cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Propulsor Mechanical Flow Power in Powered Aircraft Wind Tunnel Experiments

This paper describes a methodology for evaluating propulsor mechanical flow power on a 1:11 scale, electrically powered, wind tunnel model of a boundary layer ingesting (BLI) aircraft. The use of a full aircraft aerodynamic configuration precluded direct in-situ measurements of the mechanical flow power, a key metric for BLI aircraft performance. The measured electrical power thus had to be converted to flow power through two sets of supporting experiments. The first set of experiments were flow power measurements with the propulsor in a small wind tunnel which replicates the incoming flow conditions of the powered wind tunnel test. The second set were motor calibration experiments that allowed the motor losses and aerodynamic inefficiencies to be determined separately, giving insight into the motor and the aerodynamic operating point of the propulsor. Using this combined approach, the measurements of electrical power were converted to mechanical flow power with an experimental uncertainty of less than 1%.
Effects of position change on optokinetic nystagmus and optokinetic after-nystagmus in man.

Horizontal and vertical optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) and optokinetic after-nystagmus (OKAN) were studied in 17 normal subjects who were positioned either upright or laterally tilted 90°. OKAN responses were observed in 15 of 17 subjects; horizontal OKAN asymmetry was found in 5 of 15 subjects. Static lateral tilt produced an increase in downbeat vertical OKAN (VOKAN) response and no change in horizontal OKAN (HOKAN) response. Tilt did not produce changes in either horizontal or vertical OKN. The finding of modulation of VOKAN with head tilt in humans suggests a potential test for otolith-canal interaction.
Epidemiology of Public Health Emergency in Gaoping District of Nanchong,2004-2009

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of public health emergencies in Gaoping district from 2004 to 2009.Methods Descriptive epidemiological analysis on public health emergencies in Gaoping during this period was conducted.Results A total of 14 public health emergencies occurred,resulting in 358 disease cases,affecting 35 975 people and causing 5 deaths.Communicable disease events accounted for 85.71% of total events,resulting in 353 disease cases(98.60%) and 3 deaths(60.00%).Most cases were respiratory infections(64.29%).Conclusion Public health emergencies in Gaoping mainly occurred among the population in schools with respiratory infections as major diseases.
The Critical Care Obesity Paradox and Implications for Nutrition Support

Obesity is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide. The prevalence of obesity has been increasing and is associated with an increased risk for other co-morbidities. In the critical care setting, nearly one third of patients are obese. Obese critically ill patients pose significant physical and on-physical challenges to providers, including optimization of nutrition therapy. Intuitively, obese patients would have worse critical care-related outcome. On the contrary, emerging data suggests that critically ill obese patients have improved outcomes, and this phenomenon has been coined "the obesity paradox." The purposes of this review will be to outline the historical views and pathophysiology of obesity and epidemiology of obesity, describe the challenges associated with obesity in the intensive care unit setting, review critical care outcomes in the obese, define the obesity-critical care paradox, and identify the challenges and role of nutrition support in the critically ill obese patient.
Data-Driven Test Case Generation for Automated Programming Assessment

Building high-quality test cases for programming problems is an important part of any well-built Automated Programming Assessment System. Traditionally, test cases are created by human experts or using machine auto-generation methods based on the problem definition and sample solutions. Unfortunately, the human approach can not anticipate the numerous ways that programmers can construct erroneous solutions. The machine auto-generation methods are complex, problem-specific, and time-consuming.This paper proposes a fast, simple method for generating high-quality test sets for a programming problem from an existing collection of student solutions for that problem. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method in online programming course assessments. The experiments showed that, when applied to large collections of such programs, the method produces concise, human-understandable test sets that provide better coverage than test sets built by experts with rich teaching experience.
Opportunities for academic language and literacy development for emergent bilingual students during group work

ABSTRACTThe present paper argues for a shift in teacher knowledge and beliefs about the role of group work in the teaching and learning of emergent bilingual students. Using case study data from an eighth grade classroom, the authors analyze the role of collaboration in the interaction with grade-level text of emergent bilingual students. The analysis demonstrates that the quality of collaboration mediates in significant ways the opportunities available to emergent bilinguals for both content and language learning. The authors suggest that expanding students’ repertoires of practice to include collaborative learning should be a worthwhile instructional goal in mainstream classrooms. The analysis problematizes the currently dominant view of group work as an instructional strategy, and supports the positioning of collaboration as a key disciplinary practice in the new college and career readiness standards. The article offers a conceptual framework for contrasting different types of collaboration that is ba...
Engaging the Child and Family in Collecting and Using Clinical Data

Deciding to get quantitative clinical information will not necessarily ensure that successful data collection will occur, because the clinician usually must rely on others, such as the adolescent, parent, or teacher to gather the information. This chapter is oriented toward cases in which the child or someone in the child’s daily life will be the data collector.
Moikhos and moikheia

MOIKHOS AS FORNICATOR IN TECHNICAL AND NON-TECHNICAL LITERARY USAGE In chapter 5.1.a, evidence was adduced to demonstrate that fourth-century authors who allude to the homicide law and to other self-help remedies sometimes use moikhos as a technical or quasi-technical term to designate the sexual offender. In some passages the moikhos is identifiable as an adulterer, in others, he is a fornicator (i.e. a seducer of an unmarried woman). It will be instructive here to reflect on the technical or quasi-technical usage of moikhos against the background of more general usage in the fourth century. When the moikhos appears in fourth-century Athenian literature and where the status of his partner or victim is identifiable, he is usually an adulterer. It has been pointed out, for example, that when Aristophanic characters speak of moikhoi , or when Aristotle discusses moikheia , adultery is the consistent, if not exclusive, focus of attention. That observation is of great significance, but it does not compel us to eradicate the moikhos as fornicator (i.e. “seducer of unmarried women”) from Athenian history. Here we shall broaden our purview to literature from the late fifth through third century.
Aspirin and the Prevention of Colorectal Cancer

A substantial body of evidence from observational studies and randomized trials indicates that regular aspirin use reduces the risk of incident and fatal colorectal cancer. Despite what many would consider compelling support for aspirin’s efficacy as a chemopreventive agent, concerns regarding toxicity have thus far limited its widespread adoption for the primary prevention of colorectal cancer in average-risk individuals. Uncertainties remain regarding the optimal dose and duration of therapy. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the antineoplastic effects of aspirin are also incompletely understood. Importantly, it is unclear whether there are net benefits associated with aspirin use for all subgroups of the population. Nonetheless, we are likely to experience an increasing trend toward recommending aspirin for a broader range of indications, including cancer prevention. The identification of biomarkers of aspirin benefits and harms, which would facilitate precision chemoprevention strategies, constitutes a key research priority.
Impairment of muscle force transmission in spastic-paretic muscles of stroke survivors

Hemispheric stroke survivors tend to have persistent motor impairments, with muscle weakness and muscle spasticity observed concurrently in the affected muscles. The objective of this preliminary study was to identify whether impairment of muscle force transmission could contribute to weakness in spastic-paretic muscles of chronic stroke survivors. To characterize the efficiency of the transmission of muscle forces to the tendon, we activated biceps brachii muscle electrically by stimulating the musculocutaneous nerve with maximum current. The ratio between the elicited maximum twitch force amplitude and the maximum M-wave peak-peak amplitude was calculated as a measure of the efficiency of force transmission. Based on the preliminary results of two stroke survivors, we show that the Force/M-wave ratio was reduced in the affected biceps brachii muscles in comparison with the contralateral muscles, indicating a potential impairment in the muscle force transmission in the affected muscles. Our findings suggest that disrupted muscle force transmission to the tendon could contribute to weakness in spastic muscles of chronic stroke survivors.
Breast-Conserving Surgery Alone for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: Factors Associated with Increased Risk of Local Recurrence.

Purpose This retrospective study was aimed at identifying clinicopathologic characteristics associated with an increased risk for ipsilateral local recurrence (LR) in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated with wide local excision (WLE) alone without radiotherapy (RT).
Risk factors for adverse outcomes in solid tumor interhospital transfer patients.

191Background: We previously reported that inter-hospital transfer patients to our institution’s oncology service experienced higher mortality and increased length of stay (LOS) compared to other origins of admission. We sought to identify risk factors for adverse outcomes in this hospital transfer population. Methods: We reviewed all inter-hospital transfers from Jan-June 2016 to the Cleveland Clinic’s solid tumor oncology service. Patient characteristics, including age, albumin, and case severity indices (mortality and severity risk scores and AP-DRG), as well as encounter characteristics, including admitting provider (house staff or hospitalist), admission time (8AM-5PM or evening), admission day (weekday or weekend), and time between transfer acceptance and admission were recorded. Adverse events examined included activation of adult medical emergency team (AMET), ICU transfer, LOS, in-hospital mortality, and 30-day readmission. Associations of patient and encounter characteristics with adverse events...
Multi-scale model of effects of roughness on the cohesive strength of self-assembled monolayers

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are aggregates of small molecular chains that form highly ordered assemblies at the nanoscale. They are excellent contenders of molecular-level tailoring of interfaces because of the wide choice of terminal groups. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and experimental observations of spallation of two SAM-enhanced gold-film/fused silica-substrate interfaces have shown that the cohesive strength of SAM-enriched transfer-printed interfaces is strongly dependent on the choice of terminal groups. Though the MD results of perfectly ordered atomistic surfaces show the same qualitative trend as the experiments, they over-predict the interfacial cohesive strengths by a factor of about 50. Previous studies have revealed that the roughness of these interfaces may significantly impact their cohesive strength. In this manuscript, we perform a multiscale study to investigate the influence of surface roughness on cohesive strength of an interface between a Si/SAM substrate and a transfer-printed gold film. We approximate the film as a 2D deformable medium while the rough SAM-enhanced substrate is modeled using 2D harmonic functions with the cohesive interaction between the SAM and the film described by a simple exponential relation. Spallation is simulated on this system to evaluate the effective traction-separation response for the rough SAM-gold interface. Beyond the idealized harmonic interface, we extend our studies to real surface profiles obtained by AFM. We demonstrate how interfacial roughness can reduce the cohesive strength of the SAM-enhanced interface by more than an order of magnitude.
Accuracy of MR neurography in the diagnosis of brachial plexopathy.

Abstract Objective To assess the accuracy of MR neurography (MRN) for the diagnosis for brachial plexopathy. Materials and methods Forty-three 43 consecutive cases or MRN with electrodiagnostic study correlation were reviewed independently by 2 readers. Established diagnostic criteria were employed: increased signal intensity, enlargement, loss of fascicular pattern, perineural edema and enhancement after administration of gadolinium contrast. An additional 37 cases without electrodiagnostic correlation were included in a second portion of the study, which evaluated interobserver variability. Results The sensitivity of MRN ranged from 41.2% to 70.6%. Specificity was 97.7% to 100%. There was good interobserver agreement, with kappa value of 0.658. Odds ratio for agreement between observers at 3 T vs. 1.5 T was 1.30. Conclusions MRN of the brachial plexus showed only moderate sensitivity to brachial neuritis. Interobserver agreement was slightly higher at 3 T than at 1.5 T. MRN can be helpful in confirming an abnormal brachial plexus, but a normal MRN appearance of the plexus should not negate a clinical diagnosis.
Altered Differentiation Potential of Gaucher’s Disease iPSC Neuronal Progenitors due to Wnt/β-Catenin Downregulation

Gaucher's disease (GD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the GBA1 gene, which encodes acid β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase). Severe GBA1 mutations cause neuropathology that manifests soon after birth, suggesting that GCase deficiency interferes with neuronal development. We found that neuronopathic GD induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs) exhibit developmental defects due to downregulation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling and that GD iPSCs' ability to differentiate to dopaminergic (DA) neurons was strikingly reduced due to early loss of DA progenitors. Incubation of the mutant cells with the Wnt activator CHIR99021 (CHIR) or with recombinant GCase restored Wnt/β-catenin signaling and rescued DA differentiation. We also found that GD NPCs exhibit lysosomal dysfunction, which may be involved in Wnt downregulation by mutant GCase. We conclude that neuronopathic mutations in GCase lead to neurodevelopmental abnormalities due to a critical requirement of this enzyme for canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling at early stages of neurogenesis.
Footwear-Generated Dynamic Biomechanical Manipulation and Perturbation Training for Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain.

Abstract Background Home-based therapy optimizing biomechanics and neuromuscular control is increasingly recognized as a treatment option for chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSLBP). However, its impact on pain, function, and gait is limited among patients in a metropolitan area. Objective To evaluate the change of pain, function, and gait parameters with home-based therapy with the use of footwear-generated biomechanical manipulation and perturbation training in a population with CNSLBP in a metropolitan area. Design Prospective observational study. Setting Outpatient rehabilitation clinic at an academic teaching hospital. Participants One hundred sixteen patients with CNSLBP for more than 6 months. Intervention Six months of home-based therapy with a biomechanical device using 4 modular elements attached to a foot-worn platform. Main Outcome Measures Instrumental gait analysis (gait velocity, step length, single limb support phase % of gait cycle), Numeric Rating Scale for pain, and Oswestry Disability Questionnaire Index for pain and function. Results Only 43 patients (37.1%) completed the study. Among 43 patients, mean gait velocity increased from 86.6 ± 20.7 to 99.7 ± 22.1 cm/s ( P P P P = .208) in the right side and from 36.6 ± 3.0 to 37.8 ± 4.4%, ( P = .019) in the left side. Median Oswestry Disability Questionnaire Index score improved from 28 (18-44; interquartile range) to 17 (10-35) ( P = .045). Mean Numeric Rating Scale for back pain improved from 7.7 ± 1.8 to 3.3 ± 3.1 ( P Conclusion At 6 months, patients with CNSLBP undergoing home-based therapy with footwear-generated biomechanical manipulation and perturbation training demonstrated significant improvement of objective gait parameters, pain, and function. Level of Evidence IV
Die Erste Dauernde Deutsche Ansiedlung in Germantown, Pennsylvanien, 1683

Der Grund zu der ersten deutschen Niederlassung, die durch dauernde Wahrung ihres Bestandes und ihrer Eigenart diese Bezeichnung verdient, wurde gegen Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts gelegt. Es war dies eine Kolonie religioser Fluchtlinge, die meist aus der Pfalz stammten und sich 1683 in Germantown, Pennsylvanien, ansiedelten. Der Name William Penns ist mit den ersten Anfangen aufs engste verknupft. William Penn, der trotz Einkerkerung und Verfolgung an seinem Glauben festhielt, gab sich begeistert dem Werk der Bekehrung hin. Er unternahm in den Jahren 1671 und 1677 zwei Reisen nach Holland und Deutschland, um die Lehren der Quaker auf dem europaischen Festlande zu verbreiten. Nur dreierlei Kirchengemeinschaften erkannte man damals am Rhein und uberhaupt in Deutschland an, namlich Katholiken, Lutheraner und Reformierte. Alle anderen Formen der Gottesverehrung galten als ungesetzlich, und ihre Bekenner wurden den Ketzern und den Atheisten gleich gerechnet. Dahin gehorten die Mennoniten, deren es im westlichen Deutschland und in der Schweiz eine betrachtliche Anzahl gab, die Schwenkfelder und die Quaker. George Fox, der Stifter der „Gesellschaft der Freunde“ oder Quaker, hatte schon im Jahre 1655 Verkunder der neuen Lehre nach den Niederlanden und nach Deutschland geschickt, und als William Penn seine Reisen antrat, bestand noch eine kleine Quakergemeinde zu Kriegsheim (oder Krisheim) unweit Worms in der Pfalz. In Deutschland hatten die Quaker grose Erfolge unter den Mennoniten, besonders in Lubeck, Emden, Hamburg und Krefeld, in der Pfalz, in den schleswigholsteinischen Stadten Altona und Friedrichstadt, sowie in dem damals unter polnischer Herrschaft stehenden Danzig. Alle diese Sektierer litten unter dem Druck der deutschen Fursten, deren jedem der westfalische Frieden das Recht gab, in seinem Lande nur eine Konfession zum Staatsbekenntnis zu erheben, und alle anderen auszuschliesen. Selbst die Pietisten, die nichts anderes waren, als Protestanten mit verinnerlichtem religiosem Leben, wurden von den orthodoxen Kirchen als gefahrliche Neuerer angefeindet. Die Mystiker, die in der letzten Halfte des 17. Jahrhunderts unter verschiedenen Formen auftauchten, galten geradezu als besessen.
Innovative Strategies for Electrocatalytic Water Splitting.

ConspectusElectrocatalytic water splitting driven by renewable energy input to produce clean H2 has been widely viewed as a promising strategy of the future energy portfolio. Currently, the state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for water splitting in acidic solutions are IrO2 or RuO2 for the O2 evolution reaction (OER) and Pt for the H2 evolution reaction (HER). Realization of large-scale H2 production from water splitting requires competent nonprecious electrocatalysts. Despite the advances of decades in this field, several challenges still exist and need to be overcome: (1) Most efforts in the design of nonprecious electrocatalysts have focused on developing HER catalysts for acidic conditions but OER catalysts for alkaline conditions owing to their thermodynamic convenience, potentially resulting in incompatible integration of the two types of catalysts and thus inferior overall performance. (2) In conventional water electrolysis, HER and OER are strictly coupled and therefore H2 and O2 are produced simult...
Evaluation of 2- μ m Pulsed Integrated Path Differential Absorption Lidar for Carbon Dioxide Measurement—Technology Developments, Measurements, and Path to Space

The societal benefits of understanding climate change through the identification of global carbon dioxide sources and sinks led to the recommendation for NASA's Active Sensing of Carbon Dioxide Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons space-based mission for global carbon dioxide measurements. For more than 15 years, the NASA Langley Research Center has developed several carbon dioxide active remote sensors using the differential absorption lidar technique operating at 2- μ m wavelength. Recently, an airborne double-pulsed integrated path differential absorption lidar was developed, tested, and validated for atmospheric carbon dioxide measurement. Results indicated 1.02% column carbon dioxide measurement uncertainty and 0.28% bias over the ocean. Currently, this technology is progressing toward triple-pulse operation targeting both atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor—the dominant interfering molecule on carbon dioxide remote sensing. Measurements from the double-pulse lidar and the advancement of the triple-pulse lidar development are presented. In addition, measurement simulations with a space-based IPDA lidar, incorporating new technologies, are also presented to assess feasibility of carbon dioxide measurements from space.
Corpus Analysis for TREC 5 Query Expansion.

Accessing online information remains an inexact science. While valuable information can be found, typically many irrelevant documents are also retrieved and many relevant ones are missed. Terminology mismatches between the user's query and document contents is a main cause of retrieval failures. Expanding a user's query with related words can improve search performance, but the problem of identifying related words remains. This research uses corpus linguistics techniques to automaticalluy discover word similarities directly from the contents of the untagged TREC database and to incorporates that information in the SMART information system. The similarities are calculated based on the contexts in which a set of target words appear. Using these similarities, user queries are automatically expanded, resulting in conceptual retrieval rather than requiring exact word matches between queries and documents
Civil Liberties and Terrorism in Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan

This article investigates impact of the lack of civil liberties on terrorism in Middle Eastern and North African countries based on terrorism incidents per capita for the period 1998–2010. We control for endogeneity by using oil revenue, military expenditure and under-five mortality rate as instruments and find that we cannot reject the null hypothesis that civil liberties is exogenous. Our findings from exogenous models indicate that an improvement of civil liberties reduces domestic terrorism but not transnational terrorism. Apart from civil liberties, there is also evidence that rule of law decreases domestic terrorism. We also find that political stability reduces transnational terrorism.
Aortic atresia with normal left ventricle: Single-stage repair in the neonate

Four to seven percent of infants born with aortic atresia have a normal-sized left ventricle in association with a ventricular septal defect and a normal mitral valve. In contrast to the more common group of infants with aortic atresia whose left ventricle is hypoplastic, this important subgroup has potential for complete operative correction involving both the right and left ventricles. Previous reports of surgical management of these infants have described early palliative procedures to control systemic and pulmonary blood flow. Our approach has been to perform complete repair at one stage in the neonate. Continuity between the proximal main pulmonary artery and aorta is established, a patch on the ventricular septal defect baffles left ventricular blood to the pulmonary valve, and a homograft conduit achieves right ventricular-pulmonary artery continuity. Three of four neonates who underwent single-stage repair were discharged from the hospital in good condition. Achieving a physiologically normal circulation simplifies the postoperative management of this condition and is to be preferred over neonatal palliation.
Reliability Analysis of Small Scale DC Microgrid using Stochastic Hybrid System

Reliable operation of small scale microgrid applied in transportation electrification systems like electric aircraft, train, etc. are vital due to its narrow control and power margin. Many reliability indices are introduced till to date which assume constant failure rates. These constant failure rate assumptions are not able to address random variation in system and component level stresses and fails to make a precise prediction of dynamic degradation evolution of a system. In this paper, a Stochastic Hybrid System (SHS) based reliability assessment framework has been proposed which can integrate component-level degradation into system-level performance variation for precise reliability prediction. For this purpose, the proposed method considers failure rates of a component in a system as a time varying parameter (not constant). Individual components failure rates and its dynamic evolution contribute to the system remaining useful operational time estimation under the proposed methodology. Extensive analysis and simulation has been conducted to validate the feasibility of proposed reliability index.
Synthesis of a photostrictive azobenzene polymer thread

Photostrictive polymers are a shape memory material that actuates between two mechanical states due to application of different wavelengths of light. Photostrictive materials often exhibit large strains during this process. In this work a novel photostrictive polymer was synthesized using a similar procedure to the synthesis of nylon threads. A monomer containing azobenzene, a photoreactive switch, was synthesized. The novel monomer was polymerized into a material with similar properties to that of nylon where the photoswitch replaces some of the alkyl units created by the adipoyl chloride monomer. This creates a new photostrictive thread alternative to flat sheets for artificial muscle applications. Additionally, the photoactive monomer and the original nylon monomer, adipoyl chloride, were used concurrently to produce a copolymer with varying degrees of the photoactive unit. Utilizing a copolymer methodology allows the innovative thread-like material to be tunable, by varying the amount of photoactive units embedded into the polymer strand. Ratios of the photoswitch unit to adipoyl chloride of 1:5, 1:10, 1:25, and 1:50 were synthesized. The synthesized polymer strands were dissolved in formic acid so that the incorporation of the photoactive units could be measured using Ultra Violet –Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The absorbance at varying wavelengths was determined and compared to the base polymer, nylon. All azobenzene samples exhibited a direct correlation to an absorption band at 345 nm and the concentration of the photoswitch unit.
A Novel Battery Management System Using the Duality of the Adaptive Droop Control Theory

This paper proposes a new battery management system (BMS) for a series string of battery cells. The proposed control structure is based on the duality of the adaptive droop control theory used in dc micro-grid connected sources. An adaptive virtual admittance is used in this paper similar to the virtual resistance control structure used with dc micro-grid connected sources. The virtual admittance value is adjusted according to the associated state of charge for every connected battery cell. The presented BMS control structure yields higher reliability compared to the conventional ones due to its decentralization features and its communication-less ability. Thus, balanced power-sharing is realized among the connected battery cells during charging/discharging conditions. The stability of the proposed control is analyzed using the small signal model. The proposed BMS control structure is validated using simulation results and an experimental prototype for three connected battery cells.
A Test of Managerial Discretion and Market Efficiency in the Public Venture Capital Industry

In the public venture capital industry, firms are owned by institutional investors and other stakeholders possessing inside information that may lead to the leakage of company news before an event actually occurs. Using an event study, we examine the potential effect insiders have on the market through stock trading. We study trading volume, absolute percent changes in trading volume and percent changes in price five days prior and post an important news event. In cases where there is a large increase in trading volume before an event is reported in the news, it is presumed that news leakage has occurred. Furthermore, it is important to analyze whether share prices impound this information rendering the market efficient, or whether prices take time to “catch up” in which case the public venture capital market would be considered only semi-strong efficient.
Sedentary behavior time as a predictor of hemoglobin A1c among adults, 40 to 59 years of age, living in the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 to 2004 and 2013 to 2014.

Background:Sedentary behavior activities have been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Aim: Our aim was to determine whether sedentary behavior time (SBT) is predictive of hemoglo...
What one lipid giveth, another taketh away.

Acid sphingomyelinase deficiency, which prevents degradation of sphingomyelin (SM), causes lysosomal SM overload both in mice and in patients with Niemann–Pick disease A or B. Altered cellular SM homeostasis disrupts the development and function of natural killer T cells by obstructing the presentation of lipid agonists by CD1d molecules.
Ecological change in dynamic environments: Accounting for temporal environmental variability in studies of ocean change biology

The environmental conditions in the ocean have long been considered relatively more stable through time compared to the conditions on land. Advances in sensing technologies, however, are increasingly revealing substantial fluctuations in abiotic factors over ecologically and evolutionarily relevant timescales in the ocean, leading to a growing recognition of the dynamism of the marine environment as well as new questions about how this dynamism may influence species' vulnerability to global environmental change. In some instances, the diurnal or seasonal variability in major environmental change drivers, such as temperature, pH and seawater carbonate chemistry, and dissolved oxygen, can exceed the changes expected with continued anthropogenic global change. While ocean global change biologists have begun to experimentally test how variability in environmental conditions mediates species' responses to changes in the mean, the extensive literature on species' adaptations to temporal variability in their environment and the implications of this variability for their evolutionary responses has not been well integrated into the field. Here, we review the physiological mechanisms underlying species' responses to changes in temperature, pCO2 /pH (and other carbonate parameters), and dissolved oxygen, and discuss what is known about behavioral, plastic, and evolutionary strategies for dealing with variable environments. In addition, we discuss how exposure to variability may influence species' responses to changes in the mean conditions and highlight key research needs for ocean global change biology.
Metaform optics for ultra-compact augmented-reality visor (Conference Presentation)

A compact near-eye visor system that can guide light from a display to the eye could transform mixed reality technology. Unfortunately, existing implementations of such a visor either suffer from small field of view or chromatic aberrations. See-through quality and vergence-accommodation conflict further make the overall performance of the visors unsuitable for a seamless mixed reality experience. Metasurfaces are an emerging class of nanophotonic elements, which can dramatically reduce the size of optical elements while adding new functionalities. I will present our research on metasurface freeform optics, and explain how such metasurface optics can potentially enable the ultimate miniaturization of the near-eye visor without sacrificing any performance.
Sofosbuvir protects human brain organoids against SARS-CoV-2

Abstract COVID-19 was rapidly declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, only three months after the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China. Early clinical care mainly focused on respiratory illnesses. However, a variety of neurological manifestations in both adults and newborns are also emerging. To determine whether SARS-CoV-2 could target the human brain, we infected iPSC-derived human brain organoids. Our findings show that SARS-CoV-2 was able to infect and kill neural cells, including cortical neurons. This phenotype was accompanied by impaired synaptogenesis. Finally, Sofosbuvir, an FDA-approved antiviral drug, was able to rescue these alterations. Given that there are currently no vaccine or antiviral treatments available, urgent therapies are needed. Our findings put Sofosbuvir forward as a potential treatment to alleviate COVID-19-related neurological symptoms. One Sentence Summary SARS-CoV-2 infection causes neuronal death and impaired synaptogenesis, both rescued by Sofosbuvir treatment.
Effects of malleable kinetochore morphology on measurements of intrakinetochore tension

The distance between fluorescent spots formed by various kinetochore proteins (delta) is commonly interpreted as a manifestation of intrakinetochore tension (IKT) caused by microtubule-mediated forces. However, large-scale changes of the kinetochore architecture (such as its shape or dimensions) may also contribute to the value of delta. To assess contributions of these non-elastic changes, we compare behaviour of delta values in human kinetochores with small yet mechanically malleable kinetochores against compound kinetochores in Indian muntjac (IM) cells whose architecture remains constant. Due to the micrometre-scale length of kinetochore plates in IM, their shape and orientation are discernible in conventional light microscopy, which enables precise measurements of IKT independent of contributions from changes in overall architecture of the organelle. We find that delta in IM kinetochores remains relatively constant when microtubule-mediated forces are suppressed by Taxol, but it prominently decreases upon detachment of microtubules. By contrast, large decreases of delta observed in Taxol-treated human cells coincide with prominent changes in length and curvature of the kinetochore plate. These observations, supported by computational modelling, suggest that at least 50% of the decrease in delta in human cells reflects malleable reorganization of kinetochore architecture rather than elastic recoil due to IKT.
Review: Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution, by Nadia Yaqub

Before the features of Hany Abu-Assad, Annemarie Jacir, and Elia Suleiman won international acclaim, Palestinian cinema emerged as a collective effort to document an unfolding popular struggle and ...
SOCIAL BENEFIT VERSUS TECHNOLOGICAL RISK. WHAT IS OUR SOCIETY WILLING TO PAY FOR SAFETY

AN APPROACHED IS PRESENTED FOR ESTABLISHING A QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF BENEFIT RELATIVE COST FOR ACCIDENTAL DEATHS ARISING FROM TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN PUBLIC USE. THE ANALYSIS IS BASED ON TWO ASSUMPTIONS: (1) HISTORICAL NATIONAL ACCIDENT RECORDS ARE ADEQUATE FOR REVEALING CONSISTENT PATTERNS OF FATALITIES IN THE PUBLIC USE OF TECHNOLOGY, AND (2) THAT SUCH HISTORICALLY REVEALED SOCIAL PREFERENCES AND COSTS ARE SUFFICIENTLY ENDURING TO PERMIT THEIR USE FOR PREDICTIVE PURPOSES. SOCIETAL ACTIVITIES FALL INTO TWO GENERAL CATEGORIES--THOSE IN WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATES ON A "VOLUNTARY" BASIS AND THOSE IN WHICH THE PARTICIPATION IS "INVOLUNTARY" IMPOSED BY THE SOCIETY IN WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL LIVES. ALTHOUGH THIS STUDY IS EXPLORATORY, IT REVEALS SEVERAL INTERESTING POINTS: (1) THE INDICATIONS ARE THAT THE PUBLIC IS WILLING TO ACCEPT "VOLUNTARY" RISKS ROUGHLY 1000 TIMES GREATER THAN "INVOLUNTARY" RISKS. (2) THE STATISTICAL RISK OF DEATH FROM DISEASE APPEARS TO BE A PSYCHOLOGICAL YARDSTICK FOR ESTABLISHING THE LEVEL OF ACCEPTABILITY OF OTHER RISKS. (3) THE ACCEPTABILITY OF RISK APPEARS TO BE CRUDELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE THIRD POWER OF BENEFITS (REAL OR IMAGINED). (4) THE SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE OF RISK IS DIRECTLY INFLUENCED BY PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE BENEFITS OF AN ACTIVITY, AS DETERMINED BY ADVERTISING, USEFULNESS, AND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATING. (5) IN A SAMPLE APPLICATION OF THESE CRITERIA TO ATOMIC POWER PLANT SAFETY, IT APPEARS THAT ENGINEERING DESIGN OBJECTIVELY DETERMINED BY ECONOMIC CRITERIA WOULD RESULT IN A DESIGN-TARGET RISK LEVEL VERY MUCH LOWER THAN THE PRESENT SOCIALLY ACCEPTED RISK FOR ELECTRIC POWER PLANTS. THIS METHODOLOGY FOR REVEALING EXISTING SOCIAL PREFERENCES AND VALUES MAY BE A MEANS OF PROVIDING THE INSIGHT IN SOCIAL BENEFIT RELATIVE TO COST THAT IS NECESSARY FOR JUDICIOUS NATIONAL DECISIONS IN NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS. THE APPENDIX CONTAINS THE DOCUMENTATION FOR RISK BENEFIT ANALYSIS CALCULATED FOR MOTOR-VEHICLE TRAVEL, TRAVEL BY AIR ROUTE CARRIER, GENERAL AVIATION, RAILROAD TRAVEL, SKIING, HUNTING, SMOKING, VIETNAM, ELECTRIC POWER, NATURAL DISASTERS, AND DIEASES AND ACCIDENTS. /SRIS/
How baroclinic vortices intensify resulting from erosion of their cores and/or changing environment

Abstract The structure of circular baroclinic vortices in rotating stratified fluids is examined in order to rationalize the observed amplification of fluid rotation inside long-lived geophysical vortices during their evolution. New relations between basic vortex parameters at horizontal mid-depth are derived in order to compare vortices with the same potential vorticity extremum at the vortex center. The fluid rotation is shown to be larger for smaller vortices, which can be interpreted as a capability of vortex amplification due to radial redistribution of the angular momentum resulting from erosion of their cores and/or changing environment with the cyclo-geostrophic adjustment. The results are consistent with observational, numerical, and laboratory examples. This mechanism of vortex intensification has important implications for understanding the longevity of coherent geophysical vortices.
Characterization of a novel allele encoding pheophorbide a oxygenase in rice.

We identified a rapid cell death 2 (rcd2) mutant from an indica cultivar Zhongjian100 mutant bank. The red-brown lesions appeared firstly on young seedling leaves, then gradually merged and the lea...
A method for cryopreservation and single nucleus RNA-sequencing of normal adult human interventricular septum heart tissue reveals cellular diversity and function

Background Single cell sequencing of human heart tissue is technically challenging and methods to cryopreserve heart tissue for obtaining single cell information have not been standardized. Studies published to date have used varying methods to preserve and process human heart tissue, and have generated interesting datasets, but development of a biobanking standard has not yet been achieved. Heart transcription patterns are known to be regionally diverse, and there are few single cell datasets for normal human heart tissue. Methods Using pig tissue, we developed a rigorous and reproducible method for tissue mincing and cryopreservation that allowed recovery of high quality single nuclei RNA. We subsequently tested this protocol on normal human heart tissue obtained from organ donors and were able to recover high quality nuclei for generation of single nuclei RNA-seq datasets, using a commercially available platform from 10× Genomics. We analyzed these datasets using standard software packages such as CellRanger and Seurat. Results Human heart tissue preserved with our method consistently yielded nuclear RNA with RNA Integrity Numbers of greater than 8.5. We demonstrate the utility of this method for single nuclei RNA-sequencing of the normal human interventricular septum and delineating its cellular diversity. The human IVS showed unexpected diversity with detection of 23 distinct cell clusters that were subsequently categorized into different cell types. Cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts were the most commonly identified cell types and could be further subdivided into 5 different cardiomyocyte subtypes and 6 different fibroblast subtypes that differed by gene expression patterns. Ingenuity Pathway analysis of these gene expression patterns suggested functional diversity in these cell subtypes. Conclusions Here we report a simple technical method for cryopreservation and subsequent nuclear isolation of human interventricular septum tissue that can be done with common laboratory equipment. We show how this method can be used to generate single nuclei transcriptomic datasets that rival those already published by larger groups in terms of cell diversity and complexity and suggest that this simple method can provide guidance for biobanking of human myocardial tissue for complex genomic analysis.
Understanding Recursive Divide-and-Conquer Dynamic Programs in Fork-Join and Data-Flow Execution Models

On shared-memory multicore machines, classic two-way recursive divide-and-conquer algorithms are implemented using common fork-join based parallel programming paradigms such as Intel Cilk+ or OpenMP. However, in such parallel paradigms, the use of joins for synchronization may lead to artificial dependencies among function calls which are not implied by the underlying DP recurrence. These artificial dependencies can increase the span asymptotically and thus reduce parallelism. From a practical perspective, they can lead to resource underutilization, i.e., threads becoming idle. To eliminate such artificial dependencies, task-based runtime systems and data-flow parallel paradigms, such as Concurrent Collections (CnC), PaRSEC, and Legion have been introduced. Such parallel paradigms and runtime systems overcome the limitations of fork-join parallelism by specifying data dependencies at a finer granularity and allowing tasks to execute as soon as dependencies are satisfied.In this paper, we investigate how the performance of data-flow implementations of recursive divide-and-conquer based DP algorithms compare with fork-join implementations. We have designed and implemented data-flow versions of DP algorithms in Intel CnC and compared the performance with fork-join based implementations in OpenMP. Considering different execution parameters (e.g., algorithmic properties such as recursive base size as well as machine configuration such as the number of physical cores, etc), our results confirm that a data-flow based implementation outperforms its fork-join based counter-part when due to artificial dependencies, the fork-join implementation fails to generate enough subtasks to keep all processors busy and does not have enough data locality to compensate for the lost performance. This phenomena happens when the input size of the DP algorithm is small or we have a huge number of compute cores in the system. As a result, with a fixed computation resource, moving from small input to larger input, fork-join implementation of DP algorithms outperforms the corresponding data-flow implementation. However, for a fixed size problem, moving the computation to a compute node with a larger number of cores, data-flow implementation outperforms the corresponding fork-join implementation.
Understanding the Factors Influencing Consumers’ Behaviour Towards Autonomous Vehicles Adoption

In this study, the key determinants or factors influencing consumers’ behavioural intention to accept autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been explored and tested. Although, there is a plethora of studies in the literature evaluating various technologies, most of the models of technology acceptance and theories selected are applied on barriers of successful IT implementation in organisations or generally on technologies that have long been deployed. There are very few studies conducted on disruptive technologies such as AV. In this paper, this issue has been addressed with the identification of context-related constructs partly retrieved from existing literature, that describe a modelling process for a technology acceptance attempting to explain the main factors influencing people behavioural intention to adopt autonomous vehicle technology. Constructs such as trust, self-efficacy, anxiety, perceived safety and legal regulation have been considered. The main contribution of the study is the detailed exploration on the users’ acceptance of AV. We propose a theoretical model called Autonomous Vehicle Technology Acceptance Model (AVTAM) that gives us a better understanding of what will eventually influence future AV customers. The main findings of this work suggest that users’ safety on the road, the cost associated to the technology and the trust on car manufacturers will play a very important role for large-scale AV adoption.
Nim 1: Nim1 protein kinase (S. pombe) (Cdr1)

Nim1 functions as a mitotic inducer by phosphorylating and inactivating Wee1. The nim1 gene was also genetically identified as cdr1. Nim1 is a monomer whose subunit has 593 amino acids and a molecular weight of 66969. The database accession number of Nim1 is P07334 and X57549 for SWISSPROT and EMBL, respectively. Currently there are no known homologues in other species. Its physiological substrate is SpWee1 PK, and its phosphorylation site(s) is not known. It is assayed by transfer of radioactivity from [g32P]ATP to SpWee1.
Getting cows pregnant and keeping them pregnant requires progesterone.

Early embryonic mortality in sheep and cattle averages 38%, with the majority of losses occurring prior to 30 days post-conception. This loss is primarily due to two factors: 1) genetic abnormalities in the embryo (7 to 10%), and 2) inadequate secretion of progesterone at critical times (approximately 30%). Supplementation of progesterone in cattle increased pregnancy rates by 13 to 30%. Thus, the requirement for continued secretion of progesterone has been clearly documented. Therefore, it is important to understand the complex hormonal interactions between the developing embryo, uterus, pituitary gland and ovary that regulate the secretion of progesterone from the corpus luteum. The mechanisms whereby the pregnant uterus prevents regression of the corpus luteum, which occurs at the end of a normal reproductive cycle, are complex and sensitive to a number of environmental and management factors. These factors include heat stress, level of nutrition, genetics and general herd health. Any biological process which retards the growth of the embryo may result in early embryonic mortality due to a lack of synchrony between the embryo and the uterus. The basic physiological mechanisms involved in establishing and maintaining pregnancy are presented and discussed.