cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Maternal reproductive experience enhances early postnatal outcome following gestation and birth of rats in hypergravity

A major goal of space life sciences research is to broaden scientific knowledge of the influence of gravity on living systems. Recent spaceflight and centrifugation studies demonstrate that reproduction and ontogenesis in mammals are amenable to study under gravitational conditions that deviate considerably from those typically experienced on Earth (1 x g). In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that maternal reproductive experience determines neonatal outcome following gestation and birth under increased (hyper) gravity. Primigravid and bigravid female rats and their offspring were exposed to 1.5 x g centrifugation from Gestational Day 11 either through birth or through the first postnatal week. On the day of birth, litter sizes were identical across gravity and parity conditions, although significantly fewer live neonates were observed among hypergravity-reared litters born to primigravid dams than among those born to bigravid dams (82% and 94%, respectively; 1.0 x g controls, 99%). Within the hypergravity groups, neonatal mortality was comparable across parity conditions from Postnatal Day 1 through Day 7, at which time litter sizes stabilized. Maternal reproductive experience ameliorated neonatal losses during the first 24 h after birth but not on subsequent days, and neonatal mortality was associated with changes in maternal care patterns. These results indicate that repeated maternal reproductive experience affords protection against neonatal losses during exposure to increased gravity. Differential mortality of neonates born to primigravid versus bigravid dams denotes gravitational load as one environmental mechanism enabling the expression of parity-related variations in birth outcome.
Similarities and Differences in Meaning in Six Cultures

The present study explores use of multidimensional scaling to cross-cultural investigation involving six cultures and two categories varying in abstractness: animals and emotions. Cross-cultural agreement in the scaling solutions was quite high but highest for the Emotions category. Additionally, the solutions of both categories across cultures revealed details that reflected culture-specific meaning. Thus, the results demonstrate the utility of multidimensional scaling analysis for the cross-cultural investigation of meaning.
Hybrid Particle-Continuum Simulations of Nonequilibrium Hypersonic Blunt-Body Flowfields

A modular particle-continuum (MPC) numerical method is presented which solves the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations in regions of near-equilibrium and uses the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method where the flow is in non-equilibrium. The MPC method is designed specifically for steady-state, hypersonic, nonequilibrium flows and couples existing, state-of-the-art DSMC and NS solvers into a single modular code. The MPC method is tested for 2D flow of N2 at various Mach numbers over a cylinder where the global Knudsen number is 0.01. For these conditions, NS simulations significantly over-predict the local shear-stress, and also over-predict the peak heating rate by 5-10% when compared with full DSMC simulations. DSMC also predicts faster wake closure and 10-15% higher temperatures in the immediate wake region. The MPC code is able to accurately reproduce DSMC flow field results, local velocity distributions, and surface properties up to 2.8 times faster than full DSMC simulations. The computational time saved by the MPC method is directly proportional to the fraction of the flow field which is in near-equilibrium. It is found that particle simulation of the shock interior is not necessary for accurate prediction of surface properties, however particle simulation of the boundary layer and near-wake region is.
Cooperating Teacher Advice.

Abstract Four experienced and four new cooperating teachers tape-recorded meetings with their student teachers for 2 weeks. Protocols were analyzed for advice statements. There were 55.2% coded C onsultant — dealing with the present case and no elaboration, and 44.8% coded as T eacher — with some elaboration or explanation. Of Teacher advice statements, 84% included an elaboration or explanation, and 16% included reference to future cases within an elaboration. Regarding antecedents, 55.2% were solicited by student teacher question or comment, 37.1% by review and discussion of student teacher's lesson plans, and 7.6% as unsolicited. While experienced cooperating teachers tended to provide more advice, percentages in the various categories were essentially similar for both new and experienced cooperating teachers.
Differential games: A pole placement approach

In this paper we present a systematic procedure for pole placement in full state feedback dynamical systems with multiple objectives. It is shown that pole placement in multi-objective systems expands the design domain and allows additional design criteria to be imposed on the system. Several criteria are suggested and a criterion that minimizes the maximum overshoot experienced by the system is developed. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate (i) the pole placement procedure and (ii) the improvements that are achievable with multi-objective systems as opposed to single objective systems.
Systematic trellis-coded modulation

Systematic trellis-coded modulation (STCM) is a novel approach to coded modulation, which enables symbol-by-symbol detection of trellis-coded data. A set of design rules, which guarantees nonzero coding gain, and codes with asymptotic coding gains of 3.0-5.4 dB are presented. STCM is well suited for operation in a dual-mode receiver. During normal operation the receiver uses a sequence estimation algorithm such as MLSE or SSE. When the channel introduces severe distortion, as is the case during a deep fade, the decoder switches to a systematic decoding algorithm, which is simple to implement, and guarantees BER performance that is better than uncoded modulation. The authors demonstrate the performance of various STCM codes with a dual-mode receiver on multipath fading channels. >
Finding common fixed points of nonexpansive mappings by iteration: Corrigendum

converges weakly to a common fixed point of the family. However, the theorem was actually proved only for semicontractive maps, because a portion of the proof relied on [1, Theorem 3] (stated as [3, Lemma 2]). Using an improvement of that result, [2, Theorem 8.4], enables one to prove the Theorem of [3] as stated. For completeness we state this result of Browder. LEMMA 1 . Let X be a uniformly convex Banach space, G a bounded closed convex subset of X, U a nonexpansive map ofG —¥ X. Then (a) If {UJ} is a weakly convergent sequence in G with weak limit u0 and if (I U)UJ converges strongly to an element w in X, then
Thoughts About Enriching Judicial Independence by Improving the Retention Vote Phase of Appointive Selection Systems

Court Review magazine article concerning improving judicial retention vote in selective appointment systems.
Cost of morbidities in very low birth weight infants.

Objective To determine the association between direct costs for the initial neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization and 4 potentially preventable morbidities in a retrospective cohort of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (birth weight Study design The sample included 425 VLBW infants born alive between July 2005 and June 2009 at Rush University Medical Center. Morbidities included brain injury, necrotizing enterocolitis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and late-onset sepsis. Clinical and economic data were retrieved from the institution's system-wide data and cost accounting system. A general linear regression model was fit to determine incremental direct costs associated with each morbidity. Results After controlling for birth weight, gestational age, and sociodemographic characteristics, the presence of brain injury was associated with a $12 048 ( P = .005) increase in direct costs; necrotizing enterocolitis, with a $15 440 ( P = .005) increase; bronchopulmonary dysplasia, with a $31 565 ( P P Conclusion This study provides collective estimates of the direct costs incurred during neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization for these 4 morbidities in VLBW infants. The incremental costs associated with these morbidities are high, and these data can inform future studies evaluating interventions aimed at preventing or reducing these costly morbidities.
Ethanol Content of Various Foods and Soft Drinks and their Potential for Interference with a Breath-Alcohol Test

A variety of breads and soft drinks were tested and found to contain low concentrations of alcohol. The potential for these products to generate false readings on an evidential breath-alcohol instrument was evaluated. Alcohol-free subjects ingested these products and then provided breath samples into a DataMaster. It was found that breath samples provided immediately after consumption of some of these products, or with them still present in the mouth, did produce low levels of apparent breath alcohol, which may or may not be rejected as invalid by the breath-test instrument. If the subject swallowed or expectorated the food or beverage and then observed a 15-min deprivation period during which nothing was introduced into the mouth, the apparent effect was eliminated. These findings emphasize the need for the mandatory pretest alcohol-deprivation period and the benefits of duplicate breath sampling.
Self-Aligned-Gate ZnO TFT Circuits

We report combining plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a gate-self-aligned process to fabricate high-speed circuits. The speed of our previous PEALD circuits (22 ns/stage) was largely limited by the parasitic capacitance between the gate and drain, and a selfaligned-gate process provides higher speed devices and circuits. In this letter, a backside exposure process was used to fabricate gate-self-aligned TFTs with a mobility of 20 cm2/V · s. The seven-stage self-aligned-gate PEALD ZnO TFT ring oscillators had a propagation delay of 9.8 ns/stage at a supply voltage of 18 V. These ring oscillators are similar in performance to the best reported saturated-load oxide-semiconductor circuits but with much longer channel length (> 5× longer).
Effect of Truncation of Line-Spread and Edge-Response Functions on the Computed Optical Transfer Function

The accuracy of optical transfer functions computed by Fourier transformation of the measured line-spread functions is limited by the necessary truncation of the line-spread functions. Error of the optical transfer function due to truncation of the line-spread function is given for various wave-front aberrations and for various degrees of truncation. The additional error introduced by sampling the truncated line-spread function at the Nyquist rate has been found to be very small. A procedure for reducing the error of the optical transfer function due to truncation of the line-spread function is given.
Temporal Effect of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha on Murine Macrophages Infected with Mycobacterium avium

Members of the Mycobacterium avium complex are a family of bacteria that persist within macrophages in the face of an immune response. Elimination of these organisms is likely due to cytokine-induced macrophage activation. Because macrophage activation by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) appears critical for killing of intracellular M. avium, early downregulation of TNF-alpha levels in infected macrophages has been suggested as a survival mechanism for virulent strains of M. avium. We examined the relationship between TNF-alpha and growth of M. avium strains of differing virulence, as measured by their ability to grow in murine bone marrow-derived macrophages. When exogenous TNF-alpha was added immediately following macrophage infection, significant growth inhibition of virulent M. avium strains was observed. If TNF-alpha addition was delayed by 24 h or more, growth inhibition was abrogated. To determine if early downregulation of TNF-alpha levels could explain the differential growth of virulent and avirulent strains, levels of TNF-alpha and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which has been shown to suppress TNF-alpha production in uninfected macrophages, were quantified over time. Upregulation of both TNF-alpha and PGE2, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was evident by 6 h postinfection, indicating that the ability of M. avium to replicate in macrophages was not directly correlated with early downregulation of TNF-alpha production. However, TNF-alpha bioactivity, as measured by cytotoxicity, was significantly decreased in virulent M. avium strains at all time periods examined. Treatment of infected macrophages with gamma interferon immediately after infection resulted in significantly increased levels of nitric oxide but did not affect the growth of virulent M. avium strains. These results suggest that while significant levels of TNF-alpha are present in supernatants from all M. avium strains, levels of biologically active TNF-alpha are significantly reduced in supernatants from virulent M. avium strains. Preliminary results suggest that upregulation of the soluble p75 TNF receptor may be one mechanism by which TNF-alpha bioactivity reduction occurs.
Union Voice Effects in Mexico

This paper utilizes establishment survey data from Mexico to explore the impact of union voice on fringe benefits, turnover, job training and productivity. Mexican unions have a significant effect on these outcome measures for workers and firms. Unions increase both the value of fringe benefits per worker and the ratio of fringe benefits to total compensation, increase job training and raise productivity per worker. However, contrary to the broader literature on union voice effects, unionized establishments in Mexico appear to possess greater worker turnover.
Two new species of Charianthus (Melastomataceae: Miconieae) from the Lesser Antilles

Abstract Two new species of Charianthus (Melastomataceae: Miconieae) from the Lesser Antilles. Brittonia 56: 151–158. 2004.—In the course of a phylogenetic analysis and systematic revision of Charianthus, it was discovered that C. purpureus, as traditionally circumscribed, is polyphyletic, consisting of three morphologically diagnosable entities. Thus two new species, Charianthus dominicensis and C. grenadensis, are described and illustrated. Each is endemic to the Lesser Antillean island for which it is named—Dominica and Grenada, respectively. Charianthus, the only vascular plant genus endemic to the Lesser Antilles, comprises six species of nectariferous, hummingbird-pollinated shrubs and small trees.
Paternalistic Love and Reasons for Caring

What reasons can children have for coming to care about particular things so that they can develop into responsible adults? This question raises issues both about the status of such reasons as “internal” or “external” to the child’s subjective motivational set and about the role of adults in guiding children’s choices. In confronting this latter question, Tamar Schapiro argues that adults can adopt what amounts to a two-pronged strategy: of rewarding or punishing the child and of offering explanations and justifications. Such a strategy, however, ignores the special role loving caregivers can play in a child’s life. By developing an account of such paternalistically loving relationships, I show how the caregiver’s conception of the child’s well-being can come to inform the child’s own sense of herself and so to provide her with essentially interpersonal reasons for caring. Indeed, such reasons can be both normatively and motivationally binding on the child even though she may not yet be in a position to understand them. That such reasons are essentially interpersonal seems to make otiose whether they are “internal” or “external,” thereby rendering that distinction less important than we might have thought.
On the Annual Cycle of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific

Abstract Although the sun “crosses” the equator twice a year, the eastern equatorial Pacific has a pronounced annual cycle, in sea surface temperature and in both components of the surface winds for example. (This is in contrast to the Indian Ocean and western Pacific where a semiannual oscillation of the zonal wind is the dominant signal on the equator.) Calculations with a relatively simple coupled ocean-atmosphere model indicate that the principal reason for this phenomenon is the marked asymmetry, relative to the equator, of the time-averaged climatic conditions in the eastern tropical Pacific. The important asymmetries are in surface winds, oceanic currents, and sea surface temperature: The time-averaged winds and currents have northward components at the equator and the warmest waters are north of the equator. Because of those asymmetries, seasonally varying solar radiation that is strictly antisymmetric relative to the equator can force a response that has a symmetric component. The amplitude of th...
Segmental Dynamics of Ethylene Oxide-Containing Polymers with Diverse Backbone Chemistries

The dielectric response of seven nonionic ethylene oxide-containing polymers are investigated. Four different backbone chemistries are considered, including polymethacrylate, polyester ether, polyphosphazene, and polysiloxane. The chemistry of the backbone and the linking chemistry to incorporate ether oxygen (EO) groups dramatically affect polymer segmental dynamics. The Tg of the inorganic backbone polymers is ∼15 °C lower than that of the PEO homopolymer. Polysiloxanes exhibit the lowest Tg of −86 °C when attached with pendent −(CH2–CH2–O)4–CH3 groups. The strength of the alpha relaxation is the same for the hydrocarbon backbone polymers (Δe = 10), whereas the dielectric constants of inorganic polymers with short pendent groups is lower (Δe = 3). The difference in relaxation strengths is due to restricted motion of ether oxygens close to the backbone. This effect diminishes as the relative backbone concentration is decreased by increasing the pendent EO length. As pendent EO chain length is increased, ...
The Suffering of Symbols: Giotto Frescoes and the Cultural Trauma of Objects

The loss of iconic buildings and artifacts can result in public mourning which may even overshadow the loss of human life. Cultural trauma theory examines how such processes are socially constructe...
Dual-Time PIV Investigation of the Sound Producing Region of the High-Speed Jet

The experimental measurement of the Eulerian acceleration fleld in the loud region of the high-speed turbulent jet is carried out. Using a dual-time stereoscopic particle image velocimetry technique (DT-PIV), a database of time derivatives of the velocity is calculated by flnite difierence at 12 difierent downstream locations ranging from 3 to 10 jet diameters downstream. From this database, the dynamics of the ∞ow are reconstructed and prediction capability is gained through the development of a low-order dynamical system (LODS) at one flxed downstream position. The motivations behind this work are mainly directed towards closed-loop ∞ow control applications that use dynamical estimates of the ∞ow state to optimize the control output, but the database containing the far-fleld sound simultaneously sampled with the acceleration measurements of the Mach 0.6 turbulent axisymmetric jet has the potential for further studies relating the far-fleld sound to events in the acceleration fleld of the loud region of the jet.
Analysis of nonlocal effective permittivity and permeability in symmetric metal- dielectric multilayer metamaterials

A generalized nonlocal effective medium theory is derived based on the transfer-matrix method to determine the nonlocal effective permittivity and permeability for the symmetric and periodic metal–dielectric multilayer metamaterials, with respect to both transverse-electric and transverse-magnetic polarized light at arbitrary angle of incidence. The nonlocal effective permittivity and permeability tensors are analyzed in detail as functions of the wavelength, the angle of incidence, and the multilayer period. Our generalized nonlocal effective medium theory in consideration of both permittivity and permeability can accurately predict the dispersion relation, the transmission and reflection spectra, and the optical field distributions of symmetric metal–dielectric multilayer stacks with either subwavelength or wavelength-scale period of the unit cell.
Quality Improvement Initiative to Decrease Variability of Emergency Physician Opioid Analgesic Prescribing.

Introduction: Addressing pain is a crucial aspect of emergency medicine. Prescription opioids are commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain in the emergency department (ED); unfortunately, prescribing practices are variable. High variability of opioid prescribing decisions suggests a lack of consensus and an opportunity to improve care. This quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed to reduce variability in ED opioid analgesic prescribing. Methods: We evaluated the impact of a three-part QI initiative on ED opioid prescribing by physicians at seven sites. Stage 1: Retrospective baseline period (nine months). Stage 2: Physicians were informed that opioid prescribing information would be prospectively collected and feedback on their prescribing and that of the group would be shared at the end of the stage (three months). Stage 3: After physicians received their individual opioid prescribing data with blinded comparison to the group means (from Stage 2) they were informed that individual prescribing data would be unblinded and shared with the group after three months. The primary outcome was variability of the standard error of the mean and standard deviation of the opioid prescribing rate (defined as number of patients discharged with an opioid divided by total number of discharges for each provider). Secondary observations included mean quantity of pills per opioid prescription, and overall frequency of opioid prescribing. Results: The study group included 47 physicians with 149,884 ED patient encounters. The variability in prescribing decreased through each stage of the initiative as represented by the distributions for the opioid prescribing rate: Stage 1 mean 20%; Stage 2 mean 13% (46% reduction, p<0.01), and Stage 3 mean 8% (60% reduction, p<0.01). The mean quantity of pills prescribed per prescription was 16 pills in Stage 1, 14 pills in Stage 2 (18% reduction, p<0.01), and 13 pills in Stage 3 (18% reduction, p<0.01). The group mean prescribing rate also decreased through each stage: 20% in Stage 1, 13% in Stage 2 (46% reduction, p<0.01), and 8% in Stage 3 (60% reduction, p<0.01). Conclusion: ED physician opioid prescribing variability can be decreased through the systematic application of sharing of peer prescribing rates and prescriber specific normative feedback.
An examination of college students’ fears about terrorism and the likelihood of a terrorist attack

ABSTRACTAfter the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, a new phenomenon, fear of terrorism, was found to affect many Americans. Almost 15 years later, with few exceptions, the US homeland has enjoyed an environment free of major terrorist attacks. However, fear of terrorism remains high among Americans. Using a sample of 524 undergraduate students from a major regional university in the Midwest region of the United States, researchers distributed a survey to investigate levels of fear of terrorism and perceptions about the likelihood of a terrorist attack happening on American soil. The findings of this study indicated that respondents were moderately fearful of terrorism and moderately certain than an attack would happen in the near future. Many of the measures previously identified in the research continue to influence fears and concerns about the risk and fear of an attack.
Is extended preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis for high-risk patients necessary before percutaneous nephrolithotomy?

Purpose The goal of this study was to compare the rate of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in high-risk patients undergoing percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) between patients who received 7, 2, or 0 days of preoperative antibiotics. Materials and methods We retrospectively reviewed a series of consecutive PCNLs performed at our institution. Patients with infected preoperative urine cultures were excluded. High-risk patients were defined as those with a history of previous urinary tract infection (UTI), hydronephrosis, or stone size ≥2 cm. Patients were treated with 7, 2, or 0 days of preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis prior to PCNL. All patients received a single preoperative dose of antibiotics within 60 minutes of the start of surgery. Fisher exact test was used to compare the rate of SIRS by preoperative antibiotic length. Results Of the 292 patients identified, 138 (47.3%) had sterile urine and met high-risk criteria, of which 27 (19.6%), 39 (28.3%), and 72 (52.2%) received 7, 2, and 0 days of preoperative antibiotics, respectively. The 3 groups were similar in age, sex, and duration of surgery (p>0.05). There was no difference in the rate of SIRS between the groups, with 1 of 27 (3.7%), 2 of 39 (5.1%) and 3 of 72 patients (4.2%) meeting criteria in the 7, 2, and 0 days antibiotic groups (p=~1). Conclusions Extended preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis was not found to reduce the risk of SIRS after PCNL in our institutional experience of high-risk patients. For these patients, a single preoperative dose of antibiotics is sufficient.
Testing the Efficacy of Contrast‐Enhanced Ultrasound in Detecting Transplant Rejection Using a Murine Model of Heart Transplantation

One of the key unmet needs to improve long-term outcomes of heart transplantation is to develop accurate, noninvasive, and practical diagnostic tools to detect transplant rejection. Early intragraft inflammation and endothelial cell injuries occur prior to advanced transplant rejection. We developed a novel diagnostic imaging platform to detect early declines in microvascular perfusion (MP) of cardiac transplants using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS). The efficacy of CEUS in detecting transplant rejection was tested in a murine model of heart transplants, a standard preclinical model of solid organ transplant. As compared to the syngeneic groups, a progressive decline in MP was demonstrated in the allografts undergoing acute transplant rejection (40%, 64%, and 92% on days 4, 6, and 8 posttransplantation, respectively) and chronic rejection (33%, 33%, and 92% on days 5, 14, and 30 posttransplantation, respectively). Our perfusion studies showed restoration of MP following antirejection therapy, highlighting its potential to help monitor efficacy of antirejection therapy. Our data suggest that early endothelial cell injury and platelet aggregation contributed to the early MP decline observed in the allografts. High-resolution MP mapping may allow for noninvasive detection of heart transplant rejection. The data presented have the potential to help in the development of next-generation imaging approaches to diagnose transplant rejection.
Decomposing the Effect of Trade on the Gender Wage Gap

This paper utilizes regional variation in exposure to increased Chinese imports in Brazil to investigate the impact of trade on gender wage inequality. We find that rising imports reduced wages in local Brazilian labor markets, but that this wage reduction was entirely borne by male workers (thus reducing the gender wage gap). Using Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, we find that this reduction in the wage gap was largely explained by differences in the occupational employment of female and male workers, with trade increasing the female share of workers in higher-paying occupations and increasing the (relative) returns to primarily-female occupations.
Synthesis of Janelia Fluor HaloTag and SNAP-Tag Ligands and Their Use in Cellular Imaging Experiments

The development of genetically encoded self-labeling protein tags such as the HaloTag and SNAP-tag has expanded the utility of chemical dyes in microscopy. Intracellular labeling using these systems requires small, cell-permeable dyes with high brightness and photostability. We recently discovered a general method to improve the properties of classic fluorophores by replacing N,N-dimethylamino groups with four-membered azetidine rings to create the "Janelia Fluor" dyes. Here, we describe the synthesis of the HaloTag and SNAP-tag ligands of Janelia Fluor 549 and Janelia Fluor 646 as well as standard labeling protocols for use in ensemble and single-molecule cellular imaging.
Cytochalasin B Reversibly Inhibits Phagocytosis by Human Blood Leukocytes

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of cytochalasin B in the inhibition of phagocytosis. Cytochalasin B affects motility of cells outside and within cells and appears to interfere reversibly with the organization of contractile microfilament systems often found beneath the cell membrane. This agent inhibits reversibly the locomotion of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) at much lower concentrations than colchicine. The chapter also discusses studies that examine the effect of this agent on the process of ingestion. In the system used in the studies, cytochalasin B interferes unequivocally with the ingestion of staphylococci, whether or not the bacteria are preopsonized with serum (for faster ingestion). In two experiments, aliquots of cells were preincubated for 10 min with or without cytochalasin B, washed, transferred to flasks, and again preincubated for 10 min with or without the drug. The flask with cells preincubated with cytochalasin B before the wash, when inoculated subsequently with staphylococci, lost bacteria from the supernatant as readily as did the control and dimethyl sulfoxide flasks. The flask that received cytochalasin B after the wash subsequently contained more supernatant bacteria than the others at both 20 and 40 min.
Expanded Helicenes: A General Synthetic Strategy and Remarkable Supramolecular and Solid-State Behavior

A divergent synthetic strategy allowed access to several members of a new class of helicenes, the “expanded helicenes”, which are composed of alternating linearly and angularly fused rings. The strategy is based on a three-fold, partially intermolecular [2+2+n] (n = 1 or 2) cycloaddition with substrates containing three diyne units. Investigation of aggregation behavior, both in solution and in the solid state, revealed that one of these compounds forms an unusual homochiral, π-stacked dimer via an equilibrium that is slow on the NMR time scale. The versatility of the method was harnessed to access a selenophene-annulated expanded helicene that, in contrast to its benzannulated analogue, exhibits long-range π-stacking in the solid state. The new helicenes possess low racemization barriers, as demonstrated by dynamic 1H NMR spectroscopy.
Beyond body image: the experience of breast cancer.

Purpose/objectives To describe the mental and emotional impact of treatment for breast cancer with a focus on the ways the body is experienced. Design Phenomenologic, descriptive, and interpretive. Setting An outpatient treatment area of a comprehensive cancer center in the southwestern United States. Sample 20 women, ages 20-68 (mean = 50 years), who had mastectomies (including both modified radical mastectomies and lumpectomies, with some having reconstruction) for breast cancer. Methods Content analysis of verbatim transcriptions of open-ended interviews using hermeneutic phenomenology and descriptive and interpretive presentation of a paradigm case. Main research variables Reaction to breast cancer and its treatment. Findings Informants' descriptions demonstrate that the body can be viewed as having three aspects: (a) the body as symbol or social expression (i.e., how bodies make a social statement and tell others who you are); (b) the body as a way of being in the world, including sensations and symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, and pain; and (c) the existential sense that one needs a body to be in the world (i.e., the body expresses existence), which led to more awareness of the possibility of death. Conclusions Women treated for breast cancer view their bodies in ways that go beyond what is suggested by the literature on body image and breast cancer, encompassing a wide range of responses. Implications for nursing practice The contribution of this study is the documentation of the complexity of the meaning of "body" for women with breast cancer. Appropriate interventions differ for each aspect of the body: for the body as social symbol, programs such as Look Good ... Feel Better or image centers; for the body's sensations and symptoms, information about what to expect and about symptom prevention and management; for the existential body, active listening to fears and concerns and providing assistance as needed.
Lossless and Lossy Data Compression

Data compression (or source coding) is the process of creating binary representations of data which require less storage space than the original data [7, 14, 15]. Lossless compression is used where perfect reproduction is required while lossy compression is used where perfect reproduction is not possible or requires too many bits. Achieving optimal compression with respect to resource constraints is a difficult problem. For instance, in lossless compression, it has been shown to be NP-complete [13]. In this paper, we present genetic algorithms for performing lossless and lossy compressions respectively on text data and Gaussian-Markov sources.
Nanoparticle-Enabled Ion Trapping and Ion Generation in Liquid Crystals

Nowadays, nanomaterials in liquid crystals and their possible applications in the design of tunable, responsive, and wearable devices are among the most promising research directions. In the majority of cases, all liquid crystal based devices have one thing in common; namely, they are driven by electric fields. This type of device driving can be altered by minor amounts of ions typically present in liquid crystal materials. Therefore, it is very important to understand how nanodopants can affect ions in liquid crystals. In this paper, a recently developed model of contaminated nanoparticles is applied to existing experimental data. The presented analysis unambiguously indicates that, in general, nanomaterials in liquid crystals can behave as a source of ions or as ion traps. Physical factors determining the type of the nanoparticle behaviour and their effects on the concentration of ions in liquid crystals are discussed.
Readers' Choice

From time to time, readers send questions about scenarios and ask how the law might resolve them; here's one group of questions relating to intellectual property. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/YyG-G0x8_VE is an audio recording from the Computing and the Law column, in which author Brian M. Gaff addresses questions from readers relating to intellectual property.
The Impact of a Carbon Tax on Inequality

Abstract Climate change and economic inequality are inextricably linked. Despite widespread agreement among researchers and policymakers that a carbon tax is the most efficient mechanism to curb greenhouse gas emissions, such a tax exacerbates inequality since low-income households spend a greater share of their income on carbon-intensive goods. Using Input-Output tables and detailed expenditure data for the United States, we estimate households' carbon footprints and examine the impact of a revenue-neutral tax of $50 per ton of CO2 on multiple forms of inequality. Devoting carbon tax revenue to fund a carbon dividend makes the policy progressive, minimizes redistribution among households of similar means, mitigates group-based inequalities, and benefits 56% of people, including 84% in the bottom half of the distribution. While some researchers have dismissed dividends on efficiency grounds, we show that the double dividend typically associated with labor tax cuts is insufficient to protect the purchasing power of a majority of Americans.
Electronic Cigarette Vapor with Nicotine Causes Airway Mucociliary Dysfunction Preferentially via TRPA1 Receptors.

RATIONALE: Electronic cigarette (e-cig) use has been widely adopted under the perception of safety. However, possibly adverse effects of e-cig vapor in never-smokers are not well understood. OBJECT...
Quo Vadis, Antemus? The Siwalik Muroid Record

The fossil rodent Antemus is the oldest member of the most diverse family of extant mammals. It is known from the Miocene of southern Asia as part of a distinctive evolving fauna with complex biogeographic relationships to Europe, Africa, and other parts of Asia. The Neogene small mammal record in southern Asia, of which Antemus is a part, is dominated by muroid rodents. The Siwalik section of the Potwar Plateau, northern Pakistan, provides most of the available fossil evidence for the history of southern Asian rodents.
Why Does Group-Centered Prevention Work When Other After-School Programs Fail? What Is the Role of Intrinsic Motivation? Retesting and Another Success Story. The 2016–2017 Group Report

Our research was complete. During the 8 years of program evaluation, we had learned three things. First, we had learned that all children truly can be taught to read, if you use the right teaching method—even children with learning differences. The group-centered approach combining learning and counseling, intrinsic motivation, and vowel clustering worked and was very successful in helping children who were failing in the schools learn to read at or above their age level—not grade level, age level. Second, we learned that each child is an individual. It is not poverty that causes reading failure; failed teaching methods cause reading failure. Every child can learn, but each child will learn at a different pace. We built 12 teaching techniques into our Reading Orienteering Club program curriculum to accommodate the individual learning needs of each child. Third, we learned that intrinsic motivation is the key to success. Even though it is not possible to motivate a student, it is possible to create an intrinsically motivational environment that encourages students to try again after failing in the classroom. All of the students that we worked with were failing in reading at school. We incorporated six counseling strategies into our curriculum to help create that intrinsically motivating environment and engage the full healing power of group process. Yes, we really can teach every child to read. Failure is not the children but the teaching method being used in the classroom.
Motion Planning and Feedback Control of Rolling Bodies

This paper examines the problem of planning and stabilizing the trajectory of one smooth body rolling on the surface of another. The two control inputs are the angular velocity of the moving body about two orthogonal axes in the contact tangent plane; spinning about the contact normal is not allowed. To achieve robustness and computational efficiency, our approach to trajectory planning is based on solving a series of optimization problems of increasing complexity. To stabilize the trajectory in the face of perturbations, we use a linear quadratic regulator. We apply the approach to examples of a sphere rolling on a sphere and an ellipsoid rolling on an ellipsoid. Finally, we explore the robustness and performance of the motion planner. Although the planner is based on non-convex optimization, in practice the planner finds solutions to nearly all randomly-generated tasks, and the solution trajectories are smoother and shorter than those found in previous work in the literature.
Spatial pattern of rodent population, animal plague and risk analysis in eastern part of Ningxia desert grassland

Objective To find out the spatial pattern of rodent population and risk of animal plague in eastern part of Ningxia desert grassland.Methods Monitoring and survey data of grassland rodents and parasitic fleas of estern desert steppe in Ningxia from 2002 to 2012 were collected and processed; capture rate,flea infection rate and flea index rate were calculated.Results From 2002 to 2012,the capture rate of the mouse that moves at daytime ranged from 1.10 to 5.90/hm2,and these mice belonged to three species,namely the dominant species Meriones unguiculatus,common species Spermophilus dauricus,and rare species Ochotona daurica.Nocturnal mouse capture rate ranged from 3.82％ to 18.97％,and these mice had a population diversity,which belonged to 2 orders,6 families,7 genera and 15 species.Meriones meridianus,Phodopus roborovskii and Dipus sagitta were the dominant species,Cricetulus barabensis,Mus musculus,Cricetulus migratorius and so on as the common species and Microtus fortis,Rattus norvegicus and so on as the rare species.From rats and parasitic fleas,123 strains of Yersiniapestis were detected,106 of them were detected in rats(104 from dead rodent,2 from live rats),and 17 from parasitic fleas.Conclusions The risk of animal plague in eastern Ningxia desert grassland has increased; we suggest to further improve and implement the regional joint prevention and control measures,and effectively control the spread of the plague. Key words: Plague; Rodent; Desert grassland; Spatial pattern; Risk assessment
Knowledge Acquisition for Web Search

The identification of textual items, or documents, that best match a user’s information need, as expressed in search queries, forms the core functionality of information retrieval systems. Well-known challenges are associated with understanding the intent behind user queries; and, more importantly, with matching inherently-ambiguous queries to documents that may employ lexically different phrases to convey the same meaning. The conversion of semi-structured content from Wikipedia and other resources into structured data produces knowledge potentially more suitable to database-style queries and, ideally, to use in information retrieval. In parallel, the availability of textual documents on the Web enables an aggressive push towards the automatic acquisition of various types of knowledge from text. Methods developed under the umbrella of open-domain information extraction acquire open-domain classes of instances and relations from Web text. The methods operate over unstructured or semi-structured text available within collections of Web documents, or over relatively more intriguing streams of anonymized search queries. Some of the methods import the automatically-extracted data into human-generated resources, or otherwise exploit existing human-generated resources. In both cases, the goal is to expand the coverage of the initial resources, thus providing information about more of the topics that people in general, and Web search users in particular, may be interested in.
Incidental findings detected on preoperative CT imaging obtained for robotic-assisted joint replacements: clinical importance and the effect on the scheduled arthroplasty

To determine the type and frequency of incidental findings detected on preoperative computed tomography (CT) imaging obtained for robotic-assisted joint replacements and their effect on the planned arthroplasty. All preoperative CT examinations performed for a robotic-assisted knee or total hip arthroplasty were obtained. This resulted in 1432 examinations performed between September 2016 and February 2020 at our institution. These examinations were initially interpreted by 1 of 9 fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologists. Using a diagnosis search, the examination reports were then reviewed to catalog all incidental findings and further classify as significant or non-significant findings. Demographic information was obtained. In those with significant findings, a chart review was performed to record the relevant workup, outcomes, and if the planned arthroplasty was affected. Incidental findings were diagnosed in 740 (51.7%) patients. Of those with incidental findings, 41 (5.5%) were considered significant. A significant finding was more likely to be detected in males (P = 0.007) and on the hip protocol CT (P = 0.014). In 8 patients, these diagnoses resulted in either delay or cancelation of the arthroplasty. A planned total hip arthroplasty was more likely to be altered as compared to a knee arthroplasty (P = 0.018). Incidental findings are commonly detected by radiologists on preoperative CT imaging obtained for robotic-assisted joint replacement. Several were valuable findings and resulted in a delay or even cancelation of the planned arthroplasty after the detection of critical diagnoses, which if not identified may have resulted in devastating outcomes.
Status, Distribution, and Length–Frequency for the Frecklebelly Madtom (Noturus munitus) in the Tombigbee River Drainage in Mississippi

Noturus munitus (Frecklebelly Madtom) is a gravel-shoal habitat specialist found in the Pearl and Mobile river drainages. Recently, the species was petitioned for federal listing, which required an evaluation of the range of the species. Therefore, we assessed the status of Frecklebelly Madtom in tributaries of the Tombigbee River in Mississippi as recent surveys are lacking. We collected Frecklebelly Madtom at 41 out of 51 sites among 3 major tributaries using a backpack electrofisher and kick-setting into a seine with an additional chain on the lead line during low flow. However, none were collected in Bull Mountain Creek. A better understanding of the connectivity among remaining populations is needed to inform future conservation efforts.
Merged Affinity Network Association Clustering: Joint multi-omic/clinical clustering to identify disease endotypes

Although clinical and laboratory data have long been used to guide medical practice, this information is rarely integrated with multi-omic data to identify endotypes. We present Merged Affinity Network Association Clustering (MANAclust), a coding-free, automated pipeline enabling integration of categorical and numeric data spanning clinical and multi-omic profiles for unsupervised clustering to identify disease subsets. Using simulations and real-world data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we demonstrate that MANAclust's feature selection algorithms are accurate and outperform competitors. We also apply MANAclust to a clinically and multi-omically phenotyped asthma cohort. MANAclust identifies clinically and molecularly distinct clusters, including heterogeneous groups of "healthy controls" and viral and allergy-driven subsets of asthmatic subjects. We also find that subjects with similar clinical presentations have disparate molecular profiles, highlighting the need for additional testing to uncover asthma endotypes. This work facilitates data-driven personalized medicine through integration of clinical parameters with multi-omics. MANAclust is freely available at https://bitbucket.org/scottyler892/manaclust/src/master/.
Grossly unremarkable cervix in endometrial carcinomas: lymphovascular space invasion and microcystic elongated and fragmented pattern may be associated with high incidence of cervical stromal involvement.

Summary Accurate staging of endometrial carcinoma is crucial to optimize patients’ care. A pivotal parameter that pathologists evaluate to guide staging is the presence of cervical stromal involvement. However, the standard protocol for adequate sampling of the cervix is lacking. A total of 71 grossly unremarkable cervices in hysterectomy specimens with endometrial carcinomas have been studied. Sixty-three (89.7%), five (7.0%), and three (4.2%) were FIGO stage I, II, and III, respectively. Of 71 (8.5%) cases, 6 cases had cervical stromal involvement, among which, 4 (67%) showed endometrioid carcinoma (EC), 1 case of serous carcinoma, and 1 carcinosarcoma. Microcystic elongated and fragmented (MELF) pattern was identified in 12 (16.9%) cases, among which 11 were EC. The presence of MELF pattern was associated with advanced age, deeper myometrial invasion, and advanced FIGO stage. Tumors with lower uterine segment involvement (5/6; 80%), lymphovascular space invasion (4/6; 67%), and MELF pattern (3/6; 50.0%) tended to have cervical stromal involvement. Thus, we provide evidence that the presence of these features in hysterectomy specimens from patients with endometrial carcinoma may warrant extended sampling of the cervix while submitting four representative sections (one section from each quadrant) seems adequate to evaluate for occult cervical stromal involvement in grossly unremarkable cervices in the absence of these features.