cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Imaging the universe at radio wavelengths

Computerized image processing is crucial for the large arrays of radio telescopes that are advancing astronomy. A new project will help relieve the computational bottleneck that hinders this field. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded a 5-year Grand Challenge High-Performance Computing and Communications project to (a) allow astronomers to use upgraded NSF supercomputers; (b) develop network links to widely-used observatories; and (c) develop digital data archives over national high-speed networks. We plan to prototype the next generation of astronomical telescope systems. These will be remotely located telescopes connected by high-speed networks to very high performance, scalable-architecture computers and online data archives. Astronomers will access these systems via gigabit-per-second networks, and use advanced visualization tools to comprehend and analyze the very large multidimensional images being generated. >
Event-related Brain Potentials: A Window on Information Processing in Schizophrenia

The application of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential to the study of attentional impairment in schizophrenia is discussed, and two recent studies are described. In one, the relative effects on P300 of stimulus modality and probability were evaluated. The data showed that the P300 is smaller in schizophrenic patients relative to normal controls for low-probability auditory stimuli. Next is described a preliminary report that evaluated whether this P300 reduction reflects a core deficit (trait marker) or clinical symptomatology (state marker). To pursue this question, a group of schizophrenic patients was studied on and off neuroleptic medication. The data showed that improvement in clinical state was highly correlated with increased visual P300 but was uncorrelated with auditory P300. These findings suggest that P300 elicited in the visual modality has the characteristics of a state marker of schizophrenia. In contrast, auditory P300 remains a candidate for a vulnerability trait marker of schizophrenia. The core deficit in schizophrenia thus appears to involve the auditory information-processing system, whereas fluctuations in clinical state may be reflected in the visual processing system.
Genetics of Adverse Reactions to Haloperidol in a Mouse Diallel: A Drug–Placebo Experiment and Bayesian Causal Analysis

Haloperidol is an efficacious antipsychotic drug that has serious, unpredictable motor side effects that limit its utility and cause noncompliance in many patients. Using a drug–placebo diallel of the eight founder strains of the Collaborative Cross and their F1 hybrids, we characterized aggregate effects of genetics, sex, parent of origin, and their combinations on haloperidol response. Treating matched pairs of both sexes with drug or placebo, we measured changes in the following: open field activity, inclined screen rigidity, orofacial movements, prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, plasma and brain drug level measurements, and body weight. To understand the genetic architecture of haloperidol response we introduce new statistical methodology linking heritable variation with causal effect of drug treatment. Our new estimators, “difference of models” and “multiple-impute matched pairs”, are motivated by the Neyman–Rubin potential outcomes framework and extend our existing Bayesian hierarchical model for the diallel (Lenarcic et al. 2012). Drug-induced rigidity after chronic treatment was affected by mainly additive genetics and parent-of-origin effects (accounting for 28% and 14.8% of the variance), with NZO/HILtJ and 129S1/SvlmJ contributions tending to increase this side effect. Locomotor activity after acute treatment, by contrast, was more affected by strain-specific inbreeding (12.8%). In addition to drug response phenotypes, we examined diallel effects on behavior before treatment and found not only effects of additive genetics (10.2–53.2%) but also strong effects of epistasis (10.64–25.2%). In particular: prepulse inhibition showed additivity and epistasis in about equal proportions (26.1% and 23.7%); there was evidence of nonreciprocal epistasis in pretreatment activity and rigidity; and we estimated a range of effects on body weight that replicate those found in our previous work. Our results provide the first quantitative description of the genetic architecture of haloperidol response in mice and indicate that additive, dominance-like inbreeding and parent-of-origin effects contribute strongly to treatment effect heterogeneity for this drug.
On the Origin of the Bolivian High and Related Circulation Features of the South American Climate

Abstract The climatological structure in the upper-tropospheric summertime circulation over South America is diagnosed using a GCM (with and without South American topography), a linear model, and observational data. Emphasis is placed on understanding the origin of observed features such as the Bolivian high and the accompanying “Nordeste low” to the east. Results from the linear model indicate that these two features are generated in response to precipitation over the Amazon basin, central Andes, and South Atlantic convergence zone, with African precipitation also playing a crucial role in the formation of the Nordeste low. The direct mechanical and sensible heating effects of the Andes are minimal, acting only to induce a weak lee trough in midlatitudes and a shallow monsoonal circulation over the central Andes. In the GCM, the effects of the Andes include a strengthening of the Bolivian high and northward shift of the Nordeste low, primarily through changes in the precipitation field. The position of ...
An Example of Uncertainty in Sea Level Pressure Reduction

Abstract Difficulty analyzing mesoscale features in California and Nevada for a 1991 case study prompted a review of techniques for sea level pressure (SLP) reduction and an evaluation of the performance of the various techniques for the U.S. west coast states at 0000 UTC 30 November 1991. The objective of any SLP reduction procedure is to provide a pressure field that portrays meteorological features rather than terrain features, a difficult goal to meet in this region given the steep terrain gradients on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada range. The review and evaluation are performed both for techniques applicable at individual stations and for techniques applicable at grid points in a model analysis or forecast. When using station data, one would like to perform a manual or objective analysis of SLP with the greatest number of stations possible by adding stations that report only altimeter setting to the stations that report both SLP and altimeter setting. The results of the comparison show that ...
Review article: the antimicrobial effects of rifaximin on the gut microbiota.

SummaryBackground Disruption of the gut microbiota through use of systemic antimicrobials or activation of the mucosal inflammatory response by pathogens can cause dysregulation of the intestinal mucosa. Aim To explore the mechanisms of action of rifaximin that may underlie its clinical benefits in travellers’ diarrhoea (TD). Methods A literature search was performed using the terms ‘rifaximin’ and ‘L/105’ in combination with the terms ‘in vitro activity’, ‘diarrhea’, ‘microbiota’ and ‘gut flora’. Results Rifaximin has been traditionally identified as a nonsystemic, broad-spectrum, bactericidal antibiotic. Evidence shows that the activity of rifaximin against enteropathogens in this setting is likely enhanced by its increased solubility in the presence of bile acids in the small intestine. Results of clinical studies show that although rifaximin is efficacious in TD, a clinical cure often occurs without apparent bacterial eradication and with minimal effect on the gut microbiota, suggesting an effect of rifaximin other than direct antibiotic activity. Conclusions Although definitive studies on the effect of rifaximin on the gut microbiota in large cohorts of healthy volunteers or patients have not been published, pre-clinical studies provide some insight. These studies have shown that rifaximin may have effects on both the pathogen and host, including direct effects on pathogenic bacteria (such as reducing the expression of bacterial virulence factors) and indirect effects on the host (such as inhibiting bacterial attachment and internalisation at the intestinal mucosa and reducing mucosal inflammation).
Tobacco smoking among government employees in six cities in China

Objective Employer-based tobacco control interventions have been highly successful in developed countries, and, recently, Chinese officials announced a focus on quitting among government employees. However, there are few data offering estimates of smoking prevalence among government workers from developing nations. In this study, we investigate smoking behaviours among government workers in six Chinese cities stratified by educational attainment and occupational grade. Design Individual-level study of Chinese government employees. Data sources Tobacco-Free Cities Initiative of China Tobacco Control Partnership. Analysis Employed adults aged 18–61 at government worksites in six cities were included (N=6176). Prevalence of current and former smoking across educational (postgraduate, graduate, high school, secondary school or less) and occupational (senior executives, mid-level managers, workers) groups were compared. Results Overall prevalence of male current smoking was 40.7% (95% CI 39.1% to 42.4%). Age-adjusted smoking prevalence was lowest among those with a postgraduate degree (26.2% (95% CI 21.0% to 31.4%)) compared with those with lower levels of education (college (39.8%; 37.7% to 41.8%); high school (51.0%; 95% CI 45.0% to 57.0%); secondary or less (45.1%; 95% CI 40.3% to 49.8%)). There was no evidence of an association between current smoking and occupational grade. Prevalence of smoking was low in women (1.5%). Conclusions Smoking prevalence among male government employees at all levels of education was high and patterned by educational attainment. Government initiatives to address tobacco control among employees should consider targeted interventions for different educational levels.
37 AN ACUTE LUNG INJURY-ASSOCIATED CORTACTIN POLYMORPHISM ALTERS PULMONARY ENDOTHELIAL CELL BARRIER FUNCTION.

Introduction Acute lung injury (ALI) syndromes are highly morbid consequences of systemic inflammatory conditions such as sepsis. Inflammation-induced disruption during ALI of the endothelial cell (EC) barrier that lines the pulmonary vasculature results in leakage of fluid, protein, and cells into the airspaces of the lung, resulting in respiratory failure. We have previously described (Dudek et al. J Biol Chem 2004;279:24692-700) a critical role for the actin-binding protein cortactin in mediating EC cytoskeletal rearrangements that regulate in vitro barrier function. Methods/Results We now report immunofluorescence and coimmunoprecipitation data demonstrating increased association of cortactin with the junctional proteins β-catenin, focal adhesion kinase, and vinculin during the recovery phase following thrombin-induced permeability. Thus, cortactin interacts at critical cell-cell and cell-matrix junctional sites as the EC monolayer recovers after inflammation-induced disruption. As a translational approach building upon these in vitro observations, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery of the cortactin gene was performed using direct fluorescence-based resequencing. Cortactin SNP discovery in 36 patients, subdivided into those with sepsis-induced ALI, sepsis alone and healthy controls, identified 26 SNPs within the human cortactin gene, including a single novel coding variant. This SNP at amino acid position 484 results in a serine to asparagine change (Ser484Asn), which was enriched in patients with ALI and sepsis compared with controls. Since this S484N site is in close proximity to a critical p60src-targeted tyrosine residue (Y486), a major regulatory site of cortactin function, we generated wild-type and S484N mutant constructs for overexpression in human pulmonary ECs. These studies revealed greatly increased phosphorylation of cortactin at Y486 in the S484N mutant under baseline and EC barrier-altering conditions. In addition, overexpression of S484N in ECs inhibited the potent barrier-promoting effects of sphingosine 1-phosphate as well as delayed barrier recovery after the barrier disruption by thrombin. Summary Cortactin plays a critical role in mediating cytoskeletal and junctional protein rearrangements that regulate EC barrier function. Given that phosphorylation of Y486 modulates cortactin function, the S484N cortactin SNP may increase ALI susceptibility via this mechanism.
Reproductive Behavior and Social Organization of Some Pacific Hawkfishes (Cirrhitidae)

Ten species of Pacific hawkfishes occur in small social groups consisting of a single male and one or more females. Facultative monogamy occurred regularly in two obligate coral dwelling species while the remaining species were largely haremic. Males had larger body sizes than females within groups but not necessarily between groups. Males defended territories in which females had home areas. Females defended courtship sites within a male’s territory against neighboring females of the same social group. Courtship was paired and sequential within groups, commencing just prior to or after sunset and concluding at dusk. Spawning, when observed, was pelagic.
Normalization of Exhaled Carbonyl Compounds After Lung Cancer Resection

Background Quantitative analysis of specific exhaled carbonyl compounds (ECCs) has shown promise for the detection of lung cancer. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the normalization of ECCs in patients after lung cancer resection. Methods Patients from a single center gave consent and were enrolled in the study from 2011 onward. Breath analysis was performed on lung cancer patients before and after surgical resection of their tumors. One liter of breath from a single exhalation was collected and evacuated over a silicon microchip. Carbonyls were captured by oximation reaction and analyzed by mass spectrometry. Concentrations of four cancer-specific ECCs were measured and compared by using the Wilcoxon test. A given cancer marker was considered elevated at 1.5 or more standard deviations greater than the mean of the control population. Results There were 34 cancer patients with paired samples and 187 control subjects. The median values after resection were significantly lower for all four ECCs and were equivalent to the control patient values for three of the four ECCs. Conclusions The analysis of ECCs demonstrates reduction to the level of control patients after surgical resection for lung cancer. This technology has the potential to be a useful tool to detect disease after lung cancer resection. Continued follow-up will determine whether subsequent elevation of ECCs is indicative of recurrent disease.
A Brief History of Mass Collaboration: How Innovations Over Time Have Enabled People to Work Together More Effectively

There have been a series of innovations over the time since our species first appeared on Earth that have enabled people to work together more and more effectively. The first great innovation was the development of trade, which enabled people to specialize in their occupations and thereby refine their ideas and skills to be more productive. The next great innovation was the development of cities, which brought people together in close proximity, where they could share ideas and learn from each other. The invention of writing later made it possible for ideas to spread across greater distances and to later generations. The invention of the printing press greatly enhanced the spread of ideas and led to the development of mass education. The development of the worldwide scientific community created a community working together to develop new ideas, new methods of investigation, and new tools for uncovering the way the world operates. Now we are experiencing a blossoming of mass collaboration, because of the invention of the Internet. This has spawned a wide variety of new capabilities to enable mass collaboration, such as web communities, collaboratories, digital libraries, crowdsourcing, MOOCs, and collaborative enterprises. These innovations have profound implications for both society and education.
The Services Challenge: Meeting the Service Needs of the Singles Market

Single persons represent the fastest growing market segment in an American economy that is increasingly dominated by the service sector. This study examines the consumption behavior of 25 to 34 year old (married and single) consumers with regard to 5 innovative services. Single persons are found to be the heaviest consumers of these services and methods of targeting services to this segment are discussed.
ACTION OF GLYCOSIDASES ON ERYTHROCYTES

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the action of glycosidases on erythrocytes. Extracts of bacteria, protozoa, and many mammalian organs contain glycosidases that can destroy the serological specificity of the water-soluble glycoproteins with blood group A, B, H, Le a , and Le b activity. These same enzyme preparations have an analogous effect on erythrocytes of the same phenotype. Enzyme preparations from Clostridium welchii inactivate serologically active stroma from group O red cells. Concomitant with the serological changes induced by the action of the bacterial and protozoal extracts, the cells invariably show a certain degree of hemolysis and can become panagglutinable. The panagglutinability of enzyme-treated cells is tested with sera obtained from the donor of the cells, two other individuals of the same phenotype, and eel serum previously absorbed with untreated group O red cells. While erythrocytes develop panagglutinability on treatment with crude enzyme preparations, they do not when treated with the purest preparations.
Can Behavior Analysis Benefit from Reductionism

Our concern is whether or not the arbitrary philosophic value of reductionism provides immediate usefulness for behavior analysis. In order to work with stimuli and behavior relations efficiently, one need be concerned minimally with underlying physical, chemical, or neuroscience correlates, and primarily focus on the observable antecedents, behaviors and consequences. Selecting the appropriate level of analysis for a research question is paramount and the reductionist approach adds little value to the parsimonious methods of behavior analysis that operate at the level at which the behavior occurs. When moving between levels, the probability of introducing an error increases as the gap between the input and output variables increase. It is therefore suggested that in order to minimize the possibility of making these errors, analyses should be performed at the same level at which the event is being observed. Summary variables that operate at different levels to the behaviors should be used sparingly and, w...
Prospective correlates of early (30 day) readmissions on a Cardiothoracic Surgery Service.

AbstractKnown to vary widely among hospitals for unclear reasons, early readmissions are associated with higher mortality and are suspected to frequently be due to inadequate discharge preparation/planning. It has been previously documented that the strongest and most consistent predictor of early readmissions in CHF patients is chronic cognitive impairment, and compensatory assistance with adherence on discharge improves early readmission rates. Prospective observational study. The present investigation examined multiple putative perioperative predictors of early readmission in a hospitalized Cardiothoracic Surgery Service. A subtest of the Mini-Cog, Short Term Memory, was the strongestunivariate predictor of early readmissions (p < .001), but the overall Mini-Cog (p = .024), Age (p = .045), Number of Admissions over the Preceding Year (p = .036), an Anxiety Scale (p = .035), Years of Education (p = .055) and a Depression Scale (p = .056) also demonstrated covariation. In a Logistic Regression, only Shor...
Scalable (n, k, d) exact-repair regenerating codes with small repair bandwidth

This paper focuses on the design of regeneration codes. An (n, k, d) exact-regenerating code encodes and stores the data into n nodes such that the entire data can be recovered from any k nodes, and the missing coded information of any failed node can be identically recovered by the help of d nodes. In an earlier work of the authors, determinant codes are introduced for any (n, k, d = k) system, and they are shown to achieve the optimum tradeoff between the node storage α and the repair-bandwidth β In this work, the latter constraint of d = k is relaxed, and the construction of determinant codes is generalized to arbitrary parameters (n, k, d), for a certain range of (α,β). The proposed construction is scalable, in the sense that the system performance only depend on k and d, and the same of operating point (α,β) can be universally achieved for any number of nodes n. The resulting codes are linear, and the required size of the underlying finite field is not greater than Θ(n).
Surgeon-Performed Ultrasound for Chronic Obstructive Sialadenitis Helps Predict Sialendoscopic Findings and Outcomes:

Objective To determine the accuracy of surgeon-performed ultrasound (SP-US) features for predicting intraoperative sialendoscopic findings and to correlate ultrasound features with short-term symptomatic outcomes following sialendoscopy-assisted salivary duct surgery (SASDS). Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting The practices of 2 academic sialendoscopy surgeons. Subjects and Methods Between February 2014 and September 2015, 82 patients with 105 symptomatic glands underwent SASDS, of whom 56 patients (75 glands) met inclusion criteria. SP-US and sialendoscopic findings were reviewed for patients with chronic obstructive sialadenitis who underwent SASDS and who had been prospectively evaluated with the University of California-San Francisco Chronic Obstructive Sialadenitis Symptoms (COSS) questionnaire (scored 0-100) administered preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively. Results The positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of SP-US for identifying sialoliths intraoperatively were 94% (33/35) and 91% (39/43), respectively. Of glands with sialoliths on SP-US, 97% (34/35) had complete symptom resolution (COSS ≤10) after SASDS. The PPV and NPV of salivary duct dilation on SP-US for finding a corresponding stenosis on sialendoscopy were 93% (14/15) and 50% (14/28), respectively. Nonsialolith SP-US features with the highest PPV for complete or partial symptom resolution (COSS ≤25) following SASDS included distal duct dilation of all glands (86%; 6/7) and dilation of both distal and proximal parotid ducts (75%; 6/8). Conclusion SP-US has high accuracy for ruling in and ruling out sialoliths, as well as for ruling in but not for necessarily ruling out stenosis presence and location. Ultrasound is helpful in estimating degree of short-term symptom response following SASDS.
Creative and Innovative Research: Our Only Hope for Achieving Sustainable Food and Energy Security

Food and energy security are among the most critical challenges on our planet today. Food is required for our survival. Likewise, energy is necessary to sustain our civilization as we know and have come to expect. It is important to realize that while food and energy are inextricability linked, there is a common denominator for a solution to meeting these challenges. If we as a society are to meet the needs and greater expectations of over nine billion people who will inhabit this planet in only 40 years, there must be a robust commitment to research. Research is critical to developing new and innovative technology that will enable a new paradigm in food production. Also, research is critical to developing more effective means of harvesting all fossil energy remaining on the planet, but more importantly, research will enable the development of alternative sources of energy. Consequently, investment in research is clearly our best and only hope for a sustainable society.
Containers Will Not Fix Your Broken Culture (and Other Hard Truths): Complex socio-technical systems are hard; film at 11.

We focus so often on technical anti-patterns, neglecting similar problems inside our social structures. Spoiler alert: the solutions to many difficulties that seem technical can be found by examining our interactions with others. Let’s talk about five things you’ll want to know when working with those pesky creatures known as humans.
Practice Guidelines and Future Directions of Bowel Preparation: Science and History

Preoperative bowel preparation has been a principle of colorectal surgery as a mechanism to prevent postoperative complications. The use of combined enteral antibiotics, mechanical preparation, and parenteral antibiotic prophylaxis has been trialed in various methods over the years. Combination of all three therapies leads to improved postoperative outcomes compared to streamlined preparations in elective colorectal surgery. Advances in the understanding of the human microbiome have prompted interest in the impact of bacterial communities on tissue healing and human immune response. Further directions of study include optimization of antibiotic timing and comprehensive characterization of colonic bacterial communities. The current practices of preoperative bowel preparation vary considerably, and surgeon adherence to best practice guidelines remains challenging.
Abstract TMP80: Temporal Trends in Ischemic Stroke Mortality Stratified by Presence of Cancer

Background: About 5% of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients have active cancer. Previous work has shown that cancer patients are more likely to die after AIS than non-cancer patients. However, few data exist on how these disparities are changing over time. Methods: We identified all patients hospitalized with AIS in the National Inpatient Sample from 1996-2013 using validated ICD-9 diagnosis codes. Our primary predictor was systemic cancer, which was a composite of solid and hematologic tumors with or without metastases. Primary brain tumors were excluded. Our primary outcome was in-hospital death. Survey weights were used to estimate nationally-representative annual rates of in-hospital death among AIS patients with and without cancer. Multivariable logistic regression models adjusting for age, gender, and race were constructed to evaluate the relationship between time, cancer history, and mortality. Results: We identified 9.6 million patients with AIS, of whom 491,704 (5.1%) had cancer. The in-hospital death rate among stroke patients with cancer decreased from 21.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 20.6-22.9%) in 1996 to 13.9% (95% CI, 13.0-14.7%) in 2013, while the death rate among stroke patients without cancer decreased from 9.9% (95% CI, 9.6-10.1%) in 1996 to 6.4% (95% CI, 6.2-6.6%) in 2013 (Figure). After adjustment for demographics, a cancer diagnosis was associated with more than a doubling in odds of death after AIS (odds ratio [OR] 2.34; 95% CI, 2.29-2.38). However, during the 18-year study period, the demographic-adjusted odds of in-hospital death after AIS decreased similarly over time in patients with cancer (OR per year 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.97) as compared to those without (OR per year 0.97; 95% CI, 0.97-0.98). Conclusions: Despite improved mortality rates over time, cancer patients with AIS continue to face more than a two-fold increased risk of in-hospital death as compared to non-cancer AIS patients.
The sequence of precipitation in 339 aluminum castings

The precipitation sequences in direct-quenched from the die (DQD) and solution-treated (SOL) 339 aluminum have been determined by a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). DSC scans for the alloy in both conditions exhibit two distinct exothermic peaks, each associated with a unique precipitate. The peak temperatures for precipitation in the DQD and SOL alloys differ by only a few degrees. TEM of samples heated to the lower temperature peak shows that the first precipitate to form in the DQD alloy is S′ (Al2CuMg), whereas in the SOL alloy it is β′ (Mg2Si). The principal precipitate associated with the higher temperature peak in both DQD and SOL alloys is Si. The DSC peak temperature identifies the specific precipitate in 339 Al, but the peak area is not a reliable measure of precipitate density. Nano-indentation of the dendrites shows that the strength provided by the precipitates increases in the sequence Si < S′ < β′. However, their thermal stability increases in the reverse order.
Reefer madness or real medicine? A plea for incorporating medicinal cannabis in pharmacy curricula.

Abstract Introduction Over the past twenty years, the acceptance and use of medicinal cannabis has increased in the United States. However, there is still a lack of education and comfort as it relates to the therapeutic uses of botanical cannabis and cannabidiol in pharmacy professional curricula. Professional training programs have failed to keep pace with the evolving national landscape and growing acceptance of this therapy. Perspective In this manuscript, the current landscape of pharmacy professional involvement in the dispensing and administration of medicinal cannabis throughout the United States is described. A concern exists that there is a knowledge gap among pharmacists and pharmacy students, as demonstrated by recent survey results, related to the pharmacology, dosing, administration, adverse effects, drug interactions, and monitoring of both medicinal and recreational cannabis use. Implications While cannabis use is still considered illegal by the federal government, it is imperative pharmacy educators prepare the next generation of pharmacists to be knowledgeable on the safe and effective use and communication tactics related to cannabis. As a therapy garnering national attention with growing support for use, education on this topic must be included in pharmacy curricula and pharmacy continuing education.
Utilization of pyrolysis oil in industrial scale boilers

The performance of pyrolysis oil in a large-scale combustion system is investigated to determine the feasibility of displacing fuel oil or natural gas in current heating and power infrastructure. A commercial 600 kW building heating boiler was installed and retrofitted to burn pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis oil mixtures at controlled conditions. The boiler was equipped with the necessary fuel systems and instrumentation to enable accurate and independent control of the pilot light, natural gas flow, and liquid fuel system parameters, while maintaining standard boiler safety cutouts. Exhaust analysis equipment was installed to allow measurements of particulate matter (PM), NO, CO, and unburned hydrocarbons (HC). Shadowgraphy spray imaging and phase-Doppler particle analysis (PDPA) was performed on non-reacting fuel sprays to investigate atomization phenomena. Ethanol was mixed with the pyrolysis oil at various concentrations and tested to determine the ideal concentration for spay and combustion performance. Combustion tests were conducted in the boiler using #2 fuel oil, natural gas, pyrolysis oil, and mixtures of ethanol and pyrolysis oil. Ethanol pyrolysis oil mixtures were primarily investigated while varying nozzles and nozzle conditions, overall equivalence ratio, and ethanol content of the mixture utilizing a natural gas pilot light and a natural gas co-fire to increase flame stability and broaden the range of stable conditions. Combustion results showed very high emissions with a pressure atomizing nozzle and low emissions with an air atomized nozzle, agreeing with spray imaging results. By optimizing atomization air pressure and equivalence ratio, PM, CO, and HC were brought down to levels near typical fuel oil combustion emissions with ethanol content as low as 20%. NO was relatively unaffected by nozzle conditions, equivalence
Electrospray Ionization Traveling Wave Ion Mobility Spectrometry Mass Spectrometry for the Analysis of Plant Phenolics: An Approach for Separation of Regioisomers

The use of ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) coupled to mass spectrometry (IMS–MS) for biomolecule analyses has steadily increased over the past two decades, and is now applied to both proteomic and metabolomic investigations. This chapter describes the application of traveling-wave ion-mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry (TWIMS–MS) to the analysis of a selection of bioactive phytochemicals used in dietary supplements. Applications include the analysis of grape seed proanthocyanidins and the structural characterization of bioactive constituents of dietary supplements using TWIMS-MS in conjunction with tandem mass spectrometry. We also discussed is the application of TWIMS-MS for the gas-phase mobility separation of structural isomers and the estimation of collision cross sections for a small selection of phenolic compounds from hop Recent applications of IMS–MS to a broad range of biomolecule measurements have demonstrated that IMS–MS has emerged as a powerful analytical technique capable of providing the separation space necessary to analyze highly complex samples. We give a perspective on emerging applications of IMS–MS for small molecule and biopolymer applications.The combination of devices that allow real-time monitoring of living systems using IMS–MS is an exciting avenue of facilitating system-biology experiments. The future of IMS–MS is bright and full of opportunities.
Molecular Mechanisms of Platelet Adhesion and Platelet Aggregation

Certain primitive cell systems, such as cellular slime molds, exist either in unicellular vegetative forms or in a differentiated state in which they become adhesive and aggregate into a multicellular structure. An example of this mechanism of cellular behavior is shown in Figure 1, which illustrates the life cycle of Acrasis rosea, an acrasid cellular slime mold. The uninucleate ameboid cells move, divide by binary fission, deplete the local environment of the food supply, aggregate, and form fruiting bodies. The mechanisms associated with the development of the adhesive state have been studied most extensively in the dictyostelid cellular slime molds. When the cells of this species become adhesive, they synthesize surface polyvalent carbohydrate-binding proteins or lectins that mediate cell to cell adhesion (Frasier and Glaser, 1979; Barondes, 1981). This stage of the cell cycle is associated with activation of a large number of new genes (Blumberg et al., 1982), presumably coding for cell-surface proteins that mediate the conversion to the adhesive state. Cell adhesion culminating in aggregation takes place via the interaction of carbohydrate-binding sites of a cell-surface lectin with oligosaccharides on membrane glycoprotein receptors. The initial interaction of one lectin molecule with one receptor oligosaccharide followed by binding at multiple sites leads to rapid and stable cohesion (aggregation). Discoidin I and II, two closely related galactose-binding lectins synthesized by Dictyostelium dis coideum during the conversion from the noncohesive to the aggregating cohesive stage, may function at different stages of the aggregation process by binding to different oligosaccharide-containing receptors at the cell surface (Berger and Armant, 1982). Thus, at least in primitive systems, the aggregation process appears to involve the sequential exposure of a family of cell-surface recognition molecules, some of which serve as lectins. It is probable that human platelets may recapitulate some of these primitive cellular responses during the process of agonist-induced aggregation.
Ensuring State and Municipal Solvency: A Financial Innovations Lab Report

As the recession drags on, states and municipalities find themselves in a deep hole. For the first time since the Great Depression, income, sales and property taxes have declined in unison. The cyclical challenges are clear: falling tax receipts, high unemployment, tepid investment returns, and overall economic uncertainty.But even more daunting are the long-term structural issues that are simultaneously coming to a head: trillions of dollars in unfunded pension obligations, the escalating costs of other post-employment benefits (OPEB), record numbers of retirees poised to tap pensions and benefits, increasing longevity, and significant revenue/expenditure mismatches.Against this urgent backdrop, the Milken Institute and the Kauffman Foundation hosted a Financial Innovations Lab in July 2010. Unlike any previous meeting addressing current conditions in state and municipal finance, the Lab brought together a diverse group of state and local officials, union representatives, experts from the capital markets, money managers, academics, public-sector attorneys, and representatives from bond rating agencies. Together they explored both immediate fixes and broader strategies that could help prevent future crises.It’s clear that achieving long-term solvency for states and municipalities will require painful paradigm shifts. There is no simple approach that will work for all 91,000 local governmental units in the U.S. But the sooner governments address their long-term structural challenges, the better off they and their residents will be. The short-term expediency of simply laying off workers to meet hard budget constraints is not sustainable in the long run and will deprive citizens of services (safety, sanitation, education) they want and deserve. The Lab produced some noteworthy options, including: adopting standardized actuarial assumptions, perhaps similar to corporate-sector accounting standards; implementing multi-year budgeting plans/rainy-day funds; reassessing possible economies of scale from shared services/consolidation; bringing together all the key stakeholders - government workers and the unions that represent them, bondholders, and citizen-taxpayers - in jurisdictions facing the most immediate problems to find ways of sharing the burden of fiscal adjustment to ensure long-run solvency; establishing control boards as a last resort for states and municipalities in extreme distress; possibly providing short-term federal aid to states and municipalities that actively implement steps to restructure their finances.The Lab sparked a critical conversation, and this report summarizes the information and perspectives shared during the day’s proceedings.
Cumulative classroom quality during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and children's language, literacy, and mathematics skills

Abstract Prior research indicates that preschool classroom quality is positively associated with children’s emergent academic skills at the end of the preschool period, but these associations appear to diminish during kindergarten (K). To consider the accumulation of classroom experiences during preschool and K, data were drawn from a sample of children (N = 1015) who participated in state-funded pre-K programs across six states and were followed into the spring of K. We examined if pre-K and K classroom quality were associated with children’s language, literacy, and mathematics skills in the spring of K after controlling for pre-K entry skills, child background demographics, and other classroom covariates. Classroom quality was assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. We found that additive cumulative effects described associations between classroom quality and children’s language and literacy outcomes. For language skills, higher-quality pre-K Instructional Support predicted better K language skills at all levels of Instructional Support quality in K, but higher-quality K Instructional Support also contributed to the prediction of better K language skills in an additive manner. For literacy skills, higher-quality pre-K Instructional Support, Emotional Support, and Classroom Management predicted better K literacy skills at all levels of K quality, but each domain of K quality also contributed to the prediction of better K literacy skills in an additive manner. In contrast, for mathematics, we found that multiplicative cumulative effects described associations between classroom quality and K mathematics skills such that the positive predictive effect of pre-K Instructional Support and Emotional Support was enhanced as the level of K quality increased in each of these domains, respectively. Moreover, sensitivity analyses revealed that higher-quality pre-K Instructional Support and Emotional Support significantly predicted better K mathematics skills for children who experienced high, but not average or low levels of K quality in these domains, respectively. Implications are discussed in relation to classroom quality alignment during pre-K and the early elementary grades.
Increased Prevalence of Concomitant Psychiatric Diagnoses Among Patients Undergoing Hip Arthroscopic Surgery.

Background:Active patients with musculoskeletal pain are not immune to psychological or psychiatric disease. Observations suggest that patients undergoing hip arthroscopic surgery may have an incre...
Abstract B169: Engineering phase separation of multivalent signaling proteins through the solubility of folded protein domains

Similar to three-dimensional membraneless organelles, it has been demonstrated that T-cell LAT signaling clusters form through multi-valency driven phase separation. This phase separated cluster was found to promote Arp2/3-complex driven actin assembly in vitro and correlated with increased ERK phosphorylation in cells. However, in this initial study, perturbations used to study phase separation also affect interactions known to be important for T-cell signaling, convoluting the impact of phase separation on signaling with effects due to changes in canonical biochemical interactions. To understand more precisely the role of phase separation in T-cell signaling, I will alter the solubility of folded domains through mutations of surface charged residues to modulate their phase separation propensities, independent of their high-affinity ligand binding interactions. To demonstrate the validity of this approach, I have first applied it to a synthetic system, based on multivalent interactions between the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) and the SUMO interaction motif (SIM), which will enable us to provide design principles that can be used on T-cell receptor signaling proteins. I demonstrate that it is possible to specifically alter the solubility of folded domains without altering their canonical molecular interactions. The solubility of individual folded domains serves as a predictor of the concentration threshold of phase separation, and phase separation can either be enhanced or abolished with a single mutation. Principles gained from this work on SUMO/SIM will be applied to multivalent proteins involved T-cell receptor signaling, namely Grb2 and Nck1, and the relationship between phase separation and signaling will be firmly established with future implications for rational engineering of T-cells. Citation Format: Jonggul Kim, Jonathon Ditlev, Michael K. Rosen. Engineering phase separation of multivalent signaling proteins through the solubility of folded protein domains [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fourth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; Sept 30-Oct 3, 2018; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2019;7(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B169.
Can smoking lead to delay in diagnosis of prostate cancer

e16011 Background: Measurement of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) is an important marker for diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). Hence any variable affecting its levels could potentially have...
Challenging White Jesus: Race and the Undergraduate Bible Classroom

In this article, we offer analysis of and propose means of resistance to White Jesus in undergraduate Bible survey courses. White Jesus functions as a proxy for the operation of white normativity i...
A Projective Phase Space Generator for Hadronic Vector Boson Plus One Jet Production

In this paper we use our previously developed projective phase space generator for the calculation of the hadronic production of a vector boson with one additional jet at Next-to-Leading Order. The projective phase space generator allows us to make physical predictions in novel ways, speeding up both evaluation time and attainable accuracy. For the numerical evaluation we explore a computational model which combines the use of both multi-threading and distributed resources through the use of grid or cloud computing without depending on local institutional computer availability. The projective phase space method is well suited for this approach and gives through the use of cloud computing instant access to a large pool of resources.
125Iodine implantation for carcinoma of the prostate: 5-year survival free of disease and incidence of local failure.

AbstractInterstitial implantation with the 125iodine isotope has been used as definitive treatment in 115 patients with localized carcinoma of the prostate. The disease was staged surgically by bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy in all of the patients. Followup has been for a minimum of 1 year and 64 patients have been followed for a minimum of 5 years. There has been no operative mortality in this series. Mean patient age at implantation was 63 years. Potency has been maintained in 31 of 46 patients (78 per cent) followed for a minimum of 5 years and 15 of 26 (58 per cent) followed for a minimum of 7 years.At 5 years the actuarial survival free of disease by surgical stage was 100, 81, 49 and 41 per cent for patients with stages A2, B, C and Dl disease, respectively. All 7 patients with stage Bl nodules followed to 5 years are free of disease. The actuarial survival free of disease by grade at 5 years was 95 per cent for patients with well, 65 per cent with moderately and 34 per cent with poorly differenti...
Distortion Analysis of $RC$ Integrators With Wideband Input Signals

The integrator is an important building block in circuit design and its transfer characteristic is inherently frequency-dependent. When it is implemented as an $RC$ op-amp circuit, a nonlinear element (the amplifier) is placed within a frequency-dependent feedback loop. Conventional techniques allow us to obtain the nonlinear error easily at certain frequencies only. Furthermore, when the integrator is periodically reset, the circuit is not in steady-state and conventional techniques assuming a steady-state behavior do not apply. It is not obvious how the actual error relates to the circuit parameters when the integrator is driven with a wideband signal. In this paper we present an approach to quickly estimate the normalized mean squared error (NMSE) as a function of the circuit and signal parameters. We show that, to first-order, the NMSE is proportional to the ratio of the signal bandwidth and the dominant pole of the integrator. For an integrator with reset, the signal builds up from zero and results in an additional, integration-time dependent NMSE reduction.