cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The influence of angiogenesis inhibitor AGM‐1470 on immune system status and tumor growth in vitro

The synthetic angiogenesis modulator-1470 O-(chloroacetyl-carbamoyl, AGM-1470) is a potent inhibitor of neovascularization. We have investigated the potential influence of this inhibitor in tumor immunobiology using both in vivo and in vitro models. Mice given a single tail-vein injection of tumor cells were later treated wtih AGM-1470 by s.c. injection. After tumor injection, the lungs were evaluated for macroscopic tumor nodules. AGM-1470 significantly reduced the development of macroscopic pulmonary disease but did not eliminate disease. However, tumor-bearing mice treated with AGM-1470 had significantly reduced spleen weight compared to controls. To determine if the observed decrease in spleen weight in the treated animals was associated with immunosuppression, we studied the possible immunomodulatory effects of AGM-1470. AGM-1470 induced no changes in spleen-cell viability compared to controls. However, addition of angioinhibin at the beginning of IL-2-induced spleen-cell activation significantly inhibited the development of NK-mediated tumor-cell killing. Similarly, splenic T-cell proliferation induced by a mitogenic monoclonal antibody to murine T cells was significantly inhibited when activated in the presence of AGM-1470. The in vitro studies were extended by evaluation of immune system status in tumor-bearing mice treated with AGM-1470. In vivo therapy with AGM-1470 did not significantly change the mean splenic lymphocyte counts and CD4/CD8 ratios from control values. In addition, the induction of splenic NK-mediated tumor killing with IL-2 as well as mitogen-induced T-cell activation was not significantly different from control values. These results suggest that AGM-1470 inhibits tumor growth by blocking neovascularization and may, under certain conditions of drug administration, inhibit immune system function.
High performance data processing in Josephson technology

A data processing circuit implemented in 2.5 µm Josephson Current Injection Logic (CIL) has been designed and successfully tested at subnanosecond cycle times, corresponding to a data processing rate of over 1 Gigabit per second. The circuit was implemented using a total of 177 devices (102 logic gates), and is the most complex Josephson logic circuit operated so far. The minimum cycle time achieved was 665 ps (5 logic stages), the corresponding chip power dissipation being about 350 µW. The performance was ultimately limited by variations in junction critical currents and resistor values that were larger than the design values.
Chemical inhibition of potato ABA-8'-hydroxylase activity alters in vitro and in vivo ABA metabolism and endogenous ABA levels but does not affect potato microtuber dormancy duration

The effects of azole-type P450 inhibitors and two metabolism-resistant abscisic acid (ABA) analogues on in vitro ABA-8'-hydroxylase activity, in planta ABA metabolism, endogenous ABA content, and tuber meristem dormancy duration were examined in potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Russet Burbank). When functionally expressed in yeast, three potato CYP707A genes were demonstrated to encode enzymatically active ABA-8'-hydroxylases with micromolar affinities for (+)-ABA. The in vitro activity of the three enzymes was inhibited by the P450 azole-type inhibitors ancymidol, paclobutrazol, diniconazole, and tetcyclasis, and by the 8'-acetylene- and 8'-methylene-ABA analogues, with diniconazole and tetcyclasis being the most potent inhibitors. The in planta metabolism of [(3)H](±)-ABA to phaseic acid and dihydrophaseic acid in tuber meristems was inhibited by diniconazole, tetcyclasis, and to a lesser extent by 8'-acetylene- and 8'-methylene-ABA. Continuous exposure of in vitro generated microtubers to diniconazole resulted in a 2-fold increase in endogenous ABA content and a decline in dihydrophaseic acid content after 9 weeks of development. Similar treatment with 8'-acetylene-ABA had no effects on the endogenous contents of ABA or phaseic acid but reduced the content of dihydrophaseic acid. Tuber meristem dormancy progression was determined ex vitro in control, diniconazole-, and 8'-acetylene-ABA-treated microtubers following harvest. Continuous exposure to diniconazole during microtuber development had no effects on subsequent sprouting at any time point. Continuous exposure to 8'-acetylene-ABA significantly increased the rate of microtuber sprouting. The results indicate that, although a decrease in ABA content is a hallmark of tuber dormancy progression, the decline in ABA levels is not a prerequisite for dormancy exit and the onset of tuber sprouting.
Multivariate Behavior Genetic Analyses of Aggressive Behavior Subtypes

This study examined the genetic and environmental architecture underlying aggressive behavior measured by the Life History of Aggression Questionnaire (LHA; Coccaro et al. 1997a). Following preliminary phenotypic factor analysis procedures, multivariate behavioral genetics models were fit to responses from 2,925 adult twins from the PennTwins cohort on five LHA items assessing lifetime frequency of temper tantrums, indirect aggression, verbal aggression, fighting, and physical assault. The best-fitting model was a 2-factor common pathway model, indicating that these five aggressive behaviors are underpinned by two distinct etiological factors with different genetic and nonshared environmental influences. Although there was evidence of significant sex differences, the structure of the two factors appeared to be quite similar in males and females, where General Aggression and Physical Aggression factors emerged. Heritability of these factors ranged from .37 to .57, and nonshared environmental effects ranged from .43 to .63. The results of this study highlight the heterogeneous nature of the aggression construct and the need to consider differences in genetic and environmental influences on individual aggressive behaviors in a multivariate context.
Capital Flows, De Jure vs. De Facto Financial Openness

This paper analyzes the relationship between de jure financial openness, and de facto financial openness. I use the Chinn-Ito index to proxy a country's legal arrangements regarding external transactions, and examine its relationship to actual realized international capital flows of various types and direction. I use a long panel, from 1980 until the start of global financial crisis, and include a large group of developed and developing countries. Linear panel data estimation methods, and two other regression models are used to explicitly examine the interaction of country attributes with policy. The first model uses interaction terms between legal financial openness and financial development or institutional quality to gauge whether these development attributes amplify or dampen the effect of legal opening on realized flows. The second model uses dummy variables for country sub-groups to assess whether threshold levels of development are important. I find that in general the relation between legal openness and realized international financial flows is weak. Some assets do respond to policy, others seem unaffected. In particular, the relationship is more powerful for financially developed countries. Using time series econometric methods to further investigate the connection between financial openness, domestic financial development and international financial integration, I look at the bank lending rate for five Asian economies. Rather than parity or convergence, I examine variance decompositions to assess the proportion of outside influence on domestic lending rates. The experience of Japan, South Korea and Indonesia support the conclusions arising from the panel analysis that greater financial development enhances integration.
Combustion of Nonvolatile Fuels

The final stages of coal combustion produce a nonvolatile char which must be consumed to obtain good combustion efficiencies. The combustion of this char is essentially a surface burning process similar to that occurring when carbon graphite bums. The chapter discusses the combustion of non-volatile fuels. Coal is a natural solid fuel that contains carbon, moisture, ash-generating minerals, and a large number of different hydrocarbons that volatilize when combustion is initiated. The volatiles in coal contribute a substantial amount to the overall energy release. But the volatiles burn rapidly compared to the solid carbonaceous char that remains after devolatilization. It is the surface burning rate of this remaining nonvolatile solid carbonaceous fuel that determines the efficiency of the coal combustion process. Various tables and figures are used throughout the chapter for better illustration and explanation of the concepts discussed here. The last section of the chapter is dedicated to depict the burning rate of ash-forming coal.
Differential glycosylation of MHC class II molecules on gastric epithelial cells: implications in local immune responses.

Class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) expression is a hallmark of antigen presenting cells (APC). Human gastric epithelial cells (GEC) express class II MHC and this expression increases during infection with Helicobacter pylori as does the number of CD4 T cells found adjacent or in between epithelial cells. These observations suggested that human GEC act as APCs. To characterize and compare class II MHC complexes with those present in conventional APC, immunoprecipitated class II MHC from GEC and B cells, as prototypic APC, were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Although the composition of class II MHC from both cell phenotypes was similar, their electrophoretic mobility differed. Methodical elimination of carbohydrates, either enzymatically with endoglycosidase-H or blocking with tunicamycin, revealed that the deviations were due to differences in glycosylation in both cell phenotypes. When deglycosylated class II MHC α chains, β chains, and the invariant chain from both cell phenotypes were mixed and run in the same gel, the core proteins had identical migration patterns. Because differences in glycosylation of class II MHC proteins may affect peptide selection and/or recognition by T cells, the noted differences in glycosylation of class II MHC expressed by GEC could be important in considering their potential role as APC locally.
Ultraviolet B light inactivates bone marrow T lymphocytes but spares hematopoietic precursor cells

Bone marrow cells from ten normal donors were exposed to ultraviolet (UV)C or UVB light for total exposures of 0.1 to 100 mJ/cm2, and assayed for granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM), erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E), and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated proliferative responses. After exposure to UVC CFU-GM, BFU-E and PHA responses showed a UV dose-dependent sharp decrease to levels less than 1% of controls with 0.5, 2.0, and 10 mJ/cm2, respectively. With UVB, PHA responses were most sensitive, declining to less than 1% at 5 mJ/cm2. BFU-E decreased to less than 1% of control with 15 mJ/cm2 UVB. CFU-GM, at UVB doses of 0.1 to 2.0 mJ/cm2, increased to 125% to 130% of control and decreased to less than 1% only at exposures greater than 20 mJ/cm2. Thus, these studies show that UVB, but not UVC light, can be used to inactivate bone marrow T lymphocytes selectively while sparing hematopoietic precursor cells. The data suggest that UVB irradiation can be used for T-lymphocyte purging for allogeneic marrow transplantation.
Wineinformatics: Uncork Napa's Cabernet Sauvignon by Association Rule Based Classification

Wineinformatics is a developing data science field regarding the application of data mining on professional wine reviews. In this paper, we propose a wine region specific concept to study terror by collecting 1200 different wine reviews from Napa Valley, California and construct the dataset via the Computational Wine Wheel. We apply association rule based classification algorithm to predict the quality of the wines through attributes extracted from wine reviews. The prediction accuracy of our predictions was satisfactory, frequently reaching the 74% - 76% range, while still maintaining above 90% coverage. Compare with previous research, the much higher coverage proves wines from the same region share similar patterns. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first article deals with a single region wine dataset, which is also the largest dataset in any wine related data mining research papers.
Two ways to save a newly learned motor pattern

Savings, or faster relearning after initial learning, demonstrates humans' remarkable ability to retain learned movements amid changing environments. This is important within the context of locomot...
Basic Data Types: Numbers and Strings

All Python objects having a data type. Built-in Python data types, such as integers, floating point values, and strings are the building blocks for GIS scripts. This chapter uses GIS examples to discuss Python numeric data types, mathematical operators, string data types, and string operations and methods.
Role of nucleoside uptake in renal postischemic ATP synthesis

The role of nucleoside uptake in the enhanced metabolic recovery seen with postischemic ATP.MgCl2 was assessed by determining the effect of S-(p-nitrobenzyl)-6-thioinosine (NBTI) on postischemic ATP recovery in rats given normal saline (NS), ATP.MgCl2, or adenosine after 45 min of bilateral renal ischemia. In NS-infused animals, postischemic administration of NBTI (250 nmol) had no significant effect on the pattern of ATP recovery. In animals given 50 mumol ATP.MgCl2, coinfusion of NBTI significantly reduced the renal ATP content 2 h after reperfusion but blocked only one-half of the enhancement in renal ATP content compared with animals given ATP.MgCl2 alone. In animals postischemically infused with [2,5,8-3H]ATP.MgCl2 (50 mumol) there was significant labeling of nucleotides, nucleosides, and bases after 2 h of reperfusion. The specific activity of the adenosine pool was consistent with significant label uptake in the form of adenosine. Coinfusion of NBTI led to a significant reduction in label incorpora...
Gaucher hemorrhagic cyst of bone. A case report.

Observation d'une lesion kystique hemorragique de l'extremite inferieure du femur au cours d'une maladie de Gaucher peu evolutive
Training and staffing in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The author believes that renewed emphasis on neonatal intensive care in house staff training programs provided at the appropriate level of training, although it conflicts with the recommendations of the Task Force on Pediatric Education, will improve the overall level of neonatal care in the United States.
Modes of Production and Household Production

This paper consists of a brief presentation of modes of production in class societies, highlighting the significance of household production in these. This is followed by a new approach to the conc...
Miniature NMR gyros

Spin-exchange pumped NMR gyros scale well to small volumes due to the gentle 1/L scaling of the fundamental NMR relaxation rates with cell size L and their use of imbedded ultra sensitive atomic magnetometers that directly measure the quantum-enhanced field due to the precessing nuclei. This talk will give an overview of the present technology and describe new approaches that promise improved long-term stability.
Morphoproteomic profile of mTOR, Ras/Raf kinase and NF-κB pathways in human gastric adenocarcinoma

4448 Background: The prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) remains poor in the United States. Treatment is limited to surgical excision due to poor response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies using human gastric carcinoma cell lines have shown that the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, rapamycin, can inhibit tumor growth and that the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) of the Ras/Raf kinase pathway is related to chemoresistance and apoptosis. We examined the state of activation of components of mTOR, Ras/Raf kinase, and nuclear factor (NF)-κB signal transduction pathways, as well as cell-cycle protein analyte correlates in GAC. Design: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue microarray blocks containing samples from 215 cases of GAC of all grades and stage were examined. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to detect the following antigens in these tissues: s100p, upstream stimulator of ERK and NF-κB pathways; phosphorylated (p)-mTOR(Ser 2448), p-ERK-1/2(Thr 202/Tyr 204) and one of their common downstream effectors, p-p70S6K(Thr 389); p-NF-κBp65(Ser 536); and cell cycle-associated proteins Ki-67, S phase kinase-associated protein (Skp-2), and cyclin D1. Intensity (0-4+) of protein compartmentalization and expression were assessed by light microscopy. Results: Majority of cases showed positive (1-4+) cytoplasmic/plasmalemmal p-mTOR (88%), and moderate-strong (2-4+) nuclear p-p70S6K (93%) and nuclear S100P (81%) expression. A subset of cases exhibited moderate-strong nuclear p-ERK-1/2 (15%) and p-NF-κBp65 (36%) expression. Majority of cases showed concomitant moderate-strong (2-4+) nuclear Ki-67 (71%) and Skp-2 (68%). The expression level of p-mTOR correlated positively with the nuclear expression level of p-p70S6K, p-ERK, and p-NF-κBp65 (p Conclusion: Morphoproteomic analysis reveals constitutive activation of mTOR and to some extent, Ras/Raf kinase and NF-κB pathways in GAC as evidenced by: increased cytoplasmic p-mTOR, nuclear translocation of p-p70S6K and p-ERK, phosphorylated at putative sites of activation, Ser 2448, Thr 389, and Thr 202/Tyr 204, respectively; as well as correlative expression of Ki-67, and Skp-2. These results suggest that morphoproteomic profiling and combinatorial treatment strategy targeting the mTOR, Ras/Raf kinase and NF-κB pathways may be developed for GAC.
Numerical simulations of molten salt pebble-bed lattices

Abstract The development of the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR) is ongoing. The molten salt coolant provides several inherent safety characteristics that traditional water-cooled nuclear reactors lack. The first test reactor to be built in China is a pebble-bed type. Research efforts are currently focused on determining the heat transfer characteristics of such a reactor. In the past, the pebble-bed geometry has been studied for the development of the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). The previous work has indicated that the profile of the Nusselt number depends on both the lattice structure and pebble contact. In this work, a new series of simulations is sought to characterize heat transfer in an FHR pebble-bed. Due to the physical properties of molten salt and the FHR design, the Reynolds number is roughly three orders of magnitude lower than the HTGR while the Prandtl number is roughly an order of magnitude higher. Thus, the flow in an FHR lattice is expected to be unlike the HTGR counterpart. Three different lattices (Simple Cubic (SC), Body Centered Cubic (BCC), and Face Centered Cubic (FCC)) are considered. The study found that the different lattice geometries have a significant impact on the heat transfer characteristics. The SC lattice has a simplified flow that minimizes pressure-drop and Nusselt number. The BCC and FCC lattice have a complicated flow structure resulting in an order of magnitude higher pressure-drop and almost double the Nusselt number. It was concluded that heat transfer characteristics in a random pebble-bed would be highly sensitive to the mixing, and thus turbulent heat transfer, along the flow path. It was also found that while an interstitial gap allows heat transfer characteristics to be replicated, the pressure loss is significantly lower, while the computational costs increase. Correlations available in the literature (developed primarily for HTGRs) have a mixed performance in prediction of the Nusselt number. The result suggests that new experimental efforts are necessary to develop correlations that pertain to FHR conditions.
Temper embrittlement of 5140 steel

Isothermal temper-embrittlement studies were conducted on a 5140 steel at various temperatures for times as long as 3000 hr. Specimens from the embrittled steel were subjected to impact tests, metallographic examination, microhardness, and lattice-parameter measurements.
Dephasing and Non-Dephasing Collisions in Nanostructures

When I was originally asked to give two lectures at this workshop, one on this subject and one on “charge quantization” effects, I felt that there was at best a tenuous link between the two topics. Now I feel that there is a fundamental connection, and that it is absolutely essential to understand what we mean by “dephasing” before we can assess many of the results obtained in the last few years on charge quantization and related effects.
Shoulder Girdle Resections for Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors

The authors developed a surgical classification system for shoulder girdle resections for patients undergoing limb sparing procedures for bone and soft tissue tumors: Type I, proximal humeral resection; type II, partial scapular resection; type III, total scapulectomy; type IV, total scapulectomy and extra-articular glenohumeral resection; type V, proximal humeral and glenoid resection; and type VI, proximal humeral and total scapular resection. Each type is modified according to the status of the abductor mechanism (A, intact; B, partial or complete removal). This system is based upon the current concepts of oncological surgery and precisely describes the procedures performed, structures removed, and the relation to the glenohumeral joint; it accommodates both compartmental and extracompartmental methods, the status of the abductor mechanism, and indicates the increasing surgical magnitude of the resection. It is not dependent upon the type of reconstruction performed.
Site-Specific Recombination Promoted in Vitro by the FLP Protein of the Yeast Two-Micron Plasmid

The yeast 2-micron plasmid is a 6,318-bp circular DNA molecule occurring in many yeast strains. It is generally present at 50 to 100 copies per cell and has been sequenced in its entirety (11). The plasmid encodes at least four protein products (Ref. 6; Volkert et al., this Volume), which are involved primarily in plasmid maintenance. One of these proteins, designated FLP, is the central component in a plasmid-encoded, site-specific recombination system. The sequence of the open reading frame (ORF) encoding this protein provides a predicted molecular weight of slightly less than 48,000 Da. This recombinase acts at a pair of sites located within the 599-bp inverted repeats. Recombination results in the inversion of the DNA between the sites, giving two forms of the plasmid, termed A and B (see Fig. 1). Isolated plasmid DNA is found to be a 50:50 mixture of the two forms. Inversion has been shown to be part of a copy-number amplification system (Volkert et al., this Volume). The general features of the plasmid and its maintenance systems appear to be shared by plasmids isolated from a variety of related organisms (A. Toh-e et al., this Volume).
Safety of pioglitazone during and after radiation therapy in patients with brain tumors: a phase I clinical trial.

Radiation-induced cognitive decline (RICD) is a late effect of radiotherapy (RT) occurring in 30–50% of irradiated brain tumor survivors. In preclinical models, pioglitazone prevents RICD but there are little safety data on its use in non-diabetic patients. We conducted a dose-escalation trial to determine the safety of pioglitazone taken during and after brain irradiation. We enrolled patients > 18 years old with primary or metastatic brain tumors slated to receive at least 10 treatments of RT (≤ 3 Gy per fraction). We evaluated the safety of pioglitazone at 22.5 mg and 45 mg with a dose-escalation phase and dose-expansion phase. Pioglitazone was taken daily during RT and for 6 months after. 18 patients with a mean age of 54 were enrolled between 2010 and 2014. 14 patients had metastatic brain tumors and were treated with whole brain RT. Four patients had primary brain tumors and received partial brain RT and concurrent chemotherapy. No DLTs were identified. In the dose-escalation phase, there were only three instances of grade ≥ 3 toxicity: one instance of neuropathy in a patient receiving 22.5 mg, one instance of fatigue in a patient receiving 22.5 mg and one instance of dizziness in a patient receiving 45 mg. The attribution in each of these cases was considered “possible.” In the dose-expansion phase, nine patients received 45 mg and there was only one grade 3 toxicity (fatigue) possibly attributable to pioglitazone. Pioglitazone was well tolerated by brain tumor patients undergoing RT. 45 mg is a safe dose to use in future efficacy trials.
Effects of Structured Exercise Training in Children and Adolescents With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

Purpose:To examine safety and efficacy of exercise training (ET) for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to improve physical fitness, pain, functional capability, and quality of life.Methods:Ovid Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, PEDro, and Web of Science were searched from 1995 to April 2018 to find English
The impact of coregistration of gradient recalled echo images on quantitative susceptibility and R2* mapping at 7T

Introduction: While image coregistration is inevitable and various quantitative parametric maps, such as R2* and QSM, are increasingly used in multi-parametric studies of the brain, there is a lack of investigations on the reliability of the calculated quantitative metrics after image coregistration. The purposes of this study were 1) to evaluate the reliability of R2* and QSM at 7T and 2) to assess the statistical agreement in the quantitative metrics obtained by two different coregistration approaches. Methods: We compared the reliability of R2* and quantitative susceptibility maps obtained from brains of eight healthy participants by two coregistration approaches: 1) transformation of pre-processed quantitative maps from native space to a reference space and 2) processing quantitative maps after transformation of source images to a reference space using pixel- and ROI-based analyses. Two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS-test), Mann-Whitney U (U-test), Paired T, Intraclass-correlation (ICC) tests were performed appropriately. Results: R2* remained invariant after either GRE data coregistration (p > 0.095) or direct R2* map coregistration (p > 0.077). However, magnetic susceptibility was significantly altered (58/64 KS-tests and 58/64 U-tests with p-value 0.091) in all KS-tests and pixel values (PVs) were only different in 2 out of 64 U-tests for direct QSM coregistration. Paired t-test revealed that ROI-based group-mean R2* was invariant (p-value at least 0.154) to both approaches, while group-mean susceptibility was invariant (p at least 0.325) to direct coregistration but differed (p 0.9). ICCs for magnetic susceptibility were excellent (> 0.9) when processed in its native space while the ICCs were lower than 0.9 or poor (< 0.5) when processed in transformed space. Further analysis revealed that the choice of interpolation approach affected the resultant. Conclusion: Our study shows that R2* could be safely processed in a transformed space, whereas QSM was less reliable when processed in the transformed space. Hence, caution is advised when using QSM in a multi-parametric study, and it is strongly recommended to process QSM in its native space prior to any coregistration or spatial transformation.
Survey of Intern Year Experiences for Those Going into Interventional Radiology: Comparing Surgery, Medicine and Transitional Year Internships.

Surgery, Internal Medicine, or Transition Year for Interns Going into Interventional Radiology Comparison of intern year specialty in regards to preparation for interventional radiology (IR) with results and analysis of the resident, fellow, and student (RFS) survey of trainees. Purpose Evaluate trainee experiences regarding internship variables with respect to IR preparedness. Materials A questionnaire created by members of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) RFS IR Residency Training Committee was distributed to RFS members at SIR 2017 conference and via an online survey. The anonymous survey consisted of Likert scale, dichotomous questions, and free response questions. Results were analyzed utilizing a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), calculation of mean, standard deviation (SD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results A total of 112 residents completed the survey (47 Surgery, 33 Medicine, 29 Transitional Year [TY]), and 3 nontraditional internships categorized as other (2 Pediatric, and 1 Neurosurgery). The average procedures performed as intern were; Surgery: 51–75, Medicine: 0–25, TY: 25–50, Other: 25–50. Trainees who completed a surgical internship reported an overall higher comfort level with procedures (Mean: 4.23, SD: 0.81, CI: 0.21, p Conclusion In alignment with SIR recommendations, the general consensus of trainees surveyed support that a preliminary surgery internship provides the greatest preparation for IR training. Surgical internships provided the greatest opportunity to perform procedures, corresponding with greater comfort levels, and self-reported better preparedness for future training in IR.
HBV/HDV Coinfection: A Challenge for Therapeutics

Chronic hepatitis D (CHD) results from an infection with the hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus (HDV). CHD is the most severe form of human viral hepatitis. Current treatment options consist of interferon alfa, which is effective only in a minority of patients. Study of HDV molecular virology has resulted in new approaches entering clinical trials, with phase-3 studies the most advanced. These include the entry inhibitor bulevirtide, the nucleic acid polymer REP 2139-Ca, the farnesyltransferase inhibitor lonafarnib, and pegylated interferon lambda. This article summarizes the available data on these emerging therapeutics.
Efficient Subsampled Gauss-Newton and Natural Gradient Methods for Training Neural Networks.

We present practical Levenberg-Marquardt variants of Gauss-Newton and natural gradient methods for solving non-convex optimization problems that arise in training deep neural networks involving enormous numbers of variables and huge data sets. Our methods use subsampled Gauss-Newton or Fisher information matrices and either subsampled gradient estimates (fully stochastic) or full gradients (semi-stochastic), which, in the latter case, we prove convergent to a stationary point. By using the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula with automatic differentiation (backpropagation) we show how our methods can be implemented to perform efficiently. Finally, numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods.
Orienting to Networked Grief: Situated Perspectives of Communal Mourning on Facebook

Contemporary American experiences of death and mourning increasingly extend onto social network sites, where friends gather to memorialize the deceased. That "everyone grieves in their own way'' may be true, but it forecloses important questions about how people evaluate these expressions, their relationship to others who are grieving, and impacts on their own experiences of grief. Drawing from mixed-methods research conducted over five years, we describe how individuals position themselves within and evaluate expressions of networked grief. We start by identifying five orientations -- reinforcing, supporting, transferring, objecting, and isolating -- that describe how individuals evaluate actions of grievers, position themselves relative to the network, and act when they encounter grief. We then describe factors and tensions that influence how individuals arrive at these orientations. Based on our findings, we argue that the design of social media can be sensitized to diverse needs by adopting a situated perspective within a dynamic post-mortem network.
A study on a stone lantern from Dongzhang village in medieval China

The lamp platform was one of the most interesting architectural designs in medieval Chinese Buddhism. Its history could be dated back to the late Northern dynasties and Shanxi area could be the pla...
Constant-Gap-to-Capacity and Generalized Degrees of Freedom Regions of the MIMO MAC-IC-MAC

The MAC-IC-MAC is a class of multiple-access interference channels consisting of two multiple-access channels (MACs) that are mutually interfering but in which there is interference only from one transmitter of each MAC to the receiver of the other MAC. Two achievable rate regions that are within a quantifiable gap of the capacity region for the discrete-memoryless semi-deterministic MAC-IC-MAC were obtained in a previous companion work by the authors using inner and outer bounds that are unions of polytopes over admissible random coding distributions. In this paper, we obtain single-distribution—and hence explicit—inner and outer bounds that characterize the capacity region of the MIMO Gaussian MAC-IC-MAC to within a constant gap. We also evaluate and study the generalized degrees of freedom (GDoF) region via multidimensional signal-level partitioning for MIMO networks. Through its lens, the achievability of the key vertices of the GDoF region are examined. This analysis as well as the symmetric GDoF curve reveal that, at high SNR, when the ratio of the interference-to-noise to the signal-to-noise ratios, both taken in dB, is within a certain range, non-interfering transmitters in that cell can fully occupy the receivers’ signal partitions in one or more dimensions that cannot otherwise be utilized by the interfering transmitter alone. This extends the same finding in the companion paper which established the results of this work for the scalar Gaussian MAC-IC-MAC.
Pemberton: Rural Regeneration in the UK

Rural Regeneration in the UK is a textbook aimed at rural geography students in the United Kingdom. It nevertheless has much to offer planning practitioners and especially policymakers in the Unite...
The Gig Economy, Smart Contracts, and Disruption of Traditional Work Arrangements

The rapid growth of technology is not only creating innovative goods and services, but it is also fundamentally altering the workplace and the traditional understanding of employee and employer relationships. This can be seen today with the rise of the gig economy and alternative work arrangements. Our paper seeks to explain how technology has reduced the cost of transacting with the market and lowering monitoring costs, and thereby driving the expansion of contracting, as seen in the rise of the gig economy. We then anticipate blockchain technology and smart contracts will further reduce transaction costs and continue to alter the employee-employer relationships, leading to more decentralized work that mirrors the fundamentals of "contract at-will" employment. This will have significant implications for labor law because the standard labor regulations surrounding health and retirements benefits to employees will lose relevance as the employee-employer relationship dissipates. We suggest that reforms to labor laws should move in the direction of portable-benefits solutions.
Observations of vulnerable marine ecosystems and significant adverse impacts on high seas seamounts of the northwestern Hawaiian Ridge and Emperor Seamount Chain

Abstract The Northwestern Hawaiian Ridge seamounts (NHR) outside the US EEZ and the Emperor Seamount Chain (ESC) have some of the longest history and largest takes of bottom contact fisheries of any seamounts globally. Imaging surveys from four of these seamounts provide evidence of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) on all surveyed features including dense patches of octocorals, scleractinian reefs, and sponges. Crinoids and brisingids occurred patchily in high abundance. These results, records from precious coral fishery takes, and habitat suitability modeling collectively indicate an extremely high probability that deep-sea coral VMEs are widespread on all of the ESC-NHR seamounts. Evidence for significant adverse impacts (SAIs) from bottom contact fisheries was also observed on all surveyed seamounts and included large areas of barren hard substrate, with scars from bottom contact gear in 19–29% of AUV images. Stumps from arborescent corals and rubble from reef-forming corals were observed. Evidence of SAIs is further supplied by many observations of coral rubble associated with lost fishing gear. Finally coralliid octocorals, once sufficiently abundant on the targeted seamounts to support the world's largest precious coral fishery, were extremely rare on all features despite the large survey area. Based on observations of VMEs, SAIs to these VMEs, and the potential for recovery, the results presented here would indicate a closure of all NHR and ESC seamounts to bottom contact fisheries until the gear being used can be proven to not cause SAIs. Closures should include both untrawled areas and currently fished areas to allow for recovery.
Performance Evaluation of 5G Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications

5G mobile networks are envisioned to support ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), which is targeted for a packet transmission with 99.999% reliability and a user plane latency down to 0.5 ms. In this paper, a reliability model and a latency model for URLLC traffic are presented, along with some deterministic analysises providing the reliability requirements for each physical channels and the feasible nu-merologies for URLLC transmission. Meanwhile, system-level simulation is conducted with two metrics including the 5 th percentile downlink and uplink Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR) values and the percentage of users satisfying the reliability and latency requirements. Furthermore, a resource selection based structure for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that satisfies the deterministic analysis is proposed and evaluated with link-level simulation, which shows the reliability can be met at the 5 th percentile uplink SINR value provided by system-level simulation.
Hybrid perovskite semiconductor lasers

Metal halide perovskites have emerged as promising gain media with the potential to realize wavelength-tunable, non-epitaxial laser diodes. This talk will focus on recent progress toward this goal, including continuous-wave optically-pumped lasing from methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3), the operation of MAPbI3 LEDs at ~kA/cm2 current densities, distributed feedback MAPbI3 LEDs that lase under optical pumping, and a new perovskite laser diode architecture that can be fabricated on silicon in a single, back-end solution processing step.
Development of a saliva-optimized RT-LAMP assay for SARS-CoV-2

Abstract Conventional reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) technology has struggled to fulfill the unprecedented need for diagnostic testing created by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Complexity and cost hinder access to testing, and long turnaround-time decreases its utility. To ameliorate these issues, we focus on saliva and introduce several advances to colorimetric reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) technology; RT-LAMP offers a minimal equipment alternative to RT-qPCR. First, we validated the use of the novel dye LAMPShade Violet (LSV), which improves the visual clarity and contrast of the colorimetric readout. Second, we compared different inactivation conditions on infectivity and RNA yield from saliva. Third, we developed a ten-minute RNA purification protocol from saliva. We call this magnetic bead protocol SalivaBeads. Finally, we developed a magnetic stick, StickLAMP, which provides reliable bead-based RNA purification as well as simple and low-cost access to scalable testing from saliva.
Medical management of pulmonary arterial hypertension in pregnancy: A single center experience

Abstract Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease characterized by increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Pregnancy in the setting of PAH is associated with significant maternal morbidity and mortality, typically present during labor and the early postpartum. Historically, observed maternal mortality has been as high as 56%. However, with improved recognition, understanding, and treatment of PAH, reassessment of maternal outcomes is of increasing interest. Study design This is a retrospective observational case series of all women with a diagnosis of moderate to severe World Health Organization Group 1 PAH who had pregnancy managed in our tertiary care center between 2004 and 2018. Results Ten women (Age 28 [SD 6] years, mean pulmonary artery pressure 48 [SD 16.5] mmHg, PVR 7.5 [SD 4.3] Wood units) were identified and included. Seven women (70%) had an antepartum diagnosis of PAH, 2 women (20%) were diagnosed during pregnancy and 1 (10%) postpartum. Four women (40%) delivered preterm, and 3 women (30%) had a successful vaginal delivery. Cardiovascular complications occurred in 4 women (40%) and non-cardiovascular complications occurred in 5 women (50%). There were no significant changes in right ventricular function or non-invasive assessment of PA pressures at long-term follow-up. All patients are alive to date at a mean follow-up of 8 [SD 4] years. Conclusion In our single center, 10 women with moderate to severe PAH receiving directed medical therapy survived pregnancy and delivery. Further evaluation and review are required to optimize medical management for women with PAH who pursue pregnancy.
Variable Damping Control for pHRI: Considering Stability, Agility, and Human Effort in Controlling Human Interactive Robots

This article presents a multi-degree-of-freedom variable damping controller to manage the trade-off between stability and agility and to reduce user effort in physical human-robot interaction. The controller accounts for the human body's inherent impedance properties and applies a range of robotic damping from negative (energy injection) to positive (energy dissipation) values based on the user's intent of motion. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in balancing the trade-off between stability/agility and reducing user effort, two studies are performed on both the human upper-extremity and lower-extremity to represent both industrial and rehabilitation applications of the proposed controller. These studies required subjects to perform a series of multidimensional target reaching tasks while the human user interacted with either the end-effector of a robotic arm for the upper-extremity study or a wearable ankle robot for the lower-extremity study. Stability, agility, and user effort are quantified by a variety of performance metrics. Stability is quantified by both overshoot and stabilization time. Mean and maximum speed are used to quantify agility. To quantify the user effort, both overall and maximum muscle activation, and mean and maximum root-mean-squared interaction force are calculated. The results of both the upper- and lower-extremity studies demonstrate that the controller is able to reduce user effort while increasing agility at a negligible cost to stability.
IDL Manuals and Books

This chapter describes some of the features of this book, the parts of the Interactive Data Language (IDL) user manuals that are most likely to be used, and a few third-party books that are available on IDL programming. Because IDL is an interactive language, many of the programming examples in this book can be executed by typing the commands at the IDL prompt. Another important aspect of the chapter is that the IDL documentation from research work that focuses on IDL software in the form of Portable Document Format (PDF) ﬁles. These ﬁles can be viewed with the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Manuals that are used often: (1) IDL Reference Guide, and (2) Scientiﬁc Data Formats. IDL master index, quick reference, building application and image processing is used to ﬁnd documentation for a particular topic.
Eigenviews for object recognition in multispectral imaging systems

We address the problem of representing multispectral images of objects using eigenviews for recognition purposes. Eigenviews have long been used for object recognition and pose estimation purposes in the grayscale and color image settings. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: firstly to extend the idealogies of eigenviews to multispectral images and secondly to propose the use of dimensionality reduction techniques other than those popularly used. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and its various kernel-based flavors are popularly used to extract eigenviews. We propose the use of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) as possible candidates for eigenview extraction. Multispectral images of a collection of 3D objects captured under different viewpoint locations are used to obtain representative views (eigenviews) that encode the information in these images. The idea is illustrated with a collection of eight synthetic objects imaged in both reflection and emission bands. A Nearest Neighbor classifier is used to perform the classification of an arbitrary view of an object. Classifier performance under additive white Gaussian noise is also tested. The results demonstrate that this system holds promise for use in object recognition under the multispectral imaging setting and also for novel dimensionality reduction techniques. The number of eigenviews needed by various techniques to obtain a given classifier accuracy is also calculated as a measure of the performance of the dimensionality reduction technique.
Study of the luminescence from infrared window materials undergoing pulsed nuclear irradiation

Pulsed nuclear irradiation of infrared window materials was performed at the TRIGA nuclear reactor. The pulse was 17 ms (FWHM) in duration, and the 0.1 Mrad dose consisted of 5% neutrons and 95% gamma rays. The samples under study included sapphire, CsI, ALON, and spinel. The radioluminescence exhibited by these samples during the irradiation was recorded and analyzed. Luminescence was observed in the 1.0-4.5 mu m range and in the visible range. The total emission over 1.0-4.5 mu m range was recorded with a PbSe detector with a cutoff wavelength of 4.5 mu m. Spectral information in the visible and near-infrared ranges was obtained with filters and with an optical multichannel analyzer. A kinetic model for radioluminescence was developed from the results. >
Epidemiology of influenza A (H1N1)pdm09‐associated deaths in the United States, September–October 2009

Please cite this paper as: Regan et al. (2012) Epidemiology of influenza A (H1N1)pdm09-associated deaths in the United States, September–October 2009. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 6(601), e169–e177. Background From April to July 2009, the United States experienced a wave of influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus (H1N1pdm09) infection. The majority of the deaths during that period occurred in persons <65 years of age with underlying medical conditions. Objective To describe the epidemiology of H1N1pdm09-associated deaths in the US during the fall of 2009. Methods We collected demographic, medical history, and cause of death information on a nationally representative, stratified random sample of 323 H1N1pdm09-associated deaths that occurred during September 1–October 31, 2009. Results Data were available for 302/323 (93%) deaths. Most cases (74%) were 18–64 years of age and had ≥1 underlying medical condition (72%). Among cases aged <18 years, 16/43 (37%) had a chronic lung disease, and 15/43 (35%) a neurological disorder; among cases aged ≥18 years, 94/254 (37%) had a chronic lung disease and 84/254 (33%) had a metabolic disorder. The median number of days between symptom onset and death was six among children (range, 1–48) and 12 among adults (range, 0–109). Influenza antiviral agents were prescribed for 187/268 (70%) of cases, but only 48/153 (31%) received treatment within 2 days of illness onset. Conclusions The characteristics of H1N1pdm09 deaths identified during the fall of 2009 were similar to those occurring April–July 2009. While most cases had conditions that were known to increase the risk for severe outcomes and were recommended to receive antiviral therapy, a minority of cases received antivirals early in the course of illness.