cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Kernel Discriminant Correlation Analysis: Feature Level Fusion for Nonlinear Biometric Recognition

In biometric recognition, feature fusion is an important area of research due to the fact that multiple types of features contain richer and complementary information. Discriminative Correlation Analysis (DCA) is a recently proposed feature fusion method, which incorporates the class association into correlation analysis so that the features not only have the maximum intrinsic correlation between feature sets but also have class structure information. However, DCA is a linear technique, that finds a linear transformation of the original space. For highly nonlinearly distributed data, classification with nonlinear techniques works better than the linear ones. In this paper, we propose Kernel-DCA which generalizes DCA in order to handle nonlinear problems. Similar to Kernel-SVM, Kernel-DCA utilizes a kernel method to map feature sets to a high-dimensional space in which features are linearly separable. Experimental results, for the fusion of ear and face feature, using the WVU database with large variations in pose, show that Kernel-DCA achieves better results on nonlinearly distributed data than DCA and other feature fusion methods.
A performance-based damage estimation framework for the building envelope of wind-excited engineered structures

Abstract The performance assessment of wind-excited multi-story building systems is undergoing a period of rapid change with a number of performance assessment frameworks being proposed that are based on the principles of performance-based design. Having said this, there is still a significant lack of computational frameworks that can holistically treat the building envelope of this class of building systems. Indeed, the majority of research in this direction has focused on estimating damages and losses due to excessive structural response, notwithstanding the important role played by other damage mechanisms, such as those driven by excessive dynamic pressures. This paper introduces a computational framework that can holistically treat multiple damage mechanisms during the performance assessment of building envelopes of wind-excited engineered systems. In particular, interdependent envelope damage states driven by dynamic internal/external wind pressures and structural responses are modeled through multiple dependent fragility functions. Consequences are modeled in terms of the envelope components’ final damage states as well as the ingress of wind driven rain. By setting the framework in a simulation environment, probabilistic estimates of the performance metrics are provided as output. A full scale application is presented illustrating the proposed framework.
Race/Ethnicity and Sex and Opioid Administration in the Emergency Room.

BACKGROUND:Although racial/ethnic and sex disparities have been examined in health care generally and pain management more specifically, the combined influence of these sociodemographic factors together has not been well documented. The aim of this study was to examine the association between admini
MirrorCache: An Energy-Efficient Relaxed Retention L1 STTRAM Cache

Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (STTRAM) is a promising alternative to SRAMs in on-chip caches, due to several advantages, including non-volatility, low leakage, high integration density, and CMOS compatibility. However, STTRAMs' wide adoption in resource-constrained systems is impeded, in part, by high write energy and latency. A popular approach to mitigating these overheads involves relaxing the STTRAM's retention time, in order to reduce the write latency and energy. However, this approach usually requires a dynamic refresh scheme to maintain cache blocks' data integrity beyond the retention time, and typically requires an external refresh buffer. In this paper, we propose mirrorCache---an energy-efficient, buffer-free refresh scheme. MirrorCache leverages the STTRAM cell's compact feature size, and uses an auxiliary segment with the same size as the logical cache size to handle the refresh operations without the overheads of an external refresh buffer. Our experiments show that, compared to prior work, mirrorCache can reduce the average cache energy by at least 39.7% for a variety of systems.
Outpatient Diuresis Clinic - A Patient Centered and Cost Saving Approach to Heart Failure Management

Background Heart failure (HF) remains one of the leading causes of hospital admissions, representing annual healthcare costs exceeding $30 billion in the United States. In an effort to reduce hospitalizations and transition to a value-based care model, Medicare's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program penalizes hospitals that have above average 30 day readmission rates, withholding 3% of all Medicare reimbursement for these hospitals. While the national average for HF readmissions is currently at 22%, the 30 day readmission rate for HF at the University of North Carolina (UNC) is 23.9%. Fiscal incentives to reduce the burden of hospital admissions have fueled interest in ambulatory strategies that can better manage HF, including clinic-based administration of IV diuretics. Methods The aim of this study was to assess the impact of an outpatient diuresis clinic on HF hospitalizations and resultant cost savings. The clinic is staffed by an advanced practice provider and a registered nurse with cardiologist oversight. There is also multidisciplinary support by pharmacy, nutrition, and social work. Data were collected retrospectively from 445 patient encounters between August 2017 and February 2019. Primary endpoints included observation stays, inpatient hospitalizations, and cost to payers. Results As of February 2019, 162 unique patients had been treated in the diuresis clinic, totaling 445 encounters. Based on our FY2016 data, 90% of patients presenting to the emergency department with a diagnosis of HF are admitted for either an observation or inpatient stay. For patients admitted to UNC who require less than a 48 hour hospitalization, the total cost to payers was approximately $3.5 million. These 445 encounters would have resulted in a total payer cost of $1,184,145 for observation stays and $4,040,155 for inpatient admissions (less than 48 hours). In comparison, the cost to payer for each diuresis clinic visit is $276, resulting in a total cost of $122,820. In addition, assuming that each outpatient diuresis encounter substitutes for at least a 36 hour hospital stay (median length of stay in observation unit), this would, at minimum, result in 668 hospital bed days saved. Though transient electrolyte abnormalities and rare but reversible episodes of acute kidney injury were noted during clinic visits, there were no significant adverse events requiring hospitalizations during the study period. Conclusions For stable patients with decompensated heart failure, the outpatient IV diuresis clinic is a patient-centered, safe, and cost savings alternative to hospital admission.
Leveraging the strength of comprehensive cancer control coalitions to support policy, systems, and environmental change

Strategies that facilitate change to policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes can enable behaviors and practices that lead to cancer risk reduction, early detection, treatment access, and improved quality of life among survivors. Comprehensive cancer control is a coordinated collaborative approach to reduce cancer burden and operationalizes PSE change strategies for this purpose. Efforts to support these actions occur at the national, state, and local levels. Resources integral to bolstering strategies for sustainable cancer control include coordination and support from national organizations committed to addressing the burden of cancer, strong partnerships at the state and local levels, funding and resources, an evidence-based framework and program guidance, and technical assistance and training opportunities to build capacity. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of public policy, public health programming, and technical assistance and training on the use of PSE change interventions in cancer control. It also describes the foundations for and examples of successes achieved by comprehensive cancer control programs and coalitions using PSE strategies.
Teaching of heat transfer through annular fins of rectangular profile

The goal of the present paper is to disclose three different ways to determine the heat transfer rate in annular fins of rectangular profile employing the fin efficiency concept. The first way is e...
Power-performance balancing of asynchronous circuits

Asynchronous circuit designed on delay-insensitive NCL and multithreshold CMOS techniques inherits the benefit on power reduction but degrades the speed. Circuit pipeline and parallel architecture are applied to migrate the performance drawback. In the first part of the chapter, the throughput and latency of the NCL micropipeline are derived for the digital signal processing circuit optimization, including an example on generic FIR design with same performance as its synchronous count part. Scalable parallel computing architecture that incorporates homogeneous units is designed in Section 3.2 for performance escalation. Besides that, DVS achieves balanced control of performance and power consumption. An effective fullness variance predicting algorithm is implemented to employ the DVS more aggressively in a wider range of system workloads. The platform fabricated using the MITLL 90 nm process consumes 49.364 pJ per data with the best performance when the DATA to DATA cycle time is 6.02 μ,s. The schemes on fme-grain core states control and heterogeneous architecture are presented as research topics on power -performance balancing. Core enable and disabling sequence and fi ne-grain state control earns the maximum benefit of DVS. Common data I/O ports with NULL cycle reduction and asynchronous arbitration network are incorporated in the heterogeneous platform to make a highly modular interface for both horizontal and vertical scaling. Those methodologies demonstrate the advantage of asynchronous circuit in large scale, multithreads and scalable computing applications.
Myocardial Contractility: Historical and Contemporary Considerations

The term myocardial contractility is thought to have originated more than 125 years ago and has remained and enigma ever since. Although the term is frequently used in textbooks, editorials and contemporary manuscripts its definition remains illusive often being conflated with cardiac performance or inotropy. The absence of a universally accepted definition has led to confusion, disagreement and misconceptions among physiologists, cardiologists and safety pharmacologists regarding its definition particularly in light of new discoveries regarding the load dependent kinetics of cardiac contraction and their translation to cardiac force-velocity and ventricular pressure-volume measurements. Importantly, the Starling interpretation of force development is length-dependent while contractility is length independent. Most historical definitions employ an operational approach and define cardiac contractility in terms of the hearts mechanical properties independent of loading conditions. Literally defined the term contract infers that something has become smaller, shrunk or shortened. The addition of the suffix "ility" implies the quality of this process. The discovery and clinical investigation of small molecules that bind to sarcomeric proteins independently altering force or velocity requires that a modern definition of the term myocardial contractility be developed if the term is to persist. This review reconsiders the historical and contemporary interpretations of the terms cardiac performance and inotropy and recommends a modern definition of myocardial contractility as the preload, afterload and length-independent intrinsic kinetically controlled, chemo-mechanical processes responsible for the development of force and velocity.
Myristoylation alone is sufficient for PKA catalytic subunits to fractionally associate with the plasma membrane to regulate neuronal functions

Myristoylation is a post-translational modification that plays diverse functional roles in many protein species. The myristate moiety is considered insufficient for protein-membrane associations unless additional membrane-affinity motifs, such as a stretch of positively charged residues, are present. Here, we report that the electrically neutral N-terminal fragment of the protein kinase A catalytic subunit (PKA-C), in which myristoylation is the only functional motif, is sufficient for membrane association. This myristoylation can associate a fraction of PKA-C molecules or fluorescent proteins (FPs) to the plasma membrane in neuronal dendrites. The net neutral charge of PKA-C is evolutionally conserved, even though its membrane affinity can be readily tuned by changing charges near the myristoylation site. The observed membrane association, while moderate, is sufficient to concentrate PKA activity at the membrane by nearly 20-fold, and is required for PKA regulation of AMPA receptors at neuronal synapses. Our results indicate that myristoylation alone may be sufficient to drive functionally significant membrane association in the absence of assisting motifs. This provides a revised foundation for the understanding of how myristoylation regulates protein functions.
COVID-19 and a novel initiative to improve safety by 3D printing personal protective equipment parts from computed tomography

Powered air-purifying respirators are in short supply and can break down with extended use. Replacement parts can become hard to acquire. The aim of this study was to create an innovative quality improvement proof of concept using rapid prototyping. Here we report three cases of 3D printed powered air-purifying respirator parts. 3D printing was performed on all parts using fused deposition modeling with standard polylactic acid, in the same way that presurgical models would be created. Measurements using an electronic caliper as well as CT scans were used to compare an original part to its corresponding 3D printed parts for accuracy. Electronic caliper and computed tomography measurements both showed accuracy consistant with current published norms. Ultimately, there will be questions surrounding intellectual property, effectiveness and potential long-term safety for these types of 3D printed parts. Future research should look into the addition of specific nanoparticles from the position of cost, efficacy, safety and improved accuracy.
Neutrosophic Actions, Prevalence Order, Refinement of Neutrosophic Entities, and Neutrosophic Literal Logical Operators

n this paper, we define for the first time three neutrosophic actions and their properties. We then introduce the prevalence order on {T, I, F} with respect to a given neutrosophic operator “o”, which may be subjective - as defined by the neutrosophic experts; and the refinement of neutrosophic entities , , and . Then we extend the classical logical operators to neutrosophic literal logical operators and to refined literal logical operators, and we define the refinement neutrosophic literal space.
Lysine methylation shields an intracellular pathogen from ubiquitylation

Many intracellular pathogens stay invisible to the host detection machinery to promote their survival. However, it remains unknown how pathogen surfaces are disguised from host ubiquitin tagging, a first step in anti-microbial autophagy. We determined that outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of the intracellular bacterial pathogen Rickettsia parkeri are protected from ubiquitylation by protein-lysine methyltransferases (PKMTs) and the bacterial O-antigen. Analysis of the lysine-methylome revealed that PKMTs modify a subset of OMPs including surface protein OmpB. Mechanistically, methylation of lysines in OmpB camouflaged the same residues from ubiquitylation. Lysine methylation also prevented autophagy recognition and elimination by the autophagy factor ATG5 in macrophages and was critical for disease in mice. These findings suggest that lysine methylation shields proteins from ubiquitylation to evade autophagy targeting.
Pilot study on the urinary excretion of the glyphosate metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid and breast cancer risk: The Multiethnic Cohort study.

Abstract Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed female cancer and the second leading cause of death in women in the US, including Hawaii. Accumulating evidence suggests that aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), the primary metabolite of the herbicide glyphosate—a probable human carcinogen, may itself be carcinogenic. However, the relationship between urinary AMPA excretion and breast cancer risk in women is unknown. In this pilot study, we investigated the association between pre-diagnostic urinary AMPA excretion and breast cancer risk in a case-control study of 250 predominantly postmenopausal women: 124 cases and 126 healthy controls (individually matched on age, race/ethnicity, urine type, date of urine collection, and fasting status) nested within the Hawaii biospecimen subcohort of the Multiethnic Cohort. AMPA was detected in 90% of cases and 84% of controls. The geometric mean of urinary AMPA excretion was nearly 38% higher among cases vs. controls (0.087 vs 0.063 ng AMPA/mg creatinine) after adjusting for race/ethnicity, age and BMI. A 4.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer in the highest vs. lowest quintile of AMPA excretion was observed (ORQ5 vs. Q1: 4.49; 95% CI: 1.46–13.77; ptrend = 0.029). To our knowledge, this is the first study to prospectively examine associations between urinary AMPA excretion and breast cancer risk. Our preliminary findings suggest that AMPA exposure may be associated with increased breast cancer risk; however, these results require confirmation in a larger population to increase study power and permit careful examinations of race/ethnicity differences.
Lactate dehydrogenase A-dependent aerobic glycolysis promotes natural killer cell anti-viral and anti-tumor function.

Summary Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes capable of rapid cytotoxicity, cytokine secretion, and clonal expansion. To sustain such energetically demanding processes, NK cells must increase their metabolic capacity upon activation. However, little is known about the metabolic requirements specific to NK cells in vivo. To gain greater insight, we investigated the role of aerobic glycolysis in NK cell function and demonstrate that their glycolytic rate increases rapidly following viral infection and inflammation, prior to that of CD8+ T cells. NK cell-specific deletion of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) reveals that activated NK cells rely on this enzyme for both effector function and clonal proliferation, with the latter being shared with T cells. As a result, LDHA-deficient NK cells are defective in their anti-viral and anti-tumor protection. These findings suggest that aerobic glycolysis is a hallmark of NK cell activation that is key to their function.
Regional Rodent-Borne Infectious Diseases in North America: What Wilderness Medicine Providers Need to Know

Rodents can transmit infectious diseases directly to humans and other animals via bites and exposure to infectious salivary aerosols and excreta. Arthropods infected while blood-feeding on rodents can also transmit rodent-borne pathogens indirectly to humans and animals. Environmental events, such as wet winters, cooler summers, heavy rains, and flooding, have precipitated regional rodent-borne infectious disease outbreaks; these outbreaks are now increasing with climate change. The objectives of this review are to inform wilderness medicine providers about the environmental conditions that can precipitate rodent-borne infectious disease outbreaks; to describe the regional geographic distributions of rodent-borne infectious diseases in North America; and to recommend prophylactic treatments and effective prevention and control strategies for rodent-borne infectious diseases. To meet these objectives, Internet search engines were queried with keywords to identify scientific articles on outbreaks of the most common regional rodent-borne infectious diseases in North America. Wilderness medicine providers should maintain high levels of suspicion for regional rodent-borne diseases in patients who develop febrile illnesses after exposure to contaminated freshwater after heavy rains or floods and after swimming, rafting, or paddling in endemic areas. Public health education strategies should encourage limiting human contact with rodents; avoiding contact with or safely disposing of rodent excreta; avoiding contact with contaminated floodwaters, especially contact with open wounds; securely containing outdoor food stores; and modifying wilderness cabins and campsites to deter rodent colonization.
Insight into esophageal tumor treatment response enabled by dynamic perfusion PET imaging

1373 Objectives: To assess the utility of dynamic perfusion PET imaging for the evaluation of esophageal tumors over the course of radiation therapy. Methods: Eleven patients with esophageal tumors were imaged over one bed position at the site of the primary tumor for 15 minutes immediately following injection of 5 mCi 18F-FDG. Imaging was performed on a digital photon counting system (Philips Vereos). Patients spent the remaining uptake period in the injection suite followed by whole body imaging at 75 minutes post-injection as standard imaging. Listmode data from the dynamic acquisition were reconstructed with 1 minute per frame. Regions of interest were placed over the primary tumor, aorta, and a portion of healthy liver. Imaging was performed prior to radiation therapy, at a 3 month interim timepoint, and post-therapy, about 6 months after baseline imaging. Results: Excellent image quality and quantifiably robust data were produced for all acquisitions. Physiologic motion could readily be corrected for, however very little motion was observed on the 1 minute per frame dynamic images. Differences in perfusion and dynamic uptake patterns in the individual tumors were identifiable. In general patients who eventually responded well to treatment showed greater initial perfusion rates over the 15 minute dynamic acquisition than did those who did not respond well to treatment. Patients with Grade 1 and 2 (well and moderately differentiated) tumors had greater decreases in the initial dynamic uptake between baseline and interim imaging than those who had Grade 3 (poorly differentiated) tumors, who showed little change in the uptake curves between baseline and interim imaging. Correlation with pathology results and clinical outcomes is ongoing. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that dynamic perfusion FDG PET/CT of esophageal tumors is robustly achievable. Quantification of tumor features is achievable, changes in perfusion and uptake characteristic over the course of therapy are readily quantifiable. This PET-based methodology can be applied to assess changes in rates of tumor perfusion and radiotracer uptake over the course of therapy, adding additional insight beyond delayed, static measures of SUV. Research Support: ODSA TECH 13-060 (IPP), R01 CA-195513, RSNA Research Seed Grant - Utilization of Dynamic Digital PET for Prediction of Histopathologic Response Following Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation for Esophageal Cancer
The Impact of Product Markets and Gender on Investment Behavior

Gender has been shown to influence investment behavior and performance. We focus on firms who predominantly cater to one gender based on textual analysis of gender keywords in firms’ 10-Ks. We find that female (male) households significantly overweight female-focused (male-focused) firms. While we find some evidence that females outperform males in their investment performance, we find they significantly underperform in female-focused firms. Females trade significantly less than males overall, but they trade similarly to males in female-focused firms. We find weak evidence that institutional investors’ gender holdings exhibit patterns similar to individual investors. Overall, our evidence suggests that product market exposure influences investment behavior and gender is an important characteristic of such exposure.
Costs of Reproduction Among Rhesus Macaque Females on Cayo Santiago

Reproduction is energetically costly for mammalian females during the periods of gestation and lactation and, consequently, is likely to be associated with reduced survival (Stearns 1989, 1992 ; Roff 2002), particularly when maternal condition is poor. Higher mortality may be associated with birth-related complications, but it also may be the consequence of elevated circulating levels of cortisol suppressing immune function (see McEwen et al. 1997, for a review). If the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is hyperactivated in post-partum females during prolonged periods as a result of either the energetic demands of lactation or the associated psychosocial stressors, immune function may become impaired, potentially making females more vulnerable to diseases and to increased risk of mortality.
Surface segregation in nanoparticles from first principles: The case of FePt

FePt nanoparticles are known to exhibit reduced L10 order with decreasing particle size. The phenomenon is addressed by investigating the thermodynamic driving forces for surface segregation using a local (inhomogeneous) cluster expansion fit to ab initio data. Subsequent Monte Carlo simulations reveal that first surface layer Pt segregation is compensated by Pt depletion in the second subsurface layer. This indicates that the core’s ordered state is not affected by surface thermodynamics as much as previously thought.
Monopolistic Insurance and the Value of Information

The value of information regarding risk class for a monopoly insurer and its customers is examined in both symmetric and asymmetric information environments. A monopolist always prefers contracting with uninformed customers as this maximizes the rent extracted under symmetric information while also avoiding the cost of adverse selection when information is held asymmetrically. Although customers are indifferent to symmetric information when they are initially uninformed, they prefer contracting with hidden knowledge rather than symmetric information since the monopoly responds to adverse selection by sharing gains from trade with high-risk customers when low risks are predominant in the insurance pool. However, utilitarian social welfare is highest when customers are uninformed, and is higher when information is symmetric rather than asymmetric.
Interannual variation in biomass burning and fire seasonality derived from geostationary satellite data across the contiguous United States from 1995 to 2011

Wildfires exhibit a strong seasonality that is driven by climatic factors and human activities. Although the fire seasonality is commonly determined using burned area and fire frequency, it could also be quantified using biomass consumption estimates that directly represent biomass loss (a combination of the area burned and the fuel loading). Therefore, in this study a data set of long-term biomass consumed was derived from geostationary satellite data to explore the interannual variation in the fire seasonality and the possible impacts of climate change and land management practices across the Contiguous United States (CONUS). Specifically, daily biomass consumed data were derived using the fire radiative power retrieved from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites series with a pixel size of 4–10 km from 1995 to 2011. Annual fire seasonality metrics including the fire season duration, the timing of the start, peak, and end of the fire season, and interannual variation and trends were derived from the 17 year biomass consumed record. These metrics were associated with climatic factors to examine drivers and mediators of fire seasonality. The results indicate that biomass consumed significantly increased at a rate of 2.87 Tg/yr; however, the derived fire season duration exhibited a shortening trend in various states over the western CONUS and no significant trend in most other regions. This suggests that the frequency of extreme fire events has increased, which is perhaps associated with an observed increase of extreme weather conditions. Further, both the start and the end of the fire season exhibited an early shift (1.5–5 d/yr) in various eastern states although a late shift occurred in Arizona and Oregon. The interannual variation and trend in the fire seasonality was more strongly related to temperature in the western CONUS and to precipitation in the southeast. The Palmer Drought Severity Index was found to effectively reflect interannual variations in total biomass consumed although it was poorly correlated to the fire seasonality metrics. The results indicate that across the CONUS, the spatial patterns of the start, peak, and end of the fire season shift regularly in various regions in response to latitudinal gradients of temperature variation.
Oxidative metabolism in plant/bacteria interactions: characterization of the oxygen uptake response of bacteria

Abstract An increase in oxygen uptake has been previously described in plant cell suspensions treated with bacteria or bacterial elicitors. These studies, regarding oxygen uptake, have all been undertaken from the perspective of the host plant cell reacting to the invading pathogen. In contrast, here we describe and characterize an increase in oxygen uptake by bacterial cells in response to plant suspensions or autoclaved plant cell filtrates. Autoclaved plant cell filtrates stimulated bacterial oxygen uptake by as much as seven-fold within a few minutes after addition. This oxygen uptake response was proportional to both the concentration of the plant cell filtrate and the concentration of the bacteria. KCN inhibited the bacterial response, suggesting that bacterial respiration may be involved. Unlike the plant oxygen uptake response to bacteria, there was no concurrent H2O2 accumulation and the NADPH oxidase inhibitor, DPI, had no effect on the bacterial response. Streptomycin, an inhibitor of bacterial protein synthesis, inhibited the bacterial oxygen uptake response to the plant cell filtrate. K-252, a protein kinase inhibitor that strongly inhibits the plant oxygen uptake response to bacteria, had no effect upon the bacterial oxygen uptake response. When potato/bacterial cell suspensions were pretreated with either streptomycin or K-252, the combined plant/bacterial oxygen uptake response was inhibited by 15 or 70%, respectively. This indicates that as much as 15–30% of the increased oxygen consumption during plant suspension cell/bacteria interactions may be attributable to bacteria, which comprise less than 1% of the total cell mass.
Energy and area analysis of a floating-point unit in 15nm CMOS process technology

The continuous increase in transistor density based on Moore's Law has led us to Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies beyond 45nm process node. These highly-scaled process technologies offer improved density as well as a reduction in nominal supply voltage. New challenges also arise, such as relative proportion of leakage power in standby mode. In this paper, we present an analysis regarding different aspects of 45nm and 15nm technologies, such as power consumption and cell area to compare these two technologies. For this purpose, an IEEE 754 Single Precision Floating-Point Unit implementation is analyzed based on 45nm and 15nm technologies. The results have shown that using the 15nm technology we can have 4 times less energy and 3-fold smaller footprint.
Chapter 60 Past Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture

Abstract This paper examines the likely impact on agriculture of the climate change which has already taken place between 1960 and 2000. Accumulating greenhouse gases have caused global temperatures to rise approximately 0.25 °C during this period and for precipitation patterns to shift. Using cross-sectional and crop simulation evidence, temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide response functions are used to calculate the impacts on agriculture. Temperature and precipitation changes together have caused estimated global impacts ranging from a loss of 0.05% to a gain of 0.9% of agricultural GDP. Including carbon fertilization effects, historic climate change is estimated to have caused a 2–4% increase in global production. Given the rapid increase in agricultural production over the last 40 years, the contribution of climate change to the overall growth of agriculture has been small, contributing between 2.6% and 5.4% of overall growth. This effect has been larger in mid to high latitude countries where climate change is estimated to have caused 4–7% of historic agricultural growth and smaller in low latitude countries where the climate change has contributed between 0.6% and 3% of the growth. Future climate changes which are expected to be much larger, may well have very different effects than past climate changes. Future changes may continue to be slightly beneficial to global agriculture up to about 2.5 °C, but they will eventually become harmful and cause reductions in global production.
Insulin resistance in equine digital vessel rings: an in vitro model to study vascular dysfunction in equine laminitis.

Summary Reasons for performing study: One of the causes of equine laminitis is hyperinsulinaemia, which may be associated with endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance of vessels. Hypothesis and objectives: Insulin resistance can be induced in palmar digital vessels by continued exposure to insulin in vitro. The objective was to evaluate this in vitro model for future studies. Methods: Palmar digital vessel segments were collected immediately after euthanasia from horses with normal insulin/glucose blood values. Four arterial and 4 venous rings (3 mm wide) were prepared and each ring mounted in a tissue bath, containing Tyrode's solution at 37°C, 2 g tension was applied and the rings allowed to equilibrate for 45 min. Of the 4 rings of each vessel type, one was used as a control. One each of the remaining 3 rings was used for incubation with insulin (to induce resistance), wortmannin (to block PI3-kinase) and PD-098059 (to block MAP-kinase), respectively, for 30 min. After the incubation period, the rings were contracted with phenylephrine. When the response reached a plateau, a single dose of insulin was added to the baths and the response of each ring monitored for 30 min. Results: Insulin relaxed the control rings and those treated with PD 098059 but contracted those pretreated with insulin and wortmannin. Normal relaxation responses of the rings were converted to contractions by insulin resistance. Insulin resistance was confirmed by the qualitative response of insulin-incubated and wortmannin-incubated rings. Conclusions: This study demonstrated successful induction of insulin resistance in both arterial and venous rings. It also suggested that the MAP-kinase pathway plays a minor role in controlling vasomotor tone under normal physiological conditions. Potential relevance: The study suggests that the induction of insulin resistance in equine palmar digital vessel rings is reliable and provides a good in vitro model for studying the vascular insulin resistance which may occur in equine laminitis.
Extending the capability of Mars Umbilical Technology Demonstrator

The objective of this project is to expand the capabilities of the Mars Umbilical Technology Demonstrator (MUTD) at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The MUTD shall provide electrical power and fiber optic data cable connections between two simulated mars vehicles, about 1000 m apart. The wheeled mobile robot Omnibot is used to provide the mobile base for the system. The mate-to umbilical plate is mounted on a Cartesian robot, which is installed on the Omnibot mobile base. It is desirable to provide the operator controlling the Omnibot, the distance and direction to the target. An approach for finding the position and orientation of the mobile robot for navigation using inertial sensors and beacons is investigated.
Minnelide Overcomes Oxaliplatin Resistance by Downregulating the DNA Repair Pathway in Pancreatic Cancer

Oxaliplatin is part of pancreatic cancer therapy in the FOLFIRINOX or GEMOX/XELOX regimen. DNA damage repair is one of the factors responsible for oxaliplatin resistance that eventually develops in this cancer. Triptolide/Minnelide has been shown to be effective against pancreatic cancer in preclinical trials. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of combination of triptolide and oxaliplatin against pancreatic cancer. Highly aggressive pancreatic cancer cells (MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1) were treated with oxaliplatin (0–10 μM), low-dose triptolide (50 nM), or a combination of both for 24–48 h. Cell viability, apoptosis, and DNA damage were evaluated by appropriate methods. Nucleotide excision repair pathway components were quantitated using qPCR and Western blot. Combination of low doses of Minnelide and oxaliplatin was tested in an orthotopic murine model of pancreatic cancer. Proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells was markedly inhibited by combination treatment. Triptolide potentiated apoptotic cell death induced by oxaliplatin and sensitized cancer cells towards oxaliplatin-induced DNA damage by suppressing the oxaliplatin-induced DNA damage repair pathway. Combination of low doses of Minnelide and oxaliplatin inhibited tumor progression by inducing significant apoptotic cell death in these tumors. Combination of low doses of Minnelide and oxaliplatin has immense potential to emerge as a novel therapeutic strategy against pancreatic cancer.
Denaturing HPLC for Identification of Clonal T-Cell Receptor γ Rearrangements in Newly Diagnosed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Background: Denaturing HPLC (DHPLC) can be used to screen DNA for known and unknown mutations. We describe a novel, HPLC-based method for discrimination among polyclonal, oligoclonal, and/or clonal T-cell receptor γ (TCR-γ) rearrangements in samples from children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Methods: TCR rearrangements were PCR amplified from initial leukemic samples and, after heteroduplex-induction, the clonality status of each product was evaluated. To attain this, we used DHPLC on a high-resolution micropellicular matrix. Running conditions were established by melting-curve analysis of known clonal and polyclonal products and melting-point prediction software. Elution profiles were studied at 50 °C (native) and, to achieve optimal separation, at different column temperatures between 56 and 64 °C. Results: For VγI-Jγ1.3/2.3 rearrangements, an analysis temperature of 60 °C with a linear triethylammoniumacetate—acetonitrile gradient separated clonal bands from the polyclonal background amplification. Less than 15% clonal PCR product was detectable in mixtures of initial leukemic cell DNA and polyclonal DNA. Biallelic rearrangements produced two sharp peaks. Clonality of PCR products from 100 initial leukemic samples was completely identified in all investigated cases. Conclusions: Heteroduplex analysis with standardized DHPLC conditions simplifies the detection of unknown clonal or polyclonal TCR rearrangements in newly diagnosed leukemias. Clonal targets for detection of minimal residual disease are available after a short, automated analysis of PCR amplified rearrangements.
Deletion of the neuron-specific protein delta-catenin leads to severe cognitive and synaptic dysfunction.

Abstract Delta-catenin (δ-catenin) is a neuron-specific catenin, which has been implicated in adhesion and dendritic branching [1, 2]. Moreover, deletions of δ-catenin correlate with the severity of mental retardation in Cri-du-Chat syndrome (CDCS), which may account for 1% of all mentally retarded individuals [3]. Interestingly, δ-catenin was first identified through its interaction with Presenilin-1 (PS1), the molecule most frequently mutated in familial Alzheimer's Disease (FAD) [4]. We investigated whether deletion of δ-catenin would be sufficient to cause cognitive dysfunction by generating mice with a targeted mutation of the δ-catenin gene ( δ-cat −/− ). We observed that δ-cat −/− animals are viable and have severe impairments in cognitive function. Furthermore, mutant mice display a range of abnormalities in hippocampal short-term and long-term synaptic plasticity. Also, N-cadherin and PSD-95, two proteins that interact with δ-catenin [1, 5], are significantly reduced in mutant mice. These deficits are severe but specific because δ-cat −/− mice display a variety of normal behaviors, exhibit normal baseline synaptic transmission, and have normal levels of the synaptic adherens proteins E-cadherin and β-catenin. These data reveal a critical role for δ-catenin in brain function and may have important implications for understanding mental retardation syndromes such as Cri-du-Chat and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, that are characterized by cognitive decline.
Development of a chronic kidney disease patient navigator program

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a public health problem and there is a scarcity of type 2 CKD translational research that incorporates educational tools. Patient navigators have been shown to be effective at reducing disparities and improving outcomes in the oncology field. We describe the creation of a CKD Patient Navigator program designed to help coordinate care, address system-barriers, and educate/motivate patients. The conceptual framework for the CKD Patient Navigator Program is rooted in the Chronic Care Model that has a main goal of high-quality chronic disease management. Our established multidisciplinary CKD research team enlisted new members from information technology and data management to help create the program. It encompassed three phases: hiring, training, and implementation. For hiring, we wanted a non-medical or lay person with a college degree that possessed strong interpersonal skills and experience in a service-orientated field. For training, there were three key areas: general patient navigator training, CKD education, and electronic health record (EHR) training. For implementation, we defined barriers of care and created EHR templates for which pertinent study data could be extracted. We have hired two CKD patient navigators who will be responsible for navigating CKD patients enrolled in a clinical trial. They have undergone training in general patient navigation, specific CKD education through directed readings and clinical shadowing, as well as EHR and other patient related privacy and research training. The need for novel approaches like our CKD patient navigator program designed to impact CKD care is vital and should utilize team-based care and health information technology given the changing landscape of our health systems.
Structural, surface, optical, and mechanical properties of Zn3N2 thin films prepared by sputtering deposition

Zinc nitride and zinc oxide can have wide range applications owing to their band-gap changes and controlling capability of n-type to p-type behavior by impurity doping. Thus, zinc oxy-nitrides can be utilized to design novel photonic devices such as solar cells, UV-Visible devices, and light emitting diodes. In this paper, feasibility of tuning the optical and electronic properties of zinc oxynitride thin films in an rf magnetron sputtering deposition. It was found that the change of gas composition such as Ar: N 2 : O 2 can change the properties of zinc nitride films for a wide range. The absorption coefficient of zinc nitride films were larger i\than zinc oxide thin films in low photon energy range, in particular visible region of the spectrum. These results indicated that the zinc nitride may find suitable applications in solar cells and photonic devices.
Non-revised writing, revised writing, and error detection by learner characteristics

This paper describes how performance in three different foreign language (German) tasks varies according to certain learner characteristics. The three tasks are: non-revised (spontaneous) writing, revised writing, and passage-based error-detection. The specific variables and their distribution in the subject population are described in later sections. Evaluation criteria are: syntactic accuracy, morphological accuracy, orthographic accuracy, writing speed, and linguistic complexity. The purpose is to provide learner-specific information on the teaching and testing of intermediate-level writing tasks in which the primary criteria are to write accurately, quickly, and with syntactic variety.
Autofocus module for multilaser print heads

Polaroid's Optical Engineering Department has developed an autofocus module designed for use with Polaroid's multi-laser print head. The print head and focus module are now being manufactured and sold as part of a high-quality laser printer for 14' X 17' medical diagnostic images. The focus module is mated and aligned to a cylinder that is clamped into a V on the print head to utilize the semi-kinematic methodology of the print head. The printer clamps the film onto an external drum that is spun at 3300 RPM. While being spun, the profile of the film is 350 μm peak to valley. The print head's focus tolerance is ± 5μm, which is a consequence of using binary film, laser diodes, and the required gray scale. A moving objective lens that tracks the film based on real-time focus information is needed. Polaroid has developed a new focus sensor and assembly process that is economical, reliable and simple. The new sensor can be assembled in 15 minutes and replaces a more complicated design.
The phonon spectra of β‐CuI. II. The numerical evalutaion

The phonon spectra of β-CuI is numerically evaluated using the second neighbor ionic model of Banerjee and Varshni. The short-range parameters are evaluated by correcting the parameters of the ideal wurtzite lattice, found by transformation of zinc blende parameters previously calculated, for the nonideal nature of β-CuI. Dispersion curves are drawn in the [100], [110], and [001] directions and a crude estimate of the density of states is found. Es wird das Phononenspektrum von β-CuJ mit dem Ionenmodell zweiter Nachbarn von Banerjee und Varshni numerisch berechnet. Die Nahordnungs-Parameter werden durch Korrektur der Parameter des idealen Wurtzitgitters, die durch Transformation der fruher berechneten Zink-blendeparameter gewonnen wurden,fur das nichtideales-CuJ berechnet. Dispersionskurven werden fur die [100]-, [110]- und [001]-Richtungen angegeben, und es wird eine grobe Abschatzung der Zustandsdichte gefunden.
Theory of induced molecular-orbital K x rays in heavy-ion collisions

The mechanisms of spontaneous and induced emission of radiation are derived from the Dirac equation in a rotating coordinate system. The molecular-orbital x-ray spectra exhibit a strong asymmetry with respect to the beam axis. The asymmetry peaks for the high-energy transitions, which can be used for spectroscopy of two-center orbitals.
221 EFFECT OF DECREASING LEVELS OF OXYGEN DELIVERY ON TOTAL BODY OXYGEN CONSUMPTION IN GROWING LAMBS

To determine the effect of decreasing systemic oxygen delivery (SOD) on oxygen consumption (Vo2) in the growing neonatal subject, we conducted 15 studies in 5 three week old lambs. SOD was lowered by progressive pericardial tamponade. SOD was measured as the product of cardiac output (CO) and arterial oxygen content. CO was measured by thermodilution. Pulmonary mixed venous and arterial blood were used to measure Po2, O2 saturation and hgb. Measurements were made every twenty minutes in unanesthetized, spontaneously breathing lambs in which decremental decreases in CO were produced. The change in Vo2 with decreasing SOD was analyzed by grouping data in decreasing ranges of SOD. The chart presents the mean± SD in each range: