cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Present of Things Future: Reflections on Teaching About Aging to Students in Their Twenties

Organized around three course objectives are six activities/assignments the author has found useful in promoting affective learning outcomes in introductory courses on aging. The intent in developing these approaches was to address particular postures toward aging and the aged often displayed by students in their late teens and early twenties. In addition to describing these activities and assignments, the author reflects on student feedback in terms of the promise these activities and assignments hold for enabling students to more clearly discern their personal futures as older adults, and for motivating them to make changes in their present lives that will ensure successful aging in the future. Compared to the experience of teaching human development courses where the content centers on the first two decades of life, faculty who teach introductory undergraduate courses on aging often encounter student postures that require special pedagogical approaches. The term ―postures‖ refers collectively to a host of beliefs and attitudes about aging and the aged. In this paper, I share some of these approaches in the form of class activities and assignments that students have said in retrospect were thought-provoking and impactful. These activities and assignments are organized around three course objectives: Future time perspective and personal futurity, ageism and expectations about aging, and life course variability resulting from socio- historical influences. Admittedly, these are not the only course objectives undergirding an introductory course on aging, but they represent objectives designed to promote affective learning outcomes and address particular postures held by many students who have not yet celebrated their 25th birthday. Course Objective #1: Fostering a Sense of Personal Futurity
Longitudinal far red gene-reporter imaging of cancer metastasis in preclinical models: a tool for accelerating drug discovery

In this short communication, we demonstrate for the first time, the use of far red fluorescent gene reporter, iRFP to longitudinally and non-invasively track the in vivo process of lymphatic metastases from an orthotopic site of mammary implantation through lymphatic vessels and to draining lymph nodes. Potentially useful to accelerate cancer drug discovery as an in vivo screening tool to monitor the pharmacological arrest of metastasis, we show that the custom as well as commercial small animal imaging devices have adequate performance to detect the gene reporter in stably expressing metastatic cancer cells.
The development of arylsulphatase in the small intestine of the rat.

1. Arylsulphatase activity was measured in stomach, proximal and distal third of small intestine, colon, liver and kidney of foetal and neonatal Sprague–Dawley rats and Swiss mice, with nitrocatechol sulphate as substrate. 2. The specific activity in the distal small intestine, but not in the stomach, proximal small intestine or colon, increased about fourfold between 5 and 16 days after birth in both conventional and germ-free rats. 3. No comparable increase occurred in the distal small intestine of the mouse. 4. The specific activity of acid phosphatase in the distal small intestine of the rat rose only slightly when the arylsulphatase activity increased. 5. The pH optimum and Michaelis constant of arylsulphatase activity of the distal small intestine were similar for 1-day-old, 9-day-old and adult rats. 6. When extracts of distal small intestine of 1-day-old and 9-day-old rats were incubated together, the arylsulphatase activities were additive.
Direct and Mediating Effects of an Anxiety Sensitivity Intervention on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Trauma-Exposed Individuals

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or fear of anxious arousal, is a higher-order cognitive risk-factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) composed of lower-order physical, cognitive, and social concerns regarding anxiety symptoms. Brief and effective interventions have been developed targeting AS and its constituent components. However, there is limited evidence as to whether an intervention aimed at targeting AS would result in reductions in PTS symptoms and whether the effects on PTS symptoms would be mediated by reductions in AS. Furthermore, there is no evidence whether these mediation effects would be because of the global or more specific components of AS. The direct and indirect effects of an AS intervention on PTS symptoms were examined in a sample of 82 trauma-exposed individuals (M age = 18.84 years, SD = 1.50) selected based on elevated AS levels (i.e., 1 SD above the mean) and assigned to either a treatment (n = 40) or an active control (n = 42) condition. Results indicated that the intervention led to reductions in Month 1 PTS symptoms, controlling for baseline PTS symptoms. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by changes in global AS and AS social concerns, occurring from intervention to Week 1. These findings provide an initial support for an AS intervention in amelioration of PTS symptoms and demonstrate that it is primarily reductions in the higher-order component of AS contributing to PTS symptom reduction.
Using provenance for repeatability

We present Provenance-To-Use (PTU), a tool that minimizes computation time during repeatability testing. Authors can use PTU to build a package that includes their software program and a provenance trace of an initial reference execution. Testers can select a subset of the package's processes for a partial deterministic replay---based, for example, on their compute, memory and I/O utilization as measured during the reference execution. Using the provenance trace, PTU guarantees that events are processed in the same order using the same data from one execution to the next. We show the efficiency of PTU for conducting repeatability testing of workflow-based scientific programs.
People, Places, and Processes

This chapter introduces you to the people, places, and processes that led to this book. As described in the first chapter, the data used for this book were derived from a project on teens and sexting (Harris et al., 2013), which I refer to as the sexting study.
Fatigue load and life estimation of composite turbine blades under random ocean current

In the present study, the fatigue load and the fatigue life of the composite ocean current turbine (OCT) blade were estimated under random ocean current. Since the OCT blade is submerged into the water that has relatively high fluid density compared to that of air, the conventional design technique for wind turbine blades, i.e. blade element momentum (BEM) theory was modified. The modifications in terms of the section modulus and mass density of the core, buoyancy, and the added mass were applied to a set of BEM codes developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). On the other hand, a statistical approach was implemented to characterize randomly fluctuating ocean current. The representative model for the average velocity as well as for the power spectral density was developed through the statistical analysis, and the time history of the current magnitude was simulated. Using the simulated current history and the fatigue analysis procedure, the fatigue life of the OCT blade was estimated. The estimated current history and the fatigue life were compared with those of collected data, and a good agreement was observed.
EFFECTS OF TASK DIFFICULTY ON RESPONSE LATENCIES OF YOUNG CHILDREN

Summary.-The relationship between latency to respond and task difficulty using items, weighted for difficulty, from the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities was investigated for 49 preschool children. The children were observed as they responded to the items. Response latencies and responses were recorded. Latency to respond was related to difficulty of the task. In 1980 Green presented evidence in support of the proposition that performance on visual association, a subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, was linearly related to response time; however, the effect of task difficulty on response time was not addressed. Classical studies of response time (latency) have largely concerned establishing the relation between response time and che amount of information available to the subject (Morin & Forrin, 1963; Hyman, 1953). Other investigators (Kagan, 1965) have studied decision time in problem situations that held the amount of information constant. In the present study the amount of information or task complexity was held constant but task difficulty was varied. Task difficulty is defined here as the sum of correct responses to each test item weighted for difficulty. To establish the weights P values were computed for Items 1 through 10 of the Visual Association Subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (Kirk, et al., 1968). The P values were transformed to Deltas (Angoff, 1980; Anastasi, 1976), an interval-scaled index of item difficulty. The Deltas were then used as multipliers for each test item answered by the child. The sum of these products (Delta scores) was the indicator of task difficulty for each child. ~~ecificall~, this study asks whether the difficulty of the task would be related to response latency and if there are multiple relationships among age, task difficulty, and response latency. Subjects were 49 children, 16 boys and 33 girls, between the ages of 48.17 to 71.37 mo., with a mean of 58.46 mo. and a standard deviation of 5.87. A hand-activated digital timer was used to measure response latency. Delta scores ranged from 8.92 to 116.68 with a mean of 68.51 (SD = 28.72). Mean response time was 32.31 (SD = 20.85). The correlation between Delta score and age was .56 (P > .001). When age and Delta scores
Comparative numbers of fungiform and foliate papillae on tongues of domestic and wild Norway rats.

Summary1. The number of fungiform and foliate papillae were counted on the tongues of 100 recently trapped wild Norway rats and of 20 wild Alexandrine rats, and compared with the number on the tong...
Differential Phase-Shift Keying in Multi-Wavelength Spatial Diversity Links

We investigate the use of differential phase-shift keying in multi-wavelength spatial diversity transmitters that mitigate atmospheric fading.
Exploring Smoking Stigma, Alternative Tobacco Product Use, & Quit Attempts.

OBJECTIVES Investigate smoking stigma among different tobacco user types. METHODS US adults (N=1,812) responded to an online survey, including non-smokers, smokeless tobacco users, exclusive smokers, and smokeless and cigarette "dual users". RESULTS Dual users perceived the highest smoking stigma. Stigma was higher for smokers open to quitting by switching to smokeless. E-cigarette users (smokers) reported higher stigma than non-users. Making a past-year quit attempt was predicted by smoking stigma, and smokeless and/or e-cigarette use. CONCLUSIONS Smoking stigma and dual use of smokeless tobacco and/or e-cigarettes with cigarettes predict quit attempts. However, smoking stigma might prevent smokers from consulting doctors and induce use of alternative tobacco products as cessation aids.
Femtosecond photophysics of the DNA bases in water

Excited state absorption of the DNA nucleosides in aqueous solution is reported for the first time. Femtosecond transient absorption measurements show clearly that the S1 states of the bases undergo internal conversion to the ground electronic state in 300-700 fs.
Pain Management in an Enhanced Recovery Pathway After Thoracic Surgical Procedures

Pain management is the backbone of enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery (ERATS) care maps, which aim to save time in the operating room, shorten hospital stays, and reduce pain-related adverse events. We describe a systematic approach developed at our institutions to manage pain in patients undergoing thoracic surgical procedures.
Evidence of Early Pulmonary Hypertension Is Associated with Increased Mortality in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

Objective The objective of this study was to describe the inhospital outcomes of a high-risk cohort of very low birth weight infants with evidence of pulmonary hypertension (PHT) within the first 2 weeks after delivery. Design A retrospective cohort study of consecutively admitted neonates with birth weight < 1,500 g admitted to a Level IV neonatal intensive care unit who were evaluated by echocardiogram between 72 hours and 14 days. Results A total of 343 eligible infants were included in the cohort with a median gestational age of 25.5 weeks and birth weight of 790 g. Evidence of early PHT was associated with birth weight Z-score (odds ratio [OR]: 0.65, confidence interval [CI]: 0.48-0.87) and maternal African American race (OR: 1.9, CI: 1.03-3.69). Early PHT was associated with decreased in-hospital survival compared with those with no evidence of PHT (OR: 2.0, CI: 1.02-3.90), and was associated with an increased rate of moderate-to-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia at 36 weeks postmenstrual age (OR: 2.92, CI: 1.24-6.89). Conclusion The presence of early PHT on echocardiogram between 72 hours and 14 days of age was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and worse pulmonary outcomes. This population represents a group of infants who warrant further investigation to improve outcomes.
Potato Common Scab: a Review of the Causal Pathogens, Management Practices, Varietal Resistance Screening Methods, and Host Resistance

Potato common scab is a widespread disease in which scab-like lesions develop on tubers. The disease is caused by pathogenic Streptomyces species, which synthesize the phytotoxin thaxtomin. The txtAB operon, responsible for thaxtomin production, can be used as a marker to identify pathogenic strains of the bacterium. Screening methods to assess scab susceptibility in breeding programs are time-consuming and can produce variable results. Management practices to control the disease vary and include crop rotation, tolerant varieties, monitoring soil pH, avoiding low soil moisture at tuber initiation, and application of soil- and/or seed-applied pesticides. There is a wide range in levels of tolerance among potato varieties. Many public research programs are committed to breeding for scab-tolerant varieties and evaluating management methods. Topics reviewed target readers focused on breeding and disease management objectives to reduce the incidence and severity of potato common scab.
Monoclonal Antibodies as Anticancer Agents

A major problem with current modalities of cancer treatment has been the lack of specificity of the treatment for the cancer cell. It is well known that the therapeutic/toxic ratio is low for anticancer drugs and for radiation therapy. A major advance in the treatment of cancer could be heralded by the development of a class of agents that have a greater degree of specificity for the tumor cell. The technique of hybridization of an immortal myeloma cell line with an antibody-producing B cell as developed by Kohler and Milstein in the late 1970’s provided a technique by which monoclonal antibodies could be produced in virtually unlimited quantities (1). Since the technique involved the selection of single cells and the clonal expansion of a single hybrid between the antibody-forming cell and the myeloma cell, this technique makes available, for the first time, monoclonal antibodies for use in cancer biology. Since most of the monoclonal antibodies developed against human tumor cells have been made in mice by immunizing the mouse with human tumor cells or extracts thereof, these monoclonals are mouse immunoglobulins and represent the way a mouse cell sees a human tumor cell. While there are many difficulties with respect to using mouse immunoglobulins as therapeutic reagents in man, this technique may provide one route around the problem of immunogenicity of tumors in man. It is possible that the mouse will recognize antigenic determinants on the human tumor cell not recognized by the patient’s own immune system or not recognized well by that immune system. If this turns out to be the case, we will have a mechanism for developing specific monoclonal reagents defining antigenic specificities on the tumor cell which may be unique and cancer specific though nonimmunogenic in the primary host. Therefore, investigations into mouse monoclonal antibody may be important even given the future availability of human-derived monoclonal antibodies and even with the potential toxicities of mouse immunoglobulin reagents.
Moral distress and nurse-physician relationships.

Effects of moral distress on nurses and the nursing profession. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
STEMM education should get “HACD”

On 7 May 2018, the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report recommending that humanities, arts, crafts, and design (HACD) practices be integrated with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) in college and post-graduate curricula. Because the ecology of education is so complex, the report concludes that there is no one, or best, way to integrate arts and humanities with STEMM learning, nor any single type of pedagogical experiment or set of data that proves incontrovertibly that integration is the definitive answer to improved job preparedness. Nonetheless, a preponderance of evidence converges on the conclusion that incorporating HACD into STEMM pedagogies can improve STEMM performance.
Analysis of Cracks in Transversely Isotropic Media

The boundary integral method is applied to analyze cracks in transversely isotropic media. Since the Green’s functions are written in tensor form, the integral equations can easily be constructed to provide the relationship between the crack opening displacements (COD) and the applied tractions. The kernels of the integral equations are expressed concisely in a closed form. The numerical scheme to solve the singular integral equations is presented. The method can be applied not only to nonelliptically shaped cracks and but also to nonplanar cracks. The final results contain the crack opening displacement and energy consumed by cracks.
Logoplaste: Global Growing Challenges

In 2010, Logoplaste, a top 10 manufacturer of rigid plastic containers, was debating a more dramatic expansion strategy as a means to guarantee the company's continued success. The company, which began with a few plants in Portugal in the 1990s, now had 60 plants across five continents and was a valued partner to large multinational consumer goods companies, many of which were pressuring Logoplaste to expand.
Improving Clinical Education and Training on Sexual and Gender Minority Health

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, continue to experience significant health and healthcare disparities. One mechanism proposed to address these disparities is improving the education of healthcare professionals. This narrative review summarizes recent trends specifically in medical education related to LGBTQ/SGM populations and highlights examples of curricular innovations. Efforts are described in all levels of medical education. The predominant contributions to literature include documenting the current state of education and patient care, including further defining gaps. There are many reports of educational efforts in various institutions, with reports of outcomes mostly in the domain of activity acceptability and learner self-efficacy. Interventions have been developed by both faculty and learners with broad acceptability and perceived value. Existing publications continue to point out needed research in LGBTQ/SGM medical education. We also identify areas for additional innovation efforts.
Differences in rats and pigeons suboptimal choice may depend on where those stimuli are in their behavior system.

Abstract Timberlake (1993) proposed that much learning research can be better understood in the context of behavior systems theory. Learning theories generally have not considered how procedures may interact with evolutionarily prepared foraging contexts, thereby leading to anomalous conclusions. An example of such a conclusion is the apparent species difference when given a choice between a lower percentage of signaled reinforcement (20%) and higher percentage of unsignaled reinforcement (50%). Pigeons generally show a preference for the suboptimal alternative. Rats, however, often choose optimally. Orduna et al. have suggested that rats choose optimally because they show conditioned inhibition to signals for nonreinforcement, whereas pigeons do not. We suggest, however, that such fundamental species differences are unlikely. Rather, differences in the search mode elicited by the stimuli, together with some generalization between the signals for reinforcement and nonreinforcement are more likely to account for the species differences in suboptimal choice. When we used a retractable lever as the signal for reinforcement and a light stimulus as the signal for nonreinforcement, the rats showed suboptimal choice, not unlike that of pigeons. In this case, how the conditioned stimuli conform to the animals’ behavior systems natural predispositions appears to affect how the animals react to those stimuli. Thus, when the search modes are matched between species and there is no generalization between the two signals, similar behavior can be found. Timberlake’s contribution of behavior systems provides an evolutionary context in which species differences in sensory, response, and motivational differences can be separated from learning differences.
Comment on the original paper entitled “Can a home-based cardiac physical activity program improve and sustain quality of life and exercise capacity in children with Fontan circulation?”

Abstract Commentary on the original paper entitled “Can a home-based cardiac physical activity program improve and sustain quality of life and exercise capacity in children with Fontan circulation?”
Stochastic Analysis of Minimal Automata Growth for Generalized Strings

Generalized strings describe various biological motifs that arise in molecular and computational biology. In this manuscript, we introduce an alternative but efficient algorithm to construct the minimal deterministic finite automaton (DFA) associated with any generalized string. We exploit this construction to characterize the typical growth of the minimal DFA (i.e., with the least number of states) associated with a random generalized string of increasing length. Even though the worst-case growth may be exponential, we characterize a point in the construction of the minimal DFA when it starts to grow linearly and conclude it has at most a polynomial number of states with asymptotically certain probability. We conjecture that this number is linear.
The etiology, pathogeneses, and treatment of objective tinnitus: Unique case series and literature review.

Abstract We present two unique cases of myoclonus-induced objective tinnitus (OT), along with a comprehensive literature review on the topic. Primary goals include: explore the relationship between palatal myoclonus (PM) and middle ear myoclonus (MEM), highlight the embryologic, neurologic, and anatomical relationship between the involved peri-tubular muscles, exemplify the first case of OT which documents video evidence demonstrating the link between objective tinnitus and eustachian tube movement. Also, we discuss available treatment interventions and why they often do not fully resolve patients' symptoms. Finally we introduce a novel way to objectively quantify the severity of OT. Ultimately, our series hopes to inform future diagnostic and treatment guidelines.
Fibroblasts stimulate macrophage migration in interconnected extracellular matrices through tunnel formation and fiber alignment

Abstract In vivo, macrophages and fibroblasts navigate through and remodel the three-dimensional (3D) extra-cellular matrix (ECM). The orientation of fibers, the porosity, and degree of cross-linking can change the interconnectivity of the ECM and affect cell migration. In turn, migrating cells can alter their microenvironment. To study the relationships between ECM interconnectivity and migration of cells, we assembled collagen hydrogels with dense (DCN) or with loosely interconnected networks (LCN). We find that in DCNs, RAW 264.7 macrophages in monocultures were virtually stationary. In DCN co-cultures, Balb/c 3T3 fibroblasts created tunnels that provided conduits for macrophage migration. In LCNs, fibroblasts aligned fibers up to a distance of 100 μm, which provided tracks for macrophages. Intra-cellular and extra-cellular fluorescent fragments of internalized and degraded collagen were detected inside both cell types as well as around their cell peripheries. Macrophages expressed higher levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor associated protein (uPARAP)/mannose receptor 1 (CD206) compared to α2β1 indicating that collagen internalization in these cells occurred primarily via integrin-independent mechanisms. Network remodeling indicated by higher Young's modulus was observed in fibroblast monocultures as a result of TGF-β secretion. This work unveils new roles for fibroblasts in forming tunnels in networked ECM to modulate macrophage migration.
Neighborhood Schools and Community Development: Revealing the Intersections through the Philadelphia School Closure Debate:

This article reveals intersections between schools and community development through analysis of a school closure debate in Philadelphia. Despite their interconnection, efforts to improve schools a...
Review of median stable distributions and Schröder’s equation

Abstract Median stable distributions are an extension of traditional (mean) stable distributions. The traditional definition of stability (in terms of sums of iid random variables) is recast as a condition on the sampling distribution of an estimator. For the traditional (mean) stable distribution, the sample mean’s (rescaled) sampling distribution is identical to the distribution of the iid data. Median stable distributions are defined similarly by replacing the sample mean with the sample median. Since the sampling distribution of the median is a functional its stable distribution is the solution to a functional equation. It turns out that this defining functional equation is an instance of a famous equation due to Schroder from 1870. The fame of the equation is due to the way it incorporates iteration of functions, a key feature of what many years later would become dynamic systems analysis. The current paper reviews median stable distributions in light of its connection to Schroder’s functional equation.
The nylon scintillator containment vessels for the Borexino solar neutrino experiment

The neutrino event rate in the Borexino scintillator is very low (~ 0.5 events per day per ton) and concentrated in an energy region well below the 2.6 MeV threshold of natural radioactivity. The intrinsic radioactive contaminants in the photomultipliers (PMTs), in the Stainless Steel Sphere, and in other detector components, play special requirements on the system required to contain the scintillator. The liquid scintillator must be shielded from the Stainless Steel Sphere and from the PMTs by a thick barrier of buffer fluid. The fluid barrier, in addition, needs to be segmented in order to contain migration of radon and daughters emanated by the Stainless Steel Sphere and by the PMTs. These requirements were met by designing and building two spherical vessel made of thin nylon film. The inner vessel contains the scintillator, separating it from the surrounding buffer. The buffer region itself is divided into two concentric shells by the second, outer nylon vessel. In addition, the two nylon vessels must satisfy stringent requirements for radioactivity and for mechanical, optical and chemical properties. This paper describes the requirements of the the nylon vessels for the Borexino experiment and offers a brief overview of the construction methods adopted to meet those requirements.
Understanding the Enrollment Decisions of Associate Degree Nursing Students: A Qualitative Study

Abstract Given the current push toward the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) preparation for registered nurses, a significant proportion of students choose the Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) prelicensure nursing education. This descriptive qualitative study seeks to provide insight into enrollment decisions of ADN nursing students, including their initial decision to pursue nursing, their understanding of the benefits of earning a BSN, and their plans toward future BSN completion. Ultimately, nontraditional student status exerted a compelling influence regarding the decision to choose ADN prelicensure preparation.
Gabapentinoids for Pain: Potential Unintended Consequences.

The widespread and often indiscriminate prescribing of gabapentinoids is not supported by robust evidence, and it carries known and unknown risks.
The Evolution of the Manipular Legion in the Early Republic

This article examines the development of the Roman manipular legion, deployed from roughly 350-100 bc. Given the unreliability of literary sources for the Roman army prior to Polybius, the article backward engineers the manipular legion from its well-attested form in the Middle Republic, making use of reliable contemporary Hellenic comparanda preserved in Xenophon. These suggest that the manipular legion arose out of various expedients reacting to enemies with missile weapons and adapting to operations in rough terrain. One response was the deployment of a heavy infantry formation in successive waves based on age classes, eventually producing the triplex acies. The second was to divide the formation into columns, which eventually became the staggered columns of the legion’s checkerboard formation. In contrast to recent reassessments that have argued the legion was the product of unique social and cultural forces in Archaic Italy, this paper reasserts a qualified version of the traditional view that the legion should be viewed as an articulated phalanx.
Further Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS) is primarily an informant-based assessment tool designed to help consultants identify variables contributing to problematic employee per...
Toward Dynamically Controlling Slurm’s Classic Fairshare Algorithm

The popular SchedMD scheduler, Slurm, provides an internal algorithm for assigning priorities to user’s high-performance computing (HPC) jobs based on previous usage. This algorithm, aptly named fairshare, is classically an exponential function of a user’s usage history relative to the HPC population. This study explores an option HPC centers can take to increase the transparency of the classic fairshare algorithm and shows how usage and classic fairshare may be dynamically modeled using a simple differential equations approach.
Myocardial Dysfunction Is Independently Associated With Mortality in Pediatric Septic Shock.

Objectives Circulatory dysfunction has been associated with mortality in children with septic shock. However, the mortality risk attributable to myocardial dysfunction per se has not been established, and the association between myocardial dysfunction and mortality is confounded by illness severity. The objective was to determine if sepsis-associated myocardial dysfunction defined by low left ventricular ejection fraction or global longitudinal strain is associated with mortality in pediatric septic shock after adjusting for baseline mortality probability. Design Retrospective, observational study. Setting Single-center, quaternary-care PICU. Patients Children less than 18 years old admitted to the PICU from 2003 to 2018 who had an echocardiogram performed within 48 hours of septic shock identification and Pediatric Sepsis Biomarker Risk Model II data available. Interventions None. Measurements and main results All echocardiograms were reread by a cardiologist blinded to patient data for left ventricular ejection fraction and global longitudinal strain. Low left ventricular ejection fraction was defined as less than 45%, and low global longitudinal strain was defined as greater than z score of -2 for body surface area. Multivariable logistic regression separately analyzed the associations of low left ventricular ejection fraction and low global longitudinal strain with mortality, adjusting for Pediatric Sepsis Biomarker Risk Model II mortality risk. A post hoc logistic regression analyzed the association of left ventricular ejection fraction as a continuous variable with mortality, where linearity was maintained for left ventricular ejection fraction less than 65%. Eighteen percent of 181 children had low left ventricular ejection fraction. After adjusting for baseline mortality risk, low left ventricular ejection fraction remained independently associated with mortality (odds ratio, 4.4 [1.0-19.8]; p = 0.0497). Likewise, left ventricular ejection fraction was associated with mortality (odds ratio, 0.96 [0.93-0.99]; p = 0.037) on multivariable analysis for left ventricular ejection fraction less than 65%. Thirty-six percent of 169 children had low global longitudinal strain, and low global longitudinal strain was also independently associated with mortality (odds ratio, 4.6 [1.2-18.0]; p = 0.027). Conclusions Sepsis-associated myocardial dysfunction, whether defined by low left ventricular ejection fraction or low global longitudinal strain, is an independent risk factor for mortality in pediatric septic shock after accounting for the confounding effects of septic shock severity.
Partisanship And Mobility During The COVID-19 Pandemic

States and local governments have resorted to "social distancing" measures to control the spread of COVID-19 given the absence of pharmaceutical interventions. As communities practice social distancing, either voluntarily or to follow the directives issued by the local and state governments, the mobility of individuals in the community has been reduced remarkably. This paper studies if a county's political affiliation affects its mobility, a proxy for measuring the effectiveness of social distancing. Using the county-level voting record from the 2016 Presidential Election to determine whether a county is "democratic-leaning" or "republican-leaning," this paper finds that mobility, in the areas of retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, and workplace, are reduced more for "democratic-leaning" counties than for "republican-leaning" counties. On the other hand, residential mobility has increased more for "democratic-leaning" countries than for "republican-leaning" counties.
Selections From the ABC 2020 Annual Conference, Online: Gathering Around the Cool Fire to Share Business Communication Teaching Innovations:

Readers can explore 13 teaching innovations presented at the 2020 Association for Business Communication (ABC) annual international conference hosted online. Typically held in a large hotel ballroo...
Estimation of Long-duration Maximum Precipitation during a winter season for large basins dominated by Atmospheric Rivers using a Numerical Weather Model

Abstract The Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) estimation for long durations during winter and spring seasons is important to develop the Probable Maximum Flood for snowmelt-driven regions since extreme floods are often characterized by snow-accumulation and snowmelt processes rather than by a single rainstorm event. Although several studies have estimated the PMP for a single storm duration, little attention has been given to the PMP estimation for long durations on the order of several months. This study proposes a new framework using a numerical weather model (NWM) to estimate the long-duration Maximum Precipitation (MP) during the winter season, which is the first part of a two-part effort to develop the PMP during the winter and spring seasons. As a demonstrative case, we estimate the MP for the 6-month winter period (October to March) for the drainage areas of Bonneville Dam (621,600 km2) and Libby Dam (23,270 km2) in the Columbia River Basin dominated by atmospheric rivers (ARs). In the proposed framework, the historical AR events are identified based on the integrated water vapor transport thresholds used in the AR category scale. The precipitation depths during the identified AR events are then maximized by simultaneously optimizing the AR position and its atmospheric moisture. Finally, the design precipitation sequence is formed by substituting each historical AR event with the corresponding maximized AR event, acting as the basis of long-duration MP. As a result, the maximum 6-month winter period accumulated basin-average precipitation depths: long-duration MP, for the drainage areas of Bonneville Dam and Libby Dam, are estimated to be 961.0 mm and 1101.7 mm, respectively. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study estimating the MP for long durations on the order of several months and for very large basins (above 100,000 km2) by using the NWM-based approach.
Regulatory Autonomy under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Implications of Korea–Import Bans, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides

The recent WTO dispute case, Korea–Import Bans, and Testing and Certification Requirements for Radionuclides, illustrates complex legal issues and significant political implications associated with the regulatory autonomy of a sovereign country under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). There has been constant tension between the sovereign right of a WTO member state to determine its own appropriate level of protection (ALOP) and the regulatory constraints imposed under the SPS Agreement to prevent abuse and disguised trade protection. The case emerged from this tension and raises questions on the extent of the regulatory autonomy in the application of an SPS measure. This article addresses these questions and examines the criteria for the qualitative standards for the ALOP, the question that the Appellate Body decision did not fully resolve. The criteria for the qualitative ALOP standards affect the regulatory autonomy significantly under the current SPS rules as they determine the manner and the extent to which a Member may meet the sensitive public interests in the application of an SPS measure. The article proposes a rational basis test to restrain abuse of SPS measures while preserving the regulatory autonomy protected under the SPS Agreement.
Measurements on a Thermally-Crosslinked Biopolymer for Future Implantable Antennas

The use of 3D printing in the body has a range of biomedical applications, including development of implantable antennas and other electronics. Using a biocompatible thermally crosslinked polymer material and a coaxial heating applicator, wire-like configurations could be “printed” directly into the body. This paper evaluates the heating time required to solidify the biopolymer in two concentrations of phosphate buffer solution.
Secure face template generation via local region hashing

Security is an important aspect in the practical deployment of biometric authentication systems. Biometric data in its original form is irreplaceable and thus, must be protected. This often comes at the cost of reduced matching accuracy or loss of the true key-less convenience biometric authentication can offer. In this paper, we address the shortcomings of current face template protection schemes and show the advantages of a localized approach. We propose a framework that utilizes features from local regions of the face to achieve exact matching, and thus, enables the security offered by hash functions like SHA-256. We study the matching accuracy of different feature extractors, and propose measures to quantify the security offered by the scheme under reasonable real-world assumptions. The efficacy of our approach is demonstrated on the Multi-PIE face database.
Virtual framing: the feasibility of frameless radiosurgical planning for the Gamma Knife

Object Gamma Knife (GK) treatments are typically delivered in 1 day with little opportunity to test different planning strategies. The authors demonstrate 2 methods for imposing GK coordinate systems upon imaging datasets without frame attachment to allow leisurely preprocedural planning, and discuss potential applications. Methods A “virtual framing” is constructed by coregistering a CT scan of a Leksell frame with a patient dataset using the GammaPlan (Multiview) module. Equations for skull radii are derived by approximating the skull as an ellipsoid. No proprietary software other than that of the GK system is required. In a second method, images of fiducial markers are directly superimposed on the patient dataset. Validation of the first method was achieved by comparing the lengths of 75 line segments and 60 single shot diameters measured in the virtual coordinates with those measured in real coordinates. In addition to preplanning, 2 applications are discussed. The first is the use of GK software to a...
Does U.S. Military Intervention Reduce or Increase Terrorism

Whether U.S. military intervention causes retaliatory terrorist attacks is a contentious issue. This study first conceptualizes the U.S. military intervention-terrorism connection, and then performs empirical tests. A cross-national, time-series analysis of 166 countries during the period from 1970 to 2005 shows that the overall effect of U.S. military intervention on terrorism is detrimental, fueling more terrorist incidents if not more terrorist casualties. However, this finding varies depending on the type of intervention mission. Terrorist pursuit interventions successfully deter terrorism, but other intervention missions, such as those that neutralize domestic disputes, facilitate regime change, and offer humanitarian aid, backfire. These findings indicate that the U.S. should be more cautious of the use of the military since it inflames terrorism except for those instances in which combating terrorism is set as a central goal.
3' RNA processing efficiency plays a primary role in generating termination-competent RNA polymerase II elongation complexes.

Abstract In several mammalian transcription units, a transcription termination mechanism in which efficient termination is dependent on the presence of an intact 3' RNA processing site has been identified. The mouse beta maj-globin transcription unit is one such example, in which an intact poly(A) site is required for efficient transcription termination. It is now evident that 3' mRNA processing sites are not always processed with the same efficiency. In this study, we characterized several pre-mRNAs as substrates for the 3' mRNA processing reaction of cleavage and polyadenylation. We then determined whether poly(A) sites which vary in processing efficiency support a poly(A) site-dependent termination event. The level of processing efficiency was determined in vitro by assays measuring the efficiency of the pre-mRNA cleavage event and in vivo by the level of poly(A) site-dependent mRNA and gene product expression generated in transient transfection assays. The beta maj globin pre-mRNA is very efficiently processed. This efficient processing correlates with its function in termination assays using recombinant adenovirus termination vectors in nuclear run-on assays. When the beta maj globin poly(A) site was replaced by the L1 poly(A) site of the adenovirus major late transcription unit (Ad-ml), which is a poor processing substrate, termination efficiency decreased dramatically. When the beta maj globin poly(A) site was replaced by the Ad-ml L3 poly(A) site, which is 10- to 20-fold more efficiently processed than the Ad-ml L1 poly(A) site, termination efficiency remained high. Termination is therefore dependent on the yield of the processing event. We then tested chimeric poly(A) sites containing the L3 core AAUAAA but varied downstream GU-rich elements. The change in downstream GU-rich elements affected processing efficiency in a manner which correlated with termination efficiency. These experiments provide evidence that the efficiency of 3' processing complex formation is directly correlated to the efficiency of RNA polymerase II termination at the 3' end of a mammalian transcription unit.
Distributed AR spectral estimation

The author studies the problem of combining in an optimal fashion autoregressive (AR) model-based spectral estimates obtained at geographically dispersed sites under the assumptions that the data are Gaussian AR(p), all sites fit the data to a p-order all-pole model where p is a given integer known to all sensors and to the fusion center, and the amount of data collected at each site is large. It is shown that the optimal centralized AR-model-based spectral estimates can be computed from the knowledge of each local spectral estimate and the number of data points that were used at each site to obtain the local estimate. An approximation to the optimal centralized AR-model-based estimate is computed by solving a set of linear equations followed by an application of the Levinson-Durbin algorithm. >
Mercury: Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry

Mercury is one of the oldest known elements. The element exhibits surprisingly different chemistry from its congeners zinc and cadmium, and it is the only group 12 member without a known beneficial biological role. Unique properties associated with the element and its compounds have led to diverse applications. However, many of these are being phased out to minimize further increases in the environmental and atmospheric burden with this toxic heavy metal. Motivations to study the compounds and complexes of mercury include potential for discovery of novel properties such as high-temperature superconductivity and improved understanding of its interactions in physiological systems. Valuable characterization of mercury-containing compounds is possible with 199Hg NMR techniques. Mercury is the only group 12 member to have a stable monovalent state. Observed primarily in the oldest known and most common of all metal polycations, Hg22+, this metal–metal bonded species readily disproportionates into Hg2+ and Hg0. Mercury(I) compounds, typically, have a linear structure of type XHgHgX. Halides, oxy salts, oxides, and coordination compounds with oxygen and weakly basic nitrogen-donor ligands are best known for Hg22+. The most prevalent ionization state of mercury, Hg2+, is a d10 metal ion, which lacks strong coordination number and geometry preferences. As a result, structural characterization of its compounds by X-ray crystallography is particularly critical. A wide range of halides, pseudohalides, and chalcogenides of Hg2+ are known. The softness of Hg2+ has led to an investigation of coordination, with a wide variety of sulfur ligands and physiological sulfur donors being assumed to be the most important. Mercury(II) typically has a stronger affinity for S-, N-, and P-donors than any other divalent metal ion. However, Hg2+ also has a tendency to undergo incredibly rapid ligand exchange. Recent studies have shown that sterically demanding multidentate ligand systems can suppress ligand exchange processes. Keywords: mercury; metal–metal bonds; relativistic effects; disproportionation; NMR; metal toxicity
Compressive Properties of ⟨110⟩ Cu Micro-Pillars after High-Dose Self-Ion Irradiation

Single-crystal Cu micro-pillars were self-ion irradiated up to 190 displacements per atom, a level commensurate with damage expected after long exposure in a reactor environment. Compression experiments performed along the ⟨ 110 ⟩ to 10% strain were compared against un-irradiated Cu. Two specimen configurations were explored: large 10 μm tall and small 4 μm tall pillars. Compared to un-irradiated Cu, the small irradiated pillars exhibited a flow stress increase of more than 500 MPa and were able to attain peak stresses approaching 1 GPa. These results are discussed in the context of an end of range effect, a damage gradient effect, and size effects.