cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Emergency Department Evaluation of the Adult Patient Who Presents with a First-Time Seizure

Up to 5% of the population will experience at least 1 nonfebrile seizure at some point during their lifetime. The management of a patient who has had a first-time seizure is driven by the history and physical examination. In almost one-half of these patients, the cause of their seizure is not identified. In general, patients with comorbidities, a focal neurologic examination, or who have not returned to a normal baseline mental status require an extensive diagnostic evaluation including a noncontrast head computed tomography (CT) scan in the emergency department (ED). Adults with a first-time seizure, with no comorbidities, and who have returned to a normal baseline require only serum glucose and electrolyte determination. Women of reproductive age also require a pregnancy test. Patients with a normal neurologic examination, normal laboratory results, and no signs of structural brain disease do not require hospitalization or antiepileptic medications. Initiation of antiepileptic therapy depends on the assessed risk for recurrence, in conjunction with a neurologist consultation.
LUQ view and the FAST exam: helpful or a hindrance in the adult trauma patient?

Patients and methods This was a retrospective review of ultrasound images from a QA database (Qpath) of all positive patient care FAST exams from adult trauma patients at 2 urban, academic emergency departments over 2 years. Eligible studies were reviewed for location of intra-abdominal FF. FF seen in LUQ was further characterized as in splenorenal fossa, left paracolic gutter, and/or subdiaphragmatic/suprasplenic space. Reviewers then determined the frequency resident physicians obtained LUQ images deemed adequate for medical decision making. Data are reported as proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs, Jeffreys method). Results 100 positive patient care FAST exams from adult trauma patients met eligibility criteria. While 32.0% (95% CI: 23.5-41.6%) of positive FAST exams had FF in the LUQ, only 7.0% (95% CI: 3.2-13.3%) of patients with positive FAST exam had FF isolated to LUQ. Of all patients with FF in the LUQ (n=32), 84% of patients (n=27, 95% CI: 69.1-93.8) had fluid in the paracolic gutter, with or without FF elsewhere in LUQ,.None (95% CI: 0-7.5) had fluid seen only in splenorenal fossa, 3% (n=1, 95% CI: 0.3-13.7) had FF only above spleen. 51.0% of patients (95% CI: 41.3-60.7%) had LUQ views deemed inadequate for medical decision-making. Conclusion FF isolated to the LUQ occurs with a clinically relevant frequency in adult trauma patients. We propose physicians specifically obtain images of the left paracolic gutter/inferior splenic tip, as fluid in LUQ is most likely to accumulate here and is a relatively easy image to acquire for novice sonographers.
Immunoelectrophoretic Studies of Sera from Rabbits Experimentally Infected with Histoplasma capsulatum

Adamson, David M. (University of Oklahoma, Norman), and George C. Cozad. Immunoelectrophoretic studies of sera from rabbits experimentally infected with Histoplasma capsulatum. J. Bacteriol. 92:887–891. 1966.—In a study involving 24 mature Dutch rabbits inoculated intravenously with 2.6 × 108Histoplasma capsulatum yeast cells per kg of body weight, all rabbits were shown to develop precipitins by the end of the 5th week. Precipitins were demonstrated both by the micro-Ouchterlony method and microimmunoelectrophoresis with the use of concentrated histoplasmin as the antigen. The latter technique proved to be the more sensitive. The 10 × concentrate of histoplasmin gave better precipitin patterns than did the 5 × concentrate. Agglutinins were formed by 90% of the rabbits by the end of the 4th week, as shown by the capillary tube agglutination test. Three precipitin bands, arbitrarily designated A, B, and C, were demonstrated by immunoelectrophoresis with use of the sera of the test animals. Band A occurred between the 1st and 2nd weeks after inoculation and was, for a period, present in 100% of the sera of the test animals. Band A occurred separately or in conjunction with band B or B and C, and it persisted longer than these other two bands. Bands B and C appeared between the 3rd and 4th weeks and were found, by the end of the 5th week, in 35 and 15%, respectively, of the sera tested. They were never seen separately or together without the presence of band A. Band C disappeared by the end of the 6th week, and band B, by the 10th week, but band A was still present in 19% of the sera at the end of 10 weeks.
Traveltime Tomography And Nonlinear Constrained Optimization

Fermat's principle of least traveltime states that first arrivals follow ray paths with the smallest overall traveltime from the point of transmission to the point of reception. This principle determines a definite convex set of feasible slowness models - depending only on the traveltime data - for the fully nonlinear traveltime inversion problem. The existence of such a convex set allows us to transform the inversion problem into a nonlinear constrained optimization problem. Fermat's principle also shows that the standard undamped least-squares solution to the inversion problem always produces a slowness model with many ray paths having traveltime shorter than the measured traveltirne (an impossibility even if the trial ray paths are not the true ray paths). In a damped least-squares inversion, the damping parameter may be varied to allow efficient location of a slowness model on the feasibility boundary.
Design and implementation of parallel JiST to support distributed wireless network simulation

JiST/SWANS is a wireless network simulator gaining increasing popularity for ad-hoc wireless, wireless sensor network, and vehicular network evaluations. Typical published results using this tool show node counts on the order of hundreds of nodes. However, realistic sensor and vehicular networks may contain many more nodes than that. One reason for this discrepancy is the computational cost of evaluation via simulation. Currently, cluster computers are becoming preferred over expensive multi-processor supercomputers for improving computational output. We present the design and implementation of a parallelization of JiST, the discrete event simulator core of JiST/SWANS. JiST uses unique dynamic byte-code rewriting to simplify the development of applications and has been shown to perform well running small- or medium-scale wireless network simulations on single processor systems. We propose an optimistic cluster-based architecture and apply it to JiST. Simulation entity memory is distributed evenly across all nodes in the cluster, resulting in linear memory growth. Details of the simulation engine including the complex event execution synchronization are hidden entirely from the application, easing development and debug time. Since JiST is the simulation backend of the SWANS wireless network simulator, this result is the first step in simulating large networks using SWANS in reasonable periods of time. Results presented show the performance of our parallelization of JiST is in line with the performance of other existing parallel discrete event simulators.
ASTRAL: genome-scale coalescent-based species tree estimation

Motivation: Species trees provide insight into basic biology, including the mechanisms of evolution and how it modifies biomolecular function and structure, biodiversity and co-evolution between genes and species. Yet, gene trees often differ from species trees, creating challenges to species tree estimation. One of the most frequent causes for conflicting topologies between gene trees and species trees is incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), which is modelled by the multi-species coalescent. While many methods have been developed to estimate species trees from multiple genes, some which have statistical guarantees under the multi-species coalescent model, existing methods are too computationally intensive for use with genome-scale analyses or have been shown to have poor accuracy under some realistic conditions. Results: We present ASTRAL, a fast method for estimating species trees from multiple genes. ASTRAL is statistically consistent, can run on datasets with thousands of genes and has outstanding accuracy—improving on MP-EST and the population tree from BUCKy, two statistically consistent leading coalescent-based methods. ASTRAL is often more accurate than concatenation using maximum likelihood, except when ILS levels are low or there are too few gene trees. Availability and implementation: ASTRAL is available in open source form at https://github.com/smirarab/ASTRAL/. Datasets studied in this article are available at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/phylo/datasets/astral. Contact: ude.sionilli@wonraw Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Performance of First Mammography Examination in Women Younger Than 40 Years

Consortium. We included 117 738 women who were aged 18–39 years when they had their first screening or diagnostic mammogram during 1995–2005 and followed them for 1 year to determine accuracy of mammography assessment. We measured the recall rate for screening examinations and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and cancer detection rate for all mammograms. Results For screening mammograms, no cancers were detected in 637 mammograms for women aged 18–24 years. For women aged 35–39 years who had the largest number of screening mammograms (n = 73 335) in this study, the recall rate was 12.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 12.4% to 12.9%), sensitivity was 76.1% (95% CI = 69.2% to 82.6%), specificity was 87.5% (95% CI = 87.2% to 87.7%), positive predictive value was 1.3% (95% CI = 1.1% to 1.5%), and cancer detection rate was 1.6 cancers per 1000 mammograms (95% CI = 1.3 to 1.9 cancers per 1000 mammograms). Most (67 468 [77.7%]) of the 86 871 women screened reported no family history of breast cancer. For diagnostic mammograms, the age-adjusted rates across all age groups were: sensitivity of 85.7% (95% CI = 82.7% to 88.7%), specificity of 88.8% (95% CI = 88.4% to 89.1%), positive predictive value of 14.6% (95% CI = 13.3% to 15.8%), and cancer detection rate of 14.3 cancers per 1000 mammograms (95% CI = 13.0 to 15.7 cancers per 1000 mammograms). Mammography performance, except for specificity, improved in the presence of a breast lump. Conclusions Younger women have very low breast cancer rates but after mammography experience high recall rates, high rates of additional imaging, and low cancer detection rates. We found no cancers in women younger than 25 years and poor performance for the large group of women aged 35–39 years. In a theoretical population of 10 000 women aged 35–39 years, 1266 women who are screened will receive further workup, with 16 cancers detected and 1250 women receiving a false-positive result.
Motion planning under uncertainty using iterative local optimization in belief space

We present a new approach to motion planning under sensing and motion uncertainty by computing a locally optimal solution to a continuous partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). Our approach represents beliefs (the distributions of the robot's state estimate) by Gaussian distributions and is applicable to robot systems with non-linear dynamics and observation models. The method follows the general POMDP solution framework in which we approximate the belief dynamics using an extended Kalman filter and represent the value function by a quadratic function that is valid in the vicinity of a nominal trajectory through belief space. Using a belief space variant of iterative LQG (iLQG), our approach iterates with second-order convergence towards a linear control policy over the belief space that is locally optimal with respect to a user-defined cost function. Unlike previous work, our approach does not assume maximum-likelihood observations, does not assume fixed estimator or control gains, takes into account obstacles in the environment, and does not require discretization of the state and action spaces. The running time of the algorithm is polynomial (O[n6]) in the dimension n of the state space. We demonstrate the potential of our approach in simulation for holonomic and non-holonomic robots maneuvering through environments with obstacles with noisy and partial sensing and with non-linear dynamics and observation models.
Information Theory and Coding

Chapter 5 uses the widely observed dichotomy between routine and non-routine behavior to explain how an entity with bounded rationality can achieve error-free behavior. Error-free communication and perfect control were shown to be duals. In terms of the simplified model of Chapter 5, any entity, no matter what its start state, can achieve perfect control if it is allowed to engage in enough deliberation. Deliberation, however, takes time and uses other scarce resources as well. What an entity deliberates about and how much deliberation it engages in will depend upon its start state as well as the stochastic properties of its environment. This chapter takes up the question, What is the best start state? The answer given here is an application of the coding theorems of information theory. Chapter 7 is addressed to the question, Is there an “invisible hand” at work that will lead (or force) an entity to adopt the best start state?
Abstract LB-332: MDM4 transcription is discordantly regulated by common variants of p53

Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC The transcription factor p53 is a central mediator of the DNA damage response programs controlling cell cycle arrest and apoptosis that are critical to the prevention of oncogenesis. Although p53 has been subject to intense study, the functional consequences of the common proline to arginine coding polymorphism at codon 72 have yet to be fully elucidated. We hypothesized that the previously reported difference in apoptotic potential between cells expressing the two common p53 alleles may be due in part to differences in each variant's ability to transcriptionally regulate downstream target genes. To test this, we used a combination of expression profiling and ChIP-on-chip techniques to identify differences in the transcriptional networks regulated by the alternate alleles of p53 in isogenic cell lines. Our results indicate that although the majority of p53 transcriptional targets are equivalently regulated by both allelic variants, a small number of genes are specifically regulated by the respective versions of p53. Surprisingly, among the genes differentially induced by alternate p53 variants is MDM4 (HDMX), a well-characterized regulator of p53 activity. We subsequently used luciferase expression assays to identify a functional site containing a putative p53 binding element within the MDM4 promoter that discordantly interacts with the two p53 variants. These data provide the first evidence that MDM4 transcription is directly mediated by p53, and suggest a mechanism that could contribute to previously-reported differences in apoptotic potential between the common p53 alleles. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-332.
Using big data for quality assessment in oncology.

There is increasing attention in the US healthcare system on the delivery of high-quality care, an issue central to oncology. In the report ‘Crossing the Quality Chasm’, the Institute of Medicine identified six aims for improving healthcare quality: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable. This article describes how current big data resources can be used to assess these six dimensions, and provides examples of published studies in oncology. Strengths and limitations of current big data resources for the evaluation of quality of care are also discussed. Finally, this article outlines a vision where big data can be used not only to retrospectively assess the quality of oncologic care, but help physicians deliver high-quality care in real time.
Intimate Violence against Rural Women: The Current and Future State of Feminist Empirical and Theoretical Contributions

Rural crime in general ranks among the least studied social problems in the social sciences; however, a growing body of research shows that rural woman abuse is a major problem. The current state of progressive critical feminist social scientific knowledge enhances an empirical and theoretical understanding of intimate violence against rural women. Revealing the complexities of rural women's experiences and struggles with violent relationships reconstitutes violence against women as a public crisis that requires continued serious attention with regard research, theory, and policy. Three primary objectives of this article are as follows: (i) briefly review recent feminist social scientific literature on research, methodology, and theoretical contributions on violence against women in rural areas, (ii) suggest new directions in researching and theorizing rural women's experiences with intimate violence, and (iii) offer creative practical and policy solutions towards a broad vision of social change.
A subnanosecond electric pulse exposure system for biological cells

An exposure system adapted for use on a microscope stage was constructed for studying the effects of high electric field, subnanosecond pulses on biological cells. The system has a bandpass of 3 GHz and is capable of delivering high-voltage electric pulses (6.2 kV) to the electrodes, which are two tungsten rods (100 μm in diameter) in parallel with a gap distance of 170 μm. Electric pulses are delivered to the electrodes through a π network, which serves as an attenuator as well as an impedance matching unit to absorb the reflection at the electrodes. By minimizing the inductance of the pulse delivery system, it was possible to generate electric fields of up to 200 kV/cm with a pulse duration of 500 ps at the surface of the cover slip under the microscope. The electric field at the cover slip was found to be homogenous over an area of 50–70 μm. Within this area, neuroblastoma cells placed on the cover slip were studied with respect to membrane potential changes caused by subnanosecond pulses. This allowed us, for the first time, to demonstrate depolarization of the cell membrane potential.
44 VOLUMETRIC THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGING OF THE PLEURAL SPACE

Current imaging methods of the pleura include the chest roentgenogram, CT, MRI, and ultrasound. Each of these methods has limitations, but primarily is limited by the apposition of other structures near the thin pleura, and the two-dimensional images obtained with these methods. With advances in computer-aided imaging over the last decade, creation of virtual three-dimensional images of the pleural surface and space is now possible. In preliminary studies, patients with pleural disease underwent computerized tomography (CT) imaging of the thorax for clinical indications using a Toshiba Aquilon 16-slice scanner. The digital data set of images was then imported into internal analytical software labeled Pulmonary Analysis Software Suite (PASS). Using PASS, segmentation of the lung images was performed to generate a region of interest (ROI). The ROI was then converted to Hounsfield units equivalent to air to virtually remove pixels that correspond to lung tissue, leaving the pleural surface images intact. PASS was then used to volumetrically reconstruct three-dimensional images of the entire pleural surface. Abnormalities of the pleural surface, such as masses or nodules, could then be analyzed as to size, volume, shape, and contour. To begin a more detailed analysis of this method, we performed experiments in sheep. Anesthetized mechanically-ventilated sheep underwent CT imaging of the thorax using a Siemens Somatom Sensation 64 64-slice scanner with a slice thickness of 0.6 mm at 0.4 mm intervals. A pneumothorax was then induced by placing a trocar into the pleural space. Phantom objects of known size, shape, and density were placed into the pleural space and the imaging was repeated. The images were then analyzed using PASS as described above with detection of the phantom objects. The phantom objects were identified and measured using the three-dimensional images. We found that three-dimensional imaging of the pleural space allowed accurate identification and measurement of the phantom objects. Furthermore, this method allows for accurate identification of shape and edge characteristics of pleural masses not easily obtained with conventional two-dimensional imaging. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the pleura may allow for improved diagnostic imaging of this complex surface, and aid in planning diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
High Drilling Rate and Long Service Life Percussive Rock-Drilling Tools: A Hundred-Year Puzzle for World Excavation Industry after Inventions of Industrial Explosives

The nitroglycerine dynamite for road building and mining invented 150 years ago by Nobel, a Sweden, after the invention of Chinese explosives, initiated the industrial revolution in its true sense that brought about high speed growth of social wealth. In 1923, a German invented WC Co cemented carbide, resulting in two major industries of hard alloy cutting tools and hard alloy rock drilling bits. As a consequence, the machine and excavating and mining industries grow rapidly. The cemented carbide is thus termed as the "industrial teeth". In particular, up to now, the modern rock drilling blasting technology has turned into a major means for the human being to obtain resources from the lithosphere and to expand the survival and development space to the underground. In particular, the rock drilling rods are the consumption tools with the smallest range of pressure conditions and the shortest service life in all the machine tools. This kind of rods, indispensable to the basic industry, is of high technology. The manufacture of long service life percussive rock drilling rods has already turned into an important engineering technology puzzle in the 21st century for the global excavation industry that requires highly efficient and low consumption drilling rods. The realization of this target needs the long term cooperation from many experts in rock drilling, blasting, rock fracturing, mining, materials, metallurgy, iron and steel, machine, physics, chemical industry, electronics, mathematics, mechanics and biology (bionics). The establishment of the Chinese modern rock drilling tools industry marked by new types of "cemented carbide drilling tools" and "long service life percussive rock drilling rods" is a new development point strategic to the new generation of "resources high tech export oriented" Chinese national industry.
Wear Resistance Properties of Self-lubricating Powder Reinforced Paint

In order to improve wear resistance of general paint,several kinds of self-lubricating powder reinforced paint were produced by means of adding graphite powder,MoS2 powder and talc powder with different mixture ratio into alkyd paint.A wear tester with water lubrication was used to test the friction behavior of powder reinforced paint.The results of experiments indicate that the friction coefficient and worn loss of self-lubricating powder reinforced paint decrease obviously.The optimal mixture ratio of reinforced paint is 10wt.% MoS2 powder +paint.Its worn loss is one fifth of that of the alkyd paint.
Mitochondria-targeted fluorescent polymersomes for drug delivery to cancer cells

Mitochondria are an attractive target to deliver anticancer drugs. We have synthesized a cationic triphenylphosphonium ion conjugated fluorescent polymer which self-assembles into nanosized polymersomes and targets the encapsulated anticancer drug doxorubicin to cancer cell mitochondria.
Effects of dipyridamole on muscle blood flow in exercising miniature swine

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a vasodilator reserve exists in respiratory muscles and forelimb skeletal muscles in miniature swine during treadmill exercise. Blood flow (BF) wa...
113Cd double-resonance NMR as a probe of clay mineral cation exchange sites

A lack of direct spectroscopic evidence linking cations to the clay mineral structure is a primary reason for many ambiguities regarding the location and structure of the binding sites. This study attempts to obtain such evidence through the observation of nuclear-spin interactions between adsorbed cations ( 113 Cd 2+ ) and nuclei present in the lattice structure of the clay ( 1 H and 27 Al) using solid-state NMR. 1 H- 113 Cd variable-amplitude cross-polarization (VACP) and 27 Al- 113 Cd spin-echo double-resonance (SEDOR) experiments were successfully performed on dried, Cd 2+ -exchanged beidellite, montmorillonite, and vermiculite samples, demonstrating for the first time a direct interaction between the adsorbed cations and the clay. VACP provides much greater cross-polarization (CP) efficiency which enhances signal intensity necessary for these experiments. Signal intensity varies between octahedral and tetrahedral binding sites because hydroxyls in the ditrigonal cavities of tetrahedral sites produce greater CP efficiency presumably due to shorter 1 H- 113 Cd distances in this environment. CP efficiency decreased in the order vermiculite>beidellite>montmorillonite. The observation of nuclear-spin coupling between cadmium and either 1 H or 27 Al in the minerals is consistent with the presence of the cations in the ditrigonal cavities of the tetrahedral sheet. Inter-sample comparison of the strengths of coupling interactions follow expected trends based on charge location in the crystal structure and Al speciation.
Improvements and generalizations of stochastic knapsack and multi-armed bandit approximation algorithms

The multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem features the classical tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. The input specifies several stochastic arms which evolve with each pull, and the goal is to maximize the expected reward after a fixed budget of pulls. The celebrated work of Gittins et al., surveyed in [8], presumes a condition on the arms called the martingale assumption. In [9], A. Gupta et al. obtained an LP-based 1/48-approximation for the problem with the martingale assumption removed. We improve the algorithm to a 4/27-approximation, with simpler analysis. Our algorithm also generalizes to the case of MAB superprocesses with (stochastic) multi-period actions. This generalization captures the framework introduced by Guha and Munagala in [11], and yields new results for their budgeted learning problems.Also, we obtain a (1/2 -- e)-approximation for the variant of MAB where preemption (playing an arm, switching to another arm, then coming back to the first arm) is not allowed. This contains the stochastic knapsack problem of Dean, Goemans, and Vondrak in [6] with correlated rewards, where we are given a knapsack of fixed size, and a set of jobs each with a joint distribution for its size and reward. The actual size and reward of a job can only be discovered in real-time as it is being scheduled, and the objective is to maximize expected reward before the knapsack size is exhausted.Our (1/2 -- e)-approximation improves the 1/16 and 1/8 approximations in [9] for correlated stochastic knapsack with cancellation and no cancellation, respectively, providing to our knowledge the first tight algorithm for these problems that matches the integrality gap of 2. We sample probabilities from an exponential-sized dynamic programming solution, whose existence is guaranteed by an LP projection argument. We hope this technique can also be applied to other dynamic programming problems which can be projected down onto a small LP.
Abstract 16850: The Impact of Coxsackievirus Infection on Cardiac Stem Cells and Postnatal Heart Development

Coxsackievirus B (CVB) is an enterovirus that most commonly causes a self-limited febrile illness in young children, but in severe cases it can progress to myocarditis or meningo-encephalitis. The long-term consequences of mild CVB infection are unknown, although CVB antibodies are encountered more frequently in patients with heart failure than in the general population, raising the possibility that this cardiotropic virus could have lasting sequelae even in subclinical infection. Previously we described a mouse model in which early postnatal exposure to doxorubicin depleted c-Kit+ cardiac stem cells (CSCs) and resulted in cardiac dysfunction in adult animals that could only be elicited by a prolonged exercise challenge or experimentally induced myocardial infarction. We and others have shown that CVB infects actively proliferating neural stem cells and induces cell death. In this study, we report that cultured CSCs isolated from neonatal mouse hearts were also susceptible to cytopathic CVB infection. To test the hypothesis that CVB infection might deplete the CSC population in the heart during self-limited infection, we inoculated neonatal BALB/c mice with recombinant CVB expressing eGFP and assessed the effects of viral infection on CSCs. We observed infected CSCs in cardiac tissue as well as a 50% reduction in the number of c-Kit+ cells in adult animals. Our observations indicate that CVB can target CSCs in the neonatal heart, infecting them and triggering their destruction. Similar to our findings in the doxorubicin late-onset heart failure model, we suggest that the loss of CSCs during subclinical CVB infection in early childhood may predispose to late-onset heart failure. Further work is needed to demonstrate the cardiovascular consequences of CSC infection and depletion after neonatal CVB infection.
Evoked Response Monitoring

Abstract Monitoring of the central nervous system using evoked responses allows assessment of neural tracts that are normally silent during coma or anesthesia. This chapter will discuss the techniques of the auditory brainstem response (ABR), somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP), motor evoked potential (MEP), electromyography (EMG), and a few related techniques. These have been applied widely in a large number of surgical and neuroradiological procedures involving head, spine, neck, and vascular procedures among others and are a standard of care in selected procedures. The implications for anesthesia management will be mentioned, as the anesthesiologist plays a key role in facilitating the monitoring.
High Velocity Compaction of Iron Powder

Large differences in mechanical properties usually exist between a wrought component and one of the same composition made from metal powders by conventional pressing and sintering. The lower properties of the latter stem primarily from their lower density. Some metal components, such as bearings and filters, require low density (high porosity) to retain oil, but in most applications the highest practical density is desirable for strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and surface quality.
Product Innovation: Establishing the foundation: the conceptual level

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, leading businesses are focusing on innovation as the means for achieving their strategic objectives and obtaining competitive advantages. Strategic management's priorities are shifting from focusing on the product delivery system and selling products to leading change through creativity and discovering new opportunities in the business environment. Conventional new-product development (NPD) approaches are evolving into powerful, comprehensive management processes and techniques that integrate opportunity, innovation, and the development process into highly capable and responsive constructs. For example, General Electric's (GE's) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeffrey Immelt wants GE to focus more on innovation, and to become the leader in introducing new products and services. The conceptual level involves the exploration of new-product ideas, the maturation of new-product concepts, the selection of appropriate opportunities for further development, and the determination of the overall game plan for the NPD program. The conceptual level as defined in Chapter 2 includes the activities and decisions necessary for laying the foundation for the successful design and development, and commercialization of a new product. The road has many pitfalls, problems, and challenges as organizations have to respond to the ever-changing landscape of demanding customers and concerned stakeholders. The NPD process has to be systematic, yet flexible enough to accommodate shifting requirements over time. The conceptual level aims at managing Idea Generation, Concept Development and Selection, and Program Definition phases in an integrated fashion that is both comprehensive and expeditious.
Abstract 3601: Targeting USP7/PTEN axis regulates the metastatic competency of bone marrow-resident melanoma cells

Recurrence is the major cause of melanoma death due to cell dissemination from primary/metastatic tumor (CTCs). During asymptomatic periods, these cells reside in bone marrow (bone-marrow resident tumor [BMRT cells]) and remain quiescent. We hypothesized that disseminated tumor cells survive in bone marrow (BM) during these periods and evolve to metastatic potency during disease progression. First, we isolated CTC-enriched, Lin-neg population from clinically advanced melanoma patients and performed biomarker expression and mutational profiling to confirm presence of putative CTCs. Lin-neg CTC population contained unique transcriptomics signature with elevated melanoma markers expression (BAGE, MAGEA1, B4GALNT1, S100A3). Further, downstream IPA analysis demonstrated that an upregulation of transcripts for genes involved in cell survival and pro-development functions with concomitant decrease in cell proliferative and inflammation properties. Second, we implanted Lin-neg population in murine xenograft models and isolated HLA+/ Melan-A+ cells population from blood and BM at endpoint. Expression of human (HLA-ABC) and melanoma markers (Melan-A, S100, NG2, CD146) on BMRTCs and CTCs was confirmed by employing: (a) immunofluorescence staining, (b) single-cell DEPArrayTM and CellSearchTM capture, (c) genomic profiling, and (d) organ-site colonization of CTCs with concomitant to BMRTCs in BM. Third, we discovered distinct transcriptomic signature of BMRTCs vs CTCs by differential gene expression profiling. Subsequent pathway analysis showed top five altered canonical pathways in BMRTCs: protein ubiquitination pathway, EIF2, actin cytoskeleton, systemic lupus erythematosus and hypoxia signaling. Of note, a strikingly elevated expression of PTEN in BMRTCs was detected. Fourth, because PTEN binds to USP7, a key component of protein ubiquitination pathway, we evaluated USP7/PTEN axis in CTC-driven BMRTCs modulated metastatic competency. The use of two clinically approved USP7 inhibitors to study their effects on the proliferative capacity of BMRTCs led to a significant reduction of CTCs at metastatic sites. This study provides critical insights to identify biomarkers of melanoma recurrence during the asymptomatic periods of the disease, fostering application of USP7 inhibitors for innovative melanoma therapies for patients with metastasis undetectable disease and/or yet to develop metastasis. Citation Format: Monika Vishnoi, Debasish Boral, Haowen N. Liu, Marc L. Sprouse, Wei Yin, Michael A. Davies, Isabella C. Glitza Oliva, Dario Marchetti. Targeting USP7/PTEN axis regulates the metastatic competency of bone marrow-resident melanoma cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3601.
Analysis of an Internet-Inspired EV Charging Network in a Distribution Grid

Electric vehicles (EVs) are transforming the modern transportation and energy systems. However, due to increasing battery and charger capacities with long charging times, potential adverse effects on distribution grid will become a crucial problem. Safe and efficient operation of the grid along with a fast, convenient, and fair charging strategy is an important research tackle. In this paper, we analyze the additive increase-multiplicative decrease (AIMD) method used to solve a similar problem occurred in the early days of the Internet and apply it to EV charging using only local measurements. Then, we present a detailed analysis to understand the relationship between distance and charging power in a distribution network to better address the fairness in the proposed AIMD EV charging algorithm.
Survival outcomes from CALGB 80803 (Alliance): A randomized phase II trial of PET scan-directed combined modality therapy for esophageal cancer.

4012Background: We evaluated use of early PET response after induction chemotherapy (CT) to direct changing to alternative CT during preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) among patients (pts) with rese...
Notch in Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancers are malignancies for which improved therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. The development of chemoresistance in ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma is almost inevitable, and researchers are constantly seeking new pathways to target in order to improve the dismal survival rates of women diagnosed with this disease. The Notch pathway in ovarian cancer represents a promising subject for research into new ovarian cancer treatment modalities. Over the last 12 years, the major Notch proteins (Notch1 and NOTCH3), prominent Notch ligands (JAG1 and DLL4), and downstream proteins (Hes1 and DLGAP5) have begun to be studied in ovarian cancers. The roles of Notch in conferring chemoresistance and acting in angiogenesis have also been demonstrated. Additionally, GSI and DLL4 inhibitors as well as Notch antibodies continue to be explored in both clinical and nonclinical settings. It is clear that future studies are needed in order to translate the results from these preclinical studies into practice. Most importantly, it is crucial to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Notch-based therapy in ovarian cancer patients. There is still much work to be done in examining the pathways and proteins with which Notch may be associated as well as in developing more specific and more effective means of inhibiting Notch pathway components.
Characterization of time-resolved emission of N2(C) in an atmospheric pressure nanosecond pulsed air-plasma using streak spectroscopy

A new optical emission spectroscopy (OES) system using a streak camera (streak-OES) is developed to obtain highly time-resolved OES measurements of nanosecond-duration pulsed air-plasmas at atmospheric pressure. The newly developed system is used to measure the time evolution of the emission of N2(C), a critical species in the two-step mechanism of rapid heating characteristic of nanosecond pulsed discharges. Time resolution of less than 400 ps is achieved in the current system, a significant improvement over conventional OES measurements with ICCD cameras or photomultiplier tubes. In addition, as long as the driving voltage pulse lies within the streak camera sweep window, the entire plasma emission spectrum for a single discharge is acquired. This capability is in contrast to prior studies where the time-dependent emission is obtained by plotting measurements at single steps from separate discharges. The effect of pulse repetition frequency (PRF) on the N2(C) decay is investigated by recording emission spectra for single discharges at 5–100 kHz. The streak images clearly show that the decay time of the N2(C–B, 0–0) transition increases as the PRF is increased. The emission decay exhibits two distinct phases with significantly different decay rates, consistent with prior measurements. The 1/e lifetimes of the two decay regimes are found using exponential fits to the emission decay curves. In addition, joint statistics relating the decay times and energy deposited in the plasma were also obtained.
In-hospital outcomes following thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke in patients with primary brain tumors.

e13021 Background: Data on the thrombolysis outcomes in patients with primary brain tumors is limited. We aimed to study stroke outcomes following thrombolysis in these patients at a population lev...
Ethical conundrums in pediatric genomics

Recent genomic discoveries have improved our understanding of many hematologic diseases and led to novel therapeutic options for many patients. The rapid decrease in the cost of genomic testing has enabled widespread use of clinical genomic testing. However, these advances are accompanied by concomitant challenging ethical concerns. In pediatrics, issues of informed consent for genomic testing, assent, and permission vary significantly by patient age and comprehension. Broader testing strategies, such as whole-exome or whole-genome sequencing, are more likely to yield incidental findings unrelated to the reason for the initial test, and plans to deal with these results when they occur are increasingly important. The lines of clinical care and research are becoming more blurry in the era of precision medicine in which approaches to individual genetic mutations (as opposed to disease phenotypes) occur with increased frequency. Finally, because justice is a fundamental ethical consideration, access to genomic testing and a rigorous approach to utility are critical to individual patients and the field of hematology. In this review, we use 3 cases of genomic testing in pediatric hematology to illustrate core ethical concerns and explore potential solutions.
Readership Characteristics and the Value of Advertising in a Circulation Industry: Evidence from U.S. Magazines

This paper investigates the impact of readership characteristics on magazine demand and the price publishers can charge for advertising. The extant literature on circulation industries treats publishers as monopolists in the advertising market. Moreover, the majority of theoretical models of firm-specific advertising assume that the advertising market is perfectly competitive. This paper explains that advertising demand in a circulation industry is derived from the advertising choices of consumer-product firms. The characteristics of a publisher's readership can therefore alter the value of advertising, vis-a-vis alternative advertising outlets. Using data from 117 U.S. magazines, it is shown that readership characteristics, including average reader income and age, augment the prices publishers charge for advertising. These results suggest that the advertising segment of the U.S. magazine industry is an imperfectly competitive market with differentiated goods. Suggestions for future research in the magazine industry are also offered.
Teacher Certification Area and the Academic Outcomes of Students With Learning Disabilities or Emotional/Behavioral Disorders:

Special education certification is used as an indicator of teaching quality in research, practice, and policy. This study examined whether elementary and middle school students with learning disabi...
Knowledge-Based Statistical Inference Method for Plan Quality Quantification.

Aim:The aim of the study is to develop a geometrically adaptive and statistically robust plan quality inference method.Methods and Materials:We propose a knowledge-based plan quality inference meth...
Feature Engineering for Profiling

Humans are able to perceive many profile parameters from voice. Such perceptual relationships between voice and parameters show that there is information relevant to profiling in the voice signal, but may not tell us what that information is. If a study finds perceptual relations between some parameter and specific features derived from voice, then that indicates the existence of a statistical relationship between those features and voice, which may be directly causal, or relate to a common underlying cause. Such features will usually be directly useful in profiling.
Binary Fate Choice between Closely Related Interneuronal Types Is Determined by a Fezf1-Dependent Postmitotic Transcriptional Switch

Summary Many neuronal types occur as pairs that are similar in most respects but differ in a key feature. In some pairs of retinal neurons, called paramorphic, one member responds to increases and the other to decreases in luminance (ON and OFF responses). Here, we focused on one such pair, starburst amacrine cells (SACs), to explore how closely related neuronal types diversify. We find that ON and OFF SACs are transcriptionally distinct prior to their segregation, dendritic outgrowth, and synapse formation. The transcriptional repressor Fezf1 is selectively expressed by postmitotic ON SACs and promotes the ON fate and gene expression program while repressing the OFF fate and program. The atypical Rho GTPase Rnd3 is selectively expressed by OFF SACs and regulates their migration but is repressed by Fezf1 in ON SACs, enabling differential positioning of the two types. These results define a transcriptional program that controls diversification of a paramorphic pair.
Instrumentalizing and Naturalizing Social Ontology: Replies to Lohse and Little

This article addresses Simon Lohse’s and Daniel Little’s responses to my article “Is Social Ontology Prior to Social Scientific Methodology?.” In that article, I present a pragmatic and deflationar...
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Prosocial Beliefs and Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic has required communities to engage in prosocial action, including behaviors that may inconvenience individuals, but protect the collective (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing). The purpose of this study was to understand to what extent COVID-19 prosocial beliefs and behavior differ by race/ethnicity and why this might be the case. A US nationally representative sample of 410 adults completed a survey about COVID-19 beliefs and prevention behaviors between June 12 and 18, 2020. Compared to White respondents, Black respondents perceived the risk of COVID-19 to be greater to the US population; and both Black and Latinx respondents thought it was more important to protect a variety of non-close others (e.g., people in their city or state). Black and Latinx respondents engaged in several prevention behaviors, including social distancing, to a greater extent than White respondents. There were indirect effects of Black vs. White race on engaging in protective behaviors through greater perceived risk to others and beliefs in the importance of protecting distal others. Results indicate that targeted messages promoting prevention, including vaccination with pro-social messages, may resonate with communities of color. They also suggest that lower levels of prosocial beliefs among White people have likely hindered the US response to the epidemic.
Fast emulation of quantum three-body scattering

We develop a class of emulators for solving quantum three-body scattering problems. They are based on combining the variational method for scattering observables and the recently proposed eigenvector continuation concept. The emulators are first trained by the exact scattering solutions of the governing Hamiltonian at a small number of points in its parameter space, and then employed to make interpolations and extrapolations in that space. Through a schematic nuclear-physics model with finite-range two and three-body interactions, we demonstrate the emulators to be extremely accurate and efficient. The computing time for emulation is on the scale of milliseconds (on a laptop), with relative errors ranging from $10^{-13}$ to $10^{-4}$ depending on the case. The emulators also require little memory. We argue that these emulators can be generalized to even more challenging scattering problems. Furthermore, this general strategy may be applicable for building the same type of emulators in other fields, wherever variational methods can be developed for evaluating physical models.
The Concept of Epoch Entropy in Complex Systems

The concept of epoch entropy for relaxation processes is introduced and used to discuss relaxations in complex systems. Empirical rules for relaxation of many such systems are used in explicit evaluations of the epoch entropy. It is shown how by appropriate choices of scale factors the value of the epoch entropy may be the same for different conditions of relaxation. The relation of the empirical rules and the evaluations of epoch entropy to some existing models of relaxation are indicated.