cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Aberrant Th2 inflammation drives dysfunction of alveolar macrophages and susceptibility to bacterial pneumonia.

The ubiquitin ligase, Itch, is required to prevent autoinflammatory disease in mice and humans. Itch-deficient mice develop lethal pulmonary inflammation characterized by the production of Th2 cytokines (for example, interleukin-4 (IL-4)); however, the contribution of Itch to immune defense against respiratory pathogens has not been determined. We found that Itch-deficient mice were highly susceptible to intranasal infection with the respiratory pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae. Infected Itch-deficient mice exhibited increased immune cell infiltration, cytokine levels and bacterial burden in the respiratory tract compared with control mice. However, numbers of resident alveolar macrophages were reduced in the lungs from Itch-deficient mice both before and after infection. High levels of Th2 cytokines in the respiratory tract correlated with deceased alveolar macrophages, and genetic ablation of IL-4 restored alveolar macrophages and host defense to K. pneumoniae in Itch-deficient mice, suggesting that loss of alveolar macrophages occurred as a consequence of Th2 inflammation. Adoptive transfer of Itch−/− CD4+ T cells into Rag−/− mice was sufficient to drive reduction in numbers of Itch-replete alveolar macrophages. Finally, we found that Stat6 signaling downstream of the IL-4 receptor directly reduced fitness of alveolar macrophages when these cells were exposed to the Itch−/− inflamed respiratory tract. These data suggest that Th2 inflammation directly impairs alveolar macrophage fitness in Itch−/− mice, and elucidate a previously unappreciated link between Th2 cells, alveolar macrophages and susceptibility to bacterial infection.
Improving clinical prognostic categories beyond performance status: Enhancing accuracy in survival prediction with a three-item patient-reported outcome (PRO) index from the LCSS in lung cancer and mesothelioma.

8065 Background: Accurate prediction of survival of patient groups is required for appropriate trial design. Performance status (PS) is often used both for trial eligibility and for stratification....
QoS-Aware Scheduling of Heterogeneous Servers for Inference in Deep Neural Networks

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are popular in diverse fields such as computer vision and natural language processing. DNN inference tasks are emerging as a service provided by cloud computing environments. However, cloud-hosted DNN inference faces new challenges in workload scheduling for the best Quality of Service (QoS), due to dependence on batch size, model complexity and resource allocation. This paper represents the QoS metric as a utility function of response delay and inference accuracy. We first propose a simple and effective heuristic approach that keeps low response delay and satisfies the requirement on processing throughput. Then we describe an advanced deep reinforcement learning (RL) approach that learns to schedule from experience. The RL scheduler is trained to maximize QoS, using a set of system statuses as the input to the RL policy model. Our approach performs scheduling actions only when there are free GPUs, thus reduces scheduling overhead over common RL schedulers that run at every continuous time step. We evaluate the schedulers on a simulation platform and demonstrate the advantages of RL over heuristics.
The Interaction of Iron-Conalbumin(Anion) Complexes with Chick Embryo Red Blood Cells

Abstract Equilibrium binding studies and iron transport rate studies of the interaction of conalbumin and transferrin with the chick embryo red cell have supported the following conclusions: (a) that the chick embryo red cell is comparable to the rabbit and human reticulocyte systems traditionally used for the study of the physiological function of the metal complexes of siderophilins; (b) that there may be two classes of binding sites on the chick embryo red cell membrane for Fe2conalbumin, one for which conalbumin competes and one for which it does not compete; (c) that the red cell membrane accepts iron from differiconalbumin at twice the rate as from monoferriconalbumins, suggesting that simultaneous transport takes place from the two iron-binding sites on the protein with respect to iron acquisition; and (d) that the substitution of oxalate for carbonate as the obligate anion in the Fe2conalbumin(anion)2 complex decreases the rate of iron uptake by the cell because the cell must release the anion from the protein complex before it is able to sequester the bound iron.
Pneumonia Risk Stratification Scores for Children in Low-Resource Settings: A Systematic Literature Review.

Background Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death among children less than 5 years of age. Predictive tools, commonly referred to as risk scores, can be employed to identify high-risk children early for targeted management to prevent adverse outcomes. This systematic review was conducted to identify pediatric pneumonia risk scores developed, validated and implemented in low-resource settings. Methods We searched CAB Direct, Cochrane Reviews, Embase, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science for studies that developed formal risk scores to predict treatment failure or mortality among children less than 5 years of age diagnosed with a respiratory infection or pneumonia in low-resource settings. Data abstracted from articles included location and study design, sample size, age, diagnosis, score features and model discrimination. Results Three pediatric pneumonia risk scores predicted mortality specifically, and 2 treatment failure. Scores developed using World Health Organization-recommended variables for pneumonia assessment demonstrated better predictive fit than scores developed using alternative features. Scores developed using routinely collected healthcare data performed similarly well as those developed using clinical trial data. No score has been implemented in low-resource settings. Conclusions While pediatric pneumonia-specific risk scores have been developed and validated, it is yet unclear if implementation is feasible, what impact, if any, implemented scores may have on child outcomes, or how broadly scores may be generalized. To increase the feasibility of implementation, future research should focus on developing scores based on routinely collected data.
Forschungsstand zur Motivation von Wissenschaftler(inne)n

Wie im vorherigen Kapitel resumiert wurde, ist die Betrachtung der Motivation von Wissenschaftler(inne)n von besonderer Bedeutung. Schlieslich sind Lehre und Forschung sowohl Lern- als auch Leistungskontexte, in denen die einzelnen Wissenschaftler(innen) und ihre Antriebe (gerade angesichts schlecht funktionierender Steuerungsmittel) eine Schlusselposition einnehmen. Zusammen mit den Ausfuhrungen in Kapitel 2 gilt dabei, dass das Konstrukt selbstbezogener Ziele zur Charakterisierung der Motivation von Wissenschaftler(inne)n und somit zur Beschreibung und Erklarung deren beruflichen Erlebens und Verhaltens besonderes relevant ist.
What’s the Problem with the Dutch? Andrew Marvell, the Trade Wars, Toleration, and the Dutch Republic

You could be excused for thinking that rather than an Englishman, Andrew Marvell might better have been born a Dutchman in the republic’s golden age – an era of religious toleration and commercial ascendance, of fiscal accountability and civic transparency, and of particular brilliance in the painterly arts of landscape and portraiture. There are moments in his career when Marvell seems in thrall to Dutch naval prowess, a strong advocate of confederacy with the States General against the universal monarchy threatened by the French crown, and admiring too of a religious toleration that characterized Dutch society. But that is not the whole story for his ‘The Character of Holland’ is filled with denial and excoriation, and the contradictions within Marvell’s attitude towards England’s mercantile rival and religious confederate call out for resolution. This paper explores the ways in which those inconsistencies and contradictions arise from Marvell’s apprehensions of sameness and otherness: that the proximity and distance of Britain and the States General is also the story of Marvell’s own sense of contradictory selfhood.
Classroom Management That Works: A Replication Trial of the CW-FIT Program:

The present study examined the effects of the Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Team (CW-FIT) program, a group contingency intervention addressing the on-task and disruptive behavior of students with or at risk for emotional behavior disorders (EBD). Twenty-one elementary schools, 155 general education teachers, and 324 students participated in the multisite efficacy trial of CW-FIT over 6 months. Procedures included teaching attending skills, setting goals and awarding points for appropriate behavior, and differential reinforcement and rewards. Students not responding to the primary-level intervention received self-management or help cards as Tier 2 supports. Fidelity of intervention implementation was high across 4 years, with fidelity checks across groups and during baseline conditions. The primary outcome variables of engagement, disruptive behavior, and teacher praise and reprimands were assessed with repeated direct observation. Results confirmed that CW-FIT can be used to increase on-task be...
Addressing poverty in rural Africa

Experts have long debated how to help poor, predominantly rural nations meet global development goals. One of the most anticipated, and debated, ventures, the Millennium Villages Project, has just published a retrospective self-evaluation mostly supporting the effectiveness of their multi-sectoral approach.
A semantics-based approach to optimizing unstructured mesh abstractions

Computational scientists are frequently confronted with a choice: implement algorithms using high-level abstractions, such as matrices and mesh entities, for greater programming productivity or code them using low-level language constructs for greater execution efficiency. We have observed that the cost of implementing a representative unstructured mesh code with high-level abstractions is poor computational intensity—the ratio of floating point operations to memory accesses. Related scientific applications frequently produce little “science per cycle” because their abstractions both introduce additional overhead and hinder compiler analysis and subsequent optimization. Our work exploits the semantics of abstractions, as employed in unstructured mesh codes, to overcome these limitations and to guide a series of manual, domain-specific optimizations that significantly improve computational intensity. We propose a framework for the automation of such high-level optimizations within the ROSE source-to-source compiler infrastructure. The specification of optimizations is left to domain experts and library writers who best understand the semantics of their applications and libraries and who are thus best poised to describe their optimization. Our source-to-source approach translates different constructs (e.g., C code written in a procedural style or C++ code written in an object-oriented style) to a procedural form in order to simplify the specification of optimizations. This is accomplished through raising operators, which are specified by a domain expert and are used to project a concrete application from an implementation space to an abstraction space, where optimizations are applied. The transformed code in the abstraction space is then reified as a concrete implementation via lowering operators, which are automatically inferred by inverting the raising operators. Applying optimizations within the abstraction space, rather than the implementation space, leads to greater optimization portability. We use this framework to automate two high-level optimizations. The first uses an inspector/executor approach to avoid costly and redundant traversals of a static mesh by memoizing the relatively few references required to perform the mathematical computations. During the executor phase, the stored entities are accessed directly without resort to the indirection inherent in the original traversal. The second optimization lowers an object-oriented mesh framework, which uses C++ objects to access the mesh and iterate over mesh entities, to a low-level implementation, which uses integer-based access and iteration.
Contribution of Hydration to Protein Folding Thermodynamics: I. The Enthalpy of Hydration

The enthalpy of hydration of polar and non-polar groups upon protein unfolding has been estimated for four globular proteins in the temperature range 5 to 125 degrees C, using structural information on the groups in these proteins exposed to water in the native and unfolded states and volume-corrected calorimetric information on the enthalpy and heat capacity of transfer into water of various model compounds. It has been shown that the enthalpy of hydration of polar groups greatly exceeds the enthalpy of hydration of non-polar groups. At low temperatures both these enthalpies are negative and change in opposite direction with increasing temperature. Subtracting the total enthalpy of hydration of polar and non-polar groups from the calorimetrically determined enthalpy of protein unfolding, the total enthalpy of internal interactions maintaining the native protein structure has been determined. Using thermodynamic information on the sublimation of organic crystals, the total enthalpy was divided into two components: one associated with the interactions between the non-polar groups (van der Waals interaction) and the rest associated with the interactions between polar groups (hydrogen bonding). This made it possible to estimate the overall enthalpies of disruption of contacts between the polar groups with their exposure to water and between the non-polar groups with their exposure to water. It appears that these enthalpies have opposite signs in the temperature range considered and change in opposite directions with increasing temperature. The enthalpy of transfer of non-polar groups from the protein interior into water is negative below 25 degrees C and positive above. The enthalpy of transfer of polar groups from the protein interior into water is positive at low temperatures and becomes negative at higher temperatures. Over the considered temperature range, however, the enthalpy of transfer of non-polar groups dominates. This results in a positive enthalpy of protein unfolding at elevated temperatures. The opposite sign and temperature dependence of the specific values of these two enthalpies for the considered proteins explains the experimentally observed convergence of the specific enthalpies of globular protein unfolding at about 130 degrees C.
The Nature of Phosphorus Burial in Modern Marine Sediments

Phosphorus is a key element in biogeochemical cycles because of its role as an essential nutrient. Because of the ability of certain marine organisms, such as cyanobacteria, to fix nitrogen, it has been normally assumed that the long term limiting factor in global oceanic productivity is phosphorus (e.g. Holland, 1978). Thus, a knowledge of phosphorus chemistry in the ocean is a key to a better understanding of the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other bio-elements. Over shorter time scales, days to millenia, the cycle of phosphorus in the ocean is controlled by a combination of processes involving oceanic circulation, biosynthesis, sinking of particles, and bacterial regeneration of the particles at depth or on the sea floor (e.g. Berger et al., 1989). Consequently, concentrations of dissolved phosphorus in seawater vary from place to place as a result of the interaction of these processes. In this context sediments are important only as their surficial portions release additional dissolved phosphate to the overlying water. By contrast, sediments become much more important on longer time scales of tens of thousands to millions of years, because they are the ultimate repository for the removal of phosphate from the oceans. The overall level of phosphorus in the ocean, and therefore global biological productivity, is controlled by the long-term balance between input via rivers and output via burial in sediments.
Mechanical ventilation of rat lung: effect on surfactant forms.

Mechanical ventilation of the lung could affect surfactant turnover by alteration of its secretion, recycling, and degradation. In vitro studies of surfactant subfractions recoverable from lavage f...
Extracting Phenotypic Characteristics of Corn Crops Through the Use of Reconstructed 3D Models

Financial and social elements of modern societies are closely connected to the cultivation of corn. Due to its massive production, deficiencies during the cultivation process directly translate to major financial losses. Since proper surveillance in a large scale is still very challenging, the companies that specialize in optimizing crop yield are trying to address the problem at its root by developing hybrid plants able to resist the harsh conditions of the field. The selection of the best hybrid is not easy and every year hundreds of test plants with different phenotypic characteristics are planted while their performance is quantified by inconsistent and rough measurements gathered by humans. We propose a pipeline that takes advantage of the structure from motion technology to create a detailed 3D point cloud of a few plants and segment it into the basic elements of the scene; the ground, the plants, the plant stems, and the plant leaves. The focus is on the segmentation process through which several phenotypic characteristics of individual plants can be extracted. As an example, we show the results for the plant counting and plant height estimation processes where we achieve an accuracy of 88.1 % and 89.2%.
Spin-lattice relaxation of the O 2 - molecule-ion in the potassium halides

An experimental and theoretical study of the spin-lattice relaxation (SLR) of the O2 − molecule-ion in the potassium halides has been made. The SLR rate was measured by several methods between 1.32°K and 36°K with a 3 cm. ESR spectrometer. The results indicate a one phonon process with a large anisotropy dominates forT<2°K.T 1 is much longer for the magnetic field parallel to the molecular axis. Detailed theoretical calculations indicate a new SLR process, namely phonon-induced libration of the molecular axis, can probably explain the field parallel case. The Van Vleck SLR process can account for the field-perpendicular case.
Abstract 3832: Synergistic anticancer effects of epigenetic drugs JQ1 and SAHA in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland

Background: Adenoid cystic carcinoma is the most common epithelial malignancy of the lacrimal gland and has poor prognosis despite current treatment strategies. The aims of this study were to evaluate the anticancer efficacy of the dual inhibition of bromodomain proteins (by JQ1) and HDAC proteins (by SAHA or Vorinostat) in lacrimal gland adenoid cystic carcinoma (LGACC) and to elucidate the underlying mechanism of action. Methods: LGACC tissue samples were collected from patients and tissue digestion was done by a collagenase digestion method. Molecular characterization of LGACC primary cell cultures was done by immunocytochemistry. LGACC cells were treated with JQ1 and SAHA individually or in combination. The synergistic effect of JQ1 and SAHA combination was determined by the CellTiter-Glo luminescent cell viability assay using Combenefit software. Migration capability of LGACC cells after drug treatment was examined by a wound healing assays. The expression levels of genes associated with LGACC malignancy were investigated after treatment with JQ1 and SAHA for 48hrs by real time PCR. The expression of c-MYB protein was detected by western blot analysis. Results: LGACC primary cultures were successfully established in-vitro. Immunofluorescence of these cells revealed positive antigenicity for epithelial, proliferative and tumor markers such as FGFR1, MYB and NICD; slightly positive antigenicity for CK-5 and CK-7; and negative antigenicity for E-cadherin.. We found that synergism between JQ1 and SAHA was highly significant as shown by synergy matrix plot and 3D surface plot. Interestingly, migration capacity of LGACC cells was significantly (p Conclusion: In conclusion, we successfully generated LGACC cell lines in-vitro. Our results demonstrated that the combination of bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 and histone deacetylase inhibitor SAHA behaves in a synergistic manner and has superior anticancer activity against LGACC cancer cells via targeting the Notch pathway. Taken together, these findings indicate that LGACC is strikingly sensitive to epigenetic inhibitors, which may be quickly implemented for patient use. Citation Format: Ravi Doddapaneni, Wensi Tao, David Tse, Daniel Pelaez. Synergistic anticancer effects of epigenetic drugs JQ1 and SAHA in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3832.
Difference in Serological Marker Profile of Fontan Patients with Decompensated Heart Failure

Introduction As survival rates of patients born with univentricular heart defects and palliated by the Fontan operation increase, Fontan failure is more frequently encountered in the adult years. The evidence for use of serological markers, including the brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), at the time of acute Fontan failure exacerbations has been limited in this patient population. Hypothesis We hypothesize that among patients with a Fontan circulation admitted for decompensation, serological markers, particularly BNP, will have a different profile when compared to the general heart failure population. Methods This was a single center retrospective study of Fontan patients who were admitted for acute decompensated Fontan failure. The patients underwent a 1:2 propensity match for age, gender and renal function with non-Fontan patients for each hospital encounter. Admission laboratory values and echocardiographic findings were collected and verified. Student's t-test and chi-square test were used for comparison between the two patient groups. A logistic regression model assessed association of patients’ variables with a length of stay greater than 3 days. Results Our study cohort consisted of 54 encounters for 20 Fontan patients with median age of 34 years and 108 encounters for 108 non-Fontan patients with a median age of 35 years. BNP levels were significantly lower in Fontan patients admitted for decompensation (p Conclusion Compared to the general heart failure population with structurally normal hearts, the BNP values in Fontan patients admitted due to decompensation are lower on admission with a smaller change from the last known outpatient value. Alternative laboratory studies profile should likely be used for risk stratification in this patient population.
Architected metamaterials with tailored 3D buckling mechanisms at the microscale

Abstract Attaining architected structures with unprecedented properties not found in natural materials is a long-sought goal for both materials science and additive manufacturing. Improving the mechanical behavior of engineered materials such as auxetics for bioengineering applications or bistable structures for mechanical actuation depends on the buckling mechanisms governing their response. Despite the fact that the design principles for two-dimensional buckling have been elucidated in previous studies, comprehending three dimensional buckling mechanisms is still tenuous. In this study, we aim to illuminate the buckling mechanisms governing the response of three-dimensional structures at the microscale, providing the critical guidelines for the design of novel metamaterials. In addition, finite element analysis and in-situ SEM — microindentation experiments are performed to investigate how scale effects affect the design principles to architect a controlled 3D buckling mechanism and reflect the mechanical response to the deformation of the structure in-situ. Our findings elicit the design process of tailored three dimensional buckling structures based on the geometric architecture instead of the behavior of the bulk material, while setting a broader framework to fabricate and characterize these structures at the microscale.
Two-World Background of Special Relativity. Part II

A new sheet of spacetime is isolated and added to the existing sheet, thereby yielding a pair of co-existing sheets of spacetimes, which are four-dimensional inversions of each other. The separation of the spacetimes by the special-relativistic event horizon compels an interpretation of the existence of a pair of symmetrical worlds (or universes) in nature. Further more, a flat two-dimensional intrinsic spacetime that underlies the flat four-dimensional spacetime in each universe is introduced. The four-dimensional spacetime is outward manifestation of the two-dimensional intrinsic spacetime, just as the Special Theory of Relativity (SR) on four-dimensional spacetime is mere outward manifestation of the intrinsic Special Theory of Relativity (φSR) on two-dimensional intrinsic spacetime. A new set of diagrams in the two-world picture that involves relative rotation of the coordinates of the two-dimensional intrinsic spacetime is drawn and intrinsic Lorentz transformation derived from it. The Lorentz transformation in SR is then written directly from intrinsic Lorentz transformation in φSR without any need to draw diagrams involving relative rotation of the coordinates of four-dimensional spacetime, as usually done until now. Indeed every result of SR can be written directly from the corresponding result of φSR. The non-existence of the light cone concept in the two-world picture is shown and good prospect for making the Lorentz group SO(3,1) compact in the two-world picture is highlighted.
Cyclin C promoter occupancy directs changes in stress-dependent transcription

Abstract The Cdk8 kinase module (CKM) is a detachable Mediator subunit composed of cyclin C, and one each of paralogs Cdk8/Cdk19, Med12/Med12L and Med13/Med13L. In addition to regulating transcription, a portion of cyclin C also leaves the nucleus following cytotoxic stress to induce mitochondrial fragmentation and apoptosis. Our previous RNA-seq studies demonstrated that cyclin C represses a subset of hydrogen peroxide-induced genes under normal conditions, while also being required for the full induction of other loci following stress. Here, we show that cyclin C directs this transcriptional reprograming through changes in its promoter occupancy. Following peroxide stress, cyclin C promoter occupancy increased for genes it activates while decreasing at loci it represses under normal conditions. Promoter occupancy of other CKM components generally mirrored cyclin C indicating that the CKM moves as a single unit. However, CKM integrity appeared compromised at a subset of repressed promoters suggesting a source of cyclin C that is targeted for nuclear release. Interestingly, mTOR inhibition induced a new pattern of cyclin C promoter occupancy indicating that this control is fine-tuned to the individual stress. Using inhibitors, we found that Cdk8 kinase activity is not required for CKM movement or repression but was necessary for full gene activation. In conclusion, this study revealed that different stress stimuli elicit specific changes in CKM promoter occupancy correlating to altered transcriptional outputs. Finally, although CKM components were recruited or expelled from promoters as a unit, heterogeneity was observed at individual promoters suggesting a mechanism to generate gene- and stress-specific responses.
Associations Between Antibiotic Stewardship Policies and Antibiotic Use in U.S. Nursing Homes

Background Nursing homes (NHs) are implementing antibiotic stewardship programs due to recent federal regulations. We sought to evaluate if NH antibiotic stewardship policies change antibiotic use in NH residents. Methods Antibiotic stewardship policy data were collected from nationally-representative samples of NHs in 2013 and 2017. An aggregate antibiotic stewardship intensity index, ranging from 0-100, was calculated from five antibiotic stewardship policy measures. Survey data were merged with concurrent MDS 3.0 data and antibiotic use was defined as a one-day prevalence from annual and quarterly assessments. Multivariable models, overall and stratified by infection type, were used to estimate antibiotic use as a function of antibiotic stewardship intensity, NH and resident characteristics, and time. The total adjusted change in antibiotic use was calculated as the difference in predicted use after setting time and stewardship intensity to 2013 values and then to 2017 values, adjusting for 2017 characteristics. The isolated contribution of antibiotic stewardship intensity was calculated as the predicted antibiotic use when time is set to 2013 and policy intensity to 2017 divided by the total adjusted change in antibiotic use. Results Data from 584,540 resident assessments from 1,825 NHs were analyzed. On average, antibiotic stewardship intensity in NHs increased significantly from 2013 to 2017 (µ=33.08 to µ=67.94, p Conclusions Improved antibiotic stewardship programs have resulted in a modest decline in antibiotic use, suggesting that the full extent of the translation from antibiotic stewardship policy to practice remains to be seen.
LiveSim: A Fast Hot Reload Simulator for HDLs

With the increased complexity of digital architectures and aggregation of specialized hardware, functional simulation has become a major bottleneck in digital design. During functional and performance verification of a design, engineers make several iterations to determine the impact of code changes into the simulation result. These iterations are time-consuming both because the compilation time of hardware description to binary is slow and because simulation can take several hours until the point of interest is reached. In contrast, live programming environments allow developers to manipulate the system under development as it is being run. They have become increasingly popular as they provide rapid feedback, yet there is no available live environment for hardware development. In this paper, we propose a live programming and simulation environment that targets hardware design. Our approach is language-independent and leverages incremental compilation, hot binary reloading, and checkpointing to provide fast feedback to the user. We take special care to not replicate code for multiple instances of the same module and thus prevent code bloat, for instance, for multi-and many-core architectures. Our framework also is careful in verifying the consistency across checkpoints, to leverage parallel execution and reduce the amount of code that requires compilation. Our results show that this approach can provide simulation feedback in under 2 seconds, even when simulating a 256 RISC-V multicore architecture. As a reference, Verilator did not finish compiling this architecture after 24 hours of runtime.
The Economic Benefit from Tuition Savings for Dual Enrollment Students in Georgia

According to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC), the number of high school students enrolled at Georgia institutions of higher education has increased by 88% over the past 4 years and sp...
Quantifying Viscous Damping and Stiffness in Parkinsonism Using Data-Driven Model Estimation

Background: Rigidity of upper and lower limbs in Parkinson9s disease (PD) is typically assessed via a clinical rating scale that is subject to biases inherent to human perception. Methodologies and systems to systematically quantify changes in rigidity associated with angular position (stiffness) or velocity (viscous damping) are needed to enhance our understanding of PD pathophysiology and objectively assess therapies. New method: We developed a robotic system and a model-based approach to estimate viscous damping and stiffness of the elbow. Our methodology enables the subject to freely rotate the elbow, while torque perturbations tailored to identify the arm dynamics are delivered. The viscosity and stiffness are calculated based on the experimental data using least-squares optimization. Results: We validated our technique using computer simulations of the arm dynamics and experiments with a nonhuman primate model of PD in the presence and absence of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy. Computer simulations of the arm demonstrate that the proposed approach can accurately estimate viscous damping and stiffness. The experimental data show that both viscosity and stiffness significantly decreased when DBS was delivered. Comparison with existing methods: Computer simulations and experiments showed that stiffness and viscosity measurements obtained with the proposed methodology could better differentiate changes in rigidity than scores previously used for research, including the work score, impulse score, and modified Unified Parkinson9s Disease Rating Scale (mUPDRS). Conclusions: The proposed estimation method is suitable to quantify the effect of therapies on viscous damping and stiffness and study the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying rigidity in PD.
Product Fit Uncertainty and Information Provision in a Distribution Channel

Consumers of experience goods typically face some uncertainty about the fit between their tastes and the features of products being o¤ered. Information technology has given consumers the ability to conduct research online about their potential fit with products before buying, and modern sellers the ability to disseminate product information to consumers. This paper investigates a manufacturer's and retailers' incentives to disclose such product fit information to consumers when the manufacturer sells to consumers through competing retailers. We show that whether a manufacturer selling through retailers is more or less likely to disclose fit information compared to a manufacturer selling directly to consumers depends on the degree of retail competition. If the disclosure decisions are made before the manufacturer sets its wholesale price, then all channel members want to disclose fit information for low-quality products, no one wants to disclose it for medium-quality products, and only the retailers prefer to disclose fit information for high-quality products. This disclosure conflict for high-quality products can be resolved if the manufacturer can commit to a wholesale price before the disclosure decisions. The retailers also then prefer to not disclose fit information for high-quality products. Regardless of whether the wholesale price is set before or after disclosure decisions, a mandatory product-fit disclosure policy can decrease consumer welfare and social surplus, depending on the level of product quality and the degree of retail competition.
Osteoblasts Suppress Bone Resorption Via Production of Osteoprotegerin

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) inhibits the ability of receptor activator of NFkB ligand (RANKL) to stimulate the differentiation, activity, and survival of bone resorbing osteoclasts. Genetic studies in mice show that osteocytes are an important source of RANKL, but the cellular sources of OPG are unclear. We used conditional deletion of Tnfrsf11b, which encodes OPG, from different cell populations to identify functionally relevant sources of OPG in mice. Deletion from B lymphocytes and osteocytes, two cell types commonly thought to supply OPG, had little or no impact on bone mass. In contrast, deletion of Tnfrsf11b from osteoblasts increased bone resorption and reduced bone mass to an extent similar to germline deletion, demonstrating that osteoblasts are an essential source of OPG. These results suggest that, in addition to producing new bone matrix, osteoblasts also play an active role in terminating the resorption phase of the bone remodeling cycle by suppressing RANKL activity.
Recovery work, life-work, and the extractive economies of finance capital in post-María Puerto Rico: A response to Beverley Mullings

Abstract In this commentary to the 2019 Geoforum Annual Lecture, I engage with Beverley Mullings’ provocations, and in particular the “life-work” concept, to critically examine the work being done in post-disaster spaces across the Spanish Caribbean. I ask: In a world marked not only by the threat of automation, precarity and market fundamentalism but also by climate change and its associated risks, what can we learn about the labour of communities responding to severe climate calamities? In documenting recovery work in post-hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico, I show how communities working toward reconstruction blur the lines between economic production and social reproduction. In addition, I also point to finance capital’s ability to extract value from both productive and reproductive work, thus calling attention to labour geographers’ need to analyze both categories simultaneously.
Endoscopic management of colovesical and colovaginal fistulas with over-the-scope clips: A single-institution case series.

AIM Conventional surgical management of colovesical and colovaginal fistulas can be morbid and is contraindicated in many patients. Our aim in this work is to evaluate our experience in the management of colovesical and colovaginal fistulas with endoscopic over-the-scope (OTS) clips. METHOD A retrospective review of all patients who underwent attempted endoscopic OTS clip management of colovesical and colovaginal fistulas between 2013 and 2020 was performed. Preoperative risk factors, operative details and postoperative outcomes are reported. RESULTS Ten patients were identified. Fistula types were: colovesical (five), rectovesical (two), colovaginal (two) and rectovaginal (one). The aetiology of the fistula was diverticular disease in seven (70%) cases and surgical complication of pelvic surgery in three (30%). The mean defect age was 157 ± 98 days, the mean defect diameter was 4.5 mm (range 2-10 mm) and the mean fistula length was 15 mm (range 2-25 mm). In nine (90%) cases, fistula identification and cannulation were performed through the nonenteric lumen of the fistula. Initial management with an OTS clip was technically successful in eight (80%) patients. Of the eight patients who underwent OTS clip placement, long-term success (mean follow-up 218 days, range 25-673 days) was achieved after initial intervention in four (50%) patients. One patient underwent serial OTS clip procedures and achieved long-term success after four interventions; three patients have not undergone a repeat procedure after initial failure. CONCLUSION Endoscopic management of colovesical and colovaginal fistulas with OTS clips offers a promising therapeutic option for patients with contraindications to conventional surgical management. Immediate technical success and long-term success rates are similar to other gastrointestinal tract applications of OTS clips.
Boundary and lens rigidity, tensor tomography and analytic microlocal analysis

The boundary rigidity problem consists of determining a compact, Riemannian manifold with boundary, up to isometry, by knowing the boundary distance function between boundary points. Lens rigidity consists of determining the manifold, by knowing the scattering relation which measures, besides the travel times, the point and direction of exit of a geodesic from the manifold if one knows its point and direction of entrance. Tensor tomography is the linearization of boundary rigidity and length rigidity. It consists of determining a symmetric tensor of order two from its integral along geodesics. In this paper we survey some recent results obtained on these problems using methods from microlocal analysis, in particular analytic microlocal analysis. Although we use the distribution version of analytic microlocal analysis, many of the ideas were based on the pioneer work of the Sato school of microlocal analysis of which Professor Kawai was a very important member.
Detection of nucleophosmin gene mutations in plasma from patients with acute myeloid leukemia: Clinical significance and implications

Roughly one-third of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients exhibit mutations in the nucleophosmin (NPM1) gene, and multiple studies have linked these mutations with a more favorable clinical outcome. We developed an assay for the detection of NPM1 mutations in peripheral blood plasma, and compared the results with clinical outcomes from a single institution. Analyzing plasma from previously untreated AML patients revealed NPM1 insertion mutations in 24 of 98 (24%) patients, with greater sensitivity than existing peripheral blood cell-based tests which showed positivity in only 22 of the 24 patients. Plasma testing allowed the detection of a novel 4 bp deletion in NPM1 in one patient. Analysis of clinical data corroborated previous data linking NPM1 mutations with better clinical outcome. These data underline the significance of NPM1 in the biology and clinical behavior of AML, and demonstrate the reliability and efficacy of plasma-based testing for NPM1 mutations.
Aquatic ecology. Phosphorus, the staff of life

Studies of lakes in North America reveal that concentrations of phosphate, an essential nutrient for aquatic microorganisms, are 100-1,000 times lower than estimated with conventional techniques. Among the implications are the possible need to rethink nutrient dynamics in both freshwater and marine ecosystems..
Marital Satisfaction, Negative Interaction, and Religiosity: A Comparison of Three Age Groups

This study compared marital satisfaction among three age groups and examined how negative interaction patterns and religiosity relate to marital satisfaction at each age using a sample of Protestants (N = 45,387) diverse in denominations, location, geography, and size. We performed a 1-way ANOVA to compare marital satisfaction among three age groups (younger than 40, 40–59, and 60 and older) and found a U-shape curve with marital satisfaction highest among the youngest group, lowest among middle-age couples, and high among older couples. ANCOVA analysis found negative interaction, age, religiosity, age*negative interaction, and age*religiosity to be predictors of marital satisfaction.
Epigenetic silencing of DSC3 is a common event in human breast cancer

Desmocollin 3 (DSC3) is a member of the cadherin superfamily of calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecules and a principle component of desmosomes. Desmosomal proteins such as DSC3 are integral to the maintenance of tissue architecture and the loss of these components leads to a lack of adhesion and a gain of cellular mobility. DSC3 expression is down-regulated in breast cancer cell lines and primary breast tumors; however, the loss of DSC3 is not due to gene deletion or gross rearrangement of the gene. In this study, we examined the prevalence of epigenetic silencing of DSC3 gene expression in primary breast tumor specimens. We used bisulfite genomic sequencing to analyze the methylation state of the DSC3 promoter region from 32 primary breast tumor specimens. We also used a quantitative real-time RT-PCR approach, and analyzed all breast tumor specimens for DSC3 expression. Finally, in addition to bisulfite sequencing and RT-PCR, we used an in vivo nuclease accessibility assay to determine the chromatin architecture of the CpG island region from DSC3-negative breast cancer cells lines. DSC3 expression was downregulated in 23 of 32 (72%) breast cancer specimens comprising: 22 invasive ductal carcinomas, 7 invasive lobular breast carcinomas, 2 invasive ductal carcinomas that metastasized to the lymph node, and a mucoid ductal carcinoma. Of the 23 specimens showing a loss of DSC3 expression, 13 (56%) were associated with cytosine hypermethylation of the promoter region. Furthermore, DSC3 expression is limited to cells of epithelial origin and its expression of mRNA and protein is lost in a high proportion of breast tumor cell lines (79%). Lastly, DNA hypermethylation of the DSC3 promoter is highly correlated with a closed chromatin structure. These results indicate that the loss of DSC3 expression is a common event in primary breast tumor specimens, and that DSC3 gene silencing in breast tumors is frequently linked to aberrant cytosine methylation and concomitant changes in chromatin structure.
Predicting the spatial distribution of ground flora on large domains using a hierarchical Bayesian model

Accomodation of important sources of uncertainty in ecological models is essential to realistically predicting ecological processes. The purpose of this project is to develop a robust methodology for modeling natural processes on a landscape while accounting for the variability in a process by utilizing environmental and spatial random effects. A hierarchical Bayesian framework has allowed the simultaneous integration of these effects. This framework naturally assumes variables to be random and the posterior distribution of the model provides probabilistic information about the process. Two species in the genus Desmodium were used as examples to illustrate the utility of the model in Southeast Missouri, USA. In addition, two validation techniques were applied to evaluate the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the predictions.
Dynamic multi-field packet classification

Emerging Internet applications create the need for advanced packet classifiers. This paper investigates the mechanisms that determine the performance of state-of-the-art multi-field classification methods, and proposes a novel scheme called P/sup 2/C for packet classification at OC-192 and OC-768 speeds. P/sup 2/C combines the strengths of embedded memory and ternary CAM technologies to achieve very high storage efficiency while maintaining fast incremental updates. Key feature of the new scheme Is Its ability to adapt to the complexity of a classification rule set, while providing effective control over the update dynamics and storage requirements at the granularity of individual rules. This makes P/sup 2/C suitable for a broad range of applications.
Stability of the Rational Homotopy Type of Moduli Spaces

We show that for g � 2k + 3 the k-rational homotopy type of the moduli space Mg,n of algebraic curves of genus g with n punctures is independent of g, and the space Mg,n is k-formal. This implies the existence of a limiting rational homotopy type of Mg,n as g ! 1 and the formality of it.
Quantifying and qualifying the use of topical anesthetics in retinopathy of prematurity examinations.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advocates efforts to minimize discomfort and systemic effect of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) examinations. Although many ophthalmologists use topical anesthetics, many do not believe them necessary. We present the results of the first survey to quantify the use of topical anesthetics in ROP examinations by clinicians who screen for ROP. The results show that although use of topical anesthetic is common, it is not universal.
Structural Analysis of Expanding Metabolic Networks

Methods are developed for structural analysis of metabolic networks expanding in size. Expansion proceeds in consecutive generations in which new reactions are attached to the network produced in the previous stage. Dieren t rules are applied resulting in various modes of expansion. Expansion is performed on the set of glycolytic reactions as well as on a very large set of reactions taken from the KEGG database. It is shown that reactions and compounds strongly dier in the generation in which they are attached to the network allowing conclusions for the temporal order of the acquisition during network evolution. The expansion provides ecien t tools for detecting new structural characteristics such as substrate-product relationships over long distances.