cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rhesus Rotavirus Entry into a Polarized Epithelium Is Endocytosis Dependent and Involves Sequential VP4 Conformational Changes

Rotavirus (RV) cell entry is an incompletely understood process, involving VP4 and VP7, the viral proteins composing the outermost layer of the nonenveloped RV triple-layered icosahedral particle (TLP), encasing VP6. VP4 can exist in three conformational states: soluble, cleaved spike, and folded back. In order to better understand the events leading to RV entry, we established a detection system to image input virus by monitoring the rhesus RV (RRV) antigens VP4, VP6, and VP7 at very early times postinfection. We provide evidence that decapsidation occurs directly after cell membrane penetration. We also demonstrate that several VP4 and VP7 conformational changes take place during entry. In particular, we detected, for the first time, the generation of folded-back VP5 in the context of the initiation of infection. Folded-back VP5 appears to be limited to the entry step. We furthermore demonstrate that RRV enters the cell cytoplasm through an endocytosis pathway. The endocytosis hypothesis is supported by the colocalization of RRV antigens with the early endosome markers Rab4 and Rab5. Finally, we provide evidence that the entry process is likely dependent on the endocytic Ca(2+) concentration, as bafilomycin A1 treatment as well as an augmentation of the extracellular calcium reservoir using CaEGTA, which both lead to an elevated intraendosomal calcium concentration, resulted in the accumulation of intact virions in the actin network. Together, these findings suggest that internalization, decapsidation, and cell membrane penetration involve endocytosis, calcium-dependent uncoating, and VP4 conformational changes, including a fold-back.
What have rare genetic syndromes taught us about the pathophysiology of the common forms of obesity

Obesity is a central feature for several congenital syndromes, including Prader-Willi, Angelman, Bardet-Biedl, Cohen, Alstrom, and Borjeson-Forssman-Lehmann syndromes, and Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy. Although a role for the central nervous system, including the hypothalamus-pituitary axis, has been suggested for the etiology of obesity in these syndromes, the pathophysiologic pathways are as yet not well defined, and in many cases may identify currently unknown mechanisms. Nevertheless, many of the causative genes and unusual mechanisms, including parental imprinting of genes and complex patterns of inheritance, have been identified. We review the latest advances in understanding congenital syndromes in which obesity is purely genetic, drawing on comparisons to genetic studies of obesity in the human population as well as to those in experimental and agricultural animal models. An understanding of the genetic basis for these syndromes will provide a more comprehensive picture of the mechanisms that control food intake and energy balance in humans.
New Concepts in Nuclear Pulse Amplifier Design

Network analysis and synthesis techniques were applied to design a new experimental nuclear pulse amplifier whose performance is superior to any other similar type of amplifier. The amplifier is designed to closely approximate desirable overall transfer functions. The instrument consists of broadband, fixed-feedback amplifiers and a novel passive, linear lumped-element network. The gain of the amplifier is adjusted by passive, constant-impedance attenuators. The variation of crossover time with attenuator position (for both fine and coarse controls) is less than ±0.5 nsec, and it is not necessary to make separate trimming adjustments for each attenuator setting. The pulse-shaping network yields a unipolar output pulse having a monotonic return to the base line and having a theoretical signal-to-noise ratio superior to that of any published lumped-element network, and having minimum pileup distortion for a given noise-corner time-constant. The bipolar pulse has nearly equal-amplitude positive and negative peaks, but with no tertiary overshoot. No delay lines are used. Minimum pile-up distortion and excellent recovery from overload are achieved by the use of polezero cancellation techniques throughout the system. This amplifier was evaluated for overload recovery, crossover walk, pile-up distortion, common mode rejection, and noise-to-signal ratio.
Patterns of cigarette, alcohol, and other drug use among children and adolescents: a longitudinal study.

Findings are presented from an 18-month longitudinal study of substance use behavior among 400 children and adolescents, ages 9–17 at the first interviews. Patterns of use from two sequential interviews are reported. Descriptive results are presented as simple frequencies and cross-tabulated with demographic items (age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status). Patterns of use over an 18-month period are examined for cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana/hashish, and other drugs. Four patterns are assessed for each of these substances-(1) abstention at both the first and second interviews; (2) abstention at the first, but not the second interview; (3) use at the first interview, abstention at the second; and (4) use at both interviews.
A comparison of the importance of selected service related factors as perceived by restaurant employees and managers

Abstract Providing quality service has become an increasingly important issue in the hospitality industry. Research on this activity has focused primarily on the perceptions of the customer, or on the customer and the service provider interaction. As individuals are influenced by their organization, it is important to better understand the perceptions of the servers in relation to the perceptions of the managers who represent the organization requirements with respect to the delivery of quality service. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of congruency between food servers and managers in the perception of the importance of selected factors of service in a restaurant setting. The sample consisted of servers and managers drawn from 20 restaurants of a single chain. Managers and service personnel each completed a separate version of a self-administered questionnaire. The results indicate that there is a difference between the two groups in perceptions of the importance of selected service related factors.
Estimating Oil Product Demand in Indonesia using a Cointegrating Error Correction Model

Indonesia's long oil production history and large population mean that Indonesian oil reserves, per capita, are the lowest in OPEC and that, eventually, Indonesia will become a net oil importer. Policy-makers want to forestall this day, since oil revenue comprised around a quarter of both the government budget and foreign exchange revenues for the fiscal years 1997/98. To help policy-makers determine how economic growth and oil-pricing policy affect the consumption of oil products, we estimate the demand for six oil products and total petroleum consumption, using an error correction-cointegration approach, and compare it with estimates on a lagged endogenous model using data for 1970–95.
Numerical solutions and mapping of electrostatic fields using the Apple MacIntosh computer

The popularity, user-friendliness, and accessibility of personal computers encourages their use as powerful computational tools for numerical and graphical aids in the visualization of concepts that may seem abstract to students. Methods are presented for using the Apple MacIntosh computer for the numerical solution and mapping of fields for electrostatics, steady current flow, heat transfer, and source-free magnetostatics problems. The programs are totally menu-driven, consistent with the familiar MacIntosh interface, requiring minimal time on the part of the student to learn how to get into the program and obtain results, yet with enough power and versatility to enable students to do some fairly sophisticated computations if they wish. The program uses a finite-elements method and provides transient as well as steady-state solutions. This software is proving to be a valuable instructional aid in field mapping problems and the computation of capacitance and resistance in a first-level EM course. >
Distributed terrain estimation using a mixture-model based algorithm

This paper describes a planar grid-based distributed terrain height estimation algorithm for use in a distributed data fusion sensor network. Each sensor node in the network represents the terrain using a Gaussian mixture to represent the elevation density in each grid cell. The local sensor node uses a rigorous probabilistic analysis of sensor measurement errors to associate individual measurements with multiple grid cells to account for in-plane uncertainty. Representing the elevation density in each grid cell as a sum of Gaussian distributions leads to a convenient channel filter implementation for distributed data fusion. The new information exchanged between nodes is assimilated locally to generate a global terrain height estimate on each sensor node. The distributed terrain height algorithm is demonstrated in a laboratory test environment using data from three sensor nodes over a 60 second data collection. The distributed terrain height algorithm is shown to perform equivalent to the centralized case even in the presence of communication failures.
Generation of DNA base modification following treatment of cultured murine keratinocytes with benzoyl peroxide.

'To whom correspondence should be addressed Benzoyl peroxide (BzPO) is a free radical generating compound that acts as a tumor promoter and progressor in mouse skin. BzPO is cleaved in the presence of copper to produce benzoyloxyl and phenyl radicals. Treatment of mutation reporter plasmids with BzPO and copper yields predominantly single-strand breaks and G—>T transversion mutations. To explore the role of base modifications in the possible mammalian mutagenicity of BzPO the formation of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) within the DNA of cultured murine keratinocytes was investigated. Treatment with 10 |iM BzPO produced a maximum 3-fold increase in levels of 8-OHdG versus vehicle controls within 1-2 h, with significant levels of 8-OHdG persisting 6 h after initial exposure to BzPO. Pretreatment with the copper chelator bathocuproine disulfonic acid reduced the levels of 8-OHdG generated by BzPO to near background. However, treatment with the iron chelator desferal did not The stable metabolic product of BzPO benzoic acid was ineffective in producing 8-OHdG. Depletion of cellular glutathione with L-buthionine-(S,ff)-sulfoximine increased the amount of BzPO-generate d 8-OHdG, while supplementation with glutathione monoethyl ester reduced the number of 8-OHdG molecules formed. Collectively, these results suggest that BzPO at non-cytotoxic concentrations undergoes copper-dependent activation to a reactive product to generate 8-OHdG within cultured murine keratinocytes.
Evaluating modified rainfall erosivity factors in the universal soil loss equation

Throughout the years, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) has undergone numerous modifications and revisions to enhance its ability to estimate soil loss caused by erosion in agricultural lands. Yet, there is still a considerable amount of uncertainty surrounding the use of the USLE as well as some of its modifications. This research examines the prediction capabilities of two very similar modifications that were made to the USLE's rainfall erosivity (R) factor; they are termed the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) and the Onstad-Foster Equation. The efficiency of these two modifications will be evaluated by comparing the actual erosion data that was retrieved from the field site to the erosion data that was simulated using the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) Model. This experiment, which is being conducted at the Winfred A. Thomas Agricultural Research Station in Hazel Green, Alabama aims to enhance our understanding, estimation, and prediction of the soil erosion process.
Order of Operations: Do Business Students Understand the Correct Order?

Abstract Many university students enrolled in quantitative methods and basic computer programming courses do not understand the proper order of precedence that should be applied to mathematical operations. Thus, many professors are compelled to reteach the proper order of operations before embarking on the initial coursework. In this study, the researchers surveyed over 300 primarily nonfreshman business school students at two regional universities to determine the extent of this lack of understanding. Results show that one third of the respondents incorrectly applied the order of operations.
Impact of decoherence on internal state cooling using optical frequency combs

We discuss femtosecond Raman-type techniques to control molecular vibrations, which can be implemented for internal-state cooling from Feshbach states with the use of optical frequency combs (OFCs) with and without modulation. The technique makes use of multiple two-photon resonances induced by optical frequencies present in the comb. It provides us with a useful tool to study the details of molecular dynamics at ultracold temperatures. In our theoretical model we take into account decoherence in the form of spontaneous emission and collisional dephasing in order to ascertain an accurate model of the population transfer in the three-level system. We analyze the effects of odd and even chirps of the OFC in the form of sine and cosine functions on the population transfer. We compare the effects of these chirps to the results attained with the standard OFC to see if they increase the population transfer to the final deeply bound state in the presence of decoherence. We also analyze the inherent phase relation that takes place owing to collisional dephasing between molecules in each of the states. This ability to control the rovibrational states of a molecule with an OFC enables us to create deeply bound ultra-cold polar molecules from the Feshbach state.
Caching and migration for multilevel persistent object stores

We propose an architecture for scalable persistent object managers that provide access to large numbers of objects distributed over a variety of physical media. Our approach is lightweight in that we are interested in providing direct support for the creation, access, and updating of persistent objects, but only indirect support for the other functions traditionally associated with an object oriented database, such as transactions, back up, recovery, or a query language. This design allows application programmers access to the productivity and performance of using objects, while relying on an underlying hierarchical storage system to manage the large amounts of data. Our design is layered and multilevel in that it caches and migrates large-grained physical collections of objects called folios from tape to networked disks. Separately, it also caches and migrates smaller-grained physical collections of objects called segments between nodes on a network. Segments are then moved into memory as usual for persistent object managers. In this paper, we also describe the implementation of a system called PTool based upon this design and give a description of preliminary performance results.
Entrepreneurship and business cycles: technological innovations and unemployment

Koellinger and Thurik (2012) find that entrepreneurship Granger-causes the cycles of the world economy, and that entrepreneurial cycles are positively affected by the national unemployment cycles. However they do not present a theoretical model to explain the empirical findings. This paper provides a theoretical explanation through an extended Ramsey model in which a differential equation describing technological innovations led by entrepreneurs, which relates entrepreneurship dynamics to unemployment and output dynamics, is considered as an additional dynamic restriction. The model generates limit cycles through the Hopf bifurcation theorem. The necessary condition for the existence of a limit cycle is that the entrepreneurial economy accumulates more capital than the Ramsey model, yielding that entrepreneurial and unemployment cycles cause business cycles.
Application of FFT and DFT for image reconstruction of planar arrays in microwave holographic diagnostics

It is demonstrated that, for a planar array of discrete elements, the accuracy of the reconstruction is more dependent upon the location of the reconstruction points than on the actual resolution (i.e., spacing) of the reconstruction points. The surface field distribution of a planar array of infinitesimal dipoles is reconstructed from complex far-field and near-field data with the use of microwave holographic metrology. A comparison is made between the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and the more traditional fast Fourier transform (FFT) to reconstruct the surface distribution. The former technique gives the user more freedom in choosing the location of the reconstruction points. A 22 by 22 element planar array of infinitesimal dipoles was simulated. The FFT required less computer time to perform the reconstruction than the DFT, but the increased accuracy provided by the DFT warrants its use in cases where the element anomalies are small or a more accurate determination of the amplitude and phase needs to be made. >
Randomized trial of concurrent oxytocin with a sustained-release dinoprostone vaginal insert for labor induction at term.

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the concurrent administration of oxytocin with sustained-release dinoprostone results in shorter induction times when compared with oxytocin after the removal of the dinoprostone insert. Study Design: Women with singleton pregnancies at ≥36 weeks, vertex presentations, reactive nonstress tests, no prior uterine scar, intact membranes, and Bishop scores of ≤6 were randomly assigned to receive oxytocin either immediately after placement of a sustained-release dinoprostone insert (immediate) or 30 minutes after its removal (delayed). The primary outcome was the time interval from induction to delivery. Results: Seventy-one patients were enrolled (immediate, 34 patients; delayed, 37 patients). There were no differences between treatment groups in nonreassuring fetal heart tracings, excess uterine activity, and epidural use. The mean time from dinoprostone placement until delivery was 544 minutes, shorter in the immediate group (972 vs 1516 minutes; P =.001). The proportion of deliveries within 24 hours was higher (90% vs 53%; P =.002) in the immediate group. Cesarean delivery rates were similar between the immediate and delayed groups (16% vs 13%; P =.73). No adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes were observed with concurrent therapy. Conclusion: Oxytocin that is administered concurrently with sustained-release dinoprostone significantly shortens induction-to-delivery times and results in a higher proportion of vaginal deliveries of ≤24 hours with no apparent adverse effects. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002;186:61-5.)
A p-cone sequential relaxation procedure for 0-1 integer programs

Several authors have introduced sequential relaxation techniques-based on linear and/or semi-definite programming-to generate the convex hull of 0-1 integer points in a polytope in at most n steps. In this paper, we introduce a sequential relaxation technique, which is based on p-order cone programming (1≤p≤∞). We prove that our technique generates the convex hull of 0-1 solutions asymptotically. In addition, we show that our method generalizes and subsumes several existing methods. For example, when p=∞, our method corresponds to the well-known procedure of Lovasz and Schrijver based on linear programming. Although the p-order cone programs in general sacrifice some strength compared to the analogous linear and semi-definite programs, we show that for p=2 they enjoy a better theoretical iteration complexity. Computational considerations of our technique are discussed.
Extended hadrons, scaling variables and the poincaré group

A convenient description of hadron states is presented by means of minimum-uncertainty wave packets in transverse internal position or momentum operators which can be defined in the infinite-momentum frame (IMF) basis for the Poincare group. The center of mass of the hadron is described either by its momentum or its IMF position operator, while its internal structure is fixed by taking coherent states symmetrical in the internal co-ordinates. The resulting physical picture of hadrons as extended objects with a stable structure agrees with Yang’s model of droplets with optimum universal size. The reduction of products of states in the infinite-momentum frame with respect to our basis introduces Clebsch-Gordan coefficients which asymptotically depend only on certain scaling variables, thus allowing us to trace their emergence to a general framework. These are precisely the scaling variables connected with different high-energy regions where limiting behavior patterns for hadronic cross-sections, like diffraction, Bjorken scaling, Feynman scaling and limiting fragmentation are known to occur.
Stochastic Corn Yield Response Functions to Nitrogen for Corn after Corn, Corn after Cotton, and Corn after Soybeans

Deterministic and stochastic yield response plateau functions were estimated to determine the expected profit-maximizing nitrogen rates, yields, and net returns for corn grown after corn, cotton, and soybeans. The stochastic response functions were more appropriate than their deterministic counterparts, and the linear response stochastic plateau described the data the best. The profit-maximizing nitrogen rates were similar for corn after corn, cotton, and soybeans, but relative to corn after corn, the expected corn yield plateaus increased by 12% and 16% after cotton and soybeans, respectively. Expected net returns increased for corn after cotton and soybeans relative to corn after corn.
Effect of Drying Temperature on Some Quality Attributes of Mango Slices

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of three drying temperatures (60, 70 and 80°C) on quality attributes of mango slices. The investigated quality attributes were: color change and rehydration ratio of dried mango slices. Result showed that drying temperatures had great effect on the quality attributes of mango slices. The color was measured from the surface and expressed in the Hunter L*a*b* system. Moreover, the total color change (?E), chroma (color saturation), hue angle and browning index (BI) were determined. L* and b* parameters were found to decrease as affected by drying temperature and drying time, whereas a* parameter increases. Results also indicated that drying time has significant effect on color change and rehydration ratio. The lowest total color change and highest rehydration ratio were obtained at drying air temperature of 80°C then 70°C and finally 60°C with drying time of 3,5 and 7 hours, respectively. In contrast to common practice, drying at elevated air temperature (80°C), instead of 60°C for a longer time, was optimal, since significant color changes of mango slices were not observed. Moreover, at increased temperature, drying time was considerably shortened from about 7 h to 3h, resulting in significant extension of drying capacity.
Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER)

Biology education research (BER) can be a major contributor to the herculean task of modernizing and transforming biology education. However, as researchers in a relatively young and still small field, BER practitioners now find themselves fragmented across 64 biology-related societies and lacking agreement on a core research agenda, a convenient professional network, and venues of dissemination. To begin addressing these needs, the newly formed Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) held an inaugural meeting in September 2010 at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. The 29 participants (Figure 1) included faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students engaged in empirical research and professional development, as well as journal editors, textbook writers, and a textbook editor. The diversity of this group contributed to a thoughtful, reflective, and productive meeting, whose major goals were to 1) define BER, 2) identify challenges to its practice, 3) formulate overarching research questions, and 4) outline the role of SABER in supporting the BER community. The consensus views of the participants on each of these goals are described in the paragraphs below. Figure 1: SABER Founding Members: Teri Balser, Clarissa Dirks, Mary Pat Wenderoth, Janet Branchaw, Rob Brooker, Peggy Brickman, Malcolm Campbell, Mark Connelly, Erin Dolan, Scott Freeman, Mark Hens, Jenny Knight, Kathryn Miller, Jennifer Momsen, Lisa Montplaisir, ... The outcomes of this meeting are timely in the context of the recently released summary report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education, A Call to Action, which charged the biology community with “creating, using, assessing, and disseminating effective practices in teaching and learning” (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2010 ). By providing the infrastructure needed to create a vibrant network of practitioners, SABER is well positioned to support biology education researchers in generating empirical evidence that can effect meaningful changes in undergraduate biology education.
Privileged access and rural vulnerabilities: Examining social and environmental exploitation in bioenergy development in the American Midwest

Abstract Negative environmental externalities typically emerge in rural areas due to urban centers' privileged access to the rural hinterland for economic activities related to the extraction and processing of natural resources. Less attention has been given to those cases when both the promotion of economic activities and their consequential inequalities are driven from within rural communities themselves. Privileged accounts within communities naturalize environmental concerns and divert attention from the inequalities associated with the costs and risks of economic development. Within this context, it is important to examine local perceptions, framings, and power structures that create and perpetuate asymmetries in access to natural resources for economic development and the local vulnerabilities they create. Drawing on Freudenberg's theory of privileged access and privileged accounts, this paper examines the promotion and development of biofuels plants in the rural American Midwest. Here, proponents of biofuels development argued that biofuel facilities were ideally suited to local conditions, where large-scale corn production, the main biomass input, is extensive. Drawing on data from surveys of six case study communities in rural Kansas and Iowa, augmented by in-depth stakeholder interviews, we discuss the local support towards biofuels production in the context of environmental concerns. The results indicate significant rural community support despite evidence that the contribution of biofuels production to local livelihoods was minimal. We show how these privileged accounts create largely unified support locally for biofuels production and quiescence concerning the disproportionality of benefits, potential environmental harms and long term development challenges.
The ethics of leadership in pharmacy

The pharmacy profession's responsibility to provide ethical leadership to its members is explained, and areas where pharmacy should take a leadership role are described. Changes taking place in health care offer many opportunities for pharmacy in its transformation into a fully clinical discipline. The profession needs to address the ethical issues that will affect it as part of this revolution. The role pharmacy is taking to eliminate medication misadventuring will be a test case for the profession's ability to exert the leadership it must, as part of its new definition of itself. Pharmacy needs to define the structure, process, and outcomes necessary to improve its own practice to avoid drug misadventuring, with a clear set of practice and ethical standards, and engage medicine and nursing to adopt similar standards. Pharmacy should also take a leadership role in health care reform, working with other clinicians to ensure that the changes provide better outcomes for patients. Health care professionals are bound together by a common moral purpose: to act in the patient's best interest. Thus, each health profession is a moral community, which must determine and promote ethical behavior among its members. Pharmacy must practice ethical leadership: it must define and prove its contribution to patient outcomes, further develop legal and ethical standards, and examine its responsibilities for vulnerable patient groups such as children. It must work to overcome the traditional dominance of medicine; pharmacy, nursing, and medicine must come together in service of the patient and develop a cross-professional conception of ethics. Pharmacy also must participate in the broader debate about health care. Pharmacy has begun to take a leadership role among the health professions through its efforts to eliminate medication misadventuring. Additional leadership challenges for the profession are suggested.
Educating the paraprofessional staff on the psychiatric unit: a neglected topic

Upon deinstitutionalization, a mentally ill person's awareness of the stigma attached to his or her illness can negatively influence any effort to become a productive member of society. Support systems are vital in that they facilitate such efforts. The family is perhaps the most important support system because it provides emotional support, which is crucial because it promotes a sense of self-esteem and decreases depression, anxiety, sickness, and mortality. An awareness of stigma on the part of the family could undermine its role as a support system for a relative with mental illness.
Automated information extraction from free-text EEG reports

In this study we have developed a supervised learning to automatically detect with high accuracy EEG reports that describe seizures and epileptiform discharges. We manually labeled 3,277 documents as describing one or more seizures vs no seizures, and as describing epileptiform discharges vs no epileptiform discharges. We then used Naive Bayes to develop a system able to automatically classify EEG reports into these categories. Our system consisted of normalization techniques, extraction of key sentences, and automated feature selection using cross validation. As candidate features we used key words and special word patterns called elastic word sequences (EWS). Final feature selection was accomplished via sequential backward selection. We used cross validation to predict out of sample performance. Our automated feature selection procedure resulted in a classifier with 38 features for seizure detection, and 23 features for epileptiform discharge detection. The average [95% CI] area under the receiver operating curve was 99.05 [98.79, 99.32]% for detecting reports with seizures, and 96.15 [92.31, 100.00]% for detecting reports with epileptiform discharges. The methodology described herein greatly reduces the manual labor involved in identifying large cohorts of patients for retrospective neurophysiological studies of patients with epilepsy.
Abstract A03: A brain cancer cell migration simulator based on a motor-clutch model

WHO Grade IV astrocytoma, also known as glioblastoma, is an invasive disease where cell migration drives dispersion of tumor cells throughout the brain. To predict cell migration speeds in complex mechanochemical environments, we developed a cell migration simulator based on our published motor-clutch framework [1-3]. One of the key predictions of our previous modeling is that cell traction force is biphasic with respect to environmental stiffness, i.e. there is an optimal stiffness at which cell traction force is maximal. To test whether such optimality exists within a whole cell migration simulator, we extended our model to allow for multiple cellular protrusions in 1D, 2D, or 3D environments. The cell migration simulator imposes that forces balance and that masses of key elements- actin, adhesions, and myosin motors- are conserved. Using the Gillespie stochastic simulation algorithm implemented in matlab, we simulated cell traction force, F-actin retrograde flow, cell aspect ratio, and cell migration as a function of cell stiffness. We found that all four variables depends biphasically on simulated environmental stiffness with approximately overlapping optima. In addition, the model predicts that the optimal stiffness can be shifted by coordinate shifting of motor and adhesive clutch numbers, a prediction that we are now testing experimentally in vitro. Overall, our modeling results predict that effective anti-migratory treatment of patients will require knowledge of the cell migration speed landscape within parameter space. In particular, we predict that simultaneously inhibiting motors and clutches will be beneficial for patients whose tumors operate near the optimum, largely ineffective for those below the optimum, and potentially detrimental to those above the optimum. Thus, our cell migration simulator provides dynamic physical biomarkers that can potentially be used to classify glioblastoma patients for more precise treatment. References: 1. Bangasser, B.L. and D.J. Odde, Master Equation-Based Analysis of a Motor-Clutch Model for Cell Traction Force. Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, 2013. 6: p. 449-459. 2. Bangasser, B.L., S.S. Rosenfeld, and D.J. Odde, Determinants of maximal force transmission in a motor-clutch model of cell traction in a compliant microenvironment. Biophys J, 2013. 105(3): p. 581-92. 3. Chan, C.E. and D.J. Odde, Traction dynamics of filopodia on compliant substrates. Science, 2008. 322(5908): p. 1687-91. Citation Format: Benjamin L. Bangasser, Steven R. Rosenfeld, David J. Odde. A brain cancer cell migration simulator based on a motor-clutch model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Advances in Brain Cancer Research; May 27-30, 2015; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(23 Suppl):Abstract nr A03.
Thrombosis associated with a porcine bioprosthesis and ascending aortic graft in a patient with the Marfan syndrome

A fatal thrombosis originating at the junction of an aortic bioprosthetic heart valve and a Dacron aortic graft was observed in a patient with the Marfan syndrome, who had had replacement of the ascending aorta with a valved conduit 29 months previously. This unique complication raises the question of whether patients with such prostheses should be on a program of full anticoagulation.
Beyond the Classical Theory

The discovery of the electron was a mixed blessing for classical physics. It led directly to atomic and nuclear physics and a physical foundation for chemistry. The electron was the first elementary particle to be discovered, and the practical applications of electronics are virtually innumerable. On the other hand, investigations of its properties and interactions was a major factor in the demise of classical physics and its replacement by quantum physics.
Effective resource allocation in a queue: How much control is necessary?

In this paper, we consider a single-server queue with Poisson inputs and two distinct service rates. The service rate employed at any given instant is decided by a resource allocation policy, based on the queue occupancy. We deal with the question of how often control information needs to be sent to the rate scheduler so as to stay below a certain probability of congestion. We first consider some simple Markovian service rate allocation policies and derive the corresponding control rate vs. congestion probability tradeoffs in closed form. However, since a closed form solution is not possible for more general Markov policies, we resort to large deviation tools to characterize the congestion probabilities of various control policies. We also identify a simple dasiatwo-thresholdpsila policy which achieves the best possible tradeoff between rate of control and the decay exponent of the congestion probability. Finally, we also investigate the impact of control errors on the congestion probability of a resource allocation policy.
Spontaneous bleeding associated with Ginkgo biloba

BACKGROUND:Ginkgo biloba (ginkgo) is a herbal remedy used by over 2% of the adult population in the United States. Several review articles have suggested that ginkgo may increase the risk of bleeding.
Biomass Hydrolysis into Sugars via Activated Carbon-Supported Sulfonic Acid

An activated carbon-supported sulfonic acid catalyst was synthesized and employed as a hydrolysis agent for hydrolysis of model and real biomasses including cellulose, starch, cellobiose, and switchgrass. Model biomasses including cellulose, starch, and cellobiose were hydrolyzed at 90 0 C for 6 and 24 h while switchgrass was hydrolyzed at 75 and 90 0 C for 6, 12, 18 and 24 h. For model biomasses, highest glucose was produced from cellobiose corresponding to 237. 1 ± 0.86 mg g -1 after 24 h, whereas switchgrass yielded a maximum glucose of 72.67 ± 1.03 mg g -1 after 18 h at 90 0 C. In addition, effects of physical (ultrasonication) and chemical (NaOH and H 2 SO 4 ) treatments prior to hydrolysis of switchgrass were also studied. The data suggested that physical and chemical pretreatments did not significantly the hydrolysis efficacy of sulfonic acid catalysts. From the results obtained, it appears that sulfonic acid catalyst has the potential for direct hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass.
Multi-site stimulation (Conference Presentation)

The combination of optogenetics and optical imaging modalities has become a popular tool for the investigation of neurovascular coupling. Developing a closed-loop hemodynamic control system capable of dynamically following various blood flow patterns could be beneficial to the causal investigation of neurovascular coupling. To develop this closed-loop hemodynamic control system, we have added a compensator to create a loop consisting of optogenetic stimulation, neural activities, neurovascular coupling, the evoked hemodynamic response, and a blood flow monitoring device to continuously minimize the difference between the recorded blood flow values and desired blood flow patterns. A Real-time Doppler Optical Coherence Tomography (D-OCT) is employed in this study to monitor the cross-sectional velocity profile of a vessel at a frame rate of 71 frames per second. At the same time, a proportional-derivative compensator is used to continuously adjust the pulse width of a 450nm pulsed laser that delivers 15 Hz photostimulation to the cerebral cortex of Thy1-Channelrhodopsin-2 mice. For each vessel, time-varying desired patterns and stimulation parameters were chosen according to the effect of pulse width modulation on its hemodynamic response, then proportional and derivative gains were tuned to produce a near-critically damped response. After parameter optimization, the closed-loop hemodynamic compensator successfully controlled the blood flow in middle cerebral artery branches.
The Social Lives of Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can affect all aspects of an individual's life, including physical ability, communication, and mental health, and present chronic health conditions that persist throughout the lifespan. Although prior work documents a decrease in social interaction following brain injury, little is known about how individuals with TBI engage in social behavior during their recovery, how others in their lives participate, and how these interactions occur in both online and offline contexts. We examine these issues through an interview study involving individuals with TBI, as well as caregivers and social contacts of individuals with TBI. Our analysis identifies the concept of social re-emergence, a non-linear process of developing a new social identity that involves withdrawing from social life, developing goals for social participation, disclosing health information for social support and acceptance, and attaining social independence.
Switching State-Feedback LPV control with uncertain scheduling parameters

This paper presents a new method to design Robust Switching State-Feedback Gain-Scheduling (RSSFGS) controllers for Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) systems with uncertain scheduling parameters. The domain of scheduling parameters are divided into several overlapped subregions to undergo hysteresis switching among a family of simultaneously designed LPV controllers over the corresponding subregion with the guaranteed ℋ ∞ performance. The synthesis conditions are given in terms of Parameterized Linear Matrix Inequalities that guarantee both stability and performance at each subregion and associated switching surfaces. The switching stability is ensured by descent parameter-dependent Lyapunov function on switching surfaces. By solving the optimization problem, RSSFGS controller can be obtained for each subregion. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach over the non-switching controllers.
Comparative Performance Analysis of Reference Voltage-Controlled Pulse Width Modulation for High-Speed Single-Phase Brushless DC Motor Drive

The recent advancements in power switching device material and manufacturing technology have enabled the design of highly efficient and compact high-speed motor direct drives. The use of high-switching frequency pulse width modulation in these drives provides speed and torque control capabilities and it can also serve as an effective phase current shaping method for torque ripple minimization. This paper builds upon the previous paper introducing a torque ripple minimization technique for gallium nitride high-electron mobility transistor-based high-speed single-phase brushless dc motor drive. It presents an in-depth performance analysis in comparison with the conventional high-speed control techniques. Four different high-speed control techniques are implemented and tested to quantify the maximum speed, efficiency, torque ripple, and vibration. The vibration of the motor drive is measured using a microelectromechanical systems accelerometer with a ferroelectric random access memory for high-speed data acquisition with the maximum bandwidth of 1 kHz.
A Review of Neurogenic Stunned Myocardium

Neurologic stunned myocardium (NSM) is a phenomenon where neurologic events give rise to cardiac abnormalities. Neurologic events like stroke and seizures cause sympathetic storm and autonomic dysregulation that result in myocardial injury. The clinical presentation can involve troponin elevation, left ventricular dysfunction, and ECG changes. These findings are similar to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and acute coronary syndrome. It is difficult to distinguish NSM from acute coronary syndrome based on clinical presentation alone. Because of this difficulty, a patient with NSM who is at high risk for coronary heart disease may undergo cardiac catheterization to rule out coronary artery disease. The objective of this review of literature is to enhance physician's awareness of NSM and its features to help tailor management according to the patient's clinical profile.
The role of success and failure experience in forecast accuracy - the venture capital case.

This study examines how past success and failure experiences shape organizational forecast accuracy, and the extent to which learning from past experience is contingent on organizational size. We r...
Slice-based network transit service: Inter-domain L2 networking on ExoGENI

The GENI network testbed was designed to enable experimentation with network protocols by offering the capability to construct virtual networks at the link layer (L2). GENI users build virtual networks in their GENI slices that span resources on multiple GENI aggregates, linked by L2 network circuits from network fabric providers (e.g., Internet2). This paper summarizes new features for cross-slice stitching in the ExoGENI deployment. They enable slice owners to create L2 links crossing slice boundaries within ExoGENI racks (OpenStack cloud sites), including links to slices owned by other tenants. Like other operations on virtual networks in ExoGENI, cross-slice stitching is dynamic and programmatically controlled. Users can adapt the network topologies of their slices and their interconnections with other slices over time. Cross-slice stitching expands the potential of GENI as a platform for inter-domain network experimentation, including tenant slices that provide high-speed network-based services to other slices. This paper reports on a simple demonstration experiment for ExoGENI cross-slice stitching: a network transit service that runs within a slice, manages a shared circuit topology on behalf of customer slices that link to it, and routes customer traffic over its shared network backbone topology. This experiment shows the potential of cross-slice stitching to address a key limitation of GENI: the cost and limited availability of high-speed network circuits for use within GENI virtual networks.
“Papá, Mamá, I’m Coming Home”: Family, Home, and the Neoliberal Immigrant Nation in the National Immigrant Youth Alliance’s “Bring Them Home” Campaign

Analyzing digital texts created by the activist group the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, this article demonstrates how in some im/migrant activism, the nation is imagined as a familial home so ...
Comparison of the Polychaetous Annelids Populations on Suspended Test Panels in Los Angeles Harbor in 1950-1951 with the Populations in 2013-2014

A 14-month study was conducted of the polychaetous annelids present on attached wooden blocks at nine stations in Los Angeles Harbor in 2013-2014. The results were compared to a similar study conducted at the same stations in 1950-1951. The primary objective in both studies was to determine the location and occurrence of marine borers in the harbor. Since fouling organisms, including polychaetes, attached to the wooden blocks, it also provided an opportunity to study the polychaetes that settled on the blocks. The number of polychaete species in these two studies increased from 22 to 71. The serpulid Hydroides elegans was a dominate species in both studies but the pollution indicator Capitella capitata, common in the earlier study, was rare in the recent study. There was a seasonal occurrence in both the number of species and specimens with highs in the warmer months and lows from December through March in both studies. Many environmental changes have occurred in the Los Angeles Harbor complex over the past 63 years. New harbor piers constructed that extend into the Outer Harbor, channels have been dredged deeper and pollution abatement programs initiated. The water quality has been improved especially in the Inner Harbor as a result of these changes where the dissolved oxygen in the water was low or absent in 1950-1951 but higher (over 6.0 mg/L) in 2013-2014. This study is unusual since long-term, seasonal comparisons of marine invertebrate populations are uncommon.
Ice crystal growth in forced convection system

The objective of this research is to study theoretically the growth rate and tip radius of unconfined ice crystals along their basal plane in flowing subcooled and aqueous NaCl solutions at flow velocities above 1 cm/sec and low degrees of subcooling. The data analyzed were those of Barduhn's group from Syracuse University. A shape-preserving model was used in constructing dendritic growth models. This qualitatively explained the solute effects, namely, the tip sharpening, and enhancement in growth velocity with salt concentration with a well-defined maximum at low solute concentration. The importance of kinetics in the analysis of crystal growth was felt, A method to estimate the kinetics in ice crystals was proposed. Three fundamental theoretical models for forced convection heat and mass transfer from parabolic cylinders and paraboloids of revolution which could be used in dendritic growth are developed. They are: Oseen type rectilinear flow. Potential flow and Oseen's viscous flow approximation, the results of which in terms of the Nusselt number at the stagnation point are given below. Oseen type rectilinear flow; (low Re, low Pr) ,-Pe/2 = (P erfc {Jf) cylinders) Bu = : parabolic k V ir — hR 2 Nu = r= _ /pe/2\ (Paraboloids of k Ej^CPe/z) revolution)