cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of Shoot Galler Attack on Sexual Reproduction in the Arroyo Willow

The assumption that herbivores cause reduction of plant fitness is central to plant herbivore theory, but empirical support from field studies is scant. We tested the hypothesis that the shoot-galling sawfly Euura lasiolepis significantly influences the fitness of its obligate host, the arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis). Surveys of reproductive attributes on field willow clones at different elevations indicated that the presence of shoot galls led to a significant reduction in reproductive buds, and thereby inflorescences, on individual shoots on both male and female plants. Shoots with galls suffered a loss of 43% of their reproductive buds relative to shoots without galls. Inflorescence size, measured as flowers per inflorescence, seed mass, germination success, and pollen germination success were not significantly affected by gall presence. Two sawfly exclosure-enclosure experiments on plants that had been established from cuttings from clones showed reduced reproductive bud production on plants with galls at both the whole-plant and individual-shoot levels; whole-plant losses of 34-56% and per- shoot losses of 17-55% of reproductive buds on different clones were coupled with densities that varied from 0.56 to 2.70 galls per shoot. Most plants suffered relatively small repro- ductive losses because of low sawfly densities. However, 20% of all plants suffered losses of 10%, while 7.5% experienced losses of 20% or more of their reproductive potential. A small willow clone attacked over the range of 0.5-2.0 galls per shoot would lose 381 000- 1 500 000 seeds of a potential 3 760 000 seeds in the year of attack. Genetic variation among plants in susceptibility to sawfly attack and subsequent herbivore-related repro- ductive loss was suggested by a common garden study; some clones had 12 times as many galls as others.
Control of Pollution from the Generation of Nuclear Power

Since the early days of the Manhattan District, there has been concern over potential pollution from the manufacture of atomic weapons and the generation of nuclear power. With time it has become obvious that the nuclear power plants themselves are not important sources of radioactive wastes, although they can be responsible for thermal pollution, as are conventional fossil fuel burning plants. The serious problems are associated with the relatively few chemical plants in which the partially spent nuclear fuels must be reprocessed to save their "unburned" fuel. As the result of an unprecedented program of research and development carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission, methods have been devised and tested for turning the high-level liquid radioactive wastes into inert solids which will be buried in salt mines, and for disposing of the medium-level wastes by incorporation in asphalt or by hydraulic fracturing. The very low-level wastes, decontaminated to drinking water standards, can be safely discharged to the environment, or preferably, disposed of into deep wells.
What Happens When Teachers Design Educational Technology? The Development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

We introduce Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) as a way of representing what teachers need to know about technology, and argue for the role of authentic design-based activities in the development of this knowledge. We report data from a faculty development design seminar in which faculty members worked together with masters students to develop online courses. We developed and administered a survey that assessed the evolution of student- and faculty-participants’ learning and perceptions about the learning environment, theoretical and practical knowledge of technology, course content (the design of online courses), group dynamics, and the growth of TPCK. Analyses focused on observed changes between the beginning and end of the semester. Results indicate that participants perceived that working in design teams to solve authentic problems of practice to be useful, challenging and fun. More importantly, the participants, both as individuals and as a group, appeared to have developed significantly in their knowledge of technology application, as well as in their TPCK. In brief, learning by design appears to be an effective instructional technique to develop deeper understandings of the complex web of relationships between content, pedagogy and technology and the contexts in which they function.
A Parallel Approach to XML Parsing

A language for semi-structured documents, XML has emerged as the core of the Web services architecture, and is playing crucial roles in messaging systems, databases, and document processing. However, the processing of XML documents has a reputation for poor performance, and a number of optimizations have been developed to address this performance problem from different perspectives, none of which have been entirely satisfactory. In this paper, we present a seemingly quixotic, but novel approach: parallel XML parsing. Parallel XML parsing leverages the growing prevalence of multicore architectures in all sectors of the computer market, and yields significant performance improvements. This paper presents our design and implementation of parallel XML parsing. Our design consists of an initial preparsing phase to determine the structure of the XML document, followed by a full, parallel parse. The results of the preparsing phase are used to help partition the XML document for data parallel processing. Our parallel parsing phase is a modification of the libxml2 in Veillard, D. (2004) XML parser, which shows that our approach applies to real-world, production quality parsers. Our empirical study shows our parallel XML parsing algorithm can improved the XML parsing performance significantly and scales well
Spectroscopic studies on two-iron ferredoxins.

The application of magnetic resonance techniques to biological systems has permitted a detailed study of the nature of the active sites of many proteins that had not been possible previously. Among these is the whole class of iron—sulphur proteins which have been implicated as electron transport proteins in a variety of fundamental processes: photosynthesis, hydroxylation and nitrogen fixation to name but a few.The single-iron proteins in this class, the rubredoxins, have been studied extensively by chemical, spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic techniques (Lovenberg, 1973), and the active site is composed of a single iron atom bound in a distorted tetrahedron of cysteine sulphur ligands. The iron is high-spin ferric in the oxidized state and high-spin ferrous in the reduced state. This structure is shown in Fig. I (α).
Purification and properties of desoxyribonuclease isolated from beef pancreas.

1. A method is described for the isolation and purification of desoxyribonuclease from a 0.25 N sulfuric acid extract of beef pancreas. The activity of the enzyme is measured by a viscosimetric method using sodium desoxyribonucleate from calf thymus as substrate. 2. The enzyme is highly active, a measurable effect being obtained at concentrations of less than 0.01 microgram per cc. In highly dilute solution the enzyme is rapidly inactivated, and the use of a protective agent such as gelatin or peptone is necessary. 3. The purified material contains traces of a proteolytic enzyme, but displays no ribonuclease, lipase, or phosphatase activity. 4. The enzyme requires activation by magnesium or manganese ion, and citrate serves as a potent inhibitor of the magnesium-activated enzyme. 5. Its enzymatic activity is inhibited by the specific antibody present in the serum of rabbits immunized with enzyme protein.
Localized thermo-cisplatin therapy: a pilot study in spontaneous canine and feline tumours.

Local hyperthermia combined with intralesional cisplatin chemotherapy is a logical and potentially effective therapeutic approach for localized cancers. A trial using out bred animals with spontaneously occurring tumours was initiated to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of this approach. Treatment consisted of injection of a colloidal suspension of cisplatin into the tumour prior to hyperthermia once a week for 4 weeks. Immediately after intratumoral injection of a mixture of cisplatin and collagen, thermotherapy was given. The goal temperature was 42 ± 1° for 30 min. Ten animals (nine dogs and one cat) with soft tissue neoplasms were treated with one to four hyperthermia and cisplatin sessions for a total of 30 treatment sessions. Complete responses occurred in 4/10 cases (one carcinoma, two sarcomas, one melanoma). One dog with haem-angiopericytoma had partial response. The lack of systemic toxicity and the minimal local normal tissue reactions indicate that the treatments were well tolerated. These d...
Comparison of radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, and nephrectomy in treating implanted VX-2 carcinoma in rabbit kidneys.

Purpose : To compare the efficacy of radiofrequency (RF) ablation, cryoablation, and radical nephrectomy in the treatment of implanted VX-2 carcinoma in rabbit kidneys. Materials and Methods : Sixty-eight New Zealand White rabbits were implanted with 1-mm3 segments of VX-2 carcinoma in the left kidney. Seven days after implantation, the tumors were treated with one of the following: (1) RF ablation using a 12-gauge electrode (RITA Medical Systems, Mountain View, CA) at 90°C for 8 minutes with a 5-mm tumor margin target temperature of 60°C (N = 20); (2) cryoablation using a 15minute double-freeze technique with 2.4-mm cryoprobes and the Cryocare system (Endocare Inc., Irvine, CA) with a 5-mm tumor margin target temperature of -20°C (N = 20); (3) open radical nephrectomy (N = 20); or (4) no treatment (controls; N = 8). Rabbits were allowed to survive for a total of 22 days and sacrificed; and the kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen, urinary bladder, and ureter were removed and examined grossly and histologically ...
Vitamin D dosing for infectious and immune disorders

The most natural way that humans get vitamin D into their body is through exposure to sunlight. If one is at the equator in the summer without sunscreen, human skin will produce approximately 10 000 IU of vitamin D over one hour, a testament to the incredible reserve that human skin has to translate ultraviolet light B (UVB) exposure into vitamin D3 levels in serum. However, modern culture has made sun exposure an inefficient transducer of vitamin D. First, humans spend upwards of 90% of their time indoors and, when outside, have clothes and sunscreen on, both of which reduce the exposure to UVB radiation and, consequently, the production of vitamin D in the skin. Finally, in countries such as the UK, that are far north of the equator, for at least 6 months of the year, there is significantly less UVB radiation that reaches the earth's surface given the larger solar zenith angle of the sun's rays with respect to the earth's surface.1 We are a long way from where modern humans originated, 10 000 years ago, naked, at the equator and outdoors 100% of the time. Thus, to get enough vitamin D, humans must rely on supplementation of their diet to attain appropriate intake. The fact that we have this dual mechanism is testament to the critical biological role that vitamin D plays in human immunity and physiology. This dietary supplementation has been used since the middle of the 18th century when cod-liver oil was regularly …
A linearly constrained fast transversal filter for direct-sequence spread spectrum interference rejection

This paper introduces an improved direct-sequence spread spectrum interference rejection filter using the fast transversal filter (FTF) adaptive algorithm. A constraint is imposed on the FTF update, resulting in a balance of interference rejection and signal fidelity at the filter output. The constraint is controlled by a single parameter.
A Spectral Clustering Based Algorithm for Dynamic Airspace Configuration

We propose a method to model the national airspace system using a graph based on the air route structure and an spectral clustering based algorithm to partition the graph model of the airspace into subgraphs to balance the subgraph workload and satisfy the capacity constraints in our previous work. 1 The algorithm is tested on generic graphs and shows good performance. In this paper, several key improvements are made on the graph model and the dynamic airspace configuration algorithm: (1) We propose a new graph modeling technique which represents real airspace information and air traffic flow more accurately; and (2) We develop a novel airspace sectorizatin algorithm based on a graph search algorithm so that the new sectors have smooth boundaries and good geometrical shapes and the sector boundaries also satisfy the minimum distance constraint. We apply the dynamic airspace configuration algorithm to the current Atlanta Center with ETMS air traffic data and demonstrate that the new sectorization computed by the proposed algorithm outperforms the current sectorization in almost all the metrics for both average and worst-case behaviors.
DNA replication licensing control and rereplication prevention

Eukaryotic DNA replication is tightly restricted to only once per cell cycle in order to maintain genome stability. Cells use multiple mechanisms to control the assembly of the prereplication complex (pre-RC), a process known as replication licensing. This review focuses on the regulation of replication licensing by posttranslational modifications of the licensing factors, including phosphorylation, ubiquitylation and acetylation. These modifications are critical in establishing the pre-RC complexes as well as preventing rereplication in each cell cycle. The relationship between rereplication and diseases, including cancer and virus infection, is discussed as well.
Effects of Mycoplasma gallisepticum on Reproductive Success in House Finches

SUMMARY. Long known as a pathogen of poultry, Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) was first detected in house finches in 1994. The disease rapidly spread throughout the eastern United States and Canada and was associated with debilitating disease and high mortality in house finches. However, in the late 1990s, the proportion of infected finches dying as a result of infection with MG decreased, and asymptomatic infection was more common among wild birds than in the past. We documented MG infections in breeding house finches and concluded that adults of both sexes transmit the infection to dependent young, probably after hatch. MG infections of breeding adults occurred late in the breeding season and were found in birds completing significantly more nests than birds that never tested positive for MG, implying that higher rates of reproduction carry a cost in the form of increased risk of infection. We found evidence of an MG-induced delay in dispersal of nestlings from their natal area and demonstrated a significant impact of infection on nestling growth. RESUMEN. Efectos del Mycoplasma gallisepticum en el comportamiento reproductivo de los pinzones comunes. El Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), reconocido desde hace tiempo como un microorganismo
Apibacter adventoris gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the phylum Bacteroidetes isolated from honey bees

Honey bees and bumble bees harbour a small, defined set of gut bacterial associates. Strains matching sequences from 16S rRNA gene surveys of bee gut microbiotas were isolated from two honey bee species from East Asia. These isolates were mesophlic, non-pigmented, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, C16 : 0 and C16 : 0 3-OH. The DNA G+C content was 29–31 mol%. They had ∼87 % 16S rRNA gene sequence identity to the closest relatives described. Phylogenetic reconstruction using 20 protein-coding genes showed that these bee-derived strains formed a highly supported monophyletic clade, sister to the clade containing species of the genera Chryseobacterium and Elizabethkingia within the family Flavobacteriaceae of the phylum Bacteroidetes. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, we propose placing these strains in a novel genus and species: Apibacter adventoris gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain of Apibacter adventoris is wkB301T ( = NRRL B-65307T = NCIMB 14986T).
Controlling the Conductivity in Oxide Semiconductors

Controlling the electrical conductivity in oxide thin films and nanostructures is an important step toward their application in electronics and optoelectronics. Despite recent progress in growth and characterization, the causes of the often-observed unintentional conductivity in oxide semiconductors are still under debate. This chapter focuses on the theory of native defects and doping in oxide semiconductors such as ZnO, SnO2, and TiO2, from the perspective of first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, the DFT + U, and hybrid functionals. The possible causes of unintentional n-type conductivity and the prospects of achieving p-type doping are addressed. In the case of ZnO and SnO2, it is found that the unintentional conductivity is not due to oxygen vacancies or cation interstitials, but rather to the incorporation of donor impurities, with hydrogen being a likely candidate. In the case of TiO2, it is found that oxygen vacancies are shallow donors, but their formation energy is low only in extreme oxygen-poor conditions. Although the calculations were aimed at understanding the behavior of defects and impurities in bulk single crystals, the main results and conclusions are expected to be valid for thin films and nanostructures.
The Migration to Towns and Cities. IV

Migrants from cities to farms come primarily from the artisan class. Their economic ability, as shown by incomes and living expenditures, is about equivalent to that of native farmers. They are better educated than native farmers. Twothirds of them take up farming because they intermarry with farm children. A comparison of the net migration between cities and farms by economic and social groups gives the net law of rural-urban social selection: the cities attract the extremes while farms attract the mean strata in society. This is a mere hypothesis. This study concerns itself with the social origin of migrants from urban occupations to Minnesota farms and gives some conclusions as to the segregation of definite types of populations in farm and urban areas through this interchange of people. The data used are the same as in the second article in this series.2 They include the families of 694 Minnesota farmers who gave information for a study of rural living made by J. D. Black and myself as a part of the research program of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. The sample includes all types of Minnesota farm population and is representative of the agriculture of the state. It was found that in 536 of these 694 families both the operator and his wife were children of farmers. In 30 cases both parents were from urban families, while in I28 cases the operator or his wife had married into a city family. Thus, in 128 families recruits had reached agriculture through sex selection. These consisted of 8i town women and 47 town men who had married into 1 This is Paper 7I7, Journal Series, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Minnesota. 2 See the first and second articles in this series in the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXXII (November, 1926), and Vol. XXXIII (July, I927).
Temporal information inference from static high-content fluorescent microscopy

Recent advancements in high content fluorescent microscopy have enabled us to capture large amounts of cellular/sub-cellular information in a single snapshot. In this paper, we propose a method to infer temporal information from static high content fluorescent microscopy images. The proposed method is based on low dimensional embedding of the optimal transport manifold and enables simulation of time-lapse microscopy images from static data. We demonstrate the application of the method on a dataset of bone marrow extracted macrophages to simulate video realistic results from static images.
Identification of Tetrapeptides from a Mixture Based Positional Scanning Library That Can Restore nM Full Agonist Function of the L106P, I69T, I102S, A219V, C271Y, and C271R Human Melanocortin-4 Polymorphic Receptors (hMC4Rs)

Human obesity has been linked to genetic factors and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) SNPs have been associated with up to 6% frequency in morbidly obese children and adults. A potential therapy for individuals possessing such genetic modifications is the identification of molecules that can restore proper receptor signaling and function. These compounds could serve as personalized medications improving quality of life issues as well as alleviating diseases symptoms associated with obesity including type 2 diabetes. Several hMC4 SNP receptors have been pharmacologically characterized in vitro to have a decreased, or a lack of response, to endogenous agonists such as α-, β-, and γ2-melanocyte stimulating hormones (MSH) and adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH). Herein we report the use of a mixture based positional scanning combinatorial tetrapeptide library to discover molecules with nM full agonist potency and efficacy to the L106P, I69T, I102S, A219V, C271Y, and C271R ...
Limb preservation in patients with bone and soft tissue tumors.

Dr Siegel is from the Section of Orthopedic Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Orthopedics Specialties, Birmingham, Alabama. Dr Siegel has no relevant fi nancial relationships to disclose. Correspondence should be addressed to: Herrick J. Siegel, MD, Orthopedic Oncology, UAB Orthopedics Specialties Bldg, 1313 13th St S, Birmingham, AL, 35205 (herrick.siegel@ortho.uab.edu). doi: 10.3928/01477447-20100826-17 In this issue of ORTHOPEDICS, Dr Siegel discusses the pros and cons of limb preservation including reconstruction options, challenges, complications, and new technology.
Safety Culture: Effects of Environment, Behavior & Person

During the investigation of several notable disasters (e.g., 1986 Chernobyl nuclear re-lease, Continental Express Flight 2574 crash in 1991), the lack of positive corporate safety culture was identified as a major contributing factor to these incidents (IAEA, 1986, as cited in Cox & Flin, 1998; NTSB/AAR-92/04 1992, p. 54, as cited by Meshkati, 1997). For example, as pointed out by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), "the failure of Continental Express management to establish a corporate culture which encouraged and enforced adherence to approved maintenance and quality assurance procedures" was a potential cause of the crash (NTSB/AAR-92/04 1992, p. 54, as cited by Meshkati, 1997). Since then, safety culture assessment has been frequently used to identify root causes of system failures or incidents (Cox & Flin, 1998; Gordon, Flin, Mearns, et al., 1996; Pidgeon, 1998; Wilpert, 2000). Accordingly, building a positive corporate safety culture has been an interest in nu-clear energy, offshore and other high-risk industries to improve safety awareness and prevent incidents (Cox & Cheyne, 2000; Fleming, 1999; INSAG, 1999). Construction is well known as a high-risk field. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, 2011), in 2009, construction accounted for 18.3% of all fatal work injuries in the U.S. The industry’s fatality rate (9.9 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers) was the third highest among all industries. The emphasis on building a positive safety culture has proven to enhance contractors’ safety awareness and performance. For example, the 1-Hour for Safety Management program, providing safety education for top management, successfully increased safety awareness, interest and commitment (Hakkinen, 1995). Job-site incidents were also reduced after a cultural intervention program was launched in the Netherlands’ concrete industry (Oh & Sol, 2008). Corporate safety culture has gradually become a primary safety performance indicator (Mohamed, 2003; Reiman & Pietikeinen, 2010). This research’s objective was two-fold: 1) study a safety program launched by a regional general contractor (GC), Messer Construction Co. (here-after called "the GC"), in the U.S. building construction industry; and 2) examine the program’s effectiveness in building a positive safety culture based on a holistic assessment framework. This article presents an example of best safety management practices and offers an assessment tool that can be used to evaluate safety culture and safety program effectiveness.
Abstract 2669: Glutaminase alternative splicing controls tumor growth and metabolism

Cancer cells reprogram their metabolism to meet their energetic and biosynthetic needs, with many cancer cells showing increased aerobic glycolysis and glutamine consumption. In addition to providing carbon to the TCA cycle to compensate for the diversion of glucose to lactate, glutamine is an important carbon and nitrogen donor for the synthesis of nucleotides, amino sugars and non-essential amino acids. Glutaminase (GLS) catalyzes the first step of glutamine metabolism, the hydrolysis of glutamine to glutamate, which can then be converted to alpha-ketoglutarate, glutathione or non-essential amino acids. GLS is alternatively spliced to make the KGA or more catalytically active GAC isoforms. Analysis of publicly available TCGA RNA-seq data from primary human tumors shows that GAC is the predominant splice form of GLS in many tumor types. However, the roles played by GAC versus KGA in tumor metabolism and progression are poorly understood. To facilitate the study of GLS alternative splicing, CRISPR/Cas9 mediated deletion of the GAC specific exon was used to convert predominantly GAC-expressing parental cell lines to solely KGA-expressing cell lines (ΔGAC). Despite showing decreased glutamine-derived glutamate and α-ketoglutarate, ΔGAC cells do not show impaired growth in nutrient-replete in vitro conditions compared to parental cells. 13C-isotopic labeling and metabolomics showed that ΔGAC cells have decreased levels of proline and alanine, both of which can be derived from glutamine-derived glutamate. This led us to ask if ΔGAC cells are dependent on exogenous non-essential amino acids. We found that depletion of non-essential amino acids slowed the growth of ΔGAC cells compared with parental cells, rescuable by exogenous proline and alanine. Importantly, the growth of lung (A549) and breast cancer (MDA-MB231) ΔGAC xenograft models was diminished compared with parental tumor xenografts in vivo, which is consistent with a role for GAC in nutrient challenged conditions. In summary, the GAC form of glutaminase fuels tumor growth partly through synthesis of non-essential amino acids, particularly under nutrient limiting conditions. As GLS inhibitors enter the clinic, a more thorough understanding of the role of GLS in tumor metabolism will aid in the development of treatment strategies to best make use of these drugs. Citation Format: Zachary Stine, Zandra E. Walton, Lin Zhang, Teresa MW Fan, Andrew N. Lane, Chi V. Dang. Glutaminase alternative splicing controls tumor growth and metabolism. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2669.
String Interactions At High Energy

In this lecture I shall discuss briefly a few topics that I have worked on in the last year, largely dealing with what one can learn from a study of the high energy behavior of string theory. Before doing so I would like to emphasize how little we know about string theory and how important it is to go beyond our present understanding, which is almost solely limited to to low energies and weak couplings. I will argue that weak coupling perturbation theory is clearly insufficient by discussing a recent result that string perturbation theory diverges and is non Borel-summable. I will then discuss how string theory looks at energies large compared to the Planck mass (or equivalently the zero Planck mass limit of the theory.) I shall argue this is a semiclassical limit of the first quantized theory and exhibits very simply but stringy behavior which might give us a clue to the conceptual foundations of the theory. In particular it suggests that there is a very large symmetry present in string theory which is not visible at low energies but is restored at very high energies. Finally I will show that if one tries to use high energy strings as microscopes to probe short distances that there are indications that this possibility breaks down close to the Planck length, at what might be called a minimal length.
Implicitly Distributing Pervasively Concurrent Programs: Extended abstract

Distributed programs are often written as a collection of communicating modules. For example, to use Java RMI, programs are divided into objects which can be remotely referenced. Yet, in many cases, it would be desirable to write the program without the program structure being driven by distribution decisions. If distribution is decoupled from program structure, the programming language must allow communication throughout a program's structure, instead of at a few known points. This situation is simplified if the programming language provides a uniform programming model for local and remote values (location transparency). We present Distributed Orc, which offers location transparency, and distributes program operations automatically in cooperation with the execution environment. By eliminating any special semantics of remote values, Distributed Orc enables programmers to write cohesive distributed programs, rather than programs artificially divided at distribution boundaries. Distributed Orc is derived from the Orc language, a (centralized) concurrent orchestration language.
The efficacy and safety of direct oral anticoagulants vs traditional anticoagulants in cirrhosis

Introduction The coagulopathy of cirrhosis is complex, placing patients at risk for both bleeding and thrombosis. Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have equivalent or superior efficacy and safety as compared to vitamin K antagonists (VKAs); however, their efficacy and safety in liver cirrhosis has not been studied. To better define this, we evaluated outcomes of patients with cirrhosis prescribed DOACs compared to other anticoagulants at our center. Methods Retrospective cohort study of patients with cirrhosis prescribed therapeutic anticoagulation over a 3-year period for thrombosis or prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. The primary outcomes of interest were bleeding events and recurrent thrombosis or stroke. Results During the study period, 27 patients with cirrhosis were prescribed a DOAC and 18 were prescribed VKA or low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). Both groups had similar total bleeding events (8 DOAC vs 10 other, P=.12). There were significantly less major bleeding episodes in the DOAC group (1 [4%] vs 5 [28%], P=.03). Recurrent thrombosis occurred in one patient receiving a DOAC (4%) and one patient (6%) receiving other anticoagulation (P=1.0). Conclusions Direct oral anticoagulant use in patients with cirrhosis may be as safe as traditional anticoagulants. Patients with cirrhosis at our center prescribed DOACs had less major bleeding events, while maintaining efficacy at preventing stroke or thrombosis.
Mathematical Tools to Assess Soil Contamination by Deposition of Technogenic Emissions

Mathematical models are developed of soil contamination by deposition of impurities emitted into the surface layer of the atmosphere by industry. Modelling enables the definition of the average level of contaminants arriving at the soil surface for particular periods (day, month, year, etc.) and forecasting zones of long-term loading on the soil. This information will support effective managerial decisions to provide the necessary level of ecological safety in zones of potential hazard.
Coherence changes gaze behavior in virtual human interactions

We discuss the design and results of an experiment investigating Plausibility Illusion in virtual human (VH) interactions, in particular, the coherence of conversation with a VH. This experiment was performed in combination with another experiment evaluating two display technologies. As that aspect of the study is not relevant to this poster, it will be mentioned only in the Materials section. Participants who interacted with a low-coherence VH looked around the room markedly more than participants interacting with a high-coherence VH, demonstrating that the level of coherence of VHs can have a detectable effect on user behavior and that head and gaze behavior can be used to evaluate the quality of a VH interaction.
Classification and pathophysiology of spinal vascular malformations

Spinal arteriovenous malformations and fistulas comprise spinal vascular malformations (sVMs), a rare but challenging neurosurgic entity. A number of mechanisms have been proposed as explanations of neurologic decline in the setting of arteriovenous shunting, including venous hypertension, venous congestion, hemorrhage, vascular steal, or mass effect, which can be worsened with venous varices or aneurysmal dilations. Anatomic location and features dictate the categorization of sVMs. Two major systems are in place for classification of sVMs - (1) the American/French/English connection and (2) the Spetzler system - as well as a number of systems that have been described over the past century.
Severe and resistant hypertension in an older woman with claudication.

Abstract Coarctation of the aorta is an uncommon cause of treatment-resistant hypertension in adults. It is typically detected and treated in infancy or childhood with surgical or endovascular procedures. Most cases of recurrence of coarctation after repair occur in childhood or early adulthood; recurrence in older persons (>70 years) has rarely been reported. A 73-year-old woman was referred to us for the management of treatment-resistant hypertension accompanied by symptoms of claudication and headaches, which had resulted in multiple emergency room visits. Of note, 58 years earlier, a graft from the left subclavian artery had been used to bypass an aortic coarctation. During a hospitalization for severe hypertension accompanied by acute kidney injury and heart failure, diagnostic angiography revealed a complete thrombotic occlusion of the left subclavian-artery-to-descending-aorta bypass graft and a tight coarctation in the descending thoracic aorta. Balloon angioplasty and stenting across the coarctation was only transiently effective; subsequently, an ascending-to-descending graft was placed distal to the coarctation, and within a few days, the blood pressure levels and claudication improved markedly. This case demonstrates that hypertension specialists should suspect the possibility of recurrence of a coarctation in older patients who present with resistant hypertension and have a remote history of coarctation repair. Although such late recurrences are not common, as illustrated in our patient, surgical intervention may contribute to significant improvement in blood pressure control and prevent future complications.
Multiscale Entropy: Recent Advances

Multiscale entropy is a widely used metric for characterizing the complexity of physiological time series. The fundamental difference to classical entropy measures is it enables quantification of nonlinear dynamics underlying physiological processes over multiple time scales. The basic idea of multiscale entropy was initially developed in 2002 and has since witnessed considerable progress in methodological expansions along with growing applications. Here, we provide an overview of some recent developments in the theory, identify some methodological constraints of the originally introduced multiscale entropy analysis, and discuss some improvements that we, and others, have made regarding the definition of the time scales, its multivariate extension and improved methods for estimating the basic technique. Finally, the application of multiscale entropy to the analysis of cardiovascular data is summarized.
The intersection of identities in supervision for trauma-informed practice: Challenges and strategies.

This article discusses and illustrates the role and impact of the intersection of supervisors’ and supervisees’ social identities and the associated power and privilege within the context of superv...
Overview of Surgical Therapy for Crohn's Disease

Abstract Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestinal tract with an unknown etiology and an unknown cure. Despite the advances in medical therapy, up to 70% of patients with CD still require surgical intervention within a decade of their diagnosis. Because surgery is not curative, bowel preservation should be maximized at each operation to prevent the dreaded complication of short gut. This may be accomplished through endoscopic or strictureplasty techniques rather than bowel resection, or being attentive to the type of anastomosis performed and its associated disease recurrence. Perianal disease remains notoriously difficult to treat despite several medical and surgical options. For several patients, stoma formation may be temporary or permanent, and preoperative planning and postoperative care should be part of the perioperative care. With these principles in mind, we herein discuss some of the important principles of how to approach an operation for CD and various techniques used at the time of surgery.
Mental models and omissive causation

Some causal relations refer to causation by commission (e.g., “A gunshot causes death”), and others refer to causation by omission (e.g., “Not breathing causes death”). We describe a theory of the representation of omissive causation based on the assumption that people mentally simulate sets of possibilities—mental models—that represent causes, enabling conditions, and preventions (Goldvarg & Johnson-Laird, 2001). The theory holds that omissive causes, enabling conditions, and preventions each refer to distinct sets of possibilities. For any such causal relation, reasoners typically simulate one initial possibility, but they are able to consider alternative possibilities through deliberation. These alternative possibilities allow them to deliberate over finer-grained distinctions when reasoning about causes and effects. Hence, reasoners should be able to distinguish between omissive causes and omissive enabling conditions. Four experiments corroborated the predictions of the theory. We describe them and contrast the results with the predictions of alternative accounts of causal representation and inference.
An Extract of Russian Tarragon Prevents Obesity‐Related Ectopic Lipid Accumulation

Scope The primary disorder underlying metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance due to excess body weight and abdominal visceral fat accumulation. In this study, it is asked if dietary intake of an ethanolic extract from Russian tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L., termed PMI5011), shown to improve glucose utilization by enhancing insulin signaling in skeletal muscle, could prevent obesity-induced insulin resistance, skeletal muscle metabolic inflexibility, and ectopic lipid accumulation in the skeletal muscle and liver. Methods and results Male wild-type mice are fed a high-fat diet alone or supplemented with PMI5011 (1% w/w) over 3 months. Dietary intake of PMI5011 improved fatty acid oxidation and metabolic flexibility in the skeletal muscle, reduced insulin levels, and enhanced insulin signaling in the skeletal muscle and liver independent of robust changes in expression of factors that control fatty acid oxidation. This corresponds with significantly reduced lipid accumulation in the skeletal muscle and liver, although body weight gain is comparable to a high-fat diet alone. Conclusion Previous studies showed that PMI5011 enhances insulin sensitivity in the setting of established obesity-induced insulin resistance. The current study demonstrates that dietary intake of PMI5011 prevents high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction, and ectopic lipid accumulation in the skeletal muscle and liver without reducing body weight.
von Willebrand Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment

von Willebrand disease (VWD) is caused by quantitative or qualitative defects of von Willebrand factor (VWF), associated with mucocutaneous bleeding symptoms. VWD is classified into three major groups and four subcategories. The classification is intended to be simple, to rely on widely available laboratory tests, and to correlate with important clinical characteristics. It is meant to facilitate the diagnosis, treatment, and counseling of patients with VWD. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis/Scientific and Standardization Committee (ISTH/SSC) reviewed the classification and published update information on the diagnosis and treatment of VWD in 2006 based on the most recent pathophysiology data for VWF. Notably, Vicenza type has been classified into type 1 from type 2M. In epidemiology, there may be small differences of frequency in VWD subcategories (type 2) between Europe and lapan. For treatment, factor VIII/VWF concentrate is commonly employed in Japan, although DDAVP has been the first choice for VWD in Europe.
Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women by Birthplace and Percent of Lifetime Living in the United States.

Objective The aim of the study was to provide national estimates of Pap test receipt, by birthplace, and percent of lifetime in the United States (US). Materials and methods Pooled nationally representative data (2005, 2008, 2013, 2015) from the National Health Interview Survey were used to examine differences in Pap test receipt among adult US women by birthplace and percent of lifetime in the US. Descriptive estimates were age-adjusted. Regression models were adjusted for selected sociodemographic and healthcare access and utilization factors and presented as predicted margins. Results Foreign-born women 18 years and older were more than twice as likely to have never received a Pap test compared with US-born women (18.6% vs 6.8%). Regression models showed that foreign-born women from Mexico (9.8%), South America (12.6%), Caribbean (14.6%), Southeast Asia (13.7%), Central Asia (20.4%), South Asia (22.9%), Middle East (25.0%), Africa (27.8%), Europe (16.4%), and Former Soviet Union (28.2%) were more likely to be unscreened compared with US-born women (7.6%). Foreign-born women who spent less than 25% of their life in the US had higher prevalence of never having a Pap test (20%) compared with foreign-born who spent more than 25% of their life in the US (12.7%). Conclusions Using national survey, we found that where a woman is born and the percent of her lifetime spent residing in the US do impact whether she gets screened at least once in her lifetime. Impact These findings may inform cervical cancer screening efforts targeting foreign-born women.
Investigation of relationships between soil type and condition and crater size for shallow-buried explosive charges:

The detonation of near-surface and shallow-buried explosives results in a ground crater that has a size and shape that is directly related to the charge size, charge position, and soil conditions. ...
No Difference in Return to Sport and Other Outcomes Between Operative and Nonoperative Treatment of Medial Epicondyle Fractures in Pediatric Upper-Extremity Athletes.

Objective Compare outcomes of operative and nonoperatively managed medial epicondyle fractures in upper-extremity athletes. Design Retrospective chart review and phone survey. Setting Level 1, tertiary-referral pediatric hospital. Patients Propensity scores (probability of operative treatment) were estimated from a logistic regression model that included sex, age, displacement, limb dominance, and injury severity (presence of an additional fracture, nerve injury, or elbow dislocation). These were used to match subjects in the operative group to the nonoperative group. Main outcome measures Return to sport, duration of time required to return to sport, pain, range of motion (ROM), need for physical therapy, and complications were recorded for both groups. Results Twenty-eight nonoperative subjects were matched to 14 operative subjects. There was no significant difference in the proportion of subjects who returned to the same sport (92.9% in each group), performance at preinjury level of competition, or median time to return to play (P = 0.7106). There was no significant difference in functional limitations in social-/work-related activities (P > 0.9999), pain in the past 30 days (P = 0.0640), need for physical therapy (P = 0.5680), ROM limitations (P = 0.0988), difficulty in sleeping (P = 0.4773), or complications (P = 0.4081). Conclusions Our study found no statistical difference in outcomes or complications between operative and nonoperatively treated moderately displaced medial epicondyle fractures in adolescent upper-extremity athletes. Our data show that similar outcomes may be achieved with both treatment groups for medial epicondyle fractures in upper-extremity athletes.
Optimization of Genomics Analysis Pipeline for Scalable Performance in a Cloud Environment

Cost-effective and scalable analysis of the human genome is crucial for the democratization of precision medicine. The new version of the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK4), an industry-standard end-to-end tool for variant discovery analysis in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, introduces Apache Spark support to improve scaling for both local multithreading and cluster-wide parallelization, as well as facilitate the deployment on cloud infrastructures. In this paper, we evaluate the performance and scalability of GATK4-Spark running on a next-generation cloud platform. After identifying bottlenecks and scaling challenges, we optimize the software stack that includes an optimized JVM, enhancements of Spark and targeted configuration tuning, which in turn enables more effective use of the underlying computing resources. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our comprehensive optimization techniques on a reference Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) pipeline, achieving ≤1 hr computation time for whole human genome analysis.
A 9.6 mW Low-Noise Millimeter-Wave Sub-Sampling PLL with a Divider-less Sub-Sampling Lock Detector in 65 nm CMOS

A 40.5 GHz sub-sampling phase-locked loop (SSPLL) with only 9.6 mW power consumption is presented. The proposed Sub-Sampling Lock Detector (SSLD) samples the output signal with on-chip generated 900 MHz reference, and can automatically detect and rectify the unlock or locked-to-wrong-harmonic states. This is done without using traditional power-consuming divider-based frequency-locked loop (FLL). The proposed SSPLL hence achieves low power, low in-band phase noise and robust operation simultaneously.