cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-term financing needs for HIV control in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015-2050: a modelling study.

Objectives To estimate the present value of current and future funding needed for HIV treatment and prevention in 9 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that account for 70% of HIV burden in Africa under different scenarios of intervention scale-up. To analyse the gaps between current expenditures and funding obligation, and discuss the policy implications of future financing needs. Design We used the Goals module from Spectrum, and applied the most up-to-date cost and coverage data to provide a range of estimates for future financing obligations. The four different scale-up scenarios vary by treatment initiation threshold and service coverage level. We compared the model projections to current domestic and international financial sources available in selected SSA countries. Results In the 9 SSA countries, the estimated resources required for HIV prevention and treatment in 2015–2050 range from US$98 billion to maintain current coverage levels for treatment and prevention with eligibility for treatment initiation at CD4 count of <500/mm3 to US$261 billion if treatment were to be extended to all HIV-positive individuals and prevention scaled up. With the addition of new funding obligations for HIV—which arise implicitly through commitment to achieve higher than current treatment coverage levels—overall financial obligations (sum of debt levels and the present value of the stock of future HIV funding obligations) would rise substantially. Conclusions Investing upfront in scale-up of HIV services to achieve high coverage levels will reduce HIV incidence, prevention and future treatment expenditures by realising long-term preventive effects of ART to reduce HIV transmission. Future obligations are too substantial for most SSA countries to be met from domestic sources alone. New sources of funding, in addition to domestic sources, include innovative financing. Debt sustainability for sustained HIV response is an urgent imperative for affected countries and donors.
Hebrew Hesed and Greek Charis

The Greek and other early renderings of Hebrew ḥesed and its adjective ḥāsid only complicate the exegesis the more because of the contradictory renderings given, e.g. in Greek ἔλeος, ὅσιος, ὁσιότης, in Latin ‘misericordia,’ ‘sanctus.’ With fine sense the translators of the English Bible invented a new word for the noun, ‘lovingkindness.’ Similarly the Christian word χάρις = Latin ‘gratia,’ coming down from the New Testament, has had its many-faceted history. The modern use of the word is complicated by the concurrence of Classical and Biblical tradition. The Christian asks for God's grace, and yet renders Him grace at meals, and indifferently speaks of the grace of physical form and bearing, while ‘gratitude’ and ‘graciousness’ have their particular denotations.
Electronic Properties of Si - Ge Micro Nipi Structures

Electronic properties of the n-doping--insulator--p-doping--insulator structures in ultra thin strained [001] Si - Ge superlattice have been studied theoretically. The Ge - layer is used as one of the insulating region. The Al and As atoms are treated as impurities. The superlattice ((Si)10 -(Ge)2) exhibits an indirect gap in reciprocal space and the staggered band alignment in real space. With doping, the samples show a direct band gap and staggered band alignment. The acceptor state is associated with the Al-Si bonding state, while the donor state is derived from the As s-like state. The separation of the charge carriers in the real space can be obtained.
zExpander: a key-value cache with both high performance and fewer misses

While key-value (KV) cache, such as memcached, dedicates a large volume of expensive memory to holding performance-critical data, it is important to improve memory efficiency, or to reduce cache miss ratio without adding more memory. As we find that optimizing replacement algorithms is of limited effect for this purpose, a promising approach is to use a compact data organization and data compression to increase effective cache size. However, this approach has the risk of degrading the cache's performance due to additional computation cost. A common perception is that a high-performance KV cache is not compatible with use of data compacting techniques. In this paper, we show that, by leveraging highly skewed data access pattern common in real-world KV cache workloads, we can both reduce miss ratio through improved memory efficiency and maintain high performance for a KV cache. Specifically, we design and implement a KV cache system, named zExpander, which dynamically partitions the cache into two sub-caches. One serves frequently accessed data for high performance, and the other compacts data and metadata for high memory efficiency to reduce misses. Experiments show that zExpander can increase memcached's effective cache size by up to 2x and reduce miss ratio by up to 46%. When integrated with a cache of a higher performance, its advantages remain. For example, with 24 threads on a YCSB workload zExpander can achieve throughput of 32 million RPS with 36% of its cache misses removed.
Study Summary about Chinese Modern Words of a Song

This paper is the first document summary in the study field of modern Chinese words of a song.It selects and appraises 70 documents,Chinese modern words of a song are divided into six sections: 1.establishing a theoretical efforts of a discipline;2.studies on the history of modern Chinese words of a song;3.cultural studies on modern words of a song;4.creation method study on modern words of a song;5.the writer of modern words of a song and works theory;6.typical science study and interdisciplinary study on modern words a song.
Development of Private Economy Clusters and The Promotion of Their Competitiveness

With the external environment remarkably improved,the internal restraints to the competitiveness of business firms became the adverse factors preventing private businesses from further developing.Improvement of private business competitiveness calls for an upgrading of private business clusters into industry clusters with regional characteristics that boast their independent intellectual property that have been developed through refined labor division led by the leader enterprises and supported by the government.
The Analysis of Trends on Mortality of Male Residents Lung and Stomach Cancer in Maanshan City from 1983 to 2004

Objective In order to provide a scientific basis for preventing and controlling lung and stomach cancer, the changes of mortality rates of male lung and stomach cancer of residents in Maanshan city from 1983 to 2004 were compared and analyzed and more.Methods The data was summarized in code according to ICD-9 and ICD-10 and treated with the software on death causes of nationwide residents diseases and injuries.Results The standardized mortality rates of malignant tumor, lung cancer and stomach cancer were respectively 166.61, 45.83 and 40.77 per 100,000 from 1983 to 2004 in male residents of Maanshan city. The first death cause was stomach cancer. The second was lung cancer. The mortality of stomach cancer was taking on a trend of decrease, while one of lung cancer revealed a trend of increase.Conclusions The lung cancer was one of the most familiar malignant tumor, especially in males and should be paid great attention to.
Long-Term Quality of Life in Prostate Cancer Patients Treated with Cesium-131

Abstract Purpose Prostate brachytherapy as monotherapy or in combination with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) represents a curative treatment option for men with prostate cancer. Of the radioactive isotopes approved for use in prostate brachytherapy, Cesium-131 (Cs-131) is the newest to market and has the shortest half-life. This property may impact resolution of acute voiding toxicities associated with brachytherapy. The aim of this study is to evaluate long-term patient-reported quality of life (QOL) scores in men treated at our institution with Cs-131 prostate brachytherapy. Materials and Methods Patients treated greater than 4 years ago with Cs-131 (n=290) were asked to fill out an Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) QOL questionnaire and American Urological Association Symptom Score (AUASS) survey, before treatment and at each follow-up appointment. We compared patients' EPIC and AUA scores at baseline to scores at a last follow-up of at least 4 years post-treatment using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results At a median last follow-up of 5.5 years post-treatment with Cs-131 prostate brachytherapy, there were no clinically significant changes in the EPIC or AUA scores from baseline. There was statistical worsening in the EPIC urinary incontinence subscore. Subset analyses revealed improved QOL outcomes in patients who received EBRT or alpha-blocker therapy (ABT), while androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was not associated with differences in QOL change. Conclusions Our results demonstrate minimal long-term changes in urinary or bowel patient reported quality of life with Cs-131 prostate brachytherapy. These findings suggest that patients treated with this isotope are able to recover and then maintain their baseline quality of life in the long term.
Utilizing Sphingosine-1-Phosphate to Stimulate Sprouting Angiogenesis

In vitro models are useful for dissecting cell behavior under controlled conditions. Angiogenesis is a multistep process where endothelial cells (ECs) are activated by pro-angiogenic factors to degrade the basement membrane, migrate into the surrounding matrix, and form sprouting structures connecting neighboring vessels. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a biologically active sphingolipid, promotes vessel morphogenesis and angiogenesis during embryonic development and in adults under normal and pathological conditions via its actions on ECs. Here, we describe an in vitro endothelial morphogenic assay that is significantly enhanced by S1P. This method allows for testing whether molecules and their related signaling pathways regulate the initiation of angiogenic sprouts stimulated by S1P, as well as whether individual compounds have pro- or anti-angiogenic properties.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF LABORATORY AND ANIMAL DATA ON TAMOXIFEN

Tamoxifen is being evaluated in clinical trials as a preventive agent in women at high risk for breast cancer. This new, potentially long-term therapeutic role has generated some concerns regarding safety, based on the results of
Born Again: The Pipe Organ as Jazz Instrument

Waller’s series of pipe organ recordings for Victor in the late 1920s constitutes a repertoire unique in the history of jazz. No other major figure made so many jazz recordings of such consistently high quality on the pipe organ. Given both the nominal similarity between organ and piano keyboards, and the number of jazz pianists making records during this era, one could ask why no strong and productive jazz tradition for the pipe organ evolved. Despite the apparent similarities, however, substantial differences do exist between the organ and the piano, differences Waller exploited. A close look at the intrinsic nature of each instrument and at the circumstances surrounding Waller’s early efforts on the pipe organ may help illuminate both the significance of Waller’s achievement and the reasons it was never duplicated.
A real-time digital-microfluidic platform for epigenetics

Advances in digital-microfluidic biochips have led to miniaturized platforms that can implement biomolecular assays. However, these designs are not adequate for running multiple sample pathways because they consider unrealistic static schedules; hence runtime adaptation based on assay outcomes is not supported and only a rigid path of bioassays can be run on the chip. We present a design framework that performs fluidic task assignment, scheduling, and dynamic decision-making for quantitative epigenetics. We first describe our benchtop experimental studies to understand the relevance of chromatin structure on the regulation of gene function and its relationship to biochip design specifications. The proposed method models biochip design in terms of real-time multiprocessor scheduling and utilizes a heuristic algorithm to solve this NP-hard problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is computationally efficient and it generates effective solutions for multiple sample pathways on a resource-limited biochip. We also present experimental results using an embedded microcontroller as a testbed.
Leukocyte Telomere Length in Relation to 17 Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease Risk: A Cross-Sectional Study of US Adults.

Author(s): Rehkopf, David H; Needham, Belinda L; Lin, Jue; Blackburn, Elizabeth H; Zota, Ami R; Wojcicki, Janet M; Epel, Elissa S | Abstract: BackgroundLeukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a putative biological marker of immune system age, and there are demonstrated associations between LTL and cardiovascular disease. This may be due in part to the relationship of LTL with other biomarkers associated with cardiovascular disease risk. However, the strength of associations between LTL and adiposity, metabolic, proinflammatory, and cardiovascular biomarkers has not been systematically evaluated in a United States nationally representative population.Methods and findingsWe examined associations between LTL and 17 cardiovascular biomarkers, including lipoproteins, blood sugar, circulatory pressure, proinflammatory markers, kidney function, and adiposity measures, in adults ages 20 to 84 from the cross-sectional US nationally representative 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (n = 7,252), statistically adjusting for immune cell type distributions. We also examine whether these associations differed systematically by age, race/ethnicity, gender, education, and income. We found that a one unit difference in the following biomarkers were associated with kilobase pair differences in LTL: BMI -0.00478 (95% CI -0.00749--0.00206), waist circumference -0.00211 (95% CI -0.00325--0.000969), percentage of body fat -0.00516 (95% CI -0.00761--0.0027), high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol 0.00179 (95% CI 0.000571-0.00301), triglycerides -0.000285 (95% CI -0.000555--0.0000158), pulse rate -0.00194 (95% CI -0.00317--0.000705), C-reactive protein -0.0363 (95% CI 0.0601--0.0124), cystatin C -0.0391 (95% CI -0.0772--0.00107). When using clinical cut-points we additionally found associations between LTL and insulin resistance -0.0412 (95% CI -0.0685--0.0139), systolic blood pressure 0.0455 (95% CI 0.00137-0.0897), and diastolic blood pressure -0.0674 (95% CI -0.126--0.00889). These associations were 10%-15% greater without controlling for leukocyte cell types. There were very few differences in the associations by age, race/ethnicity, gender, education, or income. Our findings are relevant to the relationships between these cardiovascular biomarkers in the general population but not to cardiovascular disease as a clinical outcome.ConclusionsLTL is most strongly associated with adiposity, but is also associated with biomarkers across several physiological systems. LTL may thus be a predictor of cardiovascular disease through its association with multiple risk factors that are physiologically correlated with risk for development of cardiovascular disease. Our results are consistent with LTL being a biomarker of cardiovascular aging through established physiological mechanisms.
Tri(1-adamantyl)phosphine: Exceptional Catalytic Effects Enabled by the Synergy of Chemical Stability, Donicity, and Polarizability

Tri(1-adamantyl)phosphine, a simple yet long-absent homoleptic phosphine, has finally been prepared. The simplicity of this compound beguiles its exceptional properties. The electron-releasing character eclipses all other alkylphosphines. The phosphine geometry and overall size are also more compact than anticipated, which may occur as a result of dispersion forces. We believe the donicity, marked resistance towards cyclometallation or P−C bond scission, and also substantial polarizability engendered by the three diamondoid fragments together account for the phenomenal performance of Pd-PAd3 catalysts during Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions. A correlation analysis is also described that provides support for polarizability as a potentially general influence on the properties of tertiary phosphines. 1 Introduction 2 Synthesis of Tri(1-adamantyl)phosphine 3 Reactions of Tri(1-adamantyl)phosphine Palladium Complexes 4 Electronic and Steric Properties of Tri(1-adamantyl)phosphine 5 Conclusion
Bubbles as a Means for the Deaeration of Water Bodies

AbstractOccasional dissolved-air supersaturation—such as may occur, for instance, downstream of dams—is harmful to fish because it causes gas bubble disease. A counterintuitive but effective means ...
Neuroendocrine Consequences of Sexual Behavior

Reproduction is the product of behavioral and physiological integration. Classically, investigations of reproduction treated behavior as resulting from internal (physiological) and external (environmental) factors. More recently, behavior has been recognized as a causal agent in the control of reproductive physiology as well.
Stem cells: Cell therapy for cardiac repair: what is needed to move forward?

The ESC has updated its 2006 consensus statement on clinical investigation of autologous adult stem cells for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction and heart failure. This initiative by a group of leaders in the field stimulates much-needed reflection and provides guidance to make cell therapy a clinical reality. Here, we offer our own perspective.
Differential neural activation when voluntarily regulating emotions in service members with chronic mild traumatic brain injury.

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to characterize the functional activation of the neural correlates of voluntary regulation of emotion in soldiers both with and without chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a battery of cognitive and psychological health measures, we assessed differences between active-duty U.S. soldiers with chronic mTBI (n = 37) and without (Controls, n = 35). Participants were instructed to maintain (passively view), enhance, and suppress emotions associated with negative and neutral visual stimuli. The mTBI group showed significantly greater clinical symptoms, but only a mild decrement in attention. Group contrasts, while controlling for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, revealed a differential neural activation pattern compared to controls, but only during the enhance condition. Specifically, the mTBI group showed greater activation in the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobe, insu...
TCT-234 Trends Of Access And Operative Volume Of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement In The Unites States- Descriptive Analysis

Transfemoral (TF) and transapical (TA) approaches are the two most common routs for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). There is little known about the real world utilization of these approaches and their in-hospital clinical outcomes. Patients who underwent TAVR (n=40900) between 2012
Origin of Photoluminescence of Ag25(SR)18– Nanoparticles: Ligand and Doping Effect

Recent theoretical insights into the origin of photoluminescence of thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters raise the question of whether the observed luminescence mechanism is valid for related silver nanoparticles. To this end, we perform density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations on the Ag25(SR)18– (R = H, PhMe2) nanocluster, which is currently the only thiolate-protected silver cluster that has a matching analogue in gold. The geometric and electronic structural modifications of Ag25(SH)18– upon photoexcitation are found to be similar but less pronounced than those of Au25(SH)18– at the same level of theory. The Stokes shift is calculated to be 0.37 eV and the replacement of R = H model ligands by R = PhMe2 decreases the Stokes shift in contrast to the increase in Stokes shift for aliphatic ligands previously observed in the Au25 system. The calculated emission energy agrees well with the experimental photoluminescence energy when the typical underes...
Bronchial Mismatch as a Predictor of Respiratory Failure After Congenital Tracheal Stenosis Repair

Background The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of postoperative respiratory failure after surgical tracheoplasty for congenital tracheal stenosis. Methods Between February 2011 and April 2017, 16 infants underwent congenital tracheal stenosis repair. Preoperative computed tomography evaluation of the trachea and mainstem bronchi was performed. The primary outcome was midterm freedom from postoperative respiratory failure defined as persistent need for mechanical ventilation or surgical tracheobronchial reoperation. Bronchial mismatch, defined as [1 − (smaller bronchus diameter / larger bronchus diameter)] × 100, was analyzed in relation to the primary outcome. Results Median age was 106 days (range, 1 to 406) and median weight was 5.3 kg (range, 2.6 to 8 kg). Four patients were neonates (25%) and 6 had genetic abnormalities (37.5%). There were no early nor late deaths. Median ventilation time was 5.5 days (range, 3 to 45). Mean follow-up time was 2.2 years (range, 0.1 to 4.5). Four patients with bronchial mismatch greater than 20% had postoperative respiratory failure ( p = 0.002). Two of them underwent tracheostomy and were discharged with ventilation home care support. One underwent successful reoperation consisting of bilateral bronchial plasty with autologous cartilage rib grafts, and the other underwent successful right bronchial and tracheal reconstruction. One patient with bilateral bronchial hypoplasia underwent slide tracheoplasty associated with preemptive bilateral bronchial plasty and made a full recovery. Conclusions Surgical treatment of congenital tracheal stenosis in neonates and infants portends a good outcome. Bronchial mismatch greater than 20% can identify a subset of patients at increased risk for surgical reintervention and chronic respiratory failure. Slide tracheoplasty with preemptive bronchial reconstruction may prevent postoperative respiratory failure.
Meet the Majors: Michigan State University Major and Minor Clubs

(1958). Meet the Majors. Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation: Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 70-70.
OP045: Potentiation of cetuximab by inhibition of tregs in metastatic squamous cell cancers of head and neck

Introduction There are few effective treatment options for patients with metastatic squamous cell cancers of head and neck (HNSCC). The only significant advance in the last few decades has been the use of cetuximab, as a monoclonal antibody directed against the overexpressed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Cetuximab binds EGFR on tumor cells making them targets for natural killer (NK) cell-mediated lysis. The effectiveness of cetuximab is limited by the tumor mediated immune-suppression that inhibits NK and other effector cells. The current clinical trial is directed to abrogate this immune-suppression by selectively targeting the inhibitory regulatory T cells (Tregs) using cyclophosphamide to assess the potentiation of immunological and clinical response to cetuximab. Methods 10–15 eligible patients will receive daily oral cyclophosphamide and weekly cetuximab. Patients will have blood collected for immune monitoring at weeks 0,3,6,12 and biopsies at week 0,6. Tcell subsets, NK-cell, Treg and MDSC will be measured by immune-phenotyping in the peripheral blood. Intra-tumoral response will be assessed by IHC staining of tumor tissue for Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, NK cells, MDSC and inhibitory Tregs. Simultaneous assessment of the immune response in blood and tumor tissue will help elucidate the immune response to treatment and possibly establish biomarkers. Anticipated results The proposed hypothesis will test if whether cyclophosphamide can be used to deplete the inhibitory Tregs and improve efficacy of cetuximab, thereby offering an effective and well-tolerated option for patients with locally advanced metastatic HNSCC. Discussion This will be the first study to demonstrate T-reg depletion as a strategy to harness immune response to tumor and potentiate the effects of cetuximab and will provide proof of principle for targeting immunosuppression. The potential to transform the management of patients with early cancers is even greater, where the intent is curative, immune system is more intact and tumor burden is low. Because immune-deregulation applies to virtually all malignancies, this strategy targeting immune-deregulation will lead to a paradigm shift in how we manage broad range of malignancies.
The prognostic significance of adrenocortical carcinomas identified incidentally.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Little is known regarding the difference in prognosis among patients who have an incidentally discovered adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) vs those who present with signs or symptoms. We aimed to explore differences in the outcomes of these two populations. METHODS Data were collected on patients who underwent resection of ACC at 1 of 13 institutions between January 1993 and December 2014. Presentations were categorized as incidental vs symptomatic and outcomes were compared. RESULTS Among 227 patients, 100 were diagnosed incidentally while 127 patients presented with symptoms/signs. Clinical and pathological features were comparable among incidental vs nonincidental patients with ACC following the exceptions. Patients with incidentalomas were more likely to have a T1/T2 tumor (55.8% vs 34.8%; P < 0.01) and less likely to have a functional tumor (33.7% vs 47.9%; P = 0.04). Patients with an incidental ACC had improved median recurrence-free survival (RFS; 29.4 months) compared with patients with a nonincidental ACC (13.0 months; P = 0.03); however, on multivariable analysis, incidental ACC was not an independent predictor of survival. CONCLUSIONS Patients with resected ACC identified incidentally had an improved RFS compared with the patients who presented with symptoms or signs. This difference may be related to the patients with incidental tumors having earlier T-stage disease.
Evaluating Thyroid Function Tests in Patients with Kidney Disease

Disorders of thyroid function, especially hypothyroidism, are more prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD), compared to the general population. While tests for thyroid function are among the most common hormonal tests ordered, the interpretation of thyroid function tests can be obscured by multiple entities in patients with renal disease, including non-thyroidal illness syndrome (NTI), malnutrition, inflammation, iodine retention, metabolic acidosis, medications, mineral deficiencies, and dialysis. Several studies have shown that both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in CKD and ESRD. It is important, then, to understand which thyroid function test results represent authentic thyroid dysfunction, rather than changes secondary to renal disease.
Design of an Area-Scalable Two-Layer Evaporator Wick for High-Heat-Flux Vapor Chambers

A hybrid two-layer evaporator wick is proposed for passive, high-heat-flux dissipation over large areas using a vapor chamber heat spreader. For such applications, the evaporator wick layer must be designed to simultaneously minimize the device temperature rise and minimize the flow resistance to a capillary feeding of the wick. This requires a strategy that exploits the benefits of a thin wick for reduced thermal resistance and a thick wick for liquid feeding. In the present design, a thick cap layer of wick material evenly routes liquid to a thin, low-thermal-resistance base layer through an array of vertical liquid-feeding posts. This two-layer structure decouples the functions of liquid resupply (cap layer) and capillary-fed boiling heat transfer (base layer), making the design scalable to heat input areas of ~1 cm2 for operation at 1 kW/cm2. A reduced-order model is developed to demonstrate the potential performance of a vapor chamber incorporating such a two-layer evaporator wick design. The model comprises simplified hydraulic and thermal resistance networks for predicting the capillary-limited maximum heat flux and the overall thermal resistance, respectively. The reduced-order model is validated against a higher fidelity numerical model and then used to analyze the performance of the vapor chamber with varying two-layer wick geometric feature sizes. The two-layer wick design is found to sustain liquid feeding at higher heat fluxes, without reaching the capillary limit, compared to single-layer evaporator wick designs.
The Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine: an anatomy of the Holodomor: by Stanislav Kulchytsky/translated by Ali Kinsella/preface by Bohdan Klid, Toronto, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2018, xxii + 175 pp., US$31.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-894865-53-1

Tasked with developing an official Soviet response to the United States Commission on the Ukraine Famine, Stanislav Kulchytsky began his Holodomor research in the 1980s. One of the first Ukrainian ...
Finding semantic bugs in file systems with an extensible fuzzing framework

File systems are too large to be bug free. Although handwritten test suites have been widely used to stress file systems, they can hardly keep up with the rapid increase in file system size and complexity, leading to new bugs being introduced and reported regularly. These bugs come in various flavors: simple buffer overflows to sophisticated semantic bugs. Although bug-specific checkers exist, they generally lack a way to explore file system states thoroughly. More importantly, no turnkey solution exists that unifies the checking effort of various aspects of a file system under one umbrella. In this paper, we highlight the potential of applying fuzzing to find not just memory errors but, in theory, any type of file system bugs with an extensible fuzzing framework: Hydra. Hydra provides building blocks for file system fuzzing, including input mutators, feedback engines, a libOS-based executor, and a bug reproducer with test case minimization. As a result, developers only need to focus on building the core logic for finding bugs of their own interests. We showcase the effectiveness of Hydra with four checkers that hunt crash inconsistency, POSIX violations, logic assertion failures, and memory errors. So far, Hydra has discovered 91 new bugs in Linux file systems, including one in a verified file system (FSCQ), as well as four POSIX violations.
Two-Tier Market Institutions

This paper models a hierarchical system for market governance. A monitoring agency detects any opportunistic behavior in each small submarket or lower tier, using the superior information available at that level. Trade can occur across sub-markets. A small upper-level group of submarket monitors arranges communication of the news of any cheating in one sub-market to all other sub-markets. I examine when and how such a system can overcome the diminishing returns to information acquisition and communication that have limited the scope and size of self-governing trading communities in the past. I then offer tentative suggestions for governance of globalized markets.
Single-cell RNA sequencing of Trypanosoma brucei from tsetse salivary glands unveils metacyclogenesis and identifies potential transmission blocking antigens

Tsetse-transmitted African trypanosomes must develop into mammalian-infectious metacyclic cells in the fly’s salivary glands (SGs) before transmission to a new host. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this developmental process, known as metacyclogenesis, are poorly understood. Blocking the few metacyclic parasites deposited in saliva from further development in the mammal could prevent disease. To obtain an in-depth perspective of metacyclogenesis, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) from a pool of 2,045 parasites collected from infected tsetse SGs. Our data revealed three major cell clusters that represent the epimastigote, and pre- and mature metacyclic trypanosome developmental stages. Individual cell level data also confirm that the metacyclic pool is diverse, and that each parasite expresses only one of the unique metacyclic variant surface glycoprotein (mVSG) coat protein transcripts identified. Further clustering of cells revealed a dynamic transcriptomic and metabolic landscape reflective of a developmental program leading to infectious metacyclic forms preadapted to survive in the mammalian host environment. We describe the expression profile of proteins that regulate gene expression and that potentially play a role in metacyclogenesis. We also report on a family of nonvariant surface proteins (Fam10) and demonstrate surface localization of one member (named SGM1.7) on mature metacyclic parasites. Vaccination of mice with recombinant SGM1.7 reduced parasitemia early in the infection. Future studies are warranted to investigate Fam10 family proteins as potential trypanosome transmission blocking vaccine antigens. Our experimental approach is translationally relevant for developing strategies to prevent other insect saliva-transmitted parasites from infecting and causing disease in mammalian hosts.
Abstract P321: Assembly and Validation of a Heart Failure Free Cohort From the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study

Introduction: Studies of incident heart failure (HF) have provided insights into key risk factors for the disease but have been limited to select populations that often lack geographic, racial, and...
New insights into bsr-d1-mediated broad-spectrum resistance to rice blast.

bsr-d1, an allele encoding a transcription factor identified from the rice cultivar Digu, confers durable, broad-spectrum resistance to infections by strains of Magnaporthe oryzae. bsr-d1 was predicted to inhibit M. oryzae-induced expression of Bsr-d1 RNA and degradation of hydrogen peroxide to achieve resistance to M. oryzae. However, the global effect of biological process and molecular function on blast resistance mediated by Bsr-d1 remains unknown. In this study, we compared transcriptomic profiling between Bsr-d1 knockout (Bsr-d1KO) lines and the wild type, TP309. Our study revealed that bsr-d1 mainly regulates the redox state of plant cells, but also affects amino acid and unsaturated fatty acid metabolism. We further found that BSR-D1 indirectly regulates salicylic acid biosynthesis, metabolism, and signal transduction downstream of the activation of H2 O2 signalling in the bsr-d1-mediated immune response. Furthermore, we identified a novel peroxidase-encoding gene, Perox3, as a new BSR-D1 target gene that reduces resistance to M. oryzae when overexpressed in TP309. These results provide new insights into the bsr-d1-mediated blast resistance.
New treatments of systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract The treatment of SLE depends heavily on non-specific immune-suppressive medications. Belimumab was the first and to date the only biologic to be approved for the use of non-renal SLE. Over the last few years, several promising biologics have failed to prove their effectiveness in large phase III trials despite promising phase II data. These include molecules targeting CD22 on B cells and the interferon pathway. Currently, molecules targeting the IL23 and the Jak/STAT pathway are in phase III trials in non-renal SLE after supported by positive, albeit not impressive phase II data. In renal SLE, the preliminarily successful approach of combining the calcineurin inhibitor voclosporin and mycophenolate mofetil is currently being tested in larger trials. Besides these approaches, we also discuss promising medications that target cytokines, the complement system, co-stimulatory molecules, intracellular signaling, and are at early phases of development.
Novel Fast Simulation Technique for Axisymmetric Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Configurations in the Blowout Regime

In the blowout regime of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), which is the most relevant configuration for current and future applications and experiments, the plasma flow that is excited by the ultra-relativistic drive beam is highly nonlinear. Thus, fast and accurate simulation codes are indispensable tools in the study of this extremely important problem. We have developed a novel algorithm that deals with the propagation of axisymmetric bunches of otherwise arbitrary profile through a cold plasma of uniform density. In contrast to the existing PWFA simulation tools, our code PLasma-Electron Beam Simulations (PLEBS) uses a new computational scheme which ensures that the transverse and longitudinal directions are completely decoupled-a feature which significantly enhances the speed and robustness of the new method. Our numerical results are benchmarked against the QuickPIC code [14] and excellent agreement is established between the two approaches.
Matching patents to compustat firms, 1980–2015: Dynamic reassignment, name changes, and ownership structures

Abstract This paper describes the methodology used to construct a new sample of patents matched to Compustat firms for the period 1980–2015. We compare our data to existing NBER data sets and underscore several methodological improvements, including dynamic matching, company name changes, and ownership structures. We examine how our improved match changes results obtained from the ’01 and ’06 NBER patent files using comparable samples. Overall, we find that improved patent assignment leads to slightly higher estimates of patent value in market value regressions, as well as to higher estimates of the R&D elasticity in patenting regressions.
Spatial Inequities in COVID-19 Testing, Positivity, Confirmed Cases, and Mortality in 3 U.S. Cities : An Ecological Study.

BACKGROUND: Preliminary evidence has shown inequities in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related cases and deaths in the United States. OBJECTIVE: To explore the emergence of spatial inequities in COVID-19 testing, positivity, confirmed cases, and mortality in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago during the first 6 months of the pandemic. DESIGN: Ecological, observational study at the ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) level from March to September 2020. SETTING: Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. PARTICIPANTS: All populated ZCTAs in the 3 cities. MEASUREMENTS: Outcomes were ZCTA-level COVID-19 testing, positivity, confirmed cases, and mortality cumulatively through the end of September 2020. Predictors were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index and its 4 domains, obtained from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey. The spatial autocorrelation of COVID-19 outcomes was examined by using global and local Moran I statistics, and estimated associations were examined by using spatial conditional autoregressive negative binomial models. RESULTS: Spatial clusters of high and low positivity, confirmed cases, and mortality were found, co-located with clusters of low and high social vulnerability in the 3 cities. Evidence was also found for spatial inequities in testing, positivity, confirmed cases, and mortality. Specifically, neighborhoods with higher social vulnerability had lower testing rates and higher positivity ratios, confirmed case rates, and mortality rates. LIMITATIONS: The ZCTAs are imperfect and heterogeneous geographic units of analysis. Surveillance data were used, which may be incomplete. CONCLUSION: Spatial inequities exist in COVID-19 testing, positivity, confirmed cases, and mortality in 3 large U.S. cities. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Institutes of Health.
Projecting the Metropolis: Paris 2024 and the (re)scaling of metropolitan governance

Abstract Paris' successful bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics arises in the midst of a grand rethinking of the politics of regional and local development in the Ile-de-France region. Paris 2024 also emerges at a time when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is struggling to find cities willing to host the Olympics and has introduced a series of reforms to help recruit and motivate potential bid cities to consider how an Olympic project might be integrated into existing patterns of urban development. This exploratory research examines the blending of the Grand Paris regional development project and the 2024 Olympic ambition. Incorporating results from semi-structured interviews with seven key informants who possess specialized knowledge and are involved with governance mechanisms of the Ile-de-France region and urban megaevent development, we explore how the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are being leveraged to facilitate metropolitan transformation. In the highly fragmented institutional setting of the Ile-de-France region, negotiating site locations for Olympic facilities and establishing legacy or heritage objectives for the Olympic Games has important implications for the development of an institutional framework for metropolitan governance.
The Use of an Organo-Selenium Peptide to Develop New Antimicrobials That Target a Specific Bacteria

This study examines the use of a covalently selenium-bonded peptide and phage that binds to the Yersinia pestis F1 antigen for the targeting and killing of E. coli expressing this surface antigen. Using a Ph.D.-12 phage-display library for affinity selection of the phage which would bind the F1 antigen of Y. pestis, a phage displaying a peptide that binds the F1 antigen with high affinity and specificity was identified. Selenium was then covalently attached to the display phage and the corresponding F1-antigen-binding peptide. Both the phage and peptides with selenium covalently attached retained their binding specificity for the Y. pestis F1 antigen. The phage or peptide not labeled with selenium did not kill the targeted bacteria, while the phage or peptide labeled with selenium did. In addition, the seleno-peptide, expressing the F1 targeting sequence only, killed cells expressing the F1 antigen but not the parent strain that did not express the F1 antigen. Specifically, the seleno-peptide could kill eight logs of bacteria in less than two hours at a 10-µM concentration. These results demonstrate a novel approach for the development of an antibacterial agent that can target a specific bacterial pathogen for destruction through the use of covalently attached selenium and will not affect other bacteria.
Carbon transformations in rapidly solidified nickel–carbon ribbon

Abstract We report the structural transformations of carbon via the melt spinning and subsequent annealing of nickel-carbon alloys. We attained metastable solid solubility of carbon in nickel ribbon by achieving a rapid solidification rate of up to 1.6 × 106 K/s. Excess carbon atoms were found to be dissolved in the nickel lattice causing up to 1.4% strain for an alloy spun at 70 m/s tangential wheel speeds. High temperature heat treatments led to precipitation of carbon from the nickel lattice on the ribbon free surfaces but also led to growth of spherical precipitates within the nickel matrix, an effect consistent with bulk diffusion-driven Ostwald ripening. Carbon was excavated from the ribbons via chemical dissolution of the metal and characterized by electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. We found that the microstructure of carbon precipitated from the rapidly quenched ribbon could be tuned by varying the carbon content from 4 to 12 at. % in the precursor and annealing the ribbon at temperatures that ranged from 400 to 1200 °C. Via the step-wise variation of these two parameters, we sequentially transformed amorphous carbon nanospheres with a high BET surface area of 203 m2/g into thick, highly crystalline flakes of graphite that conformed to the shape of the as-spun ribbon.
Big-Step-Little-Step: Efficient Gradient Methods for Objectives with Multiple Scales.

We provide new gradient-based methods for efficiently solving a broad class of ill-conditioned optimization problems. We consider the problem of minimizing a function $f : \mathbb{R}^d \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ which is implicitly decomposable as the sum of $m$ unknown non-interacting smooth, strongly convex functions and provide a method which solves this problem with a number of gradient evaluations that scales (up to logarithmic factors) as the product of the square-root of the condition numbers of the components. This complexity bound (which we prove is nearly optimal) can improve almost exponentially on that of accelerated gradient methods, which grow as the square root of the condition number of $f$. Additionally, we provide efficient methods for solving stochastic, quadratic variants of this multiscale optimization problem. Rather than learn the decomposition of $f$ (which would be prohibitively expensive), our methods apply a clean recursive "Big-Step-Little-Step" interleaving of standard methods. The resulting algorithms use $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(d m)$ space, are numerically stable, and open the door to a more fine-grained understanding of the complexity of convex optimization beyond condition number.
Rheology of Concentrated Latexes and Dispersions

Although the rheology of concentrated latexes and dispersions has been an industrially important problem for many years (1–7), studies concerned with gaining a fundamental understanding of their flow behavior are not as plentiful as those concerned with relatively dilute systems. Part of the reason for this becomes evident when one considers how the study of suspension systems has evolved. Building upon Einstein’s classical work for dilute suspensions of rigid spheres, many authors attempted to modify his equations in a way that permits one to predict the flow behavior of more concentrated systems, but the success of this approach has been limited. Reasons for this relate to the fact that particle interactions, both hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic, become important at relatively low concentrations. Because of these difficulties with dispersions of low to moderate concentrations, studies with more concentrated systems have been slow to come. Recent studies make evident, however, that results from concentrated dispersions may actually aid one in better understanding the flow behavior of less concentrated systems.
Probable Functions of Bioluminescence in the Pennatulacea (Cnidaria, Anthozoa)

Within the coelenterates the ability to emit light is widely distributed; most of the major coelenterate taxa contain both luminescent and non-luminescent species (Harvey, 1952; Morin, 1974. Production of light within the luminescent species is biochemically, structurally, and physiologically complex (Harvey, 1952; Nicol, 1960; Herring, 1972; Buck, 1973; Morin, 1974; Morin and Reynolds, 1974; Cormier et al., 1975; Anderson and Case, 1975). The complicated mechanisms responsible for the well-controlled light emission suggest that the light serves some functional role in the life of these organisms. In this paper I discuss the characteristics of the luminescent signal in four pennatulaceans (sea pens) and then consider the ways that the light is potentially employed by these pennatulaceans, and possibly by all luminescent benthic cnidarians.