cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rotorcraft control and trajectory generation for target tracking

The future of flight is autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. By supporting or replacing UAV operators, control systems become key for increasing UAV autonomy. This paper presents a novel controller and trajectory generator module for an unmanned rotorcraft, with the goal of tracking a moving ground target using sensor measurements and limited or no operator input. A backstepping control scheme is chosen to guarantee stability and minimize the number of operating modes. We implement a trajectory generator for the rotorcarft to seek and orbit around a moving ground target. The applicability of the combined controller-trajectory generator module is verified through numerical simulations.
Hormone-Drug Interactions and Their Influence on Aggressive Behavior

The study of the chemical events that are necessary for aggressive behavior to be initiated and performed is pursued by neurochemists, endocrinologists, and pharmacologists. Endocrinological and pharmacological studies of aggression share many features of research strategy, and yet the interactive effects of drugs and hormones on aggressive behavior are rarely investigated. It is common in behavioral pharmacology and endocrinology to employ receptor agonists and antagonists to remove or block the endogenous source of a transmitter or hormone, subsequently replacing it; researchers in both fields examine how the behavioral effects of hormone or drug manipulations are dependent on the dose of the agent and on the time course of action. A further common objective is to localize the anatomical sites of action within the brain that are critical for the behavioral effects of hormones and drugs.
Engineering Duplex RNAs for Challenging Targets: Recognition of GGGGCC/CCCCGG Repeats at the ALS/FTD C9orf72 Locus

A GGGGCC expansion within an intronic region of the C9orf72 gene forms RNA foci that are associated with one-third of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and one-quarter of frontotemporal dementia. The C9orf72 locus also expresses an antisense transcript with a CCCCGG expansion that forms foci and may contribute to disease. Synthetic agents that bind these hexanucleotide repeats and block foci would be leads for therapeutic discovery. We have engineered duplex RNAs to enable them to recognize difficult C/G targets. Recognition inhibits foci formed by both GGGGCC and CCCCGG RNA. Our findings show that a single duplex RNA can be used to recognize both disease-related C9orf72 transcripts. More broadly, we extend RNAi to previously inaccessible C/G sequences and provide another example of target recognition in human cells by nuclear RNAi.
In Defense of Future Children: A Response to Cohen's Beyond Best Interests

This essay responds to I. Glenn Cohen’s articles, Regulating Reproduction and Beyond Best Interests, by asserting that Cohen’s work fails to attain his goal of fundamentally shifting the terrain upon which discussions about exercising control over reproduction takes place. The response offers four interrelated observations about why Cohen’s work is ultimately unconvincing. First, his work is too deeply tied to the notion of procreation as substantially, and perhaps strictly, a matter of rights and autonomy, which ignores the ways in which such a narrow lens continuously fails to capture the complexities of the enterprise of creating new lives, an enterprise that necessarily involves some consideration of consequences for those who already exist and those who will exist. Second, Cohen’s work takes little account of the fact that actively choosing to have children is a moral choice and, as such, it is subject to condemnation, critique and public scrutiny. Third, if we take Cohen at his word that his piece is about shifting the conversation in the policy realm, his work substantially misses the proverbial boat because broad conversations about reproductive regulation will always be conducted with some notion of the consequences that the exercise of reproductive choice has on the lives of those children who issue as a result of such choices. Fourth, and finally, because of the reality of the prior observation, the real task for those who find BIRC untenable is not to convince others that it is unsound — philosophically or otherwise — but to convince them that their notions of best interest are flawed.
Boots for Life: Effectiveness of a Life Skills Intervention for Military and Veteran Students

Date Presented 4/17/2015 In this study, we present the development and implementation of a life skills intervention program for military and veteran students: Boots for Life. We report results on the effectiveness of the program, implications for revisions, and future plans.
Abstract 132: Hypoxia-inducible Factor Prolyl-hydroxylase-2 Mediates Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1-induced Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition In Renal Tubular Cells

Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in kidney epithelial cells plays a key role in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis in chronic kidney diseases. As hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α is found to mediate TGFβ1 signaling pathway, we tested the hypothesis that HIF-1α and its upstream regulator prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing proteins (PHDs) are involved in TGFβ1-induced EMT in renal tubular cells. Our results showed that TGFβ1 treatment for 48 h stimulated EMT in cultured renal tubular cells as indicated by the decrease in epithelial marker P-cadherin from 1.0 ± 0.02 to 0.40 ± 0.05 ( P P P P P P
Historical Perspectives: The 1958 Conference Report

From February 6 to 8, 1958, approximately 200 educators and interested individuals were invited to New York City in hopes of discussing the education of academically talented students at the second...
Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Compressible Viscous Reacting Flow

In the present study, a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) framework is developed to simulate chemically reacting ows. The algorithm combines a double-ux method to account for variable thermodynamic properties, a Strang-splitting scheme for the sti reaction chemistry, a robust WENO-based shock limiter, and the non-linear viscous-diusive transport is discretized using the BR2 method. The algorithm is veried and validated by considering a series of one- and two-dimensional test cases, and results are compared with self-similarity solutions and experiments to examine critical algorithmic components. These cases include low-Mach deagration systems and supersonic inviscid and viscous problems. Multi-dimensional congurations consider the shock-ame interaction and detonation initiation process. It is shown that the reactive DG-method provides an accurate description of key-physical mechanisms that control the ignition onset in conned detonation systems.
Improved Conformality of CVD Titanium Nitride Films

We demonstrate a novel approach to improving the step coverage of thin films made by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Titanium nitride (TiN) films were deposited by atmospheric pressure CVD using tetrakis(diethylamido)titanium vapor (TDEAT) and ammonia gas (NH3) carried in nitrogen gas. Trimethylamine (NMe3) gas was added during some of the depositions. The substrates were patterned silicon wafers having holes with aspect ratio of 3.5 through a silicon dioxide layer. We discovered that the step coverage was significantly increased for TiN films made with NMe3. At 320 °C, the step coverage was increased from 70% to nearly 100%. Within the range of deposition temperatures used in our study, 320 °C to 370 °C, the amount of improvement increased as the deposition temperature decreased. The trimethylamine did not increase the resistivity or the impurity levels in the films, but it did reduce the growth rate slightly. We suggest that the trimethylamine adsorbs onto the surface, temporarily blocking some of the sites on which growth could take place. Thus the effective sticking coefficients for the precursors are decreased, and the step coverage is increased.
Effect of Tray Pressure Drop on the Trade-off between Trays and Energy

The classical trade-off between number of trays and energy consumption in distillation design is one of the fundamental concepts in chemical engineering. Conventional wisdom states that the use of more stages results in lower reflux ratios and lower reboiler duties for a specified separation. A hyperbolic relationship is expected in a plot of stages versus energy. More stages increase capital cost but reduce energy cost, so an economic optimum exists. Total annual cost, which balances capital and energy costs, is frequently used as the objective function to be minimized. This paper points out that the expected hyperbolic relationship does not apply in low-to-moderate pressure columns when the effect of tray pressure drop is included in the vapor–liquid and design equations. For a given reflux-drum pressure, adding more trays increases pressures in the lower part of the column. If the separation is favored by lower pressure, as is the case in many chemical systems, adding more trays can result in higher en...
Spectra of Coals and Coal Extracts: Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectra of Pyridine and Carbon Disulfide Extracts

High-resolution proton magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectrometry is a technique that can be used to study the hydrogen distribution in liquid products and soluble materials from coal. The relative amounts of aromatic hydrogen, benzylic hydrogen, and other nonaromatic hydrogen can be determined directly. Because all protons have essentially the same NMR sensitivity, no intensity calibration of the spectrometer is required; thus, in this respect, 1H NMR is far superior to many other techniques used in the investigation of coal structure. Unfortunately, high-resolution NMR is not applicable to whole coals, since the dipole-dipole interactions in solids generally prevent the observation of chemically shifted NMR absorption areas.(1) Nevertheless, coal extracts, which often represent a large amount of the whole coals, can be studied by the technique. The properties of extracts are thought to be similar to those of the whole coals from which they are derived.
Consistent Extinction Risk Assessment under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Identifying species at risk of extinction is essential for effective conservation priority-setting in the face of accelerating biodiversity loss. However, the levels of risk that lead to endangered or threatened listing decisions under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) are not well defined. We used a Bayesian population modeling approach to estimate levels of risk consistently for 14 marine species previously assessed under the ESA. For each species, we assessed the risks of declining below various abundance thresholds over various time horizons. We found that high risks of declining below 250 mature individuals within five generations matched well with ESA endangered status, while number of populations was useful for distinguishing between threatened and “not warranted” species. The risk assessment framework developed here could enable more consistent, predictable, and transparent ESA status assessments in the future.
Lessons learned from summer introductory pharmacy practice experiences at an academic medical center

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education requires pharmacy students to complete 300 introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE) hours before they start their advanced pharmacy practice experiences, and considerable variability exists in how those IPPE hours are structured. UCSF Medical
13 Familial Influences on the Development of Serious Conduct Problems and Delinquency

The family environment has consistently been linked to childhood conduct problems and the development of serious delinquent behavior among youth. This chapter provides a brief overview of longitudinal evidence linking aspects of family structure/functioning (i.e., early motherhood, family size, single parenthood, caretaker changes, family socioeconomic status), caregiver characteristics (i.e., parental criminality, substance use/dependence, internalizing problems, and inter-parental conflict) and parenting practices (i.e., parental attachment/bonding, parental warmth, positive reinforcement, harsh/rejecting parenting, inconsistent discipline, parental control/monitoring) to the development of youth antisocial behavior. Several examples of how research related to family factors has been used to inform the creation of effective prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing youth delinquency are provided. A set of key methodological and theoretical challenges associated with conducting research on family factors is then discussed, including examining gene-by-family environment interactions, considering reciprocal parent-child influences, and integrating information collected using multiple methods/informants when assessing parenting practices. The chapter concludes by providing some recommendations for future studies designed to further advance our understanding of how family factors influence the early emergence and persistence of delinquent behavior from childhood into early adulthood.
Bottlenecks in innovative and translational approach with natural product research

S safety and efficacy of natural product and traditonal medicine formulations using modern medicine methodology is difficult in general. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the underlying principle for treating diseases in major traditional medical systems (TCM, Ayurveda etc.) is fundamentally different from modern medicine. Treatment is often personalized and holistic in traditional medical systems. Therefore, conventional pre-clinical and clinical studies may not be ideal to study safety and efficacy of natural product/traditional medicine modalities. Another major issue is that the natural product drug formulations often contain several ingredients which are mostly herbals. This poses problems with the quality control and standardization of these formulations, which is a requirement for drugs tested using conventional methods. Despite these challenges, several advances have been made in this area in recent years. Major issues facing innovative and translational research in natural product/traditional medicine area, and potential solutions will be discussed in the presentation.
The effects of ambiguous rhetoric in congressional elections

Ambiguity -- whereby candidates make deliberately unclear position statements on key issues -- has long been touted by pundits and political scientists as a smart campaign strategy. In this manuscript, two experiments suggest the usefulness of ambiguous rhetoric on salient issues is overstated. Voters rely on well-publicized partisan positions on political issues as heuristics, a factor that has often been overlooked by the existing literature. This means that an issue will inform a voter's decision even if the candidate speaks ambiguously on it. Further, while ambiguity does not change the voters' perceptions of the candidate's position relative to silence, it does raise the salience of the issue that candidate is attempting to minimize. Hence, for candidates who wish to hide unfavorable positions, silence is a better rhetorical strategy than ambiguity.
Dementia in the oldest old: Beyond Alzheimer disease

In a Perspective, Aimee Pierce and Claudia Kawas discuss risk factors and pathologies of dementia in the oldest-old.
Mutual Economic Interdependence or Economic Imbalance: Turkish Private Sector Presence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

This article concentrates on the deepening of Ankara-Erbil relations, with a specific focus on the presence of the Turkish private sector in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) between 2004 and 2014...
Screw fixation of the syndesmosis alters joint contact characteristics in an axially loaded cadaveric model

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of rigid syndesmotic fixation on functional talar position and cartilage contact mechanics. Methods Twelve below-knee cadaveric specimens with an intact distal syndesmosis were mechanically loaded in four flexion positions (20° plantar flexion, 10° plantar flexion, neutral, 10° dorsiflexion) with zero, one, or two 3.5-mm syndesmotic screws. Rigid clusters of reflective markers were used to track bony movement and ankle-specific pressure sensors were used to measure talar dome and medial/lateral gutter contact mechanics. Results Screw fixation caused negligible anterior and inferior shifts of the talus within the mortise. Relative to no fixation, mean peak contact pressure decreased by 6%–32% on the talar dome and increased 2.4- to 6.6-fold in the medial and lateral gutters, respectively, depending on ankle position and number of screws. Conclusions Two-way ANOVA indicated syndesmotic screw fixation significantly increased contact pressure in the medial/lateral gutters and decreased talar dome contact pressure while minimally altering talar position.
Effect of trifluoroethanol on the structural and functional properties of α-crystallin

Alpha crystallin is an eye lens protein with a molecular weight of approximately 800 kDa. It belongs to the class of small heat shock proteins. Besides its structural role, it is known to prevent the aggregation of β- and γ-crystallins and several other proteins under denaturing conditions and is thus believed to play an important role in maintaining lens transparency. In this communication, we have investigated the effect of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) on the structural and functional features of the native α-crystallin and its two constituent subunits. A conformational change occurs from the characteristic β-sheet to the α-helix structure in both native α-crystallin and its subunits with the increase in TFE levels. Among the two subunits, αA-crystallin is relatively stable and upon preincubation prevents the characteristic aggregation of αB-crystallin at 20% and 30% (v/v) TFE. The hydrophobicity and chaperone-like activity of the crystallin subunits decrease on TFE treatment. The ability of αA-crystallin to bind and prevent the aggregation of αB-crystallin, despite a conformational change, could be important in protecting the lens from external stress. The loss in chaperone activity of αA-crystallin exposed to TFE and the inability of peptide chaperone—the functional site of αA-crystallin—to stabilize αB-crystallin at 20–30% TFE suggest that the site(s) involved in subunit interaction and chaperone-like function are quite distinct.
Genes within Genes in Bacterial Genomes

Genetic coding in bacteria largely operates via the "one gene-one protein" paradigm. However, the peculiarities of the mRNA structure, the versatility of the genetic code, and the dynamic nature of translation sometimes allow organisms to deviate from the standard rules of protein encoding. Bacteria can use several unorthodox modes of translation to express more than one protein from a single mRNA cistron. One such alternative path is the use of additional translation initiation sites within the gene. Proteins whose translation is initiated at different start sites within the same reading frame will differ in their N termini but will have identical C-terminal segments. On the other hand, alternative initiation of translation in a register different from the frame dictated by the primary start codon will yield a protein whose sequence is entirely different from the one encoded in the main frame. The use of internal mRNA codons as translation start sites is controlled by the nucleotide sequence and the mRNA folding. The proteins of the alternative proteome generated via the "genes-within-genes" strategy may carry important functions. In this review, we summarize the currently known examples of bacterial genes encoding more than one protein due to the utilization of additional translation start sites and discuss the known or proposed functions of the alternative polypeptides in relation to the main protein product of the gene. We also discuss recent proteome- and genome-wide approaches that will allow the discovery of novel translation initiation sites in a systematic fashion.
A View of the Past: Using the Internet to Rekindle Weak Ties

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of research on a particular kind of relationship connection that is kindled via Internet mediation: the reconnection of dormant relationships that have lapsed over time and distance, such as with former classmates or coworkers. Using data garnered from interviews with adult Internet users, this paper examines the use of email, social network sites and search engines by midlife adults to regenerate dormant relationships and maintain weak ties, and how the experiences of longevity and the life course alter perceptions of the attributes and drawbacks that these technologies offer. In doing so, this work provides a more nuanced perspective of the technological practices of adults overall, and offers insight on how various communication technologies might be utilized at different stages in life.
The role of endobronchial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration for programmed death ligand 1 testing and next generation sequencing in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Guidelines recommend testing for driver mutations and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression at the time of initial diagnosis and during disease progression to help determine prognosis and initiate personalized therapy. In this article we review the updated literature and techniques of endobronchial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in obtaining adequate tissue for molecular analysis by using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and for assessing PD-L1 expression through immunohistochemistry.
Regulated ex vivo regional gene therapy for bone repair using an inducible caspase-9 suicide gene system.

In order to adapt ex vivo regional gene therapy for clinical applications in orthopaedic surgery, safety issues must be considered. In this study we developed a suicide approach using a dual gene expression two step transcriptional amplification lentiviral vector (LV-TSTA) encoding BMP-2 and an inducible caspase 9 (iC9) system that selectively induces apoptosis upon activation with a chemical inducer of dimerization (CID). Transduction of rat bone marrow stromal cells (RBMSCs) with LV-TSTA-iC9/BMP-2 led to abundant BMP-2 production (90.3 ± 7.9 ng/24 h/106 cells) in vitro and stimulated bone formation in a mouse muscle pouch in the absence of CID. Moreover it was shown that CID could be used to selectively induce apoptosis in iC9-transduced cells both in vitro and in vivo. Double exposure to serial dilutions of CID decreased in vitro production of BMP-2 by 85–87% and Luc activity by 97–99% in iC9/BMP-2 or iC9/Luc-transduced cells respectively. Early administration of CID (Days 0–1 post-op) in mice implanted with iC9/BMP-2-transduced RBMSCs was effective in blocking bone formation, indicating that CID was toxic to the transduced cells. In iC9/Luc-implanted mice, late administration of two doses of CID (Days 27–28 post-op) significantly reduced the luciferase signal. The current study provides proof of concept for the potential clinical application of regulated gene therapy to promote bone repair.
Complex ecological phenotypes on phylogenetic trees: a hidden Markov model for comparative analysis of multivariate count data

ABSTRACT The evolutionary dynamics of complex ecological traits – including multistate representations of diet, habitat, and behavior – remain poorly understood. Reconstructing the tempo, mode, and historical sequence of transitions involving such traits poses many challenges for comparative biologists, owing to their multidimensional nature and intraspecific variability. Continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC) are commonly used to model ecological niche evolution on phylogenetic trees but are limited by the assumption that taxa are monomorphic and that states are univariate categorical variables. Thus, a necessary first step when using standard CTMC models is to categorize species into a pre-determined number of ecological states. This approach potentially confounds interpretation of state assignments with effects of sampling variation because it does not directly incorporate empirical observations of resource use into the statistical inference model. The neglect of sampling variation, along with univariate representations of true multivariate phenotypes, potentially leads to the distortion and loss of information, with substantial implications for downstream macroevolutionary analyses. In this study, we develop a hidden Markov model using a Dirichlet-multinomial framework to model resource use evolution on phylogenetic trees. Unlike existing CTMC implementations, states are unobserved probability distributions from which observed data are sampled. Our approach is expressly designed to model ecological traits that are intra-specifically variable and to account for uncertainty in state assignments of terminal taxa arising from effects of sampling variation. The method uses multivariate count data for individual species to simultaneously infer the number of ecological states, the proportional utilization of different resources by different states, and the phylogenetic distribution of ecological states among living species and their ancestors. The method is general and may be applied to any data expressible as a set of observational counts from different categories.
Meeting the Epicurean challenge: a reply to ’Abortion and Deprivation'

Anna Christensen argues that it is implausible to claim that abortion and murder are morally impermissible given that they deprive individuals of a future like ours (or 'FLO'). In this essay, I provide two responses to Christensen's argument. First, I show that the premises upon which Christensen's argument relies have implausible implications. Second, I provide a direct response to Christensen's challenge, showing that abortion and murder are morally impermissible given that they do deprive individuals of an FLO. Doing so involves drawing a distinction between (1) Acts of killing and (2) Death (which is the outcome of acts of killing). Christensen focuses on the latter, but it is the former that is the proper subject in the abortion debate. I conclude that Christensen has failed to provide a response to arguments-like the one presented by Marquis -that murder and abortion are impermissible given that they deprive individuals of an FLO.
Monostotic Fibrous Dysplasia of the Lumbar Spine With Secondary Features of Solid Variant Aneurysmal Bone Cyst.

Fibrous dysplasia is a benign, mass-forming disease of bone composed of abnormal fibrous and osseous elements that can be accompanied by endocrine dysfunction, skin pigmentation, and intramuscular ...
Enabling Resilience in Asynchronous Many-Task Programming Models

Resilience is an imminent issue for next-generation platforms due to projected increases in soft/transient failures as part of the inherent trade-offs among performance, energy, and costs in system design. In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive approach to enabling application-level resilience in Asynchronous Many-Task (AMT) programming models with a focus on remedying Silent Data Corruption (SDC) that can often go undetected by the hardware and OS. Our approach makes it possible for the application programmer to declaratively express resilience attributes with minimal code changes, and to delegate the complexity of efficiently supporting resilience to our runtime system. We have created a prototype implementation of our approach as an extension to the Habanero C/C++ library (HClib), where different resilience techniques including task replay, task replication, algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT), and checkpointing are available. Our experimental results show that task replay incurs lower overhead than task replication when an appropriate error checking function is provided. Further, task replay matches the low overhead of ABFT. Our results also demonstrate the ability to combine different resilience schemes. To evaluate the effectiveness of our resilience mechanisms in the presence of errors, we injected synthetic errors at different error rates (1.0%, and 10.0%) and found modest increase in execution times. In summary, the results show that our approach supports efficient and scalable recovery, and that our approach can be used to influence the design of future AMT programming models and runtime systems that aim to integrate first-class support for user-level resilience.
Chemoenzymatic Semisynthesis of Phosphorylated α-Synuclein Enables Identification of a Bidirectional Effect on Fibril Formation.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) impact the pathological aggregation of α-synuclein (αS), a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we synthesize αS phosphorylated at tyrosine 39 (pY39) through a novel route using in vitro enzymatic phosphorylation of a fragment followed by ligation to form the full-length protein. We can execute this synthesis in combination with unnatural amino acid mutagenesis to include two fluorescent labels for Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) studies. We determine the effect of pY39 on the aggregation of αS and compare our authentically phosphorylated material to the corresponding glutamate 39 "phosphomimetic." Intriguingly, we find that αS-pY39 can either accelerate or decelerate aggregation, depending on the fraction of phosphorylated protein. The αS-E39 mutant can qualitatively reproduce some, but not all, of these effects. FRET measurements and analysis of existing structures of αS help to provide an explanation for this phenomenon. Our results have important implications for the treatment of PD patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and highlight the importance of validating phosphomimetics through studies of authentic PTMs.
The relation of spatio-temporal distribution of landslides to urban development (a case study from the Apulia region, Southern Italy)

The paper describes the multitemporal landslide inventory map prepared for the urban areas of Motta Montecorvino and Volturino, two municipalities located in the Southern Apennines (Apulia Region, ...
Clinical evaluation of photon optimizer (PO) MLC algorithm for stereotactic, single-dose of VMAT lung SBRT.

Abstract Recently implemented photon optimizer (PO) MLC optimization algorithm is mandatory for RapidPlan modeling in Eclipse. This report quantifies and compares the dosimetry and treatment delivery parameters of PO vs its predecessor progressive resolution optimizer (PRO) algorithm for a single-dose of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Clinical SBRT treatment plans for 12 early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer patients receiving 30 Gy in 1 fraction using PRO-VMAT were re-optimized using the PO-VMAT MLC algorithm with identical planning parameters and objectives. Average planning target volume derived from the 4D CT scans was 13.6 ± 12.0 cc (range: 4.3 to 41.1 cc) Patients were treated with 6 MV flattening filter free beam using Acuros-based calculations and 2.5 mm calculation grid-size (CGS). Both treatment plans were normalized to receive same target coverage and identical CGS to isolate effects of MLC positioning optimizers. Original PRO and re-optimized PO plans were compared via RTOG–0915 protocol compliance criteria for target conformity, gradient indices, dose to organs at risks and delivery efficiency. Additionally, PO-VMAT plans with a 1.25 mm CGS were evaluated. Both plans met RTOG protocol requirements. Conformity indices showed no statistical difference between PO 2.5 mm CGS and PRO 2.5 mm CGS plans. Gradient index (p = 0.03), maximum dose to 2 cm away from planning target volume in any direction (D2cm) (p
Self-Administered Field Surveys on Sensitive Topics

Research on sensitive topics uses a variety of methods to combat response bias on in-person surveys. Increasingly, researchers allow respondents to self-administer responses using electronic devices as an alternative to more complicated experimental approaches. Using an experiment embedded in a survey in the rural Philippines, we test the effects of several such methods on response rates and falsification. We asked respondents a sensitive question about reporting insurgents to the police alongside a nonsensitive question about school completion. We randomly assigned respondents to answer these questions either verbally, through a “forced choice” experiment, or through self-enumeration. We find that self-enumeration significantly reduced nonresponse compared to direct questioning, but find little evidence of differential rates of falsification. Forced choice yielded highly unlikely estimates, which we attribute to nonstrategic falsification. These results suggest that self-administered surveys can be effective for measuring sensitive topics on surveys when response rates are a priority.
Management of renal cell carcinoma presenting during teenage pregnancy

Abstract Renal cell carcinoma is uncommon in adolescence, especially when associated with pregnancy. We present the case of a 16 year old female who was found to have a large heterogeneous renal mass incidentally detected at 31 weeks gestation via pre-natal ultrasound. The patient delivered a healthy infant at 38 weeks gestation. She underwent left nephrectomy six weeks post-partum. This represents the youngest reported case of renal cell carcinoma during pregnancy. In this case report we review the differential diagnosis of renal masses in adolescents and discuss key management decisions involved in this case; specifically, the challenges of imaging and surgical planning during pregnancy. Management of abdominal masses during pregnancy must balance the health of the mother with that of the fetus.
Personality Trends in the Pilot Population

Personality has been acknowledged since the 1970’s as an influencing factor in pilot performance and training outcomes (King, 2014; Bartram, 1995). Since the late 1940’s, pilot selection techniques have included personality related questions (Olson, Phillips, aWalker, 2009; Callister, King, Retzlaff, a Marsh, 1999; Dolgin a Gib, 1988; Fiske, 1947). Unfortunately, despite the large number of different personality indexes used within this line of research, there has not been an aggregation of all aviation studies examining pilot personality and its impact on performance and success. In the current effort, a literature review was conducted to identify research that examined pilot personality traits, and a high-level summary of the findings related to trends in pilot personality traits is provided. The summary includes an examination of personality traits across the differing pilot categories (i.e., commercial, student, and military pilots) and pilot genders. When examining pilots, in general, compared to a general population, consistent with past research, pilots tend to exhibit personality traits lower in neuroticism, higher in extraversion, equivalent in openness, lower in agreeableness, and higher in conscientiousness. However, when different pilot categories are examined, the trends are not as ubiquitous. For instance, commercial pilots research consistently shows pilots to have higher levels of conscientiousness than the general population; however, for military and student pilots the results are not equivocal. We present here the methods and results associated with our review of the literature and provide a discussion of what can be gleaned and future research needed.
Con Nariz (blanqui-)roja: Peruvian Comedy, Marca Perú and ¡Asu Mare!

The 2011 viral video which came to be known as Peru, Nebraska (2011), directed by Ricardo Maldonado, was the first major media element associated with the nation branding campaign known as Marca Peru. Two years later, the feature film iAsu Mare! (2013), an adaptation of the stand-up show from comedian Carlos Alcantara, became the highest grossing film ever in Peru. This chapter contextualizes iAsu Mare! as the start of the twenty-first-century trend of successful popular comedies within larger historic debates concerning Peruvian national cinema and considers the ways that the aesthetics and ideology of these comedies relate to the nation branding efforts of Marca Peru.
Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitor Use and Risk of Conventional and Serrated Precursors of Colorectal Cancer.

Background: Phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors have been hypothesized to have chemoprotective effects in colorectal cancer. Current population-based epidemiologic evidence is, however, limited and inconsistent. Methods: Among 18,123 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who had at least one lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, we evaluated the association between PDE5 inhibitor use and risk of conventional adenoma and serrated lesion between 2000 and 2010, adjusted for repeated observations and multiple risk factors. We stratified by erectile dysfunction to account for potential “confounding by indication.” Results: We documented 2,595 conventional adenomas and 1,395 serrated lesion polyps during the follow-up period. Using people without erectile dysfunction as reference group, recent PDE5 inhibitor use at baseline was not associated with lower risk of conventional adenoma [erectile dysfunction with PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.92–1.26; erectile dysfunction without PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.85–1.06], serrated lesions (erectile dysfunction with PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 0.97–1.45; erectile dysfunction without PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.89–1.19), or advanced conventional adenomas (erectile dysfunction with PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 1.20; 95% CI = 0.94–1.53; erectile dysfunction without PDE5 inhibitors: OR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.79–1.14). No association was found for PDE5 inhibitor use ever before as well. Conclusions: We found no evidence of an association between PDE5 inhibitor use and risk of conventional and serrated precursors of colorectal cancer. Impact: We show that PDE5 inhibitor use is not associated with precursors of colorectal cancer adjusted for medical and lifestyle risk factors among a large population of men with 10 years of follow-up.
Relationship Between Perioperative Outcomes Used for Profiling Hospital Noncardiac Surgical Quality.

Abstract Background Risk-adjusted morbidity and mortality are commonly used by national surgical quality improvement (QI) programs to measure hospital-level surgical quality. However, the degree of hospital-level correlation between mortality, morbidity, and other perioperative outcomes (like reoperation) collected by contemporary surgical QI programs has not been well-characterized. Materials and Methods Veterans Affairs (VA) Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) data (2015-2016) were used to evaluate hospital-level correlation in performance between risk-adjusted 30-d mortality, morbidity, major morbidity, reoperation, and 2 composite outcomes (1- mortality, major morbidity, or reoperation; 2- mortality or major morbidity) after noncardiac surgery. Correlation between outcomes rates was evaluated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Correlation between hospital risk-adjusted performance rankings was evaluated using Spearman's correlation. Results Based on a median of 232 [IQR 95-331] quarterly surgical cases abstracted by VASQIP, statistical power for identifying 30-d mortality outlier hospitals was estimated between 3.3% for an observed-to-expected ratio of 1.1 and 45.7% for 3.0. Among 230,247 Veterans who underwent a noncardiac operation at 137 VA hospitals, there were moderate hospital-level correlations between various risk-adjusted outcome rates (highest r = 0.40, mortality and composite 1; lowest r = 0.32, mortality and morbidity). When hospitals were ranked based on performance, there was low-to-moderate correlation between rankings on the various outcomes (highest ρ = 0.47, mortality and composite 1; lowest ρ = 0.37, mortality and major morbidity). Conclusions Modest hospital-level correlations between perioperative outcomes suggests it may be difficult to identify high (or low) performing hospitals using a single measure. Additionally, while composites of currently measured outcomes may be an efficient way to improve analytic sample size (relative to evaluations based on any individual outcome), further work is needed to understand whether they provide a more robust and accurate picture of hospital quality or whether evaluating performance across a portfolio of individual measures is most effective for driving QI.
Nix Pro 2 and Color Muse as potential colorimeters for evaluating color in foods

Abstract Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of Color Muse and Nix Pro 2 colorimeters in measuring food color. To that end, measured color coordinates (L*, a*, b*, C*, and h*) of vegetables, fruits, cheeses, and meats by Color Muse and Nix Pro 2 were compared to values obtained with a Minolta CR-400 colorimeter. In general, color space values obtained with Color Muse were greater than those of CR-400 and Nix Pro 2 (P 90%). Taken together, our data suggest that Color Muse and Nix Pro 2 are reliable instruments that can be utilized as alternatives to high-cost colorimeters in food color research.
Results for Résumés: Managing Undergraduate Library Interns

The academic library can play a crucial role in experiential learning for undergraduate students. In 2011, librarians at the University of Dayton built on the idea of student workers and partnered with the University Honors Program to offer customized experiential learning through paid internships. Librarians work one-on-one with students from a variety of disciplines. With experiences tailored to student interests, the library setting becomes a real world laboratory for skills training within the undergraduates’ disciplines or career interests. This article will describe the variety of experiences offered, resources needed, and ways of measuring and assessing for an effective internship program. The authors will articulate how library internships can offer necessary skills for careers outside the library world.
Singularities in Classical Mechanical Systems

Singularities in the equations of motion of a classical mechanical system usually play a dominant role in the global phase portrait of the system. By a singularity we mean a point or set of points where the system is undefined, as in the case of a collision between two or more of the particles in the n-body problem. Such singularities often lead to a complicated global orbit structure. Not only do certain solutions tend to run off the phase space, but also nearby solutions tend to behave in an erratic or unpredictable manner. Numerical studies of such systems are often inconclusive because of this erratic behavior. And power series or other analytic techniques often yield only a very local description of solutions near the singularity, one which gives no hint of the global complexity of the system.
Variation in Information Needs and Quality: Implications for Public Health Surveillance and Biomedical Informatics

Understanding variation among users' information needs and the quality of information in an electronic system is important for informaticians to ensure data are fit-for-use in answering important questions in clinical and public health. To measure variation in satisfaction with currently reported data, as well as perceived importance and need with respect to completeness and timeliness, we surveyed epidemiologists and other public health professionals across multiple jurisdictions. We observed consensus for some data elements, such as county of residence, which respondents perceived as important and felt should always be reported. However information needs differed for many data elements, especially when comparing notifiable diseases such as chlamydia to seasonal (influenza) and chronic (diabetes) diseases. Given the trend towards greater volume and variety of data as inputs to surveillance systems, variation of information needs impacts system design and practice. Systems must be flexible and highly configurable to accommodate variation, and informaticians must measure and improve systems and business processes to accommodate for variation of both users and information.
Protecting “Any Child:” The Use of the Confidential Marital Communications Privilege in Child Molestation Cases

Imagine a grandmother who wants to testify in a criminal trial that her husband confessed to her that he molested their two-year old grandson, but she is prevented from doing so. This is a true example of how a defendant can invoke the confidential martial communications privilege. Federal courts and half of the state legislatures have created exceptions to the confidential martial communications privilege in narrow situations. If a defendant has committed a crime against “the child of either” spouse, or against a “child residing in the home,” then the defendant cannot bar testimony based on the confidential marital communications privilege. However, if the defendant has molested a neighbor’s child or child unrelated to the family at the neighborhood park, and confessed that crime to the spouse, then the confession is privileged. This article sets forth reasons why limiting the marital privilege exception to “the child of either” spouse or to the “child residing in the home” is unreasonable. All children, regardless of their connection to the family, should be protected, particularly in child molestation cases which are often difficult to prosecute given the lack of witnesses and physical evidence. Jurisprudence, public policy, and legal theory all lead to the same conclusion: that courts and state legislatures should adopt an exception to the confidential marital communications privilege in cases involving the molestation of “any child.” The first half of the article sets forth the legal history of the marital privilege and the current landscape of exceptions to it in child abuse cases. The Appendix to the article groups the exceptions of all federal and state jurisdictions into three categories. The second half of the article sets forth reasons why the “any child” exception should be adopted and also how federal courts and state legislatures can do so. As part of this analysis, I have drafted proposed legislation.
RAPD polymorphisms detected among the flax genotrophs

The occurrence of environmentally induced heritable changes in certain flax varieties has been shown to be accompanied by changes in the genomic DNA. A large difference in nuclear DNA contents has been characterized between the extreme types, termed genotrophs. The genomic variation between a series of genotrophs has been studied by the polymerase chain reaction using random arbitrary oligonucleotide primers. A total of 320 primers were used in the reactions and 253 polymorphic bands observed. The polymorphic bands were derived from all parts of the genome, namely the highly repetitive, middle-repetitive and low-copy-number sequences. They were also shown to be distributed thoughout the genome. In one group of genotrophs, all of which were induced by temperature treatment, there was a clustering of the polymorphisms with a high degree of shared polymorphisms. These results are in agreement with earlier studies showing that a dispersed fraction of the genome is susceptible to variation when environmentally induced heritable changes occur.