cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nicotine Upregulates Coaggregation of Candida albicans and Streptococcus mutans.

Purpose Denture stomatitis is a condition of painless inflammation of denture-bearing mucosa. Reports indicate that nicotine, the major psychoactive ingredient in tobacco, increases growth of Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans in denture biofilm. The purpose of this study was to determine the in vitro effects of nicotine on coaggregation of C. albicans with S. mutans. Material and Methods C. albicans strain ATCC 10231, S. mutans strain UA159 (ATTC 700610), and nicotine dilutions (ranging from 0 to 32 mg/ml) were used for this study. Both microorganisms were grown for 24 hours in dilutions of nicotine (0 to 32 mg/ml) made in tryptic soy broth (TSB) or TSB supplemented with 1% sucrose (TSBS; S. mutans) or yeast peptone dextrose broth (YPD; C. albicans). Suspensions of the nicotine-treated cells were prepared, mixed together and incubated for up to 24 hours to determine if there was an increase in coaggregation of nicotine-treated cells compared to the no nicotine control cells. Qualitative analysis of coaggregation was performed using a visual aggregation assay and light microscopic observation. A spectrophotometric assay was used to provide a quantitative analysis of the coaggregation. Results The visual aggregation assay indicated a significant increase in coaggregation between C. albicans and S. mutans with increasing incubation time (0 to 24 hours) and nicotine concentrations (0 to 4 mg/ml). Microbial growth in nicotine at 4 mg/ml demonstrated a significant increase in coaggregation after 24 hours of incubation. The numbers of coaggregated S. mutans/C. albicans cells exhibited a significant increase with incubation time and nicotine concentrations when the samples were examined microscopically. More coaggregation of S. mutans and C. albicans was observed with incubation time and increased nicotine compared to the 0 mg/ml nicotine group. There was a noticeable increase of coaggregation when cells were grown in TSBS compared to TSB. Absorbance of nicotine-treated cells (0.25 to 4 mg/ml) exhibited a decrease in values compared to 0 mg/ml at 0 hours of incubation, confirming increased coaggregation. Conclusion These results demonstrated the effect of nicotine in increasing the coaggregation of S. mutans with C. albicans. Coaggregation increased with incubation time and nicotine concentration. Coaggregation was increased with S. mutans grown in TSBS compared to TSB, suggesting that growth in sucrose media leads to an increase in receptors responsible for coaggregation.
Sequential co-design of an artifact and its controller via control proxy functions

Abstract Optimization of a ‘smart’ product requires optimizing the design of both the physical system, or artifact, and its controller. If the artifact and control optimization are coupled, then a combined approach is typically used in order to produce optimal solutions. The combined approach presents certain disadvantages, however. This combined approach obviates a natural decomposition of the problem into smaller design and control sub-problems that can be a disadvantage from a modeling and solution practicality viewpoint. In this paper, it is shown that a modified sequential approach utilizing a Control Proxy Function (CPF) can be used to produce optimal, or near-optimal, solutions while allowing this decomposition. Two physical bases for CPFs are presented, natural frequency and the controllability Grammian matrix, and their range of applicability is discussed. These concepts are demonstrated, for a positioning gantry example and on an active/passive automotive suspension, to be quite effective.
Precise Steric Control over 2D versus 3D Self-Assembly of Antimony(III) Alkoxide Cages through Strong Secondary Bonding Interactions

Antimony(III) alkoxide cages were designed as building blocks for predictable supramolecular self-assembly. Supramolecular synthons featuring two Sb···O secondary bonding interactions (SBIs), each SBI stronger than 30 kJ/mol, were used to drive the formation of the supramolecular architectures. Judicious choice of pendant groups provided predictable control over the formation of self-assembled 3D columnar helices, which crystallized with hollow morphologies, or a self-assembled 2D bilayer. The Sb–O stretching frequency provides a spectroscopic signature of Sb···O SBI formation.
Comment: Classifier Technology and the Illusion of Progress

This paper provides a valuable service by asking us to reflect on recent developments in classification methodology to ascertain how far we have progressed and what remains to be done. The suggestion in the paper is that the field has advanced very little over the past ten or so years in spite of all of the excitement to the contrary. It is of course natural to become overenthusiastic about new methods. Academic disciplines are as susceptible to fads as any other endeavor. Statistics and machine learning are not exempt from this phenomenon. Often a new method is heavily championed by its developer(s) as the “magic bullet” that renders past methodology obsolete. Sometimes these arguments are accompanied by nontechnical metaphors such as brain biology, natural selection and human reasoning. The developers become gurus of a movement that eventually attracts disciples who in turn spread the word that a new dawn has emerged. All of this enthusiasm is infectious and the new method is adopted by practitioners who often uncritically assume that they are realizing benefits not afforded by previous methodology. Eventually realism sets in as the limitations of the newer methods emerge and they are placed in proper perspective. Such realism is often not immediately welcomed. Suggesting that an exciting new method may not bring as great an improvement as initially envisioned or that it may simply be a variation of existing methodology expressed in new vocabulary often elicits a strong reaction. Thus, the messengers who bring this news tend to be, at least initially, unpopular among their colleagues in the field. It therefore takes
A secure workflow system for dynamic collaboration

The emergence of the Internet has broken down geographic and organizational boundaries, providing a virtual common workplace regardless of the heterogeneity of participating organizations. Enterprise projects that used to be done autonomously now span multiple organizations. While an inter-organizational workflow, as one of several technologies supporting inter-organizational collaboration, provides an easy-to-use collaborative work environment for users, it also increases the complexity of security maintenance and brings about security problems that are not considered before. Unconventional collaborations among business and organizations are formed to advance common goals. In this paper, we address the security services to support inter-organizational collaborative enterprises, which may span multiple organizations, and describe how we develop a secure workflow system to satisfy the requirements by integrating with existing, well known technologies. Although we apply our ideas to particular technologies, such as workflows and RBAC, in this paper, we believe it is always possible to apply our approaches to other systems, which support many users from different organizations.
Implications of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome for Health Policy

Abstract The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has spread rapidly through the high-risk population and has created fear and anxiety. The health policy implications of such a disorder are di...
The Need of Control Concepts in Bio-Medical Engineering

Abstract The usual elements of Bio-Medical Engineering include the areas of simulation and modeling of non-linear physiological systems, health care systems optimization, controlled prostheses for the handicapped, exact control of artificial organs or support systems, and the rapidly developing field of man-machine system interface. To these obviously control oriented areas must be added the less obvious fields of automatic drug therapy, information filtering, processing, and error minimizing, and a host of others. The paper presents not only the present status of control theory applications in these areas, but particularly looks at the practical limiting of progress in these fields without the state-of- the-art control aspects.
Hospital-Acquired Renal Insufficiency: A Prospective Study

Twenty-two hundred sixty-two consecutive medical and surgical admissions were evaluated prospectively to determine the contribution of iatrogenic factors to the development of renal insufficiency in hospital. Of 2,216 patients at risk, some degree of renal insufficiency developed in 4.9 percent. Decreased renal perfusion, postoperative renal insufficiency, radiographic contrast media, and aminoglycosides accounted for 79 percent of the episodes. Iatrogenic factors, broadly defined, accounted for 55 percent of all episodes. Poor prognostic indicators included oliguria, urine sediment abnormalities and, most importantly, severity of renal insufficiency; with an increase in serum creatinine of 3 mg/dl or greater, the mortality rate was 64 percent. Age, admission serum creatinine levels, and the number of episodes of renal insufficiency did not significantly affect outcome. We conclude that there is a substantial risk of the development of renal failure in hospital and that the mortality rate due to hospital-acquired renal insufficiency remains high.
Outpatient Pediatric Urologic Procedures

Outpatient pediatric urologic surgery is not a new concept. However, it has recently become extremely popular. The general experience nationwide and particularly the experience at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Virginia Hospital indicate that outpatient surgery can be very safe and satisfactory for patients. The outpatient approach requires close cooperation among anesthesiologists, surgeons, and outpatient personnel. Excellent communication with the patient and family is essential. This includes extensive educational printed material and 24-hour availability by telephone. Once the infrastructure is in place, outpatient pediatric urologic surgery results in efficient use of facilities and a more pleasant surgical experience for the patient. The psychological, social, and economic benefits of outpatient surgery make it imperative that a large percentage of pediatric procedures be done on an ambulatory basis. We do not, however, intend to suggest that all minor procedures can be done on an outpatient basis, as certain special situations will mandate hospitalization.
STT-RAM device performance improvement using CMP process

Current scaling challenges for memory technology have led to fast-paced development of alternative memory technologies. STT-RAM is the leading potential candidate to replace static RAM, dynamic RAM and embedded memory due to its non-volatility, high speed, and unlimited endurance. The performance of STT-MRAM such as memory signal strength (TMR) and data retention (coercivity) is primarily determined by the MTJ film. The deposition of MTJ film requires an underlayer with Angstrom-scale smoothness to achieve good device performance. The Applied Materials Reflexion® LK Prime™ CMP system was used to develop a CMP process to achieve such Angstrom-scale smoothness on the patterned bottom plug-oxide boundary. This degree of smoothness on the bottom plug helped to significantly improve the device performance.
Complementary merits of yield-oriented and reliability-specific monitors for high-quality wafer-manufacturing

The yield-oriented monitor and reliability-specific monitor can provide complementary merits for high-quality wafer-manufacturing. In this paper, two case studies were provided respectively, and our insightful data reviews promptly identified, without any DOEs (Design of Experiments) along the production lines, the source of defects and failure mechanism involved. An interactive utilization of both monitors can make essential contributions to the cross-organizational endeavors towards high-yield manufacturing as well as “0 PPM” quality in product reliability.
Education and the allocation of time of married women in Iran

In the past two decades Iranian women have become much better educated and reduced their fertility, by more than two-thirds. However, their participation in market work has not increased appreciably. We turn to time-use data to better understand the relationship between women’s education and their time use, specially time allocated to children and market work. We employ new data from a time-use survey of urban households in 2009 and show that education affects the time use of married women in predictable ways, increasing their time in market work and child education and reducing their time in housework. These results indicate that in Iran productivity of women’s education is realized in the market as well as at home, in particular in investment in children. The fact that more educated women devote more time to market work and child education, the two activities that contribute to economic growth, challenges the notion prevalent in the conservative policy circles in Iran that public resources allocated to women’s education are somehow wasted.
The three-dimensional genome organization of Drosophila melanogaster through data integration

Genome structures are dynamic and non-randomly organized in the nucleus of higher eukaryotes. To maximize the accuracy and coverage of three-dimensional genome structural models, it is important to integrate all available sources of experimental information about a genome’s organization. It remains a major challenge to integrate such data from various complementary experimental methods. Here, we present an approach for data integration to determine a population of complete three-dimensional genome structures that are statistically consistent with data from both genome-wide chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) and lamina-DamID experiments. Our structures resolve the genome at the resolution of topological domains, and reproduce simultaneously both sets of experimental data. Importantly, this data deconvolution framework allows for structural heterogeneity between cells, and hence accounts for the expected plasticity of genome structures. As a case study we choose Drosophila melanogaster embryonic cells, for which both data types are available. Our three-dimensional genome structures have strong predictive power for structural features not directly visible in the initial data sets, and reproduce experimental hallmarks of the D. melanogaster genome organization from independent and our own imaging experiments. Also they reveal a number of new insights about genome organization and its functional relevance, including the preferred locations of heterochromatic satellites of different chromosomes, and observations about homologous pairing that cannot be directly observed in the original Hi-C or lamina-DamID data. Our approach allows systematic integration of Hi-C and lamina-DamID data for complete three-dimensional genome structure calculation, while also explicitly considering genome structural variability.
The Impact of Federal Homelessness Funding on Homelessness

Federal spending on homelessness has increased significantly in recent years. I estimate the relationship between federal homelessness funding and homeless counts in 2011, 2013, and 2015 cross sections. I instrument for funding using a community's pre-1940 housing share, a key variable in an originally unrelated funding formula borrowed for homelessness grants. Funding increases sheltered homelessness; meanwhile, funding is unrelated to unsheltered homelessness. Lower bound estimates suggest that the minimum cost of reducing unsheltered homelessness has increased over time, from $16,400 in 2011 to $20,800 in 2013 to $50,000 in 2015. In 2013, an additional $1 thousand dollars corresponds to a .309 higher homeless rate per 10,000 people. The effect is larger for families than individuals. Funding is positively related to chronic homelessness and is unrelated to youth and child homelessness. My results suggest limitations on federal funding's ability to reduce homelessness among some of the most marginalized groups in society.
POSSIBILITIES AND ADVANTAGES OF USING NEGATIVE PIONS IN RADIOTHERAPY.

Recent advances in accelerator technology make possible the attainment of very-high-intensity beams of protons at energies well above the pion-production threshold. It appears that both circular an...
Real-World Demonstrations of Novel Pedestrian Crosswalk Lighting

Outdoor urban pedestrian lighting serves multiple purposes and should do so in the most efficient and economic manner. An important purpose of outdoor urban pedestrian lighting is to support the safety of pedestrians, particularly those who interact with adjacent vehicle traffic, while enhancing pedestrians’ perceptions of personal safety and security. A review of published literature, as well as the demonstration activities summarized, indicates the potential for bollard-level crosswalk lighting to enhance pedestrian visibility and to improve safety at crosswalks, particularly at locations where the presence of a crosswalk might not be expected by approaching drivers. Such locations include midblock crossings, roundabouts, and locations near schools and other public venues that might experience high levels of pedestrian traffic at sporadic or unexpected times.
Active Control of Viscoelastic Systems by the Method of Receptance

Viscoelastic materials both stores and dissipate energies and have frequency and temperature dependent properties and hence by tuning and optimizing their damping (viscous) and stiffness (elastic) properties they can be used as passive controlling devices in wide range of vibration applications. If the control of viscoelastic systems (viscoelastic structures or structures composed of viscoelastic elements) to be realized by active means, then an accurate mathematical modeling of the viscoelastic system is needed. In practice, various material models and approximation techniques such as Biot model, Golla-Hughes-McTavish (GHM) model and Anelastic Displacement Field (ADF) methods are used to model the dynamic behavior of viscoelastic systems. These models are then transformed into approximating state space models which introduces several challenges: (i) they increase the size of the related eigenvalue problems, (ii) state space realization introduces non-physical internal state variables, and, (iii) the feedback control implementation poses practical challenges such as observer and state estimator design. In this research it is shown that the active control for viscoelastic structures can be designed accurately by only utilizing the available transfer functions. These transfer functions can be obtained from dynamic experiments and the active feedback control is designed without having the knowledge of approximated state-space system matrices. The problem associated with the active control for viscoelastic system is formulated as feedback control problems in frequency domain by using the receptance method. Active control for poles and zeros assignment of the viscoelastic systems is demonstrated using numerical examples associated with the multi-degree-degree of freedom systems. It is also shown that a nested active controller can also be designed for continuous structures (beams/rods) supported by viscoelastic elements. It is highlighted that such a controller design requires modest size of transfer functions and solution of the set of linear system of equations.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
Failure mode and effects analysis: A community practice perspective.

Purpose To report our early experiences with failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) in a community practice setting. Methods The FMEA facilitator received extensive training at the AAPM Summer School. Early efforts focused on department education and emphasized the need for process evaluation in the context of high profile radiation therapy accidents. A multidisciplinary team was assembled with representation from each of the major department disciplines. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) was identified as the most appropriate treatment technique for the first FMEA evaluation, as it is largely self-contained and has the potential to produce high impact failure modes. Process mapping was completed using breakout sessions, and then compiled into a simple electronic format. Weekly sessions were used to complete the FMEA evaluation. Risk priority number (RPN) values > 100 or severity scores of 9 or 10 were considered high risk. The overall time commitment was also tracked. Results The final SRS process map contained 15 major process steps and 183 subprocess steps. Splitting the process map into individual assignments was a successful strategy for our group. The process map was designed to contain enough detail such that another radiation oncology team would be able to perform our procedures. Continuous facilitator involvement helped maintain consistent scoring during FMEA. Practice changes were made responding to the highest RPN scores, and new resulting RPN scores were below our high-risk threshold. The estimated person-hour equivalent for project completion was 258 hr. Conclusions This report provides important details on the initial steps we took to complete our first FMEA, providing guidance for community practices seeking to incorporate this process into their quality assurance (QA) program. Determining the feasibility of implementing complex QA processes into different practice settings will take on increasing significance as the field of radiation oncology transitions into the new TG-100 QA paradigm.
Platooning Strategy for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Transition from Light Traffic:

This study presents a strategy for platoon formation and evolution of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in free-flow traffic. The proposed strategy is based on swarm intelligence, which describes bird flocking, fish schooling, and so on, in natural and artificial systems. In this concept, CAVs behave according to some rules to move together as a platoon without collisions. The rules are expressed by a spring–mass–damper system: CAV platoon formation and evolution are controlled by the spring constant and damping coefficient. Valid domains of these control parameters were derived on the basis of physical vehicle properties (e.g., bounded acceleration and deceleration) for realistic control. Furthermore, various relationships—maximum (in which the spring constant was set at its maximum for the given flow), quadratic, and cubic—between the control parameters and traffic flow were examined with simulations to obtain insight into desirable control parameter settings. The results suggest that the most ef...
Potential conditional mutual information: Estimators and properties

The conditional mutual information I(X; Y|Z) measures the average information that X and Y contain about each other given Z. This is an important primitive in many learning problems including conditional independence testing, graphical model inference, causal strength estimation and time-series problems. In several applications, it is desirable to have a functional purely of the conditional distribution p y|x, z rather than of the joint distribution p X, Y, Z . We define the potential conditional mutual information as the conditional mutual information calculated with a modified joint distribution p Y|X, Z q X, Z , where q X, Z is a potential distribution, fixed airport. We develop K nearest neighbor based estimators for this functional, employing importance sampling, and a coupling trick, and prove the finite k consistency of such an estimator. We demonstrate that the estimator has excellent practical performance and show an application in dynamical system inference.
Collaborating on the development and implementation of evidence-based practices: Advancing science and practice

AbstractImplementation Science has recently gained considerable attention for the discipline of Communication Sciences and Disorders as a promising means for closing the research–practice gap by proactively facilitating the use of evidence-based protocols in practice. One of the pillars of Implementation Science is collaboration between researchers and stakeholders. This article describes the benefits of researcher–stakeholder collaboration, along with the challenges. Different types of collaborative approaches are provided with specific examples. Guidelines for creating and sustaining successful collaborations are provided. The article concludes with an appeal for more research that brings together the talents and expertise of researchers and other stakeholders in conducting scientifically rigorous and practically important studies in ways that improves the likelihood of adoption and sustained use of evidence-based practices.
Electron heating in the laser and static electric and magnetic fields

A 2D slab approximation of the interactions of electrons with intense linearly polarized laser radiation and static electric and magnetic fields is widely used for both numerical simulations and simplified semi-analytical models. It is shown that in this case, electron dynamics can be conveniently described in the framework of the 3/2 dimensional Hamiltonian approach. The electron acceleration beyond a standard ponderomotive scaling, caused by the synergistic effects of the laser and static electro-magnetic fields, is due to an onset of stochastic electron motion.
Tuning Parameter Selection in Cox Proportional Hazards Model with a Diverging Number of Parameters

Regularized variable selection is a powerful tool for identifying the true regression model from a large number of candidates by applying penalties to the objective functions. The penalty functions typically involve a tuning parameter that control the complexity of the selected model. The ability of the regularized variable selection methods to identify the true model critically depends on the correct choice of the tuning parameter. In this study we develop a consistent tuning parameter selection method for regularized Cox's proportional hazards model with a diverging number of parameters. The tuning parameter is selected by minimizing the generalized information criterion. We prove that, for any penalty that possesses the oracle property, the proposed tuning parameter selection method identifies the true model with probability approaching one as sample size increases. Its finite sample performance is evaluated by simulations. Its practical use is demonstrated in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) breast cancer data.
Commuting-projector Hamiltonians for chiral topological phases built from parafermions

We introduce a family of commuting-projector Hamiltonians whose degrees of freedom involve ${\mathbb{Z}}_{3}$ parafermion zero modes residing in a parent fractional-quantum-Hall fluid. These commuting-projector models inherit nontrivial Hall conductance from the parent quantum-Hall states in which they are defined, and thus can describe chiral topological phases. The two simplest models in this family emerge from dressing Ising-paramagnet and toric-code spin models with parafermions; we study their edge properties, anyonic excitations, and ground-state degeneracy. We show that the first model realizes a symmetry-enriched topological phase (SET) for which ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ spin-flip symmetry from the Ising paramagnet permutes the anyons. Interestingly, the interface between this SET and the parent quantum-Hall phase realizes symmetry-enforced ${\mathbb{Z}}_{3}$ parafermion criticality with no fine-tuning required. The second model exhibits a non-Abelian phase that is consistent with $\text{SU}{(2)}_{4}$ topological order, and can be accessed by gauging the ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ symmetry in the SET. Employing Levin-Wen string-net models with ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$-graded structure, we generalize this picture to construct a large class of commuting-projector models for ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ SETs and non-Abelian topological orders exhibiting the same relation. Our construction provides the first commuting-projector-Hamiltonian realization of chiral bosonic non-Abelian topological order.
Linear-time list recovery of high-rate expander codes

Abstract We show that expander codes, when properly instantiated, are high-rate list recoverable codes with linear-time list recovery algorithms. List recoverable codes have applications to constructing efficiently list-decodable codes, as well as in compressed sensing and group testing. Previous list recoverable codes with linear-time decoding algorithms have all had rate at most 1/2; in contrast, our codes can have rate 1 − e for any e > 0 . We can plug our high-rate codes into a construction of Alon and Luby (1996), recently highlighted by Meir (2014) to obtain linear-time list recoverable codes of arbitrary rates R, which approach the optimal trade-off between the number of non-trivial lists provided and the rate of the code. A slight strengthening of our result would imply linear-time and optimally list-decodable codes for all rates. Thus, our result is a step in the direction of solving this important problem.
Dynamic resource allocation for shared data centers using online measurements

Since web workloads are known to vary dynamically with time, in this paper, we argue that dynamic resource allocation techniques are necessary to provide guarantees to web applications running on shared data centers. To address this issue, we use a system architecture that combines online measurements with prediction and resource allocation techniques. To capture the transient behavior of the application workloads, we model a server resource using a time-domain description of a generalized processor sharing (GPS) server. This model relates application resource requirements to their dynamically changing workload characteristics. The parameters of this model are continuously updated using an online monitoring and prediction framework. This framework uses time series analysis techniques to predict expected workload parameters from measured system metrics. We then employ a constrained non-linear optimization technique to dynamically allocate the server resources based on the estimated application requirements. The main advantage of our techniques is that they capture the transient behavior of applications while incorporating nonlinearity in the system model. We evaluate our techniques using simulations with synthetic as well as real-world web workloads. Our results show that these techniques can judiciously allocate system resources, especially under transient overload conditions.
Genetic variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease confer different cerebral cortex cell-type population structure

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by neuronal loss and astrocytosis in the cerebral cortex. However, the specific effects that pathological mutations and coding variants associated with AD have on the cellular composition of the brain are often ignored. We developed and optimized a cell-type-specific expression reference panel and employed digital deconvolution methods to determine brain cellular distribution in three independent transcriptomic studies. We found that neuronal and astrocyte relative proportions differ between healthy and diseased brains and also among AD cases that carry specific genetic risk variants. Brain carriers of pathogenic mutations in APP, PSEN1, or PSEN2 presented lower neuron and higher astrocyte relative proportions compared to sporadic AD. Similarly, the APOE e4 allele also showed decreased neuronal and increased astrocyte relative proportions compared to AD non-carriers. In contrast, carriers of variants in TREM2 risk showed a lower degree of neuronal loss compared to matched AD cases in multiple independent studies. These findings suggest that genetic risk factors associated with AD etiology have a specific imprinting in the cellular composition of AD brains. Our digital deconvolution reference panel provides an enhanced understanding of the fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, enabling the analysis of large bulk RNA-sequencing studies for cell composition and suggests that correcting for the cellular structure when performing transcriptomic analysis will lead to novel insights of AD.
Projecting battery adoption in the prosumer era

Abstract Solar photovoltaic (PV) has the potential to make an important contribution to global sustainability, however, the misalignment between solar production and residential demand presents challenges for widespread PV adoption. Combining PV and storage is one way that this challenge can be overcome. In this work, we use one year of smart meter data from 369 consumers in three different US regions and calculate their economic benefits from both PV and coupled PV-battery systems. We consider a range of different electricity pricing schemes from the consumer regions, including both Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) and Net-Energy-Metering (NEM) policies. Significantly, our work uses real demand data, real PV generation data and optimizes each individual consumer’s battery operation to minimize their electricity bill. Furthermore, we study the effect of batteries on consumer self-sufficiency, which is important because increasing self-sufficiency is a primary motivating factor behind battery adoption. We find that PV is profitable for the majority of consumers with most current pricing scenarios but PV-battery systems are always less profitable. However, batteries can provide very significant increases in self-sufficiency and we find that a majority of consumers can exceed 70% self-sufficiency with a 20 kW h battery and a PV system that produces the equivalent of their consumption. This is compared to an average self-sufficiency of 35% with PV only. Finally, recognizing that a number of factors could lead to profitable batteries in future, we study the sensitivity of battery profitability to future electricity prices in a FIT scenario, also accounting for future decreases in PV and battery costs. We find that if PV-battery systems are to become better investments than PV-only for the majority of consumers, retail electricity prices above $0.40/kW h and FIT rates below $0.05/kW h are a likely requirement.
Aerosol-Radiation-Cloud Interactions in the South-East Atlantic: Results from the ORACLES-2016 Deployment and a First Look at ORACLES-2017 and Beyond

Seasonal biomass burning (BB) in Southern Africa during the Southern hemisphere spring produces almost a third of the Earth's BB aerosol particles. These particles are lofted into the mid-troposphere and transported westward over the South-East (SE) Atlantic, where they interact with one of the three semi-permanent subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) cloud decks in the world. These interactions include adjustments to aerosol-induced solar heating and microphysical effects. The representation of these interactions in climate models remains highly uncertain, because of the scarcity of observational constraints on both, the aerosol and cloud properties, and the governing physical processes. The first deployment of the NASA P-3 and ER-2 aircraft in the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols Above Clouds and Their IntEractionS) project in August/September of 2016 has started to fill this observational gap by providing an unprecedented look at the SE Atlantic cloud-aerosol system. We provide an overview of the first deployment, highlighting aerosol absorptive and cloud-nucleating properties, their vertical distribution relative to clouds, the locations and degree of aerosol mixing into clouds, cloud changes in response to such mixing, and cloud top stability relationships to the aerosol. We also expect to describe preliminary results of the second ORACLES deployment from Sao Tome and Pri­ncipe in August 2017. We will make an initial assessment of the differences and similarities of the BB plume and cloud properties as observed from a deployment site near the plume's northern edge. We will conclude with an outlook for the third ORACLES deployment in October 2018.
Fully Automated Hydroponic System for Indoor Plant Growth

Abstract Growing certain plants and vegetables in remote areas such as deserts and the north and south pole can be a challenge because of the extreme outside weather. Very few species of plants thrive in such situations and are often not used as a food source [1]. In this study, we created a system that can grow common plants and vegetables and can operate without depending on the outside climate. We achieved this by using a technique called Hydroponics. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without using soil [2]. The system was automated using microcontrollers and sensors to keep human intervention at a minimum. An Internet of Things (IoT) network was created to improve reliability and allow remote monitoring and control if needed. The user is only required to plant a seedling and set initial parameters. Once done, the system is able to maintain the parameters and promote healthy plant growth.
Complete Transcriptome Profiling of Normal and Age-Related Macular Degeneration Eye Tissues Reveals Dysregulation of Anti-Sense Transcription

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) predominantly affects the retina and retinal pigment epithelium in the posterior eye. While there are numerous studies investigating the non-coding transcriptome of retina and RPE, few significant differences between AMD and normal tissues have been reported. Strand specific RNA sequencing of both peripheral retina (PR) and RPE-Choroid-Sclera (PRCS), in both AMD and matched normal controls were generated. The transcriptome analysis reveals a highly significant and consistent impact on anti-sense transcription as well as moderate changes in the regulation of non-coding (sense) RNA. Hundreds of genes that do not express anti-sense transcripts in normal PR and PRCS demonstrate significant anti-sense expression in AMD in all patient samples. Several pathways are highly enriched in the upregulated anti-sense transcripts—in particular the EIF2 signaling pathway. These results call for a deeper exploration into anti-sense and noncoding RNA regulation in AMD and their potential as therapeutic targets.
Factors Contributing To Geographic Variation In End-Of-Life Expenditures For Cancer Patients

Health care spending in the months before death varies across geographic areas but is not associated with outcomes. Using data from the prospective multiregional Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance Consortium (CanCORS) study, we assessed the extent to which such variation is explained by differences in patients’ sociodemographic factors, clinical factors, and beliefs; physicians’ beliefs; and the availability of services. Among 1,132 patients ages sixty-five and older who were diagnosed with lung or colorectal cancer in 2003–05, had advanced-stage cancer, died before 2013, and were enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare, mean expenditures in the last month of life were $13,663. Physicians in higher-spending areas reported less knowledge about and comfort with treating dying patients and less positive attitudes about hospice, compared to those in lower-spending areas. Higher-spending areas also had more physicians and fewer primary care providers and hospices in proportion to their total populatio...
Multi-Information Source Fusion and Optimization to Realize ICME: Application to Dual-Phase Materials

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation through Grant No. NSF CMMI-1663130, DEMS: Multi-Information Source Value of Information Based Design of Multiphase Structural Materials. Arroyave would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation through Grant No. NSF CMMI-1534534, DMREF: Accelerating the Development of Phase-Transforming Heterogeneous Materials: Application to High-Temperature Shape Memory Alloys. Allaire and Arroyave would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation through Grant No. NSF DGE-1545403, NRT-DESE: Data-Enabled Discovery and Design of Energy Materials (D3EM).
Paradoxical LTP maintenance with inhibition of protein synthesis and the proteasome suggests a novel protein synthesis requirement for early LTP reversal

Abstract The transition from early long-term potentiation (E-LTP) to late long-term potentiation (L-LTP) is a multistep process that involves both protein synthesis and degradation. The ways in which these two opposing processes interact to establish L-LTP are not well understood, however. For example, L -LTP is attenuated by inhibiting either protein synthesis or proteasome-dependent degradation prior to and during a tetanic stimulus (e.g., Huang et al., 1996 , Karpova et al., 2006 ), but paradoxically, L-LTP is not attenuated when synthesis and degradation are inhibited simultaneously ( Fonseca et al., 2006 ). These paradoxical results suggest that counter-acting ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ proteins regulate L-LTP. To investigate the basis of this paradox, we developed a model of LTP at the Schaffer collateral to CA1 pyramidal cell synapse. The model consists of nine ordinary differential equations that describe the levels of both positive- and negative-regulator proteins (PP and NP, respectively) and the transitions among five discrete synaptic states, including a basal state (BAS), three states corresponding to E-LTP (EP1, EP2, and ED), and a L-LTP state (LP). An LTP-inducing stimulus: 1) initiates the transition from BAS to EP1 and from EP1 to EP2; 2) initiates the synthesis of PP and NP; and finally; 3) activates the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), which in turn, mediates transitions of EP1 and EP2 to ED and the degradation of NP. The conversion of E-LTP to L -LTP is mediated by the PP-dependent transition from ED to LP, whereas NP mediates reversal of EP2 to BAS. We found that the inclusion of the five discrete synaptic states was necessary to simulate key empirical observations: 1) normal L -LTP, 2) block of L -LTP by either proteasome inhibitor or protein synthesis inhibitor alone, and 3) preservation of L -LTP when both inhibitors are applied together. Although our model is abstract, elements of the model can be correlated with specific molecular processes. Moreover, the model correctly captures the dynamics of protein synthesis- and degradation-dependent phases of LTP, and it makes testable predictions, such as a unique synaptic state (ED) that precedes the transition from E-LTP to L -LTP, and a well-defined time window for the action of the UPS (i.e., during the transitions from EP1 and EP2 to ED). Tests of these predictions will provide new insights into the processes and dynamics of long-term synaptic plasticity.
Epitranscriptomic code and its alterations in human disease

Innovations in epitranscriptomics have resulted in the identification of more than 160 RNA modifications to date. These developments, together with the recent discovery of writers, readers, and erasers of modifications occurring across a wide range of RNAs and tissue types, have led to a surge in integrative approaches for transcriptome-wide mapping of modifications and protein-RNA interaction profiles of epitranscriptome players. RNA modification maps and crosstalk between them have begun to elucidate the role of modifications as signaling switches, entertaining the notion of an epitranscriptomic code as a driver of the post-transcriptional fate of RNA. Emerging single-molecule sequencing technologies and development of antibodies specific to various RNA modifications could enable charting of transcript-specific epitranscriptomic marks across cell types and their alterations in disease.
The relationship among depressive symptoms, urgency, and problematic alcohol and cannabis use in community adults

Abstract Background This study examined alternative models for how negative and positive urgency influence the relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol and cannabis use in a community sample. Methods Participants included adults (n = 675; age = 42.57, SD = 15.66; 65.0% female; 74.2% White) in the community sample from the Rockland Project by the Nathan Kline Institute. Path analyses were conducted. Results Negative urgency was a unique mediator in the relationship between depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol use (β =0.121, 95% CI = 0.060–0.182) and problematic cannabis use (β =0.120, 95% CI = 0.060–0.179). Negative and positive urgency significantly moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and problematic cannabis use (negative urgency: β = 0.092, 95% CI = 0.040–0.145; positive urgency: β = 0.070, 95% CI = 0.022–0.119), such that the relationship was positive at high levels and negative at low levels of urgency. The patterns and levels of the relationships between depressive symptoms and cannabis use differed between negative and positive urgency. Neither urgency trait moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol use. Conclusions Despite being strongly related, negative and positive urgency have distinct roles in the relationship between depressive symptoms and problematic alcohol and cannabis use. Previous finding with younger samples that do not include both traits in the model at time generalize and at other times do not replicate, which warrants the continued examination of how these traits impart risk across the lifespan.
Frame-Induced Group Polarization in Small Discussion Networks:

We present a novel explanation for the group polarization effect whereby discussion among like-minded individuals induces shifts toward the extreme. Our theory distinguishes between a quantitative ...
Transitions From Career Employment Among Public- and Private-Sector Workers

Do the retirement patterns of public-sector workers differ from those in the private sector? The latter typically face a retirement landscape with exposure to market uncertainties through defined-contribution pension plans and private saving. Public-sector workers, in contrast, are often covered by defined-benefit pension plans that encourage retirement at relatively young ages and offer financial security at older ages. We examine how private- and public-sector workers transition from full-time career employment, with a focus on the importance of gradual retirement. To our surprise, we find that the prevalence of continued work after career employment, predominantly on bridge jobs with new employers, is very similar in the two sectors, a result with important implications in a rapidly aging society.
New developments for seam quality monitoring in sewing applications

The automation of sewing machinery requires that sensing be added to insure quality of the stitching. This paper describes the use of piezoelectric technology to indirectly monitor sewing thread consumption which allows an inference of seam quality. An inexpensive microprocessor system is employed to monitor the sensor. The technology developed is reliable and applicable to a wide range of sewing machinery.