cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Trajectory design of a solar electric propulsion Encke slow flyby mission

A slow flyby of the periodic comet, Encke, prior to its perihelion passage in 1980 has been shown to be a feasible mission for a solar electric propulsion spacecraft using a moderate power level of around 15 kw. The mission is accomplished in slightly less than two years with a planned miss distance and flyby speed of 1000 km and 4 km/s respectively. The results of a performance tradeoff study are presented together with a description of the nominal trajectory. The trajectories used in these mission studies were calculated using an updated model of the 30 cm mercury bombardment thruster's performance. The trajectory simulations include optimum staging of operating thrusters as a function of input power level constraints and limits on the variation of thruster specific impulse and efficiency as a function of thruster input power.
A biofeedback cane system: instrumentation and subject application results

A system has been developed to measure axial cane forces while walking. An audio alarm can be programmed to sound within adjustable limits according to the cane load magnitude. Cane load sensors provide input to a portable data acquisition system which is designed to perform analog to digital conversion and store the force data using a precalibrated look-up table. The audio alarm is controlled on the basis of sensor look-up table values with high and low thresholds set as a ratio of subject weight. High-speed CMOS technology and the Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor were used in the design to limit power consumption. Ten normal adult subjects were used to evaluate the system. Measurements were made using the system with and without audio feedback. The system is suggested for further use in the characterization of feedback on cane and lower extremity load metrics. >
The compatibility of the retail setting with a patient‐based practice model: reports from community pharmacists

SUMMARY The patient counselling and prospective drug utilization review mandates of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 raise the question of how compatible the retail pharmacy setting in the United States is with a patient-based model of pharmacy practice. In order to investigate this question, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed by pharmacy students to a convenience sample of pharmacists with at least one year's experience in the community setting. The questionnaire asks respondents to recall two incidents: one that caused them to gain or retain a patient or that was for some reason a source of professional satisfaction, and one that may have caused the loss of a patient or that they would handle differently if faced with the situation or problem again. The respondents practice in pharmacies in and around a large midwestem city. Data analysis showed that respondents tend to identify patient-based activities when recalling appropriate behaviours and traditional or customer-based activities when recalling inappropriate behaviours or mistakes. Patient-based activities can sometimes result in the loss of business, but they can also result in patronage gains, especially when performed in conjunction with good customer service. In summary, these pharmacists do implement a patient-based model in some situations. The patient-based and customer-based models can be complementary in that the patient can benefit from the services of an expert health professional while simultaneously being treated with the respect and ‘customer knows best’ attitudes indicative of the retail setting.
A Comparison of the Effects of bid and qid Dosing on Compliance with Inhaled Flunisolide

Noncompliance with inhaled steroids is a well-recognized problem in asthma therapy. We compared compliance with bid and qid regimens of inhaled flunisolide in 16 asthmatic subjects. Patients were instructed to take four inhalations bid for T1 to establish baseline compliance. During T2, half (group A) continued this dosing regimen, while the other half (group B) switched to two inhalations qid. Croup A compliance did not significantly change from T1 to T2. The percentage of days with less than eight inhalations (underuse) for group B, however, increased from 20.2 ± 40.3 in T1 (bid dosing) to 57.1 ± 49.6 in T2 (qid dosing) (p
Geochemical Model for the Origin of Precambrian Banded Iron Formations

Banded iron formations could have formed in shallow-water marine conditions from iron transported to the oceans in detrital sediments and silica transported in solution. If atmospheric P o 2 were significantly lower than at present and biological productivity were comparable to present-day values, the entire oceans below the thermocline would be anaerobic ( f o 2 ∼10 −70 ), while the surface mixed zone would be relatively oxidizing. The supply of Fe 2+ to the oceans in sediments is much greater than the supply of dissolved sulfate. Under anaerobic conditions, all the sulfur would be precipitated as pyrite, and Fe 2+ would build up in solution until siderite saturation was achieved (∼10 ppm Fe 2+ ). When the anaerobic deep water welled up onto a shallow platform, the dissolved Fe 2+ would be oxidized to goethite, and slight evaporation would cause precipitation of amorphous silica or magadiite. Siderite would be formed where the supply of organic carbon was sufficient to maintain anaerobic conditions at the sediment-water interface. Silica-secreting organisms are assumed to have been absent, and an oceanic pH value of 7.7 or lower (perhaps caused by a slightly higher atmospheric P co 2 would be required to prevent sepiolite precipitation. Quantitative calculations show that hydrogen ion released by oxidation of Fe 2+ and precipitation of goethite would be sufficient to prevent precipitation of calcite when the water is evaporated sufficiently to deposit a weight of SiO 2 equal to the weight of Fe 2 O 3 precipitated by oxidation of Fe 2+ . The predicted physical environment of deposition is similar to that of present-day shallow-water carbonates. This is in good agreement with sedimentological studies. Apart from the direct consequences of lowered atmospheric Po 2 , slightly increased Pcoa and the absence of silica-secreting organisms, the chemistry and thermal structure of the ocean 2 b.y. ago could have been identical to those of the present-day ocean.
Home Hemodialysis Offers Excellent Survival

In selected patients, home hemodialysis offers excellent patient survival and opportunities for rehabilitation. In this article I review some survival and rehabilitation data from the literature. I then report on our experience with training 204 patients in the inner city since 1969. Cumulative technique survival is 17% at 28 years. In addition, I report the outcome of 13 patients, "long survivors," who have been maintained on home hemodialysis for 20 or more years.
Characteristics and kinetics of cervical lymph node regression after radiation therapy for human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma: Quantitative image analysis of post-radiotherapy response

Summary Background and purpose We sought to characterize the pattern of lymph node regression and morphology following definitive radiation therapy (RT) for human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma in patients with disease control. Materials and methods Radiographically positive cervical lymph nodes from patients treated with definitive RT for HPV-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma were segmented on initial pre- and subsequent post-RT contrast enhanced CT images. Pre-specified quantitative nodal parameters were calculated. Initial nodal parameter correlates of final nodal size, final nodal volume, and time to Results Sixty-six radiographically positive lymph node were analyzed in 36 patients. Lymph nodes exhibited initial volume decreases with size stabilization at ∼4 months. Fifteen nodes (23%) underwent complete radiographic response (median 6.4 months following RT; range 2.9–25.6 months). On multivariate time-to-event analysis, initial hypodense/fat component, nodal volume, and short-axis diameter exhibited inverse association, while higher HU standard deviation exhibited a positive association, with reaching p Conclusions Our results showed a substantial decrease in nodal volume within the first 1–2 months following RT. These findings support our current nodal imaging paradigm, propose a quantitative methodology, and describe a reference dataset for further validation and comparison studies.
Analysis of Rubber Particles Produced by the Solid State Shear Extrusion Pulverization Process

Abstract Vulcanized natural rubber was pulverized using a single screw extruder in a non-cryogenic Solid State Shear Extrusion (SSSE) process where rubber granulates were subjected to high compressive and shear stresses. The produced particles had diameters ranging from 40 to 1700 µm. Reprocessing of the produced powder resulted in a narrower particle size distribution. Considerable heat generated in the extruder due to friction caused surface oxidation of the fine rubber particles and, in turn, initiation of agglomeration of a portion of the produced particles. Physical, chemical, and thermal analyses were performed on the produced rubber particles and the rubber granulates to determine the effects of the pulverization process. The produced particles had irregular shapes with rough surfaces. The external surfaces of the particles were porous, but no microporosity was detected by nitrogen BET analysis. Swelling and extraction experiments showed that both the crosslink density and gel fraction of the parti...
A Stable Isotopic Investigation of a Polar Desert Hydrologic System, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Abstract The hydrologic system of the coastal McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, is defined by snow accumulation, glacier melt, stream flow, and retention in closed-basin, ice-covered lakes. During the austral summers from 1993–1996 and 1999–2000 to 2002–2003, fresh snow, snow pits, glacier ice, stream water, and lake waters were sampled for the stable isotopes deuterium (D) and 18O in order to resolve sources of meltwater and the interactions among the various hydrologic reservoirs in the dry valleys. This data set provides a survey of the distribution of natural water isotope abundances within the well-defined dry valley hydrologic system in Taylor Valley, which extends 20 km inland from McMurdo Sound. The three major Taylor Valley lakes are not connected to one another hydrologically, and their levels are maintained by glacial meltwater inflow and perennial ice-cover sublimation. At the valley scale, glacial ice, snow, stream, and lake waters become more depleted in δD with increasing distance from McMur...
Lafler and Frye: A New Constitutional Standard for Negotiation

In a pair of decisions handed down in 2012, Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Frye, the Supreme Court extended the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel to cover ineffective assistance by defense counsel solely in the plea-bargaining phase. Recognizing that pleas account for ninety-five percent of all criminal convictions, the court stated that “defense counsel have responsibilities in the plea bargain process, responsibilities that must be met to render the adequate assistance of counsel that the Sixth Amendment requires.” This paper explores the implications of this new constitutional minimum standard for counsel in the plea bargaining context. The paper examines the Frye and Lafler decisions in light of the Supreme Court’s previous rulings, and shows that the Court made broad rulings that extend ineffective assistance jurisprudence to the larger negotiation context of plea bargains. It then looks to existing standards of professional practice, such as ABA standards, case law, and negotiation texts, to find guidance for lower courts in determining how ineffective assistance may be shown in the negotiation of plea bargains. Most importantly, it looks at new types of claims that defendants may bring that may now be considered ineffective assistance: (1) poor preparation, (2) trading off the interests of one client for another, (3) taking no time for a plea bargain negotiation, (4) antagonizing the prosecutor, and (5) refusing to bargain. For each of these we attempt to apply existing standards to consider whether a court could uphold an ineffectiveness claim based on poor attorney performance. It ends by examining other hurdles that petitioners will have to face in bringing these claims, and offering suggestions for future scholarly work.
Optimizing Logic for Speed, Size, and Testability

Three primary objectives, optimized at all levels of design of integrated circuits are speed, size, and testability. While techniques for individually optimizing each of these are well formulated, until recently not much was known about the interactions between these criteria. There are two important reasons why this interaction is interesting. First, it was unknown whether a tradeoff between the criteria necessarily exists, i.e. must the optimality of one objective be sacrificed when the others are optimized? Second, the impact of the tradeoff between the speed, size, or testability on the resulting quality of the optimized integrated circuit was not well understood. This paper surveys the various interactions that are known to exist between these three criteria in combinational logic circuits; most of the results apply to sequential circuits as well. After a review of techniques for optimizing speed, size, and testability individually, the interactions between these criteria are explored with emphasis on recent results relating performance and testability in optimized circuits. A long range goal is to understand the optimum tradeoff (or Pareto) surface in the speed-size-testability space. We wish to devise transformations on logic which are guaranteed to move from one point to another on this surface. This and other open questions are discussed in the final part of the paper.
Economic and Social Development

Disability is linked to development in a manner that is neither obvious nor well established. For instance, increased disability may be the result of advances in health signaling broad based welfare improvements, or societies may be in such economic or political disorder that continued poverty or war conflict leads to a rise in the prevalence of disability. At the same time, disability seems to impede development through the constraints it places on individuals’ productivities and earning capacities. These complications combined with a dearth of comparable data may explain why the link between disability and development has been the subject of very little research in both the disability and development literatures. More attention has been granted to the link between disability and poverty, widely accepted as a vicious circle. The relation between development and disability may be understood as a two way street, where development affects disability and vice versa. Disability and development are intertwined, and we seek to understand both strands of the relationship. The major part of this review explores aspects of the relationship at a macro level, while touching upon micro- and policy level links as well.
Population Dynamics of Diaprepes abbreviatus in an Isolated Citrus Grove in Central Florida

In a study of the population dynamics of Diaprepes abbreviatus (L.) made from June 1970 to December 1973, weekly sampling in a 55-acre grove showed that more adults were present August to December. However, weevils were generally present throughout the year. Heavy rainfall generally preceded increased adult emergence. The ♀:♂ ratio of weevils collected during 1972 and 1973 was 55.6:44.4 and 59.1:40.9, respectively. An overlapping of generations occurs in Florida, and the subterranean larvae, the most injurious stage, enter the soil throughout the year.
Systematic status of the Mojave ground squirrel, Spermophilus mohavensis (subgenus Xerospermophilus)

The systematic status of the sibling species Spermophilus mohavensis and S. tereticaudus (subgenus Xerospermophilus ) is investigated throughout their range, based on allozymic and chromosomal data. The species have different diploid numbers (2N = 36 in S. tereticaudus , 2N = 38 in S. mohavensis ) and exhibit a moderate level of genie similarity (S = 0.78). Hybridization of the species was detected only at a single site, whereas allelic introgression appears to be confined to an estimated 60 km reach of the Mojave River wash. Pending more detailed analysis of this single site, we recommend that the two taxa retain their current status as full biological species.
Shotgun Proteomics Analysis of Estrogen Effects in the Uterus Using Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Shotgun (gel-free) proteomics is a useful approach to perform identification and relative quantification of protein in complex mixtures such as tissue homogenates, biological fluids, cell lysates, and extracellular proteins. Incorporation of separative and analytical techniques such as two-dimensional liquid chromatography at nanoscale (2D-nanoLC) coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS analysis) into the shotgun protocol provides an excellent strategy. This chapter describes the application of the shotgun proteomics protocol to evaluate the identity and expression analysis of proteins from rat uterus after estrogen (ethinylestradiol) treatment. The steps of the protocol involve sample preparation (digestion), 2D-nanoLC-MS/MS analysis, and shotgun proteomics analysis including bioinformatics tools for data conversion, organization, and interpretation.
Behold, Chekhov Lizardbrain

In Chekhov’s dramas, the past hangs in the present like a mist, a kind of nostalgia that just won’t leave. They are about remembering the past in the present, of reconstructing memories of family and time and space. There is always a sense of aristocracy that has evolved or degenerated into sale of the land and nostalgic rumination on a previous way of life.
Levothyroxine Dosing Following Bariatric Surgery

Based on the mechanisms of drug absorption, increased levothyroxine requirements are expected after bariatric surgery. However, there are conflicting data on this topic. This review evaluates the effects of bariatric surgery on levothyroxine dosing. Data were obtained from PubMed, Scopus, and review of published bibliographies. Six of 10 studies demonstrated decreased postoperative requirements. Most demonstrated correlations between weight loss and dose. Only 3 case reports and 1 case series demonstrated increased levothyroxine requirements, attributed to malabsorption. The loss of both fat and lean body mass may counteract malabsorptive effects from surgery, resulting in decreased postoperative levothyroxine requirements. In addition, the reversal of impaired levothyroxine pharmacokinetics and an altered set point of thyroid hormone homeostasis may also contribute to postoperative levothyroxine reductions.
Design and Implementation of Noncoded Computerized Microbiology System

The design and implementation of a computerized data handling system for a microbiology laboratory is described, using the time-sharing facility of a PDP 11/45 computer. This paper-based system allows easy data entry at low cost and decouples laboratory operation from temporary computer breakdowns. Tests and results are not identified by code numbers; rather, the technologists record the new bacteriologic growths in ordinary cursive writing on a noncoded current status report. The generation and charting of these reports is also described.
Cytology and Pathology of Medullary Thyroid Cancer

First defined in the 1950s, medullary carcinoma of the thyroid is a tumor derived from the non-follicular C cell in the gland. The origin of this tumor was first proposed in the mid-1960s by ED Williams, who postulated (based on a few cases) that this unusual thyroid tumor, medullary carcinoma, might indeed be derived from non-follicular thyroid cells, i.e., the C cells, and that a new hormone might be produced by these cells in the thyroid. If so, he theorized that medullary carcinoma could produce calcitonin, and this could become a diagnostic and prognostic marker for this neoplasm. Most importantly the precursor lesion known as C-cell hyperplasia was identified.
Immune biomarkers of treatment failure for a patient on a phase I clinical trial of pembrolizumab plus radiotherapy.

Pembrolizumab is a monoclonal antibody that is designed against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1). Pembrolizumab and other immunocheckpoint-blocking monoclonal antibodies work by modulating a patient’s own immune system to increase anti-tumor activity. While immunocheckpoint blockade has shown promising results, only 20–40 % of patients experience objective clinical benefit. Differences in individual tumor biology and the presence multiple immune checkpoints present a challenge for treatment. Because radiotherapy has immunomodulatory effects on the tumor microenvironment, it has the potential to synergize with immunotherapy and augment tumor response. NCT02318771 is a phase 1 clinical trial designed to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of radiation therapy in combination with pembrolizumab. The patient is a 64-year-old male with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, Fuhrman grade 4, pathologically staged as T3 N0. Metastatic disease was well controlled for several years with sunitinib. Following disease progression, he was switched to axitinib. When disease progression continued, the patient was enrolled in NCT02318771, a phase 1 clinical trial combining radiotherapy and pembrolizumab. The patient experienced unusually rapid disease progression during treatment, which was confirmed by repeated CT scans to rule out pseudoprogression. Tissue biopsies and peripheral blood draws were obtained before, during, and after treatment. Samples were analyzed to provide plausible rationale for rapid treatment failure. Biomarker analysis demonstrated an absence of TILs, which may be a cause of treatment failure as pembrolizumab works through T cell-dependent mechanisms. Furthermore, the presence of other non-redundant immune checkpoints in the periphery and tumor microenvironment presents a treatment challenge. Additionally, the radiation dose and fractionation schedule may have played a role in treatment failure as these factors play a role in the effect radiotherapy on the tumor microenvironment as well as the potential for synergy with immunotherapy. An Exploratory Study to Investigate the Immunomodulatory Activity of Radiation Therapy (RT) in Combination With MK-3475 in Patients With Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck, Renal Cell Cancer, Melanoma and Lung Cancer, NCT02318771 .
Pulse Check: Underrepresented Minority Health-Care Student Recruitment and Retention at the University of Cincinnati

In February 2015, the Urban Universities for HEALTH (Health Equity Alignment through Leadership and Transformation of the Health Workforce) learning collaborative site team at the University of Cin...
Aberrant Stabilization of c-Myc Protein in Lymphoblastic and Myelogenous Leukemia Cell Lines.

Abstract The c-Myc oncoprotein is a key regulator of cell fate decisions including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Orderly control of c-Myc protein levels is important in maintaining regulated cell proliferation in normal cells. While c-Myc overexpression is seen in many hematopoietic malignancies, the reason for high protein levels in most cases is unknown and, in general, is not the result of translocations or gene amplification. C-Myc levels vary with cell cycle and are kept very low in quiescent cells. Protein half-life is controlled by phosphorylation at two specific N-terminal sites, Serine 62 and Threonine 58, which regulate c-Myc degradation by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. Two Ras-dependent signaling pathways (Raf/MEK/ERK and PI(3)K/Akt) modulate phosphorylation at Serine 62, which stabilizes the protein, and Threonine 58, which targets Myc for ubiquitination and subsequent degradation. We recently reported that a stabilized form of c-Myc (c-Myc T58A) contributes to oncogenic transformation of human cells in culture (Yeh et al, Nat. Cell Bio. 6:308–318, 2004). Here we describe the role of c-Myc protein stabilization in 2 pediatric ALL cell lines (REH and Sup-B15), 1 AML cell line (HL-60), and 1 CML cell line (K562). Markedly higher expression of c-Myc protein was seen in all 4 cell lines as compared to normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). FISH analysis demonstrated amplification of the c-myc gene in HL-60 cells as has been previously reported, but not in REH, Sup-B15, or K562 cells. Using [35S]methionine pulse-chase analysis we demonstrate that the half-life of c-Myc in REH (55 minutes), Sup-B15 (47 minutes), and K562 (40 minutes) cells is longer than in normal PBMCs (9 to 15 minutes), but is not significantly prolonged in HL60 cells. We provide additional functional evidence for aberrant protein stabilization based on greater elevation of c-Myc protein after proteasome inhibition in PBMCs and HL-60 cells than in REH, Sup-B15, or K562 cells. These results suggest that that abnormalities in c-Myc degradation exist upstream of ubiquitination in the ALL and CML cell lines. Consistent with this hypothesis, experimental inhibition of the PI(3)K pathway knocked down c-Myc levels in REH and Sup-B15 cells, an effect that was abrogated by concomitant proteasome inhibition. This result suggests that abnormal activation of the PI(3)K pathway could participate in c-Myc stabilization in these cells. In addition, destabilization of c-Myc by PI(3)K inhibition correlated with a significant decrease in cell proliferation. In conclusion, we demonstrate that aberrant stabilization of c-Myc protein occurs in human leukemia cell lines. Affecting the c-Myc degradation pathway in hematopoietic malignancies that have stabilized c-Myc may constitute a novel therapeutic target. Additional experiments are ongoing to assess c-Myc stability in primary cells from leukemic bone marrow samples.
Improving outcomes from resuscitation: from hypertension and hemodilution to therapeutic hypothermia to H2.

Until the early 1950s, there did not exist any effective treatment for airway obstruction or cardiac arrest for laypersons. In the late 1950s, isolated steps were described to establish a patent airway (A), provide mouth-to-mouth breathing (B), and restore circulation (C) with chest compressions. Tying those steps together into an A-B-C sequence became the basis of physiologically effective cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation, as the method was called originally.1 Article see p 2173 Although single steps proved to be effective, the outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation were not encouraging from the very start. The efforts provided by bystanders and medical personnel came often “too little too late,”2 and there was a lack of specific therapies to treat the underlying causes or complications. The community-wide efforts of the public health organizations focused on the promotion of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a newly coined term, now lacking the cerebral component. It is thus not surprising that the mainstay of further medical research focused mainly on the heart. Restoration of cardiac rhythm became an essential centerpiece of resuscitation efforts. Significant improvements in the survival of patients who had had a cardiac arrest were enabled by technological developments generally aimed to support the failing heart. The emergence of defibrillators in the 1960s, followed by percutaneous coronary interventions and mechanical devices supporting the failing heart granted the extra time to recover cardiac function in patients who would not have had the same chance several years ago. The brain as the key and target organ seemed somewhat left behind, at least in these early years. Indeed, there was very little that medicine could offer to protect, or restore, the brain function. In comparison with the orchestrated full-front industry-sponsored research aimed at supporting the failing heart, only a few research centers remained interested in the brain. …
Recent Advances on Polypyrrole Electroactuators

Featuring controllable electrochemomechanical deformation and excellent biocompatibility, polypyrrole electroactuators used as artificial muscles play a vital role in the design of biomimetic robots and biomedical devices. In the past decade, tremendous efforts have been devoted to their optimization on electroactivity, electrochemical stability, and actuation speed, thereby gradually filling the gaps between desired capabilities and practical performances. This review summarizes recent advances on polypyrrole electroactuators, with particular emphases on novel counterions and conformation-reinforcing skeletons. Progress and challenges are comparatively demonstrated and critically analyzed, to enlighten future developments of advanced electroactuators based on polypyrrole and other conducting polymers.
Product Seeding: Word-of-Mouth Effects For and Beyond the Focal Product

In a classic seeded WOM marketing campaign, a company sends product samples to a selected group of influencers, and encourages them share the product information and their own opinions with other consumers. Positive effects include more WOM for the focal product in the target segment, but also in additional segments. But there are additional spillover effects on the brand and the product category level and they are negative. More conversations about the focal product reduced the “off-topic” conversations about other brands in the same category as well as other products of the same brand. These negative brand and category spillover effects are stronger when the focal product is of a more functional nature. Marketers tend to consider only positive spillovers to be beneficial for a company, but negative spillovers should not be immediately classified as “bad news.” There are upsides to this effect that managers can use in their favor.
Spaces of Densely Continuous Forms

The set C(X,Y) of continuous functions from a topological space X into a topological space Y is extended to the set D(X,Y) of densely continuous forms from X to Y, such form being a kind of multifunction from X to Y. The topologies of pointwise convergence, uniform convergence, and uniform convergence on compact sets are defined for D(X,Y), for locally compact spaces X and metric spaces Y having a metric satisfying the Heine–Borel property. Under these assumptions, D(X,Y) with the uniform topology is shown to be completely metrizable. In addition, if X is σ compact, D(X,Y) is completely metrizable under the topology of uniform convergence on compact sets. For this latter topology, an Ascoli theorem is established giving necessary and sufficient conditions for a subset of D(X,Y) to be compact.
“It all started with Eddie”: Thanatopolitics, police power, and the murder of Edward Byrne:

On February 26, 1988, rookie New York City police officer Edward Byrne was shot dead while guarding a material witness in a drug trafficking case in South Jamaica, Queens. This article considers ho...
Predicting symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients living with advanced cancer: the differential roles of hope and optimism.

Psychological distress is related to poorer functioning and reduced quality of life in patients with advanced cancer and may have untoward influences on treatment decisions. Current research on factors associated with this distress is limited, making targeted interventions to reduce it suboptimal. We examined the relationships between two goal-related expectancies and two of the most common symptoms of psychological distress in patients living with advanced cancer: anxiety and depressive symptoms. Patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, or melanoma (N = 84) completed measures of anxiety, depressive symptoms, optimism, hope, and prediction for 12-month survival. Oncologists provided prediction for patient 12-month survival and patient performance status. Hope, but not optimism, was associated with less severe depressive symptoms (β = − 0.42). Conversely, optimism, but not hope, was associated with less severe anxiety symptoms (β = − 0.36). Hope and optimism appear to be associated with different aspects of psychological distress in patients living with advanced cancer. This may be explained by different appraisals of the uncertainty and distress that are associated with living with advanced-stage cancer. Hope- or optimism-focused interventions can be tailored to help alleviate specific aspects of psychological distress among these patients.
A plan-based personalized cognitive orthotic

The majority of reminder systems are inflexible; reminders are issued at static, prespecified times. To be effective, cognitive orthotics should reason about what reminders should be issued and when. This paper describes the personalized cognitive orthotic (PCO), a system that uses plan-based reasoning to attain flexibility. PCO relies on local search techniques to generate high-quality reminder plans based on knowledge of the user's plans and her typical behavior. PCO is being developed in concert with other technologies aimed at improved plan management, including systems that update a user's plans and track action execution. We describe the PCO as it is implemented in the Nursebot application: where it provides timely and relevant reminders to elderly people who have cognitive decline that necessitates assistance in managing their daily activities.
Basic Principles of Posttranslational Modification of Proteins and Their Analysis Using High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Many of the biological activities and physicochemical properties of proteins can be attributed to their posttranslational modifications, including glycosylation (the addition of sugar residues), sulfation (the addition of SO4 groups), or phosphorylation (the addition of PO4 residues). One of the most important uses of high-resolution two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) is for analysis of such modifications, which frequently cause shifts in the charge and thus the migration of proteins. It is therefore important to have a basic understanding of these modifications if the analysis methods described in this text are to be used.
An Optimist Looks at China

During these years of national humiliation and economic depression, it is very difficult for any thinking Chinese to maintain a sane optimism regarding the future of his country and people. He is disheartened by the armed aggression of a powerful neighbor against which all measures of defense have appeared hopelessly inadequate; and he is dissatisfied with the internal progress which seems so pitifully slow and infinitesimal in the face of the immense needs of the nation. He is naturally led to question himself: “Are we Chinese, as a nation, fit to survive and thrive in this new world of hard struggles? Is there a way out? Have we been wrong in giving up so much of our own ways of life and in taking over so much from the Western World?”
Defects Near Ionic Crystal Surfaces

Changes in the defect distribution on approaching the free surface of a crystal may be of considerable importance in understanding many surface phenomena. A detailed knowledge of the atomic arrangement in the surface region is not readily obtainable from experiment, but it is of interest to investigate from a theoretical viewpoint the influence that point defects are likely to have on certain surface properties. We will discuss here and review some attempts to predict the distribution of point defects in the vicinity of ionic crystal surfaces and examine how some of these ideas may be applied in the treatment of morphological changes governed by capillarity. For simplicity, we will limit the discussion to ionic crystals having the NaCl structure and in which only defects of the Schottky type occur.
Capital Controls and Globalisation in the 21st Century: Myth and Reality

Globalisation has become a catchword used at the turn of this millennium. It has led to increasing economic interconnectedness and profound business, social and political revolution worldwide. However, the backlash suffered from globalisation such as the transmission of international financial crisis, capital flight, economic contagion and financial distresses across the countries have led many protectionists to canvas for capital controls. A major financial or economic crisis can have systematic effects and can catastrophically undermine the stability of the institutions that make global interchange possible. Such a picture in which financial volatility destroys the system that was built on the basis of a free flow capital is very worrisome. Nevertheless, it has been observed that capital controls in one country may also have positive or negative spill over effects on other countries and might not be beneficial to such country on the long run. Because of these and so many other factors, there are indeed battles over globalism in this present age. This paper investigates the justifications for both globalisation and capital controls in the twenty first century. Particularly, with the backlash forces feeling that their countries were plugged into the globalisation system and are being forced into a golden straightjacket that is one size fit all, investigating cases for controlling of capital flows may be needful. Empirical studies show that there are previous works focusing on the effects of capital controls on the very country that set the policy. However, there are very few studies investigating the international spill over effects of such control; most especially, the regional economic contagion and impacts on the neighbouring countries. This study however examines the regional impacts of capital control and its shock transmission on regional economies.
Run-time reconfigurable adaptive LDPC coding for optical channels

In this paper, we proposed a class of large-girth QC-LDPC codes designed to maximize the girth property with code rates ranging from 0.5 to 0.8, which leads to well-structured parity-check matrix and generator matrix. Instead of implementing several FEC encoder and decoder engines in hardware, we design an efficient unified FPGA-based architecture enabling run-time reconfigurable capability. Apart from four principle LDPC codes being incorporated into a unified design, shortening is adopted to bridge the rate gap between principle codes. With our proposed unified LDPC engine, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) limits of -1 dB to 2.2 dB have been demonstrated at BER of 10-12 in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel by FPGA emulation. It is desirable for the application to both free-space optical (FSO) and fiber optics communications. Large code rate range is preferred to deal with various channel impairments. To further verify the proposed unified code engine for FSO applications, we tested the scheme through a spatial light modulator (SLM)-based FSO channel emulator. We showed that in medium atmospheric turbulence regime, a post-FEC BER below 10-8 can be achieved without any interleaver and adaptive optics.
Leakage aware Si/SiGe CMOS FinFET for low power applications

Leakage in Si/SiGe CMOS FinFET is examined. Si cap passivation effectively improves SiGe pFET Dit, subthreshold slope, and mobility, which improves pFET DC performance by 20%. SiGe GIDL is higher than Si by a factor of 9, though GIDL is limited to 50pA/um. SiGe GIDL reduction knobs to meet Si counterpart are demonstrated. The results open the door to the next stage of Si/SiGe CMOS FinFET such as low power and low leakage applications.
Intraoperative Disc Prolapse During Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy.

Background Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) is regarded as an alternative treatment for lumbar disc herniation. Although the indication for PELD has expanded with remarkable evolution of the technique, sometimes unexpected complications have occurred during PELD. We report 3 cases of de novo disc prolapse during PELD. Case Description In 3 patients who underwent PELD for lumbar disc herniation with local anesthesia, postoperative magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated newly developed up-migrated disc herniation. Compared with their preoperative states, these patients experienced decreased intensity of both leg and back pain. There were no neurologic deficits. PELD was repeated for L1-L2 disc herniation only to relieve compression of the conus medullaris. Conclusions Although the incidence was very low (0.3%) and the lesions were nonsymptomatic, de novo disc prolapse may be associated with an inside-out PELD technique. Discography and insertion of the obturator should be handled gently. The possibility of de novo disc prolapse should be kept in mind when performing PELD.
Harnessing the Nature of Spam in Scalable Online Social Spam Detection

Disinformation in social networks has been a worldwide problem. Social users are surrounded by a huge volume of malicious links, biased comments, fake reviews, or fraudulent advertisements, etc. Traditional spam detection approaches propose a variety of statistical feature-based models to filter out social spam from a historical dataset. However, they omit the real word situation of social data, that is, social spam is fast changing with new topics or events. Therefore, traditional approaches cannot effectively achieve online detection of the "drifting" social spam with a fixed statistic feature set. In this paper, we present Sifter, a system which can detect online social spam in a scalable manner without the labor-intensive feature engineering. The Sifter system is two-fold: (1) a decentralized DHT-based overlay deployment for harnessing the group characteristics of social spam activities within a specific topic/event; (2) a social spam processing with the support of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to get rid of the traditional manual feature engineering. Results show that Sifter achieves graceful spam detection performances with the minimal size of data and good balance in group management.
Correction to: Characterization of ten extreme disturbance events in the context of social and ecological systems

In the online and printed version of this article a few lines of text and a figure are incorrect. The corrected text and figure are given below
Which Side Are You On? The Divergent Effects of Protest Participation on Organizations Affiliated with Identity Groups

Protest raises the visibility of a social movement, and this affects all organizations affiliated with the movement’s group identity. Although the mutually beneficial relationship between protest a...
Sangivamycin and its derivatives inhibit Haspin-Histone H3-survivin signaling and induce pancreatic cancer cell death

Current treatment options for patients with pancreatic cancer are suboptimal, resulting in a five year survival rate of about 9%. Difficulties with treatment are due to an immunosuppressive, fibrotic tumor microenvironment that prevents drugs from reaching tumor cells, but also to the limited efficacy of existing FDA-approved chemotherapeutic compounds. We here show that the nucleoside analog Sangivamycin and its closely-related compound Toyocamycin target PDA cell lines, and are significantly more efficient than Gemcitabine. Using KINOMEscan screening, we identified the kinase Haspin, which is overexpressed in PDA cell lines and human PDA samples, as a main target for both compounds. Inhibition of Haspin leads to a decrease in Histone H3 phosphorylation and prevents Histone H3 binding to survivin, thus providing mechanistic insight of how Sangivamycin targets cell proliferation, mitosis and induces apoptotic cell death. In orthotopically implanted tumors in mice, Sangivamycin was efficient in decreasing the growth of established tumors. In summary, we show that Sangivamycin and derivatives can be an efficient new option for treatment of PDA.
Correction to: The Mixed Problem for the Laplacian in Lipschitz Domains

We provide an example to show that a technical estimate in our earlier work, “The Mixed Problem for the Laplacian in Lipschitz Domains”, is not correct.
Quality insight: umbrella theory for innovation: a systems framework for quality engineering and technology

Innovation is presently the hottest topic in business, industry, academia, and the government. In response to a prevailing priority of business and industry to drive innovation, this paper introduces a research study on the development of a theory of innovation from the perspective of how people work and collaborate in the pursuit of innovation. The focus of innovation ranges from the acquisition of technology products, services, operational processes as well as workforce talent. This justifies using a systems framework for the methodology development in this paper. The umbrella theory of innovation developed in this paper is transmittable to innovation pursuits in diverse operational environments in business, industry, government, the military, and academia.
A RARE CASE OF SPONTANEOUS ASYMPTOMATIC VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA DUE TO ARRHYTHMOGENIC RIGHT VENTRICULAR DYSPLASIA (ARVD)

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is an inherited cardiomyopathy that can lead to heart failure and sudden cardiac death. This challenging diagnosis is based on clinical, electrocardiographic, and radiographic findings, along with suggestive genetic testing. A 72 year old man
Acquired perforating dermatosis in a skin graft

Acquired perforating dermatosis (APD) is characterized by pruritic craterlike lesions with a predilection for patients affected by chronic kidney disease or diabetes mellitus (DM). We present a case of a 57-year-old black woman admitted for chest pain and dyspnea who was found to have 2 teardrop-shaped yellow-white-chalky plaques consistent with APD that developed at the site of a preexisting split-thickness skin graft (STSG). We also review the literature on APD.
Intrinsic Bounds for Computing Precision in Memristor-Based Vector-by-Matrix Multipliers

Analog computing with crossbars of memristors is a promising approach to build compact energy-efficient vector-by-matrix multiplier (VMM), a key block in many data-intensive algorithms. However, device non-linearity, process variations, interconnect parasitics, noise, and memory state drift limit the computing precision of such systems. In this article, we investigate the impact of such non-idealities in analog current-mode memristive VMMs through simulations and experiments on the most prospective passive crossbars. We show that there is an optimal tuning voltage to minimize the computation error. Furthermore, error balancing and bootstrapping are introduced as two techniques for improving the precision. It is also shown that when size of N × N crossbar is scaled up, the optimum interconnect wire conductance should increase quadratically with N to preserve the computing precision when using naive error balancing approach, and that the differential scheme is imperative for temperature insensitive operation and also to reduce the IR-drop effect.
Toxin Glycan Binding: Lectin Keys Unlocking Host and Tissue Specificity

In this issue of Cell Host and Microbe, Lee et al. define the glycan binding specificity of a variant of typhoid toxin produced by a non-typhoidal Salmonellae serotype. The authors elegantly demonstrate that tissue and host specificity of the toxin are related to specific glycan binding characteristics of the toxin.
Aggregated Smartphone Location Data to Assist in Response to Pandemic

The sudden, mandated closures of businesses, restaurants, and schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic impose severe economic and social costs People want