cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Uncertainty in the Information Supply Chain: Integration of Multiple Data Sources

Knowledge workers often deal with multiple sources of data when acquiring information for decision making. Multiple data sources are valuable for knowledge creation, but deciding how to integrate and analyze these different data sources is difficult. The data acquisition process and the task of correctly combining and manipulating data these data in the “information supply chain” have challenges: data are unbounded, have different data definitions, and there is no guarantee of its quality. This study utilizes the design science guidelines proposed by Hevner et al. (2004) to design, develop, and evaluate an agent-based information system to aid effective knowledge creation from the information supply chain in the context of health planning.
Hypomethylation of DNA in the regulation of gene expression.

Cellular differentiation involves the activation of a specific set of genes as well as the suppression of those genes associated with the differentiation of other cell types. Differentiated cells also possess tissue-specific patterns of DNA methylation that are somatically heritable. The tissue-specific nature of methylation patterns implies that changes in these patterns must take place during normal cellular development. These observations have generated much speculation as to the potential role of this postreplication modification of DNA in eukaryotic gene regulation. The experimental evidence accumulated to date strongly supports the hypothesis that methylation of critical sites in DNA serves to lock some (but not all) genes in an inactive state. Therefore, cellular differentiation, which involves the ordered switching of genes, must also involve tightly regulated switches in DNA methylation patterns.
The kinetic properties of the ecto-ATPase of human peripheral blood lymphocytes and of chronic lymphatic leukemia cells

This study examines whether the activity of the Mg2+-dependent ecto- ATPase of the surface membrane of the human lymphocyte is changed in chronic lymphocytic B-cell leukemia (CLL-B) and may be an indicator of malignant transformation. The ecto-ATPase activities of preparations consisting predominantly of T or B cells were compared to each other and to the ecto-ATPase of the CLL peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). The specific activities and kinetic constants of the ecto-ATPase of the cell preparations were determined with [gamma-32P] adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as substrate. B-enriched lymphocytes had nearly fourfold greater specific activity and apparent Vmax than T-enriched lymphocytes, while the Km values of both cell types showed no significant difference. The specific activities and kinetic constants of the ecto-ATPase of the CLL PBL were significantly higher than the corresponding values of PBL or of B-enriched lymphocytes. Judging from the kinetic constants the ecto-ATPase of the CLL-B lymphocyte appears to be an enzyme that is distinctly different from that of the normal B cell. On the basis of the kinetic properties, the ecto-ATPase of the B cell appears to be identical with that of the T cell. The differences in the maximal velocities of the hydrolysis of ATP by B and T cells are likely due to a greater number of enzymatic sites on the B cell.
Neutron activation of NIST surrogate post-detonation urban debris (SPUD) candidate SRMs

Despite their importance, there is a dearth of post-detonation nuclear forensics standard reference materials (SRMs) suitable for analysis traceable back to a national standard. Accordingly, the nuclear forensics community has requested SRMs be produced that mimic post-detonation fallout debris that include actinides, urban materials, fission products, and activation products. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory and with support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have developed two surrogate post-detonation urban debris (SPUD) candidate SRMs to mimic the “rubble” of a city after an improvised nuclear device detonation. NIST SPUD samples were irradiated at The University of Texas TRIGA reactor, then analyzed via gamma-ray spectroscopy for short-lived, medium-lived, and long-lived fission and activation products.
Experimentally Validated, Predictive Monte Carlo Modeling of Ferroelectric Dynamics and Variability

A physics-based, circuit-compatible Monte Carlo simulation framework, capable of predicting the dynamic response of a ferroelectric (FE) under any arbitrary input waveform, is developed by extending the nucleation-limited switching model. Measured polarization reversal data from fabricated FE W/Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO)/W capacitors is used to extract the statistical distribution of FE grains, which show negligible variation with film thickness. After parameter extraction, the model is able to predict the dynamics of HZO and bilayer HZO/HfO 2 (FE-DE) thin films without further calibration. Unlike prior models, the proposed model is able to predict device-to-device variability, and quantify the resultant reduction in the memory window for highly scaled devices, revealing a significant reduction for FE capacitors having $\sim 40\times 40\ \text{nm}^{2}$ ). The memory window is further reduced in FE-DE stacks for the same programming voltage and pulse duration due to the dielectric depolarizing field.
TRANSAX: A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Forward-Trading Energy Exchanged for Transactive Microgrids

Power grids are undergoing major changes due to rapid growth in renewable energy and improvements in battery technology. Prompted by the increasing complexity of power systems, decentralized IoT solutions are emerging, which arrange local communities into transactive microgrids. The core functionality of these solutions is to provide mechanisms for matching producers with consumers while ensuring system safety. However, there are multiple challenges that these solutions still face: privacy, trust, and resilience. The privacy challenge arises because the time series of production and consumption data for each participant is sensitive and may be used to infer personal information. Trust is an issue because a producer or consumer can renege on the promised energy transfer. Providing resilience is challenging due to the possibility of failures in the infrastructure that is required to support these market based solutions. In this paper, we develop a rigorous solution for transactive microgrids that addresses all three challenges by providing an innovative combination of MILP solvers, smart contracts, and publish-subscribe middleware within a framework of a novel distributed application platform, called Resilient Information Architecture Platform for Smart Grid. Towards this purpose, we describe the key architectural concepts, including fault tolerance, and show the trade-off between market efficiency and resource requirements,
Tenuous belonging: diversity, power, and identity in the U.S. Southwest

Discrimination among social groups is an integral feature of contemporary immigration and citizenship policies, often reflecting historical trajectories of inclusion and exclusion produced by natio...
A Comparison of the Finite Difference and Simultaneous Perturbation Gradient Estimation Methods with Noisy Function Evaluations

Gradient information is useful in many applications such as optimization and sensitivity analysis, but is often inaccessible, providing a need for gradient estimation methods. This paper presents a comparison between the finite difference (FD) and simultaneous perturbation (SP) methods for gradient estimation. In practical experiments, function evaluations correspond to incurred costs, so the number of function evaluations used to form an estimate must be taken into account. Our theoretical results, supported by our numerical experiments, show that under certain circumstances the SP estimate has a smaller mean squared error (MSE) given a fixed number of function evaluations, and that the benefit gained from the SP method becomes more pronounced as the observation environment becomes noisier. We also discuss the performance of both methods in the noise-free case. We summarize guidelines for practitioners to determine which method is preferred, depending on the dimension of the function, noise magnitude, underlying gradient magnitude, and number of function evaluations available.
Effects of a novel low volume resuscitation solutions on coagulation and platelet function.

Background Novel crystalloid solutions containing polyethylene glycol polymers (PEG-20k) produce dramatic resuscitation effects but dose-dependently produce a hypocoagulative state. The objective of this study was to examine possible mechanisms of this effect. Based on previous thromboelastography data, we hypothesize the effect is largely due to platelet interactions with the polymers. Methods Whole citrated blood from healthy volunteers was diluted ex-vivo 10% with crystalloids and tested for coagulation and platelet function. The specific tests included prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor (vWf) activity, thrombin generation, thromboelastography with and without platelet mapping, platelet flow cytometry, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Findings Fibrinogen and vWF activities, PT, and aPTT were not affected by PEG-20k dilutions. Thrombin activity was mildly suppressed with PEG-20k (TTP- 20%). Platelet mapping demonstrated significantly greater % inhibition of both ADP and arachidonic acid-induced platelet aggregation with PEG-20k, but direct ADP-activated gpIIa/IIIb (PAC1) and P-selectin (CD62P) binding site expression was not altered. Mild dose-dependent suppression of TEG-MA was seen with PEG-20k using platelet poor plasma. Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rates (ESR) were dramatically accelerated after dilution with 10% PEG-20k, which was competitively blocked by smaller PEG polymers, suggesting nonspecific PEG-20k cell binding effects. Conclusions PEG-20k creates a mild hypocoagulative state in whole blood at concentrations ≥10%, which may be due to platelet-PEG interactions at the IIb/IIIa interface with lesser effects on fibrin polymerization. This interaction may cause a functional thrombasthenia induced by nonspecific platelet surface passivation by the PEG polymer.
P38 Gleaning as a SNAP-Ed Public Health Approach to Address Healthy Eating for Low-Income Mainers

Objective Evaluate the success of developing gleaning distribution systems to increase access to local food in settings where low-income individuals live, receive food assistance, obtain clinical services, and congregate for nutrition education. Use of Theory or Research Maine Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) programming is informed by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, aligned with the Social-Ecological Model. Target Audience Mainers eligible for SNAP benefits. Program Description Maine SNAP-Ed implements evidence-based public health approaches to reduce health disparities. At the individual and environmental levels, nutrition educators deliver series-based education and develop organizational partnerships to adopt and promote nutrition-related supports. In response to community need and readiness, Maine SNAP-Ed has seen an increase in educators partnering to develop systems to gather and distribute leftover crops as part of a policy, systems, and environmental change strategy designed to increase access to fresh produce for low-income Mainers. Evaluation Methods A monthly PSE tracking tool measures progress toward outcomes. End-of-year, semi-structured interviews with educators supplement monthly data, summarizing accomplishments and potential reach. Annual data are analyzed to assess whether intended outcomes were achieved using independent and collaborative reviews with a consensus decision-making process. The Framework indicator “MT5-Nutrition Supports Adopted” guides this work. Other methods include use of public data sources to estimate reach, and photo documentation and success story templates to describe outcomes qualitatively. Results Ten gleaning systems were developed in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, impacting more than 38 sites. Partners include local farms and food councils, federally qualified health centers, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, emergency food agencies, and public schools. Recipient sites include Head Starts, libraries, food pantries, senior and low-income housing, federally-funded summer meal sites, and clinical settings. Conclusions SNAP-Ed can successfully implement and maintain gleaning strategies that maximize local food systems and supplement nutrition education. This work supports community-based food assistance efforts, while addressing obesity prevention and food insecurity for low-income individuals. Funding SNAP-Ed.
SPAN-XB Core Promoter Sequence Is Regulated in Myeloma Cells by Specific CpG Dinucleotides Associated with MeCP2 Protein.

SPAN-Xb is a spermatid-specific protein encoded by the SPAN-XB gene on chromosome Xq27.1. It is a novel Cancer-Testis antigen in multiple myeloma. We recently demonstrated that SPAN-Xb expression in myeloma cells is regulated through promoter methylation and could be upregulated by IL-7 and GM-CSF. In this present study, we set out to investigate the mechanism of SPAN-XB expression and the promoter association with the methyl-CpG binding protein, MeCP2. Elucidation of these interactions is likely to shed light on potential therapeutic strategies to upregulate antigen levels that could be used to improve the outcome of SPAN-Xb-based tumor vaccines. We previously showed that the putative SPAN-XB promoter resides within exon 1 and contains 433 bp, starting from position −546 to position −104 upstream of the translational start site. Using a panel of truncated promoter constructs generated from the 3′ and 5′ ends of the promoter gene, we localized the core sequence of SPAN-XB promoter to the 73 base pairs at the 3-end of the promoter, a region that lacks CpG dinucleotides within the full length promoter. There are 11 CpG dinucleotides within the putative SPAN-XB promoter. We previously found that DNA methylation provides the primary regulatory mechanism for SPAN-XB gene expression. We also identified that hypomethylation at positions −310, −307, −299 and −221 strongly predicted for SPAN-XB expression, suggesting the involvement of these four CpG dinucleotides in the regulation of SPAN-XB gene expression through DNA methylation. In the present study, using reporter gene expression assays, we found that the core promoter function is significantly modulated by these adjacent CpG sequences so that mutation of the CpG dinucleotides outside the core sequence resulted in changes in the promoter function. We also previously demonstrated by bisulfite conversion and sequence analysis the association between methylation at specific CpG dinucleotides with repression of SPAN-XB gene. Here, we extended our study to determine whether or not the methylated cytosine binding protein, MeCP2, interacts with the SPAN-XB promoter gene in myeloma cells. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed a specific association of the MeCP2 with SPAN-XB promoter, and MeCP2 binding strongly correlated with repression of the SPAN-XB gene in myeloma cell lines and CD138-enriched fresh myeloma cells. Reactivation of the SPAN-XB gene by 5-azacytidine treatment resulted in the loss of MeCP2 from this site. We, therefore, conclude that SPAN-XB promoter consists of a core sequence and a regulatory element; the core element resides within the 73 base pairs at the 3′ end of the full length promoter. SPAN-XB gene expression by the core sequence is regulated in myeloma cells by specific CpG nucleotides and associated with MeCP2 binding to the promoter sequence.
Heat Transfer Enhancement of Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage Systems

In recent studies, the energy storage capability of phase change materials (PCMs) in thermal energy storage systems, such as in the case of solar water heaters has attracted many attentions; however, PCMs may not be fully effective due to their poor heat transfer characteristics, namely thermal conductivity. This study aims to explore the thermal performance of heat transfer materials to be applied in conjunction with PCMs. The selected types of PCMs are parafﬁn waxes with melting point temperatures of 28-72◦C. In an effort to study both convective and conductive heat transfer enhancement the experimental analysis has been divided into two phases. In the ﬁrst analysis, silicone oil is selected as a heat transfer medium to be used with the PCMs to establish convective heat transfer enhancement. The melting point, latent heat and speciﬁc heat capacity were measured by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The obtained results show that silicone oil will lead to melting point depression of maximum 3◦C in the PCMs. In the second analysis, the conductive heat transfer enhancement by addition of nanoparticles has been investigated. The selected nanoparticles for this analysis are Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), Cupric Oxide (CuO), Titanium Oxide (TiO2) and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT). The nanoparticles displayed capabilities of increasing the speciﬁc heat capacity by up to 46.15%. The micro-structure of the nano-enhanced PCMs was analyzed using SEM technology to observe the effectiveness of the dispersion process of the nanoparticles into the PCM. The obtained results from this study show thermal performance improvement of PCMs, which is expected to lead to overall efﬁciency improvement in thermal energy storage systems.
Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Influences on Executive Function in Daily Living

Today, work and learning environments are obesogenic, as individuals of all ages are seated for more than 6 h a day. This is despite the emerging evidence that increased cerebral blood flow may enhance executive function, immediately following a brief bout of physical activity. This chapter will provide an overview of the direct and indirect effects of physical activity from both acute and chronic perspectives. In addition, brain imaging evidence will be described. Specifically, one subsection would overview the effects of sedentary (i.e., sitting) and active behavior (i.e., standing and walking) on O2 uptake and neural activation on brain function and structure.
Analyzing U-Net Robustness for Single Cell Nucleus Segmentation From Phase Contrast Images

We quantify the robustness of the semantic segmentation model U-Net, applied to single cell nuclei detection, with respect to the following factors: (1) automated vs manual training annotations, (2) quantity of training data, and (3) microscope image focus. The difficulty of obtaining sufficient volumes of accurate manually annotated training data to create an accurate Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model is overcome by the temporary use of fluorescent labels to automate the creation of training datasets using traditional image processing algorithms. The accuracy measurement is computed with respect to manually annotated masks which were also created to evaluate the effectiveness of using automated training set generation via the fluorescent images. The metric to compute the accuracy is the false positive/negative rate of cell nuclei detection. The goal is to maximize the true positive rate while minimizing the false positive rate. We found that automated segmentation of fluorescently labeled nuclei provides viable training data without the need for manual segmentation. A training dataset size of four large stitched images with medium cell density was enough to reach a true positive rate above 88% and a false positive rate below 20%.
Children and COVID-19: addressing the mental health impact of the pandemic

The global response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed daily life in many ways for many people. Yet child development has not paused, and supporting children, families, and care pro...
RNAi technology targeting the FGFR3-TACC3 fusion breakpoint: an opportunity for precision medicine.

Background Fusion genes form as a result of abnormal chromosomal rearrangements linking previously separate genes into one transcript. The FGFR3-TACC3 fusion gene (F3-T3) has been shown to drive gliomagenesis in glioblastoma (GBM), a cancer that is notoriously resistant to therapy. However, successful targeting of F3-T3 via small molecular inhibitors has not revealed robust therapeutic responses, and specific targeting of F3-T3 has not been achieved heretofore. Here, we demonstrate that depleting F3-T3 using custom siRNA to the fusion breakpoint junction results in successful inhibition of F3-T3+ GBMs, and that exosomes can successfully deliver these siRNAs. Methods We engineered 10 unique siRNAs (iF3T3) that specifically spanned the most common F3-T3 breakpoint with varying degrees of overlap, and assayed depletion by qPCR and immunoblotting. Cell viability assays were performed. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (UC-MSC) were electroporated with iF3T3, added to cells, and F3-T3 depletion measured by qPCR. Results We verified that depleting F3-T3 using shRNA to FGFR3 resulted in decreased cell viability and improved survival in glioma-bearing mice. We then demonstrated that 7/10 iF3T3 depleted F3-T3, and importantly, did not affect levels of wild-type (WT) FGFR3 or TACC3. iF3T3 decreased cell viability in both F3T3+ GBM and bladder cancer cell lines. UC-MSC exosomes successfully delivered iF3T3 in vitro, resulting in F3-T3 depletion. Conclusion Targeting F3-T3 using siRNAs specific to the fusion breakpoint is capable of eradicating F3T3+ cancers without toxicity related to inhibition of WT FGFR3 or TACC3, and UC-MSC exosomes may be a plausible vehicle to deliver iF3T3.
Sign Tracking in an Enriched Environment: A Potential Ecologically Relevant Animal Model of Adaptive Behavior Change

When an object conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with a food unconditioned stimulus (US), anticipatory goal-directed action directed at the US location (goal tracking) is accompanied by behavior directed at the object CS (sign tracking). Sign-tracking behavior appears to be compulsive and habit-like and predicts increased vulnerability to the addictive potential of drugs in animal models. A large body of the literature also suggests that environmental enrichment protects against the development of addiction-prone phenotypes. Thus, we investigated whether compulsive-like sign tracking develops in environmentally enriched rats trained directly in their enriched home environment. We demonstrate that adolescent enriched-housed male Sprague-Dawley rats readily sign track a 5% ethanol bottle CS in their home environment and at a rate higher than adolescent standard-housed rats. We also show that enriched adolescent rats sign track less than enriched adult-trained rats and that acute isolation stress affects sign- and goal-tracking performance of adolescents and adults differently. Sign tracking increased more in the adult than the adolescent rats. Whereas the younger rats showed a decrease in goal tacking after the final stressor manipulation, the adults showed increased goal tracking. Our results are consistent with recent studies, which suggest that although sign tracking performance is compulsive-like, it is not as inflexible and habit-like as previously assumed. Testing in an enriched home environment with object CSs having greater affordance than "neutral" lever CSs may provide greater ecological relevance for investigating the development and expression of adaptive and compulsive-like behaviors in translational research.
Measurement of third-order elastic constants using thermal modulation of ultrasonic waves

Third-order elastic constants (TOEC) play an important role in nonlinear material characterization, but measurements of TOEC are laborious with large error margins. This Letter presents the equations of wave velocity changes caused by homogeneous temperature variation and uniaxial stress in isotropic media and the expression of TOEC in terms of thermally induced velocity change and thermal strain. TOEC of an aluminum sample were experimentally determined by measuring ultrasonic wave velocity changes in the uniaxial loading test and the thermal modulation test. Experimental results showed good agreement between the two test methods. Owing to the simple test setup and high measurement sensitivity, the thermal modulation test is a potential experimental method to determine TOEC and absolute acoustic nonlinearity parameters.
A Review of Selected Contributions to Harmonic Generation and Radiation Damage Research by Otto Buck

Otto Buck was an excellent scientist and a close personal friend. I first met Otto at the newly founded North American Aviation Science Center which I joined in April, 1964, after leaving the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Otto joined a week later from the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. We were assigned to work together, thus beginning a wonderful experience that lasted up to his passing in November, 1997. In our collaborations, Otto emphasized the theoretical modeling aspects of the work while I emphasized the experimental. The purpose of this paper is to recall in memoriam some of the highlights of Otto’ s early contributions to the scientific literature resulting from our collaboration. The period covered extends approximately from 1964 to 1974. Previous to this time, Otto had made significant contributions to several areas in metal physics including elasticity, radiation damage, and plastic deformation studies [1–8]. Because of the memorial nature of the paper, an attempt will be made to show highlights of Otto’ s developments only and not to emphasize the individual details and rigor that always characterized Otto’ s work. The reader is referred to the original publications to extract those.
Combined Internal and External Fixation for Diabetic Charcot Reconstruction: A Retrospective Case Series

Diabetic Charcot neuroarthropathy is a complex, limb-threatening disease process with major lifestyle-altering repercussions for patients. When Charcot neuroarthropathy leads to unstable deformity, ulceration, and potential infection despite conservative therapies, foot and ankle surgeons often consider reconstructive limb salvage procedures to restore function. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of diabetic Charcot reconstruction using combined internal and external fixation. A total of 22 patients were reviewed; 16 (72.73%) midfoot and 6 (27.27%) tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis procedures were consecutively performed from March 2009 to May 2013. All surgical procedures were performed in nonacute phases of the Charcot process in patients with diagnosed diabetes mellitus and documented peripheral neuropathy. Patients were excluded from the study if they were not diabetic despite having undergone Charcot reconstruction, regardless of the fixation method, or if they did not complete radiographic imaging. During a mean follow-up period of 58.60 ± 42.37 (range 16 to 164) weeks, limb salvage was achieved in 20 patients (90.91%), and 2 (9.09%) required below-the-knee amputation at a mean of 42 ± 14.14 weeks. Wound dehiscence occurred in 8 (36.36%), pin tract infection in 10 (45.45%), and superficial wound infection in 9 (40.91%) and peaked in bimodal fashion at 4 and 8 weeks postoperatively. Radiographic analysis of the pre- versus postoperative alignment showed statistically significant changes in the lateral talo-first metatarsal angle (p = .02) and lateral talar declination angle (p = .01). The limb salvage rates with diabetic Charcot reconstruction are improving in part because of the continued development of increasingly superior modalities for both internal and external fixation.
Erratum to ‘Dissecting cellular processes using small molecules: identification of colchicine-like, taxol-like and other small molecules that perturb mitosis’: [Chem. Biol. 7 (2000) 275-286]

An unfortunate error occurred in the legend of Fig. 13b. It should read: (b) compound 12 (70 μM)
Output Tracking for Nonlinear Systems with Uncertainities

In this paper we study the problem of output tracking for a class of single-input single-output minimum-phase nonlinear systems in the presence of uncertainities. Given a bounded desired tracking signal with bounded derivatives, a control law is designed which results in tracking of the signal by the output. In the presence of uncertainities in the model vector field, the designed control law is modified so that the effect of uncertainities on the tracking error is reduced. Uncertainities considered satisfy a generalized matching condition. We show that, high gain control laws can result in small tracking error of O(?), where ? is a small design parameter. Furthermore, an alternate scheme based on the variable structure control strategy is presented which results in zero tracking error.
Chern-Simons Violation of Lorentz and PTC Symmetries in Electrodynamics

Recently proposed Lorentz-PCT noninvariant modifications of electromagnetism are reviewed. Their experimental consequences are described, and it is argued that available data decisively rules out their occurrence in Nature.
The Reflective Epistemic Renegade

Philosophers often find themselves in disagreement with contemporary philosophers they know full well to be their epistemic superiors on the topics relevant to the disagreement. This looks epistemically irresponsible. I offer a detailed investigation of this problem of the reflective epistemic renegade. I argue that although in some cases the renegade is not epistemically blameworthy, and the renegade situation is significantly less common than most would think, in a troublesome number of cases in which the situation arises the renegade is blameworthy in her disagreement with recognized epistemic superiors. I also offer some thoughts on what it would mean for philosophical practice for us to refrain from being renegades. Finally, I show how a new kind of radical skepticism emerges from modest theses regarding the renegade.
The Risk of Vibrio Illness in the Florida Raw Oyster Eating Population, 1981–1988

In the period 1981-1988, 333 cases of bacteriologically confirmed Vibrio illness were reported in Florida adult residents. A total of 197 patients (59.2%) had consumed raw oysters the week prior to becoming ill, and among those 197, 38 (19.3%) had a liver disease, 13 (6.6%) had past gastric surgery, and 15 (7.6%) were diabetic. To calculate a population-based incidence rate, the authors obtained prevalence estimates of annual raw oyster consumption, liver disease, previous gastric surgery, and diabetes through a random telephone survey of Florida adult residents and applied them to the January 1985 Florida population. The estimated age-standardized annual incidence of Vibrio illness per million was 95.4 for raw oyster eaters with liver disease, 9.2 for raw oyster eaters without liver disease, and 2.2 for non-raw oyster eaters. Those with prior gastric surgery had a moderately increased risk of Vibrio illness. The annual incidence for Vibrio septicemia was 82.8 for raw oyster eaters with liver disease, 2.0 for raw oyster eaters without liver disease, and 0.4 for non-raw oyster eaters. While estimates on which these data are based are subject to a number of potential biases, this is the first study to provide estimates of the risk of Vibrio illness in raw oyster eaters, and it supports the recommendation that raw oyster consumption should be avoided by persons with liver disease.
Technical transformation of biodefense vaccines

Biodefense vaccines are developed against a diverse group of pathogens. Vaccines were developed for some of these pathogens a long time ago but they are facing new challenges to move beyond the old manufacturing technologies. New vaccines to be developed against other pathogens have to determine whether to follow traditional vaccination strategies or to seek new approaches. Advances in basic immunology and recombinant DNA technology have fundamentally transformed the process of formulating a vaccine concept, optimizing protective antigens, and selecting the most effective vaccine delivery approach for candidate biodefense vaccines.
Tax expenditures and other programs to stimulate housing: Do we need more?

Abstract Discussions to aid the housing industry raise several questions. First, does stimulation of housing demand require new direct subsidy programs? And, second, are any programs to increase demand worth their costs to society? The results in this paper indicate that the answer to both questions is no: the existing subsidy to homeownership in the tax code is, when combined with mortgage instruments that offset cash flow problems, fully capable of generating large increases in demand at the cost of significant tax expenditures; and the social benefits of increased housing demand are shown to be worth only about 60% of their costs. Consequently, increasing housing demand can be readily achieved, but doing so will be costly to the government and inefficient for society.
Two-handed emulation: how to build non-blocking implementations of complex data-structures using DCAS

This paper partly addresses the question of whether, in principle, there is any point in adding richer hardware synchronization primitives when the existing set is "universal", and therefore sufficient to synchronize any data structure in a non-blocking manner. The context of this paper is the ongoing investigation of the utility of adding a DCAS instruction to modern processors to aid the design and performance of non-blocking algorithms. We add one more piece of evidence in support of this instruction.In particular, we demonstrate that DCAS is sufficient to enable a technique called "two-handed emulation" which yields efficient and understandable implementations of a class of data structures. We present a non-blocking implementation of a doubly-linked list to show the basic technique. We describe a non-blocking implementation of a dynamically resizable hash-table to illustrate how the technique is amenable to optimizations that improve performance and increase concurrency.
High-speed lateral PIN photodiodes in silicon technologies

High speed, efficient photodetectors are difficult to fabricate in standard silicon fabrication processes due to the long absorption length of silicon. However, high performance servers will soon require dense optical interconnects with low cost and high reliability, and this trend favors monolithic silicon receivers over hybrid counterparts. Recently, lateral PIN photodiode structures have been demonstrated in silicon CMOS technology with little or no process modifications. Optical receivers based on these detectors have achieved record performance in terms of speed and sensitivity. This paper will discuss the advantages, issues and recent advances in silicon-based photodetectors and optical receivers. This includes the fastest photodetector ever implemented in a standard bulk CMOS process, a 13.9 Gb/s lateral trench detector implemented in a modified EDRAM process, and a >15 GHz pure germanium photodiode grown directly on a silicon substrate.
The Relative Importance of Abiotic and Biotic Transformation of Carbon Tetrachloride in Anaerobic Soils and Sediments

The relative contributions of abiotic and microbial processes and the role of dissolved species in the reductive dechlorination of carbon tetrachloride (CT) by natural soils and sediments were investigated. Microcosms were constructed using soils or sediments and site water from three locations, and then amended with electron acceptors and/or donors to stimulate the growth of iron- and sulfate-reducing bacteria and to promote the formation of minerals that can react with CT. Before spiking with CT, half the replicate microcosms were sterilized in order to measure the rates of abiotic CT transformation without any direct contribution from microbial dechlorination. Abiotic reaction rates were significantly greater than microbial rates for a range of initial CT concentrations, and for both iron- and sulfate-reducing conditions. In most cases, abiotic reaction rates were indistinguishable from total reaction rates (abiotic plus microbial), indicating a negligible microbial contribution to CT transformation. W...
Analytic Reviews : Rapid Tranquilization of the Agitated Intensive Care Unit Patient

Agitation in intensive care unit patients is a problem that is often ignored or undertreated. The presence of agita tion warrants a thorough investigation for underlying causes (e.g., metabolic and...
LSPR Biosensor Signal Enhancement Using Nanoparticle−Antibody Conjugates

A method to amplify the wavelength shift observed from localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) bioassays is developed using gold nanoparticle-labeled antibodies. The technique, which involves detecting surface-bound analytes using gold nanoparticle conjugated antibodies, provides a way to enhance LSPR shifts for more sensitive detection of low-concentration analytes. Using the biotin and antibiotin binding pair as a model, we demonstrate up to a 400% amplification of the shift upon antibody binding to analyte. In addition, the antibody−nanoparticle conjugate improves the observed binding constant by 2 orders of magnitude, and the limit of detection by nearly 3 orders of magnitude. This amplification strategy provides a way to improve the sensitivity of plasmon-based bioassays, paving the way for single molecule-based detection and clinically relevant diagnostics.
Preservation of the Endothelium in Venous Bypass Grafts: Relevance for Graft Patency

Abstract Veins continue to be a main choice for arterial bypass grafts, but postoperative graft occlusion rates continue to be a problem, with up to 40% of aortocoronary bypass operations in the U.S.A. now being “redo” or “revision” procedures. An understanding of the factors contributing to the problem of endothelial pathology, and possible strategies for preventing it, include surgical, pharmacological and molecular factors. The endothelial cell is central to vascular wall biology, coordinating vascular wall modelling through the synthesis of key elements which influence smooth muscle cell behaviour. Removal of the endothelium leads to an imbalance in the components of the vasculature, with proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells resulting in intimal hyperplasia. Endeavours to preserve endothelial cell presence and function may minimise implantation injury (and subsequent early vein graft failure), and may also minimise intimal hyperplasia (the cause of short to intermediate term vein graft failure). The pathophysiology of vein graft failure is still poorly understood. With the advent of new technologies, it is expected that a rational approach to the prevention of intimal hyperplasia (through methods such as gene transfer) may soon be feasible. Even before the full potential of such new technologies is realised, meticulous and continuous efforts to preserve endothelium at the stages of vein harvest, storage and graft implantation should be implemented to maximise the patency of venous grafts.
A new method for precise astro-azimuths

The theodolite used in this method is completely leveled by using autocollimation from a free mercury surface. This eliminates the need for striding or hanging levels which are in conventional use to level the trunion axis of the theodolite. Mercury leveling is more accurate and can be performed in a much shorter time than leveling by the striding or hanging levels. In addition, this new method removes the unavoidable axis wobbles contaminating the observed horizontal angles between the star and the azimuth mark. The uncontrolled wobble errors affecting azimuths can be up to three arc seconds. The axis wobbles are removed by using autocollimation from an axis mirror which is perpendicular to the trunnion axis of the theodolite. Autocollimation coincidences from the mercury and from the axis mirror can be made within one or two tenths of an arcsecond. This new method and instrumentation surpasses the obtainable precision by the conventional first-order astro azimuth observations by reducing the unknown systematic wobble and level errors by one order of magnitude.
The Fate and Influence of John Stuart Mill's Proposed Science of Ethology

The years between 1840 and 1940 constituted an important period in the history of the human sciences. During this period, under the impulse of cataclysmic social events and the inspiration of rapid development in the physical and biological sciences, the previously existing "moral sciences" underwent radical development, and other new human sciences were proposed and formulated for the first time. In the early part of this crucial period in the history of the modern human sciences, few works were as important as John Stuart Mill's System of Logic (1843), which culminated in the wellknown Book VI, entitled "On the Logic of the Moral Sciences."1 This work attempted to bring rigorous thinking to the human sciences, especially as regards methods and standards of proof. It was both an indication of, and an influence upon, the developing self-consciousness with which nineteenth-century investigators sought to bring human affairs within the purview of strictly scientific procedures. Going through numerous editions-eight in Mill's own lifetime-the work was a best seller for the rest of the nineteenth century. No matter what the impact of the work as a whole, however, and of Book VI in particular, its central proposal regarding the development of a science of human character seems to have been virtually ignored, and thus Mill's plea for a science of Ethology, as he called it, seems to have been one of the many nineteenth-century proposals which did not pass the test of history. This paper is an attempt to answer the question, whatever became of Mill's Ethology? This will not be an entirely antiquarian question if in answering it we can detect an important influence on the development of the human sciences. And indeed it is the thesis of this paper that we can locate such an influence.
Improved instantaneous frequency-based interference excision in DS/SS communications

In this paper, the well known notch filtering technique for interference excision in direct sequence spread spectrum communications is expanded, so as to remove the constraint that the instantaneous frequency (IF) of the jammer must be constant over the filter duration. The time-varying difference equation representation of a polynomial phase signal is used to define a new filter impulse response that can effectively remove a y polynomial phase interfering signal. It is shown that thus approach, when applied to jammers with constant modulus property, is more efficient than the existing excision methods implementing notch excision filtering. This paper focuses specifically on chirp signals, and provides both the receiver SNR and bit error rate curves, thus showing the improved performance over similar approaches based on instantaneous frequency information.
Effect of Public Price Forecasts on Market Price Variation: A Stochastic Cobweb Example

This paper analyzes the effect of less than perfectly accurate forecasting in a stochastic cobweb model when public announcement of the forecasts influences suppliers' behavior. The forecasts considered in the analysis reduce the time variance of price, but the forecasts that minimize the variance are not always the most accurate.
Nano-scaling law: geometric foundation of thiolated gold nanomolecules

Thiolated gold nanomolecules show a power correlation between the number of gold atoms and the thiolate ligands with a 2/3 scaling similar to Platonic and Archimedean solids. Nanomolecule stability is influenced by a universal geometric factor that is foundational to its stability through the Euclidean surface rule, in addition to the electronic shell closing factor and staple motif requirements.
B-lymphoma cells with epigenetic silencing of Pax5 trans-differentiate into macrophages, but not other hematopoietic lineages

In mice, zygotic or pro-B-cell-specific knock-out of the Pax5 gene allows differentiation of pro-B-cells into all hematopoietic lineages. We previously generated and characterized a murine B-cell lymphoma, dubbed Myc5, whose cells spontaneously lose Pax5 expression when cultured in vitro, but regain it when re-injected into syngeneic mice. In cultured Myc5 cells, the loss of Pax5 correlates with the acquisition of myeloid markers, such as CD11b and F4/80. Here, we sought to determine whether these cells are truly B-macrophage-restricted or, like Pax5-null progenitors, can give rise to additional hematopoietic lineages. In vitro differentiation assays with various cytokines showed that Myc5 cells do not differentiate into NK cells, dendritic cells, neutrophils, or osteoclasts. At the same time, in the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), they readily phagocytose latex beads and provide T-cell help. Both phenomena are indicative of the bona fide macrophage phenotype. Conversely, enforced Pax5 re-expression in macrophage-like Myc5 cells led to down-regulation of the M-CSF receptor and re-acquisition of some B-cell surface markers (e.g., CD79a) and lineage-specific transcription factors (e.g., IRF4 and Blimp). Retrovirally encoded Pax5 also restored expression of several master B-cell differentiation proteins, such as the IL-7 receptor and transcription factor E2A. In contrast, levels of EBF were unaffected by Pax5 suggesting that EBF acts exclusively upstream of Pax5 and might contribute to Pax5 expression. Indeed, transduction with an EBF-encoding retrovirus partly reactivated endogenous Pax5. Our data reveal the complex relationship between B-cell-specific transcription factors and suggest the existence of numerous feedback mechanisms.
PULMONARY HYPERTENSION IN HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY: EFFECT OF SEPTAL REDUCTION THERAPY

Within hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), pulmonary hypertension can result from diastolic dysfunction and from a contraction load on the left ventricle secondary to obstruction with associated mitral regurgitation. Characterization of pulmonary hypertension and the effects of septal reduction
The reaction of ethylene and acetylene with Pt(111) at room temperature: The formation of vinyl-like species

Abstract Temperature programmed thermal desorption spectroscopy and UV photoemission spectroscopy have been used to investigate the chemisorption and reaction of acetylene and ethylene with Pt(111) at T ∼ 100K and T ∼ 300K, respectively. The combination of both techniques allows us to demonstrate that ethylene dehydrogenates on Pt(111) at room temperatures to form a C2H3 species: one hydrogen atom per ethylene molecule becomes chemisorbed to the surface. The ionization energy levels obtained from our filtered hν = 40.8eV studies of the room temperature phases of both acetylene and ethylene on Pt(111) are used to identify the chemical nature of these phases. We present and discuss a technique for correlating the observed low-lying levels to those calculated for various free radicals and closed shell lithium-hydrocarbon homologues. For the acetylene-derived phase we find that either a di-σ HC CH species or a H2C C species describes these levels - the latter being most consistent with all experimental results. The C2H3 ethylene-derived phase is shown to have levels which are consistent with a vinyl-like species, H2C CH. We also provide evidence that the expected vibrations for such species are consistent with those observed in recent high resolution electron energy-loss measurements. The relationship of these new results to other results as well as their possible implications to surface reactions on Pt are briefly discussed.