cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Functional characterization of the transcriptional regulatory elements of three highly expressed constitutive genes in the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis.

The jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), is an easily reared parasitoid that is providing an ever increasingly malleable model for examining the biology and genetics of Hymenoptera. Utilizing genomic and transcriptome resources, 5' upstream transcriptional regulatory sequences (TREs) from three highly expressed genes were identified and cloned. Criteria for TRE selection included the presence of an adjacent gene 5' of the translation initiation site. One gene was methylated whereas the other two were nonmethylated. Each TRE, heat-shock protein 70 (hsp70), activator of 90 kDa hsp ATPase protein 1 (hsp90A), and lipid storage droplet surface-binding protein 1 (lsdp) was linked with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) coding sequence and cloned into both pDP9e somatic and piggyBac germline transformation vectors. EGFP expression patterns under control of each TRE were compared with patterns of DsRed fluorescence produced from the transformation vector cassette. Functional activity of each TRE was observed in cultured Spodoptera frugiperda 9 (Sf9) cells and Drosophila melanogaster as well as in N. vitripennis embryos demonstrating that all three sequences had functional transcriptional regulatory activity in three different insect orders. Identification and functional characterization of these three TREs will provide critical and necessary resources for further genetic analyses of N. vitripennis, Hymenoptera and other insects.
Fabrication and characterization of microtubular solid oxide cells for CO2/CO redox operations

Ni-cermet fuel electrode-supported microtubular solid oxide cells with single layer Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (SDC) electrolyte and bilayer YSZ/SDC electrolyte are fabricated for CO2/CO redox operations, i.e., NiO–SDC/SDC/PrBaCo2O5+δ and NiO–SDC/YSZ/SDC/PrBaCo2O5+δ, respectively. The substrate fuel electrode features radially well-aligned microchannels, which are open at the inner surface of the substrate, enabling facile fuel/gas diffusion. With CO/CO2 mixture gas as fuel, the SOFC performance of the single layer electrolyte cell is significantly improved over the bilayer electrolyte counterpart. However, due to the current leakage through the SDC electrolyte, the Faraday efficiency of the single layer electrolyte cell in SOEC mode is < 14%, even though the input current is very high at a given applied cell voltage, while the bilayer electrolyte cell may achieve Faraday efficiencies of 90% and above. Other different behaviors are also identified between the two cells. The study also emphasizes the important role of a purely ionic conducting electrolyte for CO2 electrolysis operation with microtubular cells. The substrate NiO–SDC electrode is fabricated using dual-layer spinning extrusion process in combination with phase inversion method. After heat treatment, the substrate electrode features radially well aligned microchannels, open at the inner surface. Built upon substrate electrode, dense and thin film electrolyte layer as well as oxygen electrode layer are fabricated through dip-coating and sintering alternatively, forming microtubular solid oxide cells. CO2/CO redox operations with the fabricated microtubular cells are systematically studied.
Databases Available to Health Professionals for Boron Intake Determinations

Of the ultratrace elements recently reviewed by the Micronutrient Panel of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, boron (B) has been the most extensively studied in regards to its nutritional importance for animals and humans; yet the panel concluded that the data were insufficient to determine an estimated average requirement (EAR) or an adequate intake (AI). An upper intake level (UL) for B was set at 20 mg/day for adults (Food and Nutrition Board, 2001). Methods for the determination of B concentrations in foods have improved in recent years because of advancements in equipment and techniques. To ascertain the nutritional importance of B for humans, data on the boron content of food are needed to update current diet analysis software programs available to health professionals.
Preference for Infant-Directed Speech in Infants With Hearing Aids: Effects of Early Auditory Experience

Purpose It is well established that (a) infants prefer listening to infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and (b) IDS facilitates speech, language, and cognitive developmen...
pH-Sensitive Polymers as Dynamic Mediators of Barriers to Nucleic Acid Delivery

The nonviral delivery of exogenous nucleic acids (NA) into cells for therapeutic purposes has rapidly matured into tangible clinical impact. Synthetic polymers are particularly attractive vectors for NA delivery due to their relatively inexpensive production compared to viral alternatives and their highly tailorable chemical properties; indeed, many preclinical investigations have revealed the primary biological barriers to nonviral NA delivery by systematically varying polymeric material properties. This review focuses on applications of pH-sensitive chemistries that enable polymeric vectors to serially address multiple biological barriers to NA delivery. In particular, we focus on recent innovations with in vivo evaluation that dynamically enable colloidal stability, cellular uptake, endosomal escape, and nucleic acid release. We conclude with a summary of successes to date and projected areas for impactful future research.
A Nitrogen- and Self-Doped Titania Coating Enables the On-Demand Release of Free Radical Species.

For potential applications such as suppressing the onset of peri-implant infections, a doped titania coating was developed to induce free radical release because of its ability for microbial elimination. The coatability of the sol-gel precursor is robust since the suspension's rheology can be modified to attain uniform and complete surface coverage. The coating is composed of a mixture of anatase and rutile polymorphs doped with nitrogen (N3-), and it contains substoichiometric Ti2+ and Ti3+ species. Nitrogen doping results in a 0.4 eV band gap shift, while the defects induce photocurrent generation under visible light excitation up to 650 nm. Greater currents were observed in the nitrogen-doped titania at wavelengths above 450 nm vis-a-vis its (singularly) self-doped counterparts. The (photo)electrochemical behavior and photoactivity of the coating were evaluated by assessing redox species formation in a background aqueous solution. In the absence of any illumination, the coating behaved as an insulator and inhibited the activities of both oxidative and reductive species. On the other hand, under illumination, the coating enhances oxidation processes and inhibits reduction reactions within a near-field region wherein release of free radicals occurs and is constrained (delimited).
The Central Limit Theorem in the Sociology Classroom: A Constructivist Approach

To undergraduate students of sociology, and who are required to take at least one course in research methods, understanding of the CLT requires the successful negotiation of a number of hurdles, lack of training in mathematics in general and mathematical statistics in particular, and a sociological aversion to the “bell curve” or normal distribution. This paper critiques the “sweetening” approaches to conduct experiments that construct the Central Limit Theorem in the classroom. It proceeds to outline a simple type of experiment based on a discrete rectangular population distribution, and offers a proof, understandable to sociology undergraduates, of how a discrete rectangular population distribution gives rise to a continuous sampling distribution.
Provider perspectives on a clinical demonstration project to transition patients with stable mental health conditions to primary care

Research to improve access to mental healthcare often focuses on increasing timely referrals from primary care (PC) to specialty mental health (SMH). However, timely and appropriate transitions back to PC are indispensable for increasing access to SMH for new patients. We developed and implemented a formalized process to identify patients eligible for transition from SMH to PC. The FLOW intervention was piloted at a Veterans Health Administration community-based outpatient clinic. Qualitatively examine provider perspectives regarding patient transitions at initiation and termination of the FLOW project. Sixteen mental health providers and three PC staff completed qualitative interviews about the benefits and drawbacks of FLOW at initiation. Ten mental health providers and one PC staff completed interviews at 12-month follow-up. Primary benefits anticipated at initiation were that FLOW would increase access to SMH, provide acknowledgment of veterans' recovery, and differentiate between higher and lower intensity mental health services. SMH providers reported additional perceived benefits at 12-month follow-up, including decreased stress over their caseloads and increased ability to deliver efficient, effective treatment. Anticipated drawbacks at initiation were that veterans would get inconsistent care, PC could not offer the same level of care as SMH, and veterans might view transition as a rejection by their SMH provider. Perceived drawbacks were similar at 12-month follow-up, but there was less frequent endorsement. Findings highlight need for sustained and frequent provider education regarding (i) the appropriate characteristics of individuals eligible for transition and (ii) established procedures to ensure care coordination during and after transition.
Enriching IB Course Design with Active Learning

Student engagement is most important for effective learning. While this is true for all learning settings, it is particularly true in teaching complex and inter-disciplinary subjects, such as inter...
AIDS Education and the Prevention of Transfusion-Transmitted HIV Infection in the United States

Beginning in 1982—when AIDS was first suspected to be a blood-borne disease—and continuing until the present time, education for blood donors has been a principal public health strategy for preventing transfusion-transmitted HIV infections in the United States. Initially, the U. S. Public Health Service (USPHS) used epidemiological data obtained from studies of unusual opportunistic illnesses in male homosexuals, intravenous drug users and hemophiliacs to formulate preliminary surveillance definitions for “risk groups” for AIDS. These definitions were disseminated as educational messages via the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as by the USPHS Interagency AIDS Task Force, which included the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH). As the regulatory agency of the USPHS, the FDA disseminated regulatory communications about AIDS and transfusion-transmitted HIV infection for implementation by FDA-licensed blood collection sites. National organizations representing blood collectors, namely, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), American Red Cross (ARC), and the Council of Community Blood Centers (CCBC) promulgated these educational messages to constituent blood centers and blood banks. The following chapter presents a chronology of the development of these various education programs, their rationale, and their evolution as new scientific information became available. The unique interactions of the federal regulatory agency (FDA), the blood collection organizations (AABB, ARC, CCBC) and the public reflect norms of the American culture during the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Opening Doors to Foreign Students: An Insight into the History of US Government’s Stance on International Students

On July 20, 2005, the US government provided an unprecedented and relatively uncharacteristic act by passing an “Opening Doors to Foreign Students Act.” The event that had spurred this addition to an amendment was an alarming sudden decrease in international student enrollment in the US in the years 2004–2005. This was the first time the US government had ever directly addressed the need for an active promotion of welcoming foreign students into the United States. The goal of this paper is to understand this change through a historical analysis of government’s actions on international education since World War II. In this understanding, the second goal is to explore how this sheds light to the occurrence of declining international students in the US today and the US government’s contribution to this trend. Through the exploration, the research has led to three conclusions: First, the US government has historically overlooked the international student community because politically and publicly the community had a nonthreatening nature and was systematically benefiting the US. Second, the September 11 attack was an event that caught both the public and government attention on the foreign students. The attention was dual in nature: the international student community became a potential threatening entity as well as an integral part of the US academic, economic, and political system. Third, while the very act of government’s oversight is what has allowed the international student community to become a presence to be acknowledged, moving forward, despite the Open Doors Act, regulation has been the main concern as opposed to support and “opening doors.”
Challenges of Developing a Natural Language Processing Method With Electronic Health Records to Identify Persons With Chronic Mobility Disability.

Abstract Objective To assess the utility of applying natural language processing (NLP) to electronic health records (EHRs) to identify individuals with chronic mobility disability. Design We used EHRs from the Research Patient Data Repository, which contains EHRs from a large Massachusetts health care delivery system. This analysis was part of a larger study assessing the effects of disability on diagnosis of colorectal cancer. We applied NLP text extraction software to longitudinal EHRs of colorectal cancer patients to identify persons who use a wheelchair (our indicator of mobility disability for this analysis). We manually reviewed the clinical notes identified by NLP using directed content analysis to identify true cases using wheelchairs, duration or chronicity of use, and documentation quality. Setting EHRs from large health care delivery system Participants Patients (N=14,877) 21-75 years old who were newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 2005 and 2017. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Confirmation of patients’ chronic wheelchair use in NLP-flagged notes; quality of disability documentation. Results We identified 14,877 patients with colorectal cancer with 303,182 associated clinical notes. NLP screening identified 1482 (0.5%) notes that contained 1+ wheelchair-associated keyword. These notes were associated with 420 patients (2.8% of colorectal cancer population). Of the 1482 notes, 286 (19.3%, representing 105 patients, 0.7% of the total) contained documentation of reason for wheelchair use and duration. Directed content analysis identified 3 themes concerning disability documentation: (1) wheelchair keywords used in specific EHR contexts; (2) reason for wheelchair not clearly stated; and (3) duration of wheelchair use not consistently documented. Conclusions NLP offers an option to screen for patients with chronic mobility disability in much less time than required by manual chart review. Nonetheless, manual chart review must confirm that flagged patients have chronic mobility disability (are not false positives). Notes, however, often have inadequate disability documentation.
Immunomodulatory Medication Use in Newly Diagnosed Youth With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Objective To examine glucocorticoid-sparing immunomodulatory medication use in youth with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) during their first year of care. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using administrative claims for 2000 to 2013 from ClinformaticsTM DataMart for youth ages 10-24 years with an incident diagnosis of SLE (≥ 3 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes for SLE (710.0), each > 30 days apart). We determined the proportion of subjects filling a prescription for immunomodulatory medications within 12 months of the first SLE code (index date). We used multivariable regression to examine associations between demographic/disease factors and i) time to prescription fill in the first year, and ii) prescription fill at any time after the index date. Results We identified 532 youth with an incident SLE diagnosis, of which 413 (78%) had an glucocorticoid-sparing immunomodulatory prescription fill in the first year. Prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and immunosuppressants were filled in the first year by 366 (69%) and 182 (34%) of youth, respectively. Those with adult-onset (vs childhood-onset) disease were less likely to fill an immunomodulatory medication by 12 months. No other statistically significant associations were found, though there was increasing likelihood of immunomodulatory medication fills with each subsequent calendar year. Conclusion Among youth with newly-diagnosed SLE, hydroxychloroquine use is prevalent although not universal, and prescription immunosuppressant use is notably low during the first year of care. Further research is needed to identify factors contributing to suboptimal immunomodulatory medication use during the first year of care.
The collapse of Teotihuacan and the regeneration of Epiclassic societies: a Bayesian approach

Abstract The collapse of premodern states is an enduring theme of archaeological research, and it is increasingly clear that understanding how states dissolve requires research at sites beyond regional capitals, as well as attention to subsequent developments. Recent literature reflects substantial interest in the ways in which people rebuild communities after states break down and in how the legacies of failed states influence processes of regeneration. Here, I examine the transformation of communities in the Basin of Mexico in response to the fragmentation of the Teotihuacan state system during the 500s CE. I focus on the development of Chicoloapan, a large settlement in the southern Basin that expanded as the state declined. Demographic growth, changes to the built environment, and shifting practices at Chicoloapan reflect decisions made by local residents amid severe regional instability and infrastructural disruption. A temporal framework for the reorganization of the Chicoloapan community is presented, based on the Bayesian modeling of 24 radiocarbon dates from residential contexts. These dates reveal a spate of local construction activity in the 600s CE. This research advances knowledge of the close relationship between the deterioration of a centralized state and the development of new communities, practices, and identities.
Electrocardiogram screening for aortic valve stenosis using artificial intelligence.

Aims Early detection of aortic stenosis (AS) is becoming increasingly important with a better outcome after aortic valve replacement in asymptomatic severe AS patients and a poor outcome in moderate AS. We aimed to develop artificial intelligence-enabled electrocardiogram (AI-ECG) using a convolutional neural network to identify patients with moderate to severe AS. Methods and results Between 1989 and 2019, 258 607 adults [mean age 63 ± 16.3 years; women 122 790 (48%)] with an echocardiography and an ECG performed within 180 days were identified from the Mayo Clinic database. Moderate to severe AS by echocardiography was present in 9723 (3.7%) patients. Artificial intelligence training was performed in 129 788 (50%), validation in 25 893 (10%), and testing in 102 926 (40%) randomly selected subjects. In the test group, the AI-ECG labelled 3833 (3.7%) patients as positive with the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.85. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 78%, 74%, and 74%, respectively. The sensitivity increased and the specificity decreased as age increased. Women had lower sensitivity but higher specificity compared with men at any age groups. The model performance increased when age and sex were added to the model (AUC 0.87), which further increased to 0.90 in patients without hypertension. Patients with false-positive AI-ECGs had twice the risk for developing moderate or severe AS in 15 years compared with true negative AI-ECGs (hazard ratio 2.18, 95% confidence interval 1.90-2.50). Conclusion An AI-ECG can identify patients with moderate or severe AS and may serve as a powerful screening tool for AS in the community.
Effect of precipitation on received water at a sewage treatment plant

In this study, the precipitation effects because of the weather variations and receiving water volumes collected by the sewage treatment plants were examined to obtain the knowledge required for improving the construction of the ideal sewage plants located in cool climates. The weather and water quantity data were acquired from the Meteorological Society of Japan and the Mombetsu Aqua Center, respectively. The results showed a positive correlation between the amount of water reaching the plant and the precipitation between May and November. The correlations of the data obtained from January to April were not considerable. Because the sewage system in the Mombestu Aqua Centre was combined, the release of rainwater to rivers or sea was considered necessary for protecting the city area from flooding, and maintaining the water treatment and storage facilities in response to a potential influx from rain during cool months was prioritized. Further, the relation trends were analyzed to obtain an improved picture of the long-term weather forecasts at the sewage treatment plant. Therefore, these results are important for maintaining sewage plants in cold regions, especially in places with a high degree of snowfall during winter.
Spread Spectrum Symbol Detection With Blind Interference Suppression in FBMC-SS

Recent works have demonstrated Filter Bank Multicarrier Spread Spectrum (FBMC-SS) to be a robust communication scheme in the presence of high-power interferers. Existing FBMC-SS symbol detector designs based on analysis filter banks (AFB) suggest using an optimal combining scheme to suppress the interferers, necessitating some noise/interference power estimation method. In this paper, we introduce a symbol detector with blind interference suppression by extending a recently developed packet detection method. We then provide an analysis to show that the existing AFB-based symbol detector and the one proposed in this paper are equivalent in typical usage scenarios. A fully-fledged receiver design is proposed utilizing this symbol detector, with specifics presented for estimation of the channel impulse response and carrier frequency offset (CFO). We also outline a method of iterating upon the channel and CFO estimations to improve the quality of both parameters. Moreover, a modification to allow improved performance of the symbol detector at high SNR is provided. Finally, simulated performance results are presented to corroborate these findings and demonstrate the efficiency of this receiver design.
How racism against bipoc women faculty operates in social work academia

In this article, we seek to highlight the ways in which we, as two female social work faculty members whose racial/ethnic identities fall into the categories of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), have experienced racism and White supremacy within predominantly White institutions in the United States. We seek to clarify that these experiences are not unique to any particular institution or university, but rather reflect systemic racism and the upholding of White supremacy in higher education in social work throughout the United States. We highlight the differential vulnerability faced by BIPOC women in academia, which are often unaddressed in the pursuit of what is seen to be an egalitarian or colorblind merit review. Bearing in mind our reflexivity on our positionalities, we share personal narratives regarding our own marginalization within White spaces and the emotional labor that we are often asked to carry for the institutions within which we work. We will elucidate experiences of tokenization or assumed intellectual inferiority by our peers. Given the current sociopolitical moment and the heightened awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within universities, we also reflect on how institutions of higher education, and particularly schools of social work, can move beyond simply hiring more people of color or conducting diversity trainings to ensuring that BIPOC women are more fully included in their roles within universities as faculty, administrators, staff and students.
Fostering of innovative usability testing to develop mobile application for mobile collaborative learning (MCL)

Emergence of latest technologies has diverted the focus of people form Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) to mobilesupported collaborative learning. MCL is highly demanded in educational organizations to substantiate the pedagogical activities. Some of the MCL supportive architectures including applications are introduced in several fields to improve the activities of those organizations but they need more concise paradigm to support both types of collaboration: synchronous and asynchronous. This paper introduces the new preusability testing method that provides educational support and gives complete picture for developing new pedagogical group application for MCL. The feature of application includes asynchronous and synchronous collaboration support. To validate the features of application, we conduct the post usability testing and heuristic evaluation, which helps in collecting the empirical data to prove the effectiveness and suitability of Group application. Further, application aims to improve learning impact and educate people at anytime and anywhere. General terms: theory, design and development of collaborative learning and usability testing.
A comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four different types of intensive care units in a children's hospital.

UNLABELLED This paper reports a comparative study of occupancy and patient care quality in four types of intensive care units in a children's hospital,: an Infant Care Center (ICC), a Medical/Surgical (Med/Surg) unit, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), each featuring a mix of multi-bed and private room (PR) patient care environments. The project is prompted by interest by the project sponsor in a pre-occupancy analysis, before the units are upgraded to exclusive PR designs. Methods comprised, for each unit: (1) observations of ergonomic design features; (2) task activity analyses of job performance of selected staff; and (3) use of a survey to collect perceptions by unit nursing and house staff (HS) of indicators of occupancy and patient care quality. CONCLUSIONS (1) the five most common task activities are interaction with patients, charting, and interaction with equipment, co-workers and family members; (2) job satisfaction, patient care, work environment, job, patient care team interaction, and general occupancy quality rankings by ICC and/or NICU respondents are significantly higher than those by other staff respondents; and (3) ergonomic design shortcomings noted are excess noise, problems with equipment, and work environment, job-related health, and patient care quality issues.
Specification and estimation of dynamic demand systems incorporating polynomial price response functions: An application to U.S. clothing imports☆

Abstract Numerous recent empirical demand studies utilize the habit formation and state variable approaches to describe dynamic demand behavior. In this paper, we suggest the introduction of polynomial price response functions as an alternative method of generating dynamic conditional demand systems. This approach allows direct estimation of the degree of price substitutability among products and the timing of price effects. The application presented here involves the estimation of dynamic CES and indirect additive translog demand systems for U.S. clothing imports. The estimated price response lag structures and matrices of long-run price elasticities are presented and analyzed. Also, the precision of the non-parametric price elasticity estimates is evaluated by computing approximate asymptotic standard errors.
Possibility of Calculating System Maps Using Gradient Elution Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatography

Gradient elution is explored as a rapid method for calculating system constants of the solvation parameter model for reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Linear solvent-strength theory is used to relate gradient retention times to system properties and to predict isocratic retention factors for the calculation of system maps. The combination of linear solvent strength theory and the solvation parameter model provides only a poor model for gradient retention times. A significant source of uncertainty in these models is the variation of the solute-dependent ratio (column hold-up time / gradient steepness parameter), and to a lesser extent, non-linearity in the plots of retention factors (log k) against mobile phase composition. Reasonable agreement between gradient predicted and experimental isocaratic retention factors was obtained when plots of the isocratic retention factors (log k) against mobile phase composition are linear. But even in this case, small systematic differences in the calculated system constants with increasing volume fraction of the strong solvent were observed. When plots of the isocratic retention factors against mobile phase composition are non-linear, the retention factors estimated by linear solvent strength theory yield system constants that contain significant error, producing fictitious system maps. Consequently, none of the methods studied is recommended for the fast and reliable calculation of system maps or solute descriptors by gradient elution reversed-phase liquid chromatography.
The Biology and Non-Chemical Control of Dock Species Rumex obtusifolius and R. crispus

ABSTRACT Rumex obtusifolius and R. crispus are easily established perennials and otherwise demonstrate life cycle strategies that enable them to reproduce vigorously and persist as seed in the soil. They are weeds when they reduce the feeding value of a sward or contaminate other crops. Many agricultural activities tend to increase the incidence of docks. Population studies consider germination, dormancy, geographical variation, seedling emergence, seed size and competitiveness. Beetles (Gastrophysa spp.) and a rust fungus (Uromyces rumicis) are amongst those organisms studied as possible agents for biological control. Cultural controls include (i) hand pulling, (ii) a series of planned rotovations and fallowing to remove existing plants and prevent seeding and (iii) land management to reduce establishment. No single method of control has been perfected and it may be that combinations of controls will prove most effective.
Metastatic squamous‐cell carcinoma in pericardial effusion: Report of four cases, two with cardiac tamponade

For reasons unknown, metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma is a rare cause of pleural effusions and is even less common in pericardial effusions. A review of all pericardial effusions examined in the Cytology Service at Montefiore Medical Center over a 15-year (1980-1994) period was undertaken (N = 251). Four cases with metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma were identified among 39 malignant effusions. Two patients with metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma presented with cardiac tamponade, and the other two cases had progressive cardiac failure. The diagnostic cells on cytology evaluation were scant in all four cases but exhibited classical features of metastatic squamous carcinoma, such as cytoplasmic keratinization, intercellular bridges, and occasional "pearl" formation. Pericardial biopsies available in three patients, two with cardiac failure and one with cardiac tamponade, were negative. In all four cases the primary tumor was a bronchogenic carcinoma. Metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma is an uncommon cause of pericardial effusion and usually indicates the presence of a bronchogenic carcinoma with a rapidly fatal outcome. Cytologic examination of pericardial fluid is essential in the evaluation of such patients.
Southwestern Internal Medicine Conference: The Prognosis and Complications of Pregnancy in Women with Renal Disease

ABSTRACT During the past 20 years it has become apparent that successful pregnancy is possible in many women with chronic renal disease. The single most important prognostic factor appears to be the GFR at the time of conception. Women with normal or near normal GFR may experience a higher incidence of gestational hypertension and proteinuria than normals, but the overall fetal and maternal morbidity is similar to the general population. The same is true for women with SLE whose disease has been inactive for at least 6 months preceding pregnancy. Active SLE is associated with a high rate of maternal and fetal morbidity. Pregnancy among women with moderate to severe renal insufficiency is unusual and associated with a high rate of maternal complications and fetal death. Nephrosis and hypertension are commmon features of pregnancy in those with renal disease. In both cases, conservative management with bed rest and early delivery appear to produce the most satisfactory results. Antihypertensive medications may be necessary in a few cases, but almost all such agents are associated with undesirable side-effects to the fetus, the mother, or both. Renal allograft recipients with stable renal function and good general health often experience uncomplicated pregnancies. Immunosuppressive medications apparently do not increase the incidence of congenital malformation but may be associated with significant neonatal problems.
Menstrual Cycle Effects on Catecholamine and Cardiovascular Responses to Acute Stress in Black but Not White Normotensive Women

This study examined cardiovascular and catecholamine responses to two standardized laboratory stressors in 33 healthy age- and weight-matched black and white normotensive women (mean age, 32 years) during two phases of the menstrual cycle. Subjects were studied in a randomized order at the same time of day on two separate occasions approximately six weeks apart, once during the follicular phase (days 7 to 10 after menses) and once during the luteal phase (days 7 to 10 after the leutenizing hormone surge) of the menstrual cycle. Black women has higher systolic (P=.01) and diastolic (P=.01) pressures compared with white women. Black women showed greater diastolic pressure (P <.01) and plasma epinephrine (P <.05) responses to stress during the follicular compared with the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle; white women showed no significant changes in these variables. The findings extend the literature on race differences in responsivity to stress and indicate that in contrast to white women, reproductive hormones do influence cardiovascular and catecholamine responsivity to stress in black women.
Bede's Vera Lex Historiae

Early England, no one had questioned the view that this "true law of history" was evidence of critical scholarship, of "the transparent good faith," as Charles Plummer wrote, with which Bede used hearsay sources.2 Nor had much more been said about it, except to note that in Bede's writings the words vera lex historiae first appear in the commentary on Luke. There Bede explains that the Evangelist, "opinionem vulgi exprimens, quae vera historiae lex est," spoke in 2.33-34 as if Joseph were the natural father of Jesus.3 Plummer and Wilhelm Levison quoted this passage from In Lucam but gave no estimate of its possible importance for the preface of the HE.4 For Jones the comment on Luke 2 lay at the heart of Bede's historiography.5 He found that the vera lex historiae of In Lucam came verbatim frorn Jerome's Adversus Helvidium. In this tract Bede learned, said Jones, that "the true law of history" led the Evangelists to teach theology and morals through popular information whose factual truth was unimportant. The New Testament narrators, when they spoke as though Jesus had a human father, even made heretical opinio vulgi serve a didactic purpose. Thus the vera lex historiae of the HE, "in consonance with the Gospels, is to express the common view - to use accepted symbols for attaining the ideal end, though the words may not be
Malignant Autosomal Recessive Osteopetrosis Caused by Spontaneous Mutation of Murine Rank

We report the first case of lethal autosomal recessive osteopetrosis in mice caused by a spontaneous 8-bp deletion in exon 2 of the Rank gene. The phenotype, including a block in RANKL-dependent osteoclast differentiation and lymph node agenesis, copies that of Rank−/− mice, which have been produced by targeted recombination. Introduction: Commitment of osteoclast progenitors to the osteoclast lineage requires RANKL/RANK-mediated intercellular signals. Gene-targeted defects in this signaling pathway resulted in osteoclast deficiency and severe osteopetrosis in mice, but to date, there have been no reports of spontaneous mutations in Rankl or Rank resulting in osteopetrosis. Materials and Methods: Mice with malignant osteopetrosis and absent lymph nodes appeared spontaneously in a highly inbred colony. Appropriate crosses were analyzed to establish the pattern of inheritance. Tissues from affected pups and littermates were evaluated grossly, histopathologically, and radiographically. Osteoclast development from splenocytes was tested in vitro under a variety of conditions, including after infection with RANK-encoding retrovirus. Rank mutational analysis was performed by direct sequencing of RT-PCR products and genomic DNA. Results: The inheritance pattern was consistent with autosomal recessive inheritance, and the phenotype resembled that of either Rankl or Rank knockout mice with the exception of as yet unexplained death of most mice 2–3 weeks after weaning. Osteoclast precursors from the spleens of affected pups failed to form osteoclasts in vitro when stimulated with macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and RANKL, unless they were forced to express wildtype Rank cDNA. Molecular genetic studies identified an 8-bp deletion in exon 2 of the Rank gene. The resulting allele, termed Rankdel8, encodes only a small portion of the RANK extracellular domain, which is probably nonfunctional. Conclusions: The phenotypic similarities between Rankdel8 and mice previously described with a combined insertion and deletion in Rank confirm the role of this receptor in osteoclastogenesis and lymph node development and suggest that some forms of malignant osteopetrosis in humans could result from a similar defect.
BenSOA: A flexible service-oriented architecture for power system asset management

Efficient operation and management of a distributed power grid calls for a Smart Grid that can extend the functionality of the grid enhance its reliability, security, efficiency, and adaptability. Such a Smart Grid requires a flexible platform for leveraging the disparate information sources (e.g. online equipment monitoring, weather data) as well as sophisticated decision algorithms, to enable their seamless interaction. In this paper, we present BenSOA, a flexible framework for power asset management that employs two complementary mathematical and technological tools — Bender's decomposition and Service Oriented Architecture — to provide a promising approach for the implementation of a Smart Grid. We motivate and describe the design of BenSOA and show how BenSOA can be used to implement decision processes such as risk-based optimal power flow in a Smart Grid.
A modern history of written discourse analysis

Abstract The term discourse analysis has been used interchangeably in two separate contexts — spoken discourse (i.e., multiple-source dialogic) and written discourse (i.e., single-source monologic). Such a distinction, however, oversimplifies the situation; while there are obvious overlaps between the two, to some extent each has evolved in its own direction. Written discourse analysis, the subject of our discussion, is obviously closely connected with work in literacy, but it implicates a great heterogeneity of topics and approaches, including at least some from psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Discourse analysis, in the sense in which we are using it, emerged in the early 1970s. A modern history of written discourse analysis is perhaps best covered within a 40–50-year time span. In the course of that time, a number of new and emerging disciplines and research fields have contributed to systematic analyses of the linguistic features and patterns occurring in written texts. At the same time, other continuing disciplines have provided contributions that have been important and are ongoing. It should be fairly evident that any attempt to cover such a broad spectrum of views and disciplines would not be appropriate in a single article. We therefore intend to limit the scope of this paper to analyses of written discourse that explore the actual structuring of the text via some consistent framework. Our goal is to highlight and describe historically the various efforts to find the structures and linguistic patterns in texts that contribute to how they are understood, interpreted, and used. It seems to us that, in order to comprehend what has happened in the context of L2 writing research, it is necessary to understand the extensive work that has been done in discourse analysis.
Signatures of natural and unnatural selection: evidence from an immune system gene in African buffalo

Pathogens often have negative effects on wildlife populations, and disease management strategies are important for mitigating opportunities for pathogen transmission. Bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis; BTB) is widespread among African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) populations in southern Africa, and strategies for managing this disease vary. In two high profile parks, Kruger National Park (KNP) and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HIP), BTB is either not actively managed (KNP) or managed using a test-and-cull program (HIP). Exploiting this variation in management tactics, we investigated potential evolutionary consequences of BTB and BTB management on buffalo by examining genetic diversity at IFNG, a locus which codes for interferon gamma, a signaling molecule vital in the immune response to BTB. Both heterozygosity and allelic richness were significantly and positively correlated with chromosomal distance from IFNG in KNP, suggesting that directional selection is acting on IFNG among buffalo in this park. While we did not see the same reduction in genetic variation around IFNG in HIP, we found evidence of a recent bottleneck, which might have eroded this signature due to genome-wide reductions in diversity. In KNP, alleles at IFNG were in significant gametic disequilibrium at both short and long chromosomal distances, but no statistically significant gametic disequilibrium was associated with IFNG in HIP. When, we compared genetic diversity between culled and non-culled subsets of HIP animals, we also found that individuals in the culled group had more rare alleles than those in the non-culled group, and that these rare alleles occurred at higher frequency. The observed excess of rare alleles in culled buffalo and the patterns of gametic disequilibrium in HIP suggest that management may be eroding immunogenetic diversity, disrupting haplotype associations in this population. Taken together, our results suggest that both infectious diseases and disease management strategies can influence host genetic diversity with important evolutionary consequences.
Spin-extended and configuration-interaction studies of first-row atoms

Energies and spin densities at the nucleus have been calculated by the spin-extended Hartree-Fock (SEHF) method for the ground states of Li, B, C, N, O, and F, and by configuration-interaction (CI) methods for B. The SEHF energies are only slightly lower than restricted Hartree–Fock energies. The SEHF method yields a good spin density for Li, but for the other atoms the results are strongly basis-set dependent. The CI calculations yield good correlation energies, but erratic spin densities. When applied in connection with pair-correlation methods, the CI studies indicate good additivity for one-particle and pair contributions to the energy, but not to the spin density. Valence-shell CI'S are applied to the ground states of B, B-, N, N-, O, and O-, and the results used to estimate electron affinities of B, N, and O.
Racial and gender differences in pressure ulcer development among nursing home residents in the Southeastern United States.

Objective: To determine whether there is a difference in the incidence of pressure ulcers (PU) between African American (AA) and White nursing home (NH) residents in the Southeastern United States. Methods: Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Minimum Data Set were examined for 113,869 residents who were free of PU at NH admission during 1999–2002. Facility and neighborhood characteristics were abstracted from the Online Survey Certification and Reporting database and the 2000 U.S. Census respectively. Results: The incidence of PU in NH among AAs and Whites was 4.7% (95% CI: 4.4–5.0) and 3.4 % (95% CI: 3.3–3.5) respectively. The association between race and PU development varied between males and females. Differences were noted between AA and White males who were dependent in mobility and between AA and White females who were bedfast and resided in facilities with less than 200 beds. Unlike for females, facility and neighborhood characteristics were not significant confounders in risk ...
Neurotrophins and the dynamic regulation of the neuronal cytoskeleton.

The morphology of neuronal axons and dendrites is dependent on the dynamics of the cy- toskeleton. An understanding of neurodevelopment and adult neuroplasticity must therefore include a detailed description of the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms that regulate the organization and dynamics of actin filaments and microtubules. In this paper we review recent advances in the understanding of the dynamic regulation of neuronal morphology by interactions among cytoskeletal components and the regulation of the cytoskeleton by neurotrophins. © 2000 John Wiley &
Pyroptotic cell death defends against intracellular pathogens

Inflammatory caspases play a central role in innate immunity by responding to cytosolic signals and initiating a twofold response. First, caspase-1 induces the activation and secretion of the two prominent pro-inflammatory cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18. Second, either caspase-1 or caspase-11 can trigger a form of lytic, programmed cell death called pyroptosis. Pyroptosis operates to remove the replication niche of intracellular pathogens, making them susceptible to phagocytosis and killing by a secondary phagocyte. However, aberrant, systemic activation of pyroptosis in vivo may contribute to sepsis. Emphasizing the efficiency of inflammasome detection of microbial infections, many pathogens have evolved to avoid or subvert pyroptosis. This review focuses on molecular and morphological characteristics of pyroptosis and the individual inflammasomes and their contribution to defense against infection in mice and humans.