cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Elastomeric Polyphosphazenes with Phenoxy-Cyclotriphosphazene Side Groups

New polymers with a phosphazene backbone and both 2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy- and phenoxy-functionalized cyclotriphosphazene substituents exist in three phases depending on the side group ratios. At low concentrations of the bulky substituents (up to ∼7 mol %), the polymers are semicrystalline thermoplastics, with properties that are minor variations of poly[bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)phosphazene]. However, after the incorporation of between ∼7 mol % and ∼20 mol % of the bulky cyclic trimeric side groups, the polymers lose their semicrystalline properties and become amorphous elastomers. At still higher trimer loadings (>20 mol %) the materials develop gum-like behavior. The elastomeric phase appears to be generated by interdigitation or agglomeration of the bulky aryloxy-cyclotriphosphazene side groups, which act as quasi-physical cross-links between the polymer chains. The presence of these interactions allows the materials to experience high strain values before rupture (up to 1000%), and elastic recovery of...
Managerial Ownership and Corporate Diversification: A Longitudinal Examination

Strategy and finance research suggests that managerial ownership results in increased incentive alignment and therefore is negatively related to corporate diversification. Using a longitudinal approach, we develop arguments to examine whether managerial ownership is associated with subsequent changes in diversification and/or if diversification is associated with subsequent changes in ownership. The results indicate that levels of managerial ownership in one time period are not associated with subsequent changes in corporate diversification, which raises incentive alignment questions. We also find that higher levels of corporate diversification are associated with changes in managerial ownership, which suggests support for the employment risk-reduction perspective. This study provides important reasons to reassess the longitudinal implications of the managerial ownership-corporate diversification link from both theoretical and managerial perspectives.
Fasting, lactate, and insulin improve ischemia tolerance in rat heart : a comparison with ischemic preconditioning

We tested the hypothesis that improved ischemia tolerance in an isolated working rat heart preparation can be achieved by interventions other than ischemic preconditioning. Hearts were perfused at near-physiological workload with bicarbonate buffer containing glucose (10 mM). A preischemic period of 25 min was followed by 15 min of global ischemia and 30 min of reperfusion under preischemic conditions. Hearts came from either fed or fasted animals (groups 1 and 2). In group 3 lactate (10 mM) and insulin (10 mU/ml) were added to the perfusate of fasted animals. In group 4 hearts from fed animals were perfused with glucose (10 mM) and were ischemically preconditioned by one cycle of ischemia between 10 and 15 min of the preischemic perfusion. Cardiac power and glucose uptake were measured continuously to assess functional and metabolic recovery. In addition, we measured the time to return of aortic flow. Glucose metabolites and the ratio of latent of free citrate synthase activity (citrate synthase ratio, a marker for the structural integrity of mitochondria) were determined at selected time points. Groups 2, 3, and 4 recovered significantly faster than group 1, whereas recovery of power showed an improvement in groups 3 and 4 only. In addition, there was an early increase in glucose uptake during reperfusion in these two groups, suggesting an early need for glucose substrate. Glycogen levels decreased with ischemia in all groups and returned to preischemic levels in groups 2, 3, and 4. The citrate synthase ratio was low in the control group and preserved in the groups showing improved functional recovery. We conclude that metabolic interventions may be as effective as ischemic preconditioning in protecting the heart from ischemic injury.
Investigation of Total and Hexavalent Chromium in Filtered and Unfiltered Groundwater Samples at the Tucson International Airport Superfund Site.

Potential health effects from hexavalent chromium in groundwater have recently become a concern to regulators at the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund site. In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey sampled 46 wells in the area to characterize the nature and extent of chromium in groundwater, to understand what proportion of total chromium is in the hexavalent state, and to determine if substantial differences are present between filtered and unfiltered chromium concentrations. Results indicate detectable chromium concentrations in all wells, over 75 % of total chromium is in the hexavalent state in a majority of wells, and filtered and unfiltered results differ substantially in only a few high-turbidity total chromium samples.
Factors Related to Pertussis and Tetanus Vaccination Status Among Foreign-Born Adults Living in the United States

Pertussis is a common vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) worldwide. Its reported incidence has increased steadily in the United States, where it is endemic. Tetanus is a rare but potentially fatal VPD. Foreign-born adults have lower tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (Tdap) and tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccination coverage than do U.S.-born adults. We studied the association of migration-related, socio-demographic, and access-to-care factors with Tdap and Td vaccination among foreign-born adults living in the United States. The 2012 and 2013 National Health Interview Survey data for foreign-born respondents were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to calculate prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals, and to identify variables independently associated with Tdap and Td vaccination among foreign-born adults. Tdap and Td vaccination status was available for 9316 and 12,363 individuals, respectively. Overall vaccination coverage was 9.1% for Tdap and 49.8% for Td. Younger age, higher education, having private health insurance (vs. public insurance or uninsured), having visited a doctor in the previous year, and region of residence were independently associated with Tdap and Td vaccination. Among those reporting a doctor visit, two-thirds had not received Tdap. This study provides further evidence of the need to enhance access to health care and immunization services and reduce missed opportunities for Tdap and Td vaccination for foreign-born adults in the United States. These findings apply to all foreign-born, irrespective of their birthplace, citizenship, language and years of residence in the United States. Addressing vaccination disparities among the foreign-born will help achieve national vaccination goals and protect all communities in the United States.
Radio detections of cometary molecular transitions: A review

Radio detections of CH, OH, HCN, CH3CN, and several unidentified species in comet Kohoutek and the detection of H2O emission from comet Bradfield are discussed in terms of the similarities and differences between cometary molecules and interstellar molecules. Emphasis is placed on excitation and chemistry. The observed projected densities and resulting gas production rates are considered along with the feasibility of future radio molecular observations of comets.
Aggressive Behaviors and Suicide Ideation in Inpatient Adolescents: The Moderating Roles of Internalizing Symptoms and Stress

The present study examined a conceptual model in which the association between aggressive behaviors and suicide ideation is moderated by internalizing symptoms and ongoing stress. Participants were 304 psychiatric inpatient adolescents (65.8% girls) ranging in age from 12 to 17 years (Mean age = 14.69). The association between aggressive behaviors and suicide ideation was significantly moderated by internalizing symptoms and ongoing stress; the association was positive in adolescents low in internalizing symptoms or high in ongoing stress, but negative in adolescents high in internalizing symptoms or low in ongoing stress. The three-way interaction between aggressive behaviors, internalizing symptoms, and ongoing stress was not statistically significant. The current findings indicate that in adolescents who display high levels of aggressive behaviors, the presence of high ongoing stress provides a more useful indicator of levels of suicide ideation than the presence of high internalizing symptoms. Implications for case identification and prevention are discussed.
Semiscalar Equivalence and Quasidiagonal Similarity of the Matrices

We establish the conditions of semiscalar equivalence for one class of regularizable polynomial matrices and determine the canonical form of the matrix relative to the quasidiagonal similarity.
Financial literacy and family communication patterns

Abstract Financial literacy has been shown to affect a wide range of financial behavior; therefore, understanding methods to improve financial literacy is vital for improving financial outcomes in personal finance. However, efforts to increase financial literacy through education have exhibited mixed results, which suggests that additional factors merit exploration for their impact on financial literacy. This study hypothesizes that family communication patterns will be related to financial knowledge, specifically that college students from a conversation-oriented family will perform better on a quiz of financial knowledge than those from a conformity-oriented family. This cross-disciplinary work emphasizes the relationship between financial literacy and communication studies. The research is conducted through an online survey administered to a volunteer sample of college students. Results suggest that conversations within the family regarding financial matters provide important knowledge regarding financial matters and may be a factor to consider in designing any financial literacy program.
Retention behavior of crumb rubber as an aggregate in innovative chip seal surfacing

Abstract Statistics show that the world's transportation infrastructures are a primary contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. This paper introduces an innovative chip seal pavement surfacing that uses crumb rubber made from recycled tires as aggregates. A broad investigation on aggregate retention was performed. Eighty chip seal specimens with varied aggregate and binder parameters were examined for aggregate retention under five tests namely, the standard sweep test, a modified sweep test, the Vialit test, a modified Vialit test, and the Pennsylvania test. Four asphalt-based binders were examined including different types of emulsions and asphalt cement. Two mineral aggregates were examined in the tested specimens in addition to the crumb rubber. Results showed that the crumb rubber performed well in terms of aggregate retention. The Vialit and Pennsylvania tests indicated that the crumb rubber chip seal exceeded the performance of the mineral aggregate chip seals in terms of aggregate retention. The enhanced performance was primarily due to the low unit weight of the crumb rubber and its rough surface, that strengthened the adhesion of the crumb rubber to the binder. The sweep test results show that the mineral aggregate in chip seal surfacing can be replaced up to 100% with crumb rubber but it is recommended to increase the curing time before opening the roads for traffic due to the negligible water absorption capacity of crumb rubber.
Patient Selection for Cytoreductive Surgery

The peritoneal malignancies span the biologic spectrum of aggressiveness from the indolent growth pattern and superficial nature of well-differentiated mucinous appendiceal adenocarcinoma to the rapidly growing and invasive nature of poorly differentiated signet ring cell adenocarcinomas of the appendix, colon, and stomach. An understanding of the biology, distribution, and volume of disease is critical to appropriately selecting patients for cytoreduction and HIPEC with the goal of long-term survival. Herein the authors discuss appropriate the evaluation and selection of patients for with peritoneal surface malignancies for cytoreduction and HIPEC.
Nitrogen utilization by ruminants during restricted intake of high-concentrate diets.

A series of experiments was conducted to determine the effects of limit-feeding high-concentrate (LFHC) diets on dietary CP requirements of steer calves. When steer calves were fed 80% concentrate diets at 78 g/kg of BW.75, increasing dietary CP resulted in increased ADG (P less than .001). Average daily gain was increased in steers as daily monensin dosage increased from 120 to 180 mg (P less than .05). Increasing the daily monensin dosage to 240 mg did not increase ADG further. There were no (P greater than .10) CP X monensin interactions, suggesting that the monensin response was caused by improved energy utilization and not be the possible protein-sparing effects of ionophores. Steer calves in the second feedyard experiment expressed similar ADG when provided equal NEg as limit-fed, high-moisture ear corn (HMEC) or when given ad libitum access to corn silage. The basal diet did not affect the steers' daily N requirement for growth. Gain per unit of protein intake declined quadratically (P less than .05) with increasing CP intake, indicating that CP requirements were near NRC estimates on both diets. The corn silage-based diet was less digestible (70.3 vs 77.4%; P less than .01) than the HMEC diet when fed to lambs. Fecal output differed (P less than .10) substantially (342 g/d of corn silage vs 205 g/d of HMEC), whereas fecal N output was only slightly higher (6.97 vs 6.34 g/d, respectively; P less than .10). Limited feeding of higher-concentrate diets to steer calves seemed to be an effective management procedure and did not cause acute digestion upset.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Classic Field Orientation Schemes

As demonstrated in Chapter 3, the FOP defines conditions for optimal torque production and the decoupling of torque control from field control, both under steady-state and transient operating conditions of an induction motor. Orthogonality of the rotor current and flux vectors must be maintained at all times. This requirement is inherently satisfied in the steady state when the rotor settles down to such a speed that the developed torque matches the load torque. Under transient conditions, however, in order to meet the FOP conditions, special techniques are required to provide an algorithmic equivalent of the actual physical disposition between the stator and rotor fields of the emulated d.c. motor.
Weakly Supervised Training of Semantic Parsers

We present a method for training a semantic parser using only a knowledge base and an unlabeled text corpus, without any individually annotated sentences. Our key observation is that multiple forms of weak supervision can be combined to train an accurate semantic parser: semantic supervision from a knowledge base, and syntactic supervision from dependency-parsed sentences. We apply our approach to train a semantic parser that uses 77 relations from Freebase in its knowledge representation. This semantic parser extracts instances of binary relations with state-of-the-art accuracy, while simultaneously recovering much richer semantic structures, such as conjunctions of multiple relations with partially shared arguments. We demonstrate recovery of this richer structure by extracting logical forms from natural language queries against Freebase. On this task, the trained semantic parser achieves 80% precision and 56% recall, despite never having seen an annotated logical form.
Cloud cell size and pattern evolution in Arctic air advection over the North Pacific

Some Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) observations are given of the development of low level cloud streets and cellular convective patterns resulting from cold air advection over a warmer ocean. In general, such patterns are most often observed at times of greatest sea/air temperature contrast. Frequently, the mean width of cloud elements in streets and cellular patterns is found to vary with the distance over which the cold air has been advected and with seasonal sea/air temperature difference. Some particular cases indicate intensified cloud band formation and occurrence of clear streaks which are apparently associated with features of coastal and island topography.
Illustration of Texture with Ultrasonic Pole Figures

Materials are most often used in the form of polycrystalline aggregates. Preferential orientation of the grains or crystallites within such an aggregate is known as “texture”, and almost all methods of fabrication will tend to develop a texture to some degree. To differentiate among textures, it is desirable to describe and quantify them. One technique for doing this is the “pole figure”.
Abdominal DCE‐MRI reconstruction with deformable motion correction for liver perfusion quantification

PURPOSE Abdominal dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI suffers from motion-induced artifacts that can blur images and distort contrast-agent uptake curves. For liver perfusion analysis, image reconstruction with rigid-body motion correction (RMC) can restore distorted portal-venous input functions (PVIF) to higher peak amplitudes. However, RMC cannot correct for liver deformation during breathing. We present a reconstruction algorithm with deformable motion correction (DMC) that enables correction of breathing-induced deformation in the whole abdomen. METHODS Raw data from a golden-angle stack-of-stars gradient-echo sequence were collected for 54 DCE-MRI examinations of 31 patients. For each examination, a respiratory motion signal was extracted from the data and used to reconstruct 21 breathing states from inhale to exhale. The states were aligned with deformable image registration to the end-exhale state. Resulting deformation fields were used to correct back-projection images before reconstruction with view sharing. Images with DMC were compared to uncorrected images and images with RMC. RESULTS DMC significantly increased the PVIF peak amplitude compared to uncorrected images (P << 0.01, mean increase: 8%) but not compared to RMC. The increased PVIF peak amplitude significantly decreased estimated portal-venous perfusion in the liver (P << 0.01, mean decrease: 8 ml/(100 ml·min)). DMC also removed artifacts in perfusion maps at the liver edge and reduced blurring of liver tumors for some patients. CONCLUSIONS DCE-MRI reconstruction with DMC can restore motion-distorted uptake curves in the abdomen and remove motion artifacts from reconstructed images and parameter maps but does not significantly improve perfusion quantification in the liver compared to RMC.
Proposing an Updated AM2 Mat Performance Criteria Model

The AM2 mat system is historically one of the most deployed portable airfield mats in the military. The current AM2 airfield mat performance criteria for determining the number of coverages an AM2 ...
Parallel computation framework for optimizing trailer routes in bulk transportation

We consider a rich tanker trailer routing problem with stochastic transit times for chemicals and liquid bulk orders. A typical route of the tanker trailer comprises of sourcing a cleaned and prepped trailer from a pre-wash location, pickup and delivery of chemical orders, cleaning the tanker trailer at a post-wash location after order delivery and prepping for the next order. Unlike traditional vehicle routing problems, the chemical interaction properties of these orders must be accounted for to prevent risk of contamination which could impose complex product-sequencing constraints. For each chemical order, we maintain a list of restricted and approved prior orders, and a route is considered to be feasible if it complies with the prior order compatibility relationships. We present a parallel computation framework that envelops column generation technique for large-scale route evaluations to determine the optimal trailer-order-wash combinations while meeting the chemical compatibility constraints. We perform several experiments to demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed parallel computation yields a significant improvement in the run time performance. Additionally, we perform sensitivity analysis to show the impact of wash capacity on order coverage.
Testing Enhances Both Memorization and Conceptual Learning of Categorical Materials

The present three experiments explored the testing effect for verbatim memory and conceptual learning of categorical materials. To assess conceptual learning (or transfer), we administered a multiple-choice test that required participants to guess the translation of new Chinese characters that they had not studied, but contained the same semantic radical as characters they had studied. In all experiments, we obtained a robust testing effect—participants who learned the materials through testing outperformed those who restudied the material, showing that testing enhances verbatim memory and promotes transfer of learning. To directly assess encoding changes due to testing, participants completed an encoding-strategy questionnaire. The repeated test group reported being more likely to make associations between the pairs, whereas the restudy group reported being more likely to engage in rote rehearsal. Taken together, our results suggest that testing is a powerful tool to enhance both memorization and conceptual learning of categorical materials.
Adolescent Decision-Making: The Value of Perceived Behavioral Control in Predicting Engagement in Suicide Prevention Behaviors

Adolescent perceived behavioral control (self-efficacy) plays a key role in influencing decision-making processes within the context of suicide prevention programming. Guided by Theory of Planned Behavior, models tested attitudinal and social factors predicting adolescent intentions and actual engagement in suicide prevention behaviors. Participants included 233 racially and ethnically diverse high school students (54% female) in a southwestern U.S. school district. Measures included attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, intentions, and behavior over follow-up. Structural equation modeling indicated that perceived behavioral control, rather than intentions, was the direct predictor of behaviors. For adolescents, beliefs about effectively utilizing learned suicide prevention behavior may be more important than intentions. The design of suicide prevention efforts should account for this important influence on adolescent decision-making.
Distribution of membrane proteins in mechanically dissociated retinal rods

M. 5pencer,*t P- B- Derwiler,* and A. H. Bunr-MilamjSolitary rods were isolated from frog retinas by mechanical dissociation. Typically, the rods cleave sclerad to the nucleus and consist of outer segments with attached partial inner segments with either tapered or rounded profiles. Light and electron microscopy reveal that the outer and inner segments of rods with tapered inner segments, like rods in the intact retina, are joined by a single connecting cilium. In contrast, the outer and inner segments of rods with rounded inner segments are fused, with no extracellular cleft between the two segments. Opsin distribution was studied in both unfused and fused rods by light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry. Extensive surface labeling is restricted to the outer segments of tapered rods, as observed in vivo. In contrast, both inner and outer segments of rods with rounded inner segments (fused) label heavily with anti-opsin. Thus opsin, a mobile membrane protein, diffuses from the outer to the inner segment of fused rods. Segregated distribution of opsin in unfused rods suggests that the connecting cilium and/or its associated structures may normally act as a diffusion barrier between the outer and inner segments to mobile membrane proteins such as opsin. Immunofluorescence studies demonstrate that Na + /K + ATPase is restricted in distribution to the inner segment and calycal processes of both fused and unfused isolated rods, as observed in vivo. Maintenance of its restricted distribution in fused cells indicates that Na + /K + ATPase is not mobile and may be tethered in the surface membrane of the inner segment. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 29:1012-1020,1988
Adverse event profiles of apalutamide, enzalutamide, and darolutamide in SPARTAN, PROSPER, and ARAMIS: How confident are we about which drug is safest?

318Background: Apalutamide, enzalutamide, and darolutamide were approved for non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) based on three randomized placebo-controlled trials that sh...
Effects of Local, State, and Federal Minimum Wage on Employment Growth among Teenagers in the Restaurant Industry

Over the last 20 years, local municipalities have been implementing minimum wage ordinances at an accelerated rate. These local changes, along with state and federal minimum wage increases, are included in the examination of the impact of minimum wage hikes on employment growth of teenagers in the food services and drinking places subsector. While most minimum wage research focuses on employment levels, recent contributions highlight the importance of analyzing employment growth. Following this trend, this study focuses on teenagers within the restaurant industry to test for the impact of minimum wages on inexperienced workers. Using a distributed-lag model, the results show that an increase in a minimum wage reduces employment growth for teenagers within this subsector. The effects of minimum wages within this demographic were most strongly felt in the first three years following an increase in minimum wage. Specifically, the results show that a 10% increase in the minimum wage decreases the employment growth rate by approximately 2.27% over a period of three years.
Grassland restorations improve pollinator communities: a meta-analysis

Natural grasslands are being destroyed at an alarming pace, but land managers are actively working to restore these habitats. Many of these efforts focus on restoring plant diversity but often do not consider responses of higher trophic levels such as pollinators, which provide crucial ecosystems services. We conducted a meta-analysis of 25 large-scale studies to examine the effects of grassland restorations on pollinator communities. Specifically, we compared pollinator communities in restored, degraded and remnant grasslands to determine if restorations improve pollinators from a degraded state and if they fully restore them to remnant values. We found that grassland restorations significantly improved both pollinator abundance and richness as compared to degraded grasslands. Additionally, pollinator abundance and richness did not significantly differ from remnant sites, indicating a near full recovery. Sub-analyses found that factors such as pollinator taxa, restoration age, and mode of land degradation all influenced the magnitude of recovery. In particular, lepidopteran abundance increased more than bee abundance in these restorations. Older restorations (> 10 years) showed the strongest improvements in pollinator communities. This research highlights the importance of grassland restorations in supporting not only plant diversity but also pollinators.
Neural-Network Based Self-Initializing Algorithm for Multi-Parameter Optimization of High-Speed ADCs

This brief proposes a new automatic model parameter selection approach for determining the optimal configuration of high-speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) using a combination of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm. The proposed hybrid method first initializes the PSO algorithm to search for optimal neural-network configuration via the particles moving in finite search space with coarse quantization. Using the PSO estimates, the SGD algorithm then finds the global optimum solution. The global search ability of the PSO algorithm and the local search ability of the SGD are thus exploited to determine an optimal solution that is close to the global optimum with reduced latency. Several experiments were constructed to optimize the non-linearities in Nyquist flash and pipeline ADC datasets to show that the neural networks trained by the PSO-SGD algorithm outperform the random search-based performance optimization. Comparative resource analysis of the proposed algorithm is also conducted against the state-of-the-art that highlights improved latencies and performance with similar area and implementation complexity.
Mechanisms of stimulation of SAGA-mediated nucleosome acetylation by a transcriptional activator.

Abstract Eukaryotic gene expression requires the coordination of multiple factors to overcome the repressive nature of chromatin. However, the mechanistic details of this coordination are not well understood. The SAGA family of transcriptional coactivators interacts with DNA-binding activators to establish regions of hyperacetylation. We have previously shown that, contrary to the prevailing model in which activator protein increases SAGA affinity for nucleosome substrate, the Gal4-VP16 activator model system augments the rate of acetylation turnover for the SAGA complex from budding yeast. To better understand how this stimulation occurs, we have identified necessary components using both kinetics assays and binding interactions studies. We find that Gal4-VP16-mediated stimulation requires activator binding to DNA flanking the nucleosome, as it cannot be reproduced in trans by activator protein alone or by exogenous DNA containing the activator binding site in combination with the activator protein. Further, activator-mediated stimulation requires subunits outside of the histone acetylation (HAT) module, with the Tra1 subunit being responsible for the majority of the stimulation. Interestingly, for the HAT module alone, nucleosome acetylation is inhibited by activator proteins due to non-specific binding of the activator to the nucleosomes. This inhibition is not observed for the yeast ADA complex, a small complex comprised mostly of the HAT module, suggesting that subunits outside of the HAT module in both it and SAGA can overcome non-specific activator binding to nucleosomes. However, this activity appears distinct from activator-mediated stimulation, as ADA complex acetylation is not stimulated by Gal4-VP16.
Clinicopathologic evaluation of CTNNB1 gene mutations in high-intermediate risk endometrial cancer

Objectives: CTNNB1 mutations convey increased risk of recurrence in low risk endometrioid endometrial cancers. However, sub-analyses of high-intermediate risk (HIR) endometrioid endometrial cancers in other cohorts have not demonstrated a clearly increased recurrence risk and have often been equivocal. The objective of this study is to perform a clinicopathologic evaluation of patients with HIR endometrioid endometrial cancer in relation to CTNNB1 mutational status. Methods: A single-institution chart review of patients diagnosed with endometrioid endometrial cancer between 2006 and 2018 was undertaken. Patients were classified as HIR according to GOG249 criteria. Mutational status was determined by Sanger sequencing of exon 3 of the CTNNB1 gene in primary tumor specimens. Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis of B-catenin was performed to evaluate for the presence of nuclear staining. Factors associated with recurrence were assessed by logistic regression; recurrence-free (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Results: 93 cases of HIR endometrioid endometrial cancer were identified, of which 23 (24.7%) were CTNNB1 mutant and 70 (75.3%) were wild type. Median follow-up was 59.7 months. Recurrence occurred in 14/93 (15.1%) patients. Recurrence rates were not significantly different between patients with CTNNB1 mutant and wild type tumors (13.0% vs. 15.9%, p=0.76). In both univariable and multivariable analyses, RFS and OS were not significantly different (RFS HR 0.88, p=0.85, 95% CI 0.24 - 3.17; OS HR 0.20, p=0.12, 95% CI 0.03 - 1.54). Predicted oncogenic mutations comprised 87% of all identified mutations and were present in 100% of recurrent tumors and 85% of non-recurrent tumors (p=0.47). Nuclear B-catenin expression by IHC demonstrated a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 83% for CTNNB1 mutations. Conclusions: CTNNB1 mutations have a prevalence of 25% in HIR endometrioid endometrial cancer. In this single institution retrospective study, there were no differences in RFS or OS in patients with CTNNB1 mutant compared to wild-type tumors.
Concomitant genetic defects potentiate the adverse impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on cardiac outflow tract maturation.

BACKGROUND Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with an increased incidence of congenital heart defects (CHD), in particular outflow tract (OFT) defects. However, the variability in the incidence of CHD following PAE has not been fully explored. We hypothesize that a concomitant, relevant genetic defect would potentiate the adverse effect of PAE and partially explain the variability of PAE-induced CHD incidence. METHODS The OFT is formed by the second heart field (SHF). Our PAE model consisted of two intraperitoneal injections (3 g/kg, separated by 6 hr) of 30% ethanol on E6.5 during SHF specification. The impact of genetic defects was studied by SHF-specific loss of Delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4), fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) and Islet1. RESULTS Acute PAE alone significantly increased CHD incidence (4% vs. 26%, p = .015) with a particular increase in OFT alignment defects, viz., double outlet right ventricle (0 vs. 9%, p = .02). In embryos with a SHF genetic defect, acute PAE significantly increased CHD incidence (14 vs. 63%, p < .001), including double outlet right ventricle (6 vs. 50%, p < .001) compared to controls. PAE (p = .01) and heterozygous loss of Dll4 (p = .04) were found to independently contribute to CHD incidence, while neither Islet1 nor Fgf8 defects were found to be significant. CONCLUSIONS Our model recapitulates the increased incidence of OFT alignment defects seen in the clinic due to PAE. The presence of a concomitant SHF genetic mutation increases the incidence of PAE-related OFT defects. An apparent synergistic interaction between PAE and the loss of DLL4-mediated Notch signaling in OFT alignment requires further analysis.
Effects of chronic acceleration on body composition.

Studies of the centrifugation of adult rats showed an unexpected decrease in the mass of fat-free muscle and bone, in spite of the added load induced by centrifugation. It is suggested that the lower but constant fat-free body mass was probably regulated during centrifugation. Rats placed in weightless conditions for 18.5 days gave indirect but strong evidence that the muscle had increased in mass. Other changes in the rats placed in weightless conditions included a smaller fraction of skeletal mineral, a smaller fraction of water in the total fat-free body, and a net shift of fluid from skin to viscera. Adult rats centrifuged throughout the post-weaning growth period exhibited smaller masses of bone and central nervous system (probably attributable to slower growth of the total body), and a larger mass of skin than controls at 1 G. Efforts at simulating the effects of weightlessness or centrifugation on the body composition of rats by regimens at terrestrial gravity were inconclusive.
Innate Immune Signaling and Alcoholism

Chronic use of alcohol and other drugs of abuse have been demonstrated to activate the innate immune system of the CNS. This activation, in turn, may lead to progressive changes to neurobiology that underlie loss of behavioral control and increased limbic negative affect common in addiction. Ethanol exerts effects on the systemic adaptive and innate immune systems [1]. Adaptive immunity comprises a class of highly specialized lymphocytic cells that recognize, remember, and target specific pathogens through the production of antibodies. This system is protective in that it maintains an immunological memory of the pathogen in the lymphocytes in preparation for future insults. In contrast, the innate immune system mounts a nonspecific immune response to a pathogen via secretion of cytokines and other chemical messages that activate cells. This chapter will focus on the effects of alcohol on innate immunity because the brain possesses few lymphocytes and, consequently, minimal adaptive immunity. Although beyond the scope of this chapter, it is important to note that ethanol causes the gut to become “leaky” resulting in the release of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The increased gut permeability to LPS contributes to liver inflammation and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines [e.g., tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα)] into the blood. The blood is then transported into the brain where TNFα and other cytokines are induced causing neuroinflammation that persists long after the resolution of the peripheral inflammatory response [2] (see Fig. 8.1).
Driving and arrhythmias: implications of new data.

Patients with ventricular arrhythmias are often restricted from driving by their physicians for several months. These recommendations are based more on convention than evidence, due to the paucity of data previously available on the safety of driving in these patients. Over the past few years, however, more data have become available that suggests that it is safe to drive within three months of their ventricular tachyarrhythmia. In this paper, we look at this more recent data and make the suggestion that patients with well maintained cardiac function, no recurrent ventricular arrhythmias (i.e. electrical storm) and no persistent medical condition predisposing them to ventricular arrhythmias should be allowed to resume driving soon after their ventricular tachyarrhythmia.
Hydropower, Environmental Impact of

Hydropower projects can affect aquatic organisms directly by impeding their migration rate, blocking upstream and/or downstream movements, and indirectly by altering the flow patterns and water quality conditions that they respond to. Fish are more likely to be affected by these changes than other aquatic organisms because they have more complex behaviors. Probably the single most important change to physical habitats that influences fish movements is reduced velocity upstream of dams.
Information in semiparametric mixtures of exponential families

Z In a class of semiparametric mixture models, the score function (and consequently the effective information) for a finite-dimensional parameter can be made arbitrarily small depending upon the direction taken in the parameter space. This result holds for a broad range of semiparametric mixtures over exponential families and includes examples such as the gamma semiparametric mixture, the normal mean mixture, the Weibull semiparametric mixture and the negative binomial mixture. The near-zero information rules out the usual parametric $\sqrt{n}$ rate for the finite-dimensional parameter, but even more surprising is that the rate continues to be unattainable even when the mixing distribution is constrained to be countably discrete. Two key conditions which lead to a loss of information are the smoothness of the underlying density and whether a sufficient statistic is invertible.
An inequality for $p$-orthogonal sums in non-commutative $L_{p}$

We give an alternate proof of one of the inequalities proved recently for martingales (= sums of martingale differences) in a non-commutative $L_{p}$-space, with $1 \lt p \lt \infty$, by Q. Xu and the author. This new approach is restricted to $p$ an even integer, but it yields a constant which is $O(p)$ when $p \rightarrow \infty$ and it applies to a much more general kind of sum which we call $p$-orthogonal. We use mainly combinatorial tools, namely the Mobius inversion formula for the lattice of partitions of a $p$-element set.
SHORT: a static-hybrid approach for routing real time applications over multichannel, multihop wireless networks

Many of the existing multichannel wireless network implementations rely on channel switching capability of the wireless radios to ensure network connectivity. However, due to both software and hardware restrictions switching channels incur a significant delay, which can be prohibitive for many delay sensitive, real time applications, such as VoIP and interactive gaming. The situation can be worse in the case of a multihop network, as every node along the traffic path may require a channel switch that adds up to the overall end-to-end delay. This motivates the need for efficient routing strategies that can make use of the flexibilities of a multichannel network while favoring delay sensitive applications by routing them on low delay paths. In this paper, we propose SHORT, a Static-Hybrid approach for rOuting Real Time applications over multichannel, multihop wireless networks, which ensures low delay paths for delay sensitive applications. Using measurements on a real multichannel testbed, we show that our protocol can provide significantly low delay multihop paths for delay sensitive applications (eg., VoIP) without degrading the throughput performance of non-delay sensitive, best effort traffic, such as TCP that may co-exist in a network.
Learning through inquiry: a creative pilot program for teaching communications in a learner-centered environment

Learning through inquiry, a course designed for first-year engineering students was implemented for the first time in Fall of 1997. Learning through inquiry was created to provide first-year students an opportunity to participate in the development of their abilities to conduct and present research, to identify and articulate problems and to critically reflect on their own work and that of others. All of these skills are critical ones for engineering students, and they make up the essential core of skills that fall under the often vague heading of "communications". The 60 students who registered for the course were able to learn how and why engineers communicate in the context of a truly learner-centered class, as the class was run primarily by a group of seven junior and senior engineering students or engineering learning assistants (ELAs). This presentation describes the progress of this pilot program, and some of the changes the authors are implementing as they run the course again in the Fall of 1998, and looks at the particular challenges of teaching communications in a learner-centered setting.
Emotion versus motivation: Probing dissociable influences on cognitive control through task performance, pupillometry methods, and individual differences

!xi! Introduction! !1! Emotion!and!Motivation:!Terminology!and!Conceptualization! !3! Neural!and!Psychological!Mechanisms!of!Positive!Emotion! !5! Neural!and!Psychological!Mechanisms!of!Reward!Motivation! !7! Examining!Emotional!and!Motivational!Effects!on!Cognitive!Control!Dynamics!.....!10! Using!Pupillometry!to!Examine!the!Temporal!Dynamics!of!Cognitive!Control!........!14! Individual!Difference!Measures!and!Cognitive!Control! !17! Comparing!Emotional!and!Motivational!Influences!on!Cognitive!Control:!Approach! of!the!Current!Study! !18! Methods! !22! ! Participants! !22! ! General!Study!Structure! !23! ! SAM!Assessments! !27! ! AX_CPT!Paradigm! !27! ! Passive!Viewing!Run!(in!Emotion!Session)! !30! ! Fixation!Run!with!Pupillometry! !32! ! Apparatus! !32! ! Pupillometry!Data!Collection! !32!
High resolution array signal processing for AUVs

Future successful operations conducted with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) will include several mission functions that will rely heavily on high performance, high resolution forward looking sonars (FLS) coupled with high performance embedded signal processors. These mission functions include object detection, localization and classification (DLC), sea bottom mapping and feature extraction for navigation guidance and control and obstacle avoidance. This paper will describe the efforts associated with both the high-resolution array (HRA) currently under development at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, RI and the unmanned underwater vehicle signal processor (UUVSP) currently under joint development by the Sanders Division of Lockheed Martin Corporation and NUWC. The HRA, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, is a 1272 element, 20 wavelength planar array designed for use as a forward looking sonar in 21-inch diameter vehicles. The HRA combines an 80 degree horizontal by 40 degree vertical transmit beam, for full volume coverage, with steerable three degree receive beams. The UUVSP, sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), is an embedded signal processor based on ARPA's high performance scalable computing (HPSC) technology. A 24 giga-floating point operation (GFLOP) unit (scalable to 256 GFLOPs) designed to fit in a 21-inch diameter vehicle will be demonstrated in the first quarter of fiscal year 1998.
High Speed Interconnects and Parallel Software Libraries: Enabling Technologies for the NVO

The NVOs core data mining and archive federation activities are heavily dependent on the underlying data pipeline software necessary to translate the raw data into scientifically relevant source detections. The data pipeline software dictates: the raw data storage and retrieval mechanisms, the meaning and format of the fields in the source catalogs, and the ability of the NVO users to re-analyze raw data for their own purposes. Increasing the performance of the core data pipeline software so that it can address the needs of current and future high data rate surveys is an important activity that should be addressed in concert with the development of the NVO.
Relationship Between Fertilizing Ability and cAMP in Human Spermatozoa

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between cAMP and the fertilizing ability of human spermatozoa. Levels of cAMP were measured in human spermatozoa during 6-hour in vitro incubation in capacitation medium, in both the presence and absence of phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor. The fertilizing ability of the same samples was assayed with zona-free hamster eggs. In the absence of PDE inhibitor, no relationship was apparent between mean cAMP levels, which remained at 3–4 pmol cAMP/107 spermatozoa, and mean fertilizing ability, which increased from 4% at the start of the incubation to 33% at 6 hours. In the presence of PDE inhibitor (7 mM caffeine or 10 mM theophylline), cAMP concentrations increased within minutes to 3–4 times control levels. Despite this increase in cAMP, there was no immediate change in fertilizing ability. This was true whether PDE inhibitor was present from the start or added to control sperm after 6 or 22 hours of incubation. However, once the sperm were exposed to PDE inhibitor for 4–6 hours, they fertilized a significantly greater proportion of eggs than did control samples. These results suggest that PDE inhibitors, or elevated cAMP levels, do not immediately induce the acrosome reaction, but rather appear to reduce the amount of time required for capacitation to occur in vitro.