cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Model-Based Approach to Optimizing Ms. Pac-Man Game Strategies in Real Time

This paper presents a model-based approach for computing real-time optimal decision strategies in the pursuit-evasion game of Ms. Pac-Man. The game of Ms. Pac-Man is an excellent benchmark problem of pursuit-evasion game with multiple, active adversaries that adapt their pursuit policies based on Ms. Pac-Man's state and decisions. In addition to evading the adversaries, the agent must pursue multiple fixed and moving targets in an obstacle-populated environment. This paper presents a novel approach by which a decision-tree representation of all possible strategies is derived from the maze geometry and the dynamic equations of the adversaries or ghosts. The proposed models of ghost dynamics and decisions are validated through extensive numerical simulations. During the game, the decision tree is updated and used to determine optimal strategies in real time based on state estimates and game predictions obtained iteratively over time. The results show that the artificial player obtained by this approach is able to achieve high game scores, and to handle high game levels in which the characters speeds and maze complexity become challenging even for human players.
Eskalationstherapie mit Hirnstimulation und Medikamentenpumpen

Bei Patienten mit Morbus Parkinson sind Wirkungsfluktuationen mit und ohne Levodopa-Dyskinesien und abrupte Wechsel zwischen Phasen von guter und schlechter Symptomkontrolle (On-Off-Phanomen) sowie schwerer Tremor bisher die wesentlichen Indikationen fur die Eskalationstherapien. Potenziell betrifft dieser Zustand eine grose Patientenpopulation. Nach der Optimierung und Intensivierung der konservativen Therapien konnen Medikamentenpumpen und die tiefe Hirnstimulation (THS) eingesetzt werden.
Lasalocid and dietary sodium and potassium effects on mineral metabolism, ruminal volatile fatty acids and performance of finishing steers.

Thirty Angus steers averaging 357 kg were used to: 1) determine the effect of feeding lasalocid (33 mg/kg diet) on mineral metabolism and 2) determine the effects of varying dietary sodium (Na) and potassium (K) on finishing steers fed lasalocid. Treatments consisted of: 1) control (.25% Na, .5% K); 2) lasalocid (.05% Na, .5% K); 3) lasalocid (.25% Na, .5% K); 4) lasalocid (.05% Na, 1.4% K) and 5) lasalocid (.25% Na, 1.4% K). Ruminal fluid and blood samples were collected on d 28 and 90 of the 102-d study. Gain and feed conversion tended to be higher for steers fed lasalocid with the exception of the .05% Na, 1.4% K treatment. Control steers had lower (P less than .05) erythrocyte K concentrations, reduced (P less than .05) soluble concentrations of magnesium and copper in ruminal fluid and decreased plasma concentrations of zinc (P less than .05) and phosphorus (P less than .10) at 90 d compared with steers fed lasalocid and similar concentrations of Na (.25%) and K (.5%). Increasing dietary Na from .05 to .25% in the presence of lasalocid increased (P less than (P less than .05) molar proportion of ruminal acetate at 28 and 90 d reduced (P less than .05) propionate at 90 d. Increasing K from .5 to 1.4% decreased (P less than .01) soluble Na and increased (P less than .01) soluble K concentrations in ruminal fluid. Steers fed lasalocid (.25% Na, .5% K) had lower concentrations of K (P less than .10) and zinc (P less than .10) in liver than control steers. Sodium and K level also affected tissue concentrations of certain minerals. Results suggest that dietary Na and K influence mineral metabolism and that dietary Na affects ruminal molar proportion of acetate in cattle fed lasalocid.
Constrained fast source seeking using two nonholonomic mobile robots

In this paper, we consider the problem of constrained fast source seeking using two nonholonomic wheeled robots with velocity limitations. To achieve maximum converging speed to the source, we propose a dual-module control approach. In the formation control module, we design the angular velocities of the two robots to keep them in a formation. In the source seeking module, a sliding-mode-like control algorithm is developed to generate the bounded linear velocities so that the moving directions of the two robots are aligned with the field gradient direction as quickly as possible. Only the instantaneous measurements of the field but not the gradients are used in the controller design. Compared to existing approaches, our method makes full use of the maximum velocity limitations of the nonholonomic robots to achieve fast overall converging speed using only two robots. Comparative simulation and experimental results are presented, demonstrating the superior performance of the proposed control strategy over the existing ones in terms of the seeking (converging) speed.
Case study 9: Performing linear regression with redundancy analysis

In this chapter, we demonstrate how to perform linear regression in Canoco 5, using redundancy analysis (RDA), as well as how to fit a (generalized) linear model in this program. We hope that this case study will help the reader understand better the meaning of the case scores and the difference between constrained and unconstrained axes in a constrained ordination. In addition, the approach shown here allows one to abandon the parametric tests of significance, used in the context of classical regression, and therefore to use these methods under conditions where classical assumptions about the distribution of modelled variables cannot be met. Data The data for linear regression are taken from the first case study (Chapter 12), where the composition of bird assemblages was related to habitat properties. In this chapter, you will focus on predicting abundance of a single bird species – ring ouzel ( Turdus torquatus ) using site altitude. These data are stored in two sheets of the chap20.xlsx file: sheet Regr-R contains the two variables (response variable TurdTorq and predictor Altit ) ready for import into a data frame of the R program or into any other general statistical package; sheet Regr-Canoco contains the two variables separated for the import into the Canoco 5 project. This is because in Canoco, the ‘response data’ and ‘explanatory data’ cannot be in the same data table. This project was already created for you and it is stored in the chap20.c5p file.
Impacts of changing fire weather conditions on reconstructed trends in U.S. wildland fire activity from 1979 to 2014

One component of climate-fire interactions is the relationship between weather conditions concurrent with burning (i.e., fire danger) and the magnitude of fire activity. Here, daily environmental conditions are associated with daily observations of fire activity within ecoregions across the continental United States (CONUS) by aligning the latter 12 years of a 36 year gridded fire danger climatology with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire products. Results reveal that although modern relationships (2003 – 2014) vary regionally, fires across the majority of CONUS are more likely to be present and burning more vigorously as fire danger increases. Applying modern relationships to the entire climatology (1979 – 2014) indicates that in the absence of other influences, changes in fire danger have significantly increased the number of days per year that fires are burning across 42 - 49% of CONUS (by area) whilst also significantly increasing daily fire growth and daily heat release across 37 – 45% of CONUS. Increases in the fire activity season length coupled with an intensification of daily burning characteristics resulted in a CONUS-wide +0.02 Mhayr-1 trend in burned area, a 10.6 g m-2 yr-1 trend in the amount of fuel consumed per unit burned area, and ultimately a +0.51 Tgyr-1 trend in dry matter consumption. Overall the results demonstrate regional variations in the response of fires to changes in fire danger, and that weather conditions concurrent with burning have a three-pronged impact on the magnitude of fire activity by affecting the seasonal duration, spatial extent and combustion intensity.
Estimating Enhanced Fujita Scale Levels Based on Forest Damage Severity

AbstractEnhanced Fujita (EF) scale estimates following tornadoes remain challenging in rural areas with few traditional damage indicators. In some cases, such as the 27 April 2011 tornadoes that passed through mostly inaccessible terrain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Chattahoochee National Forest in the southeastern United States, traditional ground-based tornado damage surveys are nearly impossible. This work presents a novel method to infer EF-scale categories in forests using levels of tree damage and a coupled wind and tree resistance model. High-resolution aerial imagery allows detailed analyses based on a field of nearly half a million trees labeled with their geographic location and fall direction. Ground surveys also provide details on the composition of tree species and tree diameters within each tornado track. A statistical resampling procedure randomly draws a sample of trees from this database of observed trees. The coupled wind and tree resistance model determines the per...
On the effectiveness of application characteristics in the automatic classification of malware on smartphones

The increase in smartphone usage is providing impetus to malicious actors to target these devices via malware injection. This can be seen in the increasing number of malware identified in the past few years. Android, being the most commonly used platform and one that provides an open architecture, makes it the most common target for malware developers. One possible method to identify malicious code is to use the characteristics of an application such as permissions to identify an application’s disposition. This paper describes a method for using application characteristics to classify sample applications as either benign or malware. Both binary and familial classification of malware samples is performed to determine whether each sample is malware or not (i.e., binary classification) and what is the familial provenance of the malware sample (i.e. familial classification). The results compare the effectiveness of the familial classification of three different commercial anti-virus engine taxonomies.
PROSPER delivery of universal preventive interventions with young adolescents: long-term effects on emerging adult substance misuse and associated risk behaviors.

Background Substance misuse and associated health-risking behaviors are prevalent in emerging adulthood. There is a knowledge gap concerning the post-high school effects of community-based delivery systems for universal preventive interventions implemented during young adolescence. This study reports effects of the PROSPER delivery system through age 19, 7.5 years past baseline. Methods A cohort sequential design included 28 public school districts randomly assigned to the PROSPER partnership delivery system or usual-programming conditions. PROSPER community teams implemented a family-focused intervention in 6th grade and a school-based intervention in 7th grade. Outcomes for the age 19, post-high school report included lifetime, current, and frequency of substance misuse, as well as antisocial and health-risking sexual behaviors. Intent-to-treat, multi-level analyses of covariance of point-in-time outcomes were conducted, along with analyses of risk-related moderation of intervention effects. Results Results showed emerging adults from PROSPER communities reported significantly lower substance misuse across a range of types of substances, with relative reduction rates of up to 41.0%. No significant findings were observed for associated antisocial and health-risking sexual behavior indices; or for lifetime rates of sexually transmitted infections. Risk-related moderation effects were non-significant, suggesting generally comparable outcomes across higher- and lower-risk subgroups of emerging adults. Conclusions The PROSPER delivery system for brief universal preventive interventions has potential for public health impact by reducing long-term substance misuse, with positive results extending beyond high school.
Impact of Chitosan Molecular Weight and Attached Non-Interactive Chains on the Formation of α-Lactalbumin Nanogel Particles

Thermal treatment of protein⁻polysaccharide complexes will form nanogel particles, wherein the polysaccharide controls nanogel formation by limiting protein aggregation. To determine the impact of the chitosan molecular weight and non-interactive chains on the formation of nanogels, mixtures of α-lactalbumin were prepared with selectively-hydrolyzed chitosan containing covalently-attached polyethylene glycol chains (PEG) and heated near the protein's isoelectric point to induce formation of nanogels. Turbidity of heated mixtures indicated the formation of suspended aggregates, with greater values observed at higher pH, without attached PEG, and among samples with 8.9 kDa chitosan. Mixtures containing 113 kDa chitosan-PEG formed precipitating aggregates above pH 5, coinciding with a low-magnitude colloidal charge and average hydrodynamic radii > 400 nm. All other tested mixtures were stable to precipitation and possessed average hydrodynamic radii ~100 nm, with atomic force microscopy showing homogeneous distributions of spherical nanogel aggregates. Over all of the tested conditions, attached PEG led to no additional significant changes in the size or morphology of nanogels formed from the protein and chitosan. While PEG may have interfered with the interactions between protein and the 113 kDa chitosan, prompting greater aggregation and precipitation, PEG did not indicate any such interference for shorter chitosan chains.
Parody after identity

The FOKN Bois are an irreverent, cosmopolitan hip-hop duo from Ghana. They came to fame as part of the digital-music boom centered in Nigeria that has dominated African popular culture since the mid-2000s. Their most popular track, “Thank God We're Not a Nigerians,” mocks the national rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria and the idea of national allegiance itself. The song's production and circulation reveal that digital parody is increasingly central to how a rising generation of urban Africans live. Through sounds and images circulating on social media, young cosmopolitan Africans rely on a smartphone-driven social media–scape to reimagine national territorial identity in virtual terms. The FOKN Bois’ work shows that uncertainty and contradiction can be modes of knowing.
Updating the Textbook: A Novel Approach to Training Graduate Students in Evidence-Based Youth Practices

Abstract Despite the ever-improving base of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for the treatment of childhood disorders, a gap between EBP research and their use in community settings continues to exist. An exciting opportunity to close this gap exists in the form of graduate student training; however, at present, several roadblocks exist. In this paper, we review the current state of graduate training in delivering EBPs and obstacles involved in training future community clinicians (i.e., graduate students) in EBPs. Next, we describe in detail our initiative to develop a curriculum that addresses these challenges. This innovative course empowered graduate students to receive training in the delivery of youth EBPs in community settings through reviews of the research literature, active learning techniques (e.g., discussions of case conceptualizations, role-playing case studies), and a written, publication-quality review of EBPs. Finally, we offer recommendations for other educators of mental health professionals (e.g., psychologists, social workers, counselors) to improve upon this curriculum in their training of graduate students in the theory and application of EBPs for treating childhood disorders.
Decomposition of Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) as a Function of Temperature and Heating Rate.

Material response models for phenolic-based thermal protection systems (TPSs) for atmospheric entry are limited by the lack of knowledge of the nonequilibrium processes that may govern the decomposition pathways of phenolic resin at heating rates up to tens of degrees Celsius per second. We have investigated the pyrolysis of phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) by measuring the molar yields of the volatile decomposition products as a function of temperature at four nominal heating rates of 3.1, 6.1, 12.7, and 25 °C s–1, over the temperature range of 100–1200 °C. A mass spectrometer was used to probe the 14 significant gaseous products directly as PICA samples were heated resistively in vacuum. Four products, H2, CH4, H2O, and CO, overwhelmingly dominated the molar yields. However, in terms of mass yield, phenol and its methylated derivatives, cresol and dimethyl phenol, were significant. The temperature-dependent molar yields of the observed products exhibited a marked dependence on heating rate. Th...
The tension between early diagnosis and misdiagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

The benefits of early treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) place pressure on physicians to make the diagnosis early, thereby increasing the risk of misdiagnosis, which can have considerable consequences for patients and health-care systems. Solomon and Corboy examine the problem of MS misdiagnosis, including the probable causes and associated risks, and discuss how the tension between early diagnosis and misdiagnosis might be addressed. Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) can be challenging, and misdiagnosis remains a persistent problem with considerable consequences for patients and health-care systems. Common syndromes are frequently mistaken for MS. Misapplication of MS diagnostic criteria in patients with abnormal radiographic findings and clinical presentations that are atypical for MS is a frequent cause of misdiagnosis. Delays in diagnosis of MS and initiation of disease-modifying therapy (DMT) are associated with an increased risk of disability, putting pressure on physicians to make therapeutic decisions for patients whose diagnosis remains uncertain. DMT is associated with unnecessary risks and morbidity in misdiagnosed patients. This tension between the benefits of an early diagnosis and the risk of misdiagnosis is a pressing problem. For patients who present with brain MRI abnormalities and clinical syndromes that are atypical for MS, strict adherence to MS diagnostic criteria and further clinical, laboratory and radiographic evaluation is prudent and likely to clarify a diagnosis.
Coming Out to Parents in Japan: A Sociocultural Analysis of Lived Experiences

While empirical studies on LGBT individuals coming out to their parents are common in Western societies, these studies are rare in non-Western societies. This article attempts to fill that void by shedding light on the experiences of Japanese individuals coming out to their parents. The coming-out narratives of Japanese LGBT individuals (N = 43) were examined. This study revealed three important findings. (1) Similar to the findings of studies in Western societies, Japanese LGBT individuals typically consider coming out to their fathers considerably more difficult than coming out to their mothers. Moreover, many study participants expressed the absence of a significant relationship with their fathers, even before coming out—making coming out to their fathers unnecessary. (2) Similar to the findings in previous studies, Japanese mothers’ responses are often reactionary and abusive; in fact, a disproportionate number of Japanese lesbian, bisexual female, and transgender Female-to-Male/X-gender individuals reported their mothers’ markedly negative, personal responses, illustrating why some were reluctant to come out to their mothers. (3) By contrast, Japanese gay and transgender Male-to-Female/X-gender individuals reported their mothers’ responses were comparatively undemonstrative. Also, they typically attribute their mothers’ negative responses to the fact that mothers are the solo overseers of heteronormative norms at home. Overall, Japanese LGBT individuals’ experiences reveal the gendered effects of Japanese sociocultural configuration, as well as the Japanese cultural implication of disclosing one’s sexuality.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in the Pathogenesis of Fibrotic Disease

Eukaryotic cells contain an elegant protein quality control system that is crucial in maintaining cellular homeostasis; however, dysfunction of this system results in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR). Severe or prolonged ER stress is associated with the development of degenerative and fibrotic disorders in multiple organs, as evidenced by the identification of disease-causing mutations in epithelial-restricted genes that lead to protein misfolding or mistrafficking in familial fibrotic diseases. Emerging evidence implicates ER stress and UPR signaling in a variety of profibrotic mechanisms in individual cell types. In epithelial cells, ER stress can induce apoptosis, inflammatory signaling, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In other cell types, ER stress is linked to myofibroblast activation, macrophage polarization, and T cell differentiation. ER stress-targeted therapies have begun to emerge using approaches that range from global enhancement of chaperone function to selective targeting of activated ER stress sensors and other downstream mediators. As the complex regulatory mechanisms of this system are further clarified, there are opportunities to develop new disease-modifying therapeutic strategies in a wide range of chronic fibrotic diseases.
Flattery and the History of Political Thought: That Glib and Oily Art

Flattery is an often overlooked political phenomenon, even though it has interested thinkers from classical Athens to eighteenth-century America. Drawing a distinction between moralistic and strategic flattery, this book offers new interpretations of a range of texts from the history of political thought. Discussing Cicero, Pliny, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mandeville, Smith, and the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates, the book engages and enriches contemporary political theory debates about rhetoric, republicanism, and democratic theory, among other topics. Flattery and the History of Political Thought shows both the historical importance and continued relevance of flattery for political theory. Additionally, the study is interdisciplinary in both subject and approach, engaging classics, literature, rhetoric, and history scholarship; it aims to bring a range of disciplines into conversation with each other as it explores a neglected - and yet important - topic.
Public–private partnerships in practice: collaborating to improve health finance policy in Ghana and Kenya

Social health insurance (SHI), one mechanism for achieving universal health coverage, has become increasingly important in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as they work to achieve this goal. Although small private providers supply a significant proportion of healthcare in LMICs, integrating these providers into SHI systems is often challenging. Public-private partnerships in health are one way to address these challenges, but we know little about how these collaborations work, how effectively, and why. Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted with National Health Insurance (NHI) officials in Kenya and Ghana, as well as with staff from several international NGOs (INGOs) representing social franchise networks that are partnering to increase private provider accreditation into the NHIs, this article examines one example of public-private collaboration in practice. We found that interviewees initially had incomplete knowledge about the potential for cross-sector synergy, but both sides were motivated to work together around shared goals and the potential for mutual benefit. The public-private relationship then evolved over time through regular face-to-face interactions, reciprocal feedback, and iterative workplan development. This process led to a collegial relationship that also has given small private providers more voice in the health system. In order to sustain this relationship, we recommend that both public and private sector representatives develop formalized protocols for working together, as well as less formal open channels for communication. Models for aggregating small private providers and delivering them to government programmes as a package have potential to facilitate public-private partnerships as well, but there is little evidence on how these models work in LMICs thus far.
STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF NaOH ACTIVATED CEMENT FREE BINDER (CFB) CONCRETES

Increasing emphasis on sustainability of the built environment has resulted in attempts to drastically reduce the cement consumption in concrete and replace it with waste/recycled materials. This study reports the development of concretes with cement free binders (CFB) and the evaluation of their properties. A Class F fly ash and a ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) are used as the binding materials. The activating agent used in this study is sodium hydroxide (NaOH), at concentrations ranging from 6 M to 10 M. The optimal temperature and curing duration required to achieve desirable compressive strengths of CFB concretes are reported. The influence of the binding material and the concentration of the activator on the compressive strength and porosity of the CFB concretes are studied. The compressive strength of CFB concretes with fly ash as the binding material increases with increase of activating solution concentration but for CFB concretes with GGFBS as the binder, activation with 8 M NaOH is seen to result in the highest compressive strength. The strength-porosity relationship of CFB concretes shows an exponential trend, similar to that of conventional cement based materials. Microstructure and the phase composition of the reaction products are also discussed.
Process optimization for efficient convergence in large optics fabrication

Large optic fabrication is a delicate and time consuming process. Obtaining a large prime optic is often in the critical path of a project and poses a serious risk to both the schedule and budget. The Optical Engineering and Fabrication Facility (OEFF) at the College of Optical Sciences, the University of Arizona, has developed a new way of optimizing its large optic fabrication process for maximum efficiency in convergence. The new process optimization takes the amount of stock material removal, tool characteristics, metrology uncertainty, optic prescription, optic material properties, and resource availability as input parameters and provides an optimized process along with an achievable convergence. This paper presents technical details of the new process optimization and demonstrates performance on 6.5m mirror fabrication at the University of Arizona. Two case studies for an 8.4m GMT off-axis primary mirror segment and a 3.1m TMT convex secondary mirror fabrication are also presented.
Foxp3 Expressing Regulatory T-Cells in Allergic Disease

Allergic diseases such as asthma, rhinitis and eczema are increasing in prevalence worldwide, in particular in industrialised countries affecting up to 20% of the population. Regulatory T-cells (Tregs) have been shown to be critical in T-cell homeostasis and in the maintenance of immune responses, such as prevention of autoimmunity and hampering allergic diseases. The so-called ‘natural’ CD4+CD25+ Tregs and/or IL-10-producing Tr1 cells have been shown to be responsible for the protection of immune tolerance and intact immune reactions following exposure to allergens such as aeroallergens or food allergens. In this regard, both cell-cell contact (through membrane bound TGF-β or via suppressive molecules such as CLTA-4) and soluble cytokine-(TGF-β and IL-10) dependent mechanisms have been shown to contribute to the ability of Tregs to operate effectively. The transcription factor Foxp3, a member of the forkhead-winged helix family, appears to be critical in the suppressive abilities of regulatory T-cells. Adoptive transfer of CD4+CD25+ Tregs from healthy to diseased animals corroborated and provided further evidence of the vital role of these populations in the prevention or cure of certain autoimmune conditions. Clinical improvement seen after allergen immunotherapy for allergic diseases such as rhinitis and asthma has also been associated with the induction of IL-10 and TGF-β producing Tr1 cells as well as Foxp3 expressing CD4+CD25+ T-cells, resulting in the suppression of Th2 cytokine milieu. Activation and expansion of antigen-specific CD4+CD25+ Tregs in vivo using adjuvants such as IL-10 or pharmacological agents such as low dose steroids or vitamin D3 could represent novel approaches to induce antigen-specific tolerance in immune-mediated conditions such as allergic asthma, autoimmune disease and the rejection of transplanted organs in man.
Novel Therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Although prognosis of adult ALL has improved over the last few decades, still only 30–40% of patients achieve long-term, disease-free survival and can be considered cured [1, 2]. The remainder will eventually relapse and die from disease progression or other ALL-related consequences. New strategies, refinements of old ones, and novel agents are therefore needed. How modifications of induction regimens can positively impact the outcome in subsets of the disease is exemplified in mature B-cell ALL where short, dose-intensive chemotherapy leads to survival of 50–70% of the patients and T-cell ALL in which addition of cyclophosphamide, high-dose methotrexate and cytarabine in the induction and consolidation sequence is associated with similar survival rates [3]. Other subgroups such as Philadelphia chromosome-(Ph) positive ALL are still largely incurable with chemotherapy alone although the combination of BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors with intensive chemotherapy is showing promising leads in this group of patients as well.
Failure of Autolysosome Fusion Results in Impaired Autophagy in UBQLN2-Linked ALS-FTD (P02.167)

OBJECTIVE: To further explore the pathogenic mechanism of UBQLN2-mediated ALS and ALS-FTD, and the effect of mutant UBQLN2 on autophagy. BACKGROUND: Mutations in UBQLN2 cause ALS and ALS-FTD. Pathological inclusions containing UBQLN2 are a common pathological feature in ALS and ALS-FTD. UBQLN2 sits at the crossroads of protein degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), and bulk lysosomal degradation via autophagy. Alterations in autophagy have been proposed to contribute to pathogenesis in several neurodegenerative diseases including ALS. However, the precise mechanism behind autophagy malfunction in ALS is poorly understood. DESIGN/METHODS: To study the effect of UBQLN2 mutations on autophagy, neuro-2a cells were transiently transfected with expression vectors containing wildtype (wt) UBQLN2, P497H-UBQLN2 or P506T-UBQLN2. For flow cytometry and imaging studies, cells were co-transfected with an autophagosome marker (LC3-GFP). Fourty-eight hours post-transfection cells were collected using a BD LSRFortessa flow cytometer and analyzed using BD FACSDiva software. For imaging studies, cells were fixed 24 hours post-transfection, immunolabeled with anti-UBQLN2, anti-p62 or anti-LAMP1 antibodies and analyzed using a Zeiss LSM 510 Meta laser scanning confocal microscope. Endogenous LC3 and p62 turnover assay was performed using Western blotting according to standard protocols. RESULTS: We found that cells expressing mutant UBQLN2 accumulate autophagosomes and autophagosome precursors. Expression of mutant UBQLN2 leads to an accumulation of autophagosome-associated proteins, LC3 and p62. After autophagic induction, autophagosomes in mutant UBQLN2 expressing cells fail to mature into autolysosomes and degrade LC3 and p62. CONCLUSIONS: Our data implicate UBQLN2 in autophagy, and suggest that impaired autophagy due to the failure of autolysosome fusion is central to the pathogenesis of UBQLN2-linked ALS and ALS-FTD and may explain the pathology seen in ALS and FTD patients. Hence, autophagy represents an attractive target for designing rational therapeutics in ALS and FTD. Supported by: NIH Grants (NS050641, NS078504, T32 AG20506), Les Turner ALS Foundation, Vena E. Schaff ALS Research Fund, Harold Post Research Professorship, Herbert and Florence C. Wenske Foundation. Disclosure: Dr. Fecto has nothing to disclose. Dr. Esengul has nothing to disclose. Dr. Deng has nothing to disclose. Dr. Siddique has nothing to disclose.
The Neuroimmunology of Cancer

Decreased immune surveillance is thought to be one of the mechanisms by which neoplastic cells are able to thrive. When cancer is located in the nervous system, an immune privileged site, its ability to evade detection, and targeting by immune cells may contribute to its aggressive behavior. Furthermore, high-grade gliomas, the most frequent and lethal primary brain tumors, induce both a local and systemic state of immune suppression that hampers efforts to manipulate the immune system as an effective therapeutic modality. On the other hand, there are rare instances when the immune response elucidated against systemic cancer causes nervous system injury without direct spread of the tumor. Although the neural injury is thought to be mediated by an autoimmune process, in most cases it is uncertain if it is caused by a humoral response, a cellular response, or a combination of both. This chapter reviews concepts related to the unique relationship between the nervous and immune systems, when cancer is present, as well as immune therapeutic modalities employed when the neural structures are affected directly by a primary tumor or indirectly in the case of paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. The distinct immunologic characteristics of the central nervous system (CNS) become more unique and complex in the setting of neoplastic disease. In 2008, approximately 1,437,180 new cancer cases, including 21,810 arising from the nervous system, were diagnosed in the USA [1]. Gliomas, the most frequent type of brain tumors, are characterized by the infiltration of normal cerebral tissue, but this rarely results in systemic metastases. The tumor microenvironment shows a meager inflammatory response often accompanied by systemic immune suppression. These alterations might be considered epiphenomena unrelated to tumor pathogenesis, but experimental and clinical observations suggest that the immune system plays an important role in glioma biology. Our current concept of glioma immunobiology lends strong support to the idea of manipulating the immune system as a therapeutic approach for primary brain tumors. Glioma immunotherapy has evolved over the years, unfortunately as yet, without a major success. Nevertheless, extraneural or systemic neoplasms can trigger an immune response that in rare instances have repercussions in the nervous system. These interactions indirectly cause clinical syndromes that are aptly termed paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes. In some cases, antibodies have been identified as the element responsible for the phenomenon, but as primary tumors of the brain and spinal cord, the role that the immune system plays in the pathogenesis of these syndromes has not been clearly elucidated.
Accountability as a Partnership: Professionals, Parents, and Pupils.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody. (Author unknown) ike other aspects of daily living, education always runs the risk of being left up to somebody else. Izaak Walton wrote in The Compleat Angler, "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business," for each person assumes someone else will shoulder the obligation. Yet, the education of children is too important to leave solely to the school or completely to the home and community. The purpose of this article is to show how three groups-professionals, parents, and pupils-relate to each other, and to propose specific categories of accountability that each group must assume if the home-school partnership is to germinate and mature.
Low Power Adaptive Time-of-Flight Imaging for Multiple Rigid Objects

Time-of-flight (TOF) cameras are becoming increasingly popular for many mobile applications. To obtain accurate depth maps, TOF cameras must emit many pulses of light, which consumes a lot of power and lowers the battery life of mobile devices. However, lowering the number of emitted pulses results in noisy depth maps. To obtain accurate depth maps while reducing the overall number of emitted pulses, we propose an algorithm that adaptively varies the number of pulses to infrequently obtain high power depth maps and uses them to help estimate subsequent low power ones. To estimate these depth maps, our technique uses the previous frame by accounting for the 3D motion in the scene. We assume that the scene contains independently moving rigid objects and show that we can efficiently estimate the motions using just the data from a TOF camera. The resulting algorithm estimates 640 × 480 depth maps at 30 frames per second on an embedded processor. We evaluate our approach on data collected with a pulsed TOF camera and show that we can reduce the mean relative error of the low power depth maps by up to 64% and the number of emitted pulses by up to 81%.
Analysis of the Limits of the Near-Field Produced by Nanoparticle Arrays

Periodic arrays are an exceptionally interesting arrangement for metallic nanostructures because of their ability to support collective lattice resonances. These modes, which arise from the coheren...
Detection of Tennis Events from Acoustic Data

Professional tennis is a fast-paced sport with serves and hits that can reach speeds of over 100 mph and matches lasting long in duration. For example, in 13 years of Grand Slam data, there were 454 matches with an average of 3 sets that lasted 40 minutes. The fast pace and long duration of tennis matches make tracking the time boundaries of each tennis point in a match challenging. The visual aspect of a tennis match is highly diverse because of its variety in angles, occlusions, resolutions, contrast and colors, but the sound component is relatively stable and consistent. In this paper, we present a system that detects events such as ball hits and point boundaries in a tennis match from sound data recorded in the match. We first describe the sound processing pipeline that includes preprocessing, feature extraction, basic (atomic) event detection, and point boundary detection. Then, we describe the overall cloud-based system architecture. Afterwards, we describe the user interface that includes a tool for data labeling to efficiently generate the training dataset, and a workbench for sound and model management. The performance of our system is evaluated in experiments with real-world tennis sound data. Our proposed pipeline can detect atomic tennis events with an F1-score of 92.39% and point boundaries with average precision and recall values of around 80%. This system can be very useful for tennis coaches and players to find and extract game highlights with specific characteristics, so that they can analyze these highlights and establish their play strategy.
Commentary: A challenge for a higher bar in research on childhood trauma – reflections on Danese (2020)

While there have been major advances in documenting the consequences of childhood adversities for psychopathology, Professor Danese's excellent paper challenges existing theory and research methods, urging the field to move ahead with future research that overcomes existing limitations. Importantly, he reminds us of the methodological caveats necessary to consider when assessing the body of evidence for causal effects of childhood trauma and urges caution in interpreting the ACEs literature. This editorial calls attention to and elaborates on a number of issues, including (a) why prospective and retrospective data cannot be used interchangeably; (b) the need for researchers to distinguish among childhood adversities, childhood traumas, and childhood maltreatment; (c) the sparse attention at present to the role of pre-existing vulnerabilities in influencing assessments of the risk of psychopathology; and (d) the critical importance of contextual factors (e.g., age, sex, race, ethnicity, and social class) that are likely to influence the risk of psychopathology. Professor Danese argues for the use of new analytic strategies to advance the field. This editorial elaborates on this recommendation and calls attention to the use of machine learning techniques that may be particularly worthwhile for the child maltreatment field, where there is little psychometric research on measures.
Financial performance of diverse levels of early competition suppression and pre-commercial thinning on loblolly pine stand development

Competition suppression within loblolly pine plantations (Pinus taeda L.) is typically carried out within the first 2 years of a plantation, but competition control for longer durations could improve productivity. As plantation growth improves with increasing vegetation suppression frequency, it may be necessary to pre-commercially thin stands to reduce intraspecific competition. The effect of these silvicultural activities for controlling inter- and intra-specific competition to optimize plantation financial performance is relatively unexplored. This study tests the financial performance of several operational mixtures of herbicides relative to sustained suppression of herbaceous, woody, and all non-crop vegetation based on 29-year yields and financial data; pre-commercial thinning was tested to understand whether reducing stand density affected responses to vegetation control. Intensive vegetation control increased financial returns compared to the control and sustained woody and herbaceous vegetation suppression, but it was similar to the operational-analogue treatments. Introducing pre-commercial thinning undermined financial performance of the intensive treatments, except for that of herbaceous control. While 5 years of vegetation suppression increased yields, in several cases the improved yields did not overcome intensive early-rotation costs; the rate of yield increase (plus any stumpage price increase) was less than the discount rate at 5%. On a 29-year rotation, increased discount rates increasingly favored treatments with fewer costs. Pre-commercial thinning increased the proportion of sawtimber, but it did not enhance financial performance of the vegetation suppression treatments.
Effects of probiotics on apoptosis and proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells in rats with necrotizing enterocolitis

Objective To study the effect of compound Lactobacillus acidophilus on the apoptosis of intestinal epithelial cells and expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in rats with necrotizing enterocolitis, so as to provide some theoretical reference for the application of compound Lactobacillus acidophilus in the prevention and treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis(NEC) for newborn infants. Methods Thirty-six 48-hour old newborn SD rats were randomly divided into normal group, model group and intervention group, with 12 rats in each group.The NEC model was established by hypoxia and cold stimulation for 3 days, and the intervention group was given the compound Lactobacillus acidophilus at the same time; after the model was established, all the rats were sacrificed after 12 hours of fasting and their intestinal tissues were excised by terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl transferase mediated nick end labeling (TUNEL) method to determine the condition of apoptosis and to detect expression of the PCNA gene in the intestinal tissues by fluorescent quantitative PCR. Results (1) The apoptosis rates of the intestinal tissues: in the model group, the normal group and the intervention group were (88.33±2.77)%, (4.75±0.75)% and (44.41±4.81)%, respectively, and the differences had statistical significance(all P<0.05). (2) The PCNA expression in the intestinal tissue by real-time PCR in the model group, normal group and intervention group were (9.28±3.26)×10-4, (15.35±1.91)×10-4 and (12.09±3.06)×10-4, respectively, and the differences had statistical significance(all P<0.05). Conclusions The apoptosis rate of intestinal epithelial cells increases and PCNA expression decreases when NEC occurs.Compound Lactobacillus acidophilus can reduce apoptosis, promote intestinal epithelial cell proliferation, and thus help to reduce the risk and severity of NEC in neonatal rats. Key words: Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis; Apoptosis; Proliferating cell nuclear antigen; Compound Lactobacillus acidophilus
Comparison of anaesthetic- and seizure-induced states of unconsciousness: a narrative review.

Summary In order to understand general anaesthesia and certain seizures, a fundamental understanding of the neurobiology of unconsciousness is needed. This review article explores similarities in neuronal and network changes during general anaesthesia and seizure-induced unconsciousness. Both seizures and anaesthetics cause disruption in similar anatomical structures that presumably lead to impaired consciousness. Despite differences in behaviour and mechanisms, both of these conditions are associated with disruption of the functionality of subcortical structures that mediate neuronal activity in the frontoparietal cortex. These areas are all likely to be involved in maintaining normal consciousness. An assessment of the similarities in the brain network disruptions with certain seizures and general anaesthesia might provide fresh insights into the mechanisms of the alterations of consciousness seen in these particular unconscious states, allowing for innovative therapies for seizures and the development of anaesthetic approaches targeting specific networks.
Travel behavior as a driver of attitude: Car use and car pride in U.S. cities

Abstract Individuals attribute social status and personal image to owning and using a car (‘car pride’), which may interact with their travel behavior in complex ways. This study explores the multi-directional relations among car pride, car ownership, and car use for a sample of 1236 adult commuters in New York City, NY and Houston, TX. Applying multivariate structural equation modeling and incorporating instrumental variables, we find evidence of a feedback loop among car pride, car ownership, and car use. Our results suggest that an individual with higher car pride is more likely to own a vehicle, and, enabled with this ownership, use it more frequently. And individuals who use their car more frequently are likely to feel more pride in owning and using their vehicle. This exploration of causal multi-directionality in transportation attitude-behavior relations has important implications for behavioral research, model development, and policy interventions. For researchers, potential bidirectionality must be anticipated from the outset of research design and accounted for appropriately in modeling to address underlying endogeneity. For policymakers, our results suggest that there are multiple intervention points within the reinforcing cycle of attitudes and car consumption. Policies could directly target car ownership and use or could consider influencing behavior through attitude change.