cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nitric Oxide–Releasing Nanoparticles Prevent Propionibacterium acnes–Induced Inflammation by Both Clearing the Organism and Inhibiting Microbial Stimulation of the Innate Immune Response

Propionibacterium acnes induction of IL-1 cytokines through the NLRP3 (NLR, nucleotide oligomerization domain-like receptor) inflammasome was recently highlighted as a dominant etiological factor for acne vulgaris. Therefore, therapeutics targeting both the stimulus and the cascade would be ideal. Nitric oxide (NO), a potent biological messenger, has documented broad-spectrum antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. To harness these characteristics to target acne, we used an established nanotechnology capable of generating/releasing NO over time (NO-np). P. acnes was found to be highly sensitive to all concentrations of NO-np tested, although human keratinocyte, monocyte, and embryonic zebra fish assays revealed no cytotoxicity. NO-np significantly suppressed IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-8, and IL-6 from human monocytes, and IL-8 and IL-6 from human keratinocytes, respectively. Importantly, silencing of NLRP3 expression by small interfering RNA did not limit NO-np inhibition of IL-1 β secretion from monocytes, and neither TNF-α nor IL-6 secretion, nor inhibition by NO-np was found to be dependent on this pathway. The observed mechanism by which NO-np impacts IL-1β secretion was through inhibition of caspase-1 and IL-1β gene expression. Together, these data suggest that NO-np can effectively prevent P. acnes-induced inflammation by both clearing the organism and inhibiting microbial stimulation of the innate immune response.
Chemotherapy-associated steroid use and its effect on blood glucose, nephro-, and other toxicity of chemotherapy for non-diabetic oncological patients

e20721 Background: Gynecologic cancer chemotherapy regimen include prechemotherapy, intrachemotherapy, and postchemotherapy administration of glucocorticoid steroids, which introduce the risk of hyperglycemia. Some studies have suggested that hyperglycemia is associated with increased chemotherapy toxicity. We evaluated the effects of dexamethasone as part of ovarian cancer and cervical cancer chemotherapy on blood glucose and its subsequent effect on nephrotoxicity in non-diabetic patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer and cervical cancer and received steroids as part of their chemotherapy during 2006–2008. Subjects who had elevated glucose detected at any time during treatment were compared with controls who had normal glucose levels. Pre- and post treatment serum BUN, creatinine, and blood glucose level were obtained. Results: 17 non-diabetic patients who received cisplatin or paclitaxel or both were studied (median age 50 years; range 42–...
Shallow Training is cheap but is it good enough? Experiments with Medical Fact Coding

A typical NLP system for medical fact coding uses multiple layers of supervision involving factattributes, relations and coding. Training such a system involves expensive and laborious annotation process involving all layers of the pipeline. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of a shallow medical coding model that trains only on fact annotations, while disregarding fact-attributes and relations, potentially saving considerable annotation time and costs. Our results show that the shallow system, despite using less supervision, is only 1.4% F1 points behind the multi-layered system on Disorders, and contrary to expectation, is able to improve over the latter by about 2.4% F1 points on Procedure facts. Further, our experiments also show that training the shallow system using only sentence-level fact labels with no span information has no negative effect on performance, indicating further cost savings through weak supervision.
Development and Comparative Analysis of Construction Industry Labor Productivity Metrics

AbstractConstruction industry labor productivity is an important metric that provides feedback about industry level trends and improvements. However, labor productivity for the construction industr...
X chromosome-wide analysis identifies DNA methylation sites influenced by cigarette smoking.

Tobacco smoking is a major cause of chronic disease worldwide. Smoking may induce cellular and molecular changes including epigenetic modification, with both short-term and long-term modification patterns that may contribute to phenotypic expression of diseases. Recent epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have identified dozens of smoking-related DNA methylation (DNAm) sites. However, the X chromosomal DNAm sites have been largely overlooked due to a lack of an analytical framework for dealing with the sex-dimorphic distribution. To identify novel smoking-related DNAm sites on the X chromosome, we examined the modality of each X chromosomal DNAm site and conducted a sex-specific association study of cigarette smoking. We used a discovery sample of 139 middle-age twins, and three replication samples of 78 twins, 464 and 333 unrelated individuals including 47, 17, 22, and 89 current smokers, respectively. After correction for multiple testing, the top smoking-related DNAm sites in BCOR and TSC22D3 were significantly hypermethylated and hypomethylated, respectively, among current smokers. These smoking-associated sites were replicated with meta-analysis p-values of 9.17 × 10−12 and 1.61 × 10−9. For both sites, the smoking effects on methylation levels were larger in males than that in females. Our findings highlight the importance of investigating X chromosome methylation patterns and their associations with environmental exposures and disease phenotypes and demonstrate a robust statistical methodology for such study. Existing EWAS of human diseases should incorporate the X chromosomal sites to complete a comprehensive epigenome-wide scan.
The Organizational Rubicon of the Upper Paleolithic

The importance of differences in social organization for the developing modern Homo sapiens lies in the fact that “Upper Paleolithic humans may easily have organized themselves dynamically into larger or smaller social alliances as the need arose. Such organizational flexibility would have allowed them to disperse risks of subsistence failure among larger populations better than among smaller groups with less flexible social arrangements.” (Shea 2003: 183). We agree that a competitive advantage would arise from more flexible and more encompassing forms of social organization and have previously modeled its implications in detail for the replacement of one group by another under conditions of difference in modes of adaptation leading to substantial differences in population density or equivalently measured as changes in population size keeping the area fixed (Read 1987) -- conditions satisfied by population estimates around 4,400–5,900 for modern Homo sapiens in the European area for the time period of the Aurignacian (Bocquet-Appel et al. 2005) in contrast with estimates around 1,710 - 2,690 for Neanderthals (Richter 2008). Missing so far, though, are the reasons why the mode of adaptation leading to higher population densities was open to Upper Paleolithic humans and not to the Neanderthals. This lacuna is not resolved by imposing a definition, even in broad terms, of what constitutes so-called ‘modern behavior’ such as “behavior that is mediated by socially constructed patterns of symbolic thinking, actions, and communication that allow for material and information exchange and cultural continuity between and across generations and contemporaneous communities” (Henshilwood and Marean 2003: 635). Definitions like this neither provide us with understanding of how the claimed new forms of social organization would come about in the first place nor what are the cognitive requirements needed for their enactment. The missing evidence, we suggest, lies in considering what are the cognitive requisites of such behavior, the archaeological evidence for when they are in place and their possible evolutionary development. In so doing, we also construct a better understanding of what we mean by “modern behavior” and what it means to be human. We do not intend to re-argue all of the issues involved. We are only adding a new interpretive reference point focusing on what may have enabled the changes that took place in the mode of social organization in the developing Homo sapiens lineage and was absent from the Neanderthal lineage and, we argue, seems to have provided the basis for what appears to be their competitive advantage vis-a-vis the Neanderthals (Shea 2003; Banks et al. 2008; Bar-Yosef 2009).
An efficient coupling of a PNS code and a parallel full Navier-Stokes code for complex hypersonic vehicle design

This paper describes a unique methodology that optimizes a solution process that uses both a parabolized Navier-Stokes code and a full Navier-Stokes code. The solution methodology takes advantage of computer aided design software packages to supply the vehicle surface definition and utilizes a commercial software code to place a structured surface mesh onto the surface. A parabolized Navier-Stokes code is used to solve the entire vehicle if possible, taking full advantage of the efficiency of the parabolized Navier-Stokes formulation. If a portion of the vehicle geometry precludes the use of the parabolized Navier-Stokes code, a full NavierStokes code is used in that region. The volume mesh lor the Navier-Stokes code is generated using a parabolic grid generator in the parabolized Navier-Stokes code. A parallel full Navier-Stokes code is used to solve the remaining portion of the vehicle. The solution methodology was applied to two reentry vehicles with flaps. The flaps generate a complex three-dimensional flowfield with pressure reaching 120 times the freestream value. The predicted surface pressure and forces and moments are compared to wind tunnel data. Overall, the results compared well with the wind tunnel data.
Characterization of a Brood Pheromone Isolated from the Sexual Brood of the Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta,

Triolein has been identified as the major brood-tending pheromone isolated from the sexual brood of the imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren. Workers respond by rapidly picking up filter-paper discs treated with a chloroform :methanol sexual pharate pupal extract, triolein isolated from sexual brood, and synthetic triolein, and placing these in the colony. The discs treated with the brood extract, and with the synthetic material were not placed with worker brood, but were placed with sexual pharate pupae introduced into test colonies. The treated discs were active for over 24 h.
N-Methyl-2,6-di-tert-butyl-4,4'-pyrylogen. A dialkyl example of a new class of electron transfer sensitizers

The synthesis of the first dialkyl substituted pyrylogen, N-methyl-2,6-di-tert-butyl-4,4’pyrylogen bis-tetrafluoroborate is reported. The electrochemical and photophysical behavior of this new pyrylogen is compared to the previously reported diphenyl-substituted analogue, Nmethyl-2,6-diphenyl-4,4’-pyrylogen. Insight into the structures and properties of this new pyrylogen and its radical cation and neutral redox partners is also provided using the B3LYP/631G(d) computational model.
Comparative Study of In Situ and Presynthesized X-Pillar Ligand in Self-Assembly of Homochiral Porous Frameworks

In situ ligand formation plays a unique role in the synthesis of metal–organic framework (MOF) materials. However, for a given metal–ligand system, in situ ligand formation can be limiting, especially for the synthesis of kinetically stable porous phases, because reaction conditions must be chosen to meet the requirements of both in situ ligand formation and MOF crystal growth. Such requirements may be mutually incompatible, because ligand formation involving the breaking of inert bonds may require conditions more harsh than those needed for the growth of porous materials. For homochiral MOFs, less harsh reaction conditions are also desirable because of the reduced risk for ligand racemization. In this study, we propose and demonstrate the concept that the use of presynthesized ligand (in place of in situ-formed ligand) to decouple the ligand synthesis reaction from MOF crystal growth allows access to more porous and kinetically stable phases that may not be possible through the in situ process. A homochi...
Cerebellum in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia: not a silent bystander.

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Network-selective vulnerability of the human cerebellum to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia’ by Guo et al. (doi: 10.1093/brain/aww003) The network theory of neurodegeneration builds upon the Hebbian notion that neurons that fire together wire together. In this vein, they also die together. Interconnected neural networks in the non-human primate were identified initially with physiological and lesion-degeneration techniques, and refined through anatomical tract tracing studies. Interconnected networks are now identified in the human brain through resting state functional connectivity MRI, and intrinsic connectivity networks have been defined that bind distributed neural hubs according to putative functional relevance (Fox et al. , 2005). At the mechanistic level, it has been proposed that neurodegeneration occurs within these interconnected networks as a result of self-propagating/prion-like spread of neurotoxic agents along neural pathways linking distributed nodes into functional modules (Prusiner, 2013). In this issue of Brain , Guo and co-workers provide evidence that network-based degeneration in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia also extends to the cerebellum (Guo et al. , 2016). The cerebellum is a critical node in the distributed neural circuits subserving not only motor function but also autonomic, limbic and cognitive behaviours. Dysmetria of movement that characterizes the cerebellar motor syndrome results from lesions of the motor cerebellum, mostly in lobules III–V in the anterior lobe and the secondary sensorimotor region in lobule VIII. Dysmetria of thought in the realms of intellect and emotion (Schmahmann, 1991, 1996) manifests as the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (Schmahmann and Sherman, 1998), which occurs following lesions of the cognitive and limbic cerebellum in the posterior lobe, represented in lobules VI, VIIA (including lobules VIIAf and VIIAt at the vermis, and crus I and crus II in the hemispheres) and VIIB, and possibly in lobule IX as well. The vestibular …
The changes in the electrocardiogram associated with standing.

SummaryThe immediate alterations in the eletrocardiogram caused by assuming the erect posture and those appearing during standing, were studied in 80 patients.The genesis of the changes which appear immediately on standing and disappear immediately when the supine posture is resumed is separated from those which are seen during prolonged standing. The latter is ascribed to changes in the tonus of the autonomic nervous system which may act on the heart muscle directly or via the coronary arteries.A-V rhythm may appear on standing due to the change of the tonus of the autonomic nerves.Administration of ergotamine preparations does not always prevent the appearance of immediate changes in the electrocardiogram on change of posture.
Culture and Emotions

Emotions are undisputedly multifaceted and derived from an interaction of biological and environmental socializing influences. To date in the study of emotions among children, much effort has been expanded in measurement issues and tracing the measurement of facial expression across the opening months and years of life. In general, the guiding principle of this task has been the assumption of a strong biological model that posits a fixed and universal connection between emotional expression—in particular, facial expression—and emotion. Following Darwin, many have focused on infant facial expression and on the connection between stimuli and emotions as expressed in the face and the voice.
Memory optimization and video processing

This chapter describes how to read video data from an attached webcam using Linux's Video4Linux feature. Together with the frame buffer introduced in the previous chapter, this chapter explores several example applications that involve real-time video processing. Examples include the two-dimensional (2D) Gaussian blur, 2D Sobel edge detection, and separable 2D filters.
The artillery train

“FOR WANT OF A NAIL …” “My good man, I am beside myself that if only I had had six cannons and enough ammunition to fire two thousand rounds, this town was ours,” wrote the duke of Guise to Gonnor, later Marshal Cosse, from Orleans on February 7, 1563. After pausing for rest and reorganization after the battle of Dreux, the royal army under his leadership had marched against Orleans and in a swift attack seized the faubourg of Le Portereau, and the Tournelles, the twin towers guarding the bridge which passed over the Loire to the heavily defended island of Les Mottes and thence into the city itself. But despite this initial success the attack was stillborn, for the army's heavy artillery train was missing, mired in a primitive road network made impassable by heavy winter rains. Guise's army would have to wait several weeks before receiving enough of the thirty-odd heavy guns and munitions it would eventually deploy in its preparations for a final assault on the city. But in the meantime the duke himself, mortally wounded by an assassin, would be removed from the scene, leaving the queen mother in a position to negotiate an end to the war and the peaceful surrender of Orleans.
Predicting Disk Replacement towards Reliable Data Centers

Disks are among the most frequently failing components in today's IT environments. Despite a set of defense mechanisms such as RAID, the availability and reliability of the system are still often impacted severely. In this paper, we present a highly accurate SMART-based analysis pipeline that can correctly predict the necessity of a disk replacement even 10-15 days in advance. Our method has been built and evaluated on more than 30000 disks from two major manufacturers, monitored over 17 months. Our approach employs statistical techniques to automatically detect which SMART parameters correlate with disk replacement and uses them to predict the replacement of a disk with even 98% accuracy.
Genomes OnLine Database (GOLD) v.6: data updates and feature enhancements

The Genomes Online Database (GOLD) (https://gold.jgi.doe.gov) is a manually curated data management system that catalogs sequencing projects with associated metadata from around the world. In the current version of GOLD (v.6), all projects are organized based on a four level classification system in the form of a Study, Organism (for isolates) or Biosample (for environmental samples), Sequencing Project and Analysis Project. Currently, GOLD provides information for 26 117 Studies, 239 100 Organisms, 15 887 Biosamples, 97 212 Sequencing Projects and 78 579 Analysis Projects. These are integrated with over 312 metadata fields from which 58 are controlled vocabularies with 2067 terms. The web interface facilitates submission of a diverse range of Sequencing Projects (such as isolate genome, single-cell genome, metagenome, metatranscriptome) and complex Analysis Projects (such as genome from metagenome, or combined assembly from multiple Sequencing Projects). GOLD provides a seamless interface with the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) system and supports and promotes the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) Minimum Information standards. This paper describes the data updates and additional features added during the last two years.
From supply management to agricultural subsidies—and back again? The U.S. Farm Bill & agrarian (in)viability

Abstract Farm subsidies have become increasingly maligned in agricultural policy debates, but the merits of subsidies are a distraction from deeper political, economic, and ecological problems in agriculture. Drawing on a history of the U.S. Farm Bill, this paper argues that a fixation on farm subsidies ignores why they came into being, and more generally glosses over the imperative for modern states to intervene into agricultural economies. Karl Polanyi's 'double movement' framework is used to situate the rise and fall of agricultural supply management within food regime theory. In the second, or surplus food regime, the U.S. government wielded excess commodities as geopolitical tools—even as domestic farm policy labored to contain overproduction, and thus support agrarian viability. In the subsequent corporate food regime, “free market” agriculture displaces and discredits supply management, even as massive government intervention into how food is grown and sold continues. Making space to remember historical price support programs, to situate their accomplishments and limitations, and to recognize residual supply-management mechanisms (such as farm cooperatives and agricultural marketing orders) is crucial for fostering agricultural viability in the US and beyond. Twentieth century supply management had flaws, but it cannot be wholly omitted. This paper highlights key motivations, elements, and contradictions of these policies and programs to begin the process of considering how supply management principles and strategies could be updated and enhanced for 21st century agriculture. Such a framework would need to pay more attention to diversity within domestic and international agricultures, and be more sensitive to the multi-scalar dimensions of food systems.
Early Career Developmental Networks and Professionals’ Knowledge Creation:

This article examines the relationships between professionals’ early career developmental networks and their knowledge creation. An empirical study of 167 novice professionals finds that novices’ k...
Whiter Shade of Pale: Making the Case for Jewish Presence in the Multicultural Classroom

Despite over 4,000 years of persecution, American Jews and antisemitism continue to be overlooked in university multicultural and social justice classroom discussions. This is due to many factors, such as the misconceptions that Jews are solely a religious group, are White and have completely assimilated into American culture, and are economically successful. Jews are a distinctive group in the United States who continue to experience racism and oppression. In order to validate the racism and discrimination of Jews in the United States, university multicultural and social justice programs must begin to discuss the issues pertaining to antisemitism.
Three-Dimensional Sound Propagation in an Ocean Overlying an Elastic Bottom

The adiabatic mode parabolic equation is generalized to the case of an ocean overlying an elastic bottom. This three-dimensional model is valid when the medium varies sufficiently gradually with the horizontal coordinates so that both coupling of energy between modes and the azimuthal component of displacement may be neglected. The efficiency of the model is demonstrated by applying it to solve a global-acoustics problem involving diffraction by the Hawaiian Islands.
West meets east: Mixed-race Jamaicans in India, and the avenues of advancement in imperial Britain

ABSTRACTAt the turn of the nineteenth century, small numbers of elite, mixed-race Jamaicans traveled to India in order to improve their financial and social statuses. They did so by joining the East India Company Army, or by working as lawyers and civil servants. This global movement – starting in Jamaica, continuing to Britain, on to India, and oftentimes back to Britain – allowed these individuals to reposition their identity as East Indian nabobs, rather than as West Indian elites. By divorcing themselves from an enslaved, African past, they could live more effectively as white Britons. But, as anti-black prejudice escalated at the end of the eighteenth century, it became much more difficult for Jamaicans of color to undertake this journey successfully, as well as to reframe their identities.
Time‐varying suspended sediment‐discharge rating curves to estimate climate impacts on fluvial sediment transport

This study presents time‐varying suspended sediment‐discharge rating curves to model suspended‐sediment concentrations (SSCs) under alternative climate scenarios. The proposed models account for hysteresis at multiple time scales, with particular attention given to systematic shifts in sediment transport following large floods (long‐term hysteresis). A series of nested formulations are tested to evaluate the elements embedded in the proposed models in a case study watershed that supplies drinking water to New York City. To maximize available data for model development, a dynamic regression model is used to estimate SSC based on denser records of turbidity, where the parameters of this regression are allowed to vary over time to account for potential changes in the turbidity‐SSC relationship. After validating the proposed rating curves, we compare simulations of SSC among a subset of models in a climate change impact assessment using an ensemble of flow simulations generated using a stochastic weather generator and hydrologic model. We also examine SSC estimates under synthetic floods generated using a peaks‐over‐threshold model. Our results indicate that estimates of extreme SSC under new climate and hydrologic scenarios can vary widely depending on the selected model and may be significantly underestimated if long‐term hysteresis is ignored when simulating impacts under sequences of large storm event. Based on the climate change scenarios explored here, average annual maximum SSC could increase by as much as 2.45 times over historical values.
Direct electrical stimulation of human cortex evokes high gamma activity that predicts conscious somatosensory perception.

Objective. Direct electrical stimulation (DES) is a clinical gold standard for human brain mapping and readily evokes conscious percepts, yet the neurophysiological changes underlying these percepts are not well understood. Approach. To determine the neural correlates of DES, we stimulated the somatosensory cortex of ten human participants at frequency-amplitude combinations that both elicited and failed to elicit conscious percepts, meanwhile recording neural activity directly surrounding the stimulation site. We then compared the neural activity of perceived trials to that of non-perceived trials. Main results. We found that stimulation evokes distributed high gamma activity, which correlates with conscious perception better than stimulation parameters themselves. Significance. Our findings suggest that high gamma activity is a reliable biomarker for perception evoked by both natural and electrical stimuli.
Waxy wheats: Origin, properties, and prospects

Abstract Starch amylose is synthesized through the activity of the granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS). In wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), there are three structural genes encoding isoforms of GBSS. Naturally occurring mutations (null alleles) resulting in the loss of one or more GBSS isoforms have recently been identified. The presence of one or two GBSS null alleles results in the production of starch with reduced amylose content. Reduced amylose wheats have been termed ‘partial waxy’. Wheats with three GBSS null alleles produce essentially amylose-free, or waxy, starch. Partial waxy wheats are sources of flours with optimal quality characteristics in certain Asian wet noodle products. In addition, partial waxy wheats are essential to the development of waxy wheats with acceptable agronomic performance. Biochemical features of starch from waxy wheats are similar to those of waxy maize. Waxy wheats may find application in the production of modified food starches, as blending wheats for the formulation of superior noodle flours, and as a means to manipulate amylose contents in substrates for extrusion. Flour from waxy wheats may also be used to extend the shelf-life of baked goods, without a concomitant dilution of wheat gluten. Finally, waxy wheat may increase profitability to gluten manufacturers by providing a co-product with added value.
Teaching the Vietnam War: An Examination of History, Policy, and Impact

The study of the politics of the Vietnam War raises some interesting dilemmas for both teachers and students. Opinions differ about the importance of the war to the politics and history of the United States. Many books are available concerning the American involvement in the Vietnam war, but most accounts differ from book to book. The relevance of the Vietnam experience needs to be discussed in a broader perspective. Certainly, the Vietnam war was different than any war fought previously by the United States of America. Recently, a professor at a southern university defined war as having winners and losers (c.f. Emerson, 1976). She then asked her 150-student American government class to identify the winner of the Vietnam war. Because no one could provide an answer, her second question concerned the last time American troops were used in a foreign country. The answer the professor was expecting was the Christmas 1989 invasion of Panama. No one made the correct identification. The only student who hazarded a response suggested that the last use of troops was in Nicaragua! If students have difficulty remembering what happened a few months in the past, they are likely to conceive of the Vietnam war as ancient history. Yet, the war provides lessons that future decision makers need to learn. One dilemma for teachers is choice among subject matter. American policies are important, but other factors need examination as well. Should a combination of both American and Vietnamese politics (North and South) be considered? What about those who stayed home, protested, or went to Canada? The material can be overwhelming.
Origin and nature of humic substances in the waters of the Amazon River Basin.

Abstract Humic substances dissolved in "black water, white water, and clear water" rivers of the Amazon River basin were compared were humic substances found in podzolic (spodic) and latosolic (oxic) soils of the Amaon region. Humic-type organic solutes in black water originated from organic matter decomposition and ground water drainage from podzolic soils; clear water drains from latosols because colored humic solutes are adsorbed on clay minerals contained in latosols. Comparisons of organic solute distributions in tropical surface waters versus temperate surface waters by dissolved organic carbon fractionation analysis chow that the only significant difference was a lower hydrophilic neutral content of tropical surface waters. This finding is indicative of more rapid decay processes In tropical waters. Black-water rivers of the Amazon contained cndy one-third to one-half the organic solute content contained in black-water rivers of the southeastern United States. About 50 percent of the organic carbon In black waters of the Amazon consisted of colorless non-humic organic solutes. Humic solutes contained in Amazon black water differed from humic solutes found In the Suwannee River in the southeastern United States by having a higher E4/E6 ratio in the visible absorbance spectrum which resulted in water of a more reddish coloration. Both the high E4/E6 ratio and low-angle x-ray scattering data suggest relatively small molecular dimensions for humic solutes in Amazon black water. Organic elemental analyses and infrared analysis of humic substances in Amazon waters and soils were typical for humic substances except for the low content of nitrogen for humic solutes in black water.
Does Governmental Assistance Affect Private Decisions to Insure? An Empirical Analysis of Flood Insurance Purchases

In this paper, we empirically examine whether the Federal Emergency Management Agencyâ€™s Public Assistance (PA) program, which targets postdisaster cleanup and infrastructure rehabilitation, affects household purchases of flood insurance. Using the fixed-effects model with instrumental variables to address the endogeneity of disaster aid, we find that increased PA grants reduce a countyâ€™s flood insurance take-up rates, thereby driving down its total insurance coverage and premiums paid. Our findings provide empirical evidence on the crowding-out effect of public disaster programs, and shed light on their implicit social costs and increased federal financial exposure to natural disasters and climate change.
Short term sediment accumulation rates reveal seasonal time lags between sediment delivery and deposition in an oxbow lake

Abstract Recent sedimentation rates are useful for quantifying how changes in a watershed affect soil erosion; however, typical geochronological methods for dating sediments are limited in temporal resolution, particularly for newly deposited sediments. We used sediment traps to measure short-term sediment accumulation rates in a natural oxbow lake whose watershed has a mix of agricultural and forested land. Precipitation data from a local Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) site and water quality measurements from Beasley Lake were used to explain intra-annual patterns in sediment deposition. We found that sediment accumulation in the traps was highest in July and August, while the highest rate of runoff, indicated by increased precipitation and total suspended solids, occurred in late winter and early spring (February-April). Our results indicate that the trapping efficiency of Beasley Lake may be lower than expected due to timing of particle settling predominantly in the summer months. The rate and timing of sediment accumulation in Beasley lake was highly seasonal and occurred when water temperature and pH increased, potentially through interactions with algal blooms. Our findings contribute new understanding of the interactions between suspended sediments, algal biomass, and water chemistry in a natural oxbow lake and provide support for using sediment traps to measure intra-annual variability in sedimentation rates in oxbow lakes.
Immunocytochemical Localization of Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase, Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Transaminase in the Cerebellum

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, and deficits of GABA have been implicated in certain neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Huntington’s chorea, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. Considerable interest attaches to the identification of GABA-containing neurons and receptor sites for GABA, and cells and processes with GABA-synthesizing enzymes and with GABA uptake systems have been identified morphologically (Chan-Palay, 1977, Hokfelt and Ljungdahl, 1970, McLaughlin et al, 1974, Ribak et al, 1976). The present investigations extend the applications of a new technique for the retrograde and anterograde tracing of chemically specific pathways by the injection of specific, characterized antibodies directly into the central or peripheral nervous system (Chan-Palay, 1979a; b; see Figure 1C). A specific antibody can be used to localize and to identify neurons known to contain the antigen in the live animal by in vivo injections directly into nervous tissue. The method allows localization of a putative transmitter molecule in the central and peripheral nervous system without the use of agents such as colchicine, which are necessary in most experiments that apply the primary antibody onto fixed tissue. The antigen-antibody complex is largely associated with lysosomal or prelysosomal particles in the somatic cytoplasm, and such complexes mark the dendritic and axonal processes of Substance P (SP) immunoreactive cells. Further, the antigen-antibody complexes are carried by axoplasmic flow in retrograde or anterograde directions and therefore the method can be adapted for use in tracing chemically specific pathways.
Tumor M2-PK: A novel urine marker of bladder cancer.

Purpose Bladder cancer is a "Warburg-like" tumor characterized by a reliance on aerobic glycolysis and expression of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2). PKM2 oscillates between an active tetramer and an inactive dimer. We aim to further characterize PKM2, in particular PKM2 dimer, as a urinary biomarker of bladder cancer and a potential target for treatment. Methods HTB-9, HTB-5, and UM-UC3 bladder cancer cells were assessed for proliferation under differential glucose levels using the hexosaminidase assay. Western blot and Blue-native analysis was performed for protein expression of PKM2. Shikonin, an herb that is known to bind and inhibit PKM2, was utilized to determine if PKM2 has a role in glucose usage and cellular proliferation in bladder cancer cells by caspase activity assay. Institutional review board approval was obtained to collect healthy control and bladder cancer patient urine samples. The ScheBo M2-PK EDTA Plasma Test was performed on urine samples to assess urine Tumor M2-PK values. Results The three bladder cancer cell lines tested all demonstrate statistically significant increases in proliferation when exposed to higher level of glucose (200mg/dL). Similarly, low doses of glucose (25mg/dL) result in reduced proliferation. Increased cell growth in higher glucose concentration correlated with up-regulation of PKM2 protein expression. Shikonin, a PKM2 inhibitor, reduced cell proliferation and switched PKM2 isoforms from the dimer to tetramer. Lastly, dimer PKM2 (Tumor-M2PK) levels were assessed in the urine samples from bladder cancer (Bca) patients and healthy controls. Tumor M2-PK significantly correlated with the presence of BCa in our subjects. Conclusions Our studies demonstrate the potential of PKM2, specifically the dimer (Tumor-M2PK) as a target of drug therapy and as a urinary marker for bladder cancer.
Does Foreign Development Aid Trigger Ethnic War in Developing States

Can foreign aid trigger ethnic war? The quantitative conflict literature has produced mixed findings on the effect of foreign aid on civil war in developing states. One reason for the mixed results...
Expanding the Caenorhabditis elegans auxin-inducible degron system toolkit with internal expression and degradation controls and improved modular constructs for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing

Abstract The auxin-inducible degron (AID) system has emerged as a powerful tool to conditionally deplete proteins in a range of organisms and cell-types. Here, we describe a toolkit to augment the use of the AID system in Caenorhabditis elegans. We have generated a set of single-copy, tissue-specific (germline, intestine, neuron, muscle, hypodermis, seam cell, anchor cell) and pan-somatic TIR1-expressing strains carrying an equimolar co-expressed blue fluorescent reporter to enable use of both red and green channels in experiments. We have also constructed a set of plasmids to generate fluorescent protein::AID fusions through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. These templates can be produced through frequently used cloning systems (Gibson assembly or SapTrap) or through ribonucleoprotein complex-mediated insertion of PCR-derived, linear repair templates. We have generated a set of sgRNA plasmids carrying modifications shown to boost editing efficiency, targeting standardized transgene insertion sites on chromosomes I and II. Together these reagents should complement existing TIR1 strains and facilitate rapid and high-throughput fluorescent protein::AID* tagging of factors of interest. This battery of new TIR1-expressing strains and modular, efficient cloning vectors serves as a platform for facile assembly of CRISPR/Cas9 repair templates for conditional protein depletion.
Violent Deaths, Vicious Preferences, and Bare-Differences: A Reply to Hill

Hill [AJP, 2018] argues that Rachels’s famous bare-difference argument for the moral irrelevance between killing and letting die fails. In this paper, I argue that certain features in Hill’s cases ...
Microstructural Control of Zinc Oxide Varistor Ceramics

It has been nearly a quarter of a century since Matsuoka (1) reported the non-ohmic properties of ZnO ceramics. During that period ZnO-based ceramics with their highly nonlinear current-voltage characteristics have accrued more than half of the varistor market in numbers and nearly 80% of the market in value as reported by Okinaka and Hata (2). These electronic devices, often referred to as MOV’s, or metal oxide varistors, find applications as surge absorbers, surge arrestors and in micromotors. Although these ZnO-based devices probably have their single largest volume usage in high-voltage power distribution systems, it is becoming increasingly common to protect household applicances and personal computers with varistor devices. It is likely that most readers of this article utilize such a device to protect their personal computers.
Boil Water Advisories as Risk Communication: Consistency between CDC Guidelines and Local News Media Articles.

The Safe Drinking Water Act Public Notification Rule requires that customers of public water systems (PWS) be informed of problems that may pose a risk to public health. Boil water advisories (BWA)...
Ultrasonic Imaging: Physics and Mechanism

Ultrasound is becoming more accepted as a dental imaging modality. Yet the resources for dentists and dental healthcare providers concerned with imaging are limited. Radiographic methods are well covered in the dental curriculum and optical methods are natural to the user. While ultrasound is an easily adaptable modality due to its real-time imaging nature and the absence of ionizing radiation, it does have limitations which the user should be educated about here. This chapter provides an introduction into the mechanism of ultrasound as a modality in addition to the existing ones. It explains how ultrasound is generated, how it propagates in tissue, and how images are formed. Spatial image resolution is introduced as well as clinical imaging modes that have dental applicability. The chapter closes with a discussion of image artifacts that can be found in dental ultrasound.
Design of speed reducer testbed based on cloud platform

In order to realize the remote monitoring of the reducer test-bed, a solution of the Internet of things based on the cloud PLC platform was proposed. The data of each reducer sensor and the control port of the test-bed were uploaded to the cloud PLC platform, and the communication protocol between them and the reducer test-bed was formulated. The test results show that the cloud PLC platform enables the operator to directly access the human-machine interaction interface via mobile APP or WEB to monitor the reducer test-bed or view the sensor data, which meets the enterprise's demand for real-time remote monitoring of the machine.
Optimization of bright, highly flexible, and humidity insensitive porphyrin-based oxygen-sensing materials

There is a strong demand for reliable oxygen sensors in the fields of fitness tracking, health monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Recently, oxygen-sensing materials based on phosphorescence quenching by oxygen have attracted interest due to their high sensitivity, rapid response, and suitability for directly imaging oxygen distribution on large tissue areas. Here we tested different compositions of metalloporphyrins and their support matrices and identified optimal materials that can be applied to oxygen-sensing devices. Our results showed that a pivaloyl-terminated metalloporphyrin embedded in poly(propyl methacrylate) (PPMA) exhibits the highest porphyrin emission brightness and oxygen-dependent phosphorescence intensity changes can be easily visualized even by eye under ambient light. In vivo studies revealed that our PPMA-based, highly breathable oxygen-sensing films can be used to non-invasively detect changes in tissue oxygenation in a rabbit model, a promising step for integration into wearable devices. In addition, it was found that an alkyne-terminated metalloporphyrin embedded in tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) shows the most rapid response time. The detailed composition exploration and material characterization described in this study provides a good resource towards developing more versatile oxygen-sensing devices.
Resisting Extortion: Victims, Criminals and States in Latin America

Criminal extortion is an understudied, but widespread and severe problem in Latin America. In states that cannot or choose not to uphold the rule of law, victims are often seen as helpless in the face of powerful criminals. However, even under such difficult circumstances, victims resist criminal extortion in surprisingly different ways. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in violent localities in Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico, Moncada weaves together interviews, focus groups, and participatory drawing exercises to explain why victims pursue distinct strategies to resist criminal extortion. The analysis traces and compares processes that lead to individual acts of everyday resistance; sporadic killings by ad hoc groups of victims and police; institutionalized and sustained collective vigilantism; and coordination between victims and states to co-produce order in ways that both strengthen and undermine the rule of law. This book offers valuable new insights into the broader politics of crime and the state.
Multiclass Multiple-Instance Learning for Predicting Precursors to Aviation Safety Events

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in applying machine learning techniques that leverage aviation data collected from commercial airline operations to improve safety. Anomaly detection ...
Gut microbiota associated with different sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) life stages

Sea lamprey (SL; Petromyzon marinus), one of the oldest living vertebrates, have a complex metamorphic life cycle. Following hatching, SL transition into a microphagous, sediment burrowing larval stage, and after 2-10+ years, the larvae undergo a dramatic metamorphosis, transforming into parasitic juveniles that feed on blood and bodily fluids of fishes; adult lamprey cease feeding, spawn, and die. Since gut microbiota are critical for the overall health of all animals, we examined the microbiota associated with SLs in each life history stage. We show that there were significant differences in the gut bacterial communities associated with the larval, parasitic juvenile, and adult life stages. The transition from larval to the parasitic juvenile stage was marked with a significant shift in bacterial community structure and reduction in alpha diversity. The most abundant SL-associated phyla were Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes, with their relative abundances varying among the stages. Moreover, while larval SL were enriched with unclassified Fusobacteriaceae, unclassified Verrucomicrobiales and Cetobacterium, members of the genera with fastidious nutritional requirements, such as Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Cutibacterium, Veillonella, and Massilia, were three to four orders of magnitude greater in juveniles than in larvae. In contrast, adult SLs were enriched with Aeromonas, Iodobacter, Shewanella, and Flavobacterium. Collectively, our findings show that bacterial communities in the SL gut are dramatically different among its life stages. Understanding how these communities change over time within and among SL life stages may shed more light on the role that these gut microbes play in host growth and fitness.
Assessment of Aortic Aneurysm Rupture Risk

The rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is associated with a high mortality. When an AAA ruptures, 50% of the patients die before reaching the hospital. Of the patients that are able to reach the operating room, only 50% have it successfully repaired (Fillinger et al, 2003). Therefore, it is important to find good predictors for immediate risk of rupture. Clinically, the size of the aneurysm is the variable vascular surgeons usually use to evaluate this risk. Patients with large aneurysms are often sent to surgery. However, many studies have shown that even small aneurysms can rupture and deserve attention as well. It is important to find good predictors of rupture that also avoid unnecessary surgery as all surgeries are associated with possible complications. Here, we use data obtained from 144 computed tomographies of patients from the Western Pennsylvania Allegheny Health System to predict the high risk of rupture of an aneurysm and also to examine which features are important for this goal.