cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inhibitory modulation of distal C-terminal on protein kinase C-dependent phospho-regulation of rat TRPV1 receptors.

The vanilloid receptor TRPV1, previously known as VR1, has been implicated in pain sensation under both physiological and pathological conditions. The channel is highly expressed in sensory ganglion neurones and is activated by a range of noxious stimuli including irritant chemicals, acids and heat. In order to understand the structural basis underlying this polymodal activation and the regulation by intracellular signalling pathways, we have investigated the functional roles of the cytoplasmic C-terminal of rat TRPV1. A mutant with the maximal truncation of the distal C-terminal encompassing the last 88 residues was constructed. Of interest, this mutant exhibited a Ca2+-dependent functional loss; it was irresponsive to capsaicin in the presence of extracellular Ca2+, but fully functional otherwise. Further studies of this construct revealed that extracellular Ca2+ alone could activate the channel, and that the activation required protein kinase C (PKC) phosphorylation at S502, an event that was up-regulated by external Ca2+ entry. We compared the truncation mutant with wild-type TRPV1 and demonstrated that it had a significantly increased sensitivity to PKC phosphorylation. These results suggest the distal C-terminal of TRPV1 can inhibit phosphorylation-induced potentiation of the wild-type channel. They also call into question some established functions of the distal C-terminal of TRPV1, including its roles in agonist binding and functional desensitization. We suggest that the functional loss of the truncation mutant, in the presence of extracellular Ca2+, was not due to disruption of agonist binding or gating, but rather to desensitization promoted by unstimulated extracellular Ca2+ entry.
Genetic variation and selection response to iron deficiency chlorosis in arrowleaf clover 1

Abstract All cultivars of arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum Savi) exhibit symptoms of iron (Fe)‐deficiency chlorosis when grown on calcareous soils. Previous research has shown that arrowleaf clover is adapted to the climatic areas where calcareous soils do occur. Since arrowleaf clover is highly cross‐pollinated, cultivars are made up of heterogeneous populations of plants. When individual seedlings of ‘Yuchi’ arrowleaf clover were grown in the greenhouse in saturated calcareous soils, most seedling expressed severe chlorosis. Resistant (green) plants were retained and intermated through three cycles of recurrent selection for resistance to Fe‐deficiency chlorosis. The frequency of occurrence of resistant plants has been increased by this selection process. Cycle 3 seedlings averaged 44% resistant vs 17% for unselected Yuchi. Highly susceptible seedlings accounted for 16% and 48% of Cycle 3 and Yuchi arrowleaf clover, respectively.
Metastability of hydrogenated amorphous silicon passivation on crystalline silicon and implication to photovoltaic devices

We present experimental evidence that the surface passivation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) by hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is metastable. Photo-conductance decay measurements of the effective minority carrier lifetime in c-Si show that the surface recombination velocity of the carriers at the c-Si/a-Si:H interface is reduced by annealing at temperatures up to ∼ 350°C, but relaxed to higher values after further thermal treatment. The relaxation is thermally activated and faster at higher temperatures. We attribute this phenomenon to the thermal equilibration of charged defects in a-Si:H. Our finding suggests that a-Si:H passivation may require thermal stabilization for realizing reliable photovoltaic devices.
Asymmetric cladding-ridge waveguide laser by selective-area MOCVD

Ridge waveguide lasers with a thin upper cladding layer are fabricated with a two-step selective-area MOCVD growth. The lower cladding, active region, and upper cladding are all grown in the initial MOCVD growth. A second growth over an oxide pattern is used to define the ridge with 0.15 /spl mu/m of GaAs, which serves as both the contact and index increasing layer. Ridge lasers fabricated by this method (3/spl times/425 /spl mu/m) have a cw threshold current of 12.6 mA, slope efficiency of 0.26 W/A, and operate in a fundamental transverse mode as well as stable fundamental lateral mode to 20 times threshold. >
The Geometry of Colorful, Lenticular Fiducial Markers

Understanding the pose of an object is fundamental to a variety of visual tasks, from trajectory estimation of UAVs to object tracking for augmented reality. Fiducial markers are visual targets designed to simplify this process by being easy to detect, recognize, and track. They are often based on features that are partially invariant to lighting, pose and scale. Here we explore the opposite approach and design passive calibration patterns that explicitly change appearance as a function of pose. We propose a new, simple fiducial marker made with a small lenticular array, which changes its apparent color based on the angle at which it is viewed. This allows full six degree-of-freedom pose estimation with just two markers and an optimization that fully decouples the estimate of rotation from translation. We derive the geometric constraints that these fiducial markers provide, and show improved pose estimation performance over standard markers through experiments with a physical prototype for form factors that are not well supported by standard markers (such as long skinny objects). In addition, we experimentally evaluate heuristics and optimizations that give robustness to real-world lighting variations.
Historical-Geographical Materialism

Historical-geographical materialism describes the intellectual project of creating a Marxist science of geography and, simultaneously, of infusing the broader currents of historical and dialectical materialism with explicitly geographical concepts and sensibilities. This article examines the emergence of historical-geographical materialism and its roots in materialist thought, focusing, with particular reference to the seminal work of David Harvey, on the dialectic of labor and nature as well as the production and use of geographical knowledges in capitalist societies. The philosophical premises of materialism are explored, along with Marx's development of historical materialism as a method for the analysis and critique of both idealist philosophy and political economy. The political implications of historical materialism and, in turn, historical-geographical materialism, are also discussed in connection with the rejection of scientific neutrality. It is suggested that historical-geographical materialism today is not characterized by a singular conceptual agenda but rather is reflected in a diversity of Marxist approaches to understanding the geography of production and social reproduction.
Developing Prognostic Models for Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is among the most common lymphomas worldwide, with variable outcome following combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy. For this reason, DLBCL has served as a prototype among lymphomas for developing gene predictors of outcome and therapy response. In this chapter, we review the use of gene expression profiling to discover and validate the outcome predictors in DLBCL. The pathway from marker discovery to routine implementation is discussed, with considerations on use of quantitative transcript profiling by real-time PCR as compared to microarray or immunohistochemistry to look at protein levels.
Early emergence of Yersinia pestis as a severe respiratory pathogen

Yersinia pestis causes the fatal respiratory disease pneumonic plague. Y. pestis recently evolved from the gastrointestinal pathogen Y. pseudotuberculosis; however, it is not known at what point Y. pestis gained the ability to induce a fulminant pneumonia. Here we show that the acquisition of a single gene encoding the protease Pla was sufficient for the most ancestral, deeply rooted strains of Y. pestis to cause pneumonic plague, indicating that Y. pestis was primed to infect the lungs at a very early stage in its evolution. As Y. pestis further evolved, modern strains acquired a single amino-acid modification within Pla that optimizes protease activity. While this modification is unnecessary to cause pneumonic plague, the substitution is instead needed to efficiently induce the invasive infection associated with bubonic plague. These findings indicate that Y. pestis was capable of causing pneumonic plague before it evolved to optimally cause invasive infections in mammals.
Delay time adjustments to minimize errors in breath-by-breath measurement of V˙o 2 during exercise

Proctor, David N., and Kenneth C. Beck. Delay time adjustments to minimize errors in breath-by-breath measurement ofV˙o 2 during exercise.J. Appl. Physiol. 81(6): 2495–2499, 1996.—If the delay time...
Change of Surface Grinding Flaw of β-Sialon with Oxidation and Its Influence on Bending Strength

β-sialon sintered body was fabricated from a spray dried mixture of α-Si3N4 and Al(Oi-Pr)3 solution by hot-pressing. The bending specimens with the size of 3mm×3mm×30mm were ground using a #600 diamond wheel. Change of grinding flaws by oxidation at 1400°C for 100h was observed by an optical microscope. Change of bending strength with oxidation and polishing after oxidation was examined. Grinding flaws consisted of surface flaws with depth of 5μm and cracks with depth of more than 20μm following the flaws. The surface flaws changed to a smooth and dense oxide layer by oxidation. However, the cracks were supposed to remain with the original size even after oxidation, though they were filled with the oxide. The strength of sample after oxidation was about 1000MNm-2, that of sample after removing the oxide layer by polishing was about 1200MNm-2, and that of sample heat treated at 1200°C 2h in air after polishing was about 1400MNm-2, all increased comparing with as-ground sample. These increase of strength was supposed to be a result from the decrease of depth of the cracks as fracture origins. To evaluate essential strength of β-sialon, it is necessary to remove the cracks by polishing or milder machining at least more than 25μm.
Termination of Larval Diapause in the European Elm Bark Beetle

Overwintering larvae of Scolytus multistriatus that had been subjected to artificial and natural cold treatments emerged sooner and more synchronously than did larvae not exposed to subfreezing temperatures. Photoperiod and length of incubation appeared not to influence termination of diapause. Although subfreezing temperatures appeared necessary to bring about a change in diapause state, temperatures as low as −23.5°C resulted in significant mortality. The diam of the host material did not affect emergence pattern but did govern the prevalence of species of hymenopterous parasites and the density of brood adults.
Toxicity to the Codling Moth Larva of Phenothiazine Prepared with Allotropic Forms of Sulfur

Phenothiazine was first prepared for use as a possible insecticide in 1934. Since that time the compound has been extensively tested against various species of insects. In the course of this work entomologists have observed that their results varied markedly from season to season with different lots of the compound prepared commercially. In the hope of finding a possible explanation of these differences, comparative tests were made with phenothiazine prepared in the regular manner using amorphous sulfur, crystalline sulfur, and equal proportions of the two forms. Commercial sulfur was extracted by means of carbon disulfide. The residue from this extraction was regarded as amorphous. That portion soluble in carbon disulfide on evaporation of the solvent yielded crystalline material. These two fractions were used in this study.
Signals or Noise?: The Influence of Judicial Ideology and Public Opinion on Supreme Court Affirmances

The tension between democratic values and the practice of judicial review remains an enduring problem in American political theory. Political science research showing consistency between public mood and Supreme Court decision-making has provided important empirical evidence that bears on this normative dilemma. This body of evidence has expanded rapidly in recent years as scholars have focused their attention on cases which result in reversals of lower court decisions. However, we argue that excluding affirmances from analyses of judicial behavior may bias estimates of the effects of public opinion on judicial behavior. Moreover, the remaining set of decisions — those affirming lower court rulings — are systematically related to justices’ attitudes and public opinion, albeit in ways that are different from reversals. We test these expectations in a series of dynamics models of the volume of Supreme Court liberalism from 1956 through 2009, finding support for our theoretical expectations.
Study on Microstructure & Hardness Test of SA182F91 Steel Forgings for 600 MW Unit & its Treatment

Whether steal performance can satisfy the requirements of real application is important for the safe and stable operation of power generation equipment.The microstructure of transition section at steam inlet side of H91002 blockage valve is found to be improper when quality monitoring is conducted prior to the erection of SA182F91 steel forgings for 600 MW Unit in certain power plant.Therefore,analysis and study are conducted to the microstructure and hardness.The normal structure of SA182F91 steel under heat treatment condition is fine tempering lath martensite with the hardness from 180 to 250 HB.When manufacturing technology is improper,the structure shall shows itself the phenomenon of massive ferrite and low hardness.The application of optimal manufacturing technology,proper normalizing tempering heal treatment can effectively improve the steel structure and performance.
Using satellite-derived optical thickness to assess the influence of clouds on terrestrial carbon uptake

Clouds scatter direct solar radiation, generating diffuse radiation and altering the ratio of direct to diffuse light. If diffuse light increases plant canopy CO2 uptake, clouds may indirectly influence climate by altering the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, past research primarily uses proxies or qualitative categories of clouds to connect the effect of diffuse light on CO2 uptake to sky conditions. We mechanistically link and quantify effects of cloud optical thickness (τc) to surface light and plant canopy CO2 uptake by comparing satellite retrievals of τc to ground-based measurements of diffuse and total photosynthetically active radiation (PAR; 400–700 nm) and gross primary production (GPP) in forests and croplands. Overall, total PAR decreased with τc, while diffuse PAR increased until an average τc of 6.8 and decreased with larger τc. When diffuse PAR increased with τc, 7–24% of variation in diffuse PAR was explained by τc. Light-use efficiency (LUE) in this range increased 0.001–0.002 per unit increase in τc. Although τc explained 10–20% of the variation in LUE, there was no significant relationship between τc and GPP (p > 0.05) when diffuse PAR increased. We conclude that diffuse PAR increases under a narrow range of optically thin clouds and the dominant effect of clouds is to reduce total plant-available PAR. This decrease in total PAR offsets the increase in LUE under increasing diffuse PAR, providing evidence that changes within this range of low cloud optical thickness are unlikely to alter the magnitude of terrestrial CO2 fluxes.
Preparing digital mammography images for interpretation

Introduction The basic advantages and disadvantages of digital mammography and the relevant technology are discussed in other chapters of this book. Results of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST), released in September 2005, show that digital mammography may be more accurate at detecting breast cancer in some women than standard film-screen mammography [1,2]. In that study, digital and standard film-screen mammography had similar accuracy for many women. However, digital mammography was significantly better at screening women younger than 50 years, regardless of their breast tissue density, and women of any age with very dense or extremely dense breasts. In this context, the significant advantages of digital mammography for image interpretation include the following: physician manipulation of breast images for more accurate detection of breast cancer ability to correct underexposure or overexposure of images without having to repeat the mammogram transmittal of images over a network for remote consultation with other physicians The primary focus of this chapter is post-processing of raw digital mammography images for interpretation, including digital mammography display, and comparison with prior mammography studies, including analog (film-screen or digitized) mammography studies.
Axon regeneration in C. elegans: Worming our way to mechanisms of axon regeneration

How axons repair themselves after injury is a fundamental question in neurobiology. With its conserved genome, relatively simple nervous system, and transparent body, C. elegans has recently emerged as a productive model to uncover the cellular mechanisms that regulate and execute axon regeneration. In this review, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the C. elegans model of regeneration. We explore the technical advances that enable the use of C. elegans for in vivo regeneration studies, review findings in C. elegans that have contributed to our understanding of the regeneration response across species, discuss the potential of C. elegans research to provide insight into mechanisms that function in the injured mammalian nervous system, and present potential future directions of axon regeneration research using C. elegans.
Linear cryptanalysis of a survivable data transmission mechanism for sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are being used in a wide range of application areas, such as national security, attack and disaster preparation and response, military surveillance, and medical care. All these applications require a certain level of reliability and security during data transmission. Data loss or corruption in WSN may be due to hardware failures, wireless channel noises, or malicious attacks. To overcome all these inevitable factors, we have recently presented a selective hybrid cipher (SHC) based algorithm that integrates selective encryption and forward error correction codes for achieving simultaneously secure and reliable data transmission in resource-constrained WSN. In this work, we implement an instance of the SHC-based data transmission mechanism using AES and Reed-Solomon codes, and analyze its security property using the linear cryptanalysis (LC) technique. The LC analysis results of the SHC-based algorithm are compared with those of the traditional DES and AES algorithms. Comparison results show that the SHC design has inherent LC attack resistance and is stronger than DES. The results also show that the proposed SHC-based mechanism can provide security-level that is comparable to AES with the improvement in computational complexity and reduction in energy consumption.
Improved THz emission in c-plane InGaN due to polarization charges at the InGaN/GaN interface

There has been great progress recently in the intensity of broadband Terahertz (THz) signals utilizing surface and field effects from semiconductor materials. Typically, the Photo-Dember effect combined with optical rectification in such materials as GaAs or InAs generates the most intense broadband THz radiation from contactless THz emitters [1]. There still exists room for improvement in terms of THz emitter intensities, and several novel structures have been proposed and fabricated which include the use of large internal electric fields in polar and non-polar semiconductors as well as multiple quantum well structures, all of which show enhanced THz emission over prior materials [2–4]. Nitride semiconductors, which have both a piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization due to its wurtzite crystal structure, can have an order of magnitude larger internal electric field in e.g. InGaN/GaN MQWs than previous THz emitters utilizing piezoelectric fields to generate drift currents such as in InGaAs/GaAs MQWs [4]. It has been predicted that InGaN/GaN heterostructures with much thicker InGaN layers could be used to further enhance THz emission through large internal electric fields and high electron mobility [5]. In this paper we demonstrate that the polarization field in an InGaN/GaN surface heterostructure can be exploited for the enhancement of THz generation, and additionally opens up the possibility of tuning the band gap to wavelengths compatible with excitation by femtosecond fiber lasers.
Beyond Shadowing: Providing Meaningful Clinical Experiences for Early Clinical Learners.

Early in medical school, medical students traditionally received little instruction in patient care settings. The transition to clinical instruction was often abrupt. Kolb's model of experiential learning states that “learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” 1 This belief that learning best occurs in the setting of experiences, not a vacuum, is consistent with the recent national push towards including more clinical experiences earlier in the course of medical education. In order to help better develop students’ ability to function. effectively in the clinical settings, we suggest going “beyond shadowing” during early clinical experiences. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Controlled mesoporous film formation from the deposition of electrosprayed nanoparticles

ABSTRACTThin films of controlled morphology were fabricated by electrospray drying a colloidal nanoparticle suspension using a conductive and volatile solvent and impacting the nanoparticles on a substrate. Three parameters were used for control: impact velocity, size of the nanoparticles or nanoparticle agglomerates, and solvent volatility. The impact velocity was controlled by charging nanoparticles through electrospray dispersion and varying the electric field driving the particle impaction. It was found that the structure is governed by the relative importance of charged particle drift imposed by the external electric field and the thermal velocity due to Brownian motion. Peclet number correlates with the morphology of the deposit where columnar structures result from high Pe, corresponding to ballistic deposition and porous, fractal-like structures result from small Pe. These patterns match predictions based on Monte Carlo simulations in the literature. For dispersions with higher nanoparticle concen...
Full-Wave Electromagnetic Scattering From Rough Surfaces With Buried Inhomogeneities

We develop a methodology for modeling coherent electromagnetic scattering from rough surfaces with buried inhomogeneities in three dimensions. The inhomogeneities considered in this paper include random spherical media, random cylindrical media, and root-like cylindrical clusters. They are used to simulate rocks, ice particles, and vegetation roots buried beneath the ground surface that can be seen by the low-frequency radars in Earth remote sensing applications. The approach we develop first calculates volumetric scattering from the media using coherent approaches, including both the conventional recursive transition matrix (T-matrix) method as well as a new generalized iterative extended boundary condition method we developed for tilted finite cylinders, and then transforms the T-matrix to the scattering matrix, which is then used to form the full scattered field of layered structures with rough surface and subsurfaces. We validate the methodology by comparing with other numerical solutions for special cases, and show sensitivity results for scattering from rough surface with buried random spherical media and random cylindrical media of different densities. We also construct a basic root model and calculate the scattering cross sections from single and multiple root clusters with or without a subsurface interface underneath. With the approach developed in this paper, we are able to study the sensitivity of radar signals to subsurface scatterers. For example, our simulations show that, depending on their density and water content, buried roots could enhance the backscatter from a single rough surface by as much as 5 dB in co-pol components, and substantially more in cross-pol components. The results of this model are expected to enable more accurate geophysical retrievals of soil moisture as well as soil organic content.
Simultaneous CO 2 -EOR and Storage Projects

Majority of currently operational large-scale integrated carbon capture and storage projects (LSIPs) are in the USA and Canada. This demonstrates the leadership of the North American petroleum industry in successful implementation of geologic CO2 storage technology via simultaneous CO2-EOR and storage strategy. These LSIPs mainly utilize anthropogenic CO2 captured at the natural gas processing plant used by the petroleum industry for processing the natural gas resulting from its routine oil and gas extraction operations. Other oil producing countries such Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Brazil are also following suite by launching simultaneous CO2-EOR and storage strategy based LSIPs and large-scale geologic CO2 storage projects.
Generalizable intention prediction of human drivers at intersections

Effective navigation of urban environments is a primary challenge remaining in the development of autonomous vehicles. Intersections come in many shapes and forms, making it difficult to find features and models that generalize across intersection types. New and traditional features are used to train several intersection intention models on real-world intersection data, and a new class of recurrent neural networks, Long Short Term Memory networks (LSTMs), are shown to outperform the state of the art. The models predict whether a driver will turn left, turn right, or continue straight up to 150 m with consistent accuracy before reaching the intersection. The results show promise for further use of LSTMs, with the mean cross validated prediction accuracy averaging over 85% for both three and four-way intersections, obtaining 83% for the highest throughput intersection.
Complexity of multivariate problems based on binary information

This note suggests some investigations about the complexity of multivariate problems based on quantized information rather than standard information. The extreme case of binary information is studied on two classical examples: the integration of multivariate Lipschitz functions, for which it is shown that adaptivity of the quantization process is beneficial, and the integration of multivariate trigonometric polynomials, for which it is hinted that special binary information is superior to standard binary information.
Detecting Anomalous Noise Events on Low-Capacity Acoustic Sensor in Dynamic Road Traffic Noise Mapping

One of the main aspects affecting the life of people living in urban and suburban areas is their continued exposure to high road traffic noise (RTN) levels, traditionally measured by specialists working on the field. Nowadays, the deployment of Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (WASN) has allowed to automate noise mapping in Smart Cities. In order to obtain a reliable picture of the RTN levels affecting citizens, those anomalous noise events (ANE) unrelated to road traffic should be removed from the noise map computation. For this purpose, an Anomalous Noise Event Detector (ANED) designed to differentiate in real-time between RTN and ANE should be developed to run on the low-cost acoustic sensors of the WASN. In this work, the viability of implementing the ANED algorithm to run on low-capacity (LowCap) μ controller-based acoustic sensors developed within the DYNAMAP project is presented, after being designed and implemented for the high-capacity sensors. The algorithm is based on the comparison between RTN and ANE spectral differences using real-life acoustic data from both suburban and urban scenarios. The results show significant spectral differences between RTN and ANE classes in both environments, after being parametrized using Gammatone Cepstral Coefficients. However, further research should be conducted to determine the most discriminant subbands, which should be taken into account for the implementation of the ANED LowCap version.
The Plateau Method for Forensic DNA SNP Mixture Deconvolution

Identification of individuals in complex DNA mixtures remains a challenge for forensic analysts. Recent advances in high throughput sequencing (HTS) are enabling analysis of DNA mixtures with expanded panels of Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) and/or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). We present the plateau method for direct SNP DNA mixture deconvolution into sub-profiles based on differences in contributors DNA concentrations in the mixtures in the absence of matching reference profiles. The Plateau method can detect profiles of individuals whose contribution is as low as 1/200 in a DNA mixture (patent pending).
Mechanical-capillary-driven two-phase loop: Numerical modeling and experimental validation

Abstract A mechanical-capillary-driven (Hybrid) Two-Phase Loop (HTPL) is a phase change cooling device that utilizes both mechanical (active) and capillary (passive) pumping. The HTPL consists of a mechanical pump, evaporator, condenser, and liquid reservoir which are connected through two separate loops for liquid and vapor flows. The hybrid (active/passive) pumping and scalable evaporator design of the HTPL make it possible to handle challenging thermal requirements such as high heat flux heat acquisition, large heat transfer area, reliable operation, long distance thermal transport with a small temperature difference. In this paper, the operational characteristics of the HTPL were numerically and experimentally investigated by varying heat inputs, flow rates of mechanical pump, and heat sink temperatures. A pressure relation between liquid and vapor phases in the evaporator was proposed to determine three distinctive boiling modes (flooded, partially flooded, and capillary) and heat transfer limits were discussed. The operating range of the capillary mode, which is a desirable boiling condition with low thermal resistances, is extended by reducing the pressure drop of the liquid supply in the evaporator and increasing a capillary pressure head in the evaporator wick. A reduction of heat sink temperature increases the system thermal resistance of the HTPL, especially in the vapor line which exists from the evaporator to the condenser. A capillary limit of the HTPL, by increasing pump flow rate, approaches a boiling limit which is estimated to be 259.8 W/cm2.
Multidimensional Clinical Competence: Considering Racial Group, Development, and the Positive Psychology Movement in Clinical Practice

The present volume has brought together a wide set of empirical findings from many areas, which are usually (and often quite usefully) considered separately from one another. Specifically, we have endeavored to present a balanced, developmental picture of mental health, and illness in the five most commonly recognized racial groups within the United States. We have encouraged our contributors to offer their expertise on positive and negative psychological functioning in particular subgroups, and to make recommendations for future investigation on each subgroup. We hope that the result of this work is a useful, comprehensive, and informative volume that inspires much future work.
Control of VEGF-Endothelial Response by ECM Stiffness

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drives both endothelial cell maintenance and normal/pathological angiogenesis. Recent research has suggested that mechanical signaling due to the stiffness...
Other developments and future

Thus far in this text, four important issues of interest to the non-destructive testing community were discussed in detail; namely, a) dielectric material characterization, b) layered composite inspection, c) fatigue surface crack detection and evaluation in metals, and d) microwave measurement techniques and imaging. There have been other advances made in this field each worthy of a brief discussion. The interested reader is encouraged to consult with the respective references provided for each of these topics. This chapter is dedicated to these discussions along with some of the prevalent industrial and cultural issues associated with these techniques. Finally, a discussion (author’s opinion) regarding the future of microwave non-destructive testing and evaluation techniques (in particular the near-field approach) is provided.
Outcomes of Endoprosthetic Replacement for Salvage of Failed Fixation of Malignant Pathologic Proximal Femur Fractures

Abstract Background Internal fixation is often used to treat pathologic proximal femur fractures. However, nonunion and/or tumor progression may lead to hardware failure. In such cases, endoprosthetic replacement may be considered. The purpose of this study is to analyze the outcome of patients undergoing conversion to an endoprosthetic replacement following failed fixation of a pathological proximal femur fracture. Methods We identified 26 patients who underwent conversion hip arthroplasty for salvage of failed fixation of a pathologic proximal femur fracture between 2000 and 2016. Previous surgical hardware included femoral nail (n = 18), dynamic hip screw (n = 5), proximal femoral locking plate (n = 1), blade plate (n = 1), and cannulated screws (n = 1). Twenty-one patients had metastatic disease, 4 myeloma, and 1 lymphoma. All received adjuvant or neoadjuvant radiotherapy at a mean dose of 30 Gy. Results There were 15 males and 11 females with mean age 63 ± 11 years. Patients underwent conversion arthroplasty at a mean of 13 ± 12 months after initial fixation. At final follow-up, 19 patients had died, with 5-year overall survival of 35%. Conversion to arthroplasty was performed due to disease progression (n = 12), hardware failure (n = 8), and nonunion (n = 6). Eight hips required reoperation, most commonly for infection (n = 4). At last follow-up, the Harris Hip Scores (P Conclusion Conversion hip arthroplasty reliably provides improved quality of life and immediate weight bearing, making it an effective treatment for salvage of failed fixation of pathologic proximal femur fractures.
Integer Linear Programming in Computational Biology: Overview of ILP, and New Results for Traveling Salesman Problems in Biology

Integer linear programming (ILP) is a powerful and versatile technique for framing and solving hard optimization problems of many types. In the last several years, ILP has become widely used in computational biology, although predominantly by computationally and mathematically trained researchers, such as Bernard Moret. In an effort to reach a broader set of researchers, this chapter begins with an introduction to ILP, illustrated by the phenomena of cliques and independent sets in biological graphs. Then, the focus shifts to new research results on the use of ILP to solve traveling salesman problems, using compact ILP formulations. Such formulations have been largely declared useless in the optimization literature. However, in this chapter, I argue that the correct compact formulation can be very effective for problems of the size and structure that arise in computational biology. These empirical results, and some additional arguments, then bring into question the relevance of the concept of strength of an ILP formulation as a predictor of the speed that it will be solved.
Fertilization in the Golden Hamster

Early studies of fertilization in mammals involved observations of gametes that had been flushed from the reproductive tract of mated females. The development in the early 1960s of methods for the in vitro capacitation of sperm and the in vitro fertilization for the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) eggs allowed investigators better control of the conditions of gamete interaction. It became possible to test hypotheses using well-controlled experiments in this species. Subsequently, hamsters were used extensively in studies of mammalian fertilization.
What Should “Biodiversity” Be?

This paper argues that biodiversity should be understood as a normative concept constrained by a set of adequacy conditions that reflect scientific explications of diversity. That there is a normative aspect to biodiversity has long been recognized by environmental philosophers though there is no consensus on the question of what, precisely, biodiversity is supposed to be. There is also disagreement amongst these philosophers as well as amongst conservationists about whether the operative norms should view biodiversity as a global heritage or as embodying local values. After critically analyzing and rejecting the first alternative, this paper gives precedence to local values in defining biodiversity but then notes many problems associated with this move. The adequacy conditions to constrain all natural features from being dubbed as biodiversity include a restriction to biotic elements, attention to variability, and to taxonomic spread, as well as measurability. The biotic elements could be taxa, community types, or even non-standard land cover units such as sacred groves. This approach to biodiversity is intended to explicate its use within the conservation sciences which is the context in which the concept (and term) was first introduced in the late 1980s. It differs from approaches that also attempt to capture the co-option of the term in other fields such as systematics.
Integrated Identification of Disease Specific Pathways Using Multi-omics data

Abstract Motivation Identification of biological pathways plays a central role in understanding both human health and diseases. Although much work has previously been done to explore the biological pathways by using single omics data, little effort has been reported using multi-omics data integration, mainly due to methodological and technological limitations. Compared to single omics data, multi-omics data will help identifying disease specific functional pathways with both higher sensitivity and specificity, thus gaining more comprehensive insights into the molecular architecture of disease processes. Results In this paper, we propose two computational approaches that integrate multi-omics data and identify disease-specific biological pathways with high sensitivity and specificity. Applying our methods to an experimental multi-omics data dataset on muscular dystrophy subtypes, we identified disease-specific pathways of high biological plausibility. The developed methodology will likely have a broad impact on improving the molecular characterization of many common diseases. Contact yuewang@vt.edu Supplementary information Supplementary information attached.
Toward critical environmental education: a standpoint analysis of race in the American environmental context

In this article, I advocate for critical environmental education that is responsive to power inequities and use standpoint theory to help explain why environmental education has been slow to become...
Sepsis: Metabolomics and proteomics

Abstract Sepsis is a dysregulated host response that leads to high mortality and death. It is a complicated syndrome that can be difficult to diagnose and predict acute and long-term patient outcomes. Current biomarkers are relatively non-specific and rarely relate to the pathophysiology of the syndrome or the organ dysfunctions. Moreover, there are currently no approved pharmaceutical interventions that can treat the accompanying organ dysfunctions. Utilizing systems biology approaches in clinical samples it is possible to identify new biomarkers as well as determine novel mechanisms of the disease. In this chapter we will review common metabolomic and proteomic biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis and outcome prediction as well as review new biomarkers and pathways that have been identified utilizing metabolomic datasets.
School Readiness Profiles and Growth in Academic Achievement

The purpose of this research was to identify the presence of different school readiness profiles and to determine whether profiles could differentially predict academic growth. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011) public data set was used, and participants were 14,954 first-time kindergarteners. The age of entering kindergarten ranged from 44.81–87.98 months with a mean of 76.13 months. In Study 1, a six-dimensional construct of school readiness was used: health, self-regulation, social and emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and approaches to learning. Results revealed 41 profiles with the top six school readiness profiles covering 85% of the sample: (1) Positive Development (28%); (2) Comprehensive At-Risk (24%); (3) Personal and Social Strengths (20%); (4) Cognitive and Language Strengths (5%), (5) Health Strength (5%); and (6) Cognitive, Personal and Social Strengths (3%). Study 2 examined whether school readiness profiles could predict children’s reading and math achievement growth using growth curve models. Results showed that different school readiness profile membership had unique academic growth patterns and could predict academic growth above and beyond child and family background variables. Moreover, children with the Positive Development profile had higher academic achievement over time. Children with the Personal and Social Strengths profile had the largest growth rates. In sum, findings support the inclusion of self-regulation as another dimension of school readiness and the important role of personal and social skills in the development of reading and math achievement.
Guiding Presidential Clemency Decisionmaking

The Article II Pardon Clause grants the president authority to grant clemency to any offender for any reason he deems justified. The clause contains only two limitations. The president cannot excuse someone from responsibility for a state offense, nor can he prevent Congress from impeaching and removing a federal official. Otherwise, the president’s authority is exclusive and plenary. It is, perhaps, the only surviving aspect of the royal prerogatives. What the clause does not do is give the president a standard, a guideline, or a decision tree for making clemency decisions. Presidents have used that power for legitimate, traditionally accepted reasons, such as freeing someone who was wrongfully convicted, who is suffering under an unduly onerous punishment, or who has atoned for his crimes and turned his life around. Nevertheless, neither the president nor the Department of Justice Pardon Attorney, who is responsible for managing the government’s clemency process, has devised a standard for the president to use when making clemency decisions. The Pardon Attorney has compiled a list of relevant factors, but has not identified which ones are necessary and sufficient, nor has that official assigned those factors an ordinal relationship or different weights. The result is that a president is left to act like a chancellor in equity by relying on his subjective assessment of the “the totality of the circumstances.” This Article discusses the need to make pardon and commutation decisions in a reasonable, orderly manner that would systematize and regularize the Pardon Attorney’s recommendation process and the president’s decision-making. An objective approach would help the president make decisions consistent with longstanding rationales for punishment. The hope is that, in so doing, the president will be able act justly as well as to persuade the public that the federal clemency system is open to all, not merely to the president’s financial or political allies, cronies, supporters, or people he knows. At one time, presidential clemency was a way to wipe the slate clean and give the average person a second chance. It no longer serves that role. Clemency is a subject where we should turn back the clock.
Reproducible Software Environment: a tool enabling computational reproducibility in geospace sciences and facilitating collaboration

The Reproducible Software Environment (Resen) is an open-source software tool enabling computationally reproducible scientific results in the geospace science community. Resen was developed as part of a larger project called the Integrated Geoscience Observatory (InGeO), which aims to help geospace researchers bring together diverse datasets from disparate instruments and data repositories, with software tools contributed by instrument providers and community members. The main goals of InGeO are to remove barriers in accessing, processing, and visualizing geospatially resolved data from multiple sources using methodologies and tools that are reproducible. The architecture of Resen combines two mainstream open source software tools, Docker and JupyterHub, to produce a software environment that not only facilitates computationally reproducible research results, but also facilitates effective collaboration among researchers. In this technical paper, we discuss some challenges for performing reproducible science and a potential solution via Resen, which is demonstrated using a case study of a geospace event. Finally we discuss how the usage of mainstream, open-source technologies seems to provide a sustainable path towards enabling reproducible science compared to proprietary and closed-source software.
Toll-like Receptors and Cancer

Toll-like receptors(TLRs)are the bona fide pattern recognition receptors(PRRs)that ale capable to recognize the pathogen associated molecular patterns(PAMPs)of infectious agents to activate innate immune cells and further modulate adaptive immune system.Recent discoveries indicate that TLRs also play an important role in the initiation and progression of cancer.Moreover.the agonists and/or antagonists of TLRs have been used for anti-cancer immunotherapy as immunoadjuvants or cyto-toxic drugs.Thus,TLRs are not only involved in immune responses to prevent exogenous pathogen infection but also play an im-portant role in cancer immunity,and can served as an important target for cancer immunotherapy.In this re-view,we will discuss the current progress about the role of TLRs in cancer development and cancer immuno-therapy. Key words: Toll-like receptor; Cancer; Innate immunity; TLR signaling; NF-kB
Emergency Medical Services Resource Capacity and Competency Amid COVID-19 in the United States: Findings from a National Study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate available resources, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) availability, sanitation practices, institutional policies