cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
IL-6 and TNF-α Synergistically Inhibit Allograft Acceptance

Previous studies suggested that activation of the innate immune system impairs the induction of transplantation tolerance, but the responsible inflammatory mediators have not been identified. In this study, we examined whether IL-6 and TNF- promote resistance to transplantation tolerance. Using a highly immunogenic murine skin allograft model, we found that the absence of both IL-6 and TNF- in the graft recipient synergized with co-stimulatory blockade to induce tolerance. Furthermore, IL-6 and TNF- acted together to promote T cell alloimmune responses both in vitro and in vivo and to impair the ability of regulatory T cells to suppress effector T cell alloimmunity. In addition, deficiency of recipient IRAK-M, a negative regulator of certain innate immune pathways, augmented cellular IL-6 and TNF- responses and impaired the ability of co-stimulatory blockade to extend allograft survival. In summary, IL-6 and TNF- synergistically impair the efficacy of therapies that promote allograft acceptance.
Infection resistance of surface modified catheters with either short-lived or prolonged activity.

Abstract It has been suggested that the invasion of microbes into the catheter tract occurs mainly at the time of catheter insertion. To investigate whether the presence of an antimicrobial environment during the initial period after insertion is sufficient to reduce the risk of subsequent catheter colonization and infection, we evaluated the use of benzalkonium chloride-heparin bonded (BZK-hep) central venous catheters, which exhibit short-lived surface antimicrobial activity, using a rat subcutaneous model. Bacterial adherence on these catheters was determined, seven days after challenging the insertion site with 10 6 cfu of Staphylococcus aureus . A chlorhexidine-silver sulphadiazine impregnated catheter (Arrowg + ard), with longer lasting surface antimicrobial activity, and a hydrophilic coated catheter (‘Hydrocath'), were evaluated simultaneously for comparison. Unlike Arrowg + ard antiseptic catheters, BZK-hep ‘Hydrocath' and control catheters had significant bacterial adherence on their surface. Arrowg + ard catheters were colonized in 19% of the animals compared with 100% in all the other groups ( P −2 : control=1·3 × 10 6 , BZK-hep = 4·3 × 10 5 , Hydrocath=2 × 10 5 , Arrowg + ard = 71). Our results indicate that catheters with short-lived surface antimicrobial activity are unlikely to provide long-term protection against catheter-related infection. The efficacy of Arrowg + ard catheters may be due to the initial high rate of kill and prolonged antimicrobial activity.
Motion differential set partition coding for image sequence and video compression

Efficient image sequence coding exploits both intra- and inter-frame correlations. Set partition coding (SPC) is efficient in intra-frame de-correlation for still images. Based on SPC, a novel image sequence coding system, called motion differential SPC (M-D-SPC), is presented in this paper. It removes inter-frame redundancy by re-using the significance map of a previously SPC coded frame. Every frame is encoded and decoded separate from other frames. Furthermore, there is no reconstruction of encoded frames in the encoder, as is done with interframe prediction methods. The M-D-SPC exhibits an auxiliary key frame coding framework, which achieves higher coding efficiency compared to the all-intra-coding schemes and meanwhile maintains the beneficial features of SPC all-intra-coding, such as computational simplicity, rate scalability, error non-propagation, and random frame access. SPIHT-based simulations on hyperspectral images, 3D/4D medical images, and video show greater compression efficiency than the standard intraframe coding method of motion JPEG2000.
Status of the Microwave Power Transmission Components for the Solar Power Satellite

During the 1970-1980 time period a substantial advance has heen made in developing all portions of a microwave power transmission system for the solar power satellite (SPS). The most recent advances pertain to the transmitting portion of the system in the satellite and are based upon experimental observations of the use of the magnetron combined with a passive directional device to convert it into a highly efficient directional amplifier with excellent low-noise properties and potentially very long life. The ability of its microwave output to track a phase reference makes it possible to combine it with many other radiating units to provide a highfy coherent microwave beam. The ability of its output to track an amplitude reference while operating from a dc power source with varying voltage makes it possible to eliminate most of the power conditioning equipment that would otherwise be necessary.
Carbohydrate and lipid studies during six months' treatment with megestrol acetate

Abstract Blood glucose, plasma insulin, fasting plasma growth hormone and fasting plasma triglycerides were measured in 42 women during two 3 hour oral glucose tolerance tests. The first test was before they began taking 0.5 mg. megestrol acetate tablets per day and the second test was after 6 months of drug therapy. It was found that a'though the group mean weight increased 3.6 pounds, there were only minimal changes in the glucose or insulin curves, with only the slight elevations at the 2 hour drug test being significant. There were no significant changes in the growth hormone or triglyceride values. These data suggest that the substituted-progesterone progestins in oral contraceptives exert little metabolic effect as compared to the 19-norprogesterone progestins.
Changes in video detection performance at signalized intersections under different illumination conditions

The performance of three widely used video detection systems (VDS) was evaluated under five illumination conditions: dawn, sunny morning (long shadows), cloudy noon, dusk, and night. Large data sets were collected in stop bar and advance detection zones of a signalized intersection where VDS were installed side by side. Potential detection errors from each system (false, missed, stuck-on, and dropped calls) were initially identified by comparing VDS and loops using a computer algorithm; then they were visually verified by using videos from the intersection. Results showed significant effects of illumination conditions on the three VDS, which performed best in cloudy noon conditions. In the stop bar zones, false calls increased for all systems mostly at dawn (up to 31%), dusk (up to 51%), and night (up to 35%). Missed calls were affected in only one system and one zone with up to 29% missed vehicles; stuck-on calls increased up to 8% in sunny conditions and up to 6% at night. Dropped calls were rare, and only three were observed in all conditions and for all systems. In the advance zones, the three systems had the most false calls during sunny conditions (up to 53%); missed calls increased for only one system (up to 18%)—also in sunny conditions; and stuck-on calls were less than 2%. This evaluation would help to identify strengths and weaknesses of VDS at signalized intersections, causes of detection errors, and potential effects in traffic operation and safety.
Measuring global health-related quality of life in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant: a longitudinal study

Pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures explore multiple domains of HRQL. To ease administration, burden, and implementation, we created a 7-item unidimensional global HRQL scale for children. This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the global HRQL scale in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and describes the trajectory of global HRQL scores over the 12-month course following HSCT. As part of two longitudinal HSCT studies, HRQL was collected on 312 parent–child dyads using the Child Health Ratings Inventories. Parents of children aged 5–18 completed the pediatric global HRQL scale about their child and 117 adolescents completed the scale themselves. Psychometric properties were compared across both raters. Two repeated measures models were built to describe trajectories of (1) global HRQL for all children based on parent proxy report and (2) global HRQL for adolescents based on adolescent self-report and parent proxy report. Internal consistency reliability was high for parent proxy report and adolescent self-report (Cronbach’s alpha 0.9, 0.8, respectively). Unidimensionality was verified using principal components analysis. Both models indicated decreased global HRQL in the presence of early complications related to HSCT and Model 1 further indicated decreased HRQL in the presence of later complications. Model 2 showed that parent proxies reported lower global HRQL scores than adolescent self-report. This study has demonstrated the unidimensionality and strong psychometric properties of a 7-item global HRQL scale in a sample of children undergoing HSCT. Despite its brevity, scale scores vary in clinically meaningful ways. Future applications of this scale are encouraged.
A survey of media processing approaches

Multimedia processing is becoming increasingly important with a wide variety of applications ranging from multimedia cellphones to high-definition interactive television. Media processing involves the capture, storage, manipulation and transmission of multimedia objects such as text, handwritten data, audio objects, still images, 2D/3D graphics, animation, and full-motion video. A number of implementation strategies have been proposed for processing multimedia data. These approaches can be broadly classified based on the evolution of processing architectures and the functionality of the processors. In order to provide media processing solutions to different consumer markets, designers have combined some of the classical features from both the functional and evolution-based classifications resulting in many hybrid solutions. We propose a categorization of existing microprocessors based on a combination of both architectural and functional flavors with examples of each approach from the latest multimedia processing families. The varying processing requirements in multimedia computing for reconfigurable multimedia processing are presented.
Automatic parallelization of fine-grained meta-functions on a chip multiprocessor

Due to the importance of reliability and security, prior studies have proposed inlining meta-functions into applications for detecting bugs and security vulnerabilities. However, because these software techniques add frequent, finegrained instrumentation to programs, they often incur large runtime overheads. In this work, we consider an automatic thread extraction technique for removing these fine-grained checks from a main application and scheduling them on helper threads. In this way, we can leverage the resources available on a CMP to reduce the latency and overhead of fine-grained checking codes. Our parallelization strategy automatically extracts meta-functions from the main application and executes them in customized helper threads — threads constructed to mirror relevant fragments of the main program's behavior in order to keep communication and overhead low. To get good performance, we consider optimizations that reduce communication and balance work among many threads. We evaluate our parallelization strategy on Mudflap, a pointer-use checking tool in GCC. To show the benefits of our technique, we compare it to a manually parallelized version of Mudflap. We run our experiments on an architectural simulator with support for fast queueing operations. On a subset of SPECint 2000, our automatically parallelized code is only 29% slower, on average, than the manually parallelized version on a simulated 8-core system. Furthermore, two applications achieve better speedups using our algorithms than with the manual approach. Also, our approach introduces very little overhead in the main program — it is kept under 100%, which is more than a 5.3× reduction compared to serial Mudflap.
Some of the engineering aspects of the machine translation of language

THE MECHANICAL translation of language by digital data-processing equipment was first suggested in private correspondence between A. D. Booth and W. Weaver in 1946.1 Since that time, others have been attracted to the field of mechanical translation and their work has resulted in the publication of a magazine, a book, and numerous papers.2,3,4
Reid on olfaction and secondary qualities

Thomas Reid is one of the primary early expositors of the "dual-component" theory of perception, according to which conscious perception constitutively involves a non-intentional sensation accompanied by a noninferential perceptual belief. In this paper, I will explore Reid's account of olfactory perception, and of odor as a secondary quality. Reid is often taken to endorse a broadly Lockean picture of secondary qualities, according to which they are simply dispositions to cause sensations. This picture creates problems, however, for Reid's account of how we perceive secondary qualities, including odors. Given Reid's insistence that we come to be aware of odors only by inferring a causal relation to obtain between them and our olfactory sensations, it seems that he cannot allow for direct, noninferential perceptual awareness of odors. Since his general account of perception invokes noninferential perceptual beliefs to explain perceptual awareness, it seems that Reid must either reject this general account for the case of olfactory perception (and supplant it with something else), or else deny that we ever actually perceive odors.I will attempt to reconcile these ideas by appeal to Reid's doctrine of "acquired perception," which involves the incorporation of learned conceptual representations into perceptual states via perceptual learning. Reidian acquired perception enables genuine olfactory perceptual acquaintance with odors despite the dependence of the semantic properties of the relevant representations on causal relations to sensations. In exploring these issues, I hope to illuminate several features of Reid's account of perception and demonstrate its interest to contemporary theorizing about conscious perception--especially olfaction--in the process. Reid’s theory of olfaction remains a live, coherent option for present-day theorists.
Psychobiology of Childhood Depression

Over the past decade, childhood depression has gained increasing acceptance as a clinical entity (Puig-Antich, 1986). Earlier debates as to the existence or nonexistence of the syndrome in youth have given way to a variety of empirical studies investigating methods of assessment (Chambers et al., 1985; Kovacs, 1986), phenomenology (Ryan, Puig-Antich, Ambrosini, Rabinovitch, Robinson and Nelson, 1987; Mitchell, McCauley, Burke, and Moss, 1988; Mitchell 1988), outcome (Kovacs, Feinberg, Crouse-Novak, Pauluskas, & Finkelstein, 1984), and family history (Strober, 1984).
Using Double-Lasso Regression for Principled Variable Selection

The decision of whether to control for covariates, and how to select which covariates to include, is ubiquitous in psychological research. Failing to control for valid covariates can yield biased parameter estimates in correlational analyses or in imperfectly randomized experiments and contributes to underpowered analyses even in effectively randomized experiments. We introduce double-lasso regression as a principle method for variable selection. The double lasso method is calibrated to not over-select potentially spurious covariates, and simulations demonstrate that using this method reduces error and increases statistical power. This method can be used to identify which covariates have sufficient empirical support for inclusion in analyses of correlations, moderation, mediation and experimental interventions, as well as to test for the effectiveness of randomization. We illustrate both the method’s usefulness and how to implement it in practice by applying it to four analyses from the prior literature, using both correlational and experimental data.
Production of Feeding Flow Patterns in Mosquito Larvae (Diptera: Culicidae)

The lateral palatal brushes of fourth-instar Culex quinquefasciatus Say larvae were experimentally shortened and feeding behavior recorded on video tape. Effects on flow pattern size, flow volume, and brush stroke frequency were analyzed and compared with those of a control group. Of treated larvae, only 28% produced measurable flow patterns, and these were significantly smaller than those made by the control group. Results indicate that lateral palatal brushes are the major cause of flow pattern production. It is not likely that the pharynx is involved in a major way.
DRIVING TIME TO NEAREST PRIMARY PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION CENTER AND CHOICE OF REPERFUSION THERAPY FOR ST-ELEVATION MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is recommended over fibrinolysis for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) if first medical contact to balloon time ≤2 hours can be achieved. We evaluated transport time and reperfusion therapy selection in patients treated with PCI for STEMI
The Globalization of Legal Education: Role of U.S. Law Teaching in Asian Legal Reform

In the past decade, there has been an international trend towards legal education reform, most notably in Asian countries.' Legal education reform is but a component of judicial reform in a broader sense, but one that has led the way for other movement towards democratization in these countries. The anticipated benefits of legal education reform are clearly defined: better-trained lawyers in an ever-globalizing world, production of more lawyers to provide services to citizens, and integration into a U.S.- dominated world economy. On the other hand, there are significant challenges on the economic, cultural and pedagogical fronts posed by adopting an education model that is fundamentally different from the systems already in place. To understand these challenges, it is helpful to identify a shared theme of legal education reform in Asia.
Fluoxetine augmentation of clozapine treatment in patients with schizophrenia.

Objective The authors examined the efficacy of fluoxetine augmentation of clozapine treatment response in schizophrenic outpatients who, despite adequate treatment with clozapine, continued to exhibit persistent positive or negative symptoms. Method Thirty-three patients completed on 8-week, double-blind, parallel-groups comparison of adjunctive fluoxetine and placebo. Results There were no significant differences in positive, negative, depressive, or obsessive-compulsive symptoms between patients given adjunctive fluoxetine or placebo. Conclusions These results suggest that fluoxetine is not effective in augmenting clozapine treatment response.
Towards functional assembly of 3D and 2D nanomaterials

Functional assemblies of materials can be realized by tuning the work function and band gap of nanomaterials by rational material selection and design. Here we demonstrate the structural assembly of 2D and 3D nanomaterials and show that layering a 2D material monolayer on a 3D metal oxide leads to substantial alteration of both the surface potential and optical properties of the 3D material. A 40 nm thick film of polycrystalline NiO was produced by room temperature rf-sputtering, resulting in a 3D nanoparticle assembly. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown 10-30 μm WS2 flakes (2D material) were placed on the NiO surface using a PDMS stamp transfer technique. The 2D/3D WS2/NiO assembly was characterized using confocal micro Raman spectroscopy to evaluate the vibrational properties and using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) to evaluate the surface potential. Raman maps of the 2D/3D assembly show spatial non-uniformity of the A1g mode (~418 cm-1) and the disorder-enhanced longitudinal acoustic mode, 2LA(M) (~350 cm-1), suggesting that the WS2 exists in a strained condition on when transferred onto 3D polycrystalline NiO. KPFM measurements show that single layer WS2 on SiO2 has a surface potential 75 mV lower than that of SiO2, whereas the surface potential of WS2 on NiO is 15 mV higher than NiO, indicating that WS2 could act as electron donor or acceptor depending on the 3D material it is interfaced with. Thus 2D and 3D materials can be organized into functional assemblies with electron flow controlled by the WS2 either as the electron donor or acceptor.
A bootstrap method for identifying image regions affected by intra-scan body movement during a PET/CT scan

Intra-scan body movement (IBM) during a PET/CT study can degrade the image quality in subtle ways that are not easy for physicians to detect and can thus affect the diagnostic value of the images. In this study, we propose a method for identifying regions on a PET/CT image that are affected by IBM. The method is based on bootstrapping the sinogram data of short sub-frames of a scan to form multiple sets of sinograms of original scan length, from which multiple images are reconstructed. High voxel-wise percent standard variation among these images would indicate image regions that are compromised by IBM and should be interpreted with caution. Both computer simulation and real human PET/CT data were used in this study to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method for identifying IBM.
Urban Education in Austria: ‘Repression’ of the Topic and a ‘Reversed’ Political Agenda

With respect to the issues of ‘urban education’ two aspects are outstanding in Austria, first the country does not harbour a real big metropolitan area (Vienna is comparatively small with up to 2mio, and there are only two bigger entities with some 100ts inhabitants), second the regional structure is heavily politicised because of a complex federal structure in which Vienna is a contested federal unit because of its definite urban structure different from the other units, and – more importantly – because of a long tradition of political struggles, in particular related to education. These struggles revive along rural-urban and political right-left lines, and are complicated by a regional border that divides the overall Vienna metropolitan region into the state of Vienna as the urban core and its surrounding areas that are part of the surrounding state of Lower Austria. Vienna has a long social democratic tradition, and has been the centre of a social democratic attempt towards school reforms after World War 1 which still casts a cloud over the enduring struggles in education policy, with a tracked school from age ten vs. a comprehensive school at least until age 14 at its core.
Endogenous vs. Dietary Nitrate and Nitrite Distribution in Rat Skeletal Muscle during Exercise

Nitric oxide (NO), small gaseous molecule generated enzymatically by a family of NOS enzymes, is a potent vasodilator. At low oxygen conditions, NO is generated in a series of nonenzymatic reactions from nitrite and nitrate. In the past decade, these two ions started to be considered as storage and precursors molecules for NO. We recently showed that skeletal muscle is the largest body reservoir of nitrate with levels 2-3 times higher than those found in blood or any other internal organ. We proposed that this endogenous nitrate serves as a precursor for NO in muscle during the exercise-induced hypoxia and following active hyperemia. It is known that dietary nitrate intake increases exercise endurance, even if the exact mechanism is still up to debate. In our study, using the combination of dietary nitrate manipulation and exercise, we try to understand relative roles of skeletal muscle endogenous nitrate and exogenous (dietary) nitrate at resting state and during exercise. We showed that the endogenous nitrate stored in skeletal muscle is extensively used by the whole body at times of low nitrate intake in both, resting and exercising state. Dietary nitrate excess is delivered by bloodstream mainly into liver (and likely into other internal organs), but only in very low extent into muscle tissue. However, when on excess of nitrate, nitrite drastically increased in all studied organs. We hypothesize that it is the nitrite, formed in liver from dietary nitrate excess that is transported into skeletal muscle during exercise where it improves performance. The mechanism by which exercise enhances the transport of nitrite derived from dietary sources into skeletal muscle is still unclear.
Abstract 199: Whole-Transcript Genomics Reveals Atrial KCNE1 Downregulation in a Model of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation Susceptibility

Lone atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with various ion channel gene sequence variants, notably the common S38G loss-of-function polymorphism in the KCNE1 K + channel ancillary subunit gene. New-onset postoperative AF (PAF) generally occurs 48-72 hours after major surgery, particularly following procedures within the chest, but its molecular bases remain poorly understood. Here, to begin to address this gap in knowledge, we analyzed molecular changes in the left atrium (LA) three days following left upper lung lobectomy in Sinclair swine in relation to simultaneous changes in hemodynamics, LA effective refractory period (ERP), and the capacity to sustain electrically-induced AF. Relative to control pigs (no previous surgery), lobectomy increased mean pulmonary artery pressure (16 ± 3 vs 22 ± 5 mm Hg; P = 0.045) and pulmonary vascular resistance (273 ± 93 vs 481 ± 142 dyn¶s/cm 5 ; P = 0.025), whereas other hemodynamic parameters were unchanged. Left atrial ERP measured from a 300 ms cycle length trended toward reduction in lobectomy animals (187 ± 37 vs 170 ± 44 ms, P >0.05). None of the lobectomy pigs developed spontaneous postoperative AF as assessed by telemetric ECG. However, all lobectomy pigs, but none of the controls, were able to sustain AF induced by a 10 s burst of rapid pacing for ≥30 s ( P =0.0079), independent of atrial ERP; AF was sustained ≥60 s in 3/5 postoperative pigs versus 0/5 controls and correlated with a shorter ERP overall ( P =0.023). Whole-transcript genomics of left atrial tissue using 25 probes per transcript revealed 13 genes with expression changes ≥2-fold in postoperative pigs. Strikingly, of these, atrial KCNE1 showed the statistically strongest link to surgery, and was the most downregulated gene in the postoperative group compared to controls (2.2-fold reduced, P =0.0027), recapitulated at the protein level with western blotting ( P =0.039). The data suggest KCNE1 remodeling as a potential marker or influencing factor in the early progression of, or susceptibility to, PAF [[Unable to Display Character: –]] uncovering a possible common predisposing genetic factor in PAF and lone AF.
Closed-form Method for Multi-stage Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Machine: Design and Analysis

AbstractDesigning an axial flux permanent magnet machine is complex and computationally intensive. This paper proposes a new closed-form method for concurrent design and analysis of a multi-stage axial flux permanent magnet machine. The method will provide a simpler modeling solution to machine designers. By calculating magnetic and electric properties, the design space of an axial flux permanent magnet is created for initial design. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the new closed-form method by showing that the results obtained from the proposed method correlate with the finite element analysis results. The design space is also evaluated and analyzed by taking into account various parameters, including copper losses, permanent magnet density, phase voltages, and torque waveform. Finally, a multi-objective analysis is performed to compare two different designs of an axial flux permanent magnet machine. The proposed method also provides a useful guide for the initial design state.
The Scalability of Sexual Experiences

Sixty-eight male graduate students completed a questionnaire relating to their past sexual history in the course of an extensive survey and experimental study on sexual attitudes and preferences. The items of the questionnaire were subjected to a scalogram analysis and found to conform to a Guttman scale, suggesting that the sexual experiences of this group follow a fairly fixed cumulative pattern. This was true for the subgroups of single Ss and married Ss, and for the group as a whole.
Enantioselective, Palladium-Catalyzed Conjugate Additions of Arylboronic Acids to Form Bis-benzylic Quaternary Stereocenters

We report enantioselective, palladium-catalyzed conjugate additions of arylboronic acids to β-aryl, β,β-disubstituted enones to generate ketones containing bis-benzylic quaternary stereocenters. A catalyst generated from palladium trifluoroacetate and (S)-4-tert-butyl-2-(2-pyridyl)oxazoline ligand ((S)-t-BuPyOx) promotes conjugate additions of a wide range of arylboronic acids to a variety of β-aryl, β,β-disubstituted enones. Iterative addition of the arylboronic acid to minimize undesired protodeboronation pathways leads to efficient formation of the corresponding ketones containing bis-benzylic quaternary stereocenters in up to 92% yield and up to 93% enantioselectivity.
Synergy of van der Waals and self-interaction corrections in transition metal monoxides

Density functional theory in principle predicts correct ground-state properties for all materials. However, the rocksalt structure of MnO has been obtained only by the high-level random phase approximation and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). Here, we propose and test for MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO that a semilocal density functional can solve this problem by properly including both self-interaction and van der Waals corrections. The importance of the latter was previously unanticipated. The MnO structural energy difference from SCAN+$r\text{VV10+}U$ agrees well with that from DMC. Here SCAN is a recent semilocal exchange-correlation functional, $r\text{VV10}$ is the revised Vydrov-Van Voorhis long-range van der Waals correction, and the onsite Hubbard $U$ is taken from linear response.
Enlisting the Public in Facilitating Election Administration: A Field Experiment

The proliferation of election reforms poses a challenge for local election officials (LEOs) charged with conducting elections. To meet this challenge, LEOs attempt to communicate, inform, and persuade voters how to cast their ballots in a manner that is efficient and effective for both the voter and the administrator. This article examines the effects of efforts by LEOs to persuade voters to return mailed ballots before Election Day and in person in order to facilitate the efficient administration of vote-by-mail elections in Colorado. Field experiments testing the efficacy of alternative messages find that many messages have no effect on the timing or method of ballot return. Messaging that focuses on LEOs' responsiveness to voters' demands is most effective at steering voters to return their mailed ballots in person but results in later ballot returns.
Contextual reinforcement learning

I will discuss a decade long research project to create the foundations of reinforcement learning with context (aka features). This research project has multiple threads including Contextual Bandits, Learning to Search, and Contextual Decision Processes. The most mature of these (Contextual Bandits) is now driving many real-world RL applications while the least mature (CDPs) is a fascinating theoretician's toy.
Logic Minimization for Low Power

A multi-level logic circuit can be modeled as a Boolean network where each node in this network has a Boolean function represented by a SOP form equation and each edge represents a signal connection. It is possible to obtain a multi-level circuit from either the HDL representation of a design or by applying logic restructuring operations on a two-level circuit representation.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Review and Call to Research.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993a) is a systematic and integrative orientation to treating borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, may present a myriad of challenges and difficulties for the beginning as well as the seasoned mental health professional. Although some empirical support exists for DBT, more is needed. The current article is, in essence, a call for research, but is also an effort at introducing DBT and its foundations and stages of individual and group therapy. The goal is to give the reader a clearer understanding of DBT through a review of the empirical evidence, the therapeutic process, and the implications for mental health counselors.
X-Ray Binary Phenomenology and Their Accretion Disk Structure

We propose a scheme that accounts for the broader spectral and temporal properties of galactic black hole X-ray transients. The fundamental notion behind this proposal is that the mass accretion rate, \(\dot{M}\), of the disks of these systems depends on the radius, as it has been proposed for ADIOS. We propose that, because of this dependence of \(\dot{M}\) on radius, an accretion disk which is geometrically thin and cool at large radii converts into a geometrically thick, advection dominated, hot disk interior to a transition radius at which the local accretion rate drops below the square of the viscosity parameter, a condition for the existence of advection dominated flows. We argue also that such a transition requires in addition that the vertical disk support be provided by magnetic fields. As discussed in other chapters of this book, the origin of these fields is local to the disk by the Poynting Robertson battery, thereby providing a complete self-contained picture for the spectra and evolution of these systems.
Perez Ambiguous Loss of Homeland Scale: Measuring Immigrants’ Connection to Their Country of Origin

The present study produced the Perez Ambiguous Loss of Homeland (PALH) scale to measure Spanish-speaking immigrants’ complex psychological connections with their homeland along two dimensions: immi...
Decontamination of 70 foster family homes exposed to Microsporum canis infected cats: a retrospective study.

Background Dermatophytosis is a superficial fungal skin disease of animals. A key part of treatment is cleaning and disinfection of the environment to prevent false-positive results due to fomite carriage. Furthermore, there is a perception in the lay literature that decontamination of homes is difficult or impossible. Clinical summary Data from a 10 year period identified 70 foster family homes where Microsporum canis infected cats had lived for varying periods of time. Mechanical debris was removed from the rooms housing the cats, the areas cleaned with over-the-counter household detergents, rinsed and hard surfaces disinfected with 1:100 concentration household bleach or accelerated hydrogen peroxide. Thirty-eight homes were completely decontaminated after one cleaning post removal or cure of the cat. Of the remaining homes, decontaminated was achieved after one (n=28), two (n=2) or three (n=1) additional cleanings. Complete decontamination was not possible in one home; the foster family was admittedly noncompliant. There was no evidence of disease transmission to other animals or people. Conclusions Environmental decontamination is not difficult in homes exposed to M. canis and can be accomplished with established procedures.
Locally Convex Spaces

A topological vector space is a generalization of the concept of a Banach space. The locally convex spaces are encountered repeatedly when discussing weak topologies on a Banach space, sets of operators on Hilbert space, or the theory of distributions. This book will only skim the surface of this theory, but it will treat locally convex spaces in sufficient detail as to enable the reader to understand the use of these spaces in the three areas of analysis just mentioned. For more details on this theory, see Bourbaki [1967], Robertson and Robertson [1966], or Schaefer [1971].
Electron-Libron Pairing in Quasi-One-Dimensional Conductors

A theory is presented concerning the formation of electron-libron bound states in quasi-one-dimensional conductors. The solid is assumed to consist of equally spaced atoms, which are free to rotate about their center of mass and behave like electrically neutral dipoles of spin 1/2. A conduction electron and a libron (the quantum of libration), which are located at neighbouring lattice sites, interact through the Coulomb interaction to form a bound state. The spectrum of the quasi particle consisting of an electron and a libron has two branches ωk (±), which depend on the values of the parameters Δk and η. A set of coupled equations are derived to determine the expressions for the gap function Δk and the parameter η, which describe the strength of the electron-libron pairing and the orientational order of the atomic system, respectively. Numerical calculations have been made to establish conditions under which the formation of electron-libron modes becomes possible. The derived results are graphically presented and discussed.
Integral quadratic forms and graphs

Abstract The structure of an undirected graph is completely determined by a symmetric matrix: its adjacency matrix with respect to an ordering of its vertices; and that matrix can be used to define an integral quadratic form. The main purpose of this paper is to raise this question: “What can quadratic forms tell us about graphs?” As an initial answer, the theory of quadratic forms will be applied to the graph isomorphism problem. The essential definitions and facts from the theory of quadratic forms will be sketched without proof.
Downregulation of type I IGF receptor increases insulin sensitivity of breast cancer cells

4831 The type I insulin-like growth factor (IGF) receptor (IGF1R) is an attractive target for breast cancer intervention. Due to the sequence and structure similarity of IGF1R to its homologous receptor, insulin receptor (IR), great effort has been given to discover inhibitors that only target IGF1R, but not IR. However, since IGF1R and IR form hybrid receptors, we hypothesize that inhibiting IGF1R alone in breast cancer may affect insulin receptor signaling as well. Using ribonuclease protection assay and Western blotting method, we examined 24 breast tumors and found that all breast tumors express both IGF1R and IR. The presence of both IGF1R and IR suggests that IGF1R inhibition might affect IR function in breast cancer. In several breast cancer cell lines, the presence of IGF1R and IR were assayed and the relative ratios of IGF1R vs IR mRNA were calculated. Of the several cell lines studied, while MCF-7 expressed about 10 fold excess of IGF1R compared with IR, LCC6, MDA-MB 231-BO, MDA-MA 231 had equivalent levels of IGF1R and IR mRNA. Therefore, those three cell lines were chosen for further analysis. siRNA sequences that specifically targeting IGF1R or IR were designed. IGF1R and IR expression was specifically decreased by 78% and 97% by the appropriate siRNAs without affecting the protein level of the other receptor. After transfecting cells with IGF1R or IR siRNA for 48 hours, cells were treated with insulin or IGF-I, and phosphorylation of Akt and MAPK was measured to examine downstream signaling events. As expected, decreased levels of IR resulted in diminished activation of MAPK and PI-3K by insulin. siRNA downregulation of IGF1R greatly decreased the ability of IGF-I to activate MAPK and PI-3K pathways. Interestingly, downregulation of IGF1R enhanced the ability of insulin to activate MAPK and PI-3K pathways. Accordingly, the glucose uptake of breast cancer cells was enhanced when IGF1R was downregulated. Using flow cytometry analysis, we found out that insulin binding was increased when IGF1R level was downregulated, suggesting downregulation of IGF1R may cause the disruption of IGF1R/IR hybrid receptor, forcing the balance of more IR homodimer formation. In conclusion, our data suggest that specific targeting of IGF1R alone in breast cancer may increase insulin sensitivity of breast cancer cells. Since IR also activates signaling pathways in breast cancer cells, agents targeting both receptors may be necessary to disrupt the malignant phenotype regulated by this growth factor system.
Information Based Smart RF Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks

A major constraint for long term sustainability of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is the limitation of their energy resources. Battery replacement in sensor nodes can be a prohibitively expensive exercise because of their abundance. RF energy harvesting (R-EH) has emerged as a promising technique to improve the lifespan, reliability, and capacity of WSN and IoT networks. In this work, information based smart RF energy harvesting is proposed, which reduces the total number of RF energy transmitters required to cover a certain area. An energy harvesting development kit for wireless sensors by Powercast Corporation is being used for implementation and analysis of this scheme.
Health consequences and help-seeking among victims of crime: An examination of sex differences:

This study examines whether sex differences in level of distress and help-seeking for physical and emotional problems as a result of criminal victimization can be explained by injury, type of crime...
TAMing efferocytosis to fight tumors

Preventing clearance of dying tumor cells elicits an inflammatory response by macrophages, supporting development of antitumor immunity in mice.
Deaf Education in Rural/Remote Areas: Using Compressed/Interactive Television.

Compressed/interactive video is a relatively new format for providing preservice and inservice courses to rural and/or remote areas (Willis, 1993). At the University of Kansas Medical Center only t...
Dosing Recommendations for Pediatric Patients With Renal Impairment

A treatment gap exists for pediatric patients with renal impairment. Alterations in renal clearance and metabolism of drugs render standard dosage regimens inappropriate and may lead to drug toxicity, but these studies are not routinely conducted during drug development. The objective of this study was to examine the clinical evidence behind current renal impairment dosage recommendations for pediatric patients in a standard pediatric dosing handbook. The sources of recommendations and comparisons included the pediatric dosing handbook (Lexicomp), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved manufacturer's labels, and published studies in the literature. One hundred twenty-six drugs in Lexicomp had pediatric renal dosing recommendations. Only 14% (18 of 126) of Lexicomp pediatric renal dosing recommendations referenced a pediatric clinical study, and 15% of manufacturer's labels (19 of 126) described specific dosing regimens for renally impaired pediatric patients. Forty-two products had published information on pediatric renal dosing, but 19 (45%) were case studies. When pediatric clinical studies were not referenced in Lexicomp, the renal dosing recommendations followed the adult and pediatric dosing recommendations on the manufacturer's label. Clinical evidence in pediatric patients does not exist for most renal dosing recommendations in a widely used pediatric dosing handbook, and the adult renal dosing recommendations from the manufacturer's label are currently the primary source of pediatric renal dosing information.
Effects of Horizontal Impeding Force Gait Training on Older Adult Push-Off Intensity

INTRODUCTION Aging and many gait pathologies are often characterized by deficits in push-off intensity (i.e., propulsive ground reaction forces and peak ankle moment and power output) during walking. Unfortunately, conventional interventions such as progressive resistance training, designed to enhance calf muscle mechanical output, generally fail to translate strength gains to functional improvements in habitual push-off intensity. METHODS Horizontal impeding forces applied to the body's center of mass systematically augment the mechanical output required from muscle-tendon units spanning the ankle during the push-off phase of walking, which could convey long-term benefits via training. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the preliminary efficacy of a 6-wk horizontal impeding force training paradigm on improving habitual push-off intensity in 11 healthy but not physically active older adults (age = 76 ± 4 yr, 6 females and 5 males). RESULTS We found that older adults significantly (P < 0.05) increased measures of isometric strength by 18%, maximum walking speed by 10%, and 6-min walk test distance by 9% as a result of horizontal impeding force training. As a more clinically significant contribution of this work, we found that those subjects also increased habitual peak ankle moment and peak ankle power during push off after training by a significant 10% and 15%, respectively (P ≤ 0.036). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the use of horizontal impeding forces in older adults improves their maximum muscular and walking capacities while encouraging access to newfound strength gains, thereby improving habitual push-off intensity during walking.
Decreased plasma rifapentine concentrations associated with AADAC single nucleotide polymorphism in adults with tuberculosis.

Background Rifapentine exposure is associated with bactericidal activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but high interindividual variation in plasma concentrations is encountered. Objectives To investigate a genomic association with interindividual variation of rifapentine exposure, SNPs of six human genes involving rifamycin metabolism (AADAC, CES2), drug transport (SLCO1B1, SLCO1B3) and gene regulation (HNF4A, PXR) were evaluated. Methods We characterized these genes in 173 adult participants in treatment trials of the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium. Participants were stratified by self-identified race (black or non-black), and rifapentine AUC from 0 to 24 h (AUC0-24) was adjusted by analysis of covariance for SNPs, rifapentine dose, sex, food and HIV coinfection. This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under identifier NCT01043575. Results The effect on rifapentine least squares mean AUC0-24 in black participants overall decreased by -10.2% for AADAC rs1803155 G versus A allele (Wald test: P = 0.03; false discovery rate, 0.10). Black participants with one G allele in AADAC rs1803155 were three times as likely to have below target bactericidal rifapentine exposure than black participants with the A allele (OR, 2.97; 95% CI: 1.16, 7.58). With two G alleles, the OR was greater. In non-black participants, AADAC rs1803155 SNP was not associated with rifapentine exposure. In both black and non-black participants, other evaluated genes were not associated with rifapentine exposure (P > 0.05; false discovery rate > 0.10). Conclusions Rifapentine exposure in black participants varied with AADAC rs1803155 genotype and the G allele was more likely to be associated with below bactericidal target rifapentine exposure. Further pharmacogenomic study is needed to characterize the association of the AADAC rs1803155 with inadequate rifapentine exposure in different patient groups.
Spectral dimension for β-almost periodic singular Jacobi operators and the extended Harper’s model

We study fractal dimension properties of singular Jacobi operators. We prove quantitative lower spectral/quantum dynamical bounds for general operators with strong repetition properties and controlled singularities. For analytic quasiperiodic Jacobi operators in the positive Lyapunov exponent regime, we obtain a sharp arithmetic criterion of full spectral dimensionality. The applications include the extended Harper’s model where we obtain arithmetic results on spectral dimensions and quantum dynamical exponents.