cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A wearable portable electronic travel aid for blind

There have been numerous accounts of research relating to navigation assistance using vision sensors for those who are visually impaired. The struggle now is to find a solution that is low-powered, easily portable, low-cost, and still effective, which could theoretically be used by visually impaired users in order to improve their quality of life. This paper presents the design and implementation of such a system. The architecture begins with an array of ultrasonic sensors to survey the scene. Following that, distance information is used to provide a variety of distinct audio cues via a Bluetooth headset to its user. Data processing is done on a Raspberry Pi, which acts as the link between the input and output devices. Tests demonstrate that the system is accurate within the threshold radius and functions as a navigational assistant.
Tribological coatings for improving cutting tool performance

Abstract With an increasing usage of advanced high-strength steels, there is an escalating need for improvements in cutting tool performance for these alloys. In this study, the tribological performances of Cr2N, WC/a-C:H, and Ti-MoS2 coatings on AISI M2 steel were examined. Surface treatments were evaluated using dry pin-on-disk testing, Charpy impact testing, and a reciprocating impact-sliding test rig (RISTR) designed to replicate the interaction between cutting tools and high-strength steel sheet. Charpy testing of coated specimens showed no statistical change in impact toughness from the untreated steel. Pin-on-disk testing was performed to quantify the friction and wear of untreated and coated tool steel. These tests showed that Ti-MoS2 coated tool steel had the lowest friction coefficient, and Cr2N, the lowest wear rate. Impact tribometer testing showed that the Ti-MoS2 coating yielded an increase of 370% in the number of cycles to failure over untreated specimens, while the WC/a-C:H coating was found to decrease the number of cycles to failure over untreated specimens. With an impact stress lower than the compressive yield strength of the AISI M2 steel, the fatigue life of the surface treatments scaled approximately as E2/H3, the inverse of the resistance to plastic deformation.
Prophage WO genes recapitulate and enhance Wolbachia -induced cytoplasmic incompatibility

The genus Wolbachia is an archetype of maternally inherited intracellular bacteria that infect the germline of numerous invertebrate species worldwide. They can selfishly alter arthropod sex ratios and reproductive strategies to increase the proportion of the infected matriline in the population. The most common reproductive manipulation is cytoplasmic incompatibility, which results in embryonic lethality in crosses between infected males and uninfected females. Females infected with the same Wolbachia strain rescue this lethality. Despite more than 40 years of research and relevance to symbiont-induced speciation, as well as control of arbovirus vectors and agricultural pests, the bacterial genes underlying cytoplasmic incompatibility remain unknown. Here we use comparative and transgenic approaches to demonstrate that two differentially transcribed, co-diverging genes in the eukaryotic association module of prophage WO from Wolbachia strain wMel recapitulate and enhance cytoplasmic incompatibility. Dual expression in transgenic, uninfected males of Drosophila melanogaster crossed to uninfected females causes embryonic lethality. Each gene additively augments embryonic lethality in crosses between infected males and uninfected females. Lethality associates with embryonic defects that parallel those of wild-type cytoplasmic incompatibility and is notably rescued by wMel-infected embryos in all cases. The discovery of cytoplasmic incompatibility factor genes cifA and cifB pioneers genetic studies of prophage WO-induced reproductive manipulations and informs the continuing use of Wolbachia to control dengue and Zika virus transmission to humans.
Selective attention within the foveola.

New techniques for visually stimulating and stabilizing the retina reveal that humans control covert attentional resources with high precision at the center of gaze. These findings show that fine attentional deployment occurs within the fovea and enhances high-acuity vision.
Mr. Victor Carneiro, CEO of Xpertek, Inc., a provider of integrated technology solutions

Mr. Victor Carneiro is a management consultant, executive coach and technology evangelist. He has more than 27 years of information technology experience in management, application architecture, ap...
Abstract 104: Defective Branched-chain Amino Acid Catabolism Impairs Glucose Metabolism and Sensitizes the Heart to Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

The branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are essential amino acids required for protein homeostasis, energy balance, and nutrient signaling. It has been shown recently that elevations in the circulating BCAAs and related metabolites are associated with insulin resistance and ischemic heart disease, suggesting an important link between BCAA metabolism and cardiac pathology. BCAA catabolism in mitochondria is regulated by the branched-chain keto acid dehydrogenase complex (BCKDC). A mitochondria localized phosphatase 2C (PP2Cm) has been identified to activate BCKDC, serving as a key regulator of BCAA catabolism. Deletion of PP2Cm (KO) increased blood BCAA levels but did not alter cardiac function in unstressed mice. Using 13C- and 31P-NMR spectroscopy, we found a significant reduction in the contribution of glucose to oxidative metabolism in KO hearts (16±3 vs. 26±2% for KO and wild-type (WT), respectively, P<0.05), which was accompanied by an ~25% reduction in glucose uptake rate (P<0.05). Cardiac glycogen co...
The Single-Molecule Centroid Localization Algorithm Improves the Accuracy of Fluorescence Binding Assays.

Here, we demonstrate that the use of the single-molecule centroid localization algorithm can improve the accuracy of fluorescence binding assays. Two major artifacts in this type of assay, i.e., nonspecific binding events and optically overlapping receptors, can be detected and corrected during analysis. The effectiveness of our method was confirmed by measuring two weak biomolecular interactions, the interaction between the B1 domain of streptococcal protein G and immunoglobulin G and the interaction between double-stranded DNA and the Cas9–RNA complex with limited sequence matches. This analysis routine requires little modification to common experimental protocols, making it readily applicable to existing data and future experiments.
Metastatic melanoma with dedifferentiation and extensive rhabdomyosarcomatous heterologous component.

Melanoma may undergo dedifferentiation and sarcomatous transformation with loss of melanocytic markers. Dedifferentiated melanoma rarely forms true rhabdomyoblasts with skeletal muscle immunophenotype (rhabdomyosarcomatous heterologous component). A 52-year-old woman was diagnosed with invasive melanoma (Breslow thickness 0.83 mm) of the upper back in 2012, treated by wide local excision only. In 2013, an axillary mass was excised to show metastatic melanoma with 2 morphologies: an epithelioid morphology expressing S100 and MART-1 and a spindled morphology with loss of melanocytic markers but strong expression of desmin. This metastasis was found to have BRAF V600E mutation. In 2015, a thoracic epidural mass biopsy showed atypical spindle cells with focal HMB-45 but essentially no S100 expression. Numerous rhabdomyoblasts, some with striations that were strongly positive for desmin and myogenin, were present. In 2016, a right nephrectomy was performed for metastasis to the kidney, and showed sheets of spindle cells and rhabdomyoblasts expressing desmin and myogenin but not S100. Only focal areas demonstrated expression of HMB-45 and SOX-10, supporting the melanocytic origin of the tumor. The numerous rhabdomyoblasts and the loss of S100 expression in the metastatic lesions in this case could have easily led to misdiagnosis if the clinical history was not known.
Use of Guideline-Recommended Treatments for PTSD Among Community-Based Providers in Texas and Vermont: Implications for the Veterans Choice Program

Implementation of the Veterans Choice Program (VCP) allows Veterans to receive care paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in community settings. However, the quality of that care is unknown, particularly for complex conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 668 community primary care and mental health providers in Texas and Vermont to describe use of guideline-recommended treatments (GRTs) for PTSD. Relatively, few providers reported using guideline-recommended psychotherapy or prescribing practices. More than half of psychotherapists reported the use of at least one guideline-recommended psychotherapy for PTSD, but fewer reported the use of core treatment components, prior training in the GRT(s) they use, or adherence to a treatment manual. Suboptimal prescribing for PTSD patients was reported more commonly than optimal prescribing. Findings raise critical questions regarding how to ensure veterans seeking PTSD care in community settings receive psychotherapy and/or prescribing consistent with clinical practice guidelines.
On Parallel Hierarchies and R_k^i

This paper defines natural hierarchies of function and relation classes, constructed from parallel complexity classes in a manner analogous to the polynomial-time hierarchy. A number of structural results about these classes are proven: relationships between them and the levels of PH, a Buss-style witnessing theorem relating the levels of these hierarchies to definability in the bounded arithmetic theories R k i (generalizing [1] and improving on [9]), a conservation result between S k i andR k i+k , and results analogous to those of [18, 8, 16] relating conservationbetween theories of bounded arithmetic to the collapse of complexityclasses
A burst caught in flagrante

The afterglows of powerful γ-ray bursts — short, intense bursts of γ-radiation from far across the Universe — have been puzzling astronomers for decades. The first sighting of a γ-ray burst while it was still emitting γ-rays provides much needed data on early γ-ray and optical emissions, and suggests that the radiation may be beamed (rather than emitted in all directions).
Exact Expressions for the Far-Zone Electromagnetic Fields Radiated by Thin Elliptical Loop Antennas of Arbitrary Size

Circular loop antennas have received considerable attention over the years due to their wide range of practical applications. However, in comparison, surprisingly little research work has been devoted to the study of elliptical loop antennas, which provide designers with an additional degree of freedom to control their radiation properties. Here, a complete set of analytical expressions is derived for the vector potential and corresponding far-zone electromagnetic fields of a thin elliptical loop antenna of an arbitrary size based on a general Fourier cosine series representation of the current distribution. Furthermore, several important special cases of the general theory are considered including elliptical loop antennas with a constant and a cosinusoidal current distribution. It is also shown that for the special case when the lengths of the semimajor and semiminor axes are equivalent, the general expressions for the far-zone electromagnetic fields will reduce to well-known results for a circular loop. Finally, some example radiation pattern plots for elliptical loop antennas are generated using the exact theoretical expressions derived in this paper.
The Missouri High-Conductivity Belt, revealed by magnetotelluric imaging: Evidence of a trans-lithospheric shear zone beneath the Ozark Plateau, Midcontinent USA?

Abstract Crust in the central Midcontinent of the USA, part of North America's intracratonic platform, consists of Precambrian crystalline basement overlain by a cover of Phanerozoic sedimentary strata. Analysis of EarthScope long-period magnetotelluric (MT) data provides an opportunity to characterize lithosphere-scale structures of this region. Inversion of these data reveals a distinct belt of high electrical conductivity (≤30 Ωm) traversing Missouri. This belt strikes northwest-southeast, dips steeply to the northeast, and extends at least from the mid-crust into the lithospheric mantle. Significantly, this “Missouri high-conductivity belt” (MHCB) spatially coincides with the Missouri Gravity Low (a distinctive feature on Bouguer anomaly maps), lies adjacent to the southwestern edge of Precambrian bedrock exposure in the Ozark Plateau, trends parallel to both magnetic-anomaly lineaments and mapped fault traces, and aligns with lateral steps (transfer or transform faults) in the Midcontinent rift and the Reelfoot rift. We suggest that the MHCB initiated as a lithosphere-scale transtensional shear zone, which linked rift segments that were active during Proterozoic extensional events. Conceivably, pull-aparts within this shear zone localized felsic igneous activity and produced depressions that filled with sediment in association with the development of the 1.5–1.3 Ga Eastern Granite-Rhyolite Province, yielding a region of less-dense crust that could account for the Missouri Gravity Low. The shear zones likely also provided pathways for fluid migration. High conductivity in the MHCB may reflect deep crustal and lithospheric mantle alteration in response to the passage of fluids during dilatational shearing. We postulate that fluid movement accompanied by shear resulted in graphite and perhaps sulfide concentration along the shear zone in the lower crust, and hydration and/or grain diminution and crystallographic preferred orientation in the lithospheric mantle. This alteration also may have weakened lithosphere along the MHCB, explaining the spatial association of the belt with Paleozoic reactivated faults and with contemporary seismicity.
Quantifying Three-dimensional Chromatin Organization Utilizing Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy: ChromSTEM

Abstract Chromatin organization over a wide range of length scales plays a critical role in the regulation of gene expression and deciphering these processes requires high-resolution, three-dimensional, quantitative imaging of chromatin structure in vitro. Herein we introduce ChromSTEM, a method which utilizes high angle annular dark field imaging and tomography in scanning transmission electron microscopy in combination with DNA-specific staining for electron microscopy. We utilized ChromSTEM to quantify chromatin structure in cultured cells and tissue biopsies through local DNA distribution and the scaling behavior of chromatin polymer. We observed that chromatin is densely packed with an average volume concentration of over 30% with heterochromatin having a two-fold higher density compared to euchromatin. Chromatin was arranged into spatially well-defined nanoscale packing domains with fractal internal structure and genomic size between 100 and 400 kb, comparable to that of topologically associated domains. The packing domains varied in DNA concentration and fractal dimension and had one of the distinct states of chromatin packing with differential ratio of DNA content to the chromatin volume concentration. Finally, we observed a significant intercellular heterogeneity of chromatin organization even within a genetically uniform cell population, which demonstrates the imperative for high-throughput characterization of chromatin structure at the single cell level.
Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Severe Disease That Preventive Approaches Would Greatly Benefit

With the increased understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in recent decades, the notion of disease prevention has arisen. Contemplation of potential preventive strategies must be prefaced by a clear understanding of the rationale for the prevention, as opposed to the treatment, of a disease once established. RA is the most common systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease. The worldwide prevalence is 0.24%, and the lifetime cumulative prevalence approaches 4% in women and 2% in men. RA has severe manifestations leading to chronic pain, impaired quality of life, inability to participate in social and work activities, disability, extra-articular manifestations, and premature mortality. Unfortunately, patients often experience a long duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis, owing to inadequate awareness in the general population, limitations of diagnostic assessments in the early phases of the disease, and a lack of access to rheumatologists globally. Despite the development of novel targeted therapies and substantial improvements in treatment strategies, up to 60% of patients fail to respond adequately to any particular treatment strategy, and 30% of those fail to respond to multiple agents. Therefore, there remains a large proportion of patients who fail to achieve clinical remission and patient-acceptable symptom states. Treatments for RA may be associated with a variety of complications, limiting their sustained usefulness, particularly as related to an increased risk for serious infections. Advancements in therapies have curtailed the previous main driver of mortality, cardiovascular disease, but overall mortality remains elevated in many studies of persons with RA compared to the general population. This commentary reviews the rationale in detail and introduces a clear implication that the ideal strategy would be to develop a means of preventing the onset of clinically apparent joint inflammation among individuals at risk.
Current risk assessment approaches for environmental and food and feed safety assessment.

Foundational activities at the international level underlie current risk and safety assessment approaches for genetically engineered/modified organisms (GEOs/GMOs). Early risk assessment considerations beginning with the OECD ‘Blue Book’ established risk/safety assessment as the characterization of the organism and its environmental release; establishment and persistence in the environment; and human and ecological effects, analyzed in principle through existing methods. Important in this context was recognition that GEOs/GMOs as a class did not represent new risks relative to products of traditional plant breeding and that any incremental risk would need to be established on a stepwise case-by-case comparative basis with existing crops and derived-foods as the baseline. Accordingly, concepts of familiarity and substantial equivalence were advanced by OECD and WHO as ways to establish a risk analysis baseline for determining whether and to what extent risk/safety assessment was needed. Regulatory implementations of this paradigm have skewed to increasingly complex portfolios of studies rather than adhering to analysis which is formulated to fit the risk/safety questions relevant to a given case. Plants produced through genome editing technology will benefit from risk analysis that implements sound problem formulation to guide the need for and nature of risk/safety assessments.
On the Block Structure and Frobenius Normal Form of Powers of Matrices

The Frobenius normal form of a matrix is an important tool in analyzing its properties. When a matrix is powered up, the Frobenius normal form of the original matrix and that of its powers need not be the same. In this article, conditions on a matrix $A$ and the power $q$ are provided so that for any invertible matrix $S$, if $S^{-1}A^qS$ is block upper triangular, then so is $S^{-1}AS$ when partitioned conformably. The result is established for general matrices over any field. It is also observed that the contributions of the index of cyclicity to the spectral properties of a matrix hold over any field. The article concludes by applying the block upper triangular powers result to the cone Frobenius normal form of powers of a eventually cone nonnegative matrix.
The Hidden Rules of a Modest Antitrust

The reason for which the Supreme Court’s embrace of rules of reason—case-by-case analysis of suspect conduct for harm to consumers—has greatly reduced antitrust enforcement over the past forty years is not that rules of reason are biased, but rather that rules of reason are too expensive for cash-strapped agencies to enforce at all. Which means that for the most part enforcers have not actually been applying rules of reason over the past forty years. To pay for a few costly rule-of-reason cases, enforcers have instead been applying a broad rule of per se legality to suspect conduct. Has this sub-rosa rule of per se legality been good for consumers? That depends on whether the Court believes that most suspect conduct is ultimately good for consumers, or bad. If the Court believes that most suspect conduct is good, then allowing enforcers to engage in self-help non-enforcement in order to keep budgets balanced is good policy, if not good law. But if the Court believes that most suspect conduct is bad for consumers, then the Court must bring back the inexpensive-to-enforce per se rules of illegality that characterized mid-twentieth-century antitrust law. Either way, however, the Court’s current failure explicitly to recognize that an antitrust enforcement apparatus of modest means is incapable of delivering upon the idealism of case-by-case inquiries into consumer harm is intolerable. For the gap it creates between the careful adjudication described by the courts and the non-enforcement of actual practice makes a mockery of the law. The Court must come to terms with the fact that scarcity requires that antitrust law, like all other areas of law, be primarily a law of per se rules, and that a deliberate choice must be made by the Court either to rule suspect conduct legal per se, or per se illegal.
Examining Referral Patterns between Otolaryngology and Gastroenterology: A Window into Potential Inter-Specialty Knowledge Gaps.

Objective:The objective of this study was to examine referral patterns between otolaryngology and gastroenterology in order to delineate areas of clinical overlap, as well as to identify areas that...
In pursuit of easy(er) JITs (invited talk)

n the early days of the Eclipse OMR project, we created the unimaginatively named JitBuilder API aiming to make it easier to build a JIT compiler. JitBuilder has been used to create prototype JIT compilers in a few thousand lines of C++ for WebAssembly, Lua, Smalltalk, Javascript, the Rosie Pattern Language, BF, Kaleidoscope, and Base9, as well as a number of other less language-centric dynamic code generators (including an alternative code generator for LLVM IR). Although it brings key facilities for privatizing virtual machine state and translating bytecode handlers, the JitBuilder API did not completely meet the “easy” goal particularly in the areas of extensibility and debuggability and did not offer strong DSL optimization possibilities. In this talk, I’ll explain and summarize the key features of the JitBuilder API before introducing some recent exploratory work to create the next version: JitBuilder2. This new fully-fledged (if currently in complete) compiler IL shares some directions with MLIR, but has some unique challenges and features, all designed around the pursuit of “easy” JIT compiler construction. Through the talk, I’ll show off some of these features (that’s right, I’ll demo a compiler IL!) and highlight some of the interesting directions I think we could take it from here.
Barbara Geller, MD (1939-2020).

Barbara Geller, MD, was born on April 21, 1939, and passed away on May 8, 2020, in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 81 after a brief illness. She was widely known to members of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the broader field of child and adolescent psychiatry for her rigorous body of work on childhood mood disorders and more specifically for her pioneering work in the description and validation of prepubertal bipolar disorder. She was a prolific investigator, mentor, teacher, and clinician. When she chose to retire in 2009, she was at the height of her academic career.
Enabling Machine-Assisted Visual Analytics for High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery with Enhanced Benchmark Meta-Dataset Training of NAS Neural Networks

In the last decade, several high resolution remote sensing benchmark datasets have been developed and publicly released. These datasets, while diverse in design, lack the required intra-class variation for high-performing, machine-assisted visual analytics. More specifically, the disparate datasets are suitable for small, closed system evaluation; however they are not well suited for training of computer vision models that are robust in real-world, non-closed environments encountered in true remote sensing applications. To that end, a benchmark meta-dataset (MDS) was developed to facilitate the training of models for machine-assisted visual analytics. Four existing benchmark datasets were combined to build the original MDS, which excelled for training models for both classification and broad area search applications. In this work, we evaluate an enhanced version of the MDS, MDSv2, by integrating co-occurring classes of two additional recently released, publicly available challenge datasets: xView and Functional Map of the World (FMoW). The MDSv2 has 33 classes with 87,470 total samples. We investigate the utility of three neural architecture search (NAS) deep learning architectures on the MDSv2 for both classification and machine-assisted visual analytics. The NAS models trained with the MDSv2 are able to achieve an average F1 of 98.01% and a powerful 0.934 scanning precision.
Hyperferritinemia Wins Again: Defining Macrophage Activation Syndrome in Pediatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a potentially life-threatening condition of hyperinflammation that can be secondary to an underlying chronic rheumatic condition, commonly systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) but also childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE). MAS is characterized by excessive activation of T lymphocytes and macrophages that lead to overproduction of cytokines and results in cytopenia, liver dysfunction, and coagulopathy1.
Do Giving Circles Democratize Philanthropy? Donor Identity and Giving to Historically Marginalized Groups

This research focuses on understanding how giving circle (GC) member identities are associated with the identities of funding recipients. It examines whether GC members are more likely than non-members to give to people who are like them (bonding social capital) and/or to people who are not like them (bridging social capital). We draw on data from a survey of GC members and a comparison control group of non-GC members. Findings show GC members and those not in GCs are both more likely to give to a shared identity group—related to race, gender, and gender identity—leading to bonding social capital. However, GC members are more likely than those not in GCs to give to groups that do not share their identity, suggesting GCs also encourage bridging social capital. We assert both bonding and bridging social capital might lead to the democratization of philanthropy by expanding giving to historically marginalized groups.
Mycobacterial taxonomy

The minimal standards for including a species in the genusMycobacterium are i) acid-alcohol fastness, ii) the presence of mycolic acids containing 60–90 carbon atoms which are cleaved to C22 to C26 fatty acid methyl esters by pyrolysis, and iii) a guanine + cytosine content of the DNA of 61 to 71 mol %. Currently, there are 71 recognized or proposed species ofMycobacterium which can be divided into two main groups based on growth rate. The slowly growing species require > 7 days to form visible colonies on solid media while the rapidly growing species require < 7 days. Slowly growing species are often pathogenic for humans or animals while rapidly growing species are usually considered nonpathogenic for humans, although important exceptions exist. The taxonomic and diagnostic characteristics of medically important species and of newly described species of theMycobacterium genus are reviewed.
Double parking in New York city: a comparison between commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles

Commercial vehicles are more likely to park close to their destinations than passenger vehicles even though sometimes parking violations are inevitable for their freight or service activities. Although clear distinctions between commercial and passenger vehicles lead to different illegal parking behaviors, little is known about the difference in double parking behaviors between the two types. To better utilize limited curb spaces, a better understanding of differences and similarities is required so that corresponding policies can be established accordingly. Therefore, this research aims to quantify the difference in double parking behavior between commercial and passenger vehicles using count models from two different perspectives: (a) an individual vehicle level count model to investigate vehicle attributes influencing the number of double parking violations per vehicle and (b) a ZIP Code level count model to investigate economic and built environment factors affecting double parking behaviors. The results showed that double parking is a ‘one-time event’ for a passenger vehicle and a ‘recurring event’ for a commercial vehicle. With respect to economic factors, different types of establishments had different levels of impact on double parking for commercial and passenger vehicles in an area. This research discusses how parking policies and strategies can be established based on the similarities and differences between commercial and passenger vehicles’ parking violation behavior.
Estimation of total mediation effect for high-dimensional omics mediators.

Environmental exposures can regulate intermediate molecular phenotypes, such as gene expression, by different mechanisms and thereby lead to various health outcomes. It is of significant scientific interest to unravel the role of potentially high-dimensional intermediate phenotypes in the relationship between environmental exposure and traits. Mediation analysis is an important tool for investigating such relationships. However, it has mainly focused on low-dimensional settings, and there is a lack of a good measure of the total mediation effect. Here, we extend an R-squared (R $$^2$$ ) effect size measure, originally proposed in the single-mediator setting, to the moderate- and high-dimensional mediator settings in the mixed model framework. Based on extensive simulations, we compare our measure and estimation procedure with several frequently used mediation measures, including product, proportion, and ratio measures. Our R $$^2$$ -based second-moment measure has small bias and variance under the correctly specified model. To mitigate potential bias induced by non-mediators, we examine two variable selection procedures, i.e., iterative sure independence screening and false discovery rate control, to exclude the non-mediators. We establish the consistency of the proposed estimation procedures and introduce a resampling-based confidence interval. By applying the proposed estimation procedure, we found that 38% of the age-related variations in systolic blood pressure can be explained by gene expression profiles in the Framingham Heart Study of 1711 individuals. An R package “RsqMed” is available on CRAN. R-squared (R $$^2$$ ) is an effective and efficient measure for total mediation effect especially under high-dimensional setting.
Heat tolerance as a function of membrane lipid remodeling in the major US oilseed crops (soybean and peanut)

With a steadily increasing population, the demand for crops to feed the world population and satisfy the energy needs is also increasing. The diminishing land resources and changing environmental conditions, specifically global warming, have further exacerbated these problems. Developing heat-tolerant crops that maintain yield under stress is one way to keep pace with future demands. Heat stress tolerance is a complex trait; hence it is vital to identify major contributors to heat stress tolerance and develop molecular markers to breed for them. The present communication reviews the recent progress made in this direction in oilseed crops soybean and peanuts, where heat-induced membrane lipid unsaturation was identified as an indicator of heat tolerance and the heat-induced changes in the expression pattern of the fatty acid desaturase gene as a marker to select for this trait. The further efforts underway and the future research needed in this direction are discussed.
Exploring the role of milk yield in the first week of lactation on the association between hyperketonemia and reproductive performance in dairy cattle

Abstract The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate whether the association of hyperketonemia (HYK) with reproductive performance differs based on milk production during the first week of lactation (wk 1). Data between calving and 150 d in milk (DIM) from 2,091 Holstein dairy cows from 5 commercial dairy herds in Minnesota were collected. The concentration of β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) was measured twice between 3 and 10 DIM in whole blood to diagnose HYK (defined as BHB ≥1.2 mmol/L). The average wk 1 milk yield was classified into 3 levels (low = lower 25th percentile; mid=25th to 75th percentile; high=upper 75th percentile) according to parity and herd. Log-binomial regression, Cox-proportional hazard regression, and linear regression models were used to investigate the association of HYK with pregnancy to first insemination, pregnancy by 150 DIM, and calving-to-conception interval (CCI) between groups, respectively. To describe the differences in these estimates between each wk 1 milk yield level, an interaction term of HYK and stratified levels of wk 1 milk yield was added. The incidence of HYK between 3 to 10 DIM was 14.2% (4.6% in primiparous cows and 19.4% in multiparous cows). In the study population, the effect of HYK on reproduction was greater in cows with low milk yield. Among cows with low milk yield levels, HYK was associated with lower risk of pregnancy to first insemination [risk ratio=0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39–0.98], lower risk of pregnancy up to 150 DIM (hazard ratio=0.70; 95% CI: 0.51–0.96), and extended days of CCI (mean difference=13.0; 95% CI: 5.1–20.9). In contrast, among cows with mid and high wk 1 milk yield levels, hyperketonemic (HYK+) cows had a similar reproductive performance to non-HYK (HYK−) cows. Our results suggest that early-lactation milk yield plays a role in the association of hyperketonemia with reproductive performance. These results merit further investigation to determine the role that early milk yield has in the association of hyperketonemia with health and productivity outcomes.
Optimization of therapeutic dose delivery of intrahepatic beta emitters in patients with liver metastases: The impact of residual activity in calculations of Y-90 microsphere dispensed dose

2313 Objectives To determine if the intrahepatic delivered dose of Y-90 microspheres differs significantly from the prescribed dose and develop a compensatory approach to dose calculation. Methods The prescribed dose of Y-90 microspheres for treatment of hepatic metastases is determined using a formula based on tumor and liver volumes from CT measurements. 66 patients with hepatic metastases were evaluated. Dispensed doses were assayed to be within 10% of the prescribed dose.An ionizing chamber was used to measure activity of the dispensed dose delivery system before and after the intrahepatic infusion.The residual activity in the delivery system was compared with the original count data. The residual % of the dispensed dose was then calculated. Results Patients were prescribed 30.22 +/- 7.89mCi and the dispensed dose was 30.77 +/- 7.81mCi Y-90 microspheres(NSD).Residual activity was present in all cases and was 8.3 +/- 2.4% of the dispensed dose.In 56 patients who received complete infusion of the dispensed dose,5.4 +/- 1.3% of the dispensed dose remained in the delivery system. Conclusions There was no significant difference between the prescribed and dispensed doses. However, significant retention of Y-90 was present in the delivery system. An increase in the dispensed dose to 10% above the prescribed dose would optimize therapy using this delivery system. This study supports an increase in the dispensed dose of Y-90 microspheres to account for activity remaining in the delivery system and ensure that the delivered dose meets prescribed dose requirements.Increasing the dispensed dose by 10% above the prescribed dose(3mCi)would result in up to 290 rads of additional delivered dose to the patient9s liver and a whole body incremental increase of 5rem. Conversely, suboptimal delivery &/or residual activity potentially decrease the therapeutic effect of the Y-90
Guilty or Innocent: Evaluation Bias as a Function of Information Format

Abstract The concern of the present studies was the impact audiovisual technology might have on the perceived guilt or innocence of a crime suspect. In Study 1, participants reported their expectations of a person suspected of a crime or applying for a job. Expectations for the suspect were overwhelmingly unfavorable; expectations for the applicant were neutral to positive. In Study 2, participants were told that the person they were about to see interviewed was a crime suspect or a job applicant. Participants viewed the interview live or over a television monitor and reported their evaluations of the person interviewed. Greater guilt was attributed to the crime suspect when seen on a television monitor than when seen live. Connections between prior expectations and later evaluations are made.
Crystal structure of molybdopterin synthase and its evolutionary relationship to ubiquitin activation

Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) biosynthesis is an evolutionarily conserved pathway present in eubacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, including humans. Genetic deficiencies of enzymes involved in Moco biosynthesis in humans lead to a severe and usually fatal disease. Moco contains a tricyclic pyranopterin, termed molybdopterin (MPT), that bears the cis-dithiolene group responsible for molybdenum ligation. The dithiolene group of MPT is generated by MPT synthase, which consists of a large and small subunits. The 1.45 A resolution crystal structure of MPT synthase reveals a heterotetrameric protein in which the C-terminus of each small subunit is inserted into a large subunit to form the active site. In the activated form of the enzyme this C-terminus is present as a thiocarboxylate. In the structure of a covalent complex of MPT synthase, an isopeptide bond is present between the C-terminus of the small subunit and a Lys side chain in the large subunit. The strong structural similarity between the small subunit of MPT synthase and ubiquitin provides evidence for the evolutionary antecedence of the Moco biosynthetic pathway to the ubiquitin dependent protein degradation pathway.
The Kyoto Protocol & the WTO: Reconciling Tensions between Free Trade & Environmental Objectives

This article analyzes the intersection between international trade and environmental regimes. Increasingly, multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) rely on trade measures to implement and enforce environmental obligations. Trade-related environmental measures accentuate the existence of tensions and the necessity of clarifying the relationship between free trade and environmental objectives, as embodied by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and MEAs, such as the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) exemplifies the inevitable intersection of environmental and trade objectives. Both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol address the causes and consequences of global climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, more than any existing MEA, is likely to impact state economies and international trade relations. The Kyoto Protocol promotes the UNFCCC goal of “stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, art. 2, May 9, 1992, 31 I.L.M. 849. Limiting greenhouse gas emissions under Kyoto requires developed countries to modify primary economic structures, including transformations within energy, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and investment sectors. Therefore, although Kyoto does not directly implicate trade provisions or contravene WTO rules, it has the potential to impact key sectors of the economy and international trade. Accordingly, the Kyoto Protocol provides an appropriate context for analyzing fundamental tensions between international trade and environmental regimes. This article suggests that it is essential that the WTO develop a conceptually sound framework for managing such issues. To this end, the WTO should modify its “constitution” through the adoption of an interpretative clause that provides clear principles for defining the relationship between the WTO and MEAs.
Measurements of the viscosity of compressed gaseous and liquid methane + ethane mixtures

The shear viscosity coefficients of three compressed gaseous and liquid nitrogen + methane mixtures have been measured at temperatures between 100 and 300 K and at pressures to about 30 MPa (4350 psia) with a piezoelectric quartz crystal viscometer. The precision of the measurements ranges from about 0.5% at high densities to about 1% at low densities. The estimated experimental error ranges from about 2% at high densities to about 4% at densities near the critical density and at supercritical temperatures near the critical temperature. The measurements have been compared with an extended corresponding states model, previously proposed for calculating the viscosities of fluid mixtures. Differences between the measured and calculated viscosities are discussed.
Using n-best recognition output for extractive summarization and keyword extraction in meeting speech

There has been increasing interest recently in meeting understanding, such as summarization, browsing, action item detection, and topic segmentation. However, there is very limited effort on using rich recognition output (e.g., recognition confidence measure or more recognition candidates) for these downstream tasks. This paper presents an initial study using n-best recognition hypotheses for two tasks, extractive summarization and keyword extraction. We extend the approach used on 1-best output to n-best hypotheses: MMR (maximum marginal relevance) for summarization and TFIDF (term frequency, inverse document frequency) weighting for keyword extraction. Our experiments on the ICSI meeting corpus demonstrate promising improvement using n-best hypotheses over 1-best output. These results suggest worthy future studies using n-best or lattices as the interface between speech recognition and downstream tasks.
Bilateral mixed epithelial stromal tumor in an end-stage renal disease patient: the first case report

Although first intimated in the 1970s, mixed epithelial stromal tumor has been recognized as a diagnostic entity for less than 10 years, with an identity that has been challenged by overlap between other cystic renal neoplasms, most notably with cystic nephroma. We report the first case of a bilateral mixed epithelial stromal tumor occurring in a 41-year-old dialysis-dependent woman, notably also the first case reported in a patient with end-stage renal disease. The neoplasms occurred 5 years apart and were diagnosed as mixed epithelial stromal tumor in both instances. We describe the presentation and pertinent radiologic, histologic, and immunophenotypic findings of these neoplasms with a review of the current debate regarding mixed epithelial stromal tumor and cystic nephroma taxonomy.
The effect of coatings on the compatibility of Fe-Cr steels with Pb-Li

Abstract To inhibit the dissolution and mass transfer of ferritic–martensitic steels in Pb–Li above 500 °C, the behavior of Al-rich diffusion coatings was explored in isothermal capsule exposures. After 1 kh at 600 °C or 700 °C, thin (∼40 μm) coatings made by chemical vapor deposition significantly reduced the mass loss of commercial Fe–9Cr–2 W substrates. At both temperatures, the surface reaction product was LiAlO 2 but at 700 °C a significant Al depletion occurred in the coating reducing the surface Al content from ∼18 at.% to 600 °C.
Glioblastoma Multiforme in the Muir-Torre Syndrome.

Muir-Torre syndrome (MTS) is an autosomal dominant subtype of nonpolyposis colorectal carcinoma (HNPCC) characterized by the development of sebaceous gland tumors and visceral malignancies. The most common subtype of MTS is characterized by germline mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes leading to microsatellite instability (MSI). Central nervous system tumors have only rarely been associated with MTS. In this report, we describe the development of a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in a patient with MTS. Immunohistochemical analysis of the patient's colon carcinoma and his GBM both revealed loss of the mismatch repair proteins mutS homolog 2 (MSH2) and mutS homolog 6 (MSH6).
Quantifying the Effect of Lubricant Elasticity on Micro Textured Surfaces

An experimental study is performed on micro textured surfaces using both elastic and Newtonian fluids in order to understand the effect of fluid rheology on the sliding friction of textured surfaces. Nickel micro textured surfaces containing 50 to 125 micron diameter pores and 1 to 20 percent area densities of pores are friction tested using a triborheometer, and the resulting data is examined using a Stribeck diagram. This research reveals that the Stribeck curve will experience a shift according to the lubricant elasticity, and that shift is independent of the texturing parameters. By modifying the Gumbel number to form a new dimensionless parameter, the effect of lubricant elasticity is normalized for all surfaces.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Aetiology of an ulcerative disease in goldfish, Carassius auratus (L.): characterization of the causative agent

. A bacterium resembling Aeromonas salmonicida and determined to be the aetiologic agent of a cutaneous ulcerative disease in goldfish Carassius auratus (L.) was further characterized in this study. Forty-five isolates of the bacterium (43 from the United States and one each position (moles % guanine plus cytosine) and DNA homology. The bacteriological atypical A. salmonicida previously described. Several important biochemical characteristics distinguished the goldfish isolates from typical A. salmanicida, but the DNA binding experiments indicated a high degree of relatedness between the goldfish isolates and typical A. salmonicida strains.
STALIN AND HIS ERA

The partial opening up of the formerly closed Soviet archives has had an enormous impact on the amount of new historical material available for research. Recent developments in research on Stalin and the Soviet Union are remarkable. The present article examines these developments with respect to three particular topics: ‘Stalin and Terror’, ‘Stalin and ideology’, and ‘Stalin and society’. It argues that whereas in certain areas new information has led to a greater consensus among historians, in others, such as Stalin's Great Terror, it has led to heated controversy. The article asks why, and suggests that the problem lies both in conceptualization and in the use of historical sources. More generally, the article discusses the present state of knowledge in the field. Because the study of Stalinism is often assessed in the light of the study of Nazism, it includes brief comparisons of Stalin and Hitler and Stalinism and Nazism where appropriate.
Singular value decomposition and the nearest matrix of a lower rank

A derivation is given of the minimum Frobenius distance between a matrix A and a matrix of fixed rank k <rank(A) that has two advantages over the usual derivation. It is purely algebraic and hence does not depend on analytic arguments used to show that a matrix of rank kwith minimum Frobenius distance to A actually exists. Furthermore, the method of the proof leads to a necessary and sufficient condition under which the matrix of minimum Frobenius distance to A is unique.