cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three-Dimensional Stress Field around a Membrane Protein: Atomistic and Coarse-Grained Simulation Analysis of Gramicidin A

Using both atomistic and coarse-grained (CG) models, we compute the three-dimensional stress field around a gramicidin A (gA) dimer in lipid bilayers that feature different degrees of negative hydrophobic mismatch. The general trends in the computed stress field are similar at the atomistic and CG levels, supporting the use of the CG model for analyzing the mechanical features of protein/lipid/water interfaces. The calculations reveal that the stress field near the protein-lipid interface exhibits a layered structure with both significant repulsive and attractive regions, with the magnitude of the stress reaching 1000 bar in certain regions. Analysis of density profiles and stress field distributions helps highlight the Trp residues at the protein/membrane/water interface as mechanical anchors, suggesting that similar analysis is useful for identifying tension sensors in other membrane proteins, especially membrane proteins involved in mechanosensation. This work fosters a connection between microscopic and continuum mechanics models for proteins in complex environments and makes it possible to test the validity of assumptions commonly made in continuum mechanics models for membrane mediated processes. For example, using the calculated stress field, we estimate the free energy of membrane deformation induced by the hydrophobic mismatch, and the results for regions beyond the annular lipids are in general consistent with relevant experimental data and previous theoretical estimates using elasticity theory. On the other hand, the assumptions of homogeneous material properties for the membrane and a bilayer thickness at the protein/lipid interface being independent of lipid type (e.g., tail length) appear to be oversimplified, highlighting the importance of annular lipids of membrane proteins. Finally, the stress field analysis makes it clear that the effect of even rather severe hydrophobic mismatch propagates to only about two to three lipid layers, thus putting a limit on the range of cooperativity between membrane proteins in crowded cellular membranes.
Two calorimetric glass transitions do not necessarily indicate immiscibility: The case of PEO/PMMA

Differential scanning calorimetry has been used to examine blends of a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), Mn = 300 g/mol, and a poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), Mn = 10,000 g/mol, across the complete composition range. The relatively low molar mass of the PEO minimizes interference from crystallization. In the midrange of composition, ∼25–70% PEO, two broad, but distinct, glass transitions are resolved. These are interpreted as distinct glass transitions of the two components, as anticipated by the self-concentration model of Lodge and McLeish. The composition dependence of the observed transitions is well described by the self-concentration approach, using lengthscales of approximately two-thirds of the Kuhn length. The results are compared with previous measurements on PEO/PMMA blends and other miscible systems. The principal, general conclusion is that one should actually expect two glass transitions in a miscible polymer blend or polymer solution; the rule of thumb that two transitions indicate immiscibility is incorrect. Furthermore, attempts to rationalize two transitions on the basis of incomplete segmental mixing, or other unspecified “nanoheterogeneity,” may not be justified in many cases. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 756–763, 2006
Towards a practical and effective method for Web services test case generation

This paper proposes a method for Web services test case generation, which is centered on a practical test data generation framework that has higher probability to penetrate the service implementation logic. This presented framework leverages both the information contained in the WSDL/XSD files and the information provided by testers as well as enables testers to customize the fields to be tested, field constraints and data generation rules. The proposed method can generate test cases that are effective in detecting defects and efficient in reducing test time. This paper also presents preliminary empirical evidence to illustrate the value of the method.
Optimization of infiniband for scientific applications

The achievable performance on Infiniband networks is governed by the latencies and bandwidths of communication channels as well as by contention within the network. Currently Infiniband statically routes messages and thus do not take into account dynamic loading of the channels. By interrogating the network routing tables we quantify the contention that occurs for a number of communication patterns using a large-scale (1024 processor) system. Empirical data confirms our contention calculation almost exactly. Custom routing tables are defined that provide both optimum and worst-case performance for a large- range of communication patterns. Performance differences can be as large as 12x (from optimum to worst-case). Two large-scale applications show a runtime improvement of between 10-20% and up to 40% improvement in just their communication time when using optimized routing tables. The approach taken is applicable to many Infiniband systems, and we expect the performance improvements to be even greater on larger-scale systems.
Targeted gene expression without a tissue-specific promoter: creating mosaic embryos using laser-induced single-cell heat shock

We have developed a method to target gene expression in the Drosophila embryo to a specific cell without having a promoter that directs expression in that particular cell. Using a digitally enhanced imaging system to identify single cells within the living embryo, we apply a heat shock to each cell individually by using a laser microbeam. A 1- to 2-min laser treatment is sufficient to induce a heat-shock response but is not lethal to the heat-shocked cells. Induction of heat shock was measured in a variety of cell types, including neurons and somatic muscles, by the expression of beta-galactosidase from an hsp26-lacZ reporter construct or by expression of a UAS target gene after induction of hsGAL4. We discuss the applicability of this technique to ectopic gene expression studies, lineage tracing, gene inactivation studies, and studies of cells in vitro. Laser heat shock is a versatile technique that can be adapted for use in a variety of research organisms and is useful for any studies in which it is desirable to express a given gene in only a distinct cell or clone of cells, either transiently or constitutively, at a time point of choice.
Low esophageal mucosal blood flow in patients with nutcracker esophagus.

Nutcracker esophagus (NE) is characterized by high-amplitude peristaltic esophageal contractions, and these patients often present with symptoms of “angina-like” or noncardiac chest pain. Tissue is...
Dissociation, Possession, and Hysteria

This chapter focuses on dissociation, possession, and hysteria, which as mental conditions, are related to some extent to the basic mechanism of the alteration of the state of consciousness and the awareness of self-identification. They are related to the verification of mental integration and involve change of personality and awareness and identity of selfness. Based on these mental mechanisms, different mental conditions emerge that may occur as normal life conditions, on special daily life occasions, or as morbid states. Another unique feature of these mental conditions is that they can be induced by the self, can occur rather suddenly, and the individual experiencing them can return to his or her original state within a certain time. These conditions can occur in ordinary daily life situations, such as meditation and daydreaming, or as part of a religious or healing ceremony or professional practice, such as hypnosis. They can also occur in reaction to emotional stress. If they occur as pathological disorders, psychological therapy becomes the main approach for treatment. The dissociated state is characterized by the disconnection and disintegration of various mental functions. Normal dissociated states can be observed in religious or healing ceremonies and clinically, various subforms of morbid dissociated conditions can be identified. Altered personality state refers to the situation in which a person temporarily changes his personality as a whole, behaving as if he or she is a different person manifested by a different tone and style of speech, and a different behavior pattern and character. A possessed state is the same as an altered personality state except that the person behaves so differently from his original self that he is interpreted as being possessed.
La urbanización de la comunidad chicana en la novela Their Dogs Came With Them de Helena María Viramontes

Boyle Heights is one of the poor communities in East Los Angeles that went through a geographic displacement during the 1960s and whose fictional story is narrated in Helena Maria Viramontes’s novel, Their Dogs Came with Them. The human and cultural tapestry of the Chicano community, narrated in the text, is inextricably connected to the destruction of space, the construction of roads, the search for identity, the vigilance of security, and the survival of the individual in the past, the present, and the future. Viramontes’s fictional work helps us understand how the community of Boyle Heights became not only a segregated space, but also a resource of cheap labor for the downtown businesses and for the city as a whole. The analysis of this novel concentrates on the interpretation of the symbolic realities lived by the characters and how the geographic displacement shapes the characters’ coming of age. Utilizing David Harvey’s theory on the ‘Urbanization of Consciousness’, this paper analyzes the narrator’...
Survival of Polioviruses at Elevated Temperatures (60°-75°C).

SummarySuspensions of Polioviruses Types I, II and III in medium 199 derived from infected monkey kidney cell cultures were not completely inactivated following exposure for 1 hour to temperatures of 60° and 65°C. In one instance infectious virus was demonstrated in a suspension of Poliovirus Type II after heating at 75°C for 1 hour. Progeny of virus surviving at this temperature exhibited increased thermoresistance.
Spatial, temporal, and content analysis of Twitter for wildfire hazards

Social media data are increasingly being used for enhancing situational awareness and assisting disaster management. We analyzed the wildfire-related Twitter activities in terms of their attributes pertinent to space, time, content, and network, so as to gain insights into the usefulness of social media data in revealing situational awareness. Findings show that social media data can characterize the wildfire across space and over time, and thus are applicable to provide useful information on disaster situations. Second, people have strong geographical awareness during wildfire hazards and are interested in communicating situational updates related to wildfire damage (e.g., containment percentage and burned acres), wildfire response (e.g., evacuation), and appreciation to firefighters. Third, news media and local authorities are opinion leaders and play a dominant role in the wildfire retweet network.
Study on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among aged 45 years older in Haizhu district of Guangzhou

Objective To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of metabolic syndrome(MS) over the age of 45 in Haizhu district of Guangzhou. Methods Multistage cluster sampling method was used and the participants were interviewed by trained health workers under a structured questionnaire. The number of research subjects was 2 212. The diagnostic criteria of China Adult dyslipidemia Prevention Guide(2007) were used for diagnosis of MS. Results The prevalence of MS was 28.89% and was increased with age(χ2=72.93,P0.05). The most common combination of MS individual components were "dislipidemia +hypertension +hyperglycaemia ",accounted for 23.00% in 16 MS types.Conclusions High MS prevalence was observed at the age of 45 and above in Haizhu district of Guangzhou. Blood pressure, blood glucose and blood lipids were closely related with the prevalence of MS.
Bladder Carcinoma Treated by Partial Cystectomy: A Review of 54 Cases

Abstract A retrospective study of 54 partial cystectomies done between 1958 and 1973 was undertaken to evaluate the proper role of the procedure in the treatment of bladder carcinoma. The operative mortality rate was 1.8 per cent and the postoperative morbidity was low in the series. The 5-year survival rate for stages B1 (21 cases) and B2 (16 cases) lesions was 57 per cent, with an over-all 5-year survival rate for all stages of 48 per cent. Indications for the operation are presented and factors influencing survival are discussed.
Ascending Subgraph Decompositions of Tournaments of Orders $$6n+2$$6n+2 and $$6n+1$$6n+1

In 1987, Alavi, Boals, Chartrand, Erdos, and Oellermann conjectured that all graphs have an ascending subgraph decomposition (ASD). In a previous paper, we showed that all tournaments of order $$6n+3$$6n+3 have an ASD. In this paper, we will extend the result to all tournaments of order $$6n+1$$6n+1 and $$6n+2$$6n+2.
From Immunodeficiency to Autoimmunity

Following the discovery of the basic principles of immune responses, autoimmunity and immune deficiency have been considered to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum of disorders of immune function. Yet, clinical observations had shown that immunodeficiency is often associated with prominent manifestations of immune dysregulation. The study of two rare monogenic autoimmune diseases (autoimmune polyendocrinopathy candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy, APECED and immune dysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked (IPEX) syndrome) has led to the identification of key processes that govern T-cell tolerance. Investigation of the molecular and cellular basis of Omenn syndrome, a rare form of combined immune deficiency, has established that the same mechanisms of T-cell tolerance were in check. This has opened the way to a series of studies that have ultimately led to recognition that autoimmunity often goes hand-in-hand with severe forms of immunodeficiency.
The Molecular Biology of Diffuse Low-Grade Gliomas

The World Health Organization (WHO) grading scheme for glial neoplasms assigns grade II to three infiltrating (non-circumscribed) gliomas: diffuse astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, and oligoastrocytomas. Although commonly referred to collectively as among the “low-grade gliomas”, these three tumors represent molecularly and clinically unique entities. Each is the subject of active basic research aimed at developing a more complete understanding of its molecular biology, and the pace of such research continues to accelerate. Additionally, because prognostication and management of these tumors has historically proven challenging, translational research regarding grade II infiltrating gliomas continues in the hopes of identifying novel molecular features that can better inform diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies. Unfortunately, the basic and translational literature regarding the molecular biology of WHO grade II infiltrating gliomas remains nebulous. Our goal for this chapter is to present a comprehensive discussion of current knowledge regarding the molecular characteristics of these three WHO grade II tumors on the chromosomal, genomic, and epigenomic levels. Additionally, we discuss the emerging evidence suggesting molecular differences between adult and pediatric low-grade, infiltrating gliomas. Finally, we present an overview of current strategies for using molecular data to classify low-grade, infiltrating gliomas into clinically relevant categories based on tumor biology.
Triggered essential reviewing: the effect of technology affordances on service experience evaluations

This paper responds to the recent call for understanding the nature and consequences of the digital mediation of everyday experiences. We do so in the context of online opinion sharing. We propose ...
Third Movement: Return and Restitution

After what seems a never-ending regimen of trial and suffering, Chaucer reverses the trajectory of the tale and sends Custance back to Rome, where she reconciles with her erstwhile husband, the king, and her father, the Emperour of Rome. The analysis reveals the way Chaucer employs a series of gestural expressions to disclose Custance’s conflicting emotions toward her husband and her unwavering obedience to her father. It is argued that in these final scenes Chaucer depicts in the meeting of Custance with her father what may be considered the primal ontological dilemma of the political subject. He shows her willingly enacting her subjection to sovereign power, and this despite the traumatic and painful experience she has endured because of the sovereign’s earlier abandonment.
Diagnosis and Management of TMJ Heterotopic Bone and Ankylosis

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) heterotopic bone refers to calcifications that develop in and around areas of the joint that are normally void of the bone. The development of heterotopic bone within the confines of a joint or in the surrounding area can cause joint dysfunction, pain, as well as progression to ankylosis. Temporomandibular joint ankylosis is a condition where the condyle is fused to the fossa by bony or fibrotic tissues creating a debilitating condition that can interfere with jaw function, mastication, speech, oral hygiene, growth and development, breathing, and normal life activities and cause pain. There are numerous surgical techniques that have been proposed to manage heterotopic bone and TMJ ankylosis with varying outcomes reported. The most common complications following the treatment of ankylosis are limited jaw function, pain, and re-ankylosis.
Kneeling in the Street: Recontextualizing Balthasar

This paper supports the burgeoning movement that looks to find affinities between Hans urs von Balthasar's theology and various liberation theologies. It does so by offering a “recontextualization” of Balthasar's thought. Specifically, it provocatively looks to recontextualize Balthasar as a theologian of the street. The argument proceeds in three stages: First, the meaning of “context,” and so the possibility of recontextualization, is discussed. While the term has become commonplace in contemporary “contextual theologies,”, the most rigorous analysis of context is found not in theology, but in literary theory. Second, the particular locale of this particular recontextualization is discussed: the street. As sign, the street is ideologically and metonymically overdetermined. Here, Derrida, Goizueta, and Maeseneer are given as examples of thinkers who think with or from the street, who are contextualized by the street. Finally, the paper turns to specific instances in Balthasar's text that demonstrate his street contextualization: namely, his criticism of Rahner's martyrless Christianity and his discussion of the saints, particularly Joan of Arc. This section rejects those claims, epitomized by Murphy, that Balthasar's name signs a totally conservative context, and so completes my project of freeing space for the aforementioned liberatory movement to continue blossoming.
Multiobjective Optimization of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Space Situational Awareness Systems via Parallel Executable Architectures

This research implements a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) space situational awareness (SSA) systems via parallel evaluation of executable architectures on a high-performance computer (HPC). This effort has two main goals. The first is to develop and validate a methodology for optimization of large systems-of-systems in a robust manner that limits the assumptions typically necessary while performing large architecture trade studies. The second goal is to determine the set of near-optimal solutions for a GEO SSA system across multiple objectives. The GA is implemented in Python, and architectures are modeled and simulated with AGI’s Systems Tool Kit (STK)™ on an Air Force Research Laboratory HPC. Results show how the GA finds increasingly “good” solutions, where the multiple objectives can be weighted and filtered. After 319,968 architectures were modeled, simulated, and evaluated on the HPC (27 years of CPU time, 3 days clock time), the near-optimal solution consisted of 10 globally distributed 1-m telescopes, 4 satellites in 1000 km equatorial low Earth orbit with 30-cm sensor apertures, and 3 satellites in GEO with 45-cm sensor apertures.
Looking Death in the Eye

The death of a patient presents the physician with one of the most challenging situations in the practice of primary care medicine. Negotiating the process of dying can also be one of the most rewarding parts of practice as it brings about an emotional intensity for the patient, the family, and other caregivers that can be moving and healing for all who participate. The knowledge of impending death can facilitate resolution of personal and interpersonal conflicts rooted in previous life cycle stages. Of course, that same emotional intensity can also prove traumatic or bring about long-lasting dysfunction for those families who are unable to resolve the challenges raised by the loss of one of their members.
Vertebrate Eyes: Evolution

Recent discoveries show that eye evolution occurred many times. Photodetection in vertebrates depends on ciliary photoreceptors and in invertebrates on microvillar photoreceptors. Although both photoreceptors use related opsins for photon capture, they have distinctly different transduction cascades that arose independently in evolution. Both eye types, and probably many more, were present in the Urbilateria, prior to the Cambrian explosive speciation, and both kinds of transduction now coexist in both vertebrates and invertebrates. In addition, new families of opsin molecules have been identified, in some cases localized and thought to play a role in regulating circadian rhythms. Lenses associated with all image-forming eyes arose multiple times and in many cases exploited proteins used for other functions.
LOW-ENERGY ELECTRON COLLISION BY EXCITED ATOMS

Low-energy (1-30 eV) electrons play very important role in the kinetics of gas discharges. Electrons in this energy range present the dominant majority in most low-temperature plasmas. Mechanisms underlying many phenomena in weakly ionized gas are based, in part, on the low-energy electron collisions with atoms and molecules. Ionization balance in partially ionized gas is maintained by a combination of excitation and ionization processes involving electrons. in addition, the momentum transfer from low-energy electrons to neutral particles is a significant mechanism in the heating of heavy particles. on the other hand, it is well known that excited-state atoms, especially metastable atoms, are the intermediate states in the multi-step ionization processes from ground-state atoms and molecules. Further, collisions between electrons and excited states are the dominant mechanism for ionization at higher gas pressures, usually competing with the energy pooling processes involving two excited-state atomic particles.
Correction for Khan et al., "Targeting the HIV-1 Spike and Coreceptor with Bi- and Trispecific Antibodies for Single-Component Broad Inhibition of Entry".

Volume 92, no. 18, e00384-18, 2018, [https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00384-18][1]. The article was originally published on 29 August 2018 with a standard copyright line (“© 2018 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.”). We elected to pay for open access for the article after
Leveraging Image-Derived Phenotypic Measurements for Drug-Target Interaction Predictions.

In recent years, protein kinases have become some of the most significant drug targets in cancer patients. Kinases are known to regulate the activity of many human proteins, and consequently their ...
Position Taking on the President’s Agenda

Several political scientists argue that electorally vulnerable legislators should be more likely to cast, rather than skip, legislative roll call votes. However, most empirical studies find limited evidence to support this claim. In this article, we argue that electorally vulnerable members serving in the House of Representatives are more likely to engage in position taking, via casting a roll call vote rather than abstaining, on a certain subset of legislative votes. We suggest that roll call votes that the president has publicly addressed should be especially ripe for legislators to engage in position taking because of the executive branch’s unique influence on electoral politics for legislators. When examining all roll call votes in the 84th through the 112th Congress in the House of Representatives, we find that members who barely won their last election are associated with a higher attendance record on roll calls that the president has revealed his preferences on. We also find that electorally vulnerable members are less likely to abstain on roll call votes that pass or fail by a narrow margin. These findings shed light on legislative-executive relations.
Ab initio investigation of the elastic properties of bismuth-based alloys

Density functional theory has been used to investigate the elastic properties of various Bi-based alloy materials as potential replacements of lead-based solders. We compare calculated quantities which can be used to determine the effectiveness of our proposed replacements, such as the bulk $(K)$, shear $(G)$, and Young's $(E)$ moduli. We also computed the Pugh ratio $(\ensuremath{\gamma}=K/G)$, a quantity that is used to estimate the ductility of a solid, for each of the alloys. The effect of spin-orbit coupling on these materials has also been investigated. By analyzing the changes in charge density as Bi is substituted, we link the predicted changes in ductility in these materials to atomistic descriptors; specifically, delocalization of the charge density is known to be a signature of increased ductility, whereas more localized charge density is typically associated with brittleness. Through Bader charge analysis we provide quantitative insight into the uniformity of charge distribution and how this alters the ductility of these alloys. By using density functional theory to calculate the elastic properties of different ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{Z}_{x}$ alloys $(Z$ = Sb, Te, In, Sn; $0\ensuremath{\le}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}x\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\le}1)$, we correlate changes in ductility and corresponding changes in the electronic structure of a material. We have found that low concentrations of Sn and Te, substituted into the hexagonal crystal structure of Bi, induce significant increases in ductility.
When a Sibling Has Disability: Exploring the Experiences of Youth and Young Adults Through Photovoice

Date Presented 04/06/19 Photovoice was used as a participatory tool to document how the experience of having a sibling with developmental disability influenced the lives of well siblings. Data were collected from three cohorts: young child, adolescent, and young adult well siblings. Six major themes arose: (1) normalcy, (2) challenges, (3) support, (4) learned, (5) similarities, and (6) happiness. Primary Author and Speaker: Alexia Metz Contributing Authors: Sarah Hayes, Kristy Bernard, Dianna Temple, Briana Klingle
High-throughput transcriptome analysis reveals that the loss of Pten activates a novel NKX6-1/RASGRP1 regulatory module to rescue microphthalmia caused by Fgfr2 -deficient lenses

FGFR signaling is critical to development and disease pathogenesis, initiating phosphorylation-driven signaling cascades, notably the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK and PI3 K-AKT cascades. PTEN antagonizes FGFR signaling by reducing AKT and ERK activation. Mouse lenses lacking FGFR2 exhibit microphakia and reduced ERK and AKT phosphorylation, widespread apoptosis, and defective lens fiber cell differentiation. In contrast, simultaneous deletion of both Fgfr2 and Pten restores ERK and AKT activation levels as well as lens size, cell survival and aspects of fiber cell differentiation; however, the molecular basis of this “rescue” remains undefined. We performed transcriptomic analysis by RNA sequencing of mouse lenses with conditional deletion of Fgfr2, Pten or both Fgfr2 and Pten, which reveal new molecular mechanisms that uncover how FGFR2 and PTEN signaling interact during development. The FGFR2-deficient lens transcriptome demonstrates overall loss of fiber cell identity with deregulated expression of 1448 genes. We find that ~ 60% of deregulated genes return to normal expression levels in lenses lacking both Fgfr2 and Pten. Further, application of customized filtering parameters to these RNA-seq data sets identified 68 high-priority candidate genes. Bioinformatics analyses showed that the cis-binding motif of a high-priority homeodomain transcription factor, NKX6-1, was present in the putative promoters of ~ 78% of these candidates. Finally, biochemical reporter assays demonstrate that NKX6-1 activated the expression of the high-priority candidate Rasgrp1, a RAS-activating protein. Together, these data define a novel regulatory module in which NKX6-1 directly activates Rasgrp1 expression to restore the balance of ERK and AKT activation, thus providing new insights into alternate regulation of FGFR downstream events.
Identification and compensation of feedthrough in an unstable electrostatic bearing

Abstract A technique to identify feedthrough coupling in an unstable one degree-of-freedom electrostatic bearing is described. The feedthrough is caused by the simultaneous use of electrodes for differential capacitive sensing and electrostatic actuation. Cancellation of the feedthrough over a broad frequency band is necessary for the system to be practically stabilizable. A feedforward filter based on open-loop estimates of the feedthrough is adequate for designing a stabilizing controller, however, the resulting stability margins are poor because the closed-loop feedthrough differs from the open-loop estimates which determine the filter. The main contribution of the paper shows how the initial feedforward filter can be updated using feedthrough estimates obtained by testing the closed-loop system at its nominal operating point. It is demonstrated that the improved feedthrough cancellation facilitates the implementation of an updated controller which reduces sensitivity function peaking and increases the closed-loop bandwidth.
Applications of Complex Variables

We apply complex variables in this chapter to three topics taken from engineering practice, in the order of presentation: fluid mechanics, groundwater flow, and linear elasticity, as applied to soil mechanics and rock mechanics.
Association Between Femoral "Spike" Size After Intramedullary Nailing and Subsequent Knee Motion Surgery.

OBJECTIVES To determine the association between displaced femoral shaft bone fragments ("spikes") seen on radiographs after intramedullary nail insertion and the need for future motion surgery. DESIGN Retrospective case-control study. SETTING Academic trauma center. PATIENTS We included patients with femoral shaft fractures treated with intramedullary nail insertion. Case patients (n = 22) had developed knee stiffness treated with motion surgery. The control group was a randomly selected sample (1:3 ratio). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Motion surgery to address knee stiffness. We defined a "spike distance ratio" and "spike area ratio" from initial postoperative anteroposterior and lateral radiographs. Multivariable logistic regression determined the effect of spike distance and area ratios on the likelihood of need for motion surgery, controlling for polytraumatic injuries and bilateral fractures. RESULTS The case group had a median femoral spike distance ratio of 1.9 [interquartile range (IQR), 1.6-2.5] compared with 1.5 (IQR, 1.2-1.8) in the control group. An increased femoral spike distance ratio was associated with increased odds of motion surgery (P 2 times the femoral radius had 32 times the odds (95% confidence interval, 2-752) of motion surgery compared with patients with distance ratios <1.25. Median femoral spike area ratios were similar between the case (0.2; IQR, 0.1-0.5) and control (0.2; IQR, 0.0-0.5) groups and were not associated with increased odds of motion surgery (P = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS A larger spike distance ratio is associated with increased odds of subsequent motion surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
What is the likelihood function, and how is it used in particle physics?

Likelihood functions are ubiquitous in data analyses at the LHC and elsewhere in particle physics. Partly because "probability" and "likelihood" are virtual synonyms in everyday English, but crucially distinct in data analysis, there is great potential for confusion. Furthermore, each of various approaches to statistical inference (likelihoodist, Neyman-Pearson, Bayesian) uses the likelihood function in different ways. This note is intended to provide a brief introduction at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student level, citing a few papers giving examples and containing numerous pointers to the vast literature on likelihood. The Likelihood Principle (routinely violated in particle physics analyses) is mentioned as an unresolved issue in the philosophical foundations of statistics.
The Minimal Clinically Important Difference in Glaucoma Medication Adherence: Interviews of Glaucoma Experts

Poor adherence to glaucoma medications is associated with progressive vision loss. While many interventions have sought to increase glaucoma medication adherence, the amount by which adherence must increase to have a clinically significant effect remains unknown. To generate a hypothesized minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for glaucoma medication adherence, we conducted interviews with glaucoma experts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the American Glaucoma Society. MCID was defined in 2 ways: (1) the incremental increase in the average percentage of eye drops a patient takes at roughly the correct time and (2) the incremental increase in the proportion of a patient population who attain good adherence. Good adherence was defined as taking more than 80% of drops at approximately the prescribed dose time. Expert opinions on the MCID for glaucoma medication adherence and open-ended responses were recorded through field notes. Twenty-five experts were interviewed. They estimated the MCID for average individual adherence levels as 17.7% (95% CI: 14.6, 20.8). Experts estimated the MCID for the proportion of patients in a practice who attain good adherence (defined as >80% of eye drops taken as prescribed) as 18.5% (95% CI: 15.6, 21.5). The most common identified themes were that the MCID should take into account the cost of the intervention and the burden to the ophthalmologist and to the practice, where experts thought that more costly interventions or those that required more physician time should have larger MCIDs. Based on expert opinion, we hypothesized that the MCID for glaucoma medication adherence is between 15 and 20%. However, the MCID for a given intervention must take into account several factors, including intervention cost and physician burden. This hypothesis may facilitate the design and implementation of future studies to objectively determine an MCID for glaucoma medication adherence.
Protein Decoy Generation via Adaptive Stochastic Optimization for Protein Structure Determination

Many regions of the protein universe remain inaccessible by wet-laboratory or homology modeling methods. Elucidating these regions necessitates structure determination in silico. Protein structure determination in the absence of a structural template remains a challenging task with two core problems, known as decoy generation and decoy selection. In this paper, we address the problem of decoy generation, which inherently involves exploring the unknown, vast, and high-dimensional structure space of a given amino-acid sequence in the presence of a finite computational budget for relevant structures. Leveraging a stochastic optimization framework, we first demonstrate how selection pressure can be employed to control the trade-off between exploration and exploitation. Moreover, we then propose a novel algorithm that tunes its behavior towards exploration or exploitation as needed via an adaptive selection mechanism. We present a thorough evaluation on 30 protein targets in a comparative setting, where we compare the proposed adaptive algorithm to state-of-the-art algorithms that include the top ten groups in the two recent CASP competitions. The results show that the proposed algorithm is not only competitive against several of these groups, but it additionally outperforms several of them on many targets, suggesting that adaptive stochastic optimization is a promising framework for decoy generation.
Acceptability and Usability of Mobile Apps for Smoking Cessation Among Young Adults With Psychotic Disorders and Other Serious Mental Illness.

1.1.1 Background: Young adults with serious mental illness (SMI) are over twice as likely to smoke cigarettes than those in the general population, but little research has evaluated the efficacy of interventions for this group. While smartphone apps are a promising tool to address this need, their usability should be evaluated among young adults with psychotic disorders, whose symptoms and cognitive impairments may be a barrier to app use. 1.1.2 Methods: We compared usability and acceptability of National Cancer Institute apps (QuitGuide and quitSTART) between young adult smokers with SMI psychotic disorders and other SMI diagnoses. We evaluated objective app usability at the initial study visit and following two weeks of independent use via a video-recorded task-completion protocol. Perceptions of usability and acceptability were assessed with semi-structured interviews. Engagement was assessed with backend app use data. 1.1.3 Results: Participants had a mean age of 29 years old (SD=4). Of the participants without psychotic disorders (n=10), all were diagnosed with SMI post traumatic stress disorder (SMI-PTSD). QuitGuide objective task completion rates were high and similar between diagnosis groups, whereas quitSTART task completion was initially lower among users with psychotic disorder compared to users with SMI-PTSD at Visit 1, and improved by Visit 2. Mean app interactions, mean days of use, and median completed notifications were dramatically higher among quitSTART users compared to QuitGuide users. Compared to quitSTART users with SMI-PTSD, quitSTART users with psychotic disorders had similar daily app interactions over the first week of use (mean 3.8±2.4 interactions), and numerically lower mean daily app interactions during the second week (1.9±1.5 vs 3.4±2.5), whereas completed notifications remained stable among quitSTART users in both diagnosis groups over time. Qualitative comments indicated general acceptability of both apps among both diagnosis groups. 1.1.4 Conclusions: Both QuitGuide and quitSTART were usable and appealing among young adult smokers with psychotic disorders and SMI-PTSD, although quitSTART engendered a dramatically greater level of engagement compared to QuitGuide. Initial coaching to support initiation and app notifications to promote prolonged engagement may be important for young adult smokers with psychotic disorders. Replication and efficacy testing for quitSTART is warranted.
Ei-ichi Negishi 1935-2021: The carbon-carbon bond-maker.

Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died on June 6, 2021 at age 85. He died of pneumonia following surgery. He was surrounded by his two daughters and their families, his caregiver, and a minister. As his daughter, Charlotte Negishi East, wrote to me, “It was a beautiful time…read[ing] scripture from [the] Japanese Bible and… such meaningful songs and prayers, many stories about our father…some were very funny, and we were able to laugh during this extremely sad time…until he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.” Ei-ichi Negishi receiving the news that he had won a share of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Image credit: Purdue University. Prof. Negishi was born July 14, 1935, in what is now Changchun, China, while at the time of his birth it was called Hsinking. That was the capital of the Japanese occupied territory of Manchukuo. His family eventually moved to a town outside Tokyo after World War II, where his parents were farmers raising their five children. Although academically unmotivated as a child, Negishi’s abounding competitive spirit caused him to battle for the top academic spot in his school, just out of his passion to excel over others. That opened the door for him to attend the University of Tokyo. Negishi was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1958 to study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his doctorate in 1963 doing organosulfur chemistry. Negishi was a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University under Prof. H. C. Brown, who later received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry … [↵][1]1Email: tour{at}rice.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Consensus emerges and biased competition wins: A commentary on Luck et al. (2021)

As the debate about the automaticity of attentional capture has raged on over the years, knowledge of how selection functions has been accumulating in the literature. Luck et al. (2021) highlights ...
Leniency Policies and Cartel Success: An Experiment

Cartels are often fought by granting leniency, in the form of forgiveness of penalties, to whistle-blowers. This study employs a laboratory experiment to compare leniency programs that differ with respect to fine size and whether a second whistle-blower may apply for leniency. The results show that leniency does not affect the probability that a cartel forms, but is effective in exposing cartels and thereby inhibiting cartel success. Higher fines are more effective, but allowing leniency to a second whistle-blower is no more effective than granting leniency to only one whistle-blower.
Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression

Non-thermal microwave/lower frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) act via voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) activation. Calcium channel blockers block EMF effects and several types of additional evidence confirm this mechanism. Low intensity microwave EMFs have been proposed to produce neuropsychiatric effects, sometimes called microwave syndrome, and the focus of this review is whether these are indeed well documented and consistent with the known mechanism(s) of action of such EMFs. VGCCs occur in very high densities throughout the nervous system and have near universal roles in release of neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine hormones. Soviet and Western literature shows that much of the impact of non-thermal microwave exposures in experimental animals occurs in the brain and peripheral nervous system, such that nervous system histology and function show diverse and substantial changes. These may be generated through roles of VGCC activation, producing excessive neurotransmitter/neuroendocrine release as well as oxidative/nitrosative stress and other responses. Excessive VGCC activity has been shown from genetic polymorphism studies to have roles in producing neuropsychiatric changes in humans. Two U.S. government reports from the 1970s to 1980s provide evidence for many neuropsychiatric effects of non-thermal microwave EMFs, based on occupational exposure studies. 18 more recent epidemiological studies, provide substantial evidence that microwave EMFs from cell/mobile phone base stations, excessive cell/mobile phone usage and from wireless smart meters can each produce similar patterns of neuropsychiatric effects, with several of these studies showing clear dose-response relationships. Lesser evidence from 6 additional studies suggests that short wave, radio station, occupational and digital TV antenna exposures may produce similar neuropsychiatric effects. Among the more commonly reported changes are sleep disturbance/insomnia, headache, depression/depressive symptoms, fatigue/tiredness, dysesthesia, concentration/attention dysfunction, memory changes, dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite/body weight, restlessness/anxiety, nausea, skin burning/tingling/dermographism and EEG changes. In summary, then, the mechanism of action of microwave EMFs, the role of the VGCCs in the brain, the impact of non-thermal EMFs on the brain, extensive epidemiological studies performed over the past 50 years, and five criteria testing for causality, all collectively show that various non-thermal microwave EMF exposures produce diverse neuropsychiatric effects.
Nontrauma surgeons can safely take call at an academic, rural level I trauma center.

Abstract Background Care protocols can facilitate effective management of injured patients across a spectrum of providers. It is uncertain whether patient care is compromised when a full time trauma surgeon is not on call in the rural setting, where manpower may be a challenge. Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed at an academic medical center with a level I trauma center. Patients admitted to the trauma service from 2007 to 2012 were compared with respect to mortality, missed injuries, delay in diagnosis, and length of stay based on whether they were admitted to the trauma service when a full-time trauma surgeon was on call. Results A total of 2,571 injured patients were admitted during the study period; 1,621 directly to the trauma service. Of those, 1,415 patients were initially seen by a trauma surgeon (group A) and 206 by a nontrauma surgeon (group B). Demographics were similar except that the trauma attending patients were somewhat older (44.7 vs 39.4 years, P = .002). There was no difference in the mean injury severity score (17.0 vs 16.0, P = .13) or Glasgow Coma Scale (12.7 vs 12.3, P = .7) between the 2 groups. There were 128 deaths; mortality rate in group A was 7.9% versus 7.7% for group B ( P = .54). There was no difference in the incidence of delayed diagnosis or missed injuries (3.0 vs 3.4%, P = .8; .4 vs .9%, P = .27, respectively). The mean length of stay was shorter (7.9 vs 6.3, P = .016) in group B. Conclusions There was no increase in mortality, delayed diagnosis, or missed injuries when nontrauma surgeons took call. Systems of care and algorithms can be developed that provide staffing flexibility yet maintain safe and effective care to trauma patients in the rural setting.
Pulse shaping of the load current on the Z accelerator

The refurbishment project (ZR) for the Z accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories. McDaniel, DH. et al., (2002) is required to provide the capability to temporally shape the current pulse at the load, primarily for isentropic compression experiments (ICE) Hall, CA. et al., (2001). The baseline design to accomplish this uses staggered triggering of the 36 pulse-forming lines that are added in parallel. With relative timing differences between the lines, and each line run in either a short-pulse mode or a long-pulse mode, there are many degrees of freedom for achieving a required pulse shape at the load. This approach is currently being evaluated with circuit simulations, 3D, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, and experiments on Z. Results from these experiments have been very successful.