cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Telehealth Follow-up in Lieu of Postoperative Clinic Visit for Ambulatory Surgery Results of a Pilot Program

Importance Telehealth encounters can safely substitute for routine postoperative clinic visits in selected ambulatory surgical procedures. Objective To examine whether an allied health professional telephone visit could safely substitute for an in-person clinic visit. Design Prospective case series during a 10-month study period from October 2011 to October 2012 (excluding July and August 2012). Setting University-affiliated veterans hospital. Patients Ambulatory surgery patients who underwent elective open hernia repair or laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the 10-month study period. Interventions Patients were called 2 weeks after surgery by a physician assistant and assessed using a scripted template. Assessment variables included overall health, pain, fever, incision appearance, activity level, and any patient concerns. If the telephone assessment was consistent with absence of infection and return to baseline activities, the patient was discharged from follow-up. Patients who preferred a clinic visit were seen accordingly. Main Outcomes and Measures Percentage of patients who accepted telehealth follow-up and complications that presented in telehealth patients within 30 days of surgery. Results One hundred fifteen open herniorrhaphy and 26 laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients had attempted telehealth follow-up. Seventy-eight percent (110) of all patients were successfully contacted; of those, 70.8% (63) of hernia patients and 90.5% (19) of cholecystectomy patients accepted telehealth as the sole means of follow-up. Complications in the telehealth patients were zero for cholecystectomy and 4.8% (3) for herniorrhaphy. Nearly all patients expressed great satisfaction with the telephone follow-up method. Conclusions Telehealth can be safely used in selected ambulatory patients as a substitute for the standard postoperative clinic visit with a high degree of patient satisfaction. Time and expense for travel (7-866 miles) were reduced and the freed clinic time was used to schedule new patients.
Self-care and professionally guided care in osteoarthritis: racial differences in a population-based sample.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of self-management practices among older White and African American persons with osteoarthritis. Self-management was defined broadly to include all behaviors adopted to reduce morbidity, whether recommended by physicians or not. Methods: A population-based sample of Medicare beneficiaries (N = 551) was recruited. An expanded set of self-management behaviors using structured and open-ended inquiry, along with use of arthritis-specific medications was elicited. Results: Few differences in self-care behaviors between race groups were found. However, older African American persons were significantly less likely to have prescriptions for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs) and more likely to use over-the-counter nonprescription analgesics. Discussion: Older White and African American persons made similar use of self-care strategies to reduce disease morbidity. African Americans without access to prescription pain relievers substituted no...
Protection from retinal necrosis by passive transfer of monoclonal antibody specific for herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D.

Passive administration of antibody against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) has been shown to protect against stromal keratitis and death from encephalitis. Although the exact mechanism by which passively-transferred antibody protects is not known, one of the features of protection by passively-transferred antibody is interference with the ability of the virus to spread within the nervous system. In the experiments reported herein, studies were performed to determine if 8D2, a monoclonal antibody against a type-common epitope of glycoprotein D, could protect mice from retinal necrosis following uniocular anterior chamber inoculation of HSV-1. Mice were protected from retinal necrosis when the antibody was administered 2 hours before virus inoculation or 24 hours after virus inoculation. When antibody was injected 2 hours before virus inoculation, the liter of virus at day 1 p.i. in the injected eyes of antibody-treated and control mice was the same, but by 3 days p.i., the liter of virus in the anlibod...
A hardware-in-loop FACTS control system design for real-time power system simulation

This paper presents the development of a FACTS interaction laboratory (FIL) to interface a real-time power system simulator with multiple FACTS/UPFC devices via hardware-in-loop (HIL) to study their dynamic responses and test control approaches. The HIL line includes a synchronous machine, a UPFC device and a load device to simulate the dynamics of the UPFC sub-network. The practical feasibility of the proposed HIL scheme has been demonstrated by implementation on a PC-DSP-based UPFC platform. A detailed design of the HIL distributed control system including synchronous machine, UPFC and load is presented.
Fast and accurate characterizationst of interconnect capacitance network using Degenerated Exhaustive Direct Charge Measurements (DEDCM)

Continuing scaling down trend of semiconductor process node has increased the necessity of comprehensive interconnect capacitance testing, however, the measurement has only been made between limited combinations of conductor groups due to test time constrains. In this paper, we propose new interconnect capacitance measurement method, Degenerated Exhaustive Direct Charge Measurements (DEDCM). This method enables measuring all interconnect capacitance components accurately and faster.
P0-2 Spectroscopic Intravascular Photoacoustic Imaging

Intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging has the potential to detect atherosclerotic plaques. Previously, we obtained IVPA images using a 532 nm pulsed laser and a 40 MHz intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging catheter. The optical absorption of light by the plaque components was used as a contrast mechanism helpful in detecting the plaque. However, plaque differentiation requires a method to remotely assess plaque composition. We hypothesized that plaque characterization can be performed by monitoring the changes in photoacoustic response with the change in laser excitation wavelength. In this preliminary study, we performed spectroscopic IVPA imaging to analyze the change in the photoacoustic response of the aortic tissue (a rabbit aorta with plaque and a control aorta) using different laser excitation wavelengths. Specifically, we perform IVPA imaging at multiple wavelengths within 680-900 nm range. The slope of the spectral change in photoacoustic response was computed between selected wavelengths to produce a spectroscopic IVPA image. The results of our study suggest the ability of the multi-wavelength IVPA imaging to identify and differentiate the fibrous, lipid and blood components of the atherosclerotic plaque.
Conformational Freedom in Tight Binding Enzymatic Transition State Analogues

Transition-state analogues of bacterial 5'-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidases (MTANs) disrupt quorum-sensing pathways in Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae, demonstrating the potential to limit pathogenicity without placing bacteria under intense selective pressure that leads to antibiotic resistance. Despite the similarity of the crystal structures of E. coli MTAN (EcMTAN) and V. cholerae MTAN (VcMTAN) bound to DADMe-Immucillin-A transition-state (TS) analogues, EcMTAN demonstrates femtomolar affinity for BuT-DADMe-Immucillin-A (BDIA) whereas VcMTAN possesses only picomolar affinity. Protein dynamic interactions are therefore implicated in this inhibitor affinity difference. We conducted molecular dynamics simulations of both EcMTAN and VcMTAN in complex with BDIA to explore differences in protein dynamic architecture. Simulations revealed that electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with BDIA are similar for both enzymes and thus unlikely to account for the difference in inhibitor affinity. The EcMTAN-BDIA complex reveals a greater flexibility and conformational freedom of catalytically important atoms. We propose that conserved motions related to the EcMTAN transition state correlate with the increased affinity of BDIA for EcMTAN. Transition-state analogues permitting protein motion related to formation of the transition state are better mimics of the enzymatic transition state and can bind more tightly than those immobilizing catalytic site dynamics.
Processing Kinetics and Grain Boundary Electrical Properties of Electroceramics Via Impedance Spectroscopy

In situ impedance spectroscopy (IS) is a powerful in situ monitor of processing kinetics for electroceramics. Examples of “parallel” interconnectivities encountered during processing include chemical bonding, sintering, solid state reactions, and decomposition reactions. “Series” interconnectivities occur during grain boundary processing, e.g. doping, oxidation/reduction, etc. Data from the processing of oxide superconductors illustrate the utility of IS for in situ processing studies of electroceramics.
Relative Influences of Various Environmental Factors on 50–1000 HZ Sound Propagation in Shelf and Slope Areas

Within a given continental shelf or slope area acoustic propagation effects from many aspects of the environment sum to give the resultant total environmental effect on sound propagation. Signal parameters influenced by the environment include signal strength (transmission loss), vertical coherence scale, horizontal coherence scale, temporal coherence scale, and further signal details not measured by coherence scales, all as functions of frequency. Environmental (oceanographic) factors include but are not limited to bathymetric slope, episodic high-amplitude internal waves, continuous low-amplitude internal waves, seafloor attenuation, fronts, currents, source depth, and receiver depth. The effects of each of these environmental factors may be investigated individually with simulations or with specialized field experiments, but the results often can’t be generalized because of first-order differences between regions. In many situations the various factors do not act independently, but are coupled, and not only do the individual parameters vary but their interactions may also change. An example from our previous work is the altered influence of mode-stripping (bottom interaction) in shallow water when high-amplitude internal waves are either present or absent. This effect is sensitive to source depth, bottom parameters, and wave parameters. This example and other simulated examples of differing dominant parameters at selected locations will be presented and compared with acoustic experiment data.
Rules versus discretion: Comparing disaster declaration institutions in the Philippines and Indonesia

Abstract Within most countries' emergency and disaster laws, a specific set of institutions dictates the processes of declaring an event an emergency, disaster, or calamity. Whether it occurs at the local, regional, or national level, this declaration is often a necessary first step for response and recovery processes. Yet, across countries, there is a fair amount of variance on these disaster declaration processes. In some places, decision makers are given wide discretion in deciding whether an event is a disaster. In others, the definition of disaster is circumscribed by specific criteria. This begs the question: What are the effects of these institutional differences? For example, do they contribute to increased tensions between levels of government in disaster response and recovery processes? This paper utilizes the congruence method of qualitative comparison to explore two most-similar cases, Indonesia and the Philippines, and the way disaster declaration rules affected arguments about jurisdictional responsibility in two recent volcanoes. Despite some caveats, the comparison indicates a potentially causal effect of these institutional differences and suggests a promising path of comparative research.
Top of the Line: SPSS, SAS, and SYSTAT

In our last PS article we discussed the vicissitudes of statistics package purchasing. Our focus was on low and mid priced products. We found a much wider variation in performance and quality than is seen in more popular programs sold to the business market for word processing, data base management, or spreadsheet work. This variation and the associated possibility of buying a package that does not meet one's needs makes statistical software selection especially difficult. Statistics packages are not commonly found in retail outlets so that in-store trials cannot be made. Reviews and articles can narrow the field, but the user is still obliged to carefully study manufacturers' specifications and to discuss particular needs with company technicians by telephone.We determined that for a large majority of users the moderately priced SYSTAT was the best choice unless menus or high quality presentation graphics were required. A new graphics module corrects the latter problem. If one's data base is within 64 K, STATGRAPHICS with its wealth of statistical techniques, menu driven ease of use, and its superb graphics was also recommended as was the inexpensive NCSS.
Kernelized Extreme Learning Machine in Distributed Environment

With the exponentially increasing volume of training data, the performance of centralized ELMwith kernels suffers due to large matrix operations. A distributed algorithm named MapReduce based kernelized ELM( MR-KELM) was proposed, which realized an implementation of ELMwith kernels on MapReduce in the cloud. The kernel matrix generated by distributed radial basis function was decomposed and then the output weights by distributed multiplication of matrix and vector were calculated by the proposed algorithm. Communications and data exchanges in distributed matrix operations were reduced and good scalability was achieved by MR-KELM. Extensive experiments on synthetic datasets were conducted to verify the training performance and scalability of MR-KELM. Experimental results showed that MR-KELMwas effective and efficient for massive learning applications.
An Analysis of Cancer Mortality from 1990 to 2002 in Zhejiang Province

To explore the characteristics of cancer mortality in Zhejiang province and to provido imformation for cancer prevention and control.Using the death data from Zhejiang Provincial Death Registration System,we compared mortalities of malignancies by age,gender and areas,and analyzed the trends of mortalities of malignancies by calculating the standarized mortality rates in 1990 to 1992 and in 2000 to 2002 respectively.Cancer was the leading cause of death in Zhejiang wherever in urban or rural areas.From 1990 to 2002, the cancer mortality was 31.85 per 100000.The leading cause of death due to malignancy was lung,liver and stomach cancer in urban area, and stomach, lung, liver cancer in rural area.Comparing with the period from 1990 to 1992, the mortality in male and female from 2000 to 2002 increased slightly(5.44%,3.75%)in urban area,and increased remarkably(17.55%,18.06%)in rural area.The mortality rate of lung cancer in female increased more than over 36% in both urban and rural areas.[Conclusion]Stomach,liver and lung cancer are the main causes of death due to malignancy in Zhejiang Poavince.And the prevention and control should be strengthened not only in urban area,but also in rural area.The further research should be conducted especially on risk factors of female lung cancer.
Differential Membrane Binding Mechanics of Synaptotagmin Isoforms Observed in Atomic Detail

Synaptotagmin (Syt) is a membrane-associated protein involved in vesicle fusion through the SNARE complex that is found throughout the human body in 17 different isoforms. These isoforms have two membrane-binding C2 domains, which sense Ca2+ and thereby promote anionic membrane binding and lead to vesicle fusion. Through molecular dynamics simulations using the highly mobile membrane mimetic acclerated bilayer model, we have investigated how small protein sequence changes in the Ca2+-binding loops of the C2 domains may give rise to the experimentally determined difference in binding kinetics between Syt-1 and Syt-7 isoforms. Syt-7 C2 domains are found to form more close contacts with anionic phospholipid headgroups, particularly in loop 1, where an additional positive charge in Syt-7 draws the loop closer to the membrane and causes the anchoring residue F167 to insert deeper into the bilayer than the corresponding methionine in Syt-1 (M173). By performing additional replica exchange umbrella sampling calc...
Functional neuroimaging and chorea: a systematic review

Chorea is a hyperkinetic movement disorder consisting of involuntary irregular, flowing movements of the trunk, neck or face. Although Huntington’s disease is the most common cause of chorea in adults, chorea can also result from many other neurodegenerative, metabolic, and autoimmune conditions. While the pathophysiology of these different conditions is quite variable, recent advances in functional imaging have enabled the development of new methods for analysis of brain activity and neuronal dysfunction. In this paper we review the growing body of functional imaging data that has been performed in chorea syndromes and identify particular trends, which can be used to better understand the underlying network changes within the basal ganglia. While it can be challenging to identify whether changes are primary, secondary, or compensatory, identification of these trends can ultimately be useful in diagnostic testing and treatment in many of the conditions that cause chorea.
Checkpoint inhibitors and the risk of infection

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Immune checkpoint inhibition has emerged as an important new approach to the treatment of cancer. Agents targeting cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), and PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) have shown remarkable promise as anti-neoplastic drugs, but they are also associated with unique set of toxicities termed immune-related adverse events (IRAEs) that differ from toxicities observed with conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy.Areas covered: A burgeoning body of literature suggests that patients who are treated with a checkpoint inhibitor are at increased risk for infection, either from immune dysregulation, medication-induced neutropenia, or from immunosuppression associated with the management of IRAEs. In this paper, we examine these phenomena and explore how the risk of infectious might be mitigated through the use of antimicrobial prophylaxis in high-risk patients.Expert commentary: There is no prospective data on thee toxicities associated with c...
C/EBPα and PU.1 exhibit different responses to RANK signaling for osteoclastogenesis

The transcription factors C/EBPα and PU.1 are upregulated by RANKL through activation of its receptor RANK during osteoclastogenesis and are critical for osteoclast differentiation. Herein we investigated the mechanisms underlying how C/EBPα and PU.1 regulate osteoclast differentiation in response to RANK signaling. We showed that C/EBPα or PU.1 overexpression could initiate osteoclastogenesis and upregulate the expressions of the osteoclast genes encoding the nuclear factor of activated T-cells, C1, cathepsin K, and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase independently of RANKL. However, while PU.1 upregulated C/EBPα, C/EBPα could not upregulate PU.1. RANK has a unique cytoplasmic domain, 535IVVY538 motif, which is crucial for osteoclast differentiation. We demonstrated that mutational inactivation of RANK IVVY motif blocked osteoclast differentiation and significantly attenuated C/EBPα, but not PU.1, expression, indicating that RANK-IVVY-induced signaling is dispensable to PU.1 upregulation during osteoclastogenesis. However, C/EBPα or PU.1 overexpression failed to promote osteoclastogenesis in cells expressing mutated RANK IVVY motif. We noted that RANK-IVVY-motif inactivation significantly repressed osteoclast genes as compared with a vector control, suggesting that IVVY motif might also negatively regulate osteoclast inhibitors during osteoclastogenesis. Consistently, IVVY-motif inactivation triggered upregulation of RBP-J, a potent osteoclast inhibitor, during osteoclastogenesis. Notably, C/EBPα or PU.1 overexpression in cells expressing mutated RANK IVVY motif failed to control the deregulated RBP-J expression, resulting in repression of osteoclast genes. Accordingly, RBP-J silencing in the mutant cells rescued osteoclastogenesis with C/EBPα or PU.1 overexpression. In conclusion, we revealed that while PU.1 and C/EBPα are critical for osteoclastogenesis, they respond differently to RANKL-induced activation of RANK IVVY motif.
Statistical analysis of the FNET/grideye-detected inter-area oscillations in Eastern Interconnection (EI)

FNET/GridEye has been continuously monitoring the power grids in North America for more than ten years. Using the GPS-synchronized phasor measurements, a real time application has been developed on the FNET/GridEye platform to detect inter-area oscillations and perform oscillation modal analysis. This paper conducted statistical analysis on the captured inter-area oscillations in the Eastern Interconnection (EI) from 2013 to 2015. The results show strong correlation between inter-area oscillation and system load. The system is more vulnerable to inter-area oscillations under lower load conditions than heavy load conditions. Two major inter-area oscillation modes are found in EI. It is suspected that significant changes took place in 2013, which led to the notable alterations of inter-area oscillations in the system afterwards: the number of observed oscillations significantly increased; the pattern of the oscillation mode frequency distribution changed; and the predominating cause of the inter-area oscillations is shifted from line trip to other disturbances.
Optimal self-triggered control and network co-design for networked multi-agent system via adaptive dynamic programming

In this paper, optimal self-triggered control and network co-design problem has been studied for networked multi-agent system (MAS) with uncertain physical and network dynamics. There are two main challenges, i.e. 1) effective modeling of control and network jointly is lacking, 2) uncertain physical and network dynamics complicate the optimal design significantly. To overcome these challenges, a novel control and network joint modelling algorithm has been developed for networked MAS firstly. Specially, we consider the self-triggered control design from physical system aspect and admission control design from network aspect. Next, adopting adaptive dynamic programming strategy, a novel online time-based optimal self-triggered control and network admission co-design has been proposed. The developed scheme could not only optimize both self-triggering time and number of admitted agents, but also relaxes the requirement of networked MAS physical system and network dynamics. Eventually, simulation results are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed scheme.
Improved Cardiovascular Risk Factors Control Associated with a Large-Scale Population Management Program Among Diabetes Patients.

Abstract Background Optimal cardiovascular risk factors control among individuals with diabetes remains a challenge. We evaluated changes in glucose, lipid, and blood pressure control among diabetes patients after implementation of a large-scale population management program, known as Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes Everyday, at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC), during 2004-2013. Methods We used National Committee for Quality Assurance Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set cut points to identify prevalence of poor glycemic (hemoglobin A1c > 9%) control, good lipid control (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol Results We found that the prevalence of poor glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c > 9%) declined in both KPNC and nationally, but was statistically significant only in KPNC (AAPC = −4.8; P Conclusions Relative to national benchmarks, a substantially greater improvement in risk factor control among adults with diabetes was observed after implementation of a comprehensive population management program.
The Replica Set Method: A High-throughput Approach to Quantitatively Measure Caenorhabditis elegans Lifespan

The Replica Set method is an approach to quantitatively measure lifespan or survival of Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes in a high-throughput manner, thus allowing a single investigator to screen more treatments or conditions over the same amount of time without loss of data quality. The method requires common equipment found in most laboratories working with C. elegans and is thus simple to adopt. The approach centers on assaying independent samples of a population at each observation point, rather than a single sample over time as with traditional longitudinal methods. Scoring entails adding liquid to the wells of a multi-well plate, which stimulates C. elegans to move and facilitates quantifying changes in healthspan. Other major benefits of the Replica Set method include reduced exposure of agar surfaces to airborne contaminants (e.g. mold or fungus), minimal handling of animals, and robustness to sporadic mis-scoring (such as calling an animal as dead when it is still alive). To appropriately analyze and visualize the data from a Replica Set style experiment, a custom software tool was also developed. Current capabilities of the software include plotting of survival curves for both Replica Set and traditional (Kaplan-Meier) experiments, as well as statistical analysis for Replica Set. The protocols provided here describe the traditional experimental approach and the Replica Set method, as well as an overview of the corresponding data analysis.
Operative Ultrasonography for Upper Genital Tract Pathology

Purpose:A procedure using transvaginal sonohysterography (SHG) to perform operative intrauterine biopsies and resections is described.
Phonon-pump electronic-probe study of methylammonium lead iodide reveals electronically decoupled organic and inorganic sublattices

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites such as methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) are game-changing semiconductors for solar cells and light-emitting devices owing to their exceptionally long carrier lifetime and diffusion length. Determining whether the large dipole moment of the organic cation and dynamic disorder benefit the optoelectronic properties of CH3NH3PbI3 has been an outstanding challenge. Herein, via transient absorption measurements employing an infrared pump pulse tuned to a methylammonium vibration, we observe slow, nanosecond-long thermal dissipation from the selectively excited organic mode to the entire lattice. Resulting transient electronic signatures, during the period of thermal-nonequilibrium when the induced thermal motions are mostly concentrated on the organic sublattice, reveal that induced motions of the organic cations do not alter absorption or photoluminescence response of CH3NH3PbI3, beyond thermal effects. Our results suggest that the attractive optoelectronic properties of CH3NH3PbI3 mainly derive from the inorganic lead-halide framework.
Pitch of Harmonic Complex Tones: Rate-Place Coding of Resolved Components in Harmonic and Inharmonic Complex Tones in Auditory Midbrain

Abstract Harmonic complex tones (HCT) commonly occurring in speech and music evoke a strong pitch at their fundamental frequency (F0), especially when they contain harmonics individually resolved by the cochlea. When all frequency components of an HCT are shifted by the same amount, the pitch of the resulting inharmonic tone (IHCT) also shifts although the envelope repetition rate is unchanged. A rate-place code whereby resolved harmonics are represented by local maxima in firing rates along the tonotopic axis has been characterized in the auditory nerve and primary auditory cortex, but little is known about intermediate processing stages. We recorded single neuron responses to HCT and IHCT with varying F0 and sound level in the inferior colliculus (IC) of unanesthetized rabbits. Many neurons showed peaks in firing rates when a low-numbered harmonic aligned with the neuron’s characteristic frequency, demonstrating “rate-place” coding. The IC rate-place code was most prevalent for F0>800 Hz, was only moderately dependent on sound level over a 40 dB range, and was not sensitive to stimulus harmonicity. A spectral receptive-field model incorporating broadband inhibition better predicted the neural responses than a purely excitatory model, suggesting an enhancement of the rate-place representation by inhibition. Some IC neurons showed facilitation in response to HCT, similar to cortical “harmonic template neurons” (Feng and Wang 2017), but to a lesser degree. Our findings shed light on the transformation of rate-place coding of resolved harmonics along the auditory pathway, and suggest a gradual emergence of harmonic templates from low to high processing centers. Significance statement Harmonic complex tones are ubiquitous in speech and music and produce strong pitch percepts in human listeners when they contain frequency components that are individually resolved by the cochlea. Here, we characterize a “rate-place” code for resolved harmonics in the auditory midbrain that is more robust across sound levels than the peripheral rate-place code and insensitive to the harmonic relationships among frequency components. We use a computational model to show that inhibition may play an important role in shaping the rate-place code. We also show that midbrain auditory neurons can demonstrate similar properties as cortical harmonic template neurons. Our study fills a gap in understanding the transformation in neural representations of resolved harmonics along the auditory pathway.
Identification and Characterization of a Transient Receptor Potential Ion Channel (TRP2) Involved in Acclimation to Low CO 2 Conditions in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The CO2 concentrating mechanism (CCM) is a key feature of green algal cells, induced in response to limiting CO2 conditions. Calcium-dependent signaling has been shown to play a role in this acclimation process to low inorganic carbon in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, but the molecular players have not been characterized. One type of Ca2+ channel, the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels is specific to the algal members of the green lineage and not found in land plants. TRP channels generally mediate the flux of Ca2+ ions in response to environmental perturbations, and one recent study has revealed the role of Ca2+ signaling in acclimation to limiting CO2 in the green alga, C. reinhardtii. In this study, the gene Trp2, encoding a Ca2+ ion channel was identified through bioinformatics analyses as having a role in acclimation of algal cells to limiting CO2. Transcript abundance levels for this gene are significantly upregulated when cells are cultured in limiting CO2 and mutant cells missing the TRP2 protein show an impaired growth phenotype. We show that a calcium binding protein CAS, is downregulated in the trp2 mutant along with other CCM genes under the control of CAS. The results suggest that the TRP2 ion channel is involved in the acclimation of C. reinhardtii cells to limiting CO2.
Oral adverse events in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

e15106Background: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are increasingly used to treat a variety of cancers. Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been reported. Oral manifestations of irAEs inc...
The First American Edition of Heidi: A Correction to “Heidi in English: A Bibliographic Study”

Susan Stan’s discussion of the first American edition of Heidi (1884) and subsequent reissues is inaccurate. Using material from Publishers Weekly and other contemporary sources, we demonstrate tha...
Three-dimensional reconstructions of the putative metazoan Namapoikia show that it was a microbial construction.

Strata from the Ediacaran Period (635 million to 538 million years ago [Ma]) contain several examples of enigmatic, putative shell-building metazoan fossils. These fossils may provide insight into the evolution and environmental impact of biomineralization on Earth, especially if their biological affinities and modern analogs can be identified. Recently, apparent morphological similarities with extant coralline demosponges have been used to assign a poriferan affinity to Namapoikia rietoogensis, a modular encrusting construction that is found growing between (and on) microbial buildups in Namibia. Here, we present three-dimensional reconstructions of Namapoikia that we use to assess the organism’s proposed affinity. Our morphological analyses, which comprise quantitative measurements of thickness, spacing, and connectivity, reveal that Namapoikia produced approximately millimeter-thick meandering and branching/merging sheets. We evaluate this reconstructed morphology in the context of poriferan biology and determine that Namapoikia likely is not a sponge-grade organism.
Determining the influence of intervention characteristics on implementation success requires reliable and valid measures: Results from a systematic review:

Background:Despite their inclusion in Rogers’ seminal diffusion of innovations theory, few implementation studies empirically evaluate the role of intervention characteristics. Now, with growing ev...
The Inference Objection to Evidence Cases

Chastain (1975) and Sawyer (2012), among others, claim that direct cognitive relations can be initiated in evidence cases. Direct cognitive relations will here include Chastain’s knowledge-of and Sawyer’s trace-based acquaintance, as well as related notions such as having-in-mind and singular thought. Against this controversial claim, it is often objected that such cases are better understood as cases of inference rather than cases of direct thought. When one detects something by its footprint, the objection goes, one merely infers that it exists rather than thinking of it directly. The goal of this paper is to analyze what is meant by the inference objection and consider several possible responses to it. Ultimately, I will not offer a knock-down argument against the inference explanation; in fact, I’ll try to explain why I suspect one isn’t possible. Instead, I’ll appeal to the possibility of misdescription and analogous cases involving non-human animals to show that the inference explanation is less plausible than the account to which it provides an alternative.
Lung Masses as a Presenting Sign of Disseminated Cryptococcus.

Cryptococcosis is an invasive fungal disease that most commonly affects immunocompromised individuals, typically causing pulmonary and central nervous system (CNS) symptoms. The fungus that causes cryptococcosis, Cryptococcus, is globally disseminated and often transmitted through bird droppings. The two most frequent and pertinent species responsible for clinical infections in humans include Cryptococcus neoformans, which has been known to cause the majority of cryptococcosis globally until recently, during which Cryptococcus gattii has been identified and reported more frequently. A 54-year-old male with a history of renal transplant on chronic immunosuppressants and type 2 diabetes mellitus was found to have multiple lung masses within the right upper and right lower lobes. He had also been experiencing syncope, multiple falls, worsening headaches, tinnitus, diplopia, and ongoing weight loss. The patient underwent a percutaneous biopsy of one of the lung masses in addition to a lumbar puncture (LP), both of which revealed positive cryptococcus antigen confirmed to be C. gattii. The patient was started on amphotericin B and flucytosine to treat cryptococcal meningitis. Despite treatment, his condition continued to worsen, necessitating daily therapeutic LP and temporary placement of a lumbar drain. Once his symptoms were better managed, he was discharged from the hospital but has continued to have serial LPs outpatient while concurrently taking fluconazole to prevent reaccumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and recurrence of symptoms. This report describes a unique presentation of disseminated C. gattii infection presenting as multiple lung masses and the subsequent management of CNS cryptococcosis.
Precarious life: cinema, ontology and the digital turn in Julie Taymor’s Shakespeare films:

After analysing the debates on the move towards digitalisation in the cinema, this article explores how Julie Taymor’s The Tempest frames digital modalities in negative terms by conflating their po...
Thigmostimulation Alters Anatomical and Biomechanical Properties of Bioenergy Sorghum Stems

Bioenergy sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a tropical grass that can be used as a bioenergy crop but commonly suffers from stem structural failure (lodging) when exposed to mechanical stimuli, such as rain and wind. Mechanical stimulation can trigger adaptive growth in plant stems (thigmomorphogenesis) by activating regulatory networks of hormones, proteins, transcription factors, and targeted genes, which ultimately alters their physiology, morphology, and biomechanical properties. This study investigated changes in anatomical traits and biomechanical properties of bioenergy sorghum stems under mechanical stimulation during their growth and development. The sweet sorghum cultivar Della was grown in a greenhouse under two growth conditions: with and without mechanical stimulation. The mechanical stimulation involved periodic bending of the stems in one direction during a seven-week growth period. At maturity, the anatomical traits of the stimulated and non-stimulated stems were characterized, including internode lengths and diameters, and biomechanical properties, including elastic (instantaneous) modulus, flexural stiffness, strength, and time-dependent compliance under bending. The morpho-anatomical and biomechanical characteristics of two internodes of the stems that were at different stages of development at the time of mechanical stimulation were examined. Younger internodes were more responsive and experienced more pronounced changes due to the stimulation when compared to the older internodes. Statistical analyses showed differences between the stimulated and non-stimulated stems in terms of both their anatomical and biomechanical properties. Mechanical stimulation produced shorter internodes with slightly larger diameters, as well as softer (more compliant) and stronger stems.
THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND DISTRACTION ON REACTION TIME IN A DRIVING SIMULATOR

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of driver distraction - both cognitive and visual - on reaction time to unexpected road hazards. Participants operated a driving simulator while intermittently answering prerecorded questions of various difficulty (holding a "conversation" with the computer), or dialing specified numbers into a cellular telephone. Two road hazards were presented at unpredictable times and locations, including red brake lights and a red pedestrian-shape of approximately the same area as the brake lights. Targets were presented in two different locations: directly in front of the driver at the bottom of the screen, and off to the side of the road. The results showed a significant overall increase in reaction time for older subjects, as well as a strong interaction with the dialing task condition. There were no significant differences from the control for either easy or difficult verbal response conditions. In addition, stimuli on the side of the road took significantly longer to respond to, especially when combined with the dialing task. These data suggest a strong link between age, visual task load, stimulus location, and increased reaction time to unexpected stimuli.
Robustness Revised: Frankfurt Cases and the Right Kind of Power to Do Otherwise

Frankfurt’s famous counterexample strategy challenges the traditional association between moral responsibility and alternative possibilities. While this strategy remains controversial, it is now widely agreed that an adequate response to it must preserve an agent’s ability to do otherwise, and not the mere possibility, for only then is her alternative possibility sufficiently robust to ground her responsibility. Here, I defend a more stringent requirement for robustness. To have a robust alternative, I argue, the agent must have the right kind of ability, where the right kind is such that it is up to her whether she does otherwise. I argue that this kind of power attribution is epistemically conditioned. While a few writers have defended an epistemic condition for robustness, seeing this condition as a consequence of the relevant power attributions will provide much-needed support and clarification, while also illuminating the kind of ability in which free will consists.
Simulation-based methodology for improving the safety and efficacy of insulin therapy in critically ill patients

Critically ill patients often have hormonal stress responses due to trauma and intensive therapy. As a result, they spend an excessive amount of time with abnormally high blood glucose (BG) levels. Computerized protocols, such as the adaptive proportional feedback (APF) protocol, provide computer-directed insulin delivery to treat stress-induced hyperglycemia and its complications, while minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia. While better than paper-based protocols, computer-based protocols are sometimes insensitive to patients with rapidly decreasing BG levels. To improve the performance of APF insulin protocols, a simulation-based methodology was developed to optimize the protocol parameters. The simulated data was gathered by modeling the time-varying BG responses of in silico patients over time that correspond to a particular selection of APF protocol parameters. Analysis began with splitting the data into test and validation sets and identifying Pareto efficient parameters settings for both sets, which allowed for visualization of the tradeoffs between the time spent in hyper- and hypoglycemia. This yielded a Pareto frontier of potential APF parameters settings that translate to treatment options that improve upon current insulin therapy. The potential improvements can be vital in ensuring safe insulin therapy in clinical settings, and the overall methodology can be applied in a variety of healthcare situations.
Detecting overlapping gravity waves using the S‐Transform

[1] We discuss an adaptation to the widely-used Stockwell Transform based method for the detection of gravity waves to allow the detection of multiple overlapping waves. This adjusted method is applied to data from the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder for the period of May 2006 and is found to change the measured distribution of gravity wave momentum flux on a global scale. An overall 68% increase in measured momentum flux is observed for the 20–30km altitude range, with significant regional variability. The largest absolute increase is over India, the Southern Ocean, and the Antarctic Peninsula, regions previously known to exhibit high levels of momentum flux. A strong relative increase is observed north of the equator, particularly in the tropics; analysis of the wavelength distribution of detected gravity waves shows that the majority of this increase is due to the detection of small vertical- and horizontal-scale waves which were presumably previously masked by higher-amplitude events in the same profile.
Real-time detection of histone deacetylase activity with a small molecule fluorescent and spectrophotometric probe

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are central players in transcription regulation and important targets in cancer treatment. Activity assays are critical tools for the study of the function and regulation of these enzymes, as well as for the screening of potential inhibitors. We report a small-molecule probe for single-step, continuous detection of deacetylase activity based on an acetyl-lysine mimic functionalized with an amine-reactive fluorophore, designed to undergo rapid intramolecular imine formation upon deacetylation. The probe exhibits a bathochromic shift in the absorption spectrum and changes in fluorescence emission intensity that enable unprecedented real-time detection of HDAC activity of purified enzymes or in cell lysates, and offers a means to evaluate HDAC inhibitors via simple spectrophotometric or fluorescence readings without the need of additional reagents.
Wavelength and energy dispersive X-ray studies of contaminants in water treed insulation

The authors describe the results of an investigation to locate the contaminants within water trees grown in polymeric insulation using energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray (EDX and WDX) spectroscopy. Trees were grown in low-density polyethylene cross-linked polyethylene and dry-cured exposed to solutions of NaCl or CuSO/sub 4/ at stresses up to 8 kV/mm. Some specimens examined semiconducting electrodes and also a semiconducting layer in the middle of the insulation, to form a sandwich-type specimen. It is shown that water trees contain contaminants in sufficient concentration to be detected by EDX and WDX X-ray spectroscopy. In steam-cured cables WDX has shown that the contaminants appear to concentrate in the cavities of the treed regions within these cables. A scanning electron microscopy backscattered electron image was used to reveal the location of water trees and their contaminants distribution. Contaminants appear to be distributed throughout the entire water tree and do not seem to concentrate in any specific region of the tree. It is also shown that particles at the semiconductor/insulation interface result in the rapid growth of water trees in the presence of moisture and electric stress. >
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Human Rights

In a most surprising way, it has come to our attention that our graduate students, who are diligently studying to become special education teachers, had a limited understanding of human rights, but a significant interest in learning about the topic. We teach at a California State University in one of this nation’s most liberal cities.
Determining 3-D motion and structure of a rigid body using straight line correspondences

This paper describes the main results obtained for the determination of 3-D motion and structure of a rigid body containing straight line segments, given a sequence of (2-D) perspective views [1]. The analysis is based on the representation of the central projection of a 3-D line on the unit sphere. Methods over 2 and 3 frames are shown for the cases of pure rotation, pure translation, and general motion.
Effects of ligands on the reactivity of V+ and Ti+ toward dehydrogenation of ethylene

In this communication, we report studies of the dehydrogenation reactivity of bare Ti+ and V+, as well as their coordinated complexes, toward ethylene at thermal energies, where the ligands are acetylene or ethylene for Ti+, and ethylene for V+. We have observed that coordinated Ti+ and V+ complexes show quite different reactivity from that of the bare metal ions, and that the effects of ligands on the reactivity depend strongly on the number of these as well as the type of metal ion. For both metal ions, the three-ligand coordinated species display higher dehydrogenation reactivity than the one- and two-ligand coordinated complexes.