cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stability analysis of position and force control for robot arms

Stability issues involving the control of a robot arm under the influence of external forces are discussed. Several different scenarios are considered: position control with the external force as an unmodeled disturbance, compliant control for a bounded external force in some subspace, and compliant control for a force due to the interaction with an environment whose dynamical behavior can be modeled. In each of these cases, a stability analysis using the Lyapunov method is presented. An explanation of instability is suggested in the case that the environment has flexibility and the gains are inappropriately chosen. When the environment is stiff in the force control subspace, robust (in time delay) stability can be achieved via the integral force feedback. However, the integral feedback gain should be chosen sufficiently small to account for possible flexibility in the system. >
The Effect of Lateral Stabilization on Walking in Young and Old Adults

We tested how lateral stability affects gait as a function of age. A simple computational model suggests that walking is laterally unstable and that age-related decreases in motor and sensory function may be treated as noise-like perturbations to the body. Step width variability may be affected by active control of foot placement subject to noise. We hypothesized that age-related deficits may lead to increased step width variability. A possible compensation would be to walk with wider steps to reduce the lateral instability. The addition of external stabilization, through elastic cords acting laterally on the body during treadmill walking, would be expected to yield reduced step width variability and/or reduced average step width. We measured step width, its variability (defined as standard deviation), and metabolic energy expenditure in eight adult human subjects aged less than 30 years (young) and ten subjects aged at least 65 years (old). Subjects walked with and without external stabilization, each at a self-selected step width as well as a prescribed step width of zero. In normal walking, old subjects preferred 41% wider steps than young, and expended 26% more net energy (P < 0.05). External stabilization caused both groups to prefer 58% narrower steps. In the prescribed zero step width condition, old subjects walked with 52% more step width variability and at 20% higher energetic cost. External stabilization resulted in reduced step width variability and 16% decreased energetic cost. Although there was no significant statistical interaction between age group and stabilization, old and young subjects walked with similar energetic costs in the stabilized, prescribed step width condition. Age-related changes appear to affect lateral balance, and the resulting compensations explain much of the increased energetic cost of walking in older adults.
Scaling uncertainties in estimating canopy foliar maintenance respiration for black spruce ecosystems in Alaska

A major challenge confronting the scientific community is to understand both patterns of and controls over spatial and temporal variability of carbon exchange between boreal forest ecosys- tems and the atmosphere. An understanding of the sources of variability of carbon processes at fine scales and how these contribute to uncertainties in estimating carbon fluxes is relevant to representing these processes at coarse scales. To explore some of the challenges and uncertainties in estimating carbon fluxes at fine to coarse scales, we conducted a modeling analysis of canopy foliar mainte- nance respiration for black spruce ecosystems of Alaska by scaling empirical hourly models of foliar maintenance respiration (Rm) to estimate canopy foliar Rm for individual stands. We used variation in foliar N concentration among stands to develop hourly stand-specific models and then developed an hourly pooled model. An uncertainty analysis identified that the most important parameter affecting estimates of canopy foliar Rm was one that describes Rm at 0 ◦ C per g N, which explained more than 55% of variance in annual estimates of canopy foliar Rm. The comparison of simulated annual canopy foliar Rm identified significant differences between stand-specific and pooled models for each stand. This result indicates that control over foliar N concentration should be considered in models that estimate canopy foliar Rm of black spruce stands across the landscape. In this study, we also temporally scaled the hourly stand-level models to estimate canopy foliar Rm of black spruce stands using mean monthly temperature data. Comparisons of monthly Rm between the hourly and monthly versions of the models indicated that there was very little difference between the estimates of hourly and monthly models, suggesting that hourly models can be aggregated to use monthly input data with little loss of precision. We conclude that uncertainties in the use of a coarse-scale model for estimating canopy foliar Rm at regional scales depend on uncertainties in representing needle-level respiration and on uncertainties in representing the spatial variability of canopy foliar N across a region. The development of spatial data sets of canopy foliar N represents a major challenge in estimating canopy foliar maintenance respiration at regional scales.
Dynamics of power system in reliability studies

A stability criterion for a system with varying load characteristics is defined and the mean first exit time of the dynamic system from its stability region is determined. The mean first exit time is one of the most important planning reliability indices for a large-scale power system which incorporates system behavior in fluctuating circumstances. Different design procedures are considered according to the dynamic performance of a given system, and the benefits of system interconnection are studied as an alternative to improve the system reliability. This technique does not set any restrictions on the system configuration, and can be implemented on a multidimensional dynamic system. >
Ideology, Effectiveness, and Public Sector Productivity: With Illustrations From the Field of Higher Education

This paper reviews the value trade-offs made when one chooses among productivity models. It articulates how one's ideology, and one's perspective on the role of politics in implementation, affects one's view of productivity in the public sector. Two alternative approaches to examining productivity in the public sector are presented: a Quality Productivity Ratio and a Service Productivity Rating, with emphasis being placed upon the latter. Illustrations of the issues discussed are provided from the field of higher education.
Understanding the mechanisms for rapid climate change in the past

Global warming and rapid climate change are hot topics in today's newspapers, political debates and dinner table conversations. Fortunately, there is a geological context to these issues that can help us understand what the natural earth systems were like long before there was a discernable human impact on the atmospheres and oceans. While there is no good analog for our climatic future in past record, we will try to understand how past climate changes can help test our understanding of the basic mechanisms at work. I will discuss these issues in the context of my own group's quest to extract climate information from deep-sea corals and our use of deep submergence tools to find them in the first place.
Some Conditions Surrounding the Effectiveness of Advance Organizers for Children's Retention of Orally Presented Prose

The study was designed to (a) isolate some of the conditions under which advance organizers facilitate the retention of prose, and (b) identify processes children employ when preparing to recall prose. First and fourth grade children either received or did not receive an advance organizer prior to the presentation of a passage. The passage was difficult to comprehend without knowledge of the advance organizer and contained an equal number of sentences which were relevant and irrelevant to the main theme of the story. Results showed that older children who did not receive the advance organizer actively generated their own advance organizer at an earlier sentence during passage presentation than younger children. Additionally, older children who did not receive the advance organizer recalled a greater amount of relevant than irrelevant thematic information. Hence, two factors must be taken into account in order to assess accurately the relationship between advance organizers and children's recall of prose: the possibility that children generate their own thematic structure or advance organizer for a passage and the effect of advance organizers on the recall of relevant versus irrelevant thematic information. Investigators from several theoretical frameworks have found it useful to conceptualize memory as the result of mnemonic activities or processes in which the human organism engages. From the Soviet literature, Smirnov and Zinchenko (1969) have argued that memory is primarily the outcome of goal-oriented behavior. Hence, in order to exhibit memory, the subject must incorporate the material to-be-remembered in some sort of activity which leads to a particular goal. Similarly, Piaget and Inhelder (1973) have conceptualized memory as the result of the organism's active assimilation of information into existing cognitive structures. American cognitive and information processing theorists have also emphasized the The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to Pat Clark and Sandy Rainbow for their assistance in data collection. The authors would also like to thank the principal, teachers, and children of Nelsonville Elementary School for their willingness to participate in the study. Requests for reprints should be sent to Daniel J. Christie, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Marion, Ohio 43302.
The neurobiological toll of child abuse and neglect

Exposure to interpersonal violence or abuse affects the physical and emotional well-being of affected individuals. In particular, exposure to trauma during development increases the risk of psychiatric and other medical disorders beyond the risks associated with adult violence exposure. Alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a major mediating pathway of the stress response, contribute to the long-standing effects of early life trauma. Although early life trauma elevates the risk of psychiatric and medical disease, not all exposed individuals demonstrate altered HPA axis physiology, suggesting that genetic variation influences the consequences of trauma exposure. In addition, the effects of abuse may extend beyond the immediate victim into subsequent generations as a consequence of epigenetic effects transmitted directly to offspring and/or behavioral changes in affected individuals. Recognition of the biological consequences and transgenerational impact of violence and abuse has critical importance for both disease research and public health policy.
Ethosuximide disposition kinetics in rats.

1. Single and multiple dose disposition kinetics of ethosuximide were studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats following intravenous administration.2. The plasma disappearance of a single 35 mg/kg dose followed for 75 h was not linear. A dose-ranging study suggested that the apparent non-linearity of ethosuximide's plasma disappearance might be due to enzyme induction over time with the drug exhibiting a faster elimination from 24 h onward.3. Ethosuximide, after only two daily doses of 35 mg/kg day, shortened pentobarbital-induced sleep in rats. The clearance of ethosuximide was also significantly faster after four daily 35 mg/kg doses than after a single 35 mg/kg dose.4. Single sample clearance estimates calculated from ethosuximide concentrations prior to enzyme induction, viz. up to 24h post-dose, were practically identical to multiple sample clearance values. Both single and multiple sample clearances were calculated assuming linear rather than non-linear elimination.
Matching methods for observational microarray studies

Motivation: We address the problem of identifying differentially expressed genes between two conditions in the scenario where the data arise from an observational study, in which confounding factors are likely to be present. Results: We suggest to use matching methods to balance two groups of observed cases on measured covariates, and to identify differentially expressed genes using a test suited to matched data. We illustrate this approach on two microarray studies: the first study consists of data from patients with two cancer subtypes, and the second study consists of data from AMKL patients with and without Down syndrome. Availability: R code ( www.r-project.org) for implementing our approach is included as Supplementary Material. Contact: ruheller@whatron.upenn.edu Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Establishment of a tolerance budget for the Advanced Photon Source storage ring

The limitations on the dynamic aperture of the Advanced Photon Source storage ring due to magnet misalignments and fabrication errors are presented. The reduction of the dynamic aperture is analyzed first for each error considered individually, and then for combined error multipole fields in dipole, quadrupole, and sextupole magnets, excluding and including magnet misalignments. Since misalignments of the strong quadrupoles in the ring induce large orbit distortions, the effects on the dynamic aperture are investigated before and after orbit correction. Effects of off-momentum particles and the tune dependence with momentum are also presented. This extensive analysis leads to the establishment of a tolerance budget. With all the errors set at the tolerance level, and with the orbit distortions corrected, the dynamic aperture reduction is no greater than 50% of that of the ideal machine. >
Galton's legacy to research on intelligence.

In the 1999 Galton Lecture for the annual conference of The Galton Institute, the author summarizes the main elements of Galton’s ideas about human mental ability and the research paradigm they generated, including the concept of ‘general’ mental ability, its hereditary component, its physical basis, racial differences, and methods for measuring individual differences in general ability. Although the conclusions Galton drew from his empirical studies were seldom compelling for lack of the needed technology and methods of statistical inference in his day, contemporary research has generally borne out most of Galton’s original and largely intuitive ideas, which still inspire mainstream scientific research on intelligence.
Quantum topological molecular descriptors in QSAR analysis of organophosphorus compounds

A Quantitative structure–activity relationship study is performed on a set of organophosphorus compounds to reveal structural and quantum-chemical features influencing the toxic effect. The properties derived from the topological analysis of the electron density have been used to model the toxicity data. A multiple linear regression analysis in conjunction with genetic algorithm is used in the study, followed by subsequent validation of the results. Obtained QSAR models are beneficial for virtual screening of toxicity for new compounds of interest. Because toxicity of organophosphorus compounds is dependent on conformational properties, a conformational search has been performed before optimization of geometries. All quantum-chemical calculations are carried out at DFT/B3LYP level of theory with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Frequency calculations are performed after full geometry optimization. Ab initio wave functions were obtained for further analysis and evaluation of quantum topological properties of target molecules. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2012
Anticipating Failure in Extensive Restorative Treatment of the Periodontally Compromised Patient

If even one supporting tooth fails, a complex restorative treatment may have to be redone. Improved design of a restoration can anticipate failure and offer alterations to existing appliances.
Genetic variants of Complex I in multiple sclerosis.

Abstract Hypothesis A mitochondrial mechanism contributes to neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS). Genetic variants of Complex I genes may influence the nature of tissue response to inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS). Background Complex I is encoded by seven mitochondrial and 38 nuclear genes. Many of the nuclear genes colocalize with regions where full genome scans detected linkage in MS. Previous studies revealed an association between variants of mitochondrial (mt)DNA encoded subunits of Complex I and MS. Biochemical studies suggested a functional involvement of Complex I in the degenerative processes downstream to inflammatory injury in the CNS. Methods Patients with all MS phenotypes were included. DNA specimens of affected sib pair, trio and multiplex families were studied. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were determined by using the Taqman assay. The association of MS with nuclear DNA encoded alleles and haplotypes of Complex I was tested by the pedigree disequilibrium test (PDT) and by the transmit program in the families. Haplotypes were further investigated by using ldmax (GOLD). The association of mtDNA encoded variants with MS was tested by the Fisher's Exact Test. Results The previously identified MS-associated mtDNA variants and haplotypes were not increased in mothers as compared to fathers in these families. However, an association of all clinical phenotypes with haplotypes within NDUFS5 (1p34.2-p33), NDUFS7 (19p13) and NDUFA7 (19p13) was detected. The inclusion of families with primary progressive (PP)-MS phenotype did not modify the outcome and, as a subgroup alone, did not have a sufficient size to draw conclusion regarding phenotype specific associations. Conclusions SNP haplotypes within Complex I genes are associated with MS. Further studies are needed to refine the identification of disease relevant variants nearby or within these haplotypes. Molecular and functional properties of Complex I subunits may offer novel explanations to better understand the relationship between inflammation and neurodegeneration.
A stochastic approach to power grid analysis

Power supply integrity analysis is critical in modern high perfor-mance designs. In this paper, we propose a stochastic approach to obtain statistical information about the collective IR and LdI/dt drop in a power supply network. The currents drawn from the power grid by the blocks in a design are modelled as stochastic processes and their statistical information is extracted, including correlation infor-mation between blocks in both space and time. We then propose a method to propagate the statistical parameters of the block currents through the linear model of the power grid to obtain the mean and standard deviation of the voltage drops at any node in the grid. We show that the run time is linear with the length of the current wave-forms allowing for extensive vectors, up to millions of cycles, to be analyzed. We implemented the approach on a number of grids, including a grid from an industrial microprocessor and demonstrate its accuracy and efficiency. The proposed statistical analysis can be use to determine which portions of the grid are most likely to fail as well as to provide information for other analyses, such as statistical timing analysis.
Detecting cross-browser issues in web applications

Cross-browser issues are prevalent in web applications. However, existing tools require considerable manual effort from developers to detect such issues. Our technique and prototype tool - WEBDIFF detects such issues automatically and reports them to the developer. Along with each issue reported, the tool also provides details about the affected HTML element, thereby helping the developer to fix the issue. WEBDIFF is the first technique to apply concepts from computer vision and graph theory to identify cross-browser issues in web applications. Our results show that WEBDIFF is practical and can find issues in real world web applications.
Effect of corridors on the movement behavior of the jumping spider Phidippus princeps (Araneae, Salticidae)

Corridors are a common conservation strategy intended to increase the spatial connectivity among isolated habitat patches. Corridors, however, are not always effective. This study demonstrates that corridors increase movement to new patches for the jumping spider Phidippus princeps (Peckham and Peckham, 1883) (Araneae, Salticidae), a visually oriented predator. I assigned spiders to one of three microlandscape treatments, created in an old field dominated by alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), in which patches were connected to (i) vegetated corridors and bare pathways, (ii) only vegetated corridors, and (iii) only bare pathways. The movement of P. princeps was effectively directed by corridors. When given a choice of paths, spiders invariably chose vegetated corridors over bare pathways to emigrate from and to immigrate to new patches. Spiders rarely moved between patches when only bare pathways were available. In the absence of corridors, P. princeps did not risk open...
Risk factors in microbial keratitis leading to penetrating keratoplasty.

Abstract Objective To determine the characteristics of infectious corneal ulcers at the time of presentation to the cornea specialist associated with a favorable response to medical therapy versus a poor outcome manifested by the need for penetrating keratoplasty for therapy or visual rehabilitation. Design Retrospective, case-control study. Participants A total of 162 patient records were reviewed, including the study group of 30 patients and the control group of 132 patients. Intervention A retrospective review of all cases of microbial keratitis presenting to the Cornea Service between January 1, 1989 and December 31, 1995 was conducted. The cases were divided into two groups. The study group consisted of patients with microbial keratitis who failed medical therapy and required penetrating keratoplasty. The control group included patients with infectious ulcers who responded to medical therapy alone. Main outcome measures The influence of demographics, medical and ocular history, delay in presentation to the primary ophthalmologist or the corneal specialist, topical medications, and contact lens usage were compared. Visual acuity and ulcer characteristics were recorded. The statistical significance was evaluated by the chi-square test for independence and multiple logistic regression. Results Older age ( P =0.001), delay in referral to the corneal specialist ( P P P =0.01), poor visual acuity at presentation ( P P P P P P =0.05), were all associated with the need for penetrating keratoplasty. Conclusions Older age, delay in referral to the corneal specialist, topical steroid treatment, past ocular surgery, poor vision at presentation, large size, and central location of the ulcer are risk factors for poor outcome of microbial keratitis, as indicated by the need for penetrating keratoplasty.
Supporting prosocial development through school-based mental health services: A multisite evaluation of social and behavioral outcomes across one academic year

AbstractUnaddressed behavioral and socioemotional difficulties impact the mental health, educational attainment, and future outcomes of children to such an extent that it is imperative to identify effective strategies for early intervention and treatment. School-based mental health services address students’ socialemotional concerns by removing barriers to accessing appropriate services, improving coordination of services, and implementing prevention and intervention strategies for students. This study evaluates the effects of one such program on the socioemotional well-being of students served across six elementary school sites. Study findings support the critical need for school-based mental health for the promotion of prosocial behavior and socioemotional wellness.
Chapter 19 Directional Growth of Actin Off Polylysine-Coated Beads

Publisher Summary Actin filaments can be assembled off polylysine-coated polystyrene beads. This chapter discusses how these beads can be used as a tool for studying actin assembly. The chapter describes the preparation of polylysine-coated polystyrene beads and the nature of the actin-bead interaction. Actin monomer is bound to polylysine-beads using in vivo labeled [ 35 S] actin. The filaments are associated with the beads in a very specific way. S 1 decoration of the filaments radiating from the beads has revealed that all the filaments have the same polarity; the arrowhead decoration points toward the bead on all filaments. In contrast, when F-actin is mixed with beads, the few bead-associated filaments are random in polarity. The ratio of actin to beads is critical in obtaining significant results. If actin is held constant and the number of beads increased, the number of filaments will also increase because the number of filaments per bead can be seen by electron microscopy to stay the same. Polylysine-beads accelerate the nucleation step but do not affect the elongation step of actin assembly.
Interaction of inherited sterility and insecticide resistance in the fall armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Larvae of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), from both irradiated (10 krad) and untreated parents taken from carbaryl-resistant and carbaryl-susceptible strains were studied to determine the effects of inherited sterility on their ability to resist certain insecticides. No interaction was evident between radiation treatment and insecticide resistance or between radiation treatment and strain performance. The level of induced mortality was largely a factor of the insecticide used and the fall armyworm strain.
Orange Is Still Pink: Mental Illness, Gender Roles, and Physical Victimization in Prisons

Although research has established a very strong relationship between the presence of a psychiatric disorder and victimization in prisons, some gaps remain in our understanding. This study considers the importance of gender differences in this relationship. Estimates based on the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities show that psychiatric disorders have a stronger relationship with victimization among male inmates than among female inmates. Yet the size of the gender difference varies greatly depending on the specific disorder. Depressive disorders have a much stronger relationship with victimization among men than among women, but other disorders, such as psychosis, show no gender difference. Symptom-specific analyses further confirm the nature of the difference. Victimization appears to be based in part on how well symptoms do or do not overlap with traditional gender roles. Male-atypical symptoms (e.g., sadness) have a stronger relationship with victimization among men, whe...
Analysis of preventive effects of rabies vaccination with Zagrab regimen on persons with high-risk exposure to rabies virus

Objective To explore the effects of rabies vaccination produced by Chengda Biotechnology with Zagrab regimen on persons with high-risk exposure to rabies virus. Methods 29 persons with high-risk exposure to rabies virus were divided into groups of grade Ⅱ(n=10) and grade Ⅲ(n=19), according to the disposal specification for exposure to rabies made by former Ministry of Health. The persons of grade Ⅱ group were injected with rabies vaccination under Zagrab regimen only, and the persons of grade Ⅲ group were injected with both rabies vaccination and immunoglobulin.Serum specimens of those persons were detected for the neutralizing antibody against rabies, and analysis on the effect was conducted between two groups using the seroconversion rate and geometric mean titers of rabies neutralizing antibody. Results The persons with high-risk exposure to rabies were effectively protected by injecting rabies vaccination with Zagrab regimen. It showed that the conversion rate of neutralizing antibody of 29 persons in two groups was 100%.The geometric mean titre of neutralizing antibodies in grade Ⅲ group(injection of rabies immune globulin) and grade Ⅱgroup(none of the injection of rabies immune globulin) were(7.31±2.03) U/mL and(8.27±2.39) U/mL respectively, there was no statistical significance between two groups(t=1.16, P 0.05). No statistical significances in different age groups(F=1.15, P 0.05) and in different gender groups(t=1.19, P 0.05) were observed. Conclusion Combined with correct wound treatment, rabies vaccination with the Zagrab regimen can play a preventive role for persons exposed to rabies virus.
Which way to KIC

This paper is a report of the discussions of three working groups at the KIC-2 workshop. The groups were assigned to discuss System Architectures, Representations, and Delivered Systems, and were charged with addressing topics from the point of view of Research Achievements, Research Issues, and Industry Needs.
Abstract 17574: Drp1-dependent Mitochondrial Autophagy Plays A Protective Role In Response To Pressure Overload Induced Mitochondrial Dysfunction And Heart Failure

Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) plays an essential role in maintaining mitochondrial (Mt) quality control through Mt fission and mitophagy. We investigated how Mt function, mitophagy and Drp1 are regulated in the heart during pressure overload (PO) and their roles in regulating cardiac function. Mice were subjected to transverse aortic constriction (TAC) for 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 30 days. Left ventricular (LV) weight/tibial length (LVW/TL) was significantly elevated at Day 5 (TAC vs sham; 6.21 ± 0.10 vs 4.59 ± 0.10, p<0.05). Ejection fraction (EF) was maintained at Day 7 (82.1±3.4 vs 78.4±3.2%), but gradually decreased thereafter (at Day 30, 51.0±4.5, p<0.05). Both Mt ATP content (-65.0%, p<0.05) and production (-32.0%, p<0.05) were reduced significantly at Day 7 and thereafter. Mt mass, evaluated by electron microscopy (EM), was reduced (-30.0%, p<0.05) transiently at Day 5. Drp1 was phosphorylated at S616 and accumulated in mitochondria, peaking at Day 3. In EM analyses, autophagosomes containing mitochon...
On the Retrieval of Wikipedia Articles Containing Claims on Controversial Topics

This work presents a novel claim-oriented document retrieval task. For a given controversial topic, relevant articles containing claims that support or contest the topic are retrieved from a Wikipedia corpus. For that, a two-step retrieval approach is proposed. At the first step, an initial pool of articles that are relevant to the topic are retrieved using state-of-the-art retrieval methods. At the second step, articles in the initial pool are re-ranked according to their potential to contain as many relevant claims as possible using several claim discovery features. Hence, the second step aims at maximizing the overall claim recall of the retrieval system. Using a recently published claims benchmark, the proposed retrieval approach is demonstrated to provide more relevant claims compared to several other retrieval alternatives.
Civil Service Reform and the Political Culture of Governmentality: Massachusetts 1952-1981

AbstractCivil service reform has usually been viewed in one of two ways: as the triumph of integrity over greed, or as the triumph of elitism over party democracy. This paper takes a third path and interprets reform as an exemplar of what Michel Foucault called governmentality, a practice of governance under which society promotes certain practices of individuality which in turn promote specific practices of sociality, for instance professionalism and expertise. The paper contrasts this form of governance with that of sovereignty and then uses textual exegesis to tease out the meanings of key terms–“responsibility,” “democracy,” “sophistication”–in the reform literature of the times. By linking reform to suburban-managerial political culture, and suburban culture to governmentality, one gains a heightened perspective on the ambiguous relation between governance andfreedom as well as the possibilities for a democratic ethos in public administration.
Abstract A062: The effects of cellular context on miR-155 mediated regulation of gene expression

MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) is involved in differentiation and regulation of responses of multiple haematopoietic cell types. Its dysregulation is implicated in many human malignancies, e.g. Hodgkin, diffuse large B lymphomas, and breast cancer. Many microRNAs and their target mRNAs are co-expressed in diverse types of cells and tissues. To what extent the interaction between a specific microRNA and its target mRNAs is preserved in different cellular context is largely unknown. We employed genome-wide approaches to investigate whether regulation of commonly expressed mRNA by miR-155 operates in a cell type-specific manner in analogy to cell-context dependent regulation by transcription factors. We first performed RNA-Seq to quantitatively measure mRNA expression levels in primary B cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, and CD4+ T cells from wild type and miR-155 knockout mice. We found many miR-155 target mRNAs that contain seed matches in 39 untranslated regions (39UTRs) were differentially repressed between four types of primary immune cells. Next, we performed iCLIP (individual-nucleotide resolution UV crosslinking and immunoprecipitation) to precisely map Argonaute 2 binding. Quantitative analysis of iCLIP in both wild type and miR-155 KO primary cells uncovered hundreds of miR-155 bound genes, a large number of which overlapped the cohorts of genes that were identified by RNA-Seq as differentially regulated by miR-155. Most mRNAs are alternatively polyadenylated, and through alternative polyadenylation (ApA) mRNAs can acquire or lose microRNA sites. To account for ApA, we carried out PolyA-Seq to measure polyadenylation site usage, and found that ApA contributed to differential miR-155 regulation of a number of genes. However, in many cases the same target 39UTR isoforms were differentially regulated between cell types, suggesting ApA-independent mechanisms of miR-155 specificity, and cellular context dependent miR-155-mediated regulation of gene expression. This research will elucidate mechanistic underpinning of cell-context dependent microRNA function, and help understand miR-155 functions in disease, specifically in lymphomas and other cancers. Citation Format: Jing-Ping Hsin, Yuheng Lu, Christina S. Leslie, Alexander Y. Rudensky. The effects of cellular context on miR-155 mediated regulation of gene expression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A062.
Electronic Properties of Graphene

We first review the necessary components of electrodynamics and establish a practical notion of optical excitations. Next, we specialize to plasmonic excitations, and discuss their classical features. Finally, we cover theoretical aspects of techniques that probe the properties of plasmons in practice.
Assessing Inquiry in Physical Geology Laboratory Manuals

ABSTRACT Many agencies, organizations, and researchers have called for the incorporation of inquiry-based learning in college classrooms. Providing inquiry-based activities in laboratory courses is one way to promote reformed, student-centered teaching in introductory geoscience courses. However, the literature on inquiry has relatively few geoscience examples and features an array of modifiers that complicate instructor efforts to identify or adapt inquiry-based activities for their courses. We review several measurement protocols developed to assess inquiry in laboratory activities. We apply one of these to assess the level of inquiry present in four published physical geology laboratory manuals. While the majority of activities used in the published manuals were classified at low levels of inquiry, these manuals also contained examples of higher-level activities that were not identified in previous analyses. We describe the development of inquiry-based lessons for inclusion in a freshman-level physical...
Topological Network Analysis of Electroencephalographic Power Maps.

Meditation practice is a non-pharmacological intervention that provides both physical and mental benefits. It has generated much neuroscientific interest in its effects on brain activity. Spontaneous brain activity can be measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Spectral powers of EEG signals are routinely mapped on a topographic layout of channels to visualize spatial variations within a certain frequency range. In this paper, we propose a node-based network filtration to model the spatial distribution of an EEG topographic power map via its dynamic local connectivity with respect to a changing scale. We compare topological features of the network filtrations between long-term meditators and mediation-naive practitioners to investigate if long-term meditation practice changes power patterns in the brain.
Evaluating a Targeted Bedside Measure of Cerebral Perfusion in a Nonhuman Primate Model of Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

Objectives To compare ultrasound-derived resistive indices (RIs) obtained at the level of the thalamus via fast Doppler ultrasound with traditional anterior cerebral artery measures in a model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and to correlate each with clinical outcomes. Methods Nine nonhuman primate neonates underwent no umbilical cord occlusion (n = 3), umbilical cord occlusion without hypothermia (n = 3), or umbilical cord occlusion with hypothermia (n = 3). The RI was measured in the anterior cerebral artery and thalamus on days 0, 1, and 4 of life. Magnetic resonance imaging with spectroscopy was performed on day 4. Results Mean thalamus and anterior cerebral artery RI values in the first 36 hours of life were statistically different in neonates who died (+0.13; P = .019) or developed cerebral palsy (−0.08; P = .003). Thalamic RI values showed stronger associations with serum and spectroscopic lactate values than those in the anterior cerebral artery. The umbilical cord occlusion-with-hypothermia group showed a significant increase in the RI in the thalamus but not the anterior cerebral artery. Conclusions Resistive index measurements in the thalamus may eventually supplement other bedside measures for predicting outcomes in the HIE population, but further studies need to differentiate the effect of hypothermia from illness severity on thalamic perfusion.
Toward a visualization-supported workflow for cyber alert management using threat models and human-centered design

Cyber network analysts follow complex processes in their investigations of potential threats to their network. Much research is dedicated to providing automated decision support in the effort to make their tasks more efficient, accurate, and timely. Support tools come in a variety of implementations from machine learning algorithms that monitor streams of data to visual analytic environments for exploring rich and noisy data sets. Cyber analysts, however, need tools which help them merge the data they already have and help them establish appropriate baselines against which to compare anomalies. Furthermore, existing threat models that cyber analysts regularly use to structure their investigation are not often leveraged in support tools. We report on our work with cyber analysts to understand the analytic process and how one such model, the MITRE ATT&CK Matrix [42], is used to structure their analytic thinking. We present our efforts to map specific data needed by analysts into this threat model to inform our visualization designs. We leverage this expert knowledge elicitation to identify a capability gaps that might be filled with visual analytic tools. We propose a prototype visual analytic-supported alert management workflow to aid cyber analysts working with threat models.
System Reliability of Floor Diaphragms Framed from Cold-Formed Steel with Wood Sheathing

AbstractA high-fidelity simulation-based system reliability calculation methodology was implemented for steel floor diaphragms framed from cold-formed steel joists topped with wood sheathing, leadi...
Discovery and validation of a glioblastoma co-expressed gene module

// Leland J. Dunwoodie 1 , William L. Poehlman 1 , Stephen P. Ficklin 2 and Frank Alexander Feltus 1 1 Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA 2 Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA Correspondence to: Frank Alexander Feltus, email: ffeltus@clemson.edu Keywords: glioblastoma; systems biology; gene co-expression networks; complement system; cancer Received: July 28, 2017 Accepted: January 09, 2018 Published: January 13, 2018 ABSTRACT Tumors exhibit complex patterns of aberrant gene expression. Using a knowledge-independent, noise-reducing gene co-expression network construction software called KINC, we created multiple RNAseq-based gene co-expression networks relevant to brain and glioblastoma biology. In this report, we describe the discovery and validation of a glioblastoma-specific gene module that contains 22 co-expressed genes. The genes are upregulated in glioblastoma relative to normal brain and lower grade glioma samples; they are also hypo-methylated in glioblastoma relative to lower grade glioma tumors. Among the proneural, neural, mesenchymal, and classical glioblastoma subtypes, these genes are most-highly expressed in the mesenchymal subtype. Furthermore, high expression of these genes is associated with decreased survival across each glioblastoma subtype. These genes are of interest to glioblastoma biology and our gene interaction discovery and validation workflow can be used to discover and validate co-expressed gene modules derived from any co-expression network.
Optical and electrical properties of ultra-thin indium tin oxide nanofilms on silicon for infrared photonics

Optical and electrical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films on Si substrates in the thickness range from 10 nm to 100 nm were investigated. Spectroscopic ellipsometry was used to obtain the complex permittivity of the ultra-thin films in the spectral range from visible to long-wave infrared. It was found that as the thickness decreases, the Drude component of the electric permittivity becomes vanishingly small, eventually leaving only positive permittivity values. This coincides with an epsilon-near-zero wavelength red-shift from 1.5 to 2.1 um for the films that retain negative permittivities. Hall measurements were conducted to determine that the mobility of the films correspondingly decreased from 35 cm2/Vs to single digits. This decreasing mobility is the result of a non-electrical dead layer that was determined to be ~14 nm thick, which occurs at the ITO/Si interface and is due predominately to interfacial defects. The thickness of this dead layer depends on the deposition process and substrate. The optical and electrical properties of ultra-thin ITO films are useful for the precise design of infrared plasmonic modulators, perfect light absorbers and other photonic devices.
Coupling between an electrostatic network and the Zn2+ binding site modulates Hv1 activation

The voltage sensor (VS) domain in Hv1 proton channels mediates a voltage-dependent and H + -selective “aqueous” conductance (G AQ ) that is potently modulated by extracellular Zn 2+ . Although two conserved His residues are required for Zn 2+ effects on G AQ gating, the atomic structure of the Zn 2+ coordination site and mechanism by which extracellular Zn 2+ stabilizes a closed-state conformation remain unknown. Here we use His mutagenesis to identify residues that increase Zn 2+ potency and are therefore likely to participate in first solvation shell interactions with Zn 2+ . Experimental Zn 2+ -mapping data were then used to constrain the structure of a new resting-state Hv1 model (Hv1 F). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show how protein and water atoms directly contribute to octahedral Zn 2+ coordination spheres in Zn 2+ -bound and -unbound Hv1 F models. During MD simulations, we observed correlated movements of Zn 2+ -interacting side chains and residues in a highly conserved intracellular Coulombic network (ICN) that contains highly conserved Arg “gating charges” in S4 as well as acidic “counter-charges” in S2 and S3 and is known to control VS activation, suggesting that occupancy of the extracellular Zn 2+ site is conformationally coupled to reorganization of the ICN. To test this hypothesis, we neutralized an ICN Glu residue (E153) and show that in addition to shifting G AQ activation to more negative voltages, E153A also decreases Zn 2+ potency. We speculate that extracellular gating-modifier toxins and other ligands may use a generally similar long-range conformational coupling mechanism to modulate VS activation in related ion channel proteins.
Exploring spatial partition for parallel simulation of DEVS-FIRE

DEVS-FIRE is a cellular space model for simulating wildfire spread based on the DEVS formalism. To apply parallel simulation of the DEVS-FIRE model, we need a way to divide the simulation tasks and assign them to multiple parallel processing nodes. One way to divide the simulation tasks is based on the spatial partition of the cellular space model. Two spatial partition ideas, i. e., a uniform partition and an adaptive partition, are proposed for parallel simulation of DEVS-FIRE. This paper focuses on the performance measurement of these two partitions using controlled experiments. The measurement results obtained in this work build a ground for further research of developing advanced adaptive spatial partition algorithms for parallel simulation of DEVS-FIRE.
Analyzing Frequent Collaborators in the IS Field: What Can We Learn about IS Coauthorship in General?

Despite the longstanding nature of social network theory and its application to research on communication technologies, few IS studies employ social network analysis (SNA) concepts; the few that do are by organizational communication scholars. A recent stream of work by IS scholars is to apply SNA to study research collaboration – although this has mostly focused on individual IS conferences. We analyze frequent coauthors in five IS journals from 1999-2007 to show that most of these frequent coauthors primarily publish with their PhD students (what I label “supervisory coauthorship”). Two-thirds of frequent coauthors with 7 or more distinct partners mostly publish with their former PhD students, while less than one-third mostly publish with peer scholars. Nearly 85% of frequent coauthors were affiliated with North American institutions; two or more were located in the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. We offer insights about the high rate of coauthorship in IS journals.
Mechanisms of Chemopreventive Activity of Sulforaphane

d, l-Sulforaphane (SFN) found in cruciferous vegetables is a highly promising anticancer and chemopreventive agent. SFN has been shown to exhibit cytostatic and cytotoxic activities against a number of cancer cell types in vitro and inhibit chemically induced carcinogenesis in rodent models in vivo. SFN also prevents metastasis in mouse models of different cancer types. Cytostatic and cytotoxic activities of SFN have been attributed to several mechanisms including the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Recent studies discussed in this chapter strongly suggest that 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), the most abundant end product of ROS-induced lipid peroxidation of ω-6 fatty acids, is a major contributor to the chemopreventive activity of SFN. The chemopreventive activity of SFN, and perhaps its analogs found in cruciferous plants, may be attributed to HNE-induced selective apoptosis in cancer cells and simultaneous protection of neighboring normal cells from carcinogenic insult through the induction of defense mechanisms such as the activation of Nrf2 and Hsf1.