cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Incidence and implications of oligometastatic breast cancer.

e11512 Background: There is increasing evidence that prolonged disease control is possible in patients with a limited number of metastatic sites compared to those with more diffuse disease, especially when aggressive local therapy (surgery and/or stereotactic radiation) is administered. The objective of this study is to describe the frequency of oligometastatic breast cancer in patients who develop distant disease and to characterize their disease course. Methods: A retrospective review was performed of a tri-institutional database of Stage I-III breast cancer patients treated from 1978 to 2005. Patients were categorized as "oligometastatic" (OM) if ≤ 5 sites of disease were identified at time of first failure or “polymetastatic” (PM) if failure occurred at > 5 sites. Patients were followed for ≥ 3 y after first metastasis, until death, or until development of > 5 sites of metastatic disease. T and N stage, hormone receptor status, presenting symptoms of metastasis, number and site of metastases, actuaria...
In defense of absolute confidentiality.

Defense of the position that patient-psychiatrist confidentiality should be absolute, otherwise patient trust is eroded is serious ways that affect the ability of all physicians to help their patients. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Testosterone Regulation of Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle Stimulating Hormone Secretion in Young Male Lambs

Polydimethylsiloxane (Silastic) capsules containing crystalline testosterone were implanted subcutaneously in castrate lambs and evaluated for their ability to (1) provide stable, physiological concentrations of serum testosterone and (2) regulate secretion of LH and FSH. Testosterone was nondectable (< .2 ng/ml) between 12 and 24 weeks of age in the serum of castrate lambs implanted with empty capsules but was increased at those ages in lambs implanted with 20 cm (1.2 +/- .1 and .5 +/- .1 ng/ml), 60 cm (2.8 +/- .1 and .9 +/- .1 ng/ml) and 180 cm (6.6 +/- .3 and 1.9 +/- .2 ng/ml) of testosterone-filed Silastic tubing. Serum concentrations of LH and FSH were suppressed by exogenous testosterone and did not exceed concentrations in intact control rams as long as serum testosterone concentrations were greater than 1 ng/ml. In conclusion, simultaneous suppression of serum LH and FSH by concentrations of testosterone that cause a dose-dependent stimulatory effect on accessory sex gland weights indicates that testosterone is a physiological regulator of gonadotropin secretion in ram lambs. Although testosterone per se may not be directly responsible for negative feedback on LH and FSH secretion, the results presented herein question the need for a nonsteroidal "inhibin-like" testicular hormone to regulate FSH in lambs.
Beam Optics and Orbits: Methods Used at the Tevatron Accelerators

The success of the Tevatron Run II would not be possible without detailed work on the linear and nonlinear beam optics. The scope of optics work included all major stages: the optics design, optics measurements, and optics correction. Optics of all transport lines and rings was measured and corrected. This work resulted in a significant reduction of the emittance growth for beam transfers and increased the acceptances of the rings and transfer lines. The most spectacular improvements are related to the improvements of antiproton beam transport from the Accumulator to the Main Injector (MI) and optics improvements in Tevatron, Debuncher, and Accumulator. The electron cooler beam transport presented significant challenge for both the optics design and its commissioning.
Efficacy and safety of short-term dual antiplatelet therapy (≤6 months) after percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background Patients who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are at increased risk for subsequent ischemic events. Hypothesis Short-term dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) (≤6 months) is inferior to standard or long-term DAPT in patients who undergo PCI for ACS events. Methods We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compared short-term (≤6 months) to long-term (≥12 months) DAPT after PCI for ACS. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials database. Results Ten randomized controlled trials, including a total of 12 696 patients, met our inclusion criteria. For short-term DAPT, duration of therapy ranged from 3 to 6 months, while long-term DAPT ranged from 12 to 24 months. The majority of studies used clopidogrel and second-generation drug-eluting stents. No statistically significant difference was found between short-term and long-term DAPT with regard to myocardial infarction (odds ratio 1.21; 95% confidence interval 0.94-1.57; P = 0.14), stent thrombosis (odds ratio 1.54; 95% confidence interval 1.00-2.38; P = 0.052), or major bleeding events (odds ratio 0.74; 95% confidence interval 0.49-1.11; P = 0.14). There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality, cardiac death, or net adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events. Conclusions Our meta-analysis demonstrated that short-term DAPT (
A ten-acious cytokine for a tenacious infection

T follicular helper cells produce interleukin-10 during chronic viral infections to support the humoral response.
Climate Change and Integral Ecology

Writing in his encyclical Laudato Si’: Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis asserts that there is a “solid scientific consensus” on the reality of climate change and on its origins in human activities ( # 23). Unfortunately, much of the detailed scientific understanding that underlies this claim has not been made readily accessible to scholars in fields outside of the sciences. This paper aims to correct that omission by examining the science of climate change in the context of integral ecology. In this light, it will be demonstrated how human activities cause climate change, climate change has devastating effects on human lives and livelihoods, and human actions are necessary in order to mitigate climate change. Mitigating climate change requires societal actions that bring together technological, cultural, sociological, economic, and political considerations. The question is, do we have the wisdom to see that we are the cause of climate change, that climate change is rapidly making our planet unlivable for large numbers of human beings, and that we have to take strong and immediate actions if we are to avoid ever worsening future disasters? Hopefully, attention to integral ecology—to the interplay of human activities with natural ecosystems—can encourage us to do so.
Territorial Contenders in World Politics

Territorial contenders are political entities that control territory but differ from sovereign states in that they lack diplomatic recognition as legal members of the international system. One cons...
How Certain Physical Considerations Impact Aerostructural Wing Optimization

Wing design optimization has been studied extensively and is of continued interest as optimization tools are developed and become more accessible. In each of these studies, certain assumptions and simplifications are made to make the design problem tractable. However, it is difficult to find systematic studies in which several considerations are added or removed one at a time to study how much impact they have. In this work, we examine how certain physical considerations (viscous drag, wave drag, thrust loads, and inertial relief from structural, fuel, and engine masses), impact the aerostructural optimization results for three distinct aircraft wings. The goal is to help develop a rough idea of how important these physical considerations are. We do this using gradient-based optimization and a multidisciplinary design optimization framework, OpenMDAO. We use the open-source tool OpenAeroStruct that couples a vortex lattice method to a finite element method. We establish a baseline aerostructural design optimization problem then perform a series of optimizations, each with one physical consideration removed from the baseline case. We find that depending on the size of the aircraft and flight conditions, the importance of some of these physical considerations varies considerably whereas the importance of others do not. Specifically, the optimal designs change radically without proper viscous and wave drag considerations and smaller aircraft with more distributed propulsion are more affected by the inclusion of engine loads.
Cultural Aspects of End-of-Life Advance Care Planning for African Americans: An Ethnonursing Study.

Introduction:Advance directive completion rates among the general population are low, with even lower completion rates among African Americans (AAs). This study’s purpose was to identify culturally...
A Pattern for a Virtual Network Function (VNF)

Network Function Virtualization (NFV), produces the functions of the network through virtualization of hardware resources. Different networking components such as firewalls, load balancers, and IDS are provided as a service and rely purely on the cloud, which makes expanding and upgrading the network an easy and fast process. Network Functions (NF) normally require a tightly coupled infrastructure making the process of enhancing and expanding the network difficult. In NFV, the services are provided through different Virtual Network Function (VNF), which are combined into a Network Graph (NG) and delivered to the user as a package. We present here a pattern to describe VNFs. A pattern is an encapsulated solution to a problem in a given context; this pattern should be of value to system designers and users of NFV systems.
Orofacial Movements Involve Parallel Corticobulbar Projections from Motor Cortex to Trigeminal Premotor Nuclei

How do neurons in orofacial motor cortex (MCtx) orchestrate behaviors? We show that focal activation of MCtx corticobulbar neurons evokes behaviorally relevant concurrent movements of the forelimb, jaw, nose, and vibrissae. The projections from different locations in MCtx form gradients of boutons across premotor nuclei spinal trigeminal pars oralis (SpVO) and interpolaris rostralis (SpVIr). Furthermore, retrograde viral tracing from muscles that control orofacial actions shows that these premotor nuclei segregate their outputs. In the most dramatic case, both SpVO and SpVIr are premotor to forelimb and vibrissa muscles, while only SpVO is premotor to jaw muscles. Functional confirmation of the superimposed control by MCtx was obtained through selective optogenetic activation of corticobulbar neurons on the basis of their preferential projections to SpVO versus SpVIr. We conclude that neighboring projection neurons in orofacial MCtx form parallel pathways to distinct pools of trigeminal premotor neurons that coordinate motor actions into a behavior.
Effectiveness of different proteases in reducing allergen content and IgE-binding of raw peanuts.

Abstract The effectiveness of some non-specific proteases in reducing raw peanut allergenicity was investigated. Peanut kernels were treated by Alcalase, papain, Neutrase and bromelain, respectively. The residues of major peanut allergens Ara h 1, Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 were determined by sandwich ELISA and SDS-PAGE, and the allergenicities of treated peanuts were compared to that of untreated peanuts by western blot. All tested proteases were effective in reducing Ara h 1, but their effectiveness in hydrolyzing Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 varied greatly. The maximal reductions of extractable Ara h 1, Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 were 100%, 100% and 99.8%, respectively, achieved by Alcalase hydrolysis. Alcalase was more effective in overall allergenicity reduction; bromelain and Neutrase were the least effective in reducing Ara h 2 and Ara h 6, respectively. The hydrolysis of original allergens also produced some smaller peptides with strong IgE-binding.
Examining female entrepreneurial firms: can we predict growth orientation?

Both regional and global evidence presents a positive picture of increased entrepreneurial activity among females, and highlights, in particular, the rise in the rate of early stage entrepreneurs across both developed and emerging nations. However, it appears that a significant percentage of female-owned organisations remain small in size, with limited growth. Traditional growth models seem unable to account for this phenomenon and do not consider differences in gender as a causal factor. Consequently, this paper examines the growth orientation of female-owned firms in Ireland. Specifically, it identifies the factors that impact this process and provides clarity on predicting the growth trajectories based upon these entrepreneurial and organisational factors. As such, it aims to provide a mechanism to predict and stimulate high growth businesses among female entrepreneurs both within Ireland and across similar countries.
Preoperative Assessment and Management of Patients with Pain and Anxiety Disorders.

This review summarizes selected recent evidence on issues important for preoperative pain evaluation. Opioids, though a mainstay of postoperative pain management, are associated with both short and increasingly recognized long-term risks, including persistent opioid use. Risk factors for high levels of acute postoperative pain as well as chronic postsurgical pain may overlap, including psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, and catastrophizing. Tools to predict those at risk for poor postoperative pain outcomes are being studied. Preoperative pain and psychological factors can affect postoperative pain outcomes. More work is needed in the future to develop practical interventions in the preoperative period to address these factors.
Looking Glass: A Reply to Caulfield and Laufer

In an earlier article, I introduced the character theory of corporate punishment. Inspired by virtue ethics, the theory proposes that criminal law should punish a corporation only by coercively reforming any criminogenic organizational traits responsible for its crime. In a response, Professor Laufer and Mr. Caulfield argued that the theory I offered fails to "take the virtuisitic roots of character theory seriously." This reply concedes the point. It explains the strategic rationale for initially framing the character theory of corporate punishment in consequentialist terms and sketches a more transparently virtuisitic path forward.
Recovery and interpretation of the 18O/16O of Miocene oolitic goethites in multi-generational mixtures of Fe (III) oxides from a channel iron deposit of Western Australia

Abstract Published (U-Th)/He ages indicate that an oolitic Miocene channel iron deposit (CID) on Mesa J in the Hamersley province of Western Australia (∼22 °S latitude) contains three predominant generations of Fe (III) oxides – two generations of older hematite and one of younger goethite. Selective dissolution and sequential atom balance calculations were combined with chemical and oxygen isotope analyses to determine the δ18O values of hematite, goethite, and quartz in eight samples from a core drilled in that CID. For the quartz (Q), δ18OQ = +21.7(±0.9)‰. For the younger hematite (Hm1), δ18OHm1 ≥ +3.6(±0.6)‰, whereas for the older hematite (Hm2), δ18OHm2 ≤ +2.1(±0.8)‰. The oolitic CID goethite (G) crystallized in the late Miocene [7(±1) Ma] and is a solid solution represented as Fe(1−Y)AlY(CO3)XO(1−X)OH with values of δ18OG that range from −0.4‰ to +0.7‰. A mixing model for the solid solution expresses the value of δ18OG in terms of Y, X, relevant fractionation factors, and the δ18O of the endmember FeOOH (δ18Ogt). Mixing model-derived values of δ18Ogt range from −2.4‰ to −0.7‰. Paired values of δDgt and δ18Ogt in seven of eight late Miocene oolitic goethites from Mesa J indicate crystallization from meteoric waters at an average temperature of 20(±5) °C. In the late Miocene, Mesa J was in the subtropics at a paleolatitude of ∼29 °S, which invites comparison with the climate of the near-coastal community of Mingenew in Western Australia (presently at 29 °S latitude). The modern MAT at Mingenew is 20 °C – i.e., indistinguishable from the late Miocene Mesa J average of 20 °C. However, this similarity is not matched by the mean annual precipitation (MAP). The modern MAP at Mingenew is about 400 mm, but the lateritic weathering that produces abundant pedogenic Fe (III) oxides appears to require a seasonally contrasting climate with rainfall totals of at least 1300 mm/yr. In the late Miocene, southward-shifted summer season tropical cyclones might have delivered such large amounts of rain (with relatively low δD and δ18O values). If so, the δDgt and δ18Ogt of the oolitic goethites of Mesa J support the idea of a rainfall-driven, possibly microbially mediated, summer season bias in the timing of crystallization. Thermal buffering in the regolith can reconcile summer-dominated goethite crystallization with a temperature that would be analytically indistinguishable from the MAT. Comparison of the δ18Ogt values of the Mesa J goethites with published δ18O values of goethites of similar age from two other sites in the Hamersley province suggest a possible increase in δ18O of late Miocene rainfall with increasing distance from the coast.
Thermodynamic interference with bile acid demicelleization reduces systemic entry and injury during cholestasis.

Bile acids (BA), with their large hydrophobic steroid nucleus and polar groups are amphipathic molecules. In bile, these exist as micelles above their critical micellar concentration (CMC). In blood at low concentrations, these exist as monomers, initiating cellular signals. This micellar to monomer transition may involve complex thermodynamic interactions between bile salts alone or with phospholipids, i.e. mixed micelles and the aqueous environment. We therefore went on to test if therapeutically relevant changes in temperature could influence micellar behavior of bile salts, and in turn whether this affected the biological responses in cells, and in vivo. Sodium taurocholate (STC) belongs to a major class of bile salts. STC has a CMC in the 5–8 mM range and its infusion into the pancreatic duct is commonly used to study pancreatitis. We thus studied micellar breakdown of STC using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), dynamic light scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. Under conditions relevant to the in vivo environment (pH 7.4, Na 0.15 M), ITC showed STC to have a U shaped reduction in micellar breakdown between 37 °C and 15 °C with a nadir at 25 °C approaching ≈90% inhibition. This temperature dependence paralleled pancreatic acinar injury induced by monomeric STC. Mixed micelles of STC and 1-palmitoyl, 2-oleyl phosphatidylcholine, a phospholipid present in high proportions in bile, behaved similarly, with ≈75% reduction in micellar breakdown at 25 °C compared to 37 °C. In vivo pancreatic cooling to 25 °C reduced the increase in circulating BAs after infusion of 120 mM (5%) STC into the pancreatic duct, and duct ligation. Lower BA levels were associated with improved cardiac function, reduced myocardial damage, shock, lung injury and improved survival independent of pancreatic injury. Thus micellar breakdown of bile salts is essential for their entry into the systemic circulation, and thermodynamic interference with this may reduce their systemic entry and consequent injury during cholestasis, such as from biliary pancreatitis.
Incursion Into Wendigo Territory

This article explores modern urban legends that appropriate the idea of the Wendigo, a spiritfrom various Native American tribal legends. These urban legends are informed by a culturalguilt of the dispossession of Native American territories, but the victory of monster over protagonist demonstrates the futility of these attempts to comprehend histories of atrocities.
Increased canonical NF-kappaB signaling specifically in macrophages is sufficient to limit tumor progression in syngeneic murine models of ovarian cancer

New treatment options for ovarian cancer are urgently required. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are an attractive target for therapy; repolarizing TAMs from M2 (pro-tumor) to M1 (anti-tumor) phenotypes represents an important therapeutic goal. We have previously shown that upregulated NF-kappaB (NF-κB) signaling in macrophages promotes M1 polarization, but effects in the context of ovarian cancer are unknown. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the therapeutic potential of increasing macrophage NF-κB activity in immunocompetent mouse models of ovarian cancer. We have generated a transgenic mouse model, termed IKFM, which allows doxycycline-inducible overexpression of a constitutively active form of IKK2 (cIKK2) specifically within macrophages. The IKFM model was used to evaluate effects of increasing macrophage NF-κB activity in syngeneic murine TBR5 and ID8-Luc models of ovarian cancer in two temporal windows: 1) in established tumors, and 2) during tumor implantation and early tumor growth. Tumor weight, ascites volume, ascites supernatant and cells, and solid tumor were collected at sacrifice. Populations of macrophages and T cells within solid tumor and/or ascites were analyzed by immunofluorescent staining and qPCR, and soluble factors in ascitic fluid were analyzed by ELISA. Comparisons of control versus IKFM groups were performed by 2-tailed Mann-Whitney test, and a P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Increased expression of the cIKK2 transgene in TAMs from IKFM mice was confirmed at the mRNA and protein levels. Tumors from IKFM mice, regardless of the timing of doxycycline (dox) administration, demonstrated greater necrosis and immune infiltration than control tumors. Analysis of IKFM ascites and tumors showed sustained shifts in macrophage populations away from the M2 and towards the anti-tumor M1 phenotype. There were also increased tumor-infiltrating CD3+/CD8+ T cells in IKFM mice, accompanied by higher levels of CXCL9, a T cell activating factor secreted by macrophages, in IKFM ascitic fluid. In syngeneic ovarian cancer models, increased canonical NF-κB signaling in macrophages promoted anti-tumor TAM phenotypes and increased cytotoxic T cell infiltration, which was sufficient to limit tumor progression. This may present a novel translational approach for ovarian cancer treatment, with the potential to increase responses to T cell-directed therapy in future studies.
An analysis of the ergonomic risk of surgical trainees and experienced surgeons during laparoscopic procedures.

Abstract Background Work-related musculoskeletal injuries have been increasingly recognized to affect surgeons. It is unknown whether such injuries also affect surgical trainees. The purpose of this study was to assess the ergonomic risk of surgical trainees as compared with that of experienced surgeons. Methods Ergonomic data were recorded from 9 surgeons and 11 trainees. Biomechanical loads during surgery were assessed using motion tracking sensors and electromyography sensors. Demanding and static positions of the trunk, neck, right/left shoulder, as well as activity from the deltoid and trapezius muscles bilaterally were recorded. In addition, participants reported their perceived discomfort on validated questionnaires. Results A total of 87 laparoscopic general surgery cases (48 attendings and 39 trainees) were observed. Both trainees and attendings spent a similarly high percentage of each case in static (>60%) and demanding positions (>5%). Even though residents reported overall more discomfort, all participants shared similar ergonomic risk with the exception of trainees’ trunk being more static (odds ratio: –11.42, P = .006). Conclusion Surgeons are prone to ergonomic risk. Trainees are exposed to similar postural ergonomic risk as surgeons but report more discomfort and, given that musculoskeletal injuries are cumulative over time, the focus should be on interventions to reduce ergonomic risk in the operating room.
Trade in data services: The international context

Abstract This article explores the importance of data services within the service sector, and particularly with regard to international trade in services. International economic agreements have traditionally only dealt with trade in manufactured products and ignored the services, which now make up the largest economic sector. Some international organizations, encouraged particularly by the USA, are beginning to confront the problem of defining an open international framework covering foreign direct investment and trade in services. The national interests of different countries are explored, in the light of their existing data resources and their desire to build them up or be able to access foreign databases.
Antibody responses to S1-RBD and nucleocapsid antigens elevate at initial covid-19 infection and remain elevated at 12 weeks post hospital discharge

RATIONALE:COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 as a viral pneumonia and was found to be caused by a novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Diagnosis has included a nasopharyngeal swab examined with PCR. Immunodominant antigens have been identified for SARS-CoV-2-the Nucleocapsid and Spike-protein antigens with known genetic sequences. It is presumed that most infected with SARS-CoV-2 will develop measurable antibody titers against the Nucleocapsid and/or Spike-protein antigens as they recover from the disease. We have developed a custom Luminex assay to measure these antibodies. We hypothesize that patients undergoing treatment for COVID-19 will develop varying levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels after infection suggesting an acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2.Methods:Following institutional review board approval, inpatients were recruited at the time of admission for COVID-19 care. Serum was collected at the time of hospital admission (Baseline, B, n=34) and at timepoints following hospital discharge: 2-weeks (2W, n=9), 6-weeks (6W, n=7), and 12-weeks (12W, n=4). Pooled convalescent serum from 5 PCR+ patients was used for positive control (POSCTRL) and serum collected prior to December 2019 from healthy preoperative patients (preCOVIDCtrl, n=48) were used for negative controls. IgG serum antibodies were measured via custom Luminex assay using SARSCoV-2 Spike S1 (S1-RBD) and Nucleocapsid human chimeric antibodies (HC2001 and HC2003, Genscript USA, Inc., Piscataway, NJ) to generate 5PL standard curves to convert Luminex median fluorescent intensity measurements into antibody concentrations. Concentrations for the different groups were analyzed using nonparametric comparisons for each group pair via Wilcoxon method. Statistical significance for all tests was set at p<0.05.Results:Concentrations of S1-RBD and Nucleocapsid varied widely at time of admission (B) but were significantly higher than preCOVIDCtrl (Figure 1). Elevations at later timepoints remained significantly higher for S1-RBD and Nucleocapsid than Baseline. S1-RBD concentrations were higher at 2W and 6W than Baseline. Nucleocapsid concentrations were higher at 2W than Baseline. Later timepoints for both antibodies did not differ from POS-CTRL.Conclusions:Wide variation in anti-SARS-Cov-2 antibody levels at the time of hospital admission suggest patients were in different stages of response to the infection. Antibody levels were seen to be more uniformly elevated by 2 weeks post discharge and remained elevated consistently at the 6 and 12-week time points. The negative control sera suggest no prior exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 S1-RBD antigen.
Period-to-period toll adjustment schemes for mixed traffic with time-varying electric vehicle penetration

Abstract As electric vehicle (EV) penetration increases, the mixed traffic of EVs and gasoline vehicles (GVs) will be prevalent in roadway systems for a long time. Meanwhile, EV incentive policies, adjusted adaptively as a response to EV market growth, will perturb the mixed traffic pattern periodically. Such periodic perturbation will cause mixed traffic to evolve from disequilibrium to a new equilibrium. This equilibration is theoretically indeterminate due to the non-uniqueness of mixed traffic equilibria and the dynamic interaction between operational policy and underlying mixed traffic. The non-unique mixed-traffic equilibrium in the previous period influences the traffic stationary state and traffic evolution trajectory in the next period, which is also non-unique. Thereby, the indeterminacy in the equilibration process affects the long-term mixed traffic performance that should be factored into the period-to-period adjustment of EV incentive policies. This effect calls for the study of mixed traffic equilibration as a theoretical foundation for long-term policymaking, which has not received significant attention. This paper explores the properties of mixed traffic equilibria and proposes a mixed traffic evolution model considering time-varying EV penetration. The mixed traffic evolution model is then integrated into a control framework to support the period-to-period adjustment of EV-promoting tolling policy. Numerical examples illustrate the effects of non-unique mixed traffic equilibria and period-to-period toll adjustment schemes on long-term mixed traffic performance.
Detrimental Associations of Cumulative Trauma, COVID-19 Infection Indicators, Avoidance, and Loneliness With Sleep and Negative Emotionality in Emerging Adulthood During the Pandemic

While effects of COVID-19 on physical health are the subject of much research, it is also important to understand risk factors for negative psychosocial and behavioral outcomes. Undergraduates (N =...
A Hermite–Gaussian based exoplanet radial velocity estimation method

As the first successful technique used to detect exoplanets orbiting distant stars, the radial velocity method aims to detect a periodic Doppler shift in a stellar spectrum due to the star’s motion along the line sight. We introduce a new, mathematically rigorous approach to detect such a signal that accounts for the smooth functional relationship of neighboring wavelengths in the spectrum, minimizes the role of wavelength interpolation, accounts for heteroskedastic noise and easily allows for accurate calculation of the estimated radial velocity standard error. Using Hermite–Gaussian functions, we show that the problem of detecting a Doppler shift in the spectrum can be reduced to linear regression in many settings. A simulation study demonstrates that the proposed method is able to accurately estimate an individual spectrum’s radial velocity with precision below 0.3 m s−1, corresponding to a Doppler shift much smaller than the size of a spectral pixel. Furthermore, the new method outperforms the traditional cross-correlation function approach for estimating the radial velocity by reducing the root mean squared error up to 15 cm s−1. The proposed method is also demonstrated on a new set of observations from the EXtreme PREcision Spectrometer (EXPRES) for the host star 51 Pegasi, and successfully recovers estimates of the planetary companion’s parameters that agree well with previous studies. The method is implemented in the R package rvmethod, and supplemental Python code is also available.
Bovine mammary alveolar MAC-T cells afford a tool for studies of bovine milk exosomes in drug delivery

Bovine milk exosomes (BMEs) have attracted attention as vehicles for delivering RNA therapeutics. BMEs originate in mammary alveolar cells. Here, we determined whether bovine mammary alveolar MAC-T cells afford a tool to assess RNA delivery by BMEs. MAC-T cells exosomes (MAC-T BMEs) and BMEs were harvested by differential ultracentrifugation. Exosome size, morphology, microRNA content and marker proteins were assessed using nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscopy, real-time PCR and immunoblot analysis, respectively. MAC-T cells were genetically engineered to secrete MAC-T BMEs endogenously labeled with a near-infrared fluorescent protein and tissue distribution was compared to fluorophore-labeled BMEs following intravenous injection in C57BL/6 mice. Morphology and size were similar in MAC-T BMEs and BMEs (94 ± 5.8 nm and 101 ± 4.2 nm, p > 0.05). Both preparations expressed miR-320a, miR-200c and let-7a-5p (positive controls) but not miR-1 (negative control). Exosome marker proteins, CD9, CD63, CD81 and Tsg101, were detected in both MAC-T BMEs and BMEs. Distribution in mouse tissues was similar for both preparations, with liver being the primary accumulation site. Collectively, MAC-T BMEs afford a tool for BMEs-based RNA delivery studies.
A daily basin-wide sea ice thickness retrieval methodology: Stefan's Law Integrated Conducted Energy (SLICE)

Abstract. As changes to Earth’s polar climate accelerate, the need for robust, long–term sea ice thickness observation datasets for monitoring those changes and for verification of global climate models is clear. By coupling a recently developed algorithm for retrieving snow–ice interface temperature from passive microwave satellite data to a thermodynamic sea ice energy balance relation known as Stefan's Law, we have developed a new retrieval method for estimating thermodynamic sea ice thickness growth from space: Stefan’s Law Integrated Conducted Energy (SLICE). The advantages of the SLICE retrieval method include daily basin-wide coverage and a potential for use beginning in 1987. The method requires an initial condition at the beginning of the sea ice growth season in order to produce absolute sea ice thickness and cannot as yet capture dynamic sea ice thickness changes. Validation of the method against ten ice mass balance buoys using the ice mass balance buoy thickness as the initial condition show a mean correlation of 0.991 and a mean bias of 0.008 m over the course of an entire sea ice growth season. Estimated Arctic basin-wide sea ice thickness from SLICE for the sea ice growth seasons beginning between 2012 through 2019 capture a mean of 12.0 % less volumetric growth than a CryoSat-2 and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) merged sea ice thickness product (CS2SMOS) and a mean of 8.3 % more volumetric growth than the Pan-Arctic Ice–Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS). The spatial distribution of the sea ice thickness differences between the retrieval results and those reference datasets show patterns consistent with expected sea ice thickness changes due to dynamic effects. This new retrieval method is a viable basis for a long–term sea ice thickness climatology, especially if dynamic effects can be captured through inclusion of an ice motion dataset.
Shared Early Pathways of Word and Pseudoword Processing: Evidence from High-density Electrocorticography

UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2012) Shared early pathways of word and pseudoword processing: Evidence from high-density electrocorticography Emily Cibelli ∗ University of California, Berkeley ecibelli@berkeley.edu Introduction In psycholinguistic studies of lexical processing, language users’ responses to real words are often compared to novel pseudoword forms. The goal of these comparisons is to learn something about the architecture of the lexical processing system, by examining or inferring the processing pathways evoked by words, which have full phonological, lexical, grammatical, and semantic representations. These are compared to pseudowords, which are assumed to lack all linguistic information at levels higher than the phonological representation, due to their novel status. However, the precise nature of pseudoword representation is still a subject of inquiry, one that is critical to understanding precisely what is being isolated in the lexical processing system in experiments where words and pseudowords are compared. The present study contributes to this line of research by providing data on the neural processing of words and pseudowords in an auditory listening task. Previous research Theories of pseudoword processing streams In studies of word reading, models of processing have been proposed in which words and pseu- dowords employ diﬀerent processing pathways, one facilitated by sublexical processes and the other by lexical processes (Coltheart et al. 1993, 2001, see also Marshall and Newcombe 1973). This ar- gument, the dual-route theory, is built upon the observation that readers with diﬀerent types of dyslexia may or may not be impaired when reading pseudowords, a distinction ascribed to whether or not the sublexical (phonological) level of processing is impaired. Although designed to explain processing with visual presentation of stimuli, this theory has been extended to examine word and pseduworod proccessing in the auditory domain as well (Glosser et al. 1998), making it a more general account of the distinction between novel forms and stored lexical representations. However, on another account, pseudowords and words utilize shared processing pathways, with processing diﬀerences attributable to diﬀerent degrees of engagement of various components of the system. An argument in the connectionist tradition (e.g. Seidenberg and McClelland 1989) argues against the dual-route theory by positing that diﬀerences between words and pseudowords reﬂect diﬀerences in how strongly orthography, phonology, and semantics are activated, but not to entirely diﬀerent Data from this study was collected and made available by the lab of Dr. Edward Chang at UCSF. This study has benefited from suggestions and advice from Edward Chang, Kristofer Bouchard, Nima Mesgarani, Angela Ren, Keith Johnson, Shinae Kang, and Susanne Gahl, and members of the Chang Lab at UCSF and the Phonology Lab at UC Berkeley.
Practical Aspects of X-Ray Microanalysis

For the solution of many practical problems, identification of microconstituents is all that is required. For example, foreign matter may have somehow incorporated itself into the grain boundary of a material, with deleterious effect. Then the identification of the foreign substance, in order to locate its source, completes the analyst’s job.
A regulatory network controlling drosophila development

We have used a combination of genetics, microarray assays, bioinformatics methods and experimental perturbation to determine the genomic regulatory program underlying the early development of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. The process of gastrulation is initiated by a sequence-specific transcription factor called Dorsal. The Dorsal protein is distributed in a broad concentration gradient across the dorsal-ventral axis of the early embryo, with peak levels in ventral regions and progressively lower levels in more dorsal regions. The Dorsal gradient controls gastrulation by regulating a variety of target genes in a concentration-dependent fashion. Microarray assays have identified at least 50 genes that display localized expression across the dorsal-ventral axis and something like 30 of these genes are directly regulated by the Dorsal gradient. That is, these genes contain nearby enhancers with essential Dorsal binding sites. Most of the enhancers have been identified and experimentally validated. Computational analysis suggests that the threshold readout of the Dorsal gradient depends on the quality of the best Dorsal binding sites contained in the enhancer. Enhancers with Dorsal binding sites containing a poor match to the consensus sequence are activated by high levels of the gradient, while trhose enhancers with good matches to the consensus are regulated by intermediate or low levels of the gradient.
Alpha-stable impulsive interference: Canonical statistical models and design and analysis of maximum likelihood and moment-based signal detection algorithms

Abstract Symmetric, alpha-stable distributions and random processes have, recently, been receiving increasing attention from the signal processing and communication communities as statistical models for signals and noises that contain impulsive components. This Chapter is intended as a comprehensive review of the fundamental concepts and results of signal processing with alpha-stable processes with emphasis placed on acquainting its readers with this emerging discipline and revealing potential applications. More specifically, we start with summarizing the key definitions and properties of symmetric, alpha-stable distributions and the corresponding random processes and proceed to derive alpha-stable models for impulsive noise. The derivation serves as an illustration of the Generalized Central Limit Theorem, which states that the first-order distributions in all observed time series follow, to a higher or lesser degree, a stable law. We proceed to address two detection problems as examples of the methodologies required for designing robust processing algorithms for non-Gaussian, alpha-stable-distributed signals. These problems also build intuition on the differences between Gaussian and non-Gaussian, alpha-stable signal processing, as well as indicate the performance gains that are to be expected if the signal processing algorithms are designed on the basis of a non-Gaussian, alpha-stable assumption rather than on a Gaussianity assumption. A large number of references to the literature are included for the interested reader to study further.
Identification and Isolation of Ovalbumin-synthesizing Polysomes II. QUANTIFICATION AND IMMUNOPRECIPITATION OF POLYSOMES

Immunological techniques have been developed for the quantification and isolation of polysomes involved in ovalbumin synthesis. For the quantification of ovalbumin polysomes, two methods have been developed; one is based on the binding of 125I-anti-ovalbumin, the other is based on the immunoprecipitation of polysomes. There is a good correlation between the relative rate of ovalbumin synthesis and the extent of 125I-anti-ovalbumin binding to ribosomes or the amount of RNA extracted from polysome immunoprecipitates. With special care to exclude ribonuclease activity, RNA can be obtained from precipitated polysomes in an undegraded state. Such RNA can direct the synthesis of complete ovalbumin chains in an in vitro protein-synthesizing system from rabbit reticulocytes. RNA extracted from polysomes not precipitated by anti-ovalbumin antibody is incapable of directing ovalbumin synthesis. Recovery of messenger RNA activity is essentially quantitative, and the specific activity of ovalbumin mRNA is increased 2.5-fold over that obtained from total polysomes. Nascent chains obtained from immunoprecipitated polysomes are of the size of ovalbumin and smaller, in contrast to nascent chains from total polysomes which contain larger size classes. The results in total indicate that ovalbumin-synthesizing polysomes can be immunoprecipitated quantitatively in an undegraded state, and that ovalbumin mRNA can be extracted from such immunoprecipitates. Immunoprecipitation of polysomes may potentially be a general method for isolation of specific polysomes, including their mRNA content.
UB at GeoCLEF 2006

This paper summarizes the work done at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) in the GeoCLEF 2006 track. The approach presented uses pure IR techniques (indexing of single word terms as well as word bigrams, and automatic retrieval feedback) to try to improve retrieval performance of queries with geographical references. The main purpose of this work is to identify the strengths and shortcomings of this approach so that it serves as a basis for future development of a geographical reference extraction system. We submitted four runs to the monolingual English task, two automatic runs and two manual runs, using the title and description fields of the topics. Our official results are above the median system (auto=0.2344 MAP, manual=0.2445 MAP). We also present an unofficial run that uses title description and narrative which shows a 10% improvement in results with respect to our baseline runs. Our manual runs were prepared by creating a Boolean query based on the topic description and manually adding terms from geographical resources available on the web. Although the average performance of the manual run is comparable to the automatic runs, a query by query analysis shows significant differences among individual queries. In general, we got significant improvements (more that 10% average precision) in 8 of the 25 queries. However, we also noticed that 5 queries in the manual runs perform significantly below the automatic runs.
The Root of Platelet Production

Megakaryocytes are caught in the act of shedding platelets into blood vessels, settling a debate on how this process occurs.
Performance Analysis and Optimization of Asynchronous Circuits

Analytical techniques are developed to determine the performance of asynchronous digital circuits. These techniques can be used to guide the designer during the synthesis of such a circuit, leading to a high-performance, efficient implementation. Optimization techniques are also developed that further improve this implementation by determining the optimal sizes of the low-level devices (CMOS transistors) that compose the circuit. In order to determine the performance of an asynchronous circuit, it is first translated into an event-rule (ER) system, an abstract representation of the time dependencies (rules) between the primitive actions (events) of the circuit. This translation can be done from any of several different intermediate representations including: (i) a communicating sequential processes (CSP) program, (ii) a handshaking expansion, a refinement of the original CSP program in which all communication actions are replaced by explicit manipulations of boolean variables, (iii) a production rule set, a refinement of the handshaking expansion in which all sequencing is implemented by restricting concurrency, and (iv) a CMOS transistor network, a final representation from which the circuit can be fabricated. The analysis techniques are based on linear programming and provide an accurate approximation of the absolute time at which each event in an ER system occurs. Efficient algorithms for performing this approximation are developed and proven correct. Numerous examples are provided. This approximation can be represented as a formula expressing the performance of the circuit in terms of certain design variables, such as the widths of the transistors in the final CMOS network. This formula can be evaluated at particular width values and thus can be used to determine the performance of a particular realization of the circuit. Furthermore, using the techniques of convex programming, optimal transistor widths can be determined. The analysis techniques are applied to several large examples. Several implementations of first-in-first-out buffers are compared. A handshaking-expansion-level analysis of a simplified version of the Caltech Asynchronous Microprocessor is provided.
A Report to the Minnesota Supreme Court: The Impact of Rule 114 on Civil Litigation Practice in Minnesota

Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Civil Procedure took effect in July, 1994 and requires attorneys to discuss ADR with clients and advise the court about whether ADR will be used in a particular civil case; and still allows the court to order non-binding ADR regardless of attorney and client preference. To evaluate the rule and its effects, the Supreme Court ADR Review Board asked the author to conduct an extensive attorney survey, part qualitative and part quantitative, to determine how lawyers are using ADR in relation to discovery and negotiation; what motivates them to choose a particular ADR process for use in a given case; and what types of settlements are resulting from ADR processes. This survey was done in 1996-97. The ADR Review Board also embarked on a review of court case files in four selected districts during 1998. This article reports the results of attorney interviews and surveys and some of the results of the case file review. Among other findings the survey confirmed the "institutionalization" of ADR, especially mediation, in Minnesota; the importance of judicial support to this institutionalization; the fact that lawyers choose mediation because it makes settlement more likely, saves time and money, and provides a reality check for all parties; and because it is less adversarial. Secondarily lawyers perceive that mediators make communications between parties more effective and encourage participation by clients. Finally the article suggests ways courts can use the Minnesota data to inform future policy making for court-connected ADR.