cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Visible light generation of high-valent metal-oxo intermediates and mechanistic insights into catalytic oxidations.

Abstract High-valent metal-oxo complexes play central roles as active oxygen atom transfer (OAT) agents in many enzymatic and synthetic oxidation catalysis. This review focuses on our recent advances in application of photochemical approaches to probe the oxidizing metal-oxo species with different metals and macrocyclic ligands. Under visible light irradiation, a variety of important metal-oxo species including iron-oxo porphyrins, manganese-oxo porphyrin/corroles, ruthenium-oxo porphyrins, and chromium-oxo salens have been successfully generated. Kinetical studies in real time have provided mechanistic insights as to the reactivity and reaction pathways of the metal-oxo intermediates in their oxidation reactions. In photo-induced ligand cleavage reactions, metals in n+ oxidation state with the oxygen-containing ligands bromate, chlorate, or nitrites were photolyzed. Homolytic cleavage of the O-X bond in the ligand gives (n + 1)+ oxidation state metal-oxo species, and heterolytic cleavage gives (n + 2)+ oxidation state metal-oxo species. In photo-disproportionation reactions, reactive Mn+1-oxo species can be formed by photolysis of μ-oxo dimeric Mn+ complexes with the concomitant formation of Mn-1 products. Importantly, the oxidation of Mn-1 products by molecular oxygen (O2) to regenerate the μ-oxo dimeric Mn+ complexes in photo-disproportionation reactions represents an attractive and green catalytic cycle for the development of photocatalytic aerobic oxidations.
Ribo-tag translatomic profiling of Drosophila oenocyte reveals down-regulation of peroxisome and mitochondria biogenesis under aging and oxidative stress

Background: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been well established as toxic, owing to its direct damage on genetic materials, protein and lipids. ROS is not only tightly associated with chronic inflammation and tissue aging but also regulates cell proliferation and cell signaling. Yet critical questions remain in the field, such as detailed genome-environment interaction on aging regulation, and how ROS and chronic inflammation alter genome that leads to aging. Here we used cell-type-specific ribosome profiling (Ribo-tag) to study the impacts of aging and oxidative stress on the expression of actively translated mRNA in Drosophila oenocytes, a specialized hepatocyte-like cells and an understudied insect tissue. Results: Through ribosome profiling, we obtain oenocyte translatome, from which we identify genes specifically expressed in adult oenocyte. Many of them are cuticular proteins, including tweedle family proteins, which are critical for structural constituent of cuticle. Oenocytes are enriched with genes involved in unsaturated fatty acids, ketone body synthesis and degradation, and xenobiotics. Aging and paraquat exhibit distinct regulation on oenocyte translatome. 3411 genes are differentially regulated under aging, only 1053 genes under paraquat treatment. Gene set enrichment analysis identify pathways with overall declined expression under aging and paraquat treatment, especially peroxisome, mitochondrial function and metabolic pathways. In comparing to human liver-elevated proteins, we identify orthologues specifically enriched in oenocyte. Those orthologues are involved in liver ketogenesis, ethanol metabolism, and glucose metabolism. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis shows different functions between oenocyte and fat body, which is another widely accepted model for liver in Drosophila. Lastly, 996 genes are regulated to paraquat stress in young age, however in aged flies, the number decreased to 385. Different sets of genes are regulated in response to stress between young and old flies. Conclusions: Our analysis reveals 17 oenocyte specific genes, which help to define oenocyte function. Oenocyte shares some aspects of human liver function, makes the oenocytes applicable as a model system. Our gene set analysis provides insight into fundamental changes of oenocyte under aging and oxidative stress. The finding that peroxisome is down-regulated under oxidative stress suggests peroxisome plays important role in regulating oenocyte homeostasis under aging, which can have a significant impact on whole body and fat metabolism.
Kitchenscapes, Tablescapes, Platescapes, and Foodscapes Influences of Microscale Built Environments on Food Intake

Built environments at many scales influence the type and amount of food consumed. Macroscale food systems and food landscapes influence food choices, and microscale rooms, furniture, containers, an...
An overview of characteristics of clinical next-generation sequencing–based testing for hematologic malignancies

Context.— With the increasing integration of molecular alterations into the evaluation of hematologic malignancies (HM), somatic mutation profiling by next-generation sequencing (NGS) has become a common clinical testing strategy. Limited data are available about the characteristics of these assays. Objective.— To describe assay characteristics, specimen requirements, and reporting practices for NGS-based HM testing using College of American Pathologists proficiency testing survey data. Design.— The College of American Pathologists NGS Hematologic Malignancies Survey (NGSHM) results from 78 laboratories were used to determine laboratory practices in NGS-based HM testing. Results.— The majority of laboratories performed tumor-only (88.5% [69 of 78]), targeted sequencing of cancer genes or mutation hotspots (98.7% [77 of 78]); greater than 90% performed testing on fresh bone marrow and peripheral blood. The majority of laboratories reported a 5% lower limit of detection for single-nucleotide variants (73.1% [57 of 78]) and small insertions and deletions (50.6% [39 of 77]). A majority of laboratories used benchtop sequencers and custom enrichment approaches. Conclusions.— This manuscript summarizes the characteristics of clinical NGS-based testing for the detection of somatic variants in HM. These data may be broadly useful to inform laboratory practice and quality management systems, regulation, and oversight of NGS testing, and precision medicine efforts using a data-driven approach.
Many‐body and spin‐orbit effects on direct‐indirect band gap transition of strained monolayer MoS2 and WS2

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are promising materials for photoelectronic devices. Among them, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) and tungsten disulphide (WS2) are some of the best candidates due to their favorable band gap values and band edge alignments. Here, various perturbative corrections to the DFT electronic structure, e.g. GW, spin-orbit coupling, as well as many-body excitonic and trionic effects are considered, and accurate band gaps as a function of homogeneous biaxial strain in these materials are calculated. All of these corrections are shown to be of comparable magnitudes and need to be included in order to obtain an accurate electronic structure. The strain at which the direct-to-indirect gap transition occurs is calculated. After considering all contributions, the direct to indirect gap transition strain is predicted to be at 2.7% in MoS2 and 3.9% in WS2. These values are generally higher than the previously reported theoretical values.
Applications and Research avenues for drone-based models in logistics: A classification and review

Abstract The operational design and planning of drone-based logistics models is a rapidly growing area of scientific research. In this paper, we present a structured, comprehensive, and scalable framework for classifying drone-based delivery systems and their associated routing problems along with a comprehensive review and synthesis of the extant academic literature in this domain. While our proposed classification defines the boundaries and facilitates the comparison between a wide variety of possible drone-based logistics systems, our comprehensive literature review helps to identify and prioritize research gaps that need to be addressed by future work. Our review shows that the extant research reasonably considers some relevant real-world operational constraints. Although the multi-visit multi-drone Pure-play Drone-based (PD) delivery models are popular, the majority of the Synchronized Multi-modal (SM) delivery models focus on formulating and evaluating single-truck, single-drone models. Moreover, the Resupply Multi-modal (RM) models have not received the due attention for research compared to other drone-based delivery models. Our comprehensive review of use cases of drones for delivery indicates that most of the reviewed models are designed for applications in e-commerce and healthcare/emergency services. Other applications, such as food and mail deliveries are still underrepresented in the academic discussion.
Aging-associated deficit in CCR7 is linked to worsened glymphatic function, cognition, neuroinflammation, and β-amyloid pathology

Aging leads to a progressive deterioration of meningeal lymphatics and peripheral immunity, which may accelerate cognitive decline. We hypothesized that an age-related reduction in C-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CCR7)–dependent egress of immune cells through the lymphatic vasculature mediates some aspects of brain aging and potentially exacerbates cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease–like brain β-amyloid (Aβ) pathology. We report a reduction in CCR7 expression by meningeal T cells in old mice that is linked to increased effector and regulatory T cells. Hematopoietic CCR7 deficiency mimicked the aging-associated changes in meningeal T cells and led to reduced glymphatic influx and cognitive impairment. Deletion of CCR7 in 5xFAD transgenic mice resulted in deleterious neurovascular and microglial activation, along with increased Aβ deposition in the brain. Treating old mice with anti-CD25 antibodies alleviated the exacerbated meningeal regulatory T cell response and improved cognitive function, highlighting the therapeutic potential of modulating meningeal immunity to fine-tune brain function in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases.
Discriminative stimulus effects of a centrally administered, delta-opioid peptide (D-Pen 2 -D-Pen 5 -enkephalin) in pigeons

The present study assessed the discriminative stimulus effects of the delta-opioid agonist [d-Pen2-d-Pen5]enkephalin (DPDPE) in pigeons. Food-restricted pigeons were trained to discriminate between ICV injections of 100 µg [d-Pen2-d-Pen5]enkephalin (DPDPE) and saline in a two-key operant procedure; acquisition of discriminative control was rapid (14–28 daily sessions). [d-Ser2, Leu5, Thr6]enkephalin (DSLET) and [d-Ala2]deltorphin II, peptides selective for delta-opioid receptors, produced discriminative stimulus effects similar to DPDPE, and were approximately equipotent to DPDPE. The non-peptidic, delta-opioid agonist BW373U86 (0.032–100 mg/kg, IM) partially generalized to DPDPE. The kappa-opioid agonist U69,593 (0.01–1 mg/kg, IM), and the mu-opioid agonists, DAMGO (0.1–3.2 µg, ICV) and morphine (1–10 mg/kg, IM), did not produce discriminative stimulus effects similar to DPDPE, up to doses that markedly decreased response rates. Naltrindole (0.1 mg/kg, IM), an antagonist selective for deltaopioid receptors, produced approximately a 30-fold reduction in the potency of DPDPE. DPDPE's discriminative stimulus effect in pigeons appears to be mediated through a delta-opioid receptor; this effect may provide a procedure for assessing delta-opioid receptor function in vivo.
The effect of feed processing of novel unheated, low trypsin inhibitor soybeans on the performance of young female turkeys reared from hatch to 21 days of age.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of a novel low trypsin inhibitor soybean (LTI) fed as mash or crumbled pellet form on the productive performance and digestibility in turkey poults from hatch to 21 d. A total of 336 Hybrid Converter turkey poults were allocated in groups of 7 to 6 treatments, each with 8 replicate cages. Treatments were arranged as a 3 × 2 factorial with inclusion level of the low trypsin-inhibitor soybean (0, 20, and 40% LTI) and feed form (mash and crumbled pellet). A single batch of feed was mixed for each inclusion level and divided into 2 aliquots: one remaining as mash and the other conditioned at 82°C for approximately 30 s, pelleted and then crumbled. On d 7, 14, and 21 posthatching, BW, and feed intake (FI) were recorded and BW gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) calculated. Excreta samples were collected from d 19 to 21 and pooled by cage. At d 21, intestines were excised, pancreas weights recorded (PRW), and ileal contents collected. There were no interactions (linear, P > 0.05) between LTI inclusion and feed form on BW, BWG, FI, or FCR at d 7 or 21. Increasing LTI resulted in a linear reduction in BW at 7, 14, and 21 d (P < 0.006). Poults fed crumbles were significantly heavier at d 21 than those fed mash feed (P < 0.027) with no interaction of LTI level with feed form. FCR was not significantly greater with increasing LTI. However, poults fed crumbles had a better, lower FCR that those fed mash feed from d 0 to 21 (P < 0.018). There was a significant interaction between feed form and LTI level at 14 d (P < 0.031), but not 7 or 21 d. Pancreatic hypertrophy (PRW) increased linearly with increasing LTI (P < 0.001) with a significant linear interaction with feed form (P < 0.001). Poults fed crumbles had less pancreatic hypertrophy. At 21 d of age, dietary fat digestibility (ALD, %) was linearly reduced with increasing LTI (P < 0.001). However, poults fed crumbles had significantly better fat absorption than poults fed mash (91.2 vs. 85.8%) (P < 0.001), and there was a significant linear interaction between feed form and LTI level (P < 0.001). AMEn was significantly better for the poults fed crumbles compared to mash (3228 vs. 3132 kcal/kg) (P < 0.001), and there was a significant linear interaction between feed form and LTI level (P < 0.001). Based on the results this trial, it is possible to include up to 20% unheated full fat LTI soybeans into poult starter diets after pelleting. Pelleting improves nutrient utilization, allowing for greater incorporation of the LTI soybean in the crumbled diet compared to the mash diet.
Will Kymlicka’s Idea of Multicultural Citizenship Rights and the Nigeria Federation

Will Kymlicka is a Canadian political philosopher using his Federal Canadian society as a basis argued for the recognition of minority rights, in what he calls multicultural citizenship. His idea is that the claims to self-determination or autonomy, protection of a distinct cultural language and special representation need to be accommodated. National minorities should not be forced to integrate as this can lead to violence. Without recognizing the group rights of ethnicities, they will be culturally disadvantaged. Using Kymlicka’s idea in an analytical manner, this paper applies his theory to the Nigerian federation. Despite many years of operating so-called federalism, the system is be-devilled by ethnic agitations, violent militancy, youth restiveness, and many other social ills. The paper theorizes that failure to operate a true federal structure that recognizes and fully accommodates minority rights is a key problem responsible for these social ills. Nigeria is a weak and troubled federation where the rights of national minorities are often neglected, suppressed and denied. When it comes to language, the languages of the three dominant groups in terms of population are privileged over others. Representations in both state and federal establishments are often in favour of dominant ethnic groups. The cries for autonomy and restructuring of the federation are often not heeded. The paper argues that accommodating the rights of minorities can help them integrate and foster a sense of equality in a true federation. It also argues that beyond restructuring, ethical leadership is needed to move the federation forward. The paper finds and concludes that some ideas of Kymlicka can help in creating a peaceful and unified federal Nigeria
A Virtual Therapist for Speech and Language Therapy.

A virtual therapist (VT) capable of modeling visible speech and directing speech and language therapy is presented. Three perspectives of practical and clinical use are described. The first is a description of treatment and typical roles that the VT performs in directing participation, practice and performance. The second is a description of techniques for modeling visible speech and implementing tele-rehabilitation. The third is an analysis of performance of a system (AphasiaRx TM) for delivering speech and language therapy to people with aphasia, with results presented from a randomized controlled cross-over study in which the VT provided two levels of cuing. Compared to low cue treatment, high cue treatment resulted in 2.3 times faster learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits of speech and language therapy delivered by the VT.
Clio: a schema mapping tool for information integration

The summary form only given. Information integration typically requires the construction of complex artifacts like federated databases, ETL scripts, data warehouses, applications for accessing multiple data sources, and applications that ingest or publish XML. For many companies, it is one of the most complicated IT tasks they face today. To reduce the overall cost, intelligent tools are needed to simplify this difficult task. Clio is a semi-automatic tool for schema mapping and data integration developed at IBM Almaden Research Center over the past few years. It takes source and target schemas as input, which may describe relational or XML data models. Via a graphical Schema Viewer, a user can then interactively specify attribute correspondences between the source and target schemas. An AttributeMatcher component helps suggest such correspondences, based on the similarity of both attribute names and attribute values. Once the user has specified correspondences, Clio generates SQL, SQL/XML, XQuery or XSLT on the fly to implement the specified transformation, which is guaranteed to produce output data that conforms to the target schema. In this paper, we first describe and demonstrate some basic features of Clio. In particular, we describe the abstracted problems and the algorithms behind the AttributeMatcher component. Then, we will describe additional research problems abstracted from the area of schema mapping and information integration, with an emphasis on graph algorithms and issues on scalability and parallelism.
A dynamic website for county level child welfare outcome measures

In North Carolina, welfare programs are state supervised and county administered. To properly manage welfare programs in such an environment, efficient timely communication of comprehensive information customized to each county is required between the state and the 100 counties in NC. In this session, we will demonstrate a well designed information system built to facilitate such communication. In particular, participants can view the dynamic website used to provide a comprehensive set of child welfare outcome measures to the counties. This public website assists counties in evaluating and ultimately improving their local programs.
Electromechanical force analysis of spacecraft transmission lines

The authors develop a digital algorithm for the calculation of the electromechanical forces on spacecraft power system transmission lines. Due to concern over spacecraft vibration, especially in defence applications where tracking and pointing are of interest, this algorithm is developed in a manner amenable to vibration prediction. Included in the force calculation algorithm is a method for modeling many transmission line geometries and various physical phenomena. >
All-or-Nothing Encryption and the Package Transform

We present a new mode of encryption for block ciphers, which we call all-or-nothing encryption. This mode has the interesting defining property that one must decrypt the entire ciphertext before one can determine even one message block. This means that brute-force searches against all-or-nothing encryption are slowed down by a factor equal to the number of blocks in the ciphertext. We give a specific way of implementing all-or-nothing encryption using a “package transform≓ as a pre-processing step to an ordinary encryption mode. A package transform followed by ordinary codebook encryption also has the interesting property that it is very efficiently implemented in parallel. All-or-nothing encryption can also provide protection against chosen-plaintext and related-message attacks.
The role of family decision in internal migration: The case of India

Abstract This paper has constructed a model of family migration which explains the rural-urban migration phenomena observed in developing countries more consistently than the existing analyses of migration. This framework determines the differences between the forces that affect family decisions and individual migration decisions. It is also shown how the aggregate flow of migration is affected if migration decisions are predominantly family decisions. Data from India have been used to suggest a method for empirical investigation of the incidence of family migration decisions.
The Public School's Responsibility in Physical Education

(1927). The Public School's Responsibility in Physical Education. American Physical Education Review: Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 450-450.
Out-of-hospital delivery in Washington State, 1975 to 1977.

Abstract The annual rate of out-of-hospital deliveries in Washington State increased from 1.6% in 1975, to 2.4% in 1977. Birth certificates, linked birth and death certificate files, and log books from tertiary referral hospitals were used to investigate this trend. As parity increased, rates of home delivery (HD) also increased (p 0.1). HD rates and BCD rates increased with birth weight (p
Are some people less influenced by others' opinions? The role of internal political self-efficacy and need for cognition in impression formation on social networking sites.

Abstract While social information processing theory (SIP) asserts that Internet users form impressions of others by using available cues in the web environment, questions remain regarding individual differences in dependence on such cues. Focusing on others' opinion cues, this study investigates the role of internal political self-efficacy (IPSE) and need for cognition (NFC) as potential moderators of the cue effect. Participants (N=251) were randomly exposed to a fictitious political candidate's Facebook profile displaying either positive or negative comments and then asked to rate perceived trustworthiness and expertise of the candidate. The results indicated that although others' opinions were powerful cues, their influence was moderated by IPSE; individuals with higher IPSE were less influenced by others' opinions. The two-way interaction was significantly moderated by NFC such that those with low IPSE and low NFC were most susceptible to others' influences, thereby indicating a significant three-way ...
The Action of Homothallism Genes in Saccharomyces Diploids during Vegetative Growth and the Equivalence of hma and HMα Loci Functions

ABSTRACT The action of homothallism genes in vegetatively growing diploid cells was examined. The results demonstrate that homothallism genes function during regular vegetative growth cycles as well as during the first few divisions after spore germination. A procedure based on ultraviolet-induced reciprocal mitotic recombination monitored by homozygosity for cryptopleurine resistance (a recessive marker closely linked to the mating-type locus) allowed us to identify and recover Saccharomyces cerevisiae colonies sectored for the mating-type locus i.e. , a / a and α/α. Homothallism genes can switch a / a or α/α vegetative diploid cells, generated from a strain with genotype a /α HO/ho HMα/HMα HM a / HM a , to a /α diploids or a / a /α/α tetraploids during a given mitotic division cycle. We found that both a / a and α/α sectors generated from a strain with genotype a /α HO/HO hmα/hmα hm a / HM a switch to a /α diploids or a / a /α/α tetraploids. This finding supports Naumov and Tolstorukov9s suggestion (1973) that the hm a allele provides for the same functions as the HMα allele, namely, a switch at the mating-type locus from α to a . The HO allele is dominant to ho but hm a and HM a alleles are codominant. A loose linkage between the mating-type and the HMα loci (∼55cM), confirming Harashima, Nogi and Oshima (1974) data, was observed.
LEAF-NODULE SYMBIOSIS I. Endophyte of Psychotria Bacteriophila

Abstract Centifanto, Ysolina M. (University of Florida, Gainesville), and Warren S. Silver. Leafnodule symbiosis. I. Endophyte of Psychotria bacteriophila. J. Bacteriol. 88:776–781. 1964.—The leaf-nodule endophyte of Psychotria bacteriophila has been repeatedly isolated in pure culture from germinating seedlings and young leaves on a nitrogen-free mineral agar. Its morphological, serological, and cultural characteristics place it within the Klebsiella-Aerobacter group. The endophyte has been provisionally named Klebsiella rubiacearum. Pure cultures fix N2 under anaerobic conditions with good efficiency (4.54 μg of N fixed/mg of glucose utilized in 3 days). Nitrogen fixation by pure cultures is intimately related to pyruvate and hydrogen metabolism.
A nonequilibrium time-dependent functional theory based on Liouvillean quantum field dynamics in condensed matter systems

Abstract A nonequilibrium time-dependent functional theory, for studying a condensed matter system which is initially in thermodynamic equilibrium subjected to external time-dependent fields, is constructed based on Liouvillean quantum field dynamics, by the introduction of a new superoperator in the Liouville space corresponding to the time-derivative operator in the Hilbert space. This formalism provides a rigorous justification of the self-consistent and time-dependent numerical simulation of resonant tunneling devices including their bistability. This shows the utility of the present theory in the study of open systems. The theory is further generalized to incorporate the ion motions and the electromagnetic fields. The above formalism thus provides a firm physical and mathematical basis for time-dependent simulation procedures such as those based on the Car-Parinello approach by replacing the fictitious Lagrangian used there by a precise action principle.
Test-retest and interobserver reliability of theEarly Language Milestone Scale, second edition

Abstract Test-retest and interobserver reliability are reported for the Early Language Milestone Scale, second edition , a language assessment tool for infants and children from birth to 36 months of age. Reliability data are presented for two scoring methods: the pass-fail method that yields a global rating of "pass" or "fail," and the point-scoring method that yields percentile scores. Both scoring methods showed good reliability. The clinical applicability of each scoring system is discussed.
Structure of the biotinyl domain of acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase determined by MAD phasing

Abstract Background: Acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase catalyzes the first committed step of fatty acid biosynthesis. Universally, this reaction involves three functional components all related to a carboxybiotinyl intermediate. A biotinyl domain shuttles its covalently attached biotin prosthetic group between the active sites of a biotin carboxylase and a carboxyl transferase. In Escherichia coli , the three components reside in separate subunits; a biotinyl domain is the functional portion of one of these, biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP). Results We have expressed natural and selenomethionyl (Se-met) BCCP from E. coli as biotinylated recombinant proteins, proteolyzed them with subtilisin Carlsberg to produce the biotinyl domains BCCP sc and Se-met BCCP sc , determined the crystal structure of Se-met BCCP sc using a modified version of the multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) phasing protocol, and refined the structure for the natural BCCP sc at 1.8 a resolution. The structure may be described as a capped β sandwich with quasi-dyad symmetry. Each half contains a characteristic hammerhead motif. The biotinylated lysine is located at a hairpin β turn which connects the two symmetric halves of the molecule, and its biotinyl group interacts with a non-symmetric protrusion from the core. Conclusion This first crystal structure of a biotinyl domain helps to unravel the central role of such domains in reactions catalyzed by biotin-dependent carboxylases. The hammerhead structure observed twice in BCCP sc may be regarded as the basic structural motif of biotinyl and lipoyl domains of a superfamily of enzymes. The new MAD phasing techniques developed in the course of determining this structure enhance the power of the MAD method.
Discriminative stimulus properties of arecoline: A new approach for studying central muscarinic receptors

Rats were trained to discriminate arecoline (1.74 mg/kg) from saline in a milk-reinforced (variable interval 12 s) two-lever operant paradigm. The discriminative stimulus (DS) effects of arecoline were antagonized by atropine sulfate, but not by atropine methylnitrate or mecamylamine. In contrast to the effects on discrimination, atropine did not antagonize the response rate suppressant effects of arecoline. The DS effect of arecoline completely generalized to oxotremorine, partially generalized to pilocarpine, and did not generalize to nicotine. These data demonstrate that the DS effect of arecoline depends on central muscarinic receptors.
Neural Network Training by Maximization of the Area Under the ROC Curve: Application to Characterization of Masses on Breast Ultrasound as Malignant or Benign

Back-propagation neural networks (BPNs) are traditionally trained using error measures such as sum-of-squares or cross-entropy. If the training sample size is small, and the neural network has a large number of hidden layer nodes, the BPN may be overtrained, i.e., it may fit the training data well, but may generalize poorly to independent test data. In this study, we investigated a training technique that maximized the approximate area under the ROC curve (AUC) to reduce overtraining. In general, the non-parametric AUC is a discontinuous and non-differentiable function of the neural network output, which makes it unsuitable for gradient descent algorithms such as back-propagation. We used a semidifferentiable approximation to AUC, which appeared to provide reasonable training for the data sets explored in this study. We performed a simulation study using synthetic data sets consisting of Gaussian mixtures to investigate the behavior of this new technique with respect to overtraining. Our results indicated that an artificial neural network trained using the AUC-maximization method is less prone to overtraining. The advantage of the AUC-maximization method was consistently observed over different values of hidden layer BPN nodes, training sample sizes, and the dimensionality of the feature spaces evaluated in our simulation study. For a five-hidden-node BPN trained using 50 training samples per class, the average test AUC was 0.896 (standard deviation (SD): 0.026) with AUC-maximization and 0.856 (SD: 0.028) with the sum-of-squares method. The gain in test performance by the AUC-maximization method over the traditional BPN training was greater when the training sample size was smaller. We also applied this new method to a data set previously acquired for characterization of masses on breast ultrasound as malignant or benign. Our results with this real-world data set had the same trend as with our simulation data sets in that the AUC-maximization technique was less prone to overtraining than the sum-of-squares method.
Steroid Hormone Induction of a Specific Translatable Messenger RNA

Until recently, it has not been possible unequivocally to demonstrate that steroid hormones induce increases in the quantity of mRNA in animal cells; proof would require the isolation of a specific mRNA, its unambiguous translation and the demonstration that the intracellular concentration of this specific mRNA in target tissue is strictly dependent on the state of hormonal stimulation. Here we report studies of progesterone-mediated induction of mRNA in the chick oviduct. In this tissue, both oestrogen and progesterone selectively induce the synthesis of distinct proteins1–10. Progesterone induces de novo synthesis of the specific protein avidin in oestrogen-primed oviduct and the specificity and kinetics of induction of this protein have been investigated1,2,11–14. We have shown that progesterone causes major quantitative and qualitative alterations in oviduct gene transcription1,12,15,16, but this is only indirect evidence that any progesterone-mediated change in specific mRNAs occurs in oviduct target cells. We wished to test directly the production of a specific mRNA as the result of progesterone administration.
Effect of Manganese Deficiency Upon the Histology of Lycopersicum Esculentum

The healthy growth of practically all plants requires a small amount of manganese salts. In recent years the symptoms of manganese deficiency have been extensively studied and many new aspects of the question have been revealed. Bortner (3), Haas (5), Hoffman (6), McHargue (10, 11), and others have found that chlorosis may result from manganese deficiency. McHargue found less sugar, starch, and vitamin C in plants with insufficient manganese, and Gilbert (4) concluded that there is a relationship between vitamin A and manganese. An important agricultural aspect of the question has been shown by Samuel and Piper (12) who found that the "grey speck'' disease of oats is due to deficiency of manganese in the soil. Albert (1) found that the addition of manganese sulphate to the soil prevented the appearance of the "grey speck" disease. Lee and McHargue (9) found that the application of manganese sulphate to leaves of diseased sugar cane not only cured the disease but increased the growth.
Diploid male production — a significant colony mortality factor in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Two forms of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, occur in North America; the monogyne form has colonies with a single functional queen while the polygyne form has colonies containing many functional queens. Field surveys indicate that diploid males are common in natural populations of the polygyne form but absent from monogyne populations, in contrast to laboratory data showing that similar frequencies of queens producing such males occur in the two types of populations. Our results show that mature monogyne colonies with adopted queens rear diploid males in the laboratory, so it is unlikely that the absence of these males from monogyne colonies in the field is due to discrimination against them by monogyne workers. On the other hand, incipient monogyne colonies that produce diploid males exhibit significantly higher mortality and significantly slower rates of growth (Figs. 1–3) than colonies producing workers only. These results suggest that the observed distribution of male diploidy in S. invicta can be explained by differential mortality of diploid male producing colonies of the two forms, with such colonies of the monogyne form experiencing 100% mortality early in development. The mortality differences due to this factor are shown to be related to the different social structures and modes of colony founding characterizing the two forms.
Resource navigation for clinical authors.

Abstract The Web continues to grow in a largely unregulated manner. It is an established role of health sciences librarians to assist busy clinicians and other health care professionals cope with “information overload” by helping them locate useful and valuable information resources. One time-honored means of doing so is to prepare annotated bibliographies of such resources, perhaps no more so than to manage such cross-disciplinary topics as writing for publication. This article recommends resources to assist clinician writers publishing their research and other writings and suggests search strategies to update these resources as needed
Imitation as a function of response commonality, serial order, and vicarious punishment

Abstract The effects of response commonality, serial order of modeled responses, and vicarious punishment on young boys' recall and acceptance of 20 commodity prefereces of an adult were examined in a 2 (common dimension vs no-common dimension) × 2 (vicarious punishment vs no-vicarious consequences) × 2 (recall or acceptance test) × 5 (response-block) factorial experiment. As predicted, the presence of a common dimension resulted in improved recall of the modeled responses, vicarious punishment was more effective under common dimension than no-common dimension conditions, and a serial order effect for recall of the modeled responses was obtained. The overall pattern of results is discussed in terms of the conceptualization that imitation requires both that the observer (1) has acquired and retained the model's responses and (2) has been placed in circumstances which favor activating this learning into overt performance.
Grit and Perseverance in Suicidal Behavior and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Data indicate persistence facilitates suicidal behavior. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is characterized by difficulty persisting while upset. The relationship between NSSI and suicidal behavior thus may hinge upon persistence. Participants were 604 undergraduates (79.5% women; 42.4% African American; 6.1% with 1 + prior suicide attempt). Data were collected online via self-report and analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. As expected, higher levels of grit and perseverance predicted more frequent suicide attempts. Furthermore, grit and perseverance moderated the relationship between NSSI and suicide attempts, which increased in magnitude as individuals reported greater persistence. Findings depict suicidal behavior as a deliberate pursuit of death.
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PUBLISHED RESEARCH: SOME GUIDELINES

Studies of the quality of published educational research have indicated that, while the quality is improving, much published research still suffers from ma- jor weaknesses. This finding is particularly disconcerting since it is generally recognized that the average reader of educational journals lacks a sound understanding of the research process and of statistics and is, therefore, very likely to accept uncritically as true anything reported in the published literature. This ar- ticle suggests ways in which the consumer of educational research can critically evaluate research reports in terms of sample and methodology, design and statistical treatment, and results and interpretation. The reader is alerted to sources of deliberate and nondeliberate bias and to fallacious use and/or inter- pretation of statistics. The reader of educational research must critically evaluate research in order to determine whether totally or partially to accept, or to question or reject reported findings.
Effects of atriopeptins on relaxation and cyclic GMP levels in human coronary artery in vitro

Abstract The effects of atriopeptins on relaxation and cyclic GMP levels were examined in human coronary artery. α-Atrial natriuretic polypeptide and atriopeptins I, II and III all induced relaxation. Relaxations to atriopeptin I were of a smaller magnitude. The atriopeptins elevated cyclic GMP levels from 2- to 3-fold. These studies suggest that atriopeptins released from the heart may dilate the vasculature of this organ and increase coronary blood flow through the formation of cyclic GMP.
Effect of proline on lactate dehydrogenase activity: testing the generality and scope of the compatibility paradigm

The k(cat) and K(m) kinetic parameters of the labile enzyme rabbit muscle lactic dehydrogenase were determined as a function of the concentration of proline, a solute (osmolyte) accumulated in the cells of many organisms to protect them against environmental stresses. Proline is believed to protect against the stress(es) without altering the functional activity of cellular macromolecules, a property defining it as a "compatible osmolyte." In the range of 0–2 M proline, K(cat) and K(m) values for both substrates are essentially unchanged, but between 2 M and 4 M proline, k(cat) decreases by a factor of 3 to 4, whereas K(m) values are only modestly changed, if at all. These results are consistent with the proposal that compatible osmolytes do not affect functional activity, that the property of compatibility expressed by such osmolytes is generic without regard to the evolutionary history of the protein, and that the organic osmolyte concentration range over which compatibility is exhibited is extensive. In short, the results are in full accord with the principal hypothesis of "compatible osmolytes" in detail and scope.
Caregiving Systems at the End of Life: How Informal Caregivers and Formal Providers Collaborate:

End-of-life care is moving out of hospitals and families are replacing professionals in the delivery of care as death approaches. Guided by concepts from the social care model (Cantor & Brennan, 2000), this qualitative study aimed to explore and describe the interrelationship between informal and formal care in a terminal illness. In-depth interviews with 64 families were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded. Genograms and ecomaps were created to visually represent caregivers' sources of support and used to analyze caregiving networks. Results indicate that quasi-formal and informal social support become an important link between informal and formal caregiving. As a relative is dying, families value kindness and compassion, clear and straightforward communication, information, anticipatory guidance, and respect for self-determination from formal caregivers.
Abstract 2005: Analysis of gene expression and copy number variation in breast tumors using both sequencing and hybridization-based platforms.

Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies provide rapid genomic analyses of single nucleotide variants, RNA expression and DNA copy number. Application of these technologies to material isolated from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue and even degraded frozen material could provide powerful replication samples but remains challenging. We tested the nanoString platform to validate deep sequence analysis of gene expression and DNA copy number in degraded and FFPE material. Firstly, RNA from the Universal Human Reference RNA and a breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-436) was artificially degraded to different degrees (RIN 1.2-6.8). We used the nanoString platform to simultaneously measure RNA expression across 226 genes in each degraded sample and the corresponding undegraded RNA. Secondly we isolated RNA and DNA from matched fresh frozen and FFPE tissues from nine breast cancer patients (3 HER2+/ER+/PR+, 2 HER2+/ER-/PR-, 2 HER2+/ER+/PR-, 2 HER2-/ER+/PR+) using the nanoString platform to compare expression and copy number across 226 and 86 genes respectively. Finally, we correlated expression and copy number data generated by nanoString with Illumina transcriptome and whole genome sequencing (WGS). NanoString log2 expression fold-change between all artificially degraded samples and their undegraded counterpart showed extremely high correlation (r2>0.91). NanoString DNA copy number between matched fresh-frozen and FFPE showed a high degree of correlation (r2=0.71). All gene amplifications with copy number ≥ 5 in DNA from fresh-frozen material (N=9) were successfully identified in DNA from FFPE material. We also observed good correlation of gene expression between whole transcriptome sequencing and the nanoString platform (r2 0.59 - 0.72) in FFPE and artificially degraded material and for DNA copy number between WGS and nanoString in DNA isolated from cancer cell lines (r2=0.96). The nanoString platform provides reliable data from highly degraded and FFPE material and correlates with sequence analysis of both expression and copy number from NGS platforms demonstrating potential for large-scale replication studies in FFPE material. Citation Format: Nadine Norton, Edith A. Perez, Yan W. Asmann, Jennifer M. Carr, Brian M. Necela, Jennifer M. Kachergus, Jin Jen, Bruce W. Eckloff, E Aubrey Thompson. Analysis of gene expression and copy number variation in breast tumors using both sequencing and hybridization-based platforms. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2005. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2005
Crushed Product Characteristics of Low-Grade Hematite in High-Pressure Grinding Roller

As an ultra-fine crushing equipment, High-pressure Grinding Roller (HPGR) has unique advantages in crushing refractory ores, owing to its high efficiency and low energy consumption. Low-grade hematite ores from Anshan were crushed by a laboratory CLF-25-10 HPGR with different applied load, roll speed and feed moisture. The different operating factors on the fine crushed products characteristics were investigated and the suitable operating parameters were obtained. The results showed that the product became finer and specific grinding energy increased with applied load increasing, while the capacity did not vary obviously. The capacity was proportional to the roll speed, while product finess and specific grinding energy didn’t change significantly. The moisture of feed was beneficial to coarse particles crushing and went against fine particles crushing. Specific grinding energy increased and capacity increased and then decreased with the increase of feed moisture. It was obtained that applied load of 5.2N/mm2, roll speed of 0.18m/s and feed moisture of 5% were suitable to crushing effect. At these conditions, the percent of -0.074mm production was 21.84%, P80 of product was 2.55mm, specific grinding energy was 1.081Kwh/t and capacity was 1.521t/h.
Increased renal tubular synthesis of prostaglandins in the rabbit kidney in response to ureteral obstruction.

Abstract The hydronephrotic rabbit kidney exhibits elevated basal prostaglandin synthesis and supersensitivity to peptide stimulation of vascular prostaglandin and thromboxane formation. In this study the distribution of the prostaglandin-forming cyclooxygenase in hydronephrotic and contralateral rabbit kidneys following one and four day ureteral obstructions was compared using immunohistofluorescence. No alterations were detected in the distribution or intensity of cyclooxygenase-positive fluorescence in the renal vasculature in response to ureteral obstructions. However, two significant differences were noted between hydronephrotic and contralateral kidneys in the staining of renal tubules: (a) the intensity of fluorescent staining in cortical and medullary collecting tubules of the hydronephrotic kidney was increased and (b) cyclooxygenase antigenicity appeared in the thin limbs of Henle's loop in the hydronephrotic organ. Although alterations in prostaglandin formation by the renal vasculature have been documented previously, our results indicate that ureteral obstruction also causes increased prostaglandin synthesis by renal tubules.
A conceptual framework for construction of hybrid regional input-output models

Abstract The process of constructing a hybrid regional input-output model consists of modifying a sequence of intermediate models, with each step improving the representation of the region. The sequence provides a framework for discussing the relationships among various model modification procedures and accounting conventions. This property of hybrid models also makes them well-suited to continuous adaptation and updating. The current paper develops the basis for this conceptual framework and illustrates the interdependencies among procedures and conventions with discussions of separation of technical and trade coefficients and the uses of secondary data. The new West Virginia Input-Output Model is used as an example of hybrid models.