cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Acute actions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 upon chick pancreatic calbindin-D28K.

We have compared the relative responsiveness of pancreatic, intestinal and renal tissue calbindin-D28K protein content to the stimulatory actions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3] in vitamin D-deficient (-D) chicks. Tissue concentrations of calbindin-D28K were undetectable in the -D chick intestine but present, albeit at low concentrations (<1μg CaBP/mg protein) in the -D kidney and pancreas. Intestinal, pancreatic and renal calbindin-D28K content was stimulated 318, 9.8 and 2.9 fold respectively, 48 hours after -D chicks received a single dose of 1,25(OH)2D3 [6.5 nmole/animal]. The pancreatic calbindin-D28K content could be significantly stimulated as early as 5 hours after 1,25(OH)2D3 administrations in vivo. These findings support the contention that the pancreas is a target for vitamin D, and is consistent with the view that calbindin-D28K plays a role in normal pancreatic functions.
The binding of vitamin B12 by serum proteins in normal and B12-deficient subjects.

Endogenous B12 in normal serum has been shown to be associated with α globulins (Pitney, Beard and Van Loon, 1954; Heinrich and Erdmann-Oehlecker, 1956; Mendelsohn, Watkin, Horbett and Fahey, 1958). When B12 has been added to normal serum, however, most or all of the added B12 has been associated with the β- and α2-globulins (Miller, 1958). In the present investigation with radioactive 57cobalt cyanocobalamin (B12*) added to serum, it was possible to define at least two B12-binding proteins (BP), a β-globulin, and an α1 globulin. B12* added to the serum of normal subjects migrated mainly with the β-globulins on electrophoresis, but when added to the serum of B12-deficient subjects, a small fraction of the B12* was also associated with the α2-globulins.
Pricing Policies Contingent on Observed Product Quality

Expanded use of incentive contracts has created interest in procurement arrangements in which unit purchase price varies as a function of observed product quality. Under the assumption that at a known cost, a producer can control the true quality of his output, a production and procurement situation is described in which a riskaverse producer and consumer both attempt to maximize expected profit-the consumer by selecting a pricing strategy and sample size, and the producer by then selecting the product quality. Let product quality be denoted by p. The consumer will desire the selected product quality to be some p*. If at a fixed sample size, n, a price schedule exists which is acceptable to the risk-averse producer and also maximizes producer expected profit at p*, this price schedule is a “motivating” price schedule. For fixed (n, p), a motivating price schedule must be the solution to a specified linear programming problem. It will be a piecewise constant function of the observed quality and need have n...
Carbon-13 NMR shifts and charge densities in triphenylcyclopropenium cation

Abstract Charge densities derived from carbon-13 NMR shifts of triphenylcyclopropenium cation have been correlated with values derived from Huckel calculations. The correlation is poor in all but the following respect; both predict only a small charge withdrawn from the cyclopropenium ring.
LRP1 Protects the Vasculature by Regulating Levels of Connective Tissue Growth Factor and HtrA1

Objective— Low-density lipoprotein receptor–related protein 1 (LRP1) is a large endocytic and signaling receptor that is abundant in vascular smooth muscle cells. Mice in which the lrp1 gene is deleted in smooth muscle cells (smLRP1 −/− ) on a low-density lipoprotein receptor–deficient background display excessive platelet derived growth factor-signaling, smooth muscle cell proliferation, aneurysm formation, and increased susceptibility to atherosclerosis. The objectives of the current study were to examine the potential of LRP1 to modulate vascular physiology under nonatherogenic conditions. Approach and Results— We found smLRP1 −/− mice to have extensive in vivo aortic dilatation accompanied by disorganized and degraded elastic lamina along with medial thickening of the arterial vessels resulting from excess matrix deposition. Surprisingly, this was not attributable to excessive platelet derived growth factor-signaling. Rather, quantitative differential proteomic analysis revealed that smLRP1 −/− vessels contain a 4-fold increase in protein levels of high-temperature requirement factor A1 (HtrA1), which is a secreted serine protease that is known to degrade matrix components and to impair elastogenesis, resulting in fragmentation of elastic fibers. Importantly, our study discovered that HtrA1 is a novel LRP1 ligand. Proteomics analysis also identified excessive accumulation of connective tissue growth factor, an LRP1 ligand and a key mediator of fibrosis. Conclusions— Our findings suggest a critical role for LRP1 in maintaining the integrity of vessels by regulating protease activity as well as matrix deposition by modulating HtrA1 and connective tissue growth factor protein levels. This study highlights 2 new molecules, connective tissue growth factor and HtrA1, which contribute to detrimental changes in the vasculature and, therefore, represent new target molecules for potential therapeutic intervention to maintain vessel wall homeostasis.
The role of segment polarity genes during early oogenesis in Drosophila.

In the Drosophila ovary, hedgehog (hh) signaling from cells near the apical tip of the germarium stimulates the proliferation and specification of somatic cells in region 2 of the germarium, 2–5 cells away from the hh-expressing cells (A. J. Forbes, H. Lin, P. Ingham and A. Spradling (1996) Development 122, 1125–1135). This report examines the role during early oogenesis of several genes that are known to function in hh-mediated signaling during embryonic and larval development (P. Ingham (1995) Current Opin. Genetics Dev. 5, 528–534). As in imaginal discs, engrailed (en) is co-expressed with hh in the germarium, while patched (ptc) and cubitus interruptus (ci) are expressed in somatic cells throughout the germarium and in developing egg chambers, with ptc expression being elevated within 10 cell diameters of the source of the hh signal. Moreover, the somatic cell overproliferation caused by ectopic hh expression is accompanied by elevated levels of ptc and is phenocopied in ptc- somatic clones. These analyses suggest that ptc and ci are components of the hh signaling pathway in the germarium. However, unlike embryos and imaginal discs, neither wingless (wg) nor decapentaplegic (dpp) appear to mediate the ovarian hh signal. wg is expressed in ‘cap cells,’ a subset of hh-expressing cells located adjacent to germ-line stem cells, but is unaffected by ectopic hh expression. Nor does the ectopic expression of wg or dpp mimic the effect of ectopic hh expression. We propose that Hh diffuses from apical cells, including cap cells, and regulates the proliferation of nearby ovarian somatic cells by antagonizing the negative effects of ptc on ci activity in these cells, thereby allowing the transcription of ci-dependent genes, including ptc itself.
Spatial genetic structure and non-equilibrium demographics within plant populations.

Spatial genetic structure within plant populations is primarily determined by the effects of limited seed and pollen dispersal. In the absence of selfing, spatial genetic structure and limited pollen flow are generally considered to be the primary controlling factors of the dynamics of biparental inbreeding and inbreeding depression. However, in some cases spatial structure may depend on specific demographic processes. Most theoretical studies have focused on the long-term or equilibrium structure of genetic variation, which allows, if demographic considerations are simple enough, a system to be collapsed into a single standardized measure (such as Wright's neighborhood size) of total pollen and seed dispersal distances. Specific demographic considerations may take many forms and strengths. In this paper we examine some particular cases that illustrate a wide range of effects on spatial genetic structure, and identify some of the most critical parameters. For example, Cecropia obtusifolia is a canopy-gap-filling, dioecious species. Perennially, the highly limited availability of habitat forces the removal of seedlings and the associated strong but ephemeral genetic structure, leaving one or a few trees to fill in each canopy gap. The structure among reproductive adults is minor and in line with standard amounts and forms expected for a wind-pollinated species. In contrast, Silene dioica is a dioecious, bee-pollinated, gravity-seed-dispersed perennial, and a colonizer or early successional species. In certain regions of Sweden, S. dioica grows primarily on uplifting islands that undergo rapid succession, and S. dioica exhibits exhibits extreme levels of spatial autocorrelation, caused by highly limited seed and pollen flow at a specific spatial scale that corresponds to demographic patches. Moreover, the types of genotypic concentrations in space vary, being dominated by matrilineal relationships. The availability of habitat rapidly increases, then rapidly decreases (with analogous changes in population growth rates), and, combined with a long-life, causes the genetic structure to exist on such a time scale that it appears to be the main form of within-population genetic structure for the species in this region. Clonal reproduction may have marked effects on the spatial genetic structure of plant populations. For monoecious, self-compatible species, clonal groups may increase effective selfing, whereas in dioecious plants any effects on the development of IBD may be more subtle. We examine a number of dioecious plants with a variety of spatial distributions of clones and populations, existing for various time scales. The demographics of clonal structure may interact with spatial-temporal demographics and structure of the genetic variation.
From Push To Pull: Emerging Models For Mobilizing Resources

The signs are around us. We are on the cusp of a shift to a new common sense model that will re-shape many facets of our life, including how we identify ourselves, participate with others, connect with others, mobilize resources and learn. This paper will focus on only one facet of this new common sense model emerging approaches for mobilizing resources.
AZT-induced mitochondrial toxicity: an epigenetic paradigm for dysregulation of gene expression through mitochondrial oxidative stress

Mitochondrial dysfunction causes oxidative stress and cardiomyopathy. Oxidative stress also is a side effect of dideoxynucleoside antiretrovirals (NRTI) and is observed in NRTI-induced cardiomyopat...
Structural Integrity of Aging Airplanes: A Perspective

This meeting is being held because of an accident which occurred nearly two years ago. The topics to be covered addresses issues highlighted by that accident.
Activity of Macrophage and Neutrophil Cellular Fractions from Normal and Immune Sheep Against Listeria monocytogenes

Cellular immunity to Listeria monocytogenes infection was studied by assaying for antibacterial activity in fractions of leukocytes collected from the peritoneal cavity, lungs, and mammary glands of immunized sheep. The cells were collected in populations that were largely either macrophages or neutrophils. Mechanically disrupted cells were divided into nuclear, lysosomal, and supernatant fluid fractions and then subjected to freezing and thawing. Comparison with similarly treated rabbit cells showed that greater fragility exists in the lysosomes of sheep cells, as indicated by the amount of acid phosphatase activity released. Inhibition of bacterial growth was assayed in a broth medium at pH 4.6. As expected, nuclear and lysosomal fractions from neutrophils were inhibitory. Some antibacterial activity was found in nuclear fractions of macrophages. The lysosomes of macrophages collected from the peritoneal cavity and the mammary gland did not inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes. Peritoneal macrophages were allowed to interact with sensitized lymphocytes and an avirulent strain of L. monocytogenes for 4 hr prior to disruption and fractionation, but antibacterial activity was not detected. Pulmonary alveolar macrophages from 5 out of 16 sheep contained Listeria inhibitory activity in their lysosomes. The mechanism was inhibitory but not bactericidal.
Immunotherapy and Oncogenic Pathways: The PTEN Connection

Peng and colleagues describe the effects of PTEN inactivation on antitumor immunity and response to immune checkpoint blockade in melanoma. These results shed light on the intricate interplay between oncogenic pathways and antitumor immune response.
A novel health monitoring scheme for smart structures

This paper proposes a multiclass nonlinear relevance vector machine (MNRVM) model for health monitoring of smart structures equipped with magnetorheological (MR) dampers. The proposed model will be used to classify the damage statuses of the integrated structure-control systems subjected to ambient excitations. A numerical model of a three-story building equipped with an MR damper is studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed health monitoring schemes. Dynamic responses of the smart structures subjected to random excitations are measured. Discrete wavelet transform is applied to the obtained data to compress and filter noises of the measured data. As a next step, the compressed and de-noised signals are used for developing autoregressive (AR) models. Then the MNRVM is applied to the AR-coefficient data to classify them with respect to the damage statuses. As a baseline, the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is considered. It is demonstrated that the proposed MNRVM framework is effective...
Outcome scores--what they do and do not say. Commentary on an article by Robert R. Dijkman, MD, et al.: "Comparison of functional outcome scores in radial polydactyly".

This paper addresses a topic that is probably not of great interest to the general orthopaedist who reads The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery . Many readers will glance at this paper and dismiss it with a disparaging remark about another hand surgery tempest in a teapot. But, in this era of reporting outcomes for science and business, there are a few points that all of us can take from this article that apply to all outcome rating systems. ### Point 1: Define what it is that you are reporting, and correlate the findings with the severity of the starting point. The proverbial “sow’s ear” must be described. The authors looked at a number of outcome measures that are in use to assess how good a result can be following reconstruction of Flatt type-II and IV thumbs. While we all know what a good result is when we see it, it is not so easy to quantify how much less than a good result our efforts produce. ### Point 2: Give proper attribution to coauthors and mentors. The authors of this paper chose to limit …
Effects of straw mulch, spent mushroom compost, and fumigation on the density of Colorado potato beetles (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae) in potatoes

Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), population trends were monitored in potatoes under different pest management and cultural regimes. Four cultural practices (straw mulch, spent mushroom compost, both mulch and compost, and conventional practices without mulch or compost) were used as subplots within main plots representing 3 pest management practices. In 1992, beetles were managed by hand removal until July, and the 3 treatments were removal without soil fumigation, no removal without fumigation, and no removal with fumigation. In 1993 and 1994, beetles were managed by use of insecticides, and the 3 treatments were insecticides with soil fumigation, insecticides without fumigation, and no insecticides with fumigation. Straw mulch reduced the density per square meter of adults and large larvae in plots without beetle management in 1992 and 1994, and the density of adults in insecticide-treated plots in 1993. Defoliation was lower in mulched subplots without beetle management in 1992 and 1994, and leaf area (1992) or ground cover (1994) was increased in these treatments, but yield was not affected. Compost increased leaf area and yield in 1992, and increased the density of adults and egg masses in that year, but generally had minor effects on beetle density and varying effects on yield. Fumigation significantly- decreased yield in 1992 and 1994, and it had no effect on yield in 1993. Any benefits of fumigation in mitigating disease were offset by the earlier peak in density of large larvae in 1992, and the greater density of adults in 1993 and 1994 in fumigated plots compared with plots without fumigation.
TrueErase: Leveraging an Auxiliary Data Path for Per-File Secure Deletion

One important aspect of privacy is the ability to securely delete sensitive data from electronic storage in such a way that it cannot be recovered; we call this action secure deletion. Short of physically destroying the entire storage medium, existing software secure-deletion solutions tend to be piecemeal at best -- they may only work for one type of storage or file system, may force the user to delete all files instead of selected ones, may require the added complexities of encryption and key storage, may require extensive changes and additions to the computer's operating system or storage firmware, and may not handle system crashes gracefully. We present TrueErase, a holistic secure-deletion framework for individual systems that contain sensitive data. Through design, implementation, verification, and evaluation on both a hard drive and NAND flash, TrueErase shows that it is possible to construct a per-file, secure-deletion framework that can accommodate different storage media and legacy file systems, require limited changes to legacy systems, and handle common crash scenarios. TrueErase can serve as a building block by cryptographic systems that securely delete information by erasing encryption keys. The overhead is dependent on spatial locality, number of sensitive files, and workload (computational- or I/O-bound).
United states medical licensing examination scores as a predictor of performance on the annual council of resident education in obstetrics and gynecology examinations.

OBJECTIVE To determine how well the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and Step 2 scores predict the performance of residents on the annual Council of Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) examination given to the residents at the second and third years of their residency. STUDY DESIGN USMLE Steps 1 and 2 scores from medical school were compared to the resident CREOG examination scores at the second and third years of training for 61 residents from 2000 to 2011. RESULTS A strong, statistically significant (p < 0.001) correlation was found between the USMLE and CREOG scores, ranging between r = 0.588 and r = 0.667 for the USMLE 1 scores and r = 0.630 and r = 0.640 for the USMLE 2 scores. CONCLUSION This observation should be useful for program directors in selecting the future medical students for their residency program since those with high USMLE Steps 1 and 2 scores typically do very well on their objective testing during and after the residency.
Treatment of ARDS With Prone Positioning

Prone positioning was first proposed in the 1970s as a method to improve gas exchange in ARDS. Subsequent observations of dramatic improvement in oxygenation with simple patient rotation motivated the next several decades of research. This work elucidated the physiological mechanisms underlying changes in gas exchange and respiratory mechanics with prone ventilation. However, translating physiological improvements into a clinical benefit has proved challenging; several contemporary trials showed no major clinical benefits with prone positioning. By optimizing patient selection and treatment protocols, the recent Proning Severe ARDS Patients (PROSEVA) trial demonstrated a significant mortality benefit with prone ventilation. This trial, and subsequent meta-analyses, support the role of prone positioning as an effective therapy to reduce mortality in severe ARDS, particularly when applied early with other lung-protective strategies. This review discusses the physiological principles, clinical evidence, and practical application of prone ventilation in ARDS.
Mixed Emotions Viewed from the Psychological Constructionist Perspective

Feeling bad is one thing, judging something to be bad another. This hot/cold distinction helps resolve the debate between bipolar and bivariate accounts of affect. A typical affective reaction incl...
Automatic metadata generation for active measurement

Empirical research in the Internet is fraught with challenges. Among these is the possibility that local environmental conditions (e.g., CPU load or network load) introduce unexpected bias or artifacts in measurements that lead to erroneous conclusions. In this paper, we describe a framework for local environment monitoring that is designed to be used during Internet measurement experiments. The goals of our work are to provide a critical, expanded perspective on measurement results and to improve the opportunity for reproducibility of results. We instantiate our framework in a tool we call SoMeta, which monitors the local environment during active probe-based measurement experiments. We evaluate the runtime costs of SoMeta and conduct a series of experiments in which we intentionally perturb different aspects of the local environment during active probe-based measurements. Our experiments show how simple local monitoring can readily expose conditions that bias active probe-based measurement results. We conclude with a discussion of how our framework can be expanded to provide metadata for a broad range of Internet measurement experiments.
Spect image reconstruction under imaging time constraints

Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is a nuclear imaging modality used by, among others, oncologists in the imaging of tumors. At its core, SPECT is an underdetermined signal recovery problem. The degree of difficulty in recovering the underlying image increases as the imaging time decreases. To make the image reconstruction problem well-posed, it is advantageous to introduce a signal prior, such as the total variation. Such priors can dramatically improve reconstruction performance and allow for faster scans. The issue with the adoption of such priors in practice is the lack of an automated method for selecting the regularization strength. The purpose of this work is to review the SPECT problem, discuss the role of regularizers in SPECT, and propose a method for estimating the regularization strength.
Mechanical strain induced phospho-proteomic signaling in uterine smooth muscle cells

Abstract Mechanical strain associated with the expanding uterus correlates with increased preterm birth rates. Mechanical signals result in a cascading network of protein phosphorylation events. These signals direct cellular activities and may lead to changes in contractile phenotype and calcium signaling. In this study, the complete phospho-proteome of uterine smooth muscle cells subjected to mechanical strain for 5 min was compared to un-strained controls. Statistically significant, differential phosphorylation events were annotated by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis to elucidate mechanically induced phosphorylation networks. Mechanical strain leads to the direct activation of ERK1/2, HSPB1, and MYL9, in addition to phosphorylation of PAK2, vimentin, DOCK1, PPP1R12A, and PTPN11 at previously unannotated sites. These results suggest a novel network reaction to mechanical strain and reveal proteins that participate in the activation of contractile mechanisms leading to preterm labor.
Populationsstruktur und genetische Drift

Einer der Eckpfeiler der genetischen Evolutionstheorie, das Hardy-Weinberg-Gesetz, geht von einer unendlich grosen Population mit Zufallspaarung aus, in der also jedes Individuum zufallig einen Paarungspartner wahlt. Reale Populationen sind jedoch in der Grose endlich, und die Wahl des Paarungspartners kann auf verschiedene Weise nichtzufallig strukturiert sein. Zum Beispiel kann die Paarungswahrscheinlichkeit zweier Individuen von ihren phanotypischen Merkmalen abhangen. Auf diesen Punkt und die damit verbundenen Folgen werden wir am Ende dieses Kapitels und nochmals in Kapitel 8 zuruckkommen.
Behavioral Fingerprinting of IoT Devices

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has brought in new challenges in device identification --what the device is, and authentication --is the device the one it claims to be. Traditionally, the authentication problem is solved by means of a cryptographic protocol. However, the computational complexity of cryptographic protocols and/or problems related to key management, render almost all cryptography based authentication protocols impractical for IoT. The problem of device identification is, on the other hand, sadly neglected. Almost always an artificially created identity is softly associated with the device. We believe that device fingerprinting can be used to solve both these problems effectively. In this work, we present a methodology to perform IoT device behavioral fingerprinting that can be employed to undertake strong device identification. A device behavior is approximated using features extracted from the network traffic of the device. These features are used to train a machine learning model that can be used to detect similar device-types. We validate our approach using five-fold cross validation; we report a identification rate of 93-100 and a mean accuracy of 99%, across all our experiments. Furthermore, we show preliminary results for fingerprinting device categories, i.e., identifying different devices having similar functionality.
N-Glycosylation of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Hemagglutinins: Implication for Potency Testing and Immune Processing.

ABSTRACT Prior to each annual flu season, health authorities recommend three or four virus strains for inclusion in the annual influenza vaccine: a type A:H1N1 virus, a type A:H3N2 virus, and one or two type B viruses. Antigenic differences between strains are found in the glycosylation patterns of the major influenza virus antigen, hemagglutinin (HA). Here we examine the glycosylation patterns of seven reference antigens containing HA used in influenza vaccine potency testing. These reagents are supplied by the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) or the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) for use in vaccine testing. Those produced in hen egg, Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK), and insect (Sf9) expression systems were examined. They are closely related or identical to antigens used in commercial vaccines. The reference antigens studied were used in the 2014–2015 influenza season and included A/California/07/2009 H1N1, A/Texas/50/2012 H3N2, and B/Massachusetts/02/2012. Released glycan and HA-specific glycopeptide glycosylation patterns were examined. We also examined the sensitivity of the single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) potency test to differences in HA antigen glycosylation. Based on deglycosylation studies applied using standard assay procedures, the SRID assay was not sensitive to any HA antigen glycosylation status from any cell system. Mapping of glycosites with their occupying glycan to functional regions, including antigenic sites, lectin interaction regions, and fusion domains, was performed and has implications for immune processing, immune responses, and antigenic shielding. Differences in glycosylation patterns, as dictated by the cell system used for expression, may impact these functions. IMPORTANCE In the present study, the glycosylation patterns of the 2014-2015 influenza vaccine season standard antigens A/California/07/2009 H1N1, A/Texas/50/2012 H3N2, and B/Massachusetts/02/2012 were revealed, and the sensitivity of the single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) potency test to glycosylation was tested. Differences in hemagglutinin glycosylation site composition and heterogeneity seen in antigens produced in different cell substrates suggest differences in processing and downstream immune responses. The SRID potency test used for vaccine release is not sensitive to differences in glycosylation under standard use conditions. This work reveals important differences in vaccine antigens and may point out areas where improvements may be made concerning vaccine antigen preparation, immune processing, and testing.
STRUCTURAL PHASE TRANSITIONS IN JAHN-TELLER CRYSTAL PLATES

The cooperative Jahn-Teller effect is considered in the crystal samples of finite size. Peculiarities of the plate sample phonon spectra and their influence on the microscopic theory of the structural phase transitions are in the focus of attention. The mutual orientation of the crystal axes and the plate plane is discussed. As an example the Lamb wave role is analyzed in detail. It is shown that the ferrodistortive ordered phase is significantly inhomogeneous. This inhomogeneity is the consequence of the space coordinate dependence of the intersite electron-electron interaction. Some new thermodynamic and dynamic effects are considered as a result of the microscopic theory of structural phase transitions in plates.
Subversion of host immune responses by otopathogens during otitis media

Otitis media (OM) is one of the most common ear diseases affecting humans. Children are at greater risk and suffer most frequently from OM, which can cause serious deterioration in the quality of life. OM is generally classified into two main types: acute and chronic OM (AOM and COM). AOM is characterized by tympanic membrane swelling or otorrhea and is accompanied by signs or symptoms of ear infection. In COM, there is a tympanic membrane perforation and purulent discharge. The most common pathogens that cause AOM are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis whereas Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are commonly associated with COM. Innate and adaptive immune responses provide protection against OM. However, pathogens employ a wide arsenal of weapons to evade potent immune responses and these mechanisms likely contribute to AOM and COM. Immunologic evasion is multifactorial, and involves damage to host mucociliary tract, genetic polymorphisms within otopathogens, the number and variety of different otopathogens in the nasopharynx as well as the interaction between the host's innate and adaptive immune responses. Otopathogens utilize host mucin production, phase variation, biofilm production, glycans, as well as neutrophil and eosinophilic extracellular traps to induce OM. The objective of this review article is to discuss our current understanding about the mechanisms through which otopathogens escape host immunity to induce OM. A better knowledge about the molecular mechanisms leading to subversion of host immune responses will provide novel clues to develop effective treatment modalities for OM.
Abstract 4795: Oxidative stress by proguanil suppresses breast tumor growth

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies and the second leading cause of cancer related mortality among women in U.S., thus developing new strategies to control breast cancer is an important mission. Repurposing of old drugs as new anti-cancer drugs is important as it can save time and cost of drug development. Proguanil is used in combination with atovaquone for the treatment of malaria. In this study, we determined the anticancer effects of proguanil in breast cancer cells. Proguanil significantly reduced the viability of MDA-MB-231, HCC1806 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells with IC50 of 42μM, 44μM and 40μM respectively after 72 h of treatment and induced apoptosis as exhibited by FITC/Annexin assay and cleavage of caspase 3 as well as PARP. Proguanil also reduced the survival of several patient-derived cells with IC50 in the range of 30-40μM. The anti-cancer effects of proguanil were associated with the generation of ROS and persistent disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential. ROS generation by proguanil was about 2-3 fold more as compared to control in MDA-MB-231 and HCC1806 cells. The generation of ROS was inhibited when the cells were pretreated with a general antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). Moreover, exposure of MDA-MB-231 and HCC1806 cells to proguanil was also associated with increased expression of Bax, p-H2AX, c-caspase9 and down-regulation of bcl-2 and survivin. We further evaluated the oxygen consumption rate with proguanil treatment in breast cancer cells using flux analyzer. Our results showed significant decrease in the mitochondrial respiration rate and ATP production rate after proguanil treatment. Furthermore, 20mg/kg proguanil when given orally suppressed the growth of 4T1 breast tumors in female Balb/c mice by 55%. Tumors from proguanil treated mice demonstrated increased apoptosis, which was related to the increased expression of p-H2AX and Bax. Taken together, these results show that proguanil is an effective inhibitor of in vitro and in-vivo growth of breast cancer cells. These findings provide the rationale for further clinical investigation of proguanil against breast cancer. Citation Format: Nehal Gupta, Sanjay Srivastava. Oxidative stress by proguanil suppresses breast tumor growth [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4795.
Optically Pumped 1 μm Low Threshold Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers Grown on GaAs Substrate

We report optically pumped 1 μm low threshold GaAs photonic crystal surface emitting lasers. The GaAs photonic crystal is etched on 3-period InGaAs/AlGaAs MQW heterostructure. A laser peak is achieved at 1,006 nm with a linewidth of 0.6 nm at 5 kW/cm2 threshold power density.
Symmetry and 1H NMR chemical shifts of short hydrogen bonds: impact of electronic and nuclear quantum effects.

Short hydrogen bonds (SHBs), which have donor and acceptor separations below 2.7 A, occur extensively in small molecules and proteins. Due to their compact structures, SHBs exhibit prominent covalent characters with elongated Donor-H bonds and highly downfield (>14 ppm) 1H NMR chemical shifts. In this work, we carry out first principles simulations on a set of model molecules to assess how quantum effects determine the symmetry and chemical shift of their SHBs. From simulations that incorporate the quantum mechanical nature of both the electrons and nuclei, we reveal a universal relation between the chemical shift and the position of the proton in a SHB, and unravel the origin of the observed downfield spectral signatures. We further develop a metric that allows one to accurately and efficiently determine the proton position directly from its 1H chemical shift, which will facilitate the experimental examination of SHBs in both small molecules and biological macromolecules.
SubGraph2Vec: Highly-Vectorized Tree-like Subgraph Counting

Subgraph counting aims to count occurrences of a template T in a given network G (V, E). It is a powerful graph analysis tool and has found real-world applications in diverse domains. Scaling subgraph counting problems is known to be memory bounded and computationally challenging with exponential complexity. Although scalable parallel algorithms are known for several graph problems such as Triangle Counting and PageRank, this is not common for counting complex subgraphs. Here we address this challenge and study connected acyclic graphs or trees. We propose a novel vectorized subgraph counting algorithm, named SUBGRAPH2VEC, as well as both shared memory and distributed implementations: 1) reducing algorithmic complexity by minimizing neighbor traversal; 2) achieving a highly-vectorized implementation upon linear algebra kernels to significantly improve performance and hardware utilization. 3) SUBGRAPH2VEC improves the overall performance over the state-of-the-art work by orders of magnitude and up to 660x on a single node. 4) SUBGRAPH2VEC in distributed mode can scale up the template size to 20 and maintain good strong scalability. 5) enabling portability to both CPU and GPU.
Impact of a perioperative oral opioid substitution protocol during the nationwide intravenous opioid shortage: A single center, interrupted time series with segmented regression analysis.

INTRODUCTION To mitigate the recent nationwide shortage of intravenous opioids, we developed a standardized perioperative oral opioid guideline anchored with appropriate use of nonopioid analgesia, neuraxial and loco-regional techniques. We hypothesize that adoption of this new guideline was associated with: 1) equivalent patient reported pain scores in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU); and 2) equivalent total opioid use (oral and parenteral) during the perioperative period. METHODS Cases performed from July 1, 2017 to May 31, 2019 were screened. All opioids administered were converted to intravenous morphine milligram equivalents. Segmented regression analyses of interrupted time series were performed examining the change in opioid use, PACU pain scores and number of non-opioid analgesic medications used before and after the protocol implementation in April 2018. RESULTS After exclusions, 29, 621 cases were included in the analysis. No significant differences in demographic, ASA status, case length and surgical procedure type were present in the pre and post-intervention period. A significant decrease in total (Estimate: -39.9 mg, SE: 6.9 mg, p < 0.001) and parenteral (Estimate: -51.6 mg, SE: 7.1 mg, p < 0.001) opioid use with a significant increase in oral opioid use (Estimate: 9.4 mg, SE: 1.1 mg, p < 0.001) was noted after the intervention. Pain scores were not significantly different between the pre- and post-intervention period (Estimate: 0.05, SE: 0.13, p = 0.69). CONCLUSION We report our experience with a primary perioperative oral based opioid regimen that is associated with decreased total opioid consumption and equivalent patient reported pain scores.
The Role of Religion in Online Pro-social Lending

The Internet has long been argued to have “flattened” the world. However, a variety of work has shown that frictions do remain, deriving from biases and preferences tied to individual-level differences, e.g., cultural, demographic, and geographic. Such biases, if present, are undesirable from the perspectives of the platform operator and society because they imply market inefficiencies. With this in mind, we investigate a novel source of in-group bias that has thus far received relatively little attention in the literature. Specifically, we examine the influence of bias associated with religious differences in the context of Kiva.org, a peer-to-peer platform for pro-social lending. We propose a measure of religion distance between any given pair of countries, which we then incorporate into a gravity model of trade to explain variation in country-to-country lending volumes. We leverage data from Kiva.org spanning the period between 2006 and 2017, and demonstrate the negative and significant effect of religion distance on lending activity, over and above other established factors. Further, we demonstrate that the effects of religion distance are moderated by the social environment characterizing both a lender country and borrower country at a given point in time. That is, we show that increases in the degree of religiously motivated social hostilities, as well as the greater government favoritism of religion, within a lender country amplify the baseline (negative) effects of religion distance on lending activity. At the same time, we demonstrate that diversity of religion within a lender country attenuates the effects of religion distance. Our findings speak to the important frictions associated with religious differences in individual philanthropy, and they point to the role of government policy around religious tolerance as a determinant of citizens’ philanthropic behavior.
American Labor and Economic Citizenship: New Capitalism from World War I to the Great Depression

Once viewed as a distinct era characterized by intense bigotry, nostalgia for simpler times and a revulsion against active government, the 1920s have been rediscovered by historians in recent decades as a time when Herbert Hoover and his allies worked to significantly reform economic policy. Mark Hendrickson both augments and amends this view by studying the origins and development of New Era policy expertise and knowledge. Policy-oriented social scientists in government, trade union, academic and nonprofit agencies showed how methods for achieving stable economic growth through increased productivity could both defang the dreaded business cycle and defuse the pattern of hostile class relations that Gilded Age depressions had helped to set as an American system of industrial relations.
A Redshift Survey of the Corona Borealis Supercluster

We are carrying out a redshift survey of the Corona Borealis Supercluster, the center of which consists of seven z ≈ 0.07 Abell clusters within a 25 square degree region, using a multifiber spectrograph on the 5m telescope at Palomar Observatory. We intend to measure ~2500 redshifts, a number sufficient to allow a determination of the mean galaxy density in our survey region to ~5%. Our principal scientific goals are to delineate the shape and extent of the supercluster, to investigate the relationship between the spectral properties of galaxies and the large-scale structure in which galaxies are embedded, and to study the dynamics of the supercluster through a measurement of the two-point galaxy-galaxy spatial correlation function.
Knowledge Consistency: A Useful Suspension of Disbelief

The study of knowledge is of great use in distributed computer systems. It has led to better understanding of existing algorithms for such systems, as well as the development of new knowledge-based algorithms. The ability to achieve certain states of knowledge (e.g., common knowledge) provides a powerful tool for designing such algorithms. Unfortunately, it has been shown that for many systems it is impossible to achieve these states of knowledge. In this paper we consider alternative interpretations of knowledge under which these states can be achieved. We explore the notion of consistent interpretations, and show how they can be used to circumvent the known impossibility results in a number of cases. This may lead to greater applicability of knowledge-based algorithms.
Serial fiber optic links for the lower hybrid current drive control system on Alcator C-Mod

A lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) system operating at 4.6 GHz is being implemented on Alcator C-Mod. It will use twelve 250 kW klystrons driving a 96-element launcher to control and sustain the toroidal current profile. Synchronized digital controllers are required to monitor and adjust the output amplitude and relative phase for each klystron. A vector modulator at the input to the klystron preamp serves as the control actuator. An in-phase and quadrature (I-Q) detector at the output serves as the feedback sensor. The LHCD system will use serial fiber optic links (SFOLs) for the control and feedback signals. The SFOL requirements follow directly from the specifications of the other hardware. The real-time control computer provides /spl plusmn/10 V analog control outputs, and expects /spl plusmn/10 V analog feedback inputs. The vector modulator requires two 12-bit parallel digital inputs for control. The I-Q detector provides /spl plusmn/250 mV analog outputs for feedback. Electrical isolation and noise immunity requirements dictate the choice of fiber optics. The configuration of the SFOL's (with two analog inputs at the XMTR, and two analog and two parallel 12-bit digital outputs at the RCVR), matches the system I/O requirements. The real-time control loop will operate at 9 kilosamples per second (ksps), The SFOL's need to run at 5x over-sampling, or 45 ksps. The XMTR will use a two MAX176 serial-output 12-bit ADC's. These chips are capable of 250 ksps; fast enough to allow us to multiplex both input channels (I and Q) as well as synchronization and clock recovery information onto a single fiber. The RCVR will use two MAX531 serial-input 12-bit DAC's for the analog outputs and two 12-bit registers for the digital outputs. Both XMTR and RCVR modules will use the 74HCT4046 phase-lock loop (PLL) to generate local clocks and synch signals, and the ATF1508 complex programmable logic device (CPLD) for counters, registers, and glue logic.
Acinetobacter cyclohexanone monooxygenase: gene cloning and sequence determination.

Abstract The gene coding for cyclohexanone monooxygenase from Acinetobacter sp. strain NCIB 9871 was isolated by immunological screening methods. We located and determined the nucleotide sequence of the gene. The structural gene is 1,626 nucleotides long and codes for a polypeptide of 542 amino acids; 389 nucleotides 5' and 108 nucleotides 3' of the coding region are also reported. The complete amino acid sequence of the enzyme was derived by translation of the nucleotide sequence. From a comparison of the amino acid sequence with consensus sequences of nucleotide-binding folds, we identified a potential flavin-binding site at the NH2 terminus of the enzyme (residues 6 to 18) and a potential nicotinamide-binding site extending from residue 176 to residue 208 of the protein. An overproduction system for the gene to facilitate genetic manipulations was also constructed by using the tac promoter vector pKK223-3 in Escherichia coli.
Chaotic Jumping Near Resonances: Infinite-Dimensional Systems

In this chapter we study the global effect of resonances in near-integrable evolution equations. As in Chapter 2, the unperturbed equation is assumed to have a set of resonant states, which appear as fixed points in a frame moving with the forcing. The resonant states are connected through a heteroclinic network of orbits before perturbation and admit infinitely many neutrally stable directions. These directions correspond to infinitely many Fourier modes exhibiting fast oscillations around the finitely many slowly varying modes. As earlier, we seek fast multipulse transitions between the resonant states after perturbation. These recurrent jumping solutions are again expected to cause irregular or chaotic dynamics, but their exact implications are mostly unknown as of yet. While we discuss some partial results in this direction, future developments in infinite-dimensional chaotic dynamics will still have a lot to offer to this theory.
Antecedents of Stakeholder Trust: What Matters to Whom?

Prior research on organizational trust has not rigorously examined the context specificity of trust, nor distinguished between the potentially varying dimensions along which different stakeholder groups (e.g., employees, customers, investors, etc.) base their trust. As a result, dominant conceptualizations of organizational trust are overly generalized. Building on existing frameworks stemming from research on organizational trust and stakeholder theory, we introduce a more nuanced perspective on the nature of organizational trust. We develop a framework that distinguishes between organizational stakeholders along two dimensions: depth of the relationship (deep or shallow) and locus (internal or external). The framework helps to identify which of six dimensions of trust (benevolence, integrity, managerial competence, technical competence, transparency, and identification) will be relevant to which stakeholder type. We test the predictions of our framework using original survey data from 1,296 respondents across four stakeholder groups from four different organizations. The results reveal that the relevant dimensions of trust indeed vary across different stakeholder types, and provide strong support for the validity of the depth and locus dimensions.