cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An agent-based model contrasts opposite effects of dynamic and stable microtubules on cleavage furrow positioning

From experiments by Foe and von Dassow (Foe, V.E., and G. von Dassow. 2008. J. Cell Biol. 183:457–470) and others, we infer a molecular mechanism for positioning the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis. Computer simulations reveal how this mechanism depends on quantitative motor-behavior details and explore how robustly this mechanism succeeds across a range of cell sizes. The mechanism involves the MKLP1 (kinesin-6) component of centralspindlin binding to and walking along microtubules to stimulate cortical contractility where the centralspindlin complex concentrates. The majority of astral microtubules are dynamically unstable. They bind most MKLP1 and suppress cortical Rho/myosin II activation because the tips of unstable microtubules usually depolymerize before MKLP1s reach the cortex. A subset of astral microtubules stabilizes during anaphase, becoming effective rails along which MKLP1 can actually reach the cortex. Because stabilized microtubules aim statistically at the equatorial spindle midplane, that is where centralspindlin accumulates to stimulate furrow formation.
Family management of schizophrenia: a comparison of behavioral and supportive family treatment.

This paper reports a comparison of behavioral and supportive family treatment for family management of schizophrenia. The family project applied two psychoeducational approaches to a highly “treatment resistant” population of young adults afflicted with chronic mental illness. The study compares and contrasts the effects of behavioral and supportive family management programs on clinical outcomes. Clinical improvements were associated with both family interventions. Discussion is provided on the relevance of this work to the growing body of evidence concerning the efficacy of psychoeducational family intervention for the management of schizophrenia.
A Comparative Timeline: Spielrein, Freud, and Jung

This timeline shows the development of Spielrein’s life and works, alongside parallel developments of Freud and Jung, including brief mention of key works and other historical figures within the history of psychoanalysis. Titles of Spielrein’s works have been translated by the author.
Pagan and Judeo-Christian Time-Keeping Schemes in Gal 4.10 and Col 2.16

Exegetes often cite the list in Gal 4.10 (⋯μέρας κα⋯ μ⋯νας κα⋯ καιροὺς κα⋯ ⋯νιαυτούς days and months and seasons and years) as parallel in content and function to the list in Col 2.16 (⋯ορτ⋯ς ἤ νeομηνίας ἤ σαββάτων a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths). J. B. Lightfoot provides the most extensive explanation of the content and function of these lists, and he reaches two conclusions that permeate the exegetical tradition of these two verses. First, he concludes that the content of the list in Galatians describes a Jewish timekeeping scheme since the list in Colossians clearly does so. His rationale is strengthened by Paul's polemic against the Judaizers in Galatians. Second, he deduces that the Colossian list functions to describe the non-Christian practices of the opponents since the list in Galatians is clearly a non-Christian temporal scheme that should be rejected.
Effects of Major Capsid Proteins, Capsid Assembly, and DNA Cleavage/Packaging on the pUL17/pUL25 Complex of Herpes Simplex Virus 1

The UL17 and UL25 proteins (pUL17 and pUL25, respectively) of herpes simplex virus 1 are located at the external surface of capsids and are essential for DNA packaging and DNA retention in the capsid, respectively. The current studies were undertaken to determine whether DNA packaging or capsid assembly affected the pUL17/pUL25 interaction. We found that pUL17 and pUL25 coimmunoprecipitated from cells infected with wild-type virus, whereas the major capsid protein VP5 (encoded by the UL19 gene) did not coimmunoprecipitate with these proteins under stringent conditions. In addition, pUL17 (i) coimmunoprecipitated with pUL25 in the absence of other viral proteins, (ii) coimmunoprecipitated with pUL25 from lysates of infected cells in the presence or absence of VP5, (iii) did not coimmunoprecipitate efficiently with pUL25 in the absence of the triplex protein VP23 (encoded by the UL18 gene), (iv) required pUL25 for proper solubilization and localization within the viral replication compartment, (v) was essential for the sole nuclear localization of pUL25, and (vi) required capsid proteins VP5 and VP23 for nuclear localization and normal levels of immunoreactivity in an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Proper localization of pUL25 in infected cell nuclei required pUL17, pUL32, and the major capsid proteins VP5 and VP23, but not the DNA packaging protein pUL15. The data suggest that VP23 or triplexes augment the pUL17/pUL25 interaction and that VP23 and VP5 induce conformational changes in pUL17 and pUL25, exposing epitopes that are otherwise partially masked in infected cells. These conformational changes can occur in the absence of DNA packaging. The data indicate that the pUL17/pUL25 complex requires multiple viral proteins and functions for proper localization and biochemical behavior in the infected cell.
Changes in the Care of Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer After Audit and Feedback: The Florida Initiative for Quality Cancer Care

This study is among the first to report on the use of audit and feedback to improve medical oncology practices specifically for the processes of care in NSCLC. A modest but important improvement was observed between 2006 and 2009.
Substituted Molecular p-Dopants: A Theoretical Study

Conductivity dopants with processing properties suitable for industrial applications are of importance to the organic electronics field. However, the number of commercially available organic molecular dopants is limited. The electron acceptor 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8,-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ) is the most utilized P-dopant; however, it has high volatility and a poor sticking coefficient, which makes it difficult to control doping levels and prevent vacuum system contamination. A design concept for P-type molecular dopants based on the TCNQ core which are substituted to improve processing properties without sacrificing the electronic properties necessary is presented. The correlation between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy and the position of substitution as well as the choice of linker is evaluated. The position of substitution as well as the choice of linker has a significant effect on the electronic properties. However, the geometry of the substituted molecules was not significantly distorted from that of the parent F4-TCNQ, and the electron density was delocalized on the TCNQ core. We also put forward four possible molecular dopants with suitable energy levels.
Ca2+ measurements in skinned cardiac fibers: effects of Mg2+ on Ca2+ activation of force and fiber ATPase

In contrast to previous studies, a new fluorescent method was used to accurately determine the Ca2+ concentration in test solutions used to activate skinned rat cardiac cells. This method used the calcium green-2 fluorescent indicator, which is shown to change its fluorescence over the Ca2+ range responsible for Ca2+ activation of force and ATPase. The dissociation constant ( K d) of calcium green-2 for Ca2+ was determined for three different Mg2+ concentrations in solutions similar to those used in the experiment. Increasing Mg2+ concentration from 1.0 to 8.0 mM had no significant effect on the Ca2+sensitivity of either force or actomyosin ATPase activity, in contrast to previous reported studies on force. The ATPase activity was activated at lower Ca2+ concentration than the force. The ratio (ATPase/force) is proportional to the dissociation rate of force-generating myosin cross bridges and decreased during Ca2+ activation. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cardiac muscle contraction is activated by a single Ca2+-specific binding site on troponin C.
Reasons for non-adherence to nicotine patch therapy during the first month of a quit attempt.

Summary Introduction Prior research has shown that the transdermal nicotine patch is a safe and effective aid to smoking cessation, but adherence to the directed use of the nicotine patch is often low. Few studies have examined participant-reported reasons for non-adherence to nicotine patch therapy during a quit attempt. Aims The aim of this study was to evaluate adherence to nicotine patch therapy and to identify participant-reported reasons for non-adherence. Methods Participants were 201 current daily smokers who were offered 6-weekly group treatment sessions and were asked to report nicotine patch use and barriers to use. Results Seventy-one (35.3%) participants were adherent for the first 28 days of treatment and 130 (64.7%) participants were non-adherent. Commonly reported reasons for non-adherence were forgetting to put the patch on (30%), not liking the experienced side effects (15%), resuming smoking (10%) and difficulty affording the cost of the patches (7%). Conclusions Participant- reported barriers to adherence of nicotine patch therapy can be mitigated with advice from healthcare providers. Some examples of advice to patients could include carrying an extra patch, using community resources to obtain free or reduced cost nicotine patches, reviewing the effectiveness of nicotine replacement, and explaining side effects associated with the use of the nicotine patch.
Colonic myoelectric activity in the irritable bowel syndrome.

Although the irritable bowel syndrome has been characterized as an abnormality incolonic motor activity occurring in response to certain stimuli, the etiology of this abnormality is unclear. The purpose of this study was to compare colonic myoelectric and motor activity in normal subjects and in patients with the irritable bowel syndrome. Myoelectric activity was recorded using a bipolar electrode clipped to the mucosa of the rectal and rectosigmoid areas. Basic electrical rhythm (BER), spike potential activity, and intraluminal pressure were recorded in both groups. Two types of BER were observed. The major component of the BER had a frequency of approximately 6 cycles per min, whereas the minor component had a frequency of approximately 3 cycles per min. Although both types of BER were recorded in the two groups, the slower-frequency BER was increased in the patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The 3 cycles per min activity was present as 44.1 ± 1.3% of the total BER in the irritable bowel syndrome, as compared with 10.0 ± 1.6% in the normal group (P
The Effect of Reworking Exam Problems on Problem-Solving Performance in a Circuit Analysis Course: An Exploratory Study

In foundational knowledge engineering courses, students engage in problem solving in order to learn important course concepts. To help in this process, students receive feedback on their performance from the instructor. This paper explores an alternative to instructor-provided feedback: a semi-structured assignment in which students reworked problems they failed to solve correctly on a midterm exam for credit. The assignment required students to provide a correct solution to the problem and identify both mathematical and conceptual errors made in the initial solution. The initial results show that students who completed this assignment were able to apply course concepts in analysis and reasoning questions more accurately than students who received exam feedback from the instructor. In addition, these students showed a marked improvement in their ability to solve problems common in a Circuit Analysis course. These results show that such semi-structured assignments can replace instructor-provided feedback in large-enrollment classes and lead to improved problem solving.
A study of ergodicity and redundancy based on intersymbol correlation of finite range

Some of the basic concepts of information theory are critically reviewed in the light of a generalized formulation of the theory of Markoff's chains, in which the initial and final states are sequences of symbols of different lengths, and occurrence of symbols is governed by inter-symbol correlation probability of finite range. In particular, the conditions of ergodicity and the structure of "ergodic subsets" of sequences of arbitrary length are carefully discussed. A mathematical method is developed to determine the "range" and "strength" of inter-symbol correlation. A brief summary of the content is given at the end of Section 1.
Cross-Protection Against Fowl Cholera Disease with the Use of Recombinant Pasteurella multocida FHAB2 Peptides Vaccine

SUMMARY. It has been demonstrated that fhaB2 (filamentous hemagglutinin) is an important virulence factor for Pasteurella multocida in development of fowl cholera disease and that vaccination with recombinant FHAB2 peptides derived from P. multocida, P-1059 (serotype A:3) protects turkeys against P-1059 challenge. Here the hypothesis that vaccination with the same rFHAB2 peptides could cross-protect turkeys against challenge with P. multocida χ73 (serotype A:1) was examined. Three rFHAB2 peptides were purified and pooled, and two doses, consisting of equal amounts of each, were administered subcutaneously to turkeys at 2-wk intervals. Simultaneously, control birds were administered sham inoculations. One week later, vaccinates and controls were challenged intranasally with P-1059 or χ73. The results showed vaccination with rFHAB2 peptides significantly protected turkeys against lethal challenge from both P. multocida serotypes (P < 0.01). The high degree of FHAB2 conservation across serotypes likely allow...
Core as a Novel Viral Target for Hepatitis C Drugs

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects over 130 million people worldwide and is a major cause of liver disease. No vaccine is available. Novel specific drugs for HCV are urgently required, since the standard-of-care treatment of pegylated interferon combined with ribavirin is poorly tolerated and cures less than half of the treated patients. Promising, effective direct-acting drugs currently in the clinic have been described for three of the ten potential HCV target proteins: NS3/NS4A protease, NS5B polymerase and NS5A, a regulatory phosphoprotein. We here present core, the viral capsid protein, as another attractive, non-enzymatic target, against which a new class of anti-HCV drugs can be raised. Core plays a major role in the virion’s formation, and interacts with several cellular proteins, some of which are involved in host defense mechanisms against the virus. This most conserved of all HCV proteins requires oligomerization to function as the organizer of viral particle assembly. Using core dimerization as the basis of transfer-of-energy screening assays, peptides and small molecules were identified which not only inhibit core-core interaction, but also block viral production in cell culture. Initial chemical optimization resulted in compounds active in single digit micromolar concentrations. Core inhibitors could be used in combination with other HCV drugs in order to provide novel treatments of Hepatitis C.
Empathy and the “other”: Challenging U. S. Jewish ideology

During the past thirty years, dramatic changes have occurred in the politics and discourse regarding the conflicts in the Middle East. U. S. Jewish support for negotiations requires substantial changes in ideology, identity, and discourse. This essay examines a portion of progressive or liberal U. S. Jewish discourse to better understand how ideology structures social practices. A critical rhetorical position is enacted to examine how challenges to ideological tenets require both a self‐reflexive re‐examination of identity and a genuine empathy with the “Other.” In addition, focusing on identity and empathy more completely fulfills the promise of the critical rhetoric/vernacular discourse projects.
Fostering integrative community leadership

Abstract This longitudinal field study examined the determinants of integrative, volunteer community leadership. Using a sample of 1443 participants in 43 community leadership programs across North America, we linked altruistic, social- and self-oriented motives to the breadth of individuals' volunteer involvement in their communities. Individuals who engaged in volunteer community leadership reported more altruistic motives (i.e., they volunteered because they were concerned about others). High levels of voluntary community leadership were also associated with social motives, such as getting involved in the community because friends or important others think doing so is important. Regardless of their motives, participants engaged in their communities in new ways following participation in a community leadership program, suggesting that such programs foster integrative community leadership. Programs that focused on team building as part of their curriculum were the most successful in fostering new community leadership activities, and programs that focused on knowledge and awareness of the community were effective in increasing participants' knowledge and awareness of the community. Considered as a whole, results of this study suggest that community leadership programs can increase both knowledge and awareness of the community and actual engagement in the community for community members who choose to participate in such programs.
Group-based key pre-distribution in wireless sensor networks

Many key pre-distribution techniques have been developed recently to establish pairwise keys for wireless sensor networks. To further improve these schemes, researchers have proposed to take advantage of sensors' expected locations to help pre-distributing keying materials. However, it is usually very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to guarantee the knowledge of sensors' expected locations. In order to remove the dependency on expected locations, this paper proposes a practical deployment model, where sensor nodes are deployed in groups, and the nodes in the same group are close to each other after the deployment. Based on this model, the paper develops a novel group-based key pre-distribution framework, which can be combined with any of existing key pre-distribution techniques. A distinguishing property of this framework is that it does not require the knowledge of sensors' expected locations and greatly simplifies the deployment of sensor networks. The analysis also shows that the framework can substantially improve the security as well as the performance of existing key pre-distribution techniques.
Gesture Recognition Techniques in Handwriting Recognition Application

Handwriting-gesture recognition has been widely implemented in handwriting input application. Usually, gestures are used to conduct edit operations or be set as short-cut of an application. In this paper, we compare several handwriting-gesture recognition methods, and address their different user cases. These methods include pixel-matching method, rule based method and discriminant-function based method. For discriminant-function based method, we describe 2 sub-methods. They are prototypes based method and training based method. We not only analyze recognition accuracy of gestures for these methods, but also analyze their distinguished capability when recognizing gestures and alphanumeric in same recognizing mode. Experiments results show that, if the gesture-samples are enough, training based method achieves the highest accuracy. Furthermore, when recognizing mixed input of gestures and other handwriting symbols, training based method almost doesn’t degrade accuracy of these symbols.
Physiological and subjective sexual arousal in pre- and postmenopausal women and postmenopausal women taking replacement therapy.

Twenty premenopausal, 14 postmenopausal, and 14 postmenopausal women receiving replacement estrogen therapy were studied to determine whether differences in hormone status were associated with differences in physiological and subjective sexual responses. All subjects viewed a neutral, an erotic, and a second neutral videotape while photoplethysmographic vaginal pulse amplitude was continuously recorded. Self-report ratings of sexual arousal and affective response were collected. Serum levels of testosterone, estradiol, estrone, and luteinizing hormone were obtained. The three groups did not differ in either average or maximum vaginal pulse amplitude to the videotapes nor in latency of sexual response. The postmenopausal women not taking replacement estrogen reported significantly less vaginal lubrication in response to the erotic videotape than the higher estrogen premenopausal and replacement hormone groups. Estradiol level was significantly correlated with ratings of vaginal lubrication in response to the erotic videotape but not with vaginal pulse amplitude. Results thus suggest that estrogen is important in maintaining vaginal lubrication and the perception of sexual arousal but not in determining vaginal vasocongestion.
Adaptive expert control

Fuzzy controllers can be made to adapt to changing process and environment dynamics. This paper presents one methodology to adapt the initial knowledge base to changing operating conditions. The membership functions of the process controller output are adjusted in response to future or past performance of the control system. A linearized process model is identified on-line and is used to predict the future performance of the controller. This performance index is used to adapt the controller as long as the identified process model is statistically reliable. If the process model is considered unreliable, then an index related to the past performance of the controller is used to make the adjustments,
Importance of Direct Spray and Spray Residue Contact for Infection of Trichoplusia ni Larvae by Field Applications of Beauveria bassiana

Commercial formulations and unformulated conidia of Beauveria bassiana strain GHA were applied to field-grown plants and artificially infested with Trichoplusia ni (Hubner) larvae to compare the relative insecticidal activity resulting from direct spray contact with insecticidal activity due to contact with dry spray residue. In general, applications to cabbage, Brassica oleracea L., resulted in nearly equal mortalities when comparing insects exposed to direct spray contact with those exposed by spray residue, suggesting a potential benefit by improving formulations to extend residual activity. For applications to beans, Phaseolus vulgaris L., direct spray contact provided significant insect mortality, but mortality due to residual contact was generally not different than the untreated control. In contrast to the differences observed for larvae exposed in the field, larvae exposed in laboratory bioassays to leaf disks collected from the same treated cabbage and bean plants (residual contact exposure) resulted in nearly identical mortalities. Field applications of Beauveria showed rapid loss of activity, expressed as a loss of conidia viability and loss of insecticidal activity during the first 8 h after application. Evidence of significant mortality by residual contact and the rapid loss of insecticidal activity with field exposure support additional research to improve formulations to extend the residual activity of fungal biopesticides.
Characterization of Polymeric Foams under Multi-Axial Static and Dynamic Loading

An orthotropic polymeric foam with transverse isotropy (Divinycell H250) used in composite sandwich structures was characterized under multi-axial quasi-static and dynamic loading. Quasi-static tests were conducted along principal material axes as well as along off-axis directions under tension, compression, and shear. An optimum specimen aspect ratio of 10 was selected based on finite element analysis. Stress-controlled and strain-controlled experiments were conducted. The former yielded engineering material constants such as Young’s and shear moduli and Poisson’s ratios; the latter yielded mathematical stiffness constants, i. e., Cij. Intermediate strain rate tests were conducted in a servohydraulic machine. High strain rate tests were conducted using a split Hopkinson Pressure Bar system built for the purpose. This SHPB system was made of polymeric (polycarbonate) bars. The polycarbonate material has an impedance that is closer to that of foam than metals. The system was analyzed and calibrated to account for the viscoelastic response of its bars. Material properties of the foam were obtained at three strain rates, quasi-static (10-4 s-1), intermediate (1 s-1 ), and high (103 s-1 ) strain rates.
Determining the effects of felling method and season of year on the regeneration of short rotation coppice

There is increasing interest in plantations with the objective of producing biomass for energy and fuel. These types of plantations are called Short Rotation Woody Crops (SRWC). Popular SRWC species are Eucalypt (Eucalyptus spp.), Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) and Willow (Salix spp.). These species have in common strong growth rates, the ability to coppice, and rotations of 2–10 years. SRWC have generated interest for many forest products’ companies (seeking for diversification or energy self-sufficiency) and private landowners, and although they might help with the supply for the expected growth on the bioenergy and biofuels market, there are still several concerns about how and when to harvest SRWC to maximize their ability to coppice. SRWC have elevated establishment and maintenance costs if compared to other type of plantations, but due to the coppicing ability, the same plantation may be harvested up to 5 times without the need of establishing a new one. Study plots were installed at six locations in Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas, and were cut with a chainsaw and a shear head during summer and winter, to determine the effects of felling method and season on coppice regeneration. Thus, plots were divided into areas of four different treatments: shear-winter, saw-winter, shear-summer, saw-summer. Harvesting eucalypt and cottonwood trees during winter resulted in better survival rates than harvesting during summer; however, there was no effect of felling method on coppice regeneration. Finally, no statistically significant difference was found on coppice regeneration of black willow when harvested during winter or summer with a chainsaw or a shear head.
Facet Formation on Single Crystal TiO2 Surfaces Studied by Atomic Force Microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) have been used to study the faceting behavior on (001) and (100) surfaces of a TiO2 single crystal. On the TiO2 (001) surface, LEED patterns characteristic of {011} facet planes develop after annealing below 900 °C in agreement with previous studies, but AFM shows a complex surface morphology consisting of a large distribution of facet sizes and orientations. After annealing at 1300 °C, facets do not form but rather a network of 5 - 30 nm high ridges develops over the entire surface. These ridges may be the result of surface defects produced by changes in bulk stoichiometry during annealing. On the TiO2 (100) surface, facets are also observed after annealing below 900 °C. However, these facets have extremely small height to width aspect ratios and are not discernible with LEED.
Fabrication of ultrathin solid electrolyte membranes of β-Li3PS4 nanoflakes by evaporation-induced self-assembly for all-solid-state batteries

All-solid-state lithium batteries are attractive candidates for next-generation energy storage devices because of their anticipated high energy density and intrinsic safety. Owing to their excellent ionic conductivity and stability with metallic lithium anodes, nanostructured lithium thiophosphate solid electrolytes such as β-Li3PS4 have found use in the fabrication of all-solid lithium batteries for large-scale energy storage systems. However, current methods for preparing air-sensitive solid electrolyte membranes of lithium thiophosphates can only generate thick membranes that compromise the battery's gravimetric/volumetric energy density and thus its rate performance. To overcome this limitation, the solid electrolyte's thickness needs to be effectively decreased to achieve ideal energy density and enhanced rate performance. Herein, we show that the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) technique produces ultrathin membranes of a lithium thiophosphate solid electrolyte with controllable thicknesses between 8 and 50 μm while maintaining the high ionic conductivity of β-Li3PS4 and stability with metallic lithium anodes up to 5 V. It is clearly demonstrated that this facile EISA approach allows for the preparation of ultrathin lithium thiophosphate solid electrolyte membranes for all-solid-state batteries.
Macrovascular Lesions Underlying Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a morbid disease with a high case fatality rate. Prognosis, rehemorrhage rates, and acute, clinical decision making are greatly affected by the underlying etiology of hemorrhage. This review focuses on the evaluation, diagnosis, and management of structural, macrovascular lesions presenting with ICH, including ruptured aneurysms, brain arteriovenous malformations, cranial dural arteriovenous fistulas, and cerebral cavernous malformations.
Spatial and temporal dynamics of ascidian invasions in the continental United States and Alaska

Species introductions have increased dramatically in number, rate, and magnitude of impact in recent decades. In marine systems, invertebrates are the largest and most diverse component of coastal invasions throughout the world. Ascidians are conspicuous and well-studied members of this group, however, much of what is known about their invasion history is limited to particular species or locations. Here, we provide a large-scale assessment of invasions, using an extensive literature review and standardized field surveys, to characterize the invasion dynamics of non-native ascidians in the continental United States and Alaska. Twenty-six non-native ascidian species have established documented populations on the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts (spanning 25–57°N). Invader species richness is greatest for the Pacific coast (19 spp.), followed by the Atlantic (14 spp.) and Gulf (6 spp.) coasts, and decreases towards higher latitudes. Most species (97 %) expanded their range after initial introduction, although the direction and latitudinal extent of secondary spread varied. Temporal analyses, based on literature reported first records and repeated field surveys, show an increase in recorded non-native ascidians at continental, regional, and local scales. Our results underscore that non-native species continue to establish and spread, and the transfer of biofouling organisms on underwater surfaces of vessels is an active and potent vector that remains largely unmanaged. More broadly, we suggest that ascidians provide a tractable and important indicator group for evaluating invasion dynamics and management strategies.
3D printed auto-mixing chip enables rapid smartphone diagnosis of anemia

Clinical diagnosis requiring central facilities and site visits can be burdensome for patients in resource-limited or rural areas. Therefore, development of a low-cost test that utilizes smartphone data collection and transmission would beneficially enable disease self-management and point-of-care (POC) diagnosis. In this paper, we introduce a low-cost iPOC3D diagnostic strategy which integrates 3D design and printing of microfluidic POC device with smartphone-based disease diagnosis in one process as a stand-alone system, offering strong adaptability for establishing diagnostic capacity in resource-limited areas and low-income countries. We employ smartphone output (AutoCAD 360 app) and readout (color-scale analytical app written in-house) functionalities for rapid 3D printing of microfluidic auto-mixers and colorimetric detection of blood hemoglobin levels. The auto-mixing of reagents with blood via capillary force has been demonstrated in 1 second without the requirement of external pumps. We employed ...
Acute Cellular Rejection

Acute cellular rejection (ACR) is the consequence of an immune response of the host against the kidney graft. It is clinically suspected in patients experiencing an increase in serum creatinine, after the exclusion of other causes of graft dysfunction (generally with biopsy). Histological analysis of graft biopsy is the gold standard technique to diagnose ACR. However, graft biopsy can recognize the immune reaction only at its later stages, when allograft injury has already been established. Therefore, identification of noninvasive biomarkers capable of identifying early signs of acute rejection represents an area of intense research. ACR is often treatable, but it still represents an adverse risk factor affecting long-term graft survival. The occurrence of ACR episodes in modern transplantation should always elicit a search for underimmunosuppression relative to what is understood as a given recipient’s risk for ACR. Importantly, patient adherence to therapy should be carefully addressed.
Optimal Sequential ALT Plans for Systems With Mixture of One-Shot Units

In this paper, we investigate a system composed of mixtures of one-shot units with nonhomogeneous and time-dependent characteristics. We propose analytical expressions to predict system reliability metrics and consider a physics-statistics-based lifetime model to demonstrate the units’ failure mechanism as well as its failure process uncertainty. We design a sequence of optimum accelerated non-destructive testing (NDT) plans to predict the reliability metrics of the system and show that a well-designed sequential accelerated NDTs is an effective approach to shorten the test duration with negligible consequence on system reliability metrics.
The Impact of Cholecystectomy After Endoscopic Sphincterotomy for Complicated Gallstone Disease

The Impact of Cholecystectomy After Endoscopic Sphincterotomy for Complicated Gallstone Disease
Cavernous sinus compartments from the endoscopic endonasal approach: anatomical considerations and surgical relevance to adenoma surgery

OBJECTIVE Tumors with cavernous sinus (CS) invasion represent a neurosurgical challenge. Increasing application of the endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) requires a thorough understanding of the CS anatomy from an endonasal perspective. In this study, the authors aimed to develop a surgical anatomy-based classification of the CS and establish its utility for preoperative surgical planning and intraoperative guidance in adenoma surgery. METHODS Twenty-five colored silicon-injected human head specimens were used for endonasal and transcranial dissections of the CS. Pre- and postoperative MRI studies of 98 patients with pituitary adenoma with intraoperatively confirmed CS invasion were analyzed. RESULTS Four CS compartments are described based on their spatial relationship with the cavernous ICA: superior, posterior, inferior, and lateral. Each compartment has distinct boundaries and dural and neurovascular relationships: the superior compartment relates to the interclinoidal ligament and oculomotor nerve, the posterior compartment bears the gulfar segment of the abducens nerve and inferior hypophyseal artery, the inferior compartment contains the sympathetic nerve and distal cavernous abducens nerve, and the lateral compartment includes all cavernous cranial nerves and the inferolateral arterial trunk. Twenty-nine patients had a single compartment invaded, and 69 had multiple compartments involved. The most commonly invaded compartment was the superior (79 patients), followed by the posterior (n = 64), inferior (n = 45), and lateral (n = 23) compartments. Residual tumor rates by compartment were 79% in lateral, 17% in posterior, 14% in superior, and 11% in inferior. CONCLUSIONS The anatomy-based classification presented here complements current imaging-based classifications and may help to identify involved compartments both preoperatively and intraoperatively.
The Initial Identification of Tonal Centres in Music

Recent studies of the perception of pitch patterns in music (e.g., Krumhansl, 1979; Deutsch and Feroe, 1981; Cuddy, 1981; Krumhansl and Kessler1) state that tonality recognition is perhaps the most important of the complex perceptual activities that assist listeners in forming mental representations of incoming pitch information. There has been some difficulty,however, in describing precisely those conditions that promote the auditory percept of tonicity, or tonal-centredness, in musical patterns - although it certainly seems that such a description ought to be prerequisite to any musically valid perceptual studies using tonal stimulus patterns, or presenting atonal stimuli to observers reared in an essentially tonal musical culture.
Evaluation and Refinement of Clustered Search Results with the Crowd

When searching on the web or in an app, results are often returned as lists of hundreds to thousands of items, making it difficult for users to understand or navigate the space of results. Research has demonstrated that using clustering to partition search results into coherent, topical clusters can aid in both exploration and discovery. Yet clusters generated by an algorithm for this purpose are often of poor quality and do not satisfy users. To achieve acceptable clustered search results, experts must manually evaluate and refine the clustered results for each search query, a process that does not scale to large numbers of search queries. In this article, we investigate using crowd-based human evaluation to inspect, evaluate, and improve clusters to create high-quality clustered search results at scale. We introduce a workflow that begins by using a collection of well-known clustering algorithms to produce a set of clustered search results for a given query. Then, we use crowd workers to holistically assess the quality of each clustered search result to find the best one. Finally, the workflow has the crowd spot and fix problems in the best result to produce a final output. We evaluate this workflow on 120 top search queries from the Google Play Store, some of whom have clustered search results as a result of evaluations and refinements by experts. Our evaluations demonstrate that the workflow is effective at reproducing the evaluation of expert judges and also improves clusters in a way that agrees with experts and crowds alike.
Model checking büchi pushdown systems

We develop an approach to model checking Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) properties of Buchi Pushdown Systems (BPDS). Such BPDS models are suitable for Hardware/Software (HW/SW) co-verification. Since a BPDS represents the asynchronous transitions between hardware and software, some transition orders are unnecessary to be explored in verification. We design an algorithm to reduce BPDS transition rules, so that these transition orders will not be explored by model checkers. Our reduction algorithm is applied at compile time; therefore, it is also suitable to runtime techniques such as co-simulation. As a proof of concept, we have implemented our approach in our co-verification tool, CoVer. CoVer not only verifies LTL properties on the BPDS models represented by Boolean programs, but also accepts assumptions in LTL formulae. The evaluation demonstrates that our reduction algorithm can reduce the verification cost by 80% in time usage and 35% in memory usage on average.
Genetic Programming for Fingerprint Classification

Henry System is a systematic method for classifying fingerprints into five classes: Right Loop (R), Left Loop (L), Whorl (W), Arch (A), and Tented Arch (T). Figure 5.1 shows an example for each class. This system of fingerprint classification is commonly used by most of the developers and users, although the scheme adopted by the FBI defines eight classes [28].
Does the presence of an implanted cardiac device adversely affect the image quality of clinically indicated magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5t

Results Between November 2003 and February 2014, 1000 consecutive clinically indicated MRI examinations were performed on 569 patients with an implanted cardiac device at a single center. Scan locations included: Brain 315, spine 358, extremities 82, abdomen/pelvis 56, cardiac 24, shoulder 32 (19 left and 13 right), and orbit/face/head/ neck 133. Cardiac device-related imaging artifacts were reported in 1.0% of non-cardiac scans (11 of 976) which included 7 left shoulders scans with an ipsilateral device (4 ICDs/3 pacemakers), 1 right upper extremity scan with a left-sided pacemaker with metallic artifact (and a prosthetic right humeral head), 1 cervical spine scan with a left-sided pacemaker, 1 neck scan with a right-sided ICD, and 1 orbit/face/neck scan with a left-sided ICD. No significant imaging artifacts were noted in 10 of the 16 left shoulder MRI studies (63%) which included 1 contralateral and 9 ipsilateral cardiac device implant positions. Overall, artifacts were most pronounced on gradient echo images. For cardiac scans, 14 of 24 studies (58%) had a devicerelated artifact which precluded full or partial study interpretation (7 pacemakers/7 ICDs), and all had a left-sided device implant. Cardiac 3-D volumetric assessment could not be performed in 8 studies, delayed-enhancement imaging was not possible in 1 study, and image quality was severely limited in 3 additional studies. Two cardiac studies contained an artifact that adversely affected image quality with the requirement for an alternate imaging modality: one standard cardiac study and one cardiac study with aortic angiography.
Optimal post-selection inference for sparse signals: a nonparametric empirical Bayes approach

Many recently developed Bayesian methods have focused on sparse signal detection. However, much less work has been done addressing the natural follow-up question: how to make valid inferences for the magnitude of those signals after selection. Ordinary Bayesian credible intervals suffer from selection bias, owing to the fact that the target of inference is chosen adaptively. Existing Bayesian approaches for correcting this bias produce credible intervals with poor frequentist properties, while existing frequentist approaches require sacrificing the benefits of shrinkage typical in Bayesian methods, resulting in confidence intervals that are needlessly wide. We address this gap by proposing a nonparametric empirical-Bayes approach for constructing optimal selection-adjusted confidence sets. Our method produces confidence sets that are as short as possible on average, while both adjusting for selection and maintaining exact frequentist coverage uniformly over the parameter space. Our main theoretical result establishes an important consistency property of our procedure: that under mild conditions, it asymptotically converges to the results of an oracle-Bayes analysis in which the prior distribution of signal sizes is known exactly. Across a series of examples, the method outperforms existing frequentist techniques for post-selection inference, producing confidence sets that are notably shorter but with the same coverage guarantee.
Comparison of the change in heart failure readmission and mortality rates between hospitals subject to hospital readmission reduction program penalties and critical access hospitals.

Background The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), announced in 2010, penalizes hospitals with high readmissions for multiple conditions including heart failure. Methods We compared heart failure readmission and mortality rates in hospitals exposed to HRRP financial penalties with critical access hospitals (CAHs) not subject to the penalty between 2005 and 2016 using 3-year moving averages from Hospital Compare. Results After HRRP introduction, CAHs experienced a 0.60% annual decrease (95% CI: −0.61 to −0.59%) in heart failure readmissions. HRRP-exposed hospitals experienced an additional 0.13% annual decrease (95% CI: −0.14 to −0.12%) compared with CAHs. The association between HRRP penalties and mortality varied with model specifications. Conclusions Using CAHs as a control group, we found the introduction of financial penalties was only associated with modest reductions in readmissions and an uncertain association with mortality. Cluster-randomized rollouts of health care policy interventions will allow us to better evaluate the impact of our interventions.
Complex immune responses and molecular reactions to pathogens and disease in a desert reptile (Gopherus agassizii)

Immune function plays an important role in an animal's defense against infectious disease. In reptiles, immune responses may be complex and counterintuitive, and diagnostic tools used to identify infection, such as induced antibody responses are limited. Recent studies using gene transcription profiling in tortoises have proven useful in identifying immune responses to various intrinsic and extrinsic stressors. As part of a larger experiment with Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), we facilitated the transmission of the pathogenic bacteria, Mycoplasma agassizii (Myag), to naive adults and measured innate and induced immune reactions over time. Specifically, we evaluated clinical condition, presence of Myag in the nasal/oral cavity, induced antibody responses specific to Myag, and measured molecular reactions (gene transcript profiles) in 15 captive tortoises classified as naive, exposed, or infected and 14 wild tortoises for comparison. Myag was confirmed inside the nasal/oral cavity in exposed tortoises within 30-60 days of introduction to infected animals, yet we did not detect Myag specific induced antibody responses in these individuals until 420-595 days post exposure. Surprisingly, we found no overall differences in the gene transcript profiles between our experimental treatment groups throughout this study. This work highlights the complexities in assessing immune function and diagnosing pathogen related infections in tortoises and other reptiles.
The Analysis of Social Systems

“Stability,” said the Controller, “stability. No civilization without stability. No social stability without individual stability.” His voice was like that of a trumpet. Listening, they felt larger, warmer.
Interferences of hemolysis, lipemia and high bilirubin on laboratory tests

Abstract The integrity of specimens submitted to the clinical laboratory for analysis is a major determinant of the accuracy with which the analyte can be measured, and the subsequent clinical utility of the test result. There are a wide variety of preanalytical factors that can adversely impact the integrity of specimens that are submitted for analysis. The most common preanalytic factor affecting the acceptability of specimens for analysis is the presence of endogenous interfering substances. Endogenous interferences most commonly encountered in the clinical laboratory include the presence of high plasma hemoglobin concentrations, visible turbidity due to the presence of high concentrations of triglycerides, and interference due to high concentrations of bilirubin. Hemolysis, lipemia and icterus can present significant challenges to laboratorians, especially when specimens contain multiple different interfering substances simultaneously. In addition, endogenous interferences may occur only when the analyte that is being measured is at a certain concentration within the specimen. Laboratorians must be familiar with the limitations imposed by endogenous interfering substances and understand their impact on the clinical utility of laboratory tests.