cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Treatment trends and survival effects of chemotherapy for hypopharyngeal cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base.

BACKGROUND The current study was performed to characterize trends and survival outcomes for chemotherapy in the definitive and adjuvant treatment of hypopharyngeal cancer in the United States. METHODS A total of 16,248 adult patients diagnosed with primary hypopharyngeal cancer without distant metastases between 1998 and 2011 were identified in the National Cancer Data Base. The association between treatment modality and overall survival was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and 5-year survival rates. A multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed on a subset of 3357 cases to determine the treatment modalities that predict improved survival when controlling for demographic and clinical factors. RESULTS There was a significant increase in the use of chemotherapy with radiotherapy both as definitive treatment (P<.001) and as adjuvant chemoradiotherapy with surgery (P=.001). This was accompanied by a decrease in total laryngectomy/pharyngectomy rates (P<.001). Chemoradiotherapy was associated with improved 5-year survival compared with radiotherapy alone in the definitive setting (31.8% vs 25.2%; log rank P<.001). Similarly, in multivariateanalysis, definitive radiotherapy was found to be associated with compromised survival compared with definitive chemoradiotherapy (hazard ratio, 1.51; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Survival analysis revealed that overall 5-year survival rates were higher for chemoradiotherapy compared with radiotherapy alone in the definitive setting, but were comparable between surgery with chemoradiotherapy and surgery with radiotherapy. Cancer 2016;122:1853–60. © 2016 American Cancer Society.
Multilayer ReS2 lateral p–n homojunction for photoemission and photodetection

In this paper, a multilayer ReS2 p–n homojunction is fabricated on an oxidized Si substrate, and its photoemission under a forward bias and its photodetection under a reverse bias are reported for the first time. Au nanoparticles were used to make lateral p–n homojunctions. The device shows room temperature photoemission in the IR range, and in the photodetector mode, it shows a 0.41 A/W responsivity under illumination by a 660 nm red laser.
Isotopic evidence indicates saprotrophy in post-fire Morchella in Oregon and Alaska

We assessed the nutritional strategy of true morels (genus Morchella) collected in 2003 and 2004 in Oregon and Alaska, 1 or 2 y after forest fires. We hypothesized that the patterns of stable isotopes (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) in the sporocarps would match those of saprotrophic fungi and that radiocarbon (Δ(14)C) analyses would indicate that Morchella was assimilating old carbon not current-year photosynthate. We compared radiocarbon and stable isotopes in Morchella with values from concurrently collected foliage, the ectomycorrhizal Geopyxis carbonaria (Alb. & Schwein.) Sacc., the saprotrophic Plicaria endocarpoides (Berk.) Rifai, and with literature to determine isotopic values for ectomycorrhizal or saprotrophic fungi. Geopyxis, Plicaria and Morchella, respectively, were 3‰, 5‰ and 6‰ higher in 13C than foliage and 5‰, 7‰ and 7‰ higher in (15)N. High (15)N enrichment in Morchella indicated that recent litter was not the primary source for Morchella nitrogen, and similar (13)C and (15)N enrichments to Plicaria suggest that Morchella assimilates its carbon and nitrogen from the same source pool as this saprotrophic fungus. From radiocarbon analyses Morchella averaged 11 ± 6 y old (n = 19), Plicaria averaged 17 ± 5 y old (n = 3), foliage averaged 1 ± 2 y old (n = 8) and Geopyxis (n = 1) resembled foliage in Δ(14)C. We conclude that morels fruiting in post-fire environments in our study assimilated old carbon and were saprotrophic.
Occupational Hazards of Radon Among Coal Miners in Sichuan

Objective To understand the radioactive radon density in small collieries in the south of Sichuan area,and its hazards to miners.Methods Chromosome aberration frequency and micronucleus frequency were determined by using the ATD solid track method(accumulative density),peripheral blood lymphocyte and cytokinesis-blocking micronucleus method among 100 coal miners.Results The collieries in the south of Sichuan area implemented qualified mechanical ventilation,insuring that the detected radioactive radon density staying below the national standards.Conclusions The coal miners at small collieries in the south of Sichuan area haven't suffered occupational hazards caused by radioactive radon.
Prevalence and influencing factors of dental caries on deciduous teeth among preschool children in Xi'an

Objective To investigate the status of dental caries on deciduous teeth and influencing factors among preschool children in Xi'an,provide a scientific basis for making prevention and intervention measures of dental caries in children. Methods The cluster random sampling method was used in this study.A total of 881 preschool children in 3kindergartens were surveyed,the questionnaires were completed by their parents.The results were analyzed by SPSS 18.0. Results The prevalence,mean dmft and filling rate of dental caries among preschool children in Xi'an was 51.08%,2.25and8.88% respectively.There were significant differences(P0.05)in caries prevalence and mean dmft among different age groups,the caries prevalence and mean dmft increased as children were growing up.There were no significant differences in caries prevalence and mean dmft among different gender groups.The results of Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors of caries in preschool children were the older age,the later weaning time,the higher frequency for daily consumption of sweets,and the higher debris index.The results also showed that the correct brushing method,brushing frequency and using fluoride toothpaste were protective factors for children suffering from caries. Conclusions The prevalence of dental caries in preschool children is relatively high in Xi'an,however,the filling rate is low.To strengthen the publicity of oral health knowledge,culture scientific oral hygiene habits,take topical fluoridation,pit and fissure sealant are very important for preventing dental caries of children.
Calibration of millimeter-wave channel sounders for super-resolution multipath component extraction

Millimeter-wave communication systems will rely on highly directional antennas to compensate for the greater pathloss expected in their frequency bands of operation. Hence, electronic beamforming will form a cornerstone for the technology. For the effective design of these systems, accurate estimation of the multipath component characteristics of the environment is essential, in particular their three-dimensional angle-of-arrival. Super-resolution techniques enable extracting these components with high fidelity, even in the presence of diffuse scattering. Applying these techniques, however, requires precision calibration of our 28, 60, and 83 GHz channel sounders. This paper outlines calibration procedures implemented to deliver such precision. Specifically, we account for impulse-response distortion stemming from internal system reflections and linear distortion by RF components. We also characterize the phase centers and complex antenna patterns of the receiver array elements, and gauge the drift of our synchronization clocks.
Ethics Rounds: In the Eye of a Social Media Storm.

Social media, no stranger to health care environments, is increasingly used by patients, families, clinicians, and institutions to interact and engage in new ways. The ethical challenges related to the use of social media in the clinical setting are familiar, yet come with a novel twist, including the possibility of having a conflict “go viral”. Health care clinicians and institutions must understand and embrace these technologies, while at the same time promoting policies and practices that ensure the ethically appropriate use of social media and address strategies for preventing and responding to a social media crisis.
The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: Twenty-Five Years Later

Citizens’ acquisition of mass media information has long been a concern of social scientists and policy makers. The conventional wisdom that increasing the flow of information will ensure its wides...
Field studies of fishing, feeding, and digestion in siphonophores†

The feeding and fishing behavior of siphonophores in their natural environment was observed by SCUBA diving at 171 stations in warm‐water areas of the western North Atlantic Ocean. The fishing posture of a siphonophore is determined by its flotation and by the contractility of its stem; fishing postures can be similar in siphonophores which are unrelated generically. Tentacle length in colonies with 2–3 mg body protein can total 4.5 meters. Variations in the morphology of tentacles reflect differences in the kinds of prey which can be captured. Dissection of feeding polyps revealed that most siphonophores could eat copepods, amphipods, polychaetes, pteropods, heteropods, veliger larvae, sergestids, mysids, euphausiids, and small fish, though laboratory experiments showed that not all could eat nauplii. Species which could capture Artemia nauplii usually required 2–4 hours to digest them, while large prey took 7–18 hours to be digested. By extrapolating from laboratory feeding experiments with small siphon...
Ethanol-Induced Suppression of in Vivo Host Defense Mechanisms to Bacterial Infection

Study findings have shown that chronic ethanol (ETOH) abuse causes individuals to have an increased incidence of infections related to opportunistic and pathogenic organisms (1–3). This is particularly true for bacterial pneumonias, which cause greater mortality in alcoholics as compared with nonalcoholics. Alcoholics also have an increased incidence of tumors of the head, neck, and gastrointestinal tract (4,5). Individuals with alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis have circulating lymphocytes that are cytotoxic to hepatocytes, suggesting that ETOH may induce an immune dysfunction that leads to autoimmunity (6-8). Although the exact role of ETOH in these diseases is not well understood, its effects on both specific and nonspecific aspects of immune function are thought to be involved. With ETOH consumption, many of the nonspecific aspects of immune function are altered. For example, consumption of ETOH by mice leads to depressed natural killer cell activity (9). Ethanol consumption also results in diminished granulocyte function such as decreased phagocytosis and altered migration to chemotactic factors by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (10,11). Ethanol directly alters monocyte and macrophage functions in human beings and experimental animals. For example, exposure of human macrophages to ETOH in vitro reduces the production and release of lysozyme, as well as the total number of macrophages containing lysozyme (12). Furthermore, study findings have shown that ETOH impairs phagocytosis in human monocytes and macrophages (13). Similar results have been obtained by investigators examining the effects of ETOH on rat peritoneal, alveolar, and splenic macrophages (14,15).
Deep dielectric charging and breakdown of lunar polar regolith

Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs) penetrate the regolith (layer of soil and dust) covering the Moon's surface and cause deep dielectric charging. To gain insight into this process, we have developed a data-driven, deep dielectric charging model using data from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), which is onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and the Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (EPAM) on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). The model results indicate that GCRs produce a persistent electric field (~700 V m-1) within the top tens of centimeters of regolith, while large SEP events could potentially generate episodic subsurface electric fields (≥ 106 V m-1) capable of causing dielectric breakdown within the top millimeter of regolith. We also propose that this "breakdown weathering" may have significantly affected the regolith in the Moon's permanently shadowed regions (PSRs).
The hijacking of a new corporate form? Benefit corporations and corporate personhood

AbstractBenefit corporations are a new type of corporate entity developed to remedy antisocial corporate behaviour by enabling mission-driven investors, managers and entrepreneurs to prioritize social values and contest the idea that profits are the only and best measure of corporate performance. To resocialize the corporate entity, the benefit corporation movement built enabling discourses and evaluation practices into the dominant model of corporate governance, shareholder value ideology. These discourses and practices expand both the purpose of the corporate entity and shareholders’ power to enforce that purpose. However, this paper argues that the effort to ‘re-embed’ the corporate entity by making it subject to non-economic claims expands the scope of corporate personhood and that doing so within extant power relations of the firm opens the door to alternative projects that undermine the benefit corporation movement's goal of fostering corporate social responsibility.
Growth and annual survival estimates to examine the ecology of larval lamprey and the implications of ageing error in fitting models.

This study used existing western brook lamprey Lampetra richardsoni age information to fit three different growth models (i.e. von Bertalanffy, Gompertz and logistic) with and without error in age estimates. Among these growth models, there was greater support for the logistic and Gompertz models than the von Bertalanffy model, regardless of ageing error assumptions. The von Bertalanffy model, however, appeared to fit the data well enough to permit survival estimates; using length-based estimators, annual survival varied between 0·64 (95% credibility interval: 0·44–0·79) and 0·81 (0·79–0·83) depending on ageing and growth process error structure. These estimates are applicable to conservation and management of L. richardsoni and other western lampreys (e.g. Pacific lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus) and can potentially be used in the development of life-cycle models for these species. These results also suggest that estimators derived from von Bertalanffy growth models should be interpreted with caution if there is high uncertainty in age estimates.
The Spatial Distribution and Oviposition Preference of the Ranchman's Tiger Moth, Platyprepia virginalis (Lepidoptera: Erebidae)

ABSTRACT. Despite decades of research on Ranchman's tiger moth (Platyprepia virginalis), little is known about the behavior and ecology of the adult life stage. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted surveys to quantify the spatial distribution of moths, and conducted laboratory and field oviposition assays as well as a field oviposition survey. We found that P. virginalis exhibits hilltopping behavior, a mate-locating strategy where individuals congregate on hilltops to increase the likelihood of sexual encounters. This behavior is common across many insect orders, but there are few examples of moths exhibiting this behavior. We found no evidence supporting our hypothesis that bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus), the primary larval hostplant within our study site, is the preferred oviposition hostplant. The opportunistic discovery of egg clutches on seaside daisy plants (Erigeron glaucus) led us to conduct a no-choice larval feeding assay to determine its suitability as a hostplant. We found that larvae ...
Are We Civilized Yet

The term “civilization” has been used in many contexts where accusations of Western imperialism, racism, and the like do not at all apply. Works on the history of science and technology in ancient cultures provide one such example, when they speak of Egyptian civilization or early Chinese civilization. It is also not true that works of the Enlightenment view the non-western world as less civilized and inferior. An entire genre of writing inspired by Jesuit accounts discovered in China a higher form of society that Europe should emulate. Two such works were Oliver Goldsmith’s Letters from a Citizen of the World and Francois Quesnay’s Le Despostisme de la chine, which offer, respectively, an extended satire and a sharp critique of European society.
Active regression with compressive-sensing based outlier mitigation for both small and large outliers

In this paper, a new active learning scheme is proposed for linear regression problems with the objective of resolving the insufficient training data problem and the unreliable training data labeling problem. A pool-based active regression technique is applied to select the optimal training data to label from the overall data pool. Then, compressive sensing is exploited to remove labeling errors if the errors are sparse and have large enough magnitudes, which are called large outliers. Next, in order to mitigate the non-sparse labeling errors that have relatively small magnitudes, which are called small outliers, a new technique is developed to convert them back into sparse large outliers. With both artificial and real data sets, extensive simulations are conducted to verify the robustness of the proposed scheme in training data selection and outlier suppression.
Development of a Passive and Slope Adaptable Prosthetic Foot

Historically, users of prosthetic ankles have relied on actively operated systems to provide effective slope adaptability. However, there are many drawbacks to these systems. This research builds upon work previously completed by Hansen et al. as it develops a passive, hydraulically operated prosthetic ankle with the capability of adapting to varying terrain in every step. Using gait cycle data and an analysis of ground reaction forces, the team determined that weight activation was the most effective way to activate the hydraulic circuit. Evaluations of the system pressure and energy showed that although the spring damper system results in a loss of 9J of energy to the user, the footplate stores 34J more than a standard prosthesis. Therefore, the hydraulic prosthetic provides a 54% increase in stored energy when compared to a standard prosthesis. The hydraulic circuit manifold prototype was manufactured and tested. Through proof of concept testing, the prototype proved to be slope adaptable by successfully achieving a plantarflexion angle of 16 degrees greater than a standard prosthetic foot currently available on the market.Copyright © 2017 by ASME
Creating Learning Environments for Mature Adults that Foster Creativity and Faith Formation

Fostering creativity and faith formation with mature adults in church settings is a crucial task facing congregations across denominations. Our task is to create learning environments that invite p...
The role of lifetime anxiety history in the course of bipolar spectrum disorders.

Abstract Individuals with bipolar spectrum disorder (BSD) frequently meet criteria for comorbid anxiety disorders, and anxiety may be an important factor in the etiology and course of BSDs. The current study examined the association of lifetime anxiety disorders with prospective manic/hypomanic versus major depressive episodes. Participants were 244 young adults (aged 17–26) with milder forms of BSDs (i.e., bipolar-II, cyclothymia, BD-NOS). First, bivariate analyses assessed differences in baseline clinical characteristics between participants with and without DSM-IV anxiety diagnoses. Second, negative binomial regression analyses tested whether lifetime anxiety predicted number of manic/hypomanic or major depressive episodes developed during the study. Third, survival analyses evaluated whether lifetime anxiety predicted time to onset of manic/hypomanic and major depressive episodes. Results indicated that anxiety history was associated with greater illness severity at baseline. Over follow-up, anxiety history predicted fewer manic/hypomanic episodes, but did not predict number of major depressive episodes. Anxiety history also was associated with longer time to onset of manic/hypomanic episodes, but shorter time to onset of depressive episodes. Findings corroborate past studies implicating anxiety disorders as salient influences on the course of BSDs. Moreover, results extend prior research by indicating that anxiety disorders may be linked with reduced manic/hypomanic phases of illness.
The Efficacy of Green Package Cues For Mainstream versus Niche Brands: How Mainstream Green Brands Can Suffer at the Shelf

ABSTRACT Mainstream brands are increasingly introducing environmentally-friendly lines to compete with successful niche “green” brands, but are there unique challenges for mainstream brands that go green? The authors posit that mainstream brands9 green offerings can suffer when the environmental-friendliness of the product is promoted through visual cues at the point of purchase. Data from a large-scale study of real consumers demonstrate that the evaluation of the efficacy of the mainstream brand and its choice share decrease, in comparison with niche green brands. The authors identify the cause as zero-sum thinking about product9s morality/efficacy trade-off and offer solutions to negate this effect.
Opinion change as mediated by an audience-tailored film

The purpose of this study was to determine the change in opinion mediated by a film whose development was based on the prefilm opinions of a sample similar to the one used in the current study. The subjects in the current study consisted of 540 university students, each of whom was administered a 36-item questionnaire pertaining to material presented in the film. One experimental group was shown the film a week later, and the questionnaire was readministered immediately after the film. The other experimental group was also shown the film a week later, but the questionnaire was readministered one week after the film showing. The questionnaire was readministered a week later to the control group, which did not see the film. Relative to the control group, the experimental groups showed large changes in opinion (critical ratios of 23.85 and 12.60). These changes in opinion were substantially greater than those obtained by 15 other studies involving film-mediated opinion change, but none of which involved films which were audiencetailored according to measured psychological characteristics of the intended audience. These comparative results from unrelated studies cannot be used as the basis for definitive conclusions, but they do suggest that a film can mediate a greater opinion change if it is developed according to criteria involving those characteristics of the audience which interact with opinion change
REPRESENTATION AND ASYMPTOTIC BEHAVIOR OF STRONGLY DAMPED EVOLUTION EQUATIONS

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the representation and asymptotic behavior of strongly damped evolution equations. It presents the theory of analytic semigroups to study strongly damped evolution equations. The chapter presents an approach that exploits the structure of the analytic semigroup and discusses the asymptotic behavior of L2 solutions. The chapter also discusses local existences and the representation of solutions to the strongly damped evolution equations. These equations are also rewritten as a first-order system. The chapter also presents an analysis of the boundedness and asymptotic behavior of solutions to strongly damped evolution equations.
p53 and mitochondrial DNA: their role in mitochondrial homeostasis and toxicity of antiretrovirals.

The roles and actions of the tumor suppressor protein p53 have been extensively studied with regard to nuclear events, including transcription and DNA damage repair. However, the direct roles of p53 in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication and function are less well understood. Studies herein used a mitochondrial-targeted p53 (MTS-p53) to determine its effects on both mtDNA abundance and mitochondrial function. MTS-p53 decreased cellular proliferation and mtDNA abundance in HepG2 cells transfected with wild-type (WT) human p53. When MTS-p53 cells were treated with the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine or 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine, mtDNA depletion that resembled untransfected controls was observed in both instances. p53-Overexpressing cells showed reduced mitochondrial function by oximetry, including a reduction in maximal respiratory capacity and reserve capacity. A truncated p53 (MTS-p53-290) was generated for localization exclusively to the mitochondria. MTS-p53-290 cells proliferated at control levels but displayed decreased mtDNA abundance and mitochondrial function with NRTI treatment. The MTS-p53-290 cells demonstrated that only the nuclear fraction of p53 controlled cellular proliferation, which was supported by the MTS-p53 results. Data herein indicate that overexpression of p53 in the mitochondria reduces mtDNA abundance and increases the sensitivity of mammalian cells to NRTI exposure by reducing mitochondrial function.
Measuring Update Performance and Consistency Anomalies in Managed DNS Services

Managed DNS (MDNS) services today excel at providing a simple and cost-effective way to outsource domain management and ensure rapid lookup times for geo-distributed users. The intense focus on optimizing lookup performance coupled with DNS’ inherent expectations of weak consistency has had unfortunate side effects: updates are inexplicably slow and MDNS providers pay scant attention to consistency correctness. We conduct an empirical measurement-driven study of 8 top-tier managed DNS providers and find that inter-nameserver update propagation delays commonly take tens of seconds with little improvement over the last several years. Client-perceived inconsistency is rampant with roughly a third of end-users being vulnerable to TTL abuse by local DNS resolvers. Furthermore, we find that 6 of the 8 MDNS providers violate monotonic read consistency under frequent updates and at least one large MDNS provider appears to violate even eventual consistency.
Curve Similarity via Signatures

Abstract The signature is a function that can be associated with any continuous plane curve. Its definition combines local variations in the curve's tangent with the global layout of its length on the plane. The signature is invariant under translation, rotation, and scale changes to its curve, and nearly invariant under slanting transformations. These properties make it useful as the basis of a curve similarity measure. It is demonstrated in several experiments that the signature distance between two curves has appealing behavior, especially when applied to slanted handwriting samples.
Consensus-Based Recommendations for an Adequate Workforce to Care for People with Serious Illness

The lack of an adequately prepared workforce is a critical barrier to delivering high-quality community-based care for individuals living with serious illness. This article presents 16 consensus-based recommendations to improve the capacity of the workforce in this area within the next 5 years, focusing on older adults. The recommendations were developed at a summit of 40 national leaders from practice, payment, labor, advocacy, and research arenas. The consensus-based recommendations include specific steps for geriatrics leaders including curriculum reforms to increase skills in the care of older and seriously ill populations, expanding experiential learning opportunities for students to increase interest in careers in geriatric and palliative care, developing and improving curriculum in interprofessional and cultural competency skills, preparing clinicians to support incorporation of home care aides and family caregivers as healthcare team members, development of skills to support shared decision making with patients, and requiring specific skills related to serious illness care in licensing, accreditation, and continuing education regulations. Together, these recommendations put forward a charge to healthcare leaders to act to ensure a workforce that will optimize support for those with serious illness living in the community. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:S392-S399, 2019.
A video anchored rating scale leads to high inter-rater reliability of inexperienced and expert raters in the absence of rater training.

Abstract Background Our objective was to assess the impact of incorporating videos in a behaviorally anchored performance rating scale on the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of expert, intermediate and novice raters. Methods The Intra-corporeal Suturing Assessment Tool (ISAT) was modified to include short video clips demonstrating poor, average, and expert performances. Blinded raters used this tool to assess videos of trainees performing suturing on a porcine model. Three attending surgeons, 4 residents, and 4 novice raters participated; no rater training was provided. The IRR was then compared among rater groups. Results The IRR using the modified ISAT was high at 0.80 (p Conclusions Incorporating video anchors (to define performance) in the ISAT led to high IRR and enabled novices to achieve similar consistency in their ratings as experts.
Perceptions of Spirituality of Yoga in Minnesota

The purpose of this study was to describe the perception of Yoga spirituality in Minnesota. In this phenomenological study, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven Yoga instructors about the traditional spirituality of Yoga. Although they all perceived that Yoga is traditionally spiritual, many said the spiritual aspect was not well presented in most classes, if at all. Most perceived that spiritual opening occurs with asana practice, and that many benefits were experienced when traditional spiritual Yoga was practiced. Barriers to teaching and learning the traditional spirituality of Yoga were: the fear of being exploited by a guru, the fear of non-Christian spirituality, prohibitions against spiritual talk in public institutions, lack of understanding because of insufficient training, and cultural colonization of Yoga. The implications of these findings are that, although non-spiritual yoga can be a bridge to yoga’s benefits, more training for instructors and respect for Indian culture are needed. More awareness of the spiritual aspect of Yoga and more study of its practice are needed.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

The idea behind Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is simple. In datagram switching each packet is treated as an independent element by routers. If one implements a Differentiated Services architecture, each independent packet is treated according to a policy specifically for its service class. In MPLS, on the other hand, the basic unit is a “flow”. Packets belonging to a given source destination flow within an MPLS cloud of a network have a label(s) appended to the packet that is used by routers along a specified path to relay the packet from router to router.
Factors Impacting Monitoring Asphalt Pavement Density by Ground Penetrating Radar

Abstract Real-time asphalt concrete (AC) pavement density monitoring is important for quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) purposes, because it allows correction during the compaction process. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is capable of providing real-time AC mixture density prediction using the Al-Qadi, Lahouar, and Leng (ALL) density prediction model. However, noise sources, such as surface moisture and vibrations, may jeopardize the AC density prediction accuracy. This study proposes a mean reflection coefficient algorithm and digital filter design method to remove the surface moisture and smooth the density profile. In the mean reflection algorithm, the frequency-select bandwidth was selected as 40–70% of the actual peak frequency in the magnitude spectrum through the simulation studies. White Gaussian noise was added in the models for robustness testing. In the digital filter design method, the magnitude spectrum of the GPR predicted density profile was analyzed to decide filter types and corresponding parameters. Thresholding method was used to remove abnormal values, and window-based finite impulse response (FIR) filters were used to smooth the density profile. Lab-controlled and field tests were performed for both algorithms. Estimated aggregate dielectric constant was used to predict pavement density. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of different aggregate dielectric constant on density (or air void). For surface moisture effect removal, mean reflection coefficient algorithm may be utilized to reconstruct dielectric constant values at an error less than 4%. This algorithm is independent of the antenna central frequency. For the density profile smoothing during continuous GPR survey, results show that various filter types have comparable smoothing performances. For the effect of aggregate dielectric constant on density prediction, sensitivity analysis shows that when aggregate dielectric constant values changes from 6.5 to 7, the predicted air void increases from 2.5% to 6.3%. This indicates the importance of an accurate aggregate dielectric constant estimate when applying ALL model for pavement density predictions; hence, aggregate dielectric constant estimate must be utilized.
Optical design for an active standoff spectrometer with a broadband source

We describe an optical bench design that efficiently projects broadband infrared energy from a supercontinuum (SC) source onto an extended target and collects the backscattered return. The optical system enables standoff spectral measurements of surfaces at up to 15 m away with a continuous spectral range from 3.6 to 11 μm. The goal of the optical system is to maximize energy transmission and capture under various fundamental and practical constraints imposed by the SC fiber laser source (broad spectrum, high divergence exiting the fiber), spectrometer (light collimation), detectors (etendue limits), and the overall system (size, weight, and cost). The design effort led to an all-reflective, off-axis configuration for both the transmitter and receiver, using custom-designed enhanced gold surfaces. We are able to successfully capture >90 % of the source energy and transmit it with low loss to the remote target while maintaining a nearly diffraction-limited Gaussian beam. The receiver telescope matches the detector etendue while providing uniform (±2.5 % ) off-axis signal collection over the target area to enable scanning of the SC laser spot.
FLAVi: An Enhanced Annotator for Viral Genomes of Flaviviridae.

Responding to the ongoing and severe public health threat of viruses of the family Flaviviridae, including dengue, hepatitis C, West Nile, yellow fever, and Zika, demands a greater understanding of how these viruses emerge and spread. Updated phylogenies are central to this understanding. Most cladograms of Flaviviridae focus on specific lineages and ignore outgroups, hampering the efficacy of the analysis to test ingroup monophyly and relationships. This is due to the lack of annotated Flaviviridae genomes, which has gene content variation among genera. This variation makes analysis without partitioning difficult. Therefore, we developed an annotation pipeline for the genera of Flaviviridae (Flavirirus, Hepacivirus, Pegivirus, and Pestivirus, named “Fast Loci Annotation of Viruses” (FLAVi; http://flavi-web.com/), that combines ab initio and homology-based strategies. FLAVi recovered 100% of the genes in Flavivirus and Hepacivirus genomes. In Pegivirus and Pestivirus, annotation efficiency was 100% except for one partition each. There were no false positives. The combined phylogenetic analysis of multiple genes made possible by annotation has clear impacts over the tree topology compared to phylogenies that we inferred without outgroups or data partitioning. The final tree is largely congruent with previous hypotheses and adds evidence supporting the close phylogenetic relationship between dengue and Zika.
Echocardiographic Assessment of the Mouse Heart and Aorta

Two-dimensionally (2D) directed echocardiography is arguably the leading method for imaging the cardiovascular system in small animals because it is noninvasive, versatile, readily available, and well suited for serial studies over a wide range of ages. M-mode and Doppler echocardiography have been used to phenotype the cardiovascular system in a variety of genetic mouse models by numerous laboratories over the past five years. More recently, reports of 2D and 3D echocardiography in mice have appeared. These techniques have proved useful in determining the interplay between altered cardiovascular gene expression and compensatory physiologic cardiovascular regulation in the genetically engineered mouse. Although the rapid beating frequency and small size of the mouse heart place constraints on an echocardiographic assessment, the use of increasingly sophisticated transducers operating at a high frequency results in highly reliable and reproducible image quality. The major advantages of thein vivoechocardiographic approach include the ability to assess age-or disease-related cardiovascular changes serially over time and to determine the effects of genetic, surgical, and pharmacological interventions in the intact animal. Thus, the structural and functional data that are derived from echocardiography complement and extend information obtained from otherin vitro and in vivophysiological studies.
Capacity Region of the Gaussian Arbitrarily-Varying Broadcast Channel

This paper considers the two-user Gaussian arbitrarily-varying broadcast channel, wherein a power-limited transmitter wishes to send a message to each of two receivers. Each receiver sees a superposition of the transmitter's sequence, Gaussian noise, and a signal from a power-limited malicious jammer. The jammer is assumed to know the code, but is oblivious to real-time transmissions. The exact capacity region of this setting is determined to be the capacity region of the standard Gaussian broadcast channel, but with the noise variance increased by the power of the jammer, as long as the received power of the jammer at each receiver is less than that of the legitimate transmitter. A key aspect of the achievable scheme involves sharing randomness from the transmitter to the receivers by breaking the transmitted sequence into segments, and either transmitting at full power in a segment, or sending zero. By coding over the on/off signal, a small shared randomness can be established without corruption by the jammer, and without interfering with the standard superposition coding strategy for the Gaussian broadcast channel.
Neuron-specific cilia loss differentially alters locomotor responses to amphetamine in mice.

The neural mechanisms that underlie responses to drugs of abuse are complex, and impacted by a number of neuromodulatory peptides. Within the past 10 years it has been discovered that several of the receptors for neuromodulators are enriched in the primary cilia of neurons. Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles that project from the surface of nearly all mammalian cells, including neurons. Despite what we know about cilia, our understanding of how cilia regulate neuronal function and behavior is still limited. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the contributions of primary cilia on specific neuronal populations to behavioral responses to amphetamine. To test the consequences of cilia loss on amphetamine-induced locomotor activity we selectively ablated cilia from dopaminergic or GAD2-GABAergic neurons in mice. Cilia loss had no effect on baseline locomotion in either mouse strain. In mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons, locomotor activity compared to wild- type mice was reduced in both sexes in response to acute administration of 3.0 mg/kg amphetamine. In contrast, changes in the locomotor response to amphetamine in mice lacking cilia on GAD2-GABAergic neurons were primarily driven by reductions in locomotor activity in males. Following repeated amphetamine administration (1.0 mg kg-1 day-1 over 5 days), mice lacking cilia on GAD2-GABAergic neurons exhibited enhanced sensitization of the locomotor stimulant response to the drug, whereas mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons did not differ from wild-type controls. These results indicate that cilia play neuron-specific roles in both acute and neuroplastic responses to psychostimulant drugs of abuse.
THE H I CHRONICLES OF LITTLE THINGS BCDs: EVIDENCE FOR EXTERNAL PERTURBATIONS IN THE MORPHOLOGY AND KINEMATICS OF HARO 29 AND HARO 36

We analyze high angular and velocity resolution H I line data of two LITTLE THINGS blue compact dwarfs (BCDs): Haro 29 and Haro 36. Both of these BCDs are disturbed morphologically and kinematically. Haro 29's H I data reveal a kinematic major axis that is offset from the optical major axis, and a disturbed outer H I component, indicating that Haro 29 may have had a past interaction. Position-velocity diagrams of Haro 36 indicate that it has two kinematically separate components at its center and a likely tidal tail in front of the galaxy. We find that Haro 36 most likely had an interaction in the past, is currently interacting with an unknown companion, or is a merger remnant.
Effects of continuous passage on the immunomodulatory properties of equine bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in vitro.

Abstract Background The immunomodulatory properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been studied extensively due to their increasing clinical application for tissue regeneration and repair following culture expansion. We have studied the effect of continuous passage on the immunomodulatory capacity of equine bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs). Equine BM-MSCs were isolated and culture expanded to passage three, six, and nine (P3, P6, P9). Immunomodulatory properties of each passage were assessed using a T cell proliferation assay and cytokine synthesis following stimulation with interferon gamma (IFN-γ). Results Equine BM-MSCs maintained their primary cell morphology and immunophenotype throughout all passages. T cell proliferation was suppressed by all passages of BM-MSCs, compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) alone. There was no significant difference in suppression of T cell proliferation between P3, P6, and P9 BM-MSCs. All passages of BM-MSCs significantly increased cytokine synthesis in response to stimulation with IFN-γ. There were no significant differences in production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) or regulate on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) following stimulation with IFN-γ between P3, P6, and P9 BM-MSCs. P9 BM-MSCs had significantly increased production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), (IL-1β), and (IL-10) compared to P3 BM-MSCs. Additionally, there was a significant increase in production of (IL-8) in P6 and P9 BM-MSCs in comparison to P3 BM-MSCs. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that culture expansion affects some of the immunomodulatory properties of BM-MSCs in vitro, which may suggest that MSCs isolated from a single collection of bone marrow may be culture expanded, but only those from lower passage numbers would be ideal for clinical application.
The Role of Posterior Wall Isolation in Catheter Ablation of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

The left atrial posterior wall has many embryologic, anatomic, and electrophysiologic characteristics, that are important for the initiation and maintenance of persistent atrial fibrillation. The left atrial posterior wall is a potential target for ablation in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation, a population in whom pulmonary vein isolation alone has resulted in unsatisfactory recurrence rates. Published clinical studies report conflicting results on the safety and efficacy of posterior wall isolation. Emerging technologies including optimized use of radiofrequency ablation, pulse field ablation, and combined endocardial/epicardial ablation may optimize approaches to posterior wall isolation and reduce the risk of injury to nearby structures such as the esophagus. Critical evaluation of future and ongoing clinical studies of posterior wall isolation requires careful scrutiny of many characteristics, including intraprocedural definition of posterior wall isolation, concomitant extrapulmonary vein ablation, and study endpoints. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Utility of the Merchant View Radiograph for Assessment of Tibial Tubercle-Trochlear Groove Distance: A Comparison to MRI in Pediatric and Adolescent Patients.

BACKGROUND Plain radiographic evaluation remains the standard initial assessment of patellar instability, while 3-dimensional imaging is obtained in some patients. Merchant radiographs can demonstrate the tibial tubercle relative to the trochlear groove (TT-TG), but the determination of the TT-TG from these radiographs has been abandoned since its original description. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of the TT-TG measured on Merchant radiographs for the assessment of patellar instability. METHODS A prospective cohort study was performed of pediatric and adolescent patients aged 10 to 18 who underwent standardized Merchant radiographs, including a total of 98 knees (in 57 patients). Merchant TT-TG was measured as the distance between the center of the trochlear groove and the tibial tubercle, with both lines perpendicular to the anterior femoral condylar axis. In Part 1, the Merchant TT-TG measured by the tibial tubercle radiographic appearance was compared with the measurement utilizing a radiographic marker. In Part 2, the Merchant TT-TG was compared with the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) TT-TG distance using bivariate linear regression analysis. TT-TG measurements were compared in patients with and without patellar instability with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS The tibial tubercle was identified on Merchant radiograph in 81.7% (67/82) of knees, and there was an excellent correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.85) between the Merchant TT-TG and the measurement based on marker placement. Merchant TT-TG was on average 4.5 mm less than MRI TT-TG (12.8±4.4 vs. 8.4±7.7 mm, P<0.001) and was moderately correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.58, P<0.01). TT-TG distance was increased in patients with patellar instability compared with those without patellar instability on the Merchant view (10.5±6.9 vs. 2.0±5.5 mm, P<0.001) and MRI (13.9±4.4 vs. 10.5±2.9 mm, P=0.012). Merchant TT-TG also demonstrated a higher area under the curve than MRI TT-TG (0.872 vs. 0.775) in differentiating patients with and without patellar instability. CONCLUSIONS Standardized Merchant radiographs allow for reliable assessment of the Merchant TT-TG distance when the tibial tubercle is visualized and moderately correlate with MRI TT-TG (with Merchant TT-TG on average 4.5 mm less than MRI). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III.