cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Émile: Marshalling passions in training and education

Emotional reasoning can be an important contribution to automated tutoring and training systems. This paper describes Emile, a model of emotional reasoning that builds upon existing approaches and significantly generalizes and extends their capabilities. The main contribution is to show how an explicit planning model allows a more general treatment of several stages of the reasoning process. The model supports educational applications by allowing agents to appraise the emotional significance of events as they relate to students' (or their own) plans and goals, model and predict the emotional state of others, and alter behavior accordingly.
Phenomenological approach to the electrodisintegration of the deuteron

A phenomenological approach to the electrodisintegration of the deuteron is proposed, which is based on the analyticity and unitarity of the transition matrix elements. While, the present paper is mainly concerned with experiments involving onlys waves, it is shown how the approach can be extended to higher waves and to the region of the Hofstadter experiment.
Two New Sterile Species of Loxospora (Sarrameanaceae: Lichenized Ascomycetes) from the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain

Abstract Molecular phylogenetic analyses of mtSSU and nrITS sequence data show that two new crustose species belong to the genus Loxospora. Both species are sterile asexually reproducing crustose lichens from the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain of eastern North America, and are chemically similar to L. lecanoriformis in producing 2-0-methylperlatolic acid. Loxosopora assateaguensis is a sorediate species that is described from a single locality on Assateague Island in Maryland. Loxospora confusa is a granulose-isidiate species that is widespread in the Mid-Atlantic with a disjunct population in the Joccassee Gorges of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Ebstein's Anomaly and Extracardiac Defects

• Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve occurs as an isolated defect with other forms of congenital heart disease such as transposition of the great arteries or tetralogy of Fallot or, rarely, in association with extracardiac malformations. Because so little is known about this latter group, we studied four cases clinically, at autopsy, and by means of a retrospective chart review. Major extracardiac changes most often involved the craniofacial region, central nervous system, and limbs. Karyotypes were normal, and no distinctive syndromes or anatomic patterns were identified. Since the timing of Ebstein's anomaly is quite precise, ascertainment of such cases on the basis of cardiac morphology may enhance the understanding of etiology and pathogenesis. Both causes and mechanisms may well be diverse, for the clinical histories and anatomic findings in present and previously reported cases vary considerably. Isolated Ebstein's anomaly may develop from topographically and temporally localized damage. Ebstein's anomaly with extracardiac defects may involve damage during a longer, and perhaps earlier, period. (AJDC. 1989;143:570-572)
Ceftaroline fosamil for the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

AbstractObjectives: Ceftaroline fosamil is a novel cephalosporin with bactericidal activity against common pathogens associated with hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Ceftaroline is inactive against extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing or AmpC-overexpressing Enterobacteriaceae and has limited activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. CAPTURE is a multicenter, retrospective study designed to collect information on contemporary clinical use of ceftaroline fosamil in the USA. Data on off-label use of ceftaroline fosamil for the treatment of patients with HAP/VAP between September 2013 and March 2014 are presented. Methods: Data were collected at participating study centers by randomized selection and review of patients’ charts, and included patients’ demographics, disease characteristics, pathogens isolated, antibiotic treatment and clinical outcomes. Patients receiving at least four consecutive doses of ceftaroline fosamil, with data available for determination o...
Imperialism, state and social movements in Latin America

The militarised imperialism being consolidated by the Bush Administration forms a pretext for assuring and increasing control over natural resources, the expansion of financial and industrial capital, and the best possible conditions for U.S. trade and investment. The greatest threat facing U.S. imperialism in Latin America is the new wave of social movements that has arisen across the region. Key aspects of this process are outlined including the role of movements led by indigenous peoples' movements, women, youth, poor people, trade unionists, and peasants. Market fundamentalism is shown to play an essential role in the economic and ideological domination of imperialism. Attention is also given to those processes that tend to unify popular struggles across Latin America and it is proposed that immediate actions include an internationalist alliance that refuses any further payment on the foreign debt.
Feedback motion planning via non-holonomic RRT* for mobile robots

Here we present a non-holonomic distance function for unicycle-type vehicles, and use this distance function to extend the optimal path planner RRT* to handle nonholonomic constraints. The critical feature of our proposed distance function is that it is also a control-Lyapunov function. We show that this allows us to construct feedback policies that stabilizes the system to a target pose, and to generate the optimal path that respects the non-holonomic constraints of the system via the non-holonomic RRT*. The composition of the Lyapunov function that is obtained as a result of this planning process provides stabilizing feedback and the cost-to-go to the final destination in the neighborhood of the planned path, adding much flexibility and robustness to the plan.
Host vitamin D status is dependent on the microbiota. (MUC9P.747)

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Mice deficient in vitamin D are more susceptible to experimental colitis than supplemented mice. Vitamin D alters the microbiota suggesting some of the effects of vitamin D on IBD are due to changes in the microbiota. Here we explored how the microbiota affect vitamin D metabolism using germ-free (GF) mice. Vitamin D is converted to 25D3. 25D3 is converted primarily in the kidney to 1,25D3, by 1α-OHase (Cyp27B1), or to 24,25D3 for degradation. Expression of Cyp27B1 was significantly higher in conventional (CV) versus GF kidneys. GF mice were given vehicle or 5μg vitamin D3 for 14 days and then conventionalized while maintaining their respective treatments for another 14 days. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry was used to measure plasma vitamin D3, 25D3, 24,25D3, and 1,25D3 from GF mice before and after conventionalization. Vitamin D supplementation was less effective in GF mice. Conventionalized mice absorbed more vitamin D and had higher 25D3, 1,25D3, and 24,25D3. Furthermore, after correcting for differences in absorption between GF and CV mice, 1,25D3 was still significantly decreased in GF mice. This indicates GF mice neither absorb nor metabolize vitamin D normally. Differences in vitamin D metabolism between GF and CV mice suggest the microbiota play a role in regulating host vitamin D status, which could affect host immune responses and susceptibility to diseases like IBD.
Trypsin-induced phospholipase activity in human platelets

Trypsin mediates a release of arachidonic acid with resultant increase in O2 consumption (a reflection of cyclo-oxygenase activity) by whole human platelets that is similar to thrombin's effect on these cells. The trypsin and thrombin effects can be differentiated in two ways: (1) at saturating concentrations the measured effects of trypsin greatly exceed those of thrombin; (2) EGTA [ethanedioxybis(ethylamine)-NNN'N'-tera-acetate] augments the effect of thrombin but not of trypsin. Thus trypsin and thrombin probably act at different loci in the pathway that induces phospholipase activity in human platelets.
The relationship between clinical, momentary, and sensor-based assessment of depression

The clinical assessment of severity of depressive symptoms is commonly performed with standardized self-report questionnaires, most notably the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), which are usually administered in a clinic. These questionnaires evaluate symptoms that are stable over time. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods, on the other hand, acquire patient ratings of symptoms in the context of their lives. Today's smartphones allow us to also obtain objective contextual information, such as the GPS location, that may also be related to depression. Considering clinical PHQ-9 scores as ground truth, an interesting question is to what extent the EMA ratings and contextual sensor data can be used as potential predictors of depression. To answer this question, we obtained PHQ-9 scores from 18 participants with a variety of depressive symptoms in our lab, and then collected their EMA and GPS sensor data using their smartphones over a period of two weeks. We analyzed the relationship between GPS sensor features, EMA ratings, and the PHQ-9 scores. While we found a strong correlation between a number of sensor features extracted from the two-week period and the PHQ-9 scores, the other relationships remained non-significant. Our results suggest that depression is better evaluated using long-term sensor-based measurements than the momentary ratings of mental state or short-term sensor information.
Mutational and Computational Evidence That a Nickel-Transfer Tunnel in UreD Is Used for Activation of Klebsiella aerogenes Urease

Nickel-containing urease from Klebsiella aerogenes requires four accessory proteins for proper active site metalation. The metallochaperone UreE delivers nickel to UreG, a GTPase that forms a UreD/UreF/UreG complex, which binds to urease apoprotein via UreD. Prior in silico analysis of the homologous, structurally characterized UreH/UreF/UreG complex from Helicobacter pylori identified a water tunnel originating at a likely nickel-binding motif in UreG, passing through UreF, and exiting UreH, suggestive of a role for the channel in providing the metal to urease apoprotein for its activation; however, no experimental support was reported for the significance of this tunnel. Here, specific variants were designed to disrupt a comparable 34.6 A predicted internal tunnel, alternative channels, and surface sites for UreD. Cells producing a set of tunnel-disrupting variants of UreD exhibited greatly reduced urease specific activities, whereas other mutants had no appreciable effect on activity. Affinity pull-dow...
Influence of the Network Geometry on Electron Transport in Nanoparticle Networks

Computer simulations are applied to understand the influence of network geometry on the electron transport dynamics in random nanoparticle networks, and the predicted results are compared with those measured in one class of random nanoparticle networks: dye-sensitized nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cells. The model is applicable to all classes of random nanoparticle networks, such as highly disordered quantum dot arrays. The random nanoparticle networks are simulated by the step-wise condensation of a diffusion-limited aggregate. The fractal dimension of the nanoparticle films was estimated from the simulations to be 2.28, which is in quantitative agreement with gas-sorption measurements of TiO2 nanoparticle films. Electron transport on the computer-generated networks is simulated by random walk. The experimental measurements and random-walk simulations are found to be in quantitative agreement. For both a power-law dependence of the electron diffusion coefficient D on the film porosity P is found as described by the relation: D ∝ | P-Pc |µ. This power-law relation can also be derived from percolation theory, although only qualitatively. The critical porosity Pc (percolation threshold) and the conductivity exponent µ are found to be 0.76 ± 0.01 and 0.82 ± 0.05, respectively. It is estimated that during their respective transit through 50 and 75% porous 10-µm thick films as employed in the dye-cell, the average number of particles visited by electrons increases by 10-fold, from 106 to 107.
Smoking is associated with higher cardiovascular risk in young women than in men: the Tecumseh Blood Pressure Study.

BackgroundTobacco smoking is associated with a higher prevalence of atherosclerosis and respiratory disease.ObjectiveTo investigate differences between hemodynamic and biochemical findings in smokers and nonsmokers in the two sexes separately in the Tecumseh population.MethodsWe studied 851 subjects
Susceptibility of the Confused and Red Flour Beetles to Anoxia Produced by Helium and Nitrogen at Various Temperatures

Investigations were conducted to determine the relative susceptibility of different stages of Tribolium confusum Jacquelin duVal and T. castaneum (Herbst) to 100% helium or nitrogen, The adult stage was the most susceptible, followed by larval, egg, and pupal stages, T. castaneum adults were slightly more susceptible to 100% He or N2 than adults of T. confusum . Helium was comparatively more toxic than nitrogen, especially to the adults at lower relative humidity. Increasing the relative humidity from 38 to 100% decreased the susceptibility of T. confusum and T. castaneum adults to the gases tested. On the other hand, increasing exposure temperature from 15.6 to 21.1 to 26.7°C resulted in increased susceptibility of beetles to anoxia produced by nitrogen or helium. Toxicity of 100% He or N2 atmosphere may be due to the combined deleterious effects of anoxia and inert gas narcosis.
Dynamic Behavior of Initially-Stressed and Post-Buckled Laminated Composite Beams

The vibration response (natural frequencies and damping) of a preand post-buckled laminated composite beam as a result of an axial compression force is studied both analytically as well as experimentally. In the analytical development, the simply-supported laminated composite beam is modeled using a nonlinear Timoshenko beam theory and solved using the Galerkin method. It was shown that the post-buckled beam vibrational behavior is inverse the behavior of the pre-buckled beam vibrational behavior. Thus, as one applies an increasing compression load to a prebuckled beam, the natural frequencies decrease, while the modal damping increases from underdamped to overdamped. As this load approaches the buckling load, the beam natural frequency goes to zero, while the modal damping approaches infinity. Once the beam deforms into its post-bucked state, then further increases in the compression loading causes an increase in the beam bending natural frequency and a corresponding decrease in the modal damping from overdamped back to underdamped. The natural frequency and damping of the post-buckled beam approach that of the initially unloaded beam as the beam deformation is fully collapsed. Experimental testing of a compressively loaded graphite/epoxy beam validate these trends for both the pre-buckled and post-buckled conditions. These results are of interest to designers of compressively loaded composite structures that are subject to buckling, for example fuselage and wing skins that are subjected to dynamic loads.
Spatiotemporal Evolution of Fixed and Mobile Dopant Populations in Silica Thin-Film Gradients as Revealed by Single Molecule Tracking

Investigations of single molecule diffusion and entrapment within sol−gel-derived silica thin film gradients are reported for the first time. Gradient films were prepared on silica-sublayer-coated ...
Effects of Fly Ash and Sewage Sludge Amendments on Transport of Metals in Different Soils

Utilization of coal combustion by-products as agricultural soil amendments is of considerable importance not only as an avenue to dispose these by-products but also to explore the potential advantages as sources of some plant nutrients and to improve soil physical and chemical properties. Although some studies have shown the benefits of using Fly Ash (FA) as an agricultural soil amendment, this source generally is low in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Therefore, combining FA with another by-product which contains relatively high concentration of N and P would increase the nutrient value of the former, thereby, increase its beneficial effects on plant growth and/or production. Sewage sludge (SS) generally contains N and P, and is also slightly acidic in reaction, unlike the FA which is very alkaline. Therefore, mixing SS with FA can supplement the plant essential nutrients which are lacking in FA, and can also neutralize FA high alkalinity, counteract to some extent high pH of the FA. Accordingly, the addition of a mixture of FA and SS has greater potential benefits for plant growth as compared to single application of either of the products. Since some of the industrial by-products may contain high concentrations of heavy metals, the potential for increased accumulation of heavy metals in the soil and potential adverse effects on the crop plants are major concerns. Soil solution displacement method has been adapted to evaluate the available forms of metals in soil solution of an Orangeburg loamy sand and a Candler fine sand, with application of either 24.7, 49.4, 98.8 or 148.2 Mg ha-1 of 1: 1 (wt: wt) mixture of FA and SS. Two additional treatments were included with application of 74.1 Mg ha-1 each of FA or SS. The results of this study showed that the total quantities of metals in leachate, in seven successive displacement of 220mL volume each (total of 1,540mL), were generally greater when the amendment was applied to a Candler fine sand compared to an Orangeburg loamy sand, with the exception of Al. Furthermore, the combined quantities of metals displaced with addition of 74.1 Mg ha-1 each of FA or SS were lower than that displaced with addition of 148.2 Mg ha-1 of 1: 1 mixture of FA and SS. Therefore, it appears that the combined addition of FA and SS favored some retention of the metals in the soil compared to addition of each of the amendments separately.
Cell Class-Lineage Analysis Reveals Sexually Dimorphic Lineage Compositions in the Drosophila Brain.

Summary The morphology and physiology of neurons are directed by developmental decisions made within their lines of descent from single stem cells. Distinct stem cells may produce neurons having shared properties that define their cell class, such as the type of secreted neurotransmitter. The relationship between cell class and lineage is complex. Here we developed the transgenic cell class-lineage intersection (CLIn) system to assign cells of a particular class to specific lineages within the Drosophila brain. CLIn also enables birth-order analysis and genetic manipulation of particular cell classes arising from particular lineages. We demonstrated the power of CLIn in the context of the eight central brain type II lineages, which produce highly diverse progeny through intermediate neural progenitors. We mapped 18 dopaminergic neurons from three distinct clusters to six type II lineages that show lineage-characteristic neurite trajectories. In addition, morphologically distinct dopaminergic neurons are produced within a given lineage, and they arise in an invariant sequence. We also identified type II lineages that produce doublesex - and fruitless -expressing neurons and examined whether female-specific apoptosis in these lineages accounts for the lower number of these neurons in the female brain. Blocking apoptosis in these lineages resulted in more cells in both sexes with males still carrying more cells than females. This argues that sex-specific stem cell fate together with differential progeny apoptosis contribute to the final sexual dimorphism.
CRITICAL READING OF SURVIVING STRUCTURES STARTING FROM OLD STUDIES FOR NEW RECONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSAL OF THE ROMAN THEATRE OF CATANIA

The Graeco-Roman theatre of Catania stands in the heart of the historic centre, on the south-eastern slopes of the hill of Montevergine. The building visible today was built during the Julio-Claudian period as part of a programme that saw the rebuilding of the monument, which probably used structures and materials from the earlier Greek theatre. The work undertaken over more than fifty years, involving expropriation, demolition, excavation, and restoration, has, on the whole, made it possible to bring to light the surviving parts of the theatre, improving the comprehension of this monument, despite the fact that some sectors have been irreparably compromised.
FastGeo: Efficient Geometric Range Queries on Encrypted Spatial Data

Spatial data have wide applications, e.g., location-based services, and geometric range queries (i.e., finding points inside geometric areas, e.g., circles or polygons) are one of the fundamental search functions over spatial data. The rising demand of outsourcing data is moving large-scale datasets, including large-scale spatial datasets, to public clouds. Meanwhile, due to the concern of insider attackers and hackers on public clouds, the privacy of spatial datasets should be cautiously preserved while querying them at the server side, especially for location-based and medical usage. In this paper, we formalize the concept of Geometrically Searchable Encryption , and propose an efficient scheme, named FastGeo , to protect the privacy of clients’ spatial datasets stored and queried at a public server. With FastGeo, which is a novel two-level search for encrypted spatial data, an honest-but-curious server can efficiently perform geometric range queries, and correctly return data points that are inside a geometric range to a client without learning sensitive data points or this private query. FastGeo supports arbitrary geometric areas, achieves sublinear search time, and enables dynamic updates over encrypted spatial datasets. Our scheme is provably secure, and our experimental results on real-world spatial datasets in cloud platform demonstrate that FastGeo can boost search time over 100 times.
Terrorism via Democracy? Assessing Democracy Promotion as a Security Rationale

Democracy promotion has been a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War and has been utilized to combat political extremism and transitional terrorist violence. This strategy assumes as democratic processes inhere within domestic politics and state institutions that the occurrence of terrorist acts will be less likely. As empirical data and case studies demonstrate, this assumption is misleading at best. A review of the literature concerning correlational studies on transnational terrorism and democracy illustrates that the presence of democracyâ€”especially newly established, weaker democracyâ€”often leads to terrorist violence more easily than authoritarianism where excessive rule of law preempts terrorist groups from organizing and carrying out violent political acts. The cases of India and China are reviewed to demonstrate that social and religious division, multipartism, and the tendency toward extremism are more accurate predictors of terrorist attacks. Democracy promotion is a worthy strategy and should remain one of the pillars of U.S. foreign policy, but should not be seen as a solution to the problem of transnational terrorism.
Does wall street affect main street? examining potential spillovers from investor stock market sentiment to personal consumption expenditures

Investor sentiment rather than aggregate stock wealth predicts changes in non-durable consumer spending across different economic cycles above and beyond housing wealth, labor income, and other macro-economic factors. A statistically and economically significant positive contemporaneous relationship exists between investor sentiment and current nondurable spending, whereas sentiment negatively predicts later spending. Consumers adjust their spending patterns along with sentiment about the stock market, then reverse sentiment-based consumption smoothing when biased market expectations do not come to fruition. Investors’ biased beliefs about stock returns affect consumers purchasing decisions and, thus, the overall .
Visual Tracking Methods for Improved Sequential Image-Based Object Detection

This paper applies the random finite set based multi-Bernoulli filter with a detectionless likelihood function to frame-to-frame tracking of space objects observed in electro-optical imagery for sp...
The Effect of Topical Substance-P Plus Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) on Epithelial Healing After Photorefractive Keratectomy in Rabbits.

Purpose To determine whether topical Substance-P (SP) plus insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) can improve corneal healing after photorefractive surface ablation in a rabbit. Methods After a 9.0-mm corneal de-epithelialization using a combination of chemical (18% alcohol) and mechanical debridement, excimer photorefractive surface ablation was performed bilaterally in eight rabbits (16 eyes) with an 8.0-mm ablation zone and 70-μm depth. The right eye was treated with SP (250 μg/mL) and IGF-1 (25 ng/mL) in hyaluronic acid, one drop twice a day, and the other eye treated with only hyaluronic acid. The epithelial healing process was documented photographically twice a day until healing was complete. Six rabbits were sacrificed 6 weeks after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and corneas examined histologically. Results Seven of eight rabbit eyes treated with SP/IGF-1 healed in a shorter time than the untreated eye. For rabbit #6, both eyes healed at the same time. The average healing time (total time until wound closure) for the treated eyes was 99 hours, while the average healing time for the untreated eyes was 170 hours (P = 0.0490). A persistent epithelial defect was found in two of the nontreated eyes but none in the treated eyes. Corneal pathology showed some degree of epithelial separation in the central corneal wound in three out of six nontreated eyes and in just the treated eye of rabbit #6. Conclusion Topical SP plus IGF-1 increases the epithelial healing rate after PRK. There may have been beneficial effects upon cell adhesion as well. Translational relevance Better and faster healing.
Bridging the Digital Divide: One Smartphone at a Time.

Growing use of smartphones among low-literacy/low-income urban populations is increasing access to the internet for this group, a group that has been historically disadvantaged in terms of internet access. This digital divide has had enormous historical importance and many negative practical effects on health, income, civic participation, and education [1, 2, 3, 4]. While providing internet access through libraries made the internet available to many people, library-based access to the internet did not guarantee its use (i.e., penetration). Now that the rise of smart phones [5] is finally narrowing the access gap, we need to understand how adults with low literacy/low income are using smart phones. What are their assumptions about the internet? What do they value? What barriers to successful use persist?
Abstract 5879: Effect of Minnelide, a prodrug, on cervical cancer growth

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection is associated with the development of Cervical cancer. Therapeutic resistance and recurrence remain the major obstacle to successful treatment of cervical cancer patients. Recently, a novel pro-drug Minnelide, derived from the diterpenoid triepoxide, triptolide, was found to be very effective against several human cancers in experimental animal models. The goal of the present study is to determine the effect of triptolide (in vitro) or Minnelide (in vivo) on HPV positive cervical cancer cells. Triptolide inhibited the proliferation of human cervical cancer cell lines, Ca Ski, SiHa, Me-180, and C-33a with an IC50 of 50 - 100 nM. Furthermore, triptolide inhibited the expression of viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 transcripts significantly. Consequently, p53, tumor suppressor protein levels were increased in the treated cells which led to increased apoptosis and reduced proliferation. Subsequently, we determined the effect of Minnelide on cervical cancer growth in athymic, nude mice. Tumor (SiHa and CaSki) bearing mice were treated with either 0.2 or 0.4 ug/kg doses of Minnelide. These studies showed that Minnelide inhibited tumor growth by about 70 % when compared to control group of mice and improved survival significantly. In a parallel study, combination treatment with carboplatin and Minnelide showed more than additive inhibition of tumor growth. In summary, Minnelide treatment reduced the transcript levels of HPV oncoproteins and inhibited cellular proliferation by upregulating p53. Our studies further demonstrate that Minnelide can be used either as a monotherapy or in combination with platinum drugs to inhibit the growth of cervical cancers. Citation Format: Vivek Ramakrishnan, Bhuwan Giri, Urvashi Hooda, Peter Wilkinson, Christopher deHaydu, Janneth Oleas, Sabita Roy, Sundaram Ramakrishnan, Ashok Saluja. Effect of Minnelide, a prodrug, on cervical cancer growth [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5879.
Evolutionary Impacts of Alternative Transposition

With the development of rapid DNA-sequencing techniques, more and more eukaryotic genomes are sequenced, assembled, and annotated. Now, we know that many eukaryotic genomes are large, highly repetitive, and very complex. One question that remains is what evolutionary forces generate the complexity of eukaryotic genomes? In this chapter, we discuss one of the possible answers to this question: the capacity of transposable elements to induce diverse genomic recombinations through various transposition reactions. Transposable elements (TEs or transposons) are DNA sequences that can move from one genomic location to another, and they are highly represented in most eukaryotic genomes. TEs are often called “junk DNA” because most copies are silenced and have no obvious function; however, various studies have indicated that TEs have made major contributions to shaping eukaryotic genomes and regulating gene expression. We show that TE transpositions can induce a variety of genome rearrangements including deletion, inversion, duplication, and translocation. These occur as direct products of alternative transposition pathways. Unlike standard transposition which involves only one transposon, alternative transposition involves two distinct TEs, undergoes more complicated movements, and generates more significant genome structure variations. Here, we describe various types of alternative transposition pathways, the diverse genome rearrangements they generate, and their potential role in the process of genome evolution.
Comparison of Polypropylene and Bioabsorbable Mesh for Abdominal Wall Reinforcement Following Microsurgical Breast Reconstruction

Background Abdominal wall morbidity following microvascular breast reconstruction continues to be an area of interest due to both functional and aesthetic concerns. Donor-site closure technique has been shown to affect bulge and hernia rates and ranges from primary closure to various uses of mesh. Few studies to date have compared types of mesh. The present study compares BARD polypropylene to bioabsorbable GORE Bio-A (polyglycolic acid/trimethylene carbonate) mesh used as a fascial underlay with primary fascial closure. Methods A retrospective review of all consecutive deep inferior epigastric artery-based microvascular breast reconstructions, including perforator and muscle-sparing flaps, performed between September 2014 and February 2017 was performed. All patients underwent primary fascial closure with mesh underlay. Risk factors for the formation of an abdominal bulge or hernia were identified by multivariate logistic regression. Results Eighty-seven patients, with 123 abdominal donor sites, were included. Heavy-weight polypropylene mesh was used for 58 donor sites, while polyglycolic acid/trimethylene carbonate mesh was used in 65 donor sites. The overall incidence of bulge or hernia was 11.4%. The bioabsorbable cohort experienced significantly more bulges/hernias than the polypropylene mesh cohort (20% vs. 1.7% by donor site). Time to diagnosis of bulge was longer for the bioabsorbable group (219 ± 107 vs. 69 days). Flap type and perforator row were not associated with bulge/hernia. The polyglycolic acid/trimethylene carbonate mesh was associated with a 13.3-fold risk of bulge/hernia ( p = 0.016). Conclusion Polyglycolic acid/trimethylene carbonate mesh is not appropriate for anterior rectus fascia reinforcement following abdominal tissue transfer.
COMMENTARY: Beyond the Black Box Revisited: Algorithmic Trading and TCA Analysis Using Excel

In this paper we revisit techniques from “Creating Dynamic Pre-Trade Models: Beyond the Black Box” (Kissell, 2011) which was awarded The Journal of Trading’s Best Paper of the Year Award in 2011. We provide investors a pre-trade of pre-trade modeling technique that can be used to decipher broker and vendor models, and to calibrate a customized investor specific market impact model. We also provide a suite of Excel TCA Add-In functions that can incorporate investor specific market impact parameters and allow investors to perform TCA analysis on their own desktops within Excel, and with the added level of security and comfort that their investment decision process will not be reverse engineered because they do not need to upload or transmit any of their proprietary information and valuable trade information to a third-party website or API for analysis. Techniques in this paper enable investors to create their own customized TCA analyses within Excel to assist with both trading decisions and portfolio analysis and optimization.
Performance Assessment and Modification of an Adaptive Model Predictive Control for Automated Insulin Delivery by a Multivariable Artificial Pancreas

A controller-performance-assessment algorithm is developed to analyze the closed-loop behavior and modify the parameters of a control system employed in automated insulin delivery. To this end, various performance indices are defined to quantitatively evaluate the controller efficacy in real-time. The controller assessment and modification module also incorporates online learning from historical data to anticipate impending disturbances and proactively counteract their effects. A dynamic safety constraint derived from estimates of the physiological states ensures safety of the controlled drug dosing. Using a multivariable simulation platform for type 1 diabetes mellitus, the controller assessment and modification module is applied to the problem of regulating glucose concentrations in people with diabetes by means of automated insulin delivery with an artificial pancreas, and the results demonstrate the improvement in controller performance using the performance-assessment module.
Discovering associations between problem list and practice setting

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) has greatly accelerated the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) with the promise of better clinical decisions and patients’ outcomes. One of the core criteria for “Meaningful Use” of EHRs is to have a problem list that shows the most important health problems faced by a patient. The implementation of problem lists in EHRs has a potential to help practitioners to provide customized care to patients. However, it remains an open question on how to leverage problem lists in different practice settings to provide tailored care, of which the bottleneck lies in the associations between problem list and practice setting. In this study, using sampled clinical documents associated with a cohort of patients who received their primary care at Mayo Clinic, we investigated the associations between problem list and practice setting through natural language processing (NLP) and topic modeling techniques. Specifically, after practice settings and problem lists were normalized, statistical χ2 test, term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and enrichment analysis were used to choose representative concepts for each setting. Then Latent Dirichlet Allocations (LDA) were used to train topic models and predict potential practice settings using similarity metrics based on the problem concepts representative of practice settings. Evaluation was conducted through 5-fold cross validation and Recall@k, Precision@k and F1@k were calculated. Our method can generate prioritized and meaningful problem lists corresponding to specific practice settings. For practice setting prediction, recall increases from 0.719 (k = 2) to 0.931 (k = 10), precision increases from 0.882 (k = 2) to 0.931 (k = 10) and F1 increases from 0.790 (k = 2) to 0.931 (k = 10). To our best knowledge, our study is the first attempting to discover the association between the problem lists and hospital practice settings. In the future, we plan to investigate how to provide more tailored care by utilizing the association between problem list and practice setting revealed in this study.
Anthropogenic alterations to the global carbon cycle and climate change

Abstract The Earth receives a large amount of radiant energy from the sun and about 30% of this energy is reflected. The longer wave infrared radiation does not penetrate back through the atmosphere as efficiently as did the incident radiation. The reflected heat is absorbed by water vapor and carbon dioxide thereby warming the Earth. Anthropogenic activities result in increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), collectively known as greenhouse gases, causing the Earth to grow warmer. The consequences of the greenhouse effect are evidenced in the rising records of global temperature and atmospheric CO2. Over the past 150 years, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have risen from ∼270 ppm to over 415 ppm today. Resulting changes in carbon chemistry, precipitation, and temperature will lead to largescale adjustments in the distribution of vegetation, global net primary production, agricultural productivity, ocean acidification, ocean warming, and sea level rise.
Natural History of Schizophrenia

Having a good understanding of the natural history of schizophrenia, admittedly an abstraction, allows clinicians to make a correct diagnosis based on the longitudinal history. In this chapter, I describe the clinical phases of schizophrenia that need to be recognized, particularly the prodromal phase of schizophrenia that often begins with non-specific symptoms several years before schizophrenia declares itself with the onset of frank psychosis. A corresponding phase exists in chronic patients, where an impending relapse is heralded by non-specific early warning sign. This chapter also discussing the problem of prognostication as schizophrenia has many possible outcomes, ranging from a restitutio ad integrum in about 20–30% of cases to severe, unremitting illness in 10% of cases. For most patients treated schizophrenia is a manageable illness, particularly if help is provided when needed.
Introducing students to healthy aging within their own communities: An online applied research experience.

Engaging gerontology students in research that hits “close-to-home” can have lasting benefits for them and their communities both professionally and personally. Since 2016, cohorts of undergraduate...
Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups.

A fundamental puzzle of human evolution is how we evolved to cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers in transient interactions. Group-level selection on culturally differentiated populations is one proposed explanation. We evaluate a central untested prediction of Cultural Group Selection theory, by assessing whether readiness to cooperate between individuals from different groups corresponds to the degree of cultural similarity between those groups. We documented the normative beliefs and cooperative dispositions of 759 individuals spanning nine clans nested within four pastoral ethnic groups of Kenya—the Turkana, Samburu, Rendille and Borana. We find that cooperation between groups is predicted by how culturally similar they are, suggesting that norms of cooperation in these societies have evolved under the influence of group-level selection on cultural variation. Such selection acting over human evolutionary history may explain why we cooperate readily with unrelated and unfamiliar individuals, and why humans’ unprecedented cooperative flexibility is nevertheless culturally parochial. The authors here show that readiness to cooperate between individuals from different groups corresponds to the degree of cultural similarity between those groups. This is consistent with the theory of Cultural Group Selection as an explanation for the rise of human large-scale cooperation.
Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design : Sound Design and Audio Implementation for Interactive and Immersive Media

Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design is a comprehensive introduction to the art of sound for games and interactive media using Unity. This accessible guide encompasses both the conceptual challenges of the artform as well as the technical and creative aspects, such as sound design, spatial audio, scripting, implementation and mixing. Beginning with basic techniques, including linear and interactive sound design, before moving on to advanced techniques, such as procedural audio, Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design is supplemented by a host of digital resources, including a library of ready-to-use, adaptable scripts. This thorough introduction provides the reader with the skills and tools to combat the potential challenges of game audio independently. Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design is the perfect primer for beginner- to intermediate-level readers with a basic understanding of audio production and Unity who want to learn how to gain a foothold in the exciting world of game and interactive audio.
The value of health communication scholarship: New directions for health communication inquiry.

Abstract This article provides an overview of the development and growth of the exciting and relevant academic field of health communication scholarship. The key areas of health communication study are described, as are the important applications of this work for promoting health. Key areas for health communication scholarship are examined, such as the promotion of health equity for vulnerable and at-risk populations who often experience serious disparities in health outcomes. The importance of studying the effective dissemination of relevant health information across diverse communication channels and media is also examined. The value of multi-methodological and translational health communication research is explored as an important scholarly process for generating relevant health communication data for guiding evidence-based health communication policies and practices. The need to conduct rigorous health communication research across the continuum of care (prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life) is explained. The paper concludes with a description of the value of health communication inquiry for addressing important health issues locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
Hypertension and Atrial Fibrillation in African Americans

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in clinical practice. Over 2.3 million adults in the USA have AF, and the number is expected to more than double in the next few decades. Approximately two-thirds of all emergency department visits with a primary diagnosis of AF result in hospital admissions, and 35 % of all hospital admissions for arrhythmia are attributable to AF. During the past 20 years, hospital admissions for AF have increased by 66 %. The high healthcare resource utilization rates of AF patients have imposed a substantial cost burden on the healthcare system. In 2001, the total annual costs for treatment of AF were estimated at US$6.65 billion. Planning and budgeting for future healthcare expenditure imposed by AF require clear understanding of the epidemiology of AF in the rapidly growing nonwhite races/ethnicities in the USA.
First results from an uncooled LWIR polarimeter for cubesat deployment

A compact long-wave infrared (LWIR) channeled spectro-polarimeter (IRCSP) has been developed for integration into the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) funded submm-wave and LWIR polarimeters project to measure the microphysical properties of cloud ice. Once deployed, the IRCSP will produce the first linear Stokes measurements ( S0 , S1 , S2 ) of upper-tropospheric cirrus clouds from 8.5 to 12.5 μm. For the first time, a compact, light-weight, and uncooled LWIR polarimeter with off-the-shelf thermal optical components is demonstrated. We report narrowband calibration measurements which quantify metrics of polarimetric system performance. The response of the system to linearly polarized light is shown to agree with both a Mueller matrix model and modulation function for narrowband calibration measurements with an R2 > 0.98 from 8 to 11 μm. The polarimetric efficiency is >0.8 from 8 to 11 μm for narrowband measurements indicating satisfactory performance of the polarization optics. Beyond 11 μm, the agreement is significantly reduced as thermal noise compounds with reduced detector response. Ultimately, the observed system performance is limited by the spectral response of the detector past 11 μm in addition to the thermal noise inherent for the measurements at room temperature.
The Effect of Price Advertising and Prices: Evidence in the Wake of 44 Liquormart

The world's population is living longer but retiring earlier, and vast numbers of adults now spend as much as 1/3 of their lifetimes relying on public and private retirement benefits. Consequently, labor economists are interested in the forces driving retirement behavior, seeking to understand why people leave their jobs at young ages, how employers respond to an aging workforce, how government programs often induce job-leaving, and the economic consequences of retirement for individuals and society. This paper examines new developments in retirement economics, focusing first on retirement trends and retiree well-being. We next turn to theoretical developments in the retirement literature where new models have enriched our understanding of the role of worker heterogeneity and uncertainty about health and productivity shocks. Lastly, we review some of the lessons that may be drawn from the empirical analysis of retirement patterns undertaken over the last decade, showing how natural experiments and exciting new longitudinal datasets afford new opportunities to learn about the demand for and supply of older workers. We conclude that future researchers would do well to explore how retirement decisions are made in a household context, and to integrate saving as well as consumption in the labor supply decision. In addition we argue that much remains to be learned about how workers form expectations regarding their future retirement well-being, and about how they adapt when circumstances need to be adjusted due to changes in economic, health, family, and other circumstances.