gainful activity for Social Secu...
Preoperative medical consultations: impact on perioperative management and surgical outcome.

Purpose: This study was designed to assess the effect of preoperative medical consults on both perioperative management and surgical outcome. Methods: The charts of 387 consecutive patients over the age of 50 undergoing non-cardiac, elective surgery during a six-week period were retrospectively examined. Patient factors including age, ASA status, gender, type of surgery, outcome (death, unexpected intensive care unit admission or uncomplicated discharge), presence of medical consult, and, in those cases where a medical consult was present, stated reason for the consult, the ordering physician, and recommendations of the consultant, were recorded. Results: 138 patients receiving medical consults (35.7%) were identified (a total of 146 consults). The most common stated purpose of the consults examined was "preoperative evaluation." In only five consults (3.4%) did the consultant identify a new finding. Sixty-two consults (42.5%) contained no recommendations. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome between those patients who received a medical consult and those who did not. Conclusion: A review of 146 medical consults suggests that the majority of such consults give little advice that truly impacts either perioperative management or outcome of surgery.