cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analysis and a case study of transparent computing implementation with UEFI

Transparent computing (TC) can be thought as a special kind of cloud computing that regards storage as a service. TC logically splits the software stack from the underlying hardware platform, and separates the computing unit from storage for the purpose of making the same software run on different hardware and different software run on the same hardware. TC requires a unified software-hardware interface to abstract the underlying platform details. As the new generation BIOS interface, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) defines the interface between the software stack and hardware platform, which aligns TC well. UEFI's modular design also allows for BIOS customisation. An ideal vision of TC implementation with UEFI is proposed in this paper as the forecast. Several models are also provided to illustrate the constraints of current hardware and software stack in terms of performance, portability, and hardware adaptability. Finally, a case study of a wireless TC tablet is provided together with the analysis.
Making Matters Worse An Anatomy of Leadership Failures in Managing Catastrophic Events

Catastrophic disasters require additional leadership capabilities because extreme events overwhelm local capabilities and damage emergency response systems themselves. Therefore, leaders at all levels must adapt and rebuild the response system, even while they are addressing the pressing needs of the disaster itself. Leaders can minimize or maximize the effects of the trigger event(s) by their actions and competence in dealing with this especially difficult set of overlapping and, frequently, even inconsistent tasks. This case studies the effects of the Katrina—Rita hurricanes on New Orleans and systematically examines how poor leadership—lacking a series of critical competencies required in extreme conditions—can maximize catastrophic events.
Cybersenior research: A practical approach to data collection

Abstract A practical method of sample recruitment, data collection, and database development for Internet consumers is described. The method proved successful in identifying, recruiting, and tracking respondents drawn from a small segment of the general population. To illustrate the method, the authors focus on a case history of a survey research project involving older consumers who are active on the Internet. Along with the data collected for that specific research project, a database was developed containing demographic, psychographic, and personal characteristics that will be helpful for future research projects. This practical research approach allows researchers to accurately track each respondent, insuring more accurate records and a better understanding of the individuals who make up the sample.
Reproductive success in a socially polymorphic spider: social individuals experience depressed reproductive success in isolation

1. Correlated individual differences in behaviour across ecological contexts, or behavioural syndromes, can theoretically constrain individuals' ability to optimally adjust their behaviour for specific contexts. 2. Female Anelosimus studiosus exhibit a unique behavioural polymorphism: ‘social’ females are tolerant of conspecifics and aggregate in multi-female colonies, while ‘solitary’ females aggressively defend their singleton webs from intrusion by adult female conspecifics. Previous work found that social females are also less aggressive toward prey and are more fearful of predators. 3. In this study we quantify potential fitness consequences of these correlated behaviours by examining the potential and realised fecundities of the two phenotypes in naturally occurring colonies, and by quantifying their ability to rear offspring as singleton individuals. 4. There were no differences in the fecundities of laboratory-reared females between the phenotypes, nor were there differences in field-collected brooding females from naturally occurring solitary and social nests. 5. Brooding females from solitary and social colonies that were isolated in new nests for the growing season were both capable of rearing their broods; however, females from solitary nests had significantly greater success. 6. These results suggest a fitness consequence to the reduced-aggression syndrome of social females that may represent a general impediment to the evolution of sociality in spiders.
FACTORING RECURSION AND DEPENDENCIES: AN ASPECT OF TREE ADJOINING GRAMMARS (TAG) AND A COMPARISON OF SOME FORMAL PROPERTIES OF TAGS, GPSGS, PLGS, AND LPGS

D u r i n g t h e l a s t few y e a r s t h e r e i s v i g o r o u s activity In constructing highly constrained grammatical systems by eliminating the transformational component either totally or partially. There is increasing recognition of t he f a c t t h a t the e n t i r e r a n g e o f d e p e n d e n c i e s t h a t t r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l g r a m m a r s i n t h e i r v a r i o u s i n c a r n a t i o n s have t r i e d t o a c c o u n t f o r c a n be satisfactorily captured by classes of rules that are non-transformational and at the same Clme highly constrlaned in terms of the classes of g r a m m a r s and l a n g u a g e s t h a t t h e y de f i n e .
Effect of Matrix Cracks on Damping in Unidirectional and Cross-Ply Ceramic Matrix Composites

The paper elucidatesthe methodsof es timating damping in ceramic matrix composites (CMC) with matrix cracks. Unidirectional composites with bridging matrix cracks and cross-ply laminates with tunneling cracks in transverse layers and bridging cracks in longitudinal layers are considered. It is shown that bridging matrix cracksdramatically increase damping in unidirectional CMC due to a dissipation of energy along damaged sections of the fiber-matrix interface (interfacial friction). Such friction is absent in the case of tunneling cracks in transverse layers of cross-ply laminates where the changes in damping due to a degradation of the stiffness remain small. However, damping in cross-ply laminates abruptly increases, if bridging cracks appear in the longitudinal layers.
Influence of selenium vapor postannealing on the electrical transport properties of PbSe-WSe2 nanolaminates

The influence of annealing time and annealing temperature under controlled partial pressure of selenium on the in-plane electrical transport properties of specimens of [(PbSe)0.99]1[WSe2]1 turbostratic nanolaminates was studied. The annealing treatments were found to be very effective in reducing carrier concentrations and improving carrier mobility in the annealed films, which is attributed to the reduction of compositional and structural defects. As a result, room temperature Hall mobilities greater than 60 cm2 V−1·s−1 are observed in spite of the small in-plane domain sizes (on the order of 10 nm) that are related to the turbostratic disorder. The technique appears promising for decreasing the concentration of kinetically trapped defects in these and related self-assembled nanostructures, a key challenge to evaluating the expected potential for controlling electrical and thermal transport properties via designed nanostructure in these and related materials.
Small Nuclear RNAs and RNA Processing

I. Summary Ribosomal RNA, transfer RNA, and messenger RNAs, which comprise about 99% of the cellular RNA, are part of the protein-synthesizing machinery. Many studies in the last 15 years have established the presence of another class of RNA, “small nuclear RNAs” (snRNAs) that account for 0.1-1% of the total cellular RNA. There is evidence for at least 15 distinct small RNAs in rat and human cells. Of these, six (designated Ul- to U6-RNAs) are capped, metabolically stable, synthesized by polymerase II, present as ribonucleoprotein particles, and present in concentrations comparable to that of ribosomes. U3-RNA, found only in the nucleolus, is associated with preribosomal RNA and is involved in maturation of ribosomal RNAs, although the precise mechanism is not known. U1-, U2-, U4-, U5-, and U6-RNPs, found in nucleoplasm, are in part associated with hnRNP particles and are implicated in messenger RNA transport and processing; the detailed mechanism(s) are under study. The discovery that patients with autoimmune diseases produce antibodies against RNP particles containing small nuclear RNAs made improved methods for studies on small RNPs available to researchers in many disciplines. The availability of these immunological reagents for selective immunoprecipitation of specific U-snRNPs and other snRNPs offers a powerful approach to study their structures, intracellular localization, and function. In addition, the attractive hypothesis that snRNAs, like Ul-RNA, may be involved in properly aligning splice junctions, of pre-mRNA, brought snRNAs to the attention of many researchers. Unlike the capped U-snRNAs, which are transcribed by RNA polymerase II, the noncapped RNAs are transcribed by RNA polymerase III; they have diverse functions. Cytoplasmic 7 S RNA is an integral part of the “signal recognition particle” involved in synthesis and transport of secretory proteins (181a). RNase-P (EC 3.1.26.5) RNA has been reported (200, 201 ) to be part of an RNP particle involved in processing precursor tRNAs. P-snRNA is implicated in making chromatin accessible for crossing-over during meiosis (34) , and CEH-RNA is thought to induce embryonic heart-cell differentiation (198). In addition, several RNAs, including 4.5 and 4.5 SI, 6 S, 7 S RNAs, exhibit homologies to reiterated DNA sequences, whose significance is not understood. Although the structures of the small RNAs are now well defined, much remains to be learned about their relationship to proteins in snRNP particles and the functions of the snRNP particles.
Implications of U.S. Trade Agreements and U.S. Nutrition Policies for Produce Production, Demand, and Trade

This study used aggregated data for fresh vegetables and fresh fruits to analyze how trade flows in the fresh produce industry have changed under trade agreements and to assess the potential implications to nutrition policies in the United States. The first part of the analysis uses a Bai-Perron test to endogenously determine any structural break points in vegetable and fruit trade movements and prices. Directed acyclic graphs and historical decompositions are used to establish causal patterns on innovations from vector autoregression models fitted to annual observations of trade flows, prices, and income. The results showed that trade agreements have had significant impacts to the produce industry. Income was a major determinant of domestic fruit production and imports.
Electrode Interdependence and Hole Capacitance in the Capacitance -Voltage Characteristics of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

The inter-electrode capacitance - voltage (C-V) characteristics of back-channel etched inverted-staggered hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were investigated. It is demonstrated that this simple measurement can be used to diagnose TFT parameters such as the fabricated channel length, the channel resistance, and the error in the mask alignment of the source and drain overlap lengths. The C-V characteristics associated with the hole accumulation in a-Si:H TFTs with n+-type source/drain contacts were also examined. We observed that the a.c. capacitance increases for low frequencies and/or moderately high measurement temperatures provided the gate voltage is sufficiently negative.
Breeding of Cold-resistant Restoring Line Hybrid Rice G406 and Its Characteristics

New mutational rice lines were screened out by conventional intercrossing and radiation mutation breeding,and the targeted characteristics were selected under the extreme environmental conditions of cold damage and in heavy rice blast break-out areas,to breed new highly cold-resistant restoring line hybrid rice,provide high quality restoring line resources for hybrid rice breeding,hybrid rice production,and improve the stress resistance hybrid rice breeding in Guizhou.The result indicated that the restoring line G406 had high cold-resistance,strong restoring ability,and wide restoring spectrum.The hybrid combinations with sterile lines such as Zhongjiu A had higher competition in terms of characteristics in yield,grains per ear,and grains per unit area.Among the combinations,II you 406 crossed by II-32 A had high yield,high resistance for rice blast,and passed the authorization of Guizhou Crop Authorization Committee in 2009.
On the behavior of an eye encircled by a scleral buckle

A mechanics based mathematical model for the behavior of an eye encircled by a scleral buckle, a procedure used by surgeons to correct retinal detachment, is developed. Closed form analytical solutions are obtained, and results of numerical simulations based on those solutions are presented. The effects of material and geometric parameters of the scleral buckle, as well as of the ocular pressure, on the deformation and volume change of the eye are studied. Critical behavior is identified, and correlations are drawn with regard to the properties of the buckle, the associated deformation of the eye, and the ocular pressure. The results indicate that a judicious choice of the buckle parameters is advisable for planning surgery. In particular, the initial (undeformed) radius of the buckle is seen to have the dominant influence with regard to deformation of the eye, while the thickness (height) and width, and hence the shape, of the buckle are seen to have minimal influence and may be chosen for other reasons, such as to maximize the comfort of the patient.
The Blending of Evidenced-Based Protocols in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Case Study

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is regarded as one of the more difficult clinical presentations to treat, and psychotherapy provides the best outcomes for those suffering with BPD. Dialectica...
General Conspectus of American Law on Product Liability, A

Product liability may be classified under three basic systems. First, and by far the most favorable to users of products, is strict liability, which imposes liability on manufacturers based strictly on any defects in their products, regardless of the presence or absence of fault on their part. Secondly, there is modified strict liability which permits the “state of art” defense. This defense absolves manufacturers of liability if they prove that their products reasonably met current standards of scientific and technological developments at the date when they put those products into the stream of commerce. The third system imposes liability based on proven negligence of the manufacturer. Almost all of the United States has adopted strict liability based on the Restatement (Second) of Torts, section 402A.Under the doctrine of strict liability, the focus of attention is the product under scrutiny and the risks generated by its use, rather than the care shown by the manufacturer in the design and manufacture of that product. American product liability is therefore not be confused with the law of negligence and concepts of the standard of reasonable care. Indeed, two fundamental tests have emerged which may be characterized as (a) a “risk-utility analysis,” and (b) a “consumer expectation test,” and state courts apply these two tests in reaching their decisions as the circumstances warrant.The vexing issue of defining a product is a continuing one. Judicial attitudes, motivated by fundamental public policy considerations for the protection of product users, tend towards a broader, more flexible definition rather than a narrower one, but subject to some limitations. American product liability law has striven to ensure that protection for users of products has kept pace with the formidable speed of change in technology, and has abandoned obsolescent concepts when they have become incompatible with its policy goals. It is still in the evolutionary process, but for the most part it has been remarkably successful in enhancing this protection. The Restatement (Second) of Torts, section 402A has played, and continues to play, a profound role in this evolution, is compatible with other common law systems, and worthy of emulation by them.
Engaging Inexperienced Salespeople to Work Hard to Be Lucky: Towards the Attribution of Sales Performance to Luck

Inexperienced sales professionals face high probability of failure, especially in the exploration stage of their career (Cron and Slocum 1986; Dixon et al. 2005). As a result, their learning and performance orientation along with their supervisors’ support is key to their motivation and success (Dixon et al. 2003; Kholi et al. 1998; Sujan et al. 1994). This research investigates an unexplored area of the attribution theory which should help young salespeople, sales managers, and sales educators understand better the relationship between believing in luck and becoming successful.
Fabrication of optically smooth Sn thin films

Abstract The fabrication of optically smooth thin Sn films by vacuum or electrodeposition techniques is usually challenging. Little has been published on how to address this challenge mainly because very few applications require such smooth Sn surfaces. The excitation of surface plasmon polaritons on Sn surfaces by prism-based methods represents a case that requires very smooth surfaces and has motivated this work. It is shown that the deposition rate and the substrate temperature of a vacuum evaporation method can be optimized to obtain very smooth Sn films and this is supported by direct imaging evidence from atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
T4 Syndrome: A Scoping Review of the Literature.

Abstract Objective The purpose of this scoping review was to identify any available evidence regarding T4 syndrome. Methods Databases were searched from inception through October 2015 and included PubMed, CINAHL, PEDro, Google Scholar, Osteomed-DR; Index to Chiropractic Literature, PROSPERO, and Chiroaccess. All studies with information about T4 syndrome that were published in a peer-reviewed journal or textbook were included. The information was organized in the format of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health . Studies were ranked using Sackett's levels of evidence. Results Eight articles met the inclusion criteria. Studied areas included theoretical pathophysiology and symptom etiology, diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, and outcomes of T4 syndrome. The methodological quality of included studies was low. Conclusion T4 syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion that appears to be rare. It has been treated conservatively in the literature using mobilization and exercise. There is no high-quality evidence published about T4 syndrome, and we caution clinicians when considering it as a primary means to determine patient care.
Outcome of 58 trimodality-eligible esophagogastric cancer (EC) patients who achieved clinical complete response (cCR) after preoperative chemoradiation but then declined surgery.

4078 Background: For patients with EC who can withstand surgery, the preferred therapy is trimodality. However, after achieving a cCR (defined as post-chemoradiation negative endoscopic biopsy for ...
On correlation functions for non-critical strings with c≤1 but d≥1

Abstract We construct a Goulian-Li-type continuation in the number of insertions of the cosmological constant operator which is no longer restricted to one-dimensional target space. The method is applied to the calculation of the three-point and a special four-point correlation function. Various aspects of the emerging analytical structure are discussed.
Cellulase and Biosynthesis Regulation

Publisher Summary The conversion of cellulosic materials to useful products has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, because of the growing need for energy, food, and chemicals, and also for more acceptable means of municipal waste treatment. There have been many studies on the utilization of cellulosic materials by ways of saccharification and fermentation to produce food and fuel. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to produce fermentable sugars is an attractive method of active current interest. Over the years, cellulolytic enzymes have been studied in great detail. Most of the research has focused upon the production, screening, and mutation to develop high cellulase producing microorganisms. However, understanding of enzyme kinetics, the mode of action of cellulases, as well as the regulation of cellulase production is of special importance for large scale enzyme production and for enzymatic saccharification of cellulose. This chapter discusses the regulation of cellulase synthesis in cellulolytic organisms. It also discusses about cellobiohydrolase, which is the major cellulase produced by T. reesei and perhaps, also by some other mycelial fungi.
Prophylactic antibiotics for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in critically-Ill adults

Context and Aims: Primary objective of this study was to estimate time to infection after extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) initiation among patients who received prophylactic antibiotics compared to those who did not. Subjects and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included adult patients initiated on ECMO between February 1, 2009, and June 30, 2012, in Intensive Care Units at an 816-bed tertiary care hospital. Results: Prophylaxis defined as an antibiotic initiated at start of ECMO without other bacterial infectious indications was categorized into three levels: (1) No prophylaxis, (2) single antibiotic, and (3) combination two or more antibiotics with activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative bacteria. Of the 96 patients included, 37 (39%) patients acquired a sterile site infection; 17 of which were caused by of multidrug-resistant organisms. There was no significant difference in the proportion of new infections by antibiotic exposure group. By 500 h on ECMO, all patients had a 60% probability of developing infection. There was a trend that patients on combination antibiotics were less likely to develop a sterile site infection than patients who were not exposed to antibiotics after adjusting for age and comorbid illnesses (adjusted hazard ratio 0.44, 95% confidence interval 0.17–1.13) (P = 0.09). Conclusions: Patients on ECMO on single and combination antibiotic regimens demonstrated no significant difference in the hazard for the development of a new sterile site infection compared to no antibiotic group. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Patient care, Practice-based learning and improvement, Systems-based practice.
Geometric approximation of radiation stress projections for canonical objects

Modulated ultrasonic radiation pressure facilitates the selective excitation of modes of objects through modulation of appropriate surface stress projections [P. L. Marston and R. E. Apfel, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 67, 27–37 (1980)]. For some large objects, it can be impractical to evaluate the needed stress projections using standard analytical or computational methods. For highly reflecting objects geometric approximations may provide useful insight into the relevant stress projections. The simplest projection gives the translational radiation force on the object. In that case, ray analysis of the far-field scattering was shown to recover the radiation force on large perfectly reflecting spheres in plane waves [P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 3518–3524 (2006)]. In the present research, the appropriate force limit is also recovered through integrating a geometrically approximated local stress projection on the object’s surface. Appropriate limiting forces for other canonical objects or situations invo...
HINDERED AMINES AS ANTIOXIDANTS IN UV EXPOSED POLYMERS

Hindered aliphatic amine light stabilizers have been found to protect polymers including polyolefins, polyurethanes, and styrenic resins against the destructive effects of solar radiation.1,2 Many of these patented aliphatic amines are based on 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine, although the functional group responsible for stabilization would appear to be an aliphatic amine with fully substituted α-methylene groups.3 Any α-methylenic hydrogens are expected to be vulnerable to rapid free radical attack whereas oxidation at the amine site will produce a nitroxide which can subsequently form a nitrone.4,5 Both mechanisms can give products capable of ring opening reactions, with destruction of the inhibitor.
CORE: Continuous, high accuracy Earth orientation measurements for the new millennium

The international geodetic VLBI community will inaugurate during 1999 a new phase of the program called CORE: Continuous Observations of the Rotation of the Earth. The capabilities of the new Mark IV correlators, available in late 1999, will enable greater sensitivity, more frequent observing sessions and improved system throughput.
Leisure-time physical activity sustained since midlife and preservation of cognitive function: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Abstract Introduction We tested the hypotheses that higher levels of and persistence of midlife leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) are associated long-term with lower cognitive decline and less incident dementia. Methods A total of 10,705 participants (mean age: 60 years) had LTPA (no, low, middle, or high) measured in 1987-1989 and 1993-1995. LTPA was assessed in relation to incident dementia and 14-year change in general cognitive performance. Results Over a median follow-up of 17.4 years, 1063 dementia cases were observed. Compared with no LTPA, high LTPA in midlife was associated with lower incidence of dementia (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.71 [0.61, 0.86]) and lower declines in general cognitive performance (−0.07 standard deviation difference [−0.12 to −0.04]). These associations were stronger when measured against persistence of midlife LTPA over 6 years. Discussion LTPA is a readily modifiable factor associated inversely with long-term dementia incidence and cognitive decline.
Categorical Properties of Compact Hausdorff MV-Algebras

It is proved that the category of extended multisets is dually equivalent to the category of compact Hausdorff MV-algebras with continuous homomorphisms, which is in turn equivalent to the category of complete and completely distributive MV-algebras with homomorphisms that reflect principal maximal ideals. Urysohn–Strauss’s Lemma, Gleason’s Theorem, and projective objects are also investigated for topological MV-algebras. Among other things, it is proved that the only MV-algebras in which Urysohn–Strauss’s Lemma holds are Boolean algebras and that the projective objects in the category of compact Hausdorff MV-algebras are precisely the ones having the 2-element Boolean algebras as factor.
Shape Sensing of Polymer Core Composite Electrical Transmission Lines Using FBG Sensors

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are optical strain gauges embedded in an optical fiber. Using elementary beam theory and geometry, it is shown that 3-D shape sensing can be performed using parallel arrays of sensors on the surface of a cylindrical rod. The mathematics is explained in detail. Because FBG sensors are immune to electromagnetic interference, they can be used to perform shape sensing on cylindrical objects utilized in high-voltage transmission systems, such as the core support rods of high-temperature low-sag conductors.
Design Paradigm for Modular Multilevel Converter-Based Generator Rectifier Systems

Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) are being widely considered for medium to high voltage DC applications. Designing such converters through multi-objective optimization is of interest because such an approach allows the trade-off between competing objectives (for example mass and loss) to be explicitly and quantitatively identified. In this work, an optimization based design paradigm for MMC based generator rectifier systems is proposed. Such development typically requires detailed component design and simulation models for the electric machine and converter which are computationally expensive. As an alternative, the proposed work utilizes an electric machine metamodel, inductor metamodel, and high-speed steady-state simulation model for the MMC to facilitate multi-objective optimization minimizing system metrics of interest while satisfying system constraints. A case study is undertaken to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed design paradigm.
The Montreal Cognitive Test Intervention: The Relationship between Cognitive-Impaired Patients and Readmissions

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between cognitive impairment among Medicare patients and hospital readmissions. Although there has been research on cognitive impairment and readmissions, seldom action has been done in regard to economic costs with hospitals. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program in 2012. Hospitals may not be fully reimbursed for Medicare patient readmissions within 30 days (). STUDY DESIGN An ethnographic approach was utilized with purposive sampling.This was a nonrandomized purposive sampling intervention study using data from Epic health systems database. METHODS The intervention spanned over 5 months and the MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) intervention was conducted in the hospital in a 3-phase study. The purpose of the study was for quality improvement and to detect cognitive impairment among Medicare readmitted patients. RESULTS The result shows cognitive impairment is prevalent among the Medicare population. Seventy-one (61%) had evidence of cognitive impairment (i.e., obtained a score below 25). The mean MoCA score for the 71 patients identified as having evidence of cognitive impairment was 17.84 (SD, ±5.06; range, 5-24). MoCA is useful in the acute care setting for identifying patients who are at increased risk for readmission. A randomly assigned controlled clinical trial test is warranted to further validate the association between cognitive impairment and readmissions. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT The ACA aims to improve case management by improving effective outcomes for individuals, care coordination among hospital professionals, economic efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and the collaborative process that services the patient. Hospitals across the country are implementing polices that adhere to patient-centered care. Before the ACA was passed, health care services were value metric. The ACA regulates hospitals toward holistic care or quality metrics. Case management will be critical, as hospitals look toward innovative methods to evaluate their patients.
Assessing Changes and Associations in the Xanthomonas perforans Population Across Florida Commercial Tomato Fields Via a Statewide Survey.

Before 1991, Xanthomonas euvesicatoria was the causal agent of bacterial spot of tomato in Florida but was quickly replaced by X. perforans. The X. perforans population has changed in genotype and ...
Regionalization of congenital heart surgery: Time for a rational approach

Abstract Outcome variation in congenital heart surgery in the US is unacceptable. Mounting evidence shows higher volume programs have better outcomes than lower volume programs. According to the publicly available Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) data reflecting 2014–2017, centers with ≤2% adjusted mortality rate (AMR) perform an average of 300 cases per year while centers with >4% AMR perform an average of only 100 cases per year. Regionalization by collapsing low volume centers into fewer high volume centers would reduce mortality, but would also impact travel burden, hospital infrastructure, and medical education. A rational approach minimizes these impacts while achieving quality standards set collaboratively with professional societies. Ideally, regionalization of the over 150 congenital heart surgery programs operating today to 71 centers each performing 250–300 or more cases per year maintains a program for each state with a population of 2 million or more people and minimizes travel burden. These regional centers would work in concert with pediatric cardiology centers where patients could receive local diagnostic and long term follow up care.
Development and Characterization of Excipient Enhanced Growth (EEG) Surfactant Powder Formulations for Treating Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome

This study aimed to develop and characterize a spray-dried powder aerosol formulation of a commercially available surfactant formulation, Survanta® intratracheal suspension, using the excipient enhanced growth (EEG) approach. Survanta EEG powders were prepared by spray drying of the feed dispersions containing Survanta® (beractant) intratracheal suspension, hygroscopic excipients (mannitol and sodium chloride), and a dispersion enhancer (l-leucine or trileucine) in 5 or 20% v/v ethanol in water using the Buchi Nano Spray Dryer B-90 HP. Powders were characterized for primary particle size, morphology, phospholipid content, moisture content, thermal properties, moisture sorption, and surface activity. The aerosol performance of the powders was assessed using a novel low-volume dry powder inhaler (LV-DPI) device operated with 3-mL volume of dispersion air. At both ethanol concentrations, in comparison to trileucine, l-leucine significantly reduced the primary particle size and span and increased the fraction of submicrometer particles of the Survanta EEG powders. The l-leucine-containing Survanta EEG powders exhibited good aerosolization performance with ≥ 88% of the mass emitted (% nominal) after 3 actuations from the modified LV-DPI device. In addition, l-leucine-containing powders had a low moisture content (< 3% w/w) with transition temperatures close to the commercial surfactant formulation and retained their surface tension reducing activity after formulation processing. A Survanta EEG powder containing l-leucine was developed which showed efficient aerosol delivery from the modified LV-DPI device using a low dispersion air volume.
Constitutively active SARM1 variants found in ALS patients induce neuropathy

Abstract In response to injury, neurons activate a program of organized axon self-destruction initiated by the NAD+ hydrolase SARM1. In healthy neurons SARM1 is autoinhibited, but single amino acid changes can abolish autoinhibition leading to constitutively-active SARM1 enzymes that promote degeneration when expressed in cultured neurons. To investigate whether naturally-occurring human variants might similarly disrupt SARM1 autoinhibition and potentially contribute to risk for neurodegenerative disease, we assayed the enzymatic activity of 29 rare SARM1 alleles identified among 8,507 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Ten missense variants or small in-frame deletions exhibit constitutive NADase activity, including more than half of those that are unique to the ALS patients or that occur in multiple patients. Expression of these constitutively active ALS-associated SARM1 alleles in cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons is pro-degenerative and cytotoxic. Intrathecal injection of an AAV expressing the common SARM1 reference allele is innocuous to mice, but a construct harboring SARM1V184G, the constitutively active variant found most frequently in the ALS patients, causes axon loss, motor dysfunction, and sustained neuroinflammation. These results implicate rare hypermorphic SARM1 alleles as candidate genetic risk factors for ALS and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Global Existence of a Strong Solution to a Fourth-Order Exponential PDE Modelling Crystal Surface Growth With Metropolis-Type Rates

In this article we prove the global existence of a unique strong solution to the initial boundary-value problem for a fourth-order exponential PDE modeling crystal surface growth. The model we study is derived as the limit of a microscopic Markov jump process with Metropolis-type transition rates. Our investigation reveals that, in opposition to the models with Arrhenius rates, where the exponent may contain a singular part, the exponent in our model is a $ W^{1,2} $ function.
Dietary succinate supplementation to maternal mice improves fetal brown adipose tissue development and thermogenesis of female offspring.

Abstract Succinic acid widely exists in foods and is used as a food additive. Succinate not only serves as an energy substrate, but also induces protein succinylation. Histone succinylation activates gene transcription. The brown adipose tissue (BAT) is critical for prevention of obesity and metabolic dysfunction, and the fetal stage is pivotal for BAT development. Up to now, the role of maternal succinate supplementation on fetal BAT development and offspring BAT function remains unexamined. To test, female C57BL/6J mice (2-month-old) were separated into two groups, received with or without 0.5% succinic acid in drinking water during gestation and lactation. After weaning, female offspring were challenged with high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. Newborn, female weanling, and HFD female offspring mice were analyzed. For neonatal and weaning mice, the BAT weight relative to the whole body weight was significantly increased in the succinate group. The expression of PGC-1α, a key transcription co-activator promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, was elevated in BAT of female neonatal and offspring born to succinate-fed dams. Consistently, maternal succinate supplementation enhanced thermogenesis and the expression of thermogenic genes in offspring BAT. Additionally, maternal succinate supplementation protected female offspring against HFD-induced obesity. Furthermore, in C3H10T1/2 cells, succinate supplementation promoted PGC-1α expression and brown adipogenesis. Mechanistically, succinate supplementation increased permissive histone succinylation and H3K4me3 modification in the Ppargc1a promoter, which correlated with the higher expression of Ppargc1a. In conclusion, maternal succinate supplementation during pregnancy and lactation enhanced fetal BAT development and offspring BAT thermogenesis, which prevented HFD-induced obesity and metabolism dysfunction in offspring.
Adrenal Cortical Response of Young Children to Modern and Ancient Stressors1

Darwinian medicine highlights the role of evolution in health and wellness. Contemporary patterns of morbidity and mortality can be understood, in part, by examining the physiological stress associated with rapid environmental change in relatively recent human evolutionary history (Nesse and Williams 1996, Sapolsky 1993). Adaptive responses to environmental demands are necessary for survival. Stress occurs when environmental demands tax or exceed the capacity of the organism to respond (Cohen, Kessler, and Gordon 1995, Lazarus and Folkman 1984). The capacity to cope with such demands, while critical to the organism, comes at a price. Chronic mobilization of adaptive resources damages the organism via elevated hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) activity. Elevated HPA is linked to major diseases via increased cardiovascular activation, accelerated arteriosclerosis, and compromised immune function (McEwen and Stellar 1993, Taylor, Repetti, and Seeman 1997). This paradox of adaptability is resolvable to the extent that humans can evolve to cope more efficiently with environmental demands (Dubos 1965), but this evolution takes time. Therefore human beings should experience greater HPA activation in responses to environmental demands originating more recently in the species’s history—that is, they should be better equipped to cope with stressors that have been an integral part of the human experience from the beginning than with more modern ones. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examine chronic ad-
Adenosine metabolism in permanent lymphocyte lines and in erythrocytes of patients with the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Adenosine metabolism of mammalian lymphocytes is of particular interest since the discovery of Giblett that hereditary severe combined immunodeficiency is linked with adenosine deaminase deficiency (1). In mammalian cells adenosine is phosphorylated to adenylate (AMP) or deaminated to inosine (Fig. 1 reaction 2), which is converted to hypoxanthine. Cells derived from patients with the Lesch Nyhan (L.N.) syndrome are deficient in hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT, EC 2.4.2.8) and therefore cannot convert hypoxanthine to inosinate (IMP). Consequently these cells provide a convenient model system to assess the importance of adenosine as a source of purine ribonucleotides in mammalian cells. The phosphorylation of adenosine to adenylate (AMP) is catalysed by adenosine kinase (AK, EC 2.7.1.20, Fig. 1 reaction 1) ; this pathway could serve as an additional means of purine salvage. Since adenosine is toxic to mammalian cells in culture (2), and plays a role in suppressing the proliferative response of lymphocytes to PHA (3), the present study of the metabolic fate of adenosine was carried out in cultured lymphocytes and in erythrocytes obtained from normal subjects and patients with the L.N. syndrome. The purpose of this study is to determine whether in HGPRT deficient cells, adenosine could indeed serve as an alternative source of purine ribonucleotides.
High resolution genetic mapping and candidate gene identification at the xa5 locus for bacterial blight resistance in rice ( Oryza sativa L.).

The xa5 resistance gene from rice provides recessive, race-specific resistance to bacterial blight of rice caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae. A high-resolution genetic map of the chromosomal region surrounding xa5 was developed by placing 44 DNA markers on the distal end of rice chromosome 5. The basis for mapping was a PCR-based screening of 1,016 F2 individuals derived from a cross between a near-isogenic line (NIL) and its corresponding recurrent parent to identify recombinants in the region. Recombinant F2 individuals were progeny tested using F3 families inoculated with the Philippine strain PXO 61 of bacterial blight pathogen. The xa5 gene was mapped to a 0.5-cM interval between the markers RS7 and RM611, which spanned an interval of approximately 70 kb and contained a total of 11 open reading frames. Sequence data for the locus was generated from an Indica (the IR24 isoline, IRBB21) BAC covering part of the region and compared to other overlapping Indica (cv 93-11) and Japonica (cv Nipponbare) sequences. Candidate-gene analysis revealed that a basal transcription factor (TFIIa), an ABC transporter, a tRNA synthase, a MAP kinase and a cysteine protease, as well as four unknown, hypothetical or putative proteins, are encoded at the locus and could be potential candidates for the resistance gene product. The mechanism by which these genes could provide recessive, race-specific resistance will be elucidated by map-based cloning of the xa5 gene.
Why is France so French? Culture, institutions, and neoliberalism, 1974- 1981

French capitalism has changed in many ways in the last two decades, but France has not seen the extreme neoliberalism of Britain and the United States. The author first provides evidence that the French pattern is not caused by adherence to cultural traditions of egalitarianism. The author then uses historical and interview data to compare the French case with the American counterexample. The argument is that France has adopted a “pragmatic neoliberalism” because in the postwar period it had adopted a “pragmatic state interventionism” designed not to further goals of social justice, but to turn an agricultural country into an industrial one. Moreover, neoliberalism in the United States required a remarkable degree of extreme political innovation which has not been possible in France.
Inhibitory Effect of Saliva on Glutamic Acid Accumulation by Lactobacillus acidophilus and the Role of the Lactoperoxidase-Thiocyanate System

Clem, W. H. (University of Washington, Seattle), and S. J. Klebanoff. Inhibitory effect of saliva on glutamic acid accumulation by Lactobacillus acidophilus and the role of the lactoperoxidase-thiocyanate system. J. Bacteriol. 91:1848–1853. 1966.—Saliva contains an antimicrobial system which inhibits the growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus, as well as a number of other organisms, in complete growth medium. This antimicrobial system consists of the salivary peroxidase (lactoperoxidase) and thiocyanate ions, and requires the presence of H2O2. Saliva inhibits the accumulation of glutamic acid and certain other amino acids by resting cells. This effect of saliva is decreased by dialysis, and thiocyanate ions restore the inhibitory effect of dialyzed saliva. The inhibitory effect of saliva is decreased by heat (100 C, 10 min), and lactoperoxidase restores the inhibitory effect of heated saliva. Thus, the inhibition of glutamic acid accumulation by saliva appears to be due in part to the lactoperoxidase-thiocyanate antimicrobial system. H2O2 increases the inhibitory effect of both saliva and the lactoperoxidase-thiocyanate system on glutamic acid accumulation. The inhibition of glutamic acid accumulation is not preceded by a loss in microbial viability. The glutamic acid accumulated by L. acidophilus under the conditions employed remains largely (over 90%) as free glutamic acid. This suggests that saliva and the lactoperoxidase-thiocyanate-H2O2 system inhibit the net transport of glutamic acid into the cell.
The Issuer-Pay Rating Model and Rating Inflation: Evidence from Corporate Credit Ratings

This paper provides evidence that the conflict of interest caused by the issuer-pays rating model leads to inflated corporate credit ratings. Comparing the ratings issued by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) which follows this business model to those issued by the Egan-Jones Rating Company (EJR) which adopts the investor-pays model, we demonstrate that the difference between the two is more pronounced when S&P's conflict of interest is particularly severe: firms with more short-term debt, a newly appointed CEO or CFO, and a lower percentage of past bond issues rated by S&P are significantly more likely to receive a rating from S&P that exceeds their rating from EJR. However, we find no evidence that these variables are related to corporate bond yield spreads, which suggests that investors may be unaware of S&P's incentive to issue inflated credit ratings.
The Inducibility of Tyrosine Aminotransferase in Monolayer Cultures of Hepatocytes from Neonatal Rats

Hepatocytes from neo- and postnatal rat liver were isolated, purified from non-hepatocytes (erythropoietic cells), and cultured in sufficient quantity to investigate enzyme inducibility. Tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) in neo- and postnatal hepatocytes was induced by maximally responsive doses of glucagon, dexamethasone, DB-cAMP, theophylline, and combinations thereof. In cultures from newborn parenchymal cells TAT enzyme-specific activity showed only a moderate inducibility; however, responsiveness to the combination was fully developed 10 days after birth and did not differ from values found in adult liver cells. The results also show the existence of the "permissive" effect of glucocorticoid during postnatal age, and indicate that the development of a possibly involved receptor complex for the induction of TAT is largely completed 5-10 days after birth.