cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sterol metabolism in fetal, newborn, and suckled lambs and their response to cholesterol after weaning

Several aspects of cholesterol metabolism were studied in lambs at six stages of development. The first three stages involved fetal lambs with gestational ages (fertilization set at -150 days) of -73 days (early fetal), -42 days (midfetal), and -14 days (late fetal). The other groups comprised newborn (0 days), suckled (17 days), and weaned (105 days) lambs. The liver, kidney, spleen, and brain actively synthesized cholesterol at all stages of development, but hepatic synthesis in the suckled lambs was markedly suppressed compared with that in their newborn and weaned counterparts. Whereas intestinal sterol synthesis was very low in all the fetal lambs, the converse was true in the neonatal animals. The total cholesterol concentration in the liver, intestine, kidney, and spleen remained relatively constant at all stages of growth, whereas in brain tissue it increased throughout development. Plasma total and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol levels were lowest in the late fetal lambs and highest in the suckled animals. The metabolic response of weaned lambs to a dietary cholesterol challenge was similar to that reported for various monogastric species.
Valproate-Induced Reversible Brain Atrophy and Cognitive Deterioration

Pediatric neurologists at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, report an 8-year-old boy with rapid cognitive decline after a year-long course of valproate in varying dosages for myoclonic and atypical absence seizures.
Book Review: International Trade and Competition Law in Japan

The controversies that continue to rage over Japan’s role in the international economy and, more specifically, its impressive and potentially ominous trade surpluses with the U.S. often circle around the question of what can be done about any of it. In the U.S., it is commonly assumed that an alliance between government and organized business in Japan is the culprit and that problem can be eliminated by changing government policies. Not surprisingly, the Japanese tend to t see the problem differently, depicting the trade balance as the natural result of organizational, technological and economic factors, and they tend to be skeptical of claims that it can be effectively remedied by changing laws.The debate should, therefore, center on how the relevant components of the Japanese legal system actually operate. Yet knowledge about these areas of Japanese law in the United States is so thin and poorly disseminated that the controversy continues in a circle of denunciations rather than moving toward more effective response to the problem. Mitsuo Matsushita’s International Trade and Competition Law promises to be of much value in moving the dialogue in that direction.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF PALLIATIVE CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH TAVR AND VAD? A SURVEY OF ACC MEMBERS

Palliative care improves patient-center outcomes in patients with potentially life-limiting disease. Patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or ventricular assist device (VAD) implant may benefit from palliative care; recent guidelines recommend, and government agencies
Pediment evolution at Roan Mountain, North Carolina, USA

Fan-shaped pediments up to almost 2 km2 in area occur along the west and south piedmont slopes of Roan Mountain, North Carolina. Sediment mantles average less than 18.5 m in depth, and generally ap...
The Pleistocene Rails of North America

Wetmore (1931) assigned two fragments of tarsi and a femur from Pleistocene deposits excavated at Seminole Field, Pinellas County, Florida, to the Gray-necked Wood Rail, Aramides cajanea. This species is presently distributed from southern M6xico to Argentina. In view of the Neotropical flavor of much of the Pleistocene fauna of Florida, it was not a wholly unexpected discovery but, unfortunately, the record is based on incorrectly identified material. On restudying the specimens involved (USNM 12192), I found that none pertains to Aramides. The femur is from a small individual (probably a male) of Redshouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus. The distal right tarsus and proximal right tarsus are from different individuals and are rallid; however, both are from the King Rail, Rallus elegans. Both Buteo lineatus and Rallus elegans were recorded by Wetmore from the Seminole Field site. The tarsi of Aramides and Rallus are quite distinct in their entirety but in the fragmentary condition of the fossils are less easily separated. In the distal fragment, the distal foramen in posterior view is oval and placed higher than in Aramides cajanea, in which the distal foramen is round. The middle trochlea is not as heavy and expanded distally as in A. cajanea, but the scar for the hallux is deeper. In external view, the shaft extending to trochlea 4 is wide and heavy, unlike A. cajanea in which this shaft is narrow and flattened; also, the groove in trochlea 4 does not extend through most of the anterior face of the trochlea as it does in Aramides. In anterior view, the outer extensor groove is longer and deeper than in Aramides. In all these respects, the fossil agrees with Rallus elegans. In the proximal tarsal fragment, in anterior view the intercotylar prominence is lower and flatter than in Aramides; the hypotarsus is not as deeply excavated on the internal face and in internal view the ridge from the internal cotyla is broader and not as sharply marked off from the hypotarsal area as it is in A. cajanea. In these respects this specimen, too, agrees with Rallus elegans. Aramides cajanea must therefore be removed from the fossil record of North America.
Comment on Woodside

In an interesting article by Woodside [7] on the effect of informal group influence on consumer risk taking, it was pointed out that the risky shift phenomenon-the tendency of groups and individuals to take greater risks after group discussion-found in social psychology may also exist in consumer-related product decision making. This finding was based upon a risk-taking instrument developed by Woodside which contained several hypothetical consumer-product buying situations involving various product categories such as instant coffee, automobiles, cameras, and automatic washing machines. Each situation presented two courses of action, one action being riskier but potentially more rewarding than the other. Housewives participating in Woodside's experiment were asked to indicate the minimum odds of success of the risky alternative they would require before accepting it, on a scale ranging from 1 in 10 to 10 in 10. Subjects individually completed the instrument before as well as after both group discussion and unanimous group decision making. The purpose of this note is to focus on two major shortcomings in Woodside's study. First, the external validity of Woodside's findings appears to be questionable. Second, the study failed to consider the possible impact of degrees of perceived risk on the risky shift.
The effects of losartan in antihypertensive and renoprotective therapy

Objective To observe the efffect of angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist(ATRa)losartan in decreasing blood pressure and protecting kidney for the patients who suffered from mild-to-moderate hypertension combined with earlier type 2 diabetic nephropathy.Methods 200 patients matched the requirements were selected and divided into losartan group and Beitaleke combined with spironolactone group,the dose and duration of treatment were adjusted after 5 weeks according to the blood pressure.All the patients were evaluated on the test data by using SPSS18.0 analysis.Results The result of two groups was similar between reducing blood pressure and side effects;there were significant differences of urinary albumin excretion rate(24 hUAER) level and the reduction rate of 24 hUAER between losartan group and Beitaleke combined with spironolactone group(P 0.05),the remaining parameters had no significant difference(P 0.05).Conclusion The effect rate of Losartan in the treatment on mild-to-moderate hypertension similar to Beitaleke combined with spironolactone group with good toleration.Losartan is angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist with high selectivity and good specificity,and can defer the development of early proteinuria of type 2 diabetic nephropathy and can protect kidney function.
Adaptive WIM strategy for weigh station control

Weigh-in-Motion(WIM) technology is commonly deployed to reduce delay and aid enforcement of overweight vehicles.A fixed threshold value,the legal weight limit,is used to filter and sort trucks by weight.If the WIM reading of a truck is over this threshold value,the truck could be directed to a static scale for further inspection and citation.An adaptive weight threshold algorithm was devised to fully utilize the WIM technology and enhance the operational efficiency at WIM-equipped sites.The threshold value is increased when the queue at the weigh station is long so as to avoid the closure of the weigh station while still catching the worst weight offenders.The threshold value is lowered when the queue at the station is short to maximize the number of trucks inspected.This paper focuses on the evaluation of the design and operations of the adaptive weight algorithm.A microscopic simulation model based on a real-world ramp WIM weigh station site was established and calibrated.Subsequently,the dynamic threshold adjustment strategy was modeled and tested.The results show that adaptive algorithm is always better than the traditional static threshold operations under a wide range of conditions.Under heavy demand conditions,the algorithm catches 44% more overweight trucks than the static operations while keeping the average delay per legal-weight truck at only 30% of that under static operations.In other words,the proposed adaptive weight algorithm is both more effective in weight enforcement and more efficient in serving the traffic demand.
Adenosine diphosphate stimulation of cultured hematopoietic cell lines

Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) plays a critical role in platelet activation both by exogenous stimulation and the release of endogenous intracellular stores. As the platelet ADP receptor is not well defined, we have chosen to identify and characterize several cell lines that possess functional receptors for this nucleotide. Rat promegakaryoblasts (RPM), human erythroleukemia cells (HEL), U937, and K562 leukemia cells responded to ADP, as measured by a rapid increase in intracellular calcium. In the case of RPM cells, ADP was the only naturally occurring platelet agonist capable of eliciting this response. Binding studies with [3H]ADP and fixed cells showed 3.99 +/- 1.77 x 10(5) binding sites/cell for RPM cells (apparent dissociation constant [kd] = 7.75 +/- 2.3 x 10(-8) mol/L), 8.19 +/- 3.25 x 10(5) sites/cell for HEL cells (kd = 2.15 +/- 0.84 x 10(-7) mol/L, 1.15 +/- 0.23 x 10(6) sites/cell for U937 cells (kd = 2.20 +/- 0.53 x 10(-7) mol/L) and 5.39 +/- 2.80 x 10(5) sites/cell for K562 cells (kd = 1.37 +/- 0.39 x 10(-7) mol/L), Inhibition studies with unlabeled nucleotides and analogues showed that binding was approximately 85% specific and the inhibitory pattern was similar to that seen with mature platelets. The purine base adenosine resulted in little or no inhibition. These studies indicate that both human and rat hematopoietic cell lines possess intact ADP receptors and may be useful tools in future studies of the structure and function of this important platelet-activation system.
Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts: Watching, Reading, Changing Plays

This review considers Laura Estill. Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts: Watching, Reading, Changing Plays . Lanham: University of Delaware Press, 2015. Pp xxviii, 254.
Reaping the Fruits of Resistance: Josephine Butler and Sarah Grand

Christina Rossetti’s poetics of reclamation finally turns away from work within the public sphere; indeed, the poet explicitly distanced herself from the growing women’s movement as the nineteenth century drew to a close, most famously signing Mrs Humphrey Ward’s “Protest against Female Suffrage” published in the Nineteenth Century in 1889.1 Yet, the political potential of a philanthropic discourse that linked the fate of the “fallen” and “pure” would continue to be harnessed for explicitly radical ends by fin-de-siecle proto-feminist activists and New Woman authors. Indeed, it is a resisting discourse that comes to dominate public opinion as well as governmental policy during Josephine Butler’s successful “crusade” against the Contagious Diseases (CD) Acts of 1864, 1867, and 1869, a battle waged by the reformer in the press as a writer and on the platform as an orator. In addition to her effective contestation of the governmental regulation of prostitution and its requisite institutions of Lock hospitals and medical police, Butler’s prominence as a public speaker facilitated greater frankness on the subjects of female sexuality and venereal disease, as well as the importance of “feminine” influence in public policy-making. I argue that Butler’s opposition to a “conspiracy” of male silence on the subjects of prostitution and sexual transgression, as well as her cultivation of a high profile public persona, set the stage for the emergence of a very particular “feminist” heroine at the end of the century: a figure partly based upon Butler herself.
Kairion: a rhetorical approach to the visualization of sources

Electronic systems which claim to support academic reading and writing practices consider only the descriptive metadata of sources as fields of interest for writers. However, both the relative lack of success of these systems and research in citation practices reveals that the motivation of academics when they use sources in their writing is primarily rhetorical. However, no detailed model for the rhetorical use of citations which could lead to the development of an electronic system utilizing rhetorical metadata has ever been developed. This paper reports on research which led to the development of such a rhetorical model. In this model, the dimension of time as well as the categories of values, relevance and significance are identified based on a combination of quantitative and ethnographic methods. This model is then used to develop the prototype for a rhetorical electronic system to support academic citation practices, kairion. The implications of such a system modeled for the work of individual academics in different stages of their career as well for groups of researchers are also discussed.
Comparison of Additional Regulatory Requirements for Conducting Clinical Trials on Genetically-Modified Microorganisms and Recombinant DNA in Europe, the United States, and Canada

The number of clinical trials related to genetically-modified organisms and recombinant DNA will increase exponentially in the next decade. This article describes and compares the European, United States, and Canadian regulatory requirements for conducting clinical trials related to genetically-modified organisms and recombinant DNA. In Europe, the additional regulatory requirements include submissions and approvals from the local and national genetically-modified organisms safety committees, and the gene therapy committee (if applicable). If the genetically-modified organism is imported from another country, an “importer” certification is also required. In the United States, the additional regulatory requirements include review/approval by the institutional biosafety committee and the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. For gene therapy, additional information is required by the Food and Drug Administration. In Canada, review by the institutional biosafety committee (for biological hazards) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (for research it funds) is required.
Adult Brain Tumors and Pseudotumors: Interesting (Bizarre) Cases

Some brain tumors results are interesting due to their rarity at presentation and overwhelming imaging characteristics, posing a diagnostic challenge in the eyes of any experienced neuroradiologist. This article focuses on the most important features regarding epidemiology, location, clinical presentation, histopathology, and imaging findings of cases considered "bizarre." A review of the most recent literature dealing with these unusual tumors and pseudotumors is presented, highlighting key points related to the diagnosis, treatments, outcomes, and differential diagnosis.
Hopf Bifurcation in an Adaptive System with Unmodeled Dynamics

Abstract Adaptive schemes can exhibit a “nonlinear” instability in which the linear system with fixed parameters is stable. This instability is a Hopf bifurcation caused by unmodeled dynamics.
Fundamentals of Bioequivalence

Significant advances in pharmaceutical science and technology have taken place since the enactment of bioavailability (BA)/bioequivalence (BE) regulations in 1977, providing many opportunities of enhancing the regulatory approaches for BA/BE evaluation. Over the decades, extraordinary progress has been made and numerous guidelines, policies, and regulatory recommendations have been developed in the field. This chapter provides the fundamental concepts of BA/BE and their applications in drug development. The chapter presents the current scientific approaches for establishing BE, including the design features commonly used for BE studies and metrics available for BE determination. General considerations of various important elements for proper conduct of BE studies are also discussed.
A fuzzy system approach for choosing public goods game strategies

Replicator equations are regularly used to predict how strategies evolve in social dilemmas. These predictions are based on comparisons between the fitness of a strategy and the average population fitness. Unfortunately, fitness comparisons alone don't provide much insight into how or why individuals choose to cooperate. To overcome this limitation in replicator equations we developed a zero order Seguno fuzzy system to model individual player decisions in a public goods game. Our simulation results qualitatively match those predicted by the replicator dynamics which validates the approach. This new methodology provides a framework for studying individual decision making in social dilemmas.
Experimental Infection of Syrian Hamsters With Aerosolized Nipah Virus.

Background Nipah virus (NiV) is a paramyxovirus (genus Henipavirus) that can cause severe respiratory illness and encephalitis in humans. Transmission occurs through consumption of NiV-contaminated foods, and contact with NiV-infected animals or human body fluids. However, it is unclear whether aerosols derived from aforesaid sources or others also contribute to transmission, and current knowledge on NiV-induced pathogenicity after small-particle aerosol exposure is still limited. Methods Infectivity, pathogenicity, and real-time dissemination of aerosolized NiV in Syrian hamsters was evaluated using NiV-Malaysia (NiV-M) and/or its recombinant expressing firefly luciferase (rNiV-FlucNP). Results Both viruses had an equivalent pathogenicity in hamsters, which developed respiratory and neurological symptoms of disease, similar to using intranasal route, with no direct correlations to the dose. We showed that virus replication was predominantly initiated in the lower respiratory tract and, although delayed, also intensely in the oronasal cavity and possibly the brain, with gradual increase of signal in these regions until at least day 5-6 postinfection. Conclusion Hamsters infected with small-particle aerosolized NiV undergo similar clinical manifestations of the disease as previously described using liquid inoculum, and exhibit histopathological lesions consistent with NiV patient reports. NiV droplets could therefore play a role in transmission by close contact.
Metabolic Syndrome and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Events and Death: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies

Objectives The purpose of this research was to assess the association between the metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) and cardiovascular events and mortality by meta-analyses of longitudinal studies. Background Controversy exists regarding the cardiovascular risk associated with MetSyn. Methods We searched electronic reference databases through March 2005, studies that referenced Reaven’s seminal article, abstracts presented at meetings in 2003 to 2004, and queried experts. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility. Longitudinal studies reporting associations between MetSyn and cardiovascular events or mortality were eligible. Two reviewers independently used a standardized form to collect data from published reports. Authors were contacted. Study quality was assessed by the control of selection, detection, and attrition biases. Results We found 37 eligible studies that included 43 cohorts (inception 1971 to 1997) and 172,573 individuals. Random effects meta-analyses showed MetSyn had a relative risk (RR) of cardiovascular events and death of 1.78 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.58 to 2.00). The association was stronger in women (RR 2.63 vs. 1.98, p = 0.09), in studies enrolling lower risk ( Conclusions The best available evidence suggests that people with MetSyn are at increased risk of cardiovascular events. These results can help clinicians counsel patients to consider lifestyle interventions, and should fuel research of other preventive interventions.
Multi-objective Optimization for Multi-level Networks

Social network analysis is a rich field with many practical applications like community formation and hub detection. Traditionally, we assume that edges in the network have homogeneous semantics, for instance, indicating friend relationships. However, we increasingly deal with networks for which we can define multiple heterogeneous types of connections between users; we refer to these distinct groups of edges as layers. Naively, we could perform standard network analyses on each layer independently, but this approach may fail to identify interesting signals that are apparent only when viewing all of the layers at once. Instead, we propose to analyze a multi-layered network as a single entity, potentially yielding a richer set of results that better reflect the underlying data. We apply the framework of multi-objective optimization and specifically the concept of Pareto optimality, which has been used in many contexts in engineering and science to deliver solutions that offer tradeoffs between various objective functions. We show that this approach can be well-suited to multi-layer network analysis, as we will encounter situations in which we wish to optimize contrasting quantities. As a case study, we utilize the Pareto framework to show how to bisect the network into equal parts in a way that attempts to minimize the cut-size on each layer. This type of procedure might be useful in determining differences in structure between layers, and in cases where there is an underlying true bisection over multiple layers, this procedure could give a more accurate cut.
On Finite Abelian Groups and Parallel Edges on Polygons

1. Parallel edges on polygons Certain geometrical problems may be formulated algebraically. The paradigm case is the solution of ruler and compass construction problems by means of the theory of field extensions. Yet other examples can be found. We will show here how two results on regular polygons are related to permutations of the elements of a finite abelian group. In this note, G denotes a finite abelian group written multiplicatively. In order to avoid the trivial cases we suppose that the order of G is at least two. A complete mapping of G is a permutation f of G such that
Ex post evaluation of technology diffusion in the African palm oil sector: The Caltech expeller in Cameroon, Benin, and Liberia

Abstract This study is a post-project evaluation of three development projects promoting the same technology but implemented at three different times and locations over a period of thirty years, from 1984 to 2014. The technology in question is a small, portable palm oil expeller invented in Cameroon in the 1980 s. The technology was designed to increase the productivity of small farmers and create employment opportunities by increasing local capacity for small-scale palm oil processing. The expeller was subsequently promoted in Benin and Liberia over a period of nearly two decades. This evaluation is based on archival research of institutional records, data from impact surveys of technology users in all three countries during the project periods, and field research in Liberia in 2011 and 2013. The study analyzes and evaluates the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the expeller over the long term, comparatively, across a broad geographic area. In terms of social and economic impacts, the technology consistently increased incomes for farmers and small enterprises. The use of the technology altered relationships of production, particularly with regard to the role of women in palm oil processing and their control over resources. Environmental impacts of the technology are geographically dispersed and include increased water usage and pollution. Ultimately the technology in question has also contributed to political impacts over time by exacerbating conflicts between small farmers, palm oil corporations, and governments. This study confirms that comparative, longitudinal evaluation research can reveal important dimensions of development impacts.
Interpreting Kendall’s Tau and Tau-U for single-case experimental designs

Tau (τ), a nonparametric rank order correlation statistic, has been applied to single-case experimental designs with promising results. Tau-U, a family of related coefficients, partitions variance ...
A Meta-Analysis of Deceptive Advertising: An Abstract

Deceptive advertising has been researched in the context of marketing, business, psychology, economics, law, public policy, health, food, and communications. Many studies document a negative relationship between deceptive advertising and consumer evaluations, such as attitudes toward the brand and ad, trustworthiness, purchase intention, and likelihood to recommend. For instance, Cowley (2006) found that puffery claims are perceived as less credible by consumers than factual claims, Boyer et al. (2015) discovered that covert marketing elicits more negative attitudes toward a product than overt marketing, and Craig et al. (2012) showed that highly deceptive ads are associated with lower purchase intentions than are factual ads. However, some forms of deceptive advertising do not produce adverse effects. For example, Xu and Wyer (2010) found that puffery actually was related to higher consumer product evaluations. Further, misleading claims have been shown to relate to more positive consumer attitudes toward ads and brands (Newell et al. 1998), and greenwashing is believed to have a positive impact on brand imagery (Parguel et al. 2015).
Photogenerated Spin-Entangled Qubit (Radical) Pairs in DNA Hairpins: Observation of Spin Delocalization and Coherence

The ability to prepare physical qubits in specific initial quantum states is a critical requirement for their use in quantum information science (QIS). Subnanosecond photoinduced electron transfer in a structurally well-defined donor-acceptor system can be used to produce an entangled spin qubit (radical) pair in a pure initial singlet state fulfilling this criterion. Synthetic DNA is a promising platform on which to build spin qubit arrays with fixed spatial relationships; therefore, we have prepared a series of DNA hairpins in which naphthalenediimide (NDI) is the chromophore/acceptor hairpin linker, variable-length diblock A- and G-tracts are intermediate donors, and a stilbenediether (Sd) is the terminal donor. Photoexcitation of NDI in these DNA hairpins generates high-yield, long-lived, entangled spin qubit pairs at 85 K, and time-resolved and pulse electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopies are used to probe their spin dynamics. Specifically, measurements of the distance-dependent dipolar coupling between the two spins are used to obtain the average spin qubit pair distance in the absence of the terminal Sd donor and reveal that one of the spins is fully delocalized across up to five adjacent guanines in a G-tract on the EPR time scale. We have recently shown that extensive spin hopping between degenerate sites accessible to one spin of the pair may result in spin decoherence. However, we observe a strong out-of-phase electron spin echo envelope modulation (OOP-ESEEM) signal from the NDI•--Sd•+ spin qubit pair in DNA hairpins showing that spin coherence is maintained across a 2 adenine A-tract followed by a 2-4 guanine G-tract as a result of rapid spin transport to Sd. These results demonstrate that pulse-EPR can manipulate coherent spin states in DNA hairpins, which is essential for quantum gate operations relevant to QIS applications.
Improved method of assessing pesticide hazards to nontarget game birds under simulated field conditions

A large portable enclosure method for assessing hazards of vertebrate pesticides to nontarget game birds under simulated field conditions is described. In each (9.8 by 2.4 by 1.2-m) enclosure, small groups of test birds are exposed to one of several levels of pesticide treatment similar to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's protocol for large-pen simulated field studies. The versatility of portable enclosures allows tests to be conducted over various natural or cultivated food crops to simulate various patterns of pesticide use. Birds are given free choice of dry bait pesticides and naturally occurring food crops. During testing, the enclosures are moved daily over similarly treated areas to provide a constant pesticide exposure factor and to replenish the available forage for test birds. A fluorescent particle tracer is used in the pesticide formulation to assess the daily acceptance of pesticide material by the test birds from fecal analysis. Advantages and possible applications of this method are discussed.
QuateRA: The Quaternion Regression Algorithm

This work proposes a batch solution to the problem of estimating fixed angular velocity using orientation measurements. Provided that the angular velocity remains constant with time, it is shown th...
Abstract 6614: Association between immune gene signatures and neoepitopes with electrostatic charge opposite to their HLA-B binding pocket in melanoma (MEL) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD)

Purpose: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized treatment of melanoma and lung cancer. Recent evidence suggests that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B supertype influences efficacy of ICB. HLA-B27 and B44 supertypes have electronegative and electropositive binding pockets, respectively, and preferentially bind and display oppositely charged neoepitopes. We sought to evaluate the relationship between baseline immune activation and charged neoepitopes in the context of oppositely charged HLA-B binding pockets. Methods: Datasets from a total of 466 MEL and 513 LUAD patients included in the TCGA were used. HLA type was obtained with OptiType. Nonsynonymous mutations were annotated with SnpEff, Ensembl VEP, and VAtools. Only transcribed variants were filtered for analysis. pVAC-Seq using NetMHCpan algorithm predicted nonamer neoepitopes. Favorable B27 neoepitopes were defined as having new positively charged amino acid (AA) substitutions (H/K/R) from oppositely charged or uncharged wildtype AA, while neoepitopes with new negatively charged AAs (D/E) were considered favorable for B44. Three gene signatures were evaluated with normalized RNA expression values from 14 antigen presentation, 15 immunostimulator, and 11 immunoinhibitor genes. Linear regression tests were performed between gene expression values and fraction of nonsynonymous mutations resulting in neoepitopes with new positively and negatively charged AAs. Paired t-tests were performed between the mean of Pearson9s r for fraction of new positively versus negatively charged AAs compared to gene expression values, and subsetted to B27/B44. Heterozygotes for B27/B44 were excluded from analysis to avoid competing charges. Results: 26.4% and 48.7% of MEL patients had B27 and B44, respectively. In LUAD, 28.6% had B27 and 47.2% had B44. Of new charged AAs resulting from nonsynonymous mutations, 72.6% in MEL and 75.0% in LUAD were positively charged (p=0.0053). In MEL, difference in Pearson9s r values between fraction of new positively and negatively charged AAs as compared to immunostimulator (B27 p=.016; B44 p Conclusion: Immune gene signatures showed association with neoepitopes that have oppositely charged AAs than their HLA-B binding pocket in both MEL and LUAD, indicating that presentation of favorable neoepitopes stimulates an immune response. The association was limited to B27 in LUAD and strongest for B44 in MEL. Citation Format: Charlene M. Fares, Amy L. Cummings, Matthew K. Theisen, Nicholas Hornstein, Jaklin Gukasyan, Wisdom Akingbemi, Debory Li, Paige Brodrick, Aaron Lisberg, Edward B. Garon. Association between immune gene signatures and neoepitopes with electrostatic charge opposite to their HLA-B binding pocket in melanoma (MEL) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 6614.
Crystal structure of di-μ-chloro­acetato-hexa­kis­(di­methyl­formamide)­tetra­kis­(μ-N,2-dioxido­benzene-1-carboximidato)tetra­manganese(III)disodium dimethyl­formamide disolvate

The synthesis, crystal structure, and FT–IR data for the title compound, [Na2Mn4(C2H2ClO2)2(C7H4NO3)4(C3H7NO)6]·2C3H7NO or Na2(O2CCH2Cl)2[12-MCMnIIIN(shi)-4](DMF)6·2DMF, where MC is metallacrown, shi3− is salicyl­hydroximate, and DMF is N,N-di­methyl­formamide, is reported. The macrocyclic metallacrown consists of an –[MnIII—N—O]4– ring repeat unit and the metallacrown captures two Na+ ions in the central cavity above and below the plane of the metallacrown. Each Na+ ion is seven-coordinate and is bridged to two ring MnIII ions, through either a coordinating DMF mol­ecule or a chloro­acetate anion. The ring MnIII ions have either a tetra­gonally distorted octa­hedral geometry or a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. Weak C—H⋯O inter­actions, in addition to pure van der Waals forces, contribute to the overall packing of the mol­ecules. The complete molecule has inversion symmetry and is disordered over two sets of sites with an occupancy ratio of 0.8783 (7):0.1217 (7). The solvent molecule is also disordered over two sets of sites, with an occupancy ratio of 0.615 (5):0.385 (5).
Alcohol and sex: the influence of friendship networks on co- occurring risky health behaviors of U.S. adolescents

Background: U.S. adolescents face the reality that engaging in one risky health behavior facilitates co-occurring risky behaviors. Moreover, adolescents may change their behaviors to develop new friendships or to match the behavior of existing friends. These relationships among friends can lead to increase in risk-taking. Methods: Utilizing a nationally representative saturated sample (n=901) with friendship network data from two large schools in the Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study examined the influence of friendship network structure upon adolescents’ sexual intercourse and alcohol consumption in tandem. Results: Findings highlighted that, in one school, adolescents in denser and smaller friendship networks were at higher risk for engaging in sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol simultaneously. Additionally, in this school, network attributes (i.e., out-degree and betweeness) and adolescents’ age were associated with an increased risk of sexual intercourse and drinking behaviors. In the other school, more diffused friendship networks seemed to pose less risk of engaging in these two risk behaviors in tandem. Moreover, engagement in risky behaviors was significantly predicted by teens’ age and gender, but there were no effects of network attributes on adolescents’ risky behaviors. Conclusion: The influence of friendships on adolescents’ sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol may play out in different ways, depending on the size and composition of the friendship networks and adolescents’ characteristics. Therefore, structural features of friendship networks, such as denser and smaller networks, and characteristics of adolescents (i.e., age and gender) should be considered in developing intervention programs to reduce adolescents’ risky behaviors.
Deconstructing a musical delusion: Point-light representations capture salient properties of impact motions

Although visual information affects auditory perception in a variety of tasks, audition is generally believed to be relatively immune from visual influence when judging tone duration. However, Schutz and Lipscomb (2007) report a musical illusion in which physical gestures influence the perceived duration of notes performed on the marimba. In order to better understand which aspects of these gestures are responsible for the illusion, we created a "schematic marimbist" consisting of either a four-point skeleton or a single moving dot. This schematic abstraction captured the essential properties of the gestures, replicating the effect under both conditions. Therefore, this illusion requires seeing only a sudden change in gesture direction - independent of the depiction of a struck object. As this finding means that it can be replicated with a minimum of visual information, it will be useful in facilitating future research aimed at uncovering the reason for this break with the widely accepted theory of 'optimal integration'.
Gender, livestock assets, resource management, and food security: Lessons from the SR-CRSP

North Sumatra and West Java in Indonesia, the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, Western Province, the Coast and Machakos in Kenya, were Small Ruminant Collaborative Research Support Program (SR-CRSP) sites in which the role of small ruminants was studied and where technological interventions were designed. In all cases the target groups were poor rural households that could maintain sheep, goats, or South American camelids. The objective was to increase the welfare of families through the use of small ruminant technologies. Access to and control of resources, and intrahousehold dynamics were analyzed to understand if, how, and when, technological interventions help achieve this objective. The way in which the studied villages integrate into the market, the specific role that livestock and other productive enterprises play in the household economy, the risks faced by families in rural areas condition the role of livestock and other resource management technologies. As an asset, small and large stock are gendered, but this is qualified by the alternatives that household members have. Small ruminants under the domain of women, either through production or marketing, are shown to contribute to in-kind consumption or, as liquid assets, to household welfare purchases, in the case of Andean agropastoral households and households in Kenya. Women are also managers of the grazing areas, which are often fallow fields. The research experiences show the relationship between gender, resource management, and the ability to build livestock assets and security, in different houehold production systems.
Abstract MP63: Randomized Trials of Low-Fat vs. Other Diet Interventions on Weight Loss: A Meta-Analysis

Introduction: The effectiveness of low-fat diets for weight loss has been debated for decades. Dozens of randomized control trials (RCTs) have assessed whether decreasing the intake of total fat leads to weight loss, giving mixed results. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that low-fat dietary interventions do not lead to greater weight loss when comparator diet intervention intensity is considered. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. RCTs were included if they compared a low-fat dietary intervention to any control diet with at least 1 year of follow-up. We estimated the combined fixed effect inverse variance weighted mean difference of low-fat vs. comparison diets. Several a priori stratified analyses were considered to explore heterogeneity. Results: Fifty studies met inclusion criteria, reporting 1-10 years of follow-up on 70,054 participants. Overall, low-fat dietary interventions resulted in 0.51kg greater weight loss compared to other diets (95% CI = -0.62, -0.40, p<0.001; I2 = 83%...
The Compressible Boundary Layer

Abstract : The laminar boundary layer equations in integral form are solved on the mechanical differential analyzer. The method of analysis permits the use of the best known variation of the air properties with temperature. Solutions are obtained for Mach numbers ranging from incompressible speeds to the hypersonic regime at ambient temperatures of 100, 400 and 800R for both insulated plate and heat transfer cases. From these results an approximate design procedure for the calculation of the characteristics of both the laminar and turbulent boundary layers is obtained and presented as an aid to missile designers. (Author)
Saturn's rings resolved by the VLA

High resolution radio data of Saturn were obtained at 1.3, 2, 6, and 21 cm, at different inclination angles of the ring plane. Results on optical depth measurements in the rings are described. There is no wavelength dependence in the optical depth of the rings between 1.3 and 6 cm. This indicates that there are not many small particles (sizes of a few centimeters) in the B-ring, which ring is responsible for most of the observed obscuration. This result agrees with the Voyager radio occultation experiment.
Use of fungal biosystematics and molecular genetics in detection and identification of wood‐decay fungi for improved forest management

Summary Advances in fungal biosystematics and molecular genetics have clarified relationships among the wood-decay fungi and are providing new tools for their detection and identification. Species complexes of forest pathogens, including those within Heterobasidion, Armillaria, Laetiporus, and Phellinus, are being resolved. The ability to isolate fungal DNA directly from wood without in intermediate culturing step will greatly facilitate sampling and disease detection and has applications in forest disease management, hazard tree assessment, invasive species detection, and carbon cycling, sequestration and climate change research. Recent changes in fungal nomenclature and their application to forest pathology are discussed.
Mechanism of Uptake of C105Y, a Novel Cell-penetrating Peptide

C105Y, a synthetic peptide (CSIPPEVKFNKPFVYLI) based on the amino acid sequence corresponding to residues 359-374 of α1-antitrypsin, enhances gene expression from DNA nanoparticles. To investigate how this enhancement occurs, C105Y was fluorescently labeled to study its uptake and intracellular trafficking. When human hepatoma cells (HuH7) were incubated with fluorescently labeled C105Y for as little as 3 min, C105Y displayed nuclear and cytoplasmic staining with enrichment of fluorescent signal in the nucleus and nucleolus. Uptake and nucleolar localization were observed with the short sequence PFVYLI, but not with SIPPEVKFNK, and the D-isomer was readily taken up into cells but not into the nucleus. We found that the C105Y peptide is routed to the nucleolus very rapidly in an energy-dependent fashion, whereas membrane translocation and nuclear localization are energy-independent. When we tested the involvement of known endocytosis pathways in uptake and trafficking of this peptide, we demonstrated that C105Y peptide is internalized by a clathrin- and caveolin-independent pathway, although lipid raft-mediated endocytosis may play a role in peptide intracellular trafficking. Efficient energy-independent cell entry with rapid nuclear localization probably accounts for enhancement of gene expression from inclusion of C105Y into DNA nanoparticles.
Addressing mode driven low power data caches for embedded processors

The size and speed of first-level caches and SRAMs of embedded processors continue to increase in response to demands for higher performance. In power-sensitive devices like PDAs and cellular handsets, decreasing power consumption while increasing performance is desirable. Contemporary caches typically exploit locality in memory access patterns but do not exploit locality information encoded in addressing modes used to access memory. We present two schemes that use locality information inherent in memory addressing modes to reduce power consumption of cache or SRAM nearest to the processor. The level-0 data buffer scheme introduces a set of data buffers controlled by the addressing mode to eliminate over a third of all reads to the next level of memory (cache or SRAM). These buffers can also reduce load-use penalty in processors with long load pipelines. The address register tag-buffer scheme exploits the addressing mode to reduce tag array look-up in set associative first-level caches.
Overview: History, Anatomy, Timing, and Results of Complete Atrioventricular Canal

The past 50 years have been marked by major advances in the care of children with complete atrioventricular canal defects. There have been important contributions from surgeons, cardiologists, and pathologists to provide us with our current understanding of the anatomy of atrioventricular canal defects and excellent surgical outcomes. In this monograph we will discuss the surgical contributions of Lillehei, Kirklin, McGoon, Maloney, Trusler, Wilcox, and Nunn. The improvements in outcomes achieved by these surgeons were made possible by the pathology and anatomy clarifications provided by Lev, Rastelli, and Anderson.
Local absorbing boundaries of elliptical shape for scalar waves

We discuss the performance of a family of local and weakly-non-local in space and time absorbing boundary conditions, prescribed on truncation boundaries of elliptical shape for the solution of the two-dimensional wave equation in both the time- and frequency-domains. The elliptical artificial boundaries are derived as particular cases of general convex boundaries for which the absorbing conditions have been developed. The conditions, via an operator-splitting scheme, are shown to lend themselves to easy incorporation in a variational form that, in turn, leads to a standard Galerkin finite element approach. The resulting wave absorbing finite elements are shown to preserve the sparsity and symmetry of standard finite element schemes in both the time- and frequency-domains. Numerical experiments for transient and time-harmonic cases attest to the computational savings realized when elongated scatterers are surrounded by elliptically-shaped boundaries, as opposed to the more commonly used circular truncation geometries.
A synaptic laminin–calcium channel interaction organizes active zones in motor nerve terminals

Synapse formation requires the differentiation of a functional nerve terminal opposite a specialized postsynaptic membrane. Here, we show that laminin beta2, a component of the synaptic cleft at the neuromuscular junction, binds directly to calcium channels that are required for neurotransmitter release from motor nerve terminals. This interaction leads to clustering of channels, which in turn recruit other presynaptic components. Perturbation of this interaction in vivo results in disassembly of neurotransmitter release sites, resembling defects previously observed in an autoimmune neuromuscular disorder, Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome. These results identify an extracellular ligand of the voltage-gated calcium channel as well as a new laminin receptor. They also suggest a model for the development of nerve terminals, and provide clues to the pathogenesis of a synaptic disease.
Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy Is Independently Associated With Poor Survival and Increased Risk of Hospitalization

Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy Is Independently Associated With Poor Survival and Increased Risk of Hospitalization