cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Design of a Fission 99Mo Recovery Process and Implications toward Mo Adsorption Mechanism on Titania and Alumina Sorbents

Molybdenum-99 is the parent of the most widely used medical isotope technetium-99m. Proliferation concerns have prompted development of alternative Mo production methods utilizing low enriched uranium. Alumina and titania sorbents were evaluated for separation of Mo from concentrated uranyl nitrate solutions. System, mass transfer, and isotherm parameters were determined to enable design of Mo separation processes under a wide range of conditions. A model-based approach was utilized to design representative commercial-scale column processes. The designs and parameters were verified with bench-scale experiments. The results are essential for design of Mo separation processes from irradiated uranium solutions, selection of support material, and process optimization. Mo uptake studies show that adsorption decreases with increasing concentration of uranyl nitrate; however, examination of Mo adsorption as a function of nitrate ion concentration shows no dependency, indicating that uranium competes with Mo for ...
Review of interferometric spectroscopy of scattered light for the quantification of subdiffractional structure of biomaterials.

Optical microscopy is the staple technique in the examination of microscale material structure in basic science and applied research. Of particular importance to biology and medical research is the visualization and analysis of the weakly scattering biological cells and tissues. However, the resolution of optical microscopy is limited to ≥200 nm due to the fundamental diffraction limit of light. We review one distinct form of the spectroscopic microscopy (SM) method, which is founded in the analysis of the second-order spectral statistic of a wavelength-dependent bright-field far-zone reflected-light microscope image. This technique offers clear advantages for biomedical research by alleviating two notorious challenges of the optical evaluation of biomaterials: the diffraction limit of light and the lack of sensitivity to biological, optically transparent structures. Addressing the first issue, it has been shown that the spectroscopic content of a bright-field microscope image quantifies structural composition of samples at arbitrarily small length scales, limited by the signal-to-noise ratio of the detector, without necessarily resolving them. Addressing the second issue, SM utilizes a reference arm, sample arm interference scheme, which allows us to elevate the weak scattering signal from biomaterials above the instrument noise floor.
Developing IEEE P21451 compatible IoT networks utilizing readily available development platforms

The increasing popularity of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) means that there is little conformity among IoT development environments. This has led to the creation of a large number of IoT devices and applications, which are based on proprietary approaches. In order to facilitate more interoperability among IoT devices and applications, the ISO/IEC/IEEE P21451 family of standards is currently being updated. To facilitate rapid testing and development of smart transducer networked devices, we describe our work, which is focused on developing implementations and libraries of code to work with readily available embedded development platforms. We describe the preliminary work accomplished to date for developing compliant network entities as well as progress toward developing a building-sized test bed for this standard. With our initial work, students and researchers at Rowan University will have access to a living smart sensor network which can be used both as a development platform as well as a research opportunity.
Six-Minute Walk Test as a Measure of Walking Capacity in Ambulatory Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Abstract Objective To determine the validity of the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) as an outcome measure to evaluate walking capacity in ambulatory patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Design Observational study. Setting Multidisciplinary ALS clinic at an academic medical center. Participants Patients with ALS (N=186) who ambulate without (stage I) or with (stage II) an assistive device. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measure Walking distance obtained from the 6MWT. Results Participants performed the 6MWT, 25-foot walk test (25FWT), Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, lower extremity maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R), and forced vital capacity (FVC). Walking capacity was reduced to 66% predicted of healthy subjects (75.2%±22% in stage I; 42.6%±22% in stage II). The 6MWT correlated with all other outcome measures in ambulatory patients with ALS (25FWT: r=−.74, P≤.0001; TUG test: r=−.80, P≤.0001; MVIC: r=.64, P≤.0001; percent predicted FVC: r=.25, P≤.0007; ALSFRS-R: r=.52, P≤.0001; ALSFRS-R gross motor subscore: r=.71, P≤.0001). When ambulatory patients with ALS were stratified by stage of ambulation, the 6MWT was associated with all other outcome measures in stage I (25FWT: r=−.56, P≤.0001; TUG test: r=−.66, P≤.0001; MVIC: r=.51, P≤.0001; percent predicted FVC: r=.40, P≤.02; ALSFRS-R: r=.52, P≤.0001; ALSFRS-R gross motor subscore: r=.61, P≤.0001). In stage II, the 6MWT correlated with the 25FWT (r=−.83, P≤.0001), TUG test (r=−.77, P≤.0001), MVIC (r=.47, P≤.0001), and ALSFRS gross motor subscore (r=.61, P≤.0001), but not with percent predicted FVC (r=.09, P≤.513) or ALSFRS-R (r=.21, P≤.141). Conclusions The 6MWT is a valid measure of walking capacity of ambulatory patients with ALS that is associated with measures of lower extremity muscle strength and function in both stages of ambulation. The discordance between the 6MWT with the ALSFRS-R and percent predicted FVC in stage II ambulatory patients with ALS indicates that the 6MWT is an independent measure of ambulatory function in both stages of ambulation. The 6MWT may provide a quantitative, simple, and inexpensive outcome measure of walking capacity for early stage clinical trials in ambulatory patients with ALS.
Theoretical Foundations of Appeals Used in Alcohol-Abuse and Drunk-Driving Public Service Announcements in the United States, 1995-2010.

Purpose:The study identifies the extent to which theoretical constructs drawn from well-established message effect communication theories are reflected in the content of alcohol-related public serv...
Uranium Isotope Separation and Its Demand on Laser Development

The economic gains to be realized through a more efficient uranium isotope separation process have been described many times in the last few years and should be common knowledge to all members of this meeting. Similarly the demand for enriched uranium as a fuel source has been detailed and because of the magnitude of this demand a large through-put of natural material is required in any process. For this reason our research efforts are naturally directed towards implementation of processes employing uranium compounds for these highly bonded forms will have the highest volatility. Of all currently known uranium compounds the molecule UF6 exhibits the highest vapor pressure and is an obvious candidate for study in regard to a uranium LIS plan.
Improving central line maintenance to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections.

Objective A human factors engineering-based intervention aimed at the modification of task behavior to increase adherence to best practices and the reduction of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). The hypothesis was tested that a central line maintenance kit would improve adherence and reduce CLABSI compared with a standard, nonkit-based method of performing central line maintenance. Design The study design was a 29-month prospective, interventional, nonrandomized, observational, and clinical research study using a pre–post implementation assessment. Setting The study was conducted at a tertiary hospital in the southwestern United States, with participants recruited from a total of 6 patient units (including intensive care units and general wards) . Participants A total of 95 nurses and 151 patients volunteered to participate in the study. Intervention A central line maintenance kit was developed that incorporated human factors engineering design principles. This kit was implemented hospitalwide during the clinical study to assess the intervention's influence on protocol adherence and clinical outcomes compared with a preimplementation control condition (no kit use). Results The results of this clinical observations study suggest that a human factors engineering-based kit improved adherence to best practices during central line maintenance. In addition, the number of CLABSIs was significantly reduced during the postimplementation period. Conclusions The application of human factors engineering design principles in the development of medical kits can improve protocol adherence and clinical outcomes.
Duration of Mechanical Ventilation in the Emergency Department

Author(s): Angotti, Lauren B.; Richards, Jeremy; Fisher, Daniel F.; Sankoff, Jeffrey D.; Seigel, Todd A.; Al Ashry, Haitham S.; Wilcox, Susan R. | Abstract: Introduction: Due to hospital crowding, mechanically ventilated patients are increasinglyspending hours boarding in emergency departments (ED) before intensive care unit (ICU)admission. This study aims to evaluate the association between time ventilated in the ED and inhospitalmortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS).Methods: This was a multi-center, prospective, observational study of patients ventilated in theED, conducted at three academic Level I Trauma Centers from July 2011 to March 2013. Allconsecutive adult patients on invasive mechanical ventilation were eligible for enrollment. Weperformed a Cox regression to assess for a mortality effect for mechanically ventilated patientswith each hour of increasing LOS in the ED and multivariable regression analyses to assessfor independently significant contributors to in-hospital mortal ity. Our primary outcome was inhospitalmortality, with secondary outcomes of ventilator days, ICU LOS and hospital LOS. Wefurther commented on use of lung protective ventilation and frequency of ventilator changesmade in this cohort.Results: We enrolled 535 patients, of whom 525 met all inclusion criteria. Altered mental statuswithout respiratory pathology was the most common reason for intubation, followed by traumaand respiratory failure. Using iterated Cox regression, a mortality effect occurred at ED time ofmechanical ventilation g 7 hours, and the longer ED stay was also associated with a longer totalduration of intubation. However, adjusted multivariable regression analysis demonstrated onlyolder age and admission to the neurosciences ICU as independently associated with increasedmortality. Of interest, only 23.8% of patients ventilated in the ED for over seven hours hadchanges made to their ventilator.Conclusion: In a prospective observational study of patients mechanically ventilated in the ED,there was a significant mortality benefit to expedited transfer o f patients into an appropriate ICUsetting. [West J Emerg Med. 2017;18(5)972-979.]
Dynamic Authentication Protocol Using Self-Powered Timers for Passive Internet of Things

Passive Internet of Things (IoT) like radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used to offer a wide range of services, such as object tracking or classification, marking ownership, noting boundaries, and indicating identities. While the communication link between a reader of the tag and the authentication server is generally assumed to be secure, the communication link between the reader and participating tags is mostly vulnerable to malicious acts. Many authentication protocols have been proposed in literature, however, they either are vulnerable to certain types of attacks or require prohibitively a large amount of computational resources to be implemented on a passive tag. In this paper, we present variants of a novel authentication protocol that can overcome the security flaws of previous protocols while being well suited to the computational capability of the tags. At the core of the proposed approach is our recently demonstrated self-powered timing devices that can be used for robust time-keeping and synchronization without the need for any external powering. The outputs of the timers are processed using a single hash function on the tag to produce tokens that continuously change with time, while being synchronized to tokens generated by the authentication server. The proposed protocol also incorporates margins of tolerance that make the authentication process robust to any deviations in the timer responses due to fabrication artifacts.
Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex-E2 deficiency causes paroxysmal exercise-induced dyskinesia.

Paroxysmal exercise-induced dyskinesia (PED) is a rare disorder characterized by episodes of choreoathetosis or dystonia triggered by several minutes of exercise such as walking or running.1 Mutations in various genes have been associated with PED.1 We report a patient with intellectual disability and this unique phenotype associated with homozygous missense mutation in the DLAT gene (c.470T>G; p.Val157Gly) that encodes the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC). This case of PED associated with DLAT mutations broadens the phenotypic spectrum for this ultra-rare condition and widens the range of potentially treatable PEDs.
Experiments on the effects of a spacer grid in air-water two-phase flow

Understanding the effects of spacer grids on the coolant flow through a nuclear reactor core is required for best-estimate design and analysis of the plant. The impact of a spacer grid on two-phase...
From Efficiency to Politics in Contractual Choice of Law

Enforcement of contractual choice of law can promote the application and development of efficient legal rules. However, state lawmakers can be expected to resist such enforcement because it erodes their lawmaking power. Efficiency and politics can, however, be reconciled by recognizing that parties' ability to move around within a federal system gives lawmakers incentives to enforce the clauses except where there is strong local support for regulation overriding enforcement of contractual choice. These countervailing forces help ensure that choice-of-law clauses will be enforced where enforcement is most likely to be efficient. They also suggest that party residence in designated and regulating jurisdictions should determine enforceability of contractual choice. These conclusions are supported by an analysis of nearly 700 cases involving enforcement of choice-of-law clauses. This Article also proposes a specific model statute on contractual choice of law that is generally consistent with case law but provides additional clarity and predictability.
Professional Boundaries: Safeguarding the Physician–Patient Relationship

Physicians have a fiduciary relationship to patients; they must promote patient well being ahead of their own interests. Safeguarding this relationship requires identifying and respecting certain boundaries between physicians and patients. Requests for personal favors by the patient or physician, as well as transitions to personal and even romantic relationships all represent potential boundary violations. Although there is no set of rules that addresses all boundary crossings and violations, certain case-based guidelines are given to assist dermatologists in better managing these situations.
Symmetries and Epistemic Reasoning

The paper studies epistemic properties of symmetric communication protocols. It proposes a logical system describing properties common to all protocols with the same group of symmetries. This system is an extension of the standard epistemic logic S5 by a new axiom, capturing properties of symmetry in the modal language. The main results are soundness and completeness theorems for this logical system.
Power Management of Cache-Enabled Cooperative Base Stations Towards Zero Grid Energy

With the increasing demand of high-speed mobile data transmission, densely deployed small cell base stations capable of caching popular contents have recently emerged as a promising technique to improve the quality of service for mobile users. In this paper, we investigate the cooperative transmission and power management problem for a set of ``off-grid'' base stations in a cellular network hierarchy that are powered solely by on-site renewable energy sources. The network throughput maximization problem is mathematically formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming problem. In the proposed formulation, a base station can adjust its transmission power in a coordinated multipoint communication scheme and/or switch to a "sleep mode" for energy saving. Based on the Lyapunov optimization theory, an efficient near-optimal solution method is proposed with provable bound of the optimality gap. Experimental results on a realistic setup show that the proposed algorithm can achieve up to 2.96x download throughput per user compared to some baseline algorithms.
The Internet's Hidden Rules: An Empirical Study of Reddit Norm Violations at Micro, Meso, and Macro Scales

Norms are central to how online communities are governed. Yet, norms are also emergent, arise from interaction, and can vary significantly between communities---making them challenging to study at scale. In this paper, we study community norms on Reddit in a large-scale, empirical manner. Via 2.8M comments removed by moderators of 100 top subreddits over 10 months, we use both computational and qualitative methods to identify three types of norms: macro norms that are universal to most parts of Reddit; meso norms that are shared across certain groups of subreddits; and micro norms that are specific to individual, relatively unique subreddits. Given the size of Reddit's user base---and the wide range of topics covered by different subreddits---we argue this represents the first large-scale census of the norms in broader internet culture. In other words, these findings shed light on what Reddit values, and how widely-held those values are. We conclude by discussing implications for the design of new and existing online communities.
Preglacial paleotopography at the eastern terminus of the Plum River Fault Zone, Ogle County, Illinois

The purpose of this study is to deconstruct the relationship between the Leaf River anticline and the preglacial bedrock paleotopography at the eastern terminus of the Plum River Fault Zone in Ogle County, Illinois, using a geostatistical approach. The contour maps derived from the elevation models provided detailed depictions of the ancient bedrock landscape and subsurface structure in the study area. The Leaf River anticline is interpreted to be a component of hanging-wall anticline at the terminus of the Plum River Fault Zone. The topographic high created by the anticline controlled local drainage and led to the development of the Leaf River paleovalley prior to the Pleistocene. The catastrophic failure of an ice damn during the Illinois glacial episode carved a glacial spillway into the north flank of the Leaf River anticline that interfaced with a tributary of the Leaf River paleovalley. This rerouted the preglacial drainage network and permanently diverted the ancient Rock River to its modern-day position. Ultimately, the subsurface geometry of the Leaf River anticline and its relationship to the local bedrock paleotopography were revealed by the elevation models. The position and development of the Leaf River paleovalley and glacial spillway interpreted in this study aligned with the regional interpretations for the evolution of the ancient bedrock landscape established in prior works. However, this study revealed that the Leaf River anticline and, by association, the terminus of the Plum River Fault Zone extend farther east into the region than indicated by prior works.
Closing the Photovoltaic Supply Chain Loop - Invest Now for Future Returns

Closing the photovoltaic supply chain loop entails developing a robust reverse loop and integrating it with the traditional forward-facing supply chain. To do so, product design modifications are needed to ease disassembly to broaden end-of-life options and also integrate component materials into new products. From a business perspective, this report describes the unique challenges found in closing the photovoltaic supply chain loop and provides guidelines on managing current investments to improve future returns.
A Reflective Case Study in Family Medicine Advance Care Planning Conversations

Advance care planning conversations traditionally have been promoted using the Standard of Substituted Judgment and the Standard of Best Interests. In practice, both are often inadequate. Patients frequently avoid these conversations completely, making substituted judgment decisions nearly impossible. Surrogates are also often unable to make clinical decisions representing the best interests of family members as patients. Many physicians are unskilled at discussing these difficult and complex decisions with surrogates as well. Using an integrative family medicine ethics approach, we present a case study that demonstrates how skillful family physicians might introduce and conduct these conversations at routine office appointments, reconciling ethical theory with both patient-centered and physician-centered considerations in a practical and time-sensitive fashion. We believe 3 physician behaviors will help prepare patients to engage their surrogates and help empower surrogates to serve their role well, if and when that time comes: 1) thinking broadly about clinical issues and ethical considerations; 2) engaging in a mindful and contemporaneous deliberation with the patient-and surrogate when appropriate and possible-about these issues and considerations; and 3) cultivating a reflective responsiveness to these interactions, both when things go well and when they do not.
Acute total hip arthroplasty versus open reduction internal fixation for posterior wall acetabular fractures in middle-aged patients.

Introduction Open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) is the standard of care for displaced acetabular fractures, but the inability to achieve anatomic reduction, involvement of the posterior wall, articular impaction, and femoral head cartilaginous injury are known to lead to poorer outcomes. Acute total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a reasonable treatment option for older patients with an acetabular fracture and risk factors for a poor outcome, but it is only described in case series. The purpose of this study is to compare outcomes of ORIF and acute THA in middle-aged patients with an acetabular fracture from a single center. Methods Retrospective case-controlled study of patients aged 45 to 65 years old with acetabular fractures involving the posterior wall treated with acute THA or ORIF at a level 1 trauma center between 1996 and 2011. Patients were matched by fracture pattern and age at a 2 (ORIF):1 (acute THA) ratio. Functional outcome, complications, and reoperation rates of acute THA and ORIF were compared. Results Sixteen acute THA patients (average age 56.4 years) and 32 ORIF patients (average age 54.3 years) were evaluated at an average follow-up of 6.2 years (range 1-15.2). The average Oxford Hip Score in the acute THA group was 44 compared to 40 in the ORIF group (P = .075). Complication rates were similar between both the groups. Twelve hips (37%) in the ORIF group had undergone THA or been referred for THA, and 2 revisions (13%) had occurred in the acute THA group. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that those undergoing acute THA had significantly better survival of their index procedure (P = .031). Conclusions Both ORIF and acute THA for high-energy acetabular fractures involving the posterior wall in middle-aged patients can provide excellent results, with acute THA patients achieving improved survival of the index procedure and improved functional scores.
Political Ideology Predicts Attitudes toward Moral Transgressors

Abstract We combine recent theoretical advances in the study of morality with a growing interest in the predictive power of political ideology to test new hypotheses concerning impression formation. In two experiments (total N = 3881), newly-formed attitudes depended upon United States citizens’ political ideology and the moral content of the attitude induction. Specifically, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Care/Fairness, political liberals disliked the person more than did conservatives. In contrast, when forming impressions of a person violating moral foundations of Loyalty/Authority/Purity, conservatives disliked the person more than did liberals. This work establishes that ideological differences are important not only for long-standing attitudes and judgments, but create attitudinal divides at the earliest stages of evaluation.
Linkage of Marine Bacterial Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid and Long-Chain Hydrocarbon Biosynthesis.

Various marine gamma-proteobacteria produce omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5, EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6, DHA), which are incorporated into membrane phospholipids. Five genes, designated pfaABCDE, encode the polyketide/fatty acid synthase necessary for production of these long-chain fatty acids. In addition to de novo biosynthesis of EPA and DHA, the “Pfa synthase” is also involved with production of a long-chain polyunsaturated hydrocarbon product (31:9, PUHC) in conjunction with the oleABCD hydrocarbon biosynthesis pathway. In this work, we demonstrate that OleA mediates the linkage between these two pathways in vivo. Co-expression of pfaA-E along with oleA from Shewanella pealeana in Escherichia coli yielded the expected product, a 31:8 ketone along with a dramatic ~10-fold reduction in EPA content. The decrease in EPA content was independent of 31:8 ketone production as co-expression of an OleA active site mutant also led to identical decreases in EPA content. We also demonstrate that a gene linked with either pfa and/or ole operons in diverse bacterial lineages, herein designated pfaT, plays an accessory role in maintaining optimal production of Pfa synthase derived products in Photobacterium and Shewanella species.
Exile from Main Street

There is a growing web of policing-based housing policies that prohibit people who have had contact with the criminal legal system from living in public, subsidized, or private rental housing. Taken together, these policies put stable and affordable housing out of reach for many people who may find themselves excluded from the communities they call home. This web of restrictions is consistent with America’s broader embrace of exile in response to perceived threats and is rapidly expanding against a backdrop of mass criminalization. While individual policing-based housing policies have received some scholarly attention, little has been written about their cumulative impact, and the central role that mass criminalization plays in locking people out of housing. When the full array of restrictions on public and private housing is scrutinized, it becomes clear that stable and affordable housing is put out of reach for many. The desire to punish and exclude has overwhelmed the need to provide housing, opportunity, and second chances. As more municipalities and public housing authorities adopt policing-based housing policies, housing options constrict. As a result, individuals who have contact with the criminal legal system, and their families, are effectively exiled — cast out by society. This Article examines how the entanglement of policing-based housing policies and the criminal legal system threatens to push already marginalized people further to the edges of society, while also circumscribing the mobility of people of color who have the means and desire to live in integrated spaces. The Article encourages a more holistic analysis of these policies and a de-coupling of the criminal legal system from housing policy to prevent unnecessary burdens on the “right” to housing.
Breeding and diet of White-tailed Kites (Elanus leucurus) in the Texas panhandle

ABSTRACT White-tailed Kites (Elanus leucurus) are grassland raptors that typically breed along coastal regions, particularly in California, southeastern Texas, and southern Florida. This species is...
Laboratory Experiment for Evaluating Characteristics of Spontaneous Combustion

The propensity of spontaneous combustion of coals can be evaluated qualitatively in laboratories by a wide variety of methods with different techniques. Three widely used methods, R70, TGA, and USBM, have been introduced to assess the propensity for coal’s spontaneous combustion. Methodology, experimental instruments, testing procedures, and testing results of the experiments performed with TGA, USBM method, and R70 adiabatic oxidation method are demonstrated and discussed specifically in this chapter. Coal samples retarded with and without inhibitors are tested with TGA for calculating the activation energy in the oxidation stage for inhibitor selection. FTIR experiments have conducted to investigate the effect of coal molecular structure on the self-heating behavior of coal. The trends and features of FTIR spectra for high and low propensity coals are basically similar. Variations only appear in adsorption peak height and intensity, indicating that the number of functional groups and the chemical structure of coals are quite different from one to another. For one type of coal, the abundance of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and carbonyl groups contributes to its high reactivity, instability, and susceptibility to oxidation and spontaneous combustion.
Triggers of rumination

Abstract This chapter explores reasons why people ruminate. After first describing the influential control theory of rumination, I explore how rumination can be conceptualized in terms of Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) coping theory. I then examine the empirical evidence showing that various negative emotions trigger rumination. The chapter then explores ways that stressful events trigger rumination, including characteristics of stressors that make rumination more likely, as well as research on three major types of triggers: interpersonal, childhood, and stigma-related stressors.
Abstract IA17: Defining cancer dependency maps

Although molecular profiling of human tumors is becoming increasingly routine, the use of this data to guide remains limited to a subset of patients. To complement genome characterization studies, we have used genome-scale gain- and loss-of-function approaches to identify genes required for cell survival and transformation. Specifically, we have used advances in synthetic gene synthesis to prospectively interrogate all possible alleles of known cancer genes. In parallel, we have performed both genome-scale RNAi and CRISPR-Cas9 screens in hundreds of cancer cell lines to identify differentially essential genes and the context that specifies gene dependency. Integrating these studies with genome characterization of human tumors and protein-protein interaction databases facilitates the identification of genes and pathways required for the survival of specific cancer subtypes. In recent studies, we have expanded these efforts to patient-derived organoids and cell lines, which will expand the number and types of cancers represented and allow for the interrogation of other cancer phenotypes. These studies allow us to define a global cancer dependencies map, which will help further operationalize precision cancer medicine. Citation Format: William C. Hahn. Defining cancer dependency maps [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Evolving Landscape of Cancer Modeling; 2020 Mar 2-5; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(11 Suppl):Abstract nr IA17.
Merely a ‘Scrap of Paper’? The Outer Space Treaty in Historical Perspective

In 1967, the United States, the Soviet Union, and dozens of other countries ratified the Outer Space Treaty [OST], a signal diplomatic agreement that outlawed nuclear weapons from space, forbade mi...
Learning the Truth in Social Networks Using Multi-Armed Bandit

This paper explains how agents in a social network can learn the arbitrary time-varying true state of the network. This is practical in social networks where information is released and updated without any coordination. Most existing literature for learning the true state using the non-Bayesian learning approach, assumes that this true state is fixed, which is impractical. To address this problem, the social network is modeled as a graph network, and the time-varying true state is treated as a multi-armed bandit problem. The few works that have applied multi-armed bandit to a social network did not take into consideration the adversarial effects. Therefore, this paper proposes two non-stochastic multi-armed bandit algorithms that can handle the time-varying true state, even in the presence of an oblivious adversary. Regret bounds on the algorithms are obtained, and the simulation performance shows that all agents can converge to the most stable state. The sublinearity of the proposed algorithms is also compared with two well-known non-stochastic multi-armed bandit algorithms.
Rapid Adoption of Telehealth at an Interprofessional Student-Run Free Clinic

Introduction Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) have become important primary care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. With students pulled from clinical sites, funding deficits, SRFCs' voluntary nature, and no best practices for telehealth SRFCs, many have been forced to close. This report shares a systematic approach for implementing a telehealth clinic along with initial outcomes from the Dedicated to Aurora's Wellness and Needs (DAWN) SRFC. Methods We utilized pilots with students, community volunteers, and patients to identify a telehealth platform. We implemented weekly plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles to develop a feasible interprofessional telehealth model. Key PDSA cycle goals included seamless utilization of platform, identification of necessary team members, appropriate scheduling of patients and volunteers, integration of interprofessional learners, positive patient and volunteer experience, and process for identifying and addressing patient social needs. Measured outcomes included total visits, no-show rates, and chief complaints addressed. Results Outcomes from PDSA cycles included a resultant telehealth clinic team and model, workflow for outreach for social needs screening and navigation, and team training guides. Visit data and no-show rates from January 2020 through July 2020 demonstrated total visits returned to 60% of pre-COVID numbers while no-show rates decreased significantly below pre-COVID rates. A range of acute and chronic concerns were successfully managed via telehealth. Conclusion SRFCs are poised to continue serving an important role in caring for the country's most vulnerable populations. The DAWN telehealth implementation process, outcomes, and resultant protocols may help inform other SRFCs seeking to establish telehealth services.
Carotid artery plaque characteristics: current reporting practices on CT angiography.

Extracranial ICA imaging has largely focused on the degree of luminal stenosis, but recent advances suggest specific plaque features are crucial in stroke risk assessment. We evaluated the current state of reporting carotid plaque features on neck CTAs at an academic institution. In this retrospective observational study, we included neck CTAs performed on patients over age 50 with any reported carotid plaque. We evaluated reports for mention of the following: degree of luminal stenosis, soft plaque, calcified plaque, plaque thickness, quantification of soft and calcified plaque, plaque ulceration, and increased risk associated with specific features. We used Fisher’s exact test to compare how often each feature was mentioned. We included a total of 651 reports from unique patients (mean age, 68.1 ± 13.3 years). A total of 639 reports (98.1%) explicitly mentioned degree of stenosis per NASCET criteria. Specific plaque features were less frequently characterized: soft plaque in 116 (17.8%); calcified plaque in 166 (25.5%); quantification of the amount of soft plaque and calcified plaque in 24 (3.7%) and 16 (2.5%) reports, respectively; plaque thickness in 12 (1.8%); plaque ulceration in 476 (73.1%); and increased risk associated with plaque in 2 (0.3%). Degree of stenosis was statistically more likely to be mentioned than any other plaque feature (p < 0.001). Currently, nearly all reports mention the degree of luminal stenosis on neck CTAs while a significant minority mention specific plaque features. Despite mounting evidence of the importance of carotid plaque features in stroke risk assessment, radiology reports do not routinely report these findings.
Land, the State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan

Although today's richest countries tend to have long histories of secure private property rights, legal-titling projects do little to improve the economic and political well-being of those in the developing world. This book employs a historical narrative based on secondary literature, fieldwork across thirty villages, and a nationally representative survey to explore how private property institutions develop, how they are maintained, and their relationship to the state and state-building within the context of Afghanistan. In this predominantly rural society, citizens cannot rely on the state to enforce their claims to ownership. Instead, they rely on community-based land registration, which has a long and stable history and is often more effective at protecting private property rights than state registration. In addition to contributing significantly to the literature on Afghanistan, this book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on property rights and state governance from the new institutional economics perspective.
Secretion of bispecific protein of anti-PD-1 fused with TGF-β trap enhances antitumor efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy

Despite the remarkable success of chimeric antigen receptor-modified T (CAR-T) cell therapy for blood malignancies, the clinical efficacy of this novel therapy in solid tumor treatment is largely limited by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). For instance, immune checkpoints (e.g., programmed cell death protein 1 [PD-1]/programmed death ligand 1 [PD-L1]) in TME play an important role in inhibiting T cell proliferation and functions. Transforming growth factor β (TGF)-β secreted by cancer cells in TME induces regulatory T cells (Tregs) and inhibits cytotoxic T cells. To overcome the inhibitory effect of immune checkpoints, we have previously engineered CAR-T cells to secrete anti-PD-1 to block the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway activity, a step demonstrating superior antitumor efficacy compared with conventional CAR-T cells. In this study, we engineered CAR-T cells that secrete bispecific trap protein co-targeting PD-1 and TGF-β, with the aim of further improving antitumor immunity. Compared with conventional CAR-T cells and anti-PD-1-secreting CAR-T cells, data from in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that CAR-T cells with trap protein secretion further attenuated inhibitory T cell signaling, enhanced T cell persistence and expansion, and improved effector function and resistance to exhaustion. In the xenograft mouse model, CAR-T cells with trap protein secretion exhibited significantly enhanced antitumor immunity and efficacy. With these observations, we demonstrate the potential of trap protein self-secreting CAR-T cells as a potent therapy for solid tumors.
Do You Have Password Headaches? You Are Not Alone, and It Is Unnecessary!

At least once a year — but every two or three months in many offices, the Better Business Bureau even recommended changing very month — we all receive the corporate email telling us our network passwords are expiring and it’s time to create a new one. The logic is straightforward. If a hacker happens to discover your password, the amount of time during which he or she can do damage is limited. In addition, frequently changing your password may make it less likely somebody will guess it. But none of this matches reality. For starters, if a hacker discovers your password, they don’t wait months, weeks, days or even hours to take advantage of it. They quickly move through the organization — both laterally and vertically — rapidly harvesting many more passwords along the way. So changing passwords once a year, once a month, even every few days is too late to prevent serious damage.
3-D stereo using photometric ratios

We present a novel robust methodology for corresponding a dense set of points on an object surface from photometric values, for 3-D stereo computation of depth. We use two stereo pairs of images, each pair taken of exactly the same scene but under different illumination. By respectively dividing the left images and the right images of these pairs, a stereo pair of photometric ratio images is produced. We formally show that for diffuse reflection the photometric ratio is invariant to camera characteristics, surface albedo, and viewpoint. Therefore the same photometric ratio in both images of a stereo pair implies the same equivalence class of geometric physical constraints. We derive a shape-from-stereo methodology applicable to perspective views and not requiring precise knowledge of illumination conditions. This method is particularly applicable to smooth featureless surfaces. Experimental results of our technique on smooth objects of known ground truth shape are accurate to within 1% depth accuracy.
Coupled Optimization-Simulation Water Quality Model

One of several considerations in river basin water quality management is determining treatment facilities needed to maintain stream quality standards. To deal with this problem, a stream water quality simulation model is coupled with a treatment cost minimization model. The optimization model is structured as an integer programming problem in which the integer decision variables are wastewater treatment levels to be determined for each discharger. The stream water quality simulation model, which relates pollution loading to stream quality response, generates the coefficients for the constraint equations in the optimization model. The model is applied to an example problem consisting of four pollution discharge points, at which seven possible treatment levels are available to remove four pollutant constituents. Water quality standards are imposed at five control points along the stream. Results of the optimal solution indicate the treatment level to be applied at each discharge point, the minimum total cost, and the stream quality conditions.
Asé and Amen, Sister!

At times, the academy seems devoid of justice because it emphasizes the cultivation of knowledge often denied to marginalized individuals and communities. As black queer feminist scholars doing praxis-driven theorizing from separate fields on the subject of black queer families and communities, we employ research methods that resist the dynamics of power and privilege that exist within normative researcher-participant exchanges. In this essay, we explore and highlight the ethical, justice-oriented, and dialogical relationship between researcher-scholars and research participants. Through story and theory, we illustrate and argue that autoethnographies and narrative interviews can act as epistemological excavation tools for both researchers and participants, as they become sites of individual and collective consciousness. Our work resists capitalist models of research and instead promotes a justice-oriented and community-derived building of knowledge.
Developing a Knowledge-Based System Using Domain-Specific Ontologies and Experts: The eSAFE Case Study for the Event Management

Knowledge is seen as a key strategic asset for the success and survival in today’s increasingly competitive global market place. This recognition is one of the main reasons for exponential growth in developing knowledge based applications. Recent advancements in this field have led to increased research interest in ontologies and various dynamic methods in developing and maintaining them. Ontologies have been considered one of the most efficient methodologies to develop semantic driven knowledge based systems. In this paper we describe an approach to develop an effective knowledge based system using explicit domain ontologies. We also present key principles for organising and developing content specific domain ontologies that help in knowledge acquisition and system design. The process is illustrated with the development of a knowledge based system for event management domain.
Low temperature heat capacity of Fe1−xGax alloys with large magnetostriction

The low temperature heat capacity C{sub p} of Fe{sub 1-x}Ga{sub x} alloys with large magnetostriction has been investigated. The data were analyzed in the standard way using electron ({gamma}T) and phonon ({beta}T{sup 3}) contributions. The Debye temperature {Theta}{sub D} decreases approximately linearly with increasing Ga concentration, consistent with previous resonant ultrasound measurements and measured phonon dispersion curves. Calculations of {Theta}{sub D} from lattice dynamical models and from measured elastic constants C{sub 11}, C{sub 12}, and C{sub 44} are in agreement with the measured data. The linear coefficient of electronic specific heat {gamma} remains relatively constant as the Ga concentration increases, despite the fact that the magnetoelastic coupling increases. Band structure calculations show that this is due to the compensation of majority and minority spin states at the Fermi level.
Synthesis of F pilin.

Abstract Transfer of the Escherichia coli fertility plasmid, F, is dependent on expression of F pili. Synthesis of F-pilin subunits is known to involve three F plasmid transfer (tra) region products: traA encodes the 13-kDa precursor protein, TraQ permits this to be processed to the 7-kDa pilin polypeptide, and TraX catalyzes acetylation of the pilin amino terminus. Using cloned tra sequences, we performed a series of pulse-chase experiments to investigate the effect of TraQ and TraX on the fate of the traA product. In TraQ- cells, the traA gene product was found to be very unstable. While traA polypeptides of various sizes were detected early in the chase period, almost all were degraded within 5 min. Rapid traA product degradation was also observed in TraX+ cells, although an increased percentage of these products persisted during the chase. In TraQ+ cells, most of the traA product was processed to the 7-kDa pilin polypeptide within the 1-min pulse period; this product [7(Q)] was not degraded but was increasingly converted to an 8-kDa form [8(Q)] as the chase continued, suggesting that host enzymes can modify the pilin polypeptide. Similar results were observed in TraQ+ TraX+ cells, but the primary 7-kDa product appeared to be N-acetylated pilin (Ac-7). An 8-kDa product (Ac-8) was also detected, but this band did not increase in intensity during the chase. We suggest a pathway in which TraQ prevents the traA product from folding to a readily degradable conformation and assists its entry into the membrane, Leader peptidase I cleaves the traA product signal sequence, and a subset of the pilin polypeptides becomes modified by host enzymes; TraX then acetylates the N terminal of both the modified and unmodified pilin polypeptides.