cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessment of pesticide contamination in three Mississippi Delta oxbow lakes using Hyalella azteca

Three oxbow lakes in northwestern Mississippi, USA, an area of intensive agriculture, were assessed for biological impairment from historic and current-use pesticide contamination using the amphipod, Hyalella azteca. Surface water and sediment samples from three sites in each lake were collected from Deep Hollow, Beasley, and Thighman Lakes from September 2000 to February 2001. Samples were analyzed for 17 historic and current-use pesticides and selected metabolites. Ten-day H. azteca survival and growth (as length and dry weight) were measured to determine the degree of biological impairment. Maximum number of detectable pesticides in surface water from Deep Hollow, Beasley and Thighman Lakes was 10, 11, and 17, respectively. Maximum number of detectable pesticides in lake sediments was 17, 17, and 15, respectively. Bioassay results indicated no observable survival effects on H. azteca exposed to surface water or sediment from any lake examined and no growth impairment in animals exposed to lake sediments. However, growth was significantly impaired in surface water exposures from Deep Hollow Lake (2 sites) and Beasley Lake (1 site). Statistically significant relationships between growth impairment (length) and cyanazine, methyl parathion, lambda-cyhalothrin, chlorfenapyr, and pp'DDE surface water concentrations in Deep Hollow Lake as well as trifluralin, atrazine, and methyl parathion in Beasley Lake were observed. Although pesticide frequency and concentrations were typically greater in sediment than surface water, bioassay results indicated decreased availability of these pesticides in sediment due to the presence of clay and organic carbon. Growth impairment observed in surface water exposures was likely due to complex interaction of pesticide mixtures that were present.
Associations Between Poor Sleep Quality and Psychosocial Stress with Obesity in Reproductive-age Women of Lower Socioeconomic Status

Abstract Background Prior studies have not examined the role of psychosocial stress in the relationship between poor sleep quality and obesity among women of lower socioeconomic status (SES). We tested the following hypotheses in a sample of reproductive-age women of lower SES: 1) Poor sleep quality is related to increased risk of obesity, and 2) psychosocial stress confounds this association between poor sleep quality and obesity. Methods A total of 927 women age 16 to 40 years attending public health clinics in Southeastern Texas provided information on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and sociodemographic and health characteristics, including the Perceived Stress Scale. Height, weight, and waist circumference (WC) were measured in clinic. A series of models examined the associations between sleep disturbance, perceived stress, and weight outcomes, accounting for potential confounding factors. Results Nearly 30% of women were overweight, and 35% were obese. Half of women had a WC of greater than 35 inches. Most women had poor sleep quality and high levels of stress. Sleep quality and perceived stress were not related to body mass index category or WC in models that adjusted for age and race/ethnicity. Adjusting for potential confounding factors did not alter results. Perceived stress did not modify the association between sleep quality and weight outcomes. Conclusions Poor sleep quality and psychosocial stress were not related to weight in reproductive-aged women of lower SES. However, poor sleep quality, high stress, overweight, and obesity were common in this group.
Modeling and Optimal Low-Power On–Off Control of Thin-Film Piezoelectric Rotational Actuators

A novel open-loop minimal energy on-off servo system and control strategy are described for ensuring specified displacements from new microscale piezoelectric rotational joints under extremely strict power budgets. The rotational joints are driven by thin-film lead-zirconate-titanate actuators and are targeted for use in autonomous terrestrial microrobots. A lumped-parameter, second-order model of anticipated joint behavior is utilized to estimate the natural frequency and damping ratio of the robot joints, which, in turn, are used to identify necessary sampling rates and switching drive circuit parameters for implementation of on-off control. An identified model of leg joint behavior is then used to both verify lumped-parameter modeling and to optimize on-off input sequences to the rotary joint. The optimization procedure incorporates energy costs from both switching and holding an input voltage on microactuators that behave as a capacitive load, while ensuring that specified final states of a dynamic system are achieved at a specified point in time. Optimization is done via a new application of binary programming. In addition, modest robustness of the system response to parameter variation can be produced during control sequence generation. Optimized input sequences are applied to both macroscale piezoelectric actuators and to prototype thin-film piezoelectric leg joints, and show that specified actuator motions can be achieved with energy consumption of less than 5 μJ per movement.
Donor morbidity associated with right lobectomy for living donor liver transplantation to adult recipients: A systematic review☆

Abstract The aim if this study is to determine donor morbidity associated with right lobectomy for living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) to adult recipients through a systematic review of the published literature. Data sources were English-language reports on donor outcome after LDLT. MEDLINE (1995 to June 2001) was searched using the MeSH terms [ldquo ]living donors[rdquo ] and [ldquo ]liver transplantation.[rdquo ] Limits were set for human only and English language only. Bibliographies of retrieved references were cross-checked to identify additional reports; 211 reports were obtained. Population studies and consecutive and nonconsecutive series were included. All studies reported at least one of the following outcomes specific to living donors (LDs) of right hepatic lobes to adult recipients: surgical and hospital complications, length of hospital stay, readmissions, recovery time, return to predonation occupation, health-related quality of life, or mortality. Abstracts of relevant articles were reviewed independently using predetermined criteria, and appropriate articles were retrieved. Study design and results were summarized in evidence tables. Summary statistics of combined data were performed when possible. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Data on donor morbidity associated with right lobectomy are limited. On the basis of reported data, morbidity associated with LD right lobectomy ranges from 0% to 67%. In conclusion, reported morbidity associated with right lobe donation for LDLT varies widely. Standardized definitions of morbidity and better methods for observing and measuring outcomes are necessary to understand and potentially improve morbidity. Future studies assessing LD outcomes should report donor outcome more explicitly. (Liver Transpl 2002;8:110-117.)
The Harm-Made Mind Observing Victimization Augments Attribution of Minds to Vegetative Patients, Robots, and the Dead

People often think that something must have a mind to be part of a moral interaction. However, the present research suggests that minds do not create morality but that morality creates minds. In four experiments, we found that observing intentional harm to an unconscious entity--a vegetative patient, a robot, or a corpse--leads to augmented attribution of mind to that entity. A fifth experiment reconciled these results with extant research on dehumanization by showing that observing the victimization of conscious entities leads to reduced attribution of mind to those entities. Taken together, these experiments suggest that the effects of victimization vary according to victims' preexisting mental status and that people often make an intuitive cognitive error when unconscious entities are placed in harm's way. People assume that if apparent moral harm occurs, then there must be someone there to experience that harm-a harm-made mind. These findings have implications for political policies concerning right-to-life issues.
Heterologous Viral Promoters Incorporated into the Human Cytomegalovirus Genome Are Silenced during Experimental Latency

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) lytic phase gene expression is repressed upon entry into myeloid lineage cells where the virus establishes latency. Lytic infection is not initiated because the tegument-delivered transactivator protein pp71 fails to enter the nucleus and inactivate the Daxx-mediated cellular intrinsic defense that silences the viral genome. When pp71 is expressed de novo in THP-1 monocytes, it localizes to the nucleus, inactivates the Daxx defense, and initiates lytic infection. We speculated that replacing the native viral promoter that drives pp71 expression with one that is highly and constitutively active in myeloid cells would permit pp71 de novo expression upon infection and that this newly expressed pp71 would accumulate in the nucleus, inactivate the intrinsic defense, and initiate the cascade of lytic gene expression. Surprisingly, we found that this promoter was still subject to normal silencing mechanisms in THP-1 monocytes and primary CD34(+) cells, two independent myeloid lineage cells. A second constitutively active heterologous viral promoter located in a different region of the HCMV genome was also silenced in THP-1 and CD34(+) cells. Furthermore, these two independent heterologous viral promoters inserted into three different regions of the HCMV genome in three different viral strains all required prior expression of the viral immediate early proteins for activation in fibroblasts. From this, we conclude that incorporation within the HCMV genome impacts the proclivity of heterologous viral promoters to initiate transcription. These observations have mechanistic implications for the expression of viral genes and transgenes during both lytic infection and latency.
Experts and Deviants: The Story of Agentive Control

This essay argues that current theories of action fail to explain agentive control because they have left out a psychological capacity central to control: attention. This makes it impossible to give a complete account of the mental antecedents that generate action. By investigating attention, and in particular the intention-attention nexus, we can characterize the functional role of intention in an illuminating way, explicate agentive control so that we have a uniform explanation of basic cases of causal deviance in action as well as other defects of agency (distraction), explain cases of skilled agency and sharpen questions about the role of thought in agency. This provides for a different orientation in the theory of action.
Self-organization and functional role of lateral connections and multisize receptive fields in the primary visual cortex

Cells in the visual cortex are selective not only to ocular dominance and orientation of the input, but also to its size and spatial frequency. The simulations reported in this paper show how size selectivity could develop through Hebbian self-organization, and how receptive fields of different sizes could organize into columns like those for orientation and ocular dominance. The lateral connections in the network self-organize cooperatively and simultaneously with the receptive field sizes, and produce patterns of lateral connectivity that closely follow the receptive field organization. Together with our previous work on ocular dominance and orientation selectivity, these results suggest that a single Hebbian self-organizing process can give rise to all the major receptive field properties in the visual cortex, and also to structured patterns of lateral interactions, some of which have been verified experimentally and others predicted by the model. The model also suggests a functional role for the self-organized structures: The afferent receptive fields develop a sparse coding of the visual input, and the recurrent lateral interactions eliminate redundancies in cortical activity patterns, allowing the cortex to efficiently process massive amounts of visual information.
Characterization of the inflammatory phenotype of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis using a novel cell culture passage model

Understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) and the host responses to Johne's disease is complicated by the multi-faceted disease progression, late-onset host reaction and the lack of available ex vivo infection models. We describe a novel cell culture passage model that mimics the course of infection in vivo. The developed model simulates the interaction of MAP with the intestinal epithelial cells, followed by infection of macrophages and return to the intestinal epithelium. MAP internalization triggers a minimal inflammatory response. After passage through a macrophage phase, bacterial reinfection of MDBK epithelial cells, representing the late phase of intestinal mucosal infection, is associated with increased synthesis of the pro-inflammatory transcripts of IL-6, CCL5, IL-8 and IL-18, paired with decreased levels of TGFβ. Transcriptome analysis of MAP from each stage of epithelial cell infection identified increased expression of lipid biosynthesis and lipopeptide modification genes in the inflammatory phenotype of MAP. Total lipid analysis by HPLC-ES/MS indicates different lipidomic profiles between the two phenotypes and a unique set of lipids composing the inflammatory MAP phenotype. The presence of selected upregulated lipid-modification gene transcripts in samples of ileal tissue from cows diagnosed with Johne's disease supports and validates the model. By using the relatively simple cell culture passage model, we show that MAP alters its lipid composition during intracellular infection and acquires a pro-inflammatory phenotype, which likely is associated with the inflammatory phase of Johne's disease.
Nanoparticle–chelator conjugates as inhibitors of amyloid-β aggregation and neurotoxicity: A novel therapeutic approach for Alzheimer disease

Oxidative stress and amyloid-beta are considered major etiological and pathological factors in the initiation and promotion of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer disease (AD). Insomuch as causes of such oxidative stress, transition metals, such as iron and copper, which are found in high concentrations in the brains of AD patients and accumulate specifically in the pathological lesions, are viewed as key contributors to the altered redox state. Likewise, the aggregation and toxicity of amyloid-beta is dependent upon transition metals. As such, chelating agents that selectively bind to and remove and/or "redox silence" transition metals have long been considered as attractive therapies for AD. However, the blood-brain barrier and neurotoxicity of many traditional metal chelators has limited their utility in AD or other neurodegenerative disorders. To circumvent this, we previously suggested that nanoparticles conjugated to iron chelators may have the potential to deliver chelators into the brain and overcome such issues as chelator bioavailability and toxic side-effects. In this study, we synthesized a prototype nanoparticle-chelator conjugate (Nano-N2PY) and demonstrated its ability to protect human cortical neurons from amyloid-beta-associated oxidative toxicity. Furthermore, Nano-N2PY nanoparticle-chelator conjugates effectively inhibited amyloid-beta aggregate formation. Overall, this study indicates that Nano-N2PY, or other nanoparticles conjugated to metal chelators, may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for AD and other neurodegenerative diseases associated with excess transition metals.
Comparison of Upper Arm and Forearm Blood Pressure

The upper arm is the primary site used to obtain a blood pressure measurement (BPM); however, when it is not possible to use the upper arm, the forearm is a commonly used alternate site. This study determines if there is a significant difference between upper arm and forearm BPMs among adults and examines the relationship of participant characteristics to the BPM difference. A convenience sample was recruited from a low-income, independent-living, 104-apartment complex in the Midwest. Of the 106 participants, 64% were female and 89% were White. Ages ranged from 20 to 85 years (M = 50.7). The investigators calculated the BMIs (range = 18 to 42, M = 29.3, SD = 5.4) for the 89% (n = 94) of participants who reported their weight. The forearm tended to have higher BPMs than the upper arm (M difference = 4.0 mm Hg systolic, 2.3 mm Hg diastolic). However, site differences were greatest for men, obese adults, and middle aged (36 to 65) adults.
ELEVATED ATMOSPHERIC CO2 DOES NOT CONSERVE SOIL WATER IN THE MOJAVE DESERT

Numerous studies, including those of desert plants, have shown reduced stomatal conductance under elevated atmospheric CO2. As a consequence, soil water has been postulated to increase. Soil water was measured for .4 yr at the Nevada Desert Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) Facility to determine if elevated atmospheric CO2 conserves soil water for a desert scrub community in the Mojave Desert. We measured soil water in the top 0.2 and 0.5 m of soil with time domain reflectometry and to 1.85 m with a neutron probe for the three treatments at Desert FACE: elevated CO2 (550 mmol/mol), blower control (ambient CO2), and non-ring treatments. The treatment main effect was not significant in any analyses of variance. Although the treatment 3 date interaction was significant for soil water in the top 0.5 m of soil, the expected greater soil water for elevated CO 2 vs. ambient CO2 only occurred on one sampling date. In contrast, soil water for that same depth was significantly lower under elevated CO 2 on six dates. Thus, we infer that increased water use from increased primary productivity (and therefore leaf area) under elevated CO 2 offset the decreased water use from reduced stomatal conductance, and hence soil water was not conserved under elevated CO2 in the Mojave Desert, unlike other ecosystems.
Delay test generation with all reachable output propagation and multiple excitations

Delay testing based on transition faults propagated to all reachable outputs (TARO) is more effective in detecting defective chips compared to conventional transition faults. This paper describes efficient approaches to generate delay tests pattern based on TARO metric using Boolean satisfiability (SAT). Different excitation paths are activated when multiple vectors are required for TARO propagation (N-detect) for better coverage of unmodeled faults. An efficient TARO test compaction method is also presented. Experimental results on several benchmarks show the effectiveness of this ATPG technique. Specifically, the increase in the number of test patterns due to using our TARO ATPG instead of transition fault testing (31%) is much smaller than previous TARO test generation techniques (2200%).
Sex-specific associations of maternal prenatal testosterone levels with birth weight and weight gain in infancy.

Associations between maternal salivary testosterone at 36 weeks’ gestation with birth weight and infant weight gain through 6 months of age were examined in a group of 49 healthy, pregnant women and their offspring. The diurnal decline of maternal testosterone was conserved in late pregnancy, and levels showed significant day-to-day stability. Elevated maternal morning testosterone level was associated with lower birth weight Z-scores adjusted for gestational age and sex, and greater infant weight gain between birth and 6 months. Although maternal testosterone levels did not differ by fetal sex, relations were sex-specific such that maternal testosterone had a significant impact on weight for male infants; among female infants associations were nonsignificant. Results highlight the opposing influence of maternal androgens during pregnancy on decreased growth in utero and accelerated postnatal weight gain. Received 11 October 2012; Revised 4 December 2012; Accepted 19 March 2013; First published online 16 April 2013
Dynamic Virtual Clustering

Multiple clusters co-existing in a single research campus has become commonplace at many university and government labs, but effectively leveraging those resources is difficult. Intelligently forwarding and spanning jobs across clusters can increase throughput, decrease turnaround time, and improve overall utilization. Dynamic virtual clustering (DVC) is a system of virtual machines, deployed in a single or multi-cluster environment, to increase cluster utilization by enabling job forwarding and spanning, flexibly allow software environment changes, and effectively sandbox users and processes from each other and the system. This paper presents both the initial implementation of DVC and performance results from synthetic workloads executed under DVC.
Wind Tunnel Data Base Development and Nonlinear Modeling Applied to Powered Micro Air Vehicles with Flexible Wing

§Reliable experimental data are required for supporting a large variety of tasks related to micro air vehicles as rapid prototyping, control design, dynamic modeling, CFD and numerical structural analysis validation. The flight dynamics and the propulsion characteristics of these vehicles are difficult to model because of their small Re number operation regime and the characteristically flexible structure. This paper discusses a procedure to perform wind tunnel tests on micro air vehicles with variable elevator angles and powered propeller including a selection of the results and the statistical models derived from the acquired experimental database. The proposed numerical functions can model the propeller speed and aerodynamic coefficients in a range of motor voltages, elevator angles and angle of attack (AOA) after stall. The statistical models in the form of linear polynomials confirm the presence of interactions between aerodynamic coefficients, elevator deflection, propeller speed and free stream velocity for the cases of the un-powered and powered vehicle. The most notable effects of the propeller are an extension of the linear lift and linear pitching moment to higher AOA and a smoothing of the aerodynamics at very high AOA. The elevator authority is influenced by dynamic pressure and motor voltage input for lift, drag, and pitching moment, for both positive and negative elevator deflection. The visual image correlation technique was also used to obtain the shape of the flexible wing in different test conditions.
Adrenal Corticosteroid Effects upon Rat Brain Mitochondrial Metabolism

Mitochondria from the brains of adrenalectomized rats treated with cortisol 1 hr prior to sacrifice showed a significant increase over controls in state 3 respiration, respiratory control ratio and ADP:O ratio with NAD-linked substrates. A succinate-supported system showed decreased state 3 respiration and respiratory control ratio after cortisol administration. Cycloheximide and actinomycin D alone had no effect on these parameters, but abolished the cortisol induced changes. NADH oxidase activity under hypoxia was higher in mitochondria from intact than from adrenalectomized rats. The rotenone sensitive factor of the NADH dehydrogenase complex was increased by cortisol treatment. The cytochrome content of the mitochondrial respiratory chain was not altered by corticosteroids, suggesting that the corticosteroid-induced increases in mitochondrial state 3 respiration and respiratory control ratio are due to an increased concentration of the rotenone-sensitive factor of the NADH dehydrogenase complex. (Endo...
Wideband Waveguide CO2 Lasers

The development1 of the He:Ne waveguide gas laser and its extension2 to small, high pressure, sealed-off waveguide CO2 lasers allows us to take advantage of the CO2 pressure broadened gain bandwidth for mode locking and frequency tuning experiments. As the operating pressure is increased above 10 Torr, the linewidth increases from the 50 MHz Doppler broadening at a rate of ~5.3 MHz/ Torr. At pressures above several hundred Torr, it is clear that tuning ranges in the GHz region are possible and nanosecond mode-locked pulses may be produced. CO2 lasers with these characteristics have been shown to be useful in laser spectroscopy and are essential for CO2 laser communications.
Learning, Innovating, and an Emerging Core of Knowledge: A Model for the Growth of Citation Networks

Observations on the connectivity among intellectual artifacts often confirm a core-periphery structure: A clustered group of artifacts possess the core knowledge to the field, which is widely cited in artifacts at periphery. We explain this as an outcome resulted from knowledge innovating and knowledge seeking of individual players in the epistemic society. Our analytical model also sheds insights on how the heterogeneity of knowledge artifacts affects knowledge supply and the characteristics of knowledge core. We find through simulation that the core-periphery architecture of knowledge-semantic networks is robust to generalizations on artifact heterogeneity and knowledge creativity. When agent's information on existing knowledge is incomplete, "subcore"s might emerge from localized knowledge spillover. By studying the incentive rationale that underlies the growth of knowledge field, our research has implication on the design and practice of scientific/epistemic communities.
Movement of Organic Molecules into Cysts

Patients with polycystic kidney disease and intercurrent urinary tract infection may develop perinephric abscesses despite prolonged antibiotic treatment directed against susceptible urinary pathogens (Sweet and Keane, 1979). Sweet and Keane (1979), during a 3½-year period of observation, found that 8 of 24 dialysis patients with polycystic kidney disease developed symptomatic urinary infections. Of these, five patients developed perinephric abscesses despite more than 2 weeks of antibiotic treatment. This type of experience suggests that cystic nephrons may not achieve adequate concentrations of antibiotics for sterilization of infected fluid. Poor drainage of cystic nephrons due to outflow obstruction also might contribute to poor therapeutic response.
Effects of Host and Density on Larval Color, Size, and Development of the Velvetbean Caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Differences in larval coloration of velvetbean caterpillars, Anticarsia gemmatalis Hubner, reared on two soybean cultivars under two crowding regimes and two photoperiodic regimes were associated with crowding and sex. Forty-seven percent of crowded and 6% of uncrowded larvae were black. Crowding was associated with a significant decrease in pupal and adult weights. Time from egg hatch to pupation increased when larvae were fed the resistant cultivar ‘Tracy’ and reared under the 14:10 (L:D) photoperiod. Differences in larval coloration were also obtained when larvae were reared on black locust and kudzu foliage and under crowded regimes. Sixty-seven percent of uncrowded larvae were green and 24% of crowded larvae were green. Sixty-one percent of total larvae reared on black locust were black and 21% of total larvae reared on kudzu were black. Larvae took less time to pupate when reared on black locust than on kudzu.
ID: 59: ROLE OF ENDOTHELIAL HYPOXIA–INDUCIBLE FACTORS IN HYPOXIA-INDUCED PULMONARY VASOCONSTRICITON

Rational Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but progressive and fatal disease caused by functional and structural changes in the pulmonary vasculature, which lead to an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Persistent hypoxia causes sustained pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) that may contributes to the elevated PVR in patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with hypoxia and lung diseases and in residents living in high altitude areas. Little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms, which underlie hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and the development and progression of pulmonary hypertension. Methods and Results To determine the functional relevance of hypoxia and hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) in the development of acute HPV, we compared high K+-induced increase in pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and acute alveolar hypoxia-mediated increase in PAP in isolated perfused and ventilated lungs between wild type (WT) and HIF1α or HIF2α conditional knockout (KO) mice. Conditional and inducible deletion of HIF1α or HIF2α in endothelial cells (HIF1αEC−/−, or HIF2αEC−/−), but not smooth muscle cells, dramatically protected mice from hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. We analyzed the hypoxia-induced response in isolated lungs from WT and KO mice. Ventilation of lungs from mice with 1% O2 provoked a vasoconstrictor response and reached to the plateau within 4 min in both WT, HIF1αEC−/−, and HIF2αEC−/− mice. Normoxic vascular ton were not affected by deletion of HIF1α or HIF2α and there is no difference of vasoconstriction induced by high K+ between WT and KO mice. Conclusion Our study has demonstrated that deletion of HIF1α or HIF2α in endothelial cells dramatically attenuate chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension, but negligibly affect the acute hypoxia-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction. These results implicated that targets of endothelial HIFs signaling pathway may lead to novel therapeutic targets for chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension but endothelial HIFs signaling are not involved in acute hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction.
Age-Related Changes in the Processing of To-be-Ignored Stimuli: Preserved Selective Attention Does Not Prevent Subsequent Allocation of Excessive Processing Resources (PD7.009)

Objective: To investigate age-related changes in attentional operations involved in the processing of to-be-ignored stimuli. Background A critical mechanism for conserving capacity-limited resources and efficiently carrying out task demands is to limit the allocation of resources to stimuli that are supposed to be ignored. Design/Methods: ERPs were measured in 12 young (mean age 23) and 15 old (mean age 74) well-matched adults during a color-selective attention task. Subjects responded to target letters in a specified color (Attend) while ignoring letters in a different color (Ignore). Results: There were minimal age-associated differences in selective attention (Attend-Ignore), as indexed by the size of the posterior Selection Negativity (SN) and anterior Selection positivity (SP). In stark contrast to their younger counterparts, old subject appropriated a similar amount of resources to targets under the Attend and Ignore conditions for operations involved with orienting and decision-making, as measured by the size of the P3a and P3b components. Old subjects demonstrated a decline of attentional control, as indexed by a smaller anterior N2 to target-like stimuli under Ignore. Old subjects also exhibited prolonged latencies of the SP, SN, P3a, and P3b components, suggestive of delays in carrying out pertinent operations. Prolongation of SN latency did not correlate with subsequent delays in P3 latency, but did predict larger P3 responses to targets under the Ignore condition. Conclusions: Despite the relative preservation of early selective attention, old subjects appropriated substantially more controlled processing resources in response to target-like stimuli under Ignore. Although inefficiencies in selective attention may undermine the quality of information available for subsequent operations, they do not fully account for the strikingly increased allocation of resources in response to to-be-ignored targets. One consequence of this age-related deficit is that older adults are at high risk for running out of processing resources to manage increased task demands. Supported by: R01 AGO17935. Disclosure: Dr. Alperin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Haring has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zhuravleva has nothing to disclose. Dr. Holcomb has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rentz has received personal compensation for activities with Elan Pharmaceuticals as a consultant. Dr. Daffner has nothing to disclose.
Targeting mTOR in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Treatment options for advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are limited, however, new therapies targeting specific tumor-related molecular characteristics may help certain patient cohorts. Emerging preclinical data has shown that inhibition of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) in specific KRAS-dependent PDAC subtypes leads to inhibition of tumorigenesis in vitro as well as in vivo. Early phase II studies of mono-mTOR inhibition have not shown promise. However, studies have shown that combined inhibition of multiple steps along the mTOR signaling pathway may lead to sustained responses by targeting mechanisms of tumor resistance. Coordinated inhibition of mTOR along with specific KRAS-dependent mutations in molecularly defined PDAC subpopulations may offer a viable alternative for treatment in the future.
Survey on epidemic situation of recessive infection of HFMD in healthy children and adults in Ping Dingshan,2013

Objective To study the prevalence of enterovirus inapparent infection about HFMD among health population in Ping Dingshan city.Methods Make an investigation in Ruzhou country which was the high incidence.100 persons which contained the dejecta and the throat swab samples were involved. The groups were 0 to 3 years old,3 to7 years old,7 to 16 years old, and up 18 years old.The methods of test was used the technique of RT-PCR. Results Among 100 healthy people,the inapparent infection rate was 21%. Conclusion The inapparent infection of enterovirus is relatively common in the health people of the Ping Dingshan city.The main inapparent infection population were 3 to 7 years old children.The inapparent infection rates of EV71 and Cox A16 were low in healthy people.
Net community production at Ocean Station Papa observed with nitrate and oxygen sensors on profiling floats

Six profiling floats equipped with nitrate and oxygen sensors were deployed at Ocean Station P in the Gulf of Alaska. The resulting six calendar years and 10 float years of nitrate and oxygen data were used to determine an average annual cycle for net community production (NCP) in the top 35 m of the water column. NCP became positive in February as soon as the mixing activity in the surface layer began to weaken, but nearly 3 months before the traditionally defined mixed layer began to shoal from its winter time maximum. NCP displayed two maxima, one toward the end of May and another in August with a summertime minimum in June corresponding to the historical peak in mesozooplankton biomass. The average annual NCP was determined to be 1.5 ± 0.6 mol C m−2 yr−1 using nitrate and 1.5 ± 0.7 mol C m−2 yr−1 using oxygen. The results from oxygen data proved to be quite sensitive to the gas exchange model used as well as the accuracy of the oxygen measurement. Gas exchange models optimized for carbon dioxide flux generally ignore transport due to gas exchange through the injection of bubbles, and these models yield NCP values that are two to three time higher than the nitrate-based estimates. If nitrate and oxygen NCP rates are assumed to be related by the Redfield model, we show that the oxygen gas exchange model can be optimized by tuning the exchange terms to reproduce the nitrate NCP annual cycle.
If we build it, will they come? A qualitative study of key stakeholder opinions on the implementation of a videogame intervention for risk reduction in adolescents

Abstract Objective: Serious games are emerging as important tools that offer an innovative approach to teach adolescents behavioral skills to avoid risky situations. PlayForward: Elm City Stories, an interactive videogame targeting risk reduction, is currently undergoing evaluation. Collecting stakeholder data on its acceptability and real-life implementation strategies is critical for successful dissemination. Materials and Methods: We collected interview data from four stakeholder groups regarding incorporating PlayForward into settings with adolescents. Transcripts were coded, creating a comprehensive code structure for each stakeholder group. Results: We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews that included 14 adolescents (aged 12–15 years; 10 boys), eight parents/guardians (all women), 12 after-school/school coordinators (nine women), and 14 community partners (13 women). We identified four themes that reflected stakeholders' perceptions about how the videogame might be implemented in real-world sett...
Circular involute optical delay stage

An optical delay stage with a circular involute reflector and a pair of rotation mirrors provides unprecedented performance for optical interference, THz time-domain spectroscopy and general optical pump/probe experiments. The stage supports high repetition rate (>kHz), long delay range (>ns), and fine temporal resolution (<10 fs).
Dual Supply of Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery on Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography Not Recognized on Previous Cardiac Catheterizations

A dual left anterior descending (LAD) artery is an infrequent anomaly of the coronary circulation with rare variations that may cause symptoms. We report a 60-year-old man who underwent multiple percutaneous cardiac catheterizations with stent placements and presented with recurrent angina pectoris. Coronary computed tomographic angiography demonstrated a dual LAD with the long and short LADs originating from the right coronary artery and the left main coronary artery, respectively.
Persistence of Mycobacterium bovis BCG in Soil and on Vegetables Spray-Irrigated with Sewage Effluent and Sludge

Survival of Mycobacterium bovis BCG on garden plots spray-irrigated with sewage effluent or sludge was studied to determine persistence of mycobacteria under conditions approximating current practices. The D value (90% reduction time) in effluent-sprayed soil was 11 days, and in sludge-sprayed soil it was 8 days. On effluent-sprayed radishes, the D value was 6 days, and on sludge-sprayed radishes, 4 days; however, this difference was not significant. Isolation from lettuce was too erratic to determine a true survival rate, but the organism was isolated sporadically for up to 35 days.
Profiling of Kidney Injury Biomarkers in Patients Receiving Cisplatin: Time-dependent Changes in the Absence of Clinical Nephrotoxicity

The success of cisplatin-containing regimens to treat solid tumors is limited, in part, by nephrotoxicity. In rodents, several urinary proteins have emerged that are sensitive indicators of cisplatin-induced kidney injury. We sought to characterize time-dependent changes in the urinary concentrations of 12 proteins, including kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), calbindin, beta 2-microglobulin (β2M), and trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) after cisplatin therapy. Urine was collected at baseline, 3 days (range, 2-5 days), and 10 days (range, 9-11 days) from 57 patients with solid tumors receiving outpatient cisplatin therapy (≥25 mg/m2 ). Serum creatinine was largely unchanged after cisplatin infusion. However, compared with baseline values, several novel biomarkers were significantly increased in the urine, including β2M, which was threefold higher by day 3 (P < 0.0001). Urinary KIM-1 and TFF3 were elevated twofold by day 10 (P = 0.002 and P = 0.002, respectively), whereas calbindin levels were increased eightfold (P < 0.0001). We report novel time-dependent changes in the urinary excretion of noninvasive markers of subclinical kidney injury after cisplatin treatment.
Exploring linked ecological and cultural tipping points in Mongolia

Abstract We review evidence of Holocene climate, vegetation, and cultural changes in Mongolia and critically examine evidence that Mongolia’s steppes are at the brink of ecological and cultural tipping points in the Anthropocene. Until 5,000 YBP there is no evidence of lasting human influences on ecosystems, but after this time, changes in vegetation and soil physical properties signal domestic livestock grazing impacts on steppe ecosystems. Contemporary (1991–2015) literature and region by region analysis of climate, livestock, remote-sensing and human population data reveal two potential tipping points. Temperatures warmed across the 5 regions. Since 1991, livestock densities and forage use increased in most regions, the spatial distribution of grazing pressure is more heterogeneous, and variability increased in stocking densities, forage use and forage production in all or most regions. Substantial plant species shifts and losses occurred in the mountain and forest steppe regions. Although a large proportion of Mongolia’s rangelands are altered from their ecological potential, few have crossed an irreversible threshold of ecological change. Rangelands in Mongolia’s Khangai, northern and central regions may be approaching an ecological tipping point if grazing pressure is not reduced. After 1991, herder populations initially rose and then decreased significantly across most regions. If demographic and social trends contribute to loss of herding knowledge and identity, a cultural tipping point could occur. We describe four potential future scenarios that could unfold if these tipping points are reached, hypothesize feedbacks between ecological and cultural thresholds, and discuss implications for policy and management.
Data Management in Institutional Investing: A New Budgetary Approach

Through a multi-modal empirical analysis of the data-management experiences of large institutional investors (‘Giants’), we find that these entities are struggling to: 1) utilize data efficiently; and 2) consistently achieve desired levels of data quality. We use these findings to design a new tool for helping Giants more efficiently manage data quality: data budgets. Data budgets augment the current budgetary framework available to Giants by being able to ‘plug in’ to it directly, in a way that more comprehensively highlights how data quality links to other organizational resources to drive value, performance, and innovation among Giants. We present five practical illustrations of how data budgets can help Giants better manage overall resources.
Moderating effects of sex on the impact of diagnosis and amyloid positivity on verbal memory and hippocampal volume.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) impacts men and women differently, but the effect of sex on predementia stages is unclear. The objective of this study was to examine whether sex moderates the impact of florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid positivity (A+) on verbal learning and memory performance and hippocampal volume (HV) in normal cognition (NC) and early mild cognitive impairment (eMCI). Seven hundred forty-two participants with NC and participants with eMCI from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (second cohort [ADNI2] and Grand Opportunity Cohort [ADNI-GO]) were included. All had baseline florbetapir PET measured, and 526 had screening visit HV measured. Regression moderation models were used to examine whether A+ effects on Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test learning and delayed recall and right and left HV (adjusted for total intracranial volume) were moderated by diagnosis and sex. Age, cognition at screening, education, and apolipoprotein E e4 carrier status were controlled. Women with A+, but not those with florbetapir PET amyloid negative (A-),eMCI showed poorer learning. For women with NC, there was no relationship of A+ with learning. In contrast, A+ men trended toward poorer learning regardless of diagnosis. A similar trend was found for verbal delayed recall: Women with A+, but not A-, eMCI trended toward reduced delayed recall; no effects were observed for women with NC or for men. Hippocampal analyses indicated that women with A+, but not those with A−, eMCI, trended toward smaller right HV; no significant A+ effects were observed for women with NC. Men showed similar, though nonsignificant, patterns of smaller right HV in A+ eMCI, but not in men with A− eMCI or NC. No interactive effects of sex were noted for left HV. Women with NC showed verbal learning and memory scores robust to A+, and women with A+ eMCI lost this advantage. In contrast, A+ impacted men’s scores less significantly or not at all, and comparably across those with NC and eMCI. Sex marginally moderated the relationship of A+ and diagnosis with right HV, such that women with NC showed no A+ effect and women with A+ eMCI lost that advantage in neural integrity; the pattern in men was less clear. These findings show that women with A+ eMCI (i.e., prodromal AD) have differential neural and cognitive decline, which has implications for considering sex in early detection of AD and development of therapeutics.
Review of Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past: Research on High Impact, Active Learning Practices

By now, Reacting to the Past (RTTP) pedagogy is hardly one of the profession’s best-kept secrets. In the slightly more than 20 years since Barnard College historian Mark Carnes put together his fir...
The effects of exhaust air vent location on thermal comfort inside a residential building equipped with an evaporative cooling system

The location of exhaust air vents of an evaporative cooling system can have significant effects on providing thermal comfort and controlling humidity, temperature and air distribution in buildings. In the current study, four different strategies have been evaluated for exhaust air vent locations to provide the optimum thermal comfort inside a typical residential house. This study provides a numerical solution for temperature and relative humidity profiles in the residential house and within the living space in each room typically at a height of 1.8 m or less. By evaluating different exhaust air vent locations in a room, the best strategy(ies) to provide more appropriate thermal comfort condition and obtained and as a conclusion, the exhaust vents should be located on furthest wall away from the entrance of the room and in the middle. The results provided in the current study can eventually be applied in the design of evaporative cooler exhaust vent systems in residential buildings and lead to improve the performance of these systems.
Agricultural harvesting emissions of ice-nucleating particles

Abstract. Agricultural activities can modify natural ecosystems and change the nature of the aerosols emitted from those landscapes. The harvesting of crops can loft plant fragments and soil dust into the atmosphere that can travel long distances and interact with clouds far from their sources. In this way harvesting may contribute substantially to ice-nucleating particle (INP) concentrations, especially in regions where agriculture makes up a large percentage of land use. However, a full characterization of particles emitted during harvesting has not been reported. This study characterizes immersion mode INPs emitted during harvesting of several crops in the High Plains region of the United States. The Colorado State University Continuous Flow Diffusion Chamber (CFDC) and the Ice Spectrometer (IS) were utilized to measure INP concentrations during active harvesting of four crops in Kansas and Wyoming. Large spikes of INPs were observed during harvesting, with concentrations over 200 L−1 at −30 °C measured during a wheat harvest. To differentiate between mineral and organic components, a novel heating tube method was employed in real time upstream of the CFDC to deactivate organic INPs in situ. The results indicate that harvesting produces a complex mixture of organic, soil dust, and mineral components that varies for different crops. Electron microscopy analysis showed that while mineral components made up a large proportion of INPs, organic components comprised over 40 % of measured INPs for certain crops at warm temperatures. Heating and enzyme post-treatment of aerosol samples collected for IS processing indicated that bacteria and heat-labile and heat-stable organics contributed to wheat harvest-produced INPs. These results indicate that plant material and organic particles are a significant component of harvest INPs and their impacts on ice formation in clouds and precipitation on a regional scale should be explored.