cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Notes on the Hibernation of Several North American Bumblebees

Although our knowledge concerning the life-history and habits of the various species of bumblebees which inhabit the arctic regions and the Tropics is rather meager, it seems to be definitely established that the colonies of at least some of the tropical species are perennial (cf. von Ihering, 1903), while those of arctic species probably last only a month or two (cf. Friese und von Wagner, 1912, and Frison, 1919). In fact it has been suggested by Sparre-Schneider (1909) that some of the arctic species, e. g. Bremus hyperboreus and Bremus kirbyellus are solitary in certain parts of the far north. This hypothesis, though interesting, still lacks confirmation.
One-Sample Tests in Regional Archaeological Analysis: New Possibilities through Computer Technology

Archaeologists commonly employ two-sample statistical tests in regional locational analyses that compare environmental measurements obtained at site locations against measurements taken at random locations from the background environment. One-sample tests that compare a site sample against a background standard are conceptually and statistically superior, but have been difficult to implement for continuous data types. This situation now is changed owing to a relatively new computer technology known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS can provide a complete description of the nature of the background environment of entire regions for categorical and continuous data types, thereby allowing the ready application of one-sample testing strategies. Examples of several GIS-based one-sample tests are given using data from east-central Arizona. Such conventional tests only should be applied, however, when the observations can be shown to be statistically independent through tests for spatial autocorrelation.
Discussion on the establishment of personal safety protection system

Based on the analysis of current situation and problems of personal safety protection of chinese firemen,the theory of personal safety protection system was presented,and the method of establishing the system and achieveing system protection was proposed.
Improving text clustering for functional analysis of genes

Continued rapid advancements in genomic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies demand computer-aided methods and tools to efficiently and timely process large amount of data, extract meaningful information, and interpret data into knowledge. While numerous algorithms and systems have been developed for information extraction (i.e. profiling analysis), biological interpretation still largely relies on biologists' domain knowledge, as well as collecting and analyzing functional information from various public databases. The goal of this project was to build a text clustering-based software system, called GeneNarrator, for functional analysis of genes (microarray experiments). GeneNarrator automatically collected MEDLINE citations for a list of genes as the source of functional information. A two-step clustering approach was designed to process the citations. The first-step (text) clustering grouped the citations into hierarchical topics. The second-step (gene) clustering grouped the genes based on the similarities of their occurrences across the clusters resulting from step one. Hence, we planned to demonstrate how, instead of manually collecting and tediously sifting through potentially thousands of citations, biologists can be presented with dozens of topics as a summarization of the citations, and gene (groups) mapped to the topics. In order to improve the first-step text clustering part of the system, several strategies were explored, including different vector space models (BOW-based or concept-based) for text representation, vector space dimensionality reduction (document frequency filtering), and multi clustering. The most improvement came from multi-clustering. The clusterings were evaluated in terms of self-consistency and agreement with a manually constructed gold standard dataset using a newly proposed metric, normalized mutual information.
Abstract 306: Analysis of differentially expressed exosomal genes from ibrutinib resistant diffuse large B cell lymphoma

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and approximately 30% of the patients develop relapsed/refractory disease that becomes a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Selective pressure provided by chemotherapy causes aberrant gene expression and selection of pre-existing population of chemo-resistant cells. These chemo-resistant cells can also transmit chemo-resistance to chemo-sensitive cells through exosomal transfer of molecules (miRNA, mRNA and proteins). In this study, we have analysed differentially expressed mRNA and miRNA from syngeneic ibrutinib (an irreversible BTK inhibitor, FDA approved) resistant DLBCL cells and from their isolated exosomes. Five DLBCL-GCB and five ABC subtype were analysed for their sensitivity with ibrutinib. We found three ABC subtype and one GCB subtype (OCL-LY1) were sensitive to ibrutinib. We have generated syngeneic ibrutinib drug resistant model from sensitive cells (at least 10 fold increase in IC50 value) by continuous culturing them in the presence of ibrutinib with gradual increase in drug concentration in each passage. Ibrutinib sensitive DLBCL cells when cultured with the syngeneic resistant cells in transwell apparatus, acquired resistance to ibrutinib. We also analysed the sensitivity of ibrutinib resistant cells with other conventional drugs for non-Hodgkin lymphomas. We further tested the expression of drug resistant genes in syngeneic resistant cells by real time PCR analysis. Later, we isolated the total RNA and miRNA species from DLBCL ibrutinib sensitive, their syngeneic resistant cells and from respective exosomes and analysed for differential expression by micro array analyses. Thus in conclusion, our study demonstrates that chemo-resistance can be transferred from resistant cells to sensitive cells via exosomal horizontal transmission of miRNA and mRNA in diffuse large B cell lymphoma cells. Moreover, our study identified potential targets that can be used to overcome chemo-resistance in diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Citation Format: Neeraj Jain, Lalit Sehgal, Tamer Khashab, Felipe Samaniego. Analysis of differentially expressed exosomal genes from ibrutinib resistant diffuse large B cell lymphoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 306.
Myocardial Native T1 Time in Patients With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC), there are significant variations in left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and fibrosis, which necessitates a volumetric coverage. Slice-interleaved T 1 (STONE) mapping sequence allows for the assessment of native T 1 time with complete coverage of LV myocardium. The aims of this study were to evaluate spatial heterogeneity of native T 1 time in patients with HC. Twenty-nine patients with HC (55 ± 16 years) and 15 healthy adult control subjects (46 ± 19 years) were studied. Native T 1 mapping was performed using STONE sequence which enables acquisition of 5 slices in the short-axis plane within a 90 seconds free-breathing scan. We measured LV native T 1 time and maximum LV wall thickness in each 16 segments from 3 slices (basal, midventricular and apical slice). Late gadolinium enhanced (LGE) magnetic resonance imaging was acquired to assess the presence of myocardial enhancement. In patients with HC, LV native T 1 time was significantly elevated compared with healthy controls, regardless of the presence or absence of LGE (mean native T 1 time; LGE positive segments from HC, 1,141 ± 46 ms; LGE negative segments from HC, 1,114 ± 56 ms; segments from healthy controls, 1,065 ± 35 ms, p 1 time was defined as >1,135 ms, which was +2SD of native T 1 time by STONE sequence in healthy controls. A total of 120 of 405 (30%) LGE negative segments from patients with HC showed elevated native T 1 time. Prevalence of segments with elevated native T 1 time for basal, midventricular, and apical slice was 29%, 25%, 38%, respectively. Significant correlation was found between LV wall thickness and LV native T 1 time (y = 0.029 × −22.6, p 1 time, and whole-heart T 1 mapping revealed heterogeneity of myocardial native T 1 time in patients with HC.
Substrate and Transition State Binding in Alkaline Phosphatase Analyzed by Computation of Oxygen Isotope Effects

Enzymes are powerful catalysts, and a thorough understanding of the sources of their catalytic power will facilitate many medical and industrial applications. Here we have studied the catalytic mechanism of alkaline phosphatase (AP), which is one of the most catalytically proficient enzymes known. We have used quantum mechanics calculations and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations to model a variety of isotope effects relevant to the reaction of AP. We have calculated equilibrium isotope effects (EIEs), binding isotope effects (BIEs), and kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) for a range of phosphate mono- and diester substrates. The results agree well with experimental values, but the model for the reaction’s transition state (TS) differs from the original interpretation of those experiments. Our model indicates that isotope effects on binding make important contributions to measured KIEs on V/K, which complicated interpretation of the measured values. Our results provide a detailed ...
How to Teach Communication Skills for Palliative Care Conversations

Effective communication related to serious illness can improve patient and family satisfaction, quality of life and adaptive coping, while also decreasing symptoms of depression and PTSD. Additionally, when patients have a better understanding of their situation and their providers know and respect their values, healthcare quality improves with decreased use of non-beneficial treatments. Therefore, it’s crucial that all healthcare professionals are proficient in fundamental palliative care communication skills. This chapter outlines key components of these conversations and strategies on how to engage learners and prepare them for success.
Participatory/Action Research

Action research (AR), participatory research (PR), or participatory action research (PAR) represent three overlapping research processes frequently associated with community- and organization-based research designed and facilitated collaboratively by local participants and university-based researchers seeking to transform social inequalities or redress social injustice. Some have argued that these approaches to knowledge generation and social change can be traced back to early Greek philosophers or to indigenous communities. Others trace their beginnings to twentieth-century social scientific research, more specifically to the work of Kurt Lewin in the 1940s and the experiential learning and inquiry communities of the 1960s. Action research contributed importantly to the fields of organizational behavior and development, introducing strategies for enhancing communication and cooperation as well as system changes. Lewin and his students developed such practices in industry and business. In line with this latter understanding, Adelman (1993, p. 7) defined action research as “the means of systematic enquiry for all participants in the quest for greater effectiveness through democratic participation”. Keywords: cultural psychology; methodology; research; indigenous psychology
Defect-dependent stability of highly propylene-selective zeolitic-imidazolate framework ZIF-8 membranes

Abstract Membranes of ZIF-8, a prototypical zeolitic-imidazolate framework (ZIF) with a sodalite topology, have shown excellent propylene/propane separation performances based on molecular sieving mechanism. Although the long-term stability of ZIF-8 membranes is of critical importance for their practical applications, there are only a few studies reported on the subject. Here, we report the long-term binary propylene/propane performances of ZIF-8 membranes prepared by two distinctive synthesis methods. A series of characterizations was employed to explain how different synthetic protocols led to the formation of ZIF-8 membranes with different bulk defect densities and surface defects, thereby affecting the long-term membrane stability. Finally, a post-synthetic ligand treatment is proposed as an effective means to mitigate the defects of ZIF-8 membranes, resulting in improved long-term separation performances.
Radon in geothermal reservoir engineering

Abstract Radon has been shown to have potential as a tracer in the study of geothermal reservoirs. The combination of its physical and nuclear properties and its emanation and transport in geothermal fluids makes several types of time and concentration measurements useful for studies of fracture permeability and porosity and flow characteristics in different types of geothermal resources. Radon concentrations in several vapor-dominated and liquid-dominated producing reservoirs have been measured by short-period sampling of wellhead geofluid followed by radon separation on a charcoal trap and counting in a sensitive low background ZnS detector. The results show significant variations not only among different fields, but also between neighbouring wells in a single field. Evidences for transport differences between the two major types of hydrothermal systems are noted.
Pyriform Aperture Stenosis: A Novel Approach to Stenting.

Objectives:Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis (CNPAS) is one of several causes of neonatal respiratory distress. Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis can be diagnosed by clinical pr...
Sensing oxygen inside and out

Neuroendocrine cells act as oxygen sensors in animals from fish to humans, but the evolutionary origins of these cells are only just becoming clear.
Identification of contractile proteins in nuclear protein fractions.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the biochemical and cytological evidence for actin and myosin in nuclei and nucleoli of Physarum polycephalum obtained by Jockusch and colleagues. The chapter describes the identification of contractile proteins in nuclear protein fractions and emphasizes on methods for the rapid identification of actin and myosin in nuclear protein fractions. . The actin–myosin interaction in the force-producing mechanism for chromosome movement is discussed. The procedures for confirmation of actin in nuclear protein fractions are the most direct, unequivocal, and least time-consuming. For myosin identification the most important aspects are the tail-to-tail associations of myosin, the highly specific interaction of actin with myosin, and the stimulation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis that follows this interaction. In addition to these two major components of contractile systems, the regulatory proteins tropomyosin and troponin are likely to be present. There is evidence for tropomyosin in rat liver chromatin. However, it is illogical to attempt identification of these proteins before actin confirmation. Methods for purifying these components are more complex than the methods for actin and myosin, as are the procedures for confirmation and characterization.
Coastal ice-core record of recent northwest Greenland temperature and sea-ice concentration

Coastal ice cores provide an opportunity to investigate regional climate and sea-ice variability in the past to complement hemispheric-scale climate reconstructions from ice-sheet-interior ice cores. Here we describe robust proxies of Baffin Bay temperature and sea-ice concentration from the coastal 2Barrel ice core collected in the Thule region of northwest Greenland. Over the 1990–2010 record, 2Barrel annually averaged methanesulfonic acid (MSA) concentrations are significantly correlated with May–June Baffin Bay sea-ice concentrations and summer temperatures. Higher MSA is observed during warmer years with less sea ice, indicative of enhanced primary productivity in Baffin Bay. Similarly, 2Barrel annually averaged deuterium excess (d-excess) values are significantly correlated with annual Baffin Bay sea-ice concentrations and summer and annual temperatures. Warm (cool) years with anomalously low (high) sea-ice concentration are associated with proportionally more (less) low-d-excess Baffin Bay moisture at the ice-core site. Multilinear regression models incorporating 2Barrel MSA, d-excess and snow accumulation account for 38–51% of the Baffin Bay sea-ice and temperature variance. The annual temperature model is significantly correlated with temperatures throughout most of Greenland and eastern Arctic Canada due to the strong influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.
Collaboration in Regulatory Science to Facilitate Therapeutic Development for Neonates.

BACKGROUND Historically, neonatal therapeutic interventions were derived from adult therapeutics, and tragedies resulting from this approach have demonstrated differences in the pathophysiologic and developmental processes between neonates and older patients. Over the past 3 decades, researchers and collaborative research networks have made progress in the systematic evaluation of neonatal therapies, yet most neonatal therapeutic products have been incompletely assessed for safety and efficacy, and remain unlabeled and unapproved. APPROACH This work describes the legislative initiatives that have stimulated an increase in pediatric and neonatal studies. It highlights examples of successful neonatal drug studies that have resulted in informative neonatal labeling changes, as well as studies that have produced incomplete information. Strategies that support the design of successful studies, including targeting specific subpopulations, modeling and simulation to inform dose selection, innovative design strategies, biomarkers, and endpoints are discussed. Multi-stakeholder consortia such as the International Neonatal Consortium (INC), are working to improve the tools needed for the development of neonatal therapies. These research tools may be used by trial networks to inform consistent and efficient multicenter studies. CONCLUSION More data are needed to support safe and effective use of drugs in neonates, and to obtain these data, a thorough understanding of pathophysiology, drug disposition, biomarkers, and clinically-meaningful endpoints is required. This information will be derived from clinical trials, registries, real-world evidence, and the medical literature. Collaboration of consortia and the development of research networks are essential to achieving these goals.
A Revised Multifamily Group Curriculum: The Need for Family Member Recovery from Addiction

This article presents a revised curriculum for a family program developed for family members who are participating in a family program at a residential treatment for addiction. The article consists...
Colloids: Chiral interactions in liquid crystals.

The chirality of colloids dispersed in achiral liquid crystals shapes colloidal dynamics and interactions, giving rise to chiral supramolecular assemblies and attractive or repulsive colloidal motions.
Time to personalize the treatment of anti-MDA-5 associated lung disease.

We read with interest the article by the European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology on the classification criteria for adult and juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and their major subgroups.1 While we believe these criteria will help with the diagnosis of most of the major subgroups of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, we anxiously await society guidelines that direct physicians on how best to individualise the treatment for specific subgroups of this disease. For example, one subgroup we seek immediate direction is on the treatment of patients with antibodies directed against the melanoma differentiation associated protein 5 (anti-MDA5). This antibody is typically identified in patients with clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM), and it is now increasingly appreciated that some of these individuals …
Ensemble one-vs-all learning technique with emphatic & rehearsal training for phishing email classification using psychology

Psychological crackdown of phishing emails can gain major momentum and success through understanding and classifying phishing emails. Phishing is a preferred way of hackers and has always provided ...
Statins in Acute Coronary Syndromes: Do the Guideline Recommendations Match the Evidence?

On the basis of the evidence obtained from observational studies, randomized controlled trials and their meta-analyses, current guidelines recommend initiating high-dose statin therapy pre-discharge regardless of the baseline low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Careful review of the evidence indicates that early initiation of high-dose statin therapy reduces recurrent ischemia and may reduce revascularization, but does not confer benefit in terms of hard clinical outcomes such as death or myocardial infarction in any of the randomized controlled trials, and may be associated with increased liver and muscle-related adverse outcomes leading to increased withdrawal and suboptimal long-term adherence. A mortality benefit is apparent in pooled analyses of randomized controlled trials only at long-term (24-month) but not short-term (4-month) follow-up. The critical role of the timing of initiation of therapy (early vs. late) on the benefit-risk profile of statin treatment has not been systematically assessed. It is unclear whether the clinical benefits are attributable to lipid-lowering or lipid-lowering-independent effects. Finally, an optimal LDL threshold for initiating treatment or target LDL level for treatment in ACS remains yet to be defined. On the basis of these observations, and despite a compelling pathophysiologic rationale, the justification for current Class I, Level of Evidence: A recommendation for statin therapy in patients with ACS remains open to question.
Decreased health care use among patients with silent myocardial ischemia: support for a generalized rather than cardiac-specific silence

Objective: The absence of angina among patients with silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) may be a cardiac phenomenon or may reflect a generalized lack of bodily awareness and symptom reporting. We tested the hypothesis that the silence is generalized, and, therefore, that patients with SMI would make fewer health care visits for noncardiac/chest-pain problems than patients with symptomatic ischemia. Methods: We counted all out-patient visits to our medical system for the prior 18 months for 95 patients who demonstrated ischemia during treadmill exercise testing and subsequent nuclear scanning: 62 of the patients had SMI during exercise, and 33 of the patients had symptomatic ischemia. Results: Patients with SMI made were significantly less likely to have sought emergency care or primary care and had significantly fewer primary care visits than patients with symptomatic ischemia. Group differences remained after controlling for demographics and health status variables. The two groups did not differ on utilization of specialty care. Conclusion: The reduced use of emergency and primary care among patients with SMI suggests that they have a generalized rather than cardiac-specific reduction in somatic awareness and/or symptom reporting.
Genetic Study of Familial Uveal Melanoma: Association of Uveal and Cutaneous Melanoma with Cutaneous and Ocular Nevi

Purpose To evaluate a kindred with familial uveal and cutaneous melanoma and to identify potential genetic and environmental factors that may predispose individuals to develop uveal melanoma. Design Family-based case report with detailed clinical and genetic evaluation. Participants Ten siblings in a single nuclear family. Methods Evaluation of a large sibship via family history, complete eye and skin examinations, environmental risk factor questionnaire, and genetic testing, as well as a MEDLINE search of familial uveal melanoma kindreds. Main Outcome Measures Cutaneous and ocular nevi, benign and malignant neoplasms of skin and other sites, brief skin cancer risk assessment tool risk classification for cutaneous melanoma, DNA sequencing of p16INK4a and p14ARF genes, and citations on familial uveal melanoma. Results The proband and his mother had uveal melanoma, 3 cutaneous melanomas occurred among 2 siblings, and 2 other siblings had basal cell carcinomas. No germline mutations were detected in the melanoma-associated tumor suppressor genes p16INK4a and p14ARF . Seven out of 10 siblings had a history of cutaneous and/or ocular nevi. Of the 3 subjects without nevi, 2 had histories of eye or skin malignancies (1 uveal melanoma, 1 basal cell carcinoma). Three of the 10 siblings had relevant ocular findings (2 choroidal nevi, 1 uveal melanoma). Six were also found to be in the "high-risk" classification for cutaneous malignancies based on scores from a previously validated risk assessment tool. This family, combined with the 91 previously reported familial uveal melanoma kindreds, brings to 92 the total number thus far recorded. Conclusions Our results strengthen the association between uveal melanoma, atypical nevi, and cutaneous melanoma. This relationship supports the recommendation that individuals with a personal or family history of uveal melanoma, particularly in combination with atypical nevi, should be regularly screened for uveal and cutaneous melanoma.
Lucky Man: Memories of a Life in Communications

Review of: "Lucky Man: Memories of a Life in Communications," by William Barlow Quarton, III.
Approximate Branch and Bound for Fast, Risk-Bound Stochastic Path Planning

Path planning under uncertainty is a difficult and often intractable problem. Autonomous agents must model and reason about complex stochastic processes to quickly derive high quality plans. Most approaches separate the model of uncertainty from the planning; a model is selected and then a controller derived. This work proposes an approach for fast path planning under uncertainty that scales the model of uncertainty such that good policies receive the most effort. To do this, we use an innovative form of the problem's chance constraint to formulate a convex, stochastic path planning problem from the non-convex problem. Next, a bound on the path's expected cost is developed that allows a trade-off between speed of computation and accuracy. The bound is trivially parallelized on a GPU. Finally, a modified branch and bound algorithm is introduced that scales computational effort for more promising solutions. The method is benchmarked against existing approaches including those using Boole's inequality, a MILP approach, and a parallelized sampling-based approach. It outperforms other approaches based on speed and the ability to meet the chance constraint while not being overly conservative.
Reprogramming of regulatory network using expression uncovers sex-specific gene regulation in Drosophila.

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) describe regulatory relationships between transcription factors (TFs) and their target genes. Computational methods to infer GRNs typically combine evidence across different conditions to infer context-agnostic networks. We develop a method, Network Reprogramming using EXpression (NetREX), that constructs a context-specific GRN given context-specific expression data and a context-agnostic prior network. NetREX remodels the prior network to obtain the topology that provides the best explanation for expression data. Because NetREX utilizes prior network topology, we also develop PriorBoost, a method that evaluates a prior network in terms of its consistency with the expression data. We validate NetREX and PriorBoost using the “gold standard” E. coli GRN from the DREAM5 network inference challenge and apply them to construct sex-specific Drosophila GRNs. NetREX constructed sex-specific Drosophila GRNs that, on all applied measures, outperform networks obtained from other methods indicating that NetREX is an important milestone toward building more accurate GRNs. For many applications knowledge of context-specific gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is desirable, but their inference remains a challenge. Here, the authors introduce a method for construction of context-specific GRNs, and apply it to construct sex-specific Drosophila GRNs.
From plant immunity to food security: an interview with Ksenia Krasileva

Ksenia Krasileva is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, studying innate immunity in plants. Ksenia’s work combines plant genomics and plant-microbe interactions with new technologies, spanning basic studies and translational research in agriculture. In this interview Ksenia shares her experience with research and leading a lab, as well as thoughts on innovations in publishing.
A Half-Shared Transimpedance Amplifier Architecture for High-throughput CMOS Bioelectronics

A common problem in single-cell measurement is the low-throughput nature of measurements. Monolithic CMOS microsystems have enabled many parallel measurements to take place simultaneously to increase throughput due to the integration of electrodes and amplifiers into a single chip. This paper explores a CMOS chip containing an array of 1024 parallel transimpedance amplifiers that takes advantage of a “half-shared” operational amplifier architecture. This architecture splits a traditional 5-transistor operational amplifier into two, the inverting half and the non-inverting half. Splitting an amplifier into two allows for the non-inverting half to be “shared” with several inverting halves, reducing the die area required for each individual amplifier. This allows for an increased number of amplifiers to be embedded into the same chip; in this case, 32 amplifiers are able to fit in the same space as 17 traditional 5-transistor operational amplifiers. The amplifiers exhibit low mismatch of 1.65 mV across the entire 1024 amplifier array, as well as high linearity in transimpedance gain. The technique will enable larger arrays to be created in future designs to allow electrophysiologists, among others, access to even higher-throughput measurement tools.
The adenohypophysial response to stress and its hypothalamic control.

In this communication we will review the participation of the anterior pituitary gland in the stress response and concentrate in particular on research in this area from our own laboratory. The well-known participation of the neurohypophysis and its hormone, vasopressin, in the stress response will not be considered.
Impact of domestic wells and hydrogeologic setting on water quality in peri-urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Abstract In densely populated urban areas of many low-income countries, water scarcity, poor water quality, and inadequate wastewater management present complex challenges to ensuring health and wellbeing. This study was conducted in an impoverished peri-urban community in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that experiences water scarcity and relies on domestic wells for drinking water. The objective of this study was to identify the sources of domestic well water contamination and assess the relationship and association of water contamination with three variables 1) the proximity of the well to a sanitation system, 2) well age, and 3) well depth. Out of the 71 wells tested, samples from >80% of wells contained Escherichia coli (E. coli) and 58% had nitrate levels above WHO guidelines. The average concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS) was 882 mg/L, which exceeded the WHO guideline of 600 mg/L. Bivariate correlation analysis showed a strong correlation between water contamination and proximity of the well to a sanitation system along with well depth. Univariate regression analysis confirmed the association of contaminants with distance of a well from a sanitation system and well depth (p
Racial Differences in Clinical Phenotype and Hospitalization of Blastomycosis Patients.

Background Dimorphic fungal infections, such as blastomycosis, cause significant morbidity and mortality. Historically, blastomycosis studies have focused on non-Hispanic whites, which limits our understanding of the clinical presentation and outcomes for patients of other races and ethnicities. We evaluated whether clinical presentation and disease severity varied across racial and ethnic groups. Methods Blastomycosis patients were identified from Marshfield Clinic Health System and data were abstracted from electronic medical records. Blastomyces genotyping was performed for cases with available isolates. Bivariate analyses (χ 2 tests/analysis of variance) assessed associations of race and/or ethnicity, Blastomyces spp, and hospitalization status with demographics and clinical presentation. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of race and/or ethnicity and hospitalization. Results In total, 477 patients were included. Age differences were observed across race and ethnicity categories (P < .0001). Non-Hispanic whites were oldest (median, 48 years; interquartile range [IQR], 31-62) and Asians were youngest (26 years; IQR, 19-41). Non-Hispanic whites (55%) and African Americans (52%) had underlying medical conditions more frequently than Hispanic whites (27%) and Asians (29%). Odds of hospitalization were 2 to 3 times higher for Hispanic whites (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-1.7), American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) (aOR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.0-5.5), and Asian (aOR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.0-3.6) patients compared with non-Hispanic white patients. Ninety percent of Blastomyces dermatitidis infections occurred in non-Hispanic whites, whereas blastomycosis in Hispanic whites, AIAN, and Asian patients was frequently caused by Blastomyces gilchristii (P < .0001). Conclusions Hispanic whites, AIAN, and Asian blastomycosis patients were younger and healthier but more frequently hospitalized. Patients in these racial and ethnic groups may need more aggressive treatment and closer therapeutic monitoring.
Plant growth enhancement is not a conserved feature in the Caulobacter genus

Species within the Caulobacter genus have been termed ‘hub species’ in the plant microbiome. To understand these interactions, we assessed the interactions between several Caulobacter strains and a common host plant. We identified a set of 11 Caulobacter strains that range in genetic diversity and tested them for their ability to increase the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana. In addition, biochemical assays were employed to determine if these Caulobacter strains produce common plant growth promoting (PGP) biosynthates. To identify potential PGP-related genes, genomic analyses were performed to compare the genomes of PGP Caulobacter strains to those of non-PGP Caulobacter strains. For the PGP Caulobacter strains, we observed that common PGP biosynthates did not contribute to the observed Caulobacter-mediated plant growth stimulation. Genomic analyses suggested that the genomes of PGP strains maintain similar metabolic pathways compared to those of non-PGP strains, and that common genes related to PGP factors do not explain the PGP mechanisms for the Caulobacter strains we analyzed. Plant growth enhancement is not a conserved feature in the Caulobacter genus, and some Caulobacter strains even inhibit plant growth. Moreover, common PGP factors do not fully explain Caulobacter-mediated plant growth enhancement.
Association between fMRI brain entropy features and behavioral measures

An important goal in neuroscience is to understand the relationship between brain activity and cognitive traits. Toward this aim, many studies draw upon resting-state Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) datasets, which provide a means of probing the spatial and temporal structure of spontaneous brain activity in human subjects. However, as rsfMRI and behavioral data are both noisy, obtaining a robust relationship between them is difficult. Further, given the large number of candidate features in fMRI data, it is challenging to select those which may be most relevant for predicting a specific behavioral trait. In our research, we examined brain fMRI features based upon Sample Entropy (SampEn), which is a nonlinear signal processing measure that captures the complexity of a time series. Using 90 selected regions of interest (ROIs) across 96 unrelated subjects from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), we found that our SampEn-based features contained reproducible patterns over different rs-fMRI scans. Further, we report the relative stability of each ROI’s SampEn over four different scans of these 96 subjects. Finally, we apply multivariate models to relate SampEnbased brain features to cognition and emotion-related behavioral measures, and show that these models are reproducible when applied to different scans from the same individuals. Overall, these results suggest that SampEn of regional fMRI signals may be a reproducible metric of brain activity in healthy subjects.
RETAIL SAFARI: SYSTEMATICALLY WALKING THE RETAIL STORE WITH BUYERS AND SUPPLIERS

Building on active, experiential, and situated learning, the Retail Safari brings together students and executives in a retail setting to witness first-hand how course knowledge will play out in th...
Measuring Readiness for Kindergarten Using the Desired Results Developmental Profile

The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) provides formative assessment of five domains of learning and development that are essential for school success. The current study provides an appro...
Filtered Manifold Alignment.

Domain adaptation is an essential task in transfer learning to leverage data in one domain to bolster learning in another domain. In this paper, we present a new semi-supervised manifold alignment technique based on a two-step approach of projecting and filtering the source and target domains to low dimensional spaces followed by joining the two spaces. Our proposed approach, filtered manifold alignment (FMA), reduces the computational complexity of previous manifold alignment techniques, is flexible enough to align domains with completely disparate sets of feature and demonstrates state-of-the-art classification accuracy on multiple benchmark domain adaptation tasks composed of classifying real world image datasets.
Safety and efficacy of intravenous hydralazine and labetalol for the treatment of asymptomatic hypertension in hospitalised patients: A systematic review

BACKGROUND Current guidelines for the management of asymptomatic hypertension (HTN) in the inpatient setting recommend the use of oral antihypertensives. However, in clinical practice, intravenous (IV) antihypertensives are commonly utilised with little supporting evidence. The objective of this study was to evaluate literature examining the safety/efficacy of IV hydralazine and labetalol in hospitalised patients with non-emergent, asymptomatic HTN. METHODS The PRISMA guidelines were utilised to structure the systematic review. A search strategy composed of drug-, inpatient- and HTN-related terms was conducted utilising PubMed, Embase and Scopus databases through May 2020. Full-text, English-language articles describing IV labetalol and/or hydralazine use for non-emergent HTN in an inpatient setting that focused on clinical outcomes (ie vitals, adverse effects, healthcare utilisation) were included. Identified studies were screened/extracted using DistillerSR by two reviewers at each stage, and studies were evaluated qualitatively for the presence of bias. RESULTS From 3362 records identified in the search, a final set of 10 articles were identified. Four studies focused on labetalol (40%), five studies on hydralazine and labetalol (50%), and one study on hydralazine (10%). The included studies presented a variety of outcomes, but several trends were identified, including reduction in average blood pressure in eight (80%) studies, a risk of adverse effects in six (60%) and increased length of stay in one (10%). DISCUSSION The studies identified in this review raise concerns regarding the safety of IV hydralazine and labetalol in non-emergent HTN. Despite relatively broad clinical experience with these drugs, experimental investigations regarding their utility are recommended.
An examination of the mental health and academic performance of student veterans.

The purpose of this study was to provide a more comprehensive look into the demographics of the veteran student subpopulation while exploring the relationship between the mental health of student v...
Adaptation by ancient horizontal acquisition of butyrate metabolism genes in aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

Like the bacterial residents of the human gut, it is likely that many of the species in the human oral microbiota have evolved to better occupy and persist in their niche. Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) is both a common colonizer of the oral cavity and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease. Here, we present a whole-genome phylogenetic analysis of Aa isolates from humans and nonhuman primates that revealed an ancient origin for this species and a long history of association with the Catarrhini, the lineage that includes Old World monkeys (OWM) and humans. Further genomic analysis showed a strong association with the presence of a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) catabolism locus (atoRDAEB) in many human isolates that was absent in almost all nonhuman OWM isolates. We show that this locus was likely acquired through horizontal gene transfer. When grown under conditions that are similar to those at the subgingival site of periodontitis (anaerobic, SCFA replete), Aa strains with atoRDAEB formed robust biofilms and showed upregulation of genes involved in virulence, colonization, and immune evasion. Both an isogenic deletion mutant and nonhuman primate isolates lacking the ato locus failed to grow in a robust biofilm under these conditions, but grew well under the carbohydrate-rich conditions similar to those found above the gumline. We propose that the acquisition of the ato locus was a key evolutionary step allowing Aa to utilize SCFAs, adapt, and modulate subgingival disease.IMPORTANCE There has been considerable interest in the impact of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) on inflammatory effects related to the microbiome. Here, we present evidence that SCFAs may also be important in disease by providing an energy source or disease-associated cue for colonizing pathogens. We propose that SCFAs allow Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) to adapt to the subgingival anaerobic environment, which is the site of human periodontitis. Under anaerobic, SCFA-rich conditions, human-derived Aa strains that possess butyrate metabolism genes form strong biofilms and upregulate virulence genes. Our phylogenetic analysis highlights a long history of evolution of Aa with its primate hosts and suggests that the acquisition of butyrate metabolism genes may have been a critical step in allowing Aa to colonize a new niche and cause disease in humans. Overall, this study highlights the important role that horizontal gene transfer may play in microbial adaptation and the evolution of infectious disease.
Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Beyond for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Children

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is rare in children but presents a unique challenge as recent drug innovations have turned CML into a chronic disease with implications for treatment into adulthood. With the approval of newer-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in addition to imatinib, providers have more options for the treatment of chronic-phase CML (CML-CP) in children. The second-generation TKIs approved for use in children, nilotinib and dasatinib, have higher response rates than first-generation imatinib; however, overall survival rates appear to be the same. Even more options may soon become available with ongoing investigations into the use of bosutinib and ponatinib and other new agents in children. Possible long-term side effects of TKIs, including growth failure, should be carefully acknowledged by the treating provider. Although these known associations may not preclude treatment, providers should be aware of them to guide their management of pediatric patients with CML being treated long term with TKI therapy. Treatment-free remission is a desired goal for pediatric patients and providers alike, but current recommendations are for attempts at achieving this to be restricted to clinical study settings.
TNF drives AKI-to-CKD transition downstream of proximal tubule EGFR

Abstract Inflammation is a key driver of fibrosis and progression of human chronic kidney disease (CKD), often caused or worsened by acute kidney injury (AKI-to-CKD transition). Sustained epidermal-growth-factor-receptor (EGFR) activation in injured proximal-tubule-cells (PTC) is strongly pro-inflammatory and has emerged as a key paradigm in AKI-to-CKD transition and CKD progression. Whether the key Type 1 inflammatory cytokine tumor-necrosis-factor (TNF) has a role in CKD progression and how TNF relates to the PTC-EGFR pathway is unknown, but retrospective analysis of patients using TNF biologic inhibitors suggests that TNF inhibition reduces incident CKD and CKD progression in humans. Here, we compared mice treated with control, TNF inhibition (murine etanercept, soluble TNF-scavenger), EGFR inhibition (erlotinib, EGFR-kinase-inhibitor) or their combination in an AKI-to-CKD bilateral renal-ischemia-reperfusion model. TNF- or EGFR-inhibition did not affect initial kidney injury, but significantly overlapped in reducing kidney injury-upregulated cytokines and equally strongly reduced kidney fibrosis, while combination treatment had no additive effect, suggesting EGFR and TNF act in the same fibrosis pathway. TNF exerted its profibrotic effects downstream of PTC-EGFR, as TNF-inhibition did not affect tubular EGFR activation in vivo. Consistent with this, TNF PTC-KO did not reduce inflammation or fibrosis, suggesting that PTC-derived TNF does not contribute to profibrotic PTC-EGFR activation. Kidney single-cell RNAseq analysis identified macrophages, dendritic cells and T cells, but not PTC, as dominant TNF sources after AKI. Only EGFR inhibition, but not TNF inhibition significantly blocked injury-induced kidney ingress of chemokine-receptor-2 (CCR2) positive cells and accumulation of macrophages, however, macrophage numbers where equal one month after AKI independent of treatment. Thus EGFR inhibition reduces ingress and accumulation of TNF-producing proinflammatory and profibrotic immune cells whereas TNF inhibition mechanistically largely acts by neutralizing their proinflammatory and profibrotic activities. Our work provides mechanistic background to motivate examination of TNF pathway inhibition in human AKI or CKD.