cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy

Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? Since 1945, most strategic thinking about nuclear weapons has focused on deterrence - using nuclear threats to prevent attacks against the nation's territory and interests. But an often overlooked question is whether nuclear threats can also coerce adversaries to relinquish possessions or change their behavior. Can nuclear weapons be used to blackmail other countries? The prevailing wisdom is that nuclear weapons are useful for coercion, but this book shows that this view is badly misguided. Nuclear weapons are useful mainly for deterrence and self-defense, not for coercion. The authors evaluate the role of nuclear weapons in several foreign policy contexts and present a trove of new quantitative and historical evidence that nuclear weapons do not help countries achieve better results in coercive diplomacy. The evidence is clear: the benefits of possessing nuclear weapons are almost exclusively defensive, not offensive.
Principal-Counselor Collaboration and School Climate.

Examining whether principal-counselor collaboration and school climate were related, researchers sent 4,193 surveys to high school counselors in the United States and received 419 responses. As pri...
Initial Study of An Effective Fast-Time Simulation Platform for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (sUAVs), typically 55 lbs and below, are envisioned to play a major role in surveilling critical assets, collecting important information, and delivering goods. Large scale small UAV operations are expected to happen in low altitude airspace in the near future. Many static and dynamic constraints exist in low altitude airspace because of manned aircraft or helicopter activities, various wind conditions, restricted airspace, terrain and man-made buildings, and conflict-avoidance among sUAVs. High sensitivity and high maneuverability are unique characteristics of sUAVs that bring challenges to effective system evaluations and mandate such a simulation platform different from existing simulations that were built for manned air traffic system and large unmanned fixed aircraft. NASA's Unmanned aircraft system Traffic Management (UTM) research initiative focuses on enabling safe and efficient sUAV operations in the future. In order to help define requirements and policies for a safe and efficient UTM system to accommodate a large amount of sUAV operations, it is necessary to develop a fast-time simulation platform that can effectively evaluate requirements, policies, and concepts in a close-to-reality environment. This work analyzed the impacts of some key factors including aforementioned sUAV's characteristics and demonstrated the importance of these factors in a successful UTM fast-time simulation platform.
Lipoma of superior vena cava: a rare occurrence.

Most benign primary cardiac tumours are myxomas; non-myxomatous tumours are less common but comprise a wide variety. Cardiac lipoma is a rare non-myxomatous variety. A 70-year-old Caucasian woman with right breast cancer status postpartial mastectomy underwent surveillance MRI of the breast and was found to have a possible right atrial (RA) mass. She also reported frequent headaches and palpitations. She underwent a transoesophageal echocardiogram which showed a 2.6×1.6×1.6 cm echogenic mass at the superior vena cava (SVC) and RA junction. She was anticoagulated for a possible thrombus without resolution. Surgical excision was undertaken in view of ongoing symptoms and partial occlusion of the SVC. Intraoperatively, a 2–3 cm smoothly textured lobulated mass was found and histopathology showed adipose tissue consistent with lipoma. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged in stable condition.
The habitat and abundance of two wintergreen orchids (Aplectrum hyemale and Tipularia discolor) in western North Carolina1

Aplectrum hyemale and Tipularia discolor are wintergreen orchids native to the eastern and central United States. Each produces a single leaf in late fall that persists through the winter and senesces in early spring. Both species occur in scattered patches in the understory of deciduous forests, and although they overlap in range and often co-occur in the landscape, their habitat and photosynthetic potential have not been compared directly. In this study we examine the relative abundance of A. hyemale and T. discolor in western North Carolina and quantify habitat characteristics and levels of leaf chlorophyll for each species. We conducted broad-scale surveys (walkabouts) of seven sites in Pisgah National Forest during the winter and collected habitat data in 26 patches of each species in one mesic forest. Both species shared similar habitat attributes at this site (plants located ∼ 2 m from overstory trees of similar diameter in ∼ 45% sunlight). However, across all sites, T. discolor was three times more abundant than A. hyemale, more likely to occur in large patches (> 20 plants), and more consistently distributed across a range of slope aspects. In contrast, A. hyemale occurred most often on slopes facing 91–180°, and at elevations > 750 m. Whereas A. hyemale was most often associated with Liriodendron tulipifera overstory trees, T. discolor was often in close proximity to Quercus spp. as well as L. tulipifera. Leaf chlorophyll was twice as high in A. hyemale, which could support differences in photosynthetic strategies, or reflect differences in leaf size and morphology.
Monet in Le Havre: Origins of Impressionism

The iconic painting Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet has a special interest in part because the title inspired the name of the Impressionist movement after this work appeared in an 1874 Paris exhibition. The date of Impression, Sunrise has long been a subject of controversy. Not only the time of year but even the calendar year of the painting is in dispute, with both 1872 and 1873 cited by various authors.
SBNCT Plan: A 3-Dimensional Treatment Planning System for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

The need for accurate and comprehensive 3-dimensional treatment planning for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has been debated for the past several years. Although many argue against the need for elaborate and expensive treatment planning programs which mimic conventional radiotherapy planning systems, it is clear that in order to realize significant gains over conventional fractionated radiation therapy, patients must be treated to the edge of normal tissue tolerance. Just how close to this edge is dictated by the uncertainties in dosimetry. Hence the focus of BNCT planning is the determination of dose distribution throughout normal tissue volumes.
Hydrogen Peroxide Production in Dopamine Neurons: Implications for Understanding Parkinson’s Disease

The turnover of monoamine neurotransmitters in brain should, in theory, be associated with an increased flux of hydrogen peroxide. The H202 arises as a result of the oxidative deamination of the neurotransmitters by monoamine oxidase (MAO).
Mapping Queries to Visualizations: Advanced Database Topics and Practice for Business Intelligence Students

This paper describes a teaching methodology for associating SQL queries with appropriately corresponding data visualizations, along with a software tool for automatically mapping SQL queries to Google’s library of Image and Interactive Charts. The methodology is appropriate for an audience of advanced database students, and in particular for use in business intelligence (BI) classes during coverage of topics such as data visualization, dashboards, scorecards, and business performance management (BPM).
CT Colonography in Preoperative Staging of Colon Cancer: Evaluation of FOxTROT Inclusion Criteria for Neoadjuvant Therapy

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of and interreader agreement for CT colonography (CTC) in the local staging of colon cancer, with emphasis give...
Dashiki Chic: Color-blind Racial Ideology in EDM Festivalgoers’ “Dress Talk”

This article examines how electronic-dance-music (EDM) festival participants construct narratives about dress (clothing, accessories, and other body modifications) to reinforce EDM as a demographic...
A role for Arabidopsis growth-regulating factors 1 and 3 in growth–stress antagonism

Growth-regulating factors (GRFs) belong to a small family of transcription factors that are highly conserved in plants. GRFs regulate many developmental processes and plant responses to biotic and abiotic stimuli. Despite the importance of GRFs, a detailed mechanistic understanding of their regulatory functions is still lacking. In this study, we used ChIP sequencing (ChIP-seq) to identify genome-wide binding sites of Arabidopsis GRF1 and GRF3, and correspondingly their direct downstream target genes. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed that GRF1 and GRF3 regulate the expression of a significant number of the identified direct targets. The target genes unveiled broad regulatory functions of GRF1 and GRF3 in plant growth and development, phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling, and the cell cycle. Our analyses also revealed that clock core genes and genes with stress- and defense-related functions are most predominant among the GRF1- and GRF3-bound targets, providing insights into a possible role for these transcription factors in mediating growth-defense antagonism and integrating environmental stimuli into developmental programs. Additionally, GRF1 and GRF3 target molecular nodes of growth-defense antagonism and modulate the levels of defense- and development-related hormones in opposite directions. Taken together, our results point to GRF1 and GRF3 as potential key determinants of plant fitness under stress conditions.
The greenhouse gas offset potential from seagrass restoration.

Awarding CO2 offset credits may incentivize seagrass restoration projects and help reverse greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global seagrass loss. However, no study has quantified net GHG removal from the atmosphere from a seagrass restoration project, which would require coupled Corg stock and GHG flux enhancement measurements, or determined whether the creditable offset benefit can finance the restoration. We measured all of the necessary GHG accounting parameters in the 7-km2 Zostera marina (eelgrass) meadow in Virginia, U.S.A., part of the largest, most cost-effective meadow restoration to date, to provide the first seagrass offset finance test-of-concept. Restoring seagrass removed 9,600 tCO2 from the atmosphere over 15 years but also enhanced both CH4 and N2O production, releasing 950 tCO2e. Despite tripling the N2O flux to 0.06 g m−2 yr−1 and increasing CH4 8-fold to 0.8 g m−2 yr−1, the meadow now offsets 0.42 tCO2e ha−1 yr−1, which is roughly equivalent to the seagrass sequestration rate for GHG inventory accounting but lower than the rates for temperate and tropical forests. The financial benefit for this highly successful project, $87 K at $10 MtCO2e−1, defrays ~10% of the restoration cost. Managers should also consider seagrass co-benefits, which provide additional incentives for seagrass restoration.
Pathobiology and Reversibility of Prediabetes in a Biracial Cohort (PROP-ABC) Study: design of lifestyle intervention.

Introduction Intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) prevents progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes (T2D) but reversal of prediabetes is less well studied. Research design and methods The overall objectives of the Pathobiology and Reversibility of Prediabetes in a Biracial Cohort (PROP-ABC) Study (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02027571) are to determine the natural history and reversibility of prediabetes. The study tests specific hypotheses on the patterns of progression to prediabetes among normoglycemic African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) offspring of parents with T2D; emergence of microvascular and macrovascular complications during transition from normal to impaired glucose regulation; significance of the ‘metabolically healthy’ obese phenotype; and effect of duration of the prediabetic state on its reversibility with lifestyle intervention. Participants who developed incident prediabetes were offered ILI and evaluated quarterly for 5 years. The primary outcome was restoration of normal glucose regulation (fasting plasma glucose Results Of the 223 subjects enrolled in the PROP-ABC Study, 158 participants with incident prediabetes started ILI. The mean age was 53.3±9.28 years; body mass index 30.6±6.70 kg/m2; 70% were female, 52.4% AA and 47.6% EA. The ILI program used goal setting, weight-based calorie restriction, physical activity (180 min/week), self-monitoring, and meal replacement. Monthly face-to-face (F2F) counseling sessions during the initial 6 months, and quarterly visits thereafter, were supplemented with electronic and postal contacts. Attendance at F2F sessions was highly correlated with weight loss (r=0.98, p Conclusion The PROP-ABC Study has demonstrated the feasibility of executing an ILI program designed to test reversibility of incident prediabetes in a biracial cohort.
Compositional dependence of linear and nonlinear optical response in crystalline hafnium zirconium oxide thin films

Composition dependence of second harmonic generation, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and optical bandgap in 20 nm thick crystalline Hf1−xZrxO2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) thin films is reported. The refractive index exhibits a general increase with increasing ZrO2 content with all values within the range of 1.98–2.14 from 880 nm to 400 nm wavelengths. A composition dependence of the indirect optical bandgap is observed, decreasing from 5.81 eV for HfO2 to 5.17 eV for Hf0.4Zr0.6O2. The bandgap increases for compositions with x > 0.6, reaching 5.31 eV for Hf0.1Zr0.9O2. Second harmonic signals are measured for 880 nm incident light. The magnitude of the second harmonic signal scales with the magnitude of the remanant polarization in the composition series. Film compositions that display near zero remanent polarizations exhibit minimal second harmonic generation while those with maximum remanent polarization also display the largest second harmonic signal. The results are discussed in the context of ferroelectric phase assemblage in the hafnium zirconium oxide films and demonstrate a path toward a silicon-compatible integrated nonlinear optical material.
Erratum and Addendum: “Low-temperature magnetic transition and high temperature oxidation in Inconel alloy 718” [J. Mater. Res. 11, 1133 (1996)]

Temperature (5 K to 370 K) and magnetic field variations of the magnetic susceptibility of Inconel alloy 718 is presented.
The Nasolacrimal System

The nasolacrimal apparatus functions as a secretory and excretory system which provides lubrication to the globe. Injury to the canalicular system is reported to occur in approximately 16% of all eyelid lacerations and can result from both blunt and penetrating trauma (Herzumet al., Ophthalmologe 98:1079–1082, 2001). Repair of these lacerations requires an intimate understanding of the lacrimal system anatomy. Surgery is performed in a relatively urgent manner in order to avoid post-traumatic epiphora.
Abstract 15952: Gut Microbiota and Insulin Resistance in Heart Failure

Introduction/Hypothesis: Insulin resistance (IR) and heart failure (HF) are closely interconnected - IR is a risk factor for HF and can develop as a consequence of chronic HF. Dysregulation of the ...
Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Liver-Related Mortality

Background & Aims The Affordable Care Act provided the opportunity for states to expand Medicaid for low-income individuals. Not all states adopted Medicaid expansion, and the timing of adoption among expansion states varied. Prior studies have shown that Medicaid expansion improved mortality rates for several chronic conditions. Although there are data on the association between Medicaid expansion on insurance type among patients waitlisted for a liver transplant, there are no published data to date on its impact on liver disease-related mortality in the broader population. We therefore sought to evaluate the association between Medicaid expansion and state-level liver disease–related mortality using a quasi-experimental study design. Methods We evaluated age-adjusted, state-level, liver disease–related mortality rates using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. We fit multivariable linear regression models that accounted for sociodemographic, clinical, and access-to-care variables at the state level, and a difference-in-difference estimator to evaluate the association between Medicaid expansion and liver disease–related mortality. Results In multivariable linear regression models, there was a significant association between Medicaid expansion and liver disease–related mortality (P = .02). Medicaid expansion was associated with 8.3 (95% CI, 1.6–15.1) fewer deaths from liver disease per 1,000,000 adult residents per year after Medicaid expansion compared with what would have been expected to occur if those states followed the same trajectory as nonexpansion states. The impact of Medicaid expansion translated to 870 fewer liver-related deaths per year in expansion states (4350 in the postexpansion study period from 2014 to 2018). Conclusions These data support the contention that Medicaid expansion has been associated with significantly decreased liver disease–related mortality. Universal Medicaid expansion could further decrease liver disease–related mortality in the United States.
Continued Counseling for the Relationship Between State-Level Medicine and Public Health.

Introduction Public health and organized medicine have operated somewhat independently of each other since the early 1900s. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of healing any divide between organized medicine and state and local health officials seems self-evident. Using the recommendations abstracted from a 2005 article by Dr. Ronald Davis, “Marriage Counseling for Medicine and Public Health,” this cross-sectional study explores the formal relationships that existed between state-level public health and medical practice across the U.S. at the end of 2019. Methods A questionnaire was distributed to every state's senior public health official and medical society executive (N=104) between August and December 2019 to examine the extent of these entities’ partnerships. Analysis was completed in January 2020. Results Among the respondents, 40%–63.1% (n=65) currently engage in the recommended activities, with 1 exception: state health departments infrequently invite medical society executives to speak at major conferences or meetings (26.2%). The majority of respondents (71.1%–85.9%) judged that each recommended activity would improve the practices of medicine and public health. Conclusions Survey results illustrate a desire for reconciliation, but poor implementation of recommended strategies aimed at building a healthy marriage between the 2 sectors. More formal efforts are needed among state medical and public health organizations to capitalize on the current climate of rapprochement. The burden of COVID-19 on the national health system could provide a worthy cause around which these efforts would coalesce.
15 Going on 26: Tips for Working with Transitional-Age Youth

Psychiatrists are fundamentally interested in where people and their trajectory stories intersect with mental illness. Child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs) and adult psychiatrists may differ in how they conceptualize their patients and their goals. Transitional age youth (TAY), defined here as 15 years through 26 years, may be viewed through the multifaceted prism of ongoing development. Two key theories of development that may be useful to adult psychiatrists include that of Jean Piaget regarding a child’s development of cognitive understanding of the world around them and how they categorize experiences and that of Erik Erikson who proposed a theory of psychosocial developmental tasks humans face as they mature. It is crucial that adult psychiatrists consider a TAY’s chronologic age and consider what cognitive stage they have achieved. Medical decision-making today requires an ability to comprehend and manipulate large quantities of information and options. Clinicians working with TAY need to make a conscious assessment of the TAY’s decision-making capacity at the time of the evaluation. Adult psychiatrists may be more effective by keeping a developmental perspective in mind along with their usual diagnostic and treatment approaches when working with TAY.
Human Indoor Positioning via Passive Spectrum Monitoring

With the advancement of navigation technologies, indoor localization has become an essential function in our daily life. However, the existing methods of human indoor positioning are mainly based on active sensing or labeling techniques, so the application of indoor localization is restricted by utilizing these current approaches. For example, when the location of the signal transmitter is unknown, or the target does not carry a tag, it is challenging to recognize the position of the target. Therefore, it is important to design a suitable approach to achieve indoor positioning. This paper proposes a new approach, which uses passive radio frequency signals to accurately locate the human subject indoor. Since human occupancy can alter the passive spectrum, and human at different locations can generate different signatures on the spectrum, these spectrum characteristics can be utilized to achieve human positioning. Cognitive radio is applied to collect passive radio frequency (RF) signals in the frequency bands that are sensitive to human occupancy. Two machine learning algorithms are used to achieve indoor positioning. A decision tree is used to classify a human subject's position on a grid. The result of classification can verify that human occupying different indoor locations can generate different RF signatures on the passive spectrum. Then Gaussian process regression is employed to estimate the coordinates of the human subject. This process provides a higher resolution of indoor localization than the decision tree algorithm. The experiments show a positioning error as low as 0.8m among all tested scenarios.
Multimodal traffic safety concerns in a university population

Abstract Travelers have different concerns about traffic safety, which may affect their transportation choices and risk-taking behaviors as well as the overall safety performance of multimodal transportation systems. The objective of this study was to examine factors associated with stated concerns surrounding traffic safety among travelers using multiple transport modes. The analysis used data from an online questionnaire survey completed by over 2,000 students and employees at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, US. Four latent variables—concerns about pedestrians and cyclists, auto drivers, modal interactions, and roadway conditions—were confirmed using factor analysis from 16 questions about traffic safety concerns. These four types of safety concerns were then analyzed to understand their associations with mode choice, commuting behavior, and socio-demographics using a structural equation model. Results showed that safety concern varied systematically among different mode users and demographic groups. Auto drivers perceived interactions with pedestrians and cyclists as concerning, while non-auto users felt more concerned by automobile traffic. Commuters who were recently involved in a crash were especially concerned with non-motorized modes. Women, lower-income, and non-white road users were more concerned with traffic safety overall. Findings about multimodal traffic safety concerns provide insights into people’s perceptions, which can be useful in developing designs, plans, and policies for making a safer transportation system for all road users.
How We Do It: Otolaryngology Applicant Impressions of Virtual Meet and Greets at a Single Institution.

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic altered residency recruitment in the 2021 application cycle. As a result, many programs adapted by creating virtual opportunities to connect with applicants such as clerkships, open houses, meet and greets, and interviews. Recent research has explored applicant impressions on virtual interviews and open houses, but none have assessed the utility of meet and greets, optimal structure, or desired topics to be addressed. METHODS We hosted two virtual meet and greets for otolaryngology applicants and subsequently conducted a structured survey to assess the benefit, gather insight into desired topics, and determine how future sessions could be optimized. RESULTS Twenty of 65 participants responded to the survey (31% response rate). The majority of participants learned about the event through social media (n = 15) or online resources such as OtoMatch or HeadMirror (n = 12). Desired topics to be addressed included faculty-resident relationships (85%), research (80%), the city of Madison (75%), breadth and depth of faculty (75%), and ability to train residents for future positions and fellowships (75%), among others. Overall, participants found the events helpful in conveying the culture and environment, exposure to faculty and residents, addressing questions, and providing insight into intangible aspects of the program. The main area of improvement identified was related to having breakout rooms, longer sessions, and varying the topics for breakout rooms. CONCLUSION Virtual meet and greets facilitate outreach and provide opportunities for applicants to engage with residency programs and demonstrate interest. While initially implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they will likely remain helpful in generating interest, reaching broader audiences, and possibly facilitating a successful match. It is critical to understand and incorporate the content that applicants wish to learn about at virtual meet and greets to best address questions, highlight key features, and demonstrate the intangible aspects of a residency program.
An Overview of Agriculture Cyberinformatics Tools to Support USDA NASS Decision Making

Cyberinformatics tools have been extensively applied to aid decision support in agriculture. This paper presents an overview of cyberinformatics tools to support decision making for the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). We review three web-based applications: CropScape, VegScape, and Crop-CASMA. Specifically, we summarize the data products of the three tools, including Cropland Data Layer (CDL) products, vegetation index products based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrora-diometer (MODIS) data, and soil moisture products derived from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data. Also, we compare the geoprocessing capability and web service support of these tools. Meanwhile, two use cases and applications are presented to demonstrate the capability of supporting USDA NASS decision making with the cyberinformatics tools.
Borderlands of the local state

Abstract Research on borderlands and border landscapes has concentrated heavily on those associated with international boundaries and has given scant attention to ones between local-state units. Many of the processes at work in the former, however, may also operate at the local scale. A review of the literature on international borderlands identifies models of a number of such processes. An examination of published studies suggests that they can indeed manifest themselves at the local or municipal level as well, and that whether they do or do not depends heavily on historical and geographical context. Both conclusions are supported by a case study of a medium-sized American industrial city, Worcester, Massachusetts, and its environs during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
A power-aware GALS architecture for real-time algorithm-specific tasks

We propose an adaptive scalable architecture suitable for performing real-time algorithm-specific tasks. The architecture is based on the globally asynchronous and locally synchronous (GALS) design paradigm. We demonstrate that for different real-time commercial applications with algorithm-specific jobs like online transaction processing, Fourier transform etc., the proposed architecture allows dynamic load-balancing and adaptive inter-task voltage scaling. The architecture can also detect process-shifts for the individual processing units and determine their appropriate operating conditions. Simulation results for two representative applications show that for a random job distribution, we obtain up to 67% improvement in MOPS/W (millions of operations per second per watt) over a fully synchronous implementation.
Abstract 1727: Development of novel TAK1 inhibitors for pancreatic cancer

Transforming growth factor- (TGF-) activation kinase (TAK1, MAP3K7) is a member of MAPKKK family [1]. It was well established that TAK1 plays a key role in both TNFα and IL-1 pathway. Knock down of TAK1 impaired the activation of IKK and JNK by TNFα and IL-1 [2, 3]. NF-B activation induced by TNFα and IL-1 are severely impaired in TAK1 knock out MEF cells [4]. TAK1 acts as the kinase of IKK and therefore regulates NF-κB activation. Our previous work has demonstrated that TAK1 is upregulated and plays an important role in chemotherapeutic drug resistance in pancreatic cancer cells. Block TAK1 activity can reverse pancreatic cancer cell resistance to chemotherapeutic drug and reduce tumor size in Orthotopic Xenograft models [5]. These findings underscore the significance of TAK1 in mediating drug resistance. Strategies to target TAK1 may play a critical role in the treatment of this deadly malignancy. Utilizing computational-based structural modeling and a recently published crystal structure of TAK1, compounds were designed to inhibit the ATP-binding pocket of the TAK1. Synthetic templates were proposed for building a urea based library of potential inhibitors. A multiple stage docking involving both pre- and post-filtering and progressively more stringent docking criteria led to approximately 1,000 structures. The resulting scores from two docking programs were fed into workflow software that combined the results and calculated ADME properties. To provide better consistency in scoring and less bias in setting the filtering cutoffs, we also included docking decoys and utilized a more statistically relevant Z-score. After application of a final binding mode filter, there were 22 structures that were selected and ranked. A seven-step synthesis was developed and a focused library of compounds was synthesized from those top-ranked compounds. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Paul J. Chiao, Zhuonan Zhuang, Qianghua Xia, Paul T. Schuber, Duoli Sun, Zhenghong Peng, David S. Maxwell, William G. Bornmann. Development of novel TAK1 inhibitors for pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1727. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1727
Community member and faith leader perspectives on the process of building trusting relationships between communities and researchers

In the first phase of this research, we conducted, audio-recorded, and transcribed seven focus groups with more than 50 English- or Spanish-speaking women of childbearing age. Qualitative analysis revealed the following themes: (1) expectation that participation would involve relationships based on trust that is built over time and impacted by cultural factors; (2) perceived characteristics of research staff that would help facilitate the development of trusting relationships; (3) perceptions about the location of the visits that may affect trust; (4) perceptions of a research study and trust for the institution conducting the study may affect trust; (5) connecting the study to larger communities, including faith communities, could affect trust and willingness to participate. In the second phase of this research, we conducted, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interviews with leaders from diverse faith communities to explore the potential for research partnerships between researchers and faith communities. In addition to confirming themes identified in focus groups, faith leaders described an openness to research partnerships between the university and faith communities and considerations for the formation of these partnerships. Faith leaders noted the importance of finding common ground with researchers, establishing and maintaining trusting relationships, and committing to open, bidirectional communication.
Creating genetic applications for informal science learning in multi-user virtual environments or virtual worlds

At the Cornell Theory Center (CTC), Cornell University's high-performance computing and interdisciplinary research center, we have implemented a 3D multi-user virtual science museum, SciCentr. SciCentr is a virtual world based on Active Worlds client/server technology. Virtual worlds captivate users through touch (keyboard interaction), sound and sight. These virtual environments can be applied to formal and informal science education in areas such as genetics, as well as to language learning and social studies. We present a case study of our experience and attempt to identify some of the advantages of using this technology, design features of our implementation, and experiences we have had in managing the social interaction among educational users. More specifically, we discuss pilot user experiences focused on crop genetics in SciCentr's Plant Breeding Beds and on the related SciFair exhibits, both examples of collaborative experiences in our virtual worlds.
OJ Simpson trial: we are all guilty

In analysing die OJ Simpson case, AARONETTE WHITE criticises the reactions of both white and African Americans. She believes both groups are guilty of reinforcing division and oppression by ignoring the connnections between race, gender and class
Studies on the formation of transfer ribonucleic acid-ribosome complexes. 3. The formation of peptide bonds by ribosomes in the absence of supernatant enzymes.

Abstract Peptide bond formation from aminoacyl transfer RNA and ammonium chloride-washed ribosomes can occur extensively in the absence of supernatant enzymes. More than 50% of the 14C-phenylalanine-tRNA can be converted into oligophenylalanine-tRNA. Although diphenylalanine is the major product, the oligophenylalanine formed consisted of 73, 16, and 9.7% of di-, tri-, and tetraphenylalanine, respectively. Oligophenylalanine synthesis in the absence of supernatant factors (peptide bond synthesis) and amino acid polymerization into long polypeptides in the presence of supernatant (protein synthesis) differ in magnesium and temperature optima and other characteristics. Guanosine triphosphate is not required for the former as it is for the latter; the sulfhydryl inhibitor p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate has little effect on the former while completely abolishing the latter. In addition, an absolute requirement for ammonium or potassium ions was shown for peptide bond synthesis itself. The results suggest that peptide bond synthesis from aminoacyl-tRNA is a property of ribosomes and is not mediated by supernatant protein factors.
Too far ahead of the IT curve

Peachtree Healthcare has major IT infrastructure problems, and CEO Max Berndt is struggling to find the right fix. He can go with a single set of systems and applications that will provide consistency across Peachtree's facilities but may not give doctors enough flexibility. Or he can choose service-oriented architecture (SOA), a modular design that will allow Peachtree to standardize incrementally and selectively but poses certain risks as a newer technology. What should he do? Four experts comment on this fictional case study, authored by John P. Glaser, CIO for Partners HealthCare System. George C. Halvorson, the chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, warns against using untested methodologies such as SOA in a health care environment, where lives are at stake. He says Peachtree's management must clarify its overall IT vision before devising a plan to achieve each of its objectives. Monte Ford, the chief information officer at American Airlines, says Peachtree can gradually replace its old systems with SOA. An incremental approach, he points out, would not only minimize risk but also enhance flexibility and control, and would allow IT to shift priorities along the way. Randy Heffner, a vice president at Forrester Research who focuses on technology architectures for computer-based business systems, thinks SOA's modular approach to business design would best meet Peachtree's need for flexibility. He says that Peachtree's CIO sees SOA as a new product category but should instead view it as a methodology. John A. Kastor, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, questions the goal of standardized care. He argues that it would be difficult to persuade doctors, many of whom are fiercely independent, to follow rigid patterns in their work.
Fetal tendon wound size modulates wound gene expression and subsequent wound phenotype

The fetal response to small tendon injury results in regenerative or scarless healing and is characterized by a markedly diminished cellular inflammatory response, lack of fibroplasia, and restoration of normal tissue architecture. We hypothesized that an increasing fetal tendon wound size would lead to increased wound inflammation and a change from regenerative to reparative healing and scar formation. We created small or large tendon wounds in early gestation fetal sheep and used histology to assess tissue architecture, immunohistochemistry to assess the cellular inflammatory response, ovine-specific gene microarrays, and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to measure the gene expression in response to injury. Small tendon wounds showed a regenerative healing phenotype with orderly deposition of collagen fibers while large tendon wounds showed disorderly collagen deposition consistent with scar formation. Small tendon wounds had few inflammatory cells at 7 and 28 days after injury, whereas the large wounds showed a significant inflammatory cell infiltrate at 7 days that resolved by 28 days. At 3 days, the differential expression of genes involved in the response to injury and inflammation were seen between large and small tendon wounds. By real-time polymerase chain reaction at 7 days, large tendon wounds also had significantly increased expression of interleukin-6, interleukin-8, transforming growth factor-β1, and transforming growth factor-β3, compared with the small wounds. Increasing the fetal tendon wound size results in increased proinflammatory gene expression, inflammatory cell infiltration, and a change from regenerative to reparative healing. This model allows the process of regenerative healing to be examined without the confounding variable of gestational age.
Evaluating the USDA-NRCS pasture condition score system with weighted indicators

The pasture condition score (PCS) system is a monitoring and assessment tool for pastureland in the USA. The original system has been modified to address specific variations in vegetation and soils by assigning weights to the individual indicators to emphasize or de-emphasize particular attributes. We compared the effects of different weighting systems on aggregate PCSs and their distribution among five management recommendation categories. Five regional weighting systems were used to compute aggregate PCSs from a data set of 178 observations of pasture condition indicators measured on 39 farms. Distributions of PCSs from the five systems were compared with those obtained from using the original system. In modifications of the original system, plant vigor was the most heavily weighted indicator, whereas plant residue was the least weighted. The various weighting methods tended to increase aggregate scores compared with nonweighted scores, which resulted in different management recommendations. The median score for the original system was 31 compared with a range of 33 to 36 for the weighted systems. Alterations of the PCS system to include weighted indicators attempt to adjust for different environments and site types and suggest the need for some form of standard reference site or classification to account for differences in site type.
Comment on "negative emotions and acute cardiovascular responses to laboratory challenges"

In their provocative article, Feldman et al. (1) suggest that emotion may not be the primary pathway by which stress affects cardiovascular (CV) functioning. They reanalyze data from several laboratory-based cardiovascular reactivity studies and show that individual changes in CV (systolic blood pressure [SBP] and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate) functioning have a negligible to moderate correlation (between .13 and .34) with individuals' reports of changes in negative emotion (NE). The authors conclude that negative emotions probably "play a small role in physiological responses to acute laboratory stressors" (1). The issue addressed in the article is ~ important one. There is a strong tendency in behavioral medicine research to assume that the physiological effects of stress are cognitively mediated. This assumption is so strong that emotion/mood data are collected primarily as a manipulation check, to verify or document that the laboratory task is indeed stressful, and have only rarely been used to test the assumed mediating role of emotions. Despite my sympathy with the conclusion of their article, I have reservations about the analysis which led to these conclusions. Specifically, the computation of the correlation of change in negative emotion with change in CV functioning I begins by subtracting out of both sets of change scores the respective mean levels of change associated with each task. Tables 2 and 4 of the article show that the tasks (i.e. stressors) were associated with substantial increases in the CV measures, while Tables 3 and 4 show the same for negative emotion. These concurrent increases in both the CV measures and negative emotion are essentially lost in the correlation of change scores. The remainder of this comment will illustrate, conceptually and empirically, the potential problem of ignoring the mean change in both measures. Consider a hypothetical task that was associated with an average increase of 15 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure and an average increase of 1 point on a 4-point negative emotion scale. Further suppose that this was a very finely tuned task and there were no individual differences (i.e. all individuals respond identically) in both the SBP and NE response. In this case, there is no correlation between the change scores. Yet, clearly the task had a large effect on both SBP and NE, and thus SBP and NE must be related to each other. In one sense, the association is perfect: every time NE increases by 1 point, SBP increases by 15 mm Hg. What we cannot disentangle in this example, or most of the others
Occupational airways disease

Abstract Airway disease can be either caused or exacerbated by occupational exposures; early recognition of work-related disease is crucial to achieving a successful outcome for the patient. It has been estimated from population research that 10% of adult asthma presentations (either new cases or exacerbation of existing disease) can be attributed to a work exposure. Work-exacerbated and occupational asthma have different causal pathways and therefore require different management by healthcare professionals as well as by employers. Obtaining a full, precise job history together with careful application of simple but powerful diagnostic investigations are the key processes in distinguishing successfully between the two conditions. Appropriate management may result in cure, although in most cases there is a significant socio-economic cost to the patient. Toxic exposures to workplace respiratory irritants can also result in airway disease; symptoms are generally short lived and self-limiting but can occasionally result in an asthma-like syndrome (‘irritant-induced asthma'). A number of specific occupational exposures have been causally associated with chronic obstructive airways disease (COPD); diagnosis can be complicated due to the long latency period between exposure and clinically evident disease, and confounding by smoking. Other rare, occupationally induced airway diseases such as obliterative bronchiolitis require specialist consideration.
A dynamic method for efficient random mismatch characterization of standard cells

To enable statistical static timing analysis, for each cell in a digital library, a timing model that considers variations must be characterized. In this paper, we propose a dynamic method to accurately and efficiently characterize a cell's delay and output slew as a function of random mismatch variations. Based on a tight error bound for characterization using partial devices, our method sequentially performs simulations based on decreasing importance of devices and stops when the error requirement is met. Results on an industrial 32nm library demonstrate that the proposed method achieves significantly better accuracy-efficiency trade-off compared to other partial finite differencing approaches.
A comparative study on the phosphoglyceric acid cycle in mammalian erythrocytes.

Abstract 1. 1. The activities of the enzymes and intracellular concentrations of substrates and cofactors associated with phosphoglyceric acid metabolism in erythrocytes of nine mammals are reported. 2. 2. In every case 2,3-DPG phosphatase activity was lower than that of the other enzymes measured: glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase, diphosphoglycerate mutase, phosphoglycerate kinase and phosphoglycerate mutase. 3. 3. The red blood cells of man, rabbit, dolphin and pig contain high concentrations of 2,3-DPG and ATP whereas bovine, caprine and feline erythrocytes contain little of either compound. Equine erythrocytes contain large amounts of 2,3-DPG but little ATP. 4. 4. No 2,3-DPG and only very small amounts of diphosphoglyceric acid mutase was detected in the erythrocytes of the goat.
Self-Induced Transparency in Acoustic Paramagnetic Resonance

Experiments on the propagation of microwave ultrasonic pulses through a resonant absorber are described. The principal features of self-induced transparency as described by McCall and Hahn for light pulses are observed. Quantitative measurements of pulse delay, output pulse width, energy, and area are in fair agreement with a calculation by Hopf which accounts approximately for the effect of the single reflection present in most of the experiments. Multiply reflected pulses exhibited linearly cumulative delay times, indicating constant reduced velocity during successive traversals through the absorber. Coherence-induced pulse breakup is shown to be a possible explanation of the pulse distortion and modulation observed in acoustic-paramagnetic-resonance experiments on ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{2+}$.