cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Lumbar disc reherniation after transforaminal lumbar endoscopic discectomy

Background: Transforaminal lumbar endoscopic discectomy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that can be performed in awake patients through an incision less than 1 cm. The procedure requires very little bony removal to access the herniated disc material because the approach is through the foramen, and only a small amount of the superior articulating process is removed to access Kambin’s triangle. This study describes our experience with transforaminal endoscopic lumbar decompression (TELD) for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. We evaluate the risk for reherniation in the first year after surgery and the characteristics of the patients who experience reherniation. Methods: We describe the technique for the transforaminal endoscopic approach to treat lumbar disc herniations. Retrospectively, a series of 141 consecutive patients, who were operated on with lumbar radiculopathy, was analyzed. We excluded patients who had previous surgery at the lumbar level, surgeries done for disease adjacent to a fusion, and surgeries done for spondylolisthesis. A total of 84 consecutive patients were included who had single level lumbar non-revision surgery and at least 1-year follow up. Results: A series of 46 consecutive male and 38 female patients with an average age of 57.4 years (range, 28–87 years old) who underwent transforaminal endoscopic treatment for lumbar disc herniations between 2014 and 2016 is presented. Four patients required microdiscectomy due to reherniation at 5 months, 8 months, 9 months, and 10 months postoperatively. All the patients in the series improved immediately following their endoscopic procedures, and no patients presented with symptoms suggestive of reherniation until 5 months after their initial endoscopic surgery. Patients with reherniation tended to be young: 31, 45, 48, and 49 years of age: all less than the average patient age who underwent endoscopic surgery. Conclusions: Transforaminal endoscopic surgical access to lumbar disc herniations is an ultra-minimally invasive approach for the treatment lumbar degenerative disc disease. It allows for neural decompression by removing disc and foraminal pathology with minimal bone removal. This minimal bone removal prevents iatrogenic destabilization. However, the 1-year reherniation rate presented here is 4.7%. This suggests that the benefit of this technique may be that it is ultra-minimally invasive, but it may only be equal, not superior to microdiscectomy in its rate of reherniation.
A paired-comparisons paradigm for investigating person perceptions

Ss were presented with a series of pairs of person descriptions. Each person description consisted of one or more personality trait adjectives. Within each pair of person descriptions, S had to choose the person he would most like to have as a friend and indicate how much he preferred that person over the other person in the pair. When a description consisted of several adjectives, it was suggested that Ss integrate the information through a weighted averaging process. Consistent with this notion, a reliable set size effect was obtained with positive-valued adjective sets; however, no reliable set size effect was obtained with negative adjectives. There was no evidence for discounting of inconsistent information when a pair of antonyms was included in the description of a given person.
Statistical Methods for Nonstationary Extremes

There is a long tradition of the use of methods based on the statistical theory of extreme values in hydrology, particular for engineering design (e.g., for the proverbial “100-yr flood”). For the most part, these methods are based on the assumption of stationarity (i.e., an unchanging climate in a statistical sense). The focus of this chapter is on how the familiar distributions that arise in extreme value theory, namely the generalized extreme value (GEV) and generalized Pareto (GP) distributions, can be retained under nonstationarity. But now the extremal distribution is allowed to gradually shift by introducing time as a covariate; that is, expressing one or more of the parameters of the distribution as a function of time. At least for the parameter estimation technique of maximum likelihood, it is straightforward to fit such statistical models. Some detailed examples are provided of how the proposed methods can be applied to the detection and statistical modeling of trends in hydrologic extremes, such as for stream flow and precipitation.
Strength of thermally exposed alumina fibers Part I Single filament behavior

The strength of a continuous-fiber-reinforced ceramic composite is directly related to the strength distribution of the reinforcements. Therefore, it is essential to understand how processing and service conditions affect the filament strength distribution. The objective of this paper was to determine the strength distribution of Nextel™ 610 alumina filaments, a potential reinforcement in oxide-oxide ceramic composites, and to characterize the defect population as a function of exposure temperature. The filament strength was measured in single filament tests and decreased as the exposure temperature increased. The defect population was quantified via fractography, and eight distinct defect types were identified. Grain growth and filament-to-filament sintering were identified as critical microstructural changes during the heat treatments, and both affected the development of grain boundary grooves, either from thermal etching or from the breaking of the filament-to-filament sintering bonds. The initial crack path was intergranular but quickly changed to a mixture of transgranular and intergranular fracture. During catastrophic crack growth, the crack path changed back to intergranular. The critical crack size, as calculated from linear elastic fracture mechanics, was found in many cases to be greater than the size of the strength limiting defect suggesting the presence of subcritical cracking.
An electrophoretic analysis of Queen number in three species of Dolichoderine ants

For each of three species of dolichoderine ants, four mating system models were tested electrophoretically. The models tested were: (1) each colony is derived from one, singly-inseminated female, (2) each colony is derived from one female, inseminated twice, (3) colonies have two, coequal, singly-inseminated queens, and (4) colonies have three, coequal, singly-inseminated queens. From each of these models, expected frequencies of colonies of various genotypic compositions were calculated. Goodness of fit of actual colony types were then tested.
Emission dynamics in supersymmetric laser arrays

Supersymmetry (SUSY) was proposed as a means to unify bosons and fermions in quantum field theory [1]. This notion was later applied to several other research areas such as quantum mechanics, scattering processes and nonlinear dynamics [2]. Similar concepts were also applied to engineer the properties of quantum cascaded lasers [3]. Recently, SUSY transformations were utilized to build new photonic structures that exhibit unprecedented control over light transport dynamics [4, 5].
Single-Atom Alloys as a Reductionist Approach to the Rational Design of Heterogeneous Catalysts

ConspectusHeterogeneous catalysts are workhorses in the industrial production of most commodity and specialty chemicals, and have widespread energy and environmental applications, with the annual market value of the catalysts themselves reaching almost $20 billion in 2018. These catalysts are complex, comprising multicomponent materials and multiple structures, making their rational design challenging, if not impossible. Furthermore, typical active metals like Pt, Pd, and Rh are expensive and can be susceptible to poisoning by CO, coking, and they are not always 100% selective. Efforts to use these elements sparingly and improve their selectivity has led to recent identification of single-atom heterogeneous catalysts in which individual transition metal atoms anchored on oxide or carbon-based supports are excellent catalysts for reactions like the CO oxidation, water–gas shift, alcohol dehydrogenation, and steam reforming.In this Account, we describe a new class of single-atom heterogeneous catalysts, nam...
Interpreting polygenic scores, polygenic adaptation, and human phenotypic differences

Recent analyses of polygenic scores have opened new discussions concerning the genetic basis and evolutionary significance of differences among populations in distributions of phenotypes. Here, we highlight limitations in research on polygenic scores, polygenic adaptation and population differences. We show how genetic contributions to traits, as estimated by polygenic scores, combine with environmental contributions so that differences among populations in trait distributions need not reflect corresponding differences in genetic propensity. Under a null model in which phenotypes are selectively neutral, genetic propensity differences contributing to phenotypic differences among populations are predicted to be small. We illustrate this null hypothesis in relation to health disparities between African Americans and European Americans, discussing alternative hypotheses with selective and environmental effects. Close attention to the limitations of research on polygenic phenomena is important for the interpretation of their relationship to human population differences.
Molecular Features of the Zn2+ Binding Site in the Prion Protein Probed by 113Cd NMR.

Abstract The cellular prion protein (PrPC) is a zinc-binding protein that contributes to the regulation of Zn2+ and other divalent species of the central nervous system. Zn2+ coordinates to the flexible, N-terminal repeat region of PrPC and drives a tertiary contact between this repeat region and a well-defined cleft of the C-terminal domain. The tertiary structure promoted by Zn2+ is thought to regulate inherent PrPC toxicity. Despite the emerging consensus regarding the interaction between Zn2+ and PrPC, there is little direct spectroscopic confirmation of the metal ion’s coordination details. Here, we address this conceptual gap by using Cd2+ as a surrogate for Zn2+. NMR finds that Cd2+ binds exclusively to the His imidazole side chains of the repeat segment, with a dissociation constant of ∼1.2 mM, and promotes an N-terminal-C-terminal cis interaction very similar to that observed with Zn2+. Analysis of 113Cd NMR spectra of PrPC, along with relevant control proteins and peptides, suggests that coordination of Cd2+ in the full-length protein is consistent with a three- or four-His geometry. Examination of the mutation E199K in mouse PrPC (E200K in humans), responsible for inherited Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, finds that the mutation lowers metal ion affinity and weakens the cis interaction. These findings not only provide deeper insight into PrPC metal ion coordination but they also suggest new perspectives on the role of familial mutations in prion disease.
Atomic layer deposited Al2O3 capping layer effect on environmentally assisted cracking in SiNx barrier films

We investigated the effect of an atomic-layer-deposited alumina (Al2O3) capping layer (2 or 10 nm thick) on the environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) properties of 250-nm-thick, plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapor-deposited silicon nitride (SiNx) barrier films on polyethylene terephthalate polymer substrates, using in situ optical microscopy tensile tests and numerical modeling. The 10-nm-thick capping layer resulted in a 5% decrease in crack onset strain, corresponding to the cracking of the Al2O3/SiNx bi-layer. Even though the Al2O3 layer itself is immune to EAC, its use as a capping layer did not significantly improve the mechanical reliability of the Al2O3/SiNx bi-layer under strain in ambient conditions, except for a minor 30%-50% increase in the driving force threshold required to induce crack growth. An effective capping layer should remain un-cracked during the cracking of the underlying SiNx, and a parametric study showed that it was not possible with alumina. A high fracture energy, low elastic modulus (e.g., organic material) layer is required such that cracking only occurs in the SiNx layer, presumably expected to protect SiNx from EAC degradation.
Optical Interrogation Techniques for Nanophotonic Biochemical Sensors.

The manipulation of light via nanoengineered surfaces has excited the optical community in the past few decades. Among the many applications enabled by nanophotonic devices, sensing has stood out due to their capability of identifying miniscule refractive index changes. In particular, when free-space propagating light effectively couples into subwavelength volumes created by nanostructures, the strongly-localized near-fields can enhance light’s interaction with matter at the nanoscale. As a result, nanophotonic sensors can non-destructively detect chemical species in real-time without the need of exogenous labels. The impact of such nanophotonic devices on biochemical sensor development became evident as the ever-growing research efforts in the field started addressing many critical needs in biomedical sciences, such as low-cost analytical platforms, simple quantitative bioassays, time-resolved sensing, rapid and multiplexed detection, single-molecule analytics, among others. In this review, the optical transduction methods used to interrogate optical resonances of nanophotonic sensors will be highlighted. Specifically, the optical methodologies used thus far will be evaluated based on their capability of addressing key requirements of the future sensor technologies, including miniaturization, multiplexing, spatial and temporal resolution, cost and sensitivity.
Chapter 18 – Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid-Base Balance

Publisher Summary The body fluids are arranged in dynamic but orderly functional compartments. Maintenance of these compartments in terms of volume and composition is essential for maintenance of normal physiologic and biochemical events. The electrolytes dissolved in the body fluids fulfill vital roles in virtually all of life's processes. Transmembrane movements of electrolytes are responsible for the electrical events that result in nerve conduction and muscular contraction and also serve as essential cofactors in many enzymatically mediated metabolic reactions. The pH of body fluids is maintained within narrow limits. This is necessary for the maintenance of protein structure and function, which is an essential condition for normal progression of metabolic events. Virtually every organ system participates in the maintenance of fluid balance and/or is adversely affected by imbalances. In many disease states, impaired fluid intake, excessive fluid losses, or organ damage and dysfunction results in a state of altered fluid and electrolyte balance. Regardless of whether fluid and electrolyte alterations are the primary problems or represent secondary manifestations of some other disease process, successful patient management depends on correct evaluation and appropriate therapy. To do this, one must have a clear understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the body fluids, the pathologic mechanisms by which normal processes become deranged, the means by which these disturbances can be identified accurately, and finally the procedures that can be used to correct such disturbances in a prompt, safe, and effective manner.
Botulinum toxin for the treatment of lower limb cramp pain in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background: Muscle cramps and pain associated with them can be seen in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and are known to reduce the quality of life. Pharmacological treatment may not benefit all patients in treating these cramps. We assess the efficacy of Onabotulinum toxin A (BTX-A) in the treatment of lower limb cramps in patients with ALS. Methods: This retrospective chart review included a total of ten patients with ALS who suffered from pain due to lower limb cramps and were managed with BTX-A. Data including patient demographics, visual analog pain scale at different intervals during follow up, ALS functional rating scale and site of onset of ALS symptoms were documented. The pain score at baseline (before administration), at 3 months follow up and at 6 months follow up were compared using Wilcoxon test to assess BTX-A’s efficacy. Results: A significant improvement in average pain score due to cramps from baseline to the 6-month interval with a change of 3.1±0.7 (p<0.05,95%CI) was seen on the pain scale. No adverse events were noted during administration or post injections. Conclusion: Local BTX-A administration is an efficacious and safe procedure for improving pain associated with cramps in patients with ALS.
Impact of Disk Milling on Fermentation Performance and In-Situ Fiber Conversion in Dry Grind Ethanol Process

Abstract. In the corn dry grind ethanol process, dry corn is ground, mixed with process water to make slurry, which is processed for conversion to ethanol. Further grinding of corn in the slurry form can increase enzyme accessibility, leading to higher ethanol production. Fine grinding potentially also acts as pretreatment for fiber conversion in the dry grind process. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of disk milling of corn slurry to improve conversion of starch and fiber to ethanol in the dry grind process. Disk milling of slurry prepared from corn ground using 3 mm hammer mill sieve (similar size as used in commercial dry grind process) increased post-fermentation ethanol concentration by 4.9%. However, improvement in ethanol concentration was not observed by disk milling of slurry prepared from ground corn produced using 0.5 mm hammer mill sieve. Grinding corn to a small particle size prior to disk milling released most of the bound starch making disk milling of slurry ineffective in releasing additional starch. Cellulase addition in dry grind process resulted in an increase in ethanol concentration in fermentation and 30.8% decrease in neutral detergent fiber content in the unfermented material. Addition of 10 and 30 FPU/g fiber cellulase in fermentation increased ethanol yield by 4.3 and 6.7% respectively. Combining disk milling with cellulase addition during fermentation improve the dry grind process with only cellulase addition.
FEDS: a Novel Fluorescence-Based High-Throughput Method for Measuring DNA Supercoiling In Vivo

ABSTRACT DNA supercoiling (DS) is essential for life because it controls critical processes, including transcription, replication, and recombination. Current methods to measure DNA supercoiling in vivo are laborious and unable to examine single cells. Here, we report a method for high-throughput measurement of bacterial DNA supercoiling in vivo. Fluorescent evaluation of DNA supercoiling (FEDS) utilizes a plasmid harboring the gene for a green fluorescent protein transcribed by a discovered promoter that responds exclusively to DNA supercoiling and the gene for a red fluorescent protein transcribed by a constitutive promoter as the internal standard. Using FEDS, we uncovered single-cell heterogeneity in DNA supercoiling and established that, surprisingly, population-level decreases in DNA supercoiling result from a low-mean/high-variance DNA supercoiling subpopulation rather than from a homogeneous shift in supercoiling of the whole population. In addition, we identified a regulatory loop in which a gene that decreases DNA supercoiling is transcriptionally repressed when DNA supercoiling increases. IMPORTANCE DNA represents the chemical support of genetic information in all forms of life. In addition to its linear sequence of nucleotides, it bears critical information in its structure. This information, called DNA supercoiling, is central to all fundamental DNA processes, such as transcription and replication, and defines cellular physiology. Unlike reading of a nucleotide sequence, DNA supercoiling determinations have been laborious. We have now developed a method for rapid measurement of DNA supercoiling and established its utility by identifying a novel regulator of DNA supercoiling in the bacterium Salmonella enterica as well as behaviors that could not have been discovered with current methods.
Process planning for five-axis support free additive manufacturing

Abstract Traditionally Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a two-dimensional layer-by-layer material deposition process which requires building the support structures along with the build of the desired model. Removal of the support structures is costly and time-consuming, especially for metal parts. Using a five-axis deposition machine has the potential to build structures without the need for supports. However, there is a lack of automated process planning software to support the full use of five-axis machines. This paper introduces an automated method that allows reorienting the part during the build using a five-axis machine. The reorientations still allow the part to be built using traditional planar deposition but without the use of supports. This requires that the part be decomposed into sub volumes, such that each sub volume has its build direction and can be built with planar layers without support structures. This paper presents algorithms to determine the sub-volumes, their orientations, and sequence, which form the major components of the process plan for manufacturing. The process plan is generated by sequencing the decomposed volumes while ensuring a lack of local collision with previously deposited volumes. An added benefit of this automated process is the ability to evaluate the feasibility of building the part in a support free manner. This can provide feedback to the designer on the support free manufacturability of the part. Examples illustrating the methodology and establishing the viability of the decomposition strategy are presented to verify the effectiveness of the algorithms.
Abstract 1389: Exploiting inherent DNA damage repair defects in IDH1/2 mutated gliomas with the CNS penetrant PARP inhibitor, pamiparib

Our group recently demonstrated that IDH1/2 mutated gliomas exhibit intrinsic homologous recombination (HR) defects mediated by the oncometabolite, 2HG. These defects render IDH1/2 mutated cells exquisitely sensitive to PARP inhibitors (PARPi9s), which suggests a novel therapeutic strategy. Here, we studied the potential in vitro and in vivo efficacy of a CNS penetrant PARPi, pamiparib, in combination with radiation therapy (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) against IDH1/2 mutated gliomas. Our central hypothesis is that multi-modality therapy using agents that are active against 2HG producing cells will increase efficacy, while allowing lower doses of RT and TMZ as a means to mitigate normal tissue toxicity. We performed a comprehensive series of DNA repair functional studies, short and long term viability assays, as well as in vivo studies, using engineered and patient-derived IDH1/2 mutant glioma models. We tested unique combinations of pamiparib, TMZ and RT in these experiments. In vitro short term viability assays and long-term clonogenic survival assays in model IDH1 wild-type (WT) and R132H mutated glioma cells demonstrated that the mutation confers enhanced TMZ sensitivity (IC50 602 vs. 9.5 uM, respectively). A similar differential sensitivity was observed with RT. We also demonstrated significant, mutant IDH1 selective pamiparib sensitivity in vitro (IC50 0.67 vs. 141 uM). Western blot analysis of PARylation, a functional readout of PARPi activity, confirmed PARylation inhibition by pamiparib in a dose dependent manner. Subsequently, we demonstrated synergistic interactions between TMZ and RT combined with pamiparib, particularly at low doses of both DNA damaging agents, in an IDH1 selective manner. Finally, we demonstrated the activity of PARPi9s against IDH1 mutant tumors in vivo, including pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of pamiparib on target activity within the brain. Pamiparib is a promising, CNS penetrant PARP inhibitor that may selectively target IDH1/2 mutated gliomas, based on intrinsic HR defects associated with these tumors. Pamiparib appears to act synergistically with TMZ and RT, which are the backbone of GBM therapies. These data lay the groundwork for a future trial testing “trimodality therapy” (i.e., pamiparib, RT and TMZ) against IDH1/2 mutant gliomas. Citation Format: Christopher Hong, Amrita Sule, Jason Beckta, Ranjini Sundaram, Ranjit Bindra. Exploiting inherent DNA damage repair defects in IDH1/2 mutated gliomas with the CNS penetrant PARP inhibitor, pamiparib [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1389.
AMPK regulation of Raptor and TSC2 mediate metformin effects on transcriptional control of anabolism and inflammation

Despite being the frontline therapy for type 2 diabetes, the mechanisms of action of the biguanide drug metformin are still being discovered. In particular, the detailed molecular interplays between the AMPK and the mTORC1 pathway in the hepatic benefits of metformin are still ill defined. Metformin-dependent activation of AMPK classically inhibits mTORC1 via TSC/RHEB, but several lines of evidence suggest additional mechanisms at play in metformin inhibition of mTORC1. Here we investigated the role of direct AMPK-mediated serine phosphorylation of RAPTOR in a new Raptor AA mouse model, in which AMPK phospho-serine sites Ser722 and Ser792 of RAPTOR were mutated to alanine. Metformin treatment of primary hepatocytes and intact murine liver requires AMPK regulation of both RAPTOR and TSC2 to fully inhibit mTORC1, and this regulation is critical for both the translational and transcriptional response to metformin. Transcriptionally, AMPK and mTORC1 were both important for regulation of anabolic metabolism and inflammatory programs triggered by metformin treatment. The hepatic transcriptional response in mice on high-fat diet treated with metformin was largely ablated by AMPK deficiency under the conditions examined, indicating the essential role of this kinase and its targets in metformin action in vivo.
Competitive outcomes between native and invasive plants are linked to shifts in the bacterial rhizosphere microbiome

Background: Rhizosphere microbiomes have received growing attention in recent years for their role in plant health, stress tolerance, soil nutrition, and invasive species dominance. Still, relatively little is known about how these microbial communities are altered under plant competition, and even less about whether these shifts are tied to competitive outcomes between native and invasive plant species. We investigated the structure and diversity of rhizosphere bacterial and fungal microbiomes of native annual forbs and invasive annual grasses individually and in competition using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and the fungal ITS region. We assessed how significant shifts in key microbial families correlate to plant competitive responses through changes in biomass (log competitive response ratios). Results: We find that bacterial diversity and structure differ between invasive grasses and native forbs, but fungal diversity and structure do not. Further, bacterial community structures under competition are distinct from both individual forb and grass bacterial community structures. We identified four bacterial families (Burkholderiaceae, Methylophilaceae, Clostridiaceae_1, and Fibrobacteraceae) that varied in relative abundance between treatments and that were significantly correlated with plant competitive responses. Conclusions: Invasive grass dominance may be partially due to effects on the rhizosphere community of native forbs, with changes in specific bacterial families potentially benefiting grasses at the expense of native forbs. Our study underscores the importance of considering plant-rhizosphere interactions for understanding outcomes of plant invasion on grassland ecosystems.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Kill Chain: Purple Teaming Tactics

The raising accessibility of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), colloquially known as drones, is rapidly increasing. Drones have pros and cons like any other technologies that operate on different communication protocols (i.e., Network, Bluetooth, Satellite, etc.). Recent studies have discussed challenges that may come in tow with the growing use of such technology. These studies note that in-depth examination is required, especially when addressing challenges that carry a high volume of software data between sensors, actuators, and control commands. From a security perspective, the technology has not achieved reliable security measures. This is due to many factors such as different operating systems to operate the drone. Drones run on different hardware and software components, which pose yet another series of challenges in both the drone forensic process and incident response. This paper examines a VTI Phoenix drone by utilizing the ‘Purple-Teaming’ tactics, presents challenges related to drone forensic discovery and discusses potential drone anti-forensic techniques and their association with the type of use, environment, attack vector, and level of expertise. To this end, we proposed the UAV Kill Chain based on the conducted examination and the presented scientific contribution in this work. To the best of our knowledge, there has not been any contribution that incorporates ‘Purple-Teaming’ tactics to evaluate UAV-related research in cybersecurity and digital forensics.
Comparative Studies in the Shoulder Literature Lack Statistical Robustness: A Fragility Analysis

Purpose Evidenced-based decision-making is rooted in comparative clinical studies; however, a small number of outcome event reversals have the potential to change study significance. The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of applying fragility analysis to comparative studies in the published orthopaedic shoulder literature. Methods Comparative clinical shoulder research studies reporting 1:1 dichotomous categorical data were analyzed in 6 leading orthopaedic journals between 2006 and 2016. Statistical significance was defined as a P value of less than .05. The fragility index (FI) for each study outcome was determined by the number of event reversals required to change the P value to either greater or less than 0.05, thus changing the study conclusions. The associated fragility quotient (FQ) was determined by dividing the FI by the total population comprising a particular outcome. Results Of the 23,897 studies screened, 3,591 met search criteria, with 198 comparative studies ultimately included for analysis, 67 of which were randomized controlled trials. There were 357 total outcome events with 74 reported as significant and 283 as not significant. The FI was 4 (IQR 2-6) with an associated FQ of 0.066 (interquartile range [IQR] 0.038-0.102). There was no difference in statistical fragility between randomized and nonrandomized trials with both revealing a FI of 4 and FQ of 0.068 (IQR 0.044-0.107) and 0.065 (IQR 0.031-0.101), respectively. Conclusions This current analysis reveals that comparative shoulder studies published in six leading orthopaedic journals are at risk of statistical fragility. As such, contemporary clinical shoulder literature may not be as robust as traditionally perceived with the reversal of only a few outcome events required to change study significance. Therefore, we advocate the reporting of both FI and FQ in addition to the P value as statistical complements to all comparative investigations to provide a more comprehensive understanding of trial stability and significance in the published shoulder literature. Clinical Relevance Comparative study designs are commonly employed in shoulder research. Several studies in both the general medical and orthopaedic literature have identified a lack of statistical robustness through comprehensive fragility analysis. Our findings demonstrate the P value may be an inadequate independent statistical metric requiring the complement of a FI and FQ to aid in the interpretation and understanding of study significance for clinical decision-making.
DIFFUSION MECHANISMS OF FLEXIBLE MOLECULES ON METALLIC SURFACES

The dynamics of flexible molecules in condensed phases is a subject of intense investigation for a variety of systems. Particularly relevant to heterogeneous chemical catalysis is the behavior of large flexible molecules adsorbed to metallic surfaces. Transition metals serve as catalysts for a variety of organic reactions and so the diffusion dynamics of organic molecules on such surfaces are especially important. In addition, the inter-relationship among internal degrees of freedom and cohesive motion of the molecules constitutes a complex subject rich in intriguing phenomena. The purpose of the present paper is to delineate some of these relationships for systems of relevance to heterogeneous chemical catalysis.
The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age

1. Arabia and the study of the ancient Near East 2. Ecological and environmental diversity in Arabia 3. The formation of Arabian society: 7000 to 3000 BC 4. Eastern Arabia from 3000 to 2000 BC 5. The Bronze Age in western Arabia 6. Eastern Arabia from 2000 to 1300 BC 7. Humans, dromedaries, and the transformation of ancient Arabia 8. Intensification and consolidation: Arabia from 1300 to 800 BC 9. Expansion and engagement: Arabia and the ancient Near East 10. Adaptation and social formation in ancient Arabia.
Exo : Endo Rate Ratios as a Steric Phenomenon

The high exo : endo rate and product ratios in the solvolysis of 2-norbornyl derivatives has long been considered a unique characteristic that required a unique explanation—σ-bridging.1,2 Now that it has been observed that reactions involving the highly stabilized 2-p-anisyl-2-norbornyl and 2-p-anisyl-2-camphenilyl cations exhibit equally high exo : endo rate and product ratios (Chapter 7), it is necessary to explore explanations other than σ-bridging as a basis for these characteristics.
Interleukins, Inflammation, and Mechanisms of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common progressive neurodegenerative form of dementia in the elderly and is characterized neuropathologically by neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), amyloid neuritic plaques (NP), and prominent synaptic and eventually neuronal loss. Although the molecular basis of AD is not clearly understood, a neuroinflammatory process, triggered by Aβ42, plays a central role in the neurodegenerative process. This inflammatory process is driven by activated microglia, astrocytes and the induction of proinflammatory molecules and related signaling pathways, leading to both synaptic and neuronal damage as well as further inflammatory cell activation. Epidemiologic data as well as clinical trial evidence suggest that nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug (NSAID) use may decrease the incidence of AD, further supporting a role for inflammation in AD pathogenesis. Although the precise molecular and cellular relationship between AD and inflammation remains unclear, interleukins and cytokines might induce activation of signaling pathways leading to futher inflammation and neuronal injury. This chapter will discuss the association between interleukins and neurodegeneration in AD and highlight the significance of genetic and clinical aspects of interleukins in disease expression and progression. As part of an emerging inflammatory signaling network underlying AD pathogenesis, β‐amyloid (Aβ) stimulates the glial and microglial production of interleukins and other cytokines, leading to an ongoing inflammatory cascade and contributing to synaptic dysfunction and loss, and later, neuronal death. Inflammatory pathways involving interleukin and cytokine signaling might suggest potential targets for intervention and influence the development of novel therapies to circumvent synaptic and neuronal dysfunction ultimately leading to AD neurodegeneration.
Fault tolerance properties of mesh-connected parallel computers with separable row/column buses

A two-dimensional processor array with separable row/column buses that are logically divisible into a number of local buses has proven quite effective for a wide class of parallel computations. The author shows how these separable buses, originally proposed for improved performance, can also be used to achieve tolerance to processor and link failures with minimal overhead for certain applications. >
Do Short Sellers Know More? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Prior research has generally found that stocks with a high level of short interest perform poorly suggesting that short sellers have superior information. However, it is known that stock prices can affect corporate performance due to resource allocation: that is, a low stock price can negatively affect firm performance by denying the company capital or other resources needed for efficient operation (Subrahmanyam and Titman, 2001). Thus, it is not clear whether the excess returns to short sellers are a result of superior information or resource constraints imposed by a depressed stock price. We examine the informativeness of short sales following introduction of Rule 10b-21 that limited the ability of market participants to short sell prior to an SEO. Using recent research, we are able to categorize SEO-issuing firms into short sale constrained and short sale unconstrained stocks. We find that the underpricing of SEOs by firms that are short sale constrained increases after the rule. We believe that the higher cost of short selling reduces the level of short selling that makes the prices less informative and increases underpricing. On the other hand, there is no change in the level of underpricing for SEOs by firms where short sales are unconstrained. The underpricing does not decline which is consistent with absence of manipulative short selling. Thus, our evidence is consistent with the notion that short sellers possess superior information. Finally, we find that the post-issue underperformance occurs only for SEOs where short sales are constrained.
Evolution of interlayer coupling in twisted molybdenum disulfide bilayers

Van der Waals coupling is emerging as a powerful method to engineer physical properties of atomically thin two-dimensional materials. In coupled graphene-graphene and graphene-boron nitride layers, interesting physical phenomena ranging from Fermi velocity renormalization to Hofstadter's butterfly pattern have been demonstrated. Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides, another family of two-dimensional-layered semiconductors, can show distinct coupling phenomena. Here we demonstrate the evolution of interlayer coupling with twist angles in as-grown molybdenum disulfide bilayers. We find that the indirect bandgap size varies appreciably with the stacking configuration: it shows the largest redshift for AA- and AB-stacked bilayers, and a significantly smaller but constant redshift for all other twist angles. Our observations, together with ab initio calculations, reveal that this evolution of interlayer coupling originates from the repulsive steric effects that leads to different interlayer separations between the two molybdenum disulfide layers in different stacking configurations.
The Commercial Exception to Foreign Sovereign Immunity: To Be Immune or Not to Be Immune? That Is the Question—A Look at the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@lmu.edu. Recommended Citation
Water waves and problems of infinite time control

Our objective in this brief report is to study the control of small amplitude waves on the surface of an incompressible fluid and to show that the resulting control problem, which requires a semi-infinite time interval for its solution, introduces phenomena which motivate the development of a general approach to controllability significantly different from that commonly used for systems with a finite control time. The reader is referred to [1],[2],[3] for background on water waves and to [4] for an abstract formulation of control problems in general.
Transformation of 1-Menthene by a Cladosporium: Accumulation of β-Isopropyl Glutaric Acid in the Growth Medium

An organism isolated from soil samples collected near a terpene plant grew in the presence of 1-menthene, with no other major source of carbon and energy. The organism was tentatively identified as a member of the genus Cladosporium. When this organism was grown in the presence of 1-menthene, with no other major source of carbon, substantial quantities of β-isopropyl glutaric acid accumulated in the fermentation medium. β-Isopropyl glutaric acid is probably an end product of the degradation of 1-menthene by the organism.
Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law and Emancipation

Contemporary studies that track the new racialization of poverty in Canada require an historical account. The history we invoke in North America is often borrowed from the British poor laws, a literature that is severed from its counterpart: the histories of racial slavery, racial thinking, White bourgeois power and the making of White settler societies. The effects of severing the history of poor relief from racial classifications and racism(s) are far reaching. Systems of oppression come to be seen as separate structures in which the New Poor Law appears as a domestic policy in Britain unrelated to racial thinking and racial slavery. This paper argues that attempts at managing and civilizing the poor in Britain and Upper Canada were racial projects suited to colonial ambitions and enterprises. Our histories of social welfare are deeply tied to the creation of White bourgeois subjects enlisted into the management and extension of empire. This history continues to organize contemporary social policy debates, and views on globalization and the racialization of poverty.
The role of oxalate in lignin peroxidase-catalyzed reduction: protection from compound III accumulation.

Reduction may be an important step in the degradation of some highly oxidized environmental pollutants by Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Lignin peroxidases (LiP) from P. chrysosporium are able to catalyze reductive reactions using veratryl alcohol (VA) as a mediator and either oxalate or EDTA as electron donors. Reduction of oxygen to superoxide, monitored by oxygen consumption, was used as a measure of the reductive activity of LiP. In the presence of EDTA, the rate of O2 reduction catalyzed by LiP decreased with time and increasing concentrations of H2O2. When oxalate replaced EDTA, LiP-catalyzed O2 reduction did not decrease with time, and increasing concentrations of H2O2 increased the duration and extent of O2 reduction. LiP was converted to the compound III state in the presence of EDTA, H2O2, and veratryl alcohol. When oxalate replaced EDTA, compound II was observed. The importance of the veratryl alcohol cation radical (VA.+) in the conversion of LiP compound III to active enzyme has been previously examined (D.P. Barr and S.D. Aust, 1994, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 311, 378-382). We propose that rapid reduction of VA.+ by EDTA results in accumulation of LiP compound III and the loss of activity resulting in a decrease in LiP-catalyzed reduction reactions. Oxalate is less effective in reducing the VA.+, therefore, some VA.+ remains to convert compound III to active enzyme and maintain LiP-catalyzed reduction reactions. Thus oxalate, a normal secondary metabolite of P. chrysosporium, is a suitable candidate for mediating reduction reactions by LiP in vivo.
Long-time crossover phenomena in coagulation kinetics

We employ scaling arguments and numerical simulations to investigate the kinetics of general classes of coagulation processes. Within the rate-equation, or mean-field, approximation, a scaling form for the cluster density is used to predict the asymptotic kinetic behavior for the ``product,'' ``sum,'' and ``Brownian'' kernels. These predictions are tested by simulations of the particle coalescence model, a model which corresponds exactly to the rate-equation description of coagulation. Our numerical results indicate the presence of an intermediate-time regime of behavior in coagulation kinetics, which is characterized by effective exponents whose values are consistent with scaling. This new and unexpected regime persists for an extraordinarily long time before a crossover to asymptotic behavior sets in. Furthermore, for the sum kernel, our numerical estimates for the exponents which describe the asymptotic kinetic behavior are in disagreement with current theoretical predictions. Finally, new fluctuation-controlled kinetic behavior below an upper critical dimension equal to 2 is also reported.
Numerical Solution of the Linear Integral Boltzmann Equation

An iterative method is proposed for solving the homogeneous (i.e., critical) or inhomogeneous (i.e., source) linear irtegral Boltzmann equation for general geometry. By using successive approximations, these two classes of problems are shown to be mathematically equivalent. For the homogeneous problem, constraints on the algorithm regarding the existence of eigenvalues and the initial approximation are investigated. The algorithm is as the elementary interaction causing the pinning). For higher defect densities, the agreement with the experiments on niobium is better than with the previous theory. This method of correlations seemed suitable for studying the effect of cutting-off'' the small elementary intenactions and for the replacement of the Gauss distribution function by the Poisson distribution function for the number of defects in the elementary volumes. Both these give negative results with respect to the experiments; so far wrte are therefore not able to explain quartitatively the large please delete the above 9 lines======= applied to isotropically scattering slabs and spheres, and is compared with previously published results as well as an independent extrapolation method. For the inhomogeneous problem, an improvement over the normal successive collision method via the use of a Neumann series expansion is used to allow economic parametric studies. Constraintsmore » on the algorithm and methods of efficiently terminating the infinite Neumann series are investigated. The solution via the proposed method as applied to isotropically scattering slabs and spheres is provided in a compact form for a range of multiplication factors and optical dimensions. The shape of the scalar flux distribution is expiained. Extensions of the method to more complex problems are outlined; in particular, the solution to an energy-dependent problem in general geometry is obtained, and the implications of the results are discussed. (7 figures, 2 tables) (auth)« less
An efficient approach for the identification of candidate datum set for a nominally flat primary datum feature

Abstract The first step in the evaluation of geometric characteristics is to establish the related datums. Correct establishment of datums is vital to the accurate evaluation of related geometric errors. ASME Y14.5.1M-1994 standard specifies a procedure for the establishment of candidate datum set for a nominally flat datum feature. Implementation of this procedure is not a trivial task. In this paper, an efficient and accurate algorithm for the implementation of the above-mentioned procedure is presented. The algorithm has been implemented and is evaluated for its ability to provide accurate results quickly.