cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Failure to Suppress the Expansion of the Activated Cd4 T Cell Population in Interferon γ–Deficient Mice Leads to Exacerbation of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Mice deficient in interferon (IFN)-γ or IFN-γ receptor develop progressive and fatal experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). We demonstrate that CD4 T cells lacking IFN-γ production were required to passively transfer EAE, indicating that they were disease-mediating cells in IFN-γ knockout (KO) mice. IFN-γ KO mice accumulated 10–16-fold more activated CD4 T cells (CD4+CD44hi) than wild-type mice in the central nervous system during EAE. CD4+CD44hi T cells in the spleen and central nervous system of IFN-γ KO mice during EAE showed markedly increased in vivo proliferation and significantly decreased ex vivo apoptosis compared with those of wild-type mice. IFN-γ KO CD4+CD44hi T cells proliferated extensively to antigen restimulation in vitro and accumulated larger numbers of live CD4+ CD44hi T cells. IFN-γ completely suppressed proliferation and significantly induced apoptosis of CD4+CD44hi T cells responding to antigen and hence inhibited accumulation of live, activated CD4 T cells. We thus present novel in vivo and in vitro evidence that IFN-γ may limit the extent of EAE by suppressing expansion of activated CD4 T cells.
Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California

[1] A belt of arc-parallel, northeast vergent contractional deformation, the East Sierran thrust system (ESTS), crops out for � 150 km along the east side of the Sierran continental margin arc. The ESTS is nowhere wider than � 20 km, and it accommodated an estimated minimum of � 9.3 km of horizontal shortening. Remarkably, it experienced repeated episodes of broadly coaxial and coaxial-planar contractional deformation beginning prior to 188 Ma and continuing past 140 Ma. We postulate that the ESTS resulted primarily from episodic underthrusting of the back arc lithosphere beneath the east edge of the Sierran arc, facilitated by a buttressing effect of the arc. As a result of this process, rocks along the east flank of the batholith, including the ESTS, were episodically shortened against the arc buttress. The ESTS experienced significant deformation during the Nevadan orogeny, indicating that contractional to transpressive deformation affiliated with this event affected the eastern wall rocks of the arc as well as its western wall rocks. INDEX TERMS: 8102 Tectonophysics: Continental contractional orogenic belts; 9609 Information Related to Geologic Time: Mesozoic; 8015 Structural Geology: Local crustal structure; 9350 Information Related to Geographic Region: North America; KEYWORDS: eastern California, Mesozoic, structure, Cordilleran, thrust system. Citation: Dunne, G. C., and J. D. Walker (2004), Structure and evolution of the East Sierran thrust system, east central California, Tectonics, 23, TC4012, doi:10.1029/2002TC001478.
Regenerative Medicine and the Search for Pluripotent/Multipotent Stem Cells

Hematopoietic stem cells isolated from bone marrow (BM), mobilized peripheral blood (mPB), and umbilical cord blood (UCB) have been employed for many years as sources of stem cells for hematopoietic transplants. Based on this encouraging experience, regenerative medicine is searching for stem cells that can be safely and efficiently employed for regeneration of damaged solid organs (e.g., heart, brain, or liver). Ideal for this purpose would be pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which, according to their definition, have broad potential to differentiate into cells from all three germ layers (meso-, ecto-, and endoderm). Based on encouraging data in experimental animals, several types of stem cells isolated from embryonic and adult tissues have been proposed for solid organ regeneration, with some showing promise for treating patients. In this chapter, we will discuss the current status of different types of stem cells that have potential application in regenerative medicine.
Adropin reduces paracellular permeability of rat brain endothelial cells exposed to ischemia-like conditions

Adropin is a peptide encoded by the energy homeostasis associated gene (Enho) and plays a critical role in the regulation of lipid metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and endothelial function. Little is known of the effects of adropin in the brain and whether this peptide modulates ischemia-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) injury. Here, we used an in vitro BBB model of rat brain microvascular endothelial cells (RBE4) and hypothesized that adropin would reduce endothelial permeability during ischemic conditions. To mimic ischemic conditions in vitro, RBE4 cell monolayers were subjected to 16h hypoxia/low glucose (HLG). This resulted in a significant increase in paracellular permeability to FITC-labeled dextran (40kDa), a dramatic upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the loss of junction proteins occludin and VE-cadherin. Notably, HLG also significantly decreased Enho expression and adropin levels. Treatment of RBE4 cells with synthetic adropin (1, 10 and 100ng/ml) concentration-dependently reduced endothelial permeability after HLG, but this was not mediated through protection to junction proteins or through reduced levels of VEGF. We found that HLG dramatically increased myosin light chain 2 (MLC2) phosphorylation in RBE4 cells, which was significantly reduced by adropin treatment. We also found that HLG significantly increased Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) activity, a critical upstream effector of MLC2 phosphorylation, and that adropin treatment attenuated that effect. These data indicate that treatment with adropin reduces endothelial cell permeability after HLG insult by inhibition of the ROCK-MLC2 signaling pathway. These promising findings suggest that adropin protects against endothelial barrier dysfunction during ischemic conditions.
Intratracheal Pressure in Insect Respiration

Most adult insects maintain a direct gaseous exchange between the environment and tissues by means of a tracheal respiratory system. Packard (1898), Vinal (1919), Snodgrass (1925, 1935) and Wigglesworth (1939) have extensively investigated and described the morphology of the insect respiratory system. Du Buisson (1924), Lee (1925, 1927), McKay (1927), Uvarov (1928), McArthur (1929), McGovran (1931) and Kitchel and Hoskins (1935) have investigated the coordination of abdominal movement, opening and closing of spiracles and the passage of air through the tracheal systems of several orthoptera. These investigations established the concept that there is a directed tracheal ventilation in insects. Inspiration occurs through an anterior group of spiracles. The air is then passed through the tracheal system and expired through a posterior group of spiracles. However some of these workers found that occasionally any of the spiracles might serve for both inspiration and expiration and that when the grasshopper was struggling or respiration was stimulated by carbon dioxide the normal direction of tracheal ventilation might be reversed. In all cases it was thought that the respiratory cycle consisted only of inspiration and expiration which ventilated the larger trachea and air sacs. Oxygen was then carried through the smaller trachea and air sacs by diffusion to the site of absorption at the end of the tracheoles. The tracheal system was considered to be open to the air at all times and in no case was the intratracheal pressure believed to be greater than ambient pressure.
Regression of calcified coronary artery plaque assessed by electron beam computed tomography

Lipid lowering therapies and aggressive life style modifications can induce regression of coronary artery disease as demonstrated by several angiographic studies. Such regression has also been associated with greatly reduced cardiovascular event rates. However, coronary angiography is invasive and expensive and other non-invasive diagnostic approaches would be preferable. Electron beam computed tomography imaging is used to detect coronary artery calcification, it is non-invasive and considerably less expensive than angiography. This tool provides an opportunity to serially monitor the effectiveness of medical therapy for coronary artery disease via the follow-up of a surrogate marker of disease such as vascular calcification. We review the current status of the literature on the use of electron beam computed tomography as a tool to follow progression of disease.
Adaptive baseband interference suppression in multi-channel heterodyne radar receivers

In radar systems, heterodyne RF circuitry is commonly used to produce multi-channel in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) signals which are then beamformed and rangeDoppler processed. Often such receivers are deployed in noisy environments, where interference signals at frequencies within the baseband bandwidth of the signal (e.g. less than 1 MHz) can corrupt the demodulated received RF signals prior to A-to-D conversion. Since this baseband interference is correlated across channels, it is often exacerbated by beamforming operations. Moreover, depending on the subsequent radar signal processing, such interference can appear very “target-like” after range-Doppler processing. In this paper, a relatively simple adaptive signal processing method is presented which exploits the Hilbert transform relationship between in-phase and quadrature channels of true demodulated RF signals in order to cancel baseband interference. The approach is demonstrated via simulation and also using real S-band microwave data from a testbed microwave radar system. (4 pages)
An RF/microwave microfluidic sensor based on a 3D capacitive structure with a floating electrode for miniaturized dielectric spectroscopy

This paper reports on the design, fabrication and testing of a microfluidic sensor for a miniaturized measurement platform dedicated to dielectric spectroscopy at RF/microwave frequencies. The sensor employs a novel, three-dimensional, parallel-plate, capacitive sensing structure with a floating electrode integrated onto a PMMA microfluidic cap used for delivering the material-under-test (MUT) with a 9μL-sample volume. Requiring only an S11 measurement and after a 6-point calibration, complex relative permittivity readings by the sensor in the frequency range of 14MHz to 6.5GHz agree very well with bulk-solution reference measurements conducted with an Agilent 85070E dielectric probe kit. Using ethanol and ethylene glycol as two different MUTs with the sensor, the rms errors in real and imaginary parts of the complex relative permittivity of ethanol over the full frequency range are 3.5% and 5.6%, respectively. The corresponding numbers for ethylene glycol are 5.4% and 4.5%, respectively. Keywords—Capacitive sensor, dielectric spectroscopy, microfluidics, miniaturized platform, RF/microwave sensor
Genome Editing of Lineage Determinants in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Reveals Mechanisms of Pancreatic Development and Diabetes.

Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into somatic counterparts is a valuable tool for studying disease. However, examination of developmental mechanisms in hPSCs remains challenging given complex multi-factorial actions at different stages. Here, we used TALEN and CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene editing and hPSC-directed differentiation for a systematic analysis of the roles of eight pancreatic transcription factors (PDX1, RFX6, PTF1A, GLIS3, MNX1, NGN3, HES1, and ARX). Our analysis not only verified conserved gene requirements between mice and humans but also revealed a number of previously unsuspected developmental mechanisms with implications for type 2 diabetes. These include a role of RFX6 in regulating the number of pancreatic progenitors, a haploinsufficient requirement for PDX1 in pancreatic β cell differentiation, and a potentially divergent role of NGN3 in humans and mice. Our findings support use of systematic genome editing in hPSCs as a strategy for understanding mechanisms underlying congenital disorders.
The initial research on new type of small polymer gel particles

Repair of gas well operations have some high demand for low permeability, low porosity gas reservoir. Conventional sealing materials can not meet the requirements, on the contrary will cause pollution, and the same time there is also the problem difficult to return or low of flow back rate. Therefore, a suitable polymer gel particles for low permeability gas reservoir is particularly important and urgent.On the basis of the geological characteristics of the gas field, evaluate the new type of gel particles, analyze compatibility of the particles and the low permeability reservoir pore, temporary blocking capability, Anti-temperature and salt tolerance. Explore the adaptability of new type Polymer gel particles for low permeability gas reservoir.
SECTION ON CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES: The Electrocardiogram in Atrial Septal Defect*

The predominant right precordial pattern seen in the electrocardiograms of patients with atrial septal defect is rsR′. Following closure of the defect there is a decrease in QRS duration and in the amplitude of the R wave. In a two year follow-up in this series there was no progressive diminution in QRS duration although the R wave continued to become smaller. The data indicate that delay in conduction in the right bundle branch system is due to stretching of the right ventricular muscle fibers and should be considered evidence of dilatation of the chamber.
Evidence Value of Textile Fiber - Transfer and Persistence of Fibers.

Fibers comprise probably the most common form of trace evidence in forensic science today. They occur in perhaps one-quarter of all cases that involve trace evidence and a large majority of crime laboratories routinely characterize textile fibers. Although a great deal of research has been done on how to best characterize and compare fibers, relatively little time has been spent on determining the significance of fiber evidence. This article presents a summary of the studies of fiber transfer and persistence and determination of the significance of fiber evidence. This accumulated research and analysis will enable fiber examiners to better interpret evidence in cases where foreign fibers have been transferred during contact between victims and perpetrators of crimes.
Abstract 1769: Presence of cysts in benign breast tissue and the risk of subsequent breast cancer in African American women

Introduction: Benign breast disease (BBD) is an established risk factor for developing breast cancer, and certain pathologic features in benign breast tissue are more strongly associated with breast cancer risk. Most of the studies evaluating BBD and breast cancer risk have been done in primarily white populations. Our previous work among African American (AA) women with BBD suggested the presence of cysts was associated with increased breast cancer risk. This finding may be unique to AA women as other studies among white populations have not replicated these findings. We sought to further explore the association between breast cysts and breast cancer risk in our expanded AA BBD cohort. Methods: Biopsies from AA women initially diagnosed with BBD from 1997 to 2009 were examined for 14 pathologic features, including the microscopic presence of cysts, and followed for subsequent breast cancer. The association between cysts and the other pathologic features were compared using chi-square tests, and the risk of developing breast cancer was estimated using logistic regression and summarized with odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: A total of 3,360 AA women with BBD have been identified and their benign biopsies reviewed. 190 women have developed a subsequent breast cancer with a mean follow-up time of 11.5 years. Cysts were present on 1,366 (38%) of the biopsies, and were significantly associated with nearly all of the other benign features evaluated: apocrine metaplasia, ductal hyperplasia, calcifications, duct ectasia, fibrodenomas, fibrosis, intra-ductal papillomas, sclerosing adenosis, columnar alterations, mucocelle-like lesions, radial scars, and proliferation with and without atypia (all p Conclusion: Among AA women, cysts are highly correlated with other BBD features that increase subsequent breast cancer risk, but the risk associated with cysts does not appear to be independent of hyperplasia with atypia. Understanding the etiology of BBD and cyst development may provide insight into breast tumorigenesis, and the interplay between cysts and other BBD features warrant further investigation. Citation Format: Julie J. Ruterbusch, Michele L. Cote, Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay, Baraa Alosh, Eman Abdulfatah, Vishakha Pardeshi, Woodlyne Roquiz, Daniel Visscher, Rouba Ali-Fehmi. Presence of cysts in benign breast tissue and the risk of subsequent breast cancer in African American women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1769.
Erythromelalgia in patients with essential thrombocythemia and polycythemia vera

Erythromelalgia is an uncommon neurovascular pain syndrome characterized by periodic attacks with a triad of erythema, increased temperature, and burning pain that primarily affects the feet and ha...
Quantitation of PET signal as an adjunct to visual interpretation of florbetapir imaging

This study examined the feasibility of using quantitation to augment interpretation of florbetapir PET amyloid imaging. A total of 80 physician readers were trained on quantitation of florbetapir PET images and the principles for using quantitation to augment a visual read. On day 1, the readers completed a visual read of 96 scans (46 autopsy-verified and 50 from patients seeking a diagnosis). On day 2, 69 of the readers reinterpreted the 96 scans augmenting their interpretation with quantitation (VisQ method) using one of three commercial software packages. A subset of 11 readers reinterpreted all scans on day 2 based on a visual read only (VisVis control). For the autopsy-verified scans, the neuropathologist’s modified CERAD plaque score was used as the truth standard for interpretation accuracy. Because an autopsy truth standard was not available for scans from patients seeking a diagnosis, the majority VisQ interpretation of the three readers with the best accuracy in interpreting autopsy-verified scans was used as the reference standard. Day 1 visual read accuracy was high for both the autopsy-verified scans (90%) and the scans from patients seeking a diagnosis (87.3%). Accuracy improved from the visual read to the VisQ read (from 90.1% to 93.1%, p 90% on day 1). Accuracy in interpreting the autopsy-verified scans also increased from the first to the second visual read (VisVis group). However, agreement with the reference standard (best readers) for scans from patients seeking a diagnosis did not improve with a second visual read, and in this cohort the VisQ group was significantly improved relative to the VisVis group (change 5.4% vs. −1.1%, p < 0.0001). These results indicate that augmentation of visual interpretation of florbetapir PET amyloid images with quantitative information obtained using commercially available software packages did not reduce the accuracy of readers who were already performing with above average accuracy on the visual read and may improve the accuracy and confidence of some readers in clinically relevant cases.
Black-box: A new secure distributed peer-to-peer file storage and backup system

The amount of valuable data pertaining to users, such as digital documents, images, and various other important files, has grown exceedingly and needs to be backed up safely. The two most widely used existing backup solutions are the removable devices and the online storage. Problems can arise in the external device backups, for example it takes a long time to burn and copy data files which can result in frequent data loss. Online storage proved to be a better option, but when a large amount of data is to be stored, these third party services become costly. In this paper, a back-up file system is designed, which allows users to store files on their extra disk space. Black-Box is safe for users to back-up their important and secret data. Traditional redundancy schemes focus on storage capacity and computation. However, the proposed Black-Box approach is supported by redundancy mechanisms which include replication and erasure coding.
Diagnosing Superstition: Superstition and Piety in Spinoza’s Political Philosophy

The notion of superstition has a long history of being understood in terms of epistemic and psychological features, although many discussions include its problematic political consequences. I argue that Spinoza’s discussion of superstition in Theological-Political Treatise is an exception. Spinoza connects superstition and piety with the problem of political stability via the notion of obedience, and uses the term “superstitious” to label religious attitudes and practices that undermine civil obedience by establishing demands of allegiance, on the part of the religious authority, that compete with those of the government. Contrary to existing interpretations, I will show that, for Spinoza, “superstition” is not intrinsically characterized by features such as intolerance and anti-intellectualism. In Theological-Political Treatise, practices that clearly shows these traits are labeled as pious, rather than superstitious, precisely because, within certain societies, they foster obedience and therefore stability. One of Spinoza’s goals in TTP is to show that what counts as pious among the ancient Jews or in the Ottoman Empire should be considered superstitious in a more modern, diverse society such as the seventeenth century Dutch Republic, and that libertas philosophandi is the best way to inoculate a society (if not every single individual) against superstition.
Management of Anticoagulants and Antiplatelet Agents During Colonoscopy

Colonoscopy frequently is performed for patients who are taking aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antiplatelet agents, and other anticoagulants. These colonoscopies often involve polypectomy, which can be complicated by bleeding. The risks of precipitating thromboembolic complications if anticoagulants are stopped must be weighed against the risk of postpolypectomy bleeding if these agents are continued. This article systematically reviews the management of anticoagulation during elective and emergency colonoscopy. For patients undergoing colonoscopic polypectomy, the overall risk of postpolypectomy bleeding is <0.5%. Risk factors for postpolypectomy bleeding include large polyp size and anticoagulant use, especially warfarin and thienopyridines. For patients who do not stop aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prior to colonoscopy, the rate of postpolypectomy bleeding is not significantly different from that for patients who do not take those medications. For patients who continue thienopyridines and undergo polypectomy, the risk of delayed postpolypectomy bleeding is approximately 2.4%. Even for patients who interrupt warfarin, the risk of postpolypectomy bleeding is increased. The direct oral anticoagulants (direct thrombin inhibitors and factor Xa inhibitors) have a rapid onset and offset of action, and periprocedural bridging generally is not necessary. For the thienopyridines, warfarin, and the direct oral anticoagulants, the decision to interrupt or continue these agents for endoscopy will involve considerable exercise of clinical judgment.
Marine Reptiles and Mesozoic Biochronology

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the marine reptiles and Mesozoic biochronology. Marine reptiles of the Mesozoic were the Placodontia, Nothosauria, Mosasauria, Thallatosauria, Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, and Hupehsuchia. Ichthyosaurs appeared during the Early Triassic and persisted until the beginning of the Late Cretaceous. These most specialized and fishlike marine reptiles achieved a global distribution by the Middle Triassic. A maximum effort is needed by paleontologists revising the taxonomy of Mesozoic marine reptiles to extract taxonomically useful features from postcrania. Careful stratigraphic organization of much of the fossil record of Mesozoic marine reptiles needs to take place to establish stratigraphic ranges. Three Mesozoic marine reptile groups—Olenekian-Cenomanian Ichthyosauria, Rhaetian-Maastrichtian Plesiosauria, and Cenomanian-Maastrichtian Mosasauria have the greatest biochronological potential by virtue of their temporal and geographic distribution, relative abundance, and intensity of study. It is suggested that collecting, more whole-animal taxonomy, and more precise stratigraphic data should increase the biochronological utility of Mesozoic marine reptiles.
SMT-Based Model Checking for Stabilizing Programs,

We focus on the verification of stabilizing programs using SMT solvers. SMT solvers have the potential to convert the verification problem into a satisfiability problem of a Boolean formula and utilize efficient techniques to determine whether it is satisfiable. We focus on utilizing techniques from bounded model checking to determine whether the given program is stabilizing. We illustrate our approach using three case studies. We also identify tradeoffs between verification with SMT solvers and existing approaches.
Discussing Sensitive Issues through a Partnership Lens: A Conversation with My Teenaged Son

This article explores parenting and the construction of masculinity through the lens of Partnership. Framed by the author’s conversation with her teenaged son, the paper opens with a definition, exploration, and cultural contextualization of androcracy. Fundamental intersections between the disciplines of the Partnership Model and Women’s Spirituality are then introduced, locating story and storytelling, spirit, and relationship as cornerstones for shifting from the Domination Model to a Partnership Model. Interconnected theories and praxes of feminism, radical feminism, womanism, and the Womanist Idea, as well as the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, are defined and proposed as tools for educating children about the Domination/Control and interlocking systems of oppression we live in, and how to enact Partnership/Respect principles in our relationships. The paper proposes that through sharing and enacting a multiplicity of counter narratives that reflect the tenets of Partnership, parents and care givers not only actively model for children Partnership values, but they also equip children with an explicit understanding of the harmful systems we live in and the means to challenge and shift them. Highlighting a multiplicity of traditions that share the same core values of empathy, compassion, and care for all living beings, the paper concludes with a set of tools for employing foundational precepts of Partnership Parenting, from sharing story to embodying and promoting ways to care for self, community, and the world.
Origin of the Misaligned Hot Jupiters: Nature or Nurture?

What produces the spin–orbit misalignment of hot Jupiters? One natural speculation would be that it is related to the specific formation channel of hot Jupiters, i.e., their orbital migration. The “high-eccentricity migration” scenario, tidal migration following the eccentricity excitation through few-body dynamical processes, can naturally produce the spin–orbit misalignment along with the highly eccentric orbits as mentioned in Sect. 1.1.4. In Sect. 3.1, we describe this scenario in detail. The challenge to this (and actually to any other) scenario is the correlation between the obliquity and effective temperature of hot-Jupiter hosts discussed in Sect. 2.4.1. A possible explanation is that the trend is attributed to the different timescales for obliquity damping in cool and hot stars (Sect. 3.2). The subsequent studies, however, show that it is difficult to reproduce the trend at least with the current theory of tides. In addition, evidence against this “tidal realignment” scenario has recently been presented by new measurements of obliquities with the Kepler photometry. It has also been pointed out that it may be difficult to produce the most misaligned hot Jupiters within this framework of migration. Given the situation, another class of scenarios without resorting to the violent dynamical events has also been proposed; this is the topic of Sect. 3.3. These scenarios consider the misalignment to be of “primordial” origin, that is, the misalignment between the stellar spin and protoplanetary disk. They might consistently explain the obliquity dependence on the host star, as well as the presence of counter-orbiting hot Jupiters. In this chapter, we review both of these “nature” and “nurture” scenarios along with their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss how the trend could be explained in each class of scenarios. We also propose several important questions that need to be addressed to distinguish the two scenarios.
Compensation effects in the liquid-phase regioselective hydrogenation of functionalized alkenes on supported rhodium catalysts

The liquid-phase selective hydrogenation of sixteen functionalized alkene substrates was carried out at low hydrogen pressures and temperature range 293-323 K, on four different rhodium 1 wt % supported catalysts. Two different amorphous AlPO 4 (Al/P = 1) and an AlPO 4 /SiO 2 (20:80 wt%) system, as well as a natural Sepiolite were used as metal supports. The reaction rates were a function of both the substituent group of olefinic double bond as well as of the Rh catalyst support. Valuable information about hydrogenation mechanism was also obtained from several “isokinetic parameters” calculated from the existence of a “compensation effect” between In A and Ea from the Arhenius equation (as well as between ΔS ≠ and ΔH ≠ from the Eyring equation).
HEAVY-PARTICLE RADIOGRAPHY WITH PLASTIC NUCLEAR TRACK DETECTORS

ABSTRACT A nearly monoenergetic beam of heavy particles produced by the Berkeley Bevatron or Bevalac can be used as a very sensitive tool for the measurement of the mass thicknesses of a stopping material. If such a beam is stopped in a stack of plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTD) after having passed through a specimen, the processed detectors reveal a high-contrast radiograph which shows very slight gradations in the mass thickness of the specimen. The PNTD are the logical choice of detector because of their threshold registration characteristics. They register each particle only near its stopping point but with nearly 100% efficiency.
Power Generation through Gravity for Rural Lighting Purpose

Retaining strength has grown to be the largest trouble in gift state of affairs. Due to the development and modernization the energy demand is growing at excessive volume. To fulfill this demand globally which is without any harmful impact on environment is viable by means of the usage of gravity power era. The reason behind producing electricity by means of the use of gravity is that it's miles available everywhere in the earth. Evaluating to the alternative sources like chemical, thermal and different resources gravity is vulnerable, is scalable. This weak spot is due to uniformity, or steady country of our interactions with gravity. As gravity is vulnerable as compared to the opposite sources, it can't be correctly converted into electric energy or in the other shape. The concept of gravity power technology is simple. The basic concept of gravity energy technology mechanism is, while a body action down from higher altitude to lower one its capability strength is transformed into kinetic power. This movement is transformed into round motion and that round movement is transformed into energy by way of the use of a Mini DC generator.
Temporal variability of propagation and reverberation during TREX13

During the Target and Reverberation Experiment in 2013, a bottom-mounted, mid-frequency source and horizontal line array were deployed on the seafloor to measure reverberation over the course of the experiment. Extending from the source and parallel to shore was the “main reverberation track,” a 7-km long and 1.5 km wide region where a majority of the acoustic and environmental measurements were made. Along this track, two vertical line arrays were deployed to continuously collect propagation data. The combination of the HLA and VLAs made it possible to make contemporaneous measurements of both transmission loss (TL) and reverberation level (RL) over a 3-week timespan. During this time, a storm passed through the site and the variability in the TL is found to be driven by different mechanisms. Prior to the storm, the variability was primarily driven by changes in the sound speed profile; after the storm, the water was well-mixed and the variability was a steady decay of TL while the rough sea surface decayed. This talk examines the variability in TL during these time periods and the associated changes in the measured RL. [Work supported by ONR.]
Improved in vitro cytotoxicity of vaccinia virus in colon cancer cells by expression of murine tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand and combination with chemotherapy

770 Vaccinia virus has properties that make it potentially useful as an anticancer agent. These properties include a rapid life cycle in the host cell cytoplasm, presence of promoters capable of driving high levels of protein production, efficient cell-to-cell spread, induction of tissue destruction, and a natural tumor tropism. Tumor selectivity has been increased by construction of recombinant vaccinia virus vectors either with deletion of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene alone, or with deletions of both the TK gene and vaccinia growth factor (VGF) gene. While these recombinant vectors themselves show promise as oncolytic viruses, we hypothesize that their effect can be enhanced by taking advantage of their strong promoters to drive expression of death ligands or immunostimulatory molecules. We have constructed a recombinant vaccinia virus with deletion of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene and with insertion of a gene for murine tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (mTRAIL). In this study, we compare the oncolytic activity of a TK-deleted vaccinia virus (VJS6) with that of the vaccinia virus expressing mTRAIL (vvmTRAIL) in the human colon cancer cell line DLD1. Given that several studies have shown synergy between chemotherapeutic agents and TRAIL, we evaluated the effects of combining oxaliplatin with the two viral constructs in DLD1 cells. Cultured DLD1 cells were treated with VJS6 and vvmTRAIL, either alone or in combination with oxaliplatin. mTRAIL expression was evaluated by flow cytometry. Cell viability and apoptosis were evaluated with MTS assay and Annexin V conjugated with phycoerythrin, respectively. The fraction of cultured DLD1 cells expressing mTRAIL reached a maximum level at 24 hours after infection with vvmTRAIL. When treated at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.5, more than 70% of cells expressed mTRAIL after 24 hours. This fraction increased to greater than 90% if apoptosis was inhibited using a pan-caspase inhibitor. The expression of mTRAIL increased the killing efficiency of the vaccinia virus. After treatment at an MOI of 1 for 72 hours, VJS6 caused less than 20% decrease in cell viability, whereas vvmTRAIL caused greater than 75% decrease in cell viability. Over 24 hours, vvmTRAIL at an MOI of 0.1 induced apoptosis in more than 25% of cultured cells, while VJS6 at the same MOI induced apoptosis in less than 10% of cells. The effect of the vvmTRAIL was enhanced by oxaliplatin, evidenced by reduction of the IC50 value of vvmTRAIL. These results demonstrate in an in vitro model that the anti-tumor effect of vaccinia virus can be enhanced by the expression of TRAIL. The tumoricidal effect can be further enhanced by oxaliplatin in a colon cancer cell line.
Solvent-mediated pressure-treated bixin-casein complexation for targeted color delivery.

Abstract Carryover color in the whey fluid is one of the major challenges faced by the cheese manufacturing industry. In this study, we describe a solvent-mediated high-pressure process to complexate bixin and casein micelles as a novel strategy for color delivery. High pressures (120 and 240 MPa) and added ethanol resulted in change in casein hydrophobicity by exposure of tryptophan residues, as confirmed by spectroscopic methods. The incorporation of bixin resulted in a marked quenching of the fluorescence peak associated with tryptophan. A simulated coagulation study has shown that pressure-treated complexes resulted in whey powder with significantly lower a* values than unbleached whey, whereas no significant differences were observed for b* values. The results suggest that complexes can produce curds with a color similar to that using commercial annatto powder and whey powder with equal or superior color quality than obtained with chemical bleaching.
Family Ties? The Limits of Fathering Daughters on Congressional Behavior:

Scholars have long suggested that familial life can affect political behavior and, more recently, have found that fathering daughters leads men to adopt more liberal positions on gender equality po...
School Nurses' Roles in Preparing Special Needs Students for Active School Shootings

The occurrence of mass shootings in U.S. public schools is increasing. For this reason, schools have begun expanding their awareness and preparation for these crises. However, in most preparation strategies, students with disabilities are not accounted for, which leaves an already vulnerable population at further risk. Due to their expertise in working with students with diverse needs and promoting health and safety in schools, school nurses are the ideal persons to lead the discussion about safety deficits when it comes to school shootings and students with special needs. This article provides a rationale for school nurses taking leadership roles in creating school shooting policies as well as provides guidelines for how nurses can work collaboratively to keep students with disabilities safe.
Book Review (Reviewing Michael Widener and Mark S. Weiner’s Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection)

As the law and culture scholar Steve Redhead has written, whereas law is a literary pursuit, “the contemporary cultural terrain is defined almost exclusively in visual terms.” Furthermore, law, which is increasingly esoteric and technical, is increasingly difficult to translate into visual terms, or so they say. It is no wonder, then, that a divide exists between law and the visual arts. Now, however, a catalogue comes forth from the storied collection of Yale’s Lillian Goldman Law Library that reveals the forgotten and clandestine history of law’s love affair with the image.
Politics for Profit : Business, Elections, and Policymaking in Russia

Businesspeople run for and win elected office around the world, with roughly one-third of members of parliament and numerous heads of states coming directly from the private sector. Yet we know little about why these politicians choose to leave the private sector and what they actually do while in government. In Politics for Profit, David Szakonyi brings to bear sweeping quantitative and qualitative evidence from Putin-era Russia to shed light on why businesspeople contest elections and what the consequences are for their firms and for society when they win. The book develops an original theory of businessperson candidacy as a type of corporate political activity undertaken in response to both economic competition and weak political parties. Szakonyi's evidence then shows that businesspeople help their firms reap huge gains in revenue and profitability while prioritizing investments in public infrastructure over human capital. The book finally evaluates policies for combatting political corruption.
A Cloud connected NO2 and Ozone Sensor System for Personalized Pediatric Asthma Research and Management

This paper presents a cloud-connected indoor air quality sensor system that can be deployed to patients' homes to study personal microenvironmental exposure for asthma research and management. The system consists of multiple compact sensor units that can measure residential NO2, ozone, humidity, and temperature at one minute resolution and a cloud based informatic system that acquires, stores, and visualizes the microenvironmental data in real time. The sensor hardware can measure NO2 as low as 10 ppb and ozone at 15 ppb. The cloud informatic system is implemented using open-source software on Amazon Web Service for easy deployment and scalability. This system was successfully deployed to pediatric asthma patients' homes in a pilot study. In this study, we discovered that some families can have short term NO2 exposure higher than EPA's one hour exposure limit (100 ppb), and NO2 micropollution episodes often arise from natural gas appliance usage such as gas stove burning during cooking. By combining the personalized air pollutant exposure measurements with the physiological responses from a patient diary and medical record, this system can enable novel asthma research and personalized asthma management.
Feline mesothelioma: case report and review of cytologic, immunocytochemical, histopathologic, and immunohistochemical findings.

Mesotheliomas are uncommon neoplasms that arise from mesothelial cells in either the abdominal or thoracic cavities and are rarely diagnosed in cats. A 10-y-old spayed female domestic shorthair cat...
Remote research methods for Human-AI-Robot Teaming

This study focuses on methodological adaptations and considerations for remote research on Human-AI-Robot Teaming (HART) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes and effective remote research methods were explored. Central issues in remote research were identified, such as challenges in attending to participants' experiences, coordinating experimenter teams remotely, and protecting privacy and confidentiality. Instances of experimental design overcoming these challenges were identified in methods for recruitment and onboarding, training, team task scenarios, and measurement. Three case studies are presented in which interactive in-person testbeds for HART were rapidly redesigned to function remotely. Although COVID-19 may have temporarily constrained experimental design, future HART studies may adopt remote research methods to expand the research toolkit.
Error-correcting codes for short tandem duplications and at most $p$ substitutions

Compared to conventional data storage media, DNA has several advantages, including high data density, energy efficiency, longevity, and ease of generating copies. However, challenges arising from the prevalence and variety of errors in the DNA data storage pipeline, which include substitutions, duplications, insertions, and deletions, must be addressed. This paper focuses on simultaneously correcting an arbitrary number of short tandem duplications and at most $p$ substitutions, where a short tandem duplication error consists of inserting a copy of a substring of length at most 3 immediately after it. Interacting with tandem duplications, the substitutions may affect segments of unbounded lengths in the stored sequence. However, if the codewords are irreducible, i.e., they do not have any short tandem repeats, the problem can be cast as correcting edits in at most $p$ substrings of bounded lengths. We construct irreducible codes with a structure that allows identifying where edit errors have occurred, which are then corrected using an MDS code. The rate of the proposed code correcting duplications and at most $p$ substitutions, when $\log p=o(\log n)$ , is shown to be at least $\log(q-2)(1-o(1)$ , where $q$ is the alphabet size and $n$ is the length of the code.
An Investigation of Socioeconomic Status and Body Image Among Hook-Up App Users

AbstractObjective: The popularity of dating/hook-up apps such as Tinder is on the rise. Although these apps offer some positive benefits (e.g., friendship, romantic relationships), their use is als...
A potential dual-functional thermoelectric and electroelectric polymer composite

Abstract Doping alters the electronic properties of the host semiconducting polymer and may enable tunable devices with temperature sensing and environmental heating/cooling control system applications. We present a doped composite consisting of the p-type semiconducting polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and a thermoelectric electron acceptor, iodine, as the active layer of a field-effect device, where temperature modulates the current-voltage characteristics and on-off ratios, and gate voltage modulates the thermoelectric properties of the active layer, called dual-functionality. A small amount of iodine doping improved FET output by a factor of 10 as well as thermoelectric power factor by a factor of 3. Those gains are primarily attributed to thermoelectric doping induced charge-carrier density increases.
Molecular Test Validation, Monitoring, and Quality Control

Test validation is the ongoing process of ensuring that the expected performance of an assay is consistently met in testing clinical specimens. Test (or assay) validation is an integral part of quality assessment (QA), which includes quality control, quality improvement, and method validation. QA encompasses routine quality control, proficiency testing, technical staff competency, instrument calibration, and clinical correlation. Quality management of molecular testing begins with the test request and continues through specimen collection, transport, processing, analytical testing, result generation, result review, test interpretation, and reporting. This chapter focuses mainly on the analytical phase of testing. The types of molecular testing included in the chapter are qualitative, quantitative, multiplex, and microarray methods. Quantitative molecular testing consists of numeric values with defined units in the test result. Quality assurance includes quality control, quality improvement, and method validation. Validation of the analytical phase not only includes ensuring adequate and acceptable training on the test but also relies upon evaluation by actual observation of the technologist performing the test on a recurrent basis (operator competency assessment). This should include validation of staff adherence to the standard operating procedure (SOP) exactly as stated, biosafety, patient confidentiality, result interpretation, reporting, and quality control documentation. The use of quality controls, proficiency testing, and monitoring of technical staff competency and equipment and instrument performance are all essential parts of this process.
The Role of Perception in Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought: The Nature of True Virtue Reconsidered

ABSRACT This essay provides an interpretation of Jonathan Edwards's moral thought that calls attention to the motif of perception in his conception of true virtue. The aim is to illumine the extent to which Edwards's virtue ethics can be included in and contribute to prevailing approaches to virtue in contemporary theological ethics. To advance this proposal, this essay attends to the question of moral agency that Edwards's reflections on charity, the new spiritual sense, and religious affections raise. This procedure offers an acute sense of the significance of perception for Edwards's virtue ethics, which in turn allows for a constructive Edwardsean entry into current theological discussions on the narrative character of virtue.
Estratégias de Recursos Humanos, aliada a Estratégias de Negócios: Revisão sistemática da literatura

A gestaode recursos humanos e frequentemente apontada como uma variavel que influenciapositivamente as estrategias de negocios nas organizacoes. O objetivo destainvestigacao foi verificar o nivel da interacao entre as estrategias de negocio e os de recursos humanos. Para isso autilizou-se a metodologia de uma revisao sistematica da literatura. Comobase de dados para a pesquisa foi utilizadas as bases Emerald, Scielo,Science Direct e Web of Science. Entre osresultados obtidos, os vinte e dois artigos encontrados foram categorizados de acordocom: a relacao entre recursos humanos e estrategia de negocios, a relacao com ocontexto, a relacao com trabalho, mercado de trabalho e vantagem competitiva ea relacao com o desempenho da empresa.