bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
NASA takes a hit but fuels new initiatives
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

Even though NASA would take about a 1.4% hit from current funding levels, NASA plans to hold onto its ambitions to launch some new starts.For FY 1996, NASA sent Congress a request for $14.26 billion. Science, aeronautics and technology would receive about a 1.1% increase, coming in at about $6 billion, if Clinton gets his way. NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said that NASA will become “less of an operations agency and more of an R&D agency.”
Clinton keeps pledge for NIST
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

Clinton wants a total of $1.023 billion for FY 1996 for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is a 19.8% increase over the current appropriation.In keeping with Clinton's belief in high technology as an engine to create jobs and improve competitiveness, the administration has regularly requested significant growth for NIST. In past years, Congress has granted NIST increases—though lower ones than requested. Of late, some key Republicans have taken to task NIST's cooperative efforts with industry. A bill is already in the works in Congress to rescind some of the FY 1995 funding for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), which is one of NIST's technology development and outreach programs.
Breezy reopening
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

NASA has reopened a newly refurbished wind tunnel that began operating nearly 50 years ago. The 12‐foot Pressure Wind Tunnel at the Ames Research Center was built in 1946 and has tested models of most U.S. commercial aircraft in service over the past half century.The original wind tunnel suffered deterioration of its pressure shell due to extensive use; by 1986, cracks in the tunnel walls had eliminated its pressurization capability. The new wind tunnel was restored at a cost of $115 milion. The project included completely rebuilding the closed‐loop pressure vessel and installing an innovative air lock system around the test section.
Declassified U.S. Navy submarine data aids in Arctic ice study
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

The United States Navy's Cold War maneuvers once again have proven fruitful for science. The Navy's recent declassification of about 20 submarine cruise tracks in the Arctic Ocean—spanning several decades—could provide researchers with a better understanding of how global climate change is affecting the Arctic ice cap, says Mike Ledbetter, National Science Foundation (NSF) program director for Arctic system science.NSF announced in January that data from one track—an April 1992 trans‐Arctic Ocean track—already has been released, and that the task of sanitizing all of the tracks for military sensitivity and making them available to the public should be completed in about 1 1/2 years.
Microbes on ice
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

Two scientists examining deep ice core samples from the Vostok Station about 1,000 km from the South Pole are peering into the Earth's past and also into a harsh environment that is stretching the understanding of where life can exist.If life can be found at Vostok, in ice dating up to 400,000 years old, some scientists say that perhaps life could exist in harsh climates on other planets. With the recent discovery that the Jovian moon, Europa, likely harbors ice and slush, and that there may be water on Mars, interest in research at Vostok Station is increasing.
Name games
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

With an increasing number of space missions, NASA occasionally relies on the public—and schoolchildren in particular— to dream up imaginative names. That technique has paid off nicely in the past. Last summer, for instance, the robotic rover that dawdled across the Martian landscape received the name Sojourner, after abolitionist Sojourner Truth, from a teenager who won a naming contest.NASA currently is holding several name games. AGU and NASA are cosponsoring a contest for schoolchildren in the 8th–12th grades to name the first in a series of Earth Observing System spacecraft, which could be launched as early as the end of 1998. Currently known by the catchy name of EOS‐AM, the satellite will study the Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice, and life as a total integrated system.
Congress approves science agency nominees
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

In late July, with the U.S. Congress rushing toward its recess and preparing for the November elections, the Senate confirmed several nominees for key positions in the government. In addition, President Bill Clinton announced his nominee for director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a division of the Department of the Interior.The Senate confirmed Neal Lane as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Lane also will serve as assistant to the President for science and technology, provide the President with advice in all areas of science and technology policy, and work to coordinate science, space, and technology policy and programs across the federal government. Lane previously was director of the National Science Foundation.
Climate Web sites
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

With the growing interest in extreme climate and weather events, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has set up a one‐stop Web site. It includes data on tornadoes, hurricanes, and heavy rainfall, temperature extremes, global climate change, satellite images, and El Niño and La Niña. The Web address is http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov.Another good climate Web site is the La Niña Home Page. Set up by the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the site includes forecasts, data sources, impacts, and Internet links.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

The Ocean Sciences Section presented the following outstanding student paper awards at the 1998 AGU‐ASLO Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, California, last February.Juli M. Berwald presented a poster titled “The Packet Model for the Downwelling Average Cosine of Irradiance in the Ocean,” coauthored by C. D. Mobley and D. A. Kiefer. Juli received her B.A. in mathematics from Amherst College in 1989. Her doctoral research at the University of Southern California focused on understanding relationships between the inherent and apparent optical properties in the ocean. Most of her work is based on results from radiative transfer calculations which mathematically describe how water and particles affect the magnitude and direction of radiance in the ocean. The Lamina Model of the Downwelling Average Cosine of Irradiance, which formed the basis of her AGU presentation, will be incorporated into a new model for reflectance in the ocean. Juli has also developed models of the average cosine of irradiance in which the effects of scattering and absorption on the shape of the underwater light field are individually identified. In addition, she has investigated the effects of raman scattering on the average cosine and the diffuse attenuation coefficient throughout the water column and into the asymptotic field. Juli's graduate work has been supported by a NASA fellowship in Global Change.
Outstanding student paper awards
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

The Tectonophysics Section presented the following outstanding student paper awards at the 1998 AGU Spring Meeting in Boston, Mass., last May.Paul S. Hall presented a poster titled “Melt Transport at Subduction Zones by Diapiric Flow.” Paul receive his B.A. in physics from The College of Woosterin 1995. He currently is working towards a Ph.D. in geophysics under the supervision of Chris Kincaid at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett. His research focuses on modeling mantel flow at subduction zones and mid‐ocean rides, with an emphasis on incorporating geochemical observable into the physical models, utilizing a combination of laboratory and numerical experiments. Currently, Paul is investigating the geochemical consequences of plume‐ridge interaction through a series of two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical models which incorporate Lagrangian tracer particles to model the melting process.
Is there extraterrestrial life beyond Star Trek?
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

For Star Trek fanatics, extraterrestrials (ETs) are as close as the nearest television set or big screen, where Klingons and other fictional aliens have regular walk‐on roles.Now, the latest “trekkie” movie, “Star Trek: Insurrection,” which opens on December 11 in the United States and Canada, will promote a way for fans around the world to join in on the scientific search for ETs.
In Memoriam
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: September 2022

The potential for using sclerosponges, marine organisms that secrete a hard calcerous skeleton, as paleoclimatic indicators has attracted the interest of a number of scientists. Sclerosponges are composed mainly of calcium carbonate and they are very long lived. Variations in their skeletal chemistry contain proxy information regarding their environment and that information has the potential to augment, if not supplant, data from scleractinian corals in interpreting past water temperature, salinity, and productivity over periods of 100s to 1000s of years.Sclerosponges, or calcified demosponges, contain aragonite or calcite and a small amount of siliceous material. Lang et al. [1975] report that these sponges grow within a reef framework, under coral talus in the shallower parts of a reef less than 55 m deep and on steep surfaces of the fore‐reef between 55 and 145 m deep. The largest and most conspicuous of the sclerosponges described by those authors is Ceratoporella nicholsoni (Figure 1), which is reported to attain a diameter in excess of 1 m. These sponges are similar in growth habit to many massive vanities of scleractinian corals, the live sponge inhabiting the upper portion of the skeleton, while the lower portion of the skeleton is essentially dead.
Tracking toxic chemicals
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

A new report tracking industrial pollution in North America indicates some good news, in terms of downward trends in the release and transfer of these substances.The July report, which tracks 165 chemicals released in the United States and Canada, shows that the total amount of 3.2 million tonnes of chemical releases and transfers from industrial facilities tracked by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) decreased by 2% overall from 1995 to 1998.
Effort to target agricultural runoff through farm legislation
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

The farm bill currently moving through the U.S. Congress could include provisions aimed at significantly reducing nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from agricultural areas, if a bipartisan group of more than 120 members of Congress has its way.The “Working Lands Stewardship Act of 2001” (H.R.2375) would provide more than $6 billion annually to willing farmers to help reduce polluted runoff and restore wetlands.
Water Shortage: Lessons in Conservation From the Great California Drought, 1976–1977
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: September 2022

Legislation moving quickly through both houses of the U.S. Congress would establish a fund to promote and support research and development to increase the security of the nation's water infrastructure from source to faucet.The House of Representatives bill, “The Water Infrastructure Security and Research and Development Act” (HR 3178), would provide $12 million per year for fiscal years 2002–2006 for a number of research areas. These include assessing water supply systems for physical vulnerabilities, including biological, chemical, and radiological contamination; devising real‐time systems to monitor water for contamination; determining mitigation options; and upgrading security technologies.
ISCA2 inhibition decreases HIF and induces ferroptosis in clear cell renal carcinoma
Authors: Green Yangsook Song , Ferreira dos Santos Maria C. , Fuja Daniel G. , Reichert Ethan C. , Campos Alexandre R. , Cowman Sophie J. , Acuña Pilarte Karen , Kohan Jessica , Tripp Sheryl R. , Leibold Elizabeth A. , Sirohi Deepika , Agarwal Neeraj , Liu Xiaohui , Koh Mei Yee 
Published: September 2022

AbstractClear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common form of kidney cancer, is typically initiated by inactivation of the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene, which results in the constitutive activation of the hypoxia inducible factors, HIF-1α and HIF-2α. Using a high throughput screen, we identify novel compounds that decrease HIF-1/2α levels and induce ferroptosis by targeting Iron Sulfur Cluster Assembly 2 (ISCA2), a component of the late mitochondrial Iron Sulfur Cluster (L-ISC) assembly complex. ISCA2 inhibition either pharmacologically or using siRNA decreases HIF-2α protein levels by blocking iron-responsive element (IRE)-dependent translation, and at higher concentrations, also decreases HIF-1α translation through unknown mechanisms. Additionally, ISCA2 inhibition triggers the iron starvation response, resulting in iron/metals overload and death via ferroptosis. ISCA2 levels are decreased in ccRCC compared to normal kidney, and decreased ISCA2 levels are associated with pVHL loss and with sensitivity to ferroptosis induced by ISCA2 inhibition. Strikingly, pharmacological inhibition of ISCA2 using an orally available ISCA2 inhibitor significantly reduced ccRCC xenograft growth in vivo, decreased HIF-α levels and increased lipid peroxidation, suggesting increased ferroptosis in vivo. Thus, the targeting of ISCA2 may be a promising therapeutic strategy to inhibit HIF-1/2α and to induce ferroptosis in pVHL deficient cells.
Vitamin D deficiency and vitamin D receptor FokI polymorphism as risk factors for COVID-19
Authors: Zeidan Nancy M. S. , Lateef Hanan M. Abd El , Selim Dalia M. , Razek Suzan A. , Abd-Elrehim Ghada A. B. , Nashat Mohamed , ElGyar Noha , Waked Nevin M. , Soliman Attia A. , Elhewala Ahmed A. , Shehab Mohamed M. M. , Ibraheem Ahmed A. A. , Shehata Hassan , Yousif Yousif M. , Akeel Nagwa E. , Hashem Mustafa I. A. , Ahmed Amani A. , Emam Ahmed A. , Abdelmohsen Mohamed M. , Ahmed Mohamed F. , Saleh Ahmed S. E. , Eltrawy Heba H. , Shahin Gehan H. , Nabil Rehab M. , Hosny Thoraya A. , Abdelhamed Mohamed R. , Afify Mona R. , Alharbi Mohanned T. , Nagshabandi Mohammed K. , Tarabulsi Muyassar K. , Osman Sherif F. , Abd-Elrazek Amal S. M. , Rashad Manal M. , El-Gaaly Sonya A. A. , Gad Said A. B. , Mohamed Mohamed Y. , Abdelkhalek Khalil , Yousef Aly A. 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Background
Given the sparse data on vitamin D status in pediatric COVID-19, we investigated whether vitamin D deficiency could be a risk factor for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents. We also investigated whether vitamin D receptor (VDR) FokI polymorphism could be a genetic marker for COVID-19 susceptibility.

Methods
One hundred and eighty patients diagnosed to have COVID‐19 and 200 matched control children and adolescents were recruited. Patients were laboratory confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 positive by real-time RT-PCR. All participants were genotyped for VDR Fok1 polymorphism by RT-PCR. Vitamin D status was defined as sufficient for serum 25(OH) D at least 30 ng/mL, insufficient at 21–29 ng/mL, deficient at <20 ng/mL.

Results
Ninety-four patients (52%) had low vitamin D levels with 74 (41%) being deficient and 20 (11%) had vitamin D insufficiency. Vitamin D deficiency was associated with 2.6-fold increased risk for COVID-19 (OR = 2.6; [95% CI 1.96–4.9]; P = 0.002. The FokI FF genotype was significantly more represented in patients compared to control group (OR = 4.05; [95% CI: 1.95–8.55]; P < 0.001).

Conclusions
Vitamin D deficiency and VDR Fok I polymorphism may constitute independent risk factors for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents.

Impact

Vitamin D deficiency could be a modifiable risk factor for COVID-19 in children and adolescents because of its immune-modulatory action.

To our knowledge, ours is the first such study to investigate the VDR Fok I polymorphism in Caucasian children and adolescents with COVID-19.

Vitamin D deficiency and the VDR Fok I polymorphism may constitute independent risk factors for susceptibility to COVID-19 in Egyptian children and adolescents.

Clinical trials should be urgently conducted to test for causality and to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation for prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19 taking into account the VDR polymorphisms.
Should we recommend early overjet reduction to prevent dental trauma?
Authors: Cobourne Martyn T. , DiBiase Andrew T. , Seehra Jadbinder , Papageorgiou Spyridon N. 
Published: September 2022

AbstractThere is an association between increased overjet and risk of trauma to the maxillary incisor teeth in children and adolescents. It would therefore seem sensible to recommend overjet reduction as early as possible to help reduce this risk. However, orthodontic outcomes are essentially the same whether you start treatment in the early or late mixed dentition, while early treatment carries a heavier burden on compliance - taking longer and involving more appointments. This article explores the complex association between early overjet reduction and dental trauma in the context of current best evidence. Careful case selection is advised when justifying early intervention for increased overjet based on reducing trauma risk.
E2F1/CKS2/PTEN signaling axis regulates malignant phenotypes in pediatric retinoblastoma
Authors: Chen Meng , Zhao Zhaozhao , Wu Lianqun , Huang Jiancheng , Yu Peng , Qian Jiang , Ni Ting , Zhao Chen 
Published: September 2022

AbstractRetinoblastoma (RB) is the most common pediatric intraocular malignancy and is a serious vision- and life-threatening disease. The biallelic mutation of the retinoblastoma gene RB1 is the initial event in the malignant transformation of RB, but the exact molecular mechanism is still unclear. E2F transcription factors can be activated by RB1 loss of function and lead to uncontrolled cell division. Among E2F family numbers, E2F1 has higher expression abundance than E2F2 and E2F3 in RB clinical samples. By integrating E2F1 ChIP-seq data, RNA-seq profiling from RB samples and RNA-seq profiling upon E2F1 knockdown, together with pathway analysis, literature searching and experimental validation, we identified Cyclin-dependent kinases regulatory subunit 2 (CKS2) as a novel regulator in regulating tumor-associated phenotypes in RB. CKS2 exhibited aberrantly higher expression in RB. Depletion of CKS2 in Y79 retinoblastoma cell line led to reduced cell proliferation, delayed DNA replication and decreased clonogenic growth. Downregulation of CKS2 also slowed tumor xenograft growth in nude mice. Importantly, reversed expression of CKS2 rescued cancer-associated phenotypes. Mechanistically, transcription factor E2F1 enhanced CKS2 expression through binding to its promoter and CKS2 regulated the cancer-associated PI3K–AKT pathway. This study discovered E2F1/CKS2/PTEN signaling axis regulates malignant phenotypes in pediatric retinoblastoma, and CKS2 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for this disease.
Structural insights into human CCAN complex assembled onto DNA
Authors: Tian Tian , Chen Lili , Dou Zhen , Yang Zhisen , Gao Xinjiao , Yuan Xiao , Wang Chengliang , Liu Ran , Shen Zuojun , Gui Ping , Teng Maikun , Meng Xianlei , Hill Donald L. , Li Lin , Zhang Xuan , Liu Xing , Sun Linfeng , Zang Jianye , Yao Xuebiao 
Published: September 2022

AbstractIn mitosis, accurate chromosome segregation depends on kinetochores that connect centromeric chromatin to spindle microtubules. The centromeres of budding yeast, which are relatively simple, are connected to individual microtubules via a kinetochore constitutive centromere associated network (CCAN). However, the complex centromeres of human chromosomes comprise millions of DNA base pairs and attach to multiple microtubules. Here, by use of cryo-electron microscopy and functional analyses, we reveal the molecular basis of how human CCAN interacts with duplex DNA and facilitates accurate chromosome segregation. The overall structure relates to the cooperative interactions and interdependency of the constituent sub-complexes of the CCAN. The duplex DNA is topologically entrapped by human CCAN. Further, CENP-N does not bind to the RG-loop of CENP-A but to DNA in the CCAN complex. The DNA binding activity is essential for CENP-LN localization to centromere and chromosome segregation during mitosis. Thus, these analyses provide new insights into mechanisms of action underlying kinetochore assembly and function in mitosis.
Genotype–phenotype correlations in WHIM syndrome: a systematic characterization of CXCR4WHIM variants
Authors: Zmajkovicova Katarina , Pawar Sumit , Maier-Munsa Sabine , Maierhofer Barbara , Wiest Ivana , Skerlj Renato , Taveras Arthur G. , Badarau Adriana 
Published: September 2022

AbstractWarts, hypogammaglobulinemia, infections, myelokathexis (WHIM) syndrome is a rare primary immunodeficiency predominantly caused by heterozygous gain-of-function mutations in CXCR4 C-terminus. We assessed genotype–phenotype correlations for known pathogenic CXCR4 variants and in vitro response of each variant to mavorixafor, an investigational CXCR4 antagonist. We used cell-based assays to analyze CXCL12-induced receptor trafficking and downstream signaling of 14 pathogenic CXCR4 variants previously identified in patients with WHIM syndrome. All CXCR4 variants displayed impaired receptor trafficking, hyperactive downstream signaling, and enhanced chemotaxis in response to CXCL12. Mavorixafor inhibited CXCL12-dependent signaling and hyperactivation in cells harboring CXCR4WHIMmutations. A strong correlation was found between CXCR4 internalization defect and severity of blood leukocytopenias and infection susceptibility, and between AKT activation and immunoglobulin A level and CD4+T-cell counts. This study is the first to show WHIM syndrome clinical phenotype variability as a function of bothCXCR4WHIMgenotype diversity and associated functional dysregulation. Our findings suggest that CXCR4 internalization may be used to assess the pathogenicity ofCXCR4variants in vitro and also as a potential WHIM-related disease biomarker. The investigational CXCR4 antagonist mavorixafor inhibited CXCL12-dependent signaling in all tested CXCR4-variant cell lines at clinically relevant concentrations.