cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Abstract 3026: Galunisertib inhibits ovarian cancer cell fibrosis and metastasisin vitro

Background: In ovarian cancer (OC), the intraperitoneal fibrosis that accompanies metastasis is a common scenario and associated with significant morbidity and gut dysfunction. Accumulating evidences indicate that Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β) signaling pathway plays a key role in cancer associated fibrosis and metastasis. Several TGF-β inhibitors, including Galunisertib (LY2157299) which is a TGF-β receptor I inhibitor, are currently in clinical trials for fibrosis-related diseases and cancer. Our hypothesis is that targeted anti-cancer therapies can block the growth and spread of cancer or specifically address the fibrosis accompanying metastatic peritoneal cancer. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of Galunisertib in inhibiting OC fibrosis and metastasis in vitro. Methods: Five OC cell lines, including SKOV3ip, HeyA8, OVCAR8, OV2008, and PEO4, and one cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) cell line, TRS3, were tested in this study. We utilized a co-culture system that has successfully been used to study the interactions between cancer cells and local environment, including CAFs. Twenty-three candidate TGF-β signaling- and fibrosis-related genes were selected based on previous studies. RNA and protein from both fibroblast cells and OC cells were collected for RT-qPCR and western blot analysis. MTT assay, Wound healing assay and Matrigel invasion assay were used to study OC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Chou-Talalay assays were performed to study the interactions between Galunisertib and Carboplatin and Paclitaxel. Results: RT-qPCR results showed that Galunisertib treatment suppresses the expression of both TGF-β receptor I and TGF-β1 which is the most abundant isoform of TGF-β in OC. Western blot results showed that Galunisertib treatment reverses the TGF-β1-induced SMAD2/3 phosphorylation, confirming the efficacy of Galunisertib in TGF-β signaling pathway blockage. Intriguingly, Galunisertib treatment inhibits the expression of candidate fibrosis-related genes, like ACTA2, TIMP3, COL5A1, COL11A1, and VCAN in both OC and CAF cells. Would healing and Transwell invasion assay also demonstrated that Galunisertib treatment effectively reduces both basal and TGF-β1-induced cell migration and invasion (p Conclusion: Galunisertib treatment suppresses the expression of TGF-β-dependent fibrosis-related genes from OC cell lines and CAFs. Coincident with this inhibition of fibrosis related genes, galunisrtib reduces cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. These data suggest that targeting the TGF-β pathway is a viable therapeutic approach to reduce both symptoms related to OC-related fibrosis and cancer metastasis in OC. Citation Format: Qing Zhang, William A. Cliby. Galunisertib inhibits ovarian cancer cell fibrosis and metastasis in vitro . [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3026.
Electron Spin Resonance Imaging (ESRI) of Degradation and Stabilization Processes in Polymers

Polymeric materials, exposed to heat, mechanical stress and ionizing or UV irradiation, undergo degradation in the presence of oxygen due to the formation of reactive intermediates such as free radicals R., RO. and ROO., and hydroperoxides ROOH.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 The degradation process can be accelerated by chromophores, free radicals and metallic residues from the polymerization reactions. Often the deleterious effects are not immediately detected, but develop over longer periods. The gradual changes in the polymer properties observed in many systems, including polyolefins, and the ultimately grave results are due to trapped radicals that react slowly, to peroxy radicals that decompose in time with formation of reactive radicals and gas molecules, and to trapped gases that lead to local stresses and to cracking.2,5 While the timescale of these changes may vary, the final results are dramatic: degradation of the structure and collapse of the mechanical properties. The accelerated rate of ozone depletion in the stratosphere due to environmental factors is expected to raise the level of UV-B radiation (≈290–320 nm), thus adding severity to the problem of degradation and urgency to the need for solutions.
Front-end of line and middle-of-line time-dependent dielectric breakdown reliability simulator for logic circuits

Abstract This paper presents a methodology for lifetime estimation of Front-End-of-Line (FEOL) and Middle-of-Line (MOL) time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) in state-of-art logic circuits. The algorithm to extract vulnerable features of MOL-TDDB has been developed and implemented. A traditional 8-bit FFT circuit and a state-of-art Leon3 microprocessor are considered for lifetime calculation. The impact of different use scenarios on circuits is also investigated.
The Pathophysiology of Edema Formation: General Concepts

Publisher Summary Edema is the clinical manifestation of an accumulation of fluid within the interstitial spaces of the body. It develops when the normal balance between the flow of fluid out of capillaries and the return of fluid to the vascular space via capillary reabsorption and lymphatic flow is disrupted. Edema may be generalized, localized to a portion of the body, or confined to a single limb or organ. Edema that accumulates in the subcutaneous space is most readily detected by patients and clinicians. Generalized edema is almost always associated with a significant increase in body weight, which is due to the retention of dietary salt and water by the kidneys. Therefore, hypotension and shock are common with these disorders. In some disorders, the renal retention of salt and water is the primary process that drives the development of edema. Some forms of edema associated with cirrhosis and nephrotic syndrome may also be triggered by primary renal salt and water retention. This chapter reviews the physical forces that govern fluid movement across capillaries, the role of lymphatic drainage in the return of interstitial fluids to the vascular compartment, and the various derangements that can result in the formation of edema. The chapter also focuses on the major disorders that produce generalized edema: congestive heart failure, cirrhosis, and the nephrotic syndrome. It also emphasizes those aspects of pathophysiology and therapy that are unique to each of these clinical disorders.
An assessment of the utilization of the preclinical rodent model literature in clinical trials of putative therapeutics for the treatment of alcohol use disorders.

Abstract Objective Rodent models of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) are used extensively by preclinical researchers to develop new therapeutics for the treatment of AUD. Although these models play an important role in the development of novel, targeted therapeutics, their role in bringing therapeutics to clinical trials is unclear, as off-label use of existing medications not approved for the treatment of AUD is commonly seen in the clinic and clinical trials. Method In the current study, we used the Clinicaltrials.gov database to obtain a list of drugs that have been tested for efficacy in a clinical trial between 1997 and 2017. We then conducted a set of literature searches to determine which of the 98 unique drugs we identified had shown efficacy in a rodent model of an AUD prior to being tested in a clinical trial. Results We found that slightly less than half of the drugs tested in clinical trials (48%) had shown prior efficacy in any rodent model of an AUD, while the remaining 52% of drugs were used off-label, or in some cases, following non-published studies. Conclusion This study raises the question of how clinical researchers incorporate results from preclinical studies in the decision to bring a drug to a clinical trial. Our results underscore the need for ongoing communication among preclinical and clinical researchers.
Wide-field dynamic monitoring of immune cell trafficking in murine models of glioblastoma

Leukocyte populations, especially tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), are capable of mediating both anti- and pro-tumor processes and play significant roles in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, TAMs have been shown to exert substantial influence on the efficacy of various cancer immunotherapy treatment strategies. Laboratory investigation into the behavior of TAMs has been limited by a lack of methods capable of resolving the in vivo distribution and dynamics of this cell population across wide fields of view. Recent studies have employed magnetic resonance imaging and intravital microscopy in conjunction with nanoparticle labeling methods to detect TAMs and observe their responses to therapeutic agents. Here we describe a novel method to enable high-resolution, wide-field, longitudinal imaging of leukocytes based on contrast-enhanced Speckle-Modulating Optical Coherence Tomography (SM-OCT), which substantially reduces imaging noise. We were able to specifically label TAMs and activated microglia in vivo with large gold nanorod contrast agents (LGNRs) in an orthotopic murine glioblastoma model. After labeling, we demonstrated near real-time tracking of leukocyte migration and distribution within the tumors. The intrinsic resolution, imaging depth, and sensitivity of this method may facilitate detailed studies of the fundamental behaviors of TAMs in vivo, including their intratumoral distribution heterogeneity and the roles they play in modulating cancer proliferation. In future studies, the method described herein may also provide the necessary means to characterize TAM responses to immunotherapeutic regimens in a range of solid tumors.
Bis(triazenide), tris(triazenide), and lantern-type of triazenide iron complexes: Synthesis and structural characterization

Abstract A commercially available triazine, PhNNN(H)Ph, served as a monoanionic bidentate ligand upon deprotonation using Fe[N(SiMe3)2]2. By simply using different ethereal solvents, the bis(diethylether) and bis(tetrahydrofurane) complexes of Fe[PhNNNPh]2, 1 and 2, can be prepared successfully. The structures of 1 and 2 were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies and supported by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Interestingly, the solid-state structure of 1 exhibits two Et2O ligands coordinated to Fe(II) in a trans manner, whereas 2 shows two THF solvents bound to Fe(II) in a cis fashion. The tris(homoleptic) Fe(III) complex 3 was obtained upon oxidation in air, and the one electron reduced counterpart 4 can be synthesized when treating 3 with KC8. One of the reduced by-products was crystallized and confirmed as a lantern-type diiron complex [Fe2(μ-N,N′-PhNNNPh)4], 5, by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Remarkably, the Fe Fe bond of 2.1901(4) A in 5 is among the shortest Fe(II) Fe(II) bond.
Hungry to learn: the prevalence and effects of food insecurity on health behaviors and outcomes over time among a diverse sample of university freshmen

To examine longitudinal associations between food insecurity (FI) and health behaviors/outcomes among a diverse sample of university freshmen. Freshman students (n = 1138; 65% female; 49% non-white) participating in the Social impact of Physical Activity and nutRition in College study completed surveys on health behaviors and had height/weight measured up to 4 times (T1-T4) in Arizona during 2015–2016. Structural equation models were estimated to determine if, after adjusting for covariates, FI predicted concurrent behaviors/outcomes and subsequent behaviors/outcomes. Analyses reported here were conducted in 2017. The prevalence of FI was significantly higher at the end of each semester (35% and 36%, respectively) than at the start of the year (28%). Longitudinally, FI was not related to any health behaviors/outcomes at future time points. However, FI was significantly and inversely associated with concurrent breakfast consumption on most days of the week (OR = 0.67, 99% CI = 0.46, 0.99), daily evening meal consumption (OR = 0.55, 99% CI = 0.36, 0.86) healthy eating habits on campus (OR = 0.68, 99% CI = 0.46, 1.00), healthy physical activity habits on campus (OR = 0.66, 99% CI = 0.44, 1.00), and positively related to the likelihood of experiencing stress (OR = 1.69, 99% CI = 1.16, 2.46) and depressed mood (OR = 1.98, 99% CI = 1.34, 2.91). Compared with US prevalence rates, the sample FI prevalence was high. FI was related to poorer eating patterns, physical activity behaviors, and mental health, even after adjusting for prior levels of behavior.
Treatment and outcome of adult-onset neuroblastoma

Adult-onset neuroblastoma is rare and little is known about its biology and clinical course. There is no established therapy for adult-onset neuroblastoma. Anti-GD2 immunotherapy is now standard therapy in children with high-risk neuroblastoma; however, its use has not been reported in adults. Forty-four adults (18-71 years old) diagnosed with neuroblastoma between 1979 and 2015 were treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Five, 1, 5 and 33 patients had INSS stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 diseases, respectively. Genetic abnormalities included somatic ATRX (58%) and ALK mutations (42%) but not MYCN-amplification. In the 11 patients with locoregional disease, 10-year progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was 35.4 ± 16.1% and 61.4 ± 15.3%, respectively. Among 33 adults with stage 4 neuroblastoma, 7 (21%) achieved complete response (CR) after induction chemotherapy and/or surgery. Seven patients with primary refractory neuroblastoma (all with osteomedullary but no soft tissue disease) received anti-GD2 antibodies, mouse or humanized 3F8. Antibody-related adverse events were similar to those in children, response rate being 71.4%. In patients with stage 4 disease at diagnosis, 5-year PFS was 9.7± 5.3% and most patients who were alive with disease at 5 years died of neuroblastoma over the next 5 years, 10-year OS being only 19.0 ± 8.2%. Patients who achieved CR after induction had superior PFS and OS (p = 0.006, p = 0.031, respectively). Adult-onset neuroblastoma appeared to have different biology from pediatric or adolescent NB, and poorer outcome. Complete disease control appeared to improve long-term survival. Anti-GD2 immunotherapy was well tolerated and might be beneficial.
Predictive airborne target tracking using all-terrain fusion based mobile surveillance system

Target detection and tracking of a target is the primary objective and challenge for a given sensor under any dynamic environment to initiate either surveillance for a friendly target or intercepting and destroying a hostile target. These sensors are expected to provide position with no errors which is a contrary to single sensor. With this insight, the superiority of the multi sensor data fusion over conventional single sensor tracking is presented. A potential improvement in position accuracy using state estimation techniques in a single and multi-sensor environment is presented and compared. Three different target motions involving nonlinear characteristics are considered in this paper to evaluate the performance of each state estimator ranging from a simple linear rustic filter such as fixed gain and Kalman filters to highly complex nonlinear filters such as Particle filter. Also, widely used fusion architectures such as measurement fusion and state vector fusion based on the Extended Kalman filter are exploited. The results are examined by fusing the data from two ground-based sensors RADAR and FLIR. The performance evaluation of each filter is computed by RMS error in range, azimuth, and elevation angles. The target dynamics and the filtering algorithms are implemented in MATLAB. It is found that fusion architectures have demonstrated better performance in tracking accuracy.
Surface oxygenation of biochar through ozonization for dramatically enhancing cation exchange capacity

Biochar cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a key property that is central to biochar environmental applications including the retention of soil nutrients in soil amendment and removal of certain pollutants in water-filtration applications. This study reports an innovative biochar-ozonization process that dramatically increases the CEC value of biochars by a factor of 2. The ozonized biochars also show great improvement on adsorption of methylene blue by as much as a factor of about 5. In this study, biochar samples treated with and without ozone were analyzed by means of pH and CEC assays, water field capacity measurement, elemental analysis, methylene blue adsorption, and Raman spectroscopy. Gaseous products’ analyses were carried out using an online universal gas analyzer over the duration of ozone treatments, and temperature changes were monitored using a thermal imaging camera. The results demonstrate a doubling of CEC with a concomitantly large drop in pH of the ozonized biochar compared with the untreated sample, brought about by the creation of acidic oxygen-functional groups on biochar surface, which may represent a significant progress toward the viability of employing biochar as a soil amendment for sustainability on Earth. This biochar-ozonization process technology has the potential to effectively convert conventional biochars into surface-oxygenated products with dramatically higher CEC values.
Entry-level practice requirements of pharmacy technicians across the United States: A review.

Purpose The results of a review of statutes and regulations to determine entry-level requirements for pharmacy technicians across the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of training and certification are reported. Methods Pharmacy practice acts in all 51 jurisdictions were reviewed to ascertain initial qualifications for training, certification, registration, and/or licensure of pharmacy technicians using the keywords technician, registration, licensure, training, education, and certification. One reviewer analyzed statutes and regulations in force as of March 2017. Results Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 86% (44 of 51) required pharmacy board registration and/or licensure in order to practice as a pharmacy technician; 55% (28 of 51) required no education/training or certification, 8% (4 of 51) required education/training only, 10% (5 of 51) required certification only, 14% (7 of 51) required education/training and certification, and 14% (7 of 51) required either education/training or certification. Conclusion There is no consensus among the 50 states and the District of Columbia regarding entry-level requirements for pharmacy technicians, which range from no oversight to mandatory training/education with or without certification requirements. Several national organizations have set recommendations for minimal education/training and certification; however, there is no uniform acceptance across the United States.
A Study of Reconfigurable Split Data Caches and Instruction Caches.

In this paper we show that cache memories for embedded applications can be designed to both increase performance and reduce energy consumed. We show that using separate (data) caches for indexed or stream data and scalar data items can lead to substantial improvements in terms of cache misses. The sizes of the various cache structure should be customized to meet applications’ needs. We show that reconfigurable split data caches can be designed to meet wide-ranging embedded applications’ performance, energy and silicon area budgets. The optimal cache organizations can lead to on average 62% and 49% reduction in the overall cache size, 37% and 21% reduction in cache access time and 47% and 52% reduction in power consumption for instruction and data cache respectively when compared to an 8k byte instruction and an 8k byte unified data cache for media benchmarks from MiBench suite.
The significance of the market portfolio: theory and evidence

The market portfolio (world portfolio) is in one sense a least important portfolio to provide to investors; there is always a better portfolio for social planners to make available to them. In a J-agent one-period stochastic endowment economy, where preferences are quadratic, the market portfolio is never spanned by the optimal markets a social planner would create. With identical preferences, the market portfolio is orthogonal to all J — 1 portfolios which achieve a first best solution. These conclusions rely on the assumption that the social planner has perfect information about agents’ utilities. We also show that as the contract designer’s information about agents’ utilities becomes more imperfect, the optimal contracts approach contracts that weight individual endowments in proportion to elements of eigenvectors of the variance matrix of endowments. If there is a substantial market component to endowments then a social planner, for reasons of robustness and simplicity, may conclude that creating a contract to allow trading the market portfolio would be a significant innovation. To gauge the empirical relevance of the world portfolio, we estimate the optimal contracts, using Maddison [1995] data on per capita income, for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, UK and the USA. We find that when the contract designer has no information about utilities, the first two contracts nearly span the world portfolio.
Repetition-to-Repetition Differences Using Cluster and Accentuated Eccentric Loading in the Back Squat

The current investigation was an examination of the repetition-to-repetition magnitudes and changes in kinetic and kinematic characteristics of the back squat using accentuated eccentric loading (AEL) and cluster sets. Trained male subjects (age = 26.1 ± 4.1 years, height = 183.5 ± 4.3 cm, body mass = 92.5 ± 10.5 kg, back squat to body mass ratio = 1.8 ± 0.3) completed four load condition sessions, each consisting of three sets of five repetitions of either traditionally loaded straight sets (TL), traditionally loaded cluster sets (TLC), AEL cluster sets (AEC), and AEL straight sets where only the initial repetition had eccentric overload (AEL1). Eccentric overload was applied using weight releasers, creating a total eccentric load equivalent to 105% of concentric one repetition maximum (1RM). Concentric load was 80% 1RM for all load conditions. Using straight sets (TL and AEL1) tended to decrease peak power (PP) (d = −1.90 to −0.76), concentric rate of force development (RFDCON) (d = −1.59 to −0.27), and average velocity (MV) (d = −3.91 to −1.29), with moderate decreases in MV using cluster sets (d = −0.81 to −0.62). Greater magnitude eccentric rate of force development (RFDECC) was observed using AEC at repetition three (R3) and five (R5) compared to all load conditions (d = 0.21–0.65). Large within-condition changes in RFDECC from repetition one to repetition three (∆REP1–3) were present using AEL1 (d = 1.51), demonstrating that RFDECC remained elevated for at least three repetitions despite overload only present on the initial repetition. Overall, cluster sets appear to permit higher magnitude and improved maintenance of concentric outputs throughout a set. Eccentric overload with the loading protocol used in the current study does not appear to potentiate concentric output regardless of set configuration but may cause greater RFDECC compared to traditional loading.
Planning with continuous resources for agent teams

Many problems of multiagent planning under uncertainty require distributed reasoning with continuous resources and resource limits. Decentralized Markov Decision Problems (Dec-MDPs) are well-suited to address such problems, but unfortunately, prior Dec-MDP approaches either discretize resources at the expense of speed and quality guarantees, or avoid discretization only by limiting agents' action choices or interactions (e.g. assumption of transition independence). To address these shortcomings, this paper proposes M-DPFP, a novel algorithm for planning with continuous resources for agent teams, with three key features: (i) it maintains the agent team interaction graph to identify and prune the suboptimal policies and to allow the agents to be transition dependent, (ii) it operates in a continuous space of probability functions to provide the error bound on the solution quality and finally (iii) it focuses the search for policies on the most relevant parts of this search space to allow for a systematic trade-off of solution quality for speed. Our experiments show that M-DPFP finds high quality solutions and exhibits superior performance when compared with a discretization-based approach. We also show that M-DPFP is applicable to solving problems that are beyond the scope of existing approaches.
An Adaptive Recommender System for Computational Serendipity

Serendipity is recognized as very challenging to simulate and stimulate in recommender systems. In this paper, we adopt a novel approach to model and implement serendipity in a context of health news recommender system. The proposed conceptual framework for serendipity consists of a surprise component, a value component, and a learning component. The three components work together to reason about what information is serendipitous, defined as both surprising and valuable to a user. The implementation is through a series of computational approaches, resulting a prototype called "StumbleOn". We find that the computational approaches help identifying serendipitous recommendations, which are further improved by adaptively learning users' real-time feedback. This study contributes to the research on how to generate serendipity for users in a predictable and systematic way.
Cybersecurity at the Grassroots: American Local Governments and the Challenges of Internet Security

In this paper, we examine cybersecurity challenges faced by America’s local, governments, including: the extent of cyberattacks; problems faced in preventing attacks from being successful; barriers to providing high levels of cybersecurity management; and actions that local governments believe should be taken to improve cybersecurity practice. Our research method consisted of a focus group of information technology (IT) and cybersecurity officials from one American state. Our findings indicate that cyberattacks are constant and can number in the tens of thousands or more per day. While our participants noted that while they were not perfect at it, they felt that they had cybersecurity technology under good control. Their biggest challenge is human – that is, end-users who make mistakes or engage in misconduct. Local governments face several barriers in providing high levels of cybersecurity, including: insufficient funding and staffing; problems of governance; and insufficient or under-enforced cybersecurity policies. Participants suggested several ways to improve local government cybersecurity, including: vulnerability assessment, scanning and testing, cybersecurity insurance, improving end-user authentication and authorization, end-user training and control, control over the use of external devices, and improved governance methods, among others. We conclude by making suggestions for further research into local government cybersecurity.
Gender, genes, and the stress-buffering benefits of “home”: Evidence from two national U.S. studies

Abstract People often perceive that their homes provide refuge from stress, but some homes may provide more stress-buffering resources than others. In particular, single-family homes may provide greater resources, such as status or defensible territory, compared to multi-family homes. Given historical links among gender, home-based status, and territory defense, these benefits may affect men more than women. Data from two national, longitudinal surveys of U.S. adults (Ns = 1717 & 6393) indicated that living in single-family versus multi-family structures buffered the association between stressful events and distress among men, but not women. This pattern was not explained by home ownership, income, financial assets, education, or marital status. Also, in Study 1, the stress-buffering role of home type existed specifically among men most sensitive to the territory-linked neurohormone vasopressin. Home type may be an important factor in coping with stress, particularly among men, and especially for men who are more vasopressin sensitive.
Grand Expectations: Understanding Visitor Motivations and Outcome Interference in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

National Park Service (NPS) units have seen a significant increase in visitation in recent years. From 2014 to 2016, Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) experienced a 17% increase in recreational visits. Managing for increased use, driven partially by new and novel types of recreation activities, is a growing issue of concern for the NPS. This study uses a qualitative approach to examine how emerging activity types paired with increased visitor use in GTNP’s popular String and Leigh Lakes (SLL) area may lead to outcome interference among park visitors. An influx of novel uses, such as paddleboarding, to an area that is already popular for a myriad of recreation activities, including canoeing, picnicking, and day hiking, adds a layer of complexity to the management of the lakes. This increase in visitation and activity diversity, combined with limited vehicle access and parking, is creating an environment in which crowding and displacement of visitors is occurring. Using the recreational opportunity demand hierarchy (RODH) and an outcomes-focused management (OFM) framework, this study explores visitor activities, settings, and motivations, as well as possible outcome-interfering variables that may interfere with benefit-achievement. To inform this effort, 62 semi-structured interviews were compiled using a random-sampling technique in the SLL area during the summer of 2017. Data were analyzed using a blind coding technique and results suggest that conflict, crowding, and displacement are possible outcome-interfering variables that can be targeted in future research and monitoring efforts in the SLL area and beyond. The results also indicate that visitors react rationally to previous recreational outcomes. Additionally, we examine how our results can address common critiques of OFM. Finally, we propose a new iteration of the RODH, the rational recreation demand hierarchy (RRDH), in which outcomes direct future recreational decisions. The findings of this study and the updated outcomes-focused framework provide a variety of implications to managers. These include the management of outcomes and outcome-interfering variables as indicators of quality, a means of conceptualizing how outcome-achievement influences future decision-making concerning recreational activities and settings, and the treatment of protected area visitors as rational decision makers. Additionally, this study provides a vignette of how increased visitation, a phenomenon widely reported across US national parks, influences visitor experience. Subscribe to JPRA
A strange lobster tale of self-sacrificial transversality: or, transversal poetics flourishes in the spectral ether of Deleuze, Bataille, and Shakespeare

ABSTRACTWritten from the perspective of Transversal Poetics, this essay involves an exploration of the theory’s various selves in the context of a self-immolating spectacle staged at London’s New G...
Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772–1947

This book explores the legal culture of the Parsis, or Zoroastrians, an ethnoreligious community unusually invested in the colonial legal system of British India and Burma. Rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with the state, the Parsis sank deep into the colonial legal system itself. From the late eighteenth century until India's independence in 1947, they became heavy users of colonial law, acting as lawyers, judges, litigants, lobbyists, and legislators. They de-Anglicized the law that governed them and enshrined in law their own distinctive models of the family and community by two routes: frequent intra-group litigation often managed by Parsi legal professionals in the areas of marriage, inheritance, religious trusts, and libel, and the creation of legislation that would become Parsi personal law. Other South Asian communities also turned to law, but none seem to have done so earlier or in more pronounced ways than the Parsis.
An Expanded Role for WRINKLED1 Metabolic Control Based on Combined Phylogenetic and Biochemical Analyses

Abstract During triacylglycerol biosynthesis in developing oilseeds of Arabidopsis thaliana, fatty acid production is regulated by the seed-specific transcription factor WRINKLED1 (WRI1). WRI1 is known to directly stimulate the expression of fatty acid biosynthetic enzymes and a few targets in glycolysis. However, it remains unclear to what extent and how the conversion of sugars into fatty acid biosynthetic precursors in seeds is controlled by WRI1. Based on a previously reported DNA binding motif for WRI1, the ASML1/WRI1 (AW)- box, we developed a comparative genomics approach to search for conserved binding motifs in upstream regions of Arabidopsis thaliana protein-encoding genes and orthologous regions of 11 other Brassicaceae species. The AW-box was over-represented across orthologs for 915 Arabidopsis thaliana genes. Among these, 73 genes with functions in the biosynthesis of fatty acids and triacylglycerols and in glycolysis were enriched. For 90 AW-box sequences associated with these target genes, binding affinity to heterologously expressed Arabidopsis thaliana WRI1 protein was determined using Microscale Thermophoresis. Sites with low dissociation constants are preferentially located close to the transcriptional start site and are highly conserved between the 12 Brassicaceae species. Most of the associated genes were found to be co-expressed with WRI1 during seed development. When 46 automatically and manually curated genes containing conserved AW-sites with high binding affinity are mapped to central metabolism, a conserved regulatory blueprint emerges that infers concerted control of contiguous pathway sections in fatty acid biosynthesis and glycolysis. Among unexpectedly identified putative targets of WRI1 are plastidic fructokinase, phosphoglucose isomerase and several transcription factors. One sentence summary A combined comparative genomics and in-vitro DNA binding assay approach was used to identify conserved binding sites for the WRINKLED1 transcription factor in central metabolism and lipid biosynthesis.
A multivariate logistic regression model based on 3T mpMRI, clinical, and biopsy parameters for the prediction of prostate cancer extracapsular extension.

27Background: Extracapsular extension (ECE) of prostate cancer (PCa) is a poor prognostic factor associated with progression, recurrence after treatment and increased PCa- related mortality. Accura...
Induced Beta Power Modulations during Isochronous Auditory Beats Reflect Intentional Anticipation before Gradual Tempo Changes.

Induced beta-band power modulations in auditory and motor-related brain areas have been associated with automatic temporal processing of isochronous beats and explicit, temporally-oriented attention. Here, we investigated how explicit top-down anticipation before upcoming tempo changes, a sustained process commonly required during music performance, changed beta power modulations during listening to isochronous beats. Musicians’ electroencephalograms were recorded during the task of anticipating accelerating, decelerating, or steady beats after direction-specific visual cues. In separate behavioural testing for tempo-change onset detection, such cues were found to facilitate faster responses, thus effectively inducing high-level anticipation. In the electroencephalograms, periodic beta power reductions in a frontocentral topographic component with seed-based source contributions from auditory and sensorimotor cortices were apparent after isochronous beats with anticipation in all conditions, generally replicating patterns found previously during passive listening to isochronous beats. With anticipation before accelerations, the magnitude of the power reduction was significantly weaker than in the steady condition. Between the accelerating and decelerating conditions, no differences were found, suggesting that the observed beta patterns may represent an aspect of high-level anticipation common before both tempo changes, like increased attention. Overall, these results indicate that top-down anticipation influences ongoing auditory beat processing in beta-band networks.
Competing magnetic interactions in the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4

The antiferromagnetic (AFM) compound MnBi_{2}Te_{4} is suggested to be the first realization of an AFM topological insulator. We report on inelastic neutron scattering studies of the magnetic interactions in MnBi_{2}Te_{4} that possess ferromagnetic triangular layers with AFM interlayer coupling. The spin waves display a large spin gap and pairwise exchange interactions within the triangular layer are long ranged and frustrated by large next-nearest neighbor AFM exchange. The degree of frustration suggests proximity to a variety of magnetic phases, potentially including skyrmion phases, which could be accessed in chemically tuned compounds or upon the application of symmetry-breaking fields.
Why Do People Share Political Information on Social Media

This study investigates factors predicting political information sharing on social media in the election context. Specifically, the current study examines how users’ six motivations for political i...
Los tobas de Bolivia: resiliencia y adaptación en el Chaco Boreal

We focus our study on the Tobas of Bolivia, describing a model of seasonal use of the environment employed by hunter-gatherers in the semiarid savannas of Northern Chaco where demographically small groups would fish in the rivers and temporary waterways and plant in wetlands, moving, during other periods of the annual cycle, between hunting and gathering camps in interior lagoons. Although adapted and changed, this broad model of resource appropriation proved to be resilient among historical hunter-gatherers. Because of the relative shortage of ethnographic information about the Bolivian Tobas, when appropriate we use equivalent ethnographic data obtained from their relatives, the Western Tobas of Formosa, Argentina. We present estimates on the Toba population in the 19th century and other elements aimed at modeling: (a) camping sites and seasonal mobility, (b) size of small family groups, (c) their camps, and (d) intergroup relationships. Considering the little information currently available about prehistoric hunter-gatherers on the fluvial fan of the Alto Pilcomayo River, ethnographic descriptions such as those included here may contribute to interpret archaeological materials from recent prehistorical periods in this region.
Self-adjusting Inertia Emulation Control in V2G Application

in this paper, we propose an improved control mechanism for a microgrid. This happens through adding a controlling measure and algorithm one step ahead of the combination of inertia emulation control technique and droop control. This controlling step is a self-adjusting control system designed for a stable electrical grid model. This control technique applied to a home that is furnished with Photo-voltaic (PV) system and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) capable Electric Vehicle (EV). This control could run in both grid-connected and islanded modes in a microgrid application. The model is used to achieve an improvement in frequency over the standard droop/inertia emulation control method, in case of load changes and faults. The provided control system can handle different scenarios such as sudden load changes and transient conditions through dealing with the power of the battery and PV to regulate the voltage and frequency in this microgrid system. This control technique will achieve a better result compared to the standard control technique. Both models are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. The results for the simulations are presented, showing the improvements over the fixed values of the controller.
Are all outliers alike? On Understanding the Diversity of Outliers for Detecting OODs

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are known to produce incorrect predictions with very high confidence on out-of-distribution (OOD) inputs. This limitation is one of the key challenges in the adoption of deep learning models in high-assurance systems such as autonomous driving, air traffic management, and medical diagnosis. This challenge has received significant attention recently, and several techniques have been developed to detect inputs where the model's prediction cannot be trusted. These techniques use different statistical, geometric, or topological signatures. This paper presents a taxonomy of OOD outlier inputs based on their source and nature of uncertainty. We demonstrate how different existing detection approaches fail to detect certain types of outliers. We utilize these insights to develop a novel integrated detection approach that uses multiple attributes corresponding to different types of outliers. Our results include experiments on CIFAR10, SVHN and MNIST as in-distribution data and Imagenet, LSUN, SVHN (for CIFAR10), CIFAR10 (for SVHN), KMNIST, and F-MNIST as OOD data across different DNN architectures such as ResNet34, WideResNet, DenseNet, and LeNet5.
SIA: Selection Inference Using the Ancestral Recombination Graph

Detecting signals of selection from genomic data is a central problem in population genetics. Coupling the rich information in the ancestral recombination graph (ARG) with a powerful and scalable deep learning framework, we developed a novel method to detect and quantify positive selection: Selection Inference using the Ancestral recombination graph (SIA). Built on a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture, a particular type of a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), SIA can be trained to explicitly infer a full range of selection coefficients, as well as the allele frequency trajectory and time of selection onset. We benchmarked SIA extensively on simulations under a European human demographic model, and found that it performs as well or better as some of the best available methods, including state-of-the-art machine-learning and ARG-based methods. In addition, we used SIA to estimate selection coefficients at several loci associated with human phenotypes of interest. SIA detected novel signals of selection particular to the European (CEU) population at the MC1R and ABCC11 loci. In addition, it recapitulated signals of selection at the LCT locus and several pigmentation-related genes. Finally, we reanalyzed polymorphism data of a collection of recently radiated southern capuchino seedeater taxa in the genus Sporophila to quantify the strength of selection and improved the power of our previous methods to detect partial soft sweeps. Overall, SIA uses deep learning to leverage the ARG and thereby provides new insight into how selective sweeps shape genomic diversity.
Boosting Student Success and Reducing Inequalities with Free Access to Course Materials

Research shows that COVID-19 has exacerbated student challenges and inequalities. One of the most impactful ways the University of Arizona Libraries foster student success and reduce inequities is through our course material initiatives: providing students with free day-one access to required materials. We are seeing greater demand for online resources, which can be challenging for academic libraries to provide. Our approach leverages campus partnerships, advocacy and education, and a “do-it-yourself” model supplemented with one-on-one assistance as needed. These practices can be replicated at other libraries with limited resources.
Undergraduate Research Experience with Software Development using a Large Existing Code Base in a Teaching-oriented College

Undergraduate research has been shown to enrich education, increase retention and promote critical thinking. Research projects involving extending an already mature and relatively large code base have special value for students, as they mimic industry experience. Students have to understand the existing code structure and figure out where to add their code to extend the functionality of the system. There are obvious challenges for undergraduate students to take on such projects, including lack of knowledge at the onset of the project, limited time span (normally a semester), and limited time availability during a semester. Undergraduate institutions have additional challenges, such as high teaching load for faculty advisors and lack of graduate students who could act as mentors. In this paper, we report our experience with a relatively large project that lasted for several semesters and involved several teams of students. We managed the challenges by being flexible and carving out many mini-projects from this umbrella project, which required that the faculty advisor work closely with students. The project has successfully produced a teaching/learning tool for auto-gradable full tracing exercises. The tool has been prototyped in classrooms and helped students learn various programming constructs. We hope that our experience could encourage larger scale projects in undergraduate institutions.
Distress and Prevention Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among College Students: the Moderating Role of Resilience.

Background Pandemics can generate considerable distress, which can affect prevention behaviors. Resilience may buffer the negative effects of distress on engagement in relevant prevention behaviors, which may also hold true for COVID-19 prevention behaviors. The objective of the current study was to evaluate whether resilience moderated the relationship between distress and COVID-19 prevention behaviors early in the pandemic. Methods Data were collected via surveys in which all students at a large midwestern university were emailed invitations beginning March 18, 2020. Surveys were completed by 5,530 individuals. In addition to demographic questions and items about COVID-19 prevention behaviors, distress was assessed using the K6 Distress Scale and resilience using the Brief Resilience Scale. Data were analyzed using moderator regression analysis. Results Resilience moderates the effects from distress to prevention behaviors, such that the relationship was stronger for individuals with higher resilience than for individuals with lower resilience. When resilience was one standard deviation below the mean, at the mean value of resilience, and when resilience was one standard deviation above the mean, there was a significant positive relationship between distress and COVID-19 prevention behaviors. However, the relationship was strongest for those with high resilience, and lowest for those with low resilience. Conclusions In the current sample, resilience appeared to influence the strength of the relationship between distress and COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Having higher resilience may promote positive adaptation to distress, leading individuals to engage in a greater number of disease-related prevention behaviors. Future research should examine this relationship longitudinally and in relation to differing constructs of resilience.
A Review of “Wine and Culture: Vineyard to Glass”

Wine is a cultural product, indeed one of the oldest and most complex. It takes its shape within cultural traditions, and it is always marked by the political economy and social relations in which ...
Lance Armstrong and the Race for Deductibility

As a result of the doping scandal, Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France wins. In addition to being erased from the recordbooks, Armstrong will have to return up to $16 million in purses and bonuses he received as a result of his win. In this paper, I discuss the tax consequences to Armstrong of his returning his winnings.