cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prevention of Lymphocyte Apoptosis in Septic Mice with Cancer Increases Mortality

Lymphocyte apoptosis is thought to have a major role in the pathophysiology of sepsis. However, there is a disconnect between animal models of sepsis and patients with the disease, because the former use subjects that were healthy prior to the onset of infection while most patients have underlying comorbidities. The purpose of this study was to determine whether lymphocyte apoptosis prevention is effective in preventing mortality in septic mice with preexisting cancer. Mice with lymphocyte Bcl-2 overexpression (Bcl-2-Ig) and wild type (WT) mice were injected with a transplantable pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line. Three weeks later, after development of palpable tumors, all animals received an intratracheal injection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Despite having decreased sepsis-induced T and B lymphocyte apoptosis, Bcl-2-Ig mice had markedly increased mortality compared with WT mice following P. aeruginosa pneumonia (85 versus 44% 7-d mortality; p = 0.004). The worsened survival in Bcl-2-Ig mice was associated with increases in Th1 cytokines TNF-α and IFN-γ in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and decreased production of the Th2 cytokine IL-10 in stimulated splenocytes. There were no differences in tumor size or pulmonary pathology between Bcl-2-Ig and WT mice. To verify that the mortality difference was not specific to Bcl-2 overexpression, similar experiments were performed in Bim−/− mice. Septic Bim−/− mice with cancer also had increased mortality compared with septic WT mice with cancer. These data demonstrate that, despite overwhelming evidence that prevention of lymphocyte apoptosis is beneficial in septic hosts without comorbidities, the same strategy worsens survival in mice with cancer that are given pneumonia.
Performance of using Oracle XMLDB in the evaluation of CDISC ODM for a clinical study informatics system

This paper describes potential strategies for data modeling and implementation as part of the general architecture of CSIS, a clinical study and informatics system that has been developed for the National Institute of Neuroscience and Stroke (NINDS). We discuss the NINDS requirements and how they influenced the system design, with an emphasis on dynamic form creation. We also evaluate open standards such as "CDISC ODM" and several database technology choices, namely conventional relational "EAV" tables and the new "XMLDB" from Oracle. We describe performance test results, which show that it is feasible to implement CDISC ODM in Oracle XMLDB and the schema-based storage option for storing XML content is better than "CLOB"-based for applications that require high numbers of queries for XML fragments. For storage and retrieval of whole XML documents, CLOB storage is optimal. CSIS implements a hybrid approach of combining CLOB storage for storing XML documents with relational tables for storing metadata. Due to the complexity of the CDISC schema and related performance and implementation concerns, we have decided not to implement CDISC internal storage in our system.
The application of particle filtering to grasping acquisition with visual occlusion and tactile sensing

Advanced grasp control algorithms could benefit greatly from accurate tracking of the object as well as an accurate all-around knowledge of the system when the robot attempts a grasp. This motivates our study of the G-SL(AM)2 problem, in which two goals are simultaneously pursued: object tracking relative to the hand and estimation of parameters of the dynamic model. We view the G-SL(AM)2 problem as a filtering problem. Because of stick-slip friction and collisions between the object and hand, suitable dynamic models exhibit strong nonlinearities and jump discontinuities. This fact makes Kalman filters (which assume linearity) and extended Kalman filters (which assume differentiability) inapplicable, and leads us to develop a particle filter. An important practical problem that arises during grasping is occlusion of the view of the object by the robot's hand. To combat the resulting loss of visual tracking fidelity, we designed a particle filter that incorporates tactile sensor data. The filter is evaluated off-line with data gathered in advance from grasp acquisition experiments conducted with a planar test rig. The results show that our particle filter performs quite well, especially during periods of visual occlusion, in which it is much better than the same filter without tactile data.
Rate-distortion optimized client side rate control for adaptive media streaming

Media streaming over unreliable networks such as the Internet is growing in popularity, but presents unique challenges when trying to get the user experience to be on par with classical mediums such as cable television. These networks have variable network conditions which not only vary between a set of points in the network, but also change over time. In this paper, we present a rate-distortion (R-D) optimized algorithm for adapting the bitrate of streaming media from a chunked encoding, where each chunk is available at multiple bitrates (or quality levels) or is scalable coded. The optimization takes into account the desired startup latency, the desired client buffer size, the current client buffer size, and the estimated network bandwidth. The problem is formulated as a distortion minimization problem subject to multiple rate constraints. For video content, the solution gives a gain of up to 3–4dB in PSNR in difficult portions of the video when compared to commonly used adaptation techniques and can achieve an arbitrarily small desired startup latency.
Recurrence relations for fully correlated Gaussians with odd powers of interparticle coordinates

It is shown that the recurrence relations previously derived by the present authors, connecting fully correlated Gaussians to which even powers of the interparticle distances have been appended, are also applicable when these distances appear as odd powers. Implications of this demonstration for the description of electron correlation in few-body systems are also reviewed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2006
The electric field induced in the human body when exposed to electromagnetic fields at 1-30 MHz on shipboard

The electric field induced in the body of a man standing on the metal deck of a ship near a vertical antenna is determined analytically. Typical antennas for radio communication in the 1-30 MHz band are described and their near fields are calculated. The current induced in the man is determined by solving the relevant integral equation. Explicit formulas are obtained for the total axial current and the associated current densities and electric fields.
Stability of performance on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test.

Stability of performance on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) was assessed in 45 healthy elderly subjects over a 9-month period. Stability coefficients were moderate but statistically significant for total recall (r = 0.50), true-positive recognitions (r = 0.66), and false-positive errors (r = 0.42). These correlations are comparable to test-retest correlations reported for other clinical tests of verbal memory (e.g., Logical Memory subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, California Verbal Learning Test) and are sufficient for its clinical use.
Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast

Introduction Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, it remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In the United States, approximately 232,000 new cases of breast cancer and 40,000 cancer deaths were expected in 2013, and 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Currently, mammography is the primary method of breast cancer screening; however, extensive controversy exists regarding the timing, frequency, and schedule of such screening. Mammography has its limitations, with reported sensitivities ranging from30%-96% and is influenced bymultiple factors, including age and breast tissue density. Given the known limitations of mammography, alternative modalities have been explored to aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer, including dynamic contract-enhanced magnetic resonance tomography (DCE-MRI), whole-breast ultrasound, andmolecular breast imaging using positron emission tomography (PET). Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/computed tomography (CT) has been used in patients with breast cancer as a tool to diagnose breast cancer as well as to detect metastasis and recurrence. This article reviews the current state of DCE-MRI and FDG-PET/CT in patients with breast cancer and then delves into the potential utilization of PET/MRI (Figs. 1-3).
Surgical treatment of femoroacetabular impingement. Evaluation of the effect of the size of the resection

BACKGROUND: In patients with symptomatic hip impingement, surgical resection of the femoral head-neck junction may improve the range of motion and relieve pain. A risk of this procedure is fracture. We evaluated the amount of resection of the anterolateral aspect of the femoral head-neck junction that can be done safely. METHODS: Cadaveric proximal femoral specimens (fifteen matched pairs) were divided into three groups: 10%, 30%, or 50% of the diameter of one femoral neck was removed, and the contralateral femoral neck was left intact to serve as the control. A compressive load was applied directly to the femoral head. Peak load, stiffness, and energy to fracture were compared among the groups. RESULTS: The energy to fracture differed significantly (p = 0.0015) among the 10%, 30%, and 50% resection groups. The peak load after the 50% resection was significantly less (p = 0.0025) than that after the 10% or 30% resection. With the numbers available, there was no significant difference in peak load between the 10% and 30% resections. CONCLUSIONS: Resection of up to 30% of the anterolateral quadrant of the head-neck junction did not significantly alter the load-bearing capacity of the proximal part of the femur. However, a 30% resection significantly decreased the amount of energy required to produce a fracture. Thirty percent should be considered to be the greatest feasible amount of resection because of the change in the pattern of the femoral head-neck response to axial loads that we observed.
Naps Promote Abstraction in Language-Learning Infants:

Infants engage in an extraordinary amount of learning during their waking hours even though much of their day is consumed by sleep. What role does sleep play in infant learning? Fifteen-month-olds were familiarized with an artificial language 4 hr prior to a lab visit. Learning the language involved relating initial and final words in auditory strings by remembering the exact word dependencies or by remembering an abstract relation between initial and final words. One group napped during the interval between familiarization and test. Another group did not nap. Infants who napped appeared to remember a more abstract relation, one they could apply to stimuli that were similar but not identical to those from familiarization. Infants who did not nap showed a memory effect. Naps appear to promote a qualitative change in memory, one involving greater flexibility in learning.
The Episolar Constraint: Monocular Shape from Shadow Correspondence

Shadows encode a powerful geometric cue: if one pixel casts a shadow onto another, then the two pixels are colinear with the lighting direction. Given many images over many lighting directions, this constraint can be leveraged to recover the depth of a scene from a single viewpoint. For outdoor scenes with solar illumination, we term this the episolar constraint, which provides a convex optimization to solve for the sparse depth of a scene from shadow correspondences, a method to reduce the search space when finding shadow correspondences, and a method to geometrically calibrate a camera using shadow constraints. Our method constructs a dense network of nonlocal constraints which complements recent work on outdoor photometric stereo and cloud based cues for 3D. We demonstrate results across a variety of time-lapse sequences from web cams "in the wild".
Enhancing facility locating via a novel hybrid model

Given its importance, facility location has long attracted many research efforts from both the academic and industrial areas. However, due to the cost and privacy issues, researchers usually suffer from the lack of business information which is crucial for the decision makings. Recent years have witnessed the explosion of geographical information systems (GISs), and the spatial information provided by GISs becomes a valuable supplement to the limited business information for facility location decision. Along this line, in this paper, we present a hybrid model which combines spatial analysis and forecasting analysis to solve this problem. That is, a classifier is built first on the spatial data to evaluate environmental conditions of the location. Then based on the classification results, a predictor is built on both the spatial and business data to predict the facility's performance. To deal with the problem of missing much business information while building the classifier, we also propose a semi-supervised learning method to expand the training data set. Finally, experimental results on a case study demonstrate that the hybrid model indeed shows merits on supporting real-world facility location decisions.
Anemia and Heart Failure: A Community Study

Abstract Purpose Anemia is an important comorbidity in heart failure and has been associated with increased mortality. The goals of this study were to define the prevalence of anemia in a community population with heart failure, examine trends in prevalence over time, and evaluate the role of anemia in patients with heart failure with preserved and reduced ejection fraction. Methods Two cohorts of Olmsted County residents with heart failure were examined. The retrospective cohort included incident heart failure cases from 1979 to 2002 (n=1063). The prospective cohort included active heart failure cases from 2003 to 2006 (n=677). Clinical characteristics were collected. Anemia was defined by World Health Organization criteria. Results The prevalence of anemia was 40% in the retrospective cohort and 53% in the prospective cohort. Anemia prevalence increased by an estimated 16% between 1979 and 2002 ( P =.008) and was higher in those with preserved (≥50%) versus reduced ( P P Conclusion In the community, half of patients with heart failure are anemic, and the prevalence of anemia has increased over time. Anemia is more prevalent in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and is associated with a large increase in mortality.
A new fuzzy clustering validity criterion and its application to color image segmentation

A new strategy for the determination of the degree of validity of a fuzzy partition is introduced. The strategy is mathematically justified via its relation to hard partition validity measures. The relationship between this fuzzy validity function and the most general, and well defined, hard clustering validity function (the separation index of J.C. Dunn (1974)) for which the condition of uniqueness has already been established is derived. Using this relationship, the existence of a unique fuzzy c-partition produced by the fuzzy validity function is also proved. Examples of applications to segmentation of color image for IC defects give encouraging results. >
Analysis of Turbo Codes over Hybrid Optical/RF Channels

An analysis on the bit error rate performance of turbo codes for hybrid optical/RF channels is presented using the transfer function bounding technique. The optical channel includes the effects of atmospheric turbulence, which is represented using the gamma-gamma model. The effects of various turbulence conditions on the performance of the hybrid link is investigated. The role of the RF link in the hybrid channel is analyzed using the trade-offs between the RF and the optical signal-to-noise ratios.
Americans' attitudes toward psychiatric medications: 1998-2006.

Objectives: This study examined recent changes in attitudes toward psychiatric medications in the U.S. general population. Methods: Samples of adult participants in the U.S. General Social Surveys of 1998 (N=1,387) and 2006 (N=1,437) were compared for opinions on the benefits and risks of psychiatric medications as well as willingness to take them in hypothetical situations, including experiencing symptoms of panic attacks or major depression and difficulty in coping with stress or having trouble in personal life. Results: Public opinions regarding benefits of psychiatric medications became more favorable between 1998 and 2006. More participants in 2006 than in 1998 thought that medications help people to deal with day-to-day stresses (83.4% versus 77.8%), make things easier in relation with family and friends (75.9% versus 68.4%), and help people feel better about themselves (68.0% versus 60.1%). The public expressed a greater willingness to take medications in 2006 compared with 1998 for trouble in personal life (29.1% versus 23.3%), to cope with stresses of life (46.6% versus 35.5%), for depression (49.1% versus 41.2%), and for panic attacks (63.7% versus 55.6%). Opinions regarding the risks of medications did not change between 1998 and 2006. Conclusions: Americans’ opinions toward psychiatric medications became more favorable over the past decade, and people became more willing to take these medications. These changes have likely contributed to the increased use of psychiatric medications in recent years and will continue to do so in the coming years. (Psychiatric Services 60:1015–1023, 2009)
Revisiting the 1976 “Swine Flu” Vaccine Clinical Trials: Cross-reactive Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase Antibodies and Their Role in Protection Against the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Virus in Mice

Background. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic viruses are genetically similar to A/New Jersey/76 H1N1 virus (NJ/76), the strain selected for the 1976 ‘‘swine flu’’ vaccines. Approximately 45 million people in the United States were vaccinated against NJ/76 30 years ago, but the impact of this nationwide immunization on the current pandemic is largely unknown. Methods. Archived human serum samples collected during the 1976 swine flu vaccine trials were assessed for cross-reactive antibody responses to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic viruses. Results. Administration of an NJ/76 monovalent vaccine or the combination of a bivalent vaccine (NJ/76 H1N1 and A/Victoria/75 H3N2) plus a B/Hong Kong/72 monovalent vaccine increased hemagglutinin inhibition (HAI) and neuraminidase inhibition (NAI) antibodies cross-reacting with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic viruses. We showed that cross-reactive human HAI antibodies elicited by the 1976 swine flu vaccination played a dominant role in protecting recipient mice against the wild-type A/California/04/2009. Cross-reactive human NAI antibodies were also protective in recipient mice after a lethal challenge with a hemagglutinin mismatched virus bearing the A/California/04/2009 neuraminidase gene. Transfer of human serum samples with an original HAI titer of 43 or an original NAI titer of 472 was estimated to protect 50% of recipient mice from a lethal infection under the experimental conditions described. Conclusions. The 1976 swine flu vaccination induced cross-reactive HAI and NAI antibodies that were functionally protective in mice, suggesting that this vaccination campaign might have had a positive impact on older adults ($50 years) in the United States during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. In 2009, a novel triple reassortant influenza H1N1 virus of swine origin emerged in Mexico and quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the first pandemic in 40 years. Although the majority of the US population was expected to have little to low preexisting immunity to this novel H1N1 virus [ 1 ], the overall mortality associated with the 2009 influenza H1N1 pandemic was significantly less than that associated with the 1968 H3N2 ‘‘Hong Kong flu’’ and was comparable to that resulting from seasonal influenza [ 2 ]. The cumulative excess deaths caused by pandemic H1N1 were fewer than expected among older adults, especially among those aged $65 years [ 2 ]. These observations suggest that older adults (age, $50 years) might have some crossprotective immunity from earlier exposure to related influenza viruses. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the pandemic H1N1 hemagglutinin (HA) gene is most closely related to that of A/New Jersey/76-like virus [ 3 ], another human virus of swine origin isolated during a regional outbreak of ‘‘swine
A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING CONFIDENCE IN COMPUTATIONAL PREDICTIONS

This article is the third in a series of papers concerning the importance of simulation code validation to the US Department of Energy Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) program [1]. The series started with a review by John Garcia of the critical need for advanced validation techniques in the ASCI program, which was created to make up for the absence of nuclear testing through the use of simulation codes. Without testing, the simulation codes must be able to answer critical questions about the reliability of our aging stockpile of weapons. In the second paper, Bill Oberkampf gave an overview of validation concepts and described the requirements for a well-executed validation experiment. In this article we discuss the analysis of data obtained from validation experiments and motivate the use of uncertainties to quantify the accuracy of predictions made by simulation codes. This work represents merely a small fraction of the numerous verification and validation projects currently being conducted at the DOE National Laboratories and at several universities under the auspices of the ASCI program. Engineers routinely use simulation codes to analyze and design critical structures and devices. Because public safety is often involved, confidence in the predictions made by simulation codes is clearly of paramount interest. An engineer needs to be confident that when used in an appropriate way, a simulation code will predict the behavior of the system under study to a specified degree of accuracy. The goal in validating a simulation code is to determine the degree to which the output of the code agrees with the actual behavior of a physical system in a specified situation. Because the criterion is real-world behavior, validation must involve comparison of the simulation code’s output to experimental results. Uncertainties in a quantity are described in terms of a probability density function (pdf) that specifies the probability of all possible values of that quantify. In this context, probability is used as the quantitative measure of our degree of belief, which summarizes our knowledge about a particular situation [2]. We use the Monte Carlo technique to make this kind of probabilistic analysis more tangible as well as to obtain quantitative estimates of uncertainties. We will discuss the analysis of validation experiments, the role of uncertainties in material models, and in experimental conditions. From the viewpoint of uncertainties, inference about how well a simulation code can predict physical phenomena is limited not only by the uncertainties in the relevant measurements, but also by how well the conditions of the
The Diagnostic Tests

As mentioned in the previous section, not every case of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome shows signs of arterial compression. In a recent study [1] 148 patients were evaluated with duplex ultrasound; when the patients were subjected to routine maneuvers of abduction of the arm to elicit compression of the artery, 51 % of them showed definite arterial compression, while the remaining 49 % did not. Thus, the duplex ultrasound exam done as outlined by Longley et al. [2, 3] is a noninvasive reliable and reproducible test to determine if arterial compression exists. It is an objective test with clear identifiable endpoints which can be accurately reproduced. MRI, CT scan, arteriogram, or EMG tests should not be requested routinely (Fig. 2.1). Clinical evaluation and duplex ultrasound are sufficient to establish the diagnosis.
Outcomes of living kidney donors with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background—Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to have reduced kidney function develop over time. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical and safety outcomes of living kidney donors with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods—A retrospective cohort study at a tertiary referral hospital to assess the outcomes of living kidney donors with rheumatoid arthritis. All 6 adults with rheumatoid arthritis who underwent nephrectomy as living kidney donors between January 2000 and September 2014 were included. Eighteen nondonors with rheumatoid arthritis (3 nondonors per donor) were randomly selected for comparison by matching the year of birth and comorbidity score. Results—None of the donors with rheumatoid arthritis had a flare-up of arthritis at a median follow-up time of 5.9 years (interquartile range [IQR], 3.1–7.5 years), while 5 (27.8%) nondonors with rheumatoid arthritis had a flare-up at a median follow-up time of 4.7 years (IQR, 3.1–6.7 years). After nephrectomy, donors' estimated glomerula...
Terabit density cobalt nanowire arrays with tunable magnetic properties

Nanoporous templates made from diblock copolymer films are used for electrochemical fabrication of hexagonal arrays of vertical cobalt magnetic nanowires at terabit/in2 density. The nanowire diameter and areal density are determined by the copolymer molecular weight, whereas the nanowire length and internal crystal morphology are controlled through the dc electrodeposition growth process. The array magnetic properties can be modified substantially by electrodeposition pH conditions while keeping wire size and interwire distance constant. Optimum pH control results in preferential growth of c-axis oriented crystallites with large perpendicular coercivity. The appearance of exchange bias behavior, exhibited at low temperatures, is also investigated.
Interplay between Reactive oxygen Species and MicroRNAs in Cancer.

As both reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and microRNA expression signature have been associated with tumor development, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic response, it is important to understand the crosstalk between ROS and microRNAs. Indeed, growing evidence suggests a reciprocal connection between ROS signaling and microRNA pathway, resulting in diverse biological effects in cancer cells. In this mini review, we discussed the ROS-responsive microRNAs that have implications in cancer and the possible mechanisms in which ROS regulate microRNAs. We also highlighted the microRNAs which are able to modify cellular ROS homeostasis during tumorigenesis, their biological targets and subsequent functions. As the use of antioxidants is limited due to the diverse or even opposing roles of ROS signaling in cancer, the discovery of ROS-responsive microRNAs provides a potential new strategy to specifically overcome ROS-mediated tumor progression or benefit from ROS-induced apoptosis.
Interfacial Particles in Mbe Sillicon Homoepitaxy Growth

Particles are observed at the epitaxial layer-substrate Interface of silicon MBE layers when Improper pre—deposition cleaning methods are used. HRTEM shows that the particles In our material are 5 nm to 10 nm In size, and Molre fringe patterns suggest the material Is crystal line. Using a combination of SIMS, HRTEM, and x-ray microanalysis methods, It Is concluded that the Interfacial particles In our material contain carbon and not oxygen, and are beta-SiC growing epitaxially with the silicon.
Quantum Dot Solar Cells. The Next Big Thing in Photovoltaics.

The recent surge in the utilization of semiconductor nanostructures for solar energy conversion has led to the development of high-efficiency solar cells. Some of these recent advances are in the areas of synthesis of new semiconductor materials and the ability to tune the electronic properties through size, shape, and composition and to assemble quantum dots as hybrid assemblies. In addition, processes such as hot electron injection, multiple exciton generation (MEG), plasmonic effects, and energy-transfer-coupled electron transfer are gaining momentum to overcome the efficiency limitations of energy capture and conversion. The recent advances as well as future prospects of quantum dot solar cells discussed in this perspective provide the basis for consideration as “The Next Big Thing” in photovoltaics.
Effect of Polyethylene Glycol, Alkyl, and Oligonucleotide Spacers on the Binding, Secondary Structure, and Self-Assembly of Fractalkine Binding FKN-S2 Aptamer-Amphiphiles

Previously we identified an aptamer, named FKN-S2, which binds the cell surface protein fractalkine with high affinity and specificity. In this paper a hydrophobic dialkyl C16 tail was added to the aptamer to create an aptamer-amphiphile. We investigated how the tail and a spacer molecule of varying length and hydrophobicity, inserted between the tail and the aptamer headgroup, affect the binding, structure, and self-assembly properties of the aptamer-amphiphile. We synthesized aptamer-amphiphiles with no spacer (NoSPR), polyethylene glycol (PEG4, PEG8, PEG24), alkyl (C12 and C24), or oligonucleotide (T10 and T5: 10 and 5 thymine, and A10: 10 adenine) spacers. The addition of the tail reduced the binding affinity of the aptamer-amphiphile over 7.5-fold compared to the free aptamer. The hydrophobic alkyl spacers resulted in the greatest loss of affinity, and the hydrophilic PEG spacers improved amphiphile affinity but did not restore it to that of the free aptamer. Interestingly, oligonucleotide spacers pr...
Discussion on Education of Leisure in Well-off Society

As increase of free time, much money and leisurely mood of the public, especially the growth of the leisured class, namely, the middle class, the leisure has become the popular social phenomenon. However, good and evils are mixed up, and backward dregs are ladled up in the field of entertainment, and the industry of leisure is working out its na?ve way, which has brought side effect on the processing of the Well-off Society. Therefore, the social demand for leisure has made education of leisure in colleges and universities imperative. While the aim of education of leisure has been regarded as the integration of ensuring technological and talents support for the social modernization with cultivating healthy and advanced culture of leisure.
Analysis of the characteristics of public health emergency in Mianyang from 2004 to 2009

OBJECTIVE To analyze the characteristics of the public health emergency in Mianyang from 2004 to 2009, and provide scientific basis for the public health emergency decisions. METHODS The data about the public health emergency in Mianyang from 2004 to 2009 were collected, and Excel and SPSS for windows 16.0 were used to analyze the data. RESULTS 65 emergencies were reported from 2004 to 2009. A total of 1562 cases were reported, including 13 deaths, with attack rate of 4.83% and mortality of 0.83%. The emergency of Grade Ⅳ was dominant in the classification of emergencies. Communicable disease and food poisoning were the majority of the public health emergency. The emergency commonly occurred in schools and countryside, with high incidence in summer, from May to September. CONCLUSION The government and community should pay more attention to the prevention and control of communicable disease and food poisoning in summer and autumn , and the rural areas and schools are the key points.
A Case-Control Study of Group B Coxsackievirus Immunoglobulin M Antibody Prevalence and HLA-DR Antigens in Newly Diagnosed Cases of Insulin-dependent Diabetes Mellitus

From July 1984 through June 1987, we sought referral of all newly diagnosed cases of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus aged 0-29 years in a 14-county area of southern Wisconsin. Each case was asked to identify an age- and sex-matched friend control. Blood specimens were obtained for group B Coxsackievirus immunoglobulin M (IgM) neutralizing antibody titer on cases and controls and HLA-DR typing of cases. There were 225 cases referred, of whom 194 participated. Of these, 134 had both HLA-DR typing and an initial serum specimen drawn within 59 days of diagnosis. Only two of 50 insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus cases less than age 9 years had positive (greater than or equal to 1:16) group B Coxsackievirus IgM titers. Fifteen of 84 cases aged 10-29 years (17.8%) were group B Coxsackievirus IgM positive, compared with five of 71 controls (7.0%). However, group B Coxsackievirus IgM antibody positivity was concentrated in HLA-DR3-positive cases (10 of 39, odds ratio = 4.55, 95% confidence interval 1.26-18.27, p less than 0.01). HLA-DR3-negative cases were not different from controls in group B Coxsackievirus IgM prevalence. Eighty-three percent of the cases and 86% of the group B Coxsackievirus IgM-positive cases were referred in the first 24 months of study. These data demonstrate an association between group B Coxsackievirus infections and onset of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus only in HLA-DR3-positive persons aged 10 years or older. The data also suggest that diabetogenic group B Coxsackievirus strains may circulate only periodically; however, a longer period of study is needed to examine this possibility.
Differential effects of leucine supplementation in young and aged mice at the onset of skeletal muscle regeneration

Aging decreases the ability of skeletal muscle to respond to injury. Leucine has been demonstrated to target protein synthetic pathways in skeletal muscle thereby enhancing this response. However, the effect of aging on leucine-induced alterations in protein synthesis at the onset of skeletal muscle regeneration has not been fully elucidated. The purpose of this study was to determine if aging alters skeletal muscle regeneration and leucine-induced alterations in markers of protein synthesis. The tibialis anterior of young (3 months) and aged (24 months) female C57BL/6J mice were injected with either bupivacaine or PBS, and the mice were given ad libitum access to leucine-supplemented or normal drinking water. Protein and gene expression of markers of protein synthesis and degradation, respectively, were analyzed at three days post-injection. Following injury in young mice, leucine supplementation was observed to elevate only p-p70S6K. In aged mice, leucine was shown to elicit higher p-mTOR content with and without injury, and p-4EBP-1 content post-injury. Additionally in aged mice, leucine was shown to elicit higher content of relative p70S6K post-injury. Our study shows that leucine supplementation affects markers of protein synthesis at the onset of skeletal muscle regeneration differentially in young and aged mice.
Semi-Continuous Flow Reactors

This chapter emphasizes on the well-mixed semi-batch reactor, which is very complex to treat—at least analytically—because of its transient behavior. It is also evident that one would never use this kind of reactor to evaluate even the most basic chemical kinetics. Thus, one needs a simpler type of reactor that is mathematically more tractable and experimentally more feasible to operate. There are three idealized flow reactors: fed-batch or semi-batch, continuously stirred tank, and the plug flow tubular. The fed-batch and continuously stirred reactors are both taken as being well mixed. This means that there is no spatial dependence in the concentration variables for each of the components. At any point within the reactor, each component has the same concentration as it does anywhere else. The consequence of this assumption is that as soon as the reactants cross the boundary from outside to inside of the reactor, their concentrations go from their feed stream values to the exit stream concentration values. This is true even if the reactor is considered to be operating transiently rather than in a steady state. The conversion of reactants is the same everywhere, and it is set by the holding time in the reactor. Of course, the exit stream has product and reactant concentrations that are exactly the same as those within the reactor. All this is a consequence of the mathematical assumption of perfect mixing.
Algorithms for CPU and DRAM DVFS under inefficiency constraints

Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) of both the core and DRAM provides opportunities to trade-off performance in order to save energy. Previous approaches to core and DRAM power management using DVFS used performance, specifically acceptable performance loss, as a constraint. We present energy management algorithms that coordinate core and DRAM frequency scaling under a specified energy budget. Approaches that work under performance constraints, as we will show, are not directly applicable to systems operating under energy constraints, as it is difficult to calculate the correct performance bounds in real-time to stay under an energy budget. Setting arbitrary energy budgets for a diverse set of applications can be harmful to application performance. We use the previously introduced concept of Inefficiency—the additional amount of energy above the minimum required energy that can be used to improve performance—to provide a dynamic energy constraint to our system. We introduce new power management algorithms that search the power and performance space to find the best performing point under this constraint. We demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithms using CPU DVFS and DRAM frequency scaling. We show that our algorithms have 24% lower tuning cost and save up to 5% energy with a little performance loss compared to a state-of-the-art performance constrained system.
Can online delivery result in comparable achievement of course outcomes and student success in different computer science courses

This paper investigates reliable answers to the following proposed research questions: Will changing course contents and difficulty levels affect the achievement of course intended learning outcomes and the levels of students' success? Detailed analyses and findings of a proposed course assessment framework that primarily uses direct assessment techniques are presented. Two online courses are compared, an introductory programming class versus a computer literacy one. The paper employs two different data sets. The first set are collected then analyzed to compare the levels of achievement of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) across the studied groups. ILO achievement levels are represented as EAMU vectors then used collectively in the comparison. Statistical analyses of these vectors using both Chi-square and t-tests have shown that there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups. The second data set is used to directly measure and compare a number of factors representing students' success. The obtained results for the majority of success measures denoted that there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups except for withdrawal rate and resource utilization levels which were higher in the introductory programming group. Discussions of the obtained results are provided along with how such findings can support the effectiveness of online delivery.
Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico by Petra Rivera-Rideau: (2015). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 224 pp., $23.95. ISBN: 978-0-8223-5964-7 (paperback)

In Remixing Reggaeton: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico, Petra R. Rivera-Rideau has created an insightful and engaging work of music scholarship that forms an important contribution to ...
Second language pragmatic appropriateness in telecollaboration: The influence of discourse management and grammaticality

Abstract Context-specific enactment of pragmatic appropriateness requires high levels of second language (L2) pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge. In order to elucidate the appropriateness of request production in telecollaboration for professional purposes, this study examines the role of grammaticality and discourse management in oral synchronous interactions between L1 and L2 speakers of German. Findings indicate that ungrammaticality and lack of discourse control impeded the appropriateness of the learners’ interaction with L1 speakers. Conversely, those learners displaying higher levels of grammaticality and more attention to discourse-level organization were able to produce more appropriate requests. To conclude, empirical findings are discussed in relation to pedagogical implications.
Loss of precuneus dendritic spines immunopositive for spinophilin is related to cognitive impairment in early Alzheimer's disease

Precuneus (PreC) cortex is affected with amyloid plaques early in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and this pathology may be associated with alterations in PreC synapses and cognitive impairment. We quantified the spinophilin-immunoreactive (ir) dendritic spine density and the intensity of spinophilin immunofluorescence, the latter as a measure of relative protein levels of spinophilin, in PreC lamina III from 33 subjects with clinical diagnoses of no cognitive impairment (NCI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), mild-moderate AD (mAD), or severe AD (sAD). Both measures of spinophilin were lower in mAD and sAD compared with NCI. The MCI group had higher protein levels of spinophilin compared with mAD and sAD, and higher spinophilin-ir dendritic spine density compared with sAD. Lower spinophilin-ir dendritic spine density and relative protein levels of spinophilin were associated with greater amyloid beta (Aβ) plaque burden, detected with a derivative of Pittsburgh compound-B (6-CN-PiB), and worse cognitive performance. Clinical onset of AD is marked by the loss of PreC spinophilin-ir dendritic spines that is related to Aβ pathology and may contribute to cognitive symptoms early in the disease.
TrioVecEvent: Embedding-Based Online Local Event Detection in Geo-Tagged Tweet Streams

Detecting local events (e.g., protest, disaster) at their onsets is an important task for a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from disaster control to crime monitoring and place recommendation. Recent years have witnessed growing interest in leveraging geo-tagged tweet streams for online local event detection. Nevertheless, the accuracies of existing methods still remain unsatisfactory for building reliable local event detection systems. We propose TrioVecEvent, a method that leverages multimodal embeddings to achieve accurate online local event detection. The effectiveness of TrioVecEvent is underpinned by its two-step detection scheme. First, it ensures a high coverage of the underlying local events by dividing the tweets in the query window into coherent geo-topic clusters. To generate quality geo-topic clusters, we capture short-text semantics by learning multimodal embeddings of the location, time, and text, and then perform online clustering with a novel Bayesian mixture model. Second, TrioVecEvent considers the geo-topic clusters as candidate events and extracts a set of features for classifying the candidates. Leveraging the multimodal embeddings as background knowledge, we introduce discriminative features that can well characterize local events, which enables pinpointing true local events from the candidate pool with a small amount of training data. We have used crowdsourcing to evaluate TrioVecEvent, and found that it improves the performance of the state-of-the-art method by a large margin.
Endometrial Cancers Harboring Mutated Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 2 Protein Are Successfully Treated With a New Small Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor in an Orthotopic Mouse Model.

Objectives AL3818 (anlotinib) is a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR1, VEGFR2/KDR, and VEGFR3), stem cell factor receptor (C-kit), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGFβ), and fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3). This study evaluates the efficacy of AL3818 studying tumor regression in an orthotopic murine endometrial cancer model. Methods We tested the cytotoxicity of AL3818 on a panel of 7 human endometrial cancer cell lines expressing either wild-type or mutant FGFR2 and also assessed the in vivo antitumor efficacy in a murine, orthotopic AN3CA endometrial cancer model. AL3818 was administered daily per os either alone or in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, which represent the current standard of adjuvant care for endometrial cancer. Results AL3818 significantly reduces AN3CA cell number in vitro, characterized by high expression of a mutated FGFR2 protein. Daily oral administration of AL3818 (5 mg/kg) resulted in a complete response in 55% of animals treated and in a reduced tumor volume, as well as decreased tumor weights of AN3CA tumors by 94% and 96%, respectively, following a 29-day treatment cycle. Whereas carboplatin and paclitaxel failed to alter tumor growth, the combination with AL3818 did not seem to exhibit a superior effect when compared with AL3818 treatment alone. Conclusions AL3818 shows superior efficacy for the treatment of endometrial cancer irresponsive to conventional carboplatin and paclitaxel combination and warrants further investigation.
Network Analysis Reveals Putative Genes Affecting Meat Quality in Angus Cattle

Improvements in eating satisfaction will benefit consumers and should increase beef demand which is of interest to the beef industry. Tenderness, juiciness, and flavor are major determinants of the palatability of beef and are often used to reflect eating satisfaction. Carcass qualities are used as indicator traits for meat quality, with higher quality grade carcasses expected to relate to more tender and palatable meat. However, meat quality is a complex concept determined by many component traits making interpretation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on any one component challenging to interpret. Recent approaches combining traditional GWAS with gene network interactions theory could be more efficient in dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. Phenotypic measures of 23 traits reflecting carcass characteristics, components of meat quality, along with mineral and peptide concentrations were used along with Illumina 54k bovine SNP genotypes to derive an annotated gene network associated with meat quality in 2,110 Angus beef cattle. The efficient mixed model association (EMMAX) approach in combination with a genomic relationship matrix was used to directly estimate the associations between 54k SNP genotypes and each of the 23 component traits. Genomic correlated regions were identified by partial correlations which were further used along with an information theory algorithm to derive gene network clusters. Correlated SNP across 23 component traits were subjected to network scoring and visualization software to identify significant SNP. Significant pathways implicated in the meat quality complex through GO term enrichment analysis included angiogenesis, inflammation, transmembrane transporter activity, and receptor activity. These results suggest that network analysis using partial correlations and annotation of significant SNP can reveal the genetic architecture of complex traits and provide novel information regarding biological mechanisms and genes that lead to complex phenotypes, like meat quality, and the nutritional and healthfulness value of beef. Improvements in genome annotation and knowledge of gene function will contribute to more comprehensive analyses that will advance our ability to dissect the complex architecture of complex traits.
Stress and Health Outcomes: Do Meaningful Work and Physical Activity Help?:

The negative effects of stress and burnout on mental and physical health are widely known, as are the beneficial effects of physical activity. While the organizational literature emphasizes the val...
“Building the Dream”: The Making of the King Memorial

Chapter 2 offers a historical-contextual analysis of the King Memorial, collecting the publicly professed motives of the memorial’s producers, along with the response from the site’s critics and supporters. By tracing the King Memorial’s history from its conception and approval to its design and construction, this chapter recovers the multivalent messages that the site’s producers apparently sought to convey. By discussing the criticism and support that the project faced throughout its construction and upon its opening, the chapter also reveals public and vernacular interpretations of the site.