cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quorum Sensing Signal Production and Microbial Interactions in a Polymicrobial Disease of Corals and the Coral Surface Mucopolysaccharide Layer

Black band disease (BBD) of corals is a complex polymicrobial disease considered to be a threat to coral reef health, as it can lead to mortality of massive reef-building corals. The BBD community is dominated by gliding, filamentous cyanobacteria with a highly diverse population of heterotrophic bacteria. Microbial interactions such as quorum sensing (QS) and antimicrobial production may be involved in BBD disease pathogenesis. In this study, BBD (whole community) samples, as well as 199 bacterial isolates from BBD, the surface mucopolysaccharide layer (SML) of apparently healthy corals, and SML of apparently healthy areas of BBD-infected corals were screened for the production of acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) and for autoinducer-2 (AI-2) activity using three bacterial reporter strains. AHLs were detected in all BBD (intact community) samples tested and in cultures of 5.5% of BBD bacterial isolates. Over half of a subset (153) of the isolates were positive for AI-2 activity. AHL-producing isolates were further analyzed using LC-MS/MS to determine AHL chemical structure and the concentration of (S)-4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD), the biosynthetic precursor of AI-2. C6-HSL was the most common AHL variant detected, followed by 3OC4-HSL. In addition to QS assays, 342 growth challenges were conducted among a subset of the isolates, with 27% of isolates eliciting growth inhibition and 2% growth stimulation. 24% of BBD isolates elicited growth inhibition as compared to 26% and 32% of the bacteria from the two SML sources. With one exception, only isolates that exhibited AI-2 activity or produced DPD inhibited growth of test strains. These findings demonstrate for the first time that AHLs are present in an active coral disease. It is possible that AI-2 production among BBD and coral SML bacteria may structure the microbial communities of both a polymicrobial infection and the healthy coral microbiome.
The Organizational Construction of the “Bottom Line”

Using corporate bankruptcy as an example, this article provides an initial catalog of managerial strategies for manipulating the bottom line and assesses the role of intra- and interorganizational power in allowing such manipulation. I develop and assess a “strategic approach” to understanding large corporate bankruptcy, in contrast to more common “reactive approaches,” by showing how top managers have leeway in shaping a firm's financial portrait. I suggest that researchers view financial figures as the result of larger organizational strategies and power relations rather than as neutral depictions of firm health. Large corporations that survive bankruptcy may be those most skilled at manipulating financial data, rather than the healthiest corporations. This raises doubt about organizational models premised on natural selection as applied to the largest corporations.
Manufacturing model for three-dimensional irregular pultruded graphite/epoxy composites

Pultrusion is one of the most cost-effective and least laborious techniques of producing structural composite materials. Detailed computer modelling is required for the improved manufacturing and advancement of pultruded composites. This research involves a numerical three-dimensional investigation of the thermochemical aspects of the design and manufacture of pultruded composite materials of various geometries by investigating axially, and in cross-sectional contour form, the transient temperature and curing characteristics for graphite/epoxy composites. The behaviour of the exothermic chemical reaction on the temperature profiles and the degree of cure is discussed. A numerical model based on Patankar's finite difference technique was formulated for solving the governing energy and species equations used in modelling the entire heating section of the industrial PTI Pulstar 804 pultrusion machine. The chemical kinetic parameters of the Epon 9420 epoxy resin were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. Computer modelling has the ability of enhancing the understanding of the thermal and curing mechanisms without disrupting the performance of composites and can act as a useful tool to improve manufacturing. The cost-effective nature of pre-fabrication modelling allows manufacturers to be more competitive in producing structural shaped composites.
Social class differences in parental and peer influence on adolescent drug use

This study uses data extracted from the 1985 version of Monitoring the Future to test the hypothesis that the effects of parental and peer influence on adolescent drug use differ significantly by social class. Using variables derived from the social control, social learning, and strain theories of delinquency, strongest support is found for the social learning perspective in that peer influence has the greatest effect on adolescent drug use and the effect of parental influence on adolescent drug use is insignificant. In addition, results show that the effect of peers on adolescent drug use is greatest among middle class adolescents. Additional support is found for social control theory in that significant class differences exist with regard to the effects of belief, commitment, religious attachment, and school attachment on adolescent drug use. Finally, results show no support for strain theory in that the effects of expected college success and expected career success on adolescent drug use are insignifi...
Domain-Wall Dynamics and Spin-Wave Excitations with Spin-Transfer Torques

A generalization of spin-transfer torques in ferromagnetic structures is proposed. For a spatially nonuniform magnetization, the spin torque has a form nearly identical to that in magnetic multilayers. We show that the domain-wall motion driven by the current has many unique features that do not exist in the conventional domain-wall motion driven by a magnetic field. We also demonstrate that the spin torque can generate bulk and surface spin excitations that have been seen in point-contact experiments.
Behavior and mortality of the southern stink bugNezara viridula in Hawaii

This paper is concerned with some aspects of the ecology of the southern green stink bug,Nezara viridula, in Hawaii. Dispersal studies on adults showed an asymetrical dispersal pattern. The rate of plant to plant to movement by the adults was 3.3–6.7 feet per day. Mortality studies showed that egg predation by ants,Pheidole megancephala, was as high as 80–90 per cent. Egg parasitism byTelenomus basalis was highest during February, 1965, and adult parasitism byTrichopoda pennipes was highest during July, 1964, to January of the following year. The population ofN. viridula declined during May, 1964, to May, 1965. This decline occurred simultaneously with the decline in the number of eggs produced per female. It has been speculated that this reduction in egg production was caused by parasitism byT. pennipes.
SCF calculations for H 2 + , Li 2 + and LiH+ with atomic basis sets enlarged by bond functions

To simulate the charge distortion in the formation of a molecule from the separated atoms, a set of concentrics-type Gaussian functions is placed on the internuclear axis in addition to thes-type atomic basis functions to construct the molecular orbital for the one valence-electron systems H 2 + , Li 2 + and LiH+. This simple model gives 90.1%, 75.2% and 61.7%, respectively, of the improvement over minimal basis relative to Hartree-Fock energies.
Higher level organization of individual gene transcription and RNA splicing

Visualization of fibronectin and neurotensin messenger RNAs within mammalian interphase nuclei was achieved by fluorescence hybridization with genomic, complementary DNA, and intron-specific probes. Unspliced transcripts accumulated in one or two sites per nucleus. Fibronectin RNA frequently accumulated in elongated tracks that overlapped and extended well beyond the site of transcription. Splicing appears to occur directly within this RNA track, as evidenced by an unambiguous spatial separation of intron-containing and spliced transcripts. Excised introns for neurotensin RNA appear free to diffuse. The transcription and processing site of the fibronectin gene localized to the nuclear interior and was associated with larger transcript domains in over 88 percent of the cells. These results support a view of nuclear function closely integrated with structure.
A knowledge-based expert systems approach to schedule-based material requirements planning

Schedule-based material requirements planning (SBMRP), which has been suggested as an integration of scheduling and MRP methods, is described and its deficiencies are identified. Knowledge acquisition through computer experimentation (KACE) was used to develop a knowledge-based expert system (KBES) for SBMRP. Comparison of the KBES with conventional forward- and backward-method SBMRP, using total cost as a criterion showed the KBES to be superior for scheduling jobs consisting of up to 20 parts. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on the important parameters such as total available time over total processing time (TA/TP), processing time for each operation, and number of parts. The KBES exhibited the best performance regardless of the processing time. As the level of TA/TP increased, the KBES's performance improved. >
Outpatient thyroidectomy: is it a safe and reasonable option?

BACKGROUND: Outpatient surgery is cost effective and convenient. The aim of this study was to determine the safety and feasibility of outpatient thyroidectomy. METHODS: Retrospective review was performed of all thyroidectomy patients from a tertiary care center between January 2004 and March 2010. RESULTS: One hundred forty-eight patients met the inclusion criteria. Subtotal and hemithyroidectomies (n = 79) were compared against completion and total thyroidectomies (n = 72). Nine total thyroidectomy patients (12.5%) required unplanned overnight admission, compared with 4 hemithyroidectomy patients (5.1%) (P = .15). The majority were admitted for pain and nausea control. Overnight admissions were highest among men (32% vs 5%, P = .002) and patients with Graves' disease (36% vs 6%, P = .003). Postoperative complications occurred in 6 total thyroidectomy patients (8.3%) and 3 hemithyroidectomy patients (3.8%) (P = .31). Only 4 patients (2.6%) required readmission for complications. There were no deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient thyroidectomy performed by an experienced surgeon is safe and feasible. Men and patients with Graves' disease have a higher probability of requiring postoperative admission.
Stereochemical Assignment of the C21–C38 Portion of the Desertomycin/Oasomycin Class of Natural Products by Using Universal NMR Databases: Proof

Stereochemistry can be predicted: The stereoselective synthesis of the C21-C38 degradation product derived from oasomycins A and B has confirmed the stereochemistry predicted from a comparitive study of the NMR chemical shifts of the C21-C38 portion of the natural products with those obtained for its diastereomers.
Effect of radiation therapy on survival in surgically resected retroperitoneal sarcoma: a propensity score-adjusted SEER analysis

Background Currently no prospective randomized trial has measured the efficacy of radiation therapy for resected retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS). Our objective was to determine the effect of radiation therapy on disease-specific and overall survival between propensity score-matched surgically resected RPS patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.
Finite element simulation of the temperature cycling tests

Temperature cycling tests are commonly used in the semiconductor industry to determine the number of cycles to failure and to predict reliability of the solder joints in the surface mount technology packages. In this paper, the thermomechanical fatigue of Pb40/Sn60 solder joint in a leadless ceramic chip carrier package is studied and temperature cycling test is simulated by using a finite element procedure with the disturbed state concept (DSC) constitutive models. The progress of disturbance (damage) and the energy dissipated in the solder joint during thermal cycling are predicted. It is shown that the disturbance criterion used follows a similar path as the energy dissipation in the system. Moreover, the comparisons between the test data and the finite element analysis show that a finite element procedure using the DSC material models can be instrumental in reliability analysis and to predict the number of cycles to failure of a solder joint. Furthermore, the analysis gives a good picture of the progress of the failure mechanism and the disturbance in the solder joint.
Spin configurations in vertical quantum dots in magnetic fields: three-dimensional self-consistent simulation

The magnetic field dependence of the electronic properties of real single vertical quantum dots in circular and rectangular mesas is investigated within a full three-dimensional multiscale self-consistent approach without any a priori assumptions about the shape and strength of the confinement potential. Charging diagrams in a magnetic field for number of electrons up to five are also computed. Consistent with the experimental data, we found that the charging curves for the rectangular mesa dot in a magnetic field are flatter and exhibit less features than for a circular mesa dot. Evolution of the singlet-triplet energy separation in the two electron system for both dot geometries in magnetic field was also investigated. In the limit of large magnetic field, beyond the singlet-triplet transition, the singlet-triplet energy difference continues to become more negative in a circular mesa dot without any saturation whilst it is predicted to asymptotically approach zero for the rectangular mesa dot. This different behavior is attributed to the symmetry "breaking" that occurs in the singlet wave-functions in the rectangular dot.
Response of Local Evanescent Array-Coupled Biosensors to Organic Nanofilms

A label-free planar optical waveguide immunosensor that operates on the novel principle of local evanescent field shift is demonstrated in this paper. Increased local refractive index at the waveguide's upper surface due to the formation of an organic adlayer shifts the evanescent field distribution up, and hence, changes the light intensity both above and below the waveguide structure. Beam propagation simulations show increased modulation ratio sensitivity to adlayer thickness with increasing detection distance below the waveguide. The local nature of detection allows sensors to be implemented in array formats on a single waveguide for multiple-analyte sensing. Both near-field scanning optical microscopy and integrated buried detector arrays are employed to study the response to patterned organic nanofilms including immunocomplexes, photoresist, and adsorbed bovine serum albumin (BSA) layers. Buried polysilicon detector arrays integrated with silicon nitride waveguides in a commercial CMOS process exhibit a 15% photocurrent modulation ratio response to an approximately 1-nm-thick adsorbed film of BSA. CMOS compatibility enables a low-cost sensor system on a chip. Temperature dependence measurements show that sensor has a 0.3%/degC change in modulation ratio, which is thousands of times less than traditional resonant biosensors.
They Said What?: Exploring the Relationship Between Language Use and Member Satisfaction in Communities

In online communities, satisfied members are essential to community success, since they are more likely to contribute and consume content, engage with other members, and feel committed to the community. However, it is difficult for community leaders to know, on an on-going basis, whether members are satisfied. In this paper, we explore the relationship between member satisfaction and language use within content posted in workplace online communities. We hope to find patterns of language use that are associated with satisfied members. We employ linguistic analysis based on LIWC, and a survey to directly measure member satisfaction in 142 workplace communities. We contribute a better understanding of how members interact in effective workplace communities, and show that linguistic analysis could be a useful part of future methods to automatically assess community member satisfaction.
The environmental quality and social justice implications of shrimp mariculture development in Honduras

Development schemes aimed at reducing Central America's social and economic problems historically have stressed intensified exploitation of the region's natural resources through augmented exports of agricultural commodities and forest products, enhanced agricultural productivity, and expanded industrial fisheries. There is plentiful evidence documenting how succeeding waves of export expansion have displaced small farmers from their lands often initiating cycles of repression and violence while also generating or intensifying environmental destruction. This paper explores the environmental quality and social justice implications of the current prevailing development strategy in the region, the promotion of so-called nontraditional exports. Focusing on the expansion of shrimp mariculture in coastal zones along the Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras, it uses political ecological analysis to examine the interconnections among the dominant export-led development model, the policies and actions of the state, the competition among various classes and interest groups, and the survival strategies of an increasingly impoverished population. Analysis suggests that problems of social justice and environmental quality cannot be understood apart from the underlying social structure of the region.
Spallation Neutron Source high-power RF transmitter design for high availability, ease of installation and cost containment

The availability goals and installation schedule for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) have driven the availability and installation of the SNS linac's high-power RF systems. This paper discusses how the high-power RF systems' availability and installation goals have been addressed in the RF transmitter design and procurement. Design features that allow RF component failures to be quickly diagnosed and repaired are also presented. Special attention has been given to interlocks, PLC fault logging and real-time interfaces to the accelerator's Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) archive system. The availability and cost motivations for the use of different RF transmitter designs in the normal-conducting and super-conducting sections of the linac are reviewed. Factory acceptance tests used to insure fully functional equipment and thereby reduce the time spent on installation and commissioning of the RF transmitters are discussed. Transmitter installation experience and klystron conditioning experience is used to show how these design features have helped and continue to help the SNS linac to meet its availability and schedule goals.
The gesture pendant: a self-illuminating, wearable, infrared computer vision system for home automation control and medical monitoring

In this paper we present a wearable device for control of home automation systems via hand gestures. This solution has many advantages over traditional home automation interfaces in that it can be used by those with loss of vision, motor skills, and mobility. By combining other sources of context with the pendant we can reduce the number and complexity of gestures while maintaining functionality. As users input gestures, the system can also analyze their movements for pathological tremors. This information can then be used for medical diagnosis, therapy, and emergency services. Currently, the Gesture Pendant can recognize control gestures with an accuracy of 95% and user-defined gestures with an accuracy of 97%. It can detect tremors above 2 HZ within /spl plusmn/.1 Hz.
The influence of close others in daily goal pursuit

This study tested the hypothesis that daily contact with close others during goal pursuit would activate relationally autonomous reasons and would also be associated with the corresponding levels of goal effort. We also hypothesized that the association would be strongest among highly relational and agreeable people. Participants (n = 49) completed self-construal and agreeableness assessments at a face-to-face session, then they completed daily reports of relational motives, contact with close and distant others, and goal effort daily for the next 6 days online. The results of hierarchical linear modeling analysis showed that contact with friends and family members were associated with the corresponding levels of effort among highly relational people. Only contact with parents was associated with the corresponding effort among highly agreeable people. Contact with friends and family was also associated with daily levels of relationally autonomous motives, but not relationally controlled motives. Theoretic...
Expression of an Exogenous Human Oct-4 Promoter Identifies Tumor-Initiating Cells in Osteosarcoma

We explored the nature of the tumor-initiating cell in osteosarcoma, a bone malignancy that predominately occurs in children. Previously, we observed expression of Oct-4, an embryonal transcriptional regulator, in osteosarcoma cell cultures and tissues. To examine the relationship between Oct-4 and tumorigenesis, cells from an osteosarcoma biopsy (OS521) were stably transfected with a plasmid containing the human Oct-4 promoter driving a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter to generate the transgenic line OS521Oct-4 p . In culture, only ∼24% of the OS521Oct-4 p cells were capable of activating the transgenic Oct-4 promoter; yet, xenograft tumors generated in NOD/SCID mice contained ∼67% GFP + cells, which selectively expressed the mesenchymal stem cell–associated surface antigens CD105 and ICAM-1. Comparison of the tumor-forming capacity of GFP-enriched and GFP-depleted cell fractions revealed that the GFP-enriched fractions were at least 100-fold more tumorigenic, capable of forming tumors at doses of + cell were capable of forming tumors heterogeneous for Oct-4/GFP expression. These data are consistent with the cancer stem cell model of tumorigenesis in osteosarcoma and implicate a functional link between the capacity to activate an exogenous Oct-4 promoter and tumor formation. This osteosarcoma tumor-initiating cell appears highly prolific and constitutes a majority of the cell population in a primary xenograft tumor, which may provide a biological basis for the particular virulence of this type of cancer. [Cancer Res 2009;69(14):5648–55]
The Relative Salience of Daily and Enduring Influences on Off-Job Reactions to Work Stress.

Work stress is an important determinant of employee health and wellness. The occupational health community is recognizing that one contributor to these relationships may be the presence of negative off-job reactivity to work, which we argue involves continued thoughts directed towards work (cognitive reactivity), continued negative mood stemming from work (affective reactivity), and the alteration of post-work behaviours in response to work factors (behavioural reactivity). We explored the relative contributions of daily work stressors, affective traits, and subjective job stress perceptions to negative off-job reactivity. These relationships were evaluated in a study of hospital nurses (n = 75), who completed trait measures and then provided self-assessments of daily work stress and off-job reactions for four work days. The results of several multilevel analyses indicated that a main-effects model best described the data when predicting cognitive, affective, and behavioural reactivity from daily work stressors, affective traits, and subjective job stress perceptions. A series of multilevel dominance analyses revealed that subjective job stress perceptions dominated the prediction of behavioural reactivity, while trait negative affect dominated the prediction of affective reactivity. Theoretical implications and the relative salience of daily and enduring contributors to negative off-job reactivity are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Physarum polycephalum: A Review of a Model System Using a Structure-Function Approach

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the relationship between the structure and function of Physarum. Physarum amoebae undergo a true cell division involving karyokinesis and cytokinesis. The rRNA and tRNA transcripts from the amoeboid and plasmodial stages are similar with respect to their molecular weight, their location, and the fraction of the genome they represent. Amoebae are not pigmented and contain little or no slime on their surface. They have a discernible endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, and centrioles. Centrioles are part of the mitotic apparatus in amoebae; a mitotic tubule organizing center is found associated with the nucleolus in the plasmodium. A relationship between the two structures remains to be determined. Alleles at the two separate mating-type loci control zygote formation and the transformation of the zygote to a plasmodium; in the plasmodium, plasmogamy is under control of another separate and distinct fusion locus. Haploid plasmodia can develop by repeated karyokinesis in the absence of cytokinesis in the apogamic (C1) strain. The replication of chromosomal DNA is bidirectional, occurs in a sequential, temporal order and is completed within 3–4 hours. The replication of nucleolar DNA occurs in an unscheduled, nontemporal order; it is initiated in the latter part of the S phase and continues until prophase. Chromosomal and nucleolar DNA are arranged in a nucleosome configuration.
Differential gene expression in preoperative study of selenium and vitamin E chemoprevention in prostate cancer

1523 Background: To identify genes that distinguish between treatments, tumor types, and their interaction, we undertook a microarray analysis of tissue in a preoperative chemoprevention study of L...
Relevance of the ecology ofCitrus yeasts to the diet ofDrosophila

A study of the yeast flora of necrotic oranges and associatedDrosophila yielded a total of 221 isolates composed ofKloeckera apiculata (75),Pichia fermentans (75),Pichia kluyveri (50),Torulopsis stellata (17),Hanseniaspora uvarum (2),P. membranaefaciens (1), andCandida vini (1). The yeast species of all samples of oranges and adultDrosophila were very similar; however, the speciesof Drosophila contained a higher proportion ofP. fermentans and a lower proportion ofK. apiculata than was found in the rotting oranges.P. fermentans was subsequently found more frequently on the surface of the necrotic tissue, where the flies feed, than was found internally. SinceP. fermentans characteristically produces a pellicle and pseudomycelium andK. apiculata does not, it is concluded that the growth characteristics of the yeasts are an important factor determining adultDrosophila diets.
Refining Hernando de Soto's Route Using Electric Circuit Theory and CircuitScape

A least-cost path (LCP) analysis and a circuit theory analysis were used to estimate the path followed by Hernando de Soto as he crossed the Appalachian Mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina in 1540. The analyses were performed on the slope of the terrain and on a function of the slope that estimates hiking speed. The analyses were performed on data sets with 90-m and 180-m spatial resolutions. Three potential routes were found and compared. The most novel element of the work was the use of CircuitScape software, which returned the likelihood that each cell in the raster data was a part of de Soto's route. This clearly illuminated areas where the estimated routes were more constrained and areas where de Soto would have been free to take alternate paths without increasing travel time. The two analysis methods, LCP and circuit theory, corroborate one another and provide insight into de Soto's journey.
Electric currents in conductors with distributed capacity considered in relation to the propagation of the nerve impulse

Nearly two centuries ago it was surmised that the nervous impulse might be of the nature of an electric current, but in the absence of definite proof the hypothesis was rejected, especially as objections were raised to it which seemed insuperable. It is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to reconcile all experimental results with the consequences of the molecular theory. If, however, we regard the nerve as an electrical conductor with distributed capacity, we are able to account for many of the fundamental experimental phenomena and also to predict the results of new experimental conditions. It has long been known that the speed of electricity on wires is less than the speed in free space and the formula for calculating these velocities are well understood. The rate of propagation of electricity in a conductor similar in form, size and material to a nerve fiber should be, according to these formula, of approximately the same order of magnitude as has been measured for the rate of the nervous impulse...
Abstract 2898: Intracellular dissociation of polymer coating from nanoparticles

Polymer-coated nanoparticles are widely used for drug delivery in cancer therapy. However, it is not known whether the polymer coating will be disrupted in the lipid bilayer or intracellular space. Our current work suggests that the polymer coating of inorganic nanoparticles is disrupted after internalization by cancer cells. Single dispersed red quantum dots (QDs) labeled with 5-FAM (green) (D = 28 nm) were incubated with cancer cells (PC-3) and imaged via fluorescence microscopy. Initially the 5-FAM-labeled polymer coating was attached to the QDs and its green fluorescence was quenched when the nanoparticles were internalized from 2 to 4 hrs, but 5-FAM-labeled polymer became separated from the QDs once they are inside lysosome of cells and its fluorescence suddenly visible from 8 hrs. The fluorescence ratio (5-FAM/QDs) were increased by 29-fold after 8 h incubation compared to 2 h. The fluorescence quenching effect was compared to free PEG-5-FAM mixed with QDs, which only exhibited a 44% decrease in 5-FAM quenching. In addition, the intracellular dissociation of polymer coating from QD loaded micelles (D = 300 nm) was also observed. Furthermore, when labeled amphiphilic polymeric micelles encapsulate hydrophobic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) with the hydrophobic dye BODIPY-TMR (red), double quenching was observed by encapsulated nanoparticles and the hydrophobic region inside the micelles by 8-fold fluorescence reduction. The BODIPY-TMR-labeled nanoparticles also showed polymer dissociation inside of cancer cells after 24 h incubation. These results suggest that polymer coating is stable in the lipid bilayer and it is dissociated from nanoparticles in the lysosome of cancer cells. These data will provide guidance for intracellular drug delivery using polymer coated nanoparticles. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2898. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2898
Theoretical Analysis of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Two-Photon Oxygen Imaging Probes

Signal-to-noise ratio performance of optical chemical sensors in the presence of phosphorescence saturation is described using Poisson statistics and Stern-Volmer kinetics. The described framework can be applied across a wide range of sensitivites and lifetimes.
The experimental studies on oxidative stress mechanisms of neurotoxic effects of β-amyloid peptide and the antioxidative mechanism of neuronal protective effects of Melatonin

Objective To study the mechanisms of oxidative stress induced by β amyloid peptide(Aβ) and the mechanisms of antioxidative role by Melatonin , and to provide the experimental evidence for antioxidative treatment in Alzheimer disease Methods Themalondialdehydeacid(MDA), glutathione(GSH),glutathione peroxidase(GSH Px),Catalase(CAT), were measured by chromatometry,and rate of cell viability was analysied by MTT method from the medium of cultured neurons The statistical analyses used were the independent samples T test and correlate analysis Results MTT analysis indicated that Aβ induced the death of cultured neuronal cell, and the rate of cell viability was negatively correlated with the Aβ concentration ( r =-0 834, P 0 001) Aβ dose dependently increased the level of MDA, decreased the level of GSH, decreased the activity of CAT and GSH Px. Melatonin had a role in antagonising the neurotoxicity of Aβ Conclusions Aβ can induce the death of cultured neurons, and the oxidative stress mechanism may be involved in the neurotoxicity of Aβ Melatonin can be pertly against the neurotoxicity of Aβ by reducing the level of lipid peroxidative andincreasing the activity of antioxidant enzyme
Multi-input Functional Encryption with Unbounded-Message Security

Multi-input functional encryption MIFE was introduced by Goldwasser et al. EUROCRYPT 2014 as a compelling extension of functional encryption. In MIFE, a receiver is able to compute a joint function of multiple, independently encrypted plaintexts. Goldwasser eti¾?al. EUROCRYPT 2014 show various applications of MIFE to running SQL queries over encrypted databases, computing over encrypted data streams, etc. The previous constructions of MIFE due to Goldwasser et al. EUROCRYPT 2014 based on indistinguishability obfuscation had a major shortcoming: it could only support encrypting an a priori bounded number of message. Once that bound is exceeded, security is no longer guaranteed to hold. In addition, it could only support selective-security, meaning that the challenge messages and the set of "corrupted" encryption keys had to be declared by the adversary up-front. In this work, we show how to remove these restrictions by relying instead on sub-exponentially secure indistinguishability obfuscation. This is done by carefully adapting an alternative MIFE scheme of Goldwasser et al. that previously overcame these shortcomings except for selective security wrt.i¾?the set of "corrupted" encryption keys by relying instead on differing-inputs obfuscation, which is now seen as an implausible assumption. Our techniques are rather generic, and we hope they are useful in converting other constructions using differing-inputs obfuscation to ones using sub-exponentially secure indistinguishability obfuscation instead.
A qualitative investigation of the impact of asthma and self-management strategies among older adults.

Objective: We sought feedback from elderly patients living with asthma to understand their experience with assuming self-management roles for their asthma in order to inform the design and implementation of a primary care-based strategy that could best support their asthma control. Methods: We held six focus groups with a total of 31 English- and Spanish-speaking older adults with a current diagnosis of asthma. Focus groups addressed the effect of asthma on patients' lives and self-management strategies. Transcripts were analyzed using constant comparative techniques. Results: Asthma exerted a consistent effect on patients' physical and psychological well-being. Common barriers to self-care included misuse of controller medications and uncertainty whether shortness of breath, fatigue, and cough were due to their asthma or some other chronic illness. Patients developed coping strategies to continue with daily activities even when experiencing symptoms, but did not recognize attainable asthma quali...
Exploring a LOD-Based Application for Military Movie Retrieval

In recent years, the number of video film has been in the constant expansion dramatically due to the rapid development of digital devices and network/communication technologies. The increasing diversity and complexity of video contents make a challenge toward file management and fast retrieval. This study considered military movies as research targets and used ELAN (a video annotation tool) to increase the descriptive data of the movie, which provides more detail metadata for improving video retrieval. The objective of this study is to develop a military movie knowledge retrieval service based on the Linked Open Data, which not only provides basic metadata and annotated words that include the timeline characteristic, but also links specified concepts with the related and extensive knowledge. Results represent that the service system is helpful for enhancing the effectiveness of military movie retrieval.
Size assortment in new world bat communities

We evaluated ubiquity of morphological overdispersion, which is characteristic of competitive interactions, in feeding guilds from 15 bat communities from North, Central, and South America. Overdispersion was detected in 10 of 15 communities and 4 of 5 feeding guilds. Although overdispersed morphological patterns exist, they are not a consistent at-tribute of the structure of feeding guilds within bat communities. Because of factors ranging from environmental attributes such as heterogeneity to species-specific attributes such as high mobility, morphological overdispersion in bats may at best only be a transitory out-come of the effect of competitive interactions on community structure.
Poly(ethylene glycol)-Mediated Collagen Gel Mechanics Regulates Cellular Phenotypes in a Microchanneled Matrix

For the past few decades, efforts have been extensively made to reproduce tissue of interests for various uses including fundamental bioscience studies, clinical treatments, and even soft robotic systems. In these studies, cells are often cultured in micropores introduced in a provisional matrix despite that bulk rigidity may negatively affect cellular differentiation involved in tissue formation. To this end, we hypothesized that suspending cells within a soft fibrous matrix that is encapsulated within the microchannels of a provisional matrix would allow us to mediate effects of the matrix rigidity on cells and, in turn, to increase the cell differentiation level. We examined this hypothesis by filling microchannels interpenetrating alginate matrices with collagen gels of controlled elastic moduli (i.e., 125 to 1 Pa). Myoblasts used as a model predifferentiated cell were suspended within the collagen gels. The elastic modulus of the collagen gels was decreased through the addition of poly(ethylene glyco...
Functional precision cancer medicine—moving beyond pure genomics

The essential job of precision medicine is to match the right drugs to the right patients. In cancer, precision medicine has been nearly synonymous with genomics. However, sobering recent studies have generally shown that most patients with cancer who receive genomic testing do not benefit from a genomic precision medicine strategy. Although some call the entire project of precision cancer medicine into question, I suggest instead that the tools employed must be broadened. Instead of relying exclusively on big data measurements of initial conditions, we should also acquire highly actionable functional information by perturbing-for example, with cancer therapies-viable primary tumor cells from patients with cancer.
To be structurally well-defined or not to be, that is not the question for iron(III)–poly(4-Vinylpyridine-co-acrylamide) to exhibit catechol dioxygenase activity!

Abstract Metal complexes of a poly(4-vinylpyridine-co-acrylamide) copolymer (P1) exhibit significant hydrolytic and oxidation/oxygenation activities. These metallopolymers exhibit enzyme-mimicking selectivity, cooperativity, and induced-fit mechanism during catalyses. Fe3+-P1 exhibits a significant catechol dioxygenase activity in aqueous media with k2(CA) = 0.011 M−1 s−1 and k2(O2) = 0.213 M−1 s−1 for aerobic oxidative catechol cleavage, comparable to many structurally characterized complexes. The substrate-bound S–Fe(III)-P1 intermediates are characterized by the use of electronic, resonance Raman, and EPR spectroscopic methods. Copolymers generally lack well-defined structures, which nevertheless should not hinder further development of functional metallopolymers for broad applications.
Moral Agency and the Paradox of Self-Interested Concern for the Future in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya

It is a common view in modern scholarship on Buddhist ethics that attachment to the self constitutes a hindrance to ethics, whereas rejecting this type of attachment is a necessary condition for acting morally. The present article argues that in Vasubandhu’s theory of agency, as formulated in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (Treasury of Metaphysics with Self-Commentary), a cognitive and psychological identification with a conventional, persisting self is a requisite for exercising moral agency. As such, this identification is essential for embracing the ethics of Buddhism and its way of life. The article delineates the method that Vasubandhu employs to account for the notion of a selfless moral agent, with particular emphasis on his strategies for dealing with one central aspect of agency, self-interested concern for the future.
Computation Reuse in Analytics Job Service at Microsoft

Analytics-as-a-service, or analytics job service, is emerging as a new paradigm for data analytics, be it in a cloud environment or within enterprises. In this setting, users are not required to manage or tune their hardware and software infrastructure, and they pay only for the processing resources consumed per job. However, the shared nature of these job services across several users and teams leads to significant overlaps in partial computations, i.e., parts of the processing are duplicated across multiple jobs, thus generating redundant costs. In this paper, we describe a computation reuse framework, coined CLOUDVIEWS, which we built to address the computation overlap problem in Microsoft's SCOPE job service. We present a detailed analysis from our production workloads to motivate the computation overlap problem and the possible gains from computation reuse. The key aspects of our system are the following: (i) we reuse computations by creating materialized views over recurring workloads, i.e., periodically executing jobs that have the same script templates but process new data each time, (ii) we select the views to materialize using a feedback loop that reconciles the compile-time and run-time statistics and gathers precise measures of the utility and cost of each overlapping computation, and (iii) we create materialized views in an online fashion, without requiring an offline phase to materialize the overlapping computations.
Parricide rates and criminal street violence in the United States: is there a correlation? .

An analysis of secondary data revealed that parricide rates from 1977 to 1988 in the United States correlated negatively with the rates for violent crime, supporting Megargee's hypothesis that factors affecting violent street crimes do not similarly affect intrafamilial violence
Legislative Epidemics: A Cautionary Tale of Criminal Laws that Sweep the Country

Epidemic. The word conjures up thoughts of a virus that spreads from one part of the country to the other. It might even be used to describe sweeping change in social behaviors. But what if it were used to describe the passage of legislation? In this piece, I reconstruct the series of forces, both legal and social, that conflate to produce, what I term, a “legislative epidemic,” suggesting that legislation takes hold and multiplies across the country in much the same way that a medical outbreak becomes an epidemic, or a piece of clothing becomes the “must-have” item of the season. Tracking a variety of criminal legislation, including laws on drunk-driving, Three Strikes, and sex offender registration, the article reveals the forces behind their evolution, the tragic stories that galvanized the public, and other factors that contribute to their spread. When properly conceived and executed, the legislative epidemic provides a common framework of language for national decisionmaking to address a perceived gap in the criminal law. But this article is also a cautionary tale about laws that are fueled by high profile cases, emotion-laden rhetoric, and inaccurate, but embedded, assumptions about crime and criminals. The same set of forces responsible for the dramatic spread of a law also makes the legislative epidemic particularly vulnerable to systemic problems that include runaway legislation and failed execution. And like a medical epidemic whose virology changes over time, legislative epidemics are susceptible to mutation, where succeeding generations of law prove to be more ferocious than the initial legislation. Awareness of these failings sounds a call to action, and this paper offers guidance to lawmakers and courts on their needed responses.
Wanted: Less Prevalence of and More Data on Early Childhood Caries.

A review is presented of the article "Prevalence and Data Availability of Early Childhood Caries in 193 United Nations Countries, 2007–2017" by Maha El Tantawi, Morenike O. Folayan, Mohamed Mehaina, and others concerning a literature review of data on early childhood dental caries which was combined with dental data repositories.
Host Presidents' Address: A Discussion on Ways Catholic Higher Education Institutions Can Assist Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools

As part of the third Catholic Higher Education Collaborative Conference (CHEC), an event cosponsored by Boston College and Fordham University, the host university presidents, Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., and Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., addressed conference attendees and discussed ways higher education institutions can assist Catholic elementary and secondary schools. This article contains a transcript of their remarks. Fr. Leahy, the 25th president of Boston College, has a keen interest in Catholic schools, understanding their importance for the nation and for handing on the Catholic tradition to the next generation. Through his efforts, the Center for Catholic Education at Boston College, now the Roche Center for Catholic Education, was established. Fr. McShane, the 32nd president of Fordham University, shares a strong commitment to Catholic education. He has become one of the most powerful voices in New York City speaking on behalf of the need for Catholic schools. The work of Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and Center for Catholic School Leadership with Catholic schools throughout the metropolitan region has received support from Fr. McShane.
Maximal Decay Rates and Asymptotic Behavior of Solutions in Nonlinear Elastic Structures

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of systems arising in nonlinear elasticity. Of particular interest are problems related to quantitative description (in terms of the parameters in equations) of margin of stability achieved by implementation of a suitable nonlinear damping mechanism. To be more precise, we are interested in the following question: how and to which extent one can maximize the margin of stability by introducing a suitably large damping? Even in the case of a simple linear, constant coefficient problem with viscous damping, it is known that the maximum of decay’s rate depends not only on the damping coefficient (representing the dynamic properties of the model) but also on the static properties of the model (for instance: the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian-the case of wave equation). In fact, in a recent paper [4] it was shown that the exact decay rates in one-dimensional wave equation with viscous damping are determined by the location of the eigenvalue corresponding to the wave operator. The above result, for a one-dimensional linear wave equation, is rather technical and it is based on Riesz property of associated eigenfunction. This, in turn, requires the so called “gap condition” which is known to fail for higher dimensional problems.