cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Surface Wetting Characteristics of Cellulosic Fibers

Surface wetting behaviors of cotton and two rayons, one a regular crenulated and the other a trilobal (Galaxy), all stripped of topically applied finish, are determined using a sensitive Wilhelmy technique. The contact angles (advancing and receding), work of adhesion, and surface energies are assessed. For the latter, wetting tests are conducted in two dissimilar fluids, deionized ultra filtered water and methylene iodide, whose polar and dispersive contributions to surface tensions are known. Kaelble's model is used for surface energy, providing the magnitude of not only the total energy but also its division into the dispersion and polar components. The results show that the three cellulosic fibers have widely different contact angles and surface energies. They also have different hysteresis values, assessed by comparing the values obtained from measurements in the receding and advancing modes. These differences shed light on differences that exist in their chemical and physical structures.
Highly Active Modulators of Indole Signaling Alter Pathogenic Behaviors in Gram‐Negative and Gram‐Positive Bacteria

Indole is a universal signal that regulates various bacterial behaviors, such as biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance. To generate mechanistic probes of indole signaling and control indole-mediated pathogenic phenotypes in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, we have investigated the use of desformylflustrabromine (dFBr) derivatives to generate highly active indole mimetics. We have developed non-microbicidal dFBr derivatives that are 27-2000 times more active than indole in modulating biofilm formation, motility, acid resistance, and antibiotic resistance. The activity of these analogues parallels indole, because they are dependent on temperature, the enzyme tryptophanase TnaA, and the transcriptional regulator SdiA. This investigation demonstrates that molecules based on the dFBr scaffold can alter pathogenic behaviors by mimicking indole-signaling pathways.
Constraint-based design of parallel kinematic XY flexure mechanisms

This paper presents parallel kinematic XY flexure mechanism designs based on systematic constraint patterns that allow large ranges of motion without causing over-constraint or significant error motions. Key performance characteristics of XY mechanisms such as mobility, cross-axis coupling, parasitic errors, actuator isolation, drive stiffness, lost motion, and geometric sensitivity, are discussed. The standard double parallelogram flexure module is used as a constraint building-block and its nonlinear force-displacement characteristics are employed in analytically predicting the performance characteristics of two proposed XY flexure mechanism designs. Fundamental performance tradeoffs, including those resulting from the nonlinear load-stiffening and elastokinematic effects, in flexure mechanisms are highlighted. Comparisons between closed-form linear and nonlinear analyses are presented to emphasize the inadequacy of the former. It is shown that geometric symmetry in the constraint arrangement relaxes some of the design tradeoffs, resulting in improved performance. The nonlinear analytical predictions are validated by means of computational finite element analysis and experimental measurements.
Chromium and polyphenols from cinnamon improve insulin sensitivity

Naturally-occurring compounds that have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity include Cr and polyphenols found in cinnamon (Cinnamomon cassia). These compounds also have similar effects on insulin signalling and glucose control. The signs of Cr deficiency are similar to those for the metabolic syndrome and supplemental Cr has been shown to improve all these signs in human subjects. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study it has been demonstrated that glucose, insulin, cholesterol and HbA1c are all improved in patients with type 2 diabetes following Cr supplementation. It has also been shown that cinnamon polyphenols improve insulin sensitivity in in vitro, animal and human studies. Cinnamon reduces mean fasting serum glucose (18-29%), TAG (23-30%), total cholesterol (12-26%) and LDL-cholesterol (7-27%) in subjects with type 2 diabetes after 40 d of daily consumption of 1-6 g cinnamon. Subjects with the metabolic syndrome who consume an aqueous extract of cinnamon have been shown to have improved fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, percentage body fat and increased lean body mass compared with the placebo group. Studies utilizing an aqueous extract of cinnamon, high in type A polyphenols, have also demonstrated improvements in fasting glucose, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in women with insulin resistance associated with the polycystic ovary syndrome. For both supplemental Cr and cinnamon not all studies have reported beneficial effects and the responses are related to the duration of the study, form of Cr or cinnamon used and the extent of obesity and glucose intolerance of the subjects.
Pressure Drop Analysis Using the Homogeneous Model for Open Microchannel with Manifold (OMM)

Flow boiling in microchannels has the ability to dissipate high heat fluxes due to the associated small hydraulic diameter and latent heat effects. However, flow instabilities and early critical heat flux have often limited the heat transfer performance of such systems. In a previous study, the open microchannel with manifold (OMM) design was introduced to address these issues. Low pressure drop at high heat flux were obtained with this configuration. In this work, theoretical modeling of pressure drop for the OMM geometry with a uniform and a tapered manifold is undertaken. Applicability of the homogeneous model is evaluated using seven different viscosity averaging schemes. Experiments were performed with two test sections (one plain and one with open microchannels) and with four different manifolds (one uniform and three tapered). All experimental data with various configurations were compared with the different viscosity models. The viscosity model of Owen et al. predicted the highest value of pressure drop, while the lowest value was obtained with that of Dukler et al. All models underpredicted for uniform manifold with plain and microchannel chips with an average MAE of 50%. For tapered manifolds, plain chip underpredicted, while good agreement was obtained with microchannel chip for McAdams et al. and Akers et al.
The Role of Positive Emotions in Reducing Depressive Symptoms Among Army Wives

The homecoming period following combat deployment can be as stressful to military spouses as the deployment itself. This study used the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to examine whet...
Mohs Micrographic Surgery and Surgical Excision for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Treatment in the Medicare Population

Objectives To identify Medicare use rates of Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) and surgical excision for the treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and to identify patient, lesion, and geographic characteristics associated with treatment type. Design A retrospective analysis of Medicare beneficiaries. Setting Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Patients Patients undergoing MMS or other surgical intervention for the treatment of NMSC from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2006. Main Outcome Measures Surgical treatment, patient, and lesion characteristics. Results A total of 26 931 operations were performed for the treatment of NMSC from 2001 through 2006, of which 36.4% were MMS. Although the rate of surgical excision slightly increased during this period (1.8 vs 2.1 per 100 Medicare beneficiaries), the rate of MMS doubled (0.75 vs 1.5 per 100 Medicare beneficiaries). In 46.9% of facial lesions, MMS was performed, whereas MMS was used to treat 14.7% of total body lesions. Atlanta, Georgia, had the highest proportion of patients treated with MMS (45.1%); Louisiana had the lowest (11.0%). Age, race, lesion location, and area of country for patient treatment were significantly associated with MMS use (all P Conclusions Surgical treatment of NMSC increased substantially from 2001 through 2006, primarily because of a doubling in the rate of MMS procedures. Significant differences in surgical rates, depending on patient age, race, lesion location, and geographic region, of treatment were found.
Mg- and Ca-actin filaments appear virtually identical in steady-state as determined by dynamic light scattering

Dynamic light scattering measurements show that although Mg-actin polymerizes more rapidly than Ca-actin (actin at 0.04-0.4 mg/ml polymerized with 0.1 M KCl +/- 2 mM MgCl2 or CaCl2, at room temperature or at 10 degrees C), steady-state filaments exhibit nearly identical intensity autocorrelation functions and similar mean scattered intensities. The dynamic data are used to measure the persistence length of the filaments which is found to be 4.2 microns independent of the bound cation and of the actin concentration.
Pressure-induced magnetic transition and sound velocities of Fe3C : Implications for carbon in the Earth's inner core

[1] We have carried out nuclear resonant scattering measurements on 57Fe-enriched Fe3C between 1 bar and 50 GPa at 300 K. Synchrotron Mossbauer spectra reveal a pressure-induced magnetic transition in Fe3C between 4.3 and 6.5 GPa. On the basis of our nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra and existing equation-of-state data, we have derived the compressional wave velocity VP and shear wave velocity VS for the high-pressure nonmagnetic phase, which can be expressed as functions of density (ρ): VP(km/s) = −3.99 + 1.29ρ(g/cm3) and VS(km/s) = 1.45 + 0.24ρ(g/cm3). The addition of carbon to iron-nickel alloy brings density, VP and VS closer to seismic observations, supporting carbon as a principal light element in the Earth's inner core.
The Relationship Between School-Level Characteristics and Implementation Fidelity of a Coordinated School Health Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention

BACKGROUND Curtailing childhood obesity is a public health imperative. Although multicomponent school-based programs reduce obesity among children, less is known about the implementation fidelity of these interventions. This study examines process evaluation findings for the Healthy, Energetic Ready, Outstanding, Enthusiastic, Schools (HEROES) Initiative, a tri-state school-based childhood obesity prevention intervention based on the coordinated school health (CSH) model. METHODS Site visits were conducted that included key stakeholder interviews, observation, and document review. Scores were given for 8 domains, and a total implementation score was calculated. Two-way analyses of variance were conducted to examine the relationship of 4 school-level characteristics: elementary vs. middle/high schools, public vs. private schools, district vs. building level implementation, and socioeconomic status on each implementation area. RESULTS Overall, schools had high fidelity scores, although some domains were implemented more successfully than others. Three school-level characteristics were associated with 1 or more domains, with elementary schools and schools implementing at the building level consistently having higher implementation scores than their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS Process evaluation findings provide insight into successes and challenges schools implementing the CSH approach may encounter. Although preliminary, these findings on school-level characteristics establish a new area of research related to school-based childhood obesity prevention programs' implementation fidelity.
Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making and Swimming Upstream: Collaborative Approaches to Watershed Management

Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making. Edited by Ronald D. Brunner, Toddi A. Steelman, Lindy Coe-Juell, Christina M. Cromley, Christine M. Edwards, and Donna W. Tucker. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. 368p. $79.50 cloth, $29.50 paper. Swimming Upstream: Collaborative Approaches to Watershed Management. Edited by Paul A. Sabatier, Will Focht, Mark Lubell, Zev Trachtenberg, Arnold Vedlitz, and Marty Matlock. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. 327p. $65.00 cloth, $26.00 paper. For almost two decades, alternative or environmental dispute resolution (EDR) has been a hot topic for many scholars and practitioners of environmental and natural resources policy and administration. There are now many books and articles that examine the promises and pitfalls of ERD. For the uninitiated, EDR can include any type of conflict or dispute resolution that falls outside of the normal state or federal judicial or bureaucratic system. This can include everything from negotiation, mediation, and arbitration (commonly used in the legal system—and not typically thought of as EDR) to things with names like collaborative, cooperative, or collective management and adaptive governance. The normally cited perquisites for ERD are that the negotiations be voluntary, that the parties participate in the process directly, that participants may withdraw from the process at any time, that third-party facilitators have no formal authority to impose a decision, and that the parties agree to whatever is decided. If this sounds like getting people together to talk and work things out, that is because this is what it is.
ULTRAMAP: THE ALL IN ONE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SOLUTION

This paper describes in detail the dense matcher developed since years by Vexcel Imaging in Graz for Microsoft’s Bing Maps project. This dense matcher was exclusively developed for and used by Microsoft for the production of the 3D city models of Virtual Earth. It will now be made available to the public with the UltraMap software release mid-2012. That represents a revolutionary step in digital photogrammetry. The dense matcher generates digital surface models (DSM) and digital terrain models (DTM) automatically out of a set of overlapping UltraCam images. The models have an outstanding point density of several hundred points per square meter and sub-pixel accuracy and are generated automatically. The dense matcher consists of two steps. The first step rectifies overlapping image areas to speed up the dense image matching process. This rectification step ensures a very efficient processing and detects occluded areas by applying a back-matching step. In this dense image matching process a cost function consisting of a matching score as well as a smoothness term is minimized. In the second step the resulting range image patches are fused into a DSM by optimizing a global cost function. The whole process is optimized for multi-core CPUs and optionally uses GPUs if available. UltraMap 3.0 features also an additional step which is presented in this paper, a complete automated true-ortho and ortho workflow. For this, the UltraCam images are combined with the DSM or DTM in an automated rectification step and that results in high quality true-ortho or ortho images as a result of a highly automated workflow. The paper presents the new workflow and first results.
Connection admission control for differentiating priority traffic on public networks

The public network has traditionally been unable to adequately deal with defense and disaster recovery communications, because overloads that occur during crises cause degraded resource access to all users, no matter how important. For public broadband networks to be effective for defense and disaster recovery multimedia communications, they must dynamically recognize some connections as having greater importance than others and allocate resources accordingly. A new approach to connection admission control is proposed that uses an upper limit policy to optimize the admission of connections based on the weighted sum of blocking across traffic classes. This optimization approach can be used for arbitrarily large networks and numbers of traffic classes and results in a very simple algorithm that could be implemented on standard network hardware. This work is also the first to demonstrate that the use of an upper limit policy is superior to traditional approaches of adding extra capacity or partitioning capacity, both in the amount of resources required and in sensitivity to load variations. An upper limit policy is also shown to be much faster to implement where a large overload occurs from a disaster event.
Can theory meet practice?: the case of multi-channel wireless networks

This talk will make the circular argument that theory should be motivated by practical experience, and practical testbeds/evaluations should be motivated by theoretical results. I will base the talk partly on our experience in both areas (theory & testbed) in the context of multi-channel wireless networks.
Pediatric Respiratory Emergencies

Respiratory emergencies are 1 of the most common reasons parents seek evaluation for the their children in the emergency department (ED) each year, and respiratory failure is the most common cause of cardiopulmonary arrest in pediatric patients. Whereas many respiratory illnesses are mild and self-limiting, others are life threatening and require prompt diagnosis and management. Therefore, it is imperative that emergency clinicians be able to promptly recognize and manage these illnesses. This article reviews ED diagnosis and management of foreign body aspiration, asthma exacerbation, epiglottitis, bronchiolitis, community-acquired pneumonia, and pertussis.
Which Mental States Are Rationally Evaluable, And Why?

Abstract What makes certain mental states subject to evaluation with respect to norms of rationality and justification, and others arational? In this paper, I develop and defend an account that explains why belief is governed by, and so appropriately subject to, evaluation with respect to norms of rationality and justification, one that does justice to the complexity of our evaluative practice in this domain. Then, I sketch out a way of extending the account to explain when and why other kinds of mental states are rationally evaluable. I argue that the cognitive or psychological mechanisms that give rise to and sustain our mental states help to render our mental states appropriate targets for evaluation with respect to norms of rationality and justification when the operation of these mechanisms is responsive, in a specific way, to our judgments about which kinds of considerations constitute rationalizing and justifying reasons for being in states of the relevant sort
UN Water Conference: Scope for Transfer of Knowledge in Its Action Plan

The United Nations Water Conference, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, from March 14 to 25, 1977, adopted a set of detailed action recommendations on various aspects of water resources development and management and decided that this set of recommendations be known as the “Mar del Plata Action Plan”. After briefly introducing the action plan, this paper discusses some of the scope and challenges posed by the transfer of knowledge. Problems were discussed in relation to the requirements for human resources development, the needs for the management of water for agriculture and community supplies, and technical cooperation among developing countries in the field of water resources. Needs cound not be met without proper and parallel consideration of the pertinent requirements for the other components of the action plan, including assessment, industrial use, environment and pollution control, flood and drought loss management, and the management of shared water resources.
A Network-Based Model of Oncogenic Collaboration for Prediction of Drug Sensitivity.

Tumorigenesis is a multi-step process, involving the acquisition of multiple oncogenic mutations that transform cells, resulting in systemic dysregulation that enables proliferation, among other cancer hallmarks. High throughput “omics” techniques are used in precision medicine, allowing identification of these mutations with the goal of identifying treatments that target them. However, the multiplicity of oncogenes required for transformation, known as oncogenic collaboration, makes assigning effective treatments difficult. Motivated by this observation, we propose a new type of oncogenic collaboration where mutations in genes that interact with an oncogene may contribute to its dysregulation, a new genomic feature that we term “surrogate oncogenes”. By mapping mutations to a protein/protein interaction network, we can determine significance of the observed distribution using permutation-based methods. For a panel of 38 breast cancer cell lines, we identified significant surrogate oncogenes in oncogenes such as BRCA1 and ESR1. In addition, using Random Forest Classifiers, we show that these significant surrogate oncogenes predict drug sensitivity for 74 drugs in the breast cancer cell lines with a mean error rate of 30.9%. Additionally, we show that surrogate oncogenes are predictive of survival in patients. The surrogate oncogene framework incorporates unique or rare mutations on an individual level. Our model has the potential for integrating patient-unique mutations in predicting drug-sensitivity, suggesting a potential new direction in precision medicine, as well as a new approach for drug development. Additionally, we show the prevalence of significant surrogate oncogenes in multiple cancers within the Cancer Genome Atlas, suggesting that surrogate oncogenes may be a useful genomic feature for guiding pancancer analyses and assigning therapies across many tissue types.
Pharyngeal Gonorrhea in Children

The article "Gonorrhea in Preadolescent Children" by Folland et al. (Pediatrics 60:153, August 1977) successfully brings to the attention of the pediatrician diverse clinical aspects of this infection and its important implications. I would like to call attention to another means of presentation of this condition—pharyngeal gonorrhea. This condition has been described increasingly in the medical literature in the last five years and I had the opportunity to diagnose it in five children (three of them in a screening procedure).
Coassembly between the Largest and Smallest Metal Chalcogenide Supertetrahedral Clusters

Reported here is the first crystalline inorganic-organic hybrid material combining In, Ge, and Cu. The trimetallic system undergoes a nanoscale separation into small In-Ge-S supertetrahedral T2 clusters and large In-Cu-S T5 clusters, which are further assembled into a T2-T5 mixed layer. This material reveals the long-range crystallographically ordered assembly from supertetrahedral clusters with 3 orders of difference, the largest size mismatch known so far for mixed-supertetrahedral-cluster materials. Theoretical simulations were performed to probe the contribution to the band structure by the different-sized semiconducting clusters.
Seismic Attenuation Inversion with t* Using tstarTomog.

Seismic attenuation is defined as the loss of the seismic wave amplitude as the wave propagates excluding losses strictly due to geometric spreading. Information gleaned from seismic waves can be utilized to solve for the attenuation properties of the earth. One method of solving for earth attenuation properties is called t*. This report will start by introducing the basic theory behind t* and delve into inverse theory as it pertains to how the algorithm called tstarTomog inverts for attenuation properties using t* observations. This report also describes how to use the tstarTomog package to go from observed data to a 3-D model of attenuation structure in the earth.
Diet as culprit or therapy: Stone Disease, Chronic Renal Failure, and Nephrotic Syndrome

A number of renal disorders are amenable to dietary manipulation. This article reviews nutritional strategies for the management of renal stone disease, chronic renal failure, and nephrotic syndrome. The first portion discusses dietary factors that promote urolithiasis and dietary recommendations utilized in the medical management of stone disease. The second segment discusses the pathophysiology of the progression of renal disease and nutritional interventions to delay progression. Finally, the third portion examines losses of protein, vitamins, and minerals in the nephrotic syndrome and makes recommendations for replacement.
Polynomial Sequences Associated with the Moments of Hypergeometric Weights

We present some families of polynomials related to the moments of weight functions of hypergeometric type. We also consider different types of generating functions, and give several examples.
Review of Reactive Power Optimization in Power System

In this paper,the model and solution of the reactive power optimization under the multi-objective function condition are introduced. The applications of the improved intelligent optimization algorithms and the hybrid intelligent optimization algorithms in the reactive power optimization are emphatically recommended on the basis of the traditional optimization algorithms. Finally,several optimization algorithms of the dynamic reactive power optimization are introduced and prospects of the research direction of the reactive power opti-mization are proposed.
The carbohydrate metabolism and respiration of isolated small lymphocytes. In vitro studies of normal and phytohemagglutinin stimulated cells.

1. A homogeneous population of small lymphocytes with an average size of 6.7 micra was isolated from equine blood. 2. These cells could be maintained in vitro, with essentially complete survival for 24 hours, and with a 50% viability for five days. 3. The small lymphocytes consumed glucose at a rate of 1.87 mµmoles/1 x 107 cells/minute, and produced lactic acid at a rate of 2.30 mµmoles/1 x 107 cells/minute. 4. The oxygen consumption of small equine lymphocytes was 1.023 ± .165 mµmo1es oxygen 1 x 107 cells/minute, and that of mixed peripheral blood leukocytes, 1.25 ± .07 mµmoles oxygen/1 x 107 cells/minute, as determined, using a Clark oxygen electrode. 5. Lymphocyte glycolysis was stimulated under anaerobic conditions (Pasteur effect), and viability appeared unimpaired after 24 hours in a N2 environment. 6. Uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation by the addition of 2,4, dinitrophenol stimulated both respiration and glycolysis. 7. The glycogen content of the normal small horse lymphocyte was 7.45 ± 1.04 µg glucose equivalents per 1 x 107 cells. 8. Many of the initial cell population were transformed into "blasts" following the addition of phytohemagglutin to the tissue culture medium. This response was associated with an increase in the rate of glycolysis and respiration by 24 hours, and a rise in intracellular glycogen by 48 hours.
A heuristic approach to planning with incomplete STRIPS action models

Most current planners assume complete domain models and focus on generating correct plans. Unfortunately, domain modeling is a laborious and error-prone task, thus real world agents have to plan with incomplete domain models. While domain experts cannot guarantee completeness, often they are able to circumscribe the incompleteness of the model by providing annotations as to which parts of the domain model may be incomplete. In this paper, we study planning problems with incomplete STRIPS domain models where the annotations specify possible preconditions and effects of actions. We show that the problem of assessing the quality of a plan, or its plan robustness, is #P-complete, establishing its equivalence with the weighted model counting problems. We introduce two approximations, lower and upper bound, for plan robustness, and then utilize them to derive heuristics for synthesizing robust plans. Our planning system, PISA, incorporating stochastic local search with these novel techniques outperforms a state-of-the-art planner handling incomplete domains in most of the tested domains, both in terms of plan quality and planning time.
Arteriovenous fistulas for chronic hemodialysis.

Presentation of the various techniques used for the construction of arteriovenous fistulas, circumstances that led to the choice of the various techniques, and the complications encountered after construction.
‘I wants to make your flesh creep’: Notes toward a Reading of the Comic-Gothic in Dickens

The gothic is always with us. Certainly, it was always with the Victorians. All that black, all that crepe. All that jet. All that swirling fog. If there is a transition in the nature of the gothic from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle years of the nineteenth century, it is marked by an inward turn perhaps. There is an internalization to be considered not so much as a denial of the gothic as it is a form of intimacy. In writing of the nineteenth century which manifests a gothic turn, there is an embrace of the uncanny within ourselves rather than a displacement or projection on to some foreign or distant other. In part, the turn inward and the interest in the otherness within is signalled in part during what is termed the high Victorian period by the intense fascination, obsession even, with English manners, with Englishness and all that is the most alien to the definition of Englishness, not in some foreign field, but in England, the heart of darkness itself. It is through what James Twitchell describes as the sober English concern with darkness, mesmerism and Satanism (1981, 33), that the gothic aspect of Englishness is revealed. Far from disappearing, it may be argued, the gothic, ingested and consumed, becomes appropriate, ‘a legitimate subject of literature’, to employ Twitchell’s phrase (1981, 33).
The Making of English National Identity: The making of British identity

The Isle within itself hath almost none but imaginary bounds of separation, without but one common limit or rather guard of the Ocean sea, making the whole a little world within itself, the nations an uniformity of constitutions both of body and mind, especially in martial processes, a community of language (the principal means of civil society), an unity of religion (the deepest bond of hearty union and the surest knot of lasting peace). King James the Sixth and First, 1604 (in Rowse 1957: 315) Countries are not laid up in heaven; they are shaped and reshaped here on earth by the strategems of men and the victories of the fortuitous. But once they take root and are bolstered by the habits and mechanics of unity and by a common mythology, they soon acquire an image, if not of immemoriality, at least of almost inevitable and organic development. R. R. Davies (2000: 54) One nation divided The seventeenth century has always seemed an unpromising time to look for expressions of English nationalism, which is probably why we do not hear of many claims to find it there. Its principal characteristic, in England as elsewhere, is conflict and division. It is the period of the Thirty Years War, of rebellions and revolutions in practically every major European country. ‘These days are days of shaking’, declared an English preacher in 1643, ‘and this shaking is universal: the Palatinate, Bohemia, Germania, Catalonia, Portugal, Ireland, England’ (in Trevor-Roper 1965: 59).
Abstract 2951: A comprehensive analysis of proteins involved in innate and acquired resistance to molecularly-targeted drugs in breast cancer cells

Proceedings: AACR 107th Annual Meeting 2016; April 16-20, 2016; New Orleans, LA Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Americans, and despite advances in diagnosis, new technologies for early detection, and development of potent molecularly-targeted drugs, survival rates in advanced disease have not been improving at desired rates. Perseverance of cancer cells seem to rely both on their significant heterogeneity at the onset of treatment, and the inherent plasticity (genetic instability) to adopt to environmental conditions and exogenous agents. Cancer is known as a heterogeneous disease. In fact, extensive genetic diversity has been revealed not only between different types of cancer, but also within a single tumor (as diversity in the expression of protein biomarkers). This intra-tumor heterogeneity could be a major obstacle in cancer treatment due to a wide range of responsivity to any specific anticancer agent. This study aims to analyze the heterogeneity and plasticity among a small panel of breast cancer cell lines as a reaction to exposure to a variety of molecularly-targeted agents, which could lead us to identification of the proteins that play major roles in drug resistance in cancer cells. After initial evaluation of the LC50, we exposed five different breast cancer cell lines to high doses of erlotinib (selective ErbB1/EGFR-inhibitor), vemurafenib (pan Raf inhibitor), everolimus (selective mTORC1 inhibitor), and ruxolitinib (pan JAK inhibitor), an collected the survivors. Using an in-house designed microarray and real-time PCR analysis, we analyzed the protein expression profile of the survivors compared to the untreated population, which revealed proteins involved in innate resistance and the heterogeneity among the population. In an alternative approach, we exposed the cells to gradually increasing doses of these selected agents, affording the cells the opportunity to adapt to the treatment. The resistant cells were then analyzed in a similar fashion to reveal proteins involved in acquired resistance. Citation Format: Hamid Montazeri. A comprehensive analysis of proteins involved in innate and acquired resistance to molecularly-targeted drugs in breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2951.
Radar odometry with recursive-RANSAC

This paper explores the use of radar odometry for Global Positioning System–denied navigation. The range progression from arbitrary ground-based point scatterers is used to estimate an unmanned aerial vehicle’s relative motion. In high clutter environments, the recursive-RANSAC algorithm provides robust and efficient feature identification, data association, and tracking. The tracked feature range measurements are integrated with inertial measurement unit measurements in an extended Kalman filter. Real flight data from a cluttered environment are used to validate the results.
Effects of charge noise on a pulse-gated singlet-triplet S − T − qubit

We study the dynamics of a pulse-gated semiconductor double-quantum-dot qubit. In our experiments, the qubit coherence times are relatively long, but the visibility of the quantum oscillations is low. We show that these observations are consistent with a theory that incorporates decoherence arising from charge noise that gives rise to detuning fluctuations of the double dot. Because effects from charge noise are largest near the singlet-triplet avoided level crossing, the visibility of the oscillations is low when the singlet-triplet avoided level crossing occurs in the vicinity of the charge degeneracy point crossed during the manipulation, but there is only modest dephasing at the large detuning value at which the quantum phase accumulates. This theory agrees well with experimental data and predicts that the visibility can be increased greatly by appropriate tuning of the interdot tunneling rate.
Determining Model Uncertainty of Identified Models for Robust Control Design

Abstract The problem of identifying a model set for use in robust control design is formulated, and some promising new techniques are reviewed.
Microscale Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Extracellular Metabolites in Live Multicellular Tumor Spheroids

Extracellular compounds in tumors play critical roles in intercellular communication, tumor proliferation, and cancer cell metastasis. However, the lack of appropriate techniques leads to limited studies of extracellular metabolite. Here, we introduced a microscale collection device, the Micro-funnel, fabricated from biocompatible fused silica capillary. With a small probe size (∼25 μm), the Micro-funnel can be implanted into live multicellular tumor spheroids to accumulate the extracellular metabolites produced by cancer cells. Metabolites collected in the Micro-funnel device were then extracted by a microscale sampling and ionization device, the Single-probe, for real-time mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. We successfully detected the abundance change of anticancer drug irinotecan and its metabolites inside spheroids treated under a series of conditions. Moreover, we found that irinotecan treatment dramatically altered the composition of extracellular compounds. Specifically, we observed the increased ab...
Tuning the synthesis of fully conjugated block copolymers to minimize architectural heterogeneity

Conjugated block copolymers simultaneously control the mesoscale morphology and interfacial structure of the active layer in organic electronic devices. Fully conjugated block copolymers, where both backbones are conjugated, are commonly synthesized in two steps. First, poly(3-alkylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) is synthesized by Kumada catalyst transfer/Grignard metathesis polymerization. The second block, typically a push–pull alternating copolymer, is added on to the P3HT macroreagent in a chain-extension reaction using either a Suzuki or a Stille polycondensation. Consequently, products can be a mixture of homopolymers, diblock copolymers, and multi-block copolymers. We demonstrate the optimum reaction conditions for the two-step synthesis of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)-block-poly((9,9-bis-(2-octyl)fluorene-2,7-diyl)-alt-(4,7-di(thiophene-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-5′,5′′-diyl) (P3HT-b-PFTBT), a block copolymer that can be used as the sole active-layer material in organic photovoltaic devices. In the first reaction, preventing excess Grignard reagent to avert excess in the stoichiometry between Grignard reagent and monomer ensures end-group control of the P3HT macroreagent. In the second reaction, asymmetric monomer feed ratios with excess fluorene promotes coupling of PFTBT to P3HT. Using P3HT-b-PFTBT as an example, we demonstrate the synthetic parameters that are important to produce diblock copolymers with minimal impurities. This, in turn, promotes microphase separation in block copolymer films and leads to enhanced power conversion efficiencies in block copolymer solar cell devices.
Laboratory Data Connectivity and Management: the Intersection of Laboratory Information Management Systems, Ancillary Open-Source Software, and Consumer Technologies.

Clinical laboratories must balance the need for efficient workflows with acutely managing exceptional specimens to prevent errors and ensure patient safety. These goals have conventionally been met by programmatic modifications to, or investment in new, laboratory information systems (LIS)2. However, we are now seeing a shift to more capable middleware and laboratory information management software (LIMS) to handle the dynamic nature of clinical processes and the data collected. In the clinical laboratories, only a fraction of the data generated actually makes it into the electronic health record …
The value in studying large faunal collections using traditional zooarchaeological methods: A case study from Anglo-Saxon England

New methods for the study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA have revolutionized zooarchaeology in the twenty-first century. However, there are many questions about prehistoric and early historic hunting patterns and animal husbandry practices that can best be answered by studying large faunal assemblages using traditional zooarchaeological methods, including basic identifications and body-part distributions, age and sex profiles, and standard measurement data. These low-tech methods can inform us about the use of animals for secondary products and economic intensification, as well as long term changes in butchery practices, animal sizes, and hunting and husbandry practices. Zooarchaeological data from the Anglo-Saxon sites of Brandon and West Stow and the Late Roman site of Icklingham in eastern England will be used to illustrate the value of traditional methods for contemporary zooarchaeological research.
Instructional strategies and course design for teaching statistics online: perspectives from online students

Teaching online is a different experience from that of teaching in a face-to-face setting. Knowledge and skills developed for teaching face-to-face classes are not adequate preparation for teaching online. It is even more challenging to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses completely online because these courses usually require more hands-on activities and live demonstrations. Although the demand for online STEM courses has never been higher, little has been done to develop effective instructional and online course design strategies for teaching STEM courses online. This paper reports the effectiveness of the instructional strategies adopted and the online course design features in a fully online statistics course from the students’ perspectives. The online statistics course was an introductory, quantitative research course that covered common statistical concepts and focused on the application of educational research concepts for graduate students in educational technology. In terms of the statistics concepts covered, the course was similar to an introductory statistics class for students majoring in science, technology, math and engineering (STEM). The participants were mostly K-20 (meaning from kindergarten to college) instructors who had knowledge of instructional strategies. Data collected from participants’ reflections and course evaluations revealed that a range of instructional strategies and course design features were effective and helped students learn statistics in an online environment. Specifically, case studies, video demonstrations, instructor’s notes, mini projects, and an online discussion forum were most effective. For online course design features, consistent structure, various resources and learning activities, and the application focused course content were found to be effective. The implications of this study include effective instructional strategies and online course design for application-oriented STEM courses such as physics and engineering. The study results can be used to guide online teaching and learning as well as online course design for instructors, course designers, and students in STEM fields.
Comparison of ultrasound versus computed tomography for the detection of kidney stones in the pediatric population: a clinical effectiveness study.

The incidence of pediatric nephrolithiasis in the United States is increasing. There is a paucity of literature comparing the diagnostic performance of computed ultrasound (US) to tomography (CT) in the pediatric population. To determine the diagnostic performance of renal US for nephrolithiasis in children using a clinical effectiveness approach. Institutional review board approval with a waiver of informed consent was obtained for this retrospective, HIPAA-complaint investigation. Billing records and imaging reports were used to identify children (≤18 years old) evaluated for nephrolithiasis by both US and unenhanced CT within 24 h between March 2012 and March 2017. Imaging reports were reviewed for presence, number, size and location of kidney stones. Diagnostic performance of US (reference standard=CT) was calculated per renal unit (left/right kidney) and per renal sector (four sectors per kidney). For sector analysis, US was considered truly positive if a stone was identified at CT in the same or an adjacent sector. There were 68 renal stones identified by CT in 30/69 patients (43%). Mean patient age was 14.7±3.6 years, and 35 were boys. For detecting nephrolithiasis in any kidney, US was 66.7% (48.8–80.8%) sensitive and 97.4% (86.8–99.9%) specific (positive predictive value=95.2% [77.3–99.8%], negative predictive value=79.2% [65.7–88.3%], positive likelihood ratio=26.0). Per renal sector, US was 59.7% (46.7–71.4%) sensitive and 97.4% (95.5–98.5%) specific (positive predictive value=72.3% [58.2–83.1%], negative predictive value=95.4% [93.2–96.9%], positive likelihood ratio=22.5). Of the 30 stones not detected by US, only 3 were >3 mm at CT. In clinical practice, US has high specificity for detecting nephrolithiasis in children but only moderate sensitivity and false negatives are common.
Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Metastasis

Metastatic disease is the major cause of cancer-related death. Treatment of advanced metastatic disease is nonexistent in the vast majority of tumor cases. Even as the study of metastasis has exploded over the past few years, many questions still remain. In this chapter, we will provide the groundwork for a general understanding of the biology of metastasis with special emphasis on tumor microenvironment and cell heterogeneity; genetic changes in tumor cells associated with metastasis; importance of epithelial to mesenchymal transition in metastasis; senescence and cancer stem cell theory; circulating tumor cells and timing of dissemination and metastasis. We also discuss colorectal and pancreatic carcinomas, two specific cancers of the digestive organs, regarding mechanisms, detection, models, and therapeutic targeting of invasion and metastasis.
“God Sees Me”: Surveillance and Oratorical Training at Nineteenth-Century St. Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana

In Regendering Delivery, Lindal Buchanan observes the tradition of female oratorical education in the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century US as she calls for a “regendering” of the fi fth canon. Within her discussion of the tradition, she notes the many school exhibitions in which female students were required to “display their learning orally and publically” and were often rewarded with prizes, or premiums, for their knowledge and original compositions.1 Buchanan gives an example of a student, Molly Wallace, who delivers a commencement address seeming to encourage women’s public speaking but ultimately presents an argument that is “cautious and muted.”2 Buchanan observes that such a practice of encouraging female students to “strive for recognition and awards” via public presentations is “curious . . . given prevailing gender constructs promoting feminine modesty and retirement.”3 In other words, she suggests that it does not seem logical for the schools to have encouraged public speaking when the period’s social norms discouraged the same behavior.
Voluntary Wheel Running Attenuates Salt-Induced Vascular Stiffness Independent of Blood Pressure.

BACKGROUND Excess dietary salt can lead to the development of arterial stiffness and high blood pressure (BP). Regular physical activity can protect against arterial stiffening and lower BP. Less is known regarding the role of exercise on the vasculature independent of BP under high salt (HS) conditions. The aim of the study was to determine whether wheel running protects against the development of dietary salt-induced arterial stiffness independent of BP. METHODS Rats were maintained on either normal salt (NS; 0.49% NaCl) or HS (4.0% NaCl) diet for 6 weeks and further divided into a voluntary wheel running (NS-VWR, HS-VWR) or cage control group (NS, HS). Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured using applanation tonometry at baseline (BSL) and 6 weeks. RESULTS BP was measured weekly and remained unchanged among groups throughout the 6 weeks (P > 0.05). PWV was elevated at 6 weeks in HS compared to baseline (HS-BSL, 3.27 ± 0.17 vs. HS-6 week, 4.13 ± 0.26 m/s; P < 0.05) and was lower at 6 weeks in both VWR groups (NS-VWR, 2.98 ± 0.29, HS-VWR, 3.11 ± 0.23 m/s) when compared to HS at 6 weeks (P < 0.05). This was supported by a significant increase in aortic collagen I in the HS group alone and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) was greater in the HS group compared to both NS groups (P < 0.05). Wheel running resulted in a greater aortic phosphorylated eNOS and SOD-2 in HS-WVR (P < 0.05) compared to HS. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that VWR may protect against collagen accumulation through a TGF-β-mediated pathway by improving nitric oxide bioavailability and redox balance in rats.