cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
High resolution tracking of non-rigid 3D motion of densely sampled data using harmonic maps

We present a novel fully automatic method for high resolution, nonrigid dense 3D point tracking. High quality dense point clouds of nonrigid geometry moving at video speeds are acquired using a phase-shifting structured light ranging technique. To use such data for the temporal study of subtle motions such as those seen in facial expressions, an efficient nonrigid 3D motion tracking algorithm is needed to establish inter-frame correspondences. The novelty of this paper is the development of an algorithmic framework for 3D tracking that unifies tracking of intensity and geometric features, using harmonic maps with added feature correspondence constraints. While the previous uses of harmonic maps provided only global alignment, the proposed introduction of interior feature constraints guarantees that nonrigid deformations are accurately tracked as well. The harmonic map between two topological disks is a diffeomorphism with minimal stretching energy and bounded angle distortion. The map is stable, insensitive to resolution changes and is robust to noise. Due to the strong implicit and explicit smoothness constraints imposed by the algorithm and the high-resolution data, the resulting registration/deformation field is smooth, continuous and gives dense one-to-one inter-frame correspondences. Our method is validated through a series of experiments demonstrating its accuracy and efficiency.
FPGA implementation of a Bartlett direction of arrival algorithm for a 5.8ghz circular antenna array

This paper presents the design and prototyping of a Bartlett direction of arrival algorithm for an adaptive array antenna system using a Xilinx Virtex-5 FX70 FPGA. The algorithm was prototyped in both full custom VHDL hardware and in a Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processor to analyze the performance tradeoffs between hardware and software implementations. The design was tested using an 8-element circular antenna testbed. The implementation and analysis presented in this work will aid system designers to understand the tradeoffs between implementing algorithms in custom hardware versus in an embedded system and when a hybrid approach is more advantageous. 1 2
Ocean color spectra measured off the Oregon coast: characteristic vectors

The ocean color spectrum is defined as the ratio of the spectrum of light upwelled from the sea to the spectrum of light incident on the sea surface. Ocean color spectra, observed from an airplane flown over waters off Oregon, are analyzed. The original spectra are resolved into fifty-five wavelength bands, each 5 nm wide. The shapes of these spectra are parameterized by, and shown to be accurately recoverable from, their first four principal components. These components are the scalar projections of each spectrum on the first four characteristic vectors of the sample covariance matrix. Regression equations are found with which phytoplankton pigment concentration and water transparency may be estimated as linear functions of the principal components. Pigment concentration estimates thus obtained are imprecise. The poor fit is at least partly due to the inappropriateness of the linear regression model and the neglect of other optically important substances typically present in sea water.
Capillary electrophoresis with post-column addition of terbium and sensitized lanthanide-ion luminescence detection for the determination of diflunisal and salicylic acid

A detection scheme based on the Post-column addition of terbium followed by sensitized luminescence detection has been developed. Two model Compounds- saliculic acid and diflunisa- were separated by capillary electophoresis in an alkaline phosphate buffer. A Solution containing terbium and CTAB was added post-column via a “home-built” reactor resulting in the rapid fromation of the strongly luminescent terbium-salicylic acid and terbium-diflunisal complexes in a reaction capillary. Following complexationn in the reaction capillarty, the 325 nm line from a HeCd laser was used to excite the analytes which efficiently transfer their energy to terebium. Resuulant luminescence of terebium was liner of 2 orders of magnitude. This novel and practical system enables the detection of micromolar concentrations of diflunisal and salicylic acid- a 10 fold improvement over UV absorbance detection in the same system. Post-column addition of terbium also eliminates the problems associated with strong adsorption of the lanthanide ion to the silica walls of the separation capillary and the formation of metal-ligand complexes with different coordination numbers.
Integrated Approach to Malaria Control

Malaria draws global attention in a cyclic manner, with interest and associated financing waxing and waning according to political and humanitarian concerns. Currently we are on an upswing, which should be carefully developed. Malaria parasites have been eliminated from Europe and North America through the use of residual insecticides and manipulation of environmental and ecological characteristics; however, in many tropical and some temperate areas the incidence of disease is increasing dramatically. Much of this increase results from a breakdown of effective control methods developed and implemented in the 1960s, but it has also occurred because of a lack of trained scientists and control specialists who live and work in the areas of endemic infection. Add to this the widespread resistance to the most effective antimalarial drug, chloroquine, developing resistance to other first-line drugs such as sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, and resistance of certain vector species of mosquito to some of the previously effective insecticides and we have a crisis situation. Vaccine research has proceeded for over 30 years, but as yet there is no effective product, although research continues in many promising areas. A global strategy for malaria control has been accepted, but there are critics who suggest that the single strategy cannot confront the wide range of conditions in which malaria exists and that reliance on chemotherapy without proper control of drug usage and diagnosis will select for drug resistant parasites, thus exacerbating the problem. An integrated approach to control using vector control strategies based on the biology of the mosquito, the epidemiology of the parasite, and human behavior patterns is needed to prevent continued upsurge in malaria in the endemic areas.
Key Role of Group V Secreted Phospholipase A2 in Th2 Cytokine and Dendritic Cell-Driven Airway Hyperresponsiveness and Remodeling

Background Previous work has shown that disruption of the gene for group X secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2-X) markedly diminishes airway hyperresponsiveness and remodeling in a mouse asthma model. With the large number of additional sPLA2s in the mammalian genome, the involvement of other sPLA2s in the asthma model is possible – in particular, the group V sPLA2 (sPLA2-V) that like sPLA2-X is highly active at hydrolyzing membranes of mammalian cells. Methodology and Principal Findings The allergen-driven asthma phenotype was significantly reduced in sPLA2-V-deficient mice but to a lesser extent than observed previously in sPLA2-X-deficient mice. The most striking difference observed between the sPLA2-V and sPLA2-X knockouts was the significant impairment of the primary immune response to the allergen ovalbumin (OVA) in the sPLA2-V−/− mice. The impairment in eicosanoid generation and dendritic cell activation in sPLA2-V−/− mice diminishes Th2 cytokine responses in the airways. Conclusions This paper illustrates the diverse roles of sPLA2s in the immunopathogenesis of the asthma phenotype and directs attention to developing specific inhibitors of sPLA2-V as a potential new therapy to treat asthma and other allergic disorders.
A Clash of Methodology and Ethics in `Undercover' Social Science

A focus of criticism on methodological and ethical grounds, the undercover or `covert' approach to fieldwork persists as a useful technique in certain settings. Questions remain about the credibility of the published findings from such work. Covert researchers nearly always protect the anonymity of their subjects and locations. Other researchers cannot validate the covert researcher's claims, yet ethical guidelines often insist that researchers demonstrate the benefits that derive from a covert study. If researchers cannot show that their studies will prove beneficial, ethical standards will weigh against the study, on the presumption that the omission of informed consent should be counterbalanced by the scientific rewards of the research. An attempt to open the results to greater peer investigation might place subjects at risk of unwanted notoriety or even danger. There does not seem to be a way that covert research can meet ethical guidelines unless we adjust our conceptions of research, ethics, or both.
Environmental changes bridge evolutionary valleys.

In the basic fitness landscape metaphor for molecular evolution, evolutionary pathways are presumed to follow uphill steps of increasing fitness. How evolution can cross fitness valleys is an open question. One possibility is that environmental changes alter the fitness landscape such that low-fitness sequences reside on a hill in alternate environments. We experimentally test this hypothesis on the antibiotic resistance gene TEM-15 β-lactamase by comparing four evolutionary strategies shaped by environmental changes. The strategy that included initial steps of selecting for low antibiotic resistance (negative selection) produced superior alleles compared with the other three strategies. We comprehensively examined possible evolutionary pathways leading to one such high-fitness allele and found that an initially deleterious mutation is key to the allele’s evolutionary history. This mutation is an initial gateway to an otherwise relatively inaccessible area of sequence space and participates in higher-order, positive epistasis with a number of neutral to slightly beneficial mutations. The ability of negative selection and environmental changes to provide access to novel fitness peaks has important implications for natural evolutionary mechanisms and applied directed evolution.
Characterization of cardiovascular and behavioral responses to alerting stimuli in rats

Freely moving rats exhibit complex motor and cardiovascular responses to tactile stimulation (12.5 psi air puff, 100-ms duration). In naive Wistar-Kyoto rats, the behavioral response is characterized by a short-latency (25 +/- 1 ms) jumping event, the magnitude of which habituates to repeated stimuli. In a paradigm of consecutive tactile stimuli, each delivered at 30-s intervals, the arterial pressure (AP) response is consistent in profile (36.4 +/- 1.7 mmHg, initial stimulus) and habituates rapidly (15.4 +/- 2.2 mmHg, at 20th stimulus). Rates of habituation of the jumping behavior and AP increase are similar and significantly correlated (P less than 0.01), suggesting partial common mediation. Heart rate changes are bimodal and highly dependent on stimulus number. Initial stimuli elicit bradycardia (-42 +/- 7 beats/min), habituating to extinction by stimulus 10. A temporally delayed tachycardia becomes evident by trial 5 (19 +/- 5 beats/min) and persists unchanged throughout the remainder of the 30-stimulus session. Delayed tachycardia may represent activation of secondary autonomic mechanisms. The nature of cardiovascular responses elicited by the tactile stimulus suggests a somatomotor reflex mediated through the ventrolateral medulla. Adrenal enucleation exaggerated the magnitude of transient bradycardia and abolished extinction of bradycardia with repeated stimuli. Adrenal medullary secretion has only minor importance in direct mediation of the response, but this study suggests that adrenal function plays an important role in tonically setting the level of cardiac responsiveness to parasympathetic vs. sympathetic stimulation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Effect of Transformation on Rat Prostatic Fibroblasts: Alterations in Extracellular Matrix and Cytoskeleton Gene Expression with Retention of Androgen Responsiveness and Androgen Receptor Expression

The NbF-1 fibroblast cell line was derived in our laboratory from normal adult rat ventral prostate (Chung et al., Int. J. Cancer 43:1179,1989). Between the 25th and 30th passage the cell line became transformed spontaneously and late passage cells are capable of forming rapidly growing fibrosarcomas in syngeneic animals. In this communication we present the results of experiments designed to determine the effects of spontaneous transformation on NbF-l cells with regard to karyotypic stability, biochemical properties, gene expression and hormonal sensitivity. Gross chromosomal differences, as assessed by Gbanding analyses, between pre-transformed and tumorigenic NbF-1 cells were minor. Tumorigenic NbF-1 cells maintained a normal modal chromosome number and a trisomic chromosome 4 was the only chromosome abnormality that was acquired with tumorigenicity and persisted in the culture with later passages. Transformation, however, resulted in major phenotypic alterations. Extensive analysis of extracellular matrix (ECM) expression revealed profound changes correlating with the acquisition of tumorigenesis. In comparison with early passage NbF-1 cells, tumorigenic NbF-1 cells expressed decreased levels of mRNAs for fibronectin, collagens I, III, and IV, and laminins Bl and B2. The greatest alternation in mRNA expression, a ca. 20-fold decline in transcript levels, was observed for α2 collagen IV. Similarly, synthesis and expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan declined markedly (ca. 90%) with transformation. Notably, in contrast to ECM, expression of vimentin and actin cytoskeletal protein mRNAs increased (2-2.5 fold) and androgen receptor (AR) mRNA and high affinity androgen receptor, measured by ligand exchange assay, increased slightly (ca. 1.5-fold increase). Transformed NbF-1 cells remain sensitive to mitogenic stimulation by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in vitro and tumor growth in vivo is androgen responsive. Mitogenic effects of DHT correspond with a rapid induction of ornithine decarboxylase mRNA expression.
Long-Term Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Children and Adolescents With Congenital Heart Disease

Background Effective medical and surgical management of pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) to reduce long-term adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes is an important clinical objective in primary and specialty health care. We identify clinical predictors associated with an increased risk of 6 long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with CHD compared to the general pediatric Medicaid population. Method South Carolina's retrospective, 15-year Medicaid data set (January 1, 1996-December 31, 2010) for 19,947 patients aged ≤ 17 years diagnosed with ≥ 1 CHD lesions (on the basis of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes) were compared to 19,948 patients without CHD matched on age at entry into and duration in Medicaid using logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression. Results The CHD cohort was significantly less likely to have incident neurologic or psychiatric disorders, mental retardation, developmental delays, or inattention/hyperactivity (adjusted odds ratios [ORs] = 0.34, 0.56, 0.03, 0.01, 0.004, respectively) but was more likely to have incident seizures (OR = 2.00) compared to controls. Exposure to both cardiac and noncardiac surgical intervention was associated with a significantly increased risk of developing neurologic or psychiatric disorders, mental retardation, developmental delays, or inattention/hyperactivity (cardiac ORs = 1.66, 2.00, 1.67, 1.43, 1.76, respectively) (noncardiac ORs = 2.25, 1.59, 1.48, 1.29, 1.36, 2.46, respectively). Any documented hypoxemia was associated with a significantly increased risk of developing 5 of the neurodevelopmental conditions (neurologic OR = 4.52, psychiatric OR = 1.60, mental retardation OR = 2.90, developmental delay OR = 2.12, seizures OR = 4.23). Conclusion Practitioners should maintain vigilant surveillance of all CHD patients, especially those exposed to surgical procedures or experiencing hypoxemia, to identify any neurodevelopmental issues early and address them promptly.
Organization-based self-esteem in work teams

It is now known that organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) correlates consistently with employee attributes that are important to the success of organizations, such as in-role and extra-role job pe...
Problems and Countermeasures of Pediatric Clinical Practice

Medical education is a discipline of high practical nature,which means the major teaching purposes are to improve the actual capabilities in clinical practice,such as clinical case analysis,examination of patients and technical operation.Therefore,producing medical and health personnel with solid professional knowledge,strong comprehensive clinical capabilities and conscientious attitude are the main tasks entrusted to medical education of pediatrics.We summarize the prevalent problems in clinical teaching and analyze countermeasures.
Denoising of time domain responses in wireless sensor network for the structural health monitoring of transportation infrastructure

Wireless sensor networks can collect real-time structure health information and perform a set of activities on transportation infrastructure (e.g., bridge and road) to predict their end-of-life and maintain it in operable conditions. However, before wireless sensors are deployed in the field, it is important to test the sensing and communication performance through the simulation. In this paper, propagation and scattering of wireless signals of WSN are simulated in the space-time domain by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods. Artificial noises are simulated by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and introduced to the clean signal. Our simulation method can help designing an optimized deployment strategy of sensor networks for structure health monitoring.
The Response of Cardiac and Pulmonary Disease to Exercise Testing

SUMMARY In conclusion, the patterns of response that describe exercise performance in severe cardiac and severe lung disease have been discussed (Table 1). Clearly, there is a continuum of change between the normal and the severely affected individual. In general, ventilatory capacity limitation is the feature that most clearly defines individuals with lung disease. The absence of such limitation, together with features suggesting a cardiovascular limitation such as an early anaerobic threshold, most clearly defines patients with heart disease. Again, it should be emphasized that these are not good diagnostic tests, but tests in which the effects of cardiac and pulmonary disease can be assessed and normal responses defined.
Present and future prospects for the chemotherapy of gliomas

That there has been «littleprogress in the treatment of malignant gliomas» has almost become a cliche in oncology, yet from the past quarter century of effort we have learned a great deal about those empiric covariates that influence survival and have increased the quality and length of survival for some tumors. It has been shown that outcome (survival) for supratentorial gliomas is related to the following covariates: tumor histology and grade, labelling index, age at diagnosis, performance status, post-operative residual tumor volume, and the type and extent of radiation and chemotherapy.
Chapter 7 – Measurement and analysis of the fracture properties of adhesive joints

This chapter provides an in-depth discussion on the fracture of adhesive joints with a focus on the way to deduce the “intrinsic” fracture parameters of the adhesive layer from experimental results. It outlines the approach of using these parameters in cohesive-zone models to predict the fracture of adhesive joints. By using this approach, many important issues that are frequently encountered in the fracture testing of adhesive joints, yet are usually ignored by traditional fracture analyses, have been fully addressed and the results are presented in the chapter. These issues include shear loading of the adherends, the influence of adhesive compliance (large deformation in adhesive layers before failure), and the effects of gross plasticity in the adherends. While non-linear deformations can occur in a process zone around a stationary crack, the energy losses are only realized when the crack begins to propagate and the material in the process zone begins to unload. As a crack propagates, the extent of unloading increases and more of the energy dissipated in the process zone is realized as an increase in toughness.
Review of flavonoids: A diverse group of natural compounds with anti-Candida albicans activity in vitro

Flavonoids are a subdivision of polyphenols, a versatile class of natural compounds that represent secondary metabolites from higher plants and are abundant in human diet. Various protective effects of flavonoids have been reported, including antimicrobial and antifungal activities. Due to the nature of oral candidiasis and the increased use of antifungal agents, several drug-resistant strains have emerged making it impractical to rely on one standard therapeutic regime. The aim of this review is to summarize the antifungal activity of some examples of the major subclasses of flavonoids in pure extract forms against C. albicans in vitro, as reported in literature over the past 10 years (2004-2015). In addition, this review outlines the potential mechanism of actions of flavonoids studied in vitro, which may contribute to a better understanding of flavonoids as multi-targets agents in the treatment and/or prevention of oral candidiasis in clinical settings.
Some like it smooth, and some like it rough: untangling continuous and jump components in measuring, modeling, and forecasting asset return volatility

A rapidly growing literature has documented important improvements in volatility measurement and forecasting performance through the use of realized volatilities constructed from high frequency returns coupled with relatively simple reduced-form time series modeling procedures. Building on recent theoretical results from Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard (2003c,d) for related bi-power variation measures involving the sum of high-frequency absolute returns, the present paper provides a practical framework for non-parametrically measuring the jump component in realized volatility measurements. Exploiting these ideas for a decade of high-frequency five-minute returns for the DM/$ exchange rate, the S&P 500 market index, and the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yield, we find the jump component of the price process to be distinctly less persistent than the continuous sample path component. Explicitly including the jump measure as an additional explanatory variable in an easy-to-implement reduced form model for realized volatility results in highly significant jump coefficient estimates at the daily, weekly and quarterly forecast horizons. As such, our results hold promise for improved financial asset allocation, risk management, and derivatives pricing, by separate modeling, forecasting and pricing of the continuous and jump components of total return variability.
Appropriate Technology and Inappropriate Politics

Over the past two decades “appropriate technology” has been used as code for new ways of thinking about the social implications of technological choice. Appropriate technology is seen variously: as a means of ushering in a New Age, as an alternative to high technology, as a social movement, and, by some, as Utopian delusion. The debate over appropriate technology is raising some of the most difficult questions facing a philosophy of technology, including: The relationship between technology and development, between ideology and industrialization, and more fundamentally, between man and machine (Rybcynski, 1980, p. v.).
Abstract TP312: Simulation Based Education for Neurology Nurses to Improve In-hospital Stroke Emergency Performance

Introduction: An in-hospital stroke emergency demands timely decision making and prioritization of tasks by the stroke team nurse. Simulation-based medical education (SBME) focuses on obtaining cli...
Overview of Finite Element Analysis

Abstract This chapter serves two purposes: (1) to clarify the role and importance of finite element analysis (FEA) in modern engineering practice and (2) to introduce the organization of the book. The roles of FEA are discussed from the perspectives of problem-solving processes, decomposition of analysis complexity, and computer aided engineering techniques. In this chapter, we will (1) explain how, where, when, and for what one has to use FEA for in our engineering curricula, (2) discuss the changing trend of engineers' roles, (3) introduce a general procedure for students to solve different engineering problems, and (4) present a direct connection of an FEA approach with various engineering problems in their solving processes. In addition, this chapter gives an outline of the book organization with the abstracts of chapters.
Glomerular detection and segmentation from multimodal microscopy images using a Butterworth band-pass filter

We present a rapid, scalable, and high throughput computational pipeline to accurately detect and segment the glomerulus from renal histopathology images with high precision and accuracy. Our proposed method integrates information from fluorescence and bright-field microscopy imaging of renal tissues. For computation, we exploit the simplicity, yet extreme robustness of Butterworth bandpass filter to extract the glomeruli by utilizing the information inherent in the renal tissue stained with immunofluorescence marker sensitive at blue emission wavelength as well as tissue auto-fluorescence. The resulting output is in-turn used to detect and segment multiple glomeruli within the fieldof-view in the same tissue section post-stained with histopathological stains. Our approach, optimized over 40 images, produced a sensitivity/specificity of 0.95/0.84 on n = 66 test images, each containing one or more glomeruli. The work not only has implications in renal histopathology involving diseases with glomerular structural damages, which is vital to track the progression of the disease, but also aids in the development of a tool to rapidly generate a database of glomeruli from whole slide images, essential for training neural networks. The current practice to detect glomerular structural damage is by the manual examination of biopsied renal tissues, which is laborious, time intensive and tedious. Existing automated pipelines employ complex neural networks which are computationally extensive, demand expensive highperformance hardware and require large expert-annotated datasets for training. Our automated method to detect glomerular boundary will aid in rapid extraction of glomerular compartmental features from large renal histopathological images.
Enforcing constraints for interpolation and extrapolation in Generative Adversarial Networks

Abstract Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are becoming popular machine learning choices for training generators. At the same time there is a concerted effort in the machine learning community to expand the range of tasks in which learning can be applied as well as to utilize methods from other disciplines to accelerate learning. With this in mind, in the current work we suggest ways to enforce given constraints in the output of a GAN generator both for interpolation and extrapolation (prediction). For the case of dynamical systems, given a time series, we wish to train GAN generators that can be used to predict trajectories starting from a given initial condition. In this setting, the constraints can be in algebraic and/or differential form. Even though we are predominantly interested in the case of extrapolation, we will see that the tasks of interpolation and extrapolation are related. However, they need to be treated differently. For the case of interpolation, the incorporation of constraints is built into the training of the GAN. The incorporation of the constraints respects the primary game-theoretic setup of a GAN so it can be combined with existing algorithms. However, it can exacerbate the problem of instability during training that is well-known for GANs. We suggest adding small noise to the constraints as a simple remedy that has performed well in our numerical experiments. The case of extrapolation (prediction) is more involved. During training, the GAN generator learns to interpolate a noisy version of the data and we enforce the constraints. This approach has connections with model reduction that we can utilize to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the training. Depending on the form of the constraints, we may enforce them also during prediction through a projection step. We provide examples of linear and nonlinear systems of differential equations to illustrate the various constructions.
Reflections on 500 Call-in Radio Shows

Pharmacy educators, whether in didactic classes, laboratory settings, or experiential opportunities, search for ways to incorporate "real life" patient questions and concerns into the educational process. This practice not only enhances the educational opportunities for students, it also prepares them for questions and concerns that they will inevitably face as practicing professionals. This commentary describes listener calls from 500, live, call-in radio shows. There is no accurate way to directly assess information that patients do not know or understand. The author suggests using commonly asked pharmacy-based questions, directly from the public, as a proxy to identify the information most desired by patients. The author assumes that radio callers are not calling to ask questions when they already know the answers. Thus, having identified the information most desired by radio-show callers, pharmacist educators, no matter the setting, can be provided with a ready-made resource that lists the most common concerns from over 6,000 radio callers. The author recommends educators use this resource and apply real patient questions and concerns during the educational process, furthermore, opportunities to use this resource are provided.
Strategies for nutritional counseling. Dietitians' attitudes and practice.

Counseling techniques can influence patients’ compliance with therapeutic regimens. Here is a report of strategies currently used by forty-four practicing dietitians in providing nutritional care.
CHAPTER 11 – An Analysis of Imitative Learning in Animals

The term imitation is used to identify phenomenon ranging from morphological similarity which appears to be under total control of natural selection, to complex symbolic modeling, requiring intention or purpose in which imitator exaggerates the actions of the demonstrator for purposes of humor. In the case of children brought up in an industrial culture, one could argue that extensive exposure to mirrors has allowed them to experience the correlation between proprioceptive cues and visual cues seen by others. There has been much discussion of the meaning of self-recognition through mirror exposure but little research has dealt with the role of self-recognition in imitative learning. For a variety of reasons, animal imitation research has not always been well received in the field of animal learning and behavior. First, the broad range of phenomena to which it is applied has given the impression that it may not be a useful psychological concept. Second, the large number of alternative accounts of learning through observation, and the inconsistent use of terminology, make isolation of true imitation from simpler processes appear impossible. Third, the assumption that true imitation involves intentionality, a phenomenon that cannot be directly measured, suggests that it is an intractable concept.
Spaces of Observables in Nonlinear Control

Engineering design and optimization techniques for control typically rely upon the theory of irreducible finite–dimensional representations of linear shift–invariant in–tegral operators. A representation of \( F:{[{L_\infty }{,_{loc}}(0,\infty )]^m} \to {[{C_0}(0,\infty )]^p}\) is specified by a triple of linear maps \( A:{\mathbb{R}^n} \to {\mathbb{R}^n},B:{\mathbb{R}^m} \to {\mathbb{R}^n},{\text{ }}and{\text{ }}C:{\mathbb{R}^n} \to {\mathbb{R}^p}\) so that, for each “input” \( \omega ,F(\omega )(t) = C\xi (t),\) where the state ξ is the solution of the initial value problem \( \xi '(t) - A\xi (t) = B\omega (t),\xi (0) = 0.\)
On the couple dynamics of wall-mounted flexible plates in tandem

The dynamics of two rectangular, flexible plates of low aspect ratio and 2 due to flow fluctuations, vortex shedding and large structure deformation; as a result, it exhibited a local minimum. Supported with measurements, a mathematical model was derived to quantitatively explain this behaviour.
Aspects of Intensification and Motion of Wintertime 500-mb Patterns

The results of an empirical study of 500-mb patterns are presented. It is shown that the prediction of the 24-hr and 48-hr intensification or weakening of troughs and ridges can be aided by a consideration of upstream changes. Qualitative rules for the prediction of a 24-hr change in the speed of troughs and ridges are included. Finally a climatological summary is presented of intensification, weakening and speed of troughs and ridges.
Recent advances in graphene-based biosensor technology with applications in life sciences

Graphene’s unique physical structure, as well as its chemical and electrical properties, make it ideal for use in sensor technologies. In the past years, novel sensing platforms have been proposed with pristine and modified graphene with nanoparticles and polymers. Several of these platforms were used to immobilize biomolecules, such as antibodies, DNA, and enzymes to create highly sensitive and selective biosensors. Strategies to attach these biomolecules onto the surface of graphene have been employed based on its chemical composition. These methods include covalent bonding, such as the coupling of the biomolecules via the 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide reactions, and physisorption. In the literature, several detection methods are employed; however, the most common is electrochemical. The main reason for researchers to use this detection approach is because this method is simple, rapid and presents good sensitivity. These biosensors can be particularly useful in life sciences and medicine since in clinical practice, biosensors with high sensitivity and specificity can significantly enhance patient care, early diagnosis of diseases and pathogen detection. In this review, we will present the research conducted with antibodies, DNA molecules and, enzymes to develop biosensors that use graphene and its derivatives as scaffolds to produce effective biosensors able to detect and identify a variety of diseases, pathogens, and biomolecules linked to diseases.
X-ray structures of two active secreted Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron C11 proteases in complex with peptide-based inhibitors

ABSTRACT Commensal bacteria secrete proteins and metabolites to influence host intestinal homeostasis and proteases represent a significant constituent of the components at the host:microbiome interface. Here, we determined the structures of the two secreted C11 cysteine proteases encoded by the established gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. We employed mutational analysis to demonstrate the two proteases, termed “thetapain” and “iotapain”, undergo in trans self-maturation after lysine and/or arginine residues, as observed for other C11 proteases. We determined the structures of the active forms of thetapain and iotapain in complex with irreversible peptide inhibitors, Ac-VLTK-AOMK and biotin-VLTK-AOMK, respectively. Structural comparisons revealed key active-site interactions important for peptide recognition are more extensive for thetapain; however, both proteases employ a glutamate residue to preferentially bind small polar residues at the P2 position. Our results will aid in the design of protease-specific probes to ultimately understand the biological role of C11 proteases in bacterial fitness, elucidate their host and/or microbial substrates, and interrogate their involvement in microbiome-related diseases.
3-ketodihydrosphingosine reductase mutation induces steatosis and hepatic injury in zebrafish

3-ketodihydrosphingosine reductase (KDSR) is the key enzyme in the de novo sphingolipid synthesis. We identified a novel missense kdsrI105R mutation in zebrafish that led to a loss of function, and resulted in progression of hepatomegaly to steatosis, then hepatic injury phenotype. Lipidomics analysis of the kdsrI105R mutant revealed compensatory activation of the sphingolipid salvage pathway, resulting in significant accumulation of sphingolipids including ceramides, sphingosine and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). Ultrastructural analysis revealed swollen mitochondria with cristae damage in the kdsrI105R mutant hepatocytes, which can be a cause of hepatic injury in the mutant. We found elevated sphingosine kinase 2 (sphk2) expression in the kdsrI105R mutant. Genetic interaction analysis with the kdsrI105R and the sphk2wc1 mutants showed that sphk2 depletion suppressed liver defects observed in the kdsrI105R mutant, suggesting that liver defects were mediated by S1P accumulation. Further, both oxidative stress and ER stress were completely suppressed by deletion of sphk2 in kdsrI105R mutants, linking these two processes mechanistically to hepatic injury in the kdsrI105R mutants. Importantly, we found that the heterozygous mutation in kdsr induced predisposed liver injury in adult zebrafish. These data point to kdsr as a novel genetic risk factor for hepatic injury.
Jammer Nulling Adaptive Waveforms with Cognitive Radar for Aircraft RCS Recognition in Presence of Frequency Sweep and Base Jammers

In this paper, we introduce jammer nulling transmit-adaptive waveforms for aircraft target recognition with cognitive radar (CRr) platform in the presence of frequency sweep and base jammer noise. The sweep jammer nulling and base jammer nulling adaptive waveforms serve as a countermeasure against frequency sweep jamming and base jamming signals which are intended to disrupt the CRr’s ability to correctly classify in an aircraft target response identification problem. Real-time adaptive waveforms are computed using jammer incorporated probability-weighted energy (PWE) or probability-weighted spectral density (PWSD) method via scaling of waveforms matched to RCS responses corresponding to the target hypotheses. High-fidelity EM aircraft RCS responses are used in the experiments. The results show an improvement in jammer nulling waveforms’ classification performance over their jammer-uncompensated counterparts and the receive-adaptive wideband pulsed waveform. The extent of performance improvement depends on the shape and magnitude of target frequency responses relative to the sweep and base jammer spectrum.
Dietary Methionine Restriction Reduces Inflammation Independent of FGF21 Action.

Objective Methionine restriction (MR) decreases inflammation and improves markers of metabolic disease in rodents. MR also increases hepatic and circulating concentrations of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). Emerging evidence has suggested that FGF21 exerts anti-inflammatory effects. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of FGF21 in mediating the MR-induced reduction in inflammation. Methods Wild-type and Fgf21-/- mice were fed a high-fat (HF) control or HF-MR diet for 8 weeks. In a separate experiment, mice were fed a HF diet (HFD) for 10 weeks. Vehicle or recombinant FGF21 (13.6 µg/d) was administered via osmotic minipump for an additional 2 weeks. Inflammation and metabolic parameters were measured. Results Fgf21-/- mice were more susceptible to HFD-induced inflammation, and MR reduced inflammation in white adipose tissue (WAT) and liver of Fgf21-/- mice. MR downregulated activity of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 in WAT of both genotypes. FGF21 administration reduced hepatic lipids and blood glucose concentrations. However, there was little effect of FGF21 on inflammatory gene expression in liver or adipose tissue or circulating cytokines. Conclusions MR reduces inflammation independent of FGF21 action. Endogenous FGF21 is important to protect against the development of HFD-induced inflammation in liver and WAT, yet administration of low-dose FGF21 has little effect on markers of inflammation.
Decomposition-Induced Room-Temperature Magnetism of the Na-Intercalated Layered Ferromagnet Fe3-xGeTe2.

The creation of 2D van der Waals materials with ferromagnetism above room temperature is an essential goal toward their practical utilization in spin-based applications. Recent studies suggest that intercalating lithium in exfoliated flakes of the ferromagnet Fe3-xGeTe2 induces a nonzero magnetization at T ∼ 300 K. However, the nanoscale nature of such experiments precludes precise observations of structural and chemical changes upon intercalation. Here, we report the preparation of sodium-intercalated NaFe2.78GeTe2 as well as the investigation into its structure and magnetic properties. Sodium readily intercalates into the van der Waals gap, as revealed by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Concurrently, the Fe2.78GeTe2 layer becomes heavily charge doped and strained via chemical pressure, yet retains its structure and ferromagnetic transition temperature of ∼140 K. However, we observe the presence of a ferromagnetic amorphous iron germanide impurity over a wide range of synthetic conditions, leading to room-temperature magnetization. This work highlights the importance of strain and electronic control for manipulating the Curie temperature in 2D ferromagnets, while emphasizing the need for careful chemical analysis when exploring phenomena in exfoliated layers.
Motion compensation for structured light sensors

In order for structured light methods to work outside, the strong background from the sun needs to be suppressed. This can be done with bandpass filters, fast shutters, and background subtraction. In general this last method necessitates the sensor system to be stationary during data taking. The contribution of this paper is a method to compensate for the motion if the system is moving. The key idea is to use video stabilization techniques that work even if the illuminator is switched on and off from one frame to another. We used OpenCV functions and modules to implement a robust and efficient method. We evaluated it under various conditions and tested it on a moving robot outdoors. We will demonstrate that one can not only do 3D reconstruction under strong ambient light, but that it is also possible to observe optical properties of the objects in the environment.
Flow Control Leveraging Downwind Rotors for Improved Wind Power Plant Operation

Controlling the air flow within wind power plants has the potential to improve plant performance and is an active area of research in the wind energy control community. In order to develop, test, and tune wind power plant controllers efficiently, an accurate engineering model of the turbine wake dynamics is required. Two elements of flow control are wake steering via yaw and tilt of a turbine. When a turbine is yawed or tilted away from the incoming wind field, the wake shape is changed. This is largely due to shed vortices that produce a curled wake. In this work, the well-known wake engineering model FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) wake engineering model is enhanced to include these curled wake effects due to tilt. Since decay of these vortices has not been previously captured in an engineering model, the authors describe how vortices with decay have been added to FLORIS and how the updated model has been used to study the effects due to tilt in the wake. Results are demonstrated and compared to high-fidelity large-eddy simulations. Potential wind power plant performance gains due to flow control using tilt are investigated across different wind conditions and sites. Preliminary results show power gains by using tilt to implement flow control in a variety of wind distributions and tilt values.
Cellular prion protein gene polymorphisms linked to differential scrapie susceptibility correlate with distinct residue connectivity between secondary structure elements

The conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) to the misfolded and aggregated isoform, termed scrapie prion protein (PrPSc), is key to the development of a group of neurodegene...
A New H2 Regularity Condition of the Solution to Dirichlet Problem of the Poisson Equation and Its Applications.

We study the regularity of the solution of Dirichlet problem of Poisson equations over a bounded domain. A new sufficient condition, uniformly positive reach is introduced. Under the assumption that the closure of the underlying domain of interest has a uniformly positive reach, the H2 regularity of the solution of the Poisson equation is established. In particular, this includes all star-shaped domains whose closures are of positive reach, regardless if they are Lipschitz domains or non-Lipschitz domains. Application to the strong solution to the second order elliptic PDE in non-divergence form and the regularity of Helmholtz equations will be presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the new regularity condition.
Tectal CRFR1 receptor involvement in avoidance and approach behaviors in the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis

Animals in the wild must balance food intake with vigilance for predators in order to survive. The optic tectum plays an important role in the integration of external (predators) and internal (energy status) cues related to predator defense and prey capture. However, the role of neuromodulators involved in tectal sensorimotor processing is poorly studied. Recently we showed that tectal CRFR1 receptor activation decreases food intake in the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, suggesting that CRF may modulate food intake/predator avoidance tradeoffs. Here we use a behavioral assay modeling food intake and predator avoidance to test the role of CRFR1 receptors and energy status in this tradeoff. We tested the predictions that 1) administering the CRFR1 antagonist NBI-27914 via the optic tecta will increase food intake and feeding-related behaviors in the presence of a predator, and 2) that prior food deprivation, which lowers tectal CRF content, will increase food intake and feeding-related behaviors in the presence of a predator. Pre-treatment with NBI-27914 did not prevent predator-induced reductions in food intake. Predator exposure altered feeding-related behaviors in a predictable manner. Pretreatment with NBI-27914 reduced the response of certain behaviors to a predator but also altered behaviors irrelevant of predator presence. Although 1-wk of food deprivation altered some non-feeding behaviors related to energy conservation strategy, food intake in the presence of a predator was not altered by prior food deprivation. Collectively, our data support a role for tectal CRFR1 in modulating discrete behavioral responses during predator avoidance/foraging tradeoffs.
Humidity Penetration Impact on Integrated Circuit Performance and Reliability

In this paper, we study the impact of humidity penetration into ICs (i.e., 14 nm SOI digital ring oscillators and 22 nm SOI mixed-signal LC-tank voltage-controlled oscillators) using controlled breaches of the chip barrier. Based on data collected from more than 460 samples, we found that the humidity penetration causes the performance of the circuit to be reduced (1-3%) because of the BEOL capacitance increase, while no detectable impact on the overall circuit lifetime is observed because of FEOL BTI and GOX mechanisms dominance.