cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exclusive Homodimerization of the Orphan Receptor Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4 Defines a New Subclass of Nuclear Receptors

Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF-4), a highly conserved member of the steroid hormone receptor superfamily critical for development and liver-specific gene expression, is very similar to another superfamily member, retinoid X receptor alpha (RXR alpha), in overall amino acid sequence and DNA binding specificity. Since RXR alpha is known to heterodimerize with many other nuclear receptors, the formation of heterodimers between HNF-4 and RXR alpha was examined. With the electrophoretic mobility shift assay, coimmunoprecipitation, and transient transfection assays, it is shown that, unlike other nuclear receptors, HNF-4 does not form heterodimers with RXR alpha either in the presence or in the absence of DNA. We also show that in vitro-translated HNF-4 does not form heterodimeric complexes on DNA with a number of other receptors, including RXR beta, RXR gamma, retinoic acid receptor alpha, or thyroid hormone receptor alpha. To investigate the hypothesis that the lack of heterodimerization between HNF-4 and RXR alpha is due to a strong homodimerization activity of HNF-4, glycerol gradient sedimentation and kinetic analysis were used to show that HNF-4 is in fact a stable homodimer in solution. Finally, immunohistochemistry is used to show that the HNF-4 protein is found exclusively in the nuclei in both HepG2 cells, which express endogenous HNF-4, and transfected COS cells, which overexpress HNF-4. These findings lead us to propose that HNF-4 defines a new subclass of nuclear receptors which reside primarily in the nucleus and which bind DNA and regulate transcription as homodimers.
Imaging in Intestinal Ischemic Disorders

Intestinal ischemia and infarction are a heterogeneous group of diseases that have as their unifying theme hypoxia of the small bowel or colon. The incidence of bowel ischemia and infarction is on the rise for several reasons: the aging of the population, the ability of intensive care units to salvage critically ill patients, and heightened clinical awareness of these disorders. Improvements in diagnostic imaging techniques have greatly contributed to the earlier diagnosis of intestinal ischemia, which can have a positive influence on patient outcomes. In this article, role of radiology in the detection, differential diagnosis, and management of patients who have intestinal ischemia and infarction is discussed.
Driver's License Suspensions: A Dilution Effect?

Societal animosity toward suspended drivers occurs relatively infrequently unless a life changing event, such as a fatal crash, occurs. The general public vacillation between revulsion, impatience, cynicism, and apathy may be due to the perceived diluting of driver license suspensions. Dilution occurs when legislators suspend a driver’s license for violating non-highway safety laws. With this dilution of drivers’ license suspensions, indifference sets in and the importance of driver’s license suspension wanes in the public sphere. The objective for this study is to explore the dilution effect of driver suspension policies. Results indicate that as a group, non-highway safety suspended drivers differ from licensed drivers when either citations or crashes are considered. Further analysis indicates that a specific sub-group of non-highway suspended drivers, suspended due to failure to maintain liability insurance, may underpin the overall results for the difference between non-highway safety suspended drivers and the average licensed driver. Exclusion of driver’s suspended for failure to maintain liability insurance appears to change the results, indicating that non-highway safety suspended drivers are similar to licensed drivers in citations and crashes. When excluding those suspended for failure to maintain liability insurance, the dilution effect appears to be supported given the remaining non-highway safety drivers appear to be similar to average licensed drivers when considering citations and crashes. This outcome suggests two results. The first is that those suspended for not maintaining liability insurance may be misclassified under non-highway safety suspended drivers as indicated by their crash and violation occurrences relative to other non-highway safety suspended drivers. Second, the results may indicate potential policy interventions to address the role of liability insurance, such as graduated licensing after suspension for those suspended due to lack of liability insurance. These potential policy options are explored in-depth using the literature focused on ability to pay as a remedy to suspension, thereby reassessing the purchase of insurance as a non-highway safety suspension offense.
A nuclear magnetic resonance study of hapten-antibody interaction.

In the presence of purified specific antigalactosyl antibody, the hapten p -nitrophenyl-β-D-galactoside showed changes in its nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum for those protons attached to the aromatic ring. These changes were interpreted as line broadening and thus indicated the most energetic site of attachment of the hapten to the antibody. This work was supported by U.S.P.H.S. Research Grants Nos. NB 03356-04 and NB 5114-08.
Aperture masks for sampling the light field

We use an aperture-scanning paradigm to analyze the spatial sampling tradeoff and diffraction-limited resolution of spatio-angular sampling schemes that have the potential to improve upon lenslet-based light field microscopy.
The Cementocyte—An Osteocyte Relative?:

Cementum is a mineralized tissue covering the tooth root that functions in tooth attachment and posteruptive adjustment of tooth position. During formation of the apically located cellular cementum, some cementoblasts become embedded in the cementoid matrix and become cementocytes. As apparently terminally differentiated cells embedded in a mineralized extracellular matrix, cementocytes are part of a select group of specialized cells, also including osteocytes, hypertrophic chondrocytes, and odontoblasts. The differentiation and potential function(s) of cementocytes are virtually unknown, and the question may be posed whether the cementocyte is a dynamic actor in cementum in comparable fashion with the osteocyte in the skeleton, responding to changing tooth functions and endocrine signals and actively directing local cementum metabolism. This review summarizes the literature with regard to cementocytes, comparing them to their closest “cousins,” the osteocytes, where insights gained from osteocyte studies...
Experiment of city tunnel model with natural ventilation in case of fire

The eastern city tunnel of Nanjing adopts natural ventilation.In order to judge the security in fire case,an experimental study of the city tunnel model with natural ventilation in case of fire was carried on and the effect of exhaustsmoke in the worst case was observed.Theoretically the comparability between the model and the entity was discussed.Based on the comparability,the model laboratory in fire case was built.According to the phenomenon and data,the distributing-changing rule,and the motion law of smoke were analyzed.The credibility of the model experiment result was verified,and the escapee's security in case of fire was discussed.The result shows that the highest temperature of smoke can reach 77.2°C and the height of smoke is above 2 m in most time,therefore the safety of escapees can be guaranteed.
Loss of Trefoil Factor 2 From Pancreatic Duct Glands Promotes Formation of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms in Mice.

Background & Aims Little is known about the origin of pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN). Pancreatic duct glands (PDGs) are gland-like outpouches budding off the main pancreatic ducts that function as a progenitor niche for the ductal epithelium; they express gastric mucins and have characteristics of side-branch IPMNs. We investigated whether PDGs are a precursor compartment for IPMNs and the role of Trefoil factor family 2 (TFF2)—a protein expressed by PDGs and the gastric mucosa that are involved in epithelial repair and tumor suppression. Methods We obtained pancreatectomy specimens from 20 patients with chronic pancreatitis, 13 with low-grade side-branch IPMNs, and 15 patients with PDAC; histologically normal pancreata were used as controls (n = 18). Samples were analyzed by immunohistochemistry to detect TFF1 and TFF2 and cell proliferation. We performed mitochondrial DNA mutational mapping studies to determine the cell lineage and fate of PDG cells. Pdx1 - Cre;LSL-KRAS G12D (KC) mice were bred with TFF2-knockout mice to generate KC/ Tff2 −/− and KC/ Tff2 +/− mice. Pancreata were collected and histologically analyzed for formation of IPMN, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias, and PDAC, in addition to proliferation and protein expression. Human pancreatic ductal epithelial cells and PDAC cell lines were transfected with vectors to overexpress or knock down TFF2 or SMAD4. Results Histologic analysis of human samples revealed gastric-type IPMN to comprise 2 molecularly distinct layers: a basal crypt segment that expressed TFF2 and overlying papillary projections. Proliferation occurred predominantly in the PDG-containing basal segments. Mitochondrial mutation mapping revealed a 97% match between the profiles of proliferating PDG cells and their overlying nonproliferative IPMN cells. In contrast to KC mice, 2-month-old KC/ Tff2 +/− and KC/ Tff2 −/− mice developed prominent papillary structures in the duct epithelium with cystic metaplasia of the PDG, which resembled human IPMN; these expressed gastric mucins (MUC5AC and MUC6), but not the intestinal mucin MUC2. KC/TFF2-knockout mice developed a greater number and higher grade of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias than KC mice, and 1 mouse developed an invasive adenocarcinoma. Expression of TFF2 reduced proliferation of PDAC cells 3-fold; this effect required up-regulation and activation of SMAD4. We found expression of TFF2 to be down-regulated in human PDAC by hypermethylation of its promoter. Conclusions In histologic analyses of human IPMNs, we found PDGs to form the basal segment and possibly serve as a progenitor compartment. TFF2 has tumor-suppressor activity in the mouse pancreas and prevents formation of mucinous neoplasms.
Percutaneous closure of an acquired Gerbode defect.

An 89-year-old woman with history of bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement presented with worsening exertional dyspnoea. A transthoracic echocardiogram demonstrated the presence of a fistula between the left ventricle (LV) and right atrium (RA), consistent with an acquired Gerbode defect. Given her reluctance to pursue repeat surgery, a percutaneous approach for definitive closure was performed. …
Expression of odontogenic ameloblast-associated protein in the dental follicle and its role in osteogenic differentiation of dental follicle stem cells.

Abstract Objective Odontogenic Ameloblast-Associated Protein (ODAM) is encoded by a secretory calcium-binding phosphoprotein cluster gene, which generally plays an important role for mineralization. Dental follicle (DF) is essential in regulating bone formation for tooth eruption. This study aims to reveal ODAM expression in the DFs of developing and erupting molars, and to determine the possible role of ODAM. Design DFs were collected from human third molars and rat mandibular molars for gene expression assessment and for establishment of cell cultures. RT-PCR and western blot were conducted to determine ODAM expression. Over- or silencing expression of ODAM in the dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) was done by transfecting the cells with ODAM plasmid or siRNA to evaluate ODAM effects on osteogenesis. Results Rat DFs weakly expressed ODAM at early-postnatal days, but a chronological increment of ODAM expression from days 1 to 11 was observed. Differences in expression of ODAM were seen in the human DFs of different individuals. In vitro, ODAM was expressed in DFSCs, but almost no expression in DF-derived fibroblast-like cells. Forcing the DFSCs to overexpress ODAM accelerated osteogenesis, whereas continuously silencing the ODAM in the DFSCs reduced osteogenesis only at 2 weeks of osteogenic induction. Conclusions ODAM is differentially expressed in the DFs of different age molars. Its expression is coincident with the increased bone formation of tooth crypt during tooth eruption in rat DFs. Increase of ODAM expression may accelerate osteogenic differentiation of DFSCs. Thus, ODAM expression in the DF may regulate bone formation for timely tooth eruption.
Superinfection exclusion by λ prophage in lysogens ofSalmonella typhimurium

Abstract Lysogens of coliphage λ inSalmonella typhimurium excludeSalmonella phages P22 and L. The λrex function is responsible for exclusion of superinfecting P22, since P22 is not excluded by lysogens of λrex− mutants. However, λrex− lysogens still exclude phage L, apparently because they retain another superinfection exclusion mechanism which is identical in specificity to the P22sie B exclusion mechanism. Mutants of λ defective in this new exclusion system (sie− mutants) have been isolated. The phenotypes of λbio deletion/substitution phages indicate that thesie gene maps between thecIII andN genes, at a position on the λ genome analogous to that of thesie B gene on the P22 genome.
Organizational Context and Female Faculty's Perception of the Climate for Women in Academic Medicine.

Abstract Purpose: Gender inequalities in the careers of faculty in academic medicine could partially be attributed to an organizational climate that can exclude or be nonsupportive of women faculty. This study explores the climate for women faculty from a systems perspective at the organizational and individual levels based on the perceptions of women faculty. Race differences were also investigated. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional survey data from women faculty (N = 3127) at 13 purposively sampled medical schools and an institutional assessment of organizational characteristics were used. Organizational factors related to the climate for women were identified using bivariate statistics. The association between perceived climate for women and organizational characteristics, individual perceptions of the work environment and individual career, and personal characteristics with control variables were investigated using hierarchical linear regression models. Organizational effects by race/ethnicity we...
Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī in Modern Scholarship

Although al-Sijistānī was a leading figure in the development of Ismāʿīlī philosophy, particularly its Neoplatonism, serious investigation of his writing has been slow to enter modern scholarship, in part because his works have remained inaccessible until quite recently. Moreover the first printed versions were often incomplete or corrupt. Lately the situation has changed substantially with availability now of new critical editions.
Supersaturated proteins in ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by rapidly progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Although most forms of ALS are sporadic (sALS), ∼10% of cases are inherited in families (fALS). More than 50 ALS genes have been identified, with 16 of them unequivocally implicated in the pathogenesis (1). These genes function in a wide spectrum of cellular processes, which has posed a considerable challenge in understanding common genetic causes of ALS. Another major question in ALS, and neurodegeneration in general, is related to the selectivity of neuronal cell death. Why is toxicity of mutant genes detrimental to certain types of neuronal cells, while leaving others unaffected? In the case of ALS, motor neurons are selectively degenerated. In PNAS, Ciryam et al. (2) investigate the expression level relative to protein solubility for ALS-associated proteins. Their results indicate that these proteins, compared with the whole proteome, are “supersaturated.” Furthermore, coaggregating proteins in inclusion bodies appear to be significantly more supersaturated in motor neurons than in other tissue types. These findings provide a plausible explanation for two aspects of ALS pathology: genetic heterogeneity and motor neuron-specific toxicity. One of the biggest breakthroughs in ALS research has been the identification of mutations in ALS-causing genes. The first gene linked to ALS was SOD1 in 1993 (3). SOD1 encodes a cytosolic Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase that catalyzes the dismutation of toxic superoxide anion to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. Mutations in SOD1 account for ∼20% of fALS cases. The … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: shulin.ju{at}wright.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
A Family Affair: Family Typologies of Problems and Midlife Well-Being.

Background and objectives Midlife adults are a "pivot" generation, responding to parents' and grown children's problems. Yet, some midlife adults may have families where multiple members suffer sorrows, whereas other midlife adults may have families with few problems. This study examined: (a) typologies of problems across generations and (b) associations between profiles of problems and midlife adults' well-being. Research design and methods Midlife adults (N = 633) reported their own, each parent's (n = 868), and grown child's (n = 1,785) physical (e.g., injury, cancer), psychological (e.g., anxiety, addiction), and lifestyle problems (e.g., divorce, job loss), and parents' functional disabilities. Midlife adults reported their own depressive symptoms. Results Latent profile analysis revealed four family typologies: (a) lowest problems across generations (n = 364), (b) offspring and midlife adult moderate problems, parent high physical problems and disability (n = 165), (c) offspring and parent moderate problems (n = 90), and (d) offspring highest problems (n = 14). Midlife adults in the lowest problems group (Profile a) reported higher income and fewer depressive symptoms than midlife adults in the other groups. Discussion and implications Midlife adults cope with challenges when grown children or parents suffer problems, and their well-being may suffer as a result. In this study, regardless of the profile, higher problems in either generation were associated with more depressive symptoms for midlife adults.
Abstract PD2-11: Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography is comparable to MRI in the assessment of residual breast cancer following neoadjuvant systemic therapy

OBJECTIVE: Currently, no study has assessed the performance of contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) in evaluating tumor response in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST). This study aims to evaluate whether the accuracy of CESM is comparable to MRI in detection of residual breast cancer following NST. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of CESM cases at our institution between September 2014 and June 2016 identified patients who had both CESM and MRI pre- and post-NST with pathologic assessment after surgical management. Size of residual malignancy (if any) on post-neoadjuvant CESM and MRI was compared to surgical pathology (reference standard). Pathologic complete response (pCR) was documented and compared to Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) score for confirmation. Bland-Altman plots were used to visualize the differences between CESM/MRI and pathologic tumor size. RESULTS: Forty female patients met inclusion criteria. Mean age was 52.3 years (range 35-73). Type of NST included: 34 (85%) chemotherapy and 6 (15%) endocrine therapy. Histological analysis showed invasive ductal carcinoma in 38 (95%), the remaining cases consisted of one invasive lobular carcinoma, and one mixed invasive carcinoma. Mean tumor size after NST was 10.3 mm (range 0-75 mm) for CESM and 9.7 mm (range 0-60 mm) for MRI compared to 15.7 mm (range 0-100 mm) on final surgical pathology. Equivalence tests demonstrated that the mean tumor size measured by CESM or by MRI is equivalent to the mean tumor size measured by pathology within -1 and 1 cm range (p=0.0132 for CESM and p=0.0194 for MRI). A complete radiologic response was seen in 25 CESM and 22 MRI cases which was confirmed by pathology in 17 and 14, respectively. Alternatively, CESM and MRI demonstrated residual disease in 15 patients and 18 patients respectively and this was confirmed on pathology in 15 and 15, respectively. All patients who achieved a pCR had an RCB score of 0 indicating no residual cancer in lymph nodes. Among patients with residual disease, their mean RCB score was 2.6 (range 0.8-4.18). CONCLUSION: In this study, CESM was comparable to MRI in assessing residual malignancy after completion of NST, thereby offering a potentially faster and less expensive alternative to MRI for monitoring treatment response in the neoadjuvant setting. Citation Format: Hilal T, Covington M, Sugi M, Zhang N, Pockaj B, Northfelt D, Ocal IT, Patel BK. Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography is comparable to MRI in the assessment of residual breast cancer following neoadjuvant systemic therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PD2-11.
Towards improving the security of mobile systems using virtualization and isolation

Mobile devices are used for various activities ranging from entertainment to banking. Bring Your Own Devices (BYODs) and telecommuting allow employees to use their mobile devices in the environment of an organization and at home. The convergence of work and personal life introduces several security and privacy problems. This paper presents a technical approach to balance security and privacy needs of the employees and the organization as well as to reduce the risks associated with the BYODs and the telecommuting. The fundamental building block of the technical approach is virtualization. This paper presents an incremental mobile virtual machine operating system design and implements the first phase of the design by using the Xen hypervisor and a smartphone-like development board.
Association of State Laws Permitting Denial of Services to Same-Sex Couples With Mental Distress in Sexual Minority Adults: A Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences Analysis.

Importance Recent evidence suggests that state policies affecting sexual minorities are associated with health disparities. Twelve states have laws permitting the denial of services to same-sex couples, and the US Supreme Court is considering whether states can prohibit the denial of services to same-sex couples. Objective We investigated whether state laws permitting individuals to refuse services to sexual minorities were associated with changes in the proportion of sexual minority adults reporting mental distress. Design, Setting, and Participants This difference-in-difference-in-differences linear regression analysis with state fixed effects used Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 2014 through 2016 from adults aged 18 to 64 years in 3 states that implemented laws permitting the denial of services to same-sex couples (Utah, Michigan, and North Carolina) and 6 nearby control states (Idaho and Nevada, Ohio and Indiana, and Virginia and Delaware, respectively). Sexual minority adults were defined as those who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or not sure of their sexual orientation under a module on sexual orientation that BRFSS implemented in 2014 and each state could opt to include. Analysis controlled for year and individual-level sex, race, ethnicity, age group, educational attainment, income, employment, and marital status. A permutation test was conducted to precisely estimate statistical significance. Exposures An interaction term indicating whether individuals identified as a sexual minority and lived in a state with a law permitting denial of services to same-sex couples in 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures Mental distress, defined as poor mental health on 14 or more of the past 30 days. Results Of 109 089 participants, 4656 (4.8%; all percentages incorporate survey weights) identified as sexual minorities, 86141 (72.1%) were non-Hispanic white, and ages were uniformly distributed between 18 and 64 years. In 2014, 2038 of 16637 heterosexual adults (12.6%) and 156 of 815 sexual minority adults (21.9%) in the 3 same-sex denial states reported mental distress. The proportion of sexual minority adults reporting mental distress increased by 10.1 percentage points (95% CI, 1.8 to 18.5 percentage points, permutation-adjustedPvalue = .046) between 2014 and 2016 in states that passed laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples compared with control states, a 46% relative increase in sexual minority adults experiencing mental distress. Laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples were not associated with significant changes in heterosexual adults experiencing mental distress (−0.36 percentage points, 95% CI, −1.73 to 1.01 percentage points). Conclusions and Relevance Laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples, which exist in 12 states and are under consideration by the US Supreme Court, are associated with a 46% increase in sexual minority adults experiencing mental distress.
Regulation of Neuronal Chemokine Receptor CXCR4 by μ-Opioid Agonists and Its Involvement in NeuroAIDS

The chemokine CXCL12 (formerly known as SDF1-α) and its receptor CXCR4 play a pivotal role in the developing and mature central nervous system. CXCR4 is widely expressed in the brain, in areas such as the cerebellum, cortex, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and brain stem. In vivo as well as in vitro studies have confirmed the expression of both CXCL12 and CXCR4 in most CNS cell types including neurons, astrocytes and microglia. CXCL12 and CXCR4 play a crucial role during CNS development and are also involved in maintaining neuro-glial function in the adult brain. CXCL12 binding to CXCR4 leads to the activation of a number of signaling pathways some of which are critical to neuronal survival. However, under certain unique extracellular conditions, CXCR4 activation can also induce cell death. For example, CXCR4 can also interact with the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120 with signaling outcomes leading to neuronal cell death. Furthermore, cellular and environmental factors affecting either CXCL12 or CXCR4 can also modulate receptor activation and neuronal survival. Given the crucial role of the chemokine and its receptor in the development and maintenance of CNS homeostasis, factors affecting CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling may thus ultimately alter brain physiology. For instance, evidence in literature indicates that CXCL12/CXCR4-induced pathways are targets of opioids and other commonly abused drugs. A negative, bi-directional cross-talk between opioid and chemokine receptors has been observed in both immune and central nervous system. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in such interactions and their clinical consequences are largely unknown. This chapter will review our current knowledge on the cross-talk between opioid and chemokine receptors in the brain focusing on underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms which might be relevant to HIV neuropathology.
Epigenetic Dysregulation of 15q11-13 GABAA Receptor Genes in Autism

GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain and defects in inhibition have been implicated in autism spectrum disorders. GABA inhibition is mediated through a variety of receptor subunit genes. Three GABAA receptor subunit genes, GABRB3, GABRA5, and GABRG3 are located on chromosome 15q11-13. In addition to GABAA receptor subunit genes, chromosome 15q11-13 contains genes that are expressed based on the parental origin of the chromosome, a process termed genomic imprinting. Due to imprinting, deletions of chromosome 15q11-13 result in two different disorders, Prader-Willi syndrome and Angleman syndrome, depending on the parental origin of the deletion. Additionally maternal duplications of this genomic region are observed in 1-3% of autism cases. Although each of these disorders is clinically distinct, there are similarities in phenotypes, such as seizures, that may be due to improper levels of GABAA receptor genes. Genetic studies of families with autism without a known genetic cause have found evidence that genetic markers in GABRB3 are significantly associated with autism. Although genetic mutations have not been found in GABRB3, significantly reduced levels of GABRB3 protein were found in a majority of autism brain samples. Further studies have shown an abnormal expression pattern of only one parental copy of 15q11-13 GABAA receptor genes in a subset of autism samples. Since no evidence was found for a direct genetic explanation for this abnormal gene expression, we hypothesize that epigenetic changes, heritable modifications to DNA and the proteins that are involved in DNA packaging, may explain the expression abnormalities in autistic brain samples.
Improved Niching and Encoding Strategies for Clustering Noisy Data Sets

Clustering is crucial to many applications in pattern recognition, data mining, and machine learning. Evolutionary techniques have been used with success in clustering, but most suffer from several shortcomings. We formulate requirements for efficient encoding, resistance to noise, and ability to discover the number of clusters automatically.
The structure of environmental odor signals From turbulent dispersion to movement through boundary layers and mucus

Chemical signals play a major role in the lives of many animals, such as orientation to odor sources, the identification of food, and selection of mates. During the journey from the odor source (e.g., food source) to the “receiver” (either receptor appendage, organ, or cell), the chemical signal is influenced by many different dispersal processes including molecular diffusion, bulk advection, boundary layer flows, and impulsive flows created from sampling structures. The purpose of this report is to outline the present state of knowledge of the structure of chemical signals under the processes mentioned above and how these function together to form the environmental odor signals to which animals respond.
Tough Road to Take: Collaboration in the Nanotechnology Sector

Nanotechnology companies have to engage in a large array of collaborative projects as the technology itself can be applied in a variety of sectors. This nature pushes companies to collaborate with other companies (and institutions) in a variety of industries to commercialize products that use nanotechnology. At this point of course, we need to ask ourselves as to what would be an effective corporate form as such collaborations would require a complex technology to be transferred across company boundaries and often from universities to companies. Ronald Coase exquisitely explains in his pathbreaking work as to how these boundaries between the markets and the firm are drawn based on efficiency. It is recently that we discuss these issues based on the characteristics of different industries related particularly to their knowledge assets. For companies that intend to commercialize nanotechnology, interdisciplinary collaboration in private markets has to be almost second nature. However, as mentioned above for the two or several companies with different organizational structures, different ways of handling the products and processes and different heuristics to collaborate might prove itself rather difficult. So pertaining to this fact what would be the best way to collaborate? Should two or more companies engage in long-term contracts, should they build a joint venture or could it be the case that licensing could solve the issue? As it turns out, the answer to this question may not be so simple, and in the case of nanotechnology industries, a wide array of institutional arrangements might be needed.
Search for Purity and Entanglement

We review the procedure of purification of quantum states which provides recovery of interference and entanglement. The phase space distributions and quantum tomograms are discussed. The superposition principle and the composition law of density matrices are studied.
Random Walks for Quantile Estimation

Quantile estimation is an important problem in many areas of application, such as toxicology, item response analysis, and material stress analysis. In these experiments, a treatment or stimulus is given or a stress is applied at a finite number of levels or dosages, and the number of responses at each level is observed. This paper focuses on sequentially assigning treatment levels to subjects in a manner that describes a random walk, with transition probabilities that depend on the prior response as well as the prior treatment. Criteria are given for random walk rules such that resulting stationary treatment distributions will center around an unknown, but prespecified quantile. It is shown how, when a parametric form for the response function is assumed, the stationary treatment distribution may be further characterized. Using the logistic response function as an example, a mechanism for generating new discrete probability distribution functions is revealed. In this example, three different estimates of the unknown quantile arise naturally.
Introduction to SAW and CCD Technology

The need for and advantages of carrying out real-time signal processing with faster speed and higher bandwidth culminated in the use of SAW and the invention of CCD devices in the 1960s. A major objective of this chapter is to introduce fundamentals of these devices to the reader. Another objective is to discuss applications of this technology in areas such as radar and sonar engineering, image processing, spread spectrum communications systems and filtering in general. Section 4.6 includes a discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of SAW and CCD devices and compares them with other signal processing methods, such as digital or optical signal processing. There are fundamental limitations in both of these types of device as well as some suitability to particular applications purpose. A thorough analysis is presented which provides enough information to enable the reader to choose a particular device for a particular purpose. Of course, as the technology advances, these analyses will need to be modified accordingly.
Pregnancy walking cadence does not vary by trimester.

Abstract Background Pregnancy-related changes in walking speed, gait dynamics, and total physical activity have been reported in past research, but free-living step cadences and their rates of change across pregnancy have not been studied. Research question The purpose of this study was to describe free-living stepping cadence in pregnant women and examine differences between second and third trimester women. We hypothesized that physical activity walking cadences would be lower later in pregnancy. Methods Fifty pregnant women were recruited for this study and n = 45 was the analytic sample size; 46.7% were in their second trimester (13–25 weeks) while 53.3% were third trimester (≥26 weeks). Participants completed a survey of demographic characteristics and wore an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for 7–8 days. These accelerometer data were downloaded in 60-sec epochs, allowing for determination of min-by-min walking cadence, defined as steps/min. Mean steps/day, mean cadence, peak cadence (average cadence over the 30 min of highest cadence in each day), mean time spent in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA, time spent with cadence ≥100 steps/min), and mean daily time spent in several cadence ranges were calculated for each participant. Between-trimester differences were determined using independent-samples t-tests. Results Average daily steps were 11,060.1 ± 2,955.3; 66.7% of second trimester and 54.2% of third trimester women met daily step recommendations of 10,000 steps/day, but 0.0% of the sample accumulated the recommended 150 min/wk of MVPA. There were no differences by trimester for cadence at any step rates (p > 0.05). Significance Overall, pregnant women accumulated high numbers of steps per day but at low cadences; neither daily steps nor cadence varied from second to third trimester. These data suggest that steps and MVPA recommendations are not equivalent and therefore should not be used interchangeably, especially during pregnancy.
Leveraging Data Driven Approaches to Quantify the Impact of Construction Projects on Urban Quality of Life.

According to the World Bank, more than half of the world's population now lives in cities, creating burdens on the degraded city infrastructures and driving up the demand for new ones. Construction sites are abundant in already dense cities and have unavoidable impacts on surrounding environments and residents. However, such impacts were rarely quantified and made available to construction teams and local agencies to inform their planning decisions. A challenge in achieving this was the lack of availability of data that can provide insights about how urban residents respond to changes in their environment due to construction projects. Wider availability of data from city agencies nowadays provides opportunities for having such analysis possible. This paper provides the details of a generic data-driven approach that enables the analysis of impact of construction projects on quality of life in urban settings through the quantification of change on widely accepted quality of life indicators in cities. This paper also evaluated the approach using data from publicly construction projects' information and open city data portals from New York City. Historical 311 Service Requests along with 27 road reconstruction projects were used as testbeds. The results showed that 61% of the projects analyzed in this testbed experienced higher 311 requests after the commencement of construction, with main complaints of 'noise', 'air quality', and 'sewer' at the beginning of construction, and 'sanitation' and 'waste' towards the end. Prediction models, built using regression machine learning algorithms, achieved an R-Squared value of 0.67. The approach is capable of providing insights for government agencies and construction companies to take proactive actions based on expected complaint types through different phases of construction.
Sirolimus Based Immunosuppression Regimen after Lung Transplantation Can Decrease CNI Related Nephrotoxicity

Purpose Kidney dysfunction causes significant morbidity and mortality after lung transplantation. Historically there is a 30-40% incidence of creatinine doubling after lung transplantation. We report our experience using sirolimus for lung transplant recipients with renal insufficiency. Methods We hypothesized that the addition of sirolimus would have a renal function sparing effect by reducing calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) exposure and analyzed data from lung transplant patients who initiated sirolimus between June 2011 and September 2017 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Results Forty-seven patients received sirolimus because of renal insufficiency (median) creatinine (Cr) 1.58 mg/dL (IQR 1.19 - 1.83). Cr remained stable at 1, 3, and 6 months after sirolimus initiation 1.50 (1.13-1.73); 1.49 (1.2-1.7) and 1.57 (1.21-1.86). CNI exposure was reduced by 34% after sirolimus initiation. FEV1 also remained stable over the six-month study interval; baseline median 2.17 L/sec (1.77-2.66); six month 2.13 (1.67-2.57). Conclusion Sirolimus treatment is associated with stability of lung and renal function in lung transplant recipients with progressive renal insufficiency.
Drug-Induced Injury, Polyps, Congenital, and Miscellaneous Disorders

Medication-induced injuries frequently cause non-specific histological features, but injuries due to drugs such as immunomodulators, colchicine, Taxol, Yttrium-90, and lanthanum can cause relatively specific histological findings in the duodenum. Benign duodenal polyps are composed of a heterogeneous group of lesions such as hamartomatous polyps, hyperplastic and inflammatory polyps, gastric and pancreatic heterotopia, Brunner gland hyperplasia, and nodular lymphoid hyperplasia.
Using Bronchoalveolar Lavage to Evaluate Changes in Pulmonary Diseases

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a procedure that can be used to collect samples from human and animal lungs to efficiently evaluate the immune response and the potentially pathological changes by examining both the compositions of cells and fluid from lavage. There are observable changes including inflammatory response in human and animal lungs exposed to environmental exposures such as toxic chemicals and microorganisms, or under pathophysiological conditions in respiratory system. The profile of inflammatory cells in BAL provides a qualitative description of inflammatory response, and the secretion in BAL fluid contains secreted proteins of inflammatory mediators and albumin as a quantitative measurement of inflammation and tissue injury in the lungs. Mouse is the most common model system being used for pulmonary disease-related research. A consistent experimental approach on how to lavage mouse lungs and collect samples from mouse lungs is important for a reproducible evaluation of pathological and physiological changes in mouse lung especially for the analysis of inflammation.
Continuation of Annual Screening Mammography and Breast Cancer Mortality in Women Older Than 70 Years.

There is debate over the age at which mammography screening for breast cancer should cease. This study informs that debate by estimating the effect of continuing breast cancer screening with mammog...
Prevalence of small base-pairing RNAs derived from diverse genomic loci

Small RNAs (sRNAs) that act by base-pairing have been shown to play important roles in fine-tuning the levels and translation of their target transcripts across a variety of model and pathogenic organisms. Work from many different groups in a wide range of bacterial species has provided evidence for the importance and complexity of sRNA regulatory networks, which allow bacteria to quickly respond to changes in their environment. However, despite the expansive literature, much remains to be learned about all aspects of sRNA-mediated regulation, particularly in bacteria beyond the well-characterized Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica species. Here we discuss what is known, and what remains to be learned, about the identification of regulatory base-pairing RNAs produced from diverse genomic loci including how their expression is regulated. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: RNA and gene control in bacteria edited by Dr. M. Guillier and F. Repoila.
Examining daily-level associations between nightly alcohol use and next-day valued behavior in college students.

Objective: Adverse consequences of binge drinking episodes are well-established, but fewer studies have investigated how incremental changes in daily alcohol use relate to well-being. We examined w...
Existence of Team-Optimal Strategies in Teams With Countable Observation Spaces

Team problems, in which multiple agents act to minimize a common expected cost function, are generally intractable. The problem of establishing the existence of team-optimal strategies has received significant attention in the past decade. In this article, we present a proof of the existence of team-optimal strategies in a class of teams in which observations are realized in a countable set and are shared among the agents and the action sets are noncompact. We derive sufficient conditions under which optimal deterministic strategies exist.
Copycats vs. Original Mobile Apps: A Machine Learning Copycat-Detection Method and Empirical Analysis

While the growth of the mobile apps market has created significant market opportunities and economic incentives for mobile app developers to innovate, it has also inevitably invited other developers to create rip-offs. Practitioners and developers of original apps claim that copycats steal the original app's idea and potential demand, and have called for app platforms to take action against such copycats. Surprisingly, however, there has been little rigorous research analyzing whether and how copycats affect an original app's demand. The primary deterrent to such research is the lack of an objective way to identify whether an app is a copycat or an original. Using a combination of machine learning techniques such as natural language processing, latent semantic analysis, network-based clustering, and image analysis, we propose a method to identify apps as original or copycat and detect two types of copycats: deceptive and nondeceptive. Based on the detection results, we conduct an econometric analysis to determine the impact of copycat apps on the demand for the original apps on a sample of 10,100 action game apps by 5,141 developers that were released in the iOS App Store over five years. Our results indicate that the effect of a specific copycat on an original app's demand is determined by the quality and level of deceptiveness of the copycat. High-quality nondeceptive copycats negatively affect demand for the originals. By contrast, low-quality, deceptive copycats positively affect demand for the originals. Results indicate that in aggregate the impact of copycats on the demand of original mobile apps is statistically insignificant. Our study contributes to the growing literature on mobile app consumption by presenting a method to identify copycats and providing evidence of the impact of copycats on an original app's demand. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0735 .
High Voltage PNP Device Using RESURF Structure for Above 40V ESD Protection

A high voltage PNP device is designed with a small footprint by applying the RESURF technique. It has low turn-on resistance and high failure current. Adjusting the length of LOCOS, the PNP device shows flexibility for different voltage applications from 40V to 90V without failure current degradation.
Model Finding Strategies in Semantically Guided Instance-based Theorem Proving

Semantic hyper-linking has recently been proposed [1] to use semantics in an instance-based theorem prover. The basic procedure is to generate ground instances of the input clauses until the ground clause set is unsatisfiable. Models for the satisfiable ground set are constructed periodically to guide generation of the new ground instances to change the models, until no model can be constructed. In this paper we discuss some model finding strategies that can generate useful ground instances, without using semantics, to change the ground models. We show that such strategies are helpful and will not increase the search space of the semantic hyper-linking. In addition, using semantics is often expensive. Since semantics is not used in those model finding strategies, they help to find the proofs earlier and faster.
An Empirical Investigation of Firm Longevity: A Model of the Ex Ante Predictors of Financial Distress

Empirical models of a potential failure process that incorporate distress states between the extremes of corporate health and bankruptcy are uncommon. We depict financial distress as a series of financial events that reflect varied stages of corporate adversity. Our intent is to provide information regarding the influence of certain risk dimensions and firm-specific attributes on distressed firm survival over time. Within a theorized distress framework, we utilize the techniques of survival analysis to longitudinally track firms, grouped a priori according to an initial decline in operating cash flows. We find that the event of default has a significant positive association with business failure. Further, we document that the significant accounting covariates tend to change conditional on a firm having progressed through the diverse stages of distress. These findings accentuate the heterogeneous nature of financial distress and potential business failure.
Late Pleistocene glaciation of the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan

Abstract The extent of Pleistocene glaciers is based on valley morphology and end moraines interpreted from LANDSAT images. In the absence of radiometric age control, mapped glaciers are assumed to date to the last glaciation. Fourteen glaciers were ≥ 50 km long. The full-glacial equilibrium line altitude likely lay about 900–1000 m below the estimated modern snowline.