cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Solution structure of sperm lysin yields novel insights into molecular dynamics of rapid protein evolution.

Protein evolution is driven by the sum of different physiochemical and genetic processes that usually results in strong purifying selection to maintain biochemical functions. However, proteins that are part of systems under arms race dynamics often evolve at unparalleled rates that can produce atypical biochemical properties. In the marine mollusk abalone, lysin and vitelline envelope receptor for lysin (VERL) are a pair of rapidly coevolving proteins that are essential for species-specific interactions between sperm and egg. Despite extensive biochemical characterization of lysin—including crystal structures of multiple orthologs—it was unclear how sites under positive selection may facilitate recognition of VERL. Using a combination of targeted mutagenesis and multidimensional NMR, we present a high-definition solution structure of sperm lysin from red abalone ( Haliotis rufescens ). Unapparent from the crystallography data, multiple NMR-based analyses conducted in solution reveal clustering of the N and C termini to form a nexus of 13 positively selected sites that constitute a VERL binding interface. Evolutionary rate was found to be a significant predictor of backbone flexibility, which may be critical for lysin bioactivity and/or accelerated evolution. Flexible, rapidly evolving segments that constitute the VERL binding interface were also the most distorted regions of the crystal structure relative to what was observed in solution. While lysin has been the subject of extensive biochemical and evolutionary analyses for more than 30 years, this study highlights the enhanced insights gained from applying NMR approaches to rapidly evolving proteins.
Real-Time Sonographic Detection of Vesicoureteral Reflux in Children

Real-time sonography and the principle of contrast sonography were used for evaluation of vesicoureteral reflux in children. Fifty-five kidneys were examined during the filling phase of cystourethrography. Of 15 positive cystograms, with grade II or greater reflux, 13 sonograms were positive. A positive sonogram was defined as visualization of moving microbubbles within the renal collecting system and/or dilatation of the collecting system during the course of bladder filling. This method may prove to be of value in the management of children with vesicoureteral reflux, particularly because sonography provides good visualization of renal size and parenchymal scarring while simultaneously demonstrating reflux.
Renal Subcapsular Rim Sign: New Etiologies and Pathogenesis

Two prior reports have described a cortical rim sign associated with renal infarction from acute renal artery obstruction. This paper adds four additional cases of a thin outer (subcapsular) cortical nephrogram due to renal vein thrombosis (two cases), acute tubular necrosis (one case), and renal artery embolization (one case). An acute vascular compromise from differing etiologic mechanisms appears to be the common denominator of the rim nephrogram. The nephrogram probably represents an intact subcapsular renal cortex (2-4 mm thick) perfused by the perirenal capsular collateral circulation. To date, the rim nephrogram has been visible only on high dose nephrotomography. Its smooth inner margin is sufficiently distinct to differentiate it from the shell nephrogram of severe hydronephrosis.
Social Consequences of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Awareness of the pertinent psychosocial dimensions of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) provides researchers and clinicians with an understanding of factors impinging on their relationships with persons at risk for this disease. These observations are made from the standpoint of the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, a national organization of gay physicians that serves as an advocate in improving health care for gay men and lesbians. Fear and uncertainty in patient care and prognosis as well as loss of confidentiality are among the stresses on gay men with AIDS. Injudicious "expert" pronouncements and sensational stories in the media heighten the fear of persons at risk for the disease as well as the fear and prejudice of the general community. Members of all communities, both heterosexual and gay, scientific and lay, should work together to eliminate social ignorance about AIDS.
Percutaneous Catheter Drainage of Abdominal Abscesses. A Five-Year Experience

We used computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography for detection and localization of intra-abdominal abscesses. On the basis of these images, safe routes for diagnostic aspiration and percutaneous drainage were planned. Over these routes indwelling catheters were inserted to provide immediate decompression, evacuation, and continuous drainage until the abscess resolved. All patients received concomitant intravenous antibiotics. The treatment was used for 71 abscesses in 67 patients. Sixty-one abscesses (86 per cent) were satisfactorily drained. There were 11 complications (15 per cent). Six deaths were attributable to sepsis, three of which (4 per cent) were related to inadequate drainage. There was one recurrence (1 per cent) during a follow-up period ranging from one month to five years (means, 22.3 months). The mean duration of treatment was 20.2 days (range, five to 120 days). We conclude that percutaneous drainage is an effective method for treatment of abdominal abscesses and is indicated when sectional imaging demonstrates an accessible unilocular lesion.
Sonography of Fetal Urinary Tract Anomalies

Experience with 13 cases and a review of 41 cases in English literature indicate that anomalous development of the fetal urinary system can be detected in utero using sonography. Anomalies not compatible with extrauterine life (bilateral renal agenesis, infantile polycystic and bilateral multicystic kidney disease) have distinctive sonographic features that can be detected early enough to allow elective termination. Megacystis, either as a primary finding or secondary to urethral obstruction, can be detected and usually portends a poor fetal outcome. Obstruction at the ureterovesical junction has a distinctive sonographic appearance, but ureteropelvic junction obstruction cannot be differentiated from some cystic renal lesions, particularly when it is unilateral. Even when a precise diagnosis cannot be established in utero, the detection of a fetal renal anomaly may significantly affect obstetric and neonatal management of the benefit of both mother and fetus.
A Voltage-Based Approach for Fault Detection and Separation in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines

Different faults in permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) cause various and independent changes to the machine magnetic flux distribution, which affect the machine parameters and performance. These changes are reflected in the machine flux linkages and can be estimated from the machine voltages. In this paper, we continue the work of Haddad et al. , where a method was proposed to detect and separate three types of faults in PMSMs: 1) static eccentricity; 2) demagnetization; and 3) turn-to-turn short circuit. The method proposed here is based on using the change in the commanded $d$ - and $q$ -axis voltages, while the machine is operating at steady state, for fault detection and separation. Simulation tests using finite element analysis (FEA) software (MAGSOFT-Flux2D) were performed under healthy and the tested fault conditions on a three-phase ten-pole fractional-slot concentrated-winding PMSM. An analytical method is proposed to estimate the commanded voltages at any operating condition, and a classification algorithm is implemented for fault detection and classification. Experimental tests were carried out and compared with FEA. The effects of the variation in the operating speed and temperature were simulated and tested to validate the detection method under different operating conditions.
Gaussian and plane-wave mixed density fitting for periodic systems

We introduce a mixed density fitting scheme that uses both a Gaussian and a plane-wave fitting basis to accurately evaluate electron repulsion integrals in crystalline systems. We use this scheme to enable efficient all-electron Gaussian based periodic density functional and Hartree-Fock calculations.
Analysis of variance based instruments for Ornstein–Uhlenbeck type models: swap and price index

In this paper a couple of variance dependent instruments in the financial market are studied. Firstly, a number of aspects of the variance swap in connection to the Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard model are studied. A partial integro-differential equation that describes the dynamics of the arbitrage-free price of the variance swap is formulated. Under appropriate assumptions for the first four cumulants of the driving subordinator, a Veceř-type theorem is proved. The bounds of the arbitrage-free variance swap price are also found. Finally, a price-weighted index modulated by market variance is introduced. The large-basket limit dynamics of the price index and the “error term” are derived. Empirical data driven numerical examples are provided in support of the proposed price index.
PRIMARY TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY: TAKING THE ANTERIOR APPROACH TO THE NEXT LEVEL

The anterior approach is now an accepted approach for total hip arthroplasty. First described over a century ago, its popularity has grown significantly in the last decade with the advent of a reproducible technique on an orthopaedic table. Potential advantages include quicker recovery times, less post-operative pain, improved hip biomechanics, and more accurate cup position. While both femoral exposure and learning curve are often cited as potential drawbacks, a large percentage of US surgeons now utilise this teachable approach. The adoption of this approach has facilitated the development of new tools to assist the arthroplasty surgeon in a more efficient and efficacious manner. The anterior approach is performed with the patient in a supine position on an orthopaedic table. The supine position provides improved visualization of the acetabulum, appreciation of pelvic position as well as the advantage of intra-operative fluoroscopy. While many technologies including navigation and first generation robotics exist to assist the surgeon with virtual information; only fluoroscopy provides the surgeon with real time actual information. The interpretation of fluoroscopic images carries a learning curve and potential for error. New technology now exists to assist the surgeon to better interpret fluoroscopic images including anteversion and abduction of cup, leg length and offset. Since the first hip surgery was performed by Sir John Charnley, hip surgeons have utilised specialised tools including reamers, drills, saws, and mallets during surgery to assist with cup insertion, femoral preparation, stem insertion, liner insertion and head impaction. Many tools in the operating room including drills, reamers, and saws have moved from hand powered operation to pneumatic and now battery powered operation to assist with efficiency, efficacy, and reduced surgeon fatigue. A new, battery powered impaction device provides a consistent and constant energy that does not rely on the surgeon9s mallet speed, throw distance, or impact contact. This may represent the next generation of surgical tools available to the arthroplasty surgeon that has the potential to make the mallet obsolete.
Accurate and High Throughput Cell Segmentation Method for Mouse Brain Nuclei Using Cascaded Convolutional Neural Network

Recent innovations in tissue clearing and light sheet microscopy allow rapid acquisition of three-dimensional micron resolution images in fluorescently labeled brain samples. These data allow the observation of every cell in the brain, necessitating an accurate and high-throughput cell segmentation method in order to perform basic operations like counting number of cells within a region; however, large computational challenges given noise in the data and sheer number of features to identify. Inspired by the success of deep learning technique in medical imaging, we propose a supervised learning approach using convolution neural network (CNN) to learn the non-linear relationship between local image appearance (within an image patch) and manual segmentations (cell or background at the center of the underlying patch). In order to improve the segmentation accuracy, we further integrate high-level contextual features with low-level image appearance features. Specifically, we extract contextual features from the probability map of cells (output of current CNN) and train the next CNN based on both patch-wise image appearance and contextual features, extending previous methods into a cascaded approach. Using (a) high-level contextual features extracted from the cell probability map and (b) the spatial information of cell-to-cell locations, our cascaded CNN progressively improves the segmentation accuracy. We have evaluated the segmentation results on mouse brain images, and compared conventional image processing approaches. More accurate and robust segmentation results have been achieved with our cascaded CNN method, indicating the promising potential of our proposed cell segmentation method for use in large tissue cleared images.
Orthogonal enzymatic reactions for rapid crosslinking and dynamic tuning of PEG–peptide hydrogels

Stiffening of the extracellular matrix is a hallmark in cancer progression, embryonic development, and wound healing. To mimic this dynamic process, our work explored orthogonal enzymatic reactions capable of modulating the properties of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)–peptide hydrogels. A hepta-mutant bacterial transpeptidase sortase A (SrtA7M) was used to ligate two PEG–peptide macromers (i.e., PEG-YLPRTG and NH2-GGGG-PEG) into a primary hydrogel network. The hydrogels were dynamically stiffened using mushroom tyrosinase (MT), which oxidized tyrosine residues into di-tyrosine and led to increased matrix stiffness. After confirming the expression and enhanced catalytic activity of SrtA7M, we investigated the cytocompatibility of the enzymatic reaction with a mouse insulinoma cell line, MIN6. In addition, we altered peptide substrate concentrations and evaluated their influence on primary hydrogel network properties and MT-triggered stiffening. Using a pancreatic cancer cell line, COLO-357, the effect of MT-triggered stiffening on spheroid formation was investigated. We found that cell spheroids formed in hydrogels that were exposed to MT were significantly smaller than spheroids formed without MT incubation, suggesting that matrix stiffening played a crucial role in the sizes of cancer cell spheroids. Through utilizing highly specific and orthogonal enzymatic reactions, this hydrogel platform permits rapid and mild in situ cell encapsulation, as well as dynamic control of matrix stiffness for investigating the role of matrix stiffening on cell fate processes.
Chapter 20 – Solution of Quasi-Harmonic Equations

This chapter is devoted to the finite element solution of problems governed by the quasi-harmonic equation. The methodology is applicable to several types of physical problems such as heat conduction, seepage flow, the torsion of shafts, the irrotational flow of ideal fluids, fluid film lubrication, the distribution of electric potential, and magnetostatics. Finite element equations are developed for the general quasi-harmonic equation using the Galerkin approach. Several special cases of the equations are considered to demonstrate the details of the solution procedure. Finite element equations are derived for the problem of the stress analysis of a shaft subjected to torsion (governed by the Poisson equation) and illustrate the solution process using the problem of a shaft (with a square section) subjected to torque using triangular elements. Finite element equations are developed for the solution of a propagation problem (a transient, dynamic, or time-dependent problem). The resulting equations are a set of coupled second-order differential equations subject to boundary and initial conditions. A possible solution method is also suggested. An alternative approach to the solution of propagation problems, using space–time finite elements, is also described.
Application of discrete scatterer technique for scene response estimation in fopen radar simulations

An analytical solver is developed for characterizing the coherent scattering responses of tree scenes. Realistic 3-D tree structures are first constructed using an open-source random tree generation engine. The trees are then parsed into discrete, canonical scatterers, such as cylinders and disks, and a multiray approach is applied to calculate the aggregate response of the scene, with the transmissivity of each ray determined from a cell-based representation of the computational domain. As each scatterer in the outlined framework is assigned a deterministic position, the spatial distribution of the trees and their canopy structures is fully preserved. A cell-by-cell strategy is also proposed for speeding up the calculations of the responses from small components such as secondary stems and leaves, which are expected to far outnumber those scatterers composing the trunks and primary branches. The accuracy of the analytical solver is assessed by comparing simulation results for a forest stand with solutions from a large-scale, full-wave solver. In addition, as an application of interest, the detection and imaging of a tree-obscured walking human target is demonstrated.
Vessel Ligation Fundamentals: A Comparison of Technical Evaluations by Crowdsourced Nonclinical Personnel and Surgical Faculty.

BACKGROUND Evaluation of fundamental surgical skills is invaluable to the training of medical students and junior residents. This study assessed the effectiveness of crowdsourcing nonmedical personnel to evaluate technical proficiency at simulated vessel ligation. STUDY DESIGN Fifteen videos were captured of participants performing vessel ligation using a low-fidelity model (5 attending surgeons and 5 medical students before and after training). These videos were evaluated by nonmedical personnel recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, as well as by 3 experienced surgical faculty. Evaluation criteria were based on Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (scale: 5-25). Results were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank-sum and Cronbach's alpha (α). RESULTS Thirty-two crowd workers evaluated all 15 videos. Crowd workers scored attending surgeon videos significantly higher than pretraining medical student videos (20.5 vs 14.9, p < 0.001), demonstrating construct validity. Across all videos, crowd evaluations were more lenient than expert evaluations (19.1 vs 14.5, p < 0.001). However, average volunteer evaluations correlated more strongly with average expert evaluations (α = 0.95) than the strength of correlation between any 2 individual expert evaluators (α = 0.72-0.88). Combined reimbursement for all workers was $80.00. CONCLUSION After adjustments for score inflation, crowdsourced can evaluate surgical fundamentals with excellent validity. This resource is considerably less costly and potentially more reliable than individual expert evaluations.
A particle-learning-based approach to estimate the influence matrix of online social networks

Abstract Knowing the extent of influence an agent exerts over the other agents over online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook is important as it helps identify opinion leaders and predict how opinions are likely to evolve. However, this information regarding the extent of influence exerted by agents on each other is difficult to obtain as it is unobservable and the data available to estimate it is scarce, often incomplete, and noisy. Further, the number of unknown parameters that need to be estimated to infer the extent of influence between any given pair of agents is very large. A particle-learning-based algorithm is proposed to estimate the influence matrix that indicates the extent of influence any agent exerts on any other in a social network. Computational studies have been used to determine the efficiency, learning rates and asymptotic properties, and robustness (to missing information) of the proposed particle learning algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm shows fast convergence rates, yields efficient estimates of the influence matrix, is scalable, and is robust to incomplete information. Further, the network topology, and not just the network size, impacts the learning rate. The learning rate also slows down as the percentage of missing information increases.
A Privilege to Know Him

1. Lawrence F. Nazarian, MD* 1. *Editor Emeritus, Pediatrics in Review , Rochester, NY We never know how many people we touch, directly or indirectly, by what we do. Dr Robert Haggerty, who passed away in January, improved the lives of countless children in every corner of the world, employing his many skills and interests with tireless dedication. I was fortunate to have him as a mentor, role model, and friend. In 1964, I was …
A decade of dynamics of residential location, car ownership, activity, travel and land use in the Seattle metropolitan region

Abstract Using data of attitudes in the Puget Sound region we first identify predispositions in favor of car use (car loving persons and households) and distinguish them from other predispositions favoring other modes (transit and carsharing lovers). Then we explore if like-minded people (homophily) live together and examine heterogeneity within their households. To do this we analyze attitudinal data using multilevel latent class clustering that allows identification of groups of persons and groups of households jointly. Our analysis identifies distinct groups of people with different attitudes towards modes and we do not find strong homophily in attitudes within households. The distinction of attitudes among persons transfers well to the household level giving us the opportunity to identify and test differences among the different attitudinal groups using longitudinal records. We then move to a longitudinal analysis using a small sample of households that participated in more than ten years of the Puget Sound panel survey to explore the sequence of their residential location characteristics, car ownership, and travel. We find in descriptive statistics and in a second application of multilevel cluster models that carpool and transit loyalty persists over time by a portion of car pool and transit lovers. We also find sustained use of cars by car loving households, sustained car use of a neutral in attitudes group, a group of younger households with positive attitudes towards carsharing and sustained car sharing over time, and a possibly disenfranchised older household group lacking access to opportunities. The inclusion in the analysis of the two residential location characteristics (evolution of density and diversity around the household residence) enabled a more complete analysis and a clearer description of household context for both attitudes and behavior.
Pollen Cell Wall Patterns Form from Modulated Phases.

Summary The ornately geometric walls of pollen grains have inspired scientists for decades. We show that the evolved diversity of these patterns is entirely recapitulated by a biophysical model in which an initially uniform polysaccharide layer in the extracellular space, mechanically coupled to the cell membrane, phase separates to a spatially modulated state. Experiments reveal this process occurring in living cells. We observe that in ∼10% of extant species, this phase separation reaches equilibrium during development such that individual pollen grains are identical and perfectly reproducible. About 90% of species undergo an arrest of this process prior to equilibrium such that individual grains are similar but inexact copies. Equilibrium patterns have appeared multiple times during the evolution of seed plants, but selection does not favor these states. This framework for pattern development provides a route to rationalizing the surface textures of other secreted structures, such as cell walls and insect cuticle.
#MedEd: exploring the relationship between altmetrics and traditional measures of dissemination in health professions education

Researchers, funders, and institutions are interested in understanding and quantifying research dissemination and impact, particularly related to communicating with the public. Traditionally, citations have been a primary impact measure; however, citations can be slow to accrue and focus on academic use. Recently altmetrics, which track alternate dissemination forms (e. g., social media), have been suggested as a complement to citation-based metrics. This study examines the relationship between altmetrics and traditional measures: journal article citations and access counts. The researchers queried Web of Science and Altmetric Explorer for articles published in HPE journals between 2013–2015. They identified 2,486 articles with altmetrics. Data were analyzed using negative binomial and linear regression models. Blogging was associated with the greatest increase in citations (13% increase), whereas Tweets (1.2%) and Mendeley (1%) were associated with smaller increases. Journal impact factor (JIF) was associated with a 21% increase in citations. Publicly accessible articles were associated with a 19% decrease, but the interactive effect between accessible articles and JIF was associated with a 12% increase. When examining access counts, publicly accessible articles had an increase of 170 access counts whereas blogging was associated with a decrease of 87 accesses. This study suggests that several altmetrics outlets are positively associated with citations, and that public accessibility, holding all other independent variables constant, is positively related to article access. Given the scientific community’s evolving focus on dissemination these findings have implications for stakeholders, providing insight into the factors that may improve citations and access of articles.
Deterministic Memory Abstraction and Supporting Multicore System Architecture

Poor time predictability of multicore processors has been a long-standing challenge in the real-time systems community. In this paper, we make a case that a fundamental problem that prevents efficient and predictable real-time computing on multicore is the lack of a proper memory abstraction to express memory criticality, which cuts across various layers of the system: the application, OS, and hardware. We, therefore, propose a new holistic resource management approach driven by a new memory abstraction, which we call Deterministic Memory. The key characteristic of deterministic memory is that the platform-the OS and hardware-guarantees small and tightly bounded worst-case memory access timing. In contrast, we call the conventional memory abstraction as best-effort memory in which only highly pessimistic worst-case bounds can be achieved. We propose to utilize both abstractions to achieve high time predictability but without significantly sacrificing performance. We present deterministic memory-aware OS and architecture designs, including OS-level page allocator, hardware-level cache, and DRAM controller designs. We implement the proposed OS and architecture extensions on Linux and gem5 simulator. Our evaluation results, using a set of synthetic and real-world benchmarks, demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach.
THE IMPACT OF PERCEIVED BACKGROUND RISK ON BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM HURRICANE KATRINA

I explore the hypothesis that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 raised perceived background risks, which had spillover effects on behavioral health outcomes of mental health, substance use, and health insurance. I explore this hypothesis using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data for 2002-2007. I use a difference-in-difference model to estimate the effect that Hurricane Katrina had in the non-damaged storm surge region, in 90-day intervals leading up to and after the hurricane, compared to areas impervious to hurricanes. Within non-damaged counties at risk of any storm surge, I find causal evidence that Katrina increased poor mental health days by 8.8% for three months after Katrina, and increased smoking by 10% over nine months, which translates to 39.0 million extra days of poor mental health and 1.1 million extra smokers. Results suggest that perceived background risk increases may have important spillover effects on health for people far from the actual disaster, and highlight a hidden cost of the government's failures in managing Hurricane Katrina.
Cerivastatin Nanoliposome as a Potential Disease Modifying Approach for the Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

In this study we investigated nanoliposome as an approach to tailoring the pharmacology of cerivastatin as a disease-modifying drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Cerivastatin encapsulated liposomes with an average diameter of 98 ± 27 nm were generated by a thin film and freeze-thaw process. The nanoliposomes demonstrated sustained drug-release kinetics in vitro and inhibited proliferation of pulmonary artery (PA) smooth muscle cells with significantly less cellular cytotoxicity as compared with free cerivastatin. When delivered by inhalation to a rat model of monocrotaline-induced PAH, cerivastatin significantly reduced PA pressure from 55.13 ± 9.82 to 35.56 ± 6.59 mm Hg (P < 0.001) and diminished PA wall thickening. Echocardiography showed that cerivastatin significantly reduced right ventricle thickening (monocrotaline: 0.34 ± 0.02 cm vs. cerivastatin: 0.26 ± 0.02 cm; P < 0.001) and increased PA acceleration time (monocrotaline: 13.98 ± 1.14 milliseconds vs. cerivastatin: 21.07 ± 2.80 milliseconds; P < 0.001). Nanoliposomal cerivastatin was equally effective or slightly better than cerivastatin in reducing PA pressure (monocrotaline: 67.06 ± 13.64 mm Hg; cerivastatin: 46.31 ± 7.64 mm Hg vs. liposomal cerivastatin: 37.32 ± 9.50 mm Hg) and improving parameters of right ventricular function as measured by increasing PA acceleration time (monocrotaline: 24.68 ± 3.92 milliseconds; cerivastatin: 32.59 ± 6.10 milliseconds vs. liposomal cerivastatin: 34.96 ± 7.51 milliseconds). More importantly, the rate and magnitude of toxic cerivastatin metabolite lactone generation from the intratracheally administered nanoliposomes was significantly lower as compared with intravenously administered free cerivastatin. These studies show that nanoliposome encapsulation improved in vitro and in vivo pharmacologic and safety profile of cerivastatin and may represent a safer approach as a disease-modifying therapy for PAH.
Formation of the n = 0 Landau level in hybrid graphene

The minimum of 4-terminal conductance occurring at its charge neutral point has proven to be a robust empirical feature of graphene, persisting with changes to temperature, applied magnetic field, substrate, and layer thickness, though the theoretical mechanisms involved in transport about this point -- vanishing density of states, conventional band gap opening, and broken symmetry quantum Hall mobility gaps -- vary widely depending on the regime. In this paper, we report on observations of a regime where the 4-terminal conductance minimum ceases to exist: transport in monolayer graphene connected to bilayer graphene during the onset of the quantum Hall effect. As monolayer and bilayer graphene have distinct zero-energy Landau levels that form about the charge neutral point, our observations suggest that competitions between the differing many-body orderings of these states as they emerge may underlie this anomalous conductance.
Genetic, biochemical, and molecular characterization of methanosarcina barkeri mutants lacking three distinct classes of hydrogenase

The methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina barkeri encodes three distinct types of hydrogenase, whose functions vary depending on the growth substrate. These include the F420-dependent (Frh), methanophenazine-dependent (Vht), and ferredoxin-dependent (Ech) hydrogenases. To investigate their physiological roles, we characterized a series of mutants lacking each hydrogenase in various combinations. Mutants lacking Frh, Vht, or Ech in any combination failed to grow on H2-CO2, whereas only Vht and Ech were essential for growth on acetate. In contrast, a mutant lacking all three grew on methanol with a final growth yield similar to that of the wild type and produced methane and CO2 in the expected 3:1 ratio but had a ca. 33% lower growth rate. Thus, hydrogenases play a significant, but nonessential, role during growth on this substrate. As previously observed, mutants lacking Ech failed to grow on methanol-H2 unless they were supplemented with biosynthetic precursors. Interestingly, this phenotype was abolished in the Δech Δfrh and Δech Δfrh Δvht mutants, consistent with the idea that hydrogenases inhibit methanol oxidation in the presence of H2, which prevents production of the reducing equivalents needed for biosynthesis. Quantification of the methane and CO2 produced from methanol by resting cell suspensions of various mutants supported this conclusion. On the basis of the global transcriptional profiles, none of the hydrogenases were upregulated to compensate for the loss of the others. However, the transcript levels of the F420 dehydrogenase operon were significantly higher in all strains lacking frh, suggesting a mechanism to sense the redox state of F420 The roles of the hydrogenases in energy conservation during growth with each methanogenic pathway are discussed.IMPORTANCE Methanogenic archaea are key players in the global carbon cycle due to their ability to facilitate the remineralization of organic substrates in many anaerobic environments. The consequences of biological methanogenesis are far-reaching, with impacts on atmospheric methane and CO2 concentrations, agriculture, energy production, waste treatment, and human health. The data presented here clarify the in vivo function of hydrogenases during methanogenesis, which in turn deepens our understanding of this unique form of metabolism. This knowledge is critical for a variety of important issues ranging from atmospheric composition to human health.
Graph Distillation for Action Detection with Privileged Modalities

We propose a technique that tackles action detection in multimodal videos under a realistic and challenging condition in which only limited training data and partially observed modalities are available. Common methods in transfer learning do not take advantage of the extra modalities potentially available in the source domain. On the other hand, previous work on multimodal learning only focuses on a single domain or task and does not handle the modality discrepancy between training and testing. In this work, we propose a method termed graph distillation that incorporates rich privileged information from a large-scale multimodal dataset in the source domain, and improves the learning in the target domain where training data and modalities are scarce. We evaluate our approach on action classification and detection tasks in multimodal videos, and show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art by a large margin on the NTU RGB+D and PKU-MMD benchmarks. The code is released at http://alan.vision/eccv18_graph/.
Clinical trends and effects on quality metrics for surgical gastroesophageal cancer care

Background: Surgical therapy of mid-stage gastric cancer (GC) and other neoplastic conditions requiring gastric resection remains at the center of curative outcomes, while epidemiologic changes and multimodality treatment options have evolved rapidly. Putative quality metrics for gastrectomy such as R0 rate, total lymph node (LN) count or postoperative morbidity may depend partly on changing disease and treatment patterns, and deserve evaluation under various practice conditions. Methods: Data within a U.S.-based single surgical oncologist’s practice over 15 years were prospectively recorded and retrospectively analyzed for clinicopathologic factors, operative treatment aspects and outcomes. Trends and spectrum changes over three time intervals were analyzed with contingency analysis and continuous data comparative statistics. Results: Of 179 patients undergoing gastric resection, 119 were male and 60 female, with a median age of 63 years (range, 24–98 years). Resections included 56 total, 56 subtotal/distal, 30 proximal and 37 segmental gastrectomies. Diagnoses included 96 GCs, 31 gastroesophageal (GE) junction (GEJ) cancers, 21 GI stromal tumors (GISTs), and 31 other conditions. Significant trends from first towards last time interval were observed for resection type (16% to 32% proximal, 9% to 30% segmental, P=0.0003), curative intent (76% to 98%, P=0.002), diagnosis (5% to 42% GEJ cancer, P 15 LNs examined increased from 69.0% to 92.5% (P=0.022). At the same time, spleen preservation rate (91% overall) and major morbidity (16%) remained unchanged throughout. Postoperative length of stay decreased from a median of 12 to 8 days (P<0.0001). Conclusions: This experience represents some variable practice patterns within a clinicopathologic spectrum of GE diseases. Postoperative or oncologic quality metrics have been sustained or did improve, which would support their utility for various practice settings; they compare favorably to other published U.S. experiences during the same time period.
Jensen's inequality in finite subdiagonal algebras

Let $\mathscr{M}$ be a finite von Neumann algebra with a faithful normal tracial state $\tau$ and $\mathfrak{A}$ be a finite subdiagonal subalgebra of $\mathscr{M}$ with respect to a $\tau$-preserving faithful normal conditional expectation $\Phi$ on $\mathscr{M}$. Let $\Delta$ denote the Fuglede-Kadison determinant corresponding to $\tau$. For $X \in \mathscr{M}$, define $|X| := (X^*X)^{\frac{1}{2}}$. In 2005, Labuschagne proved the so-called Jensen's inequality for finite subdiagonal algebras i.e. $\Delta(\Phi(A)) \le \Delta(A)$ for an operator $A \in \mathfrak{A}$, thus resolving a long-standing open problem posed by Arveson in 1967. In this article, we prove the following more general result: $\tau(f( |\Phi(A)|)) \le \tau(f( |A|))$ for $A \in \mathfrak{A}$ and any increasing continuous function $f : [0, \infty) \to \mathbb{R}$ such that $f \circ \exp$ is convex on $\mathbb{R}$. Under the additional hypotheses that $A$ is invertible in $\mathscr{M}$ and $f \circ \exp$ is strictly convex, we have $\tau(f( |\Phi(A)|)) = \tau(f( |A|))$ $\Longleftrightarrow \Phi(A) = A$. As an application, we show that for $A \in \mathfrak{A}$ the point spectrum of $A$ is contained in the point spectrum of $\Phi(A)$, though such a conclusion does not hold in general for their spectra.
Implicit Transpositions in DCJ Scenarios

Genome rearrangements are large-scale evolutionary events that shuffle genomic architectures. The minimal number of such events between two genomes is often used in phylogenomic studies to measure the evolutionary distance between the genomes. Double-Cut-and-Join (DCJ) operations represent a convenient model of most common genome rearrangements (reversals, translocations, fissions, and fusions), while other genome rearrangements, such as transpositions, can be modeled by pairs of DCJs. Since the DCJ model does not directly account for transpositions, their impact on DCJ scenarios is unclear. In the present work, we study implicit appearance of transpositions (as pairs of DCJs) in DCJ scenarios. We consider shortest DCJ scenarios satisfying the maximum parsimony assumption, as well as more general DCJ scenarios based on some realistic but less restrictive assumptions. In both cases, we derive a uniform lower bound for the rate of implicit transpositions, which depends only on the genomes but not a particular DCJ scenario between them. Our results imply that implicit appearance of transpositions in DCJ scenarios may be unavoidable or even abundant for some pairs of genomes. We estimate that for mammalian genomes implicit transpositions constitute at least 6% of genome rearrangements.
An international comparison of Google searches for sunscreen, sunburn, skin cancer, and melanoma: Current trends and public health implications

Background Google Trends® (GT) offers insight into public interests and behaviors and holds potential for guiding public health campaigns. Objectives This study explored international trends in English-speaking countries (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) in searches for sunscreen, sunburn, skin cancer, and melanoma to better guide skin cancer prevention campaigns. Methods Google Trends® was queried for search terms from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2017. Respective national databases were queried for melanoma outcome data from 2004 to 2014 and compared with time-matched search data. Correlations between search terms, time, and melanoma outcomes were assessed for each country. Quantitative analyses were performed to evaluate differences in search volumes between countries with varying melanoma incidence. Results In all countries, the strongest intra-term correlation was between sunscreen and sunburn. Searches for sunscreen and sunburn are increasing for all countries. For all countries except the United Kingdom and New Zealand, searches for skin cancer and melanoma are decreasing for one or both terms. Correlations between search terms and melanoma outcomes were variable and specific to each country. Quantitative analysis revealed that countries with higher melanoma incidence had higher search volumes for all terms. Search volumes were especially high for skin cancer and melanoma in Australia compared with other countries. Comparisons between moderate melanoma incidence countries were less clear. Conclusions Online skin cancer prevention campaigns should focus on the search terms sunburn and sunscreen, especially given the declining interest between 2004 and 2016 in the terms skin cancer and melanoma seen in multiple countries. Search term interests varied with melanoma outcomes and between countries, suggesting the importance of customizing approaches based on local population interests and geographic areas.
The funding status of retiree health plans in the public sector

While no longer common in the private sector, most public sector employers offer retiree health insurance (RHI) as a retirement benefit to their employees. While these plans are thought to be an important tool for employers to attract, retain, motivate, and ultimately retire workers, they represent a large and growing cost. This paper reviews what is currently known about RHI in the public sector, while highlighting many important unanswered questions. The analysis is informed by data produced in accordance with the 2004 Government Accounting Standards Board Rule 45 (GASB 45). We consider the extent of the unfunded liabilities states face and explore what factors may explain the variation in liabilities across states. The importance and sustainability of RHI plans in the public sector ultimately depend on how workers view and value this post-retirement benefit, yet little is known about how RHI directly impacts the public sector labor market. We conclude with a discussion of the future of RHI plans in the public sector.
ComDMFT: A massively parallel computer package for the electronic structure of correlated-electron systems

Abstract ComDMFT is a massively parallel computational package to study the electronic structure of correlated-electron systems (CES). Our approach is a parameter-free method based on ab initio linearized quasiparticle self-consistent GW (LQSGW) and dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The non-local part of the electronic self-energy is treated within ab initio LQSGW and the local strong correlation is treated within DMFT. In addition to ab initio LQSGW+DMFT, charge self-consistent LDA+DMFT methodology is also implemented, enabling multiple methods in one open-source platform for the electronic structure of CES. This package can be extended for future developments to implement other methodologies to treat CES. Program summary Program Title: ComDMFT Program Files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/h8vky97ncg.1 Licensing provisions: GPLv3 Programming language: fortran90, C++ and Python Nature of problem: There is no open-source code based on ab initio GW+EDMFT and related methodologies to support their theoretical advancement for the electronic structure of correlated electron systems. Solution method: We implemented ab initio LQSGW+DMFT methodology, as a simplification of ab initio GW+EDMFT, for the electronic structure of correlated electron systems. In addition, charge self-consistent LDA+DMFT methodology is also implemented, enabling the comparison of multiple methods for the electronic structure of correlated electron systems in one platform. Additional comments: ComDMFT is built on top of Wannier90 (Mostofi et al. 2008) and FlapwMBPT (Kutepov et al. 2017) codes.
A conditional gradient approach for nonparametric estimation of mixing distributions

Mixture models are versatile tools that are used extensively in many fields, including operations, marketing, and econometrics. The main challenge in estimating mixture models is that the mixing di...
Experience introducing physician assistant students into a medical student emergency medicine clerkship

Abstract Background Physician assistants continue to play an increasingly important role in our healthcare system, including a growing role in the emergency department. Introducing physician assistant students into an existing emergency department learning environment makes efficient use of resources and provides an opportunity for interprofessional education, but the success of such a strategy and the resultant impact on medical student education have not been previously described. The goals of our study were to determine the impact of the introduction of physician assistant students into a learning environment that already serves medical students and residents, and to assess the readiness of physician assistant students to participate in an established medical student emergency medicine clerkship. Methods A survey was completed by emergency medicine faculty and residents shortly after the introduction of physician assistant students into an emergency department learning environment. The survey contained 18 questions in two sections: 11 questions asking about the effect of physician assistant students on the emergency department learning environment and 7 questions comparing the skills of physician assistant students with medical students. Data from medical student evaluations of the clerkship were also collected. Results and Discussion: Forty-six physician preceptors (43%) responded to the survey. The majority of preceptors felt that the presence of physician assistant students offered valuable interprofessional education and overall was a positive experience, though some expressed concerns about the effect on the education of other learners. Most preceptors felt that physician assistant students had comparable skills with medical students, though some concerns were expressed regarding knowledge base and variability of skill level. Medical student evaluations of the clerkship were similar before and after the introduction of physician assistant students. These results, however, must be viewed with caution as we were able replace a medical student with a physician assistant student, keeping the total number of students at the study sites constant, which some institutions may not be able to do. Conclusions The impact of introducing physician assistant students to a medical student emergency medicine clerkship is viewed as being positive overall, though more research is needed to understand and optimize the learning involvement for all learners.
Hypersonic Crossflow Instability

Under the auspices of NATO STO AVT-240: “Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition Prediction”, this paper describes the results of close collaborations among the authors toward the fundamental understa...