cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evidence of airborne chemoreception in the scorpion Paruroctonus marksi (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae)

Chemically induced predator avoidance behaviors exist in many arthropods. In this paper, we examined the behavioral responses of the desert scorpion, Paruroctonus marksi (Haradon, 1984), to airborne chemical cues from a natural predator, the larger scorpion Hadrurus arizonensis (Ewing, 1928). We used a Y-shaped, dual-choice olfactometer to test for avoidance behavior in the presence of a known predator, H. arizonensis. Prior to this study there has been little research done on chemically induced predator avoidance behaviors in scorpions. The results of this study suggest that P. marksi is capable of detecting a predator's airborne cues, though the nature and identity of these cues remain unknown, and it appears that the constellation array of the fixed finger does function in detecting these cues. We also discuss the importance of adaptive predator avoidance behaviors.
Impact of delirium on patients hospitalized for myocardial infarction: A propensity score analysis of the National Inpatient Sample

BACKGROUND Delirium is associated with worse outcomes in critically ill patients. In the subset of patients with myocardial infarction (MI), the impact on clinical outcomes of delirium is not as well elucidated. HYPOTHESIS Delirium is associated with increased mortality in patients hospitalized for MI. METHODS The study used data from the National Inpatient Sample 2012 to 2014, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. We included discharges associated with the primary diagnosis of MI using the relevant International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. The outcome was inpatient mortality between the delirium group and propensity score-matched controls without delirium. RESULTS The study included 1 330 020 weighted discharges with MI as the principal diagnosis. Within this cohort, 18 685 discharges (1.4%) had delirium. Delirium was associated with older age, lower rates of percutaneous coronary intervention, and increased comorbid conditions. The delirium group had higher mortality (10.5% vs 2.6%, P < 0.001). Propensity score-matching analysis showed increased mortality in the delirium group (10.5% vs 7.6%, relative risk: 1.39 [95% confidence interval: 1.2-1.6, P < 0.001) using nearest neighbor 1:1 matching. CONCLUSIONS In individuals with MI, delirium was associated with increased inpatient mortality.
Bone ossification and carcass characteristics of wethers given silastic implants containing estradiol.

Administration of growth promotants with estrogenic activity via hastening closure of the growth plate could have an economic impact on lambs because closure results in ovine carcasses being classified as yearlings. Twelve wether lambs approximately 12 mo old were given silastic implants filled with estradiol-17 beta and allotted randomly to be slaughtered 30, 60, 90, or 220 d after implantation to determine time of growth plate closure in relation to date of implanting. Seven comparable wethers not implanted served as controls. Four wethers implanted at 2 mo of age and slaughtered 220 d later also were included. Implanted wethers had serum concentrations of estradiol averaging 13.9 pg/ml over the 220-d implant period; controls averaged 2.7 pg/ml. Estradiol implants increased carcass maturity scores but fat deposition was not altered. Growth plate widths decreased (P less than .05) as wethers grew older and implants were in place for longer periods of time. Metacarpal growth plates in 12-mo-old lambs were completely ossified 220 d after implanting, but control wethers and wethers implanted at 2 mo maintained growth plate widths. Neither metacarpal nor metatarsal bone lengths differed (P less than .05) between control and implanted wethers. Growth plate ossification was not complete until 570 d of age in implanted lambs, even though bone length had stopped increasing by 408 d. Therefore, even though estradiol and other growth stimulants with estrogenic activity increase rate of ossification of the metacarpal growth plate, bone length or mature size is not limited.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Water on silica and silicate surfaces IV. Silane treated silicas

Both a fully hydroxylated silica (HiSil 233) and a partially hydroxylated silica (Cab-o-Sil M-5) were treated with organosilanes and a silazane. Water adsorption isotherms were then monitored on the resulting products. Reflectance IR spectroscopic measurements were used to follow the reactions of the surface hydroxyls with the silanes and to examine the subsequent water adsorption. The main objective was to ascertain the water susceptibilities of the different functional groups and the availability to water of any residual hydroxyls.
Diversity as strategy

IBM's turnaround in the last decade is an impressive and well-documented business story. But behind that success is a less told people story, which explains how the corporation dramatically altered its already diverse composition and created millions of dollars in new business. By the time Lou Gerstner took the helm in 1993, IBM had a long history of progressive management when it came to civil rights and equal-opportunity employment. But Gerstner felt IBM wasn't taking full advantage of a diverse market for talent, nor was it maximizing the potential of its diverse customer and employee base. So in 1995, he launched a diversity task force initiative to uncover and understand differences among people within the organization and find ways to appeal to an even broader set of employees and customers. Gerstner established a task force for each of eight constituencies: Asians; blacks; the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered community; Hispanics; white men; Native Americans; people with disabilities; and women. He asked the task forces to research four questions: What does your constituency need to feel welcome and valued at IBM? What can the corporation do, in partnership with your group, to maximize your constituency's productivity? What can the corporation do to influence your constituency's buying decisions so that IBM is seen as a preferred solution provider? And with which external organizations should IBM form relationships to better understand the needs of your constituency? The answers to these questions became the basis for IBM's diversity strategy. Thomas stresses that four factors are key to implementing any major change initiative: strong support from company leaders, an employee base that is fully engaged with the initiative, management practices that are integrated and aligned with the effort, and a strong and well-articulated business case for action. All four elements have helped IBM make diversity a key corporate strategy tied to real growth.
Appraise Evaluation Framework for Machine Translation.

We present Appraise, an open-source framework for crowd-based annotation tasks, notably for evaluation of machine translation output. This is the software used to run the yearly evaluation campaigns for shared tasks at the WMT Conference on Machine Translation. It has also been used at IWSLT 2017 and, recently, to measure human parity for machine translation for Chinese to English news text. The demo will present the full end-to-end lifecycle of an Appraise evaluation campaign, from task creation to annotation and interpretation of results.
Oil price dynamics and sectoral employment in the U.S.

Abstract This paper examines the long- and short-run relationships between oil prices and employment in four sectors of the top oil producing counties in the U.S. In the long-run, findings from a Panel Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model illustrate causality running from oil prices to employment in every sector in the county panel. Findings from the state panel indicate the presence of long- and short-run causality from oil prices to mining and trade employment, while service employment is not affected. Natural resource and mining employment reverts fastest to equilibrium following shocks in oil prices.
Abstract 207: In Vitro Modeling of Variable Heart Diseases Due to Lamin A/C Mutation via Patient induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes

According to numerous fundamental studies, a mutated Lamin A/C gene (LMNA) can cause dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, and heart failure, yet the practical diagnosis and treatment for them is sca...
Making America Great Again

A couple of years ago, the rise of America appears to have come to a grinding halt. An indication of this is an unparalleled rise in negativity. In this essay, I present the scientific framework for internal excellence which is the knowhow to replace this negativity with positivity. I trust the reader also sees how closely India and America are linked. This is the reason why yogis starting with Swami Vivekananda, Yogananda Paramahansa, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev have an interest in America. It is hoped that this nation will embark on a program to make America great again and the world is sure to emulate America’s example.
Optimization of protein entrapment in affinity microcolumns using hydrazide-activated silica and glycogen as a capping agent

Abstract Several approaches were compared for the entrapment of proteins within hydrazide-activated silica for use in affinity microcolumns and high performance affinity chromatography. Human serum albumin (HSA) and concanavalin A (Con A) were used as model proteins for this work. Items considered in this study included the role played by the solution volume, amount of added protein, and use of slurry vs. on-column entrapment on the levels of solute retention and extent of protein immobilization that could be obtained by means of entrapment. The levels of retention and protein immobilization were evaluated by injecting warfarin or 4-methylumbellipheryl α-D-mannopyranoside as solutes with known binding properties for HSA or Con A. Altering both the solution volume and amount of added protein led to an increase of up to 17-fold in the extent of protein immobilization for HSA in slurry-based entrapment; on-column entrapment provided an additional 3.6-fold increase in protein content vs. the optimized slurry method. Similar general trends were seen for Con A. The protein contents obtained by entrapment for HSA or Con A (i.e., up to ~87 and 46 mg/g silica, respectively) were comparable to or higher than levels reported for the covalent immobilization of these proteins onto silica. The retention of warfarin on the entrapped HSA was at least 1.7-fold higher than has been obtained under comparable support and mobile phase conditions when using covalent immobilization. These results indicated that entrapment can be an attractive alternative to covalent immobilization for proteins such as HSA and Con A, with this approach serving as a potential means for obtaining good solute binding and retention in work with affinity microcolumns or related microscale devices.
Cancer Screening Patterns Among Current, Former, and Never Smokers in the United States, 2010-2015

Importance National guidelines recommend screening for several cancer types, yet screening rates remain below target. To date, cancer screening patterns by smoking status, a major cancer risk factor, are unknown. Objective To assess cancer screening patterns among individuals who never smoked (never smokers), formerly smoked (former smokers), and currently smoke (current smokers) in the United States. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study assessed data from the National Health Interview Survey years 2010, 2013, and 2015. Adult participants (aged ≥18 years) who had never reported a cancer diagnosis were included in the analysis. Data were analyzed from August 1, 2018, through February 1, 2019. Exposures Receipt of cancer screening, including colonoscopy, mammography, prostate-specific antigen testing, and Papanicolaou test per the US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Main Outcomes and Measures Multivariable logistic regression defined adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% CIs for undergoing cancer screening by smoking status. Among participants who received a specific screening test, AORs and 95% CIs of receiving the test within guideline-recommended intervals were also assessed. Results Among 83 176 participants (45 851 [55.1%] women; mean [SD] age, 47 [18] years), 51 014 (61.3%) were never smokers; 17 235 (20.7%), former smokers; and 14 927 (17.9%), current smokers. Compared with never smokers, current smokers were less likely to ever have received a colonoscopy (43.8% vs 57.7%; AOR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.68-0.82;P Conclusions and Relevance This study found that current smokers appeared to be less likely to receive guideline-concordant screening studies for breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer compared with never smokers. Further research is needed to identify barriers to screening among current smokers with the goal of increasing acceptance and uptake of cancer screening among this population at high risk of cancer.
Uniform Resolvent Estimates on Manifolds of Bounded Curvature

We establish $$L^{q*}\rightarrow L^q$$ bounds for the resolvent of the Laplacian on compact Riemannian manifolds assuming only that the sectional curvatures of the manifold are uniformly bounded. When the resolvent parameter lies outside a parabolic neighborhood of $$[0,\infty )$$ , the operator norm of the resolvent is shown to depend only on upper bounds for the sectional curvature and diameter and lower bounds for the volume. The resolvent bounds are derived from square-function estimates for the wave equation, an approach that admits the use of paradifferential approximations in the parametrix construction.
“Two heads are better than one”: A continuum of social change in sport management

Since the initiation of the first academic sport management program approximately 50 years ago, the efforts of countless scholars have enabled sport management to attain a strong position as an aca...
Multiple sounds induce frequency tuning modulations that degrade stimulus information in monkey inferior colliculus

How the brain encodes information about simultaneously occurring stimuli is largely unknown, especially if those stimuli recruit largely overlapping populations of neurons. One hypothesis is that tuning curves might sharpen or shift to limit the number of stimuli driving any given neuron. To investigate this possibility, we recorded the activity of neurons in the inferior colliculus while monkeys localized either one or two simultaneous sounds that differed in frequency. Although monkeys were quite capable of performing this task (~90% correct), comparison of frequency tuning in single versus dual sound trials revealed frequency selectivity was degraded in the dual-sound case. Frequency tuning curves broadened, and frequency modulation of firing rate was attenuated in dual sound conditions. These tuning curve changes led to a slightly worse performance on dual sound trials by a maximum-likelihood decoder trained to predict the presented condition only from held-out spike counts. These results do not support that changes in frequency response functions could be used to overcome the overlap problem in the representation of simultaneous sounds, and suggest recent evidence of alternations in firing rate between rates corresponding to each of the two stimuli may be a more promising line of research.
Progress in individualizing autologous islet isolation techniques for pediatric islet autotransplantation after total pancreatectomy in children for chronic pancreatitis

Total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation is performed to treat chronic pancreatitis in children. Successful islet isolation must address the challenges of severe pancreatic fibrosis and young donor age. We have progressively introduced modifications to optimize enzymatic and mechanical dissociation of the pancreas during islet isolation. We evaluated 2 islet isolation metrics in 138 children-digest islet equivalents per gram pancreas tissue (IEQ/g) and digest IEQ per kilogram body weight (IEQ/kg), using multiple regression to adjust for key disease and patient features. Islet yield at digest had an average 4569 (standard deviation 2949) islet equivalent (IEQ)/g and 4946 (4009) IEQ/kg, with 59.1% embedded in exocrine tissue. Cases with very low yield (<2000 IEQ/g or IEQ/kg) have decreased substantially over time, 6.8% and 9.1%, respectively, in the most recent tertile of time compared to 19.2% and 23.4% in the middle and 34.1% and 36.4% in the oldest tertile. IEQ/g and IEQ/kg adjusted for patient and disease factors improved in consistency and yield in the modern era. Minimal mechanical disruption during digestion, warm enzymatic digestion using enzyme collagenase:NP activity ratio < 10:1, coupled with extended distension and trimming time during islet isolation of younger and fibrotic pediatric pancreases, gave increased islet yield with improved patient outcomes.
GTAP-Power Data Base: Version 10

This paper documents changes introduced to version 10 of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Power (GTAP-Power 10) Data Base construction process relative to the GTAP-Power build stream developed in Peters (2016). First, in Peters (2016) output of the electricity and heat generation sector was split into different technologies using electricity generation data only. We use heat and electricity generation volumes to provide a more representative sectoral split and achieve a better concordance with GTAP 10 Data Base sectoral definitions. Second, we introduce data on country and year-specific shares of transmission and distribution costs in electricity price for 80 countries. In the GTAP-Power 9 Data Base this cost share was assumed to be uniform across all countries and regions. Finally, for every reference year, we update the levelized cost of electricity generation. We first compare GTAP-Power 9 Data Base construction results with and without corresponding changes. We then construct the GTAP-Power 10 Data Base and showcase how it can be used to estimate carbon dioxide emissions embodied in final consumption of electricity generated by different technologies.
Feasibility and effectiveness of daily temperature screening to detect COVID-19 in a large public university setting

BackgroundMany persons with active SARS-CoV-2 infection experience mild or no symptoms, presenting barriers to COVID-19 prevention. Regular temperature screening is nonetheless used in some settings, including University campuses, to reduce transmission potential. We evaluated the potential impact of this strategy using a prospective University-affiliated cohort. MethodsBetween June and August 2020, 2,912 participants were enrolled and tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR at least once (median: 3, range: 1-9). Participants reported temperature and symptoms daily via electronic survey using a previously owned or study-provided thermometer. We assessed feasibility and acceptability of daily temperature monitoring, calculated sensitivity and specificity of various fever-based strategies for restricting campus access to reduce transmission, and estimated the association between measured temperature and SARS-CoV-2 test positivity using a longitudinal binomial mixed model. ResultsMost participants (70.2%) did not initially have a thermometer for taking their temperature daily. Across 5481 total person months, the average daily completion rate of temperature values was 61.6% (IQR: 41.8%-86.2%). Sensitivity for SARS-CoV-2 ranged from 0% (95%CI 0-9.7%) to 40.5% (95%CI 25.6-56.7%) across all strategies for self-report of possible COVID-19 symptoms on day of specimen collection, with corresponding specificity of 99.9% (95%CI 99.8-100%) to 95.3% (95%CI 94.7-95.9%). An increase of 0.1{degrees}F in individual mean body temperature on the same day as specimen collection was associated with 1.11 increased odds of SARS-CoV-2 positivity (95%CI 1.06-1.17). ConclusionsDaily temperature monitoring was feasible and acceptable; however, the majority of potentially infectious individuals were not detected by temperature monitoring, suggesting that temperature screening is insufficient as a primary means of detection to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Recent Advances in Aptamer-Based Biosensors for Global Health Applications.

Since aptamers were first reported in the early 2000s, research on their use for the detection of health-relevant analytical targets has exploded. This review article provides a brief overview of t...
Video case review for quality improvement during cardiac arrest resuscitation in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are a leading global cause of mortality. The American Heart Association (AHA) promotes several important strategies associated with improved cardiac arrest (CA) outcomes, including decreasing pulse check time and maintaining a chest compression fraction (CCF) > 0.80. Video review is a potential tool to improve skills and analyse deficiencies in various situations; however, its use in improving medical resuscitation remains poorly studied in the emergency department (ED). We implemented a quality improvement initiative, which utilised video review of CA resuscitations in an effort to improve compliance with such AHA quality metrics. METHODS A cardiopulmonary resuscitation video review team of emergency medicine residents were assembled to analyse CA resuscitations in our urban academic ED. Videos were reviewed by two residents, one of whom was a senior resident (Postgraduate Year 3 or 4), and analysed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient for numerous quality improvement metrics, including pulse check time, CCF, time to intravenous access and time to patient attached to monitor. RESULTS We collected data on 94 CA resuscitations between July 2017 and June 2020. Average pulse check time was 13.09 (SD ± 5.97) seconds, and 38% of pulse checks were <10 seconds. After the implementation of the video review process, there was a significant decrease in average pulse check time (P = .01) and a significant increase in CCF (P = .01) throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that the video review and feedback process was significantly associated with improvements in AHA quality metrics for resuscitation in CA amongst patients presented to the ED.
Identification of enhancer regulatory elements that direct epicardial gene expression during zebrafish heart regeneration

ABSTRACT The epicardium is a mesothelial tissue layer that envelops the heart. Cardiac injury activates dynamic gene expression programs in epicardial tissue, which in the case of zebrafish enables subsequent regeneration through paracrine and vascularizing effects. To identify tissue regeneration enhancer elements (TREEs) that control injury-induced epicardial gene expression during heart regeneration, we profiled transcriptomes and chromatin accessibility in epicardial cells purified from regenerating zebrafish hearts. We identified hundreds of candidate TREEs, defined by increased chromatin accessibility of non-coding elements near genes with increased expression during regeneration. Several of these candidate TREEs were incorporated into stable transgenic lines, with 5 of 6 elements directing injury-induced epicardial expression but not ontogenetic epicardial expression in hearts of larval animals. Whereas two independent TREEs linked to the gene gnai3 showed similar functional features of gene regulation in transgenic lines, two independent ncam1a-linked TREEs directed distinct spatiotemporal domains of epicardial gene expression. Thus, multiple TREEs linked to a regeneration gene can possess either matching or complementary regulatory controls. Our study provides a new resource and principles for understanding the regulation of epicardial genetic programs during heart regeneration.
Systematic Review of Aptamer Sequence Reporting in the Literature Reveals Widespread Unexplained Sequence Alterations

Aptamers have been the subject of more than 144,000 papers to date. However, there has been a growing concern that errors in reporting aptamer research limit the reliability of these reagents for research and other applications. These observations noting inconsistencies in the use of our RNA anti-lysozyme aptamer served as an impetus for our systematic review of the reporting of aptamer sequences in the literature. Our detailed examination of literature citing the RNA anti-lysozyme aptamer revealed that 93% of the 61 publications reviewed reported unexplained altered sequences with 86% of those using DNA variants. The ten most cited aptamers were examined using a standardized methodology in order to categorize the extent to which the sequences themselves were apparently improperly reproduced, both in the literature and presumably in experiments beyond their discovery. Our review of 800 aptamer publications spanned decades, multiple journals, and research groups, and revealed that 44% of the papers reported unexplained sequence alterations. We identified ten common categories of sequence alterations including deletions, substitutions, additions, among others. The robust data set we have produced elucidates a source of irreproducibility and unreliability in our field and can be used as a starting point for building evidence-based best practices in publication standards to elevate the rigor and reproducibility of aptamer research.
Real-world visual outcomes of laser and anti-VEGF treatments for retinopathy of prematurity.

Abstract Purpose : To characterize visual outcomes in children screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Design : Retrospective, interventional case series Methods : Patients who received ROP screening examinations at UCLA Medical Centers and were followed with outpatient eye exams at Stein Eye Institute and/or Doheny Eye Institute (Los Angeles, CA) were included. Data was collected on birth characteristics, worst type of ROP, and ROP treatment. Adverse visual outcomes included myopia, strabismus, amblyopia, macular dragging, and optic atrophy. Snellen visual acuity was reported for children 4 years and older. Results : 175 infants (350 eyes) were included for analysis (mean gestational age = 28.2 weeks and birth weight = 1059 grams) from a screening population of 539 infants (1078 eyes, 32.4% follow-up) over a nine-year period. 15 eyes received primary anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy, while 59 eyes received primary laser therapy. Primary anti-VEGF therapy, as compared to primary laser treatment, was associated with a decreased incidence of amblyopia (aOR = 0.6-0.86, p Conclusion : These findings add to the advantages of anti-VEGF treatment compared to primary laser treatment, particularly in posterior ROP.
MRI appearance of the superior transverse scapular ligament.

The superior transverse scapular ligament (STSL) forms the roof of the suprascapular notch, which is the most common location of entrapment of the suprascapular nerve, a cause of shoulder pain and weakness. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of visualization of the STSL on routine shoulder MRIs, to identify the sequences and imaging planes on which it is visualized most frequently, and to describe its typical MRI appearance, none of which have been previously addressed in the radiologic literature. One hundred twenty-one consecutive shoulder MRIs were reviewed for the presence or absence of the STSL, including the imaging plane and sequence that best depicted the ligament. Dimensions of the ligament were recorded. Fifty four of 121 shoulder MRIs were technically adequate for visualization of the STSL, and it was identified on 51 of these studies (94 %). There was no statistically significant difference between 1.5-T and 3-T systems. The best individual sequence for visualizing the STSL was the sagittal T1-weighted sequence, in which the STSL was visible on 75/80 technically adequate sequences (94 %). The sagittal plane was the best plane for visualizing the STSL, in which it was visible on 65/69 technically adequate studies (94 %). The STSL on average measured 12.8 ± 1.5 mm in transverse dimension. The STSL can be visualized on the majority of shoulder MRIs and is best seen on sagittal T1-weighted images on our imaging protocol. Evaluation of the STSL can potentially help in identifying pathologic conditions affecting the suprascapular nerve.
Supporting distributed collaboration through multidimensional software configuration management

In recent years, new software development methodologies and styles have become popular. In particular, many applications are being developed in the open-source community by groups of loosely coordinated programmers scattered across the globe. This style of widely distributed collaboration creates a suite of new problems for software development. Instead of being able to knock on the door of a collaborator, all communication between programmers working together on a system must be mediated through the computer. But at the same time, the bandwidth available for communication is dramatically more limited than those available to local collaborators. In this paper, we present a new SCM system called Stellation which is specifically designed to address the limits of current SCM systems, particularly when those systems are applied to large projects developed in a geographically distributed environment. Stellation attempts to enhance communication and collaboration between programmers by providing a mechanism called multidimensionality that allows them to share viewpoints on the structure and organization of the system; by providing a hierarchical branching mechanism that allows the granularity of coordination to be varied for different purposes; and by providing a mechanism for integrating programming language knowledge into the system, allowing it to be used for organizational and coordination purposes.
The Control of Phosphoenolpyruvate Formation by Rabbit Liver Mitochondria THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHOSPHOENOLPYRUVATE, MALATE, AND ASPARTATE FORMATION AND THE REGULATION OF INTRAMITOCHONDRIAL OXALACETATE

Abstract Previous studies on the mechanism of gluconeogenesis in rabbit liver have considered P-enolpyruvate formation to occur only in the mitochondria. In this study, a small but significant activity of P-enolpyruvate carboxykinase was noted in the cytosolic fraction of liver from fed rabbits. This activity is induced approximately 6-fold by prolonged fasting, thus implying the possibility of cytosolic P-enolpyruvate formation for gluconeogenesis. The GTP requirement for mitochondrial P-enolpyruvate formation may be met by substrate level phosphorylation or by transphosphorylation via nucleoside diphosphokinase. Neither process alone appears sufficient to support maximal rates of P-enolpyruvate formation by isolated mitochondria from rabbit liver. An analysis of the in vitro alterations in the freeze clamped livers of fasted rabbits as compared with fed rabbits demonstrates a shift toward oxidation of the intramitochondrial nicotinamide coenzymes. If this shift in oxidation-reduction potential is reproduced with isolated rabbit liver mitochondria, P-enolpyruvate formation is favored over malate and aspartate synthesis. It is concluded that the synthesis of P-enolpyruvate for gluconeogenesis in rabbit liver occurs in both the cytosol and mitochondria, and that differing control mechanisms may therefore apply to these two enzyme systems.
Strong microlensing and BL LAC objects

Macrolensing and microlensing are combined to study the probability of quasars being strongly microlensed by isolated intervening galaxies. The macrolensing model is described in Mao (1991), with the velocity dispersions and local number densities for different types of galaxies from Fukugita and Turner (1991). The magnification probability distributions for microlensing are adopted from Narayan (1989). Using Monte Carlo simulation, we calculate the distributions of redshifts of the lensing galaxies and angular separations between the Tensing galaxies and the microlensed quasars for strong microlensing events. These strongly microlensed quasars may have very weak emissions lines, thus they may look like BL Lac objects (Ostriker and Vietri 1985, 1990). Our preliminary results show that the distribution of redshifts of the lensing galaxies is similar to that expected for multiply imaged quasars (cf. Turner, Ostriker, and Gott 1984, Figure 5), but with a different amplitude. The probability distribution has no peaks close to the observer or to the source, therefore gravitational lensing could not explain the local overdensity of BL Lac Objects.
Carbon Chains and the Diffuse Interstellar Bands

It is shown that a stable population of long carbon chains and large planar rings is maintained by C+ insertion, photocleavage, and spontaneous isomerization in the diffuse interstellar gas. Chains with ~20–30 atoms are synthesized at about the right abundance to account for the diffuse bands, and it is suggested that these and derivative acetylenic rings comparable in size or slightly larger are an important, possibly dominant, component of large molecules in the diffuse gas. It is Further suggested that in a slower subordinate cycle spontaneous isomerization further converts some of the larger planar rings to fullerenes, which then add carbon and possibly other atoms to form even larger molecules and amorphous grains which are recycled only very slowly via grain-grain collisions and supernova shocks.
Catatonia in Autistic Spectrum Disorders: A Medical Treatment Algorithm

Autism is a developmental syndrome with an unknown biology and inadequate therapeutics. Assessing the elements of the syndrome for the presence of depression, psychosis, mania, or catatonia, offers opportunities for systematic intervention. Since almost all descriptions of autism highlight the presence of motor symptoms that characterize catatonia, an assessment for this eminently treatable syndrome is recommended for all patients considered to be autistic. A minimum examination includes a catatonia rating scale and for those patients with defined catatonia, a lorazepam test. For those whose catatonia responds to lorazepam, high dose lorazepam therapy is recommended. If this fails, electroconvulsive therapy is recommended. The assessment and treatment of catatonia offers positive medical therapy for the victims of autism and their families.
A Framework to Analyze the Robustness of Social-ecological Systems from an Institutional Perspective

What makes social-ecological systems (SESs) robust? In this paper, we look at the institutional configurations that affect the interactions among resources, resource users, public infrastructure providers, and public infrastructures. We propose a framework that helps identify potential vulnerabilities of SESs to disturbances. All the links between components of this framework can fail and thereby reduce the robustness of the system. We posit that the link between resource users and public infrastructure providers is a key variable affecting the robustness of SESs that has frequently been ignored in the past. We illustrate the problems caused by a disruption in this link. We then briefly describe the design principles originally developed for robust common-pool resource institutions, because they appear to be a good starting point for the development of design principles for more general SESs and do include the link between resource users and public infrastructure providers.
The Science of Personality

The scientific study of personality. Part 1: which units of personality? the trait concept cognitive units of personality motivational units of personality. Part 2: personality development - the nature and nurture of personality charting the lives of people over time. Part 3: subject areas of investigation the unconscious the concept of self the path from thinking to action emotion, adaptation and health maladaptive personality.
Constitutive functions of elastic materials in finite growth and deformation

The constitutive functions of soft biological tissues during growth are studied. A growth, treated as addition (often non-uniform) of material points, results in deformation, residual stresses, and evolution of the constitutive functions. A theory based on the concept of equivalent material points is developed with the current configuration taken as the reference. The residual stresses developed in a spherical shell undergoing spherical growths are studied.
Oppositeness in Buildings and Simple Modules for Finite Groups of Lie Type

In the building of a finite group of Lie type, we consider the incidence relations defined by oppositeness of flags. Such a relation gives rise to a homomorphism of permutation modules (in the defining characteristic) whose image is a simple module for the group. The p-rank of the incidence relation is then the dimension of this simple module. We give some general reductions towards the determination of the character of the simple module. Its highest weight is identified and the problem is reduced to the case of a prime field. The reduced problem can be approached through the representation theory of algebraic groups and the methods are illustrated for some examples.
Commutative ideal theory without finiteness conditions: Completely irreducible ideals

An ideal of a ring is completely irreducible if it is not the intersection of any set of proper overideals. We investigate the structure of completely irrreducible ideals in a commutative ring without finiteness conditions. It is known that every ideal of a ring is an intersection of completely irreducible ideals. We characterize in several ways those ideals that admit a representation as an irredundant intersection of completely irreducible ideals, and we study the question of uniqueness of such representations. We characterize those commutative rings in which every ideal is an irredundant intersection of completely irreducible ideals.
Safe and effective use of ponatinib in a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia and acute venous thromboembolism on therapeutic anti-coagulation

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by the clonal proliferation of a hematopoietic stem cell carrying the reciprocal translocation between the long arms of...
Dynamic Pulmonary Artery Obstruction Causing Right Ventricular Failure after Cardiac Transplantation in a Patient with Mustard–Senning Corrected d-Transposition of the Great Arteries

Patients with congenital d-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA) undergoing palliative atrial baffle surgery in infancy often develop systemic ventricular failure in adulthood. If they undergo cardiac transplantation, they are prone to morphologic right ventricular (RV) failure secondary to severe pulmonary hypertension as a result of systemic ventricular failure. We report a case of a patient with d-TGA and biventricular ventricular failure requiring heart transplantation (HT) that developed RV failure postoperatively because of dynamic pulmonary artery (PA) obstruction at the anastomotic site of PA. Obstruction at the site of PA anastomosis due to torsion or redundancy of the donor or recipient PA is a rare but treatable cause of postoperative RV failure. In this case, rapid identification of the etiology of RV failure and implementation of corrective therapies before the development of end-organ dysfunction, resulted in complete RV recovery and normal allograft function. This case represents the first known report of dynamic PA anastomoticobstruction resulting in RV failure after HT that was corrected with pulmonary arterioplasty, and RV assist device resulting in complete recovery.
Early Life-Stage Toxicity of Eight Pharmaceuticals to the Fathead Minnow, Pimephales promelas

Human pharmaceuticals are routinely being detected in the environment, and there is growing concern about whether these drugs could elicit effects on aquatic organisms. Regulatory paradigms have shifted accordingly, with a greater emphasis on chronic toxicity data compared with acute data. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 210 Early Life Stage Test has been proposed as a good measure of the potential for pharmaceuticals to elicit chronic toxicity. To begin building a data set regarding the early life-stage toxicity of pharmaceuticals to fish, fathead minnows (FHM) were exposed to amiodarone, carbamazepine, clozapine, dexamethasone, fenofibrate, ibuprofen, norethindrone, or verapamil. Survival and growth were used to assess chronic toxicity in FHM at 28 days posthatch. Exposure of FHM to carbamazepine, fenofibrate, and ibuprofen resulted in no significant adverse effects at the concentrations tested. FHM survival was not impacted by verapamil exposure; however, growth was significantly decreased at 600 μg/L. Dexamethasone-exposed FHM showed a significant decrease in survival at a concentration of 577 μg/L; however, growth was not impacted at the concentration tested. Norethindrone exposure resulted in a significant decrease in survival and dry weight at 14.8 and 0.74 μg/L, respectively. Exposure to amiodarone and clozapine resulted in a significant decrease in survival and a significant increase in growth at concentrations of 1020 and 30.8 μg/L, respectively. Although the effect levels derived in this study are greater then concentrations observed in the environment, these data suggest that synthetic progestins may require additional research.
Paraneoplastic cholestasis and hypercoagulability associated with medullary thyroid carcinoma : resolution with tumor debulking

The authors report a 69-year-old woman with a hypercoagulable state manifesting as superior sagittal sinus thrombosis, thrombocytosis, right lower extremity deep venous thrombosis, and subsequent pulmonary embolus. The liver enzyme values were elevated in a cholestatic pattern. Carcinoembryonic antigen level was markedly elevated. Evaluation revealed that her longstanding "goiter" had slowly enlarged during the past 6 years. The serum calcitonin level was markedly elevated. Subsequent biopsy revealed medullary thyroid carcinoma. Surgical debulking of the tumor and lymph nodes resulted in substantial reduction of the calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen levels in a matter of days. Long-term follow-up revealed normalization of cholestasis and resolution of the hypercoagulable state. Review of the literature revealed no previously reported cholestasis or hypercoagulable state associated with medullary thyroid carcinoma. The literature on paraneoplastic cholestasis, carcinoembryonic antigen production, and hypercoagulable states is reviewed.
Considerations For The Use Of Synchrotron Radiation Sources To Measure Sub-Kev X-Ray Photoabsorption Cross Sections In Transmission

Sub-keV x-ray photoabsorption cross section measurements in transmission have been made using synchrotron radiation beam lines on the VUV storage ring at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and on the SPEAR storage ring at Stanford. The experimental considerations associated with making absolute measurements are reviewed, along with techniques for resolving difficulties. Suggestions for future measurements are included.
Electromechanical properties of charge-density-wave conductors

A model of two mutally incommensurate, interacting, dynamical, many-body systems is presented and solved. Quasiperiodic forms are shown to describe both the dc properties and the complete set of linear excitations. By use of one system to represent the crystal lattice and the other a charge-density wave (CDW), all the recently discovered, and as yet unexplained, electromechanical properties of CDW conductors are shown to occur in this model. The internal degrees of freedom of the CDW are shown to be of central importance.
Estimating the nucleated red blood cell 'emergence time' in neonates.

The time between onset of fetal hypoxia and first appearance of nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) in the blood can conceptually be divided into two periods; (1) the ‘erythropoietin (EPO) generation time’, which previous fetal studies suggest is 4 to 5 h, and (2) the ‘NRBC emergence time’. In this study, we estimated the latter as the time required for NRBC to appear in the blood after administering a dose of recombinant EPO. This was a retrospective analysis of data from a multihospital healthcare system (Intermountain Healthcare). Data were included only for neonates born ⩾34 weeks gestation between the dates 1 January 2005 and 31 October 2012 and only if they received a dose of darbepoetin during their neonatal intensive care unit stay and had one or more complete blood cell counts (CBCs) obtained during the 3-day period before the dose was given and one or more CBCs in the 7-day period after the dose. The study involved 31 neonates who received 34 doses of darbepoetin. Seven doses were 4 μg kg−1 and twenty-seven doses were 10 μg kg−1. Twenty-six CBCs were obtained during the 24-h period following the darbepoetin dose and none had NRBC identified. NRBC first appeared in the blood between 24 and 36 h after the dose. Recipients of the higher dose generally had a higher peak NRBC count but the NRBC ‘emergence time’ did not appear to depend on dose. Following fetal hypoxia, transcription and translation of the EPO gene result in an elevation in plasma EPO concentration. Previous fetal studies suggest this process requires 4 to 5 h. The present studies suggest that, following the increase in plasma EPO, NRBC emerge into the circulation in ⩾24 h. If this model serves as a reasonable estimate, it suggests that neonates with an elevated NRBC count at birth had the onset of hypoxia at least 28 to 29 h before birth.
Diagnostic Thresholds with Three Ordinal Groups

In practice, there exist many disease processes with three ordinal disease classes; for example, in the detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) a patient can be classified as healthy (disease-free stage), mild cognitive impairment (early disease stage), or AD (full disease stage). The treatment interventions and effectiveness of such disease processes will depend on the disease stage. Therefore, it is important to develop diagnostic tests with the ability to discriminate between the three disease stages. Measuring the overall ability of diagnostic tests to discriminate between the three classes has been discussed extensively in the literature. However, there has been little proposed on how to select clinically meaningful thresholds for such diagnostic tests, except for a method based on the generalized Youden index by Nakas et al. (2010). In this article, we propose two new criteria for selecting diagnostic thresholds in the three-class setting. The numerical study demonstrated that the proposed methods may provide thresholds with less variability and more balance among the correct classification rates for the three stages. The proposed methods are applied to two real examples: the clinical diagnosis of AD from the Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the detection of liver cancer (LC) using protein segments.
Age-Related Rates of Decline in Performance Among Elite Senior Athletes

BackgroundAge-related disability and lost independence currently plague one third of older Americans. Many causes of disability, lost muscle mass and bone mineral density, are modifiable with exercise. Most exemplary of successful aging are the Senior Olympians; this group of vital athletes exhibit persistently high levels of functional capacity.PurposeThis study describes demographic data, injury characteristics and the effect of aging on physical performance in senior athletes to identify key time points for intervention to address declining performance.Study DesignCross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 4.MethodsSenior Olympians (>50 years) participating in the 2001 National Senior Olympic Games were surveyed for demographic and health characteristics. Age-related changes in physical performance were determined from mean winning performance times in track and field events. These were plotted against age and task for men and women. Analysis of variance and intergroup significance were analyzed using t...