cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Practical Route Planning Under Delay Uncertainty: Stochastic Shortest Path Queries

We describe an algorithm for stochastic path planning and applications to route planning in the presence of traffic delays. We improve on the prior state of the art by designing, analyzing, implementing, and evaluating data structures that answer approximate stochastic shortest-path queries. For example, our data structures can be used to efficiently compute paths that maximize the probability of arriving at a destination before a given time deadline. Our main theoretical result is an algorithm that, given a directed planar network with edge lengths characterized by expected travel time and variance, pre-computes a data structure in quasi-linear time such that approximate stochastic shortestpath queries can be answered in poly-logarithmic time (actual worst-case bounds depend on the probabilistic model). Our main experimental results are two-fold: (i) we provide methods to extract travel-time distributions from a large set of heterogenous GPS traces and we build a stochastic model of an entire city, and (ii) we adapt our algorithms to work for realworld road networks, we provide an efficient implementation, and we evaluate the performance of our method for the model of the aforementioned city.
Leukocyte Count and Intracerebral Hemorrhage Expansion

Background and Purpose— Acute leukocytosis is a well-established response to intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Leukocytes, because of their interaction with platelets and coagulation factors, may in turn play a role in hemostasis. We investigated whether admission leukocytosis was associated with reduced bleeding after acute ICH. Methods— Consecutive patients with primary ICH were prospectively collected from 1994 to 2015 and retrospectively analyzed. We included subjects with a follow-up computed tomographic scan available and automated complete white blood cell count performed within 48 hours from onset. Baseline and follow-up hematoma volumes were calculated with semiautomated software, and hematoma expansion was defined as volume increase >30% or 6 mL. The association between white blood cell count and ICH expansion was investigated with multivariate logistic regression. Results— A total of 1302 subjects met eligibility criteria (median age, 75 years; 55.8% men), of whom 207 (15.9%) experienced hematoma expansion. Higher leukocyte count on admission was associated with reduced risk of hematoma expansion (odds ratio for 1000 cells increase, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.86–0.96; P =0.001). The risk of hematoma expansion was inversely associated with neutrophil count (odds ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.85–0.96; P =0.001) and directly associated with monocyte count (odds ratio, 2.71; 95% confidence interval, 1.08–6.83; P =0.034). There was no association between lymphocyte count and ICH expansion (odds ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.79–1.17; P =0.718). Conclusions— Higher admission white blood cell count is associated with lower risk of hematoma expansion. This highlights a potential role of the inflammatory response in modulating the coagulation cascade after acute ICH.
Reconsideration on several issues in automation of dam deformation monitoring

The significance of deformation monitoring at foundation of gravity dam was expounded,the application of non-buoy wire alignment for CFRP and its feasibility to use in slope sections were discussed,and horizontal displacement monitoring at gravity dams was extended.Further,monitoring of horizontal displacement inner earth-rockfill dam by serial rod displacement meter was advanced,and the possibility of construction of monitoring system with air laser alignment for horizontal displacement inner earth-rockfill dam was proved.As well,disadvantages in existed settlement monitoring systems were analysed.It is necessary to adopt water level settlement gauges and transom type settlement gauges in settlement monitoring systems for high face-slab rock-fill dams,and this combination is an important guarantee for construction quality of concrete face and safety operation.
Cytostatic Effects of Suramin on Prostate Cancer Cells Cultured from Primary Tumors

AbstractSuramin is currently undergoing clinical trials as a chemotherapeutic agent for prostate cancer. The effects of suramin on cultured human epithelial cells derived from normal, benign hyperplastic, and malignant prostate tissues were examined. In serum-free medium, suramin inhibited the clonal growth of prostate cells at a half-maximal dose of approximately 10 μg./ml. Growth inhibition by suramin was completely reversible even after 24 hours of exposure. In conjunction, suramin did not alter cellular phenotype with regard to expression of keratins and prostate-specific antigens. Although suramin is reportedly an antagonist of growth factor-mediated mitogenesis, ten-fold excesses of growth factors did not appreciably suppress the cytostatic activity of suramin. In comparison to the activities of other possible chemotherapeutic agents, suramin would appear suboptimal because its inhibitory effects are reversible and it does not induce a terminally differentiated cellular phenotype.
Understanding the Effects of High Intensity Treadmill Training on Corticomotor Excitability and Walking in Stroke Survivors

Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability, with gait deficits contributing significantly to functional limitations after stroke. One of the reasons for functional impairment after stroke is the decrease in neural drive, or the corticomotor excitability to the affected side of the lower limb muscles. The goal of this study was to understand the effects of a novel high intensity treadmill training (HITT) protocol on walking speeds and neural drive in individuals who had a stroke. Our sample consisted of three individuals who had a stroke and were able to walk for at least 10 minutes with- out assistance. This was a pilot study that was a part of a larger randomized controlled trial examining the effects of a noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) on treadmill training. All subjects participated in 12 sessions of treadmill training (40 minutes per session, three days a week for four weeks). Overground walking speed was examined throughout the four weeks of training, and corticomotor excitability was examined at baseline and after completion of training. Corti- comotor excitability was measured using non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the lower limb motor cortex. At the end of four weeks post training, we noticed a decrease in motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited via TMS in the paretic tibialis anterior (TA) muscle. In addition, we noticed improvements in treadmill training speeds and overground walking speeds. This paradox may indicate a number of things—spinal cord excitability may be elicited more than the motor cortex (Martinez, Delivet-Mongrain, & Rossignol, 2012), or endurance training may be playing a role in excitability because of practice effects (Kumpulainen et al., 2014). This preliminary data brings questions that arise from the paradoxical phenomenon that HITT has on the neural drive and gait speed in stroke survivors. These results are promising and form the basis of investigating the effects of walking training on neural plasticity.
Imagined Empires: The Cultural Geography of Stage Romance

As the allusions to Peru and Calicut hinted in the previous chapter, the theatrical meanings of foreign geography frequently overlapped with economic interests in the sixteenth century. Sidney chooses two places associated with bullion and mercantile exchange, respectively, and the power of these references stems from their economic associations as well as their geographic eccentricity. The London stage was far more accommodating to the changes in global economics than was Sidney, in part because, as several scholars have noted in recent years, the theaters were situated at the nexus of an increasingly aware global society.1 In the years that followed Sidney’s writing of the Defense, and as the English became more intertwined in transnational networks of traffic and travel, the geographies of the stage continued to proliferate. In the present chapter, I will extend the trajectory of the book’s argument by looking more specifically at how the spatial imaginings of the stage aligned with various geographic discourses in the period. I connect these discourses back to romance to show how even within more “scientific” undertakings romance continued to influence conceptions of geography. Through readings of geographic treatises, travel narratives, and imperial prospectuses, I will examine ways in which early modern England staged speculative engagements with its increasingly expanding world.
A Grammatical Approach to Cooperative Control

In many cooperative control methods, the geometric state of the system is abstracted to the underlying graph or network topology. In this paper we present a grammatical approach to modeling and controlling the network topology of cooperative systems based on graph rewriting. By restricting rewrites to small subgraphs, graph grammars provide a useful method for programming the concurrent behavior of large decentralized systems of robots. We illustrate the modeling process through an ongoing example and demonstrate mathematical tools for reasoning about the system’s behavior. Finally, we briefly describe methods to design continuous controllers that augment the grammar so that geometric requirements may also be satisfied.
Russell's Scientific Mysticism

WHATWAS THE relation of mysticism and religion to Russell's philosophy? Most people, no doubt, would answ:er "none at all!" Or, if they acknowledged any relation, it would be entirely negative. That is, they might point out that Russell rejected mysticism and all other forms of religion and expended a great deal of effort attacking them. Russell the sceptic attacked religious dogma. Russell the social reformer attacked religious institutions for their social conservatism. Russell the rationalist attacked the idea that mystical insight was the route to knowledge. The standard view-that religion had no substantial positive impact on Russell's thought-has been clearly stated by A. J. Ayer. "Russell," he writes,
Idempotents in intersection of the kernel and the image of locally finite derivations and $${\mathcal {E}}$$ E -derivations

Let K be a field of characteristic zero, $${\mathcal {A}}$$ a K-algebra and $$\delta $$ a K-derivation of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ or K- $${\mathcal {E}}$$ -derivation of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ (i.e., $$\delta =\mathrm{Id}_{\mathcal {A}}-\phi $$ for some K-algebra endomorphism $$\phi $$ of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ ). Motivated by the Idempotent conjecture proposed in Zhao (Commun Contemp Math, https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219199717500560 , arXiv:1701.05992 ), we first show that for every idempotent e lying in both the kernel $${\mathcal {A}}^\delta $$ and the image $$\mathrm{Im}\,\delta {:}{=}\delta ({\mathcal {A}})$$ of $$\delta $$ , the principal ideal $$(e)\subseteq \mathrm{Im}\,\delta $$ if $$\delta $$ is a locally finite K-derivation or a locally nilpotent K- $${\mathcal {E}}$$ -derivation of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ ; and $$e{\mathcal {A}}, {\mathcal {A}}e \subseteq \mathrm{Im}\,\delta $$ if $$\delta $$ is a locally finite K- $${\mathcal {E}}$$ -derivation of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ . Consequently, the Idempotent conjecture holds for all locally finite K-derivations and all locally nilpotent K- $${\mathcal {E}}$$ -derivations of $${\mathcal {A}}$$ . We then show that (if and) only if $$\delta $$ is surjective, which generalizes the same result due to Nouaze and Gabriel (J Algebra 6(1):77–99, 1967) and Wright (Illinois J Math 25(3):423–440, 1981) for locally nilpotent K-derivations of commutative K-algebras to locally finite K-derivations and K- $${\mathcal {E}}$$ -derivations $$\delta $$ of all K-algebras $${\mathcal {A}}$$ .
Improved “Root-Omega” Method for Transmission-Line-Based Material Property Extraction for Multilayer PCBs

Electrical properties of dielectric substrate are critical in designing high-speed products in terms of signal and power integrity. It is important to accurately characterize the dielectric properties to avoid overestimating or underestimating in the design. This paper proposes the improved “Root-Omega” method for extracting dielectric properties from fabricated multilayer printed circuit boards. Based on the electrical properties of fabricated transmission lines, the improved “Root-Omega” method applied to cases with smooth and rough conductors is validated using simulations. Error sensitivity analysis is performed to demonstrate the potential errors in the original “Root-Omega” procedure and the error sensitivity is significantly reduced by the proposed improvements.
Cerebral Revascularization for Aneurysms in the Flow-Diverter Era.

BACKGROUND Cerebral bypass has been an important tool in the treatment of complex intracranial aneurysms. The recent advent of flow-diverting stents (FDS) has expanded the capacity for endovascular arterial reconstruction. OBJECTIVE We investigated how the advent of FDS has impacted the application and outcomes of cerebral bypass in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. METHODS We reviewed a consecutive series of cerebral bypasses during aneurysm surgery over the course of 10 years. FDS were in active use during the last 5 years of this series. We compared the clinical characteristics, surgical technique, and outcomes of patients who required cerebral bypass for aneurysm treatment during the preflow diversion era (PreFD) with those of the postflow diversion era (PostFD). RESULTS We treated 1061 aneurysms in the PreFD era (from July 2005 through June 2010) and 1348 in the PostFD era (from July 2010 through June 2015). Eighty-five PreFD patients (8%) and 45 PostFD patients (3%) were treated with cerebral bypass. PreFD patients had better baseline functional status compared to PostFD patients with average preoperative modified Rankin Scale score of 0.55 in PreFD and 1.18 in PostFD. CONCLUSION After the introduction of FDS, cerebral bypass was performed in a lower proportion of patients with aneurysms. Patients selected for bypass in the flow-diverter era had worse preoperative modified Rankin Scale scores indicating a greater complexity of the patients. Cerebral bypass in well-selected patients and revascularization remains an important technique in vascular neurosurgery. It is also useful as a rescue technique after failed FDS treatment of aneurysms.
EVALUATE THE CAPABILITY OF LANDSAT8 OPERATIONAL LAND IMAGER FORSHORELINE CHANGE DETECTION/INLAND WATER STUDIES

Abstract. This paper explored the capability of Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) for post classification change detection analysis and mapping application because of its enhanced features from previous Landsat series. The OLI support vector machine (SVM) classified data was successfully classified with regard to all six test classes (i.e., open land, residential land, forest, scrub land, reservoir water and waterway). The OLI SVM-classified data for the four seasons (i.e. winter, spring, summer and autumn seasons) were used for change detection analysis of six situations; situation1: winter to spring seasonal change detection resulted reduction in reservoir water mapping and increases of scrub land; situation 2: winter to summer seasonal change detection resulted increase in dam water mapping and increase of scrub land. winter to summer which resulted reduction in dam water mapping and increase of vegetation; situation 3: winter to summer seasonal change detection resulted increase in increase in open land mapping; situation 4: spring to summer seasonal change detection resulted reduction of vegetation and shallow water and increase of open land and reservoir water; situation; 5: spring to autumn seasonal change detection resulted increase of reservoir water and open land; and Situation 6: summer to autumn seasonal change detection resulted increase of open land. OLI SVM classified data found suitable for post classification change detection analysis due to its resulted higher overall accuracy and kappa coefficient.
Posterior Spinal Fusion with Instrumentation

The patient was taken to the Operating Room. After adequate general anesthesia, he/she was placed prone on the Jackson table (Hall-Relton frame, spine frame, etc.). The arms were abducted 20° and elbows flexed 110° on the arm boards, which were well padded. The iliac crest and breast regions were well padded. The shoulders and upper arms were free. The knees were padded. All bony prominences were checked to make sure they were well protected. Foam pads were placed between the legs and around the legs to prevent bony contact with the OR table. A Bear hugger was used underneath the operating table to maintain the patient’s temperature. A second Bear hugger was used on the patient with an opening for the surgical incision. The back was given a two-stage prep and draped free in the usual manner.
Effects of Dams and Barrages on River Channels

This chapter provides a brief overview of effects of dams and barrages as: effects of dams on river channels, effects of gravel mining on river channels, effects of denudation on river channels, channel incision, bed coarsening and loss of spawning gravels, gravel replenishment below dams, sediment sluicing and pass-through from reservoirs, channel narrowing and fine sediment accumulation below dams and coastal erosion.
Caspase-Dependent Suppression of Type I Interferon Signaling Promotes Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Lytic Replication.

An important component of lytic infection by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the ability of the virus to evade the innate immune response, specifically type I interferon (IFN) responses that are triggered by recognition of viral nucleic acids. Inhibition of type I IFN responses by the virus promotes viral replication. Here, we report that KSHV uses a caspase-dependent mechanism to block type I IFN, in particular IFN-β, responses during lytic infection. Inhibition of caspases during KSHV reactivation resulted in increased TBK1/IKKe-dependent phosphorylation of IRF3 as well as elevated levels of IFN-β transcription and secretion. The increased secretion of IFN-β upon caspase inhibition reduced viral gene expression, viral DNA replication, and virus production. Blocking IFN-β production or signaling restored viral replication. Overall, our results show that caspase-mediated regulation of pathogen sensing machinery is an important mechanism exploited by KSHV to evade innate immune responses.IMPORTANCE KSHV is the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), an AIDS-defining tumor that is one of the most common causes of cancer death in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we examined the role of a set of cellular proteases, called caspases, in the regulation of immune responses during KSHV infection. We demonstrate that caspases prevent the induction and secretion of the antiviral factor IFN-β during replicative KSHV infection. The reduced IFN-β production allows for high viral gene expression and viral replication. Therefore, caspases are important for maintaining KSHV replication. Overall, our results suggest that KSHV utilizes caspases to evade innate immune responses, and that inhibiting caspases could boost the innate immune response to this pathogen and potentially be a new antiviral strategy.
Surprising sequences for communication and conversation

In most information-theoretic studies of communication, it is assumed that the channel is always available. However communication between two parties may cease due to damage to transmitter/receiver devices, wire lines being cut, loss of attention at the terminals, or other such reasons. To model a setting where attention must be maintained, here we consider a channel model — a boring channel — with a reserve of attention that degrades when the channel is being used but is replenished when a codeword containing a certain amount of Bayesian surprise is received. Limits of communication over the boring channel are characterized and numerical results are found. Optimal communication strategies may be useful for various cognitive systems, and coincide with the segmenting principle that states that students learn better from a multimedia lesson when it is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit. An application to designing the interaction between people and artificial agents is also discussed.
In Vitro Vascular Cell Culture Systems – Vascular Smooth Muscle

The phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from the differentiated state characteristic of normal mature arteries to a dedifferentiated phenotype is critical to normal vascular physiology, including angiogenesis and wound healing. However, this transition is also central to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, restenosis, intimal hyperplasia, hypertension, and tumor angiogenesis. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the signaling pathways and target transcription factors, including serum response factor (SRF), myocardin, GATA-6, nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT), and Kruppel-like factor (KLF) family members, that regulate VSMC differentiation. We describe in detail methods for isolation and cultivation of VSMC in culture, and methods used to study phenotypic modulation of VSMC in culture. We discuss methods to study and quantitate VSMC morphology, proliferation, migration, contractile protein expression, and promoter regulation, as all of these processes are altered in differentiated versus dedifferentiated VSMC. In addition to the traditional tissue culture approaches, methods are also presented to study vascular cells in dynamic models to assess the effects of shear stress and cyclic strain. We discuss models of VSMC differentiation employed by our laboratory and others, including endothelial cell (EC)/VSMC coculture, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor rapamycin, prostacyclin (PGI2), and retinoids. These models and techniques provide an experimental system in which to study the effects of drugs and toxicants on VSMC, with an emphasis on effects on VSMC phenotype.
Monoclonal Antibodies Show Cross-Reactivity of Alzheimer Neurofibrillary Tangles and Heat-Stable Microtubule-Associated Proteins

Recent biochemical and immunocytochemical studies have provided evidence that heat-stable, microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) may be instrumental in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangles (ANT)1–5. Some investigators speculate that the mid-molecular weight, heatstable MAP known as tau protein6 may be the subunit of the paired helical filament (PHF)2,3, which is the major ultrastructural component of ANT7. Tau is a group of proteins with molecular weight of 42–68 kd (Fig. 1) that co-purifies stoichiometrically with tubulin8. Despite its microheterogeneity in terms of isoelectric point and molecular weight, all tau proteins have conserved amino acid sequences that are recognized by several antibodies9. The microheterogeneity of tau protein may be related to several processes including alternative gene splicing10 or post-translational modification such as proteolysis9 or phosphorylation11,12. The function of tau proteins, other than facilitating tubulin polymerization into microtubules8,13, is currently unkown. The distribution of the various isoforms of tau with respect to neuronal type and neuronal subcellular location is incompletely understood at present. Most tau protein appears to be localized to axons, but some is also present in perikarya and dendrites14. The role of specific isoforms of tau in ANT remains to be investigated.
A LISP System for Chemical Groups: Wigner — Eckart Coefficients for Arbitrary Permutation Groups

Computer applications of group theory have almost invariably used numerical representations of the fundamental quantities of the group. For example, the combination laws in the crystallographic groups have been described as matrix multiplications on tables of coordinates [1]. These decimal values are approximate specifications of in principle exactly equivalent points. The finite mathematics realized in computers does not permit the numerical operations to represent faithfully the group theoretic operations.
Spezielle Probleme und Anwendungsbeispiele für Radialpumpen

Die Anwendung von Kreiselpumpen zum Fordern von schweren Erdolfraktionen hoher Temperatur unter hohem Druck brachte schwierige Probleme, von denen einige viele Jahre lang nicht gelost wurden. Die Entwicklung von modernen Pumpen fur heises Ol war von der Losung folgender Probleme abhangig: 1. Eine geeignete Stopfbuchse muste gefunden werden, die in der Lage ist, solche Pumpen bei hoher Drehzahl bei moglichst langer Lebensdauer der Packung zu dichten. 2. Das Material der Pumpen mus hohen Drucken, hohen Temperaturen und der korrodierenden Wirkung der Ole gewachsen sein. 3. Eine Konstruktion war herauszubilden, bei der keine ungleichmasige Warmeaufnahme oder -abgabe am Gehause auftritt und bei der sich keine Ablagerungen oder Anfressungen an inneren Teilen z eigen.
Crohn's disease and intestinal carcinoma: A report of 11 cases with emphasis on associated epithelial dysplasia

Eleven patients with intestinal carcinoma complicating Crohn's disease are reported. In the 4 patients with small intestinal carcinoma, carcinomas were poorly differentiated or signet-ring cell type in 3 cases and mucinous type in 1 case. All 4 patients had high-grade dysplasia in the mucosa immediately adjacent to the carcinoma only. In the 7 patients with colonic carcinoma, tumors were mucinous type in 3, signet-ring cell type in 1, and well or moderately differentiated in 3. Dysplasia could be assessed in 6 patients. In 4 patients it was both adjacent to and distant from the invasive carcinoma. This distant dysplasia was focal in 2 cases. One patient showed dysplasia adjacent to the carcinoma only and in 1 other patient no dysplasia was seen. In a comparison group, all 7 cases of carcinoma associated with ulcerative colitis showed dysplasia adjacent to and distant from the invasive carcinomas. The authors conclude that (a) associated dysplasia is prevalent enough in Crohn's disease-associated carcinomas to support a dysplasia-carcinoma sequence and (b) dysplasia is more limited with carcinoma in Crohn's disease than ulcerative colitis, and this may make dysplasia less useful as a cancer surveillance marker in Crohn's disease.
The status of tobacco cessation research for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Objectives The purpose of this case study was to describe the status of tobacco cessation research among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Methods The author conducted a review of the literature and reviewed studies that he was familiar with. Findings Tobacco cessation research for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has been very scant. Only two peer-reviewed studies focused on smoking cessation research targeted at any Asian American or Pacific Islander population were identified. One of these studies was the Suc Khoe La Vang! ("Health is Gold") intervention funded by the California Department of Health Services to the Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project at the University of California, San Francisco. This involved a two-year, community-based, controlled trial with multi-component programs such as Vietnamese language media-based activities, Vietnamese language smoking cessation materials written by and for Vietnamese, continuing medical education for Vietnamese physicians. They used a pre-test, posttest design comparing the intervention community of Santa Clara County, CA with the non-intervention community of Houston, TX. After two years, the smoking prevalence rates between the two communities were not significantly different. The other was the "Lay-led Smoking Cessation Approach for S.E. Asian men" funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to The Ohio State University. This particular study was conducted over a six-year period and involved the indigenous model. That is, lay adults from the targeted Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese communities were trained to engage other Southeast Asian men to facilitate their quitting smoking. In comparison to the non-intervened group, the intervention group engaged in more quit attempts and reported a higher rate of smoking cessation (17%) versus the control group (1%). This study demonstrates the potential for successfully initiating quitting attempts but also illustrates the necessity for the intervention to incorporate linguistic, cultural, social environmental, physiological, and cognitive factors in achieving cessation. Furthermore, cessation should be documented not only by self-report but by biochemical verification. The extreme paucity of smoking cessation research for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders mean that much needs to be initiated, implemented, evaluated, and researched. In so doing, we conclude that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are not "hard-to-reach", but hardly reached. Conclusions As of February 2001, only two studies relating to tobacco cessation research targeting any Asian American or Pacific Islander populations had been reported in the peer-reviewed literature. Evidences for the effectiveness of these two cases, one in California, and the other in Ohio were cited.
Early Motor and Communicative Development in Infants With an Older Sibling With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose A recent approach to identifying early markers of risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been to study infants who have an older sibling with ASD. These infants are at heightened risk ...
Phase behavior of main-chain liquid crystalline polymer networks synthesized by alkyne-azide cycloaddition chemistry.

Liquid crystalline polymer networks (LCNs) couple polymer chain organization to molecular ordering, the switching of which has been shown to impart stimuli-responsive properties, including actuation and one-way shape memory, to the networks. While LCNs have long been proposed as artificial muscles, recent reports have also suggested potential as dynamic biomaterial substrates. In contrast to many existing LCNs synthesized using hydrophobic spacers, this work investigates networks synthesized using more hydrophilic spacers to promote interaction with water. A challenge with such materials is liquid crystalline phases could be disrupted in hydrated networks. This work thus investigates the impact of polyether spacers and mesogen composition on the phase behavior of LCNs. Main-chain LCNs were synthesized using alkyne–azide cycloaddition (“click” chemistry), where two different mesogens (5yH and 5yMe) and a non-LC monomer (5yTe) were coupled with one of two different polyether spacers, poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(propylene glycol), and a crosslinker. The chemistry led to high gel fraction materials, the workup of which resulted in networks that displayed no difference in cellular toxicity due to leachable components compared to tissue culture plastic control. Calorimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, and X-ray scattering revealed the LC microstructure and temperature-responsive properties of the networks. The use of low molecular weight polyether spacers was found to prevent their crystallization within the LC network, and adjusting mesogen composition to enhance its LC phase stability allowed the use of spacers with larger molecular weights and pendant groups. Hydrated networks were found to rearrange their structure compared to dry networks, while maintaining their LC phases. Like other crosslinked LC materials, the networks display shape changes (actuation) that are tied to changes in LC ordering. The result is a new synthetic approach for polydomain networks that form stable LC phases that are tailorable using polyether spacers and may enable future application as hydrated, stimuli-responsive materials.
Snap-Through and Mechanical Strain Analysis of a MEMS Bistable Vibration Energy Harvester

Vibration-based energy harvesting via microelectromechanical system- (MEMS-) scale devices presents numerous challenges due to difficulties in maximizing power output at low driving frequencies. This work investigates the performance of a uniquely designed microscale bistable vibration energy harvester featuring a central buckled beam coated with a piezoelectric layer. In this design, the central beam is pinned at its midpoint by using a torsional rod, which in turn is connected to two cantilever arms designed to induce bistable motion of the central buckled beam. The ability to induce switching between stable states is a critical strategy for boosting power output of MEMS. This study presents the formulation of a model to analyze the static and dynamic behaviors of the coupled structure, with a focus on the evolution of elongation strain within the piezoelectric layer. Cases of various initial buckling stress levels, driving frequencies, and driving amplitude were considered to identify regimes of viable energy harvesting. Results showed that bistable-state switching, or snap-through motion of the buckled beam, produced a significant increase in power production potential over a range of driving frequencies. These results indicate that optimal vibration scavenging requires an approach that balances the initial buckling stress level with the expected range of driving frequencies for a particular environment.
Test collections for electronic health record-based clinical information retrieval.

Objectives To create test collections for evaluating clinical information retrieval (IR) systems and advancing clinical IR research. Materials and methods Electronic health record (EHR) data, including structured and free-text data, from 45 000 patients who are a part of the Mayo Clinic Biobank cohort was retrieved from the clinical data warehouse. The clinical IR system indexed a total of 42 million free-text EHR documents. The search queries consisted of 56 topics developed through a collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Oregon Health & Science University. We described the creation of test collections, including a to-be-evaluated document pool using five retrieval models, and human assessment guidelines. We analyzed the relevance judgment results in terms of human agreement and time spent, and results of three levels of relevance, and reported performance of five retrieval models. Results The two judges had a moderate overall agreement with a Kappa value of 0.49, spent a consistent amount of time judging the relevance, and were able to identify easy and difficult topics. The conventional retrieval model performed best on most topics while a concept-based retrieval model had better performance on the topics requiring conceptual level retrieval. Discussion IR can provide an alternate approach to leveraging clinical narratives for patient information discovery as it is less dependent on semantics. Our study showed the feasibility of test collections along with a few challenges. Conclusion The conventional test collections for evaluating the IR system show potential for successfully evaluating clinical IR systems with a few challenges to be investigated.
Understanding associations between negatively biased attention and depression and social anxiety: positively biased attention is key

Background and objectives: Although research supports the premise that depressed and socially anxious individuals direct attention preferentially toward negative emotional cues, little is known abo...
Senescence Evasion in Chemotherapy: A Sweet Spot for p21

Time-lapse imaging reveals a nuanced role for p21 in cancer cells challenged with chemotherapeutic drugs: cells with either high or low p21 are biased toward senescence, whereas intermediate p21 allows cells to re-enter the cell cycle after drug treatment.
Rainbows and crosses: Noncompliance with EU law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination:

The Employment Equality Framework Directive (EED) is the first and still the only EU law that requires EU member states to combat sexual orientation discrimination. It requires states to change emp...
Rapid and direct measurement of methyltransferase activity in about 30 min.

Protein arginine methylation is a widespread eukaryotic posttranslational modification that occurs to both histone and non-histone proteins. The S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet or SAM)-dependent modification is catalyzed by the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family of enzymes. In the last several years a series of both direct and indirect assay formats have been described that allow the rate of methylation to be measured. Here we provide a detailed protocol to directly measure PRMT activity using radiolabeled AdoMet, reversed-phase resin-filled pipette tips (ZipTips®) and a liquid scintillation counter. Because the ZipTips® based quantitation relies only on the straightforward separation of unreacted AdoMet from a methylated substrate, this protocol should be readily adaptable to other methyltransferases. The method is fast, simple to employ with both peptide and protein substrates, and produces very little radioactive waste.
Ischemic Gastropathy Treated with Celiac Artery Revascularization.

Ischemic gastropathy is an uncommon diagnosis due to extensive arterial collaterals that supply the stomach. The mucosal integrity of the stomach is dependent upon this redundant circulation. Hence, its diagnosis is infrequently entertained in patients presenting with an upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleed. Herein, we report a case of a 76-year-old woman with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and chronic kidney disease on dialysis who developed an upper GI bleed after becoming septic and hypotensive.
The effect of evictions on accidental drug and alcohol mortality.

Objective To assess the relationship between county-level eviction rates and drug and alcohol mortality rates. Data sources Eviction rates from 2003 to 2016 provided by the Princeton University Eviction Lab were merged with Multiple Cause-of-Death Mortality Files and aggregated to the county-year level. Study design All opioid (prescription and heroin), cocaine, psychostimulant, benzodiazepine, antidepressant, and alcohol poisoning-related deaths per 100 000 people, eviction rates, and socioeconomic indicators were merged at the county-year level from 2003 to 2016. We estimated a series of mortality rate models with county and year fixed effects and used a control function (2SRI) method to adjust for the endogeneity of eviction rates. Data collection/extraction methods We matched retrospectively collected datasets. Principal findings Higher levels of eviction rates were consistently associated with higher rates of mortality across six of nine substance categories studied when all counties were combined. Subanalysis by USDA population density measures indicated this positive association was almost entirely driven by urban counties; few systematic associations between the eviction rate levels and mortality were observed for suburban or rural counties. Conclusions Risk of eviction appears to exacerbate the current "deaths of despair" crisis associated with substance use. Proposed changes to Housing and Urban Development policy that are expected to substantially increase the risk of eviction may worsen an already-acute mortality crisis.
RFID Data Warehousing and OLAP with Hive

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is used in many applications for monitoring object movement. The use of RFID in supply chain management systems enables to track the movement of products from suppliers to warehouses, store backrooms, and eventually points of sale. The vast amount of data resulting from the proliferation of RFID readers and tags poses challenges for data management and analytics. RFID data warehousing can enhance data quality and consistency, and give great potential benefits for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications. Traditional data warehouses are built primarily on relational database management systems. However, the size of RFID data being collected and analyzed in the industry for business intelligence is growing rapidly, making traditional warehousing solutions prohibitively expensive. Hive is an open-source data warehousing solution built on top of Hadoop which is a popular Big Data computing framework. This paper presents alternative RFID data warehouse designs which can handle a large amount of RFID data and support a variety of OLAP queries. The proposed approaches are implemented on Hive and evaluated for query performance in cloud computing environment.
Object Tracking in Random Access Networks: A Large-Scale Design

We address a scenario in which networked sensor nodes measure the strength of the field generated by a number of moving objects and transmit their measurements to a fusion center (FC) in a random access manner for the final reconstruction of the objects’ trajectories. To ensure scalability over an arbitrary coverage area, we divide the total observation area into design units (DUs), each consisting of several sensing cells. An extended Kalman filter is assigned to each cell, while neighboring cells communicate with each other to exchange current status, thus allowing state fusion whereby the Kalman filters adjust (overwrite) their local estimates at the end of each updating interval. In this manner, provisions are made for the objects leaving and entering a DU, yielding a system design that is scalable across a large coverage area without an increase in complexity (size) of the Kalman filters. We provide a step-by-step procedure for designing the system, taking into account the fact that sensors communicate to the FCs using random access over band-limited and imperfect channels where packet loss is inevitable due to collisions as well as communication noise. In addition, we study different rate control schemes in which the FC instructs the sensors to increase or decrease their sensing (transmission) rate in accordance with the currently estimated object locations. Performance is evaluated through simulation, showing the effectiveness of the approach proposed in terms of the mean squared localization error and data throughput, and quantifying the effect of limited bandwidth and lossy communication.
La francophonie sous le regard critique du « Franco-africain » : Mongo Beti mis en exergue

L’auteur franco-camerounais Mongo Beti, dans sa relecture du concept « francophone », fit etat d’une naivete et d’une fragilite africaines a l’epoque des independances dont l’ex-colonisateur a su prendre avantage. Dans notre article, nous partons de cet a priori et de ses a posteriori pour porter un regard critique actualise sur le role controverse de l’outil de conquete (colonial et neocolonial) qu’etait la langue francaise. Sous la plume de Mongo Beti, certains de ces a posteriori evoquaient dans un schema dualiste, d’une part, la deculturation nee du phenomene de diglossie cause par le francais et, d’autre part, les besoins pratiques de l’adoption du francais. La quete du parler francais raffine chez certains Africains releve-t-elle du complexe d’inferiorite? La francophonie a-t-elle tire vanite du chaos historique que fut la colonisation? Notre article deconstruit cette dimension enquiquineuse du terme « francophone » en s’appuyant sur une analyse textuelle critique du reel africain chez Beti.
Percutaneous lumbar pedicle fixation in young children with flexion-distraction injury—case report and operative technique

Thoracolumbar fractures in children are relatively uncommon and should be regarded as a separate entity from those in adults. While percutaneous pedicle fixation has emerged as an effective alternative to open fixation in adults with unstable thoracolumbar fractures, this technique is rarely applied in children. We report a 6-year-old girl with an L3 chance fracture, which was treated via short-segment percutaneous pedicle fixation. We also discussed the technical challenges and caveats of this surgical technique in young children. While potentially more challenging, percutaneous pedicle fixation is feasible in young children with thoracolumbar fractures. Specific differences between the developing and mature spine in regard to anatomical and biomechanical characteristics, including ligamentous laxity and intrinsic elasticity, should be taken into consideration. Future studies are needed to compare outcomes of minimally invasive spinal techniques to open surgery in children.
Rapidly lethal secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis predicted by fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography

Secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH) is a rare disease with either an indolent or aggressive course. A 29-year-old male presented with fever, polyarthralgias, splenomegaly, retroperitoneal adenopathy, and laboratory findings consistent with Epstein-Barr-mediated sHLH. Consistent with a prior survival analysis by Kim et al., splenic maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) >2.52 and bone marrow SUVmax >3.13 on 18F- fuorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18FDG-PET/CT) predicted an aggressive disease with poor treatment response. Despite optimal treatment, the patient rapidly progressed to death within 3 months of symptom onset. This case underscores the potential lethal nature of sHLH, and the evolving role of 18FDG-PET/CT in predicting disease severity and treatment response.
Complications Associated with Maxillomandibular Advancement

Maxillomandibular advancement is one of the most effective techniques used to treat obstructive sleep apnea. The procedure, however, is not without risk. While serious complications appear to be very rare in orthognathic surgery, there have been various reports of potentially serious, even fatal conditions arising during or after the procedure due to spontaneous pneumomediastinum, pneumothorax, pseudoaneurysm, excessive intraoperative bleeding and delayed secondary hemorrhage, obstructed airway due to swelling, and adverse responses to anesthesia. Complications are rarely fatal. In comparison to these very rare major adverse events, others are slightly more frequent complications, including bad splits, bone necrosis, condylar resorption or malposition, or other temporomandibular joint issues, infections, nerve damage, impaired vision or hearing, or neuropsychiatric challenges, among others. Patient populations at risk for complications and treatment failure include the obese and/or large neck circumference, advanced age, adolescents and young adults, as well as patients with several comorbidities and polypharmacy. Effective communication of the risks of surgery is essential so the patient can make an informed decision led by a surgeon knowledgeable of the wide range of risks and alternatives to provide safe care throughout the treatment continuum.
Trends in fundoplication volume for pediatric gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Abstract Introduction Fundoplication for gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) has been commonly performed by pediatric surgeons, however there are no recent data documenting fundoplication trends. Changes in fundoplication volume impact pediatric surgical training and may reflect changes in care for children with severe GERD. Materials & Methods The Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) was queried from 2010–2019 for children with ICD-9/ICD-10 codes for GERD, fundoplication, and gastrostomy. Institutional surgical volume and patient demographics were examined over time. A secondary analysis using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education case logs for pediatric surgery fellows was performed across the same years to assess effects upon surgical volume for trainees. Results Mean institutional fundoplication case volume decreased from 50 in 2010 to 17 in 2019. Trends were similar between institutions with and without fellowship programs when corrected by total operative volume. Patient characteristics were relatively unchanged between 2010 and 2019. Fundoplication volume reported in fellow case logs decreased from 46 in 2010 to 26 in 2019, mirroring national data. Conclusions Institutional volume for fundoplication in children with GERD has seen a 3-fold decrease over the last decade, mirrored by an almost 2-fold decrease in case volume reported by pediatric surgery fellows.