cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exposure of Bacillus subtilis to low pressure (5 kilopascals) induces several global regulons, including those involved in the SigB-mediated general stress response.

ABSTRACT Studies of how microorganisms respond to pressure have been limited mostly to the extreme high pressures of the deep sea (i.e., the piezosphere). In contrast, despite the fact that the growth of most bacteria is inhibited at pressures below ∼2.5 kPa, little is known of microbial responses to low pressure (LP). To study the global LP response, we performed transcription microarrays on Bacillus subtilis cells grown under normal atmospheric pressure (∼101 kPa) and a nearly inhibitory LP (5 kPa), equivalent to the pressure found at an altitude of ∼20 km. Microarray analysis revealed altered levels of 363 transcripts belonging to several global regulons (AbrB, CcpA, CodY, Fur, IolR, ResD, Rok, SigH, Spo0A). Notably, the highest number of upregulated genes, 86, belonged to the SigB-mediated general stress response (GSR) regulon. Upregulation of the GSR by LP was confirmed by monitoring the expression of the SigB-dependent ctc-lacZ reporter fusion. Measuring transcriptome changes resulting from exposure of bacterial cells to LP reveals insights into cellular processes that may respond to LP exposure.
Site and Sense in “Corson's Inlet” by A. R. Ammons

leagues that cross this "Ozark frontier" all pull Oklahoma and Missouri away from the South and toward the central Middle West of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. Indeed, Oklahoma has no league contact with the rest of the South, and Missouri's only southern contacts are with Oklahoma. The pattern reflects the historic ability of Chicago and St. Louis markets and transportation systems to reach southwestward into and beyond the Ozark barrier that separated the same areas from cities like Memphis and New Orleans.16 The analysis suggests the relative openness of regional borders in the American midlands. The zone of interaction around Chesapeake Bay is small, but that between the Middle West and South occupies much of the central Mississippi Valley. To the extent that athletic conferences reflect cultural regions, it is less useful to think in terms of regional boundaries than of regional interaction along a mid-states corridor that widens to several hundred miles at the margin of the Great Plains.17
Sequential and concurrent strategies of multiple goal pursuit.

People have many goals, presenting them with a challenge regarding how to navigate their multiple pursuits in each instant. Two such strategies exist, referred to here as sequential and concurrent goal pursuit. The present perspective on multiple goal pursuit is presented through which we can better understand (a) the resource demands that necessitate strategies of multiple goal pursuit, (b) the differences between sequential and concurrent goal pursuit, and (c) when each of these strategies is likely to be adopted. The explanatory power of the current framework for diverse behavioral domains, including diet, exercise, addiction, and moral behavior is discussed, as are the implications for acting on one’s goals and the impact of success versus failure when pursuing each strategy.
Semi-autonomous surgical tasks using a miniature in vivo surgical robot

Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) is potentially the next step in minimally invasive surgery. This type of procedure could reduce patient trauma through eliminating external incisions, but poses many surgical challenges that are not sufficiently overcome with current flexible endoscopy tools. A robotic platform that attempts to emulate a laparoscopic interface for performing NOTES procedures is being developed to address these challenges. These robots are capable of entering the peritoneal cavity through the upper gastrointestinal tract, and once inserted are not constrained by incisions, allowing for visualization and manipulations throughout the cavity. In addition to using these miniature in vivo robots for NOTES procedures, these devices can also be used to perform semi-autonomous surgical tasks. Such tasks could be useful in situations where the patient is in a location far from a trained surgeon. A surgeon at a remote location could control the robot even if the communication link between surgeon and patient has low bandwidth or very high latency. This paper details work towards using the miniature robot to perform simple surgical tasks autonomously.
The frequency of diagnostic errors in outpatient care: estimations from three large observational studies involving US adult populations

Background The frequency of outpatient diagnostic errors is challenging to determine due to varying error definitions and the need to review data across multiple providers and care settings over time. We estimated the frequency of diagnostic errors in the US adult population by synthesising data from three previous studies of clinic-based populations that used conceptually similar definitions of diagnostic error. Methods Data sources included two previous studies that used electronic triggers, or algorithms, to detect unusual patterns of return visits after an initial primary care visit or lack of follow-up of abnormal clinical findings related to colorectal cancer, both suggestive of diagnostic errors. A third study examined consecutive cases of lung cancer. In all three studies, diagnostic errors were confirmed through chart review and defined as missed opportunities to make a timely or correct diagnosis based on available evidence. We extrapolated the frequency of diagnostic error obtained from our studies to the US adult population, using the primary care study to estimate rates of diagnostic error for acute conditions (and exacerbations of existing conditions) and the two cancer studies to conservatively estimate rates of missed diagnosis
Structured sparse methods for active ocean observation systems with communication constraints

Actuated sensor networks enabled by underwater acoustic communications can be efficiently used to sense over large marine expanses that are typically challenged by a paucity of resources (energy, communication bandwidth, number of sensor nodes). Many marine phenomena of interest admit sparse representations, which, coupled with actuation and cooperation, can compensate for being data starved. Herein, new methods of field reconstruction, target tracking, and exploration-exploitation are provided, which adopt sparse approximation, compressed sensing, and matrix completion algorithms. The needed underlying structure (sparsity/low-rank) is quite general. The unique constraints posed by underwater acoustic communications and vehicle kinematics are explicitly considered. Results show that solutions can be practically implemented, even over large ocean spaces.
A file-based adaptive prefetch caching design

Prefetching techniques in disk caching are addressed. An adaptive prefetch design based on a run-time caching statistics of files is presented. Cache hit histories produced by prefetching are used as a measure of the file access sequentialities. Detailed cache design analysis is discussed using simulation results of a trace-driven model with traces collected from a personal system. The curves obtained from the adaptive design, although not the best at every point, track very well with the best curve in each operation. This shows the dynamic intelligence and efficiency of the file-based adaptive prefetching. The file-based design is compared with one that uses the same transition diagram on disk access but without file identification. The file-based adaptive design outperforms the non-file-based one consistently under all cache sizes. >
Technical Issues of 100Mbit/s Ethernet Transmission based on Standard Automotive Wiring Components

The presentation describes a technical solution for 100 Mbit/s Ethernet Data transmission cabling. This solution considers the specific requirements of automotive wiring harness and manufacturing. It bases on standard automotive connectors and headers.
Characterizing the Lateral Friction of Nanoparticles on On‐Chip Integrated Black Lipid Membranes

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) in biomedical applications creates a need for appropriate model systems to systematically investigate NP-membrane interactions under well-defined conditions. Black lipid membranes (BLMs) are free-floating membranes with defined composition that are ideally suited for characterizing NP-membrane interactions free of any potential perturbation through a supporting substrate. Herein, arrays of microfabricated BLMs are integrated into a chip-based platform that is compatible with high-speed optical NP tracking. This system is used to investigate the lateral diffusion of 40 nm gold spheres tethered to biotinylated lipids through antibody-functionalized ligands (single-stranded DNA or polyethylene glycol). Although the NPs show an almost free and ergodic diffusion, their lateral motion is subject to substantial drag at the membrane surface, which leads to systematically smaller diffusion coefficients than those obtained for lipids in the membrane through fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. The lateral mobility of the NPs is influenced by the chemical composition and salt concentration at the NP-membrane interface, but is independent of the ligand density in the membrane. Together with the observation that nanoprisms, which have a larger relative contact area with the membrane than spherical NPs, show an even slower diffusion, these findings indicate that the lateral mobility of NPs tethered in close vicinity to a membrane is significantly reduced by the friction at the NP-membrane interface.
In-flight camera platform geometric calibration of the aerial multi-head camera system

This paper describes an in-flight camera platform geometric calibration method for aerial multi-head camera systems. The platform calibration parameters express the geometric relationship between camera heads and are estimated by means of a temporal geometric constraint in consecutive frames. The constraint used here is the relative geometry between camera heads that remains constant over time. This constraint enables to use large overlapping area for selecting tie points. Simulation result shows that the platform calibration parameters can be precisely estimated from images acquired during flight.
Cognitive biases and their impact on strategic planning

Subjective judgements by planners and managers are a major component in the process of strategic planning. If such judgements are faulty, efforts at better strategic plans are likely to be misdirected. This paper discusses those biases which appear common to both managers and planners when they make judgements about risk. Implications of biased judgement are discussed in a planning context. Although we still do not know the best ways to elicit judgements, the paper concludes with a discussion of subjective sensitivity analysis which appears to offer some hope.
Genetic analysis of Rhizobium-plant interactions

In approaching the question of plant-microbe recognition, we require studies at several levels. In addition, it is important to understand the many stages at which bacteria and plants interact. This is particularly relevant to the legume-Rhizobium symbiosis, which proceeds by a series of steps involving both the host plant and the bacterial symbiont. These steps, originally outlined by Vincent (1980), include attachment, root hair curling, meristem initiation, invasion of the plant, release of bacteria into plant cells, and successful expression of nitrogen fixation and other essential genes. At all of these stages, recognition events may occur.
Hardware Accelerator Approach Towards Efficient Biometric Cryptosystems for Network Security

Protecting data and its communication is a critical part of the modern network. The science of protecting data, known as cryptography, uses secret keys to encrypt data in a format that is not easily decipherable. However, most commonly secure logons for a workstation connected to a network use passwords to perform user authentication. These passwords are a weak link in the security chain, and are a common point of attack on cryptography schemes. One alternative to password usage for network security is to use a person’s physical characteristics to verify who the person is and unlock the data correspondingly. This study focuses on the Cambridge biometric cryptosystem, a system for performing user authentication based on a user’s iris data. The implementation of this system expanded from a single-core software-only system to a collaborative system consisting of a single core and a hardware accelerator. The experiment takes place on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC. Software implementation is performed on one of the embedded ARM A9 cores while hardware implementation makes use of the programmable logic. Our hardware acceleration produced a speedup of 2.2X while reducing energy usage to 47.5 % of its original value for the combined enrolment and verification process. These results are also compared to a many-core acceleration of the same system, providing an analysis of different acceleration methods.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Lerema accius and its phylogenetic implications

Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are becoming model organisms for genetics and evolutionary biology. Decoding the Lepidoptera genomes, both nuclear and mitochondrial, is an essential step in these studies. Here we describe a protocol to assemble mitogenomes from Next Generation Sequencing reads obtained through whole-genome sequencing and report the 15,338 bp mitogenome of Lerema accius. The mitogenome is AT-rich and encodes 13 proteins, 22 transfer-RNAs, and two ribosomal-RNAs, with a gene order typical for Lepidoptera mitogenomes. A phylogenetic study based on the protein sequences using both Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood methods consistently place Lerema accius with other grass skippers (Hesperiinae).
Biodegradation of dispersed Macondo crude oil by indigenous Gulf of Mexico microbial communities

Because of the extreme conditions of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) release (turbulent flow at 1500m depth and 5°C water temperature) and the sub-surface application of dispersant, small but neutrally buoyant oil droplets <70μm were formed, remained in the water column and were subjected to in-situ biodegradation processes. In order to investigate the biodegradation of Macondo oil components during the release, we designed and performed an experiment to evaluate the interactions of the indigenous microbial communities present in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) with oil droplets of two representative sizes (10μm and 30μm median volume diameter) created with Macondo source oil in the presence of Corexit 9500 using natural seawater collected at the depth of 1100-1300m in the vicinity of the DWH wellhead. The evolution of the oil was followed in the dark and at 5°C for 64days by collecting sacrificial water samples at fixed intervals and analyzing them for a wide range of chemical and biological parameters including volatile components, saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons, dispersant markers, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, microbial cell counts and microbial population dynamics. A one phase exponential decay from a plateau model was used to calculate degradation rates and lag times for more than 150 individual oil components. Calculations were normalized to a conserved petroleum biomarker (30αβ-hopane). Half-lives ranged from about 3days for easily degradable compounds to about 60days for higher molecular weight aromatics. Rapid degradation was observed for BTEX, 2-3 ring PAHs, and n-alkanes below n-C23. The results in this experimental study showed good agreement with the n-alkane (n-C13 to n-C26) half-lives (0.6-9.5days) previously reported for the Deepwater Horizon plume samples and other laboratory studies with chemically dispersed Macondo oil conducted at low temperatures (<8°C). The responses of the microbial populations also were consistent with what was reported during the actual oil release, e.g. Colwellia, Cycloclasticus and Oceanospirillales (including the specific DWH Oceanospirillales) were present and increased in numbers indicating that they were degrading components of the oil. The consistency of the field and laboratory data indicate that these results could be used, in combination with other field and model data to characterize the dissipation of Macondo oil in the deepwater environment as part of the risk assessment estimations.
Chieftain: A red-skinned potato with attractive appearance and broad adaptability

Chieftain is a red potato with an attractive appearance, good yield and medium maturity. Its primary area of adaptabililty is in the North Central States. Chieftain has shown immunity to the common races of late blight, medium to high resistance to common scab, field resistance to mild mosaic, tuber resistance to stem-end browning and tuber resistance to net necrosis caused by current season leafroll. Chieftain has excellent quality after boiling but does not make acceptable chips after cold storage. The parentage of Chieftain includes Cherokee, Progress, Pontiac, Houma, Katahdin andS. acaule.
Select Features of Diabetic Retinopathy on Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomographic Angiography Compared With Fluorescein Angiography and Normal Eyes

Importance Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) is a recently developed noninvasive imaging technique that can visualize the retinal and choroidal microvasculature without the injection of exogenous dyes. Objective To evaluate the potential clinical utility of OCTA using a prototype swept-source OCT (SS-OCT) device and compare it with fluorescein angiography (FA) for analysis of the retinal microvasculature in diabetic retinopathy. Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective, observational cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care academic retina practice from November 2013 through November 2014. A cohort of diabetic and normal control eyes were imaged with a prototype SS-OCT system. The stage of diabetic retinopathy was determined by clinical examination. Imaging was performed using angiographic 3 × 3-mm and 6 × 6-mm SS-OCT scans to generate 3-dimensional en-face OCT angiograms for each eye. Two trained Boston Image Reading Center readers reviewed and graded FA and OCTA images independently. Main Outcomes and Measures The size of the foveal nonflow zone and the perifoveal intercapillary area on OCTA were measured in both normal and diabetic eyes using Boston Image Reading Center image analysis software. Results The study included 30 patients with diabetes (mean [SD] age, 55.7 [10] years) and 6 control individuals (mean [SD] age, 55.1 [6.4] years). A total of 43 diabetic and 11 normal control eyes were evaluated with OCTA. Fluorescein angiography was performed in 17 of 43 diabetic eyes within 8 weeks of the OCTA. Optical coherence tomographic angiography was able to identify a mean (SD) of 6.4 (4.0) microaneurysms (95% CI, 4.4-8.5), while FA identified a mean (SD) of 10 (6.9) microaneurysms (95% CI, 6.4-13.5). The exact intraretinal depth of microaneurysms on OCTA was localized in all cases (100%). The sensitivity of OCTA in detecting microaneuryms when compared with FA was 85% (95% CI, 53-97), while the specificity was 75% (95% CI, 21-98). The positive predictive value and the negative predictive value were 91% (95% CI, 59-99) and 60% (95% CI, 17-92), respectively. Conclusions and Relevance Optical coherence tomographic angiography enables noninvasive visualization of macular microvascular pathology in eyes with diabetic retinopathy. It identified fewer microaneurysms than FA, but located their exact intraretinal depth. Optical coherence tomographic angiography also allowed the precise and reproducible delineation of the foveal nonflow zone and perifoveal intercapillary area. Evaluation of OCTA may be of clinical utility in the evaluation and grading of diabetic eye disease.
Driving expert eldercare forward-on and off the road

The great American novelist Jack Kerouac (2007) once said: “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road” (p. 183). Although geriatric health care professionals have made great strides in promoting high-quality, person-centered care for older adults, there is still much to do on the road ahead. In a very literal example, a recent collaboration between the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has generated guidance that will help advanced practice nurses (APNs) and other health professionals navigate the intricacies of assessing and counseling older drivers, a key population with unique social and physical needs. More broadly, our recent thought leadership on topics such as high-quality multicultural care speaks to just how much lies ahead in providing comprehensive care for our nation's older adults and support for their caregivers. First, the literal: With older adults accounting for 10% of all individuals injured in traffic accidents annually and 17% of annual traffic fatalities (National Center for Statistics and Analysis, 2015), our new Clinician's Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers (AGS, 2016) is an example of translating research findings and public health initiatives into practical, person-centered advice for safely navigating the open road. Reviewed and edited by an interprofessional board of nurses, physicians, social workers, occupational therapists, and pharmacists, the guide introduces key issues, opportunities, and challenges faced by older drivers, health care professionals, and caregivers.... Language: en
Perturbations of Respiratory Rhythm and Pattern by Disrupting Synaptic Inhibition within Pre-Bötzinger and Bötzinger Complexes.

The pre-Botzinger (pre-BotC) and Botzinger (BotC) complexes are the brainstem compartments containing interneurons considered to be critically involved in generating respiratory rhythm and motor pattern in mammals. Current models postulate that both generation of the rhythm and coordination of the inspiratory-expiratory pattern involve inhibitory synaptic interactions within and between these regions. Both regions contain glycinergic and GABAergic neurons, and rhythmically active neurons in these regions receive appropriately coordinated phasic inhibition necessary for generation of the normal three-phase respiratory pattern. However, recent experiments attempting to disrupt glycinergic and GABAergic postsynaptic inhibition in the pre-BotC and BotC in adult rats in vivo have questioned the critical role of synaptic inhibition in these regions, as well as the importance of the BotC, which contradicts previous physiological and pharmacological studies. To further evaluate the roles of synaptic inhibition and the BotC, we bilaterally microinjected the GABA A receptor antagonist gabazine and glycinergic receptor antagonist strychnine into the pre-BotC or BotC in anesthetized adult rats in vivo and in perfused in situ brainstem–spinal cord preparations from juvenile rats. Muscimol was microinjected to suppress neuronal activity in the pre-BotC or BotC. In both preparations, disrupting inhibition within pre-BotC or BotC caused major site-specific perturbations of the rhythm and disrupted the three-phase motor pattern, in some experiments terminating rhythmic motor output. Suppressing BotC activity also potently disturbed the rhythm and motor pattern. We conclude that inhibitory circuit interactions within and between the pre-BotC and BotC critically regulate rhythmogenesis and are required for normal respiratory motor pattern generation.
Application of Schlumberger transverse profiling method to detecting buried faults

To solve the actual problem that urban active faults without obvious displacement are difficult to be detected, we propose the Schlumberger transverse profiling method based on resistivity characteristics of faults. Through physical and numerical simulation, the actual detecting results of site faults or broken zones show that the Schlumberger transverse profiling method can precisely locate and detect faults without large displacements, and the detecting effect is better than that based on regular profiling methods. Therefore, this method has solved the problem how to detect a fault without clear displacements on its both walls.
The Possible Role of the Catecholamines of the Corpora in Penile Erection

AbstractThe etiology of impotence, which affects 50 per cent of the men with diabetes, is unknown. The neurotransmitter (norepinephrine) released from adrenergic neurons is thought to be the most direct regulator of vascular smooth muscle. We have measured the norepinephrine content of the erectile tissue of diabetic men. Our results indicate the presence of a dual neural regulator mechanism of the corpora that controls penile erection.
mHealth dipstick analyzer for monitoring of pregnancy complications

Dipstick-based urinalysis is routinely used for detection of early signs of such pregnancy complications, as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Usually it is done in doctor's office using an automatic dipstick analyzer. Here we present a novel smartphone-based colorimeter and demonstrate its application to the measurements of glucose and protein concentrations in biological samples. The key innovations of our approach was to combine powerful image processing encoded into a mobile phone application with a low cost 3D printed sample holder that allowed to control lighting conditions and significantly improved sensitivity. Different solutions with protein and glucose concentrations ranging from 0 to 2000 mg/dL were prepared and analyzed using our system. The smartphone-based colorimeter always correctly classified the corresponding reagent strip pads, what confirms that it can be used as a low cost alternative for commercial dipstick analyzers.
Effects of repeated burning on snag abundance in shortleaf pine woodlands

Forest managers are restoring and maintaining forest woodlands across substantial areas of the United States, and these efforts typically require the use of frequent prescribed fire. The effects of frequent prescribed fire on important habitat components such as snags remain unknown. We conducted a study to determine how snag densities are affected by repeated prescribed burning in stands being restored to shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) woodlands in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas during summer 2015. We assessed snag densities in woodland forest stands that had 1, 2, 3, and 4–6 burns (n=6 stands in each burn class) after overstory thinning and midstory removal. In woodlands, density of large snags (≥15 cm dbh) was not significantly related to the previous number of burns, but density of small snags (5–14.9 cm dbh) was lower in stands with greater numbers of burns. Repeated burning did not appear to result in lower numbers of large snags, which are an important habitat component for numerous wildlife species.
Sensory cue-combination in the context of newly learned categories.

A large body of prior research has evaluated how humans combine multiple sources of information pertaining to stimuli drawn from continuous dimensions, such as distance or size. These prior studies have repeatedly demonstrated that in these circumstances humans integrate cues in a near-optimal fashion, weighting cues according to their reliability. However, most of our interactions with sensory information are in the context of categories such as objects and phonemes, thereby requiring a solution to the cue combination problem by mapping sensory estimates from continuous dimensions onto task-relevant categories. Previous studies have examined cue combination with natural categories (e.g., phonemes), providing qualitative evidence that human observers utilize information about the distributional properties of task-relevant categories, in addition to sensory information, in such categorical cue combination tasks. In the present study, we created and taught human participants novel audiovisual categories, thus allowing us to quantitatively evaluate participants’ integration of sensory and categorical information. Comparing participant behavior to the predictions of a statistically optimal observer that ideally combines all available sources of information, we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that human observers combine sensory and category information in a statistically optimal manner.
Effect of d electrons on defect properties in equiatomic NiCoCr and NiCoFeCr concentrated solid solution alloys

The role of $d$ electrons in determining distributions of formation and migration energies for point defects in equiatomic NiCoCr and NiCoFeCr concentrated solid solution alloys (CSAs) are studied regarding electron density deformation flexibility based on first-principles calculations. The disordered state is taken into account by constructing special quasirandom structures. The migration barriers are determined by directly optimizing the saddle point. It is found that the formation energies of interstitials in CSAs are lower than those in pure Ni, whereas the formation energies of vacancies are higher. In both NiCoCr and NiCoFeCr, Co-related dumbbell interstitials exhibit lower formation energies. Notably, the distributions of migration energies for Cr interstitials and vacancies exhibit a remarkable overlap region. A detailed analysis of electronic properties reveals that the electronic charge deformation flexibility regarding ${e}_{g}$ to ${t}_{2}$g transition has a dominant effect on defect energetics for different elements in CSAs. Thus the electron deformation ability is suggested as a key factor in understanding the peculiar defect behavior in CSAs.
Balanced double queues for GC work-stealing on weak memory models

Work-stealing is promising for scheduling and balancing parallel workloads. It has a wide range of applicability on middleware, libraries, and runtime systems of programming languages. OpenJDK uses work-stealing for copying garbage collection (GC) to balance copying tasks among GC threads. Each thread has its own queue to store tasks. When a thread has no task in its queue, it acts as a thief and attempts to steal a task from another thread's queue. However, this work-stealing algorithm requires expensive memory fences for pushing, popping, and stealing tasks, especially on weak memory models such as POWER and ARM. To address this problem, we propose a work-stealing algorithm that uses double queues. Each GC thread has a public queue that is accessible from other GC threads and a private queue that is only accessible by itself. Pushing and popping tasks in the private queue are free from expensive memory fences. The most significant point in our algorithm is providing a mechanism to maintain the load balance on the basis of the use of double queues. We developed a prototype implementation for parallel GC in OpenJDK8 for ppc64le. We evaluated our algorithm by using SPECjbb2015, SPECjvm2008, TPC-DS, and Apache DayTrader.
Revisional and Reconstructive Surgery for Failing IPAA is Associated with Good Function and Pouch Salvage in Highly Selected Patients.

BACKGROUND Revisional and reconstructive surgery for IPAA is rare given the high success of pouch surgery for chronic ulcerative colitis. Limited data exist on both surgical and functional outcomes in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis who undergo IPAA revision or reconstruction. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the surgical and functional outcome in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis who undergo IPAA revision or reconstruction. DESIGN A prospectively collected surgical database was accessed for this study. SETTING This study was conducted at an IBD referral center. PATIENTS Patients with chronic ulcerative colitis who underwent IPAA revision or reconstruction were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcomes measured were 30-day postoperative outcomes and long-term pouch function. RESULTS Eighty-one patients were identified. Original IPAA was performed for chronic ulcerative colitis (n = 71; 88%) and indeterminate colitis (n = 11; 12.%), and the most common configuration was a J-pouch (n = 69; 86%) with handsewn anastomosis (n = 41;68%). No independent predictors of 30-day postoperative complications following reconstructive/revisional surgery were identified. Pelvic abscesses and Crohn's disease of the pouch were independently associated with ultimate pouch excision. Median follow-up following revision/reconstruction was 40 months (range, 1-292 months) during which 15 patients (23%) had pouch failure. The 5- and 10-year pouch survival rates following revision were 85 ± 5% and 65 ± 9% by Kaplan-Meier estimation; age <30 years was significantly associated with pouch survival. Long-term function (n = 30; 35%) compared with a matched control cohort of primary IPAA was characterized by significantly increased daytime bowel incontinence (p = 0.0119), liquid stool (p = 0.0062), and medication to thicken stools (p = 0.0452). LIMITATIONS This was a single-center series, and response rate for functional data was 35%. CONCLUSIONS In properly selected patients with a failing pouch, originally made for chronic ulcerative colitis or indeterminate colitis, revisional and reconstructive surgery is associated with low complication rates, high pouch salvage, and acceptable long-term pouch function. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A640.
Availability of Solar Energy

Background information on the nature of solar energy impinging upon the earth’s atmosphere is presented. The attenuation of solar radiation by the earth’s atmosphere and the daily, seasonal and geographical variations are discussed. The determination of the amount of solar energy incident on the earth’s surface is described.
The Threshold Problem

Both Bayesian and frequentist methods of inference have qualities which would seem to recommend them for use. They both also have apparent deficiencies. Both schools can find, without great difficulty, reasons to support the position they have chosen as well as reasons to critique the methodologies espoused by the other school. Many professional statisticians see themselves as being in one camp or the other but, in practice, remain open to using either of the methodologies when a particular application seems to call for them. A common example is a Bayesian’s use of the standard methods of linear model theory (regression analysis, for example), because the methodology is so well developed and easily interpretable; he might do so while, at the same time, being quite adamant about the use of the Bayesian approach to estimation and testing in other settings. Similarly, one often encounters staunch frequentists who are happy to use Bayesian methods on occasion (especially those labeled as “objective”) because of the enticing computational tools available for executing the Bayesian approach.
Identifying potential long-stay residents in veterans health administration nursing homes.

Veterans Affairs nursing homes (Community Living Centers; CLCs) have largely shifted focus to providing short-term rehabilitative care, preferring longer-term care to be provided in contract nursing homes or at home. The goal of this retrospective cohort study is to identify resident characteristics associated with longer length of stay using the CLC Minimum Data Set (n = 35,114). Length of stay was defined as three groups: short (<90 days), moderate (91-365 days), and long (beyond 365 days). Residents who remained beyond 90 days were more likely to be black and to have a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or schizophrenia, lived in another facility prior to admission, had a financial power of attorney, and had greater dependence in activities of daily living. Unique predictors of those who remained beyond 365 days were older age, cancer diagnosis, cognitive impairment, and admission from assisted living. Our findings can help CLC staff with admission decisions.
Quality-Adjusted Life Years After Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: Health-Related Quality of Life After 12,782 Joint Replacements

Background: The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is the preferred outcome measurement for cost-effectiveness analysis in health care. QALYs measure patient health-related quality of life with use of a value between 0 and 1. Few studies have provided original data delineating QALYs after hip and knee arthroplasty. In the present study, we evaluated patient utility preoperatively and 2 years after total hip arthroplasty, hip resurfacing, revision hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, and revision knee arthroplasty. Methods: A single-hospital joint registry, which enrolled patients from 2007 to 2011, was retrospectively examined for all patients who underwent primary or revision hip or knee arthroplasty and who had preoperative and 2-year postoperative Short Form-36 (SF-36), Short Form-12 (SF-12), or EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) scores available. Patient age, body mass index (BMI), sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, and Charlson Comorbidity Index were recorded. QALYs were determined from the EQ-5D index and the Short Form-6 Dimension (SF-6D) index. Results: Five thousand, four hundred and sixty-three patients underwent total hip arthroplasty, with a mean annual increase (and standard deviation) of 0.25 ± 0.2 QALY; 843 patients underwent hip resurfacing, with a mean annual increase of 0.24 ± 0.17 QALY; 5,398 patients underwent primary total knee arthroplasty, with a mean annual increase of 0.17 ± 0.19 QALY; and 240 patients underwent medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, with a mean annual increase of 0.16 ± 0.17 QALY. Aseptic revision arthroplasty (440 hips, 323 knees) was associated with a smaller QALY gain than primary arthroplasty. Patient age, BMI, female sex, ASA category, and higher preoperative health-related quality of life were negative predictors for QALY gain after primary arthroplasty. Forty additional hip procedures and 35 additional knee procedures were also analyzed. Conclusions: Primary hip and knee arthroplasty, on average, result in substantially increased patient quality of life. Revision hip and knee replacement result in a lower, but still positive, gain in quality of life. However, there is a considerable variation in patient outcomes across all procedures. Our results may be used to improve the certainty of future cost-effectiveness analyses of hip and knee arthroplasty. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Abstract IA20: Therapeutic targeting of ARID1A mutation in ovarian cancer

SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes regulate gene transcription by changing chromatin structure through hydrolyzing ATP. Cancer genome sequencing found that mutations in genes encoding for the subunits of the SWI/SNF complexes collectively occur in ~20% of all human cancers. For example, saturation analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cancer mutational profile reveals that the ARID1A subunit of the SWI/SNF complex shows one of the highest mutation rates among epigenetic regulators. Most notably, ARID1A is mutated in over 50% of ovarian clear cell carcinomas and 30% of ovarian endometrioid carcinomas. ARID1A mutation is a known genetic driver of ovarian cancer. Over 90% of the ARID1A mutations observed in ovarian cancer are frame-shift or nonsense mutations that result in loss of ARID1A protein expression. Loss of ARID1A correlates with late-stage disease and predicts early recurrence of ovarian clear cell carcinoma. Ovarian clear cell carcinoma ranks second as the cause of death from epithelial ovarian cancer and is associated with the worst prognosis among the major ovarian cancer subtypes when diagnosed at advanced stages. Additionally, for advanced-stage disease, there is currently no effective therapy. Here we will discuss emerging opportunities for therapeutic targeting of ARID1A mutation based on the genetic makeup of ARID1-mutated ovarian cancer with precision. They include synthetic lethality, the mutual exclusivity between ARID1A and TP53 mutations in ovarian cancer, and mechanism-guided combinatory approaches. Citation Format: Rugang Zhang. Therapeutic targeting of ARID1A mutation in ovarian cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference: Addressing Critical Questions in Ovarian Cancer Research and Treatment; Oct 1-4, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(15_Suppl):Abstract nr IA20.
Mebendazole Potentiates Radiation Therapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Purpose The lack of a molecular target in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) makes it one of the most challenging breast cancers to treat. Radiation therapy (RT) is an important treatment modality for managing breast cancer; however, we previously showed that RT can also reprogram a fraction of the surviving breast cancer cells into breast cancer–initiating cells (BCICs), which are thought to contribute to disease recurrence. In this study, we characterize mebendazole (MBZ) as a drug with potential to prevent the occurrence of radiation-induced reprogramming and improve the effect of RT in patients with TNBC. Methods and Materials A high-throughput screen was used to identify drugs that prevented radiation-induced conversion of TNBC cells into cells with a cancer-initiating phenotype and exhibited significant toxicity toward TNBC cells. MBZ was one of the drug hits that fulfilled these criteria. In additional studies, we used BCIC markers and mammosphere-forming assays to investigate the effect of MBZ on the BCIC population. Staining with propidium iodide, annexin-V, and γ-H2AX was used to determine the effect of MBZ on cell cycle, apoptosis, and double-strand breaks. Finally, the potential for MBZ to enhance the effect of RT in TNBC was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Results MBZ efficiently depletes the BCIC pool and prevents the ionizing radiation–induced conversion of breast cancer cells into therapy-resistant BCICs. In addition, MBZ arrests cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle and causes double-strand breaks and apoptosis. MBZ sensitizes TNBC cells to ionizing radiation in vitro and in vivo, resulting in improved tumor control in a human xenograft model of TNBC. Conclusions The data presented in this study support the repurposing of MBZ as a combination treatment with RT in patients with TNBC.
Solution-Processed BiI3 Films with 1.1 eV Quasi-Fermi Level Splitting: The Role of Water, Temperature, and Solvent during Processing.

We present a mechanistic explanation of the BiI3 film formation process and an analysis of the critical factors in preparing high-quality solution-processed BiI3 films. We find that complexation with Lewis bases, relative humidity, and temperature are important factors during solvent vapor annealing (SVA) of films. During SVA, water vapor and higher temperatures limit the formation of the BiI3–dimethylformamide coordination complex. SVA with an optimized water content and temperature produces films with 300–500 nm grains. Films that formed solvent coordination compounds at lower temperatures showed preferential crystal orientation after solvent removal, and we elucidate its implications for carrier transport. Addition of dimethyl sulfoxide to highly concentrated tetrahydrofuran–BiI3 inks prevents film cracking after spin-coating. We have measured a quasi-Fermi level splitting of 1.1 eV and a diffusion length of 70 nm from films processed with optimal temperature and humidity. The best device produced by o...
The Experimental Effects of Acute Exercise on Long-Term Emotional Memory

Emerging work suggests that acute, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may help to subserve episodic memory of neutral stimuli. Less investigated, however, is whether acute exercise is associated with enhanced memory recognition of emotional stimuli, which was the purpose of this experiment. A parallel-group randomized controlled experiment was employed. Participants (mean age = 20 yr) were randomized into an exercise (n = 17) or control group (n = 17). The exercise group engaged in a 15-min bout of moderate-intensity treadmill walking. Emotional memory recognition was assessed via images from the International Affective Picture System, including assessments of varying degrees of valence and arousal. Memory recognition was assessed at 1 day, 7 days, and 14 days post-memory encoding. We observed a significant main effect for time (F(2) = 104.2, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.77) and a significant main effect for valence–arousal classification (F(4) = 21.39, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.40), but there was no significant time by group interaction (F(2) = 1.09, p = 0.34, η2p = 0.03), classification by group interaction (F(4) = 0.12, p = 0.97, η2p = 0.01), time by classification interaction (F(8) = 1.78, p = 0.08, η2p = 0.05), or time by classification by group interaction (F(8) = 0.78, p = 0.62, η2p = 0.02). In conclusion, emotional memory recognition decreased over the 14-day follow-up period and this rate of memory decay was not altered by acute moderate-intensity exercise engagement. We discuss these findings in the context of exercise intensity and the temporal effects of exercise.
Complete Response of Metastatic Melanoma to Local Radiation and Immunotherapy: 6.5 Year Follow-Up

The combined use of immunotherapy and radiation therapy is emerging as a potentially effective treatment for patients with immunogenic tumors such as melanoma; however, evidence for long-term treatment outcomes is lacking. Herein, we summarize our previously described case study of a patient with metastatic melanoma treated with two cycles of ipilimumab, followed by stereotactic body radiotherapy to two of seven liver metastases, with two additional cycles of ipilimumab. In the longest follow-up to date, we report a successful treatment outcome at 6.5 years. Our patient remains in complete remission, with no evidence of disease or recurrence 6.5 years after treatment. He continues to manage chronic hypophysitis developed secondary to immunotherapy and has developed osteopenia from prolonged systemic glucocorticoid use. The use of radiotherapy in combination with targeted immune therapy appears to be an effective treatment strategy, with long-lasting efficacy.
Preconditioned or IL4-Secreting Mesenchymal Stem Cells Enhanced Osteogenesis at Different Stages.

Chronic inflammation-associated bone diseases involve continuous destruction and impaired regeneration of bone. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy has great potential to modulate inflammator...