cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
EPSPS amplification in glyphosate-resistant spiny amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus): a case of gene transfer via interspecific hybridization from glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri).

BACKGROUND Amaranthus spinosus, a common weed of pastures, is a close relative of Amaranthus palmeri, a problematic agricultural weed with widespread glyphosate resistance. These two species have been known to hybridize, allowing for transfer of glyphosate resistance. Glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus was recently suspected in a cotton field in Mississippi. RESULTS Glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus biotypes exhibited a fivefold increase in resistance compared with a glyphosate-susceptible biotype. EPSPS was amplified 33–37 times and expressed 37 times more in glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus biotypes than in a susceptible biotype. The EPSPS sequence in resistant A. spinosus plants was identical to the EPSPS in glyphosate-resistant A. palmeri, but differed at 29 nucleotides from the EPSPS in susceptible A. spinosus plants. PCR analysis revealed similarities between the glyphosate-resistant A. palmeri amplicon and glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus. CONCLUSIONS Glyphosate resistance in A. spinosus is caused by amplification of the EPSPS gene. Evidence suggests that part of the EPSPS amplicon from resistant A. palmeri is present in glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus. This is likely due to a hybridization event between A. spinosus and glyphosate-resistant A. palmeri somewhere in the lineage of the glyphosate-resistant A. spinosus plants. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Speaking Our Minds: What it's Like to Have Alzheimer's (rev. ed.), by Lisa Snyder

Speaking Our Minds is Lisa Snyder's insightful accounts of seven interviews with individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The major focus of the book is to bring “the voices” of persons livi...
Thinking about place: researching and reading the global history of nursing

Este estudo considera o lugar como uma categoria de analise. A enfermagem como uma disciplina pratica e a historia da enfermagem como um campo de conhecimento. Ambos se situaram em uma maior area de autoconsciencia global e os estudiosos estao se deslocando para alem de seus paises e estados como contexto primario para a investigacao historica. Ao mesmo tempo, o trabalho da enfermagem e, tem sido e sempre sera um ato privado e intimo. Este estudo considera dois desafios para aqueles interessados em explorar como a historia da enfermagem pode considerar esta justaposicao do global e do local. O primeiro e conceitual e considera as maneiras de explorar os estudos nacionais da historia da enfermagem mais sistematicamente. O segundo e estrutural e explora como podemos construir um corpo de conhecimentos e um quadro de estudiosos que atravessem a linguistica convencional, barreiras culturais e criem uma vibrante comunidade de discussao e dialogo.
Detection of Emotional Expressions in Speech

This paper provides a survey literature survey on the emotion recognition in spoken dialogs and proposes an implementation of such a system using acoustic features. The data corpus contains 322 utterances expressing four emotions such as happy, angry, sad, and fear. 50% of the total data is used for training while the other 50% is used for testing. We use 21 features extracted from our features set in our experiment. The feature vectors are normalized by using Z-score normalization. The multi-class support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used for classification. The result shows that sad is classified with the highest accuracy whereas happy is classified with the least accuracy
Vancomycin nephrotoxicity: a review

Vancomycin earned notoriety for its tendency to cause nephrotoxicity shortly after it was introduced into practice, though the impurities responsible for historically significant rates of nephrotoxicity are of minimal concern today. Increasing usage of vancomycin has provided evidence that the drug itself can be nephrotoxic, but the exact mechanism by which this occurs has not been determined. Various studies have identified risk factors associated with development of vancomycin-associated nephrotoxicity, including total daily dose > 4 grams, trough levels > 20 mg/L, therapy exceeding 6 days, concurrent use of other nephrotoxic agents, preexisting renal disease, obesity, hypotensive episodes, and increasing severity of illness. Preventative strategies beyond risk assessment and therapeutic drug monitoring have shown little promise. Most cases of nephrotoxicity are reversible with discontinuation of vancomycin, but permanent renal damage can occur. This article is intended to serve as a practical review of vancomycin-associated nephrotoxicity, including historical context, risk factors, and common methods to evaluate and define renal dysfunction.
Identifiability in biobanks: models, measures, and mitigation strategies

The collection and sharing of person-specific biospecimens has raised significant questions regarding privacy. In particular, the question of identifiability, or the degree to which materials stored in biobanks can be linked to the name of the individuals from which they were derived, is under scrutiny. The goal of this paper is to review the extent to which biospecimens and affiliated data can be designated as identifiable. To achieve this goal, we summarize recent research in identifiability assessment for DNA sequence data, as well as associated demographic and clinical data, shared via biobanks. We demonstrate the variability of the degree of risk, the factors that contribute to this variation, and potential ways to mitigate and manage such risk. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of these findings, particularly as they pertain to biobank security and access policies. We situate our review in the context of real data sharing scenarios and biorepositories.
Online Pricing of Secondary Spectrum Access with Unknown Demand Function

We consider a wireless provider who caters to two classes of customers, namely primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs). PUs have long term contracts while SUs are admitted and priced according to current availability of excess spectrum. The average rate at which SUs attempt to access the spectrum is a function on the currently advertised price, referred to as the demand function. We analyze the problem of maximizing the average profit gained by admissions of SUs, when the demand function is unknown. We introduce a new on-line algorithm, called Measurement-based Threshold Pricing (MTP), that requires the optimization of only two parameters, a price and a threshold, whereby SU calls are admitted and charged a fixed price when the channel occupancy is lower than the threshold and rejected otherwise. At each iteration, MTP measures the average arrival rate of SUs corresponding to a certain test price. We prove that these measurements of the secondary demand are sufficient for MTP to converge to a local optimal price and corresponding optimal threshold, within a number of measurements that is logarithmic in the total number of possible prices. We further provide an adaptive version of MTP that adjusts to time-varying demand and establish its convergence properties. We conduct numerical studies showing the convergence of MTP to near-optimal online profit and its superior performance over a traditional reinforcement learning approach.
Quantitative Priming with Inactivated Pertussis Toxoid Vaccine in the Aerosol Challenge Model

Serum antibodies to pertussis toxin (PT) have been shown to be protective against severe pertussis disease, although a specific level of anti-PT antibody that correlates with protection has not been demonstrated. Current animal models such as the intracerebral challenge model have significant limitations in correlating protection to a specific level of anti-PT antibody. This study examines the protective effects of priming with tetranitromethane-inactivated pertussis toxoid (PTx) vaccine in the aerosol challenge model and whether a measurable response to a priming dose of PTx is enough to initiate a protective secondary response when challenged with infection. The correlation of priming with markers of illness such as leukocytosis, weight loss, bacterial proliferation, and mortality after established infection with Bordetella pertussis was explored. BALB/c mice were immunized with PTx vaccine on day 6 of life and then challenged with B. pertussis using the aerosol challenge model. Data were analyzed according to the primary immunologic response, differentiating responders (anti-PT immunoglobulin G [IgG] ≥1 μg/ml) from nonresponders (anti-PT IgG <1 μg/ml). Mice that showed evidence of priming on the day of aerosol challenge were able to mount a secondary response to the challenge with a ≥2-fold rise in anti-PT IgG antibody by day 7 and a ≥10-fold rise by day 14 post-aerosol challenge. These primed mice were significantly better protected against leukocytosis, weight loss, and proliferation of B. pertussis in the lungs following aerosol challenge than the nonprimed group. This protection correlated with levels of anti-PT antibody in serum present on the day of aerosol challenge.
Very short patch mismatch repair in phage lambda: repair sites and length of repair tracts.

Five amber mutations in the repressor (cI) gene of bacteriophage λ recombine anomalously with nearby cI mutations. When any of these markers is used in four-factor crosses, cI+ recombinants that are expected to require three crossovers occur at high frequencies. These recombinants are attributable to very-short-patch (VSP) repair of specific mismatches in DNA heteroduplexes formed during recombination between the markers flanking cI. The sites of the repairprone mutations and the lengths of repair tracts have now been determined. Amber mutations subject to VSP repair are C to T transitions in (see PDF), the sequence methylated by the product of gene dcm, and also in the related 5'CAGG or 5'CCAG sequences. Ambers arising in CAG sequences found in other contexts, or in codons other than CAG, were not subject to VSP repair. Repair tracts rarely, if ever, exceed ten nucleotides in length, and can be as short as two nucleotides. A repair-prone mutation does not stimulate recombination between flanking cI markers.
Three-dimensional imaging of random radiation sources

A method to image random three-dimensional source distributions is proposed. We show that, by using a Michelson stellar interferometer in a prescribed fashion, one is able to measure a special form of a three-dimensional degree of coherence. The inverse Fourier transform of this coherence function yields the three-dimensional intensity distribution of the source as seen from the paraxial far zone.
A Customer Management Dilemma: When Is It Profitable to Reward One's Own Customers?

This study attempts to answer a basic customer management dilemma facing firms: when should the firm use behavior-based pricing (BBP) to discriminate between its own and competitors' customers in a competitive market? If BBP is profitable, when should the firm offer a lower price to its own customers rather than to the competitor's customers? This analysis considers two features of customer behavior up to now ignored in BBP literature: heterogeneity in customer value and changing preference (i.e., customer preferences are correlated but not fixed over time). In a model where both consumers and competing firms are forward-looking, we identify conditions when it is optimal to reward the firm's own or competitor's customers and when BBP increases or decreases profits. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to identify conditions in which (1) it is optimal to reward one's own customers under symmetric competition and (2) BBP can increase profits with fully strategic and forward-looking consumers.
Transformational Superplasticity in the Bi2O3‐Sm2O3 Eutectoid System

Transformational superplasticity associated with the eutectoid reaction in the Bi2O3-Sm2O3 system was observed and characterized in hypoeutectoid and hypereutectoid compositions. Transformational strain varied linearly with applied stress and exhibited a stress-axis intercept, or threshold stress, that is related to the proeutectoid microconstituent. Results are explained quantitatively using the analysis by Greenwood and Johnson and a creep mechanism.
Au-assisted Growth of Indium Antimonide Nanowires by Chemical Vapor Deposition: Temperature and Growth Duration Effects

In this paper, we investigate the morphology variation of Au-assisted epitaxial InSb nanowires (NWs) dependence on growth temperature and growth duration by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The NW length and tapering factor correlated to the NW morphology are determined as a function of growth temperature (300°C-480°C). Higher density and longer NWs were observed on the substrate as proportional to the growth duration. The growth direction of the NWs is by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) studies. The aim of this study is to gain better understanding of the III-V NWs growth mechanism and achieve control over the growth of InSb NWs.
Lymph Nodes and Lymphatics

The function of the lymph nodes is to interact with and process antigens. Lymph nodes are found throughout the body and are usually located along blood vessels. Lymph nodes are numerous in areas that drain organs and in those that are in contact with the environment [1]. The respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts have large groups of lymph nodes: the hilar and mediastinal and mesenteric lymph nodes, respectively. This chapter focuses on the architecture of the developing lymph node throughout the second and third trimesters.
Vertical combdrive based 2-D gimbaled micromirrors with large static rotation by backside island isolation

We introduce a backside island isolation method for silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based microelectromechanical systems technology and demonstrate vertical comb drive-based two-dimensional gimbaled micromirrors with large static rotation using the isolation method. The proposed isolation method provides electrical isolation and mechanical coupling of SOI structures without additional dielectric backfill and planarization by utilizing timed etched backside handle wafer structures. The backside island is a hidden layer beneath the gimbal and allows independent application of actuation potentials to the gimbal and inner mirror. We developed the fabrication process that accommodates the backside island isolation structures into an established vertical comb drive process, thereby allowing implementation of two-axis gimbaled structures. The maximum static optical deflections of the gimbal and mirror are 46/spl deg/ and 15/spl deg/, respectively.
PhosphoScore: An Open-Source Phosphorylation Site Assignment Tool for MSn Data

Correct phosphorylation site assignment is a critical aspect of phosphoproteomic analysis. Large-scale phosphopeptide data sets that are generated through liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis often contain hundreds or thousands of phosphorylation sites that require validation. To this end, we have created PhosphoScore, an open-source assignment program that is compatible with phosphopeptide data from multiple MS levels (MS(n)). The algorithm takes into account both the match quality and normalized intensity of observed spectral peaks compared to a theoretical spectrum. PhosphoScore produced >95% correct MS(2) assignments from known synthetic data, > 98% agreement with an established MS(2) assignment algorithm (Ascore), and >92% agreement with visual inspection of MS(3) and MS(4) spectra.
Auditing the Systems Understanding Aid Project: An Integrative Assignment for Accounting Students

ABSTRACT Accounting educators strive to prepare graduates for work in their chosen field. Various teaching methods can be employed to best accomplish this goal. One valuable tool is the use of active learning tasks that simulate external work environments. This paper describes the collaboration between an AIS and an Auditing professor who used an integrative task that spanned their two classes over two semesters. The authors had their AIS students complete Arens and Ward's Systems Understanding Aid (SUA) project (Arens & Ward, 2008). The following semester, students in the auditing class audited the records and financials that had been generated by students the previous semester. The project was designed to facilitate course integration and teamwork by having groups of students play the role of corporate accountants, then act as independent auditors.
An Alternative Hypothesis for the Origin of the “Mediterranean” Salt Lens Observed off the Bahamas in the Fall of 1976

Abstract A hypothesis is presented that the original salt lens, or “meddy,” observed off the Bahamas in the fall of 1976 may have been formed, not near the Mediterranean outflow, but instead in the vicinity of the northwest corner (51°N, 43°W) of the North Atlantic Current. An eddy was observed near the northwest corner by an isopycnal RAFOS float deployed during the 1993–95 North Atlantic Current Experiment, and had nearly identical temperature/salinity properties as those of the Bahamas lens. Hydrographic evidence of thick homogeneous layers with similar properties near the northwest corner suggest a possible formation mechanism by which surface eddies containing warm and saline waters are cooled and subducted. A plausible scenario is made whereby a northwest corner eddy might be advected southward in the Newfoundland Basin by the flow around the high pressure ridge east of the North Atlantic Current and then enter the recirculation gyre immediately south of the Gulf Stream. Such an eddy could be advect...
Cell cycle control of the BN51 cell cycle gene which encodes a subunit of RNA polymerase III

The BN51 cell cycle gene complements a temperature-sensitive cell cycle mutation of BHK-21 cells which leads to arrest in G1 at the nonpermissive temperature. Recent evidence indicates it encodes an essential subunit of RNA polymerase III. The BN51 gene is induced 4-fold 4-h after stimulation of quiescent, serum-starved fibroblasts with serum. This induction is abolished by the addition of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. Nuclear runoff and transient transcription assays reveal a 2-3-fold increase in transcription in response to serum. There is a comparable 4-fold increase in BN51 protein synthesis following serum stimulation of quiescent fibroblasts. Loss of biologically active BN51 protein increases transcription from the BN51 promoter approximately 3-fold by transient transfection analysis. However, excess BN51 protein or the v-raf oncogene had no effect on transcription from the BN51 promoter in transient transfections. The pattern of transcription of the BN51 gene is similar to the delayed early response genes, which are induced several h after serum stimulation of quiescent cells.
Four New Corrected Statistics for Structural Equation Modeling with Small Sample and Nonnormally Distributed Data

The likelihood ratio statistic, TML, is the most widely used statistic for evaluating structural equation modeling (SEM) models. With nonnormally distributed data, referring TML to its nominal chi-...
Work Disability among Women: The Role of Divorce in a Retrospective Cohort Study

We assess how divorce through midlife affects the subsequent probability of work-limiting health among U.S. women. Using retrospective marital and work disability histories from the Survey of Income and Program Participation matched to Social Security earnings records, we identify women whose first marriage dissolved between 1975 and 1984 (n = 1,214) and women who remain continuously married (n = 3,394). Probit and propensity score matching models examine the cumulative probability of a work disability over a 20-year follow-up period. We find that divorce is associated with a significantly higher cumulative probability of a work disability, controlling for a range of factors. This association is strongest among divorced women who do not remarry. No consistent relationships are observed among divorced women who remarry and remained married. We find that economic hardship, work history, and selection into divorce influence, but do not substantially alter, the lasting impact of divorce on work-limiting health.
The Association Constants of H+ and Ca2 + with 2-Keto-D-Gluconate in Aqueous Solutions

2-Keto-D-gluconate (kG) is naturally produced in soils, sediments and rock faces through the microbial oxidation of glucose. Studies have qualitatively shown kG to enhance the dissolution of soil minerals. However, quantitative information, such as the log K values for the formation of metal–kG complexes, are not available. This paper presents the results of potentiometric titration studies that employ H+ and Ca2+ ion selective electrodes (ISEs) to determine the conditional ion association constants (log Q values) for the protonation and deprotonation of kG and the formation of Ca–kG complexes. The experimentally-determined log Q values were then converted to the corresponding ion association constants (the zero ionic strength condition; log K values) by employing a modified Davies equation for charged species and the Setchenow equation for neutral species. The log K values were determined by potentiometric titrations at constant kG concentration, varied ionic strengths, 25 or 22 ∘C, and in the absence of CO2. The computer model GEOCHEM-PC was used to determine the aqueous speciation of ions other than kG and the computer model FITEQL was used to estimate conditional log Q values for reactions in the various chemical models. Based on our evaluations, equilibrium constants for the following reactions were determined: H++ kG– ⇌ HkG0, log Ka1 = (3.00 ± 0.06), kG–⇌ H–1kG2–+ H+, log Ka–1 = –(11.97 ± 0.41), and Ca2++ kG–⇌ CakG+, log K101 = (1.74 ± 0.04).
Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity Enhancement in Magnetically Aligned Polydimethylsiloxane/Nickel Composite

The need for enhancing the thermal conductivity of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is increasing in applications such as microfluidics, flexible electronics, and biomedical devices. In this research, PDMS/Ni composites with embedded Nickel (Ni) particle columns, aligned under a static magnetic field, were studied for thermal conductivity enhancement. The volume fraction of Ni particles ranged from 2 to 20% but the strength of the applied magnetic field was fixed at 0.45 Tesla. The distribution and morphology of the column structures were quantitatively analyzed using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microcopy (SEM) and digital image processing. A reusable 3ω measurement technique was applied to measure the effective thermal conductivity of PDMS/Ni composites in the parallel direction to the magnetic field. Under a static magnetic field, Ni particles align parallel to the field forming columns. The results illustrated that the diameter of Ni columns increased with increasing particle volume fraction while the center-to-center spacing between columns did not change substantially under the fixed magnetic strength. The magnetically aligned particle columns significantly enhanced the thermal conductivity of PDMS compared to the randomly distributed particles by about two fold.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
The Cost of War: Weighing Civilian Losses in the Afghan War

Spending almost US$700 billion to combat insurgents in Afghanistan, the U.S. population should be hopeful that they “bought” something of value as the Afghan War concludes. This exploratory study f...
Examining the Efficacy of Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Two previous reviews have indicated that self-regulated strategy instruction (SRSD) is an evidence-based practice that can improve the writing skills of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to extend the findings and analytic methods of previous reviews by examining published studies regarding SRSD, analyzing the findings of both single-case and group designs using a common effect size metric (Hedges g), and applying methods to address publication bias. In addition, the present meta-analysis examined the difference in treatment effect due to differences in moderating variables. Sixteen of the 20 studies examined met inclusion criteria based on the Council for Exceptional Children's Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education. Results indicated that SRSD interventions had large effect sizes across three dependent variables (i.e., essay elements, quality, and word count), and treatment effects were significant for study design and r...
POWER SYSTEM FULL DYNAMIC SIMULATION PART IV: CASE STUDIES

After the research and development in past three years, the following items of power system full dynamic simulation software are accomplished. They are the design of its main architecture, the programming of main algorithms for the software, the modeling of the main models for electric-mechanical transient processes and mid- and long-term dynamic processes. The simulation and analysis results of three cases indicate that the transient stability simulation results of power system by using full dynamic simulation software are accurate, the simulation results of mid- and long-term dynamic processes are reasonable. It is also shown that the adopted integration method, i.e., the Gear Method, can be used to simulate the transformation from fast transient process to slow, mid- and long-term dynamic process, the step-size and order can be automatically controlled and the adopted algorithm possesses high numerical stability. Therefore, the phenomena in power system from electric-mechanical transient process to long term dynamic process can be simulated by this software.
Analysis on Effect of Comprehensive Prevention and Control for AIDS in Hengyang from 2005 to 2009

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of AIDS comprehensive prevention and control in Hengyang,and to provide the experience and data for developing AIDS comprehensive prevention and control in future. Methods The data about the new reported cases,the knowledge level and high risk behavior among risk groups from 2005 to 2009 were collected and analyzed annually.The effectiveness of AIDS prevention and control was evaluated. Results It was showed that the new reported cases declined,and the total awareness rate of AID-related knowledge in drug users and sex workers went up to 86.73% and 86.73% in 2009 from 56.71% and 59.21% in 2005.The sharing needle rate of drug users declined to 30.45% in 2009 from 68.49% in 2005.The condom use rate at the last sex in sex workers increased to 90.26% in 2009 from 58.75% in 2005. Conclusions AIDS comprehensive prevention and control effect in Hengyang has been achieved,especially in drug users.
“Tense” /æ/ is still lax: A phonotactics study

The production of the lax vowel /ae/ is widely studied as a sociolinguistic variable in American English, as several dialects differ in the allophonic distribution of lax and tense variants of the vowel. Using a forced-choice well-formedness judgment task, this paper tests whether the /ae/ used by Northern Cities Shift (NCS) speakers, which is described as a raised and tensed [ ɛə ] in all environments, is still represented as a lax vowel in speakers' grammars. Participants who were native speakers of California English, which only tenses preceding nasals, and NCS English, which tenses everywhere, were asked to choose which of a pair of nonce words, constructed to include a lax-only environment /Vsk, Vsp/, as in gasp, risk , sounds more like a possible English word. California English speakers significantly prefer frames containing lax vowels, including [ae], over those containing tense vowels. NCS speakers respond in the same way: they favor [ɛə] in trials like [bɛəsp] vs. [bisp] just as California English speakers favor [ae] in [baesp] vs. [bisp]. This suggests they keep the vowel in the phonologically active class usually considered to be lax vowels, providing evidence that speakers generalize features based on lexical distributions rather than phonetic properties.
Factors associated with 10 years of continuous viral load suppression on HAART

The principal goal of HAART is sustained viral load (VL) suppression resulting in immune reconstitution and improved HIV outcomes. We studied the factors associated with 10 years of continuous VL suppression on HAART in the US Military HIV Natural History Study. Participants with continuous VL suppression (CS, n = 149) were compared to those who did not have continuous viral load suppression (NCS, n = 127) for ≥10 years on HAART. Factors associated with >10 years of VL suppression were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. Additionally, association between CS and CD4 reconstitution was analyzed with a mixed effects model. Compared to NCS participants, a lower proportion of CS participants started HAART in the early HAART era (66 vs 90 %, for years 1996–1999; p < 0.001) and had less antiretroviral use prior to HAART (37 vs 83 %; p < 0.001). At initial HAART, the median CD4 cell count was higher and VL was lower for CS compared to NCS participants (375 cells/uL [256, 499] vs 261 cells/uL [146, 400]; p < 0.001 and 4.4 log10 copies/mL [3.5, 4.9] vs 4.5 log10 copies/mL [3.8, 5.0]; p = 0.048, respectively). New AIDS events were lower during HAART (5 vs 13 %; p = 0.032) and post-HAART CD4 trajectories were greater for the CS compared to NCS group. Factors negatively associated with ≥10 years of VL suppression included log10 VL at first HAART (OR 0.61, 95 % CI 0.4, 0.92; p = 0.020) and antiretroviral use prior to HAART (OR 0.16, 95 % CI 0.06, 0.38; p < .001). Sustained VL suppression is a key to long-term health in HIV-infected patients, as demonstrated by the lower proportion of AIDS events observed 10 years after HAART initiation. The current use of more potent and well-tolerated regimens may mitigate the negative factors of pre-HAART VL and prior ARV use encountered by treatment initiated in the early HAART era.
Rotavirus Vaccine and Intussusception Hospitalizations

* Abbreviations: RV1 — : monovalent rotavirus vaccine RV5 — : pentavalent rotavirus vaccine There are 2 US Food and Drug Administration–approved vaccines for the prevention of rotavirus gastroenteritis in infants. Rotarix is a live, oral, monovalent rotavirus vaccine (RV1) administered as a 2-dose series, and RotaTeq is a live, oral, pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) administered as a 3-dose series. RV1 and RV5 are typically administered along with other routinely recommended vaccines at the 2- and 4-month well-child visits, with the third dose of RV5 administered at the 6-month visit. Because a previously licensed rotavirus vaccine, RotaShield, was associated with an increased risk of intussusception, prelicensure safety studies of >60 000 children for both RV1 and RV5 were conducted to assess for the occurrence of intussusception.1,2 Although these studies showed no increased risk of intussusception, subsequent postmarketing studies have demonstrated small increased risks of intussusception for both vaccines, primarily after first doses and, to a lesser extent, after the second doses.3–8 In this issue of Pediatrics , Tate and colleagues compared the years pre- and postintroduction of rotavirus vaccines in the United States and found no significant difference in intussusception hospitalization rates in children <12 months of age comparing the 2 time periods.9 However, in children 8 to 11 weeks of age, the … Address correspondence to Emmanuel B. Walter, MD, MPH, Duke Clinical Vaccine Unit, 2608 Erwin Rd, Suite 210, Durham, NC 27705. E-mail: walte002{at}mc.duke.edu
Anaerobic vs. aerobic preparation of silicon nanoparticles by stirred media milling. The effects of dioxygen, milling solvent, and milling time on particle size, surface area, crystallinity, surface/near-surface composition, and reactivity

A stirred media mill was hermetically sealed in a high-purity dinitrogen atmosphere glovebox and used to prepare silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) by milling a slurry of 45–90 μm pieces of metallurgical-grade silicon (MGS) suspended in anhydrous heptane (HEP), heptane containing a small amount of mesitylene (HEP/MES), or mesitylene containing 22 mM pyrene (MES/PYR) under anaerobic and anhydrous conditions (≤5 ppm dioxygen (O2) and water (H2O) vapor). Excess solvent and other volatiles were removed using a rotary evaporator also housed in the glovebox. The SiNPs were further dried at 22 ± 1 °C under vacuum (≤1 × 10−5 Torr) for at least 15 h. The dark-brown or black pyrophoric nanoparticle powders were stored in a high-purity argon atmosphere glovebox. Samples were removed from the glovebox and analyzed by BET surface area (BET-SA) determination, tensimetric titrations with various pressures of O2, PXRD, SEM, TEM, ATR-FTIR, and/or XPS. The effects of (i) anaerobic vs. aerobic milling, (ii) milling fluid, and (iii) milling time on BET-SA, degree of crystallinity, reactivity with O2, and FTIR- or XPS-determined surface/near-surface composition of the SiNPs are discussed. The BET-SA of SiNPs milled anaerobically for 5 h in MES/PYR (258 m2 g−1) was ca. twice as large as the BET-SA for SiNPs milled aerobically in the same milling fluid. In contrast, the BET-SA of SiNPs milled anaerobically in HEP (40 m2 g−1) was four times smaller than for SiNPs milled aerobically in HEP. The PXRD-determined degree of crystallinity steadily decreased and the BET-SA steadily increased over time (1, 2, or 5 h) for SiNPs milled anaerobically in MES/PYR. The degree of crystallinity of SiNPs milled anaerobically in HEP also steadily decreased over time, but the BET-SAs for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h milled samples were essentially the same. MES/PYR milled SiNPs reacted more slowly with O2 and irreversibly absorbed less O2 than HEP milled SiNPs.
Sampling considerations pertinent to the detection of analytes in swine oral fluids

Surveillance for swine pathogens and health related biomarkers is of great importance to the financial success of the swine industry and the health of animal and human populations worldwide. Research has shown that the use of oral fluid specimens in diagnostics and surveillance provides many advantages over serum. To discover the full potential of this technology many aspects of its use must be evaluated e.g. sample collection and handling techniques, assay performance parameters and detection limits of pen-based samples. As reviewed in Chapter 1, the detection of many analytes in human and animal oral fluid samples has been reported. In the process of these discoveries, it was been identified that oral fluid sample collection material, post-collection processing and sample storage can affect testing results of human and animal oral fluid samples. Though little data was found in the literature regarding these effects on animal samples, limited reports suggest they may similarly affect veterinary testing of oral fluid specimens. As more diagnostic tests for human and animal oral fluid samples become available, it will be important to consider if and how these external factors affect testing results. Pursuant to the concerns identified in Chapter 1, the objective of the first research project (Chapter 2) was to evaluate the effect of oral fluid sampling material and post-collection processing on the results produced by antibodyand polymerase chain reaction-based assays. Oral fluid samples were collected from 104 pens of commercial wean-to-finish pigs using 3 types of rope. Processed (centrifuged and filtered) and unprocessed oral fluid samples were tested using commercial ELISAs for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) antibodies and total IgM, IgA, and IgG. Only unprocessed samples were tested for PRRSV nucleic acid and processed samples for PRRSV neutralizing antibodies. It was found that all three factors could affect results, but statistically significant effects were nonuniform and assay-dependent. The objective of the second study (Chapter 3) was to evaluate the detection limits of assays detecting PRRSV antibodies and PRRS virus in pen-based oral fluid samples from commercial swine. Five successive oral fluid samples were collected from 25 pens of commercial swine of known PRRSV prevalence (0%, 4%, 12%, 20% and 36%) with five
Trichomonas vaginalis infection and risk of prostate cancer: associations by disease aggressiveness and race/ethnicity in the PLCO Trial

Purpose Results from previous sero-epidemiologic studies of Trichomonas vaginalis infection and prostate cancer (PCa) support a positive association between this sexually transmitted infection and aggressive PCa. However, findings from previous studies are not entirely consistent, and only one has investigated the possible relation between T. vaginalis seropositivity and PCa in African-American men who are at highest risk of both infection and PCa. Therefore, we examined this possible relation in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, including separate analyses for aggressive PCa and African-American men.
Clinical features and molecular epidemiology of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli pathotypes identified by fecal gastrointestinal multiplex nucleic acid amplification in patients with cancer and diarrhea

Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) pathotypes with differing epidemiology and clinical features, are known causes of disease with worldwide occurrence. At a major cancer center in the U.S., we studied patients with cancer and diarrhea for whom a GI Biofire FilmArray multiplex GI panel (BFM) was performed. An enteropathogen was identified in 382 of 2017 (19%) samples distributed across 311 patients. Of these, 60/311(19%) were positive for DEC. Patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) 29/60 (48%) or with a hematologic malignancy 17/60 (28%) accounted for the majority of DEC cases. Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC, n=35 [58%]), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC, n=10 [17%]) and Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC, n=3 [5%]) were the most common DEC identified and peaked in the summer months. Stool cultures confirmed infections in 6/10 (60%) EAEC (five typical AggR+), and EPEC was recovered in 8/35 (22%) samples (all atypical eaeA+, bfp-). DEC was identified in 22 cases (37%) that developed diarrhea >48hours after admission suggesting health care acquisition. Chronic infections were found in 2 EPEC and 1 EAEC cases that were tested at 1month or beyond with shedding that ranged from 58 to >125days. Two patients that underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation carried EAEC strains resistant to multiple antibiotics including fluoroquinolones and expressed extended spectrum beta lactamases. While in some instances BFM results were not verified in culture and could represent false positives, DEC pathotypes, especially EPEC and EAEC, caused chronic infections with antimicrobial-resistant strains in a subset of immunosuppressed cancer patients.
A Multisite Survey Study of EMR Review Habits, Information Needs, and Display Preferences among Medical ICU Clinicians Evaluating New Patients

Objective The electronic chart review habits of intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians admitting new patients are largely unknown but necessary to inform the design of existing and future critical care information systems. Methods We conducted a survey study to assess the electronic chart review practices, information needs, workflow, and data display preferences among medical ICU clinicians admitting new patients. We surveyed rotating residents, critical care fellows, advanced practice providers, and attending physicians at three Mayo Clinic sites (Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona) via email with a single follow-up reminder message. Results Of 234 clinicians invited, 156 completed the full survey (67% response rate). Ninety-two percent of medical ICU clinicians performed electronic chart review for the majority of new patients. Clinicians estimated spending a median (interquartile range (IQR)) of 15 (10–20) minutes for a typical case, and 25 (15–40) minutes for complex cases, with no difference across training levels. Chart review spans 3 or more years for two-thirds of clinicians, with the most relevant categories being imaging, laboratory studies, diagnostic studies, microbiology reports, and clinical notes, although most time is spent reviewing notes. Most clinicians (77%) worry about overlooking important information due to the volume of data (74%) and inadequate display/organization (63%). Potential solutions are chronologic ordering of disparate data types, color coding, and explicit data filtering techniques. The ability to dynamically customize information display for different users and varying clinical scenarios is paramount. Conclusion Electronic chart review of historical data is an important, prevalent, and potentially time-consuming activity among medical ICU clinicians who would benefit from improved information display systems.
Revision of a state‐and‐transition model to include descriptions of state functional attributes

Successful conservation of ecosystems and ecosystem services requires understanding the structural–functional relationships underlying resilience to disturbance pressures. State‐and‐transition models (STMs) are box‐and‐arrow diagrams conceptualizing system resilience, but many STMs lack functional descriptions. For a cattle‐grazed sagebrush steppe ecosystem in northwestern Colorado, we aimed to update an existing STM by incorporating functional descriptions of the states to inform future hypotheses. In this STM, a diverse set of native perennial understory plants define a Diverse state, but long‐term exclusion of disturbances to sagebrush results in a shift to a Depauperate state with increased bare ground interspaces and sagebrush dominance. We hypothesized that herbaceous species were inferior competitors to sagebrush over the long term for soil nitrogen. To examine evidence for this hypothesis, develop functional descriptions of the Diverse and Depauperate states, and identify more specific hypotheses for future studies, we measured the following: the mass, C:N, and distribution of the litter layer; nitrogen mineralization rates; nitrate pools; and soil attributes on plots classified as Diverse (n = 5) or Depauperate (n = 5). Plots in the Depauperate state had ~20% higher soil bulk density, half the clay and soil moisture concentrations, and 30% lower percent soil nitrogen compared to Diverse state plots; litter layer patchiness was nearly three times greater on the Depauperate plots than on the Diverse plots, but there was no significant difference between states in mean litter layer mass or C:N. We detected no significant differences between states in nitrogen mineralization rates or nitrate pools. This may be due to our sampling design, which examined nitrogen transformation at the plot level rather than at microsites within the plots, or it may be that another resource such as soil moisture is more limiting than nitrogen. Differences in soil texture between plots in the Diverse and Depauperate states may indirectly influence the competitive interactions between sagebrush and native herbaceous understory by controlling available soil resources. These results suggest that the vulnerability of sagebrush steppe ecosystems to state changes may be dependent on soil texture, which is highly variable across this broadly distributed ecosystem. Based on these insights, we present a revised STM and propose future work.
Calibrating Mixed Reality for Scalable Multi-Robot Experiments

When testing multi-robot teams, researchers are often forced to make a choice: test on real robots (where fidelity is high, but the number of actual robots is low) or test in simulation (where fidelity is low, but the number of robots can be large). This problem is acute for robots with sophisticated sensing and planning systems, where the cost of the robots rises in concert with their need for more realistic environments. We propose a mixed-reality testing framework in which real robots interact with virtual counterparts, allowing a large number of robots to interact in the environment with high fidelity. However, this creates a new problem: the simulated robots must behave like their real teammates. We consider the problem of calibrating the parameters of virtual robots so that the results of a mixed-reality experiment are representative of the performance of a real robotic team. In particular, we use virtual robots to elicit behaviors from physical robots in order to empirically measure their kino-dynamic characteristics.
Quality of Life of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Their Families in China: Research and Applications

The concept of quality of life (QOL) and its extension, family quality of life (FQoL) are increasingly being studied in the field of intellectual disabilities in China as an important framework for assessing family’s need of support and service, guiding organization and service delivery system changes and evaluating quality family outcomes (Xu, Wang, & Hu, 2005; Xu, Wang, & Xiang, 2007). This chapter provides an overview of individual and family quality of life research in China and discusses a number of important issues regarding applications of QOL and FQoL framework for addressing the challenges that China’s special education faces. The etic and emic properties of FQoL construct of Chinese families with children with intellectual disabilities are discussed as well.
Cardiology workforce: A shortage, not a surplus

ABSTRACT: The United States faces a serious shortage of cardiologists as our population ages and the burden of heart disease grows. The problem is compounded by a cutback in the number of cardiolog...
Posterior Maxillary Sinus Wall: A Landmark for Identifying the Sphenoid Sinus Ostium.

Importance:Safe entry into sphenoid sinus is critical in endoscopic sinus and skull base surgery. A number of surgical landmarks have been used to identify the sphenoid sinus ostium during endoscop...
Concentration Robustness Foundations

In this chapter we will discuss the mathematical foundations of theorems presented without proof in Chapter 9, the expository chapter on concentration robustness. For proof of the Deficiency One Concentration Robustness Theorem (Theorem 9.5.1), most of the work was already done in the preceding chapter; there are just a few details that remain. Again, Theorem 9.5.1 was based on work with Guy Shinar [155]. We will need to say much more about the two theorems—Theorems 9.6.1 and 9.6.6—that assert the irrelevance of certain rate constants to the robust species concentration. Finally, we will make just a few remarks about the robustness-thwarting theorems, Theorems 9.7.1 and 9.7.10. Proofs of those were provided in [154].
Serpentine Optical Phased Array Silicon Photonic Aperture Tile with Two-Dimensional Wavelength Beam Steering

We propose and demonstrate a passive microphotonic phased-array aperture that wavelength-steers a beam in 2-D, showing 14,000 resolvable spots. It is tileable into larger apertures with fill factor above 50%, an improvement of 16× over previous work.