cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Expression and Interstrain Variability of the YPS3 Gene of Histoplasma capsulatum

The YPS3 locus of the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum encodes a secreted and surface-localized protein specific to the pathogenic yeast phase. In this study we examined this locus in 32 H. capsulatum strains and variants. Although protein production is limited to a select group of strains, the North American restriction fragment length polymorphism class 2/NAm 2 isolates, the locus was present in all the strains we examined. The YPS3 gene is well conserved in its 5′ and 3′ regions but displays an intragenic hypervariable region of tandem repeats that fluctuates in size between strains. This feature is similar to that seen with genes encoding several cell surface proteins in other fungi.
A 3 G-Bit/s W-band SiGe ASK receiver with a high-efficiency on-chip electromagnetically-coupled antenna

A novel high-efficiency on-chip W-Band microstrip antenna is designed in a commercial SiGe process (IBM 8HP). The antenna has a measured gain of 2–4 dB and an efficiency of 50–57% at 92–98 GHz. An ASK receiver including a W-Band SPDT, LNA, and power detector is integrated with the antenna and is used to demonstrate a low-power 94 GHz 3-Gb/s on-chip wireless data link.
Splenic abscess: a single institution study and review of the literature.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to review our experience with splenic abscesses, with respect to the relevant aspects of splenic abscesses and treatment outcomes. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the cases of 18 patients who had splenic abscesses and who were treated at our hospital from November 1993 to December 2008. Results: The most common symptom at presentation was abdominal pain in 12 patients (66.7%). The median duration from symptom onset until establishment of a diagnosis was 22 days. Streptococcus viridians was the most common pathogen (27.8%), follow by Klebsiella pneumoniae (22.2%). The mortality rate during the inpatient period and the previous 90 days was 16.6%. Three of four patients with Klebsiella pneumoniae showed a single abscess pocket. Four patients (22.2%) underwent percutaneous drainage, eight (44.5%) recieved antibiotic treatment only and six (33.3%) underwent splenectomy. Conclusion: There is no gold standard for treating splenic abscesses. Treatment should be customized for each patient.
Having your cake and eating it too: jointly optimal erasure codes for I/O, storage and network-bandwidth

Erasure codes, such as Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, are increasingly being deployed as an alternative to data-replication for fault tolerance in distributed storage systems. While RS codes provide significant savings in storage space, they can impose a huge burden on the I/O and network resources when reconstructing failed or otherwise unavailable data. A recent class of erasure codes, called minimum-storage-regeneration (MSR) codes, has emerged as a superior alternative to the popular RS codes, in that it minimizes network transfers during reconstruction while also being optimal with respect to storage and reliability. However, existing practical MSR codes do not address the increasingly important problem of I/O overhead incurred during reconstructions, and are, in general, inferior to RS codes in this regard. In this paper, we design erasure codes that are simultaneously optimal in terms of I/O, storage, and network bandwidth. Our design builds on top of a class of powerful practical codes, called the product-matrix-MSR codes. Evaluations show that our proposed design results in a significant reduction the number of I/Os consumed during reconstructions (a 5× reduction for typical parameters), while retaining optimality with respect to storage, reliability, and network bandwidth.
Micropipeline-Based Asynchronous Design Methodology for Robust System Design Using Nanoscale Crossbar

System design with nanoscale molecular devices will require developing new circuit and architectural techniques to exploit highly dense and regular structures such as nano-crossbar. It also requires addressing some inherent limitations with these devices, such as large process variations, high defect rates, lack of voltage gain (preventing logic cascading), and large overhead of interfacing logic. We propose an asynchronous design paradigm for nanoscale crossbar that combines them with CMOS-based event- driven bistable elements to implement micropipeline structures. An automated design platform for synthesizing these systems is also presented. The proposed asynchronous design approach addresses three main issues with nanoscale crossbar: 1) parameter variations, 2) logic cascading, and 3) large overhead of interfacing logic. Simulation results show considerable improvement in robustness under variations as well as in total area (up to 1.8X), delay (up to 2X) and power (up to 3.2X) compared to equivalent sequential implementation.
Recognition of multilingual speech in mobile applications

We evaluate different architectures to recognize multilingual speech for real-time mobile applications. In particular, we show that combining the results of several recognizers greatly outperforms other solutions such as training a single large multilingual system or using an explicit language identification system to select the appropriate recognizer. Experiments are conducted on a trilingual English-French-Mandarin mobile speech task. The data set includes Google searches, Maps queries, as well as more general inputs such as email and short message dictation. Without pre-specifying the input language, the combined system achieves comparable accuracy to that of the monolingual systems when the input language is known. The combined system is also roughly 5% absolute better than an explicit language identification approach, and 10% better than a single large multilingual system.
The use of artificially intelligent agents with bounded rationality in the study of economic markets

The concepts of 'knowledge' and 'rationality' are of central importance to fields of science that are interested in human behavior and learning, such as artificial intelligence, economics, and psychology. The similarity between artificial intelligence and economics - both are concerned with intelligent thought, rational behavior, and the use and acquisition of knowledge - has led to the use of economic models as a paradigm for solving problems in distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) and multi agent systems (MAS). What we propose is the opposite; the use of artificial intelligence in the study of economic markets. Over the centuries various theories of market behavior have been advanced. The prevailing theory holds that an asset's current price converges to the risk adjusted value of the rationally expected dividend stream. While this rational expectations model holds in equilibrium or near-equilibrium conditions, it does not sufficiently explain conditions of market disequilibrium. An example of market disequilibrium is the phenomenon of a speculative bubble. We present an example of using artificially intelligent agents with bounded rationality in the study of speculative bubbles.
Task-specific information: an imaging system analysis tool

We present a novel method for computing the information content of an image. We introduce the notion of task-specific information (TSI) in order to quantify imaging system performance for a given task. This new approach employs a recently-discovered relationship between the Shannon mutual-information and minimum estimation error. We demonstrate the utility of the TSI formulation by applying it to several familiar imaging systems including (a) geometric imagers, (b) diffraction-limiter imagers, and (c) projective/compressive imagers. Imaging system TSI performance is analyzed for two tasks: (a) detection, and (b) classification.
Urbanization and stream salamanders: a review, conservation options, and research needs

Urban areas are increasing in size and human population density. The implications of widespread urbani- zation are apparent for a wide variety of stream organisms, but the responses of stream-dwelling salamanders to urbanization have been understudied historically. Studies on this assemblage have increased sufficiently over the last decade to warrant a review and synthesis of current knowledge. Our survey of the literature indicates a research bias toward species within the Piedmont ecoregion of the USA and a strong emphasis on changes in species richness, relative abundance, and occupancy along an urbanization gradient. Very few investigators have examined vital rates for specific life stages, population dynamics over extended periods, or mechanistic explanations for the specific aspects of urbanization that drive species loss and decline. We reviewed a broad array of literature on stream salamanders to identify the key abiotic and biotic drivers that explain species responses in urban watersheds. Based on these find- ings and the applied ecological literature, we identified conservation options for urban areas where decision makers and stakeholders wish to preserve stream salamanders and their habitats. We have listed 7 future research priori- ties that will further efforts to conserve stream salamanders in rapidly urbanizing regions.
Judging a Book by its Cover: The Effects of Candidate Party Label and issue Stands on Voting Behavior

Americans vote party lines; nothing predicts election outcomes as well. People may vote party lines because party candidates have views that accurately reflect the positions of their members, because party identification acts as a convenient cue that eliminates the need for greater information search or cognitive processing, or because party classification biases interpretation of other information people have about the candidates. To investigate these competing hypotheses for party effects on voter decision making, participants were presented with a choice between 2 candidates whose policy positions were more inconsistent than consistent with their party identification (Study l), or completely inconsistent with their party identification (Study 2). People voted as a function of party label in Study I, but issue stand emerged as a stronger predictor in Study 2 (although Democrats were more likely to cross party lines than Republicans). These results suggest that party identification influences how other information about the candidate is perceived and processed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Prostaglandin E1 inhibits collagenase gene expression in rabbit synoviocytes and human fibroblasts.

Cartilage breakdown, as seen in inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases, can be mediated by proteolytic enzymes, such as the metalloproteinase collagenase, the only enzyme able to digest collagen at neutral pH. In vitro collagenase gene expression can be stimulated by the phorbol ester tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate. We have investigated the effect of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate-stimulated collagenase mRNA levels in the rabbit synoviocyte cell line HIG-82. PGE1, but not PGE2 or PGF2 alpha, was able to selectively reduce collagenase mRNA levels in a dose-dependent fashion. PGE1 markedly increased intracellular levels of cAMP, while PGE2 and PGF2 alpha had little or no effect on cAMP production in the HIG-82 synoviocytes. Agents known to increase intracellular cAMP levels, such as the adenyl cyclase activator forskolin and the phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), mimicked the effect of PGE1, on collagenase mRNA levels...
Assessment of Hepatitis C Virus Quasispecies Heterogeneity by Gel Shift Analysis: Correlation with Response to Interferon Therapy

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispecies heterogeneity was assessed in pretreatment sera of 22 patients treated with interferon (IFN). Quasispecies heterogeneity was quantitated by analysis of 490 hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) clones using gel shift analysis (GSA), which allowed determination of two components of HCV quasispecies heterogeneity: genetic complexity (number of variants) and genetic diversity (mean genetic distance between variants). HCV genotype and pretreatment RNA titer were similar between responders (n = 12) and nonresponders (n = 10). GSA correlated well with nucleotide sequencing for estimating HCV genetic diversity (R = .952; P < .001). A positive correlation of .666 (P < .001) was observed between genetic diversity and complexity, suggesting that these components of quasispecies heterogeneity were related. However, while there were no significant differences in pretreatment complexity or genetic diversity among response groups, higher pretreatment genetic diversity was predictive of response failure (P = .041). Assessment of HVR1 heterogeneity by GSA revealed important relationships between quasispecies genetic diversity, complexity, and response to IFN therapy and suggested a need for analysis of other HCV genes.
Spherical Units as Dynamic Consequential Regions: Implications for Attention, Competition and Categorization

Spherical Units can be used to construct dynamic reconfigurable consequential regions, the geometric bases for Shepard's (1987) theory of stimulus generalization in animals and humans. We derive from Shepard's (1987) generalization theory a particular multi-layer network with dynamic (centers and radii) spherical regions which possesses a specific mass function (Cauchy). This learning model generalizes the configural-cue network model (Gluck & Bower 1988): (1) configural cues can be learned and do not require pre-wiring the power-set of cues, (2) Consequential regions are continuous rather than discrete and (3) Competition amoungst receptive fields is shown to be increased by the global extent of a particular mass function (Cauchy). We compare other common mass functions (Gaussian; used in models of Moody & Darken; 1989, Krushke, 1990) or just standard backpropogation networks with hyperplane/logistic hidden units showing that neither fare as well as models of human generalization and learning.
Spatial hypertext: designing for change

Introduction Hypertext1, in its most general sense, allows content to appear in different contexts. The immediate setting in which readers encounter a specific segment of material then changes from reading to reading or from reader to reader. Authors collect and structure materials to reflect their own understanding or in anticipation of readers’ possible interests, needs, or ability to comprehend the substrate of interrelated content.
Specialization as scientific advancement and overspecialization as social distortion.

Specialization has been construed to be central to the problem of the allocation of medical manpower in the United States. I would like to begin by challenging this supposition which is implicit in the health manpower legislation now under discussion.
From Postulate Systems to the Brownian Motion and Potential Theory

After his discharge from the U.S. Army in January 1919, Wiener took a job with the Boston Herald as a reporter, to tide him until his return to academic life in the fall. He was asked to cover the strike in the textile industry in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Wiener gives an interesting account of how his sympathies swung toward labor as he learned more and more of the facts [53h, pp. 266–268]. The Herald published Wiener’s reports on the strike, but the editors did not like his handling of his next assignment, on the candidacy of General C. B. Edwards for president of the United States, and he was fired. Wiener’s explanation of this seems plausible: “… I had not learned to write with enthusiasm of a cause in which I did not believe” [53h, p. 268]. Wiener now had spare time at his disposal, which he spent on studying mathematics and writing papers.
Gas-Phase Fragmentation of Aluminum Oxide Nitrate Anions Driven by Reactive Oxygen Radical Ligands.

Gas-phase metal nitrate anions are known to yield a variety of interesting metal oxides upon fragmentation. The aluminum nitrate anion complexes, Al(NO3)4– and AlO(NO3)3– were generated by electrospray ionization and studied with collision-induced dissociation and energy-resolved mass spectrometry. Four different decomposition processes were observed, the loss of NO3–, NO3•, NO2•, and O2. The oxygen radical ligand in AlO(NO3)3– is highly reactive and drives the formation of AlO(NO3)2– upon loss of NO3•, AlO2(NO3)2– upon NO2• loss, or Al(NO2)(NO3)2– upon abstraction of an oxygen atom from a neighboring nitrate ligand followed by loss of O2. The AlO2(NO3)2– fragment also undergoes elimination of O2. The mechanism for O2 elimination requires oxygen atom abstraction from a nitrate ligand in both AlO(NO3)3– and AlO2(NO3)2–, revealing the hidden complexity in the fragmentation of these clusters.
The Early Record of a Modern Administrative Dilemma

Traces in broad terms from 1900 to 1940 the development of three points of view on one major social issue, the dilemma of individualism. Influences of the individualistic ethic and the social ethic...
A Simple Machine-Learning Task

You will find it difficult to describe your mother’s face accurately enough for your friend to recognize her in a supermarket. But if you show him a few of her photos, he will immediately spot the tell-tale traits he needs. As they say, a picture—an example—is worth a thousand words.
Baseline Climatology of Sounding-Measured Variates Associated with Atlantic and Gulf Coast Tropical Cyclone Tornado Clusters

abstractRadiosonde sounding-derived parameters are analyzed for 54 cases of tornado outbreaks associated with tropical cyclones from 1995–2010. The goal of this study is to provide a climatology of sounding-derived parameters for each tropical cyclone tornado outbreak. Sounding parameters provide information on environmental characteristics such as moisture, stability, and wind shear within the atmospheric column. Descriptive statistics for the 12 sounding-derived parameters are presented to document the central tendency and variability of atmospheric conditions associated with these outbreaks. Additionally, results of both a Cluster Analysis and Principal Components Analysis of the parameters are presented to aid in understanding commonalities in groups of sounding-derived parameters and tornado outbreaks.
Global survey of cell death mechanisms reveals metabolic regulation of ferroptosis

Modulatory profiling of lethal small-molecule compounds identified FIN56 as an inducer of ferroptosis. FIN56 promotes the degradation of glutathione peroxidase 4 and directly activates squalene synthase, an enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis.
A Personal Historical Perspective of the Development of the Gastrointestinal Endocrine System

The growth of gastrointestinal endocrinology has become exponential with the introduction of modern molecular biologic techniques. It had its roots in extirpation, as did all of endocrinology, and was the birthplace of the first hormone secretion. Progress was tardy through the 'physiologic secretion' years but gained pace with the advent of radioimmunoassay. With molecular biologic approaches, a plethora of candidate hormones have outstripped ascribable biologic functions. Nonetheless, a semblance of sanity is presented in recognizable clinical syndromes deriving from gut hormone excesses. This and the potential for application of peptide therapy to deficiencies and excesses of gut humor production are exciting prospects for the future.
Aspect identification and ratings inference for hotel reviews

Today, a large volume of hotel reviews is available on many websites, such as TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com) and Orbitz (http://www.orbitz.com). A typical review contains an overall rating, several aspect ratings, and review text. The rating is an abstract of review in terms of numerical points. The task of aspect-based opinion summarization is to extract aspect-specific opinions hidden in the reviews which do not have aspect ratings, so that users can quickly digest them without actually reading through them. The task consists of aspect identification and aspect rating inference. Most existing studies cannot utilize aspect ratings which become increasingly abundant on review hosts. In this paper, we propose two topic models which explicitly model aspect ratings as observed variables to improve the performance of aspect rating inference on unrated reviews. The experiment results show that our approaches outperform the existing methods on the data set crawled from TripAdvisor website.
Ethnicity as a predictive factor for hepatocellular carcinoma screening among patients in Hawaii.

Objectives : Although hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance is associated with mortality reduction, it continues to be underutilized. The failure to conduct screening tests is a significant factor in the late diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma when curative interventions may not be feasible. Reasons for these low surveillance rates are unclear and need to be elucidated. Design, Setting, Patients : This retrospective study reviewed 616 cases of HCC from a hepatobiliary surgery office in Hawaii for age, sex, ethnicity, birthplace, residence, education, employment, insurance, and obesity to determine their influence on HCC screening. Main Outcome Measures : HCC screening. Results : Of the 616 cases, only 132 patients (21.4%) had undergone screening. Although the majority of patients were male, those who were screened were more likely to be female ( P =.0082). However, multivariate analysis found ethnicity to be the sole determinant of screening ( P 60 years, sex, American birthplace, urban residence, high school completion, employment status, insurance, and BMI>35 kg/m2 were not predictors of screening. Conclusions : Of the sociodemographic factors, ethnicity was important in predicting screening. Further research is needed to understand the reasons for these ethnic differences and to develop targeted interventions to improve hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance utilization rates. ( Ethn Dis . 2014; 24[3]:376–381)
The role of neighborhood characteristics and the built environment in understanding racial/ethnic disparities in childhood obesity.

Abstract Background Childhood obesity prevalence remains high and racial/ethnic disparities may be widening. Studies have examined the role of health behavioral differences. Less is known regarding neighborhood and built environment mediators of disparities. The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which racial/ethnic disparities in elevated child body mass index (BMI) are explained by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and built environment. Methods We collected and analyzed race/ethnicity, BMI, and geocoded address from electronic health records of 44,810 children 4 to 18 years-old seen at 14 Massachusetts pediatric practices in 2011–2012. Main outcomes were BMI z-score and BMI z-score change over time. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations between race/ethnicity and BMI z-score outcomes, sequentially adjusting for neighborhood SES and the food and physical activity environment. Results Among 44,810 children, 13.3% were black, 5.7% Hispanic, and 65.2% white. Compared to white children, BMI z-scores were higher among black (0.43 units [95% CI: 0.40–0.45]) and Hispanic (0.38 [0.34–0.42]) children; black (0.06 [0.04–0.08]), but not Hispanic, children also had greater increases in BMI z-score over time. Adjusting for neighborhood SES substantially attenuated BMI z-score differences among black (0.30 [0.27–0.34]) and Hispanic children (0.28 [0.23–0.32]), while adjustment for food and physical activity environments attenuated the differences but to a lesser extent than neighborhood SES. Conclusions Neighborhood SES and the built environment may be important drivers of childhood obesity disparities. To accelerate progress in reducing obesity disparities, interventions must be tailored to the neighborhood contexts in which families live.
Technology and International Economic Integration

There is a central concept that must be grasped if one is to comprehend the role, possibilities and amenability to policy measures of technology in the contemporary world. It is a type of social capital that is created by an investment process, yields a return in the same way as other investments and requires continuing expenditure on maintenance against depreciation and possibly improvement in the face of obsolescence. The investment may be worthwhile, in economic terms, or it may not — just like other kinds of investment. It may or may not require a prior investment in creating intellectual capital in the form of basic scientific knowledge; conversely, social investment in the creation of intellectual capital may or may not lead to the development of profitable new technologies. Similarly, it may or may not require expensive and impressive investments in engineering new types of capital equipment and designing new types of buildings and transport and conveyor systems; and public investment in, or subsidisation of, new types of machinery and construction may or may not pay off in terms of establishing a more profitable technology.
Cerebellar Ataxia and CSF Folate Deficiency

A slowly progressive cerebellar syndrome associated with disturbed folate transfer across the choroid plexus is reported in an 18-year-old male who presented with incoordination of hands and feet at the Institute of Neurology, University Hospital of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Museums, heritage and development, edited by P. Basu and W. Modest

Over the years, the role of museums has grown from being custodians of past histories to facilitators of civic engagement in local communities. Specialized literature marks initiatives that dismant...
On Rate Requirements for Achieving the Centralized Performance in Distributed Estimation

We consider a distributed parameter estimation problem, in which multiple terminals send messages related to their local observations using limited rates to a fusion center which obtains an estimate of a parameter related to the observations of all terminals. It is well known that if the transmission rates are in the Slepian–Wolf region, the fusion center can fully recover all observations and hence can construct an estimator having the same performance as that of the centralized case. One natural question is whether Slepian–Wolf rates are necessary to achieve the same estimation performance as that of the centralized case. In this paper, we show that the answer to this question is negative. We establish our result by explicitly constructing an asymptotically minimum variance unbiased estimator that has the same performance as that of the optimal estimator in the centralized case while using information rates less than the conditions required in the Slepian–Wolf rate region. The key idea is that, instead of aiming to recover the observations at the fusion center, we design universal schemes enabling the fusion center to compute a sufficient statistic using rates outside of the Selpian–Wolf region.
A View to a Choice: Can Displaying a Healthy Item to the Left (Versus Right) of an Unhealthy Item Nudge Healthier Choices?—An Abstract

Would the lateral display patterns of food items influence choice? More specifically, would having healthy item(s) displayed on the left and unhealthy item(s) displayed on the right lead to different choice outcomes than having the items displayed in the opposite pattern? This research examines how the lateral (left vs. right) positions of healthy and unhealthy items influence choice and consumption. The results of multiple studies demonstrate that displaying healthy items to the left and unhealthy items to the right enhances preference for the healthy options. In addition, consumption volume of a healthy item (vis-a-vis an unhealthy item) is higher when it is placed to the left (vs. right) of the unhealthy item. We also demonstrate process evidence through tests of mediation.
Training internal medicine residents to manage chronic pain and prescription opioid misuse

ABSTRACTBackground: Residents feel unprepared to care for patients with chronic pain on long-term opioids who exhibit signs of prescription opioid misuse. Objective: Describe an educational intervention for internal medicine residents to improve confidence, practices, attitudes, and self-reported knowledge of resources for chronic pain and opioid misuse. Methods: The intervention included 2 sessions. Session 1 (3 hours): a lecture on chronic pain, prescription opioid misuse, and opioid use disorders and communication skills practice. The residents were asked to use one of these skills during the following week. Session 2 (1.5 hours): debriefing of patient encounters and overview of: prescription opioid monitoring strategies, discontinuation of prescription opioids when appropriate, and treatment for opioid use disorders. Pre- and post-assessments evaluated change in residents' safe opioid prescribing confidence, self-reported practices, attitudes, and self-reported knowledge of available patient resources...
Increasing Completion and Cutting Costs: An Examination of How the Flipped Classroom and One-Room Schoolhouse Models Benefit Community Colleges

ABSTRACTCommunity colleges continue to operate in a society of accountability and efficiencies. Throughout the country, states have implemented performance-based funding and completion agendas while also tightening or restricting funding for higher education. The state of Ohio has implemented one of the boldest performance funding plans in the country while also mandating that higher education institutions limit spending and lower costs to students. This article explores how Central Ohio Technical College has implemented the flipped classroom and one-room school house models in college-level mathematics courses and how both models of instruction can help community colleges increase successful completion rates to meet performance-based funding completion metrics while also limiting instructional cost.
Theoretical study on the absorption features of a diode side-pumped alkali laser

In this paper, we introduce a new model to analyze the absorption efficiency of the laser medium for a diode side-pumped alkali laser (DSPAL). In the model, a ray trace method is employed to analyze the pump laser propagating route inside a diffusing chamber. In addition, the method, which is used to determine the total absorbed power of an alkali vapor cell, is named as the infinite convergence approach (ICA) while the random reflection is assumed to take place at the inner surface of a ceramic reflector. By considering the increase of a slit size will give rise to both increase of the input power and decrease of the reflection of the ceramic wall, we deduce that there must be an optimum slit width corresponding to the maximum absorption efficiency.
TheDrosophilaSWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complexes play separate roles in regulating growth and cell fate during regeneration

Regeneration is a precise process that requires regulated cell proliferation and accurate cell fate decisions. The mechanisms that temporally and spatially control the activation or repression of important genes during regeneration are not fully understood. Epigenetic modification of regeneration genes by Polycomb group and Trithorax group chromatin regulators could be key factors that govern gene repression and activation in damaged tissue. Here we report a genetic screen of chromatin regulators that identified phenotypes for many PcG and TrxG mutants and RNAi lines in Drosophila imaginal wing disc regeneration. Furthermore, we show that the two Drosophila SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complexes, BAP and PBAP, play distinct roles in regeneration. The PBAP complex regulates regenerative growth and developmental timing, and is required for the expression of JNK signaling targets and upregulation of the growth promoter myc . By contrast, the BAP complex is required for ensuring proper patterning and cell fate by stabilizing expression of the posterior gene engrailed . The core complex components are required for both processes: a weak knockdown of brahma (brm) , which encodes the only ATPase of the SWI/SNF complexes, induces the BAP mutant regeneration phenotype, whereas a strong brm mutant shows the PBAP regeneration phenotype. Thus, both SWI/SNF complexes are essential for proper gene expression during tissue regeneration, but play distinct roles in regulating growth and cell fate.
Anesthesia for TURP

Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) remains the gold standard treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia. It is a less invasive approach than traditional suprapubic or retropubic open prostatectomy. However due to the significant complication associated with the procedure, including TURP syndrome, other techniques have been developed that resulted in the steady decline of its use. TURP can be performed utilizing either general or spinal anesthesia with advantages and disadvantages related to both anesthetic methods. Anesthetic concerns and complications during the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases are discussed. Early detection and prevention remains the most important factors in reducing complications and shortening the recovery period.
Assemblies of Polymer-Based Nanoscopic Objects

One of the current challenges in harnessing the immense potential of nanoparticles is the ability to arrange them into specific structures. To this extent, self-assembly is generally regarded as a promising means to organize large numbers of nano building blocks into desired structures, rather than relying on traditional, ‘top-down’ approaches. Self-assembly schemes typically rely on encoding design rules into the nanoparticles or other constituents in the system, where these rules ultimately instruct the system what to assemble and how to assemble it. In this chapter, we explore systems where design rules are encoded through the creation of polymer–nanoparticle hybrid systems that utilize soft matter to control and direct self-assembly. We provide examples from experiment, theory, and simulation to demonstrate the multitude of different approaches that have been proposed in the literature, and provide a detailed exploration of the use of anisotropy as a means to encode design rules.
Building Networks with Microarray Data

This chapter describes methods for learning gene interaction networks from high-throughput gene expression data sets. Many genes have unknown or poorly understood functions and interactions, especially in diseases such as cancer where the genome is frequently mutated. The gene interactions inferred by learning a network model from the data can form the basis of hypotheses that can be verified by subsequent biological experiments. This chapter focuses specifically on Bayesian network models, which have a level of mathematical detail greater than purely conceptual models but less than detailed differential equation models. From a network learning perspective the most severe problem with microarray data is the limited sample size, since there are usually many plausible networks for modeling the system. Since these cannot be reliably distinguished using the number of samples found in current microarray data sets, we describe robust network learning strategies for reducing the number of false interactions detected. We perform preliminary clustering using co-expression network analysis and gene shaving. Subsequently we construct Bayesian networks to obtain a global perspective of the relationships between these gene clusters. Throughout this chapter, we illustrate the concepts being expounded by referring to an ongoing example of a publicly available breast cancer data set.
Association between insurance type and pregnancy outcomes in women diagnosed with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

AbstractObjective: Hypertension in pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Previous studies have demonstrated disparities in the risk of preeclampsia based on race, edu...
A full-field time-domain model for reverberation in complex environments and waveguides with rough interfaces

A full-field perturbation approach [Ivakin 2016] has been used for modeling reverberation at given frequency in spatially varying layered environments and waveguides with rough interfaces. Average reverberation intensity was shown to be related with a local Bragg-wavenumber power spectrum of roughness through integration over the reference (unperturbed or smoothed) interfaces. The integrand includes a factor, a two-way propagation/interaction kernel, defined in terms of Green’s function and a local contrast of acoustic parameters at the interfaces. This work extends the approach to time domain and includes additional integration over frequencies with another factor in the integrand, the radiated energy time-frequency distribution (ambiguity function). However, the integration within the signal frequency bandwidth can be significantly simplified using the frequency-range interference invariant. As a result, extremely fast estimations of reverberation time series (codas) can be made which require calculations of Green’s function of the reference medium in the vicinity of the interfaces at only one (central) frequency. Numerical examples for time dependence of narrow- and broad-band reverberation in layered environments and waveguides with rough interfaces using PE-approximation for Green’s function are presented. A possibility for remote monitoring of temporal and spatial variability of ocean interfaces based on propagation and reverberation measurements is discussed. [Work supported by ONR.]
An accelerated line-by-line option for MODTRAN combining on-the-fly generation of line center absorption within 0.1 cm-1 bins and pre-computed line tails

A Line-By-Line (LBL) option is being developed for MODTRAN6. The motivation for this development is two-fold. Firstly, when MODTRAN is validated against an independent LBL model, it is difficult to isolate the source of discrepancies. One must verify consistency between pressure, temperature and density profiles, between column density calculations, between continuum and particulate data, between spectral convolution methods, and more. Introducing a LBL option directly within MODTRAN will insure common elements for all calculations other than those used to compute molecular transmittances. The second motivation for the LBL upgrade is that it will enable users to compute high spectral resolution transmittances and radiances for the full range of current MODTRAN applications. In particular, introducing the LBL feature into MODTRAN will enable first-principle calculations of scattered radiances, an option that is often not readily available with LBL models. MODTRAN will compute LBL transmittances within one 0.1 cm-1 spectral bin at a time, marching through the full requested band pass. The LBL algorithm will use the highly accurate, pressure- and temperature-dependent MODTRAN Pade approximant fits of the contribution from line tails to define the absorption from all molecular transitions centered more than 0.05 cm-1 from each 0.1 cm-1 spectral bin. The beauty of this approach is that the on-the-fly computations for each 0.1 cm-1 bin will only require explicit LBL summing of transitions centered within a 0.2 cm-1 spectral region. That is, the contribution from the more distant lines will be pre-computed via the Pade approximants. The status of the LBL effort will be presented. This will include initial thermal and solar radiance calculations, validation calculations, and self-validations of the MODTRAN band model against its own LBL calculations.
Stochastic Lagrangians for noisy dynamics

Abstract The dynamical variables ψ of a classical system, undergoing stochastic stirring forces, satisfy equations of motion with noise terms. Hence, these ψ show a stochastic evolution themselves. The probability of each possible realization of ψ within a given time interval, arises from the interplay between the deterministic parts of dynamics and the statistics of noise terms. In this work, we discuss the construction of the stochastic Lagrangian out of the dynamical equations, that is a tool to calculate the realization probabilities of the variables ψ as path integrals. In this formulation, the study of classical statistical dynamics can benefit from all the techniques developed in Quantum Mechanics of path integrals; moreover, as the path integral is expressed in terms of a Lagrangian, the invariance properties of the system become transparent. After a coincise review of the stochastic Lagrangian formalism, some applications of it to physically relevant cases are illustrated. Then, the advantages and maturity of this approach, and its expected future developments, are outlined.
Breast Cancer in San Francisco: Disentangling Disparities at the Neighborhood Level

Background: This study uses a novel geographic approach to summarize the distribution of breast cancer in San Francisco and aims to identify the neighborhoods and racial/ethnic groups that are disproportionately affected by this disease. Methods: Nine geographic groupings were newly defined on the basis of racial/ethnic composition and neighborhood socioeconomic status. Distribution of breast cancer cases from the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry in these zones were examined. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine neighborhood associations with stage IIB+ breast cancer at diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the hazard ratios for all-cause and breast cancer–specific mortality. Results: A total of 5,595 invasive primary breast cancers were diagnosed between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2015. We found neighborhood and racial/ethnic differences in stage of diagnosis, molecular subtype, survival, and mortality. Patients in the Southeast (Bayview/Hunter9s Point) and Northeast (Downtown, Civic Center, Chinatown, Nob Hill, Western Addition) areas were more likely to have stage IIB+ breast cancer at diagnosis, and those in the East (North Beach, Financial District, South of Market, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill) and Southeast were more likely to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC). Compared with other racial/ethnic groups, Blacks/African Americans (B/AA) experienced the greatest disparities in breast cancer–related outcomes across geographic areas. Conclusions: San Francisco neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status and larger minority populations experience worse breast cancer outcomes. Impact: Our findings, which reveal breast cancer disparities at sub-county geographic levels, have implications for population-level health interventions.
A Music Assignment to Develop Pharmacy Students' Empathy Toward People with Opioid Use Disorder.

Objective. To determine the effectiveness of using music to assist pharmacy students in developing empathy toward patients with opioid use disorder. Methods. Students were given an extra credit assignment as part of an elective course in neuropsychiatry. Students were to listen to the autobiographical album, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, about the life of rock music star Nikki Sixx and his struggles with heroin addiction. They were then required to write a reflection about how the lyrics and music from the album affected their personal views on persons with opioid use disorder. Results. Eighteen of 25 students in the course completed the assignment. Students’ response to the assignment was universally positive. Many commented on their previous views that opioid use was a choice and a problem for law enforcement to manage. Students stated how their perspectives changed significantly after listening to the music and developing an appreciation for the symptoms and problems related to opioid use disorder and attempts to abstain. Many students remarked how the musical accompaniment to the lyrics and narration helped shape their emotional response. Conclusion. Health professions students often have difficulty understanding mental illnesses, including substance use disorders. Music can be used to enhance student9s empathy toward patients with mental health and substance use disorders. Music and other art forms may be especially useful when teaching subject matter related to the affective domain.
Flight capacity increases then declines from the core to the margins of an invasive species' range

Individuals that disperse farther than other individuals are more likely to be on the frontlines of spreading populations and may be more likely to mate with one another as a consequence of their spatial proximity. Over generations, this process-known as spatial sorting-can produce patterns of increasing dispersal ability from a population's core towards the spreading front. By contrast, when the spread of a population is limited by the availability of suitable habitat, theory predicts that range boundaries can select against more dispersive phenotypes and produce patterns of decreasing dispersal capacity towards population margins. In a common garden study of invasive kudzu bugs (Megacopta cribraria)-which are limited by the availability of hostplants in their southern and western margins-I show that midrange individuals fly 49% farther than individuals in the core and 37% farther than individuals at margins. This result highlights that other processes, such as maternal effects or selection at range boundaries, may create more complicated patterns of dispersal ability across landscapes than predicted by models of spatial sorting alone.
Wumpus World in introductory artificial intelligence

With an emphasis toward hands-on learning of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concepts, we present an overview of an introductory AI course that uses a series of five projects based in the game of Wumpus World. The advantage of using a single domain and corresponding simulation environment for each project is that students can better focus on the course material after a brief familiarization period. The projects involve students programming search algorithms, satisfiability algorithms, declarative planning domain descriptions, and Bayesian network inference algorithms applied to Wumpus World. We describe the course, Wumpus World, and each of the projects.
Outcomes of delayed endoscopic management for esophageal soft food impactions

Background and Aims Food impactions are a common reason for emergent upper endoscopy. Current guidelines call for urgent upper endoscopy (within 24 hours) for food impactions without complete esophageal obstruction and emergent endoscopy (within 6 hours) for those with complete esophageal obstruction. Multiple adverse events can arise from esophageal foreign bodies. Cases with longer delays from symptom onset to presentation have been associated with higher rates of surgical intervention. However, data on esophageal soft food impactions are scant. We set out to determine differences in outcomes for food impactions undergoing intervention within 12 hours versus over 12 hours of symptom onset. Methods A retrospective review of medical records was conducted to identify patients who presented to our hospital with an esophageal soft food impaction and underwent an EGD between January 2010 and January 2018. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the timing from symptom onset to EGD. An EGD within 12 hours was considered an early intervention and over 12 hours was considered a delayed intervention. Patients who had ingested bones or hard objects were not included. Primary outcomes studied were rates of aspiration, admission, local esophageal adverse events, and 30-day all-cause mortality. Results We identified 110 patients with a soft food impaction who underwent an EGD. Forty- two patients had an early intervention and 68 a delayed intervention. There were no differences in basic demographics and comorbidities. Additionally, there were no differences in rates of local esophageal adverse events, aspiration, admission, or 30-day mortality. Multivariate analysis revealed endoscopic accessory use was associated with increased odds of local esophageal adverse events (odds ratio, 6.37; P = .01). Conclusions The overall rates of serious adverse events in esophageal soft food impactions are low. Delayed intervention is not associated with increased adverse events or 30-day mortality compared with early intervention. However, accessory use is associated with higher adverse event rates.