cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Testing the factor structure of a scale to assess African American acculturation: A confirmatory factor analysis

Research has pointed to the important role that acculturation plays in understanding a range of physical health behaviors as well as psychological functioning, but only a few studies have attempted to establish reliable and valid measures of African American acculturation. The scale developed by Snowden and Hines (1999) to assess African American acculturation provided an interesting line of inquiry for the present study because no further validation studies have been conducted to assess the underlying factor structure of this measure since its introduction several years ago. Confirmatory factor analysis techniques were used to test the measure's underlying structure and to determine consistency with the results of the original study. Results suggest that this scale represents multiple dimensions of acculturation (i.e., media preferences, social interaction patterns, and attitudes). Findings will assist researchers and practitioners in the future measurement and application of this construct. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The duration of near-peak metamorphism from diffusion modelling of garnet zoning

Garnet in a staurolite–kyanite zone sample from central Vermont displays a bell-shaped Mn growth zoning with diffusional modification over the outer 100 μm. The diffusion is driven by the prograde net transfer reaction garnet + chlorite = kyanite + biotite as is evidenced by a well-defined resorption zone on the rim. Analysis of the reaction history and resorbed garnet composition suggests that the peak temperature attained was 620–660 °C. Diffusional modelling of the rim diffusion provides an estimate of the duration of the metamorphic episode over which significant garnet diffusion occurs. The duration is a function of the assumed peak temperature and garnet diffusivities and range from a few hundred thousand years to a few million years. Such short durations require rapid tectonic burial and exhumation of relatively thin tectonic slices.
OCT4 Expression Enhances Features of Cancer Stem Cells in a Mouse Model of Breast Cancer

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis proposes that CSCs are responsible for metastasis and disease recurrence. Therefore, targeting CSCs has the potential to significantly improve outcomes for cancer patients. The OCT4 transcription factor gene is a master gene that plays a key role in the self-renewal and pluripotency of stem cells. In this study, we introduced an OCT4 reporting vector into 4T1 mouse breast cancer cells and sorted OCT4 high and OCT4 low cell populations. We then determined whether OCT4 expression is associated with maintenance and expansion of CSCs. We found that OCT4high 4T1 cells have an increased ability to form tumorsphere and a high expression of stem cell markers such as Sca-1, CD133, CD34, and ALDH1, when compared with OCT4 low 4T1 cells. In addition, OCT4 high 4T1 cells have greater tumorigenic potential in vivo. These findings suggest that OCT4 expression may be a useful target for stem cell-specific cancer therapy.
Measurement of digestibility of alfalfa protein concentrates by in vivo and in vitro methods.

The in vitro protein digestibility of alfalfa protein concentrate was assayed by two previously described methods, papain and pepsinâ€"pancreatin, and by a pepsin-trypsin method developed in our laboratory. The values obtained with those two systems involving pepsin showed a high degree of correlation with protein digestibility values obtained in rat feeding trials. Poor correlation was obtained with the papain digestion. Protein concentrates prepared from alfalfa by the PRO-XAN process showed protein digestibilities in the range 80.5 to 99.9% digestible. J. Nutr. 103: 530-535,
Viscous Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Wings including Planform Variables

☞Introduction and Motivation➣While aerodynamic prediction methods based on CFD are now well established,accurate, and robust, the ultimate need in the design process is to ﬁnd theoptimum shape which maximizes the aerodynamic performance.➣During the last decade aerodynamic shape optimization methods based oncontrol theory have been perfected for rigid wings with ﬁxed planforms.➣Example: Redesign of the wing of a Boeing 747 with fuselage.
Effect of cosolvents on nano-confined water: a molecular dynamics study

We present results from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the effects of cosolvents, such as urea and guanidinium (Gdm) salts, on the water confined in hydrophobic carbon nanotubes. We observed complete drying of the nanotube interiors of diameter ranging from 8 to 17 A in urea. In contrast, the water population within nanotube cores smaller than 12 A remains unaffected in GdmCl solution, whereas larger nanotube interiors become partially dehydrated with prevailing presence of stable Gdm+–Gdm+ dimers. The molecular arrangement and the lifetime inside the nanotube were found to be characteristics of a particular cosolvent. In both urea and GdmCl solutions, preferential cosolvent intrusion resulting in nanotube dehydration is driven by the stronger dispersion interaction of cosolvent than water with the nanotube. The partial drying of the hydrophobic core is attributed to guanidinium's better hydration and weaker self-association propensity compared to urea, as well as to its moderate ion-pairing with strongly hydrated chloride ions. The Gdm+ induced dehydration varies with the charge density of counter-ions, as the presence of high charge-density sulfate ions impedes penetration of guanidinium, and consequent dehydration of the nanotube. These findings provide important insights into the effect of cosolvents on the nano-confined water in a hydrophobic environment.
Circuit to aid tuning of Class-E amplifier

The problem of tuning a high-Q Class-E amplifier is addressed. It can not be tuned for maximum output power without degrading efficiency. A novel modification is made to the design so that it can be tuned for maximum output power while maintaining maximum efficiency. Simulation data is shown. Measured data is provided at low frequencies.
Oculomotility disorders arising from disruptions in brainstem motor neuron development

The identification and analysis of pedigrees with rare congenital oculomotility syndromes has led to the definition of the congenital cranial dysinnervation disorders. These disorders appear to result from mutations in genes that are essential to the normal development and/or connectivity of cranial motoneurons. This review highlights the clinical features and genetic etiology of 3 congenital cranial dysinnervation disorders: the human homeobox A1 (HOXA1) syndromes, in which early motoneuron development is disrupted; horizontal gaze palsy with progressive scoliosis, in which there is aberrant axonal targeting onto abducens motoneurons; and congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles type 1, in which there is aberrant axonal targeting onto the extraocular muscles.
Extraction of Cinchona succirubra with Tetrahydrofuran and its Mixtures

Abstract A study has been made on the extraction of Cinchona succtrubra with tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydrofuran-water azeotrope (5.3% water) (1), tetrahydrofuran-chloroform azeotrope, and tetrahydrofuran-water solution (15% water v/v) for the purpose of establishing alkaloidal selectivity of the solvents under examination. A tetrahydrofuran-benzene azeotrope was prepared and its composition was determined by index of refraction measurements. This azeotrope was also tested for its ability to extract the cinchona alkaloids. The highest degree of alkaloidal extraction was observed with the tetrahydrofuran-water azeotrope using Soxhlet extraction. A method has been described whereby cinchonine alkaloid can be isolated in reasonably pure form from a tetrahydrofuran-water azeotrope extract of the crude drug. The selectivity of the tetrahydrofuran-water azeotrope for quinine and cinchonine alkaloids is reported and discussed.
Mining literature for systems biology

Currently, literature is integrated in systems biology studies in three ways. Hand-curated pathways have been sufficient for assembling models in numerous studies. Second, literature is frequently accessed in a derived form, such as the concepts represented by the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and Gene Ontologies (GO), or functional relationships captured in protein-protein interaction (PPI) databases; both of these are convenient, consistent reductions of more complex concepts expressed as free text in the literature. Moreover, their contents are easily integrated into computational processes required for dealing with large data sets. Last, mining text directly for specific types of information is on the rise as text analytics methods become more accurate and accessible. These uses of literature, specifically manual curation, derived concepts captured in ontologies and databases, and indirect and direct application of text mining, will be discussed as they pertain to systems biology.
The use of cyclosporine in dermatology: Part II

Cyclosporine is highly effective in the treatment of a multitude of dermatoses. Concern over its side effect profile has limited its use in dermatology. Adverse effects are, for the most part, dose dependent and related to duration of therapy. Using the recommended monitoring protocols results in a significant decrease in the incidence of cyclosporine-related toxicities. This article provides a comprehensive review of the pharmacokinetics of cyclosporine, potential drug interactions, adverse effects, and recommendations for monitoring in patients treated with cyclosporine. The use of cyclosporine in pregnancy and in the pediatric population is also addressed. Learning objectives After completing this learning activity, participants should be familiar with the monitoring guidelines of cyclosporine, its contraindications, its possible drug interactions, its adverse effect profile, and its use in pregnancy and the childhood and adolescent populations.
An autonomous mobile robot development platform for teaching a graduate level mechatronics course

Mechatronics is integration of mechanical systems, electronics and intelligent computer control. With advances in computing power, size, and cost, university mechatronics courses can offer more flexible, powerful and up-to-date development environments than traditionally available with pre-packaged robotics kits such as the widely used handy board platform. Goals and constraints of teaching graduate-level mechatronics courses to an educationally diverse class of students are discussed. Goals include identifying the purpose of a mechatronics course, educational background of the students, effects of recent technologies on course subject matter, and ideal development environment to create autonomous robots. Constraints arise because of conflicts between two major aspects of mechatronics, mechanical systems and computer systems, and the need to balance these areas in complexity and ease of use for students of diverse backgrounds. Brigham Young University's prototype solution of a PC/104 platform with digital I/O and analog inputs running Linux and communicating via 802.11b Wi-Fi is discussed.
Phasing on anomalous signal of sulfurs: what is the limit?

Recent years have witnessed significant advancements in X-­ray data-acquisition techniques and phasing algorithms, which have made possible the successful use of a very small anomalous diffraction signal for the solution of crystal structures of macromolecules. Two crystal structures, a 44 kDa glucose isomerase containing nine sulfurs and a 33 kDa xylanase containing five sulfurs, have been solved from single-wavelength anomalous data using widely available methods and programs. These two enzymes contain less sulfur than most proteins in the bacterial or eukaryotic proteomes, providing a Bijvoet ratio of about 0.6%. For glucose isomerase the automatically interpretable electron-density maps could be obtained at high as well as low resolution. The S-SAD approach relies on the anomalous signal of sulfur naturally occurring in proteins and alleviates all need for sample derivatization. It may therefore be applicable to all protein crystals able to provide accurate diffraction data.
Raptors and primate evolution.

Most scholars agree that avoiding predators is a central concern of lemurs, monkeys, and apes. However, given uncertainties about the frequency with which primates actually become prey, the selective importance of predation in primate evolution continues to be debated.[1-9] Some argue that primates are often killed by predators,[5, 6] while others maintain that such events are relatively rare.[2, 7, 9] Some authors have contended that predation's influence on primate sociality has been trivial[10, 11]; others counter that predation need not occur often to be a powerful selective force.[12-14] Given the challenges of documenting events that can be ephemeral and irregular, we are unlikely ever to amass the volume of systematic, comparative data we have on such topics as feeding, social dynamics, or locomotor behavior. Nevertheless, a steady accumulation of field observations, insight gained from natural experiments, and novel taphonomic analyses have enhanced understanding of how primates interact with several predators, especially raptors, the subject of this review.
Social Capital and Health Outcomes Among Older Adults in China: The Urban–Rural Dimension

Purpose: This study examines different types of individual-level social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking) and their relationships with physical and emotional health among older Chinese living in urban and rural settings. Design and Methods: Using the 2005 China General Social Survey, physical and emotional health were regressed on social capital controlling for sociodemographic variables by urban and rural Chinese aged 65 years and older. Results: Bonding social capital was significantly associated with physical and emotional health (b = .14; p < .001 and b = .11; p < .01, respectively), and linking social capital was significantly associated with physical health ( b = .11; p < .01) among the urban older Chinese. No significant associations between social capital measures and health were found among rural elders. Implications: The relationship between social capital and health outcomes should take into account geographical setting. Efforts to increase social capital in the hope of decreasing health disparity might be inadequate without eliminating China’s unique rural–urban distinction in distributing economic and social resources. Further conceptualization of social capital may be required for the Eastern context.
THE FUNDAMENTAL GROUP OF THE HAWAIIAN EARRING IS NOT FREE

The Hawaiian earring is a topological space which is a countably infinite union of circles, that are all tangent to a single line at the same point, and whose radii tend to zero. In this note a short proof is given of a result of J.W. Morgan and I. Morrison that describes the fundamental group of this space. It is also shown that this fundamental group is not a free group, unlike the fundamental group of a wedge of an arbitrary number of circles.
Subversive Revisions in the Work of Charles de Beys

Charles de Beys is a comic author whose L'Hospital des fous (1636), about an eloping couple who seek refuge in a lunatic asylum, was reworked and published in 1653 as Les Illustres fous. It has long been accepted that the modifications to this play were essentially minor; however, the character of the hospital's director, or concierge, becomes the play's principal figure in the revised version. As well as having a greatly expanded role, the concierge is depicted in a more sinister, and even tyrannical, light in the 1653 comedy. The difference in emphasis between the two versions may be explained by Beys's own experience during the intervening period: in the mid-1630s he was incarcerated in the Bastille for several months by order of Cardinal Richelieu on suspicion of having authored the Miliade, a satirical poem attacking the prelate. The second drama becomes not so much a comedy depicting the folly of lovers through the escapades of outsiders who are temporarily institutionalized as a subtle commentary on the potential misuse of such places to lock away those deemed unsuitable for political reasons. This reading is supported by examining the ironic subtext that underpins Beys's sonnets dedicated to Richelieu, as well as the second play's dedicace.
Spatial Distribution of Phase Singularities in Ventricular Fibrillation

Background— Multiple excitation wavelets are present during ventricular fibrillation (VF). The underlying wavelet organization of VF is unclear. Phase singularities (PSs)—locations of ambiguous activation state—underlie reentry and wavelet splitting and represent the sources of VF. Understanding the mechanisms of PS formation might be important in the development of effective therapies for sudden death. Methods and Results— We performed voltage, phase, and PS mapping in fibrillating ventricles, applying an automated PS detection algorithm to optically recorded fibrillation signals. PS clustering was noted along epicardial vessels, ridges of endocardial trabeculae, and papillary muscle insertions. Microscopically, these locations correlated with areas of apposition of fibers with different angulations and intramural vessels. A total of 83.2% of PSs were formed at and meandered about these anatomic structures, which acted as stabilizers: PSs colocalizing at anatomic substrates had longer life spans than non...
Whole slide images stitching for osteosarcoma detection

Whole slide imaging (WSI), the conversion of conventional glass-slide histopathology to a digital image, is at the heart of telepathology, which will allow disease diagnosis and the practice of pathology from a distance. Scanning systems that generate WSIs at 20x and 40x resolution allow practically equal precision to that available by light microscopy critical for pathologists to interpret specimens. WSI image stitching allows the combination of multiple WSIs into a single representative specimen of the tissue in question. This process suffers from problems of high resolution, disorientation, and the presence of white spaces. In this paper we discuss an image stitching technique based on pairwise image correlation and using gross image information. We are given a bone I which is a global image and a subdivision of I into m cells. The m cells' resolution is higher than the gross image. We calculate the pairwise correlation of the individual images which are numbered in certain order and perform seamless image stitching. We use transformation and rotation in case the image is misaligned.
The Resource Depletion Attack and Defense Scheme

With the rapid growth of IMDs, IMD security becomes a critical issue since the attacks on the devices may directly harm the patient. IMDs typically have very limited resources in terms of energy, processing capability, and storage. In this chapter, we will introduce a new kind of attack on IMDs: the Resource Depletion (RD) attack, which is used to quickly deplete the resources of an IMD, such as battery power. The RD attacks can reduce the lifetime of an IMD from several years to a few weeks. The attacks can be easily launched but cannot be defended against by traditional cryptographic approaches. In our paper [11], we propose utilizing the patient’s IMD access pattern, and we design a novel Support Vector Machine (SVM) based scheme to address the RD attacks. Our SVM-based scheme is very effective at defending against the RD attacks. Our experimental results show that the average detection rate of the SVM-based scheme is above 90 %.
SweepSense: Ad Hoc Configuration Sensing Using Reflected Swept-Frequency Ultrasonics

Devices can be made more intelligent if they have the ability to sense their surroundings and physical configuration. However, adding extra, special purpose sensors increases size, price and build complexity. Instead, we use speakers and microphones already present in a wide variety of devices to open new sensing opportunities. Our technique sweeps through a range of inaudible frequencies and measures the intensity of reflected sound to deduce information about the immediate environment, chiefly the materials and geometry of proximate surfaces. We offer several example uses, two of which we implemented as self-contained demos, and conclude with an evaluation that quantifies their performance and demonstrates high accuracy.
Effect of Fullerenes on Crystallization-Induced Aggregation in Polymer Photovoltaics Casting Solutions

We measure the time- and temperature-dependent aggregation of the organic photovoltaic polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) in o-dichlorobenzene solution using small-angle neutron scattering and rheometry. Results from this study provide guidance for formulation stability assessment and process-dependent morphology optimization. The aggregates are similar to the supramolecular crystalline structures found in annealed films and poor solvents. The addition of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) molecules to the polymer solution slows the aggregation rate by about 10-fold. PCBM addition also appears to reduce the overall extent of crystallization in solution. Dynamic rheological measurements show thermoreversible mechanical stiffening of the solutions into gel-like solids with a physical cross-link density that depends on temperature and oscillation frequency.
Union curvature of a vector field in a subspace

The differential equations of union curves on a hypersurfaceV n immersed in a RiemannianV n+1 have been obtained by Springer [1]. These results were generalized later for a subspace in a Riemannian space by Mishra [2]. The author [3] has defined the union curvature of a vector field with respect to a curve on a hypersurfaceV n of a RiemannianV n+1. The purpose of this paper is to consider union curvature of a vector field with respect to a curve in a subspaceV n of a RiemannianV m.
Surface Catalyzed Oxidative Oligomerization of 17β-Estradiol by Fe3+-Saturated Montmorillonite

With widespread detection of endocrine disrupting compounds including hormones in wastewater, there is a need to develop cost-effective remediation technologies for their removal from wastewater. Previous research has shown that Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite is effective in quickly transforming phenolic organic compounds such as pentachlorophenol, phenolic acids, and triclosan via surface-catalyzed oligomerization. However, little is known about its effectiveness and reaction mechanisms when reacting with hormones. In this study, the reaction kinetics of Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite catalyzed 17β-estradiol (βE2) transformation was investigated. The transformation products were identified using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, and their structures were further confirmed using computational approach. Rapid βE2 transformation in the presence of Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite in an aqueous system was detected. The disappearance of βE2 follows first-order kinetics, while the overall catalytic reaction follows the second-order kinetics with an estimated reaction rate constant of 200 ± 24 (mmol βE2/g mineral)(−1) h(–1). The half-life of βE2 in this system was estimated to be 0.50 ± 0.06 h. βE2 oligomers were found to be the major products of βE2 transformation when exposed to Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite. About 98% of βE2 were transformed into βE2 oligomers which are >10(7) times less water-soluble than βE2 and, therefore, are much less bioavailable and mobile then βE2. The formed oligomers quickly settled from the aqueous phase and were not accumulated on the reaction sites of the interlayer surfaces of Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite, the major reason for the observed >84% βE2 removal efficiency even after five consecutive usages of the same of Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite. The results from this study clearly demonstrated that Fe(3+)-saturated montmorillonite has a great potential to be used as a cost-effective material for efficient removal of phenolic organic compounds from wastewater.
Biases of tree-independent-character-subsampling methods

Observed Variability (OV) and Tree Independent Generation of Evolutionary Rates (TIGER) are quick and easy-to-apply tree-independent methods that have been proposed to provide unbiased estimates of each character's rate of evolution and serve as the basis for excluding rapidly evolving characters. Both methods have been applied to multiple phylogenomic datasets, and in many cases the authors considered their trees inferred from the OV- and TIGER-delimited sub-matrices to be better estimates of the phylogeny than their trees based on all characters. In this study we use four sets of simulations and an empirical phylogenomic example to demonstrate that both methods share a systematic bias against characters with more symmetric distributions of character states, against characters with greater observed character-state space, and against large clades in the context of character conflict. As a result these methods can favor convergences and reversals over synapomorphy, exacerbate long-branch attraction, and produce mutually exclusive phylogenetic inferences that are dependent upon differential taxon sampling. We assert that neither OV nor TIGER should be relied upon to increase the ratio of phylogenetic to non-phylogenetic signal in a data matrix. We also assert that skepticism is warranted for empirical phylogenetic results that are based on OV- and/or TIGER-based character deletion wherein a small clade is supported after deletion of characters, yet is contradicted by a larger clade when the entire data matrix was analyzed.
Clinical and Pathological Manifestation of Henoch-Schonlein Purpura Nephritis in Children

Objective To study the relationship of clinical manifestation and pathological changes and prognosis in Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis(HSPN)in children.Methods Clinical and pathological characteristics of 42 children with HSPN were analysed.Among them,40 children were detected of angiotensin-convertion enzyme(ACE)gene and had been followed up.Results Among them,there were 9 cases of level Ⅰof pathological types,21 cases of level Ⅱ,12 cases of level Ⅲ,but no cases of level Ⅳ.Ⅰand Ⅱ level were found in those cases of clinical manifestation with solitary hematuria and albuminuria.Pathological grades were Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ levels in the cases of hematuria and albuminuria.Pathological types of nephrotic syndrome(NS)were Ⅱ and Ⅲ level,which were of more gross hematuria than those of other grades.ACE gene DD had serious pathological damnification.Conclusions Change of pathology cannot only be anticipated by clinical manifestation of HSPN.But if pathological damnification gets more serious,the albuminuria gets more serious.Gross hematuria and albuminuria can serve as indicators of biopsy.NS of ACE DD type have serious pathological damnification.Children with HSPN has favourable prognosis in the future.
Analysis of α-lipoprotein cholesterol in 50 μl of plasma

A micromethod for quantitation of alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol was devised for gas-liquid chromatography to minimize plasma sample size and facilitate lipid studies using capillary blood from children or small animals. alpha-Lipoprotein cholesterol was measured by gas-liquid chromatography in 20 micro l of the centrifuged supernate obtained after addition of 5 micro l of mixed heparin-manganese chloride solution 1:1 (v/v) to 50 micro l of plasma. Comparison of venous alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol measured by gas-liquid chromatography with venous alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol measured by conventional heparin-manganese precipitation and ferric chloride (colorimetric) cholesterol determination gave a correlation coefficient of 0.98 for 80 plasma samples. Capillary alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol and venous alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol were closely correlated in 31 patients (r = 0.97).
MOS: Workload-aware Elasticity for Cloud Object Stores

The use of cloud object stores has been growing rapidly in recent years as they combine key advantages such as HTTP-based RESTful APIs, high availability, elasticity with a "pay-as-you-go" pricing model that allows applications to scale as needed. The current practice is to either use a single set of configuration parameters or rely on statically configured storage policies for a cloud object store deployment, even when the store is used to support different types of applications with evolving requirements. This crucial mismatch between the different applications requirements and capabilities of the object store is problematic and should be addressed to achieve high efficiency and performance. In this paper, we propose MOS, a Micro Object Storage architecture, which supports independently configured microstores each tuned dynamically to the needs of a particular type of workload. We also design an enhancement, MOS++, that extends MOS's capabilities through fine-grained resource management to effectively meet the tenants' SLAs while maximizing resource efficiency. We have implemented a prototype of MOS ++ in OpenStack Swift using Docker containers. Our evaluation shows that MOS ++ can effectively support heterogeneous workloads across multiple tenants. Compared to default and statically configured object store setups, for a two-tenant setup, MOS++ improves the sustained access bandwidth by up to 79% for a large-object workload, while reducing the 95th percentile latency by up to 70.2% for a small-object workload.
Relationship between dysfunctional voiding and reflux.

AbstractBladder instability and the nonneurogenic neurogenic bladder are 2 urodynamically different dysfunctional voiding patterns. However, they share a common urodynamic mechanism in that they both produce functional urinary obstruction, which by changing the anatomy and function of the bladder, and ureterovesical junction produces and perpetuates vesicoureteral reflux. Urodynamic studies show that bladder decompensation with high end filling pressures, rather than high voiding pressures, is the mechanism for reflux and help to explain the seemingly paradoxical relationship among obstruction, reflux and high bladder pressures, namely that reflux does not usually occur when bladder pressures are high. This urodynamic analysis and review of the literature strongly support the belief that functional urinary tract obstruction caused by dysfunctional voiding can initiate and perpetuate vesicoureteral reflux, and provide an understanding of the mechanisms involved.
Volumetric analysis of chronic maxillary atelectasis.

BACKGROUND The relationship between orbit and maxillary sinus volumes in patients with chronic maxillary atelectasis (CMA), commonly known as silent sinus syndrome if enophthalmos is present, is poorly understood. METHODS A retrospective review of 22 patients who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) for CMA from 2005 to 2013 was performed. Computed tomography (CT) images were analyzed using OsiriX 5.8.2 software for volumetric analysis of the orbit and maxillary sinus at presentation and after surgical treatment with ESS. RESULTS Pretreatment mean orbit volumes on the diseased side (DS) and the contralateral side (CS) were 29.22 and 26.50 mL, respectively (p < 0.001); mean sinus volumes on the DS and CS were 8.51 and 17.20 mL, respectively (p < 0.001); and pretreatment mean midorbit heights (MOHs) on the DS and CS were 3.39 cm and 3.07 cm, respectively (p < 0.001). The percent decrease in sinus volume on the DS compared to that on the CS did not correlate significantly with the percent orbit-volume increase. Enophthalmos was present in nine (41%) patients, and diplopia was present in three (14%) patients. The measured degree of increased orbit volume and decreased sinus volume secondary to CMA did not significantly predict the presence of enophthalmos at presentation. Seven patients underwent sinus CT more than 6 months after ESS. In these patients, orbit volume on the DS decreased from 29.67 to 27.52 mL (p = 0.005), and sinus volume on the DS increased from 9.78 to 11.84 mL (p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS Volumetric analysis is a powerful and novel method for objectively demonstrating the degree of orbit expansion and maxillary sinus contraction seen with CMA. Spontaneous maxillary sinus expansion and a decrease in orbit volume can occur after ESS, but post-ESS volumes do not return to the normal volume of the CS.
Sequential immunocytological evaluation of murine transitional cell carcinoma during intralesional bacillus Calmette-Guerin and interleukin-2 immunotherapy.

AbstractThe antitumor effect of intralesionally administered recombinant interleukin-2 was highly effective (90% complete response) in murine bladder cancer. We postulated that interleukin-2 may be integral to the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin-induced antitumor response in human bladder cancer. Flow cytometric evaluation of the tumor infiltrates was compared before and after intralesional treatment of an established, untreated murine bladder tumor model with recombinant interleukin-2, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or saline. Large increases in the number of tumor infiltrating immune cells occurred between the day of randomization and the second day (one day after the first treatment) in all three groups. However, since tumor volume was reduced by treatment, the ratios of the immune cells to tumor volume was increased. The ratios of Thelper, Tcytotoxic/suppressor cells, macrophages, and natural killer cells to tumor volume were 1.5 to 3.4 times higher in the interleukin-2 and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin groups in compa...
Impacts of Petroleum-Derived Pollutants on Fish Development.

The teleost fish embryo is particularly sensitive to petroleum hydrocarbons (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) at two distinct stages of development. The first is early during cleavage stages when PAHs alter normal signaling associated with establishment of the dorsal-ventral axis. This disruption involves the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and results in hyperdorsalized embryos that do not survive to hatching. The second, more sensitive period is during heart development, when oil and PAHs cause abnormal development of the heart as well as cardiac edema and arrhythmia. Even at extremely low levels (ng/L), PAHs cause subtle edema and altered contractility and heart rate, which impair swimming performance. Some PAHs are extremely phototoxic, such that exposures to trace concentrations result in severe membrane damage and mortality in sunlight. The developing fish embryo is a sensitive indicator of petroleum constituents in the environment, and healthy populations of fish likely require limited PAH exposure du...
Moving toward Integration of CSPAP in a Highly Regulated PETE Context

Physical education teacher education (PETE) programs are often driven in large part by the external demands of state and national accreditation, such as standardized teacher certification exams. Furthermore, the state of New York requires that practicing teachers be evaluated each year through structured observations, together with quantitative evidence of standards-based learning from pre-and post-test growth measures. Neither public health goals nor comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) program development are a part of this accountability system. Thus, the PETE program at Adelphi University must retain a focus on the existing PETE standards and accountability until those expectations are aligned with CSPAP. Nevertheless, the value of CSPAPs in schools is clear, and Adelphi has been moving toward a CSPAP-based program sensibility for the next generation of physical educators. This article describes how pedagogy faculty are reframing the role of physical education in schools and redefini...
University Students' Relationship-Based Mentoring in School Settings.

How university students perform the tasks of mentoring, and the kinds of activities that are successful and unsuccessful in relationship-based mentoring interactions when mentors are instructed to “first establish relationships and then use the relationship to promote prosocial thinking and behaviors,” remains an unfamiliar area of youth mentoring. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop some understanding of steps criminal justice majors took and the behavioral goals and objectives they pursued during their semester-long mentoring interactions with primary, middle, and high school pupils within a local school district. Conventional content analysis methods were used to systematically identify, classify, and code themes and patterns of self-reported activities. Results show that student-mentors overwhelmingly engaged in activities that addressed known risk factors associated with antisocial thinking, attitudes, and behaviors. The results provide insights into the dynamics of this form of mentoring t...
Ethyl pyruvate, a modulator of dendritic cell activation and survival (INM1P.437)

Danger Signals induce dendritic cells (DCs) to mature and present antigen in a pro-inflammatory context. When remaining immature however, DCs confer tolerance. Hence the need for new protocols inducing tolerogenic DCs. We assessed the effects of ethyl pyruvate (EP), ester derivative of pyruvate with anti-inflammatory properties , on DC responses. We found that EP (10mM) abolished pro-inflammatory cytokine induction (IL-12, TNFa, IL-6) by the TLR ligand and strong DC activator LPS in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) at 8, 24, 48 and 72h post-stimulation. Furthermore, EP inhibited the IFN-I response and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 induced by LPS stimulation. Determining the effects of EP on BMDC viability with a dose titration response showed that EP (10mM) strongly inhibited in vitro DC activation without inducing death. Moreover, EP could prevent LPS-induced killing that normally occurs 72h post-stimulation. EP also decreased the up-regulation of BMDC surface MHC-II and co-stimulatory molecules, suggesting a role in inhibiting antigen presentation. Investigating the mechanism of action, EP decreased Erk and JNK phosphorylation but not p38 phosphorylation. Our results indicate that EP inhibits most of the biological responses of DCs to LPS. We are currently examining further the molecular mechanisms of EP’s action in BMDCs to highlight novel targets to inhibit DC activation.
An ESD Computer Culture for Intercultural Problem Solving and Negotiation

Intercultural problem solving and negotiation involves interaction of two or more cultures. These processes may be formally modeled using the Evolutionary Systems Design (ESD) framework implemented by appropriate computer group support systems (GSS). The ESD/GSS combination provides an ESD computer culture for intercultural problem solving and negotiation in a same place/same time or telework mode. With this, players in a multicultural group can be computer supported in generating and formally representing an evolving common culture (a situational culture) with regard to the specific problem at hand - an intercultural evolving group problem representation and solution. At the same time, the ESD computer culture provides an operational cybernetic/self-organization framework for the empirical study of cultural emergence in a multicultural group. This paper uses and develops work by Shakun (1996b).
Application of Walsh functions to neutron transport problems. I. Theory

An approximation to the neutron transport equation is made by representing the angular flux with an expansion of the angular dependence in the orthogonal, complete, and binary valued sets of Walsh function. The Walsh approximation is applied to the one-speed, isotropic-scattering, rectangular-geometry form of the neutron transport equation. Sets of partial differential equations for the expansion coefficients are derived along with appropriate boundary conditions for their solution. The sets of the Walsh expansion to one- and two-dimensional forms of the transport equation are also obtained. The two-dimensional expansion coefficient equations are shown to be not only hyperbolic but also transformable to a set of S/sub N/-like equations that are coupled only through the scattering term. Such transformal sets of equations are termed Walsh-derived quadrature sets.
The neoliberal conquest of the Supreme Court

Neoliberalism is an anti-democratic ideology. It takes decisions about the allocation of scarce resources out of the hands of public institutions and places them in the hands of private actors. Despite a distrust of democratic institutions immanent to neoliberalism, its reach within those same institutions reveals potent ideological lessons. Even the courts, ostensibly a bulwark against anti-democratic impulses, have incorporated neoliberal arguments into their rulings. As the courts have adopted neoliberal discourse they have reimagined society as a market populated by consumers. Accordingly, in this article we examine five Supreme Court rulings that illuminate how the publicly interested citizen is replaced by the self-interested consumer as the basic unit of democracy. We argue these rulings rhetorically predispose voters to think of social problems in the neoliberal language of privatization and profit through three themes: (1) elevating the market, (2) expanding the market, and (3) advertising the ma...
Comments on "Productivity or Employment: Is It a Choice?"

These comments express caution regarding the results of the article “Productivity or Employment: Is It a Choice?” by Andrea De Michelis, Marcello Estevao, and Beth Anne Wilson and recommend further investigation of the relationship between productivity and employment growth before definitive conclusions are reached. In particular, the authors are encouraged to attempt to take account of the age and educational attainment distribution of the workforce within a country in attempting to explain TFP growth.
Residential Microgrid Load Management and Optimal Control in grid Connected and Islanded Mode

The recommended solution for smart energy management in a residential micro-grid requires the development of advanced computational tools to put in place effective management strategies and maintain the balance between supply and demand. A residential micro-grid makes it possible to exploit renewable energy sources locally, while optimizing production, consumption and storage in order to participate in the balance of the distribution network. In this paper, an optimal design approach integrating the planning of energy flows and sizing of the elements of a residential micro-grid with storage is developed in order to define the optimum number of PV panels and battery banks capacity. The approach consists in designing architectures and conversion chains adapted to both the integration of decentralized generation, with energy storage, connected or not to a distribution network, while ensuring the intelligent management of energy in this residential city. Then, an adjustment of consumption is obtained by adjusting the daily consumption curve in order to adapt it to production and to maintain the balance between supply and demand. The principle is based on the modulation of the load curve by distributing the consumption during the day in order to avoid consumption peaks during peak periods and the mismatch between consumption and energy availability locally.
Recording development with single cell dynamic lineage tracing

Every animal grows from a single fertilized egg into an intricate network of cell types and organ systems. This process is captured in a lineage tree: a diagram of every cell's ancestry back to the founding zygote. Biologists have long sought to trace this cell lineage tree in individual organisms and have developed a variety of technologies to map the progeny of specific cells. However, there are billions to trillions of cells in complex organisms, and conventional approaches can only map a limited number of clonal populations per experiment. A new generation of tools that use molecular recording methods integrated with single cell profiling technologies may provide a solution. Here, we summarize recent breakthroughs in these technologies, outline experimental and computational challenges, and discuss biological questions that can be addressed using single cell dynamic lineage tracing.
Resource Constrained Multimedia Event Detection

We present a study comparing the cost and efficiency tradeoffs of multiple features for multimedia event detection. Low-level as well as semantic features are a critical part of contemporary multimedia and computer vision research. Arguably, combinations of multiple feature sets have been a major reason for recent progress in the field, not just as a low dimensional representations of multimedia data, but also as a means to semantically summarize images and videos. However, their efficacy for complex event recognition in unconstrained videos on standardized datasets has not been systematically studied. In this paper, we evaluate the accuracy and contribution of more than 10 multi-modality features, including semantic and low-level video representations, using two newly released NIST TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection (MED) open source datasets, i.e. MEDTEST and KINDREDTEST, which contain more than 1000 hours of videos. Contrasting multiple performance metrics, such as average precision, probability of missed detection and minimum normalized detection cost, we propose a framework to balance the trade-off between accuracy and computational cost. This study provides an empirical foundation for selecting feature sets that are capable of dealing with large-scale data with limited computational resources and are likely to produce superior multimedia event detection accuracy. This framework also applies to other resource limited multimedia analyses such as selecting/fusing multiple classifiers and different representations of each feature set.
Energy-Efficient Radio Selection and Data Partitioning for Real-Time Data Transfer

The importance of real-time wireless data transfer is rapidly increasing for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. For example, smart glasses worn by a doctor need to transmit real-time data to a hospital information system, which performs face detection and recognition, for real-time interaction with recognized patients within a certain deadline, which is ideally a few hundred milliseconds. Other emerging IoT applications, e.g., structural health monitoring, clinical monitoring, and industrial process automation, also require real-time wireless data transfer. Those applications have critical demands for real-time and energy-efficient communication through wireless medium. However, it is very challenging to support stringent timing constraints energy-efficiently through wireless medium due to its inherent unreliability and timing-unpredictability. Fortunately, heterogeneous radios are becoming increasingly available in modern embedded devices, offering new opportunities to use multiple wireless technologies to accommodate the needs of real-time applications. In this paper, we first formulate the runtime radio selection and data partitioning for real-time IoT applications as an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problem and then present (1) an optimal algorithm that makes quick and optimal decisions when selecting between two radios and (2) a heuristic algorithm for the platforms with more radios. Experimental results show that our heuristic algorithm provides optimal selections to 94.4% of the cases and makes the decisions 336~1412 times faster than an ILP problem solver.