cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of feeding guild on insect response to host plant fertilization

. 1 The densities of insect herbivores in fertilized and unfertilized field plots of goldenrods, Solidago altissima (Compositae), were monitored over a period of 4 years. 2 A total of seventeen insect taxa occurred on the plots over the course of the study, including sap feeders, leaf chewers, leaf miners, leaf gallers and stem gallers with multiple representatives in each of these feeding guilds. 3 Nine of the seventeen taxa significantly increased in density on fertilized plots in at least one year of the study, two taxa showed marginally significant increases on fertilized plots, two significantly decreased in density on fertilized plots in at least one year, and the remaining taxa were unaffected by the fertilizer treatment. 4 The effects of fertilization on the insects were not strongly related to feeding guild; the group of insects that increased on fertilized plots was functionally diverse, and for the most part members of the same guild did not respond to the fertilizer treatment in consistent ways. 5 Differences between fertilized and unfertilized plots were greatest in the fourth year. The insects that showed delayed responses to fertilizer treatment may have been affected by changes in microclimate that developed slowly over the course of the study, suggesting that long-term studies may be necessary to detect effects of host plant stress on insect herbivores.
BTK interventions: How to make most with limited technology – Adopted from an oral presentation from APVIC VII

Abstract Failure to successfully cross a total occlusion is one of the major causes for unsuccessful percutaneous revascularization. In the United States, there are several different technologies, but not every hospital has every technology. There are other ways to treat these patients without expensive technologies and that is with the skills and persistence. An ideal endovascular tool should be cost effective, efficient, and safe and should maintain good outcomes. There are many endovascular tools, one can use for improving outcomes during endovascular revascularization. Wires and catheters are comparatively the cheapest tools of this treatment modality. Newer technology includes crossing devices, drug coated balloons, and drug eluting stents.
Effects of Massed and Distributed Practice Schedules upon the Acquisition of Pursuit Rotor Tracking by Normal and Mentally Retarded Subjects

Abstract This study compared the effects of massed practice, distributed practice with a 20-sec. intertrial rest, and distributed practice with a 2-min. intertrial rest in an attempt to determine if a difference existed in either the rate of buildup or rate of dissipation of the reactive inhibition affecting the acquisition of a tracking skill in normal and mentally retarded subjects. Thirty normal and 29 mentally retarded subjects ranging in age from 12 to 45 years practiced on a photoelectric pursuit rotor under one of the three experimental conditions. Differing rates in the buildup of inhibition were observed between normal and retarded subjects and between different practice schedules. Two classes of inhibiting factors appeared to operate upon the normals receiving distributed practice; one class of factors affected distributed practice with a 20-sec. intertrial rest and the other operated on practice schedules with a 2-min. intertrial rest. These inhibitory factors appeared to be of a temporary nature.
Effects of tumbling trauma, scalding and hemorrhage on rat tissue non-protein sulfhydryl.

Summary1. Significant decreases in concentration of non-protein -SH were noted in rat liver following tumbling trauma, and in rat liver and kidney following severe scalding. 2. In analyses confined to the liver, a significant decrease in liver non-protein -SH was noted following severe hemorrhage. No appreciable change was noted in either liver protein -SH or extractable liver protein. 3. Blood non-protein -SH concentrations were practically identical for control and tumbled rats. Scalded rats exhibited a moderate increase in concentration of blood non-protein -SH, paralleling the hemoconcentration.
Abstract B2: Maternal consumption of canola oil reduces mammary gland cancer risk in C3(1) Tag offspring

B2 Maternal diet may influence development of the offspring and may influence future cancer risk. Maternal consumption of diet high in n-6 (omega 6) polyunsaturated fats has been shown to increase risk for mammary gland cancer (Hilakivi-Clarke et al, 1997). We wanted to know if the substitution of corn oil with canola oil in the maternal diet might reduce the risk for breast cancer. Such a change would decrease dietary n-6 fat and increase n-3 fat. A study was devised to determine whether exposure to a diet that has less omega 6 and more omega 3 FAs during gestation and lactation would reduce the risk for mammary cancer in female offspring. Female SV 129 mice were divided into two groups and placed on diets either containing 10% w/w corn oil (corn oil is 50% omega 6 and Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2008;1(7 Suppl):B2.
Mass-Independent Oxygen Isotope (16O, 17O, 18O) Fractionation Found in Hx, Ox Reactions

The oxygen isotopic composition (16O, 17O, 18O) of the products produced in Hx, Ox reactions has been investigated using a fast flow reactor. The products were trapped at liquid nitrogen temperature. Measurement of all stable oxygen isotopes on reaction products enhanced distinction between mass-dependent and mass-independent fractionation processes. It was observed that all product species were mass-independently fractionated (MIF). Kinetic analysis suggests that MIF may derive from the H + O2 + M reaction. Kinetic analysis and discussion of the potential role of symmetry reactions are presented. The similarity of isotopic behavior between this reaction and ozone formation suggests a common origin. Currently, no theory explains the mass-independent fractionation observed in any gas-phase chemical reaction. Due to its atmospheric importance, possible isotopic implications for the Earth's atmosphere are discussed.
“The Forbidden Land”: The British, Frontier Nationalism, and Congress, 1931–1934

On Christmas Eve 1931, Indian Police battalions, accompanied by units of the Indian Army and the Royal Air Force, entered Peshawar and all other urban centers of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in order to arrest the leadership of the regional nationalist movement. By Christmas morning the leader of the Khudai Khidmatgars, or the “Red Shirts” as the British referred to them, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his brother, Dr. Khan Sahib, and a number of other nationalist leaders had been detained and deported from the province on a special train. Meanwhile, military columns spread throughout the NWFP, marching at night, and rounding up entire villages in dawn raids.1 These raids, carried out on a day which, as the then Deputy Commissioner for Peshawar, Olaf Caroe, put it, “nobody, however suspicious, would expect a British authority to proceed to stringent action,” constituted the first salvo in a two-year campaign of attrition against the nationalist movement in the province.2
Vesicostomy for the Temporary Diversion of the Urine in Small Children

Abstract Vesicostomy was done as a means of temporary urinary diversion in 16 children less than 3 years old. Adequate urinary drainage was not present in these children yet definitive corrective measures were not considered advisable. The good results achieved suggest that this operation is ideally suited for this purpose.
Novel Locus for Generalized Epilepsy with Febrile Seizures Plus

Linkage analysis was conducted in 5 French families with generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+), with at least 7 affected members with autosomal dominant transmission, in an attempt to localize a new gene for GEFS+, at Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, France.
TU-H-206-01: An Automated Approach for Identifying Geometric Distortions in Gamma Cameras

Purpose: To develop a clinically-deployable, automated process for detecting artifacts in routine nuclear medicine (NM) quality assurance (QA) bar phantom images. Methods: An artifact detection algorithm was created to analyze bar phantom images as part of an ongoing QA program. A low noise, high resolution reference image was acquired from an x-ray of the bar phantom with a Philips Digital Diagnost system utilizing image stitching. NM bar images, acquired for 5 million counts over a 512×512 matrix, were registered to the template image by maximizing mutual information (MI). The MI index was used as an initial test for artifacts; low values indicate an overall presence of distortions regardless of their spatial location. Images with low MI scores were further analyzed for bar linearity, periodicity, alignment, and compression to locate differences with respect to the template. Findings from each test were spatially correlated and locations failing multiple tests were flagged as potential artifacts requiring additional visual analysis. The algorithm was initially deployed for GE Discovery 670 and Infinia Hawkeye gamma cameras. Results: The algorithm successfully identified clinically relevant artifacts from both systems previously unnoticed by technologists performing the QA. Average MI indices for artifact-free images are 0.55. Images with MI indices < 0.50 have shown 100% sensitivity and specificity for artifact detection when compared with a thorough visual analysis. Correlation of geometric tests confirms the ability to spatially locate the most likely image regions containing an artifact regardless of initial phantom orientation. Conclusion: The algorithm shows the potential to detect gamma camera artifacts that may be missed by routine technologist inspections. Detection and subsequent correction of artifacts ensures maximum image quality and may help to identify failing hardware before it impacts clinical workflow. Going forward, the algorithm is being deployed to monitor data from all gamma cameras within our health system.
Small Potassium Channels: Speculation on a Role to Regulate Aldosterone Production and Blood Pressure.

See related article, pp 785–795 In the current issue of Hypertension , Yang et al1 report on the presence of small conductance, calcium (Ca++)–activated potassium (K+) channels (SK channels) in a human adrenocortical cell line (H295R). SK channels were also found in normal human adrenals. Using pharmacological probes, these investigators showed relevance to synthesis of aldosterone: a specific SK channel inhibitor, apamin, increased expression of steroidogenic enzymes and increased both basal and angiotensin II–stimulated aldosterone production. 1-ethyl-benzimidazolinone (1-EBIO), an agonist of SK channels, produced opposite effects. The authors suggest that a dysfunctional SK channel could decrease a restraining influence on secretion of aldosterone. Some degree of caution should be applied to the findings. There was a heavy reliance on nonbiological probes and the use of a human cell line (NIH-H295). Although a widely used source of adrenocortical cells, any cell line can lose certain functions over time. Replication by other laboratories will be important. Produced in the adrenal zona glomerulosa, aldosterone is a potent sodium (Na+)–retaining, K+-secreting hormone. Angiotensin II and K+ stimulate its production to, respectively, maintain plasma volume and prevent hyperkalemia.2 Both stimuli act by first decreasing a highly polarized …
Key Concepts in TESOL

The previous chapter concentrated on the broad areas of language, learning, and teaching, and in doing so introduced you to a number of important concepts in the field. We discovered areas in which there is broad agreement, but also learned more about the wide variety of perspectives that teachers and researchers hold about L2 teaching and learning. That theme continues in this chapter, as we take a closer look at some specific concepts related to TESOL. My goal here, as always, is not to provide a definitive survey, but merely to help familiarize you with the kinds of ideas you will be learning about in hopes that this will make it easier when you do encounter them and so that you might begin to identify areas that are of particular interest to you. If you are reading this book as part of a class where you are assigned a research project (see Chapter 5 for help on conducting research) this chapter can be a source of ideas, suggesting avenues for further inquiry. Whereas in the previous chapter we dealt to a greater extent with theories of language, teaching, and learning, this chapter will lean toward the practical, emphasizing many of the issues that face teachers in the classroom.
What To Do If a Product Fails in the EMC Lab

It is a fact of life that products will fail in the EMC test laboratory once in a while. Regardless of whether designers apply all the design strategies explained in this book or not, sometimes events occur that are outside our control. For example, a subsystem is purchased from a vendor and installed in our system. It works fine in other systems, but there is a problem when installed in our system. A shielded enclosure may not be quite as “tight” as planned, etc. The list of things that can go wrong is endless, and to be effective in the testing phase, laboratory engineers must quickly find the source of the problem and propose one or more solutions.
A SiC-based high-performance medium-voltage fast charger for plug-in electric vehicles

This paper presents an isolated medium-voltage, high-power-quality and high efficiency (over 96%), fast charger for plug-in electric vehicles. The proposed fully modular fast charger uses off-the-shelf Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices to convert the rectified single-phase 2.4 kV medium-voltage input to variable dc output. The adopted input-series-output-parallel unidirectional topology enables converter scalability in both the input voltage and the output power. Using wide bandgap (WBG) power devices enables 9 times reduction in volume and 6 times reduction in weight, compared to the state-of-the-art fast chargers, while exceeding the efficiency of the state-of-the-art fast chargers by more than 1.5% Based on the system requirements, the appropriate converter topology was selected, its operation was simulated and validated by experiments on the developed fast charger prototype.
Designing for operational efficiency: facility managers’ perspectives on how their knowledge can be better incorporated during design

ABSTRACTThere is a growing agreement among researchers and practitioners that the input of facility managers (FMs) can be a vital resource during the architectural design process. FMs are responsible for the everyday operations of buildings, and are therefore aware of many practical details of maintenance and efficiency that designers may overlook. However, despite the recognized benefits of collaboration between designers and FMs, there are significant obstacles that have so far prevented the widespread implementation of this partnership. The current study used data from 30 in-depth interviews and a widely distributed survey of FMs in three international regions to identify some of the obstacles that prevent collaboration between FMs and designers. Based on these data, the authors also developed specific recommendations for better incorporating the knowledge of FMs into the design process. Difficulties in communication and cultural barriers between the two fields were found to be the most pervasively rep...
Performance Feedback and Organizational Learning: The Role of Expected Future Performance Decrease

The behavioral theory of the firm, which traditionally focuses on the backward-looking behaviors of firms, argues that current performance decrease (CPD) increases organizational learning. Building...
Irradiation Testing of Piezoelectric (Aluminum Nitride, Zinc Oxide, and Bismuth Titanate) and Magnetostrictive Sensors (Remendur and Galfenol)

Four piezoelectric transducers with aluminum nitride (AlN), zinc oxide (ZnO), and bismuth titanate (BiTi) as the active elements and two magnetostrictive transducers were fabricated with Remendur and Galfenol as the active elements. The irradiation was for 18 months with an integrated neutron fluence of approximately $8.68 \times 10^{20}$ n/cm2 for $E >1$ MeV, temperatures in excess of 420 °C, and a gamma fluence of $7.23 \times 10^{21}$ gamma/cm2. The sensor performance is explained in the context of the pulse-echo signals. The feasibility of ultrasonic transducers in a nuclear reactor has been established. This opens the door to leave-in-place sensors for in-reactor conditions and materials.
New yield criteria for isotropic and textured metallic materials

Abstract In this paper a new isotropic criterion that describes well yielding of randomly oriented face-centered polycrystalline metallic materials is proposed. The extension of this criterion such as to describe orthotropy is developed using generalized invariants of the stress deviator. This new orthotropic criterion is general and applicable to three-dimensional stress states. The procedure for the identification of the material parameters is outlined. Illustration of the predictive capabilities of the new orthotropic is demonstrated through comparison between the model predictions and data on aluminum sheet samples.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa gshA Mutant Is Defective in Biofilm Formation, Swarming, and Pyocyanin Production

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium that can cause severe opportunistic infections. The principal redox buffer employed by this organism is glutathione (GSH). To assess the role of GSH in the virulence of P. aeruginosa, a number of analyses were performed using a mutant strain deficient in gshA , which does not produce GSH. The mutant strain exhibited a growth delay in minimal medium compared to the wild-type strain. Furthermore, the gshA mutant was defective in biofilm and persister cell formation and in swimming and swarming motility and produced reduced levels of pyocyanin, a key virulence factor. Finally, the gshA mutant strain demonstrated increased sensitivity to methyl viologen (a redox cycling agent) as well as the thiol-reactive antibiotics fosfomycin and rifampin. Taken together, these data suggest a key role for GSH in the virulence of P. aeruginosa. IMPORTANCE Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous bacterium that can cause severe opportunistic infections, including many hospital-acquired infections. It is also a major cause of infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. P. aeruginosa is intrinsically resistant to a number of drugs and is capable of forming biofilms that are difficult to eradicate with antibiotics. The number of drug-resistant strains is also increasing, making treatment of P. aeruginosa infections very difficult. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand how P. aeruginosa causes disease in order to find novel ways to treat infections. We show that the principal redox buffer, glutathione (GSH), is involved in intrinsic resistance to the fosfomycin and rifampin antibiotics. We further demonstrate that GSH plays a role in P. aeruginosa disease and infection, since a mutant lacking GSH has less biofilm formation, is less able to swarm, and produces less pyocyanin, a pigment associated with infection.
Trends in Gender-affirming Surgery in Insured Patients in the United States.

Background An estimated 0.6% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender and an increasing number of patients are presenting for gender-related medical and surgical services. Utilization of health care services, especially surgical services, by transgender patients is poorly understood beyond survey-based studies. In this article, our aim is 2-fold; first, we intend to demonstrate the utilization of datasets generated by insurance claims data as a means of analyzing gender-related health services, and second, we use this modality to provide basic demographic, utilization, and outcomes data about the insured transgender population. Methods The Truven MarketScan Database, containing data from 2009 to 2015, was utilized, and a sample set was created using the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis code. Basic demographic information and utilization of gender-affirming procedures was tabulated. Results We identified 7,905 transgender patients, 1,047 of which underwent surgical procedures from 2009 to 2015. Our demographic results were consistent with previous survey-based studies, suggesting transgender patients are on average young adults (average age = 29.8), and geographically diverse. The most common procedure from 2009 to 2015 was mastectomy. Complications of all gender-affirming procedures was 5.8%, with the highest rate of complications occurring with phalloplasty. There was a marked year-by-year increase in utilization of surgical services. Conclusion Transgender care and gender confirming surgery are an increasing component of health care in the United States. The data contained in existing databases can provide demographic, utilization, and outcomes data relevant to providers caring for the transgender patient population.
Purkinje Cell Representations of Behavior: Diary of a Busy Neuron

Fundamental for understanding cerebellar function is determining the representations in Purkinje cell activity, the sole output of the cerebellar cortex. Up to the present, the most accurate descri...
Progress on New Approaches to Old Ideas: Orbital-Free Density Functionals

State-of-the-art treatment of nuclei and electrons in materials uses ab initio molecular dynamics for nuclear motion driven by Born-Oppenheimer forces from the electrons. Almost universally, those forces are calculated from density functional theory in the Kohn–Sham form. The computational costs of the conventional KS implementation scale at least as the cube of the number of electrons. This is a formidable barrier to complex system simulations with long MD runs on department-scale machines, since the DFT force calculation dominates the per step cost. The difficulty arises from the explicit dependence of the non-interacting kinetic energy on the KS non-interacting orbitals. The cost scaling worsens with use of explicitly orbital-dependent exchange-correlation functionals. The alternative approach, use of DFT in its basic form, dates to Thomas-Fermi-Dirac theory. The challenge is to have sufficiently accurate orbital-free expressions for the KS kinetic energy and exchange-correlation functionals. We discuss progress on these tasks via constraint-based methods, with emphasis on developments since the Sept. 2010 “New Approaches to Many-Electron Theory” meeting.
P146 Variations in the expression of antibody epitopes associated with dqb1*03:01 alleles in B cells

Aim To evaluate variations of the expression of antibody epitopes associated with DQB1*03:01 alleles in B cells. Methods Antibody tests were performed using Luminex Single Antigen Bead (SAB) assay on serum samples treated with DTT. XMs were performed by flow cytometry, using lymphocytes from peripheral blood of healthy volunteers, which were treated with pronase. Results Four sera reacted strongly with beads carrying the following alleles: DQB1*03:01-DQA1*06:01, DQB1*03:01-DQA1*05:05, and DQB1*03:01-DQA1*05:03 (Figure 1). Sera JM and RH reacted strongly with B cells from all 6 donors who were positive for DQB1*03:01 indicating that these cells express adequate amount of DQ molecules (Figure 2A). However, XMs of sera CG and SR with the 4 heterozygous DQB1*03:01 B cells showed weak or no reactivity respectively (Figure 2B). In comparison to XM reactivity from sera JM and RH the XMs with sera SR and CG exhibited a 25-50-fold lower Δ MESF values (Figure 2A versus 2B). This unexpected low reactivity of sera SR and CG with B cells is striking since their reactivity with SAB is similar to that of serum JM except with the DQB1*03:01-DQA1*03:01 allele (Figure 1). Notably, SR and CG reacted with B cells that were homozygous for DQB1*03:01 (Figure 2B, Donor 1 and 2) indicating that the reactivity of these sera with the SAB was not due to denatured epitopes. Conclusions These results suggest that the observed variable expression of DQB1*03:01 epitope on B cells could be due to variation in the conformation of this epitope on the same DQ molecules with a potential impact on antibody affinity to this epitope. The discrepancy between SAB MFI values and XM reactivity is important to consider in assessing HLA compatibility and lymphocyte crossmatching.
The coming wave of East Asian democracy 1

Aspirations for democratic and accountable government run deep throughout the Middle East, and for years to come the region will be a lively and contested terrain of possibilities for regime evolution. There are three democracies in East Asia today that rank among the stable liberal democracies of the industrialized world: Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. They are not without stiff economic and political challenges and large numbers of disenchanted citizens who in surveys express only tepid support for democracy. A transition to democracy could happen any time in the coming years through the familiar instrument that has brought it about in other competitive authoritarian regimes: the electoral process. Henry Rowen's projections were a bit mechanical in assuming that economic growth would necessarily drive gradual political change toward democracy in China. The irony of communist China's relentless push for integration with Taiwan is that it may begin to generate political convergence, but not in the way that the communist leaders imagined.
Data Processing and Analysis Approach to Retrieve Carbon Dioxide Weighted-Column Mixing Ratio and 2- $\mu$ m Reflectance With an Airborne Laser Absorption Spectrometer

We describe the data processing and analysis algorithms used for high-precision retrievals of CO2 weighted-column mixing ratio and 2- $\mu \text{m}$ surface reflectance from the Carbon Dioxide Laser Absorption Spectrometer (CO2LAS). The CO2LAS at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA, is one of the instruments designed to demonstrate capabilities needed for the NASA Active Sensing over Nights, Days, and Seasons mission concept. The integrated path differential absorption technique is used in CO2 retrieval. The along-track spatial resolution for the airborne measurements described here ranges from 10 m to 1 km. Our approach employs heterodyne detection of two laser signals reflected off earth’s surface. Frequency domain processing enables return signal peak detection and high-fidelity power estimation. We compensate for range to ground variations using a digital elevation model and emphasize the importance of reflectance weighting in time averaging of the surface elevation. Quality control filters are applied, as well as a statistical methodology to filter laser speckle fluctuations. Reflectance is also retrieved on the scale of a few meters of ground track. Our data processing workflow and example retrievals are presented.
A randomized placebo-controlled single-center pilot study of the safety and efficacy of apremilast in subjects with moderate-to-severe alopecia areata.

Alopecia areata (AA) is a common autoimmune disease that results in non-scarring hair loss. AA pathogenesis is thought to involve multiple inflammatory cytokines. Apremilast is a phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor that reduces pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Recent studies demonstrate upregulation of PDE4 in human scalp lesions of AA patients and hair regrowth in a humanized AA mouse model upon apremilast treatment, suggesting a possible potential of apremilast in AA. To assess the efficacy and safety of apremilast in AA, we conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled single-center pilot study in 30 moderate-to-severe AA patients (≥ 50% scalp involvement) that were randomized 2:1 to receive apremilast (n = 20) or placebo (n = 10) orally for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients achieving 50% reduction in severity of alopecia tool (SALT) score (SALT50) at 24 weeks compared to baseline, and the secondary endpoints included the percent change in SALT score at weeks 24 and 48. Eight patients in the apremilast arm withdrew prior to week 24 along with two patients in the placebo group, mostly due to lack of efficacy and adverse events. At 24 weeks, only 1 of 12 apremilast-treated subjects achieved SALT50, and similarly 1 of 8 placebo-treated subjects achieved SALT50. The difference between the mean percent improvement in SALT score at week 24 compared to baseline of the two study arms was not statistically significant (p = 0.38). The lack of treatment response in most of our patients argues against a pathogenic role for PDE4 specifically in moderate-to-severe AA, but targeting this pathway may still be of value in patients with mild AA as there is less of an inflammatory burden in this population. However, future larger studies may be needed to conclude apremilast’s lack of efficacy in moderate-to-severe AA.
Transition from parental prostacyclin to selexipag: a case series of five pulmonary arterial hypertension patients:

Parental prostacyclin is the only therapy with a proven survival benefit in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, some patients are unable to tolerate continuous prostacyclin infusion bec...
Integrating location and network restoration decisions in relief networks under uncertainty

Abstract Prepositioning emergency relief items in emergency response facilities before an anticipated disaster is a common strategy to increase the effectiveness of relief distribution. In this paper, we assume that relief distribution activities are hampered due to damaged roads, which can be restored by repair teams using restoration equipment. We propose a two-stage stochastic programming model integrating facility location and network restoration decisions. Our integrated model decides on the location of restoration equipment prior to the disaster in addition to the facility location decisions. Moreover, decisions related to relief item distribution and network restoration are made jointly after the disaster for each disaster scenario. We capture uncertainty in the network availability by incorporating the repair times required to restore the damaged roads. To solve our integrated model efficiently, we develop a sample average approximation method with concentration sets motivated by Rosing and ReVelle’s (1997) Heuristic Concentration. These concentration sets are comprised of promising locations identified by information obtained from disaster scenarios. We limit our solution space in the first stage to concentration sets to reduce the problem size without sacrificing the solution quality significantly. Our computational results show significant improvement in unmet demand and cost measures by integrating location and network restoration models.
Improved Source Term Specification Improved Evolutionary Characteristics of Directional Spectra

Abstract : The long-term goals are: (a) To formulate an accurate, efficient, computational model for 4-wave interactions in order to simulate the detailed shape characteristics of directional spectra produced by nonlinear momentum, energy and action fluxes in all stages of wave generation in depths from deep to shallow water. (b) To develop improved source terms for wind input and wave breaking in phase-averaged models that incorporate the effects of phase-dependent attributes within waves and the boundary-layer flow above them. (c) Numerically investigate the capability of the new source terms for nonlinear interactions, wind input and wave breaking to capture the details of spectral shape in detailed-balance (i.e. third generation) wave models. (d) Determine situations in which the wave generation mechanisms in this new physics paradigm would differ markedly from existing models such as WAVEWATCHtm (WW3) and SWAN for realistic wave conditions. (e) Test the new source terms within a simple model in terms of their ability to reproduce detailed characteristics of directional spectra (energy levels within the equilibrium, spectral peakedness, and frequency-dependent directional distribution) that are consistent with recent published studies.
KnobCollector: Custom Device Controller for Dynamic Real-Time Subjective Data Collection in Virtual Reality.

Real-time data collection in immersive virtual reality can be difficult due to the visual obstruction to the real-world. Furthermore, subjective data collection is conducted post-task, reducing the information of detailed user responses during a task therefore potentially missing critical events, subtle difference, or issues not obvious to a user. In this paper we present, KnobCollector, a custom device controller for dynamic real-time collection of subjective user data during an experimental. We conducted a user study with the KnobCollector to demonstrate the feasibility of use during a virtual reality task. Our results provide more rich data sets of user feedback during the virtual reality experience and could be used for future user studies in virtual reality environments.
A phase I trial of the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus (TEM) in combination with capecitabine (CAP) in patients with advanced malignancies.

3095 Background: The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is critical for cell growth and proliferation. mTOR antagonists, such as TEM, have proven anti-cancer efficacy. Pre-clini...
Coordinated Conveying

This paper presents a well-structured, mixed-criticality, system that exhibits rich spatio-temporal behaviors that arise from the interactions of mobile conveying units. The system-level objective is for the collection of decentralized, autonomous, mobile units to transport entities from some input port to an output port when each entity has its own destination, deadline and Quality of Service constraints. Entities move by riding on the mobile units and transfer from one unit to another when two units rendezvous. We propose a systematic approach to transform the spatio-temporal patterns of interactions to a graph from which we can obtain the shortest paths that can help to address the system objective. In the future, such systems can be used to investigate a variety of intelligent, embedded, mechatronic systems issues. This system can also be integrated with other models for processes and systems to investigate some of the challenges envisaged in Industry 4.0.
Loss of Pseudouridine Synthases in the RluA Family Causes Hypersensitive Nociception in Drosophila .

Nociceptive neurons of Drosophila melanogaster larvae are characterized by highly branched dendritic processes whose proper morphogenesis relies on a large number of RNA-binding proteins. Post-transcriptional regulation of RNA in these dendrites has been found to play an important role in their function. Here, we investigate the neuronal functions of two putative RNA modification genes, RluA-1 and RluA-2, which are predicted to encode pseudouridine synthases. RluA-1 is specifically expressed in larval sensory neurons while RluA-2 expression is ubiquitous. Nociceptor-specific RNAi knockdown of RluA-1 caused hypersensitive nociception phenotypes, which were recapitulated with genetic null alleles. These were rescued with genomic duplication and nociceptor-specific expression of UAS-RluA-1-cDNA As with RluA-1, RluA-2 loss of function mutants also displayed hyperalgesia. Interestingly, nociceptor neuron dendrites showed a hyperbranched morphology in the RluA-1 mutants. The latter may be a cause or a consequence of heightened sensitivity in mutant nociception behaviors.
Conclusions and Trends

It is apparent that the rhythm of the drum beat for African women is changing very fast for several reasons and in various ways. Just as the Kossi proverb (African Missionaries Calendar, 2004) indicates, “if the rhythm of the drum changes, the dance steps must adapt.” The roles and status of the African woman are changing and they are adapting quickly and steadfastly to the new roles.
Photovoice for Health Promotion Research, Empowerment, and Advocacy: Young Refugee Stories from Turkey

Photovoice, as a Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) approach, aims to combine research with advocacy and action for achieving change. This project aimed to use photovoice to assess and increase awareness on public health problems faced by young refugees in Turkey, as well as involve young people in health promotion research and have their voices heard by policy makers. The qualitative study was conducted with young people experiencing forced migration and with local youth aged 18 to 30 years in Turkey. The methodology involved representing problems through photographs taken by participants and conducting discussions among both refugee and local youth groups, followed by dissemination and advocacy activities such as producing publications and organizing photo exhibitions that brought together policy makers, health service providers, civil society organizations, refugees, and host communities to achieve positive change through joint action. Through the photovoice process, we found that although health care services were widely available for registered refugees, many faced language, financial, cultural, and educational barriers—as well as gender and stigma-related barriers—to accessing health information, health services, and healthy environments. Using photovoice, as a CBPAR approach, had numerous advantages, such as the creation of visual findings that were more impactful than written material, the opportunity to work with vulnerable/disadvantaged groups throughout the research process, and increasing interaction between different stakeholders. This chapter demonstrates how photovoice can be used as a tool for research and advocacy to promote health and decrease inequalities in forced migration settings.
Abstract 2611: Function blocking ERBB3 antibody inhibits adaptive response to RAF inhibitor

ERBB3/HER3 is a member of the EGFR family of receptor tyrosine kinase. Our lab recently showed that treating melanoma cells with the FDAapproved small molecule BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib leads to an increase in ERBB3 signaling when grown in the presence of its ligand neuregulin (NRG1). Here, we show that targeting ERBB3 with a monoclonal antibody inhibits its activation and downstream signaling in the presence of vemurafenib and NRG1. This inhibition of ERBB3 led to a decrease in proliferation and increase in apoptosis in vitro as measured by EdU and AnnexinV/PI staining. Targeting ERBB3 in combination with mutant BRAF in vivo resulted in a delay of tumor re-growth in immune deficient mice compared to targeting mutant BRAF alone. Taken together, these results indicate that targeting ERBB3 in combination with mutant BRAF in melanoma may help enhance the initial effects of vemurafenib in the clinic. Citation Format: Curtis Harrison Kugel, Edward J. Hartsough, Michael A. Davies, Andrew E. Aplin. Function blocking ERBB3 antibody inhibits adaptive response to RAF inhibitor. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2611. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2611
A hierarchical approach to high-quality partial shape registration

This paper presents a feature-driven, hierarchical shape registration algorithm. The central idea is to generate correspondences in multiple levels in a coarse-to-fine manner, with additional features incrementally inserted in each level. The registration starts from the coarsest resolution. Registration results obtained in one level serve as references for the registration in the next level. We adopt the heat kernel coordinates [3] for local shape parameterization, giving rise to a complete solution capable of registering partial shapes undergoing isometric deformation with higher accuracy. Through experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this multi-resolution method and its advantages over the single-resolution method.
Identification of uncertain systems described by linear fractional transformations

We presents a framework for robust identification of uncertain LTI systems. Robust identification deals with the problem of finding models in a model class that best approximate the underlying uncertain system. Identification of uncertain systems arise whenever the underlying system cannot be adequately described by the model class chosen for the purpose of identification. A notion of robust consistency is introduced to deal with the problem of consistent estimation of the best model belonging to a predefined model class. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for robust consistency, which establishes the optimality of well-known instrument-variable techniques for robust consistency. We show that these conditions amount to the existence of an instrument-input-pair capable of annihilating the residual error as well as stochastic noise. These concepts are then applied to establish robust consistency for several classes of uncertain systems described by linear fractional transformations.
The Making of a People

By 2010 the Hispanic or Latino population of the United States had surpassed 50 million people. Only Mexico is larger among Spanish-speaking countries today. The rapid growth of the Hispanic population - which had been estimated at only 4 million in 1950 - has been stunning. While Hispanic Americans now account for one out of every six persons in the United States, their impact - social, cultural, political and economic - is much more profound because of their concentration in particular states and localities, and because they will account for more than half of total U.S. population growth for the next several decades. The making of this population needs to be understood from three vantage points. Hispanics are at once a new and an old population, made up both of recently arrived newcomers and of old timers with deeper roots in American soil than any other ethnic groups except for the indigenous peoples of the continent. Its growth has been driven both by immigration from the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America - above all from Mexico - and by high rates of natural increase. And the label itself - “Hispanic” or “Latino” - is new, an instance of a pan-ethnic category created by official edict three decades ago. The score of ethnic groups subsumed under this label were not “Hispanics” or “Latinos” in their countries of origin; rather, they only became so in the United States. That catchall label has a particular meaning only in the U.S. context in which it was constructed and is applied, and where its meaning continues to evolve. This chapter reviews each of these three aspects - the classificatory, the historical, and the contemporary. I begin with a discussion of the origin of the category itself, and its use in official ethnic and racial classification. I then examine the historical origins of the Hispanic presence in the United States, and trace the roots of its three oldest and largest groups. Finally, I highlight a set of salient characteristics and contexts that distinguish the contemporary Hispanic population as a whole from non-Hispanics, and the major Hispanic ethnic groups from each other - history and language, as well as place, race, national origins, immigration, generation, citizenship, and social status. While “Hispanics” as a whole are not a homogeneous entity, the tens of millions of persons so classified do share a common label which symbolizes a minority group status in the United States, a label developed and legitimized by the state, diffused in daily and institutional practice, and finally internalized (and racialized) as a prominent part of the American mosaic. That this outcome is, to a considerable extent, a self-fulfilling prophecy, does not make it any less real.
Comments on R. Jackman and J. Papadachi

This interesting and valuable paper is in the tradition of the large number of efforts in the United States to divide the variations in local expenditures on education between those caused by differences in locational cost factors and those caused by differences in the local standards of educational provision. This division of causality is politically important in the United Kingdom as in the United States.
Towards perception driven robot-assisted task-oriented therapy

Therapy environments for robot-assisted stroke rehabilitation are mostly static, in that objects are earmarked for different functional tasks, object locations remain fixed, trajectories are predefined and tasks manually selected. This work advocates the need for a therapy environment that allows dynamic object positioning, different objects can be used for the same functional task and tasks can be selected autonomously by exploiting affordances. Specifically, we propose a framework that facilitates therapeutic robots to recognize common objects, learn functional-task possibilities in a physical workspace and plan trajectories to accomplish identified tasks. We collect a new RGBD corpus characteristic of a therapy environment and report accuracy of the framework in classifying a task possibility, given a set of objects. Further, we implement the proposed framework on the ADLER robot and test for a Reach task.
Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and the hazards of under-treatment

Abstract Background and Purpose Oral anticoagulants are highly efficacious for the prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation, and are the preferred treatment by current guidelines. The purpose of our study was to assess the utilization of antithrombotic drugs in atrial fibrillation patients at the time of ischemic stroke and the factors associated with their use. Methods We enrolled 759 consecutive patients admitted with ischemic stroke at Boston Medical Center, Geisinger Health System, and the University of Alabama. To be eligible, patients had to have electrocardiographically-confirmed atrial fibrillation at the time of admission or within 6months of the index stroke. All stroke events and electrocardiograms were validated by study physicians. Patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation were not eligible. Results The mean age was 78years, 43% were male, 19% black, and the mean CHADS 2 score is 3.0. Atrial fibrillation was paroxysmal in 31%. At presentation, 181 (24%) patients were taking warfarin only, 96 (13%) both warfarin and aspirin, 294 (39%) aspirin alone, and 189 (25%) no antithrombotic therapy. The mean international normalized ratio was 1.6. Among patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, one in five was taking warfarin. Although increasing stroke risk was associated with a greater likelihood of warfarin use, only 39% of highest risk CHADS 2 3–6 were taking warfarin at the time of stroke. Conclusions Among high-risk individuals with atrial fibrillation, only 37% were taking warfarin at the time of stroke. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation was associated with the highest risk of not receiving warfarin.
A progress report on project CONSIM

PROJECT CONSIM (Conflict Simulation) is a research effort devoted to emulating the processes of human decision making in complex situations requiring value judgements. The goals are (1) the development of a general computer decision aid and (2) a better understanding of how humans learn to improve in their decision making. The computer decision aid is designed to be prescriptive rather than to include the flaws of some particular human or group of humans, although "CONSIM I" did include the capability for incorporating some human imperfections. The model is of a mathematical and statistical nature and includes the following techniques: (1) linear programming, (2) alpha-beta search methods, (3) bayes's theorem, (4) linear evaluation function, (5) pattern recognition techniques, (6) heuristic procedures, (7) computer modeling and simulation of human decision processes, (8) game theory, (9) utility theory, and (10) decision theory.