cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parasitoid fly induces manipulative grave-digging behaviour differentially across its bumblebee hosts

Alterations of host behaviour in response to parasitism are widely documented. Modified host behaviour is considered an adaptive manipulation when it is induced by and provides a clear benefit to the parasite. Variability in the response of host organisms to parasitic manipulations can result in some hosts being more suitable than others if failure to induce a behaviour has fitness costs for the parasite. Individuals of the European bumblebee Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera, Apidae) that are parasitized by the endoparasitic larvae of a conopid fly (Conopidae, Diptera) bury themselves in soil just before death. This behaviour, which is of little consequence to the dying host, improves the survival and fitness of the parasitoid. In this study, we examined whether a parasitoid conopid fly, Physocephala tibialis, can successfully induce self-burial or ‘grave-digging’ behaviour in three bumblebee host species (B. bimaculatus, B. griseocollis and B. impatiens). Self-burial behaviour was expressed in all three host species, but at a far lower rate (17.4%) in B. griseocollis than in the other two species, which showed nearly equal rates of self-burial when parasitized (∼70%). Bombus impatiens and B. bimaculatus are more closely related to each other than to B. griseocollis, suggesting that genetic relatedness may influence host responsiveness to the parasitoid. We also found that larger hosts produced larger fly pupae, and that larger pupae generated bigger adult flies. In parasitoid literature, host suitability is often discussed in the context of receptiveness to oviposition and physiological resistance to infection. We posit that the ability to induce an important behavioural response influences host competency as well, and that host susceptibility to behavioural manipulation could have implications for selection.
Dynamic impact of a particle

In this work, we consider a moving particle which drops down onto a stationary rigid foundation and bounces off after its contact. The equation of its motion is formulated by a second-order ordinary differential equation. The particle satisfies the Signorini contact conditions which can be interpreted in terms of complementarity conditions. The existence of weak solutions is shown by using a finite time step and the necessary a priori estimates which allow us to pass to the limit. The uniqueness of the solutions can be proved under some additional assumptions. Conservation of energy is also investigated theoretically and numerically. Numerical solutions are computed via both finite- and infinite-dimensional approaches.
Results from the United states' 2014 report card on physical activity for children and youth

Background: The National Physical Activity Plan Alliance partnered with physical activity experts to develop a report card that provides a comprehensive assessment of physical activity among United States children and youth. Methods: The 2014 U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth includes 10 indicators: overall physical activity levels, sedentary behaviors, active transportation, organized sport participation, active play, health-related fitness, family and peers, school, community and the built environment, and government strategies and investments. Data from nationally representative surveys were used to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the physical activity indicators. The Committee used the best available data source to grade the indicators using a standard rubric. Results: Approximately one-quarter of children and youth 6 to 15 years of age were at least moderately active for 60 min/day on at least 5 days per week. The prevalence was lower among youth compared with younger...
The Contribution of Evaluation to Socialization and Externalization of Tacit Knowledge The Case of the World Bank

International organizations are increasingly focusing on organizational learning. The experience accumulated by development agencies throughout the world has become a source of organizational knowledge, which, according to Nonaka, is transferred through processes of socialization and externalization. Based upon three case studies and in-depth interviewing of World Bank managers and evaluators over two years, this article explores the contribution of evaluation to organizational learning. The study analyses the use patterns of evaluation as a source of knowledge within the World Bank. Findings show that participatory designs and processes favour socialization of tacit knowledge through interaction between organizational members. Theory-driven evaluations help externalize tacit into codified or explicit knowledge. Particular evaluation constructs - i.e. ‘chilling effect’ - provide vocabulary that clarifies discussion and debate for strategic planning. Overall, managers value those evaluation properties asso...
Stochastic-calculus-based numerical evaluation and performance analysis of chaotic communication systems

Performance evaluation of a self-synchronizing Lorenz chaotic system is formulated as a stochastic differential equation problem. Based on stochastic calculus, we provide a rigorous formulation of the numerical evaluation and analysis of the self-synchronization capability and error probabilities of two chaotic Lorenz communication systems with additive white Gaussian noise disturbance. By using the Ito theorem, we are able to analyze the first two moments behavior of the self-synchronization error of a drive-response Lorenz chaotic system. The moment stability condition of the synchronization error dynamic is explicitly derived. These results provide further understanding on the robust self-synchronization ability of the Lorenz system to noise. Various time-scaling factors affecting the speed of system evolution are also discussed. Moreover, an approximate model of the variance of the sufficient statistic of the chaotic communication is derived, which permits a comparison of the chaotic communication system performance to the conventional binary pulse amplitude modulation communication system. Due to synchronization difficulties of chaotic systems, known synchronization-based chaotic communication system performance is quite poor. Thus, alternative synchronization-free chaotic communication systems are needed in the future, The use of a stochastic calculus approach as considered here, however, is still applicable if the considered chaotic communication system is governed by nonlinear stochastic differential equations.
On being a pathologist-full circle

As is the case with so many things that have happened in my life, I did not intend to be a pathologist. Having realized at a fairly young age that I could not sing I gave up an early desire to be an opera singer and decided, before I entered college, to go to medical school. This was at a time when medicine was not a career embraced by young women and my uncle, a neurosurgeon, felt that it would be much more appropriate for me to become a nurse. During my years at Radcliffe College, he tried to persuade me that nursing was the career I should follow. While still in high school I worked as a candy striper at the Carney Hospital in Dorchester, MA, taking a bus and train to Boston from my home town of Swampscott, MA, and then the subway to Dorchester. Being involved in a hospital, even as a volunteer, reinforced my desire for a career in medicine and I was determined to be a pediatrician when I entered Tufts Medical School in the fall of 1960. In the summer of 1961, I married my first husband, David Carpenter, then a student at Harvard Medical School, and the 2 of us left for Goteborg, Sweden, for David's research year in neurophysiology. I took pharmacology with the Swedish medical students (although not for credit) and studied neurophysiology and the year was an exciting time away from school. During my second year at Tufts, we were asked to examine our feet to make scrapings of potential athlete's foot to look at in laboratory sessions. I discovered a small pigmented lesion on my left fifth toe, which led to my first real contact with diagnostic surgical pathology. The lesion was excised and beautifully skin grafted at the New England Medical Center and the original diagnosis was a junctional nevus. However, my pathology teachers were concerned
A Comparison Between SRSS-IE and SSiS-PSG Scores: Examining Convergent Validity

We report findings of a validation study comparing two screening tools: the Student Risk Screening Scale–Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE, an adapted version of the Student Risk Screening Scale) and the Social Skills Improvement System–Performance Screening Guide (SSiS-PSG). Participants included 458 kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary students from one school in a southeastern state. Correlation coefficients indicated statistically significant, inverse relations between SRSS-IE scores (SRSS-IE 12 [total score], SRSS-E7 [subscale score which includes original seven items constituting the SRSS], and SRSS-I5 [subscale scores of the five items to address internalizing behaviors]) and Prosocial Behavior, Motivation to Learn, Reading Skills, and Math Skills subscale scores of the SSiS-PSG. Analysis of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves contrasting students with significant difficulty versus adequate progress suggested the SRSS-IE12 is more accurate for detecting Prosocial Behavior ...
The Circle of Caring Model Medication Adherence in Cardiac Transplant Patients

This column employs a case study approach to examine the application of the circle of caring model in actual nursing practice as it pertains to a medication education teaching plan for a cardiac transplant patient. The circle of caring model is applied by experienced registered nurses. The tailored medication education plan is based on the patient's conceptualized database, understanding patient responses, using a holistic/broadened approach to therapeutics, and considering the patient's views of outcomes. Individualized teaching plans improve patient adherence to complicated medication regimens, thus improving long-term quality of life and survival in transplant recipients.
Ant mutualists alter the composition and attack rate of the parasitoid community for the gall wasp Disholcaspis eldoradensis (Cynipidae)

The strength or density dependence of pairwise species interactions can depend on the presence or absence of other species, especially potential mutualists. 2. The gall wasp Disholcaspis eldoradensis induces plant galls that secrete a sweet honeydew from their top surfaces while the wasp larvae are active. These galls are actively tended by Argentine ants, which collect the honeydew and drive off parasitoids attempting to attack the gall wasp. 3. When ants were excluded, the total rate of parasitism by seven species of parasitoids increased by 36%, and the rate of gall-wasp emergence decreased by 54%. 4. The total percentage parasitism was affected by gall density when ants were excluded but not when ants were unmanipulated, suggesting a change in parasitoid functional responses due to ant tending. 5. In addition, excluding ants significantly altered the proportions of different parasitoid species that emerged from galls; one parasitoid species increased from 1% to 34%, and another decreased from 46% to 19%. 6. The invasive Argentine ants studied are capable of maintaining the mutualism with the gall wasps that evolved in the presence of different ant species and also act as a selective filter for the local community of generalist parasitoids trying to attack this gall species.
Changing the Science Education Paradigm: From Teaching Facts to Engaging the Intellect: Science Education Colloquia Series, Spring 2011

Dr. Jo Handelsman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University, is a long-time devotee of scientific teaching, receiving this year’s Presidential Award for Science Mentoring. She gave a seminar entitled “What is Scientific Teaching? The Changing Landscape of Science Education” as a part of the Scientific Education Colloquia Series in spring 2011. After dissecting what is wrong with the status quo of American scientific education, several ideological and practical changes are proposed, including active learning, regular assessment, diversity, and mentorship.
RUBISCO: Structure, Regulatory Interactions, and Possibilities for a Better Enzyme

■ Abstract Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) catalyzes the first step in net photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and photorespiratory carbon oxidation. The enzyme is notoriously inefficient as a catalyst for the carboxylation of RuBP and is subject to competitive inhibition by O2, inactivation by loss of carbamylation, and dead-end inhibition by RuBP. These inadequacies make Rubisco rate limiting for photosynthesis and an obvious target for increasing agricultural productivity. Resolution of X-ray crystal structures and detailed analysis of divergent, mutant, and hybrid enzymes have increased our insight into the structure/function relationships of Rubisco. The interactions and associations relatively far from the Rubisco active site, including regulatory interactions with Rubisco activase, may present new approaches and strategies for understanding and ultimately improving this complex enzyme.
Propulsive Forces on the Flagellum during Locomotion of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The distributed propulsive forces exerted on the flagellum of the swimming alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by surrounding fluid were estimated from experimental image data. Images of uniflagellate mutant Chlamydomonas cells were obtained at 350 frames/s with 125-nm spatial resolution, and the motion of the cell body and the flagellum were analyzed in the context of low-Reynolds-number fluid mechanics. Wild-type uniflagellate cells, as well as uniflagellate cells lacking inner dynein arms (ida3) or outer dynein arms (oda2) were studied. Ida3 cells exhibit stunted flagellar waveforms, whereas oda2 cells beat with lower frequency. Image registration and sorting algorithms provided high-resolution estimates of the motion of the cell body, as well as detailed kinematics of the flagellum. The swimming cell was modeled as an ellipsoid in Stokes flow, propelled by viscous forces on the flagellum. The normal and tangential components of force on the flagellum (fN and fT) were related by resistive coefficients (CN and CT) to the corresponding components of velocity (VN and VT).The values of these coefficients were estimated by satisfying equilibrium requirements for force and torque on the cell. The estimated values of the resistive coefficients are consistent among all three genotypes and similar to theoretical predictions.
A computational study of the abrupt wing stall (AWS) characteristics for various fighter Jets: part II, AV-8B & F/A-18C

We present analysis of complicated flow fields around two fighter jets AV-8B and F/A-18C using steady state Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations for an understanding of mechanisms triggering abrupt wing stall (AWS). Comparison of stall characteristics of these two different types of aircraft was one of the objectives of this study. Efforts were also made to derive static figures of merit that may be used as quantitative tools to determine the onset and severity of A WS. A companion paper [Parikh, P, et al., (2003)] (Part I of the study) addresses a similar CFD study on two other configurations, the preproduction F/A-18E and the F-16C. Results from these studies, as well as other CFD studies were used to recommend CFD procedures for predicting the onset of A WS, a characterization of its severity, and a means to prevent its occurrence in future aircraft design.
Orton-Gillingham Methodology for Students With Reading Disabilities 30 Years of Case Law

Although numerous studies have investigated autism methodology case law, few studies have investigated case law regarding reading methodology, particularly the Orton-Gillingham approach, for students with reading disabilities. We provide the results of a systematic case analysis of all published Orton-Gillingham decisions from the original passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) through 2005. Results indicate that in the past 30 years, hearing/review officers and courts reviewed 64 Orton-Gillingham cases, with 77% occurring within the last 10 years. Unlike autism methodology cases, districts have won an overwhelming majority (75%). Although inconclusive, the addition of the terms “peer-reviewed research” and “scientifically based research” in the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA may benefit parents in Orton-Gillingham methodology disputes, thus leading to increased litigation. This article concludes with recommendations for reversing the upward trend in the number of Orton-Gillingham reading methodology disputes.
Ice‐bed coupling beneath and beyond ice streams: Byrd Glacier, Antarctica

[1] Ice sheet thickness is determined mainly by the strength of ice-bed coupling that controls holistic transitions from slow sheet flow to fast streamflow to buttressing shelf flow. Byrd Glacier has the largest ice drainage system in Antarctica and is the fastest ice stream entering Ross Ice Shelf. In 2004 two large subglacial lakes at the head of Byrd Glacier suddenly drained and increased the terminal ice velocity of Byrd Glacier from 820 m yr−1 to 900 m yr−1. This resulted in partial ice-bed recoupling above the lakes and partial decoupling along Byrd Glacier. An attempt to quantify this behavior is made using flowband and flowline models in which the controlling variable for ice height above the bed is the floating fraction of ice along the flowband and flowline. Changes in before and after drainage are obtained from available data, but more reliable data in the map plane are required before Byrd Glacier can be modeled adequately. A holistic sliding velocity is derived that depends on , with contributions from ice shearing over coupled beds and ice stretching over uncoupled beds, as is done in state-of-the-art sliding theories.
Determination of zinc and copper in urine using Zeeman effect flame atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Abstract Zinc and copper were determined in urine using polarized Zeeman effect flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. For the zinc assay, urine was diluted 1/10 with deionized water. Concentrations could be determined by comparison to standards in a salt matrix or in a commercial urine control. The linearity of the assay was 350 μg/l, the detection limit was 1.2 μg/l and the within-run relative standard deviation (rsd) was 2.08%, 3.06%, 0.71% and 1.29% for specimens with zinc concentrations of 202 μg/l, 206 μg/l, 1003 μg/l and 1032 μg/l, respectively. The between-run rsd was 2.34% for a mean zinc concentration of 461 μg/l. For the copper assay, urine was aspirated directly and concentrations were determined by standard additions. The linearity of the assay was 5000 μg/l, the detection limit was 4.6 μg/l and the within-run rsd was 24.49%, 16.10%, 4.00% and 3.19% for specimens with copper concentrations of 9.8 μg/l, 11.8 μg/l, 50.0 μg/l and 50.2 μg/l, respectively. The between-run rsd was 8.78% and 4.72% for specimens with copper concentrations of 21.1 μg/l and 40.3 μg/l, respectively.
Teaching Images in Headache: Convexity Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in an Octogenarian.

Keywords: convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage; cerebral venous thrombosis; venous infarct; cerebral amyloid angiopathy; headache; elderly; convexal
Unit Process Life Cycle Inventory (UPLCI) – A Structured Framework to Complete Product Life Cycle Studies

Major life cycle studies of even moderately complex products have been limited to the life cycle of the product materials and possibly assembly of the final product. The intervening manufacturing transformation of materials/chemicals into products is thus a major segment not well represented by life cycle analysis tools. Yet these transformational manufacturing plants are a large and important industrial sector. In contrast the synthesis of chemicals or materials (often representing the supply chain) is well developed on the basis of connected unit processes (reactors, furnaces, heat exchangers, distillation, etc) to make chemical plant life cycle inventories. This paper addresses an international life cycle effort to develop a unit process approach for the manufacturing plant transformations of materials representing the majority of all product manufacturing plants. The UPLCI approach is thus an enabling technology in the life cycle field. This paper discusses the development of the UPLCI structure, recent successful efforts in verifying/improving UPLCI, the challenges of linking these in sequences to represent plants, and combining the manufacturing and the supply chain life cycle profiles. An important part of this effort is the CO2PE! Project which develops UPLCI data sets with a quality assurance system based on in-depth multi-plant field testing.
Transition Maps and Locality

This is a summary of some of the results obtained in [1]. We will deal with quantum measurement theory and the notion of a quantum stochastic process, and the close relationship between the two. The unifying theme will be the concept of a local transition map (to be defined below). We will present the claim that local transition maps are generalized quantum measurements, and state results justifying this claim. Local transition maps in a different context will serve as propagation maps for quantum stochastic processes, leading to the result that quantum stochastic processes (as defined here) necessarily contain quantum measurements. For details and further references on this material, see [1].
SPECIATION BY REINFORCEMENT OF PREMATING ISOLATION.

The generation of premating isolation given partial or complete postzygotic isolation between populations is termed reinforcement or, in the case of complete isolation, reproductive character displacement. In this study we use computer simulations and a multilocus genetic model to reevaluate the theory of reinforcement. We consider the evolution of female preferences for a male secondary sexual trait. If the populations differ in mean female preference, there is direct selection on the preference for further divergence, which may be augmented by a correlated response to sexual selection on males. Two factors prevent divergence. First, if postzygotic isolation is not complete, gene flow can prevent divergence and lead to a hybrid swarm. This is the usual outcome whenever the average number of breeding adult offspring produced by a hybrid mating is sufficient to replace the parents. Second, one or the other population may become extinct because of the large number of hybrid matings it is involved in. The likelihood of extinction is lowered if population growth rates are high, if hybrids are inviable rather than infertile, or under some conditions when allopatric populations provide immigrants into the contact zone. Provided hybrid fitness is suffi- ciently low, there is a wide range of genetic and ecological conditions under which reinforcement rather easily occurs, and also a range under which it may occur because of stochastic effects on both the inheritance parameters and the population sizes.
Sociology and Sociological Research in the South

rial change and improvement, and, on the other hand an opportunity to observe the effects upon the folk of the slowly increasing adoption of scientific research by industrialists and farmers who are interested in the money benefits they expect from it. Attitudes toward the purposes of educational institutions and toward freedom of thought and inquiry are involved here, and the natural scientist is affected by these almost as much as the social scientist. This approach to a study of society through inquiry into one of the most important institutional complexes of modern society offers a rich field both for the student of social life and for the person who is interested in the improvement of the conditions of life, particularly when the area involved is one where need for improvement is great and failure to appreciate and use research seems to be related to the need.
Multiple captures of fulvous harvest mice (Reithrodontomys fulvescens) and northern pygmy mice (Baiomys taylori): evidence for short-term co-traveling

Les captures multiples de petits mammiferes (de >1 animal dans un meme piege) amenent souvent a conclure a une activite de formation de couple chez les rongeurs arvicolines et cricetines. Nous analysons les donnees d'une etude de piegeage de 2 ans afin de determiner si les especes, les souris des moissons fauves (Reithrodontomys fulvescens J.A. Allen, 1894) et(ou) les souris pygmees du Nord (Baiomys taylori (Thomas, 1887)), se deplacent en paires accouplees des deux sexes. Une majorite significative des evenements de captures multiples (MCE) chez R. fulvescens comprenait les deux sexes, alors que la composition des sexes des paires chez B. taylori ne differait pas d'une composition aleatoire. La probabilite des captures multiples est en relation positive significative avec l'abondance, mais non avec le rapport des sexes chez les deux especes. Les captures multiples de B. taylori sont plus nombreuses en hiver, ce qui peut indiquer que les animaux peuvent s'associer afin de se blottir l'un contre l'autre pour se rechauffer. Les masses des individus captures seuls et en groupe ne different pas significativement chez les deux especes, ce qui indique l'absence de biais dans les pieges. Une seule paire de sexes differents prise en couple (R. fulvescens) a ete capturee de nouveau en couple et plusieurs animaux des deux sexes et des deux especes ont ete captures en compagnie de plusieurs autres individus. Nous concluons que les R. fulvescens se deplacent en compagnie de partenaires pour des periodes variables; en revanche, nous ne trouvons aucune indication que les captures multiples de B. taylori soient reliees au comportement reproducteur.
Mark-Recapture Techniques for Population Estimates of Pogonomyrmex Ant Colonies: an Evaluation of the 32P Technique

Population studies of the California harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus (Buckley), were carried out in the summer of 1967. Colonies were excavated to obtain information on population size and structure. The number of workers remained rather constant at about 4500 per colony. Winged reproductives were found in late June just before they swarmed July 7. Estimates of population density were made using the mark-recapture technique with Phosphorous-32. These estimates underestimated the actual population density by 83 to 92% and violated several assumptions of the mark-recapture technique, indicating that this method is unsuitable for population estimations.
Employment as Fiduciary Relationship

Under traditional agency law doctrine, employees are agents of their employers and owe an agent’s concomitant fiduciary duties. Employers, in turn, are merely principals and have no corresponding fiduciary duties. A new wave of thinking has unsettled this approach by concluding that only high-level employees have fiduciary responsibilities to their employers. Taking this controversy as a starting point, this Article reconceives the employment relationship as a mutual fiduciary relationship in which both employers and employees are fiduciaries of one another. Even though current law does not consider employers to be fiduciaries of their employees, employers have long had significant statutory and common-law responsibilities toward their employees that reflect a fiduciary character. Looking to these responsibilities as well as research on the theory of the firm, the Article argues that employers are fiduciaries and must refrain from opportunism, especially when employees have no voice in governance. However, in an organizational setting where employees do participate in governing the firm, it would be appropriate to recalibrate the reciprocal fiduciary duties to require a balanced set of obligations between all parties.
Unikernel monitors: extending minimalism outside of the box

Recently, unikernels have emerged as an exploration of minimalist software stacks to improve the security of applications in the cloud. In this paper, we propose extending the notion of minimalism beyond an individual virtual machine to include the underlying monitor and the interface it exposes. We propose unikernel monitors. Each unikernel is bundled with a tiny, specialized monitor that only contains what the unikernel needs both in terms of interface and implementation. Unikernel monitors improve isolation through minimal interfaces, reduce complexity, and boot unikernels quickly. Our initial prototype, ukvm, is less than 5% the code size of a traditional monitor, and boots MirageOS unikernels in as little as 10ms (8× faster than a traditional monitor).
TU-FG-201-03: Automatic Pre-Delivery Verification Using Statistical Analysis of Consistencies in Treatment Plan Parameters by the Treatment Site and Modality

Purpose: A novel computer software system, namely APDV (Automatic Pre-Delivery Verification), has been developed for verifying patient treatment plan parameters right prior to treatment deliveries in order to automatically detect and prevent catastrophic errors. Methods: APDV is designed to continuously monitor new DICOM plan files on the TMS computer at the treatment console. When new plans to be delivered are detected, APDV checks the consistencies of plan parameters and high-level plan statistics using underlying rules and statistical properties based on given treatment site, technique and modality. These rules were quantitatively derived by retrospectively analyzing all the EBRT treatment plans of the past 8 years at authors’ institution. Therapists and physicists will be notified with a warning message displayed on the TMS computer if any critical errors are detected, and check results, confirmation, together with dismissal actions will be saved into database for further review. Results: APDV was implemented as a stand-alone program using C# to ensure required real time performance. Mean values and standard deviations were quantitatively derived for various plan parameters including MLC usage, MU/cGy radio, beam SSD, beam weighting, and the beam gantry angles (only for lateral targets) per treatment site, technique and modality. 2D-based rules of combined MU/cGy ratio and averaged SSD values were also derived using joint probabilities of confidence error ellipses. The statistics of these major treatment plan parameters quantitatively evaluate the consistency of any treatment plans which facilitates automatic APDV checking procedures. Conclusion: APDV could be useful in detecting and preventing catastrophic errors immediately before treatment deliveries. Future plan including automatic patient identify and patient setup checks after patient daily images are acquired by the machine and become available on the TMS computer. This project is supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under award 1R01HS0222888. The senior author received research grants from ViewRay Inc. and Varian Medical System
The Mamlūks, Last Medieval Dynasty of Arab World

In other than Moslem annals the rise and prosperity of such a dynasty as the Mamlūk is hardly conceivable. Even in these annals it is most remarkable, almost unique. The Mamlūks were, as the name indicates,1 a dynasty of slaves, slaves of varied races and nationalities forming a military oligarchy in an alien land. These slave sultans cleared their Syrian-Egyptian domain of the remnant of the Crusaders. They checked for ever the advance of the redoubtable Mongol hordes of Hūlāgu and of Tīmūr, who might otherwise have changed the entire course of history and culture in Western Asia and Egypt. Because of this check Egypt was spared the devastation that befell Syria and al-‘Irāq and enjoyed a continuity in culture and political institutions which no other Moslem land outside Arabia enjoyed. For about two and three-quarter centuries (1250–1517) the Mamlūks dominated one of the most turbulent areas of the world, keeping themselves all the while racially distinct. Though on the whole uncultured and bloodthirsty, their keen appreciation of art and architecture would have been a credit to any civilized dynasty and makes Cairo even now one of the beauty spots of the Moslem world. And finally, when they were overthrown in 1517 by the Ottoman Salim, the last of the local dynasties that had developed on the ruins of the Arab caliphate expired, clearing the way for the establishment of a new and non-Arab caliphate, that of the Ottoman Turks.
Stabilized Collagen and Elastin-Based Scaffolds for Mitral Valve Tissue Engineering

There is a significant clinical need for new approaches to treatment of mitral valve disease. The aim of this study was to develop a tissue-engineered mitral valve scaffold possessing appropriate composition and structure to ensure ideal characteristics of mitral valves, such as large orifice, rapid opening and closure, maintenance of mitral annulus-papillary muscle continuity, in vivo biocompatibility and extended durability. An extracellular matrix-based scaffold was generated, based on the native porcine mitral valve as starting material and a technique for porcine cell removal without causing damage to the matrix components. To stabilize these structures and slow down their degradation, acellular scaffolds were treated with penta-galloyl glucose (PGG), a well-characterized polyphenol with high affinity for collagen and elastin. Biaxial mechanical testing presented similar characteristics for the PGG-treated scaffolds compared to fresh tissues. The extracellular matrix components, crucial for maintaining the valve shape and function, were well preserved in leaflets, and in chordae, as shown by their resistance to collagenase and elastin. When extracted with strong detergents, the PGG-treated scaffolds released a reduced amount of soluble matrix peptides, compared to untreated scaffolds; this correlated with diminished activation of fibroblasts seeded on scaffolds treated with PGG. Cell-seeded scaffolds conditioned for 5 weeks in a valve bioreactor showed good cell viability. Finally, rat subdermal implantation studies showed that PGG-treated mitral valve scaffolds were biocompatible, nonimmunogenic, noninflammatory, and noncalcifying. In conclusion, a biocompatible mitral valve scaffold was developed, which preserved the biochemical composition and structural integrity of the valve, essential for its highly dynamic mechanical demands, and its biologic durability.
Imaging and shape analysis of the moving human fetal brain in-utero

This paper examines new techniques that allow the formation and analysis of high resolution 3D MR images of the developing human fetal brain in utero, by carrying out object based motion correction of multi-slice MR images of the moving fetal head within deforming maternal tissues. The approaches combine modern fast snapshot slice imaging with techniques derived from computer vision to retrospectively estimate motion of regions within each slice corresponding to the fetal head. The paper specifically examines the problem of reconstructing volume images in cases of highly motion scattered slices where the density of the image data is highly variable. Voxel density maps are calculated and the reconstruction evaluated. Examples are included reconstructing full 3D image volumes from typical multi-slice clinical imaging data.
Positive Bias Temperature Instability Effects in advanced High-k / Metal Gate NMOSFETs

The recent impressive progress in the performance of High-k/Metal Gale (HKMG) transistors and the complicated nature of the multi layer gate material have brought to the forefront of High-k/Metal Gate technology development the issue of reliability and in particular the Positive Bias Temperature Instability (PBTI) [1-7]. Most of theses studies showed a significant positive threshold voltage shift for n-channel MOSFET's subjected to positive bias temperature stressing, which was attributed to the preexisting electron traps in the high-k layer. However, other authors have argued that voltage stress-induced defects generation may also contribute to the device threshold voltage instability [5-7], The effectiveness of stress-induced trap generation in these gate stacks along with the time and voltage dependence of the PBTI induced device degradation still remain controversial issues with the conclusions varying with the applied techniques, test conditions and the gate stack process details. To complicate matters more, conclusions derived from the widely employed high voltage stresses of short duration may no longer be valid for the much lower actual device operation bias conditions. In this work, we propose a novel methodology, where a fast measurement technique for threshold voltage instability characterization (to minimize inaccuracy of the measurements due to the well known relaxation phenomenon [8]) is combined with a fast switching modular level long term stress capability. This approach allowed for the assessment of PBTI for a wide range of stress voltages including those very close to the transistor operational voltage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a thorough PBTI characterization is reported in the literature. We find that although high voltage stress conditions may favor electron trapping as the predominant aging mechanism, as stress bias reduces, another mechanism "kicks in", namely trap generation. Based on these findings, a preliminary semi-empirical PBTI model is proposed which is found to agree well with the obtained experimental data.
JAK2 Inhibition with TG101348 Inhibits Monosomy 7 Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Bone Marrow Cells In Vitro: a Potential Targeted Therapy for Monosomy 7 MDS

Abstract Abstract 973 The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are bone marrow disorders characterized by cytopenias and a variable risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Monosomy 7 is the second most common cytogenetic abnormality in MDS, and the most frequent karyotypic aberration occurring in aplastic anemia patients following immunosuppressive therapy. Monosomy 7 MDS carries a particularly poor prognosis, with patients manifesting severe cytopenias and a high propensity to develop treatment-refractory AML. There are currently no targeted therapies for this disorder. We previously reported that monosomy 7 bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) express high levels of a differentiation-defective granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) receptor isoform (IV), an alternative splice variant that exhibits constitutive signaling through the JAK-2 and STAT-1 pathway, while levels of STAT-3 and -5 are unchanged (Sloand et al, PNAS, 2006, 103:14483). As a result, the cell's ability to differentiate is limited, while its ability to proliferate remains intact. Here we examine the effects of the highly selective JAK2 inhibitor TG101348 on monosomy 7 aneuploidy in BMMNCs, as well as the activity of this compound on CD34+ stem cells and CD13+ myeloid cells in culture, and on the JAK-2 signaling apparatus. Incubation of BMMNCs with TG101348 for 5 days significantly decreased absolute numbers of monosomy 7 aneuploid cells in a concentration dependent manner versus vehicle- treated controls (0.187 × 106 vs 1.08 × 106, P=0.007), while diploid cell numbers remained stable (0.338 × 106 vs 0.213 × 106, P=0.50). Flow cytometry experiments demonstrated that incubation with increasing concentrations of TG101348 decreased the absolute number of CD34+CD13- stem cells, and increased numbers of more differentiated CD34-CD13+ myeloid cells, with median CD34+/CD13+ ratios of 6.547 and 2.216 for cells treated with vehicle and 100 nM TG101348, respectively. By immunoblot, STAT-1 protein expression in monosomy 7 BMMNCs treated with 1uM TG101348 was decreased relative to vehicle- treated controls, while there was no difference in STAT-3 and STAT-5 levels. Thus TG101348 decreases monosomy 7 MDS blasts in vitro through inhibition of JAK-2/STAT-1 signaling, a finding that warrants further study of this agent in clinical trials for patients with monosomy 7 MDS and AML. Download : Download high-res image (114KB) Download : Download full-size image Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
LGG-12. THE RATE OF GROWTH OF UNTREATED PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMORS – A CASE SERIES

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Radiological imaging (MRI or CT scan) provides the first line for diagnosis of brain tumors. Given the uniform fatality of malignant brain tumors, no ethical studies of rate of tumor growth without treatment are possible. Therefore, only observations from natural events can provide a clue to the rate of growth of untreated tumors. A case series of children with earlier brain scans who subsequently developed brain tumors is therefore being presented to gain an understanding of the natural evolution of these tumors. METHOD: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. About 435 tumors treated between January 2005 and December 2015 were screened. All children with previous normal or abnormal brain imaging prior to the “diagnostic scan” were included in the study. Seven patients met the inclusion criteria and their demographic data, histology, and date of previous and diagnostic scan, clinical data including date of surgery were abstracted on to a spread sheet and analyzed for this study. The radiological evolution was reviewed with two attending radiologists. RESULTS: There were 6 males and 1 female. The mean age was 5.95 years (range 6 months to 17 years). Two patients (29%) had gangliogliomas and five patients (71%) had malignant tumors (3 medulloblastomas, one glioblastoma multiforme and one pineoblastoma). The median time from the normal scan to the diagnostic scan was 7 months for the malignant tumors and 64.75 months for the benign tumors (p = 0.37). It was observed that the gangliogliomas also started as diffuse non-enhancing lesions that evolved into the discretely enhancing tumors. CONCLUSION: The time for the evolution of malignant brain tumors is short and WHO I tumors like gangliogliomas are more diffuse than the MRI appearances may suggest.
Climate Change Impact on Natural Disaster Losses

This chapter proposes a methodology to assess the impact of climate change on natural hazards and disaster losses, and applies it to three local case studies: hurricanes in the United States; storm surges in Copenhagen; and heavy precipitation in Mumbai. These three case studies are chosen to illustrate different aspects of the questions and the different tools that can be mobilized to provide inputs and information to decision-makers. The chapter concludes that stronger hazards due to climate change do not need to translate into more or larger disasters, as proactive risk analysis and management approaches can be used to cope with this trend.
How Community Colleges Are Closing the Skills Gap through CTE and STEM Funding Innovations.

This chapter summarizes funding trends to support career and technical education (CTE) and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs at community colleges compared to funding for similar programs at 4-year colleges and universities. Examples of intramural and extramural funding strategies as well as lessons learned and implications of funding innovations are shared focusing on STEM and CTE programs.
WHAT TETRAD CAN DO

This chapter discusses the strengths and limitations of the TETRAD program. It presents a problem using simulated data of TETRAD model. On real data sets, TETRAD sometimes yields results that suggest that no linear model will adequately explain the data. In other cases, the program gives results that suggest that too many linear models will explain the data. In a study explained in the chapter data was generated using SYSTAT BASIC. The simulated data was produced for the exogenous variables with a pseudo-random-number generator distributed normally with mean 0 and variance 1. All other variables were linear combinations of their respective immediate ancestors in the directed graph of the model. The linear coefficients were also chosen at random, although their values for each particular model are non-stochastic constants. Kohn's Class and Conformity describes several large survey studies that investigate the relationships between social class, attitudes, and personality structure.
An interdisciplinary approach to cultural competence education in an academic health center

Described in this paper is an example of integrating humanities into health interventions or clinical care via a Masters course for graduate students in medical education. The paper outlines the background of the authors (a linguist and a family physician) and explores how their diverse experiences have impacted course development. It describes an increasing number of clinical cases in a large academic health center that spotlight cultural discordancy and subsequent barriers to quality clinician-patient communication and decision-making. It focuses on cultural and linguistic competency and demonstrates how these skills enhance our understanding of social determinants of health. Lastly, it identifies new areas for improving the quality of care in our increasingly diverse community.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress contributes to the loss of newborn hippocampal neurons after traumatic brain injury

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis has been shown to be required for certain types of cognitive function. For example, studies have shown that these neurons are critical for pattern separation, the ability to store similar experiences as distinct memories. Although traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been shown to cause the loss of newborn hippocampal neurons, the signaling pathway(s) that triggers their death is unknown. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress activates the PERK-eIF2α pathway that acts to restore ER function and improve cell survival. However, unresolved/intense ER stress activates C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), leading to cell death. We show that TBI causes the death of hippocampal newborn neurons via CHOP. Using CHOP KO mice, we show that loss of CHOP markedly reduces newborn neuron loss after TBI. Injured CHOP mice performed significantly better in a context fear discrimination task compared with injured wild-type mice. In contrast, the PERK inhibitor GSK2606414 exacerbated doublecortin cell loss and worsened contextual discrimination. Administration of guanabenz (which reduces ER stress) to injured male rats reduced the loss of newborn neurons and improved one-trial contextual fear memory. Interestingly, we also found that the surviving newborn neurons in brain-injured animals had dendritic loss, which was not observed in injured CHOP KO mice or in animals treated with guanabenz. These results indicate that ER stress plays a key role in the death of newborn neurons after TBI. Further, these findings indicate that ER stress can alter dendritic arbors, suggesting a role for ER stress in neuroplasticity and dendritic pathologies.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The hippocampus, a structure in the temporal lobe, is critical for learning and memory. The hippocampus is one of only two areas in which neurons are generated in the adult brain. These newborn neurons are required for certain types of memory, and are particularly vulnerable to traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the mechanism(s) that causes the loss of these cells after TBI is poorly understood. We show that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathways are activated in newborn neurons after TBI, and that manipulation of the CHOP cascade improves newborn neuron survival and cognitive outcome. These results suggest that treatments that prevent/resolve ER stress may be beneficial in treating TBI-triggered memory dysfunction.