cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analogue-based drug discovery: Contributions to medicinal chemistry principles and drug design strategies. Microtubule stabilizers as a case in point (Special Topic Article)

The benefits of utilizing marketed drugs as starting points to discover new thera- peutic agents have been well documented within the IUPAC series of books that bear the title Analogue-based Drug Discovery (ABDD). Not as clearly demonstrated, however, is that ABDD also contributes to the elaboration of new basic principles and alternative drug design strategies that are useful to the field of medicinal chemistry in general. After reviewing the ABDD programs that have evolved around the area of microtubule-stabilizing chemo - therapeutic agents, the present article delineates the associated research activities that addi- tionally contributed to general strategies that can be useful for prodrug design, identifying pharmacophores, circumventing multidrug resistance (MDR), and achieving targeted drug distribution.
African American Clergy's Perceptions of Mental Health and Pastoral Care to Elder Congregants

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore African American clergy's perspectives on gerontological mental health and pastoral care to elderly congregants. Interviews were conducted with 18 African American clergy in Kentucky. Data analysis revealed two salient themes: holistic health and holistic pastoral care. These findings have implications for training and continuing education of clergy, in addition to the need for increased collaboration among social workers and clergy.
Serotonin-induced disruption of implantation in the rat: I. Serum progesterone, implantation site blood flow, and intrauterine pO2.

Serotonin, administered on the day after the initiation of implantation, promptly terminates pregnancy in the rat. Consequently, the effects of serotonin on serum progesterone levels, implantation site blood flow, and intrauterine oxygen tension were determined to see whether the disruption of implantation is related to altered corpus luteum and/or uterine vascular function. Animals received a subcutaneous injection of physiological saline (C: control) or serotonin (S: 20 mg/kg) on Day 5 of pregnancy. Serotonin did not alter the number of blastocysts implanting (C: 6.02 ± 0.52 vs. 5: 6.29 ± 0.46, sites/cornu) but did cause subsequent implantation site resorption (C: 0.08 ± 0.07 vs. 5: 5.46 ± 0.44/cornu; P<0.001). Progesterone levels in serotonin-treated rats did not differ from those of controls at 6 h postinjection or on Days 6 through 10 of pregnancy. Implantation site blood flow was reduced at 30 mm (C: 0.76 ± 0.12 vs. S: 0.25 ± 0.02 mI/mm per g; P<0.01) and remained suppressed at 2 h after serotonin injection. A prompt and sustained reduction in intrauterine oxygen tension (C: 48.9 ± 3.7 vs. S: 25.9 ± 4.5 mmHg; P<0.005; 120 mm) accompanied the reduced uterine perfusion. Thus, disruption of implantation is not a result of impaired corpus luteum function but is associated with marked and protracted reductions in uterinebloodflowand intraluminal oxygen avajjability.
No End to Nonsense

Usually if a messenger RNA (mRNA) transcript carries an aberrant stop mutation, it is degraded before it has a chance to be translated into a truncated protein. However, sometimes a nonsense mutation can activate an alternate splicing pathway to yield a stable mRNA lacking the mutation. In a Perspective, [Moore][1] discusses new work ([Mendell][2] et al .) that identifies the first of the protein factors involved in these two separate yet overlapping pathways. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/298/5592/370 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/298/5592/419
Savage in the Market

We develop a behavioral axiomatic characterization of subjective expected utility (SEU) under risk aversion. Given is an individual agent's behavior in the market: assume a finite collection of asset purchases with corresponding prices. We show that such behavior satisfies a “revealed preference axiom” if and only if there exists a SEU model (a subjective probability over states and a concave utility function over money) that accounts for the given asset purchases.
Watching the Fireworks: Early Modern Observation of Natural and Artificial Spectacles

Early modern Europeans routinely compared nature to a theater or spectacle, so it makes sense to examine the practices of observing real spectacles and performances in order to better comprehend acts of witnessing nature. Using examples from the history of fireworks, this essay explores acts of observing natural and artificial spectacles between the sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries and suggests these acts of observation were mutually constitutive and entailed ongoing and diverse exchanges. The essay follows the changing ways in which audiences were imagined or expected to react to fireworks and shows how these also shaped experiences of natural phenomena. Both natural and artificial spectacles were intended to teach morals about the state and nature, yet audiences rarely seemed to take away what they were expected to learn. The essay examines how performers thus sought to discipline audience observation, before exploring, in conclusion, how spectacle provided a vocabulary for discerning and articulating new natural phenomena, and sites for the pursuit of novel experiments.
Stress in the workplace: an integrated approach.

The general characteristics, causative factors, and treatment of stress in the workplace are reviewed.
An Introduction to Altmetrics

Altmetrics, or alternative metrics, are forging a new way to capture the impact of not only articles, but also scholarly or research “products” by tracking them when they are mentioned online, such as in blogs or social media platforms. While altmetrics have a lot of potential, there are also some limitations preventing their full acceptance alongside traditional citation metrics. This column will explain the basics of altmetrics and altmetric tools, discuss some of the ways they can be used in libraries, and explore some possible concerns with this new metric. A list of resources for additional information is also included.
The impact of customer response on inventory and utilization policies

Drawing on extensive fieldwork at a semiconductor manufacturer, this research provides a framework for understanding how customer response and long production delays interact, leading to increased demand amplification across a company's supply chain. Investigating the impact resulting from the higher demand amplification, suggestions are derived for the company's capacity utilization and inventory policies
Predictors of Functional Decline in Early Parkinson's Disease: NET-PD LS1 Cohort.

BACKGROUND Data on predictors of decline in PD are largely based on de-novo populations and limited to the use of motor outcomes that fail to capture the full scope of disease. OBJECTIVE Determine the clinical predictors of decline in early treated PD using a novel multi-domain measure. METHODS Data from NINDS Exploratory Trials in PD Long-Term Study 1 (NET-PD LS1), a multicenter Phase 3 study of creatine in early treated PD, were analyzed. Functional decline was defined by a global outcome metric (GO) that consisted of: Schwab and England ADL scale, PD 39-item Questionnaire, Unified PD Rating Scale, Ambulatory Capacity Score, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and Modified Rankin Scale. Univariate and multivariate models were used to test the association of predictors of interest with a standardized rank-sum of the GO. RESULTS 765 of 1741 participants completed five-year assessments and were included. Older age at disease onset (p < 0.0001), higher baseline levodopa equivalent dose (p = 0.01), and worse Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson's Disease Cognition score (p = 0.001) at baseline were the strongest predictors of functional decline in multivariate analysis. PD symptom subtype was not a significant predictor of outcome (p = 0.42). The full model was only a modest predictor of change in GO (R2 = 0.186). CONCLUSIONS This is the largest study to systematically assess predictors of functional decline in early treated PD over several years, and the first to use a multi-domain outcome measure of decline. Older age at disease onset and worse cognition, and not PD subtype, were predictors of decline.
A Collaborative Vision: Partnering with STEM Faculty to Teach Visual Literacy Through Multimedia Research Presentations

This article discusses visual literacy, its connection to information literacy, and its significance to scientific disciplines. It includes a case study from Washington and Lee (W&L) University that showcases how libraries can integrate visual literacy instruction into STEM courses. In the study, two W&L Library staff members partnered with one W&L visiting assistant professor of physics to transform a common assignment, the academic poster, into a digital form of visual communication. This shift resulted in a revised evaluative rubric and led to enhanced library led instruction focusing on information literacy, visual literacy, and digital literacy skills.
UCSC Data Integrator and Variant Annotation Integrator

Author(s): Hinrichs, Angie S; Raney, Brian J; Speir, Matthew L; Rhead, Brooke; Casper, Jonathan; Karolchik, Donna; Kuhn, Robert M; Rosenbloom, Kate R; Zweig, Ann S; Haussler, David; Kent, W James | Abstract: UnlabelledTwo new tools on the UCSC Genome Browser web site provide improved ways of combining information from multiple datasets, optionally including the user's own custom track data and/or data from track hubs. The Data Integrator combines columns from multiple data tracks, showing all items from the first track along with overlapping items from the other tracks. The Variant Annotation Integrator is tailored to adding functional annotations to variant calls; it offers a more restricted set of underlying data tracks but adds predictions of each variant's consequences for any overlapping or nearby gene transcript. When available, it optionally adds additional annotations including effect prediction scores from dbNSFP for missense mutations, ENCODE regulatory summary tracks and conservation scores.Availability and implementationThe web tools are freely available at http://genome.ucsc.edu/ and the underlying database is available for download at http://hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/ The software (written in C and Javascript) is available from https://genome-store.ucsc.edu/ and is freely available for academic and non-profit usage; commercial users must obtain a license.Contactangie@soe.ucsc.eduSupplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Indentation to Probe Atelectasis in Mammalian Lung

Of all the internal organs, mechanical behavior of the lung is arguably most closely related to physiologic function. In inflation and deflation, lung parenchyma may be treated as an elastic material with some viscous damping. However, quasi-plasticity is observed, in the form of atelectasis, which is the localized collapse of alveoli under different conditions. General anesthesia in lung is known to increase tendency for pulmonary atelectasis, and this condition is typically removed by mechanical inflation to high pressures, which can be hazardous. The specific mechanisms of atelectasis are not fully known, one reason for this being the difficulty in developing a direct characterization method to perform causal investigations. In a previous abstract, we described the potential for controlled indentation tests to probe atelectatic tendency in lung. In this talk, we present the first results of ‘hardness testing’ on dog and rabbit lung, using different inflation schemes. Specifically, we indented excised lungs at physiologic pressures, inflated with air, pure oxygen, and 0.2% isoflurane in oxygen. Between these three conditions, we found marked differences in ‘hardness’ of the lung, when indented with tip radii comparable to that of ribs. That is to say, large contrasts in residual impressions, as well as re-inflation behavior, were observed. In addition, effects of different inflation gases occurred within a much shorter time than previously reported in other surgical experiments, indicating perhaps different, faster mechanisms controlling atelectasis than previously considered.
Rights to Assemble

In keeping with the theme of this year’s conference, I will be reflecting on the role played by rights in theories of democratic politics that seek to accommodate emergent political subjects, or what might be called – in Deleuzean terms - a politics of “assemblage.” As distinguished from a voluntary association, an assemblage does not merely gather a set of individuals affiliated by shared interests, identities or goals. Rather, assemblage is a constitutive process through which agents’ desires, aspirations and purposes – indeed, their material constitutions - are mutually transformed by collaborative engagements, where as John Dewey put it ‘interconnection affects activity of singular elements.’ (Dewey 1927, 23) Broadly understood, the idea of a politics of assemblage animates a wide range of thinkers. Along similar lines, for example, Jacques Ranciere distinguishes policing from politics, William Connolly pluralism from pluralization, Michael Warner gay from queer politics, and Robert Gooding-Williams expressive black politics from an “action-in-concert” or “no foundations” approach. On the whole, theorists of assemblage are suspicious of rights-based political claims, insofar as such claims are founded on human essences or sociologically determined grievances. Rather than rights inherent to subjects, these thinkers often emphasize “micropolitical” practices and techniques – rhetoric, media, aesthetics, etc. – that compose and articulate new desires, claims and identities. As Bonnie Honig has argued, however, rights claims are also practices that transfigure the subjects to which they attach. Might the language of rights thus be reconceived, articulated not in the name of a given subject or end, but to facilitate the emergence of new assemblages? Here I first outline a politics of assemblage and then highlight the difficulties involved in distinguishing rights that support or constrain it. Finally, I turn briefly to the Neeraj Pandey’s 2008 film, “A Wednesday,” which dramatizes some of these difficulties.
Mitochondrial diseases of the CNS

Mitochondria are fundamental to many aspects of cellular homeostasis, but the term mitochondrial disease is generally reserved for defects of energy production involving the respiratory chain and oxidative phosphorylation in which neurological disease figures prominently. The early evolution of eukaryotic cells has resulted in a complex interrelationship between nuclear and mitochondrial genes together coding for respiratory chain proteins while nuclear genes also maintain the mitochondrial genome. The various patterns of CNS damage in many respects may be considered as syndromes, final common pathways reflecting energy failure but having a complex pattern of inheritance. Neuropathological features of the best studied syndromes, e.g., MELAS, Kearns-Sayre, Leigh, and Alpers will be described.
566: Recent trends of home vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in the US

OBJECTIVE:A history of a prior cesarean delivery has been regarded by ACOG as a contraindication to planned home birth. Our objective was to examine the trend in vaginal births after cesarean delivery (VBAC) in the United States among home births.STUDY DESIGN:We collected data from the National Vita
Constructing and Revising Commonsense Science Explanations: A Metareasoning Approach

Reasoning with commonsense science knowledge is an important challenge for Artificial Intelligence. This paper presents a system that revises its knowledge in a commonsense science domain by constructing and evaluating explanations. Domain knowledge is represented using qualitative model fragments, which are used to explain phenomena via model formulation. Metareasoning is used to (1) score competing explanations numerically along several dimensions and (2) evaluate preferred explanations for global consistency. Inconsistencies cause the system to favor alternative explanations and thereby change its beliefs. We simulate the belief changes of several students during clinical interviews about how the seasons change. We show that qualitative models accurately represent student knowledge and that our system produces and revises a sequence of explanations similar those of the students.
The Semantics of the Russian Comitative Construction

Russian has two different means of combining two noun phrases to form a plural noun phrase: the coordinate construction (using i 'and') and the comitative construction (using s 'with'). The two constructions are associated with different readings for certain sentences. In particular, the coordinate construction generally allows both a distributive and a collective reading, whereas in certain cases the comitative construction allows only for a collective reading. This difference has been ascribed to a difference in denotation of the two types of phrases. We show that such an analysis is unsatisfactory and propose an alternative analysis that appeals to pragmatic factors. In particular, we claim that distributive readings are dispreferred in the absence of an overt distributive operator and that pragmatic differences between the types of noun phrases raise the saliency of their subgroups to different degrees, thus making distributive readings more difficult to obtain with comitatives.
The Practice of Banking

The big feature of the English banking system is that there are few main controlling units, but numerous branches. Four of these huge joint-stock banks own 14,000 branch offices between them.
Deriving LVC State Synchronization Parameters from Interaction Requirements

Choosing synchronization update parameters for live, virtual, constructive simulations is of particular importance when the simulation is supporting engineering test and evaluation events. Failure to choose these parameters appropriately can lead to substantial data quality problems. This work introduces the notion of plausibility limits for entity interactions based on spatial errors derived from state variable divergence. Moreover, it presents a state update model that provides probabilistic guarantees on meeting interaction requirements expressed as plausibility limits. Finally, it presents an example of these guarantees based on entity state data sampled from a popular online game.
An evaluation of the use of pentosidine as a biomarker for ageing turtles.

Concentrations of the biomarker pentosidine have been shown to be useful measures of age for a number of avian and mammalian species. However, no study has examined its usefulness as an age marker in a long-lived ectotherm despite the fact that such a marker could prove useful in understanding age distributions of populations subject to conservation programmes. Therefore, we evaluated pentosidine concentrations in the interdigital webbing of 117 female yellow mud turtles (Kinosternon flavescens) at a 35 year study site in western Nebraska where nearly all turtles are of known age. Pentosidine concentrations were extraordinarily low and positively correlated with age in this turtle, but concentrations were too variable to permit precise estimates of age for turtles of unknown age. These results may reflect the remarkable physiological adaptations of this turtle to low temperatures and oxygen deprivation in a highly seasonal environment requiring prolonged hibernation. Whether pentosidine concentrations in other ectotherms occupying less seasonal environments would be more highly correlated with age remains to be determined. However, our results suggest that patterns of accumulation of pentosidine in ectotherms may be fundamentally different from those in endotherms.
HENSEN'S NODE: THE AMNIOTE EQUIVALENT OF SPEMANN'S ORGANIZER

The dorsal lip of the blastopore of the gastrulating amphibian embryo is a unique region which, when transplanted to an ectopic position in a host embryo, induces the formation of a secondary embryonic axis, organised along the rostrocaudal, dorsoventral and mediolateral axes (Spemann & Mangold, 1924). Cells of the ectoderm of the host adjacent to the graft undergo a change in fate, from epidermal to neural. This property of the amphibian dorsal lip is now widely referred to as “Spemann’s organizer”. In the early 1930’s, C.H. Waddington demonstrated that amniote embryos (ducks, chicks and rabbits) could also be made to generate a second nervous system by transplanting the tip of the primitive streak, a region known as Hensen’s node (Waddington, 1932; 1933).
Body Composition : Health and Performance in Exercise and Sport

Body composition: health and performance in exercise and sport , Body composition: health and performance in exercise and sport , کتابخانه‌های دانشگاه کردستان
Removing Invasive Lonicera maackii and Seeding Native Plants Alters Riparian Ecosystem Function

Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle) is known to dominate the shrub layer of forests, resulting in a dramatic decrease in ground cover, species diversity, and changes in ecosystem processes such as decomposition. Land managers have been removing L. maackii for some time now, but few studies have examined the potential for reinvasion of a restored site. We measured the plant community and ecosystem function in a restored forest and field ( L. maackii removal and seeding of native plants) and in a control forest ( L. maackii dominating), along an urban riparian stretch, five through seven years after L. maackii restoration. We found that removing L. maackii , along with modest efforts to re-introduce native grasses and forbs, can result in a shift in the plant community and some ecosystem properties and processes. Restored sites had higher species richness, greater available soil nitrogen, and faster nitrogen mineralization rates. We also found lower soil pH and that more soil organic matter accumulated over time in the restored treatments. While we found that removal of L. maackii and seeding of native plants can lead to a change in some ecosystem processes within ten years in riparian forests, we encourage scientists and managers to continue efforts on longer-term studies to better understand ecosystem structure and function after removal of the invader.
Cortical dopamine dysregulation in schizophrenia and its link to stress

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Cortical stress regulation is disrupted in schizophrenia but not in clinical high risk for psychosis’, by Schifani et al. (doi: 10.1093/brain/awy133 ).
A framework genetic map of sorghum containing RFLP, SSR and morphological markers

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a member of the tribe Andropogoneae, which also contains maize (Zea mays L.) and sugarcane (Saccharum L.). Despite having over 200 identified and named loci, only three linkage groups with greater than two mapped morphological loci had been identified by the late 1980’s, and the largest of these contained only five genes (Schertz and Stephens, 1966).
Extracting Planar Kinematic Models Using Interactive Perception

Interactive perception augments the process of perception with physical interactions. By adding interactions into the perceptual process, manipulating the environment becomes part of the effort to learn task-relevant information, leading to more reliable task execution. Interactions include obstruction removal, object repositioning, and object manipulation. In this paper, we show how to extract kinematic properties from novel objects. Many objects in human environments, such as doors, drawers, and hand tools, contain inherent kinematic degrees of freedom. Knowledge of these degrees of freedom is required to use the objects in their intended manner. We demonstrate how a simple algorithm enables the construction of kinematic models for such objects, resulting in knowledge necessary for the correct operation of those objects. The simplicity of the framework and its effectiveness, demonstrated in our experimental results, indicate that interactive perception is a promising perceptual paradigm for autonomous mobile manipulation.
Hip of Liquid Phase Sintered Ceramic Composites

Many ceramics today are multiphasic or composite by design to obtain unique combinations of optical, thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. Because the reliability and the ultimate properties of these materials often require full density and a pore-free, fine-grained microstructure, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is receiving increased utilization for their fabrication.
Assessment of Anxiety in Older Adults

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge regarding anxiety disorders assessment in older adults. Anxiety disorders, whether in older or younger adults, remain the most frequently occurring diagnoses across all age groups including those aged 60 and above. Despite the prevalence of these disorders, they remain largely understudied in this older cohort. The assessment of anxiety in older persons has likewise not been a focus of attention in the literature. Anxiety assessment in geriatric samples may pose issues not found when evaluating younger individuals, such as how social, developmental, and medical contexts influence the extent to which specific symptoms or behaviors represent pathology and the influence of significant, but subsyndromal anxiety. The situation is further complicated given the dearth of normative data regarding anxiety assessment in older adults, as well as by the fact that the majority of psychometric instruments used to study anxiety have been developed for use with younger populations and the psychometric properties of these instruments have remained largely uninvestigated with regard to geriatric samples.
STUDY OF CROSS-TOLERANCE TO THE EFFECTS OF MORPHINE AND METHADONE ON THE EEG AND BEHAVIOR OF THE L-ALPHA-ACETYLMETHADOL (LAAM)-MAINTAINED RAT

Naive rats given morphine or methadone manifested dose-related increases in the duration of behavioral stupor and intensity of EEG synchronization measured by voltage integration. Maintenance on 2 or 8 mg/kg/day of LAAM produced cross-tolerance to these effects of morphine and methadone reflected by shifts in dose-effect curves downward and to the right of the naive response.
HabEx space telescope exoplanet instruments

The HabEx (Habitable Exoplanet) space telescope mission concept carries two complementary optical systems as part of its baseline design, a coronagraph and a starshade, that are designed to detect and characterize planetary systems around nearby stars. The starshade is an external occulter which would be 72 m in diameter and fly some 124,000 km ahead of the telescope. A starshade instrument on board the telescope enables formation flying to maintain the starshade within 1 m of the line of sight to the star. The starshade instrument has various modes, including imaging from the near UV through to the near infrared and integral field spectroscopy in the visible band. The coronagraph would provide imaging and integral field spectroscopy in the visible band and would reach out to 1800 nm for low resolution spectroscopy in the near infrared. To provide the necessary stability for the coronagraph, the telescope would be equipped with a laser metrology system allowing measurement and control of the relative positions of the principal mirrors. In addition, a fine guidance sensor is needed for precision attitude control. The requirements for telescope stability for coronagraphy are discussed. The design and requirements on the starshade will also be discussed.
BUFFER SIZE REQUIREMENTS UNDER LONGEST QUEUE FIRST

A model of a switching component in a packet switching network is considered. Packets from several incoming channels arrive and must be routed to the appropriate outgoing port according to a service policy. A task confronting the designer of such a system is the selection of policy and the determination of the corresponding input buffer requirements which will prevent packet loss. One natural choice is the Longest Queue First discipline, and tight bounds on the buffer size required at each channel under this policy are obtained. The bounds depend on the channel speeds and are logarithmic in the number of channels. As a consequence, Longest Queue First is shown to require less storage than Exhaustive Round Robin and First Come First Served in preventing packet overflow.
Synthesis of β-ketoiminate and β-iminoesterate tungsten (VI) oxo-alkoxide complexes as AACVD precursors for growth of WOx thin films

Abstract The tungsten (VI) oxo-alkoxide complexes WO(OR)3L [R = tBu; L = acNac, etNac, tbNac, acNacMe, acNacEt] (1–5) and WO(OCH3)3(acNac) (6) have been synthesized. The isomeric purity of these complexes depends on the steric bulk of the substituent on the imino nitrogen of the chelating ligand. The thermal properties of the complexes have been evaluated to assess the effect of the β-ketoiminate or β-iminoesterate ligands. WO(OC(CH3)3)3(acNac) (1) has been used as a precursor for aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) of WOx thin films at temperatures from 250 to 450 °C. The results of mass spectrometry and thermolysis studies have been used to propose possible precursor decomposition pathways during film deposition.
Novel reactive molten core fabrication employing in-situ metal oxidation: Erbium-doped intrinsically low Brillouin scattering optical fiber

Abstract Reported here is an erbium-doped, few-mode, intrinsically low Brillouin gain optical fiber fabricated using a novel reactive molten core (rMC) process involving in-situ metal oxidation. Specifically, a silica-glass clad, aluminum-metal foil wrapped crystalline Er:YAG (Y3Al5O12) rod was drawn (during which the aluminum metal oxidizes) into an erbium-doped yttrium aluminosilicate glass core fiber. The sesquioxide dopants in the core promote an intrinsically low Brillouin gain coefficient, deduced via additivity modeling and direct measurement to be 0.19 × 10−11 m/W. Fiber losses of 0.25 dB/m (1310 nm) were obtained as was a slope efficiency of 38.2%. The rMC process offers a straight-forward route to expand the potential precursor palette from which specialty optical fibers can be realized.
Seeing the quality improvement forest through the quality improvement trees: A meta-synthesis of case studies in Florida and Georgia

Objectives:To identify important characteristics of quality improvement applications for population health and healthcare settings and to explore the use of quality improvement as a model for imple...
Between Science and Engineering: Reflections on the APSA Presidential Task Force on Political Science, Electoral Rules, and Democratic Governance: Why Ballot Structure Matters

Political scientists have contributed to the world of electoral systems as scientists and as engineers. Taking stock of recent scientific research, we show that context modifies the effects of electoral rules on political outcomes in specific and systematic ways. We explore how electoral rules shape the inclusion of women and minorities, the depth and nature of political competition, and patterns of redistribution and regulation, and we consider institutional innovations that could promote political equality. Finally, we describe the diverse ways that political scientists produce an impact on the world by sharing and applying their knowledge of the consequences of electoral rules and global trends in reform.
Corollary Discharge for Action and Cognition.

Abstract In motor systems, a copy of the movement command known as corollary discharge is broadcast to other regions of the brain to warn them of the impending movement. The premise of this review is that the concept of corollary discharge may generalize in revealing ways to the brain’s cognitive systems. An oculomotor pathway from the brain stem to frontal cortex provides a well-established example of how corollary discharge is instantiated for sensorimotor processing. Building on causal evidence from inactivation of the pathway, we motivate forward models as a tool for understanding the contributions of corollary discharge to perception and movement. Finally, we extend the definition of corollary discharge to account for signals that may be used for cognitive forward models of decision making. This framework may provide new insights into signals and circuits that contribute to sequential decision processes, the breakdown of which may account for some symptoms of psychiatric disorders.
Opioid receptors: Structural and mechanistic insights into pharmacology and signaling

Opioid receptors are important drug targets for pain management, addiction, and mood disorders. Although substantial research on these important subtypes of G protein-coupled receptors has been conducted over the past two decades to discover ligands with higher specificity and diminished side effects, currently used opioid therapeutics remain suboptimal. Luckily, recent advances in structural biology of opioid receptors provide unprecedented insights into opioid receptor pharmacology and signaling. We review here a few recent studies that have used the crystal structures of opioid receptors as a basis for revealing mechanistic details of signal transduction mediated by these receptors, and for the purpose of drug discovery.
Using 3D Models to Improve Estimates of Marine Mammal Size and External Morphology

Studies of animal morphology inform our understanding of many combined aspects of biology, including thermal ecology, biomechanics and energetics. Studies that accurately describe the size and shape of marine mammals, for example, can be particularly useful in understanding the challenges an endotherm faces when moving and thermoregulating in an aquatic environment. The relationship between surface area (SA) and volume (V) plays a key role in the energetics of thermoregulation and locomotion, but detailed morphometric measurements of marine mammals are often limited. Thus, SA and V are typically estimated using a series of conical frustrums and cylinders (the truncated cones method), which provides a repeatable but abstracted depiction of morphology. In contrast, digital 3D modeling systems can offer more detailed representations of animal size and shape. We compared the results of the truncated cones method and a 3D modeling system (using the open access software Blender) in quantifying the SA and V of both long-finned pilot whales and short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala spp.). We developed a 3D model of pilot whales using measurements and images collected by stranding networks. The 3D model provided a more realistic depiction of pilot whale morphology than the truncated cones method, particularly in the tail stock region where the truncated cones method greatly overestimated both SA and V. The difference between SA and V estimates of the two methods was greater for larger individuals, suggesting that as animals become larger, the truncated cones method increasingly overestimated SA and V. Further, the 3D model was more robust to changes in the number of morphometric girth measurements used when estimating SA and V compared to the truncated cones method. Results of this study demonstrate that 3D models can provide realistic depictions of cetacean morphology and can be used to provide more accurate estimates of morphological metrics than geometric models of morphology. The 3D modeling techniques employed in this study could be used in a variety of other applications which require accurate estimates of morphological metrics.
Energetics at the Surface: Direct Optical Mapping of Core and Surface Electronic Structure in CdSe Quantum Dots Using Broadband Electronic Sum Frequency Generation Microspectroscopy

Understanding and controlling the electronic structure of nanomaterials is the key to tailoring their use in a wide range of practical applications. Despite this need, many important electronic sta...
Timed relay contact closure controlled system for parallel second dimensions in multi-dimensional liquid chromatography

Short-chain triacylglycerols (TAGs) in lipid extracts of biological samples are not sufficiently resolved using conventional reversed-phase separation on two C18 columns in series, or using a two-dimensional chromatographic separation with a silver ion column as the second dimension (2D). An additional dimension of separation was required. The hardware and software components to allow a second second-dimension (2D) separation and three total separation dimensions were developed. Two contact closure (CC) activated 4-port, 2-position valves (4P2PVs) for ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) were joined together and used for one of two second dimensions in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) coupled to four mass spectrometers simultaneously in parallel in an LC1MS2 × (LC1MS1 + LC1MS1) = LC3MS4 configuration. A timed contact closure circuit (TCCC) controlled the two UHPLC valves, operated by repetitive CCs for the 4P2PVs. The TCCC-controlled 4P2PVs were used to direct a portion of the 1D eluent to one of the two 2D’s for separation by a quaternary UHPLC system that was not allowed by the commercial 2D-LC system. The 1D separation was a non-aqueous reversed-phase HPLC instrument used for separation of TAGs; the commercial 2D-LC 2D binary UHPLC was used for silver-ion chromatography of unsaturated TAGs; and the CC-controlled second 2D was used for separation of short-chain (SC) saturated TAGs.
Malignancies in Pleural, Peritoneal, and Pericardial Effusions: A 17-Year Single-Institution Review From 30 085 Specimens

Context.— The incidence and types of malignancies in effusion cytology are largely limited to studies performed in the 1970s through the 1990s. Objective.— To examine how the incidence of different...
Forecasting Class I Railroad Fuel Consumption by Train Type

Fuel efficiency is an important consideration in evaluating public-sector investments in multimodal corridors. Two approaches are typically used in corridor studies to forecast railroad diesel fuel...
Concepts in Cosmetic Procedures

Cosmetic procedures have entered the mainstream in the fast increasing quest of a youthful and healthy appearance. Several agents and techniques are used for cosmetic purposes. In this chapter concepts in inflammation, wound healing, and scarring are reviewed. The use of common cosmetic agents that includes natural compounds as well as equipment such as lasers, photodynamic therapy, radiofrequency, and cryolipolisis is analyzed.
Idealized model of the developing visual cortex

Recent experiments in the developing mammalian visual cortex have revealed that gap junctions couple excitatory cells and potentially influence the formation of chemical synapses. Though gap junctions between inhibitory cells are ubiquitous in the adult cortex, and their presence has been shown to promote synchronous network firing, their function among excitatory, pyramidal cells remains poorly understood. During development, pyramidal cells that were derived from the same progenitor cell, called sister cells, are preferentially connected by a gap junction during the first postnatal week, while chemical synapses are still being formed. Additionally, these sister cells tend to share an orientation preference and a chemical synapse in the adult cortex, a property that is diminished when gap junctions are blocked. In this work, we construct an idealized model of the mouse visual cortex during the first two postnatal weeks of development to analyze the response properties of gap-junction-coupled cells and their effect on synaptic plasticity. Further, as an application of this model, we investigate the interplay of gap-junction coupling and synaptic plasticity on the order, or organization, of the resulting cortical map of orientation preference.
Who writes what when?: Examining children’s early composing

Conceptual models of early writing suggest multiple component skills support children’s early writing development. Although research interest in early writing skills has grown in recent years, the majority of studies focus narrowly on procedural knowledge or transcription skills (i.e., handwriting and spelling) to the relative exclusion of how children develop early composing skills, such as: children’s idea generation, adherence to the task, and translation of ideas into some form of writing. This study describes children’s composing skills in preschool and examines factors associated with children’s performance on a scaffolded writing task. Preschool-aged children (N = 245) from a variety of early childhood settings were assessed on a number of early literacy, language, and writing measures in the spring of the school year. Children’s written compositions were coded for features that captured both transcription (spelling and letter formation) and composing skills (translation and task adherence). Findings reveal that children’s composing skills fall into four distinct categories varying in sophistication of writing and connection to task. Although most children were able to orally communicate a response that related to the writing task, few were able to demonstrate communication that related to the task both orally and in writing. Composing group membership was related to prereading and cognitive skills, as well as other writing measures. Findings present an important step forward in understanding children’s composing skills and demonstrate how composing is concurrently related to other early literacy skills.
Defining the "Tipping Point" to Success as a Surgeon-Scientist: An Analysis of Applicants and Awardees of the American College of Surgeons Jacobson Promising Investigator Award.

BACKGROUND Since 2005, the American College of Surgeons has administered the Jacobson Promising Investigator Award (JPIA), which recognizes surgeon-scientists at the "tipping point" of their research careers. OBJECTIVE We retrospectively reviewed JPIA applicants to identify factors associated with selection for the award and future research success. METHODS Profiles were reviewed for all applicants between 2008 and 2018, at the time of application and as of 2019. Web of Science and NIH Reporter metrics were also reviewed for each applicant. RESULTS Eleven of 97 applicants were selected for the JPIA. At the time of application, awardees were more likely to have extramural (NIH K-award) versus intramural (KL2) or other career development award funding (55% vs 33%, P = 0.03) and more publications [median 70 (interquartile range, IQR 55-100) vs 40 (IQR 22-67), P = 0.03]. Post-application, JPIA awardees were more likely to achieve a higher h-Index and m-quotient compared to nonawardees (P < 0.001 for both). All JPIA recipients received new NIH funding post-award, including 82% with R01 funding, compared to 23% of nonselected applicants (P < 0.0001). Over $48 million from NIH was awarded to JPIA recipients since 2008, representing a 147-fold return on investment. CONCLUSIONS Selection for the JPIA is associated with previous extramural NIH K award and, on average, 70 peer-reviewed publications at the time of application. Receipt of the JPIA is associated with a high rate of subsequent NIH R01 funding and publication metrics. The JPIA is an excellent indicator of "tipping point" success in academic surgery and demonstrates the huge potential impact of philanthropic support on early career surgeon-investigators.
The Other Species Capability & the Power of Wonder

I argue that the Other Species Capability (OSC) in Martha Nussbaum's Capability Approach deserves a more central place in our thinking about human capability than has often been thought. In order t...
Leadership self-perception of clinical nurses at the bedside: A qualitative descriptive study.

Aim & objective Explore leadership self-perception of clinical nurses at the bedside and their perception of leadership on patient care and outcomes. Background According to Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing Report, nurses are called to exhibit leadership at every level. Published research on nursing leadership is primarily focused on formal leaders. Research examining leadership at the clinical nurse level has either tested application of a particular leadership model or studied nurses who have been identified as informal clinical leaders. We took an inductive approach without any prior knowledge if participating clinical nurses viewed themselves as leaders. Design Descriptive qualitative method was used. Methods Four focus groups were conducted with a total of 20 clinical nurses from 2 hospitals within an integrated health system using a convenience sampling method until saturation was reached. The Consolidated criteria for Reporting Qualitative research (COREQ) was used to report findings. Results All participants identified qualities they admired in leaders. Fifty percent did not initially view themselves as leaders until they realised that they often demonstrated those same leadership qualities in providing nursing care to patients and families. Participants struggled to make a connection between their leadership at the bedside and patient outcomes. Conclusions Clinical nurses assume a formal title is required to be a leader. Findings from this study imply that leadership attributes required at point of care are embedded in the nursing practice and look similar to servant leadership. Relevance to clinical practice Leadership is in the nature of nursing practice, and more work is required to increase awareness that every nurse is a leader. Further efforts need to be pursued to help clinical nurses become self-aware they are leaders in order to impact patient outcomes and transform health care from bottom-up and inside-out.
Drinking-and-driving in the United States from 1983 to 2017: Comparing survey and model-based estimates of prevalence

Abstract Although several approaches to estimating prevalence and excess risk exist, each relies on behavioral assumptions that are subject to credible objections. In this article, we compare the assumptions of the most widely accepted approach over the past three decades—results from the National Roadside Survey (NRS)—with a recently revived model-based alternative that estimates these population parameters from the observed distribution of fatal motor vehicle crashes. Comparing estimates of prevalence covering the past four decades, we find that when driver non-response rates in NRS are small, estimates of the prevalence of alcohol-involved driving are nearly identical between methods, suggesting that the underlying behavior assumptions of both models approximately hold. For the past two decades, however, as the rate of driver refusal in the NRS has increased substantially, prevalence estimates between methods have diverged. A counterfactual analysis reveals that the estimates for drinking-and-driving from the model-based approach should be taken as at least as valid as those from the NRS. That is troubling as these methods yield markedly different conclusions about the continued effectiveness of existing traffic safety policy: the NRS finds that the prevalence of drinking-and-driving has fallen monotonically over time, while estimates from the model-based approach suggest that prevalence has plateaued at 15% for the past two decades. More unsettling however, is the conclusion that researchers and policy-makers may know very little about the extent of legally-impaired driving or how it has changed over time.
Evidence for long-range interactions of rare earth ions doped in nanocrystals embedded in amorphous matrices with two-level systems of the matrix

The low-temperature homogeneous broadening of the electronic transitions of Eu3+ and Pr3+ rare earth impurity ions in Y2O3 and LaF3 nanocrystals embedded into amorphous materials (polymer and oxyfluoride glass ceramics) was studied with hole-burning and fluorescence line narrowing techniques. It was shown that the homogeneous line width is determined by the interaction of the impurity ions contained in the nanocrystals with the two-level systems (TLS) of the surrounding glass matrix. A comparison of the experiments with a calculation provides direct evidence for the long-range nature of the interaction with the TLS.