cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A parallel algorithm and architecture for robot path planning

Path planning is an essential step in any mobile robot system. In this paper, we propose a parallel algorithm and architecture for this computationally intensive problem. The parallel implementation is based on the trulla algorithm proposed by the authors in Proc. 5th Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Raleigh, NC, USA (July 1992). The algorithm uses a wavefront-like propagation technique and computes the near-optimal paths from every point in the grid space to the specified destination. The algorithm is implemented on a linear systolic array architecture which is simple and regular in structure and can be implemented as a VLSI system. Currently, a prototype VLSI chip with 5 processor cells is being implemented. >
A multi-level DHT routing framework with aggregation

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has recently attracted research attention, which decouples content from hosts at the network layer, and retrieves a content object by its name (identifier), instead of its storage location (host IP address) in order to address IP network's limitations in supporting content distribution. However, ICN systems face scalability and efficiency challenges in global deployments. In this paper, we propose a scalable routing and name resolution framework, called Scalable Multi-level Virtual Distributed Hash Table (SMVDHT). SMVDHT uses a combination of name aggregation and multi-level virtual DHTs to achieve scalability. A novel aggregation scheme is proposed to reduce the size and update overhead of name resolution tables, while relieving the "suffix-hole" problem encountered in traditional prefix-based name aggregation. Furthermore, SMVDHT exploits underlying intra- and inter-domain IP routing protocols to build multi-level virtual DHTs for name resolution, which is more efficient than conventional hierarchical DHT schemes and simplifies network management. We also design the new protocols to efficiently resolve the aggregated names and forward a request to the closest available copy of content via multi-level virtual DHTs.
Personality Perceptions Associated with Six Styles of Love

The perceived personality traits associated with different love attitudes were examined using Hendrick & Hendrick's (1986) Love Attitudes Scale as stimulus material for the expression of six love styles (Lee, 1973). One group of subjects was asked to generate descriptive personality traits for six target persons, each of whom represented one of the six love attitudes. A second group rated the importance of the various traits for describing a particular target person. It was found that each love attitude had relatively distinct personality traits associated with it. Thus, the target persons representing the different love attitudes were perceived quite differently. The results suggest that there may be different prototypes for different styles of love.
Management of complicated head and neck wounds with vacuum-assisted closure system.

Background. The vacuum-assisted closure system (V.A.C.), or negative pressure dressings, has been successfully used to manage complex wounds of the torso and extremities, but its role in the head and neck region has not been frequently described.
MEDIC: a practical disease vocabulary used at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database

The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) is a public resource that promotes understanding about the effects of environmental chemicals on human health. CTD biocurators manually curate a triad of chemical–gene, chemical–disease and gene–disease relationships from the scientific literature. The CTD curation paradigm uses controlled vocabularies for chemicals, genes and diseases. To curate disease information, CTD first had to identify a source of controlled terms. Two resources seemed to be good candidates: the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) and the ‘Diseases’ branch of the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headers (MeSH). To maximize the advantages of both, CTD biocurators undertook a novel initiative to map the flat list of OMIM disease terms into the hierarchical nature of the MeSH vocabulary. The result is CTD’s ‘merged disease vocabulary’ (MEDIC), a unique resource that integrates OMIM terms, synonyms and identifiers with MeSH terms, synonyms, definitions, identifiers and hierarchical relationships. MEDIC is both a deep and broad vocabulary, composed of 9700 unique diseases described by more than 67 000 terms (including synonyms). It is freely available to download in various formats from CTD. While neither a true ontology nor a perfect solution, this vocabulary has nonetheless proved to be extremely successful and practical for our biocurators in generating over 2.5 million disease-associated toxicogenomic relationships in CTD. Other external databases have also begun to adopt MEDIC for their disease vocabulary. Here, we describe the construction, implementation, maintenance and use of MEDIC to raise awareness of this resource and to offer it as a putative scaffold in the formal construction of an official disease ontology.
Intersectin Regulates Fission and Internalization of Caveolae in Endothelial Cells

Intersectin, a multiple Eps15 homology and Src homology 3 (SH3) domain–containing protein, is a component of the endocytic machinery in neurons and nonneuronal cells. However, its role in endocytos...
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hybrid Phone-Manner Representations for ASR

In the past decade, several researchers have started reinvestigating the use of sub-phonetic models for lexical representations within automatic speech recognition systems. Lest history repeat itself, it may be instructive to mine the further past for models of lexical representations in the lexical access literature. In this work, we re-evaluate the model of Briscoe (1989), in which a hybrid strategy of lexical representation between phones and manner classes is promoted. While many of Briscoe's assumptions do not match up with current ASR processing models, we show that his conclusions are essentially correct, and that reconsidering this structure for ASR lexica is an appropriate avenue for future ASR research.
Two input systems for body representations in the primate striatal matrix: experimental evidence in the squirrel monkey

The striatum is important in basal ganglia motor control and movement disorders. In this study we demonstrate the existence of two distinct sensorimotor cortical input systems to the striatum of the squirrel monkey. The first is a group of discrete zones in the extrastriosomal matrix of the putamen ("matrisomes") that receive somatotopically organized projections from both the body map in ipsilateral primary motor cortex (MI) and maps in ipsilateral primary somatosensory cortex (SI). The second system is a group of matrisomes in largely different locations that receive somatotopically organized inputs from contralateral MI but not SI. Intracortical microstimulation and multiunit recording were used to guide deposits of multiple anterograde tracers in MI and SI. Striosome/matrix architecture was demonstrated by enkephalin immunohistochemistry. We found that inputs from regions of ipsilateral MI and SI that represented the same body parts sent projections to the same matrisomes of the ipsilateral putamen. Contralateral MI sent its strongest inputs to matrisomes that tended to interdigitate with those receiving inputs from ipsilateral SI and MI, except the contralateral MI face region, which sent projections that overlapped those from the ipsilateral MI face region. MI regions representing axial body parts (trunk and face) sent stronger representations to the contralateral putamen than did those representing distal parts (hand and foot). SI sent no contralateral projection. Thus, with the exception of the face representation, inputs from contralateral and ipsilateral body representations may alternate in the primate striatal matrix, an arrangement reminiscent of the alternating ocular dominance columns in visual cortex. Ipsilateral SI and MI and contralateral MI all innervated matrisomes intermingled with striosomes and with matrisomes not receiving sensorimotor cortical input. The patchiness of these maps is thus unlike the smoother somatotopic maps of sensorimotor cortex, and is also unlike the fractured somatotopy reported for the cerebellum.
Identification of electronic component faults using neural networks and fuzzy systems

The authors describe the development of a two-step procedure for identifying fault components in electronic circuits containing both analog and digital components. A neural network uses circuit input and output voltage values as inputs to the network and has individual output nodes corresponding to potential faulty components. When a set of tests (input/output patterns) from a faulty board are applied to the neural network, either one or many faulty components will be indicated. If a test points to one component, then that component is bad and no further diagnosis is necessary. If a test indicates that more than one component may be bad, then further work using a fuzzy system is required to identify the faulty component. Data from a 50-component printed circuit board were used to test this neural/fuzzy faulty component detection system. >
Decreased Cu,Zn-SOD activity in asthmatic airway epithelium: correction by inhaled corticosteroid in vivo

To investigate the antioxidant response of respiratory epithelium to the chronic airway inflammation in asthma, the major intracellular antioxidants [copper and zinc-containing superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) and manganese-containing SOD (Mn-SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase] were quantitated in bronchial epithelial cells of healthy control and asthmatic individuals. Although catalase and glutathione peroxidase in bronchial epithelium of asthmatics were similar to control SOD activity in asthmatics not on inhaled corticosteroid (-CS) was lower than asthmatics on inhaled corticosteroid (+CS) and controls. Investigation of Mn-SOD and Cu,Zn-SOD activities revealed that the lower SOD activity in asthmatics -CS was because of decreased Cu,Zn-SOD activity. However, Mn-SOD and Cu,Zn-SOD mRNA and protein levels were similar among asthmatics -CS, asthmatics +CS, and controls. Importantly, Cu,Zn-SOD specific activity in asthmatics -CS was decreased in comparison with control and asthmatics +CS. Furthermore, in paired comparisons of asthmatics -CS and +CS, inhaled corticosteroids resulted in normalization of bronchial epithelial Cu,Zn-SOD specific activity. These findings suggest loss of Cu,Zn-SOD activity in asthma is related to inflammation, perhaps through oxidant inactivation of Cu,Zn-SOD protein.
Creating and Grading IPython/Jupyter Notebook Assignments with NbGrader

Many courses in scientific fields require students not just to write code, but to also visualize their data, work through a mathematical derivation, or write a paragraph interpreting their results. The Jupyter notebook (formerly known as the IPython notebook) is an ideal platform for creating assignments that include all of these question types, due to its interactive document format that weaves together code, prose, images, and math. Instructors can provide students with self-contained notebooks that include instructions, coding exercises, and written responses all in the same place. Students can write and execute code in these notebooks, and any text or images produced by the code are displayed immediately beneath the input that produced them. However, while having all exercises in the same place makes for better assignments, it also makes them difficult to grade. This demo presents nbgrader, an open-source tool developed by the Jupyter project that solves this problem by providing an interface that blends the autograding of notebook-based assignments with manual human grading. Additionally, nbgrader streamlines the process of assignment creation, distribution, collection, grading, and feedback-a process that is often logistically difficult for instructors. To give students access to the notebook, this demo illustrates how it can be deployed in the cloud, and how this complements the grading process. Information about the Jupyter notebook can be found at http://jupyter.org/, and a demo of the notebook at https://try.jupyter.org/. Information about nbgrader can be found at https://github.com/jupyter/nbgrader. A laptop is recommended for this demo. Handouts will be provided.
Medical Students' Religious Affiliation as Related to Values and Attitudes toward Patient Care

Medical students grouped on the basis of their religious affiliation are compared in terms of values, personality, and attitudes measured upon entering and graduating from medical school. Instrumen...
Time-Resolved Reflectance of Two-Layered Tissue Models via Scaling of “White” Monte Carlo Simulations

Absorption-scaling methods were applied to Monte Carlo simulations of two-layered tissues by incorporating a path integral (PI) formalism. Times spent by photons in the top-layer can be significantly underestimated when determined using PI.
Sorodiplophrys: An Unusual Sorocarp-Producing Protist

(1975). Sorodiplophrys: An Unusual Sorocarp-Producing Protist. Mycologia: Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 873-879.
On the Collision of Particles against the Pipe Wall in Horizontal Pneumatic Conveyance

Using quartz sands and glass beads as solid particles, the relation among η (collision ratio of particles against pipe wall), G (particles flow rate), and λs (additional pressure loss coefficient by particles) was examined.Results obtained are as follows;(1) With increasing G, η increased at first to maximum value, and then decreased.(2) Following linear relationship between η and λs was obtained in some range of λs. λs=a-bη
A Career of Clinical Research in Child Psychiatry

With hindsight I can say that my career as an investigator in child psychiatry started when I was at the University of Chicago studying premedical and medical courses and pathology from 1918 to 1923. I worked in the pathological laboratories of H. Gideon Wells studying the blood of tuberculous guinea pigs and learning the methodology and philosophy of research (Bender and DeWitt, 1923–1924).
How gender role stereotypes affect attraction in an online dating scenario

Today, it is not uncommon to meet someone and begin a romantic relationship online. Meeting on a dating website differs from meeting in person because a dating profile is created first that allows others to review potential romantic partners. Few studies have examined romantic attraction within an online dating context, and even fewer have examined how gender roles may influence attraction. The current study1 (Nź=ź447, 49.4% female) examined the effects of gender role congruence and physical attractiveness on romantic interest in college students. Participants viewed online dating profiles that varied in their physical attractiveness and adherence to gender role norms. Results indicated that both men and women preferred attractive and gender role incongruent dating partners over average looking and gender role congruent. Contrary to previous research, women differentiated more between profiles based on physical attractiveness than the men, especially for gender role congruent profiles. Men were especially interested in attractive, gender role incongruent profiles. After physical attractiveness, gender role incongruence was the greatest factor that determined interest in a profile. Future research may need to consider how the potential seriousness of a relationship, as defined by the expected length of the relationship, influences how online profile characteristics affect attraction and interest. Participants rated mock dating profiles varying in attractiveness and gender roles.Gender role incongruent were preferred over congruent profiles.Physically attractive profiles were preferred over average appearance profiles.Participant gender and role congruence modified physical attractiveness effects.
Most Likely to Succeed: Exploring Predictor Variables for the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination

The authors investigated predictor variables for the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination (CPCE) to examine whether academic variables, demographic variables, and test version were associated with graduate counseling students' CPCE scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed all 3 variables were statistically significant predictors of CPCE total scores and subtest scores.
Teaching Journalism for Better Community: A Deweyan Approach

This research used interviews with producers and sources in news about racial disparities to understand obstacles in covering issues involving race. These data along with a Deweyan framework informed the creation of a service-learning class called “Journalism for Racial Justice: Amplifying Voices in Local Communities” aimed at better aligning the journalism profession with more inclusive democracy. Students explored how their privileges affected reporting, redefined roles of “source” as relational in collaborative work, and worked to build trust with wary citizens to knit communities together in conversation. It promotes a relational journalism, positioning reporters as within community as opposed to apart.
Apigenin: Selective CK2 inhibitor increases Ikaros expression and improves T cell homeostasis and function in murine pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) evades immune destruction by favoring the development of regulatory T cells (Tregs) that inhibit effector T cells. The transcription factor Ikaros is critical for lymphocyte development, especially T cells. We have previously shown that downregulation of Ikaros occurs as a result of its protein degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system in our Panc02 tumor-bearing (TB) mouse model. Mechanistically, we observed a deregulation in the balance between Casein Kinase II (CK2) and protein phosphatase 1 (PP1), which suggested that increased CK2 activity is responsible for regulating Ikaros' stability in our model. We also showed that this loss of Ikaros expression is associated with a significant decrease in CD4+ and CD8+ T cell percentages but increased CD4+CD25+ Tregs in TB mice. In this study, we evaluated the effects of the dietary flavonoid apigenin (API), on Ikaros expression and T cell immune responses. Treatment of splenocytes from naive mice with (API) stabilized Ikaros expression and prevented Ikaros downregulation in the presence of murine Panc02 cells in vitro, similar to the proteasome inhibitor MG132. In vivo treatment of TB mice with apigenin (TB-API) improved survival, reduced tumor weights and prevented splenomegaly. API treatment also restored protein expression of some Ikaros isoforms, which may be attributed to its moderate inhibition of CK2 activity from splenocytes of TB-API mice. This partial restoration of Ikaros expression was accompanied by a significant increase in CD4+ and CD8+ T cell percentages and a reduction in Treg percentages in TB-API mice. In addition, CD8+ T cells from TB-API mice produced more IFN-γ and their splenocytes were better able to prime allogeneic CD8+ T cell responses compared to TB mice. These results provide further evidence that Ikaros is regulated by CK2 in our pancreatic cancer model. More importantly, our findings suggest that API may be a possible therapeutic agent for stabilizing Ikaros expression and function to maintain T cell homeostasis in murine PC.
LECTURES ON FLOER THEORY AND SPECTRAL INVARIANTS OF HAMILTONIAN FLOWS

The main purpose of this lecture is to provide a coherent explanation of the chain level Floer theory and its applications to the study of geometry of the Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group of closed symplectic manifolds. In particular, we explain the au- thor's recent construction of spectral invariants of Hamiltonian paths and an invariant norm of the Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group on nonexact symplectic manifolds.
CTO Interventions: Definition, Prevalence, Indications, Guidelines

Coronary chronic total occlusions (CTOs) are defined as 100% occlusions with TIMI 0 flow of at least 3 months duration and are present in approximately 18.4% of patients with coronary artery disease undergoing coronary angiography. Successful CTO percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) can provide significant benefits to the patient, such as improved quality of life, decreased need for coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and for anti-anginal medications, lower mortality, improved left ventricular systolic function, reduced risk for arrhythmias, and improved tolerance of a future acute coronary syndrome. In the 2011 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association PCI guidelines, CTO PCI carries a class IIA/level of evidence B recommendation. Absolute contraindications for CTO PCI are inability to receive dual antiplatelet therapy and prior radiation skin injury.
Co-Compartmentation of Terpene Biosynthesis and Storage via Synthetic Droplet

Traditional bioproduct engineering focuses on pathway optimization, yet is often complicated by product inhibition, downstream consumption, and the toxicity of certain products. Here, we present the co-compartmentation of biosynthesis and storage via a synthetic droplet as an effective new strategy to improve the bioproduct yield, with squalene as a model compound. A hydrophobic protein was designed and introduced into the tobacco chloroplast to generate a synthetic droplet for terpene storage. Simultaneously, squalene biosynthesis enzymes were introduced to chloroplasts together with the droplet-forming protein to co-compartmentalize the biosynthesis and storage of squalene. The strategy has enabled a record yield of squalene at 2.6 mg/g fresh weight without compromising plant growth. Confocal fluorescent microscopy imaging, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, and droplet composition analysis confirmed the formation of synthetic storage droplet in chloroplast. The co-compartmentation of synthetic sto...
Safety and immunogenicity of investigational recombinant botulinum vaccine, rBV A/B, in volunteers with pre-existing botulinum toxoid immunity

Abstract Objectives We undertook an open-label, uncontrolled study of investigational recombinant botulinum vaccine for botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) serotypes A and B (rBV A/B) to assess its safety and immunogenicity in healthy volunteers who had been previously immunized with investigational pentavalent botulinum toxoid. Study participants who wished to do so could donate their hyperimmune plasma for production of Human Botulism Immune Globulin Intravenous (BIG-IV, BabyBIG®). Study design A single 0.5 ml (mL), 40-microgram intramuscular injection of rBV A/B was administered to study participants. Post-vaccination sera collected at approximately 2-week intervals were evaluated for anti-BoNT/A and anti-BoNT/B neutralizing antibody concentrations (NAC). Local and systemic treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were identified by clinical and laboratory monitoring for 12 weeks post-vaccination with a final telephone follow-up for additional safety assessment at 6 months. The primary endpoint for immunogenicity was a ≥4-fold rise in NAC in ≥50% of participants by Week 4 post-vaccination. Results All 45 enrolled participants completed the study. Forty-two of 45 participants (93.3%) experienced at least one TEAE. Overall, 138 of 218 (63.3%) reported TEAEs were treatment-related, the majority of which were mild injection-site reactions. No serious or unexpected adverse events occurred. The study achieved its primary immunogenicity endpoint with 37/45 (82.2%) participants and 39/45 (86.7%) participants having a ≥4-fold rise in NAC to anti-BoNT/A and to anti-BoNT/B, respectively, by Week 4 post-vaccination. Conclusion A single 0.5 mL dose of rBV A/B was safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic in participants previously immunized with pentavalent botulinum toxoid. The tolerability and immunogenicity characteristics of rBV A/B vaccination of individuals with existing BoNT immunity support its potential future use to provide occupational protection to botulism laboratory workers. Almost all study participants donated hyperimmune plasma for production of BIG-IV. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT01701999.
CHAPTER 12 – Prototyping A Forest Systems Model

Building a model of a scaled-down system or portion of a system in relatively short time is called prototyping. A prototype model can be upgraded to domain specificity by acquiring and compiling primary data. When primary data become available, the prototype is calibrated and revised as necessary to meet validation requirements. The model is tested and improved over several iterations. This chapter features rapid prototyping of a forest systems model in generic form at a level that is easily comprehended by both knowledge engineers and domain experts. The various steps involved in obtaining a first operational model are more simply performed at a macro level..
Nuclear transitions induced by atomic excitations

In the two-step pumping scheme for a gamma-ray laser, an essential step is that of exciting the nucleus from a long-lived storage isomer to a nearby short-lived state that then decays to the upper lasing level. An experiment is in progress to induce this transfer by first exciting the atomic electrons with UV photons. The incident photons couple well to the electrons, wOich then couple via a virtual photon to the nucleus. As a test case, excitation of the 2.3U nucleus is being sought, using a high-brightness UV laser. The excited nuclear state, having a 26-minute half-life, decays by internal conversion, result in emission of an atomic electron. A pulsed infrared laser produces an atomic beam of 4-317 which is then bombarded by the UV laser beam. Ions are collected, and conversion electrons are detected py a channel electron multiplier. In preliminary eriments, an upper limit of 7 x 10- has been obtained for the probality 0 exciting a 4J'U atom in the UV beam for one picosecond at an intensity of about 10 W/cm4. Experiments with higher sensitivities and at higher UV beam intensities are underway.
The Religious and Political Origins of Modern Technology

The present paper is part of a larger work in progress, “The Philosophical Origins of Modern Technology.” Although the economic, scientific, and social origins of technology are commonly discussed at length, the properly philosophical origins are not nearly so well considered.
The Exit Measure of a Supermartingale

X~o." = lira Xt, and if X is a uniformly integrable martingale then the boundary function actually determines X in the sense that X~ is the conditional expectation of X~ with respect to ~. In general however the boundary function may provide very little information on X. In this paper we give a characterization of X by its
Divergence of thalamocortical projections and limits on somatosensory cortical plasticity

Paired intracortical injections of Fast Blue (FB) and Diamidino Yellow (DY) separated by 100-1500 μm were made in the first somatosensory area of monkeys by inserting crystals of dye into tracks of microelectrodes used to record receptive fields of neurons in area 3b. Each injection retrogradely labeled one or more elongated clusters of cells extending anteroposteriorly through the ventral posterior medial (VPM) or ventral posterior lateral (VPL) nucleus. Double labeled cells occurred only when distances between centers of injections were less than 600 μm. With separations greater than 600 μm, most clusters of retrogradely labeled cells contained mainly cells labeled by one dye. However, even with distances of 1–1. 5 mm, labeled clusters contained small but significant numbers of cells labeled with the other dye.
Decoupled Motion Control of Wearable Robot for Rejecting Human Induced Disturbances

When a human performs a task with the assistance of wearable extra limbs, the human movement for performing the task may inadvertently disturb the position and orientation of the robot base, making it difficult for the robot to properly carry out its objective. Therefore, unlike self-standing robots, a wearable robot must not only assist the user without interfering or prohibiting the natural human movement, but also have the capability to detect and reject disturbances caused by the wearer's motion. This paper examines such a situation, where the human attempts to twist open a bottle while a pair of robotic fingers mounted on the same arm holds the bottle in place. As the human arm rotates to twist the cap, the robot and consequently the bottle would rotate in that same direction, which makes separation of the cap from the bottle almost impossible. To compensate for the human induced disturbances, a data-driven latent space impedance control method is developed such that the robot can secure the bottle and at the same time allow natural human movement to be carried out during manipulation. Simulation and experiments have demonstrated the efficacy of the latent space impedance controller to enable single-handed object manipulation with the assistance of wearable robotic fingers.
Occurrence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing bacteria in urban Clinton River habitat.

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether Clinton River water is contaminated with antibiotics and is a reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Methods Water samples were taken from two sites of Clinton River. Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria were enumerated on agar plates supplemented with six commonly used antibiotics. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria were identified using a BD Phoenix™ System and by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Antimicrobial resistance gene transfer was performed by conjugation studies and the location of genes was determined by Southern hybridisation. Virulence properties of ESBL-producing isolates were determined by assessing their biofilm-forming ability, cellular toxicity, and induction of an inflammatory response in intestinal epithelial (Caco-2) cells. Results 16S rRNA analysis of water samples showed the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Shigella flexneri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Aeromonas punctata and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Among 64 biochemically identified bacterial isolates tested, 42% were resistant to cefotaxime, 34% to chloramphenicol, 9% to tetracycline, 11% to ciprofloxacin and 9% to gentamicin. Of 27 cefotaxime-resistant isolates, 11 (41%) were ESBL-positive and possessed either blaCTX-M (n = 9), blaTEM (n = 1) or blaKPC (n = 1). Comparative analysis of ESBL gene sequences from Clinton River water bacteria showed 98–100% identity with clinical isolates. ESBL-producing isolates from Clinton River water were found to form biofilms, induced inflammatory cytokines and caused toxicity to epithelial cells. Conclusions Clinton River water contains isolates with ESBL genes identical to clinical isolates and possessing virulence properties, thus it could be a potential reservoir in causing human infections.
Sex Differences in Effects of Obesity on Reproductive Hormones and Glucose Metabolism in Puberty: The Health Influences of Puberty Study

Context: Obesity is known to impact reproductive function in adults, but little is known about its effects on reproductive hormones during puberty or sex differences in these effects. Objective: To assess sex differences in effects of obesity on reproductive hormones and their relationship to insulin sensitivity and secretion. Design: Cross-sectional study including anthropometrics, serum and urine reproductive hormone concentrations, and intravenous glucose tolerance testing (IVGTT) to assess acute insulin response to glucose (AIRg) and insulin sensitivity (Si). Setting: Outpatient academic clinical research center. Patients: Fifty-one normal weight (NW, BMI-Z=-0.11 +/- 0.77, age=11.5 +/- 1.7 years) and 53 obese (BMI-Z=2.22 +/- 0.33, age=10.9 +/- 1.5 years) girls (n=54) and boys (n=50), Tanner stage 2-3. Results: Obese boys had lower total testosterone (p<0.0001) and higher concentrations of the urinary estradiol metabolite, E1c, (p=0.046) than NW boys. Obese girls had higher free androgen index (FAI, p=0.03) than NW girls. Both obese boys and girls had lower sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG, p<0.0001) than NW. AIRg was inversely related to SHBG in boys (R2= 0.36, p<0.0001) and girls (R2=0.29, p=0.0001). Insulin resistance correlated with lower SHBG in boys (R2=0.45, p<0.0001) and girls (R2=0.24, p=0.0003), lower total testosterone for boys (R2=0.15, p=0.01), and higher FAI for girls (R2=0.08, p=0.04). Conclusion: Obese youth have lower SHBG than NW youth, but obesity has differential effects on reproductive hormones in girls vs. boys, which are apparent early in puberty. Ongoing longitudinal studies will evaluate the impact of obesity on reproductive hormones in girls and boys as puberty progresses.
Pupil Cycle Time Distinguishes Migraineurs From Subjects Without Headache

Migraine is a neurological disorder characterized by paroxysms of head pain accompanied by trigeminovascular system activation and autonomic dysfunction. Diagnosis is currently based on clinical diagnostic criteria. Though physiological differences exist between migraineurs and non-headache controls, true physiological biomarkers have been elusive, especially for the full clinical spectrum of migraine, inclusive of chronic, episodic, and probable migraine. We used edge-light pupil cycle time (PCT) as a probe of the pupillary light circuit in migraine, paired with clinical assessment of migraine characteristics, and compared these to non-headache controls. We found significantly increased PCT in probable, episodic, and chronic migraine, compared to controls. Additionally, increased PCT correlated with the presence of craniofacial autonomic symptoms, linking pupillary circuit dysfunction to peripheral trigeminal sensitization. The sensitivity of PCT, especially for all severities of disease, distinguishes it from other physiological phenotypes, which may make it useful as a potential biomarker.
Synthesis, self-assembly, and photomechanical actuator performance of a sequence-defined polyviologen crosslinker

ABSTRACTAlthough it is well known that viologen radical cations can self-assemble into stacks or complexes on account of radical-radical pairing interactions, it has only recently been demonstrated...
Conductor Temperature Estimation under Uncertain External Conditions Using a Temperature-Dependent Power Flow

Traditionally used methods for large-scale power system analysis do not take weather conditions into account. Pre-set values of line electrical parameters are used in conventional power flow approaches. However, external conditions, such as weather, which can often be uncertain, affect conductor temperature and consequently transmission line electrical parameters, especially resistance. This dependency of line resistance on weather conditions impacts the results of power flow analysis. Therefore, uncertainty in external conditions introduce uncertainty in line electrical parameter values and in power flow results. In order to account for the impact of external conditions on power systems, a conductor temperature-dependent power flow algorithm is presented in this work; the algorithm is capable of providing not only conventional power flow results of bus voltages, line currents, and power flows, but also conductor temperature of each system branch. Affine arithmetic is used with the developed temperature-dependent power flow approach to enable consideration of branch parameter uncertainties due to external conditions.
Immunocytochemical Demonstration of Endogenous Gonadotropin-Binding Sites in the Fetal Rat Testis

Gonadotropins, like most polypeptide hormones, are believed to interact with their target tissue at specific bindings sites on the plasma membrane. Catt et al. (1972) and Leidenberger and Reichert (1972) demonstrated such sites in the rat testis. Other workers have observed that in several species, the number of these sites varies with fetal developmental age (Knorr et al., 1970; Frowein and Engel, 1974; Engel and Frowein, 1974; Ahluwalia et al., 1974; Catt et al., 1975; Weniger and Zeis, 1975; Kolena, 1976; Kaplan et al., 1976). In fact, Frowein and Engel (1974) suggested that one of the first steps in the differentiation process may be the synthesis of gonadotropin receptors.
Analysis for the Selection of Experimental Configurations for Heterogeneity and Be Multi-Layered Experiments of U.S.DOE/JAERI Collaborative Program on Blanket Neutronics

Phase IIC of the experimental program is to begin in fall of 1988. An extensive pre-analysis has been carried out to select the experimental configurations. The investigations were confined to looking at the effect of (i) multi-layer arrangement of Be multiplier, (ii) the presence of contiguous layers of structure and coolant, (iii) the introduction of protective graphite armor in front of the first wall, on tritium production rate (TPR) in Li/sub 2/O assembly. The basic materials and geometrical structure of the assembly, are derived from that of the Phase IIA. The structure is simulated by stainless steel (SS) and the coolant is either polyethylene (PE) or water. Generally, the heterogeneities strongly distort the local T/sub 6/ and T/sub 7/ distributions; their effect on global TPR is less marked. One of the two selected configurations has Be, in edge-on layered arrangement with Li/sub 2/O, as multiplier. In the second configuration, three coolant channels (SS + PE) are incorporated to simulate structural heterogeneity.
Utilizing Multimodal Feature Consistency to Detect Adversarial Examples on Clinical Summaries.

Recent studies have shown that adversarial examples can be generated by applying small perturbations to the inputs such that the well- trained deep learning models will misclassify. With the increasing number of safety and security-sensitive applications of deep learn- ing models, the robustness of deep learning models has become a crucial topic. The robustness of deep learning models for health- care applications is especially critical because the unique characteristics and the high financial interests of the medical domain make it more sensitive to adversarial attacks. Among the modalities of medical data, the clinical summaries have higher risks to be attacked because they are generated by third-party companies. As few works studied adversarial threats on clinical summaries, in this work we first apply adversarial attack to clinical summaries of electronic health records (EHR) to show the text-based deep learning systems are vulnerable to adversarial examples. Secondly, benefiting from the multi-modality of the EHR dataset, we propose a novel defense method, MATCH (Multimodal feATure Consistency cHeck), which leverages the consistency between multiple modalities in the data to defend against adversarial examples on a single modality. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of MATCH on a hospital readmission prediction task comparing with baseline methods.
Contexts of State Violence: Jewish Expulsions in the Holy Roman Empire

Policies excluding ethnoracial and religious minorities reinforce the power of political elites. This study addresses an extreme case of exclusion: urban expulsions of Jews in the medieval western Holy Roman Empire. Expulsions were official edicts proclaimed by Christian princes, lords, or town councils, whomever ruled a territory. Changing religious and political culture, in the form of new value on community righteousness and the beginning of territorialization, provided incentives for polities to expel their Jewish residents. Using a new database of Jewish settlement and city development in the Western Holy Roman Empire 1000–1520 CE, I show that the relational structure of political power between Christian elites could insulate or expose Jewish communities to political contests of the time. Jews were derided, lesser members of Christian society, but in spite of increasing focus on Christian piety and legislating community purity, most cities did not expel their Jewish residents. City rulers that did expel were attempting to solve challenges for sovereignty through their policies toward Jews.
Controversies: Stroke Prevention in Chronic Kidney Disease.

Abstract Risk of both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke is increased in the chronic kidney disease (CKD) population, particularly in end-stage kidney disease patients. Uremic factors that contribute to stroke risk include blood pressure variability, vascular calcification, build-up of vascular toxins, chronic inflammation, platelet dysfunction and increased brain microbleeds. This paper discusses the controversial evidence for stroke prevention strategies including blood pressure control, statins, antiplatelet agents, and anticoagulation in the CKD population. Only a few randomized clinical trials included patients with advanced CKD, thus evidence is derived mostly from observational cohorts and real-world data. Overall, targeting a lower systolic blood pressure below 120 mmHg and statin prescription do not appear to decrease stroke risk in CKD. Antiplatelet agents have not shown a clear benefit for secondary stroke prevention, but aspirin may reduce incident stroke in hypertensive CKD stage 3B-5 patients. Observational data suggests that the factor Xa inhibitor apixaban has a favorable profile over warfarin in dialysis patients with atrial fibrillation; apixaban being associated with lower stroke risk and fewer major bleeding events.
Modeling of the transient cerebrospinal fluid flow under external impacts

Abstract In this paper, a theoretical model is developed to describe the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in the subarachnoid space as the head is exposed to sudden external impacts. Although extensive study has been performed, there is a lack of understanding of the transient CSF flow and its critical role in the concussion process. The problem involves a solid object, i.e. brain matter, bathed in a liquid environment, i.e. CSF, and enclosed in a rigid container, i.e. the skull. The relative motion of the inner object to the container causes a squeezing flow on one side of the object, and an expanding flow on the other side. The fluid pressure response underlies the damping effect on the object. To capture these features, both the inner object and the outer container are modeled as cylinders of different sizes. Constant acceleration is imposed on the container. The pressurization of the fluid and the resultant motion of the inner cylinder are analytically predicted. It shows that the relative motion of the inner object is very sensitive to the gap thickness and the density difference between the object and the surrounding liquid. The squeeze-damping effect of the CSF can effectively prevent direct contact between the inner object and the container. The paper presented herein, solving a fundamental fluid mechanics problem, reveals the critical physics involved in the response of the brain matter to external impacts on the head. It also provides interesting insights on the development of a new type of vibration isolation system for biomimetic applications.
After Years of Erosion, More Employers are Offering Health Coverage; Worker Eligibility Higher

This paper examines the percentage of employers offering health insurance from 2008–2017 to better understand how health insurance offer rates may have been affected by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), the Great Recession of 2007–2009, and the subsequent economic recovery. The data come from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey–Insurance Component (MEPS-IC). Many employers were expected to drop workplace health insurance with the introduction of the ACA, and some have done so. Since 2008, the percentage of employers with 1,000 or more employees offering health benefits to workers has been consistently near or above 99 percent — it reached 99.8 percent in 2016 — but smaller establishments have shown a steady, though not precipitous, decline in offer rates. For the smallest employers studied, those with fewer than 10 employees, the offer rate declined from 22.7 percent in 2015 to 21.7 percent in 2016. However, in 2017, the overall percentage of private-sector employers offering health benefits increased for the first time since 2008. In 2008, 56.4 percent of private-sector employers offered health benefits. By 2016, it was down to 45.3 percent. It then increased to 46.9 percent in 2017. There have been years before 2017 when offer rates increased in various specific establishment size segments, perhaps due to the strengthening economy and lower unemployment rates. More specifically: For employers with less than 10 employees, those offering health benefits increased from 21.7 percent to 23.5 percent between 2016 and 2017. For employers with 10–24 employees, those offering health benefits increased from 48.9 percent to 49.4 percent between 2015 and 2016. For employers with 25–99 employees, those offering health benefits increased from 73.5 percent to 74.6 percent between 2015 and 2016. For employers with 100-999 employees, those offering health benefits increased from 92.5 percent to 96.3 percent between 2014 and 2016. This paper discusses the context for the recent rebound and suggests factors that may influence future trends.
Charles Brockden Brown's Contagious Unreliability

Modern novels like Ulysses or The Sound and the Fury reflect our sense of the world as increasingly fragmented and normless when they reject the comfortable supports of traditional fictional techniques. The use of less reliable narrators and of more open endings, for instance, distinguishes modern fiction from much eighteenthand nineteenth-century fiction, although the difference is less pronounced in American fiction, in its context of what Richard Chase has called a "culture of contradictions." It may not be surprising, then, that traditional novelistic techniques are absent from the works of the eighteenth-century Charles Brockden Brown, whose works demonstrate the unreliability of the senses in providing knowledge. Such flouting of traditional techniques may be appropriate in the American tradition. But it also seems surprisingly modern. Brown reveals the unreliability of the senses in a variety of ways: through the symbolic double, through multiple perspectives, through the narrative breaks and shifts in mode that occur at least twice in each of his four major novels, and, finally, through what can be called the contagious unreliability of parallel or juxtaposed scenes. I can illustrate all four methods by examining Edgar Huntly (1799), and then go on to examine other occurrences of the fourth, which has not previously been studied.