cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Systematic and Evolutionary Implications of Parthenogenesis in the Hymenoptera

SYNOPSIS. Two types of parthenogenesis, arrhenotoky and thelytoky, exist in the Hymenoptera. Arrhenotoky, the development of males from unfertilized eggs, is present in all wasps and bees. Thelytoky, the development of diploid females from unfertilized eggs, is present in a few species. Two types of thelytoky, apomixis and automixis, are known. Most thelytokous Hymenoptera are automictic. No meiosis, only mitosis, occurs in apomixis. Meiosis does occur in automixis, allowing crossing-over and segregation of genes. Advantages of thelytoky are that heterotic combinations become fixed, gene loss is reduced, and reproduction requires only a single individual. One advantage of arrhenotoky is that genetic load in males is eliminated. Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to sex-determination in the haplodiploid system of Hymenoptera. Haplodiploidy can facilitate the evolution of social behavior. Parthenogenesis creates some taxonomic problems since thelytokous clones do not fit the generally accepted biological species concept. Some members of bisexual populations probablyacquire thelytoky, forming their own clones, races, or species.
Typing an Unrelated Panel with PLT Cells: Association with DW Clusters

Primed LD typing (PLT) cells prepared in one laboratory (Madison) were shipped in the frozen state and tested in Tubingen on a separate panel that bad been typed with homozygous typing cells. Those PLT cells that had been grouped, on the basis of their reaction with rest cells of the Madison panel, as defining an HLA PI antigen showed identical or nearly identical patterns of reactivity with the Tubingen panel. Clear association between certain PL antigens and DW clusters as defined with homozygous typing cells could be demonstrated. Of particular interest may be combinations of certain PLT reactions with D-locus-typed cells, where the primed cells do not react as expected from the target's HLA-D type.
Short-term asymptotics for the implied volatility skew under a stochastic volatility model with Lévy jumps

The implied volatility skew has received relatively little attention in the literature on short-term asymptotics for financial models with jumps, despite its importance in model selection and calibration. We rectify this by providing high order asymptotic expansions for the at-the-money implied volatility skew, under a rich class of stochastic volatility models with independent stable-like jumps of infinite variation. The case of a pure-jump stable-like Levy model is also considered under the minimal possible conditions for the resulting expansion to be well defined. Unlike recent results for “near-the-money” option prices and implied volatility, the results herein aid in understanding how the implied volatility smile near expiry is affected by important features of the continuous component, such as the leverage and vol-of-vol parameters. As intermediary results, we obtain high order expansions for at-the-money digital call option prices, which furthermore allow us to infer analogous results for the delta of at-the-money options. Simulation results indicate that our asymptotic expansions give good fits for options with maturities up to one month, underpinning their relevance in practical applications, and an analysis of the implied volatility skew in recent S&P 500 options data shows it to be consistent with the infinite variation jump component of our models.
Cochairman’s Remarks Scope and Purpose of the Symposium

Below I offer some thoughts on the background, scope and purpose of the symposium. The other cochairman, Richard C. Schwing, has some introductory remarks just prior to the third session.
Interdependent Security Games Under Behavioral Probability Weighting

We consider a class of interdependent security games where the security risk experienced by a player depends on her own investment in security as well as the investments of other players. In contrast to much of the existing work that considers risk neutral players in such games, we investigate the impacts of behavioral probability weighting by players while making security investment decisions. This weighting captures the transformation of objective probabilities into perceived probabilities, which influence the decisions of individuals in uncertain environments. We show that the Nash equilibria that arise after incorporating probability weightings have much richer structural properties and equilibrium risk profiles than in risk neutral environments. We provide comprehensive discussions of these effects on the properties of equilibria and the social optimum when the players have homogeneous weighting parameters, including comparative statics results. We further characterize the existence and uniqueness of pure Nash equilibria in Total Effort games with heterogeneous players.
Asymptotically Optimal Algorithms for One-to-One Pickup and Delivery Problems With Applications to Transportation Systems

Pickup and delivery problems (PDPs), in which objects or people have to be transported between specific locations, are among the most common combinatorial problems in real-world logistical operations. A widely-encountered type of PDP is the Stacker Crane Problem (SCP), where each commodity/customer is associated with a pickup location and a delivery location, and the objective is to find a minimum-length tour visiting all locations with the constraint that each pickup location and its associated delivery location are visited in immediate, consecutive order. The SCP is NP-Hard and the best known approximation algorithm only provides a 9/5 approximation ratio. In this paper, we examine an embedding of the SCP within a stochastic framework, and our objective is three-fold: First, we describe a large class of algorithms for the SCP, where every member is asymptotically optimal, i.e., it produces, almost surely, a solution approaching the optimal one as the number of pickups/deliveries goes to infinity; moreover, one can achieve computational complexity O(n2+e) within the class, where n is the number of pickup/delivery pairs and e is an arbitrarily small positive constant. Second, we characterize the length of the optimal SCP tour asymptotically. Finally, we study a dynamic version of the SCP, whereby pickup and delivery requests arrive according to a Poisson process, and which serves as a model for large-scale demand-responsive transport (DRT) systems. For such a dynamic counterpart of the SCP, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of stable vehicle routing policies, which depends only on the workspace geometry, the distributions of pickup and delivery points, the arrival rate of requests, and the number of vehicles. Our results leverage a novel connection between the Euclidean Bipartite Matching Problem and the theory of random permutations, and, for the dynamic setting, exhibit novel features that are absent in traditional spatially-distributed queueing systems.
Expanding Arabic Treebank to Speech: Results from Broadcast News

Treebanking a large corpus of relatively structured speech transcribed from various Arabic Broadcast News (BN) sources has allowed us to begin to address the many challenges of annotating and parsing a speech corpus in Arabic. The now completed Arabic Treebank BN corpus consists of 432,976 source tokens (517,080 tree tokens) in 120 files of manually transcribed news broadcasts. Because news broadcasts are predominantly scripted, most of the transcribed speech is in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). As such, the lexical and syntactic structures are very similar to the MSA in written newswire data. However, because this is spoken news, cross-linguistic speech effects such as restarts, fillers, hesitations, and repetitions are common. There is also a certain amount of dialect data present in the BN corpus, from on-the-street interviews and similar informal contexts. In this paper, we describe the finished corpus and focus on some of the necessary additions to our annotation guidelines, along with some of the technical challenges of a treebanked speech corpus and an initial parsing evaluation for this data. This corpus will be available to the community in 2012 as an LDC publication.
Using Fluctuations To Locate The Surface Roughening Transition

An analysis of the fluctuations of a {100} FCC interface has been used to locate the surface roughening transition in kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations were conducted using a spin 1/2 Ising model treatment of the solid-liquid interface. A temperature gradient was imposed on the simulation cell providing a restoring force to the interface. Fluctuations in the number of solid atoms in the system were measured using time correlations. The fluctuation dissipation theorem was employed to relate the characteristic times retrieved from the time correlation to the kinetic coefficients of the system. A dramatic change was found in these characteristic times, which locates the surface roughening transition.
Personalizing Information Using Users’ Online Social Networks: A Case Study of CiteULike

This paper aims to assess the feasibility of a new and less-focused type of online sociability (the watching network) as a useful information source for personalized recommendations. In this paper, we recommend scientific articles of interests by using the shared interests between target users and their watching connections. Our recommendations are based on one typical social bookmarking system, CiteULike. The watching network-based recommendations, which use a much smaller size of user data, produces suggestions that are as good as the conventional Collaborative Filtering technique. The results demonstrate that the watching network is a useful information source and a feasible foundation for information personalization. Furthermore, the watching network is substitutable for anonymous peers of the Collaborative Filtering recommendations. This study shows the expandability of social network-based recommendations to the new type of online social networks.
Male puberty: physical, psychological, and emotional issues.

Pubertal changes generally commence in males between 9.8 and 14.2 years with a mean of 11.8 years. Although there are a number of diseases that can lead to delayed puberty in males the vast majority of boys who experience delayed puberty have no underlying clinical pathologic condition. In a large case series of patients with delayed puberty 63% of males were found to have a constitutional delay. Of the remaining males with delayed puberty 19% had functional hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (FHH) and went into spontaneous pubertal development albeit late. Conditions leading to FHH in males included growth hormone deficiency hypothyroidism Crohns disease celiac disease sickle cell anemia seizure disorders and severe asthma. Males are much less likely than females to have a clinical pathologic condition as a basis of delayed onset of puberty; in fact most boys who enter puberty late have a family history of delayed pubertal development. (excerpt)
Quarantine for Zika Virus? Where is the Science?

In January 2016, the World Health Organization warned that Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas and that up to 4 million infections could be present worldwide within a year. Soon thereafter, some politicians and authors publicly advocated for quarantine of travelers returning from regions where mosquitoes carrying Zika virus are prevalent. The public health tool of quarantine can be used to prevent the spread of infection by restricting the movement of persons who have been exposed to a deadly disease that can be transmitted from person to person before symptom onset. With 80% of Zika virus infections being asymptomatic, no rapid test being available to detect the virus, and primary transmission being via the bites of certain mosquitoes, application of quarantine in this setting is not scientifically sound or practically feasible. Rather, public health interventions should focus on preventing bites from infected mosquitoes, counseling pregnant women on the risks of fetal microcephaly and other birth defects, and identifying patients with signs and symptoms of Guillain-Barre syndrome. As was seen in the Ebola virus disease outbreak of 2014, non-evidence-based factors can influence policy decisions. Public health experts must ensure that policy makers are informed that quarantine is not a scientifically sound approach for the control of Zika virus. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;0:1-3).
Differentiation of an autonomic response through operant reinforcement

Making reinforcement contingent upon the emission of a skin potential response maintains a stable rate of responding in contrast to a declining rate in a non-contingently reinforced control group. The effect is independent of changes in related response systems.
SiO2–RuO2: A Stable Electrocatalyst Support

High surface area SiO2–RuO2 (SRO) supports with various SiO2: RuO2 ratios were synthesized using a wet chemical method. The supports were catalyzed by depositing platinum nanoparticles on their surface. The synthesized materials were characterized by XRD, TEM, BET, and linear sweep voltammetry to study microstructure and properties. The electrochemical stability, electrochemical surface area, electrocatalytic activity and fuel cell performance were also measured. The optimal 1:1 mol ratio of SiO2–RuO2 (SRO-1) possessed a BET surface area of 305 m2/g and an electrical conductivity of 24 S/cm. This SRO support demonstrated 10-fold higher electrochemical stability than Vulcan XC-72R carbon when subjected to an aggressive accelerated stability test (AST) involving 10,000 potential cycles between 1 and 1.5 V. The mass activity of Pt-doped SRO-1 was 54 mA/mgPt, whereas its specific activity was 115 μA cmPt–2. The fuel cell performance obtained with this catalyst was lower, but compared favorably against a comme...
Mathematical model of precision sensor for an automatic weapons stabilizer system

Abstract The mathematical model of the weapons stabilizer for mobile objects is presented, an equation of motion was obtained, and the schematic of the major components of the automated weapons stabilizer system was determined. The block diagram of the acceleration signal conversion in the sensor piezoelectric element was presented, and the method of compensating the input voltage by introduction of negative feedback based on the reverse piezoelectric effect was suggested. A technique for high-precision sensitivity axis of the piezoelectric sensor was presented.
Addition products of uric acid and formaldehyde.

In order to calibrate colorimetric determinations of serum and urine uric acid, standard dilutions are routinely prepared from a stock solution of uric acid in 2% Formalin. We made a similar solution by dissolving 100 mg of uric acid in 100 ml of 1% formaldehyde in water and applied it to a Polyacrylamide column (BIO GEL P-2) monitored spectrophotometrically at 280 nm. Uric acid, dissolved in water or in lithium carbonate solution, characteristically adsorbs to the column matrix and ultimately elutes as a single peak after 33 hours (1). In contrast, the solution of uric acid with formaldehyde unexpectedly resulted in three distinct elution peaks. A small peak was seen with the characteristic slow mobility of free uric acid, but two much larger peaks, designated F2 and F1, were eluted earlier after 19 and 25 hours. This simple chromatographic technique thus demonstrated the presence of two new reaction products and isolated them for further characterization.
Mechanical ventilatory support.

The pathophysiology and differential diagnosis of acute respiratory failure are elucidated. The authors discuss mechanical ventilation at length, giving practical advice on the application of positive end-expiratory pressure, on weaning from the ventilator, and on the patient who is fighting the ventilator. Suggestions for the rapid treatment of hypoxia and hypercarbia are also given.
Association Between Intensive Care Unit Utilization During Hospitalization and Costs, Use of Invasive Procedures, and Mortality

Importance Maximizing the value of critical care services requires understanding the relationship between intensive care unit (ICU) utilization, clinical outcomes, and costs. Objective To examine whether hospitals had consistent patterns of ICU utilization across 4 common medical conditions and the association between higher use of the ICU and hospital costs, use of invasive procedures, and mortality. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort study of 156 842 hospitalizations in 94 acute-care nonfederal hospitals for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), pulmonary embolism (PE), upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB), and congestive heart failure (CHF) in Washington state and Maryland from 2010 to 2012. Hospitalizations for DKA, PE, UGIB, and CHF were identified from the presence of compatible International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification ( ICD-9-CM ) codes. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to determine the predicted hospital-level ICU utilization during hospitalizations for the 4 study conditions. For each condition, hospitals were ranked based on the predicted ICU utilization rate to examine the variability in ICU utilization across institutions. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcomes were associations between hospital-level ICU utilization rates and risk-adjusted hospital mortality, use of invasive procedures, and hospital costs. Results The 94 hospitals and 156 842 hospitalizations included in the study represented 4.7% of total hospitalizations in this study. ICU admission rates ranged from 16.3% to 81.2% for DKA, 5.0% to 44.2% for PE, 11.5% to 51.2% for UGIB, and 3.9% to 48.8% for CHF. Spearman rank coefficients between DKA, PE, UGIB, and CHF showed significant correlations in ICU utilization for these 4 medical conditions among hospitals (ρ ≥ 0.90 for all comparisons; P Conclusions and Relevance For medical conditions where ICU care is frequently provided, but may not always be necessary, institutions that utilize ICUs more frequently are more likely to perform invasive procedures and have higher costs but have no improvement in hospital mortality. Hospitals had similar ICU utilization patterns across the 4 medical conditions, suggesting that systematic institutional factors may influence decisions to potentially overutilize ICU care. Interventions that seek to improve the value of critical care services will need to address these factors that lead clinicians to admit patients to higher levels of care when equivalent care can be delivered elsewhere in the hospital.
Constitutivism and Inescapability: A Diagnosis

A central element of constitutivist accounts of categorical normativity is the claim that the ultimate foundation of the relevant kind of practical authority is sourced in certain tasks, features, and aims that every person inevitably possesses and inescapably has to deal with. We have no choice but to be agents and this fact is responsible for the norms and principles that condition our agency-related activities to have anunconditional normative grip on us. Critics of constitutivism argue that it is exactly because of itsinescapability that agency is a powerless source of normative authority. I investigate why our intuitionsconcerning the appeal to inescapability point into such contrary directions. Why do we feel the attraction ofgrounding categorical normativity in phenomena that not even the skeptic can ignore, on the one hand, butseem to hold dear the principle that “ought implies need not,” on the other? Instead of fully developing thethird, neutral, way of conceptualizing the relationship between inescapability and normativity that theimpasse between constitutivists and their critics suggests, this paper diagnoses the disagreement at hand.That agency is inescapable does neither guarantee nor rule out its status qua source of categoricalnormativity. Both camps of the debate overlook this option and depict their opponents as adhering to animplausible perspective of how appeals to inescapability and unconditional normativity are related. Sincethe debate relies on a false dichotomy it is not surprising that its participants so often talk past each other.
Parametric Force Analysis for Measurement of Arbitrary Optical Forces on Particles Trapped in Air or Vacuum

We demonstrate a new method to measure arbitrary optical forces on particles trapped in gaseous or vacuum environments using the ring down of a trapped particle following electrostatic excitation of particle motion in the trap. The method is not limited to the common constraints of linear forces for small oscillations or conservative forces, allows for a wide displacement range, and measures forces directly from trajectories in near-real time. We use transient response analysis to model the nearly ideal response for small oscillations, and illustrate the more general case by demonstrating a nonlinear response to impulse excitation at a displacement where the optical force is linear. Simulations verify the applicability to nonlinear forces from a general potential, and comparison to traditional thermodynamic measures shows good agreement. Combined with in situ microscopy to measure the particle diameter, this allows for the estimation of all system parameters assuming only the manufacturer’s value for the ...
Relations Between Mindfulness Processes, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Functioning in Psychiatric and Pre-bariatric Surgery Outpatients

Mindfulness is increasingly an important part of clinical case conceptualization and treatment for mental illness. Although links between (1) mindfulness and psychiatric symptoms and (2) mindfulness and functioning are well-established, relatively few studies examine unique contributions of mindfulness to both symptoms and functioning concurrently. Moreover, we found few studies examining mindfulness, symptoms, and functioning using faceted measures of mindfulness. One thousand ninety-nine psychiatric outpatients and 1820 bariatric surgery candidates completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), which also included items from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS). Pearson correlations suggested four of five mindfulness facets (Observe, Act with Awareness, Nonjudge, Nonreact) related consistently to both psychiatric symptoms and functional outcomes in both the psychiatric and bariatric samples. In the psychiatric sample, Act with Awareness had an indirect effect on functioning, while Nonjudge and Nonreact had both indirect and direct effects on functioning and symptoms. In contrast, the bariatric sample showed direct and indirect effects of Act with Awareness, Nonjudge, and Nonreact on symptoms and functioning, and a single, direct effect of Observe on physical functioning. The fifth facet (Describe) was dropped from both models. Taken together, these results suggest that mindfulness facets vary significantly in their relation to psychiatric symptoms and functioning. Results have implications for conceptualizing mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions in both clinical and research settings.
Association of Telomere Length in Dyskeratosis Congenita Lymphocytes with Increased Sensitivity to Radiation and Anti-Mitotic Agents.

Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a premature aging syndrome characterized by progressive bone marrow failure, abnormal skin pigmentation and nail dystrophy. We have recently described an autosomal dominant form of DC (AD DC) in a large three-generation kindred that is due to a mutation in the gene encoding human telomerase RNA (hTR). Importantly, we have noted progressive shortening of telomeres in lymphocytes from the most recent generation, correlating with earlier onset of severe cytopenias in some of these patients. While telomere shortening is a normal consequence of the aging process, DC patients display accelerated telomere shortening in many somatic cell types. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) remains the only curative therapy for marrow failure in DC. However, HSCT in DC is generally poorly tolerated and associated with significant morbidity, perhaps as a consequence of increased sensitivity of dividing cells to cytotoxic agents. To test this hypothesis, we characterized lymphocytes from nine AD DC patients and age matched controls that had been placed in long term culture following in vitro exposure to irradiation ( 137 Cs) and varying doses of Taxol. Cell proliferation and viability were quantitated by direct visual counting on a hemocytometer, and flow cytometry was employed to assess apoptosis and cell surface expression of senescent markers. CD57 and CD95, markers of cellular senescence and apoptosis, were significantly upregulated on DC T lymphocytes after two weeks in culture relative to controls. In addition to DC lymphocytes having a decreased proliferative capacity, an increased sensitivity to Taxol was noted, with an average decrease of 21% in cell growth relative to similarly treated control cells. This effect was also noted in irradiated DC cells. Finally, DC lymphocytes displayed an increased apoptotic index in the presence of varying doses of Taxol. These results suggest that telomere shortening may be an important factor in determining cellular tolerance to cytotoxic therapy and support the concept of reduced intensity HSCT regimens in both aged individuals and DC patients.
Isothermal Creep Behavior of 3M™ Scotch-Weld™ EC-2216 B\A in Single Lap Joints

This paper studies the isothermal creep behavior of the 3M™ Scotch-Weld™ EC-2216 B\A Gray (EC-2216) epoxy in single lap joints subjected to a uniaxial tensile load. The time-independent mechanical properties of EC-2216 such as the Young’s modulus, shear modulus, and bulk modulus have been reported in the literature, but the results are not consistent. However, to the best knowledge of the authors its shear stress-strain constitutive equation has not been obtained yet. Thus, in this paper, we propose the shear stress-strain constitutive equation of the EC-2216 in single lap joints subjected to uniaxial tensile tests at room temperature (24±3°C). First, a viscoelastic model is estimated in short-term experiments within the viscoelastic regime. Second, the creep deformation of the EC-2216 is modeled by different conventional imperial models. Third, different conventional creep rate models are used to estimate the steady state creep rate of the third stage, which mainly indicates the longevity of the material. Moreover, the failure accumulate strain is obtained based on the maximum strain criterion, for different shear stress levels. Finally, the proposed models are compared to the current published data.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
CHAPTER 297 – The Smads

The transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily of Hgands regulates a broad range of biological functions in both developing embryos and adult organisms, and the mechanisms by which these ligands regulate cell-type-specific effects on transcription has been a central problem in TGF-β biology. The Smads were identified in the mid-1990s as a family of intracellular transducers of TGF-β signals, and the study of how Smads mediate transcriptional regulation by TGF-βs has begun to reveal how specificity is achieved for the broad range of biological activities of these ligands. The founding member of the Smad family, MAD, was identified in Drosophila as a modifier of the effects of dpp, a Drosophila bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) homolog. A related set of genes, Smal, 2, and 3, were identified as required for signaling by a TGF-β homolog in Caenorhabditis elegans, and both homology-based searches and functional screens in vertebrates subsequently identified vertebrate AD/Sma homologs, defining a broadly conserved family, renamed Smads, as transducers of TGF-β signals.
Candidate genes and molecular markers associated with heat tolerance in colonial Bentgrass

Elevated temperature is a major abiotic stress limiting the growth of cool-season grasses during the summer months. The objectives of this study were to determine the genetic variation in the expression patterns of selected genes involved in several major metabolic pathways regulating heat tolerance for two genotypes contrasting in heat tolerance to confirm their status as potential candidate genes, and to identify PCR-based markers associated with candidate genes related to heat tolerance in a colonial (Agrostis capillaris L.) x creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) hybrid backcross population. Plants were subjected to heat stress in controlled-environmental growth chambers for phenotypic evaluation and determination of genetic variation in candidate gene expression. Molecular markers were developed for genes involved in protein degradation (cysteine protease), antioxidant defense (catalase and glutathione-S-transferase), energy metabolism (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), cell expansion (expansin), and stress protection (heat shock proteins HSP26, HSP70, and HSP101). Kruskal-Wallis analysis, a commonly used non-parametric test used to compare population individuals with or without the gene marker, found the physiological traits of chlorophyll content, electrolyte leakage, normalized difference vegetative index, and turf quality were associated with all candidate gene markers with the exception of HSP101. Differential gene expression was frequently found for the tested candidate genes. The development of candidate gene markers for important heat tolerance genes may allow for the development of new cultivars with increased abiotic stress tolerance using marker-assisted selection.
Determining ion channel permeation properties.

Publisher Summary Considerable effort is being put into the determination of the mechanism of ion channel permeation. This effort includes many components, but a first step must be to determine which ions can permeate the pore. Additional information can be obtained by determining how many ions may simultaneously occupy the pore and by investigating the ability of small ions to block the pore. These issues are not necessarily independent of one another and, as a result, the proper interpretation of experimental results needs to consider all as part of a whole not as isolated, unrelated pieces. This chapter describes some of the methods used to measure ion channel selectivity, permeation, and blocking and some of the complexities of interpreting the resulting data. Many ion channels have complex permeation properties best understood in terms of simultaneous pore occupancy by several ions. The interaction of ions within the channel pore complicates the interpretation of certain types of experiments and it is useful to consider a variety of approaches with special attention to the multi-ion nature of channel pores. The pore in different types of K + channels appears to allow occupancy by at least four ions and it remains a challenge to find where, within the pore, the ions are located and to determine the way so much electrostatic charge can be confined to such a relatively small space.
Forced vital capacity predicts morbidity and mortality in adults with repaired tetralogy of Fallot.

Objective Abnormal lung function characterized by a reduced forced vital capacity (FVC) is common in adults with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and is associated with previous thoracotomies and sternotomies. The impact of abnormal lung function on clinical outcomes in adult patients with repaired TOF is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of abnormal lung function on the outcome of hospitalization and death in adults with repaired TOF when analyzed with other traditional cardiac risk factors. Design Retrospective study of adults with repaired TOF, who underwent spirometry between 2000 and 2014. FVC < 60% of predicted was categorized as moderate-to-severely reduced lung function. Primary outcome measure was the combined clinical endpoint of death, cardiac transplantation, or nonelective hospitalization for primary cardiac or respiratory indication. Results A total of 122 patients were included. Average age at spirometry testing was 31 ± 10.1 years. FVC was < 60% predicted in 23 (19%) patients. During a mean follow-up period of 3.97 ± 2.65 years, 23 (19%) patients reached the combined clinical outcome of nonelective hospitalization and/or death. FVC < 60% predicted was independently associated with the risk for the combined clinical outcome (RR 6.68 (95% CI 2.49–17.94), P < .001). Conclusions Abnormal pulmonary function characterized by reduced FVC is common in adults with repaired TOF. Patients with FVC < 60% predicted had a 6 times higher rate of hospitalization and/or death compared to those with FVC ≥ 60%.
An outline of arachidonate remodeling and its biological significance

Arachidonic acid (AA) is a member of the n-6 family of essential fatty acids. Mammals obtain AA directly from vegetable or animal oils or from successive elongation and desaturation of linoleic acid (LA, 18:2, n-6) by the liver (Fig. 1) [1, 2]. Once presented to cells, AA is rapidly incorporated into glycerolipids. This incorporation is initiated by the ATP-dependent conversion of AA to arachidonyl CoA by arachidonyl CoA synthetases [3, 4, 5, 6]. AA CoA can then be incorporated into lyso phospholipids by CoA-dependent acyl transferases [7, 8, 9, 10]. This initial incorporation of AA into phospholipids is directed mainly into 1-acyl-linked subclasses. Once in these early AA pools, arachidonate is continuously and selectively transferred to tether-linked phospholipids by CoA-independent transacylase (CoA-IT) and CoAdependent transferase activities present in cells [11, 12, 13, 14]. This selective transfer of arachidonate from 1-acyl-linked to 1-ether-linked phospholipids likely accounts for the asymmetrical distribution of arachidonate within phospholipid subclasses such that arachidonate is greater in ether-linked subclasses than in 1-acyl-linked subclasses in many cell types [11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. While the most characterized remodeling processes have involved mammalian cells, many studies have shown that remodeling occurs in other cell types and may be a universal phenomenon in which the distribution of AA is maintained within glycerolipid classes. In most studies, remodeling has been characterized as the transfer of AA from 1-acyl-2-AA-GPC to etherlinked phospholipids [16].
Two Modified Chorin Schemes

In the previous chapters we have analyzed the projection methods of Chorin and of Van Kan, based on their reformulation as semi-explicit quasi-compressibility methods. Due to the resulting Poisson equation for the pressure function in combination with homogeneous boundary conditions, these schemes possess a singular perturbation character. This chapter is devoted to the question of whether it is possible to construct projection type algorithms that do not suffer from numerically induced boundary layers for the pressure approximation. The complete removal of the boundary layers would give rise to a regular perturbation formulation of the incompressible Stokes operator.
Supporting individuals with autism spectrum disorder in understanding and coping with complex social emotional issues

Core deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) center around social communication and behavior. For those with ASD, these deficits complicate the task of learning how to cope with and manage complex social emotional issues. Although individuals with ASD may receive sufficient academic and basic behavioral support in school settings, supports for dealing with complex social emotional issues are more difficult to access, even though these issues significantly impact student learning. When addressing these challenging social- and emotional-based issues, school and professional personnel need more specific instructional skill sets and resources to effectively and compassionately support students with ASD. In this article, we address three challenging areas of social emotional development that are commonly experienced by individuals with ASD: Anxiety, social isolation, and grief. We briefly explore the existing research on these three topics, identify evidence-based practices and learning strategies to suppor...
In-hospital medical complications after non-operative and operative treatment of thoracolumbar fractures in patients over 75 years of age.

Abstract Management of spine fractures among the elderly is complicated by preexisting comorbidities and increased risk of osseous nonunion. Whether operative treatment is superior for the management of thoracolumbar fractures in the aged is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the rates of in-hospital medical complications after non-operative and operative treatment of thoracolumbar fractures in elderly patients. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 2002 to 2011 was used to identify patients over 75 years of age with a principal discharge diagnosis of thoracolumbar fracture without spinal cord injury. Three treatment groups were compared: non-operative treatment, operative treatment, and minimally-invasive vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty (VP/KP). A total of 59,565 patients were identified; 46,962 treated non-operatively, 1,487 treated operatively, and 11,116 treated with VP/KP. Operative patients had the longest length of hospital stay (P
Characterization of catalytic fast pyrolysis oils: The importance of solvent selection for analytical method development

Abstract Two catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) oils (bottom/heavy fraction) were analyzed in various solvents that are used in common analytical methods (nuclear magnetic resonance – NMR, gas chromatography – GC, gel permeation chromatography – GPC, thermogravimetric analysis – TGA) for oil characterization and speciation. A more accurate analysis of the CFP oils can be obtained by identification and exploitation of solvent miscibility characteristics. Acetone and tetrahydrofuran can be used to completely solubilize CFP oils for analysis by GC and tetrahydrofuran can be used for traditional organic GPC analysis of the oils. DMSO-d6 can be used to solubilize CFP oils for analysis by 13C NMR. The fractionation of oils into solvents that did not completely solubilize the whole oils showed that miscibility can be related to the oil properties. This allows for solvent selection based on physico-chemical properties of the oils. However, based on semi-quantitative comparisons of the GC chromatograms, the organic solvent fractionation schemes did not speciate the oils based on specific analyte type. On the other hand, chlorinated solvents did fractionate the oils based on analyte size to a certain degree. Unfortunately, like raw pyrolysis oil, the matrix of the CFP oils is complicated and is not amenable to simple liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) or solvent fractionation to separate the oils based on the chemical and/or physical properties of individual components. For reliable analyses, for each analytical method used, it is critical that the bio-oil sample is both completely soluble and also not likely to react with the chosen solvent. The adoption of the standardized solvent selection protocols presented here will allow for greater reproducibility of analysis across different users and facilities.
Iterative Full-Field Inversion Using Simulated Annealing

Inversion for bottom properties at low frequency in shallow water environments can be a very difficult problem especially when little a priori information is available. This paper explores the sensitivity of the inversion process with respect to source aperture, frequency, bandwidth, receive aperture, shear wave speed, and geoacoustic model parameter selection. The exploitation of these sensitivity factors is illustrated by inverting three distinct environments.
Current State of EBP in the Community Corrections Field

With nearly 80% of the correctional population under pretrial, probation or parole supervision, or alternatives to incarceration programs, evidence-based practice (EBP) is relevant to many facets of community supervision. The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has devoted considerable attention to community corrections with a number of initiatives designed to assist the field in understanding the concepts underscoring EBPs, disseminating information on the value of these efforts to both internal and external partners, and working with select jurisdictions on early implementation issues. The National Criminal Justice Treatment Practices Survey, conducted in 2004–2005, documented how the field is embracing the concept of EBPs, and identified key organizational factors that affect implementation in the field. Similarly NIC provided support for a number of initiatives devoted to implementation and dissemination. Finally, the authors of this book conducted key informant interviews with leaders in a variety of fields to learn from their efforts of implementing EBPs into practice. This chapter details these related efforts that illustrate how important the EBP movement has become to the discipline.
Initial estimation of the in vivo material properties of the seated human buttocks and thighs

Abstract On average, people are sedentary for 70% of the day, either seated or lying down. Of particular interest for this work is the seated posture; while seated the buttocks and thigh tissues experience loading for prolonged periods of time. When modeling human body interactions with seating devices and in the design of these devices, it is necessary to appropriately model the material characteristics of the soft tissue in the thigh and buttock areas. Thus, there is a pressing need for in vivo, experimentally measured data that describe the mechanical behavior of the soft tissue within the buttocks and thigh regions of humans in the seated posture. We developed an innovative experimental set-up to gather in vivo force–deflection data for both men and women in six regions located along the buttocks and thighs. Then, using anatomical measures, cadaver measures, and reported literature on regional tissue thickness, the data were converted to normal stress and strain curves. Next, these curves were described using the Mooney–Rivlin material model. Finally, best-fit mechanical parameters were reported, along with the original force–deflection data. Results indicated that, in general, the male tissue differed from female tissue, and that the mechanical properties differed between regions. Thus, when developing computer models that represent the human body, different material properties should be considered for men and women. Furthermore, appropriate properties should be used for the body region being evaluated. These data are unique in that they are quantified in vivo, represent the seated body position, and include multiple regions for both men and women. The material properties presented in this work will lead to improved numerical models, and consequently improved device design.
Nonparametric interval estimation for the mean of a zero-inflated population

In many statistical analysis, data may consist of excess zero values and the non-zero values are highly positively skewed. Confidence intervals based on a normal approximation for such zero-inflate...
3D cell coculture tumor model: A promising approach for future cancer drug discovery

Abstract It is recognized that tumors do not exist and grow as isolated entities of neoplastic cells, but rather in continuous and bidirectional communication with adjacent stromal cells. Stromal cellular components, like fibroblasts, endothelial cells and multiple immune cells, have been proven to play critical roles in tumor development. In the past decade, a variety of in vitro three-dimensional (3D) tumor models were developed to replace conventional monolayer cell culture systems. 3D cell coculture between tumor and stromal cells has also gained increasing interest due to improved mimicry of in vivo tumor microenvironments. In this review, we first provide a general overview of the mechanisms for cancer development mediated by several key types of stromal cells, and their current applications in cell coculture. Next, a variety of current methodologies for 3D cell coculture are summarized in terms of cell contact methods, 3D scaffolds and culture devices. The potential of an integrated high throughput (HT) 3D cell coculture screening platform for cancer drug discovery is also discussed in this review.
MRA of the Aorta and Peripheral Arteries

It can be argued that magnetic resonance angiography of the aorta and peripheral vessels has undergone more dramatic changes over the last couple decades than any other form of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. The first useful clinical applications primarily used two-dimensional time-of-flight technology. However, in the mid-1990s, this approach was replaced to a large degree by contrast-enhanced techniques using conventional agents in dynamic, multiphase mode. Blood pool agents have also been developed for use in magnetic resonance angiography, but their precise role remains to be determined. Given the risks of gadolinium contrast in patients with renal failure, which is not an unusual concomitant in patients undergoing vascular evaluation, there has been a recent resurgence in interest in the use of non-contrast magnetic resonance angiographic approaches.
Submicron sodium banding in cultured planktic foraminifera shells

Abstract The calcite shells, or tests, of foraminifera provide a window into Earth history because they are archived in most marine sediments and contain useful geochemical proxies for paleoceanography. Previous observations of diurnal heterogeneity in proxies like Mg/Ca demonstrate a complex relationship between environmental conditions and test composition. The causes for this diurnal banding and the potential impact for proxy interpretation in systems other than Mg/Ca have yet to be determined. Recently, Mg and Na in shells of the planktic foraminifer species Orbulina universa have been observed to be high at the location of the primary organic sheet (POS), i.e. the organic template upon which the calcite test is formed. Here we use time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), a chemical and isotope mapping technique with a spatial resolution of 300 nm, to show that Na banding is a consistent feature in the tests of 45 individual cultured O. universa. This banding occurs in two distinct forms: (1) sharp Na bands associated with organic sheets that are embedded in the calcite test after chamber formation; and (2) regular, thicker, but lower-amplitude Na bands that are found throughout the test. We use the pattern of the first type of banding to indicate the extent and sequence of calcite growth during chamber formation. Specifically, we show that new chamber formation involves growth over the previous chamber in Orbulina bilobata, a morphotype of O. universa that develops a second partial spherical chamber attached to the primary sphere. This is consistent with a bilamellar model of foraminiferal growth. However, a SIMS mapping survey of the morphologically more complex Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei suggests that the pattern of growth during chamber formation and the prevalence of different types of Na bands may be species-specific. The wide, repeating Na bands that occur throughout the test of O. universa generally occur in an inverse pattern with respect to Mg banding for the first few days of the foraminifer's life, but this pattern changes as the organism ages. We use the magnitude, timing, and coherency between Na and Mg bands to put constraints on various proposed mechanisms for banding, including antiport Mg2+-2Na+ exchange and kinetic growth rate effects.