cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparing Breath Hold and Free Breathing during Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy and Proton Therapy in Patients with Mediastinal Hodgkin Lymphoma

In the treatment of mediastinal lymphoma, there has been increased interest over the last 5 years in utilizing proton therapy techniques as well as breath-hold techniques with 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (RT) or intensity-modulated RT in an effort to reduce the radiation dose to the organs at risk [1–6]. Combining both breath-hold techniques and proton therapy has been less common owing to concerns about the reproducibility of breath hold, the impact of poor reproducibility when using proton therapy, and the lack of volumetric image-guided RT and real-time diaphragm monitoring of the breath hold. Additionally, the length of treatment may be of concern, especially when matching fields are required due to large treatment volumes. Yet newer RT treatment centers with faster delivery systems and more advanced image-guided RT equipment make the combination of proton therapy and breath hold a more realistic possibility. In the present report, we investigate the impact of using the breath-hold technique with 3 female patients treated for bulky mediastinal stage II Hodgkin lymphoma with proton therapy, and compare our findings with the free-breathing technique.
EVALUATION OF SURVEY METHODS FOR ESTIMATING SORGHUM MIDGE (DIPTERA: CECIDOMYIIDAE) DENSITIES IN GRAIN SORGHUM

Six methods for sampling field populations of ovipositing sorghum midge, Contarinia sorghicola, in grain sorghum panicles were compared to an absolute sampling method. The methods evaluated were the visual, tap, remove, shake, beat-bucket, and grab. Population estimates obtained by visual examination were similar to absolute estimates when population density was low but significantly differed at mean midge densities above 9.2/panicle. The remaining sampling method density estimates were significantly less than the absolute method estimates. The visual examination method was relatively time efficient taking ca. one minute per panicle to complete. The effect of panicle compactness (open, medium, and compact) on the precision of the visual examination was investigated. Accuracy of the visual examination method significantly decreased as panicle compactness increased. This may be a result of either obstructed vision or increased density of midges with compactness or a combination of both.
Evaluation of a Modified Debate Exercise Adapted to the Pedagogy of Team-Based Learning.

Objective. To assess the impact of a debate exercise on self-reported evidence of student learning in literature evaluation, evidence-based decision making, and oral presentation.Methods. Third-year pharmacy students in a required infectious disease therapeutics course participated in a modified debate exercise that included a reading assignment and readiness assessment tests consistent with team-based learning (TBL) pedagogy. Peer and faculty assessment of student learning was accomplished with a standardized rubric. A pre- and post-debate survey was used to assess self-reported perceptions of abilities to perform skills outlined by the learning objectives.Results. The average individual readiness assessment score was 93.5% and all teams scored 100% on their team readiness assessments. Overall student performance on the debates was also high with an average score of 88.2% prior to extra credit points. Of the 95 students, 88 completed both pre- and post-surveys (93% participation rate). All learning objec...
Transcytosis of Polymeric Immunoglobulin A in Polarized Madin–Darby Canine Kidney Cells

The transcytotic pathway allows for the bidirectional transport of endocytosed solutes, lipids, and proteins between the two membrane domains of polarized epithelial cells while maintaining the functional integrity of the epithelial tissue. A method is described to measure basolateral-to-apical transcytosis of immunoglobulin A (IgA) in polarized Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells expressing the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR). The cells are grown on porous Transwell filter supports, and radiolabeled (125)I-immunoglobulin A (IgA) is internalized from the basolateral pole of MDCK cells. During a subsequent 2-h chase, the amount of (125)I-IgA that is recycled, degraded, or transcytosed is quantified. This assay can be adapted to follow the postendocytic fate of other (125)I-labeled ligands and proteins.
Die Europäische Union

Der ursprungliche Unionsvertrag wurde auch unter dem Namen „Vertrag von Maastricht“ gefuhrt, weil er 1992 im niederlandischen Maastricht verhandelt und unterzeichnet wurde. Zuerst einige historische Daten zur Union: Der Maastrichter Vertrag ist die Grundlage der Europaischen Union. Er wurde am 7.2.1992 von den damals 12 Vertragsparteien unterzeichnet und trat nach Hinterlegung der letzten der 12 Ratifikationen (die Hinterlegung der deutschen Urkunde konnte erst nach dem Maastricht-Urteil des BVerfG erfolgen) am 1.11.1993 in Kraft. Nunmehr gilt er in der durch den Vertrag von Lissabon stark veranderten Version.
The increased activity of a transcription factor inhibits autophagy in diabetic embryopathy

Background Maternal diabetes induces neural tube defects and stimulates the activity of the forkhead box O3 (Fox)O3a in the embryonic neuroepithelium. We previously demonstrated that deleting the FOXO3a gene ameliorates maternal diabetes-induced neural tube defects. Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as “autophagy”) is essential for neurulation. Rescuing autophagy suppressed by maternal diabetes in the developing neuroepithelium inhibits neural tube defect formation in diabetic pregnancy. This evidence suggests a possible link between FoxO3a and impaired autophagy in diabetic embryopathy. Objective We aimed to determine whether maternal diabetes suppresses autophagy through FoxO3a, and if the transcriptional activity of FoxO3a is required for the induction of diabetic embryopathy. Study Design We used a well-established type 1 diabetic embryopathy mouse model, in which diabetes was induced by streptozotocin, for our in vivo studies. To determine if FoxO3a mediates the inhibitory effect of maternal diabetes on autophagy in the developing neuroepithelium, we induced diabetic embryopathy in FOXO3a gene knockout mice and FoxO3a dominant negative transgenic mice. Embryos were harvested at embryonic day 8.5 to determine FoxO3a and autophagy activity and at embryonic day 10.5 for the presence of neural tube defects. We also examined the expression of autophagy-related genes. C17.2 neural stem cells were used for in vitro examination of the potential effects of FoxO3a on autophagy. Results Deletion of the FOXO3a gene restored the autophagy markers, lipidation of microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3I to light chain 3II, in neurulation stage embryos. Maternal diabetes decreased light chain 3I-positive puncta number in the neuroepithelium, which was restored by deleting FoxO3a. Maternal diabetes also decreased the expression of positive regulators of autophagy (Unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 1, Coiled-coil myosin-like BCL2-interacting protein, and autophagy-related gene 5) and the negative regulator of autophagy, p62. FOXO3a gene deletion abrogated the dysregulation of autophagy genes. In vitro data showed that the constitutively active form of FoxO3a mimicked high glucose in repressing autophagy. In cells cultured under high-glucose conditions, overexpression of the dominant negative FoxO3a mutant blocked autophagy impairment. Dominant negative FoxO3a overexpression in the developing neuroepithelium restored autophagy and significantly reduced maternal diabetes-induced apoptosis and neural tube defects. Conclusion Our study revealed that diabetes-induced FoxO3a activation inhibited autophagy in the embryonic neuroepithelium. We also observed that FoxO3a transcriptional activity mediated the teratogenic effect of maternal diabetes because dominant negative FoxO3a prevents maternal diabetes-induced autophagy impairment and neural tube defect formation. Our findings suggest that autophagy activators could be therapeutically effective in treating maternal diabetes-induced neural tube defects.
Vitamin D pathway activation selectively deactivates signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins and inflammatory cytokine production in natural killer leukemic large granular lymphocytes.

Abstract Calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D, has been well documented to act directly on immune cells and malignant cells. Activated T cells are one of the best characterized targets of calcitriol, with effects including decreasing inflammatory cytokine output and promoting anti-inflammatory cytokine production. However, the effects of calcitriol on natural killer (NK) cells are less clear. Reports suggest that only immature NK cell populations are affected by calcitriol treatment resulting in impaired cytotoxic function and cytokine production, while mature NK cells may have little or no response. NK cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia (NK-LGLL) is a rare leukemia with CD3-CD16+CD56+NK cell clonal expansion. The current standard treatments are immunosuppressant therapies, which are not curative. The Janus kinase (JAK) – signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway is hyperactivated in LGLL and is one pathway of interest in new drug target investigations. We previously demonstrated the ability of calcitriol to decrease STAT1 tyrosine 701 (p-STAT1) and STAT3 tyrosine 705 (p-STAT3) phosphorylation as well as inflammatory cytokine output of T cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia cells, but did not determine the effects of calcitriol on NK-LGLL. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated whether NKL cells, a model of NK-LGLL, and NK-LGLL patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are susceptible to treatment with calcitriol or seocalcitol (EB1089), a potent analog of calcitriol. NKL cells are dependent on interleukin (IL)-2 for survival and we show here for the first time that treatment with IL-2 induced tyrosine phosphorylation of STATs 1 through 6. Both calcitriol and EB1089 caused significant upregulation of the vitamin D receptor (VDR). IL-2 induction of p-STAT1 and p-STAT3 phosphorylation was significantly decreased after calcitriol or EB1089 treatment. Additionally, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-γ, and FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt-3L) extracellular output was significantly decreased at 100 nM EB1089 and intracellular IL-10 was decreased with either calcitriol or EB1089 treatment. We treated NK-LGLL patient PBMCs with calcitriol or EB1089 and found decreased p-STAT1 and p-STAT3 while VDR increased, which matched the NKL cell line data. We then measured 75 serum cytokines in NK-LGLL patients (n = 8) vs. age- and sex-matched normal healthy donors (n = 8), which is the first serum cytokine study for this LGLL subtype. We identified 15 cytokines, including IL-10 and Flt-3L, which were significantly different between normal donors and NK-LGLL patients. Overall, our results suggest that activating the vitamin D pathway could be a mechanism to decrease STAT1 and 3 activation and inflammatory cytokine output in NK-LGLL patients.
Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections: Development of a Test Method for Assessing the Efficacy of Antimicrobial Technologies/Products

Urinary catheters are one of the most commonly utilized medical devices worldwide. They are used in virtually every healthcare setting and contribute to improvements in patient care. While urinary catheters provide invaluable aid to patients, they are not without complications, the most notable being catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). Once a urinary catheter is in place, pathogens may migrate to the bladder one of two ways, through the catheter lumen or extraluminally in the periurethral space. In vitro methods are useful tools for predicting clinical efficacy only if they accurately model the most important factors contributing to a clinical infection. Although in vitro methods can’t replace in vivo scenarios, outcomes may be improved as experiments approximate relevant criteria including the biofilm phenotype, time, media type, materials similarities and environment.
Factors Influencing the Sustainability of Neglected Tropical Disease Elimination Programs: A Multi-Case Study of the Kenya National Program for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis

Elimination of a disease is the holy grail in global health. The pathology of several neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as lymphatic filariasis (LF) makes elimination a reality. However, successful elimination requires that NTD programs be sustainable-the ability to confirm that the disease has been eliminated and the capacity to ensure that it does not return. The WHO's guidelines on NTDs thoroughly detail how to reach elimination. Notwithstanding, comprehensive guidance regarding contextual and programmatic factors that influence sustainability is lacking. Moreover, a comprehensive NTD sustainability framework that includes these factors is nonexistent. This research aimed to develop a framework that identified the critical programmatic and contextual factors influencing sustainability of NTD elimination programs. The methodology included a literature review and a multiple case study. The literature review had two objectives: the first was to identify unique attributes of NTD elimination programs that should be considered when planning for sustainability and the second was to identify an existing sustainability framework that could be adapted to NTD elimination programs. The literature review resulted in a draft sustainability framework that was then tested, using a multi-case study methodology, on the Kenya National Program for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis. The result is the first comprehensive NTD sustainability framework that identifies key contextual and programmatic factors that influence NTD sustainability. This framework is an invaluable resource for practitioners and policy makers alike as many countries start to eliminate NTDs.
Gut Microbiota and Neurologic Diseases and Injuries.

The brain–gut axis is a bidirectional communication pathway connecting the central nervous system (CNS) and the gastrointestinal tract via nerve transmission, hormone, immune system, and other molecular signals. The bacterial flora of the human gut contributes direct and indirect signals to the CNS along the brain–gut axis. Alterations in gut flora, a state known as dysbiosis, has been tied to systemic inflammation, increased bacterial translocation, and increased absorbance of microbial by-products. An increase in recent literature has highlighted the role of the gut–brain axis in CNS pathology. This chapter reviews the association between gut flora dysbiosis and disorders of the central nervous system including autoimmune disease, developmental disorders, physiologic response to traumatic injury, and neurodegenerative disease.
Streamlining Definitive Care for Occult Scaphoid Fractures: A Retrospective Review of the Workup of Scaphoid Nonunions and Applying Lessons Learned.

Introduction The process for working up scaphoid fractures from frontline providers to the specialty care clinic is variable. Initial imaging can often be negative and the management algorithm is not clearly defined. Delays in diagnosis are a contributing factor to scaphoid nonunion. Fractures may not be identified by frontline providers on initial presentation because of radiographically occult injuries. If not treated promptly, scaphoid fractures may be complicated by nonunion, avascular necrosis, and osteoarthritis. Materials and methods Retrospective review of scaphoid nonunions from 2017 to 2018 in a single tertiary care institution after internal review board approval was obtained (NMCSD.QI.2019.0003). Cases were identified using an ICD 10 search for "scaphoid (navicular) fracture non-union" and subtypes. Charts were examined for time between injury and presentation, injury and diagnosis, initial radiologic workup, and limited duty (LIMDU). Nonparametric statistical analysis for linear and categorical data was conducted using SPSS. A subgroup of patients who had a delay in diagnosis of greater than 30 days upon entering the medical system was further analyzed and identified as the "delayed diagnosis" cohort. Results In total, 30 patients with scaphoid nonunion were identified. Overall, 35% of patients had negative initial X-rays and averaged 42.1 days until diagnosis. In total, 100% of patients required at least one LIMDU period, averaging 1.4 periods, for a total of 6,404 days and 16% went on to a physical evaluation board (PEB). In 9 (30%) of these patients, injury was initially not identified upon entering the medical system resulting in average of 139.7 days until diagnosis; this became known as the delayed diagnosis subgroup. Further analysis of the delayed diagnosis subgroup demonstrated significantly more initial negative X-rays (P Conclusions Delayed diagnosis of a scaphoid fracture is a contributing factor for excessive light duty, high rates of LIMDU utilization, and ultimately medical separation of service members. Overall, in all patients who had scaphoid nonunions, the average time to diagnosis was 42.1 days with 35% of patients presenting with negative initial imaging. A delayed diagnosis subgroup was identified and notable for a higher rate of initial negative X-rays, an average of 139.7 days until diagnosis, and a 33% PEB rate. In total, 77% of patients with a delay in diagnosis of more than 30 days had an initial negative X-ray. An evidence-based algorithm for diagnosing occult scaphoid fractures may prevent delays in diagnosis, thus increasing the readiness of active duty service members.
The role of LmeA, a mycobacterial periplasmic protein, in stabilizing the mannosyltransferase MptA and its product lipomannan under stress

The mycobacterial cell envelope has a diderm structure, composed of an outer mycomembrane, an arabinogalactan-peptidoglycan cell wall, periplasm and an inner membrane. Lipomannan (LM) and lipoarabinomannan (LAM) are structural and immunomodulatory components of this cell envelope. LM/LAM biosynthesis involves a number of mannosyltransferases and acyltransferases, and MptA is an 1,6-mannosyltransferase involved in the final extension of the mannan backbones. Recently, we reported the periplasmic protein LmeA being involved in the maturation of the mannan backbone in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Here, we examined the role of LmeA under stress conditions. We found that the lmeA transcription was upregulated under two stress conditions: stationary growth phase and nutrient starvation. Under both conditions, LAM was decreased, but LM was relatively stable, suggesting that maintaining the cellular level of LM under stress is important. Surprisingly, the protein levels of MptA were decreased in lmeA deletion mutant ({Delta}lmeA) in both stress conditions. The transcript levels of mptA in {Delta}lmeA were similar to or even higher than those in the wildtype, indicating that the decrease of MptA protein was a post-transcriptional event. Consistent with the decrease in MptA, {Delta}lmeA was unable to maintain the cellular level of LM under stress. Even during active growth, overexpression of LmeA led the cells to produce more LM and become more resistant to several antibiotics. Altogether, our study reveals the roles of LmeA in the homeostasis of the MptA mannosyltransferase particularly under stress conditions, ensuring the stable expression of LM and the maintenance of cell envelope integrity.
The Consentability of Mandatory Employment Arbitration Clauses

Binding ex-ante mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts and class action waivers are more commonplace than ever in the United States and their popularity continues to rise, as more than half of private sector non-union workers are currently bound by them. These clauses require that employees forego their Constitutional right to a day in court should a grievance or dispute arise, both directly, by mandating arbitration as the only avenue of redress, and indirectly, by eliminating (in many cases) the only financially realistic option of class action. Mandatory arbitration provisions often appear in agreements where the parties' attention is reasonably focused elsewhere (e.g., in employment agreements, the employee's focus goes to wages and benefits). Employees are not focusing on the details of how potential disputes will be resolved, so it is at best misleading to say that they have “consented” to arbitration just because they have signed a document that included a mandatory arbitration provision. Further, in most cases, the social benefits of arbitration clauses do not clearly outweigh the social harms. While one can imagine arbitration processes that actually work to the benefit of all, that is not the reality of mandatory arbitration for most employees (and most consumers). Arbitration is too often expensive, one-sided, secret, and generally impractical for small claims. In CONSENTABILITY, Professor Nancy Kim adopts a sliding scale approach for determining consent, under which consent is understood as a dynamic which is “context-dependent, incremental, variable, and relative,” as opposed to an all or nothing conclusion. Under Kim’s framework, a proposed activity is not consentable if (1) it’s not possible to validly consent; or (2) the social harms caused by the proposed activity outweigh the social benefits. This article proposes that each of Kim’s “consent conditions” (voluntariness, knowledge, and manifestation of assent) is insufficiently robust when talking about boiler plate with an often-buried mandatory arbitration clause, especially when the contract is for employment that is essential to the consenting employee's well-being. Accordingly, this article suggests that there should be a rebuttable presumption of no valid consent to mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts, even when an employee “manifests” consent with a signature or click, with the presumption rebutted only by a showing by the employer that the term was agreed to through negotiation by parties with roughly equal bargaining power.
Quantitative Morphology of Moderate-Redshift Galaxies: How Many Peculiar Galaxies Are There?

The advent of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has provided images of galaxies at moderate and high redshifts and changed the scope of galaxy morphologies considerably. It is evident that the Hubble sequence requires modifications in order to incorporate all the various morphologies one encounters at such redshifts. We investigate and compare different approaches to quantifying peculiar galaxy morphologies on images obtained from the Medium Deep Survey (MDS) and other surveys using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board the HST, in the I band (filter F814W). We define criteria for peculiarity and put them to use on a sample of 978 galaxies, classifying them by eye as either normal or peculiar. Based on our criteria and on concepts borrowed from digital image processing, we design a set of four purely morphological parameters, which comprise the overall texture (or "blobbiness") of the image; the distortion of isophotes; the filling factor of isophotes; and the skeletons of detected structures. We also examine the parameters suggested by Abraham and coworkers. An artificial neural network (ANN) is trained to distinguish between normal and peculiar galaxies. While the majority of peculiar galaxies are disk dominated, we also find evidence for a significant population of bulge-dominated peculiar galaxies. Consequently, peculiar galaxies do not all form a "natural" continuation of the Hubble sequence beyond the late spirals and the irregulars. The trained neural network is applied to a second, larger sample of 1999 WFPC2 images, and its probabilistic capabilities are used to estimate the frequency of peculiar galaxies at moderate redshifts as 35% ± 15%.
Changes in Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption in Response to Medical and Recreational Cannabis Legalization: Evidence from U.S. State Tax Receipt Data

Background: Whether medical or recreational cannabis legalization has impacts on alcohol or cigarette consumption is a key question as cannabis policy evolves, given the adverse health effects of these substances. However, relatively little research has examined this question. The objective of this study was to examine whether medical or recreational cannabis legalization was associated with any change in state-level alcohol or cigarette consumption. Methods: Dependent variables included state-level aggregate consumption of alcohol and cigarettes from all 50 states, estimated from state tax receipts. Independent variables included indicators for medical and recreational legalization policies. Three different types of indicators were separately used to model medical cannabis policies. Indicators for the primary model were based on the presence of active medical cannabis dispensaries. Secondary models used indicators based on either the presence of a more liberal medical cannabis policy (“non-medicalized”) or the presence of any medical cannabis policy. Difference-in-difference regression models were applied to estimate associations for each type of policy. Results: Primary models found no statistically significant associations between medical or recreational cannabis legalization policies and either alcohol or cigarette consumption. In a secondary model, both medical and recreational policies were associated with significantly decreased cigarette consumption compared to states with no medical cannabis policy. However, post-hoc analyses demonstrated that these reductions were apparent at least two years prior to policy adoption, indicating that they likely result from other time-varying characteristics of legalization states, and are not direct effects of the cannabis policy. Estimates were sensitive to inclusion of state-level covariates, such as demographics and other policy variables, and evidence for differential trends in tobacco consumption were apparent. Conclusion: We found no evidence of a causal association between medical or recreational cannabis legalization and changes in either alcohol or cigarette consumption.
Multi-objective hazardous materials routing and scheduling for balancing safety and travel time

This research develops a new multi-objective multi-period optimisation model to find optimal links and routes to maintain a balance between safe and fast distribution of hazmats between origins and destinations through the transport network. The transport network includes multiple origins and destinations along with multiple hazmat classes to better mimic the challenges faced by practitioners. We consider unknown probabilities for hazmat incidents along with a game-theoretic demon approach and formulate a link-based routing and scheduling hazmat shipment problem. The objective functions are defined to minimise both the probability of population exposure affected by hazmat transport risks and the total transportation time in the distribution network. This paper also proposes a solution method based on an integrated Monte Carlo simulation and fuzzy goal programming to obtain Pareto-optimal solutions. A numerical example is provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed mathematical model and the solution method in obtaining Pareto-optimal solutions.
A comparative study of porous and hollow carbon nanofibrous structures from electrospinning for supercapacitor electrode material development

Abstract Co-axial electrospinning is an efficient technique to develop core-shell or hollow nanofibrous structures. In this study electrospun carbon nanofibers with three different morphologies, i.e. solid nanofibers with porous structure (P-ECNF), hollow nanofibers with solid wall (H-ECNF), and hollow nanofibers with porous wall (HP-ECNF) were developed through bicomponent electrospinning and co-axial electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by varying proportion of the sacrificial PMMA. Through comparative electrochemical analyses, it is revealed that the primary factors for electrochemical performance, i.e. specific capacitance, of the electrospun carbon nanofibrous materials are mesopore volume and total pore volume. The hollow structure as well as ordered carbon structure and intact fiber structure also benefits electrolyte transfer and subsequent electrochemical performance but is secondary. Overall the porous carbon nanofibrous electrode material from electrospinning PAN/PMMA (50/50) solution (P-ECNF-50-50) outperformed those hollow and hollow-porous counterparts from co-axial electrospinning and demonstrated the largest specific capacitance due to the largest mesopore volume as well as the largest total pore volume. This electrode material also showed excellent cycling stability (without any loss of specific capacitance) after 3,000 cycles of charging and discharging. It even showed some increase of specific capacitance with cycling test due to its relatively large amount of micropores.
Evading Machine Learning Based Network Intrusion Detection Systems with GANs

Machine learning (ML) is fundamentally changing our way of life with the recent availability of high computational power and big data. Emerging ML‐based techniques of network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) can detect complex cyberattacks, undetectable by conventional techniques. In this chapter, we evaluate the threat of a generative adversarial networks (GAN) aided‐attack on these systems. In our threat model, an adversarial attacker, given access to a training data of the NIDS, adds a minimal perturbation to the feature values of attack traffic to change the DNN's prediction from “malicious” to “benign.” We evaluate our attack algorithm against two state‐of‐the‐art DNN models as well as our own well‐trained DNN model achieving nearly 100% success rates in whitebox setting. We also show that adversarial traffic crafted on these three DNN models also transfer and fool the NIDS models trained with classic ML algorithms with a high accuracy: logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree and k ‐nearest neighbors. Our work shows that ML‐based NIDS are vulnerable to adversarial network traffic crafted by our GAN‐based attack algorithm.
LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE OF PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS: LESSONS LEARNED ON DESIGN, CONTAMINANT TREATMENT, LONGEVITY, PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND COST - AN OVERVIEW

An overview of permeable reactive barrier (PRB) performance for field sites in the U.S. was evaluated over the last 10 years by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development (EPA-ORD) in collaboration with other U.S. federal agencies, consulting companies and academic institutions under activities sponsored by the EPA's Remedial Technology Development Forum (RTDF). The RTDF is a public-private partnership which undertakes research, development, demonstration, and evaluation efforts focused on finding innovative solutions to high priority environmental problems. The focus has been on evaluating the effectiveness of these systems for plume capture and contaminant degradation/immobilization, microbiological and geochemical impacts on reactivity and longevity, and cost. Challenges for future research, development and application of PRBs are also presented.
Complementary RNA Species Isolated from Vesicular Stomatitis (HR Strain) Defective Virions

The wild-type strain of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) contains in its complete virion (VSV-1, B particles) a minus strand RNA. The principle defective particle of the wild-type strain (VSV-111, T particles) contains a shorter minus strand, homologous to part of the VSV-1 genome. Neither virion contains any detectable complementary (plus) strand RNA. In contrast, a preparation of a heat-resistant (HR) strain of VSV containing defective virions was found to contain both plus (21%) and minus strand RNA, present in several distinct size classes. It was found that the RNA in the HR virion preparation was at least 94% single-stranded and principally (96%) in ribonucleoprotein complexes. On extraction the plus and minus strand RNA species partially annealed to give a population of double- and multistranded RNA species. A small amount of RNA polymerase activity was associated with the HR defective virus preparation.
Real neural networks in movement control

Biological control systems use neurons and muscles. Most use thousands of neurons and dozens of muscles and we despair of understanding them in any reductionist sense. There do exist, however, a few neural circuits that we "more-or-less" understand. One is the vestibulo-ocular reflex that stabilizes our eyes in space by compensating for head movements. Investigation soon reveals the existence of a neural network that integrates velocity commands (coded in neural firing rate) to produce eye-position commands. Thus we converge on the problem of how a group of neurons can connect themselves up to perform integration in the sense of Newtonian calculus. This paper reviews current research on this specific, if rare, example of how the brain processes signals.
The Importance of a Well-Groomed Child

The handling of rat pups by humans has a subsequent positive effect on the rats9 endocrine system and cognitive functioning as adults. A report in this issue indicates that this effect may be due to the intense licking and grooming that these handled pups receive by their mothers when they are returned to the fold. In a Perspective, Sapolsky discusses the neuroendocrine basis for this conclusion and its implications for human development.
Concentrations of luteinizing hormone and ovulatory responses in dairy cows before timed artificial insemination

The objective was to determine the incidence of LH surges and ovulatory responses in lactating dairy cows enrolled in a timed artificial insemination (TAI) program. Cows were assigned randomly to 2 presynchronization treatments: (1) Pre10 (n=37): 2 injections of PGF2α (PG; PG-1 and PG-2) 14 d apart (Presynch); or (2) PG-3-G (n=33): one 25-mg injection of PG (Pre-PG) administered 3 d before a 100-µg GnRH injection (Pre-GnRH). Ten days after PG-2 or Pre-PG, all cows were enrolled in a 7-d Ovsynch TAI program [injection of GnRH (GnRH-1) 7 d before PG (PG-3) and GnRH (GnRH-2) administered at either 56 or 72 h after PG-3; TAI at 72 h]. Blood was collected to determine LH at (1) Pre-GnRH: 48 to 80 h after PG-2 and hourly from 72 to 78 h (Pre-GnRH at 72 h); (2) GnRH-1: 0 to 6 h after GnRH-1; and (3) GnRH-2: 48 to 80 h after PG-3 and hourly from 56 to 62 h or 72 to 78 h for cows injected with GnRH-2 at 56 or 72 h after PG-3, respectively. Ovaries were scanned and pregnancy per TAI (P/AI) was diagnosed 31 and 61 d post-TAI by transrectal ultrasonography. The Pre-GnRH injection increased the incidences of LH surges (100 vs. 43%) and ovulation (91 vs. 60%) and subsequent concentrations of progesterone in PG-3-G cows compared with Pre10 cows, respectively. Seven days later, incidence of ovulation (48 to 62%) and occurrence of LH surges (100%) did not differ between treatments after GnRH-1. In contrast, LH concentrations and area under the LH curve of Pre10 cows were greater than that of PG-3-G cows because progesterone was greater in PG-3-G than in Pre10 cows (4.6±0.4 vs. 2.8±0.4 ng/mL), respectively. Concentrations of LH did not differ after GnRH-2 at either 56 or 72 h; however, 1 cow receiving GnRH-2 at 56 h and 3 cows at 72 h had early spontaneous LH surges before GnRH-2. Ovulation was suppressed overall in 210 blood collection windows in cows with elevated progesterone concentrations. When progesterone was <1 ng/mL after either PG-2 or PG-3 injections, GnRH-induced LH surges occurred in more than 90% of cows, and incidence of ovulation exceeded 80%. Pregnancy per AI tended to differ for PG-3-G (56.7%) compared with Pre10 (37.8%) and for 56 h (54.5%) compared with 72 h (38.2%), with the Pre10-72 h treatment combination producing less than half (22.2%) the pregnancies compared with all other treatment combinations. Furthermore, in these same cows, post-TAI luteal tissue volume tended to be compromised. We conclude that incidences of GnRH-induced LH surges and ovulation are suppressed in cows with elevated progesterone, possibly contributing to some loss in P/AI in TAI programs.
Physician attitudes toward pharmacists counseling patients on adverse drug reactions

The attitudes of physicians in a university teaching hospital toward pharmacist counseling of patients regarding adverse reactions to prescribed medications were studied. A questionnaire mailed to 120 physicians in each of the three groups affiliated with the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals (teaching faculty, house staff, and community practitioners with attending privileges) listed 56 potential adverse reactions associated with commonly prescribed medications in 13 therapeutic categories. For each physician group, half of the questionnaires pertained to inpatient and half to outpatient situations. The physicians were asked whether their patients should be informed about the possible reactions and, if so, if the physician alone, the pharmacist alone, or both should do the counseling. When "pharmacists only" and "both" data were combined for the 199 responses, over 50% of the respondents accepted pharmacists as patient counselors for all listed reactions except the three pertaining to antipsychotic agents. Class of medication significantly influenced attitude (p less than 0.05), with pharmacist participation in counseling being most acceptable for reactions involving anticoagulants, antibiotics, and analgesics, and least acceptable for those involving antipsychotics, cardiac glycosides, and antianxiety agents. Acceptability also was influenced by physician type (p less than 0.05), being lowest among community physicians, and was slightly higher in outpatient versus inpatient situations (p less than 0.05). The study indicates that physicians will accept pharmacist counseling with respect to adverse drug reactions, especially on a partnership basis.
WebCallerID: Leveraging cellular networks for Web authentication

Web authentication that is both secure and usable remains a challenge. Passwords are vulnerable to phishing attacks, while physical tokens face deployment obstacles. We propose to leverage the authentication infrastructure of cellular networks to enhance Web authentication. We design WebCallerID, a Web authentication scheme that uses cell phones as physical tokens and uses cellular networks as trusted identity providers. Since WebCallerID requires no user participation during authentication, it prevents security mistakes by users. WebCallerID also prevents rogue websites from replaying authentication assertions or stealing users' identities. We have implemented a prototype of WebCallerID using the OpenID framework. The prototype shows that WebCallerID seamlessly integrates into OpenID-capable Web authentication while avoiding phishing problems in OpenID and simplifying user participation.
Involvement of the central nucleus and basolateral complex of the amygdala in fear conditioning measured with fear-potentiated startle in rats trained concurrently with auditory and visual conditioned stimuli

The goal of this work was to test the involvement of the central nucleus and basolateral complex of the amygdala in fear conditioning, using auditory and visual conditioned stimuli (CSs). The acoustic startle reflex in rats was used as the behavioral index of conditioning because startle is reliably enhanced in the presence of a conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with a footshock. Initially, differential conditioning procedures indicated reliable discrimination between a noise CS and a visual CS. Subsequently, the effects of amygdala lesions were evaluated when both modalities were paired with shocks in the same rats. Electrolytic or ibotenic acid lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala blocked fear-potentiated startle to both auditory and visual CSs, consistent with the idea that the central nucleus serves as a response independent, final common relay for fear conditioning. Similarly, pre- or post-training electrolytic or NMDA- induced lesions of the basolateral complex of the amygdala, which damaged the lateral nucleus, and most of the basolateral nucleus, disrupted fear-potentiated startle to both CS modalities. This finding is consistent with the suggestion that, in fear conditioning, the basolateral complex of the amygdala serves as an obligatory relay of sensory information from subcortical and cortical sensory areas to the central nucleus of the amygdala.
2 Higgs or not 2 Higgs

Abstract Motivated by recent results from the LHC experiments, we analyze Higgs couplings in two Higgs doublet models with an approximate PQ symmetry. Models of this kind can naturally accommodate sizable modifications to Higgs decay patterns while leaving production at hadron colliders untouched. Near the decoupling limit, we integrate out the heavy doublet to obtain the effective couplings of the SM-like Higgs and express these couplings in a physically transparent way, keeping all orders in ( m h / m H ) for small PQ breaking. Considering supersymmetric models, we show that the effects on the Higgs couplings are considerably constrained.
A stiff ODE preconditioner based on Newton linearization

Abstract The equations of atmospheric chemistry are very stiff and represent the major computational obstacle in the simulation of the chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere. This paper compares two examples of “preconditioned time differencing”, a technique for constructing cheap time stepping schemes for chemical kinetic ODE systems by eliminating much of the matrix algebra associated with the usual implicit calculation. These preconditioned schemes are also compared with a well known implementation of the popular backward differentiation formulas, and are shown to be a viable alternative to these fully implicit BDF methods applied to chemical kinetics systems. Tests are carried out on a small 2 species system, a box model problem, and a full three-dimensional chemical-radiative-transport model.
Reduction in T cell apoptosis in patients with HIV disease following antiretroviral therapy

Abstract Patients with HIV infection manifest increased T lymphocyte apoptosis. This study investigated the influence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) upon lymphocyte apoptosis in 23 HIV-infected adults naive to protease inhibitors. Patients were enrolled in a treatment trial consisting of Nelfinavir (NFV), d4T, or NFV + d4T for 24 weeks, followed by triple therapy (NFV + reverse transcriptase inhibitors) for an additional 24 weeks. Spontaneous T cell apoptosis in cultured PBMC decreased by 23.67 ± 18.2% ( P 10 RNA copies/ml ( P
Phytochromes: photosensory perception and signal transduction

The phytochrome family of photoreceptors monitors the light environment and dictates patterns of gene expression that enable the plant to optimize growth and development in accordance with prevailing conditions. The enduring challenge is to define the biochemical mechanism of phytochrome action and to dissect the signaling circuitry by which the photoreceptor molecules relay sensory information to the genes they regulate. Evidence indicates that individual phytochromes have specialized photosensory functions. The amino-terminal domain of the molecule determines this photosensory specificity, whereas a short segment in the carboxyl-terminal domain is critical for signal transfer to downstream components. Heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins, calcium-calmodulin, cyclic guanosine 5'-phosphate, and the COP-DET-FUS class of master regulators are implicated as signaling intermediates in phototransduction.
Institutionalized Contradictions: Trouble in a Colonial Mission:

The Basel Mission is a Pietist evangelical organization that was active in many areas of the colonial world in the nineteenth century, including the Gold Coast of West Africa, now known as Ghana. The Mission's impact was strong in spite of policies that discouraged creativity and undermined interpersonal trust among the missionaries. Its troubles and its persistence came from the same source, namely, a distinctive structure of authority that was anchored simultaneously in charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal understandings about discipline. This interpretive study isolates the elective affinities among beliefs, experiences, and interests that enabled the Mission to construct and reproduce that complicated structure; it describes the central contradictions that emerged out of the structure; and it documents how the organization survived despite those contradictions. The research encourages comparisons with missions and other kinds of commitment organizations that are participants in other historica...
Color image segmentation approach to monitor flowering in lesquerella

Abstract Lesquerella (Lesquerella fendleri (Gray) Wats.) seed oil has been proposed as a petroleum alternative in the production of many industrial products, but several crop management and breeding challenges must be addressed before the crop will be grown commercially. Lesquerella canopies characteristically exhibit quite prominent and vibrant yellow flowers at anthesis, and remote detection of lesquerella flowering patterns can provide useful crop development information to aid management and breeding decisions. In the present study, we used a consumer-grade digital camera to collect images 2 m above lesquerella canopies throughout two growing seasons. Biomass samples within 0.125 m2 areas were also regularly collected and processed to obtain flower numbers. Image processing algorithms were developed to extract information on lesquerella flower features from the images. Key features of the image processing approach included an image transformation to the hue, saturation, and intensity (HSI) color space and a Monte Carlo approach to address uncertainty in HSI parameters used for image segmentation. Flower numbers were estimated from image-based flower cover percentage with root mean squared errors that ranged from 159 to 194 flowers, which was better than the reported results for other studies with a similar objective. Attempts to resolve individual flowers were less successful due to the complexity of the flowering patterns within the image scenes. Digital imaging offers an inexpensive and quite practical means for remote monitoring of flowering patterns in lesquerella canopies.
Comparing consortial and differential pricing models

In these days of shrinking budgets, libraries are ever more concerned with refinement and accountability in collection development. Evidence‐based decisions are becoming the rule rather than the exception. However, there are a number of ways to measure the quality of user services. The immediate satisfaction of present users, efficiency in obtaining items on demand, owning materials for potential future use, serving as a clearinghouse for national researchers, or simply reducing expenditures are all viable ways to view success, based upon your mission and budget. Within this scenario consortial arrangements may serve a vital role. Often the decision to utilize a consortial option is determined by discounted prices. One does not often weigh the value of these short‐term and long‐term consortial costs and benefits compared to the options presented by implementing the newly developing locally determined differential pricing schema. This article will discuss some of these considerations.