cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of estradiol and progesterone on the LH release induced by LH-releasing hormone (LH-RH) in intact diestrous rats and anestrous ewes.

SummaryThe effect of pretreatment with estradiol, progesterone, or a combination of both steroids on the response of serum LH levels to a large dose of LH-RH was investigated. In groups of intact d...
Conidium Production in Penicillium

The fertile hyphae or conidiophores may arise as branches from submerged or from aerial hyphae. They are septate except when they are very short. They have approximately the same diameter as the vegetative hyphae from which they branch. They are uniform in diameter from point of origin to the point where the conidium-producing complex of cells begins to form. The apex of the uppermost cell is frequently though not always swollen somewhat like the vesicle of Aspergillus, and the distal ends of branches if such are present are commonly also swollen, but the appearance of such swelling is not a uniform character within the species. The conidiophore proper should be measured from the point of origin to the base of the fruiting group of cells or branches. This part ceases to grow in length when fruiting commences, hence this measurement is more characteristic than a measurement including fruiting mass which frequently increases in length for several weeks by the production of new conidia.
The Role of Outpatient Reception Service Center

The practice of setting up the outpatient reception service center,optimizing the outpatient service process,providing efficient,convenient and humanistic medical environment and doctor-patient communication platform,providing all kinds of humanized service for patients,improving the doctor-patient relationship,made the patients' satisfaction rate increase from 90. 75% to 96. 50% and the outpatient service complaint rate decrease from 0. 069‰ to 0. 069‰. The experience showed that the outpatient reception service center could optimize outpatient service process,improve the patients' satisfaction,reduce the outpatient service complaint rate and improve the doctor-patient relationship.
The Role of State Revenue Structure in the Occurrence and Magnitude of Negative Revenue Variance

A negative revenue variance (also known as a revenue shortfall) is generated when the actual inflow of revenue falls short of the budgeted revenue. In an environment constrained by a balanced budge...
Surgical alternatives in Dupuytren's contracture.

SUMMARY The treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture is still controversial. The use of subcutaneous fasciotomy is useful in the medically unstable patient in whom long-term results may be a moot point. Limited fasciectomy is preferred over radical excision as a simpler operation and because of fewer complications. Wound closure is still a major point of contention. A prospective, randomized study of open wounds versus skin grafts versus closed procedures is needed to give more information regarding the long-term results. Currently, at our institution, we perform limited fasciectomy and leave the palm open. Early and aggressive mobilization is thought to be the key to good results.
Socially selected ornaments influence hormone titers of signalers and receivers

Decades of behavioral endocrinology research have shown that hormones and behavior have a bidirectional relationship; hormones both influence and respond to social behavior. In contrast, hormones are often thought to have a unidirectional relationship with ornaments. Hormones influence ornament development, but little empirical work has tested how ornaments influence hormones throughout life. Here, we experimentally alter a visual signal of fighting ability in Polistes dominulus paper wasps and measure the behavioral and hormonal consequences of signal alteration in signalers and receivers. We find wasps that signal inaccurately high fighting ability receive more aggression than controls and receiving aggression reduces juvenile hormone (JH) titers. As a result, immediately after contests, inaccurate signalers have lower JH titers than controls. Ornaments also directly influence rival JH titers. Three hours after contests, wasps who interacted with rivals signaling high fighting ability have higher JH titers than wasps who interacted with rivals signaling low fighting ability. Therefore, ornaments influence hormone titers of both signalers and receivers. We demonstrate that relationships between hormones and ornaments are flexible and bidirectional rather than static and unidirectional. Dynamic relationships among ornaments, behavior, and physiology may be an important, but overlooked factor in the evolution of honest communication.
Children’s and Adults’ Understanding of Faux Pas and Insults

We examined 7- to 11-year-old children’s and adults’ social understanding by presenting stories containing either a verbal faux pas or a deliberate insult. Participants were asked about the speaker’s knowledge, intent, and affect, and about the listener’s perception of the speaker’s intent, and the listener’s affect before and after the speaker apologized. Nine-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults recognized that the speaker’s knowledge or ignorance, but younger children did not. All age groups judged that the speaker did not intend harm and that the listener would not perceive the listener as intending harm. Nine-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults rated the speaker as feeling worse in faux pas stories than in insult stories, but younger children did not. All age groups rated the listener as feeling worse in insult stories than in faux pas stories. Children judged that an apology would improve the listener’s feelings more than adults did.
Context-Informed Corpus Linguistic Analysis of FY Writing

A historical look at first-year (FY) writing illustrates its importance in access to higher education. It also shows how FY writing has been commonly conceptualized in rhetoric-composition research and pedagogy: as whole texts in particular contexts. How FY writing appears through a more linguistic lens—as constituted by shared, language-level features across many contexts—is a different question. That question is more easily answered via corpus linguistic analysis, a method that is predictably rare in studies of FY writing given the conceptual focus of rhetoric-composition. Yet another question is how FY writing might appear if we combined the two conceptualizations and approached FY writing as both whole text enactments in contexts and as patterns of discourse across them.
Excitation spectra of aromatic molecules within a real-space G W -BSE formalism: Role of self-consistency and vertex corrections

We present first-principles calculations on the vertical ionization potentials (IPs), electron affinities (EAs), and singlet excitation energies on an aromatic-molecule test set (benzene, thiophene, 1,2,5-thiadiazole, naphthalene, benzothiazole, and tetrathiafulvalene) within the $GW$ and Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) formalisms. Our computational framework, which employs a real-space basis for ground-state and a transition-space basis for excited-state calculations, is well suited for high-accuracy calculations on molecules, as we show by comparing against ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}$ calculations within a plane-wave-basis formalism. We then generalize our framework to test variants of the $GW$ approximation that include a local density approximation (LDA)--derived vertex function (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathrm{LDA}}$) and quasiparticle-self-consistent (QS) iterations. We find that ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathrm{LDA}}$ and quasiparticle self-consistency shift IPs and EAs by roughly the same magnitude, but with opposite sign for IPs and the same sign for EAs. ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}$ and $\mathrm{QS}GW{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathrm{LDA}}$ are more accurate for IPs, while ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathrm{LDA}}$ and $\mathrm{QS}GW$ are best for EAs. For optical excitations, we find that perturbative $GW$-BSE underestimates the singlet excitation energy, while self-consistent $GW$-BSE results in good agreement with previous best-estimate values for both valence and Rydberg excitations. Finally, our work suggests that a hybrid approach, in which ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}$ energies are used for occupied orbitals and ${G}_{0}{W}_{0}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathrm{LDA}}$ for unoccupied orbitals, also yields optical excitation energies in good agreement with experiment but at a smaller computational cost.
Miz1, a Novel Target of ING4, Can Drive Prostate Luminal Epithelial Cell Differentiation.

BACKGROUND How prostate epithelial cells differentiate and how dysregulation of this process contributes to prostate tumorigenesis remain unclear. We recently identified a Myc target and chromatin reader protein, ING4, as a necessary component of human prostate luminal epithelial cell differentiation, which is often lost in primary prostate tumors. Furthermore, loss of ING4 in the context of oncogenic mutations is required for prostate tumorigenesis. Identifying the gene targets of ING4 can provide insight into how its loss disrupts differentiation and leads to prostate cancer. METHODS Using a combination of RNA-Seq, a best candidate approach, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), we identified Miz1 as a new ING4 target. ING4 or Miz1 overexpression, shRNA knock-down, and a Myc-binding mutant were used in a human in vitro differentiation assay to assess the role of Miz1 in luminal cell differentiation. RESULTS ING4 directly binds the Miz1 promoter and is required to induce Miz1 mRNA and protein expression during luminal cell differentiation. Miz1 mRNA was not induced in shING4 expressing cells or tumorigenic cells in which ING4 is not expressed. Miz1 dependency on ING4 was unique to differentiating luminal cells; Miz1 mRNA expression was not induced in basal cells. Although Miz1 is a direct target of ING4, and its overexpression can drive luminal cell differentiation, Miz1 was not required for differentiation. CONCLUSIONS Miz1 is a newly identified ING4-induced target gene which can drive prostate luminal epithelial cell differentiation although it is not absolutely required. Prostate © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Safely Measuring Tor

Tor is a popular network for anonymous communication. The usage and operation of Tor is not well-understood, however, because its privacy goals make common measurement approaches ineffective or risky. We present PrivCount, a system for measuring the Tor network designed with user privacy as a primary goal. PrivCount securely aggregates measurements across Tor relays and over time to produce differentially private outputs. PrivCount improves on prior approaches by enabling flexible exploration of many diverse kinds of Tor measurements while maintaining accuracy and privacy for each. We use PrivCount to perform a measurement study of Tor of sufficient breadth and depth to inform accurate models of Tor users and traffic. Our results indicate that Tor has 710,000 users connected but only 550,000 active at a given time, that Web traffic now constitutes 91% of data bytes on Tor, and that the strictness of relays' connection policies significantly affects the type of application data they forward.
Aerosol sampler

The overall objective of this project was to design a device to collect multiple aerosol samples at various altitudes of the atmosphere. This device would aid in the biological investigation of unexplained microorganisms' travel over vast distances across the world. Extensive work was done in collaboration with the Arkansas State University Biology Department to develop criteria the device needed to meet. The device needed to sample air from sea level up to the outer levels of the Earth's atmosphere. It was determined that the only feasible way to travel to such a distance would be by attaching the device as a payload to the helium weather balloon. Next, various intake and sampling methods were explored. The aim was to collect at least 5 samples varying uniformly in altitude. Beginning at approximately 50,000 feet, a sample would be collected every 10,000 feet until maximum altitude was reached. A centrifugal pump was chosen for intake method. The Allergenco D Impactor, a type of adhesive slide particle capturing container, was chosen for sampling. To prevent contamination, solenoid valves to be used on each side of the impactor to ensure sealing, once the sample was taken. Independent design and testing of all the electrical components for functionality and sensitivity was carried out using a microcontroller to ensure control of valves for sampling at desired altitudes as well as monitoring various parameters. With the use of a vacuum chamber, the sampling system was tested for the required flow rates.
Protein Synthesis Times Scale with Gene Length because the Determinants of Translation Speed are Randomly Distributed Across Genes

Many of the molecular factors influencing codon translation speed have been identified, and their relative contributions estimated. These factors include tRNA concentration, the presence of charged nascent-chain residues in the ribosome exit tunnel, mRNA secondary structure, proline residues at the A or P sites of the ribosome and steric interactions between ribosomes translating a transcript. Here, we combine this information with genomic information from E. coli, yeast and humans in a simulation model of translation to estimate the synthesis time of cytopolasmic proteins. We find that regardless of the organism, the synthesis time of a protein scales linearly with the length of mRNA's coding sequence even though there is a large variation in the translation speed of individual codons. We demonstrate that this scaling arises because the molecular determinants of translation speed are distributed randomly across the mRNA transcripts and that this distribution is generated from a Poisson point process. As a consequence, the Law of Large Numbers is followed and for any given transcript fast-translating segments are canceled out by a similar number of slow-translating segments resulting a constant average codon translation rate between different transcripts. This means that a protein's average synthesis time can be accurately predicted based solely on the corresponding gene length, provided the average codon translation speed is known. Thus, although evolution has biased codon usage between different genes in an organism, there is still a large degree of randomness associated with how individual codon translation speeds have been distributed. These results also provide an explanation for the observation from ribosome profiling that different transcripts have the same average codon translation speed in mouse-stem cells.
Generation of Gross Chromosomal Rearrangements by a Single Engineered DNA Double Strand Break

Gross chromosomal rearrangements (GCRs), including translocations, inversions amplifications, and deletions, can be causal events leading to malignant transformation. GCRs are thought to be triggered by DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), which in turn can be spontaneous or induced by external agents (eg. cytotoxic chemotherapy, ionizing radiation). It has been shown that induction of DNA DSBs at two defined loci can produce stable balanced chromosomal translocations, however, a single engineered DNA DSB could not. Herein, we report that although a single engineered DNA DSB in H2AX "knockdown" cells did not generate GCRs, repair of a single engineered DNA DSB in fibroblasts that had ablated H2ax did produce clonal, stable GCRs, including balanced translocations and megabase-pair inversions. Upon correction of the H2ax deficiency, cells no longer generated GCRs following a single engineered DNA DSB. These findings demonstrate that clonal, stable GCRs can be produced by a single engineered DNA DSB in H2ax knockout cells, and that the production of these GCRs is ameliorated by H2ax expression.
Are we making an impact with incident learning systems? Analysis of quality improvement interventions using total body irradiation as a model system

Abstract Purpose Despite increasing interest in incident learning systems (ILS) to improve safety and quality in radiation oncology, little is known about interventions developed in response to safety data. We used total body irradiation (TBI) as a model system to study the effectiveness of interventions from our institutional ILS. Methods and materials Near-miss event reports specific to TBI were identified from a departmental ILS from March 2012 to December 2015. The near-miss risk index was rated at multidisciplinary review from 0 (no potential harm) to 4 (critical potential harm). Interventions were analyzed for effectiveness with a schema adapted from The Joint Commission and other agencies: "most reliable" (eg, forcing functions, automation), "somewhat reliable" (eg, checklists, standardization), and "least reliable" (eg, training, rules, procedures). Causal factors of each event were drawn from the casual factor schema used in radiation oncology ILS. Results Of 4007 safety-related reports, 266 reports pertained to TBI. TBI reports had a somewhat higher proportion of high-risk events (near-miss risk index 3-4) compared with non-TBI reports (25% vs 17%, P = .0045). A total of 117 interventions were implemented. The reliability indicators for the interventions were: most reliable (11% of interventions), somewhat reliable (17%), and least reliable (72%). Interventions were more likely to be applied to high-risk events (54% vs 41%, P = .03). There was a pattern of high-reliability interventions with increased risk score of events. Events involving human error (eg, slips) and equipment/information technology lent themselves more often to high-reliability interventions. Events related to communication, standardization, and training were associated with low-reliability interventions. Conclusions Over a 3.5-year period, 117 quality improvement strategies were developed for TBI based on ILS. Interventions were more likely to be applied to high-risk events and high-risk events were more likely to be associated with high-quality interventions. These results may be useful to institutions seeking to develop interventions based on ILS data.
2nd-Order Optical Model of the Isotopic Dependence of Heavy ion Absorption Cross Sections for Radiation Transport Studies

Abstract Heavy ion absorption cross sections play an important role in radiation transport codes used in risk assessment and for shielding studies of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) exposures. Due to the GCR primary nuclei composition and nuclear fragmentation leading to secondary nuclei heavy ions of charge number, Z with 3 ≤ Z ≥ 28 and mass numbers, A with 6 ≤ A ≥ 60 representing about 190 isotopes occur in GCR transport calculations. In this report we describe methods for developing a data-base of isotopic dependent heavy ion absorption cross sections for interactions. Calculations of a 2nd-order optical model solution to coupled-channel solutions to the Eikonal form of the nucleus-nucleus scattering amplitude are compared to 1st-order optical model solutions. The 2nd-order model takes into account two-body correlations in the projectile and target ground-states, which are ignored in the 1st-order optical model. Parameter free predictions are described using one-body and two-body ground state form factors for the isotopes considered and the free nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude. Root mean square (RMS) matter radii for protons and neutrons are taken from electron and muon scattering data and nuclear structure models. We report on extensive comparisons to experimental data for energy-dependent absorption cross sections for over 100 isotopes of elements from Li to Fe interacting with carbon and aluminum targets. Agreement between model and experiments are generally within 10% for the 1st-order optical model and improved to less than 5% in the 2nd-order optical model in the majority of comparisons. Overall the 2nd-order optical model leads to a reduction in absorption compared to the 1st-order optical model for heavy ion interactions, which influences estimates of nuclear matter radii.
Fetal Vascular Malperfusion.

Context.— Fetal vascular malperfusion, also known as fetal thrombotic vasculopathy, remains an underrecognized pathologic finding and should be noted during placental evaluation. Objective.— To review histologic findings, gain familiarity with the updated terminology, and to recognize important clinical associations with this entity. Data Sources.— University of Michigan cases, PubMed search, multiple review articles including recent placental workshop group consensus statement, and selected book chapters. Conclusions.— Multiple histologic patterns of fetal vascular malperfusion have been described including thrombosis, avascular villi, villous stromal-vascular karyorrhexis, intramural fibrin thrombi, and stem villous vascular obliteration. Various underlying etiologies can be involved in fetal vascular malperfusion. Cord lesions including abnormal insertion, length, and coiling are important causes. Maternal vascular malperfusion such as preeclampsia, hypercoagulable states, lupus anticoagulant, and some...
Literacy analysis of National Comprehensive Cancer Network patient guidelines for the most common malignancies in the United States

Background Cancer information is of critical interest to the public. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) offers a series of comprehensive patient guidelines on the management of the most common cancer diagnoses. This study was aimed at assessing the health literacy demands of NCCN patient guidelines for the most common malignancies in the United States. Methods The American Cancer Society's most common malignancies by annual incidence in the United States and their corresponding NCCN patient guidelines were identified. Four validated tools were used to evaluate literacy levels: 1) the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, 2) the Peter Mosenthal and Irwin Kirsch readability formula (PMOSE/IKIRSCH), 3) the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and 4) the Clear Communication Index from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Results The average reading grade level was 10.3, which was higher than the recommended 6th-grade level. The average PMOSE/IKIRSCH score was 11; this corresponded to moderate complexity and required some college-level education for interpretation. Only 1 tool, the PEMAT, yielded scores above the benchmarks for high-quality materials. The PEMAT's understandability, actionability, and overall scores were 94%, 83%, and 91%, respectively. The average CDC index was 85%, which was below the recommended 90% for an appropriate health literacy demand. Conclusions Overall, the assessment indicates high demand scores for the readability and complexity of the NCCN patient guidelines and thus that the materials are not quite suitable for the general US adult population. Further input from patient focus groups to address appropriateness and usefulness is critical. Cancer 2018;124:769-74. © 2017 American Cancer Society.
Cultural and Generational Influences on Information Privacy Concerns within Online Social Networks: An Empirical Evaluation of the Miltgen and Peyrat-Guillard Model

Growing use of the data generated via online social networking sites (SNS) for big data analytics renders the topic of information privacy as a critical concern and calls for a deeper investigation...
What Might an Alternative to the DSM Suitable for Psychotherapists Look Like

Recent research suggests that psychologists and counselors are dissatisfied with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, and open to seeing the development of altern...
Science Training for Journalists: An Essential Tool in the Post-Specialist Era of Journalism

A majority of U.S. adults are concerned about a rise in misinformation regarding current issues and events. The spread of inaccurate information via social media and other sources has coincided with a massive transition in the news industry. Smaller newsrooms now have fewer journalists and their responsibilities have shifted toward producing more stories, more quickly, while contributing to their outlets’ blogs and social media feeds. Lean newsroom budgets also eliminated in-house professional development for journalists, making external training programs an essential vehicle for reporters and editors to gain new content knowledge, sources, and skills in a constantly evolving news landscape. The loss of specialized beat reporters in many newsrooms since the mid-2000s has made training especially critical for journalists covering complex, science-based topics like climate change and public health. In the U.S., relatively few organizations offer science training opportunities for journalists, but the need and demand for these programs is growing as newsrooms increasingly rely on generalist reporters to cover a wide range of scientific topics. This perspective summarizes the challenges non-specialist reporters face in covering science-based stories and describes a successful training model for improving science and environmental news coverage to yield reporting that is not only accurate, but also offers the nuance and context that characterizes meaningful journalism.
Generations X and Y in Law School: Practical Strategies for Teaching the 'MTV/Google' Generation

The current generation of law students, members of Generations X and Y, experienced virtually unprecedented access to technology for their whole lives. The American educational system through which they passed was also fundamentally different from the American educational system earlier generations experienced. These factors have had profound influence on current law students' learning styles. In this article, I address those learning styles in the context of the time-honored educational traditions of law school. I conclude that new approaches to law school teaching are necessary, and I discuss why the often-asserted claim that we simply need more technology in the law school classroom is deeply flawed. By analogizing to the paradigm shift that occurred in mutual fund management and marketing, I establish that successful law teaching depends on law professors who shed the old, authoritarian models of law teaching in favor of being collaborative, approachable "gurus" in the classroom. I also discuss the need to incorporate active learning into the law school experience and suggest some practical strategies for doing so.
Effect of Cold Deformation and Annealing on the Microstructure and Tensile Properties of a HfNbTaTiZr Refractory High Entropy Alloy

The microstructure and tensile properties of HfNbTaTiZr after cold working and annealing were investigated. Cold work was introduced by axial compression followed by rolling resulting in a total thickness reduction of 89 pct without any evidence of cracking. The cold-worked material retained a single-phase microstructure and had a room temperature tensile yield stress σ0.2 = 1438 MPa, peak true stress σp = 1495 MPa, and true fracture strain ef = 5 pct. Annealing at 800 °C for up to 256 hours resulted in the precipitation of Nb and Ta rich particles with a BCC crystal structure inside a Hf-and-Zr-enriched BCC matrix. The second phase particles nucleated heterogeneously inside deformation bands and slip lines and coarsened during annealing. Analysis of the coarsening behavior suggested that kinetics were controlled by the diffusion of Nb and Ta. In the two-phase material, σ0.2 and σp decreased from 1159 to 1071 MPa and from 1174 to 1074 MPa, respectively, with an increase in particle diameter from 0.18 to 0.72 μm, while ef remained between 5 and 8 pct. Full recrystallization and normal grain growth, with the activation energy of 238 kJ/mol and activation volume of 5.3 to 9.6 m3/mol, occurred during annealing above 1000 °C. After heat treatment at this temperature, the alloy was characterized by a single-phase BCC structure with σ0.2 = 1110 to 1115 MPa, σp = 1160 to 1195 MPa, and ef = 12 to 19 pct with the maximum values attained after annealing for 1 hour.
Fatty Acids and Calcium Regulation in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is a widespread malignancy characterized by a comparative ease of primary diagnosis and difficulty in choosing the individualized course of treatment. Management of prostate cancer would benefit from a clearer understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind the transition to the lethal, late-stage forms of the disease, which could potentially yield new biomarkers for differential prognosis and treatment prioritization in addition to possible new therapeutic targets. Epidemiological research has uncovered a significant correlation of prostate cancer incidence and progression with the intake (and often co-intake) of fatty acids and calcium. Additionally, there is evidence of the impact of these nutrients on intracellular signaling, including the mechanisms mediated by the calcium ion as a second messenger. The present review surveys the recent literature on the molecular mechanisms associated with the critical steps in the prostate cancer progression, with special attention paid to the regulation of these processes by fatty acids and calcium homeostasis. Testable hypotheses are put forward that integrate some of the recent results in a more unified picture of these phenomena at the interface of cell signaling and metabolism.
The equilibrium state of the eastern half of the Ross Ice Shelf

Measurements of ice thickness, velocity, snow accumulation rates, and surface strain-rates are used to examine the state of equilibrium of three flow bands of the Ross Ice Shelf. The analysis gives the rate of thickening of the ice shelf in terms of the basal freezing rate, which is unknown. However, indirect evidence suggests that the basal flux ranges from a small value of freezing in the south to a melting rate of about one meter of ice per year at the ice front. If these values are correct then the flow band in the south-east corner of the ice shelf appears to be thickening at an average value of (34 ± 15) cm of ice per year. Persistent thickening at this rate must lead to grounding of large areas of the ice shelf. This would restrict drainage from West Antarctic ice streams which feed this part of the ice shelf and these would tend to thicken and advance their grounding lines into the ice shelf. Further north, near the RISP bore-hole site, the ice shelf is probably in equilibrium. The largest flow band is to the south and east of Roosevelt Island, and this also may be in equilibrium if there is significant bottom melting from ice shelf that is more than 100 km from the ice front.
Preclinical Optical Molecular Imaging

Molecular imaging, especially small-animal preclinical molecular imaging, is a rapidly developing area in the biomedical imaging field [1–3]. Given tremendous needs in biological research and drug development, it becomes imperative to have in vivo imaging strategies for gene expression, protein interactions, and cell behaviours [4]. Molecular imaging has been demonstrated to be instrumental or promising in observing all these biological processes at the cellular and molecular levels. Since optical labelling methods with probes based on fluorescence and bioluminescence have been extensively applied in vitro, it was natural to transfer corresponding strategies to in vivo settings, and there have been successful over the past several years [1, 5].
American Science before the Bomb

The patronage of science by the new national government was barely even an afterthought in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. On September 14, in the final week of the conclave, James Madison of Virginia and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina moved to give the Congress the power “to establish an University.”1 There appears to have been very little debate on the matter –– or perhaps Madison, who took the most detailed notes, suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome –– and the motion was defeated, with four states (Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina) in favor, six (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Georgia) opposed, and Connecticut divided. (The majority of New York’s delegation had left town, and Rhode Island never sent anyone to Philadelphia.)
Towards a Model of Mineral Nutrition in Vitro

The mineral nutrition of plants in vitro is discussed with an emphasis on the mechanisms involved. The process includes the initial supply of minerals, changes which take place in the medium, transport of the minerals to the plant, uptake by the plant and transport through the plant. Based on this outline, the concept of a mechanistic mathematical model of mineral nutrition in vitro is developed providing a focus for future research and possibly the development of improved control systems for automated micropropagation production systems.
Labor Supply and Household Meal Production: New Results from the Health and Retirement Survey

In this paper, I consider how individuals allocate time and monetary resources to meal production when they change the number of hours they spend at work. Using the CAMS supplement to the HRS, I find that individuals who increased the number of hours worked had higher expenditures on groceries and allocate less time to meal preparation at home. Similarly, they have higher expenditures on meals outside the home, while allocating less time to eating out. These results concord well with previous work looking at the effect of retirement on meal production and are consistent with standard models of household production. Up to two-thirds of the changes in meal production seen at retirement can be attributed to the pure intensive effect of working less. That still leaves at one-third to be explained by fixed-costs of employment and the work environment.
Conservative management options for cervical pregnancy; case reports and literature review

Objective To describe three cases of cervical pregnancy treated successfully with different conservative methods and review the literature on conservative treatment of cervical pregnancy over the last 30 years. Methods Three patients treated conservatively for cervical pregnancy are reported. The literature regarding the conservative management of cervical pregnancy since 1965 was compiled using a MEDLINE search for articles published since 1980 and by reviewing the reference lists of published manuscripts. Results Three cases of cervical pregnancy were successfully treated using methotrexate with leucovorin rescue, methotrexate without leucovorin rescue, and curettage after angiographic embolization of the right hypogastric and left uterine arteries. Review of conservatively managed cases of cervical pregnancy since 1965 indicates that medical management with methotrexate and preoperative angiographic embolization of the uterine blood supply, when appropriate, results in successful treatment without the need for transfusion. Conclusions Clinical suspicion of cervical pregnancy early in gestation with preoperative diagnosis may safely allow conservative treatment. Different clinical scenarios may preclude or limit which conservative management options are best for each case.
Causal Distance-Metric-Based Assistance for Debugging after Compiler Fuzzing

Measuring the distance between two program executions is a fundamental problem in dynamic analysis of software, and useful in many test generation and debugging algorithms. This paper proposes a metric for measuring distance between executions, and specializes it to an important application: determining similarity of failing test cases for the purpose of automated fault identification and localization in debugging based on automatically generated compiler tests. The metric is based on a causal concept of distance where executions are similar to the degree that changes in the program itself, introduced by mutation, cause similar changes in the correctness of the executions. Specifically, if two failing test cases (for the original compiler) become successful due to the same mutant, they are more likely to be due to the same fault. We evaluate our metric using more than 50 faults and 2,800 test cases for two widely-used real-world compilers, and demonstrate improvements over state-of-the-art methods for fault identification and localization.
Applying Dynamic Networks to improve learning performances of an evolutionary behavior programming system for mobile robots in dynamic environments

A behavior-based approach has been effectively applied for the design of robot control systems, and evolutionary algorithms have also been implemented as the approach to generate the robot control systems automatically. In this paper, we propose an integration of both concepts as an automatic behavior programming system. By adapting from the idea of Behavior Analysis (Colombetti, Dorigo and Borghi, 1996), Behavioral Modules and Interactions are presented in order to be able to represent behavior-based control systems in programming paradigm. Then, the processes of Genetic Programming are applied to discover the possible behavior-based control systems, which successfully solve the given problems. Moreover, with the intention of improving the learning performances in dynamic environments, the new idea of turning on/off each node in the network stochastically, called Dynamic Networks, is applied. Experimental results show the great potential of our approach.
Frequency of technical success of two-dimensional ultrasound shear wave elastography in a large pediatric and young adult cohort: a clinical effectiveness study

There is a paucity of available literature describing the frequency of technical success of liver two-dimensional (2-D) ultrasound (US) shear wave elastography (SWE) in children and young adults. To determine the frequency of technical success of liver 2-D ultrasound (US) SWE in children and young adults based on the interquartile range (IQR)/median of 10 shear wave speed (SWS) measurements. Clinical 2-D US SWE exams performed between February 2016 and March 2018 were retrospectively identified. Patient age and gender, median/mean liver stiffness (10 SWS measurements), IQR/median, abdominal wall thickness, body mass index (BMI) and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were documented. The number of technically inadequate exams was calculated using three methods: 1) IQR/median >0.3, 2) IQR/median >95th percentile for our study population and 3) statistical outlier identification using the Tukey method. The effect of age, gender, median SWS, abdominal wall thickness, BMI, US transducer and ALT on measurement variability (IQR/median) was assessed using multivariable linear regression. During the study period, 573 exams were performed. Mean age was 12.6±7.1 years; 274 (47.8%) exams were in male patients. Average median liver stiffness was 1.75±0.47 m/s. Based on Methods 1, 2 and 3, 29/573 (5.1%), 28/573 (4.9%, IQR/median cutoff value=0.303) and 30/573 (5.2%) exams were technically inadequate. Predictors of IQR/median included age (P=0.03), abdominal wall thickness (P=0.003), median SWS (P<0.0001) and transducer (P<0.0001). Approximately 95% of liver 2-D US SWE exams are technically successful based on IQR/median in children and young adults.
Thermodynamic simulation of syngas production through combined biomass gasification and methane reformation

Increasing energy demand, decreasing fossil resources and climate change have necessitated the study of sustainable ways to produce energy and fuels. Natural gas, consisting primarily of methane, is a cleaner alternative compared to other fossil fuels and has become cheaper and more abundant over the last decade. Methane reformation can produce syngas for downstream applications but requires significant heat and CO2. Biomass gasification has potential to provide the necessary heat and CO2 through a combined process in which gasifier-derived syngas is used as a reactant in methane reformation. This is studied through thermodynamic simulation and lab-scale experimentation. Simulation showed a 92% increase in gasifier syngas HHV with maximum H2 : CO ratio of 1.75. Experimentally, the HHV increase was 73% compared to raw gasifier syngas, and the maximum H2 : CO ratio was 1.48. Overall, combined methane reformation and biomass gasification has high CH4 and CO2 conversions and produces syngas with more optimal characteristics for future applications.
Enhanced interaction effects in the vicinity of the topological transition

A metal near the topological transition can be loosely viewed as consisting of two groups of electrons. The first group are ``bulk'' electrons occupying most of the Brillouin zone. The second group are electrons with wave vectors close to the topological transition point. Kinetic energy, ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{E}}_{F}$, of electrons of the first group is much bigger than kinetic energy, ${E}_{F}$, of electrons of the second group. With electrons of the second group being slow, the interaction effects are more pronounced for these electrons. We perform a calculation illustrating that electrons of the second group are responsible for inelastic lifetime making it anomalously short, so the concept of quasiparticles applies to these electrons only marginally. We also demonstrate that interactions renormalize the spectrum of electrons in the vicinity of topological transition, the parameters of renormalized spectrum being strongly dependent on the proximity to the transition. Another many-body effect that evolves dramatically as the Fermi level is swept through the transition is the Friedel oscillations of the electron density created by electrons of the second group around an impurity. These oscillations are strongly anisotropic with a period depending on the direction. Scattering of electrons off these oscillations give rise to a temperature-dependent ballistic correction to the conductivity.
The Three Paradigms of Social Organization

The purpose of this paper, which is part of a more general research, is to investigate the determinant factors that often influence or control the changes in the organization of society.
Molybdenum-Promoted Dearomatization of Pyridines

A second-row transition metal complex {MoTp(NO)(DMAP)} (DMAP = 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine; Tp = tris(pyrazolyl)borate) is shown to form dihapto-coordinate complexes with a range of substituted pyrid...
Bayesian Image Analysis in Fourier Space Using Data-Driven Priors (DD-BIFS)

Statistical image analysis is an extensive field that includes problems such as noise-reduction, de-blurring, feature enhancement, and object detection/identification, to name a few. Bayesian image analysis can improve image quality, by balancing a priori expectations of image characteristics, with a model for the noise process via Bayes Theorem. We have previously given a reformulation of the conventional Bayesian image analysis paradigm in Fourier space, i.e. the prior distribution (the prior) and likelihood are given in terms of spatial frequency signals. By specifying the Bayesian model in Fourier space, spatially correlated priors, that are relatively difficult to model and compute in conventional image space, can be efficiently modeled as a set of independent processes across Fourier space. The originally inter-correlated and high-dimensional problem in image space is thereby broken down into a series of (trivially parallelizable) independent one-dimensional problems. In this paper we adapt this Fourier space process into a data-driven framework in which the Fourier space priors are built empirically from a database of images and then used to enhance future images. We will describe the data-driven Bayesian image analysis in Fourier space (DD-BIFS) modeling approach, illustrate it’s computational efficiency and speed. Finally, we give specific applications of DD-BIFS to improve the quality of arterial-spin-labeling (ASL) perfusion images via a database of human brain positron emission tomography (PET) images.
RNA-directed DNA Methylation

RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) is a biological process in which non-coding RNA molecules direct the addition of DNA methylation to specific DNA sequences. The RdDM pathway is unique to plants, although other mechanisms of RNA-directed chromatin modification have also been described in fungi and animals. To date, the RdDM pathway is best characterized within angiosperms (flowering plants), and particularly within the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. However, conserved RdDM pathway components and associated small RNAs (sRNAs) have also been found in other groups of plants, such as gymnosperms and ferns. The RdDM pathway closely resembles other sRNA pathways, particularly the highly conserved RNAi pathway found in fungi, plants, and animals. Both the RdDM and RNAi pathways produce sRNAs and involve conserved Argonaute, Dicer and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase proteins. RdDM has been implicated in a number of regulatory processes in plants. The DNA methylation added by RdDM is generally associated with transcriptional repression of the genetic sequences targeted by the pathway. Since DNA methylation patterns in plants are heritable, these changes can often be stably transmitted to progeny. As a result, one prominent role of RdDM is the stable, transgenerational suppression of transposable element (TE) activity. RdDM has also been linked to pathogen defense, abiotic stress responses, and the regulation of several key developmental transitions. Although the RdDM pathway has a number of important functions, RdDM-defective mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana are viable and can reproduce, which has enabled detailed genetic studies of the pathway. However, RdDM mutants can have a range of defects in different plant species, including lethality, altered reproductive phenotypes, TE upregulation and genome instability, and increased pathogen sensitivity. Overall, RdDM is an important pathway in plants that regulates a number of processes by establishing and reinforcing specific DNA methylation patterns, which can lead to transgenerational epigenetic effects on gene expression and phenotype.
The last mile challenge: Certified seafood and federal labeling laws out of sync at the end of the supply chain in Los Angeles, California

Abstract Seafood certification programs aim to aid consumers in identifying products with reduced environmental impacts and assure accuracy in labeling and traceability, complementary to or in the absence of governmental regulatory action. The most widely recognized seafood certification program is led by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), whose Chain of Custody Standard emphasizes accuracy in fish sourcing from harvest to retail using tracebacks and audits. Here explicit testing was conducted on the labeling accuracy of MSC-certified seafood sold in the world’s second largest seafood importing market, the United States, per stringent application of federal labeling laws. Samples of commonly sold MSC-certified fresh fish were collected from processors (123) and grocers (149) in Los Angeles, California from 2017 to 2019 and identified to species using DNA barcoding. Grocers’ mislabeling rates were statistically higher than those of processors. Most mislabeling was attributed to substitution among congeners or labeling with invalid FDA names. Data-driven recommendations include regular DNA-based testing and greater harmonization between certification programs and federal guidelines, particularly in coordination with supply chain end vendors.