cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gross anatomy of the liver, biliary tree, and pancreas in the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus):

The gross anatomy of the liver, extrapetatic biliary tree, sphincter of Oddi, and pancreas in the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus), a widely used animal model for investigations into biliary physiology, pathophysiology, and pathology, was studied in 10 animals. The liver consists of 4 lobes, the left lateral, median, right lateral, and caudate. The gallbladder lies on the ventral surface of the right lobule of the median lobe. The cystic and hepatic ducts unite to form the common bile duct which enters the duodenum approximately 5 mm distal to the pylorus. The lower end of the common duct dilates forming an ampulla which is surrounded proximally by a band of circular muscle fibres which constitute the choledochal sphincter. The pancreatic duct opens separately into the duodenum approximately 80 mm from the pylorus. Earlier physiologic studies have demonstrated that the choledochal sphincter has intrinsic motility distinct from the duodenum.
Giving birth: Guatemalan women's voices.

Objective: To gain an understanding of the cultural meanings of giving birth for Guatemalan women. Design: Ethnographic, focusing on the birth stories of Guatemalan women and their perceptions of the sociocultural context of childbearing. Participants and Setting: Thirty Guatemalan women (15 primiparae and 15 multiparae) of mixed Mayan and Ladino heritage who had given birth to healthy full-term infants were interviewed during the early postpartum weeks. These women lived in small villages in the Sacatepequez District of Guatemala. These audiotaped interviews were conducted in the Nacional Pedro de Bethancourt Hospital, in clinics, in the homes of the women, or in central plazas. Results: The sociocultural context of giving birth in Guatemala is described, including common beliefs about pregnancy and childbirth and the meaning and significance of having children. The predominant themes found were the sacred nature of childbirth; the need for reliance on God during pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing; and the bittersweet paradox of giving birth. Conclusion: With increasing numbers of Central American refugees and immigrants of childbearing age entering the United States, it is important for nurses to recognize, acknowledge, and respect specific cultural practices related to childbearing. JOGNN, 27, 289-295; 1998.
Validity Study of the Preschool Language Scale-4 With English-Speaking Hispanic and European American Children in Head Start Programs

The purpose of the study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Preschool Language Scale–4 (PLS-4) with a sample of English-speaking Hispanic and European American children who attended Head Start programs. Participants were 440 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years (52% male; 86% Hispanic and 14% European American). Participants were administered the PLS-4 and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–III (PPVT-III). The Auditory Comprehension and Expressive Communication subscales and Total Language scale scores for the PLS-4 in this sample had excellent reliability (Kuder Richardson–20s > .90). Validity evidence for the PLS-4 was present, with both subscales being positively correlated with PPVT-III scores. Agreement analysis between the PLS-4 and the PPVT-III indicated that the PLS-4 was less likely to identify a child as having a potential language delay than was the PPVT-III. The results largely support the validity of the PLS-4 for its intended purpose of assessing language skills with preschoolers.
Acute IGF-I infusion stimulates protein synthesis in skeletal muscle and other tissues of neonatal pigs.

Studies have shown that protein synthesis in skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs is uniquely sensitive to a physiological rise in both insulin and amino acids. Protein synthesis in cardiac muscle, ski...
Higher-order modes in the APS storage ring waveguides

Twelve higher-order modes (HOMs) in the single-cell accelerating cavities for the Advanced Photon Source (APS) storage ring were calculated to have complex impedances that will cause coupled-bunched instabilities near or below the 300 mA positron current which is the design goal. Some of these modes couple, through the coupling loop, from the storage ring cavity into the waveguide. This study investigates the transmission of these modes from the cavity into the waveguide. The standing wave ratio (VSWR) of a WR2300 hybrid waveguide component has been measured at each HOM frequency, and its effect on the transmitted modes in the waveguide is studied. >
Fault tolerance for main-memory applications in the cloud

Advances in hardware have enabled many long-running applications to execute entirely in main memory. With the emergence of cloud computing, thousands of machines could be made available to deploy such applications with lowered operational and maintenance costs. While achieving substantially better performance, these applications have encountered new challenges in achieving fault tolerance; i.e., to ensure durability in the event of a crash. In addition, many of these applications, such as massively multiplayer online games, main-memory OLTP systems, main-memory search engine and deterministic transaction processing systems, must sustain extremely high update rates – often hundreds of thousands of updates per second. They also demand extremely high throughput (e.g. scientific simulation) or low latency (e.g. massively multiplayer online games). To support these demanding requirements, these applications have increasingly turned to database techniques. In this dissertation, we propose an approach to provide fault tolerance for main-memory applications without introducing excessive overhead or latency spikes. First, we evaluate the applicability of existing checkpoint recovery techniques developed for main-memory DBMS. We use massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) as our motivating example. In particular, we show how to adapt consistent checkpointing techniques developed for main-memory databases to MMOs. Furthermore, we provide a thorough simulation model and evaluation of six recovery strategies. Based on our results, we argue that not all state-of-the-art checkpoint recovery techniques are equally suited for low-latency and high-throughput applications such as MMOs. These algorithms either use locks or large synchronous copy operations, which hurt throughput and latency, respectively. Next, we take advantage of frequent points of consistency in many of these applications to develop novel checkpoint recovery algorithms that trade additional space in main memory for significantly lower overhead and latency. Compared to previous work, our new algorithms do not require any locking or bulk copies of the application state. Our experimental evaluation shows that one of our new algorithms attains nearly constant latency and reduces overhead by more than an order of magnitude for low to medium update rates. Additionally, in a heavily loaded main-memory transaction processing system, it still reduces overhead by more than a factor of two. Finally, we present BRRL, a library for making distributed main-memory applications fault tolerant. BRRL is optimized for cloud applications with frequent points of consistency that use data-parallelism to avoid complex concurrency control mechanisms. BRRL differs from existing recovery libraries by providing a simple table abstraction and using schema information to optimize checkpointing.
Provoking aspiration: Risk-management through the cultivation of future selves in college recruitment:

Drawing upon data from an ethnography of college admissions, I describe how the admissions’ personnel and faculty mobilize persuasive scripts that invite prospective students to reimagine themselves as subjects with a fluid set of aspirations within the context of risky futures. The focus here is not on the representations of the college itself, rather on how potential students’ aspirational subjectivities can be folded into enduring institutional scripts. Reciprocally, the institution is potentially folded into the students’ narrative of self. In persuasive scripts of commensuration, disparate futures and knowledge are made similar: students who imagine themselves embedded in the social world of nursing are acquired by social work programs; potential social workers are acquired by the school for business and so on. I argue here that the fluidity of such imagined futures is directly implicated in neoliberal discourses that require the subject to assertively colonize the future, despite the actual probabil...
Dynamic biomaterials: toward engineering autonomous feedback

Dynamic biomaterials are biocompatible engineered systems capable of sensing and actively responding to their surrounding environment. They are of growing interest, both as models in basic research to understand complex cellular systems and in medical applications. Here, we review recent advances in nano-scale and micro-scale biomaterials, specifically artificial cells consisting of compartmentalized biochemical reactions and biologically compatible hydrogels. These dynamic biomaterials respond to stimuli through triggered reactions, reaction cascades, logic gates, and autonomous feedback loops. We outline the advances and remaining challenges in implementing such 'smart' biomaterials capable of autonomously responding to environmental stimuli.
Cytochemistry of virus-induced inclusions containing nucleic acids.

SummaryCytoplasmic inclusions produced by reovirus, type 3, contain RNA that is stainable by 4 TBM methods, by dilute toluidine blue after nitrosation and by pyronin. Staining of inclusions by all these methods, except for TBM, method C, is due to the presence of single-stranded RNA which is susceptible to digestion by RNase. Double-stranded RNA is partially responsible for staining by TBM, method C, since staining is reduced but not abolished by digestion with RNase. Hydrolysis of RNA by hot TCA prevents all staining by these methods. The ability of the reovirus inclusion to stain green with acridine orange is unaffected by all methods that remove nucleic acids demonstrable by other methods and is probably due to dye-binding by protein. The results of digestion by combinations of nucleases and pepsin are variable, irreproducible and incapable of logical interpretation.
Near Unity Photon-to-Electron Conversion Efficiency of Photoelectrochemical Cells Built on Cationic Water-Soluble Porphyrins Electrostatically Decorated onto Thin-Film Nanocrystalline SnO2 Surface

Thin transparent SnO2 films have been surface modified with cationic water-soluble porphyrins for photoelectrochemical investigations. Free-base and zinc(II) derivatives of three types of cationic water-soluble porphyrins, (P)M, viz., tetrakis(N-methylpyridyl)porphyrin chloride, (TMPyP)M, tetrakis(trimethylanilinium)porphyrin chloride, (TAP)M, and tetrakis(4′-N-methylimidazolyl-phenyl)porphyrin iodide, (TMIP)M, (M = 2H or Zn) are employed. The negative surface charge and the porous structure of SnO2 facilitated binding of positively charged porphyrins via electrostatic interactions, in addition to strong electronic interactions in the case of (TMPyP)M binding to nanocrystalline SnO2. The SnO2–porphyrin binding in solution was probed by absorption spectroscopy which yielded apparent binding constants in the range of 1.5–2.6 × 104 M–1. Both steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence studies revealed quenching of porphyrin emission upon binding to SnO2 in water suggesting electron injection from singlet exc...
Soybean bio-refinery platform: enzymatic process for production of soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate and fermentable sugar syrup

Soybean carbohydrate is often found to limit the use of protein in soy flour as food and animal feed due to its indigestibility to monogastric animal. In the current study, an enzymatic process was developed to produce not only soy protein concentrate and soy protein isolate without indigestible carbohydrate but also soluble reducing sugar as potential fermentation feedstock. For increasing protein content in the product and maximizing protein recovery, the process was optimized to include the following steps: hydrolysis of soy flour using an Aspergillus niger enzyme system; separation of the solid and liquid by centrifugation (10 min at 7500×g); an optional step of washing to remove entrapped hydrolysate from the protein-rich wet solid stream by ethanol (at an ethanol-to-wet-solid ratio (v/w) of 10, resulting in a liquid phase of approximately 60 % ethanol); and a final precipitation of residual protein from the sugar-rich liquid stream by heat treatment (30 min at 95 °C). Starting from 100 g soy flour, this process would produce approximately 54 g soy protein concentrate with 70 % protein (or, including the optional solid wash, 43 g with 80 % protein), 9 g soy protein isolate with 89 % protein, and 280 ml syrup of 60 g/l reducing sugar. The amino acid composition of the soy protein concentrate produced was comparable to that of the starting soy flour. Enzymes produced by three fungal species, A. niger, Trichoderma reesei, and Aspergillus aculeatus, were also evaluated for effectiveness to use in this process.
The Rb and E2F Families of Proteins

The Retinoblastoma gene Rb was the first tumor suppressor gene cloned, and it is well known as a negative cell cycle regulator. A simplified model for Rb function is that it blocks cell cycle progression by binding to the E2F transcription factors and recruiting co-repressor complexes to repress the expression of E2F target genes. Both E2F and Rb have multiple family members, with specific members of the Rb family capable of binding only to a specific subset of the E2F family. In addition, different E2F proteins exhibit distinct capacities to regulate natural E2F targets due to their different ability to interact with other transcription factors which are also required for the activation of particular E2F target genes. Although Rb and E2F are best known for their cell cycle roles, recent genome wide analysis of E2F targets has suggested that E2F and Rb control not only genes important in the cell cycle but also genes involved in apoptosis, differentiation, and development. Consistent with these observations, analysis of mice and Drosophila with mutations in the Rb and E2F genes has revealed important roles of E2F and Rb proteins in all these areas.
Chronic rhinosinusitis phenotypes.

Abstract Objective To review the current knowledge surrounding different chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) presentations and the relative roles of nasal polyps, eosinophilia, and allergies in discerning phenotypes. Data Sources PubMed literature review. Study Selections Articles discussing the various phenotypes of CRS with emphasis on pathologic and immune mechanistic studies that distinguish disease. Results Current guidelines primarily separate CRS based on the presence or absence of nasal polyps. This is largely driven by the tendency of eosinophilic disease to present with nasal polyps (NPs) in contrast to noneosinophilic presentations, which less often lead to the development NPs. Further separations have been proposed based on expression of aeroallergen sensitization. Conclusion The presence of NPs may only poorly predict the presence of an underlying eosinophilic process and as such may have poor utility in forming the basis for recommending eosinophil-target therapies. Similarly, there is little evidence to support a significant role for aeroallergen exposure in contributing to the presence, severity, or natural history of CRS. Appropriate separation of CRS into specific phenotypes will allow therapeutic approaches to be individualized to each distinct presentation.
A Dialectical Approach to the Treatment of Sexual Disgust: Reply to Commentaries by Blechner, Nathans, and Willock

The reply to the commentaries discusses the challenges of treating sexual disgust from the perspective of comparative-integrative psychoanalysis. My paper tried to weave in the oedipal, the adaptationist perspective of research on disgust by evolutionary developmental psychologists, and the psychoeducational into more standard psychoanalytic ways of thinking about and working with sexual disgust that tend to neglect those viewpoints. How does one bring in a fresh perspective without throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
TCT-707 Clinical Characteristics Associated with the Magnitude of Decrease in Systolic Pulmonary Artery Pressure after MitraClip Therapy

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is common in MR. A previous trial demonstrated significant hemodynamic improvement after MitraClip therapy, but it was less effective than surgery and is a potential cause of iatrogenic mitral stenosis. Clinical characteristics associated with delta sPAP after MitraClip
Dual Targeting of Mesenchymal and Amoeboid Motility Hinders Metastatic Behavior

Commonly upregulated in human cancers, the scaffolding protein NEDD9/HEF1 is a known regulator of mesenchymal migration and cancer cell plasticity. However, the functional role of NEDD9 as a regulator of different migration/invasion modes in the context of breast cancer metastasis is currently unknown. Here, it is reported that NEDD9 is necessary for both mesenchymal and amoeboid individual cell migration/invasion in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). NEDD9 deficiency results in acquisition of the amoeboid morphology, but severely limits all types of cell motility. Mechanistically, NEDD9 promotes mesenchymal migration via VAV2-dependent Rac1 activation, and depletion of VAV2 impairs the ability of NEDD9 to activate Rac1. In addition, NEDD9 supports a mesenchymal phenotype through stimulating polymerization of actin via promoting CTTN phosphorylation in an AURKA-dependent manner. Interestingly, an increase in RhoA activity in NEDD9-depleted cells does not facilitate a switch to functional amoeboid motility, indicating a role of NEDD9 in the regulation of downstream RhoA signaling effectors. Simultaneous depletion of NEDD9 or inhibition of AURKA in combination with inhibition of the amoeboid driver ROCK results in an additional decrease in cancer cell migration/invasion. Finally, we confirmed that a dual targeting strategy is a viable and efficient therapeutic approach to hinder the metastasis of breast cancer in xenograft models, showcasing the important need for further clinical evaluation of this regimen to impede the spread of disease and improve patient survival.Implications: This study provides new insight into the therapeutic benefit of combining NEDD9 depletion with ROCK inhibition to reduce tumor cell dissemination and discovers a new regulatory role of NEDD9 in the modulation of VAV2-dependent activation of Rac1 and actin polymerization. Mol Cancer Res; 15(6); 670-82. ©2017 AACR.
Limitations of Traditional Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials in Rheumatology

Randomized controlled clinical trials provide the optimal method to document the efficacy of a therapy compared to another therapy or a placebo. However, clinical trials have many limitations, as is seen with every method in scientific research; these limitations may be classified as pragmatic or intrinsic. Pragmatic limitations of clinical trials in chronic rheumatic diseases include a relatively short time frame – often too short to recognize important clinical benefits or loss of efficacy of a therapy, inclusion and exclusion criteria which may restrict eligibility of patients with a given diagnosis to fewer than 10 % of patients, statistical significance may not indicate robust differences, clinically important differences may not be statistically significant due to insufficient statistical power, important variables may affect outcomes other than randomization group, inflexible dosage schedules and restrictions on concomitant medications, need for surrogate markers and indices which may be suboptimal to predict important clinical outcomes, and difficulty to recognize rare side effects. Intrinsic limitations, which exist even if pragmatic limitations were overcome, include that the design can greatly influence results – a control group does not eliminate bias, data are reported in groups and ignore possible substantial individual variation, absence of standard criteria to evaluate risk/benefit of a therapy, and loss of “placebo effect.” A contemporary view of “evidence-based medicine” recognizes limitations of clinical trials and that in some instances, observational studies and case series may provide “best evidence.”
Distributed formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots by bounded feedback in the presence of obstacles

The problem of distributed formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots is addressed in this paper, in which the robots are designed to track a formation. Collision avoidance among agents is guaranteed using a control law based on a repulsive force. In an uncertain environment where obstacles exist, the construction of a repulsive force and rotational direction enables agents to avoid and pass the obstacles. The control inputs of each robot are designed to be bounded. Numerical simulations with different formations are implemented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.
Overexpression of MCT1 oncogene contributes to increased tumorigenicity of MCF7 breast cancer cells

2812 Introduction: Overexpression of MCT1 (multiple copies in a T-cell malignancy), a novel candidate oncogene, in murine fibroblasts is associated with malignant transformation (Prosniak et al, Cancer Res, 1998; Dierov et al, JCB, 1999). To establish the role of MCT1 in the pathogenesis of breast cancer, we stably transfected MCT1 cDNA into MCF7 breast cancer cells that lack endogenous expression of this protein. Three MCT1-overexpressing MCF7 clones (N1, N4 and N7) and empty-vector control were selected for in vitro and in vivo studies. Results: In vitro studies: Transfection of MCT1 gene into breast cancer cells resulted in slightly increased production of estrogen receptor α (ERα), increased levels of DNA synthesis and a higher growth rate in response to estradiol (E2) compared to empty-vector control and parental MCF7 cells. The pure antiestrogen ICI 182,780 (ICI, fulvestrant) inhibited the E2-stimulated proliferation of MCF7-MCT1 cells further substantiating that E2 stimulation of growth was through the functional ER.To examine invasive capacity of MCF7-MCT1 cells we used a 96-well Cell Invasion Assay. All three clones of MCT1-transfected cells showed increased invasiveness in the presence of 50% FBS compared to empty-vector control. Soft agar colony formation assay, however, did not display statistically significant differences of anchorage independent growth between MCT1-transfectants and empty-vector control. We next examined expression of procathepsin D (pCD) and cathepsin D (CD), both markers for invasive potential of MCF7-MCT1 cells. We found that while the expression of CD in MCF7-MCT1 clones was comparable with levels in MDA-MB-231 cells, the levels of pCD reached levels of those in MDA-MB-231 or higher only after stimulation with E2. ICI was able to block the E2-stimulated enhancement of pCD in MCT1-overexpressing cells. In vivo studies: When inoculated into the mammary fat pad of ovariectomized nude mice (10 mice/group), MCT1-overexpressing cells (N1 and N7) had higher tumor rates and formed tumors that were larger than those produced by empty-vector control cells injected under the same conditions. At week 17, the largest N1 tumor was 0.96 cm2 in size, the largest N7 tumor was 0.88 cm2 and empty-vector tumor was 0.25 cm2. To determine the metastatic potential of MCF7-MCT1 cells, we examined spontaneous metastases in lung and liver tissues isolated from sacrificed mice. No evidence of micrometastases was seen in any of the animals in all groups. Conclusion: MCT1 overexpression in breast cancer cells resulted in more aggressive growth characteristics and invasiveness in vitro, as well as greater tumorigenicity when injected into nude mice. The increase tumorigenesis induced by MCT1 transfection into breast cancer cells suggest that MCT1 overexpression may play a role in the pathogenesis and progression of human breast cancer.
Hybrid energy harvesting in 3-D IC IoT devices

Three-dimensional integrated circuits are a natural platform for IoT devices. IoT devices exhibit a small footprint, integrate disparate technologies, and require long term sustainability (extremely low power or self powered). A hybrid energy harvesting system within a three-dimensional integrated circuit is proposed in this paper. The harvesting system exploits different types of energy available from the ambient (electromagnetic, solar, thermal, and kinetic). Integration of the hybrid harvesting system onto a three-dimensional platform ensures that each type of harvested energy can be individually optimized. In addition, lower parasitic impedances are exhibited within the three-dimensional structure, leading to improved efficiencies in the energy harvesting process. For an example IoT system, the power requirements are less than 57% of the power delivered to the load.
Integrating HIV Surveillance and Field Services: Data Quality and Care Continuum in King County, Washington, 2010-2015.

Objectives. To assess how integration of HIV surveillance and field services might influence surveillance data and linkage to care metrics.Methods. We used HIV surveillance and field services data from King County, Washington, to assess potential impact of misclassification of prior diagnoses on numbers of new diagnoses. The relationship between partner services and linkage to care was evaluated with multivariable log-binomial regression models.Results. Of the 2842 people who entered the King County HIV Surveillance System in 2010 to 2015, 52% were newly diagnosed, 41% had a confirmed prior diagnosis in another state, and 7% had an unconfirmed prior diagnosis. Twelve percent of those classified as newly diagnosed for purposes of national HIV surveillance self-reported a prior HIV diagnosis that was unconfirmed. Partner services recipients were more likely than nonrecipients to link to care within 30 days (adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 1.18) and 90 days (adjusted RR ...
Phosphorylation and the regulation of CD40L mRNA stability by polypyrimidine tract binding protein (P1394)

The expression of the CD40 ligand (CD40L) is controlled at the posttranscriptional level by an activation-induced program of regulated mRNA stability that is dependent on the formation of a cytoplasmic polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB)-containing-complex (Complex I) that binds to the 3’UTR of the CD40L mRNA. PTB is expressed as two major spliced isoforms in T cells, PTB-1 and PTB-4, which differ by the inclusion of exon 9 in PTB-4. To understand how these sites influence the function of PTB, mutants were generated at Ser 306 and Tyr 308 in the parent PTB-4 and introduced into Jurkat T cells expressing RNAi-mediated downregulated levels of PTB. Decreased PTB is known to result in an unstable CD40L transcript. We found that mutant proteins were expressed at relatively equal levels to each other and to that of exogenously-expressed wildtype PTB-4. Also, the distribution into the nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions was highly similar to endogenous PTB. We report the effect of the PTB mutations on the stability and cellular distribution of CD40L RNA. Also, comparing the functional activity of PTB-4 with PTB-1, which lacks the targeted phosphorylation sites, revealed distinct differences. Because we have previously demonstrated that PKC affects the PTB-mediated stability of CD40L mRNA, identifying the role of specific phosphorylation sites broadens our understanding of how events during T cell activation regulate expression of this critical co-stimulatory molecule.
Accuracy prediction for pedestrian detection

In this paper, we address the problem of predicting accuracy for pedestrian detection. We want to be able to predict the accuracy of a video analytic method without actually executing the method. We propose the use of texture descriptors and random forests to predict the accuracy of various pedestrian detection methods. Our experimental results demonstrate that using the local binary pattern (LBP) or a bank of Schmid and Gabor filters can capture spatial textural information associated with video quality degradation that can be used to predict accuracy. We also demonstrate how predicting the absolute accuracy can save network and computational resources.
Exploring patient-centeredness: The relationship between self-reported empathy and patient-centered communication in medical trainees.

Abstract Objective To explore the relationships between self-reported Empathy and the patient-centered communication patterns of physician trainees. Methods “Eighty-four 3rd year medical students completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE – student version) and had recordings of a single OSCE analyzed using the Roter Interactional Analysis System (RIAS). Correlation and regression were employed to explore the relationships among JSE total score, 3 JSE subscales, 10 composite codes of provider communication, and a summary ‘patient centered communication’ ratio, reflecting the balance of psychosocial and emotional to biomedical communication of the simulated patient and student. Results Results indicate that controlling for other elements of student communication, the RIAS composite of codes reflecting ‘emotional responsiveness’ (characterized by empathy statements, legitimization, showing concern, partnership statements and medically relevant provider self-disclosure) was positively related to the JSE Total Score while student ‘question asking’ and ‘biomedical counseling’ were negatively related to the JSE Score. RIAS-coded communication variables accounted for 32.4% of the JSE Total score. Conclusion The relationship between student expressions of emotional responsiveness and predicted self-reported empathy provides concurrent validation evidence for the JSE. Practice implications Further research is needed in order to elaborate and further explore a Patient-Centeredness latent variable.
Evaluation of Probabilities: A Level Playing Field?

Scoring rules provide overall measures of the “goodness” of probabilities, and other measures (often from decompositions of scoring rules) relate to specific attributes such as calibration and sharpness. This paper briefly reviews scoring rules and probability evaluation and attempts to extend past work in two directions. The first extension generalizes the development of scoring rules that better reflect the difficulty of forecasting situations and the skill associated with probability forecasts, with the goal of obtaining measures that yield comparable scores. The second extension involves the use of scoring rules to evaluate probabilities without perfect knowledge of the actual outcomes of the events or variables to which the probabilities refer. This is in the spirit of attempting to create a level playing field for probability evaluation by making evaluation measures comparable and expanding the set of probabilities that can be evaluated.
Do shallow water tables contribute to high and stable maize yields in the US Corn Belt

Abstract Shallow water tables (WT) can buffer against transitory rain-free periods leading to higher and more stable yields in rainfed crops. However, little is known about their influence on regional crop production and its stability. In the present study, we assessed the impact of WT on maize production in the US Corn Belt. Analysis of historical yields and modeling revealed that WT may explain higher than expected yields. At regional level, WT led to higher (6%) and more stable maize production compared with the scenario without WT, especially in years with severe drought (24% production increase). Results highlight the need to account for WT for yield forecasting and for studies investigating the influence of current and future climate on crop production.
Connecting the Links Between Leadership Styles and Virtual Team Effectiveness

This research attempted to connect the links between leadership styles and virtual team effectiveness. Linking leadership styles with virtual team effectiveness can result in virtual esprit de corp...
Contested Sonic Space: Settler Territoriality and Sonographic Visualization at Celilo Falls

In this article, I argue that “seeing with sound" is a fraught political process with the potential to both obfuscate and assist Indigenous claims to land. I do so by analyzing the Portland District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2007 sonar images of Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. I take up feminist materialist analytics developed by Native American and Indigenous Studies scholarship on cartography and refusal, and place them in conversation with the sonic geographies of Columbia River Indigenous writers. Namely, I use Elizabeth Woody’s poem Waterways Endeavor to Translate Silence from Currents (1994) to investigate how overlapping and conflicting deployments of sonic imaging play a major cultural, political, and material role in the (re)mapping of Celilo Falls. First, I present a theoretical framework that considers the role of what I call sonic knowledges in unsettling colonial visual cartographies. I use archival Army Corps’ maps and critical sonar studies literature to show how the Army Crops’ 2007 riverbed sonograms emerge from a longer context of US settler practices of enclosing land with maps and surveying water with sound. I then turn to a close reading of newspaper articles and state legislation to analyze how the sonograms take on a present political life in ways that repackage ocularcentrism and assuage settler guilt, thus authorizing ongoing US enclosure of Indigenous lands. Yet, I also bring to bear Indigenous sonic knowledges that position imaging processes as potentially antithetical to addressing questions of access to land and self-determination. Through examining newspaper interviews, public testimonies, and Elizabeth Woody’s poem, I elucidate deployments of sonic knowledge that can help us think about what anti-colonial (re)mapping practices demand of contemporary cartographic imaging processes. Attending to sonic knowledges under conditions of settler-ocularcentrism, I suggest, might assist anti-colonial feminist science studies engagements with processes of imag(in)ing Indigenous space.
The Impact of Release Management on Open-Source Software Co-Creation

The open-source software (OSS) production model has been gaining ground and even expanding to a broader class of products. A central virtue of OSS is co-creation through contributions and feedback from the user community, yet our knowledge of how to coordinate and maximize the benefit of such co-creation for market success is limited. In this paper, we propose that deliberate product release timing can be an important capability to orchestrate open source community contributions and maximize their benefit. We develop, formalize, and estimate a dynamic structural model to study the impact of product release management as a coordinating mechanism in peer production. We find that a deliberate and moderate release frequency, contingent on the installed base of the project, its quality enhancement, and the license type of the software, contributes to project success. Our results show that it would be optimal for early-stage projects to release more often. As the installed base increases, it is beneficial to release less often. We also find that there exists a curvilinear (inverse-U) relationship between the release frequency and the community contributions. Hence, excessive releasing may risk exhausting the community. Furthermore, even though the project may benefit from a new release, there also exists a release cost. The OSS team then has to balance between the two by carefully managing the release pace. We also find that projects with different license types may have different optimal release timing. These results may have important implications for managing technology-enabled, crowd-based collaboration in open innovation communities beyond open-source software development, launch, and adoption.
Assessing the protective effect of rosiglitazone against electronic cigarette/tobacco smoke-induced blood–brain barrier impairment

Smoking (TS) and recently e-cigarettes (EC) vaping, have been associated with vascular endothelial dysfunction primarily relevant to oxidative stress, exposure to nicotine, and smoking-induced inflammation. It is accepted that both EC and TS enhance glucose intolerance and the risk of developing type-2 diabetes mellitus which is also one of the causes of blood–brain barrier (BBB) damage and the higher risk of cerebrovascular diseases. Recent studies have shown how Metformin, the first common antidiabetic drug, can protect the BBB integrity through enhancement of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) activity. Herein, we investigated the role of rosiglitazone (RSG; family of thiazolidinedione class used oral anti-diabetic drug) in TS/EC-induced BBB impairment. Although the exact mechanism of RSG is not fully understood, previous studies have revealed that RSG can promote counteractive protective mechanisms primarily associated with the enhancement of Nrf2 activity through activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma. In line with these findings, our results show an increased expression of PPARy by RSG, enhancement of Nrf2 activity and BBB protection against TS/EC exposure including reduced inflammation, oxidative stress, tight junction downregulation and loss of BBB integrity. RSG could be considered as a promising therapeutic potential to prevent TS/EC induced cerebrovascular dysfunction and possibly other xenobiotic substances which may impact the BBB via oxidative stress-mediated effects. However, additional in vivo studies and clinical setting will be needed to validate our results and assess the full extent of RSG protective effects.
Numerical methods for Kohn–Sham density functional theory

Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) is the most widely used electronic structure theory. Despite significant progress in the past few decades, the numerical solution of Kohn–Sham DFT problems remains challenging, especially for large-scale systems. In this paper we review the basics as well as state-of-the-art numerical methods, and focus on the unique numerical challenges of DFT.
Symbols that Transform: Trickster Nature in Detective Fiction

C. G. Jung's 1911 volume finds a home in the English edition of his Collected Works as Volume 5: Symbols of Transformation (1956). This paper will argue that Jung here offers insight into symbolism that can augment and expand his notion of symbol and myth as engines of psychic transformation. While Symbols of Transformation's subtitle, “An Analysis of the Prelude to a Case of Schizophrenia,” indicates a clinical approach, my paper will develop Jungian symbols and myth in a popular cultural form, detective fiction. It will show how detective fiction adopts the ancient trickster myth to generate symbols that re-shape modern consciousness in its relation to non-human nature. The trickster myth itself has a possible antecedent in humans evolving through and with, the practice of hunting. For the modern urban person, detective fiction supplies the hunt and here the Jungian symbol demonstrates its potency for realigning both human nature, and humans and nature. As well as Jung, this paper draws on Lewis Hyde's remarkable Trickster Makes This World (1998) and offers case studies of two novels overtly attuned to hunting through the figure of the dog. These novels are Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and a recent creative response to it in Nevada Barr's Winter Study (2008) set among mythical and actual wolves.
Efficacy of Newer Combinations and Fibril-Targeting for AL Amyloidosis: A Systematic Review of Transplant and Innovative Non-Transplant Therapies

Abstract Background Light-chain (AL) amyloidosis is a multi-organ amyloid deposition disease caused by misfolded protein aggregation. Current treatments have improved overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) but challenges remain in improving therapy with newer agents and targeting amyloid protein deposits with novel immunotherapy. We review the literature regarding efficacy of existing chemotherapy in AL amyloidosis and summarize non-FDA approved novel drugs and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in early phase clinical development. Methods We searched databases including Cochrane library, PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov for all prospective and retrospective studies (As of 4/15/2018) with measured hematologic response rate (HR) in patients with AL amyloidosis since 2000. Inclusion criteria included all prospective and retrospective studies with melphalan-based treatments, bortezomib combinations including bortezomib, cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone (VCD), bortezomib and dexamethasone (VD) and immunotherapies. We included all studies with at least 5 or more patients and reported HR. Results From 918 studies, we selected 57 studies (2640 patients) evaluating HR with melphalan-based stem cell transplant (SCT) treatments and non-stem cell transplant treatments including melphalan and bortezomib combinations. Other agents included daratumumab (anti-CD38 mAb), and ixazomib (proteasome inhibitor). Mean aggregate HR reported from studies with melphalan-based SCT treatment (17 studies, n=587) was 67%. Mean aggregate HR from all non-transplant treatments (40 studies, n=2053) was 64%. Of the non-transplant treatments, HR for melphalan-based treatments (21 studies, n=1148) was 59% and varied as follows: melphalan + lenalidomide + dexamethasone (57%) and melphalan + dexamethasone (52%). Mean aggregated HR for non-transplant bortezomib-based treatment (17 studies, n=859) was 72% consisting of VD (69%) and VCD (76%). HR with Ixazomib (1 study) and Daratumumab (1 study) was 52% and 76% respectively. Other novel drugs currently being studied include 11-1F4 (chimeric fibril-reactive mAb), GSK2398852 and GSK2315698 (anti-serum amyloid protein mAbs), and NEOD001 (anti-circulating soluble and deposited aggregated amyloid mAb). Conclusion For AL amyloidosis, melphalan-based SCT has shown effectiveness while VD and VCD demonstrate effectiveness in non-transplant patients. Further studies are warranted to evaluate novel proteasome inhibitors (Ixazomib) and emerging immunotherapy with daratumumab. Current trials including amyloid protein and fibril targeting (circulating and tissue-fixed) with novel immunotherapy are innovative and may have higher clinical efficacy, but need further testing. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Disordered chromatin packing regulates phenotypic plasticity

Three-dimensional supranucleosomal chromatin packing plays a profound role in modulating gene expression by regulating transcription reactions through mechanisms such as gene accessibility, binding affinities, and molecular diffusion. Here, we use a computational model that integrates disordered chromatin packing (CP) with local macromolecular crowding (MC) to study how physical factors, including chromatin density, the scaling of chromatin packing, and the size of chromatin packing domains, influence gene expression. We computationally and experimentally identify a major role of these physical factors, specifically chromatin packing scaling, in regulating phenotypic plasticity, determining responsiveness to external stressors by influencing both intercellular transcriptional malleability and heterogeneity. Applying CPMC model predictions to transcriptional data from cancer patients, we identify an inverse relationship between patient survival and phenotypic plasticity of tumor cells.
Spatial Structure: Theory, estimation and application in stock assessment models

Abstract All fish populations and fisheries exhibit spatial structure, but accounting for the spatial patterns is commonly ignored in most stock assessments. The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) hosted a workshop on “Spatial Stock Assessment Models” (La Jolla, CA, USA; October 1-5, 2018), and this special volume includes twelve papers on various aspects of spatial stock assessments, including stock identification, development and application of spatially-structured models, simulation studies, and management implications. The workshop and these contributions demonstrate that stock assessments require adequate representation of spatial scope and structure, and tag-integrated models generally perform best, but spatially-structured stock assessments pose several challenges, and remain rarely applied as the scientific basis for fishery management.
Chapter on United States

This paper is a chapter from a forthcoming book on the Supremacy of International Law vs. National Fundamental Principles, edited by Fulvio Maria Palombino. The volume explores the tension between international and domestic law perspectives on conflicts between international and domestic law. From the perspective of international law, a state may not rely on provisions of its internal law as a justification for failing to comply with its international obligations. However, from the perspective of domestic law, domestic courts sometimes invoke “national fundamental values” as a justification to disregard the supremacy of international law. This chapter examines the tension between these two perspectives in the judicial practice of the United States. Three different types of “national fundamental values” are salient in this analysis. First the value of popular sovereignty is invoked to justify application of a federal statute, enacted by a democratically elected legislature, to override international law. Second, the value of state sovereignty — i.e., the sovereignty of sub-national governments in the U.S. federal system — is invoked to limit the power of the national government to implement international obligations in areas otherwise governed by state law. Third, a fundamental commitment to protection of individual rights is sometimes invoked to invalidate federal statutes designed to implement international obligations. The chapter is divided into four sections. The first section provides a brief overview of the U.S. constitutional system. The next three sections address conflicts: 1) between international law and federal constitutional law; 2) between international law and state law; and 3) between international law and federal statutes.
A Comparison of Genetic & Swarm Intelligence-Based Feature Selection Algorithms for Author Identification

Researchers are moving beyond stylometric features to improve author identification systems. They are exploring non-traditional and hybrid feature sets that include areas like sentiment analysis and topic models. This feature set exploration leads to the concern of determining which features are best suited for which systems and datasets. In this paper, we compare Genetic Search and a number of Swarm Intelligence (SI) methods for feature selection. In addition to Genetic Search methods, we compare SI methods including Artificial Bee Colony, Ant System optimization, Glowworm Swarm optimization and Particle Swarm optimization for feature selection.
Generative adversarial network for cardiovascular imaging

Abstract Analysis of cardiac function plays an important role in clinical cardiology for patient management, disease diagnosis, risk evaluation, and treatment decision. Delineation of right- and left-sided cavities, as well as major vessels, is an important step in clinical cardiology for cardiac disease diagnosis. Medical imaging provides a noninvasive diagnostic tool to study cardiac anatomy and detect pathological changes that occur in disease states such as dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and right ventricular dysfunction. The accurate automation of the corresponding task can accelerate the diagnostic part and assist in therapy decisions. In this chapter, we overview recent machine learning approaches that have been applied for automatic cardiac diagnosis based on deep learning and generative adversarial networks and explain the recent application of generative adversarial networks (GANs) for classification, detection, segmentation, registration, image reconstruction, and synthetization mostly in cardiovascular imaging. In continuum, we review the public cardiac dataset with open challenges and conclude the chapter with GAN limitations and future research directions.