cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
INACTIVATION OF SALMONELLA TYPHIMURIUM BY SORBIC ACID1

Nutrient broth, skimmilk, and evaporated milk at pH 5.0, 5.5, or without pH adjustment and with and without 2,000 and 3,000 ppm sorbic acid were evaluated at 7, 13, and 37 C for their effects on Salmonella typhimurium. The combination of 3,000 ppm sorbic acid and acetic acid at pH 5.0 most effectively inactivated S. typhimurium in all media and at all temperatures. Complete inactivation by this treatment required from 12 hr or less in nutrient broth at 37 C to 55 days in evaporated milk at 7 C. In some instances, treatment with 3,000 ppm sorbic acid combined with lactic acid at pH 5.0 was equally effective. Reduction of sorbic acid concentration to 2,000 ppm or raising the pH of the substrate to 5.5 increased the time needed for inactivation of S. typhimurium. Inactivation of S. typhimurium was most rapid in nutrient broth at 37 C and required progressively more time either as the temperature was reduced or as more complex foods were substituted for the broth. Growth of S. typhimurium occurred at 37 and 1...
IDH1-Mutation in Diffuse Gliomas in Persons Age 55 Years and Over.

Diffuse astrocytoma (DA), anaplastic astrocytoma (AA), and glioblastoma (GBM) are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) based on IDH -mutational status. The vast majority of IDH- mutated gliomas (90% of which involve a mutation in IDH1 R132H , which can be assessed by IDH1 immunohistochemistry [IHC]) occur in persons younger than 55 years of age. This raises the question as to the prevalence of IDH-mutant tumors in older persons and whether the gliomas in older patients should be routinely tested. Since January 1, 2014, we have employed a standard screening panel for all gliomas regardless of patient age. From 578 total gliomas tested, 88 were IDH -mutant DA/AA/GBMs and 11 IDH- mutant tumors were in persons age 55 and older. Of the 11 IDH -mutant examples in the older group, 9 were first clinical presentations of the tumor, 4 of which were in persons age 70 or older (oldest, 76 years). We assessed whether the typical profile of nuclear ATRX loss with or without strong nuclear p53 IHC occurred in these and younger patients and found that ATRX/p53 IHC patterns paralleled those in younger patients. We conclude that, although infrequent, IDH IHC is strongly recommended for all ages of adult patients with diffuse gliomas.
Accuracy evaluation of intraoral optical impressions: A clinical study using a reference appliance

Abstract Statement of problem Trueness and precision are used to evaluate the accuracy of intraoral optical impressions. Although the in vivo precision of intraoral optical impressions has been reported, in vivo trueness has not been evaluated because of limitations in the available protocols. Purpose The purpose of this clinical study was to compare the accuracy (trueness and precision) of optical and conventional impressions by using a novel study design. Material and methods Five study participants consented and were enrolled. For each participant, optical and conventional (vinylsiloxanether) impressions of a custom-made intraoral Co-Cr alloy reference appliance fitted to the mandibular arch were obtained by 1 operator. Three-dimensional (3D) digital models were created for stone casts obtained from the conventional impression group and for the reference appliances by using a validated high-accuracy reference scanner. For the optical impression group, 3D digital models were obtained directly from the intraoral scans. The total mean trueness of each impression system was calculated by averaging the mean absolute deviations of the impression replicates from their 3D reference model for each participant, followed by averaging the obtained values across all participants. The total mean precision for each impression system was calculated by averaging the mean absolute deviations between all the impression replicas for each participant (10 pairs), followed by averaging the obtained values across all participants. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA (α=.05), first to assess whether a systematic difference in trueness or precision of replicate impressions could be found among participants and second to assess whether the mean trueness and precision values differed between the 2 impression systems. Results Statistically significant differences were found between the 2 impression systems for both mean trueness ( P =.010) and mean precision ( P =.007). Conventional impressions had higher accuracy with a mean trueness of 17.0 ±6.6 μm and mean precision of 16.9 ±5.8 μm than optical impressions with a mean trueness of 46.2 ±11.4 μm and mean precision of 61.1 ±4.9 μm. Conclusions Complete arch (first molar-to-first molar) optical impressions were less accurate than conventional impressions but may be adequate for quadrant impressions.
Existence of quasiperiodic solutions of elliptic equations on RN+1 via center manifold and KAM theorems

Abstract We consider elliptic equations on R N + 1 of the form (1) Δ x u + u y y + g ( x , u ) = 0 , ( x , y ) ∈ R N × R , where g ( x , u ) is a sufficiently regular function with g ( ⋅ , 0 ) ≡ 0 . We give sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions of (1) which are quasiperiodic in y and decaying as | x | → ∞ uniformly in y. Such solutions are found using a center manifold reduction and results from the KAM theory. We discuss several classes of nonlinearities g to which our results apply.
Hemispheric climate shifts driven by anthropogenic aerosol–cloud interactions

The contrasting rainfall between the wet tropics and the dry subtropics largely determines the climate of the tropical zones. A southward shift of these rain belts has been observed throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, with profound societal consequences. Although such large-scale shifts in rainfall have been linked to interhemispheric temperature gradients from anthropogenic aerosols, a complete understanding of this mechanism has been hindered by the lack of explicit information on aerosol radiative effects. Here we quantify the relative contributions of radiative forcing from anthropogenic aerosols to the interhemispheric asymmetry in temperature and precipitation change for climate change simulations. We show that in model simulations the vast majority of the precipitation shift does not result from aerosols directly through their absorption and scattering of radiation, but rather indirectly through their modification of cloud radiative properties. Models with larger cloud responses to aerosol forcing are found to better reproduce the observed interhemispheric temperature changes and tropical rain belt shifts over the twentieth century, suggesting that aerosol–cloud interactions will play a key role in determining future interhemispheric shifts in climate. A southward shift of the tropical rainbelts over the late twentieth century has been attributed. Climate simulations suggest that the mechanism for this influence lies largely with the interaction of aerosols with clouds.
Abstract 5911: Omentin drives metabolic shift in ovarian cancer cells in the omental tumor microenvironment

Advanced stage high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) metastasizes preferentially to the omentum, which is a well-vascularized fold of peritoneal tissue and is a major site of adipose tissue accumulation. The mechanisms by which omental adipose tissue interact with ovarian cancer cells and promotes tumor growth and disease progression are not entirely clear. We previously showed that a novel adipokine called omentin (Intestinal Lactoferrin Receptor ITLN1) produced by the omental adipose tissue was significantly down-regulated in patients with HGSC compared with those in BMI matched healthy individuals, and omentin suppressed ovarian cancer cell growth only in the presence of adipocytes in vitro. Since we and others demonstrated that omentin induced insulin-dependent glucose uptake exclusively in adipocytes, we therefore hypothesized that omentin may suppress ovarian cancer growth via driving metabolic shift in ovarian cancer cells in the omental microenvironment. Using a cancer cell/adipocyte-co-culture model, we demonstrated that omentin reduced both glucose uptake and lactate secretion in ovarian cancer cells when they were co-cultured with adipocytes but not with other stromal cell types, suggesting that omentin-induced glucose uptake in adipocytes may deplete the surrounding glucose that fuels the glucose-addicted ovarian cancer cells in the omental microenvironment and thus drive metabolic shift in ovarian cancer cells. To delineate the underlying mechanism by which omentin induced glucose uptake in adipocytes, expression levels of the adipocyte-specific glucose transporter GLUT4 induced by omentin in adipocytes and the effect of GLUT4 silencing in adipocytes using GLUT4 specific siRNAs on ovarian cancer growth were examined. The results showed that omentin up-regulated GLUT4 in adipocytes and GLUT4 silencing in adipocytes abrogated the effects of omentin on glucose uptake in adipocytes and ovarian cancer cell growth in the co-culture model. Taken together, this study shows that omentin plays an important role in driving metabolic shift in ovarian cancer cells in the omental microenvironment. Therapeutic strategies based on up-regulating omentin in ovarian cancer patients may inhibit ovarian cancer progression and improve patient survival rates. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Chi Lam Au Yeung, Abhinav Achreja, Hongyun Zhao, Tsz-Lun Yeung, Rosemarie Schmandt, Daniel K. Yip, Karen H. Lu, Deepak Nagrath, Samuel C. Mok. Omentin drives metabolic shift in ovarian cancer cells in the omental tumor microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5911. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5911
Motion parameter estimation of a thrusting/ballistic object from a single fixed passive sensor with delayed acquisition

In previous works, it has been shown that the estimation problem of a thrusting/ballistic object in the three-dimensional space can be solved with two-dimensional measurements (azimuth and elevation angles starting from the launch time) assuming the launch point is perfectly known. In this paper, the problem is extended to estimate the target's trajectory with measurements starting after the launch time, i.e., delayed acquisition. Compared to the situation of acquisition at launch time, one has an additional unknown speed (magnitude of the velocity vector) and the unknown acquisition location. The 2D angle measurements are all obtained from a single fixed passive sensor. The parameter vector, in this case, has dimension 8 (velocity vector azimuth angle and elevation angle, drag coefficient, specific thrust, target speed and 3D acquisition position). The invertibility of the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) of the parameter vector is investigated to test the observability (estimability) of the system. The simulation results prove the statistical efficiency and unbiasedness of the Maximum Likelihood estimator, that is, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (the inverse of the FIM if it is invertible) can be used as the actual covariance.
Tuning and Predicting Mesh Size and Protein Release from Step Growth Hydrogels

Hydrogel-based depots are of growing interest for release of biopharmaceuticals; however, a priori selection of hydrogel compositions that will retain proteins of interest and provide desired release profiles remains elusive. Toward addressing this, in this work, we have established a new tool for the facile assessment of protein release from hydrogels and applied it to evaluate the effectiveness of mesh size estimations on predicting protein retention or release. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogel depots were formed by photoinitiated step growth polymerization of four-arm PEG functionalized with norbornene (PEG-norbornene, 4% w/w to 20% w/w, Mn ∼ 5 to 20 kDa) and different dithiol cross-linkers (PEG Mn ∼ 1.5 kDa or enzymatically degradable peptide), creating well-defined, robust materials with a range of mesh sizes estimated with Flory–Rehner or rubber elasticity theory (∼5 to 15 nm). A cocktail of different model proteins was released from compositions of interest, and sodium dodecyl sulfate pol...
Ordinal Independence and Functional Equations in the Theory of Psychological Difference

Suppose that ψ is an interval scale that represents the magnitude of differences along a psychological continuum like loudness or subjective value. This paper analyzes qualitative assumptions that constrain the specific form of ψ. For example, what assumptions would imply that ψ is an additive or multiplicative function of a multiattributed stimulus? Or a power function of a physical magnitude? Many hypotheses regarding the specific form of ψ are axiomatized by ordinal independence (OI) assumptions, i.e., assumptions that assert that an ordering of stimuli is invariant under a transformation of the stimuli. In the context of difference measurement, OI assumptions imply functional equations; specific forms for ψ can be derived as the solutions of such equations. The functional equations analysis of OI assumptions reveals striking analogies that may not be evident from the assumptions themselves. The major goal of this paper is to present these analogies, and to show that they suggest a general methodology for investigating interval-scale representations of psychological attributes.
Determination of Mechanism in Heterogeneous Catalysis

This chapter will discuss methods for the study of the mechanisms of heterogeneous catalytic reactions. The various examples of mechanistic studies have been chosen to illustrate techniques used in mechanistic studies and not to provide a general survey of the mechanisms which have been proposed for catalytic reactions. References have been chosen to be leading references rather than to indicate historical priority.
Fate of Radiolabeled Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Pentachlorophenol in Enclosed Marine Ecosystems

The fate of petroleum hydrocarbons in waters and sediment in controlled ecosystems enclosures has been the subject of a number of investigations (Gearing et al. 1979, 1980, Lee et al. 1978, Wade and Quinn 1980). Large enclosures provide reasonably natural conditions and include organisms which may affect pollutant behavior. Their use in geochemical studies is discussed in Santschi (Chapter 5). Adding radiolabeled organic pollutants to such enclosures makes it possible to follow the pathways of both parent compound and metabolites. Experiments at the Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experiment (CEPEX) site at Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, Canada with 14 C-benzo [a]pyrene and at the Marine Ecosystem Research Laboratory (MERL) site at the University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island, U.S.A., with 14 C-benz [a]anthracene (Hinga et al. 1980) have shown exponential disappearance of both parent compound and metabolites, with much of the radioactivity entering bottom sediments.
HIV ENCEPHALOPATHY: CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC CONSIDERATIONS

Clinically apparent and frequently debilitating neurological disease is common with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HTV-1, hereafter “HIV”) infection. More than 50% of HIV-infected persons will eventually develop symptomatic neurological disease. Early retrospective studies,1,2 performed at a time in the course of this pandemic when life expectancies were considerably shorter and many of the neurological illnesses associated with the infection unrecognized, proffered rates of neurological complications of approximately 40% in patients with AIDS. Other studies have demonstrated significantly higher rates of neurological disease.3 Although neurological disease typically occurs with advanced disease and profound immunosuppression, it is not infrequently the harbinger of AIDS. Neurological disease heralds AIDS in 10%4 to 20%3 of HIV-infected persons. As many as 100,000 HIV-infected individuals develop neurological disease annually in the United States. The frequency with which neuropathological abnormalities are observed at the time of autopsy is substantially higher than the frequency of clinically recognized neurological disease. In some series, more than 90% of patients dying with AIDS display some form of neuropathology at postmortem examination.5,6 It is not surprising that careful neurological examination, even in the absence of specific complaints by the HIV-infected patient, frequently reveals evidence of central or peripheral nervous system dysfunction
APC and β-Catenin Degradation

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene encodes a tumor suppressor that is mutated in familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) colon cancer as well as the large majority of sporadic colorectal cancers (reviewed in ref 1, Chapter by Sansom, Kwong and Dove). Most of the mutations in APC associated with increased incidence of cancer generate a truncated form of APC.2, 3 While many studies have implicated the APC protein in the regulation of the cytoskeleton (reviewed in ref 4, Chapter by Morrison, Caldwell and Kaplan et al. ), there is also compelling evidence that APC is a key component of Wnt/β-catenin signaling (reviewed in refs. 3, 5). Consistent with this, loss of APC1 and APC2 genes in Drosophila result in elevated Wnt/β-catenin signaling.6–8 Mutations of APC in mice or zebrafish also increase the susceptibility of these animals to developing colorectal cancer with elevation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the tumors.9,10 In this chapter, we will focus on the role of APC as a negative regulator of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.
Low Volume Resuscitation with HBOCs in Hemorrhagic Shock

Current management strategies for hemorrhaging trauma patients recommend fluid resuscitation with relatively small or restricted fluid volumes. Because most recommended fluids are essentially plasma expanders with limited oxygen carrying capacity, hemoglobin [Hb]-based oxygen-carrying compounds (HBOCs) have been suggested as an adjunct to improve oxygen delivery to the tissues. We review evidence from clinical to animal trials as to the efficacy of three competing low volume fluid resuscitation strategies (LVFR), and the potential in this context for HBOCs as oxygen therapeutic adjuncts. Unfortunately data are too limited in quantity and quality to allow any reliable conclusions as to the efficacy and safety of HBOC-augmented LVFR. There is an imperative need for higher quality and adequately-powered animal trials and clinical randomized controlled trials to clarify the efficacy and safety of both LVFR and adjunct HBOCs for traumatic hemorrhage.
Syphilis and drugs of abuse.

For several decades following the advent of benzathine penicillin chemotherapy for syphilis, its incidence in the United States remained low. However, in 1990, the number of new primary and secondary cases reported reached a new peak of 50,223 and there were 2899 cases of congenital syphilis in this country (1). The rise in syphilis started with increased sexual promiscuity, particularly among the homosexual population, but stabilized for a while after recognition of the severity and source of human immunodeficiency viral infections was accepted. Several published reports relate the most recent increase in syphilis to abuse of recreational drugs (2,3).
A new approach for the design of multicomponent water/wastewater networks

Abstract Water allocation problems have nonlinearities and non-convexities due to bilinear terms. To address this issue we propose to discretize one of the variables of the bilinear terms. As a result an MILP model is generated, which provides a lower bound. To reduce the gap between this lower bound and the upper bound (a feasible solution found using the original NLP model), an interval elimination procedure is proposed. As a result, the feasible space shrinks after each iteration and the global optimum is identified. We illustrate the methodology for minimum water allocation problems.
Grooming Hurts Too: The Effects of Types of Perpetrator Grooming on Trauma Symptoms in Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

There are a multitude of behaviors that child sexual abusers use to 'groom' children into becoming vulnerable to abuse. In this study of 277 adult survivors of child sexual abuse, participants advised the many ways they were groomed into being abused by up to three perpetrators. The effects of three categories of grooming (Verbal Coercion, Grooming that used Drugs/Alcohol, and Threatening/Violent Grooming) were examined for their effects on trauma symptom severity. Using Linear Regressions, each grooming category had a significant predictive effect on trauma symptom severity. Multiple Linear Regressions revealed that for most trauma symptoms, Threatening/Violent Grooming was a significant predictor of trauma symptom severity, even when other more well-known variables were controlled for (including age at onset of abuse, relationship to perpetrator, and severity of abuse), with a notable exception of verbal coercion as a significant predictor of sexual problems in adulthood (i.e. not satisfied, low drive, overactivity, confusion, bad thoughts or feelings).
Parent Dosing Tool Use, Beliefs, and Access: A Health Literacy Perspective.

Objectives To assess parent decision-making regarding dosing tools, a known contributor to medication dosing errors, by evaluating parent dosing tool use, beliefs, and access, and the role of health literacy, with a focus on dosing cups, which are associated with an increased risk of multifold overdose. Study design Cross-sectional analysis of data collected for randomized controlled study in 3 urban pediatric clinics. English/Spanish-speaking parents (n = 493) of children ≤8 years of age enrolled. Outcomes: reported tool use, beliefs, and access. Predictor variable: health literacy (Newest Vital Sign; limited [0-3], adequate [4-6]). Multiple logistic regression analyses conducted. Results Over two-thirds of parents had limited health literacy. Oral syringes (62%) and dosing cups (22%) were most commonly used. Overall, 24% believed dosing cups were the best tool type for dosing accuracy; 99% reported having access to ≥1 dosing tools with standard measurement markings. Parents with limited health literacy had greater odds of dosing cup use (limited vs adequate: aOR = 2.4 [1.2-4.6]). Parents who believed that dosing cups are best for accuracy had greater odds of dosing cup use (aOR = 16.3 [9.0-29.3]); this belief mediated health literacy-effects on dosing cup use. Conclusions Factors associated with dosing tool choice, including parent health literacy and beliefs are important to consider in the design of interventions to reduce dosing errors; future larger-scale studies addressing this issue are needed.
A Simultaneous Multiband Continuous-Time ΔΣ ADC With 90-MHz Aggregate Bandwidth in 40-nm CMOS

This letter presents a new class of ΔΣ modulator that combines any set of traditional NTF shapes in a single modulator. The prototype multiband ΔΣ modulator (MB-ΔΣM) demonstrates two simultaneous bands—one baseband and one bandpass. These two bands are separated by 500 MHz, have an aggregate bandwidth of 90 MHz, with up to 55-dB measured SNDR. In addition to reducing the number of ADCs, this new approach promises further system-level power savings by simplifying the RF frontend. The system-level power savings from requiring fewer analog mixers, LNAs, filters, and ADC drivers can be even more than the ADC power reduction.
Phytoplankton, Dissolved Oxygen and Nutrient Patterns Along A Eutrophic River-Estuary Continuum: Observation and Modeling

Abstract Transport and fate of phytoplankton blooms and excessive nutrients along salinity and turbidity gradients of a river-estuary continuum could determine when and where impaired water quality occurs. However, the general spatiotemporal patterns, underlying mechanisms and their implication for water quality management are not well understood. This study reveals typical seasonal variations and longitudinal patterns of phytoplankton, dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrients (C, N, and P) in the lower St. Johns River estuary in Florida based on 23 years of data and a model which spans 3 years. Evident declines in freshwater phytoplankton and DO concentrations were observed in the freshwater-saltwater transition zone and the estuarine turbidity maxima along the river-estuary continuum. Observations show that most cyanobacteria blooms originating from upstream lakes collapsed in the freshwater-saltwater transition zone where salinity was greater than 1 ppt, but data analysis and model simulation both indicate salinity stress was not the sole reason, other factors such as changes in hydrodynamics and river morphology also contributed to the bloom crashes. Inorganic nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate) exhibited inverse longitudinal patterns with phytoplankton. Due to algal uptake, summer concentrations of inorganic nutrients were low in the freshwater, but substantially elevated in the marine reach as a result of large point source inputs and nutrient regeneration from organic detritus. However, because of strong river-ocean mixing, the dramatic increase in nutrients did not promote a phytoplankton bloom in the local marine reach. The nutrients were eventually transported into coastal waters or oceans where they fueled phytoplankton blooms. Our findings highlight that strategies for nutrient reduction and phytoplankton bloom management should be developed beyond local reaches and across a river-estuary-ocean continuum, exploring the possibility that freshwater phytoplankton blooms and excessive nutrients may be transported to downstream estuaries, coastal waters and even oceans that are vulnerable to poor water quality.
Near-Field Localization Using Antenna Arrays

The problem of locating signals transmitted in the proximity of an antenna array has been studied extensively in the signal processing literature. In this paper we consider the standard array manifold models used in these works and show that they differ, sometimes significantly, from the model based on electromagnetic theory. In particular, the standard models do not correspond to the equations governing an electromagnetic field near an antenna or an array. They also do not take into account the characteristics of the near-field source, such as the type and orientation of the transmitting antenna, which may have a profound impact on the signals received by the array.
Performing the Nation State: Female Representation in Nineteenth-Century American Theatre and the American Cultural Imagination

This essay examines representations of women on the nineteenth-century American commercial stage and the ways in which women’s staged presence spoke to—and against—a nation in the midst of defining itself against the backdrop of white patriarchal systems of power. Representations of women stitched together culturally normative expectations of sexuality and gender, defining female citizenship as existing in relationship to women’s dependence on male desire and racial/racist hierarchies. White heteronormative desirable women served as both the ideal and the norm with all other female identities represented as deficient. The bodily presence of women on stage, however, and the counter-narratives to white male-authored visions of female gender norms complicated simplistic definitions of American womanhood. This essay explores three character types—‘The Indian Maiden’, ‘The Tragic Mulatta’ and ‘The Comic Spinster’—as a means to engage the complex dynamics between performance and nation-building.
Offshore ontologies: global capital as substance, simulation, and the supernatural

In this article, I bring ontological anthropology into a register that is recognizably political and critical in orientation. My intention is to apply the powerful conceptual approach of the “ontological turn” in order to address a contemporary politico-economic problem of acute importance: offshore finance. Drawing from archival and ethnographic data collected in Luxembourg, I argue that officials from this country’s offshore financial center have employed ontology in particular ways in the service of a drastically imbalanced global capitalist system. In doing so, I contend that anthropologists are not the only people at present engaged in an “ontological turn”; so too are the thousands of bankers, lawyers, fund administrators, and accountants currently at work in Luxembourg. Thus, in exposing anthropologists to a set of concurrent “ontologies,” I move away from how the turn’s proponents within the discipline have to date thought of their ontological explorations as pointing to a somehow more desirable and progressive future.
Productivity and welfare in an overlapping generations model with housing

Abstract Productivity and welfare can have an inverse relationship. This paper describes an overlapping generations model where housing is the savings vehicle, and utility is provided by housing and a consumption good. If intratemporal substitution between the consumption good and housing is sufficiently inelastic, aggregate utility is decreasing in productivity. At higher levels of productivity, the relative scarcity of housing aggravates the problem of oversaving.
Data Mining Approach for Determining Student Attention Pattern

This Research Full Paper presents the approach of traditional engineering analysis techniques on education. Data mining techniques have been successfully employed to extract hidden information from large data sets within various contexts. We hypothesized that data mining techniques can similarly be applied to large educational data sets to extract and analyze patterns and create insights. Specifically, we examined the degree to which standard data mining techniques can distinguish between different student attention patterns in large lectures in which personal computers were actively used. Our data set consists of electronically captured student attention data (on-task, off-task) that was recorded at 20 second intervals throughout each course lecture over one semester. With Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, methods involved capturing student data via a backend monitoring system to reduce student awareness of monitoring and reduce false behavior changes during data collection periods. The data were originally captured in the form of images (screenshots), and image processing techniques were applied to extract student attention patterns in the form of zero (off-task) and one (on-task). We conducted descriptive statistical analysis to add other features such as characterization information (e.g., total logged in attention, average class period attention to the recorded data sets). For the data mining analysis, we used three different supervised machine learning classification algorithms: Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) for classifying the students’ dataset. We classified the students into one of four different classes based on their attention pattern in the lecture class. Before applying each classification algorithm, feature extraction was performed. For this purpose, we used Haar wavelets, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) dimensionality-reduction techniques before applying the classification algorithm. Their performance is compared. Our results indicate high classification accuracies can be obtained using these dimensional reduction algorithms followed by classification algorithms. Our result highlights the importance of applying traditional engineering analysis techniques to educational data in order to provide engineering education insights.
Social Distancing and the Internet: What Can Network Performance Measurements Tell Us?

The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions forced many to work, learn, and socialize from home over the internet. There appears to be consensus that internet infrastructure in the developed world handled the resulting traffic surge well. In this paper, we study network measurement data collected by the Federal Communications Commission's Measuring Broadband America program before and during the pandemic in the United States (US). We analyze the data to understand the impact of lockdown orders on the performance of fixed broadband internet infrastructure across the US, and also attempt to correlate internet usage patterns with the changing behavior of users during lockdown. We found the key metrics such as change in data usage to be generally consistent with the literature. Through additional analysis, we found differences between metro and rural areas, changes in weekday, weekend, and hourly internet usage patterns, and indications of network congestion for some users.
A brief note on the plastic adaptability of the central nervous system.

Dear sir, We read with interest the recent report ‘Motor cortex relocation after complete anatomical hemispherectomy for intractable epilepsy secondary to Rasmussen’s encephalitis’ 1 and we commend...
Formal statistical analysis of the data in disparate impact cases provides sounder inferences than the U. S. government's ‘four-fifths’ rule: an examination of the statistical evidence in Ricci v. DeStefano

Many countries have fair employment laws to protect racial, gender, religious or ethnic minorities from discrimination and courts in the USA can order remedies such as one out of every three new hires should be a member of a protected group after finding an employer discriminated. What steps can an employer undertake to ensure its employment practices do not disadvantage minorities when it does not need to comply with a court order? This issue arose in Ricci v. DeStefano, a ‘reverse discrimination’ case under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Seventeen Whites and 1 Hispanic who achieved sufficiently high scores qualifying them for promotion to lieutenant or captain of the New Haven Fire Department sued the city because it cancelled the examinations after seeing that no African American could be appointed to an existing vacancy. The City of New Haven justified its action on the basis that both examinations had a disparate impact on African Americans and Hispanics because the ratios of their pass rates to that of Whites were less than 80%, contrary to a ‘rule of thumb’ in the government’s Uniform Guidelines. The city did not conduct statistical tests, which are referred to in the guidelines. The lower courts accepted New Haven’s explanation and granted summary judgement to it. A statistical study of the various criteria considered by the city and lower courts in their review of the data demonstrates that nearly 70% of the time a fair non-discriminatory test for either position will fail the government’s ‘80% rule’ and at least 60% of the time both fair tests would fail this ‘four-fifths rule’. Since the city created a new criterion after seeing the results, it is difficult to formulate precisely the other ‘rare’ or ‘unusual’ outcomes that would lead to cancellation of the examination. Would New Haven reject a list with no Hispanics or no Whites eligible for an immediate promotion? Would it require that all three groups be represented in the pool eligible for advancement to each position? From the viewpoint of statistical theory, the hypothesis being tested and the definition of pass or selection rates that will be compared should be decided before examining the data. Formal statistical tests on several relevant pass rates show that the lieutenant examination had a disparate impact on minority applicants, but the differences in the pass rates on the captain examination were not close to statistical significance. Furthermore, when the city cancelled both examinations, it only focused on the demographic mix of the high scorers who could receive an immediate promotion and ignored the 2-year life cycle of the list. Neither likely retirements nor job turnover during the 2-year life cycle
Option Acceleration in Response to SFAS No. 123(R)

As of February 28, 2006, 958 publicly held companies accelerated the vesting of some or all of their employee stock options in advance of adopting SFAS No. 123(R). In doing so, these companies, on average, avoided $11.3 (8.4) million in pretax (after tax) expense, which represented 42 percent of prior year income. Investors, in general, react positively to acceleration announcements as we find an average cumulative abnormal return of about one‐half of 1 percent for the three‐day window (−1,1) surrounding the announcement, with the reaction positively associated with the expense reduction that resulted from the acceleration, the declaration by the firm that the options accelerated are out of the money, return on assets, and firm size. Additionally, we find that the decision to accelerate is positively associated with our estimate of the future expense related to unvested options; that is, the expense avoided because of the acceleration. In contrast, the intrinsic value of unvested options; that is, the exp...
Chemistry and technology of some drying oil fatty acid esters of polyvinyl alcohol

1. No substitute for phenol as the mutual solvent was found. Other solvents which were tried produced deleterious side effects such as bad color and product recovery difficulties. Furthermore, the yields of ester were not as good as those in the phenol process. 2. At the present time, the yield of ester using the standard procedure cannot be improved. The final product analyses seem to indicate polyethers are formed simultaneously with the fatty acid esters, and that polyvinyl alcohol undergoes chain cleavage with the formation of non-hydroxyl groups, or a deacylation of one of two 1–2 hydroxyl groups which results in a ketone group. 3. Esters of high and low mol wt polyvinyl alcohol based on 0.5/1 (fatty acid/polyol) equivalents as the optimum can be successfully prepared with and without basic catalysts. An ester as low as 0.1/1 fatty acid/LMPVA can be prepared without a gel. This ester is barely soluble in aromatic solvents. 4. The evaluation data on several coatings indicates that improved clear varnishes and house paints are possible and that further evaluation of these esters as can coatings or industrial bakes should be considered. Linseed esters showed better properties than the soya and tall oil esters. No particular advantages were seen in the other pigmented coatings.
A high-androgen microenvironment inhibits granulosa cell proliferation and alters cell identity.

Abstract A naturally occurring bovine model with excess follicular fluid androstenedione (High A4), reduced fertility, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)-like characteristics has been identified. We hypothesized High A4 granulosa cells (GCs) would exhibit altered cell proliferation and/or steroidogenesis. Microarrays of Control and High A4 GCs combined with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis indicated that High A4 GCs had cell cycle inhibition and increased expression of microRNAs that inhibit cell cycle genes. Granulosa cell culture confirmed that A4 treatment decreased GC proliferation, increased anti-Mullerian hormone, and increased mRNA for CTNNBIP1. Increased CTNNBIP1 prevents CTNNB1 from interacting with members of the WNT signaling pathway thereby inhibiting the cell cycle. Expression of CYP17A1 was upregulated in High A4 GCs presumably due to reduced FOS mRNA expression compared to Control granulosa cells. Furthermore, comparisons of High A4 GC with thecal and luteal cell transcriptomes indicated an altered cellular identity and function contributing to a PCOS-like phenotype.
California Community College Completion Project

The state of California has the largest two-year college system with 114 colleges and has a set of focused goals to increase degree and certificate attainment and transfer to four-year universities with the end goal to support economic and social mobility. To ensure that colleges are making progress towards meeting these goals the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) has established a set of accountability metrics. These metrics focus on a range of student achievement and institutional effectiveness outcomes. The outcomes are centralized around degree and certificate attainment and transfer to four-year universities and are noted in the system as the completion rate metric. The research question of the study was “What institutional characteristics, student characteristics, and academic performance outcomes influence completion rates?” The aim of the study was to develop a model to determine which combination of variables could best predict completion rates. The completion rate was based on the percentage of degree, certificate and/or transfer-seeking students starting first-time in 2011-12 tracked for six years through 2016-17 who completed a degree, certificate or transfer-related outcomes.
Fourier-based Synthetic-aperture Imaging for Arbitrary Transmissions by Cross-correlation of Transmitted and Received Wave-fields.

Investigations into Fourier beamforming for medical ultrasound imaging have largely been limited to plane-wave and single-element transmissions. The main aim of this work is to generalize Fourier b...
The Determinants of Web Based Instructional Systems' Outcome: A Step-wise Regression Approach

Post-secondary distance education via the Internet is now a commonplace. Tremendous advances in Information Technology have allowed colleges and universities to offer Web-based courses as a way to meet the growing demand for educational experiences from those who, because of distance from campus or scheduling conflicts, would otherwise not be able to take courses. This paper develops a model explaining the relationship between a dependent variable (the perceived student’s learning outcome) and six independent factor variables using a step-wise regression approach.. The findings indicate that the instructor’s personal attention to individual students in regard to individual learning, overall usability of the course website, students’ self-motivation toward web-based courses, the instructor’s role in facilitating the learning process, and clearly defined course objectives and procedures have a strong impact on the learning outcomes of e-learning systems.
Thoughts on and tools for teaching compiler design

A single-semester course in compiler design presents difficulties to an instructor who wants to assign a project in which object-oriented techniques are employed. This paper describes an approach using tools developed by the author to generate a parser that encourages an object-oriented approach, and clearly relates student-written code with automatically generated code, with the intent of increasing student understanding.
Neuronal activity-regulated secretion of neuroligin-3 promotes glioma growth (S43.003)

Objective: To evaluate the role of neuronal activity in the glioma microenvironment Background: Microenvironmental determinants of high-grade glioma (HGG) growth are incompletely understood. We have recently shown that active neurons exert a robust mitogenic effect on normal neural precursor and oligodendroglial precursor cells, thought to be the cellular origins for HGG. Methods: This work utilized a combination of in vivo and in situ optogenetic techniques, patient-derived high-grade glioma cell cultures and orthotopic xenograft models, biochemical and proteomic analyses, and human cancer genomics. Results: Here, we demonstrate that active neurons similarly promote the proliferation of HGG in vivo using optogenetic control of cortical neuronal activity in a patient-derived pediatric cortical glioblastoma orthotopic xenograft model. Neuronal activity-regulated mitogen(s) are secreted, as the conditioned medium from optogenetically stimulated cortical slices promoted proliferation of a range of pediatric and adult patient-derived HGG cultures. Biochemical and proteomic analyses identified the synaptic protein neuroligin-3 (NLGN3) as the leading candidate mitogen. Soluble NLGN3 was sufficient to promote robust proliferation of HGG cells, and depletion of NLGN3 from the active slice conditioned medium significantly abrogated its mitogenic capacity. Soluble NLGN3 induced PI3K pathway activity, as well as feed-forward expression of the NLGN3 gene in glioma cells, providing mechanistic insight into its surprising role as a mitogen. Finally, we found that NLGN3 gene expression levels in human HGG negatively correlated with patient overall survival. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings indicate that active neurons play an important role in the brain tumor microenvironment and identify secreted neuroligin-3 as an unexpected mechanism promoting neuronal activity-regulated cancer growth. Study supported by: Matthew Larson Foundation (MM), McKenna Claire Foundation (MM), California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MM), Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Endowed Faculty Scholarship in Pediatric Cancer and Blood Diseases (MM), the Fiona Penelope Memorial Fund (TJ) and National Science Foundation (HSV). Disclosure: Dr. Monje has nothing to disclose. Dr. Venkatesh has nothing to disclose. Dr. Caretti has nothing to disclose. Dr. Johung has nothing to disclose. Dr. Noll has nothing to disclose. Dr. Vogel has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mallick has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bredel has nothing to disclose.
General Historical Introduction

A brief historical review of the discovery and exploration of elliptical galaxies in the past two centuries is presented.
Don't Scrap It, Wrap It! A Wrapper Architecture for Legacy Data Sources

Garlic is a middleware system that provides an integrated view of a variety of legacy data sources, without changing how or where data is stored. In this paper, we describe our architecture for wrappers, key components of Garlic that encapsulate data sources and mediate between them and the middleware. Garlic wrappers model legacy data as objects, participate in query planning, and provide standard interfaces for method invocation and query execution. To date, we have built wrappers for 10 data sources. Our experience shows that Garlic wrappers can be written quickly and that our architecture is flexible enough to accommodate data sources with a variety of data models and a broad range of traditional and non-traditional query processing capabilities.
Intestinal obstruction due to gallstones.

The frequency with which stones formed in the gall bladder migrate into the intestinal tract is not known. That this event may be commoner than is supposed is suggested by a report in 1939, by Wakefield et al.,t of 176 cases of nonsurgical cholecystenteric fistulas, and by the fact that an occasional cholelith also may find its way into the duodenum via the normal biliary channels. The majority of stones thus migrating to the intestine are passed rectally without difficulty. It is uncertain how frequently gallstones discharged into the intestine ultimately are the cause of intestinal obstruction. Wakefield and co-workers found 10 cases of intestinal obstruction due to gallstones during the same interval of time in which they encountered the aforementioned 176 cholecystenteric fistulas. Hand and Gilmore2 found records of 208 instances of obstruction due to gallstones in a total of 12,153 cases of intestinal obstruction noted in the literature. This is an incidence of 1. 7 per cent. Routley and May03 stated that during a 17-year period at the Mayo Clinic gallstones were the cause in 1.2 per cent of all cases of obstruction of the small intestine that were observed. Whether or not a gallstone will cause obstruction on entering the intestinal tract depends in part on the size and shape of the stone. Small and even moderate-sized gallstones can traverse the intestinal tract without giving rise to obstruction. It is probable that a gallstone must be at least 2 cm. in diameter to obstruct the intestinal lumen. A round or irregular stone more likely will :find lodgment in an intestinal fold than will a smooth ovoid one. On entering the intestine, a stone need not be large enough to cause immediate obstruction; however, once it finds lodgment it may enlarge by additional concretions until it is big enough to cause blockage of the intestinal lumen. The stone may lodge anywhere along the intestine, although anatomically