cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Advances in Breast Ultrasound

In this article, we review recently published articles related to ultrasound imaging of the breast. The target audience includes clinicians and radiologists who are interested in updating their knowledge in breast ultrasound. Latest advances in a wide range of clinical applications such as diagnostic imaging, interventions, cancer staging, evaluation of response to treatment, and screening ultrasound are discussed.
MOTION OF THE PACIFIC PLATE AND FORMATION OF MARGINAL BASINS

We have examined agencies inducing flow in the sub-Pacific mantle. The capable agencies are buoyancy forces (causing convection), and passage of the tidal bulge. Bulge passage induces rotational flow dimensionally identical to that induced by buoyancy, and interacting with it. The stress imposed by bulge passage is additive across the width of the sub-Pacific flow cell, in the fashion that the buoyancy stress is additive in thickness. Each stress builds thus to values in excess of 108dyn/cmcm2, overcoming the flow resistance provided by mantle viscosity. The tidal flow contribution favors the development of the west limb of convection cells, because these represent rotational flow in the tidal direction. East limbs are inhibited.Under these forces the Pacific plate has developed as the cool, rigid surface of mantle convection surfacing in the eastern Pacific, and foundering at the western margin. The west, co-tidal limb of the East Pacific Rise now extends clear across the Pacific. The counter-tidal east limb is dwindling through its replacement by the extending west limb of the Atlantic spreading center, bearing the Americas plates.The unbroken line of gravity highs at the western Pacific margin marks excess material accumulating where the west limb of the East Pacific Rise encounters the less mobile Asian continental mass. Material added to the asthenosphere causes disruption of the Asia margin, secondary sea-floor spreading, and the formation of arc-bounded basins. At the termination of the east, counter-tidal limb (overlain by the Cocos and Nazca plates) this process is not operative. Marginal basins, if they form, are destroyed along the Andean orogenic front by the westward-advancing Americas plates.
Exploiting Surface Consistency For Ground-roll Characterization And Mitigation

A tomography-like-method is used to invert surfaceseismic data to estimate variable surface-wave properties. Surface consistency is exploited to decompose the data in the frequency domain into frequency-dependent propagation (i.e., velocity and attenuation) effects and variable sourceand receiver-coupling effects. The inversion can be performed simultaneously for single modes (linear optimization) or for multiple modes (nonlinear optimization). Including sourceand receivercoupling variations improves the ability to estimate velocity and attenuation from multi-source multi-receiver data. Further improvements in the estimation are made by constraining the parameters to be a smooth function of frequency. The estimated model parameters can be used to predict the multi-mode ground roll and subtract it from the data with little damage to reflections.
p53 expression in neoplasms of the uterine corpus.

It has been recognized that mutations in tumor suppressor genes may have an important oncogenic role. Although abnormalities of the p53 tumor suppressor gene have been reported in tumors from various organ systems, p53 expression has not been studied in neoplasms of the uterine corpus. Using a monoclonal antibody to the p53 product, frozen sections of 56 uterine tumors (40 endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinomas, 7 serous endometrial carcinomas, 4 mixed Mullerian tumors, 2 endometrial stromal sarcomas, 1 leiomyosarcoma, 2 leiomyomas) and 2 normal endometria were stained using the immunoperoxidase technique. Staining was evaluated by light microscopic examination; in carcinomas with strong/diffuse reactivity, evaluation was by digitized image analysis. pS3 staining of adenocarcinomas was compared statistically to the histologic type, grade, surgical stage, and clinical follow-up. Specific staining was present in the nucleus of malignant tumor cells only. Benign cells did not stain. Strong/ diffuse staining was seen in 14 adenocarcinomas and in 2 mixed Mullerian tumors. Weak/focal staining was observed in 14 adenocarcinomas. Serous carcinomas showed strong positivity more frequently than endometrioid endometrial carcinomas. Staining patterns correlated with histologic grade and stage. Image analysis of immunostained p53 correlated with type of adenocarcinoma, but not with grade or stage in the cases measured. pS3 was expressed strongly in tumors of five of eight patients who died of adenocarcinoma but in none of five patients with no evidence of disease and a minimum follow-up of 24 months. In addition, 3 of 12 patients with persistent or recurrent disease showed tumors that strongly expressed p53. It is concluded that abnormal expression of p53 occurs frequently in malignant uterine tumors. Strong immunoperoxidase staining for p53 is associated with serous papillary histologic type and with poor prognosis in endometrial carcinomas.
Two New Subspecies of Antelope Ground Squirrels from Utah

Many kinds of mammals reach their distributional limits in Utah. This is especially true of rodents restricted to montane or desert habitats. The diverse topography has been instrumental in developing many isolated or semi-isolated populations that have subsequently evolved into recognizable kinds. The central mountain ranges, beginning in northern and northeastern Utah, extend in a southern and southwestern direction. These mountains separate the deserts of the Lake Bonneville Basin from those of the Colorado Drainages of southern, southeastern and eastern Utah. Correspondingly, the desert areas in which antelope ground squirrels occur are also separated. In eastern and southeastern Utah, the Green and Colorado rivers, and their tributaries, with their deeply entrenched canyons, are also barriers that restrict gene flow between populations of antelope ground squirrels. In attempting to re-evaluate the effects of river systems and mountain barriers on the evolution and subspeciation of antelope ground squirrels in Utah, two populations were found that were beyond the range of variation found in the already known subspecies. These are here described as new subspecies. Acknowledgements .—I wish to thank Dr. Stephen D. Durrant of the University of Utah for his supervision and helpful suggestions; the United States Public Health Service, Microbiological Institute for financial aid during the course of this study; the following persons and institutions for the loan of specimens: John Aldrich and Viola S. Schantz, U. S. National Museum, Washington D. C.; J. Kenneth Doutt and Caroline A. Heppenstall, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Seth B. Benson, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California; Vasco M. Tanner and C. Lynn Hayward, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Howard Knight, Weber Junior College, Ogden, Utah. Methods .—Comparisons are of adult specimens unless otherwise indicated. Color comparisons are of summer pelage unless otherwise stated. Capitalized color terms are those of Ridgway (color …
Intrahepatic distribution of hepatitis B virus antigens in patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma.

Intrahepatic distribution of hepatitis B virus antigens in patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma
Phialophora richardsiae Infection in Humans

Phialophora richardsiae infection in humans is rare. The first human isolate was recovered from a patient with a phaeomycotic cyst in 1968. Since 1975 seven other cases have appeared in the world literature, and an additional case is reported here. The mean age of these nine patients was 61.4 years. Two patients had diabetes mellitus, one had diabetes mellitus and disseminated adrenocortical carcinoma, and one had a myeloproliferative disorder. The mode of acquisition was presumed to be inoculation with contaminated plant material, but a history consistent with an inoculation injury was obtained in only four patients and a retained splinter was found in the lesion of only one patient. Infection with P. richardsiae was not associated with systemic symptoms or signs. Six patients presented with a single subcutaneous cystic granulomatous lesion. One patient had chronic dacryocystitis. More extensive or invasive disease occurred in two patients, both with an ultimately fatal underlying neoplastic process. A specific etiologic diagnosis was made by culture of purulent material obtained by excisional biopsy in six patients, incision and drainage in one patient, aspiration in one, and spontaneous drainage in one. Subcutaneous nodules were cured with surgical excision. There is insufficient information concerning antifungal therapy to recommend its use.
WAVELET-BASED RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS FOR TRANSIENT CLASSIFICATION

The operation of any industrial plant is based on the readings of a set of sensors. The ability to identify the state of operation, or the events that are occurring, from the time evolution of these readings is essential for the satisfactory execution of the appropriate control actions. In supervisory control, detection and diagnosis of faults, adaptive control, process quality control, and recovery from operational deviations, determining the correct mapping from process trends to operational conditions is the pivotal task. Reasoning in time, however, is very demanding, because time introduces a new dimension with significant levels of additional freedom and complexity. The real-time history of scores of variables can be displayed and monitored in most computerized process monitoring and control systems. However, whereas a simple visual inspection of displayed trends is sufficient to allow the operator confirm the process status during normal, steady-state operations, when the process is in significant transience or crises have occurred, the displayed trends of interacting variables and alarms can easily overwhelm an operator. When process variables change with different rates, or are affected by varying lags, it is very difficult for a human operator to carry out routine tasks, such as distinguishing normal from abnormal conditions, identify the causes of process trends, evaluate current process trends and anticipate future states, etc. In this paper we describe how a combined use of wavelets and recurrent neural networks improves on our previously proposed solutions to the transient classification problem. In particular, the newly developed system overcomes two basic limitations of the earlier systems, namely the requirement for fixed length transients, and the requirement for a trigger signal indicating the start of a transient, i.e. the need for a separate transient detection component. The paper also includes an experimental analysis of the discrimination power of the proposed system, which provides a strong case for its application potential to a great variety of industrial processes.
Risk factors for loss of epithelial flap integrity in laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy surgery.

Purpose To evaluate risk factors leading to loss of epithelial flap integrity in laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (LASEK). Setting Boston Eye Group, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. Design Retrospective case study. Methods This retrospective chart review was performed for LASEK surgeries that occurred between January 2009 and October 2013. Logistic regression was performed to determine whether epithelium preservation was correlated with age, sex, sphere, cylinder, spherical equivalent (SE), keratometry, and central corneal thickness (CCT). Results The study reviewed 1009 eyes of 509 patients with a mean age of 29.1 years ± 12.2 (SD). The mean preoperative spherical refraction was −4.7 ± 2.5 diopters (D), and the mean preoperative cylinder was −1.1 ± 0.8 D. The mean preoperative decimal corrected distance visual acuity was 1.01 ± 0.07. Single-sheet mobilization of the loosened epithelium flap was found in 72.3% of cases. Fragmented preservation events occurred in 17.6% of cases; the flap was discarded in 10.0% of cases. Epithelium preservation was significantly correlated with age (P = .048) but not with other parameters (P > .05 for sex, sphere, cylinder, SE, keratometry, CCT, and surgeon experience). Epithelial flap dissection was less likely to lead to a single epithelial sheet in patients older than 50 years than in younger patients (56.3% versus 74.9%). The mean postoperative decimal uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) at 3 months was 0.98 ± 0.08. There was no statistical difference in postoperative UDVA between the undiscarded flap group and discarded flap group (P = .128). Conclusion Successful dissection of single-sheet epithelial flap diminished with age. Financial Disclosure No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.
Efficacy of drug regimen exceeds electrostimulation in treatment of avian muscular dystrophy

Autosomal-recessive dystrophic chickens were treated in three experimental groups with an intraperitoneal multicomponent drug mixture (50 mg/kg Ep475, 20 mg/kg Cinanserin, 10 mg/kg stanazolol, 100 mg/kg leucine, 0.1 mg/kg insulin, 100 mg/kg glucose, and 50 mg/kg carnitine), percutaneous high-frequency electrostimulation of the pectoralis muscle, or a combination of both drug and electrostimulation treatments. Therapeutic efficacy was determined in each group by measurements of strength, righting ability, and histomorphometric analyses of the pectoralis musculature. Drug treatment alone was found to significantly improve muscular strength, function, and relative myofiber necrosis compared with sham-injected controls. The efficacy of drug treatment was found to be equal to or better than singular electrostimulation treatment; there was no apparent additive effect of electrostimulation. As a result, these findings support the use of drug treatment as a useful nongenetic approach to the management of human muscular dystrophy where there is the potential risk of injury from exercise usage.
Differences in Nonspecific Esterase from Normal and Leukemic Monocytes

Nonspecific esterase (NSE) is used to identify normal and leukemic mononuclear phagocytes cytochemically. It can be demonstrated by the hydrolysis of alpha-naphthyl acetate or butyrate. NSE from leukapheresed leukemic monocytes were extracted with several types of detergent and grouped into two isoelectric point (pl) categories based on the ease of solubility: pl 5.7-6.3 (8 bands) greater than or equal to pl 6.6-7.6 (6 bands). Normal monocytes yielded only the pl 5.7-6.3 isozymes. Isozymes from both leukemic and normal monocytes were inhibited similarly by sodium fluoride, pH less than 4.7, and a serine active site inhibitor. All isozymes were bound by Sepharose-concanavalin A (Con-A) and displayed similar substrate preferences and pH v activity slopes. Under the conditions of detergent solubilization, the smallest mol wt species retaining enzymatic activity was 50 +/- 5 kd. Despite these similarities, the isozymes of pl 5.7 through 6.3 and pl greater than 6.3 exhibited different degrees or types of inhibition by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF), resistance to heat and antigenic character. Thus, the esterase isozymes represent two families of glycoproteins, both of them probable cell surface enzymes, resembling classical liver carboxyl or B-esterases (EC 3.1.1 1).
The success of TOPS, a self-help group.

TOPS represents a uniquely successful self-help approach to obesity, with results apparently superior to those of routine medical management. In a study of 22 chapters, the effectiveness of TOPS matched the best reported results of medical treatment. If given the support it deserves from medicine, the organization could be of even greater usefulness in the control of the common problem of overweight.
Disruption of NAD(+) binding site in glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase affects its intranuclear interactions.

Disruption of NAD+ binding site in glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase affects its intranuclear interactions
Sequence polymorphism in an insect RNA virus field population: A snapshot from a single point in space and time reveals stochastic differences among and within individual hosts

Population structure of Homalodisca coagulata Virus-1 (HoCV-1) among and within field-collected insects sampled from a single point in space and time was examined. Polymorphism in complete consensus sequences among single-insect isolates was dominated by synonymous substitutions. The mutant spectrum of the C2 helicase region within each single-insect isolate was unique and dominated by nonsynonymous singletons. Bootstrapping was used to correct the within-isolate nonsynonymous:synonymous arithmetic ratio (N:S) for RT-PCR error, yielding an N:S value ~one log-unit greater than that of consensus sequences. Probability of all possible single-base substitutions for the C2 region predicted N:S values within 95% confidence limits of the corrected within-isolate N:S when the only constraint imposed was viral polymerase error bias for transitions over transversions. These results indicate that bottlenecks coupled with strong negative/purifying selection drive consensus sequences toward neutral sequence space, and that most polymorphism within single-insect isolates is composed of newly-minted mutations sampled prior to selection.
Designing steroid receptor-based radiotracers to image breast and prostate tumors.

Imaging of breast or prostate cancers based on their content of steroid receptors poses a major challenge in the design of radiotracers. Receptors for steroid hormones are proteins that interact at specific sites in chromatin. Several analogs of estrogens, progestins and androgens have been radiolabeled and evaluated both in vitro and in vivo for receptor binding affinity and selectivity. Breast tumors in patients have been imaged with [{sup 18}F]fluoroestradiol. Scintigraphic images with radiolabeled progestin analogs may be useful for monitoring the efficacy of tamoxifen treatment in breast cancer patients. Tissue distribution and imaging studies in animals with fluorine-substituted androgens indicate that it may be possible to develop a steroid receptor-based radiotracer for staging prostate cancer. Radiochemists are reporting some progress in labeling steroid receptor ligands with {sup 99m}Tc. By using the techniques of molecular nuclear medicine, new imaging procedures could be developed that might provide more precise information to help characterize disease and effect treatment decisions in patients with breast or prostate cancers. 55 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs.
Abstract A85: Investigating endogenous anti-tumor T cell responses in native tumor microenvironments

Genetically-engineered mouse models (GEMMs) exist for most types of cancer in which autochthonous tumors develop into advanced disease in the presence of a fully functional immune system. These GEMMs would be ideal for investigating questions in cancer immunology, including those concerning the commonalities and differences between immune responses that target different cancers, and how the tumor microenvironments (TMEs) associated with different cancer types impact the functions of tumor-infiltrating immune cells. However, unlike human tumors, tumors in GEMMs have few somatic mutations and thus require exogenous neoantigens (neoAgs) to drive interactions with anti-tumor T cells. There are only a handful of mechanisms to program tumors to express neoAgs, and thus, GEMMs for most tumor types remain inaccessible for cancer immunology studies. Here, we describe the “iNversion INducible Joined neoAg” (NINJA) mouse, which can be used to program GEMM tumors with a common neoAg, and thus stimulate a common set of tumor-specific CD8 T cells. NINJA will be useful for addressing many key unanswered questions cancer immunology, including comparisons of immune responses across several cancer types and comparisons of anti-tumor T cell responses targeting de novo expressed neoAgs at different stages in tumor development. NINJA mice will also be invaluable as a preclinical platform for testing immunotherapeutics, and for investigating why certain immunotherapeutic regimens are more effective when treating some cancers and not others. NINJA is unique, because neoAgs are encoded within the genome, yet NINJA avoids central and peripheral tolerance, a common problem with other systems. This is achieved because the DNA sequences encoding the full-length neoAgs are discontinuous in the OFF state and, thus, neoAgs are silent. Induction of neoAgs is highly regulated, requiring a permanent inversion of a DNA element in NINJA, which allows production of the full-length NINJA neoAgs and GFP (a marker of neoAg expression). This inversion is regulated by Flippase (FlpO), which itself is highly regulated, requiring cells are exposed to Cre recombinase, and then doxycycline and tamoxifen. Therefore, NINJA is compatible with most Cre-inducible GEMMs of cancer. Activating NINJA with adenoviral infection results in a strong, NINJA-specific CD8 T cell response while, in contrast, activation in the setting of lung tumors leads to T cell dysfunction. Thus, NINJA is a powerful, highly versatile system for investigating T cell function in many settings, including cancer, immune tolerance, and autoimmunity. Citation Format: Nikhil Joshi, Tyler Jacks. Investigating endogenous anti-tumor T cell responses in native tumor microenvironments. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy; 2016 Oct 20-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2017;5(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A85.
Human lymphocyte subpopulations.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses the attention on some approaches to overcoming difficulties inherent in the investigation of the human system with particular attention to the three areas. The precise dissection of the cellular mechanisms and interactions involved in the generation of the human immune response has been facilitated by recent advances in three interrelated areas: (1) the development of in vitro methods for the characterization and identification of human lymphocyte classes by cell surface markers, (2) the development of new techniques for the isolation of highly purified subclasses of human lymphocytes and monocytes, and (3) the development of in vitro techniques to discriminate the functional properties and interactions of the isolated subsets of lymphocytes. Finally, the chapter concludes that one limitation has been the lack of genetically defined strains that have been so important in both the generation of alloantisera to unique subclasses of cells and in the genetic analysis of T, B, and macrophage cell interactions.
How Home Health Agencies’ Ownership Affects Practice Patterns

This study explores whether for-profit home health agencies responded differently from non-profit agencies to financial incentives embedded in the Medicare prospective payment system. Agencies were able to receive higher reimbursement per patient under the prospective payment system if they adjusted the number of therapy visits or the type of visits for a two-month-long episode. Agencies could also increase reimbursement by treating a patient for multiple episodes of care, because prospective payments were made on a per-episode basis. Using the Medicare Claims and Provider of Services Files from 2001 to 2009, we examine differences between for-profit and non-profit agencies in these practice patterns during the first nine years of the prospective payment system. We find that for-profit agencies were more likely to adopt most of these practice patterns than were non-profit agencies. This finding suggests that for-profit agencies were more responsive to financial incentives, and therefore disproportionately contributed to the increase in Medicare home health spending under the prospective payment system. Policymakers could consider revising the current prospective payment system that gives agencies incentives to distort practice patterns regardless of a patient's health care needs.
Circadian rhythms of trematode parasites: applying mixed models to test underlying patterns

Circadian rhythms of parasites and their hosts can influence processes such as transmission, pathology and life cycle evolution. For trematode parasites that depend on free-living infectious stages (i.e. cercariae) to move among host species, the timing of parasite release is hypothesized to increase the likelihood of contacting a host. Yet, a persistent challenge in studying such biorhythms involves selection of appropriate analytical techniques. Here, we extend a generalized linear mixed modelling (GLMM) framework to cosinor analyses, thereby allowing flexibility in the statistical distribution of the response variable, incorporation of multiple covariates and inclusion of hierarchical grouping effects. By applying this approach to 93 snails infected with trematode parasites from freshwater pond ecosystems, we detected non-random rhythms in six of eight species, with variation in both the timing of peak cercariae release (between 5:10 and 21:46 h) and its magnitude (between 13 and 386). The use of GLMM yielded more accurate and precise estimates of the cosinor parameters compared with classical least-squares (LS) based on a simulation-based sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the amplitude and rhythm-adjusted mean values from the LS models diverged from the true values at some limits. We highlight the importance of novel analytical approaches for evaluating parasite circadian rhythms and investigating their underlying mechanisms.
A Petabit Bufferless Optical Switch for Data Center Networks

As critical infrastructures in the Internet, data centers have evolved to include hundreds of thousands of servers in a single facility to support data- and computing-intensive applications. For such large-scale systems, it becomes a great challenge to design an interconnection network that provides high capacity, low complexity, and low latency. The traditional approach is to build a hierarchical packet network using switches and routers. This approach has scalability problems in the aspects of wiring, control, and latency. We tackle the challenge by designing a novel switch architecture that supports direct interconnection of a huge number of server racks and provides Petabit switching capacity. Our design combines the best features of electronics and optics. Exploiting recent advances in optics, we propose to build a bufferless optical switch fabric that includes interconnected arrayed waveguide grating routers (AWGRs) and tunable wavelength converters (TWCs). The optical fabric is integrated with electronic buffering and control to perform high-speed switching with nanosecond-level reconfiguration overhead. In particular, our architecture reduces the wiring complexity from O(N) to O(sqrt(N)). We design a practical and scalable scheduling algorithm to achieve high throughput under various traffic load. We also discuss implementation issues to justify the feasibility of this design. Simulation results show that our design achieves good throughput and delay performance.
Multimodel Shrinkage for Knowledge-Aided Space-Time Adaptive Processing

Space-time adaptive processing gets its adaptivity from estimating the second-order statistics of the clutter from secondary data. In practice, the amount of available secondary data may not be sufficient for the sample covariance estimate to be accurate. Existing techniques exploit assumed properties of the clutter covariance, such as rank, to reduce the need for secondary training data. More recently in radar, single-model shrinkage estimators have been shown to reduce the reliance on training data given that a good a priori model for the covariance is available. We extend shrinkage estimation to a regularized multimodel approach that incorporates inexact knowledge of a digital elevation map to reduce the need for large amounts of secondary data. Using both simulation and the KASSPER I dataset, performance of the proposed approach is compared to low-rank estimation and various single-model shrinkage estimation approaches. The proposed approach offers the practical ability to reliably estimate the clutter covariance from a number of training data less than the rank of the clutter covariance matrix.
Approximate coseismic displacements and near-field fling pulse from the Mw 6.5 30 October 2016 Central Italy earthquake

A study of the coseismic displacement and fling pulse recorded during the Mw 6.5 30 October 2016 Central Italy earthquake is presented. The near-field has been well documented, owing to the deployment of additional strong-motion stations following the earlier events of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence. As a result, there are numerous stations with evidence of coseismic displacement and fling pulse. In this study, 25 records with strike distance of less than 25 km and rupture distance under 28 km are considered. Approximate coseismic displacements have been recovered by a bilinear model to remove the low frequency noise in the records. The bilinear noise model uses two linear regression segments on the velocity trace to remove baseline offsets. After obtaining the coseismic displacement time series, the fling pulse period is examined. Existing methods of obtaining the fling pulse period are reviewed and a proposed algorithm is considered for automatic fling pulse detection. Both horizontal and vertical fling periods are obtained, unlike many studies which neglect the vertical fling. It is shown that the fling pulse period is highly variable (~ 2–16 s) in the near-field region but exhibits some trends with various site-to-source distances.
Obituary: John Sulston (1942-2018).

Abstract John Sulston, a pioneer in the developmental studies of the nematode C. elegans who went on to spearhead the sequencing of the genome of this organism and ultimately the human genome, died on 6th March 2018, shortly after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. Here, I reflect on John9s life and work, with a particular focus on his time working on the developmental genetics and lineage of C. elegans.
Ecological Context for Sustainable Energy Solutions

The objectives of this chapter are to explore the broad context of energy sources; how this information can be used to provide energy services; the role of energy in alleviating poverty; the types of energy sources available to reduce poverty; and, finally, to provide a framework that considers local conditions that ultimately influence which energy solutions will be sustainable. Ecology is relevant in this endeavor not only in terms of considering the ecological impacts of different potential energy interventions, but also in constructing an integrated framework to consider the interactions between the physical environment and the socio-cultural and economic components on the functioning of the system as a whole (ecology, sensu Odum 1977). As such, no matter the status of the natural environment, which is highly degraded in many developing countries, an integrative definition of “ecology” rather than an environmentally focused interpretation can be applied to evaluate the applicability and long-term sustainability of energy solutions.
Detecting events from the social media through exemplar-enhanced supervised learning

Understanding and detecting the intended meaning in social media is challenging because social media messages contain varieties of noise and chaos that are irrelevant to the themes of interests. Fo...
Differentiation of High-Grade Glioma and Intracranial Metastasis Using Volumetric Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography

Objective A reliable, noninvasive method to differentiate high-grade glioma (HGG) and intracranial metastasis (IM) has remained elusive. The aim of this study was to differentiate between HGG and IM using tumoral and peritumoral diffusion tensor imaging characteristics. Methods A semiautomated script generated volumetric regions of interest (ROIs) for the tumor and a peritumoral shell at a predetermined voxel thickness. ROI differences in diffusion tensor imaging–related metrics between HGG and IM groups were estimated, including fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, total fiber tract counts, and tract density. Results The HGG group (n = 46) had a significantly higher tumor-to-brain volume ratio than the IM group (n = 35) (P Conclusions Tract count and tract density were significantly different in tumoral and peritumoral regions between HGG and IM. Differences in microenvironmental interactions between the tumor types may cause these tract differences.
Twelve tips for responding to microaggressions and overt discrimination: When the patient offends the learner

Microaggressions and expressions of overt discrimination negatively affect the experience of medical trainees at all levels. Mistreatment of trainees, including abusive and discriminatory behavior by patients and families, occurs commonly and is receiving increased attention in both the medical literature and popular press. Heightened awareness of the problem has sparked a call to engage in substantive conversations about bias in health professions education. The emphasis on direct observation in medical education makes the bedside a common setting for educators to witness these behaviors firsthand. Many educators are committed to developing a positive climate for learners but lack the training and skills to facilitate discussions about discrimination. As a result, these difficult but important conversations may not occur. The authors present a three-phase approach to responding to microaggressions and discrimination toward trainees from patients, and offer a communication toolkit that frontline medical educators can use in their daily practice.
Preferential flow through shallow fractured bedrock and a 3D fill-and-spill model of hillslope subsurface hydrology

Abstract The role of preferential flow through unsaturated saprock (fractured bedrock with weathering restricted to fracture margins) in hillslope hydrology remains inadequately described. To address this issue, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), controlled infiltration, and high-frequency subsurface moisture monitoring were integrated to characterize saprock preferential flow (SPF) in the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In a planar hillslope with shallow fractured shale bedrock (starting at 0.1–0.3 m below ground), two pulses of water (79.5 L in total) were released followed by time-lapse GPR surveys. Differentiating GPR images collected before and after infiltration revealed lateral SPF in the direction of bedding plane fractures near the infiltration trench but with limited development of SPF down gradient along the hillslope. This was confirmed by soil and saprock moisture monitoring at a soil pit (0.2 m downslope of the GPR grid) where only one out of fifteen probes responded to the controlled infiltration. Lateral SPF frequently occurred at the GPR grid during a 24-day period with ten rainfall events, especially under the wet initial conditions. Additional infiltration experiments in a convex hillslope and a nearby bare slope with exposed saprock demonstrated the impact of fracture patterns on the routing of SPF. Three types of SPF in hillslope hydrology were identified, including (1) vertical percolation, (2) exfiltration from saprock to soil, and (3) stormwater transported downslope from planar and convex hillslopes to concave hillslopes. A 3D fill-and-spill model is proposed for the study site and similar areas that recognizes the importance of subsurface flow networks, with shallow saprock and concave hillslopes as essential controls of hillslope subsurface flow.
Poor Disgust Suppression Is Associated with Increased Anxiety in Caregivers of People with Neurodegenerative Disease.

Author(s): Wells, Jenna L; Hua, Alice Y; Levenson, Robert W | Abstract: ObjectivesCaregivers of persons with neurodegenerative disease have high rates of mental health problems compared to noncaregiving adults. Emotion regulation may play an important role in preserving caregivers' mental health. We examined the associations between caregivers' emotion regulation measured in several ways (ability, habitual use, and self-ratings) and their mental health symptoms.MethodNinety-one caregivers of persons with neurodegenerative disease participated in a laboratory-based assessment of emotion regulation. In two series of tasks, caregivers were given different instructions (no instruction, suppress) regarding altering their emotional behavioral responses to disgusting films and acoustic startle stimuli. Caregivers' emotional behavior was measured via behavioral coding and caregivers rated "how much emotion" they showed during each task. Anxiety, depression, and habitual use of expressive suppression were measured via questionnaires.ResultsPoor emotion regulation in the disgust suppression condition (i.e., greater emotional behavior) was associated with greater anxiety. Associations were not found for the startle suppression condition, depression, or self-report measures of emotion regulation.DiscussionFindings suggest that caregivers who are unable to suppress emotional behavior in response to disgusting stimuli may be at greater risk for anxiety. Given high levels of anxiety in caregivers, it may be useful to evaluate interventions that improve ability to downregulate emotional behavior.
Uncia uncia (Snow leopard)

The karyotypes are gifts of Dr. D. H. Wurster-Hill, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. The animals are kept in the National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C., USA. Skin biopsies were used for the initiation of cell cultures. A male specimen from the Buffalo Zoo was studied by M. M. Cohen and the results were the same as the ones presented here. The karyotypes are arranged in conformity with those of other Felidae. The typical marker chromosome (E1) is present in this species also.
Does contrast-enhanced ultrasound have a role in evaluation and management of pediatric renal trauma? A preliminary experience.

Abstract Background To report our initial experience using intravenous contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in pediatric renal trauma with the potential for substantial radiation reduction. Methods A retrospective review of all patients who underwent intravenous CEUS at our institution between May 2015 and January 2018 for the suspicion of blunt renal trauma. CEUS was obtained either as an immediate or short-term comparison to contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT), or in outpatient follow-up. Results CEUS was performed on 7 patients (9 kidneys) with age range 2 months to 16 years old. CEUS was utilized as a comparison to CECT in 4 of 7 patients for initial evaluation, clinical change, or short-term follow-up. CEUS alone was used in one patient with low suspicion for renal injury. In the remaining two patients, CEUS was obtained as a follow-up study weeks after the initial CECT, following conservative management. All patients with confirmed renal injury by CECT (n = 5) underwent a follow-up CEUS at 1–2 months. Conclusions In an era of conservative management for renal trauma in which operative intervention is dictated more often by the clinical course than radiographic findings, it is reasonable to consider alternative imaging methods such as CEUS in stable patients to decrease radiation exposure. Level of Evidence Rating IV
Sexual and Reproductive Health Service Utilization and Sexuality for Teens on the Autism Spectrum.

Objectives Health care providers and educators play critical roles in supporting healthy sexuality development for youth with autism spectrum disorder. There is limited information about the sexual behavior of these youth, especially girls, and about their access to sexuality education or health care services. Methods This study addressed these gaps by surveying parents of youth with autism aged 12-18 years (N = 298, 52.7% boys) with a range of intellectual functioning. Results According to parent report, most youth experienced sexual attraction and were interested in relationships, including same-sex attraction or relationships (13.2%). Girls were more likely than boys to have had a romantic relationship and less likely to have experienced school or legal consequences for sexual behavior. Around one-fifth of youth had engaged in a socially inappropriate sexual behavior, whereas 6.4% had a known sexual abuse history and 14.5% were bullied by peers for lack of sexual knowledge. Almost 40% received no sex education in school or in the community, including 60.9% of youth with parent-reported intelligence quotient under 70. Some parents consulted with school personnel (36.4%) or health care providers (55.9%) about sexuality issues, whereas 19.5% reported taking no action aside from talking to their child about sexuality. Utilization models including predisposing, enabling, and needs-related factors were applied to parent consultation with providers and use of school-based sexuality education programming. Conclusion The results suggest unmet needs for sexual and reproductive health services, particularly among youth who are younger, those who have co-occurring intellectual disability, or those who are homeschooled or who attend private, charter, or therapeutic versus public schools.
Enhanced Photoresponse of Inorganic Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite for Ultrasensitive Photodetector

We report on a simple way to enhance the photoresponse and efficiency of inorganic cesium lead halide (CsPbIBr2) perovskite for use as a light-absorbing layer in photodetectors integrated with a mechanoluminescent (ML) or triboluminescence (TL) materials for pressure sensing applications. Herein, we proposed to integrate a thermal and moisture stable inorganic cesium lead halide-based CsPbIBr2 perovskite with the TL materials to develop a novel pressure sensor for real-time and in-situ structural health monitoring (SHM) of aerospace vehicles’ fuselage, automobiles and structures. However, the inorganic CsPbIBr2 perovskite layer fabricated using a one-step spin-coating method is usually composed of small grain size with a large number of grain boundaries and compositional defects. Therefore, we employed a metal doping approach to enhance the CsPbIBr2 perovskite film quality. By introducing a small amount of silver iodide (AgI), the photoresponse, responsivity, and response time of the detector were enhanced. This work offers a promising approach for developing an integrated ML pressure sensor with high-quality polycrystalline perovskite for SHM.
A protein microarray-based in vitro transglutaminase assay platform for epitope mapping and peptide discovery

Transglutaminases (TGs) are a family of crosslinking enzymes catalyzing the formation of intra- and inter-molecular glutamine-lysine isopeptide bonds in a calcium dependent manner. Activation of transglutaminases is pathogenically associated with severe human diseases including neurodegenerations, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Although continuous efforts determining the enzymes substrate preference have been witnessed, a high-throughput assay platform with the omic efficiency is still missing for the global identification of substrate-specific TG modification sites. In this study we report a protein microarray-based in vitro TG assay platform for rapid and large-scale (up to 30000 reactions per chip) determination of the glutamine (Q)-bearing TG modification motifs. With this platform we identified the Q16 in superoxide dismutase 1 and Q109 in alpha-synuclein as the primary modification sites for tissue transglutaminase (TG2), the most ubiquitous member of the enzyme family. Of particular interest, we found a close match between the modification motifs and published vaccine epitope sequences in alpha-synuclein. Our data collectively suggest the glutamine and its follow-up five residues on the C terminal of a protein compose a minimal determinant motif for TG2 modification and the TG2 modification motifs determined by our platform could finally correspond to the substrates epitope sequences in antigen processing. To screen for site-specific interfering peptides and assist gene editing-based protein engineering, we optimized through onchip amino-acid scanning the TG2 modification motif QQIV in the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin and obtained 14 variants with significantly higher TG2 reactivity that might serve as the competitive inhibitor peptides and 1 with lower reactivity. We further confirmed this optimization approach with 12-mer peptides, the longest ones that could be synthesized on the chip. Taken together, our synthetic transglutaminase assay platform might be able to deliver a precise epitope blueprint for immunotherapeutic targeting and provide proof-of-concept and directional studies for TG-based peptide discovery and protein design.
A complex network framework for the efficiency and resilience trade-off in global food trade

Global food trade is crucial for food security and availability. Trade is typically optimized to promote efficiency, whereas resilience is increasingly being recognized as another important objective. However, it is not clear if prioritizing resilience comes at the expense of efficiency or if the two objectives can be promoted simultaneously. We develop a complex network framework to assess the relationship between resilience and efficiency of food trade for the last half century. There is a competitive relationship between efficiency and resilience when only network topology is considered. However, a cooperative relationship between efficiency and resilience exists when the intensity of trade connections is accounted for. Policy makers can use this framework to evaluate the relationship between efficiency and resilience in critical supply chains.
An Organizational Analysis of the Schismatic Church of Satan

The Church of Satan, the seminal example of organizational Satanism, was founded in 1966. During the 1970s, the Church of Satan was wracked by a history of numerous schisms. Despite the notoriety of Satanism in popular culture, few scholars have analyzed the Church of Satan as a religious organization. Furthermore, not many scholars have directly discussed the schisms that it has undergone. The purpose of this research is to analyze the Church of Satan, an understudied case in American religious organizational history, and its schisms. A theoretical framework based on religious economies and organizational ecology is introduced to account for schism in Satanism, which hitherto has been dominated by European cultural milieu arguments. A historical case study is performed on the case of the Church of Satan, using primary and secondary documentation, in order to address four theoretical propositions. Findings demonstrate costliness, authority, doctrine, and niche/environment were all potential causes for the schisms that impacted the Church of Satan. The Church of Satan conforms to religious economies and organizational ecology theory expectations of schism. Further research is needed to understand organizational aspects of Satanism and other avant garde religious groups.