cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Vibrational Response of FeNi3 Nanoparticles to the Flux of a Modulated Electromagnetic Field Detected by Contact-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy

A hybrid imaging mode was developed for characterizing samples of magnetic FeNi3 nanoparticles, which combines contact-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) with magnetic modulation of samples. For conventional magnetic imaging modes of AFM, magnetically coated tips are used directly as a sensor to measure the relatively long-range forces of magnetic samples in a noncontact configuration. For the magnetic sample modulation (MSM) configuration, however, the changes in sample dynamics form the basis for measurements of material properties using contact-mode AFM. Nanoparticles are driven to vibrate in response to an externally applied electromagnetic field, and a nonmagnetic tip is used as a motion sensor for directly mapping the vibration with contact-mode. Intermetallic nanoparticles of FeNi3 were used as a model nanomaterial, synthesized by either conventional oven heating or microwave preparation. By slowly scanning an AFM probe across vibrating nanoparticles, changes in the frequency and amplitude of the s...
Sibling eating behaviours and parental feeding practices with siblings: similar or different?

Objective Little is known about whether siblings have similar or different eating behaviours or whether parents tailor their feeding practices to different siblings. The main objectives of the present study were to examine similarities and differences in child eating behaviours and parental feeding practices with siblings and to determine whether child eating behaviours and parental feeding practices differ depending on sibling concordant (i.e. both siblings overweight or healthy weight) or discordant (i.e. one sibling overweight and one sibling healthy weight) weight status. Design Cross-sectional, mixed-methods study. Setting In-home visits were conducted by research staff. Surveys were conducted with parents and anthropometry was collected on parents and siblings. Subjects Children (n 88) aged 6–12 years (mean age 9 (sd 2) years), their parents (mean age 34 (sd 7) years) and near-age siblings (mean age 9 (sd 4) years) from diverse racial/ethnic and low-income households participated. Results Results indicated that siblings with higher BMI engaged in higher levels of emotional eating compared with siblings with lower BMI. Additionally, results indicated that when families had sibling dyads discordant on weight status, the sibling who was overweight had higher food enjoyment and lower levels of food satiety. Additionally, within siblings with discordant weight status, parents were more likely to use restrictive feeding practices with the overweight sibling and pressure-to-eat and encouragement-to-eat feeding practices with the healthy-weight sibling. Conclusions Family-based childhood obesity interventions may need to assess for sibling weight status when researching the home environment and intervene with parents to avoid using restriction or pressure-to-eat feeding practices when siblings are discordant on weight status.
Causes of dyspnea during thyroid operation and the corresponding treatment measures

Objective: To analyze the causes of dyspnea during thyroid operation and summarize the corresponding treatment measures. Methods: 332 patients,who underwent thyroid operation in our hospital from August,2003 to August,2013,were retrospectively analyzed,and the causes of dyspnea and the corresponding treatment measures during perioperation were summarized in 10 cases. Results: 9 patients had the symptom of dyspnoea and 1 patient had the symptom of asphyxia during perioperation. They were treated by oxygen inhalation,atomization inhalation,endotracheal intubation,tracheotomy and hematoma removal respectively based on the different causes. All the 10 patients recovered well. Conclusion:It is very important to understand and judge the causes of dyspnoea during thyroid operation and treat them properly in time. If timely and exact judgment can not be made or dyspnoea can not be obviously relieved,indications of tracheotomy should be properly broadened to make the patients' airways function smoothly first of all.
Modeling and Symbolic Analysis of Biological Protein Signaling Networks Using Hybrid Automata

This dissertation proposes a hybrid automata framework for modeling two intercellular protein signaling pathways active during development: the lateral inhibitory Delta-Notch pathway responsible for pattern formation in the skin of Xenopus laevis, and the Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster wings. A fundamental objective of this work is to analytically compute constraints on the kinetic parameters of the model, for biologically interesting steady states to exist. The constraints are computed symbolically, without numerically instantiating the parameters, which is an advantage in modeling biological processes, where exact numerical parameters cannot often be identified from experimental data. Another key objective is the computation of initial protein concentrations that lead to a particular steady state. This is posed as a backward reachable set computation problem. An abstraction procedure is presented that converts the hybrid automaton into a discrete transition system, on which reachability is computed. The large size of the computed reachable sets make it difficult to directly interpret them in a biologically meaningful way. A query algorithm is developed that can test whether a particular protein distribution is guaranteed to converge to a specific steady state. Both the reachability and the query algorithm are demonstrated for the Delta-Notch hybrid model. The dissertation concludes with a description of the implementation of the analysis tools on a publicly available systems biology software platform known as Bio-SPICE; and a further example, lactose metabolism inside a cell, is analyzed.
A refined analysis for the sample complexity of adaptive compressive outlier sensing

The Adaptive Compressive Outlier Sensing (ACOS) method, proposed recently in (Li & Haupt, 2015), is a randomized sequential sampling and inference method designed to locate column outliers in large, otherwise low rank, matrices. While the original ACOS established conditions on the sample complexity (i.e., the number of scalar linear measurements) sufficient to enable accurate outlier localization (with high probability), the guarantees required a minimum sample complexity that grew linearly (albeit slowly) in the number of matrix columns. This work presents a refined analysis of the sampling complexity of ACOS that overcomes this limitation; we show that the sample complexity of ACOS is sublinear in both of the matrix dimensions — on the order of the squared rank of the low-rank component plus the number of outliers, times constant and logarithmic factors.
A MAGNETOPLASMADYNAMIC POWER GENERATION EXPERIMENT

Progress on the construction and commissioning of a closed-cycle magnetoplasmadynamic power generation experiment is described. The facility is designed to provide a continuous flow of purified helium-cesium (or alternative composition) plasma. The first stage in the associated experimental programme is centred on a constant area tranverse magnetic field generator duct, although it is planned to substitute generator sections with other flow-field configurations at a later stage in the experimental programme. Emphasis will be placed upon gaining an understanding of the physical processes involved in the extraction of electrical energy through the interaction of a flowing plasma with a magnetic field, enabling an assessment to be made of the feasibility and utility of magnetoplasmadynamic electrical power generation.
Comparative Basicranial Anatomy of Extant Terrestrial and Semiaquatic Artiodactyla

ABSTRACT Comparative data from the ear region has played an important role in recent combined-data phylogenetic analyses of the relationships of living and extinct Artiodactyla and the position of that clade among Euungulata. These studies have also been important for establishing the phylogenetic position of Cetacea and for understanding the relationships of a diversity of euungulate species to their fossil relatives. Detailed and standardized descriptive reference works of the basicranium for a range of living artiodactylans are not, however, readily available. Here I describe exemplar species from the four major extant terrestrial and semiaquatic artiodactylan clades (Hippopotamidae, Ruminantia, Suina, and Camelidae) and illustrate the anatomy of the ear region with the auditory bulla both in place and removed. Terrestrial artiodactyls exhibit varying degrees of expansion of the bony external acoustic meatus laterally relative to the mediolateral dimensions of the rounded, medial aspect of the auditory...
High frequency InAs-channel HEMTs for low power ICs

InAs-channel HEMTs with improved breakdown characteristics were realized by using AlInAs barriers for enhanced hole confinement. A performance of f/sub t/>300 GHz at V/sub ds/ = 0.7 V has been achieved for depletion mode devices. As an important step towards enhancement mode operation, we fabricated devices with charge compensation by p-type doping. Devices with V,= -0.35 V and f/sub t/= 20 GHz were realized. These results, in conjunction with the sub-micron device development, show promise for a low-power highspeed IC technology.
Pilot of integrated, colocated neurology in a primary care medical home.

RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES Novel health care delivery models are needed to reduce health care use while delivering effective and safe care. We developed a model of a neurologist integrated and colocated in primary care leveraging "curbside," electronic, and traditional consultations. Our objective was to examine the impact on health care resource use of diagnostic testing and referrals for face-to-face neurological consultation and adverse outcomes associated with electronic and curbside consultations. METHODS Consecutive patients from December 1, 2014, to March 13, 2015, were included in the analysis about whom contact was made between a primary care clinician and a colocated neurologist. RESULTS Over 3.5 months of the pilot, 359 unique patients generated 429 consultations (179 curbsides, 68 electronic consultations, and 182 face-to-face visits). The integrated model resulted in avoidance of 78 face-to-face tertiary neurology consultations, 39 brain magnetic resonance imaging, 50 electromyograms, and 53 other advanced imaging studies. Earlier curbside consultation may have prevented unnecessary testing or face-to-face tertiary neurology consultations in 40 (22%) patients. Earlier face-to-face consultation may have avoided expensive testing in 31 (17%) patients. No cases met criteria for an adverse outcome. The number of referrals to tertiary neurology declined by 64%, and the total number of face-to-face visits per month declined by 25%. CONCLUSION Colocated neurology in a primary care medical home offers a promising intervention to deliver high-value care.
Proteomic analysis of the developing intracytoplasmic membrane in Rhodobacter sphaeroides during adaptation to low light intensity.

Although the primary photochemical events in the facultative photoheterotrophic purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides are now well understood, comparatively little is known about how their photosynthetic apparatus is assembled. Here we present a proteomic analysis of the intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM) assembly process during adaptation to lowered light intensity, in which the size of the photosynthetic units is greatly expanded by addition of the light-harvesting 2 (LH2) peripheral antenna complex. When the isolated ICM-derived chromatophore vesicles were subjected to clear native gel electrophoresis (CNE), four pigmented bands appeared; the top and bottom bands contained the reaction center – light-harvesting 1 (RC–LH1) core complex and LH2 peripheral antenna, respectively, while the two bands of intermediate migration contained associations of the LH2 and core complexes. Proteomic analysis revealed a large array of other proteins associated with the CNE gel bands – in particular, several F1FO-ATP synthase subunits gave unexpectedly high spectral counts, given the inability to detect this coupling factor, as well as the more abundant cytochrome bc 1 complex, by atomic force microscopy. Significant levels of general membrane assembly factors were also found, as well as numerous proteins of unknown function including high counts for RSP6124 that were correlated with LH2 levels. When combined with further AFM and spectroscopic studies, these proteomic approaches are expected to provide a much-improved understanding of the overall assembly process.
Patterns of resistance in organisms causing gynecologic infections.

Infections in the female genital tract arise from a variety of sources. In pregnant women, infections tend to occur at parturition—especially after cesarean section. In the non-pregnant adult, some of these infections are spontaneous or the sequela of sexually transmitted disease. Others are related to anatomical problems with the genitals or to surgical processes. Variations in the distribution and susceptibility patterns of community or hospital acquired infections have led to changes in the use of antimicrobials for ambulatory and hospitalized patients. We report on the susceptibility to a number of antibiotics of a variety of organisms isolated from endocervical or deeper cultures of women with acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) or endomyometritis. We also review the information regarding trends in antimicrobial susceptibility for bacteria involved with female genital infections.
The glycosylation pathway is required for the secretion of Slit and for the maintenance of the Slit receptor Robo on axons

Slit proteins act as repulsive axon guidance cues by activating receptors of the Roundabout (Robo) family. During early neurogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster, Slit prevents the growth cones of longitudinal tract neurons from inappropriately crossing the midline, thus restricting these cells to trajectories parallel to the midline. Slit is expressed in midline glial cells, and Robo is present in longitudinal axon tracts and growth cones. We showed that the enzyme Mummy (Mmy) controlled Slit-Robo signaling through mechanisms that affected both the ligand and the receptor. Mmy was required for the glycosylation of Slit, which was essential for Slit secretion. Mmy was also required for maintaining the abundance and spatial distribution of Robo through an indirect mechanism that was independent of Slit secretion. Moreover, secretion of Slit was required to maintain the fasciculation and position of longitudinal axon tracts, thus maintaining the hardwiring of the nervous system. Thus, Mmy is required for Slit secretion and for maintaining Robo abundance and distribution in the developing nervous system in Drosophila.
Shock-Enhanced Immobility Reactions in Chickens: Support for the Fear Hypothesis

Six week old domestic chickens were either given electric shock or no shock prior to manual restraint. Animals receiving pre-induction shock remained immobile appreciably longer than Ss given no shock. Results were interpreted as supporting the notion that fear is what underlies hypnotic or immobility reactions in animals.
Timing of valproic acid in acute lung injury: prevention is the best therapy?

Abstract Background Acute lung injury and respiratory distress syndrome is characterized by uncontrolled inflammation of the lungs after a severe inflammatory stimulus. We have previously demonstrated an ameliorated syndrome and improved survival in mice with early administration of valproic acid (VPA), a broad-spectrum histone deacetylase inhibitor, while studies in humans have shown no benefit when anti-inflammatories are administered late. The current study tested the hypothesis that early treatment would improve outcomes in our gram-negative pneumonia-induced acute lung injury. Materials and methods Mice (C57BL/6) had 50 × 10 6 Escherichia coli (strain 19,138) instilled endotracheally and VPA (250 mg/kg) administered intraperitoneally 3, 4, 6, and 9 h ( n = 12/group) later. Six hours after VPA administration, the animals were sacrificed, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor, neutrophils and macrophages as well as the E coli colony-forming units were quantified. Plasma IL-6 was also measured. A separate group of mice ( n = 12/group) were followed prospectively for 7 days to assess survival. Results BAL IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor as well as plasma IL-6 were significantly lower in the animals administered VPA within 3 h ( P E coli colony-forming units, macrophage, or neutrophil numbers at any time point. Survival improved only when VPA was administered within 3 h. Conclusions A narrow therapeutic window exists in this murine model of gram-negative pneumonia-induced acute lung injury and likely explains the lack of response in studies with late administration of anti-inflammatory therapies in clinical studies.
Prenatal Diagnostic Testing for Genetic Disorders

Antenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders requires the acquisition of fetal or placental tissue. Invasive procedures are indicated if a fetus is at increased risk for a genetic condition. Risk factors include advanced maternal age, known parental genetic conditions, abnormal aneuploidy screening, soft markers for aneuploidy on ultrasound, and fetal growth restriction [1].
Finding common ground: exploring synergies between degrowth and environmental justice in Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract In this article I explore potential synergies between degrowth and environmental justice movements, with a focus on their shared goal of inclusivity. I turn to the case of the contentious San Cristobal-Palenque highway project in Mexico's southernmost state, Chiapas, and highlight the ability of such intersections to speak to the concerns of protesters of the initiative. Since the mid-1990s, critics of market-based development in Chiapas have provided a sustained critique of the Mexican government's growth-oriented development agenda and related conditions of poverty and inequality in the state. These critics mobilized in 2009 and 2014 to protest the construction of a mega-highway designed to enhance agribusiness and tourism in the region. This opposition finds many points of overlap with perspectives of degrowth proponents in its critique of growthbased development, and yet is rooted in a unique socio-political and historical context. Given the situated nature of this opposition, I argue that a synergistic approach that takes into account the thinking of degrowth proponents and environmental justice advocates is needed, to address the concerns of highway protesters in Chiapas whose critiques of a growth society emerged from its negative effects to which they are disproportionately exposed. Key Words: Degrowth, environmental justice, contestation, Mexico
Safety evaluation of algorithms for local excitation with a transmit array considering thermoregulatory responses

In this paper we evaluate the safety (maximum local SAR and temperature) of three different algorithms to drive the currents of a transmit array: 1) the birdcage coil algorithm; 2) the phase-only optimization algorithm; 3) the phase and amplitude optimization algorithm. The last two algorithms are evaluated when optimizing the transmit efficiency of RF fields in two different locations, one close to the center, and one close to the extremities of a human body subject. All the fields were normalized so that the whole-body average SAR is equal to 2W/kg, and temperature simulations were computed for a continuous exposure 1 hour long.
Suffering from buffering? Detecting QoE impairments in live video streams

Fueled by increasing network bandwidth and decreasing costs, the popularity of over-the-top large-scale live video streaming has dramatically increased over the last few years. In this paper, we present a measurement study of adaptive bitrate video streaming for a large-scale live event. Using server-side logs from a commercial content delivery network, we study live video delivery for the annual Academy Awards event that was streamed by hundreds of thousands of viewers in the United States. We analyze the relationship between Quality-of-Experience (QoE) and user engagement. We first study the impact of buffering, average bitrate, and bitrate fluctuations on user engagement. To account for interdependencies among QoE metrics and other confounding factors, we use quasi-experiments to quantify the causal impact of different QoE metrics on user engagement. We further design and implement a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based technique to detect live video QoE impairments in real-time. We then use Hampel filters to detect QoE impairments and report 92% accuracy with 20% improvement in true positive rate as compared to baselines. Our approach allows content providers to detect and mitigate QoE impairments on the fly instead of relying on post-hoc analysis.
Endothelium-Derived Vasoactive Factors, Platelets and Coronary Disease

Endothelial cells can release both relaxing and contracting substances. The former include prostacyclin, endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF, which most likely is nitric oxide, or a nitrosoderivative releasing nitric oxide, derived from 1-arginine), and endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF, which possibly is a labile metabolite of arachidonic acid formed through the P-450 pathway). Possible endothelium-derived contracting factors (EDCF) include superoxide anions, thrombox-ane A2, and the peptide endothelin. Endothelium-derived relaxing factor causes relaxation of vascular smooth muscle by activation of the soluble form of guanylate cyclase, which leads to an accumulation of cyclic GMP; it also reduces platelet adhesion and aggregation. The latter effect is synergistic with the inhibition evoked by prostacyclin. The release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor and prostacyclin plays a key role in the protective role of the endothelium against vasospasm and unwanted coagulation of blood. Indeed, thrombin and aggregating platelets are potent stimuli for the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor. The platelet products responsible are the adenine nucleotides, ADP and ATP, which activate P2-purinegic receptors on the endothelial cells, and 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) which stimulates 5HT1-like serotonergic receptors. The response to serotonin, but not to the adenine nucleotides, is mediated by a pertussis toxin-sensitive mechanism. When endothelial cells regenerate, or are cultured, they selectively lose the pertussis toxin-sensitive mechanism of release, which results in a marked decrease in sensitivity to exogenous and platelet-released serotonin. As a consequence, the endothelial cells exhibit a considerably reduced response to aggregating platelets. This phenomemon, which can be exacerbated by hypercholesterolemia, favors ongoing platelet aggregation and vasospasm, and constitutes a first step toward atheroscerosis.
Recognizing, Detecting and Understandingthe Development of Lipid Oxidation Off-Flavorsin Foods and Beverages

The majority of customer off-flavor complaints about food and beverage products are probably related to lipid oxidation products (aldehydes, ketones, etc.).
Drug–Nutrient Interactions

Drug–nutrient interactions (DNIs) are on the increase in older adults due to high prevalence of polypharmacy, which presents an opportunity for drug interactions with nutrients. The impact and burden of DNIs in older adults are many, including morbidity, hospitalizations, and mortality. DNIs are contributary to adverse drug events. DNIs occur among a wide range of therapeutic classes. The risk factors contributing to DNIs, types of interactions, consequences, and examples of commonly used medications and herbal preparations and their interactions with nutrients are presented. Awareness of DNIs and proper drug selection offers opportunity for diagnosis and prevention.
VU6007477, a Novel M1 PAM Based on a Pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine Carboxamide Core Devoid of Cholinergic Adverse Events.

Herein, we report the chemical optimization of a new series of M1 positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) based on a novel pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine core, developed via scaffold hopping and iterative parallel synthesis. The vast majority of analogs in this series proved to display robust cholinergic seizure activity. However, by removal of the secondary hydroxyl group, VU6007477 resulted with good rat M1 PAM potency (EC50 = 230 nM, 93% ACh max), minimal M1 agonist activity (agonist EC50 > 10 μM), good CNS penetration (rat brain/plasma Kp = 0.28, Kp,uu = 0.32; mouse Kp = 0.16, Kp,uu = 0.18), and no cholinergic adverse events (AEs, e.g., seizures). This work demonstrates that within a chemical series prone to robust M1 ago-PAM activity, SAR can result, which affords pure M1 PAMs, devoid of cholinergic toxicity/seizure liability.
Place, food practices, and scientific knowledge

This commentary seeks to extend the discussion on place, food practices, and ancestral scientific knowledge presented in Silvia Lizette Ramos de Robles’, Maria Guadalupe Garibay-Chavez’, and Arturo Curiel-Ballesteros’ article, in which the authors conceive of place as defined by the local practices related to the production and consumption of food, and consider within this lens the ways in which Mexican cultural practices surrounding the preparation of local indigenous vegetation for sustenance led to the development of scientific knowledge borne out of centuries of practical application. As someone outside of Mexican culture, I look to understand their arguments through my own cultural lenses and consider the importance of preserving ancestral scientific knowledge for the benefit of humanity’s cultural heritage as a means of combatting the commercial forces of globalization.
The functional organization of the primate superior colliculus: A motor perspective

Publisher Summary The deeper layers of the superior colliculus (SC) are a site where visual, auditory, and somatosensory signals converge and an area that contains neurons with motor properties. Based upon such observation, many investigators have suggested that the SC may be a brain region where signals from various sensory modalities are translated into common motor commands; commands for orienting the eyes, head, and pinnae toward the source of significant or novel environmental stimuli. Results of several recent experiments can best be explained by assuming that the SC is organized in motor coordinates. Motor error is encoded anatomically; it is the site of activity within the colliculus, not discharge frequency that specifies saccade direction and amplitude. This command format imposes constraints upon the configuration of signals that can initiate saccades and determines the required transformations of sensory signals. This chapter explains what is known about the motor signals found in the SC, and based upon this information, discusses the transformations of sensory signals that are required for a sensory/ motor interface.
Inhibition of Escherichia coli trimethylamine-N-oxide reductase by food preservatives

Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMA-O) reductase activity of resting cells of Escherichia coli was inhibited by tetrasodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (Na4EDTA), benzoic acid (BA and methylparaben (MP). The 50% inhibitory concentrations of Na4EDTA, BA and MP were 20.2, 1.2 and 32.4 mM, respectively. BA at pH 6.5 or below most effectively inhibited the TMA-O reductase. Sorbic acid (SA), up to 0.70 mM, had no effect on TMA-O reductase activity, but SA inhibited the growth and subsequent TMA production in E. coli at or above 0.3S mM.
Cost-sharing and the Cost-effectiveness of Grants and Loan Subsidies to Higher Education

In 1985, I was granted a three-month sabbatical: a reward for having survived five financially challenging and sometimes stressful years as president of the largest comprehensive college in the State University of New York system. More than a little of the stress had stemmed from my incessant sparring with the governor and the New York State Legislature over whether tuition fees—then approximately 15 percent of the underlying costs of instruction, but generously means-tested so that low income families were spared virtually any out-of pocket tuition-related expenses—should rise as our underlying institutional costs rose. The source of our rising per-student costs, as is the case in higher educational institutions everywhere, was almost entirely due to increases in faculty and staff compensation, which in the State University of New York was negotiated exclusively by the governor of the state rather than by the presidents of the system’s colleges and universities or even by our State University of New York system trustees. But the governor-in this instance supported politically by most of the New York State Legislature--refused to countenance even the modest increase that would have maintained our already low (by US standards) tuition fees at a constant percentage share of these increasing costs (for which the governor, in effect, was mainly responsible). Furthermore, neither the governor nor the state legislature had any intention of increasing the state taxpayer’s contribution by enough even to maintain the state’s current “share” of these underlying cost increases--much less by enough to make up for that part of the parent/student share that was now missing due to their refusal to increase tuition fees.
Infant Music Development and Music Experiences: A Literature Review:

Each infant is born with music potential, and early exposure to music and social music interactions may positively affect music development. Researchers have found that infants perceive music, atte...
Anti‐N‐Methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor encephalitis masquerading as fever of unknown origin

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) is a diagnostic challenge. Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis should be considered in children with FUO and new-onset neurological symptoms without significant encephalopathy.
Can Shorter Mothers Have Taller Children? Nutritional Mobility, Health Equity and the Inter-Generational Transmission of Relative Height

This study develops the concept of nutritional mobility, defined here as the probability that a mother ranked low in her cohort’s height distribution will have a child who attains a higher rank order. We demonstrate that rank-order regression provides a robust metric of health equity, revealing differences in opportunities for each child to reach their own growth potential. We estimate four indicators of nutritional mobility and test for associations between nutritional mobility and various local economic and environmental factors. Nutritional mobility has improved over time, and the nutrition environment contributes about 2.86 times as much as a mother’s height to her child’s expected rank in height-for-age. Populations with the least mobility are in Latin America, and the most mobility is in more urbanized areas of Africa and Asia. Rank-order mobility is an important aspect of health equity, offering valuable insight into the role of socio-ecological factors in nutrition improvement across generations.
Sequential predictors for delay-compensating feedback stabilization of bilinear systems with uncertainties

Abstract We construct delay-compensating input-to-state stabilizing feedback controllers for a class of nonlinear control systems that include bilinear systems that have pointwise delays in their inputs. Our new approach for delay compensation does not require constructing or estimating distributed terms in the formulas for the stabilizing control laws. We allow arbitrarily long constant input delays. We illustrate our findings in a power system example.
Trajectories of Democracy in Africa and the Legacies of Democratic Experiments

The end of the Cold War witnessed the largest expansion of democratic liberalization the African continent had experienced since decolonization. However, in spite of such a democratic upsurge, instances of coups, government crises, and institutional stagnation continued to challenge and erode many of the democratic gains made in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. By 2009, only half of the states previously experiencing such openings could still be widely recognized as democratic. Why is it that some purported democratic transitions continued to thrive for more than twenty years after their initial openings, while others appeared to follow an opposite direction, or stagnate somewhere between democracy and authoritarianism? In answering this question, this paper puts forth a theory of regime trajectories to explain why certain countries followed paths of democracy, while others did not. Such an effort contributes to the scholarly analysis of African politics by not only identifying the types of regime trajectories emerging in the post-Cold War period in Africa, but by also explaining how such trajectories came to be associated with each of the twenty-eight countries contained within this study.
A scoping review on disparities in exposure to advertising for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products and implications for advancing a health equity research agenda.

Background Disparities in exposure to and density of tobacco advertising are well established; however, it is still unclear how e-cigarette and heated tobacco product (HTP) advertising vary by age, education, sex, gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status (SES), and/or urban/rural area. Through a scoping review, we sought to identify potential disparities in exposure to e-cigarette and HTP advertising and promotion across populations. Methods In January 2020, a systematic literature search was conducted in five databases: PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The search was updated in October 2020. Articles reporting on exposure to e-cigarette and/or HTP advertising and promotion across age, education, sex, gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, and/or urban/rural areas were included for full-text review (n = 25). Of those, 15 were deemed relevant for data extraction. Results The majority of the studies were from the U.S. (n = 12) and cross-sectional (n = 14). Studies were published between 2014 and 2020 and focused on determining causal relationships that underlie disparities; only one study assessed HTP advertising and promotion. Exposure to e-cigarette and HTP advertising was assessed at the individual-level (e.g., recall seeing ads on television) and at the neighborhood-level (e.g., ad density at the point-of-sale). Studies addressed differences across age (n = 6), education (n = 2), sex (n = 6), gender identity and sexual orientation (n = 3), race/ethnicity (n = 11), SES (n = 5), and urban/rural (n = 2). The following populations were more likely to be exposed to e-cigarette advertising: youth, those with more than a high school diploma, males, sexual and gender minorities, Whites, and urban residents. At the neighborhood-level, e-cigarette advertisements were more prevalent in non-White neighborhoods. Conclusions Exposure to e-cigarette/HTP advertising varies based on sociodemographic characteristics, although the literature is limited especially regarding HTPs. Higher exposure among youth might increase tobacco-related disparities since it can lead to nicotine/tobacco use. Research should incorporate and apply a health equity lens from its inception to obtain data to inform the elimination of those disparities.
Timely Rollback: Specification and Verification

This paper presents a formal description and analysis of a technique for distributed rollback recovery. The setting for this work is a model for data-parallel computation with a notion of virtual time. The technique allows the selective undo of work at particular virtual times. A refinement theorem ensures the consistency of rollbacks.
Cranberry extract promotes anti-inflammatory activity of Lactobacillus plantarum on HT-29 human colon cancer cells (647.35)

Probiotics modulate gastrointestinal inflammation by converting non-digestible dietary nutrients into metabolites for colon epithelial health. Cranberry proanthocyanidins (PACs) can prevent urinary...
Cyclic Forecasting with Recurrent Neural Network

General statistical method such as the Box-Jenkins ARIMA(p,d,q) model have long been applied in forecasting. Statistical methods such as auto-regression has been used as an efficient and accurate way for forecasting in certain applications such as stock-market forecasting. However, one still has to monitor the forecasting system and determine whether to adjust the parameters to reduce forecasting errors when applying auto-regressive method. A recurrent neural network has been designed to make the forecasts of auto-regression. Then the weight adjusting strategies of the recurrent neural network can be used to continuously adjust the parameters based on the forecasting errors. Therefore, we obtain the forecasts efficiently based on auto-regression without having to monitor the forecasting system constantly and adjust the parameters manually. This provides a very effective tool in forecasting monthly cyclic trends in importing and exporting in a harbor.
Sports Fundraising: Dynamic Methods for Schools, Universities and Youth Sport Organizations

Preface Chapter I: Sports Fundraising: Challenges and Prerequisites Chapter II: Fundraising Organization Chapter III: Personal Skill Set Development in Fundraising Chapter IV: Dynamic Fundraising Essentials and Principles Chapter V: Intercollegiate Relationship Cultivation & Stewardship in Fundraising Chapter VI: Youth & Interscholastic Relationship Cultivation & Stewardship Chapter VII: Leveraging points of sale and profit-making for Fundraising success Chapter VIII: Working with diverse constituencies: Cultivation strategies & essential resources Chapter IX: Youth/Interscholastic grantsmanship opportunities & approaches for success Chapter X: The Future of Sports Fundraising: Data-driven methodologies and curriculum development in Higher Education
Prolonging the lifetime of wireless sensor networks via unequal clustering

Organizing wireless sensor networks into clusters enables the efficient utilization of the limited energy resources of the deployed sensor nodes. However, the problem of unbalanced energy consumption exists, and it is tightly bound to the role and to the location of a particular node in the network. If the network is organized into heterogeneous clusters, where some more powerful nodes take on the cluster head role to control network operation, it is important to ensure that energy dissipation of these cluster head nodes is balanced. Oftentimes the network is organized into clusters of equal size, but such equal clustering results in an unequal load on the cluster head nodes. Instead, we propose an unequal clustering size (UCS) model for network organization, which can lead to more uniform energy dissipation among the cluster head nodes, thus increasing network lifetime. Also, we expand this approach to homogeneous sensor networks and show that UCS can lead to more uniform energy dissipation in a homogeneous network as well.
Transcriptional regulation of the human iNOS gene by IL-1beta in endothelial cells.

Vascular endothelium participates in the control of vascular tone and function via the release of nitric oxide (NO) by the endothelial-type NO synthase (eNOS). Inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression in endothelial cells occurs in many clinical conditions following induction by lipopolysaccharide or cytokines and generates large quantities of NO that result in endothelial cell activation and dysfunction. No information exists on the transcriptional regulation of the human iNOS gene (or that of other species) in endothelial cells. We examined the transcriptional regulation of the human iNOS gene by interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in rat pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PVEC) by transient cotransfections of different iNOS-promoter constructs and cDNA of different transcription factors and regulatory proteins. The −1034/+88 bp iNOS promoter was strongly induced by IL-1β, the regulatory elements for such induction being localized downstream of −205 bp. Cotransfection experiments with NF-κB isoforms, IκB isoforms, and IKK mutants suggested that the NF-κB site at −115/−106 bp is important, but not sufficient, for induction of iNOS promoter and that the role of NF-κB is partially independent of its binding site. C/EBP sites within the −205/+88 bp region were shown to be responsible, along with NF-κB site, for induction of iNOS promoter by IL-1β. Overexpression of C/EBPα, C/EBPδ, and liver-enriched activator protein (LAP) activated the promoter, whereas overexpression of liver-enriched inhibitory protein (LIP) strongly suppressed it. C/EBPβ (LAP and LIP isoforms) was constitutively present in PVEC and was induced (~2-fold) by IL-1β, whereas C/EBPδ was not constitutively expressed but was strongly induced by IL-1β. Both C/EBPβ and C/EBPδ participated in DNA-protein complex formation. Both NF-κB and C/EBP pathways are important for the transcriptional regulation of the human iNOS gene by IL-1β in PVEC.
Interferon alfa for patients with clinically apparent cirrhosis due to chronic hepatitis B

Abstract Background: The prognosis of advanced cirrhosis due to chronic hepatitis B is poor, and results of therapies, including liver transplantation, have been unsatisfactory. Little is known about the effectiveness of interferon alfa in patients with cirrhosis. Methods: Between 1984 and 1991, 18 patients with clinically-apparent cirrhosis due to hepatitis B were treated with interferon alfa at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. Results: Six treated patients (33%) had a sustained loss of hepatitis B virus DNA and hepatitis B e antigen (if present initially) and decrease of aminotransferase levels into the normal or near normal range. In follow-up, these 6 patients resolved all symptoms of cirrhosis and are alive and fully active. In contrast, the 12 patients who did not have a sustained loss of hepatitis B virus have had evidence of progressive liver disease, 6 have died and 4 underwent hepatic transplantation. Side effects of interferon were common and included bacterial infections (n = 5) and exacerbations of disease (n = 9). Conclusions: These findings indicate that interferon alfa is effective in selected patients with mildly decompensated cirrhosis due to hepatitis B.
Yes-associated protein in the liver: Regulation of hepatic development, repair, cell fate determination and tumorigenesis

The liver is a vital organ that plays a major role in many bodily functions from protein production and blood clotting to cholesterol, glucose and iron metabolism and nutrition storage. Maintenance of liver homeostasis is critical for these essential bodily functions and disruption of liver homeostasis causes various kinds of liver diseases, some of which have high mortality rate. Recent research advances of the Hippo signalling pathway have revealed its nuclear effector, Yes-associated protein, as an important regulator of liver development, repair, cell fate determination and tumorigenesis. Therefore, a precise control of Yes-associated protein activity is critical for the maintenance of liver homeostasis. This review is going to summarize the discoveries on how the manipulation of Yes-associated protein activity affects liver homeostasis and induces liver diseases and the regulatory mechanisms that determine the Yes-associated protein activity in the liver. Finally, we will discuss the potential of targeting Yes-associated protein as therapeutic strategies in liver diseases.
Allusion as Form: The Waste Land and Moulin Rouge!

Allusion is usually considered a literary technique, but relatively little attention has been paid to the notion of allusion as a literary form. In this essay, I attempt to describe the allusive form based on two prominent examples, T. S. Eliot's Waste Land and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! Though radically different, the two works embody distinguishing characteristics of the allusive form. These are intertextuality, or a dependence upon outside sources for sense and significance; heightened and self-conscious artificiality; a confrontational attitude toward the audience; elitism, based on the exclusivity of allusions; appropriation of multiple cultures; and pervasive anachronism. Though prone to numerous failures, the allusive form allows the creation of a unique dialogue between artist and audience, as well as a precarious simultaneity of past, present, and future.
Observations and stochastic modeling of soil moisture control on evapotranspiration in a Californian oak savanna

[1] The study of water exchange between soil, plants, and the atmosphere in response to seasonal or periodic droughts is critical to modeling the hydrologic cycle and biogeochemical processes in water-controlled ecosystems. An essential step in such studies is to characterize changes in evaporation and transpiration under water stress. The objectives of this study are to investigate how soil moisture controls the evapotranspiration in a Californian oak savanna that experiences seasonal droughts, using multiyear field observations at the daily and stand scale, and to model these controls stochastically. The influence of soil moisture on evapotranspiration at the stand scale is studied using correlations between tower-based evapotranspiration measurements and representative soil moisture obtained by aggregating point measurements. The observed pattern of this effect is found in agreement with an existing model that features a linear reduction of the evapotranspiration when soil moisture falls below a critical value. The model parameters are inferred using a Bayesian framework, and they are found to vary from year to year because of climate variability. The comparison between various aggregations of soil moisture at the stand scale from point measurements demonstrates that the spatial variability of the soil moisture and the water uptake capacity limited by the root biomass need be taken into account to produce a model that is most resistant to interannual variability. Finally, the parameterized model is used to predict the actual evapotranspiration with uncertainty estimates determined using the joint distribution of the parameters derived from the Bayesian framework. The satisfactory agreement between the predicted and measured evapotranspiration suggests that the calibrated model can be incorporated into water balance studies in the future.
Headaches and back pain.

A 39-year-old woman consulted her physician because of headaches and back pain. Physical examination revealed a systolic ejection murmur and decreased pulses in both legs. She had a history of spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. Radiographic and imaging studies are shown below (Figures ​(Figures11–4). Figure 1 Posteroanterior radiograph of the chest shows a localized indentation in the proximal portion of the descending thoracic aorta (arrow). Figure 4 Similar gradient echo image of the aorta demonstrates enlarged internal mammary arteries (arrows) and bridging mediastinal vessels (arrowhead). DIAGNOSIS: Coarctation of the aorta.
Phylogeny of the Carnivoramorpha: The impact of postcranial characters

Previous analyses of the mammalian clade Carnivoramorpha have tended to sample only cranial and dental character systems, particularly those that included early Cenozoic taxa, Viverravidae and basal Carnivoraformes (the latter being a paraphyletic array of taxa traditionally referred to as the ‘Miacidae’). In this study we add more than 100 postcranial characters to an existing dataset dominated by cranio-dental characters. The addition of the new characters permits the inclusion of a large number of basal carnivoraforms, known solely or predominantly from postcranial characters, that previously would have been ‘unplaceable’ in a phylogenetic analysis. The resultant phylogeny recovers most of the same clades identified in previous studies, but resolves some relationships differently within the basal carnivoraforms. A novel (unnamed) monophyletic subclade of the Carnivoraformes is recovered, supported in part by characters from both the prior and new datasets. The inclusion of a substantial suite of postcr...