cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Improving sensor network immunity under worm attacks: a software diversity approach

Because of cost and resource constraints, sensor nodes do not have a complicated hardware architecture or operating system to protect program safety. Hence, the notorious buffer-overflow vulnerability that has caused numerous Internet worm attacks could also be exploited to attack sensor networks. We call the malicious code that exploits a buffer-overflow vulnerability in a sensor program sensor worm. Clearly, sensor worm will be a serious threat, if not the most dangerous one, when an attacker could simply send a single packet to compromise the entire sensor network. Despite its importance, so far little work has been focused on sensor worms.In this work, we first illustrate the feasibility of launching sensor worms through real experiments on Mica2 motes. Inspired by the survivability through heterogeneity philosophy, we then explore the technique of software diversity to combat sensor worms. Given a limited number of software versions, we design an efficient algorithm to assign the appropriate version of software to each sensor, so that sensor worms are restrained from propagation. We also examine the impact of sensor node deployment errors on worm propagation, which directs the selection of our system parameters based on percolation theory. Finally, extensive analytical and simulation results confirm the effectiveness of our scheme in containing sensor worms.
Malassezia pachydermatis Carriage in Dog Owners

Yeasts of the genus Malassezia serve as both commensal microorganisms and pathogens on the skin of humans and domestic animals. Although rare, cases of lifethreatening fungemia in people have been attributed to Malassezia pachydermatis, for which dogs are a natural host. Zoonotic transfer has been documented from dogs to immunocompromised patients by healthcare workers who own dogs. We investigated the role of pet dogs as risk factors for mechanical carriage of M. pachydermatis on human hands. Dogs and their owners were sampled as pairs, by fungal culture and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although fungal culture was not a reliable means by which to detect carriage of the yeast on human hands, PCR identified M. pachydermatis on most (≈93%) human participants. Human carriage of ubiquitous opportunistic pathogens such as M. pachydermatis underscores the importance of good hand hygiene by healthcare professionals.
Disturbance Accommodating Controller for Uncertain Stochastic Systems with Controller Saturation

Observer based stochastic disturbance accommodating control scheme utilizes an estimator to determine the necessary corrections to the nominal control input and thus minimizes the adverse effects of both model uncertainties and external disturbances on the controlled system. The total control input, which includes the nominal control as well as the control corrections to the nominal control to accommodate for the disturbances, could exceed the actuator saturation limits. The saturation of the disturbance accommodating control system is more violent than that of the nominal control system because of the positive feedback of the disturbance compensation. This paper presents the formulation of the stochastic disturbance accommodating controller with actuator saturation for a class of uncertain linear stochastic systems. A Lyapunov based stochastic adaptive approach is used to update the control gains and the process noise covariance online so that the closed-loop stability of the controlled system is guaranteed.
On an equation occurring in Falkner and Skan's approximate treatment of the equations of the boundary layer

The differential analyser has been used to evaluate solutions of the equationwith boundary conditions y = y′ = 0 at x = 0, y′ → 1 as x → ∞, which occurs in Falkner and Skan's approximate treatment of the laminar boundary layer. A numerical iterative method has been used to improve the accuracy of the solutions, and the results show that the accuracy of the machine solutions is about 1 in 1000, or rather better.It is shown that the conditions are insufficient to specify a unique solution for negative values of β a discussion of this situation is given, and it is shown that for the application to be made of the solution the appropriate condition is that y′ → 1 from below, and as rapidly as possible, as x → ∞. The condition that y′ → 1 from below can be satisfied only for values of β0, greater than a limiting value β0, whose value is approximately − 0·199, and which is related to the point at which the laminar boundary layer breaks away from the boundary.
Virus-Encoded TLR Ligands Reveal Divergent Functional Responses of Mononuclear Phagocytes in Pathogenic Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

The role of mononuclear phagocytes in the pathogenesis or control of HIV infection is unclear. In this study, we monitored the dynamics and function of dendritic cells (DC) and monocytes/macrophages in rhesus macaques acutely infected with pathogenic SIVmac251 with and without antiretroviral therapy (ART). SIV infection was associated with monocyte mobilization and recruitment of plasmacytoid DC (pDC) and macrophages to lymph nodes, which did not occur with ART treatment. SIVmac251 single-stranded RNA encoded several uridine-rich sequences that were potent TLR7/8 ligands in mononuclear phagocytes of naive animals, stimulating myeloid DC (mDC) and monocytes to produce TNF-α and pDC and macrophages to produce both TNF-α and IFN-α. Following SIV infection, pDC and monocytes/macrophages rapidly became hyporesponsive to stimulation with SIV-encoded TLR ligands and influenza virus, a condition that was reversed by ART. The loss of pDC and macrophage function was associated with a profound but transient block in the capacity of lymph node cells to secrete IFN-α upon stimulation. In contrast to pDC and monocytes/macrophages, mDC increased TNF-α production in response to stimulation following acute infection. Moreover, SIV-infected rhesus macaques with stable infection had increased mDC responsiveness to SIV-encoded TLR ligands and influenza virus at set point, whereas animals that progressed rapidly to AIDS had reduced mDC responsiveness. These findings indicate that SIV encodes immunostimulatory TLR ligands and that pDC, mDC, and monocytes/macrophages respond to these ligands differently as a function of SIV infection. The data also suggest that increased responsiveness of mDC to stimulation following SIV infection may be beneficial to the host.
Kin selection, relatedness, and worker control of reproduction in a large-colony epiponine wasp, Brachygastra mellifica

Hamilton’s kin selection theory predicts conflicts of interest among relatives, even within highly cooperative social insect societies. Because workers are the most numerous caste, collective worker interests may be an important force in determining the outcome of conflicts. In this study, we used genotypes from two DNA microsatellite loci to show that two kinds of collective worker interests are satisfied in Brachygastra mellifica, a member of the multiqueen epiponine wasps. First, from the high relatedness of queens (0.66) and the fact that queens are singly mated (shown by genotyping their stored sperm), we calculated that new queens are reared in colonies with a harmonic mean of 1.2 old queens, whereas males are reared in colonies with much higher queen numbers. This split sex ratio result is predicted under worker control. It matches other studies of epiponines, but B. mellifica has much larger mature colonies (averaging 7951 adults) with many more queens (averaging 398), showing the pattern holds for large-colony species. Second, we report the first genetic data on parentage of males in epiponines and show that these are also consistent with collective worker interests. Workers are on average significantly more related to queens than to other workers (r 5 .37 versus .23) and should therefore suppress each other and allow the queens to lay haploid (male) eggs. Though many workers have developed ovaries and could lay eggs, the genetic analyses showed that most or all males come from queens. Key words: Brachygastra mellifica, eusociality, genetic relatedness, mate number, microsatellites, split sex ratios, Vespidae, worker policing. [Behav Ecol 9:573‐581 (1998)]
Phenobarbital promotes liver growth in c-myc/TGF-α transgenic mice by inducing hypertrophy and inhibiting apoptosis

Phenobarbital (PB) is a non-genotoxic liver tumor promoter used extensively in initiation‐promotion protocols. To determine the mode of PB action, double transgenic mice overexpressing both the c-myc and transforming growth factor (TGF)-a genes were treated with PB in the food for 10 weeks, from 3 weeks of age. After 3‐4 weeks on PB a peak in liver mass was noted, which subsequently leveled off at a value ~30% above untreated animals. The mitotic index in mice given PB peaked at 1 week of treatment and was significantly elevated compared with untreated animals. No significant difference between treated and untreated animals was seen thereafter, although a trend of PB-associated mitotic suppression was noticeable. The apoptotic index also showed a trend of suppression compared with untreated animals, significant after prolonged PB administration. Dysplastic hepatocytes were more prominent in PB-treated mice than untreated animals, particularly pericentrally. Removal of PB from the diet at 4 weeks of treatment led to a dramatic increase in apoptosis. This accompanied a drop in the liver mass to the level of untreated controls by 10 days. Throughout the study, PBtreated animals showed markedly lower levels of TGF-b1 ligand, coincident with an elevated level of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. On withdrawal of PB, the levels of all these proteins rapidly changed to mirror those seen in untreated mice. In all treatment groups, no change in the levels of epidermal growth factor receptor, TGF-b receptors I and II or Bcl-xS/L were seen. We conclude from our data that PB stimulates liver growth in double transgenic cmyc/TGF-a mice by induction of liver hypertrophy and inhibition of apoptosis, brought about by both a decrease in signaling through the TGF-b pathway and an increase in Bcl-2. The data support the hypothesis that PB promotes neoplastic development through a reduction in the incidence of cell death.
Architecture specification of multimedia software systems

Despite the growing importance of multimedia applications, we still know relatively little about how to specify, design and maintain this class of complex applications in a systematic manner. The concept of software architecture has recently emerged as a new way to improve our ability to effectively construct and maintain large-scale complex software systems. Under this new paradigm, software engineers are able to do evolutionary design of complex systems through architecture specification, design rationale capture, architecture validation and verification, and architecture transformation. Several architecture description languages (ADLs), such as Wright, Rapide, UniCon, ACME, etc. have been proposed to support the architecture development under this new software paradigm. Although current ADLs more or less support certain features of object-oriented design approach, few of them are purely based on object-oriented paradigm. In this paper, an architecture description language-OOADL is presented as a formal approach for the architecture level system design of multimedia software systems. This language takes object-oriented paradigm as its backbone, and provides formal semantics for modeling architectures of software systems. It also aims at some other goals such as support for hierarchical refinement, support for reuse of architecture styles, support for analysis and support for exception handling. We also introduce the default architecture style which brings the features of extensibility and reusability into the language. Finally, we use OOADL to construct part of the architecture framework of a multimedia system to illustrate the usage and modeling capability of OOADL.
Market Culture: How Norms Governing Exploding Offers Affect Market Performance

Many markets have organizations that influence or try to establish norms concerning when offers can be made, accepted and rejected. Examining a dozen previously studied markets suggests that markets in which transactions are made far in advance are markets in which it is acceptable for firms to make exploding offers, and unacceptable for workers to renege on commitments they make, however early. But this evidence is only suggestive, because the markets differ in many ways other than norms concerning offers. Laboratory experiments allow us to isolate the effects of exploding offers and binding acceptances. In a simple environment, in which uncertainty about applicants' quality is resolved over time, we find inefficient early contracting when firms can make exploding offers and applicants' acceptances are binding. Relaxing either of these two conditions causes matching to take place later, when more information about applicants' qualities is available, and consequently results in higher efficiency and fewer blocking pairs. This suggests that elements of market culture may play an important role in influencing market performance.
Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Common Ground System (CGS) Overview

The NOAA-NASA jointly-acquired Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) will replace and upgrade the current U.S. civilian polar-orbiting environmental satellite system providing the afternoon orbit and ground system components of the restructured NPOESS program. The ground system, known as the ‘Common Ground System (CGS)’ consists of a Command, Control, and Communications Segment (C3S) and an Interface Data Processing Segment (IDPS) both developed by Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS). The C3S currently flies the Suomi NPP satellite and routes mission data to U.S. ground facilities. The IDPS processes Suomi NPP data provided to US weather centrals. The CGS will expand to accommodate the JPSS mission and a number or other related environmental satellite missions. This presentation will review the JPSS and CGS concept of operations, architecture, and key specifications and parameters as well as the CGS C3S and IDPS architectures, ground components, facilities, and present and future supported missions.
Operational Performance Prediction of a Hydrogen -Fueled Commercial Transport

The engineering feasibility of a hydrogen -fueled aircraft is certainly possible, as has been researc hed for varying reasons since the 1950’s; however, results have lacked consensus on the detailed performance of such an aircraft . Hydrogen shows the potential to considerably reduce the emissions of aircraft, countering the increase in emissions due to th e growth of commercial aviation. To be viable, hydrogen needs to be produced in an environmentally compatible, affordable manner in large quantities. Also, hydrogen aircraft need to be demonstrated as safe, energy -efficient, and affordable. This paper p resents work which has been done to predict the operational performance of a hydrogen -fueled commercial transport relative to an energy equivalent conventional aircraft . The environmental bearing and future costs of kerosene -type jet fuel and liquid hydro gen are contrasted. The cost effectiveness and environmental impact are evaluated based on the performance predictions of the hydrogen -fueled commercial transport and compare d to a similar modern kerosene fueled aircraft . Summaries of the overall hydroge n aircraft design problem, proposed aircraft configuration, propulsion syste m, environmental emissions, safety considerations , relative performance, and cost effectiveness are presented in this paper.
Partitioning real-time ETL workflows

Many organizations are aiming to move away from traditional batch processing ETL to real-time ETL (RT-ETL). This move is motivated by a need to analyze and take decisions on as fresh a data as possible. The RT-ETL engines operate on the abstraction of data flow executed on parallel architectures. For high throughput and low response times, there is a need for partitioning the data over the large number of nodes in the engine. In this paper, we consider the problem of partitioning realtime ETL flows and we propose a high level architecture for that.
Concise Review: The Role of Clinical Trials in Deciphering Mechanisms of Action of Cardiac Cell-Based Therapy

Although the initial promise of cardiac cell-based therapy was based on the concept that stem cells engraft into diseased tissue and differentiate into beating cardiomyocytes, it is now clear that successful cell-based tissue repair involves a more complex orchestration of cellular and molecular events. Many lessons about successful tissue repair can be gleaned from the results of early-stage clinical trials. This body of work shows that cell-based therapy (with various cell sources and delivery methods) effectively prevents and reverses the remodeling process, the sine qua non of the myocardial injury reaction and anatomic substrate for subsequent clinical events. The potentially favorable remodeling responses to cell therapy have prompted a search for mechanisms of action beyond cell repopulation and guided future clinical trial design by providing more clear focus on pathophysiological endpoints signifying favorable responses to cell-based therapy. Perhaps the most important mechanistic insight is that endogenous stem/precursor cells have the potential to participate in tissue healing. With regard to the phenotype of cellular response, it is clear that parameters of remodeling, such as infarct size and ventricular dimensions, should be directly measured, thereby necessitating the use of sophisticated imaging modalities, such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging or multidetector computed tomography. These new insights offer an optimistic outlook on the state of cell-based therapeutics for cardiac disease and suggest that pivotal clinical trials are warranted. Here, we review lessons learned from clinical trials and evaluate the choice and assessment of endpoints to best predict efficacy of cell therapy.
The generation of turbidity currents by subaerial debris flows, California

An integrated process study of the relationship between debris flows and turbidity currents was carried out in the San Dimas Experimental Forest and adjoining reservoirs in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles. The initiation, movement, and dynamics of subaerial debris flows emanating from a series of experimentally burned watersheds, along with the subsequent movement of these flows subaqueously in two reservoirs, were studied using a network of instrumentation in addition to stratigraphy and mapping. Newly designed density sensors provided a continuous record of sediment concentration within the subaerial debris flows. These flows reached sediment concentrations of 60% by weight and velocities of 4-8 m s -1 , and they involved total sediment volumes ranging from several hundred to several thousand cubic meters. In terms of processes within the reservoirs, the study documents the ability of the flows to move substantial distances as subaqueous debris flows, to convert to turbidity currents by means of subaqueous hydraulic jumps, and to then move along the reservoir floor as turbidity currents. The findings illustrate the ability of the hydraulic jumps to control the location of sediment deposition.
Synthetic gene design with a large number of hidden stops

Hidden stops are nucleotide triples TAA, TAG and TGA that appear on the second and third reading frames of a protein coding gene. Recent studies suggested the important role of hidden stops in preventing misread of mRNA. We study the problem of designing protein-encoding genes with large number of hidden stops under several biological constraints. With simple constraints, redesigned genes have provable maximal number of hidden stops. With more complex constraints, redesigned genes still have many more hidden stops than wild-type genes. We showed that redesigned genes have a distinct positional advantage in assisting early termination of frame-shifts.
Hydroclimatic regimes: a distributed water-balance framework for hydrologic assessment, classification, and management

Runoff-based indicators of terrestrial water availability are appropriate for humid regions, but have tended to limit our basic hydrologic understanding of drylands – the dry-subhumid, semiarid, and arid regions which presently cover nearly half of the global land surface. In response, we introduce an indicator framework that gives equal weight to humid and dryland regions, accounting fully for both vertical (precipitation + evapotranspiration) and horizontal (groundwater + surface-water) components of the hydrologic cycle in any given location – as well as fluxes into and out of landscape storage. We apply the framework to a diverse hydroclimatic region (the conterminous USA) using a distributed water-balance model consisting of 53 400 networked landscape hydrologic units. Our model simulations indicate that about 21% of the conterminous USA either generated no runoff or consumed runoff from upgradient sources on a mean-annual basis during the 20th century. Vertical fluxes exceeded horizontal fluxes across 76% of the conterminous area. Long-term-average total water availability (TWA) during the 20th century, defined here as the total influx to a landscape hydrologic unit from precipitation, groundwater, and surface water, varied spatially by about 400 000-fold, a range of variation ~100 times larger than that for mean-annual runoff across the same area. The framework includes but is not limited to classical, runoff-based approaches to water-resource assessment. It also incorporates and reinterprets the green- and blue-water perspective now gaining international acceptance. Implications of the new framework for several areas of contemporary hydrology are explored, and the data requirements of the approach are discussed in relation to the increasing availability of gridded global climate, land-surface, and hydrologic data sets.
Humanism or Competence in Medicine

The subject of humanism in medicine has received much attention in recent years. Just what is meant by humanism is nebulous. The American Board of Internal Medicine defines the essential characteristics of humanism as integrity, respect and compassion. Respect means a personal commitment to honor patients’ choices and rights regarding themselves and their medical care.’ Engelhardt defines the humanistic doctor as one who acts gently and kindly with sympathy and consideration for the needs of others.’ Although modern usage of the term has had diverse meanings, John Romano writes that, ‘humanism, in essence, applies to any system of thought or action which assigns a predominant interest to the affairs of men as compared to the supernatural or abstract. It could have been applied to Hippocrates when he insisted that epilepsy was not a sacred disease. In western Europe in the late 15th century, the medical humanists participated in a movement of thought that broke through the medieval traditions of scholastic theology and philosophy, and devoted itself to the rediscovery and direct study of the ancient classics. This movement was essentially a revolt against intellectual, and especially ecclesiastical, authority and is a parent to all modern developments, whether intellectual, scientific or ~ocial.~ Charles Aring puts it more succinctly, ‘Any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values and dignity pred~minate’.~ I, like Romano, believe the term humanism is also applicable to a movement, in which some of us participated, that began in the late thirties, and intensified following the end of World War 11. This was a movement in American medicine to provide each medical student with sufficient opportunity to obtain the information and the personal experience that would enable him to grow not only in knowledge of biology, but also in human and social issues. It was closely connected to the field known as psychosomatic medicine. The factors responsible for the renewed interest in humanism are well known and need only be mentioned. They are intrinsic and extrinsic to medicine: technology, specialization, changes in delivery of medical services, rising costs, industrialization of medicine and malpractice suits. These factors have led to the rising power of consumer groups and conversely to a loss of power and authority of medicine and its practitioners. All this has undermined the classical doctor-patient relationship, leading to anxiety, hostility and fear on both sides and at times converting the doctor-patient relationship into an adversarial,
Semantic and pragmatic processes in the comprehension of negation: An event related potential study of negative polarity sensitivity

Abstract Most previous studies on negation have generally only focused on sentential negation ( not ), but the time course of processing negative meaning from different sources remains poorly understood. In an ERP study (Experiment 1), we make use of the negation-sensitivity of negative polarity items (NPIs) and examine the time course of processing different kinds of negation. Four kinds of NPI-licensing environments were examined: the negative determiner no , the negative determiner few , the focus marker only , and emotive predicates (e.g., surprised ). While the first three contribute a negative meaning via semantic assertion (explicit negation), the last gives rise to a pragmatic negative inference via non-asserted content (implicit negation). Under all these environments, an NPI elicited a smaller N400 compared to an unlicensed NPI, suggesting that negation, regardless of its source, is rapidly computed online. However, we also observed that explicit negative meaning (i.e., semantic, as contributed in the assertion) and implicit negative meaning (contributed by pragmatic inferences) were integrated into the grammatical representation in different ways, leading to a difference in the P600, and calling for a separation of semantic and pragmatic integration during sentence processing (and NPI licensing). The qualitative differences between these conditions were also replicated in a self-paced reading study (Experiment 2).
Acquiring rhoticity across languages: An ultrasound study of differentiating tongue movements

Rhotics in many languages develop late and show clinically significant misarticulations. The English approximant and Spanish trill rhotics exhibit both a primary constriction along the palate and a secondary constriction in the pharynx. We speculate that the secondary constriction might be a cross-linguistic characteristic of rhotics and thus potentially a factor in delayed articulatory development/misarticulations. We describe an exploratory study analyzing rhotic tongue configurations in ultrasound videos from a small sample of native adult speakers of English, Malayalam, French, Persian and Spanish. Our findings confirm that rhotic sounds most subject to late development also involve tongue root movement towards a pharyngeal constriction, but this conclusion must remain tentative without further research. In the meantime, clinical strategies that include attention to primary and secondary constrictions should be explored for remediation of rhotic misarticulations across languages.
Making a Case for Teacher Political Disclosure

K-12 teachers in the United States are often discouraged from disclosing their political opinions in the classroom, and those that do are often accused of indoctrinating their students. In this essay, the author attempts to make a case for teacher political disclosure, specifically the “committed impartiality” stance described by Kelly (1986), based on the potential pedagogical and civic benefits of disclosure. In short, this essay argues that teacher political disclosure should not be associated with the negative stigma often attached to it, and the decision whether to disclose one’s political views in the classroom should be an open issue that requires further study.
Use of genome-wide RNAi screens to identify regulators of embryonic stem cell pluripotency and self-renewal.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are characterized by two defining features: pluripotency and self-renewal. They hold tremendous promise for both basic research and regenerative medicine. To fully realize their potentials, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms regulating ESC pluripotency and self-renewal. The development of RNA interference (RNAi) technology has revolutionized functional genetic studies in mammalian cells. In recent years, genome-wide RNAi screens have been adopted to systematically study ESC pluripotency and self-renewal, and have uncovered many previously unknown regulators, including transcription factors, chromatin remodelers, and post-transcriptional modulators. Here, we describe a method for the identification of regulators of ESC pluripotency and self-renewal using RNAi screens, as well as assays for further validation and characterization of the identified candidates. With modifications, this method can also be adapted to study the fate specification events during ESC differentiation.
Social Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Exploring Motivational and Attitudinal Factors

The current economic climate demands more innovative approaches to increasing labor market participation for people with disabilities. Social entrepreneurship offers one alternative pathway to employment. However, little is known about the motivational and attitudinal factors influencing social entrepreneurship for people with disabilities. Using empirical data from focus groups comprised of social entrepreneurs with disabilities, and interviews with key stakeholders working in the fields of policy, disability, and business, this research frames its analysis in the intersection of disability studies and entrepreneurial studies to explore: what motivates people with disabilities to pursue social entrepreneurship, if they continue to encounter attitudinal barriers and discrimination, and whether motivational and attitudinal factors affect their social entrepreneurship. Findings indicate that despite social entrepreneurship having been promoted as a strategy for circumventing employment discrimination, the individuals with disabilities in this research continued to encounter attitudinal barriers and discrimination affecting their employment decisions. Future research should focus on interrogating what might be gained in the spaces where need and opportunity intersect and exploring the extent to which motivations overlap for social entrepreneurs with disabilities in theory, policy, and practice.
Low vision: the physician's role in rehabilitation and referral.

Decreased vision in older adults is extremely common and carries a wide range of functional and emotional implications. Primary care physicians play an important part in helping patients realize that low vision or even total vision loss does not mean an end to most of life's activities. You can recommend magnifiers and other devices that enhance vision as well as nonoptical devices that help patients rely on other senses. Your role also includes providing emotional support and making referrals to a rehabilitation clinic or support group when appropriate. Language: en
Drak2 is not required for tumor surveillance and suppression

Drak2 is a promising therapeutic target to treat organ-specific autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis without causing generalized immune suppression. Inhibition of Drak2 may also prevent graft rejection following organ transplantation. However, Drak2 may function as a critical tumor suppressor, which would challenge the prospect of targeting Drak2 for therapeutic treatment. Thus, we examined the susceptibility of Drak2 (-/-) mice in several tumor models. We show that Drak2 is not required to prevent tumor formation in a variety of settings. Therefore, Drak2 does not function as an essential tumor suppressor in in vivo tumor models. These data further validate Drak2 as a viable therapeutic target to treat autoimmune disease and graft rejection. Importantly, these data also indicate that while Drak2 may induce apoptosis when overexpressed in cell lines, it is not an essential tumor suppressor.
Individual Differences in Learning and Transfer: Stable Tendencies for Learning Exemplars versus Abstracting Rules

We hypothesize that during training some learners may focus on acquiring the particular exemplars and responses associated with the exemplars (termed exemplar learners), whereas other learners attempt to abstract underlying regularities reflected in the particular exemplars linked to an appropriate response (termed rule learners). Supporting this distinction, after training (on a function-learning task), participants displayed an extrapolation profile reflecting either acquisition of the trained cue-criterion associations (exemplar learners) or abstraction of the function rule (rule learners; Studies 1a and 1b). Further, working memory capacity (measured by operation span [Ospan]) was associated with the tendency to rely on rule versus exemplar processes. Studies 1c and 2 examined the persistence of these learning tendencies on several categorization tasks. Study 1c showed that rule learners were more likely than exemplar learners (indexed a priori by extrapolation profiles) to resist using idiosyncratic features (exemplar similarity) in generalization (transfer) of the trained category. Study 2 showed that the rule learners but not the exemplar learners performed well on a novel categorization task (transfer) after training on an abstract coherent category. These patterns suggest that in complex conceptual tasks, (a) individuals tend to either focus on exemplars during learning or on extracting some abstraction of the concept, (b) this tendency might be a relatively stable characteristic of the individual, and (c) transfer patterns are determined by that tendency.
GASTRIC LESIONS IN THE AGED.

Roentgenologic studies, gastric acidity, gastroscopy, cytology and response to intensive medical therapy all help to determine the proper approach in treatment of gastric ulcer. It is now believed that the ulcer's location is of little value in indicating whether it is benign or malignant. In addition to gastric ulcer and cancer, the authors discuss lymphoma, benign tumors, gastritis, and rare chronic infections.
On Aristotelian Universals and Individuals: The “Vink” that is in Body and May Be In Me

G. E. L. Owen, in his infl uential paper “Inherence,” talks of “vink,” a name he has created for a particular shade of the color pink, and this “vink” serves as an individual in the Aristotelian category of quality. Owen was one of the fi rst to aim to discredit the belief that J. L. Ackrill and his camp espoused, the belief that Aristotle thought that “general attributes are not in individuals, particular attributes are not in more than one individual.” I postulate that there is nothing here that does not preclude the existence of transferable nonsubstantial particulars, and base this view on passages from Aristotle’s Categories and certain examples found in Ammonius’s commentary and On Colors. Given this, a nonsubstantial particular of “vink” would not have to rely on having inhered in just one particular body to have existence, however, it would have to inhere in at least one particular body.
Multiagent coordination for demand management with energy generation and storage

This paper focuses on demand management of electricity in consumer groups that form a cooperative. We propose a novel multiagent coordination algorithm to shape the energy consumption of the cooperative in the presence of energy generation and storage. To coordinate individual consumers under incomplete information and optimize the energy storage decision, we decompose the problem to two subproblems: (a) optimizing demand profile of consumers given storage policy and (b) optimizing storage policy given demand profile of consumers. We prove that our algorithm converges to the optimal solution. Simulation results based on real world consumption data indicate scalability of our algorithm with respect to the number of agents and consumption slots.
Estimation of the Pressure Drop Required for Lymph Flow through Initial Lymphatic Networks

Abstract Background: Lymphatic function is critical for maintaining interstitial fluid balance and is linked to multiple pathological conditions. While smooth muscle contractile mechanisms responsible for fluid flow through collecting lymphatic vessels are well studied, how fluid flows into and through initial lymphatic networks remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the pressure difference needed for flow through an intact initial lymphatic network. Methods and Results: Pressure drops were computed for real and theoretical networks with varying branch orders using a segmental Poiseuille flow model. Vessel geometries per branch order were based on measurements from adult Wistar rat mesenteric initial lymphatic networks. For computational predications based on real network geometries and combinations of low or high output velocities (2 mm/s, 4 mm/s) and viscosities (1 cp, 1.5 cp), pressure drops were estimated to range 0.31–2.57 mmHg. The anatomical data for the real network...
ATP decreases acutely and reversibly transport through the paracellular pathway in human cervical cells

We studied the effect of ATP on transepithelial transport through the paracellular pathway in human cervical cells. Transepithelial conductance and transepithelial permeability (determined from the measurements of unidirectional flux of inert molecules) were measured in Caski cells grown on permeable support. Transepithelial conductance was 55.9 +/- 17.7 mS/cm2 and permeability was 12.5 +/- 2.7 x 10(-6) cm/s for a 0.51-kDa probe. Addition of ATP to the medium decreased acutely and reversibly the conductance and the permeability to probes between 0.18 and 10 kDa by 23-31% in a dose-related fashion; the 50% effective concentration was 1 microM, with a maximal effect at 5-10 microM extracellular ATP. The ATP effect was observed regardless of the pressure gradient across the epithelium. These results indicate that extracellular ATP in micromolar concentrations decreases acutely and reversibly the permeability through the paracellular pathway in cervical cells, possibly by affecting the permeability of the tight junctions and the resistance of the intercellular space. On the basis of these data, we speculate that ATP may play a role in the regulation of solutes and fluid transport across the cervical epithelium in vivo.
The pragmatics of apposition

The two previous chapters detailed, respectively, the syntactic and semantic characteristics of units in apposition. In this chapter, the emphasis will be the pragmatic characteristics of apposition. Thematically, apposition is a relation in which the second unit of the apposition either wholly or partially provides new information about the first unit (4.1), new information that can be optionally introduced by a marker of apposition (4.2). Because appositions have this thematic characteristic, they are better suited to some contexts than to others and were therefore distributed differently across the genres of the corpora. In general, appositions occurred most frequently in those genres (such as press reportage) in which there was a communicative need for new information to be provided about the first unit of the apposition (4.3). In addition, certain types of appositions occurred more frequently in some genres than in others (4.4) because certain kinds of appositions (e.g. those within the semantic class of paraphrase) are communicatively more necessary in some genres (e.g. spontaneous conversation) than in others (e.g. fiction). The thematic characteristics of units in apposition Semantically, apposition is a relation whose units are related by various kinds of equivalence (3.4): referentially, for instance, the two units of an apposition can exhibit exact equivalence (coreference) or partial equivalence (part/whole relations). Thematically, however, the units of an apposition are characterized by various degrees of non-equivalence: the second unit of an apposition is not equivalent to the first unit but rather either wholly or partially provides new information about the first unit.
Epidemiological Features of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease during the Period of 2008-14 in Wenzhou, China.

This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) during 2008-14 in Wenzhou, China. The epidemiological data of HFMD retrieved from the Wenzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention were retrospectively analyzed. HFMD infections with enterovirus 71 (EV71), Cox A16 or other pathogens were further verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR. A total of 213 617 cases of HFMD were reported between 2008 and 2014 in Wenzhou. The average incidence was 384.31 of 100 000, and the fatality rate was 0.14‰. The incidence of HFMD peaked between April and July, and it occurred more frequently in males than in females. Approximately 92.68% of the HFMD patients were children aged <5 years. Nearly 80% of the cases were diagnosed within 2 days after onset. The major HFMD pathogen was EV71. This study suggested that appropriate comprehensive prevention and control measures should be taken to avoid the spread of HFMD.
PREDICTORS OF A POSITIVE TECHNETIUM PYROPHOSPHATE SCAN IN PATIENTS WITH SUSPECTED CARDIAC AMYLOIDOSIS

Background: Transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR CA) is an underdiagnosed cause of heart failure with reported worse outcomes. Technetium Pyrophosphate scintigraphy (PYP) has re-emerged as a tool to non-invasively diagnose ATTR CA. We sought to determine the clinical and echocardiographic
Inhaled Nitric Oxide—Current Practice and Future Potential Uses and Development

Abstract Following the discovery of Frostell and colleagues that breathing low concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) produced selective pulmonary vasodilation in awake lambs with experimental pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), an explosion of laboratory and clinical research led to approval of inhaled NO by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1999, for the treatment of term and near-term neonates with hypoxemia. More than a quarter century later, a large number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of NO inhalation in a variety of cardiovascular diseases in pediatric and adult patients including chronic PAH and ischemia-reperfusion injury. It is presently estimated that a half-million patients in the United States of America have breathed therapeutic levels of inhaled NO. Results of a recent clinical trial suggests a possible role for inhaled NO in treating hemolysis caused by prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass, expanding the future therapeutic use of NO. This review summarizes the pharmacology and physiological effects of breathing NO and describes the current use of NO in clinical practice. In addition, notable recent research developments in inhaled NO therapy and a new and lightweight and portable method to produce safe and pure NO for inhalation therapy economically by electric plasma discharge in air will be discussed.
Experimental investigation on thermochemical sulfate reduction in the presence of 1-pentanethiol at 200 and 250 °C: Implications for in situ TSR processes occurring in some MVT deposits

Abstract Organic sulfur compounds are ubiquitous in natural oil and gas fields and moderate-low temperature sulfide ore deposits. Previous studies have shown that organic sulfur compounds are important in enhancing the rates of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) reactions, but the details of these reaction mechanisms remain unclear. In order to assess the extent of sulfate reduction in the presence of labile sulfur species at temperature conditions near to those where TSR occurs in nature, we conducted a series of experiments using the fused silica capillary capsule (FCSS) method. The tested systems containing labile sulfur species are MgSO4 + 1-pentanethiol (C5H11SH) + 1-octene (C8H16), MgSO4 + 1-octene (C8H16), MgSO4 + 1-pentanethiol (C5H11SH), 1-pentanethiol (C5H11SH)+H2O, and MgSO4 + 1-pentanethiol (C5H11SH) + ZnBr2 systems. Our results show that: (1) intermediate oxidized carbon species (ethanol and acetic acid) are formed during TSR simulation experiments when 1-pentanethiol is present; (2) in the presence of ZnBr2, 1-pentanethiol can be oxidized by sulfate to CO2 at 200 °C, which is within the temperature range observed in natural TSR; and (3) the precipitation of sulfide minerals may significantly promote the rate of TSR, indicating that the rates of in situ TSR reactions in ore deposits could be much faster than previously thought. This may be important for understanding the possibility of in situ TSR as a mechanism for the precipitation of metal sulfides in some ore deposits. These findings provide important experimental evidence for understanding the role of organic sulfur compounds in TSR reactions and the pathway of TSR reactions initiated by organic sulfur compounds under natural conditions.
Management of Intermittent Exotropia: For Non-Surgical Therapy

Intermittent exotropia is a condition involving both sensory and motor defects. To enhance the results of surgical treatment of the motor defect, nonsurgical techniques can be applied to treat the ...
Biomechanical properties of low back myofascial tissue in younger adult ankylosing spondylitis patients and matched healthy control subjects.

Abstract Background Ankylosing spondylitis is a degenerative and inflammatory rheumatologic disorder that primarily affects the spine. Delayed diagnosis leads to debilitating spinal damage. This study examines biomechanical properties of non-contracting (resting) human lower lumbar myofascia in ankylosing spondylitis patients and matched healthy control subjects. Methods Biomechanical properties of stiffness, frequency, decrement, stress relaxation time, and creep were quantified from 24 ankylosing spondylitis patients (19 male, 5 female) and 24 age- and sex-matched control subjects in prone position on both sides initially and after 10 min rest. Concurrent surface electromyography measurements were performed to ensure resting state. Statistical analyses were conducted, and significance was set at p Findings Decreased lumbar muscle elasticity (inverse of decrement) was primarily correlated with disease duration in ankylosing spondylitis subjects, whereas BMI was the primary correlate in control subjects. In ankylosing spondylitis and control groups, significant positive correlations were observed between the linear elastic properties of stiffness and frequency as well as between the viscoelastic parameters of stress relaxation time and creep. The preceding groups also showed significant negative correlations between the linear elastic and viscoelastic properties. Interpretation Findings indicate that increased disease duration is associated with decreased tissue elasticity or myofascial degradation. Both ankylosing spondylitis and healthy subjects revealed similar correlations between the linear and viscoelastic properties which suggest that the disease does not directly alter their inherent interrelations. The novel results that stiffness is greater in AS than normal subjects, whereas decrement is significantly correlated with AS disease duration deserves further investigation of the biomechanical properties and their underlying mechanisms.